Hello, readers! So just a couple things before we get to the chapter...

One, I'm really sorry, but after quite a few complaints, I did some major editing. Mostly to the first and second chapters. So now they explain Riley and her past better... hopefully. The rest of the chapters have been edited too, but mostly it was just a little added humor and attempts at fixing grammar issues. You don't have to read them all again, but I do recommend reading the first two again, if you want to understand Riley's past a bit better.

And secondly, I should warn you this chapter is quite a bit more serious, and there is some character bashing, but that's mostly just because Riley is mad. So please don't take it to heart. I really do love all the characters. Oh and I'll be answering some reviews at the bottom. Anyway that's enough babbling from me, so onward to the story! Enjoy. :)

EDIT: 2/1/2012

Whew! I'm getting a lot done tonight. ;)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but my OC's

Chapter Eleven; A Little Sherlock in Everyone

As the match drew closer, Harry, Hermione and Ron started to get paranoid. And Riley was getting sick of them always talking about Snape and the Stone. She loved her friends, but she was tired of never being listened too.

So Riley started to spend much more time with the Weasley twins, much to their delight. The three of them grew extremely close. So close, in fact that it was rare to find one without the others outside of classes. And one day, Fred and George decided to show Riley their most guarded secret.

"Hey Princess!" Fred called across the common room, using his and George's new nickname for her. She hated it, and that was why they used it. "Come here a second."

Riley sighed at the nickname, but walked over to him anyways. He and George were sitting at one of the tables in the corner of the common room with Lee. Surprisingly they had their homework all laid out around them. She raised her eyebrows at them.

They shrugged and gave her a look that clearly meant; "Even we do our homework sometimes."

Riley shook her head. "Seriously guys, stop calling me that or I'm going to start calling you my knights."

Lee made a face. "More like court jesters."

"Nah, they would actually like that." Riley reasoned.

Lee nodded. It made sense.

"Anyways," George interrupted, looking slightly irritated at Lee, for a reason unknown to Riley. "We wanted to show you the secret to our success—"

"The teachers of tricksters—" Fred said like he was announcing a king.

"The kings of pranks—"

"The peanut to our butter!" Fred exclaimed.

Riley raised an eyebrow at him and Fred's face went slightly pink. George coughed awkwardly. "Right... well, we present to you, the one—"

"The only—"

"The Marauders Map!" the twins finished together, brandishing an old piece of parchment at her.

Riley smiled huge. Of course she had heard of the Marauders map. Her godfather and real father helped make it. Sadly, Moony wouldn't tell her who Prongs and Wormtail were, or why they had the odd nicknames (well, Moony's made sense of course, and she had her suspicions...). Riley quickly snatched the map out of George's hand. Pulling out her wand, she tapped the map, and muttered under her breath:

"I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good."

All four tricksters watched as the map came alive, showing them every person, hallway, closet, and passageway in and out of the castle. It was the ultimate treasure for any prankster.

Fred stared at her suspiciously. "How did you know how to make it work?"

Riley stared at him blankly. "I have no idea what you're talking about, you horribly confused boy."

Fred stared at her for a second, and then shook his head. He knew by now that whenever she started to say things like that, he would never get the answer out of her. No matter what he did.

"Well, anyways." Fred said, using a voice that sounded suspiciously like his brother Percy when trying to invoke his Prefect power. "We decided that you are ready to graduate from apprentice to partner. And in celebration of that, we are giving you this wonderful treasure, knowing that it will be the cause of much mischief and chaos."

The three pranksters watched as Riley's eyes went huge, and suddenly they found themselves being tackled to the ground by a very excited twelve year old. Who knew she had such strength?

~{}~

Finally the day of the dreaded Quidditch match arrived. Riley, Ron and Hermione walked with Harry to the locker rooms with grim faces. Riley may not have believed that Snape was out to kill Harry, but she knew Snape was going to make this game horrible for the Gryffindors.

So with some rather grim 'good luck's', Harry disappeared into the locker rooms and the rest of the quartet found a place in the stands next to Neville. Riley greeted him with a smile, while Hermione and Ron had a hushed conversation.

"Why do they look so grim?" Neville asked Riley, who was painting random things on his face with red and gold face paint. She really couldn't believe he was giving her full right to paint on his face. Luckily she was being nice.

