Alice concentrated hard on her slippered feet as she tried to stop herself from crying. It was odd, she hardly ever cried, she had learned not to in the orphanage, but ever since she had come to Hogwarts she was moving farther and farther away from the quiet, closed up person she had been. Looking at her slippers also meant that she didn't see the disappointment in McGonagall's face. She tried not to remember how when the Professor had first entered her office, after being summoned by Snape, she had merely stood there in silence in her tartan dressing gown and stared intently at Alice for several long excruciating seconds.
"Well, there's nothing more I can say," her teacher's voice brought her back to the present, "go back to bed Miss Evans. Make sure you go straight there mind."
As she turned to leave Alice heard the one thing she had been dreading ever since Snape had taken her to the Deputy Headmistress.
"I'm very disappointed in you."
Stumbling from the room Alice ran back to Gryffindor as fast as she could. As she reached the last flight of stairs before the portrait of the Fat Lady she stopped to angrily wipe the tears from her face. She had known what the consequences would be when she had given herself up to protect the boys, so why was she so upset? It was stupid, bawling her eyes out over something she had knowingly gotten herself into. She took several deep breaths to calm herself down before continuing on to the common room.
"Alice! What happened? Are you okay?"
"What did Snape do?" Harry and Ron sprang up from where they had been sitting by the fire and rushed towards her anxiously.
"Are you alright?" Harry repeated, catching sight of her tearstained face in the light of the dying flames.
"Yeah," she sniffed, "I'm fine. He just went and got McGonagall… forty points," she answered the unspoken question on Ron's face.
"That's not so bad, it could have been worse."
She sniffed and nodded glumly. "Anyway, so did you two find the mirror then?" The boys brightened considerably at this and began to tell her about their discovery.
"So, Ron didn't see his family in the mirror then?" Alice wasn't sure if this cheered her up or not. If Ron, who could see his family any old time, had managed to see them in the mirror she might have cried again.
"So if it doesn't show a person's family what does it show?" Her mind began ticking over the problem the mirror presented as her upset at losing forty house points and disappointing McGonagall abated slightly. "Perhaps… perhaps it shows us what we most want. Harry you want a family and Ron wants to succeed at Hogwarts, do you think that could be it?" she looked at them quizzically.
"Search me. You and Hermione are the brainy ones."
"Are we going back tomorrow then?" Harry seemed eager.
"No." For once Ron agreed with her. "I don't think it's a good idea, Snape will probably be hanging about again; I've already lost points and I don't think Gryffindor can really afford to lose any more do you?"
He didn't seem convinced. Alice watched him closely the next day sure that he would try to go back and see his parents. If she was honest she didn't really blame him; if she had a chance to see her family she would, but not if it meant running into Snape or Filch in the corridors again. She didn't think McGonagall would be as lenient a second time. It wasn't even certain that she would see her parents in the mirror, Ron hadn't, even if she took the risk to go back with Harry it might all be for nothing.
"I think he went back last night." It was three days after Christmas and Alice and Ron were waiting in the Great Hall for Harry to come down to breakfast. "When I woke up in the middle of the night he wasn't in his bed."
"Maybe he just went down to the common room?"
"No I went down and checked, it was empty. He came back about an hour later with the oddest look on his face though. D'you reckon we should ask him about it?"
Alice shook her head as Harry approached the table. If he wanted to talk to them he would, until then it might be better to give him some space, after all it must be upsetting seeing your murdered parents again after all this time.
None of them mentioned the mysterious mirror again for the rest of the holidays, concentrating instead on finding information on Nicolas Flamel as they had promised Hermione they would before she left. Or at least Alice did, Ron and Harry seemed more interested in playing wizard chess and Harry's grow-your-own-warts kit, much to her disgust. At New Year the twins kept all the remaining Gryffindors well entertained with a set of dragon fireworks they had gotten from Zonko's on their last trip to Hogsmeade and Alice managed to tear herself away from her research long enough to join in with the party.
Just when Alice was getting used to having so much space in Gryffindor Tower the Hogwarts Express returned the day before term started; bringing with it an irate Hermione storming through the portrait hole.
"What did you do now?!" She seemed to tower over Ron and Harry who shrank back into the sofa slightly as if to escape her fury.
"What are you on about?" Alice found it amusing that Ron even managed to sound guilty saying that.
"Don't pretend you don't know. I've seen the house points and Gryffindor have a lot less than they did before Christmas. If the twins had done something stupid we'd have no points left at all and since you're practically the only ones who were here for Christmas then that means you must have done something. So come on what was it?" She tapped her foot impatiently as the boys continued to stare at her looking slightly dazed.
