Chapter 71

The crackling of the fire burning in the common room fireplace echoed around the room, barely masking Harry's worried footsteps as he paced back and forth. It was early morning the Sunday after Snape's detention and Harry was feeling unusually conflicted and worried about what he should do.

The professors, or at the very least Snape, suspected Quirrell's misdemeanors and yet for some reason, they didn't seem to have any intention of sacking him. Harry had not heard even a whisper of any rumor of the DADA Professor being in any sort of trouble.

"Why?"

Harry kept trying and failing to think of why they would do that. Perhaps they were trying to make sure that Quirrell wouldn't be able to run free around the wizarding world doing whatever he pleased with no surveillance? Dumbledore was a pretty powerful wizard, so they could be trying to contain him till they collected enough evidence of his illegal deeds…

Harry's train of thought ground to a stop.

"What did he do that was illegal?" Harry whispered to himself, and it all clicked in his head. He himself had no tangible and real evidence that anything wrong was going on. The only thing he had seen him do was to try to kill a unicorn, which was pretty reprehensible, but still legal. Their body parts were used in potions after all!

"Damn it!" he exclaimed out loud, angrily dropping into the chair by the fireplace.

When it all came down to it, all Harry was doing was working off a hunch and a vague clue that a professor had given him. A powerful hunch, but a hunch nonetheless. He had to collect more evidence…more information on what Quirrell was up to.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he leaned into the paper in front of him. The entire conversation of the night of the detention was written on it. Every single thing of any importance that the Professor had told him about Quirrell was in those paragraphs on the paper. Picking it up, he started reading it again.

Quirinus Quirrell is a dangerous man. The fact that he hasn't harmed any students in the school shows that he's after something else. Something powerful and useful enough that he'd risk drinking unicorn blood for it. You know what drinking unicorn blood does, don't you Potter? It is a monstrous thing, to slay a unicorn. The only one who has nothing to lose, and everything to gain, would commit such a crime. The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price. You have slain something pure and defenseless to save yourself, and you will have but a half-life, a cursed life, from the moment the blood touches your lips. You're an intelligent one Potter. You'll work it out yourself. But when you do, think twice before going after it. There are people who'd rather have you go after it and test your character. But I say don't. You don't owe this world a thing.

Cutting it all down, he was left with just a few raw hard facts.

Quirinus Quirrell was a dangerous man. He was after something in the school. Something powerful. Snape knew what it was, and he believed that Harry would want to go after if he knew about it. Quirrell had been careful not to do anything illegal so that he couldn't be removed from the school before he got what he wanted.

Harry looked at the information he had with disdain and threw the paper into the common room fire. This wasn't enough to do anything at all!

'Okay, calm down,' he told himself, "There has to be something hidden in there. Snape was giving me a hint. All I need to do is figure out what it means, right? '

Calming down, he started to consider the larger picture.

Quirrell had been a Muggle Studies teacher for years before he was DADA. Why hadn't he stolen what he needed before this?

'Because whatever he wants wasn't here before. It's something new to the school. It's something powerful, so it has to be pretty well hidden or guarded too. And it's something Snape thought I would go after. Most people just think of me as some sort of young hero and I don't think I've given Snape any reason to think otherwise, so I guess he must have thought that I would try to protect the artifact, whatever it was.'

"So what is something new to the school and well protected," Harry mused out aloud.

"New and protected? Well, it could be whatever is being hidden in that third-floor corridor," a voice said from over his shoulder, making Harry jump a foot.

It was Terry. Grinning at Harry, he sat down on the chair beside him.

"Hidden?" Harry asked, intrigued.

"Yup. Heard there's a real Cerberus in there, standing on a trap door." Terry said as he leaned back into the chair and closed his eyes.

"How come I didn't know that? Where'd you find out about it?" Harry asked incredulously.

Terry looked at him with raised eyebrows before dryly replying, "You would know if you talked to people outside the common room a little more. The Weasley twins have been in there at least twice."

Harry's face reddened a little. "I thought Ravenclaws were all about books and knowledge. Isn't socializing more of a Slytherin thing?"

"Socializing is a human thing, Harry. And people can give you knowledge, too you know."

Embarrassed, Harry muttered a thank you and they both lapsed into silence, waiting for rest of the boys to come down and leave for breakfast.

Internally though, Harry was cursing himself in his head for not seeing it earlier. The answer had been staring at his face from literally the first day he'd entered the school.

The third-floor corridor. That needed more investigation.

One thing was sure, Quirrell was not safe to be around children, least of all around his new friends. Until he was sure that the turbaned professor was no threat, Harry was dead set to keep working to foil whatever he intended to do.

"So what are you guys doing today?" Harry asked Terry, who plonked himself down beside him at the Ravenclaw table, as he poured a spoonful of sugar into his porridge.

"Nothing too concrete. I'll probably check out the fiction section of the library," Terry said, "Got to say, muggles may not have magic, but their fiction has these wizarding novels beat fair and square."

"Homework," Michael chimed in through a mouthful of potatoes.

"Well Anthony and I are off to the Quidditch pitch to see the Ravenclaw team practice," added Stephen, frowning at Michael, as if revolted by his despicable table manners. He turned to Harry, "Wanna come?"

"I thought it was supposed to be the two of us," Anthony muttered. Harry frowned a bit. Had he somehow alienated the boy? He had always been polite to him.

Replying to Stephen's question, he said, "Nah mate. I'm good. I have my issues with that sport and I don't think I could sit through an actual game without lecturing both of your ears off."

.

.

.

.

🐉 patreon.com/William777🐉

Subscribe to my Patreon for more advanced chapters