It was requested that I give credit where credit is deserved, so I must dedicate this chapter to my mother, who came up with the idea of who Voldemort is possessing. I, myself, could not think of who it should be.

Ah, one thousand points to everyone who guessed who he possessed. I tried to drop subtle hints, but 'subtle' and 'hints' are two things I'm very not good at, so either they were big hints, or really obscure hints.

So, without further delay:

Chapter 28:

"His Second Encounter"

'squiggly line, star, squiggly line, star, squiggly line, star, squiggly line, star, squiggly line, star, squiggly line'

Argus Filch.

It made sense really, when Harry thought about it. At the dance, he was looking at Filch, and that spurred on the headache. Then during detention, Filch was watching over them. Again, the intense headache. It all clicked. He inwardly cursed himself for not putting it all together sooner.

"Harry Potter," Filch mused from his position in front of the mirror. He quickly turned around and snapped his fingers, and ropes shot out of the air to tie themselves around a struggling Harry.

Then he turned back to the mirror and walked around it, taking it in from all angles. "This mirror is the key," he said. "I just don't know how to use it."

Suddenly, Harry remembered exactly what the mirror does. What I want most right now is to find the Stone. So if I look into the mirror, I should see myself finding it, and then I would now where it is! But how do I do that while I'm tied up, and without him realizing what I'm doing? Harry struggled against his binding, to no avail.

He watched Filch as he circled around the mirror, feeling the edges, a wand sticking out of the pocket of his tattered robes.

"Do I break it? Is the stone inside it?" he asked, apparently to no one at all. He went back and stood in front of it. "I see the Stone…I'm presenting it to my master…but where is it?"

"The boy. Use the boy." The voice came from Filch, but was not Filch's voice.

Harry stared in shock. Filch turned to him and clapped his hands together, causing the ropes to disintegrate. "Get over here, Potter," he commanded. "Stand in front of the mirror."

Harry obeyed.

"What do you see?"

Harry looked. The mirror Harry was reaching into his pocket and pulling out a blood-red stone, winking, then putting it back in his pocket. Harry felt something suddenly fall into his real pocket, and reached his hand over to feel the outside. Sure enough, something was now in his pocket. He had the Stone.

"Well?" Filch asked, a little impatient. "What do you see?"

"I see…" Harry started, "…I see myself, and I'm shaking hands with Dumbledore. I've won the house cup for Slytherin."

Filch frowned. "He doesn't help," he said.

"He lies," the voice hissed, coming from Filch's mouth again, but not sounding like Filch. "He lies!"

Filch turned on Harry. "You lying, boy?" he asked, moving closer to Harry, who was backing up with each of Filch's steps.

"I will talk to him, myself," the voice said.

Filch shook his head, "You are not strong enough, master."

Harry panicked.

"I am strong enough…for this."

Filch opened his mouth to complain again, but no sound came out, and it looked like he was gagging. Finally, a dark, silvery-purple vapor flew out of his mouth and formed a human-like shape next to him. Filch collapsed in a heap on the floor when the vapor came out. The shape formed by the mist was tall and cloaked. It was impossible to see its face, as its cloak was up, and inside was only black, nothing visible.

Voldemort.

The vapor looked down at Filch, and after a few seconds said, "Pity," with no pity at all in its voice.

Harry gave a little gasp and tried to take another step backwards, but his legs wouldn't move. He felt as if he'd been petrified.

"Harry Potter," the vapor whispered, quiet, nasal sound coming from the dark hole inside the hood of the cloak. "See what I have become? Mere shadow and vapor…I have form only when I can share another's body… but there have always been those willing to let me into their hearts and minds…Filch, here, was very devoted to Dumbledore at first, but in the end I persuaded him with pain." Harry could hear a smile in its voice. "Unicorn blood has strengthened me, these past weeks… you saw faithful Quirrell drinking it for me in the forest…and once I have the Elixir of Life, I will be able to create a body of my own…. And when I have my own body back, I will be able to reign again. Maybe even bring my daughter to the cause and raise her as a heir… or just kill her…." The thing shrugged its vapory shoulders. "Now…why don't you give me that Stone in your pocket?"

