Dusk had settled upon the substantial mountains surrounding the school. The last of the sun that peaked over them was just enough to leave a trail of light beams throughout the empty Gryffindor common room. Since it was Monday afternoon, most of the students were either at the library or turning into their rooms early. The serene warmth and calmness that filled the space ended abruptly as three boys stomped into the room.
"That was brilliant!" Fred concluded.
"Did you see his face when he ran out?!" Seamus agreed.
George smirked at their perfectly engineered plan. It involved no magic at all which was all the more powerful. All they did was place bubotuber plant swellings underneath the toilet seats.
It just so happened that right after they finished, Malfoy walked into the bathroom. Although the three boys were deftly placed underneath Harry's once-again borrowed invisibility cloak, they just barely held in their laughter when it happened. George swore that he could pinpoint the exact moment that Malfoy had taken a seat and the pus had squirted all over the back of his legs. Watching the prince of Slytherin run from the bathroom with his pants halfway up was indeed very satisfying.
The boys threw themselves upon the bigger armchairs in the room. They spent the rest of the evening enjoying exploding bonbons and exchanging ideas for more pranks. If anyone entered or exited the common room, the boys hadn't noticed.
"Hey what if we took Filch's cat and spelled him pink?" Seamus suggested.
Fred looked on in shock, "You must be suicidal!" he paused. "I like it!"
George rolled his eyes and turned his head towards the window as the two continued plotting out the details. After a time Seamus got up. It was time for him to meet with Dumbledore.
"What are you going to tell him?" George wondered.
"I'm gonna say that I overheard you guys bragging about the prank on Malfoy- sorry if you get into trouble for that by the way," Seamus acknowledged, "but I really need to give him some information otherwise he'll get suspicious."
The twins nodded. It wasn't likely that Dumbledore was going to punish them anyways. It was almost as if the man encouraged this sort of behavior. If only their mother knew. George shuddered at the thought.
The twins settled down to wait until Seamus returned. Not two seconds after the boys let their bodies relax did the portrait hole slam open.
"OUCH! Watch yourself young man!" the fat lady screamed.
The twins turned their heads towards the perpetrator. It was Harry. He walked in and glanced around, disoriented. When his eyes landed on the twins they shone in relief.
"Blimey Harry, what's wrong?" Fred asked.
Hesitantly, Harry took a seat across from the older boys. He looked down at his knees and clenched his fists as if willing himself to speak.
"I-I.. umm," Harry started. The twins leaned forward in their chairs. "I need to tell you something."
The twins waited patiently while Harry gathered his thoughts. George wondered what on Earth could have the younger boy so tongue tied. He figured that he just finished detention with Snape, so it probably wasn't anything good.
"Okay," said Harry with an air of finality. "I'm going to tell you something but you have to swear to keep it to yourselves." He glanced at each one of them in turn while they nodded their heads. Jerking his head once in acceptance he began. "In the summer before school started, Hagrid took me to Gringotts. After we got stuff out of my vault, Hagrid said that we needed to stop at another one. I couldn't quite see what was inside, but when Hagrid came out of the vault he was holding a pretty small bag. He told me that the item was top secret and Dumbledore had asked him to fetch it for him. I didn't think anything of it until one day at breakfast, The Daily Prophet said someone tried to break into the vault that Hagrid and I went to. I knew then that whatever was in that little package was something that needed to be protected by Dumbledore." Harry paused for a moment to catch his breath. He was obviously hesitating about telling Fred and George the next bit.
"What is it Harry?" George prompted. "You can tell us anything."
Harry smiled almost ruefully and continued, "A few months ago, Ron and I went to the trophy room after curfew to duel Malfoy." Although he earned a couple of glares at that, he went on. "Malfoy didn't show up, but instead tipped off Filch to where we were going to be. Ron and I ran from the room once we heard Filch approaching. We still didn't know our way around the castle very well, and we ended up in the third floor corridor."
Fred and George gasped at this. They desperately wanted to know what could possibly be there, but everytime they tried to take a look, one of the teachers would appear out of nowhere and scold them for trying.
Harry could tell that the twins had stilled considerably and was appreciative that they were taking him seriously. It was nice to share this information with someone other than Ron and Hermione.
"Filch was still following us, so we ran into the door nearest to us. We thought we were in the clear until we heard this dreadful noise behind us. I turned around and nearly wet myself because right in front of us was this massive three headed dog!" Harry explained.
