The Rise of Overlord Vulcan - Rewrite!

by The Dark Dragen

Read as how a different history, having an imaginary twin sister at a young age, and a having a different life before Hogwarts changes Harry from a weak and lonely boy, to the most powerful Dark Wizard the world had ever seen - Overlord Vulcan. (Second Year Begins!) Please read and review. ON HOLD UNTIL MUSE RETURNS!

18. Chapter 16 - The Blood Stone: Part 10

Chapter Sixteen...

The Blood Stone - Part 10!

(The Philosopher's Stone!)

23rd February 2012 - Third Floor Corridor:

It was about half an hour before Harry got to the third floor corridor with his flute and Aneira, but as he got there he saw that the corridor was empty. As he wondered if Filch or one of the Professors caught them, he felt himself being pulled into a classroom. As he turned around, his wand halfway out, he stopped as he noticed that the person who pulled him into the room was Su, with Ember, Hermione and Susan standing behind her.

"Sorry we scared you," Susan said apologetically, "but Filch was around and we had to hide in here so he wouldn't find us. Why have you brought your cat with you? How can she be any help?" Susan asked suddenly when she saw Aneira.

"As you know Aneira isn't just a normal cat, she is a Tigran." Harry explained to Susan.

"I know that, but we have never seen her use her powers." Susan told Harry, and Hermione and Su nodded in agreement. Ember knew the full story, and what her first true friend was about to show them, in fact it was only yesterday he showed her what Aneira was able to do.

"True but as you know, until after Christmas, I wasn't allowed her near me that much and allow the bond between us to grow." Harry explained to the girls, "So unlike how she would be like in the wild, her powers were weakened because we couldn't bond. But over the last month and a half though…" As if she knew what her Master wanted, Aneira jumped out of Harry's arms and onto the ground, where she began to transform into her Tigran form.

Once she turned into a tiger, the girls looked at her in shock. Over the last few months thanks to the potions he was taking he now was about 5'2, and although she was still a 'kitten', in her Tigran form, she just came up to his waist, being around 3'6. She hadn't stopped growing though, and if what he read was true by the time she stopped growing she would be about 4'10 to 5 feet tall; big enough to ride if she allowed it.

"Very useful." Su echoed as she eyed the transformed feline with a calculating eye.

"True Su." Harry admitted, "So you see Susan, she is able to do this and a few ice attacks. I'll admit that she isn't that powerful at the moment, and she can't keep her Tigran form up for long or do many attacks. But should we need her though, she'll transform into a Tigran and fight for us."

"So, if there's nothing else, shall we?" Harry gestured towards the door, an amused smile on his face as Aneira transformed back into her kitten form and jumped back into her Master's arms.

o0OoO0o

As the five children and one cat walked to the forbidden corridor, Su and Harry kept an eye out for Filch, his cat, and professors, as they didn't want to explain what they were up to. As they headed towards their destination Harry found it strange. He'd thought that something as important as the Philosopher's Stone would warrant a guard standing vigil in the corridor, at the very least, but there was nothing…

As they reached the location that was destined to give them 'a most painful death' all Harry found guarding the door was… well, the lock on the door itself. He was terribly underwhelmed by the whole experience. "So any ideas how to open this?" He asked blandly.

"According to the rumours I've heard a simple Alohomora will open it." Susan answered.

Harry frowned as he did so; this made no sense, nothing to protect the corridor from being entered and a door locked not with some massive, complex and advanced locking spell, but one that can be undone by a first year charm? Was the Headmaster wanting a death or something. It was lucky that anyone who entered here so far, hadn't been killed yet. This was just another reason why Harry didn't trust Dumbledore, and another stick to give the old man the next time he saw him. Anyway, as they entered the corridor, they heard a low, rumbling growl. All three of the dog's noses sniffed madly in their direction, even though it couldn't see them.

Quickly, Harry put Hagrid's flute to his lips and blew, hoping that this would work or they could be dog food. Harry played a soft tune, one that he'd been practicing since Christmas. Slowly, the dog's growls ceased - it tottered on its paws and fell to its knees, then it slumped to the ground, fast asleep.

"Wonderful." Su complimented as they kept listening to the soft music.

"I have to agree Harry, that was wonderful, you play quite well." Susan agreed as she looked around. Finding what she was looking for, she said with a pointed finger, "There it is." The other three were right behind her as Susan bent down and pulled the ring of the trapdoor, which swung up and open.

"What can you see?" Hermione asked Susan anxiously.

"Nothing, it's pitch black, there's no way of climbing down; we'll just have to drop." The 'Puff answered.

Harry, who was still playing the flute, waved at Susan to get his attention and pointed at himself.

"You want to go first? Are you sure?" said Susan. "I don't know how deep this thing goes. Give the flute to Hermione so she can keep him asleep, I can't play a flute to save my life."

Harry handed the flute over. In the few seconds' silence, the dog started to grumble and twitched, but the moment Hermione began to play, it fell back into its deep sleep.

Harry climbed over it and looked down through the trapdoor. There was no sign of the bottom. He lowered himself through the hole until he was hanging on by his fingertips. Then he looked up at Su, who was wordlessly gazing down at him. "If anything happens to me, don't follow. Get some help to get me out."

"Right." Su agreed, the slightest hesitation in her voice. Although Harry didn't see it, Ember gave a look that said if anything happened to him, she would be following no matter what, she wasn't about to lose her first friend without a fight.

"See you in a minute, I hope…" Harry half-joked as he let go. Cold, damp air rushed past him as he fell down, down, down and -

FLUMP. With a funny, muffled sort of thump he landed on something soft. He sat up and felt around, his eyes not used to the dark. It felt as though he was sitting on some sort of plant.

"It's okay!" He called up to the light the size of a postage stamp, which was the open trapdoor. "It's a soft landing, you can jump!"

Ember, Su and Susan followed right away. They landed, sprawled next to Harry.

"What is this stuff?" Ember wondered as she rubbed what she'd landed on.

"Dunno, some sort of plant thing. I suppose it's here to break the fall. Come on, Hermione!" Harry called.

The distant 'music' stopped. There was a loud bark from the dog, but Hermione had already jumped. She landed behind Harry.

"We must be miles under the school." She said with wonder. Harry could feel her bushy hair hitting him, leading him to believe she was looking around, trying to find any hint of light.

"Lucky this plant thing's here, really." Susan admitted.

"Lucky!" Hermione shrieked. "Look at you four!"

She leapt up and struggled toward a damp wall. She had to struggle because the moment she had landed, the plant had started to twist snakelike tendrils around her ankles. As for Harry and the others, their legs had already been bound tightly in long creepers without their noticing.

Hermione had managed to free herself before the plant got a firm grip on her. Now she watched in horror as her three friends fought to pull the plant off them, but the more they strained against it, the tighter and faster the plant wound around them.

"Stop moving!" Susan ordered them. "It's Devil's Snare!"

"That's a start, anyone remember how to get rid of it?" Harry asked.

"…We need light, or fire, but the 'Snare grabbed my wand when I hopped off of it!" Hermione panicked after a rapid and unsuccessful search for her wand.

"Su, Susan, Ember can either of you get to your wand?" Harry asked the other three girls as the vines crept up his chest. He felt mildly uncomfortable as one of the smaller vines slipped underneath his shirt. For some reason, the room was blocking his Mystic powers.

Susan was about to reply in the negative, but the quiet but firm voice of the 'Claw among them beat her to it. "Yes… close your eyes!" She barked as she raised her wand. The rest of the group quickly complied, trusting her to know what to do. They were glad they did when a ball of light as bright as a miniature sun formed at the tip of her wand. The Devil's snare actually screeched as its thinner vines were flash fried from the intensity of the light.

Once they were free from the plant and they couldn't see a silhouette of the world through their own eyelids Harry walked over and patted Su on the back. "Good job Su, that was some quick thinking." He shifted as Aneira on his shoulder meowed in agreement.

"I think I just got a tan." Susan quipped as they all moved forward on mutual consent; speed was the key.

"Well at least we weren't turned into atomic shadows." Hermione tried to up the mood with a joke, only to get confused looks from the two magical raised girls and a snort from Harry and a giggle from Ember. "Atomic shadows are created after using a Muggle explosive called an atomic bomb. After the explosion people's outlines are imprinted into walls they were standing near."

Unsurprisingly, this only increased the nervousness the girls were feeling, though it did distract them from the nervousness they were feeling before about getting passed the obstacles.

"That was too easy." Harry said darkly as he looked for a way out.

"That waseasy for you," Hermione said in disbelief, "I know you see danger differently than us mere mortals, but if it wasn't for Su, we would most likely be dead."

"Yes that was easy, and would be easier if my Mystic powers weren't blocked." Harry told the girls, who did wonder why Harry didn't use his powers, "Whilst we might have died, and thank Merlin we didn't, for a Dark Wizard or Witch, they would have had another wand or trick up their sleeves. They wouldn't be a Dark Wizard or Witch if they didn't, and the ones who didn't would be those who are new or are wannabe Dark Wizards or Witches who have no idea what they are doing. A true Dark Magic User or Dark Lord/Lady wouldn't have a problem with the plant."

