Harry Potter (fan fiction)

CHAPTER 13- Nicholas Flamel

Dumbledore had convinced Harry and Lilian not to go looking for the Mirror of Erised again, and for the rest of the Christmas holidays the invisibility cloak stayed folded at the bottom of their trunk. Harry and Lilian wished they could forget what they'd seen in the mirror as easily, but they couldn't. They started having nightmares. Over and over again they dreamed about his parents disappearing in a flash of green light, while a high voice cackled with laughter.

"You see, Zoe and Dumbledore were right, that mirror could drive you mad," said Ron, when Harry told him about these dreams.

Hermione, who came back the day before term started, took a different view of things. She was torn between horror at the idea of Harry and Lilian being out of bed, roaming the school three nights in a row ("If Filch had caught you!"), and disappointment that he hadn't at least found out who Nicolas Flamel was.

They had almost given up hope of ever finding Flamel in a library book. Even though Harry was sure he'd read the name somewhere. Once term had started, they were back to skimming through books for ten minutes during their breaks. Harry had even less time than the other three, because Quidditch practice had started again.

Wood and Bowker was working the team harder than ever. Even the endless rain that had replaced the snow couldn't dampen their spirits. The Weasleys complained that Wood and Bowker was becoming a fanatic, but Harry and Lilian were on Wood and Bowler's side. Slytherin and Gryffindor are going to be a team and work together and Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff are going to be a team. If they won against Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, they would win in the house championship for the first time together and Gryffindor for the first time in seven years. Quite apart from wanting to win, Harry found that he had fewer nightmares when he was tired out after training.

Then, during one particularly wet and muddy practice session, Wood and Bowker gave the team a bit of bad news. He'd just gotten very angry with the Weasleys, who kept dive-bombing each other and pretending to fall off their brooms.

"Will you stop messing around!" he yelled. "That's exactly the sort of thing that'll lose us the match! Snape's refereeing this time, and he'll be looking for any excuse to knock points off especially Gryffindor!"

George Weasley really did fall off his broom at these words.

"Snape's refereeing?" he sputtered through a mouthful of mud. "When's he ever refereed a Quidditch match? He's not going to be fair"

The rest of the team landed next to George to complain, too.

"It's not my fault," said Bowker. "We've just got to make sure we play a clean game, so Snape hasn't got an excuse to pick on us."

Which was all very well, thought Harry and Lilian, but they had another reason for not wanting Snape near them while they were playing Quidditch....

The rest of the team hung back to talk to one another as usual at the end of practice, but Harry headed straight back to the Gryffindor common room, where he found Ron and Zoe playing chess and Hermione was watching.

"Don't talk to me for a moment," said Ron when Harry sat down next to him, "I need to concen-" He caught sight of Harry's face. "What's the matter with you? You look terrible."

Speaking quietly so no one else would hear, Harry told the other three about Snape's sudden, sinister desire to be a Quidditch referee.

"Don't play," said Hermione at once.

"Say you're ill," said Ron.

"Pretend to break your leg," Zoe suggested.

"Really break your leg," said Ron.