Not Quirrell?
Tris was dumbfounded.
He clearly remembered Harry looking shocked in the film when he discovered that the man standing before the Mirror of Erised was Quirrell. Then the two had launched into a classic exchange in which the villain talked too much.
Quirrell had explicitly said that he was the one chanting a curse to kill Harry during this match, while Snape had been chanting a counter-curse to protect him.
But now Quirrell wasn't chanting. What about Snape?
Tris looked at Snape and saw him scanning his surroundings, his ink-black eyes darting back and forth.
Clearly, he had already noticed the problem and was searching for whoever was casting the spell.
At that moment, Tris suddenly realized something he had never noticed before.
Even Hermione knew that someone casting a curse had to stare at the target and chant rapidly. As an experienced Dark wizard capable of inventing his own Dark Magic, Snape couldn't possibly be ignorant of that.
Naturally, he also knew that the caster had to keep their eyes fixed on the target.
And Snape had already begun suspecting Quirrell around Halloween. Seeing someone curse Harry now, his first suspect would naturally be Quirrell, who was sitting right beside him.
He might even have come to the general stands rather than the Slytherin stands, despite being the Head of Slytherin, specifically to keep an eye on Quirrell.
In that case, shouldn't he have checked Quirrell first?
Just as he was doing now. As Snape looked around, his eyes flicked toward Quirrell more than once. If Quirrell showed any sign of chanting, Snape would probably fire off Sectumsempra the very next instant.
But he didn't.
Quirrell looked surprised and bewildered, with even a hint of nervousness and timidity. Although his eyes were indeed fixed on Harry in the air, his lips showed no sign of chanting.
Even a highly skilled Dark wizard couldn't use a Nonverbal Spell to curse an Advanced Magical Device like a Flying Broomstick.
As an expert in Dark Magic, Snape knew that perfectly well. Quirrell wasn't chanting, so it wasn't him?
But who else could it be?
Snape began rapidly scanning the other stands.
Without the Telescope, however, he simply couldn't make out what was happening in the stands across the enormous pitch.
Just then, Snape turned his head and seemed to say something.
Tris followed his gaze with his binoculars and discovered that Sirius had stood up and appeared to be arguing with him.
As a talented young wizard who had once fought Voldemort on the front lines and survived, and who came from the Black Family with its long magical heritage, Sirius couldn't have been far behind Snape in those days, even if he hadn't quite matched him.
Ten years locked in Azkaban had left him little opportunity to improve, so a gap had surely opened between him and Snape by now. But his judgment remained sharp, and he, too, had immediately noticed that something was wrong with Harry's broom.
However, just as Snape's first suspect had been Quirrell, Sirius's first suspect was Snape...
The two seemed to have started trading insults. Sure enough, Lupin was trying to hold them back.
Tris nearly laughed aloud.
It wasn't that he was so heartless he could laugh while his good friend was up in the air riding a Flying Broomstick like a bucking bull. It was just genuinely funny to see three grown wizards in their thirties arguing like children and looking ready to start a fight.
Still...
Tris glanced at Quirrell again. He was still staring intently at Harry, but his mouth remained motionless.
So that's how it is.
Having worked out what was going on, Tris muttered to himself.
With a deeply suspicious Snape sitting right beside him, Quirrell obviously couldn't chant openly. Snape would notice in an instant.
But he didn't actually need to do the chanting himself. All he had to do was provide the line of sight. Voldemort, who was sharing his body, could handle the chanting.
Although Voldemort had been reduced to something less substantial than a shadow, his abilities still seemed rather impressive.
Not only had he invaded Tris's mental world earlier, but now he could cast curses as well. If Tris hadn't been paying extra attention and noticed that everyone around Quirrell was watching Snape and Sirius argue while Quirrell alone kept his eyes fixed on Harry, he might never have caught on.
And even if someone noticed, Quirrell had a ready excuse.
You're busy arguing, but isn't a student more important? I'm a professor. Isn't it perfectly normal for me to care about a student? Whether you two middle-aged men want to argue or fight is none of my concern. What's wrong with that?
Once again, Tris regretted that his Telescope couldn't pick up sound. He couldn't read lips either, so he had no way of knowing what insults Snape and Sirius were hurling at each other.
It was probably quite something.
Hmm, I'll have to see if I can find a book on lip-reading later.
Meanwhile, Snape and Sirius's shouting match was on the verge of turning into an armed brawl. Sirius had even drawn his wand.
Neither of them was very reliable. Once their tempers flared, they forgot all about Harry still riding his bucking broomstick in the sky. At a time like this, someone dependable needed to step in.
That was right-Lupin.
Tris didn't know what Lupin said, but Snape sat down with a thunderous expression, fixed his eyes on Harry in the air, and began muttering a Counter-Spell.
