I won't be able to update this story for two or three weeks after this chapter. It'll give people time to get caught up on the story and me time to complete the last few chapters that need to be written up. Also my prereader is ready to rebel against me because he dislikes the story. :P
So I'm going to try and finish a couple of other things that have been in the works for a little while.
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Potter – The Stone
Chapter 16
By Cory D. Rose
© 2005
oooooooooo
"I think we need to give up on finding the name in the library." Hermione said as she slammed yet another book closed. She looked rather disgusted that she would even think of giving up.
"I'm sure I've heard the name somewhere before." Harry insisted. "I just can't recall where."
"Are you sure it wasn't back home somewhere?"
Harry shrugged. "I just don't remember."
They sighed.
Now that it was early January most of the snow had melted just as school was starting up again. Only to be replaced by a nearly constant rain storm that seemed to be dumping half an ocean on them. Instead of shoveling snow and defrosting brooms, Hagrid was doing everything he could to keep the lower levels of the school from flooding.
Hermione explained that it had to do with low pressure waves and moisture from the melting snow, but for once Harry didn't listen. He didn't really care about where the rain was coming from. He just wanted it to stop.
Wood was also driving the team crazy with practice sessions that took place in the rain, sometimes in the morning, or in the afternoon, even at night if he could get away with it. All of it in the never ending rain. Harry tolerated it because he needed the practice more than anyone else on the team. The twins just complained about water logged brooms and only had one good thing to say about the rain.
"Alica, dear, all this rain is making you look absolutely…"
"FABULOUS!" The twins chorused, nearly falling off their brooms.
Being a girl, a soaking wet girl in robes, Alica spent the next ten minutes chasing them around the pitch throwing curses at them. The twins just laughed and tried to stay one step ahead of her. It took Wood another twenty minutes to get the rest of the team under control again.
"Well the lot of you stop messing around!" Wood yelled. "Snape is refereeing the next match and he won't hesitate to throw Gryffindor's off the field if he gets a chance!"
"What!" George yelled and this time he did fall off his broom in shock.
"That git will do everything in his power to make sure we lose!" Fred yelled.
"It's not my choice!" Wood yelled at them. "Stop screwing around so we can survive the game! Why the hell do you think we've been practicing so much lately! We can't lose this game!"
That was enough to get the team to practice harder than ever. They finally took a break a few hours later. Wood was still obsessing over the upcoming game and was considering a few more hours of practice in the morning. The team sighed and let him rant as they headed back to the school to get some late night homework done.
Harry didn't say anything as he trudged into the common room and collapsed into a comfy chair next to the fire. He felt like he had just gone face to face against Ranma and lost. Ron was playing a game of chess with Seamus, one of the few people that could give Ron a challenge at the game.
Even then, Ron usually won. Harry had given up trying to win weeks ago and just tried to survive a little longer with each game. The moving pieces still razed him though.
"Hey Harry, hold on a sec, I've nearly got…" Ron muttered, watching the chess board. One of the pieces turned and glared at Harry. The piece gave every indication that it was a crusty old man as it squatted down. "Harry, you look like crap." Ron said without looking up from the board.
"Oh thanks a lot." Harry muttered.
"What's wrong?" Seamus asked.
"I just found out that Snape is refereeing the next Quidditch match."
Ron fell out of his chair. "What!"
Harry nodded. "I know what you mean."
"You're so dead!"
"Don't play. It's just a game." Seamus said, shrugging. This earned him a glare from Ron though.
"Say you're sick, got the gout, something. He did try to kill you." Ron snapped.
"What!" Seamus asked.
"I know, I know." Harry snapped back, ignoring Seamus. "I can't though, there isn't a reserve seeker, and I'm all the team has available."
"Why would a teacher try and kill you?" Seamus insisted.
Harry sighed. "Let Ron explain it."
Ron groaned and absently moved a piece.
Seamus moved his own piece and handed Harry a Chocolate Frog. "Here, eat this to calm yourself down. I want to hear this story and why Snape is still around."
"No actual proof." Harry muttered, suddenly wanting to punch Snape right in the nose.
"Hey!" Ron muttered, eyeing the candy. "I was saving that."
