Yeah it's been a while. A long while, but here's the 26th chapter. I know I've been saying forever that this was the last chapter, but well . . . it's not. I decided to split the last chapter in two. Sorry for all of you were excited for the end, but for those who wanted more, be joyful there will be one more chapter. I wrote a explanatory fic for chapter 7 so you should go check it out, it tells you the heart warming story of how Harmony got her name which I believe you'd all enjoy! Have fun reading and again PLEASE REVIEW!

The Face Off

It was Quirrell.

"You!" gasped the twins.

Quirrell smiled. His face wasn't twitching at all.

"Me," he said calmly. "I wondered whether I'd be meeting you here."

"But—Snape—"

"Severus?" Quirrell laughed, and it wasn't his usual quivering treble, either, but cold and sharp. "Yes, Severus does seem the type, doesn't he? So useful to have him swooping around like an overgrown bat. Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrell?"

If they hadn't been n the situation they were in Harmony would have laughed extremely hard at Snape being called an overgrown bat, but in their current position she had greater worries.

"But Snape tried to kill us!" Harry burst out.

"No, no, no. I tried to kill you. Your friend Miss Granger accidentally knocked me over as she rushed to set fire to Snape at that Quidditch match. She broke my eye contact with both of you. Another few seconds and I'd have got you two off those brooms. I'd have managed it before then if Snape hadn't been muttering a countercurse, trying to save you."

"Snape was trying to save us!" Harmony exclaimed. That was the last thing she would have expected from Snape. He hated them, he would have wanted them dead, wouldn't he?

"Of, course," said Quirrell coolly. "Why do you think he wanted to referee your next match? He was trying to make sure I didn't do it again. Funny, really . . . he needn't have bothered. I couldn't do anything with Dumbledore watching. All the other teachers thought Snape was trying to stop Gryffindor from winning, he did make himself unpopular . . . and what a waste of time, when after all that, I'm going to kill you both tonight."

Quirrell snapped his fingers ropes sprang out of think air and wrapped themselves tightly around both the twins.

"You're too nosy to live, both of you. 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."

"You let the troll in?" Harry asked.

Harmony had the biggest urge to say "Duh", but Quirrell began ranting again before she had the chance.

"Certainly. I have a special gift with trolls—you must have seen what I did to the one in the chamber back there? Unfortunately, while everyone else was running around looking for it, Snape, who already suspected me, went straight to the third floor to head me off—and not only did my troll fail to beat you to death, that three-headed dog didn't even manage to bite Snape's leg off properly."

"Now, wait quietly. I need to examine this interesting mirror."

Harmony noticed right after he said that that behind him stood the Mirror of Erised.

"The mirror is the key to finding the Stone," Quirrell murmured, tapping his way around the frame. "Trust Dumbledore to come up with something like this . . .but he's in London . . . I'll be far away by the time he gets back . . ."

All Harmony knew to do was play an actress and act like they did in the movies, keep the bad guy talking to keep his mind away from the plan or in this case, the mirror.

"We saw you and Snape in the forest—" she blurted out, feeling now extremely stupid.

"Yes," said Quirrell idly, walking around the mirror to look at the back. " He was on to me by that time, trying to find out how far I'd got. He suspected me all along. Tried to frighten me—as though he could, when I had Lord Voldemort on my side . . ."

Quirrell came back out from behind the mirror and stared angrily into it.

"I see the Stone . . . I'm presenting it to my master . . . but where is it?"

"But Snape always seemed to hate us so much." Harry said. Harmony could have hugged him, that was so much better than her "We saw you in the woods" thing.

"Oh, he does," said Quirrell casually, "heavens, yes. He was at Hogwarts with your father, didn't you know? They loathed each other. But he never wanted you dead."

"But we heard you a few days ago, sobbing—we thought Snape was threatening you . . ." Harmony building her part of their distraction.

For the first time, a spasm of fear flitted across Quirrell's face.

"Sometimes," he said, " I find it hard to follow my master's instructions—he is a great wizard and I am weak—"

"You mean he was there in the classroom with you?" Harry gasped.

"He is with me wherever I go," said Quirrell quietly. "I met him when I traveled around the world. A foolish young man I was then, full of ridiculous ideas about good and evil. Lord Voldemort showed me how wrong I was. There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it . . . Since then, I have served him faithfully, although I have let him down many times. He has had to be very hard on me." Quirrell shivered suddenly. "He does not forgive mistakes easily. When I failed to steal the Stone from Gringotts, he was most displeased. He punished me . . . decided he would have to keep a closer watch on me . . ."

Quirrell's voice trailed away. Harmony was remembering her time in Diagon Alley—how could she have been so stupid? Harry and her had seen Quirrell there that very day, shaken hands with him in the Leaky Cauldron.

Quirrell cursed under his breath.

"I don't understand . . . is the Stone inside the mirror? Should I break it?"

Harmony's mind was racing. Suddenly she had a brilliant idea. She wanted the Stone so she could keep it away from Quirrell. If she looked into the mirror, she'd see herself finding it and then she'd know where it was. She had to find a way to look into the mirror without Quirrell knowing.

She tried to position herself so she could see the mirror, but she couldn't move very well with the tight ropes. Next to her Harry was trying to do the same thing, but he fell over. Harmony thought Quirrell would turn and kill them both, but he ignored them. He was still talking to himself.

"What does this mirror do? How does it work? Help me, Master!"

