The Max-Level Muggle-Born: Hogwarts Isekai

The next few days were an exercise in patience, a trait Evelyn had honed during countless hours waiting for rare monsters to spawn. She attended her classes, ate her meals in a bubble of self-imposed silence at the Slytherin table, and endured the continued glares from her housemates. To the outside world, she was just a quiet, slightly odd first-year. Internally, she was meticulously planning her next mission.

She needed to return to the third-floor corridor. This time, it wasn't for reconnaissance; it was for a harvest.

Her target was a single whisker from the Cerberus, Fluffy. In her mind, she reviewed the data from Artifice of the Ancients. Ollivander, for all his talk of "supreme cores," limited himself to just three: unicorn, dragon, and phoenix. They were powerful, yes, but they were standard, 'Rare-tier' drops. The book she'd found detailed 'Legendary' components, materials so volatile and potent that a mainstream wandmaker would never dare use them. A Cerberus whisker was one such item, noted for its ability to channel multiple, complex spells simultaneously—perfect for a player who didn't believe in one-trick builds. This wasn't just an upgrade; it was a leap to a whole new tier of gear.

Plucking the whisker directly was too risky; the pain would undoubtedly wake the beast. She needed a cutting tool. During a quiet moment in the dungeons, she took a single, sturdy hairpin from her robes and performed a complex Transfiguration, shaping and sharpening it into a tiny, razor-sharp silver scalpel, small enough to conceal in her palm. It was a delicate piece of magic that tested the limits of her faulty wand, but she managed it.

On the third night after her library heist, when the castle had once again fallen into a deep, slumbering silence, she set out.

[Quest Initiated: The Cerberus Harvest]

The journey back to the third-floor corridor was familiar, but Evelyn was even more cautious than before. Her encounter with Peeves had taught her that even low-level threats could cause critical mission failure. She moved with an almost supernatural grace, her senses on high alert.

She reached the locked door and bypassed the simple ward with ease. But as she pushed the door open, she froze. A sound drifted out from within—not the growling she expected, but the faint, gentle plucking of harp strings.

Her mind instantly processed the new information. An enchanted instrument. Someone else has been here. Someone who knows the 'music' weakness. Quirrell. The game's plot was moving forward, with or without her.

Slipping inside, she saw it. Near the center of the room, lying on its side, was a beautifully crafted, hand-held harp. It was glowing with a soft, magical light and playing a simple, repetitive lullaby on its own. But the magic was clearly fading; the notes were becoming hesitant, and one of the strings had snapped.

As a result, Fluffy wasn't in a deep, enchanted sleep. He was merely drowsing. The three heads were down, but they were twitching and whining fitfully, their snores uneven. This wasn't a pacified guardian. This was a ticking time bomb.

Her easy harvest mission had just turned into a high-stakes race against a failing enchantment.

[Objective Updated: Acquire component before the buff expires]

There was no time to cast her own, more stable spell; the conflicting magic could wake the beast instantly. She had to use the window Quirrell had opened.

She crept forward, the tiny silver scalpel clutched in her hand. The sheer scale of the creature was still breathtaking, but now it was laced with a new sense of imminent danger. One of the heads let out a loud, snorting growl and shifted, its massive paw scraping against the stone floor.

She approached the head on the far left, the one closest to the wall. Its great, floppy ears were draped over the stone floor, its jowls slack. The whiskers, thick and stiff as broom bristles, sprouted from its massive snout.

Her heart beat a steady, focused rhythm. She reached out, her hand moving with surgical precision. She isolated a single, long whisker, her fingers just barely brushing against the coarse fur.

Suddenly, the harp music faltered, stopping for a full second.

In that dead silence, the middle head's eyes snapped open. They weren't looking around; they were staring directly at her. There was no rage in them yet, just a sleepy, canine confusion.

Evelyn froze, a wave of pure adrenaline washing over her. She was too close. She had been spotted.

The harp music started up again, weak and tinny. The head's eyelids began to droop, the magic fighting to pull it back under. But it was too late. The head let out a low, questioning whine, a sound that began to stir the other two.

Mission failure, her brain screamed. Abort!

She didn't hesitate. She abandoned the whisker and threw herself backward, scrambling away into the shadows by the door just as the first head began to lift itself from the floor with a deep, rumbling growl that shook the very stones beneath her.

She slipped out of the room, slamming the heavy oak door shut and leaning against it, her heart hammering against her ribs. She could hear the enraged, confused barks from within. She had failed. Worse, she had alerted the beast.

Then she felt it. A new, powerful hum of magic flowing into the door she was leaning against. Faint, silvery runes began to glow across the wood, runes she had not seen before. They were complex, ancient, and radiated an authority that made the library's wards feel like children's toys.

Someone powerful had just been alerted to the disturbance. Someone had just upgraded the security.

A new notification seared itself into her vision, its text a chilling shade of crimson.

[ALERT: High-Level Security Ward Triggered. Source: A. Dumbledore] [STATUS: Location access significantly more difficult. New solution required.]

She had not only failed to get her component, but she had also locked herself out, and in the process, put herself directly on the Headmaster's radar. The grind had just gotten a whole lot harder.