When November arrived, Tilly found herself to be in a surprisingly good mood. She already loved the colder seasons, but not only that. Due to the events of Halloween, Tilly was brimming with confidence.

Nothing over the top, but she just felt that things had become a bit easier. Being in a life or death situation puts things in perspective. At this point, Tilly would be fine with having Snape sneer at her during the month's worth of detention she had gotten. Over nearly getting smashed by another troll.

She was still a bit scared to actually talk when in the same room as Snape (don't poke the bear), but the fact she could be in the same room as him and not freak out was a big step for her.

On Saturday morning, Tilly was sitting in the courtyard with Diana and Harry. The three of them were huddled back to back around a jar of bluebell flames.

Tilly was enjoying the sensations of the cold air around her upper half and the warm heat coming from the jam jar around her backside. Diana was playing a muggle song (that Tilly had forgotten the name of) on her acoustic guitar. Harry was intently reading a copy of Quidditch Through the Ages.

After finding out about Harry being put on his house's Quidditch team, Tilly suggested it to Harry, saying that training was good, but actually knowing the rules of the game would be helpful too.

Tilly wasn't technically supposed to know about Harry being the new seeker, but it turns out that Diana and Harry are terrible at keeping secrets. It didn't really matter in the end because the news broke out reasonably quickly.

Every now and again, Harry would speak up about a random fact he had found in the book. He and Diana would talk about it for a bit, while Tilly nodded her head politely.

Tilly didn't really get Quidditch. Actually, she didn't get sport in general. Wizard or Muggle. She never understood how her Dad and Uncle Jack always got so excited about stuff like baseball and basketball. Even Wynonna, who didn't usually like sports, managed to find excitement in softball of all things. Despite this, Tilly would try to be polite when other people were talking about it when around her.

While Harry and Diana were talking, Snape started limping over to them. Tilly shuffled closer to Diana so that the jar was out of Snape's line of sight.

"What's that you've got there, Potter?"

Harry hesitated for a second, then begrudgingly showed Snape the book.

"Library books are not to be taken outside the school," said Snape. "Give it to me. Five points from Gryffindor."

Snape ripped the book away from Harry and then turned to Diana.

"Stop making that racket Beatrix." He said while taking the guitar. "Five points from Ravenclaw."

After Snape had limped away, Diana stamped her foot on the ground.

"That's ridiculous!" Diana said. "Professor Flitwick and McGonagall never had a problem with me playing outside of class!"

"He's just made those rules up," Harry muttered angrily. "Wonder what's wrong with his leg?"

"Whatever it is, I hope it really hurts," Diana said quietly while shaking her fist at Snape

Later that night, the three of them were sitting in the club room, finishing their homework, so they could focus on the match the next day.

Tilly realised that Harry liked having friends who already knew all the stuff he was learning. It made it easier to find the answers to specific questions. Diana and Tilly never just gave him the solution, though. They found it more entertaining to challenge Harry in weird ways.

Just was still trying to finish her potions work when Harry spoke up.

"Snape can't just take our stuff like that."

"We can try and ask for it back," Tilly said.

"Or get our heads bitten off," Diana replied.

"He can't bite anything if other teachers are around."

The three of them got up and started heading to the staffroom. On the way there Diana was pulled to the side by Professor Flitwick, who wanted to talk to her about something.

Diana urged them to go, saying that she would catch up with them later. When they got there, Harry knocked on the door. When there was no answer, Harry knocked again. Still no answer.

"Maybe we should come back later on?" Tilly said.

"What if Snape had left our stuff in there?" Harry said, and Tilly gave him a look. "It's worth a try."

"Okay, but let's just peek first," Tilly whispered.

Harry opened the door wide enough for the both of them to peer in. Out of all the things Tilly expected to see, the scene before her was definitely not one of them.

Snape was sitting in one of the chairs with a mangled leg, and Finch was standing next to him, holding out bandages.

"Blasted thing," Snape was saying. "How are you supposed to keep your eyes on all three heads at once?"

Tilly started trying to pull Harry away from the door.

"POTTER!"

Snape's face was twisted with fury as he dropped his robes quickly to hide his leg. Harry gulped, and Tilly felt her blood go cold.

"I just wondered if I could have my book back." Tilly started pulling Harry even harder after he said that.

"GET OUT! OUT!"

Harry and Tilly ran down the hall like their lives depended on it. By the time they stopped, Tilly felt like her heart was going to explode out of her chest.

What was she thinking?! She was on thin ice with Snape as it is, after the troll! All the confidence she was feeling that morning was suddenly gone.

"Soooo, how'd it go?" Diana asked when they found her.

Harry started telling Diana what had just happened, while Tilly was still trying to catch her breath.

"You know what this means?" he finished breathlessly. "He tried to get past that three-headed dog at Halloween!

"That's where he was going when we saw him, he's after whatever it's guarding!" Diana said.

And I'd bet my broomstick he let that troll in, to make a diversion!" Harry finished.

Tilly gasped at Harry's acquisition.

"No, there's no way," Tilly said. "Snape may be an absolutely terrible teacher, but he's not dumb enough to try and steal something from Dumbledore.

"Have you met Snape. He's crazy! Of course, he would try something like this." Diana said. "The real question is what could that dog be guarding that would make Snape want it so badly.