Sirius and Lupin quickly scanned their section of the stands. When they found nothing, they turned and hurried down to search elsewhere for the person chanting.
A curse required an unbroken stare and continuous chanting, so the caster should have been relatively easy to find. Unfortunately, neither man had come properly equipped with a Telescope, leaving them no choice but to run around searching the various seating sections.
Hmm, in that case...
Tris swung his Telescope toward the Gryffindor stands just in time to see Hermione lower hers, point toward Snape's section, and say something to Ron and Hagrid beside him.
"I saw him, clear as day!" Hermione declared emphatically to Tris and Ron in Hagrid's Hut.
"It was Snape. I read in a book that you have to keep your eyes fixed on your target when casting a curse. Snape wasn't blinking at all, and his mouth kept chanting. There's no mistake."
"Could my Head of House have been chewing gum?" Tris suggested with a grin.
"Impossible!" Hermione was so angry she wanted to hit him. "If that's what he was doing, how do you explain Harry's broom getting better almost immediately after I set his robes on fire?"
"Put that way, it is rather hard to explain." Tris nodded with a show of seriousness, nearly laughing himself breathless inside.
Of course it did. When you set my Head of House's robes on fire, he stood up to stamp out the flames and bumped into Quirrell beside him, breaking his line of sight.
Still, events really were peculiar. Despite so many deviations, this scene had happened anyway.
Tris thought the misunderstanding would probably clear up soon, though, as long as Harry came back.
"By the way, where's Harry? He disappeared as soon as the match ended." Hermione looked around. After setting the fire, she hadn't even made it back to the Gryffindor stands before the match was over.
Then she had only seen Ron coming out with Hagrid and Tris strolling over from the other side. There had been no sign of Harry.
"Harry? His godfather came," Hagrid explained.
As Hogwarts' Keeper of Keys, he would normally be informed whenever anyone entered the school. That was one reason he had arrived late for the match.
Besides, Sirius and Remus were both old acquaintances of his. Naturally, they had stopped to greet him and catch up when they arrived, so he knew about their visit.
"Harry's godfather?" Hermione looked utterly confused.
Hermione hadn't been there when they met Sirius in Hogsmeade last time, and Harry hadn't specifically brought it up afterward, so she didn't know he had a godfather.
Ron immediately looked smug, as though he had pulled ahead of Hermione in a competition to be Harry's best friend. With an air of superiority, he said,
"He was Harry's father's best friend before he died. The misunderstood hero they wrote about in the papers-Sirius Black."
"That happened?" Hermione looked astonished. "Why didn't anyone ever tell me?"
"All you ever do is read, work on exercises, or practice magic. When were we supposed to tell you?" Ron shrugged, utterly convinced of his own logic.
"Um..." For once, Hermione actually had no answer.
"All right," Hagrid said, waving a hand to stop them arguing. "Snape would never hurt Harry. Though he might, well, not be all that fond of him,
"he still wouldn't curse his broom."
"Who knows? I think he's wanted Harry dead all along." Although Ron bickered with Hermione, he agreed with her assessment.
"And Snape wants to steal something of Dumbledore's."
"Snape wants to steal something of Dumbledore's?" Hagrid's large, hairy face filled with confusion. "Why would Snape steal anything? He's rich."
"Huh?" Ron and Hermione both blinked.
Children really were easily distracted. A single remark from Hagrid sent both their minds off on a tangent.
"Snape's rich? You'd never know it. I haven't seen him change his clothes once since term started," Ron complained.
Tris, who had been drinking tea, burst out laughing and sprayed it everywhere.
Well, whether Snape only used spells to clean his clothes or simply owned several identical outfits, he certainly looked as though he never changed.
And, to be fair, he really didn't change his clothes very often.
Tris had personally seen him wear an outfit with a smear of potion on it for an entire week.
It made sense. An old shut-in who didn't even wash his hair and spent every day fiddling with potions hardly had time to change his clothes or do the laundry.
Ron's remark left Hagrid tongue-tied as well. After a long pause, he shook his head, rather at a loss. "Snape's too busy. Besides teaching you lot, he's got research to do.
"He's the only Potions Master in Britain who's still doing research. His potions sell all over the world, and he charges a lot for them.
"I've been shopping with him. He takes Galleons out of his pockets by the handful."
Gulp.
Ron and Tris swallowed at the same time, both filled with longing.
Although Tris had already helped improve his family's finances and currently had several hundred Galleons in his own pocket, he still couldn't help feeling envious.
"He's still trying to steal something of Dumbledore's," Ron insisted, wiping away drool that wasn't actually there.
"We didn't see it happen, but on Halloween he tried to get past the three-headed dog during all the confusion, and it bit him."
"What?" Hagrid's dark eyes widened enormously. "You even know about Fluffy?"