Harry Potter And The Lord Of Darkness - Chapter 30

“HOLY F.U.C.K!”

“ARTHUR DODGE!”

“WHAT ELSE WOULD I DO? SIT STILL AND LOOK PRETTY?”

“I SWEAR TO GOD THAT YOU WOULDN’T LOOK PRETTY IF YOU DECIDED TO SIT STILL!”

Arth thrusted himself to the side as a giant fireball exploded in the place where he was just at.

Before he had even landed on the floor, Arth prepared himself to roll behind a large pillar. It was a lucky thing he did as not a moment sooner, a wave of flame rushed all over him. The only reason why he was still alive was due to the pillar.

“I DONT KNOW WHAT YOU WERE THINKING HARRY BUT I SWEAR I’M GOING TO CRUCIFY YOU WITH A BIBLE AFTER ALL OF THIS IS OVER!”

“I’M SORRY OK? I REALIZED THAT I DIDN’T NECESSARILY PLAN THIS OUT!”

“YOU SON OF A BITCH DIDN’T PLAN OUT ANYTHING!”

Arth paled as the pillar he was hiding behind started to melt.

“CORVUS!”

With a pop, Corvus appeared on his shoulder with a cute peep.

“TAKE ME OUT!”

Pee-PEEP!

Corvus glanced around and must’ve realized that Arth was about to become a very unappetizing piece of BBQ as the very next thing that happened was Corvus teleporting away from behind the pillar, with Arth in tow.

“Get back here Mr. Kingscrown. Your lesson is still in session.”

The man waved his wand once as a thin barrier appeared, preventing Corvus and Arth from escaping.

“GOD DAMMIT! I DON’T WANT TO BE IN YOUR CLASS ANYMORE!”

“You don’t have a choice.”

If only Corvus was an a.d.u.l.t and could teleport Arth in and out of barriers as freely as teleporting solo. Then he could leave Harry here to deal with things on his own.

On the bright side, he had escaped the threat of the fire.

Looking back on how the situation escalated this far, Arth couldn’t help but give a bitter laugh.

When Harry and Arth entered the final chamber, they were met with a startling realization. A man was standing in front of a mirror while deeply frowning. However, far from what Harry has expected, it wasn’t Professor Snape, nor was it He Who Must Not Be Named. It was none other than Professor Quirrell.

“Wow, this would be an unexpected turn of events if all the readers didn’t know what happened in the original books.”

“You!” gasped Harry.

“Me,” Quirrell said calmly. “I wondered whether I’d be meeting you here, Potter.”

“But I thought — Snape –”

“Severus?” Quirrell laughed, and it wasn’t his usual quivering treble, either, but cold and sharp. “Yes, Severus does seem 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?”

“Told you it wasn’t Professor Snape.”

“But Snape tried to kill me!”

“Why the heck would a teacher try to kill you? You must be going insane?”

“No, no, no. I tried to kill you. Your friend Miss Granger accidentally knocked me over as she rushed to set fire to Snape at that Quidditch match. She broke my eye contact with you. Another few seconds and I’d have got you off that broom. I’d have managed it before then if Snape hadn’t been muttering a countercurse, trying to save you.”

“Dammit, I’m being ignored again, aren’t I?”

“Snape was trying to save me?”

“Of course,” said Quirrell coolly.

Arth sighed before taking out a small book from his pocket. “You guys call me when you two are ready to come out of your own world and listen to others around you.”

“Why do you think he wanted to referee your next match? He was trying to make sure I didn’t do it again. Funny, really… he needn’t have bothered. I couldn’t do anything with Dumbledore watching. All the other teachers thought Snape was trying to stop Gryffindor from winning, he did make himself unpopular… and what a waste of time, when after all that, I’m going to kill you tonight.”

Quirrell snapped his fingers. Ropes sprang out of thin air and wrapped themselves tightly around Harry.

“Wow, bondage play with an eleven year old. I have to say Quirrell, you have some unique tastes.”

“You’re too nosy to live, Potter. Scurrying around the school on Halloween like that, for all I knew you’d seen me coming to look at what was guarding the Stone.”

“You let the 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?”

“Now that I think about it, you kinda look like a troll too.”

“Unfortunately, while everyone else 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.”

“That would be bad indeed.”

“Now, wait quietly, Potter. I need to examine this interesting mirror.”

“Well, if you are going to ignore me, I’ll just free up Harry I guess.”

As Professor Quirrell studied the mirror intently, Arth made his way to Harry and drew his wand.

“Relashio.”

Harry let out a start. “Wha- oh, thanks Arth.”

“No problem, it’s just me. Your daily side character that seems like a fourth wheel to a trio.”

“I-I didn’t notice that you were there.”

“No biggie. I’m used to it.”

Arth gave a glance at Quirrell. “So what are we going to do about him?”

Harry frowned. “We need to stop him before he gets the stone.”

Arth shrugged. “Ok, that sounds easy. Holding back a fully fledged wizard as two first years is a easy thing to do.”

“We just need to distract him until Professor Dumbledore gets here.”

Arth sighed. “Fine.”

He picked up a rock from the floor and threw it at Quirrell who let out a yelp of pain before turning around to venomously glare at Arth and Harry.

“Why did you do that?”

Arth shrugged. “I thought you were looking for a stone?”

And that was how they were in the current situation. Quite comical really.