Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OCs and the plot.

I did say I would take a break, but I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm turning into an insomniac. Hopefully, now I'll really take a break instead of just saying I will.


~The Philosopher's Stone~

It was breakfast, and the usual owls arrived in a flurry. Aria swooped down and threw his father's reply on the table before flying away again quickly and going to the owlery.

Harry picked up the letter and started to open it. He broke the blood red wax seal and took out the piece of parchment inside.

It seems like you have already started looking for trouble at Hogwarts. The third floor corridor contains a series of puzzles or challenges; whatever your professors can conjure, designed to protect a certain important object.

The philosopher's stone is being held at Hogwarts. Although this may be pointless to say, knowing you, do try to be careful and don't get caught. Quirrell has been trying to get in for a while now, but he was waiting for the right opportunity. I have heard that Dumbledore is away, and he will probably try to get into the room any day now.

I obviously don't need the philosopher's stone, so if you manage to acquire it, you may keep it to yourself.

I repeat, Kieran, be careful.

-LV

Harry read the spidery scrawl and grinned. He would get the philosopher's stone!

He hopped off his seat and stuffed the letter in his pockets. He would burn it later.

"Where are you going, Harry?" Draco called out, surprised.

"Library." Harry replied offhandedly.

The Slytherins stared at each other and shrugged.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Harry walked into the Hogwarts library and looked around for Seth. He spotted him at a table and took a seat near him.

"I got the letter from father." Harry grinned. "He says that the dog is guarding the philosopher's stone!"

Understanding shone in Seth's wide eyes.

"No way!" He exclaimed in a hushed whisper. "They hid it in here?"

"Well, how were they supposed to know I'm here?" Harry smirked predatorily. "We're going tonight."

Seth laughed excitedly, happy at the prospect of finally checking the hallway out.

"No noise in the library!" A screech came from near the entrance.

"Shut up, old hag!" Harry said before casting an invisibility charm on him and Seth.

An outraged cry came from the librarian and she stomped over to where the voice had come from, finding no one there.

She paled and started muttering under her breath.

"Peeves again… One day, one day soon…" She grumbled sourly.

Harry snickered and waved his wand at a bookshelf, causing all the books to fall out and another shriek to fill the room.

"Stop it, Harry." Seth pushed him with an apologetic look at her, even though she couldn't see him.

"Fine, fine." He grinned.

They walked out of the library, hearing the bell signifying the start of class.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

It was night, and they could finally go into the forbidden third floor corridor.

Harry had snuck out of the Slytherin dorms with his backpack, and rushed to the corridor's entrance where Seth was waiting for him.

"Wait a moment." Harry said. "I need to cast a spell on you first."

"Why?" Seth asked while staring at him questioningly.

"you're going to have to change your faces, obviously. What if we get caught?" Harry said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Oh… I forgot about that." Seth grinned sheepishly.

"Which is why you always lose." Harry said while smirking smugly. "You don't think things through."

"It is not!" Seth said sullenly before turning an accusing finger on Harry. "You just have too much luck, that's all."

"Whatever makes you happy." Harry said with a laugh before taking out his wand.

Harry changed Seth's appearance to that of a slightly short 11 year old with black hair and grey eyes and transfigured both of their robes into plain black.

The spell Harry cast on himself was a bit more complicated. It didn't exactly prevent people from remembering his face; the person would know that Harry had the same face as their classmate known as Hadrian hades, but the spell wouldn't allow them to connect the dots and reach the conclusion that the person before them is Harry.

The spell could only be broken if Harry himself reveals his identity or if the person sees undeniable proof that leaves absolutely no place for doubts about who he is.

This spell was a godsend for Harry, who hated glamours. Glamours could flicker or even fail if the caster loses his temper or concentration, which happened to Harry often enough for it to be a serious issue.

He also cast it on Seth just to be safe. One could never be too prepared.

"Are you ready?" He asked Seth.

