How is This my Life?

by FMPtrumpets

Harry and Ron were in the middle of a rescue when they suddenly found themselves in a room full of loved ones, the Dursley's, and a few who were supposed to be dead. All to read a few books about him. Can't his life ever be normal? And why is Snape here! Great. slight Dumbledore bashing. (Re-titled; formerly 'reading Harry Potter')

19. Through the Trapdoor

Those with an older self, Everybody else

Parselmouth

Sign language

Sadly neither Harry Potter, nor any of his friends and companions belong to me. I really wish it were different, but it is not and likely never will be.

It wasn't until roughly halfway through writing this chapter that I even realized I did this, but I tend to alternate between using Albus, and using Dumbledore a lot, depending on how favorably the other characters are thinking of him, and on how he himself is acting. If he's being the Headmaster of a school, and a lifelong educator, he's Albus. If he's being a manipulative old fool that thinks too highly of himself, he's Dumbledore. Whether the others call him by his first name or last also depends on how happy with him they are in that moment, as well. I didn't even notice I was doing that.

---

Severus shot Dumbledore a glare. "Giving something like that to an eleven year old is very irresponsible." He said. "No matter the reasons, especially if a conversation about responsibility with it has not yet happened."

"He's a responsible young man, I'm sure whoever gave it to him trusts him to be responsible enough with it." Albus said mildly.

"Hem-hem." Ginny cleared her throat, sounding so much like Umbridge that all those who endured the year with her looked around frantically, terrified that she was there. When they saw she wasn't, they all turned to glare at Ginny. (Their reaction drew some suspicious looks from the adults and teachers). "How about we keep reading instead of debating how mature and responsible Harry is or isn't."

When nobody had any objections to that, Filius restarted the charm on the book.

Chapter Sixteen: Through the Trapdoor

"Aw, man! I was hoping that you three would show more sense than that." Sirius groused. He was all for some adventure, but not when it involved racing Dark Lords to an all powerful prize.

And certainly not when it was his godson doing the racing.

Harry grimaced. Well, now he had something of an answer on how his Sirius would have reacted had the man known anything about his years at Hogwarts. To his knowledge, nobody had ever told him just what happened during Harry's school years. The only thing he might have heard was Harry commenting on how third year was tame, for once.

"We were the only ones who knew You-Know-Who was in the school, or that the Stone was actually in danger." Ron argued, feeling completely justified.

"Then you go find a teacher!" Remus said, exasperated. Honestly, he was starting to think Harry's deeply ingrained distrust of adults was starting to seriously rub off on those two, especially Hermione. All three kids remained stubbornly silent, although there was a dark look aimed in Minerva's direction, followed by the most ashamed look he'd ever seen on her face. He had a sudden sinking feeling in his gut.

(In years to come... at any moment.)

Ron and Hermione immediately agreed. "I was doing everything I could to forget about it." Hermione admitted.

"Yeah... I had a hard time concentrating, too." Ron grimaced.

"Considering the three of you could barely concentrate on your exams, you did marvelously." Pomona said, blinking.

The three looked at each other, Ron and Harry didn't think they really did that good. Hermione was proud of them.

(Yet the days crept by,)

"I hate it when that happens." Fred and George muttered in unison. They hated it when the day crawled by, especially when they were waiting for something to happen.

(and there could... the locked door.)

"How would you know that?" Minerva asked, suspicious.

"We never went in again!" Harry shrugged. "We just listened at the door. And overheard the older years talking about it." He added after a moment's thought.

The teachers didn't think they wanted to know what all their students got up to on a regular basis. They thought they knew, they really did.

Now they were thinking that they were quite stupid to think they knew what went on in a castle full of teenagers. And they wondered if they wouldn't sleep better if they continued in their ignorance.

(It was sweltering... their written papers.)

"We really need to teach cooling charms sooner." Filius frowned. He hadn't even thought of the younger years that didn't know that charm, the older years all knew it and used it. Same with warming charms in the winter.

"I didn't even think about that, or I would have applied one to the room." Minerva frowned and made a note of it.

"It does make it hard to concentrate a little." Neville agreed. Learning warming or cooling charms made it easier, luckily.

(They had been... Anticheating spell.)

"And yet every year..." Minerva complained with a frown.

"We make it known that they are spelled to prevent cheating, and yet they still try it." Filius scowled. He was honestly a little insulted with the attempts, he spelled those quills himself, after all.

"Half the fun is..."

"... figuring out ways around that." The Twins chimed. Molly glared.

(They had practical... across a desk.)

"That's always a fun one." Fred said.

"Yeah... hey!" George turned to his brother suddenly, and their eyes lit up with the sudden idea. The next moment, to the fear and concern of almost everyone else in the room, their heads were bent over a sheet of parchment.

"Of course, tapdancing is boring, but..." They heard Fred mutter before they started whispering quieter.

"Should we be worried?" Poppy asked the teachers quietly.

"It doesn't sound like anything that could really cause too much chaos." Minerva informed them after a few minutes. Actually, it sounded rather amusing, and was more geared towards younger children, so they were making it safer.

(Professor McGonagall... the snuffbox was,)

"And your's was one of the prettier ones I've seen." Minerva complimented, and Harry flushed red.

Sirius beamed proudly, thinking of the snuffbox she'd presented him with the other day. It truly was amazing. He didn't think even James could have done better, and he was brilliant with Transfiguration.

(but taken away if it had whiskers.)

"That doesn't hurt the animal, does it?" Hermione asked, hesitant.

"Not that we've been able to tell." Minerva said softly, although the truth was that nobody had really thought about it. She didn't think it a good idea to tell the young girl that. At least, when they were changed back to their natural animal form, they didn't display any of the typical behaviors animals displayed when they were in pain or not feeling right.

(Snape made them... a Forgetfulness potion.)

"A certain irony to that." Remus muttered, and Severus just shrugged.

Neville shivered, just remembering him in Potions class. He wasn't as hopeless as he used to be with Potions, it turned out he just needed the right kind of teacher, and Ginny and Luna both helped teach him while they hid out in the Room of Requirement over the past year. Of course, the Room couldn't provide the ingredients for them, just like it couldn't provide food, but they were able to study theory in depth while figuring out ways to get the ingredients without getting caught.

(What they didn't know, was that Severus knew they would need ingredients and/or potions, so made sure to keep the Cabinet open for them, as well as the store-room. He just didn't expect them to take so long to make a move for it.)

(Harry did the best... trip into the forest.)

"If he can get scores as good as he did when he's this distracted and in pain, I wonder what he could do if he had a chance to focus." Filius murmured to his colleagues. They nodded in agreement, that was very true.

True, his scores weren't top of the class, but they certainly weren't bottom or middle of the class, either.

(Neville thought Harry... dripping blood in it.)

"Don't blame you." Remus muttered, then he blinked. "Old nightmare?" He repeated.

"Yeah... the one with the flashes of green light and a dark figure?" Harry asked, surprised he'd forgotten. But then again, he didn't talk about his nightmares. If he had his way, none of his dorm mates would know he had them, luckily none of them (except for Ron) questioned when they 'stopped' part-way through second year, not long after they learned silencing charms.

"Ah." Remus said, bothered by that.

"And I knew it was nightmares." Neville shrugged. How could he not, Harry woke him up often enough with it.

(Maybe it was because... Stone as Harry.)

"We were worried, too, but we also trusted that the teachers knew what they were doing." Hermione sighed. "And you should have told us earlier about your scar hurting." She scolded Harry, who shrugged.

Ron shrugged. "I was just trying to not think about it." He admitted.

(The idea of Voldemort... them in dreams,)

"Thank goodness." Molly shivered at the thought of her son having dreams of that monster.

"He better stay out of your dreams." Sirius scowled. Harry just sighed and wondered what Sirius would think of everything that happened in fourth and fifth year as far as his dreams were concerned.

"Have you learned Occlumency at all?" Remus asked, well aware of the failed lessons between Harry and Severus. Harry shook his head. He'd never been able to do it, no matter how much he tried to follow what little advice Snape gave him.

Severus added restarting Occlumency lessons, properly this time, while they were here.

(and they were... selfstirring cauldrons)

"Which was odd since we mostly covered Goblin wars..." Hermione said slowly.

"I don't think he ever updated his exam material from when he was still alive, even if his lesson plans themselves have started to stagnate and veer off from what they should be." Remus frowned, and Dumbledore added a tick on his list, making sure to note that history was one of the classes to focus on.

Severus silently agreed with the statement of them being batty. No self-respecting Potions Master would ever use something like that. Sure, it might be handy for house-wives who also had a bunch of children to tend to (Molly), and therefore couldn't devote all the time needed to watching a cauldron, but it was still so unreliable.

"Good thing for the History room in the Maze." Neville said cheerfully, and the other Gryffindor's nodded in agreement.

(and they'd be... results came out.)

"And then back to the Dursley's." Harry muttered, glaring at his relatives hatefully. He hated it there, if he never saw them again, it would be too soon, although he supposed Dudley wasn't too bad anymore.

(When the ghost... with the rest.)

The adults smiled or laughed softly at the normal school-child reaction to the end of exams/beginning of summer.

It was good to see innocent or childish reactions from Harry, even though so much was going on around him that most adults couldn't handle.

("That was far... Elfric the Eager.")

Remus made a wounded sound while others grimaced in disgust. "You learned the Code? Why would you do that, Hermione?" Honestly, that 'code' was so heavily biased against werewolves that he was surprised it even granted them the right to breathe. He was sure that if they'd thought of it, they would have added in there that it was against basic rules of how to conduct oneself in society for them to live at all.

She flushed red. "Sorry, Remus." She murmured. "It was referenced in our textbooks, so I looked up more about it." She shrugged. It wasn't until later, much later (years), and after she met Remus that she took another look at it and realized just how anti-werewolf that Code of Conduct was.

(Hermione always... papers afterward,)

"Why?" The Twins asked, disgusted.

"Yeah, the exams over. You'll find out how you did later on." Neville said, he'd never understood this habit of hers.

Hermione turned red. "I like to review to see what I did or didn't forget for the exam." She defended herself. Her younger self nodded, perfectly reasonable.

"Final exams are called final for a reason. After they are done, is when you can stop focusing on school-work, give yourself a chance to rest." Pomona said softly to the younger girl. She frowned at the gentle teacher.

(but Ron said this made him feel ill,)

There were a few cheers or noises of agreement. The teachers rolled their eyes at the younger crowds antics.

(so they wandered... Ron sighed happily,)

Hermione snorted. "You do everything possible to avoid studying, anyway." She said, amused.

Molly growled softly and narrowed her eyes at her youngest son. Him and the Twins... if only they would try harder at school! They weren't going to- she paused in her thoughts as she suddenly remembered the NEWT exam results her twin boys had given her earlier, and what she'd seen of their shop, how it was full of customers, and obviously succeeding. She frowned and settled back against her husband's side again, thinking.

"Ah, the best part of any school year." Fred sighed happily, ignorant of his mothers thoughts.

"Knowing that there's no more work to do for a few months." George agreed with his brother, and the others all laughed or rolled their eyes.

(stretching out... more cheerful,)

"Have you completely forgotten that You-Know-Who is currently on school grounds somewhere, and is currently trying to steal something so he can come back?" Ginny asked her brother dryly.

He blinked at her. "Of course not. I was trying to forget, but something like that is a little hard to. I was, however, doing a pretty good job of not thinking about it, if I do say so myself." He was somewhat proud of that, too, otherwise he would have been a nervous wreck.

(Harry, we've got... often as this.")

"In classes with Quirrell..." Remus said, apprehensive.

"And in the Forest when Voldemort was there." Sirius added.

"Now it's mostly when You-Know-Who is in a really bad mood." Ron grimaced.

"If it's hurting all the time, does that mean he's being followed around by Voldemort, or is Voldy in a bad mood because it's taking so long to get the Stone?" Ginny asked, frowning.

"Probably both." Harry muttered bitterly. "Either way, it's so annoying!" He complained.

("Go to Madam... Hermione suggested.)

"You should listen to her more often." Poppy frowned at him.

"And what was she going to do?" Harry asked, sending Poppy an apologetic look.

"Pain potions are a wonderful thing." Severus said dryly. Harry shrugged.

("I'm not ill,"... danger's coming...")

"I don't think I like that kind of warning system." Sirius frowned.

"Especially when it could be too late by the time you were 'warned'." Remus shook his head. "Or turned against you." He whispered, and Harry hung his head.

"Hey." Remus bumped his shoulder. "It was not your fault." He whispered in the boys ear, Harry's head only sunk lower.

(Ron couldn't... was too hot.)

Bill and Charlie both snorted. "Lazy." Bill teased his youngest brother, who had done his best to laze around every chance he could when they were all in Egypt that summer.

Ron only stuck his tongue out at his brother.

("Harry, relax... Dumbledore's around.)

"I appreciate the faith in my abilities." Albus said with a smile and a twinkle in his eye.

Ron smiled back, but was honestly wondering, like Harry and Hermione, just how much he'd really known about this year, and just what he'd been up to with the Stone.

"But what if he's not around?" Remus asked slowly. "He is the Chief Warlock after all, he gets called away all the time for Wizengamot business, or because Fudge wants his advice on something." At least, he did before Harry's fifth year.

"Anybody watching him would know when he's gone, and could time how long he's generally gone." Bill said with a frown.

"I didn't think of that." Ron said quietly after a moment. Or, of course, somebody could fake an owl from the Ministry to lure him away at a time that was convenient for them.

(Anyway, we've... get past Fluffy.)

"I'd known from the beginning how to get past that over-sized mutt." Severus dismissed, still miffed that they suspected him, even if he could admit that he never gave them a reason not to. Hagrid gave him a dark look for the way he referred to Fluffy, but didn't say anything, used to how Severus spoke, and having seen Fluffy follow Severus around a few times during some of Severus' trips into the Forest.

Seeing the 'bat of the dungeons' pick up a stick and start throwing it for the Cerberus (after looking around to make sure he was alone) had been... interesting.

(He nearly had... Dumbledore down.")

"Hey!" Neville protested. Even if he knew Ron had a point.

"Ronald." Molly warned at the same time while his siblings snickered.

"What? Come on, when has Neville shown the slightest interest in Quidditch, even if he could fly without hurting himself?" Ron defended himself. "And we all know that Hagrid may not be able to keep a secret, but he would never do anything to disappoint Dumbledore."

"That may be, but there was no reason to say something so rude about your classmate." Molly scolded.

"It's alright." Neville waved off when Ron tried to apologize.

(Harry nodded, but... something important.)

"I hate that feeling." The Twins chimed in before anyone else could.

"It's the worst." Bill added, shuddering at the memory of the last time that happened to him. (He'd been at an excavation site, newly uncovered. He'd barely been in time to save his partner from a horde of Inferi.)

(When he tried to... done that one.")

"Last time we ever dismissed one of Harry's feelings." She announced, shivering.

"Yeah... never did that again." Ron shuddered.

"It wasn't the exams this time, I take it?" Bill asked, perceptively. Harry shook his head slowly, a grim look on his face.

(Harry was quite... clamped in its mouth.)

Hermione and Ron both gasped. "Do you think..." Ron asked his best friends.

"Yeah, I think that was." Hermione answered.

"But... if he got that then, then why did Quirrell wait so long? And why did he take so long to get back once he realized it was fake?" Harry asked, confused. He'd honestly never thought of this before.

"What are you guys talking about?" Neville asked slowly, just as confused as everybody else in the room. After a moment, Minerva realized what they were on about, and she gasped too.

"You'll find out."

(Hagrid was the... sent him letters.)

