a/n: Okay , so a sort of timely fashion here. I do realize this story has been ongoing for about three years, so I really appreciate everyone who's stuck with it. :)
Later that same stale afternoon, Severus reached the Fluffy door on the third floor. It was open, and Fluffy was quite frankly flipping out.
Severus had to strain himself to let that one slide. He knew Quirrell was a bit low on goods in a few departments, but perhaps he would have to minus some IQ points from that guy's file all the same, so to speak.
Fluffy was bellowing so much that Severus seriously wondered if there was a plot deficiency in this story, like how could this not wake up the whole castle? He also wondered whether three-head slobber dogs could lose their voice, because he was feeling a migraine coming on real fast.
Severus looked in on that ruckus, and saw a flute lying on the ground, except Fluffy kept kicking it around, and soon it fell into the open trap door nearby. But that was not even the interesting part. The interesting part was that Severus spotted something very suspicious and painfully obvious at once. It was Potter-the-clinically-insane's invisibility cloak, lying all crumpled on the floor.
Severus thought it was rather easy to deduce what had happened here. Potter-who-knows-only-like-three-spells had made it a genuine cluefinder mission of following Quirrell down there, where he would likely be ripped to shreds. Under normal circumstances, Severus would have thought that to be some quality comic material right there, but now he was mostly thinking about how Dumbledore took really long trips to London.
He was wondering just when that guy would figure out there was no sock catalog, when Fluffy fell down sleeping. Severus was thinking "how random could you get?" when he noticed that there was definite music coming from the trap door. A moment later, none other than the Bush Hair appeared, carrying the oh—so-earlier fallen flute. Feeling faintly ridiculous, Severus hid himself behind a suit of armor, and waited for results. Sure enough, the Bush Hair came out of there, walking real fast and looking close to tears. She only stopped to close the door behind her and look around. No one else was with her.
Severus put his problem solving skills to the test and figured that he might not be seeing any more of Potter-who-wanders-around-in-his-invisibility-cloak-twice-a-month, unless it was at a funeral put on by a charity in which the proceeds went to something nice. Or whatever.
Fluffy started making growly sounds spontaneously once more, and Severus underwent a brief period of angst in which he thought of Voldemort being immortal. It was not a good thought. Going on what he remembered of the guy, he liked to bring out a whole lot of irrelevant family drama to prove a lot of obscure points while his peer pressured followers sat around boiling to death under sweaty masks.
Sweaty but sort of cool looking. Credit where credit is due, and all that.
But now , sitting woefully behind a suit of armor, Severus found himself considering options like spontaneously falling asleep, eating something before he fainted from his lack of anything but Piece of Bagel, and, stupidly, of actually going down there after Quirrell to duke it out. He genuinely wondered how Voldemort was going to get anywhere fast with that stone, when all he was was a face on the back of some other spaceball's head.
We shall see, Severus thought dramatically, and he formulated a plan to open the Fluffy door and sneak in there and grab the invisibility cloak as he did not have any musical instruments on him. Severus stood by the door doing several deep cleansing yoga breaths, before throwing it open on its hinges.
Only all that was totally void and unnecessary, because Fluffy had gotten his foot stuck in the trap door below him, and was howling up a storm. Shutting the door good and firm, Severus wondered how Hagrid felt about euthanasia.
"Severus!"
Severus made a gack sound in the back of his throat, and turned around to find a slightly out of breath Dumbledore taking a rapid approach to the Fluffy door.
"Professor Dumbledore— Severus began in an effort to inform him of the clog, but Dumbledore did the scariest face Severus had ever seen on a guy with a beard, so he canned it.
Dumbledore reached the door, and turned to face him.
"Severus, this is very important," he said gravely. "I have found out that someone is trying to steal the Sorcerer's Stone at this very moment. That someone is Professor Quirrell."
Apparently, Dumbledore took the look on Severus's face to be one of surprise, because he went on.
"I know, I know. None of us could have foreseen this. It is lucky perhaps that my tea tasted strange on the trip over to London, because all of a sudden, my mind turned to other strange things, and it came to me like that."
"Unbelievable," Severus said flatly.