Seth nodded and they both pushed the corridor entrance open to find… a soundly sleeping three headed dog with an instrument hanging in the air charmed to make music.

How anti-climactic.

Harry was annoyed. So Quirrell was already in. Oh well.

"Huh, I guess someone must've come in before us." Seth said as he looked at the violin playing.

"Well, let's go then." Harry sighed with disappointment.

He walked over to the dog, which was snoring loudly and looking like it wouldn't wake up even if someone dropped it from a twelve story high building. Harry pushed the large monster away from the trapdoor and pulled it open.

Seth peered into the dark hole, trying to see through the darkness.

"Well, what do you think is down there?" Harry asked him.

"Only one way to find out." Seth grinned as he jumped down into the black depths of the trapdoor.

Harry sighed. There he goes again, no planning at all.

The three headed dog issued a particularly loud snore which almost popped Harry's eardrums, and Harry, looking at it with annoyance, kicked it right in the behind, causing it to slide one foot forward.

The dog, however, kept sleeping soundly and looked as if the hit didn't harm it at all, and Harry scowled at it and gave it one more just for good measure.

Harry peered into the hole, looking for any signs of Seth.

"Haaaarrryyyyyyyy!" A loud shout came out of the hole.

Harry, alarmed, immediately dove through the darkness, and landed on a soft, cold surface.

Harry could see what the problem was now. A plant was tightly coiled around Seth's limbs and had already started doing so to Harry.

Harry was startled for a moment before regaining his cool.

Right. Concentrate.

He studied the plant for a moment before realizing it was a devil's snare. He forced his body to relax and go limp, before squinting to find Seth.

"Seth! Stop moving! It's a devil's snare!"

Seth stopped struggling although he was still stiff, and he grunted as the plant coiled tighter around his neck.

After Harry stopped moving completely, he waited for a moment before flicking his wrists in a quick, sharp movement. His wand shot into his hand from its holster and he muttered a quick Incendio.

A bright blue flame shot out of the tip of his wand and the plant started to retreat to avoid the warm light given by the flare.

"Whew!" Seth exhaled. "Merlin, I hate plants!"

Harry stood up and grinned at Seth as he dusted his clothes off.

"You looked really cool there, getting strangled by a plant." He smirked at him smugly.

One minute and a punch later, Harry was sporting a large bump on the back of his head.

"You didn't have to hit me that hard." He sulked. "That hurt, you know."

Seth ignored him as he walked through the stone passageway.

As they walked through the damp cold corridor, the sound of many wings cutting through the air reached Seth's keen ears.

"Can you hear that?" Seth asked.

"Eh? Hear what?" Harry replied.

"Hurry up!" Seth said as he ran towards the end of the hallway.

Harry sprinted after him and into a large room, filled with what seemed to be… flying keys!

"What are those for?" Seth exclaimed.

Harry studied the place, finding a door at the other side of the room.

"Come on." Harry said over his back as he ran to the other side of the room.

The door was large and made out of wood, and Harry studied the handle for a moment. It was made out of silver and the keyhole was large. A large, silver key then.

"We have to find the key." Harry explained to him spotting a few old brooms propped against the wall. "There! Let's take a broom and start looking. The key is big and silver and probably pretty old. First one to get it wins. On 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and… go!"

They flew up on their brooms and Harry shot straight up to observe from a bird's eye point of view.

His eyes flicked all over the place, searching for the key. He moved around the room but his eyes still hadn't caught on to it yet. Where was it? Where is it hiding? Where? His eyes were still searching, left, right, left, right.

There!

Harry shot forward at the same time Seth spotted the key, and they were now getting closer and closer to the key.

Harry tipped forward, increasing his speed more and more, even though it was probably dangerous. Seth seemed to notice that and his eyes widened. They were going to collide, both of them realized too late.

Harry realized Seth was pulling up his broom in an effort to slow down and smirked internally. Harry pulled up his broom but kept his eyes on the key and just as his hands were going to close around it, they collided and fell to the floor in a heap.

