Disclaimer: I'm still not JKR and therefore I still don't own Harry Potter, if I did Ron Weasley would have been eaten by something big and nasty, maybe a dragon.
A/N: This chapter is the end of First Year, hope you have enjoyed the story so far.
Harry Potter and the Master of Time
Chapter 10: Confrontations With Madmen
"Professor Quirrel. I'd say I'm surprised, but I'm really not."
Quirrel just smiled at Harry speaking calmly, not a hint of the fear that normally covered his face "I wondered if I'd be meeting you here tonight, Potter. Though I must say I would have thought you would suspect Snape and not p-p-poor, st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrel."
Harry looked at the man he knew was about to die with a mocking grin plastered on his face "Well you see, if I were an idiot I might have suspected Snape, but if you think about it he was far to obvious a choice. The man was a Slytherin, if he was up to something nefarious he would be bright enough not to engage in such petty acts of viciousness. You on the other hand, well your acting skills are about even with your teaching skill, that is to say they suck."
Quirrel glared at Harry "It doesn't matter, I'm going to kill you tonight." He snapped his fingers and Harry was suddenly bound tightly by conjured ropes. "You're to nosy to live, Potter. Scurrying around the school on Halloween like that, for all I knew you'd seen me coming to look at what was guarding the stone."
"So you did let the troll in." It wasn't a question, but that seemed to escape Quirrel.
"Certainly. I have a gift with trolls- you must have seen what I did to the one in the chamber back there? Unfortunately, while everyone else was scurrying around looking for it, Snape, who already suspected me, went straight to the third floor to head me off."
Harry looked as though he was thinking for a moment before he replied "I'm guessing that gift with trolls comes from having a similar level of cognitive ability. Why even bother letting a real troll in, it took a pair of first years five minutes to find and eliminate it. With only a theoretical troll every teacher would have spent hours searching the castle without finding it. And if anyone was suspicious you just say you must have over-reacted to a Halloween prank."
"Silence, Potter. I need to examine this interesting mirror." Quirrel turned his back on Harry to examine the Mirror of Erised "This mirror is the key to finding the stone, trust Dumbledore to come up with something like this... but he's in London... I'll be far away by the time I get back... I see the Stone... I'm presenting it to my master..."
"Ah your master, I knew you weren't bright enough to come up with this on your own. Let me guess it's Voldemort, isn't it. Hell, with my luck who else could it be. How did he win you over? Did he give you a speech about how morality is just some societal construct designed to control you, that all that really mattered was power?" Harry could see Quirrel's grimace reflected in the mirror. "He did didn't he. Well even if that were true, you still got screwed. From where I'm standing all I can see is just another dumb-ass sucker who fell for the honeyed words of a half-dead psychopath. Oh and Voldy, why don't you say hello, I can feel you're there."
A raspy voice answered from under Quirrel's turban "Hello... Harry Potter."
"It really is funny that you fell for it Quirrel, he promised you power, but just having him here is literally killing you, isn't it. You've been killing unicorns just to push off death by a few more days, but in the end you are still going to die tonight, either by my hand or by the hand of your precious master, because once he has the stone- you are nothing but a loose end."
Quirrel was quickly losing his temper "What does this mirror do? How does it work? Help me, Master!"
And once again the raspy voice spoke "Use the boy... Use the boy..."
Quirrel clapped his hands and the ropes binding Harry disappeared "Come here, look in the mirror and tell me what you see"
Harry walked in front of the mirror, slipping his hands into his pockets. He looked into the mirror and saw himself holding the stone and putting it in his pocket, and when the reflection did that he felt the stone materialize in his real pocket. He immediately touched the iron rod to the stone and pushed a little power through it to activate the stone... and nothing happened, just as Virgil had suspected, the Philosopher's Stone at Hogwarts had been a fake.
"Well," Quirrel demanded impatiently "What do you see?"
"I see me kicking your ugly ass Quirrel." As Quirrel was about to respond Harry cut him off "Quirrel you just don't get it, you aren't in charge here, so why don't you just shut up and let me talk to your boss."
"Let me speak to him... face-to-face..."
"Master, you are not strong enough!"
"I have strength enough... for this..."
Quirrel undid his turban and turned around, the hideous face of Voldemort looking straight at Harry "Harry Potter... 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... and once I have the Elixir of Life, I will be able to create a body of my own... Now... why don't you give me that Stone in your pocket?"
