29th May, 1992

I woke up with both a sense of happiness and a sense of dread.

It was drawing closer to the end of the school year, which meant soon I would have to return to the orphanage, but it also meant that soon Slytherin would become the official winners of the House Cup.

I was also still waiting to hear from my father, meaning that Quirrell would try to get the Stone either today, tomorrow or the very last day.

Today was the last day of tests for me, so as soon as they were over I could relax.

When I finished my final exam, Potions, I watched the Headmaster and a few teachers, including my father, return their tables to the usual position.

A while later, the Great Hall was filled with people. I knew that Blaise and Anja were back in the Common Room, but I preferred to stay in the Great Hall.

So instead I searched for any of my friends in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw.

Finding none, I was about to turn and leave the Great Hall when something made me look back at the Gryffindor table again.

And there he was.

Alex Johnson, standing there, talking to a third – year girl who I recognised as being a Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

I had no clue as to why he would be talking to her, though. I decided to go and see.

When I got there, I tapped him on the shoulder and he spun around. “Alex Martin Johnson, what in the name of Merlin do you think you’re doing?”

Alex grinned and motioned to the girl. “Jade Evans. Do you know who this is?”

I thought for a moment. “Is it…uh…Angelina?”

She nodded, smiling. “Angelina Johnson, yes.”

“I see,” I replied slowly. “And what does – wait, Angelina Johnson? As in Alex Johnson?” I gasped. I looked between their faces. It struck me how alike they looked. Sure, Alex had very pale skin compared to Angelina, but other than that, their faces looked very similar.

Angelina nodded. “When I was six, my parents – our parents – had a little argument with Mr Lestrange. By the way, he’s a Death Eater who is now in prison. Mr Lestrange took the four-year-old Alex and we never saw him again. We assumed he was – was, well, dead.”

She looked almost in tears and I could tell this was hard for her to talk about.

After all, it had happened when she was only six.

“Don’t worry, sis, I’m here,” Alex reassured her. She smiled up at him.

“How about we go up to the Owlery? I should send a message to Mum and Dad saying that I found you again. You can write to them too, Alex,” she suggested. “I hope you don’t mind, Jade.”

I shook my head. “No, no, it’s fine.”

Alex had gone very silent while we were talking. “Are you alright, Alex?” I asked him.

“Yeah…I guess…it’s just that I can almost remember their faces,” he said in a small voice.

Almost.

“Oh, Alex,” Angelina said sadly. “Come on, let’s go to the Owlery.”

They walked away together.

“Oh, and Angelina?” I called after her.

She turned around. “Yes?”

My face broke into a grin. “You’d better take good care of my little brother.”

She smiled at me and I felt a bond of friendship between us already, though we’d only known each other for about 5 minutes.

“Don’t worry, I will.”

I turned back to face the Great Hall and spotted my father.

I quickly glanced around…no Professor Quirrell.

That was bad.

I walked over to my father. “Sir, it’s nearly the end of term. Quirrell still hasn’t tried to get the Stone again, I assume? But he isn’t here. He might be going to get it now, as we speak!”

He glanced around. “Good thinking. We need to find him. I’ll search the top four floors, you search the bottom three. If you find him, Disarm him – I know you can do that, I watched you duel with Potter – and bring him to me. Understood?” I nodded. “Let’s go, then.”

I walked out of the Great Hall and straight down the first floor corridor, looking into each room as I went. Some rooms had people in them, mostly clubs and small groups saying goodbye and ending their meetings, but most were empty.

After I had looked around the whole first floor, finding nothing, I moved onto the second floor.

I had just finished searching the second floor. I was about to go up the staircase when I saw a flash of purple halfway up the stairs.

None of the students were allowed to wear purple, since it wasn’t a school colour, so it must have been a teacher.

And there were only two teaches who wore purple; Professor Dumbledore and Professor Quirrell.

And I had a hunch it was Quirrell.

I followed the purple up to the third floor.

Instinctively, I knew Quirrell would be heading towards the forbidden section, so I went that way. I rounded a corner and there he was, Professor Quirrell, hurrying along the corridor.

Heading towards the Philosopher’s Stone.

I had to stop him before he got there. “Excuse me, Professor Quirrell?” I called in a high-pitched, quavering voice and running up to him.

He turned around angrily, though trying to hide his annoyance.

“D-d-do I know you? Oh, you’re a S-S-S-Slytherin first-year, aren’t you?”

I nodded. “Is this about your exams?”

It sounded like a good cover, so I quickly recalled one of the questions from the test.

“Yes, Professor, I’m really worried about question 12! I think I accidentally said that there were four types of Dark spells; Jinxes, Hexes, Curses and Counter-Curses. But it was only meant to be the first three, wasn’t it? But could you please show me how to use the Disarming Charm?”

