Lawrence looked around curiously, the air was filled with a thin red mist, but it didn't affect the color.

"We succeeded, Rena, so that father and mother could live forever." A male wizard in a white robe said that in the cauldron in front of him, on the bright red potion, there was a blood-red stone,

"Great, Maurice, clean up the table." Next to her was a witch in a white robe, her clothes were slightly loose, her belly was bulging, obviously pregnant, she raised her wand to clean the laboratory table,

"Wait, why didn't you run out of potion?" The wizard paused and asked in horror,

"Maurice—" The witch's hand holding her wand began to disintegrate into blood-red particles out of thin air, and the wand fell to the ground with a pop, and the witch screamed, "Ahhhhhh

"No—stop—ah—" The wizard screamed and tried to rush forward, but took a step forward but fell to the ground—his feet began to disintegrate into blood-red particles,

"Maurice." The witch cried out in grief, and the blood-red stone in the cauldron floated up, glowing slightly in the air, and it began to absorb the blood-colored particles, and the potion in the cauldron,

"No—it shouldn't be like this." The wizard roared,

The red mist began to whirl, and the surrounding scenery also regressed rapidly, Lawrence came to another place, and the red mist stopped spinning,

It was a splendid room, and an old wizard sat expressionlessly on a delicate armchair, while beside him sat another witch with a sad face,

"That's what you worked so hard to get out?" The wizard stared at the blood-red stone on the table, "It's not worth it......

"Maurice, Rena......" The witch on the side cried with her face cried,

"Hee-hee-hee-hee-he

"Who?" The wizard stood up abruptly and looked around warily,

"I-I-I-"

"I warn you, don't pretend to be a ghost, or else." The wizard took out his wand and threatened,

"Nicol, what's wrong with you?" The witch looked up at the wizard blankly,

"I'm in front of you—" The philosopher's stone on the table glowed red, staining the room blood-red, and the witch stared blankly at the anomaly,

"What are you?" The wizard pointed his wand at the stone and asked,

"I can fulfill your wishes, I think you don't lack wealth, I think you have strength, but do you want to live forever?"

"Immortality? No!" The wizard shouted angrily, "Give me back my family!"

"Hee-hee-hee, you don't have enough in exchange." The stone said,

"What is enough?" The wizard glared at the stone and asked,

"Hee-hee-he

The red mist spun again and Lawrence waited for the next location, but he began to feel dizzy and he fainted.

───────

Lawrence sniffed the aroma in the air and opened his eyes, he was lying on a bench, his left hand was wrapped in a silver bandage, and it was engraved with a strange pattern, this was Dumbledore's office, Lawrence remembered, and unlike in his memory was an old man, he was stirring a cauldron, Snape bowed and whispered,

"Oh, kid, are you awake?" The old man turned to him and smiled, "The potion happened to be good."

"Who are you?" Lawrence asked a little presumptuously, because the scene was so joyful, and the old man's fashionable dress was in sharp contrast to Snape's black robes, which had not changed for thousands of years.

"Do you like it?" The old man asked diligently, pulling the buckle on his shirt as if showing off to Lawrence, "The latest dragon fur coat costs 718 Galleons each." (Note 1)

"Can't be so rude, Mr. Rovande." Snape said stiffly, "Gryffindor buckles—"

"Don't be so serious, little Seaver," said the old man, taking a spoon and neatly pouring the dark blue potion into the bowl, Snape choked and quickly cleaned up the things on the table with a straight face, Lawrence almost laughed, "My name is Nicol. Lemay."

Snape didn't seem to like the term "Little Seaver" very much, but he couldn't refute it, after all, he was not even a fraction of the age of the other party.

"I'll go out first." Snape said that he was holding his belongings, and before leaving, he glared at Lawrence fiercely, and warned him with his eyes not to tell the matter.

Nicol waved his wand, and the silver bandage on Lawrence's left hand untied automatically, revealing a hideous wound, but Lawrence didn't feel any pain, he could clearly feel the ominous power on it, like—

"You've been stabbed by a fragment of the Philosopher's Stone." Nicol. "A great achievement, son, your spell has succeeded in striking off a small corner of the Philosopher's Stone," Lemay said.

