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The Slytherins were cheering. No one seemed to have noticed that Harry's broom was behaving strangely. It was carryinghim slowly higher, away from the game, jerking and twitching as it went. |
«Dunno what Harry thinks he's doing,» Hagrid mumbled. He stared through his binoculars. «If I didn' know better, I'd say he'd lost control of his broom... but he can't have...» |
Suddenly, people were pointing up at Harry all over the stands. His broom had started to roll over and over, with him only just managing to hold on. Then the whole crowd gasped. Harry's broom had given a wild jerk and Harry swung off it. He was now dangling from it, holding on with only one hand. |
«Did something happen to it when Flint blocked him?» Seamus whispered. |
«Can't have,» Hagrid said, his voice shaking. «Can't nothing interfere with a broomstick except powerful Dark magic—no kid could do that to a Nimbus Two Thousand.» |
At these words, Hermione seized Hagrid's binoculars, but instead of looking up at Harry, she started looking frantically at the crowd. |
«What are you doing?» moaned Ron, gray-faced. |
«I knew it,» Hermione gasped, «Snape—look.» |
Ron grabbed the binoculars. Snape was in the middle of the stands opposite them. He had his eyes fixed on Harry and was muttering nonstop under his breath. |
«He's doing something—jinxing the broom,» said Hermione. |
«What should we do?» |
«Leave it to me.» |
Before Ron could say another word, Hermione had disappeared. Ron turned the binoculars back on Harry. His broom was vibrating so hard, it was almost impossible for him to hang on much longer. The whole crowd was on its feet, watching, terrified, as the Weasleys flew up to try and pull Harry safely onto one of their br... |
Flint seized the Quaffle and scored five times without anyone noticing. |
«Come on, Hermione,» Ron muttered desperately. |
Hermione had fought her way across to the stand where Snape stood, and was now racing along the row behind him; she didn't even stop to say sorry as she knocked Professor Quirrell headfirst into the row in front. Reaching Snape, she crouched down, pulled out her wand, and whispered a few, wellchosen words. Bright blue... |
It took perhaps thirty seconds for Snape to realize that he was on fire. A sudden yelp told her she had done her job. Scooping the fire off him into a little jar in her pocket, she scrambled back along the row—Snape would never know what had happened. |
It was enough. Up in the air, Harry was suddenly able to clamber back on to his broom. |
«Neville, you can look!» Ron said. Neville had been sobbing into Hagrid's jacket for the last five minutes. |
Harry was speeding toward the ground when the crowd saw him clap his hand to his mouth as though he was about to be sick—he hit the field on all fours—coughed—and something gold fell into his hand. |
«I've got the Snitch!» he shouted, waving it above his head, and the game ended in complete confusion. |
«He didn't catch it, he nearly swallowed it,» Flint was still howling twenty minutes later, but it made no difference—Harry hadn't broken any rules and Lee Jordan was still happily shouting the results—Gryffindor had won by one hundred and seventy points to sixty. Harry heard none of this, though. He was being made a ... |
«It was Snape,» Ron was explaining, «Hermione and I saw him. He was cursing your broomstick, muttering, he wouldn't take his eyes off you.» |
«Rubbish,» said Hagrid, who hadn't heard a word of what had gone on next to him in the stands. «Why would Snape do somethin' like that?» |
Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at one another, wondering what to tell him. Harry decided on the truth. |
«I found out something about him,» he told Hagrid. «He tried to get past that three-headed dog on Halloween. It bit him. We think he was trying to steal whatever it's guarding.» |
Hagrid dropped the teapot. |
«How do you know about Fluffy?» he said. |
«Fluffy?» |
«Yeah—he's mine—bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las' year—I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the |
«Yes?» said Harry eagerly. |
«Now, don't ask me anymore,» said Hagrid gruffly. «That's top secret, that is.» |
«But Snape's trying to steal it.» |
«Rubbish,» said Hagrid again. «Snape's a Hogwarts teacher, he'd do nothin' of the sort.» |
«So why did he just try and kill Harry?» cried Hermione. |
