31st October, 1991

The day passed uneventfully.

We were at dinner - which, incidentally was delicious - when Professor Quirrell ran into the centre of the Great Hall. He turned to Dumbledore.

"TROLL! Troll, in the dungeons... thought you ought to know." He sank to the floor in dead faint.

Immediately, Blaise turned to me with a look of terror on his face.

"Jade, trolls are really dangerous!" he exclaimed.

"Like I didn't figure that out already. I may have lived with Muggles all my life, but I can still work out that when a teacher faints, it must be bad," I replied sarcastically.

Dumbledore stood up, telling us not to panic. He then told us to go back to our Common Rooms, with our Prefects.

"Uh, Blaise?" I asked, blushing. He nodded. "I kinda, er, need the, um, bathroom. I'll be back!" I called, running out of the Hall.

Embarrassing, right?

So I went off to the girls' bathroom, but when I went in, I heard a girl crying.

"Who's there?" I asked cautiously.

"I-it's just m-me," sniffed the girl. She sounded suspiciously like the bushy-haired girl I had seen at the Sorting.

"Hermione? Hermione Granger?"

"Yes, who are you?" she replied.

"Jade Edwards. Come on, there's a troll, you need to go back to your Common Room," I told her.

She came out of the cubicle with her face all red.

"A troll? Where?"

"Dungeons. Come on!"

But before I could take a step, I heard the bathroom door slam suddenly and then a click as if it had been locked.

I turned to Hermione. "Uh-oh."

And then, naturally, the troll came around the corner.

Hermione and I screamed.

It may seem weak, but next time you're stuck in a bathroom with a troll, think about whether you want to scream.

"Hermione!" two voices shouted.

Well then. Just forget about me and leave me here to die, why don't you?

I figured these two had gotten us locked in here.

Back to the troll - it was now advancing on Hermione.

The door creaked open and a couple of Gryffindor first-year boys ran in.

Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley - typical.

They ignored me - most likely didn't even know I was there - and ran straight over to Hermione.

And the troll.

Slow clap, boys.

 The troll turned around to face them, so they started yelling at it.

I was certain this was a bad idea, but equally certain that I had no idea how to help them.

I decided that getting a teacher was the best course of action.

I thought to myself that Professor McGonagall was the best teacher to get.

“Er…I’ll go get McGonagall, shall I?” I asked the room. Hermione nodded from her hiding place under a sink. The boys still didn’t notice me.

I shrugged and ran out, shutting the door behind me so the troll didn’t escape.

When I had almost reached McGonagall’s office, Peeves, who was nearby, threw a rubbish bin at me, which I ducked, then entered her office.

When Professor McGonagall saw me, she looked extremely angry. “What are you doing here?” You should be in the Slytherin Common Room or in your dormitory!”

I explained what had happened and she said, “Okay, thankyou for telling me of these events. 10 points to Slytherin, but you had best be going back to your Common Room now.”

I nodded and left to go back to the Common Room. On the way, however, I was intercepted by none other than Professor Snape. What does he want now, I wondered.

“Jade! Just the person I was looking for! Come with me to my office, please!”

I followed him.

When I entered, I shut the door behind me and turned to face my Potions teacher.

“I trust you have read the article in the Daily Prophet?” he asked. I nodded. “Can you tell me what object it was that was almost stolen?”

I had no idea. So I did what I would normally do in a situation like this – I guessed.

“Okay. So I’m guessing it’s something relating to Nicolas Flamel, since you asked me about him at our last meeting. And the most important object relating to Nicolas Flamel is the Philosopher’s Stone – wait, you don’t mean to say that that object nearly stolen from Gringotts is the Philosopher’s Stone?”

He just smiled.

I’d do that too, if it were me. I bet he’s not allowed to tell me any of this, I thought.

“And another thing,” Professor Snape added, “The day it was almost stolen was the day it was moved. Moved to the only place that could even dream of rivalling Hogwarts in security. Hogwarts.

‘But now one of the teachers is trying to take it for his own. This teacher, I am certain, is the man you saw me talking to on the 1st of September.”

