Flint and Theo were locked in a stare-down. Flint towered over Theo by a good head and a half, so you'd think he'd look way more intimidating.
Reality? Total opposite. Theo had this calm little smirk like he'd already won, zero fear in his eyes.
Flint, on the other hand, was starting to look away, but the nastier his glare got, the tighter his fists clenched.
Alice reached over and tapped Theo's shoulder, then headed for the common-room exit without a word.
Theo paused just long enough to give Flint one last "friendly" look before following her out.
As soon as they were in the corridor, Theo asked, "Alice, why'd you stop me? You and me together? We could've taken him."
Alice shook her head. "What's the point of trading barbs with a guy like that? People like Flint don't get humbled by arguments. You set a trap, you burn his whole reputation down so bad he can't show his face at Hogwarts anymore. That's how you handle it."
Theo actually stopped to think about it—like he was already plotting. This dude was seriously considering framing Flint.
The two of them quickly ended up outside the Ravenclaw common room. Leaning against the wall was a girl with striking silver-white hair, pretty in a quiet way, totally absorbed in reading a sheet of paper.
Only when she heard their footsteps creaking on the stairs did she look up. She skipped right over Theo (who she obviously already knew) and locked eyes with Alice.
Her voice didn't match her calm vibe at all—it was bold and confident.
"So you're Alice Norton?"
"The first-year who challenged Slytherin's pure-blood supremacy, crushed her opponents with insane skill way above her age, shut the entire house up, earned Dumbledore's personal praise, co-created new teaching methods with Professor Flitwick, is buddies with McGonagall, and has Snape protecting her—the Alice from the Norton family?"
…
Alice slowly turned to Theo with a look that said, Is this for real?
Theo just blinked innocently, his eyes basically screaming: [It's just Ravenclaws, you know how they get—they study themselves stupid.]
Alice rolled her eyes at him, then turned back to the girl. What a waste of a gorgeous face—she was basically a full-on chuuni.
"If we're talking about Alice Norton, yeah, that's me. But I've got a question."
Rylan lifted her chin like some anime protagonist. "Ask."
"You mentioned the Norton family. As far as I know, we're not exactly famous in the wizarding world."
Rylan grinned. "I'm guessing Nott told you about me—I'm half-blood. My dad does some business with the Nortons, so I wrote home to confirm you were from that family."
"Once I got the yes, I realized my original question was dumb. No way the head of the Norton family couldn't afford flying-sword research."
"Plus, that line you dropped during your duel with Parkinson? Total badass. We all thought it was cool. So yeah, I remember you're a Norton—and that your grandfather's last name is Li."
Alice suddenly felt second-hand embarrassment. This girl had done full-on background research.
"Anyway, let's get to business," Alice said, steering the conversation like a pro. "I've decided to bring you onto the flying-sword team. I've got some documents in Ancient Runes I copied from… a special source. I need you to translate them for me."
("Special source" = memories she'd pulled from Nicolas Flamel's remnant soul. After realizing part of his soul was missing, he'd tried a bunch of ways to fix it, including some alchemy research involving Ancient Runes. He gave up pretty quick, though, so the memories had the texts but zero translation. Classic Alice roadblock.)
Trist (full name: Trist Rylan) took the pages from Theo, scanned them for a few seconds, then handed Theo back the sheet she'd been holding earlier with obvious disgust.
"These are way more interesting than the trash you mailed me from home. I'll work on it. I'll find you guys when I've got something."
And just like that, Trist turned around and marched back into the Ravenclaw common room, completely ignoring Alice's amused grin and Theo's pout.
Alice patted Theo's shoulder. "Aw, don't be mad. You're the one who said Ravenclaws are like this!"
"I never said that!"
"You did! With your eyes, just now!"
"Wait… that's what my blinking meant?"
Alice gave him a look and headed downstairs.
Theo scrambled after her.
…
Meanwhile, in some empty classroom, Hermione was staring grimly at the two boys in front of her and nodding slowly.
Harry summed it up: "So we're basically 100% sure that three-headed dog, Fluffy, is guarding the Sorcerer's Stone—which belongs to Nicolas Flamel."
Ron threw his hands up. "Yes, Harry! You've checked three times already! Yes, Dumbledore stashed the stone here at school!"
"But why would he keep something that dangerous here?" Harry asked. "Isn't he worried it'll bring bad guys and put us all in danger?"
Hermione sighed, totally lost as to why they were freaking out. "Harry, Hogwarts is literally the most dangerous place in the wizarding world. Hands down. We've got Dumbledore and a bunch of insanely skilled professors!"
Ron couldn't help himself. "You mean 'insanely skilled' like Professor Quirrell who smells like garlic all the time?"
"…He's an outlier," Hermione muttered, shooting him a glare.
"Or like Snape, who keeps targeting us and totally cursed Harry's broom in secret?"
"…Snape's different."
"Oh, so safety means the mysterious ghost that's been attacking Slytherin students lately?"
"…"
"Or that troll Alice and we ran into in the corridors?"
"RONALD WEASLEY!"
Hermione finally exploded.
Ron shrank back, wisely shutting up.
Harry just looked dead serious. "We need to figure out why Dumbledore brought the stone here."
With that, he dragged the other two out of the room.
From around the corner, Alice stepped out with a weird expression, Theo right behind her looking grim.
Theo asked quietly, "Is You-Know-Who after the stone?"
"I don't know," Alice answered, shaking her head.
Theo's face hardened. "Alice, that's it. We're done. This gets handed off to Dumbledore—or the Chosen One and his little crew."