Disclaimer: Anything familiar to JKR's books probably comes from there and is hers not mine. Also, Harry Potter, Hogwarts, the Wizarding World, and anything else that has to do with it belongs to the lovely JK Rowling, not me. I'm just playing in her sandbox and building my own Hogwarts in it.

Chapter Nine

Professor Quirrell set his conjured harp to play a soft song to keep the three-headed dog asleep. He then sent down the trapdoor a few fireballs followed by a cushioning charm before jumping into the hole in the floor. The charm did the trick and he didn't feel a thing besides a soft floor when he landed; the Devil's Snare was nowhere in sight.

In the room with the flying keys, he used a spell that located the right key before countering the charm on it so that he could summon it, which he did. Once in the room with the chessboard, Quirrell used a spell his master was whispering into his mind to force all the chess pieces away from him so that he could just walk through the door, the pieces resetting themselves behind him.

He made quick work with the troll, trolls being his specialty. It was out cold before the thing could even realize he wasn't alone anymore. Then he listened to his master again to get a spell that allowed him to walk right through the black flames without needing to figure out which of Snape's potions was the correct one.

What he found on the other side of the fire, however, wasn't what he had expected. Standing in front of an elegant mirror were the four Heads of House: Professors McGonagall, Snape, Flitwick, and Sprout. Quirrell realized then and there that they had known all along that he was after the Stone, but it was too late for him to do anything about it.

Each of the four teachers raised his or her wand, but Quirrell had his own wand out and blocked the stunners aimed at him. Moving fast, a duel began full of shields, stunners, body-binds, and darker curses Quirrell was using under orders of his master.

Ten minutes after he had entered the chamber with the mirror that held the Philosopher's Stone, Quirrell was finally hit with a full body-bind. He felt a burning pain as his master left him, a dark shadow suddenly appearing above his now dead body.

Lord Voldemort was furious that his plan had been figured out and foiled. He charged out of the chamber through the black flames in the doorway and out of Hogwarts itself.

The four professors were healing one another when the Headmaster rushed into the chamber to find it empty of everything but the mirror, his four professors, and Quirrell's body. He realized what had happened and sighed in relief before asking what had happened. Once he knew the full story, Professor Dumbledore knew that he had some points to give to Slytherin at breakfast the next morning.

Overall, everyone was relieved that no one had been hurt and that the stone was still safe and in the mirror. No harm had come of this. They all owed Harry Potter and his four Slytherin friends a huge thanks for what they had done to save the Stone. Most students would have kept the information to themselves and gone after the Stone when they had heard about the person knowing, sort of how Ron Weasley and his friends had done. This was one of many times the professors, mainly Dumbledore and Snape, were relieved Harry James Potter was a Slytherin and not a Gryffindor.

Professor Dumbledore stood up at the breakfast the next morning once everyone was there to eat. The entire Hall went silent in respect for the great wizard.

"Thank you. Now, I've got some personal thanks and points to give out this morning. I know it seems that I have no reason, but you shall all understand soon enough.

"First and foremost, I must give Tracey Davis, Theodore Nott, Daphne Greengrass, and Blaise Zabini twenty-five points apiece. The four of them along with one other informed the professors of something they had heard and figured out going on in the school. This information helped save a priceless artifact being kept in the school from the hands of someone who wanted to steal it.

"I must also give Harry Potter forty points for his quick thinking last night. He received information that told us when the robbery was going to take place and it permitted many of us to protect the artifact. Sadly, Professor Quirrell lost his life while we were down there, so he will not be teaching with us again.

"My final points are five points each for Miss Johnson, Miss Bell, Miss Spinnet, Miss Granger, Misters Fred and George Weasley, Miss Stimpson, and Mister Longbottom. They each did something not many would do. Many people are willing to stand up to other Houses and enemies, but these eight stood up to their own Housemates without even knowing why. In fact, they stopped said Housemates from going out and possibly getting themselves harmed. So they earn those points for saving their Housemates and for standing up to their own.

"Please recognize these people, but do not question them. None know exactly what happened last night." With that, Professor Dumbledore sat down, and the entire Hall burst out into whispers.

