The Philosopher's Stone

Chapter Thirteen

Halloween

Despite his dislike of the situation, Yuery's Dad had been left with no choice but to leave a couple of days before Halloween. He had intended to stay until the end of October, and had changed it to overlap in the beginning of November, when another adult would be arriving, but he had gone home late last night after assuring Yuery he would write every day. Yuery had no idea what happened but he was concerned.

Yuery had been instructed that he could trust McGonagall, Hagrid, and Snape. All three adults had promised to keep him safe while his father was gone. Yuery was nervous about it because he realized just this morning that this was the first time ever, he had been far away from his entire family. He didn't want to seem childish to the other boys in his dorm, after all they had been here without their families for weeks and were fine.

Yuery was distracted briefly by the accidental discovery of what was hidden in the forbidden third floor corridor. Ron and Hermione had been running from the caretaker Fitch, not wanting to be caught out of bounds after hours after Ron had offered to collect her from the library.

Hermione had unlocked the door with a spell, and they had run inside, where they had been confronted with the terrifying sight of a three headed dog. The dog noticed them right away with a terrifying growl. They, of course ran straight back to their dorm. Once they had returned, Ron was quick to tell the other boys in detail what they had found, . "Why would they have one inside the school anyway? I didn't even know you could still own one."

"It was guarding something." Yuery said distractedly as he changed into his pajamas. "It stands to reason, with the corridor being out of bounds this year, but not before and a giant chimera placed in it that they are protecting something."

"How'd you even come to that?" Ron grumbled as they both went to their beds. "What could they possibly need to protect that was worth risking having a Cerberus in a school."

"I notice things. It's how I was taught." Yuery said with a shrug. "Goodnight Ron. Try not to worry about it, or you will keep digging and get into trouble."

The next day and the day after found Ron and Hermione snipping at each other often. Yuery, in return, was avoiding them both mostly and spent more time with Neville and Draco. Draco, unlike some of the other students, understood that Yuery was feeling homesick now that his Dad had left. Ron seemed to catch on the second day as well, and his friends all began talking about the holiday again to distract him.

Ron seemed ready to make up for the last couple of days as he assured Yuery that Halloween would be a great distraction. Yuery had never heard of the holiday and was interested in the decorations that had popped up all over the castle. Hermione had gone on to explain various traditions she knew about the holiday depending on location.

"We do not have this holiday. It should be interesting." Yuery agreed as they made their way to charms class.

Class itself was interesting in Yuery's opinion. They were learning how to levitate items. It was not going well once they began trying for themselves. Hermione had been partnered with Ron for the lesson and was correcting his pronunciation as her own feather floated through the air and Ron's stubbornly refused to budge. Yuery returned his attention to his own feather as Seamus' somehow caught on fire.

After class, Ron was still in a foul mood, one of the few who had not managed to cast the spell at all. "It's no wonder she hasn't any friends she's such a know it all." He said to Seamus and Dean, Seamus still looking down after his failure.

Yuery overheard the other boy and rushed to catch up with Ron to say. "I don't know what's gotten into you, but you need to apologize." Hermione pushed passed both Ron and Yuery. Yuery called after her, but she rushed away. "Why would you say something like that?" Yuery demanded.

"Like she doesn't already know it." Ron dismissed, though he did look a bit guilty.

"That isn't remotely true Ron. I'm her friend, and Neville, Parvati, Draco and Lavender, just off the top of my head." Yuery said as he turned away. "You need to find her and apologize."

"I don't see why I should apologize for telling the truth." Ron grumbled as Yuery walked away in search of his friend.

He searched for Hermione most of the afternoon but couldn't find her. Eventually he decided to go to dinner in hopes that she had arrived. As he entered the room, he remembered that tonight was a holiday feast and felt even worse when she was nowhere to be seen.

He sat down between Neville and Lavender, still upset with Ron, and asked the others if they had seen Hermione. "She's in the girls' bathroom crying. She's been in there all afternoon and won't come out." Lavender said before turning her attention to Parvati. Yuery glared at Ron across the table who did look shamed.