"Thanks for saving it for me." Harry said as he opened the package, ate the chocolate frog, and glanced at the card. It was another Dumbledore card. He read the back again, and started choking. Ron moved a piece and slapped Harry on the back a couple of times.
"Yo mate, you alright?"
Harry, still coughing, nodded quickly. He eyed the card and stuffed it inside his robe. Who would have thought that he'd find Nicolas Flamel on the back of a Chocolate Frog card? He stood up just as Ron turned back to the chess game and moved a pawn.
"Checkmate."
Seamus looked at the board again and sighed. "Damn."
"I'm the best." Ron said, grinning.
"Feh." Seamus muttered as he headed for his room. "I've got some homework to do, so later. Good game."
Ron loved to win.
His celebration was interrupted as the portrait hole opened and a body fell through with a grunt. It collapsed to the floor and lay there for several seconds before anyone realized that it was Neville Longbottom. His legs were as stiff as a board, making it next to impossible for him to get back to his feet.
"Neville." Harry said and ran over to him. "What happened?"
"Malfoy happened. Him and a leg locker curse." Neville gasped out. "Said he wanted to practice."
"You should tell Professor McGonagall." Harry said.
"No."
"Why? Malfoy needs to be punished for this."
"I don't want to be anymore trouble. I'm already useless." Neville muttered sadly.
"You should stand up to him." Ron yelled.
Neville shook his head.
Ron snorted, turned around, and stalked up the stairs without another word. This just made Neville look even worse. Pulling out his wand, Harry quickly undid the curse and freed Neville. "There you go."
"Thanks Harry."
"No problem."
oooooooooo
Grinning, Ranma slowly focused his mind, and felt his Ki building up inside his body. Deep inside he felt something else stirring in response. Ever since he started to learn Occlumancy, and started experimenting with the ambient magic within the room, he had felt his body energies changing.
With Occlumancy he could now channel his Ki through this new energy. This seemed to increase the nature of the energy in some mysterious way. He'd even talked to Harry about it, but the kid didn't have a clue what was happening. After all his reading he was pretty sure that it he was just a small step away from actually using magic.
As his Ki flowed into the other energy source they both slowly started to grow in power. Ranma released his Ki and focused on the small energy source and gave it a mental poke. It flared like a bit of electricity and he felt it deep in his chest.
Ranma relaxed and took a deep breath. He had a bit of sweat beading on his forehead. Wiping the sweat off, he pulled out one of the scrolls that his mother had sent him. Ranma wasn't sure what to make out of what she sent him. Happosai wasn't helping much either.
Everyone knew that his Quest would take time, but now the old man was starting to get antsy. Happosai wanted Ranma home within a year, or else. Ranma didn't like that one bit. For the first time in his life he was on his own and everything was perfect.
He didn't have to fight in retarded fights against equally lame morons. Then again, Happosai was old. Ranma was almost positive the old man would out last all of them. On the other hand, Ranma was sure that he was ready for Happosai's final test. After the last several years he had taken his training to all new levels.
Even Harry was about two levels higher than Ranma was at that age. The boy picked things up very quickly. It would be about five years before Harry could master everything, but that was fine. Happosai seemed to think otherwise though. The old man had sent him a new technique to master that could very well interrupt Harry's training.
It was a Grand Master Technique. The old perv always managed to surprise him when he pulled stuff like this out of nowhere. A full fledged master would have problems defending against the technique and even then come out injured. The level of Ki and power required were incredible.
Ranma figured it would be mastered by Tuesday.
oooooooooo
The next day Harry found Hermione in the library. He ran over to her and handed her the card. "Here."
"I'm not interested in cards Harry." She muttered.
"Read the stupid card Hermione." He snapped back, making her glare at him. She really didn't like to be disturbed when she was reading something good in a book, but Harry tended to ignore that about her.
"Fine." She muttered, glancing at the back of the card. "Flamel! Oh of course!"
"See?"
"You found the clue we needed!" She squealed. Getting up she ran over to a series of books and pulled down a huge book, easily two thousand pages long. She staggered back over to the desk, barely able to lift the thing. "It's a bit of light reading, but ever so interesting."
