My Lovely Readers,
Here is Chapter 24, in Andrew's point of view. I got it done early so I'm just going to post it! I'll be working on the one-shot, so that will also be out soon as well.
Thanks again everyone for enjoying, reading and loving my story.
Illithya
Warning: References to Violence and some Blood.
Chapter 24: Forward Motion Part VI
Andrew rolled out of bed. He still hadn't figured out who Nicolas Flamel was, even though he had the entire winter break to figure it out. Between his brother and Ron they were completely unsuccessful. He was going to hear an earful when Hermione got back.
"Ron," Andrew kicked at his redheaded friend's bed. "Ron!"
"Wha-!" Ron jolted up. He looked around the dorm rapidly, and sighed with relief. "What's wrong Andrew?"
"We should try the library again before Hermione gets back. At the very least we should be pretending to be looking for Flamel. Besides, don't you still have that essay to finish?" Andrew stretched.
"You just had to remind me, didn't you," Ron groaned. The youngest Weasley boy did manage to pull himself from bed though, which was a start.
"For the love of sleep, will the two of you please be more quiet," Tony stuffed his face into his pillow. He came back pretty late last night. Andrew had noticed that his brother was sneaking out, and had confronted him a two nights ago about it. Tony hadn't given anything up. Only that he hadn't been caught yet.
"Are you going to the library with us?" Andrew asked.
"I'll meet you guys there later…" Andrew heard his brother start to snore quietly again.
Ron and Andrew sat in the Great Hall for breakfast. Ron was busily scratching down everything he could remember about a potion they had made almost two weeks ago. Andrew himself was staring at his plate. He was torn between being tired and hungry. The Hogwarts house elves didn't like giving anyone under the age of fifteen coffee, and it was starting to make Andrew go through withdrawals.
"I want coffee…"
"How can you even drink that stuff?" Ron said while stuffing sausage into his mouth.
"A kid who lives down the street from me got me hooked on it about a year ago. It's really good, and it helps me stay awake." said Andrew sluggishly. His dark hair fell into his face as he let his head rest on the table. "Coffee…"
"You do know that Mom got you stuff to brew your own coffee for Christmas," Tony said as he walked up to the table. He ate light like he always did in the morning; always fruits.
"I know, but I'm lazy…" complained Andrew.
"Maybe if you asked the house elves nicely, they would give you some." Andrew could hear the sarcasm in Tony's voice. "When are we going to go to the library?"
"After breakfast," Ron said with a mouthful.
"Please chew before you talk Ron. All I see when you talk with food in your mouth is a horrible flashback to when I was seven…" Andrew snorted at Tony's dismay. His brother had become a vegan being explained how hotdogs were made of. He started out as a vegetarian, but eventually grew into being a vegan.
"Sorry, I forgot," Ron swallowed. "Hopefully we'll get to the bottom of this Flamel stuff soon. It makes my head hurt being in the library for so long. It's too quiet."
"At least we'll have the Gryffindor Hufflepuff match to look forward to. Maybe we'll catch up to Slytherin." Andrew thought aloud.
"Don't get your hopes up to high," a voice said from behind Andrew. The three Gryffindors turned. Harry was standing there with a sly grin on his face. It was one that Ron hated. Andrew liked to think that the two enjoyed antagonizing each other. "Although, Gryffindor will probably do better against Hufflepuff. Based on their game against Ravenclaw, their team is a bit uncoordinated. Their seeker is good though…"
Harry trailed off and sat down next Andrew, and piled his plate with pancakes. Ron scowled but allowed it.
"So, who else forgot to do their transfiguration homework?" Harry asked nonchalantly. All three Gryffindors groaned. "I thought so."
"What'm I gonna do!?" Ron groaned.
"I almost can't believe you didn't do your homework, Harry," Andrew said while rubbing his temples. Coffee would do him some good right then.
"You try living with the Weasley twins and try to remember what your homework was after they've hidden your agenda." Harry grumped. "They took my notes too…"
"Are you asking for one of us to lend you our notes?" Andrew poked.