"Oh, don't worry about them Neville. Their just being dramatic, that's all." She smiled sweetly at Ron, who had heard the comment and was glaring at her.

Riley couldn't help but notice that when Snape came out onto the field, he was looking particularly angry. I wonder what's got his wand in a knot...

"Look – they're off. Ouch!" Ron yelped. Someone had poked him hard in the head. It was Malfoy.

Of course... Riley sighed.

"Oh, sorry, Weasley. Didn't see you there." Malfoy grinned broadly at Crabbe and Goyle. "Wonder how long Potter's going to stay on his broom this time? Anyone want a bet? What about you Weasley?"

Riley was happy to note, that Ron ignored him. Or maybe he just didn't answer because George had just hit a Bludger at Snape (Brilliant, that boy is!) and got Hufflepuff a free penalty. (Not quite so brilliant anymore.)

"You know how I think they choose people for the Gryffindor team?" Malfoy said loudly, peeved that Ron hadn't risen to his bait. "Its people they feel sorry for. See, there's Potter, who's got no parents, then there's the Weasleys, who've got no money— you should be on the team, Longbottom, you've got no brains."

Everyone groaned as Snape awarded Hufflepuff another penalty for no reason.

"Oh and how do they choose the players for Slytherin, Malfoy? By how stupid they are?" Riley retorted.

"Shut your mouth, Langley." Malfoy snapped.

Neville who had turned bright red at the comment Malfoy had made about him, turned in his seat to face him.

"Don't talk to her like that." he stammered. "And I'm worth twelve of you, Malfoy."

Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle howled with laughter, but Ron still not looking away from the game, said. "You tell him, Neville."

"Longbottom, if brains were gold you'd be poorer than Weasley, and that's saying something."

"I'm warning you, Malfoy, one more word—" Ron ground out, his teeth clenched in anxiety for Harry and anger at Malfoy.

"Ron!" said Hermione suddenly. "Harry—!"

Everyone turned to watch Harry go into a spectacular dive, which drew gasps and cheers from them all. Riley stood up, and crossed her fingers. Hermione doing the same, as Harry streaked towards the ground like a bullet.

"You're in luck, Weasley. Potter's obviously spotted some money on the ground!" Malfoy said maliciously.

Ron snapped. And before Riley could stop him, Ron was on top of Malfoy, wrestling him to the ground. After a moments hesitation Neville joined the fray, trying to take on both Crabbe and Goyle.

Riley shook her head, muttering about idiots. She pulled her wand out, and cast a Body-Bind on Goyle the bigger of the two goons. She didn't dare try to hit Malfoy or Crabbe, because she was afraid she would hit Neville or Ron instead.

"Come on, Harry!" Hermione yelled, totally oblivious to the fight going on behind her.

Up in the air Snape turned on his broomstick just in time to see something scarlet shoot past him, missing him by inches – the next second, Harry had pulled out of his dive, his arm raised in triumph, the Snitch clasped in his hand.

The stands erupted in cheers. Hermione was so excited, she actually hugged Riley. Riley, herself was jumping around and laughing at how excited Hermione was and how quickly they had won the game. It had to be a record. The crowd all spilled out onto the field, to congratulate the team.

Riley saw Dumbledore talking to Harry, and smiled when he looked up and gave her a wink.

~{}~

While waiting on Harry outside the locker rooms, Riley couldn't help but tell Ron and Hermione "I told you so" over and over... and over.

Of course Hermione never being one to admit she was wrong. Brought up the point; "of course Snape didn't do anything. Dumbledore was there."

Riley just sighed in frustration and rolled her eyes.

Finally after some more random chatter, Harry came back from putting his broom away, with an odd look on his face.

"Harry, where have you been?" Hermione squeaked.

"We won! You won! We won!" shouted Ron. "And I gave Malfoy a black eye, and Neville tried to take out Crabbe and Goyle single handed! Then Riley did some weird spell on Goyle, but Neville still had to fight Crabbe! He's still out cold, but Madam Pomfrey says he'll be alright. Talk about showing the Slytherins! Everyone's waiting for you in the common room, we're having a party. Fred and George stole some cakes and stuff from the kitchens."