"Riiight." Harry drawled.
She flipped through the book for several seconds. "Here we go. We couldn't find any information because we were checking recent books. Everything we need on Flamel is in this Alchemy book."
"What does it say?" He asked.
"Well, Alchemy is an art that deals with the Philosopher's Stone, a substance that can turn any metal to gold and create the Elixir of Life which allows the drinker gain near immortality so long as they drink the elixir once a year." Hermione said. She was grinning, bouncing from foot to foot, and barely containing her excitement over the discovery. "Oh this is incredible."
"So that means that giant dog must be guarding the Stone?"
Hermione nodded. "Yes."
"Snape must really need that stone if he's willing to try and kill me in front of everyone like that." Harry mused. "There must be some way we can stop him. Maybe adding a few traps around the third corridor?"
"I think we can set something up." Hermione said with an excited grin. She started bouncing from foot to foot again as she thought of ideas.
"Did you know that Snape is refereeing the next Quid ditch game?"
"You have to be kidding?"
Harry shook his head. "No, and I can't just back out. Ranma wouldn't let me, and the Slytherins would think I was a coward if I did. I think we can win this game too, it'll wipe those smug grins off their faces and Snape can't deny our win if we do it fairly."
"Well that's fine, but just make sure you aren't the one being wiped off the ground of the pitch." She told him, and then adjusted her glasses and started bounding from foot to foot again and muttering under her breath. "Now about those traps. As first years we can't do much magically, but we might be able to pull something unexpected off. Have you been taught anything about traps?"
Harry just shook his head. The girl was completely barmy. "Yeah, how about a potion trap?"
Hermione considered it. "Maybe, but that maybe be a little to simplistic."
He shrugged. "A trap within a trap?"
The girl grinned and her glasses started to gleam in a rather frightening way. "Just what I was thinking."
"Riiight."
oooooooooo
Ranma glided through the long corridor, passing through the shadows between torches. He wasn't even bothering to hide his presence like he usually did. He could tell that there was only one person in the area. As he walked he continued to practice what he read in the Occlumancy books as well. He was at step two and would need a week or so before he could get to step three.
Waves of energy seemed to radiate off the walls now instead of just glowing like they had at first. Ranma had found that this meant he could see more than just magic according the book. It meant he had an aura reading ability, something even wizards found rare.
He approached a gargoyle and looked at the thing as it glared down at him like a bug. "Pink Taffy."
It nodded and jumped out of the way. Ranma stepped by, rode the moving stairway up to the door, and knocked. He heard the old man yell from inside and opened the door. Albus Dumbledore looked up as Ranma entered and stared around the room. "Hello Ranma."
Ranma just nodded to the old man as he took in the room. He spotted several paintings staring at him from the wall, an open window across the room, and if his new site wasn't lying to him, about ten hidden doors. Dumbledore was sitting at his desk which was in front of a large book case. There was an empty perch sitting in the corner as well.
"I got your message old man, what's up?"
"I just wanted to talk to you."
"About what?" Ranma asked, something about the man set off his danger sense and that was never a good thing.
"Harry of course. He's been under quite a bit of pressure lately."
"I've been pushing his training lately. His temper has only gotten worse and worse ever since he was exposed to the psycho you have teaching potions."
"Severus?"
Ranma nodded. "The man torments and insults Harry worse than his Uncle ever did. The man is going to pay for his actions here pretty soon if he doesn't back off with the insults and out right attacks."
Albus sighed. "Severus is under a lot of pressure right now and he's never had a good opinion of any Potter. Harry's father used to play practical jokes on Severus when they went to school together."
"Harry isn't his father." Ranma snapped.
"I know, and deep down Severus knows as well, but he's dealing with nearly 30 years of hatred."
"I don't care." Ranma said. "I'm willing to let Harry deal with this on his own, but the kid already thinks that your teacher tried to kill him and got away with it without punishment. Harry doesn't forgive easily Headmaster."
"Severus did no such thing." Albus said.
"Funny how it looks when you're on a broom fifty feet in the air, under attack, and when you look down you only see one man staring up at you mumbling under his breath and casting a spell."