So he knew about the Stone. Harry panicked inwardly, and the feeling flowed back into his legs. He staggered backwards.

"Don't be a fool," snarled the vapor. "Better to save your own life and join me, and we can bring them back to life… or you'll meet the same end as your parents…. They died begging me for mercy…"

"LIAR!" yelled Harry suddenly.

The vapor seemed to move forward, towards Harry. The voice seemed to be smiling again, hissing, "How touching…I always value bravery…. Yes, boy, your parents were brave…. I killed your father first, and he put up a courageous fight… but your mother needn't have died… she was trying to protect you…. Now give me the Stone, unless you want her to have died in vain."

"NEVER!"

Voldemort looked at the form on the floor and muttered something, and Filch awoke, his eyes unseeing, glazed, and white. He was a mere zombie, living yet dead. The worst part was that he was coming after Harry.

Suddenly Harry had a thought. Vitesse! Vitesse is venomous! He remembered she was there when he left the Potions classroom, and he thought she was still there when he was in the room with the potions. But did she go through the black fire with me? I didn't give her the potion to drink, but did the fire affect her?

Then he hissed. He was still backing away from Filch, and he was still terrified, but he hissed. "Vitesse!"

To Harry's delight, she replied. "Harry, can I help?"

Harry looked to Filch, then to a shocked Voldemort. "Bite him! Help me!"

Then to the complete distress of Voldemort, a Cobra, the hood that seemed to expand from her neck flaring as she bared her fangs, flying out of Harry's robes at a speed that was just as surprising to Harry as it was to Voldemort. She latched on to Zombie-Filch's arm, her venom flowing into his veins like liquid fire.

Zombie-Filch cried out in pain, falling backwards, away from Harry.

The vapory Voldemort yelled in anguish and began floating in the air. Harry fell backwards and watched in horror from his perch on the floor.

The vapor's cloaked head was thrown back and the thing was shrieking—SHRIEKING—at the ceiling. Harry suddenly felt as if his forehead had exploded, and the pain came in gushes over him. It hadn't hurt before, which was curious, but this made up for it completely.

Harry saw his vision blur, heard every sound fade slowly as if receding to a great distance, but before he fell unconscious he heard someone's voice sound through the shriek, "EXPULSUM!" and the shrieking stop.

'squiggly line, star, squiggly line, star, squiggly line, star, squiggly line, star, squiggly line, star, squiggly line'

"….shouldn't be here. Get out! Get out, get out, get out!"

"Poppy, I have to be here when he wakes."

"Albus, I know I let you escape the rules sometimes, but really…. You must go."

The harsh whispers interrupted Harry's potion-induced sleep. He blinked a few times to make the fuzziness go away. The first thing he was Albus Dumbledore's face.

"Good afternoon, Harry," the face said.

Harry tried to mutter a similar greeting, but the sounds that came out were unintelligible.

Albus smiled. "Don't try to talk. You had drifted in and out of consciousness when he first reached the Hospital Wing, until Poppy, here, gave you a Dreamless Sleep potion," he said. "You were out for a while, then."

Harry tried to talk again, and his voice came out as a sort of croak: "How…how long have I been here?"

Dumbledore glanced around. "Oh, I don't know. A few weeks."

Harry got a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. "How many weeks, sir?" he managed.

"Oh, about three. Your friends will be happy that you've come around."

"Three!" Harry sat up suddenly, and dizziness overcame him.

Madame Pomfrey came rushing over and pushed him back down. "You're going to have to leave if you get him all wound up. Really, now, Albus, you of all people should realize he's in a delicate condition."

"Three!" Harry yelled again. "I've been here for three weeks? That's like a coma!"

"Apologies, Poppy. I'm just trying to bring him up do date," Dumbledore said, trying to shoo Madame Pomfrey away.

"Where's the Stone? Is it safe?" The yelling seemed to bring him his voice back.

"We got it, but it has been destroyed."