"Not true." Remus said, sulking lightly that his letters were never answered over the years.

(Hagrid would never... to his feet.)

"What?"

"What did you just figure out?" Everyone in the room demanded to know. This could be very important after all.

Harry just grimaced and gestured towards the book. The one nice thing about it, was that he didn't have to bother telling these stories himself, he could let the book do it for him. Although, if they could be a little invasive to his privacy... that would be nice.

("Where're you going?"... Hagrid, now.")

"Hag- oh. That makes sense, we always wondered why go to all that trouble, only to give it away to Hagrid." Charlie suddenly realized.

"What makes sense?" Bill asked, and Charlie leaned over to hiss in his ear about the dragon egg. "Oh. This was very well planned... although they didn't have to go to all that trouble if it was really so easy to get down there." He commented, shooting an annoyed glance at the teachers, and a pointed look at the Twins when said teachers looked momentarily confused.

("Why?" panted... to keep up.)

"You mean you hadn't figured it out, yet?" Draco asked, somewhat surprised as she always seemed like the real brains behind the Trio.

She blushed slightly. "Harry sometimes makes the most... random leaps of logic and sometimes gets an epiphany over the smallest detail. It's hard keeping up with him sometimes." She admitted. "That's part of why it always frustrates me so much that he never tried as hard on his homework, or got the grades I know he could have gotten." She glared lightly at him, but he only grimaced. Ron frustrated her, too, but not as much as Harry.

Everyone else that hadn't already worked it out, wondered just what kind of epiphany Harry could have gotten from thinking about how Hagrid would never betray or let down Dumbledore.

("Don't you think... in his pocket?)

"Oh." Everybody breathed as most of the readers realized book-Harry's current thought process.

"'Lucky', indeed." Minerva muttered.

"Was this the thing you had a feeling you were forgetting?" Bill asked, wondering.

"Probably." Harry shrugged.

(How many people... wizard law?)

"Smugglers, thieves, or black-market dealers for dragon parts." Charlie said in disgust.

"Dragon parts?" Harry asked, not sure he wanted to know.

"Oh, yeah. Dragon parts can be used in potions, the heartstrings are used as wand cores, the hides are tough and can be used as body armor, clothes, or protective coverings, like the gloves you use in potions to handle volatile ingredients... There's no limit to what dragon parts can be used for." Charlie said. "It's illegal to hunt and kill dragons for their parts, just like it's illegal to own dragons."

"The Goblins mostly get their dragons for the vaults from the black-market." Bill said, uncomfortably, aware that he was stirring up a pixie nest by mentioning goblins and dragons in the same sentence. Surprisingly, Charlie only growled lightly at the reminder.

"Why didn't you send somebody out to question Hagrid about the person he got the egg from?" Minerva asked suddenly, realizing that nobody had ever come to see Hagrid after they'd caught the two at the bottom of the Astronomy Tower.

"We filed a report with the ICW once Norberta arrived at our Reserve... our job is to make sure the Dragons are healthy and not being poached, not to act as the Auror's or security council forces." Charlie shrugged. "We filed a report, if they didn't go question Hagrid about who he got the egg from, then that's their business."

"Nobody came ter question me, 'cept 'Arry." Hagrid confirmed.

(Lucky they found... see it before?")

"You weren't thinking about it before." Remus shrugged, not too worried that Harry missed something like that. "You're also only eleven." He said dryly. Harry shrugged, not going to grace that with a response since being eleven (and largely inexperienced) had been his excuse for a lot of things earlier on in the book.

("What are you... didn't answer.)

"It's really annoying when you do that." Ron said conversationally.

"I explain eventually." Harry tilted his head innocently, making both his friends snort.

"Yeah, we don't buy that anymore." Hermione informed him primly. His innocent look disappeared when he smirked.

Everyone else either rolled their eyes or chuckled at the interactions between the three of them.

(Hagrid was sitting... a large bowl.)

"It was a beautiful day ter get some work done, and it was a good harves'." Hagrid said in satisfaction.

("Hullo," he said... fer a drink?")

"No, sadly not." Ron said sadly. Hagrid may not be much of a cook, but he did make good tea.

"We had a Stone to protect." Harry shrugged.

"No, the teachers had a Stone to protect." Sirius said, trying to sound stern.

"The teachers didn't know it was in any danger." Harry retorted under his breath, knowing from that summer before fifth year that it wasn't any good to argue with Sirius when he used that tone of voice.

("Yes, please,"... take his cloak off.")

There was a moment of silence as that threw everyone off. "And you didn't find that the least bit suspicious?" Molly deadpanned.

"It was probably the Hogshead." Minerva sighed. There was a reason why they cautioned the students against going to the Hogshead.

"He really needs to clean that place up." Filius muttered, he liked Aberforth well enough, although he never could understand why the two brothers lives had turned out so differently.

(He saw the three... in the village.)

"One that none of you are ever going into." Molly announced, glaring around at her children.

"You realize that most of us are moved out with our own homes? I'm even married." Bill asked his mother dryly.

"I don't even live in this country anymore." Charlie shrugged.

"I have no real interest in going out to drink." Percy also shrugged. He preferred quiet restaurants, or nights in with his books or girlfriend. He would go out to the local pub occasionally, but... eh.

"We're too busy with our business." The Twins chimed in. And really, when had they ever listened to anybody who tried to tell them they couldn't do something?

"Undesirable Number Two... or was I number three?" Ron asked, tilting his head.

"Does that matter?" Harry asked dryly. There was, of course, no question that Harry was number one on the Death Eaters list.

None of the Weasley children bothered mentioning to their mother that they went to the Hogshead all the time when they were in school, for one reason or another. After all, Aberforth didn't ask questions.

(Mighta bin a dragon dealer, mightn' he?)

"Which is so illegal. Hagrid, I just got done saying that stuff like that was only on the black market." Charlie burst out. Hagrid grinned sheepishly.

"It being illegal would have been why he wore the hood up, to disguise himself." Remus reminded Charlie.

(I never saw... Hogwarts at all?")

"He would've, if he wanted information from Hagrid." Minerva groaned. There were two surefire ways of getting Hagrid to mention something he shouldn't be. Get him drunk, or flatter him. Of course, you could also just get him talking along that topic and let him spill the information on his own, but that didn't always work out.

"That's exactly what he wanted." Harry muttered.

("Mighta come up,"... was a dragon...)

"Which anybody who knows anything about you would know, because you've mentioned it often enough over the years." Filius realized.

"Or anybody who knows his penchant for dangerous animals, all they would have to do would be get the biggest, most dangerous one they could find and they would've had him hooked, it didn't even need to be a dragon. Of course, making sure it was still so young would ensure he could transport it easier." Hermione pointed out.

"That's a good point, too." Pomona shook her head with a sigh.

"I'm sorry, everyone." Hagrid muttered, head bowed.

Minerva sighed. "Don't worry about it, Hagrid. We all make mistakes."

(an' then... I... buyin' me drinks...)

"Counter-measure in case somebody did come around asking." Sirius said. He'd done it himself a few times while an Auror, usually when he was sent in somewhere to get intel on illegal shipments that they suspected were coming in.

Get them so drunk that they didn't even remember talking to anybody, let alone what they talked about.

"If Hagrid weren't half-giant, he probably wouldn't have remembered any of this night, let alone as much as he did." Remus pointed out.

"This guy is very organized." Moody muttered. All this was well planned and thought out.

(Let's see... yeah... it if I wanted...)

"That should have raised a bunch of red flags, too. Dragons net a lot of money on the black market, to give an egg away over a game of cards..." Charlie shook his head in disbelief.

"Sorry." Hagrid apologized sheepishly. He'd just been so excited to possibly have a chance at having a dragon! Of course he knew all the legalities involved (he'd been forced to write enough essays on the subject of legalities involving magical creatures, especially the ones he was the most interested in, back before he was expelled), mostly that it was highly illegal, but he didn't care at that moment.

It was a dragon egg!

(but he had ter... would be easy...")

Charlie couldn't help it, he burst out laughing.

Raising a dragon... easy!?

Everyone else looked at him in concern. Was he alright?

After Charlie calmed down, Ron spoke, still eyeing his brother warily. "This is about when we realized what Harry's epiphany was about." He gestured between himself and Hermione, who nodded.

("And did he... off ter sleep-")

"Hagrid." Most of the adults groaned.

"Sorry." He said again, even more sheepish.

"Hey, if this guy wanted to know about Fluffy so bad, he didn't have to get Hagrid drunk." Fred frowned.

"All he had to do was a little bit of research on Cerberus." George added.

"Like we did." They ended in unison.

"They have a point." Harry signed to Ron and Hermione.

"Yeah... why did he go to all this trouble?" Ron wondered. Hermione shrugged.

"Either way, they knew exactly how to get information out of Hagrid." Moody muttered.

(Hagrid suddenly looked horrified.)

Everyone sat forward slightly, had Hagrid realized what Harry had, and that he really messed up here?

("I shouldn'ta... he blurted out.)

Minerva groaned. "You shouldn't have told anyone that!" She cried, frustrated with her (rather dim at times) larger friend.

"I'm sorry." Hagrid shrank back into himself even more, surpassing sheepish or embarrassed, and going straight to mortified. He looked mournful, and looked like he was about to start bawling like he had when he visited Harry in the Hospital Wing after he went down to retrieve the Stone.

("Forget I said it... after the grounds.)

"Why the entrance hall?" Ginny asked suddenly, confused.

"Huh?" Bill asked, confused by the sudden question.

"Of all the places for them to go, why the entrance hall?" She asked again.

"That's... just where we stopped running." Harry said slowly, eyeing her, confused by why she was even asking this.

("We've got to... said Harry.)

"Oh, good. You went to an adult." Sirius relaxed, relieved that his pup wasn't going to be in the middle of this.

"Tried to, anyway." Harry said dryly, eyeing Minerva, who looked down, ashamed.

Sirius looked crushed, and worried.

("Hagrid told that... under that cloak-)

"We were half right." Harry muttered dryly. Hagrid shuddered, thinking about how he was so close to that monster.

He told that monster how to get down there!

He would never forgive himself for that.

(it must've been... believes us.)

"Why wouldn't he?" Molly asked, looking confused.

"Adults don't usually believe me." Harry stated. Almost everyone else shot a glare in the Dursley's direction.

(Firenze might back... Dumbledore's office?")

"All that time and they..."

... still don't know where the Headmaster's..."

"...office is?" The Twins demanded, honestly shocked and horrified by this.

"Oh, Moony, tell me we heard that wrong." Sirius moaned, sitting back and holding his hand over his eyes dramatically.

"Sorry, Pads, but we heard that right." Remus said, amused. He wasn't going to point out that the only reason they'd known where the Headmasters office was so early in their schooling, was because they got caught so often in the beginning.

Harry shrugged with a smirk. "You only get sent to the Headmaster's office if you get caught, guys." He pointed out to the other four pranksters. Fred, George, and Sirius all froze at the implication that Harry was a better prankster than them.

"Did you have to challenge them?" Remus asked with a sigh. Harry only smirked.

"We're doomed." Severus muttered. Minerva grimaced in agreement while Filius laughed, honestly looking forward to seeing what they came up. While he may not always appreciate the pranks, he could appreciate the skill and creativity that went into them.

(They looked around... right direction.)

"That place needs a map, or at least give one to first years." Ron complained. It was a nightmare trying to find anything in the castle during the first few weeks.

"That is why the fifth-year Prefects are supposed to show the first years around the castle." Minerva said dryly, eyeing Percy, who looked startled, along with Ron, Hermione, and Draco.

"Nobody ever told us anything about that." Draco said.

"I didn't know that, either." Percy shook his head.

"The Head boy and girl are supposed to tell you about that when they give out the patrol assignments for the beginning of the year." Pomona cut in, confused.

"I never knew about that, either." Percy frowned.

Minerva growled low in her throat and added to her list.

(They had never... sent to see him.)

"Hey!" The Twins both protested, and ignored their mothers mild glare. "You know us!"

Ron turned red. "I wasn't thinking straight right then." He muttered sheepishly.

"Clearly." Bill muttered, amused.

("We'll just have... doing inside?")

"Why are you asking, there's no rule against it." Sirius said petulantly, despite not even knowing who was asking yet.

"It's a beautiful day outside and exams are over with." Remus reminded his best friend wryly. "Name one time when we didn't rush outside to enjoy the sunshine the moment we were done with our end-of year exams."

"Good point." Sirius smirked. Remus rolled his eyes.

(It was Professor... pile of books.)

"What was all that for?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Some private research for an article I was writing." Minerva smiled at the curious girl.

("We want to see Professor Dumbledore,")

"Unusual thing for students to say, that might raise red flags with her, which might give you problems." Sirius tilted his head like a dog in thought.

"I don't think there's anything we could have said that wouldn't have gotten her back up."' Harry said dryly.

(said Hermione, rather... want to do.)

"It's not something students tend to do." She said dryly.

"Which is a shame, I would not mind conversing more often with the students." Albus shrugged. Especially since it seemed he had fallen out of touch with the happenings in his school over the years.

("Why?"

Harry swallowed- now what?

"It's sort of secret,")

"Bad way to start!" Sirius cried.

"That's going to get her defensive." Remus added.

"She's going to shut down, and not listen to you." Fred warned.

"Somehow, I don't think she would have listened anyway." Harry muttered under his breath. He wasn't still bitter at all... why would he be?

(he said, but he... for London at once.")

"Ten min- The owl Harry saw before having that epiphany!" Charlie exclaimed, sitting up.

"Why did he fly to London? Wouldn't it be faster to Floo or Apparate if it was supposed to be urgent?" Neville asked, confused.

The room was silent for a moment while everyone else thought that over.

"That's... true." Ron said slowly, exchanging significant looks with Harry and Hermione (to a lesser extent). Over the past year, they'd done a lot of thinking in regards to their first few years, and Harry and Ron wondered just how much Dumbledore really knew over the years and could have stopped.

"If my godson gets hurt..." Sirius growled at Dumbledore, knowing that something was going to happen by the looks on the Trio's faces. Dumbledore shifted uncomfortably, having a good idea on why he took the time to fly there, instead of a quicker method of travel.

("He's gone ?"... frantically. "Now?")

"Bad luck, mate." Bill said, sympathetic. He'd had this same thing happen to him during his time with Gringotts. He would need a supervisor, and all of them would have left for the night, or were at another site because of an emergency that popped up.

"The timing is... very well planned out." Moody said with a frown.

"But how would the thief have known that the Professor would have flown, how did he know that he would be gone long enough?" Ginny asked.

"Good question." Harry muttered.

("Professor Dumbledore... on his time-")

"Too many." Sirius muttered, thinking about what Remus said earlier about how Albus wasn't always around Hogwarts because of business at the Ministry or even the ICW when they were in session or an emergency session.

"Agreed." Remus shook his head. "How are you supposed to keep up with the students when you're not even there half the time?" He asked the room rhetorically.

"You can't." Harry answered anyway.

("But this is important."... of Magic, Potter?")

"Yup." All those who had to deal with Umbridge in school said at once.

"There's a lot of things that are more important than the over-inflated egos of the Ministry." Harry deadpanned. He, more than perhaps anyone else in that room, knew exactly how the Ministry saw itself as the end-all-be-all of the entire world, not just their small corner of it.

"I didn't know yet just what he wanted to talk to Albus about. I thought it was going to be the usual school-boy troubles." Minerva defended herself. In her mind, the Ministry was more important than that.

("Look," said... to the winds,)

"That's never a good thing when talking to teachers." Harry muttered, the first time he spoke in a while. "They never react well, or they draw the wrong conclusions."

