Perhaps it was because he'd been through so much during his time at Hogwarts, what with the detention in the Forbidden Forest, as well as the daily duelling lessons and the endless amount of homework, but Harry could hardly believe that two months had passed since he had come to Hogwarts.
In those two months, despite the beginning being rather rough, this castle was beginning to feel more like a home than Privet Drive ever had. His lessons were becoming interesting as well, now that he had mastered the basics. Richard, however, was still adamant that Harry, Ginny and Ron needed to work on their dodging.
Ginny's Quidditch practice had started ages ago, but with the Quidditch season fast approaching, Oliver Wood, the Gryffindor team's rather barmy captain, seemed to have picked up a new flair for being demanding. Harry was all for Quidditch practice, it looked fun, but playing in the rain? He would gladly pass on that opportunity.
Oliver also increased the frequency of his practices, making the players come to the pitch at least twice a day. Once in the morning, followed by another in the evening. Most of the time, they'd be absolutely soaked by the time practice was over.
"We keep doing the same thing!" Ginny ranted to him once. "Over and over again, it's always pass the Quaffle, shoot the Quaffle, fly in a synchronised formation, and run laps around the pitch in the middle of the bloody rain!"
But she always reported to the pitch without fail and today was no exception. She seemed happier about today's practice though, something that was in stark contrast to his current mood.
It hadn't ever struck him, the significance of this particular day. Growing up, it had always been just another festival, another reason for Dudley and his gang to bully him, but now… now Halloween had a more significant meaning to him.
It was the day his parents had been killed.
Harry didn't experience an urgent need to cry a river that would flood Hogwarts, nor did he experience any extreme depression- at least, he hoped not- but there was this weight in his stomach that made him feel as though it was impossible to breathe or to feel. It just made him want to get up from his seat and run away to the Trophy Room so that he could look at the pictures of his parents once again.
"You wouldn't believe what Wood's going to have us do at practice this evening," Ginny was saying, her eyes wide with excitement.
He smiled at her, giving himself something to focus on, but he wasn't sure if it was working or not. His mind kept drifting back to them, to a life he'd never had.
"We're doing a new Three-Pronged formation," Ginny continued, oblivious to his turmoil. "And guess what, even the Seeker will help, and- wait, now that I'm telling you this, I feel like I probably shouldn't tell you this, just in case anyone overhears or anything -"
What would that be like? He wondered. Maybe he'd have been sorted in Gryffindor. His parents were Gryffindors of course, if he was raised by them, perhaps he would have been with his best friend.
"Harry?"
And perhaps the other people wouldn't hate him as much if he was in Gryffindor.
"Hellooooo?"
Perhaps he would be on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team as well.
"I'm going to eat your treacle tart tonight."
Harry hummed in response before her words caught up with his brain. "What?" He asked incredulously. She'd get that treacle tart over his dead body! "No, you're not!"
She leaned forward, looking concerned. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah." Harry nodded, trying not to smack himself when he realised she had played him. She was in a good mood, though; there was no need to burden her with his internal angst and ruin it.
"Uh huh," she said slowly, looking doubtful. "I can tell when you're lying but if you say you're okay…?" she trailed off in askance.
He nodded. "Thanks," he replied with a smile.
Maybe he would tell her when they were both having shitty days. Or maybe, hopefully, this was a temporary, early morning 'thing' that would sort itself out as the day went on.
If only things were so easy.
His mood had only deteriorated as the day went on, and the 'thing' only seemed to be getting worse with time. It helped a little that Professor Flitwick was finally teaching them to make objects fly around with the Wingardium Leviosa Spell, instead of just letting the objects hover in place with the basic Levitation Charm.
Still, it wasn't enough to snuff out his bad mood entirely, and by the time lunch came around Harry had no wish to socialise with anyone, not even Ginny.
To make matters worse, she didn't seem to understand the cause for his bad mood. She'd long since stopped talking about things as well, unlike what she would normally do. Harry felt guilty about it, but he couldn't blame her either, because he would usually respond with his own two cents, but not today.
All of this, combined with the fact that there were now decorations in the Great Hall- Halloween themed decorations- managed to make this one of the worst days of his life.
"This is pretty, isn't it?" Ginny asked with a smile in his direction.