He considered for a moment or two. The he took out his wand. “Alright, yes. The spell is ‘Expelliarmus’. Let me –”

“Can I try?” I interrupted.“Expelliarmus!” Quirrell looked surprised at my interruption and then mildly shocked as his wand flew out of his hand and into mine.

“Excellent. I think that spell was quite well done, don’t you? Now, Professor, can you come with me, please? There’s something I want to show you.”

Professor Quirrell looked extremely annoyed now. “Uh, could you maybe give me my wand back?”

“Maybe is a very unspecific word for a yes or no question, sir,” I replied. He glared at me and gave no response.

When we were almost at the staircase to the fourth floor, Peeves came zooming around the corner. bobboobbookofkokfokfogkfogkofkgofkgdsjfglklhnjkdgbljfdjsajfdaijsfdkaljslak

Oh, no, I thought in alarm. He chuckled madly when he saw us.

“What have we here? An ickle firstie and a teacher, oooh! Naughty firstie stole the teacher’s wand!” Peeves cackled.

“Peeves, you don’t understand!” I tried to explain. “Professor Quirrell is evil! Like Voldemort!”

“I hear my master’s name.”

Peeves and I both stared at Quirrell in horror.

This was worse than my father and I could ever have imagined.

Quirrell wasn’t trying to get the Philosopher’s Stone for his own immortality.

He was trying to get it for Voldemort’s.

“Uh-oh. Bad Quirrell! Bad, bad Quirrell!” Peeves sang.

And with that, the corridor fell into chaos as Peeves threw everything he could find at Quirrell.

“Peeves, I’ll get a teacher…can you keep him here, please?”

He gave no answer, so I hoped it was a yes.

“You won’t get away with this…Evans,” a voice that definitely was not Quirrell’s hissed.

I got the feeling I knew exactly whose voice it was.

I ran up the staircase to the fourth floor. As soon as I got there, I saw my father with a grim expression on his face.

“Sir, I found him! I’ve got his wand! But I found out…I found out he’s working for Voldemort!” I told him.

His expression changed to one of alarm. “Where is he, Jade?”

“Oh, downstairs. Peeves is currently attacking him. Follow me.”

My father looked somewhat bewildered, but followed.

Peeves was still pelting stuff at Quirrell, but before my father had even gotten down the stairs, Quirrell ran forward, grabbed his wand, performed the Full Body-Bind on me and ran off. Peeves flew off after him.

Right then, my father entered the corridor.

He immediately performed the counter-curse.

“Jade, what happened?” he gasped.

I explained, “…and Peeves followed him. They went that way. I think Quirrell’s going to go in and get the Stone as soon as he throws off Peeves. We’ll have to get it first!”

He nodded, then paused for a moment. “Yes, we should…but I forgot to ask, have you finished all your exams?”

“Yeah. And, sir, I’ve got the Invisibility Cloak you gave me. But how do we get past that dog?” I asked, remembering vividly what had happened last time.

“I asked the Headmaster, and in confidence he told me that one must play music in order to send it to sleep,” he explained.

Clearly, my father didn’t mind the fact that Dumbledore had told him in confidence, since here he was, telling me.

“Okay, Professor, I used to learn the pocket trumpet. I brought it to Hogwarts with me. Shall I go get it?”

My father nodded. “But hurry, we don’t have all that much time.”

I ran as fast as possible to my dormitory. Luckily, I didn’t encounter Blaise, Anja or any Slytherins I knew on the way.

I pulled it from the very bottomof my trunk.

I just had to hope that the vague noises that I would produce on it would pass for music.

Then I ran back to the third-floor corridor.

“Sir, I got it!”

“Good. Let’s go.”

Together, we ran to the door.

While my father was unlocking it, I glanced around quickly to check that no-one was coming.

W rushed through the door.

Immediately, the dog began growling threateningly at us. “Start playing,” my father hissed.

I put the trumpet on my mouth and blew and a shrill note sounded.

I made some more shrill noises. To my surprise, the dog lay down, all six of its eyes closed and it began snoring loudly.

I walked calmly over to the trapdoor and pulled it open.

There was a pitch black, empty space.

“Wonderful,” I declared sarcastically, “just wonderful. I have to jump into a completely black space.”

Just then, the dog stirred, so I quickly returned to playing shrill notes and the dog settled down again.

“I know it isn’t exactly the most ideal of circumstances, but look on the bright side. You’re helping to save the wizarding world and possibly defeat the Dark Lord too, if necessary,” he replied coolly, smiling faintly. “I shall go first, then call up to you when you can follow me.”

I nodded and he jumped in.

