ANs:
Harry is quieter but acts more decisively when needed
Ron is more perceptive
Voldemort did not realize who the three of them were
"And to think we were looking in the wrong book all this time!" Hermione threw her hands up in the air. Quietly, in case Madam Pince heard them.
Two days after the incident with the Song, Harry told her about wheedling the identity of the Alchemist's Stone out of Hagrid.
Hermione responded in her own fashion by berating herself for not having thought of it and started researching everything she could about a famous artifact.
"And it says here that Flamel conducted a controversial ritual by duping a bunch of muggles to sing the ritual words with him. More than just a threat to the Statute, the ritual itself was said to have been inspired in Flamel by a passing song and to this day, almost no one understands it. The Stone is able to transmute lead into gold as well as create Elixir of Life which allows the drinker to remain young and live forever! Of course Snape wants the Stone, who wouldn't want the Alchemist's Stone?!" Hermione huffed as she pushed the heavy book to Harry and Ron who were looking at the heavily cursive words with a skeptical eye. "I knew Flamel's name was familiar, I just don't recall where I saw it before..."
As his friend scowled to herself, Harry glanced over the page. He wondered how long until their obviously evil potions professor would make another attempt. Professor Dumbledore was barely around, he often took a hurried breakfast early before running off on other business. The school was practically run by Professor McGonagall now.
"Um, Hermione," Ron's voice pulled Harry out of his dark musings. The two friends look at him, and the small chocolate frog card resting in his open hand. Unusually for Ron, he looked a little sheepish.
"That's a Dumbledore card," Harry pointed out, recognizing the bearded old man winking at him from the cover, "like the one you gave me on the train..."
"-famous for the work on the uses of dragon blood with alchemist Nicholas Flamel! It was right in front of me all this time?!" Hermione's voice edged upwards as she nearly exploded in self-directed frustration.
Harry hid a wince as Ron clapped a hand over her mouth. Her voice had started to sound a bit too much like Petunia on a bad day. And it wasn't just him who had a shock, judging from the clatter of falling books on the shelf behind them.
He glanced around to see Hagrid standing amidst a fallen pile of books, a broken book holder in his hands.
Hermione groaned when she saw Madam Pince bearing down on them with the wrath of Merlin on her face.
Hagrid shuffled guiltily as he was pinned by the flat stares of a certain trio of first years.
"Uh, sorry 'bout that," he shuffled backwards towards the sweet freedom promised by the central staircase.
Ron cracked first, mouth twitching with mirth, before they all broke down into chuckles.
"So Hagrid, it's rare to see you in the library," Hermione nodded at the large man after their laughter died down, "what have you got there?"
The amusement died a swift and possibly fiery death when Hagrid, instead of explaining, just looked guilty again. "It's nothing much, just a book on raising dragons. You know, for my interests. " His words did not inspire confidence in Harry, much less Hermione.
"Hagrid, why do you need a book on raising dragons? You don't... actually have, a dragon. Do you?"
He just looked away from Hermione's questions.
"Hagrid! You know dragon raising is illegal without a license!" Hermione almost screamed again and this time it was up to Harry to shush her. "And Hagrid, you live in wooden house!"
"Oh nonsense, it's perfectly safe, it's just an egg," the man waved her off gruffly, "I can take care of it just fine. "
"What is this about an egg?"
The dreaded voice made Harry's stomach drop into his feet.
"Professor McGonagall," Hermione greeted their teacher automatically and then froze.
"Hagrid?" the stern Transfiguration teacher might as well have turned the larger man into stone with her unamused glare. From the look on her face, they all knew the game was up. Harry was half relieved that his favourite giant of a man would not be injured doing something extremely foolish but at the same time, the promise of grave punishments in Professor McGonagall's eye did not bode well for Hagrid.