"I was desperate to make somebody listen." Harry defended himself to his younger self.

("Professor- it's... it wasn't that.)

"Nearly gave me a heart attack." Minerva grumbled, glaring at Harry and momentarily shoving aside her guilt that she hadn't listened to them. Mentally, she braced herself for the dressing down she was about to receive from Sirius.

Harry looked a little sheepish for scaring her like that, but he wasn't going to apologize, he'd been desperate to get somebody, anybody to help him. If he hadn't thought the would-be thief was Snape, he would have been more than desperate to ask him for help.

(The books she... she spluttered.)

"You mean, it was supposed to be a secret?" Fred tried to joke.

"It wasn't a very well kept one, if that's the case." George added.

The four teachers involved glared at nothing. And here they thought they were so clever that year.

They were about to find out just how clever they really were.

("Professor, I... that someone's)

"Good save, she really won't believe you if you go around blaming the one teacher in the school that you can't get along with." Remus grimaced.

"Hey, I tried to get along with him. For a week, then I gave him up as a bad job." Harry pointed out. He kind of gave Potions up as a bad job, too. There was no way he could learn in a room with Snape in charge. It just wasn't going to happen, especially with the way Snape treated him.

Severus flinched minutely and shifted in his seat, ashamed.

"And besides, she didn't believe me, anyway." Harry dismissed.

(going to try and... be back tomorrow,")

"Why stay away for so long?" Remus asked, confused. "Why not at least come back for dinner, or to at least sleep in your own bed. It's not like we don't have magical ways of transporting long distance in an instant." He pointed out.

Albus, for his part, shrugged. He had an idea, but he didn't want to say it in front of this group. He had to have known that Quirrell or Tom would make their move soon, but only if he was out of the castle. It made sense (to him) to take his time at the Ministry. Or, if his business there didn't last long, then h was sure he could figure something out to do in the meantime.

(she said finally... well protected.")

"Protected well enough that three first years could get through." Harry muttered.

"Wait, those obstacles were supposed to be protections?" The Twins asked, incredulous.

"You have any idea how much money we made over Easter opening that up as an obstacle course?" George demanded to know.

"At least half of our 'clients' managed to reach the end, although we had to cover the mirror for their own safety." Fred shrugged.

"I'm surprised the Stone wasn't stolen earlier in the year." Bill muttered to Charlie.

"I think Voldemort might have overestimated Dumbledore in this case." Charlie muttered back, his time in Romania had easily gotten him over the fear of the name. It was only UK magicals that feared it, anyway.

"I told you, it was too easy." Severus hissed in Minerva's ear, she just looked tired. Why was it, that the students were so good at keeping secrets from the teachers, but the teachers couldn't keep one secret from the students?

("But Professor-"... talking about,")

"No you didn't." Harry muttered bitterly. He was sick and tired of adults pulling that card on him. The 'I'm an adult, you're just a kid, what do you know?' bit was very, very annoying. Not to mention aggravating. Did they never pause to consider that maybe the kid did have more information than they did?

(she said shortly... the sunshine.")

"You didn't listen to them. You blindly gave them platitudes and then sent them on their way... you didn't even bother to ask how they found out about the Stone in the first place, or just where they got their information from to check for yourself if the threat was valid." Remus whispered hoarsely. The room was silent enough that everyone heard him.

"Nothing new, adults never listen to kids." Harry muttered to himself, eyeing something on the far wall that he seemed to find interesting at that moment.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Potter... I should have looked into it more. I just... I don't know." Minerva said miserably. She really should have at least questioned where his information came from, especially since he wasn't even supposed to know the Stone existed, let alone was there at Hogwarts.

"I think... we have all gotten out of touch with our students." Filius said slowly, cutting in before the coming argument could start. "Perhaps it is time we started paying them more attention again." He looked around at his fellow teachers, who all nodded their agreement. They were coming to find out about a lot of things they let slide through some method of inactivity or other.

(But they didn't.)

"Of course not." Severus muttered, although he was interested to hear the rest of the conversation he'd only partially overheard.

("It's tonight,"... out of earshot.)

"But you didn't check for anybody else to be nearby, did you?" Fred deadpanned, disappointed that young Harry was making so many amateur mistakes. He didn't think he made this many mistakes later on, though, so he supposed he could forgive the boys innocent naivety and inexperience.

"I did... and I didn't see anyone else in the area." Harry shrugged. Snape must have snuck up after he checked.

("Snape's going... everything he needs,)

"I always knew everything about the protections." Severus sniffed.

"What I want to know." Sirius said suddenly, before anybody could say anything about Severus' knowledge. "Is how it seems that all the students knew all about this, even been down there multiple times, but the three of you don't seem to know any of this." He glanced at the Trio, confused.

"The second and first years weren't let in on it." Fred admitted.

"The older students felt like they wouldn't know enough to get through without being severely injured." George added.

"Especially with the troll there."

"Although, everything they would have needed to know was covered in the first term of first year."

"Yes... that was a little suspicious, but we honestly didn't think it was anything more than an obstacle course."

"We really should have gone to the Twins." Harry mumbled.

"Did you know about any of this?" Molly demanded from Percy, a little disappointed. She thought he was the responsible one.

"We also made sure the more rule-abiding prefects were kept in the dark." The Twins chimed in as Percy shook his head. He knew nothing about any of this, although he wished he had.

Severus growled lowly in frustration.

(and now he's got... Dumbledore turns up.")

"They're not going to know what's going on." Draco snorted at the thought. The Ministry was full of idiots, something that his father happily and skillfully took advantage of all the time.

"If I recall, I heard later that Fudge actually panicked a little, wondering what kind of emergency brought Albus there." Dora had told him about it shortly after Albus died, she'd gone a little bit on memory lane. She'd found the higher-ups reactions at the time highly amusing.

"And when it was clear there was no emergency, or anything urgent, he should have returned to the school, to his students." Severus grumbled a bit. He'd already had it out with the older man at the time of this, after Harry was pulled out of the trapped corridor.

("But what can... wheeled round.)

"What?"

"Who's there?" Neville and Ginny demanded, wanting to know just what was wrong.

(Snape was standing there.)

"Oh, no."

"Think fast."

"Ron, Hermione, keep your mouths shut." Remus instructed, knowing that Harry could talk them out of this if they didn't try to help.

"Hey!" They both protested, frowning at him.

("Good afternoon,"... twisted smile.)

"I was hoping they would say or do something that could justify points loss or detentions." He grumbled with a scowl.

"Sorry to disappoint you." Harry snorted.

"I think that anybody being inside on a beautiful day like that one was would have been suspicious. Well... except for the fifth and seventh years." Bill tilted his head. He was pretty sure he knew the kind of day it was, too. They were the kinds of days that everybody took advantage of every chance they could considering they were in Scotland.

("We were-" Harry... going to say.)

"Wow." Fred muttered.

"That's a first." George echoed everyone's thoughts without realizing it.

"Shut up." Harry grumbled, frowning.

("You want to... up to something.)

"Oh, please." Minerva huffed, looking at Severus with an odd mixture of exasperated fondness and annoyance. "The only thing suspicious about them standing in that corridor right then is that they're there and not outside enjoying the sunshine with the rest of their classmates." She rolled her eyes.

"If you'd heard any of that conversation, you would be suspicious, too." Severus returned smoothly. She merely rolled her eyes again.

(And Gryffindor really... points, can it?")

"Low blow." The Twins scowled at him, but didn't say anything else.

(Harry flushed. They... Good day to you.")

"You knew they were planning something, didn't you?" Sirius asked, amused despite himself. Then again, Severus could always tell when they were planning something back when they were still in school.

"Indeed." Severus sniffed. "The two were never very good at keeping their expressions hidden, while Mr. Potter is a Potter. Need I say more?" He drawled. He would probably always suspect Harry of being up to something on that fact alone, even though his blind hatred was evaporating.

"Yes, Potter's do seem to have a habit of finding trouble, don't they?" Albus chuckled. Harry probably found trouble the most, not surprising considering just who he was, but his father, grandfather, and great-uncles found their fair share of trouble, too, when they were all in school and beyond.

"I don't go looking for trouble." Harry grumbled. He didn't! Honest!

"He hasn't been expelled yet." Ron signed to Hermione, who smirked lightly. They'd noticed that Snape said a lot of things to Harry in regards to discipline that he never actually followed through on for one reason or another. Of course, his attitude was still horrible...

(He strode off in... turned to the others.)

"Oh, come on!" Fred cried, glaring at the Trio.

"You don't stay out in the open!" George added his own glare.

"Do you want everyone to hear what you're planning to do?" Remus asked, exasperated.

("Right, here's what... eye on Snape-)

"You three are too fixed." Moody barked suddenly. "You can never fix on one possible suspect just because of something you don't like about him. That's how the real suspect gets away if your wrong."

"Yeah... we realized that." Harry grimaced.

"Alastor." Molly groaned, exasperated with him trying to teach them this stuff. They weren't Aurors! If she had her way, none of them would ever be in such a dangerous line of work, either. At any rate, they were still just children!

"Molly, it's a good lesson for anybody, not just those planning on going into law enforcement." Sirius said mildly, pretty sure he knew what she was objecting to. She scowled, but didn't say anything else.

(wait outside the... better do that.")

"Why Hermione?" The Twins asked in unison, frowning. Personally, they thought Harry would be better suited for that, he was better at making up excuses on the fly, although lately he seemed to be having trouble with that.

"She's-" Harry started to say, having realized what his older self was up to, but Harry stopped him with a wink.

("Why me?")

"Well, I suppose she would be the least suspicious to be hanging out near the staff room, especially so soon after exams." Remus mused, sitting back with a thoughtful expression on his face.

The Twins had a comical look on their faces as they dramatically 'protested' to thinking like Hermione.

("It's obvious," said... fourteen b wrong...")

Ron's laughter was cut off and he grunted when Hermione's elbow suddenly found itself in his side. "Hey!" He protested while everyone else kept laughing.

Harry chuckled, safely out of her reach. "I actually thought his impression was pretty good." He shrugged.

"That sounded about right to me, too." Remus chuckled fondly, thinking about the time she did the same thing to him after a pop quiz over the difference between a few Dark creatures he discussed and how to handle them.

"I don't remember having a fourteen b on the exam." Filius muttered to himself, amused that Ron would have forgotten already, even though Charms had been one of the last exams for first years.

("Oh, shut up,"... "Come on.")

"This isn't going to end well." Remus commented.

"Hanging out in that area is only going to draw attention to you. Go back outside, pretend nothing's wrong. Nobodies going to make a move until that night, especially if they know they have time until Dumbledore comes back." Sirius instructed, sighing.

"Sirius Black, do not encourage them further." Molly warned, while Ron and Harry stared at him for a moment.

"We didn't even think of that." Harry muttered. Ron just shrugged.

(But that part... didn't work.)

"When do any of your plans ever work?" Fred asked in amusement.

"All the time!" Harry protested, glaring at the red-headed twin.

Ron and Hermione exchanged a look, choosing (after Harry turned his glare on them) not to mention the many, many times when his plans did not work out, and actually backfired spectacularly. Although, they did usually work, so... they supposed it balanced out, but still. They failed just as often, well... unless it was a prank.

(No sooner had... she lost her temper.)

"Wow, you've made her lose her temper more in one year than we ever managed." Sirius said in wonder.

"... I think you're underestimating your and James' ability to make her angry." Remus said after a moment. He didn't bother telling the room that half the reason Sirius' statement was true, was because he, Remus, was able to sweet talk her half the time.

Minerva nodded in agreement with Remus, eyeing Sirius with a raised eyebrow. Sirius just shrugged.

"That's not something to be proud of." Molly muttered under her breath. Arthur huffed a laugh and patted her on the shoulder.

("I suppose you... of enchantments!")

"They probably would have been." Fred muttered to George, who nodded in agreement. He didn't say anything, though, not wanting to get the teachers angry with them.

After all, that obstacle course had been fun. Even though they'd had to figure out how to brew that potion at the end of it, and once a student guessed which was right, they'd handed them the potion. That way, they didn't run out, because that bottle was tiny! And, a small test had revealed that there actually was poison in the other bottles, nothing immediately lethal, but...

(she stormed. "Enough... my own house!")

"Especially from her own house." Ron muttered to himself, slightly bitter that she wasn't even asking them why they were so sure something was going to happen to it.

"You know, Minerva. Maybe instead of getting angry, and handing out punishments, you should listen to them." Sirius said, somewhat coldly. He couldn't believe that she was brushing them off like this!

Minerva sighed shakily, knowing that they were absolutely right. She didn't bother trying to defend Ron's statement, though, she was harder on her Gryffindor's than she was on any of the other Houses, especially after the Marauder's went through Hogwarts.

(Harry and Ron... Hermione came in.)

"Or not." The Twins deadpanned at once.

"We were surprised to see her there." Ron admitted.

"I'm sorry." Hermione said again, still feeling a little bad that she'd failed so quickly, although she felt a little better knowing that boys had failed in their task just as quickly. Both boys waved it off, knowing it hadn't been her fault.

("I'm sorry, Harry!"... where Snape went.")

"I went to my office to start grading exams and potion samples." Severus deadpanned. "I didn't have time to go around stealing things." He dismissed. Although, he supposed that the samples were the easiest things to grade, at least for him, anyway.

Most would have to meticulously test each and every potion for consistency, potency, and the like. He just needed to see it and smell it to know how good it was.

The exams, on the other hand... well, needless to say they really needed to cover some kind of comprehensive writing lessons, or English class, or something. Because the Muggle-born and raised, or half-bloods who went to Muggle primary school were easily the best when it came to writing, for good reason.

"At least she didn't freeze up and forget the cover story you gave her." Remus commented, knowing that that was a very real possibility with Hermione, who was very sheltered as a child, as a very strong sense of right and wrong, and was unyielding in that sense. Although, he supposed she had loosened up considerably over the years with Ron and Harry.

("Well, that's it then, isn't it?" Harry said.)

"What's it, then?" Molly asked, suspicious.

"Isn't it obvious? They're going to go after the thing themselves." Severus sneered, wondering just how clueless she was about what her children got up to at school. Surely somebody had written the Weasley and Granger parents?

Molly's eyes widened. "Don't you dare!" She thundered at the three.

"Molly, this has already happened." Arthur reminded her quietly.

"You didn't tell your mom about any of this?" Harry signed to Ron, curious. His eyes widened and he shook his head frantically.

"She would have killed me!" Ron signed shakily, although she might still get that chance right now.

(The other two... were glittering.)

"Really?" Harry asked, curious.

"Yup." Hermione said simply.

"You get that look a lot." Fred commented.

"Whenever you're about to do something stupid." George finished.

"Huh." Harry muttered, looking away thoughtfully.

("I'm going out... the Stone first.")

"Absolutely not, young man!" Molly stood up with a screech, glaring at Harry.

"This already happened, Molly." Arthur said again, tiredly. She ignored him.

Harry narrowed his eyes at her. "What else did you expect me to do, just sit back and let Voldemort get the Philosopher's Stone? Just sit back and do nothing while Voldemort came back?" He demanded. "Especially knowing that I would have been his first target?" Everybody always said that nobody escaped Voldemort.

Nobody.

"You can go to a teacher, and let them handle it!" She shot back, completely forgetting in that moment that Harry already had.

"I did, remember? I was brushed off without thought." Harry reminded coldly, while Minerva flushed and looked down in shame.

"You are a child, none of this war is your problem to deal with..." She started again.

