Chapter 14

"I am sorry Mr. Potter, but the stone is well protected, I can assure you in that. Now, please go and enjoy this wonderful day," Deputy Headmistress Professor McGonagall had told the group that they should not worry about the stone.

The Slytherin quartet knew that the Professor was wrong but the teacher did not take their worries very seriously. The group needed to find someone who could help them. "What should we do? Professor McGonagall does not want to help us, and I feel that the attempt to steal it will be very soon."

"I know Harry, they treat us as little kids, but we can handle this ourselves"

"Draco, I don't think we should handle this ourselves. Maybe we will need to ask someone else as the adults might have a point."

"Hermione, they are not always right. Hell, I feel that my father is not always right as you seem to be OK to hang out with despite your Muggle upbringing."

"Thank you Draco, but I feel that none of the teacher will help and I do not want Professors to tell us not to think about this." The girl looked down at the floor with sadness in her face. It seemed that Hermione has almost lost all the hope.

"That's it Hermione!" Harry exclaimed and then smiled. The three other Slytherins were surprised to see Harry so cheerful and were a bit confused as there seemed to be no way for them to get help.

"Who said we need a teacher to help us in our dangerous quest?" Harry said that with funny voice as if stating something simple and funny.

"We could ask my mom to help us," Harry then stated as he stood in a proud stance. The group was shocked at that idea, as it seemed like a reasonable suggestion for them to try.

"That can actually work and we will get help from an adult" the boys looked at each other as if mentally agreeing on the fact that their friend should have trusted authorities a little less fanatically.

The group went to ask Professor McGonagall once again. As they stepped in the room, the elderly Professor looked a rather annoyed that the group had returned again to torment her to get help. "What can I do for you this time, stone seekers?" "Well, we are not thinking about the stone anymore madam. Harry had invited us to his house, so that we could spend this nice day at his place, where we could play many games and visit our parents" Hermione talked slowly and looked the Professor straight in the eyes. The girl knew that the Professor would not expect her to lie directly in front of her Professor, and she used that fact to get what she wanted.

"Very well, you could use my Floo system to get to that house" The group walked towards the fireplace and one by one disappeared with smoke. The journey was quick and the group soon saw themselves falling on the floor in Harry's house.

"Hello mum" Harry said when he saw his mother Lily Evans standing next to the fireplace looking at four kids dressed in green and silver with occasional raven grey dust islands on their bodies.

"Is something wrong Harry? Why did you come home today with your friends? I was not expecting you to show up today" Lily Evans was surprised to see her son landing on her carpet but she was no fool. After living with Sirius and Remus for years, she knew that if Harry did something unexpected, he was on to something, and usually that meant a new prank.

"Mum, we need help." Harry then explained the stone situation to his mother and the four children looked at the red haired woman. Harry hoped that his mother was in a good mood that day otherwise they would get in a serious trouble.

"Alright, but you need to listen to me carefully. As you told me, Professor McGonagall told you four that the stone is well protected. From that I can deduce that she knows that there are some magical protections put to guard the stone. I think that all teachers, at least some put their share of protections. As you mentioned the dog, that would be Hagrid's protection. I bet that there will also be Herbology, Transfiguration, Charms, Potions and Defense Protections put in place as well as one done by Albus. My intuition tells me that there will be no extremely difficult challenges as it feels that this is Headmaster's test to see how Harry will fare with it"

"He would not do that, he is Professor Dumbledore, our Headmaster" Hermione wanted to continue on telling how great Dumbledore was as well as why they should listen to him since he had a lot of authority but Lily Evans interrupted the girl's speech.

"Hermione, I need to tell you that not all authority figures are ought to be trusted. Some are corrupt and some just make mistakes. Your Headmaster did a few in his youth, as he is just a man although a powerful one. So, please, respect authority but also always have some critical thinking. And I am sure that Headmaster does not mean Harry harm but he just probably is curious on how Harry will perform the tasks that this thirst for curiosity had blinded him" The girl thought about what the elder witch had told her.

"With this out of the way, we need to discuss how to succeed in every task. I am not sure on what you need to do with the Cerberus but I can guess what the other tasks would be. Herbology will be about plants, the ones that could be deadly and that will slow you down. Judging from your knowledge, it will probably be Devil's Snare, as I cannot think of anything deadlier from year 1."

"That plant can be destroyed by fire" Hermione replied confidently. The older woman agreed with her.

"I also can almost be perfectly sure that my old friend will provide Potion riddle to confuse you all. He is great with logic and unfortunately many wizards have problems with that but I know that you will perform well" She looked at Hermione approvingly.

"What will the other Professors provide?" asked Harry as he, like the others were curious.

"Well, I am also very certain that Defense barrier will be the troll as one already attacked you before and you defeated him in the battle. I do not know what McGonagall will provide but it will have to be something with her subject. And I am not sure with Flitwick's barrier either but I think it will have to do something with flying on the broom and levitating spells as you studied it in your year. And I do not know what Albus will put there." After the advice, Lily trained the group with some other important spells, like destruction and attraction ones, since they could be very useful in their journey.

"I wish you luck" the four returned to Hogwarts and relaxed for the rest of the day as they were tired and needed to prepare for their trials.

A/N: Chapter 15 will deal with the stone and then the story will proceed towards summer, where some interesting changes to cannon will be made.