Perhaps she shouldn't have found the Mirror of Erised after all, for Marigold started having dreams, or rather nightmares, about the night her parents died. Before, all she could remember were two flashes of green light, a scream, and maniacal laughter, but now in her dreams, she saw her father telling her mother to take Marigold and run, and her mother refusing to step aside when Voldemort ordered her to move. Marigold spoke to Ginny and Hermione about the nightmares via their mirrors, but they couldn't really do much to help other than comfort her. She also wrote to Remus about it, but while his return letter was full of sympathy and understanding, it wasn't much help either.

She even went so far as to talk to Professor Snape. His eyes closed and there was a flash of anguish on his face when he heard that Lily had refused to step aside and instead pleaded for her daughter's life. After several seconds of silence, he opened his eyes and said in a tight voice, "It was my fault."

"Excuse me?" asked Marigold, a surprised look on her face. "How could my parents' murders be your fault? All blame falls on Voldemort for killing them, and on Wormtail for betraying their location."

"The Dark Lord wouldn't have targeted you or your parents in the first place if it wasn't for me!" snapped Snape. It was very clear that he had a burden of guilt, though he hid it most of the time, and now felt it necessary to talk about it and perhaps relieve some of the guilt. "I overheard a prophecy, or part of it, rather, that said a child born at the end of July could defeat the Dark Lord. Since I was still a loyal Death Eater at the time, I immediately told him what I heard. Later, I discovered that he interpreted it to mean that either you or Mr. Longbottom, the other child born at the end of July, could defeat him. That in turn meant your parents were targeted also. When I realized that Lily was a target, I felt the deepest remorse and shame at my actions and immediately turned away from the Dark Lord. Dumbledore was willing to accept me and I have been loyal to him ever since. But I have felt that it was my fault for your parents' deaths, and even though I hated your father, I never really wished him dead."

Marigold stared at the Potions master, then replied, "Well, you didn't know that Voldemort was going to target my family, so your shouldn't feel so guilty about this. It's like with my godfather. I'm sure he feels guilty about my parents' deaths because he was the one that convinced them to switch Secret-Keepers. But he had no idea that Wormtail was the traitor, and his reason for switching in the first place was quite logical. Professor, there is no reason for you keep beating yourself over this. You did the right thing in the end, and I'm sure if you had known that my mother would be a target, you wouldn't have told Voldemort what you overheard. I forgive you for what you did."

Snape nodded, then put his usual mask back on and brusquely asked her to leave so that he could think things over. Marigold got out her journal and started writing down what he had told her and her thoughts on it. Despite what she had said to Snape (which she did mean), the unreasonable part of her was furious with him. If he hadn't overheard part of a prophecy that said a child born at the end of July could defeat Voldemort, then perhaps her family and Neville's family wouldn't have been targets in the first place. Voldemort might not have killed her parents and attempted to kill her, and she was sure that if he had known the location of the Longbottoms, he would have gone after them too. In fact, it was entirely possible that the Lestranges and Barty Crouch, Jr. wouldn't have tortured Neville's parents into insanity, assuming that they were there because of the prophecy and not because they thought that the Longbottoms had information on Voldemort's whereabouts, as people had generally thought at the time.

Marigold felt better after writing everything down, but she made a note not to tell her friends about Snape's guilt. While it was clear that he had sincerely regretted his actions and was now trying to atone for them, not everyone could be quite as understanding as she was. Well, she knew that Hermione and Ginny would quite likely understand, but Ron was a different matter. He tended to see things in black and white, with very little gray, and so might lose some respect for his Head of House if he heard. Besides, Marigold was sure that Snape did not want what he had revealed to be spread around, even if her friends were completely trustworthy and could keep a secret.

She did, however, tell her friends about the prophecy, or at least what she knew about it. From Snape's words, it was clear that there was more to it, but he had only overheard part of it. The only people she could think of that might know the whole thing were her parents, but they were dead and couldn't tell her, and the letters they had written before their deaths had said as much about the prophecy as Snape did. Marigold went so far as to ask Remus, but he didn't know the exact contents either. All he had been told was that a child would be born at the end of July to parents who had thrice-defied Voldemort and that he or she had the power to defeat Voldemort. Remus added that Sirius might have been told the entire contents, but as Marigold had no way of contacting her godfather and asking him about it, she had to give the matter up.

Neville was startled to hear that if things had gone differently, there might have well been a 'Boy-Who-Lived" instead of a "Girl-Who-Lived", and did not look at all happy with the idea, especially as that would mean even more pressure from his relatives to do well. Since Marigold had no desire to wish her life on anyone, this didn't bother her. Ron looked shocked as well, while Hermione looked thoughtful and remarked that she thought there had to be a reason why Voldemort had gone after Marigold, though she didn't quite trust in prophecies. Ginny looked shocked, then swiftly recovered and proclaimed that she would stick with Marigold and help her. In fact, the other Heirs also announced that they would help Marigold in the fight against Voldemort, and despite all her protests, refused to back down.

When the holidays ended and everyone returned to Hogwarts, the Heirs resumed their search on whom Nicolas Flamel was, and practised spellwork, particularly in Defense, under the tutelage of the Founders.

One day in Mid-January, Marigold and Ron were on their way to the Room of Requirement and stopped in surprise when they say Neville hopping towards them, as his legs had been stuck together with a spell. "What happened?" demanded Ron.