He was smiling a little as he spoke and I knew he was secretly laughing at my shock.

Because, of course, the teacher trying to steal the Philosopher’s Stone was the small, stuttering, scared man wearing a turban.

Professor Quirrell.

“But – surely – you don’t – you can’t mean – Professor Quirrell?”

“Yes. I believe that that troll was Quirrell’s idea of a diversion. Tonight, he will try to take the Stone. However, I have reason to believe that he does not have all the information he requires, so we should go to head him off,” he explained.

“Okay, so I should probably go now, then, so you can prepare, right? Hang on a second – we should go? I’m going too?”

He nodded. “Why else would I have told you to come to my office?”

“Oh, right,” I realised.

“Yes. Now, do try to remember, this may be quite dangerous.”

He motioned for me to follow him. We were walking along the third-floor corridor. Professor Snape stopped outside the door and I suddenly realised where we were.

“Sir, we shouldn’t be here! This is the forbidden corridor!” I exclaimed.

Calmly, he replied, “I know. And this is why it’s forbidden.”

He opened the door. “Don’t scream.”

Well, that sounds ominous, I thought.

But there was definitely good reason for the order.

Once he had locked the door behind us, we turned around and I instantly clapped a hand to my mouth.

A huge three-headed dog – exactly like Cerberus from the Greek myths – was growling at us.

“See that trapdoor?” Professor Snape indicated a trapdoor, further back, which the dog was standing on.

I took my hand from my mouth.

“Is that where the Stone is?” I enquired, keeping my voice low.

“Indirectly. Through there are obstacles made by ProfessorsSprout, Flitwick, McGonagall, Quirrell, myself and Dumbledore. But first, we have to get past Hagrid’s blasted dog.”

By this point, ‘Hagrid’s blasted dog’ was directly above the teacher.

“Run, sir!” I yelled. He looked up and his puzzlement turned to shock and terror.

He ran.

Well, he tried, anyway. Tried, and failed.

The three-headed dog picked him up by one of his legs and shook him around like a chew toy.

I couldn’t move. I was frozen in horror.

Then the dog dropped him and I could see the full extent of the damage it had done. Professor Snape’s leg had a huge gash in it and was bleeding profusely. He limped weakly over to me. “Jade, you have to get out of here. Take this and leave. I’ll wait just outside for Quirrell.”

We went into the corridor and then he gave me a shimmery cloak. “What is this?” I asked.

“Invisibility Cloak. Go on, put it on, we don’t have all night!” Professor Snape said briskly.

I put it on and the looked down at my hands.

Or, at least, I tried to.

Unfortunately for me, they weren’t there.

“Professor! I’m – I’m – I’m not here! Where am I?” I asked in horror.

He laughed. “You’re invisible, silly,” he explained, smiling at a spot about two feet to the left of my head.

“Oh.”

“You’d better go back to the Common Room or your dormitory, Jade.”

But before I left, I had a question to ask him. “Sir, why do you act like you know me? And I feel like I’ve seen you before, too.”

He sighed. “I knew your parents long before you came here.”

“Who are they? I know my father is Leroy Edwards, but I don’t have a clue who my mother is.”

“Who told you Leroy’s name?” he asked sharply.

I wondered why he seemed so tense all of a sudden.

“Maria. The head of the orphanage where I lived before coming here. But who’s my mother?”

“I cannot tell you. I was sworn to secrecy by your parents,” he said, but he avoided my eyes.

“But sir…” I complained.

He shook his head firmly. “No. I have made a promise, and I will keep it. Off you go, back to the Common Room, Jade!”

“Can’t you at least tell me where they are?”

“Oh, Jade, I’m so sorry…both your mother and Leroy Edwards are dead.”

My eyes filled with tears as I turned away and walked off towards the Common Room.

“Jade? Are you still there?” I paused, not making a sound. “Oh, Lily, I’m so sorry…”

Who was Lily?I asked myself. Presumably not my owl.

I was determined to find out.