"Actually Hermione," Alice's near whisper caused her fried to swivel round sharply, "it was me that lost all the points."
"What?" Hermione looked nonplussed before her expression shifted to suspicion. "You didn't go near that dog again? Please tell me you didn't Alice, I've told you it's dangerous."
"It was our fault really Hermione," Harry piped up helpfully. "She was getting us out of trouble."
Hermione's gaze travelled slowly across all three, a tiny smile tugging at the corners of her lips. "Well come on then," she eventually dropped into an armchair next to them, "what have I missed?"
Sure that she wasn't about to explode again, they began to eagerly fill her in on everything that had happened since she had left. She seemed about to say something when she heard that they had decided to go creeping round the castle under Harry's Christmas present, but when they reached the part about the mirror her jaw almost dropped. "Wow, I've read about things like that. I wish I had seen it."
"Yeah, me too," Alice added slyly, pleased to note the guilty looks on the boys faces as she did so.
"I still can't believe you let Alice take all the blame though!" Hermione was indignant on her friend's behalf.
"We tried to stop her -"
"We'd all have gotten caught if she hadn't -" The boys' protests ran into each other in their eagerness to be heard.
"Honestly Hermione it wasn't their fault, we were all to blame. Anyway Harry will just have to make sure that he wins the next Quidditch match to get points back."
Hermione sniffed sceptically at her words and changed the subject.
Over the next month the four Gryffindors split their time between classes and trying to find Nicolas Flamel in their snatched breaks. Now that Hermione was back Harry and Ron were grumblingly forced to help constructively in the search.
"Why can't we just ask one of the teachers?" Ron complained one stormy Friday night as the three of them sat in the common room waiting for Harry's Quidditch practice to finish. Hermione and Ron were sitting at opposite ends of the sofa glaring balefully at each other over their library books, having fallen out earlier in the evening over something trivial. Alice meanwhile was curled cat-like on the floor next to the fire reading the huge old book Hermione had promised to loan her before Christmas.
"Because," her friend snapped, "I'm assuming the teachers will know all about whatever the dog is guarding and if we suddenly start asking questions they're going to get suspicious. I do wish you would use your brain sometimes Ronald!" As she turned imperiously back to her reading she failed to see Ron stick his tongue out at her impishly.
They had just returned to their respective tasks and allowed a studious silence to fall when a distinctly disgruntled Harry, Fred and George came tramping into the common room covered from head to toe in mud.
"Did Wood make you practice with dung bombs today?" Ron asked innocently causing Alice's lips to twitch into a slight smile.
"Very funny Ronniekins." Fred wiped a handful of mud onto Ron's cheek as he went to sit beside Alice on the floor. George followed him leaving Harry to flop down tiredly in the considerable space between Hermione and Ron.
"What's happened?" Hermione shut her book with a snap, "has Wood been harassing you about Quidditch or something?" She peered through the mud at Harry in concern.
"Nah it's nothing to do with Oliver, it's -" Harry broke off as Neville came toppling through the portrait hole with his legs bound together.
As everyone else in the common room laughed at him Alice got up and walked quickly over to him. "What happened?" she asked, promptly performing the counter curse.
"I met Malfoy outside the library," he sniffed by way of explanation.
"Are you alright? You should go to McGonagall you know." Even as she said it she knew he wouldn't.
"I don't want more trouble."
"Alright. Do you want to come over and sit with us?"
"No thanks Alice, I might just go and write to Gran for a bit." As he began to turn away Alice caught his arm.
"Neville, you know you have friends if you ever want to talk or anything don't you?"
Neville looked as if he might cry again, "yeah, thanks Alice."
She looked after him worriedly as he disappeared up the stairs to the boys' dormitory, before turning back to her friends by the fire.
"Anyway," Harry was saying, "Wood said Snape is going to referee the next Quidditch match." He waited for the uproar this provoked to subside before continuing, "I have no idea why Madam Hooch can't do it like she usually does, but if he's the referee then we've no chance of winning. He'll be totally biased."
"Of course you can win," Hermione asserted, "but do you think you should play after… you know," she raised her eyebrows cryptically so that Fred and George wouldn't know what she was talking about.
"Sounds like a mystery George," Fred ran a hand through his hair spattering mud all over a chapter on alchemy in Alice's open book.
"And we love mysteries, so come on midgets - give it up. What's the big secret?"
"Don't you two have friends to go and annoy or something?" Ron complained.
