Exams had finally come to plague Hogwarts. Since the incident in the Dark Forest, Aralynn had been avoiding Harry at all costs. The last thing she wanted was the possibility of being confronted, but she also didn't want to think about the forcefield. She didn't want to think about any of it. In fact, every time she did think about it, she would end up vomiting. It was even more frustrating than the tests were. Aralynn knew that Hermione figured that she was angry with them for some reason—for avoiding Harry meant avoiding Ron and Hermione, as well. She would constantly try to catch Aralynn in the corridors, during meals, and even in their dormitory… but every time Hermione was near, Aralynn would think of Harry, which would cause her to become nauseous all over again, but also make her scar ache more than it already had been. She needed time to temper herself, and she wished that Hermione would realize that without having to be told. Aralynn simply needed time and space.

Aralynn had expected her exams to run her through the mill, but when it came down to the tests, she had felt surprisingly confident. She had done nothing but study during the days leading up to the beginning of exams. She had had a monumental amount of time on her hands from avoiding her friends, and so she devoted all her time to memorizing every important detail she needed to know so that she could return to Hogwarts. The exam materials were all things she felt that she knew well. The dreaded worry of whether she would be able to become a second-year Gryffindor dissipated. She felt she was going to pass. Rather, she knew she was going to pass. When McGonagall had them turn a mouse into a snuffbox, Aralynn had earned the highest marks—as the professor had told her that her snuffbox was the most attractive of the lot. She received an unusually pleasant remark from Professor Snape when she brewed her Forgetfulness Potion "adequately," and Professor Flitwick cheered jollily when her pineapple tap-danced cleanly across her desk. Finally, everything seemed to be falling into place. Thankfully, she had also managed to stay out of trouble and Professor McGonagall was no longer burning holes in her skull every time she passed. Instead, she received a simple nod. She would take cordiality over hostility any day.

One evening, while Aralynn was relaxing in the Common Room and trying to unwind after her Herbology final, Hermione came marching up to her. "Aralynn Nicole Weasley!" she shouted. Luckily no one else was around to hear the shrill scream. Aralynn only wished she had also been absent for it. "What on earth is going on with you? You haven't spoken to any of us in weeks! You're not going to run away from me again. I'll use magic against you if I must. I demand answers."

Aralynn rubbed her face with her warm palms. She wanted Hermione to go away. She was feeling queasy again. "Hermione, please. I'm just trying to focus on my studies."

"Hogwash," Hermione hissed. "You've been avoiding us, Aralynn. I'm not daft. Ever since you and Harry faced off with You-Know-Who in the Dark Forest, you've been completely absent. You take every possible precaution to make sure you don't run into any of us in the corridors. You don't even sit with us during meals anymore. What is going on?"

Aralynn stood quickly. Her churning stomach dared to spew. "I don't want to talk about this, Hermione. Another time, I'm begging you."

"No," said Hermione firmly. She stepped in front of Aralynn to block her path. "We're talking—now. Harry thinks you hate him."

"Please don't mention him," Aralynn wheezed, growing clammy. She wanted Hermione to go away. She wondered if she had the strength to cast a spell.

"What?" Hermione was clearly confused. Why would Aralynn have asked her not to mention Harry? Why was she so adamant about being away from them? "Aralynn, talk to me. We're worried sick about you! Harry keeps asking why you're so upset with him!"

Hermione just couldn't listen, could she? Aralynn bolted for a waste bin in the corner of the room. She expelled all the lunch she had eaten. At that moment, she was thankful she had decided to skip dinner. She fell onto her backside, leaning up against the side of one of the squashy maroon armchairs. She looked pale and rather sickly.

Hermione gasped and ran to her side. "Aralynn, what's wrong?"

Aralynn sighed, defeated. "I don't know, Hermione. Something happened in the forest between Harry and me, and now I can't think about it without my stomach going weak. I don't know why."

Hermione was pushing her bangs from Aralynn's sweat-beaded forehead. When she got too close to the makeup-covered scar, Aralynn jerked away. "What happened in the forest, Ara?"