"Except none of the adults are dealing with it, are they?" Hermione asked quietly. "They're just sitting back, waiting for Harry to come in saving them."

"Molly." Sirius finally said. "Sit down, and let us continue the reading." He commanded softly, and Arthur took her shock to pull her back down beside him, muttering in her ear while his arm around her waist kept her seated and the silencing charm kept her quiet so she had no choice but to shut up and listen.

("You're mad!" said Ron.)

"I thought we established that." Fred said with a somewhat shaky grin, trying to break the tension from his mother's outburst.

"I don't think it was ever a question." George agreed.

Harry scowled.

("You can't!"... You'll be expelled!")

"There are more important things in life, sometimes, then school." Hermione said softly. She'd learned that the hard way over the years. She'd always held school as being the most important thing, but it really wasn't. Yes, it was important to do well in school if you wanted to have good job options when you were older, but there were some things that were just more important.

Hermione frowned and looked like she was going to protest, but Pomona stopped her by whispering in her ear.

("SO WHAT" Harry... coming back!)

Here, Albus frowned. "I do not think it would have been that simple, actually..." He murmured thoughtfully, sitting back. He'd actually made the Stone bait with this thought in mind.

"What do you mean?" Remus asked suspiciously. He'd been suspicious of Dumbledore's motives ever since talk of the Philosopher's Stone being in the school started up.

"Well... the Stone gives gold, and a long lasting life. It would not just create a body, he would need other... ingredients, so to speak, as well as the knowledge of how to use them. As far as I can remember, Tom Riddle never really showed much interest in Alchemy." Meaning he wouldn't have known the rest of this, but then again, Tom Riddle had done a lot of travelling after Hogwarts, and he'd had access to old family libraries as well, so who knew just what he'd learned in that time.

Sirius pointed out those very same points. "And I know for a fact, that he had access to the Black Family Library at one point, and one of my great-uncles was an Alchemy Master." He finished. "Don't use something as bait when you don't even know all your facts, old man." He grumbled.

"Either way, that Stone should never have been in the school." Molly said, coldly. As much as she defended Albus Dumbledore and his decisions over the years, she was finding it difficult to defend this one.

(Haven't you heard... to take over?)

"Not really." Ron muttered to himself. When everybody turned to look at him, he realized he'd spoken louder than intended. "Mom and dad... never really talked about the war much, and Bill and Charlie were old enough to remember, but not really old enough to understand fully I don't think." He shrugged after explaining.

Harry turned a little red himself. "Nobody really told me much, either, I just remembered what Hagrid told me when he took me shopping for school supplies, about how everybody was afraid and didn't know who to trust."

(There won't be... the Dark Arts!)

Neville snorted. "That's exactly what he did." He muttered bitterly, shuddering. And anybody who couldn't perform correctly, was punished by being everybody else's training dummy. It was a good thing Crabbe and Goyle were so stupid, otherwise he would probably be in a bed next to his parents... although their grades were higher than ever this year, it seemed they were particularly talented for the Dark Arts.

"It's awful... and what they do to the first years..." Ginny murmured, closing her eyes at the memory of what they'd seen whenever they went to 'rescue' a kid from 'detention'. Luna swallowed and nodded her agreement.

Molly and Arthur's eyes widened, not having known any of that. Ginny's mail was so heavily monitored, that she didn't even bother sending any beyond a once-a-month 'I'm alive, and doing well in class' letter, and she hadn't been allowed to come home for the holidays, either, because her family were known members of the Order of the Phoenix. Bill and Charlie made noises before pulling their baby sister to sit between them, arms wrapped around her shoulders in comfort. She happily snuggled down between her two oldest brothers.

Albus's eyes hardened as he learned what had been done to his school and his students.

(Losing points doesn't... parents, remember?")

Fred and George both whistled in appreciation, while Ginny and Neville looked impressed.

"We see what you meant now, little brother." Fred said.

"He can speak when he really wants to." George added in agreement. Harry just turned red.

"So that's what they were talking about." Neville muttered to Ginny and Luna.

"He's Harry, when he speaks, people listen. And it's not just because of his name like he thinks." Luna said wisely. She was right, though. Harry didn't think very highly of himself, he thought most people only took the time to interact with him at all was because of his name, so they could try to cozy up to him for some reason.

That wasn't always true, though.

Sirius and Remus had ignored the by-play between the kids and exchanged significant glances. "He's a natural leader." Sirius muttered, proud of his pup.

(He glared at them... a small voice.)

"He usually is about things like this." She muttered with a huff. Ron nodded while Harry shrugged self-consciously.

("I'll use the... I got it back.")

"Yes... lucky." Remus muttered, eyeing Dumbledore in suspicion, along with everybody else in the room that actually cared.

"Well... it is a good thing I got it back, if anybody else had found it, I probably would have never seen it again." Harry admitted with a shudder at such a thing happening.

"Yes you would have... it's a Potter family heirloom. The Potter's were a rather paranoid bunch regarding some things, so they will have used some of their magic to ensure that all you had to do was summon it back to you in the event it was lost or stolen." Sirius waved off, not going into detail about just what magic the Potters would have done.

"Huh." Was all Harry had to say.

Moody scribbled down something about ensuring Harry found the spells or whatever necessary for summoning heirlooms back to him, just to be sure they were all accounted for.

("But will it... said Ron.)

"Oh, certainly." Sirius said happily, pleased to have something else to think about for the moment despite not being happy with what they were planning right now, but more than happy to discuss the Cloak. "It should easily cover the three of you for a few years, yet."

"Less than that, once Ron hit his first growth spurt." Harry snorted. The Cloak started to become a tight fit for the three of them around middle of third year, versus the fourth or fifth that he was sure Sirius was thinking of. He was sure that it would have been even sooner if it wasn't for his smaller size.

"Hey! Not my fault I got tall and you stayed so short." Ron grinned at Harry, who stuck his tongue out.

("All- all three of... you go alone?")

"Of course not." Ron and Hermione both said at once, and at the same time. They ignored the amused look Harry sent them, remembering that Hermione had said the exact same thing.

It was just like they refused to let him go alone on the Horcrux hunt, even if Ron did abandon them half-way through. But he came back! That counted for something, right?

"None of you are going anywhere but the Common Room, and staying there!" Molly demanded again, terrified for the three children, and what they were planning on doing. She couldn't even yell at them for not going to a teacher, because they had!

("Of course not,"... Stone without us?)

"I couldn't have." Harry murmured, smiling at his friends fondly. He never would have even made it past the Devil's Snare without them! He probably wouldn't have remembered that bit about the light and all that until it was too late to even do anything about it.

(I'd better go... something useful...")

"Was there?" Neville asked, curious if she'd actually read anything that helped that night.

"No, not really." Hermione admitted sadly. She'd tried to skim her notes and books for anything, knowing which teachers were involved, but none of it was useful when they finally went down there, although all the obstacles were well within a first years abilities.

("But if we get... expelled, too.")

"I don't think anybody will actually get expelled, especially since it's Harry Potter we're talking about." Draco dismissed that very possibility.

As if Harry Potter would ever be expelled, he probably wouldn't be expelled even if he killed somebody else, like he almost killed him in sixth year and nothing ever happened from it.

("Not if I can... out after that.")

"Actually, they still might, if you do something bad enough." Neville denied.

"Don't tell me that." Hermione complained, not wanting to hear at all that her good grades wouldn't have saved her from being kicked out.

(After dinner the... more, after all.)

Harry snorted. "Like they ever had anything worthwhile to say, anyway." He muttered darkly. All they wanted was the 'Boy-Who-Lived', hardly any of them wanted 'Harry'. That had changed in fifth year, with the DA, but everyone seemed to revert back in sixth year.

"They were still angry over those points lost?" Sirius asked, surprised. Nobody ever held a grudge for this long over points.

"I doubt they would have ever cared at all if it weren't because Harry was involved." Ron snorted, shaking his head.

"What else is new?" Harry muttered darkly, starting to sketch. He wasn't really drawing anything in particular, he was just drawing.

(This was the... upset by it.)

"It was nice, not having people come by where we were sitting, trying to talk to me, or trying to pry into what we were doing..." Harry said softly, and wistfully.

"Then why were you upset by their ignoring you before?" Sirius asked after a moment, confused.

"Because of the reason they were ignoring me." Harry shrugged, and Sirius conceded that he had a point there. They were ignoring him because he'd lost fifty points, and he wasn't the only one in the history of Gryffindor to lose fifty points at once.

(Hermione was skimming... to try to break.)

Hermione just scowled at the reminder. There hadn't been any enchantments to break, it had all been obstacles, physical tasks until the very last one with the potions and the logic puzzle. Until that point, she was absolutely useless.

(Harry and Ron... off to bed.)

"Slowly." Harry muttered in annoyance.

"It seems that the only times people take their time in going to bed, is when we need them to hurry up and get out of there." Ron complained.

"Ah, you don't need to wait for them to clear out... nobody will notice or care if you just leave." Sirius waved off.

"Excuse me?" Minerva asked, not at all happy with that.

Remus snorted this time. "You are busy with your teaching and Deputy Head duties, leaving Gryffindor to police themselves." Asking a bunch of students, though, to behave without any kind of supervision is just asking for trouble. "That, and they know that Dumbledore favors them, and any punishment will just be a slap to the wrist." He shrugged.

("Better get the... Ron muttered,)

"Why didn't you already have it?" Sirius asked, confused. After all, the less sneaking around they would have to do, the less chance of them getting caught.

Harry shrugged. "Didn't think of it." He muttered.

(as Lee Jordan... him for Christmas.)

"Were you planning on them meeting Fluffy?" Minerva asked, curious and confused.

"No." Hagrid shook his head. "I made it, and thought 'Arry might like it fer Christmas."

"Thanks, Hagrid. I did like it, I still use it sometimes." Harry admitted. Mostly when he was on his own. Of course, he'd taken a few free classes at the local music store so he could play it without sounding like a dying duck or something.

(He pocketed it... much like singing.)

"You have such a good voice, though." Neville lamented, and Harry just shrugged.

"Really?" Fred asked, curious.

"Yeah... he'll start singing or humming under his breath sometimes when he's doing homework, or reading, or even during Herbology class." Ron snorted.

Harry turned red. "Sometimes I could listen to the radio from next door when I was outside doing the gardening... and from my cupboard when she had the radio on." He liked having background noise sometimes while he worked.

"You should sing for us sometime." Sirius suggested, turning Harry bright red, while Harry smiled hesitantly.

(He ran back... on its own-")

"I don't think that would have ended well for you." Sirius said simply, with a smirk.

"That's assuming Argus was even on patrol that night." Filius muttered.

"Mrs. Norris is more likely to spot them before Filch, though." Bill commented with a grimace. Even when he was in school, when Mrs. Norris was still young, barely older than a kitten, that cat was a menace to all students.

("What are you... behind an armchair,)

The Twins, Sirius and Remus groaned while the Trio turned red, embarrassed at having made such a mistake. They'd thought Lee was the last one, and didn't even bother to check the rest of the Common Room to make sure.

"Amateur, such an amateur mistake!" Sirius moaned, although he also hoped that this would dissuade Harry, or at least get somebody else along, safety in numbers, and all that.

"I know." Harry hung his head, ashamed with himself.

"Wow, you really can disappear, can't you?" Fred asked Neville, who turned red. He and Hermione were avoiding looking at each other, Hermione out of shame and embarrassment for what she did, and Neville because she cursed him.

(clutching Trevor... bid for freedom.)

"He was." Neville confirmed. "That's why I was down there, trying to find him before I went to bed for the night." Although he doubted Trevor would have still been there in the morning, sometimes he was, though.

"You need a good tank for him or something." Bill commented, shaking his head in disbelief over how a toad could be such a handful.

"He just wants to explore." Luna defended the toad.

("Nothing, Neville... behind his back.)

"I already knew all about it." Neville waved off. Even Harry tended to forget sometimes that he was around, as shown by this instance right here. He'd known all about the Cloak since he came back from Christmas and saw Harry pull it out of his trunk to put in his pocket.

Harry turned a slight red. "Sorry, Neville." He said, confusing everybody else about what he was apologizing for. Neville understood, though, and waved it off.

"You should explain what's going on, or at least some of it." Sirius said suddenly. "Even if he doesn't go with you, he can keep a look-out for your return, and go get somebody if you don't return by a certain time."

The Trio stared at him in shock, not having even considered that.

(Neville stared at their guilty faces.)

"I had no idea what was going on, I just knew it was going to get somebody in trouble." Neville said with a small glare.

"Sorry, but... we couldn't stand back and do nothing." Harry frowned.

"You never can." Neville muttered, somewhat fondly, but also exasperated.

"You really need to work on your face." Fred frowned.

"You'll never get away with anything..."

"... if you can't keep it off your face."

"We got better about it." Harry muttered, cursing himself. Clearly he'd grown complacent in his one year at school, it was a wonder he'd survived the first week back at Privet Drive.

("You're going out... to bed, Neville?")

"Don't insult his intelligence by denying it." Ginny deadpanned.

Hermione turned red again. "Sorry, Neville."

(Harry looked at the... more trouble.")

Harry frowned. He didn't really catch it back then, but now... now it sounded like Neville had forgotten that he, too, was one of those to lose that 150 points. The way he said that, made it sound like he blamed Harry, too. Which, of course, he wouldn't have been out there in the first place if it weren't for Harry being out, but still.

He didn't say anything, though, choosing instead to forget about it.

("You don't understand,")

"Only because nobody ever tells me anything, they just forget I ever exist most of the time." Neville muttered, almost bitterly. He didn't truly mind, though, because he was able to listen in and move around without being bothered most of the time. But still, it would be nice to be noticed.

(said Harry, "this is... "I'll- I'll fight you!")

"Go, Neville." All the Gryffindor's cheered, although some of them were shocked. Draco, too, was shocked, although he supposed he shouldn't have been considering how Neville joined the fight at that Quidditch game.

'My Lion finally shows his roar.' Minerva thought with a proud smile. People tended to forget that bravery didn't have to be up front and 'in your face'. There was a quiet bravery, a kind that was often more associated with the Hufflepuff's, but could in fact be more powerful than the upfront bravery that most Gryffindor's displayed.

Neville turned bright red at the cheers from the other Lions in the room, while Luna grabbed his arm and gave him a blinding smile.

("Neville," Ron exploded... be an idiot-")

"Temper." Arthur warned immediately, knowing that Ron was going to say something he'd regret later if somebody didn't interrupt the coming rant.

"Yes, dad." Ron muttered.

("Don't you call... up to people!")

"And I was surprised Hermione was so willing to go along with that." He added on to the end.

"You tell them, Neville!" Ginny cheered, excited for Neville, who so far in the book had been a bumbling, forgetful boy. Now, though, now he was showing his roar. She knew that he only got better from there.

("Yes, but not... in exasperation.)

"Ron, I don't think that's quite how that works." Ginny informed her older brother.

"You can't tell him to stand up for himself, and then try to tell him who he is and isn't allowed to stand up to." Bill scoffed. "That defeats the purpose of telling him to stand up for himself at all!"

Ron turned beet red. "I was talking about Malfoy and the Slytherins, though!" He exclaimed, wanting to move on from this conversation.

"Still not how that works." Ginny sing-songed.

(Neville, you don't... you're doing.")

"Actually..." Charlie started, looking at Neville in a new light. "I think he knew exactly what he was doing then." He praised.

"I hope we see more of this Neville." Sirius nodded, liking the confident young man sitting in the room with them, and wondering how he went from the sniveling wreck he was, to how he was now.

"I was just trying to keep them from getting in any more trouble." Neville muttered.

