Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy! Updates every Saturday!
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From his first day of teaching, it became evident to Hogwarts' students that Professor Quirrell had a prominent stutter.
The immaturity shown by their mockery of his unique way of speech was startling, but to Harriet, Professor Quirrell's impediment proved to be the least of her concerns.
She noticed the odd glares he cast her when he thought no one noticed.
Hermione and Ron glanced at each other every time their new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher purposely called on Harriet, even when she had not raised her hand.
However, Harriet failed to anticipate exactly how large of a threat her new teacher presented to her safety.
Her imagination had not run wild, Professor Quirrell kept a frighteningly close eye on her for the next few months.
One day towards the end of the term, as Harriet stood from her desk to follow her best friends out of the room after class ended, a single hair loosened from her scalp and floated towards the floor.
From his post at the front of the room, the scrutinizing spell Quirrell had nonverbally cast detected that falling hair.
As the children left, he rushed across the classroom to collect Harriet's hair.
To Quirrell's dismay, the fragile follicle had already drifted to the floor by the time he managed to reach Harriet's empty seat.
He grit his teeth as he found not one hair, but several, shed from his students throughout the day in a small, tangled ball on the floor.
Quirrell huffed to himself as he reached out and pocketed the entire mass of hairs for further examination in his private chambers.
Without Voldemort's permission or command, Quirrell had taken it upon himself to investigate a ridiculous rumor he had heard in a small pub on the outermost skirts of Britain's wizarding world a year earlier.
As he left his classroom and marched down the stone hallway, Hermione saw him pass while she knelt down to gather the books that had fallen from her arms.
Ron and Harriet had went on ahead.
In a cruel irony to his unscrupulous action, as Quirrel passed by, the ball of hair pushed against a scrap of parchment held in the same pocket of his robes.
While Quirrell walked, the motion caused that piece of parchment to slip out and fall to the floor, directly in front of Hermione, but he unknowingly marched on, eager to investigate his findings.
Hermione blinked as she picked up the slip of paper and called out, "Professor!.......Professor!"
Several students shuffled through the adjacent hallway, deep in conversation.
The noise of their laughter prevented Quirrell from hearing Hermione's shout.
After she realized she had been ignored, she frowned as she turned to look at the scrap of parchment in her hands.
Her amber eyes widened as she read over the newspaper clipping.
The rest of the words seemed to fade away as Hermione's focus zeroed in on the key phrases she found herself staring at:
Nicolas Flamel
Philosopher's Stone
Guaranteed Immortality
Housed by Albus Dumbledore
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"Don't you understand, Ron?!" Harriet asked her friend as she sat in the Great Hall during breakfast the next morning.
Ron and Hermione both listened eagerly as Harriet threw her hands up and sighed, "The boy who wants to kill me and my family must be after the Philosopher's Stone! He wants to arm himself with it so we can't fight back while he murders us!"
"Harriet, those are some very......serious...suspicions." Hermione sniffed, "You must have had a difficult night."
"What?!" Harriet asked as she narrowed her eyes.
Hermione and Ron glanced at each other before Ron shrugged and sheepishly said, "Well, yeah, I think Hermione's right on this one......We just learned about the stone yesterday......Now you've got all these wild ideas."
"What does that have to do with my night?!" Harriet snapped.
"Actually, you've been a bit off since we came back from winter recess." Ron shrugged at Harriet.
"Really?" Harriet scoffed, "And how do you figure that?"
"Because as soon as we got onto the train you started ranting and raving that the son of some dead man is trying to kill you and your entire family!" Hermione cried.
Harriet frowned as everyone looked over in their direction.
Hermione's cheeks tinted pink with embarrassment as she cleared her throat and went on more quietly, "You haven't even told Ron and I where you heard that from, Harriet......Now you're convinced this unnamed, would-be murderer is intent on using a professor to steal a random magical artifact for their own purpose? What sense are Ron and I supposed to make of that?"
"Sorry....." Harriet said as she contemplated Hermione's words. As she realized how her predicament sounded to her friends, she put her hands to her face and sighed, "I'm tired, I keep having nightmares....I suppose I haven't been very clear with you two about all of this."
"No." Ron agreed as he frowned and shook his head.
Hermione mirrored his expression as she added, "No, Harriet, you haven't."
Harriet glanced between them as Hermione took her hand and nodded, "Whatever it is, though, you can tell us.....We're the best of friends."
As Harriet looked over at Ron, he flashed her a soft smile of gentle reassurance.
".....Right." Harriet sighed before she sat her fork down and leaned towards the table to whisper privately.
Hermione and Ron did the same as they all huddled together so they could hear what Harriet had to say.
"My Mum and Dad...." Harriet began, ".....They have lots of friends, really.....But there's one who likes me a lot and I like him too."
Ron's face twisted in disgust but Harriet shook her head as she quickly explained, "No! Not...Not in that way....he's just....he's really brilliant, you know? Anyway, when I went home for Christmas, he told me that.....that apparently a boy was born the same year as me....an evil boy...who wants to kill us all."
"Why?" Hermione asked as her eyes widened.
