Party Police.

Chapter Fifteen.

"Come with me an' see the Great Hall, looks a treat," Hagrid insisted of the golden three, who were upset after a confrontation with Draco Malfoy. "(Y/n) and the decoration committee really went out this year."

"Is she on the decoration committee?" Hermione asked in surprise.

"Little lass is in a loa' of clubs," said Hagrid. "Yeh'll have to ask her for all of 'em, but decoration committee and film club are two I can name."

"Huh," Hermione hummed. "I didn't know you could join clubs before your third year."

"Yeh can't," Hagrid confirmed. 

"At least not the good ones," she corrected. "Muggle-borns— and any bloods, really— are allowed to join a club that gets them settled into Hogwarts and there's another club that's specifically for making friends... Neither of those caught my eye," she told the boys as they all walked to the Great Hall.

So the three of them followed Hagrid and his tree off to the Great Hall, where Professors McGonagall and Flitwick were busy with Christmas decorations and instructing students.
"Ah, Hagrid, the last tree— put it in the far corner, won't you?"
The hall looked spectacular. Festoons of holly and mistletoe hung all around the walls, and no less than twelve towering Christmas trees stood around the room, some sparkling with tiny icicles, some glittering with hundreds of candles. There were some students on ladders that were hanging up tinsel around the trees and others were using magic to hang wreaths along the halls.
(Y/n) walked along one of the walls, swooping her wand up and down as she did so. They then noticed a string of lights pinning itself in place with the action. Upon spotting them, the girl jogged over.

"Hey," she greeted, tucking her wand away. They smiled warmly at her.

"How many days you got left until yer holidays?" Hagrid asked.

"Just one," Hermione answered. "And that reminds me— Harry, Ron, (Y/n), we've got half an hour before lunch, we should be in the library."

"Oh yeah, you're right," said Ron, tearing his eyes away from Professor Flitwick, who had golden bubbles blossoming out of his wand and was trailing them over the branches of the new tree.

"Did you three come to get me? That's so sweet," (Y/n) said jokingly.

"The library?" Hagrid asked, following out of the hall. "Just before the holidays? Bit keen, aren't yeh?"

"Oh, we're not working," Harry told him brightly. "Ever since you mentioned Nicolas Flamel, we've been trying to find out who he is."

"You what?" Hagrid looked shocked. "Listen here— I've told yeh— drop it. It's nothin' to you what the dog's guardin'."

"We just want to know who Nicolas Flamel is, that's all," said Hermione.

"Unless you'd like to tell us and save us the trouble?" Harry added. "We must've been through hundreds of books already and we can't find him anywhere— just give us a hint— I know I've read his name somewhere."

"I'm sayin' nothin'," said Hagrid flatly.

"Just have to find out for ourselves, then," said Ron, and they left Hagrid looking disgruntled and hurried off to the library.
They had indeed been searching books for Flamel's name ever since Hagrid had let it slip, because how else were they going to find out what Snape was trying to steal? The trouble was, it was very hard to know where to begin, not knowing what Flamel might have done to get himself into a book. He wasn't in Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century, or Notable Magical Names of Our Time; he was missing, too, from Important Modern Magical Discoveries, and A Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry. And then, of course, there was the sheer size of the library; tens of thousands of books; thousands of shelves; hundreds of narrow eyes.
Hermione and (Y/n) were in completely different sections of the library, searching for where they might find anything on Flamel. Hermione had a prepared list of books, but (Y/n) merely scanned over titles. Hermione was in the History sections whereas (Y/n) was going through the section based on types of magics and those famous in said subjects. (Y/n) soon got distracted on what they were there for and, instead, picked up some books for further studying. Ron strode off down a row of books and started pulling them off the shelves at random. Harry wandered over to the Restricted Section. He had been wondering for a while if Flamel wasn't somewhere in there. Unfortunately, you needed a specially signed note from one of the teachers to look in any of the restricted books, and he knew he'd never get one. These were the books containing powerful Dark Magic never taught at Hogwarts, and only read by older students studying advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts.