"And then Professor Snape went Expelliarmus and Quirrell's wand flew out of his hands," Draco explained, "But he wasn't done yet, he tried to use this really dark curse to knock all the teachers out-"

"I thought it was Professor McGonagall that disarmed Professor Quirrell?" Hermione asked. Draco deflated and looked at the beautiful ceiling of the Gryffindor common room. He couldn't share his story without being interrupted, could he?

"I'm repeating what I heard from my housemates, let me have fun," Draco answered. He waited a few seconds to ensure Hermione was going to let him have his fun, and then went back into the story. "So he tried to use this really dark curse to knock all the teachers out, but just like at the Quidditch match Professor Snape knew the counter curse-"

"The Quidditch match?" Harry asked, confused as to where that had come from. Draco took his interruption in sliding.

"Oh yeah, this one I know from Professor Snape himself. It was Professor Quirrell that had gotten all the Slytherins. Professor Snape knew the counter curse and tried to help, but after Brook went down, Adrian didn't want to deal, and Marcus moved so much Professor Snape couldn't actively help. When I went on the field he knew Professor Quirrell would be after me, because Professor Quirrell wanted to get rid of me to get to you, Harry. Something about you scared him, and he wanted to be rid of you, but he couldn't do it under normal circumstances. To get to you he knew he needed to catch your attention. He'd hoped hurting me would make you look into the teachers and find him as the odd ball." Draco explained easily.

"But he didn't count on the three of us tagging along for the ride!" Neville said, and clapped his arm around Harry for a brief moment.

"So just like the Quidditch match Professor Snape used the counter curse while the rest went after Quirrell with their wands. But the curse was on their wands, and they started to crack." Draco continued. He was cut off once more.

"That's not true," Dean cut in from by the fire. "Their wands didn't crack, they were pulled out of their hands."

"You both have it wrong," Padma Patil said from where she sat beside her twin. "The curse wasn't on their wands, it was on them. They started to break out with cuts."

"I heard from a Hufflepuff that he fell to his knees and begged for forgiveness." Lavender said from a table off a ways.

"Someone here is wrong." Hermione said, before a fight could break out over who was right. She'd seen these happen back in elementary, and she wanted to continue the belief that they were all adults.

"...Or we all are?" Ron offered quietly from where he played chess against Seamus. The group of first years sat in a small crowd and stared at each other. What if they were all wrong? If that was true, what was the actual story? Where could they get it from?

Harry checked his watch discretely, and promptly stood up.

"Oh my, I forgot, Hagrid wanted us over this afternoon." Harry said loudly, and swatted at the group to stand. Draco, Hermione, and Neville stood clumsily and followed Harry out of the common rooms. The rest watched them go, and a quiet murmur of agreement went around that they would get answers from the four when they got back.

"We don't have a meeting with him?" Draco asked, half a statement and half a question. It was his first day back from winter break, so they very well could and the three that were gone a long time wouldn't have known.

"True. But he was probably with the others when they found Professor Quirrell. We can ask him!" Harry answered cheerily.


After the Christmas Dinner, Severus Snape kept an eye on Minerva McGonagall, at her request. She thought she drank too much and didn't want to sleep for a bit until she started to feel more sober than drunk. At the insistence of Severus she had an antidote to common poisons, in this case alcohol, and then a sip of a pepper up potion to boost her energy so she didn't fall asleep on his couch.

It was an easy silence for the two colleagues, one they had stared many times over the last decade. Severus looked over the lesson plans for the rest of the year, and Minerva sat down with a cup of tea and biscuit to help with whatever she may be feeling while steam slowly dripped out of her ears from the Pepper-Up.

At around one in the morning the silence was disturbed by an alarm sound. It was a loud ringing that went from the door to the back of the room, and back again.

"Severus, what's that for?" Minerva asked.

Severus didn't bother explaining it to the older witch until he was sure that Quirinus Quirrell wasn't going to get away. Explanation could take too long in this circumstance. He was up, out of his seat, and out of his room quickly, and left the witch to follow his trail hotly. He went all the way to the third corridor on the left side, where she got an icky feeling about it all.

