Forgotten Memories

Quirrell smirked at her words and Harry’s eyes widened a fraction.

“You were right all along,” He choked out as he quickly glanced at Y/N before turning his eyes back to Quirrell.

“Yes, she was quite on the nose. She’s been a rather large pain all year, always watching me with those beady eyes of hers. I just can’t seem to figure out how she knew it was me.” Quirrell snarled.

“The day we met in the Leaky Cauldron you walked away muttering something to yourself. At first, I thought you were crazy, but then I saw your turban move, and I knew I wasn’t hallucinating. You were talking to someone, I just don’t know how.” Y/N replied, a furious look on her face. He wasn’t stuttering. It was all an act to get to the stone.

“You’re too observant for your own good,” Quirrell growled, enraged at the thought he was caught so early on.

“I—I thought it was Snape.” Harry heaved, trying to collect his thoughts.

Quirrell laughed at that, “Hah! Severus? Hm, he does seem the type, doesn’t he? Always skulking about and appearing out of thin air, is quite useful in that sense. Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor s-stuttering P-professor Quirrell?”

Harry’s brows furrowed and he looked between Quirrell and Y/N. It couldn’t be true, Quirrel couldn’t have been the one after the stone all along, he just couldn’t have.

“But Snape, he tried to kill me!”

“No, you foolish boy, it was I who tried to kill you! And I would have succeeded had Miss Granger not set fire to Snape’s robes and foiled my plans. When Snape rushed to put the fire out in his robes he knocked me over and made me break eye contact. Had she not, I can assure you that you would not be standing here today. I’d have managed to get you off your broom sooner had Snape not been muttering his silly counter-curse to save you.”

Y/N’s eyes widened, ‘Wow, I knew Quirrell was the one making Harry’s broom go wild, but I didn’t think that Snape was trying to save Harry from Quirrell’s curse.’

Harry seemed to have been on the same train of thought as Y/N; he gaped at Quirrel and muttered, “He was… trying to save me?”
“Of course he was.” Quirrell stated, sounding a tad annoyed, but otherwise emotionless, “There was a reason he wanted to referee at the next Gryffindor match. He shouldn’t have bothered, though. I couldn’t do anything, not with Dumbledore there watching. Everyone thought he wanted to referee to prevent Gryffindor from winning, it’s quite funny, really. He hasn’t made a good case for himself, has he? He’s quite.. Unpopular. All his efforts are going to go to waste though, as now he isn’t going to just lose the praised Harry Potter, but his favorite student, Y/N HalleWell, too!” Quirrell clapped his hands and a sadistic smile creeped its way onto his face. He was quite excited at the prospect of Snape suffering and finally ending Harry Potter and the annoying parasite that was always watching him. Just as soon as the smirk climbed onto his face, it disappeared. Quirrell snapped his fingers and ropes popped out of nowhere, wrapping themselves around Harry and Y/N tightly.

“You and HalleWell are too nosy to live, Potter. You could’ve caught me during Halloween while I was trying to see what guarded the stone, scurrying around the school when you should’ve been in your commons.”

This threw Y/N off. She hadn’t expected it to be Quirrell who let the troll in. Yet, this information made her all the angrier. That troll had caused extreme bodily harm to her, she could’ve been paralysed.

“You let the troll in?” Harry gasped.

“It was you!” Y/N was fuming as Harry glanced at her.

Quirrell smirked, he quite enjoyed the girl’s anger. “Yes, it was I.” The smug tone in his voice pissed Y/N off even more. “I have something of a gift with trolls. You could certainly tell from what I did to the troll in that chamber. While everyone else was fooled, Snape wasn’t, and he rushed to the third floor to stop me. That soddy dog couldn’t even bite his leg off properly. Now, no more questions. I need to examine this mirror, Potter.”

Y/N and Harry gave each other a look before paying closer attention to the mirror behind Quirrell. It was the Mirror of Erised.

“This mirror, it’s the key to getting the stone. I just don’t know how to…” He muttered as he tapped all around the frame and even on the mirror surface. “Leave it to Dumbledore to come up with something like this. But, he’s all the way in London,” Quirrell smirked at his handiwork in getting rid of Dumbledore, “Hah, I’ll be long gone by the time he gets back.”

