December arrived with a great deal of snow. During their free time, the Hogwarts Gang were in the library, trying to find information on Nicolas Flamel, since Emily was certain she'd read the name somewhere. As the library was so large with tens of thousands of books and they had no idea what Flamel could have done to get in a book, the search wasn't going so well. Finally they asked the portrait of the Founders if they had any idea who Flamel was.
"He's a colleague of Dumbledore, and very old," answered Godric. "They worked on a project together once. And that's all we can tell you."
"Thank you, Lord Godric," said Justin politely and turned to look at the others, a frustrated look on his face.
Once inside the room, Padma said, "Well, that wasn't much help. Only an idiot wouldn't be able to tell that Flamel was a colleague of Dumbledore's."
"Yeah," said Seamus, making a face. "It's rather obvious since Dumbledore's hiding something for Flamel."
Alex got up and went to the cupboard where the Hogwarts Gang had decided to use to store treasured items of theirs that they didn't want to keep on their person or in their dormatories. "I think I'll sort out my chocolate frog card collection. It helps me think." He swung open the door and abruptly froze.
Out stepped an exact copy of him, with a wickedly happy expression. Alex backed up, a puzzled look on his face. It turned to absolute fear as the copy donned a Death Eater mask and started shouting, "Death to Mudbloods and filthy Muggles!" Copies of Hermione, Terry, Diana, and Dean appeared and the copy of Alex cried, "I hate you guys! I only pretended to be your friends. Avada Kedavra!" There was a burst of green light and the copies of the four Muggleborns (or possibly halfblood in Dean's case, since his birth father had disappeared when he was a baby and he now had a stepfather) fell to the ground, dead.
Alex, who was one of the bravest people Emily knew and had never shown any sign of fear before, now looked completely white. A horrified look briefly crossed his face, to be replaced by terror. His eyes welled with tears and he collapsed to the ground. Everyone else was a mix of puzzlement and fear, except for Ling, who went to stand in front of Alex. The five copies turned into the three-headed dog. "Riddikulus!" she said firmly. The three-headed dog changed into a normal dog in a clown costume and Ling then forced it into a box lying in the corner.
"That was a boggart," she said, turning around to look at her friends. "It turns into your worst fear and can only be defeated by laughter, so the best way to combat it is to think of some way to make your worst fear funny and transform the boggart into it. I encountered one when I was seven and Mum showed me how to defeat it. At the time, my worst fear was a, well, I guess you'd call it a demon or monster, from Chinese legend, but since seeing that three-headed dog, it changed." She then bent over Alex. "It's all right, Alex. The boggart is locked up in a box and I'll have Professor Flitwick get rid of it for us."
"It's not all right!" burst out Alex. He no longer had a look of terror, but he was still crying, and his eyes were full of pain. "Don't you realize what my worst fear is? It's becoming like the rest of the Carrows and using the 'm' word and believing the drivel about pureblood supremency and killing Muggleborns, particularly my friends, two of whom are my closest and oldest ones! Okay, Dean might not be Muggleborn, since he has no idea if his real father was a wizard or not, but since he doesn't have proof that he's a halfblood, prejudiced purebloods will just lump him as being the 'm' word. I don't want that coming true, but what if it does?"
"That is not going to happen, Alex," said Diana firmly. "How long have Em, Mia, and I known you? Over three years, right? We met two days after Hermione's ninth birthday. You've never shown any inclination of being like the rest of your family, and you've been a rebel far too long to ever turn out like them."
"But it could happen!" snapped Alex. "Or just because I'm from a Dark family, people could assume that I was evil and blame me if something terrible happened to one of you guys and there was no evidence that I wasn't responsible. Like Sirius Black. The Blacks are a family like the Malfoys and mine, though the only Black left is Sirius. Well, the only male, anyway. The living females are married and have their husbands' last names. Anyway, Sirius was one of the very few decent Blacks and got disowned by his family. He was friends with your father, Em. But after Voldemort - oh, it's just a name - killed the adult Potters, everyone that's not a Death Eater believed that Black was the one who betrayed them. There was no evidence to the contrary, and everyone thought that Black was the Secret-Keeper."