Harry groaned slightly in annoyance as he opened his eyes the afternoon before the Leaving Feast to see who had moved his feet to the ground to find Daphne sitting where his feet had just been resting peacefully on the couch in the Common Room.

"Daphne!" he complained.

"You need to share the couch, Harry," she replied as she made herself comfortable and ignored Harry's mutters under his breath.

Harry turned at he heard people settling onto the couch next to his and saw Theo and Tracey sitting down while Blaise took one of the two chairs opposite them. While it was normal for the group to sit like that, though who sat where was usually different every time, the fact that all of his friends had decided to make a circle around him at exactly the same time made Harry suspicious that there was an ulterior motive.

"What is going on?" he demanded. The others all looked at one another, as if deciding who should start.

"Harry," Daphne said as she started the conversation, "you've been acting odd ever since the end of exams."

"More specifically," Blaise took over, "you've been acting weird ever since the Dursleys were brought up." The four friends watched as Harry flinched and then shivered slightly at just the name.

"You've been acting like you don't want to go home for the summer since then," Tracey added as an afterthought, or so it looked.

"You're right, Trace," Theo said, a bit surprised as he hadn't picked up on it though the girls had. "Don't you want to go home, Harry?"

"Do I want to go home?" Harry snorted at the thought. "I'd rather spend the summer with Ron Weasley, without the twins there." His friends all stared at him in shock as he said that, unable to believe he'd rather be with that Gryffindor than his family.

"How is that possible?" Daphne asked.

"I don't want to go back to the Dursleys, okay?" Harry snapped, angry by the topic of the conversation, not because of his friends. "Just leave it alone."

Harry was about to leave when someone unexpected came up to the group: Draco Malfoy. Harry froze, half sitting and half standing.

"Can I talk to you all?" Draco asked nervously. Harry sat down again.

"Sure. What's up, Draco?" he said for all of them while Daphne gestured for Draco to take the empty seat next to Blaise, which he did.

"I don't know how to say this any other way, so I'm just going to be blunt," Draco said as he gained more courage from their friendliness. "I want to be friends with you and in your group, but it has to look like an alliance to all but your closest friends."

"Why?" Daphne asked as she became the voice of the group, knowing the most about alliances of them all.

"My father," Draco replied and Daphne's face showed realization for a moment before she turned to her friends.

"Draco's father wants him to have an alliance with us – Harry to be more specific – but Draco himself wants to be friends. If we do it this way, it's a win-win for all of us. His father gets Draco in the alliance he wants, Draco gets his wish to be our friend, and we finally get Draco as our friend." Draco looked up in surprise at that as he hadn't realized they wanted to be his friend. "Do we agree with the idea?" The others all nod.

"We agree," Daphne said as she turned back to the young Malfoy.

"Terms?" Draco asked as he went into full-out alliance mode.

"Any terms for the alliance, you guys?" Daphne asked. "He's also asking for the friendship, if you didn't catch it," she added as an aside.

"None of your friends can join us during our study session or anything else, though you may," Tracey said immediately.

Draco nodded. "I quite agree. I noticed, as did you all I suspect, that I got the idiots and you're all the smart ones of Slytherin in our year." The group all nodded. "They'll be kept away."

"Good," Daphne said. "Anything else?"

"No more Mudblood at all except when you must for your father's sake," Harry said after a moment. "You only use Muggle-born, otherwise."

"I've been trying to do that anyway," Draco admitted quietly, as if ashamed.

"We've noticed," Blaise said. "It's what made us realize this would be coming soon. We were happy to see it." Draco smiled hesitantly as he was in completely new territory with all of this.

"Anything else?" Daphne asked as she had nothing else to add herself on top of the other terms.

"Any information you can get on your father's plans and actions?" Harry said, though he was more asking than requesting or ordering.

"Of course," Draco said. "I'd want to help as much as possible. Besides, that much I'd expected." He flashed them a more real smile.

"I believe we're done," Daphne said with a clap of her hands. "Do this again before the Feast to have witnesses? We'll just list the terms at that time, not try to talk them through again." Draco agreed readily and then left with a smile on his face none had seen before.

"He's different," Blaise commented.

"So are you, Blaise," Harry retorted as he made himself more comfortable on the couch, wishing Daphne hadn't taken his foot space. "You used to be against Muggle-borns, claiming Purebloods were ten times better than them, and now you think they're completely normal and even forget all about blood when you're with them. If that's not change from the beginning of the year, I don't know what is."