Y/N was panicking. She was angry, yes, but she also felt hopeless. It was as if all her efforts didn’t mean a thing at that moment. What was it all for if she was just going to end up losing the stone in the end? Y/N zoned out, not even Harry’s voice could snap her out of it. As Harry distracted Quirrell from focusing on the mirror, she was having an internal crisis. She was rethinking the entire year, what could she have done to prevent this? Was this event even preventable? There had to be a reason this was happening to her, a decision she made, perhaps, that had upset whatever higher power there was. It couldn’t end like this. ‘It won’t.’Y/N had decided that if this was the end, she might as well have made it damn worth it. Just as Y/N had snapped out of the darkness that had consumed her, she noticed that Quirrell and Harry were talking. Quirrell was blabbing about something to his master, and then, it happened.

The ropes binding Harry and her became undone, and she scrambled to stand up. A raspy voice was coming out of Quirrell’s turban, and Y/N almost lost it. She knew there was something underneath the turban, but the voice was bone-chilling, it was the most disturbing thing Y/N had heard in all her years of living. Harry grabbed Y/N’s hand and dragged her with him towards Quirrell and the mirror. They stopped in front of the mirror. The sight Y/N saw shocked her to her core.

She finally saw herself. But, it wasn’t just herself, no. It was Riddle, Trey, and three other boys in a school uniform. Two of them were ginger, but one of them had a heart on his face and the other had a red diamond on his. The third unknown boy had blue hair and a black spade drawn on his cheek.

“Well, boy, what do you see?” Quirrell shouted.

Y/N watched as Harry gulped and looked at whatever he saw in the mirror.

“I.. see myself shaking hands with Dumbledore, Gryffindor won the House Cup because of me.” Y/N could tell he was lying. His voice was shaky, his expression full of hesitation, and a single sweat drop fell off his brow and onto his sweaty, clenched hands.

“Move.” Quirrell pushed Harry out of the way, and Y/N stumbled, as Harry had her hand held tightly in his fist. Harry started backing up, and Y/N joined him, but they hadn’t made it very far before the horrid sound reached their ears.

“He lies.” The terrible voice from the turban spoke.

“Potter! Get back here and tell the truth. What. Do. You. See!” Quirrell grabbed Harry’s ear, causing him to drop Y/N’s hand and panic.

“Stop! You’re hurting him!” Y/N shouted, but the voice interrupted her.

“Let me speak to him, face to face…”

“But master, you aren’t strong enough yet!”

“I have the strength for this.. I have enough.”

The room went silent as Quirrell slowly backed up and started unwrapping his turban. The two first-years were rooted in place, it was as if the Devil’s Snare had snuck its way down into the room and took grasp of their entire bodies, paralysing them. The turban had fallen, and Quirrell slowly turned around. The sight that had met Y/N’s eyes had ensured at least two years' worth of nightmares. It was grotesque. On the back of Quirrell’s head was a second face. It was pale, the whitest white, with red eyes and snake-like features, such as its slits for nostrils.

It whispered Harry’s name, and once again, Y/N felt hopeless. It felt like she didn’t belong there, as if this moment was meant for Harry and him only. While she would have gladly left this experience and never had to think about it again, she would feel guilty leaving Harry with all this trauma, as well as the highest chance of death he has ever had. Y/N twitched. She tried to reach her hand out to grab Harry’s, but her body wouldn’t listen to her commands. She was petrified by the red-eyed glare that was directed towards her when she dared to even blink.

“Do you see what I have become because of you?” It hissed, “What I have had to do to preserve my life? I have to leech off of another just to survive, I had to become a parasite!” Y/N blinked as she processed the snake-like face’s words. Because of Harry? The only person who would’ve suffered by Harry’s hand was…

Y/N’s breath was caught in her throat and her eyes went large as saucers. The face smirked at her reaction. “Ah, the mudblood has figured it out.” It spat out the word mudblood with distaste.

The girl furrowed her brows as it continued to monologue about how its misfortunes were Harry’s fault and how he would rise again due to Quirrell’s help.

“Now. Why don’t you hand over the stone in your pocket, Potter?”

