Chapter 16, Stolen Property

"speech" – speech
^speech^ - parseltongue

speech – non-verbal speech

'words' – written/emphasis/title

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Minerva was in a foul mood as she stormed into the supposedly 'Great' Hall. Her morning had started with a commotion as the disappearance of the school's Sorting Hat was made known. The entire staff had been awoken at the crack of dawn when the Headmaster had made the discovery.

If she ever got her hands on who had stolen that hat she'd skin them alive for interrupting her sleep!

With her colleagues is such disarray, whether from shock or lack of sleep, it fell to Minerva to start the search. To be honest she had no idea of where to search but she didn't let that stop her. She went to the Headmaster's office to see if there were any clues left behind; there were none. And she went to the kitchens to ask if any of the house elves had witnessed anything but she turned up nothing of interest.

Albus had summoned Severus and herself just as she had run out of ideas and called Harry Potter and his friends, or whoever was affecting them, into suspicion. An almost absurd idea but still a better option than 'it grew legs and ran away'. She had left that meeting confused and more than a little angry at the world.

Once back at the staffroom she found out they had run out of coffee, something which in her memory had never happened before. Pomona had tried, and failed, to discuss the sorting hat's mystery relocation until Minerva had simply stood and walked away.

Finally to cap off a perfect morning she had run head first into some poor third year Hufflepuff on her way to breakfast. She had sent the boy crying in the opposite direction with a thirty point deduction from his house and a detention to be served with Hagrid in the Forbidden Forest.

It had taken three hot donuts and large glass of spiked pumpkin juice, courtesy of Robin Fletcher who she knew always had some form of alcohol on his person, to stop steam from spurting out her ears. Thus faced with a (slightly) calmer attitude she finally turned her attention to the students, three in particular.

She hadn't noticed before but Ron Weasley was sitting apart from the other two, in fact he was nowhere to be seen. Granger looked terribly upset about something and Potter was consoling her. The other Ravenclaws were all leaning away from the duo uncertainly. What on earth had happened?

And then as she was looking Potter's head rose and he made eye contact.

They had caught her staring at them before, on countless circumstances, but this was different, this was more hostile. Potter's eyes flared red for the briefest of seconds before returning to their usual green. Perhaps Severus had been right all along…

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It was with a wide grin that Hermione greeted the boys that morning. Her light mood was engulfing her in a euphoria that the boys reacted to with surprise.

What put the bounce in your step? Harry's mind inquired.

Using those occlumency techniques I've done a little spring cleaning upstairs, she felt Ron's confusion and elaborated, I locked a few memories away. I can't quite recall what they were but they must have been dragging me down quite a bit cause I've never felt this good before.

That's good, the boys each sent as they exited the Ravenclaw Common Room.

As they walked to breakfast they fell into an easy conversation about the upcoming debate. Hermione was too wrapped up in hearing about House Elves from Harry to notice that Ron had stopped until she heard his voice.

"Hey, Fred! George!" he yelled down a hallway.

Hermione looked back in time to watch Ron's twin brothers step out and greet their younger brother.

"Ronnie? What on earth-"

"-are you-

"-doing-"

"-here?" they exclaimed in an odd speech pattern.

The one on the left smirked, "Since when do you Ravenclaw bookworms bother with trivialities such as breakfast?"

"Yeah, I thought that you didn't need food like the rest of us who are human. You survive by reading, right?" the right one teased.

Hermione was reminded rather harshly of two senior bullies at her muggle school but Ron grinned sincerely.

"How's 'Operation: Toilet Seat Extraction' going? Ginny is eagerly awaiting her gift."

The twin boys laughed.

"Are the two of you okay?" Ron asked, quite suddenly in Hermione's opinion.

The boys nodded their heads, "Course. Isn't it you lot who are supposed to get that question. First week over and all that. You've survived okay?"

Ron grinned and nodded, "Oh, by the way these are my friends Hermione and Harry. These jokers are my brothers," he said, quite unnecessarily over his shoulder.

"Ah! So these are your infamous friends!" the left one cried out.

Hermione smiled a polite hello.

"Pleasure to meet you," Harry greeted, suddenly friendly, "Ron's told us a lot about you two. The adventures the two of you get up to, it all sounds amazing. Know any good secret passages to the Great Hall?" he topped his performance off with a wink.

