Chapter 13: Alchemy 101
Sorry for the 'delay' again, so much to do, so little time. I do not own a thing, but I totally want to quote Fullmetal in this chapter. I used a lot of the book in this chapter, thank you for your wonderful writing Ms. Rowling
"Nicolas Flamel, I can't believe it." Hermione said as they poured over the small passage on Nicolas Flamel inside the large library tome. "I can't believe you remembered this small amount of information." Ron said. "I can." Draco responded. "The Sorcerer's stone, so... Fluffy is guarding that." I wonder why Dumbledore thought to bring it here?" Neville asked, "How'd he know there'd be a break-in on Gringotts?" "I don't think he knew it'd be the same day Neville, that was probably just luck." Harry responded. "So who do you think is after it?" Hermione thought aloud, "baring 'everybody'." She gave a look to Ron. "Well, there is Voldemort." Harry sighed. "You-Know-Who? You think he's still... around?" Ron asked, looking paler and paler by the moment, "Dumbledore went so far as to hide the stone in Hogwarts, it's either him or some threat no one knows about." Draco responded. "Can we table this for now? We need more information, all this guessing around won't help." Hermione sighed. "You just want to get back to re-reading the Standard Book of Spells." Ron said. "Well.. Yes." Hermione nodded, "I've been making a lot of progress into Verdimillious and Vermilious, getting blue sparks, yellow, and I think I got Ultraviolet!" "Really? What about Flipendo?" Draco asked, "Oh that one has some interesting applications..." "They're at it again." Ron said to Harry, "Let's go watch the Quidditch team practice is doing." Normally Harry wouldn't be so excited as Ron about Quidditch, but it was better than the purely academic talk from Hermione and Draco. The next match was to be Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff, a very likely win for the team.
The match came all too quick for the team and Harry found himself high up in the stands cheering on the Gryffindor team to a grueling win. While the Hufflepuff team was not the best, they definitely had a leg up with a trained Seeker. The Gryffindor beaters had to focus on the Seeker rather than the other players. Harry had gotten slightly bored and focused on the crowd rather than the game. "Hey, look at Snape!" he elbowed Ron, "Why's he look so upset?" "I don't know, he's almost always upset from what I've heard." Ron responded. Harry followed Snape's gaze, it was settled clearly on Quirrel. "You think he'd be over not getting the defense position." Ron said. Harry shook his head, that wasn't it, they had learned that there was a curse on the Defense position and there was a betting pool as to what would do Quirrel in. Harry was more concerned with why Quirrel had changed from teaching Muggle Studies now that he thought about it. Finally though, the Gryffindor team managed to pull it off and catch the Snitch. Snape stood up and immediately went straight to Quirrel mumbling in his ears. Quirrel gave a look of shock, then nodded. Then Snape walked away. Later at dinner, Harry noticed Quirrel wasn't sitting at the Head table, and then saw Snape excuse himself. Harry excused himself as well, and cautiously followed the Professor in his invisibility cloak. They entered the forest and Harry paled, but continued stepping lightly. Finally, they reached a shadowy clearing, Harry hid himself as well as he could, which was pretty well from 'Harry hunting' with Dudley, loving his Christmas gift even more.
"D-don't know why you wanted t-t-to meet here of all p-places, Severus..." "Oh, I thought we'd keep this private," said Snape, his voice icy. "Students aren't supposed to know about the Sorcerer's Stone, after all." Quirrel was mumbling something, but Snape interrupted him. "Have you found out how to get past that beast of Hagrid's yet?" "B-b-but Severus, I-" "You don't want me as your enemy, Quirrell," "I-I don't know what you-" "You know perfectly well what I mean. Tell me what you know, how you know, why you've been investigating the through the trapdoor against orders, tell me your little bit of hocus-pocus. I'm waiting." "B-but I d-d-don't-" "Very well," Snape cut in. "We'll have another little chat soon, when you've had time to think things over and decided where your loyalties lie." Snape left as soon as he said that, leaving Quirrel behind. Harry sneaked away as well, making sure Quirrel didn't see him as he left.
"Where have you been?" Squeaked Hermione. "We worried about you when you didn't come back, everything alright?" Draco asked. "Yeah, I'm fine, but we need to find an empty room." They left the common room and found an empty classroom nearby. "So... Quirrell's after the stone. Or doing something against orders, and doing it with some 'hocus-pocus'" Harry finished. "Maybe he found a way that Dumbledore couldn't detect?" Ron asked. "Well, he's probably been sneaking in, the troll? Maybe he even knows about the monsters that keep finding their way through the corridors?" Draco asked reasonably. "Whatever he knows, he doesn't know how to get past Fluffy. And I bet there's loads of other traps and enchantments. I'm sure Snape wouldn't tell Quirrell what he did, but that it's likely something about potions." Ron sighed. "So... should we tell Dumbledore?" Neville asked. "Snape seems to have not told Dumbledore, otherwise Quirrell would be gone, I bet he's trying to figure out why Quirrell wants it so bad." Draco responded, "We should keep an extra eye on him too."
Over the weeks, they checked on the third-floor corridor to make sure Fluffy was still growling away. While Professor Quirrell grew paler and thinner, Professor Snape seemed to be getting angrier. He likely hadn't found anything out just yet. Hermione and Draco however started drawing up study schedules and color coding their notes, reminding them that exams were in ten weeks. Ten weeks seemed like a far ways away, but Harry knew it could pass way too quickly. It was 9 weeks from exams that the first dead unicorn was found, bloody and miserable.