"Is it dead?"
"Hard to say. I didn't hold back just now. If it's not dead, it's probably brain-damaged."
"I learned the Levitation Charm!"
"Ugh~ Troll snot. Bleugh~"
A moment later, Professors McGonagall, Snape, and Quirrell rushed in. Snape shot Harry a sharp look as he entered, and only after seeing he was unharmed did he go to check on the Troll.
Professor McGonagall had never looked so furious. "What on earth do you think you're playing at!" Bing Huan hurried over to calm her down. "Come on, Professor, don't be so angry. The kids just had a quarrel, and they were worried their friend hadn't gotten the message, so they came looking for him. It's a good thing to care about your friends, isn't it?"
Professor McGonagall looked at the four of them. "I'm very glad you wouldn't abandon your friends, but when something like this happens, you should tell a teacher immediately!"
"Sorry, Professor." x3
"I'll kowtow to you!"
"Stop it! You can never be serious. I hope you really learned your lesson, because each of you is losing a point for this. But I will say that few first-years could face a Troll bravely. Five points to each of you, purely for your incredible luck."
That day, the Troll had helped the four of them become friends, at the cost of its own hide, and Gryffindor had a new record-holder for losing points.
It was the day of Harry's first Quidditch Match, and everyone chatted excitedly. Little Harry, though, didn't seem very enthusiastic. He was dissecting a sausage.
"Try to eat a little. Otherwise, you'll have low blood sugar once you're out there."
"But I'm not hungry."
"Good luck today, Potter." Snape had appeared behind Harry at some point. "If you can handle a Troll, then a little Quidditch Match should be a piece of cake for you, even if today's opponent is Slytherin."
With that, he limped away. Bing Huan took a bite of his sausage. "If he wanted to encourage you, he could've just said so. He had to make it sound so awkward."
"Bing, what did you just say?"
"Huh? Oh, I was wondering why Professor Snape was limping." Bing Huan laughed it off, smoothly changing the subject.
"So you noticed, too." Ignoring Bing Huan's puzzled expression, Harry continued his deductions. "Earlier, when the professors came to the bathroom, I noticed bite marks on Snape's leg. I think Snape let the Troll in as a distraction. That way, he'd have a chance to get past the Three-Headed Dog and through that door."
Bing Huan hadn't expected that his offhand remark would land Snape with such a huge share of the blame. He couldn't help explaining, "Snape is a famous Potions Master in the Wizarding World. He can buy anything he wants. Why would he need to steal it?"
That remark suddenly made everything click for Harry. "Now it all makes sense. Snape's a Potions Master, so whatever he's after must be something extraordinary.
"The day Hagrid took me shopping, he also retrieved something from a Gringotts vault. He said it concerned Hogwarts and was confidential. So the Three-Headed Dog must be guarding that thing, and Snape wants to get it."
"...Is that really how it all fits together?"
Now that Harry thought he'd uncovered the truth, his appetite improved considerably. And his reasoning was airtight; for a moment, Bing Huan couldn't find a flaw in it.
Sorry, Professor Snape. There was no way to explain the truth just yet, so Bing Huan could only apologize silently.
Harry got ready to play, while the other three followed the team up to the stands. Soon, the Gryffindor and Slytherin teams came out on their brooms. "The other team looks really fierce. We should make sure we look fierce, too," Ron fretted.
"Look fierce?" Bing Huan thought for a moment, then shouted to Wood and the others, "Take Slytherin down! I'll cook tonight!"
Slytherin players: ?
Gryffindor players: !
Marcus, Slytherin's captain, looked across at them again and paused. Gryffindor's players were different now. They looked like a pack of beasts.
The match began. Angelina and Katie worked together flawlessly, and Gryffindor scored three goals in a row. It looked like Wood's extra training had paid off. Their teamwork and speed had both improved a lot since last term.
But soon, Slytherin started focusing on knocking Gryffindor's players out of the game. Several players were already injured and forced off after a series of attacks. Then, to make matters worse, Harry's broom seemed to malfunction. It swerved left and right, darting through the air and jerking violently every so often.
"Someone's jinxing Harry's broom!"
"What?!" Hermione quickly grabbed the binoculars and began scanning the crowd. Before long, she spotted Snape staring intently at Harry, silently muttering something. "It's Snape! He's up to something!"
