(Y/n)'s POV
Apparently, what I said to Harry struck to him, because the next morning he told us he tried to get information on Flamel on the restricted section, but was almost caught by Filch and Snape, he ran for it, and found a weird mirror, where he could see his parents.
"You could have woken me up," Said Ron.
"Not me, I don't think I would've been able to, I'm a pretty deep sleeper" I said, laughing a bit "But I do want to see your parents, Harry, do you think we could go again?"
"You guys can come, I was going again tonight" I wanted to ask him if he found any info on Flamel at all, but it didn't seem right, he has never seen his parents, I didn't want to make him feel bad about wanting to see them again.
"I'm freezing!" It was already evening, and we all went to find the mirror. Ron was complaining about the cold, but I was excited about seeing Harry's parents. Besides, I was too preoccupied to fit in the invisibility cloak to worry about the cold.
"Let's forget it and go back" Said Ron
"No!" Harry said and I, though Harry's voice was a bit louder than mine, we finally found the room, and Harry went and stood in front of it, and said.
"Look! Look at them all, there are loads of them"
"I can only see you" Said Ron, and I chimed in "Y-Yeah, maybe it shows things only to you?" I said, as I pushed Ron to stand in front of it.
Ron went on rambling about how he saw himself older and being Head Boy, holding the house cup and the quidditch cup and how he was Quidditch Captain, I took this time to examine the mirror more, and there were words on it, which I could decipher were Erised, I thought about the name a long time, as those two argued about something, until it dawned on me, as the letters formed and reformed themselves.
"Desire..." I whispered, they both looked at me and said "What?" I got nervous, overthinking about if I got it wrong, and just said.
"O-Oh, nothing, it's just... Erised backwards is Desire, maybe it has something to do with that?" I said in a question, to not sound too sure about it. "A-Although, don't take my word for granted, I'm new at this kind of stuff too"
"No, it has to be something else" Said Harry, as if he was denying it, to believe in what the mirror showed him. "Just, Ron, let me see it, you're only head boy, I want to see my parents"
Harry started to push Ron away. I tried telling them to speak quietly, but it was too late, as we heard a noise outside the corridor, and Harry threw the cloak over all of us. It was Filch's cat, and we decided to go back to the common room.
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The next day, Harry told us he was going again, Ron and I told him otherwise, that the mirror felt weird. That afternoon, I went to talk to Hagrid in my free time. I wanted to ask him something, and Harry told me he knew a lot about magical creatures.
I arrived at his hut, and knocked on his door, after a few seconds he came out, with Fang following him.
"H-hi Hagrid, Hi Fang" I said, Fang came onto me and I started to pet him.
"Oh (Y/n), what do yeh want? Come in, come in" He said, in a relaxed tone, and I got in.
"U-Um, nothing much, I just wanted to ask a few questions, Harry said you know a lot about magical creatures, and I wanted to ask about Blaze here." I said, as I pulled Blaze from her little hand-made pocket, she was starting to grow a bit, she used to be small, but now she almost filled my whole palm, not counting the fingers.
I put her on the table Hagrid had, and she stood there for a bit, looking around the place, curious as a baby would be.
"Harry told me yeh had a strange pet, 'course I can answer 'em, jus' shoot." Said Hagrid.
"Okay, the lady I got her from gave me a manual, but it was more like a two paged pamphlet, with what they eat and such, she also told me something about her skin? I want to take good care of Blaze, could you tell me about it?"
I was sitting on the table, and Blaze jumped from it and went straight to Hagrid's fireplace, and stood in the middle of it, eating fire and just relaxing around it.
Hagrid didn't seem to mind, and I was glad, he then approached the table to sit down too with me, and he handed me a plate with a cake, that looked like a rock, Hagrid looked at me expectantly, and I took a bit out of it, which my teeth did not thank me for, I have to eat it, can't make him feel bad about not doing it and forced my way through the piece I ate.
"Fire dwelling salamanders aren't s'pposed ter be pets, but when they're babies it can happen" Hagrid said "When growin' up, they jus' eat more fire, magical fire works wonders, abou' that skin problem yer mentioned, the lady prob'ly meant scale rot."
