'Now this is interesting,' Harry mused to himself. A match was considerably more complex than a needle. Did the spell actually reproduce the chemicals in a matchhead, or was it merely mimicking it the look? Did a transfigured match still work in that case?
The lesson was fascinating, but Harry's mind was too distracted to take it in properly. He just couldn't stop thinking about Draco's misadventure in the Forbidden Forest, and also his worries with the third-floor corridor.
"You look distracted, Harry," Susan said, looking at him in worry as they sat at the Hufflepuff table for lunch. "Is everything alright?"
"Just can't stop thinking about the stone," he replied, keeping it vague in case anyone was listening.
"Ah, yeah, it's real mystery. Tempting, too," Hannah said. "Can you imagine? All the gold you could ever want, right at your fingertips!"
"But there's a giant dog guarding it," Ron said, not unreasonably. "It'd take a powerful wizard to overpower it!"
"Actually, that part wouldn't be too difficult," Harry admitted. "Even if we didn't already know what the secret to bypassing it was thanks to Hagrid. I mean, surely the library would have something on its breed?"
"That's… huh, that makes sense," Neville mused. "The Hogwarts library is the largest collection of literature in Wizarding Britain. If any place would have a book on, uh, Fluffy, it'd be here."
"So, who do you think would be the thief?" Harry asked, looking at his friends as they ate lunch. "It has to be somebody already in the castle. Probably a teacher."
"It's gotta be Snape!" Ron protested. "He was casting that hex on your broom at the Quidditch game!"
"And he was limping a bit for a day or two after the troll showed up," Susan added, tapping her chin thoughtfully, a nervous tick she'd picked up from Harry, who'd picked it up from Edward.
"He was?" Harry asked, surprised.
"He was. Didn't you notice?" Neville asked.
"To be honest, I just ignore him in class," Harry admitted, a snort of amusement from Hannah. "I listen to the instructions and then just tune him out. I have better things to do than listen to the greasy git insult me and my housemates."
"Harry!" Hermione said, scandalized. "You shouldn't say that about a professor!"
"Even if he is one?" Susan asked, earning another huff of laughter from Hannah.
"Yeah, he's a bloody tosser, and he sucks at teaching," Harry declared. "Come to think of it, this does paint a pretty bad picture of him. Maybe he really is trying to steal the stone!"
"No swearing!" Hermione scolded. "And it's all circumstantial evidence anyways! Next you'll say he's the one killing unicorns!"
"He teaches potions. That means he's got to know all sorts of different ingredient suppliers, right?" Harry asked, continuing his thread of thought. "He could have gotten the dragon's egg off the black market, and as a member of the Hogwarts faculty, he would have known about Hagrid's inability to lie properly and desire for a dragon of his own, and leverage it for information on what guards the stone. Perhaps he got injured trying to steal it, and that's why he was limping?"
"Just because he's, uh, somewhat biased against you, doesn't mean he's trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone," Hermione said exasperatedly. She looked around for an ally. "Right, Neville?"
"Um, well, maybe," Neville stammered.
"You too?" the bushy-haired witch asked, aghast at the lack of respect towards the Potions professor.
"I mean, he's not a very nice man," Neville replied weakly.
"Harry has a point," Susan claimed, swooping in to save Neville from Hermione's death glare. "A Potions master like Snape would probably know about black market suppliers for the hard-to-get ingredients. It's not beyond the pale he could have obtained the stolen egg."
"Assuming he didn't steal it himself," Hannah pointed out.
"Seriously?" Hermione asked, annoyed.
"Come on, Hermione, surely you can also see how much of a toss- I mean, bad teacher he is," Ron argued. "Why are you playing Devil's Advocate for him?"
"Because somebody has to!" Hermione said angrily.
"Alright, I suppose that's fair," Harry said, raising his hands to placate the upset witch.
"If it turns out we were wrong about our assumptions, you can always say, 'I told you so,'" Hannah told Hermione.
"Maybe I will!" she declared.
Harry couldn't help but laugh. Even if someone was trying to steal a magical artifact, it was nice to know he could rely on his friends, no matter what.
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