November 5th, 1991

With Ginny

Ginny was in her room. She had been reading a letter the twins had sent her today. When they had been going to Hogwarts, she had made them promise to send her letters. Same with Ron. She knew it was useless to ask Percy. He would either forget to send a letter, or fill with the things that would bore her. But the twins, she loved reading their letters. They wrote it in their own ways, like if they were telling it themselves. This was the third letter they had sent her since they went to Hogwarts.

"Hey Gin-Gin,

As we promised to our favourite sister, (you know she is our only sister Fred. She says that every time. And we were forced to promise. She threatened us. No need to hide it.) Whatever George. So once again, your favourite brothers Fred and I are going to tell you the big news of Hogwarts. The big news this week is that Ronnikins has made us proud.

(You read it correctly. Our little brother Ronnikins has made us proud. I hear you ask how. Well, our little brother has defeated a troll.) Not by himself mind you. He had help but he did defeat it, gave the final blow. (But he did defeat one Gred. We haven't.) True Forge. We have to up our game. Otherwise Ronnikins will leave us behind. And we can't let that happen.

Prefect Percy however isn't happy with our young brother. He is angry that his own brother broke rules. Even more angry that he got points for it. We are sure he has already written and sent a letter to mum and dad. I am expecting a howler from mum. Would be fun to see someone other than us get one from her.

As for other news, we have continued to follow the legacy of the marauders. Pranks have continued, Slytherins have been targeted, except Potter, the one ok guy from the snakes. (Though in the beginning we did a few pranks on him. He never reacted to them though, just shrugged them off and went his way. No idea why he gave no reaction, unlike the others in his house. He always keeps to himself. Half the fun is seeing the angry look on their faces.)

(Wood has been driving us into the ground with practice. The first match against Hufflepuff is next week. If we die, we hope you will continue our good work.) The legacy of the marauders must continue after all. Right Fred? (Right, you are George.)

With that, another edition of the Weasley Twins News ends. For more visit us next week. (If we stay alive till then.)

Your favourite brothers,

Gred & Forge"

Just what she had expected from her prankster brothers. Reading the letter, she laughed a lot. But her mind went to the two parts of the letter which caught her attention the most. One was that the twins had stopped pranking Harry. Fred and George had told her that they pranked Slytherins the most because their reactions were the funniest. Harry Potter however was not reacting like the twins expected him to. Did this mean Harry Potter was different from other Slytherins? Fred and George seemed to think so.

After a while, her mind went towards the fact that Ron had defeated a troll. Had he really defeated a troll? Or was it one more of Fred and George's stories? But she didn't believe it completely. For she knew that the twins would exaggerate things. She then began reading Ron's letter. His letter was more interesting to Ginny. He too told her about the troll incident. But he also told more than what the twins did. He told her what made them fight the troll in the first place. She was surprised when Ron told her how Neville made him to go and help Hermione. The fact Ron agreed didn't surprise her. Yes, Ron didn't like either Neville or Hermione. His previous letters told her that already. But for all his faults, she knew Ron wouldn't leave someone to harm, especially if he felt he was the reason for it. And he himself said that he felt that it was his fault. She was however surprised by Neville's "threat". Knowing her brother and his dislike for Neville, while also knowing his short temper, she was surprised Ron didn't just burst in anger and instead actually listened to Neville and agreed with him.

He then told her how Hermione saved him and Neville and how he felt a friendship was starting between the three of them. This surprised Ginny as well. But it also got her thinking. Ron always had a negative opinion of Neville, part of which was due to Neville's friendship with Harry. If Ron was starting to feel his opinion of Neville was wrong, could there be a chance that his opinion of Harry Potter also wrong? Her parents and her brothers had always told her Slytherins were bad. They were known to love the dark arts and support the pureblood supremacy ideology. With Malfoy, Parkinsons, Avery's and other belonging to Slytherin, Ginny also believed that what she was told was true and that Slytherin was truly an evil house.