Riley laughed, more like the house elves gave them the cakes. Despite what people thought, the house elves were always willing to give away food. And most of them were a very cheery lot. They always kept your secrets for you too. Riley really liked the house elves.

"Never mind that now." Harry said breathlessly. "Let's find an empty room; you wait 'til you hear this..."

~{}~

Riley sighed as she sat in the library doing her homework. It had been a long couple of weeks. After the game against Hufflepuff, Harry, Hermione, and Ron's paranoia and obsession went to an all time high.

After Harry had pulled them into a deserted classroom, he told them about a conversation he overheard between Quirrell and Snape. It seemed Snape had been threatening Quirrell, trying to get Quirrell to tell him how to get passed whatever it was, that was blocking his way to get to the stone and questioning Quirrell's loyalties.

Of course, Riley agreed that it did sound suspicious. But she just couldn't shake the feeling that they were missing something, that there was more to it then that. It just didn't seem like it could be so simple.

And Riley being... well, Riley, she made her thoughts known. And once more the other three didn't agree. Well, Ron and Hermione didn't. Harry agreed to a point, but he still didn't think that there was a chance that Snape was innocent.

They're only seeing what they want to see. Riley thought frustrated.

She had gotten tired of getting shot down every time she tried to explain her thoughts. Until finally, her temper got the best of her (again.) and she blew up at them. Resulting in a huge fight between her, Hermione and Ron. Harry had refused to get involved, because he really liked having Riley as a friend.

Now she wasn't talking to either Hermione or Ron, and by default, Harry.

She wondered later if everyone had a little Sherlock Holmes in them. They probably did, just some more then others. Maybe that's why the trio was so obsessed with this mystery. Riley herself found the whole thing very interesting, but not interesting enough to put her life on hold, and think about nothing else.

Riley now spent most of her time with Fred, George, Lee and surprisingly Neville. She liked Neville. He was a sweet, quite boy. But he also had no confidence in himself (Riley blamed his grandmother for that). So Riley spent a lot of time working on boosting his confidence, and it was working... At least when he was with her... And there wasn't anyone older around. But it was a start.

She had also started to visit Dumbledore regularly, and not because she was sent there by teachers, though she still was. She found that they were a lot alike and he was very easy to talk to, always having some wise or quirky thing to say. Just the other day, she had written up a paper for him to sign stating that he was her unofficial, adoptive grandfather.

Of course, she couldn't tell anyone because that would be favoritism. But she was extremely happy when she got him to actually sign it. He had said he was extremely touched that she would consider him her grandfather. And she believed him.

Sadly, Riley was unable to pull off as many pranks as usual as of late, because the teachers had started stacking on the homework. Saying that the exams were getting closer and they needed to be ready. And so there she was, spending her Easter holiday sitting in the library, trying to do her homework.

That is, until the trio walked in. she wasn't really in the mood for a verbal spar. So instead she gathered her things, and went for a walk around the lake. Since it was such a pretty day outside, there were a lot of people out and about.

~{}~

After a couple rounds around the lake, and a few light hearted conversations with random people, she decided to go see Hagrid. It had been awhile since her last visit.

When she got to the hut, she noticed all the windows were closed but she just figured he didn't want to be disturbed. Just as she was about to walk away, though, she heard voices inside. So her curiosity getting the better of her, again... she knocked.

"Who is it?" She heard Hagrid's gruff voice call.

"It's me, Hagrid. Are you alright?" She asked slightly worried. Hagrid was acting odd. Well, more odd then usual.

Suddenly the door opened and she was hurriedly rushed in, before the door was shut behind her.

"Hullo, Riley."

Riley looked around to see the very people she was trying to get away from, sitting at the table.

Riley plastered a smile on her face. "Hello, Harry. How're you?" she asked, pointedly ignoring the other two.

Hagrid, never being one to notice things like all the tension in the room, just smiled at her and said "Well, sit down; I'll make you cuppa."

Riley smiled and thanked him.

It was stifling hot, inside the rather small hut. Even though it was a warm day, there was a blazing fire in the grate. Hagrid made them tea and offered them stoat sandwiches, which they refused.

"So— yeh wanted to ask me somethin'?" Hagrid asked Harry, as Riley watched on mildly curious.

"Yes, we were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Sorcerer's Stone apart from Fluffy." Harry asked. Apparently he felt no need to beat around the bush, Riley grinned.