"Ouch! That hurt." Seth rubbed his head.

They hadn't sustained much damage because of their body strengthening magic, but they were still kind of sore.

Harry gagged and put a hand to his mouth as he fell down on all four.

"Harry? Harry! Are you okay?" Seth slapped Harry's back with all his power-

-Causing a silver key to fall out of Harry's mouth and into his hands, and Harry breathed in deeply to avoid vomiting on the floor.

"You almost ate the key!" Seth looked at him disapprovingly. "How were you going to get the philosopher's stone if you choked on a key?"

"It was an accident." Harry croaked as he cleared his throat.

That was horrible!

Now one of the key's wings was crumpled, and it was disgustingly dripping.

"Scourgify." Harry aimed his wand at the key.

The spell cleaned the key and Harry stood up with it in his hands and stood triumphantly with his hands on his hips.

"I won!" He gave a loud, almost maniac laugh and fell down to the floor as Seth gave another punch to his head.

"You can be really stupid sometimes." Seth sighed as he picked the key from Harry's hands and headed to the door.

Harry sullenly held his head as he walked behind Seth. He was just a sore loser!

Seth opened the door and stopped in his tracks as he took in the sight in front of him.

There was a giant chess set in the room.

Harry looked over his shoulder at the set, and grinned as he pushed past him.

"This will be easy." He smirked. "You take the castle's place, and I'll be a bishop."

They got into their positions and the game started.

"Are you sure about this?" Seth asked hesitantly. "We could just, I don't know, fight our way over."

"It's more fun this way." Harry grinned.

5 minutes later, the king's crown was at Harry's feet, and he stared with an annoyed face at the chess pieces. That had been too easy, and he almost kicked one of them in his irritated anger.

He moved forward to the door with Seth in tow, kicking it open with his feet.

There was a dead troll on the floor, and the smell hit them full on. Harry swallowed in disgust though Seth had it worse because of his sensitive nose. His face turned green at the foul smell entered his nostrils.

"Well, at least we don't have to fight it again?" Harry managed to say.

He had already fought one, and fighting another one was just boring.

They ran hurriedly to the other side of the room and opened the door, only to find a table with a bunch of crystal vials on it.

There was a roll of paper on the paper and Harry seized it and began to read.

As soon as he finished reading he looked at the table and found that the bottle they needed had only about a gulp left.

Well, that wouldn't be enough for both of them.

Harry scratched the back of his head as he thought about what to do, until he heard a large "crack!" followed by the sound of an extremely heavy object falling to the ground. Harry raised his eyes slowly to see that Seth had punched through the wall, which now had a very large hole in it.

Well, that also worked, he supposed.

They ran through the hole to find a very startled Quirrell looking over at them in surprise.

"Well what do we have here?" Quirrell said as he smirked nastily. "Two children out of bed. I don't recognize you though." He raised a thoughtful finger to his lips.

Harry stared at the man disdainfully. Was this moron the man his father hired?

"No matter. After I deliver the stone to my lord, I will be handsomely rewarded!" The man cried out with a high laugh. "Sorry children, you're going to leave here empty ha-ugh!"

He crumpled to the floor unconsciously as Harry lowered his fists and stepped around him to face the mirror.

"I can't believe he was actually chosen for this job." Seth said as he stared at the man on the floor with a you've-got-to-be-kidding-me expression on his face.

Harry snorted in agreement as he thought about the stone's hiding place. It had something to do with the mirror, obviously. At the moment, Harry's deepest desire was to find the stone. He could see himself using the stone in the mirror, but nothing happened.

Harry thought for a moment.

Obviously, Dumbledore wouldn't let the spell be something like it appeared in your pockets if you wanted it greatly. It would be gone in a flash. What was it then?

What would Harry do if he was in Dumbledore's shoes?

"Seth, come here for a moment." Harry said. "Think very hard about wanting the stone and stand here."