"How did Hagrid get a dragon's egg anyway?" Ron asked, "it's not like you can just buy these things from random people in a bar. "
Hagrid gave a weak chuckle, "funny story that. I played cards for it with this man. In a bar, too. Funny guy all wrapped up, but you get all sorts down in-"
To Harry's quiet amazement, Professor McGonagall let Hagrid tell the story. And unlike when he was trying to wheedle information out of Hagrid, the Professor merely had to quirk eyebrows or tap a foot to get Hagrid to yield more information. Ron was also paying attention, a frown on his face.
"Did the man want anything before just giving you a dragon egg for a game of cards?" Ron asked when Hagrid wound down.
"Not really, I think he was just a good guy. Wanted to find a home for the poor dragon he found and all. Even asked if I could take care of it properly. Of course convincing him wasn't a problem, all you need to know about creatures is how to handle them, like Fluffy, just sing to him and he goes right... to... sleep..."
From how Hagrid's face suddenly paled and the thunderous expression on his professor's face, Harry did not need to ask to know Hagrid had indeed just told whoever that mysterious man was, how to get past the three headed dog.
Ron asked anyway, "is that you telling us or did you tell the man-"
The audible gulp was confirmation enough.
"Professor, Snape is trying to get the Stone!" Hermione whirled to face Professor McGonagall, "and now he knows how to get past the cerberus and- and-"
"Calm down, Miss Granger," the professor steadied Hermione with a hand on her shoulder, "I can assure you that Snape is perfectly trustworthy. More important, is how the three of you managed to find out what is beyond the third floor corridor. Though I think I know the answer to that. Yes, Hagrid? I don't know why Professor Dumbledore would have told you what was beyond the corridor. But no matter. "
She continued with a sigh, "the three of you are not to speak of the item being guarded. Rest assured that the protections are strong and secure. Despite your misadventures-"
"Professor, I think it would be better to check the corridor. Just in case," Ron interrupted her. "Whoever gave Hagrid the dragon might have intended it as a distraction whenever the egg hatches. But now... Dumbledore's never around and, how long ago did you get the egg, Hagrid?"
The big man shrugged, "it was yesterday evening. I came up here the moment the library was opened to see how to care for it, you know. "
"Then since Professor Dumbledore was here for dinner yesterday and breakfast today, whoever is going after the Stone has had nearly three hours to work through the protections," Ron spoke in a distant thinking tone that he had only ever used when destroying a strong opponent at wizarding chess.
Harry was finding that he had to change his opinion of Ron in the last few days. His friend was still impulsive and lazy but he hid an intelligent mind behind that shell. In a flash, Harry wondered what Ron might be like a few years older.
"Very well," Professor McGonagall huffed, "I will check on the protections. Hagrid, please see that these three children are returned to the Gryffindor dorms and to stay there-"
And now it was time for him to act.
"I will go with you, Professor. " Right after the disastrous quidditch match when Snape had made an attempt on his life, Harry had decided that he could not simply rely on others to keep him safe. Harry had never told anyone, not even his friends. But right now, he had to make a stand.
It seemed like today was a day where he had to reassess everyone. Professor McGonagall, instead of instantly sending Harry back to his room like an unruly child, stopped to smile faintly. For a moment Professor McGonagall looked every year of her age. "I remember when there was another boy in this school just like you. I never could keep him and his friends out of trouble and it looks like you are just the same. You wouldn't stay behind even if I told you to, would you? Very well, Mister Potter, come along, but no further than to confirm no one has disturbed the cerberus. Hagrid, please inform Professor Sprout that I am about to investigate the third floor corridor. "
Hagrid nodded and his heavy footfalls led off to the staircases.
Harry turned to Hermione and Ron. Before he could open his mouth both of them immediately interrupted him. "Don't even think about it. " "You'll need someone to watch your back. "
He grinned back and hurried to follow Professor McGonagall to the third floor corridor.
They arrived to find Fluffy's door hanging ajar, the soft sounds of a harp playing over the louder triple snores of Fluffy. Harry nudged a horrified Hermione with his elbow, waving his wand meaningfully. Ron already had his out and she drew hers with quietly shaking hands.