"I'm asking for a favor. We can all work on the assignment together too if you'd rather do that than lend me notes." Harry sipped his morning juice.
"Do you know where the kitchens are?" asked Andrew. Harry looked confused.
"I might…Why?"
"If you take me to the kitchens, I will write your paper for you." bargained Andrew. Harry laughed.
"I think your notes will be fine. I can take you to the kitchens. Why do you need to go there anyway?"
"He's been without coffee the entire year. He's going a bit crazy." Tony laughed at his brother's caffeine deficiency. Harry made a face and nodded.
"My godfather once pulled a prank on me with coffee. He might have ruined it for me." said Harry.
Andrew sipped happily at a mug of coffee. Harry was like a godsend at the moment. To Andrew at least, the older Holiday twin was pretty sure that Ron wanted to strangle Harry. The Slytherin had told Ron he needed to learn how to take notes and how to write.
"You can go ask someone else for their notes!" Ron seethed. Harry looked long and hard at Tony.
"Anthony…" he more asked, "Anthony, could I borrow your notes?"
Andrew was a little shocked that Harry was able to tell he and his brother apart. Not many people could do that. They looked exactly alike after all. Then again, Harry was friends with the Weasley twins.
With Harry's help everyone got their transfiguration homework done, and he even helped Ron smooth out his potions essay. Andrew feared it was still not up to par with Snape's standards. Harry seemed to be good at everything; Andrew admired that, but he also felt a little sorry for the kid. The only thing Harry seemed to actually enjoy was flying, everything else was just a little…forced.
"Hey, Harry," Andrew asked out of the blue, "have you ever been broom racing or played Quadpot?"
"I don't think Quadpot is the game for me…" Harry started. Andrew couldn't help but scoff. Quadpot was his favorite sport, he let it slide this once.
"Okay, but what about broom racing? You seem like you know your way around a broom backwards and upside down." said the Gryffindor.
"Are coercing me into telling you Slytherin practice techniques?" Harry half joked; Andrew could tell.
"As devious as that sounds, no. I was wondering because I noticed that Hogwarts doesn't have a racing team. Hogwarts doesn't even have a duelling club. Only Quidditch."
"What's wrong with Quidditch?" Harry and Ron asked at the same time. Their apparent rivalry put aside for the time being.
"Wouldn't it be cool if we had more than a game of Quidditch to look forward to?"
"I wouldn't mind getting back into racing. It's a lot of good fun." Tony said. Tony was a great broom racer. One of the best in the junior leagues back in America. "I think broom racing is the best wizarding sport there is."
Ron and Harry glowered at the Holiday twins. It was almost sacrilegious to say something like that. To them Quidditch was everything. Andrew shared a look with his brother.
"Alright, imagine this, between Quidditch games, we have a team of racers who have to fly through the most horrible obstacles a wizard could think of; anything from not getting caught by a group of muggles to out flying a dragon. It's amazing to watch" Andrew explained.
"It's even better to participate," Tony continued. "I was the best broom racer in the East Coast Junior Division."
"But wouldn't that take away from Quidditch?" said Ron. Andrew threw his arms up in the air.
"Wait right here. Don't move, either of you," Andrew got up and went searching for a book on Quadpot and broom racing. He found five books. He threw them onto the table. "Study them, you might find the merits of other sports if you read them!
"The original broom sport was broom racing, other sports sprouted up afterward-"
"Hey, Drew, maybe you should drink some more coffee, you're getting a little bit ahead of yourself." Tony said while holding up the mug of coffee. Andrew glared a little but sat down.
"All we're trying to say is that for a school that's supposed to be…great, it's a little lacking in the department of diversity. As far as sports go, at the very least." Tony explained further, while Andrew calmed down. Quadpot was a completely legit sport. The coffee was pretty good, Andrew thought.
"Sorry, I got a little ahead of myself there…" Andrew said with embarrassment. "Anyway…"
"When are the other students supposed to get back?" Tony asked.
