Chapter 24 - Quirrell

The chair gave a groan as Harry shifted in place yet again. It was the next day; and as luck would have it, their first class was Defense.

He hadn't heard anything from Lupin, and he had been absent from the staff table this morning. As had the Defense teacher. Nobody had said anything, and he had been on the verge of going to tell another professor, but Lupin had insisted that he not tell anyone else. And so he hadn't, no matter how much he disliked it.

But now, it was time for their Defense class. They would once again face the man with no name, Harry none the wiser what was actually going on, and Iris once again all too close to the mystery for his liking. He had all but shoved Tracey out of the way in order to sit next to his sister, intent of being as close to her as possible in the presence of this man.

What had happened between Lupin and him? Would he even show up? It was already five minutes into the lesson, and the students were getting anxious.

The door creaked, and a man in purple robes entered. Their Defense teacher made his way all the way to the front of the class, glancing around the room, a strange expression on his face. Harry held his breath. What was going on? Something seemed off... Even more off than usual. What was more, this time, Iris could sense it too. She gave him a curious look, a deep frown on her face. He hadn't even gotten her so much as to blink at the idea of something being wrong with his name yesterday.

He stood in front of his desk for a bit, wringing his hands. Harry got more confused by the second. He looked just like he always had. But something was very different about him. He couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"G-g-good morning, c-class!"

Harry blinked. Next to him, Iris raised an eyebrow.

What in the world?

"T-today we will be r-returning to the t-topic of... w-w-werewolves."

Had Lupin really scared him that badly? What in Merlin's name had he done?

Harry watched in disbelief as the professor continued to stutter his way into the lesson, all of his usual confidence and wit absent, slowly turning his favorite class into something resembling the one history lesson from his nightmares. He found it hard to believe that he was even the same person that had been teaching them for the past year. But that was silly, he was definitely the same... well, Defense teacher. That's right, there was still the issue of his name. Somehow, looking at this weak, stuttering man in front of him, who had been so mysterious and doing Merlin knows what with his sister all year, his feelings of apprehension turned to anger. Before he could properly think about it, he had stood. The professor fell silent, as he looked in his direction.

"D-do you h-have a question, P-potter?" he asked with a thin smile.

Harry's nostrils flared. "Yes."

He stared the man down who was wringing his hands and throwing worried glances around the room.

"What is your name?" he simply asked.

The professor blinked.

"P-Professor Quirrell, of course. V-very funny. Now if you d-don't have any other q-questions?"

Harry stood, dumbfounded. Even though he knew he had never heard the name, it seemed so obvious, it made so much sense. Why had he even been worrying about this again? As he turned to look at his sister, she gave him a raised eyebrow. Confused, he sat back down. The room was swirling, and his head felt as if it was filled with cotton candy. His classmates were giving him looks as if he was a bit barmy. Maybe he was? What on earth.

But then again, no. He hadn't imagined that, had he? Up until just now, this man hadn't had a name. And now, he had. Or had he? He blinked, then slapped his forehead. Of course! There was one source of truth he could ask. The one thing that had started this whole mystery to begin with. The map.

Twiddling his thumbs restlessly, he bided his way through the rest of the lesson, until he was finally saved by the bell. He followed his sister out of the classroom, then dove into an alcove, pulled out the map, opened it and proclaimed, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

And there it was. Quirinius Quirrell. Harry was even more confused now. Was this a result of whatever happened with Lupin? Or just because he had found out? He only knew one thing. He had to talk with Lupin. He would know what to do. Also, he had been very adamant that he didn't talk with anyone else about this.

Flipping through pages, folding parchment left and right, he started looking for Lupin. He wasn't in his office, or his classroom. Neither in the staff room, or the great hall. Harry kept looking. The library was filled with students, but Lupin wasn't among them. Where on earth would he-

There. But that was- Oh no.

He jammed the wand into his bag and started sprinting down the corridor. And promptly collided with Iris.

