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Nicolas Flamel

Chapter 10

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Hermione and I both arrived at Hogwarts the day before term started. "I searched for a book on Nicolas Flamel," Harry told us, as we sat alone with him and Ron at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. "And I couldn't find anything. But I went looking for one every night-"

"If Filch had caught you!" Hermione interrupted in outrage.

"He didn't," Harry said with a smile. "I got an Invisibility cloak for Christmas."

Hermione lightened up. "Oh, so did you find anything?"

"No," Harry said shaking his head.

"Oh." Hermione looked glum.

"Do we really have to talk about Nicolas Flamel right now?" I asked annoyedly. "Can't we talk about something else?" I reached into my bag. I was thinking of showing Harry the picture of us as babies.

"Well, Carly, this is kind've important right now," Ron pointed out.

I rolled my eyes and decided not to show Harry the photo yet.

The next day when term started, we were in the library, looking for books on Flamel again. I hurried over to Harry, who was finally alone. I wanted to show him the photo of us today.

"Hi, Harry," I said.

"Hi," he replied with a smile.

"Can I talk to you about something?" I asked him. I had my hand inside my bag, reaching for the photo.

"Yeah, sure," Harry said. I had his full attention.

"Harry!" Seamus Finnigan shouted, sticking his head in the doorway. "Oliver Wood's calling for you. You need to get to Quidditch practice right away."

"Oh, alright," Harry groaned. "I'm sorry, Carly. Why don't we talk at dinner, alright?"

"Alright," I said forcing a pained smile. I didn't want to talk at dinner. I kinda wanted to talk to him while we were alone. I watched him leave the library, and then I walked over to Ron and Hermione. I went back to the common room with them and watched them play chess. They played a thousand rounds, and Hermione never won any of them.

"How much longer am I gonna watch you two play this?" I asked in a bored tone of voice.

"Until I win," Hermione replied.

"Which isn't gonna happen," Ron laughed.

Then Harry sat down next to us. "Hi, guys," he said.

"Don't talk to me for a minute," Ron said. "I need to concen-"

"Harry!" I gasped, taking a look at his face.

Ron looked too. "What's the matter with you? You look terrible."

"Snape's refereeing the next game of Quidditch," Harry explained. "All of a sudden," he added in a mocking tone of voice.

"Don't play," Hermione said at once.

"Say you're ill," Ron said.

"Pretend to break your leg," Hermione suggested.

"Really break your leg," Ron said. I hit him in the arm. "What?"

"I can't," Harry said. "There isn't a reserve Seeker. If I back out, Gryffindor can't play at all."

Neville toppled into the common room, his legs stuck together.

"It was the Leg-Locker curse," Neville explained as everyone else in the room but Hermione and I laughed wickedly. "I had to bunny-hop my whole way here."

"Hey, quiet!" I snapped at all the laughers while Hermione performed the countercurse, getting Neville back to normal.

"Who did it?" Hermione asked him.

"Malfoy," Neville said shakily. "I met him outside the library. He said he'd been looking for someone to practice that on."

"Go to Professor McGonagall!" Hermione said. "Report him!"

"I don't want more trouble," Neville said shaking his head.

"Don't worry, Neville," I said. "I'll take care of Draco."

"No, Carly," Ron said. "You've got to stand up to him, Neville! He's used to walking all over people, but that's no reason to lie down in front of him and make it easier."

Yeah, like my father did for his father.

Harry took a Chocolate Frog out of his pocket and handed it to Neville, who looked like he was about to cry. "You're worth twelve of Malfoy," he told him. "The Sorting Hat chose you for Gryffindor, didn't it? And where's Malfoy? In stinking Slytherin."

Neville smiled weakly as he unwrapped the frog. "Thanks, Harry… I think I'll go to bed… D'you want the card, you collect them, don't you?" He handed Harry the card and walked away.

"Dumbledore again," Harry said. "He was the first one I ever-"

He gasped as he stared at the back of the card. Then he looked up at Ron, Hermione, and me. "I've found him!" he whispered. "I've found Flamel! I told you I'd read the name somewhere before, I read it on the train coming here- listen to this: 'Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard in Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel!"

"Oh, wow, wouldja look at that," I said. I was more interested in getting up and leaving the common room to go kick Draco's butt. Hermione jumped to her feet. She looked so excited. Wow.

"Stay here!" she said and she ran to the girl's dormitories.

Harry and Ron exchanged bewildered looks just when Hermione came back, holding a large, old book in her arms. "I never thought to look in here!" she whispered excitedly. "I got this out of the library weeks ago for a bit of light reading."

"Light?" Ron repeated.

"Shush!" Hermione snapped. She flipped frantically through the pages. "I knew it! I knew it!" she said when she found what she'd been looking for.

