Chapter Six: Enter the Philosopher's Stone
"So why do you say Quirrell—"
"was more suspicious than Snape?" the twins asked several days later when Harish restated his opinion. They were walking back from Quidditch practice and it was rather cold out.
Harish cast a warming charm on himself and he stopped shivering. He then proceeded to tell the twins about how Quirrell's facial expressions kept changing.
"He had no emotion at all?"
"Well," Harish considered this. "If he did show any emotion it would've been…excitement, but it was hardly there."
The twins nodded and Harish continued, telling them of the conversation that had been exchanged between the two professors. The, he told them about how Quirrell stood there for another second after Snape had left, all fear gone once again.
"Yeah, that is—"
"Mighty suspicious."
Harish nodded. "Now the question is, what type of stone is it?"
WHAT-DOES-IT-ALL-MEAN—DOUBLE-RAINBOW—DRACO-SERIOUSLY!?
Ron, Neville, and Seamus were sitting on the steps to the courtyard. Ron and Seamus were looking at a dungbomb that had been sent in the mail to him, wondering who had sent it. Snape came limping out and the two had no warning before he came over to them.
"Dungbombs are no longer allowed, Weasley. Hand it over."
Fuming, Ron handed it over and watched as he limped away again.
"He's been in a foul mood ever since Halloween," Seamus said.
"What's happened to his leg?" Neville asked.
Seamus shrugged. Ron leaned forward and lowered his voice. "It was like that the day after Halloween. Do you—you don't think he let that troll in as a diversion do you?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, whatever that dog's guarding, it must be valuable. Snape must've let the troll in as a diversion and went to the third floor to head it off! When he got a nasty bite on his leg, he decided he couldn't get past it!" Ron looked proud that he had managed to figure something like that out.
"He does seem evil enough," Neville replied hesitantly.
EVIL-EVIL-EVIL
One the morning of the first match, the team all sat together once again, but Harish made sure that the two first years kept their usual seats. After a couple of minutes the Gryffindor team walked in and they started booing loudly. Oliver Wood, the Gryffindor captain, shot dirty looks at them all morning.
At ten to eleven, the team decided to make their way down to the changing rooms. As they stood up to leave, George said, "Hold on." He fished around in his pockets for a second before pulling out the Enfolding String and handing it to Hermione. "I don't trust any of them to leave this alone," and he hurried off to catch up with the rest of the team. Hermione stuffed the Enfolding String in her own pocket.
Draco, Hermione, and Daphne then went to reserve good seats. They sat in the middle of the top row in the Slytherin section. Over the course of the next ten minutes, the rest of the school gathered in the stadium. As it was the first game of the season, most of the teachers showed up as well.
The game kicked off and the stadium roared as instantly Slytherin took possession of the Quaffle. Hermione, who didn't really like sports all that much, was on the edge of her seat as the Quaffle passed from Slytherin, to Gryffindor, and back again. Draco had to shout the rules to her over the noise of the crowd. Slytherin scored again and again, while Gryffindor repeatedly failed to get past the twins bludgers and the Slytherin keeper. It was all a very fun experience until…
"What is Harish doing?" Draco asked suddenly. He pulled out a pair of binoculars to watch more closely.
Hermione looked up to see Harish rising about five feet per second. More people began to notice as his broom began trying to buck him off, Harish clinging to it for dear life. After a second or so, his broom started rolling around.
"It looks like he lost control of his broom," Hermione stated.
"But that's a brand new Nimbus 2000!" Draco protested. "The only way it could be bewitched was if someone used dark magic! No one on the team would've done it because it's jeopardizing the game!"
"Let me see those!" Hermione said suddenly, snatching the binoculars out of his hands. She looked over at the teacher section. "I knew it! Quirrell is jinxing his broom!"
"What?" Draco took the binoculars back and inspected the professor. Sure enough, he was staring avidly at Harish, his mouth moving rapidly.
Hermione looked back at Harish to see him dangling from his broom by one hand. "What do we do?" she asked. The she quickly began rummaging in her pockets, trying to grab her wand, but her hand closed on something else first. The brown haired girl brought the Enfolding String out of her pocket and in unison, she and Draco stared at it before looking up at each other.
Hermione then grabbed her wand out of her pocket and tapped each of the orbs. Then she tried to flick her wand over to Professor Quirrell, but she flicked it wrong and the string went hurtling out into the stadium. "Whoops!" she muttered before aiming her wand at Professor Quirrell, meaning to wrap him up like the twins did the troll. The orbs flew straight at his face, knocking him over.
"What're you doing?" Draco asked.
"It's a lot harder than it looks!" she exclaimed back at him.
The blonde boy glanced up at the boy he had grown up with. Harish was just managing to swing himself back onto his broom.
"Keep distracting him!" he shouted to her over the cheers of the Slytherins.
Hermione nodded and wiggled her wand around, causing the orbs to fly all around Quirrell's face. As the man recovered from his shock, Hermione saw him pull out his wand.
"Don't want these messed up," Hermione said as she flicked her wand towards herself and caught the orbs clumsily. "Or the twins'll have both our hides."
"Both?" Draco drawled. "I'm going to tell them it's your fault, not mine."
"Thanks a lot," Hermione replied sarcastically.
