Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but privet drive had hardly changed at all. The sun still rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living-room which was almost exactly the same as it had been on that night when Mr Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. Only the photographs on the wall really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-coloured bobble hats - but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and the pictures now showed a large, blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a roundabout at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no signs at all that another boy lived in the house too.

Yet Harry Potter was still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. His aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice which made the first noise of the day.

"Up! Get up! Now!"

Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again.

"Up!" she screeched. Harry heard her walking towards the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the cooker. He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. All he could remember about it was a lot of green light. He supposed that had been the car crash when his parents had died but he wondered where all the green light came from.

His aunt was back outside the door.

"Are you up yet?" she demanded.

"Nearly." said Harry

"Well get a move on, i want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, i want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday"

Harry groaned.

"what did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door.

"Nothing, nothing ..."

Dudley's Birthday, how could he have forgotten? Harry got out of bed and started looking for socks. He found Jaculus curled around a pair, slowly digesting a spider. None of the Dursleys' knew about Jaculus, a white snake harry had adopted after realising he could talk to him. Whilst Harry didn't believe the claims Jaculus made about his age, he was nice company, and if nothing else good at keeping the spiders off his socks.

When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had got the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike. Why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise, unless of course it involved punching somebody. Dudley's favourite punching bag was Harry though every time he punched Harry he could be found the next day, mysteriously poisoned and in agony in bed, so he didn't often do it, even if he could catch Harry. Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast.

Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age. He looked even smaller and skinnier than he was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was. Harry had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair and bright green eyes that shone out of round glasses. the only thing Harry liked about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead, shaped like a bolt of lighting. He had had it as long as he could remember and the first question he had ever asked Aunt Petunia was how he had got it.

"In the car crash when your parents died," she had said. "And don't ask questions"

don't ask questions - that was the very first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys.

Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon.

"Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting. About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that harry needed a haircut. Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way - all over the place.

Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. he had a large, pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes and thick, blonde hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head. Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel - Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig. Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell.

"Thirty-six." he said. looking at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."

"Darling you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from mommy and daddy"

"All right, thirty seven then, " said Dudley, going red in the face. Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon in case Dudley turned the table over.

Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another two presents. Is that all right?"

Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally he said slowly "So i'll have thirty ... thirty ..."

"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.

"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then"

Uncle Vernon chuckled. "Little tyke want's his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's Hair.

At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it whilst Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a cine-camera, a remote control aeroplane, sixteen new computer games and a video recorder. He was ripping the paper off of a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.

"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him." She jerked her head in Harry's direction. Dudley's mouth fell open in horror but Harry's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger bars or the cinema. Every year Harry was left behind with Mrs Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs Figg made him look at pictures of all the cats she'd ever owned.

"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this. Harry knew he should feel sorry that Mrs Figg broke her leg, but it wasn't easy when he reminded himself that it would be a whole year until he would have to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr Paws and Tuffy again.

"We could phone Marge?" Uncle Vernon suggested.

"Don't be silly Vernon, she hates the boy."

The Dursleys often spoke about Harry in this way, as though he wasn't there - or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.

"what about, whats-her-name, your friend, Yvonne?"

"On holiday in Majorca." Snapped Aunt Petunia.

"You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch whatever he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer).

Aunt Petunia looked like she had just swallowed a lemon.

"And come back and find the house in ruins?" She snarled.

"I won't blow up the house," Said Harry but they weren't listening.

"I suppose we could take him to the zoo," Said Aunt Petunia slowly, "... and leave him in the car ..."

"That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone ..."

Dudley began to cry loudly, in fact he wasn't really crying, it had been years since he cried, but he knew if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would let him have anything he wanted.

"Dinky Duddeydums, don't cry, mommy won't let him spoil your special day!" She cried, flinging her arms around him.

"I ... don't ... want ... him ... t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge pretend sobs. "He always spoils evrything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.

Just then the dorbell rang - "Oh Good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically - and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. he was usually the one who held people's arms behind their back whilst Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.

Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life. His Aunt and Uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside.

"i'm warning you, " he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's. "I'm warning you now, boy - any funny business, anything at all, and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."

"I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "Honestly ..."

But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did. The problem was that strange things often happened around Harry and it was no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen.

Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barber's, looking like he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and tried to cut Harry's hair herself, but found his hair mysteriously un-cuttable, to the point where it broke the kitchen scissors. He had been given a week in the cupboard for this even though he tried to explain he had no idea how his hair was perfectly cutable one moment and harder than steel the next.

Another time, Aunt Petunia had been planning on giving Harry one of Dudley's horrible old sweaters and had hung it out to dry before coming back and finding it had been ripped to shreds by wild dogs. To his great relief he hadn't been punished for this, instead Aunt Petunia chastised herself for using such sweet smelling laundry detergent.

On the other hand he'd gotten himself into massive trouble in school when a report had come home saying that harry had hospitalised several students. Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual (minus Dudley who was recovering from a snake bite) when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, the boys had suddenly fallen to the ground nursing cuts that were bleeding profusely.

The Dusleys had received a very angry letter from school saying that Harry had attacks school students. But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was defend himself from a punch being thrown by Piers. Harry supposed that some roof tiles must have fallen from the roof and hit them.

But today nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard or Mrs Figg's cabbage-smelling living-room.

While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, snakes, Harry, the bank and Harry were just a few of his favourite subjects. This morning it was motorbikes.

"Roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorbike overtook them.

It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys brought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice-creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked him what he wanted before the Dursleys could hurry him away, they brought him a cheap lemon ice lolly. It wasn't bad either, thought Harry, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching his head and looking remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond.

Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were staring to get bored of the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favourite sport of Harry-hunting. He was especially careful as he had not brought Jaculus for fear of him revealing himself, and so had no way to retaliate if they decided to hit him. They ate lunch in the zoo restaurant and when Dudley had a fit because his Knickerbocker glory wasn't big enough, Uncle Vernon brought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first.

Harry felt, afterwards that he should have known it was all to good to last.

After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in here, with the windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the biggest snake in the place. It could have wrapped it's body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a dust-bin - but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. in fact it was fast asleep.

Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.

"Make it move, " he whined to his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.

"Do it again, " Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.

"this is boring." Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.

Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself - no company except stupid people drumming on the glass, trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake up, at least he got to see the rest of the house.

The snake suddenly opened it's beady eyes. Harry suddenly had a very strange idea, if he could talk to Jaculus, then could he talk to this snake too? Quietly, so that even he could barely hear it he said,

"Sorry about him." The snake looked at him for a second, a second in which Harry felt incredibly foolish, until he answered,

"I get that all the time." Slightly surprised that he could actually talk to the snake Harry asked,

"Where do you come from anyway?" The snake pointed at the sign next to his cage. Harry peered at it.

Boa Constrictor, Brazil.

"Was it nice there?"

"I have never been," the snake replied, "I wassss born here, in thissss zoo."

"Oh, " replied Harry, "Well i'm like that too, I never knew my parents."

Suddenly a deafening shout behind Harry made them both jump. "DUDLEY! MR DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WONT BELIVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"

Dudley came waddling towards them as fast as he could. "out of the way you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs. Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor. what happened next happened so fast no one saw how it happened - one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back in horror.

Harry sat up and gasped; the glass in front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished. The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out on to the floor - people throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits. As the snake slithered along Harry heard the snake say "Brazil, here i come ... Thanksss amigo"

The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.

"but the glass, where did the glass go?"

The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a strong cup of tea while he apologised over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. as far as Harry had seen the snake had only jabbed playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they had got back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten of his leg whilst Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say "Harry was talking to it weren't you Harry?"

Uncle Vernon waited until Piers and his family had left before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could only manage a few words. "Go - cupboard - stay - no meals," before slumping into an armchair and Aunt Petunia had to get him a large Brandy.

Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and couldn't know if the Dursleys would be asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking out to get some food.

At least he still had Jaculus. The snake had been wise enough to stay out of they way of the Dursleys and had stayed in the cupboard, waiting for Harry to relay the events of the trip to him later, which of course he did. "So, Harry, what are you going to do about it?"

His voice was calm and smooth. "what do you mean?"

"i mean" he repeated "What are you, Harry, going to do about it?"

"well. there's not much i can do is there?"

"that's not true, you have great power"

"great power isn't much use if it can't protect me"

"sometimes," and he said this very slowly, "great power doesn't protect you from something in the first place, but allows you to get revenge when hurt"

"so how do i get revenge then?"

"just let your hatred radiate out from yourself constantly, and you'll get your revenge in no time"

"will that really work?"

"there's only one way to find out"

So for the next few days Harry let his hatred radiate out from himself inside his cupboard and, at first, nothing happened but then, for some reason, Uncle Vernon had his toast burnt even though the toaster was on a very low setting. he tried again but the same thing happened. when reaching for another few slices he found that the bread was mouldy. after this other things started to go wrong. the alarm clock broke, food went mouldy, Uncle Vernon's new car got a flat when he was reversing out of the drive and worst of all, Aunt Petunia could no longer tell the difference between sugar and salt, rendering her cooking almost inedible. Harry though, was loving it. it gave him immense pleasure to see the Dursleys suffer for each and every wrongdoing they had done to him, no matter how petty the revenge might be.

The escape of the boa constrictor had earned Harry his longest ever punishment. By the time he was allowed out of the cupboard again, the summer holidays had started and Dudley had already broken his new cine-camera, crashed his racing bike, and toppled poor Mrs Figg when she tried to duck out of the way of his remote control aeroplane.

Harry was glad school was over, but there was no avoiding Dudley's gang, who visited the house every day. Piers, Malcolm, Dennis and Gordon were perfectly happy to engage in Dudley's favourite sport, Harry Hunting.

This was why Harry spent as much time out of the house as possible, wandering around and thinking about the end of the holidays, where he could see a tiny ray of hope. When September started he would be going off to secondary school and, for the first time in his life, he wouldn't be with Dudley. Dudley had been accepted at Uncle Vernon's old school, Smeltings. Piers Polkiss had also been accepted at Smeltings. Harry, on the other hand, was going to Stonewall high, the local comprehensive. Dudley had thought this very funny. "they stuff people's head down the toilets, first day at stonewall. Want to come upstairs and practice?"

"No thanks, the toilets never had anything as horrible as your head down it, it might be sick." and then he ran before Dudley could figure out what he had said.

One day in July, when the car was working fine and they could leave Harry with Mrs Figg's, they went to London to but Dudley his Smeltings Uniform. It turned out that Mrs Figg wasn't as fond of her cats as she had tripped over one, which had caused her to break her leg. She let Harry watch television and eat some chocolate cake that tasted like she had had it for several years.

That evening Dudley paraded around the living room in his brand-new uniform. It looked impressive, despite the fact that the seam was untidy and it was missing a button. Smeltings boys wore maroon tailcoats, orange knickerbockers and flat straw hats called boaters. They also carried knobbly sticks, which were used for hitting each other whilst the teacher wasn't looking. This was supposed to be good training for later life.

As he looked at Dudley in his new knickerbockers, Uncle Vernon thought it was the proudest moment of his life, Aunt Petunia burst into tears and said she couldn't believe it was her little Dudleykins, he looked so grown up. Harry didn't trust himself to speak, he thought that two of his ribs might have already cracked from trying not to laugh.

There was a horrible smell in the kitchen the next morning when Harry went in for breakfast. It seemed to be coming from a large metal tub in a sink. he went to have a look. The tub was full of what looked like dirty rags swimming in grey water.

"what's this?" he asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did when he dared to ask a question. "your new school uniform."

"Oh," he said, "i didn't realise it had to be so wet"

"don't be stupid, i'm dyeing some of Dudley's old things grey for you. It'll look just like everyone else's when i'm finished."

Harry seriously doubted this, but thought it best not to argue. He sat down at the table and tried not to think about how he would look at his first day on Stonewall high. Like he was wearing bits of old elephant skin probably.

Dudley and Uncle Vernon came in, both with wrinkled noses because of the smell of Harry's new uniform. Uncle Vernon opened his newspaper as usual and Dudley banged his smelting's stick, which he carried everywhere, on the table.

They heard the click of the letter-box and the flop of letters on the doormat.

"get the post Dudley." said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper. "make Harry get it"

"get the post Harry"

"make Dudley get it"

"poke him with your smelting's stick Dudley"

Harry dodged the smelting's stick and went to get the post. Three things lay on the doormat: a postcard from Uncle Vernon's sister Marge, who was vacationing on the Isle of Wight, a brown envelope that looked like a bill and - a letter for Harry.

Harry picked it up and stared at it, his heart twanging like and elastic band. No one, ever, in his whole life, had written to him. who would, he had no living relatives, no friends - he didn't belong to the library so he didn't even get rude notes asking for books back. Yet here it was, addressed so plainly there was no mistake:

Mr H. Potter

The Cupboard under the Stairs

4 Privet Drive

Little Whinging

Surrey

The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald-green ink. There was no stamp. Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Harry saw a purple was seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger and a snake all surrounding a large letter 'H'.

'Hurry up boy!' Uncle Vernon shouted from the kitchen.

"what are you doing? checking for letter bombs?" he chuckled at his own joke. Harry ignored him, suddenly there was a yell of pain from the kitchen. It sounded as though Uncle Vernon's tea mug had shattered in his hand, spilling hot tea and ceramic shards all over him. As he started to walk back to the kitchen, envelope in hand, he was stopped by a hiss from Jaculus,

"Harry, leave the envelope in your room."

Harry did as he was told and left his envelope in his room before heading into the kitchen. The kitchen was a mess, Aunt Petunia was dabbing down Uncle Vernon's face with a cloth, carefully avoiding the shards of the broken mug on the floor. Dudley was wolfing down Uncle Vernon's food whilst he wasn't looking. As he walked in Uncle Vernon said "You took your sweet time didn't you?"

"Well i was-"

"Enough. Go to your cupboard" he said pointing at the door

Harry left the mail on the table and went. At least, he thought, he still had that letter to read. He endeavoured to hide it after he had read it. Or burn it, He really didn't like the idea of what Uncle Vernon would do if he saw that letter.

When he sat on the bed he turned on the light and opened his letter, Jaculus at his side.

The letter read as follows;

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Mr. Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of the necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1st. We await your owl by no later than 31 July. Please note that, since you have been brought up by muggles (non-magical folk), a representative of Hogwarts shall be coming by later today to explain everything.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress.

Questions exploded in Harry's head like fireworks, but before any of them could come to the surface, there was a knock at the door.

It was more like a cannon blast than a knock, and it shook the house to it's foundations. Harry heard another yell as another mug broke in Uncle Vernon's hand and he shouted, "WHAT THE DEVIL IS THAT?"

Harry rushed to the little grate in his cupboard door, grateful that Aunt Petunia had forgotten to shut it. BOOM. There it was again, slightly muffled by Uncle Vernon's footsteps as he shuffled, still dripping in tea, towards the front door. There was a third BOOM before he got to the door. Uncle Vernon opened it with a fury a shouted, "ALRIGHT THEN, WHAT DO YOU-" but then he faltered, clearly at a loss for words. Harry couldn't see what was standing at the door, but thought that it must be a what, as nothing human could cast such a big shadow across the floor. "Hullo there, couldn't make us a cup a' tea could ya, it's been a long journey."

Uncle Vernon just stood there, dumbstruck. Without waiting for him to say anything, the, Thing, walked past Uncle Vernon and right into the living room. as he walked past Harry's cupboard grate, Harry noted that this man must be even taller than he thought, as the highest part of him that Harry could see was his elbow, and his belt reached the top of his cupboard wall.

Uncle Vernon, now apparently having recovered his senses, walked up to the man and, trying to look intimidating, said "I demand you leave at once sir, you are breaking and entering" The attempt fell flat on it's face, not least because he could only reach the giant's elbow. "I'm here for Harry"

"No-one by that name lives here, i demand you leave at once"

"Shut up Dursley, you great prune, i know 'Arry lives here cos' i wouldn't be here"

Harry couldn't believe it, someone here, for him? When he was younger he had always dreamed that an unknown relation would come and whisk him away from the Dursleys. He had long given up on that dream but maybe, now... But no, this was probably a representative from the school mentioned in the letter. He wondered if everyone at this school was as tall as this man. Then he got a terrible feeling like you are prone to getting when in fantastical situations. What if there was a height requirement to attend this school? Would they reject him due to how small he was?

Just as he was thinking what excuse to give as to why he was so small, the hinges and bolt on the door gave way and the entire cupboard door fell flat on the ground with Harry on top of it.

"An' you must be 'Arry." the giant said, bending down and looking at him. Looking up at him now, Harry could really appreciate just how tall he actually was. His head was brushing the ceiling and his entire face was covered by a long, shaggy mane of black hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could still make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair. looking at the face he could see that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile.

"Las' time i saw you, you was only a baby. Yeh look a lot like yeh dad but yeh got yer mum's eyes." A hundred more questions exploded in Harry's head, Who was this man, how did he know his parents, did he know how they died? just then however Uncle Vernon said "I demand you leave Sir." and looking at Harry he said,

"Boy, go back to your cupboard and stay there, and don't listen to anything he says"

"shut up Dursley." the big man said.

"excuse me, " said Harry, "but who are you?"

the giant chuckled, "True, i haven't introduced meself. I'm Rubeus, Rubeus Hagrid, and i'm keeper of the keys and grounds at Hogwarts"

"the place the letter came from?"

Uncle Vernon suddenly cut in, his face beet red, "Letter! What letter? He hasn't received any letter from the likes of you!"

Hagrid ignored him. "Aye, that's where yer letter came from"

"what does it mean?"

"i'll explain everything to yer, come hav' a seat" he said, walking through to the living room. Harry followed him through and sat in awe as Hagrid sat on the sofa, for it to collapse under his weight. he heard Uncle Vernon shut the front door.

"What about that tea then eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together.

"i wont say no to summat stronger if you got it, mind."

there was a silence as he waited for a tea that would never come. meanwhile the Dursleys crowded a the door, Uncle Vernon, purple with rage, the tea now having dried and stained his suit. Aunt Petunia, who had her bony neck tilted away from the man in disgust and Dudley, in a mix of awe and fear, trying to hide behind his mother and father.

"i'm sorry, " Harry said "but i still don't really know who you are"

the giant chuckled

"call me Hagrid, everyone does, an' like i told yeh i'm keeper of keys and grounds at Hogwarts - you'll know all about Hogwarts o' course"

"Er - no" said Harry

Hagrid looked shocked.

"Sorry," Harry said quickly.

"Sorry?"barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who all cowered in fear. "it's them that should be sorry! I never thought that you wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts. Fer cryin' out loud! did yeh never wonder where yer parents learn't it all?"

"all what?" asked Harry

"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered. "Now wait jus' one second!"

He had leapt to his feet. In his anger he seemed to dominate the whole house. Dudley had fled up the stairs and Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia had taken several steps back.

"Do you mean to tell me" he growled at the Dursleys, "That this boy, this boy! knows nothin' abou' - about ANYTHING?"

Harry though this was going a bit far. He had, after all, been to school and his marks weren't bad.

"I know some things. I can, you know, do maths and stuff."

but Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, "About our world, I mean. Your world, Yer parent's world"

"what world?"

Hagrid looked as if he was going to explode.

"DURSLEY!" he boomed.

Uncle Vernon, who had progressed from beet red to something very pale, whispered something like "Mimblewimble". Hagrid stared wildly at Harry.

"But yeh must know about yer mum and dad." he said. "I mean they're famous. You're famous"

"What? my - my mum and dad weren't famous, were they?"

"Yeh don' know ... yeh don' know ..." Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry with a bewildered stare.

"Yeh don' know what yeh are?" he said finally.

Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice.

"Stop!" he commanded. "Stop right there, sir! I forbid you to tell the boy anything!"

A braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailed under the look that Hagrid now gave him; when Hagrid spoke, every syllable trembled with rage.

"You never told him? Never told him what was in the letter that Dumbledore left for him? i was there, i saw Dumbledore leave it Dursley! An' you've kept it from him all these years?"

"Kept what from me?" Harry asked eagerly.

"STOP I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic.

Aunt Petunia gave a great gasp of horror.

"Ah go boil yer head, both of yeh." said Hagrid, turning to Harry.

"Harry - yer a wizard"

There was silence in the Living room. Only next door's sprinklers could be heard.

"I'm a what?" gasped Harry

"A wizard, o' course" said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa which groaned and sank even lower "an' a thumpin' good one i'll say, once yer been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh be?"

there was silence for a few seconds until Hagrid said "well i'll send Dumbledore the Owl to say i got yeh then we'll be off"

"Off where?"

"To Diagon Alley o' cours'. where else will we get yer things?"

"What things?"

"Blimey Harry, didn't you read yer letter?"

just then Uncle Vernon barked "No."

"No what Dursley?"

"He's not going to that school of yours, he's going to stonewall high, and he'll like it."

"An' i'd like ter see a great muggle like you stop him"

"Muggle?," Harry asked.

"it's what we call Non-magic folk them", he pointed at the Dursleys. Dudley had now crept back down and was observing the goings on.

"We swore when we took him in that we'd put a stop to that rubbish." said Uncle Vernon. "Swore we'd stamp it out of him! Wizard indeed."

"You knew?" said Harry. "you knew i'm a - a wizard?"

"Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "Knew! Of course we knew! how could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was? Oh she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that - that school - and came home very holiday with her pockets full of frogspawn, turning teacups into rats. I was the only one who saw her for what she was - a freak! But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that. They were proud to have a witch in the family!"

She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. it seemed she had been wanting to say all this for years.

"Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you, and of course i knew that you would be just as strange, just as - abnormal - and then if you please, she went and got herself blown up, and we got landed with you."

Harry had gone very white. As soon as he found his voice he said, "blown up? you told me they died in a car crash!"

"CAR CRASH?" roared Hagrid, jumping up so angrily that the Dursleys scuttled back to the hallway.

"How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's and outrage! A scandal! Harry Potter not knowing his own story when every kid in our world knows his name!"

"But why? What happened?" Harry asked urgently.

The anger faded from Hagrid's face. He looked suddenly anxious. "I never expected this." he said, in a low, worried voice. "i had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be difficulties in gettin' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Harry, i don't know if i'm the right person to tell yeh this, - but someone's gotta - yeh can't go to Hogwarts not knowing yer own story."

He threw a dirty look at the Dursleys.

"Well, it's best yeh know as much as i can tell yeh - mind, i can't tell yer everthin'. it's a great myst'ry, parts of it..."

He sat down and stared out the window for a few seconds and then said, "It begins, i suppose, with - an' it's incredble yer don't know 'is name, everyone in our world knows -"

"Who?"

"Well i don't like sayin' the name if i can help it. No one does."

"why not?"

"Gulpin' Gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared. Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went ... bad. As bad as you can go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was..."

Hagrid gulped but no words came out.

"Could you write it down?" Harry suggested.

"Nah - can't spell it. All right - Voldemort."Hagrid shuddered.

"Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this - this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em too - some were afraid, some just wanted a bit of his power, 'cause he was getting himself power, all right. Dark days Harry. Didn't know who to trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange witches or wizards ... Terrible things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course, some stood up to him an' he killed them. Horribly. One o' the few safe places left was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of. Didn't dare try takin' the school, not jus' then anyway."

"Now, yer mum an' dad were as good a witch and wizard as i ever knew. Head boy an' girl at Hogwarts in their day! Suppose the myst'ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get them on his side before ... probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin' ter do with the Dark side."

"Maybe he thought he could persuade 'em ... maybe he just wanted 'em outta the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, On Hallowe-en ten years ago. You was just a year old. He came to your house an' - an' -"

Hagrid suddenly pulled a very dirty spotted handkerchief and blew his nose with a sound like a foghorn.

"Sorry, " he said. "but it's that sad - knew yer mum an' dad i did, an' nicer people you couldn't 'ave known - anyway -

You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then - 'an this is the real myst'ry of the thing - he tried to kill you, too. Wanted to make a clean job of it i suppose, or maybe he jus' liked killing by then. But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead 'Arry? That's no ordninary cut. That's what you get when a powerful, evil curse touches yer - took care o' yer mum an' dad, an' yer house, even, - but it didn't work on you, an' that's why yer famous 'Arry. No-one ever lived after he decided to kill them, no-one except you, an' he killed some o' the best witches and wizards o' the age - The McKinnons, the Bones, the Prewetts - an' you was only a baby, an' you lived."

Something very painful was going on in Harry's mind. As Hagrid's story came to a close, he again saw the blinding flash of green light, more clearly than ever before and for the first time in his life he remembered something else, a cold, cruel laugh.

Hagrid was watching him sadly.

"Took you from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh ter this lot..."

"Load of old tosh" said Uncle Vernon. Harry jumped, he had forgotten the Dursleys were listening in. Uncle Vernon seemed to have had gotten back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched.

"Noe you listen here boy, i accept that there's something weird about you, nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured, Ha - and as for all this about your parent, well they were weirdos, no denying it, and the world is better off without them i say. - asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types - just what i expected, i always knew they would come to a sticky end -"

But at that moment, Hagrid leapt from the sofa and drew a battered pink umbrella from inside his coat. Pointing this at Uncle Vernon like a sword, he said "I'm warning you, Dursley, one more word..."

In danger of being skewered on the end of an umbrella by a bearded giant; he retreated back to the rest of the Dursleys and fell silent.

"That's better," said Hagrid, breathing heavily and sitting back down on the sofa which this time sagged right down to the floor. Harry, meanwhile, still had questions to ask, Hundreds of them.

"But what happened to Vol- sorry i mean, You-Know-Who?"

"Good question Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you. Makes you even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry o' the lot, yer see, he was getting more an' more powerful - why'd he go? Some say he died. Codswallop in my opinion, Don' reckon he had enough human left in 'im ter die. Some say he's still out there, biding his time, like, but i don' belive it. People who was on his side came back ter ours. Some of 'em came outta kinda trances. Don' reckon they could've done if he was comin' back. Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers. Too weak to carry on. 'Cause somethin' about you finished him 'Arry. There was something going on that night which he hadn't counted on - I dunno what it was, no-one does - but somethin' about you stumped 'im, alright."

Deep down, somehow, Harry knew Hagrid was telling the truth. every strange thing that had ever happened to him now made sense, the un-cutable hair, the wild dogs, even talking to Jaculus. Harry looked back at Hagrid to see he was smiling back at him.

"jus' you wait, 'Arry, you'll see. you'll be right famous at Hogwarts"

But Uncle Vernon wasn't giving up without a fight. "Haven't i told you he's not going!" he hissed "He's going to stonewall high and he'll be grateful for it"

"Oh that reminds me, " Said Hagrid, reaching into his coat and taking out a letter. he handed the letter to Uncle Vernon who took it and, holding it gingerly, like it would explode, opened the letter.

after reading through it several times, with Aunt Petunia looking over his shoulder and Dudley trying to look as well, he said;

"What's this?" in a much quieter voice than he had used before.

"That is from Dumbledore ter give ter you if yer refuse teh let Harry ter go to Hogwarts"

After reading it some more Uncle Vernon finally said "OK, then. He can go there, but he stays there, and i'm not buying his things"

"i wouldn't expect yer to Dursley."

Harry was intensely curious as to what was in the letter that had made Uncle Vernon change his mind, but before he could ask, Hagrid said; "Well, I've gotta send Dumbledore an' owl telling him i 'ave yer, so why don't you get yer letter an' meet me out front"

Harry did as he was told and went to get his letter from the, now ruined, cupboard. he picked it off his bed and let Jaculus slither into his sleeve. Then he went to the front door where he saw Hagrid casually toss an Owl into the sky.

"Yeh ready then?" he asked

"Right, lets be off then, we got lots ter do today so best we be off sharpish."

They set off and Harry, who was still burning with questions asked, "Hagrid, Where are we going?"

"To London ter buy yer stuff fer school"

"But - um - i haven't got any money, and you heard what Uncle Vernon said, he's not going to pay for me to go to Hogwarts."

"Don' you worry 'bout that. Do yer think yer parents did't leave yer anything?"

"But if their house was destroyed-"

"They didn't keep their gold in the house boy, Nah, first stop for us is Gringotts, the wizarding bank."

"Wizards have banks?"

"jus' the one, run by goblins." Harry nearly stumbled on the road.

"Goblins?"