"Are we allowed to speak yet?" Ron asked grumpily.

"Nicolas Flamel," Hermione whispered dramatically. "Is the only known maker of the Sorcerer's Stone!"

"The what?" said Harry and Ron.

"Oh, honestly, don't you two read? Look- read that, there."

I waited until they were done reading the paragraph. "See?" Hermione said. "The dog must be guarding Flamel's Sorcerer Stone! I bet he asked Dumbledore to keep it safe for him, because they're friends and he knew someone was after it, that's why he wanted the Stone moved out of Gringotts!"

"A stone that makes gold and stops you from ever dying," said Harry. "No wonder Snape's after it. Anyone would want it."

"And no wonder we couldn't find Flamel in that Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry," said Ron. "He's not exactly recent if he's six hundred and sixty-five, is he?"

"Yeah, that's great, guys," I said. "Now that we know who he is, can we move on?"

The three of them exchanged pitying looks. "What?" I asked.

The next morning as the four of us walked to Quirrell's class together, all they could talk about was the Sorcerer's Stone. "Guys, this is great but I really want to start talking about something else," I said.

"Then you don't have to talk to us," Ron said bluntly.

Harry and Hermione both hit him on the arm. "Ow," he said.

"S-sit down, s-students," Quirrell said. "T-today you will be c-copying down d-different ways of t-treating werewolf b-bites." He wrote a paragraph down on the board, and we all started copying them.

"I would use the Elixir of Life if I had the Stone," Ron said to Harry.

"I would do other things with it," Harry began. "I would-"

"Shut up," I told them. "I'm trying to concentrate."

They were quiet for a few minutes until Ron said, "I would buy my own Quidditch team."

I set my quill pen down and turned around to face him. "If you-"

"I just remembered!" Harry gasped. "The Quidditch match!"

"You don't have to play, Harry," Hermione said.

"I'm going to play," Harry said. "If I don't, all the Slytherins will think I'm just too scared to face Snape. I'll show them… it'll really wipe the smiles off their faces if we win."

"Just as long as we're not wiping you off the field," said Hermione.

Ron, Hermione, and I were standing up on the stands next to Neville before the Quidditch game. Neville gave us a confused look. "Why did you bring your wands to the game?" he asked us.

"We just forgot to leave them in the dormitories," Ron lied.

"Now, don't forget," Hermione whispered to me. "It's Locomotor Mortis." Ron slipped his wand up his sleeve, not willing to answer anyone else who might ask Neville's question. The three of us were planning on using the Leg-Locker curse on Snape, if he decided to try anything funny.

"I know," Ron said annoyedly. "Don't nag."

Hermione scowled. "I was reminding Carly, you dimwit."

"Okay, children, calm down," I said before Ron could say anything.

We shut up and watched Snape, who was standing out on the middle of the field, glaring at the two teams. "I've never seen Snape look so mean," Ron said to Hermione and me. "Look- they're off. Ouch!"

Someone had poked Ron in the back of the head. We turned around and saw it was Draco. My stomach churned.

"Oh, sorry, Weasley, didn't see you there," Draco joked.

"Hey, why don't you go over and watch the game with the other Slytherins where you belong?" I yelled at him.

"I'm sorry," Draco said, about to throw out another insulting remark, no doubt. "But I don't take orders from a Gryffindor, especially not a Perry." I knew he was insulting both me and my father when he said that.

"You have no authority over me, Draco," I snapped.

"Oh, I don't, do I?" Draco sneered. "If you were a boy I would probably kick your ass right now."

"Yes, but she's not, is she?" Ron said glaring at him.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Wonder how long Potter's going to stay on his broom this time? Anyone want a bet? What about you, Weasley?"

"Wonder how hard I'm gonna punch your face in," I said to Draco, while Ron was ignoring him.

"Stop flirting and watch the Quidditch game, you little slut," Draco said smirking at me. I turned around and glared at him. He ignored me then. "Maybe I should stop talking and watch the game too. But I won't. You know how I think they choose people for the Gryffindor team? It's the people they feel sorry for. See, there's Potter, who's got no parents, then there's the Weasley's, who've got no money- you should be on the team, Longbottom, you've got no brains."

Neville turned bright red but turned around to face Draco. "I'm worth twelve of you, Malfoy," he said nervously.

Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle cackled. "You tell him, Neville," Ron said.

"Longbottom, if brains were gold you'd be poorer than Weasley," Draco said. "And that's saying something."

Ron turned around and glared at him. "I'm warning you, Malfoy- one more word-"

"Ron!" said Hermione suddenly. "Harry-!"

"What? Where?"

Harry had suddenly gone into a spectacular dive, which caused the crowd to gasp and cheer. Hermione stood up and crossed her fingers as Harry hurtled toward the ground.

