CRIMSON TEARS | Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone [1]

𝘅𝘃𝗶 | 𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗮𝘀 𝗳𝗹𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗹

Gwen spent most of the train journey back to Hogwarts asleep. Orion spent it on her lap, curled up with his head in his wing, while Hermione, who was taking notes on upcoming topics they were going to study this term, sat quietly, her quill scratching against her parchment.

The two arrived at Hogwarts, and, as Gwen had predicted, neither Harry nor Ron had done much search on who Nicolas Flamel was.

Harry told them about the Mirror of Erised.

'It shows you your deepest desires.'

He proceeded to tell them, somewhat shyly, that he had seen his parents, and that Ron, who was more eager to tell them, had seen himself as headboy and captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team holding the Quidditch Cup.

Hermione and Gwen reacted very differently. Gwen wanted to see this mirror for herself - 'Dumbledore said it's gone now,' Harry had said, much to her disappointment - whereas Hermione was torn between the horror that Harry had been out of bed after hours three nights in a row, and frustrated that the boys hadn't found out who Flamel was yet.

'I know I've seen his name before,' Harry repeated. He'd been saying it for ages now.

'It would help if we knew where.' Gwen said.

• • •

Since Quidditch practice had started again, Harry was spending a lot less time searching with the other three in the library. Friday night of the first week back, Gwen was in the library searching through more books when Theodore Nott joined her. He placed his books next to hers which were scattered lazily across the table, and took the seat next to her.

'How was your Christmas?' he said. She looked up at him, sending him a small smile.

'Good. How was yours?'

'Same as always.'

She looked at him. 'Is that good?'

Nott kept his eyes down. He nodded.

Gwen didn't push him. Something was troubling him about that question, and there was no way the two of them were close enough for her to ask him. Instead, she let them settle into silence, how they often spent their company together.

She flicked the pages of the book she was reading, scanning each one for the two key words: 'Nicolas' and 'Flamel'. She hadn't found anything yet; it was the third book she'd gone through since arriving in the library.

Huffing, she closed the back cover of the book, pushing it away. She was sick of flicking through all the pages, not taking in any information. She'd lost focus multiple times, having to go back and rescan the pages. She and the others had almost given up searching for Flamel. It had been months and they still hadn't found a single thing on him.

Nott was opening a chocolate frog, watching her.

'Why are you studying Magical Creatures?'

Gwen glanced at him. 'They're interesting.'
Nott's lip tugged at one corner. 'What about essays we've been set? Have you done any of those?'