''Hello Professor Quirrell.'' Harry said, he was waiting on the outskirts of the forest for the Defense against the Dark Arts teachers. Harry was going to ask him if he was alright, it was quite obvious that Snape had been harassing him.
But, something prickled in the back of Harry's mind. He couldn't really put a finger on it, but he could feel a cloud of heavy suspicion settle over him as he floated just a bit closer. The mousy looking professor looked around shiftily and then stuttered, ''Y-y-yes?''
''What are you doing in the forest?'' Harry asked casually.
''U-u-uh, l-looking f-f-for D-defense a-against-t the d-d-dark a-arts s-s-s-specimens.''
Harry looked at Quirrell's empty hands, ''Oh. Can I see?''
''I-I-I di-di-didn't f-f-ind a-a-a-ny.'' Quirrell said shiftily as he looked back into the forest, unaware of Harry's scrutiny.
Quirrells eyes were darting from side to side, like he was hiding something.
Suddenly Harry realized what was going on. Maybe Snape wasn't harassing Quirrell because Quirrell was against him. Maybe Quirrell was a death eater too and wasn't doing his job right. He certainly was a bad actor, Harry noted. Yes, this made much more sense.
''You know'' Harry started and Quirrell turned back around to look at the boy floating on his broom, ''I had a arithmetic teacher back in grammar school who also had a stuttering problems. But you see, when people stutter, it's either because it's an involuntary problem in their speech or if they're afraid of something.''
Quirrell frowned as he shifted his legs and looked to the side.
''My teacher had the... uh speech problem. And you could tell because his speech spasms were involuntary. But a lot of times he would only stutter on the first word and the rest of the sentence came out normally. So, since you don't look like you have a speech problem. I wonder...what are you so afraid of Professor Quirrell?''
''I'm not...a-a-afraid.d.'' Quirrell responded suddenly.
Harry frowned, ''Really? Then why are you stuttering?''
''I-I...''
''I mean, you're surrounded by little kids like me all day and we can't possibly hurt you. So that means something else can. And since Dumbledore has warded most of Hogwarts against danger... It means, you know something...''
''I-I'm n-not a-afraid.''
''Then stop stuttering.''
''w-w-what?!''
Harry flew around Professor Quirrell and quickly changed the subject to throw him off, ''You said you were looking for something for the Defense against the Dark Arts class. What were you looking for? I'm sure the Headmaster can provide it.''
''I-I-It's f-f-fresher h-here.''
''What were you looking for?''
''W-what?''
''You weren't looking for anything were you?'' Harry insinuated, guessing that Quirrell was covering something up.
''N-no! I was!'' Quirrell answered, slightly panicked. Harry caught the non-stuttering part of the speech.
''Then what was it?'' Harry asked calmly, pushing a just a bit harder...
''Mind your own business insolent brat!'' Quirrell suddenly yelled.
Harry floated a bit higher and away from Quirrell, his brow was raised in a skeptical manner, ''Where's you're stutter professor?''
Quirrell's eyes flashed in a dangerous sort of way and Harry could have sworn he saw a tint of red in his irises.
Not wanting to find out what Quirrell would do if he stuck around too long. Harry turned around on his broom and headed back to the castle as fast as he could.
~~~
That night, Harry sat quietly in the chairs furthest from the celebrating party of Slytherins.
He wondered if he had pushed Quirrell too hard and what the man was actually hiding. No, it was the thought of 'what' he was hiding that made Harry uneasy.
While Harry was in a hurry to fly away from Quirrell he heard something, a soft raspy hissing sound, but he was so nervous that he didn't exactly register what that sound was.
And now that he had time to reflect and mouthed the sounds in his mouth, he realized that that rasping sound had said, ''Kill the boy.''
Harry wiped his sweaty palms on his robes. On Monday they had DADA... if Quirrell followed through with whatever that 'voice' said...
Of course it didn't make sense that he would attack Harry in the middle of the DADA class, but then DADA was a pretty dangerous course, with dangerous animals. Quirrell could always make it look like an accident...
Harry wasn't willing to take that chance. He mentally scolded himself. 'I'm Slytherin for Merlin's sake, so start thinking like one!'
~~~
''Look, it's not that hard to make a teacher's life a living hell.'' Harry whispered to Draco on the way to DADA. That night, Harry had started to spread rumors that Quirrell was a spy sent by the Aurors to kill the exonerated Death Eaters. And as Harry expected, it had created quite a riot against Professor Quirrell. Harry knew that if they found out that he was lying, he'd be hanged for this. But he was careful... and he chose his words well, because by the end, everyone was willing to pitch in to harass Quirrell.
''I only brought dung bombs.'' Draco whispered to Harry.
''Glue them under his chair and set it off when he sits down. You know how he doesn't come in until five minutes after the bell.''
''Hey you two, so whatcha planning?'' Pansy asked as she poked her head between them. Draco smirked and told her.
Pansy had a wicked look on her face, ''Heard from the Hufflepuffs that today's topic is Tomathor lizards, real sharp teeth and a penchant for eating mice. They said he's got two and but he fed only one of them during class, so he hasn't fed the other one yet. Millicent and I are going to sneak dead mice into his pockets.''
Millicent passed by and waved at them and then shared an evil look with Pansy.
As the Slytherins sat down, they each traded conspiring glances, all of them having their own prank to make Professor Quirrell's life a living hell.
The Ravenclaws were all too busy trying to read the information on the syllabus that day to notice that the Slytherins were unusually quiet.
Soon the bell ran, a few last straggling students came in. And just on the clock, five minutes after the bell ran Professor Quirrell came in.
Harry heard Pansy whisper behind him. ''Show time.''
First, Professor Quirrell, came in and nothing seemed amiss as he explained today's creature that they would look at was a Tomathor lizard. He wrote the name on the board and asked for information on the lizard. As usual, the Ravenclaws answered.
Professor Quirrell nodded and headed to his seat to write down the added points to Ravenclaw. As he sat down, it set off the dung bombs.
Professor Quirrell jumped, ''W-what ...?''
''Aw man! Professor! Did you have beans for lunch?'' Crabbe said as loudly as possible and theatrically pretended that the smell was making him sick. The Slytherins around him were also making loud whines and gagging sounds.
''I-I...I'' The Professor stuttered. ''But I didn't have...''
But this attempt to say anything was covered by the Slytherin's loud moans of pain at having to smell the concentrated dung bombs.
Eventually Professor Quirrell finally gathered his bearings and cast a charm to get rid of the smell. But the humiliation on his face was very evident. He quickly muttered something about the lizard and then headed out of the room to retrieve it.
During this time Harry and Draco quickly turned around and whispered to Pansy and Millicent, ''So when?''
''He likes to put the creature at the front of the room and lecture about it for a little bit before he takes it out. We'll put it in his pockets as he's talking.'' Pansy whispered.
Professor Quirrell came in with the Tomathor lizard and just as Harry had imagined it, it looked really, really vicious. It was striped black, red and orange, with a bunch of spikes around it's triangular head. It was tiny but very formidable with its sharp teeth that were so long that some of them were sticking outside of its jaw.
The DADA professor placed the cage on the desk in front of the class and started to walk up and down the isles talking about the creature's background and its potion uses. As he passed by Millicent, she snuck a dead mouse into his left pocket and as he passed by Pansy, she snuck one into this right. Then Professor Quirrell finally finished his speech and went back up to the front of the class and went to open the lizard's cage. At first, the lizard looked like it was sleeping, but Harry had seen it peeking it's eyes out earlier, the little bugger was really tricky.
Then when Professor Quirrell pulled it away from its cage a certain distance, the creature attacked. First it bit at the Professor's hand, and then it jumped at his chest, but not before creating a huge scar across his face as it's spiky head passed by. Then it started to tear at his robes viciously. The Professor started to scream as the lizard bit beyond where the mouse was and started to rip at his legs and clothes. When it finally found the mouse, took it into his mouth and swallowed it in one gulp, but it was still hungry and it still smelled the mouse in his other pocket. It started to go inside of Professor Qurriell's robes to get to the other mouse when the professor finally got a hold of the lizard and tried to pull it away from him.
Consequently he had his arms scratched up and hit face bitten several times before he finally put the lizard back in and locked the cage. He was a bloody mess and panting erratically. He finally moved away from the cage and jerkily walked over to the sink to clean off the blood, but once the water hit entire forearm he let out a shriek of pain and dashed away from the sink.
