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Chapter 452: Quirrell's Little Trouble
Chapter 452: Quirrell's Little Trouble
"No need, Madam Pomfrey. I'm truly fine. You say I look pale? No, I'm just a bit sleep-deprived, that's all."
After drinking the anti-diarrhea potion that Madam Pomfrey handed to him, Quirrell casually made up an excuse to postpone the nurse's suggestion of a full-body examination.
With Voldemort still attached to him, there was no way he would let the matron perform such an examination.
"You should listen to the Healers' advice. I can sense that your body isn't in a good state," Madam Pomfrey said as she eyed Quirrell up and down, clearly dissatisfied with the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Anyone with eyes could see that the professor was unwell, his pallor a clear indication of illness. And to Madam Pomfrey, a trained Healer, it was obvious that Quirrell's health was in a dire state.
"Really, it's unnecessary," Professor Quirrell insisted as he turned to leave. However, upon noticing the stern gaze from the matron, he realized that she was determined to stop him for the examination. With a feigned sigh of concession, he said, "Alright, but I still maintain that I've just been lacking sleep lately."
"Wait here for a moment," Madam Pomfrey instructed as she turned to retrieve something. Quirrell's lips twitched slightly, and then he spoke, "Madam Pomfrey, the potion is quite effective. I'll be on my way now."
"Oh, alright," Madam Pomfrey said, sounding a bit dazed. "Do come to me if you feel unwell again."
In the end, the matron was unable to perform the full-body examination on Quirrell, as he had secretly cast a Confundus Charm on her, preventing her from forcefully detaining the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor for the checkup.
Quirrell swore to himself that he would never step foot in the hospital wing again. He found Madam Pomfrey to be even more troublesome than Snape in certain matters.
If he hadn't come up with that excuse on the spot, who knows what would have happened.
Quirrell practically fled from the hospital wing, intending to return to his office before his next class to write and send a letter to the smuggler.
Now that he had obtained the dragon egg, the next step was to get information from Hagrid on how to get past Fluffy.
Quirrell had already planned his approach: he would pretend to be a dragon egg smuggler, get Hagrid drunk, and then pretend to lose a bet to him, offering the egg as payment. Before handing over the egg, he would inquire about Hagrid's experience in raising magical creatures, confident that a drunk Hagrid would be more than happy to boast about his secret of taming Fluffy. Even if Hagrid didn't divulge the information, Quirrell had other tricks up his sleeve to coax it out of him.
It was all too easy to get a drunk man to spill his secrets.
On his way back to his office, Quirrell passed by three first-year Slytherins.
"This is definitely a conspiracy against Slytherin House. Otherwise, how could students from other Houses not show any symptoms of diarrhea?" Malfoy's voice drifted into Quirrell's ears as he spoke to his companions.
"Professor Snape has already started investigating. Everyone suspects it's someone from Gryffindor, remember that Kenneth guy from last time..."
A conspiracy against Slytherin House?
Quirrell shook his head as he watched the three students walk away. He himself was not a Slytherin student.
Could it be that someone was specifically targeting him?
Little did Quirrell know that he had guessed correctly, and indeed, someone was targeting him.
Just the day before, after Albert had claimed the reward for the "Resolve the Slytherin Student Issue" task, he noticed a new task appear on the panel— "Protect the Philosopher's Stone."
And this task most likely originated from his two-way mirror communication with Nicole LeMaire the other day.
Albert recalled his rant about how Dumbledore didn't properly hide the Philosopher's Stone but instead placed it in the so-called "forbidden area" of the school, which then triggered the appearance of this new task.
Yes, the task was to protect the Philosopher's Stone from being stolen by others.
Although Albert found the task's appearance a bit odd, he eventually reasoned that according to the plot, Quirrell would be stopped by Harry and unable to obtain the stone. Therefore, this task was definitely achievable, and the rewards would depend on his level of contribution.
The rewards were quite attractive, but Albert was slightly disappointed that the ultimate reward wasn't the formula for the Philosopher's Stone.
While the experience and skill points were enticing, Albert had no intention of confronting Voldemort directly. He didn't believe he possessed the same protagonist halo as Harry, so when he first saw the task, he had already decided to entrust this challenging task to Harry.
After all, he now had money, friends, and a girlfriend. His life was blissful, and he saw no reason to steal Harry's thunder and face off against Voldemort.
Life had just begun, and it was precious. There was no need to take unnecessary risks without the protagonist's halo or sufficient strength. Cedric Diggory from the Goblet of Fire was a stark reminder of what could happen.
However, Albert wasn't one to easily give up. If a direct approach wasn't feasible, he could always try something more subtle. There were many ways to protect the Philosopher's Stone from being stolen.
So, when Albert handed over the Boomslang skin powder to Peeves, he also requested the poltergeist to slip some into Professor Quirrell's food.
Peeves readily agreed, who could resist causing a bit of trouble for the easily flustered professor?
And thus, Quirrell's diarrhea incident occurred.
As it turned out, weakening an enemy was an effective way to protect the Philosopher's Stone.
Although the task progress had only increased by 2%, something was better than nothing.
Quirrell had no idea that the mastermind behind his diarrhea incident was still plotting, thinking of new ways to cause him some trouble.
After Quirrell's stomach trouble, other students in the school also started exhibiting diarrhea symptoms.
The diarrhea incident effectively occupied Snape's attention, leaving him with less time to keep an eye on Quirrell.
Peeves ended up taking the blame for the incident, and besides Mr. Filch's rants about expelling the poltergeist from Hogwarts Castle, the professors were at a loss as to what to do with him.
There were rumors that the Bloody Baron had already spoken to Peeves, warning him against tampering with food again. But these were just rumors, and no one knew for sure if they were true.
Although there hadn't been any more diarrhea incidents since the Baron's alleged conversation with Peeves, students remained cautious when eating, always on the lookout for any strange additions to their food.
No one wanted to end up like Flint and Montague, who had become the butt of jokes among the Hogwarts students due to their diarrhea-induced hospital stay.
And thankfully for them, they were still bedridden in the hospital wing, spared from hearing the gleeful teasing of their peers.
(End of Chapter)
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