"yeah - so you'd be mad ter try 'an rob it. i'll tell yer that. Never mess with goblins, Harry. Gringotts is the safest place in the world to keep sommat you want ter keep safe - 'cept maybe Hogwarts. As a matter o' fact, i gotta visit Gringotts anyway. Fer Dumbledore. Hogwarts business. "

Hagrid drew himself up proudly "He normally get me ter do important stuff fer him. fetchin' you - getting things from Gringotts - knows he can trust me, see."

"why would you be mad o try and rob Gringotts?" Harry asked

"Spells, Enchantments, they say there's dragons guardin' the high security vaults - then you gotta find yer way around - Gringotts is hundreds of miles under London, see. Deep under the underground. Yeh'd die of hunger tryin' ter get out, even if yer did manage ter get yer hands on summat."

Harry thought about this for a few seconds as they neared the station.

"Hagrid, did you say there are dragons at Gringotts?"

"So they say. Crikey, i'd like a dragon."

"You'd like one?"

"Wanted one ever since i was a kid - here we go." he said, stepping onto the platform. There was a train to London in 5 minuets time. Hagrid, who didn't understand muggle money as he called it, gave the notes to Harry to pay for the tickets. People stared more than ever on the train. Hagrid took up two seats, and started knitting what looked like a canary-yellow circus tent.

"Still got yer letter Harry?" he asked as he counted stitches. Harry got the letter out of his pocket.

"Good, there's a list of everything yeh need"

Harry unfolded a second bit of parchment he hadn't seen before and read,

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

Uniform

First year students require:

Three sets of plain work robes (black) One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar) One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)

Please note that all pupil's clothes should carry name tags

Set Books

All students should have a copy of each of the following:

The standard book of spells (grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk

A history of magic by Bathilda Bagshot

Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling

A beginners' guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch

One thousand magical herbs and fungi by Phyllida Spore

Magical Drafts and potions by Arsenius Jigger

Fantastic beasts and where to find them by Newt Scamander

The Dark forces: a guide to self defense by Quentin Trimble

Other equipment

1 wand

1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)

1 set glass or crystal phials

1 telescope

1 set brass scales

1 wand

Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad

PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS

"Can we buy all this in London?" Harry wondered aloud.

"If yeh know where to go," said Hagrid

Harry had never been to London before. Although Hagrid seemed to know where he was going, he was obviously not used to getting there in an ordinary way. He got stuck in the ticket barrier on the Underground and complained loudly that the seats were too small and the trains too slow.

"i don't know how the Muggles manage without magic," he said as they climbed up a broken-down escalator which lead up to a bustling road lined with shops. Hagrid was so huge that he parted the crowd easily, Harry only had to keep close behind him. They passed book shops, and music stores, hamburger bars and cinemas, but nowhere that looked like it could sell you a magic wand. This was just an ordinary street full of ordinary people. Could there really be piles of wizard gold buried miles beneath them?

"This is it" said Hagrid, coming to a halt, "the Leaky Cauldron. It's a famous place"

It was a tiny, grubby-looking pub. If Hagrid Hadn't pointed it out, Harry wouldn't have noticed it was there. The people hurrying by didn't glance at it. Their eyes slid from the big bookstore on one side to the record shop on the other as if they couldn't even see the Leaky Cauldron at all. In fact, Harry had the sneaking suspicion that only he and Hagrid could see it. Before he could mention this, Hagrid steered him inside.

For a famous place, it was very dark and shabby. A few old women were sitting in a corner drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of them was smoking a long pipe. A little man in a top hat was talking to the old barman, who was quite bald and looked like a gummy walnut. The low buzz of chatter stopped when they walked in. Everyone seemed to know Hagrid; they waved and smiled, and the barman reached for a glass saying, "The usual, Hagrid?"

"Can't Tom, i'm on Hogwarts business," said Hagrid, clapping his great hand on Harry's shoulder and making Harry's knees buckle.

"Good Lord, " said the Barman, peering at Harry, "Can it be?"

The Leaky Cauldron had gone, suddenly, completely still and quiet.

"Bless my soul," whispered the old bartender. "Harry Potter, What an honour"

He hurried out from behind the bar, rushed towards Harry and seized his hand, tears in his eyes.

"Welcome back Mr. Potter, welcome back"

Harry didn't know what to say. Everyone was looking at him. The old woman with the pipe was puffing on it without realising it had gone out. Hagrid was beaming.

Then there was a great scraping of chairs and next moment He was shaking hands with everyone in the Leaky Cauldron. He found he quite liked the attention.

"Doris Crockford, Mr. Potter, i can't believe i'm meeting you at last"

"So proud Mr. Potter, So proud"

"Always wanted to shake your hand - I'm all of a flutter."

"Delighted, Mr. Potter, just can't tell you, Diggle's the name, Dedalus Diggle."

Harry shook hands again and again - Doris Crockford came coming back for more

It took almost ten minuets to get away from them all when Hagrid finally managed to make his voice heard over all the babble, "Must get on - lots ter buy. Come on Harry."

Doris Crockford shook Harry's hand one last time and Hagrid led them into a small courtyard where there was nothing except dustbins and a few weeds.

Hagrid Grinned at Harry.

"Told yeh didn't i? Told yeh you was famous - now, where's me umbrella?"

Harry's head was swimming. Hagrid, meanwhile, was counting bricks in the wall above the dustbin.

"three up... two across..." he muttered. "Right, stand back Harry."

He tapped the wall three times with the point of his umbrella. The brick he had touched quivered - it wriggled - in the middle, a small hole appeared - it grew wider and wider - second later they were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid to fit through. it lead onto a cobbled street which twisted and turned out of sight.

"Welcome" said Hagrid, "to Diagon Alley"

He grinned at Harry's amazement. They stepped through the archway. Harry looked quickly over his shoulder and saw that the archway shrank back into a brick wall.

The sun shone brightly on a stack of cauldrons outside the nearest shop. Cauldrons - all sizes - Copper, Pewter, Silver - self-stirring - collapsible said a sign hanging over them "yeah, you'll be needin' one," said Hagrid "But we gotta get you your money first."

Harry wished he had about eight more eyes. He turned his head in every direction as they walked up the street, trying to look at everything at once: the shops, the things outside them, the people.

A low, soft hooting came from a dark shop with a sign saying, Eeylops Owl Emporium - Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown and Snowy.

Several boys of about Harry's age were gawking at a window which had a broom display and were saying "The fastest model yet, - the Nimbus 2000 - " There were shops selling telescopes and strange silver instruments Harry had never seen before, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eel's eyes, tottering piles of spell books quills, rolls of parchment, potion bottles, globes of the moon ...

"Gringotts, " said Hagrid. They had reached a snowy-white building which towered over the other little shops. Standing beside it's burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, was -

"yeah, that's a goblin. " said Hagrid quietly as they walked up the white stone steps towards him. The goblin was about a head shorter than Harry. He had a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard and, Harry noticed, very long fingers and feet. He bowed as they walked inside. Now they were facing a second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved on them:

Enter stranger but take heed,

Of what awaits the sin of greed,

for those that take but do not earn,

must pay most dearly in their turn,

So if you seek beneath our floors,

something that was never yours,

Thief, you have been warned, beware,

of finding more than treasure there.

"Like i said, you'd be mad ter try an' rob it" said Hagrid.

A Pair of goblins bowed them through the silver doors and they were in a vast marble hall. About a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins in brass scales, examining precious stones through eyeglasses. There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these. Hagrid and Harry made for the counter.

"Morning" said Hagrid to a free goblin. "We've come ter take some money outta Mr Harry Potter's safe."

"You have his key, Sir?"

"Got it here somewhere. " said Hagrid and he started emptying his pockets onto the counter, scattering a handful of mouldy dog biscuits over the goblin's book of numbers. The goblin wrinkled his nose. Harry watched the goblin on their right weighing a pile of emeralds as big as coals.

"Got it." said Hagrid at last, holding up a tiny golden key.

The goblin looked at it closely. "That seems to be in order."

"An' I've also got a letter here from Professor Dumbledore regarding the you-know-what in vault 713."

The goblin read the letter carefully.

"Very well, i will have a goblin take you down to both vault. Rograff!"

Rograff was yet another goblin. Once Hagrid had crammed all the dog-biscuits back into his pockets, he and Harry followed Rograff towards one of the doors leading off to the hall.

"What's the you-know-what in vault 713?" Harry asked.

"Can't tell yeh that," said Hagrid mysteriously. "Very secret. Hogwarts business. Dumbledore's trusted me. More'n my job's worth ter tell yeh that"

Rograff held the door open for them. Harry, who was expecting to find more marble, was surprised to find themselves in a narrow stone passageway lit by flaming torches. It sloped steeply downwards and there were little railway tracks in the floor. Rograff whistled and a small cart came hurtling up the track towards them. They climbed in - Hagrid with some difficulty - and they were off.

At first they just hurtled through a maze of twisting passages. Harry tried to remember, left, right, right, left, middle fork, left , right, but it was impossible. The rattling cart seemed to know it's own was as Rograff wasn't steering.

Harry's eye's stung as the cold air rushed by them but he kept them wide open. Once he thought he saw a burst of fire at the end of a passage and twisted round to see if it was a dragon, but too late. - they plunged even deeper, passing an underground lake where huge stalagmites and stalactites grew from the ceiling and floor.

"I never know, " said Harry, "What's the difference between a stalagmite and a stalactite?"

"Stalagmite's got an 'M' in it," said Hagrid, "An' don't ask me questions jus' now, i think i'm gonna be sick."

He did look very green and when the cart stopped at last beside a small door in the passage wall, Hagrid got out and had to lean against the wall to stop his knees trembling.

Rograff unlocked the door. A lot of green smoke came billowing out, and as it cleared, Harry gasped. Inside were mounds of gold coins. Columns of silver. Heaps of little bronze coins.

"All yours, " smiled Hagrid.

All Harry's - it was incredible. The Dursleys couldn't have known about it or they would have had it from him faster than blinking. How often had they complained how much Harry cost them to keep? And all this time there had been a small fortune belonging to him, buried deep under London.

Hagrid helped Harry pile some of it into a bag.

"The gold ones are Galleons, " he explained, "the silver ones are Sickles an' there's seventeen sickles to a Galleon, an' the bronze ones are Knuts, with twenty-nine Knuts ter a Sickle, it's easy enough." He gathered a pile of the coins into a bag an said, "Right, that should be enough fer a couple o' terms, we'll keep the rest safe for yeh."

He turned to Rograff and said, "Vault 713 now, please, and can we go any slower?"

"'on spead ounly" he mumbled.

They were going even deeper now and gathering speed. The air became colder and colder as they hurtled right round corners. They went rattling over an underground ravine and Harry leant over the side to try and see what was down at the deep, dark bottom, but Hagrid pulled him back by the scruff of his neck.

Vault 713 had no keyhole.

"Stund bach" Rograff said, importantly. He stroked the door gently with one of his fingers and it simply melted away,

" 'f 'nyone but eh' Gringotts Gob'n tro'd that, there'd beh sut'd threw the dur."

"How often do you check to see if anyone's inside?" asked Harry.

" err, 'bout once a de'ade" Rograff replied, scratching his head.

Something really extraordinary had to be inside this vault, Harry thought. He leant forward eagerly, expecting too see fabulous Jewels at the very least - but at first he thought it was empty. Then he noticed a very small and grubby little package wrapped up in a brown paper bag, lying on the floor. Hagrid picked up the paper bag and put it in his coat. Harry longed to know what it was but knew better than to ask.

"Come on, back in this infernal cart, an' don't talk to me on the way back, it's best if i keep me mouth shut. " said Hagrid.

One wild cart ride later, they stood blinking in the sunlight outside Gringotts. Harry didn't know where to run first now he had a bag full of money. He didn't have to know how many Galleons there were to a pound to know that he was holding more money than he'd had in his life. More money than even Dudley had ever had.

"Might as well get yer uniform, " said Hagrid, nodding towards Madam Malkin's robes for all Occasions. "Listen, Harry, would you mind if i slipped off fer a pick-me-up at the Leaky Cauldron? i hate them Gringotts carts." He did still look a bit sick so Harry entered Madam Malkin's shop alone, feeling nervous.

Madam Malkin was a squat, smiling, witch dressed all in mauve.

"Hogwarts dear?" she said as Harry started to speak.

"Got the lot here. Come through to the back so we can measure you."

In the back of the shop there was another witch waiting. "This is Kelly, she'll fit you right up, don't worry."

Kelly stood Harry on a stool and draped a big, black robe over him and began to pin it to the right length, Whilst Madame Malkin went back to the front of the shop. Kelly worked in silence, with the only sound being the snip of the pins. He cheered up a bit though, when he saw Hagrid outside, waving at some ice-creams he had brought to show he couldn't come in. A few minutes later, she said, "That's you done dear. " and Harry dropped down from the stool to pay.

Outside, Harry was still fascinated by the people walking by, as he sat and ate his ice-cream with Hagrid. (Chocolate and raspberry with chopped nuts.) He saw people walking around in robes of every colour, from saffron to snake green. Every now and then he caught snippets of what they were saying, "I hear old Barty's been sidelined for minister again." "He can never catch a break can he?" Sometimes he would see children around his age, wandering around with their parents ogling the window stalls.

"Hagrid?" he asked. "you know on the letter it says we can bring an owl, or a cat or a toad."

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Does it have to be one of those animals?"

"Pretty much, yeah. i think they sometimes make exceptions, there's this kid, Percy, who brings a rat into school. why?"

"Well, i have this pet snake, Jaculus, and i want to bring him to Hogwarts with me, i don't think he'd survive with the Dursleys."

He felt Jaculus squirm underneath his shirt.

"I dunno Harry, snakes are often used in very dark magic. don't want people to think your up ta summat"

"But Jaculus isn't a bad snake"

"I'm sure it won't matter Harry, but i'll ask Dumbledore jus' in case"

Feeling better about himself Harry and Hagrid finished their ice-creams and went off to buy Harry's school books in a shop called Flourish and Blotts, where the shelves were stacked to the ceiling with books as big as paving stones bound in leather; books the size of postage stamps in covers of silk; books full of peculiar symbols; and some books with nothing in them at all. Even Dudley, who never read anything in his life, would be wild to get his hands on some of these books. Hagrd almost had to drag Harry away from Curses and counter Curses (bewitch your friends and befuddle your enemies with the latest revenges: Hair loss, Jelly-legs, Toungue-tying and much, much more) by Professor Vindictus Viridian.

"I was trying to find out how to curse Dudley. "

"Yer can't use magic in the muggle world, 'cept in very special circumstances, and besides yeh couldn't work any of them curses yet, yer need a lot more study before yeh get ter that level."

Hagrid wouldn't let Harry but a solid-gold cauldron either ("It says pewter on your list"), but they got a nice set of scales for weighing potion ingredients and a collapsible brass telescope. Then they visited the apothecary, which was fascinating enough to make up for the weird smells. Barrels of slimy stuff stood on the floor, jars of herbs, dried roots and bright powders lined the walls, bundles of feathers, strings of fangs and snarled claws hung from the ceiling. While Hagrid asked the man behind the counter for a supple of basic potion ingredients, Harry found himself examining silver unicorn horns at twenty-one galleons each and minuscule black-beetle eyes (five Knuts a scoop).

Outside the apothecary, Hagrid checked Harry's list again.

"Jus' yer wand left. That means Ollivander's - only place for wand, Ollivander's, an' yer gotta have the best wand."

A magic wand. This was what Harry had been really looking forward to.

The last shop they entered was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read, Ollivanders: Makers of fine wands since 382 B.C. A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window. A tinkling bell rang somewhere inside the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty, except for a single spindly chair which Hagrid sat on to wait. Harry felt strangly as though he had entered a very strict library; he swallowed a lot of new questions which had just occurred to him and looked up isntead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly, right up to the ceiling. For some reason the back of his neck prickled. The very air in here seemed to be filled with some kind of secret magic.

"Good afternoon." said a soft voice. Harry jumped. Hagrid must have as well, as there was a soft crunching noise, and Hagrid quickly got off the spindly chair.

An old man stood before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop.

"Hello." said Harry, awkwardly.

"Ah yes," said the man, "Yes, yes, i thought i'd be seeing you soon. Harry Potter." It wasn't a question.

"You haw your mother's eyes. it seems only yesterday she was here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work."

Mr Ollivander moved closer to Harry. Harry wished he would blink. those silvery eyes were a bit creepy.

"Your father, on the other hand, favoured a mahogany wand. Eleven inches, Pliable, A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. Well i say your father favoured it, - it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course."

Mr Ollivander had come so close that he and Harry were almost nose to nose. He could see himself reflected in those misty eyes.

"And that's where..."

Mr Ollivander touched the lighting scar on Harry's forehead with a long, white finger.

"I'm sorry to say, i sold the wand that did that." he said softly.

"Thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hand... Well, if i'd known what that wand was going out in the world to do ..."

He shook his head and then, to Harry's relief, spotted Hagrid.

"Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again ... Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy wasn't it?"

"It was, sir, yes." said Hagrid.

"Good wand, that one. But i suppose they snapped it in two when you were expelled?" said Mr Ollivander, suddenly stern. "Er - they, they did, yes," said Hagrid, shuffling his feet. "i've still got the pieces though," he added brightly.

"But you don''t use them?" said Mr Ollivander, sharply.

"Oh no sir, " said Hagrid quickly. Harry noticed he gripped his umbrella rather tightly as he spoke.

"Hmmmm. " said Mr Ollivander, giving Hagrid a piecing look.

"Well now Mr Potter. Let me see." He pulled out a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. "Which is your wand arm?"

"Erm - well i'm right handed" replied Harry.

"Hold out your arm, that's it." He measured Harry from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and around his head. As he measured he said "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr Potter. We use Unicorn hairs, Dragon heartstrings and Phoenix feather. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two Unicorns, Dragons or Pheonixes are quite the same. And, of course, you will never get as good results with another wizard's wand."

Harry sudden;y realised that the tape-measure, which was measuring between his nostrils, was doing it all by itself. Mr Ollivander was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes.

"That will do, " He said, clapping his hands, and the tape measure crumpled into a pile onto the floor.

"Right then Mr Potter, try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches, nice and flexible. Give it a wave."

Harry took the wand and, (feeling foolish), gave it a wave, but Mr Ollivander snatched it out of his hand almost immediately, saying "Nope, Try this one, Maple and Phoenix feather. Seven inches, Try..."

Harry tried - but had hardly raised the wand when it, too, was snatched back by Mr Ollivander.

"No no, here, ebony and Unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy. go on - try it out."

Harry tried and tried. He had no idea what Mr Ollivander was waiting for. The pile of tried wands was getting higher and higher on the spindly chair, but the more wands he tried, the happier Ollivander seemed to become.

"Tricky customer eh? Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match here somewhere. Now i wonder - yes - why not?" He handed Harry a wand saying, "holly and phoenix feather , eleven inches, nice and supple." Harry took the wand. immediately he knew this was what he was looking for. He felt a burst of power flow through his fingers and the wand seemed to be resonating at his touch.

He brought it above his head and then violently down and a stream of green and silver sparks shot out of the end like fireworks.

Hagrid whooped and clapped, and Mr Ollivander cried "Bravo oh bravo, yes indeed, very good, very good. Well, well, well ... curious, how curious, ... how very curious."

He put Harry's wand in a box and wrapped it in a brown paper bag, still muttering, "curious... curious..."

"Sorry, " said Harry, "But what's curious?"

Mr Ollivander fixed Harry with a pale stare.

"i remember every wand i've ever sold Mr Potter, and it just so happens that the phoenix who gave you your feather gave another, just one other feather. It is very curious that you should be destined for this wand Mr Potter when it's brother, why it's brother, gave you that scar."

Harry swallowed.

"Yes, thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Curious how these things happen is it not? The wand chooses the wizard Mr Potter, remember... i think we can expect great things from you Mr Potter, after all You-Know-Who did great things. Terrible, yes, but great."

Harry shivered. He wasn't sure how he felt about that. He paid seven gold Galleons for his wand and Mr Ollivander bowed them from his shop.

When Harry got back home he was still a bit awed. He had just experienced the most incredible day of his life, and now it was over. Hagrid had left, saying, "Here's yer ticket Harry, and don't worry 'bout them Dursleys, they'll get yer to London fine, and keep an eye out fer any Owls okay, they'll be bringing yer letters." And then he left, leaving Harry with the Dursleys.

His last month with the Dursleys was fun. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia were so perturbed by him that they didn't speak to him, make him do anything, or generally act like he existed. Harry saw this as a bonus. In fact he was so happy about this, (for even Dudley's gang had stopped terrorising him,) that he stopped terrorising the Dursleys by making everything go wrong.

Harry thought it would have been very lonely if it wasn't for Jaculus.

He lay up late into the night, reading his school books next to Jaculus. They were very interesting. Harry learn't about incredible magical plants from one-thousand magical herbs and fungi, with Jaculus chiming in every now and then with little titbits like,

"That plant is poisonous to snakes, " or "If you want to capture a spider alive, burn that one and place it in it's nest."

Harry sometimes wondered how Jaculus knew this, but didn't care too much. He was just fascinated by everything in his books. He learnt of the witches and wizards of the past through a history of magic; and his favourite was reading the charms and spells in a standard book of spells (grade 1). He was itching to give some of them a try, but knew he probably shouldn't annoy the Dursleys any more, if they were his only way of getting to London.

A few days after Harry had got back, he was out walking around privet drive when an owl landed near him and dropped off a letter, addressed to him in handwriting that was so bad, Harry knew immediately it was from Hagrid.

The letter said:

Deer Harry

I asked Dumbledore and he said its fine to bring yer snake to skool.

Introduse me when you get here id luv to meet them.

Hagrid

PS: Dumbledore reminded me that i should give yer instrutions on

getting on the platform fer school so here they are.

there was another bit of paper in the letter that read:

Go ter the barrier beetween platforms 9 and 10 and charge straight at

the wall there. dont be scared abowt crashing or yer wont get through.

Harry thought this was a joke. Run straight at the barrier? He supposed it would make more sense when he got there and put it from his mind for now, still, he was glad Jaculus could come to Hogwarts with him, he didn't like the idea of leaving him with the Dursleys.

When he went to bed that night, he placed the letter with his other Hogwarts letter, and ticked off another day on the sheet of paper he had pinned to the wall counting the days until September 1st.

On the last day of August he thought he's remind the Dursleys about them saying they would get him to London, however it was actually Uncle Vernon that brought it up first. At the breakfast table, when Harry was about to get up, Uncle Vernon motioned for him to sit down. After Aunt Petunia and Dudley had left, he said "Right. Boy. I'm to get you to King's Cross in London tomorrow understand?"

"Yes"

"So i want all your things ready by 8, sharpish, else i wont bother, understand?"

"Yes"

"Good"

Harry woke at 5 o'clock the next morning, and was too excited and nervous to get back to sleep. He got up and pulled on his jeans because he didn't want to walk into the station in his wizard robes - he'd change on the train. He checked his Hogwarts list again, to make sure he had everything he needed. He had a brief panic attack when he couldn't find Jaculus, but then found him kipping under the bed. After telling him to get in his sleeve and stay there, Harry paced the room, waiting for the Dursleys to get up. 3 hours later, everything was packed up in Uncle Vernon's car, and he was saying goodbye to Aunt Petunia and Dudley, who was giving Harry the stink-eye. Harry got into the back and they were off.

It was a mostly uneventful journey, passed in complete silence until,

"Funny way to get to a wizard's school, the train, isn't it?"

"Pardon?" said Harry, who hadn't been listening.

"I said," said Uncle Vernon, "it's a funny way to get to a wizard school isn't it? The train? Magic carpets all got punctures have they?

Where is this school anyway?"

"I - don't know" said Harry, realising this for the first time, "It just says take the 11 o'clock train from platform 9 3/4-"

"Platform what?" said Uncle Vernon.

"9 3/4"

"don't talk rubbish, there is not platform 9 3/4"

"That's what it says on my ticket"

"Barking, the lot of them. don't expect me to come pick you up when you can't get to the platform later."

And they continued in silence until the got to King's Cross at twenty past ten.

Uncle Vernon dumped Harry's trunk and things onto a trolley and wheeled it into the station for him. Harry was surprised by this kindness, until Uncle Vernon stopped dead, facing the platforms with a nasty grin on his face.

"Well there you are boy, Platform 9. Platform 10. your platform should be somewhere in the middle but they don't seem to have built it yet, do they?"

He was quite right of course. There was a big plastic number 9 over one platform and a big plastic number 10 over the other, and in the middle, nothing at all.

"Have a good term." said Uncle Vernon, with an even nastier smile, and he left for his car laughing his head off. Harry was quite annoyed by this until he had the strange feeling that all of the tires on Uncle Vernon's new car had suddenly been slashed, at which point he cheered up massively.

Harry's mouth was rather dry. He remembered what Hagrid had said in the letter to him. Run straight at the wall. Harry wasn't keen to try this, not least off all because he worried what the Muggles would think if he hurtled into the barrier at top speed. He walked up to the barrier and tapped it. It felt solid. He wondered if there was some enchantment on it, like in Diagon Alley.

"Well," thought Harry, "Only one way to find out."

He lined up his trolley with the barrier and charged. he was getting closer. he was inches away. he closed his eyes, ready for the crash and...

He opened his eyes. A scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a platform packed with people. A sign overhead said:

Hogwarts Express, eleven O'clock.

Harry looked behind him and saw a wrought iron archway where the barrier had been, with the words, Platform nine and three quarters written on it in golden lettering. He had done it.

Smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of the chattering crowd, while cats of every colour wound here and there between their legs. Owls hooted to each other in a disgruntled sort of way over the babble and the scraping of heavy trunks.

The first few carriages were already packed with students, some hanging out of the window to talk to their families, some fighting over seats. Harry pushed his trolley off down the platform in search of an empty seat. He passed a round-faced boy who was saying,

"Gran, I've lost my toad again."

"Oh Neville," he heard the old woman sigh.

A boy with a small cardboard box was surrounded by a small crowd.

"Give us a look Lee, go on."

The boy lifted the lid of the box he was carrying, and the people around him shrieked and yelled as something inside poked out a long, hairy leg.

Harry pressed on through the crowd until he found an empty apartment near the end of the train. He pulled and shoved his trunk until it landed on his foot.

"want some help?" a boy said. He was well built and burly, and had short brown hair.

"Yes, please" said Harry. Together they managed to get his trunk into the corner of the compartment.

"Well that was fun." the boy said, standing up. "I'm Oliver, Oliver Wood."

"Harry," said Harry, "Harry Potter."

The boy's demeanour changed immediately.

"The Harry Potter?"

"Yeah." he looked awed, as he saw at Harry in a new light.

"Have you got the... you know-?"

"This?" said Harry, pushing up his fringe.

"Wow, so that's where..."

"Yeah." said Harry again, a little awkwardly.

"Well," said Oliver, holding out his hand, "It was a pleasure to meet you Harry."

"Likewise, " Harry said, as he shook his hand. Oliver then left Harry by himself, still muttering "Wow... Wow..."

Harry sat down in the compartment and heard the train whistle go. He looked back at Kings Cross and platform 9 3/4 as the train sped up and out of view of the station. Houses flashed past the window. Harry felt a great leap of excitement. He didn't know what he was going to - but it had to be better than what he was leaving behind.

The door of the compartment slid open and a boy, about Harry's age, with freckles and flaming ginger hair walked in.

"Anyone sitting there?" he said, pointing at a seat opposite Harry. "Everywhere else is full."

Harry shook his head and the boy sat down.

"I'm Ron by the way."

"Harry."

There was silence for a few minutes then, "Are you Harry Potter?"

"Yes, how did you know?"

"Well... you look like a muggle and i heard that you went to stay with muggles, and that you had dark hair and green eyes, so-" he shrugged. Harry was quite annoyed at this, not least because now he was a wizard he wanted to be as distant as possible from the muggles who had brought him up. And, Harry thought, it was a bit rich to say he looked like a muggle when Ron himself was wearing muggle clothing. Ron seemed to realise he had said something wrong and started looking out the window again.

"Do you remember anything about - you know, then?" said the boy, sill looking out the window.

"No." said Harry in an annoyed tone. "Are all your family wizards?"

"Er - yeah, i think so," said Ron, still looking outside the window. "I think mum's got a second cousin who's an account, but we never talk about him."

