Disclaimer: As always all characters etc are the property of JKRowling, if you don't know that by now then you've probably wandered onto the wrong website.
"What's happening?"
"Something's wrong, one of the teachers should do something."
"Did something happen to it when Flint blocked him?"
All around her Alice was surrounded by a hum of concerned voices. Every eye in the stand was fixed on Harry as he tried to cling desperately to his bucking broom with increasing desperation. She had her fingers crossed tightly in one pocket and her hand curled tightly around her wand in the other trying to run through every spell she could think of that might stop Harry falling to what would surely be a very nasty death.
"Can't have," this was from Hagrid, the giant of a man that she had just met properly for the first time that day but already felt great affection for, even if he did scare her slightly. "Can't nothing interfere with a broomstick except powerful Dark Magic - no kid could do that to a Nimbus Two Thousand."
Alice felt herself go cold at his words. She turned to Hermione who was standing next to her wringing her hands. "Snape!" she hissed at her.
Comprehension flashed across Hermione's face as she grabbed Hagrid's binoculars and scanned the stands opposite them.
"He's doing something," she stated as she handed the binoculars to Ron, "jinxing the broom." She looked at Alice for a second, who was able to tell exactly what she was thinking.
"Go," she nodded in encouragement. With that Hermione disappeared through the crowded stand leaving Alice, Ron and Hagrid gazing anxiously upwards. "Hang on Harry, help's on its way."
After what seemed like an age she saw Snape jump out of his seat, his robes seemed to be on fire, knocking several teachers over in the process and Harry's broom resumed its normal temperament. Hermione had done it, she smiled in relief and her grin widened as she saw Snape trying vainly to stamp out the flames licking at his cloak.
Harry began a speedy descent to the ground but just as the crowd began to relax again he clutched at his throat and landed with a thud on the pitch. Alice clutched at Ron's robes; had Snape done something worse to him?
"What's going on?" Hermione had returned.
"I don't -"
"He's caught the Snitch!" Ron almost deafened her with his jubilant bellow. "We won!"
Sure enough Harry stood on the pitch waving a tiny golden ball above his head and grinning like an idiot. At Ron's shout the stand erupted around them.
In the ensuing chaos they managed to make their way down to the pitch, which wasn't difficult with Hagrid carving out a path ahead of them, to find Harry. He was still grinning from ear to ear, but Alice thought he looked rather pale. Beneath her immediate concern however she felt a simmering fury whenever she thought of what Snape had tried to do to him, never mind that he was a teacher, the days events had certainly shown his true colours.
"Come on Harry, let's get you some tea." Hagrid swept the four of them up and herded them off to his hut where they proceeded to fill Harry in on events in the stands. Hagrid seemed appalled at their theories on Snape, but when they told him why he nearly had a fit.
"How do you know about Fluffy?"
Alice snorted into her mug. Fluffy? There had been nothing Fluffy about the monster she encountered.
"- bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las' year," Hagrid was saying. "Lent him to Dumbledore to guard the -"
"So he is guarding something?" Alice asked curiously.
"Something that was in vault seven hundred and thirteen at Gringotts perhaps?" All four of them leaned intently towards Hagrid who tried to avoid their probing gazes.
"I can't answer that. That's top secret that is," the little they could see of his face flushed scarlet which was as good an admission as they were going to get.
"But Snape's trying to steal it," Ron stressed, "surely you can tell us if it's in danger?"
But Hagrid would have none of it; even when Hermione, who also seemed to have revised her opinion on the Potions Master, reiterated the fact that he had tried to kill Harry he flatly refuted it.
"I'm tellin' yeh, yer wrong!" Alice couldn't help but wonder what the dog was guarding that made Hagrid so convinced of this and she could tell that similar thoughts were being entertained by the others. Hermione looked frustrated by Hagrid's insistence, whilst Ron and Harry were torn between their faith in Hagrid and their furious belief that they were right. "You forget that dog, an' you forget what it's guardin', that's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicolas Flamel -"
"Aha!" Harry exclaimed pouncing on Hagrid's slip, "so there's someone called Nicolas Flamel involved, is there?"
"Ugh! Merlin's beard, away with yeh. I've said far too much already. Go on away with yeh," he repeated as Harry and Ron seemed about to protest.
Reluctantly they made their way out of Hagrid's hut and started back across the grounds to the castle. The minute they were out of earshot however they resumed their conversation.
"So what do we know about what the dog's guarding then?" Harry asked.