Severus walked into the room -which was unlocked as it had never been before, and inside was Fluffy, asleep to harp music. The panel in the floor was up, and they could see down the hole. Severus waited a few seconds to see if Quirrell would come up before he spoke.

"Minerva, send out your patronuses to the other heads of houses and headmaster, someone went down." Severus ordered. Minerva looked down the hole, as if she had a prayer to see the bottom, and then sent out her three cats for those teachers.

"When did you think of an alarm?" Minerva asked while they waited.

"Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Neville Longbottom figured it all out before christmas. I overheard them talking and made sure they wouldn't do anything, as Gryffindors are prone to. Miss Granger mentioned we could put an alarm up to be alerted if someone went down, instead of just hoping our traps would work." Severus answered somewhat easily. Minerva smartly didn't say anything about the Gryffindor quip.

"Do we know who went down?" Albus Dumbledore asked as he came breezing into the room a few moments later. Just behind him were Filius Flitwick and Pomona Sprout, and all three of them looked pink in the cheeks still. Professor Quirrell picked a good night to do this apparently.

"My guess, because of all who is here and what few who knew, it was Professor Quirrell or Rubeus Hagrid who went down." Severus answered. He knew who it was, but the rest were never so suspicious.

"Hagrid is at his hut, I saw him on my way in." Pomona was quick to quell.

"Then it is Quirinus." Albus questioned, though it felt like a statement.

"How did he know how to get past Fluffy?" Minerva asked.

"Turns out he did over hear Mr. Malfoy say I hum." Severus answered airily.

"When did Mr. Malfoy say that?" Filius asked.

"Before Christmas Break." Severus answered, a little proud in that moment that one of his snakes figured it out.

"How did he know to do such a thing?" Albus asked.

"Mr. Malfoy and three of my students figured it all out sometime this year." Minerva answered. The five teachers looked around each other for a brief moment, lost on what to do.

"Best to go down?" Filius asked finally. The group made a shrug motion, and looked at the trap door.

"I'll go, my trap is first." Pomona answered. She walked over to the hole, and stared down it for a few seconds. Then, she jumped.

After her was Minerva, then Albus, then Severus, then Filius. A variety of sounds escaped the teachers, from Filius' whooping to Minerva's light eeping, but they all went silent as they landed in the devil's snare.

"He burned a hole through my plant." Pomona irked from beneath them. "Be kind to the snare, just use bluebell flame or be still!"

Albus giggled at what she said, and couldn't get himself back together enough to say the spell. Minerva said it instead, and when coupled with stillness, the four fell through. Albus scratched his sides once he'd landed, as if the snare had tickled him rather than try to choke him.

"So, what's after Pomona?" Minerva asked. They began the walk down a dark, winding path, until they came upon a brightly lit, grand chamber with thousands of tiny white birds. No wait, not birds, they were keys.

"Me." Filius answered. In a moment he had the keys frozen, and he was picking out between the keys to see which one was the right one. It wasn't hard to figure it out, Quirinus had not been nice to the correct key. Its wings were tattered, and its handle was a bit bent. Filius handled it with care and cooed to it while he opened the ornate silver lock on the old looking door.

They entered the next room and a couple of them had to cast light charms. It was so dark in this room it was hard to tell what was going on. As soon as the lights were lit they came across a life sized chess set. A few of the pieces were still being put back together, and there were five spots open for them.

"We don't actually have to play, do we?" Severus asked as the rook on the white side pointed to its missing counter piece. It wanted him to play rook.

"It wants me to be a Bishop? I'm not a Bishop." Pomona whispered quietly as the Bishop pointed to her.

"Disarming it could take time." Minerva said. The pawn pieces began to rumble at her, and she raised a high eyebrow. They stopped immediately as the queen piece stepped down for her.

"We have time, he can't get anywhere." Filius answered. The pawns rumbled at him this time, and he shrugged.