They sat in silence a little longer until Ron said, "I heard you went to live with muggles" (he, of course, completely forgot he had already said this) "What are they like?"

"Horrible." said Harry. "Every one of them. They made me live in a cupboard and eat scraps, and they tried to stop me from going to Hogwarts."

"Wow." said Ron. "I didn't know they were like that, i mean my dad works for the ministry in the misuse of muggle artefacts office, and he says they're simple but nice people. I didn't think they could be that horrible."

Harry was just starting to think that he didn't like Ron very much, when the compartment door opened and a pair of twins, identicle in every way and looking like they could be Ron's brothers, came in and said, "Hullo, Ron, we're off down the middle of the train, Lee has a giant tarantula down there." Ron nodded and the twins left.

They had been talking a while now, and the train had left London completely.

Around half-past twelve there was a great clattering in the corridor and a smiling woman slid back their door saying,

"Anything off the trolley dears?"

Harry, who hadn't had any breakfast, leapt to his feet, but Ron mumbled something about bringing sandwiches. Harry went out into the corridor.

He had never had any money for sweets with the Dursleys and now that he had pockets brimming with wizard gold, he was ready to buy as many Mars Bars as he could carry. but the woman didn't have Mars Bars. What she did have were Bertie Botts every flavour Beans, Drooble's best blowing gum, Chocolate frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron cakes, Liquorice Wands and a number of other strange things Harry had never seen before. Not wanting to miss anything, he got some of everything and paid the woman eleven silver sickles and seven bronze Knuts.

"Hungry, are you?" said Ron as Harry came back into the compartment and tipped it on an empty seat.

"Starving" replied Harry, taking a large bit out of a pumpkin pasty. Ron had taken out a lumpy package and unwrapped it. There were four sandwiches in there. He pulled one of them apart and said "She always forgets i don't like corned beef."

Harry started eating the sweets, with Ron telling him what each of them were.

"What are these" said Harry holding up a bag of chocolate frogs, "They're not really frogs are they?"

"Nah," said Ron, "it's just an enchantment, but what you really want are the cards inside"

"The cards?"

"Each chocolate frog has a card of a famous witch or wizard, you know, to collect."

He stared at the pile of chocolate frogs Harry had, longingly. Harry remained oblivious to this and checked which card he had. It showed an old man's face. He wore half-moon glasses, had a long crooked nose, and flowing, silver hair, beard and moustache.

Underneath it was the name, Albus Dumbledore.

"So this is Dumbledore, " said Harry.

"Don't tell me you've never heard of Dumbledore?" said Ron, still looking longingly at the sweets.

Harry turned his card over and read:

ALBUS DUMBLEDORE

Currently Headmaster of Hogwarts,

Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the Dark Wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and ten-pin bowling.

Harry turned the card back over and saw, to his astonishment, that Dumbledore's face was gone.

"He's dissipated!" said Harry.

"Well you can't expect him to hang around all day, can you?"

"But in, you know, muggle photos, people just stay put"

"Weird! they don't move at all?" Ron sounded amazed, now trying not to look at the sweets.

Harry stared as Dumbledore slid back into view and gave him a small smile. Harry had a good time eating the choclate frogs and seeing what the cards were. Soon he hand, not only Dumbledore, but Morgana, Hengist of woodcraft, Alberic Grunnion, Circe, Paracelscus and Merlin, whom he especially like. He finally tore his eyes away from the Druidess Cliodna, who was scratching her nose, to open a bag of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans.

"You want to be careful with those," said Ron looking over at Harry, having resigned himself to the fact that he would never get any of Harry's sweets.

"When they say every flavour, they mean every flavour - you know, you get all the normal ones, like peppermint and chocolate and marmalade, but then you can get spinach and liver and tripe. George reckons he got a booger flavoured on once."

"George?" Harry mumbled, his mouth full of beans,

"Oh, one of my brothers, you saw him earlier, " and he pointed towards the compartment door.

Harry truly did get every flavour of beans. He got toast, coconut, baked bean, strawberry, curry, grass, coffee, sardine and pepper.

The countryside now flying past the window was becoming wilder. The neat fields were gone, instead replaced by woods, twisting river, and green hills.

Harry had eaten about, three quarters of the sweets when there was a knock at the compartment door, and the round-faced boy Harry had seen looked in saying, "has anyone seen a toad at all?"

when they both shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! he keeps getting away from me."

"Right." said Harry, paying no attention to the boy

"Well, if you see him..."

"We'll let you know." said Ron, waving the boy off. "Don't know why he's so bothered, if i'd brought a toad, i'd loose it as soon as i could, mind, i brought Scabbers, so i can't complain."

There was a rat snoozing on Ron's lap. Harry assumed it was Scabbers.

"What animal did you bring anyway?" asked Ron.

Harry was about to answer when the door slid open again.

"Hello, " said a girl, already wearing her Hogwarts robes, "Have any of you seen a Toad? Neville's lost one."

"We already told him we haven't" said Ron.

"Well... if you see him, tell me. I'm Hermione Granger by the way. Who are you?"

"Ron Weasley." said Ron.

"Harry" said Harry. For some reason, and he didn't know why, he didn't want this girl to know who he was. Ron gave him a quizzical look but said nothing.

"Very nice to meet you," and she shook both their hands.

"You know, it was ever such a surprise when i got the letter, " Really? Harry thought. He didn't particularly want to hear this girl's life story.

"I mean - " Hermione continued, "It was ever such a surprise when i got the letter, no-one in my family's magical at all, but i was ever so pleased. I've memorised all our course books off by heart of course, i just hope it'll be enough..."

Harry was pleased by the shocked look on Ron's face, knowing that he hadn't memorised his course books either.

"Well, anyway, if you see a toad, tell me, " and she was gone with a wave.

There was silence for a second until Harry said, "So what do wizards do when they leave school anyway?"

"Oh, well a lot of them go and work for the ministry in London like my dad, but there are other places, my brother Bill works for Gringotts as a curse breaker in Egypt. Did you hear about Gringotts? it's been all over the Daily Prophet, but i don't suppose you get that with the Muggles - someone tried to rob a high security vault"

"What happened to them?"

"Nothing, that's why it's such big news, they didn't take anything either, which is odd. My dad says it must have been a very powerful dark wizard to get round Gringotts. Course, everyone gets scared when something like this happens in case You-Know-Who's behind it."

Harry turned this news over in his mind. He thought about Gringotts when he was there, and how labyrinthine it was. To be able to not only navigate around there, but break into a Vault and get out, all without being caught, must take a lot of skill indeed. He wondered what kind of wizard Voldemort must be, if people immediately think he's behind something like that. What was it Ollivander had said? "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had done great things. Terrible, yes, but great." He wondered if he could meet Voldemort some day. Just to see what kind of wizard he really was. Just then the compartment door opened again and it was not the toadless boy, or Hermione Granger this time. Three boys entered. The one in the middle caught Harry's eye immediately. He was pale-blonde, with Ivory skin and held himself with dignity. He was regarding Harry with quite a lot of interest.

"Is it true?" he said. His voice was soft, and reminded Harry of Jaculus.

"They're saying all up and down this train, that Harry Potter's in this compartment. You must be Harry, right?" he finished, looking right at him.

"Yes." said Harry. He had instantly taken a liking to this boy in a way that no-one else had. He looked at the two boys beside him. Both of them were thickset and looked quite stupid. Standing either side of the boy, they looked like bodyguards.

"Oh, this is Crabbe and Goyle. " the boy said carelessly, looking at what Harry was seeing. "And i'm Draco, Draco Malfoy."

Ron gave a slight cough, which might have hidden a snigger.

"Think my name's funny, do you?" Draco said. "No need to ask who you are. Red Hair, freckles, and hand-me-down clothes, you're obviously a Weasley."

He turned back to Harry.

"You'll soon find that some wizarding families are much better than others Harry. I can help you there," and he held out his hand.

Harry took it saying, "OK."

"Wonderful. Come along to my compartment Harry, there are people i want you to meet before we get to Hogwarts."

So Harry left Ron and walked along the train next to Draco. As they went Harry noticed that everyone was looking at him through their compartment doors, and people were moving out of the hallway and into compartments as they passed. This pleased him, Draco clearly commanded respect, and this was definitely something he was unused to at the Dursleys.

As they reached Draco's compartment he walked in. There were two other people in there already.

"You two, " said Draco, and they stopped talking immediately, "this is Harry. Harry, this is Theodore Nott, " he pointed to the boy on the left, "And Pansy Parkinson." He pointed to the girl on the right.

"So you're Harry potter," Pansy said, with a look of awe on her face as Draco sat down next to her.

"I heard you were brought up by Muggles." said Theodore, as Harry sat down next to Draco.

"I was. " Said Harry. He was a bit lost for words at the impression these people gave off.

"Such a shame," said Theodore, "for the last remaining Potter to be brought up by muggles. How they have fallen."

He shook his head.

"Not that i blame you of course, Harry, i just hope you can restore dignity to your once great line."

Harry looked at Theodore closer. He could see that he was extremely handsome for an eleven-year old boy, and his dark hair was wavy, and cut short above his head.

"I'm not sure what you mean." replied Harry.

"Of course, " said Draco, "you wouldn't know. " he turned to Harry.

"Several Wizarding Families exist, based on their blood status."

"Blood status?" Harry asked.

"How much muggle blood they have in them. Those with no Muggle blood are called Pure-bloods, which is what we are, " he pointed towards everyone in the room.

"Those with some muggle parentage are called Half-bloods, which is what you are, and those who are born ass muggles are called Mudbloods."

"Can half-bloods become Pure bloods?" Harry asked.

"Eventually," replied Draco. "Now the Potters were a very old, very pure, family, descendants from Ignotus Peverell. By right they should be dominant, but they all died out, and after your father was killed, you are the only Potter left on record. that means it is up to you to restore your family's status."

"What about all of you then?"

"Oh, well, Crabbe and Goyle are pure, but not as pure as they could be, and are not featured on the sacred twenty-eight - " seeing Harry's confusion he replied, "The sacred twenty-eight is a book written by Theodore's father, which outlines the purest wizarding families. Me, Theodore and Pansy are all on that list." He looked very impressive as he said it.

"Well, i disagree with my father on many points." replied Theodore. "In fact i'm planning on re-writing it after i finish Hogwarts. "

"What do you mean?" asked Draco

"Well, just a bit spring cleaning, really; You know like adding Potter to the list and removing the Weasleys for one."

"Yes, why are the Weasleys on that list?"

"I don't know. " replied Theodore. "But i tell you, " he said, suddenly angry, "If there is one change i'm making to that list, it is blasting those blood-traitors right off it."

Everyone seemed pleased with this statement. Pansy looked out the window, where it was getting dark, and said, "You know, i think we should put on our robes, we'll probably be there soon. Harry peered out of the window. He could see mountains and forests under a deep purple sky. The train did seem to be slowing down. Everyone took off their jackets and pulled on their Hogwarts robes. They all fit perfectly.

A voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in 5 minutes time, please leave your things on the train, they will be collected separately. "

Harry's stomach lurched with nerves and even Draco, he saw, looked a bit disconcerted. They left the compartment and joined the crowd thronging the corridor. The train slowed right down and eventually stopped. People pushed their way towards the door and eventually out on to a tiny, dark, platform. Harry shivered in the cold night air. Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students, and Harry heard a familiar voice saying;

"Firs' years! Firs' years over 'ere! All right Harry?"

Hagrid's big hairy face beamed over the crowd of people.

"C'mon follow me, Any more firs' years? No? Follow me then."

Harry motioned to Draco and they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark either side of them that Harry thought it must be thick with trees. Nobody said anything. Neville, the boy kept loosing his toad, sniffled once or twice.

"Yeh'll get yer first sight o' Hogwarts in a sec, " Hagrid called over his shoulder. "Jus' round this bend here."

There was a loud "Ooooh!"

The narrow path had opened suddenly on to the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, it's windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers. Hogwarts. The place Harry had dreamed about for a month. Finally in front of him. Draco looked suitably impressed too.

"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Harry got in a boat with Draco, Crabbe and Goyle.

"Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat all to himself.

"Right then, FORWARD!"

And the little fleet of boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.

"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid, as the first boats reached the cliff;

They all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy which hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbour, where they docked and clambered out on to rocks and pebbles.

"Oy, you there! is this your toad?" said Hagrid, who was checking the boats as people climbed out of them.

"Trevor!" cried Neville blissfully, holding out his hands. Then they clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last on to a smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle.

They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge oak front door.

Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.

The door swung open at once. A tall black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. she had a very stern face and Harry's first thought was that this was not someone to cross.

"The firs' years, Professor McGongall, " said Hagrid.

"Thank you Hagrid, i will take them from here."

She pulled the door wide. The entrance hall was so big you could have fitted the whole of the Dursley's house in it. The stone walls where lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors.

They followed Professor McGongall across the flagged stone floor. Harry could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right - the rest of the school must already be here - but Professor McGongall showed the first years into a small empty chamber off the hall. they crowded in, perhaps closer together than they usually would have done, peering about nervously.

"Welcome to Hogwarts, " said Professor McGongall.

"The start of term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the great hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will eat with your house, have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common-room. The four houses are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has it's own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn you house points, whilst any rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points will be awarded the house cup, a great honour.i hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours."

Her eyes lingered on Neville's cloak, which was fastened under his left ear and on Ron, who had a smudge on his nose. Harry nervously flattened his bangs.

"I will return when we are ready for you. please wait quietly."

And she left the chamber. Harry swallowed. "How exactly do they sort us into houses?" he asked Draco.

"A test," he replied, "apparently we have to wear a hat, and that will decide which house we get sorted in to."

"How does a hat sort us into houses?"

"I have no idea." replied Draco.

He looked around anxiously and saw that everyone else was nervous too. No-one was talking much except Hermione Granger, who was whispering about all the spells she learnt and which ones she would need. Harry tried not to listen to her. Her voice was so annoying. Then something happened which made him jump about a foot in the air - several people screamed. He gasped. So did the people around him. About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to each other and hardly glancing at the first years. They seemed to be arguing. What looked like a fat little monk was saying, "Forgive and forget, i say, we out to give him a second chance."

"My dear friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name, and you know, he's not even really a ghost - i say what are you all doing here?"

A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first years.

Nobody answered.

"New students!" said the fat friar, smiling around at them.

"About to be sorted i expect."

A few people nodded mutely.

"Hope to see you in Hufflepuff! My old house you know."

"Move along now, " said a sharp voice. Professor McGongall had returned. "The sorting ceremony is about to begin."

One by one the ghosts fluttered away through the opposite wall.

"Now, form a line," Professor McGonagall told the first years, "and follow me."

Feeling oddly as though his legs had turned to jelly, Harry got into a line behind Malfoy, with Theodore behind him, and they walked out of the chamber, back across the hall and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.

Harry had never imagined such a strange and splendid place. it was lit by thousands of floating candles, floating over the students, who were sitting at four long tables. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. Professor McGonagall led the students up here, so that when they came to a halt, they were facing the students, with the teachers right behind them. The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there amongst the students where ghosts that shone a misty silver. Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Harry looked upwards and saw a velvety black ceiling, dotted with stars. He heard Hermione whisper, "It's bewitched to look like the night sky, i read about it in Hogwarts, a history."

It was hard to believe there was a sky there at all, and that the great hall simply didn't open up to the heavens.

Harry quickly looked down again as Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. This must be the hat they had to wear, but Harry still had no idea how that was supposed to decide their house. It was extremely frayed and dirty. Aunt Petunia wouldn't have allowed it in the house.

Noticing that everyone in the hall was now staring at the hat, he stared at it too. For a few seconds there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth - and the hat began ti sing:

"Oh you may not think I'm pretty,
But don't judge on what you see,
I'll eat myself if you can find
A smarter hat than me.
You can keep your bowlers black,
Your top hats sleek and tall,
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat
And I can cap them all.
There's nothing hidden in your head
The Sorting Hat can't see,
So try me on and I will tell you
Where you ought to be.
You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry
Set Gryffindors apart;
You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true
And unafraid of toil;
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
if you've a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind;
Or perhaps in Slytherin
You'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folks use any means
To achieve their ends.
So put me on! Don't be afraid!
And don't get in a flap!
You're in safe hands (though I have none)
For I'm a Thinking Cap!"

The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished it's song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite again. Harry understood now how trying on the hat would sort you into a house; and he'd already picked his favourite: Slytherin. It sounded by far the best. He hoped he'd be sorted into that house when he put on the hat.

Professor McGonagall stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment.

"When i call out your name, you will put on the ha and sit on the stool to be sorted" she said.

"Abbott, Hannah!"

A pink faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right over her eyes, and sat down. A moments pause -

"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the house.

The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. Harry saw the ghost of the Fat Friar waving merrily at her.

"Bones, Susan!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat again, and Susan went to sit next to Hannah.

"Boot, Terry!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

The table second from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them.

"Brocklehurst, Mandy!" went to Ravenclaw too, but "Brown, Lavender!" became the first new Gryffindor and the table on the far left exploded with cheers. Harry could see Ron's twin brothers catcalling. He thought they looked like a bit of a stupid lot.

"Bullstrode, Millicent!" then became the first Slytherin followed by "Crabbe, Vincent!"

"Finch-Fletchly, Justin!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Sometimes, Harry noticed, the hat shouted out the names immediately, whilst for others it took a little while to decide. "Finnigan, Seamus!" sat on the hat for almost a full minute before the Hat declared him a Gryffindor.

"Granger, Hermione!"

Hermione almost ran to the stool and jammed it on her head.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat shouted and Ron groaned. Harry knew how he felt, he didn't want to be in Gryffindor at all now.

When Neville Longbottom, the boy who kept loosing his toad, was called, he fell over on his way to the stool and after he had been sorted into Gryffindor, Neville ran off, still wearing it, and had to jog back amid peals of laughter to give it to,

"Macdougal, Morag"

Draco swaggered forward when his name was called and almost the moment the hat touched his head, was sorted into

"SLYTHERIN!"

Malfoy went to join Crabbe and Goyle, and gave Harry the thumbs up.

There weren't many people left now.

"Moon!..." became a Hufflepuff, whilst both, "Nott!, and Parkinson!" became Slytherins.

A pair of twin girls, "Patil! and Patil!" became a Ravenclaw and a Gryffindor.

then "Perks, Sally-Anne" became a Hufflepuff, and finally,

"Potter, Harry!"

As Harry stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall.

"Potter, did she say?"

"The Harry Potter?"

The last thing Harry saw before the Hat dropped over his head, was a hall full of people craning to get a good look at him. Next second he was staring at the black inside of the hat. He waited.

"Hmmm." a small voice inside his ear said. "Difficult, very Difficult. Plenty of courage i see. Not a bad mind, either. There's talent, oh my goodness, yes - and nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting ... so where shall i put you?"

Harry knew he probably wanted to be in Slytherin but kept quiet. The hat could apparently read minds though, as he said,

"Slytherin eh?, You could be great, and Slytherin will help you on your way to greatness, no doubt about that."

Harry thought, "Yes please."

the sorting hat let out a kind of wheeze, which could have been a laugh and said, "all right then, SLYTHERIN!"

Harry heard it shout the last word to the whole hall. He took the hat off and walked proudly to the Slytherin table, where, he noticed with some elation, he was getting the loudest cheer yet. He sat down next to Draco, who patted him on the back.

He could see the high table properly now. At the end opposite Harry, sat Hagrid, who was waving at him, though Harry thought his smile didn't look entirely genuine. And there in the centre of the High Table, in a large golden chair, was Dumbledore. Harry recognised him immediately from the chocolate frog card he'd got on the train. Dumbledore's large silver bear was the only thing that shone as brightly as the ghosts in the hall.

There weren't many people left to be sorted now. "Runcorn, Orphelia" became a Slytherin like Harry. "Turpin, Lisa" became a Ravenclaw and "Weasley, Ron" became a Gryffindor. "Zabini, Blaise" was the last person to be sorted and became a Slytherin.

Professor McGonagall rolled up her scroll and took the sorting hat away. Harry looked down at his empty gold plate. he had only just realised how hungry he was. The pumpkin pasties seemed ages away now.

Albus Dumbledore had got to his feet. He was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide, as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there.

"Welcome!" he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!

Thank you!"

He sat down. Harry didn't know weather to laugh or not.

"Is he a bit mad?" he asked Draco.

"Probably. My father doesn't think very highly of him. Sausage, Harry?"

Harry's mouth fell open. The dishes in front of him filled with food. He had never seen so many things he'd liked to eat before. The Dursleys had basically starved him, and he had never been allowed to eat as much as he wanted before. There were so many good foods in front of him: Roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops, lamp chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, chips, Yorkshire puddings, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup and for some strange reason, peppermint humbugs. Harry piled his plate with a bit of everything, and began to eat. It was all delicious. Even Jaculus popped his head out at the smell of all the good food.

"What is that?" Draco said, shocked, as Jaculus slithered out of Harry's sleeve and began to eat some of the smaller bits of food Harry had left.

Harry looked down, "Jaculus, he's my pet snake."

"Really?" Draco looked a bit shocked.

"Yeah, really, he gives me advice and stuff."

All of the first years were now looking at Harry in a mixture of awe and fear. Looking around at their stunned faces, Harry said, "Why, is that not normal?"

"Harry, " said Theodore slowly, "I think you're a parselmouth."

"A what?" replied Harry

"A parselmouth, " replied Theodore, "It means you can talk to snakes."

"So? " said Harry, "I bet loads of people here can do it."

"No, it's a really rare ability. "

"In fact, " said Malfoy, "the most famous parselmouth of all time was Salazar Slytherin, they called him 'Serpent-tongue', that's why the symbol of Slytherin house is a snake", and he pointed to the banner over the Head table.

Sure enough, emblazoned on a green banner was a magnificent silver snake. Harry pondered this for a second. He liked being special. He had certainly never been special in any regard at the Dursleys, unless you count the fact that he was the 'special' kid they kept locked away, for fear the neighbours might see and ask questions about. He looked around the table again. He rather liked this, he thought, as he saw the looks of reverence the other first years, and from some of the second years that had been listening in.

Eventually people started talking again and the topic switched over to their families.

A girl called Orphelia was telling them about her father and the work he did in the ministry.

"You know... " said Draco, "I think I've heard of your father, wasn't he the one that spearheaded the new anti-muggle legislation?"

"Yes!" said Orphelia, quite flustered.

A boy called Blaise went next. It turned out he was the pure-blood son of a famously beautiful witch, who had had seven husbands, each of them dying mysteriously and leaving her mounds of Galleons in their will.

Crabbe and Goyle, it turned out, were pure-bloods from long and respectable families, as well as Theodore and Pansy.

An incredibly beautiful blonde and blue-eyed witch called Daphne Greengrass revealed that she was from one of the oldest and purest families in Britain, and Harry noticed that she held herself with something of a royal air about her. She was in the middle of telling everyone about an ancient malediction that had been placed on her family, when pudding arrived. Blocks of ice cream in every flavour imaginable, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate eclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, jelly, rice pudding...

Harry was feeling a little full at this point, so he only had some trifle, whilst Jaculus swallowed a strawberry. He noticed with some bemusement however, that Crabbe and Goyle had not only filled their plates with four of everything, but also were shovelling it down so fast that Harry was sure they were planning on going back for seconds.

Just then, a ghost with blank, staring eyes, a gaunt face and robes stained with blood. He brandished a sword which he swung through students, making the shiver. As he sat down next to Draco, (Whom Harry saw looked very uncomfortable with the seating arrangements), he said,

"So. First years. I hope you're not going to cause too much trouble are you? Slytherin has won the house cup for 6 years running, and i want to keep it that way."

"N-No..." said Draco meekly, as the ghost swung his sword through Draco's head to point it at the others.

"I've heard of you. " said Theodore, "aren't you the ghost of Slytherin house, the Bloody Baron?"

"Most certainly, " he said, in low voice that made the hairs on Harry's neck stand up, "And unless you want to find out why, i suggest you get all the points you can for Slytherin."

"But aren't you a ghost?" said Harry, "How exactly are you going to do that?"

"Why my boy, " said the Baron, moving closer to Harry, "I can make Peeves do whatever i want, and ", he moved close still, their noses were practically touching now,

"If i want Peeves to make the life of the famous Harry Potter a living hell, then he will. " The Baron finished.

Just then the pudding disappeared and Dumbledore stood up to make an announcement. The Baron flew through Harry and off to the other end of the table, making Harry feel like he'd just dipped his body in a bucket of ice cold water. The hall fell silent.

"Ahem - just a few more words now we are all fed and watered. I have a few start of term notices to give you.

First years should note that the Forrest in the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to recognise that as well. " his eyes flashed in the direction of the Weasley twins.

"I have also been asked by the caretaker, Mr. Filch, to remind you that magic is not to be used in the corridors or outside of classes."

"Quidditch trials will begin in the second week of term. Anyone interested in playing for their house team should contact Madame Hooch or their head of house."

"And finally i must tell you that this year, the third floor corridor on the right hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a most painful death"

There was muttering at this that only died down when Dumbledore said,

"And now, it is time for bed, off you trot."

Harry's legs were like jelly again, but this time because he was so sleepy and full of food. As he followed a Slytherin Prefect, Gemma Farley, to their common room, he was too sleepy even to be surprised that the people in the portraits along the corridors whispered as they passed, or that twice, Gemma lead them down a flight of stairs behind a trick wall. Harry lost track of where he was going when they reached the dungeons, as Gemma lead them through increasingly complex dungeons, They finally stopped at a seemingly innocuous stretch of wall. She turned around to see them and said,

"In order to get access to the Slytherin common room, you have to say your blood status in this corridor."

She turned around and said "Half-blood."

A passageway opened up on the side of the corridor leading to the Slytherin Common room.

It was beautiful. They were completely under the lake, and the light passing through the windows gave everything a green glow. the marble pillars holding up the roof were decorated with snakes; and swords, shields, and suits of armour lined the walls. everything was emblazoned with an 'S' or a snake, even the sofas and armchairs, which were emerald green and proudly displayed the Slytherin crest on the top corner of their being in silver thread. In the Very centre of the room, stood a pillar, and atop that pillar stood a giant snake coiled around it. It's blazing green eyes seemed to follow you around the room.

Gemma directed the Boys through one door to the right, and the girls to another through the left. They had to descend another flight of stairs to get to their Dormitory and at last found their beds: six four-posters hung with deep-green curtains. Their trunks had already been brought down. Too tired to talk much, they pulled on their pyjamas and fell into bed.

Harry fell asleep almost at once.

"There, look."

"Where?"

"Next to the blonde kid."

"Wearing the glasses?"

"Did you see his face?"

"Did you see his scar?"

Whispers followed Harry from the moment he left the dormitory the next day. People queuing outside classrooms stood on tiptoe to look at him, or doubled back to pass him in the corridor. At first Harry found all this rather amusing, and enjoyed being the centre of attention, but soon found it to be quite annoying, as he had to concentrate on finding his way to his classes.

There were 142 staircases at Hogwarts: wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that had a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump; some that led somewhere different on a Friday. Then there were doors that wouldn't open unless you asked them nicely, or tickled the, in just the right place. Sometimes they weren't doors at all, just pieces of wall, pretending. It was also very hard to remember where anything was, as it always seemed to move around. The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other and Harry swore the suits of armour could move.

Then, once you found them, there were the classes themselves. There was a lot more to magic, as harry soon found out, than waving your wand and saying a few funny words.

They had to study the night sky through their telescopes every Wednesday at midnight, and learn the names and places of different stars and the movements of the planets. Three times a week, they went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology, with a dumpy little witch called Professor Sprout, where they learnt to take care of all the strange plants and fungi and found out what they were used for.

Easily the most boring lesson was History of magic, which was the only class taught by a ghost. Professor Binns had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of the staffroom fire and got up the next morning to teach leaving his body behind. Whilst Harry didn't like Binns much, he had to admire his dedication to teaching.

Professor Flitwick the charms teacher, was a tiny wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. at the start of their first lesson he took the register, and gave a little squeak when he reached Harry's name, and toppled out of sight.

Professor McGonagall was again different. Harry had been quite right to think that she wasn't a teacher to cross. Strict and clever, she gave them a talking too the moment that had sat down to class.

