How to Save a Life

Fluffy Isn't So Fluffy

'Again!'

'I can't!'

'Yes! You can! Now, do it again!' Harry groaned, his arm shaking with the effort of picking up his arm.

'bombard-' He was cut off by collapsing, not having the energy to duck out of the way of the spell coming at him.

'Get up! Again! Come now Mr. Potter I know you can do this! Use the spell Albus taught you!' Harry felt himself being lifted off the ground, not by a human, but by a force, and picked his arm back up.

'abyssus incendia!' He ground out weakly. The effect came after a second, leaving Harry on the ground, again, as a small fireball, about the size of a half-dollar coin, slowly worked it's way towards the grease ball. He make a swiping motion with his wand, to no avail, then ducked.

'Very good, Mr. Potter. I see that even your tiny brain can figure out how to do that, though it was pitiful. Allow me to show at least a decent sized one.' He made a swift jab at Harry with his wand. 'Abyssus incendia!' Harry thought this was unfair judgment. He was only a second year after all.

Harry leaped out of bed. Second year? Where did that come from? He was only in first year! Harry sighed and picked up his wand.

'Time?' He muttered, and holding his wand by the middle, vertically, made a straight sweeping motion. In the area where Harry moved his wand, fiery red numbers showed. 5:32:29. Harry groaned. Five-thirty in the morning? Who was awake this early? Tonks poked her head through the door and looked at him, happy to see him wearing pants. Ok, who other than Tonks is up this early. Harry motioned for her to go away as he pulled clothes out of his trunk. He looked up to find her on his bed. After a rude gesture and a punch in the arm, she left glaring. Harry couldn't help but laugh at the look on her face when he flipped her off, and tried to laugh quietly. He quickly left and made it to the common room before he finally broke out laughing. He saw bright blue hair jerk towards him, before dropping to the floor, and not being able to move.

'Payback time for embarrassing me like that Mr. Potter.' She said, grinning sadistically. Getting her arms under he shoulders and pulling onto the couch, she was glad to see that his mouth was open slightly. Slowly, she planted her lips on his, and continued to explore Harry's mouth, making him blush deeply. He was sure if the lights were out, he would glow in the dark. There was no way he couldn't! After Tonks pulled away, she smiled sweetly and walked out. Harry glowered as he realized she hadn't uncursed him. She would be down three flights of stairs by now! Harry growled at realized his nose itched. Of all the times? He lifted his arm, still thinking of how to get uncursed, and realized, that his arm moved. Grinning at the thought, he got up, and left. He was almost at the Great Hall, still strangely giddy from this morning's event, when he heard Quirrell's stutter.

'Dunno.' Was all he heard him say, but froze as he heard Snape's voice.

'Bull. I know you let the troll in on Halloween! I found you going up to the third floor? Do you take me as a fool?'

'Was trying to stop someone from getting to the large dog.' He muttered weakly. (gave up on his stutter by the way. Way to hard to get it right.)

'Do you take me for a fool? I'm not so stupid that I wouldn't think a student would go up there. Hell, after what Dumbledore told them, not one single student would go up there, and all the teachers wouldn't dare. Except you. You seem to be the black sheep.' He said, and Harry could almost hear the sneer on his face. 'I once again suggest you watch where your loyalties lay.' He heard Quirrell oomph as he was pushed into a wall, then Harry heard footsteps walking for the corner. Harry started to jerk out his invisibility cloak, but, no! Too late! Snape looked at him, his hand half way to his pocket and frowned.

'What did you hear? I'm not stupid Mr. Potter, I know you heard some of that.' Harry shook his head, but Snape pointed his wand at him.

'Obliviate' He said lazily. Harry saw the memory flash before his eyes. He was walking to the corner, but he broke eye contact with Snape. The memories stopped flashing, but they were still there, and becoming fuzzy. Snape seemed happy when Harry's memories turned to this. He jerked his wand back, and Harry finally remembered something.

'Happy Halloween!' He said, then wondered why he said that. It wasn't Halloween! He remembered the memories, but they were kind of fuzzy. He turned and ran to the Great Hall, praying Tonks was there. The memories were fading fast, and he had to find her before they were gone. Harry rushed in, panting, and found her. He grabbed her hand, which was reaching for her fork, and pulled her out of the Great Hall, she protesting about breakfast the entire time, and shoved her into a broom closet.

'Coming for round two of this morning Harry?'

'Not now! Listen, the memory is fading fast!' He quickly recounted the situation, having to stop occasionally to remember something, but suddenly sighed and shook his head, the conversation gone.