"Dunno." Harriet shrugged, "He wouldn't tell me why."
"Who's this friend of your parents?" Ron asked with a curious scowl.
Harriet clammed up as she contemplated Severus's strict rule of not revealing Voldemort to others outside of their inner circle.
"I.......I'm not sure of his name." Harriet partially fibbed.
She knew her father's dark master as Lord Voldemort, but she had no idea he had been born Tom Riddle.
"You don't know the name of your family's dear friend?" Hermione asked suspiciously.
"Look, his name isn't that important!" Harriet dismissively insisted, "He isn't trying to kill me, this boy is! Don't you two see? This boy may even try to kill you! Who knows what kind of maniac he is?!"
Nervousness flashed across Hermione and Ron's faces.
"Even if I'm wrong about the stone, I don't trust our new professor." Harriet confessed.
"Why not?" Ron blinked.
"He just seems a bit....weird....doesn't he?" Harriet asked.
Ron shrugged, but Hermione listened carefully as Harriet went on, "I think that Professor Quirrell may be connected with this boy....the one who wants to kill us....er, me. Doesn't it seem odd that he just showed up out of nowhere? He hasn't come to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts, I'm sure of it.....He's come to take the stone from Dumbledore and give it to the boy!"
Hermione and Ron exchanged questioning glances with each other for a moment before Harriet sighed and asked, "Can you two at least help me keep an eye on Professor Quirrell?"
"Sure." Ron shrugged again.
"He does seem rather useless at times....you know, for someone who's supposed to be skilled in Defence Against the Dark Arts." Hermione mused.
"Do you remember how he ran into the Great Hall and collapsed on Halloween?" Harriet asked, "The troll frightened him.....And that's who's supposed to be teaching us how to defend ourselves against a threat? My Dad could do his job ten times better!"
Hermione and Ron both fell silent at Harriet's statement.
While they were both intimidated by their strict Potions Professor, neither of them could argue with Harriet's point.
Besides being a decent, albeit ruthless teacher, Severus Snape struck them as a wizard who knew quite a bit about the Dark Arts.
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"Mum, are you making lemon shrewsbury biscuits for Dad again?" Ellery asked one afternoon while he and Lily waited for Severus to come home.
"I am, sweetheart." Lily nodded with a smile, "Your father's had a very trying time lately. I want him to know that when he's with us, he can relax, you know?"
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Ellery frowned.
"No, darling, I'm fine." Lily said with a sweet smile as she glanced up at her son.
"How can I make it easier for Dad, Mum?" Ellery asked as he kept his frown.
"Oh, sweetheart....." Lily pouted while she looked up from her baking with a sad smile of quiet pride.
In her son's face, she saw Severus's features, but his kind thoughtfulness reminded her of herself too.
"Just seeing you safe and well is a comfort to your father, Ell. During the evenings and the weekends, we need to do everything we can to remind him how loved he is, yes?" She asked.
"Sure, Mum." Ellery nodded.
Lily finished arranging the biscuits on the baking tray before she placed them in the oven, walked over to Ellery, and wrapped her arms around her son in a tight hug.
"That's my boy." Lily whispered as she bent down and kissed the top of Ellery's raven-black hair.
Later that evening, as Severus sat across from his flower while the family shared dinner and dessert together, he felt his son's dark eyes boring into him.
Severus said nothing about it, but when night time arrived, it surprised him that Ellery asked him to read his bedtime story instead of Lily.
Lily knowingly kissed her son's cheek and sent him upstairs with his father.
As Severus read his son a brief passage from his favourite story book, Ellery closed his eyes and listened to his father's low cadence.
Silently, Lily came to stand in the doorway of their little boy's bedroom.
Severus thought their son had fallen asleep as he reached over and silently placed the book on the nightstand, but he blinked once he noticed that Ellery's dark eyes stared at him as he lay in his bed, awake and alert.
Severus stared back for a moment before Ellery asked, ".......Dad?"
"Yes, son?" Severus frowned.
Ellery sat up in bed, leaned over, and wrapped his small arms around Severus in a tight hug as he whispered, "Thanks for reading to me tonight."
Severus furrowed his brow as he lifted a hand and pat Ellery's back hesitantly while he replied, "........Of course."
"I'm glad that you're my father." Ellery whispered as he pressed his face against Severus's chest.
Ellery's words went straight to Severus's heart, Lily could see it on his face from the way his dark eyes widened and his jaw dropped.
His gaze briefly flickered over to his wife as he enjoyed his son's unexpected display of affection.
While Lily watched their youngest child show Severus affection, she couldn't help the happy tears that gathered in her eyes at the touching scene or the wide smile that spread across her lips.
Severus pressed his hand down on Ellery's back as he returned his son's embrace.
He blinked away the wetness that gathered in his own eyes as he took comfort in the knowledge that his wife and children appreciated his great efforts and struggles.
Lily had been right.
She and Ellery had been wise to remind Severus he had a family who valued him and his sacrifices.
Severus closed his eyes as Ellery kept his hold on him.
Lily and their children sustained Severus as much as a delicious meal enabled a starving man to survive.