They spent possibly an hour waiting for Minerva to dis-charm each piece. In this time the three still slightly drunk professors were able to sober up best they could, and Severus did his best to avoid the pushy rook, who followed him around the room until Minerva finally stopped it.

"Who's after this?" Pomona asked. She rubbed her eyes tiredly, and Severus pulled the vial of Pepper-Up out of his pocket. He handed it to Pomona, who sipped it and handed it to Filius, who took a gulp before he handed it to Albus, who also sipped it and handed it back to Severus.

"Quirinus." Filius answered. Steam began to pour from the three teachers ears, but none of them reacted.

"What's his?" Pomona asked.

"A troll." Albus snorted. The three looked over at him, and it was like a candle lit over all their heads.

"Halloween." They all murmured knowingly. Severus nodded once, and rolled his eyes. It was like he was the only one who made the connection that night.

"The king doesn't want to go down." Minerva grumbled as she sat down on a dis-charmed pawn. The five looked at the king, who was in the corner watching them warily.

"Can we just walk by?" Filius asked. Minerva shrugged tiredly.

"Don't know. No longer care. We can blast him to pieces if he tries to stop us," Minerva answered. The king seemed to understand her and he shook his head. She saw it, and smiled. "Smart king."

The five made their way to the door and watched the king move to the complete opposite side of them at all times. They entered the next room with their noses and mouths covered, and saw the sleeping troll.

"Thank Merlin we don't have to deal with that." Pomona gasped as they rushed to the next door.

The next room was simple. All there was was a table in the middle with seven vials and a piece of paper. Severus walked in easily and picked up one of the vials without reading the paper, and the others followed in. Flames covered both directions, and the four looked around.

"There isn't much magic here." Pomona muttered to herself.

"It's logic, not magic, that will get you through this room," Severus answered. He held the purple vial aloft, but stared at the one mostly empty on the table. There was a sip left, enough for a child but no adult. "Quirinus is versed in all magic, it had been my hope that he didn't know a lick of riddles or logic."

"Judging on the oil marks on the paper, your trap worked for a while." Pomona said as she raised the paper up. There were smudge marks and crinkles from where Quirinus had read and reread.

"Time to disarm my flame work." Severus sighed. He placed the purple vial down, and went to the black flame. While Minerva's took a while to disarm, he got his down easily with a little rune replacement.

"All that's left is me." Albus said.

"What is yours?" Filius asked. Albus opened his mouth to answer, and then he stopped. He hummed for a moment.

"Well, I never put it in. It's upstairs, in an unused classroom. I knew the purportator would think it was here from the first feast, but the mirror was never meant to come here." Albus answered. Blood drained from the faces of the teachers.

"What if he had an accomplice?" Severus hissed.

"What if a student finds it?" Filius and Pomona screeched.

Severus grabbed the purple vial up and tossed it to Albus, who fumbled to catch it.

"Go back, and get to whatever you made." Minerva ordered. Albus looked at the four, and then at the vial.

"I trust you can take care of Quirinus Quirrell." Albus said stiffly, and downed the vial. He walked the other way and went through the purple flames.

"We need to be ready for whatever he sends at us." Filius said as he puffed himself up to his highest, which was three foot six inches. The other three filled their brains with the best of their knowledges, and walked through the doorway to face the offender.

Quirinus Quirrell knelt on the ground in the middle of the room, faced towards the door. His head was down and his turban was off, and he seemed to be twiddling his thumbs. Whispers seemed to surround him, and any good witch or wizard knew that meant bad news.

"Professor Quirrell?" Minerva asked. The twenty one year old wizard continued to twirl his thumbs, and even as he himself stopped talking there was whispering.

"Are you quite alright?" Minerva continued, but she didn't dare venture into the room. Quirrell looked up, but he didn't stop twirling his thumbs.

"Quite," He said pleasantly. "I'm surprised to find teachers down here. I had hoped for Harry Potter."

"Harry Potter is in his room asleep," Minerva responded surely. Quirrell hummed a short little tune. "You're different..."