Pansy subtly turned her head and looked at Harry. Harry mouthed at her, ''salt water.''
Then as the Professor tried to leave the classroom, a huge bucket of sludge dropped on him.
Draco leaned forward and whispered, ''Courtesy of Crabbe and Goyle, 'old school' but still very effective.''
Then finally Nott added the finishing touch by sending a small zap at the Tomathor lizard's cage and unlocking it. The creature that had been butting at the door suddenly came free and then made a mad dash towards the injured and sludge covered Professor.
There were screams and cries of help echoing up and down the halls for the next fifteen minutes until Professor Vector and Filch found him.
~~~
Throughout the day, the Slytherins had to slip into the bathrooms or corners to keep themselves from choking to death from laughing every time they heard someone start with, ''Did you hear what happened to Professor Quirrell?''
By the end of the day, the Slytherins found themselves congregated in the common room letting out the laughs and guffaws they had to hold in all day. Draco was laughing so hard that that he was rolling on the couch. Harry had to take off his glasses since he couldn't stop tearing up from laughing. Pansy and Millicent's faces were red from lack of oxygen.
It wasn't until Professor Snape came in that they all suddenly stopped.
''I should have known you all were responsible for this.'' He started with a growled. The groups quickly tried to regain their composure, bit it was difficult since a few giggles would rise to the surface.
When everyone finally quieted down, Snape started again, ''Do you know the extent of the damage you have done to Professor Quirrell?''
''Did he get his bits eaten?'' Crabbe suddenly said in a bout of stupidity. But it caused the group to go into hysterics again.
It took another five minutes for them calm down before Snape resumed, ''No, but he is badly injured and you have wasted the Hogwarts staffs' time trying to catch that stupid Tomathor lizard, if I ever find you pulling this sort of prank again. The lot of you will be expelled! I ought –''
''Severus.'' A wizened voice announced behind the potions master. Snape and the Slytherins turned and found that Headmaster Dumbledore had flooed in. The Headmaster quickly walked over to Professor Snape and whispered something in his ear. Snape suddenly stopped looking pissed off and in fact his face was contorted in surprise, ''You're sure?''
''Positive.'' Albus replied with severe seriousness in his tone. And then he went back through the floo just as quickly as he came in.
Snape turned to the Slytherins and said with a final glare, ''You get off this time, but don't do it again.''
With that he swept around and followed Dumbledore to the floo. The group caught them calling, ''Hospital Wing.'' before disappearing into the fire.
Draco let out a relieved breath, ''You know, I think for once, I'm thankful that Dumbledore is the Headmaster.''
''Yeah, we didn't even get punished,'' Nott commented.
''Hey!'' Pansy suddenly said, ''What if Harry is right and Quirrell really is a spy of some sort. The Headmaster certainly looked like someone had dumped lime juice in his tea.''
The group murmured that it made sense.
''But why would the Headmaster try to catch a spy that's against the Death Eaters?'' Nott asked.
''Maybe he was trying to hurt us. It's the school's obligation to protect us, after all. You've heard of those corrupt Aurors haven't you?'' Millicent said.
''Well, better him than us right?'' Draco said smugly.
''I say we celebrate.'' Harry said with a grin. The reason for his good mood wasn't exactly the same as the Slytherins, but they didn't need to know that.
''Come on Draco, we're going to sneak some butterbeer from the kitchen. Be back in a bit.''
The group cheered and the two headed off to gather some party treats.
~~~
For the rest of the year, DADA classes were cancelled, it was rumored that Quirrell was sent to Azkaban, and the third floor was suddenly opened once more.
When Geoffery heard the news, he was certainly surprised.
Later that evening, him and the three other Gryffindor boys went onto the third floor and went into the room that was supposed to have the three headed giant dog.
Only that, there was no three headed giant dog and there was no trap door. Geoffery pointed at the spot where the door was in confusion, ''But I could have sworn it was there!''
The Gryffindors rolled their eyes and muttered that Geofferey was a few bricks short of a house. After a while, they eventually left him in the room trying to find any cracks in the floor where a door should have been.
