Chapter Thirty-One: To Act Or Not To Act

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

"This is bad," Gilderoy said without preamble.

"I know," Harry agreed. "I can't believe that we've really managed to end up so far into this without either getting ourselves killed or Dumbledore getting here."

"I don't know what Dumbledore's excuse is – maybe the nurse I spoke to didn't want to interrupt him – but aside from the potions we haven't done anything that dangerous," Gilderoy pointed out.

"The poison's pretty dangerous," Harry pointed out. "After all, there was no reason to think that that little riddle would give us the right answer when it makes just as much sense to make the right potions in the supposed poison bottles or to just not have them here at all as anyone who is supposed to be going through here can bring their own potion."

"That is true," Gilderoy agreed.

Suspicion began to dawn in Harry's eyes. "So why did you…Father!"

"What?" Gilderoy asked innocently.

"You used Hermione and Neville to test out whether or not the bottles did what they said they would!" Harry accused.

"Would you rather I tested it on us and we may have died?" Gilderoy inquired.

Harry looked down. "Well…no…But I still don't want my friends to die!"

"And they didn't," Gilderoy replied calmly. "In fact, right now I'd say that they're safer than we are."

"But they could have died," Harry said stubbornly.

Gilderoy sighed. "And if one or both of them started dying we do have two bezoars."

Harry was surprised. "You would have given those to them?"

Gilderoy drew himself up, almost offended. "Regardless of what you might think, Harry, I do not relish the thought of watching children die."

"No, of course not, I'm sorry," Harry apologized. "It's just that, without those bezoars, we'd be out of luck ourselves considering Hermione either got the riddle wrong or the bottles were mislabeled."

"Miss Granger is such a perfectionist that I trust she would solve the riddle correctly and so if she drank poison it would be because she was lied to," Gilderoy told him. "And if we know that the riddle cannot be trusted then none of us would be drinking anything else and so it would be fine."

Harry nodded. "That makes sense."

It was quiet for a moment.

"What do we do now?" Harry asked finally, worriedly.

"I say that we go back the way we came and wait for Dumbledore," Gilderoy suggested.

"But what about the Stone?" Harry asked uncertainly.

"Dumbledore should be here soon and he has a far better chance of protecting it than either of us do," Gilderoy pointed out.

Harry bit his lip. "Yes but…"

"But what?" Gilderoy asked.

"You saw someone on the other side of the fire," Harry reminded him.

Gilderoy winced. He really shouldn't have mentioned that. "I did, yes."

"Do you recognize who it was?" Harry asked, wide-eyed.

He could lie but there was a chance that Harry wouldn't believe him and, given the almost excessive amount of dishonesty already in his life, that was really the last thing he needed.

"I couldn't see his face," Gilderoy admitted. "And while it could be anyone in a disguise, he was wearing a purple turban."

"Quirrell?" Harry asked, stunned.

"It looks like it," Gilderoy confirmed.

Harry relaxed. "Well, that's no problem then. It's Quirrell."

"I wouldn't be too sure of that," Gilderoy cautioned.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked curiously. "He can't string a sentence together without stuttering at least twice!"

"I would have thought that growing up as you did you would have learned that appearances are not always reflective of reality," Gilderoy said pointedly.

"Yeah but…Quirrell," Harry said as if that settled the matter.

"Someone took down that troll," Gilderoy pointed out. "I know that I wouldn't feel comfortable in my ability to take one down. And, despite your Halloween misadventures, can you say that you would?"

Harry sighed. "Well, no…"

"So clearly Quirrel is not as harmless as he appears," Gilderoy concluded. "He might be the one who attempted to steal the Stone at Gringott's a few months ago."

"He didn't succeed," Harry argued.

"He didn't get caught, either. And because he didn't get caught, that likely means that it wasn't a matter of not being able to reach the vault he wanted but of the Stone having been moved already," Gilderoy continued. A thought occurred to him. "And I remember Hagrid complaining about slaughtered unicorns in the forest. We don't really have any reason to think that it was Quirrell other than his going after the Philosopher's Stone. However, if that was Quirrell…"

Harry shivered. "Then he is seriously bad news."

Gilderoy was relieved that Harry now seemed to be speaking sense. "So now do you see why we need to just go back and let Dumbledore handle it? If it's your friends' reactions you are worried about then you can tell them whatever you like and you know I'll support your story."

Harry shook his head. "It's not that. I mean, of course I don't want them to think ill of me but that's really not important right now."

"Then what is?" Gilderoy asked slowly, hoping that Harry wasn't about to discover some hitherto unseen hero complex he would have gotten from his Gryffindor parents.