Here the girls had a grim look at this, because they knew that as much as they hated to admit it, Harry was right. Be it a Dark Magic User or a thief, anyone who wanted the Philosopher's Stone, would be more prepared for such trips.

"Looks like there's only one way." Harry said, pointing down a stone passageway which, just as he'd said, was the only way forward. As if he said nothing.

o0OoO0o

All they could hear apart from their footsteps was the gentle drip of water trickling down the walls. The passageway sloped downward, and Harry was reminded of Gringotts. With an unpleasant cold knot forming in his chest, he remembered the dragons rumoured to be guarding vaults in Gringotts. If they met a dragon, a fully-grown dragon… he shuddered at the thought.

"Can you hear something?" Susan whispered.

"Wings." Su answered.

Harry nodded, "Yeah, sounds like lots of them too. Not much further, there's light up ahead."

They reached the end of the passageway and saw before them a brilliantly lit chamber, its ceiling arching high above them. It was full of small, jewel-bright birds, fluttering and tumbling all around the room. On the opposite side of the chamber was a heavy wooden door.

"Do you think they'll attack us if we cross the room?" Hermione wondered.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they did." Harry admitted. "They don't look very vicious, but I suppose if they all swooped down at once… well, there's no other choice… I'll run."

He took a deep breath, covered his face with his arms, and sprinted across the room. He expected to feel sharp beaks and claws tearing at him any second, but nothing happened. He reached the door untouched. He pulled the handle, but it was locked.

The other three followed him. They tugged and heaved at the door, but it wouldn't budge, not even when Hermione tried her Alohomora Charm. Harry was getting more suspicious, why wasn't this kind of magic on the first door? Something wasn't right about all this. Harry wasn't sure what yet, but he was certain this wasn't right.

"These birds… they can't be here just for decoration." Hermione said.

They watched the birds soaring overhead, glittering-wait, glittering?

"They're not birds!" Harry said suddenly as he took a closer look at the so called birds. "They're keys! Winged keys; look carefully. So that must mean…" He looked around the chamber while the other three squinted up at the flock of keys. "Aha!" He cheered as he saw a half-dozen broomsticks lined up against the wall. "We've got to catch the key to the door!"

"But there are hundreds of them!"

"Big, old-fashioned, silver; like the handle." Su supplied, tapping her nail against the tarnished metal she was talking about to make a pinging sound.

Harry got a good look at the lock before seizing a broomstick and kicking off into the air, soaring into the midst of the cloud of keys. Harry grabbed and snatched, but the bewitched keys darted and dived so quickly it was almost impossible to catch one. It didn't help the key's behind him were attacking him.

However, he had a knack for spotting things other people didn't. After a minute's weaving about through the whirl of rainbow feathers, he noticed a large silver key that had a bent wing, as if it had already been caught and used a few times already.

It was a few more minutes before he was able to catch it. Acting fast he snapped the wings off the key and flew down, throwing the key to Hermione, who ran to open the door. As Hermione was opening the door, Harry was flying about to keep the keys at bay. As soon as Hermione opened the door, he flew down and through the doorway. The second he was through the three girls slammed the door behind him.

o0OoO0o

Once they left the last chamber, they entered a dimly lit corridor. As they were working down the new chamber, they were catching their breath as Harry said, "What the hell are the professors thinking, so far we had Professor Sprout's and Flitwick's so called protections."

"What do you mean so called protections?" asked Susan, who suspected she knew what was coming.

"Well you know my thoughts about the first protection, who no doubt belonged to Professor Sprout," Harry began to explain himself, "the last one was Professor Flitwick's. No I'll admit it was a bit more difficult, with those things attacking you whilst you need to catch the key. But any decent broom rider could pass that protection, then again now I think about it, if I tried to summon it, I might have gotten it that way too. But I think that Flitwick would have thought of that, so I still had to fly for the key. But my statement stands, any decent broom rider could have passed that protection given time."

As much as they hated to admit it, the girls after some thought, they knew that Harry was right. Any decent broom rider could do the task.

As they were thinking of this, they entered a dark chamber, at first they couldn't see anything at all. But a few second of entering the chamber, lights suddenly flooded the room to reveal an astonishing sight.

They were standing on the edge of a huge chessboard, behind the black chessmen, which were all taller than they were and carved from what looked like black stone. Facing them, way across the chamber, were the white pieces. The four first years were unnerved to find that the white pieces had no faces, just blank slates.

"Now what do we do?" Hermione whispered.

"I… guess we have to play our way across?" Susan guessed.

Su was the next to voice her thoughts, "Risky. Requires skills we do not have."

"Yeah, like hell." Harry said darkly, none of them were good at this game, and he suspected that it would be like the real Wizarding Chess where the figures would attack each other, and if they had to play the pieces… 'Not happening.' Harry thought, before an evil smile crossed his face. Not only would the chess pieces attack them, it would take time. Time they didn't have a lot of. He decided to do what his cousin would do when faced with anything that made him feel inferior; break it.

Before he could do anything, Hermione asked as she saw the smile, "What are you planning Harry?"

"First let me point out, this is just another point to prove that the Headmaster has lost it or he is playing some sort of game, seeing that most people know how to play chess. So this is no real protection to protect the Stone." Harry told the girls, who sadly begun to see Harry was right, after three protections, they knew that they weren't as good as they should have been to protect the Philosopher's Stone. "And as for what I'm planning, I'm going to go through this the easy way. Ember if you don't mind helping me." Harry said with a smirk, and before the girls could say anything, he waved his wand, "Reducto!"

With that a black piece exploded to dust, which started a war between Harry and Ember Vs. the chess pieces. Harry used the Reducto to burst the chess pieces apart, whilst Ember used her gravity powers to do the same. It wasn't that hard, as they were smaller than the giant chess pieces, so they were able to dodge the pieces with ease. The so called war lasted for about ten minutes or so, chess pieces were exploding and Harry was smiling as he did so. By the end of it, Harry was outright grinning in the middle of a pile of rubble, and whilst Ember was dusting herself off, Harry thought to himself, 'I've got to thank Cedric for teaching me this spell.'

The other girls looked at him strangely, "What?" He asked innocently, "Destroying them was a lot easier than wasting time playing through the game. If we did it might have taken hours to play. Anyway, we're on a schedule." Then, as he started to walk away, he threw over his shoulder, "Besides, what eleven-year-old boy doesn't like breaking things when they can get away with it?"

While Susan and Hermione were speechless, Su breezed past them and joined Harry as he ventured across the room and to the next door. "Looked fun." She admitted, a small smile on her face that could even be dubbed mischievous.

As they entered the next they were shocked to see a troll, who attacked them as soon as they entered the room. They were able to dodge the attack. The troll was at least a metre taller than the one that Harry faced on Halloween, and looked a lot meaner. It was this point that Aneira transformed into her tiger form and stood next to her Master, waiting to attack.

The troll charged towards Su, who used some form of repulsion spell to knock the beast away from her. Whatever the spell, it made it angry and went after Hermione and Ember, the two girls closest to it, in its anger. Hermione and Ember froze in fear at the sight of another fully grown Mountain Troll threatening them - it reminded them of what nearly happened on Halloween. Because of this, Harry was forced to throw a few fireballs at the troll to distract it as he used his powers to push Hermione and Ember out of harm's way.

However, this made the troll even angrier and it start to swing it club about in anger, and Harry got hit because of it. Before the Troll could do anything more, he was systematically turned to a frozen troll-sickle, thanks to Aneira, who had turned into her Tigran form, for a few seconds before then being turned to bloody frozen chunks learning a valuable lesson in exactly why you shouldn't attack the friends of a girl who'd been trained as a warrior all her life as Su demonstrated skills in Battle Magic the others didn't know she has. After Su's impressive display was done Susan showed her budding talent in the art of healing and was able to heal Harry's wounds. Luckily, his injuries were minor, as broken bones and internal bleeding was out of her range of expertise.

"Thanks Susan. Hermione, are you okay?" Harry asked, concerned for the bushy haired girl. Susan understood the rushed words of thanks, and was equally worried for Hermione and Ember; knowing the full story of what happened on Halloween, or at least the 'public' version of it.

Both Hermione and Ember were a bit shaken up, but they were rapidly recovering from their freeze-up. "I'm fine." Both said firmly after a few deep breathes, and Hermione went on to say, "Let's continue on."

Harry nodded, giving her hand one last squeeze before walking over towards Su, his face brightening into an amazed look. "Su that was awesome! I had no idea you could cast spells like that." He praised, offering her a hand up.

The panting girl looked away, blushing lightly, not even slightly used to being able to show off her skills for her friends, or even anybody that wasn't family, but took his hand regardless.

Once everyone had regained their bearings and breath, the four continued on to the next room. They hardly dared to look at what came next after entering the next doorway, the Troll was something they suspected for protection for the Philosopher's Stone.

o0OoO0o

Thankfully as they entered the next chamber, there was nothing to be alarmed over; just a table with seven differently shaped bottles standing in a line.