"I can't explain Severus's actions Ranma, but I can say that I trust his motives. He was trying to save Harry."
Ranma didn't say anything for several seconds. He agreed with the old man because he tried to keep an eye on the man whenever possible. "Did you know that Harry is on the verge of quitting your school, Headmaster?"
"He what?"
"You claim this school is safe, but Harry seems to be treated differently here. The teachers expect him to perform at the top of their classes and are disappointed when he doesn't. One of your teachers has a death wish and may just piss off Harry and end up in your hospital wing. Then everyone stares at him and talks about him behind his back." Ranma explained. "He's mentioned more than once that he just might not return next year."
Albus looked shocked. "He has to return."
"It's his choice Headmaster. Maybe if he was treated differently he might, but right now, it's been made quite clear that he isn't wanted here. He constantly has to fight to keep from thrashing those three brats from Slytherin and the potions master hates his guts for no reason at all."
"We are the best magic school in the world, he can learn things here that just aren't taught anywhere else." Albus said.
Ranma raised an eyebrow. "Harry is learning magic here, he's also learning how to hate, how to desire revenge, and he's learning that crimes in this school go unpunished if you are a Slytherin. I don't like what he's learning Headmaster." Ranma growled.
"You will not remove him from this school."
"That is entirely up to Harry." Ranma said. "I don't like the way he's changing as the months pass. He has two friends headmaster, two, that's it. Everyone else just looks at him as the second coming of god and treat him just like it."
Suddenly a ball of flame appeared over in the corner and Fawks appeared on his perch. Ranma's hands were up in an instant, a large ball of blue energy flaring into existence. The bird gave a confused trill and casually flew over to Dumbledore's shoulder.
"This is just Fawks, my phoenix." Dumbledore explained. "He just returned form delivering a package for me."
Ranma powered down and relaxed a little. "I've never had a good experience with anything that involved a phoenix. Keep that thing away from me." Ranma grumbled.
"Phoenix are pure light creatures, they could never harm you so long as you don't attack one."
"Whatever." Ranma said, ignoring Fawks as he sang a little.
"I will do what I can to get Severus to treat Harry a little better, but he needs this education. His parents went to Hogwarts after all."
He wasn't the naïve person he used to be, so Ranma didn't take what he said at face value. "It's funny you should say that now."
"Oh?"
"Other than that little conversation you had with Harry abut the mirror, you haven't said ten words to him all year." Ranma pointed out. "Now all of a sudden you're bringing his parents up? Funny time to do it."
"I'm just…trying to find some kind of common ground that we can agree on." Albus explained. He reached for a container on his desk. "Would you like a lemon drop?"
"I don't eat sugar." Ranma snapped.
"Ah."
"Anyway, they are giving off a rather distinctive glow. So I wouldn't trust them to be what you say they are." Ranma said with a smirk. "We'll see what Harry decides Headmaster. So far things are looking bad and could very well get worse."
"They don't need to be."
"Maybe you should tell that to your potions teacher. He seems to need a good spanking. Maybe I'll give him one." Ranma said as he vanished from sight.
Dumbledore frowned as Ranma left and thumped his desk. He'd been watching Harry quite closely in class and out of it. Even had the pictures keeping an eye out for him when he couldn't do it himself. He didn't like the amount of control Ranma had over the boy.
Maybe it was time to sever that control, he thought. Then tossed half a dozen lemon drops in his mouth and started to think. He ignored the odd look Fawks was giving him. Like the fact that Ranma was sitting on the edge of the desk, completely invisible, watching his every move.
Ranma noted that the phoenix was looking right at him and gave him a look that said 'I don't like you'.
oooooooooo
Over the next few days things around the school got even weirder. Everyone seemed to know that Snape was going to ref the next game between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Harry didn't want to admit it, but he was growing more and more worried.
He seemed to run into or see Snape every few hours. It was almost like the git was following him. Harry did everything he could not to break any rules or even look like he was, because he just knew that if he stepped out of line Snape was going to keep him from playing.
Even the team noticed and went out of their way to help Harry. Warning him when Snape was heading their way and making sure the biased teacher didn't get a chance to make them lose before the game even started. Harry had to hide in empty classrooms and closets more than once.