“Of course…I had forgotten this was first…Pomona’s Devil’s Snare…Incendio! Jade, you can come down now,” he called.

I quickly put down the trumpet and then cautiously jumped into the space.

I landed on some sort of plant. It was sort of cushiony, but then I realised what this was.

It was Devil’s Snare.

I had to burn it. “Incendio!” I whispered, and a small flame appeared at the tip of my wand.

The vines retreated and I walked over to join my father. “One obstacle down, six to go.”

Together, we walked into the next room. It was filled with shiny, metallic, winged objects flying above our heads.

Keys.

Broomsticks were at the side of the room.

I ran to the other side of the room, and the keys didn’t attack me. I realised one of them – and only one – would open the door.

“So, Professor, we have to catch the key that fits the door, right?”

He nodded. “Yes. We’ll have to work together, but neither of us should have all that much problem. After all, Beaters like you have to be fast, and Seekers like me have to be equally fast, if not faster.”

I gaped at him. “You’re a Seeker? We should have no problem at all!”

He smiled ruefully. “I haven’t really played Quidditch since my school years, so I’m not exactly a very good Seeker anymore. But I can try.”

 I walked over to the lock and inspected it carefully, trying to work out as much about the key from the appearance of the lock as I could.

“Okay…umm…the lock is silver, so the key will probably be too…and it’ll be old-looking…and large.” I looked up to see just the key I wanted to find. “There!”

Grabbing a broom, I kept a close watch on the key as I did so. I flew up to take it, but it immediately flew off. I chased it around the room several times before I trapped it in a corner and squashed it onto the wall.

I then landed, fitted the key into the lock and my father followed me into the next room.

Three to go.

The next one was wizard chess. We were playing as black and we had to take the position of chess pieces.

I decided to direct our pieces, after a brief discussion with my father.

I took the place of a rook and my father a knight.

Then we began to play. I ordered our pieces around the board.

I was reminded of when I used to play chess against Theo. He would always win, but at least I gained some experience.

Our first piece was taken not long into the game. The white piece smashed into bits and tossed it off the board.

I was extremely glad that wasn’t me.

We took more white pieces than they took black.

But finally, we came to a point where I didn’t know what move to make.

My father sensed my indecision and examined the board.

“Jade, if that bishop takes me, it leaves you free to checkmate the king, doesn’t it?”

I looked. “Yeah, it does. But, Professor, you can’t –”

“Queen’s Knight to E5,” he instructed, then looked over to me. “Jade, Stupefy is a very useful spell.”

“What?” I asked.

But he didn’t get a chance to respond.

The bishop sped towards him and knocked him straight off the board.

He fell unconscious immediately.

“Sir!” I cried out, but didn’t move from my square.

It was now black’s turn. I tentatively stepped into the square I needed to be in to checkmate the king.

“Checkma –”

Before I could finish the word, the king took off his crown and threw it at my feet.

I ran straight to my father. “Professor, are you alright?”

It was a stupid question, of course he wasn’t alright.

He’d just been knocked unconscious by a chess piece.

Naturally, he gave no response.

I tried to cover him as best as I could without hurting him. If Quirrell came by, he wouldn’t exactly show mercy.

I went back around the chessboard and through the door.

And saw a familiar sight.

A troll. It turned towards me and I remembered what my father had told me. ‘Stupefy is a very useful spell.’

“Stupefy!” I shouted, hoping that it worked.

It hit the troll on its face and it stumbled but kept coming.

“Stupefy! Stupefy! Stupefy!” I shouted again. This time, the spells hit it directly in the forehead, between its eyes.

It fell over backwards.

I remembered a spell I had seen in a book once to bring people and creatures back to consciousness.

Pity I hadn’t remembered it earlier.

“Revivo!” I called, waving my wand at the troll. “Revivo!”

It stumbled to its feet and started towards me, but I quickly ran through the door and slammed it behind me.

That should delay Quirrell for a while, I thought with satisfaction.

There was a table in the centre of the room. It had 7 bottles in the middle, all different sizes.

There was a piece of parchment sitting on the table. As soon as I picked it up, flames sprang up at the way back and the way forward.

I read the riddle on the parchment.

“So…these are poison, those are nettle wine, that will take me back and that will take me forward,” I muttered, working it out.

I wished my father was there to tell me I was right, but I just had to hope.

I picked up the bottle and drank a small amount of its contents.

It tasted like ice.

I didn’t know if that was a good sign or not, but I walked up to the flame and stepped through it anyway.

And suddenly, I was on the other side.

I walked down the steps to the final obstacle.

It was a very large room with a mirror in the centre.

As I walked towards the mirror, I saw an inscription on it.