Aralynn exhaled shakily. She was trying to refrain from retching again. "When Voldemort was feeding from the unicorn, Harry and I were… in pain. Intense, ferocious pain. We took each other's hand, and this… forcefield appeared. It protected us from him until Firenze came. It's not the first time something weird has happened between us. On Halloween, we touched, and a connection sparked. That same connection came in the forest, but it was stronger. I… I can't explain it. I don't understand it."

Hermione was looking shocked. "You said his name."

The redhead looked up, confused. "What?"

"He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named," said Hermione. "You said his name."

Aralynn hesitated. "It's just a name, Hermione."

Hermione knitted her eyebrows into a thoughtful furrow. "Why were you in pain?" When it came to You-Know-Who?"

Aralynn swallowed the dryness in her throat. It was time that at least one person knew her secret. She pushed her red bangs away from her forehead, revealing the lightning bolt-shaped scar. It was identical to the one Harry had.

Hermione gaped. "Aralynn—that's… Harry—but how?"

Aralynn shook her head. "I wish I knew."

Hermione had stood and was now pacing back and forth. Her hands were clasped behind her back. She was muttering to herself. "It can't be random," she said, loud enough for Aralynn to hear. "It just can't be random. There's no way something like that could ever possibly be a coincidence. There's something here—something we can't see. There's a story behind all of this; behind why you and Harry both have those scars. There's something that we're missing, and we have been this whole time. What could it possibly be?"

Aralynn thought on it, but she came up with nothing. She, too, felt that was something missing—she had since the beginning of the school year. However, she could never pinpoint it. Every time it felt like she was getting closer, it would only slip through her fingers once more. Oftentimes, Aralynn felt like she was running through a valley of shadow—going nowhere, without purpose. The world around her hadn't developed, because the one she had known, in some way, was wrong. It was a feeling she could never shake. She knew, deep in her heart, that she wasn't the person she thought herself to be… she wasn't the person everyone told her she was. The perpetual doubt drove her to find answers, but she never did find any. All along, she had been in the dark, but there was no light to guide her through.

The girl pushed herself to her feet and took a seat on the chair she had collapsed against. Hermione was still deliberating to herself.

"Harry got his scar from You-Know-Who," said the bushy-haired girl. "It happened when he tried to kill Harry. Does that mean that someone tried to kill you, too, and it failed?"

"I don't know," Aralynn answered. "My mum always told me that I got the scar when I was a toddler. She said that I fell into a glass table, but…"

Aralynn's sudden silence caused Hermione to falter. She turned to look at her friend, who was sitting with her eyebrows furrowed. It was clear that she had just had an epiphany of sorts. "What is it, Ara?"

"When my family went to Diagon Alley, and I was getting my wand from Ollivanders, I remember thinking that something Mr. Ollivander said to me was… unusual. Well, most of the things he said to me seemed odd, but—when my wand chose me, he told me that it was 'curious' that it had happened. I asked why, and he explained that it was interesting that the wand I have would choose me when one of its brothers gave me my scar."

Hermione cocked her head. "Brothers?"

"He told me that my wand has the core of a phoenix feather. The same phoenix gave a feather to two other wands."

Hermione was tapping her foot. "If a supposed wand gave you the scar, that would make what your mother told you completely false."

Aralynn reached up to touch her scar. She ran her fingers over its shape, noting how it felt cooler than the rest of her skin. "It would mean that she lied to me."

The brunette had her lower lip clenched between her teeth. She was pondering. "Unless one of your brothers accidentally cursed you when they were young. A child's magic often lashes out until they can learn to control it. It mostly happens when they're toddlers."

"How could they have? Ollivander said it came from a wand. Toddlers don't have wands, and if the scar is an aftermath of a failed curse, then how would, say, Fred or George, know a curse? One that could have killed me, given it didn't backfire?"

Hermione nodded. "You're right. That doesn't make sense."

Before Aralynn could say anything more, students came piling into the Common Room. Dinner must have ended. Ron and Harry came wandering through the portrait hole. When they caught sight of Hermione and Aralynn talking, they brightened. Ron came rushing forward. "Is she talking to us again?"

Hermione stammered over her words, eyeing Aralynn.

Harry approached, watching Aralynn with sad eyes. "Are you talking to us again?"

