Young and Old, Back and Bold

Chapter 28

Nico sat by Ron and Harry in the Gryffindor common room as they told Hermione what had happened throughout break, his head resting on his hand as he stared into the flames of the fireplace.

"And you still haven't found out who Nicolas Flamel is?" Hermione asked. "Have you looked at all?"

"Nico has." Ron defended. "He has all break."

Hermione turned to Nico. "You haven't found anything? There's no way-"

"I'm a slow reader." Nico held his hands up in surrender. After Hermione didn't speak for a minute, he relented. "And...I got distracted by a few books that had the di Angelo family in them..."

"Did you at least find anything else out about them?" she asked.

Nico shook his head. "Not anything new."

The rain and mud outside the castle seemed to express his mood more than ever as school started again. Classes had him on the verge of death by boredom, while homework continued to stack up in front of him. Nicolas Flamel, it seemed, finally escaped from Nico's mind.

Until Ron ran into the library one afternoon and grabbed his arm. "We found him."

Nico looked up from the book he was reading on his old mother, his first mother. "Found who?"

"Flamel. Come on."

Nico stuffed the book in his bag before following Ron out of the library and into the Gryffindor common room. Hermione was there with Harry, a thick book in front of her.

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

Ron nor Harry seemed to realize what the Sorcerer's Stone was, but Nico felt his skin tingle at the name.

"The what?" said Harry and Ron.

"Oh, honestly, don't you two read? Look - read that, there." She pushed the book toward them before looking to Nico. "Do you know?"

He nodded. "My dad from down under hates the thing."

She looked back to the others. "See?" said Hermione, when Harry and Ron had finished. "The dog must be guarding Flamel's Sorcerer'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 Harry. "No wonder Snape's after it! Anyone would want it."

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

"Wait a minute." Nico grabbed the book. "Where did you get this from?"

"I checked it out for some light reading," Hermione explained. "Why?"

Nico wanted to hit himself with it. "We were searching the whole damn library for a book that ended up being on your bed."

The days went on. Even though they figured out exactly what the dog was guarding, none of them could figure out exactly what to do with the information. Nico, for one, didn't believe Snape was after the stone at all. After years in the demigod world, after seeing those who were good turn evil, he couldn't see Snape doing it, even when the evidence was stacked against him.

This worried him, however. He kept these thoughts from Harry and the others, but the only other culprit that came to mind...no, it couldn't be...right? It would make sense why the gods put him here...

No. He didn't want to believe it. He had grown up in fear of that name, had always been told not to say it. Just the fact that it was possible he could return... It made his wizarding blood run cold.