Beth Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝑀𝒾𝓇𝓇𝑜𝓇 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝐸𝓇𝒾𝓈𝑒𝒹

Christmas was coming. One morning in mid-December, Hogwarts woke to find itself covered in several feet of snow. The lake froze solid and the Weasley twins and Beth were punished for bewitching several snowballs so that they followed Quirrell around, bouncing off the back of his turban. The few owls that had managed to battle their way through the stormy sky to deliver mail had to be nursed back to health by Hagrid before they could fly off again.

No one could wait for the holidays to start. While the common rooms and the Great Hall had roaring fires, the drafty corridors had become icy and a bitter wind rattled the windows in the classrooms. Worst of all were Professor Snape's classes down in the dungeons, where their breath rose in a mist before them and they kept as close as possible to their hot cauldrons.

"I do feel so sorry," said Draco Malfoy to Mattheo Riddle one Potions class, "for all those people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because they're not wanted at home."

He was looking over at the twins as he spoke. Crabbe and Goyle chuckled. Harry, who was measuring out powdered spine of lionfish, ignored them. Malfoy had been even more unpleasant than usual since the Quidditch match. He was disgusted that Beth Potter was Slytherin's Seeker. So Malfoy and Mattheo, jealous and angry, had gone back to taunting the twins (mostly Beth) about having no proper family.

Beth didn't ignore them. "Say that again Malfoy," she spat.

"I said that you and that idiot brother of yours aren't wanted at home."

Beth was so livid, she couldn't think of a reply, so she just held up both middle fingers at him.

It was true that the twins weren't going back to Privet Drive for Christmas. Professor McGonagall had come around the week before, making a list of students who would be staying for the holidays, and the twins had signed up at once. They didn't feel sorry for themselves at all; this would probably be the best Christmas they'd ever had. Ron and his brothers were staying, because Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were going to Romania to visit Charlie. Hermione was staying, too, because her extended family was visiting and they didn't approve of her being a witch.

When they left the dungeons at the end of Potions, they found a large fir tree blocking the corridor ahead. Two enormous feet sticking out at the bottom and a large puffing sound told them that Hagrid was behind it.

"Hi, Hagrid, want any help?" Beth asked, sticking her head through the branches.

"Nah, I'm all right, thanks."

"Would you mind moving out of the way?" came Malfoy's cold drawl from behind them. "Are you trying to earn some extra money, Weasley? Hoping to become gamekeeper yourself when you leave Hogwarts, I suppose – that hut of Hagrid's must seem like a palace compared to what your family's probably used to."

Ron went as red as his hair.

Beth dived at Malfoy just as Snape came up the stairs.

"WEASLEY, POTTER, GRANGER!"

Beth let go of the front of Malfoy's robes.

"She was provoked, Professor Snape," said Hagrid, sticking his huge hairy face out from behind the tree. "Malfoy was insultin' Weasley's family."

"Be that as it may, fighting is against Hogwarts rules, Hagrid," said Snape silkily. "Five points from Gryffindor, Weasley, and be grateful it isn't more. Move along, all of you."

Malfoy, Mattheo, Crabbe, and Goyle pushed roughly past the tree, scattering needles everywhere and smirking.

"I'll get him," said Beth, grinding her teeth at Malfoy's back, "one of these days, I'll get him –"

"It's so unfair. Beth was the one about to kick Malfoy's arse and Snape took points from Gryffindor! Not Slytherin!" Ron groaned.

"I hate them both," said Harry, "Malfoy and Snape."

"Come on, cheer up, it's nearly Christmas," said Hagrid. "Tell yeh what, come with me an' see the Great Hall, looks a treat."

So the four of them followed Hagrid and his tree off to the Great Hall, where Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick were busy with the Christmas decorations.

"Ah, Hagrid, the last tree – put it in the far corner, would you?"

The hall looked spectacular. Festoons of holly and mistletoe hung all around the walls, and no less than twelve towering Christmas trees stood around the room, some sparkling with tiny icicles, some glittering with hundreds of candles.

"How many days you got left until yer holidays?" Hagrid asked.

"Just one," said Hermione. "And that reminds me – Harry, Ron, Beth, we've got half an hour before lunch, we should be in the library."

"Oh yeah, you're right," said Ron, tearing his eyes away from Professor Flitwick, who had golden bubbles blossoming out of his wand and was trailing them over the branches of the new tree.

"The library?" said Hagrid, following them out of the hall. "Just before the holidays? Bit keen, aren't yeh?"

"Oh, we're not working," Beth told him brightly. "Ever since you mentioned Nicolas Flamel we've been trying to find out who he is."

"You what?" Hagrid looked shocked. "Listen here – I've told yeh – drop it. It's nothin' to you what that dog's guardin'."

"We just want to know who Nicolas Flamel is, that's all," said Harry.

"Unless you'd like to tell us and save us the trouble?" Hermione added. "We must've been through hundreds of books already and we can't find him anywhere – just give us a hint – I know I've read his name somewhere."

"I'm sayin' nothin'," said Hagrid flatly.

"Just have to find out for ourselves, then," said Ron, and they left Hagrid looking disgruntled and hurried off to the library.