Harry Potter being in Slytherin meant he was also like them. He had to be a pureblood supremist. He too must have a love for the dark arts and be like Malfoy. But was that the case? The twins didn't seem to think so. And could Harry himself ever become or even follow You-Know-Who? He lost his parents because of You-Know-Who. So why would he be like him? Why would he be like Malfoy or others in Slytherin? If Ron's opinion on Neville could change, if he could become friends with him even though Neville was friends with harry, could it be possible that his opinion of Harry also be wrong? Could it be that Harry Potter was just a regular boy who got sorted into Slytherin? These thoughts would stay in her mind for a long time. Eventually, Ginny decided that she would make her own opinion of Harry, instead of making one based on the stories her parents and brothers told her about other Slytherins.

With Dumbledore

Dumbledore was in the third floor, in one of the classrooms in the corridor that was blocked to the students. In front of him was a very interesting magical artifact he has just acquired. One which had taken a lot of effort to be found but was also something that was wroth that effort. This magical artifact was called the Mirror of Erised.

The Mirror of Erised was unlike other mirrors. It showed the viewer the thing the viewer desired the most. Erised after all was Desire spelt backwards. The thing could be anything. It could be the material things, like gold. But more often than not, it was not these things. It was more personal, more intimate. The stories around it told the viewers seeing various things. But to Dumbledore, the mirror always showed him a specific person. His sister, Ariana, who had died long time ago. But he could never forget her, because he blamed himself for her death.

He tried to push these thoughts away. In the end he had to use Occlumency shields to block those memories. He had to focus on the task in front of him. The task was not simple. Ever since he convinced his former mentor to not store his prized invention, the Philosopher Stone, in Gringotts, he was working out ways to safely store the stone in the castle. He felt the castle was the safest place to store the stone. For all the security features Gringotts boasted of having to protect its vaults, it was still run by goblins. And everyone in the wizarding world knew that Goblins loved gold, so much that they would do anything for it. He even had a small doubt in his head that perhaps Harry had some help from the goblins. How they helped or why they helped him were questions he had no answers to. His worry would prove to be correct, when on November 25th, the Daily Prophet would report that there was a robbery attempted in Gringotts. Gringotts would cover it by saying nothing was stolen and they were notified by their systems. But the very fact that there was attempt for Dumbledore to feel justified with his earlier concern.

Stored inside the castle, the stone was to be protected by several trials. Each professor was designing one trial. Him, McGonagall, Flitwick, Pomfrey, Snape, Hagrid and Quirrell. McGonagall had designed a chess board. She had animated them in such a way that the pieces would play just like her. Which was good for McGonagall was one of the best chess players he had ever seen. Flitwick had charmed several keys to fly. The only way to get the key which unlocked the door was to fly after it and catch it. With the broom in the room being very old, unless the flier was an exceptional flier, catching the key in middle of so many keys would be near impossible. Snape had arranged a potions puzzle. But unlike other magical puzzles, which required inane knowledge about the potions themselves, this puzzle instead was similar to a muggle arrangement puzzle. Your potions knowledge didn't matter, what mattered was your logical thinking. Pomfrey had used Devil's Snare as her trap, filling the room with it. Only light could stop it. Hagrid had gotten a Cerberus as his trap. The dog was placed in the room where the entrance to the secret room was. Quirrell has placed a troll as his trap.

The only trap remaining was of Dumbledore. And his was going to be the Mirror of Erised. The mirror of Erised showed what the viewer desired. So, if the viewer's greatest wish was to get the Philosopher stone, then the mirror would show it to him. But the stone will not appear in his hand. There exists a magical spell which would make it possible to store the stone inside the mirror in such a way that the stone would only appear if the mirror detected that the viewer didn't want the stone. And if someone was searching for the stone and wanted it for himself, it would never appear to him. So, the plan was foolproof. Even if the previous trials were defeated, this trial was impossible.

But doing that will take a lot of time. Hence the mirror being in the third floor. The magic of the mirror required careful handling. Dumbledore will to study not only the mirror but also the spell. And there were few books which talked about the Mirror of Erised. Only after knowing everything about the mirror and the spell would Dumbledore use it and then keep the stone inside it. He then left the room, focusing his attention on other important things, like what was going on with Quirrell and the new budding friendship between Neville, Ron and Hermione.