Harry didn't think they were pretty at all. All they did was remind him of death. He didn't want to tell her that though, something that surprised him immensely. If asked yesterday, he would have asked her.
Shaking himself, he prepared himself to leave.
"I think I forgot something," Harry said.
"Harry?" She asked before he could leave. "What's going on? Did I do something?" She looked worried.
He closed his eyes and let out a low sigh as he shook his head. This was not how he wanted this to go. "No, no. It's not you," he said. "It's just… it's a me thing. I need to be alone right now."
She looked at him for a few moments, as though she was appraising him. In the end, she swallowed and nodded. "See you in class, then?"
"Sure," he said, but he wasn't even sure if he'd make it.
Ginny threw another worried look his way before she disappeared into the crowd of students heading into the Great Hall. He waited outside for a second longer before he, too, turned and walked away.
He wasn't sure where to go from here. He didn't really have anyone he could talk to about this- well, maybe Dumbledore, but Harry assumed the man had his own stuff to do.
Realising that he was walking towards the entrance Hall, he decided to commit to it and get out of the castle. Maybe the outdoors would be good for him.
He sat down once he was a fair distance away from the castle, looking over at the treeline of the Forbidden Forest. The grounds were covered in snow, giving the castle a really 'magical' look.
His gaze landed on Hagrid's hut eventually, and he saw smoke coming out of his chimney, an indicator that Hagrid was home. Before he even fully decided on it, he stood and wandered there, knocking on the door twice.
Fang jumped at him when Hagrid opened the door, but Harry was ready for it and braced himself, hugging the boarhound and ruffling its hair as Hagrid peeked his head out from inside the hut.
"Harry!" He greeted him. "Come in, come in."
"Hey, Hagrid," Harry replied with a nod as Fang let him go, running in a circle around him before dashing inside.
"What are yeh doin' over here?" Hagrid asked, ushering him inside.
"I don't really know, to be honest," Harry muttered as he sat down beside Fang on the sofa. "I just… I wanted to be alone and…" he trailed off with a sigh. He felt more miserable than Filch would on a bad day.
"Is it about what happened today?" Hagrid asked gently, taking the armchair in front of him. "Yeh know, all those years ago?"
"Maybe," Harry replied.
"Yeh can talk abou' it, yeh know," Hagrid suggested. It was a good idea. Perhaps he should have accepted the offer, but every bone in his body protested the idea of having to talk about feelings, so he just ended up shaking his head.
"Don' blame yeh," Hagrid said, sighing as he leaned back in his chair. "Tha' might'a been the wors' day o' me life. And I've lived fer a long time."
"How long?" Harry asked, his curiosity piqued.
"Sixty-two years," Hagrid replied, grinning.
Harry's jaw dropped. Hagrid did not look sixty-two. In fact, he did not look a day over thirty. "No way," Harry said, shaking his head. "You can't be sixty-two."
"If I wanted ter lie, I'd have said I was younger." Hagrid looked like he was about to laugh, and Harry had to admit that he had a point.
A silence fell upon them, and Harry looked outside the window, lost in his thoughts. It was then that he remembered something Hagrid said.
"You said it was the worst day of your life?" Harry asked hesitantly.
Hagrid nodded, looking downcast. "I knew James an' Lily," he explained. "They were both very kind ter me when I started ou' as the full time gamekeeper, unlike some others. We became good friends."
Harry nodded his understanding as Hagrid trailed off. He made a mental note to ask Hagrid about them later. He didn't want to hear more about his parents right now, because he was it reminded him they were gone. He had never known them, and he never would know them because of this stupid day.
"What about yer classes, Harry?" Hagrid asked a while later, furrowing his brow. "Don' yeh have ter leave now?"
Harry checked his watch and saw that it was time for his Potions class, after which he would have History of Magic. He didn't really fancy facing off against Snape today, and while going through a mind numbing session seemed like it would be helpful, Binns was the last person Harry would want help from.
"I don't want to go," Harry answered. "I won't be able to focus anyway."
Hagrid sighed, but didn't seem surprised. "Well, I've got ter do some things," he said, standing up. "Tend ter the animals, the farm…" he trailed off.
"Can I join you?" Harry asked on a whim. It would help keep him distracted and give him an excuse to stay out of class.
