01, a harry potter fanfic

Discovering the Legend 1: Read the

Sorcerers Stone

By: RoseDragonWitch

Fandom: Harry Potter Status: Completed Fic type:Drama

Pairings/Main char.: Remus L. & Sirius B.

Published: 2012-11-17

Last updated: 2012-11-27

Words count: 159,981

Chapters count: 20

Converted using Date: 2017-01-06

Chapter 1

(I'm going to try this again. I'm going to try and put the stories back up here... since looking up on my other site is apparently to much hassle.And just so we're clear, I DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER! ALL COPYRIGHTBELONGS TO J.K.ROWLING!)

Prologue: Discovering the Legend

I own nothing. I don't own Harry Potter. It belongs to J.K. Rowling.

Roses are Red Violets are Blue I don't own

So you don't sue

Remus Lupin was walking along one of the many corridors of Hogwarts castle. He had just ﬁnished telling Dumbledore that the prophecy was still safe and how things have been quiet ever since Christmas.

He was going to head straight back to Grimmauld Place to see Sirius. He had been worrying about his friend lately; he was starting to drink a lot and was spending all his time shut up with Buckbeak. Remus was hoping that some company would cheer him up, if only a little bit. He was worried that Sirius was going to go mad trapped in that house any longer… but Dumbledore's orders were still orders.

He remembered the last time that his best friend and the old Headmaster confronted each other.

*Flashback*

It was just aƒer the a1ack on Mr. Weasley did Sirius met Dumbledore head- on. "Sirius?" began Dumbledore patiently. "What is it?"

"It's Harry," said Sirius ﬁrmly.

"Ah," said Dumbledore. He readjusted his half-moon spectacles on the end of his crooked nose and waited for him to continue.

Remus should have been able to guess that this was about Harry; either that or about Sirius wanting to do more for the Order. Remus had also begun to worry about Harry also. The teen seemed to have been going out of his way to avoid everyone ever since they came back from visiting Arthur at St. Mungos. Remus had thought he looked extremely pale, if not a li1le ill.

"Is Harry all right?" Dumbledore asked then, looking Sirius in the eye.

"No, and you can't tell me that you honestly think he should be," Sirius informed him. "He's in a bad way Dumbledore."

"How bad is he?"

The small crease behind those half-moon spectacles and between the bushy white eyebrows told Remus that the old wizard cared about, and was anxious about Harry's welfare, a great deal more than he would reveal to Sirius and perhaps even to Harryhimself.

He supposed that on one hand, Dumbledore was expected to treat Harry as one of his hundreds of students—but on the other, the headmaster had come to favor the boy who, from being a baby, had been under his watchful eyes, and who had proven again and again to be even more remarkable, courageous and good-hearted than his father. Remus had to admit, Harry did have such an eﬀect on people. Aƒer all he had been through and done, he was an unbelievably selﬂess and determined person. It was diﬃcult not to both like and respect James' only son.

"Sirius, please," Remus said gently. "You know as well as I do that Harry would be remarkable if he wasn't run down with everything that's happened."

Sirius just waved him aside, "Look, why don't we just come right out and tell him about the prophecy?" he begged. "He doesn't know about it, and that's why he doesn't realize how much danger he's in."

"Sirius," Dumbledore said gently. "I'm sorry, but I told you before that this is something that Harry doesn't need to know right now."

"Come oﬀ it!" Sirius yelled. "You can't tell me that it's normal for a ﬁƒeen- year-old teenager to have the entire world think you're crazy."

"But Harry is not a normal teenager," Dumbledore reminded him. "Terrible things have happened to him and…"

"How can you just not care that he's suﬀering like this?" said Sirius angrily through gri1ed teeth.

"Sirius," Remus warned.

Dumbledore folded his arms across his chest and long beard and frowned.

"I do care about Harry," he said quite quietly, "More perhaps than I can say. But there is li1le we can do for him besides oﬀering continued care and support."

"Can't you at least talk to him?" Sirius demanded, meeting the wise wizard's eyes squarely. "I know he's bothered that you continue to ignore him like you have done."

"For which you know the reason as well as I do, Sirius."

Remus detected a hint of sadness from Dumbledore, not in his voice, but behind those familiar glasses as he looked unwaveringly at Sirius.

"I would never wish to place Harry in more danger," he continued gravely. "And my presence is a danger to him, proof by the feelings he experienced before Christmas about wishing to harm me. It is my wish that we do

everything possible to keep Lord Voldemort at bay, and not in Harry's mind."

"But how is he supposed to understand the kind of danger he's in if we don't tell him?" Sirius demanded.

"I have my reasons for not telling him Sirius," Dumbledore interrupted quietly, "I do not wish Lord Voldemort to be tempted to try to enter Harry's mind."

"So you really think Voldemort is getting into Harry's mind?" Sirius questioned, but his tone had changed; it was not skeptical but grave.

"Certainly, he did, when Harry witnessed Arthur Weasley's a1ack," said Dumbledore serenely. "Whether he is aware of this connection, I am unsure, but it is only a ma1er of time. I dread to think of what he would implant in Harry's mind, knowing it is easy to access, manipulate and even control. I do not wish to take such a risk, for Harry's sake."

Sirius sighed heavily.

"Harry told me—that he felt he was sensing Lord Voldemort inside him. That he perhaps sees what Voldemort sees in his sleep."

"Did he describe these dreams?" Dumbledore asked sternly, but seemed unsurprised.

Sirius shook his head. "He didn't give speciﬁcs; he just said that he saw things from Voldemort's point of view."

"Of course, they may merely be dreams," said Dumbledore soƒly, nodding, "but it is also quite possible he is glimpsing Lord Voldemort's thoughts. But it is the other way around that concerns me. I have plans to help Harry block these thoughts and visions from his mind once he is back at school."

"How?" Remus frowned. "Occlumency?"

"Precisely," said Dumbledore. "In the meantime, I am afraid that there isn't anything else I can do for him."

Remus looked sideways at Sirius. He could tell Sirius was furious, but also understood the greater debate between himself and Dumbledore.