The moment she spotted his expression, her eyes went wide. "What's wrong?" she asked in a serious tone.

"It's Lupin! I found out why he wasn't at breakfast. He's in the hospital wing!"

That needed no further explanation. They both took off running. His mind was already racing with the worst options. He had to be ok. Harry flung open the double doors to the hospital wing, and frantically made his way to the back. There.

Harry peeled open the curtains and froze.

"Potter," came the low voice.

Harry swallowed, but then his eyes narrowed as he pocketed a phial he had been holding.

"Where's Lupin?"

The potions master sneered. "Our dear history professor is currently... indisposed."

His black eyes were boring into Harry, and he felt a sinking feeling.

"Such a shame, one would wonder what sort of things he had been up to, in order to end up... well... I supposed you must be over the moon with joy that he won't be causing any further... incidents for a while." he said in a somewhat gleeful voice, while turning to look at Iris. Harry threw a glance at Iris to see she had frozen up next to him. Snape threw one last baleful glare at the bed behind him, then turned on the spot and left the hospital wing, dark robes billowing behind him. Harry glared after him. His dislike had been clear as day any time the two had been interacting, especially when they had run into Snape during their Christmas dinner in Hogsmeade.

He turned and spotted the hospital matron approaching.

"Mister Potter? And Miss Potter? Are you-"

"How is he, Madam? What happened?" Harry blurted out.

Pomfrey blinked at them for a moment, then responded carefully, "He is... not well. I have never quite seen anything like it. It's like something has turned the wolf inside him toxic. The wolf is weakened, but it has dragged him down with it. Although what might be the cause, I can only speculate.

"What happened to him?" Iris asked.

"Professor Quirrell found him in the restricted section, during the full moon. He was transformed, but well, also unconscious. And very much not in a good shape. If Quirinius hadn't found him when he did... I do not even want to imagine what could have happened."

Harry threw a glance over at the bed and saw the far too pale face of Lupin lying motionlessly on the pillow, his brown hair stuck to his face. All of his skin seemed to be covered in cold sweat.

"I can't be sure what happened to him, whatever it was, it bears traces of his own magical signature. The only thing I can think of, would be that something went wrong with the wolfsbane potion..." she muttered to herself.

Harry's blood ran cold. Hadn't Dumbledore said that Snape was brewing that potion for him? Judging by the worried expression on Iris' face, she was having similar thoughts.

Harry stepped closer and took a look at his favorite professor. He looked far too pale, jagged discolorations marring his skin all over his body.

"Will he..." Harry couldn't quite manage the words.

"It is too early to say anything definitive, I'm afraid. If he does heal, it might take him months."

Months? But... But he needed to talk to him! Whatever happened... Should he talk to someone else? But Lupin had made him promise not to tell anyone else...

Although, maybe, if Quirrell had actually saved him from whatever Snape had done, then maybe, they had already settled whatever the deal had been with his name? But it still was kind of odd. Something didn't feel right about this. But he had no idea what. He turned to look at Iris.

"What do you think?"

She blinked and turned to him. "About what?"

"Snape."

Iris squirmed. "Uh... it's nothing... Just... being paranoid I guess."

Harry frowned. It looked like she still had her doubts, but she had probably been thinking the same thing. Did he just do it out of spite... or... Then something hit him. What if Snape really was the one after the stone? They knew someone had tricked Hagrid into revealing how to get past Fluffy, maybe... Maybe Lupin had been onto him, and he wanted to get rid of him?

"And Quirrell?" he asked, just to be sure.

She frowned. "Uh... well, he was acting really oddly today. Although if he really found Lupin while transformed, I guess that would scare the crap out of anyone... Speaking from experience here. Oh, and that must be why he did the lesson on werewolves, too."

Harry blinked. That... kind of made sense. But still.

"What about his name?"

She raised an eyebrow at him. "What about it?"