"Destroyed? But your friend, Nicolas Flamel—"

"Nicolas will be fine. He and I had a little chat and agreed that the destruction of the Stone is for the best. He and his wife have enough Elixir stored to get their affairs in order, then they can die in peace."

Harry sat back and thought. "Is Filch okay? I mean, Vitesse bit him."

"We got Argus medical attention fast enough to save his life, yes."

"What happened to…to Voldemort?"

"He was banished from the school, I believe."

"Banished?"

Dumbledore sat back in the chair. "You see, Harry, in the vapor form that you saw him in, he was almost like a ghost. Ghosts are easy enough to remove, just banish them."

"But what does the banishing do?"

"It does exactly what it means; it banishes the ghost to another place. It could be to a graveyard, to another house, to anywhere, really."

"Who banished him?"

"Severus arrived in time to banish him after Filch fell back. Then Professor Snape levitated the both of you out of there, and managed to reach me before I made a fool of myself at the Ministry of Magic." Dumbledore chuckled softly.

So it was his voice I heard…

At Harry's confused look, the Headmaster continued.

"I had received a letter, calling me there, but apparently, someone was just trying to get me out of the castle. I'm getting too old for this, being fooled by my possessed hall monitor."

"Where did Voldemort get banished to?"

"We do not know. Probably his old castle, the headquarters of his old kingdom."

"Oh. Is he coming back?"

"Back here? He cannot; I will not let him. Back to power? It will take some time, at least. You and your friends' combined efforts have managed to postpone his return to power. He is still out there somewhere, perhaps looking for another body to share…not being truly alive, he cannot be killed. He left Quirrell to die, he left Filch to die; he shows just as little mercy to his followers as his enemies. Nevertheless, Harry, while you may only have delayed his return to power, it will merely take another person who is prepared to fight what seems a losing battle next time—and if he is delayed again, and again, why, he may never actually return to power."

Harry looked at his Headmaster. "How did Voldemort have power when he was possessing a Squib?"

"Voldemort did not really have much power before, but he was able to channel the power he has through Filch, and, though Filch is a Squib, that power is made stronger through another magical character."

"I though Squibs weren't really magical."

"They're magical; they just don't have enough magical energy in them to really perform it. When fused with someone else, who was very powerful at one point in time, at least, his magical energy more than doubled, allowing him enough power to wield the magic that before he couldn't. Does that make sense?"

"A little, sure. But if Filch is a Squib, he doesn't have a wand. When I saw him in that chamber, he had one."

"I believe it was stolen off of a Hufflepuff first-year. It has since been returned. He didn't really need it, anyway, though. The tasks below the castle could have been done easily without a wand. Except, of course, the task Quirrell had set up, which would have been difficult without one."

Harry nodded. "Right… Ah, sir, how come I could get the Stone out of the Mirror when Filch and Voldemort couldn't?"

"Ah, now, I'm glad you asked me that. It was one of my more brilliant ideas, and between you and me, that's saying something. You see, only one who wanted to find the stone—find it, but not use it—would be able to get it, otherwise they'd just see themselves making gold or drinking Elixir of Life. My brain surprises even me sometimes…. Now, enough questions."

He looked around, a little shocked by the piles of candies on tables by the bed. "Who sent all these?"

"Your many friends and admirers. What happened down in the dungeons between you and Voldemort is a complete secret, so, naturally, the whole school knows. I believe the Weasley twins are the ones responsible for trying to send a toilet seat, but Madame Pomfrey decided it was unhygienic and disposed of it. As for the candies, there was a spell put on them to keep them fresh while you were asleep." Albus picked up a container of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans. "Are you familiar with wizard candies yet, Harry?"

"Some of them, sir."

The Headmaster opened the container and peered inside at the jellybeans. "Never was one for these beans," he said, "because when I was a child, I was unlucky enough to run across a vomit-flavored one. I haven't been too keen on them since, but I think I'll be be safe with a nice toffee, don't you?"

He smiled and popped the golden-brown bean into his mouth. Then he choked and said. "Alas! Ear wax!"

