Destinia: First Year at Hogwarts

Chapter 12: The First Curse

"What did your parents say again?" Draco let out an exaggerated sigh and looked up from his notebook in which he had been working for the book.

     "Pansy, for the millionth time, Nicholas Flamel is a well-known alchemist for having the only real Philosopher's Stone in his possession," he explained to her for what felt like too often. "Have you gone deaf or something?"

     Pansy shook her head. "I've just been thinking..." Draco sighed and rolled his eyes, returning to his work.

     Harry Potter received an Invisi—

     Pansy fell from the bed.

     Draco started in surprise. He jumped off his chair and walked over to the girl on the ground. "Merlin, Pansy, what's gotten into you?" he asked as he pulled her to her feet.

     Pansy was grinning widely. "I finally understand it!" she beamed excitedly at him.

     "Understand what?"

     Pansy sat down on Draco's bed and gestured for him to do the same. As he took his seat, she started her explanation.

     "The Philosopher's Stone can turn any metal into pure gold, but also produces the Elixir of Life. If that's what they're hiding at Hogwarts, and what needs such strong protection, there's only one possible reason Quirrell would want to steal it for."

     Draco looked down in thoughts. She was right, but why could Quirrell, who was still a Hogwarts teacher, want the stone for anything else except to become rich? They had addressed that possibility before, but never settled for it, because it seemed too absurd. Except... No, that's not possible. Or, is it...

     "The Dark Lord, that's who he's working for," Pansy whispered, leaning closer to Draco, who looked up at her, shocked, but not too shocked. He still didn't fully understand it, though.

     "But how can he work for him, though?" he asked her thoughtfully. She shrugged.

     "One can only guess what goes on in the mind of the Dark Lord."

After his talk with Pansy, he had abandoned his work to dig deeper in on the possibilities. They were almost sure Quirrell wanted to steal the stone for the Dark Lord, but all their ideas of how they communicated and planned seemed impossible.

     Now, at midnight, Draco couldn't sleep as his mind clouded with questions. None answered. There was also the thing about his father acting suspicious that had caught his attention. He turned on his side, staring into the darkness of his room. He sighed and turned around again, but found nothing interesting to focus on in the alike darkness.

     He sighed once more before giving up and sat up, taking his wand and lighting the candle on his bedside table. He took the book from there and continued reading the twelfth chapter, The Mirror of Erised.

     He read, entranced, as Potter saw his family in that mirror. He was smiling slightly, happy for the boy who finally found out at least what his parents looked like, even though he knew reviving someone was impossible.

     At the part about Weasley, though, he couldn't care less and even got slightly irritated at his behaviour towards Potter.

     He became more attentive as Dumbledore explained about the mirror, silently wondering what his reflection would show him. He almost decided to go and find the mirror himself after break ended, but dismissed it as Dumbledore told Potter that the mirror would be replaced the next day, which had already passed for him.