Black Soul- George Weasley

The One With The Plot Twist

It was Quirrell.

"You!" gasped Harry.

Quirrell smiled. His face wasn't twitching at all.

"Me," he said calmly. "I wondered whether I'd be meeting you here, Potter, Black."

"You son of a bitch", Astraea growled.

"But I thought — Snape —"

"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?"

Harry couldn't take it in. This couldn't be true, it couldn't.

"But Snape tried to kill me!"

"No, no, no. I tried to kill you. Your friend Miss Granger accidentally knocked me over as she 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 counter-curse, trying to save you."

"Snape was trying to save me?"

"Of course," said Quirrell coolly. "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 thin air and wrapped themselves tightly around Harry.

Astraea took out her wand and fired a spell at Quirrell which he dodged easily.

"Miss Black, strong as her father, smart like her mother", he smirked.

Astraea just kept firing spells which Quirrell kept defending himself until she fired a spell too strong it sent him back towards the wall. He looked at her glaring and fired a spell that sent her back so hard it knocked the breath out of her.

"You're too nosy to live, both of 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."

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

"Your troll was a pathetic as you, beat it with a single spell", Astraea chocked trying to breath properly.

Quirrell laughed darkly.

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

It was only then that they realized what was standing behind Quirrell. It was the Mirror of Erised.

"This mirror is the key to finding the Stone," Quirrell murmured, tapping his way around the frame. "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 —" he blurted out. Astraea glared at him and he replied with a knowing glare. She understood, keep him talking.

"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...."

Quirrell came back out from behind the mirror and stared hungrily into it.

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

"Have you tried searching your arse?" Astraea spat. Quirrell laughed darkly.

Harry struggled against the ropes binding him, but they didn't give. Astraea stood up and held her wand, feeling a bit dizzy from the fall. She mentioned to Harry to keep him talking while she figures out a way to take him down. 

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

"Oh, he does," said Quirrell 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...."

For the first time, a spasm of fear flitted across Quirrell's face.

"Sometimes," he said, "I find it hard to follow my master's instructions— he is a great wizard and I am weak —"

"You mean he was there in the classroom with you?" Harry gasped.

"He is with me wherever I go," said Quirrell quietly. "I met him when I traveled around the world. A foolish young man I was then, full of ridiculous ideas about good and evil. Lord Voldemort showed me how wrong I was. There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it...Since then, I have served him faithfully, although I have let him down many times. He has had to be very hard on me." Quirrell shivered suddenly. "He does not forgive mistakes easily. When I failed to steal the stone from Gringotts, he was most displeased. He punished me decided he would have to keep a closer watch on me...."Quirrell's voice trailed away. "I don't understand...is the Stone inside the mirror? Should I break it?"

"I have an idea", Astraea said. "I know how to get the stone"

"Sure you do kid", Quirrell dismissed her.

Harry tried to edge to the left, to get in front of the glass without Quirrell noticing, but the ropes around his ankles were too tight: he tripped and fell over. Quirrell ignored him. He was still talking to himself.

"Tell you what", Astraea said worrying that Voldemort could show any time. "Let Harry go, and I'll tell you were the stone is".

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