"Right around noon," Harry answered. Andrew looked at his watch.
"They should be here anytime. It's five past." Harry let out a sigh.
"I better go see if I can find my agenda before everyone rushes the common room. Later." Harry waved as he left the library.
"I wonder what's bothering him?" Ron said. Both of the twins looked at him strangely.
"He seemed fine to me," said Tony. Andrew nodded.
"I've known Harry since we were like five. The only time he avoids the twins and actually hangs out with me is when they've done something to make him upset…" Ron suddenly shuddered. "Harry's mom isn't going to like it."
Andrew and Tony shared a look. Andrew shrugged. This wasn't any of his business. Although, he did feel bad for yelling at Harry and Ron about sports. Now he felt like a jerk. Andrew shrugged again at himself. It wasn't that big of a deal.
"Have you guys found anything?" a voice said, startling the three Gryffindors.
"Jeez, Hermione! Don't sneak up on us like that!" Ron gasped. Tony was holding a hand over his heart, and Andrew just stared at Hermione like she grew another head. Their bushy haired friend blushed deeply.
"Did you guys find anything on Flamel?" Hermione asked again. She sat down next to Ron, where Harry had been sitting.
"Well, we haven't found him per se…" Ron forced out.
"You've had whole break!" Hermione whisper yelled.
"Hermione, it's okay, as far as we know Snape hasn't made a move against whatever…Fluffy is guarding. We may still have time." said Andrew calmly. Hermione glared at him.
"We might just be running out of time! Haven't you thought of that!" Hermione did more whisper yells.
"Hermione! Thank goodness I found you!" Neville came running into the library, and like radar Madam Pince appeared from out of no where. Neville continued in a quieter voice. "Hermione, I brought the wrong notes home for that potions essay! Could you please help me!"
Hermione glared down at Ron and the Holiday twins and sighed and told Neville to sit down. Andrew got the feeling that they weren't allowed to leave until after Hermione was finished helping Neville.
Neville confused Andrew a little. He would go from one extreme to the next. One moment he was bold and loud, and the next he was impossibly shy and unsure of himself. In Herbology, Neville was a genius, but during every other class, except for Charms (maybe) Neville was like a child in the face of a dragon. It was the same way when he was away from the friends he had known his entire life and when he was with people he hadn't known very long. It took forever to get Neville to be comfortable around the other guys, but when Neville spoke with someone like Susan or Ron he was very outgoing. Neville was certainly strange.
Nothing like the he or Hermione were. Hermione was a one track mind. It was always books and learning with her. The betterment of beings lesser than herself. Not caring what others thought of her. Andrew wondered if it was healthy to so obsessed with knowledge. Andrew himself was a one track mind. To him it was always about what he wanted; whether it was coffee, finding out who Flamel was, or spreading the joys of Quadpot, he would do what he thought needed to be done to get what he wanted. He had even snuck into the Restricted Section and nearly got himself caught by Snape and Quirrell in the process. Andrew wondered if that made him heartless.
"Thank you so much Hermione!" Neville said as he wrapped up his essay. "I wouldn't have been able to do it without you. Um, here!" Neville shoved a bunch of chocolate frogs onto the table. "I have too many from Christmas, and I figured that they would be a good thank you…"
"Thanks, Neville," said Hermione like she didn't know what to do. The moment Neville laughed, Tony jumped at Hermione like Andrew knew he would. Andrew helped himself to a chocolate frog in the mean time.
"Hermione, Neville so likes you!" Tony sounded pretty excited over the fact. Hermione blushed deeply and Ron looked confused.
"Neville doesn't like me," Hermione denied.
"A boy doesn't give you chocolates for helping him with his homework unless he likes you," Tony paused in thought. "Do you like Neville?"
Tony was fishing, and Andrew briefly wondered about how much his brother was like him. Tony liked others to think he was all friendly and stuff, but he could be as mean as the next girl. Andrew looked at the Dumbledore card he got in the chocolate frog package. More interested in the card than what Tony and Hermione was talking about. Although, Andrew thought, it was better that Hermione was focused on something else…
Andrew suddenly started choking on his chocolate frog.