The afternoon's events certainly seemed to have changed her mind about Snape. |
I know a jinx when I see one, Hagrid, I've read all about them! |
You've got to keep eye contact, and Snape wasn't blinking at all, I saw him!» |
«I'm tellin' yeh, yer wrong!» said Hagrid hotly. «I don' know why Harry's broom acted like that, but Snape wouldn' try an' kill a student! Now, listen to me, all three of yeh—yer meddlin' in things that don' concern yeh. It's dangerous. You forget that dog, an' you forget what it's guardin', that's between Professor D... |
«Aha!» said Harry, «so there's someone called Nicolas Flamel involved, is there?» |
Hagrid looked furious with himself. |
CHAPTER TWELVE |
THE MIRROR OF ERISED |
Christmas was coming. One morning in mid-December, Hogwarts woke to find itself covered in several feet of snow. The lake froze solid and the Weasley twins were punished for bewitching several snowballs so that they followed Quirrell around, bouncing off the back of his turban. The few owls that managed to battle thei... |
No one could wait for the holidays to start. While the Gryffindor common room and the Great Hall had roaring fires, the drafty corridors had become icy and a bitter wind rattled the windows in the classrooms. Worst of all were Professor Snape's classes down in the dungeons, where their breath rose in a mist before the... |
«I do feel so sorry,» said Draco Malfoy, one Potions class, «for all those people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because they're not wanted at home.» |
He was looking over at Harry as he spoke. Crabbe and Goyle chuckled. Harry, who was measuring out powdered spine of lionfish, ignored them. Malfoy had been even more unpleasant than usual since the Quidditch match. Disgusted that the Slytherins had lost, he had tried to get everyone laughing at how a wide-mouthed tree... |
It was true that Harry wasn't going back to Privet Drive for Christmas. Professor McGonagall had come around the week before, making a list of students who would be staying for the holidays, and Harry had signed up at once. He didn't feel sorry for himself at all; this would probably be the best Christmas he'd ever ha... |
When they left the dungeons at the end of Potions, they found a large fir tree blocking the corridor ahead. Two enormous feet sticking out at the bottom and a loud puffing sound told them that Hagrid was behind it. |
«Hi, Hagrid, want any help?» Ron asked, sticking his head through the branches. |
«Nah, I'm all right, thanks, Ron.» |
«Would you mind moving out of the way?» came Malfoys cold drawl from behind them. «Are you trying to earn some extra money, Weasley? Hoping to be gamekeeper yourself when you leave Hogwarts, I suppose—that hut of Hagrid's must seem like a palace compared to what your family's used to.» |
Ron dived at Malfoy just as Snape came up the stairs. |
«WEASLEY!» |
Ron let go of the front of Malfoy's robes. |
«He was provoked, Professor Snape,» said Hagrid, sticking his huge hairy face out from behind the tree. «Malfoy was insultin' his family.» |
«Be that as it may, fighting is against Hogwarts rules, Hagrid,» said Snape silkily. «Five points from Gryffindor, Weasley, and be grateful it isn't more. Move along, all of you.» |
Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle pushed roughly past the tree, scattering needles everywhere and smirking. |
«I'll get him,» said Ron, grinding his teeth at Malfoy's back, «one of these days, I'll get him —» |
«I hate them both,» said Harry, «Malfoy and Snape.» |
«Come on, cheer up, it's nearly Christmas,» said Hagrid. «Tell yeh what, come with me an' see the Great Hall, looks a treat.» |
So the three of them followed Hagrid and his tree off to -the Great Hall, where Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick were busy with the Christmas decorations. |
«Ah, Hagrid, the last tree—put it in the far corner, would you?» |
The hall looked spectacular. Festoons of holly and mistletoe hung all around the walls, and no less than twelve towering Christmas trees stood around the room, some sparkling with tiny icicles, some glittering with hundreds of candles. |
«How many days you got left until yer holidays?» Hagrid asked. |
«Just one,» said Hermione. «And that reminds me -Harry, Ron, we've got half an hour before lunch, we should be in the library.» |