Tilly couldn't stop thinking about the conversation all night. The more she thought about it, the more it started to make sense in her head. It wouldn't explain why he seemed to hate his job. Maybe he only took the job, so that he could case the school without raising too much supposition.

The next morning brought another chilly day. The Great Hall was buzzing with excitement for the upcoming Quidditch match.

Harry, on the other hand, looked ill.

"Come on, Harry, you gotta eat something."

"I don't feel like it."

"Just one piece of toast?"

"I'm not hungry."

"Why do you care anyway?" A boy in the same year as Harry spoke up (Seamus Finnigan, wasn't it). "Shouldn't you be more worried about the Slytherin team."

"To be honest, I don't really care about Quidditch," Tilly smiled and looked over to Harry. "Only coming to the match to support my friend."

Seamus had a look on his face like he only now realised that some people weren't interested in Quidditch.

The energy coming off the students in the stands was nothing compared to buzzing in the Great Hall. Once the match started, Tilly had a hard time following what was going on. At some point, she just started clapping whenever Diana began to cheer.

"Budge up there, move along."

"Hello there, Hagrid!" Tilly yelled so Hagrid could hear her over the cheers.

Tilly and Diana squished together so that Hagrid had enough space to join them.

"Bin watchin' from me hut," said Hagrid, patting a large pair of binoculars around his neck, "But it isn't the same as bein' in the crowd. No sign of the Snitch yet, eh?"

"Nope," said Diana while looking around the field. "Harry hasn't had much to do yet."

The game went on for a while. Tilly had a bit of a scare when Marcus Flint slammed into Harry, causing

him to spin off course. He was able to get it under control relatively quickly.

About twenty minutes into the match, Harry's broom started whipping around uncontrollably. Tilly knew next to nothing about what was going on, but even she could tell that something was going horribly wrong.

"Did something happen to it when Flint blocked him?" Seamus asked.

"Can't have," Hagrid said, his voice shaking. "Can't nothing interfere with a broomstick except powerful Dark magic, no kid could do that to a Nimbus Two Thousand."

Tilly didn't really care about what kind of magic was doing it. She just wanted to stop so that Harry wouldn't die. She jumped up and grabbed Hagrid's binoculars, but instead of looking up at Harry, she started checking the other stands.

Diana seemed to be thinking similarly.

"One of the adults in the stands must be doing it."

"It's Snape." Tilly passed the binoculars to Diana.

"He must be muttering some kind of jinx!" Diana yelled. She turned back to Tilly, who was making her way over to the stairs.

Tilly sprinted over to the stands where Snape was. This was probably the fastest she'd ever run in her life. Her mind was focused on stopping Snape. She didn't even notice that she stepped on Professor Quirrell's foot along the way.

She ducked down behind the bleachers and pulled out her wand. Using the same spell from the day before, she lit Snape's robes on fire. When seeing him jump out of his seat, Tilly swept the flames into her trusty jam jar.

Tilly ran a fair distance away before looking back to the field. Harry was on the ground with a sick look on his face. A few seconds later, he coughed up a golden ball and caught it in his hands.

"I've got the Snitch!" he shouted, waving it above his head. Tilly couldn't help but laugh at the silliness of the situation.

The sound that followed was almost deafening. Half the crowd was cheering, and the other half didn't want to accept it. The first thing Tilly did when congratulating Harry was giving him a huge hug that rivalled Wynnona's bone-crushing hugs, and awkwardly telling him that she's glad he didn't die.

The three of them later joined Hagrid for afternoon tea.

"It was Snape," Diana was explaining, "Tilly and I saw him. He was cursing your broomstick, muttering, he wouldn't take his eyes off you."

"Rubbish," said Hagrid, who hadn't heard a word of what had gone on next to him in the stands.

"Why would Snape do somethin' like that?"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at one another, wondering what to tell him. Harry spoke up first.

"I found out something about him," he told Hagrid. "He tried to get past that three-headed dog on Halloween. It bit him. We think he was trying to steal whatever it's guarding."

Hagrid dropped the teapot. "How do you know about Fluffy?" he said.

"I'm sorry, what did you just say?" Diana said with an incredulous look on her face,

"Fluffy, he's mine, bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las' year, I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the - "

"Yes?" The three of them said eagerly.

"Now, don't ask me anymore," said Hagrid. "That's top-secret, that is."

"But Snape's trying to steal it!"

"Rubbish," repeated Hagrid. "Snape's a Hogwarts teacher, he'd do nothin' of the sort."

"But what if he's just using that as a cover? Tilly said, "And why would he try and kill Harry?"

"I know a jinx when I see one, Hagrid! You've got to keep eye contact, and Snape wasn't blinking at all, I saw him!" Diana yelled.

"I'm tellin' yeh, yer wrong!" said Hagrid.

"I don' know why Harry's broom acted like that, but Snape wouldn' try an' kill a student! Now, listen to me, all three of yeh, yer meddlin' in things that don' concern yeh. It's dangerous. You forget that dog, an' you forget what it's guardin', that's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicolas Flamel - "

"Aha!" said Harry, "So there's someone called Nicolas Flamel involved, is there?" Hagrid looked furious with himself.

Hagrid pushed them out of the hunt. Muttering about how he shouldn't have said anything.