(He took a step... leapt out of sight.)

"He's free!" The Twins cried at once. Although, they'd found Trevor sitting on Neville's chest the next morning, so he didn't go very far.

("Go on then... "I'm ready!")

"Woah!"

"Go Neville!"

"Yeah, you tell them!"

Neville's red face became brighter at the encouragement being yelled out for him.

The 'responsible adults' (teachers and Molly) merely sighed, shaking their heads. While they were glad he was trying to stop them, they weren't too impressed with his first action being to raise his fists to try and fight them off.

(Harry turned to... said desperately.)

"Just out of curiosity... what were you expecting me to do?" Hermione asked, slightly hesitant.

"Talk him down somehow. You were more level-headed right then, he might have listened to you." Harry said with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh."

(Hermione stepped... sorry about this.")

"What are you planning?" Remus narrowed his eyes in suspicion. Hermione sank down in her seat, ashamed.

None of the trio would look at anybody.

(She raised her wand... it at Neville.)

"That wasn't exactly what I meant..." Harry deadpanned in the shocked silence, while everyone stared at Hermione.

"That... explains why we found Neville..."

"... cursed on the floor..."

"... the next morning." The Twins said, swallowing. All of Gryffindor had been slightly panicked, thinking that somebody had gotten into their Common Room and attacked them, especially when they'd found Harry, Ron, and Hermione missing.

They'd known there was a reason to fear Hermione, all actions taken by them to the contrary, but this...

Hermione was a bright red color. "I'm sorry, Neville." She apologized again. She'd apologized profusely after everything was said and done, but still.

"It's fine." He waved off. "Although it will be good to know just what it was all for." He admitted, having never really gotten a complete answer about it all.

(Neville's arms snapped... stiff as a board.)

"That hurt, by the way." He informed the room casually. He suspected that the only reason his nose hadn't been broken was because he was petrified like that. Well, not really, because he was still fully aware and all that, it was just his body that was stiff and all that.

"You're lucky he wasn't hurt by that." Poppy snapped, not happy by that.

Hermione winced. "I know, I'm so sorry, Neville." She apologized again, still sorry about it. He waved it off again, just like he had years ago when she couldn't stop apologizing for him.

(Hermione ran to... I'm so sorry.")

"My mind blanked, I did the first thing that came to me." She explained, sounding just as miserable as she did back then.

"You and Harry are the exact opposites, aren't you? He's the 'on-the-fly' planner, while you don't do that great with planning on the fly." Charlie noted.

"That's very true. And, of course, that leaves me to try and make sure whatever plans they come up with don't backfire spectacularly." Ron rolled his eyes.

("We had to, Neville... invisibility cloak.)

"You know, I never did. Because you never explained it to me. All I had to go off of were the rumors that flew around school, and everybody knows that the rumors are hardly ever accurate." Neville said dryly.

"Sorry, Nev." Harry apologized.

"Although, all the rumors of everything we did over the years, were actually pretty accurate." Ron commented with a shrug.

"There were some inaccuracies, but yes. They were actually pretty accurate." Hermione agreed.

(But leaving Neville... very good omen.)

"That is a very bad start to this whole thing." Remus admitted with a grimace.

"Yeah... I don't think I would have still gone through with it. It's already not starting out well." Sirius added. He didn't want them to go anywhere, either. He would rather wrap Harry up in Muggle bubble-wrap, and squirrel him away somewhere safe.

"We had to go, if we didn't, Voldemort was going to come back." Harry said stubbornly.

(In their nervous... near the top.)

"Does that cat ever sleep?" Fred asked, exasperated. Of course she would be right there. She was always everywhere that students didn't want her to be.

"Probably during the day while students are in class." Minerva said, shrugging. Cats went where they wanted, when they wanted. They did what they wanted, when they wanted.

("Oh, let's kick her, just this once,")

"You will not!" Molly and Minerva both admonished at once, before looking at each other in surprise.

"I didn't." Ron defended himself. "It was just a thought." He muttered, quieter.

(Ron whispered in... didn't do anything.)

"She would have smelled or heard you, but wouldn't have known what it was." Remus reasoned, knowing that she was trained to go after students when it was dark outside. If she didn't see students, she wasn't going to react.

"She might have thought they were ghosts, even." Sirius added on with a shrug. One never knew with cats.

"Thank goodness." The trio muttered. They had so not wanted to deal with Filch that night, not with everything else they knew was going to happen, even if they didn't know just what the 'protections' were.

(They didn't meet... people would trip.)

"We told you that wasn't us." The Twins immediately said, glaring at Minerva, who had blamed them and took twenty points each because she did almost trip. They didn't do stuff like that, somebody could get seriously hurt or killed!

She sighed and slumped over. "I'm sorry, boys. It- I just- I'll work on listening more." She finally said after a few rough starts. When did she become so disconnected from her students?

Harry blinked at her, then turned to Ron and Hermione. "At least it's not just us." He muttered, to their agreement.

("Who's there?" he... student beastie?")

"He was one of the few that knew about James having an Invisibility Cloak, he thought it was great. It was certainly a perfect tool for ensuring we didn't get caught." Sirius said with a small grin.

Remus scoffed. "Speak for yourself, he always tried to get me caught if I was under it and he found out it was me." Peeves did not like him...

"How did he even..." Fred asked, confused.

"He can sense these things." Sirius shrugged, having never bothered to figure out how the Poltergeist did it, either.

(He rose up in... around unseen.")

"He would, too."

"But not out of concern for students."

"Just to mess with Filch." The Twins chimed in, having seen it many times from Peeves. They'd even helped him several times.

Minerva sighed. "At this point, if we really did get rid of Peeves, I'm sure Filch would be miserable without somebody to chase around." She commented, to everybodies agreement.

"Peeves would probably be a little down, too, without Filch around to torment." Pomona added with a snort.

"True." Everybody agreed again.

(Harry had a sudden idea.)

"This should be interesting." Charlie said, leaning forward. Harry had proven that when he got a spur of the moment idea, they were usually very interesting, and they worked a lot better than when he had time to plan before-hand.

("Peeves," he said... for being invisible.")

Jaws dropped all over the room.

"Brilliant." The Twins both whispered hoarsely, staring at Harry in awe. Sirius looked proud, while Remus rolled his eyes at his best friend in fond exasperation.

"There's no way he is going to fall for that." Draco said after a moment, sounding very sure of himself. Surely Peeves knew what the Baron sounded like well enough not to be fooled?

He missed the looks the Trio shared between themselves, but the rest of the room didn't.

(Peeves almost... air in shock.)

"If a poltergeist could have a heart attack..." Fred said in amusement, to everyone else's snickering agreement.

(He caught himself... he said greasily.)

Draco's jaw dropped in a very undignified manner. "No way." He muttered, shocked, now he was the one staring at Harry. Harry raised an eyebrow and shrugged in a 'what can you do' sort of way.

"George." Fred stated, still staring in awe at Harry.

"Yes, Fred?" George asked absently.

"We must do whatever it takes." His brother said cryptically. His Twin, of course, understood exactly what he meant. Mentally, they were already making plans to become Harry's apprentices in the art of pranking and mischief making.

They missed the scared and worried looks everyone else was shooting them.

("My mistake, my... little joke, sir.")

"Woah." Everybody breathed.

"Talk about a kiss up." Harry muttered, not all that amazed by it, having been the one to see it.

"The Baron is the only one able to control him." Albus shook his head in amazement. He thought that the two of them had some sort of history from back when they were alive, but he had no idea what that history was. Hmm... maybe he could ask the ghosts to be 'guest speakers' in history class, once they got a new teacher, at least. Maybe the students could benefit from learning their stories.

("I have business here...

And he scooted off.)

"You better hope that he doesn't run into the Baron, and that the Baron doesn't clue him in that it wasn't him." Remus warned.

"By the time that would have happened, we would have already been through the trap-door." Harry sighed.

"The Baron would at least go to Severus and tell him that somebody was out and about on the third floor corridor, though." Minerva pointed out, although she looked at Severus in question, he was the one who knew the Baron the best, after all.

("Brilliant, Harry!" whispered Ron.)

"Yeah, brilliant!" The Twins agreed with glee.

"Have you ever pulled that again?" George demanded, watching Harry intently.

"A couple of times." He admitted. "I don't want to do it too often, though, just in case Peeves gets wise to me."

"Understandable." Sirius, Remus, and the Twins all said at once. A trick or prank became more and more ineffective the more often it was used, after all. Especially on the same person.

(A few seconds... was already ajar.)

Sirius swallowed, feeling like a stone just dropped into his gut. "He's already down there." He said softly, grabbing onto his pups, not wanting them anywhere near somebody who had already tried to kill them once.

"We had to move quickly to keep him away from the Stone." Harry agreed.

"That's not what I'm worried about." Sirius snapped, then closed his eyes to get control of himself again when Harry looked at him, shocked by his tone. "I don't care about the Stone, I don't like you being anywhere near somebody who has already tried to kill you once that year, and is working for Voldemort!" He exclaimed.

Harry looked at him, startled. Ron and Hermione just exchanged loaded looks. Even after all this time, Harry still struggled to believe that somebody could care for him like that. They'd thought that them and Sirius would have made progress with that before now, they guessed that they'd made less progress than they thought, Sirius' death might have even been a setback in that regard.

("Well, there you... got past Fluffy.")

"You know, you only went to Minerva. Why not try and find one of us? We are Heads of House, too." Filius said suddenly, gesturing between himself and Pomona. Obviously, they wouldn't have gone to Severus, they thought he was the culprit the entire time.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione blinked at him in surprise. "I just figured that if our own Head of House didn't listen, who would?" Harry said after a moment with a shrug.

"It didn't even occur to me." Hermione confessed sheepishly.

(Seeing the open... need it now.")

"It's very annoying when you do that." Hermione said matter-of-factly.

"Do what?" Harry asked, confused.

"Ask us to leave you behind." Ron informed his best friend with a scowl. Harry pursed his lips, but didn't say anything else.

("Don't be stupid,"... couldn't see them.)

"Good thing, too, or he might have already attacked." Neville commented, shuddering when he remembered the first and only time he'd met Fluffy.

"Nah." Hagrid denied instantly. "He's trained be'er than that." He didn't elaborate further though. But if Fluffy wasn't, than he would have been attacked every time he opened the door to feed him.

("What's that at... left it there.")

Severus got a sour look on his face. "ME, with a harp?" He deadpanned. Not that there was anything wrong with such an instrument, it took a great deal of skill and practice to be able to use, but still. HIM, with a harp?

Harry grimaced. "Well... better you with a harp than the one that it really was." He muttered. Quirrelmort was the one to conjure the harp in the first place, after all. Severus grimaced, but kept quiet.

("It must wake... stop playing,")

"Not really, he takes a while ter wake up proper." Hagrid shrugged, a little put off by Harry calling Fluffy an 'it', but he didn't bring it up. Harry had helped him get Fluffy settled in a nice spot just inside the Forest, after all, and still visited semi-regularly.

(said Harry. "Well... began to droop.)

"Huh. For a dog that's bred to guard things, that is a pretty big weakness." Dudley commented, a little alarmed by how easy it was to get past the dog.

"It's not something that is actually well known, yeah, it's written about, and anybody that studies magical creatures would know about it, but if you don't know anything about them, and run across one, then... yeah, they're pretty effective guard dogs." Harry shrugged, but he agreed with his cousin that the music thing was a pretty glaring weakness.

(Harry hardly drew... ground, fast asleep.)

"Right on top of the trapdoor." Ron grumbled. Hermione had refused to get that close to the dogs paw (and the claws on it), while Harry was busy keeping it asleep, leaving him to do the heavy lifting right then.

Harry stifled a laugh. "Sorry Ron, I could exactly tell him where to fall." He said with a giant grin on his face.

("Keep playing," Ron... go first, Hermione?")

"This is one case where ladies don't go first." Charlie deadpanned with a smirk.

"The lady goes first, unless it's a dangerous situation." Bill and Percy said in unison, repeating something their father had told them once when he was giving them the Talk. After the uncomfortable part, he'd spent a while making sure they knew what he would do to them if he ever caught them treating a girl with anything less than the utmost respect, which included just how to treat them respectfully.

("No, I don't!"... swung up and open.)

"This is way too easy so far." Bill muttered to Charlie. Fred and George claimed to have been charging students for the chance to go down and try the 'obstacle course', but they hadn't let anybody younger than third year in on it. This was way too easy for a trio of first years, way too easy.

"Hopefully they'll get stuck on a later obstacle, and a teacher will come find them before they can go any further." Charlie shrugged, knowing that it wasn't likely to happen, but he could hope, right?

("What can you... have to drop.")

"Don't do that, you don't know what's at the bottom, it could be nothing but solid floor!" Remus exclaimed, they hadn't even shown a Lumos down there!

"You don't know how deep it is, either, if it's deep enough." Molly fretted.

"Don't worry, there is something at the bottom to catch them." Fred assured the room, but didn't say just what it was at the bottom. Pomona bit her lip, concerned.

"That may be, but they don't know that. They didn't even cast a Lumos into the hole!" Sirius frowned, looking at the Trio in disappointment, they were taking far too many risks in what was already a dangerous situation. One that they shouldn't have even been in in the first place.

(Harry, who was... Are you sure?")

"No!" Was the general outcry.

"I knew Gryffindor's jumped without looking, but this is too thoughtless even for a Gryffindor." Severus sneered, enraged that after everything he had ever done to keep the boy alive... and the boy was pulling stunts like this? It was a wonder his hair was still black.

"How else were we supposed to get down there?" Harry demanded.

"A broom, for starters." Sirius deadpanned. "You can at least figure out how deep it is before jumping down there." He felt sorry for his older counterpart, the one that actually got out of prison to meet his pup, and wondered idly if the other him had ever known how close he got to no longer having a godson. He must not have, otherwise the boy would have been wrapped in cotton wool and placed somewhere unplottable and under the Fidelius for good measure.

"We didn't think of any of that." Hermione murmured after a few seconds of silence.

"Clearly."

(said Ron. "I... keep him asleep.")

All the Gryffindor's that ever shared the Tower with Hermione winced. "Well... at least she only had to keep a steady note going, she didn't have to play a tune or anything." Ron grimaced, even though that note was high and reedy.

Sirius looked at them curiously while Hermione blushed. "She can't hold a note, at all." Neville informed everyone else who was confused. "She's very tone-deaf." Not that it stopped her from trying on occasion...

(Harry handed the... its deep sleep.)

Dudley shook his head in disbelief, but didn't say anything else. Seriously, though, this was a huge weakness for a guard dog!

(Harry climbed over... of the bottom.)

"You might be able to see if you cast a Lumos!" Most of the adults cried, annoyed with how they weren't even going to do that much to ensure it was safe to go down there.

"We get it, we were being stupidly reckless even for Gryffindor's! Leave it already, it's over and done." Harry snapped, not liking it that they were going on about this.

Everybody else frowned, but decided to drop it, they didn't want to witness Harry's famous temper for themselves (for those that had never seen it before for themselves).

(He lowered himself... his fingertips.)

"Thank goodness for Oliver Wood." Harry muttered, rubbing his arms. He never would have been able to do that if it hadn't been for Wood's training regimen. He used to hate strength training days with a passion, not so much anymore.

Fred and George looked at him in disbelief, unable to believe he'd just said that.

(Then he looked... Dumbledore, right?")

"Shouldn't you have already done that?" Remus asked wryly.

"No time." Harry muttered, still annoyed.