Hagrid seemed opposed to it at first, but Harry was able to convince him by saying that he really wanted to see the animals Hagrid had. He seemed quite excited after hearing that, and Harry couldn't help but smile back at him.
He led him out of the back door, following the narrow-for-Hagrid, twisting path through the middle of the vegetable patch. Hagrid watered the plants as Harry went to the other side of the patch, watching him work.
Hagrid then went on to drop a box of some weird looking insects on each side of the path. "I let them out at the end of every month so that they can clean up the dangerous weed," he explained.
The pair eventually entered the Forbidden Forest again. Hagrid assured him that they weren't going too deep, and that there wouldn't be any dying unicorns around here this time.
Soon enough, they were in a large clearing that had a few different pens filled with several of the most bizzare animals Harry had ever seen. They had the bodies, hind legs and tails of horses, but the front legs, wings and heads of what seemed to be giant eagles, with grey coloured beaks and large, brilliantly orange eyes. Their fur was of several different colours, ranging from light brown all the way to nearly midnight black. The talons on their front legs were at least half a foot long and very deadly-looking.
Harry watched, enthralled as one of them reared up on its hind legs and screeched like an eagle, only louder. He had never seen anything as fascinating as this in his life.
"Those are Hippogriffs," Hagrid explained proudly. "I raised 'em all myself! I'll introduce ya, that grey one there is Buckbeak and…"
Hagrid could only make the introductions from a distance at first. The only way one could get close to a Hippogriff was to bow to one and hope that it bowed back.
With Hagrid's help, he was eventually able to figure it out and the two of them began brushing the Hippogriffs' fur with a brush. They sat in silence, the only sound being the soft purring of the Hippogriffs. Ginny would have loved this, he thought, feeling a bit of a pang in the wake of her absence.
She deserved an apology at the very least. He had been moody, dismissive, and probably a bit cagey from her point of view, and shs was the last person that deserved any of that. He wasn't under the impression that she would hold his disappearance against him or anything because she just wasn't like that, but he knew she would worry.
He was pulled out of his thoughts by the appearance of a small, green, stick-like creature on a nearby tree. It had little arms, the tiniest of eyes, and a few leaf-like structures emerging out of its head.
"That's a Bowtruckle," said Hagrid. "They only nest in trees which have wand quality wood."
"Is that how wandmakers find those trees?" Harry asked, watching as one of the Bowtruckles slowly stepped off the tree and onto the edge of the fence. He barely heard Hagrid's affirmative response, taken as he was by the creatures in front of him.
"Hey," Harry whispered, offering it a gentle smile. The Bowtruckle raised a peanut to him as its face split into a smile. Harry took the offering as his smile turned into a grin.
"It likes yeh," Hagrid said, nodding his approval.
Harry would have hung out with the Bowtruckle more but then he remembered that he had a Hippogriff patiently waiting for him, so he decided to finish off brushing her fur first.
While he was busy doing that, a few other creatures made an appearance. A flock of Jobberknolls flew in from nearby trees, a few Nifflers burrowed their way out, and some Mooncalves waddled in along with a pack of Puffskeins.
All the creatures were beautiful. Harry had never really considered that he might have had a soft spot for animals, but when he was with them, he felt a part of himself ease up. He understood Ginny's fascination with them now and he told Hagrid he would definitely be coming back whenever it was possible.
Soon, however, their time had come to an end, and they had to return to Hagrid's hut.
"Thanks, Hagrid," Harry said, breathing in the fresh smell of the vegetables on their way back.
"Yer welcome," Hagrid replied with a grin. "Did i' help?"
"Yeah," Harry replied immediately, his mind flashing to the Nifflers that had almost stolen his tie because of the shiny silver on it.
"I'm glad," he replied. "Think yeh'll be able to survive the castle yet?"
"I'll try." He laughed.
He ended up staying for tea anyway, talking about the Quidditch season with Hagrid. Supposedly, the Gryffindor team had a decent chance this year because of all the good Slytherin and Ravenclaw players having graduated.
"Hufflepuff might be a problem," Hagrid explained. "Their seeker's really good."