The girl felt she could lose her composure at any moment by the way Harry was looking at her. Ron's excitement, too, was making her inhibitions buckle. She exhaled slowly, trying her best to relax. "Yes," she said with forced calmness. "I'm talking to you guys again."

Ron cheered. Harry lurched forward to hug Aralynn. When he did, the image of a slender and horror-stricken redheaded woman flashed before her eyes. She pulled herself back from his touch, as subtly as she possibly could. Thankfully, Harry didn't seem to notice.

Ron took a seat next to his sister in the large armchair. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "What was going on, Ara? Why were you ignoring us?"

Hermione noticed that Aralynn was struggling to find the words. "She wasn't ignoring us," she offered. "She simply got caught up in her studies. We were talking about it before you two came in. It wasn't intentional."

Aralynn nodded weakly. "That's right."

Harry sat next to Ron, looking past him—at Aralynn. "Well, whatever it was, I'm glad you're back now."

The girl mustered a feeble smile. "Me, too."

The boys spent the rest of the night catching Aralynn up on everything she missed. In truth, there wasn't much that she had missed. There were some discussions about Snape and the Stone, but mostly, she hadn't been around to hear the complaining Ron and Harry had been doing about their exams. Apparently, Harry had also been expressing how much his scar had been hurting since they met Voldemort in the Dark Forest. Hermione had neglected to join the conversation. She spent the time sitting in a plush armchair by the fire, appearing quite pensive. Aralynn figured she was trying to deduce how she and Harry could have identical scars.

As the minutes crawled on, students slowly dispersed from the Common Room. Aralynn kept eyeing the clock, trying to think of any excuse she could to get away from them. When the hands struck ten o'clock, she jumped up. She told them that it was late, and that she was going to get a decent night's rest before their last round of exams in the morning. They seemed surprised, and a bit sad, but accepted it, nonetheless. They said goodnight to her—as well as they could, as she had already been rushing off.

Aralynn was grateful that her dormitory still stood empty. She wobbled over to her bedside vanity and pressed her palms into its tabletop. She leaned her weight into it, heaving great, desperate breaths into her chest. The room was spinning rapidly around her. Sweat rolled from her forehead and down her face. She lifted her head to look at her reflection. She couldn't recognize the person who was staring back at her. "Who are you?" she whispered to the mirror.

She stumbled from the vanity to the bed. She flopped onto it, face piling into her pillow. She closed her eyes and tried to regain her composure. The more she tried, the harder her heart seemed to beat. When the wave of slumber washed over her, she didn't fight it.

Anything, she thought, would be better than being awake.

She was wrong.

The blinding green light came to haunt her again. Once more, there was the high-pitching cackling, the desperate screaming, the warm female voice, and the hooded figure with piercing red eyes pointing its wand held by gnarly fingers. Though, more than there was before—a gaze through bars, lying on the floor, was the same slender redhaired woman Aralynn had seen when Harry hugged her. She had fallen into an awkward position. Seen in her green eyes was the fading of life. A single, clear tear escaped her right eye.

Aralynn was awakened in the morning by Hermione shaking her rather violently. Her eyes fought to open, but when they did, her friend was staring down at her with a wild gaze. She moved back and let out a hefty breath of relief. She raised her hand to her chest, pressing it in. Aralynn forced her aching body up, watching Hermione frantically touch the girl's face and feel her pulse.

Through a dry throat, Aralynn asked: "Hermione – what are you doing?"

"Making sure you're alive," answered Hermione.

Aralynn stared at her. "What?"

"I thought you were dead!" she declared. "You haven't moved all night, and it hardly looked like you were breathing. I was worrying out of my skin, Ara."

"Well, I'm fine," Aralynn told her, placing her hand to her head. "Wicked headache, though."

"You had best get ready. Exams will be starting soon."

Despite everything in her body screaming for her to stay in bed, Aralynn prepared herself. She went through the motions of showering, brushing her teeth and hair, and changing into a clean uniform. She walked with Harry, Hermione, and Ron to their last round of exams. Honestly, Aralynn could hardly focus the entire time her quill moved across the parchment. Part of her was answering the posed questions, but the rest of her was thinking about the dead woman she had seen in her nightmare. The sight of her lifeless body, and her crying eyes, made Aralynn unexplainably emotional. The more she thought about the woman, the more her eyes welled with tears. She felt such a loss for a woman she had never even seen before.