Harmony could have laughed, he was talking to someone who couldn't possible answer him. Or that's what Harmony thought until she heard a voice answer. The voice seemed to come from Quirrell himself.

"Use the boy . . . Use the girl . . . Use them both . . . Use them."

Quirrell rounded on the twins.

"Yes—come here."

He clapped his hands once, and the ropes binding the twins fell off. Harry got to his feet with Harmony's help.

"Come here," Quirrell repeated. "Look in the mirror and tell me what you see."

The twins walked toward him.

Harmony knew that if they saw the Stone they had to lie about it. That was something she could do.

Harmony and Harry stood side by side holding hands. Quirrell moved in close behind them. Harmony breathed in the funny smell that seemed to some from Quirrell's turban. Then the twins stepped in front of the mirror in unison.

They saw themselves reflected, both pale and scared-looking at first. But a moment later, Harry's reflection smiled at them and Harmony's did also. Harry's reflection put its hand into its pocket and pulled out a blood-red stone. It winked and put the Stone back in its pocket—

Harmony could tell immediately what had happened. Harry must have the Stone now.

"Well?" said Quirrell impatiently. "What do you see?"

Harmony summoned her Slytherin lying abilities with a little bit of her Gryffindor courage and began to tell what they "saw".

"I see Harry and me shaking hands with Dumbledore, we've won the House Cup for Gryffindor. We're older, we're Head Boy and Girl, and we're sharing the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain position."

"And you?" Quirrell asked Harry.

"We always see the same thing, it must be a twin thing." Harmony said answering for her brother.

Quirrell cursed again.

"Get out of the way," he said. As the twins moved aside, Harmony brushed against the pocket that held the Stone. Should they make a break for it?

But they hadn't walked five paces before a high voice spoke, through Quirrell wasn't moving his lips.

"They lie . . . They lie . . ."

"Come back here!" Quirrell shouted. "Tell me the truth! What did you see?"

The high voice spoke again.

"Let me speak to them . . . face-to-face . . ."

"Master, you are not strong enough!"

"I have strength enough . . . for this . . ."

Harmony felt as though her whole body had been covered in super glue. She couldn't move at all. She watched, scared to death, 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.

Harmony would have screamed, but she couldn't find her voice. Where there should have been a back to Quirrell's head, there was a face, the most terrible face Harmony had ever seen. It was chalk white with glaring red eyes and slits for nostrils, like a snake.

"The Potters . . ." it whispered.

Harmony couldn't move nor could she breath. So this was Voldemort, the man who had haunted her dreams since she came back.

"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 . . . why don't you give me that Stone in your pocket, Harry?"

So he knew. Harry stumbled backward and Harmony found her legs again and stepped back as well.

"Don't be fools," snarled the face. "Better save your own lives and join me . . . or you'll meet the same end as your parents . . . They died begging me for mercy . . ."

Rage boiled quickly through Harmony covering every inch of fear and making her ten times bolder.

"LIAR!" She shouted, but she heard another voice shout with her, Harry.

Quirrell was walking backward at them, so that Voldemort could still see them. The evil face was now smiling.

"How touching . . ." it hissed. "I always value bravery . . . Yes, 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."

"NEVER!" The twins shouted together.

Harmony and Harry sprang toward the flame door, but Voldemort screamed "SEIZE THEM!" and the next second, Harmony felt Quirrell's hand close on her wrist. At once, a needle-sharp pain seared across Harmony's scar; her arm felt as though it might separate along her scar; she fought, struggling with all her strength, and to her surprise, Quirrell let go of her. The pain in her arm lessened—she looked around to see where Quirrell had gone, and saw him hunched in pain, looking at his fingers on both hands—they were blistering before his eyes.

"Seize them! SEIZE THEM!" shrieked Voldemort again, and Quirrell lunged, knocking both the twins off their feet, landing on top of them, one hand around each of their necks—Harmony's scar was burning, scorching her, blinding her with pain, yet she could see Quirrell howling in agony.

"Master, I cannot hold them—my hands—my hands!"

And Quirrell, though pinning Harry with his knees let go of Harmony and Harry's necks and stared, bewildered, at his own palms—Harmony saw they looked burned, raw, red, and shiny. She also noticed that she was free and she tried to get up, but found that somewhere in the squabble her leg must have been broken.

"Then kill them, fool, and be done!" screeched Voldemort.

Quirrell raised his hand to perform a deadly curse, but Harmony, gathered her strength and sat up, reached over and grabbed Quirrell's face—her brother had done the same—

"AAAARGH!"

Quirrell got off of Harry, his face blistering, too, and then Harmony knew: Quirrell couldn't touch their bare skin, not without suffering terrible pain—their only chance was to keep hold of Quirrell, keep him in enough pain to stop him from doing the curse.

Harmony ignored the pain in her leg and jumped up, which she knew she would feel later. She caught Quirrell by one arm while her brother grabbed the other and she held on as tight as she could. Quirrell screamed and tried to throw them off—the pain in Harmony's leg was killing her while the pain in her arm was building—she saw her vision go in and out—then she couldn't see—she could only hear Quirrell's terrible shrieks and Voldemort's yells of, "KILL THEM! KILL THEM!" and other voices, maybe in her own head, crying, "Harmony! Harry!"

She felt Quirrell's arm wrenched from her grasp, knew all was lost, and fell into blackness, down . . . down . . . down . . .