Professor McGonagall cursed under her breath, "we just tripped a ward. "
The professor pushed open the door carefully, wand held at the ready. Then she straightened and rushed into the room.
"Professor Quirrel, are you alright?" she asked, checking over the turbaned professor. The DADA teacher sitting against the wall, with flecks of blood leaking from his mouth, couldn't even open his eyes as he lifted his head.
"P-p-professor M-m-mc, S-s-snape is after the- the-" he stuttered falteringly.
"Hush, we'll get help," the transfiguration professor tried to help Quirrel to his feet but the man hissed in pain.
"S-s-stone... first," he pushed McGonagall's hands away.
Professor McGonagall nodded, looked around the room once and snapped out a series of orders. "Hermione, can you sustain a transfiguration? Keep the harp playing. Ronald and Harry, levitate the professor and help him to the infirmary, the two of you should be able to lift him together if you can use a troll's club. Once they are out of the room, Hermione, get Madam Pomfrey immediately. "
She muttered, "and I will go after Snape. "
They leapt into action as the professor twirled her wand with an "Expecto Patronum", summoned a glowing silver cat before sending it away. She flipped the trapdoor open with a wave of her wand and looked back at the three of them, "stay safe. "
Harry watched Fluffy warily until Hermione had her wand pointed at the harp and focused her magic. Other than Hermione, no one else in their year could possibly sustain a transfiguration that large and complex. He turned to help Ron with the professor-
Harry went cross-eyed with the tip Quirrel's wand hovering a mere inch from his face.
"Stupefy"
Voldemort hurried along the trail of destruction behind the arrogant McGonagall. The stupid and dumb woman was dismantling all the traps in her way in her haste to catch up with the stealthy Snape. Just like her to bring along three little kids to chase a dangerous wizard after the stone. Not even Voldemort would do that, what the woman thought they could do was beyond him. If it was an actual dark wizard after the stone and not Voldemort weaker than he had ever been.
The first year had put up a surprisingly hard fight for a little girl, he had had to use far more magic than he expected. This body was fading rapidly under his possession, Voldemort really should have let the man go with the unicorn blood to shore up his power but the opportunity of Dumbledore stuck at the ICW was too great to ignore. Plus the unicorn blood would cloud his thinking and dull his senses in exchange for restoring his life and magic.
Still, he had enough magic in him to defeat a transfiguration professor. Whatever traps or obstacles might exist would not be something that required much magic to solve, the crazy old wizard wouldn't want to hurt any of his little charges who wandered down here, right? Even the dog outside would only maul you a little, not that the Cerberus had lived after eating a blasting curse for interrupting.
He caught up to her right as she was disabling the fire zones of Snape's potions room.
"What-" was all the professor got out before a beam of light nearly set her on fire.
Her icy hail into the empty troll room was batted into the wall with a wave of his hand, and then the battle really began.
A few minutes later, Voldemort spat out a glob of sweat and saliva, cursing his temporary body's weakness. Quirrel wasn't a strong person in the first place and the possession had taken its toll. Voldemort forcing his magic through Quirrel in an extended drawn out battle didn't help.
He glared at the transfiguration professor's statute, with one arm raised and a wide-eyed desperate expression. Zhonya's Defence. McGonagall's last ditch defence turned herself into a time locked statute, something that she couldn't reverse by herself, obviously. Only the very best of transfiguration masters could attempt this and not kill themselves from temporal shear.
Her statute was impervious to all attacks and magic, except for the killing curse. Something that he really couldn't spare the magic for. She would take a day or so to thaw out naturally, more than enough time for Dumbledore to come to her rescue.
In fact, the doddering old fool was probably on his way, McGonagall had already sent her message minutes ago after all.
Voldemort stumbled through the wrecked potions room, an Assyrian ice curse parted Snape's fire wall.
And there, in front of him, lay his prize. The culmination of all his efforts!
The little red stone, small enough to fit into his fist. A seven fold sealing diagram? Pah, was that the best Dumbledore could create?