Seth did as he was told and as he stared into the mirror, he found his reflection staring at him. Mirror-Seth winked at him and pulled a blood red stone out of his pockets. Seth suddenly felt a weight in his right pocket. And he patted it to make sure.

He pulled the real stone out of his pocket and a wide grin spread over his face.

"It's here!"

Harry grinned. So he was right. The mirror wouldn't give the stone to someone who actually wanted to use it, which is why it didn't work for Harry. But Seth didn't really want to use the stone, just find it, which is why it appeared in his pocket.

Seth threw the stone to Harry, who caught it in midair and held it up to a lantern to inspect the blood red color. He picked a broken wall rock from the floor and put in in his left pocket as he stared at the crimson rock. He flipped it into the air once more and slipped it into his right pocket before-

"-Not so fast!" A shout came from behind him. "Quirrell? But I though Snape…"

Harry turned around slowly to inspect the new arrival. Damon Potter had come through the hole in the wall, and was gaping at Quirrell until he noticed Harry and Seth standing next to the mirror.

"Snape?" Harry prompted. Oh, this would be so much fun! Maybe he would even kill the stupid youth.

"Who are you?" Damon said warily. "Are you trying to take the stone to Voldemort?"

Brave. At least he can speak my father's name.

"What? No, no. Why would I give the stone to my father, when I can keep it to myself?" Harry smirked at the Gryffindor.

"Your…your father?" Damon choked out. "You're his son?"

"That's what I said, wasn't it?" Harry frowned impatiently at the slow boy. Why was repeating everything Harry said? This was getting boring. Finally, the by gathered up his courage and stood his place.

"Dumbledore is coming. You won't be taking the stone anywhere!" Damon said determinedly.

Harry stared at the boy for a few seconds with a straight face, before bursting into laughs.

Seth, who was trying not to stand out much in case his identity was revealed, cringed at Harry's laughter. Harry was going to do something stupid again.

Harry stopped laughing as a menacing look came into his eyes.

"You can't stop me." Harry laughed with scorn in his voice.

"I don't have to." Damon said, unfazed. "I only have to stall until Dumbledore comes."

Harry smirked inwardly. This was perfect. He faked a slight look of fear as he made his voice stutter.

"D-Dumbledore? He's coming?" Harry looked around with fake panic on his face. "Look, I'm sorry, okay! I'll give you the stone, just let me leave!"

Damon watched him warily for a moment before falling for his act. Harry signaled to Seth behind his back that he was okay. He stuck out his pinky, the agreed sign they had since they were children to voicelessly tell the other they would be fine if something happened to one of them.

Seth walked behind Harry, staying quiet. He didn't know what Harry was doing, but he decided not to say anything in case he messed Harry's plan up.

"Fine. Give it here slowly." Damon extended his hand.

Harrys hand slipped into his left pocket and he held out a red stone to Damon's hand slowly, so as to show that he meant no harm.

Seth's eyes widened. Hadn't Harry slipped the stone into his right pocket?

"There." Harry said, faking resignation as he backed out of the room slowly, Seth following behind him.

"You'll be seeing me soon." He said with a wink and a smirk before grabbing Seth's hands and casting an invisibility charm on both of them.

Damon looked around, astonished. Where did they go?

Well, at least he hadn't let them get away with the stone.

Harry dragged Seth into the next room, where he pressed them both against a wall as Dumbledore came rushing through. As soon as he had his back to them, they ran out of the corridor, used their body strengthening magic to jump up the trapdoor, and finally escaped from the third floor corridor.

They both panted as they grinned at each other.

Down the trapdoor and into the mirror room, Damon Potter was shocked when the stone in his hands turned to a normal one as he handed it to Dumbledore.

Back in front of the Grand staircase, Harry grinned at the blood red stone in his hands as he bid Seth good night.

He headed back to the dorms, slipping into his room quietly and lying on is bed, congratulating himself on a job well done.


And that's a wrap, folks.