THE MAN
WITH TWO FACES
few seconds and I’d have got you off that broom. I’d have managed
it before then if Snape hadn’t been muttering a countercurse, try-
ing to save you.”
“Snape was trying to save me?”
“Of course,” said Quirrell coolly. “Why do you think he wanted
to referee your next match? He was trying to make sure I didn’t
do it again. Funny, really . . . he needn’t have bothered. I couldn’t
do anything with Dumbledore watching. All the other teachers
thought Snape was trying to stop Gryffindor from winning, he did
make himself unpopular . . . and what a waste of time, when after
all that, I’m going to kill you tonight.”
Quirrell snapped his fingers. Ropes sprang out of thin air and
wrapped themselves tightly around Harry.
“You’re too nosy to live, Potter. Scurrying around the school on
Halloween like that, for all I knew you’d seen me coming to look at
what was guarding the Stone.”
“You let the troll in?”
“Certainly. I have a special gift with trolls — you must have seen
what I did to the one in the chamber back there? Unfortunately,
while everyone else was running around looking for it, Snape,
who already suspected me, went straight to the third floor to head
me off — and not only did my troll fail to beat you to death, that
three-headed dog didn’t even manage to bite Snape’s leg off
properly.
“Now, wait quietly, Potter. I need to examine this interesting
mirror.”
It was only then that Harry realized what was standing behind
Quirrell. It was the Mirror of Erised.
“This mirror is the key to finding the Stone,” Quirrell mur-
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