Chapter Nine:

"Come in", Quirrell said, after a little consideration. Ron helped Hermione over the threshold and they followed Quirrell to his living room. It was pretty, decorated with nice furniture and painted in light colors. However, there were dirty clothes and piles of dishes (some of them with slowly molding food) everywhere. As they finally managed to clear away enough to sit of the sofa, Quirrell rushed into the kitchen to make tea.

"I'm sorry about this", he gestured at the mess, "but I haven't tidied up in a while." "Or ever", Ron whispered.

When Quirrell finally served the tea, his hands were shaking so badly he spilled half the fluid all over the already stained coffee table. They took their half-full cups without complaint. Harry sipped at his tea, but it tasted more like water than anything else. He put his cup down and started explaining to Quirrell why they were there. To be on the safe side, he only told him the abridged version he had already told Draco after their escape from Malfoy Manor - partly, because Draco was present and partly because no matter what Quirrell said, he did not completely trust him not to take this information to Voldemort.

"He used something to ... survive. There's something out there that he has a connection to. But we don't know what it is, exactly-" "Or vaguely", Draco muttered. "That is why we need your help", Harry concluded.

From the look Quirrell gave him, Harry knew the Ex-Defense against the Dark Arts-Teacher knew exactly they were looking for a Horcrux, although he prayed Quirrell wouldn't figure out there was more than one.

Quirrell nodded slowly. "So, why did you come here of all places?", he finally asked.

"Well, as we already told you, Hermione had the idea that you may know something about an object You-Know-Who had an affection to. Since he was inside your brain and all ..." Harry finished somewhat lamely.

"I'm afraid I don't know what object you could be talking about", Quirrell said defensively. "You-Know-Who was inside my mind, yes, but I was not in his. I never knew what he thought - or how he felt." He looked away and there was an awkward silence. "So, no, I wouldn't know."

Harry sighed. Once again, he didn't know what to do next. So, he settled for another problem. "Hermione got wounded in battle. Could you maybe do something about it?", he asked.

While Quirrell was fixing up what was left of Hermione's wound and giving her some potions for possible inner bruises, Harry waited in the living room with Ron and Draco. He considered going through Quirrell's stuff, but then again he didn't know when he was coming back and anyway he didn't think he would find anything helpful.

While Harry was still considering this, however, Ron had already begun going through the drawers. "What are you doing?", Harry hissed. Ron didn't look up. "Going through his stuff. Checking if I find any clues on if he's going to kill us." "What?", Harry asked, flabbergasted. Ron put down the pile of paper he was holding and turned to face Harry.

"Look, we already are in the company of one ex-supporter of You-Know-Who", he glanced at Draco, "and we don't know if we can trust either." Draco held up his hands in disbelief. "Hey, sitting right here!" Harry and Ron ignored him. "Well, you can't really know if we can trust them if you don't try." Ron rolled his eyes. "Do you remember what happened at Lovegood's? He turned us in even if he supposedly was on our side. What are they going to do if they have an opportunity?" "Still sitting right here!", Draco complained.

Just as Harry was about to give Ron a half-hearted lecture about innocence until proven guilt, Quirrell came back with Hermione. Ron quickly put the papers back, but he still got a scolding look from his ex-professor.

Hermione carefully sat down on the sofa next to Draco. Ron didn't look too happy about that, but all he said was: "You feeling better?" Hermione nodded. "Well, Mr. Quirrell and I were discussing the ... You-Know-Who-issue and we may have had an idea." "Do tell", Draco said. Everybody was looking at Hermione expectantly, but it was Quirrell who spoke.

"Well, I can't tell you exactly what the mysterious object could be and as Miss Granger told me, there is more than one-", he looked at Harry, slightly annoyed, as Hermione blushed, "so we're going to have to think of the less obvious choices. I can only tell you what he told me and that isn't exactly very much as he probably knew he couldn't trust me ... but let me tell you this, he does have a human side. He hides it very well, but sometimes he would say something and I knew there wasn't just ... pure evil in him. Once, he was an orphan boy like you, Harry, only that he never had much interest in being nice. Still, I think ... I think it would have been easier for him if he had someone there to teach him how to ... love ... he's not really capable of understanding this emotion, you see. He feels it, I guess - although probably not too often - but he's not completely devoid of love. He just doesn't know what to do with it."

"Do you have a point?", Draco asked, annoyed.

Quirrell glared at him and continued in a slightly stiffer voice. "As I was saying, we need to find his weak spot. There was only one time he was truly happy and that was when he was at Hogwarts." Harry rolled his eyes. "We already have the cup, the locket and the diadem. He can't have the sword, because we have it and it is definitely not a Horcrux."

"Would you please let me finish?", Quirrell asked, almost angry now. "Do you want my help or not?" Harry held up his hands defensively. "Go on."

Quirrell nodded. "I don't think it's some object related to the school. My theory is that it is actually something in the school, an object he did not just have a purely metaphorical relation to. Something that is not only connected to the school, but directly connected to You-Know-Who."

"Like what?" Harry asked, but he shut up once he saw Quirrell's glare. "I don't know." "Which is why we're going there", Hermione interjected.

"What?"