His attention, however, was soon captured by a newspaper on top of the fireplace, flashing a picture of the Gringotts robbery. Hagrid was getting the tea right now, so Harry supposed a little peek wouldn't hurt.
Even after four months, the Aurors had no leads other than it being the work of a Dark Wizard. There was one new piece of information here though, which said that the vault in question had already been emptied ten days before the robbery. There was even a photo of the object, encased in wrappings that made it look really odd in shape.
After some quick mental math, Harry realised that ten days ago from the day of the robbery would be his birthday. He might have been there with Dumbledore when the vault was emptied!
In fact, now that Harry thought about it, he did remember seeing Dumbledore slip a similar package in his robes, but he'd never gotten the chance to ask about it. Could that be what the thief was after?
"Yeh all right?" Hagrid asked, placing a tray of tea and biscuits in front of him.
Harry nodded and showed him the paper. "The vault was emptied on my birthday," Harry said, pointing at the part where it said the same. "On May 31st, Hagrid… I saw Dumbledore take something weird from one of the Goblins."
He remembered hearing that Gringotts was the second safest place on earth. If so, then why would Dumbledore take out something so precious that someone decided to rob one of the safest banks for it?
Unless…
Unless he meant to hide it in the one place that was safer than Gringotts… the one place that was closer…
Hagrid's eyes went wide with surprise when Harry told him this. "Listen," he said, sitting down and looking at him seriously. "I have no idea how you figured that out, but we cannot be having this conversation. Not now, not ever. The object is safe, that's all I'm tellin' ya."
"It was supposed to be safe at Gringotts as well," Harry pointed out.
"Gringotts doesn't have a bloody Cerberus guarding it," Hagrid muttered, and then nearly dropped his glass of tea in shock.
A Cerberus? Harry remembered that name from his time in the Muggle library. What was it again… a feeling of dread pooled in his stomach as he remembered.
"You mean the three-headed dog on one of the third-floor corridors?" Harry asked faintly. "That's a Cerberus!?"
"Forget I said anything," Hagrid told him quickly, looking panicked.
Harry ignored him. "Hagrid, is there a Cerberus in the school?"
"Oh, alright. Fine," Hagrid said, sounding frustrated. "Since you won't let this go, yes, there's a Cerberus in the school."
Harry's jaw dropped open. "Does Dumbledore know about it?"
"Of course, he does," Hagrid said, looking incredulous at the question. "He approved the Cerberus to be in there so that it could guard the Phi- "
Hagrid stopped, looking horrified.
"Yes?"
"Now, don't ask me any more," said Hagrid gruffly. "That's top secret, that is. Yer meddlin' in things yeh don't understand! It's dangerous! You forget abou' the Cerberus, and you forget abou' what it's guardin' all right? That's strictly between Professor Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel."
"Nicolas Flamel?" Harry asked.
"Bollocks," Hagrid responded, hitting himself in the head.
"Relax, Hagrid," Harry said, standing up and making his way to the door. "I won't tell anyone." Anyone but Ginny, but he would make sure she wouldn't tell anyone either.
"Wait, where are you going?" Hagrid asked as Harry opened the door and stepped out
"Oh, I think I should head back to the castle." Harry answered, giving Fang a quick neck scratch before he bolted away from the hut, intent on finding out more about the Cerberus and this Nicolas Flamel bloke.
"HARRY," he heard Hagrid's worried shout. "DO NOT LOOK FOR THAT NAME!"
《••••••••••••••••••••》
As the afternoon slowly turned into evening, there was still no sign of Harry anywhere in the school. He wasn't in his classes, he wasn't in the Great Hall for tea, nor was he on the Quidditch Pitch like Ginny hoped he would be.
Something was going on with Harry, she knew. All morning, he wouldn't talk with her like he usually did and he seemed lost in his own world more often than not. While a bad mood could explain it away, their friendship was special. He didn't have bad moods with her. He had bad moods with other people, so she didn't think that was it.
Had she made a mistake letting Harry go that afternoon? She wondered. Should she have pressed on until he told her what was bothering him? Would that have only made him go further into isolation? She had no idea.
All of this made her worried; worried enough that she had decided to go on a small rescue mission of sorts, checking out the places where they usually hung out like the Trophy Room, the Undercroft, an unused classroom on the fourth floor, and so on.