Things were even worse in potions class. Harry couldn't hide from Snape during those and the man was actually worse than normal as the game drew nearer and nearer. It was a kind of weekly torture that he had to endure. Harry even had a feeling that Snape might be able to read minds because every time they looked at each other Snape would sneer at him and take ten points from Gryffindor.
Harry's control over his temper had grown in the last few weeks with Ranma's help, but that control was wearing thin with each passing day. The other teachers seemed to ignore what Snape put him through and wouldn't even try and stop it.
Ranma knew and told Harry this was a good learning experience. At the same time their training was kicked up a notch as Harry finally got used to his weighted clothing.
oooooooooo
Harry collapsed to the ground gasping for air. He was on his hands and knees, sweat dripping off his body steadily. He wasn't wearing a shirt or his glasses either. Just a pair of baggy black pants and socks. Ranma stood off to the side, not even winded as he waited for Harry to recover enough to stand.
He was timing Harry's recovery time. Twice a week he would subject Harry to a sparing session much tougher than their normal ones where they worked on Harry's stamina. These sessions were built to make Harry even stronger than normal. Ranma gave him fifteen seconds to get up. "Get up kid."
Breathing a little easier, Harry quickly came to his feet and got into position for another attack. "Bring it on."
Ranma laughed. "Doing good kid. You have a game in the morning, so I think I'll let you get cleaned up."
"I can go some more." Harry snapped.
"Of course you can, but will you be able to say the same thing tomorrow?"
Sighing, Harry relaxed and headed for the showers. Ranma watched him go and had to resist an urge to attack him from behind, just like his old man would have done. Instead, Ranma started going through a new technique he was developing. He was sure that since he could see magic, then he could use his Ki to affect Magic.
That meant he would have to start going through Harry's library of books. The kid hadn't really touched them since they set up the library either. Ranma really didn't want to go through them either, but he figured it would be to his advantage. 'Knowledge is power.'
"Now for some food." Ranma muttered.
oooooooooo
Dressed in his red quidditch robes, Harry stood outside the Gryffindor locker room waiting for the girls to finish up. He was just far enough away to see that most of the school was there to watch the game. That almost never happened according to Wood, who looked a little nervous himself. If he hadn't been so jumpy, Harry would have found it quite funny.
Snape's bias was the school joke and they wanted to see him pull his act during the game with everyone watching. This really applied to any game that Harry would be involved in. Everyone knew that Snape would fail Harry's potions if they weren't dead on perfect. If they were he would 'accidentally' drop them on the floor and fail him for not performing an unbreakable charm on the vial.
A charm that was taught in second year. Snape just said that a celebrity was expected to know the charm. Now that Snape was refereeing the game, people wanted to see what he would do during the game. Harry just sighed and felt like he was walking to his doom.
"This sucks."
"You'll be fine. Just follow our plan." Hermione said. "Remember, Locomotor Mortis, the leg locker curse. Use it on Snape is anything goes wrong. Especially if he tries to kill you again."
Harry nodded.
"Harry, mate, better you than me." Ron said, slapping him on the back.
"Yeah right." Harry muttered, shouldering his broom as the girls came out of the locker room. The rest of the team quickly made their way over to where Wood looked like he was about to have a nervous breakdown. The twins were also looking a little pale, for once not making any jokes. They looked like Harry felt.
At least he wasn't alone. Wood grabbed him around the shoulders and pulled him close. "Listen Harry, if there was ever a need to catch the snitch quickly this is it. The faster you catch it the better our chance of winning and making sure that Snape doesn't get the chance to pull anything."
Harry gulped and nodded. The same thought had occurred to him a few days ago, but he hadn't wanted to suggest it to anyone. "A-alright, I'll try."
Wood nodded. "Good."
"Whoa!" The twins said, and then started grinning like it was Christmas again. "Over there!"
Harry turned and spotted Dumbledore sitting in the stands. Just a few yards away Snape looked like he wanted to kill someone. With the old man watching, there was no chance that Snape would try and pull something. With that thought, Harry felt a giant weight lift off his shoulders and he calmed down.
"Harry, we still need to win quick." Wood said, understanding that Snape could still use the rules against them.
