Can't Catch Me Now / Severus Snape

15. Pathetic

"Look at you playing with your cards. Pathetic! We've got final exams coming up soon." Hermoine tsked.

"I'm ready! Ask me any question." Ron countered.

"All right, what are the three most crucial ingredients in a Forgetfulness Potion?" Hermoine quizzed. Ron hesitated.

"...I forgot." Ron answered.

"And what, may I ask, do you plan to do if this comes up in the final exam?" Hermoine pondered.

"Copy off you?" Ron offered.

"No, you won't! Besides, according to Professor McGonagall, we're to be given special quills bewitched with an anti-cheating spell." Hermoine tsked.

"That's insulting! It's as if they don't trust us!" Ron declared.

"Harry you have been really quiet," hermione added. "You found the mirror and more about Flammel. Why wont you tell me?"

"My parents dont want me messing with it. Its dangerous." Harry answered.

"I wonder why?" Ron mused looking at Hermione.

"Are you sure you dont want us looking into it. I know with finals-"

"Hermione. My parents know best. They have been at this school for ages." Harry assured. Neville Longbottom came hopping into the Great Hall with his legs stuck together as the other students laugh at him.

"Leg-Locker Curse?" Ron pondered.

"Draco." Harry realized. Neville approached them amidst laughter from the other students. Draco smirked back at him. Harry gave him a disapproving look but Draco kept laughing. 

"He had it coming!" Draco called back. 

"You have got to start standing up to people, Neville." Ron decided. Neville was wobbling uncontrollably.

"How? I can barely stand at all!" Neville countered. Seamus jumped up, wand at the ready.

" I'll do the counter-curse!" Seamus decided.

"No, that's all I need... you to set my bloody kneecaps on fire!" Neville muttered.  Seamus slammed his wand down.

"Why are you walking so funny?" Aria questioned skipping down the fall. 

"I don't appreciate the insinuation, Longbottom. Besides, if anyone cares to notice, my eyebrows have completely grown back!" Seamus reminded them all .

"I found him!" he handed Ron a Chocolate Frog card of Dumbledore. ''Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the Dark" Wizard Grindelwald in 1945–'" Ron read off.

" Go on." Harry agreed. 

"Oh, can I have the frog?" Aria questioned. "Where are the frogs? These are just cards, what fun is that? I want the chocolate." she whined pouting up at Harry. 

"-for his discovery of the 12 uses of Dragon Blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner Nicolas Flamel!'' Ron declared.

"I knew the name sounded familiar. I have seen it on the card probably a hundred times but i only ever cared about the chocolate" harry realized. 

"Thats because the chocolate is the best part." Aria agreed. 

"Follow me!" Hermoine declared getting up and they ran out.

"Hey, wait, where are you going? What about the counter-curse?!" Neville questioned.

"Are we getting chocolate?" Aria questioned but groaned when they got to the library.  "Hey mommy!" 

"Hey baby, what are you doing in the library?" Lilith questioned looking up from her work. 

"I thought we were getting chocolate." She murmured. lilith looked to Harry and his friends. 

"Oh I see, well I'm hungry," LIlith remarked. "Perhaps some lunch before chocolate?"

"Chocolate first?" Aria bargained. 

"You sound like uncle Mooney." 

" I had you looking in the wrong section! How could I be so stupid? I checked this out a few weeks ago for a bit of light reading." Hermione dropped down a stack of books.

"This is light?" Ron countered.

"Of course! Here it is!" She flipped open the book, as she reads the description in the page "Nicholas Flamel is the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone!"

"The what?" Ron questioned. 

Harry knew his parents spoke to him about it but he didnt want to give that away, they would only think his parents were evil again for knowing so much. 

"Honestly, don't you two read?" She commanded "The Philosopher's Stone is a legendary substance with astonishing powers. It will turn any metal into pure gold and produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal."

"Immortal?" Ron questioned. Harry knew why his parents didnt want him looking into it suddenly. 

"It means you'll never die." Hermione drawled.

"I know what it means!" Ron assured.

"The only stone currently in existence belongs to Mr. Nicholas Flamel, the noted alchemist, who last year celebrated his 665th birthday! That's what Fluffy's guarding on the 3rd floor. That's what's under the trapdoor...the Philosopher's Stone!"

"We shouldnt go digging. Leave it to the grown ups." Harry decided. 

"They are the ones being shady," Ron countered. 

"We are children!" Harry corrected.  "What are we going to do? If there is someone trying to steal it, we should tell the headmaster, tell my parents-"

"You can't tell your parents harry."

"They are good people!" Harry demanded. "They are just trying to protect me. Why wont you listen to me?"

"Because your father was a death eater."