He sighed. He had gotten much the same reaction when he had tried to explain it to Hermione and Ron. He decided to worry about that after they figured out what to do about Snape.

~V~

Iris sighed. "No, it's neither. Spell interference is like in a class of its own. It works on all the aspects, but it doesn't have any... structure? I haven't encountered any other spells that work like that."

Theo frowned. "Still, that doesn't seem quite right either. If it works on magic, shouldn't it require white magic?"

Tracey interjected, "I still think the Control aspect makes some more sense..."

"But we've tried that!" groaned Iris.

"Well, we also tried your rainbow light, that didn't work either," added Theo.

Iris was palming her face. She was happy that her friends were so willing to help her figure out her magic, but sometimes, when they made no progress, these discussions could get quite frustrating. Not to mention, she still was waiting for the other shoe to drop concerning Theo. He seemed to be genuinely trying to help her, but that could still be an act, she guessed.

"Have you asked Vector about it?" queried Tracey.

"No, and I'm not going to, unless she comes with a no-dissections-warranty. Besides, I really think we can figure this out on our own."

Theo frowned for a moment, then he perked up again. He turned to look behind her towards one of the bookshelves stacked in the corner of the Slytherin common room, and asked Iris, "Can you get me that book about Spell theory we had yesterday? I think I've got an idea."

Iris sighed, but obliged. She absent-mindedly raised her wand in the general direction, pictured the book, and cast with a green glow, "Accio Spell-crafting for Dimwits!"

The book jumped from the shelf and came soaring into her outstretched hand, and she tossed it at Theo with a smug expression. Theo didn't catch it. He hadn't tried to. Both him and Tracey were staring at her slack-jawed.

Iris blinked. "What?"

She had done that spell at least ten times over the past day of studying, what was their deal?

As one, they both turned to the piece of refractive glass that was perched on the table in the center. What about the... Oh. Iris stared at the unused prism for a while, until she slowly broke into a smile.

"You did it!" Tracey exclaimed in joy and jumped to her feet to wrap her in a hug. When she finally broke their embrace, she was met with the smug visage of Theo. What on earth did he have to be so smug about? If anyone should be smug, it was her. After all, if he really had known about her moonstone powder trick, it wouldn't matter now. She had won.

"Congratulations," Theo said, "Now you don't have to pretend anymore."

Iris froze. He... what? Was he really talking about-

Her eyes caught onto his lazy smirk, and she had to resist the urge to slap herself in the face. He really had known all along! But she had still beaten him to it! Or... but why would he tell her now? After it had already lost its value? Him telling her now—and with a smirk like that—meant... well, both that he had known all along, and that he had planned to tell her now all along? But what was the point of telling her now that his information was pretty much useless? If he had wanted to use it against her, this was the first time where... oh.

Wow. She really had been played for a fool there, hadn't she. He hadn't done anything with it, he had only hinted at it, to prove that he knew even back then, and then had only told her afterwards, just to prove that he knew but didn't do anything with it. To show that she could trust him.

And the worst part was that it had worked. She really couldn't think of any other reason why he would do something like that, except to prove that he was on her side. If he had wanted to do anything to her, by far the best chance would have been to use that information against her somehow, but he hadn't. Instead, he had even tried to help her with her colors, which also didn't make any sense if he had wanted to use his knowledge against her.

Had he really just tricked her into becoming his friend? That utter git.

Tracey quirked an eyebrow at her. "What's with the face?"

She then looked between Iris' traitorously flushed face and Theo's infuriatingly smug one, and concluded, "Okayy... What did I miss?"

Iris took a breath and ground out, "Congratulations, yourself. Now you don't have to, either."

Tracey looked between them again, until finally her eyes went wide.

"Wait, but..." she broke of and gasped, "Did he really just-"

"Yup," Iris confirmed morosely.

Tracey pondered that for a moment. "I don't know whether to be mad or impressed..."

