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"…" Speech

Bold Parseltongue

italics thoughts

Chapter 18:

Something gold was glinting just above him. The Snitch! He tried to catch it, but his arms were just too heavy. He blinked. It wasn't the snitch after all. It was a pair of glasses. How strange. He blinked again and the smiling face of Albus Dumbledore swam into view above him.

Oh shit, thought Harry. I am so screwed. He must have found me in the dungeons; he'll know I was trying to steal the stone. Okay, I can't panic. I just have to think like a Slytherin. Yeah, that's it; I have to think of a plan. Um, I'll, err, I'll make him think I was protecting the Stone! Yeah, that's a good idea. It's sort of the truth. And at least my Occlumency walls are still up so he couldn't have read my mind. Okay, let's do this.

Mentally going into what Harry called brainless Gryffindor mode, he cried, "Sir, the Stone! It was Quirrell! He's got the Stone! Sir, quick-"

"Calm yourself my dear boy, you are a little behind the times," said Dumbledore putting on a fake paternal air. "Quirrell does not have the Stone."

Smug git, thought Harry before continuing. "Then who does? Sir, I-"

"Harry, please relax, or Madame Pomfrey will have me thrown out." Dumbledore was definitely right about that. The nurse was well known for her strictness. "Tokens from you friends and admirers," Dumbledore answered, waving his hand at a table piled high with what looked like half a sweet shop. "What happened in the dungeons between you and Professor Quirrell is a complete secret. So, naturally, the whole school knows."

Giving an extremely fake laugh at Dumbledore's pathetic joke, Harry asked, "How long have I been here?" He truly wanted to know.

"Three days," replied the Professor benignly. "Mister Malfoy and Miss Zabini will be most relieved to hear you have come round. They have been extremely worried."

"But sir, what happened to the Philosopher's Stone?"

"I see you are not to be distracted. Very well, the Stone. Professor Quirrell did not manage to take it from you. I arrived in time to prevent that, although you were doing quite well by yourself, I must say."

Patronizing bastard, thought Harry, pissed off at the condescending tone Dumbledore was using. The headmaster went on, oblivious of the contempt of his audience.

"No sooner had I reached London than it became clear to me that the place I should be was the one I had just left. I arrived just in time to pull Quirrell off you. Unfortunately, the Stone was destroyed in the process."

"Destroyed?" repeated Harry blankly. Draco was going to kill him for screwing up so badly. Although at least this way Voldemort wasn't going to be able to come back to power. That at least was something.

"Why did Voldemort want to kill me?" asked Harry. This question had been bothering him for quite a while.

"Alas, I cannot tell you. Not today, not now. You will know one day, when you are ready. I know you will despise me after hearing me say this, but when you are older, you will know."

"Fine," grumbled Harry scowling. Realising that Harry was annoyed, Dumbledore seemed to think it best if he left before making it worse. Just as he was about to walk out the door he turned round and said,

"By the way, next time you try and sneak around the school, I suggest you use that admirable cloak I sent you." With that he was gone, leaving a surprised Harry behind him. Dumbledore had sent him the invisibility cloak? Why the hell would he do that? It gave Harry the possibility of sneaking around wherever he wanted to. Surely that wasn't something Dumbledore wanted.

He was probably trying to bribe onto his side, thought Harry. He just wants me to like and trust him. Like that's ever going to happen.

Dumbledore was definitely not as powerful as he led most people to believe, that Harry was sure of. The fact that he hadn't noticed one of his Professors being possessed by the spirit of an evil dark lord was proof enough of that. He definitely wasn't infallible. From what Harry had seen and heard over the school year, he thought that Dumbledore was a quite a powerful wizard whose skills in manipulation were quite impressive, and who succeeded in making most of the world bow down to him in awe. However, he was not good enough to take in Slytherins, to whom deceit was second nature. Dumbledore's idiotic and stubborn Gryffindor characteristics shone through too often.

The Halloween feast was one such occasion. Thinking back, Harry gained a new perspective on the event. He now realised that Dumbledore probably panicked (a twenty meter tall Nundu loose in a school does that to people) but managed to keep up a calm exterior. When informed that the monster was wandering around in the dungeons, he immediately ordered all the students to go to their common rooms instead of thinking the situation over and realising that he would be sending ¼ of the students into mortal peril. When this was pointed out to him, he must have felt under threat at having his authority challenged and was to stubborn and terrified to come to his senses and change his mind.