"Snape's?" Harry asked, getting thoughtful looks before nods from the girls. "So what did the greasy bat set up for his protection for the Stone?"

They stepped over the threshold, and immediately a fire sprang up behind them in the doorway. It wasn't ordinary fire either; it was purple. At the same instant, black flames shot up in the doorway leading onward. They were trapped.

"Look!" Hermione seized a roll of paper lying next to the bottles. Harry and the other two girls looked over her shoulder to read it:

Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,

Two of us will help you, whichever you would find,

One among us seven will let you move ahead,

Another will transport the drinker back instead,

Two among our number hold only nettle wine,

Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line.

Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,

To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:

First, however slyly the poison tries to hide

You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;

Second, different are those who stand at either end,

But if you would move onward, neither is your friend;

Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,

Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;

Fourth, the second left and the second on the right

Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight.

Hermione let out a great sigh and Harry, amazed, saw that she was smiling.

"Brilliant," Hermione said. "This isn't magic; it's logic, a puzzle. A lot of the greatest wizards haven't got an ounce of logic, sorry girls." She added to the others in the room, they nodded in understanding, "They'd be stuck in here forever."

"For those who aren't Mystics at least, or aren't good at riddles. So are you one of those good at riddles, or are we stuck here for a while?" Harry asked his smart friend. "I for one hate riddles, and so I for one don't want to be stuck here until Dumbledore or one of the other professors finds us."

"Of course we're not going to be stuck here for a while, who do you think you're talking to." Hermione said with a friendly smirk. "Everything we need is here on this paper. Seven bottles: three are poison; two are wine; one will get us safely through the black fire, and one will get us back through the purple."

"But how do we know which to drink?" Susan asked.

Hermione smiled mischievously, "Oh I already figured it out. But before I say which, I would like you three to guess which one we should take."

Harry figured it out a few minutes after Hermione's challenge, and Su and Susan, surprisingly, considering their upbringing, got the answer right several minutes after Harry.

As Harry was examining the bottles more closely Susan had tried a Duplication Charm on the vials of potion, to see if she could make three extra potions so that each of them could go through the fire, since there was only enough for two people. However, she was only succeeded in making three extra glass vials, which were empty.

As Susan, Su and Hermione were deciding who would go with Harry to get the Stone. Ember was watching Harry, who was testing the fire to see if he could touch it. Harry knew that he could touch normal fire with ease, and he had been experimenting on a few magical fires, with success. But he had never tried a fire created by someone with experience in magic, so he wasn't sure if he would be able to handle this fire.

To his pleasant surprise though, he found his hand going through the fire without a problem. He wasn't sure because the fire was obviously magical in nature, and thus likely different than normal fire in ways he couldn't explain yet. So as the three girls argued about who would get the correct potion and go with and who would stay behind, Harry smiled and winked at Ember, before he slipped through the imposing black flames unharmed into the next room.

As Harry entered the next room, he found himself in a chamber. It was empty apart for a few torches that were a lit, a mirror that Harry recognized as the Mirror of Erised and no way out apart for the way he came in. Harry quickly realized that the mirror was some way of finding the Stone, so he looked into the mirror. Hoping to find the Stone so that he could send it back to the Flamels.

When he looked in the mirror and this time he didn't see his friends and family, all he saw was himself standing next to his twin, and they were standing in the centre of his mindscape, the huge cavern, with fire, brimstone, and lava were everywhere, with him in the centre of it on the small island. His sister like before was dancing around burning/charred corpses that were littered around.

Harry had to wonder how he was going to get the Stone from the mirror. All he wanted was to get the Stone out of the school, not because he didn't want it, any man would for what it could do. But he didn't need it, he was making his own money and becoming rich over time with it, and as for immortality, he could find another way, even creating his own Stone in time. All he wanted was to remove the danger it placed on the school, so he wouldn't be forced into something he wasn't ready for.

As he was thinking this, he saw his reflection giving him a smirk and a wink, before it dropped a red stone into his pocket, before Harry and Lucy within the mirror turned around to gaze around the cavern, most like planning what to do with it.

Harry was a little miffed at being ignored by his own reflection, but before he could think more about it, he felt something in his pocket that wasn't there before. Taking whatever it was out of his pocket, Harry found that it was the Philosopher's Stone. Smirking to himself, he placed the Stone back into his pocket and left the chamber.

He was amused to find Ember smirking at the other three girls who were with them, still arguing about who would get the correct potion and who would stay behind when he walked back through the firewall. At the same moment he walked through the fire the girls looked up and saw him coming back.

"What the hell!" Susan shouted as she rushed over to him, as he stepped through the flame wall.

Su, despite her normally shy nature, gasped as she saw him take his last step through the flames.

Harry chuckled as Susan patted his chest, as if patting out invisible little fires. He batted her hands away lightly with a chuckle, "Girls, I'm fine. Ember and Hermione knew this, seeing that I used it to defeat the Troll, but I can use the element of fire."

Both non-Gryffindor girls glared at him in response, nonplussed.

"Susan I was going to tell you soon, as I was going to use it in our training soon, and Su, I just met you and so wasn't sure if I was going to tell you just yet." Harry explained to the two, and got a glare from Susan and Su telling him understandable. "Anyway, I've only known you lot for a few months, and I wasn't sure if I could trust you with my secret. Don't tell me that you and others haven't got secrets that you haven't told us or things you don't want to talk about?" Harry asked as he gave, challenging them to say otherwise. As he knew that all families had their own secrets, or at least things that they didn't want others to know.

"…" Su's blank stare told Harry he was right, as did Susan's defeated sigh. "Fine, not like I haven't got my own secrets, but how did you know you could walk through a magical fire like that?" Ember and Hermione looked at Harry with interest, seeing that they wanted to know this too.

Harry looked a bit sheepish as he admitted, "To be honest I didn't," and here the girls gave him a death glare for doing something so stupid, "but I did know I could touch non-magical flames without problem, and some what you call weak magical fires. This is the first time I tried to do something more powerful, something that meant to keep people out of a place, so I wasn't sure it would work.

"But when I saw you three arguing, and since I thought it might take a while, I thought I'd see if I could touch magical fire without being harmed. And once I found out I could, I figured it'd just be quicker to see what was ahead myself. If it was dangerous I could always yell for you girls to run away. It just happened that you looked up when I decided to come back…"

"…Stone?" Su asked after a moment of consideration.

"I've got it here." Harry answered as he pulled the Stone out of his pocket. "Now let's get out of here."

As he said that, other than Ember, the other three girls started to walk towards the table so they could drink the potion to leave the chamber but as they did, Harry asked with a smirk, "And where are you three going?"

"Getting out of here, like you said." Hermione answered uncertainly, unsure of why Harry was asking.

"I did say that, but I've got a faster way out of here." And a lot safer, but Harry wasn't going to say that. As he knew that as soon as they got back up top they would have to face Fluffy, something he didn't want to but knew he would have to if the girls didn't find out about his powers. But now…

"How?" Su asked.

"I can teleport, or as I like to call it Flaming. But only to places that I've seen in person myself, or have a high quality pictures of in my head, granted, but I could teleport us to the room you pulled me into easily enough." He explained.

"But Harry, there are wards around Hogwarts that-" Hermione began winding up for a lecture before Harry took her arm by suddenly and flamed out of the chamber and into the unused classroom that they were in earlier. "-stops all forms teleportation in and out of Hogwarts…" She finished lamely as she saw where she was. She was shocked to find that the two of them were in the classroom that they were in earlier, just like he'd said. "B-But how is this possible, the, the wards and… and…" She trailed off as she tried to deny what he'd done using logic, but found she couldn't.

He shrugged, "I have no idea to be honest, could be because it is a Mystic power and they haven't found a way to stop it yet, whatever the case, I for one am happy the wards don't seem to affect my ability. Back in a sec…"

He flamed away, reappearing briefly with Susan before doing the same with Su and Ember. When he let go of Su's hand he stumbled back against the desk behind him breathing heavily, holding his head as it rolled to the side. "Are you okay?" Hermione asked, beating the other two to the punch because they were busy getting over their surprise at the successful teleportation.

"Fine… fine. The magical drain skyrockets when I take other people with me, and doing so like I just did, just need to get stronger." Harry panted.

Internally he was just happy it worked, as he'd never teleported another person this far before, and wasn't sure if he could do it or not. He doubted anything bad would happen to the girls because of how the ability worked - his magic acting as a cocoon, the fire being what tore a hole for him to zip through to his destination - but he was still unsure if the spell would work, as opposed to fizzling out.

"Now if you three don't mind, I would like to get something to eat and go to bed, teleporting four people without rest took a lot out me." Harry suggested. The girls nodded in understanding. Just because he could do the impossible and teleport inside Hogwarts didn't mean the Wards that normally prevented it didn't take their pound of flesh, so to speak, in retribution for being beaten. At least, that was their theory.