"That name doesn't sound good" I said
"An' it isn't, their skin gets all flakey and it falls off, but don' worry abou' it, fer fire dwelling salamanders the treatment's easy enough, jus' spray 'em with some chili powder" He said "Yeh have to take action immediately because it could even make her tail fall off"
"At least the treatment is something not too out of reach, I'll have to get some before the term ends...." I said.
Hagrid went on to explain, and he told me all about the proper way to take care of Blaze, while she ate his fire, we went talking for hours, and it wasn't just about Blaze, but I asked him about his life too.
At the beginning it was hard for me to understand how he talked, and to eat the rock cakes, but after a while of hearing him talk I could get it with no problems, and also, the rock cakes started to taste to something and it didn't make my teeth ache, at least not as much as the first bite.
"Thanks for everything Hagrid, it was really helpful, and also those rock cakes were.... good" I said, I didn't have the heart to tell him they almost made my teeth shatter, but it wasn't like I lied, they weren't all that bad.
"Don' worry (Y/n), yeh can come anytime, it was fun to have someone to talk to abou' animals, good to know someone else cares for 'em."
I waved goodbye to Hagrid, grabbed Blaze from the fire, which wasn't easy as she didn't want to leave, but managed to do so without getting burned, petted Fang, and left for the common room, I managed to get there in time and went straight to the dormitory, I didn't fed Blaze as she had already feasted on Hagrid's fireplace, and just slept through the whole night.
The next day, Ron and I found out that he ignored us, Harry said he went again to the mirror and that we were right, told us that Dumbledore was there, and what the mirror does and what'll happen to it.
"Yeah, well I guess it's not good to live off of dreams" I said, Harry looked at me weirdly, and said.
"You know, Dumbledore said something similar."
I shrugged it off, and just kept on talking about other stuff, until I eventually went back again in the library to search about Nicholas Flamel, holding on to an almost inexistent hope.
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Before the term started, I was happy to see Hermione return.
"Welcome back, Hermione!" I said, she hugged me, so I did the same in return, "Now I won't be alone in the library anymore" I said, jokingly, "What did you do on Christmas?"
"Oh nothing much, just spent time with my family, but I am really glad to be back at Hogwarts, by the way, thank you for the gifts, you really didn't need to give me two."
"What do you mean? I had to, Hermione, I didn't get you any present for your birthday, but don't worry, it won't happen again."
"But-" She looked like she wanted to argue about it, but I just said.
"Hermione, it's okay, just don't worry about it, how could I not get my best friend a present for her birthday? It was on me honestly, so don't think too much about it." She sighed, and just moved on and asked.
"Did any of you find information on Nicholas Flamel?" She asked, I was bummed, but told her the truth regardless.
"U-Um, well, I tried, I went to the library every day, basically spending my holidays there, but still couldn't find anything on Flamel" She looked disappointed, and then made a face as if she was thinking, and said.
"Those two didn't do a thing, did they?" I was... I guess you can say I froze.
"U- W-well, they did help, in a way...." She looked at me, as if she knew I was just trying to not make her mad at them, let out a deep sigh, and said.
"Honestly, I knew they wouldn't, but still...."
And as if she summoned them, the pair appeared, and they said Hi to her.
"Did you guys research about Nicholas Flamel?" She asked them, in a rather accusatory tone.
"Obviously" Said Ron, "We found nothing though" Harry seemed to only nod at what Ron was saying. Hermione gave them a mild scolding, she knew they were lying because she saw right through me.
Then we told her about Harry's little escapades, to which in return, she worried and said stuff like "what if they found you? They could've expelled you!"
After searching what felt like months, and every book of the library, everyone was starting to give up on finding info about him, although Harry kept saying that he heard the name somewhere, and honestly, me too, it was at the tip of my tongue.
We all had even less time to search, with classes back up and everything, so frustration was building in regards to ever finding anything on him.
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I was now in the common room, watching how Ron and Hermione were playing chess, and it was honestly kind of funny to see how frustrated Hermione gets when she loses at something. Ron was clearly enjoying the moment, knowing there are little things in which he can win against Hermione.
I was just watching, not really rooting for any of them, as both of them were my friends, but it was obvious it was starting to get to Hermione the fact of not winning any match, her eyes got all narrowed, thinking of all the possible scenarios, while Ron just, stared at the chess pieces.