Dumbledore chuckled. "Yes, yes, I thought so too. Well, Harry and his friends have gone down after Quirrell, no doubt in an attempt to thwart him. I must go down there and help him out, but in the meantime, don't tell anyone what is going on. I made sure no one saw me come into Hogwarts again, and I would rather they still think I'm in London because yadayadaya…."
Here Severus spaced out, staring at the door behind Dumbledore and trying to keep from grinding his teeth together. It took a few seconds for him to realize that the guy had finally stopped flapping his trap, and was now standing there, serenely polishing his glasses on his robes.
Severus gave him a pointed stare, but Dumbledore appeared to be in lala land, so to speak, and kept right on scrubbing those specs.
Severus cleared his throat.
Dumbledore looked up and smiled at him, then went right back to work.
"Professor, do you not have to…" Severus began.
Dumbledore looked up. His eyes widened and he bolted through the Fluffy door, almost catching his way-too-long white hair in the crack when he shut it again.
Severus stood by the door for a good while, half relieved and half wanting to kill something. Then, vaguely wondering how Dumbledore was dealing with getting Fluffy's foot out of the trap door, he walked downstairs, and through some hallways, trying not to step on the cracks in the stone.
When Severus came to the general area of the entrance hall, he realized that the students were no longer outside anymore, and stopped that enchanting activity immediately, cutting through the riff raff impatiently.
There was a major hold up at the entrance to the Great Hall, so Severus leaned against a wall feeling claustrophobic and mildly disgusted, and eavesdropped on two snot nose Ravenclaw kids talking smack about some girl named Linda, and how she wouldn't talk to them. Severus thought that if he were some girl named Linda, he wouldn't talk to them either.
After about fifteen more grueling minutes of hallway drama, Severus was able to make a break for it. Sprinting into the Great Hall, he grabbed a cold piece of toast for lunch and sat at the staff table, which was thankfully mostly empty. McGonagall, who was getting up to leave, gave him a look that clearly said "I found out Slytherin is winning the house cup and I feel that it is your fault my house doesn't keep normal bed times." Severus didn't think it wise to tell her that two of her house members might actually be developing rigor mortis at the moment.
As the afternoon wore on, Severus received some news of a staff meeting, and arrived in the staff room to find Dumbledore standing beaming at everyone in the general area.
"Voldemort— Severus jumped at the name, then scowled at the random teacher next to him, who was smirking. "—has come back, it seems," Dumbledore said. There was a collective hush, then Dumbledore bubbled on about how Potter-the-fairweather-friend had let the Weasley get clobbered by a large chess piece before going on to face the Dark Lord. Severus had to bite down on his lip to keep from laughing at that bit of info.
Dumbledore talked on and on. Professor Sinistra who Severus seriously suspected of never actually teaching a class was picking at a tossed salad next to him, and dropped a leaf on the ground. Hagrid, who Severus was 100 sure was not a staff member, was standing in a corner bawling his eyes out very loud and obnoxious, and repeating "s'all me fault, blablablubberblubber I tol' him how to gepast Fluhhuhhuffy…blubber blubber." Severus wished Dumbledore would just give him a bathroom pass or something, because really. This room couldn't take another sob story.
Then Professor McGonagall started talking about how Potter-the-lacking-in-primary-thought-processes had been trying to warn her beforehand. Her voice was all crisp and totally not appropriate for the atmosphere. When she sat back down again, she gave Severus an unnecessary penetrating stare. He stared back at her and mouthed the house point totals at her.
After Dumbledore had talked for a time equivalent to the length of his beard, he beamed them all with his twinkly eye gaze, which on the outside looks like a "I'm your grandpa figure in this life, son, confide in me" type deal, but which Severus really knew to be a "Submit to my superior knowledge or I will unhinge my jaw and eat you alive" type of deal. Plus interest.
Five minutes later, they wrapped this one-time-only event up by way of Dumbledore saying that they had Potter-the-currently-hospitalized to thank for the safety of the school and the disappearance of the Dark Lord, and that they should probably write him thank you notes and think of him every time they cut into their roast turkey here at Hogwarts.
Severus left the meeting with something that tasted like bile in his mouth, and for some reason his pillow felt lumpy that night, so he didn't fall asleep until oh-dark-thirty.