The Fall of Dumbledore: The White King

What Is This?

Harry couldn't sleep. He spent the whole night turning the gem over and over in his hands, feeling it and memorizing every ridge and crease in its surface. He spent countless hours watching the light reflect off of it. Sometimes the reflection seemed like it was through rose-colored glass, other times it was as if looking through red water, or looking at liquid gold. The stone confused Harry. He couldn't understand why its reflection was different when he looked at it from different angles.

The sound of carriages startled Harry out of his thoughts. He quickly stowed the gem in his pockets before throwing on his robes and dashing out of the dungeons. Harry ran up the stairs, basically plowing over Draco as he came to a stop at the doors to the Great Hall.

"Woah! Harry!" Draco all but yelped as Harry crashed into him. "What-"

"Draco! I need you to look at this!" Harry grabbed Draco, practically dragging him away, as Pansy and Blaise walked into the castle.

"Uhhhh..." Blaise says unintelligently. "What's going on..?"

Harry doesn't respond, only grabbing Blaise by the arm and dragging him along. Pansy follows without a comment, more than confused.

He drags the boys to the library, finding a table in a secluded area. Then Harry plops the stone down in the middle of the table in the library, Draco, Pansy, and Blaise looking confused.

"What.. is that?" Draco asks, turning the gem on the table.

"I don't know! I found it in this mirror.. I think it was inscribed with something like.." Harry grabs a piece of paper and writes out the inscription. 'Erised stra.. Ehru oyt.. ube cafru.. oyt on wohsi..'

"'I show not your face but your heart's desire.'" Draco reads. "I can't remember where that's from.." Draco plops back into the chair, closing his eyes and crossing his arms as he thinks.

"Guess we'd better start researching gems and mirrors.." Pansy says, standing up to start perusing the shelves for books.

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"Found it!" Blaise exclaims, earning a loud 'SHH!' from Ms. Pince. "Look!" Blaise shoves the book into the middle of the table, showing off a page about famous enchanted mirrors.

"Mirror of Erised. Known to reveal someone's deepest and most desperate desires'" Harry mumbles as he reads. "This is it! But why did I get this gem from it.. And what is this gem..?"

Pansy looks up from her book, shrugging. "Haven't gotten through most of those books yet. Maybe you should look through that huge book." She points at a book sitting on the table by the gem.

Harry groans before grabbing the book, opening it, and flipping through the pages until he finds the page on red gems. They spend another 20 minutes looking through books before they find the answer.

"The sorcerer's stone.. The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Sorcerer's Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers. The stone will transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal. Nicolas Flamel is famed to have created the only stone known to exist.." Harry read aloud, holding the stone in one hand. "So why did I get this from the mirror..?"

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After lunch in the Great Hall, Harry was sitting in the common room, reading a book when the realization hit him.

Voldemort must be after the Sorcerer's Stone. Why else would the stone be in Hogwarts instead of with its owner, Nicolas Flemel? T

They were hiding it! Keeping it safe with the only person Voldemort was scared of. He needed to tell Snape and the other teachers. But how would he explain to them how he found the stone or how he knows what's going on?

Draco looked up from his book, concern in his voice as he addressed Harry.

"What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"We.. need to talk to Professor Snape.. Like now!" Harry stands up, quickly rushing out of the room, not caring if any of his friends are following him as he dashes off to Professor Snape's office.