It would be a few hours later before Harry's head finally hit the pillow and he was out like a light. He was glad his friends hadn't asked any more questions since he was too tired to answer them properly. He was glad he was even able to get to sleep with how active his thoughts were.

During the night, Harry found himself talking to his sister, where they talked to each other about the tasks. Lucy did agree with him that the situation was strange, that the Stone was so badly protected that five first years could get past the so called protections in less than an hour, with no serious injuries. And wondered what the Headmaster was up to, why didn't he set up better protection for the Philosopher's Stone.

o0OoO0o

24th February 2012 - Hogwarts Library:

The following day after getting the Philosopher's Stone, Harry went to class as normal, lucky for him, Potions was the only class that Harry had that day. Whilst the class better in many ways, Snape showing them how to do a potion, explaining why certain things had to be done in such a way, and having protective gear now, Snape still hated him, and would take point from him where he could. Not that it bothered Harry that much, seeing he was learning an useful skill, so he did the same thing to him as he did with his family, he ignored him when possible.

After Potions, he went to the Owlery to visit Hedwig with Aneira, as the others went to lunch. Harry found visiting the Owlery with Aneira very amusing, as when he and Aneira visited them, the owls would scatter away in fear of the feline - it was highly amusing to Harry. Anyway, after talking to Hedwig for a bit, he sent her off with Philosopher's Stone to Nicholas Flamel.

For the next few hours after that, Harry, Ember and Hermione did their Potion Homework, knowing that doing so as soon as possible would be one less thing to worry about. As they knew that Snape would love nothing more but to dock points from them should their homework not be done properly. After doing the Potion Homework, they visited Hagrid for a short while before returning to the library to meet up with the others where their small Study Group often met up to do homework, or talk. As they knew that as long as they kept their voices down, and stayed in the back of the library, no one would bother them.

Here they told the group, who had been helping them looking for Nicholas Flamel, what they found and the others were shocked to hear that the item that was at Hogwarts was in fact the Philosopher's Stone. Nearly everyone in the Wizarding World, and some in the Muggle World, had heard about the Philosopher's Stone, because of it creating gold from lead and giving those who had it immortality. But many often forget who created the Stone itself.

The group that wasn't with Harry was shocked at how easily they were able to get past the obstacles. Although Hermione's old habits came back as she quickly to the defence of her idols. It seemed like every time Harry suggested an idea she blew it off completely and insisted there must be some reason for their actions that they couldn't understand. "Harry, I know it's strange, but do you really think that the Headmaster is up to something? He may only brought the Stone here to-"

"Hermione!" Harry finally snapped. "You need to knock this off; just because somebody is in a position of authority doesn't make them infallible, or incapable of scheming. Look at how Dumbledore acted, he might have good intentions, but he seems to be up to something. Look how he acted with the incident with the attack with the Troll, he treated me as the bad guy just because I defended my friends. And if he really did have the best of interest in mind, he wouldn't have brought the Stone to the school - where students could get hurt, or even killed - in the first place."

"I don't want to think so, but Harry's right." Katie reluctantly admitted. She didn't like the thought of Albus Dumbledore being a scheming old man because of what it meant for the student body at large, but facts were facts. "The job of a Headmaster is to keep the school and its student's safe, bringing the Stone here is doing the exact opposite. He must be up to something; maybe he wants to lure someone to the school, or some other reason we don't know. Whatever the case, it doesn't mean good things for us." The others nodded in agreement and Hermione sighed as she accepted their point. Her faith wasn't yet fully broken, but it was shaken even more. Harry hid a smirk that Hermione's dependence on the Dumbledore had taken another hit, with time it'll be fully gone.

"We'll keep an eye on him. If he's really up to something it'll probably fall apart since we've stolen the end game piece before the trap can be sprung." Harry suggested. "He also might try something else; something that would be the school in danger again. From now on we'll be ready."

"We agree…" Fred started their usual routine this time.

"…We should keep an eye out." George continued.

"We don't want anything to happen." Both boys finished with conviction.

"By the way, what happened to the Stone?" George wondered curiously.

"Before coming to lunch, I want up to the Owlery to visit Hedwig, and sent the Stone off with her to the Flamels." Harry told them.

"Do you think that Hedwig will be able to find the Flamels?" Susan asked.

"I have full confidence that Hedwig will be able to find them," Harry said confidently, then casting the time spell, he said, "Anyway, I'm off to get something to eat, after using so much power last night, I'm still hungry and tired. So I'll see you lot later." Before the others could ask what he was talking about, he left to get something to eat before turning in early… leaving Su, Susan and Hermione to explain what he meant. It was no surprise that the others were shocked to learn that Harry was a Fire Mystic.

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31st March 1992:

It'd been over a month since Harry sent the Stone off to the Flamels and things had settled down and become… well, pretty boring really. It became like a normal school experience should be, granted it was normal for a magical school, but still, Harry found, to his surprise, he wanted something interesting to happen. The only event of note that happened was the group deciding they needed a leader, someone to be in charge so chaos didn't happen. The group at large nominated Harry, to his shock. He tried to say that Cedric, even Angelina or Alicia, (who joined recently thanks to Katie, because they were fellow Chasers on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team,) would be a better leader than him, because they were older and more experienced than him, but was rebuffed.

While the three agreed that they might know more than him at the moment, they also said that he and Hermione were rapidly approaching the point where they were intellectual equals, making his argument moot. After a long talk Harry was persuaded into becoming the leader of the group.

This made Harry smirk inside, sure he acted like he didn't want to be the leader of the group, as it would put him in the spotlight in the school, he was happy about it.

After learning that Harry was a Fire Mystic, Ember revealed to those who didn't know, that she too was a Mystic, one that controlled Gravity and had the powers of a Clairvoyance. They found these skills very interesting and useful, especially Ember's Clairvoyance being able to find people and things with ease.

The group thought it was fun to give the two Mystic in the groups nicknames, as from what they knew of them, most Mystics had their own nicknames. So they thought that they should give Harry and Ember one. For Harry it was Cedric who gave him a new nickname, and it was Vulcan. Cedric was someone who liked to read about the mythical gods and beings, seeing that many them had connections to the Wizarding Worlds like Werewolves, Mummies and many other things.

In fact Vulcan was one of the so called Roman Gods, he was meant to be the Roman God of beneficial and hindering fire, including the fire of volcanoes. He was in fact a powerful Fire Elementalist by the name of Vulcan Drusus. Seeing that Harry was also a Fire Elemental and a powerful one at that, Cedric thought it fitting that he should be nicknamed Vulcan.

The twins had fun when they learned this; whenever it was just their group around they started calling him 'Master Vulcan, God of Fire.' At first Harry was fine with it, but after two weeks non-stop of it, it became very annoying. In fact the final stew was when they passed a group of girls, they grabbed one of the girls when they were within arm's reach, and they would chant, "Oh Mighty God of Fire, we offer you this maiden in offering of your greatness." And they pushed the girl onto him.

Whilst the girl didn't seem to mind it too much, in fact she blushed as she sat in his lap for a few minutes, Harry was bothered by the man handling of the young Witch. Harry was taught that unless you paid the woman, or they done something, like attacking you first, you shouldn't ever manhandle a woman. To do so otherwise, shouldn't be tolerated. So the twins found themselves at the mercy of Harry's pranks, where they learnt fast not to man handle a woman again, unless they paid them or they did something to them first. Although Harry took it somewhat easy, seeing that it was more amusing seeing the girl they used in the twins joke on Harry, get her own back on them.

Another point of interest was about the dragon of Hagrid's, Caca. Sadly Charlie Weasley wasn't able to help them, as his team was on mission at the time. And wouldn't be able to help for a few months. So Harry had to send a letter to Bowser, who was able to help him. About a week later, the old Pit Boss sent a special Portkey to Harry to transport the dragon to him, and there Bowser would deal with it from there.

So on the twenty-ninth of March, Harry got the Portkey and later that night went to Hagrid's, where the Half-Giant had Caca ready for transport. Once Hagrid said goodbye to Caca, Harry Flamed the travelling crate that Caca was in, outside of the Hogwarts Wards, and used the Portkey to transport Caca to Bowser. That night was one where Harry slept for the longest time yet, as it took a lot of power to transport Caca, because of her own magical powers.

Harry found that the bond between Aneira and himself had gotten to the point that he could now feel her emotions if he tapped into their link. Harry was happy that the bond was growing, as it meant that they could start on Aneira's training. Because of how strong the bond between the two was, it meant that Harry couldn't spend as much time with Hedwig as he could his Tigran, but the bond with her had reached the same level, oddly enough. Even though Harry did try and spend time with her, he knew it wasn't the same with Aneira, the bond was different. Harry was amused to note that Hedwig acted quite jealous; she would try and out do Aneira in any way she could. She was known as the fastest owl in school already, arriving in the morning with mail or the Daily Prophet several minutes before the other owls in the morning, and always managed to look her best. She would also give him dead animals as presents. It was really amusing.