Harry still disliked the old wizard, but felt some grudging respect for him nonetheless. For a Gryffindor, the headmaster was quite intelligent. After all, he did succeed in duping the whole world into thinking he was mega powerful and worshipping the very ground he walked on. He was also on the leader of the 'Light Side', which made a lot of people think that he helped in the defeat of Voldemort. Harry wasn't sure what being on the 'Light Side' meant. Good and evil were just labels people gave themselves or each other. They didn't actually seem to mean anything concrete. The light side wasn't completely 'good' by all accounts. Dumbledore still went around manipulating people, there was still racism, there were still ego-centric bastards who could only think of themselves.

It wasn't possible for any human to be perfect. That basic knowledge was taught to all children before they could even talk properly. What Harry didn't understand was why all adults insisted on forgetting that fact and instead thought that they or their leaders were faultless. There was no such thing as pure good. Harry was also not sure if anyone could be pure evil either.

Many people would say that Voldemort hadn't a shred of good in him. He killed millions of people. He was the darkest and most powerful dark lord in centuries. Yet Harry just couldn't believe that he was the epitome of evil. It wouldn't make sense. There had to be a balance. You couldn't have 100 evil and only around 70 good.

Then, suddenly, unbidden, the memory of Voldemort's voice came into his head.

"There is no good or evil. There is only power, and those to weak to seek it."

Harry had to admit he agreed with Voldemort on that one, at least the first part. It made sense and explained a lot of things. Take for example Dumbledore and Voldemort, two wizards of high power. They were both at either end of a spectrum. One side labelled 'good' and the other labelled 'evil'. The two wizards balanced the spectrum, effectively cancelling each other out. Harry assumed this meant that they would be locked in a pointless power struggle, where either no one could win, or both wizards killed one another.

Harry wasn't certain what would happen if a 'grey' wizard or witch took over. That one person would be in the middle of every battle – the centre of everyone's attention and questions. That one wizard – or witch, he added mentally, wincing inwardly at what Blaise would say if she had heard him leave out that part – would be a perfect balance on his or her own, and therefore would not have to spend his life fighting and in the end ending up dead. Harry just wasn't sure what it took to be grey. It was obviously the best choice as it guaranteed a much higher chance of survival. If you were light or dark, there would always be more wizards ready to step forward in you enemies' place, and sooner or later you'd be killed. If you were grey, the light and dark wizards would be too busy fighting one another to bother with you, as you would appear to be neutral and therefore less of a threat.

But how was anyone to become grey? Harry supposed it meant being good and evil at the same time, and the only way he could think of at the moment to do that was to use both light and dark magic.

Well, thought Harry, that shouldn't be too difficult. I'm already on my jolly way there. That was true. Even though he wasn't allowed into the Restricted Area of the library, which was where all the school's Dark Arts books were kept, he had access to the Parseltongue library that was filled with thousands of books on all kinds of magic. Light, dark, and some that he wasn't even sure about. It would be easy enough for Harry to learn illegal magic. The only problem was that all the spells were in Parseltongue and were so complicated to learn, Harry couldn't really be bothered to make the effort. He had a hard enough time remembering simple spells like stunning or levitating charms. Another possibility was to ask Draco for some Dark arts manuals. Harry was sure that he had some hidden in that manor of his. Deciding to ask him the next day, Harry snuggled down under the covers of his bed. His eyelids closed and he fell fast asleep, exhausted.

"Just five minutes," Harry pleaded.

"Absolutely not."

"Pleeeease? I'll be extra good,"

"Out of the question."

"You let professor Dumbledore in."

"That was the headmaster, quite different."

Madame Pomfrey was a nice woman, he'd give her that, but very strict. Actually, Harry thought strict was an understatement. If she had her way, you'd stay in bed for a week if you went to her with a slight headache. Madame Pomfrey's concern about her patients had past the border on fanatic, and was in a place that would take a whole dictionary to explain.

