Getting a life-saving crescent pendant didn't make Adrian feel any better. Instead, it made him more determined to brew the Bloodline Fusion Potion as fast as possible to improve his magical abilities. His actions became more desperate.
Unfortunately, Quirrell had been behaving himself throughout the holidays.
Just as Adrian was getting disappointed and preparing to find another way, on the third day back from Christmas break, Quirrell's name suddenly started moving quickly across the Marauder's Map, then disappeared completely into the Forbidden Forest.
Maybe because Quirrell's activities were so sketchy, his name rarely overlapped with anyone else's on the map. This meant Adrian was probably the only person in the school who knew where the possessed professor had gone.
Even better, Snape wasn't in his office at that moment. The time had finally come.
A few days later, during Potions class, Snape's already stern face seemed even more stormy than usual. Throughout the entire lesson, the Gryffindor students suffered one disaster after another, even Hermione and Adrian weren't spared.
"Has Snape lost his mind? He took forty-five points from Gryffindor in one class today!" Ron complained the moment they escaped Snape's dungeon classroom.
Harry nodded with obvious relief, he'd lost ten points himself for "breathing too loudly while thinking."
Hermione was equally mad. Snape's reasons for taking points had been completely ridiculous. She'd kindly helped Seamus fix a potentially dangerous mistake, only to have Snape dock five points for "disrupting other students' concentration."
Adrian sighed internally. His situation had been the opposite, he'd lost points for "failing to prevent fellow students' terrible brewing attempts."
Snape had clearly used their Gryffindor students as easy targets for his anger.
Ron continued his rant all the way up from the dungeons until Hermione finally found a chance to share some news she'd overheard.
"I heard that someone broke into Snape's private potions storage room and stole quite a lot of valuable ingredients," she said in a low voice. "Snape even threatened to search the entire castle during his third-year class."
"I think Snape's made too many enemies over the years," Ron theorized. "Someone finally decided to get revenge. If he treated students fairly like Professor McGonagall does, who would bother targeting him?"
Hermione and Harry joined the guessing, but they couldn't reach any good conclusions.
"Adrian, what do you think?" Hermione asked, noticing his unusual silence.
"Maybe Snape staged it himself," Adrian said casually.
Snape?
Harry and the others looked confused. Why would Snape steal from his own storage room?
Actually, it wasn't even stealing, those were his potion ingredients to begin with!
"Have you forgotten about that trapdoor under Fluffy? Someone's been trying to get past that three-headed dog, and only Hagrid knows the secret," Adrian hinted without stating his theory directly.
"Polyjuice Potion!" Hermione caught his meaning immediately. "Snape must want to use Polyjuice to impersonate someone Hagrid trusts!"
Harry got excited too, remembering Snape's injured leg from a few days earlier.
Snape must have needed lots of materials to brew healing potions for his wounds, but couldn't risk Dumbledore discovering his activities. So he staged a theft to cover his tracks.
After all, while the storage room was in Snape's office, it technically belonged to Hogwarts. Most of the money spent on ingredients came from the school's budget.
Harry felt certain he'd figured out the truth and couldn't wait to share his discovery with the others.
"That has to be it, Adrian! You're absolutely right!" Ron declared, instantly fired up with righteous anger. "We should tell Professor Dumbledore right now and stop Snape's evil plan!"
Adrian felt somewhat embarrassed, he hadn't expected his casual comment to inspire such elaborate theories.
"I never knew you possessed such vivid imaginations."
Snape's cold voice came from directly behind the four friends.
Ron's excitement disappeared instantly, the heroic flame in his heart snuffed out like a candle in a storm.
"P-Professor..." Harry turned around stiffly, stammering.
Hermione went pale with terror. Only Adrian managed to fake an appropriately frightened expression, since he'd deliberately spoken those words for Snape to overhear.
Snape approached the four students and slowly leaned down, fixing them with his dark, hollow gaze. His hooked nose nearly touched Harry's forehead.
Harry's mind started racing through all the terrible punishments Snape might give, Memory Charms, other dark curses, perhaps even the Killing Curse?
After all, they'd discovered Snape's most dangerous secret.
However, contrary to Harry's expectations, Snape neither drew his wand nor threatened to throw them from the nearest window. He simply stated, "Minus Ten points from Gryffindor," before hurrying away down the corridor.
"He just... let us go?" Harry asked in disbelief.
"He did dock points," Adrian reminded them.
"But we know his biggest secret! If we tell Professor Dumbledore, he'll be finished," Harry protested, barely caring about the house points, it wasn't the first time he'd lost them, after all.
"Snape just headed toward the Headmaster's office," Adrian observed, knowing full well that Snape was reporting the conversation to Dumbledore.
"Besides, when did we actually discover any of Snape's secrets? That was pure guessing on our part. Anyone wanting to get past Fluffy would have similar motives. Personally, I think Quirrell seems rather suspicious..." Adrian said thoughtfully.
Harry and the others fell silent. Why had Adrian mentioned Snape first if he thought Quirrell was more likely? They'd built this entire theory around his initial suggestion, only to get caught red-handed by their Potions professor.
"Adrian, you're definitely hiding something from us," Hermione said, her amber eyes studying his face intently for any telltale signs.
"Well... yes, I forgot to mention I had an extra treacle tart at lunch and didn't get a chance to share it," Adrian deflected with humor, though he silently apologized to his friends.
The truth was that Adrian had indeed stolen Snape's potion ingredients. To avoid suspicion, he'd also taken materials commonly used for Polyjuice Potion and healing draughts. He'd grabbed several other items as well, purely to muddy the waters.
After all, if you didn't account for Adrian as a variable, the most logical suspect for such a theft would indeed be Quirrell.