"Well," Hermione began to tick things off on her fingers, "we know it's small, very valuable if it needs to be kept in Gringotts and Hogwarts. We know someone's after it -"
"Snape," Ron interjected.
"Probably. We know someone's after it, because they broke into Gringotts the day Harry was there and Dumbledore needs Fluffy," she struggled to contain her amusement, "to guard it. And we know Nicolas Flamel is involved."
"But who's Nicolas Flamel?" Ron looked expectantly at the girls for answers but it was Harry who replied.
"I'm not sure, but I know I've read his name somewhere before, if I could just remember then maybe it would give us a clue." His forehead creased as he concentrated.
"We should go to the library," Hermione declared and Alice laughed at the sudden look of consternation on Ron's face.
Alice and Hermione spent most of their free time for the next month in the library trying to find some sign of Nicolas Flamel, with very little luck. Harry helped out when Quidditch practice and chess games with Ron allowed, but after an initial burst of interest Ron decided it would be safer to leave the research to the girls. "I'll just distract you," he claimed.
One evening late in November she was walking back to the common room with Hermione, their arms laden with as many books on great wizards of the age as they could carry when they heard an arrogant voice drawl, "Oi Evans, Granger where's your big-mouthed frog friend?"
The girls exchanged a glance as they turned slowly. "Malfoy," Hermione smirked with mock politeness, "is there something we can help you with? Find you a hole to crawl into perhaps?"
Malfoy and his henchmen spread out in the corridor behind them and began walking towards them. "Look boys, the teachers' pets have got some library books; I suppose they need to do all the swotting they can seeing as how they're practically muggles."
"Leave off Malfoy." Alice felt her face warm as his arrogant gaze snapped to her, but she made herself glare back with all the defiance she could muster. He was just like the bullies in the Home and she wasn't going to let anyone else walk all over her again.
"So the mouse squeaks does it?" he grinned at her evilly, "why don't we see how loud." Alice saw him reach for his wand and in an instant she dropped her books to snatch at her own so that the two faced each other, wands raised, across the corridor.
"Hey Evans, why didn't you invite us to the party?" Alice heard Hermione let out a sigh of relief as Fred and George walked around the corner, wands out, to stand behind the girls. "We'd have brought snacks." One of the twins shot her a grin as Malfoy took a step back, uncertainty filling his pale, pointed face at the sudden change in odds.
"Why don't you be a good little firstie and scuttle off back where you came from?" the other twin added.
Giving them a look that promised retribution Malfoy and his friends quickly sloped off along the corridor. The twins watched them in silence until they were out of sight. "Little creep." Alice thought this was George.
"Git," his brother added eloquently bending down to help Alice pick up the books she had dropped.
"It's only Malfoy," Hermione said, "he's all talk really."
"Malfoy?" George queried, "Dad says his father's a piece of work too."
"Anytime he needs sorting out again -"
"- just ask us." Both twins grinned, and Alice could almost see the plots forming in their minds.
"Anyway we better be off." For the first time Alice noted the knobbly sacks that each twin carried. "Places to go -"
"- people to prank."
The twins waved back at them as they snuck off down the corridor looking every inch the embodiment of mayhem.
"I'm glad Harry wasn't here," Hermione said as they walked back to Gryffindor Tower, "then there would have been a fight over what Malfoy said to us."
Alice turned her head so Hermione couldn't see her smile. So only Harry would defend them would he? The thought of what Ron would have to say about that made her smile.
Malfoy continued trying to make their lives miserable in the run up to Christmas. When he discovered that they were all, apart from Hermione, staying at school for the holidays he revelled in his new ammunition. This resulted in Ron punching him at the end of Potions on the last day of classes before Christmas. Alice and Harry managed to pull him off the blonde before any serious damage was done but at that moment Snape had walked out of his dungeon and docked ten points from Gryffindor.
"So much for Christmas spirit," Ron complained as they followed Hagrid to the Great Hall, "I shouldn't have lost any points, I was provoked!"
Hermione sniffed disapprovingly to show what she thought of this statement.
Two days later a fleet of horse-less carriages arrived at the gates to take everyone who was going home back to Hogsmeade to catch the train. Hugging her friends goodbye one last time and extracting the promise that they would all continue to look for any mention of Flamel in the library Hermione skipped off down the steps. As she watched her friend's retreating form Alice felt a little empty, it was the first time she had been at Hogwarts without Hermione and it would be strange. It was better than the alternative however, which would be returning to the orphanage for Christmas and at least she had Harry and Ron to keep her company. Harry never said much about his home but she got the impression that he didn't like his aunt and uncle very much. Ron on the other hand had complained loudly when he received a letter from his mother saying that they were going away for Christmas. Apparently Mrs Weasley's Christmas dinners were something of a legend.
