The Cowardly Lion (Book 1)

19: Of Two-Faced Men and Bravery

"Professor Quirrell?" Draco gasped, before relief flooded him. "It's not Snape! Harry, I was right, it's not Snape, it's not Snape at all!"

Harry was looking at Quirrell with utter disgust. "You," he spat at the man.

"Me," Quirrell laughed. "I wondered whether I'd be meeting you here, Potter - a bit surprised to see you, Malfoy, after all...what was it those Slytherins called you? A coward, was it?"

Draco stiffened.

"Oh, yes, I don't seem the type, do I?" Quirrell said, not even stuttering; his voice was cold and sharp. "Severus, on the other hand - ever 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?"

"But Snape tried to kill me!" Harry exclaimed. "Draco saw him!"

"No, no, no. I tried to kill you," Professor Quirrell corrected Harry.

"That's right," Draco remembered. "Hermione knocked you over when she went to set fire to Snape's robes..."

"Smart boy, aren't you, Malfoy? Yes, it was me. I tried to kill you, but as Malfoy said, Miss Granger accidentally knocked me over when she went to set fire to Snape. 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 counter-curse, trying to save you."

Harry looked over to Draco. "I'm so sorry, Draco - you were right, it wasn't what we thought at all. I'm sorry I made you lose faith in Snape."

Draco squeezed Harry's hand. "Anyone would have thought it was Snape," he told Harry.

"So Snape didn't try to kill me," Harry stated.

"Of course not, you foolish boy; 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 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 - and I suppose you, Malfoy, as well - tonight."

Quirrell snapped his fingers; Draco, used to his father's punishments and well aware of the spell that could very well be shooting towards Harry right now, shoved Harry out of the way.

Ropes appeared out of thin air and wrapped themselves around Draco; seeing that Harry had escaped, Quirrell rolled his eyes and did the spell again, so that they were both tied up sufficiently.

"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?"

"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." Draco rolled his eyes; in that moment, Quirrell sounded quite childish, complaining about how he hadn't gotten what he'd wanted.

Harry's eyes had widened; Draco looked questioningly over to him, but Quirrell had added a gag to his ropes, so Harry couldn't tell him. He looked at the mirror behind Quirrell.

"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."