~~~
End of Year 1
~~~
A/N: Don't worry, I already have a portion of year 2 written out, and I'll update as often as I can. ^_^ thank you to everyone who responded.
But, something prickled in the back of Harry's mind. He couldn't really put a finger on it, but he could feel a cloud of heavy suspicion settle over him as he floated just a bit closer. The mousy looking professor looked around shiftily and then stuttered, ''Y-y-yes?''
''What are you doing in the forest?'' Harry asked casually.
''U-u-uh, l-looking f-f-for D-defense a-against-t the d-d-dark a-arts s-s-s-specimens.''
Harry looked at Quirrell's empty hands, ''Oh. Can I see?''
''I-I-I di-di-didn't f-f-ind a-a-a-ny.'' Quirrell said shiftily as he looked back into the forest, unaware of Harry's scrutiny.
Quirrells eyes were darting from side to side, like he was hiding something.
Suddenly Harry realized what was going on. Maybe Snape wasn't harassing Quirrell because Quirrell was against him. Maybe Quirrell was a death eater too and wasn't doing his job right. He certainly was a bad actor, Harry noted. Yes, this made much more sense.
''You know'' Harry started and Quirrell turned back around to look at the boy floating on his broom, ''I had a arithmetic teacher back in grammar school who also had a stuttering problems. But you see, when people stutter, it's either because it's an involuntary problem in their speech or if they're afraid of something.''
Quirrell frowned as he shifted his legs and looked to the side.
''My teacher had the... uh speech problem. And you could tell because his speech spasms were involuntary. But a lot of times he would only stutter on the first word and the rest of the sentence came out normally. So, since you don't look like you have a speech problem. I wonder...what are you so afraid of Professor Quirrell?''
''I'm not...a-a-afraid.d.'' Quirrell responded suddenly.
Harry frowned, ''Really? Then why are you stuttering?''
''I-I...''
''I mean, you're surrounded by little kids like me all day and we can't possibly hurt you. So that means something else can. And since Dumbledore has warded most of Hogwarts against danger... It means, you know something...''
''I-I'm n-not a-afraid.''
''Then stop stuttering.''
''w-w-what?!''
Harry flew around Professor Quirrell and quickly changed the subject to throw him off, ''You said you were looking for something for the Defense against the Dark Arts class. What were you looking for? I'm sure the Headmaster can provide it.''
''I-I-It's f-f-fresher h-here.''
''What were you looking for?''
''W-what?''
''You weren't looking for anything were you?'' Harry insinuated, guessing that Quirrell was covering something up.
''N-no! I was!'' Quirrell answered, slightly panicked. Harry caught the non-stuttering part of the speech.
''Then what was it?'' Harry asked calmly, pushing a just a bit harder...
''Mind your own business insolent brat!'' Quirrell suddenly yelled.
Harry floated a bit higher and away from Quirrell, his brow was raised in a skeptical manner, ''Where's you're stutter professor?''
Quirrell's eyes flashed in a dangerous sort of way and Harry could have sworn he saw a tint of red in his irises.
Not wanting to find out what Quirrell would do if he stuck around too long. Harry turned around on his broom and headed back to the castle as fast as he could.
~~~
That night, Harry sat quietly in the chairs furthest from the celebrating party of Slytherins.
He wondered if he had pushed Quirrell too hard and what the man was actually hiding. No, it was the thought of 'what' he was hiding that made Harry uneasy.
While Harry was in a hurry to fly away from Quirrell he heard something, a soft raspy hissing sound, but he was so nervous that he didn't exactly register what that sound was.
And now that he had time to reflect and mouthed the sounds in his mouth, he realized that that rasping sound had said, ''Kill the boy.''
Harry wiped his sweaty palms on his robes. On Monday they had DADA... if Quirrell followed through with whatever that 'voice' said...
Of course it didn't make sense that he would attack Harry in the middle of the DADA class, but then DADA was a pretty dangerous course, with dangerous animals. Quirrell could always make it look like an accident...
Harry wasn't willing to take that chance. He mentally scolded himself. 'I'm Slytherin for Merlin's sake, so start thinking like one!'