The twins shared looks of shock. There was a cerberus in the castle?! They would have never guessed that!
Harry continued, "We obviously ran the hell out of there. Luckily Filch had left by then, but I would have preferred him over that dog anyday…. Anyways, when we got back to the common room I realized that the dog was standing on a trap door- don't ask me how I noticed that in all the commotion. But I realized that the dog must be guarding something. Then I remembered the package that Hagrid brought to Dumbledore, and I realized that's what the dog must be guarding."
George thought that the conclusion Harry made was a valid assumption. However, Fred seemed unconvinced.
"Are you sure about that, Harry?" Fred questioned. "It just seems so unlikely that something so small would need that much guarding."
"Yeah I know," Harry agreed. "But I was hoping that I could get some information out of Hagrid, so one afternoon I visited him. I told him that Snape had tried to curse my broomstick at the quidditch match- Hermione saw him," Harry interjected in explanation at the twins' confused looks. "Hagrid didn't believe me, so I told him that I thought Snape was trying to get past the three headed dog on Halloween after the troll incident because his leg was bloodied up really badly." Harry smirked at the memory of Hagrid spluttering tea all over his table and Fang's confused tilt of the head. "He just looked at me and said 'How do you know 'bout Fluffy?!'"
"That thing has a name?" Fred said.
Harry nodded as if in disbelief also. "I ignored his question and told him that I knew 'Fluffy' was guarding whatever he got out of the vault for Dumbledore. He got all stern and wagged his finger at me saying 'You forget that dog, an' you forget what it's guardin', that's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicolas Flamel!" Harry finished with glee.
The twins started grinning with mischief. Hagrid was clumsy alright, spilling secrets like that to eleven year olds.
"Then what happened? Who's Nicolas Flamel?" George asked.
"Ron, Hermione and I searched through the library for months trying to figure out who he was until finally it just popped into my head! If you look on Dumbledore's chocolate frog card you'll get your answer."
The twins scrambled up to their dormitory with Harry behind them. They rummaged through their haphazardly thrown clothes and finally came upon their individual card collection stack at the bottom of their trunks. As if in a race, the twins started dealing out their cards to find Dumbledore's.
"AHA!" Fred yelled. He had found the card and began reading it hungrily. "Okay… so Flamel worked on alchemy with Dumbledore. So what?" he said in confusion.
"I was confused too, but then Hermione grabbed this ginormous book and read a passage that explained Nicolas Flamel is the only known maker of the Sorcerer's Stone!" Harry concluded.
The twins finally understood. Now it all made sense- why the package was so small, why something as dangerous as a cerberus was guarding it.
"Okay, so let me get this straight," George started. "Fluffy is guarding the Sorcerer's Stone and you think Snape is after it?"
"That's what I wanted to talk to you guys about," Harry said shyly. "Something happened in detention today that made me confused."
Fred and George patted the bed next to them, indicating for Harry to sit down. They all sat in a circle.
"As you already know, I wanted detention with Snape so that I could keep an eye on him. However, now I'm not so sure he's the one I should be keeping an eye on," Harry explained. "Today, when I was in the middle of cleaning cauldrons, someone knocked on the door. Snape went to go answer it, and from what I could gather, Madame Pomfrey had sent Quirrell to get dreamless sleep potion from Snape since she ran out. Snape, obviously, was not pleased and he summoned the potion over and shoved it into Quirrell's hands. It was really faint, but before Snape closed the door I heard him say to Quirrell 'I know what you're doing Quirrell, and you will never get past the cerberus.'"
George was sure that Harry was done surprising him for one night, but this news was just...well. Shocking. He could believe that Snape was the one going after the Stone, but Quirrell? It just didn't add up.
"What should I do?" Harry wondered out loud.
The twins weren't entirely sure either. This was a nasty situation. Someone was obviously after the stone and it was unclear as to who it was.
"Just keep doing what you're doing," Fred suggested. "Let us know if anything else weird happens."
Harry nodded. The room got quiet. They all had things to think about.
The door burst open. "Hey guys, Dumbledore's all good. Doesn't suspect a thing. He's amused at your prank on Malfoy honestly and-" Seamus stopped mid-sentence when he saw them all sitting on the bed. "What's happened?" he asked.
"A lot my friend," the twins answered.
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