Harry just stared at him defiance etched into every line of his face.
"Don't be a fool," snarled the face. "Better save your own life and join me... or you'll meet the same end as your parents... They died begging me for mercy..."
"You're lying."
"How touching..." it hissed. "I always value bravery... Yes, boy, your parents were brave... I killed your father first; and he put up a courageous fight... but your mother needn't have died... she was trying to protect you... Now give me the Stone, unless you want her to have died in vain."
Harry stared Voldemort right in the eyes and asked "What is it about me, that scares you so much? First you make the biggest mistake of your life trying to kill me as a baby, and now you push the hard sell on me while I'm the one with all the cards. You couldn't kill me ten years ago when you were at the height of your power, what makes you think you'll do any better now as nothing more than an ugly ghost?" And with that he reached out and grabbed Quirrel's head with both hands. Quirrel and Voldemort screamed in agony, but the pain Harry expected didn't come. He had been expecting a burning pain in his forehead, like he knew he had experienced when he had done this before, but instead he just felt a tingling sensation and it felt like Quirrel's head was coated with some kind of Slime. He could still sense the presence of Voldemort, but it was no longer painful. Maybe Virgil had been right that kissing Hermione would destroy any traces of Voldemort that remained. The shadow of Voldemort fled the dying body of Quirrel and on its way out it took the opportunity to steal as much energy from Harry as it could. Exhaustion overwhelmed Harry, and soon he collapsed into darkness. The last thing Harry saw before the darkness consumed him was the stone falling out of his pocket and shattering upon the ground.
Harry awoke in the Hospital Wing to the smiling face of Albus Dumbledore "Good afternoon, Harry."
"Professor, what happened, the stone... and Quirrel..."
"The stone is gone, and Quirrel is dead Harry. You did a good job stopping Voldemort from getting the stone." Dumbledore told Harry in a calm tone.
"Yes, I suppose I did, of course it isn't like it really mattered, the stone wasn't real." Harry said while reaching into his pocket and withdrawing the iron rod he had been carrying since he had grabbed his invisibility cloak. "And don't try to deny it sir, I brought this along because I thought that you might have placed fake stones so that any thief wouldn't know which one they really wanted, and I might have needed to test the stones to find the real one. When the stone appeared right next to it, I decided to test it, after all why turn down a free pound of gold. Imagine my surprise when it didn't work. It raises a question though of why you set all that up..."
"Now Harry," Dumbledore began in his best soothing, grandfatherly voice "surely you can't be suggesting..."
"That it was a set-up, sir? That is exactly what I am suggesting. The only thing I want to know is why?"
"Harry there are some things you simply are not ready to understand. Perhaps when you are older..."
"And how many times will you have maneuvered me into a confrontation with a murdering psychopath before you tell me?" Dumbledore didn't respond "Very well, let's move on to other topics then. I know you sent me my dad's cloak, is there anything else that you have been holding onto that should have been given to me before now?" Harry gave him a couple moments to respond before moving on "I guess I'll just have to make inquiries at Gringotts about my parents' wills. Is that why you sent Hagrid to take me to get my stuff? Any other teacher would have known that I had no knowledge about any inheritance I might have and would have suggested I ask the very same questions I intend to ask the next time I am at Gringotts. Sir if you have nothing else to add, could you please leave, I would really like to be able to speak with my friends, I'm sure they've been worried." Having politely dismissed the Headmaster he lay back to look at the ceiling. After a few moments Dumbledore left.
Harry managed to convince Madam Pomfrey that he was well enough for his friends to come visit him. The moment Hermione saw him she ran up to him and kissed him before giving him a tight hug "Oh Harry, I was so worried."
"Dammit" said George pulling a couple of sickles out of his pocket and handing them to Fred.
"What was that about?" Harry asked the twins.
"Just a friendly wager about whether you would end up with Hermione or Susan, though I must admit, I didn't think you would move this fast." Fred explained.
Susan giggled a little at the thought "That was a sucker's bet George. I never had a chance against Hermione."
"So what happened down there?" George asked "There are rumors flying around but half of them are just ridiculous."
Harry explained what had happened down in the chamber, being careful not to give away anything that he couldn't just explain away. "So in the end Quirrel died because he backed the wrong horse, and the stone was a fake, it was only there as bait to draw me into a confrontation with Voldemort. It makes sense I guess, Voldy can't be the first idiot on an immortality kick to get it in his head to steal Flamel's stone, but no one else has succeeded. Why move the stone at all, whatever was protecting it before has worked perfectly so far."