"I know, but now he can't cheat as much as he usually does."
Everyone nodded.
They headed out to the pitch and got into position, ready to lift off in an instant. Harry saw Malfoy and his shadows heading into the stands. He wasn't worried about the Slytherin, but he wanted to know why the boy was heading into the Gryffindor section of the stands.
"Take your positions!" Snape snarled as he stalked over to them and glared.
The Gryffindor team lifted off the ground before he could say anything else.
From there the game quickly got underway. Hufflepuff took their positions as well and Snape released the Quidditch balls into the pitch. Down below Hermione was watching the game closely, even noting when Snape awarded Hufflepuff a penalty shot for no reason.
"Look, Potter can't even figure out what side of the pitch to stay on, he's flying in circles!" Malfoy yelled, poking Ron in the back of the head with his wand.
"Malfoy!" Ron growled.
"Oh, I'm shaking. You couldn't buy a clue Weasley, they're to expensive and everyone knows you can't even afford that."
Hermione glared at him.
"Look, the geek is mad at little ol'me." Malfoy mocked. "Gonna stick your nose in the air and pretend to be a real witch?"
He started laughing as Hermione turned around a little more and brought her fist up.
"Gonna hit me now? You'll get detention for that." Malfoy's shadows laughed.
Then Hermione's fist blurred. The sound of breaking wood was drowned out as the crowd roared, so no one saw Malfoy scrambling backwards away from Hermione. She may not have been at Harry's level, but she could still break things. This time, her fist had came down right between Malfoy's legs, shattering the wooden seat.
The pale Slytherin raced away before anyone could do anything. Ron, who saw the whole thing had wide eyes as Hermione pulled her fist back and shook it a little. The skin was a little red, but undamaged otherwise.
"H-how?" Ron gasped.
"Martial Arts training." Hermione said with a shrug. "The jerk deserved worse than that though."
"I think he might be frightened of you now."
The Ravenclaw shrugged and adjusted her glasses. "His problem, not mine."
Ron gulped and edged away from the girl, and then the crowd roared again and they looked up to see Harry suddenly diving.
"Come on Harry!" Hermione yelled, getting into the feel of things.
Suddenly, just a few feet from the ground Harry pulled out of his dive and held his hand above his head, showing that he caught the snitch. On the other side of the pitch Snape looked madder than hell, then blew his whistle to let the players know that the game was over.
Harry landed easily, still holding the fluttering snitch in his hand. He couldn't believe that he caught it in under five minutes. Of course Wood swooped down, dived off his broom, and tackled Harry while cheering. Then a hand grabbed him by the shoulder.
"Excellent game Harry." Dumbledore said, grinning.
"Thank you sir."
"Nice bit of flying there." His eyes were twinkling as they saw Snape land. The man was pale and his teeth were clenched. Snape spit on the ground and stalked off the field. Most of Gryffindor cheered as he left. Even Dumbledore chuckled a bit as he headed back for the school.
A couple of hours later, most of the students were gone. Harry was the last member of the team to leave the broom shed where he kept his Nimbus Two Thousand between games and practice. For the first time in a long time he felt good about the way things were going.
His training with Ranma was moving along quite well, he was doing quite well in school, and he'd just won his House many points. Even Dumbledore had taken a few seconds to compliment him for winning the game. For the first time ever he'd done something to justify his fame.
Shaking his head, he figured it would be a good idea to head back to the common room. The twins had mentioned something about a party. He was about to head inside when he spotted something weird. Snape, dressed in a dark cloak, was leaving the castle and moving towards the forbidden forest. Harry's eyes narrowed as he growled at the man.
He stepped into the shed, grabbed his broom, and flew towards the forest the instant Snape was out of sight. There was no way he was going to let the man get a second chance to kill him. Moving silently, he raced into the trees just fast enough to keep from hitting any of them and hiding among the branches of the large scary looking trees.
In the low light of the setting sun it would make him hard to see, so long as he kept quiet. Harry found Snape standing in a small clearing about a hundred yards into the forest, but what caught his eye was Professor Quirrell. The DADA teacher looked nervous as he edged into the clearing and stopped in front of Snape.