"You're in luck, Weasley," Draco said. "Potter's obviously spotted some money on the ground!"

Suddenly Ron was on top of him, wrestling him to the ground!

"Oh my God! Ron!" I screamed.

Neville began helping Ron with the fight.

"Come on, Harry!" Hermione cheered. But I was too busy focusing on Ron, Neville, and Draco to notice what Harry was doing.

Neville was now in the middle of a fist fight with Crabbe and Goyle. Ron and Draco were rolling around under seats. As cute as that looked, I felt I needed to put a stop to it. I ducked under people's feet and grabbed Ron by the shoulder. "Ron, come on, let's stop this," I said.

Draco clenched his fist and punched me in the face! I gasped and felt blood on my nose. I was shocked. No one had ever punched me before. Before I knew it, I joined the battle. Ron and I clobbered on Draco.

People jumped up from their seats and cheered. I didn't even worry about having my head stomped on; I was so involved in our fight.

"Ron! Carly! Where are you? The game's over! Harry's won! We've won! Gryffindor is in the lead!" shrieked Hermione, dancing up and down and hugging Parvati Patil in the front row.

Suddenly she stopped and spotted Draco, Ron, and I under the bleachers. Draco had just punched Ron in the face too, and he glared murderously at me. He lunged at me but then Ron grabbed him and held him back. Draco still tried to get toward me. Hermione ducked under the bleacher and gave my ponytail a hard tug. "Ow!" I groaned.

"Alright, Carly. Fun's over," she told me. "Act your age."

She helped me out from under the bleacher. I ran over to stop Neville as Hermione helped Ron out from under the bleacher.

Professor McGonagall hurried toward us. She scowled at the sight of Ron's and my nosebleed, Draco's black eye, Crabbe and Goyle's bruises, and Neville, who was whimpering and sitting on one of the bleachers.

"That'll be three points from Gryffindor, Mr. Weasley, Mr. Longbottom, and Miss Perry," she said. Draco snickered. She turned to him. "And three points from Slytherin thanks to you and your friends."

Draco frowned. Ron and I laughed quietly. "Come, Neville," McGonagall said. "I'm taking you to Madam Pomfrey." They left.

Ron, Hermione, and I headed toward the castle to get to the Great Hall. Everyone was talking about Harry, wondering where he was so they could congratulate him. But the three of us weren't discussing Harry. We were discussing our big battle.

"You two are crazy," Hermione said. "Taking Malfoy on like that."

"It's not my fault," I explained. "I was trying to stop Ron and Draco, but then Draco punched me in the face, and that got me mad."

"He's lucky I didn't kill him," Ron said looking grim. "But mark my words; I'll kill him if he lays another finger on you."

Hermione shook her head. "You two are too hostile."

"And you're not?" Ron said making a face.

"I'm not having this argument," Hermione said, trying not to smile.

We were all jumpy at dinner. None of us could wait for Harry to get there, and talk to him about the Quidditch game. "I'm gonna have to tell him about Neville," I said. "Did you see him out there?"

"No, I was too busy to look," Ron pointed out.

"Hey, where's Snape?" I said passively, noticing that Snape wasn't sitting at the High Table. But then I forgot about what I'd just said and continued eating. Hermione and Ron looked worried.

"That is a bit odd, isn't it?" Ron said. "Snape's out and Harry's out."

"Oh no," Hermione said in a jittery tone of voice. "I do hope Harry's alright."

Soon dinner was over and we headed up to Gryffindor tower.

We sat impatiently waiting in the common room. Suddenly Hermione jumped out of her seat and said, "Harry, where have you been?"

"We won! You won! We won!" shouted Ron patting Harry on the back. "Carly bit Malfoy, and I gave him a black eye. Neville tried to take on Crabbe and Goyle, single-handed! He's out cold but Madam Pomfrey says he'll be alright- talk about showing Slytherin! Everyone's been waiting for you, we're having a party. Fred and George stole some cakes and stuff from the kitchen."

"Never mind that now," said Harry breathlessly. "Let's find an empty room; you wait til you hear this."

We hurried over to an empty closet and Harry shut the door. "So we were right, it is the Sorcerer's Stone, and Snape's trying to force Quirrell to help him get it. He asked if he knew how to get past Fluffy- and he said something about Quirrell's 'hocus-pocus'- I reckon there are other things guarding the stone other than Fluffy, loads of enchantments, probably, and Quirrell would have done some anti-Dark Arts spell that Snape needs to break through-"

"So you mean the Stone's only safe as long as Quirrell stands up to Snape?" Hermione asked in alarm.

"I don't know how he's gonna do that," I said. "I mean, no offense to Professor Quirrell or anything, but the guy's kind've a wimp."

"It'll be gone by next Tuesday," Ron said.