From Home To Hogwarts - The Angelic Witch and Draco Malfoy (Book 1)

Facing Lord Voldemort

It was Quirrell.

"You!" gasped Harry.

Quirrell smiled. His face wasn't twitching at all. Heroneka shuddered at the sight and lost control. Harry stood in front of her protectively. Did she make this even more troubling for Harry by tagging along with him? Was she only going to act like a burden, now that she knew who was behind all their troubles?

"Me," Quirrell said calmly. "I wondered whether I'd be meeting you here, Potter." His eyes flickered towards Heroneka's injured thigh. "I see you spilt some angelic blood on your way to meet me."

Heroneka gritted her teeth. "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?"

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

"But Snape tried to kill me!" Yelled Harry

"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." He glared at Heroneka again. "This little angelic witch even apologised to me for accidentally knocking into me. 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 countercurse, trying to save you."

"Snape was trying to save me?" Harry moved forward getting lost with his words. Heroneka was not strong enough to even stand for too long. She had to think something soon. She crouched down and sat on the floor.

"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.

"No!" Heroneka crawled towards him, ignoring the burning pain. "Stop it!"

"You're too nosy to live, Potter. 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?" Heroneka couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"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."

Heroneka didn't know what to think or say anymore.

"Now, wait quietly, you two. I need to examine this interesting mirror." Quirrell warned them.

It was only then that Heroneka realized what was standing behind Quirrell. It was a huge mirror.

"It's the Mirror of Erised" Harry mumbled to Heroneka.

Then she remembered what Harry had seen in the mirror. He had seen his family. This mirror showed the viewer their deepest desires.

"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..."