They both looked up just in time to see Harish swoop into a dive and catch the snitch. Slytherin won, but the two first years hardly took notice. What was going on? First the troll, and now Harish attacked. Was someone trying to do him in? If so, why? How could someone possibly know that he was Voldemort's son?
When Harish was escorted off the field in a crowd of green, Hermione and Draco caught up to him. Quietly, Hermione said to him, "We know who jinxed your broom."
Harish looked at her quizzically. On the way down to the Slytherin common room, Harish, Hermione and Draco ducked into the passageway that led to the kitchens. Harish waited a second before catching sight of the twins and dragging them there as well.
"Now, who exactly jinxed my broom?" Harish asked.
"Professor Quirrell," they both replied at once.
Harish's brow knitted in confusion and his eyebrows drew together with scepticism. "You're sure?" he asked, his tone suggesting that he didn't believe them.
"Positive," Hermione replied briskly. "Look, I know a jinx when I see one. You have to maintain eye contact and Quirrell wasn't blinking."
"He wasn't," Draco confirmed. "he was sort of…muttering under his breath."
"Muttering? Like spell casting?" Fred asked. Hermione continued as if the twins had never interrupted Draco.
"And then when we knocked him over—"
"Knocked him over?" George asked, a grin splitting his face.
"Harish was able to get back on his broom."
"I like these two," both twins said to each other at the same time.
"Very observant," Harish agreed coolly.
"Are you even listening?"
"Yeah, it sounds like—"
"Some weirdo's trying to do Harish in."
"Well, that's what we figured, but why would they want to do that?"
"Hey," Harish replied. "I am just loveable."
"This isn't something to joke about!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Don't worry," he smirked and patted her on the shoulder. "We have got everything under control," he said to reassure her. She rolled her eyes.
After the match, Neville and Ron went with Hagrid to his cabin. As they were walking out of the stadium, Hagrid looked pensive. Finally after a few seconds, he broke the silence.
"I wonder wha' coulda made a broom act like that. On'y dark magic coulda bewitched it."
"Well, the Slytherins certainly didn't do it," Ron snorted. "He was on their team."
"Still…"
"Look," Ron said. "I bet he was just faking. He's a right foul git…Thinks he's better than anyone. He'd probably do anything to get attention."
They were silent as Hagrid let them into his cabin and poured three steaming mugs of tea.
"You know, Malfoy and Blake tricked us the other day," Ron said. Then he thought of how he could put what happened without letting an adult know that they were wandering the castle at night. "Made us run into a giant three headed dog."
Hagrid dropped the mug he was holding. "How do yeh know abou' Fluffy?"
"Fluffy?" Neville asked.
"That thing has a name?" Ron asked.
"Course he does, he's mine—bought em off a Greek chappie in the pub las' year—lent him to Dumbledore to guard the—" he cut off and looked as if he had just said something he wasn't supposed to.
"Yes?" Ron and Neville asked.
"Don' ask me anymore," Hagrid said gruffly. "That's top secret, that is."
"But Snape's trying to steal it!" Ron shouted. "He let that troll in as a diversion! Haven't you seen his leg?"
"He was checkin' up on Fluffy. Listen, yer meddlin' in things that don't concern yeh. Things that don't need meddlin' in! Yeh forget that dog an' forget what it's guardin'—that's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicholas Flamel."
"So there's someone involved named Nicholas Flamel, is there?" Ron asked.
Hagrid looked furious with himself.
FLUFFY-LIKE-BALL—FLUFFY-WANT-BALL
Hermione and Draco were waiting in a group of people to be let into Potions. Ron, Neville, and Seamus were standing apart from the others, whispering excitedly. Hermione caught sight of them and nudged Draco. "Why d'you think they're whispering like that?" she asked him quietly.
"Let's find out," he replied and they slowly made their way through the group, stopping behind the group of Gryffindor boys.
"—he named it Fluffy?" Seamus was asking.
"Yeah, I know. Who would name a giant three headed dog, Fluffy?" Ron said.
Their eavesdroppers shot a look at each other.
"I still wonder what Nicholas Flamel has to do with the third floor," Neville said.
"He must have a major role 'cause Hagrid looked furious when he realized he had let that slip."
Hermione and Draco returned back to the Slytherins. "How do they know about the third floor corridor?" Hermione whispered to him.
"I don't know. I would like to find out who Nicholas Flamel is. We have got to tell Harish; he would know." Hermione nodded.
So that afternoon they did just that. When the two got out of classes, they went and found Harish, Fred, and George in the courtyard. They rushed up to them and then told them about the conversation they overheard. Instantly Harish, who had been lounging against a tree trunk, sat straight up.
"Do you know who Nicholas Flamel is, then?" Hermione asked.
"Of course!" he exclaimed quietly. "It's so obvious what the object is! Dumbledore is hiding a Philosopher's Stone here, at Hogwarts!"
"A what?" both first years asked in unison.
"A Philosopher's Stone! Nicholas Flamel is famous for creating the Philosopher's stone, which produces an elixir that will make the drinker immortal, and will turn any metal to gold. Flamel is also good buddies with Dumbledore. It's all on his chocolate frog."
"So Quirrell is trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone?" Draco asked.
"Looks like it," Harish replied, leaning back against the tree trunk.
"Are we going to do something about it?" Hermione asked.
"No."
"Okay."