"Aha! I know. Clever right? N-n-no o-one would s-s-susp-pect m-m-me," Quirrell answered, and made a mock of who he had been the last few months, topped off with the hunched back and squirrelled hands. He watched the four teachers who hadn't dared come into the room farther than they already had. "You're safe to walk in. There are no charms or spells to worry of in this room. Unlike the kindness you showed me with an alarm."

"You shouldn't have come down here to begin with. Why do you want the stone?" Severus asked. Quirinus rolled his head around in a circle, like he had a tick. The whispering stopped.

"I need it for someone special. See, I'm dying. My soul is dying. My lord and I had heard of the Philosopher's Stone and he'd fetched me to get it at Gringotts. I got in successfully, but the stone was already gone. Surprise! Albus Dumbledore had brought it to Hogwarts, and my lord was mad. He punishes severely when he's mad..." For a brief moment fear flitted across the young professor's face. "He wanted to keep an eye on me, so he went to Hogwarts with me."

"There's never been anyone with you." Pomona mentioned. Quirinus tilted his head thoughtfully.

"No," Quirinus answered, and nodded to Pomona. "Because he's attached to me. It's why I'm dying. A very time limited thing indeed."

"Attached?" Severus asked as a chill went around the room. What Quirinus spoke of sounded like very dark magic. Quirinus nodded again.

"To bring back our lord." Quirinus answered Severus easily. He turned around, and then they truly saw the back of his head. The man's eyes were closed against his grey face. There was a nose, a mouth, and eyes, but little else to give him away. He was the reason why Quirrell always wore a turban.

The four stared at it for but a moment, confused on who the man was, why he was attached to Quirinus' head, and why he was 'our lord'. That was, until the man's face took a sneer that was familiar to Severus, and it clicked for him faster than it did for the rest of them.

"It cannot be." Severus whispered. Subconsciously he clasped his left forearm, and that was all the others needed to know who it was.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

"Expelliarmus!"

"Incarcerous!"

The three teachers shouted at once. Instantly Quirrell went down; bound, disarmed, and frozen. The man on the back of his head didn't open his eyes. Only then did the four walk farther in.

"It couldn't be that easy." Pomona whispered as they stared down at the man.

"Nobody touch him." Filius ordered, and threw out his hands. The stepped back a bit, and then Minerva cleared her throat.

"Levicorpus," She muttered, and Quirrell rose. "Carefully now. We must leave quickly. And grab his turban."

Severus grabbed the garlic smelling turban, and the group left the way they came. They continued all the way until they were at the infirmary, where they placed him down and strapped him to a bed. Immediately after Minerva and Filius left to go to the Ministry of Magic to get Aurors to remove him from the school.

"Madam Pomfrey," Pomona began as the mediwitch came in. She took one look at the professor bound frozen in bed, and wanted to raise an alarm. "Keep him here while the aurors come."

"What did he do?" Poppy asked as she rounded the bed to check over the prone man.

"A lot." Severus grumbled. Madam Pomfrey looked at the dour Slytherin, and began her check up over his body. When she touched his shoulder, she was quick to jump back.

"Ow! He burned me." She shouted as she jerked her entire body away from Quirinus. Sure enough, her hand was burned from where she touched him, in little red blisters that were immediately agitated. Then it began to grow up her arm, and she shouted louder.

The two teachers jumped to help the medi-witch, with Impervious and Aguamenti, to stop whatever it was Quirrell had cast on himself and now afflicted her. The burn continued to her elbow before they could stop it, and they brought her over to a separate bed. They heard a weird laugh from Quirrell, like his face was in the pillow, and they knew who it was.

"What... He's unconscious." Madam Pomfrey whimpered in pain.

"The Dark Lord is on the back of his head." Severus answered. Pomona hissed at him to remain quiet as they helped the mediwitch with her burned arm. They kept water running on it while Severus got her a healing and pain potion. All the while they kept their eyes on Quirinus Quirrell, to make sure he didn't wake up.

"What happened?" Albus asked when he walked into the room from wherever he'd been for a long time.