Y/N felt like she was going crazy. Like this was a crazy nightmare and she would wake up and tell her Gryffindor friends all about this tale. But this wasn’t a nightmare, nor a dream. She would never wake up from this, because it was real. There was no escape except the real possibility of death or defeating Quirrell and… Voldemort.

Harry stumbled back as Y/N stayed rooted in place. Quirrell started walking backward to make it so Voldemort could keep talking to Harry face to face. After a quick intake of her breath, she ran to Harry and dragged him away from Quirrell.

“Don’t listen to anything he says! He’s a liar!”

“Don’t be foolish, little girl!” Voldemort yelled at her, anger bubbling up and showing on his disgusting face. “Give me the stone, less you want your mother to have died in vain!”

“NEVER!”

“SEIZE HIM!”

Thus, chaos ensued. Y/N and Harry bolted towards the flames, burns are better than dying. Quirrell’s hand closed around Harry’s wrist, and Y/N tugged on Quirrell to make him let go, but this caused him to wrap his free hand around her neck with bruising strength.

Y/N choked on her saliva as she felt her airways pulse and try to get more air. Quirrell dropped her and Harry’s wrist when he shoved Quirrell, “Let her go!” he screamed.

Y/N dropped to the ground coughing and choking as Harry and Quirrell battled, rolling on the floor while screaming at each other. Every word that was yelled between them became incomprehensible, Y/N was gasping for air as her vision started flickering. The smoke from the flames near the door combined with the sudden breath restriction did a number on her. Before she passed out she looked up and watched as Quirrell crumbled to the ground in ashes, a black vapor in the shape of Voldemort’s face screaming and passing through Harry’s torso. Then it all went black.

When Y/N woke up, she watched as Dumbledore walked out of the hospital wing doors smiling. She felt bandages around her neck and head. Had she hit it when Quirrell dropped her? She was so scared she hadn’t even realized, and it was probably what had caused her to pass out, other than air restriction. Y/N had spent a week or two in the hospital wing, so she could recognise it within a heartbeat. Looking around her, she noticed Harry staring at her with a worried expression.

“Are you alright? You took more damage than me.. Thank you, by the way. For going with me. I don’t know what I would have done without you there. I was so scared. I don’t think I would’ve moved to escape without the thought of you being hurt in my mind. I hate that you got hurt because of me.”

Y/N smiled at Harry’s sweet words and waved him off, “I’ll be alright, I had it worse when the troll broke my ribs.” She laughed at her joke, but Harry didn’t seem to find it funny, so she quieted down. “No, but seriously, it doesn’t matter that I got hurt. What matters is that we both made it out alive with minimal injuries.” Harry gave her a stern look but nodded at her words nonetheless.

“We were out for three days. Dumbledore got down to the chamber just in time to stop Quirrell from.. Killing me.” Harry whispered the last part, the thought of death looming over the boy’s existence sent a shiver down Y/N’s spine.

“You can’t seem to catch a break, can you?” She laughed, trying to keep the air less tense and more joking. Harry just sighed and agreed with her.

Just then, Ron and Hermione burst through the door.

 “Harry, Y/N!” Hermione yelled, she looked as if she had been crying, with her puffy eyes.

Madam Pomfrey, strict as she was, let it slide just for this moment because the two injured students had been through alot.

“Oh, we were so worried! We thought for sure something had happened!” And something did happen. But that was Harry’s story to tell, so Y/N left it up to him to tell it.

“Y’know, you guys are the talk of the school!” Ron said, “What really happened down there?”

Harry told them the whole story, from Quirrell’s two faces to Voldemort telling him about his parents’ death. Not a single detail was left out, save for what Y/N saw in the mirror. She thought that detail would be best left for her to contemplate in her own time. Preferably when she could contact Riddle again…

“So, that's it then? Flamel’s just going to die?” Ron scrunched his nose.

“That’s what I said!” Harry exclaimed, but continued, “But he just said, uh, what was it? Oh, ‘to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.’”

Ron grumbled that Dumbledore was off his rocker while Hermione slapped his shoulder. Harry then asked what happened to Ron and Hermione, but Y/N’s thoughts trailed off once again, to think about everything that had happened that year, and how it was crazy that becoming friends with Harry Potter turned her life upside down. Not that she minded, minus the injuries, it was great, and she could honestly get used to it.

