Kassandra Bauer and the Philosopher's Stone (Book 1)

Chapter 9: The Philosopher's Stone.

The next term had started at Hogwarts. I couldn't find anything about Nicholas Flamel. I told Beatrice the bad news. But she told me not to make a fuss about it. We would figure out eventually. And besides, maybe it's not written in the books or something.  

Hermione on the other hand. She saw things differently. She couldn't believe that one... Harry was out at night for the mirror. She went into this whole topic about potentially getting caught by Filch. Or that we couldn't find anything on Nicholas Flamel. She did that to Harry. She just said that I tried my best. 

It wasn't like we could just go through wasting away skimming through books. Once term started, it was now at 10 minutes a day. Followed by the fact that Quidditch Practice had started again. 

I was excited to play another match though. Wood was drilling us hard. Not that I had any complaint about that. It was a thing that Athletes did all the time. Especially for the Olympians. They were always training. Always wanting to prove themselves. Practice makes perfect. That sort of thing.  

One day, we were all practicing in the rain and mud. And Fred and George were dive bombing each other and pretending to fall off their brooms. I wanted to say that they were just having fun. But when it came to Quidditch. Wood got very serious. From what I could tell. The team was a lot different then the one they had last year when Orion was in charge. I even heard that at one point, Orion had wanted to give the position of Captain to Ethan. But Ethan politely declined the offer. He said Orion could never be replaced. 

"Will you quit that?!" Wood yelled. "That's exactly that sort of thing that'll lose us the match! Snape's the Referee in the next game, and he'll be looking for any excuse to knock off points to Gryffindor!"

Wait. What? "Snape's the Referee?" I asked. 

"Yep." Wood answered. "I didn't have a choice. Don't worry, Kassie. We just got to make sure we play a clean game." 

"You know that even if we do that, we'll just get penalized. Snape will look for any reason to pick on us." I pointed out. "I mean, this is the guy who jinxed Harry's broom. What if he jinxes my broom next?" I started to worry a little now. 

"Relax, Kassie. I'm sure it'll be fine." Wood said to me. 

"So what do we do?" I asked.

"We play smart. Be patient. And Pray." Wood answered. "Seriously, pray." 

That's when I saw Harry walk away instead of hanging back with the rest of the team. "I'm going to go... check on him." I told Wood.

I followed Harry up to the Common Room to see Ryan still making more Cartoon drawings. As well as Ron and Hermione playing chess. And Harry had sat down.

"Don't play." Hermione said. 

"Say you're ill." Ron added.

"Pretend to break your leg." Hermione suggested.

"Huh?" I asked walking over. 

"Harry told us about Snape wanting to referee the next Quidditch Match vs the Badgers." Ron explained. 

I figured. "But Gryffindor doesn't have a reserve Seeker. If Harry backs out, Gryffindor can't play at all." I told them. 

"She's right." Harry agreed. 

But that was when we saw Neville jump in. Literally. He just jumped in because his legs had been stuck together. It was the Leg Locker Curse. Though I was just amazed that he jumped through the Portrait like he must've done.

"I've got it." Hermione sprung Neville's legs free. "What happened?" She asked Neville. But I did have a hunch. 

"Malfoy?" I asked.