"Albus, something very strange just happened."
In Dumbledore's office, having just seen Moody and the others off, Dumbledore hadn't even gotten back to bed before there was a knock at the door — Severus Snape, in the middle of the night.
"While you and Moody were attacking our dear Professor Quirrell, I noticed Harry was in excruciating pain…"
Snape gave a brief rundown of what had just happened.
"I suspect that your assault on the Dark Lord was so intense that it triggered some unknown curse on Harry — the other side was trying to use it to resurrect himself."
"Was that it? I see…"
Dumbledore seemed to want to say more but held back whatever guess he had.
"I'll need more evidence to be sure. You've done great work tonight, Severus — now get some rest."
"Mmm…"
In Ravenclaw Tower, Andrew was, as usual, the first to wake up. Careful not to disturb anyone else, he stretched wide.
He tiptoed through his morning wash, slipped out the door, and headed outside the castle — Hogwarts had more rainy days than he'd expected; good weather like this was rare.
'If only the stairs weren't so annoying. The Ravenclaw common room is just too high up…'
After a quick warmup, Andrew happily started his usual run around the Black Lake.
"Morning!"
"Morning!"
…
There were actually quite a few students at Hogwarts who liked to run — over time, he'd become familiar with a few regulars. Just not many first-years; they liked to sleep in more.
"Morning."
Another familiar face — Andrew greeted him cheerfully. But to his surprise, this older student didn't just return a simple "Morning"; he slowed down, almost to a brisk walk, with an eager expression.
"Morning! Hey, did you hear what happened last night?"
"What, huff — what happened?"
Andrew slowed his pace too. He'd only done half his planned run, but now wasn't the time to ditch the conversation.
"Strange — don't you first-years sneak out at night?"
The other boy shot back but didn't wait for an answer.
"There was a fight in the castle last night."
"A fight?"
Andrew's mouth fell open.
"Yeah. We had a guy in our dorm who didn't come back —"
Andrew glanced at the student's casual clothes, but couldn't place his House.
"Around three or four in the morning, he heard sounds of fighting up on the third floor."
"The third floor? That corridor?"
Andrew asked back — he still remembered that Dumbledore had explicitly forbidden students from going near there at the start of term.
"No, more off to the side. Sounded like the Defense Against the Dark Arts office. But he didn't dare peek. When I saw him this morning, he looked so shaken I couldn't bring myself to ask more."
Clearly, this guy wasn't from Gryffindor.
"So I asked the portraits this morning. Thought if something was really off, I'd tell a professor. But they just yawned at me and said they couldn't tell me anything — strictly confidential."
The tall, flaxen-haired boy spread his hands.
"I figured you first-years who love sneaking around at night would know something."
"Do I look like I'd go sneaking around if I'm out here running at sunrise?"
"Ah, that's true — guess I sounded pretty dumb…"
He grinned and introduced himself.
"Hufflepuff, sixth year. Sher Beard."
"Ravenclaw, first year. Andrew Taylor."
"Well, see you. Looks like we're not learning what really happened before breakfast."
Sher gave a friendly wave, picked up his pace, and soon pulled ahead — that was the height advantage for you.
"Cold-blooded gossip hunter," Andrew muttered with a laugh. He reset his pace and left the juicy rumor for the breakfast table, focusing on finishing his run.
No surprise — sticking to his run was the right choice. By breakfast, the rumors were everywhere: a fight had broken out in the castle, Professor Quirrell had vanished, Snape had taken petty revenge by blocking Gryffindor's common room all night and docking thirty points, then left Harry lying outside his office door like trash…
'Never mind the rest — why the hell did Snape leave Harry lying on his office floor?'
Andrew was baffled. But the Gryffindors were adamant it was to publicly humiliate Harry — that if his dormmates hadn't had the guts to fetch Professor McGonagall, poor Harry might have spent the whole night on the cold stone floor.
'Too many rumors — the truth is buried…'
After listening for a while, Andrew gave up trying to figure out the details.
What he could confirm was: Professor Quirrell had vanished, his office was supposedly a wreck still not fixed up by morning, and something unexpected had happened to Harry…
'They really move fast… but after the fight, will things keep playing out the way I know them?'
Though he wished Dumbledore could have destroyed Mr. Noseless on the spot, his growing understanding of magic told him that was impossible. With the extreme protections of dark magic, Voldemort would only get weaker, not die outright — not when the castle alone held two Horcruxes. How do you kill him without destroying those?
'If only I could reveal every Horcrux's location at once — let Dumbledore handle it all. But I can't.'
Andrew shook his head. Harry being the final Horcrux made that impossible.
He wasn't sure how Dumbledore would react if he said that out loud — he hadn't been in the wizarding world long enough to trust him completely.
And Snape's personality made him doubt what he'd heard, too. The damned speedrun narrator had claimed Snape was mild-mannered, well-liked, and the ideal "love interest." Andrew's dormmates had laughed themselves sick at that one.
Sometimes he seriously wanted to drag that narrator here to take a real Potions class — see firsthand how that "good-natured" professor taught, how "well-liked" he was, and how that greasy hair everyone mocked looked up close!
"Unless Voldemort reappears again as a shadow, I'm not saying a word. Not until I can master ancient magic and protect Harry's soul…"
If he couldn't say it all, he wouldn't say anything — better than tipping their hand too early. He admitted it was a bit twisted, but putting Harry's life on the scale like this left him no other choice.
He couldn't just lie to himself and say everything would be fine because Harry was the "Chosen One."
'Anyway, Noseless leaving makes the school a lot safer.'
He shook his head and began planning his next study schedule — now that he didn't have to worry about Harry falling off his broom midair, he could finally relax.
T/N: For twenty chapters ahead on all my fics become a P@tron at [email protected]/LordHipposApostle