Iris could no longer resist her urge to groan.

"Let's call it even about the warm welcome I've received to this friendship," Theo said with a grin.

Iris' gaze met Tracey's, and they both wordlessly agreed to never screw with Theo like that again. She had no desire to find out what else he would come up with if properly pissed off.

~V~

"Diffindo!"

There. Force and Destruction seemed to do the trick. The parchment had neatly separated into two equally sized pieces. She threw an obligatory glance at the black-haired bane of her existence and groaned. Now that she no longer had the advantage in speed, since she didn't have to spend precious time adjusting her colors using the prism every time, the girl seemed to be outperforming her in terms of control instead.

A snowflake of perfect symmetry had been carved out of her parchment and was gently floating down onto the table. Again, she didn't even glance in her direction, which made Iris grumble in annoyance.

"Marvelous work, Ms. Greengrass! Five points to Slytherin!" crooned Flitwick.

The girl didn't even deign that with a nod. The way she was acting so indifferent while showing her up was driving Iris up the wall. She refused to let it show too much though, so she just smiled instead.

But just once, she'd like to actually get one up on her instead.

"Very well, keep practicing everyone, and don't forget today's homework. Pages thirty-six and -seven on the Mending charm, we'll be covering that one next lesson."

Iris perked up. She had already read up on that before. and she had the perfect opportunity to try it right in front of her. Throwing another glance at Greengrass, she set to work.

Only to be immediately stumped. What? What kind of aspects would you need to repair something? Maybe something with Life? But neither Control-Life or Force-Life sounded right, and it wouldn't be a single aspect spell, else Flitwick would have recommended it. It also shouldn't be a White magic spell, as it worked on physical objects as opposed to magic... Although maybe it was close to Transfiguration? No... It didn't do anything according to your imagination, it just fixed things...

Things that have been destroyed! That had to be it! Control over Destruction, in order to reverse it!

She aimed her wand, produced an Orange glow—which was actually a mix of Red and Yellow—, and performed the swish as described in the book—the motions feeling almost familiar, even though it was her first time performing the spell. "Reparo!"

And the parchment neatly fused itself together, as if it had never been cut in the first place. Iris couldn't suppress a grin.

"It seems like you are eager to get out of your homework, Miss Potter?" Flitwick chortled, as he applauded excitedly. "Very well done! Five points!"

Iris' smirk turned towards the infuriating girl, who was currently buried in yet another book that didn't even look like the Charms book. That figured.

~V~

April turned to May, and it looked like the more things changed, the more they stayed the same. She was still frustrated in charms class, her housemates were still treating her with distant wariness and grudging respect, and she was still hanging out with her friends in her downtime. She and Harry had visited Hagrid together, but he hadn't had much time for them, because apparently something was going on with the unicorns. And whatever it was, it was no business for first-years, apparently. Which was too bad, she would have loved to see a real unicorn. Professor Lupin still wasn't waking up, and the class had been taken over by whichever professors happened to have time to show up and tell them what to read.

And then there was their Defense class. Instead of the usual eloquent engaging experience they were used to, Professor Quirrell seemed to have retreated so far into his shell that he proved more of a hindrance than a help to learning anything useful. Apparently, he still hadn't recovered from his encounter with Lupin. She really hoped he was going to be okay.

But still, his classes had become a total snore-fest. She still tried to pay attention, if only out of respect for him, but it was getting really tiring. One thing she had been dreading above all else was that Saturday had been approaching fast. And she had no idea what she was supposed to think about that. Lately, she had even been secretly looking forward to her "detentions" throughout the month, eager to learn more about her magic, and also maybe somewhat craving that feeling of power, of control, whenever she would manage the spell. Not that she would ever admit that.

But ever since whatever had happened to Quirrell, she wasn't sure. What would they even do in their detentions? More stuttering? Reading a book? Would he be less nervous when it was just the two of them?

