It hadn't happened. It was Valentine's Day in a week and Quirrell still hadn't moved for the Stone. This didn't stop Harry from having several dozen different dreams about Quirrell moving for it and Harry going to stop him. He always stopped dreaming at the Cerberus, he had already gone to verify its existence, and as such he knew nothing beyond that first trap. Harry was paranoid at this point, Quirrell had to be plotting to move soon, yet he had nothing to show for it. He had planned for every issue that arose in his dreams that he could possibly plan for, some were obviously impossible to plan for, like Quirrell moving during the day and not the nights where Harry patrolled the third floor corridor some nights. He was never alone there though, not including those under the Invisibility Cloak, as Snape often kept an eye out there as well. Dudley wasn't with him, he was asleep, tonight he had Ron and Hermione with him. This turned out to be a bad mix as they were determined to argue the entire time, if it wasn't for Harry's privacy charms they would have been caught by now, it was annoying Harry to no end, but he had remained silent up to this point. However, when Ron shoved Hermione and she almost fell out of the Cloak, which she would have, were it not for Harry's quick reflexes, Harry couldn't keep quiet any longer.

"Ron, do you want to go back to bed? You've done nothing but argue with Hermione since we got here. I appreciate you being here and all, but I have to draw a line and I choose to draw it at Hermione almost getting both hurt and exposed."

Harry's voice was barely above a whisper, but this was enough to make Ron behave and mutter out a "sorry" before they went back to another night of nothing happening.

They stopped their watch around 4 o'clock in the morning, a constant in Harry's dreams was the time frame of the stealing of the Stone. It always happened after midnight and before 4 o'clock, Harry hoped the one consistent in his dreams was going to remain true in real life. As he slept he was, again, in the Cloak and hunting Quirrell. 'I guess they are the other two consistent features of my dreams' he thought to himself before he woke up that night.

Harry was falling apart, that was clear for Dudley to see. Being Saturday, they didn't have anywhere to go or anything to do, so Dudley left Harry to sleep in the dorm. He met up with Hermione, Neville, and Ron to discuss their nightly patrols.

"Harry can't come out every night, it's killing him. You know, last night I swear he was asleep for five minutes while we were watching the third floor. It's really worrying me." Dudley began when they were sitting in an abandoned classroom. "We all need to alternate so none of us are up for multiple nights in a row."

"I can barely sleep some nights, even when I'm not on patrol, just due to excitement." Ron answered back, his feet starting to tap. "I mean, helping Harry stop the Dark Lord has kinda been something I've fantasised about growing up…" he cut off, looking a bit embarrassed about revealing his hero worship, neither Dudley or Hermione reacted though, so he quickly went back to sitting there, feet tapping.

"Yeah, it will also be a great opportunity to use what I've learned to fight You-Know-Who." Hermione replied, feeling silly at the phrase 'You-Know-Who'.

"Hey Neville what do you think?" Dudley inquired after a minute of silence.

"I don't think I can possibly help, but you guys are my friends. If we're going down fighting him, then at least we will be heroes." Neville looked determined to prove himself, they could all relate to that idea in their own ways.

They spoke for half an hour before Dudley used his ring to wake Harry up and left for the common room to meet him.

Harry woke up, from another stress dream about the Stone, to his ring heating and vibrating to get his attention. 'At least it works to wake people up' he thought before he tapped the ring.

"Hey Harry, wake up we're going to breakfast, I'll be back in the common room in like fifteen minutes."

"Alright mate, I'll be waiting in there for you." Harry tapped the watch face twice and the connection dropped. After getting dressed, he left the dorm room to sit in the common room. He settled down on his usual sofa, only for Theo and Draco to sit down on either side of him, looking rather cheerful.

"We've noticed you sneaking in at all hours of the night pretty much everyday and we want to join you. Let it not be said that Theodore William Nott has no sense of adventure." Theo began, only for Draco to take over.

"Besides Harry, if you're having fun and don't bring your friends with you, are you really having fun or are they really your friends?" Draco had a very cheeky grin on his face, the look of a boy who was very used to hearing the word yes to his every demand.

"I'm not going out for fun, guys, I have things to do, important things. What I'm dealing with is not a game." He sighed and took a minute to look at them before he continued in a lowered voice. "I'm trying to stop a Hogwarts professor from stealing a powerful magical artifact. That's where I go at night." When he looked at them again Draco and Theo both had different looks on their faces, Draco looked amused, while Theo looked more serious.

"I'm still willing to join you, it won't be that hard surely," was Theo's response to Harry's mini speech.

"You're part of some group who fancy themselves protectors of the school? Honestly Potter, pull the other one."

"What reason would I have for lying about this? You know I wasn't sure about telling you this, but then I thought maybe you were mature enough to handle it, I guess I was wrong on that," Harry replied, clearly angry with Draco.

At seeing Harry's anger, Draco started to backtrack.

"Wait, you're serious? I just had to make sure you weren't having me on," Draco stammered out, visibly nervous. Fortunately for him that was enough to calm Harry down.

At that moment Dudley entered the common room and joined them.

"Ah, Dudley, we were just talking to Harry about joining your little group at night," Theo began, but never got the chance to continue as Dudley immediately responded.

"We need more people to rotate shifts, so as long as you're willing to work with us and not argue and fight," he stopped to look at Draco. "Then I see no problem with you joining us."

Harry was surprised that they still wanted to stick along. Theo was pretty much an unknown to him, but Draco was a different matter. Perhaps his and Draco's chat had been more effective than Harry thought…

Valentine's Day was here and, as they found all this love stuff to be gross, Harry and his friends were planning on playing pranks on people. Dudley was apparently very familiar with pranking, but Harry had never engaged in such activities. Their first prank involved PDA-seeking-"love birds", as Hermione called them.

