Harry Potter and the Great Old Ones

Chapter 77 True and False
Time flew by as Tierra and Dumbledore exchanged their questions and answers.

About forty minutes later, the teapot was empty, and only half a strawberry cake remained on the dessert shelf.

Inside the space of the Mirror of Eris, Tiera ate to her heart's content, since she didn't need to worry about gaining weight.

Finally, Tyrell saw a disheveled Harry appear at the basement entrance on the other side of the mirror.

"Yes, it's you!" Harry stared in shock at Quirrell standing in front of the Mirror of Erised. "No, no, how is this possible? How could it be you?"

"Unexpected, isn't it?" Quirrell turned around with a dark expression. "With Snape around, who would suspect... well, poor Professor Quirrell?"

Tyella could tell from Harry's face that he simply couldn't believe it.

"But, but Snape wants to kill me!"

"No, no, no, it was I who wanted to kill you. During that Quidditch match, your friend Miss Granger rushed over to cast a spell on Snape and accidentally knocked me down. She ruined my gaze on you. If I had just held on for a few more seconds, I would have thrown you off the flying broomstick. If Snape hadn't been chanting a counterspell to save your life, I would have killed you long ago."

"Snape wants to save me?" Harry couldn't believe it.

“You see, how terrible preconceived prejudices can be,” Dumbledore said to Tyella with a smile, sitting on the other side of the mirror.

Tiera didn't know how to answer, so she just shrugged.

“He’s just like James in that respect,” Dumbledore said in a low voice.

“Of course,” Quirrell said coldly from across the mirror. “Why did he referee your second match? He wanted to make sure I didn’t hurt you again. Ridiculous… He didn’t need to go to all that trouble. With Dumbledore there, I couldn’t do anything. The other teachers all thought Snape was trying to stop Gryffindor from winning, and he certainly made himself unpopular… But it’s all a waste of time. Anyway, I’m going to take you down tonight.”

Quirrell snapped his fingers. In the blink of an eye, several ropes appeared out of nowhere and bound Harry tightly.

“You’re too nosy, Potter. I can’t let you live any longer. I knew you saw me wandering around the school on Halloween night because you saw me checking out the mechanism of the Philosopher’s Stone.”

"Did you let that troll in?"

"Of course. I have a special way of dealing with trolls. You must have seen how I taught that guy in that room a lesson, right? Unfortunately, while everyone was rushing around looking for the troll, Snape, who was already suspicious of me, went straight to the fourth floor to try to stop me... Not only did my troll not kill you, but even that three-headed dog didn't bite off Snape's leg."

"Alright, just wait quietly, Potter. I need to take a good look at this interesting mirror."

It was only then that Harry noticed what was standing behind Quirrell. It was the Mirror of Erised.

“This mirror is the key to finding the Philosopher’s Stone,” Quirrell murmured, tapping along the edges of the frame. “Only Dumbledore could produce something like this, but he’s in London right now. By the time he returns, I’ll be long gone!”

The only solution Harry could think of was to keep Quirrell talking, preventing him from focusing on the Magic Mirror. "I saw you and Snape in the Forbidden Forest..."

Harry awkwardly struck up a conversation.

“That’s right,” Quirrell said lazily, turning to look behind the Magic Mirror. “He was already watching me then, wanting to know how far I’d progressed. He was suspicious of me the whole time. He tried to scare me, but he couldn’t scare me with Voldemort as my backer!” Quirrell turned back from behind the Magic Mirror, staring greedily at his reflection.

"I see the Philosopher's Stone! I'm offering it to my master, but where is it hidden?"

Harry struggled desperately to break free of the ropes binding him, but they only tightened around him. He had to stop Quirrell from focusing all his attention on the Magic Mirror.

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

“Oh, he does hate you,” Quirrell said casually. “Good heavens, of course he hates you. Didn’t you know he went to Hogwarts with your father? They were sworn enemies. But he would never have wanted you dead.”

“But a few days ago I heard you crying, and I thought Snape was threatening you…” Quirrell’s face showed a tremor of fear for the first time.

“Sometimes,” he said, “I find it difficult to obey my master’s commands. He is a great wizard, and my power is so weak.”

"You mean, it was him who was with you in the classroom at the time?" Harry asked in surprise.

“Wherever I go, he’s with me,” Quirrell said calmly. “I met him while traveling the world. I was a naive young man with a ridiculous set of ideas about good and evil. Voldemort pointed out my mistakes. There is no such thing as good or evil, only power, and those incompetent people who cannot obtain power… From then on, I served him faithfully, though I disappointed him many times. He was always very strict with me.”

Quirrell suddenly shuddered and said, “He never forgives my mistakes easily. He was very unhappy when I failed to steal the Philosopher's Stone from Gringotts. He punished me… and decided to keep a closer eye on me from then on…”

"Damn it, is the Philosopher's Stone hidden inside the mirror? Should I break the mirror?" Quirrell cursed in a low voice.

"What's going on with this mirror? What does it do? Help me, Master!" Quirrell had become somewhat deranged.

At that moment, another voice suddenly came from the small basement, a voice that seemed to come from Quirrell himself.

“Use…use that boy,” the voice said.

Harry looked around in horror.

"Potter! Come here!" Quirrell waved his hand, and the ropes binding Harry pushed Harry in front of the mirror.

At this moment, Dumbledore, who had been sitting in his chair, stood up and took out an irregular red gem from his wizard robes.

Dumbledore bent down and gently tapped the spot where Harry was standing in the mirror.

The red gem disappeared and reappeared in Harry's pocket.

Tiera frowned.

Because he discovered... that ruby... wasn't the one he'd put in Hagrid's pocket...

(End of this chapter)