"Transfiguration is some of the most dangerous and complex magic you will learn at Hogwarts." she said. Harry wasn't really listening for the next part, and neither was Draco, though both looked up, impressed, when she turned her desk into a pig and back. They couldn't wait to get started, but soon found they weren't going to be turning the furniture into animals for a long time. After making a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a matchstick and started trying to turn it into a needle. By the end of the lesson no one had made any real progress, but Draco swore his matchstick was shinier that everyone else's.

The class Harry had been really looking forward too was defence against the dark arts, but that turned out to be a bit of a joke. It was taught by a pasty teacher called Professor Quirrell, who was scared of everything. Scared of the students, scared of the subject, scared of himself, even. For some reason he wore a large purple turban, which he said was a gift from an African prince for getting rid of a troublesome Inferi. They didn't believe this story though, as they all agreed that Quirrell was too scared to get rid of a spider, much less and inferi, whatever that was, and his stutter was the cause of many jokes told in the common room. They didn't completely fall behind in their classes though. They had found a hidden Slytherin duelling room, presided over by a ancient Warlock called Kyrillos, who claimed to be a byzantine pirate who had invented Greek fire, but then had his recipe stolen by muggles.

So far only Harry, Draco, Crabbe, Goyle and Theodore knew about this room, and they planned to meet there on the weekend.

Friday was a good day for Harry and Draco. It had been a long, boring week, and they were perfectly ready to learn to duel.

"What have we got today?" asked Harry, as he poured a bowl of cereal for himself.

"Double potions with the Gryffindors." said Draco. "At least Snape'll favour us, they say he always favours Slytherins over everyone else."

Just then the post arrived. Harry had got a bit of shock when this first happened. Of course he had gotten mail by owl before, but he had never seen so many owls in one place before. Draco normally got a package from home of sweets and other goodies, which he generally shared with Harry. A large school owl flew in from the windows, and landed in front of Harry carrying a note. Harry read the note. it was from Hagrid, written in an untidy scrawl, and said:

Dear Harry,

I now you get Friday afternoons off, so how abowt having a cup of tee at my plase around three? i want to here all abowt yore ferst week. send me an anser back with this owl.

Hagrid.

Draco read the note over Harry's shoulder and exclaimed,

"You can't be thinking of going Harry? The great oaf can't even spell right, he'd probably burn you with the tea he poured."

"I know, " said Harry with a sigh, "But he's the reason i'm allowed Jaculus in school, and he wants to meet him, so i think i should at least be polite. "

"Make up an excuse, " said Draco, "pretend you're study for transfiguration or something like that. i doubt the stupid oaf would understand anyway."

"good idea, " said Harry, and he wrote on the back of the note,

Sorry Hagrid, but i need that time to practice transfiguration, perhaps another time.

Harry

He sent the owl on it's way, knowing that he would eventually have to go and see Hagrid, and introduce Jaculus. It was a half-truth anyway, as McGonagall had lumped them with an enormous pile of homework in her last lesson.

Potions class took place in one of the dungeons. It was colder here than in the rest of the school, but as the Slytherins slept in the dungeons, Harry was used to it. It was quite a strange place, with pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls. Snape, like Flitwick, started the class by calling the register, and like Flitwick, he paused at Harry's name.

"Ah, yes, " he said softly, "Harry Potter, our new - celebrity."

Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class. His eyes were black, like Hagrid's. They were cold and empty and made you think of dark tunnels.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making. " he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but the class caught every word he said. Like McGonagall, he had perfected the skill of keeping a class quiet without effort.

"As there is little foolish wand waving here, many of you will hardly believe that this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with it's shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... i can teach you to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death - if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as i usually have to teach."

There was silence following this little speech. On the spot Harry decided that this would be his new favourite class. The ability to brew fame and glory were all well and good, Harry thought, but it was the stopper death that had him really captivated.

"Potter!" said Snape suddenly, snapping Harry out of his reverence. "What would i get if i added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

What? Harry thought, caught off guard by the question. but then a voice whispered in his ear,

"Harry, repeat after me:" It was Jaculus, talking to Harry in parseltounge.

So Harry said to the whole class; "Adding powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood would create an incredibly powerful sleeping potion known as the draft of the living death, after also adding sloth brain and the juice of a sopophorous bean, alternatively, a weaker sleeping draft can be made using Lavender, Flobberworm Mucus, and Valerian sprigs."

The class was in a stunned silence for a few moments. Snape, however, was not.

"As expected Potter. 5 points to Slytherin."

Thing only got better for Harry and the Slytherins as the lesson went on. It was clear that Snape did indeed favour Slytherins, as he set them on the task of mixing a simple potion to cure boils. Snape swept around them in his long black cloak, watching them dry nettles and crush snake fangs, criticizing almost everyone except Harry and Draco. Harry, for his part, was doing incredibly well with the help of Jaculus. The method in the book was:

Part 1

Add 6 snake fangs to the mortar. Crush into a fine powder using the pestle. Add 4 measures of the crushed fangs to your cauldron. Heat the mixture to 250 for 10 seconds. Wave your wand. Leave to brew and return in 33-45 minutes.

Part 2

Add 4 horned slugs to your cauldron. Take the cauldron off the fire before adding the next ingredient.[1] Add 2 porcupine quills to your cauldron. Stir 5 times, clockwise. Wave your wand to complete the potion.

But here and there Jaculus said things like, "add a bit more of that" or "leave that going a bit longer". Because of this, Harry had earned Slytherin another 5 points. To top it all off, Neville's cauldron emitted a large cloud of acid green smoke, accompanied by a loud hissing sound. When the smoke cleared they saw that Neville had somehow managed to melt Seamus's cauldron into a twisted blob and their potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning hole in people's shoes. Meanwhile Neville, who had been drenched in the stuff, moaned in pain and agony as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs. The Slytherins all howled with laughter as Snape snarled, "Idiot boy!" whilst clearing away the spilled potion with his wand. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?"

Neville whimpered as boils started to pop up all over his nose.

"Take him to the hospital wing. " Snape spat at Seamus.

As they walked out of Snape's classroom and back to their Common room, Draco asked Harry, "How did you know about all that stuff, with the potions. I don't think it's even in our textbooks."

"Jaculus told me. " Harry replied. They all seemed very impressed, but that raised a question in Harry's mind. How did Jaculus know about all that? At first Harry had thought Jaculus no more than a common snake that had taken a liking to Harry, but now he thought about it, how many common snakes knew about the intricacies of potion-making? did that mean Jaculus wasn't real snake, like he pretended? But how then, could a wizard take the form of a snake? Maybe he should ask Jaculus directly? No... no that probably wasn't a good idea. but he would definitely be keeping an eye on Jaculus from now on.

The next day, after they had eaten breakfast, Harry, Draco, Crabbe, Goyle and Theodore made their way to the corridor where they had found the duelling room previously. It took them a few tries to find it, as they weren't sure exactly where it was, these dungeons seemed to go on and on, but eventually they found the room and went inside.

The room was very much like the Slytherin common room, except without windows, or sofas. instead, on the floor, there were four long mats, and at the far end of the room, surrounded by bookcases, was a portrait of Kryillos.

Kryillos was a wiry man, with a large turban and small beard. He wore long and flowing robes, sea-green in colour, and emblazoned with a large, decorative 'K'. Beside him stood a witch wearing large, heavy, fur robes, blood-red in colour, and holding a long wooden staff topped with an golden eagle's head.

"Welcome!" his voice was loud and booming, "Welcome back! Do you wish to learn the might, of martial magic?"

"Yes, " said Draco, stepping forward eagerly. Crabbe and Goyle grunted. Both Harry and Theodore merely nodded.

"Then!" he said, dramatically, "take your places!"

The witch behind him banged her staff on the ground, creating sparks, and causing two of the mats to get illuminated. Harry and Draco took one mat, whilst Theodore, Crabbe and Goyle took the other.

"Now then, the spell i want you to learn is flipendo, the knockback jinx. This is a simple spell, ideal for you first years." He looked at them with a cunning glint in his eye;

"The wand gesture is this: " and he traced, a sort of V with a flick at the end, through the air. "The incantation is Flipendo, try it now."

It took a while for anyone to get it. Kyrillos gave advice here and there with things like,

"Add more of a flick, boy," or "say it with more Gusto! It's fli-PEN-doh not flipp-en-doh."

Theodore was the first was to get it right. As he sent Crabbe flying across the room, the painting said,

"Bravissimo, now there is a boy who will be a great warlock when he's older."

They left the room a bit beat up, as they had all managed to cast the flipendo jinx at least once, except for Goyle. And they had all agreed to do this again next week, and perhaps invite some more people next time.

It was as he got back to the Slytherin common room that he noticed a cutting from the daily prophet lying on the table. It read:

GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST

Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 July, widely believed to be the work of dark wizards and witches unknown.

Gringotts' goblins today insisted that nothing had been vault that was searched had been emptied earlier that week.

"But were not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you, " said a Gringotts' spokesgoblin this afternoon.

Harry remembered Weasley telling him something on the train about a Gringotts break-in. Now that he thought about it, hadn't Hagrid emptied vault 713? And if it took place on his birthday, then that meant that Hagrid would have emptied out the vault earlier that week, just like the newspaper said. Had Hagrid taken that grubby little package out just in time? Where was it now? And what, Harry thought, would be so valuable that Dumbledore wanted to move it from Gringotts, the safest place in the world?, according to Hagrid, except perhaps Hogwarts. Did that mean Dumbledore knew that it was going to be stolen? Had he, perhaps, orchestrated the theft? Maybe even did it himself? Harry remembered Weasley saying that only a really powerful wizard could get around Gringotts. Didn't people call Dumbledore the most powerful wizard of his age? Harry thought about all those times Uncle Vernon had complained about insurance fraud. Perhaps the wizarding world had something similar. Still, though, he thought, none of his classes had given him as much to think about at this newspaper clipping. Quickly looking around to make sure nobody was looking, he stuffed the bit of paper into his pocket.

He defiantly wanted to go see Hagrid now, to ask about the small grubby little package from vault 713.

The Slytherins got a nice surprise when they woke up next morning and was what was pinned to the notice-board. Flying lessons would be starting, and Gryffindor and Slytherin would be learning together.

Harry was really excited to learn to fly on a broomstick, but wasn't sure how he felt about learning in front of the Gryffindors. Harry was also really excited to try quidditch. Having grown up with muggles, Harry had had no idea what quidditch was until Draco explained it to him. Harry was fascinated, and more than ready to fly. He'd already picked out his favourite position too, from what Draco said, chasers were the ones with the most glory, the most fame, the ones responsible for scoring the goals. Though Harry admitted that the seeker, the one who caught the golden snitch that ended the game, sounded cool too.

It seemed like everyone who grew up with a wizarding family followed quidditch. Malfoy talked at length about his childhood as he flew around on a broomstick, narrowly missing muggles in helicopters, and complained loudly about first-years not being able to get on the house teams. He wasn't the only one though. Crabbe and Goyle both talked about flying on a broom, and Blaise would talk about his experience trying out new racing brooms when his mother married a broomstick maker. Even Weasley would talk boastfully about how he almost hit a hang glider on his broom. Harry wasn't sure he believed this story though. For one thing, Weasley didn't seem like he had enough money to afford a broomstick.

"Oh but of course;" Malfoy had said at the breakfast table, "We'll be flying with the Gryffindors won't we? I don't want to get bogged down by a simpleton who's only experience flying is with an enchanted stick."

He then began to talk at length about all the different kinds of brooms from the lighting fast Comet 290 to the superb handling of the Nimbus 2000. Harry was fascinated by the talks of all the different brooms but just as Malfoy was explaining the intricacies of the Cleansweep seven and the Cleansweep/Comet rivalry, to the classics in broom history like the Moontrimmer and the Oakshaft '79, a broom that was highly valued as a vintage and the broom flown by the first person to fly across the Atlantic, Jocunda Sykes, in 1935.

His lecture was cut short by the arrival of the post. Harry had not received any post since Hagrid's note, though after he had sent a note back to Hagrid asking if he could come visit, he was anxiously awaiting a reply.

It seemed his luck was in however, as one of the school's barn owls flew down and landed next to Harry's cornflakes. Jaculus hissed at it, and it flew off with a squawk, leaving the letter behind.

"Is it a message back from that oaf?"

"Yeah." said Harry, opening it to see Hagrid's untidy scrawl across the page.

Deer Harry

I wood be happee for you to come to tee with me at 3 on

Saturady.

i hope i can meet yor pet snake, and introdewse you too

Fang.

Hagrid.

Draco, who had read the letter over Harry's shoulder, replied:

"I can't see what you aim to get out of the oaf. "

"I want to ask him about the Gringotts break-in."

"Are you still going on about that? listen, something like this happens every month or so, if you focus on each one you'd never get anything done. "

"Yes but i think that Hagrid took the package out just in time, and i want to know what was so important and valuable that it was under the highest security possible and that a very powerful dark wizard was trying to steal it."

"I doubt that Dumbledore even told the oaf what it was. Probably just told him that it was important and hoped he didn't break it on his way here. Besides, even if he does know, what makes you think that he'll just tell you?"

"There's no harm in asking."

"I suppose, but it seems like a massive waste to me. I definitely won't be going."

"I don't blame you, i hardly want to go myself."

"Then why do you?" he shook his head, "Well, anyway what's our first lesson?"

"Herbology" Theodore replied.

As they left the Slytherin table they had to walk past the Gryffindor table to leave and as they were passing, Draco snatched something out of Longbottom's hand.

Weasley and Finnigan jumped up, looking like they were ready for a fight, but Professor McGonagall, who could spot trouble faster than any teacher in the school, was there in a flash.

"What's going on?"

"Malfoy's got my rememberall Professor."

"Just looking" Malfoy scowled, as he quickly dropped the rememberall back onto the table. We all followed him as he sloped out of the hall.

At three-thirty that afternoon, Harry, Draco, Crabbe and Goyle, lined up with the rest of the Slytherins in the grounds for their first flying lesson. It was a clear and breezy day and the grass rippled under their feet as they marched down the sloping lawns towards a smooth lawn on the opposite side of the grounds to the Forbidden Forrest, whose trees were swaying darkly in the distance. The Gryffindors were late, and twenty broomsticks were laid out in neat lines on the ground. Harry had heard some of the older Slytherins complain about the school brooms, saying they were awful and always flew slightly to the left.

Their teacher, Madame Hooch, arrived. She had short, grey hair and yellow eyes like a hawk.

"Well, what are you all waiting for?" she barked. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."

Harry glanced down at his broom. It was old and some of the twigs stuck out at odd angles.

"Stick your right hand over the broom, " called Madame Hooch, " and say 'Up!'"

"UP!" everyone shouted.

Harry's broom jumped into his hand straight away, so did Draco's, but their's were some of the few that did. Perhaps brooms were like horses, Harry thought. There was a quaver in Longbottom's voice that said only too clearly that he wanted to keep both feet on the ground.

Madame Hooch showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down correcting their grips. Harry had to stifle a snigger when she told Draco he'd been doing it wrong for years.

"Now, when i blow my whistle i want you to kick off hard from the ground." She said. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet and then come straight back down by leaning forwards slightly. On my whistle - three - two -"

But Longbottom pushed off hard before the whistle even touched Madame Hooch's lips.

"Come back boy!" she shouted, but Longbottom was rising straight up like a cork out of a bottle - twelve feet - twenty feet. Harry saw his pitiful face look down at the ground falling away, saw him gasp, slip sideways off the broom and -WHAM - a thud and a nasty crack and Longbottom lay face down on the grass in a heap. his broomstick was rising higher and higher and started to drift lazily towards the Forbidden Forrest and out of sight.

Madame Hooch was bending over Longbottom, her face as white as his.

"Broken wrist, " Harry heard her mutter, "Com on boy - it's all right, up you get."

She turned to the rest of the class.

"None of you is to move whilst i take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms on the grounds where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch'. Come on dear."

Longbottom, crying like a baby, clutching his wrist, hobbled off with Madame Hooch, who had her arm around him.

No sooner were they out of earshot than Draco Burst into laughter.

"Did you see his face, the great lump?"

The other Slytherins joined in.

"Shut up Malfoy, " Snapped Parvati Patil.

"Oooh sticking up for Longbottom?" sadi Pansy, "Never thought you'd be into fat little crybabies, Parvati."

"Look!" said Draco, darting forwards and snatching something out of the grass, "it's that thing Longbottom's gran sent him."

The rememberall gleamed in the sun as he held it up.

"Give it back!" shouted Finnigan. Everyone stopped talking to watch.

Draco smirked.

"I think i'll leave it somewhere for longbottom to collect - how about - up a tree?"

"Give it back!" Finnigan yelled, but Draco had lept onto his broom and taken off. He hadn't been lying, he could fly, and well. Hovering with the topmost branches of the an Oak he called, "Come and get it then!"

Finnigan grabbed his broom. One of the girls tried to stop him, but he took off, not as gracefully as Draco, but it was clear he had flown before. He turned his broomstick to face Draco mid-air.

"I'll knock yer off yer broom Malfoy!"

"Oh yeah?" Draco sneered, but he didn't look quite as confident. Suddenly, in a flash Harry knew what to do. He leaped onto his broom and kicked hard against the ground and up, up he soared, air rushed through his hair and his robes whipped out behind him - and in a rush of fierce joy he realised he'd found something he could do without being taught - this was easy, this was wonderful. He pulled his broomstick behind Finnigan, who was looking less confident now it was two against one.

"Fly away, Finnigan."

"Oh, yeah! Or what?" He said, looking a little scared.

"I'll jinx you."

"You can't fool me Potter! We haven't been taught any jinxes yet!"

"Really?" and Harry pointed his wand towards a nearby tree. "Flipendo!"

He had just wanted to knock a branch off, maybe mark the tree a bit. What Harry had not expected was for the tree to nearly uproot itself, only supported by the neighbouring trees. It did, however, give the intended result. There were stunned looks from both the Slytherins and Gryffindors, and Finnigan was looking terrified. Too his credit though, he stayed in the air, perhaps hovering slightly lower than before.

Harry turned his wand on Seamus. "You're next Finnigan!"

Finnigan waited just a bit too long in the air. He had guts, Harry thought, as he fired another jinx at him, which narrowly missed, singing the end of his robes. The other Gryffindors were screaming at him to get down, whilst the Slytherins were cheering.

Harry fired another blast at him as he got lower to the ground. Finnigan had to dive off his broom in order to avoid it, which hit the broom's tail instead, sending it careening off into the Forrest.

Harry landed in front of the Slytherins, whom all cheered as Draco landed next to him.

Finnigan was looking quite dishevelled, as his robes were now burnt and had acquired a layer of dirt from his fall.

"Maybe next time don't challenge a Slytherin quite so hastily, Finnigan." There were whoops of applause from the Slytherin crowd.

Seamus looked like he was fighting an internal battle before saying,

"It wasn't a fair fight, i could have taken you on the ground."

There was a moan from Weasley and the Gryffindors, whilst jeers from the Slytherins.

"All right then Finnigan. " Draco said as he stepped forward. "How about a wizard's duel? You vs Harry, Midnight in the Trophy room, that's always unlocked."

"A'right, who's yer second?" he said to Harry. "I am," said Draco, "Who's yours?"

Finnigan looked behind him and said, "Ron." Ron groaned.

When they were back in the Slytherin common room, Harry asked,

"What's a wizard'd duel? and what do you mean you're my second?"

"Well, a second's there to take over if you die, but don't worry we're not actually going to duel them, i told Filch that someone was going to be snooping around the trophy room tonight. They should get caught and expelled." he said nastily.

"Ah, good idea." Harry said, sitting down to do his homework.

At half-past eight, Harry lay down for bed thinking about Weasley and Finnigan getting caught by Filch and expelled. If they did turn up at all.

The next day, Harry went down to see Hagrid and brought Jaculus along with him, as requested. He made his way to a small wooden house on the edge of the grounds. A crossbow and a pair of galoshes were outside the front door.

When Harry knocked on the door he heard a frantic scrabbling from inside and several booming barks. Then Hagrid's voice rang out saying "back Fang, back!"

Hagrid's big, hairy face appeared in the crack as he pulled the door open.

"Hang on." he said, "Back, Fang"

He let Harry in, struggling to keep a hold on the collar of an enormous black boarhound.

There was only one room inside. Hams and Pheasants were hanging from the ceiling, a copper kettle was boiling on the open fire and in the corner stood a massive bed with a patchwork quilt over it.

"Make yerself at home, " Hagrid said, letting go of Fang, who bounded straight at Harry and began licking his ears. Like Hagrid, Fang was clearly not as fierce as he looked.

Taking Jaculus out on the table, he said, "This is Jaculus," as Hagrid was pouring boiling water into a large teapot and putting rock cakes onto a plate. The rock cakes almost broke Harry's teeth, so he put them down and didn't touch them afterwards. Hagrid was admiring Jaculus.

"He's a beaut' in'he?" he said, touching Jaculus's scales with a finger. "Mind, i don't know much 'bout snakes really, this could be the ugliest fella in the world fer all i know, but he does look nice." he took a sip of his tea. "So, how'd you two come across each other?"

And Harry told him the story of how he'd met Jaculus and cared for him, feeding him scraps from the Dursley's table.

Hagrid seemed impressed by that, and told him about all the animals he'd cared for in the Forrest, things like Unicorns, Thestrals and Hippogriffs. Harry was awed by Hagrid's descriptions of these creatures, and very much wanted to see them for himself, but Hagrid said he couldn't, for the Forrest was too dangerous for a first-year.

"But you go in there all the time don't you?"

"Well... yeah, but i know how to protect m'self, see"

"So anyway, did you see that Daily Prophet article about the break in at Gringotts? Wasn't that the vault we visited?"

"Oh. Um, yeah i s'pose it was. Got it out jus' in time didn't we eh?" he gave a dry chuckle.

"Do you know what happened to it?"

"I, er, gave it to Dumbledore then he... er..." Hagrid mumbled something into his beard, then said, "Well anyway, hows Hogwarts?"

Noticing the deliberate change in subject, Harry decided not to press Hagrid for more information. Instead he told Hagrid about all the wonderful things in Hogwarts. Hagrid seemed to respond quite jovially to this, and by the time Harry left, he was sure that Hagrid had put the little object in the brown package far out of his mind.

Harry knew one thing for sure though, Hagrid knew what was in that package, and where it was being kept.

On his way back from Hagrid's Harry found himself behind four Gryffindors, who he recognised as Granger, Weasley, Finnigan and Longbottom. He was about to turn away into the dungeons when he caught a bit of what they were saying.

"Of all the stupid ideas to have"

"Oh shut up Hermione"

"We could have been killed, or worse, expelled!"

"Keep your voice down" said Finnigan to Granger, "Or a teacher will hear us."

"But what the bloody hell are they thinking? Keeping a beast like that in Hogwarts? If any dog needs exercise, that one does."

The other all shuushed him as Granger said,

"You don't use your eyes do you? Any of you? didn't you see what it was standing on?"

"The floor?" Weasley suggested, "I was too busy looking at it's heads"

"No, not the floor, it was standing on a trapdoor, it's obviously guarding something."

"Like what?" asked Longbottom.

"I dunno. " said Weasley, "but i do know i'm never going back there again."

They all agreed at this and Harry, believing the conversation to be over, turned around and headed back to the Slytherin Common room.

"You see what this means?" Harry said to Draco when he was back in the common room, and after telling him about his visit to Hagrid's and the conversation he had overheard from the Gryffindors.

"That whatever was taken from Gringotts has been moved to Hogwarts?"

"Exactly, when i first met Hagrid, he told me that Gringotts was the safest place to hide anything, except for Hogwarts. And he probably knows what was in the package and won't tell me, and i'll bet he knows what the thing is guarding it too."

"Well if it is a beast guarding the thing, then that oaf will definitely know. He has too much a fancy for these creatures than any real wizard should." said Theodore, who was listening in.

"So what do you want to do now?" asked Draco.

"What do you mean?" replied Harry.

"Well, do you want to find out exactly what it is guarding the thing."

"You mean open the door on the third floor?"

"Yes."

"Well, yes, but how would i do it?"

To this Draco shrugged, but Theodore said,

"Well, if Granger could do it, then she probably used an unlocking charm, you know, Alohomora."

"The one in our school books?"

"Yes, exactly, i'm sure if you asked Professor Flitwick he would teach you it. I suppose Kyrillos would know too."

"Ok, i think i'll ask Kryillos then. If i asked Professor Flitwick, he might ask some awkward questions."

"Didn't he say he'd teach you the blinding spell as well?"

"He did, didn't he? i think we should pay him another visit soon."

They all agreed and decided that next Saturday, they would visit Kyrillos again.

"Of course you know what the really annoying thing is?" said Draco at the breakfast table the next morning, looking over at the Gryffindor table, where Weasley, Granger, Finnigan and Longbottom were eating.

"What's that?" asked Harry, between mouthfuls of pancakes.

"That none of them were expelled."

"Well, it doesn't sound like they were caught."

"Yes. Maybe we should have duelled them instead. At least then they wouldn't be looking so smug."

"Well, go ask them then, I know Finnigan won't back down."

"Yes, i think i'll do that. Meet me outside the great hall after i leave."

He swaggered off to the Gryffindor table as Harry helped himself to a third pancake.

Whilst he couldn't see exactly what Draco was saying, (Flanked as usual by Crabbe and Goyle), he got the jist of it. Especially as Finnigan looked to get angrier and angrier, whilst Draco looked smugger and smugger.

As Draco left, Finnigan shook his finger at Draco whilst Granger hung her head in her hands. Harry swallowed the last pancake and left after Draco.

Draco was waiting just outside the Great hall, like he said and when Harry arrived told him,

"We're going to be duelling Finnigan and Weasley outside, next to the Forrest in 30 minutes."

"Wonderful, shall we get going then?"

"Yes, of course."

They had been waiting for about 20 minutes when they saw a group of people coming out of the school. This included Finnigan and Weasley (As it should) but also included a number of other Gryffindors like: Granger, Longbottom and a muggle-born Harry recognised as Dean Thomas.

Harry noted, with some interest, that Granger was whispering into the ears of Finnigan and, most unsually, he was listening and not interrupting her as he usually did. There was another Slytherin arriving as well, Pansy. This meant that there were five Gryffindors and five Slytherins watching this bout.

"Good, you're here. " Said Draco to Finnigan as he got closer, "I was beginning to think you'd chickened out."

"Shut up, Malfoy" Weasley said in response.

Draco smirked.

"So Weasley, are you ready to show everyone just how traitorous you are?"

"Change of plans Malfoy, Hermione is going the be Seamus's second instead."

Draco looked a bit irked at this, but nevertheless said,

"Oh, well, what's the difference between a muggle-born and a blood-traitor anyway?"

The Slytherins all laughed at this.

"Oh, yeah?" shouted Finnigan, "i bet you can't even cast right Malfoy. I bet you're just hiding behind Harry, hoping he'll do all the work for you!"

This really annoyed Draco as he said, every word quivering with malice, "All right then, Harry'll be my second instead you filthy little Pikey"

Although Harry had never heard of the word before, it seemed to especially get under the skin of Finnigan and had the result that both of them looked ready to tear each other to shreds before the duel even started.

Longbottom, scared as always stepped forward and, looking at both Draco and Finnigan, said,

"Er, the er, if you get knocked down your, er, second takes your place," he swallowed, "If your second, er falls, then you loose erm. Begin."

Draco immediately cast Flipendo, which missed Finnigan's head by inches, singing his hair as he ducked out of the way. Finnigan cast Vermillious, which missed Draco as he cast Flipendo again, but missed and hit a tree. Finnigan then cast Fumos.

Harry had read about Fumos in The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection. It was described as a smokescreen spell, to be used defensively to hinder the view of your opponent, but when Finnigan cast it, it was more like the puff of smoke a smoker exhales from their cigarette.

Draco let out a great "Ha!" whilst Weasley groaned as Draco hit Finnigan and sent him sprawling on the grass.

Granger stepped forward whilst Thomas looked over Finnigan on the ground.

"Come on then!" Draco shouted in an air of euphoria.