"Quirinus Quirrell didn't put up a fight. He has a curse on him to burn any person who touches him. It crawled up my arm." Poppy explained through clenched teeth over the busy heads of the Herbology and Potions teacher.

"Quirinus is hiding a secret on the back of his head. I have good reason to believe it's You-Know-Who." Severus answered as he looked away. Albus' eyes widened, and he looked at the prone and bound man. He walked over to him and leaned over as far as he dared.

"What happened?" Minerva asked when she, Filius, and three Aurors came in and saw Poppy clutching a blistering arm.

"He has a burn curse on him." Pomona answered. Just in time, because the three Aurors were about to unbind and cuff his magic up with handcuffs. Instead they stopped, double bound him, and lifted him to take him away.

"You have this?" Filius asked them. They nodded, and two of them left. One stayed behind to get the details.

"So the Philosopher's Stone is here, in a mirror, which Quirinus Quirrell was after. He also happens to have You-Know-Who attached to his soul on the back of his head?" The Auror asked to finish it all up a few hours later. The paper he had was long, and it was well into early morning hours once they'd finally wrapped it all up. The man was understanding, which given the fact he could have laughed and walked away at any point was amazing. He also seemed to take everything they said seriously.

"Yeah. I think that's the simplest way to put it." Minerva answered, and yawned. Filius, Pomona, and Severus lay in hospital beds, all asleep. Albus was talking to Poppy to keep her mind off the slow healing process her arm was going through. Minerva was all that was left to talk to the Auror. The man had to of been a saint to see the five of them, and finally let them free.

"Expect visits often while we decide what to do over the next few weeks, but I think everything now is left for us to deal with. Do you have a DADA and Magical Theory professor to take over for the rest of the year?" The auror asked.

"We have plenty of teachers who can handle such positions." Albus answered from where he knelt. The auror nodded, and then he was gone. As soon as the flames died down from the fireplace Minerva was in the final bed and asleep.


The four students made their way to Hagrid's hut as silently as possibly to not draw attention to their intentions. They only spoke once Hagrid let them in and the door was closed securely, locking them in a humid room.

"Shock to see you four on yer first day back." Hagrid mumbled as he went around poking the fire. The four were instantly assaulted by the heat in the home, and they took off their cloaks.

"We wanted to ask you, since you know everything that goes on around here," Hermione started, and laid the charm on thick for Hagrid. He puffed up with pride that she said he knew everything that went on. "We keep hearing rumors about what happened to Professor Quirrell, we were wondering if you know."

That made Hagrid deflate, and he left the fire to sit down in front of the four. He watched as Draco and Neville fanned one another for a few moments.

"Well, there's no harm in ya knowin' now... I wasn't there personally, but I know the story. The teachers went through each of the trials easily, and got to the final room where Professor Quirrell was. He didn't fight them, he didn't do nothing, he just let them take him away. The aurors came and got him not long after that. None of this hype or hooplah you kids seem to believe." Hagrid explained slowly, as if to make sure they didn't miss a thing.

The four thought that sounded dull, though maybe it was just that. Dull. There didn't need to be confrontation or a battle. Who knows, maybe Quirrell was using the stone for a good end in the end? And was just caught along the way?

"Thank you Hagrid." Hermione answered as she slouched in her chair. She promptly sat back up straight as the back of the chair was warm.

"Why is it so bloody hot in here!" Neville cried out. He made to leave altogether, and Hagrid jumped up preemptively and put his body between the kids and the firepit, as if Neville had been going to staunch the fire. That was all they needed.

"Hagrid, what do you have?" Draco asked suspiciously. It wasn't a secret to any of them that Hagrid loved large animals. A large animal combined with intense heat and Hagrid's immediate jump to hide only spoke of one thing in his mind. Hagrid held his hands in front of himself and twiddled his fingers.

"Nothin'." He huffed. Harry tapped Draco and Hermione's shoulder, silently telling them to keep Hagrid's attention on them. They began to make exaggerated motions to look around Hagrid, and Harry crept the other way around him slowly, and saw a great black egg in the fireplace.

