AN: Sorry about the gap between chapters. At least it's a nice long chapter (for me anyway).

Disclaimer: I don't own HP.

Harry sank down into the soft grass down by the lake, sighing in contentment. After so many weeks of frantic studying and Hermione's panicky scheduling the exams were finally over and they could finally relax. It would be a nice change. He reached into his bag and pulled out a pile of letters. Harry hadn't been exactly attentive in his correspondence recently and without an excuse he had the feeling Andromeda might be a little scary if she didn't receive a letter soon. Of course, that meant he actually had to read her letters.

"Hello Harry! Exams all done?"

Harry looked up at the hulking shape above him, blocking out the sun, and smiled. "Hey Hagrid, I haven't seen you in ages! How have you been?" Another person he'd been neglecting. Harry felt a little bad, but squashed it. He'd had exams. More than that, he'd had Hermione. Why was it that all the girls he was friends with were scary?

Hagrid's deep voice brought Harry out of his thoughts. "Not bad, all things considered," said the big man, scratching the back of his neck. "Been helping Professor Sprout with the mandrakes. They're about ready to cut up."

"Oh yeah." Much to his embarrassment, Harry realised he'd completely forgotten about the basilisk victims down in the Hospital Wing. The mandrakes were meant to reverse the petrification. Or were they only an ingredient? Harry wasn't certain. "So," he said uneasily, "Will Filch be back in his job soon?"

Hagrid shook his head, grinning. "Dumbledore's decided that after seeing what Mr Mendax has done with the place that Filch is too old for the position. Should have happened years ago in my opinion." The man stretched, looking up at the sky. "Yeah. I've been handling the detentions at the moment, but once everything is worked out Andrew should be taking over that as well."

Harry frowned. "So what will to happen to Filch?" It didn't sound like Dumbledore to throw the man out on his arse.

"He'll get a little cottage on the grounds somewhere, hopefully well away from me," said the big man dismissively.

Ah. Well that explained that. "So Hagrid, what were you doing with yourself before you ran into me?"

Hagrid held up a large parcel of fish. "I was going to sit by the lake and feed the squid. Want to join me?"

Harry frowned in mock consideration. "Feeding the squid. The giant one?"

"Well, what other squid would it be?" asked Hargid, confused.

"Oh, why not," said Harry jokingly, as he carefully got to his feet, packing away his letters. "How often do you get a chance to feed a giant squid?"

"About once a week in summer," replied Hargid, oblivious to the joke. "It's a picky beast. Doesn't like visitors too often."

Harry sighed quietly. He probably shouldn't have expected witty banter from Hagrid. "Just give me a fish."

HPHPHP

Inside the castle things were far less idyllic. Dumbledore was a little bemused by what had caused all of the alarms around the Room of Requirement to go off. Once they'd found it, it quickly became apparent that it would be a gold mine for any enterprising thief or unethical researcher. It had only made sense that they ward it for safe keeping.

Unfortunately, some of the students seemed to have realised the area was warded, quite an oversight on his part. Now he had four Slytherin and two Ravenclaw seventh years missing. They'd obviously done something in the room and now he had to find them. He had most of the house elves following up leads, trying to locate them and the professors rebuilding the wards, hopefully a little less obviously than the last effort.

"Headmaster?"

He turned to find a squat, dagger-toothed house elf looking up at him expectantly. "You've found them?" he asked eagerly.

"Some," replied the elf shrugging. "Two of the Slytherins were found in a compromising position in an abandoned classroom. They seem to have masked their signatures for some quiet time. They knew nothing of their house-mates predicament."

"And none of the others?" asked Dumbledore, visibly deflating.

"Not yet sir," replied the elf. "Considering the contents of that room they could be anywhere. They might not even be in the school."

"Unlikely," said Albus dismissively. "The school's outer wards haven't been tripped. I would have expected to see that if they'd left the school grounds due to magic."

The elf nodded, considering. "Very well Headmaster. Shall we expand the search to the lower floors?"

Dumbledore nodded. "Contact me if you find anything and be sure to get Andrew to help. I believe he's dealing with a blocked toilet on the third floor."

The elf's face showed a hint of annoyance for a moment, but it nodded and disappeared with a pop. Albus sighed. The house elves generally disliked the idea of a caretaker at Hogwarts. They always felt it was a sign of disrespect but the fact was that they couldn't very well take time to clean the halls on top of all their other duties. That and the fact that it was another adult on the school grounds, which was needed in case of emergencies.

