The Potter Timeline
Chapter 12 - He Who Dares, Wins
Harry bounded down the steps into the Gryffindor common room.
"Harry!" Dean let out with a smile at the sight of the black-haired boy.
"Happy New Year, Harry!" Seamus uttered.
"Hey, Harry!" Neville added.
The three had just arrived and were hauling their suitcases inside.
"Hey, guys! I trust you had a great holiday at home?" Harry asked with a smile.
"Sure did. Missed me mum's cooking somethin' awful and got plenty of it," Seamus uttered.
"Me too, Harry. Check this out!" Dean said while holding up a brand-new West Ham United football jersey.
"Wow! That's nice! How about you, Neville?" he inquired of the boy.
"My holidays were okay. My gran always gives me practical things for Christmas. So I got a new book bag, some quills, three pairs of winter socks, and...yet another Remembrall."
The boys chuckled.
"Did you get a chance to look at the board game we gave you?" Dean asked Harry excitedly.
"Yes, and thanks! It's really cool! When I set the pieces up on my bed, the plastic knights and dragons started battling...on their own!"
The four laughed.
"They're charmed to do that," Seamus threw in, "maybe we can all play it after dinner tonight, for real."
Harry grinned.
"That would be great."
The three friends excused themselves to head up to the dorm room and deposit their things.
Harry sat down in one of the armchairs to warm himself by the fire while keeping an eye on the common room door. Every so often, Gryffindors of all years would enter and either stop to chat with one another about their holidays or head straight to their rooms to unpack.
"Happy New Year, Harry!" Parvati and Padma chimed at the same time.
"Hey, Potter!" Jonathan Bingham, a fifth-year with curly brown hair threw out.
Harry grinned as other House mates greeted him upon their return, and he responded in kind. The common room felt upbeat and cheery - like a family reunion. But Harry was waiting for one person in particular.
After several minutes, the door opened once more. Harry's eyes were immediately drawn to it as the girl with the fluffy, brown hair walked in holding her satchel in one hand and suitcase in the other. The boy stood, grinning from ear to ear. Hermione glanced around the room eagerly. When she caught sight of Harry, her face lit up. She dropped her things on the floor and ran straight for him.
'Here it comes!' he thought with amusement.
Sure enough, the girl threw her arms around him in a tight hug, nearly knocking him over. The kid hugged her in return while chuckling. After a moment, she released him and stood back.
"Hi," he said with a grin.
"Hi," Hermione responded with a smile and teary eyes.
"I guess you had a great time over the break," he said.
Hermione nodded.
"I did. It was a nice Christmas, Harry...but I missed you and couldn't wait to get back."
Harry blushed.
"How about you?" Hermione asked eagerly, "how was it spending Christmas here at the castle?"
"It was great! The feast was amazing, and the twins kept things interesting, to say the least."
Hermione laughed.
"And thanks again for the gloves and Snitches. They've been really useful."
"You're welcome! I'm glad," she replied with doe eyes.
Harry then stepped closer to the girl and glanced around the room, making sure no one could hear him.
"You won't believe what I discovered and learned over the break!" he muttered quietly.
The girl's eyes went wide.
"Really?" she asked with great interest. Harry nodded.
"I'll tell you about it later, after the banquet."
"Okay!" Hermione uttered with an enormous smile.
She grabbed her things from off the floor and quickly headed up to the girl's dorm. Mere moments later, she reappeared and the two joined their fellow students for the start-of-second-term banquet in the Great Hall.
~HP~
"Harry! What if you'd been caught?" Hermione scolded the boy.
Harry shrugged.
"But I wasn't! And besides, it seemed like Dumbledore was encouraging me to sneak around by giving me my dad's cloak!"
After dinner, the pair decided to talk in the empty classroom where they practiced their spells. Harry regaled Hermione about getting his father's invisibility cloak and using it to sneak into the Restricted Section of the library. He figured the girl would scold him for it, as she did. But Harry was convinced the headmaster gave him the cloak just for purposes like that, based on their conversation in the Hall of Reflection.
Hermione frowned, obviously unhappy with what her friend did, though she couldn't conceal her peaked interest.
"So...what did you find?' she asked, sitting on the edge of her seat with rapt attention.
"Well, I discovered you can't take books out of the Section without setting off an alarm, which...Filch happened to hear and almost nicked me..."
Hermione threw the boy a severe stare.
"...but, I managed to find another way in where nobody would know I was even there..."
Harry went on to explain his invisible flight on his broom and going through the library window. Despite her concern over Harry's daring escapade, the girl was pleased to hear about him using all the spells they had practiced.