"But annoying you is so much more fun, besides," Fred reached his arm round Alice's shoulders and ruffled her hair, "Evans is our friend aren't you."
"I won't be for much longer if you don't cut that out," she elbowed him sharply in the ribs.
"Ouch! My heart has been wounded" He swooned theatrically then ruined the effect by grinning wickedly. "Come on George, lets see if Lee will let us hide his tarantula under Ronniekins bed."
Ron paled as his brothers wandered off to the other side of the common room. "You don't think they would?" he asked Harry in concern as Alice began trying to repair the mud damaged book.
The others began discussing the implications of Snape's sudden interest in Quidditch as she carefully wiped the mud from the thick parchment pages. She had nearly finished when she recognised the name she was scraping mud from.
"I've found him!" The excited shout burst out of her before she remembered to keep her voice down, causing Parvati, Lavender and Sally-Anne who were sitting at a nearby table to look over at her disapprovingly. "I've found him," she repeated more quietly.
"Who? Nicolas Flamel?" It was Harry's turn to sound excited.
"Yes, here look. There have been many reports of the Philosopher's Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr Nicolas Flamel," she quoted pushing the book towards them so they could read it themselves. Looking up in delight at her discovery she saw her excitement echoed in Hermione's face. ("I knew I had read his name somewhere before!") Ron and Harry on the other hand were completely clueless.
"The Philosopher's what?" Ron asked as she impatiently indicated that he should read the appropriate paragraph.
After several seconds of silence Harry glanced at them, "do you think this is what Fluffy is guarding, the Philosopher's Stone?"
"It must be, and Snape must be trying to steal it!" Hermione looked appalled.
"Who wouldn't want to?" Ron asked. "I mean, as much gold as you could ever want and eternal life, I'm surprised thieves aren't queuing up at the gates."
"No wonder we couldn't find him in any modern history books, I mean he's hardly recent is he?"
"So what are we going to do about Snape then? Do you think we should tell someone?"
"No," the other three looked at Alice in surprise.
"Why ever not?" Hermione was startled.
"Well… I mean we don't exactly have any proof that he's up to anything do we?"
"Erm, hang on a minute," Ron began counting points off on his fingers, "he was hanging around in the corridors at Halloween, he got bitten -"
"We don't know he got bitten," she argued.
"He got bitten," Ron repeated forcefully, "then he tried to kill Harry at the last Quidditch match, and now he wants to try again at the next one."
"Which all adds up to nothing really when you think about it. There could be a hundred explanations for all that. And we don't know he's trying to kill Harry this time."
"Whose side are you on?" Hermione demanded.
"Harry's of course. I'm just saying that we shouldn't jump to conclusions about things; if we want to go to a teacher we need solid proof or they won't believe us." Her friends seemed to accept this response although Hermione and Ron remained rather frosty towards her for the rest of the evening, apparently the merest possibility of disloyalty towards Harry, however unintentional, would not be tolerated.
By the next morning however, all seemed to be forgiven and whilst Harry was busy practicing Quidditch in the run up to the match his friends were studiously swotting up on several simple hexes and curses they could use on Snape if the worst came to the worst.
As they shuffled into the stands on a rare day of sunshine late in February Alice clutched her wand anxiously to her side, much to the confusion of poor Neville who couldn't understand why they all looked so worried.
A sudden commotion in the opposite stand caused Alice to look over wondering what was wrong. She could have almost cheered when she saw Dumbledore appearing into the crowd. Hermione who had noticed the same thing clutched her arm excitedly.
"Snape wouldn't dare do anything with Dumbledore here," she hissed quietly. "Everything's bound to be all right now."
"Anyone want to bet how long Potter can stay on his broom this time?" a familiar sneering voice asked from behind them as the teams marched onto the pitch.
They all turned to find Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle smirking threateningly in the row behind them. His malevolent smile widened as he caught sight of Alice glaring at him, "sorry Evans I forgot you and Weasley don't have any money to bet."
"Shove off Malfoy!" Ron deliberately turned his back on the Slytherins, but this only seemed to goad Malfoy on more.
"Look at Granger, she's so in love with Potter she can't take her eyes off him." It was true Hermione seemed glued to the game, her grip on Alice's arm tightened painfully whenever something happened.
"Shut up Malfoy," Ron threw the remark over his shoulder.
Alice glanced back in time to see a look of frustration cross his face as his efforts to upset them seemed to fail. Inspiration was swift however.
"You know," he declared loudly as Fred Weasley spectacularly deflected a bludger aimed at Harry, "I think they put people they feel sorry for in Gryffindor. There's Potter who's got no parents, the Weasley's have no money, Evans has no money and no parents, and then there's you Longbottom. You've got no brains."