But now that the bond was strong enough, Harry could begin training Aneira in her powers. It wasn't much of course, seeing that the bond was just gotten strong enough for Aneira to start using her powers, but it was a start. Harry suspected that if she was an adult Tigran when Harry found her, they wouldn't have this problem, as she would have most of her powers already. That's the price you pay for gaining a familiar who's just a baby, or in Aneira's, a kitten - the animal's power is linked to their master and until the bond is strong enough, the animal couldn't do much as it could should they be in the wild. Whatever the case, the training had started at long last, and Harry found out that Aneira was able to create an icy fire to attack with.

Harry did wonder if he could create an icy fire too, it would be useful and interesting thing to do. Harry vowed when he got the time he would try and find out if he could or not.

Apart for his morning training with Ember, Susan and Hannah, and his new training with Aneira, at nights and when he was in his meditative state, he was working on his mindscape with Lucy. During the last month, they made a lot of work within the hell like cavern. Harry and Lucy created a throne for Harry to sit on for when he came here, which could be found in the centre of the island - it was made out of charred bone, red silk cushions and some kind of red leather for accents. On either side of the throne, were two red stone columns, alit with fire. Other than that, there was nothing on the island, it was an open landscape as of yet.

But the cavern itself, Harry and Lucy created tunnels, the tunnels were built to be like a maze, with strange red vines creeping around on the walls, and blocking entrance to certain places. Should someone touch them, they would lunge forward to try and impale whoever touched them. Some of the vines had bulbs that fired small thorns, that dripped with a venom that ate right through the cave floor, making it so the person would drop into a deep hole. They hadn't yet set up places to hide Harry's memories yet, apart for the most important ones, which were hidden elsewhere, in an underground cave and the entrance was the throne itself, you had push it in such a way to open it and enter the cave.

Sadly though, the quiet time ended at the end of March though. It was like a normal morning, Harry, Ember, Susan and Hannah, had just finished their normal training schedule, and were heading to the nearest bathrooms to clean up before breakfast.

As they were making their way back to the castle, Harry called out to Susan, "Hey Susan, can I have a word with you for a moment please."

"Sure Harry," Susan said with a smile, before turning to her friend, "go ahead Hannah, I'll catch up in a few moments."

"You go ahead too Ember, I need a few words with Susan about something, I'll see you at breakfast."

The two girls wondered what Harry wanted to talk to Susan about, but knew better than to ask, as they knew that Harry wouldn't say anything, unless he decided to. So with the two girls gone, Harry asked the young Hufflepuff, "Susan, I've been training you for a while now, and before I continue, I want to ask you something and I need a honest answer. If you don't answer honestly, I'll stop the training here and now."

"What is it that you want to know Harry?" Susan asked worriedly.

"What do you have planned once I finished training you?" Harry asked curiously, "Is it because you don't want to feel weak as you once felt before, or do you have something else planned." Susan was quiet about this, unsure how to answer this question, so Harry went on to say, "I don't care what you'll do, unlike others here, I don't see dark or light, but I need to understand what you're going to do with what I train you in - so I know how to train you in it. So is this training for revenge, or is it so you don't feel weak?"

It was like something clicked with Susan, a desire that she didn't want to admit to. She feared that should she open up and admit what she wanted, people would hate her and try to stop her, but here was someone who was willing to help her as long as she was willing to be honest about why she wanted his help. But before she could open her heart she needed to know something, so Susan asked Harry, "Why would you be willing to help me if I want to get revenge, shouldn't you be trying to stop me or something?"

"Listen I know that people mainly see me as the Boy-Who-Lived, and I should be a beacon of light and all that shit - but I am not." Harry told the young girl, "I unlike many, there are others out there that know that there's no such thing as Light or Dark, Good or Evil, just what the Powers That Be says it should be, for this case it's Dumbledore and the Ministry of Magic, and anyone who disagrees are Dark and/or Evil. I have my own philosophy, it doesn't matter what you do in life as long as the path you decide to go down is the one you think is the right one for you, not for me, nor your family, or for anyone else, just for you.

"But you need to understand that whatever path you pick, there will be consequences to your actions and some people might not like what you have done. So always think about your actions before you decide to do something." Harry warned the young girl, knowing that some of his actions should people learn about them, wouldn't agree with them. "Like should you use what I teach you for revenge, people might not too be happy with what you done."

"What do you mean?" Susan asked her friend.

"Should you succeed in your revenge, you might be the one in trouble and not those who killed your family." Harry explained to Susan, "Instead of living your life in peace, the people who killed your family could send you to Azkaban. Remember, if they were able to stay free all this time, they'll have the money and power to send you to Azkaban. So you need to decide what you want to do carefully, and willing to accept the consequences of the choice that you make. So until you decide on your path, like me, think about what you want before you commit to something." The last part was a lie, he already knew what his path was going to be, but he wanted Susan to think about it. As it would mean a big change

Susan didn't say anything, but she knew that Harry was right, those who killed her parents had money and power in likes she did not. And they were willing to use that power to fit their needs, even to get themselves free from Azkaban and whatever else, something until now her family would not do. So the question becomes, what was she willing to do to get her revenge? What path would she go down, a path where she followed those like Dumbledore and the Ministry of Magic, where people like the Malfoys could get away with things because they had power and/or money? Or go down a path she thought was right, even though others would not think the same and condemn her because of her actions?

"I don't know Harry," Susan admitted honestly, she wasn't sure what path she wanted to take, "I need to think about this."

"No problem, take some time off training to think, and when you decided what path you want to take come back to me." Harry told her, "Depending what path you want to take, I know a few tracks that you could learn."

"Thank you Harry, you are a good friend." Susan said with a smile, before something came to her, "Harry, you said that you don't know what path you want to take, so how do you know what I need to learn to take my revenge?"

"I was honest, I don't know what path I want to take," Harry easily lied, "but that doesn't mean I haven't learnt these skills. The person that is teaching me the skills I'm teaching you, is teaching me both the so called Light and Dark skills, as he says it is better to know them and not need them, than needing them and not knowing them. But I won't teach them to others unless they decide which path they want to take."

"But didn't you just say that it is better to know them and not need them, than needing them and not knowing them?" Susan asked confused.

"I did say that," Harry admitted, "but look at how I was treated after I killed the Troll. What do you think people will react if someone found out about these extra skills, they would think I am a Dark Lord in training or something, and what do you think would happen then? No it's better only those who I believe who I truly trust and need to know should know about them, can I trust you Susan not to tell the others?" Harry asked the young Hufflepuff, using her House beliefs against her.

"Of course you can trust me not to say anything Harry." Susan told her friend, as she knew that he was right. It was bad enough people thought he was a Dark Lord in training for killing the Troll to save not only himself, but Hermione and Ember. But if people learnt what Harry really was capable of, or even believed he was, they might actually believe that Harry was a Dark Lord in training. So it might be better if only she, his friends and those who he trusted to tell, should know about this side of him. She beamed at the thought that Harry trusted her enough to tell her this, she wouldn't break that trust for anything.

"Thanks Susan," Harry smiled at her, "now let's get cleaned up and get something to eat."

And with that the two of them caught up with their friends who were waiting for them at the castle doors, where they went to get cleaned up and went to the Great Hall to get breakfast. As the group was having breakfast, the post arrived, for Harry he wasn't suspecting any post.

Apart from the normal mail owls the Great Hall was shocked to see a vulture of all things fly in and land in front of Harry, a small package on its leg. While Harry was blinking stupidly at the bird, the carrion's beady eyes were locked onto Errol, the Weasley's elderly own who'd delivered a letter to Percy with eyes that just seemed to say, "Tonight. You." followed by licking its lips in hunger, which made the poor old owl shuffle around, trying to avoid its gaze.

Harry eventually took the package and opened it, his eyes widening further when a blood red stone the size of a gold ball landed in his hand.

Hermione goggled at it, taking her eyes off the bird that was still leering at a very nervous Errol, looking as if death was staring at it. "I-is that the Ph-Philosopher's Stone?" She asked incredulously, never expecting to see the thing again.

Harry, just as caught off guard as her replied, "I don't know." He decided to read the note, hoping for an answer, and did so in a voice loud enough for Hermione to hear. This, consequently, let the entire silent Hall hear, since his voice was the only sound being made.

Dear Mr. Potter,

I thank you for returning my Stone to us, but to be honest with you I was shocked that I would ever see it again. You see, my wife, Perenelle and I have, after a long talk, decided that after living for over six hundred years we've seen and done so much that it was time for us to leave this world, or as I say, move on to the next Great Adventure. However, we couldn't bear destroying our precious Stone ourselves, and would keep using it if we still had it, even if we didn't desire to do so. So we sent the Stone to Albus, asking him to destroy it for us. However, we never thought that he would use it as bait and endanger students of the school, so I would like to thank you for removing the Stone from Hogwarts.

So as thanks, we've altered our Will to add you four for doing so:

To Hermione Granger: We've done a bit of research about you, and we found you're an excellent student and known bibliophile. Taking this into account, we've gifted you a good portion of the Flamel Library, on the condition that you share the books with your friends.