She soon forgot about being lonely as she spent the rest of the afternoon playing exploding snap in the common room with Harry, Ron and the twins. At night though she found it returning as she faced the prospect of the whole dormitory to herself, not only had Hermione gone home, but Lavender, Parvati and Sally-Anne had gone as well. For the first time in a while she found herself dreaming of having a proper family, but the dream ended abruptly in a flash of green light and she bolted upright in bed to see that the sun was just beginning to creep through the curtains. Shaking off the disturbing end to her dream she got up and made her way down to the common room where she spent most of the day rereading Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century just in case she missed something the first time, and watching Ron beat Harry at wizards chess.
The next morning Alice woke early and pulled on her dressing gown before picking up the parcel at the bottom of the bed and running excitedly through to the boys' dormitory. The present she knew was from Hermione, she didn't mind that she had only gotten one, she was used to that, at least this year it probably wouldn't be socks or a vest from the women who ran the orphanage.
"Merry Christmas!" she crowed throwing open the curtains as the boys sat up rubbing bleary eyes.
"Merry Christmas," Ron replied sleepily, unlike Harry who was suddenly alert.
"You too. Will you look at this? I've got some presents!" He began ripping the paper off the parcels faster than Alice would have thought possible. Turning to her own gift she carefully unwrapped the paper, trying not to rip it, to find a small charm bracelet and a note. Hanging from the chain was a tiny silver broomstick which looked very realistic despite its size. Smiling at her friend's choice of gift she turned to the note.
Dear Alice, (it said) I thought you might like this, I saw it in a wizarding catalogue shortly after our second, more successful, flying lesson and thought of you. I hope you do. You can choose your own charms for the rest of it. I hope you have a Merry Christmas and are keeping Harry and Ron out of trouble. From Hermione.
She quickly fastened the bracelet to her wrist and slipped the note into her pocket hoping that Hermione liked the copy of Olde and Forgotten Bewitchments and Charmes that she had slipped into her trunk.
Looking up she frowned when she saw the fifty pence that Harry had just unwrapped from his relatives. What sort of family gave their nephew something that disregarding? Ron on the other hand seemed fascinated by it. Harry's next gift was much more satisfactory in Alice's eyes. Ron's mother had sent him an emerald jumper and a tin of fudge.
"Here Alice, do you want a piece? It's quite good." Harry offered her the tin.
"Thanks," she sank her teeth into the buttery fudge as she watched both boys open their gifts from Hermione. Ron had a much larger pile of gifts than Harry and so he still had several more to open when Harry reached his last present. All three of them gasped as something fluid and silvery slithered from the wrapping to curl gently into a heap on the floor.
Gingerly Harry picked up the bundle and shook it out to reveal a cloak with barely visible antiquated designs stitched into it.
"If that's what I think it is," Ron sounded awed and had completely forgotten about his sweets which showed the gravity of the occasion, "they're really rare, and really valuable."
"What is it?" Harry asked swinging it around his shoulders.
"An Invisibility Cloak," Alice breathed as she watched Harry's body disappear from view.
"Wow," Harry's head dashed over to a mirror and suddenly vanished altogether as he pulled up the cloak. "Who do you think sent it?" asked his disembodied voice.
"Look," Alice saw a note lying on the bed, she moved to pick it up as Ron slid off his bed, but Harry suddenly reappeared and beat her to it. He read it in silence for a moment a peculiar expression clouding the elation in his face.
"It doesn't say… but it was my Dad's." He looked up at them in bewilderment. "My Dad's," he repeated.
Alice smiled in understanding. "That's really great Harry; it gives you a connection to him almost."
"Yeah…" He seemed to be having trouble absorbing the news and she could understand that, she would feel the same if she found something that belonged to her long dead parents.
They spent a good half hour admiring the cloak from every angle and then each trying it on several times before reluctantly tearing themselves away and going down to the Great Hall for a Christmas breakfast.
