With the new knowledge regarding runes, and how he could use these to create artifacts, the grind started, and Logan started focusing most of his time studying runes of all types, whether they were simple, complicated, nordic runes, hieroglyphs, or any other type of rune; if it was a rune, he would study it and practice how to write it.

At this point, most of his friends considered him a complete lunatic, but he couldn’t care less, after all, it was all for the sake of money, and a little bit for getting stronger. He also kept training with Roger, something the latter both regretted and thanked, after all, it was a great help for his quidditch games.

His obsession with the runes almost made him lose his first trip to Hogsmeade, but apparently Lyra, Roger, and Jake wouldn’t have that, as the three literally dragged him out of the library under the gaze of some first and third years students, which also included the Golden Trio. Thankfully, Logan still had enough mental capacity to not scream in the library, making him safe from being reprimanded by Madam Pince, who would probably ban him from entering for a couple of days.

The travel wasn’t anything grandeur, it was their first time in Hogsmeade, so they went through most of the shops, buying treats and candies before finally landing at the Three Boomsticks, where he tasted for the first time the butter beer.

Christmas came and went without anything too impressive happened, apart from Logan’s lack of good gifts. He also found Harry while the freshman was on one of his nightly escapades to see the Erised’s mirror; turns out that his Arcane Eyes were able to look through the cloak of invisibility.

What was concerning to him, was that he felt a pull from his wand when his eyes felt the magic of the cloak of invisibility, only he didn’t know what was it about. He could feel that there was something from that cloak that called to him but decided to let it go, it wasn’t a good moment.

While trying to decipher what that feeling coming from the cloak was, he ended up following Harry to the temporary space that the Mirror of Erised was occupying; only that he left soon after. Logan just shrugged at the thought of looking at the mirror, he was curious, yes, but runes came first to him for now, and he would get the chance after Dumbledore moved the mirror to the room where he protected the Philosopher’s stone.

And funnily enough, the chance came sooner than expected. Turns out, before December ended, the mirror wasn’t in the same spot anymore, which means that it was moved already. The whole school was mostly empty as students weren’t back yet. It was the perfect moment to move through the supposed defenses that the professors put for the Philosopher’s Stone.

{Damn useless, I think the only good protection here is freaking Fluffy.} Logan thought as he looked at the door in front of him. He was currently invisible, as he opened the door with an Alohomora and went inside. {Seriously, not even a freaking ward on the door or any kind of deeper protection, a single Alohomora and done, opened.} He clicked his tongue as he made his way inside, coming face to face with a giant three-faced dog, who slightly opened its eyes as he sniffed the air. {Damn dog senses.} Logan thought as he took out a small flute and started playing it, or well, tried to.

Unsurprisingly, while the actual sound made by the flute wasn’t good at all, it was enough to put the dog to sleep. {Well, if Harry could, why can’t I?} Logan thought as he opened the trapdoor with magic before jumping in, levitating to slow down his fall. {Utevo Gran Lux.} Using the Great Light spell to cause a strong enough light to push away the Devil’s Snare. It was quite similar to the Lumos Maxima, but instead of summoning an orb of light, the light shone from the focus used, which in this case was Logan’s body, specifically his hands, as he wasn’t using his wand.

Moving forwards, he started hearing tinkling sounds deeper in the tunnel he went through, until he stood under a cloud of birds, or at least, what seemed to be birds. “So, these are those keys huh.” Logan muttered as he looked at the sparkling keys flying above him. “Looks like a mess.” They were shining even in the dim light, and he could see that they had a lot of different colors. What was more surprising was that the wings weren’t insect-like, but more like wings from an actual bird. “I’m sure those weren’t like that in the movie.” He frowned as he floated up.

Looking through the uncountable keys, he tried to look for one that had a broken wing. After a moment, he figured that there wasn’t one that had a broken wing. “Where is that… Wait. I’m such an idiot!” He face-slapped at himself. “The key had a broken wing because of the stupid Quirrel coming before them.” Rolling his eyes, he went back down, towards the door, and examined the lock on the door. “Mm…” Rubbing his chin, he used Arcane Eyes, trying to identify the specific lock that caused the door to stay closed even after using Alohomora. He then turned to the cloud of keys and found a single key that matched.

A thing about magic is that it always left a trace, it was what his Arcane Eyes allowed him to see, among other things. This also meant that most of the time, similar spells have a similar magic trace; even more when two charms were connected, like the key and the door. “Got you.” He grinned and extended his hand to the key. “Accio Key.” With the strong image of the big key in mind, specifically its magic trace, he pulled the key towards his hand forcefully, while the key tried to unsuccessfully fly back up. “Damn, this thing is too freaking easy. Are these really supposed to stop anyone from getting the stone?” Logan snorted.

Opening the door carefully, and letting the key fly back up without damaging it, at least not too much, he made his way toward the next room, which was submerged in complete darkness. As soon as he stepped inside, and the door behind him closed, light arose in the room from rows of flames that surrounded a giant chessboard.