"Well it can't help that he's locked up in this place!" Sirius sounded like he was close to exploding. "If he could go out, get some fresh air…"

Remus looked down to his feet as he pondered whether Sirius was really talking about Harry or relating some of his own feelings about being trapped in Grimmauld Place.

"Enough," said Dumbledore. "Harry's safety is our greatest priority. His friends are here, you are here. He is not alone, Sirius, and it is a ma1er of a couple of weeks before he returns to school."

His face red, Sirius glared at Dumbledore for a moment. Then hestood swiƒly and took long strides across the kitchen, and slammed the door behind him. The noise rang in Remus'ears.

"Sometimes he is no diﬀerent to the trouble-making, hot-tempered teenager that was sent to my oﬃce countless times," mused Dumbledore, then sighed and looked to Remus. "Of course, he has also changed in many ways since then.

"I doubt he means to lay blame on you. He's frustrated in himself, Albus. And he does truly care about Harry."

"Alas, I try to keep them both safe but it seems to be causing more harm than good. Sometimes I do wonder if I am making the right choices," Dumbledore admi1ed.

"If you sent Sirius to do work for the Order," said Remus, "you know it would be disastrous. He is an excellent wizard, but not a careful one."

Dumbledore nodded but looked worried.

"However," Remus went on, "If you would allow him to go out now and again—I think it might be a good idea. He isn't the kind of man who can stand being trapped in a place for too long. Aƒer all those years in Azkaban, he feels like nothing has changed."

"I agree," Dumbledore said heavily. "But I did not intend have himimprison here when I agreed to use this house for headquarters. I can only hope that this will not end badly."

"What about Harry?"

"Keep an eye on him, will you, Remus?" Dumbledore answered. "Keep his mind oﬀ things until he returns to Hogwarts. There is presently li1le I can do for him besides ask this of you andSirius."

"We will," agreed Remus.

Dumbledore nodded and smiled, and then he swept from the room without another word.

*End of Flashback*

Remus sighed as he rubbed his shadowed eyes. He really needed to get a good night sleep tonight; he'd been done guard duty 3 nights this week and was exhausted. He had just turned around a corner when he suddenly stopped dead. A tall door was just standing there opposite the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy trying to teach trolls ballet.

Remus knew every nook and cranny of Hogwarts but he couldn't remember ever seeing a door there before. Just as he was about to investigate, the door opened and a group of 5th year Ravenclaw students suddenly emerged. Soon aGer that, a group of Huﬄepuﬀs followed by an even larger cluster of Gryﬃndor students.

Wondering what on earth was going on; he waited until he was sure that the last three students came out. Of course, they were the very students that he knew so well.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were carefully looking around before they too leG the room. Remus, who knew that he wasn't supposed to be seen by anyone, quickly hid behind a suit of armor as they came his way.

"I still can't believe that you forgotten to bring the map, Ron," Hermione said in a scolding tone.

"It's Harry's map! Why lecture me?" Ron snapped back.

"Yeah," Harry agreed, "But you said that you wanted to borrow it so that you could sneak into the kitchens for some food. So YOU were supposed to bring it."

"I was hungry!" Ron said trying to justify himself.

"You're always hungry, Ron," Hermione said. "Anyway that was a great lesson Harry."

'Lesson?' thought Remus confused for a moment before he remembered. 'Oh, they must be talking about that secret defense group that Mundungus overheard them talking about in the Hog's Head.'

"Thanks. But you know now that I think about it," Harry said. "I don't think I've ever seen the Room of Requirement anywhere on the map."

'Room of Requirement?' Remus thought.

"The Room of Requirement is a room within Hogwarts that only appears when a person is in great need of it," Hermione said quickly. "So if you need the room to be Unplottable, it won't appear on the Marauder's Map. But…" she added more slowly, "It could also mean that perhaps Sirius and the others never found the room before."

'Oh, is that how it works?' thought Remus impressed. He truly had no idea that there was such a room here. He waited until he was sure that the trio were out of sight before he felt that it was safe to come out. He really

wanted to speak with them, but if someone caught them then it would just give them more trouble from Dolores Umbridge.

He didn't want to give the miserable toad more reason to be breathing down their necks.

He probably should've just leG aGer that. But his curiosity, burning in a way that he hadn't felt since he had been at school here, he walked up to the door, only to see that it had vanished. Wondering how to get in, he thought hard about what he wanted. He wanted to know more about what Harry, Ron, and Hermione were up to.

But nothing happened. No door appeared.

He started to pace the ﬂoor, wondering how to get in… did he need a password? He begun pacing back in forth trying to think of one and to his surprise the door just appeared. He looked down both sides of the corridor to make sure that no one was watching and he pulled the door open.

He didn't know what he was expecting… maybe the room that they were all studying in their secret Defense Against the Dark Arts group? Or something more exciting…

Instead, all he got was a large room with just one small table in the middle with a stack of books sitting on top.

"That's all?" Remus demanded. He had wanted to ﬁnd out more about what the trio were up to; not sit down and read who-knows-what. Thinking that maybe he missed something, he searched the room… only to ﬁnd that there wasn't anything else. Not even a crumb or a speck of dust on the ﬂoor.

Thinking that he just wasted his time, he was about to leave when he decided to get a closer look at the books. He was expecting some history books or even some textbooks… what he wasn't expecting was to see the top book had a picture of a boy on a broomstick… a boy that looked eerily familiar.

Curious, he picked it up so that he could read the cover. The title of the book read:

Year 1: Harry Po†er and the Sorcerer's Stone

Remus's jaw dropped. He could only stare at the words, not knowing what to say or do. He stared at the picture on the cover and discovered that it was really Harry. Flying on a broom trying to catch a falling Snitch—the jet black hair, startling green eyes, round glasses, and there on his forehead— a lightening scar.

There was no doubt that it WAS him

Too stunned to speak, Remus looked down at the other books and saw that there were 3 more.