"A variation on the Oppugno charm, but much lower energy," was how Hermione described it. So, with mischief all over their faces, they entered the Great Hall and cast their new spell.

"Adorem eum Oppugno" they were sure to be quiet so as to not make it obvious and so they made sure to cast while sitting at their tables. Nothing visibly happened, that is until a pair of sixth years decided to kiss. A swarm of birds materialised out of thin air and dove at them. The pair, and those sat near them, screamed and ducked to the side, causing a lot of the students to laugh. Some teachers were smiling while others didn't look so pleased. Dudley was privately sure that if fewer of them had cast the spell then fewer birds would have appeared. The impetus for the birds' appearance not immediately clear, a few more couples kissed, only for the birds to appear, swarm, and disappear. When one couple, who believed they had clocked that kissing was the cause, decided to share a deep hug, the birds returned. At this Professor McGonagall vanished the birds and, thankfully to most, that was their last attack.

This was only the beginning.

As the Day pressed on and Lunch was upon them, Draco's prank was about to unfold. During a particularly quiet moment, an owl swooped in and broke the peace, dropping a letter on Professor Dumbledore's plate. This letter was in fact a Howler, which made the old professor smile as he opened it. The voice that came out was charmed to sound like Professor McGonagall, a charm which was very expensive to have placed on the parchment.

"This isn't a charm specifically to sound like Professor Mcgonagall." Draco had joked when he told them of his plan. It was just a mimic charm which Draco had gone to "extreme lengths" to get McGonagall to sign it and capture her voice as stated by Draco. Once the letter was fully opened it floated into the air and began very loudly in Professor Mcgonagall's voice.

Dearest Albus,

I know you are my employer and, perhaps, my greatest friend, and yet I find myself yearning for more. Maybe you can summon me to your office and for a night I can be the Headmistress and you can be the new Transfigurations Professor.

Yours with all my heart,

Minerva McGonagall

At this the hall erupted in laughter and both Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall were thoroughly embarrassed, however, having been educators for a long time, they were able to play it off and laugh it off along with the rest of the Great Hall. Dudley was extremely proud of what his friend had managed and when he later asked him how he managed to pull it off, he simply answered.

"My mom plays a lot of romantic stories on the Wizarding Wireless."

Nothing else of note took place that day until the sun had set. Sure, some couples had broken up and others had formed, and sure the day had been made memorable to the whole school due to the pranks of a few first years. But this night would become very memorable to Harry.

He was standing on patrol that night with Draco and Theo and it was going pretty well all night, they were having a conversation about the Muggle World vs the Wizarding World. He and Theo were in the middle of discussing how much easier Harry's life would have been in the Orphanage growing up, up to this point Draco had been mostly silent, when suddenly he turned to Harry and asked, rather loudly.

"You were raised in an Orphanage? I was always told you were raised in the House of the Dark Lord. I thought you had servants and had as much money around you as I did." Draco looked like his entire view on Harry had changed. "That's why I thought we would be friends immediately, having been raised in near identical circumstances. When you were sorted into Slytherin, I thought my dream of being friends with 'The Great Harry Potter' was coming true." He paused for a moment before he continued, this time his voice even quieter, but not inaudible. "It turns out that Harry Potter and this Harry Potter are two different people and I'm surprised to say I don't hate it," Draco finished, looking a bit shocked at himself for saying all that, but knowing that, maybe even more shockingly, he believed it, made it worth it.

"Urm, I don't know what to say." Harry's face was thoughtful for a moment before suddenly looking more certain. "As far as I know, no, I wasn't raised in the Dark Lord's house." Draco snorted at this, the very idea of Voldemort growing up in a Muggle Orphanage. "As for servants, they were nonexistent, as was money. I'm glad that you can see that I'm not the same as has been portrayed by the media. Can I add that I was unaware that I had any fairy tales written about me?" Harry ended with a laugh and four o'clock was less than half an hour away.

When they left none of them saw Professor Quirrell reappear, his disillusionment charm ended and his face a wide grin. "Soon he will have to stay in for the night and I can begin my plan. The two he was with tonight will be the perfect bait."

Weeks had passed and February was over, the weather was already getting warmer as spring approached. Harry was quite surprised that Theo and Draco had been as helpful as they had been, especially at night during patrols. They've made it so that Harry had been able to sleep through the night for a week now, they had all taken it in turns to patrol in different groups. This change had a big impact on Harry as he was less jumpy and paranoid now that he was able to sleep more. He hadn't had Dudley with Draco and Blaise before as a group, but now the three of them were out in the third floor corridor. They were having an argument about Quidditch of all things. Dudley didn't really care too much about it, having not attended any of the matches happening this year, but this argument was getting tiresome.

"Alright guys, shut up! I don't care enough about this argument to stand here another hour and listen to it." Dudley shouted at them, clearly angry with them.

"He started it." They both said, followed by a shove from Draco that sent Theo backwards, out of the cloak, and onto his rear. In response to this, Theo pulled out his wand and summoned Draco's tie, pulling him out from under the cloak and in a pile next to Theo. In the next instant his wand vanished from his hand and flew behind him. Two red lights hit them and they were stunned.

"Now, now, I can't have you using magic in the corridors." Professor Quirrell called out, his stutter noticeably absent, and walked towards Draco and collected his wand, before walking straight across to Dudley and snatching the cloak off him before he fell to the floor and Quirrell collected his wand and the cloak.

Please review. Sorry for the cliffhanger but I will be writing the next chapter before this is even posted. Thanks again to LimeSon who has Beta'd all chapters but the first two.