To Su Li: We've met your family in the past and worked with them on several occasions; we even discovered they were one of our descendants! So we're more than happy to gift you with our books on Battle Magic. To help you to further your studies, we've hired you a teacher to help you this summer.

To Susan Bones: We know of your family, and our two families were once allies. But over time things happened and we lost track of your family. We know that your family has lost many of its Heirlooms, but over the centuries we've been able to track them down. We always meant to give them back, but we always got a lead on a new one and said to ourselves that we would wait until we'd acquired that item before gifting them back. So send you all we got now to you, and send you any more that we may find before our death.

To Ember Vile: We've learnt that you have no family or money, so we be give you one of our cottages. The cottage in question is in a forest, which only the Goblins know about, so when you are of age, go to them and they'll lead you to the cottage. The cottage has some small plots of land so you can grow whatever you like on, even raise some animals if you want. We have left a few books to show you how to take care of the land and the cottage.

The above items are in a vault in your names in Gringotts, the keys are in this package…

Lastly, to Harry Potter: We are very grateful for what you have done, and so we leave our Philosopher's Stone to you. We were unsure what to do with the Stone, but Perenelle is a bit of a Seer, not a skilled one, but she still has a bit of the skill and she saw that you would need all the help that you can get against the threats that you'll face in your life.

Signing off for the last time,

Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel.

As Harry finished the letter, he, the girls named in the will, their group and the people who heard the letter (that being effectively everyone) were in shock. No one knew about the Philosopher's Stone being at Hogwarts, and now it was here in front of Harry Potter. This just made him even more famous for now being in possession of the legendary Stone. But the older students were shocked that the ancient couple would give a priceless magical item to an eleven year old. So it was no surprise that this became the new hot topic and whispers begun to spread around the Hall. Within minutes, the news of what the vulture brought was known by everyone.

At the Staff Table Dumbledore sent Harry suspicious looks when he saw the Stone, so did the other Professors who knew it was at Hogwarts. The Stone should be safely hidden and protected on the third floor corridor, so they had to wonder how Harry was able to get it. Whilst the Professors were thinking about it Dumbledore was worried as many of his plans were ruined now.

He was using the Stone to lure Professor Quirrell into getting the Stone, as he knew that Quirrell was possessed by Tom Riddle, now known as Voldemort. He wanted them to face Harry down in the Mirror Chamber, as he wanted to see how well Harry would do facing the tasks he had the other Professors set up and to let Harry know that Tom was still alive in such a way that would also centre Voldemort's attention back on Harry. However, if what he was hearing was true, he'd already failed. The Flamels left it to him in their Will and legally, he couldn't take it from Harry. And as he looked at the young boy, he saw him mouth 'Stick Two!'

Dumbledore knew then that he had lost another chance to gain the boy's trust. As the old Headmaster thought about it, this was another crush in a long line of flaming wrecks that were once his schemes, really. Harry hasn't been following his plans for a while; he wasn't friends with Ronald Weasley anymore, he was making friends with other houses - something he didn't want to happen because he wanted Harry to rely on Ronald for all his information about the Magical World, which would all be filtered through from Dumbledore himself of course. So many schemes not going according to plan, all because Potter had to become a Mystic, and made friends out of his control. If Potter didn't become a Mystic, or made friends with Dumbledore had some control over, the Boy-Who-Lived would no doubt have never started digging himself out of the nasty hole Dumbledore wanted him in, endlessly reaching out for aid, but only getting Dumbledore's useless but seemingly helpful assistance.

As for Quirrell himself, he was staring at the Boy-Who-Lived in shock. He'd been planning to get the Stone for his Master and the only problem he'd had was finding two of the tasks that was protecting the Stone. Professor Flitwick's and Mcgonagall's tasks were the only ones he didn't know about. The two Professors didn't trust him enough to tell him what they were, and so was taking time he didn't have to get the Stone for his Master.

But now though it would seem that his luck was picking up at last, as somehow Potter now had the Stone, and all he had to do was to take it off him. His thoughts mirrored the being on the back of his head, confirmed when a voice the rest of the Staff Table head hissed, "Get the SSStone!"

Before any of the Hogwarts Staff could react, Quirrell scrambled over the table, pulling his wand as he did so. The students only turned to look at the previously meek man when he screamed without his customary stammer, "That Stone rightfully belongs to my Master, Potter! Hand it over!" and launched a Slicing Charm that cut a jagged line where Harry's hands were. Luckily, the last Potter Heir, as well as Hermione and the twins who were in range of the curse, pulled their hands back before the curse hit, leaving their plates to get carved in half by the spell.

As the other professors were still in shock, Quirrell conjured up a burst of Dark Fire around the Head Table so they couldn't interfere for a bit. By the time they were able to remove the Dark Fire, he would have gotten the Stone and lift Hogwarts. Once he did this, he looked at Potter as the other students that weren't a part of Harry's group made sure the others got out safely. "Give me the Stone so I can give it to the Dark Lord, if you do, I'll let you live for now." Quirrell offered.

"How rude," Harry said as if nothing happened as he sat back down to eat his breakfast, as the students ran out of the Great Hall in fear. While his friends were making sure that the students were getting out safely, "We were having breakfast, talking and receiving our mail, and you had to attack us. Didn't your mother teach you any manners when you were little?"

As he said this, the professors, his friends and the students who hadn't yet left, looked at Harry as if had he gone mad; he was acting so calm and controlled. It seemed as if he didn't have any worries at all, like someone trying to kill him was an everyday sort of thing. In a way it used to be like that for Harry, as before he found out about his powers, Vernon's abuse was occasionally lethal and Harry only avoided this grim death at the hands of his uncle through practiced means until Vernon's slow brain would realize that he couldn't explain away his nephew's death like he could all his injuries. That and he threatened the man's family of being burnt alive should the attacks continued.

Another thing, Harry never did like Quirrell, there was something off about the man as if he was hiding something. Harry might not be sure what it was, but he knew that something was off. For someone who was meant to be their Defence Professor he was jumpy and weary of things, constantly fearing something was going to jump out of the shadows. Harry knew that someone meant to help them fight the Dark Arts shouldn't be acting like this and if he was, it was some kind of act to lower people's guard around him. This was something Harry wouldn't allow himself to do, and now he was grateful that he didn't. He was calm for a very simple reason; if he allowed his fear to take over he would make mistakes, mistakes that would get people hurt, more importantly get himself hurt or killed - so he would remain calm.

Either way, Quirrell was angry at how Potter talked to him and how he was acting. In retaliation he sent another Slicing Charm at Potter. The man faltered when Potter avoided the curse with a casual lean.

"Is that the best that you can do Quirrell? The standards around here for Professors are terrible." Harry mocked.

"You think you're so smart and cocky, defying the Dark Lord! Let me show you what happens to people who get in his way!" Quirrell snarled in rage as several spirals of darkness came from his hand, that headed towards Harry.

Upon seeing this, Harry waved his hands and magically lifted the plates near him that took the spirals of darkness, turning the plates into dust. The Weasley Twins reacted first, chaining together their massive arsenal of pranking spells. Su followed a split second later, her spells were unknown to everyone but possibly the trapped Staff, but the damage done to the castle when Quirrell dodged them was startling. Susan and Hannah were casting Shield Charms to protect the remaining students, and those who were escaping from stray spells, whilst Hermione was throwing Tripping Jinxes at the rogue professor whenever she could. Ember was helping the students to escape. Harry was helping by throwing his own fire spells, using his wand, and taunting the older man.

But Quirrell proved to be surprisingly powerful, as he used the darkness and the shadows to protect himself, and was barely taking any damage despite the assault from so many sides. What they didn't know was that Quirrell had feasted on even more Forcibly Taken unicorn blood the previous evening, which boosted by the effects.

And with a wave of his hand, a mist of darkness appeared within the Great Hall, making it near impossible to see. So they weren't able to see where the attacks were coming from, here Harry called out, "Everyone get down, and take cover behind the tables!"

"Do you really think that'll stop me, I can see through the mist whilst you cannot." Quirrell said with a dark laughter, "My Master has given me the power to do things you can only dream of."

"Oh please," Harry scoffed at this, "to see in the dark, all you need is to add a bit of light onto things." And with that Harry, used his fire element and light up the dark mist, making it so that people could see the outlines within the mist.

This angered Quirrell, and he threw a few dark energy balls at Harry, as he shouted, "Die!"

This forced Harry to create a powerful firewall to block the dark energy ball, which barely stopped them. As Harry blocked them, Harry remembered what Syrio Forel told him about Death and calmly as possible he faced Quirrell and said, "Not today, I won't die."

At this point Harry and the others heard a strange force coming from the back of Quirrell's head, "You fool, you are ussselessss."