At the end of the year feast, Y/N was forced to sit with her house instead of with her closest friends, so she, begrudgingly, sat down at the Ravenclaw table. She happened to sit down in front of Natalia and they shared polite smiles. They had grown apart over the course of the year. While Natalia was a sweet girl with great ambition, she just didn’t quite entertain Y/N like her Gryffindors. While Natalia has her own friends to talk to in Ravenclaw, Y/N didn’t really make any friends other than the trio that are currently sitting at Gryffindor, missing her presence. 

“Another year gone!” Dumbledore bellowed as he stepped up to the podium and the hall went silent. “I must trouble you all with an old man’s waffling before we dig into our delicious feast! It has been quite the year! Hopefully, you all learned something this year and your heads are fuller than they were when you entered Hogwarts back in September. 

You have the entire summer to empty them back out before next year starts..

“Now, understand that there are a few acknowledgments that need to be made. The House Cup still needs to be awarded, so the point standings are thus; Gryffindor in fourth place, with three hundred and twelve points, Hufflepuff in third place, with three hundred and fifty-two; Ravenclaw with four hundred and twenty-six and lastly, Slytherin in first place, with four hundred and seventy-two points.”

All of Slytherin stood up, clapping and cheering as the banners in the great hall turned green with the Slytherin logo on it.

Dumbledore cleared his voice and the hall quieted down, minus a few excited Slytherin students, “Yes, well done, Slytherin, however, given recent events, there are a few last-minute points I must dish out. Yes, let's see.” The hall had now become so silent a pen could drop and it would be heard all throughout.

“Ahem, first—to Mr. Ronald Weasley.” Y/N’s eyebrows shot up as she realized what Dumbledore was doing, the sneaky old geezer. A smirk made its way onto her face.

“For the best game of Wizard’s chess played in many years at Hogwarts, I award Gryffindor fifty points.”

The cheers of Gryffindor drowned out the calls that Dumbledore made to quiet the hall down to finish his last-minute point awards.

“Second, to Miss Hermione Granger. For the use of cool logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor House fifty points.”

Y/N glanced at where her Gryffindors were and grinned as she saw Hermione bury her face in her arms. She was beside herself with joy for her friends, they deserved the House Cup, truly. The Gryffindors' cheers drowned out her thoughts.

“Third, to Mr. Harry Potter. I award Gryffindor House sixty points for pure nerve and outstanding courage.”

That was it. Y/N thought. Gryffindor had tied with Slytherin. This couldn’t be the end though, there had to be more points, they couldn’t just end with a tie, could they?

Her question was answered seconds later as the deafening cheers of the students clad in red quieted down.

“There are many types of courage, it takes a great deal of courage to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. Therefore, I award Mr. Neville Longbottom ten points.”

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..

…

Gryffindor won the House Cup. Y/N stood up and clapped with a huge grin on her face. She didn’t care that the rest of her housemates were salty about losing and glaring at her, she was happy for her friends.

“This calls for a change in decoration, doesn’t it?” Dumbledore clapped his hands and the green banners became scarlet with gold.

Exam scores came out and, as expected, Hermione and Y/N had the best grades of the first years. While Hermione had done better on Charms, Y/N knew that she couldn't beat her perfect Potions score.

The year had gone by so fast. Suddenly her dorm room was empty, and Y/N was leaving school with more than she had arrived with. Her trunk was packed to the brim, and her extra items fit because of a temporary shrinking charm. The notes warning students not to use magic outside of school were handed out and everyone was boarding the Hogwarts Express for summer break.

Y/N and her Gryffindors were laughing in their compartment the entire way back to the station, and when they arrived, she was a little disappointed. She loved her mom, truly, but she had never fit in so perfectly anywhere, except for at Hogwarts.

“Goodbye, I’ll send you guys owls, I promise!” Y/N said through tears as she hugged her friends tightly, her cat, Kit, giving her a dirty look, as if to say, ‘pathetic’. She just laughed it off and promised Ron she would visit the Burrow over the summer with Hermione.

She waved at her friends as she walked towards her mother with a grin that could rival the Cheshire cat’s.

“How was school, N/N?” Lorely asked as she took one of Y/N’s trunks.

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..

…

….

“It was amazing. I can’t wait for next year.”