Slytherin Raised by Wolfstar: Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone

Chapter Sixteen: The Man With Two Faces

(I have to say this for my own piece of mind. How I wrote this book was change anything that relates to Harry's new backstory, house, and friends, but stuff independent of that stays the same. Well this chapter just so happens to have nothing to do with Harrys new back story, house, or friends so despite trying my best to add a little new dialoged as as much new thought as I could, this chapter is remarkably similar to how it was in the novel. To change it up I split this chapter in two, so the actual final chapter is a more unique ending, I promise.)

It was Quirrell.

'You!' gasped Harry.

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

'Me,' he said calmly. 'I wondered whether I'd be meeting you here, Potter.'

'But I thought-Snape-'

'Severus?' Quirrell laughed and it wasn't his usual quivering treble, either, but cold and sharp. '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 couldn't take it in. It couldn't be true. Sirius had said he knew Quirrell in school, and unlike when he mentioned Snape or his family he talked about Quirrell with no animosity.

'But Snape tried to kill me!'

'No, no, no. I tried to kill you. When your friend Miss Davis cast that Titillando jink on Snape he ended up knocking me over, which I think he did on purpose. It broke my eye contact with you. Another few seconds and I'd have gotten you flung off your broom. I'd have managed it before then if Snape hadn't been muttering a counter-cure, trying to save you.'

'Snape was trying to save me?'

'Of course,' said Quirrell coolly. '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 Ravenclaw winning, he did make himself unpopular...and what a waste of time, when after all that, I'm going to kill you tonight.'

Quirrell snapped his fingers. Ropes sprang out of thin air and wrapped themselves tightly around Harry.

'You're too nosy to live, Potter. Scurrying around the school at Hallowe'en like that, for all I knew you'd seen me coming to look at what was guarding the Stone. Shame too, you've been a nice student, however I think your kindness was brought on by you thinking I was the victim.'

'Wait, you let the troll in?'

'Certainly. I have a special gift with trolls-you must have seen what I did to the one in the chamber back there? Unfortunately, while everyone else was running around looking for it, Snape, who already was suspicious of 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.

'Now wait quietly, Potter. I need to examine this interesting mirror.'

It was only then that Harry realised what was standing behind Quirrell. It was the Mirror of Erised.

'This mirror is the key to finding the Stone,' Quirrell murmured, tapping his way around the frame. 'Trust Dumbledore to come up with something like this...but he's in London...I'll be far away by the time he gets back...'

All Harry could think of doing was to keep Quirrell talking and stop him from concentrating on the Mirror. And given Quirrell had to pretend to barely speak for a year, Harry suspected he was dying to finally talk to someone.