Granger, too, cast the Fumos spell, but instead of it being a puff of smoke like Finnigans, Granger's was a true smokescreen. The thick smoke poured out of her wand in seconds, completely obscuring Draco's view. Draco barely had time to register a look of shock and confusion before Granger shouted, "Mucus ad Nauseam!", and Draco was hit by a blast of green light and he started to sneeze. Violently. His nose also started running, Draco had apparently been hit by the curse of the bogies, a spell Professor Quirrell had told them about in his classes.

There were whoops and cheers from the Gryffindors as Draco fell over, knocked back by a particularly violent sneeze.

Harry then stepped forward in his place whilst Pansy, doing her best not to get snot all over her, helped Draco to his feet but then failed as he sneezed again and let him rest against a tree. He probably would have said a scathing remark, but was too preoccupied with sneezing to do it.

The smokescreen was still active, and Granger popped her head out to see what was happening. she quickly caught sight of Harry and popped back in. a second later, "Vermillious!", could be heard from the smokescreen, but Harry effortlessly dodged it.

Granger cast Vermillious again, and again. Harry noticed she was casting in a pattern, presumably because she couldn't see out of the smokescreen.

Alright then, Harry thought, and cast Flipendo at her feet, causing her to shriek with fear as the ground under her presumably burst upwards from the impact, straight into her face. He shot green sparks at her. Harry saw the sparks fly out the back of the smoke, and cast Flipendo again, having a good idea where she was now. At the same time Granger shot red sparks at Harry.

Both spells found their mark, however, Granger's was less damaging, and caused Harry's shoulder to be whacked with what felt like a very hot fist. He looked down and saw a slight scorch mark on his left shoulder.

Harry's spell, meanwhile, had hit Granger in the stomach, and she keeled over winded, as the smoke cleared.

The Slytherins all cheered and, Crabbe and Goyle carrying Draco on their shoulders, walked back up to school.

When they took Draco back to the Slytherin common room, he had nearly collapsed from the effects of the curse Granger had placed on him. A Slytherin fourth year, Lucian Bole, cast the counter-curse that cured Draco almost at once, claiming,

"Don't go to the hospital wing, because you'll loose points if she found out you've been duelling."

The next day Draco, Harry, Theodore and Pansy went to visit Kryillos again. He was ecstatic when he found out they'd been in a duel, and especially that they'd won.

"There really is nothing like beating your opponents to a bloody pulp in a heated deck on churning seas!" He smiled wistfully, clearing remembering 'the good old days'.

"So then, what am i teaching you today?" he said, rubbing his hands together and cracking his knuckles. The witch in the red robes behind him leaned into his ear and whispered something which Harry couldn't make out. A moment later and Kryillos said,

"Ah yes! Obscuro! a favourite of mine, especially useful for party games!" Harry could only imagine what kinds of party games Kryillos would be playing where his party-goers would be blindfolded.

"Now then, this spell is simple enough to understand, you point your wand, like this," he held out his wand in front of him, perfectly straight and pointing at his target, "then, say, Obscuro!" he demonstrated and a black blindfold appeared on his target. "Now you try."

The woman in the red robes behind him banged her staff on the ground, emitting sparks, and four target dummies rose out of the floor.

They all tried to cast the spell but even with Kryillos giving his usual words of encouragement and helpful pointers, none of them managed to cast it right.

"No matter, no matter." Kryillos said as they started to leave. "It's a complicated spell, not one usually taught to first-years. However!, i'm sure we will have you mastering it in no time."

Perhaps it was because he was so busy, what with the lesson from Kryillos and all the homework he had to do, that Harry could hardly believe that he had spent nearly three months at Hogwarts already. The castle was more of a home to him that Privet Drive had ever been. His lessons, too, were becoming more interesting now that they had mastered the basics. On Halloween morning they woke to the delicious smell of baking pumpkins wafting through the corridors. Even better, Professor Flitwick had announced that they were ready to start making objects fly, something they had all been dying to try once they saw him make some of his books fly around the classroom. Flitwick put the class into pairs to practice with, and Harry got partnered with Theodore.

"Now, don't forget the nice wrist movement we've been practising!" squeaked Professor Flitwick. perched on top of his of books as usual. "Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words is very important too, never forget wizard Baruffio, who said 's' instead of 'f' and ended up with a buffalo on his chest."

It wasn't too difficult. That wasn't to say it wasn't hard, mind you, but Harry had been taught much harder wand movements by Kryillos in their lessons with him. Theodore was a natural talent with spell however, and, after Harry and Theodore swished and flicked, Theodore finally got the feather to fly upwards with a nice, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

Their feather flew off the desk and hovered about four feet above their heads, before coming to rest on the ground.

"Oh well done!" Professor Flitwick cried, clapping heartily, "Look here, Mr. Nott has done it."

They were all very impressed until there was a bang from behind Harry, and everyone look round to see Daphne, her hair slightly smouldering, and a very burnt feather softly drifting back down onto her desk. It seemed she had, out of frustration, jabbed the feather with her wand. Crabbe, who was partnering her, was looking especially dumbstruck, the tufts of his hair now slightly blacker than before.

"So, Theodore," Harry asked, once they were out of the classroom, "Have you managed to work the Alohomora spell yet?"

"Yes, i've got it working pretty reliably now." He drawled in response.

"Remind me again why we're doing it tonight?" Asked Draco

"I've told you twice now Draco, I'm not repeating myself." said Harry.

"Well, wouldn't it make more sense to go on a less active night?"

"No, it's that activity that'll make sure we won't be spotted."

"But how do you know?"

"Know what?"

"That one of the teachers won't go looking?"

"What reason would they have? They're not going to bother with 5 Slytherins when there's an entire hall of people."

Still, Draco looked a little uneasy as they walked into their next class.

As they entered the hall for the Halloween feast, they were completely awed by the Halloween decoration that had been placed up. A thousand live bats fluttered from the walls and ceiling while a thousand more swooped over the tables in low black clouds, making the candles in the pumpkins stutter. The feast appeared suddenly on golden plates, as it had at the start of term banquet. Harry was just helping himself to a jacket potato when Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the hall, his purple turban askew and terror permeating every part of his white face. Everyone stared as he reached Professor Dumbledore's chair, slumped against the table and gasped:

"Troll! - in the dungeons! - thought you out to know."

He then sank down to the floor in a dead faint.

There was uproar. It took several purple firecrackers exploding from the end of Professor Dumbledore's wand to bring silence.

"Prefects, " he rumbled, "Lead your houses back to the dormitories immediately!"

Gemma immediately took charge.

"Come on, this way! If you follow what i do exactly you'll be fine, and no stragglers!-Move it!, Move!" she shouted at some particularly timid looking Hufflepuff second-years.

"Hold on Harry, " and Draco grabbed his shoulder. It looked like it took all his courage to say what he said next, "Wouldn't - wouldn't now be the best time to see what's behind the third floor?"

"Oh yeah!" replied Harry, the idea having just dawned on him as Draco said that. "Theodore!, come with me, we're off to the third floor," Theodore, who was just about to leave with the rest of the Slytherins, turned around and nodded, "Draco, " Harry said, "I want you, Crabbe and Goyle, to make sure no-one notices our absence, tell them whatever you like. "

"Ok. " Draco said in reply, Crabbe and Goyle grunted, and all three turned round and followed the fleeting pack of Slytherins.

Harry and Theodore made their way up the staircase to the third floor, making sure they weren't followed.

They came across the door to the forbidden corridor. It was a heavy, wooden door, studded with braces and with a large iron door handle.

"All right Theodore, you're up."

Theodore stood in front of the doorway, as Harry stood back to stand watch.

"Alohomora." Theodore whispered. Nothing happened. He tried it again. again, nothing happened.

"Are you sure you're doing it right?" Harry whispered too him.

"Yes i'm sure. " He tried it again, this time the lock moved slightly, but remained locked.

"Well nothing seems to be happening. "

"I know that!"

"Well then, do something about it."

"I'm trying, give me a minute."

Suddenly, Harry heard footsteps coming up behind them.

"Quick, move! " he whispered, and ushered Theodore behind a stone pillar, where he hid himself, and waited for whomever was looking for them.

"It's Professor Snape. " he told Theodore in hushed tones.

"Is he looking for us?" Theodore asked back, being unable to see what was going on.

"Maybe i- shhh" and he crouched down as Professor Snape moved closer. But he passed them on by, and stopped by the door.

"What's he doing?" Theodore asked. Harry shushed him in response.

Snape looked around and after confirming that he was indeed alone, tapped the lock with his wand, which sprung open and Harry heard a low, guttural, growl from inside.

Snape had left the door slightly ajar and Harry, thinking this would be his best chance at seeing what was behind the door, left his hiding place to have a look.

"No, what - what are you doing?" Theodore asked as Harry left, but Harry just ignored him and went on to look at what was behind the door.

He saw that Snape was looking straight into the eyes of a monstrous dog, a dog which filled the whole space between ceiling and floor. It had three head, three pairs of rolling, mad eyes; three noses twitching and quivering in their direction; three drooling mouths, saliva hanging in slippery ropes from yellowish fangs. It was standing quite still, staring at Snape until, quite suddenly, Snape pointed his wand at the monstrosity and shot flames out of the end of it, warding the creature back. The thing was unimpressed and it's left-most head bit down on Snape's leg, hard. He let out a cry of pain which sent shivers down Harry's spine, and then he heard Theodore half shouting, half whispering,

"Hide! Quickly! Someone's coming!"

Harry heard what he meant. Footsteps were making their way towards the third floor corridor. Quickly, Harry ducked into the hiding place where Theodore was, just in time to see Professor Quirrell making his way towards the door.

Professor Quirrell, it seemed, had completely recovered from his fainting fit in the great hall. In fact, he seemed like a changed man. Gone, was the nervous stuttering that usually accompanied his walk. Instead, he walked proudly and briskly towards the door, without a fear of the sounds coming from behind it. Perhaps this was what Quirrell was like when facing the dark arts, Harry thought. That would certainly make sense as to why a nervous, fearful man was in charge of guarding students against the very darkest creatures in this world.

He got to the door, but instead of going inside to help Snape, who was still fighting off the giant, three-headed dog, he open the door a smidge and peered inside. He let out a high chuckle when he saw the chaos behind the door.

"So that's the beast of Hagrid's is it? You see my Lord, your faithful servant can get things done."

He paused, apparently listening to something Harry could not hear because he said in answer,

"No, no you're right my Lord, I shall, I shall." and with that, he left the door, and Snape, and made his way back to the main castle.

Harry was shocked by this. Not only was Quirrell not a stammering, fearful teacher like everyone thought he was, but also he seemed, to Harry, to be quite insane, for Harry had heard no-one else talking aside from Quirrell, and yet Quirrell was clearly answering to someone. Harry was only snapped out of his revery when Theodore said,

"Harry, i think we should go now. "

"What? Oh, yes, you're right let's go."

So they made their way back to the Slytherin Common room, careful to avoid any teachers, and found everyone in there, eating what looked like remnants of the Halloween feast. They quickly found Draco, and after telling him, Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy, Daphne and Ophelia, what had happened, Harry promptly collapsed onto his four-poster bed.

There was silence for a while until Pansy asked the question everyone knew was hanging in the air.

"So, what now?"

Harry thought about this, before saying,

"Well, firstly we can't tell any teachers about this. Not to mention the fact that they'll want to know what me and Theodore were doing there, they'll probably give us detention for the rest of the year if we told them the truth.

Secondly, they'll never believe us if we say to them that Snape tried to get past the dog and Quirrell is only pretending to stammer and be afraid of anything when he's actually insane. Remember, we have no proof of this and we were never there."

"So, " said Ophelia, "Do we actually know what that dog is guarding?"

"No, " replied Draco, "But we know it's small and very valuable."

"How small are we talking?"

"About as small as something that could fit into the palm of your hand" replied Harry.

"But what could be so small, yet so valuable?" Asked Daphne.

"i don't know," said Harry, "But i intend to find out, and step one of that is figuring out how to get past that - dog."

"You could ask Hagrid, " suggested Pansy.

"That's probably not a good idea," said Harry, "anyway, that's what i want all of you to find out. To see if any of you can come across a note or passage about a giant, three-headed dog anywhere. If you do find it, let me know and we'll reconvene."

Daphne put her hand up, "Should we try to find out what the thing is guarding?"

"If you can, but small and valuable isn't exactly a lot to go on. "

They all murmured in agreement.

"Now, go back to the feast, pretend this never happened." And they dispersed.

Harry stayed his bed though, thinking.

What was the thing that the dog was guarding? Why did both Quirrell and Snape want it? And how on earth was he supposed to fight a giant, three-headed dog?

As they entered November, the weather turned very cold. The mountains around the school became icy grey and the lake like chilled steel. Every morning the ground was covered in frost. Hagrid could be seen from the windows defrosting broomsticks on the quidditch pitch, bundled up in a long moleskin overcoat, rabbit fur gloves and enormous beaverskin boots.

The quidditch season had begun. On Saturday, the first game of the year would be played between Slytherin and Gryffindor. 150 house points were awarded to the wining house of a quidditch match, and if Gryffindor won they would take second place behind Slytherin.

Meanwhile, none of the people Harry had sent to find things about the three-headed dog had come across anything. Draco told them they probably shouldn't ask Madame Pince, the librarian, as although she would probably be able to tell them, awkward questions might get asked.

However, whilst he hadn't found much information on a three-headed dog, Harry had found a book called A history of Dark Sorcery in Europe, which turned out to be a fascinating read, and the only book that contained a mention of three-headed dogs.

He learnt about all kinds of dark witches and wizards, from the sorceress Circe, who was famed for turning sailors into pigs, and Herpo the foul, a wizard who is the first wizard known to hatch a Basilisk, a massive snake who killed anyone who looked at it and could live for hundreds of years, and apparently achieved some form of immortality.

The book even went up to cover more modern Dark wizards, like Gellert Grindelwald, a wizard known as the most terrible of all time for his mass killings and 'for the greater good' revolution, which terrorised Europe from 1926 - 1945. It didn't contain any information about Voldemort however, which Harry was slightly disappointed by.

There was, however, Ekrizdis who had created the wizard prison, Azkaban, and ruled it like a fortress before his death. Harry even came across a passage about Kyrillos. It described him as a famous wizarding pirate from Greece who, along with his wife Aslaug, terrorised the Mediterranean through the use of greek fire, a substance much like Gubraithian fire, but could be brewed by muggles and shot out of a cannon. This resulted in his recipe being stolen by the Greeks, where it was used to great effect in their wars. Upon learning this, Kyrillos resolved to destroy all the copies of the recipe, which he succeeded in doing, but was killed in the process after burning the last copy. It also mentioned he had a daughter, but not much was known about her.

After listing a timeline of something called 'the deathstick', Harry found a section on dark beasts, where it mentioned that one of the most fearsome guardians of treasure was a three-headed dog, which was native to Greece.

Harry shared this information with the others, and whilst they were all pleased that he had come across a passage about the three-headed dog, it didn't, as Draco pointed out, say how to get past it. In fact most of the Slytherins were more excited about the upcoming match on Saturday. They wanted to thoroughly thrash Gryffindor as a big opening to the season, and Marcus Flint, the Slytherin Captain, could often be heard loudly exclaiming to the common room how bad Griffindor were and how exactly each and every one of their players would end up in the hospital wing.

As the Slytherins entered the Great hall for dinner, Harry noticed several things. Firstly, that every house had taken a side, and that most of the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs had chosen to support Gryffindor in the house match. Harry looked over at a group that Harry assumed to be the Gryffindor team. They all looked nauseous and weren't eating much, yet their captain was trying in vain to get them too eat whilst touching nothing himself.

Marcus Flint and the rest of the Slytherin team were loudly jeering at the Gryffindors from across the hall, supported by most of the table. As Harry sat down to eat, the Gryffindor team left to get ready and were soon followed by the Slytherin team.

The second thing Harry noticed was the fact that Professor Snape was limping. Harry assumed that this was from the three-headed dog but was curious as to why Professor Snape hadn't gone to the hospital wing to get it sorted. Did this mean that Professor Snape didn't want anyone to know that he'd been to the third floor corridor?

Lastly, Harry couldn't see Granger anywhere on the Gryffindor table, though this didn't bother him much.

By eleven o'clock Harry and the rest of the Slytherins went down to the stands outside of the Quidditch pitch. Many students were carrying binoculars, and the stands were awash with red and gold on one side and green and silver on the other. Infact, some of the teachers had taken side as well. Harry could see Professor Snape wearing a silver-green scarf and a bit further along, Professor McGonagall was wearing a gold-red tartan.

As the player walked onto the pitch, dressed in sleek robes of their house colour, Harry noticed something.

The boy leading the Gryffindor team was the same one who had helped him load his trunk onto the train. The players that followed him were three girls, who looked two or three years older than Harry, two identical boys holding heavy bats and grinning wickedly, and lastly a ginger haired boy who looked to be in fourth year.

The Slytherin team was made up of Marcus Flint who played chaser alongside Adrian Pucey and Cassius Warrington. The two beaters were Lucian Bole and Peregrine Derrick and the seeker was Terence Higgs, who was flanked by the keeper Miles Bletchley.

The game of Quidditch, Harry quickly found out, was not as complicated as it looked. A team was comprised of 7 players (three chasers, two beaters and a seeker and a keeper.) The job of the Chasers was to move the ball called the quaffle into the opposing team's hoops, of which there were three. It was the job of the keeper to guard the hoops, and the job of the beaters to protect their players from two balls called bludgers that flew around trying to knock the players off their brooms. Lastly the seeker had to catch a small ball called the golden snitch, whose capture ended the game and earned the seeker's team 150 points.

Madame Hooch was refereeing. She stood in the middle of the pitch waiting for the two teams, her broom in hand.

She said something to both teams, then the captain's shook hands and everyone mounted their brooms.

Madame Hooch gave a loud blast on he silver whistle.

Fifteen brooms rose up, high into the air. They were off.

"And the Quaffle is taken immediately by Angelina Johnson of Gryffindor - what and excellent chaser that girl is, and rather attractive too-"

"JORDAN!"

"Sorry Professor."

A Gryffindor third year by the name of Lee Jordan was doing the commentary for the match, closely watched by Professor McGonagall in her red-gold tartan.

"and she's really belting along up there, neat pass to Alicia Spinnet, a good find of Oliver wood's, last year only a reserve - back to Johnson and - no, Slytherin have taken the quaffle, Slytherin Captain Marcus Flint gains the quaffle and off he goes - Flint flying like an eagle up there - he going to sc- no, stopped by an excellent save by Gryffindor Keeper Wood and Gryffindor take the quaffle - That's Chaser Katie Bell of Gryffindor there, nice dive around Flint, off up the field and - OUCH - that must have hurt, hit in the back of the head by a bludger, - quaffle taken by Slytherin - that's Adrian Pucey speeding off towards the goal posts, but he's blocked by a second bludger - sent his way by Fred or George Weasly, can't tell which - nice play by the Gryffindor beater anyway, and Johnson back in possession of the quaffle, a clear field ahead and off she goes - she's really flying - dodges a speeding bludger - the goal posts are ahead - come on, now Angelina - keeper Bletchly dives - misses - GRYFFINDOR SCORE!"

Gryffindor cheers could be heard from the other side of the stadium, with loud howls and moans from the Slytherin side.

Whilst the game was going one, Harry noticed a large figure on the other side of the stadium in the stands. It appeared Hagrid had come to watch the match.

Harry looked around to see what the other players were doing in the match.

The Slytherin seeker was soaring around the pitch looking for the snitch, but the Gryffindor seeker looked to be doing nothing at all, in fact he appeared to simply be lazing around above the pitch.

"A bit slow isn't he?" Draco said to Harry's right.

"What do you mean?"

"Well that seeker there, " he pointed to the Gryffindor seeker hovering above the pitch, "I mean, what does he think he's doing? He'll never even catch a glimpse of the snitch up there."

Harry had to agree to this. Draco had shown him a snitch ball and it looked to be about the size of a golf ball, which were hard to see from 20 feet away, so Harry had no idea how he could have seen a snitch from hundreds of feet up, as it was zipping around the stadium.

"Slytherin in possesion." Lee Jordan was saying. "Chaser Pucey has the quaffle, ducks two bludgers, two weasleys and speeds twoards the - wait a moment - was that the snitch?"

A murmer ran through the crowd as Adrian Pucey dropped the quaffle, too busy looking over his shoulder at the flash of gold that had passed his left ear.

Both seekers immediately dove for the snitch, with seeker Terence Huggs being closest. The Gryffindor seeker appeared to be slightly faster however, as he was gaining slowly on Higgs. All the chasers seemed to have forgotten what they were supposed to be doing, as they all hung in mid-air to watch.

The Gryffindor seeker was definitely faster. He was gaining on Terence Higgs - they were neck and neck, then - WHAM! - Marcus Flint had blocked the Gryffindor seeker's broom, sending him careening off across the pitch.

A roar of rage echoed from the other side of the pitch , "Foul!" Screamed the Gryffindors.

Madame Hooch spoke angrily to Flint and then ordered a free shot at the posts for Gryffindor. But in all the confusion, the Snitch had escaped.

Next to Harry, Draco was saying "Come on ref, that's hardly a foul, its not even blocking."

Lee Jordan was finding it difficult not to take sides.

"So, after that obvious and disgusting bit of cheating -"

"Jordan!"

"I mean, after that open and revolting foul-"

"Jordan, I'm warning you-"

"All right, all right. Flint nearly kills the Gryffindor seeker, which could happen to anyone i'm sure, so a penalty to Gryffindor taken by Spinnet, who puts it away, no trouble, and we continue play, Gryffindor still in possession."

The game didn't last much longer when the Gryffindor seeker suddenly noticed the snitch again, this time hovering near the Slytherin end of the stadium. He took off, with the Gryffindors and Lee Jordan all cheering him on, and Terence Higgs trailing behind him.

"And that's Gryffindor seeker, Adrian Fergus-Fuller, with his eye on the the Snitch - Terence Higgs is far behind him, it looks like all hope is lost for a Slytherin victory - they'd better not do anything to interfere this time - he's almost there - pelting towards the stands - almost - almost - aaaaaannndd - YES! HE'S GOT IT! HE'S GOT THE SNITCH! It looks like a Gryffindor victory for the first match of the year!"

But Adrian Furgus-Fuller wasn't stoping. In fact, he wasn't even slowing down. He was shouting to the Slytherins in the stands to clear out. He had lost control of his broom.

There was a panic, people were screaming, pushing, shoving and walking over people to get out of the way of the oncoming seeker.

Harry just narrowly missed getting hit by the broomstick as it collided with the stands, sending wood and splinters everywhere, and leaving half a dozen people filled with splinters, with Adrian, barely conscious, lying on the floor, surrounded by the shattered remains of his broomstick and the golden snitch still fluttering in his hands.

Twenty minutes later, Flint was howling that the Gryffindor team should be disqualified for such a blatant attack, but it made no difference. As the match had ended, technically, no rules had been broken, and anyway, people were being carted to the hospital wing so no-one listened to Flint's outcry anyway.

Harry had just been discharged from the hospital wing, having gotten a bit of wood lodged in his arm. It had been fixed by a couple of waves of Madame Pomfrey's wand, and sent him on his way. Interestingly, Harry noticed that Granger was in the hospital wing, helping out. Apparently, she had had to get most of her bones broken after the troll that had gotten in had attacked her. And although they had all been healed, Madame Pomfrey had insisted she stay in the hospital wing for the next day. Then, after showing Madame Pomfrey that she could do basic healing spells, Madame Pomfrey enlisted her as an assistant.

Draco and the Slytherins were waiting for him outside, having not been allowed in due to how crowded it was.

"Are you okay?" Draco asked.

"Yeah, i'm fine" Harry replied.

"Honestly, my father will hear about this, it's absolutely ridiculous that Gryffindor be allowed to keep their victory after attacking the crowd. "

"I agree, " said Theodore, and the other Slytherins murmured in agreement.

A few days later, almost everyone had been discharged from the hospital wing, save for the seeker, Adrian, and two or three Slytherins. They did get a welcome surprise pinned up on the notice board a week later.

It read:

By order of Professor Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress and Madame Rolanda Hooch, Referee,

The Gryffindor Victory over Slytherin has been overturned and Slytherin are now the victors by way of disqualification.

The reason for this is discovery of an illegal vision-enhancing charm placed upon the Gryffindor seeker, Adrian Furgus-Fuller, which allowed him to see beyond the normal capacity of a human.

Henceforth, Slytherin has been awarded 200 points and Gryffindor has been stripped of all points. Furthermore, Seeker Adrian Furgus-Fuller has been given a two-year suspension from playing Quidditch at Hogwarts.

Christmas was coming. One morning in mid-December, Hogwarts woke to find itself covered in several feet of snow. The lake froze solid and the Weasley twins were punished for bewitching several snowballs so that they followed Quirrell around, bouncing off the back of his turban. The few owls that managed to battle their way through the stormy sky had to be nursed back to health by Hagrid before they could fly again.

No-one could wait for the holidays to start. While the Slytherin common room had roaring green fires, the dungeons outside and the corridors between classes were icy and bitter as a wind rattled the classroom windows. Worst of all were Professor Snape's classes down in the dungeons, where their breath rose in a mist before them and they kept as close as possible to their hot cauldrons.

This was not to say that the Slytherins were unhappy, quite the contrary, as the disqualification of the Gryffindor seeker and the 200 points easily placed Slytherin in the lead for both the house cup and the Quidditch cup.

"So Harry, " Draco asked one morning in the great hall, "why don't you come to our house for Christmas? I'm sure it would be better than staying with those muggles or staying here. Crabbe and Goyle will be coming as well, and Theodore?" He looked over at Theodore who was on the other side of the table.

"I'm sure my father will want to see your's Draco, so i'll probably be coming as well."

"So, Harry?"

"Sure, it sound fun."

It truth it would probably be quite fun, Harry thought to himself as he added powdered spine of lionfish to to his potion in the next potions class. This would probably be the best Christmas he'd ever have. He'd noticed that Weasley was staying behind at Hogwarts, and had laughed himself silly thinking about how his family had abandoned him over Christmas.

Draco had told Harry that he lived in a huge manor house, surrounded by grounds which put even the ones at Hogwarts to shame. He said that several animals lived in the semi-enchanted forest, and that the most prized were beautiful albino peacocks that roved to top of the hedges.

As they left the potions classroom, they were blocked by a large fir in the corridor ahead. Two enourmous feet sticking out of it and a puffing sound told them that Hagrid was behind it.

"Honestly, what is this?" Draco drawled to Harry and Nott.

"Hi Hagrid, want some help?" they heard Weasley say.

"No thanks Ron, i'm all right."

Draco gave a snigger of impatience and said "Would you mind moving out of the way? Are you trying to earn yourself some gold Weasley? Hoping to be gamekeeper yourself someday? That hut of Hagrid's must look like a palace compared to the pigsty you're used to."

Ron dived at Draco just as Snape came up the stairs.

"WEASLEY!"

Ron let go of Draco's robes.

"He was provoked Professor Snape," Hagrid said, sticking his head out from the branches, "Malfoy was insulting his family."

"Be that as it may Hagrid, fighting is against school rules." Snape said silkily, "Five points from Gryffindor, and be grateful it isn't more. Move along, all of you."

Harry, Draco, Theodore, Crabbe and Goyle all moved on, smirking as they scattered needles everywhere. Harry took his hand out of his pocket. He had been ready to hit Weasley with a curse until Snape came along.

"Honestly," Draco drawled as they went back to the common room, "It's no wonder his family abandoned him for Christmas, with brains like that i don't think any family would want him. Where are you going Harry?" He asked as Harry took a detour away from the common room.

"I want to ask Kryillos something, i'll meet you back in the common room."

The others exchanged looks as Harry carried on. He was indeed going to visit Kryillos. The book, a History of dark Sorcery in Europe, had mentioned that the three-headed dog was a Greek monster, and Harry knew that Kryillos was a Greek pirate, so Harry assumed that if anyone would know how to get past one, it would be him.

Just then, he heard a whisper from Jaculus.

"Why are you going down this way? shouldn't you be trying to find out why Quirrell is after the st- it?"

"After what?"

"It, whatever the dog is guarding?"

"Well, if we can't get past the dog, then what's the point in knowing what it's guarding?"

"Oh."

Harry turned into the dungeon corridor where the entrance to Kryillos' room was. As he went inside however, he saw that Kryillos wasn't in his picture. It appeared that he had gone wondering throughout the other portraits in Hogwarts. The woman that always stood behind him was still there though, standing as silent as ever.