"If he escapes with the Philosopher's Stone…I'm not going to say that he'd be invincible because he wouldn't be but all the money and life in the world…who knows what he could do with that? He could set himself up as the next dark lord! And, even though I don't remember You-Know-Who's reign, I think that's really the last thing any of us needs. And we'll have to deal with the Dark Lord Quirrell, too," Harry said seriously.

"That would be very bad," Gilderoy reluctantly agreed. "But Harry, think. Dumbledore won't let that happen and he'll be here soon enough."

Harry crossed his arms. "He should have been here already."

"I'm not going to pretend that I understand or am pleased by this delay either, Harry," Gilderoy conceded, "but it's really all we can do."

"Is it?" Harry challenged. "We could go in there and-"

"Get ourselves killed," Gilderoy interrupted.

"We could get ourselves killed just waiting here, too," Harry pointed out.

"We could trap him," Gilderoy countered. "We could take all of the potion that takes us back through the flames and then Quirrell would have no way out and it doesn't matter if Dumbledore shows up five minutes from now or five days from now – aside from the fact he might be dead by then – because there's no way Quirrell's getting through the fire."

"There might be another exit in that room so the people who visit it legitimately don't have to go back through all of those traps," Harry argued.

Gilderoy rolled his eyes. "Even if there were that's no reason to think that Quirrell knows about it. And even if there is, we don't know when Quirrell got down here but he's been standing still for quite awhile now so it's possible – nay, probable – that the trap he's on now has stymied him."

Harry looked confused.

"Stopped," Gilderoy clarified.

Harry was shaking his head. "I just don't think that I can take that chance."

"You don't have a choice," Gilderoy said flatly.

Harry somehow managed to get his hands on the vial that would take him through the fire to face Quirrell. "I think I do, actually. You might be able to stun me but there's no guarantee that it would even work. In fact, the only way to guarantee that you'll be able to stop me is if you Obliviate me. And I guess the question that I have for you is, would you be willing to do that to your own son? I won't remember, of course, but you will."

That hit him hard. He had never really considered Obliviating Harry. He had never thought there would be a need to. And now, Harry was right, it might be the only way to save him but once he started down that path…There weren't a lot of lines that Gilderoy had because he found that they mostly just served to inconvenience him and stop him from getting what he wanted.

But to Obliviate his own son? No matter the reasons, there had to be something wrong with that. It wasn't like the random strangers he usually Obliviated. Harry was someone that he had not just watched grow up but actually helped raise. This was someone who knew exactly how he had acquired his wealth and fame and trusted him anyway.

This was someone who was, even now, practically daring him to Obliviate him and believing absolutely that it would never happen. Would he ever be able to face him again if he betrayed that faith?

"There's got to be something I can do to talk you out of this," Gilderoy said desperately.

"There isn't," Harry said softly. "But don't worry, I don't expect you to-"

"I can't let you go in there by yourself, Harry," Gilderoy interrupted.

"W-what?" Harry asked, startled.

"You're eleven. You'll die," Gilderoy pointed out.

"We don't both need to die," Harry practically whispered.

"We don't either of us need to die," Gilderoy said, trying to sound more confident than he felt. This was stupid and irresponsible and Gryffindor and reminding him very strongly why he left the heroics to other people but Harry wasn't giving him much of a choice here. "We can compromise."

"I'm not sure how we can," Harry said honestly. "You don't want me going in there and I fully intend to go in there."

Gilderoy noticed that Harry didn't say that he wanted to go in there. Well, that was good. It proved that he wasn't completely beyond hope.

"I don't know how long those potions last. It will probably let us walk through the fire for longer the more we drink of it," Gilderoy reasoned. "So we each drink as close to half as we can, hit him with the most powerful Obliviate that we can muster, and then – regardless of if he appears to be down or not – we retreat back through here. We then drink what remains of the potion to get back to where we came from so we're absolutely positive that Quirrell cannot follow us. And then we wait for Dumbledore."

As far as plans went, it really wasn't much of one and relied on the idea that they could react before Quirrell did. The fact that Quirrell seemed so immersed in his own task was a good sign but then it might be the case that Quirrell knew that they were there and was just not interested in them as long as they stayed away from him.

In that case, if they went in there they might find that Quirrell was perfectly prepared for him after all. And just because he'd given every indication of being a terrible wizard over the last few months didn't actually make that true. And even a terrible wizard, depending on how terrible, might be a match for him and Harry anyway.

And even if it succeeded, there might be some awkward questions asked once it became known that Gilderoy and Harry both knew how to Obliviate someone. That was not a restricted spell per se but it was generally one that people did not bother learning unless they were using it for some nefarious purpose or had the job of Obliviating muggles.