They had indeed been searching books for Flamel's name ever since Hagrid had let it slip, because how else were they going to find out what Snape was trying to steal? The trouble was, it was very hard to know where to begin, not knowing what Flamel might have done to get himself into a book. He wasn't in Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century, or Notable Magical Names of Our Time; he was missing, too, from Important Magical Modern Discoveries, and A Study of Recent Development in Wizardry. And then, of course, there was the sheer size of the library; tens of thousands of books; thousands of shelves; hundreds of narrow rows.

Hermione and Beth took out a list of subjects and titles they had decided to search while Ron and Harry strode off down the rows of books and started pulling them off the shelves at random. Harry wandered over to the Restricted Section. He had been wondering for a while if Flamel wasn't somewhere in there. Unfortunately, you needed a specially signed note from one of the teachers to look in any of the restricted books, and he knew he'd never get one. These were the books containing powerful Dark Magic never taught at Hogwarts, and only read by older students studying advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"What are you looking for, boy?"

"Nothing," said Harry.

Madam Pince the librarian brandished a feather duster at him.

"You'd better get out, then. Go on – out!"

Wishing he'd been a bit quicker at thinking up some story, Harry left the library. He, Ron, Beth, and Hermione had already agreed they'd better not ask Madam Pince where they could find Flamel. They were sure she'd be able to help them, but they couldn't risk Snape hearing what they were up to.

Harry waited outside in the corridor with his sister to see if the other three had found anything, but he wasn't very hopeful. They had been looking for two weeks, after all, but as they only had odd moments between lessons it wasn't surprising they'd found nothing. What they really needed was a nice long search without Madam Pince breathing down their necks.

Five minutes later, they joined him, shaking their heads. They went off to lunch.

Once the holidays had started, Ron, Harry, Beth, and Hermione were having too good a time to think much about Flamel. They had their dormitories to themselves and the common room was far emptier than usual, so they were able to get the good armchairs by the fire. This also meant that Beth could go to the Gryffindor common room whenever she liked. They sat by the hour eating anything they could spear on a toasting fork – bread, English muffins, marshmallows – and plotting ways of getting Malfoy expelled, which were fun to talk about even if they wouldn't work.

Ron also started teaching them wizard chess. This was exactly like Muggle chess except that the figures were alive, which made it a lot like directing troops in battle. Ron's set was very old and battered. Like everything else he owned, it had once belonged to someone else in his family – in this case, his grandfather. However, old chessmen weren't a drawback at all. Ron knew them so well he never had trouble getting them to do what he wanted.

Beth played with chessmen Seamus Finnigan had lent him, and they didn't trust her at all. He was horrible at chess and they kept shouting different bits of advice at her, which was confusing. "Don't send me there, can't you see his knight? Send him, we can afford to lose him."

On Christmas Eve, Beth went to bed in the Gryffindor dormitories with Hermione looking forward to the next day for the food and the fun, but not expecting any presents at all. When she woke early in the morning, however, the first thing she saw was a small pile of packages at the foot of her bed.

"Merry Christmas," said Hermione excitedly as Beth leaped out of bed and pulled on her bathrobe.

"You, too," said Beth. "Will you look at this? I've got some presents!"

"What did you expect, turnips?" said Hermione, turning to her own pile, which was a lot bigger than Hermione's. "Come on, let's bring them down to the common room so we can open them with Harry and Ron."

Beth and Hermione piled the presents up in their arms and brought them all down to the common room where the boys were waiting for them in their bathrobes. They had their presents already in a pile when they said cheerfully, "Merry Christmas, Beth! Merry Christmas, Hermione!"

They dropped their presents beside the boys' and started to open them together.

Beth picked up the top parcel. It was wrapped in thick brown paper and scrawled across it was To Beatrice, from Hagrid. Inside was a roughly cut wooden owl. Hagrid had obviously whittled it himself. Harry had gotten a flute from him.

A second, very small parcel contained a note, and Harry had gotten an identical one.

We received your message and enclose your Christmas present. From Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia. Taped to the note was a fifty-pence piece.

"That's friendly," said Harry, grinning over at Beth.

Ron was fascinated by the fifty pence.

"Weird!" he said, "What a shape! This is money?"

"You can keep it," said the twins, joining Hermione by laughing at how pleased Ron was. "Hagrid and our aunt and uncle – so who sent these?"

"I think I know who that one's from," said Ron, turning a bit pink and pointing to a very lumpy parcel. "My mom. I told her you two didn't expect any presents and – oh, no," he groaned, "she's made you Weasley sweaters. It looked like she's made you one, too, Hermione."

Beth had torn open the parcel to find a thick, hand-knitted sweater in light pink and white and a large box of homemade strawberry fudge. Harry had received an emerald green sweater and caramel fudge. "Look at you, with a Slytherin sweater!" Beth teased her brother.

"Every year she makes us a sweater," said Ron, unwrapping his own, "and mine's always maroon."

"That's really nice of her," said Beth, trying the fudge, which was very tasty. She then pulled the sweater over her head. It was the most comfortable thing she'd ever worn. She never wanted to take it off.

"This fudge is delicious," Harry said in his new Weasley sweater, stuffing a piece of fudge into his mouth.

Beth's next present also contained candy – a large box of Chocolate Frogs from Hermione along with a complete collection of Gilderoy Lockhart's works.