It was like someone took over Quirrell's body, as he started to move faster as the darkness surrounded him, and formed a scythe out of the darkness, and begun to fly in the air. He then flew at Harry, swinging the scythe at the Boy-Who-Lived. Harry was barely able to summon a sword to block the scythe, and countered with a fireball at the Dark Wizard. But he blocked the fireball with a wall of darkness, and out of the wall came daggers, which Harry had to roll out of the way before they hit him. But the daggers didn't hit the floor like normal ones would, but instead they followed him.

The daggers chased after Harry, who had to duck and weave, the last time though Harry used his magic to pull up the table at the last second, which made the daggers go into it. Harry found the fight against Quirrell nothing like he had faced before. Seeing that magic wasn't doing much, he tried to use physical force to deal with Quirrell. But he wasn't able to do much with the magic being used, other than ducking and weaving, until Ember used her powers to distract Quirrell so Harry could get close to the mad man. In doing so, it gave Harry the chance he needed to get hold of Quirrell before he attacked again.

Quirrell glared at the Blood Traitors and at the little Mudblood Bitches who dared to get in his way to get the Stone for his Master. He had to admit that they were good, if left alone would be a danger to his Master's plans, so this had to end now, and he would do so by killing the one who destroyed his Master the first time: Harry Potter. Gathering his magic he needed he cried out the name of his spell, "Avada Ked-ugh!" Only to be interrupted by Potter as the boy slammed into him; sending him to the floor. He briefly looked up, only to see Potter's fist screaming towards his face.

As Harry took a hold of Quirrell's arm the Boy-Who-Lived was shocked to see Quirrell's arm blistered when he pulled his hand back as the man began to scream. While he was looking at Quirrell's blistered arm, the man in question seemed to stop screaming, taking deep breaths to control the pain. As he did so, Quirrell looked at the boy who caused him the pain with loathing and anger, summered a dark dagger to thrust into Harry.

But Harry noticed this action and reacted quickly, and without thinking, as Harry pinned Quirrell's arm down and grasped his neck. Harry ignored the sharp tingling feeling that he begun to feel in both of his hands. Within seconds, Quirrell was screaming in pain as he slowly burned alive.

Harry didn't know what to suspect, he thought that he thought that whatever this power was, would leave the man badly burnt and unconscious. But within seconds of holding the man, there was nothing but ash left behind, which revealed a Dark Wraith that rose out of the ash like some kind of twisted phoenix before fleeing Hogwarts.

As the wraith fled, the Dark Flames began to disappear, allowing the Professors free. At the same time, Harry's friends rushed over to see if he was okay. "Harry, Harry, are you alright?" Asked a concerned Hermione as she looked him over. He was panting heavily, and his hands both looked a little raw, but he didn't appear to be injured.

"I'm… alright." Harry answered slowly, feeling a bit weak.

"What was the hell was that thing that came out of Quirrell?" Cedric wondered as he stared at the wall it had fled through.

"I have no idea," Harry replied honestly.

"That was the wraith of Lord Voldemort." they heard from behind them, all but Harry, Hermione and Su flinched at the name, as they turned round they saw Dumbledore behind them, "It seems that the late Professor Quirrell was possessed by Voldemort."

"So that was Voldemort… interesting." Harry muttered to himself before speaking up, "So what happened to him? Why did he become ash when I touched him?"

Dumbledore shook his head, "I would prefer if we talked about this in my office. The fewer people that know about this ability specifics the better. If you want to tell your friends about this later, although I prefer you didn't, you can do so later."

Harry would have preferred to have his hands looked at first, but the old fool could possibly give him information on an invaluable weapon against the man who was probably going to be dead set on killing him. "Alright, lead the way." He accepted the offer before they were off, Dumbledore leading Harry to his office.

o0OoO0o

20th of June 1992 - Hogwarts Express:

Once they were both seated, Dumbledore explained that the reason Quirrell turned to ash when Harry touched him was because his mother's sacrifice. When Harry gave him a strange look, Dumbledore explained that because of Harry's mother's love when she died, because of Quirrell's unique situation of being possessed he, as a proxy of Voldemort, could not stand Harry's touch. Harry didn't believe a word of it, because he found it laughably implausible that his mother was the only mother to love her son enough to sacrifice themselves for their children - he suspected that thousands died protecting, or even directly shielding, their children only to have their lives snuffed out by Voldemort or his men anyway.

Then Dumbledore tried to get the Philosopher's Stone from Harry, telling Harry that it would be safer with him than it was with Harry. He had a valid point, Harry would be made a target by those desiring to possess the Stone once word got out that he had it. That valid point fell flat when Harry flat out told him no; that the Stone was safer with him if four first years could get the Stone from Dumbledore already. Dumbledore was flustered, and insisted he be given the Stone, this time on grounds that Harry wasn't ready for such a large responsibility so suddenly, but Harry wished the Headmaster a good day and left the office in response. He left a dumbfounded Headmaster and several dozen snickering portraits behind him.

The rest of the year went back to normal; with training, school work and such, to be honest Harry found himself to be bored out of his skull. The only fun part was for Harry was for when he went to his club now and then. But a few weeks after getting the Stone, Susan came to him and admitted that after thinking about it non-stop about what he told her, and decided she was willing to take the path of revenge and the risks that go with it. As if she didn't do anything, her parents would have no justice, and she couldn't live with the thought that the people who killed them would be free. So she was willing to take the path of revenge, and risk the consequences if any.

He noticed that Hermione's attitude had changed, becoming more clingy towards him. Harry could only guess it was because he'd saved her three times now; twice from mountain trolls and again against Quirrellmort - the nickname the braver fraction of the student body had given him - and was determined to pay him back somehow.

But by the end of the school year she eventually eased up. Harry had reminded her that he was staying with her family, thanking her again for the opportunity, and it seemed to click that she was already helping him a large deal. She still stuck close to him, but she wasn't constantly trying to help him with things. Harry could live with that. She did make it known that she was planning on helping him work out some sort of plan so he would never have to go back to his relatives. Harry told her that she didn't have to, as he had friends near where he lived, and as he said before, with the threat he made when he was younger, his relatives weren't a problem. Hermione wasn't happy with the idea, but was happy for him, but reminded Harry that the offer was there. And should things get too much, she would be there for him should he need her.

There were only two other points of interest, the first Harry learnt was that because Ember didn't have a family, or a real place to stay, the Headmaster arranged it so that she would be staying at the Weasleys. Harry didn't like the idea, seeing how Ron was acting towards him, as he wasn't sure how he would treat her when he wasn't around. The only thing that gave him comfort was that the twins would be there to look after her, so he wasn't too bad and if Ron did give her problems, Harry would deal with him.

The other thing of interest that happened was that the Mystic Knights and The Department of Magical Law Enforcement came to investigate about the death of Quirrell. When Harry and his friends told them about the Stone and the so called protections, the Law Enforcement investigated the third floor corridor, but found nothing of the tasks left. Dumbledore admitted about having the Stone, and that until Christmas it was at Hogwarts and was protected by a Cerberus, but it was removed when he was able to find a better place.

Yes he was meant to destroy it but, like any other human being who knew about it, he wanted to know how it was made and it was his plan to learn how before destroying it. As he knew that whilst people wanting the Philosopher's Stone for ill gain were still out there, he knew it should be destroyed. But he knew that at some point in life, people would might need the Philosopher's Stone for its other abilities such as its ability to heal. And so they would need his notes to create a new Stone.

When asked how Harry and his friends got the Philosopher's Stone, the old Headmaster told the Law Enforcement he didn't know how they got the Stone, or lied how they got it. With no physical proof to say otherwise, no one could do anything against Albus Dumbledore, not even Harry's memories could be used, as there are those out there who had the ability to alter memories so that people could think it really happened to them, and there was no way to tell.

So whilst the Mystic Knights and The Department of Magical Law Enforcement gave the Headmaster an earful about not knowing about Quirrell sooner, and about hiring the man in the first place seeing that he had no skill in teaching Defence, Dumbledore got free. But when the old man tried to overturn the Flamel's will, he wasn't allowed to as it was magically binding and nothing could be done about it.

Although Harry suspected that the Flamel's faked their own death for whatever reason, and had another Philosopher's Stone, and in a few hundred odd years or so would pop up again. As he could see someone would give living forever up easily when there was so much to see and discover in the world. His friends weren't sure about this, they could understand his reasoning, but a few thought that they had enough of living for so long and decided to end it all. They knew that they may never know the truth unless they too used Philosopher's Stone to live for hundreds of years, and to see the Flamel's to reappear.

Anyway, it was the end of term and Harry was sitting in the end compartment of the train, waiting for his friends to meet up with him. But as he was waiting for them, he was thinking about the last year at Hogwarts, and had to admit to himself that in part it was more interesting than he first thought it would be. It wasn't long before Ember Susan, Hannah and Hermione joined him in the compartment, as the train left Hogsmeade Station to return to London.

As Harry thought about it, the last thing of interest that happened at Hogwarts was, that what once were horseless carriages before, weren't horseless anymore. They were being pulled by huge winged horses with white shining eyes, dragonish faces and necks, and skeletal black bodies.