"What happened anyway?" Neville asked quietly.

"Ask Ron." Yuery said with a frown as Dumbledore stood to give a speech.

Suddenly, the doors to the hall slammed open and Professor Quirrell came stumbling inside wild eyed and shaken as he rushed down the aisle. He reached Dumbledore and screamed loudly "There's a troll in the dungeon." Before he seemed to faint.

Immediately the students began to panic. Several stood while others screamed and more rushed about trying to escape the room. Dumbledore yelled for quiet before instructing everyone to calmly follow their Prefects back to their dorms.

As everyone filed out calmly, Yuery grabbed Ron. "Hermione is still in the bathroom. She won't know."

"Okay fine." Ron agreed as they slipped out of line, he had been feeling guilty over how he had acted earlier even before this. One look back at the head table revealed the adults had all already left the room.

The two boys quietly made their way down the halls in search of an adult, not wanting to get too far from safety, but worried about the girl. The doors to the castle opened as they debated what to do, Ling Yao and four of his guards entered.

"Emperor!" Yuery yelled relieved. "You have to help. There's a troll in the castle and we are all meant to return to our dorms but one of the girls was in the bathroom and hasn't been warned. We were looking for an adult."

"Who's this?" Ron asked as Ling frowned at the boys. "Show me to the bathroom, then we will get you back to your dorms. Where are the adults around here? Why weren't you with teachers?" Ling demanded even as Yuery began to lead him toward the bathrooms, and Ron trailed behind confused.

"We were meant to follow the prefects. I was only in search of a teacher but you came in . I thought you weren't going to arrive until tomorrow?" Yuery asked as they rushed ahead.

"I decided to leave early, it was apparently a wise choice." Ling said grimly as they heard a growl and a scream coming from behind the door ahead of them causing both boys to freeze.

"That's the girls room." Ron gulped, "That's the troll in the girls bathroom."

"Stay with them." Ling ordered one of his guard as the other three joined him in rushing through the door into the bathroom. Hermione was hiding under the sinks as a tall, horrible smelling creature swung a club at the girl.

Ling pulled his swords as he jumped onto the creatures shoulders and his men surrounded them to act as a distraction. He quickly used the pommel of his sword to hit the troll on the top of the head, knocking it to the ground.

The noise had drawn the attention of the adults, several of whom including McGonagall and Snape rushed into the room wands drawn. The children were quick to attempt to explain what happened, speaking over each other in a way that echoed and was indiscernible.

"Enough. What happened." McGonagall demanded as Snape glared at them all and Quirrell frowned next to him.

"That is exactly what I would like to know. I arrived to find these two worried for the girl and in search of an adult. Had I not arrived when I did this girl would have been killed by this creature, so I would very much like to discuss the security protocols of this castle." Ling said calmly.

"Who are you and how did you get in?" Quirrell asked as he entered the room.

" Ling Yao, Emperor of Xing, and invited guest of the Ministry of Magic. I presume you are one of the teachers?" Ling said with a frown.

"Come children, I will walk you to your dorm." Snape said as he beckoned them to him, Hermione and Yuery going straight to his side and Ron trailing reluctantly behind them. McGonagall thanked Snape for his assistance, then Ling for protecting her students.

Yuery had noticed Snape seemed to have been injured however and hoped that the man was alright. Ron hadn't seamed to notice, so Yuery decided to drop the subject in front of the others. Ron was still convinced Snape was up to something or at least he was an enemy of all Gryffindors. Yuery was working on Ron's prejudices though he was too tired to worry about it tonight.

The next day, Hagrid invited Ron and Yuery down to his cottage again this time inviting Hermione as well. Yuery assumed, correctly, that Hagrid would want to lecture them on their reckless behavior the night before. After all, they had disregarded the order to return to their dorm to try to find an adult. "Snape got hurt last night too. I bet he was trying to sneak past that three headed dog." Ron said, trying to distract Hagrid from his lecture.