"Is that an egg?" He asked once he'd gotten past Hagrid. Hagrid jumped in front of Harry to block him, and the rest saw what it was. They all stared at the egg, black as night, and very large, and sitting in the fire. Hagrid watched the four worriedly as they continued to stare at the dragon egg.

"I never told on you, don't tell on me?" Hagrid bargained. The four nodded immediately. "Over Christmas Break I bargained a dragon egg."

"With what?" All four cried out. Hagrid smiled toothily.

"Some fellow wanted to know how to make a Cerberus be nice," He answered cheekily. His face drained away as it snapped in his head who the person probably was. "Oh, I'm a fool..."


Blooper:

Harry and Albus stood before the mirror. Albus needed to get the stone out of the mirror in this scene. It was a one chance hit and miss, because if he couldn't, he never would be able to. The pressure was high on the old professor, and he shuffled his feet as they began the next scene.

"What do you see?" Harry asked. Professor Dumbledore didn't answer for a long time. He tilted his head and aahed at the mirror for a good time. Eventually, he smiled.

"I see myself failing to get the stone out, is what." Professor Dumbledore finally answered. Harry laughed, and looked around at the crew. The five teachers that were ready for the next scene were there with the crew.

"So what do we do?" Harry asked. The director looked at Albus with an appraising eye, and then at the others.

"We need to get the stone out of the mirror. It's property of Nicolas Flamel, he needs it back eventually," He said. He pointed at Minerva, "Try and get it out?"

The stern witch looked at the director, and walked over to the mirror. There were a few moments of silence, and then she giggled.

"You got the wrong lass, sir. I can't get it out. I don't know how to want something in this mirror without desiring it." She answered. The director waved for Pomona and Filius to try.

"Nope." Pomona said after a few minutes. Filius jumped as something landed in his pocket, and turned around where he now held a... Pair of dice?

"I'm sure this isn't the Philosopher's Stone." The half goblin murmured as he shook his head. The cast stared at the dice for a good long while, wondering who and when that was put in.

Madam Pomfrey, Severus, and a few crew members tried to get the stone out then. While some could pull something out (a pair of glasses, a painting, a skeleton alarmingly enough), none of them could get the stone out. Even the extra's, Harry's parents, tried to get something, and only got a key, which they weren't even sure where it went.

"It's like the Room of Requirements..." The director muttered solemnly to himself in the corner, where he had been slowly backing into as the chance of being sued rose with each failure.

"Why not let Professor Quirrell try?" Harry asked after they'd had him try to get it out. Which had failed. He was beginning to think the mirror was broken.

Quirinus, who was bound and ready for the next scene with the teachers, looked up at his name. He jumped to his feet and jumped over to the mirror.

"I don't know what the lot of you expect from me considering I don't- I have a reflection!?" He crowed as he stared at himself in the mirror. He looked at his form, and hopped his body around in a circle to see himself from every direction. "Is that what I look like?"

"Was that your desire?" Albus asked, completely ignoring Quirinus' exclamation with a twinkling little star in his eye. Quirinus stopped spinning around. His red eyes looked at Albus, and then once more at the mirror. He made an impressed face, and nodded.

"Actually, yeah," He said. He shook his head to get back into the right headspace. "Right, I'm here for a reason."

He focused on the mirror for a good long moment, and then he jumped. Thankfully, unlike with one of the crew members, his wasn't an entire skeleton in his pocket. Instead he wiggled his arm out of his binds, because they weren't that tight, and he opened his palm. There, in his hand, lay a red stone, the Philosopher's Stone.

"Huh, he got it." Pomona said, surprised. Quirinus smiled toothily, and tossed the stone to the director.

"How..." The director asked as he held the stone securely.

"I'm a dark arts professor, mate. I damn well should know how to beat a mirror that wants to trick you." Quirinus replied cheekily. The cast and crew stared back at him, a bit concerned.

"I am really glad we didn't make that a thing in this narrative, otherwise he would of gotten the stone and been long gone." Severus said as the true reality of a man versed in dark magic set in.