"Drew, are you okay?" asked Tony while patting his brother on the back. Andrew grabbed for his near empty coffee mug and gulped deeply. "Don't do that! You'll burn your tongue again!"
"I found Flamel!" coughed Andrew. "He was on the back of a chocolate frog card the entire time!"
"What?" all three of his classmates said at the same time. Andrew held up the Dumbledore card.
"Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel! It was on the back of a friggin' card the entire time!" Andrew continued to cough.
Hermione suddenly slammed her palm to her forehead. "Wait here!"
"Where are we supposed to go?" Ron asked the twins. They were just as confused as he was. Hermione suddenly sped back towards the table she left the boys at. She was blushing a bright red.
"Sorry, we should go to the common room. The book is in the girl's dormitory." she said sheepishly. The four Gryffindors trudged their way to Gryffindor Tower. When they got into the tower, Hermione sped up the stairs to the girl dorms. She wasn't gone for very long, not even a minute.
"I never thought to look here!" she beamed. "I checked this out of the library weeks ago for a bit of light reading." The book was easily the same size as the most complete dictionary in the world, Andrew thought.
"Light?" said Ron in disbelief, both of the twins agreed. Hermione glared at the three boys, and started to furiously flip through the tomes pages.
"Here!" said Hermione excitedly. Ron looked like he wanted to say something, but Hermione continued too quickly for him to get a word in. "Nicolas Flamel is the only known maker of the Sorcerer's Stone!"
Andrew immediately knew what she was talking about.
"The what?" Tony and Ron asked.
"Don't you read?" Hermione gripped. Andrew saw that his friends were going to start to argue, but he interrupted before it could start.
"The Sorcerer's Stone, or the Philosopher's Stone, is created by alchemical means. It's known for having extraordinary magical properties ranging from turning lead to gold or even making a person immortal. I didn't know that there was one even in existence."
"Well, the stone can turn any metal to gold, and the stone itself isn't what makes a person immortal, the stone is needed to create the Elixir of Life, which will make the user immortal." Hermione hashed out the details that Andrew left out, like a teacher would. "It says here that Nicolas Flamel is at least six hundred and sixty-five years old. His wife is six hundred and fifty-eight. They've been using the stone for centuries."
"That must be why we couldn't find anything about Flamel in the Study of Recent Developments in Wizardy," said Ron, he then laughed. "Six hundred and sixty-five."
"I can't believe that someone would keep something like that far from their person." Tony said. "If I had that stone, I would never let it leave my side."
Andrew nodded in agreement. Gringotts was supposed to be one of the most protected places in the wizarding Britain. If Gringotts was broken into, then why would Hogwarts be any safer. Especially with a professor after the stone.
Andrew and the others were still talking about the stone a week after they had figured out that it was the stone that was being so well guarded in Hogwarts. Andrew was wondering when they were going to finish up on werewolf bites. It felt like that they had been talking about it for weeks, and Andrew was positive that Quirrell didn't know what he was doing.
Susan Bones took his mind off Defense and magical stones. She was bouncing excitedly next to him, and he couldn't help but wonder why she was so giddy.
"What's got you so excited Suzy-Q?" he whispered. Susan smiled at Andrew, despite the name.
"The Quidditch match is on Saturday!" she whispered back. "We are so going to win!"
"Seven galleons says Gryffindor wins," said Andrew conspiratorially. Susan smiled slyly.
"You are so on."
By Saturday, Andrew and Susan had all but caused a war between their houses. The Weasley twins capitalized on the whole thing and were holding bets while retaining ten percent of the intake. Andrew wasn't sure how many people put in money, but there were bets on who was going to be taken out by Bludgers, who was most likely going to cheat and various other things. Andrew heard that Professor McGonagall had nearly given them detention for causing a ruckus in class over it.