“Erised stra – nope, those aren’t words. Hang on, this is like a code! What if I read it backwards? ‘I show not your face but your heart’s desire.’”

I stepped in front of the mirror. I didn’t really want to see my heart’s desire, but curiosity got the better of me.

Two people appeared in the mirror behind my image. A man and a woman.

They were holding hands. The man I instantly recognised as my father, so I guessed that the woman was my mother. She looked a lot like me, except that her eyes were green. My eyes were very dark brown…my father’s eyes.

I realised that this was my heart’s desire: to see my family, all together. But it could never happen, because my mother was dead.

“Mum?” I whispered.

She nodded. “Yes, Jade.”

Her voice seemed to echo in my head.

But even as I opened my mouth to reply, the image changed.

My reflection was holding a red object in her hand, smiling at it.

The Philosopher’s Stone.

My reflection put the Stone into her pocket and I felt a sudden weight in my pocket.

Somehow, I’d managed to get it!

I heard footsteps and quickly threw the Cloak over myself. I then moved to a corner of the room, checking that the Philosopher’s Stone was still in my pocket.

Not at all to my surprise, Quirrell came down the stairs.

“And where is the Stone? This is the final obstacle…ah. The Mirror of Erised…” He frowned, looking quite disgusted.

A voice hissed, “You’ll never get it alone, Quirrell…your intentions are not what Dumbledore wants…but you can use someone else…someone else…”

If this was Voldemort, was he possessing Quirrell?

“My lord!” Quirrell spoke up suddenly. “My lord, someone comes!”

I had no idea who this was.

But I wasn’t overly shocked when Harry Potter came down the stairs.

“You!” he gasped.

Quirrell nodded. “Me.”

He then went on to explain exactly what he had done and that his intentions had been to steal the Stone all along.

Quirrell then used ropes to wrap around him – I wasn’t sure which spell it was.

But Harry appeared to be straining towards the mirror.

It looked like he recognised it.

Quirrell then returned to trying to work out how to get the Stone out of the mirror – when, in fact, it was in my pocket.

Finally, Voldemort told him to let him have a look, or something like that. So Quirrell took off his turban…and there he was.

Voldemort’s face was sticking out of the back of Quirrell’s head.

“Use the boy…use the boy…” Voldemort advised.

So the ropes binding Harry were released and he stood in front of the mirror.

I put my hand into my pocket to check that the Philosopher’s Stone was still there.

It was, just for a moment, and then it wasn’t.

I could clearly see that it was now in Harry’s pocket.

Quirrell hadn’t noticed, though. Harry told him that he’d seen himself winning the House Cup. Quirrell was extremely angry, but Voldemort told him that Quirrell was lying.

I watched at Harry refused to tell the truth and Voldemort ordered Quirrell to ‘KILL THE BOY!’

Quirrell’s arm essentially turned to dust when it touched Harry.

I frowned. What was going on?

Harry, evidently in a burst of inspiration, jumped up and grabbed Quirrell’s face. It began to dissolve, too.

But Voldemort was still screaming at him to kill Harry.

I heard a noise – it was Dumbledore! Dumbledore was coming down the stairs!

But neither Harry, Voldemort nor Quirrell noticed.

Especially not Harry. He looked as if he was about to pass out, but he kept holding onto Quirrell’s face. Quirrell kept screaming.

I got up, still invisible. “Harry! Harry!” I shouted, as he fell and hit the ground. I don’t think anyone heard me, though.

Dumbledore grabbed Harry and took him off Quirrell. Then he was gone.

Quirrell fell to the ground, his face half burnt off. He appeared to be having some kind of fit.

“Master, please!” he cried.

“You will die anyway. I have no business with dead men,” the cold, cruel voice of Lord Voldemort declared.

I felt momentarily sorry for Quirrell and I decided to do something both infinitely brave and infinitely stupid at the same time.

I took off the Invisibility Cloak and ran to Quirrell’s side. As I bent down, I glanced behind me and saw a ghost.

Voldemort.

He smirked.

“Are you a pure-blood? If so, I have an excellent offer for you – join me. You are a noble Slytherin, after all.”

I shook my head and turned back to Quirrell.

“Very well, then. Quirrell – KILL THE GIRL!”

I opened my mouth, about to tell Quirrell to ignore Voldemort’s order, but then Quirrell himself spoke.

“Master, if that is your wish, I shall carry it out, even if I die in the process. Avada Kedavra!”

I ducked – somehow – and the green light instead whizzed past me and hit Lord Voldemort’s ghost.

He was gone.

But since he wasn’t alive enough to die properly, the spell kept going.

It hit the wall and came straight back towards me.

It reached me.

The last thing I remembered thinking was, I’m not going to die, am I? I can’t die…

And then I fell into the darkness.