Hagrid on the other hand, frowned at him.

"O' course, I can't." he said. "Number one, I don' know meself. Number two, yeh know too much already, so I wouldn' tell yeh if I could. That Stone's here for a good reason. It was almost stolen outta Gringotts— I s'ppose yeh've worked that out an' all? Beats me how yeh even know abou' Fluffy."

"Oh, come on, Hagrid. You might not want to tell us, but you do know. You know everything that goes on round here." said Hermione in a warm, flattering voice. Hagrid's beard twitched and they could tell he was smiling.

Riley smirked. She may be mad at Hermione, but even she had to admit; she was good.

"We only wondered who had done the guarding, really." Hermione went on. "We wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you."

Hagrid's chest swelled at these last words. Harry and Ron beamed at Hermione and Riley hid a smirk behind her mug.

She was good, not good enough for it to work on anyone other then Hagrid. But there was definitely potential.

"Well, I don' s'pose it could hurt ter tell yeh that... let's see... he borrowed Fluffy from me... then some o' the teachers did enchantments... Professor Sprout— Professor Flitwick— Professor McGonagall—" Hagrid ticked them off on his fingers; "Professor Quirrell— an' Dumbledore himself did somethin', o' course. Hang on, I've forgotten someone. Oh yeah, Professor Snape."

Riley narrowed her eyes, something was definitely off. She had thought so from the beginning. So she decided to go over the facts again.

From what she had heard, Snape used to dabble (well, more then dabble. But this wasn't the time to get into that.) In the Dark Arts, and continuously tried to get the DADA job. So why would he need someone like Quirrell's help to get past whatever was blocking the way?

She could understand if he was having issues with Dumbledore's, or even McGonagall's protection. But she doubted Quirrell would have anymore luck with either of them then Snape would. And with Snape's experience, she doubted the inexperienced Quirrell could come up with something to stop him. So the question was what was really going on here? Why was Snape threatening Quirrell if it wasn't for his help? And why had he been trying to get past Fluffy if he didn't think he could get passed all the protections?

She felt like the answer was right in front of her, just out of reach, taunting her.

"Snape?" the three stooges (as Riley so fondly dubbed them in her irritation,) cried at the same time.

"Yeah— yer not still on abou' that, are yeh? Look, Snape helped protect the Stone, he's not about ter steal it."

Riley watched, with slight amusement at the ignorance of the trio, for not seeing all the flaws in what they thought was going on. All they needed to do was look at all the facts, and not just the ones that point to Snape being the bad guy.

Of course, she knew that was still a possibility as they had evidence against him. But the more they learned, the more things just didn't fit with that theory.

"You're the only one, who knows how to get past Fluffy, aren't you Hagrid?" Harry asked anxiously. "And you wouldn't tell anyone, would you? Not even one of the teachers?"

Riley shook her head; Hagrid was much too loyal to tell anyone purposely. But as shown by Hermione, it didn't take much to get the answer out of him.

Riley made note that, even though he was a great and an extremely loyal friend, not to trust him with important secrets.

"Not a soul knows except me an' Dumbledore." Hagrid said proudly.

"Well, that's something." Harry muttered. "Hagrid, can we open a window? I'm boiling."

"Can't, Harry, sorry." Hagrid said, his eyes flashing to the fire. Riley and the others turned to look too, only for Riley to drop her mug, making the others jump. They had forgotten she was there, because she had been so quite.

"No way..." She whispered in awe.

Lying in the fire, underneath the kettle, was a huge, black egg. Hagrid had found himself a dragon.

~{}~

midori17: I was actually able to read some of it because I've been taking Spanish. But after awhile I figured it would be best if I used a translator. Lol! But anyway thank you for review! And I hope you liked this chapter. :)

Gui: Honestly, I hadn't even realized I did that until you told me. Anyway thanks for your review. :)

Kayakingoffwaterfalls: Thank you so much for you encouragement and I really hope you like this chapter as much as the others. :)

So that's it for now, I'm not sure when the next chapter will be up but hopefully it will be soon.

Anyways check out my profile, I have a poll going, info on what stories I'm planning, and what I'm already working on. Let me know what you think in a review or even PM me I'm not picky. haha!

ttfn.