Previously, whenever Kryillos had wandered, the woman hadn't said anything, or given any instructions like "practice this spell" or "Study this enchantment."

This time it appeared she was in a different mood, as when Harry moved to leave, thinking he would come back later, she said

"What are you looking for, boy?" Her voice was heavy and accented, clearly English was not her first language.

"I was looking for Kryillos?"

"Why? He already said that he wasn't going to teach you anymore until after the holidays."

"Yes, but i wondered if he could answer a question i had?"

"What question?"

"If he knew how to get past a three-headed dog?"

"Ha! The Kerberos? My boy, that husband of mine practically invented the use of them as guardians!"

"So - do you know how to get past it then?"

"Sure, just play it some music and it'll instantly fall asleep."

"It's that simple?"

"Yes."

"But then, wouldn't it be easy for people to get past it?"

"Well yes but think about it, if you're confronted by a giant, three-headed dog, is your first instinct to play some music or run?"

"Run, i suppose."

"Exactly. But why do you want to know this? i can't imagine there being many three-headed dogs in Hogwarts."

"Well there is one; -on the third-floor corridor."

"Really?" she looked a bit bemused, "I'll tell Kryillos to have a look for you."

"Ok." "So i only need to play some music to get it to sleep?"

"Yes, like i said."

"But i can't play any instruments, how am i supposed to-"

"Don't worry there is a spell, a simple spell, that creates a melody. You should be able to use that."

"How do you cast it?"

"I don't know. I never needed it."

"Why not?"

"I could sing."

"Oh, so, could Kryillos teach it to me?"

she tilted her head to the side in thought and said, "Probably, but after the Holidays, i think he needs a bit of a break."

"Right, i'll come back after the holidays then."

She smiled at him in answer.

"One more thing, i think some of the teachers are after whatever the dog is guarding."

"It wouldn't surprise me, do you know who they are?"

"Professor Snape and Professor Quirrell."

"Then i'll find out what i can about them. Information gathering was always my speciality."

"Thanks, and - er - are you Alsaug?"

She gave a wide smile and said, "I am, how did you know?"

"i came across a passage about Kryillos in a book, and it that book it said he married a witch in the Ver... - something guard and had a kid."

"Varangian, and yes, we did."

"What happened to her then?, the book didn't say."

"That is a story for another time, as it is best explained with my husband by my side."

So Harry left, and headed back to the common room.

On the last day of school Harry was really excited. He was looking forward to the next day, when he would be travelling to the Malfoy manor. Harry had all his stuff packed and ready to go. Draco was also ready, and explained to Harry that they would be travelling to his manor through something called 'the floo network', a network of interconnected fireplaces that wizards used to travel all around the country.

When Harry arrived at Malfoy Manor, it was like nothing he had ever seen before. The roof was ornate and gilded, supported by large marble pillars, with various patterns flowing throughout. An impressive crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling, and large windows with heavy, regal curtains stood opposite the ornate fireplace, which Harry and Draco had just stepped out of.

"Ah, Draco, you're back."

The person who had spoken was Lucius Malfoy, Draco's father. Draco strongly resembled his father, with Lucius looking like an older Draco. He had a pale, pointed face, with pale blonde hair and cold grey eyes. He was dressed in smart wizarding robes, and had a snake-headed cane propped on the side of his chair where he was sitting.

"And you... you must be the famous Harry Potter. "

"I am. " Harry replied, a little nervously.

He bowed and said, "Then treat this place your own home. Draco, why don't you show Harry around, I'll have Dobby bring your things to your rooms. DOBBY!"

A little creature appeared with a pop in front of Mr. Malfoy.

"Come on." Draco said to Harry as he made his way out of the room.

"What was that?" Harry asked.

"Oh Dobby? he's a kind of servant who works for the owner of the house."

"But what is he?"

"A house elf." Draco replied.

"Well, this is the entrance hall. " he said, nonchalantly.

"Have your family always lived in this house?" Harry asked.

"Er... yeah, pretty much. i mean, it's been in my family forever so - yeah. We also have a bunch of smaller houses around. I know father has one in London for when he needs to do work in the ministry, and Grandpa Abraxas lives in another house along the way."

Draco led Harry around all the different rooms in the house. It was massive, much larger than the Slytherin common room and much, much larger than the Dursley's house.

Harry was incredibly surprised at how big his room was. It was adjacent to Draco's and, whilst a bit bare, was identical to his. A large oak, four-poster, king-sized bed jutted out from one wall, opposite the magnificent window. a bookshelf dominated the other side of the room whilst a cupboard occupied the left side. Dark oak panelling matched the floors and bed, and the walls were painted a deep purple. Harry's trunk was already placed at the bottom of his bed, and his clothes hung up in the cupboard beside some other robes.

"Here, Harry, why don't you change into some robes and then we'll join my parents for dinner."

"I don't have any robes apart from my school ones."

"Just use some of my old ones, they're in that cupboard there. They're a bit small for me so they should fit you." He said, pointing towards the cupboard in the room. Then he left, leaving Harry to pick out some robes for himself.

Harry didn't have any idea of what he should wear though. He decided to pick out a one which was a nice shade of green.

As he left to go down to dinner, he was joined by Draco, who was wearing something very similar just in a deep purple instead.

The dinner was wonderful. Harry thought that the cooking might even be better than that at Hogwarts, and when he lay down in his bed that night he wondered how nice the world would be if he could sleep like this every night.

The next few days were some of the best of Harry's life. Draco took him to explore the Manor grounds, which were nearly as big as those at Hogwarts. Living on the grounds were several kinds of beautiful creatures, the most prized of which were Albino peacocks, which strutted around the Manor grounds showing off their pure-white plumage.

Crabbe and Goyle visited regularly, as their fathers had regular business with Mr Malfoy, but Pansy also visited now and then, with Theodore only visiting a day before Christmas eve to say hello and drop off some presents for Harry and Draco.

Harry had gotten presents for everyone else when the Malfoys had taken him and Draco to Diagon Alley to do Christmas shopping.

Harry was also introduced to wizard chess by Mr Malfoy. This was almost exactly like normal muggle chess, except that you moved the pieces around by talking to them. This resulted in it being a lot like directing troops in battle. Neither Draco or Harry were very good yet and hadn't won a match against Mr Malfoy, who had apparently been playing since he was very young, and expected Draco to get better.

And then, finally, it arrived. Christmas eve. Harry and Draco sat next to a roaring fire, roasting marshmallows, toast, and wild game brought to them by Dobby on the end of a fork, well into the night. It was a very enjoyable evening heightened by the promise of presents the next morning.

The next morning he woke early and pulled on his dressing gown to head downstairs to the tree. When he got down he found a roaring fireplace and Draco already down there, starting to unwrap his presents.

"Ah Harry, you're up. Mother and Father will be joining us shortly. Dobby, go and fetch some of the roast pheasant."

Harry looked through the pile of presents and found one addressed to him. It was very small, and mostly consisted of a note saying:

We received your message and enclose your Christmas present. From Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia.

"That's nice of them." Harry mumbled.

"What's that you've got there?" Draco asked.

Harry held up the 50p coin to show him and said, "Muggle money from my Aunt and Uncle."

"What a weird shape. How much is it worth?"

"Not much." Replied Harry, discarding both the coin and the note. His other presents were much more satisfactory than that though.

A larger parcel contained a hand whittled flute from Hagrid and a large bag of rock cakes, which Harry suspected had been made by the giant himself. They looked too hard to actually eat, and so gave them to Dobby to bin whilst he ate some of the roast pheasant.

By the time Harry was opening some of his last presents, Mr and Mrs Malfoy had come downstairs and had started to unwrap their own presents. He had received a comet 260 from Draco, as well as a splendid set of robes, a book of spells and curses, and colour changing ink. Mr and Mrs Malfoy got him a handsome set of duelling robes, as well as an encyclopaedia of wizarding culture, which Harry found very fascinating. That meant that Harry had one last present left. Harry picked it up. It was very light. He unwrapped it and something fluid and silvery-grey went slithering to the floor where it lay in gleaming folds.

"My word." exclaimed Mr Malfoy. Draco, too, was looking shocked at it.

"What is it?" Harry asked.

"I do believe that that is an invisibility cloak. That is extremely rare."

"Who sent it to you?"

Harry picked up the silvery, shining cloth off the floor and a note fell out of the bottom, and written in a loopy writing he had never seen before were the following words:

Your father left this in my possession before he died, it is time it was returned to you. Use it well.

A very Merry Christmas to you.

There was no signature.

"It dosent say, " Harry said to the room.

"It works though." said Draco "Look down."

Harry looked down at his feet. except his feet weren't there. For all Harry could see, he was a pair of eyes floating above the ground.

Everyone was incredibly impressed by the cloak and Harry showed it off to everyone who came to visit that day, including Theodore, who gave him a copy of the sacred 28, and Pansy arrived with a box of Phoenix fire lighters for Harry and a self-spelling quill for Draco.

They all stayed for Christmas dinner, and what a dinner it was. Fat, roast turkey, golden roast, boiled potatoes, fat and juicy chipolatas, bowls of deliciously buttered peas, silver boats of thick, rich gravy, and cranberry sauce. The Malfoys had also procured several stacks of wizard crackers. These were nothing like the feeble muggle crackers the Duselys bought from the local shops, with their plastic toys and flimsy paper hats. When Harry pulled a cracker with Draco, it went off with a blast like a cannon and a massive sugarloaf hat popped out along with a miniature moving model of a Dragon.

After lunch Harry, Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy and Theodore all had a furious snowball fight in the lands of the Manor, afterwards, dripping wet and freezing, they returned to a warm fire in the Malfoy dining room, where Theodore's father struck up an interesting conversation with Harry, which lasted until the sun went down and Harry went to bed.

As he lay in bed Harry thought about what a Christmas he had had. It was probably the best Christmas he'd ever had. Certainly better than any he'd ever had at the Dursleys, where his only gifts were a paperclip and a note saying he should clean the bathroom.

The Last few days with the Malfoys were incredible, and when Harry arrived back at Hogwarts three days later, he was already starting to miss it.

Harry approached the new year with a new resolve. He missed Malfoy manor, but was eager to learn what the three-headed dog was guarding. He was also curious as to why Professors Snape and Quirrell were trying to get to.

Obviously, thought Harry, if it was valuable then anyone would want it, regardless of any allegiance they had to Hogwarts. But again, Harry reached the question of what could be so valuable, because surely no ordinary gemstone or amount of gold could be that important. Especially if it was the package that Harry had seen Hagrid take from Hogwarts. Then again, it could be something other than that package. In fact, wouldn't it make more sense if it was something like a book containing dark magical secrets, known only to the likes of Dumbledore?

Yes, that made sense. It would certainly be something valuable that Dumbledore wished to guard well, and it made sense that Snape, who was known for his love of the dark arts, and Quirrell, the defence against the dark arts teacher, would want to get their hands on it.

That didn't help Harry though. For now, all he had to focus on was getting past the three-headed dog. To this end, Harry started to learn the melody spell from Kryillos. It was not an especially complex spell. It mostly consisted of casting the spell, from which a long audible note would be played until the counter-charm 'Ceasura' was cast. The note coming out of the wand could be changed by altering the position of the wand, and Kryillos told Harry that he would have to be changing the note frequently if he wanted the dog to sleep. This resulted in Harry looking much like a conductor whenever he tried to play a tune.

Since Harry didn't know if he would be able to raise the trapdoor with the dog sitting on it, he also started to teach the spell to Draco, hoping that he would be able to keep the dog asleep and off the trapdoor whilst Harry explored under it.

"Draco, " Harry said at breakfast the next day, "I think we should do it tonight."

"Go through the door?"

"Yes"

"Hold on," asked Theodore, "what do you mean you're doing it tonight? What about the teachers?"

"Well since we get Friday afternoons off, i was thinking we would leave for the corridor whilst we can still move about the hallways, and when less people are walking around we go in and go through the trapdoor, that way no-one will hear us use the melody charm, and Draco and i can leave without anyone the wiser."

They all seemed to be satisfied with this explanation, even Pansy, who usually found a fault in most of Harry's plans, kept quiet.

And so, at 9:30 PM, Harry and Draco could be found walking along the pathway to the third-floor corridor underneath Harry's invisibility cloak.

When they arrived there, they could still hear students walking about, and not wanting to risk discovery, they hid behind a stone brazier. They stayed there for about thirty minutes in complete silence. After 5 minutes had passed with no-one walking by the corridor, they thought it was time.

Still under the invisibility cloak, Harry cast the alohomora charm on the lock. Harry had had Theodore teach it to him a few days before he embarked on this mission, and although Harry could cast it, he still wasn't very good at it. It took him several tries before finally the door creaked open.

In their nervous state, they froze, sure that a sound like that would carry throughout the castle. Still they waited, a minute... two...

after three minutes, Harry and Draco started to move again. The time frozen, listening for sound, would be a detriment to them however, as now the large, hairy, three-headed monster was awake and looking around for who had disturbed it's slumber. Despite being unable to actually see them, it could clearly smell them, as it was rearing it's three ugly heads towards them, sniffing the air and moving ever closer.

Draco was behind Harry, quietly whimpering despite being shown pictures of the beast in library books Harry found about the three-headed dog.

The difference between an image on a page and the real thing, thought Harry, was that a book could never accurately portray the sheer horror of the thing, it's size compared to yours, the way your legs turned to jelly as the breath of the beast, now close enough to touch, shot across the ground around you.

Harry got over this fear, quickly, for being paralysed by fear wasn't going to help his situation any. He gulped, took a deep breath, raised his wand and said the words for the melody charm.

Instantly a single note, as if sung by an angel, emanated from his wand. A cool calm washed over his body as he started to feel his legs again. When he swished his wand, the note changed and the beast's eyelids, all three of them, began to droop. The sound seemed simultaneously loud, yet also quiet, as if he was the only one that could hear it.

Harry moved out from under the cloak and towards the trapdoor as the beast, almost asleep now, moved to the end of the corridor, and slumped in a heap next to a large bone with three sets of bite marks engraved onto it.

Draco was still paralysed, by recovered when Harry grasped his shoulder.

"Y-yes?" he said, his voice betraying a hint of terror.

"Continue the charm, " Harry asked, and Draco did, after a few failed attempts in which a discordant note rang out, then died.

Harry then stopped his charm, and walked over to the trapdoor. It was a heavy, reinforced wooden door, with a large iron ring that Harry used to lift up the door.

Underneath, it was pitch black. Harry cast "Lumos" and lowered his wand into the depths but the wand-light barely reached the edge of the walls.

"Do you see anything?" Draco asked, his voice now free of the quiver it had previously.

"No, it's too deep."

"Toss something down there."

"Like what?"

"I don't know, something heavy."

Harry looked up - and his eyes lay on the massive, chewed, bone the three-headed dog was resting next to.

Harry moved forward, and, carefully, he lifted the bone using "Wingardium Leviosa". The bone it'self was about as tall as Harry, with it being incredibly thin due to being used as a chew toy by three heads. He moved the bone right over the trapdoor, and orientated it so it was facing upwards. Like this, Harry saw it was about as tall as himself.

Harry dropped the bone and listened for any sound it made. A pause then... nothing.

"So it's either a really long fall, or a soft landing, " Harry said to Draco.

"You're not going to go down there are you?" Draco asked.

"Not right now, i want to go down there on a broom so that i can get back up again, it doesn't look like there is a way back out once you go down there."

"Shall we leave then? " Draco said, a hint of pleading in his voice.

"Yes, but we're coming back."

So they left, with Draco careful not to release the charm until Harry had pulled the cloak over themselves, and they had backed out of the door and shut it.

As they headed back to the Common room, they met no resistance, only a few teachers who they could easily sneak past.

"So that's the gist of it," Harry told the other first-year Slytherins who had been eagerly awaiting his return.

"So we need to get brooms and fly down there?" Asked Pansy

"Yes. And i want more of you to come with us this time; Judging from the three-headed dog and what's beneath the trapdoor, i don't think that that's the end of what's beneath the trapdoor. I imagine that there are other things, spells, enchantments, obstacles placed by Dumbledore to stop anyone from getting whatever is down there."

"And you want all the help you can get?" Asked Blaise

"Yes."

They all looked around at each other. None of them looked like they were going to say they weren't going to go along with Harry.

"But where will we get all the brooms we need?" asked Theodore, "First years aren't allowed brooms, even Draco," he nodded in Draco direction, "Even he couldn't smuggle a broom in."

"True, but there are the brooms that we use in flying class, we get those if we time it right."

There was a cry of outrage against this idea.

"We can't use those!" Pansy said

"They're awful" interjected Theodore.

Draco simply shook his head.

"Well what else are we going to use?" Harry asked, "Where else are we going to find-" he quickly counted everyone around him, "-nine broomsticks?"

Theodore looked around at everyone, "Surely someone would have to guard the trapdoor?"

"Well fine, eight then, maybe seven, with two people guarding the trapdoor."

They all thought for a second then:

"What about the Quidditch team?"

"What about it?"

"Well, we could ask to borrow their brooms?"

"And what excuse could we give? especially if they get damaged?"

"Oh, yeah"

"We could steal Gryffindor's" said Pansy

"We can't do that, their brooms are worse than the school's" Draco interjected.

Finally, with no other options, they all decided to, begrudgingly, use the school brooms. But therein lied another problem, albeit one that was easily sorted.

"So you all understand the plan?" Harry asked at breakfast the next Monday morning. They nodded, and Harry passed his invisibility cloak onto Blaise. The plan was to say Blaise wasn't feeling well and Madame Pompfrey had run out of pepperup potion, so Blaise wasn't coming to class today. However, Blaise would actually be under the invisibility cloak, and after Madame Hooch had put the Brooms away, he was to steal seven and walk with them under the invisibility cloak and then deposit them, with the invisibility cloak covering them, behind a brazier next to the third floor corridor entrance.

The plan went perfectly. Madame Hooch brought the story, hook, line and sinker. They didn't hear anything from Blaise all during lesson, and it was only when lunch came, did they hear anything about Blaise. He came to join them at the dining table, his ears slightly smoking from the pepperup potion, and said:

"Everything went fine, but i think a second-year Ravenclaw might have seen me."

"Did they see you come out from under the invisibility cloak?"

"No, what i think happened is that for her, i seemingly appeared out of thin air, or from the third-floor corridor. She might tell Professor Flitwick."

"Well, hopefully she doesn't tell Flitwick, or if she does, then he'll think nothing of it and not act on it. Of course, that does mean we'll probably only get one shot at this."

It left a bit of a sombre air on the party as they left for their next class though.

Everything went all-right leading up to the attempt. In fact, once they arrived at the third floor corridor, The hardest challenge was getting everyone and the brooms through, without letting anyone know they were there with their melody charm or alerting the three-headed dog.
However, Harry needn't have worried. They took the cloak off of the broomsticks and Harry, Theodore and Draco all went through, the cloak only being big enough for three of them at a time. Draco started the Melody charm and put the dog to sleep, whilst Theodore handed the cloak out to Pansy, and Harry checked out the trapdoor. It was just as dark and cavernous as last time, which was good, as it probably meant that they hand't been found out yet. Pansy arrived with three of the brooms and Ophelia, and handed the cloak back to Crabbe, who walked back in with the last four of the brooms.

"So that's it is it?" Theodore asked as he looked down the trapdoor.
"Yep" replied Harry, aware of how foreboding it looked.

As Daphne, Blaise and Goyle walked in, closing the door behind them, Harry took out the Phoenix fire lighters (special wizarding matchsticks that never went out) that Pansy had gotten him for Christmas and set fire to a bit of kindling he had brought up from the common room fire. They burst into flames almost immediately, and stayed alight as Harry dropped them down the trapdoor.
Harry was pleased to see that the fire didn't keep falling forever, instead stopped as just a pinprick in the distance. It was a good sign.

They all got into position, with Theodore and Daphne, (both having learnt the melody charm in record time, much to Harry's delight), taking up position as the dog-watchers. Harry was pleased to see that neither looked especially intimidated by the three-headed dog. Or, if they did, they didn't show it.

for the rest of the First year Slytherins, they all hopped onto a broom and, unwieldy as the brooms might be, they managed to fly them down to the pinprick of fire waiting on the ground.

As they flew closer to the fire on the ground, Harry started to notice something strange. The walls were changing from stone to something more... fiberous. It seemed almost as if a plant was growing down here. Whats more, out of the corner of his eye, Harry thought he saw the plant moving, shifting, as if waiting to ensnare them.

At last they reached the bottom. Hovering slightly above the ground, Harry looked up. The entrance to the trapdoor was miles away, and looked like a postage stamp in the darkness. The soft notes of the melody charm had long since died, leaving only a nervous silence between the group.

"So what's this stuff?" Pansy asked as she moved closer to the writhing plant matter on the ground.

"SSSSTOP!" Hissed Jaculus, and Harry mimicked him.

Pansy froze, mere inches away from touching the plant.

"That sssstuff isss devil'ssssnare, it trapsss you iffff you touch it."

Pansy started backing away from the plant, but it was too late, a tendril shot out and grabbed her wrist. She screamed and tried to pull her hand away. Everyone panicked, Daphne tried to pull Pansy away from the devil's snare Blaise tried attacking the plant with spells whilst Draco started to slowly back up, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle.

"Quicklyyy Harrrry! Lumosss!" Jaculus hissed, and Harry pulled out his wand, cried "Lumos!" and pointed his wand at the tendril which instantly released it's hold on Pansy and recoiled back into the thick mass of plants.

Pansy instantly retreated further back than Draco, and even the other Slytherins started to slowly drift upwards, though Harry wasn't sure if that was due to them being scared or because the brooms were so bad.

"Come on, " Said Harry to the others, "We can't give up now, we've only just started."

The others murmured their agreement and all lit their wands in turn, moving towards an archway they could see in the far corner of the room.

As they went through, they dismounted their brooms and left them in a pile on the floor as they walked through the stone passageway. As they walked they could a slow drip... drip... of water, trickling down the walls. It reminded Harry of when he had gone through Gringotts with Hagrid.

"Can you hear something?" Blaise asked.

Harry nooked his head. Now he was concentrating on it, he could hear something. It sound like a soft rustling and clinking seemed to be coming from up ahead.

"what do you think that is?" said Blaise

"A ghost maybe?" said Draco

"No, it sounds like wings" replied Daphne

"What would birds be doing down here?" said Pansy

"What do you think Harry?" said Draco

"I think that whatever's down there, we're going to have to get past it somehow, so get ready for a fight."

They all readied their wands as they walked through to the next room. It was a brilliantly lit chamber, it's 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?" said Daphne.

"I bet they will," said Blaise, "Those birds don't look very vicious, but if they all swoop down at once they could seriously injure one of us."

"Well, there's nothing for it, " said Harry, "i'll run."

He took a deep breath and bolted across the room at breakneck speed. But the birds didn't swoop down at all. in fact, they acted as though he wasn't even there.

The others crossed the room as well, a little tentatively but nothing attacked them either.

They reached the door and tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge. Harry tried the alohomora charm, but that didn't open it either.

"Does anyone know the blasting curse?" said Pansy.

"No, i think i read somewhere that it was Reduco or something, but... yeah." Blaise finished. They were all aware of the damage a failed spell could cause.

Unsure of what to do next the started to look around, but then Draco said,

"hang on, those birds aren't birds, they're keys!"

"What?" they all looked around and up at the birds. Sure enough, those birds wern't really birds at all, but rather large, winged, keys, glittering in the light coming from the ceiling.

"There must be hundreds of them, " said Pansy

"one of them must fit the lock." Draco said.

"Which one though?" replied Harry.

"Probably a large, old-fashioned one, and silver, like the handle."

They all looked at her with a questioning look.

"What? that's how they normally work, so as to help people remember which key goes in which lock."

"There!" said Draco again, pointing at the ceiling. Sure enough, there was a large, silver key hovering just by the ceiling. The others didn't seem able to see it though, as they were still squinting up at the ceiling.

"But we'd need brooms to get that high. " said Harry,

"We could go and get the brooms back from where we left them."

"No need, " said Pansy, "there are brooms over there, " and she pointed to a corner in which there were seven broomsticks, hovering slightly off the ground.

"i think Harry and Draco, should try to get the key, i don't think either of us can see what you can."

Harry looked at Draco, and they both nodded.

"Ok."

Harry and Draco hopped on a broomstick and kicked off into the air, soaring into the cloud of keys. They pelted after the silver key at the ceiling. The silver Key was just too fast for them though, dodging out of the way at the last second. Harry beckoned Draco over.

"Draco, i think we both need to try and capture it at the same time."

"i was just thinking the same thing."

"i'll chase it down from the top, and you try to capture it as it dodges away from my hand."

"Okay."

Harry flew up to the ceiling, above where the key was flying, as Draco took position underneath it.

Their first attempt didn't go very well. Harry was too fast, and the key subsequently, easily dodged Draco's hand.

Their second attempt was better, but it too failed.

Again, Harry gestured to Draco, and they both shot at the key, and as it dodged Harry's hand, it shot right into Draco's open palm. Their timing was perfect. Trying to dodge again, it found itself against Harry's palm. Draco and Harry had trapped it, and caught it between their hands. They were careful not to release it as they flew back down to the ground. Draco crumpled it's electric blue wings as he pushed it into the keyhole and unlocked the door. Draco then, seemingly not knowing what to do with it, shoved the key into his pocket.

The next chamber was so dark, they couldn't see anything at all, until light flooded the room and revealed an astonishing sight. They were in a giant chessboard, behind the black pieces and facing the white. Every chessman was taller than they were, and gleamed like Jet stone in the firelight. The white pieces were blocking another doorway. A slight chill ran down Harry's spine. The white pieces had no faces.

"What do we do?" Harry whispered.

"Well obviously we have to beat the white paces at chess, don't we?" said Daphne.

"How?" replied Pansy, nearly whispering.

"i think, " said Daphne, "We have play as the black pieces, and if we win we get to move on."

"But i'm no good at chess." said Harry. Which was true, in every match he'd played against Theodore, he'd lost. If only Theodore was here now, he could direct the Chess pieces and probably win.

"Oh that's fine, I've been playing chess since i was little, i can definitely win."

"Brilliant, " said Draco.

Daphne moved forward and tentatively touched the black , it sprang to life. It moved it's head wit a creak to look at Daphne, who had taken a few steps back.

"Am i to control you?" Daphne asked of the Black king. It nodded.

"Okay."

...

Nothing happened for a few seconds until Draco said, "What now?"

"Well, white always moves first in Chess, Daphne said, and everyone looked over at the white side of the board. The pawn directly in front of the king moved forward two spaces.

Daphne matched this with, "E7 to E5." the pawn in front of the Black king moved forward and landed in front of the white pawn that had just moved. The game continued on like this for several a while. Despite not knowing much about Chess, the Slytherins were captivated by the moves of the Black and White pieces. As she called out moves like, "G8 to F6" and "F8 to C5" it was obvious to see that Daphne had the upper hand, with the white pieces slumped in a pile, and in not time at all, "Checkmate!" as a black pawn smashed the white king to pieces.

With the board now clear, Harry and the rest of the Slytherins moved forward to the door, congratulating Daphne as they did so.

They walked through the door and up a flight of stairs towards a second door.

As they opened this door, a disgusting smell hit their noses, making everyone pull their robes up over their noses. Eyes watering, they saw instantly what was making the smell. A ginormous, ugly, stinking troll was sitting at the opposite side of the room.

Asleep now, but not for long, as when Draco let out a little whimper of terror, it awoke.

As soon as it saw the Slytherins, it's beady little eyes sharpened and it charged towards them, a massive club raised above it's head.

"RUN!" Harry yelled, and the Slytherins scattered in all directions.

This was actually a very good idea, as the troll, being incredibly stupid, got confused and didn't know which one of them to attack.

"The eeeyyyeesss attack the eeeeyyyyeees!" Hissed Jaculus in Harry's ear. Harry knew how unpleasant it must be for the snake, being able to smell the troll stench better than any of them.

"AIM FOR THE EYES!" Harry shouted at the group as he cast "Depulso" at the troll's head. It missed at hit the ceiling, causing some debris to fall.

