Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Rewritten - A Harry Potter Fanfiction

Chapter 15: Discovery and Suspicion

One Saturday morning, Harry and his friends were out for an early morning stroll in the eastern part of the school grounds when they caught sight of Professor Snape hurrying along the edge of the Forbidden Forest, dragging someone else along by the front of their robes. The second person was clearly protesting his treatment but Snape did not seem to be paying any mind to it.

"I want to see what's up" Harry told his friends.

"It's none of our business, Harry" said Irene at once.

"Yes, it's probably just a student who broke a rule or something," said Hermione.

"Then why's Snape dragging him towards the forest instead of the school?" Harry shot back. "I'm going to see what's up."

Without waiting for a response, Harry hurried after Snape taking care to duck behind the trees and bushes dotting that part of the grounds every time Snape looked back.

"He's making sure no one's around," pointed out Ron. "That's definitely fishy."

Harry nodded and focused on picking up the pace while remaining unobtrusive.

When they finally came within earshot of Snape, concealed by wild Litchthia bushes, they heard him talking to an older girl. She looked to be perhaps seventeen or eighteen.

"Why have you dragged me here, sir?" the girl was demanding of Snape. "I don't understand the meaning of this at all?"

Snape did not reply at once. He studied the girl with a piecing gaze that weighed and measured. The girl, to her credit, did not look one whit afraid or discomfited.

"I recognize her," Irene whispered to Harry, Ron and Hermione. "She's Laia Lestrange. She graduated Hogwarts last year. Her picture's on a wall in our common room. She was a Slytherin prefect and the head girl."

"If she's an alumnus, then what's she doing here now?" asked Harry, trying to keep his voice as low as possible.

"She's probably here for Saturday school" replied Ron at the same time that Hermione said, "Alumni who pursue expert studies can come to the school for accessing the library or consulting with teachers."

Two whispers were louder than one would have been. Snape, who'd been about to reply to Laia, whirled around in their direction. Harry and his friends shrank down into the bushes, kneeling and bending low into the ground.

Snape evidently did not trust to eyesight alone. He drew his wand and began blasting apart the tall, narrow Litchthia bushes. Snape first aimed for the base of the bushes. Harry stepped up onto a boulder a foot high, the others climbing up with him. Then Snape aimed at the tops of bushes. Judging by the height, he must have been expecting any potential eavesdroppers to be adults, not four eleven-year-olds. Leaves and petals flew around above Harry's head and below his feet. Pollen dust made him want to sneeze but he was otherwise unharmed.

Snape turned back to face Laia.

"There is no need to pretend innocence Laia. I saw you trying to enter the dungeons where you have no business being."

"I was feeling nostalgic sir and wanted to look around. I didn't know the dungeons were forbidden, sir."

"Indeed? And yet you did not stop to look around at any other part of the castle? I saw you hurrying straight from Professor McGonagall's Saturday classroom to the dungeons. Any reason you were nostalgic for the dungeons in particular?"

Laia flushed slightly. "Looking around isn't a crime, sir."

"Your reason, Laia. Now!"

"You can't give me orders, sir. I'm not a student anymore."