"So, Basil's book didn't have much information on the killing curse," Hermione commented with a frown.
"No. And I didn't know where to look for the other one."
"Well, I can look up its specific location in the records," Hermione said, "but you have to promise me you'll be extra careful trying to find it."
Harry chuckled.
"I will, Hermione. Don't worry."
Harry then told her about his harrowing experience above the Forbidden Forest. Hermione's eyes went wide.
"There's only one person who can cause your scar to burn like that!"
"I know! But it seems bizarre to think the man would do something so terrible to that poor unicorn."
"Well, if Quirrell is insane, that still doesn't explain why he causes the scar to hurt. There's some reason for it we're missing."
"And how can he fly? According to Flitwick, wizards and witches aren't supposed to be able to do that."
Hermione shook her head.
"I don't know. Unless he's using some enchanted object to fly with."
"But there's more, Hermione..."
Harry told her about his conversation with Dumbledore, the mysterious Hall of Reflection, and the old wizard's ramblings about a 'shift' of some sort.
"Quite honestly, he sounded like a bit of a nutter when he talked about that. I still don't understand it."
"Harry, from what I've read about the man, Dumbledore isn't a nutter. You don't become the most powerful wizard in existence and get elected to all the wizarding offices he has by being crazy. Clearly he sees something none of us can even grasp."
Harry nodded.
"I agree. But I believe he wanted me to clean the Hall for an important reason. He told me he thought it might serve some useful purpose related to his protection of the Philosopher's Stone."
Hermione's face scrunched up in thought. Then suddenly, that same face lit up in astonishment.
"Harry! You said the mirrors in the Hall record people in front of them and play them back randomly."
"Yes, according to Dumbledore."
"What if they recorded Professor Snape entering the room and then leaving after getting bitten by the three-headed dog?"
Harry's eyes widened at this.
"I hadn't thought of that! But that means they would also have recorded...the other person trying to sneak into the trapdoor chamber!"
The two kids stared at each other slack jawed. Harry continued.
"We need to spend some time in the Hall of Reflection. If we can find out who else is trying to steal the Stone, we can alert Dumbledore in order to stop them."
Hermione's expression was concerned, but she nodded in agreement.
"Right. We just have to be really careful."
Harry then showed her the locking spell he'd practiced as well as his improvements in his wand movements for the others. Hermione was impressed the boy had taken time during the holidays for this and the pair discussed other spells they might start working on for the term.
Later, after the two parted for the night, Harry, Dean, Seamus, and Neville played a round of the knights and dragons game as promised. Harry enjoyed the experience immensely and felt good his dorm mates now seemed to accept him as an equal. Having more friends would make his experience at Hogwarts even better.
~HP~
Classes resumed and school routine got back underway.
Outside of a second term of Basic Transfiguration with McGonagall, Introduction to Potions with Snape, Basic Charms with Flitwick, Introduction to Herbology with Sprout, and Defence Against the Dark Arts with Quirrell, the one class no longer on their roster was History of Magic with Professor Binns. Harry was relieved as both the class and its ghostly professor had been extremely boring. But Harry, Hermione, and their fellow first-years were to take a new class in its place: Basic Astronomy with Madam Sinistra.
While this promised to be more interesting than their history class, the only hitch was that this class was held at midnight at the top of the Astronomy Tower. Hermione complained to Harry that this would disrupt her sleep regimen, not to mention the tower was the tallest in the castle - it would be windy and freezing in the middle of winter. As a result, neither were looking forward to the experience.
No sooner had everyone sat down in McGonagall's class and begun getting out their things, than the woman rose from her desk.
"Everyone turn to page 104 in your textbooks," she uttered with a sweeping gaze, stern expression, and clasped hands.
"Today we'll be studying the transfiguration reversal charm, 'Reparifarge'. As restoring an object to its original state requires very specific wand movements and pronunciation, especially when restoring living creatures, I expect everyone to pay careful attention and take notes. You will each be quizzed at the end of class."
Harry swallowed hard at the woman's words while setting his cauldron, quills, and parchments on the desk as well as his A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration textbook. The boy looked at Hermione to find she had put out her new brass cauldron with her initials on it and placed the five quills he had given her for Christmas inside it. He smiled at the girl. She beamed back at him with a grateful look.
During Snape's class, the temperature in the dungeon was chilly due to the professor insisting the door stay cracked. Cool air from the corridor poured in and overwhelmed the tiny furnace designed to heat the space. Every student was bundled up while huddled around their boiling cauldrons for a bit of warmth. Harry was amused at Hermione wearing her winter coat underneath her robes, looking bigger than normal.
