A Serpent Among the Eagles

Chapter Twenty-One - Two-Faced

  Quirrell smiled at the two children standing in front of him.

  "You!" gasped Harry.

  "Me," said a surprisingly calm Quirrell. "I wondered whether I'd be meeting you two here. I figured you'd be here, Snape. You've been onto me from the first."

  "But I thought - Snape -"

  "Severus?" Quirrell laughed a cold, sharp laugh. "Yes, Severus does seem the type, doesn't he? So useful to have him swooping around like an over-grown bat. Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor, st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrell?"

  "I did."

  "But Snape tried to kill me!"

  "No, no, no. I tried to kill you. Your friend Miss Snape here knocked me over as Miss Granger rushed to set fire to Snape at that Quidditch match. She broke my eye contact with you. Another few seconds and I'd have got you off that broom. I'd have managed it before then if Snape hadn't been muttering a countercurse, trying to save you."

  "Snape was trying to save me?"

  "Of course. Why do you think he wanted to referee your next match? He was trying to make sure I didn't do it again. Funny, really... He needn't have bothered. I couldn't do anything, not with Dumbledore watching. All the other teachers thought Snape was trying to keep Gryffindor from winning. He did make himself unpopular... and what a waste of time, when after all that, I'm going to kill you tonight."

  Quirrell snapped his fingers, and ropes instantly appeared from nowhere and wrapped themselves tightly around Lily and Harry.

  "The two of you are too nosy to live. Potter, with you scurrying around the school on Halloween like that - for all I knew you'd seen me coming to look at what was guarding the Stone. And you, Snape. You've been onto me from the start, haven't you?"

  "Yes."

  "Wait - You let the troll in?"

  "Certainly. I have a special gift with trolls - you must have seen what I did to the one in the chamber back there? Unfortunately, while everyone else was running around looking for it, Snape, who already suspected me, went straight to the third floor to head me off - and not only did my troll fail to beat you to death, Potter, that three-headed dog didn't even manage to bite Snape's leg off properly."

  So that's why Father's leg was all bloody...

  "Now, wait quietly. I need to examine this interesting mirror."

  Lily caught Harry's eye and immediately knew that he had had an encounter with it too - the Mirror of Erised.

  "This mirror is the key to finding the Stone. Trust Dumbledore to come up with something like this... but he's in London. I'll be far away by the time he gets back...."

  "I saw you and Snape in the Forest -" blurted Harry.

  "Yes. He was onto me by that time, trying to find out how far I'd got. He suspected me all along. Tried to frighten me - as though he could, when I had Lord Voldemort by my side...."

  Quirrell stared into the mirror hungrily.

  "I see the Stone... I'm presenting it to my master... but - where is it?"

  Lily saw Harry's struggles to break the ropes binding him.

  If only I could reach my wand...

  "But Snape always seemed to hate me so much."

  Lily looked down.

  "Oh, he does. Heavens, yes. He was at Hogwarts with your father, didn't you know? They loathed each other. But he never wanted you dead."