Year 2: Harry Po†er and the Chamber of Secrets Year 3: Harry Po†er and the Prisoner of Azkaban Year 4: Harry Po†er and the Goblet of Fire

For who knows how long, the he just stood there gaping at the books. Where did they come from? Was this some kind of joke? If he didn't know any better he might have thought so. But something was telling him that these books were the real deal.

He looked back down at the ﬁrst one still in his hands, wondering what to do. AGer a few minutes, he scooped up all 4 books, stuﬀed them in his robes, and leG the room. He traveled as fast as he could go without being seen to the front gates and disapperated straight to Grimmuald Place.

*Sirius*

Sirius set the album down slowly. It was Remus's old photo album, ﬁlled with pictures of days when the Marauders were still at school… days with James and Lily. Unable to look at their smiling faces any longer, he got up

and began to pace the kitchen for about the hundredth time today. If only Harry was still here, it would make staying in this hellhole bearable. He could handle being trapped here if only he could see his godson.

His godson, the one he should have raised instead of getting stuck in Azkaban for twelve years. But instead, was raised with the Dursleys, against Lily's wishes. And the little boy had grown into this battle hardened teenager that had never had a chance for a normal life. He had no idea what had happened to cause the teen to grow up so fast. He only had a vague idea because Dumbledore always changed the subject whenever he asked and Molly had just said something about a cursed diary once.

"I wish I knew more about him," Sirius said to himself running a tired hand through his unkempt hair. Just at that moment he heard the doorbell ring, which was his mother's portrait cue to start screaming.

*Remus*

Remus landed on the front step of Grimmuald Place, like he always did, before he knocked and waited for Sirius to answer. In his hurry, Remus started to ring the bell in impatience, until Sirius ﬁnally answered.

"What now?" Sirius growled. But immediately brightened when he saw who it was.

"Remus," Sirius said sounding pleased to see him. "You're early, you said that you wouldn't be here until—what's wrong?" Sirius had just noticed how white his friend was as he stood back and let him in. "Did something happen?"

"I—no—well I…" Remus began. "I had just ﬁnished telling Dumbledore that the prophecy is still safe. But as I was leaving, I found Harry, Ron, and Hermione coming out of a secret room on the seventh ﬂoor."

Sirius raised his eyebrows. "And what's the problem?"

"The problem?" Remus repeated as he led the way back into the living room. "The problem is they were coming out of the Room of Requirements."

"The what?" Sirius barked. "Remus no one knows that castle better than we do. And we never found any secret room on the seventh ﬂoor…"

But Remus surprised Sirius by interrupting him, "I saw them coming out of the room and overheard them talking about it. Apparently, it only appears to people who have real need of it."

"Well, that sounds handy," Sirius said, still not understanding what Remus was so upset about. "I wish that we found it… wait maybe we did. I remember me and James hiding in a broom closet on the seventh ﬂoor once from a teacher aGer we set oﬀ a stinkpillet in the girl's bathroom. But when we went back… it was gone. You think that maybe…"

"Sirius!" Remus interrupted again.

"Now, what's the matter with you?" Sirius demanded sounding annoyed.

"I went in there to try to ﬁnd out a little more about what those three were up to… and… and I found…" Remus pulled out the ﬁrst book and laid it on Sirius lap. "I found this."

Remus looked up at his best friend to see him staring a book with a shocked expression on his face.

He watched as Sirius turned it over to see the back and written there was:

Harry PoMer has never played a sport while ﬂying on a broomstick.

Sirius raised an eyebrow. Harry was the best ﬂyer that he had ever seen; even better than James had been. It was hard to image that there was a time that Harry had never ﬂown before.

He's never worn a cloak of invisibility,

That cloaked rightfully belonged to Harry. Sirius almost smiled at all the times that the Marauders used it to sneak out of the castle.

Befriended a giant, or helped hatch a dragon.

What dragon? Sirius paused staring at the words.

All Harry knows is a miserable life with the Dursleys, his horrible aunt and uncle, and the abominable son, Dudley. Harry's room is a tiny closet at the foot of thestairs.

Sirius nearly dropped the book at the words, his claw-like hands beginning to shake in rage. His godson slept in a closet? (Miles away the Dursleys felt a cold jolt enter their hearts as Sirius swore to get even with them.)

And he hasn't had a birthday party in elevenyears.

Sirius eye twitched. His hands griping the book hard.

But all that is about to change when a mysterious leMer arrives by owl messenger: a leMer with an invitation to a wonderful place he never dreamed existed. There he ﬁnds not only friends, aerial sports, and magic around every corner, but a great destiny that's been waiting for him… if Harry can survive the encounter.

Sirius didn't like the sound of the last part. Why would Harry not survive the encounter? Nothing happened in his ﬁrst two years that was dangerous… right? Right?

"It looks like there's more too." Remus said pulling the other 3 out of his bag. For once in his life, Sirius didn't know what to say.

"But how… why…?"

"I don't know! I just went in there and I found them sitting on a table. I brought them here… I thought that maybe you had any idea what this was all about."

"Don't look at me," Sirius whispered. He stared at the book, wondering what to believe. If these books were right… then these must tell everything that happened to Harry during his ﬁrst 4 years at school.

"But where did these books come from?" Remus asked, more to himself than to Sirius.

"Something tells me that Harry doesn't know anything about these," Sirius said dryly. He loved his godson more than anybody but he also knew that Harry hated all the attention that he got from his title of being the-boy- who-lived.

Sirius knew that Harry would gladly give up that title and all the fame in a heartbeat if he could. Though these days it, the ministry has been calling him the boy-who-lies.

"They're of his past years at Hogwarts" Remus stated. "And the one you have must be of his ﬁrst year."

"Yes, now we can ﬁnd out what really happened to him during his ﬁrst years of Hogwarts," Sirius said almost silently. "Dumbledore never gave me clear details about his time at school except that he fought Voldemort several times since he's been going there."

Both Remus and Sirius had been wondering what Harry's life had been like. They even asked Harry a few times about his past, but Harry always found a way to immediately change the subject.

"Remus, how do you think they got here?" Sirius asked.

Remus shrugged. "I don't have the slightest idea." He was quiet for a moment before he asked, "Do you think we should read them?"