«Oh yeah, you're right,» said Ron, tearing his eyes away from Professor Flitwick, who had golden bubbles blossoming out of his wand and was trailing them over the branches of the new tree. |
«The library?» said Hagrid, following them out of the hall. «Just before the holidays? Bit keen, aren't yeh?» |
«Oh, we're not working,» Harry told him brightly. «Ever since you mentioned Nicolas Flamel we've been trying to find out who he is.» |
«You what?» Hagrid looked shocked. «Listen here—I've told yeh—drop it. It's nothin' to you what that dog's guardin'.» |
«We just want to know who Nicolas Flamel is, that's all,» said Hermione. |
«Unless you'd like to tell us and save us the trouble?» Harry added. «We must've been through hundreds of books already and we can't find him anywhere—just give us a hint—I know I've read his name somewhere.» |
«I'm sayin' nothin, said Hagrid flatly. |
«Just have to find out for ourselves, then,» said Ron, and they left Hagrid looking disgruntled and hurried off to the library. |
They had indeed been searching books for Flamel's name ever since Hagrid had let it slip, because how else were they going to find out what Snape was trying to steal? The trouble was, it was very hard to know where to begin, not knowing what Flamel might have done to get himself into a book. He wasn't in Great Wizards... |
Hermione took out a list of subjects and titles she had decided to search while Ron strode off down a row of books and started pulling them off the shelves at random. Harry wandered over to the Restricted Section. He had been wondering for a while if Flamel wasn't somewhere in there. Unfortunately, you needed a specia... |
«What are you looking for, boy?» |
«Nothing,» said Harry. |
Madam Pince the librarian brandished a feather duster at him. |
«You'd better get out, then. Go on—out!» |
Wishing he'd been a bit quicker at thinking up some story, Harry left the library. He, Ron, and Hermione had already agreed they'd better not ask Madam Pince where they could find Flamel. They were sure she'd be able to tell them, but they couldn't risk Snape hearing what they were up to. |
Harry waited outside in the corridor to see if the other two had found anything, but he wasn't very hopeful. They had been looking for two weeks, after A, but as they only had odd moments between lessons it wasn't surprising they'd found nothing. What they really needed was a nice long search without Madam Pince breat... |
Five minutes later, Ron and Hermione joined him, shaking their heads. They went off to lunch. |
«You will keep looking while I'm away, won't you?» said Hermione. «And send me an owl if you find anything.» |
«And you could ask your parents if they know who Flamel is,» said Ron. «It'd be safe to ask them.» |
«Very safe, as they're both dentists,» said Hermione. |
Once the holidays had started, Ron and Harry were having too good a time to think much about Flamel. They had the dormitory to themselves and the common room was far emptier than usual, so they were able to get the good armchairs by the fire. They sat by the hour eating anything they could spear on a toasting fork—bre... |
Ron also started teaching Harry wizard chess. This was exactly like Muggle chess except that the figures were alive, which made it a lot like directing troops in battle. Ron's set was very old and battered. Like everything else he owned, it had once belonged to someone else in his family—in this case, his grandfather.... |
Harry played with chessmen Seamus Finnigan had lent him, and they didn't trust him at all. He wasn't a very good player yet and they kept shouting different bits of advice at him, which was confusing. «Don't send me there, can't you see his knight? Send him, we can afford to lose him.» On Christmas Eve, Harry went to ... |
«Merry Christmas,» said Ron sleepily as Harry scrambled out of bed and pulled on his bathrobe. |
«You, too,» said Harry. «Will you look at this? I've got some presents!» |
«What did you expect, turnips?» said Ron, turning to his own pile, which was a lot bigger than Harry's. |
Harry picked up the top parcel. It was wrapped in thick brown paper and scrawled across it was To Harry, from Hagrid. Inside was a roughly cut wooden flute. Hagrid had obviously whittled it himself. Harry blew it—it sounded a bit like an owl. |
A second, very small parcel contained a note. |
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