---
"It was Snape!"
"During the match just now, Snape was secretly jinxing Harry's broom!"
"If Hermione hadn't intervened right when she did, Harry wouldn't have been able to hold on, and he would've plummeted straight to the ground!"
Ron took a deep breath, speaking in a rapid, frantic rush before Hermione could even get a word in.
"Hold on!" Richie raised an eyebrow, holding up a hand to stop them. "Let me get this straight."
He looked at the three of them, making sure he was understanding the situation correctly. "You're telling me that Harry's broom completely malfunctioning during the match was Snape's doing?"
The three of them nodded aggressively in unison.
"I saw it with my own eyes!" Hermione stated with absolute certainty. "I used the Fire-Making Spell to set his robes on fire, and that's the only reason his casting was interrupted."
"This is exactly like that troll invading the castle on Halloween!" Ron burst out, completely unable to hold back his conspiracy theories. "Do you remember the massive gash on his leg?!"
"Snape definitely thinks we saw something we weren't supposed to, and now he's trying to silence us permanently!"
Hearing Ron's extreme conclusion, Richie immediately shot it down. "No, if he genuinely wanted to kill someone, he wouldn't do it in such a highly public, incredibly risky way."
"Snape is the Potions Master. He could easily brew an untraceable, highly lethal poison and kill us without anyone ever knowing."
As he said that, Richie instinctively glanced at Harry.
Besides, if I remember correctly, Snape is actually supposed to be protecting Harry, isn't he...?
"Who knows how that giant bat actually thinks?!" Ron threw his hands up in sheer exasperation, his voice tight with panic. "The point is, we have to find a way to deal with this threat! Hermione managed to spot him in time today, but who knows what's going to happen next time! Maybe he actually will use poison, exactly like you just said, Richie!"
As the official "victim" of the incident, Harry nodded fervently, still deeply shaken by the near-death experience.
"Exactly! Which is why we need to go to Professor McGonagall and tell her everything right now," Hermione announced, lifting her chin resolutely.
"No!"
"We absolutely cannot go to McGonagall! There is no way she's going to believe that Snape is actively trying to murder us!"
Harry and Ron both frantically shook their heads. Ron quickly laid out his massive fear. "If you go to McGonagall now, you're basically just alerting Snape that we know what he's planning!"
"But this is obviously way beyond anything we can handle on our own!" Hermione argued, getting genuinely frustrated. "Richie is here now. The four of us can go to McGonagall together. Even if she doesn't believe you two, she'll definitely believe me and Richie!"
"It's not about whether she believes us or not!" Ron practically tore his hair out in frustration. "What I'm saying is that Snape will find out! If we give him any time to react, we're all going to be in massive danger!"
"Do you seriously think the professors are just going to stand back and let him murder us?!" Hermione fired back.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Seeing the two of them getting aggressively into each other's faces, Richie and Harry quickly stepped in to pull them apart.
Just as the argument was about to completely spiral out of control, Harry suddenly had a realization.
"I know exactly who we should talk to!"
Richie, Ron, and Hermione immediately turned to look at him.
"We don't need to go to a professor. We need to go to an adult who will actually help us!"
"An adult?" Ron scratched his cheek, completely lost.
---
"What?!"
"Snape is trying to kill you lot?"
"Oh, give it a rest. It's nowhere near April Fools' Day!"
Hagrid's massive frame squeezed through the castle doors and strode out onto the grounds. The four first-years were practically jogging to keep up with him.
"Snape might look a bit grim, but he's highly respected among the professors!"
Hearing Hagrid completely dismiss them, Ron aggressively picked up his pace. "But he literally jinxed Harry's broom! And he was definitely the one messing around with that three-headed dog on Halloween!"
Beside him, Harry nodded vigorously in agreement.
"Hold on a minute. How do you lot know about Fluffy?" Hagrid stopped dead in his tracks.
"Fluffy?"
"..."
Walking slowly at the back of the group, Richie listened to their chaotic conversation and let out a long, helpless sigh.
Originally, he had fully intended to head straight back to his dorm to study, but Harry and the guys had practically dragged him along. Their logic was incredibly straightforward: since Richie had also been involved in the whole "Halloween Troll Incident," he was undoubtedly on Snape's hit list too. Therefore, they needed to stick together and formulate a survival plan.
Knowing that Snape was actually on their side, Richie completely understood why the trio was currently terrified and paranoid. When you genuinely believe your life is in danger, overreacting is completely natural.
However, Richie couldn't exactly just tell them that Quirrell was the actual villain, mostly because he had absolutely zero proof to back up the claim.
Just then, Hagrid turned around and looked at the group with utmost seriousness.
"Listen to me. Whatever is going on up there is extremely dangerous. What Fluffy is guarding is strictly between Professor Dumbledore and his good friend, Nicolas Flamel..."
Hagrid completely froze. "Oh, blast it. I shouldn't have said that..."
"The point is, Snape isn't going to hurt you! Now stop following me!"
With that, Hagrid spun around and aggressively marched away in the opposite direction.
"Nicolas Flamel?" Hermione frowned, looking deeply confused. "I've never seen that name in any of my books."
Harry and Ron just stared at each other.
Harry looked completely miserable. "So... what do we do now? Are we really just supposed to blindly trust that Snape isn't going to try to kill us again?"
Seeing how stressed Harry was, Hermione tried to comfort him. "At the very least, he definitely won't try anything out in the open!"
"Think about what Hagrid just said. That three-headed dog is guarding something incredibly important. If Snape was trying to get past it, it means he's after whatever is hidden down there! He can't afford to blow his cover before he gets his hands on it!"
Finally catching up to the group, Richie nodded in agreement. "Everyone just act totally normal. Don't do anything drastic. If something actually happens, we immediately go to a professor."
Ron immediately muttered under his breath, "If something actually happens, going to a professor is going to be way too late!"
---
After returning to the castle, Richie split off from the trio. However, instead of heading back to his dorm, he made a beeline straight for Professor Flitwick's office.
Ron's ultimate fear was that the professors wouldn't believe them and would just immediately run to Snape to snitch.
Richie, however, knew better. The professors weren't bored teenagers; they didn't gossip like that.
If they thought the kids were just making up rumors as a prank, they would punish them, not tattle to Snape. If they actually took the accusation seriously, they definitely wouldn't tell Snape; they would launch a discreet investigation. And if anything happened to the students during that investigation, Snape would instantly become the prime suspect.
Of course, Ron was probably also terrified of getting murdered while the professors were investigating. But Richie wasn't worried about that at all, because he knew Quirrell was the actual problem, not Snape.
The real reason Richie was going to see Professor Flitwick was to gauge the faculty's awareness of the situation.
If the professors already knew Quirrell was acting suspicious and were actively monitoring him, then Richie would just go back to studying and continuing his late-night "castle exploration" with his friends.
But if they were completely oblivious...
Factoring in the forbidden third-floor corridor, the Halloween troll invasion, and now Harry's broom actively trying to kill him...
If the professors really were that blind, Richie was genuinely going to have to write a letter to his aunt and have a very serious conversation about transferring to another school.