Sirius thought for a moment before nodding. "Let's read the ﬁrst few chapters. If we read them then we might have some idea how we can help Harry. I mean… his past can't be THAT bad right?"

Remus nodded as he took the ﬁrst book from Sirius, opened the ﬁrst page and read out loud, "Chapter 1: The Boy Who Lived."

Chapter 2

(Copyright belongs to J.K. Rowling! I own nothing)

Chapter 1: The Boy Who Lived

Remus nodded as he took the ﬁrst book from Sirius, opened the ﬁrst page and read out loud, "Chapter 1: The Boy Who Lived."

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.

"What's so great about being normal?" demanded Sirius. "Sounds dull as hell to me."

They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.

Sirius huﬀed, "Nonsense? That just proves they don't know how to have a good time."

Mr. Dursley was the director of a ﬁrm called Grunnings, which made drills.

"What the bloody hell is a drill?" Sirius asked.

"Sirius," Remus said. "If you keep interrupting every sentence then we're never going to get this book read."

Sirius gave him an annoyed look, but went quiet. Remus went on:

He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large moustache. Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbors.

"Wow," Sirius stated rolling his eyes "They sound perfect for each other don't they?"

"Sirius," Remus scolded. "Do you mind letting me read?"

"Ok, ok, sorry," Sirius mumbled sarcastically. "I'm just saying that they sound like they sound like real winners."

Remus chuckled, he didn't admit it but he couldn't help but agree.

The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley

Remus and Sirius looked at each other and both let a bark of laughter.

"Oh god!" Sirius said. "That poor kid. Dudley? What? Were they drinking when they thought up that name?"

and in their opinion there was no ﬁner boy anywhere.

"Not from what I heard!" Sirius exclaimed.

The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Po†ers.

"WHAT?!" they both said simultaneously.

"They were better people than you two could ever be!" Sirius yelled at the book. And Remus nodded in agreement.

Mrs. Po†er was Mrs. Dursley's sister, but they hadn't met for several years; in fact, Mrs. Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister, because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be.

Sirius and Remus growled at the book. "Yeah, lucky for the rest of the world," he hissed.

The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbors would say if the Po†ers arrived in the street. The Dursleys knew that the Po†ers had a small son, too, but they had never even seen him. This boy was another

good reason for keeping the Po†ers away; they didn't want Dudley mixing with a child like that.

"Harry's ten times the person than all three of them combined!" Sirius roared.

"If only we could've kept Harry away from a child like that!" Remus argued. "Man, he had to live with these people?"

When Mr. and Mrs. Dursley woke up on the dull, gray Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr. Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work,

"That's got to be the most exciting part of his day," Sirius said. Remus snorted.

and Mrs. Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair.

"Spoiled brat," Sirius muttered.

None of them noticed a large, tawny owl ﬂu†er past the window.

At half past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek, and tried to kiss Dudley good-bye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls.

"Why that little…" "Sirius!"

"What?"

"Please let me ﬁnish."

"Li†le tyke," chortled Mr. Dursley as he le† the house. (They both rolled their eyes at that.) He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive.

It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the ﬁrst sign of something peculiar — a cat reading a map.

Sirius and Remus looked at each other startled.

"I know that cats are smart…" Sirius said. "But do you think that it just might be…"

"McGonagall?"

Suddenly, getting more interested, they turned back to the book.

For a second, Mr. Dursley didn't realize what he had seen — then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight. What could he have been thinking of? It must have been a trick of the light. Mr. Dursley blinked and stared at the cat. It stared back. As Mr. Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive — no, looking at the sign; cats couldn't read maps or signs.

"Shows how much you know!"

Mr. Dursley gave himself a li†le shake and put the cat out of his mind. As he drove toward town he thought of nothing except a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day.

"Oh come on…" Remus moaned. "He's sure thick isn't he?"

But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traﬃc jam, he couldn't help noticing that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks.

Mr. Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes — the getups you saw on young people!

"Well it's better than wearing a tie!" Sirius spoke.

He supposed this was some stupid new fashion. He drummed his ﬁngers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdoes standing quite close by. They were whispering excitedly together.

"I rather be called a weirdo than boring," Sirius said. Remus laughed.

"What?"

"Oh, sorry," he apologized. "I'm just trying to imagine you being boring. I just can't picture it."

"Thanks… I think?"

Mr. Dursley was enraged to see that a couple of them weren't young at all; why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald- green cloak! The nerve of him! But then it struck Mr. Dursley that this was probably some silly stunt —these people were obviously collecting for something… yes, that would be it. The traﬃc moved on and a few minutes later, Mr. Dursley arrived in the Grunnings parking lot, his mind back on drills.

"OK! We get it! You make drills for a living! Damn, I thought that this book was supposed to be about Harry. Not about what this guy does in his free time," barked Sirius leaning back in his chair.

Mr. Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his oﬃce on the ninth ﬂoor. If he hadn't, he might have found it harder to concentrate on drills that morning. He didn't see the owls swooping past in broad daylight, though people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed open-mouthed as owl a†er owl sped overhead. Most of them had never seen an owl even at nighGme. Mr. Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning. He yelled at ﬁve diﬀerent people. He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more.

"He sounds… pleasant," Remus muttered which caused Sirius to let out his bark-like laugh.

He was in a very good mood until lunchtime, when he thought he'd stretch his legs and walk across the road to buy himself a bun from the bakery.

Sirius sighed in annoyance. He was about 3 seconds to just forgetting about the book and leaving the room.

He'd forgo†en all about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the baker's. He eyed them angrily as he passed. He didn't know why, but they made him uneasy. This bunch were whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn't see a single collecting tin. It was on his way back past them, clutching a large doughnut in a bag, that he caught a few words of what they were saying.

"The Po†ers, that's right, that's what I heard —" "— yes, their son, Harry —"

Remus stopped reading for them both to share an anxious look.

Mr. Dursley stopped dead. Fear ﬂooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought be†er of it.

He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his oﬃce, snapped at his secretary not to disturb him, seized his telephone, and had almost ﬁnished dialing his home number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his mustache, thinking… no, he was being stupid.

