Next Time Around

The One They Tried To Rescue

Author's note:
Thanks for following my slightly derailed storyline :) anyways this chapter contains a bit of blood and gore too but not too much so I won't put up a specific warning for if.

Disclaimer: I would probably sell my soul to own Harry Potter, but since I don't have a lease due on it in ten years, I'm pretty confident Harry Potter isn't mine.

Enjoy!

'Gone, you say? How strange...'

'Dumbledore,' Snape ground out, 'this is Hadrian Potter we're talking about. He might be an insufferable brat, but he doesn't just not show up to a detention.'

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow. 'Really now? What about his nightly escapades? Could it be that he simply decided to leave earlier for them tonight?'

Snape frowned. 'I don't think so. When the child leaves, he does so around twelve, not eight.'

'Ahah.' Dumbledore said, nodding to himself. 'What about romantic interests?'

Snape blinked. 'Excuse me, Headmaster, are you insinuating that I know about Potter's love life?'

'Well?'

Snape narrowed his eyes. 'Draco seems to have a... crush... on the boy but I haven't seen any interest from Hadrian towards him. And Draco is in the common room right now, not somewhere in a broom closet.'

Dumbledore nodded thoughtfully. 'I see... anyone else?'

'No.'

Dumbledore took another lemon drop. 'Then I suppose mister Potter has gone missing.'

Snape gave Dumbledore a sour look. 'Which is what I've been telling you for ten minutes now.'

With a smile, the Headmaster stood. 'Shall we?' He asked Snape.

'Shall we what.' Snape said flatly.

'Go to find Harry of course!'

Snape pinched his lips together. 'Headmaster you should know by now that it's Hadrian.'

Dumbledore shrugged. 'A small mistake made by an old man. I'm sure he'd forgive me. Now shall we?'

Snape sighed. 'Where to, sir?'

'The third-floor corridor of course!'

Snape, who had began to walk towards Dumbledore, halted.

'The what now?' He said softly.

Dumbledore smiled benevolently. 'The third-floor corridor.'

Snape resisted the urge to massage his temples or pinch the bridge of his nose. 'I heard that the first time. Let me rephrase. Why do you want to go looking for him there?'

'Why because my wards have been alerting me to two people going past the tests at the moment. Or well-' Dumbledore frowned- 'one is in the chamber with the stone by now I suppose, but the other is with the trolls.'

Snape ground his teeth together. 'And you thought that wasn't something to say as supposed to wasting twelve minutes by asking about Potter's love interests?'

Dumbledore shrugged. 'You didn't ask, and I am quite curious to young love.' He sighed and looked off to the side. 'Ah, to be young and in love...'

'Headmaster.' Snape said icily, 'if your wards are correct, Potter is, right this moment, fighting two trolls by himself to go after someone trying to steal the stone.'

Dumbledore nodded, pleased. 'Yes, he is. I knew the boy had good in him.'

'He is eleven!' Snape hissed, 'Eleven, sir! No matter how good of a student he is, he won't be able to fight off two fully-grown mountain trolls by himself.'