Snape wrote a potion formula on the blackboard. He then turned to the class.
"Who can tell me the name of this potion and its most important use?"
Every student stared at the list of four ingredients, but none dared speak. Harry had no idea what potion was created from three triffle leaves, one stem of fire mint, a teaspoon of Kane's Tempering Powder, and a drop of pufferfish oil. But to no one's surprise, the first and only hand to go up was Hermione's. Professor Snape frowned, disappointed only one person in the class seemed to have any idea.
"Yes...Miss Granger?" he finally spoke with exasperation.
Hermione cleared her throat.
"The potion is called 'Turnbull's Sleeping Draught' and it's most important use is to put dangerous creatures under for handling purposes. It's been said that a portion the size of a thimble can knock out the most powerful dragons."
Snickers went up around the classroom as Hermione finished. Though several pupils still resented the "know-it-all", Harry was proud of his friend and felt glad to be sitting next to the smartest person in the class. He reached under the table and squeezed her hand in reassurance. The girl threw him a smile of appreciation.
"What an annoying show-off!" Draco Malfoy couldn't help but utter while shaking his head and frowning, eliciting more snickers.
Snape eyed Hermione for a moment and everyone, including Harry, was expecting some crass remark from the man.
"Five points to Gryffindor for an intelligent, correct, and well-thought-out answer...Miss Granger," he said and nearly every student in the class fell out of their seat.
Stunned silence came over the dungeon at this unexpected praise from the hardest, most disagreeable person at Hogwarts. The Slytherins were in shock. The Gryffindors were in disbelief. Hermione stared slack jawed at Harry. The boy himself was astonished until Snape threw a knowing gaze right at him.
He remembered Harry's words in the hallway during the break!
He smiled back at the professor who did not respond in kind, but instead returned to the blackboard to go over the potion Hermione had so deftly explained.
"I don't understand what just happened," the girl said while shaking her head as the group of Gryffindors left the dungeon for their next class.
"Yeah, Snape praising a Gryffindor and awarding points to the House? Never thought I'd see that day!" Dean said with a stunned look on his face.
"Wonder what's got into the man?" Seamus muttered with puzzlement.
Harry looked down and smiled.
"Perhaps he's finally realized how smart Hermione is and appreciates it...like I do," he told the group.
The boy glanced at the fluffy-haired girl and received a humble smile coupled with red cheeks for his compliment.
In Flitwick's class, Harry and Hermione took copious notes on the spells and their accompanying wand movements the white-haired man previewed for the term curriculum. They were eager to add any new spells to their practice repertoire and these fit the bill perfectly.
While the professor went over the same light illuminating and extinguishing spells Hermione already used, he also explained opening and closing spells where the user could, from a distance, perform these operations on doors, windows, gates, and even trunks. Harry excitedly realized that with these particular spells he'd be able to open and close the windows to the castle without physically touching them!
The second term portion of Defence Against the Dark Arts was shaping up to be more interesting than the first. Professor Quirrell informed the class they would be working on practical skills in addition to his lectures - this per request of Dumbledore himself! Under strict supervision from Quirrell and the occasional appearance of the headmaster, the class was to pair up and work on spells such as the Leg-Locker curse, the Full Body-Bind curse, as well as the Confundus Charm. The purpose of this exercise, the professor informed them, was to learn both how it felt to have the spell used on you as well as learning their counter spells. Harry and Hermione were elated - more spells for their repertoire! Professor Quirrell himself, however, seemed displeased at the idea.
As the professor then switched to his lecture, "Why the rise of He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named ultimately failed", the two pupils kept an eye on the man for any suspicious behavior. At one point, Quirrell turned to the blackboard to write out a list of "things the famous dark wizard might have done to succeed in his quest for power".
"Ow!" Harry muttered quietly as sharp pain flashed across his scar.
Hermione threw the boy a concerned expression. Harry, however, was fuming mad.
This was getting annoying!
He glared at the turned back of the professor while the man stuttered away and wrote on the board. The boy quietly removed his quills from his cauldron and shifted the cauldron to the edge of his desk. Hermione looked at him wide-eyed.
"What are you doing?" she whispered quietly in alarm.
Harry threw her a serious gaze without responding. He then pulled out his wand.
"Locomotor...cauldron!" he uttered as quietly as possible while flicking his wand at Quirrell.
Every student ceased whatever side activity they were engaged in and went wide-eyed at the object flying toward the purple turban. But in the split second before Harry's cauldron was to hit the man in the head, the professor spun on his heels and...caught the cauldron midair!