"And it only took you that long to ﬁgure out your stupid!" Sirius exclaimed. "There is a god!"

Remus couldn't scold him for that as he was too busy laughing. Once they were both ﬁnished he went back and read:

Po†er wasn't such an unusual name. He was sure there were lots of people called Po†er who had a son called Harry. Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure his nephew was called Harry.

Sirius's jaw dropped in amazement.

"They-they don't even know their own nephew's name?" Remus stammered outraged.

Sirius on the other hand was ﬂexing his ﬁngers as if he was longing to smack Mr. Dursley.

He'd never even seen the boy. It might have been Harvey. Or Harold. There was no point in worrying Mrs. Dursley; she always got so upset at any mention of her sister. He didn't blame her — if he'd had a sister like that…

"A sister like that?!" Remus repeated angry. "A sister like what?"

but all the same, those people in cloaks…

He found it a lot harder to concentrate on drills that a†ernoon and when he le† the building at ﬁve o'clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.

"Sorry," he grunted, as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell. It was a few seconds before Mr. Dursley realized that the man was wearing a violet cloak. He didn't seem at all upset at being almost knocked to the ground. On the contrary, his face split into a wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice that made passersby stare, "Don't be sorry, my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last! Even Muggles like yourself should be celebrating, this happy, happy day!" And the old man hugged Mr. Dursley around the middle and walked oﬀ.

"Well, they sure seem happy don't they?" Sirius asked.

"I wouldn't know," Remus muttered sadly. "As soon as I heard the news I spent the whole day inside drinking."

They were both quiet for a few minutes before Sirius said quietly, "Remus…"

But Remus went on before Sirius could say anything else.

Mr. Dursley stood rooted to the spot. He had been hugged by a complete stranger. He also thought he had been called a Muggle, whatever that was. He was ra†led. He hurried to his car and set oﬀ for home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination.

"How can you NOT approve of imagination?" Remus cried exasperated.

As he pulled into the driveway of number four, the ﬁrst thing he saw— and it didn't improve his mood — was the tabby cat he'd spo†ed that morning. It was now siGng on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes.

"Markings around its eyes? Ok, I'm really thinking that it's McGonagall," Sirius said.

"Shoo!" said Mr. Dursley loudly. The cat didn't move. It just gave him a stern look.

They both burst out laughing again. "OK, now I KNOW that it's McGonagall!"

"Oh god, I wish that she would transform in front of him!" Sirius roared. "I pay all the gold in my vault to have seen the look on his face!"

"Too bad," Remus said trying to get a hold of his laughter.

Was this normal cat behavior?

"No" they both said.

"But it's normal for McGonagall!" Sirius added cheerfully.

Mr. Dursley wondered. Trying to pull himself together, he let himself into the house. He was still determined not to mention anything to his wife.

Mrs. Dursley had had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner all about Mrs. Next Door's problems with her daughter and how Dudley had learned a new word ("Won't!").

"Oh, you can see what a precious bundle of joy he's going to turn out to be!" Sirius said sarcastically.

"Yes, and I can now see why Harry never has anything good to say about him."

Mr. Dursley tried to act normally. When Dudley had been put to bed, he went into the living room in time to catch the last report on the evening news:

"And ﬁnally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been

hundreds of sightings of these birds ﬂying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping paMern." The newscaster allowed himself a grin. "Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuﬃn with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?"

"Well, Ted," said the weatherman, "I don't know about that, but it's not only the owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire, and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain I promised yesterday, they've had a downpour of shooting stars! Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonﬁre Night early — it's not until next week, folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight."

Mr. Dursley sat frozen in his armchair. Shooting stars all over Britain? Owls ﬂying by daylight? Mysterious people in cloaks all over the place? And a whisper, a whisper about the Po†ers…

Mrs. Dursley came into the living room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good. He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously. "Er — Petunia, dear — you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?"

As he had expected, Mrs. Dursley looked shocked and angry. A†er all, they normally pretended she didn't have a sister.

They both growled at the book. They knew how Lily felt about her sister and how she wished they could have gotten along. For them to hear that Petunia acted like she didn't have someone as wonderful as Lily for a sister made them wish that they could turn her into an insect.

"No," she said sharply. "Why?"

"Funny stuﬀ on the news," Mr. Dursley mumbled. "Owls… shooting stars… and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today…"

"So?" snapped Mrs. Dursley.

"Well, I just thought… maybe… it was something to do with… you know…

her crowd."

"What do you mean 'her' crowd?" growled Sirius. "You make it sound like she was part of a crime gang or something."

Mrs. Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr. Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name "Po†er." He decided he didn't dare. Instead he said, as casually as he could, "Their son — he'd be about Dudley's age now, wouldn't he?"

"I suppose so," said Mrs. Dursley stiﬄy. "What's his name again? Howard, isn't it?" "Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me."

"It's a bloody hell of a lot better name than Dudley," Sirius muttered Remus chuckled slightly but was still annoyed they didn't know his name.

'How can they simply not care?' he wondered to himself.

Oh, yes," said Mr. Dursley, his heart sinking horribly. "Yes, I quite agree."

He didn't say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed. While Mrs. Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr. Dursley crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there. It was staring down Privet Drive as though it were waiting for something.

Was he imagining things? Could all this have anything to do with the Po†ers? If it did… if it got out that they were related to a pair of — well, he didn't think he could bear it.

The Dursleys got into bed. Mrs. Dursley fell asleep quickly but Mr. Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was that even if the Po†ers were involved, there

was no reason for them to come near him and Mrs. Dursley. The Po†ers knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind… He couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on — he yawned and turned over — it couldn't aﬀect them…

How very wrong he was.

"That's an understatement," snarled Sirius.

Mr. Dursley might have been dri†ing into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness. It was siGng as still as a statue, its eyes ﬁxed unblinkingly on the far corner of Privet Drive. It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed on the next street, nor when two owls swooped overhead. In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all.

"She hasn't changed a bit," Sirius said fondly. "I remember all the times that she caught us out of bed… as if she had just been waiting for us to show up."

