Harry staggered into the last chamber and gasped. Standing in the large, marble chamber, was not Snape. It was poor, s-stuttering...Professor Quirrell?
"You?" he asked. He almost forgot himself and laughed. Quirrell was no threat to the stone. Quirrell ignored him. He was still talking to himself.
"What does this mirror do? How does it work? Help me, Master! ' And to Harry's confusion, a voice answered, and the voice seemed to come from Quirrell himself.
"Use the boy... Use the boy..." What the hell? Was Quirrell a ventriloquist? Had he accidentally happened upon and eaten one of Fred and George's voice modifying meringues? Quirrell rounded on Harry.
"Yes ~ Potter ~ come here." He clapped his hands once, and the ropes binding Harry, which Harry had only just noticed (was this guy into bondage, or what? he had wondered) fell off. Harry got slowly to his feet.
"Come here," Quirrell repeated. "Look in the mirror and tell me what you see." Harry walked toward him. I must lie, he thought desperately. I must look and lie about what I see, that's all. Quirrell moved close behind him. Harry breathed in the funny smell that seemed to come from Quirrell's turban. Almost like…was that banana? He closed his eyes, stepped in front of the mirror, and opened them again. He saw his reflection, pale and scared-looking at first. But a moment later, the reflection smiled at him. It put its hand into its pocket and pulled out a blood-red stone. Also, a banana. It winked and put the Stone and the banana back in its pocket - and as it did so, Harry felt something heavy drop into his real pocket. Somehow ~ incredibly ~ he'd gotten the Stone. The banana, however, didn't seem to have come through.
"Well?" said Quirrell impatiently. "What do you see?" Harry screwed up his courage.
"I see myself shaking hands with Dumbledore," he invented. "I ~ I've won the house cup for Gryffindor." Quirrell cursed again.
"Get out of the way," he said. As Harry moved aside, he felt the Sorcerer's Stone against his leg. Dare he make a break for it? But he hadn't walked five paces before a high voice spoke, though Quirrell wasn't moving his lips.
"He lies... He lies..."
"Potter, come back here!" Quirrell shouted. "Tell me the truth! What did you just see?" The high voice spoke again.
"Let me speak to him... face-to-face..."
"Master, you are not strong enough! "
"I have strength enough... for this..." Harry felt as if Devil's Snare was rooting him to the spot. He couldn't move a muscle. Petrified, he watched as Quirrell reached up and began to unwrap his turban. What was going on? The turban fell away. Quirrell's head looked strangely small without it. Then he turned slowly on the spot. Harry would have screamed, but he couldn't make a sound. Where there should have been a back to Quirrell's head, there was a face, the most terrible face Harry had ever seen. It was chalk white with glaring red eyes and slits for nostrils, like a snake.
"Harry Potter..." it whispered. Harry tried to take a step backward but his legs wouldn't move. "See what I have become?" the face said. "Mere shadow and vapor ... I have form only when I can share another's body... but there have always been those willing to let me into their hearts and minds... Unicorn blood has strengthened me, these past weeks... you saw faithful Quirrell drinking it for me in the forest... and once I have the Elixir of Life, I will be able to create a body of my own... Now...is that a Sorcerer's Stone in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?