Well, it looked like she was going to find out one way or another. Raising her hand reluctantly, she knocked twice on the unremarkable office door.

"Come in," came the muffled voice of her Defense teacher.

Slowly, she pushed open the door and stepped into the dark room. Why was it- oh. Never mind. The lamps flared to life, bathing the room in their familiar orange glow. He was in the corner, hunched over his desk, and slowly lowered the wand he had been holding. He finally looked up at her and she stared into his dark blue eyes for a moment.

Then, his mouth pulled into a familiar smirk. "Miss Potter. Good to see you."

She blinked. Whatever she had expected, that hadn't been it. He still held himself awkwardly, but the way he spoke, well, it was just as he always had, during their detentions. Iris couldn't help but let out a breath of relief. "Good to see you too, sir."

And it was. Thank God he was back to his old self. She could learn again. Practice again.

Eager to get to work, she moved over to the corner of the room they usually used for her lessons and turned towards him expectantly.

"Eager, are we? Good. You'll be attempting something... special... today."

Iris perked up. Special sounded good. She was always eager to find new things to try, especially things she'd be good at.

"The spell I'll be teaching you requires a much higher level of control than anything we've been practicing until now."

Nodding with a grin, she squared her shoulders, ready to get started.

"Not too hasty now. Once we are approaching this level of polarized spells, there is an additional danger you need to be aware of."

She swallowed. Another one? It was already pretty dangerous, what with it going awry every time she failed to control it.

"What is that?" she asked, hesitantly.

He gave her a serious look. "Overchanneling."

She blinked. Huh? Overchanneling? As in...

He turned away from her and started pacing. "Bad things happen if you summon too much polarized magic of either kind in one place. Once a space is saturated, if you keep drawing in more, it has no options left but to expand inwards."

Iris gasped. He was! He was talking about the shadow realm!

His pacing came to an end, and he turned back to her. "You have to be vigilant. I am certain you now possess the required experience to sense once a space is saturated, but we still need to make sure."

She nodded. That sounded like a good idea. She had no intentions of ending up...

"Therefore, you will be performing the following exercise. You will close your eyes and only focus on your sensations."

Iris did just that.

"Then, you will slowly begin to summon polarized magic." He didn't specify which kind, but he didn't have to.

Iris once again thought about the Dursleys, and slowly began to pull.

"Can you sense it? you should be able to feel it gradually filling up the space around you."

She slowly nodded.

"Good. Now, keep going, carefully, and keep paying attention to that feeling. Once it feels—for the lack of a better term—full, you need to stop immediately."

Iris took a breath and kept pulling. She felt the darkness around her growing, wrapping around her, tickling on the edges of her skin, of her perception, and her magic, eagerly devouring everything in sight. It was almost as if she could see it, touch it.

"Almost there, keep going..." his eager voice came in from somewhere in front of her.

Growing excited, she pulled once again. She could feel it grow around her, all that power, waiting to be used, almost within her grasp, and yet-

Something was wrong.

Somehow, it felt, fleeting, fading?

Confused, she pulled once again, and felt the shadows grow even more. And yet again, something was off.

She raised her wand and focused. If the magic wouldn't obey her, she would make it obey. She reached out and began to suck it inwards, into her wand, but something felt wrong again. Somehow, the darkness felt as if it was slipping through her fingers, it was gliding inwards, almost towards her wand, but not quite. Had she done something wrong? Was she drawing it in the wrong direction, or-

Her eyes snapped open, and she could see the last vestiges of darkness being drawn into the wand, a wand, that was not her own, and was aimed right at her. Her mouth fell open and a feeling of sudden dread washed over her as she caught the expression on his face, the gleam in his eyes, but it was already too late. The wand crackled with power as a spell formed, and she could only watch helplessly as the tip seemed to light up in a pale glow.

Merciless eyes stared back as the mouth formed a single word with a terrifying finality.

"Imperio."