A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground. The cat's tail twitched and its eyes narrowed.

"Who is it?" Remus wondered out loud.

"Keep reading and we'll ﬁnd out," Sirius suggested, earning himself an irritated look.

Nothing like this man had ever been seen on Privet Drive. He was tall, thin, and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt.

Both Marauders smiled. There was only one person it could be.

He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright, and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice.

"Dumbledore," they both breathed together.

This man's name was Albus Dumbledore.

Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to realize that he had just arrived in a street where everything from his name to his boots was unwelcome. He was busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something. But he did seem to realize he was being watched, because he looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at him from the other end of the street. For some reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse him. He chuckled and mu†ered, "I should have known."

"Should have known what?" Sirius asked the book.

He found what he was looking for in his inside pocket. It seemed to be a silver cigare†e lighter. He ﬂicked it open, held it up in the air, and clicked it. The nearest street light went out with a li†le pop.

He clicked it again — the next lamp ﬂickered into darkness. Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, until the only lights le† on the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him. If anyone looked out of their window now, even beady- eyed Mrs. Dursley, they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement. Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set oﬀ down the street toward number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat. He didn't look at it, but a†er a moment he spoke to it.

"Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."

"Hmmm—what are the odds of that?" Sirius grinned.

He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather severe-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruﬄed. "How did you know it was me?" she asked.

"My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiﬄy."

They both cracked a smile at that.

"You'd be stiﬀ if you'd been siGng on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall.

"Why were you sitting on the wall all day?" Remus asked the book as if he thought it would answer him.

"All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here."

Professor McGonagall sniﬀed angrily.

"What's her deal against parties?" Sirius stated.

"That's because whenever there was a party you and James went out of you way to make sure that no one would ever forget it."

"You say that like it's a bad thing!"

"AGer all the things you two pulled oﬀ at school it IS a bad thing." "Yeah… for the teachers."

"Oh, just let me ﬁnish."

"Oh yes, everyone's celebrating, all right," she said impatiently. "You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no — even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news."

She jerked her head back at the Dursleys' dark living-room window. "I heard it. Flocks of owls… shooting stars… Well, they're not completely stupid.

"What?!" Sirius said, shocked. "What what?" Remus asked.

"I've never heard her talk badly about Muggles before. You think that she would show a little more kindness towards them."

"Sirius this is the Dursleys that we're talking about." "Oh, good point. Continue."

They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent — I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense."

"Yeah, but he was great at parties." Remus suppressed a sigh.

"You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious li†le to celebrate for eleven years."

"I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumors."

She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on. "A ﬁne thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really has gone, Dumbledore?"

Remus' voice started to fade as he knew where this was going to go. He looked at Sirius who had gone very white.

"Do you want me to ﬁnish?" Remus asked quietly. "I mean… if this is going where we think it's going…"

Sirius clenched his ﬁst tightly. He thought it over for a moment before he merely nodded. He didn't trust himself to speak.

"It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore.

"We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a lemon drop?"

"Again with the Lemon drops?" Sirius said trying to lighten the mood. It worked. A small smile tugged ever-so-slightly at Remus' face.

"A what?"

"A lemon drop. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of."

"And he still does. What's with him and sweets I wonder."

"No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for lemon drops. "As I say, even if You-Know- Who has gone —"

"My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All this 'You-Know-Who' nonsense — for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: Voldemort."

Professor McGonagall ﬂinched,

"You know I never thought Minerva would be frightened to say Voldemort's name. She says it now doesn't she?"

"Yeah. I guess there's a lot we don't know."

but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two lemon drops, seemed not to notice. "It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I have

never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name."

"I know what you mean," Sirius said darkly. "Afraid of a name? You might as well be afraid to say words like 'Applesauce'… 'Sailboat'…"

Remus gave a small chuckle.

"I know you haven't," said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half admiring. "But you're diﬀerent. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know- oh, all right, Voldemort, was frightened of."

"You ﬂa†er me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."

"Only because you're too — well —noble to use them."

"Noble! Well that proves he's a Gryﬃndor then," Remus stating the obvious.

"It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuﬀs."

"Lame," Sirius muttered.

Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said, "The owls are nothing next to the rumors that are ﬂying around. You know what they're saying? About why he's disappeared? About what ﬁnally stopped him?"

Remus stopped reading. He didn't want to have to go through this again. He didn't want to read about what had happened that night. Even now aGer all these years, just the thought of what happened that Halloween night felt like a knife in his heart.

"Remus… it's ok," Sirius said quietly. "But…" he began.

"I know…" was Sirius's simple reply. "But we can't stay afraid forever right? I think we should keep going." He nodded to the book and waited.

Remus gripped the pages a little tighter but slowly agreed. "Ok," he said more to himself than to Sirius, "Ok."

It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold, hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she ﬁxed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now. It was plain that whatever "everyone" was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true. Dumbledore, however, was choosing another lemon drop and did not answer.

"What they're saying," she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to ﬁnd the Po†ers.

The rumor is that Lily and James Po†er

The rumor is that Lily and James Po†er are — are — that they're —

dead."

This was too much for Remus. He put the book down and buried his face in his hands. He knew all this already of course, but reading out loud… that was diﬀerent. It was almost as if he was hearing the news for the ﬁrst time all over again. He looked across at Sirius who also had his head in his hands and seemed to be ﬁghting back tears.

"Damn you Peter," Sirius choked out.

They stayed like that for at least an hour. Simply mourning their friends and trying to comfort each other. But neither could say anything to make things better. Finally, Remus opened the book, found the place where he leG oﬀ and continued.

Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped. Remus' voice was hoarse

"Lily and James… I can't believe it… I didn't want to believe it… Oh, Albus…"

Dumbledore reached out and pa†ed her on the shoulder. "I know… I know…" he said heavily.

Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on. "That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill the Po†er's son, Harry.

Remus heard Sirius's soG intake of breath and knew that his friend was thinking about the prophecy—the reason that Voldemort wanted to kill Harry in the ﬁrst place.