“It looks amazing, truly.” Logan muttered as he looked at the statues that represented the chess pieces. “Let’s see if I can bypass this easily.” Without thinking much, he walked through the board, invisible. But just as he was getting close to the white pieces, the pawns suddenly took their swords out. {Could it be beacuse they heard me? I should have kept my mouth shut.} He sighed, and then with a shrug, he disappeared from his spot, appearing again behind the white pieces, right in front of the door, all in a single blink. “Damn spell is too good. Sadly it takes quite a lot of magic and it’s only for short travel.” He muttered as he quickly made his way through the door, It was better than waiting and seeing if the pieces would rush and attack him if he stood there for too long.

The spell in question was Blink, it was an Arcanist spell that became available as soon as he turned level 55. He had barely trained with it, but it was quite easy to use, just fix your eyes on where you wanted to move, and use the spell, and voila, everything, even space itself, reordered in front of you in a blink, and you were right where you wanted to be. Sadly, it only allowed you to travel to places that were in your field of vision, or close to you if you had a clear memory of it. There was a limit, of course, regarding the distance he could travel. He has been trying to test it out, and the maximum range he found was around 150 meters.

{I think that was the last room according to the movies.} He thought as he walked forward through a dark passage, reaching the last door. {Here should be the mirror.}Logan opened the door, but as soon as he did, a horrible stench met his nose. “Ugh. What the hell is this smell!?” Going inside, he finally saw the reason behind the stench. A giant troll, far bigger than the one that attacked Hermione, was standing in the otherwise empty room.

{This certainly wasn’t in the movies…} He looked at the giant troll that hasn’t been able to detect him. Without thinking much, he went towards the other side of the room, while the thought of killing it passed through his head, it could pull the attention of Dumbledore. {You’re safe, for now.} With the last thought, he passed through the door.

The next room wasn’t so much different than the others, instead that this one only had a table with a row of seven bottles of different sizes. This wasn’t something from the movies, but at this point, Logan was already accustomed to it.

As soon as he walked slightly closer to the table, a wall of flames showed up behind him, with a purple color. In front of him, at the other side of the table, another wall of flames, this time of a black color, surged.

“...” Looking at both ways closed, he closed in and read the paper that was among the bottles. He raised the eyes from the piece of parchment, and looked at the black flames, then back at the parchment, then at the bottles, and once again at the black flames. Suddenly a rune appeared floating beside him, and shining, it shot three small balls of grey light toward the wall of black flames, making the fire disappear. Each ball of grey light consumed a portion of the wall, until the whole wall disappeared, making it possible to look at the other side, which was a small tunnel.

He left the piece of parchment and blinked towards the entrance of the tunnel, crossing it, he finally reached the end of the tests. It was quite less impressive than what he saw in the movie, and the only thing present there was the actual Mirror of Erised.

[Congratulations! You’ve completed a hidden quest! You’ve successfully trespassed through the supposed defenses that kept the stone safe. You did what even a supposed teacher and a dark lord couldn’t; though this certainly leaves more to think about said supposed dark lord than anything else. Seriously, three first years were able to go past these, and he couldn’t in all the time he tried?]

[500pts have been earned.]

{Mm… So this is the mirror, huh.} Logan thought as he looked at the mirror, tracing his fingers through the frame made of gold. It was quite tall, almost reaching the ceiling, with claw-like supports. At the top of it, on the frame, Logan traced the words that were written there. “Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi…” Muttered Logan and after a second. “I show not your face, but your heart’s desire…” He used his Arcane Eyes to look all throughout the mirror.

He expected to find really dark magic, after all, Dumbledore kind of warned Harry about the mirror, and how too many people lost themselves in it. But contrary to it. “It’s pure…” Logan frowned. The color that came out of the mirror, at least, for the most part, looked pure, similar to any other magic, including the one that you could find inside the castle on the enchanted stairs or walls. A clear baby blue aura. There was something different, of a deeper blue, which he supposed was the magic that trapped the stone.

He looked into the mirror, curious about what he would see. And he was surprised to find himself standing inside the mirror, surrounded by his friends, Miss Isabella, and people who he couldn’t recognize. Everyone had a happy face, there was even a clear blue sky behind everyone. What’s more, he had the feeling that his reflection inside was at peace, calm, as if he just survived a storm.

{Is my desire to survive through the upcoming dark times?} Frowned Logan. It wasn’t something that he felt would be shown. He at least had the idea of getting powerful but seems like his heart had a different thought. {And everyone is there too…} He could see most of his friends and even had the impression, that unknown people that he might meet later were also present in the mirror. They all survived with him. {For everyone to survive… That’s why I’m looking for power… To save those around me…} His frown calmed, gaze fixed in the mirror. {Is that also what took me here? No.}

And just as that thought left his mind, the Logan in the mirror took out a stone and put it inside his pocket. Logan’s eyes widened as he felt the weight of something falling into his pocket. Quickly taking it out, he found a red, slightly dirty stone in his hand. “The Philosopher’s Stone… But why?” He muttered.

“Why, indeed…” A new voice brought Logan’s attention to the entrance of the room, where he found none other than Dumbledore himself. “A treasure like no other, but surely you know that already, Mr. Taylor.”

“Professor Dumbledore.” Logan greeted the old man, who was slowly walking towards him with his usually calm face and demeanor.