It was the best Christmas day that Alice had ever had, which wasn't difficult when you compared it to the rather feeble efforts the orphanage usually made. They spent the day having a snowball fight with the twins followed by the best lunch she had ever eaten and then retreating into the nearly deserted common room for an afternoon spent trying out the luminous balloons Harry got in a cracker and plotting ways to wind up Ron's brother Percy, who Alice discovered was just as pompous as he had seemed at the feast. The only thing that could have improved the day would have been if Hermione was there, but Alice didn't grudge her the time with her parents for a second, she knew how much she had missed them. By the time she collapsed into bed that night Alice was exhausted and quickly fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
Only to be woken abruptly, what felt like mere minutes later but was in actual fact the next morning, by the sound of a klaxon which seemed to be coming from behind the dormitory door. Groggily she made her way over to the door, opened it to see what all the commotion was about and was just about to step out when she realised that the stairs had vanished. In their place was a smooth stone slide which, like the child she still really was, she promptly slid down.
"What happened?" she asked skidding to a halt in the common room and noticing Harry and Ron getting to their feet looking rather stunned. At her question they both began tripping over each other to try and explain. The trouble was they were both explaining different things; Ron kept going on about how they had been trying to come and tell her something important whilst Harry seemed to be talking about his Invisibility Cloak and she couldn't seem to be able to connect the two.
"Boys, stop a second! Back up and start again from the beginning." Which they duly did. She listened with mounting delight to Harry's tale of his midnight foray to find books on Flamel which led to his discovery of a mysterious mirror which showed him his family. At this point Ron butted in.
"We were coming to tell you about it, but we only got a few steps up when -" He made a smashing gesture with his hands to indicate they had fallen. "And then you came down. What happened to the stairs?"
Alice grinned, "Hermione's right, you two do really need to read Hogwarts: A History, if you had you'd know boys aren't allowed in the girls' dormitory, you triggered the security system." She waited patiently until the boys' complaints about how unfair this was had dried up before saying, "so are you going back?"
Harry and Ron looked conspiratorially at each other before the three bent their heads together and began planning.
That night Alice met the boys in the common room before sneaking out through the portrait hole concealed by the cloak. Being invisible was a very odd experience considered Alice as they passed a ghost who didn't so much as blink in their direction. For one thing they didn't have a shadow and for another they had to bunch together and make sure they all walked at exactly the same speed under the cloak. As a result it was taking them much longer to find the mirror than it had taken Harry the night before.
"H-h-how much longer d-do you think this will take," Ron's teeth were chattering with the cold. Her sympathy for his plight was slightly tempered by the fact that he had scoffed at her when she had suggested that he put on his dressing gown before they set out.
"I have no idea," hissed Harry sounding frustrated. "I was running away from Filch and Snape at the time I didn't exactly get the opportunity to check a map."
Alice elbowed Ron gently in the ribs as he grumbled under his breath about people who got too little sleep.
"Hang on." Alice tensed at Harry's sudden whisper.
"What's wrong?" Had they been spotted? She cast around in the gloom for whatever had alerted him.
"My foot's showing; I need more cloak! Budge over Alice."
Laughing softly in relief she complied, this was getting ridiculous, they would never find the mirror at this rate. They began creeping along the corridor again and rounded a corner only to narrowly avoid walking right into the brooding black figure stalking in the opposite direction.
She felt Harry's hand close vice-like around her arm and drag her backwards as Ron followed suit. Even with the cloak they still felt exposed and so wedged themselves tightly behind a tall stone gargoyle. Alice was just beginning to think that they might escape undetected when Ron sneezed quietly, too quietly for most normal people to hear but it was enough. She felt her heart sink as Snape whipped round, apparently he had the ears of a bat as well as the appearance; how many more points could Gryffindor afford to lose? What would they lose, another fifty points each?
"Who's there?" Snape was squinting in their direction now, looking more bat-like than ever. "I suggest you come out now."
Unless…
"Don't move whatever happens," she breathed in Harry's ear before carefully extricating herself from the cloak and stepping out into the corridor. She felt one of the boys try to grab her arm and stop her but she shook them off and walked into a patch of moonlight trying to get her trembling hands under control.
Snape stared at her for a long moment, a gamut of expressions crossing his usually immobile face. "Good evening Miss Evans," he winced as he said her name. "Taking a little midnight stroll are we?"
"Something like that," she whispered trying to meet his empty, black gaze. She prayed that Harry and Ron wouldn't do something stupid and would use the chance she had given them to try and get to the mirror.
"Well, perhaps we should extend this walk to Professor McGonagall's office," he indicated for her to lead the way down the corridor. "Shall we?"
A/N: Olde and Forgotten Bewitchments and Charmes is a book mentioned in Goblet of Fire when Harry is preparing for the second task, I gave it to Hermione early.
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