But he couldn't. He couldn't kill that li†le boy. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Harry Po†er, Voldemort's power somehow broke — and that's why he's gone."

Dumbledore nodded glumly.

"It's — it's true?" faltered Professor McGonagall. "A†er all he's done… all the people he's killed… he couldn't kill a li†le boy? It's just astounding… of all the things to stop him… but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?"

"We can only guess." said Dumbledore. "We may never know."

"Oh, we know," Sirius said quietly.

"Lily," Remus agreed. "Her love was stronger than Voldemort's curse."

Sirius looked at the door that led to the hallway, which held his own mother's portrait. He wished that his own mother had loved him as much as Lily had loved Harry. Maybe if she did then he wouldn't be trapped in her house right now.

Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniﬀ as he took a

golden watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, li†le planets were moving around the edge. It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?"

"Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me why you're here, of all places?"

"I've come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle. They're the only family he has le† now."

"PﬀG," Sirius spat. "Family? Harry may be related to that horse but they aren't his family!"

Remus nodded furiously. Why did this have to happen?

"You don't mean – you can't mean the people who live here?" cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four. "Dumbledore — you can't. I've been watching them all day. You couldn't ﬁnd two people who are less like us. And they've got this son — I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets.

Harry Po†er come and live here!"

"Thank you!" the two marauders chorused.

"Finally," Sirius said, getting up and pacing the room in anger. "Someone agrees!"

"It's the best place for him," said Dumbledore ﬁrmly. "His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he's older. I've wri†en them a le†er."

"A letter?" Sirius repeated in astonishment. "That's all? How the hell are they supposed to understand this in a letter?"

"A le†er?" repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, siGng back down on the wall. "Really, Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a le†er?

Sirius nodded ecstatically in agreement. These people will never understand him! "Here here," Remus approved.

He'll be famous — a legend — I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Po†er day in the future — there will be books wri†en about Harry — every child in our world will know his name!"

"Exactly." said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he won't even remember! Can you see how much be†er oﬀ he'll be, growing up away from all that until he's ready to take it?"

"What?" Sirius exclaimed.

"You want him to grow up in a place where he isn't wanted and then thrown back into the world that he should've grown up in?" Remus said angrily.

"I swear, next time that I see Dumbledore…"

But Remus went on before Sirius could think of a good enough threat for the old Headmaster.

Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed, and then said, "Yes

"NO!" Sirius groaned. "Don't agree with him!"

"Sirius," Remus said, "You're forgetting that this already happened!

"I know!" he yelled sitting back down on the sofa. "But that doesn't mean that I have to like it!"

— yes, you're right, of course. But how is the boy geGng here, Dumbledore?" She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding Harry underneath it.

"Dumbledore might've too," Sirius spoke lightly.

"Hagrid's bringing him."

"You think it —wise — to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?"

"I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Dumbledore.

"As we all," Remus muttered.

"I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place," said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, "but you can't pretend he's not careless. He does tend to — what was that?"

A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky — and a huge motorcycle fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them.

"My bike!" Sirius exclaimed. "God, I miss that beauty! I wonder what ever happened to it…"

If the motorcycle was huge, it was nothing to the man siGng astride it. He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least ﬁve times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so wild — long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of trash can lids, and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. In his vast, muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets.

"Harry," Remus whispered faintly.

Sirius put his face back in his hands. He could still clearly remember that awful night when he saw baby Harry for the last time. How he had just handed him over to Hagrid and let him take Harry away.

"Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get that motorcycle?"

"Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir," said the giant, climbing carefully oﬀ the motorcycle as he spoke. "Young Sirius Black lent it to me. I've got him, sir."

"And let you still let me get dragged oﬀ to Azkaban," muttered Sirius furiously.

"No problems, were there?"

"Other than you not realizing that only an innocent man would help his godson get out of that dangerous place," hissed Sirius.

"No, sir — house was almost destroyed, but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. He fell asleep as we was ﬂyin' over Bristol."

Sirius smiled faintly at that. "I remember now—when Harry was a baby there were some nights when we couldn't get him to go to sleep. He wouldn't close his eyes for love or money. When he was like that, I would take him out on my bike. He loved it when I rode with him; in no time at all he was fast asleep." Sirius smiled fondly at the memory of his godson as a baby. He looked over at Remus who anyone could tell was thinking the exact same thing.

"Yeah," Remus agreed. "I remember too. You didn't care how long it took. You would ride with him for hours until you were sure that he was asleep."

Sirius felt his eyes beginning to tear up. "God, I miss those days."

Remus took a deep breath as if trying to calm himself and said, "We both do."

Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby boy, fast asleep. Under a tu† of jet-black hair over his forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning.

'And that scar is the cause of all Harry's suﬀering,' thought Sirius bitterly.

"Is that where —?" whispered Professor McGonagall. "Yes," said Dumbledore. "He'll have that scar forever." "Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?"

"Impossible, he was hit by an incredibly evil curse and those marks unfortunately never go away," Remus sighed.

"Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my le† knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground.

They both looked at each other again in surprise. "Well that's something new," Remus stated.

"Why does he need a map of the London Underground?" Sirius inquired. "No idea," Remus said.

"Any clue how he got it?"

"Something tells me that we're better oﬀ not knowing."

Well — give him here, Hagrid — we'd be†er get this over with."

Dumbledore took Harry in his arms and turned toward the Dursleys' house.

"Could I — could I say good-bye to him, sir?" asked Hagrid. He bent his great, shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog.

"Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall, "You'll wake the Muggles!" "Wow, remind me not to go to her when I need some comfort." Remus laughed soGly at his friend's sarcasm and went back to reading.

"S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large, spo†ed handkerchief and burying his face in it. "But I c-c-can't stand it —Lily an' James dead — an' poor li†le Harry oﬀ ter live with Muggles —"

"I still can't stand it to this day," Remus and Sirius stated mournfully.

"Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found," Professor McGonagall whispered, paGng Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid Harry gently on the doorstep, took a le†er out of his cloak, tucked it inside Harry's blankets, and then came back to the other two.

