The Paper Trail
It was another week before Professor McGonagall received the back issues of the Daily Prophet. She caught Irlynn on her way out of Transfiguration.
"Miss McQuillen, may I see you in my office," Minerva called. Irlynn slowly turned around and followed the Professor into the next room.
"Have I done something, Professor?" Irlynn asked.
"No, no. I wanted to inform you that I received the copies of the Daily Prophet you and Mr. Potter requested," she explained, pointing to the large stack of papers. Irlynn gulped a bit at the size of the stacks.
"Oh. Thank you, Professor. Can Harry and I come by later and pick them up?" the girl asked.
"Certainly," McGonagall stated with a nod.
"Thank you again," Irlynn called and rushed out of the room on her way to Potions. She tried to pay attention as Snape lectured, scrawling notes on the board when he wasn't pacing in front of the class. She was surprised that they weren't making a potion today. She rather liked class when they were able to something other than take notes. When class finally ended, she tossed her books in her bag and rushed by everyone. She found Harry heading for the Great Hall.
"Harry," she called, waving her hand over her head to get his attention.
"Hi, Irlynn," he greeted.
"Professor McGonagall told me she got the papers today. Do you have time today to look through them?" she said, falling into stride with him.
"I have Charms after lunch. And Quidditch practice at seven. But between then I have time," he answered.
"I'll meet you at McGonagall's office. She has all of them there," Irlynn explained.
"What are you doing?" Hermione asked once Harry had joined them.
"I'm helping her to look for her Mum…well her birth Mum. She was adopted," Harry answered.
"Oh…that's nice of you. Where are you looking?" Hermione pressed.
"Old Daily Prophets. We decided to look at obituaries first to make sure she's still alive," he added.
"That's a good idea," she agreed.
"It's nice to help someone else…and not focus on the stone so much," he admitted in a hushed tone.
"So when are we going to try and find the stone?" Ron whispered after a large bite of fried chicken.
"I don't know…I mean…" Harry began.
"I don't think Snape has gone anywhere near it…I think we would have heard about it," Hermione interjected before Harry could continue.
"Well whatever happens…I want to help," Ron said.
"Thanks Ron," Harry said with a smile. It certainly nice to have friends willing to stand by him.
"Any time, mate," Ron answered around a mouthful of potato. His gesture earned a headshake from Hermione. He was getting used to it by now…especially since he received similar looks from his younger sister, Ginny, at home.
The trio finished their meal in silence and headed off to Charms. The class seemed to fly by for once and Harry was winding his way through people in the corridor to get to Professor McGonagall's office.
"Good afternoon, Professor," he greeted when he saw the door was open.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Potter. You may take the papers elsewhere if you would like or you may use thee classroom," she informed him.
"Thank you," he said just as Irlynn arrived.
"Do you want to take these into the classroom?" he asked.
"Yes. We can spread things out," she answered and they each picked up a large pile. As best they could the carted them into the next room. To their surprise, Professor McGonagall followed behind them, levitating the rest of the paper. With her kind smile, she left to them to their business.
"Do you want to start with that pile and I'll start with this one?" Irlynn asked.
"Ok…what name are we looking for again?" he replied.
"Lily Evans," she told him and picked up a large stack. She began to flip through pages until she found the obituaries for that week. She took her finger and scanned each column slowly, her eyes lighting up whenever she saw a name starting with an 'L'. Harry did the same, having a harder time finding the desired page at first. He finally got to the right page, tossing the unnecessary pages to the floor to his left.
The pair sat in silence as each scanned their pages. After the fourth of fifth paper, Irlynn began to grow restless. So far she hadn't found anything to indicate her mother had died in 1991. Perhaps that was a good thing. That could mean she was still alive. That small hope kept her focused as the afternoon slowly worn on. Before either of them knew it, McGonagall had returned and knocked lightly on the doorframe.
"I think you two should take a break," she said. Irlynn looked up.
"I'm fine," she said.
"I'm kind of hungry," Harry said.
"Miss McQuillen I believe you should eat something before you continue any further," Minerva said in a motherly tone. Irlynn nodded and set the page down on the desk in front of her.
"How far have you gotten?" Minerva asked as she walked with them down to the Great Hall.
"I just started 1989," Harry answered.
"I'm still in 1990," Irlynn added.
"I trust you will not be doing this all in one night," McGonagall said. It wasn't a question as much as an order.
"No…we're not going to do it all tonight," Irlynn assured her.
With that, Minerva left them to head to their respective tables. Harry ran into Oliver as he was sitting down. He wasn't sure he really wanted to go to practice tonight.
"You ready for practice tonight?" Oliver asked.
"Uh…I don't think I can make it…I have to help a friend," Harry said lamely.
"Harry…we've got a game against Slytherin in a couple weeks. We need to be in prime condition," Oliver said sternly.
"But I promised her I would help her with this. It's really important," harry said.
"And I don't do much at practice anyhow," he added. Wood let out an exasperated huff but nodded his head.
"Alright…but do me a favor and fly a few laps before next practice just too make sure you're up to par," he said.
"Ok," Harry said and turned his attention to his food. Irlynn didn't speak to anyone as she wolfed down her food. She finished in record time and beat Harry back to the classroom. She had gone through two more papers by the time he got back.
"Sorry I took so long," he apologized.
"You don't have to apologize," she said, picking up the next issue.
"I got out of Quidditch practice tonight so we can work as long as you want," he said.
"Great. I want to try and get o 1987," she said. Harry surveyed the piles. They had separated them by year.
"That's a lot of papers," he said.
"I know…but it goes by fast," she said. Harry just nodded. He didn't want too argue with her over this. He didn't want to upset her.
Harry picked up the paper he had left and rescanned the first column to make sure he hadn't missed anything. Several hours later they had gotten through all of 1991, 1990 and 1989. Irlynn was picking up the first issue of January 1988 and moved to 1987 just to make sure they reached their goal. He let out a yawn as he flipped to the page that was becoming so familiar and easy to find. Irlynn stretched her arms out in front of her before looking at her obituary page.
"Have you found anything yet?" harry finally asked. He figured she would have said something if she had but it couldn't hurt to ask. The room had gotten rather quiet and the silence was a little unnerving.
"Not yet. How about you?" Irlynn responded.
"Nothing yet. But that's a good thing, right?" he said.
"Right," she said.
The hours continued to drag on and they managed to get almost all of the way through 1987 when there were footsteps outside the classroom. The light was clearly still on and whoever was out in the corridor saw it. Both Harry and Irlynn heard the footsteps and looked up from the papers.
"Merlin's beard, what time is it?" Harry hissed. Irlynn looked around for a clock.
"It must be after hours," she whispered back. Before either of them could do or say anything more, the door was flung open and Professor Snape appeared.
"And what are you two doing out of bed after hours?" he sneered. Irlynn swallowed and reached for her bag.
"We…we were working and lost track of time, Professor," she said. It was the truth. Harry nodded his head vigorously to corroborate her statement but Snape didn't seem to care. He simply glared at them before motioning with his finger for them to stand up.
"Come with me," he said sharply. Harry and Irlynn looked at each other as they stood and followed the surly professor out of the classroom.