Nicholas Flamel

Harry wished he could forget what he'd seen in the mirror as easily, but he couldn't. He started having nightmares.

"And started pulling even more pranks," Ron whispered to him and Harry simply smirked. If there had been a lot more pranks done by Rogue in the few weeks following the Christmas holidays, and if that increase in pranks had matched his loss in sleep due to nightmares, well, that doesn't mean anything. But having an invisibility cloak definitely made it easier to sneak about and set up the pranks when he couldn't sleep.

Over and over again he dreamed about his parents disappearing in a flash of green light, while a high voice cackled with laughter.

A shiver ran through the room as the cackling laughter rang through the hall.

Wood was working the team harder than ever.

The quidditch team all shuddered at the thought.

Even the endless rain that had replaced the snow couldn't dampen his spirits.

"It never did," Katie complained.

The Weasleys complained that Wood was becoming a fanatic, but Harry was on Wood's side.

The rest of the team turned to look at him in shock and betrayal, with Fred and George muttering about how he was definitely Wood Junior. He just shrugged and gestured to the book, assuming that the book would explain.

Quite apart from wanting to win, Harry found that he had fewer nightmares when he was tired out after training.

"Oh," the three chasers breathed.

George Weasley really did fall off his broom at these words.

The hall was filled at laughter at that image, even as George playfully scowled.

"That hurt," George grumbled.

"You weren't even five feet off the ground. And it wasn't like it wasn't a soft landing," Harry said with a cheeky smile.

"Snape'srefereeing?" he spluttered through a mouthful of mud.

"Yes, it was a very soft landing. Soft, wet, and disgusting," George agreed.

Which was all very well, thought Harry, but he had another reason for not wanting Snape near him while he was playing Quidditch...

"Who wants Snape near them at any time?" Alicia shuddered.

You look terrible."

"That's nice," Ginny commented sarcastically.

"You looked about as bad as when we first saw Fluffy," Ron said at Harry's indignant look, deliberately using a reference that everyone else would understand while still being truthful. Harry tilted his head for a moment before nodding.

"Ok, that's fair. At that point, that would have been dreadful," he agreed. How he looked when he first saw Fluffy had been bad, but nowhere near as bad as when they first met Aragog.

"Say you're ill," said Ron.

"I spend enough time in the hospital wing for real injuries, thank you. I don't need to spend more time in there because of a fake illness," Harry said, nudging Hermione playfully.

"Pretend to break your leg," Hermione suggested.

"That's Malfoy's ploy," Ron said.

"Really break your leg," said Ron.

"Seriously Ron?" Bill asked, raising an eyebrow.

"We thought Snape was trying to kill him. Between him injuring himself or potentially being killed, I'd take him alive and injured," Ron defended.

Everyone fell over laughing except Hermione, who leapt up and performed the counter curse.

"Excuse me. Everyone?" Minerva asked, glaring around at her fifth, sixth, and seventh year Gryffindors.

"I don't remember that," Lee said.

"I definitely don't remember that. I would have reported it if I had been there," Percy agreed from where his was sitting with the Minister and Umbridge.

"It wasn't many people Professor. There was only about fifteen people in the common room at the time. Ron and Harry didn't laugh, and neither did Hermione. Everyone else that was there already graduated, and none of them like me because I was 'the squib'," Neville explained. Minerva hissed wordlessly.

"They are meant to be your family. Regardless of whether they like you or not, someone should have reported it, or at the very least helped you." The trio and Neville exchanged looks, all remembering how much of a family the house had been during the later parts of the year, and during other school years.

"Some family," they all muttered.

He said he'd been looking for someone to practice that on."

"Mr Malfoy, I don't ever want to hear about you doing something like that again, otherwise it will be a detention," Minerva said.

"There's no need to tell me I'm not brave enough to be in Gryffindor, Malfoy's already done that," Neville choked out.

"That came out very different from what I meant," Ron said getting a grin from Neville.

"I know."

I toldyou 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 Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel'!"

"It. Was. Right. There," the trio said, accenting each word with a soft thump of their heads against the back of the couch.

"I got this out of the library weeks ago for a bit of light reading."

"Light?" Ginny asked, raising an eyebrow. Hermione blushed.

"It was about this thick," Ron said, holding his hands about half a foot apart.

"That's light?" Hermione's blush darkened and she didn't reply.

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

"And you say I'm pessimistic," Harry said.

"You are," Hermione agreed.

"It just rubbed off on us," Ron said with a shrug.

Harry didn't see how he could—yet he sometimes had the horrible feeling that Snape could read minds.

"I only use it on my Slytherins and that is only surface thoughts. You know that they need closer watching because of their parents and how they were raised. I don't use it on any of the other students," Severus said as the other teachers turned to look at him in concern.

"Don't nag."

"You do that a lot when you're nervous."

Finish the game before Snape can favour Hufflepuff too much."

"Mission accomplished," the twins said, and Harry blushed.

Ron didn't answer; Snape had just awarded Hufflepuff a penalty because George Weasley had hit a Bludger at him.

"George. Don't give him more reasons to favour Hufflepuff," Charlie scolded.

"I was aiming it at one of theirs. They just moved and Snape got in the way," George said.

"He was," Harry agreed, having looked in that direction during his search for the snitch at the same time.

See, there's Potter, who's got no parents, then there's the Weasleys, who've got no money - you should be on the team, Longbottom, you've got no brains."

"Git!"

Hermione stood up, her crossed fingers in her mouth, as Harry streaked toward the ground like a bullet.

"Dives are my specialty."

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

"How are you a seeker if you can't tell the difference between the snitch and a galleon?" Charlie asked and Draco scowled but didn't respond.

The stands erupted; it had to be a record, no one could ever remember the Snitch being caught so quickly.

"How long was it?" Remus asked, curious.

"5 minutes, 27 seconds," Lee said.

"That's impressive," Bill said with a whistle.

"The record when I was at school was over half an hour," Charlie said.

Snape, sneaking into the forest while everyone else was at dinner—what was going on?

"Curiosity killed the cat," Luna said without looking at Harry.

"But satisfaction brought it back," Harry replied, and Luna nodded.

"Very true."

"... d-don't know why you wanted t-t-to meet here of all p-places, Severus..."

"Creepy place," George said.

"Creepy person," Fred continued.

"Not hard to work it out."

An owl hooted loudly, and Harry nearly fell out of the tree.

"Bloody owl. Missed the most important part," Harry grumbled under his breath. If he had just heard that part, he might have at least suspected Quirrell as well.

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

"That's the end of the chapter," Filius said, and the hall broke out in whispers about what they had just learnt. Harry glanced over to where Snape was sitting and saw that he was scowling fiercely, clearly annoyed about all the suspicion on him.

Hermione glanced down at their list, seeing how many chapters they had left and if they would need a calming draught for the next chapter. She closed her eyes and let out a sigh, before showing the list to her boys, pointing out the chapter title. Ron sighed as well before a small smile appeared on his face and he turned to face his dragon-obsessed brother.

"You'll like the next chapter Charlie," Ron said, smirking.

"Why?" Charlie asked, right before Filius started the next chapter and the chapter title was read out.

Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback

Charlie grinned, before his smile disappeared, remembering his part in what had happened and gulping. He wasn't looking forward to his mum's reaction to his role.