"...he has already tried to kill one student, I'm not sure pranking him is a good idea."

He grumbles.

"Please do not do things that will probably get you killed."

He drops his head on the table, his forehead clonking against it. "I want to do something about it."

"Why?"

"Because there is a magic rock that grants people immortality and literally no one on Earth has ever created one other than this guy and I have no reason to expect I'll actually succeed if I try so this might be the single best thing that has ever happened."

"...I think I see what you mean."

"Yeah. So if Quirrell steals it, that's probably bad—but if Flamel or Dumbledore keep it, that's also bad."

"But I think it's probably safe to say Quirrell stealing it would be much worse."

"Well, yeah, probably." Pause. "I mean, maybe? What could he do that Flamel isn't already doing with it? Get real rich? Also live forever?"

"Resurrect Voldemort? It would be the obvious thing to try, and we don't know that it wouldn't work..."

"—oh. Okay yeah that—oh."

Nod.

"Okay so that makes it even more important that—something be done about it."

"But also more important that if we try to do anything about it we don't do anything to make it worse."

"Yes. ...I wonder if we can find out more about Quirrell's past. And about the Philosopher's Stone. And about Voldemort."

"Those are all good ideas."

Luckily they are in a library so at least the last two things can be found.

Although people are really bizarrely reluctant to write about Voldemort.

They are. It seems that no one really knows... where he came from. He sorta just showed up and started talking about muggles and muggleborns and half-bloods and people were like "yeah!"

Victor is sort of perturbed about the whole thing.

The whole thing is very perturbing.

Perhaps they will have better luck with alchemy?

There are some books on alchemy!

Victor is fascinated by this introductory alchemy book, which discusses the history of the practice in several parts of the world, its relationship to potionmaking, and of course Nicolas Flamel, the most famous alchemist in the world. Plus assorted trivia.

"This says the Golden Snitch is made using alchemy, and that's why they're so expensive," he says, peering at the illustrated Snitch as it flits all over the page.

"...really? So they couldn't just enchant a ball of gold to do the same stuff a Snitch does?"

"I don't know, it doesn't say." He turns the page. "And people disagree about whether wandcrafting is alchemy too..."