The woods, the Castle rooftops, and the courtyard were all piled with layers of snow. The Black Lake had frozen smooth and slick. Outside, goose-feather snowflakes drifted down in flurries.
Hermione and Loren sat beside a window in the common room, each holding a thick book.
Whenever Harry and the others saw them like that, they detoured around them. Thick books were terrifying.
Loren was reading the last book on Snape's list. According to Snape, once Loren finished those books, he would have barely made an introduction to Potions.
Snape had not asked Loren to collect snake venom for quite some time. Work had become much easier lately, and Loren guessed the snakes had all gone into hibernation.
There were twenty-five books on the list in total. Loren had thought he would not finish them until before Christmas, but after obtaining Fantasy Book, he could always spare some time to read between Flamel's lessons, greatly speeding up his progress.
Hermione had already found information on Mr. Nicolas Flamel and learned about the Sorcerer's Stone.
She read this passage aloud to Loren:
Ancient Alchemy involves the creation of the Sorcerer's Stone, a magical substance with astonishing powers. The Sorcerer's Stone can turn any metal into pure gold, and it can also produce the Elixir of Life, which grants eternal life to anyone who drinks it.
There have been many reports of the Sorcerer's Stone over the centuries, but the only one known to still exist belongs to the famous alchemist and opera enthusiast, Mr. Nicolas Flamel. He celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday last year and now lives in seclusion in Devon with his wife, Perenelle, who is six hundred and fifty-eight.
Everything Loren knew about Nicolas came from Nicolas's autobiography in A General Solution to Hieroglyphs. He had never