November 12th, 1991

The Quidditch Stadium

There was an air of excitement in Hogwarts and its inhabitants, for it was the day of the year's first quidditch match. The match was between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. Gryffindors were the favorites for not only this match, but the cup as well. They had a very strong team. In Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet and Katie Bell, they had one of the best chaser trio in Hogwarts. In Oliver Woods, they had the keeper who had made the most saves during last year's cup. And in George and Fred Weasley, they had the most accurate beaters. Their only weak link was their seeker, Kenneth Towler. He was a third year. It wasn't that he was a bad seeker. It was that the seeker before him was Charles Weasley, someone who everyone believed could have played for England if he wanted to. When compared to someone of that level, it was clear that he was not that great. For the Hufflepuff team, it was the exact opposite, for their seeker was Cedric Diggory, the current best seeker in Hogwarts. It would be very interesting to see who would win the match.

Neville and Harry were sitting in the stands, waiting for the match to begun. Harry himself had no idea what quidditch was when he had come to Hogwarts. It was Neville who explained it to him and told him the rules. He told him about the roles each member played in the team. And he told him just how seriously people took quidditch. All of this made Harry excited to see his first ever quidditch match.

Soon, the entire stadium was filled with students. The professors were also there. They then heard, "Welcome to the first match of the Inter-House Quidditch Cup. I am Lee Jordan, your commentator for this match. Today's its Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff." He then introduced the two teams, with adding some extra comments about Angelina, which earned him a reprimand from Professor McGonagall, who was sitting beside him. Madam Hooch then came on the field and then the two captains, Oliver and Cedric, shook hands. The then went to their positions and Madam Hooch brought out the snitch. She showed it to everyone. After that, she said, "I want a nice clean game. Let the first match of this year begin." She then released the snitch and blew her whistle. The match had begun.

Angelina quickly grabbed the quaffle and made a beeline for the Hufflepuff's goal posts. The Hufflepuff beaters tried to make her drop the quaffle by sending some bludgers her way. Angelina passed to Alicia, who threw the quaffle hard towards the left post. The keeper was barely able to reach the quaffle. He then threw it back to one of the chasers, but a perfectly aimed bludger by George meant the quaffle instead landed back in hands of Angelina, who then passed it to Katie, who scored.

Harry saw in awe and wonder as the match began. Both teams had great fliers. The control they had on their brooms was brilliant. Not only were they flying at high speeds, the chasers were making brilliant plays, the beaters were hitting the bludgers with precision. More and more plays came, with more brilliant shots from the beaters and some wonderful saves from both keepers. While all this was going on, the seekers were still searching for the snitch. All of this was accompanied by Lee Jordan's commentary. His bias towards Gryffindor was visible in the way he spoke about the plays made by Gryffindor. Saying things like, "Angelina scores a brilliant goal. Fleet tried to save it but that throw was too much for him" whenever she scored. Or saying, "That was too weak a throw for Oliver to not save it" whenever Oliver made a save. Or praising the twins whenever they struck the Hufflepuff players. He was also scolded by McGonagall for this. She even threatened him with taking the mic away from him. But his commentary made the match even better.

After 30 minutes of awesome awe-inspiring quidditch, the seekers finally saw the snitch hovering near the Gryffindor goal post. Both seekers rushed to grab the snitch first. A tough fight ensued between them, both trying to disturb the others balance or fly faster. Many bludgers were sent there way, all the while chasers continued their attempts at scoring more goals. In the end, it was the Hufflepuff seeker who caught the snitch. But by the time she had caught it, the Gryffindor chaser trio and keeper had taken the score to 250-90, meaning the snitch catch was worthless, as Gryffindor still won. The end score was 250-240 to Gryffindor. Huge cheers and shouts emerged from the section where Gryffindors were seated while groans were heard from the Hufflepuffs and Slytherins. It had been an exciting game of quidditch.