"You know, that's something that many wizards can't do, and now, drink it," Nicol. Lemay handed him the small bowl of potion,

Lawrence took the bowl with his right hand, and he noticed that there was a glimmer of golden light in the dark blue potion, and he looked up and drank the potion that tasted like lemonade, and a trace of red mist drifted from the wound,

"So, do us a favor, Fawkes." Nicol. Lemay said that the phoenix Fawkes flew down, and he looked at Lawrence, and blinked, and a pearl-like tear dropped accurately on the wound on Lawrence's left hand, and his wound emitted a puff of black smoke, which was completely healed.

"Thank you, Fawkes." Lawrence gently stroked the phoenix's flaming feathers with his healed left hand, and Fawkes sang back to the shelf where he often rested.

"I'm guessing you're right?" Nicol. Lemay smiled and said, "Dumbledore said you like to ask questions."

"Yes, sir." Lawrence said, "I fell under Voldemort's spell."

"Of course you fell under his spell." Nicol. Lemay put away her smile and said, "A wicked spell."

"But I don't seem to feel the difference?" Lawrence asked,

"You should know that it's a kind of cold magic called Heartbreaker." Nicol. "Voldemort is a very high-level heart breaker, and he is good at breaking through the hearts of others and stealing the deepest secrets of their hearts."

"He takes inspiration from the madman, and when he steals someone's secret, he casts a spell to lock that person up in his own saddest memories, and the negative emotions fuel the spell to grow stronger and stronger, and only the powerful Heartbreaker can resist it." Nicol. A flash of fear flashed across Lemay's face, "He used this trick to destroy countless excellent wizards and witches, and for wizards, a heart break is no different from death, and the former is even worse than death."

"That...... Why am I okay?" Lawrence wondered, "I don't know how to lock my mind, and I'm not locked up in memories."

"Yes, I think it's because of this." Nicol. Lemay pulled out a blood-red stone with a visible notch on it, "Amazing spell, I tried to destroy him, but I failed, I cast the strongest spell and couldn't even make it leave a scratch."

"How?" Lawrence was surprised and said, "You can't destroy him?"

"Oh, Dumbledore will explain later," Nicol. LeMay said, "You, Voldemort, Dumbledore, maybe Grindelwald back then, you four are very—different."

Lawrence didn't speak, he wanted what the Falling Demons said to him—we're the same kind of people,

"Let's talk about you again, kid." Nicol. Lemay laughed and said, "Your spell succeeded in shattering a small corner of the stone, and its shard stabbed you in the left hand."

Lawrence looked at his left hand intact, and the tears of the phoenix were amazingly effective, and they didn't even leave a scar,

"This stone helps you block most of the spells, this thing may have no emotions, but it has memories," Nicol. Lemay said calmly, "I think you saw the memory of this stone?"

Lawrence nodded,

"Can you tell me?" Nicol. Lemay looked at Lawrence wistfully,

Lawrence briefly recounted the encounter between Morris and Rena to Nicol. Lemay listens, Nicol. Lemay closed his eyes after listening, Lawrence did not continue to talk about the next memory, he guessed that it was Nicol. The message that Lemay wants to know,

"Would you like to hear a story from me? Child." Nicol. Lemay asked, and Lawrence nodded,

"Once upon a time there was a famous alchemist, and he had a son whom he was proud of in alchemy, and his name was Maurice, and Maurice also married a good alchemist named Narena,

The beginning of the event is cliché, one day, on the alchemist's seventy-fifth birthday, when he made a birthday wish, he said, "I hope that in my lifetime, I can successfully make the legendary Philosopher's Stone."

"Why? Father.'" Morris asked him this, because he didn't understand that his father, who was wealthy, famous, powerful, and not very old, of course, for a powerful wizard, seventy-five years old was actually only half of his life,

The alchemist smiled and replied, "To see my grandchildren grow up safely." At this time, Rena was not pregnant, and the alchemist's original intention was just to see his grandson as soon as possible, but his son would be mistaken, Maurice followed Rena and began to study the legendary Philosopher's Stone, they looked for clues in the literature, experimented with the truth in the classics, and after a few years, Rena became pregnant,

"Enough is enough, Rena is pregnant, let's stop researching first." The alchemist said,

"No! It's almost successful, it's almost there.'" When Morris replied, Rena was not worried about her husband, so they continued to study...... "Nicol. Lemay paused the story and looked at Lawrence,

"That memory?" Lawrence asked,

"Yes, you made up what I didn't know," Nicol. Lemay continues the story: "The accident happened, the alchemist lost his son, his son's wife, and his unborn grandson, and the alchemist's wife, Perenelle, angrily accused him,

They searched the ruined laboratory and found a blood-red stone,

They brought the stone home, because it was very similar to the legendary Philosopher's Stone, and then the stone spoke,

"I can fulfill your wishes, I think you don't lack wealth, I think you have strength, but do you want to live forever?"