~~~
''Look, it's not that hard to make a teacher's life a living hell.'' Harry whispered to Draco on the way to DADA. That night, Harry had started to spread rumors that Quirrell was a spy sent by the Aurors to kill the exonerated Death Eaters. And as Harry expected, it had created quite a riot against Professor Quirrell. Harry knew that if they found out that he was lying, he'd be hanged for this. But he was careful... and he chose his words well, because by the end, everyone was willing to pitch in to harass Quirrell.
''I only brought dung bombs.'' Draco whispered to Harry.
''Glue them under his chair and set it off when he sits down. You know how he doesn't come in until five minutes after the bell.''
''Hey you two, so whatcha planning?'' Pansy asked as she poked her head between them. Draco smirked and told her.
Pansy had a wicked look on her face, ''Heard from the Hufflepuffs that today's topic is Tomathor lizards, real sharp teeth and a penchant for eating mice. They said he's got two and but he fed only one of them during class, so he hasn't fed the other one yet. Millicent and I are going to sneak dead mice into his pockets.''
Millicent passed by and waved at them and then shared an evil look with Pansy.
As the Slytherins sat down, they each traded conspiring glances, all of them having their own prank to make Professor Quirrell's life a living hell.
The Ravenclaws were all too busy trying to read the information on the syllabus that day to notice that the Slytherins were unusually quiet.
Soon the bell ran, a few last straggling students came in. And just on the clock, five minutes after the bell ran Professor Quirrell came in.
Harry heard Pansy whisper behind him. ''Show time.''
First, Professor Quirrell, came in and nothing seemed amiss as he explained today's creature that they would look at was a Tomathor lizard. He wrote the name on the board and asked for information on the lizard. As usual, the Ravenclaws answered.
Professor Quirrell nodded and headed to his seat to write down the added points to Ravenclaw. As he sat down, it set off the dung bombs.
Professor Quirrell jumped, ''W-what ...?''
''Aw man! Professor! Did you have beans for lunch?'' Crabbe said as loudly as possible and theatrically pretended that the smell was making him sick. The Slytherins around him were also making loud whines and gagging sounds.
''I-I...I'' The Professor stuttered. ''But I didn't have...''
But this attempt to say anything was covered by the Slytherin's loud moans of pain at having to smell the concentrated dung bombs.
Eventually Professor Quirrell finally gathered his bearings and cast a charm to get rid of the smell. But the humiliation on his face was very evident. He quickly muttered something about the lizard and then headed out of the room to retrieve it.
During this time Harry and Draco quickly turned around and whispered to Pansy and Millicent, ''So when?''
''He likes to put the creature at the front of the room and lecture about it for a little bit before he takes it out. We'll put it in his pockets as he's talking.'' Pansy whispered.
Professor Quirrell came in with the Tomathor lizard and just as Harry had imagined it, it looked really, really vicious. It was striped black, red and orange, with a bunch of spikes around it's triangular head. It was tiny but very formidable with its sharp teeth that were so long that some of them were sticking outside of its jaw.
The DADA professor placed the cage on the desk in front of the class and started to walk up and down the isles talking about the creature's background and its potion uses. As he passed by Millicent, she snuck a dead mouse into his left pocket and as he passed by Pansy, she snuck one into this right. Then Professor Quirrell finally finished his speech and went back up to the front of the class and went to open the lizard's cage. At first, the lizard looked like it was sleeping, but Harry had seen it peeking it's eyes out earlier, the little bugger was really tricky.
Then when Professor Quirrell pulled it away from its cage a certain distance, the creature attacked. First it bit at the Professor's hand, and then it jumped at his chest, but not before creating a huge scar across his face as it's spiky head passed by. Then it started to tear at his robes viciously. The Professor started to scream as the lizard bit beyond where the mouse was and started to rip at his legs and clothes. When it finally found the mouse, took it into his mouth and swallowed it in one gulp, but it was still hungry and it still smelled the mouse in his other pocket. It started to go inside of Professor Qurriell's robes to get to the other mouse when the professor finally got a hold of the lizard and tried to pull it away from him.
Consequently he had his arms scratched up and hit face bitten several times before he finally put the lizard back in and locked the cage. He was a bloody mess and panting erratically. He finally moved away from the cage and jerkily walked over to the sink to clean off the blood, but once the water hit entire forearm he let out a shriek of pain and dashed away from the sink.