'squiggly line, star, squiggly line, star, squiggly line, star, squiggly line, star, squiggly line, star, squiggly line'

Author's Note: Ha! The first part of the story is wrapped. That's good.

Okay, first things first. Most of what Voldemort said came straight from the book. Don't sue me for plagiarism. I'm semi-innocent. And some of what Dumbledore said came from the book, too. I'm innocent there.

Second: I hope I answered most of the questions here. If there's anything still confusing inform me and I'll go back and add an explanation in somewhere. I'm here to serve. …Well, I'm here so you understand the story.

Third: I've received a complaint because I didn't change the obstacles around, and instead made them like they were in the book. For people who were expecting a change, sorry, I never really thought about it.

Fourth: Sorry about anyone expecting a father/daughter reunion for Voldemort. That's coming up, but later. This is too early to work for me…

Sorry about the wait, there was no computer for me to update from over the weekend or yesterday.

Translations:

'Expulsum': "banish"

Review answers:

aikidobrat: Thank you!

Tabitha78: First: Honestly, I have no idea what adults would do. I am a teen. But I like that I made someone laugh, so thanks. Second: Thank you! Third: Whoops. I went back and fixed the excited/exited thing in chapter 22. Ah, and thanks again. Fourth: I thought about Vitesse being possessed, but when I went through everything with her in that position I couldn't make it work. And, actually, Chapter 23 was just last week. I try to move fast with the updates, since I don't want to be one of the people that drive me nuts waiting for a new chapter. I have pet peeve with hypocrites, so I don't want to be one myself. Pure exhaustion could be another way to describe it. Then add finals and end of term projects and it just overloads. I took a break. Ah, well-deserved, if I do say so myself. And, congratulations to your daughter. Fifth: I went back and fixed that, too. Sorry again. Slips of the fingers, bypassed by the proofreads. Glad someone likes the fluff chapters; I like writing them! Sixth: I figured the spy statue would fit; I had to have a perfectly befitting statue for ol' Snape. Good job with the Filch deductions, he's the one, alright. Oh, I went to see Spiderman 2 with a few friends. It was good. There are a few others we plan to see, too. Fun, fun, fun. Thanks for the reviews and everything!

jbcna: Oh, yes, the evil cliffhangers. Sorry! Congratulations for guessing Filch!

Kayla Summers: Good job with Filch! I know it wasn't that hard, but still. Wonderful elimination process, by the way.

Alligator335: Thanks. (Possessing, four S's.) Ah, your welcome for the cliffhanger, I suppose. I like them, too, usually. Should I make them more often? Another evil choice to consider…

starangel2106: I think you're getting pretty good at this guessing thing…

Shadowface: Three chapters in one day was the way I used to do it, until I slacked off. Kind of a blast from the past doing it again. Very time-consuming, though. Thank you! … And sorry about the cliffhanger.

athenakitty: Dumbledore didn't really realize it was a ruse, but was told about it later. Filch, the person with Voldemort in him, did not get killed or too seriously injured because it wasn't really his fault he was possessed. Yes, Harry will be reading more books, and yes, some will be on wandless magic.

Hakkai – Gojyo – Goku – Sanzo: Moldy Wart? Never heard that one before…I like it!

Hyperbole: This was a chapter 11 review and I don't even know if you're reading this chapter yet, but: Thank you, a lot. I think Vanella may be considered a Mary Sue, but in her case I would still not consider it a bad thing.

Natara: First: No, Harry didn't figure it out. Oh, well. Where Filch got the harmonica? He plays it, because that's what he did the first time I wrote down his Fluffy-visit. I believe the possessing-a-Squib-thing was explained up there, but if it's still unclear I can clarify later. Second: Sorry, the Vanella/Voldemort reunion will be later. Promise.

shirriez: Thank you! Ah, but Quirrell died. Harry just met Voldemort… I love twists…

Okay. The next chapter is the rest of the year, then basically, the 'Sorcerer's Stone' part is over. Wow, I feel proud of myself...