Muggle news: July 6–8 – The 18th G7 summit is held in Munich. July 6–29 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq refuses a U.N. inspection team access to the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture. UNSCOM claims that it has reliable information that the site contains archives related to illegal weapons activities. U.N. inspectors stage a 17-day "sit-in" outside of the building, but leave when their safety is threatened by Iraqi soldiers.
Exams end at Hogwarts on Friday 30th June.
On Saturday 1st July Harry springs into action, having been told by Harry the Elder that tonight is when Shit Goes Down. He tells Hermione and Ron that it’s suspicious that a man in a pub happens to have a dragon’s egg in his pocket when Hagrid really wants one, so the trio go and ask Hagrid about it and he confirms that he told the stranger how to get past Fluffy. They then go to tell Dumbledore but he’s got an owl from the Ministry, so they tell McGonagall who is uncharacteristically very stupid and tells them to go away and play like good little children. Instead they wait till night-time and sneak out of Gryffindor tower. Neville tries to stop them because sneaking out is naughty and they will get more housepoints taken off them, but Hermione puts him in a full body-bind.
They head up to the third floor and the door is already open. Harry plays music on the flute Hagrid whittled for him to put Fluffy to sleep. They go through the trap door, which leads to a Devil’s Snare plant. Hermione briefly panics over how to make fire to stop the plant from choking Harry and Ron, but they snap her out of it, and she gets them free. Next there’s a room full of flying keys, and Harry puts his Seeker skills to use in spotting and catching the correct one for the locked door. Then there’s a life-sized chess board where Ron has to sacrifice his piece for them to win. He gets knocked unconscious and dragged from the board while Harry and Hermione rush to the next room. The final puzzle is Snape’s, a logic puzzle that allows the person playing to pick between seven filled bottles: three poison, two wine, one to send you back in the direction you came, one to send you forward. Hermione figures it all out, but there isn’t enough for both her and Harry to go forward. He directs her to go back, get Ron, and send Hedwig to get Dumbledore. Then Harry steps through to room where the Stone is kept and comes face to face with Quirrell (although our Harry is not surprised the way that !book Harry is). Quirrell goes full Bond villain and takes the time to tell Harry all the ways he’s tried to kill Harry this year and why, also revealing that Snape was trying to protect Harry and foil Quirrell. Quirrell is looking in the mirror of Erised but can only see himself giving it to his master. A weird voice from nowhere tells Quirrell to put Harry in front of the mirror, which he does. Harry sees his reflection put the stone in his pocket and then suddenly feels the weight of it there. Quirrell asks him what he sees and he lies about it, saying he’s being given the house-cup. Weirdo voice says Harry is lying and to let him out so Quirrell takes off his turban and Voldemort’s face is on the back of his head (cue jokes about teachers having eyes in the back of their head). Voldemort tries a few different tactics to try to get Harry to give him the stone, which don’t work, so tells Quirrell to just grab him but touching Harry’s skin makes Quirrell’s skin burn. Harry then puts his hands all over Quirrell before passing out.
On Wednesday Harry wakes up in the hospital wing with Dumbledore to explain everything, including why Quirrell couldn’t touch Harry - because of his mother’s sacrifice and love etc. In our timeline he doesn’t need to tell Harry why Severus hates him because Harry is well aware that Severus and James Do Not Get On, although James hasn’t told him about Severus being in love with Lily. Later that day, Ron and Hermione come by and he tells them everything that happened.
On Friday exam results come out. Hermione is top of the year which undoubtedly pisses off a lot of Ravenclaws and a few Hufflepuffs and Slytherins as well, but Harry and Ron also pass “with good marks” whatever that means. (End of term feast will be next Saturday.)
(July birthdays: Dora 17th, Harry 31st)
2013
Muggle news: July 1 – Croatia becomes the 28th member of the European Union.
Exams end at Hogwarts on Friday 30th June.
Friday 7th is Bronte’s 5th birthday.
(July birthdays: Bronte 7th, Tonks 17th, Harry 31st)