"Excuse me?" asked Emily, blinking. "And what do you mean by the Secret-Keeper?"
"There's a spell called the Fidelus Charm," responded Alex. "It's used to hide things or people. One person, a Secret-Keeper, knows the location, and only he or she can tell others. The others that are told can't reveal the secret. Everyone thinks Sirius was your parents' Secret-Keeper, and therefore the only logical person to have revealed their location to Voldemort. But from what I heard from Father and Aunt Alecto, I know that Black wasn't a Death Eater. Father doesn't know exactly who it was that told Voldemort, but he knows it wasn't Sirius."
"But what about when he killed Peter Pettigrew and those twelve Muggles?" asked Daphne.
"That I don't know about," said Alex. "Pettigrew was another friend of your parents, Em. Supposedly when the Aurors were going after Black, Pettigrew got there first and shouted for the whole world to hear that Black was basically the one that betrayed the Potters. Next thing that anyone knew, the street was blown up and Pettigrew and twelve Muggles were killed. It was terrible. All that could really be found of Pettigrew was a finger. Black was arrested and given a life sentence in Azkaban. Since the evidence points to him being the one responsible, I guess he was. But I know for a fact that he wasn't a Death Eater and didn't betray the Potters. He's innocent of that much at least."
"Well, why didn't your father tell the Ministry that Sirius Black was innocent of betraying the Potters?" asked Anthony.
Alex sighed. "Tony, you're normally so smart. Wouldn't you have figured out that it would mean that my father would have to reveal himself as a Death Eater? Then he'd be in Azkaban right now. Not that I would mind. And it still might not help Black any. It could just look like someone trying to help out a fellow Death Eater."
Anthony looked chargrined. "You're right, Alex. I wasn't thinking."
"That's all right," said Alex. "But what if something similar happens to me? I get blamed for something terrible and then end up in Azkaban because there's no proof that I wasn't responsible? The rest of you would hate -"
"We would never hate you," interrupted Ernie firmly. "And we'd never abandon you either. If you were accused of something you never did, we'd stand up for you and work on your behalf to find you innocent, Alex. We're loyal to our friends, especially those in Hufflepuff. No offense to those of us not in Hufflepuff."
"Thanks, guys," said Alex, wiping his eyes and now looked a combination of grateful and determined. "You're the best friends ever."
Susan got up and took out Alex's card collection. "Here, maybe sorting through your cards will help soothe you, Alex."
"Thanks, Sue," said Alex, managing a tiny smile. He absentmindedly rummaged through the cards and allowed Neville and Terry to help himm.
"Here's Dumbledore's card," said Neville, holding it up.
"Oh, put that with the other two I have of him, Nev," said Alex, taking out his treasured Agrippa card. "Here, Ron, you can have this. You're missing Agrippa, right?"
"Y-yes," stammered Ron in shock. "But why are you giving it to me? Those are rare and you only have one of -"
"Just take it," said Alex. "It'll help me feel better after that boggart."
"All right, if you're sure," said Ron, reluctantly taking the card.
Terry gasped, for when he was handing Neville the other two Dumbledore cards, he'd paused to read the back. "I've found Flamel! It's on the back of Dumbledore's card! See? There's a bit about how Dumbledore was famous for finding the twelve uses of dragon blood and his work on alchemy with his partner Nicolas Flamel." The others instantly crowded around to look. In the end, the three Dumbledore cards were passed around so everyone could see.
Hermione took little more than a brief glance before she jumped up and began looking through the bookshelves in the room. After several minutes, she grabbed a large and thick tome and began flipping through it. Finally she found what she was looking for and turned to the others. She read out loud,
"The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Philosopher's Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers. The stone will transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal.