"How about how you've made it so that all of the first years besides Ron's group and the idiots in our own House think that none of the other Houses are different from their own except for traits so that they all work together?" Theo asked.

"Well, that too," Harry admitted with a nod in Theo's direction.

All of them laughed quietly as they realized how much Harry had done to the school in just their first year alone. Even they had to admit they were afraid to see how the next six years would turn out if he could change school politics around in one month of school.

Harry snuck out of the Great Hall after putting the potion into Dumbledore's goblet with his Cloak on even though it was a half hour before dinner. He and the twins had worked hard on the potion so that it would fit Snape's description to the letter. They didn't want anything to go wrong with this prank.

He returned to the Common Room to meet up with his friends before heading back up to the Great Hall to discuss the alliance formally with Draco. Daphne was the one to make them sit with Harry in between Theo and Blaise with Tracey and herself on either side of them. Draco sat in the same gender order when he and his friends got there.

"I've come to formally ask for an alliance with Harry James Potter and his friends," Draco said once he and his friends were seated across from Harry and his friends.

"We accept the alliance, but we have terms," Harry replied exactly how Daphne had taught him in the Common Room.

"The terms are?" Draco asked.

"The first is that your friends do not come near my friends except when forced to in class." Draco nodded his agreement to the first term like he was supposed to. "The second is to stop using the word 'Mudblood' and use 'Muggle-born' in its place." Again Draco nodded. "The third and final term is to talk freely with us no matter what the topic." Draco smiled slightly while he nodded his agreement as he recognized that the third was a hidden way of having him tell them about his father.

"As you agree to our terms, we agree to the alliance," Harry finished.

"And the alliance is sealed," Draco said to finish off the alliance.

Both boys stood up just moments before the Headmaster did, not having been paying attention to him as they had been making their alliance. Everyone had noticed the new seating arrangements and the talking, and they had all been surprised, but nothing surprised anyone, teacher, student, or ghost, more than Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy reaching across the Slytherin table and shaking hands in front of everyone. They sat down, looked around the Hall, realized what had happened, and looked up at the Headmaster to wait for the announcements.

Once Dumbledore had recovered from his shock and given his announcements, he gave a toast with his goblet and took a sip. The next thing anyone knew, he was suddenly the eight colors of the houses, only the silver and emerald matching the colors of the Hall as Slytherin had won the House Cup again.

His beard was emerald while the rest of his hair remained silver. One arm was half gold and half scarlet while the other was half blue and half bronze. His face was partially yellow while the rest was black. Professor Dumbledore was literally the perfect Headmaster as he fit into every single house because of his coloring.

It took a few moments for the shock of seeing the Headmaster change color to wear off, but once it had, everyone was laughing so hard that some could barely breathe, those who had known about the prank among them. All of the professors could be seen either smiling or laughing, including Snape and McGonagall. The four Heads of House thanked Dumbledore for supporting their House just to make the joke that much funnier.

Harry sighed as he got off the Hogwarts Express at Platform 9 ¾. He didn't want to go back to the Dursleys and even his friends had figured it out by then. Every single one of his friends from Hermione to the twins to Susan to Terry to Draco to Daphne knew. They had all tried to make his train ride fun, but it was hard when he really wasn't looking forward to the summer. He had to survive two and a half months with the Dursleys, who hated magic with a passion.

The young Slytherin took his wand out of his pocket and carefully slipped it up one of his pant legs and holding it in place with his sock so that no one would notice it was there, even if he sat. Harry wanted to be sure he'd keep his wand, even if he couldn't use it. It was better to have an unusable wand than to not have it, especially in the Dursley home.

His friends all noticed his actions and were confused by it. Not even their Muggle-born friends like Hermione were slipping their wands up their pants as if they would never see it again if they didn't. In fact, Hermione was very confused by Harry's actions, more confused than the Purebloods. The only ones who had an inkling of an idea didn't have a very large one, and this just added to their confusion.

Harry fingered his shrunken journal in his pocket, not noticing his friends' scrutiny, and tried to decide if being in his pants pocket was safe enough for it. With his uncle, one could never be too sure what he'd do to get all of Harry's school supplies. Harry had to be very careful how he did things so that he'd never get in trouble.