Voldemort examined the lines, looking for the inevitable weaknesses of this particular sealing technique. It was more suited to internal defence and the trapping of dangerous creatures than to keep others out. Dumbledore might be a genius at magic but not even he could invert the technique perfectly.
And there it was, Voldemort jabbed his wand into a corner while prodding the second edge clockwise with a pair of fingers laced with magic. He hummed a short series of very exact notes and the outermost layer crumbled with not a sound. Six layers left and not much time to do it in.
Breaking through the remaining layers, each more fiendishly designed than the last, was an exercise in tediousness. Voldemort at his height could smash his way through, but now he was reduced to this! His learning journey over the years had given him some cursebreaking knowledge but he shouldn't have to scrabble about on the ground like some common wizard! He was Voldemort and magic should bow to his dominion!
With a snarl, Voldemort snatched up the Stone from the broken warding array. That seal had delayed him for as much as time as it took to defeat McGonagall.
Luckily, Voldemort had planned ahead for his inevitable success by preparing the ingredients for Elixir of Life before attempting the corridor. With a simple plop, the Stone dropped into the vial and an enchanted music box to perform the melody-modified ritual chant for him, a few seconds was all it took for the Elixir to be completed.
"Heh. Hahaha... Muhahahaha!" the Dark Lord cackled as he downed the potion in a single swig. His magic and life surged back, greater than ever before!
The last drop went down his throat right as phoenix fire arrived out of thin air on a clarion call of battle.
"Energy drain?" Shurelia looked up from the dinner, interrupting Leard from his report on Metafalss politics.
No. There had been a short spike in the Tower's broadcast field, as if someone or something had requested a huge amount of energy before the authentication system kicked it out.
That was troubling, she had expected that the locals would eventually realize the presence of the Tower's energy broadcast field. But not this soon, even the locals who had H-wave abilities shouldn't be able to reverse engineer Sound Science in just two months!
The drain this time was small and undirected though, whatever that was wasn't specifically meant to tap into the Tower, possibly a generic symphonic power collector. Shurelia shook her head, it was impossible to tell without the device in front of her.
Still, perhaps a mission to wherever that was would be good. The embassy effort could pull double duty to assess the locals' progress in Sound Science perhaps?
"Leard, do we have a map of this world?"
Harry jerked awake at the crashing of stone and the wail of tortured magic. Before he had even thought about the situation, Harry grabbed his fallen wand lying next to him and rolled to his feet.
Quirrel- The train of thought crashed to a halt as what was Fluffy's room exploded around him. Dimly, he stepped in front of Hermione's fallen form -she's burnt, her face and arms- and the chips of flying stone pattered off his school uniform.
Fluffy's room didn't look like Fluffy's room anymore. The giant dog was missing a head and blood was everywhere on the walls. What was left of the walls.
Instead, one entire side of the room -thank goodness it wasn't their side- was just missing, the damage going through the empty classroom and the next wall to open into the empty air over the school's outer grounds. The floor of said classroom and half of Fluffy's room was also gone, exposing a surprisingly undamaged broom closet below.
The calm afternoon sun outside shone down on Professor Quirrel floating in mid-air, surrounding the sneering man with a golden glow. The sneer and the sheer confidence in his posture made Quirrel look like a completely different man. Not to mention his turban was missing and his hair looked to have grown back into a short buzzcut. No, it slowly growing back as Harry watched, getting longer visibly.
In the shadow of the castle in front of Harry and his friends, was Dumbledore. The Headmaster's countenance looked scarier than Harry had ever seen him look before, not even when the twins had exploded an actual toilet like they had threatened their mum with on the platform. The cold anger on the Headmaster's face was totally at odds with his fun and almost foolish behaviour.
Harry realized that his Headmaster might be a bit more complex than he had thought. That he appeared to be a doting grandparent to let the Hogwarts students not be scared of him even when Dumbledore, Chief Warlock and Supreme Mugwump, was really a very powerful wizard who could do anything he liked to them.
