Lucy Jones 1: The beginning of a tale (HP fanfiction)

18 A Card from a Chocolate Frog

School starts again; the four Gryffindors can only look for ten minutes at a time. Lucy doesn't want to give up, so they search the entire library to discover who Nicolas Flamel is.

That evening Lucy works on an essay for Transfigurations while Hermione and Ron play chess. Hermione is a lot better than her but still loses sometimes. At the moment, she is winning. 'Don't say anything. I need to concentrate.' Ron says. He leans forward to be able to see the different pieces better.

'Harry, what's wrong?' Lucy asks. She looks up from her book and sees that he looks upset.

'Snape will be the referee at the next match. We can never win; maybe we just shouldn't play.'

'Don't play then', Hermione says.

'Say that you're sick.' Ron suggests with his eyes still on the board.

'Or say that you broke your leg', Lucy suggests.

'Or you can really break your leg', Ron adds.

'I can't. We don't have a reserve. If I don't play, no one can.'

The four of them turn their head when they hear something. Neville comes through the portrait hole. He has been jinxed with a leg-locker curse. Everyone comes to stand around him, and Lucy uses the counterspell.

Neville stands up, thankful he can use both of his legs again.

'What happened, Neville?' Lucy asks.

He turns around, looking in her direction: 'Malfoy.'

'You should go to Professor McGonagall', Hermione suggests.

'I don't want any more problems', Neville says.

'You have to, Neville. You can't let Malfoy do this.' Ron says.

'You don't have to tell me I'm not brave enough for Gryffindor. Malfoy already told me.'

'You're better than Malfoy', Lucy says.

Harry gives him a chocolate frog: 'Lucy is right; you're worth twelve of him.'

'Thank you, Harry. Do you want the card' Neville asks: 'you collect them, right?'

'Yeah', he takes the card: 'Dumbledore again, I already have....' Harry looks at Lucy: 'I found him,' he whispers: 'I found Nicolas Flamel.'

'I found him,' Harry says to Ron and Hermione. 'Professor Dumbledore is most known for defeating the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945. He discovered the twelve different uses of dragon blood and his research on alchemy with his partner Nicolas Flamel.'

Hermione runs off and returns with a book: 'I didn't think of looking here but... Here it is; Nicolas Flamel is the only known maker of the philosopher stone.'

'That's why we didn't find him. We were looking in all the wrong places.' Lucy says, looking at the book over Hermione's shoulder.

Hermione nods, but the two boys just look at them. 'I think you two need to explain it.' Harry says.

'Yeah, the what stone?' Ron asks.

'You never read anything.' Hermione says while showing them the book.

'The stone can turn any metal into pure gold and create life's elixir.' Lucy explains.

'No wonder Snape wants it', Harry says.

'Who wouldn't?' Ron adds.

Now that they had found him, they didn't know what to do with the information. Should they tell someone? Whoever they told would want to know how they figured it out. They didn't want Hagrid to be in trouble, but they felt like they should do something; but what?