Aralynn hadn't even realized it when she finished her exams, was dismissed, wandered the grounds, and settled by the Black Lake under a tree. She honed back into the world in the middle of Harry talking. "It means danger is coming," he said. "I just know it."

Hermione was watching Harry. Her eyes skirted, briefly, to Aralynn. "Maybe it's just the stress of exams."

"You can relax now," said Ron. "We have one whole, blissful week of freedom before our results come in. It might stop hurting now."

Harry shook his head. "It doesn't have anything to do with exams. I'm sure of it."

Aralynn was listening while she watched Fred, George, and Lee Jorden tickling the giant squid's tentacles while it waded in the warm shallows. The day was quite hot. Blistering, even. While Aralynn may have enjoyed it otherwise, she was cursing it for making her sweat more than she had been for the past few weeks.

"Something is coming!" Harry exploded. "Something really bad is going to happen. I can feel it. It involves the Philosopher's Stone!"

Hermione sighed. "Harry, the Stone is going to be safe so long as Professor Dumbledore is around. Which, he is. He would never let anyone, or anything get to it—why do you think there are so many things protecting it? Fluffy included."

Ron was nodding. "Besides, there's no way that Snape has figured out how to get past him. He tried once already, remember? Fluffy nearly ripped his leg off!"

Harry shook his head. "Something is off."

Aralynn was almost fading in and out of reality when there was a sudden snap of realization. She sat up, turning towards them. They seem quite surprised to see that she was present. She must have been absent for quite some time. "Come with me."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione struggled to keep up with her as she scrambled up the grassy slopes. She was nearly running towards the Dark Forest. They almost thought that was where she was heading until she saw Hagrid's hut come into view. He was sitting outside in a rocking chair with the sleeves of his shirt rolled up. He was shelling peas.

"Aralynn!" Ron called after her. "What's going on?"

Aralynn didn't respond. As soon as Hagrid caught sight of them, he perked up. "Hullo there!" he called cheerily. "Must be nice ter be done with yer exams, eh? How's th' freedom feelin'? Got time fer a drink?"

"Please," Ron agreed, panting.

"No," Aralynn interrupted. She marched right up to Hagrid. "Do you remember the night you won Norbert?"

Hagrid was slow to respond. His lips were stretched into an awkward smile. "Sum o' it…" he answered embarrassedly. "Why?"

"The stranger you won the egg from—do you remember what he looked like?"

Hagrid squinted his eyes thoughtfully. "Er—no. He was wearin' a cloak. Never took it off. Not that tha's unusual, though. Ye get all sorts o' funny people down at the Hog's Head."

Harry and Hermione were starting to realize where she was going with the questions. Ron was still completely in the dark. He kept looking back and forth, trying his best to follow the conversation.

Aralynn sat on the median step leading to his door. She was clutching the robes around her knees. "What did you talk about? Can you remember any of it?"

The man seemed almost offended that she would ask if he could remember any of it. Though, by the looks of his face, he couldn't remember much of it. "Some," he said, setting the bowl of shelled peas down. "Ah… we talked a bit 'bout Hogwarts. Told 'im what I do here—the gamekeeper an' all. We had quite a few drinks, an' he told me tha' he had a dragon egg on 'im. Asked if I'd want it. I told him o'course! I've always wanted ter have a dragon. He said I could 'ave it if I beat 'im at cards. So, I took 'im up on th' offer. I told 'im that lookin' after a dragon wouldn't be hard—not after Fluffy."

Harry's eyes flashed. "Did he seem interested in Fluffy?"

Hagrid snorted. "Everyone's interested in Fluffy!" he roared. "He's a three-headed dog! Ye can't go wrong with that! Any beast won't be hard to handle if ya know how to calm 'em. See, with Fluffy, all's you gotta do is play 'im a bit o' music. He'll fall right asleep!"