Dumbledore glanced at him and narrowed his eyes. Oh, no. If the boy had owled him before even bothering to go down there, that would defeat the purpose of the test, although he did wish the boy was going alone, less chance of anybody getting hurt that way. Ah, well, it might be better this way. Friendship and love were two things that Tom had never been able to understand, which was why Harry would defeat him in the end.

("Right," said Ron.

"See you in a minute, I hope...")

Sirius whimpered at hearing his pup say something like that, nobody commented though, wanting to hear what happened.

(And Harry let... down and -

FLUMP.)

"What?" Sirius demanded, not liking that sound effect. Why did this blasted book have to mimic sound effects so well?

"Relax, Sirius, that didn't sound like anything bad. I'd say he landed on something soft." Remus frowned thoughtfully. Harry nodded his agreement.

(With a funny, muffled... some sort of plant.)

Neville frowned, thinking. A plant? In a place like that? But... the only plant that could be was... His eyes widened, but he decided not to say anything until it was confirmed. It could be a hybrid of some kind created just for this purpose, or a mutated strand.

Magic could affect anything in strange ways.

("It's okay!" he... postage stamp,)

"That's pretty far, even with that at the bottom." Remus frowned. Could there be enchantments on the room he was in now, that would ensure a safe landing, or was Harry's point of view skewed because of his age and adrenaline?

"It was a long drop." Pomona admitted. "Albus ensured nobody would get hurt during it, he and the rest of us made semi-frequent trips down there to check on things." Especially making sure the troll was getting fed, making sure the enchantments didn't fail because of various reasons...

"Doesn't that defeat the purpose of this being part of something's protections?" Dudley asked. How did you expect to protect something, when the first protection didn't even ensure whoever was trying to sneak, got hurt? If somebody could walk away, than it wasn't really a protection at all.

"Because those aren't protections." Remus said what he'd suspected for a while now, resigned. "It's a trap."

(which was the... break the fall.)

"Not quite." Pomona said slowly. It wasn't there to break the fall, it was there as an added trap. Hopefully the students could keep their heads on straight. Hermione, at least, would be able to recognize it, if she didn't lose her head. The boys, well, they did do well in her class, but... she wasn't sure if they would have remembered that little tidbit or not, Devil's Snare wasn't actually covered all that much until later years. It was just briefly mentioned in first year.

(Come on, Hermione!"... Harry's other side.)

"Good thing she didn't actually land on one of you." Bill said with a slight grimace, but amusement was clear in his voice.

"We didn't even think of that happening." Ron muttered, blinking.

"There's a lot of things we seemed to not think about back then." Harry scowled at the thought. Was he getting that complacent?

("We must be... she said.)

"Not quite. A fall like that would have killed you, no matter how soft the landing." Filius said in amusement. Hermione turned red, having not even considered that.

"Well, with the charms and such on the room, that might not actually be the case." Remus rolled his eyes at the Headmaster, wondering just what he was really up to here. A lock on the door that any first year could easily get past, a dog that had such a big weakness (even if it wasn't actually that well known), and now a plant to break the fall at the bottom? Oh, he had no doubt that the plant was probably more than that, but he would bet his entire chocolate stash that it would also have been at least mentioned in the first year Herbology classes.

("Lucky this plant... really," said Ron.)

"I don't think it's 'luck' that put that plant there." Ginny deadpanned.

"No... it's still a good thing it was there." Ron said mulishly, even if it did try to strangle him.

("Lucky!" shrieked... at you both!")

"What?"

"What's wrong?"

"What kind of plant is it?" Voices rang out, but Harry only gestured towards the book, indicating that they would get their answers there.

(She leapt up and... around her ankles.)

"Devil's Snare!" Neville yelped at the confirmation, now almost wishing he'd gone along with them. Well, Hermione knew almost as much Herbology theory as he did (even if she wasn't really all that good with the plants themselves), and she clearly recognized it, so...

"Light. You need light, any kind of light would do, but sunlight would be best, or a fire. That would get it warm and bright." Remus muttered under his breath, worried.

"Don't worry, we had Hermione." Harry gave a small smile while she smiled shyly.

"What's Devil's Snare?" Dudley asked, not sure if he really wanted to know.

"It's a very violent plant. It lives in dark, damp places, like caves and the like. It will strangle or crush anything or anyone that stumbles across it." Pomona informed the boy grimly, now very much regretting her decision to put it there. Although she did have to wonder how the older years had gotten past it without killing it or getting seriously injured. Although, she supposed a high-powered Lumos would have been enough to get it to back off without actually hurting the plant.

Dudley's eyes went wide, unable to believe it.

(As for Harry and... their noticing.)

"How do you not notice something like that?" Neville demanded, especially Harry! Harry was usually so observant of everything around him, the fact he hadn't noticed this happening was a shock.

"Good question." Harry muttered, annoyed with himself.

(Hermione had managed... wound around them.)

"You want to relax, don't move. The more you fight it, the tighter it will hold on to you." Neville bit his lip, nervous for the three, even though he knew they came out of it alright.

Everyone was tense, wanting to know how they got out of it. Hopefully Hermione recognized it and remembered how to deal with it.

("Stop moving!"... around his neck.)

"Oh, dear." Molly tried to get up to go to her youngest son, but Arthur held her back while Bill and Charlie had no problem hauling the seventeen-year old to sit between them.

"Actually, knowing what it is very helpful, because it means she probably knows how to get rid of it, too." Percy muttered, eyeing his youngest brother with worry. Inwardly, he was beating himself up. He'd never even noticed that his brother and his two friends were up to something. He was the oldest brother at Hogwarts, he was supposed to have been watching over his siblings! If he'd been doing his job, they never would have gotten that far... he chose not think about everything that happened to his sister in her first year, not right now anyway.

("Shut up, I'm... said Hermione.)

"You might want to hurry up..."

"... while the boys are still able to breathe." The Twins chimed in, concerned enough to plant themselves in front of the couch holding their brothers, and lean so that half of their backs were planted against one of Ron's legs, while the other half of them was supported by one of their older brothers legs.

"Was working on it." Hermione retorted.

("Well, hurry up... around his chest.)

Sirius and Remus both grabbed at the boys sitting between them, causing both to yelp. Harry dropped his drawing pad and pencil, Harry dropped the small puzzle he'd been working on solving, and Hedwig flew off his lap with a small screech of protest. She came to perch in the corner of the room where a perch had been created for her, barking in annoyance. Harry grimaced apologetically at his owl, but let Remus hold onto him.

Poppy clucked to herself, thinking that at least now she knew where the small stress fractures in his ribs came from.

("Devil's Snare, Devil's... fire!" Harry choked.)

"It's a good thing flame spells are a specialty of yours." Remus said bleakly, clutching Harry to his side while Sirius was holding onto Harry.

("Yes- of course... wringing her hands.)

There was a small explosion of incredulous laughter from the purebloods, not able to believe that she'd just said that. What did they need wood for? She had a wand, didn't she? Harry glared around at them all, but the book kept going before anything else could be said.

("HAVE YOU GONE... WITCH OR NOT?")

"Hey, now. That's a common reaction among Muggleborn or raised. They weren't raised around magic, their first instinct under pressure is what they are used to, which is the way that doesn't involve magic." Remus defended the girl, sending those that were laughing at her reaction a disappointed stare.

They shut up quick enough while Hermione sent him a grateful look. Harry just nodded his agreement. That had been his first reaction, too.

In fact, he and Hermione still had moments where they reverted back to their Muggle upbringing, even after seven years of learning magic.

"Thanks, though, for getting my head back on straight." Hermione quirked a grin at Ron. His yelling at her had actually calmed her down so that she could think straight again, she'd been panicking before that.

("Oh, right!" said... at the plant.)

Severus glared at her at the reminder, while everyone else cheered.

"Oh, Severus, let it go. It was years ago." Minerva whispered, slightly amused. Even if she in no way condoned setting teachers on fire...

"She set me on fire." He hissed harshly in response. That girl should just be lucky he hadn't known about this when he was still actually her teacher, he would have made her life in class with him so miserable... her friends would have been lucky if she didn't outright transfer to another school.

Minerva stifled her amusement and sat back, not saying another word.

(In a matter of... sweat off his face.)

"Not that we don't pay attention, too." Harry hastily said, eyeing the Herbology Mistress and Neville nervously.

"You'd better." She warned. After all, even Aurors needed to know about Herbology, just like they needed potions, since so many poisons were plant based, along with Potion ingredients. What if they ran across something in a suspects home, they would need to be able to identify it, so they could determine if it was dangerous.

("Yeah," said Ron... wood,' honestly.")

"Sorry, Hermione." Ron grimaced, hearing for the first time how that sounded, especially after what Remus said earlier in her defense. She accepted his apology gracefully, which was more than he'd expected. He'd half expected her to draw it out for a bit (to tease him, of course).

"I think that was the first time she'd ever been in a dangerous situation like that." Luna said, tilting her head to the side in thought.

"I learned how through experience. It's easier to keep it cool if you're actually used to it." Hermione commented dryly, agreeing with Luna. It wasn't quite something she'd thought she would learn when she started Hogwarts, but... oh well.

("This way," said... down the walls.)

A few people frowned, wondering just where in the school they were. They couldn't be under the lake, considering they were somewhere below the third floor corridor, but... just where were they? In the end they put it down to the mystery that was Hogwarts.

Only the teachers knew where this corridor led, and had an idea of what it used to be used for. Or that there had been a ladder, until Albus vanished it for their purposes.

(The passageway... the wizards' bank.)

Charlie growled at the reminder. When they got out of here, he was going to do something about that.

(If they met a... been bad enough...)

"No... not a dragon, not under a school." Charlie instantly denied. At least, he rather hoped there wouldn't be. Then again, considering everything they'd already read about this year... who knew what they were going to accomplish down there?

"Besides, if there was a dragon down there, I don't think Hagrid would have been able to keep it to himself, he'd be too excited." Bill tried to bring some levity into the situation.

"Assuming he knew about it, all he knew was who had a part in this." Neville reminded the room.

"Norbert wasn't that bad." Hagrid muttered, almost petulantly.

("Can you hear... from up ahead.)

Filius sat up, curious to hear how they handled his challenge, although he had a feeling it was ridiculously easy for a skilled Seeker like Harry. Even as a first year, he was easily the best Seeker that Filius had ever seen.

He frowned, suspicion started to flare up in his thoughts.

("Do you think it's a ghost?")

"Ghosts wouldn't make noise." Bill denied. He wished they did. How many times had he been scared out of his mind because there was a ghost in a tomb he was clearing? They were all half-crazy, too, especially if they hadn't left that area since they started haunting it, which considering they were all Ancient Egyptians... that was a long time.

"Peeves would." Fred countered, knowing him he would have been messing with something just on principle. He knew it wasn't Peeves though, it was the keys.

("I don't know... sounds like wings to me.")

"Wings that clink?" Dudley asked, curious.

"Doesn't sound like any creature I've heard about." Bill denied.

"There are dragons that would make noise like that... their hides are more metallic than anything else, but I doubt there would be a dragon down there." Charlie informed the room again. Not the least because word would have spread through the Reserves like wildfire that Dumbledore had requested use of a dragon. He highly doubted that Dumbledore would have gone so far as to hunt down a wild one.

("There's light ahead... a heavy wooden door.)

"What on earth?" Sirius muttered in confusion. Were those 'birds' the challenge?

"There better not be a simple locking charm or whatever on that door, too." Remus warned, still not at all pleased with the fact that the door separating the students from a Cerberus was so easily opened by said students.

("Do you think... room?" said Ron.)

"No. I wanted them to, but Albus said 'no'." Filius said, disgruntled. In fact, all the teachers had suggestions for actually making their section more dangerous, and therefore more difficult to get past, but Albus shot them all down...

("Probably," said... down at once...)

"That's what I wanted to happen." Filius informed them. "It would have been very difficult to avoid them, and it would have caused significant damage to whoever it was that wasn't supposed to be there."

"It's a good thing you didn't." Fred eyed his former Charms professor, surprised but at the same time not.

"The students used that as an obstacle course, after all." George added. He hadn't thought the small professor had that kind of viciousness in him. But, like his brother, he wasn't really too surprised.

(well, there's... I'll run.")

Sirius and Remus leaned forward, tension running through them, even though Filius had already said nothing would happen.

(He took a deep... but nothing happened.)

Then, and only then, did Sirius and Remus relax minutely. Not too much, though, because Harry was walking right into a dangerous situation.

At the end of this obstacle course, was a fully trained and qualified adult who was in league with Voldemort, and possibly Voldemort himself if they were to judge by a few comments that were made earlier.

(He reached the... her Alohomora charm.)

"I suppose that at least that's something." Remus grumbled, not at all pleased with any of this.

("Now what?" said Ron... said Hermione.)

"Very astute, Miss Granger." Minerva gave the girl a small smile. Severus didn't say anything, even though he really wanted to sneer at the know-it-all, he didn't see that it was so hard to figure that out, after all.

(He wasn't going to completely change his ways, he genuinely thought she was nothing more than a little know-it-all).

(They watched the... glittering - glittering?)

"Those aren't birds." Dudley said slowly. Unless, of course, there was some magical bird made of crystal or something. One never knew. But Bill and Charlie had both said that they didn't know of any creatures like that except for a couple of dragons.

He rather thought dragons would be bigger.

("They're not birds!"... "They're keys!)

"Keys?" Sirius echoed, confused. "Why would you have the key to the door in the room? Wouldn't it be a better protection if all the keys were fakes?"

Even having nothing at the bottom of that fall would have been better protection than having something there to break that fall, even if that something was Devil's Snare.

"We haven't finished yet, that might have been the case." Remus said, although he himself wasn't so sure about that. He knew, everybody in that room knew, that the key to that door was going to be in the room. The only thing that could make this worse was that if there were brooms or something in the room to enable them to catch the key they needed!

(Winged keys- look... look! Broomsticks!)

"Are you insane? I thought all this was to protect a highly valuable and dangerous magical artifact, not make it possible for it to be stolen!" Remus exploded, eyes glowing amber.

"The real trap is at the very end." Dumbledore said simply, trying not to show how worried he was over the werewolf losing control on him.

"This is way too easy. Especially with Harry there." Sirius said, not liking this at all.

Filius frowned, remembering something. "Now that you mention it, my section of this was not finished until after Mr. Potter was placed on the team, and then Albus suggested finishing it so it was the way is now." He informed the room.

"But... that makes it sound like..." Charlie said after a few moments of shocked silence.

"Like this whole thing was created with Harry in mind." Remus finished grimly, as if everything had just been confirmed.

"If my godson gets hurt..." Sirius warned again.

(We've got to catch... hundreds of them!")

"There were exactly one thousand." Filius helpfully informed the room, and each and every one of them had been individually charmed.

(Ron examined the... like the handle.")

"Very nicely deduced, Mr. Weasley." Filius said with a proud smile for his student. The one that always seemed to never pay attention to anything and basically rely on Hermione and Harry for absolutely everything.

He knew that wasn't true, but it seemed like it a lot of the time, especially since the boy was so lazy with his classwork.

"Thanks." Ron grinned slightly.

(They each seized... the cloud of keys.)

"Even you, Hermione?" Neville asked in surprise. They all knew the girl was scared of heights, so this was a surprise.

"Yes... I did what I needed to do." Hermione swallowed just thinking about it.

"She stayed lower down, though." Ron shrugged. It was fine, though, Harry was the only one who could catch it, even if he decided to have them help trap it to save time.

(They grabbed and... to catch one.)

"Not for the youngest Seeker in a century!" The Twins cheered.