Suddenly, Harry approached us, he had even less time than us, with Quidditch practices, and told us something about Snape being the referee, which we all reacted to.
"Don't play," said Hermione at once.
"Say you're ill" said Ron.
"Pretend to break your leg" Hermione suggested.
"Really break your leg," said Ron, I winced when he recommended that.
"Harry, just say you can't play that day, stomach ache by a failed potion or something, surely they have a reserve seeker." I said.
"I can't, they don't have one." Said Harry, which surprised me, how were they supposed to play if Harry didn't show up to be the seeker?
Before we could even say anything else, we heard someone walking – or rather – jumping to enter the common room, it was Neville, who had his legs stuck together, he almost fell and I got hold of him, trying to help him balance, I recognized the jinx, as it was the Leg-Locker curse, Hermione got her wand out and did the counter curse.
"W-Who did this to you, Neville?" I said, with pity on my eyes.
"Malfoy," Said Neville, rather weakly, as he sat next to us.
"Go to Professor McGonagall, report him" Said Hermione, and she meant well, but somehow something tells me they won't do much to him.
"I don't want any trouble" Said Neville, quietly, I was angry, Neville couldn't even hurt a fly, why were they so mean to him?
"I-I'm going t-to talk to him" I said, clearly nervous, trying to stand up, but Neville caught my robe, to try and stop me, before he could get any word out, Ron said.
"No, (Y/n), Neville has to stand up for himself! Malfoy's used to walking over people, but that's no reason to make it easier for him"
"There's no need to tell me I'm not brave enough for Gryffindor, Malfoy already made sure of that" Said Neville.
I looked at him, and said,
"Don't say that, Neville, the sorting hat put you here because of something, you should believe more in it, Malfoy's nothing compared to you, he may act all big, but he doesn't have your heart mate."
"Yeah" Said Harry, pulling out a Chocolate frog, and giving it to Neville, "You're worth twelve of Malfoy." Neville almost formed a smile, and as he unwrapped the Chocolate frog, he gave the card to Harry.
"Thanks, guys... I think I'll go to bed, d'you want the card Harry? I know you collect them" He said, and then left, Harry started to read the card to himself, saying he got Dumbledore again, I wasn't listening a lot, but then he screamed and startled me.
"I've found Flamel! Professor Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel!" Harry said as he read the card, my eyes were wide open, and I said.
"That's why it was so familiar, you read it the first time we met on the train!" I said, excited and relieved.
Hermione jumped to her feet in a quick and hurried manner, which startled me for the second time that day, as she practically commanded us, "Stay here!" in her usual bossy tone.
She went upstairs to the girls dormitory, and we just waited there, and she came back with a huge book, I stood up and went to help her carry it, it was rather big.
"I never thought to look in here! I got this out of the library weeks ago to read it with (Y/n) for a bit of light reading" She said.
Ron looked flabbergasted, and said "Light?" in a really surprised tone, I just looked at him and said.
"Mate, you should see what she makes me read to learn Herbology, it's like they're never ending" Ron looked at me sympathetically, put his hand on my shoulder and said, in a sarcastic manner.
"I am so sorry (Y/n)" we snickered a bit, until Hermione shot us a glance which we understood as a Quiet! and I did just that, you never want to anger Hermione.
She started to focus again on the book, and searching for something, she looked excited again, and said.
"I knew it, I knew it!"
"Are we allowed to speak again?" Said Ron.
"Nicholas Flamel, is the only known maker of the philosopher's stone" She whispered excitedly, and I knew she made the silence for one of us to fill it, Harry and Ron didn't look as surprised by the information, so I said.
"Isn't that the thing to... turn metals into gold and...." I gasped, I remembered "It gives you eternal life!"
"Exactly!" Said Hermione, as the other two looked in awe now, "The dog must be guarding Flamel's philosopher's stone! I bet he asked Dumbledore to keep it safe for him, because they're friends and he knew someone was after it. That's why he wanted the Stone moved out of Gringotts!"
"No wonder Snape wants it, anyone would! It makes you rich and immortal!" Said Harry.
"And no wonder we couldn't find Flamel in that Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry. He's not exactly recent if he's six hundred and sixty-five, is he?" Said Ron, and he was right, though I was engulfed in the relief of finally finding info about the bloke.