Albus sat down heavily. He'd be better to delegate for the moment and return to more important matters. There was an ICW meeting coming up at the end of the month and he still needed to organise another session with Harry and Fred Weasley to see if they could find any more horcruxes. Pulling a sheet of parchment in front of him he began listing possible changes to the ritual to increase sensory range while making the process easier on Harry.

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"Headmaster?"

Albus looked up from his work to realise that he'd managed to work uninterrupted straight until evening. "Yes Toothy?"

"It's nearly time for the feast sir," replied the elf with a hint of annoyance. "I'm assuming you forgot to eat again." At the sheepish look on Dumbledore's face he snarled angrily. "You've got to take better care of yourself sir."

"Indeed," said the professor, standing. "Any luck finding our wayward students?"

"None sir. Plus Mr Mendax was nowhere to be found. Maybe he fell afoul of whatever happened to your seventh years." The elf sounded slightly vindictive and Dumbledore bit back a sigh.

"I'm sure he wouldn't have..." Dumbledore paused for a moment, his mind whirling. "Nowhere to be found, you say?"

The elf shrugged non-committally. "We found he'd blocked off a corridor on the third floor. Apparently he'd been cleaning with that caustic muck, so we didn't risk checking down there."

"The forbidden corridor? The one where we keep Fluffy?"

The elf froze, the disinterested expression sliding off his face. "Yes. That corridor."

"Contact the other professors!" said Dumbledore, heading out his door at a run. "Tell them to meet me at the Fluffy's door!"

He rushed through the castle, silently cursing himself. How could he have been so stupid to not consider the possibility of a diversion? He was so caught up in his thoughts that he almost ran into Minerva and the other house heads. "You've heard?" he asked frantically.

They nodded, their faces set in stone. "We thought it best to wait for Hagrid before we tried anything," replied Minerva. "I don't want to try anything around that dog without him."

"We all know how to calm it," said Dumbledore testily, stepping past her and checking that the floor was free of chemicals now. "Come on." Striding down the corridor and opening the door he glanced inside to find a shocking sight. Fluffy, the immense animal acting as the stone's guardian was floating, silenced, up around the ceiling. He looked down at them with all of his heads as he rolled onto his back and started barking angrily, scrabbling at the ceiling, trying to push himself towards them to no avail.

Then, in an instant, the spell restraining Fluffy broke in an instant and the large dog fell to the floor with a heavy thump that sent clouds of dust billowing into their faces. Coughing, Dumbledore used his wand to blow away the smoke and found himself standing face to faces with the immense creature. He'd never been more glad to hear the sound of bagpipes coming from behind him and watched as the eyes on the heads droop and the growls quickly became snores.

"That was too close Albus," said Minerva as she hovered the still playing instrument to one side. "Like I said, we should have waited for Hagrid."

"It would be a good idea to have him and that rifle of his along," agreed Dumbledore, shaking slightly. "Pomona? Could you and Severus check the trap door while we wait?"

"Do you think the stone is gone Albus?" said Minerva quietly.

"I think it's a distinct possibility," said the old man, leaning against a wall. "When the other professors arrive we'll tell them to lock down the school and not let anyone leave. Hopefully we won't be too late, but I do not have much hope."

"Who is it? Who is the thief Albus?" Minerva's voice shook a little. The enormity of what had just happened right under their noses had seemed to finally register.

"I think it was Andrew Mendax," said Albus tiredly. "He's missing. I think he's behind our missing students as well."

Their conversation ceased as Hagrid and the others arrived and Albus was forced to organise them without revealing too much. This was a disaster. Eventually however, the professors departed and Hagrid joined them looking down into the trap door.

"That doesn't look like what you planted, does it Pomona?" said Dumbledore uneasily. He could see hints of thick, trunk-like vines moving in the wand light.

"No," said Pomona, nervously. "It doesn't. I don't know what on Earth's been done to them to be honest. It's not a straight up engorgement charm and the plant doesn't seem to be responding to light properly. It's like it's not Devil's Snare any more, except I know it is. Those diagnostic charms don't lie. Not to me."

Dumbledore sighed and cast a beam of light down into the pit. Thick vines, pulsating with glowing green sap blocked all passage. "Hagrid," he said after thinking for a moment. "Do we still have some of Miss Lovegood's explosives?"

