Harry Potter The Life Of A Chef

Harry screamed. He felt like his head would explode and he grabbed it with his hands as if to hold it together. Pressure grew and grew until he felt his skull and skin tear. Thick liquid spilled from his scar and his scream increased in volume and intensity before he fell back, falling into blissful unconsciousness.

Voldemort roared aloud from agony and exhilaration. The returning soul piece filled him with strength and pain and he felt the blood within Quirrell burn with this influx of magical strength and something more. Voldemort knew he had to do something with this excess magic or else it would consume him, not to mention provide some kind of alibi.

The first troll continued to struggle, trapped by the muck. It growled impotently at Voldemort, gnashing its teeth at him.

"You will do," Voldemort said, smiling cruelly.

As the two other trolls were brought down and restrained, a gigantic roar of sound and an intense shriek of inhuman pain filled the air. A massive gout of fire exploded down the side passage, a tidal wave of flames spilling out and slamming into the opposite wall, burning the stones black.

"Harry!" Lavender screamed. She had managed to stay out of the fight, watching with awe at her instructors fighting. Now she turned and was about to run towards the dying flames but was held back by McGonagall.

"He's okay!" a voice called out, coughing and hacking. Quirrell appeared, carrying a senseless Harry in his arms, wrapped in his overrobes and turban. "For the most part," he said as he slumped to the ground and deposited Harry neatly on the ground. "A bit singed, but so am I."

Flitwick and Nicolas bent over Harry with the former casting spells and the latter withdrawing more vials and gently sprinkling the contents over the boy. Dumbledore breathed a large sigh of relief, seeing Harry breathing, before turning to Quirrell. "And you? Are you okay Quirinus?"

"I'll be fine, I think," Quirrell said, holding up shaking hands. His hands were burned, skin showing red and black and pale white. "I had to use the strongest spell I knew to take care of that first brute. It was about to kill us."

"You did well," Dumbledore said. "You did what you must have and you protected Harry." He paused and peered closely. "Any other injuries?"

Quirrell shook his head, blinking slowly. His eyes were brown in the lantern light. "I-I don't think s-so."

"Albus, the boy is stable. His magic is in flux but in the presence of the spells here, that's not unheard of," Nicolas said. "We should get him to the Infirmary."

"Of course." Dumbledore turned away from Quirrell. "You and Filius take him, take Miss Brown with you. Quirinus, go with them and get your wounds treated as well. Minerva, make sure the rest of the school is safe, bring all the students to the Great Hall. Have the ghosts patrol the school to look for other interlopers. Fawkes!" The phoenix appeared in a flash of fire and light. "To the Auror department at the Ministry. I will require their attention."

Fawkes trilled and disappeared with another flash.

As the others left, Dumbledore resecured the bindings on the other two trolls and looked at the remains of the first one. The intensity of the fire spell had burned flesh and skin away, leaving charred and blackened bone. The fire had melted the suits of armor and they bonded to the corpse, smoldering and smoking. Eventually he turned and saw Snape approach.

"The ghosts have not found any other trolls," Snape said without preamble. "There is a broken gate on the far side of the castle with signs of things beaten with clubs."

"That is how they entered," Dumbledore mused. "The question is, why? We are far from any of the mountain troll caves and we have nothing here that would entice them."

"As far as we know," Snape said.

"True," Dumbledore conceded.

"What happened to this one?" Snape asked, staring at the burned corpse with horrid fascination.

"It was the first to attack. Mister Potter and Miss Brown alerted us to its presence. Minerva animated some suits of armor while Nicolas hit it with his growing sticking goo. Quirinius and Potter were knocked down this passageway while we were dealing with the other two and next I know, Quirinius dispatched it with a very violent fire spell."

"It must have been to render the troll into this state," Snape murmured. "And Quirrell and the boy were unharmed?"

"Aside from blood and bruises and some mild burns, yes."

"That seems… fortunate," Snape said slowly.

"It does. And I have never known anything to be able to break away from Nicolas' sticking creations like that," Dumbledore said softly.

Snape looked at the burned stones all around the hallway and at the opposing wall. "I was unaware Quirrell could cast at this magnitude."

"Stressful situations can cause a magical to cast things at a higher strength than usual," Dumbledore said diplomatically.

The other man grunted. "Flamel still has the Stone?"

"I believe so, yes."

"Then Quirrell either failed at his target or the Stone was not his target," Snape said.

"And I cannot delve too deeply now since he did save Mister Potter's life," Dumbledore said. "Perhaps all of this was some kind of misunderstanding."

Snape snorted deeply. "You are not that naïve, are you?"

"Sometimes I wish I was," Dumbledore said softly. Fawkes reappeared, holding a piece of parchment with the Auror symbol on it. "Ah, they have arrived. Let us see if their investigation can provide any additional information."

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