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The next morning, it was Defense against the Dark arts, which I honestly liked, It's just... compared to other Professors, Quirrel was odd, he always talked about big stuff he faced, but honestly, I think he was even more of a coward than I am, so I didn't fully believed him, and while he was busy, Harry was talking to us.
"I'm going to play" He said "If I don't they'll believe I'm a coward, I think it'll really wipe the smiles out of their faces if we win." I was still concerned, so I said.
"I don't know Harry, I'm still concerned about it, if you think you can do it then it's fine, but be careful, Slytherins like to play dirty..."
"Yeah, just be sure about it Harry, I don't want to wipe you off the pitch..." Said Hermione, also concerned by her friend.
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The day of the match, Ron and Hermione tried to cheer up Harry, but I felt all it ended up doing was making him more depressed, or that's what I felt, so I tried to put my grain of salt, thinking hard on what to say, and before he left the changing rooms, I said.
"H-Harry, look, we don't think anything bad is going to happen, we're just worried, y-you have good instincts mate, McGonagall recommended you for a reason, so... just keep an eye on the Snitch, focus on your job, and everyone else will do the same, you said it yourself, you have a good team, so go for it mate!" Trying to look and sound as positive and confident as I could, I wasn't sure if it worked, but Harry finally smiled.
"Thanks" He said, I patted him on the shoulder, and he went off, the other two started to look at me, and I got nervous, and said.
"W-what? He needed to hear us say something that didn't make him think that he was going to fall to his death, I think it worked, I hope..."
"Oh, nothing, (Y/n), good work on saying that to Harry, how do you always know what to say?" Asked Hermione, I got a bit flustered, and said.
"U-Uh, I don't know... I just, say things I would like to hear, if I was in a situation like that." I said, Ron didn't say anything until he finally talked.
"You talk like a girl" Which earned him a smack on the arm from Hermione, I just laughed as they argued a bit, and we started to walk.
We left the changing rooms, and I looked at the stands again, which, I repeat myself and say, didn't look safe at all, a little push and we would be splashed.
I gulped, and apparently Hermione noticed me doubting again, so she said.
"Are you going to do this every time we go to the stands, (Y/n)?" I looked at her, and said,
"It's n-not any easier, you know? Heights just make me feel weird, that's all." She looked a bit frustrated, and just grabbed my arm and dragged me to the stands, Ron saved us a seat, and we all sat together once more alongside Neville.
"Oh, come on mate, you're still afraid of heights?" Asked Ron.
"F-fear of heights is one of the most common fears, Ron, up there with fear of the d-dark." I said, he looked at me, and said, almost laughing at me.
"You fear the dark too, don't you?" I stared at him in silent, and he started to laugh,
"J-just shut up, Ron..." I said
"Thank god we have a plan" Said Hermione, either she ignored what we said or was too busy worrying about Harry right now, "Remember, Ron, Locomotor mortis"
"I know, don't nag," Said Ron.
"U-Um, are you guys sure? If we do that, he may fall off his broom to his death too. I don't know about you guys but I don't want to see anyone die, at least not as of now." I said.
"Do you have a better plan?" Asked Hermione, as if she was mad I questioned her plan.
"I-I don't know if better plan" I said, pulling my wand a bit, and not wanting to make Hermione think I though her plan was bad, "But dad taught me – or rather – I saw dad using the slow charm, Arresto Momentum, I believe, maybe that'll be less dangerous?"
"Have you ever tried the spell before?" Asked Hermione, "I think it's more dangerous to use a spell you haven't tried compared to one we have been practicing"
"Y-Yeah, I guess you're right... sorry, it was stupid." I said, feeling like an idiot for bringing it up, she was right, I couldn't just keep trying spells I've never used before, it could work, like with the troll, but it could also backfire.
"Let's just go with the plan you made, you're smarter than me anyways" I said, and laughed nervously.
As Hermione kept reminding Ron of the plan, and they started a mini discussion, my eyes darted around the field, and I locked eyes with someone who I didn't notice was looking at us until I looked.
"Oh, look, Professor Dumbledore!" I said, it looked like he heard me, because he waved his hand, but I knew it was impossible, even so, I waved back. "I didn't know he looked matches".