The big man frowned but nodded. "A bit but not much. We'd have to make it count."

"Very well then. Toothy!"

The small elf appeared with a pop. "You called sir?"

"Can you bring the explosives provided by Miss Lovegood down here? I think we're going to need them."

HPHPHP

It took them nearly half an hour to get the mess of vines clear, even with the help of explosives. Standing in the pool of sap that had accumulated on the floor below the house heads, Hagrid and Dumbledore cautiously made their way towards at the end of the hallway. Stepping aside, they let Flitwick through to the front.

"Well?" asked Severus tersely as Filius peaked into the room and closed the door almost instantaneously. He was not pleased at having to stand in so much muck and had been making snide comments for a while now.

"My keys aren't exactly keys anymore," said the little man nervously. "They seem a lot more like wasps."

"Oh for Merlins-" Snape's next comment was cut short by the sound of hundreds of small objects hitting the door hard, kicking up clouds of wood dust and foot long splinters. "Bloody hell!" yelled the sallow man, in a moment of surprising fear.

Dumbledore didn't realise that he and Filus had acted until he found they found themselves standing next to one another in the empty doorway, a mess of mangled wings and bent metal lying on the floor. "I don't suppose you built a back door into your security feature," he asked quietly.

Filius shook his head morosely. "We'll have to pick apart my charms the hard way to get through."

Albus stood there for a moment, before his eyes suddenly lit up. "Did you perhaps-"

"I charmed the walls, floor and bloody ceiling too Albus. I'm not an amateur."

"Damn."

HPHPHP

It took them nearly two hours to get past Filius' enchantments and immediately after they opened the next door they found themselves under attack from McGonagall's chess pieces which had united and were advancing on them in a shield wall. "I take it there not meant to do that," said Severus snidely, dropping into a formal duelling pose like he didn't have a care in the world.

"Shut up Severus!" replied the enraged Scot, flourishing her wand and watching as the pieces collapsed into rubble. "Well he didn't pick up on that one, did he?" she said, slightly smugly. "Only your and Albus' puzzles left Severus. I wonder how he's subverted your work."

"Maybe he's lying dead," countered Severus, taking point. "We didn't pick up any sign that he's left the school."

"A man this good could have found a way out right under our noses," replied Minerva. "Plus it's far more likely he did all this on the way out."

Dumbledore was saddened that he had to agree as he watched Severus take apart whatever Andrew had done to his cursed fire. The stone was probably long gone. He just hoped he'd find out what had happened to the students at the end of all this. Had he used them to get around the mirror's enchantment? It seemed likely. He just hoped that they were still alive.

"Alright," said a sweating Severus a good twenty minutes later. "It's down. He didn't add much to my curses thankfully. Probably only recognised about half of them."

"Thank you Severus," said Albus, striding for the door and pushing it open quietly. The chamber was deadly quiet and he glanced around for a moment, hoping to catch sight of the students. Thinking of Fluffy he looked up and was glad to find four students tied in a bundle, bobbing up and down. He cast a quick spell and almost melted in relief when he found that they were unharmed and only unconscious. "Mind recovering your students?" he said, pointing up as he walked into the room.

The mirror was gone. Evidently Andrew had been unable to crack it and opted with taking the entire safe as it were. He would have been better to select a few first years and probably not ones from Ravenclaw and Slytherin. It was a moot point now. The man had all the time in the world to get the stone. It was only a matter of time before he managed it. All that could be done was to contact his trusted allies. And send a message to Gornuk. If the stone was taken to Quirrell, which it likely was, the goblin was probably the only person placed to stop him.

HPHPHP

Quirrell looked as someone pushed open his door without knocking. Holding his tongue, he put on his best smile. "Arsene, how nice to see you. I hope you haven't had another hold up at Hogwarts have you? I've been waiting a long time to see results." To tell the truth, he wanted to strangle the man. He'd been forced to provide so much to the man so frequently for nothing. If this was another 'polyjuice' request he was actively considering killing him.

"Oh nothing like that," said the Frenchman, smiling arrogantly. "Bring it in."

Quirrell watched in shock as two of his men wheeled in a large mirror covered in a sheet. "Is that-"

"Indeed it is," said Arsene pompously. Quirrell didn't even feel the need to lash out at him this time. He was too entranced as the man pulled the sheet off the Mirror of Erised with a showy flourish. "Quirinus Quirrell, may I present to you the resting place of the Philosopher's Stone."