"…w-w-why did y-you want t-t-to meet h-here of all p-places?"
"I thought we'd keep this meeting to ourselves, Quirrell." Said Snape, his voice cold as ice. His eyes seemed to pierce the growing darkness.
"N-now S-Severus…"
"We can't let the students know about the Stone after all."
Harry leaned forward and accidentally missed Quirrell's reply.
"…found out how to get around Hagrid's little toy?"
"B-b-but I-I –d-d-don't…"
Snape snarled. "Very well, we'll have another chat later Quirrell, count on that. Maybe by then we'll know where your loyalties truly lie."
The teacher stalked out of the clearing, pulling his hood back up, and vanished into the trees. Harry stayed where he was and wondered why Quirrell was standing there stiff as a board. Of course that was when an Owl landed on Harry's head and gave a loud hoot.
He nearly fell off his broom, but the noise was enough to send Quirrell fleeing for the school with a squeak of fear. The owl, it's job done, hooted several times as it flew off.
Almost like it was laughing.
oooooooooo
A little while later Harry made his way back to Gryffindor tower. He was thinking about everything he just heard. As far as he could tell, Snape was trying to force Quirrell to do something for him. The DADA professor was resisting though, but from the looks of things, it would only be a matter of time before the guy broke.
The man was a nervous wreck and anything could send him running for the hills. That stupid troll had made him faint right in the middle of the Great Hall after all. Then the man was a joke when it came to teaching his subject, barely giving them enough information to work with. If it hadn't been for Hermione, Harry was sure he would failing the class all together.
Harry also knew that if he hadn't used his parents old spell books he would have been in a bad situation right now. Those second and third year books allowed him to learn quite a bit more than Quirrell seemed to teach them, though he wasn't that far ahead. Second and third year seemed to cover Dark Creatures, so all he could do was read about those.
If Quirrell was the only thing keeping Snape from getting the stone then Harry figured they had about a week before the DADA teacher caved in. That meant he would have to sneak out and set some traps, things Snape wouldn't expect. Harry grinned a little, Ranma would be able to help him there, but so could Hermione. Between the two of them they could make it impossible for anyone to go down that hallway.
He decided that he would spend more time checking out more of the books in his library to try and keep ahead of what people thought he should know. Right now he was just so busy that he hadn't had time to really learn any of the second year spells, but that would change. He just hoped that he would have time to learn more over the summer vacation.
oooooooooo
Author Notes: Ranma and Dumbledore just rub each other the wrong way. Ranma isn't dense anymore, and has learned from several sources how to read a situation. Happosai calls it tactics and defense. Ranma called it breaking and entering. Raising Harry has given Ranma insight into things he just never considered before and it forced him to grow up quite a bit.
Dumbledore on the other hand has plans for Harry and has started to try and groom Harry to do certain things. We all know how the next few books go. It would be very easy for Ranma to ruin those plans. I'm not going to make Dumbledore evil, though he may be more cunning than one would suspect. Snape, is an asshole and let's leave it at that.
Then there's Malfoy, the boy genius. Ya, right. He's a train wreck waiting to happen. I've got two scenes with him and Harry planned for near the end that should satisfy everyone. There is more to Malfoy than I've been showing in his little cameos after all.
Omake:
Harry watched as Hermione bounced from foot to foot humming to herself as she read and found himself staring at her butt. He shook his head, but it appeared as he closed his eyes. Grumbling, he got up and walked around a little, but his eyes kept returning to her butt as it moved…
…back and forth…
…hypnotically…
Harry growled, grabbed his head, and pulled a microphone from out of nowhere. "I'M ONLY ELEVEN YEARS OLD! GOD DAMMIT!"
Half a second later Madam Pince tossed him bodily out of the library. Where he landed in a heap against the far wall.
Hermione came out, grabbed him, and dragged him off with a little huff.
"Serves you right for making all that racket."
"Sorry." He muttered, blushing a little as he looked up at her…
(Anyone that's read the Ranma ½ manga knows that the characters occasionally pull out microphones at the oddest times and start to declare things to the forming crowd. This usually embarrasses the hell out of Ranma. I figured I'd use a variation of it in an Omake.)