"Take that back Malfoy," Neville, who had been standing unobtrusively up till now, ruined his response by stammering nervously as he said it. Alice laid a comforting hand on his arm ready to defend her friend, but before she could Draco spoke again.
"Why don't you make me Longbottom?" As he turned to laugh with his hulking cronies he staggered back in surprise as Neville landed a punch on his jaw. It wasn't that he had hit him that hard, it was just the unexpectedness of the action that took him by surprise.
"You'll be for it you little -" he snarled viciously. But at that moment Ron seemed to decide that he had had enough of Malfoy's posturing and before Alice quite knew what was happening all five boys were rolling around on the ground aiming wild punches at each other.
"What's wrong with Harry?" Hermione's shriek brought her attention sharply back to the game. Scanning the air above the pitch she quickly located the scarlet figure plummeting towards the ground that was causing her friend so much concern. However Alice's keen eyes registered what Hermione's hadn't, this was no fatal fall, Harry was diving as fast as he could towards the tiny Snitch hovering several feet above the grass.
"Come on Harry," she whispered under her breath, willing him on with every fibre of her being as he streaked past a bewildered Snape in mid air. Then abruptly, just as it seemed he was about to crash into the pitch, Harry pulled out of his dive the struggling Snitch clasped tightly in his hand. Amongst the deafening onslaught of cheering from the Gryffindors in the stand, Alice was hugged by an exuberant Hermione chanting he did it, he did it. Managing to extricate herself from her bushy haired friend's vice-like grip Alice turned back to the brawl still taking place on the floor of the stand. Slipping her wand from her pocket she aimed it under one of the seats. "Petrificus Totalus." She felt a mild satisfaction as her spell took effect on a certain blonde haired menace, before quickly dispatching his friends who were in the process of giving Ron a black eye.
"Thanks Alice," Neville panted clambering to his feet as he wiped a trickle of blood from his chin.
"What on earth have you been doing?!" Hermione only just registered the boys' injuries and the prone forms of the three Slytherins lying on the ground. "Never mind I don't want to know, come on."
Pushing their way through the swarming crowds on the pitch the four of them made their way towards the distant figure of Harry borne aloft on the shoulders of Fred and George Weasley.
"Harry!" Ron shouted when they couldn't get any closer, "Harry over here mate."
Harry twisted round as far as his precarious perch would allow and his emerald eyes scanned the students until he located his friends, at which point he waved excitedly at them but made a face to indicate that he couldn't escape at present.
"Hey come on, we're having a party back in the common room," Parvati Patil descended on them and linked her arm through Alice's, "what happened to you two? Never mind, are you coming Hermione?"
Hermione looked doubtfully back towards Harry, worrying at her bottom lip with her teeth. "Well…"
"Come on Hermione," Ron touched his blossoming black-eye gingerly, "Harry'll be along soon. You won't get a chance to talk to him in this madness."
"All right then."
The first years made their way back to Gryffindor Tower where an impromptu party seemed to be under way. Some fifth years had charmed streamers to hang from the roof flashing red and gold intermittently and someone had tuned the radio to some wizarding station that was playing a strange lilting music. Moments after they had arrived in the room the portrait hole opened again and several floating platters of food preceded the twins into the room.
"Stole them from the kitchens," George responded in answer to Ron's question. They were both still dressed in their Quidditch robes and their appearance caused an outburst of cheering from the surrounding students.
"Where do you think Harry is?" Hermione asked as she and Alice followed Ron towards the food.
"Shersh me." Alice grimaced as she was treated to a display of the contents of Ron's mouth.
"Ron did anyone ever tell you you're disgusting?" Hermione looked around the common room again. "I'm going to look for Harry," she declared suddenly making her way towards across the room.
Ron looked across at Alice, "you going with her?"
"No, I think I'll stay here. They'll be back soon. Why?"
"No reason," Ron shrugged, "you two just go everywhere together that's all."
Alice shrugged but was spared from coming up with a witty retort by Fred and George grabbing them both and doing a small jig around the common room. Several minutes later Hermione and Harry burst into the room and pulled Alice and Ron into a corner babbling about Snape and Quirrell in the forest.
"The Stone will be gone by next Tuesday if Quirrell's all that stands between it and Snape."
Harry looked at them all seriously. "Not if we have anything to do with it."
"Maybe if we just let Professor Quirrell know we support him then he'll be able to stand up to Snape," Hermione suggested.
Alice seriously doubted that would be enough.HerH
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