CHAPTER EIGHT

A s they entered November, the weather turned very cold. The mountains around the school became icy gray and the lake like chilled steel. Every morning the ground was covered in frost. Alex had begun taking morning jogs to keep in shape. Hagrid could be seen from the upstairs windows defrosting broomsticks on the Quidditch field, bundled up in his long moleskin overcoat, rabbit fur gloves, and enormous beaverkin boots. The Quidditch season had begun.

On the weekend Gryffindor was going to be playing against Slytherin and If Gryffindor won, they would move up into second place in the House Championship. no one had seen Harry play because Wood had decided that, as their secret weapon, Harry should be kept, well, secret. But the news that he was playing Seeker had leaked out somehow, and Harry didn't know which was worse — people telling him he'd be brilliant or people telling him they'd be running around under neath him holding a mattress.

It was really lucky that Harry now had Hermione as a friend. With all the quidditch practice wood was putting him through Alex had no idea how he would have gotten through his homework without her help, as Alex was busy helping Ron. Hermione had become a bit more relaxed about breaking rules since Harry, Alex and Ron had saved her from the mountain troll, and she was much nicer for it.

Alex had seen snape liming when he had gone for a walk outside and hurried back to tell the other three. Ron had wondered why he was limping and Alex had a mild suspicion that snape had tried unsuccessfully to get past the three headed dog. The Gryffindor common room was very noisy that evening. Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat together next to a window. Hermione and Alex were checking Harry and Ron's Charms homework for them.

She would never let them copy ("How will you learn?"), but by asking her to read it through, they got the right answers anyway. As they went to bed Alex lay on his bed deep in thought trying to figure out what was behind the trap door. What's that dog guarding?" Alex went to bed with his head buzzing with the same question.

Next morning Alex woke up early and greeted harry who already up and went for his morning jog, before going to the great hall for breakfast. By eleven o'clock the whole school seemed to be out in the stands around the Quidditch pitch. Many students had binoculars.

The seats might be raised high in the air, but it was still difficult to see what was going on sometimes. Ron Alex and Hermione joined Neville, Seamus, and Dean the West Ham fan up in the top row. As a surprise for Harry, they had painted a large banner on one of the sheets Scabbers had ruined. It said Potter for President, and Dean, who was good at drawing, had done a large Gryffindor lion underneath. Then Hermione had performed a tricky little charm so that the paint flashed different colors.

Soon the teams exited the locker rooms and the game was under way. Slytherin were using illegal and dirty tactics to gain an advantage over Gryffindor and even went as far as attacking Harry when he had been chasing after the snitch leading to slithering earning a foul.

Harry continued flying well as he dodged a bludger whilst searching for the snitch when his broom gave a sudden, frightening lurch. For a split second, Alex thought he was going to 'd never felt anything like that Suddenly, people were now pointing up at Harry all over the stands. His broom had started to roll over and over, with him only just managing to hold on. Then the whole crowd gasped. Harry's broom had given a wild jerk and Harry swung off it. He was now dangling from it, holding on with only one hand.

"Can't have," Hagrid said, his voice shaking. "Can't nothing interfere with a broomstick except powerful Dark magic, no kid could do that to a Nimbus Two Thousand." At these words, Hermione seized Hagrid's binoculars, but instead of looking up at Harry, she started looking frantically at the crowd. "What are you doing?" moaned Ron, gray-faced. But Alex had caught on to what Hermione had in mind, "did you find who's doing it?" "I knew it," Hermione gasped, "Snape look."

Ron grabbed the binoculars and looked before giving Alex. Snape was in the middle of the stands opposite them. He had his eyes fixed on Harry and was muttering nonstop under his breath. "He's doing something, jinxing the broom," said Hermione. "What should we do?" "Leave it to us." Before Ron could say another word, Alex dragged Hermione with him and they disappeared.

Alex and Hermione managed to fight their way to the stand where Snape stood, they didn't even stop to say apologize when they knocked Professor Quirrell headfirst into the row in front. Reaching Snape, Alex pulled out his wand and told Hermione to cast the fire spell, Incendio, repeating the phrase so that she could get it. "Incendio," she whispered after pulling out her wand

Bright flames shot from her wand onto the hem of Snape's robes. It took a bit for Snape to realize that he was on fire. A surprised yelp told her she had done her job. Up in the air, Harry was suddenly able to clamber back on to his broom.

Harry was speeding toward the ground when the crowd saw him clap his hand to his mouth as though he was about to be sick, he hit the field on all fours, coughed, and something gold fell into his hand. "I've got the Snitch!" he shouted, waving it above his head, and the game ended in complete confusion. "He didn't catch it, he nearly swallowed it," Flint was still complaining twenty minutes later, but it made no difference, Harry hadn't broken any rules, Gryffindor had won by one hundred and seventy points to sixty.

After the match the four headed over to Hagrid's hut, Hagrid made harry a cup of strong tea, "It was Snape," Ron was explaining, "Hermione Alex and I saw him. He was cursing your broomstick, muttering, he wouldn't take his eyes off you." "Rubbish," said Hagrid, who hadn't heard a word of what had gone on next to him in the stands.

"Why would Snape do some thin' like that?" Harry, Alex, Ron, and Hermione looked at one another, wondering what to tell him. Alex decided on the truth. "I found Snape limping one morning when I went jogging, his leg had been bitten," he told Hagrid. "On Halloween when everyone was headed to their common rooms he was headed to the third floor. He tried to get past that three-headed dog on Halloween."

Hagrid was shocked that the four knew about 'Fluffy' "You named him Fluffy?" asked Alex, a look of incredulity on his face. Hagrid explained how he had gotten him off a Greek fellow in a pub and Dumbledore had asked him to make fluffy guard the-, he had stopped himself before revealing too much information.

The four tried to coax Hagrid into revealing more information but Hagrid kept saying that it was top secret information and that Snape was a Hogwarts teacher and would never try to steal it, Hermione asked why snape had tried to kill harry by jinxing him but Hagrid still maintained that Snape would do no such thing. "I'm tellin' yeh, yer wrong!" said Hagrid hotly. "I don' know why Harry's broom acted like that, but Snape wouldn' try an' kill a student! Now, listen to me, all three of yeh, yer meddlin' in things that don' concern yeh. It's dangerous.

You forget that dog, an' you forget what it's guardin', that's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicolas Flamel —" "Aha!" said Harry, "so there's someone called Nicolas Flamel in volved, is there?" Hagrid looked furious with himself. Alex on the other hand was frozen in shock as a cold shiver ran down his spine as he had just realized wat fluffy was guarding, someone was trying to steal the philosopher's stone.