Investigation
*Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry*November first*
Harry watched as professor Hook-nose almost unnoticeably limped his way to the front of the classroom, but after seeing the little red stain in the socks of the man, a limp was easy to see, especially to eyes as keen as Harry's, who could spot the birds flying way above him.
Something had happened to him, and Harry would make sure that he knew why, maybe it was related to the third floor? That would make sense, it was supposed to be a death-trap, but why had Snape been there? What did the man want? He doubted that direct interrogation would work, and he did not know how to read minds, he was sure it could be done, so that left spying.
"Do you know what happened to him?" Harry asked Blaize, "he's been limping"
"I don't know; he came to the Hall worse before moving us to the common room" Blaize answered in a whiser, not willing to disturb his concentration, "I think it was the troll…"
"No," Harry interrupted the Italian boy, "Snape went with the other teaches to the dungeons, the troll must have been in the first floor by the time Terry and I reached the second" a shredded boomslang skin went into the cauldron, "it happened after that."
"After you killed the troll" Blaize commented offhandedly.
"That's what they're saying?" Harry smirked, "good, hopefully that will stop stupid fans"
"You say that," Blaize almost growled, "I was harassed by your fans in Slytherin, they wanted to know what happened after the feast."
"I have fans in Slytherin?" Harry asked a bit incredulously, "other than Tracey, really?"
"Yes, Daphne wanted to know what happened too, my mother was the one that got her into you" Blaize paused, "Okay, that sounded creepy, my mother read her and Tracey Harry Potter books, though they know it's fiction"
"Good, I've enough with stupid in other houses," Harry widened his smirk, "So you have lots of blackmail material, I believe?"
Blaize hummed in confirmation, "enough to counter when they try it on me"
"Good," Harry stayed silent for most of the class from then on, only whispering things for Blaize to do while he checked the instructions and the cauldron, but a few minutes before the bell rang he let out one more question, "do you want to know what's on the third floor?" The smirk he got was the only answer he needed, "good."
*Great hall*Lunch*
"One of us has to be the distraction" Blaize pointed out as the group of friends sat in the part of the Ravenclaw table closest to the doorway, "another the lookout, while only one goes to the corridor itself," everyone nodded, trusting that as a Slytherin he would make the best plan, "the more in the distraction, the better, the opposite is true for the lookout"
"I can ask the Wesley twins for their fireworks" Harry said, "They love mayhem, as soon as I tell them what it is for they'll agree"
"Good, do that," Harry nodded and Blaize continued, "Lisa, Terry or Hermione have to be the lookouts, nobody expects the bookworm to help a rule breaker, two is the max though, another will help me and Neville with the fireworks, while Harry sneaks into the corridor and finds out what is there"
"There is a problem with that" Lisa pointed out, "How will Harry and the lookout keep in touch"
"We don't have a timeline to it," Blaize answered her.
Harry nodded, "We need time to iron out the details anyway," he said, "I can make a communication array, but we would need to ask your parents for a headband"
"Why a headband?" Hermione asked.
"A microphone/headphone diadem would work better" Harry said, "So I can make the runes, it's better to carve or paint runes than sewing them."
"What is a miorophone, or a headphone?" Neville asked.
Hermione explained "what Harry asked for is a device worn on the head used to communicate with other people who are connected to the system the diadem works in"
"Like the floo?" Terry asked.
"Exactly" Harry said before Hermione could start asking a lot of questions and losing the topic, "I need two of them, probably ruining them and making them useless to the muggle world, but it would make a new business if I could make a lot of them"
"Don't let Daphne hear that, she has this fascination of becoming the most powerful woman in Britain, a business would only help her" Blaize commented, "Give an image of what they look like, my mother can make some out of proper runestones, that way you don't have to spend much muggle currency"
"What does your mother work in?" Harry asked.
"She's a fashion designer," the Italian boy answered, "but the earth close to our mansion is rich in magical stones, so she sells them too"
"Do you think you could get me some too? My wall has little room for runes now" Harry asked.
"Yeah, but I think she will charge you for those, she like her money" Blaize answered.
