𝐈. 𝐄𝐋𝐘𝐒𝐈𝐀𝐍 | 𝐏𝐉𝐎 𝐗 𝐇𝐏

thirteen

"So we were right, it is the Philosopher's Stone, and Snape's trying to force  Quirrell  to  help  him  get  it.  He asked if he knew how to get past  Fluffy  —  and  he  said  something  about  Quirrell's  'hocus-pocus'  —  I  reckon  there  are  other  things  guarding  the  stone  apart  from  Fluffy,  loads  of  enchantments,  probably,  and  Quirrell  would  have  done  some  anti-Dark  Arts  spell  that  Snape  needs  to  break  through —"

"So you mean the Stone's only safe as long as Quirrell stands up to Snape?" said Hermione in alarm. "It'll be gone by next Tuesday," said Ron.

Lilith pondered on the thought. Something just doesn't add up to her.

Quirell,   however,   must   have   been   braver   than   they'd   thought. In the weeks that followed he did seem to be get-ting paler and thinner, but it didn't look as though he'd cracked yet. Every time they passed the third-floor corridor, Harry, Lilith, Ron, and Hermione  would  press  their  ears  to  the  door  to  check  that  Fluffy  was  still  growling  inside.

  Snape  was  sweeping  about  in  his  usual  bad  temper,  which  surely  meant  that  the  Stone  was  still  safe.  Whenever  Harry  passed  Quirrell  these  days  he  gave  him  an  encouraging  sort  of  smile,  and  Ron  had  started  telling  people  off  for  laughing at Quirrell's stutter. Lilith tried to tell the twins to stop pranking the poor Professor, but she failed because their pranks were hilarious.

Hermione,  however,  had  more  on  her  mind  than  the  Stone.  She  had  started  drawing  up  study  schedules  and  color-coding  all  her  notes.  Harry, Lilith,  and  Ron  wouldn't  have  minded,  but  she kept nagging them to do the same. "Hermione, the exams are ages away."

"Ten  weeks,"  Hermione  snapped.  "That's  not  ages,  that's  like  a  second to Nicolas Flamel."

"But we're not six hundred years old," Ron reminded her. "Any-way, what are you studying for, you already know it all."

"What  am  I  studying  for?  Are  you  crazy?  You  realize  we  need  to  pass  these  exams  to  get  into  the  second  year?  They're  very  important,  I  should  have  started  studying  a  month  ago,  I  don't  know  what's gotten into me."

Unfortunately,  the  teachers  seemed  to  be  thinking  along  the  same  lines  as  Hermione.  They  piled  so  much  homework  on  them  that  the  Easter  holidays  weren't  nearly  as  much  fun  as  the  Christmas ones. It was hard to relax with Hermione next to you reciting the twelve uses of dragon's blood or practicing wand movements.

Moaning  and  yawning,  Harry  and  Ron  spent  most  of  their  free  time  in  the library with her, trying to get through all their extra work, while Lilith was distracted by doodling on the parchment.

"I'll  never  remember  this,"  Ron  burst  out  one  afternoon,  throwing  down  his  quill  and  looking  longingly  out  of  the  library  window.  It  was  the  first  really  fine  day  they'd  had  in  months.  The  sky  was a clear, forget-me-not blue, and there was a feeling in the air of summer coming.

Harry, who was looking up "Dittany" in One Thousand Magical  Herbs  and  Fungi,  didn't  look  up  until  he  heard  Ron  say,  "Hagrid!  What are you doing in the library?" Hagrid  shuffled  into  view,  hiding  something  behind  his  back.  He looked very out of place in his moleskin overcoat.

"Jus'  lookin',"  he  said,  in  a  shifty  voice  that  got  their  interest  at  once. "An' what're you lot up ter?"

He looked suddenly suspicious. "Yer not still lookin' fer Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?"