Stunned gasps went up from everyone. Harry and Hermione stared slack-jawed at Quirrell.
"Whose is t-this?" the man uttered with a combined look of shock and...anger.
Harry gulped and slowly raised his hand.
"Mine, sir," he muttered meekly, "...sorry."
The professor walked to Harry's desk and glared at the boy while placing his cauldron on the desk top. The boy hesitantly looked up at him.
"Y-you should be more c-c-careful, there P-Potter. Carelessness might j-just get you into tr-tr-trouble..."
While Quirrell seemed jittery and paranoid as usual, Harry noted something in his eyes that was piercing and cold. And his last phrase almost sounded like a threat. Harry's instinct told him something was really wrong with the man. And it wasn't because he was crazy.
Harry nodded back.
"Yes, sir. I'll be more careful."
Quirrell stared hard at the boy another moment before turning back to the board. Harry looked at Hermione who was not happy in the least.
When the class ended and the pair exited the dark classroom reeking of garlic and incense, Hermione grabbed Harry's sleeve and dragged him around a corner out of sight of the other students. She then rounded on the boy.
"HARRY! ARE YOU MAD? WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR? YOU COULD BE EXPELLED FOR ASSAULTING A TEACHER!" she yelled at him as quietly as possible, giving him the fiercest, most worried look he had ever seen on the girl's face.
His cheeks went pink, but he stood his ground.
"Hermione, I needed to find out!"
"FIND OUT WHAT?"
"Whether there's more to the man than he's letting on! And now I'm sure of it! There's something really bad about him! He's not the innocent professor he's pretending to be!"
Hermione let out a grunt of frustration. She was angry with Harry for doing something so stupid and dangerous but seemed to understand his reasoning. Harry stepped closer to her.
"And apparently, he has eyes in the back of his head..."
~HP~
Though Harry's hands were perfectly warm with Hermione's gloves, his red and yellow Quidditch robes were poorly matched for the weather on this dreary Saturday. Snow flurries swirled in the air as the boy shivered with each blast of freezing wind. He couldn't wait until the Snitch appeared so he could grab it, if possible, and get the match with Hufflepuff over with. The fireplace in the Gryffindor common room was sounding more and more appealing the longer he hovered above the melee playing out below.
After two solid weeks of practice under Wood's intense direction, the Gryffindor team was at the point of exhaustion before the match even began. Angelina and Katie were particularly grumpy at Oliver's overdone strategy for winning against the Badgers. Everyone could tell he was concerned they'd lose two matches in a row, even if the first one had been annulled. But Harry took it in stride. The boy had his own urge to win.
As the two teams fought fiercely, Harry looked up to find his opponent staring back at him. Hufflepuff Seeker Cedric Diggory was a handsome third-year who was not only academically smart, but a talented Quidditch player to boot. With many of Hogwarts girls swooning over the boy and numerous students placing bets in the Hufflepuff's favor, Harry felt intimidated. But when his gaze locked on Diggory, instead of the snarling look he received from Terence Higgs, Harry was amazed to find the Seeker nod at him, like a perfect gentleman and an equal. Harry nodded back. This exchange made the eleven-year-old feel like a knight entering into a joust with a noble competitor - both fighting for king and country.
But any fantasies about the match were quickly extinguished when the golden orb suddenly appeared. Harry shot forward at the Snitch and swooped down as it hurtled toward the pitch floor. In the process, the boy noticed Diggory...did not move at all! He simple held his position and watched Harry pursue the prize. This puzzled the boy. But focusing forward, Harry plowed through thick patches of flurries which started clinging to his glasses. They weren't bad enough to impede his vision, however, and the boy was able to dodge the Hufflepuff Keeper swinging at a Quaffle just as the Snitch turned and flew right through one of the hoops.
Harry remained close behind it and with a willed burst of speed, his Nimbus took off. He was still puzzled by Cedric's failure to move and wondered where the Seeker was. But his question was quickly answered when Diggory swooped down out of nowhere, knocking the boy sideways while shooting right in front of him. The third-year was in the lead and only a couple of meters behind the Snitch. Harry was impressed. Cedric was indeed good and...calculating.
The orb shifted left and sailed across the pitch floor. As the Seekers followed it, they flew past Professor Snape at dead center of the pitch with his wand in hand. The black-robed referee kept his eye intently on Harry the whole time, seemingly ignoring what was happening among the players above him. According to McGonagall, Snape wasn't simply refereeing, he was keeping an eye on the spectators to prevent magical foul play. But Harry still wondered.