The very alarming circumstances Harry found himself in might be worth screaming just about now but somehow Harry did not feel like screaming. Even if the tension between Dumbledore and Quirrel looked hard enough to grind the castle to dust. Even if Hermione was gravely injured and Professor McGonagall was missing and Harry himself had just woken up and holy shit, Hermione was half burnt and needed to get to hospital wing and safety right now and not in that order.
No, Harry felt as if time was passing very slowly or his thoughts were just racing really fast.
The Headmaster was staring down a very dangerous and cunning dark wizard in the form of Quirrel. The Headmaster did not need little children distracting him or needing to be protected. He remembered how that went in stories and how he was always irritated at the dumb kid who didn't just run away. And Hermione was injured and maybe dying!
"I'll get Hermione and Ron out of here," Harry said softly, getting only a single nod from the Headmaster who didn't take his eyes off the floating former-Professor of Defence.
Leviosa. "I wonder how long you can defend those children? Maybe I'll tear down this castle stone by stone as you exhaust yourself?"
"You have come to the wrong place, Tom. "
"Ah, I knew you would recognize me. No matter, I have already won, for you see, I have the Stone. With it, I have unlimited power!"
No no, ignore the ominous taunting. Dumbledore didn't deign to give a response, only the sensation of risen magic prickling on Harry's skin like a wave of goosebumps. Then Fluffy's door, hanging half off it's hinges, was lit up by flashes of colour and a horrible sparkcrashbang came from behind Harry.
He pushed Ron through the door, taking more care not to bump the floating Hermione against the frame and ignoring how he was straining to even keep her off the ground.
The spellfire behind him crackled higher in intensity when he got through the door, Dumbledore and whoever Tom was unleashing magic that seemed to tear at the fabric of reality. Dumbledore's phoenix sang a battlecry that lifted his spirits despite the exhaustion from keeping Hermione floating.
Behind the door, he saw Snape and Flitwick hurrying down the third floor corridor towards them. The stern potions teacher glanced down at Harry struggling with Hermione and flicked his wand at her once. Immediately the load lightened to a feather. Flitwick tapped the doorway and hooted twice, like an owl, and immediately the sounds of battle faded to a distant roar.
On their tail was Madam Pomfrey and Pomona, the first of whom gasped at Hermione's horrible wounds. The mediwitch immediately motioned for Harry to set her down, which he did gladly, and knelt beside his friend with her wand out. Pomona fretted for a moment before continuing to join the battle.
"I've stabilized her as best as I can," Madam Pomfrey said, wand still moving non-stop. Hermione's burns stopped oozing blood but still remained just as horrible. "She's lucky, there's no curses in the damage, it won't scar much. Take her down to the hospital wing and put her on a bed, do not cover her with a sheet. A seventh year will be with you to administer potions. " Seeing Harry nod back, Pomfrey stood up and sent of the same glowing white messenger Harry saw McGonagall use and hurried through the doorway to help any of the teachers who might get injured.
Harry stood up, marshalled his magic and levitated Hermione again. He might be exhausted but Hermione depended on him now. Never mind his unearned legend as the Boy-Who-Lived, if he couldn't even lift her to the hospital wing when she was a feather's weight then he wasn't worthy of the name Harry Potter.
Dumbledore shouted a carefully pronounced word and a jet of water flew out of his wand, transforming into a hail of metal needles on its way towards Riddle. The phoenix hovering near his shoulder started its battlesong. Almost instinctively, Dumbledore fell into the rhythm of that wordless crying and whistles.
Forwards and left twice, duck under a killing curse, transform the blast of fire into a swarm of exploding snitches. Charm the snitches to follow the target. Shield against bonebreaker, step right and back to dodge another killing curse. Wand up, retransfigure blocked metal needles into a cloud of acid fog.
It was almost like a dance, something he had forgotten since the time he had dueled Grindelwald with a phoenix on his shoulder. Riddle had never stood around to fight like this, always plotting and striking from the shadows, always fearful of a decisive battle he might lose. Clearly the boost given by Elixir of Life was making the dark lord overconfident.
