Harry Potter and Claire Smith's Adventures: Book One

Two-Faced

Chapter 13: Two-Faced

It was Quirrell.

"You!" Harry gasped just as Claire recovered from the shock.

I knew I should've never doubted that it was Quirrell. Claire thought to herself.

Quirrell smiled. His face wasn't twitching at all.

"Me," he said calmly. "I wondered whether I'd be meeting you, here, Potter. And of course, you brought Smith here as well."

"But-I thought-Snape-" Harry began.

"Severus?" Quirrell laughed. It was a cold and sharp laugh. "Yes, Severus does seem the type, doesn't he? So useful to have him swooping around like an overgrown bat. Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor, st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrell?"

Harry was still shocked and couldn't believe any of this was true.

"But Snape tried to kill me!" Harry said.

"No, Harry, don't you see? Quirrell was the one who cursed your broom. I told you that I saw Quirrell muttering the jinx and keeping eye-contact on you. Hermione said those were signs of a jinx. But you were sold on the idea that Snape, who looked to be doing the same thing, was the one behind it. But Snape must've been saying the countercurse. I bet you anything that Quirrell was the one who let the troll in during the Halloween feast. And of course, now he's here's to steal the stone to give to Voldemort so Voldemort can become immortal." Claire said.

Quirrell smirked at Claire. "Congratulations, Smith! You've cracked the case! It was I who released the troll and jinxed Potter's broom. I have a special gift with trolls. Unfortunately, while everyone else was running around looking for it, Snape, who already suspected me, went straight to the third floor to head me off- and not only did my troll fail to beat you to death, that three-headed dog didn't even manage to bite Snape's leg off properly. As for your broom, I'd have managed to knock you off your broom stick if Snape hadn't been muttering the countercurse, trying to save you."

"He tried to save me?" Harry questioned. He couldn't believe this! Why would Snape, who picked on him all the time, try to save him?

"Of course," Quirrell said cooly. "Why do you think he wanted to referee your next match? He was trying to make sure I didn't do it again. Funny, really.....he needn't have bothered. I couldn't do anything with Dumbledore watching. All the other teachers thought Snape was trying to stop Gryffindor from winning, he did make himself unpopular....and what a waste of time, when after all that, I'm going to kill you tonight."

Claire stepped in front of Harry pointing her wand at Quirrell.

"You'll have to go through me first." Claire glared at Quirrell.

Quirrell glared back at her. "Stupid girl! You think you can protect your friend in the face of danger? You're just like your foolish parents!"

Claire paled. How could Quirrell know her parents? She ignored the comment and was about to fire a spell when Quirrell shouted, "Stupefy!"

Claire felt herself being lifted from the ground a few inches, within a few seconds, and thrown across the room into a wall, hitting her head hard before blacking out. The last thing she heard was Harry yelling her name and the pounding of drums.
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"Oh, good, Ms. Smith you're up." Madam Pomfrey said, as Claire opened her eyes.

Claire tried to ignore the pounding headache she was having. Madam Pomfrey seemed to be finishing bandaging her head. At first she couldn't remember what had happened. Then suddenly, the events that occurred replayed in her mind. She suddenly panicked. Harry was still down there battling Quirrell alone. She threw the covers off herself, ignoring the pounding in her head and Madam Pomfrey's yells to get back in bed.