"That must be why Snape's looking like that, I've never seen him look so mean – Look, they're off. Ouch!" Said Ron, I looked at him and saw that he was poked by someone in the back of his head, and it was no surprise, it was Malfoy.
"Sorry Weasley, didn't see you there" Said, in his usual snarky tone, grinning at his two goons.
Hermione was clearly paying no attention, meanwhile Ron, and I were looking at the game, but still listened to what Malfoy said.
"You know how I think they choose people for the Gryffindor team? It's people they feel sorry for. See, there's Potter, who's got no parents, then there's the Weasleys, who've got no money – you should be on the team, Longbottom, you've got no brains"
Neville turned into a tomato, turned and said.
"I'm worth twelve of you, Malfoy, my heart's bigger than you'll ever have" Stammered Neville, while I just looked at him and nodded happily, and Ron muttered some encouraging words.
Malfoy looked taken by surprise, but played it off and laughed, and his two goons followed the same.
"Longbottom, if brains were gold, you'd be poorer than Weasley, and that's saying something"
I got fed up, and even though it was hard for me to talk back, I said.
"T-That's rich coming from you, if you didn't have Snape on your side, you would've failed Potions already, and who knows what more" Ron laughed, meanwhile Neville stifled one, Malfoy looked annoyed, but before we could hear whatever he had to say, Hermione said.
"Guys, look! Harry-" I turned my head and we saw how Harry dived, Hermione stood up, and I followed to see better, but Ron heard what Malfoy said, and all hell broke loose, as Ron jumped onto him, and suddenly they were wrestling on the ground, I turned around once more, and saw Neville helping him, trying to fight two guys at the same time.
I hesitated a bit, but as I saw Neville taking one punch, I just jumped to the fight too, even though I've never fought before.
Hermione never once noticed us, and we were far too busy, at least in my case, throwing punches all around Crabbe and Goyle trying to help Neville, and it seems it was working, but those two still had a height advantage.
The crowd roared, and it seemed like something happened. As I looked at Hermione, she shrieked and tried to hug someone who she thought was beside her, but after she hugged the air, she screamed through the crowd cheering.
"(Y/n)! (Y/n)! Where are you guys? The game 's over! Harry 's won! We've won!" She started to dance and jump and the last thing I saw was her hugging Parvati Patil before a punch hit me in the face, bringing my concentration back to the scuffle that was happening.
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After getting out of the whole match, it was now the evening, we waited for Harry outside the changing rooms, Ron with a nose bleed and me with a black eye, though, I think I put up a good fight, for someone who's never fought anyone before.
Harry finally got out, and before we could even approach him, a lot of Gryffindors – if not all of them – ran up to him and started to cheer for him, lifting him up in the air, as we three watched from a distance, also cheering for him, and for the first time, being in a crowd didn't make me uncomfortable.
It was like that for a bit, until suddenly Harry disappeared, and I made sure to let Hermione and Ron know, he came back after a while.
"Harry, where have you been?" Hermione sounded worried, but also commanding, as if to order him to tell us.
Ron came from behind Harry, thumped him in the shoulder, and shouted
"We won! You won! We won! I gave Malfoy a black eye and Neville and (Y/n) took on Crabbe and Goyle! Neville's still with Madam Pomfrey because he got more than the black eye (Y/n) got, but she says he'll be fine, talk about showing Slytherin! Everyone's waiting for you in the common room, we're having a party, Fred and George stole some cakes and stuff from the kitchens"
I thought Harry would be more happy, but he looked extremely worried about something, which I voiced out.
"Harry, is everything all right?"
"Y-Yeah, let's find an empty room, I have to tell you guys something." Harry said.
He told us about Snape, and how he made Quirrel go to the forbidden forest, and how he's using him because he's got a weak mind. If I had any doubts left that Snape was onto something, then this was the breaking point.
"So you mean the Stone's only safe as long as Quirrel stands up to Snape?" Said Hermione, in a kind of alarming tone, not having any faith in it.
"It'll be gone by next Tuesday" Said Ron, and I was in too much of a thinking spree to figure out what to do to even answer properly.
"Surely... surely Quirrel could hang on, he's a Hogwarts teacher for something, no?" I said, clinging onto a false hope, they all just looked at me, and looked as hopeless as I was feeling.
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