The Stone

Chapter Twenty-Three

"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 twelve uses of dragon's blood and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel!" Harry whispered.

Hermione jumped to her feet. She hadn't looked so excited since they'd got the marks for their very first piece of homework.

 "Stay there!" she said, and she sprinted up the stairs to the girls' dormitories and Bella shrugged at Harry's and Ron's mystified looks. She came dashing back, an enormous old book in her arms.

"I never thought to look in here!" she whispered excitedly. "I got this out of the library weeks ago for a bit of light reading"

"Light?" said Bella and Ron, but Hermione told them to be quiet until she'd looked something up, and started flicking frantically through the pages, muttering to herself.

At last, she found what she was looking for.

"I knew it! I knew it!"

"Are we allowed to speak yet?" asked Ron grumpily. Hermione ignored him.

"Nicolas Flamel," she whispered dramatically, "is the only known maker of the Philosopher's stone!"

This didn't have quite the effect she'd expected. 

"The what now?" Bella asked raising her eyebrows. 

"Oh, honestly, don't you three read? Look - read that, there." she pushed the book towards them, Bella, Harry, and Ron read:

The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Philosopher's stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers. The stone will transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal.
There have been many reports of the Philosopher's Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently belongs to Mr Nicolas Flamel, the noted alchemist and opera-lover. Mr Flamel, who celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday last year, enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife, Perenelle (six hundred and fifty-eight).

"See?" said Hermione, when they had finished. "The dog must be guarding Flamel's Philosopher's stone! I bet he asked Dumbledore to keep it safe for him, because they're friends and he knew someone was after it. That's why he wanted the Stone moved out of Gringotts!"

"A stone that makes gold and stops you from ever dying!" said Bella. "No wonder Snape's after it! Anyone would want it, including me"

"And no wonder we couldn't find Flamel in that Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry," Ron said. "He's not exactly recent if he's six hundred and sixty-five, is he?"

Bella nodded her head. "Nah...he's old."

Next morning in Defence Against the Dark Arts, while copying down different ways of treating werewolf bites, Bella and Harry were still discussing what they'd do with a Philosopher's Stone if they had one. Ron joined in on the conversation and it wasn't until he said he'd buy his own Quidditch team that Harry remembered about Snape and the coming match.

"I'm going to play," he told Bella, Hermione, and Ron. "If I don't, all the Slytherins will think I'm just too scared to face Snape. I'll show them...it'll really wipe the smiles off their faces if we win"

"Just as long as we're not wiping you off the pitch," Said Bella and Hermione nodded agreeing with her. 

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