Without looking, Dumbledore felt two familiar presences step up behind him. Snape and Flitwick. Charms and curses flew from them thick and fast as Dumbledore stepped back into a more defensive role without needing to discuss strategy.
Transfigure rock to intercept killing curse at Flitwick. Glance at Snape, send "you will not return to him" with Legilimency, immediately Snape's curses become darker and lethal. Homing bonebreaker into blood-to-acid into shadow shield.
The barrage of magic sent at Tom was putting him on the backfoot but revitalized by the Elixir, they had less stamina than he. Dumbledore felt Pomona join the battle and took a risk. Glancing at Snape again to tell him the plan, Dumbledore swiped aside a curse meant for the Herbology teacher before disappearing into a blaze of phoenix fire, the only teleportation that worked in Hogwarts.
Fawkes' battlesong remained uninterrupted through the fire step, even as Dumbledore materialized behind Tom and catching the dark lord in a lethal crossfire that made his defence precarious. The dark lord still managed to catch Snape with a bouncing sunfire curse that Dumbledore wasn't around to intercept. The potions master rolled to the ground and batted the flames down with his wand but his off-hand was charred and burnt.
Still, caught between Dumbledore's transfiguration, Snape's offensive barrage and Flitwicks more subtle but no less deadly assortment of charms, with Pomona and now Pomfrey to play defence and exploit opportunities, a lone Voldemort might have all the magical power but he simply couldn't cast fast enough to counter everything that was being thrown at him.
Just before Dumbledore could finish turning a spray of burning smoke into a magic resistant silver cage for Flitwick to animate while Snape began a sequence of hard to counter curses, the dark lord had sensed his impending doom and cast his wand down. The flight spell cut out, dropping the wizard below Snape's barrage, and a blossom of blood-red flame appeared below the dark lord.
There was a distinctive discordant shriek as the universe protested the birth of the Fiendfyre. Immediately, the droplet expanded, feeding on the fertile magical soil of the Hogwarts grounds, birthing a deadly python made of raw negativity. Fawkes shrieked its anger at the snake, the two magical songs clashing in a horrible disharmony. But disharmony only fed the chaotic destruction that was Fiendfyre.
Not that Voldemort was getting away with that however, the dark lord had to dodge his own Fiendfyre as it began to run out of control almost immediately. As Dumbledore immediately worked to corral it, feeling Flitwick singing a goblin tune on the opposite side, Voldemort zoomed up and away into the sky.
The dark lord had successfully gambled that Dumbledore would work to save his school and the children there over capturing Voldemort.
So be it.
The headmaster sighed as the last of the flaming python disappeared back into nothingness, leaving a circle of fused glass on the lawn. Now that the phoenix battlesong had faded, he was starting to second guess his decision to place the trap in the school. Had he spread himself too thin with too many offices? But everyone had wanted him to take the posts. And now the Tower had arrived, making his schedule so stretched that a gap in the response time to the trap had appeared, and Voldemort had exploited it.
"Was that wise?"
He looked up to find Snape standing close, a question in his eyes despite the hint of pain from the cursed burns. Snape going serious on the dark lord would jeopardize his position. But that was infeasible anyway. "Voldemort has the stone. With it, he will be more aggressive and less accepting of subterfuge. It would have been too dangerous for you to return, he would have asked you to do things I could not allow you to do. " And now too dangerous to leave the castle.
Dumbledore could see Snape understood the effective jail sentence. "I sense you're happy about that," Dumbledore asked, "will you not grow bored in captivity?"
"Compared to the excitement of being a spy in the dark lord's inner circle, I'll take boredom and being annoyed at children every time. "
"Even the annoyance of the son of a certain woman?"
"Even him. "
Dumbledore chuckled hollowly and returned to look at the glass circle. The offer of a lemon drop to Snape was refused as always. In a moment, he would recall the Order and the war would begin anew.
But for now, he just wanted to remember his faults and mistakes.