Dursley's In Hogwarts

Chapt. 15

Chapter 15: The man with two faces
Avery Pov

It was Quirrell. Just as we expected.

"You!" Harry uttered in disbelief. Quirrell smiled. His face wasn't twitching at all.

"Me" he said calmly, without a hint of stutter. "I wondered whether I'd be meeting you here, Potter. I'm surprised Dursley came too"

"I'm full of surprises" I remarked. "Snake suspected you from the start"

"Severus?" Quirrell laughed, and it wasn't his usual quivering treble, either, but cold and sharp. "Yes, Severus does seem the type, doesn't he? So useful to have him swooping around like an overgrown bat. Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor, st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrell? I must confess I expected you to blame him"

"No. You cursed Harry's broom in the Quidditch game, Snape saved him. That just set us on your trail, it's growing thicker since" I stated.

"Snape knew" Harry breathed.

"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 with Dumbledore watching. All the other teachers thought Snape was trying to stop 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. Ropes sprang out of nowhere and wrapped around us both tightly. "You're too nosy to live, children. 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"

"You let the troll in?" Harry snapped.

"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, that three-headed dog didn't even manage to bite Snape's leg off properly"

"Good Fluffy" I muttered.

"Now, wait quietly, children. I need to examine this interesting mirror" the mirror he spoke of, that he turned to, was the Mirror of Erised. He was looking around the frame. "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..."

"We saw you and Snape in the forest—" Harry blurted out.

"Yes" said Quirrell idly, walking around the mirror to look at the back. "He was on to 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 on my side..."

"Harry" I whispered when Quirrell vanished behind the mirror. Harry looked over, but a small flame appeared on my fingertip. Harry grinned as I slowly began freeing myself.

"I see the Stone... I'm presenting it to my master... But where is it?" Quirrell exclaimed angrily as he came back around. Harry struggled against the ropes binding him, but they didn't give. Harry seemed to have a plan though.

"But Snape always seemed to hate me so much" Harry spoke up.

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

"But I heard you a few days ago, sobbing — I thought Snape was threatening you..."

"Sometimes" Quirrell said, the first fear we saw in a spasm across his face. "I find it hard to follow my master's instructions — he is a great wizard and I am weak—"