"Malfoy caught me by surprise outside the library and hit with the Leg-Locker Curse," Neville answered glumly. "I tried to get him back, but I couldn't think of any spells before he left."

Marigold pulled out her wand and said, "Finite Incantem," ending the spell, and then said, "We'll come up with a way to get Malfoy back. Now let's get to the Room of Requirement. Hermione's already there and you can tell us exactly what happened with Malfoy."

Once in the Room of Requirement, Neville explained, "Malfoy said he wanted to try out that spell on somebody. I tried to think of a spell to do back at him, but my mind drew a blank, and he made fun of me before walking away."

"You should report him, Neville," said Hermione. "Malfoy's not supposed to go around hexing people in the corridors for fun."

Neville shook his head. "I don't want to cause more trouble. Maybe we should just ignore him for now."

"Neville, you can't let Malfoy get you like that!" exclaimed Ron. "He might be used to walking around people, but you can't just lie down and make things easier for him!"

"There's no need to tell me I'm not brave enough for Gryffindor, Malfoy's already done that," choked Neville, who suddenly looked like he might cry.

Ron looked horrified as he realized what he had said sounded like, but before he could apologize and explain that he didn't mean it that way, Marigold put an arm around Neville and said firmly, "You are brave enough for Gryffindor, Neville. Bravery isn't the absence of fear, it's doing the right thing despite your fear. If you were a coward, you wouldn't have insisted on helping me fight Voldemort when the time comes, would you? You'd have run away screaming if that had been the case." She found a Chocolate frog in her pocket and handed it to him.

Neville took it with a weak smile and a muttered thanks. In an attempt to make up for what he said earlier, Ron said, "Look, Neville, Marigold's right. Besides, the Sorting Hat chose you for Gryffindor. And where's Malfoy? In stupid Slytherin, house of the slimy snakes."

"You do realize that you just basically insulted yourself, Ron?" asked Neville with a chuckle.

"Just because I'm in Slytherin doesn't mean I have to be like the other snakes," replied Ron. "They're not even true Slytherins anyway. Lord Salazar didn't want his members to become so focused on ambition and power that they forgot all else and made the house a disgrace. Well, the portrait of him, anyway. We don't know what his real self would think."

Salazar, who had heard everything, said, "Well, you can find out in a couple years from now. We Founders invented a spell that can summon the, I guess you can use the word 'spirits', of dead people for an hour or so at a time. So once we feel that you four are capable enough to master the spell, we will teach it to you and you can use it to talk with our spirits."

"Just don't go about using it too often," warned Helga. "We made the spell so that there is a side effect of losing one day of your life each time it's done."

"That was so people wouldn't be tempted to use it all the time in order to talk with loved ones that had died," said Godric. "It's not healthy, and the dead don't like to be summoned all the time, anyway. We didn't make the price any higher, like a year of your life, since we didn't want to scare people into not doing the spell, either."

"Oh, and if two or more do the spell together with the intent to summon the same person or persons, the price is split," added Rowena. "So if all four of you were to summon us, you would each only lose six hours of your life. We'll tell you more when your start learning it."

The Heirs nodded and then Neville unwrapped the frog and bit off its head. He looked down at the card. "Dumbledore. I already have his card." He flipped it over and gasped. "Hey, I've found Nicolas Flamel! Listen to this –'Dumbledore is famous for finding the twelve uses of dragon blood and for his work in alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel!'"

Hermione, eyes wide, gave a gasp of realization. "How stupid of me! Room, I want books on alchemy, please." A stack of books appeared and she grabbed a thick tome that was on top. "I got this from the library a week ago for a bit of light reading. I can't believe I didn't think to look in here for Flamel!"

"Light?" demanded Ron incredulously.

Hermione ignored him in favor of flipping through the book, while Marigold was silently berating herself for not remembering where she had read the name in the first place. At last Hermione found what she was looking for and exclaimed, "Nicolas Flamel is the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone! So that's what must be hidden at Hogwarts!"

"A Phil-what Stone?" asked Neville, looking confused.

"Philosopher's Stone," said Marigold patiently. "I remember reading about it last year. People back in the Middle Ages believed that it was possible to turn any metal into gold so long as they were able to create this Philosopher's Stone. Looks like it's actually real."

"In the wizarding world at any rate," said Hermione. "This one can also grant you immortality. Here, I'll read the entry."

When she was done, Ron said, "Well, that explains it. No wonder someone is after it. Who wouldn't want to live forever and be rich?" He paused for a second, then said, "Well, I'm not so sure if I personally want to live forever, but I wouldn't mind having lots of gold."

"The point is someone is after the Stone," said Marigold impatiently. "Probably Quirrell, either for his own purposes or because he's working for Voldemort and wants to return him to power. Oh, stop flinching, Ron and Neville. It's just a stupid name that's clearly made-up."

"Sorry, it's just habit," said Neville. "So now what do we do?"

"The Stone is well-guarded at the moment," replied Rowena. "So there's nothing for you to do. Just focus on your schoolwork, and in your case, Marigold, also on Quidditch. All four Heads of House and Professor Dumbledore are aware that Quirrell is up to something. All of them, particularly Snape, are keeping a close eye on him."

"And do make sure to keep this between yourselves," added Helga. "Students aren't supposed to know about this. But if it should prove necessary, we will help you in the matter."

The Heirs exchanged looks and reluctantly agreed to what Rowena said.