Chapter Eight:
Ron looked taken aback for a second. "You are Mr. Quirrell, right?" he asked. "That's what my mailbox says," Quirrell answered dryly. "Right." Ron wondered what to say. "Uhm… So you probably don't remember me, I was in your Defence against the Dark Arts class six years ago."
Quirrell nodded, frowning. "Anyway," Ron continued. "I wanted to ask you something. Are you still working for You-know-who?"
Harry, Hermione and Draco groaned in unison. Quirrell looked at Ron as though he was stupid. "Are you kidding?" he finally asked. "I never worked for him. He possessed me." Ron turned crimson.
The others came out of their cover. Quirrell's eyes widened when he saw Harry. "Mr. Quirrell, I'm Harry Potter," he introduced himself and offered his hand, but Quirrell didn't take it.
"I know," he said. Nothing more. Not letting himself get irritated, Harry continued. "Actually, we came here to ask you something. Something about You-know-who."
"I-I thought I just a-answered that question," said Quirrell defensively with a look of fear in his eyes and slightly trembling hands.
"Oh great, we're back to stuttering," Ron muttered. Hermione and Harry simultaneously shot him an angry look.
"Well, actually we wanted to ask you something else. We're trying to bring him down. And we need your help."
"H-How?" Quirrell asked. "
"We're looking for things… things that You-know-who liked, that he had some kind of connection to. And Hermione here-" He pointed at Hermione who smiled half-heartedly, "has suggested that maybe you'd know what we 're searching for."
"What… What are you talking about?" Quirrell asked nervously. Hermione spoke up. "Look, Mr. Quirrell, we don't have a lot of time here. Right now, You-know-who and the Death-Eaters are taking over the magic world. So will you help us or not, because you really are our only hope of ever bringing him down completely."
They saw the surrender in his eyes as he took a step back and gestured them to come inside.
Ron grinned at Hermione. "I love it when you scare people."
Hermione smiled.