Power and Persecution [1] || Harry Potter x OC x Draco Malfoy

30. Two Faces

DISCLAIMER

I do not own Harry Potter ... but this chapter officially makes this fanfic the longest one I've ever written and I'm not even done with the first year of eight ... lord help me

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Harry would be lying if he wasn't nervous going on alone.

The comfort of having his friends with him was essential.

He wouldn't have gotten this far without them.

And so how could he continue without them?

But they all had a job to do.

Hermione needed to get Dumbledores attention.

Ron needed taking care of.

And Bel needed to be the one to do that.

That left him to go on.

But what he didn't know is that he wouldn't exactly be alone.

As Harry walked down a long set of stone steps, he arrived at a much smaller room compared to the other ones.

Dead in the centre stood two things.

One was an object. A mirror.

The other was a person. They were standing in front of the mirror.

Harry immediately identified the mirror as the Mirror of Erised.

But the person standing in front of the mirror was not the person he thought it would be. It wasn't Professor Snape.

It was Professor Quirrell. The Defence Against the Dark Arts professor.

"You?" Harry asked, as he came to a stop on the stone stairs leading into the room.

Professor Quirrell turned around to face him.

"No. It ... it can't be. Snape ... he was the –", Harry started as he walked down a few more steps.

"Yes, he does seem the type, doesn't he? Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor st-t-tuttering Professor Quirrell?" Quirrell cut Harry off.

His entire demeanour in this room was vastly different to the one Harry had seen on the professor all year.

Conniving, calculating, eery.

"But ... but that day, during the Quidditch match, Snape tried to kill me", Harry remembered.

If it hadn't been for Bel, he would've fallen off his broom.

"No, dear boy. I tried to kill you. And trust me, if Snape's cloak hadn't caught fire and broken my eye contact, I would have succeeded. Even with Snape muttering his little countercurse", Professor Quirrell spat.

"Snape was trying to save me?" Harry thought out loud.

"I knew you were a danger to me right from the off. Well, you and your little friends. Especially after that business with the troll", Quirrell continued.

"So you let the troll in!" Harry exclaimed.

"Very good, Potter, yes. Snape, unfortunately, wasn't fooled. Whilst everyone else was running about the dungeon, he went to the third floor to head me off. He, of course, never trusted me again. He rarely left me alone", Quirrell said as he turned back to face the mirror.

Harry felt his scar begin to burn once more.

"But he doesn't understand. I'm never alone. Never", Quirrell added in a mutter.