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Chapter 35: Investigation
“It had to be Snape,” Ron was explaining, “Hermione and I saw him cursing your broomstick. His eyes never left you.”
“Pay attention, Quirrell was also staring at Harry’s broomstick too, Ron!” Charles rebuked, “One of them was casting a jinx, the other was casting a counter-jinx.”
“It has to be Snape, that old bat always had it out for Harry!”
“Rubbish,” said Hagrid, he had no idea what had happened up in the stands “Why would Snape do somethin’ like that?”
The group looked at each other, unsure of what to tell him. Harry had decided on the truth.
“I found out something about him,” He told Hagrid, “He tried to get past the three-headed dogs on All Hallows Day, but it bit him. We think that he was trying to steal whatever it was guarding.”
Hagrid dropped his teapot.
“How do you know about Fluffy?” He asked.
“Fluffy?”
“Yeah–bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las’ year–I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the–”
“Guard what?” Harry was eager to find out the answer.
“Now, don’t ask me anymore, “ Hagrid said gruffly. “That’s a secret.”
“But Snape’s trying to steal it.”
“Rubbish,” Hagrid spoke, “Snape’s a Hogwarts professor, he’d do nothin’ of the sort.”
“This is a pending investigation!” Charles spoke. “You can’t just falsely accuse someone as you will.”
“It has to be Snape, there’s no need to think.” Ron spoke.
“I’m tellin’ yeh, yer wrong!” Hagrid suddenly exploded. “I don’ know why Harry’s broom acted like that, but Snape wouldn’ try an’ kill a student. Listen to me, you four–yer meddlin’ in things that don’ concern yeh. This is dangerous. Forget about the dog, forget about what it’s guarding. That’s between Professor Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel.
“Aha,” Harry said. “So, there’s someone called Nicolas Flamel involved, is there?”
Hagrid looked furious at himself for his own words.
Christmas was coming. On morning in the middle of December, Hogwarts woke up to find itself buried in several feet of snow. The lake was frozen solid, and the Weasley twins were playing with several piles of snowballs. They had been punished because they had spent the entire day following Quirrell around. The few owls that managed to make their way through the snow storm to deliver the mail had been nursed back to health by Hagrid before they could fly again.
Many people couldn’t wait for the holidays to start. The Gryffindor common rooms and the Great Hall had great warm fires, but the outside corridors had been icy and cold due to the winds that rattled and pierce through the windows of the classrooms.
After learning from Hagrid’s slip up, Harry and Ron had been in the library and searched for the name Hagrid had given because they had desperately wanted to know just what Snape was trying to steal. But the annoying thing was that they didn’t know just what Flamel had done to get himself into a book. He wasn’t in Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century, or Notable Magical Names of Our Time; he was missing from Important Modern Magical Discoveries, and A Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry. And then, with the library being so big, there were thousands of books, thousands of shelves, and hundreds of narrow rows.
“Charles, do you know?” After a fruitless attempt, Hermione had come to ask Charles for help.
“Nicolas Flamel, never heard of him.” Charles pretended to shake his head regretfully.
“Really now?” Hermione looked at him with a small amount of doubt.
“Do you take me to be omniscient! I can help you at the very least.” This was Charles plan to join in on the group’s search.
Hermione took out a booklist to be looked for while Ron strolled through the rows and randomly flipped through whatever book was in hand. Harry was flipping through the Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century and soon flipped through the entire thing. But none of them had found anything.
Harry had began to think about the Restricted Section. One needed a specially signed note from one of the professors in order to look at any of the restricted books, and a first year obtaining one would never be able to get one. These were the books containing powerful Dark Magic after all.
Very quick, the holidays had started. After careful deliberation, Charles had decided on not returning home ant to remain in Hogwarts for Christmas.
After the holidays had started, Harry and Ron had been having far too much fun to even think about Nicolas Flamel. Charles would work on his research as per usual and lived within the Room of Requirement more than even before the holidays.
Ron had also started teaching Harry wizard chess. Aside from the fact that the pieces were alive, wizard chess was exactly the same as Muggle chess. Using live chess pieces, it was almost like directing troops in battle. Ron’s set had been given to him by his grandfather. Old and battered, it was just like everything else he owned. But these chess pieces weren’t a drawback, Ron knew them so well that he never had any trouble getting them, them to do as he wanted.
Harry’s set had been lent to him by Seamus Finnigan, but they didn’t trust him at all. He wasn’t a chess master just yet, but the chess pieces had shouted contrasting advice to him, “Don’t send me there, can’t you see his knight? Send him, we can afford to lose him.”
As for Charles, Ron had always said he was only interested in magic.
On Christmas Eve, Charles continued to busy himself in his laboratory until the next morning. With the Energy Ring, he had been able to sleep for just two hours for the maximum benefit. After getting up from his bed, he moved to his dormitory. But when he got there, his eyes spotted a small pile of presents at the foot of his bed.
“Oh, it’s Christmas!” Charles slapped his head in realization. As an easterner in his past life, he looked forward to the Spring Festival and completely ignored Christmas. Thus so when he came into this life, his feelings had carried over. Whenever it came for the time to give presents out, his parents had always needed to remind him.
Not giving presents on Christmas was very rude. Like locking the gates after the sheep had ran out, Charles would quickly using the potions and books he had to create some sort of magical item in large amounts so that he wouldn’t be completely lacking presents.
He had given David a necktie that would increase his charisma when worn. To Anna, he had given the best magical cosmetic makeup he had ever made. Hermione was given several of his notes on primary magical research and how to improve spells. Ron was given a pouch that could fit a cubic meter of things inside. Harry was given a wristband that could unleash two Protego charms at will. Fred and George Weasley were both given plenty of prank items. Finally, Charles had gone to the kitchens and made plenty of dimsum. Placing a Heating Charm and then putting them into a bag with an Extension Charm, he sent them to the Abbott sisters.
After finishing up his rounds, Charles finally begun to open up his own presents. David had given him a beautiful coat and cajoling him not to freeze to death. Anna had sent plenty of coffee and a note telling him to take care of his own body and to not spend everyday researching til night. Julie had sent him a book on potions while Hannah sent him plenty of candy from Honeydukes. The Weasley twins sent him some small props, and Hermione sent some sugar-free snacks. Harry had given him some candy, and Ron presented him with a book of Tales of Beedle and the Bard. This had made Charles laugh involuntarily. Cracking open the book, he began to review the story of the three brothers.
After finishing up his presents, Charles saw Harry come running on over excitedly with Ron right behind him.
“Do you know what this is?” Harry spoke in excitement, in his hands was a silvery-white cloak.
“That’s
.an Invisibility Cloak!” Charles feigned shock. With this, he could enter the Restricted Section, allowing him to laugh to himself in secret.