The Stone

Chapter Sixteen

My mum thinks I'm crazy because I'm sat screaming 'This Is War' by Thirty Seconds To Mars...she clearly doesn't know music. 

Humph. Enjoy this chapter Potter fans :) 

*********

As they entered November, the weather turned very cold. The mountains around the school became icy gray and the lake like chilled steel. Every morning the ground was covered in frost, and since Bella wasn't good on her feet, she slipped a lot and each time she landed on Harry who she always walks beside. Hagrid could be seen from the upstairs windows, defrosting broomsticks on the Quidditch pitch, bundled up in a long moleskin overcoat, rabbit-fur gloves, and enormous beaverskin boots. 

The Quidditch season had begun, making Bella's and Harry excitement grow with each passing day. On Saturday, the pair will be playing their first match after weeks of training: Gryffindor versus Slytherin. If Gryffindor won, they would move up into second place in the House Championship. 

Hardly anyone had seen Bella and Harry play because Wood had decided that, as their secret weapons, Bella and Harry should be kept, well, a secret. But the news that Harry was playing Seeker and Bella playing Keeper, had leaked out somehow, and Bella didn't know which was worse - people telling her she'd be brilliant or people telling her they'd be running around underneath her, holding a mattress. 

It was really lucky that Bella now had Hermione as a friend again. They had talked about their problems and Bella discovered Hermione was only acting the way she was because she was jealous of the friendship Bella shared with Harry and Ron. And now without her, she didn't know how she'd have got through all her homework without her and knew Harry felt the same. What with all the last-minute Quidditch practices Wood was making them do. She had lent Bella Quidditch through the Ages, and Bella and Harry thought that it was a very interesting read.

Both Bella and Harry had learned that there were seven hundred ways of committing a Quidditch foul and that all of them happened during a World Cup match in 1473; that Seekers were usually the smallest and fastest players and that the most serious Quidditch accidents seem to happen to them, referees had been known to vanish and turn up months later in the Sahara Desert. 

Hermione had become a bit more relaxed about breaking rules since Bella, Harry, and Ron had saved her from the mountain troll and she was much nicer for it. The day before Harry's and Bella's first Quidditch match, the four of them were out in the freezing courtyard during break, and she had conjured them up a bright fire which Bella turned blue, and it could be carried around in a jam jar. They were standing with their backs to it, getting warm, when Snape crossed the yard. Bella noticed at once that Snape was limping. She, Harry, Hermione, and Ron moved closer together to block the fire from view; they were sure it wouldn't be allowed. Unfortunately, something about their guilty faces caught Snape's eye. He limped over. He hadn't seen the fire, but he seemed to be looking for a reason to tell them off anyway. 

"What's that you've got there, Potter?"

Bella smirked. "A shampoo bottle sir, it works wonders on your hair. Want me to show you how to use it?"

Snape ignored Bella's comment and continued glaring at Harry. Harry showed him Quidditch through the Ages.

"Library books are not to be taken outside the school," said Snape. "Give it to me. Five points from Gryffindor"

"He's just made that rule up," Harry muttered angrily as Snape limped away. 

Bella nodded and glared at the back of Snape's head. "Wonder what's up with his leg?"

"Dunno, but I hope it's really hurting him," said Ron bitterly. 

*

The Gryffindor common room was very noisy that evening. Bella, Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat together next to a window. Hermione was checking their Charms homework for them, she would never let them copy ('How will you learn?'), but by asking her to read it through, they got the right answers anyway. 

Bella felt restless as she shoved her hair into a messy bun. She wanted Quidditch through the Ages back, to take her mind off her nerves about tomorrow. Why was Snape a douche? Harry stood up suddenly and told them he was going to ask Snape to have the book back. 

"Rather you than me," Said Ron and Hermione together.

Bella stood up as well, "I'll come with you. I need that book to take my mind off tomorrow"

They made their way down to the staff room in a comfortable silence and Harry knocked on the door. There was no answer. Bella knocked this time. Nothing. 

"Strange...I thought the teachers were meant to be in here?" Bella muttered looking at Harry who shrugged. 

"Perhaps Snape has left the book in there?" Suggested Harry. 

"Worth a shot," Bella says. 

Harry pushed the door ajar and peered inside. Bella ducked under his arm to look in aswell - and a horrible scene met their eyes. 

Snape and Filch were inside, alone. Snape was holding his robes above his knees. One of his legs were bloody and mangled. Bella covered her mouth to hide her scream as Filch handed Snape some bandages. 

"Blasted thing," Snape was saying. "How are you supposed to keep your eyes on all three heads at once?"

Bella stood up straight again and Harry tried to shut the door quietly but-"

"BL-SWAN! POTTER!"

Was he about to call me Black? Bella thought as Snape's face twisted with fury as he dropped his robes quickly to hide his leg. Bella saw Harry gulp.

"I just wondered if I could have my book back," Bella says. 

"GET OUT! OUT!"

They left before Snape could take any more points from Gryffindor. They sprinted back upstairs

"Did you get it?" Ron asked them as they joined them. "What's the matter?"

In a low whisper, Harry told them what they had just seen. 

"You know what this means?" Bella finished, breathlessly. "He's tried to get past that three-headed dog at Halloween! That's where he was going when we saw him- he's after whatever it's guarding! And I bet my broomstick he let the troll in, to create a diversion!"

Hermione's eyes were wide. 

"No- he wouldn't," she said. "I know he's not very nice, but he wouldn't try and steal something Dumbledore was keeping safe"

"Honestly, Hermione, you think all teachers are saints or something," snapped Ron. "I'm with Harry and Bella. I wouldn't put anything past Snape. But what's he after? What's that dog guarding?"

"Good question," Bella says and none of them had the answer to it. 

That night, after Bella had changed into a pair of shorts and a tank top for bed, her head started buzzing with the same question. Hermione was snoring loudly, but Bella couldn't sleep. She tried to empty her mind - she needed to sleep, she had to, she had her first Quidditch match in a few hours - but the expression on Snape's face when they had seen his leg was imprinted on her mind like a bad memory.