Harry was trying to get her to allow Draco and Blaise to visit him, but so far it wasn't working and he was getting desperate. He'd tried bribery, guile, anger, intimidation, persuasion, and had even gone as far as to beg her to let them in, but nothing worked. Even when he put on a sorrowful expression and looked soulfully up at her with puppy-dog eyes she had not relented. Instead she had forced down him a vile tasting potion and bustled out of the room muttering about "unruly children nowadays".

I never knew what the phrase "heart of stone" meant till now, thought Harry feeling disillusioned and extremely sorry for himself. This was the first time he hadn't been able to talk someone into doing what he wanted. He never failed. It just wasn't fair.

Just as he was about to try and sneak out of bed and escape (something that would definitely not work, as he didn't even have his wand with him, Madame Pomfrey had confiscated it.) the door to the hospital wing opened and Dumbledore stepped inside.

"Hell, what does he want this time," growled Harry to himself, scowling and burying his face in the covers.

"Headmaster! Whatever are you doing in here? I hope there is not some problem?" Madame Pomfrey asked coming out of her office.

"No, no, I just wish to speak to Harry," replied Dumbledore. Was it Harry's imagination, or did Dumbledore sound slightly different? He sounded more grave and less full of himself than usual.

"Professor, the boy needs his rest. If you could just come back later-"

"I assure you, I would if I could, but this is…urgent. Yes…urgent. If you could please…give us some privacy?" Harry noted how the Headmaster seemed to be searching for words during his reply. He kept that stored in the back of his head for possible future use.

"Very well. As you wish Headmaster. I will go and talk to Severus about some potions I need, but I must ask you not to strain my patient."

With that the nurse left looking extremely put out with having to let Harry out of her clutches, if only for a short while. As soon as the door clicked shut behind her, Dumbledore let out a huge sigh.

"Whew, that was close," he said with uncharacteristic relief.

"Okay, what's going on?" asked Harry confused.

"Oh, sorry, I forgot to change," Dumbledore replied. Except it wasn't Dumbledore anymore. His body had melted and reshaped itself leaving a very different person altogether.

"Blaise!" gasped Harry in surprise.

"Keep it down will you," said Blaise crossly. "If I'm found out I'll be so busted. No one's supposed to know of my Morphing ability, remember?"

"Oh sorry, just a tad shocked there. Though I should have known it was you. You didn't act quite like Dumbledore normally does."

"Well excuse me. I come all the way here to see you and performed one of my hardest transformations yet, and what thanks do I get?" she said putting on a wounded expression. "Do you know how hard it is to transfigure your voice-box? I am hurt, deeply hurt."

"Yeah, yeah, so sorry," said Harry insincerely. "Where's Draco?"

"Oh dammit, I forgot. Wait one sec." Blaise skipped over to the door and opened it. "Coasts clear," she called softly. Immediately Draco's head appeared in mid air in front of her, soon followed by the rest of his body.

"You could've come sooner," said Draco reproachfully. "Mrs Norris was wandering around and I'm not sure invisibility cloaks work on cats – especially ones as horrible as her. You took ages. How long does it take to find out if there are no teachers or prefects in the hospital wing?"

"If you're going to do something, you should do it properly. I was merely being thorough," said Blaise primly. At Draco's disbelieving look she caved and admitted, "Fine, I forgot about you. S'not my fault, I was busy arguing with Harry. He was insulting my precious transformation."

Harry raised his eyebrows at her. "Blaise, I merely remarked that you could use some work on your acting skills."

Blaise huffed indignantly. "I think I did perfectly well, thank you very much!"

"Anyone could've seen through that guise of yours. You might want to find out more about the person and rehearse your conversation in your head before you actually start talking. They'll become suspicious. And don't imitate someone as important as Dumbledore. Perhaps Snape. Pomfrey wouldn't question Snape, because, face it, he's a little scarier than most teachers."

"Whatever. I guess you have a point." Blaise rolled her eyes. "It's nice to see you actually figuring something out, though. I thought you'd be stupid forever!"

"Hey!" Harry threw a Chocolate Frog at her, which she caught deftly and started eating.

"Zanks!" she said through the chocolate in her mouth. She turned to Draco.

"Earsh to Dayco! Talk, me ma'!" Draco sneered at her in disgust as spit came flying out of her mouth to him.