Pansy subtly turned her head and looked at Harry. Harry mouthed at her, ''salt water.''
Then as the Professor tried to leave the classroom, a huge bucket of sludge dropped on him.
Draco leaned forward and whispered, ''Courtesy of Crabbe and Goyle, 'old school' but still very effective.''
Then finally Nott added the finishing touch by sending a small zap at the Tomathor lizard's cage and unlocking it. The creature that had been butting at the door suddenly came free and then made a mad dash towards the injured and sludge covered Professor.
There were screams and cries of help echoing up and down the halls for the next fifteen minutes until Professor Vector and Filch found him.
~~~
Throughout the day, the Slytherins had to slip into the bathrooms or corners to keep themselves from choking to death from laughing every time they heard someone start with, ''Did you hear what happened to Professor Quirrell?''
By the end of the day, the Slytherins found themselves congregated in the common room letting out the laughs and guffaws they had to hold in all day. Draco was laughing so hard that that he was rolling on the couch. Harry had to take off his glasses since he couldn't stop tearing up from laughing. Pansy and Millicent's faces were red from lack of oxygen.
It wasn't until Professor Snape came in that they all suddenly stopped.
''I should have known you all were responsible for this.'' He started with a growled. The groups quickly tried to regain their composure, bit it was difficult since a few giggles would rise to the surface.
When everyone finally quieted down, Snape started again, ''Do you know the extent of the damage you have done to Professor Quirrell?''
''Did he get his bits eaten?'' Crabbe suddenly said in a bout of stupidity. But it caused the group to go into hysterics again.
It took another five minutes for them calm down before Snape resumed, ''No, but he is badly injured and you have wasted the Hogwarts staffs' time trying to catch that stupid Tomathor lizard, if I ever find you pulling this sort of prank again. The lot of you will be expelled! I ought –''
''Severus.'' A wizened voice announced behind the potions master. Snape and the Slytherins turned and found that Headmaster Dumbledore had flooed in. The Headmaster quickly walked over to Professor Snape and whispered something in his ear. Snape suddenly stopped looking pissed off and in fact his face was contorted in surprise, ''You're sure?''
''Positive.'' Albus replied with severe seriousness in his tone. And then he went back through the floo just as quickly as he came in.
Snape turned to the Slytherins and said with a final glare, ''You get off this time, but don't do it again.''
With that he swept around and followed Dumbledore to the floo. The group caught them calling, ''Hospital Wing.'' before disappearing into the fire.
Draco let out a relieved breath, ''You know, I think for once, I'm thankful that Dumbledore is the Headmaster.''
''Yeah, we didn't even get punished,'' Nott commented.
''Hey!'' Pansy suddenly said, ''What if Harry is right and Quirrell really is a spy of some sort. The Headmaster certainly looked like someone had dumped lime juice in his tea.''
The group murmured that it made sense.
''But why would the Headmaster try to catch a spy that's against the Death Eaters?'' Nott asked.
''Maybe he was trying to hurt us. It's the school's obligation to protect us, after all. You've heard of those corrupt Aurors haven't you?'' Millicent said.
''Well, better him than us right?'' Draco said smugly.
''I say we celebrate.'' Harry said with a grin. The reason for his good mood wasn't exactly the same as the Slytherins, but they didn't need to know that.
''Come on Draco, we're going to sneak some butterbeer from the kitchen. Be back in a bit.''
The group cheered and the two headed off to gather some party treats.
~~~
For the rest of the year, DADA classes were cancelled, it was rumored that Quirrell was sent to Azkaban, and the third floor was suddenly opened once more.
When Geoffery heard the news, he was certainly surprised.
Later that evening, him and the three other Gryffindor boys went onto the third floor and went into the room that was supposed to have the three headed giant dog.
Only that, there was no three headed giant dog and there was no trap door. Geoffery pointed at the spot where the door was in confusion, ''But I could have sworn it was there!''
The Gryffindors rolled their eyes and muttered that Geofferey was a few bricks short of a house. After a while, they eventually left him in the room trying to find any cracks in the floor where a door should have been.
~~~
End of Year 1
~~~
A/N: Don't worry, I already have a portion of year 2 written out, and I'll update as often as I can. ^_^ thank you to everyone who responded.