But it was too late to be paralyzed by second thoughts (as much as he might have liked to have stayed there forever) and so Harry gulped down half the potion and handed the rest of to him to drink.

Gilderoy shuddered slightly as what felt like liquid ice passed through his system. He hadn't mentioned that their Obliviations should be silent but he rather hoped that by now that was just something that Harry understood.

The pair of them passed through the flames (always a daunting task for a Muggleborn, walking through something that you knew shouldn't be able to be walked through no matter how many times you did it and especially so on your very first try) and, in sync, they sent their strongest Obliviation towards Quirrell.

A very high-pitched and someone alarmed voice cried out, "BEHIND-!" and then fell silent as Quirrell pitched forward.

Harry frowned. "That didn't-"

Gilderoy grabbed him and dragged him back through the fire as they had agreed.

"Now what was it that you were saying?" Gilderoy asked, feeling the ice slowly drain away. Honestly, just because wizards could survive being made to feel like their insides were ice did not mean that it was a particularly good idea and he really thought that flame immunity potions like that should have been modified to get rid of the unpleasant effects. Although, to be fair, without those someone might stay in the fire for too long because they didn't know when the effects would be wearing off.

"I was saying that that didn't sound like Quirrell," Harry dutifully repeated.

Gilderoy nodded. "No, it didn't. And it sounded like whoever it was was shouting out a warning. Presumably 'behind you.' And yet he fell silent when we took out Quirrell."

"We did it," Harry said, smiling a little giddily.

"But we're not done yet," Gilderoy reminded him. "We still need to get through the other-"

He broke off as the flames – both of them – suddenly died. That wasn't a good sign. Except that maybe it was because he saw Dumbledore hurrying towards them, moving faster than he had ever seen the man move.

"What's going on?" Dumbledore demanded once he'd reached them. "Is someone actually trying to steal something? How far have they gotten?"

Harry looked to him and, as the adult, apparently he was the one who had to give the explanation although he'd really rather not.

"Someone is here," Gilderoy confirmed. "We saw a turban and so we believe that it is Professor Quirrell though we did not get close enough to see for certain."

Dumbledore nodded. "Good, good. We would have been more dangerous than you anticipated." He frowned. "But the flame is gone and he didn't come out here…how curious…"

"We attacked him, sir, and then came back here. We were going to use what was left of the potion to get back and find Neville, Hermione, and Ron," Harry explained.

"Let me go see," Dumbledore instructed. "You two wait here."

Obligingly, the pair waited in silence for Dumbledore to go check on the status of Quirrell.

Dumbledore returned shortly, giving them both appraising looks. "He's not unconscious and yet he seems to be out of it. I have my theories but I won't be able to confirm those without getting him looked at by a competent medical professional and alas Poppy is not here with us now. What did you do to him?"

Gilderoy had always known that Obliviation could be detected if the healer in question was looking for it and once Quirrell was unable to tell them much of anything (he didn't always know what he was doing when it came to magic but Obliviation was his thing and Harry had had some practice as well though just for practice's sake) then Obliviation was the natural conclusion. Lying now would only indicate that he had something to hide.

As he did, in fact, have a great deal to hide it was very important that he not give off that impression.

"We didn't know how strong he was," Gilderoy began carefully. "I didn't want Harry facing him at all but he did not give me an alternative short of attacking him and I was not willing to do that. We weren't sure if a stunner would work or, if it did, for how long and neither of us were prepared to kill him. Though neither of us had ever used it before, I thought that erasing at least some of his memory might leave him disoriented and confused. It would give us time to flee and maybe stop him from continuing to look for the Philosopher's Stone. I think it worked since he fell over but I do not know which spell worked or if both did or how effective it was or if we accidentally cast another spell entirely. And a memory-erasing spell, from what I know, isn't something that can be so easily shaken off."

Dumbledore nodded again. "Memory spells are incredibly dangerous and possibly irreversibly damaging spells that are best left to the professions for just such a reason. I can understand your anxiety, however, and in this situation – when it was just the two of you against the would-be thief of the Philosopher's Stone – I find that I cannot blame you. I don't know how much Quirrell has lost but I do know that there is much to be done. If you are hurt, please head to the Hospital Wing. If not then kindly return to your common room, Harry. Gilderoy, you may go as well but I would speak with you when I have a moment."

"Of course," Gilderoy said, nodding, and then he and Harry walked back the way they came.

If that was heroics then it wasn't nearly as bad as he had feared it would be.

Just the same, it was safe to say that he was never ever under any circumstances ever going to be doing something like this again.

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