Gryffindor Princess and The Philosophers Stone (Harry Potter Fanfiction)

Chapter Eight: Nicolas Flamel

As the weeks passed the story of the four legendary first years who'd taken down a mountain troll, became less and less exciting. Instead the general topic of conversation had turned to the up coming quidditch season. Hope was particularly excited to watch Harry play properly for the first time. Not many people had seen him play because Oliver Wood (the captain of the Gryffindor quidditch team) had insisted that they keep Harry as somewhat of a secret weapon. However, the news that there was a first year on the Gryffindor quidditch team had spread like wildfire. 

Hope noticed that their work load seemed to have increased a significant amount over the past few weeks. She'd found that she'd been spending far more time than she would have liked, doing her homework and studying. Hermione was an absolute savior during these times. She would always check over Hopes work, whenever she asked her too. Hope would check over Hermione's too, but it was so rare that she found errors, sometimes she only glanced at the parchment. 

Hermione had also become more relaxed about breaking the rules ever since the troll incident. Hope too had eased up on the boys when she'd received a note from her father during breakfast, the day after Halloween, telling her that he was very impressed with the way she handled herself. Obviously, Hope wasn't really supposed to interact with her father more than the average student would. After all he was the Head Master and he did have a reputation to uphold. 

The day before the first Quidditch match of the season the four of them had decided to go out for a walk. It was freezing outside but Hermione had conjured up a bright blue flame which she'd placed inside a jam jar. She set it down on a bench and they were all huddled around it trying to get warm, when they saw snape limping across the courtyard. It was clear that whatever his injury was, it was bad, he seemed to be almost unable to walk. 

Snape limped over towards them, Hope guessed that he was in a bad mood and was looking for a reason to tell them off. 

"What's that you've got there, Potter?" He asked. 

Harry showed him the book he'd been holding in his hands, Hermione had lent him Quidditch through the Ages and Harry had been reading it as often as he could. 

"Library books are not to be taken outside the school", said Snape, "give it to me, Five points from Gryffindor." 

"He just made that rule up", Harry muttered angrily as snape limped away from them. 

"I wonder what's wrong with his leg?", Hope asked thoughtfully. 

"Dunno, but I hope its really hurting him", said Ron bitterly. 

That evening the Gryffindor common room was buzzing. People were talking eagerly about the match the next day. Hope, Harry, Ron and Hermione were all sitting at a small round table beside a window. Hermione was going over Harrys Charms essays while Hope rewrote hers, to the notes Hermione had already given her. 

Harry was looking restless, he didn't seem to be really taking in anything Hermione was saying about the Essay. Finally he got up and announced that he was going to ask Snape for his book back. Harry then marched out the portrait hole and disappeared when it swung shut. Hope tried her best to focus on her essay but she was very excited about the up coming match and it was almost all she could think about. 

Hope had watched House matches before, but she'd never been able to show up wearing the house color or sit in the stands. Living at Hogwarts but not yet being a member of the school meant that she wasn't really supposed to interact with the students or teachers. Therefore she'd spent a lot of time watching the students from various tower windows. 

She couldn't wait to wear the Gryffindor House colors tomorrow and sit on the stands watching Harry and the rest of the team. They'd even put together a banner, as a surprise for Harry, with the help of some other first years.