The body of Quirrell lay still on the floor, that is except for his turban. While his head lay still on his neck the back of his head somehow writhed. The turban was tossed aside revealing a more or less human face on the hairless back of Quirrell's head. It sneered, "You primitive savage. Do you think you can defeat me?"
Joe mouthed a word or two that didn't seem to be English. Perhaps they were from his tribal tongue. From the look on his face, West assumed they were not words his parents would want him to learn. The lawyer spat, "Voldemort."
The face cackled. "So, a primitive but with the nerve to speak my name aloud. You don't know how nauseating it becomes to hear these bleating sheep speak endlessly of 'He-who-must-not-be-named.' But it avails you naught. I will destroy this fool of a boy and then I will destroy you! What? NO!"
The face was screaming as if in terror and agony. Joe was holding before him the shield. He rushed between the downed Quirrell and West. “Be gone, foul spirit. You will harm no more today.”
The head thrashed about making the body writhe in a grotesque dance. It gave a final blood curdling scream and the entire corpse exploded in flames. There was a howl fading into the distance as if the Dread Lord was fleeing the scene of his defeat.
West looked to Joe for explanation. He turned the shield to show inset in the center what looked like ...
“Err, is that a ...”
Very solemnly Joe answered, “A human sternum, the bone closest to the heart, my grandmother’s. She died saving me from a fire and my mother told me as long as I kept this with me her love would protect me.”
Then a point of light appeared in the room. It expanded to a ball nearly six feet in diameter and through it stepped Severous Snape. “What? Who? Westinghouse! What’s happening here? And you?” he said looking at Joe, apparently no more accustomed to Native Americans than Bones was.
Joe glared suspiciously. West exclaimed, “Professor, is it really you?”
“Of course it’s me, you fool. But, but what’s happening here? I was in my office preparing to go up for Christmas dinner when ... Now I remember! Quirrell came in and placed me in a time pocket, a place with no connection to the universe at large. I, I’d have never thought he had it in him.”
“Professor Snape, Joe Morningstar of the Bureau of Para Normal Affairs.” offering his hand in a far friendlier manner than to Madam Bones. “Make yourself comfortable. This will take a great deal of explanation.”
“In all my seventy-five years at Hogwarts," Dumbledore spoke with wonder, "I have never met with such a tale. Voldemort ... Oh stop flinching, all of you... must have captured Quirrell during his travels and taken possession of him. Eh, what was that?”
West and Joe both said, “Oh, nothing, nothing.” but the old man was sure it was something like, “Possession is nine points of the law.”
“Well to continue, he was hag riding a trusted member of the faculty for more than a year and nobody dreamed anything was amiss. How did you ever know, Mr. Morningstar?”
“That’s hard to say, Headmaster. So much of the case was so strange and unexplainable that I can’t point to one particular thing as being out of place. I think it was when he came to me with the idea of him doing a particularly difficult and even dangerous bit of magic on a student he had recently shown such concern for. A fit of stuttering in the middle of the incantation would have been disastrous for West. But he mastered himself without missing a beat. He was taking a chance of clueing me on to his part in it all but he had to find out what happened between West and his spy."
West piped up. "It's certainly a relief to know what really went on Christmas night. When fake Snape started the MemWipe spell I thought he was trying to kill me and I dredged up from somewhere this spell."
Dumbledore nodded sagely. "The word for 'lightning' in German, quite enough when backed by a passionate desire to get results."
"HOLD EVERYTHING!" Hermione shouted rushing into the office.
Dumbledore gave her a tired yet benevolent smile. "Miss Granger, there is nothing left to hold. Mr. Westinghouse has been cleared of all charges. And how in the name of Harry Houdini did you get in here? I never gave you the password."
She looked positively grim as she stared him in the eye. "I promised the gargoyle a particularly gruesome experience if it didn't let me in. It's heart may be stone but it still has sensitive parts. But, I mean, is he really?" But how can... Professor SNAPE! Is it really you? How..."
Snape rolled his eyes heavenward. "DO get control your self, Miss Granger. I don't want to have to give you demerits so soon after my return to the living. Ah, there they go again, the love birds. I think I'm going to be ill."
West was holding Hermione and kissing her right in front of the interested parties. He didn't care. He wished he could kiss her in front of the entire world. "Darling." Smack! "Sweetheart." Smack! "Baby." Smack!
Dumbledore stood and gestured for the adults to leave saying, "Let's let them have their privacy and... Hey wait a minute. This is MY office. I don't have to leave. You children go back to your common room." They rushed to comply.