"Immortality? Nope!' The alchemist shouted angrily, "Give me back my family!"

"You don't have enough to exchange." Thus saith the stone,

So, the alchemist also began to go crazy to find the way to make the Philosopher's Stone, he thought, one is not enough, he will make two, three, four, he is very famous, soon, the whole magic world knows, he has to find a way to reproduce the Philosopher's Stone,

But year after year, day after day, the alchemist could not reproduce the Philosopher's Stone, and finally, he was old, he was dying, but he was unwilling, he was unwilling that he had no way to change his family,

"Give me life, and I'm going to keep living." He said to the stone that he was fascinated by his research,

So the stone gave him life,

A few more years later, Perenaire is going to die,

"Give her life." He also told the stone that he did not want to lose any more family members, and that he had selfishly kept his wife behind.

So Perenel survived again, and the world thought that he had made the Philosopher's Stone, and his fame became even greater.

But in the long process of research, he realized that even if the souls and lifespans of his family members could be exchanged for equal value, they would not be able to exchange the more than 1,000 years of lifespan that he and Perenel combined."

"Even today, the power of the stone is enough for us to live for a long time." Nicol. Lemay told Lawrence,

"What's that extra life?" Lawrence asked, he felt something was wrong with the story, but he couldn't say it,

"I think it's Maurice and Rena's affection, the love for us, the love for the child that is about to be born," Nicol. At this point, Lemay said, he could no longer hide his sadness, "I have learned this truth in five hundred years, I have made Perenelle wait for me for too long, if it weren't for me, she wouldn't want to live anymore."

Lawrence felt that he was about to lose his breath, and the old man's grief was like a substantial tide, suffocating, at this time, the philosopher's stone on the table emitted a faint red light, and the old man's expression gradually calmed down,

"Noticed?" Nicol. Lemay sneered, "The depth of the nick."

"Shallower?" Lawrence asked incredulously, "He feeds on negative emotions?"

"To be precise, there's only sadness, and we always pay the price inadvertently," Nicol said. Lemay said, "I'll show you this again."

"The legendary Philosopher's Stone can turn stones into gold?" Nicol. Lemay picked up the stone and tapped the empty teacup on the table, "Let the teacup turn into gold."

Nothing happened, the teacup is still the teacup,

"Noticed? I've been working hard for five hundred years for the lies it gave me." Nicol. Lemay said that he tossed the stone into his teacup, "This is not a magic stone, but a deformed monster that only lives on life."

"The basic condition of magic, death is irreversible." Lawrence replied in a dry voice,

"A little stone turns into gold, and you live forever, but you can't get back those carefree years." Nicol. Lemay looked at Lawrence and said seriously, "Equivalent exchange, it sounds easy, but some prices may not be willing to pay, and some gains may not be what you think."

Lawrence listened to the old man's most profound experience of his life, and was speechless,

"You're still young, but you're so extraordinary, I hope you don't be like me, pursuing things that aren't good for you." Nicol. Lemay said, turning and stepping into the furnace, "Help me tell Dumbledore that the sooner we destroy the stone, the sooner we can cry with Perenelle."

───────

Author's Note: Hats off to "Professor Magic", he wrote very well, about Nicol. Lemay's chapters are even more exciting, although I am not the same as his Philosopher's Stone setting, but the passages of the string are very important for me to write these articles, and then I kneel down again and beg him to start updating.

Note 1: One Galleon is about five pounds, and if you are curious, you can convert it yourself, and besides, I have always thought it is very ridiculous, a magic wand, a must-have thing for a home trip to kill people, is actually only seven Galleons, don't you think there is anything strange? And as the largest wand seller (that is, an arms dealer) in the whole of the United Kingdom, Ollivanders can actually live well without a bodyguard until now, this kind of person does not have ten or eight Aurors to watch, and your Minister of Magic actually dares to sleep? Actually casually let him be kidnapped by Voldemort, so do you have a better understanding of XD's big nerves in the wizarding world?

Thank you for the tipping from the outer building of Tsing Yi Building.