"We should tell someone about this." Susan said "He put a lot of people in danger for his little game. He's acting like the school is his own little world. Someone needs to stop him."
"No Susan. We need to let him play his games. He has to much power to be easily stopped, and if we try anything there's no knowing what he'll do. For now we just watch and wait, at least when he's here we can keep an eye on him." Harry said and everyone nodded their agreement.
Harry got out of the Hospital Wing the next morning. He packed his trunk and spent the afternoon with Hermione sitting and talking by the lake.
"So what are we going to tell your parents?" Harry asked Hermione
"About the stone and Voldemort? We should tell them the truth, they'll understand, and I don't think they'll over-react." Hermione said
"I meant about us. We're together, and I'll be living with you and your parents now." Harry had received a letter from Amelia while he had been unconscious informing him that his guardianship had been transferred to the Grangers. Unfortunately the Dursleys hadn't been convicted by the Wizengamot because Dumbledore had stepped in, however that didn't save them from facing criminal charges in the muggle courts and their chances didn't look good.
Hermione thought about it for a bit "The answer is the same. They'll understand, and we are a bit young for them to be worrying about us doing anything."
With that settled they lay back and looked up at the sky. I love you, Hermione Harry thought to himself.
"I love you too, Harry."
Harry was startled by this Hermione can you hear me he thought.
"Of course I can, why wouldn't I be able to hear you?"
Because I'm not talking.
"Oh I knew I had forgotten something." Virgil suddenly said "When you kissed for the first time down in the potion chamber it strengthened your connection. Now you can hear each others thoughts, unless you consciously decide to keep them a secret. You shouldn't have to worry about the connection changing again for a few years now."
"Virgil, I think you need to explain what else will happen with this connection. You have been avoiding giving us details since you first brought it up." Hermione said.
"Alright I'll tell you what I can. There are two more levels to the connection, the next sage will happen if you two ever have sex with each other, and the last will occur if you got married. I can't tell you what will happen with those two stages because if you know what will happen it could corrupt the whole process if you do things for the wrong reasons." Hermione was a little upset at the lack of details but accepted the reason given.
Before the End of Year Feast Dumbledore took Harry aside and tried to convince him that he should return to the Dursleys for the summer. After listening to Dumbledore spend five minutes explaining how it was the best thing for his safety Harry simply pointed out that he couldn't legally return to the Dursleys as they were currently on trial for abusing him for ten years, and that even if there were a way for him to go back there he would use every resource at his disposal, including his apparent fame, to avoid returning. He didn't give Dumbledore a chance to respond before leaving his office.
Due to Harry and Hermione's stellar performance in class, and Snape's inability to blatantly favor Slytherin, Hufflepuff won the House Cup by a wide margin. As a result Dumbledore couldn't swoop in and hand them a last minute victory by giving points to Harry and his friends. Dumbledore was furious, not only had he been unable to convince Harry to return to his relatives, the boy had somehow begun to unravel the beginnings of his plans, and now he was clearly in a relationship with the muggleborn Granger. This wouldn't do at all, the Weasley girl wasn't really an option now, but perhaps the Bones girl could be convinced to help, after all it was for 'the greater good'. While he was at it he decided that there was no point in continuing to pay Ronald for his attempts to befriend Harry, it clearly wasn't worth the investment.
Harry enjoyed the train ride back to London with Hermione, Susan, and the Twins, they talked and joked, played a few muggle card games Hermione showed them, Harry Hermione and Susan practiced their transformations. The Twins were impressed and asked to borrow Harry's book on becoming an animagus, Harry gladly lent them the book, after all there wasn't much the book could tell them about the last step that they didn't already know. All to soon they were pulling in to Platform 9 ¾.
"Come on Harry, let's go home" Hermione said giving Harry a quick kiss before pulling him off the train.
The Grangers saw Harry and Hermione exiting the barrier holding hands and David surreptitiously handed Jean a five pound note. "Hey kids" said Jean hugging them both in turn "How was your year?"
"Well" said Harry.
"It's a long story." finished Hermione. And it was, the story lasted all through the car ride to the Granger home.
A/N: And there we have the end of the first year. I hope you all enjoyed. The next two years will probably be just as short, but starting with fourth year they should be getting a little longer.