Harry gave them a shy smile, but a proud one. If there was one thing he felt he could truly be proud of, it was his skills on a broom.

(Not for nothing... in a century.)

"Yeah, Harry!" The younger crowd cheered, happy for him.

Sirius and Remus, though, were worried. Part of them had hoped that the three would be stopped here, even though those hopes were dashed the moment book-Harry spotted the brooms.

(He had a knack... into the keyhole.)

"Why wouldn't he have taken the key with him? Why let it go so others could follow him if they wanted?" Remus narrowed his eyes, wondering if there wasn't a second trap being set here.

"Whoever is up ahead probably didn't think about it." Sirius shrugged. He knew he wouldn't have.

"Yeah..." Remus said absently.

("That one!" he... crumpled on one side.")

"It's already been caught, unless that's from when the students have caught it." Neville glanced at the twins in question. He hadn't been paying attention a few moments ago, having a short debate with Luna about something.

They shook their heads. "We made sure to fix the wings after everybody that went through, especially if they were too rough with it. The wings being messed up just made it easier to spot, which took away some of the challenge for later challenge takers." Fred explained, and George nodded.

Everybody blinked. That was the longest they had ever heard one twin speak without everybody else having to ask them to not do the 'twin-speak'.

To some, it just showed that the twins were as worried about the rest of them.

(Ron went speeding... fell off his broom.)

Ron flushed while his brothers 'booed' and heckled him, all good-naturedly, of course.

"I kind of forgot to pay attention to everything else around me while looking for the key." He said sheepishly. Which was partly why he knew he would never make a good Chaser, Beater, or Seeker. He tended to get tunnel vision and lose track of everything else going on. Which, considering there were balls like the Bludgers flying around... not good.

"Were you alright?" Molly fretted after a few moments, once she'd glared the rest of her sons into silence, of course.

"Yes, mom, I was fine." Ron sighed. Just a little bruised from the collision, he was pretty sure it was all put down later on to his run-in with the chess queen, though.

("We've got to... Right, NOW!")

"Why have them trap it? You could have caught that on your own." Neville frowned.

"We didn't have a lot of time for me to try and get it on my own, even if I could have done it." Harry shrugged. Otherwise, yeah. He would have enjoyed Seeking it on his own.

(Ron dived, Hermione... crunching noise,)

"Poor thing." Luna said softly, while everyone cheered for Harry, although they made sure to include some praise for Hermione, knowing of her fear for heights.

Harry grimaced, even while others looked at her oddly for feeling sorry for an inanimate object. "Sorry, Luna." He apologized, he knew that Luna worked differently than most people's, which was kind of what he loved most about her, even if Hermione had a hard time with some of the things the girl said.

(pinned it against... been caught twice.)

"I was surprised it could still fly at all." Harry admitted. He had been kind of rough with it, after all.

"Of course it could still fly, I enchanted it!" Filius objected, a little put-out with what he perceived as a slight to the quality of his work. He was a Master, after all!

Harry blinked at him. "Yeah... but it's wing was kind of... well battered would be an understatement." He informed the Professor, who sat back with a grumble.

("Ready?" Harry asked... anything at all.)

"Lumos charms!" Everybody in the room yelled at the same time, this was the second time they went into a dark room without any kind of light to see what was waiting for them.

"Do you even have your wands out? Or are they sitting in your pockets?" Moody demanded. And here he'd thought these three had good instincts.

"Er." The Trio glanced at each other, guiltily.

"Was there anything in there?" Molly demanded, looking at the two sons that she knew had already been through this place.

"Nothing that will jump out at them." Fred assured their mother. In fact, this would be where Ron proved his worth.

"This is starting to sound like a horror film so far." Dudley muttered to his younger self, who nodded in agreement.

"Horror film?" Draco asked them, not sure what that was. Dudley nodded and promised to explain more about them later.

(But as they stepped... a huge chessboard,)

Everyone leaned back, sighing in relief that it was nothing dangerous. "This will be a piece of cake, especially with Ron there." Bill said, relieved. He had bad experiences, after all, of going into dark rooms without knowing what was waiting for them. Although they were at least smart enough to have wands in their hands, and some kind of light source! Even if they couldn't use Lumos because of the protections around the tombs he was in.

"This is too easy for a trio of third years." Percy muttered, and everyone found themselves agreeing.

(behind the black... like black stone.)

"How did you get them all down there?" Dudley asked, amazed.

"I took a normal sized set and enlarged them." Minerva's lip twitched in amusement. She'd then spun extra enchantments to ensure they behaved as needed, not letting anybody through unless they won the game. There were even enchantments to ensure that nobody could use the brooms from Filius' room to simply fly over the chessmen and avoid the game entirely.

(Facing them, way... had no faces.)

"It was creepy." Hermione muttered.

"Definitely horror film worthy." Dudley muttered to himself.

("Now what do we... across the room.")

"Is this going to be actual wizard's chess, or..." Molly asked weakly, knowing just how violent chess could be for the pieces. Although, she felt like she could rest easy knowing that the kids weren't going to be on the board itself. That wasn't to say, though, that the other pieces were going to let them go easily if, for some reason, Ron lost. It did happen from time to time, after all, even if he was the best player in the family.

"Why don't you just fly over?" Charlie asked suddenly. "There are brooms in the other room, go get one and fly over."

"We... didn't even think of that." Harry said, blinking in surprise. Ron didn't have to sacrifice himself?

"It wouldn't have worked." Minerva informed them, apologetically grimacing at Ron. "I ensured that the game must be played and won before anybody could advance." Fred and George nodded in agreement. A few of the other kids had found that out the hard way.

(Behind the white... Hermione nervously.)

"By putting Ron in charge for this one." Charlie said grimly.

"Yeah... I just wasn't quite thinking straight."

("I think," said Ron... to be chessmen.")

"You will not!" Molly cried, worried. She knew Ron, and she knew how he played Chess. He was going to see an opening that could only be exploited by using a certain piece, and he would take it, even if that piece ended up being himself!

"It was the only way to get across." Ron said, firmly.

The Twins bit their lips, knowing that the other chess pieces weren't going to take it easy on them just because they were human and not chess pieces. When they had kids going through the course, they were on hand with first aid supplies and potions, the trio didn't have any of that. (Which was another reason why they kept the younger years ignorant about it, the chess room).

(He walked up to... knight nodded.)

"No." Molly moaned in despair.

"Don't you go making risky moves, now." Arthur warned his son. "Don't rush."

"I took my time." Ron reassured his father. Only Moody, Sirius, and the Twins noticed that he didn't say anything about now taking risks. Poppy pursed her lips at the state the boy was in when he was brought to her. It was a good thing Weasley's had thick skulls.

(Ron turned to... the black pieces...")

"Why make them use black, why not have them be white?" Percy asked, starting white or black didn't really matter to the Weasley boys, they never really found an advantage to starting one way or another.

"Because in most people's stratagem's, starting out gives them the advantage." Minerva said knowingly, having played a few Weasley's, and been soundly beaten by them, at chess.

"Amateur's." All the Weasley's scoffed. A good player doesn't care what side he starts out on, he makes his own advantages.

(Harry and Hermione... good at chess-")

"What's to be offended about?" Harry snorted. "It's a fact, isn't it?" He asked.

Ron shrugged. "I told Percy he wasn't that good at chess once, he went off on me for at least ten minutes." Percy shrugged while the rest of his siblings laughed. You did not tell a Weasley he was bad at chess and not expect to be told off for it.

("We're not offended,"... a knight," said Ron.)

Everyone laughed while Ron turned red.

"It suited him." Harry defended with a grin, making Ron turn even more red.

(The chessmen seemed... off the board,)

"That is so cool." Dudley muttered. This reading was definitely opening his eyes to just what magic was capable of, that was for sure.

Petunia made a choking sound when she heard her son say that, unable to believe how her son had been acting for the last several days while they'd been here, and now he was saying things like that?

(leaving three empty... forward two squares.)

"It's like playing against the computer." Dudley muttered, thinking of the few times he'd tried to play chess on his computer (he always lost, even against the computer).

"A what?" Neville asked, confused.

"I'll tell you later." Dudley sighed. Just what did they teach in that Muggle studies class of theirs? They didn't know what horror films were, didn't know computers, didn't know anything about the Muggle currency system... while he could understand Draco not knowing (he'd flat out said that he hadn't even taken the class), Neville had said he did, so what was the deal?

"I'm getting a bad feeling about our Muggle Studies class." Minerva muttered to Pomona, who grimaced and nodded in agreement.

(Ron started to... What if they lost?)

"Then you will be unable to move forward. You will likely be knocked unconscious for a while, and either somebody will finally stumble across you when coming to check on the Stone, or you will be forced to return to the third floor." Minerva said simply.

"Knocked unconscious?" Molly yelled, not at all happy with that.

Minerva grimaced, regretting letting that fact slip, but luckily Arthur was able to quiet his wife down.

"We didn't have time to lose. Voldemort was stealing the Stone, we didn't even have time to get through all these obstacles, but we had no choice." Harry shrugged.

"Losing this game wasn't an option." Ron said with determination, knowing that his mother was not going to be happy with how he let the queen take him.

("Harry - move diagonally... still, facedown.)

"It's different seeing it happen when you are also a piece on the board, and not just directing the pieces where you want them to go." Ron grimaced at his families questioning looks. Molly whimpered at the confirmation that this was going to be full-blown wizards chess.

("Had to let that... Hermione, go on.")

"What happened with the pieces you yourselves took? Because I doubt you can just smash through them, unless there's a spell for that." Dudley frowned.

"There is, actually. But we didn't learn it until later." Hermione answered. "They just walked off the board to stand on the side. The pieces were smashing each other up in their usual way, though, so we did hit with some chunks that went flying." Harry grimaced and rubbed at an area high on his thigh where he got hit with a good-sized rock. That had been a little close...

(Every time one... along the wall.)

Everyone winced, because the more black pieces that were taken off the board, the less pieces available to put between the white pieces and one of the three kids. They weren't too concerned about the amount of pieces in regards to the game itself, though, it was almost impossible to play and not lose some pieces.

(Twice, Ron only... were in danger.)

"Pay more attention!" Sirius snapped, holding Harry closer.

"Sorry, at least I noticed." Ron sighed. It was also harder to really get a good view of the board, and where all the pieces were, when he was on the board and not looking at it from above. Fred said as such, making Sirius look apologetic.

(He himself darted... lost black ones.)

There were cheers while Bill and Charlie shook Ron a little, proud of him. He just grinned, he liked it when his brothers acted like this with him.

("We're nearly there,"... face toward him.)

All the Weasley's went cold in sudden realization, eyes widening.

"No..."

"Don't you dare."

"Don't even think about it." Percy almost sick, remembering what he'd said at the Leaving Feast, about how Ron beat the chess-set, and vaguely remembered Poppy telling him and the Twins that Ron was in for monitoring from a nasty blow to the head.

"It was the only way. It was the only move available to me." Ron muttered. Those who were unaware of what they were talking about, or didn't understand Ron's chess tactics well enough, were very confused about what was wrong, but were getting a bad feeling.

("Yes..." said Ron... to be taken.")

"Find another way!" Molly demanded, while Arthur tried to calm her down. She didn't want her baby hurt!

"I'm sorry, mom, there was no other way." Ron said calmly, surprising a lot of people.

("NO!" Harry and... some sacrifices!)

"Sacrifice the pieces! Not yourself!" Molly wailed, struggling against her husbands hold while Bill and Charlie squashed Ron between them.

(I take one step... the king, Harry!")

Molly made a wounded noise. "I thought I said 'no risks'." Arthur said weakly.

"This wasn't a risk, this was the only move available." Ron said stoically, again.

("But-"

"Do you... Snape or not?")

"Not at your expense." Harry muttered, wishing Ron had let him actually talk, but also knowing it wouldn't have really changed anything. Ron was their chess expert, he would have just sacrificed himself anyway, leaving Harry free to finish the game.

Ron heard him and sighed, but didn't say anything. He was fine in the end, just a very nice sized bruise that Madam Pomphrey fixed in seconds and a splitting headache until she shoved a headache reliever down his throat.

And besides, one would think by now that Harry would realize that his friends would always sacrifice themselves for him, just like they knew he would for them.

("Ron-"

"Look, if... was no alternative.)

"Didn't mean I liked it." Harry grumbled, having completely hated just standing there and letting it happen.

Molly whimpered again at what she knew was about to happen.

("Ready?" Ron called... once you've won.")

"Wha- of course they should hang around, at least to make sure that you're alright!" Molly was confused about that.

"They didn't have time to hang around." Ron shrugged. "Stopping You-Know-Who from coming back was more important." He said, adamant. "They could come back for me when they were done.

"But..." She started.

"Molly." Arthur sighed, already knowing that this was going to happen very, very frequently.

(He stepped forward... queen pounced.)

Molly gave a little scream, and Arthur had to tighten his hold on her before she pounced on her youngest son in worry.

He was proud of his older sons, though, as they surrounded Ron on all sides and held onto him in some way. Bill and Charlie were both hugging him from the sides, where he was sandwiched between them, Fred and George each had their weight resting on Ron's legs, and Percy was leaning against the back of their couch, behind Ron.

The tension in the room was thick enough for the dullest blade to cut through.

(She struck Ron... crashed to the floor-)

"He was alright." Poppy cut in to Molly's frantic attempts to run to her son, most likely to start checking his head for injury, even though this would have happened years ago and she had healed it as soon as he came into her domain. "There was just bruising, and a headache." She informed the room, making the Weasley boys relax minutely, even though the Twins and Percy had already known that.

Molly finally calmed down, and Arthur sighed in relief, especially when he saw Poppy take a few calming draughts out of her pocket and line them up on the table in front of her.

(Hermione screamed... on her square-)

"Barely." Hermione grimaced, remembering having to watch this happen to one of her best friends. She'd wanted so badly to run and make sure he was ok, but he'd been right, they didn't have time.

Not if they wanted to keep Voldemort from returning right then and there.

(the white queen... been knocked out.)

"Oh, goodness." Minerva murmured, while Molly tried again to go to her son, but her attempt was feeble, since she knew she wasn't going to get out Arthur's gentle, but firm, grip.

The rest of the Weasley's looked shaken by what was happening right now.

"You said it was just a bruise and nasty headache?" Arthur asked Poppy, making sure he'd heard her correctly.

She nodded. "Right... why was it that neither Molly nor myself were ever informed that any of this happened?" He glared around at the room at the teachers, but especially the three sons of his that were there that year. "We were not even informed that he'd been in the Hospital Wing." His eyes rested on Poppy for a moment, who looked confused.

"What do you mean? I sent out an owl informing you, just like I always do when a student is injured." She asked.

"We never got any such owl." Molly informed the room quietly. "Not from you, not from his Head of House, not from the Headmaster, and not even from his brothers. Not one of those four boys even mentioned any of this after they came home."

"Well, I sent an owl." Poppy defended herself, wondering who could have intercepted her letters. The owls used for the Hospital Wing were trained attack owls, after all. They had to be, they were carrying confidential information from a Healer to the parents of one of her students. Even the Wizarding world had 'doctor'/patient confidentiality protocols.

"I sent an owl, as well." Minerva spoke up, frowning.

Percy himself frowned. "I figured it would be best to tell you what little I knew in person. I... meant to tell you as soon as we got home... why didn't I tell you?" He muttered.

A few suspicious eyes glanced towards Dumbledore, but nobody commented, not wanting to point fingers or anything, after all...

(Shaking, Harry moved... They had won.)

"That was it?" Dudley asked, surprised. "Talk about anti-climatic, especially after what happened to Ron." He muttered to himself.