"Back on the plan!" Lisa stopped them from going further, "after you do that, what is next?"
"I go in with my invisibility cloak, try to map whatever is there," Harry answered, "Then I ask questions, discrete ones, about the things in there, traps, spells, whatever I find, then we add our own traps and make sure nothing can enter after we did"
"What if you can't get through?" Terry asked, "What then?"
"Then we skip part one and go directly to laying our own traps" Blaize answered and Harry nodded.
"The only way to make this as likely to succeed as possible is keeping things simple," Harry picked it up, "I would like to believe in the Chaos Theory"
"So it's agreed then," Lisa said, "We wait for you to make the headsets and them do it"
Everyone agreed.
*Same day*Quidditch match*
It was Gryffindor versus Slytherin that day, and while things were looking up for Gryffindor, whose house team already had a fifty point lead, the seeker of the team was inept at seeking, so he probably got in the team because his broom allowed him to get to the snitch first, as it was a Nimbus 2000, while Slytherin's seeker, Terrence Higgs had both skill, size and broom on his side, with a Comet 800.
So far the scoreboard had been kept on Gryffindor's side, as the keeper, Oliver Wood, had not let any of the ten attempts to put the quaffle through the hoops from his side, and this was starting to frustrate the Slytherin team, as proved by the more savage attempts at stealing the quaffle, already four fouls on Gryffindor's favor had been called, and there was not a sign of the snitch yet, but Harry had already spotted three or four glimmers of gold in the sun, but they were too fast to be sure of anything.
Lee Jordan, the twins' partner in crime was making obviously biased comments on the match and despite McGonagall complaining about it, there was no denying that she was enjoying the comments the boy was making, "AND A FOUL SO OBVIOUS HE SHOULD BE SACKED FROM THE MATCH" just like that one, even if she denied it with her berating.
The match progressed smoothly, or as smoothly as a Gryffindor-Slytherin quidditch match could go, until the bludgers stopped moving in mid-air.
It was sudden, and he doubted that anyone really noticed for a while, as while the bludgers were, in the opinion of many, the best part of the game, they were passive unless a player passed them by a few feet or were directed by the beaters, so no one really noticed themk while they were inactive, but them stopping was something that should have caught everyone's attention, especially the referee's, as he or she was supposed to know what was wrong with any of the quidditch equipment and their enchantments.
People did notice, however, when the pair of bludgers started rocketing towards the stands, the place where Ravenclaw and Gryffindor connected on the stands, right where Harry and his group were, right where most first years were.
Everyone on that section of the stands scattered on different directions, some jumping down the stands and into the pitch, others running towards the exit by the towers.
The bludgers smashed into the stands, smashing through the wood like a hot knife through butter, sending splinters everywhere, some of them hitting the running students and sending them tumbling to the ground, but most got up fast and started running again, not wanting to risk the bludgers going after them.
Said balls rose from the splintered wood, appeared to look around for a moment before going after the Gryffindor group, making said house want to run harder, but since most of them never ran unless needed, some fell to the ground in exhaustion, but it was lucky for them that the bludgers passed them by, going towards the few that were still running.
The teachers had all stood up and were watching the students run for their lives, the more prominent being Snape, who was pointing his wand toward the black balls, a spell already on mind, but he doubted it would be fast enough to hit the bludgers, so the point of his wand was leading them by nearly three feet.
Quirrell looked petrified, with only his head following the bludgers and the rest of his body standing still, with his hand clasped in front of his mouth and his legs seemingly stuck together. The rest of the teachers were watching with either a hand over their mouth or on their chest
"Sectumsempra" Snape's spell flew towards the leading bludger, hitting it in the back, but that was enough for the normally lethal spell to work its magic and blow the ball to smithereens. No one noticed Quirrell twitching.
The second bludger soon followed the first one, Snape hitting it fully on with his spell this time. During the confusion Gryffindor had caught the snitch, making them win 200 to fifty.
Only one person had seen Quirrell twitch during the action, and he was already suspicious. Snape was on the case