When she didn't find him in any of those places either, she decided to head down to the Slytherin common room. She was promptly shoved out by a prefect for not being a Slytherin, but she was able to annoy him into telling her that Harry wasn't in there.
That only left Hagrid's hut. She had been there before practice in the late afternoon, but there was no smoke coming out of the chimney, which meant that there was no one home. She assumed Hagrid had left to do his chores, and vowed to come back after practice ended.
But as it turned out, she didn't even need to step a foot outside of the castle because when she reached the Entrance Hall after practice, Harry himself came sprinting in there and laid his head against the wall, panting.
Well, what now? She asked herself. She hadn't really thought about what she'd do when she actually found him. Shaking her head, she reminded herself that she was Ginny bloody Weasley and marched down the stairs.
The sound of her footsteps made him snap his head up to her, a surprised expression on his face. He pushed himself off the wall and came to meet her halfway when she reached the bottom of the stairs.
"Er, hi," he said, cringing a moment after the words left his mouth.
"Hi?" She raised an eyebrow. She had to fight to keep her smile in check.
"Yeah, not the word I was going for." He wrung his hands. "I'm so sorry I left like that earlier, Gin. It's just…" He bit his lip, looking away from her. "I just needed to be alone. Everyone's out there celebrating, and there are decorations…" he trailed off, shaking his head. "It's just not a good day for me because… you know, because it's Halloween."
He was looking at her as though hoping that she would understand what he meant just by that explanation. She didn't, at first, but when she thought about why it would affect him enough that he had to leave, it all clicked together.
Today was Halloween.
"Oh, Harry," she said. It all made a horrible sort of sense now, and without thinking, she threw her arms around him and hugged him.
Almost immediately, she remembered he was so uncomfortable with touching and she was invading his space, but before she could pull away, he hugged her back! It was short, and very awkward, which she thought was quite odd because it felt like this was his first time hugging someone.
"Are you alright?" She asked when they broke apart.
"I am now," he said, smiling at her. "Hung out with Hagrid all day."
She chuckled. "Of course you'd be in the one place I couldn't search."
"What?"
She explained her whole adventure to him, leaving out the parts about her worrying about him. He was here now, he was safe, he was alright, and he didn't need to be burdened with that.
He winced at the end of her explanation. "Sorry," he said. "I should have told you or sent a note or something."
"Don't worry about it." She waved him off. It would be best if they just moved on. "But remember, I can provide a diversion if you're skipping class so you better tell me if something like this happens, deal?"
She offered him a pinky, a chance to make one of the most solemn vows known to mankind. He looked at it curiously, then shifted his gaze to her before he linked her finger with his own. "I swear that I will tell you where I'm going the next time I feel like I'm going to be a moody git."
She laughed. "Alright," she said. "And I promise I'll continue to be the best best friend ever."
"Who said you were the best best friend ever?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow at her.
"I did," she said. "Just now. Did you not hear?"
Harry rolled his eyes and opened his mouth, but they were interrupted when her stomach began grumbling.
"The best best friend needs her food," she said, trying not to blush as Harry laughed. "Oh, don't laugh. I've been slaving away at practice, I've tried to find you all day, and I'm a Weasley -"
"Alright, alright," he interrupted her, clearly struggling not to laugh as grabbed her by the shoulders and steered her towards the way to the Great Hall. She was so surprised at the act that her words died on her lips.
"Let's get you something to eat, Miss Chatterbox," Harry said, breaking into her thoughts and snuffing out the warm feeling like Ron would snuff out a spider.
"Excuse me!?" Ginny asked, outraged.
On the way to the Great Hall, he told her about everything he'd done at Hagrid's. From brushing Hippogriffs' hair to befriending Bowtruckles, Ginny listened, enthralled as he described everything, her previous anger swept aside for now.
"Can I join you next time?" She asked. She had always wanted to meet a Hippogriff, perhaps even ride one, but going to Muriel's house for that wasn't worth it. It never would be. What if her Hippogriffs turned out to be rude and stuck up like her?
"Erm…" Harry trailed off, looking awkwardly to his feet. "Yeah, I think I might have to apologise to Hagrid first."
"What did you do?" Ginny asked slowly.