Andrew was sitting with the other Gryffindor first year boys, screaming for their house to win. He was watching the Gryffindor beaters try to take out the Hufflepuff seeker who was almost as fast as Harry was. Andrew grudgingly admitted that Quidditch was fun to watch and play, but not as fun as Quadpot, as he watched the Gryffindor seeker fake out the Hufflepuff seeker. He was having a grand time, until he heard an annoying voice say something rather rude.
"Maybe they should have had Longbottom and Weasley on the team. They might have made up for some of the lack of talent. Oh, wait that's right, the two of them are too incompetent. And Weasley's too poor to even afford a proper broom, and Longbottom has no brains." it was Draco Malfoy, Andrew knew.
Neville and Ron both turned red. Andrew had heard that Neville had been cursed by Draco not to long ago and needed to have a pep talk.
"Push off Malfoy, I'm worth more than twelve of you!" Andrew certainly admired Neville's nerve.
"Longbottom, if brains were gold you'd be poorer than Weasley, and that's saying something." Malfoy pushed. Tony had turned to listen as well. He and Andrew shared a look, and eyed Crabbe and Goyle who were never too far from Malfoy.
"It's a pity too, because your stupid brothers are begging for money I hear."
Suddenly Ron pounced on Malfoy faster than Andrew could follow, and that was saying something. In the next second, Neville managed to tackle down Crabbe and Goyle. The twins looked at each other in shock. Neville never seemed this brash before. Andrew liked this Neville who dove into the fray. Inspired Andrew pulled Goyle off of Neville and spun him around and punched him square in the nose.
In a rage Goyle tackled Andrew down, causing the smaller boy to fall into the bleachers. Goyle went back after Neville was doing well on his own against Crabbe. He didn't stand a chance against both of them though. Tony pulled Andrew out of the bleacher and Andrew threw himself back at the two extra large Slytherins. Goyle got a good hit in on Andrews jaw.
"Hagrid and Flitwick are coming!" Andrew heard his brother call loudly over the fighting and the cheering. Ron and Malfoy let go of each other, and Goyle and Crabbe pushed Andrew away. Tony grabbed for Neville and tried to pull him up. Andrew had to help him.
"This isn't the end of this Weasley!" Malfoy growled, but with the giant black eye it seemed a lot less threatening. The three Slytherins scurried off as Hagrid and Professor Flitwick walked up.
"What happened here?" Flitwick sounded a little angry and a little shocked.
"I got so excited that I accidentally fell into Ron and Neville. I might have gone a little over board…" Andrew said sheepishly. Flitwick examined the three of them, especially a knocked out Neville.
"You better take him to the hospital wing," the tiny professor said finally. Ron and Andrew nodded.
"You can stay if you want to finish the match," Andrew said to Ron and then to his brother: "Tell Susan to meet me in the hospital wing after the match if I'm not back."
"You sure you don't want me to go with you?" Ron asked.
"It's cool. I want to talk to Neville anyway." Andrew waved as he lugged Neville out of the stands. Andrew wished that Flitwick and Hagrid had helped take Neville all the way to the hospital wing.
Neville still hadn't woken when he was safe in a hospital wing bed. Luckily someone was ready with a stretcher out at the pitch. Madam Pomfrey said that they would both be fine. She gave Andrew permission to stay until Neville woke up.
Maybe fifteen minutes later Neville finally woke up. It was a bit of a startling thing to watch. He bolted up in such a hurry that the sheets went flying too. Andrew couldn't help but laugh at Neville.
"What happened?" he asked.
"You were knocked out by dumb and dumber." Neville didn't recognize the reference. "Crabbe and Goyle got to you before I could help."
"Oh…"
"If it makes you feel better Malfoy has another black eye, Goyle has a broken nose, and I'm pretty sure that Crabbe lost a tooth or two." Neville laughed at the image Andrew created.
"Is Ron okay?"
"He has a bloody nose, but I think you had it worse. I bet your head is going to kill for the next few days."
"Well, at least my face is still pretty." Neville laughed at his own joke and Andrew joined in.
