Professor Quirrell nodded.
Harry's lips were parted in anticipation. "It would be a waste to just sit here and eat lunch, then, without doing anything special."
Professor Quirrell grinned, then took out his wand and flicked it in the direction of the door. "Of course," he said, "people who lead interesting lives take precautions more thorough than the dalliers. I have just sealed us in. Nothing will now pass in or out of this room - through the crack under the door, for example. And..."
Professor Quirrell then spoke no fewer than four different Charms, none of which Harry recognized.
"Even that does not really suffice," said Professor Quirrell. "If we were doing anything of truly great import, it would be necessary to perform another twenty-three checks besides those. If, say, Rita Skeeter knew or guessed that we would come here, it is possible that she could be in this room wearing the true Cloak of Invisibility. Or she could be an Animagus with a tiny form, perhaps. There are tests to rule out such rare possibilities, but to perform all of them would be arduous. Still, I wonder if I should do them anyway, just so as not to teach you bad habits?" And Professor Quirrell tapped a finger on his cheek, looking abstracted.
"It's fine," Harry said, "I understand, and I'll remember." Though he was a little disappointed that they weren't doing anything of truly great import.
"Very well," Professor Quirrell said. He leaned back in his chair, smiling broadly. "You wrought quite well today, Mr. Potter. The basic notion was yours, I'm sure, even if you delegated the execution. I don't think we'll be hearing much more from Rita Skeeter after this. Lucius Malfoy will not be pleased with her failure. If she's smart, she'll flee the country the instant she realizes she's been fooled."
A sinking sensation began to dawn in Harry's stomach. "Lucius was behind Rita Skeeter...?"
"Oh, you didn't realize that?" said Professor Quirrell.
Harry hadn't thought about what would happen to Rita Skeeter afterward.
At all.
Not in the slightest.
But she would get fired from her job, of course she would be fired, she might have children going through Hogwarts for all Harry knew, and now it was worse, much worse -
"Is Lucius going to have her killed?" Harry said in a barely audible voice. Somewhere in his head, the Sorting Hat was screaming at him.
Professor Quirrell smiled dryly. "If you have not dealt with journalists before, take it from me that the world gets a little brighter every time one dies."
Harry jumped out of his chair with a convulsive movement, he had to find Rita Skeeter and warn her before it was too late -
"Sit down," Professor Quirrell said sharply. "No, Lucius won't kill her. But Lucius makes life extremely unpleasant for those who serve him ill. Miss Skeeter will flee and start her life over with a new name. Sit down, Mr. Potter; there is nothing you can do at this point, and you have a lesson to learn."
Harry sat down, slowly. There was a disappointed, annoyed look on Professor Quirrell's face that was doing more to stop him than the words.
"There are times," Professor Quirrell said, his voice cutting, "when I worry that your brilliant Slytherin mind is simply wasted on you. Repeat after me. Rita Skeeter was a vile, disgusting woman."
"Rita Skeeter was a vile, disgusting woman," Harry said. He wasn't comfortable saying it, but there didn't seem to be any other possible actions, none at all.
"Rita Skeeter tried to destroy my reputation, but I executed an ingenious plan and destroyed her reputation first."
"Rita Skeeter challenged me. She lost the game, and I won."
"Rita Skeeter was an obstacle to my future plans. I had no choice but to deal with her if I wanted those plans to succeed."
"Rita Skeeter was my enemy."
"I cannot possibly get anything done in life if I am not willing to defeat my enemies."
"I have defeated one of my enemies today."
"I am a good boy."
"I deserve a special reward."
"Ah," said Professor Quirrell, who had been grinning a benevolent smile for the last few lines, "I see I have succeeded in catching your attention."
That was true. And while Harry felt like he was being railroaded into something - no, that wasn't just a feeling, he had been railroaded - he couldn't deny that saying those things, and seeing Professor Quirrell's smile, did make him feel better.
Professor Quirrell reached into his robes, the gesture slow and deliberately significant, and drew forth...
...a book.
It was different from any book Harry had ever seen, the edges and corners visibly misshapen; rough-hewn was the phrase that came to mind, like it had been hacked out of a book mine.
"What is it?" breathed Harry.
"A diary," said Professor Quirrell.
"Whose?"
"That of a famous person." Professor Quirrell was smiling broadly.
"Okay..."
Professor Quirrell's expression became more serious. "Mr. Potter, one of the requisites for becoming a powerful wizard is an excellent memory. The key to a puzzle is often something you read twenty years ago in an old scroll, or a peculiar ring you saw on the finger of a man you met only once. I mention this to explain how I managed to remember this item, and the placard attached to it, after meeting you a good deal later. You see, Mr. Potter, over the course of my life, I have viewed a number of private collections held by individuals who are, perhaps, not quite deserving of all that they have -"
"You stole it?" Harry said incredulously.
"That is correct," said Professor Quirrell. "Very recently, in fact. I think you will appreciate this particular item much more than the vile little man who held it for no other purpose than impressing his equally vile friends with its rarity."
Harry was simply gaping now.
"But if you feel that my actions were incorrect, Mr. Potter, I suppose you needn't accept your special present. Though of course I shan't go to the trouble of stealing it back. So which is it to be?"
Professor Quirrell tossed the book from one hand to another, causing Harry to reach out involuntarily with a look of dismay.
"Oh," said Professor Quirrell, "don't worry about a little rough handling. You could toss this diary in a fireplace and it would emerge unscathed. In any case, I await your decision."
Professor Quirrell casually threw the book up into the air and caught it again, grinning.
No, said Gryffindor and Hufflepuff.
Yes, said Ravenclaw. What part of the word 'book' did you two not understand?
The theft part, said Hufflepuff.
Oh, come on, said Ravenclaw, you can't seriously ask us to say no and spend the rest of our life wondering what it was.
It sounds like a net positive from a utilitarian standpoint, said Slytherin. Think of it as an economic transaction which generates gains from trade, only without the trade part. Plus, we didn't steal it and it won't help anyone to have Professor Quirrell keep it.
He's trying to turn you Dark! shrieked Gryffindor, and Hufflepuff nodded firmly.
Don't be a naive little boy, said Slytherin, he's trying to teach you Slytherin.
Yeah, said Ravenclaw. Whoever owned the book originally was probably a Death Eater or something. It belongs with us.
Harry's mouth opened, then halted that way, an agonized look on his face.