Bing Huan looked in the same direction. Snape was indeed muttering a spell, but he couldn't be trying to hurt Harry. Besides, the malice was coming from behind Snape. Bing Huan hopped up and spotted a familiar purple turban. "Quirrell's chanting, too."
But Harry was in more danger by the second, and Hermione made a snap decision. "There's no time to figure it out. You stop Quirrell, and I'll stop Snape. We'll sneak over."
"Okay."
They made their way to the supports underneath the seats in the stands. Hermione pulled out her wand and sent a small Incendio at the hem of Snape's robes. Bing Huan braced both hands beneath Quirrell's seat and shoved as hard as he could!
"Rise from your grave!" He flipped Quirrell right over. Freed from the jinx, Harry quickly regained control and caught the Golden Snitch before Slytherin's Seeker could get to it.
"Snape was jinxing you. That can't be right." After the match, the four of them went to Hagrid's hut, where Hagrid dismissed Harry's theory outright. "There's no reason for it, Harry."
"I found out some things about him," Harry told Hagrid. "On Halloween, he tried to get past the Three-Headed Dog and steal whatever it was guarding."
"Snape's a teacher at Hogwarts. He'd never do anything like that," Hagrid said.
"Then why was he trying to kill Harry?" Ron shouted.
"But I have to say, Harry, if Snape really wanted to hurt you, you wouldn't have lasted until Hermione and I came to save you. Among the professors at Hogwarts, he'd rank in the top five, and he might not even be fifth.
"Besides, he wasn't the only one casting a spell. Quirrell was chanting behind him, too. Hermione must have seen it. And Quirrell felt very different at the time..."
"Very different from usual. He felt cold and menacing," Hermione added, picking up where Bing Huan left off.
Hagrid assured them again. "I don't know why Harry's broom acted that way. But Snape would never try to kill a student.
"Now, all four of you listen to me. Forget that big dog. Forget what it's guarding. It's something between Professor Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel..."
"Nicolas Flamel?"
Bing Huan said, "So you really were raised on Truth Serum, Hagrid."
Hagrid: "..."
Before long, it was mid-December. They'd spent all that time in the library searching for clues about Nicolas Flamel. Since Harry had defended Snape earlier, he'd even asked Hermione to keep Bing Huan from finding out for now.
Soon, the Christmas holidays arrived. Hermione and Bing Huan sat together on the Hogwarts Express. Bing Huan glared at her while she looked down, fiddling with her fingers. "So, can you tell me now? Why have you been avoiding me all this time? And those two stinkers, too."
"D-did I?" Hermione said with an awkward laugh.
Bing Huan leaned closer. "I've spent less than a quarter as much time with you this past month as those two have. Did I do something to upset Miss Granger?"
"Ah~ um~ fine, but you can't tell Harry I told you, okay? We've been looking for information about Nicolas Flamel. Don't be mad~"
"Nicolas Flamel? The alchemy master?"
"You know him?"
"I studied alchemy with him for a while. And there's information about him in that huge miscellany you borrowed before."
"Huh?" The young witch froze. She and those two idiots had spent day and night poring over books, only to find out that the answer had been right beside her all along—and that Bing Huan could even explain it to her aloud.
After they got off the train, they chatted as they walked. "Bing, where are you going now?"
Bing Huan froze at the question. "Oh! I was so busy asking you questions that I just got on the train without thinking. I forgot China doesn't celebrate Christmas. I came all this way for nothing."
"Why don't you spend Christmas at my house, then?"
"I-I don't know. Wouldn't I be imposing?" For some reason, Bing Huan felt a little nervous. Hermione simply grabbed his hand and ran him over to her parents.
The Granger Couple recognized the child who'd saved their daughter before, so naturally they didn't object. But after they got in the car, Mr. Granger kept giving Bing Huan an appraising look. Bing Huan sat ramrod straight the whole way. He'd never been this proper, not even in front of Professor McGonagall.
When they arrived at Hermione's house, she took him to her room and started writing letters to Harry and Ron. But Bing Huan stopped her from mentioning Nicolas Flamel.
"Those two made me feel left out for so long. We'll tell them after the holidays." With Bing Huan stubbornly digging in his heels, Hermione had no choice but to let Harry and Ron spend a few more days searching through books.
Before you continue