The room was now filled with miscellaneous clutter. Harry lifted off his Invisibility Cloak and looked around carefully, but there was nothing special—just broken desks and chairs, cleaning tools, and choking dust.
"What was Draco doing here?" Harry muttered to himself.
Suddenly, footsteps sounded from outside the door. Sean crept over quietly. Startled, Harry hurriedly threw the cloak back over himself and hid in a corner. At this hour, he thought it could only be Filch.
Sean slowly pushed the door open and stepped inside. Harry could see him clearly, but Sean had no idea where Harry was hiding.
"Sean?" Harry was shocked. He never expected Sean to come here in the middle of the night.
Sean knew Harry was watching him. He pretended to search around the room, acting as though he was looking for something.
After Sean left, Harry removed the cloak and fell into deep thought again. "Why did both Draco and Sean come here? Didn't they say the Philosopher's Stone had been moved?"
He rushed back to the dormitory and shook Ron awake. Ron sat up groggily.
"Harry… what's going on?"
"Ron, I saw Sean go into the room on the third floor! In the middle of the night! There must still be some secret there!" Harry said excitedly.
"That can't be right. Didn't they say the Stone was moved? And why would Sean steal it?" Ron couldn't make sense of it.
"I don't know either. But you saw it last week—Draco sneaked in there. And tonight, Sean went in after curfew. It's just too strange," Harry said, puzzled.
Ron thought for a moment. "Let's wait until Hermione gets back and talk about it."
With Draco acting as bait and Sean deliberately misleading him, Harry's curiosity about the room was reignited.
The next morning, Harry and Ron went to see Hagrid, hoping to learn something from him.
Hagrid had been in low spirits lately. Dumbledore had told him that at the end of the term, Fluffy would be sent back to Greece.
Because of Haerpo's interference, Quirrell hadn't used a dragon egg to trick Hagrid into revealing Fluffy's weakness like in the original timeline. Hagrid had missed out entirely.
"You two? What brings you here so early?" Hagrid asked, looking at them standing at the door.
"Hagrid, the Philosopher's Stone is still at Hogwarts, isn't it? Dumbledore only lifted the restriction on that room as a cover—to make whoever wants to steal it think it's already been moved," Harry said confidently.
Dumbledore had already spoken to Hagrid about this. If Harry came asking, he was to play along. Even his earlier "slips of the tongue" had likely been intentional.
"Why would you think that? That room really doesn't have anything left—just a pile of junk," Hagrid said.
"I saw Draco and Sean both go in there. It looked like they were searching for something," Harry insisted. "Sean? Dumbledore trusts him a lot. He wouldn't steal the Stone," Hagrid said deliberately.
"Steal the Stone? So it really is still in that room!" Harry caught the key point immediately, his face lighting up as he exchanged a glance with Ron.
Ron added, "But Draco's different. His father used to be a Death Eater. Maybe he's acting under his father's orders to steal the Stone."
"Alright, don't worry about it. The protections around the Stone aren't something a kid like Draco could get past," Hagrid said.
Except for the first challenge—the three-headed dog—which had been removed, the other trials were gradually being reset. Once everything was ready, Sean could lead Harry down.
"You heard that, Ron. The Stone is still at Hogwarts," Harry said as they walked away from Hagrid's hut.
"Dumbledore trusts Sean, and my brothers like him too. Even though he's in Slytherin, he's not like Draco. We should keep an eye on Draco instead," Ron said.
"Yeah," Harry agreed.
There weren't many students staying at Hogwarts over Christmas—less than forty across all four houses. Slytherin had even fewer, only six including Sean.
Sean sat at the long Slytherin table, surrounded by unfamiliar students from other years. No one spoke; they simply ate in silence.
At the Gryffindor table, Harry and Ron stared intently at Sean, as if trying to see through him.
Suddenly, Sean felt an inexplicable sense of unease—but it wasn't coming from their gaze.
In the Headmaster's office, Dumbledore looked at a crystal ball on his desk. A red dot had appeared at its edge.
The crystal ball was an alchemical device. It detected unauthorized intrusions into the castle. The red dot meant someone had entered Hogwarts without permission.
"Is Albus Dumbledore here?"
A loud voice echoed across the castle.
Sean immediately dropped his utensils and ran out of the Great Hall. He realized that the source of his unease was that voice.
Above the castle floated a man with short brown hair, suspended in the air by some unknown flight spell. Dumbledore looked out from his office window. He didn't recognize the man.
The professors who had stayed behind all rushed outside, staring up at the intruder.
"This is a school. Unauthorized entry is not permitted. Leave immediately," Dumbledore said, amplifying his voice.
"I'm here to see Albus Dumbledore. Is he here?" the man asked calmly, despite his intrusion.
When Sean activated his Magic vision and looked up, he immediately covered his eyes. The true source of his unease was the man's terrifying magical power.
"His magical power… exceeds even Dumbledore and Haerpo."
A man who looked barely in his thirties possessed more magical power than the greatest wizard of the century and an ancient dark wizard who had lived for a thousand years.
"What is he… a human or some kind of magical creature?" Sean had only ever seen power of this magnitude in the Wizard's Heart.
"I am Albus Dumbledore," Dumbledore replied.
"My name is Ogadis. I've come to challenge you to a duel," Ogadis said sincerely, as if stating something completely ordinary.
A wave of shock spread among the teachers and students below. No one had ever dared to challenge Dumbledore so casually. The title "greatest wizard of the century" was no exaggeration.
Ever since defeating Grindelwald, Dumbledore's reputation had reached its peak. For over forty years, no one had dared to duel him. Even Voldemort feared him.
Sean didn't recognize the name, nor did anyone else—but Dumbledore's expression changed slightly.
After the breach at Nurmengard, Dumbledore had returned to Austria. Though Minister Soria had sealed the information, he had privately told Dumbledore about the intruder.
There wasn't much information—but it matched the man before him perfectly. A brown-haired man named Ogadis.
Dumbledore made his decision.
If Ogadis could break into Nurmengard alone, letting him fight here would endanger the students.
"This is not a suitable place for a duel. We should move elsewhere," Dumbledore said as he mounted Fawkes and flew out.
Ogadis didn't object. He followed Dumbledore toward the distant forest valley. His purpose was simple—to duel. The location didn't matter.
Sean's heart raced. This was bound to be a battle that would shake the heavens.
He immediately turned to Harry, his expression serious. "Harry, I know you received a gift yesterday—the Invisibility Cloak. I need to borrow it."
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