There have been many reports of the Philosopher's Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr. Nicolas Flamel, the noted alchemist and opera-lover. Mr. Flamel, who celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday last year, enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife, Perenelle (six hundred and fifty-eight)."
After a moment of surprised silence, Ernie said, "Oh, so that's what's being hidden at Hogwarts. The Philosopher's Stone!"
"No wonder someone's after it," said Blaise. "Anyone would want something that could make you fabulously wealthy and immortal."
"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?" The others gave him Looks.
Alex completely forget about the boggart to focus on the new find. "Well, what are we going to do now? We still have four days before we leave for the holidays."
"Speaking of the holidays, you're invited to spend it with Di and me, Ron," said Emily. "Since your parents and sisters are going to visit your brother Charlie in Romania. And Fred, George, and Percy are invited as well. I forgot to tell you earlier because we were so busy trying to find out who Flamel was."
Ron accepted and said he would pass on the invite to his brothers, though he doubted Percy would accept. While the twins had no problem with Ron in Slytherin and often joked about it, Percy disapproved over a Weasley being in Slytherin. It didn't help that Ron was friends with Blaise, Daphne, and Tracey, even though two of them had gotten Howlers for not being proper Slytherins and they were friends with students from the other three houses. The only thing that kept Percy from being a complete prat about it was Ron's friendship with Diana, simply because she was Muggleborn even if she was in Slytherin.
Alex grimaced. "Percy is rather annoying. After those Howlers I got from Father and Aunt Alecto, he gave me a lecture on obeying your elders and that I should have been in Slytherin or at least acted like a proper member of the family. He doesn't even care that if I were like my family, I wouldn't even be associating with the Weasleys since I'd think them blood-traitors and that I'd be as awful and mean as Malfoy!"
"Yeah, but Marcy told Percy off right after that lecture and Fred and George got him with a couple of pranks," pointed out Dean. "And we helped. Trust me, guys, you do not want to see Marcy when she's really mad about something. The twins said her cold fury was worse than their mum's yelling."
Ron winced. "Mum's yelling is pretty scary when she's mad at us, mainly the twins. It's a good thing that you're our friend and not enemy, Marcy, if that's the case."
Marcy snorted. "I'm not usually like that when I'm mad. It's just that Percy really got on my nerves with that lecture, and Alex's my friend, so he needed a thorough dressing down. That's all. Now, can we please get back to the Philosopher's Stone and Flamel?"
The conversation turned back to the Philosopher's Stone and they began wondering if the troll had been let in as a distraction so someone could try to go after the Stone. Seamus remembered that Snape had been limping for awhile after that incident, which meant he'd been injured in the leg.
"Don't even suggest that Snape might have tried to go after the Stone and was attacked by Fluffy," snapped Marcy. "He's not evil. Quirrell is more likely to be the one after he Stone, just based on his auras. We need to keep a closer eye on him."
The others agreed and then Ling and Padma went to take the boggart to Flitwick for it to be taken care off while the rest went to dinner.
The day before they left for Christmas break, Alex gave the rest of the Hogwarts gang their presents early, since he wasn't sure if he'd have a chance to deliver them over the holidays. Each got a notebook, which was identical except for the color of the covers, and a quill pen that would never run out of ink. He explained that he'd put a spell on the notebooks so that they were all linked to each other and were a method of communication. What was written in one notebook would appear in the others to be read, unless the writer first wrote the names of specific people, in which case the writing would only appear in the notebooks of those people. The writing would disappear after it was read. In case Alex wasn't allowed to send any letters as punishment, he would still have a method of communication with his friends, and they had a way to discuss things without being overheard.
The others thanked him for the wonderful gift and then they went to their respective dorm rooms to finish packing.
Author's Note: Thanks goes to a reviewe, crazzyredhead, who suggested that the Hogwarts Gang find out about Flamel sooner. Thanks also goes to a friend of mine, who suggested the incident Alex had with the boggart. I was thinking about what Alex's worst fear would be when I got to third year and wrote about Lupin's first Defense class and my friend suggested that I showed it now.