Ron had finally caught up on the conversation. Just as Hagrid was realizing that he shouldn't have said anything, they had all bolted away from the hut. They were rushing toward the castle, alarmedly talking amongst themselves. "Harry, what are we going to do?" asked Hermione.

"We have to go to Dumbledore," Harry told her. "He has to stop Snape from getting the Stone."

They bustled into the castle. They looked back and forth, trying to figure out where Dumbledore's office was. There were no obvious signs, and so they began to move frantically through the halls, eyeing every door they could. "It must have been Snape or Voldemort himself playing Hagrid at cards," said Aralynn. "It's not hard to get information out of someone when they're drunk."

They nearly slammed right into Professor McGonagall. She had a hefty pile of books in her arms, and she was standing outside of Dumbledore's office. "What are you four doing in here? I shouldn't have expected you to be inside on such a beautiful day—after exams, no less."

"We need to speak with Professor Dumbledore," said Harry.

McGonagall narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Why?"

Harry shifted awkwardly. "It's urgent."

"What is it?"

"I… It's a secret."

McGonagall's nostrils flared. "Well, Professor Dumbledore is not here. He left a few minutes ago to attend to business at the Ministry of Magic."

"Now?" Aralynn breathed, exasperated. "This is important!"

McGonagall's chest puffed. "Surely, an owl from the Ministry is far more important than whatever it is you could have to tell him."

The children looked amongst themselves. Should they tell her?

"It's about the Philosopher's Stone," Harry told her.

The woman gawked at him, nearly dropping the books in her arms. "How do you know about that?"

Aralynn shook her head. "It doesn't matter. Somebody is going to try and steal it!"

She looked suspicious. "Professor Dumbledore will return tomorrow. I don't know how you could have possibly found out about the Stone, but I assure you that nobody will be trying to steal it. It is far too well protected."

Harry nearly lurched forward. "But Professor—"

"Enough," McGonagall growled. "I know what I am talking about. I suggest you return to the wondrous sunshine. Immediately."

The students wandered away. When they were sure McGonagall was out of earshot, Harry turned on his heel. "Dumbledore is gone. The Stone will be stolen tonight. It's the perfect storm. Snape has all the information he needs now. I bet the note was a forgery."

They were moving through the corridors again, trying to decide what they should do, when they came across Snape. The man sneered down at them wickedly, giving each of them a suspicious gaze. "And what…" he began slowly and grimily, "would four students be doing inside on such a glorious day?"

They sputtered over their explanations, throwing out something that made absolutely no sense. When Snape leered at them, they went silent. They felt, surely, they had been caught. "By your behavior, some may think that you're… up… to something. As I would hope that isn't the case. Gryffindor couldn't stand to lose more points, could they?"

"We were going to the Common Room to change," said Aralynn with a strong voice.

Snape stared at her. He watched her for a moment longer than he should have before turning his malice back onto Harry. "If you are planning on another midnight stroll around the castle, Potter, I will be sure to have you caught and expelled immediately."

He savored another few minutes of making them uncomfortable with his hate-filled stare. He slithered past them and allowed them to return to the Common Room. They filed in and collapsed onto the couch together. They needed to come up with a plan—and quickly.

"That's it," said Harry. "I'm going after that Stone tonight. I'll try my best to get there before Snape does. He can't get his hands on it. If he does, that means Voldemort comes back. There will be no hope left if that happens. Hogwarts won't exist anymore, and he'll likely have us all killed—even just for the sport of it. I can't worry about expulsion now. If he comes back, there will be no point in even coming to school. This man killed my parents. I can't let him return and kill even more people. I'm going to try and save us. I'll take the invisibility cloak."

Ron cocked his head. "Will it fit the four of us?"

Harry was taken aback. "The four of us?"

Hermione laughed. "You don't think you're going alone, do you, Harry?"

Harry Potter was looking confused. Why would they put themselves in harm's way? Why not let him, and him alone, make the sacrifice?

Aralynn smiled softly at Harry and placed her hand over his. "We're coming with you, Harry. If a savior is going to be born; it's going to be born in all of us. This is our fight, too."

They huddled in a circle, putting their heads together, and wrapped their arms around each other. They knew very well that it could be the last time they were ever close again. They wanted to savor their last possible moments together.

"It's now or never."