The Stone

Chapter Thirty-Six

Madam Pomfrey, the matron, was a nice woman, but very strict.

"Just five minutes," Harry pleaded

"Absolutely not"

"You let Professor Dumbledore in"

Madam Pomfrey sighed. "Well, of course, that was the Headmaster, quite different. You both need rest"

"We are resting," Bella said. "Look, we're lying down and everything, oh go on, Madam Pomfrey"

"Oh, very well," she said. "But five minutes only"

And she let Ron and Hermione in.

"Guys!"

Hermione looked ready to throw her arms around Harry, but she didn't which made Harry happy as his head was still sore. Bella, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. She wrapped her arms around tightly cutting off Bella's air supply. 

"Can't...breathe," Bella gasped out and Hermione immediately let go of her. 

"Sorry!" she shrieked. "Oh, guys, we were sure you both were going to - Dumbledore was so worried" She glared at Bella. "I told you not to go!"

Bella shrugged as if to say 'oh well,'

"The whole school's talking about it," Ron said. "What really happened?"

It was one of those rare occasions when the true story is even more strange and exciting than the wild rumours. Harry told them everything with the help from Bella: Quirrell; the Mirror, the Stone and Voldemort. They left out how they could be connected somehow, deciding that they didn't need to know that yet. Ron and Hermione were a very good audience; they gasped in all the right places and, when Bella told them what was under Quirrell's turban, Hermione screamed out loud. 

"So the Stone's gone?" Ron asked finally. "Flamel's just going to die?"

"That's what I said, but Dumbledore thinks that - what was it?" Harry looked at Bella.

Bella thought for a second. "Oh! - 'to the well-organized mind, death is but the next adventure'"

"I always said he was off his rocker," Ron said, looking quite impressed at how mad his hero was.

"So, what happened to you two?" Harry asked them both

"Well, after you guys left, I focused, on Ron," Hermione told them. "I finally brought him around just as Bella returned looking shaken saying she had a feeling something was wrong. After much debating, she left to you leaving me and Ron alone. Me and Ron dashed up to the owlery to contact Dumbledore when we met him in the Entrance Hall. He already knew - he just said, 'Bella and Harry's gone after him, haven't they?' and hurtled off to the third floor."

"D'you think he meant you both to do it?" Ron asked them. "Sending Harry your father's Cloak and everything?"

"Well," Bella exploded. "If he did- I mean to say- that's terrible - we could have been killed!"

"No, it isn't," Harry said thoughtfully and Bella looked at him with wide eyes. "He's a funny man, Dumbledore. I think he sort of wanted to give us a chance. I think he knows more or less everything that goes on here, you know. I reckon he had a pretty good idea we were going to try, and instead of stopping us, he taught us enough to help.I don't think it was an accident he let us find out how the Mirror worked. It's almost like he thought we had the right to face Voldemort if we could..."

"Yeah, Dumbledore's barking, all right," Ron said proudly. "Listen, you've both got to be up for the end-of-year feast tomorrow. The points are all in and Slytherin won, of course - you both missed the last Quidditch match, were steamrollered by Ravenclaw without you both - but the food'll be good"