meant to be (1)

33

"...and he said that the mirror will be removed today. I won't be able to go back anymore." Harry said, as he finished telling us about the conversation he had with Dumbledore yesterday.

"Finally" I muttered to myself, but Harry had heard me.

"You missed spending time with me, didn't you?" Harry said in amusement.

"No, it's just that-"

"Ugh" Ron groaned. "When is Hermione gonna be back? I'm sick of you arguing all the time."

Hermione had come back several days later, in fact the day before term started. She took a different view of things.

She was torn between horror at Harry being out of bed, roaming the school three nights in a row and disappointment that he hadn't at least found out something about who Flamel was.

We had almost given up hope of ever finding Flamel in a library book, even though I was sure I had heard the name somewhere.

Once term had started, we were back to skimming through books for ten minutes during our breaks. Harry and I had even less time than the other two, because Quidditch practice started again.

Wood was working the team harder than ever. Even the endless rain that had replaced the snow couldn't dampen his spirits. The Weasleys complained that Wood was becoming fanatic, but I was on Wood's side.

If we won our next match against Hufflepuff, we would overtake Slytherin the House Championship for the first time in seven years.

Then, during on particularly wet and muddy practice session, Wood gave the team a bit of bad news. He's just got very angry with the Weasleys, who kept dive-bombing each other and pretended to fall off their brooms.

"Will you stop messing around!" he yelled. "That's exactly the sort of thing that'll lose us the match! Snape's refereeing this time, and he'll be looking for any excuse to knock points off Gryffindor!"

George really did fall off his broom at these words.

"Snape's refereeing?" he spluttered through a mouthful of mud. "When's he ever refereed a Quidditch match? He's not going to be fair if we might overtake Slytherin."

The rest of us landed next to George, also complaining.

"It's not my fault" said Wood. "We've just got to make sure we play a clean game, so Snape hasn't got an excuse to pick on us."

Harry and I exchanged worried looks.

The rest of the team hung back to talk to each other as usual at the end of practice, but Harry and I decided to go straight back to the common room, where we found Ron and Hermione playing chess.

"Don't talk to me for a moment" said Ron when we sat down on the sofa next to them. "I need to concen-" He caught sight of our faces. "Whoa, what's the matter with you two? You look terrible."

"Thanks Ronald" I said sarcastically before telling them about Snape's sudden interest to be a Quidditch referee.

"Don't play!" said Hermione at once.

"Say you're ill" Ron suggested.

"Pretend to break your leg." Hermione said.

"Really break your leg." added Ron.

"I can't" said Harry. "There isn't a reserve Seeker. If I back out, Gryffindor can't play at all"

At that moment Neville toppled trough the common room. His legs were stuck together with what we recognised as the Leg-Locker Curse.

Everyone fell about laughing except Hermione and I. I performed the counter-curse and she helped him up to his feet.

"What happened?" Hermione asked, leading him to sit with us.

"Malfoy" said Neville shakily. "I met him outside the library. He said he'd been looking for someone to practice that on."

"Go to Professor McGonagall!" Hermione urged Neville. "Report him!

"I don't want more trouble." he mumbled, shaking his head.

"You've got to stand up to him, Neville!" said Ron. "He's used to walking all over people, but that's no reason to lie down in front of him and make it easier."

"There's no need to tell me I'm not brave enough to be in Gryffindor, Malfoy's already done that." Neville choked.

Harry gave Neville a Chocolate Frog, who looked as though he might cry.

"You're worth twelve of Malfoy" I said. "The Sorting Hat chose you for Gryffindor, didn't it? And where's Malfoy? In stinking Slytherin."

Neville's lips twitched a weak smile as he unwrapped the Frog.

"Thanks, Harry and Julie... I think I'll go to bed.. Harry, d'you want the card, you collect them, don't you?"

As Neville walked away Harry looked at the Famouse Wizard card.

"Dumbledore again" he said. "He was the first one I ever-" He gasped and stared at the back of the card. Then he looked up.

"I've found him!" he whispered. "I've found Flamel! I told you I'd read the name somewhere before, I read it on the train coming here - listen to this: "Professor Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the Dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelfe uses of Dragon blood and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel!"

Hermione and I exchanged excited looks.

"Stay here!" she said before we both hurried off to our dormitory.