'What was I thinking? Must've imagined something. I just walked down the hall, and slipped and hit my head. Must've made me think this up. All a story I guess!' He said laughing. Tonks sighed. The memory charm had finally taken over. There was no way Harry could be that care-free. That wasn't in his personality.

Tonks took him up to the common room, and they found Hermione and Ron, fighting of course, but had no idea over what, as Hermione just huffed and went stomping up the stairs. Ron shrugged and turned to them.

'So! Have a nice holiday?' Tonks started telling him what Harry told her, while he was staring at her like she was insane.

'And then, Snape put a memory charm on Harry, so he can't remember.'

'Shouldn't we tell Hermione?'

'No.' Harry said bluntly.

'Come on Harry. I know she's being an ass, but still..she could help. When we go down I mean.' Harry sighed and nodded, gesturing for her to go ahead. Tonks ran off, and Harry turned to Ron, who jerked his head towards the chessboard. Harry nodded, and they started to play, or in Harry's case, get throttled.

xXxXxXxXx

Tonks and Hermione came down just in time to hear Ron declare checkmate. They walked out, deciding to go see Hagrid. On their way there, nothing interesting happened. (Haha, you thought something important was gonna happen.) They reached Hagrid's hut, and knocked. A voice resounded through the door, and was cracking a little

'Go away, I'm busy right now.'

'We know about the Sorcerer's Stone!' They called, nearly at the same time. Hagrid wrenched his door open, and let them in, wide eyed.

'What's wrong Hagrid?' Harry asked, noticing his tear-streaked face.

'Oh. I won a dragon egg down in the pub, but it hatched, and nearly burned my house down, so I had to ship him off.' Harry frowned, remembering him saying one time in their visits that he had always wanted a dragon.

'Did you see his face?' Hagrid shook his head, and Harry's stomach dropped through his feet, and headed towards the center of the earth. Hagrid must've noticed this because he said,

'That isn't unusual down in the Hog's Head. Lot of dodgy people down there.' He said frowning.

'Did he mention Hogwarts?' Hagrid frowned.

'Mighta came up. Can't remember too well, he kept buying me drinks. Wanted to see if I could handle the dragon before he even considered playing cards over it. But I said to him, I said, after managing Fluffy, a dragon would be easy. You just play a bit of music and they fall right to sleep...I shouldn't have told you that...' He said, frowning. Harry immediately jumped up and ran off, yell a quick 'good bye' over his shoulder.

'Harry wait up!' Tonks cried, tackling him.

'What!' He said angered. They had to go. One of his teachers were going down the trapdoor tonight.

'Where're you going?'

'To get ready! Someone is going through that door tonight!' Tonks nodded, putting the clues together. She got off his back and pulled him up, forgetting about Hermione and Ron.

xXxXxXxXx

Harry paced infront of the fire, waiting for everyone to leave. As Lee Jordan muttered a sleepy 'g'night' Harry went at the portrait. Tonks and the other three saw him get up, and followed after him. They were just about to make it to the third floor corridor when Snape showed up and took fifty points from each of them, and nearly threw them back into the common room. Harry sighed, and pulled out his invisibility cloak. Hermione was nearly in tears, having never lost more than ten points. They went back and tried again, this time making it into the third floor corridor with no run-ins with anyone. Walking into the room, they found harp playing, and a snoring Fluffy.

'Looks like Snape or Quirrell have come by already. Comeon, help me move it's paw.' Harry said, walking over to it. They pulled it open, and Harry instructed them on what to do if he didn't live. It was when they started hearing growls that Tonks pointed out that the music had stopped. She also jumped down the trap door first. Harry tried to distract the dog so that Hermione and Ron could get down by plucking random strings on the harp. The dog's eyes drooped, and Harry ran over to jump down the hole before Fluffy woke up. However, it was awake enough to nick Harry's shoulder, which he held until he reached the bottom. 'What a nice landing.' Harry thought, patting it.

An: HAHA YES I'M COLD AND HEARTLESS! What's worse is, you know what's gonna happen, but they don't know what's gonna happen. By the way, I want to set something straight. This is the most successful fanfic I've ever written. I don't care if it's beaten by my KH2 fic. I won't even be posting my KH2 fic for a while. I won't until I have at least ten chapters worth of content. Right now I only have seven! But, the point to this is, I'm not abandoning this fic. I refuse. The reason chapter four was delayed was:

1. I had to change three pages worth of content because I didn't like it, but I decided only after I posted it on for about 15 minutes. The whole time, I was being bugged by the thought of it.

2. I have a bad case of writer's block. On both fics actually. I didn't drop this fic so I could write on my KH2 one. I'm still stuck on that one. I don't want to sound mean. Sorry if it does. It just seems like all my reviewers think I'm gonna drop this fic for another one.