Harry explained the newspaper article to her, telling her how he'd made the connections between the two incidents and how he had subsequently put Hagrid through a 'non interrogation.'
She didn't know what that three headed dog had been until then, nor did she know anything about this Nicolas Flamel bloke. It was weird to hear, however, that Dumbledore had chosen to hide something in the school instead of another place; one with, you know, locks?
"It doesn't make sense," Harry agreed when they were having dinner. "But Hogwarts is the safest place in England, isn't it?"
"Yeah, but it's still a school," Ginny argued back.
Harry nodded his acknowledgement. "I suppose. You can see his reason for it, though. He must want to keep it close, protect it himself."
She sighed, because she could actually see why Dumbledore would choose to hide it here. No one would dare to rob this place, but wasn't that also what people said about Gringotts?
"It doesn't matter anyway," Harry said, shaking his head. "I'm going to find out who this Flamel guy is, and then…"
He trailed off and bit his lip. It occurred to her that he didn't know what he would be doing once he had the required evidence on Quirrell. "Maybe you can tell Professor McGonagall?" She tried.
Harry shook his head. "I think I'd rather go straight to Dumbledore," he said.
She opened her mouth to speak again but they heard a scream coming from the distance. The entire hall went silent as they heard another scream, and then another, and then the door to the Great Hall banged open. Professor Quirrell stormed in, looking over his back and screaming again.
"Quirinius?" Professor Dumbledore asked, making his way down the staff table. "Are you -"
"TROLL!" Quirrell screamed. "TROLL! TROLL IN THE DUNGEON!" He fainted right after his announcement.
She felt the bottom drop out of her stomach. Could today possibly get any worse!? Her question was answered when everyone started screaming like banshees on fire. Several students even got off their seats and ran towards the staff table.
The pandemonium lasted until a loud canon went off. Ginny whipped around to the staff table to see that it wasn't a cannon at all; it was Dumbledore, pointing his wand up and releasing some waves of magic from it that caused the sound.
Everyone fell silent and Dumbledore spoke, "Thank you. Please arrange yourselves in rows according to your Houses. A teacher will be assigned to take you to your common room shortly."
"The Slytherin common room is in the dungeons," Ginny said. Harry didn't seem phased by it, his attention fixated on Quirrell.
"They're giving us a Professor as an escort," Harry pointed out, still staring at Quirrell. "I'll be alright."
Percy came to get her, but she and Harry shared one last look before she was put in a row with Ron and a few of her roommates. Harry was standing with Pansy and Draco, making a face as though he had smelled something particularly nasty. She gave him a smile as she shook her head amusedly. He responded with a cheery wave.
She wasn't the only one that was shocked to see that it was Quirrell who had been assigned to escort the Gryffindors. Even Harry seemed disgruntled when it was announced.
The Slytherins, being escorted by Professor Vector and Professor Sinistra, left first. Ginny knew she had to squash down her worry because they would be alright. Even if they did have to face a troll, Harry knew Wandless Magic and duelling well enough to get away.
The Gryffindors were the third group to leave after Ravenclaw, led by Professor Burbage. She couldn't help but jump into her roommates' conversation about how Professor Quirrell became a DADA professor, the leading theory being 'bribes' which Ginny thought was a bit tame.
Still, they did reach the portrait hole in one piece, despite Quirrell checking around every corner like a lunatic, walking at a pace that was infuriatingly slow, and panicking at every sound. He almost hexed Cormac McLaggen for laughing loudly. For once, she wished Quirrell was a bit more jumpy because watching McLaggen get hexed would have been a sight to behold.
"Come on, everyone in, quickly," Quirrell said, gesturing them in through the portrait hole. "Quickly, children. I have somewhere to be."
He sounded different now, Ginny noted. More confident, more in control, and he hadn't stuttered at all. Not even when he announced that there was a troll in the castle.
She ducked behind a suit of armour at the first opportunity fearing something suspicious. The crowd around them was so thick that she could easily slip behind there unnoticed.
Ginny waited patiently, biding her time until Quirrell moved. Mum would be proud of this new patient side of her, she thought, before remembering that she would probably be asked to help out in cooking if Mum ever found out. Ugh, she would rather get hit by her own hexes.