Susan was the one that told them that the creatures were known as Thestrals, and only could be seen if a person had seen death. So seeing Quirrell's death, made it so that they and the others who saw it, were able to see the Thestrals now. Harry asked why he wasn't able to see them before, seeing that he killed the Troll. Susan admitted that with the magic that Thestrals used, no one understood it, just that some deaths would allow people to see them, whilst other deaths would not.

Either way, the train had left Hogsmeade Station about half an hour ago, and Harry chuckled at the memory of the Sorting, he liked how he pulled his first prank at Hogwarts, on the Headmaster no less. As he chuckled, his friends looking at him strangely as he did so, giving him looks of. "I was just remembering the Sorting."

"Ah," Susan began. "I still can't believe that you pulled that prank on Professor Dumbledore."

"Well it did lighten things up a bit, didn't it Hannah?" Harry asked.

Hannah smiled as she remembered that night, it did help her to get Sorted, "Yeah it did, and thanks again for the prank, it did help with getting Sorted."

"I have to admit, it did help lighten the mood and help people calm down." Hermione admitted. When Harry first told them about the prank he pulled, she wasn't too happy about it, but as she thought about it logically, she could see how it lightened the mood and made the Sorting much easier. "Although I have to ask, did you have to rile up Professor Snape in the first class?" Hermione asked as she too remembered her first week at Hogwarts, "It might not have made things so bad between the two of you."

"Oh please Hermione, he would hate me no matter what," Harry scoffed at what Hermione said, "all because of whatever my father did to him. At least my way we have a better class than past students had."

Hermione scoffed at this, not liking that Harry's argument was right, that his actions forced Snape to make the class safer and better. Either way the group talked for a bit before Harry said, "I'm going to rest for a while, could you wake me when the trolley lady comes by?"

"Why are you going to sleep? You only got up a few hours ago." Ember asked her friend.

"I only got a few hours of sleep." Harry replied with a shrug.

"Alright, we'll wake you when the trolley lady comes by." Susan said softly.

"Thanks." He said gratefully as he laid his head back and went to sleep.

o0OoO0o

20th of June 1992 - Merlin's Station:

During the next few hours, the Weasley Twins and the Crimson Vixens Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet and Katie Bell, from Gryffindor and Su and Cedric, visited them. Seeing how they were, and their plans for the summer, before heading off to see how their other friends were.

"Harry, Harry wake up, the trolley lady is here." Hermione's voice called out to Harry.

As Harry slowly woke up and rubbed his eyes he yawned before he ordered what he wanted, "Thanks Hermione." He thanked her, and then the trolley lady as he grabbed his purchases and sat back down.

"So what have you lot planned for the summer?" Harry asked his friends, as he began to eat and drink his purchases.

That's how they spent their remaining hours on the train; talking about their holiday plans. Susan was going to spend some time with her aunt before going to Hannah's where they would go to Greece for a few weeks before returning to get their school things. Su was going to China to learn more Battle Magic with her family and her new tutor before returning to get her school items. Ember was going to stay at the Weasleys for the summer, so she had no solid plans for now. Harry answered that he really didn't have any solid plans, since he was going to be spending his summer with the Grangers. His plans were whatever theirs were. They all agreed to keep in contact over the summer, and if possible, meet up.

Now before they knew it, they had arrived at Merlin's Station.

Once they arrived at the station the Twins bid them goodbye before looking for their friend Lee. Susan, Hannah, Su, and Alicia were Flooing home right away, so they gave their goodbyes right there in the compartment, giving hugs and well wishes before they grabbed their trunks and left. While they were packing Cedric popped in to grab his trunk and give his own goodbyes, thankful he was able to catch the group before they all left.

Only Harry, Hermione, Ember, Angelina and Katie were left to make their way through the portal to Kings Cross Station. Angelina and Katie decided to part ways in a very memorable way as they both hugged Harry, kissing his cheeks at the say time before skipping away through the portal. Ember was picked up by Professor Mcgonagall, to go with the rest of the Weasleys to meet the elder Weasley. Ember said she would write and arrange to meet him later on in the summer. With only Harry and Hermione left, Hermione asked, "Are you ready to meet my parents and spend the summer with them Harry?"

"Yeah." Harry said slowly with a smile. "I hope they'll like me."

"I'm sure they will, they seemed to like you when they met you at Christmas." Hermione assured him. "Come on, they're probably already here. They said they would meet us at the cafes we met them at before."

And with that the two of them went through the portal.

TO BE CONTINUED!

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) End of Year One! ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Author's Note:Here is the tenth and final part of The Blood Stone Saga, I hope you like the saga as much I enjoyed writing it, and I would like to thank you for reading it so far. There's only an Interlude left, and then part one of the new saga called The Serpent's Lair Saga will begin, because the Interlude hasn't been written yet, I don't know how long it'll take to write so please spare with me.

I'm not going to ask for help in this chapter, I leave that to the next chapter, instead I want to comment about a few reviews I had, some were removed because I considered them as flaming, saying more or less the same thing. Now whilst there are many of you who enjoyed the new version of this story and seem to think that it is better than the last two, there are some who don't. And there are few who think that my spelling and grammar is bad.

First off let's get my spelling and grammar out of the way, as I have said many times in my works when this comes up, I am dyslexic and so my spelling WILL be bad, and nothing I can do can really change it. I rely heavily on spell checks and my Beta Reader on making sure that the spelling is right, and so if my Beta Reader doesn't catch the problem, I just think that there's no spelling mistakes. As for my grammar, once again I told you all before in my works, or I believe I did, I had a bad schooling and so I wasn't able to learn about grammar properly, so if I made a mistake in it, I would not know - I write it as I think it should. I rely heavily on any Beta Readers I have to make sure that the grammar is right, if they don't alter it, or say that it is ok, I have no option but to trust them. As I would have no way to know otherwise. So if you find a problem, either point out what the problem is and how to make it right, or offer to become my Beta Reader so you can fix the problems. If you can't do either of those two things, please shut the hell up, I know I have problems with spelling and grammar. What I need is someone who is willing to help me, not people who'll moan and bitch about it. (Beta's Note: Well said bro.)

*Sigh* sorry about that, but I have mentioned this a few times before, to have people to keep on about it and not offer help, is getting on my nerves.

Now onto about people wanting me to go back to my old version as they think that this version is shit, and I ruined it. First off let me get this out of the way, I told you at the start of this version I didn't like how the last version was going, and I had to rewrite the story or abandon the story, and seeing how much I like this story I just couldn't abandon it and so I had to rewrite the story to fit my new needs for the story.

The main reason I didn't like the last versions are twofold, the first is that I didn't like how I wrote Harry's childhood. I believed it lacked detail of why things happened, like the reason why Harry became dark as he was. It didn't show enough to make Harry's character believable, or at least I thought so. Not only that, but I didn't think that the last version explained about Lucy that well, which I think this version did. And I didn't like how I dealt with Harry's friends becoming the Outcasts and becoming dark. I don't know if I'll make it any better in this version, but I am going to try and make it better, if I do or not, I'll have to wait and see,

The second and the main reason I didn't like the last versions is that Harry, and later on his friends, were too overpowered, and had no one who could easily stand against them, be Voldemort and his Death Eaters, or Dumbledore and his Order of the Phoenix. So I created the Mystics to balance the scales a bit, and added a few extra powers to the Wizarding World, so that Harry and his group wouldn't be overpowered for someone of their age, and so they had to work to become stronger.

You might not believe me or not, but I have always wanted a group of people that'll fight against Harry and his friends, a group that had their own kind of powers. I often tried to create a group to oppose Harry, but I wasn't really getting anywhere with the idea. I'll admit that before I got the Mystics, I had a Beta Reader who was helping me to create a group and rewrite the story to fit them in, but two things happened. The first was that the laptop that I had at the time crashed and I lost all my work on it. The other problem is that the Beta Reader that I was using disappeared, so I couldn't get the ideas for the group or the rewrite back from them, and so I had to once again try and come up with another group, which took time and finally came up with the Mystics.

Now I'm going to surprise you all, up 'til now I've been defending my reasons for the rewrite, but now I'm going to admit, yes you heard me right, admit that I have a few problems with the story. The main problem is that I over did it with Harry becoming Maverick, and how I dealt with creating the Mystics. But with a decent Beta Reader, or someone willing to help me, at the time, I wasn't able to write them into the story properly.

So to solve this problem, I'm looking for a Co-Writer to help me write this, so if you are interested please let me know, and I hope you can help me make this story better from here on out. I know many of you would want me go back to the old version, but I got what I want in this version and not sure how to add it in the old one.

Anyway, I'm sorry for the little rant of mine, but I wanted to clear this up, and explain why I did the rewrite again. So I would like to thank you all once again for reading the chapter, and I hope that you'll spare a few moments and leave a review letting me know what you think of the story so far.

Next Time on Rise of Overlord Vulcan: In the next chapter, we have the Interlude about Dumbledore and his thoughts about the past year. (So if there's any key points that you think Dumbledore would need to think about, or how I should write the next chapter, please let me know ASAP…)