Allegations and Alibis

After the quidditch match Harry had to endure much praise from his house, Daphne and friends had asked him what happened to his broom and he told them he didn't know and he would ask somebody about it.

The next day Harry was cornered by Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley and Adrian Potter when he went to the library so his homework. Harry mentally groaned when the three came over, they walked right up to him and were looking particularly pleased with themselves.

"Hey Harry" Adrian said

"Why do you look so happy?" Harry asked "Found a damsel that needs rescuing?"

"We wanted to talk to you, in private, it's important. Can we go somewhere else where we won't get overheard?"

"Fine" Harry sighed "Meet me by the lake in ten minutes"

"Why ten minutes?" Ron asked

"Because I estimate it will take two to three minutes for me to finish my homework and two to one minutes to pack everything away then four or five minutes to get to the lake. Plenty of time for you though, now go on."

The three didn't look particularly happy at being dismissed but left the library, Harry got to the lake ten minutes later and looked at the three who looked back at him.

"Now" Harry said "what do you want?"

"Well, we wanted to thank you again" Hermione spoke "for saving us from Malfoy and his goons"

"Lovely, but I doubt you wanted a private conversation just for that"

"No" Adrian shook his head "we wanted to let you know that Snape was the one jinxing your broom"

"Snape?" Harry raised an eyebrow

"Yes, Snape" Adrian nodded

"It's true" Hermione said "we saw him, he was making eye contact with your broom, I know a spell when I see one and he wasn't blinking."

"What proof do you have that it was him?" Harry asked

"Didn't you hear her?" Ron interrupted "She just told you that Snape was using a spell to kick you off your broom"

"No, she told me that Snape was using a spell" Harry replied "for all we know he could have been using the counter curse to whoever did use the spell"

"No" Hermione shook her head "when we set him on fire, it stopped and..."

"Wait" Harry interrupted "you set him on fire? And you actually just admitted that?"

"Look, we were saving your life" Adrian said "you should be thanking us"

"Fine, thanks, now you actually set him on fire? What kind of lunatics are you?"

"Would you have preferred to have died?" Hermione glared at him

"I would have preferred you tell McGonagall or someone else and they could have confirmed it. But look, I appreciate the effort and your honesty. I don't think Snape did it however, but thanks again." Harry turned around and began walking away.

"Hey" Adrian called out and Harry stopped and looked back at them "that's it?"

"Yes" Harry nodded "unless you have anything else you need to tell me about?" The three all began looking at each other "I'm guessing you do have something to tell me, what is it?"

"It's Snape" Adrian said eventually "we think that he's trying to break into the third floor corridor"

"May I ask why you think that?" Harry asked

"The day of the troll attack, Snape had a limp, we think he'd gotten it from when he tried to get past Fluffy" Adrian said

"Fluffy?" Harry raised an eyebrow

"It's a giant three headed dog" Ron said

"A cerberus? Dumbledore's put a cerbrus in a school? He really has lost it, wait, how do you know? Did Dumbledore tell you?"

"No" Hermione shook her head "we ended up there by accident"

"Of course you did" Harry sighed, there was no way that the Gryffindor golden boy and boy-who-lived just happened to stumble on it "how did you stumble up on a three headed dog?"

"We was walking then the staircases changed" Hermione answered "then Filch came and we ran so we didn't get in trouble, we ended up hiding when we realised where we were"

"Hmm, fine but I don't think Snape stole it"

"You're only saying that because you're a Slytherin" Ron replied

"No, I'm saying it because it's too obvious." Harry responded "think about it, imagine you wanted to steal whatever was in that corridor"

"Oh, it's something to do with Nicholas Flammel" Ron blurted out and Hermione elbowed him

"Anyway" Harry continued but vowed to look up Flammel later "if you wanted to steal something then you'd be drawing less attention to yourself. Snape has always been attracting attention, everyone knows not to piss him off and he's worked with Dumbledore for years. He's too obvious a suspect, don't you lot ever read books or watch TV? It's always the least obvious suspect"

"This is not a book!" Hermione snapped "This is real life!"

"Says the muggle raised witch at the magical school that houses giant three headed dogs and has students that fly on broomsticks" Harry commented dryly "either way, believe what you want, now I'm going unless you want anything else"

"Actually, the headmaster wants to talk to you" Adrian said "told me to bring you whenever possible"

"Fine" Harry said "lead the way"

....

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