Fortunately, it wasn't long before Quirrell got a move on and passed the spot she was hiding behind. He was muttering something to himself, words that Ginny couldn't really make out. She waited until Quirrell turned the corner and crept after him.
He was walking considerably faster now, towards the staircase. Oh, how she wished she had Harry's Invisibility Cloak right about now. This would be a piece of cake if so.
But she didn't have it and the only thing she could rely on was her good old sneakiness, the very thing that had allowed her to learn how to fly and get away from Fred and George's pranks.
As she followed him, she made sure to keep a safe distance between them. If Harry was right about Quirrell, being caught by him would be horrifying.
The path Quirrell was taking seemed familiar to her, so much so that she was having a sense of deja vu as she trailed after him. It was only when they reached the third floor that Ginny truly realised where they were.
This was the same place that the Cerberus was kept.
The same place it was supposedly guarding something.
Was Quirrell here to steal it?
She had to wait until Quirrell turned the corner to get the answers she wanted, though. When he did, she raced to where she knew the corridor with the Cerberus' room was. She opened a classroom door on the way, just a few feet away from her in case she needed an escape, and didn't waste a second to flatten herself against a wall.
"S- Severus," she heard Quirrell stammer.
"What a pleasure to find you here," said the unmistakable voice of Severus Snape.
His words were slow, they were measured, similar to the way he spoke to Harry, only here, he was far less angry, and far more calm. Ginny found that the calm voice scared her more than the angry done.
"Y- yes, yes," Quirrell stuttered. "Er… what are you doing here?"
"I find myself wondering the same about you," said Snape in the same tone he was using before. "What are you doing in the very place that the Philosopher's Stone is hidden… surely you aren't here to… steal it?"
She made a mental note about this Philosopher's Stone. The silence that followed Snape's words was almost deafening in its intensity. She almost peeked around the corner, but Snape would murder her if he found out she was here.
"T- this is a- a p- preposterous a- accusation." Quirrell sounded outraged, despite the stutters. "H- how dare you i- insinuate t- that -"
"Who do you work for?" Snape said, interrupting him quickly.
"Dumbledore!" Quirrell exclaimed. "I w- work o- only for Dumbledore."
"A lie." Snape sounded like he had anticipated nothing else. "I will ask again, who do you work for? Is it an agent of Voldemort?"
Quirrell made a shrill, panicked sound. "Don't say that name," he hissed. There was a rustling sound, as though a scuffle had broken out, but it stopped rather quickly.
"He won't come," said Snape, sounding bored. "The Dark Lord is dead. Potter killed him."
"Oh, but Severus," said Quirrell, sounding a bit crazed now. "The servants of the Dark Lord… they say… they say that he is still alive -"
"Nasty rumours -" Snape dismissed.
"NOT RUMOURS!" Quirrell shouted. "Not rumours…" he trailed off, softer this time.
"Where is he then?" Snape asked.
"I do not know," Quirrell replied. "But I- I do not w- work f-for him."
Another silence fell upon them, this one much harsher than the last one. It felt as if it stretched on for lifetimes, lifetimes in which Ginny grew extremely bored. It finally ended when Snape spoke.
"Very well," said Snape. "Let us depart."
Quirrell breathed a sigh of relief. "As you wish," he said before the sound of both of their footsteps could be heard coming towards her.
Ginny panicked, but quickly remembered the door she'd unlocked before, and dashed over there, opening and closing it with almost no sound. She barely noticed the fact that she was in an abandoned classroom, focused as she was on the sound of their footsteps.
The footsteps passed quickly, but Ginny sat there for a few more minutes, processing everything that happened.
What did Snape even suspect? That Quirrell was working for You Know Who, who was also ALIVE!? And Quirrell was here to steal some Philosopher's Stone? She didn't know what this stone was, but if Dumbledore had chosen to get it out of Gringotts, then it must have been valuable.
But she also knew that it was a waste of time to sit here and think about it, for it was high time that she went back to Gryffindor Tower, hopefully before McGonagall reached it.
She didn't see that Quirrell had stayed back, however. Nor did she see the livid stare he had trained on her as she quickly raced up the stairs.
《••••••••••••••••••••》
A/N: If you enjoyed this, then please leave a review! I'll see y'all next time, byeeee!