"Harry?" Hermione asked quietly from beside him as she walked over, making him jump before looking over.

"Yeah?" he asked, still a bit startled.

"Why are you hiding your wand?" she asked. "Not even my family would dare try to take away my stuff. No one else is trying to hide their stuff. What's going on at your home?"

"Nothing's going on at my house," he replied a little too quickly and harshly. "Now, I've got to get going. My uncle is probably waiting on the other side of the barrier."

Harry then hugged the girls, telling Daphne and Tracey that he'd write when he was in his room, and shook hands with the boys. All of his friends watched, worried, as he went through the barrier before sighing sadly, saying goodbye, and going off to find their own families.

On the other side of the barrier, Harry had found Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and their child, his cousin, Dudley waiting for him. He followed them to the car, put his trunk in the boot, and got into the backseat with Dudley, completely ignoring his entire family and wishing he was back at Hogwarts. Harry would rather be anywhere else but with his family.

When Harry and the Dursleys got back to Privet Drive, Uncle Vernon took his trunk and padlocked it into the cupboard under the stairs before padlocking Hedwig into her cage. Harry was allowed to bring her upstairs into his room with him, but he couldn't let her out as his uncle was afraid he'd sent notes to his friends. Luckily for Harry, he had his journal so he could still talk to four people.

The moment he entered his room, Harry was searching through the piles of Dudley's old stuff to try and find something to write with. He was surprised, lucky, and happy to find an unopened box of pre-sharpened pencils. Usually Dudley would have kept those sorts of things in his room, but Harry realized that Dudley hated school, so putting a brand new box of pencils in the second bedroom and saying he lost them was a sneaky way out.

Grabbing one of the pencils from the box, Harry opened and activated his journal. He was surprised to find all four of his friends on. He'd expected one or two, not all of them.

Daphne: Harry!

Harry: Hey Daphne.

Tracey: Hi Harry. Oh, by the way, if you want to say something like that you're laughing, put stars around it and we'll know that you mean you're doing it.

Harry: Huh?

Theo: *Laughs* Like that, Harry. By the way, I really was laughing.

Harry: Oh… And shut up, Theo.

Theo: Try and make me.

Blaise: *Rolls eyes* It hasn't even been ten minutes and you two are arguing already.

Tracey: Blaise, you know they do it because it's their way of saying they're bored and need something new to do.

Blaise: Yeah, I know, but even you have to admit it's kind of sad.

Daphne: I don't think she was denying it. She was just being herself and explaining why they're doing it.

Harry: Can you three just shut up?

Theo: Yeah, it's sort of insulting to have you three talking about us like this.

Harry was about to write something else when he heard his uncle yell up the stairs, "BOY!"

Harry: Uh… guys? I've gotta go. My uncle is calling me, and he's not in a good mood right now.

With that, Harry closed his journal with the pencil inside, shrunk it, put it back in his pocket, and hurried down the stairs.

"Yes, Uncle Vernon?" he asked the moment he got within his uncle's vision but was still too far away to actually touch.

"You have dinner to cook, Boy, so get to it," his uncle ordered before going back into the living room to watch the Tele.

Sighing, Harry went into the kitchen and began making dinner for the Dursleys. He'd probably get a small piece of it and the rest would go to mainly Dudley. It was sad, yes, but it was also how the Dursleys did things, so Harry put up with it and just went with the flow.

Daphne: Something is going on at that house.

Tracey: You're right, Daphne, there is. Harry's never acted like this before.

Theo: How do we prove it? Harry won't tell us anything, especially not after that slip last week.

Blaise: We sneak it out of him, or figure it out from the little things he says.

Daphne: Like how his uncle was mad today?

Blaise: Exactly like that.

Tracey: We'll keep an eye on our friend.

Theo: Of course.

That night, Harry went to bed without getting back to his friends in the journal. While they were slightly upset, they understood and just let him sleep instead of using the function that let them heat up his journal so that he'd get up.


Just let me know what you think of the chapter. I'm looking forward to some of the comments on this chapter because I know they'll be there, especially with the Draco thing. :)

Posted: 12/5/10