Blaise and Pansy had pulled themselves together and were shooting spells at the troll's eyes themselves. Draco was backed up to the door, frantically trying to get it open. Crabbe and Goyle hadn't got their wands out, seemingly unsure whether they could punch the troll or not.

One of Blaise's spells finally managed to hit the troll right in the eye and it roared in pain, grasping it's wounded eye.

It staggered around, thrashing it's club everywhere, but, being unable to see where it was going, it smashed a pillar on itself and seemed to be stunned. Deciding to seize the opportunity, everyone rushed over to the door they needed to go through and Harry quickly started to try to unlock it.

"ALOHOMORA!" he yelled,

"QUICKLY!" Draco shouted, his voice higher pitched than usual.

"I'M TRYING!" Harry yelled back, the stress in his voice clearly visible.

"ALOHOMORA!"

"Quickly..." Draco was tugging onto the end of Harry's robe,

"ALOHOMORA!"

Draco was whimpering now, and slowly sinking down to the floor, his legs having given way.

Harry could hear the troll rising in the background.

"DRACO!" Harry yelled at him. He didn't want to yell, but right now, only a shock could bring Draco back from the shivering state he was in. "HIT HIM IN THE EYE!"

Draco looked like he was going to wet himself as Harry said that

"W-w-what?"

"Hit him in the eye, and he won't be able to move around, and we'll have and easier time getting back!"

"I-" Draco looked like he was about to throw up, but he swallowed and said, "Okay, okay, i'll - i'll do it."

As Harry tried the lock again, Draco marched up to the troll and fired "Depulso" point blank into the troll's other eye.

Point blank, the spell did what Blaise's couldn't. The troll's right eye exploded, and the spell managed to bore a hole through the back of it's head. The troll slumped over, un-moving and unmistakably, dead.

Harry finally got the door open as Draco, now heavily breathing, slumped over in a pile next to the dead troll.

"Crabbe, Goyle," Harry said, "bring him through."

They grunted and picked up the unconscious Draco and carried him through to the next room where it was, mercifully, free from any unpleasant smells. In fact there was nothing really frightening in here at all. just a table with seven bottles, placed neatly in a row.

They stepped over the threshold and immediately, 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 onwards. They were trapped.

"So what now?" Harry asked, as Crabbe a Goyle placed Draco to rest against the wall.

"There," Said Daphne, and picked up a roll of paper lying next to the bottles . Everyone gathered round to read it:

Danger lies before you, whilst 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 killer, waiting hidden in line,

Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,

To help you in your choice i present these clues four:

First, however slyly poison tries to hide,

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

Second, different are those who stand at either end,

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

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

Neither dwarf nor giant hold 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.

"What's this? Some kind of puzzle?" Blaise asked.

"I think, " said Daphne, "We have to choose which one to drink, and one will take us through the flames, and one will take us back."

"So which ones then?" Harry asked. To his surprise, Jaculus slithered out from under his sleeve and up to the potions.

Tasting the air around the potions in turn, Jaculus remarked, "Poissson, wiiine, potiiion, poissson, poisssson, wiiiine, potiiion."

"But which potion will take us through?"

"Iiii don't knowwww, iiii only know theeeey are diffffferent to the otherssss."

"What did Jaculus say?" asked Pansy,

"He said that these are poison, " Harry pointed to the potions that were first, fourth and fifth from the left, "That these are wine, " he pointed to the potions second and sixth from the left, "and these are the potions that would let us move forward or backwards." he pointed to the third and seventh potions from the left.

"Which one goes forward though?"

"I don't know, and neither does Jaculus, "

"Well, " Said Daphne, "If you look at these lines here, Different are those that stand at either end, But if you would move forward neither is your friend, i think that means that the last potion must take you backwards, so then the third potion must take you forward."

"But there's hardly enough for one person there. " Said Blaise.

"I'll go, " Said Harry

"Are you sure?" Said Pansy.

"Yeah, i trust in Jaculus and Daphne."

Blaise and Pansy looked at each other, then said, "Okay."

With that Harry let Jaculus slither out of his sleeve, where it then slithered over to Draco and nestled in his pocket, and drank the smallest bottle.

"It's not poison is it?" said Pansy

"No - but it's like ice." He drained the bottle in one gulp. It was indeed as though ice was flowing through his body. He put the bottle down and walked through the flames. For a moment he could see nothing but black fire - then he was on the other side, in the next chamber.

It was a very large chamber, almost like a cathedral. As he walked through, fire sprang up around the edge of the room, illuminating it. Harry looked around the room. There was nothing there. No traps, no creatures, nothing that looked like it would harm Harry. In fact, the only thing in the entire room was a large mirror.

It was a magnificent mirror, as high as the ceiling, with an ornate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet. There was an inscription carved around the top: Erised stra ehru ube cafru oyt on wohsi. Harry thought that something must be wrong. This can't be what Hagrid brought from the vault, it was two large. Or maybe Hagrid had taken a fragment of it from Gringotts, maybe it was such a dangerous artifact that, long ago, some witch or wizard had destroyed it, and Dumbledore was re-assembling it. Perhaps it was a size-changing mirror, and Hagrid had simply picked up the smaller version of it. Still, Harry thought, whatever it was, it must be powerful if Dumbledore hid it down here, behind all those defences.

As he moved closer, Harry noticed that the mirror wasn't reflecting his image.

He stepped in front of the mirror, and saw himself looking back. But then something very strange started to happen, Harry's reflection started to move on it's own. It reached into it's pocket, pulled out a blood-red stone, winked, and placed it back into it's pocket. Suddenly, Harry felt something heavy land into his pocket as well. Somehow, incredibly, he had gotten - whatever it was that had just landed in his pocket. He pulled it out of his pocket. It appeared to be a blood-red ruby, about the size of his fist and easily what was in the ruddy brown package that Hagrid had taken from Gringotts. He looked back at his reflection, it was copying his actions now, and reveal no more about the stone.

Satisfied that it was the stone and not the mirror that was the object of all this security, Harry made his way back to the potion room.

As he opened the door he saw a brief flicker of black flame before it vanished, and his friends all gathered around him.

"What was it?"

"Are you okay?"

"Is there another we need to get through."

The muddle of voices made it hard to hear himself.

"It's fine, i'm fine, that was the last room."

"So then, what did you get?" Asked Pansy

"This thing," said Harry holding out the blood red stone.

"What is it?"

"I dunno." replied Harry.

"What was guarding it?" asked Blaise

"A mirror, i think, i'm not entirely sure what was guarding it."

"What do you mean, a mirror?"

"I'm not sure but i think, somehow, the stone was in the mirror, and i managed to get it out. Somehow."

"What did it look like?" Asked Pansy

"The mirror? well, it was big, golden and it had some writing on it, Erised stra ehu- something."

"Erised?" asked Blaise.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Well, i'm not entirely sure why, but that word, Erised, it rings a bell."

"Where from?"

"Oh, i'd have to ask dad."

"Okay - er - shall we leave then?"

They all nodded. Draco was still unconscious, but Crabbe and Goyle managed to carry him. It was a long walk back to where they had stashed the brooms. By the end of it, Harry realised he was incredibly tired and he could barely keep his eyes open as he mounted his broom with Draco on the back. (Blaise was carrying the other broom they had.)

As they flew up the trapdoor, They heard the soft notes of the melody charm and as they flew out of the trapdoor they heard Theodore say in a hoarse voice,

"Thank god, i'd thought that something had happened to you i - what did happen to you?" he said, as he looked around and saw Draco, unconscious and his robes and face stained with trolls blood, Pansy, with the bottom of her robes torn off and a nasty swelling near her ankle, and Harry, with the edges of his robes singed and with the stone still in his hand.

"I'll tell you when we're back in the common room i - where's Ophelia?"

"Sleeping under the invisibility cloak." and he reached into thin air and grabbed the folds of the cloak.

She woke with a start, "Oh, what is it my- oh you're back."

"Yeah come on, we're heading back."

It was hard work returning to the Common room with 9 people, one of whom was unconscious, and seven broomsticks. They ended up using Blaise as a scout, moving ahead in the invisibility cloak, whilst they hid in a alcove until he gave the 'all clear'. It was nearly 4 o'clock in the morning when Harry finally slumped down on his bed. (Blaise was currently pre-occupied with taking the broomsticks back to their cupboard.)

He just had time to pull off his dirty robes before he fell into a deep sleep.

Many questions plagued Harry over the next few weeks. The most prominent of these was concerning the blood-red stone they had found at the end of the dungeon. What was it? What did it do? and why does such a simple object need such heavy security?

Luckily no-one had been seriously hurt. Draco, it appeared, had simply collapsed with exhaustion after facing the troll and woke up the next morning perfectly fine. Pansy had gone and seen Madame Pomfrey after lunch, and had been fixed as quickly as she came in. Everyone else was simply a bit tired the next day.

This was not good timing to be tired in class however, as now that the Christmas and Easter breaks were over the end of year exams, as their teachers loved to remind them, were on the horizon and they needed to pass them in order to move on to second year. To facilitate this, the teachers piled on so much homework that, even if Harry knew where to look to find answers the the question he had, he wouldn't have time to read anything.

"I still don't see why we have to start studying this early, the exams are ages away." Draco said one afternoon whilst they were in the library.

"i know," replied Harry, "But we haven't really got much else to do if we want to avoid detention. Crabbe and Goyle are already skirting the line if they hand in another sub-par essay, and we'd probably get detention until next Christmas if Mcgonagall finds another reason to put us in detention." Just last week they had gotten punished for duelling with Finnegan, Weasley and Thomas. Mcgonagall had caught them and, believing that they had picked a fight with the Gryffindors (though it was really the other way around), had made them stay and clean the bird droppings left by one of her sixth-year classes. All without magic. It had been hard work, and it hadn't helped that Draco had complained all the way through, whilst actually doing little to help.

Still, they were all ready to get back at the first-year Gryffindors. Preferably with something painful or disgusting. Or both.

Looking over at Draco, Harry could see that he was scowling. Clearly he too was remembering the dreadful detention.

"Draco's just mad because he was beaten by a girl." said Pansy with a smile. They all sniggered at this, except for Draco who said a bit loudly,

"That's got nothing to do with it!"

"Quiet over there or i'll throw you out of the Library!" cried Madame Pince, the vulture-like librarian who kept a close eye on students working in the Library.

Repressing the urge to curse Pince, Harry looked back down at his book, a dreadfully boring account of the movement of Saturn's moons in the 3rd century, which he had to summarise for astronomy.

"It's because she's a mudblood, " Draco said after a pause. Harry looked up. Whilst he had heard the word mudblood before, he'd never heard Draco call Granger it. He was shocked to see that there was a look of pure loathing on Draco's face. A look of anger that he had never seen before. He found it strangely awe-inspiring.

Half an hour later, Harry sat next to his barely started essay, hoping that it would do itself when he heard a muffled thump in the row of book near him. He looked around and to his surprise saw Hagrid shuffling out from behind a shelf of books.

"Hagrid! What are you doing here?"

Hagrid jumped, the rest of the Slytherins looked up from their work too. "Oh, well i was - er - well ter tell yer the truth i was - lookin' fer flesh-eating slug books, yeah." The way Hagrid said it, however, made Harry think he wasn't being entirely honest.

"Flesh-eating slugs?"

"Oh yeah, they'll ruin the school cabbages so i'm hopin' ter nip the problem in the bud if yer know wha' i mean."

"Then why were you in the Dragon section?" Harry asked, noticing the placard above the section Hagrid had just come out of.

"I - what?"

"What are you hiding behind your back?"

"It's - well i -"

"What do you not want me to see Hagrid?"

"A'right, a'right, blimey Harry. Listen, " Hagrid dropped into a whisper so Harry had to lean in to hear what he said next, "Come see me later, after supper. I'll show you summat, but you musn't tell anybody a'right?"

"Okay Hagrid." replied Harry, a little amused, as Hagrid shuffled out of the Library.

Once Hagrid had gone Draco asked,

"What was that about?"

"I dunno, he wants me to see him after supper. Wants to show me something."

"You're not thinking of going are you?"

"I am yeah."

"What if you get caught?" asked Pansy

"I'll use the cloak, that way no-one will see me."

"What was he doing in the Dragon section anyway?" asked Draco

"No idea." replied Harry, "Although Hagrid's always wanted a dragon. He told me so the first time i ever met him. Hey! you don't think he's managed to get a dragon do you?"

Draco snorted, "Of course not. Trading dragons is illegal, you'd need hundreds of galleons before you ever managed to get one and the oaf clearly doesn't have that sort of money, not with the way he lives. Probably only managed to buy part of a broken shell or an old vial of dragon's blood. That is, of course, if Dumbledore is even paying him. Probably lives off of handouts from other students who want to feel better about themselves."

"I suppose. Still, i think i'll go and see him. " and seeing the look on Draco's face he said, "Hey, it's something to do isn't it? Sure beats sitting here, writing essays all day."

So Harry found himself knocking on Hagrid's door a few hours later. He was surprised to see all the curtains drawn and windows were closed. Hagrid called "Who is it?" before he let Harry in, and quickly locked the door behind him. Harry noticed the crossbow and pink umbrella sitting next to the door.

It was scorching hot inside, as Hagrid had lit a blazing fire in the grate. He made Harry tea and offered him stoat sandwiches, which Harry ignored.

"What was it you wanted to show me Hagrid?"

Hagrid spilt a little tea down his beard as Harry asked this.

"Well, er, you see i got er- well -"

"What's that?" Harry said, pointing to a large black egg sitting in the fire.

"Ah, well, that is wha' i wan'ed to show yer."

"Did you buy a dragon egg Hagrid?" said Harry, interrupting Hagrid.

"I won it." Hagrid replied proudly.

"Won it?"

"Yeah, from a greek chappie i met at the pub las' night. I think he was quite glad to be rid of it ter be honest."

"I'm not surprised, they're illegal aren't they."

"Oh, well er - yeah they are. But we're far away from muggles here, an' i know how ter take care of it see, that's why i was at the library." He produced a book from one of his cupboards lining the walls. "Dragon breeding fer pleasure and profit. Little outta date o'course but it's all in here. Keep the egg in a fire cause their mothers breath on 'em, see, an' when it hatches, feed it on a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood every half-hour. An' see here, " he showed Harry one of the last pages in the book, "how ter recognise different eggs - an' what i got there's a Norwegian Ridgeback. They're rare, them."

He looked incredibly pleased with himself, but Harry wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. Flesh-eating slugs were one thing, but a Dragon was something else entirely.

"Well, this has been fascinating Hagrid, but i really must go, i've got loads of homework to be catching up with."

Hagrid looked crestfallen.

"Oh, yeah, well you bes' be off then."

Harry was almost at the door when Hagrid said,

"You won't tell anyone will yer Harry? Only i jus' got him an' i don't wan' him ter go the moment he arrives you know."

"Of course not Hagrid." and Harry left before Hagrid could get another word in.

"So it's a dragon, a real dragon?" Draco asked once Harry had returned.

"Well a dragon egg, but yeah." said Harry, who had relayed the information he had gleaned from the visit to Hagrid's.

"And he's planing to hatch it and care for it?" asked Pansy.

"It looks like it."

They all shared nervous looks.

"If that thing stays in the castle, there won't be a Hogwarts to come back to after the summer." Theodore said ominously

There was a pause then Harry said, "I sure Dumbledore will find out eventually."

"Before or after he's burned his hut to the ground?" said Draco, and they all laughed.

The next day they were ready for another stretch of tedium and homework and revision, but at break Harry got a message, delivered by one of the school owls, saying only two words, It's hatching.

Since they had History of Magic next, Harry decided he would skive and go straight to Hagrid's hut to see the Dragon hatching. Whilst initially reluctant, after Harry had told him "How many times in our lives are we going to see a dragon hatching" and who it was that knocked out the Troll, Draco had decided to come along too, followed by Pansy, Theodore and Blaise. (Crabbe and Goyle having gorged themselves so much that they were now lying in the hospital wing beds.)

They rushed through the grounds, careful to not be spotted by any teachers and arrived at Hagrid's hut, where he eagerly ushered them in.

They soon realised that they could probably have sat through History of magic in the nearly 2 hours it took for the Dragon to Hatch. Initially it was only a few minor cracks in the egg that Hagrid was getting excited about. Though so little was happening that Harry wasn't entirely sure that Hagrid hadn't just dropped the egg and mistaken the cracks it made for the dragon about to start hatching.

Eventually though, some larger cracks soon emerged and after about an hour they could hear a funny clicking noise coming from inside. Apparently this was good news, as it meant that the dragon was healthy enough to break open the egg.

Suddenly, there was a scraping noise coming from inside and the egg split open. The baby Dragon flopped on to the table. It wasn't exactly pretty, It looked like a crumpled black umbrella and had huge spiny wings, a skinny jet body and had a long snout with wide nostrils, stubs of horns and bulging, orange eyes.

It sneezed. A couple of sparks flew out of it's nose and singed the wooden table, leaving scorching black marks dotted around.

"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid murmured. He reached out a hand to stroke it's head, but the dragon snapped at his fingers, showing pointed fangs.

"Bless him, look, he knows his mummy!" said Hagrid.

Harry couldn't speak, in fact he could hardly even breathe. The monster on the table before him looked ready to bite his hand off, or set his robes on fire. Draco was next to him, and without even looking at him, Harry knew Draco was making the same face he had made when coming face-to-face with the troll weeks earlier. The usually stoic Blaise looked uncharacteristically unsettled, Theodore had the same face Draco did, with a touch of disgust also etched into his face and Pansy was making small gestures to Harry clearly showing that she wanted to leave.

"Well um, Hagrid-"

"Hmm?" Hagrid murmured, scratching the dragon under it's chin.

"We should be going now we don't - er - want to get in trouble so..."

There was a scramble for the door. Hagrid was too busy paying attention to the Dragon to be bothered much.

"Never, never again!" Draco said Loudly when they were back in the Slytherin Common room later that day. "I mean, what on earth does that oaf even think he's doing?"

"He is rather stupid you know." replied Theodore, "It probably hasn't crossed his mind that dragons can be dangerous."

"That thing is going to burn down the entire castle - not to mention his WOODEN hut!"

"We really should tell someone, " said Pansy, "I could talk to my Mother, she can get Hagrid arrested and sent to Azkaban."

"Or, " supplied Blaise, "We could just let him burn his hut down. At some point Dumbledore will have to get involved."

"Dumbledore will be soft on him though." said Draco "I agree with Pansy we should get him sent to Azkaban."

"What do you think Harry?" said Theodore.

"I agree with Pansy, i want the Dragon as far away from here as possible, preferably with Hagrid in tow."

So they agreed that, in the morning, Pansy would send a letter to her mother.

They didn't get a reply from Pansy's mother, but a few days after they had sent the letter, during breakfast a woman and an entourage of people marched through the great hall and up to Dumbledore.

"That's mother, " Pansy whispered to the other Slytherins.

She was an imposing woman. Tall, and highbrowed, she looked like a strict woman. She reminded Harry of Aunt Petunia, dressed for one of Uncle Vernon's dinner parties, although he doubted whether Aunt Petunia would wear emerald green robes, or such a wide hat, topped with, ironically enough, a dragon.

The other members of her entourage where more soberly dressed. An older man on Mrs Parkinson's left appeared to be the only one who wasn't dressed expecting to be attacked. He was holding a roll of parchment bound in an official looking purple seal. The other's were dressed like, what Harry thought to be, wizarding policemen.

Wearing robes of what Harry recognised as black dragon-hide, they looked like leathery knights, except they carried wands instead of swords.

Suspended between four of them was a large cage, surrounded my magical locks and chains that looked exactly like the place they were going to cage the baby dragon.

"Dumbledore."

"Isadora. How lovely it is to see you here again. Why it must have been nearly twenty years since you stood in this hall."

"Skip the pleasantries Dumbledore, i'm sure you know why i'm here."

"I received your owl, yes."

"Then you are willing to fully co-operate with the capture of the baby Norwegian ridgeback which has been christened 'Norbert' by your gamekeeper?"

"I am willing to help the ministry with relocating any Dragons they find on school grounds, yes."

"And you are willing to help with the arrest and subsequent imprisonment of Rubeus Hagrid, who willingly and knowingly traded in a Class A non-tradeable good as outlined by the Ministry of magic in the 1847 wizarding goods act, and hatched and raised the dragon which was in clear violation of both, the international statute of wizarding secrecy of 1692 and the warlock's convention of 1709. Not to mention the ban of raising a creature with ministry of magic classification XXXXX without proper notification and approval. And that's only mentioning the ones for this incident. Why, i'm sure Hagrid has probably broken countless laws set by the department for the regulation and control of magical creatures, with or without his knowledge."

It was an impressive speech. The entire school was silent, all looking at Mrs Parkinson in shock and awe. Unfortunatly, it did not have the same effect on Dumbledore.

"Ah, well that is where we might come to adds. You see, i have no intention of allowing the ministry to arrest my gamekeeper."

Mrs Parkinson's composure dropped a little. A few students snickered.

"Oh you do, do you?"

Dumbledore simply smiled at her.

"Well, in that case we shall simply have to return to the ministry and return when we have a warrant for your arrest as well, Dumbledore."

She turned to walk away from Dumbledore, but was stopped by the little old wizard next to her, who wheezed "Whilst we're here Isadora, might it not be a good idea to capture the dragon and then we can come back for Hagrid and Dumbledore" and then he said in an undertone, "preferably with some trained hit-wizards, I doubt Berkley and the others could take on Dumbledore by themselves."

Mrs Parkinson looked over at Dumbledore, who was still smiling pleasantly at her, and said "Very well Dumbledore, take me to Hagrid's, we shall capture the beast here and come back later for the two of you."

As they were leaving, a student shouted from the Gryffindor table,

"You'll never take Hagrid from us whilst Dumbledore is headmaster!"

Dumbledore chuckled and said, "Thank you Ellsby."

The chatter around the hall started up again after they left.
"So what do you think's going to happen?" Asked Harry.
"Well that's obvious isn't it?" Replied Draco "That Dragon will be sent away, Hagrid will be arrested and hopefully Dumbledore along with him."

"I'm not so sure about that." Said Blaise, "it sounded like Dumbledore had a plan to try and get Hagrid out of jail. And they don't call him the greatest wizard of all time for nothing."

"There's nothing he can do." Replied Draco, "Hagrid will be attested and sent to Azkaban. Personally, I think everybody overestimates how great Dumbledore actually is. I know father especially doesn't think very highly of him. He's tried to get more than a few of Dumbledore's proposals rejected by the Wizengamot, but he has more than a few supporters there who are blinded by his so called brilliance."

"Hold up!" Said Harry, throwing out his arm in front of Draco, causing him to stop. The Slytherins were on their way to Herbology, and had taken a shortcut around the school. However, looking over at the empty grounds, they found that they were not quite so empty as they had been led to believe. Draco had seen it too. Standing a distance away from them, their backs turned, and clearly trying to eavesdrop on the situation with Hagrid, were Granger, Weasley and Longbottom.
Harry looked at Draco. His face wore an expression of pure rage that could only be targeted at Granger. He put on his nastiest sneer as he walked towards the back of them, Harry, Blaise and Pansy in pursuit.

"Granger!"

The three gryffindors turned around in surprise, yet quickly grappled their wands out of their robes as Draco approached them, his own wand raised, ready for attack.

"And what are you up to?" He said, his voice dripping with malice. "Not trying to see if the oaf, Hagrid, will be able to worm his way out of this are you?"

"That's none of your business Malfoy!" Weasley said, advancing.

"No!" Said Granger, who was the only one who didn't have her wand out, "we mustn't fight, we'll get in so much trouble we-" but she was cut short by Draco, who said "Shut it Granger! Mudbloods like you shouldn't even be allowed to carry a wand, let alone go to school."

"why you!" Weasley shot a bolt of red light at Draco, which he effortlessly dodged. Harry, knowing Draco had eyes only for Granger, moved in to attack Weasley, Blaise shot a spell at Longbottom which knocked him out instantly and Pansy tried to back Draco up, but Draco said "No! She's mine!" as Granger drew her wand. Harry quickly incapacitated Weasley with the leg-locker jinx, snatched his wand from him and cast "mimblewimble!" Which rendered him unable to speak due to him now only being able to converse by babbling like a baby. With Weasley babbling and trying to bunny hop his way into getting his wand back, Harry and the others stood back to allow Draco and Granger to duel.
Granger immediately tried to use the fog charm to hide herself, like she had month before, but the spell failed and merely produced a kind of heat haze around her, that did nothing to obscure her movements. Draco took advantage of this, and cast "anteoculatia!" which caused large antlers to grow painfully out of Granger's skull. Clutching her new antlers that were now as long as her arms, Granger was moaning on the floor, a small trickle of blood dripping down from where the antlers had pierced her skin.

Just then, the front door of Hagrid's hut opened and Mrs Parkinson came bursting out, quickly followed by the old man, her entourage, Dumbledore and Hagrid. "The minister will hear of this Dumbledore! I assure you I will not rest until I have personally-" she stopped dead at the sight of the four of them standing over the bodies of Granger, her antlers now curving over her skull like an ibex, Weasley, who was still trying to get up and bunny hop to his wand, and Longbottom, who was unconscious and lying on the ground, not moving.

"Oh my." She finished.

"well, what has been going on here?" Asked Dumbledore.

"They attacked us professor, we had no choice but to defend ourselves." Said Draco, putting his wand away. Harry and the others followed suit. Dumbledore gave them a piercing look with his eyes, and said, "But why were you down here in the first place?"
"We were -" he looked around for something to blame on why four Slytherins were where they were. His eyes fell on Hagrid. "-going to visit Hagrid. We wanted to see if he really was going to be sent to Azkaban." Hagrid's eyes filled with tears at this. No one paid any attention to it.

"I see." Said Dumbledore, though something told Harry he didn't quite believe this. He stopped the antler jinx affecting Granger, who by now couldn't stand due to how top heavy she was, and had her hair tangled in the many branches of her antlers. He freed Weasley from the leg-locker and tongue-tying curse. Weasley immediately burst out saying, "that's lies, all lies! They sneaked up behind us and attacked and-" "it's all right Mr Weasley. Get on these and I'll take you to the hospital wing. He conjured stretchers for the three of them, which they got on and he then made hover behind him. He turned back to the Slytherins.
"You had best be going back off to class now, I'm sure Pomona will be wondering where you are." He walked off, with the stretchers following him like weird little kites.

Harry and the others started to make their way back up to class, but here stopped by Mrs Parkinson.
"Carry on, I want a word with my daughter."

They all looked at her but she said, "don't worry, it's fine I'll join you later."

But Harry didn't like the look in Mrs Parkinson's eye as they walked off to Herbology, now minus Pansy. It was exactly the same kind of look he had gotten from Aunt Petunia. The kind of look he had gotten whenever he had done magic.

Herbology was over by the time Pansy returned. She had a lot to say to them about the business with Norbert over dinner and later in the Slytherins common room. She told them that when her mother had arrived at the cottage, she had found no dragon, or indeed any indication that there had ever been any dragon there at all. Moreover, since there was no sign of a dragon, she was unable to take Hagrid, and by extension Dumbledore, into custody on any charges.
Draco was furious about this, and rightly so, for it seemed ridiculous that such a stupid, simple gamekeeper could outwit the entire ministry of magic.
"My father will hear about this. He's on the board of governors, he'll be able to fix this!"
Harry sighed. As much as he liked Draco as a friend, he felt that Draco talked about his father a little too much than would normally be expected for an eleven-year old boy.
"You know what I think happened?" Draco continued, "I think that Granger and the other muggle-loving fools, Weasley and Longbottom; I think they must have found out about the dragon and helped it too escape. Or hide it. Yes, that must have been why they were there, they must have been spying to see if their plan worked."

"Well it did then, didn't it?" Said Blaise. "I mean, if they managed to hide the dragon then they did what they wanted to. And there's not much we can do about it of they did, is there?"

"Speaking of Granger," said Pansy, "I found out what happened to them. I had to go to the hospital wing before going to Herbology, and I saw her lying there whilst Madame Pompfrey was removing the antlers, and she was so angry, ooooh, it was like looking at a very bushy tomato. I wish I had a camera, I would have taken a picture of her right there and then. We could have enlarged it and pinned it up on the wall for everyone to laugh at."

"And what about the other two?" Harry asked.