"'Exciting' does not always mean good." Pomona informed the young Muggle, who she was happy to see seemed to have grown up a great deal over the years.

(The chessmen parted... you reckon's next?")

The Twins glanced at each other in concern, knowing what was next, the troll.

It was a good thing these two were already experienced in taking down trolls, otherwise they might have been in some serious trouble.

The teachers exchanged a similar look, hoping that the two made it.

("We've had Sprout's... spell, and Snape's.")

"Nicely figured." Minerva complimented.

"Will you stop encouraging this?" Molly hissed, not at all pleased with all the compliments and praise that the teachers were heaping on the three as they got past all these obstacles (which she would be one of the first to yell at Albus for, because this was really too easy for a trio of first years).

"Molly, it's already happened, it was years ago. They're not encouraging anything." Arthur said, patiently but with an edge to his voice that let her know her husband was starting to lose patience.

(They had reached... up over their noses.)

"Did something die in there?" Ginny asked nervously.

"Nope." Harry muttered. Although, he was kind of surprised that Quirrelmort hadn't just killed the thing.

"This is the second..."

"-to-last obstacle." The Twins chimed in, worried about how the two got past it.

(Eyes watering, they... lump on its head.)

"Oh, thank goodness." Molly collapsed in relief, along with everybody else in the room. "It's already out." They would not have to face another of those things. She chose to ignore the fact that the two kids were between whoever did take care of the thing, and the exit.

"Another troll?" Remus asked quietly, brows furrowed. He was starting to really put the pieces together. Between the troll, little snippets that he'd heard the trio mutter now and then, plus the odd conversation between him and Severus... he was starting to get an idea of who was behind all this.

The Twins just collapsed with relief that it was already dealt with. That troll was fairly large, after all. They'd had to pull more than one student out of the room at the last second before they got brained by the thing.

("I'm glad we... fight that one,")

"So are we." Sirius muttered, face white at the thought. Everybody else nodded in agreement.

(Harry whispered as... I can't breathe.")

"You couldn't have added air-freshening charms to the room or something?" Harry complained. "Honestly, big troll, small room... it reeked in there!" Hermione nodded in agreement.

She hadn't said anything at the time, but she'd had a hard time keeping her dinner down while in that room. On the way back through it to get back to Ron, she'd held her breath and ran as fast as she could, and then sat for a few minutes gulping air when she almost passed out. Air-freshening charms weren't covered until midway through third year, after all. They really should cover those sooner...

(He pulled open... on it in a line.)

"Oh, thank goodness." Molly almost collapsed with relief, there was nothing dangerous in this room.

"I wouldn't relax just yet." Moody warned. "The only teacher left who could have set this up, is Snape." His fake eye was fixed on the slippery spy, who was smirking lightly. Moody may not like Snape much, but even he could admire the way the mans mind worked, and he (somewhat) appreciated the mans dry sense of humor. Not to mention his skill with potions... men like Snape were the reason he was so paranoid when it came to his food and drink.

Molly immediately paled, her mind conjuring up all kinds of things that could be in those bottles.

"This should be interesting." Remus muttered.

("Snape's," said Harry... in the doorway.)

"What?" A few people yelped in alarm.

They were trapped with the only way to go... forward, towards a man working for Voldemort.

The only ones who stayed silent were the Twins, they knew exactly what this was.

(It wasn't ordinary... doorway leading onward.)

"Enchanted flame..." Bill muttered, knowing exactly what this was, and how to get through it. Well... his way involved an hour or so (depending on the skill of the Breaker in question, but it didn't even take him an hour, so...) of unraveling the enchantments.

There were plenty of tombs in Egypt that were enchanted like this. The person trapped had two choices, try to escape through the flames and be incinerated, or sit there and starve to death. He'd found plenty of skeletons within those rooms, and old ashes around the doorways, to tell him that. Unfortunately, these kids wouldn't know any of that... the only option they had was a potion that would allow them to safely pass through the flames.

He glanced at Severus, already knowing what this 'trap' was, and having an idea of what was in those bottles.

(They were trapped... shoulder to read it:)

Everybody leaned forward in interest, wanting to know what Snape would have come up with.

(Danger lies before you... different at first sight.)

"What the-" A few people asked, and Severus smirked before leaning forward, eyeing the book.

He wanted to know how long it took Miss Granger to work out his puzzle, clearly they did, but he wanted to know how long it took.

Moody nodded in admiration for the trap. Trust a Slytherin to come up with a mental challenge, instead of something a person could just wave a wand at or fly a broom for. Although, he supposed that Minerva's had been similar in that respect. Wizards were too reliant on their wands, anymore. They didn't bother to think things through, they just waved a wand to make the problem disappear, or make what they wanted to happen, happen.

(Hermione let out... felt like doing.)

"We'd finally gotten to something I could help with. I felt helpless watching Ron on the chessboard, and Harry with the keys, there was nothing I could do to help." She explained. The puzzle though, now that was something she could do to contribute.

She hadn't been able to do much on the broom, she wasn't a good flyer like Harry, or even Ron, she was terrified of heights, in fact. She'd barely been able to keep up enough just to stay under the key to herd it in Harry's direction, and she knew that Harry hadn't even needed that kind of help, he was the youngest Seeker in Hogwarts history for the last century for a reason, after all. She told him just that when he tried to protest that she had helped with the keys.

("Brilliant," said Hermione... in here forever.")

"And just what is that supposed to mean, Miss Granger?" Minerva asked, a little frosty considering the girl had just more or less insulted the entire wizarding community. Moody smirked, completely agreeing with eleven year old Hermione.

Hermione turned red. "I just... something I'd noticed, wizards don't really challenge themselves. They don't think things through, if they see something that would require them to do that, they just go for their wands and try to magic away the problem, instead of actually working it out." She tried to explain. "If they can't magic it away, then they just... I don't know, ignore it? They figure that it can't be solved, or undone, so they don't try." Mad-eye felt like applauding the girl, because that was exactly right.

The teachers looked at her, some with pursed lips, but all were thoughtful as they worked through what she'd said in their heads. "I... guess I can see that." Minerva finally said, slowly. "But not all magicals are like that." She warned her student, wanting to make sure she didn't fall into a habit of stereotyping wizards, that would be bad if she insulted the wrong one.

"That was the hardest obstacle to get past, but most everybody managed it after a while. Ravenclaws got it the fastest, though." Fred piped in, the Twins for once not trading their speech.

"That makes sense. You have to solve a riddle to get into Ravenclaw tower, after all." Luna piped up.

"I'm just concerned with just how easy these 'traps' have been so far, they almost seem tailor made for these three." Arabella said suddenly, and everyone fell silent as they contemplated that. It was the truth, though. This seemed far too easy.

("But so will we, won't we?")

"Nah, you have Hermione with you. You'll get through." Ginny said, confidently. If Hermione couldn't solve it, she would be shocked.

Hermione turned red at the praise, especially with the amount of agreement from the rest of the room.

("Of course not," said... which to drink?")

"By solving the riddle, of course, silly." Luna answered, eyes glittering with slight mischief.

Harry rolled his eyes and stuck his tongue out, getting a giggle out of her. Almost everybody who knew the girl relaxed at seeing her starting to return to her usual self. Seeing her be so serious was just... wrong. It wasn't Luna.

("Give me a minute.")

"It should take more than a minute." Severus frowned at her. If it didn't take her at least a few minutes, than clearly he needed to step up his game, because if an eleven year old girl could figure it out so quickly, than clearly he was slipping.

Even if that girl was Know-it-all Granger.

(Hermione read the... she clapped her hands.)

"How long did it take?" The Twins demanded.

"About five minutes?" Harry answered slowly, thinking back. "I don't know, I wasn't really watching the time." He shrugged. Severus still narrowed his eyes. He'd been hoping it would take longer than that... but he supposed that was better than the one minute the girl initially predicted.

("Got it," she said... toward the Stone.")

Everyone turned to look at Severus, wanting to know if she was right. He scowled, but nodded that she was correct.

"Go Hermione!" The Twins whooped, even though they'd already known.

(Harry looked at... hardly one swallow.")

"It's charmed to refill itself. Both of you could have gone forward." Severus rolled his eyes. The vial was enchanted and 'connected' to a larger bottle of the same potion in his lab. It would refill itself automatically, unless the bottle was empty, of course.

Hermione stared at him in horror. "I could have stayed and helped?" She asked, wide-eyed.

Harry bit his lip, not wanting to offend her or make her mad by saying that he didn't want her there, but at the same time... he really hadn't wanted her to continue with him. Even if he had known that, he still would have sent her back. "No... I needed you to go back, try to get a message out or something."

"Which you should have done from the very beginning." Remus muttered. "Why would you have it set up to refill?" He demanded to know.

"In case we needed to go down to check on things, I needed a way to get through without having to replace the vial every time." Albus answered this time, knowing that this answer was correct, even though he hadn't lived through it yet.

Severus nodded in agreement. "I had wondered why I was having to brew so many batches of it, for a while I thought the Headmaster was checking on it multiple times a day." He eyed the Twins dryly. The students using it as an obstacle course made so much more sense...

(They looked at each... the purple flames?")

"Your best chance is to go in together. Safety in numbers." Remus muttered with a grimace, as much as he hated the thought.

"I needed her to go back to Ron, and try to bring help." Harry said. That, and he didn't want her going any further. He hadn't wanted her there in the first place, after all...

(Hermione pointed... right end of the line.)

Severus nodded, that was correct. A breath of relief went through the room, and another cheer for Hermione went up, turning her red again.

("You drink that,"... and get Ron.)

"She was gearing up for a fight about it." Harry shrugged at the glances sent his way about why he worded it that way. The book didn't say anything at all about how she initially reacted to being told to go back.

"I wasn't about to just leave him." Hermione frowned. It was a 'lesson' she had to keep repeating. Over and over again through the years. She rather hoped that it was starting to sink in somewhat... but she wasn't holding her breath on that one.

Harry was very stubborn and it was ingrained or something that he had to do everything by himself.

(Grab brooms from... we need him.)

"And you didn't do that hours ago, why?" Remus deadpanned after a few moments of silence as everybody processed that Harry was only just now sending a message to Dumbledore, trying to get him back to the castle.

Harry shifted uncomfortably. "I didn't even think of it until just then." He muttered. Besides, if they were right, it wasn't like Dumbledore would have dropped whatever he was doing in London and raced back, anyway.

Everybody groaned.

(I might be able... for him, really.")

"At least he admits it." Severus smirked, pleased. He highly doubted that the boy would have even been able to hold him off.

"Who is a match for him?" Filius whispered to Pomona, who laughed. The only member of the staff who might be able to take on Severus was Filius... Severus was too knowledgeable on a very, very wide variety of spells and enchantments, not to mention slippery. The man could and would find every single hole in his opponents defenses and find some way to exploit them over, and over again, until they figured out what he was doing and managed to 'plug' the holes, but by then it was usually too late.

("But Harry - what... -Who's with him?")

Everybody's blood ran cold at the thought.

"According to Albus, Voldemort was in Albania at the time..." Minerva said, doubtfully. The Trio eyed her, surprised. Did she not even know the full extent of what happened that year?

"Well- I was lucky... get lucky again.")

"Never count on something like 'luck', boy!" Moody growled, glaring at Harry in disappointment. He'd had high hopes for the boy earlier on in the book and from what he'd seen in this room, hearing how he handled this 'obstacle course' was very disappointing in that regards.

Harry grimaced. "What else was I going to rely on?" He muttered, sinking down in his seat as best as he could with Sirius right there. "My years of education?"

Severus snorted. "'Getting lucky' is the only way you could take me down, anyway." He drawled dismissively. The boy thought that he was the one they were after, after all. Harry bristled at the dismissive tone, but caught Hermione's eye before he could say anything. He leaned back grumbling instead, to her satisfaction.

(Hermione's lip trembled... around him.

"Hermione!")

"Was not expecting that." Harry muttered. He really should have, though. Hermione turned into a bit of a hugger when she was emotional. It took some getting used to, because before her, he hadn't known what being hugged felt like.

It really threw him for a loop when Mrs. Weasley hugged him the very first time she really met him, when they got off the train at the end of first year.

("Harry- you're a... you," said Harry,)

"We disagree." All the professors said at once, then blinked at each other in surprise.

"As we've already pointed out, your spell-work is the most advanced in your class, it is your poor theory work that drags your grades down. There is far more to magic than what one reads in a book." Minerva frowned at him, wondering where he was even getting these ideas. She refused to look at the Dursley's not wanting to acknowledge their existence.

(very embarrassed... Harry- be careful!")

Everyone was stunned, did Hermione Granger just say there was something more important than books?.

Hermione was embarrassed that their private moment was being read out like this. She'd known why Harry disliked these books so much, his private thoughts were being read out for all to hear, but before this she hadn't really been part of that. Yeah, she was in the book, but as the book-loving best friend, she was more or less in the background so far. This was the first private moment she'd had that was being read out.

"Well said, young lady. Well said.

("You drink first,"... said Harry anxiously.)

"The shudder did not look like a good thing, not when two of the bottles were poison." Harry himself shuddered at the thought of her being poisoned. The image in his head of Ron being poisoned in sixth year was not helping that at all.

"All potions taste bad, though, so..." Ginny shrugged. "That's not really a very good indicator of whether or not it was poison or something."

"Most poisons are tasteless." Severus added, not really helping, but then he wasn't really trying to...

("No - but it's like ice.")

"It was very odd." She shuddered just remembering it.

"It is a good job you were correct, otherwise you might have poisoned yourself." Severus said drolly, a little disappointed with himself that a first year had managed to figure out his riddle in such a short amount of time.

("Quick, go, before it wears off.")

"It will take at least five minutes to wear off." Severus commented with a raised eyebrow. Then again, this potion was far beyond NEWT level, so he supposed it would make sense for them not to know that.

"So... they have time to say good-bye." Charlie muttered.

"They don't really have five minutes to waste, even if they have the time before the potion wears off." Bill shook his head at his brother.

"Of course they do... they are standing between whoever is in there, and the exit. Even if whoever it is gets the Stone, it's not like he's going to bring Voldemort back then and there. He'd have to get out of Hogwarts first." Charlie pointed out.

It... was a very valid point. As long as the kids were between the thief and the exit, they more or less had all the time in the world to goof off while getting through the obstacles.

"I was trying to stop them before they actually got the Stone." Harry said dryly.

("Good luck- take care."... face the black flames.)

The tension in the room racketed up, it was almost suffocating now.

("Here I come," he... flooding his body.)

"A very unpleasant feeling, by the way." Harry commented, shuddering. Hermione nodded her agreement.

"Most potions do that, I think." Ginny grimaced. Severus smirked.

(He put the bottle... but couldn't feel them-)

"If you'd lingered in the fire for longer than necessary to walk through it, you would have felt them." Severus smirked.

(for a moment he... It wasn't even Voldemort.)

There was a breath of relief at that declaration, although considering Voldemort was more or less a wandering wraith until his 'resurrection', they weren't sure how Harry could tell.

"That's it?" Fred asked after a moment of silence, where everyone was on the edge of their seats in anticipation.

"That's the end of the chapter." Filius said, checking the book.

"Did it have to end on a cliffhanger?" George whined, he wanted to know who it was!

"We are going to continue reading as soon as you stop whining." Severus said dryly.

The Twins stopped and blinked at Severus for a moment before zeroing their attention on the book, eager to hear the rest of it.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at each other in confusion. Didn't the Twins already know most of what happened next?

Chapter seventeen: The Man with Two Faces