Double Double Toil and Trouble // One //

Chapter Twelve

Nat, Hermione, and I were sitting on Hermione's porch eating some wizard sweets that she collected from the train ride home. "Hermione, I got you a Christmas present, but I left it at my house." I said as I took a bite out of my liquorice wand. "It's fine. You can just give it to me when we go back to school. I got you something as well." I sat up from my position of laying on the step. "Really?" She nodded. "But you can't have it until I get mine." I laid down again. "Fair enough."

"So how is living with the Weasleys treating you?" Hermione asked. I shrugged. "It's as good as it can be I suppose. I think they're scared to prank me because they know I'll find a way to get them back." Nat laughed. "That's why I never mess with you." She said as she took a bite out of a pumpkin pastie.

I picked up a chocolate frog box and opened it quickly to catch it before it could jump away. They aren't real frogs, they're just milk chocolate lumps shaped that way and put under a spell to hop around like one. I bit off one of its legs. Nat picked the box up off of my stomach. "Can I have the card? I've been collecting them." She asked. I nodded. "Sure. I've collected more than I really need myself." "Exactly how many do you have? Ron said he's got somewhere around five-hundred." Hermione inquired. "Not as much as Ron of course. He takes it a bit more seriously than anyone I know. I'd say my collection's around three-hundred-fifty."

Nat let out a sudden gasp. We jerked our heads towards her. Her eyes were wide and her chin went so low I thought it was about to fall off. "What is it?" Hermione asked. "I've found him! I've found Flamel!" She exclaimed. She was staring at the back of the Chocolate Frog card. I looked at the front to find Dumbledore's cheerful smile and half-moon spectacles looking back at me. I sat up so quickly I nearly got a head rush. "Let me see that." I said, holding my hand out. She passed it to me. I read the description of our headmaster aloud. "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, Nicholas Flamel!" I got louder as I read towards the end. Hermione jumped up from the top step and ran to her front door. "I'll be right back!"

Nat and I had to wait a couple of minutes before we heard Hermione's footsteps running towards us inside the house. She came back outside the house carrying a large book that looked bigger than her arm. "I never thought to look in here! I checked this out of the Hogwarts Library weeks ago for a bit of light reading!" She sat down and opened the cover, wasting no time to flip the pages. "Light?" I said, raising my eyebrows. She ignored me and didn't stop turning pages until she found what she was looking for. "I knew it! 'Nicholas Flamel is the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone!'" "The what?" Nat and I asked in unison. Hermione rolled her eyes. "Honestly, don't you two read?" "Yes, quite fluently." She ignored me again and shoved the book towards us. "Read that there." She commanded, pointing to a certain line in the middle of the page. We read:

The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Philosopher's Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers. The Stone will transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal.

There have been many reports of the Philosopher's Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr Nicholas Flamel, the noted alchemist and opera lover. Mr Flamel, who celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday last year, enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife, Perenelle (six hundred and fifty-eight).

"See?" Hermione asked when we finished. "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!" She explained. "That must've been what Hagrid had collected while he was at Gringotts." They looked at me with frowns. "On Harry and I's birthday, we ran into Hagrid at Gringotts. I saw this oddly-shaped thing in his pocket, but I thought it just could've been one of his rock cakes." "Hagrid must've gotten the stone out of Vault 713 before the break-in." Nat jumped in. We all shared suspicious glances. I pocketed the card.