Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone (Slytherin!Harry)

Chapter 18, The Man With Two Faces

If I had the option to go back and do this over again I would decline because I wouldn't have it any other way.

It was Quirrell.

"You!" Gasped Harry.

Quirrell smiled. His face not twitching at all.

"Me.." he said calmly. "I wondered whether I'd be meeting you here, Potter."

"But I thought Sna-"

"Severus?" Quirrell laughed, and it wasn't his usual scared sounding chuckle it was dark, sharp, and clear. "Yes, Severus does seem like the type, doesn't he? So useful to have him swooping around like an overgrown bat. Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrell?"

Harry was in disbelief, surely this wasn't true.

Quirrell snapped his fingers before Harry could utter a single word. Ropes sprang from thin air and wrapped tightly around Harry.

"You're too nosey to live, Potter. Scurrying around the school on Halloween like that, for all I know you'd seen me coming to look at what was guarding the stone."

Harry frowned, "You let that troll in?!"

"Certainly. I have a special gift with trolls - you must have seen what I did to the one in the chamber back there? Unfortunately, while everyone was running around looking for it, Snape, who already suspected me, went straight to the third floor to head me off - and not only did my troll fail to beat you to death, that three-headed dog didn't even manage to bite Snape's leg off properly. Now, wait quietly, Potter. I need to examine this interesting mirror."

It was then Harry realized that behind Quirrell was the same mirror he himself got stuck in. The Mirror of Erised.

"This mirror is the key to finding the stone," Quirrell murmured, tapping around the frame. "Trust Dumbledore to come up with something like this but he's in London.. I'll be far away by the time he gets back.."

All Harry could think of doing at the moment was to keep him talking and stay from the mirror.

"I saw you and Snape in the forest." Harry called out.

"Yes.. He was onto me by then, trying to figure out how far I got. He suspected me all along. Tried to frighten me-" He rolled his eyes, "As though he could when I had Lord Voldemort on my side..."

Quirrell had walked behind the mirror in the middle of his speech and came back out from behind it, staring at it hungrily.

"I see the Stone... I'm presenting it to my master.. but where is it?"

Harry struggled against the ropes but the didn't budge. He had to keep Quirrell from giving his whole attention to the mirror.

"But Snape always seemed to hate me so much."

"Oh he does," Quirrell chuckled "Heavens, yes. He went to school with your father didn't you know? They loathed each other but he never wanted you dead."

"But I heard you a few days ago crying I thought Snape was threatening you."

For the first time a spasm of fear came across Quirrells face.

"Sometimes...I find it hard to follow my masters instructions- he's a great wizard and I am weak"

Harry's green eyes shot wide open, 'You mean he was there with you!?"

"He is with me wherever I go," said Quirrell quietly. "I met him when I traveled around the world. A foolish young man I was then, full of ridiculous ideas about good and evil. Lord Voldemort showed me how wrong I was. There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it... Since then, I have served him faithfully, although I have let him down many times. He has had to be very hard on me." Quirrell shivered suddenly. "He does not forgive mistakes easily. When I failed to steal the stone from Gringotts, he was most displeased. He punished me... decided he would have to keep a closer watch on me..."