"How do you know about Fluffy?" Hagrid demanded.

"It has a name?!" Ron demanded.

"Of course, he does, I lent him to Dumbledore to help protect- never mind." Hagrid said, cutting himself off.

"Yuery already said it must be guarding something, ages ago." Ron dismissed. "Clearly Snape was trying to get passed it though."

"I don't think so Ron." Yuery frowned. "You really need to stop worrying about him."

"Professor Snape is one of our teachers, he wouldn't steal from the school." Hermione added.

"What's going on is between Dumbledore and Flamel, you need to drop it." Hagrid added.

"Flamel?" Ron asked, "Who's that?"

"Forget I said that." Hagrid muttered. "You aren't meant to know that."

As the children made their way back up to the school, Hermione had a thoughtful frown on her face as Ron tried to remember where he had heard the name Flamel before. Yuery pretended to be as confused as the others as they made plans to seek out the name while he planned to slip away long enough to write home. His Dad needed to know about this.

The only Flamel he knew of was Nicolas Flamel and his wife Pernille. Both had been bad news from what he remembered…and more importantly, Flamel had been his Dad's birth father. Not something he wanted to bring up with anyone else, but if it was the same Flamel, this might have something to do with the war that had happened a few years before.

Yuery decided to talk to Snape about the situation as well, but he also had to deal with Ron's suspicions of the Professor. Yuery couldn't exactly say he trusted the man because he had known him since he was a toddler, could he? So instead, he sided with Hermione, insisting that Snape was trustworthy as a teacher. This did not sit well with Yuery, he didn't trust Quirrell, and he had met teachers that didn't deserve trust in the past.

Divided, Yuery was actually relieved when Snape caught them as they came in and demanded Yuery join him in his office. Ron gave him a wide-eyed look, as if afraid the professor would somehow hurt Yuery while alone. Given the Weasley siblings view on the Professor it was entirely possible he was in fact afraid for Yuery's safety.

Yuery did his best to assure Ron with a smile as Hermione drug Ron away. Snape grabbed Yuery by the shoulder and drug him downstairs roughly, clearly very angry. As soon as the door closed behind them, he released the boy and demanded. "What the hell were you thinking last night?"

"I was thinking that Hermione didn't know about the troll being in the castle, and all the adults disappeared before I could ask for help." Yuery said honestly. "I wanted to find someone to help her."

"So, you decided the best course of action was to stay out in the open endangering yourself as well." Snape frowned as he sank into the chair behind his desk with a hiss of pain.

"Yes, I tried to explain last night, but everyone was talking at once, then McGonagall told us all to go to bed and I was worried to cause more trouble." Yuery admitted before frowning. "Are you alright? I saw you were bleeding last night."

"I'm fine, don't mind it." Snape said. "So, you took it upon yourself to save your friend with no regard for your own safety. You certainly are your father's son, aren't you?"

"I am." Yuery said proudly, knowing full well that Snape was referring to his Dad's tendency to jump into trouble to save others.

"You'll drive us all into an early grave like that." Snape said with a sigh. "Your father tasked me with keeping you safe, and the first thing you do is defy an order!"

"I didn't really think of it that way. We also learned about Fluffy.." Yuery admitted, he had long being honest lessened his father's anger and he knew Dad would hear about all of this soon. "Hagrid said Fluffy is guarding something for Flamel. I'm doing my best to keep anyone from figuring out what it is, but Dad does know about this right?"

"Hagrid can't keep a secret to save his life, thank goodness for vows." Snape muttered. "Yes, your father is aware. Now that you are as well, drop it."

"I will." Yuery agreed.

"If I catch you out of bounds again, I will not hesitate to have you expelled Yuery. I will not have you risking your life on foolishness." Snape said as he sent the boy away. He sighed heavily, as he decided to find Ling to talk about how best to protect Yuery.