"Eat with your mouth closed, Blaise," he said, shaking his head. Blaise stuck her tongue out at him, showing some chocolate with it. Draco recoiled and pretended to throw up while Blaise played oblivious to it. Harry rolled his eyes at their tactics.

"So anyway Harry. How are you?" asked Draco.

Happy that one of his friends was showing some concern for him, Harry opened his mouth to reply only to be cut off.

"Ooh, more sweets!" cried Blaise happily, reaching out and helping herself to another handful of chocolate frogs. She then bounced over to Harry's bed and threw herself down upon it, nearly squashing him flat.

"Do you have the Stone?" Draco asked ignoring the scuffle going on in Harry's bed and coming straight to the point.

"Uh…you see, the thing about that is…" Harry stammered, wracking his brain for the right words.

"I thing he means no," remarked Blaise to Draco.

"Dammit!" growled the blond. "What the hell went wrong? All you had to do was go in, take the Stone, and the come back out. How much easier can you get? My plan was fool-proof."

"No it wasn't," said Blaise, opening a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans and peering inside it. "You completely overlooked one very important detail. Ooh, look! Banana! I love banana."

"Well, I didn't see you remembering," snapped Draco.

"What?" asked Harry, "What happened?"

"Efogoot oaout e asserd," mumbled Blaise through a mouthful of chocolate.

"What?" asked Harry blankly. "I didn't understand a word of that."

After swallowing, she repeated scathingly. "I said, 'he forgot about the password.' Perfectly clear to anyone with brains."

With a sheepish look on his face, Draco said, "The passageway to the dungeons can only opened by a Parselmouth."

"So that's why neither of you turned up," said Harry smirking at Draco's discomfort. "So much for your fool proof plan."

"Come on! It was a mistake anyone could have made," protested Draco embarrassed.

"Maybe, but the fact remains that you made it. And after bragging about how utterly brilliant you are, I-"

"Yeah, whatever," interrupted Draco hastily. "Why don't you tell us what happened in the dungeons."

"You guys really want to know?" asked Harry, not sure if he wanted to relive the whole experience.

"Yeah, go on," encouraged Blaise. "I'll even stop eating to listen to you."

"Wow, I feel so loved," said Harry sarcastically. "Well, with that encouragement how can I possibly say no?

"One thing I want to make absolutely clear was that it was no where near as easy as Draco made it sound. For one thing, Quirrell was already there. For another, so was Voldemort."

He continued talking, telling them all that happened, including every little detail. He found that he was enjoying himself immensely. His two friends, especially Blaise, were a very good audience (if you ignored Draco saying in a superior tone that he would of done much better in Harry's place); they gasped in all the right places and for the most part he had their undivided attention.

"So you didn't actually see the stone being destroyed?" asked Draco with a hopeful look on his face. "So it could still be intact, just hidden somewhere by Dumbledore?"

"I guess," agreed Harry cautiously. "I just wouldn't get your hopes up if I were you."

"Yes, but it's possible. There's still a chance we can get our hands on it. Imagine, immortality and eternal riches."

"Oh stop being so greedy, Draco, and let's go before Pomfrey comes back and catches us," said Blaise. Grabbing some last sweets in one hand and Draco in another, she dragged him from the room.

"Bye Harry!" she called over her shoulder. "See y'later. We'll try and sneak in again as long as you remember to leave some sweets for me."

With that the door slammed shut and Harry was alone once more. That was until Madame Pomfrey stalked in a couple of seconds later and forced yet another bottle of disgusting medicine down Harry's throat, complaining under her breath about arrogant Potion Masters.

Deciding it would be best not to anger her further, Harry helped himself to some of his sweets and snuggled down under the covers prepared to make the most of missing school.

A/N: Happy Easter everyone! Sorry it took so long, I promise I'll try and update faster in future. I've just been on holiday for ages. Sorry again, and thanks to everyone who reviewed. Bye!

Beta Note: Please accept our deepest apologies. We took a very long vacation a little more than two weeks in fact, and neither SlythsRule, nor I, had any time to beta – or in Ms. SlythsRule's case, write. This chapter had to be put up to scratch, so it could make up the time. If you want to bash someone, go ahead and bash me. Bash the Beta! is a wonderful game. It was played by some reviewers a long while back to another beta… Please review and tell us what you think! Au revoir! Jeni Black