As he attempted to overtake Diggory flying along the stands, the eleven-year-old spotted Hogwarts staff scattered among the students, each holding out their wands with vigilance. He gulped once more at the sight of Professor Dumbledore standing among the Ravenclaws. The headmaster threw Harry a smile and a wink which caused Harry to smile back even though the man's presence made him nervous.
Then a pass by the Gryffindor section gave Harry a quick view of Hermione jumping up and down while cheering, her worried eyes seeming to pierce his own for a brief second. Hagrid, standing next to her, shook his big fist to rally the boy on while Dean, Seamus, and Neville whooped for him as well. This gave him a boost, momentarily, but he knew he needed to focus. The Hufflepuff Seeker wasn't a student favorite for nothing and if Harry didn't do something soon, it would all be over with.
Harry attempted to swerve past Diggory at a sharp angle, fly over him with a half-corkscrew, and even shoot forward of the young man with increased speed. But no matter how he tried to pass or outmaneuver Cedric, the third-year seemed to sense his movement and block Harry from cutting in front and gaining the lead. Thankfully, the Snitch seemed always out of Diggory's range. But how long would that last?
Frustrated and wondering what to do, a light suddenly came on in Harry's mind: he would do something totally unexpected...and daring. He had actually attempted it once during his personal flight training and felt confident he could pull it off again. The trick was getting the timing right.
As the golden ball shot back into the atmosphere, Harry tailed Cedric as closely as possible, the Hufflepuff glancing back at him occasionally to make sure the boy couldn't overtake him. But when the Snitch planed out and flew in a straight line toward the nearly empty faculty section, Harry was ready to make his move.
Diggory shot forward on his broomstick at breakneck speed while reaching out to grasp the prize only one meter from his hand. Harry stayed right behind the boy for mere seconds before lowering his feet under the broom handle and locking his ankles around it. He then...flipped completely upside down! The boy hurtled underneath Cedric who, upon seeing Harry upside-down beneath him, went wide-eyed in shock. Harry grinned as he bolted ahead of the Hufflepuff. Hermione's gloves worked like a charm!
Still hanging upside-down, the boy tilted his broom diagonally and shot forward like a bullet. This knocked Diggory off path, the third-year having to swerve and regrasp his broom to not fall off. A fraction of a second later, Harry reached out and...snatched the object out of the air!
A jolt of excitement shot through him as he turned upright once more, holding the prize in triumph.
He did it!
He caught the Snitch!
Gazing down into the stands and the chaotic battling of Quidditch players, Harry heard an explosion of cheers. Teams on both sides immediately ceased and glanced at Harry holding up the Snitch while grinning from ear to ear.
"...Harry Potter has caught the Snitch and Gryffindor wins!" the last part of Lee Jordan's commentary hit the boy before he heard more cheers.
He floated down to the pitch floor and landed. Within seconds, the rest of the Gryffindor team was on top of him, whooping and hollering. The girls all gave Harry a tight hug. Oliver slapped Harry on the back and shook his hand.
"Good work, Harry!" he uttered with a look of relief and pride on his face.
"What a maneuver, Harry!" George yelled out.
"Yeah, we saw the whole thing!" Fred added, "nobody expected that!"
Fred and George then grabbed hold of the boy and lifted him into the air on their shoulders. Harry laughed.
The stands emptied and the pitch floor became one big crowd of students. All of Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and even half of Hufflepuff cheered and praised the eleven-year-old for his first win. What Slytherin students had attended exited the pitch in disgust. But more handshakes and congratulations came at Harry from everywhere and Professor McGonagall threw him the biggest, teary-eyed smile he'd ever seen from the woman.
"Harry!"
The twins let him back onto the ground and no sooner had his feet touched the grass than a brownish blur wrapped him in a hug so strong it almost knocked him off his feet. Hermione finally let go and stood back. The girl was beaming with teary eyes.
"You did it!" she yelled out, "I'm so proud of you!"
Harry chuckled, feeling lighter than he ever had in his life.
"Harry!" one more voice uttered, and the boy turned to find Cedric Diggory appear out of the crowd.
The third-year was red faced and seemed overwhelmed. Everyone paused to see what would transpire between the two Seekers.
"Congratulations! Good Job! I didn't see that one coming!" he told the boy with a sincere expression while holding out his hand. Harry grinned back at him and shook it.
"Thanks, Cedric!" he replied, feeling proud of his fellow Seeker for being so magnanimous.
But the crowd closed back in and a cheery atmosphere came over everyone as they departed the pitch for the castle, lofting Harry high in triumph.
The boy was grinning from ear to ear.
He'd never forget this incredible day...