"Neville, why do you get all shy around people?" Andrew said without caring if this made his friend nervous or embarrassed. "I mean, the coolest thing you've done all year was take on Crabbe and Goyle, alone, at once. It was pretty ballsy."
"Did you know that my mother can't have any children?" Neville said suddenly. Andrew was taken aback by such large leap away from his question, so Andrew just shook his head.
"Well, my mum was a lot like Harry's is when I was younger. She wouldn't let me go outside or do anything. I actually lived here at Hogwarts for sometime too. Harry and I would get ourselves into so much trouble when we were toddlers." Neville smiled. "I realized eventually that if I did crazy things other children were impressed. So I would do silly things to impress Ron and Ginny and even the Weasley twins.
"At some point I wondered if the people around me were really my friends or if they just wanted to be around me because they knew I would do something crazy. I decided that I would be myself, but I wasn't really sure who I was. I don't think I'll figure that out for a long time."
"Do you like Hermione? I mean like-like her."
"Hermione was the first person outside of my tight group of friends to be nice to me, so I want to be nice to her back but…"
"And what about Malfoy? According to Ron you're not the kind of person to back down right away. Let along needing a pep talk."
"You heard about that, huh…I've never been bullied before. Not even by the twins. So I was a little confused and shocked at what Malfoy was doing. And let me tell you, Andrew, I wanted to put him in his place, but then I thought of the professors. I mean, I used to have tea parties with Professor McGonagall and Professor Sprout when I was younger. And Professor Flitwick used to charm my toys so they would dance. I didn't want to disappoint them, or my parents, and I froze.
The next thing I know I have a leg binding curse hit me and I have to hop the whole way to the Tower. And trust me when I say that falling through the stairs is not fun on any level. I'd never felt so embarrassed in my life. I just want to be someone others can depend on, but I just keep making a fool of myself."
"Neville, you are a good friend. That's who you are. I mean, how many Gryffindors stay friends with a Slytherin?"
Neville laughed.
"You don't have to do everything by yourself. Sometimes you need to lean on others to get anywhere."
"Where'd you learn that?"
"After you've lived with my brother for as long as I have you learn a few things."
The doors to the hospital wing suddenly burst open. Ron bound in like a bullet. He had a huge grin on his face. "We won!" he yelled. Madam Pomfrey shushed him and warned him that if he didn't take the conversation outside she would give him detention.
"We won!" Ron whispered. "Great job, Neville!"
"You feel up to getting out of here?" Andrew asked his friend.
"Let me get something for headaches from Madam Pomfrey and I'll meet you out there."
Andrew left the hospital wing to see that Susan was looking at her feet with frustration. Andrew was seven galleons richer. The redheaded Hufflepuff pushed the gold coins into his hand.
"Please tell me that we caught up with Slytherin at least," Andrew said. Susan smiled.
"We both did! It was a really close match! We would have won if we would have caught the snitch. If we had there would have been no way Slytherin could catch up in points!" Susan smiled. "Neville! I heard you took on Crabbe and Goyle!"
"I should have knocked one of them out. Maybe next time though." Neville laughed.
"Neville! Fighting is against school rules!" Hermione gasped.
"Tell that to Malfoy," said Andrew. "Anyway lets celebrate!"
The group of Gryffindors and the lone Hufflepuff made their way back towards the Great Hall, where a Gryffindor themed lunch was being served. Andrew was the only one to notice Snape and Quirrell walk into the castle together. Snape was angry looking like he always was. And Quirrell, looked even more terrifying than any other time Andrew had seen him. Snape must have threatened Quirrell about something.
Some fact clicked in Andrew's mind. Snape must be threatening Quirrell over the stone. Quirrell must have been one of the professors protecting it. Hagrid had said that there were other things and professors protecting the stone. Snape must have figured out the other enchantments, but couldn't get past Quirrell's. That meant that he got past Fluffy.
Hermione was right. They didn't have that much time at all if Snape was threatening Quirrell. They'd probably have only till the end of the week.