Hermione, who knew the real Harry, felt the urge to gag at his out of character, over friendliness with two strangers but the twins it seemed felt otherwise.

"Ah young ones, we couldn't possibly-"

"-just give away that knowledge."

"If you truly want to be great pranksters-"

"-then you have to discover these things for yourselves."

Harry grinned lazily, "Well it was worth a try."

"We can't blame you from trying-" the left one said smugly.

"-we are the most knowledgeable people to ask about the school."

Hermione held back a snort at that.

"Well short people, we are off to the library-"

"-someone needs to take up your shift. You bad little Ravenclaws-"

"-are neglecting your house given duties."

"Seeya Roniekins!"

Ron nodded at the dismissal while Harry enthusiastically waved goodbye. As soon as the two had left Harry's usual expression of indifference slipped back in place.

Hermione rolled her eyes at his attempts to charm, "I don't understand why you're bothering to try and fool them."

Harry arched an eyebrow at her, "Oh and why is that?"

"Aren't your usual victims rich or talented?" Hermione tossed back, "Ron's family isn't exactly rich or powerful, no offense to Ron."

Ron just shook his head as if to say 'none taken'.

"From everything Ron has said those two are only talented at getting in trouble. They aren't clever like us or socialites like Turpin so why bother. They don't even seem that nice; I mean what with all that 'short people' stuff and teasing us for being in Ravenclaw. They are about as useful as rocks as far as I can see."

As the words left Hermione's mouth she knew she shouldn't have said them. Anger bubbled through the link and the near non-existent sound of Ron's footsteps had stopped completely. She spun around quickly.

"I meant- Oh, Ron I didn't mean to insult-" she was cut off.

Ron clearly livid, his ears and neck bright red, ground out, "Don't ever insult my family within my hearing range again."

With that he stormed off, in the opposite direction of the Great Hall.

"Ron wait!" she called out and made to follow him.

Harry caught her arm and stopped her, "Hermione. Leave him. He needs some space right now."

"but-"

"No, Hermione," Harry insisted, "We didn't even feel the worst of his anger just the flow on effect of the link. Apologise later. We should have breakfast."

With some reluctance Hermione nodded and allowed Harry to direct her towards the Great Hall. She had managed to fight with both her new friends in just one short week; what did that bode for their long term friendship? And she had been so happy to see them this morning! Everything kept falling to pieces.

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"My Lord?" Quirinus asked hesitantly.

He was standing in his office, apparently alone. But in reality he was never alone anymore.

The walls were lined with his large book collection and several awards he had won due to his research papers. Cloves of garlic, solely to help his cover as a coward fearful of vampires he would swear, hung from the knob of the door, the curtain rungs and the light fixtures. He couldn't see the length of his turban lying discarded on the floor beneath his desk from his place in the doorway to his personal quarters but he knew it was there.

"Quirrell," came the rasp of his master from behind him, "what do you seek by speaking to me?"

The vague hint of a threat underlay the master's voice.

"I wish to speak of the theft of the sorting hat, My Lord. Are you aware of the culprit?" Quirinus whispered.

He had thought that the hat might be a part of some elaborate scheme of his Lord's but now, having spoken it allowed, he doubted this idea.

The Lord responded with an angry tone, "Why would the stealing of an old hat concern me. If anything you should be grateful for it. With this distraction in place it should be easier to go after the stone."

Quirinus latched on to that piece of information with a quick plan to appease his master.

"But might not the thief of the hat try to go after the stone too? Indeed the distraction might be the reason for the hat's disappearance," he offered, hoping to prove his worth.

"That is true. The hat's misplacement is probably some school prank but it might be a misdirection to draw attention from the stone. You'll have to keep your eyes open and work twice as hard to get past that the slobbering dog before anything happens to the stone," the Dark Lord droned, "if someone steals the stone before me I'll have your head Quirrell."

"Yes, My Lord. Of course, My Lord," Quirinus said with relief.

"Now Quirrell, get us ready for bed," his Lord ordered.

Quirinus rushed to do as he bid.

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Hi, I know is has been such a long time since my last update. Sorry. Thank you ever so much for all of you still reviewing and prompting me to write. I might have forgotten about this story if it wasn't for you (which would be terrible considering that I love writing it!).

I'm hoping to have another (longer!) chapter out soon so remember to review! And oh gosh, I can't believe how early in the term we still are.