"They seemed fine I suppose. Weasley was fixed before I got there, and I saw Madame Pompfrey feed Longbottom some kind of potion which seemed to make him wake up fine." She scowled at her disappointment that the Gryffindors had made a full recovery.

"Still, at least Granger knows she's not better than me now." Draco said under his breath. "As if a filthy little mudblood could be batter than me, a Malfoy."

They had breakfast the next day, and the hall was alive with a buzz of chatter about what had just happened. Harry heard many wild stories, like outlandish tales about how the dragon escaped and flew into the mountains, or how Dumbledore duelled with the entire ministry entourage, all at once.
"Idiots" Draco said after they overheard some Hufflepuffs swear they saw the dragon from the astronomy tower.

"Well rumours do spread faster than dragon pox, Draco." Said Pansy "And for all we know, it's true. Maybe Hagrid did hide the dragon in the mountains."

"Oh please, if it wasn't for you telling your mother about it, then it probably would have burnt down the castle by now."

"oh, yes, you're right." She looked at bit crestfallen though.

"No, mark my words," Draco said, without hearing Pansy, "father will hear about this. He'll make sure Dumbledore is sacked because of this. He's always said that this school was going to the dogs, and now the other governors will have to agree with him. I mean, they can hardly ignore a Dragon can they?"

something about that statement seemed a bit off to Harry, though he couldn't place it. He let Draco continue though, "I bet you anything that when we arrive at school next year, there'll be a lot of changes. Starting with a new headmaster."

" I don't think there will be Draco." Harry replied with a frown.

"What do you mean?"

"well, we don't actually have any proof that the Dragon existed at all do we?" He quickly continued as Draco looked to argue his point, "I know it definitely exists, I mean we saw it ourselves, but as far as the ministry and the governors are concerned, all that happened was that the dragon regulation department got a bogus tip about a Dragon at Hogwarts didn't they? They didn't actually find anything relating to an actual dragon did they?"

"But Dumbledore admitted to having a Dragon in the school didn't he?"

"I'm pretty sure all Dumbledore said was the ministry was free to capture any dragons they find. And they didn't find any did they?"

Draco opened his mouth then closed it again.
"Then all we have to do," said Pansy, "is find some evidence that proves Hagrid hatched a Dragon, send that to Mr Malfoy and he can convince the governors to sack him and Dumbledore."
"But how are we going to find anything like that?" Said Draco.
"It's only been a couple days, I'm sure Hagrid still has the eggshells in his hut somewhere." Replied Harry.
"How are we going to get in there though?" Said Draco, "He's practically always in his hut."

"We could use the cloak?" Suggested Harry.

"No, it's too cramped in there, if he was in the hut with us, there's no way we wouldn't bump into him or knock something over whilst looking for it. We should ask Theodore if he has an idea."

"That is unless you two have any bright ideas?" Draco said to Crabbe and Goyle. They both grunted.

"Thought not."

So during History of magic that afternoon, they asked Theodore and Blaise (who was sitting near them) if they had any ideas on what to do.
"Some sort of sleeping potion would be good I think." Said Theodore.

"No, you'd want to distract him." Said Blaise, "get him away from the hut and search whilst he's not there."
"But what if he returns whilst you're still there?"

"What if he wakes up and you're still in the hut?"

"Good point. I suppose the distract would probably be easier to pull off. That's up to you though Harry. What do you want to do?"

"We'll go with Blaise's plan then."

"How are we going to distract him though?" Said Pansy.

"We could injure one of the animals he cares for. Then he would have to spend time caring for it whilst we can search his hut."

They all looked around and nodded the agreement of this plan.

"What animal should we injure then?" Said Theodore. "I know Hagrid keeps Hippogriffs in a paddock on the outskirts of the Forbidden Forrest."

"But how are we going to injure hippogriffs?" Said Pansy.
"We could break their legs?" suggested Theodore.
"Are you volunteering to go up to a hippogriff and break it's leg with a stick then? Unless you know how to break legs by magic?" replied Blaise.

"We could feed them something?" Said Harry, "Something that would make them unwell?"

"That's an idea, do we know what we could feed a hippogriff to harm them or something?" Said Blaise.

"Or- Harry, why don't you get Jaculus to bite the Hippogriff in the leg? That way we don't need a fancy potion." Said Pansy.

"Yeah, that would work!" Said Harry, "Hold on."

He reached into his sleeve and pulled out Jaculus.

"Jaculus? Would you be willing to-"

"Biite the legsss of a hippogriff? I hearrrd, and yesss, I would."

Harry relayed this to the others.

"Perkins!" Said Binns suddenly.

Everyone looked around. Assuming Binns was talking to him, Harry said "Yes Professor?"

"No pets in the classroom please, Prewitt."

"Oh, no sir, of course not." Harry replied as Jaculus slithered back into his sleeve.

Binns continued with his lecture on 14th. century goblin rebellions as Harry turned back to the others.
"When should we do it then?" He asked. "The exams are in two weeks time, I think we should do it before then."

"Good point. How about next Sunday?" Said Theodore, "There'll be less people around so we have less of a chance of getting caught."

They all agreed and next Saturday they could be found preparing to search Hagrid's cottage.

Jaculus was going with Draco who "Would rather wear Dobby's rags than go near that oaf's hut again."

Harry would be going with Blaise to raid the hut, and Theodore and Pansy would be in charge of getting the notice to them if Hagrid was coming back to the hut. Crabbe and Goyle had the job of trying to make sure no students went near the hut whilst Harry and Blaise were there.

Next Saturday arrived and with it, Harry out his plan into action. Draco left just after breakfast to go and poison one of the hippogriffs. Harry and the other Slytherins knew that they would have to wait for a while before continuing with the next step of their plan, as they had to wait for Hagrid to first realise and then care for the poisoned hippogriffs. They stayed at the breakfast table for a while, much later than they normally would have, occasionally munching on a half-eaten portion of toast whilst they chatted about mundane things like the weather and homework so as to deflect curious listeners. But they needn't have worried. No-one bothered them whilst they waited and when Draco returned about an hour later bringing news that the hippogriff had been successfully poisoned, they all set off to fulfil their various roles.

They didn't have to wait long for Hagrid to leave his hut to tend for the hippogriff, and after a tense situation where they thought he was running back to his hut, they knew they were in the clear for a while.
Still, they didn't linger in Hagrid's hut. As much as they loathed Hagrid for hatching a dragon in his hut, they also would prefer going to Hogwarts with Hagrid there, than not going at all, which would be the case if they were caught.

However they needn't have worried. The fragments of dragon egg were simply stored in a drawer next to Hagrid's bed. Presumably so the giant could be reminded of Norbert every time he went to bed.

They quickly got out of the hut and back to the Slytherin common room, where Draco was waiting.

"Did you get it?" He asked as Harry and the other Slytherins opened the door to the boy's common room.
Harry showed him the fragments of the dragon egg they had found.
"Excellent, my father will have the oaf's head for this. And Dumbledore's too, if he can manage it."
They set about writing the letter they were going to send to Draco's father. After a few hours it went something like this:

Dear Father,

I'm sure you heard that recently the ministry attempted to arrest the Hogwarts gamekeeper, Rubeus Hagrid, for hatching a dragon in his hut. If you heard this, then you also no doubt heard that they failed to find a Dragon, or any traces of one. I believe this is due to Dumbledore and Hagrid hiding the evidence of said Dragon, which we saw hatch with our own eyes. I am sending an enclosed package with this letter that contains fragments of the dragon egg shell the dragon hatched from, and that the ministry was unable to find. I hope that this can assist you in getting rid of Dumbledore and Hagrid from this school.

Yours sincerely,

Draco.

It was a well written letter, Harry thought, but apparently Draco wasn't satisfied with it. After revising it one more time, which, in Harry's opinion, added nothing more the the letter, Draco pronounced it finished, and attached it to the package that contained the dragon egg fragments. The egg shells were fragile and so Theodore had protected it with a cushioning charm he had learnt. They gave the package to Crabbe and Goyle who were to send it to Draco's father using Ulysses, Draco's pet eagle owl. It wasn't until they returned to the dormitory that Harry truly breathed a sigh of relief though. Pansy still looked a bit down though.

"Great. Now all we have to worry about is the exams." Said Blaise when they got a reply back the next day. The reply was short, simple and told them that Mr. Malfoy now had enough evidence to incriminate Hagrid and they would not see him next year. They were slightly disappointed that he wasn't going immediately, but you can't have everything. And as Blaise had pointed out, they had much more pressing issues, like exams to be concerned about.
They hadn't done much revision In the lead up to the exams, preferring instead to play gobstones in the courtyard. Still, they had to revise at some point, and late one evening, mere hours before the transfiguration exam, Draco could be heard exclaiming

"I am never going to remember this!"

"You've got to try, remember, McGonagall told us that basic knowledge of what a switching spell is was required for the exam." Said Theodore in reply. "At least you or Harry will be able to breeze through potions, you're both Snape's favourites. The rest of us have to work to get a passing grade."

"Whatever," Draco said as he left for the first-year's dormitory, "If I'm going to fail transfiguration then I'm going to do it well rested. Goodnight."

"Goodnight." Harry and Theodore said together. Draco waved a lazy hand in acknowledgement as he rounded the corner.

"You know, he's got a point." Said Theodore a quarter of an hour later. "If we're tired for the exams tomorrow then we might fall asleep during the examination, and that would definitely get us a fail."

"You go to bed then," replied Harry, "I want to go over these notes one more time."

Theodore left with a lazy goodbye, leaving Harry all alone. Or was he alone?
He could faintly hear the sound of someone, perhaps crying? It wasn't very clear. He shook his head and, thinking that he was getting so tired himself that he was hearing things, started to pack up. After he had cleared his parchment, quill, inkwell and books away he paused, and listened again. It was still there, very faintly. And it was definitely crying. Perhaps it was a mournful ghost.
Harry started to follow the sound until he reached a small alcove in the marble wall.
It was Pansy, sitting there, silently crying. Harry stared for a few seconds until she noticed him, and quickly tried to dry her eyes out with her sleeve.

"Oh, Harry." She sniffled. "I was just-"

"Why were you crying?" Harry interjected. "Surely you don't feel like you'll do that badly in the exams?"

"No it's - it's fine, it's nothing."
"People don't usually cry for no reason. What's the matter?"

"I - Well." She sighed and, wiping her tears from her eyes, said "do you remember how I said I had to go to the hospital wing after we duelled?"

"yeah, I was confused about that because I didn't think you got hit."

"Well I didn't, at least not by any of the Gryffindors."

"So who hit you then?" said Harry, though he already had an inkling of who did.
"My mother." Said Pansy, not looking Harry in the eye. "After she was embarrassed by Dumbledore she told me how it was all my fault and that I had brought shame to the family and just now, she sent me this." She held out a letter.

Harry quickly scanned it and saw what it was.
It was nothing good. It appeared that Mr. Malfoy had conscripted Mrs. Parkinson in his fight against Dumbledore and Hagrid, and that due to the fact that Mr. Malfoy had the evidence and she didn't, she was being shamed at the ministry. The letter rounded off with a line of insults hurled at Pansy and the promise of a brutal punishment when she returned for the summer.

Harry was shocked. He had thought that Mrs. Parkinson wasn't a very nice woman when she had arrived at Hogwarts, but to physically abuse her own daughter. He shook his head. The Dursleys had abused him too, when he was forced to suffer periods of near starvation, and the constant fights with Dudley. It had been bad, yes, but they had never physically hit him.
"Harry, I don't know what to do." Said Pansy a minute later. "I can't stay at Hogwarts over the summer, but I can't go back to my parent's either." She sobbed for a minute, during which Harry had no idea what to say, but then looked up, quickly. "Harry! Why don't I come stay with you over the summer?"

"What? Why? Wouldn't Draco's be better?"

"No, mother knows where Draco lives, she could easily come and get me, but she would never be able to find your house Harry, I could stay with you over the summer and we could go back to Hogwarts together!"

Harry thought for a second.

"Well the Dursley's wouldn't like it, so I'm okay with it, but are you sure you want to, I mean, they're cut from the same cloth as your mother."

"Well they can't be that bad."

"You day that, but there was this one time-" And he told her the story of how he had accidentally set his teacher's wig on fire once, and how the Dursleys had locked him in his cupboard for a month because of it.
Instead of seeming put off, Pansy I found it hilarious how the Dursleys had overreacted to every little thing Harry did. So Harry continued tell her stories about the Dursleys late into the night.
When Harry started to nod off they decided to go to bed. Harry had been so distracted with stories of the Dursleys, that he didn't even think about exams as he drifted off into sleep.

As it turns out, staying up late into the night on the day before exams is not a good thing. In the transfiguration exam the next day, Harry mixed up body, weight and concentration in the transfiguration formula, misread the transfiguration alphabet and when asked to transfigure a match into a needle, created a reddish needle that burst into flames whenever it was struck. Still, he didn't do as badly as Crabbe who failed to remember even a single letter of the transfiguration alphabet, or Goyle who, instead of turning his matchstick into a needle, split it in half and set both ends alight.
Charms the next day was much better. Harry realised he had never fully appreciated a good night sleep before he started the Charms exam.

"Give the inaction for the wand-lighting charm" Question on the written exam could only be Lumos, and when Harry had to demonstrate it in the practical exam room, he lit up the whole room in a brilliant white light (which, incidentally, reminded him a lot of the rooms behind the trapdoor on the third floor) and left the room beaming with the same kind of light that had just emanated from his wandtip.

Overall the rest of his exams went in much the same fashion as his Charms ones. Of course Professor Quirrel's exam was annoyingly dull for being an exam in defence against the dark arts, and Harry was sure that everyone had started to nod off by the end of the History of Magic exam, but Harry's best exam was clearly Potions. With Jaculus whispering in his ear throughout the exam, Harry didn't get a single ingredient wrong, and the hissing that Jaculus made when he talked to Harry was hidden amongst the hissing of ingredients simmering in cauldron.

Overall, Draco had done better than Harry, and obviously Theodore was the best of all the first year Slytherins, but to their annoyance Granger had performed the best out of all the first year students.

This particularly infuriated Draco, who could be heard vehemently abusing Granger in the Slytherin common room a few days after they had finished the exams.
"It's favouritism, that's what it is." Said Draco. "I mean, how else could a mudblood like her get 114%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% in charms!"
They had overheard Professor Flitwick talking to Granger as they left the History of Magic exam yesterday. It was this in particular that had caused Draco to go on his tirade in the Common room.

"Hear hear!" Said Theodore, pouring himself a glass of pumpkin juice from one of a few pitchers that they had taken to celebrate the end of exams.

"It's charity! They shouldn't even be allowed at Hogwarts, let alone take the exams or learn magic!"

More cheers. Some older students were starting to listen in now.

At that point however, something strange happened with one of the portraits hung in the common room. It was a portrait of a knight, brandishing a sword and a wand, whose armour was emerald green and decorated with several silver snakes. A large adder rested on the shoulders of the knight, but both knight and adder were knocked down as a woman in fur-lined red robes shoved her way into frame.

It was Aslaug, but Harry had never before seen her outside of her frame. In truth, he had never seen Kryillos outside his painting either, but knew that he must travel to other paintings sometimes as there were occasions where Harry would arrive at the practice room but did Kryillos not there. Aslaug was always there though, whether her husband was there or not, which made her arrival into the Slytherin common room very strange indeed.
"Harry!"

Harry moved over to the portrait where the knight was picking himself up from the ground and replied to Aslaug.

"What is it?" Harry asked.

"I have some important information to tell you immediately, can you go to the room immediately. I wish to say this away from prying ears." she looked around. Already some students were glancing at the portrait and at Aslaug, who, wearing entirely red robes, stood out against the predominantly green Slytherin common room.

"Sure." Said Harry.

Aslaug left just as quickly as she had arrived. Harry told Theodore where he was going in case Draco was looking for him and walked out the common room entrance.

As he made his way to the room he wondered what could be so important as to get Aslaug to come running to him directly. Surely there's no way someone could have injured Kryillos? Can you even injure a painting in such a way?

He arrived at the room and hurried inside. He expected to see something inside, though what exactly he wasn't sure. Instead, there was nothing, just Aslaug waiting for him in her frame.

"Good." She said when he arrived. "There's a problem."

"What?" Asked Harry, a little on edge.

"The teachers, they know the gem has been taken."

"Do they know by who?"

"Well, " she started slowly, "They think that You-Know-Who has infiltrated the school."

Harry's eyes widened at this. He wasn't even annoyed at Aslaug not using Voldemort's real name.

"Why do they think he's infiltrated the school?"

"Because only he could have gotten past all the obstacles under the trapdoor. But that's not the worst of it."
"what do you mean?" Said Harry, curious how it could get worse.

"They believe that he has adopted the guise of a Slytherin student to infiltrate the school."

Instantly several faces of Slytherins flashed through Harry's mind. From first years like Draco and Theodore to older students like Marcus. Could one of them be Voldemort in disguise? Draco had told Harry that Voldemort had gained a lot of his power through deception and manipulation. Could it be possible that he, and all the Slytherins, could have been fooled by Voldemort?
Harry was interrupted in the middle of his thoughts by Aslaug, who gave him one more bit of information.
"Harry, Albus told Severus to search the Slytherin common room and all the dormitories for evidence of Voldemort or the stone. You have to hide it, he's on his way there now."
Harry quickly rushed out of the room. The stone was in his trunk and a quick search of it would quickly reveal the gem. Harry didn't like to think of what punishments would await him if he was caught with the gem. Expulsion, if he was lucky, although he might get sent to Azkaban.
Harry burst through the doors of the common room to find it in much the same way as he had left, although the speech Draco had been giving was clearly over, with the other students having dispersed throughout the common room.
"Draco!" Harry said urgently, although still managing to keep his voice quiet.

"What?" Draco replied, a little taken back with the way Harry addressed him.

"Professor Snape is coming, they know the stone has been taken and they're looking for it, we have to hide it somewhere!"

Draco quickly stood to attention, "Where are you thinking of hiding it?" He said quickly. Theodore and Pansy were listening in too, both on the edge of their seats.

"I'm not sure," replied Harry, "I was thinking of using Kryillos' room temporarily, but I'm worried that I'd walk into Snape on my way there."

"Use the Invisibilty cloak." Said Theodore.

"With how tight those corridors are? I'd bump into him for sure-"
"No, not to sneak by him. Wrap the stone in the cloak and then put it under your bed or somewhere else. That way even if he looks there he won't see it."

"I see what you mean. I'll do that then, try and stall Snape if he arrives won't you?"

They all nodded and Harry rushed off to the Dormitory to put the plan into action.

He dashed over to his trunk and quickly through the lid open. He picked up his cloak, which rested on the top of everything, and reached down into his clothes and pulled out the stone which he had been storing inside of one of Uncle Vernon's knobbly old socks. He pulled the stone out of the sock, then thought better of it and put it back in. Wrapping the cloak around the sock he stuffed it under his bed and pushed it right up against the wall.
Double checking his handiwork he noted with some comfort that the only way anyone would find it was if they pushed their hand all the way under the bed.

He quickly looked around the room to make sure nothing was out of place and dashed back to the common room.

"I've done it." Harry said as he went through to the common room.

"Done what exactly?" A cold voice replied.

Harry looked up. There was Snape, looking at him with a calculating look.

"Well?" He said. "What have you done?"

Harry looked into Snape's eyes. He found it hard to blink.

"I've tidied up the dormitory. Sir." He replied.
"Really?" Snape said with a sneer on his face. "Then perhaps you could explain to me why Mr Malfoy and the rest of your Slytherin friends seems to be under the impression that you were feeling unwell and had gone for a lie down?"
"Errrr-" Began Harry, but Snape cut him off.
"Potter, I have decided that for my inspection of the Slytherin house I shall start with your dormitory. Let us hope that, for your sake, you do not have anything worth concealing or the consequences shall be dire."
Harry's heart was throbbing in his throat as Snape walked to the dormitory.
Snape walked directly over to Harry's bed, paused for a second, then opened Harry's trunk. Harry watched with trepidation as Snape removed, first his schoolbooks, then his clothes and finally started to sort through the debris that had started to form at the bottom of his trunk. He pulled out empty sweet boxes and Harry's discarded pack of Phoenix-fire lighters, then started searching his bed, leaving Harry's things lying about on the floor.
He pulled Harry's Duvet and searched in the pillow cushions. Finally he looked under the bed. Harry held his breath as Snape got on his hands an knees and moved his wand light underneath.
Seemingly unsatisfied, Snape cast Revelio, but nothing happened.

Snape then moved onto searching the other Slytherin's trunks and beds. (Though Harry noted that he left theirs in considerably better condition than he left Harry's.)
When he at last turned around after finishing his inspection he simply said "I'll be keeping my eye on you Potter. Don't think that this gets you out of trouble just because I haven't discovered your duplicitousness yet." And with that, he left.

After Harry had finished tidying up the mess that Professor Snape had made of his stuff, (and placing the stone at the very bottom of his trunk), he walked out of his dormitory to find that Snape had done the same thing to the rest of the Slytherin dormitories, albeit less thoroughly. Most importantly however, Snape, and therefor Dumbledore, had not managed to discover the stone.

The next day the castle was buzzing with gossip about what had happened the previous night. It seemed that, like the Slytherins, the other houses had been searched. By all accounts however, no one had been as thoroughly searched as Harry.
"So what are we going to do about it?" Said Theodore at breakfast, "They clearly suspect Slytherins and if what Harry said is true," for Harry had told them about how Dumbledore had issued the search, not just for the stone, but got Voldemort too, "Then I think we really need to consider getting rid of the stone or gem or whatever it is."

"But if we do that," replied Blaise, "Then what will we have accomplished?"

"We won't be expelled for one." Said Theodore. "They don't know we have the stone, or at least they don't have proof, so let's plant it on a Gryffindor and say they have the stone."

"But how would we know about the stone?" Blaise sighed, "And you said it yourself, they don't know we have the stone. I say let's smuggle it out of Hogwarts and see if we can find out what it is over the summer."

"I'm with Blaise" said Harry, " and since it was me who actually got the stone, I think I should get the final say in the matter."
He looked around at the rest of the Slytherins. No one argued. In fact they seemed to be looking to him as to what to do next.
"So how do we go about smuggling the stone out of Hogwarts?" Harry asked of the expectant crowd.

"Well, " said Pansy, "We could always send it by owl to one of our parents, have them hold onto it until we get back."

"Pansy," said Blaise exasperatedly, "If they've gone so far as to check our trunks right in front of us then they probably started intercepting the post days ago."

"Oh. Right."

"No, I think our best bet is probably going to be walking through the gates with it in our pocket."

"Wouldn't they be searching everyone though?" Said Theodore.

"Not if we use the invisibility cloak." Said Blaise.

"They'll be using a register though, to make sure everyone gets through." Piped up Pansy.

"Then we'll do a handoff. Someone goes through the gates invisible, gives the stone to someone on the other side and then goes back through to rejoin their place in the line."

"But what if that doesn't work though?" Replied Pansy.

"Well then," said Harry, "Someone'll just have to make a big distraction and we'll figure it out from there."
There was no argument to this.

"By the way, " Said Harry, changing the topic entirely, "Did Draco ditch breakfast to go straight to the library?"

"Yeah, " Said Theodore with a Snigger, "remember? He has to hand in our last bit of transfiguration homework or McGonagall will fail him on principle."
"Oh yeah," and Crabbe and Goyle, "they're doing their detentions with Pitts down in the Kitchens aren't they? Helping the house elves make breakfast or something. They probably helped make this meal in fact." he said with a laugh. As he did so he took a slice of a particularly scrumptious Dutch Baby pancake made with bacon and eggs, then apparently thought better of it and put the slice down.

Since it was a swelteringly hot day, they decided to go to the lake to cool off, but they were by no means the only people to do so. Indeed, the lake and grounds of Hogwarts were filled to bursting with students messing about with magic, playing Gobstones or otherwise relaxing in the heat.

The first year Slytherins went to sit by the lake, and when they got to the bank by the edge of the lake, they immediately took their shoes, socks and sweaters off, rolled up their trousers and dipped their toes in the murky water. It was icy bliss. Pansy and the other Slytherin girls stayed there, sunbathing, whilst Harry had a few friendly duels with Theodore and Blaise. Harry was still by far the best duellist, but Theodore and Blaise weren't bad. Draco arrived at about half past eleven, and though he couldn't beat Harry either, he did de-rail the whole thing by knocking Harry into the lake. He probably would have thought of this as a win, Harry thought, until he pulled Draco into the lake who let out and entirely unmanly scream as he hit the cold water. Everyone started laughing and they soon all joined Harry and Draco in the lake, splashing each other and laughing at the reactions they got.

It was only when they were thoroughly wet and soaked to the bone did they stop, and head back to the castle. They saw Granger and the other Gryffindors sitting in the shade of a large oak tree. They were having some conversation about something dull, and Granger was reading a textbook of all things. The Slytherins all jeered as they went past and the Gryffindors made faces back at them.

"Did you see Granger?" Draco said as they walked back up to the castle. "Did you see what she was reading?"

"I know," said Theodore, "You'd think that for someone so smart, she's realise that the exams are over already."

"Maybe she's not as smart as we all think then." Harry replied. They all laughed.

"Or maybe it's her hair," said Pansy, "That big, bushy mane of hers is hardly going to be doing her any favours in this heat. Maybe it fried her brains."

She herself had cut her hair only a few days ago, from where it had been resting on her shoulders, it was now up past her ears.
Hogwarts had several more days of fun and sun, but sadly, it had to be over at some point. That being said though, the feast was spectacular. Slytherin had won the House Cup by a landslide, which was an equally important occasion since it was Slytherin's seventh year running in which they had got the cup. This was in no small part due to Slytherin's victory as a quidditch team in the inter-house quidditch cup. Both Harry and Draco hoped to get on the quidditch team next year, so as to prolong Slytherin's dominance.

The feast itself was excellent, matching the castle ones at Christmas, Halloween and the start of year. Rows upon rows of dishes were filled with everything from roast potatoes and chops from every different kind of animal, to steak and kidney pies all of which was, of course, drowned in gravy.

Harry didn't like this as much as the start of year feast though. He couldn't quite explain why. Perhaps it was because this feast was ending it all, not starting. This couldn't help but make Harry a little sad. It of course didn't help that Snape was looking at him with an odd expression on his face. Where as at the start of year he had looked at Harry with curiosity and loathing, it was now replaced with suspicion, contempt and - was it possible - fear?

The next day, whilst everyone else was currently worry-free, Harry still had the task of getting the stone past the school gates. But this turned out to be easier than he thought it would be. There were three people stationed at the gates, McGonagall, Snape and Filch. Filch was busy jabbing everything with a kind of golden stick thing, whilst McGonagall was checking names off a list and Snape was keeping everybody in line.

Blaise went through first, and hovered by the outside of the gates waiting for Harry. Meanwhile Harry quickly slipped on his cloak and hurried past the checkpoint, where he handed the stone to Blaise and went back through the gate.
Afterwards he got through the gate with no trouble, aside from Snape giving him a nasty look.

He boarded the Hogwarts Express and took the stone back from Blaise as the train started huffing it's way out of the platform.

They had a fun few hours on the way back; playing gobstones and exploding snap.
When he finally arrived back at Kings cross and saw the Dursleys waiting for him, sour-faced and deeply unnerved by all the wizards around them, Harry had one last request of his friends.

"Listen, do you think you could possibly try to get me away from the Dursleys as soon as possible? I don't think I can stand another full summer alone with them."

"Sure." Said Draco "You can come and stay at ours, Father won't mind."

"And try and find out what the stone is?"

"Definitely." Said Theodore.

"See you then." And with one final wave he said goodby to the wizarding life. The life he had loved and had been a part of for ten amazing months.

"Who were they then?" Asked Uncle Vernon as he arrived back at the Dursleys, who were clearly unnerved to see him on speaking terms with such a large cohort.
"Friends." Said Harry.

"Friends?" Replied Uncle Vernon, as though he couldn't believe his ears.

"Yes," said Harry, "and as it turns out they're the children of wizards with quite a... pedigree, you could say. People with a lot of power and influence in the ministry, who could do, just about anything they want, including lock you up in wizard prison if I ask them too."

And, smiling inwardly at the look of shock registered on Uncle Vernon's face, Harry led the way back to the car thinking that this summer was going to be very different to ones that he had ever had before.

The End