For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the li†le bundle; Hagrid's shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously, and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have gone out.

"I don't blame them," Sirius spat.

"Well," said Dumbledore ﬁnally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations."

"How can you celebrate?" Sirius cried out gripping his hair, looking quite deranged for a moment.

"Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muﬄed voice, "I'll be takin' Sirius his bike back.

Sirius scoﬀed. "Thanks Hagrid but I'm probably already being carted oﬀ to prison by now."

G'night, Professor McGonagall — Professor Dumbledore, sir."

Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself onto the motorcycle and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and oﬀ into the night.

"I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply.

Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once, and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street. He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four.

"He better not get sick," Remus said sternly "They just leG a baby on a doorstep in November."

"Good luck, Harry," he murmured. He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak, he was gone.

"You should've done more than wished him good luck!"

A breeze ruﬄed the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Po†er rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the le†er beside him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bo†les, nor that

he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley… He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Harry Po†er — the boy who lived!"

Remus and Sirius looked at each other sadly for a moment.

"It never should have been that way," Sirius said. Finally, losing his battle, he let a tear fall down his cheek. He brushed it away angrily, "I mean… why did it have to happen this way? Why Harry of all people? Out of everyone

—he's the last I would've ever wished this to happen to."

Remus didn't know what to say; and even if he did, he didn't think that he have the voice to say it. Harry never should have had the life he lived. He should've grown up with James and Lily. Been able to play Quidditch with his father and been loved by his mother; never have to worry about any of the things that he's gone through.

AGer a few moments, which felt like hours, Sirius ﬁnally managed to say, "Do you want me to read next?"

Remus nodded glumly and handed him the book. "I hope the next chapter's more cheerful than this one."

"Something tells me not to count on it. I mean, stuck with those people? I think that it's only going to get worse."

"Please don't tell me that."

Sirius gently turned the page and begun, "Chapter 2: The Vanishing Glass."

Chapter 3

(I own nothing. Copyright belongs to J.K. Rowling)

Chapter 2: The Vanishing Glass

"Chapter 2: The Vanishing Glass," Sirius began before silently thinking to himself, 'For my sake I hope that this chapter isn't as depressing as the last.'

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.

"That proves that it's the dullest neighborhood on earth," Sirius hissed. What on earth could possess people to live there?

The sun 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 the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece 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-colored bonnets—

"What the hell?" Sirius said in complete confusion, interrupting himself for the second time.

"Sirius just keep reading," Remus told him, wanting to tell him that if he wants to know what's happening, then he needs to keep reading.

but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby,

"Oh," Sirius said reasonably.

Remus was ﬁghting the urge to rip the book out of Sirius's hands and ﬁnish it by himself if this kept up. They barely made it through the ﬁrst chapter.

He hoped that they wouldn't be reading the rest of the books like this.

and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his ﬁrst bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother.

"Uhh, I think I'm going to be sick," Sirius replied with mock gagging noises, Remus gave a small smirk and rolled his eyes.

The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too.

"What'd they mean no sign?" Remus repeated surprised. Sirius shrugged but continued reading.

Yet Harry Po†er was still there.

"And yet they don't even have any pictures up of him?" Remus asked in disbelief. "Come on, he's their nephew! I know that Harry isn't fond of having his picture taken but…"

"Moony I doubt they have any pictures of him growing up at all," Sirius said mournfully. "I mean… they didn't even bother to learn his name in the ﬁrst chapter." And his hopes weren't too high that that might have changed over the years.

Asleep at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the ﬁrst noise of the day.

"Up! Get up! Now!"

"Oh, poor kid! Imagine having to wake up to that?" Sirius exclaimed. "That sounds almost as bad as being awakened by my dear mother every day."

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

"Up!" she screeched. Harry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good

one. There had been a ﬂying motorcycle in it. He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.

"Wait—wait—wait—whoa—back up! He remembers that?" Sirius asked incredulously, re-reading the lines to make sure he read them correctly. "He actually remembers that? But he was only a year old!"

"It's probably in his subconscious, Sirius," Remus said thoughtfully. "It was real but he thinks it was only a dream." He then smiled. "And as you yourself said Sirius, whenever he was having trouble sleeping, you would take him out on that motorcycle and ride with him until he fell asleep. You did it oGen enough that it became almost routine. With how close you two were, I can't say that I'm too surprised that he remembers at least a part of you even aGer all these years."

Sirius stared at him, and then a wide smile stretched across his thin face. Once again, Sirius was startled by the transformation of how much younger and happier Sirius looked whenever he smiled.

Sirius couldn't help himself as he went back to the book. Just the idea that what Remus said was true, made him happier than he had been in a long time—to bad that it wasn't going to last.

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 aGer the bacon.

"Wait," Sirius cried out, his smile fading oﬀ his face at once. "You mean to tell me they actually made him cook?" Sirius was livid! He was a little kid! He was suddenly itching to place his ﬁngers round Petunia's throat.

"But he's only ten years old!" Remus cried out aghast. "Wait, did she mean look aGer it and to make sure it doesn't burn until she got back?"

"For her sake she better," Sirius growled.

And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."

Sirius and Remus groaned loudly at that.

Harry groaned.

Sirius and Remus smiled in spite of themselves.

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

"Nothing, nothing…"

"No, what he meant to say is that he wants you to get lost," Sirius muttered darkly under his breath.

Dudley's birthday—how could he have forgo†en? Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, a†er pulling a spider oﬀ one of them, put them on. Harry was used to spiders,

"Well then maybe he could help Ron out," Remus said, not thinking anything about the spiders until Sirius read the next line.

because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them and that was where he slept.

Silence ﬁlled the room for a brief second—it took them a moment for that information to sink in. And then…

"WHAT!" they both yelled at once.

"THEY MADE MY GODSON SLEEP IN A CUPBOARD!" Sirius was beyond

furious. He let the book fall to the ﬂoor with a pathetic ﬂump as he got up and pace the room. He was exercising every last bit of self-control he had to not go to the Dursleys and turn them into spiders so that he could lock them in the cupboard. He went back to the book and snatched it up so that he could read the back again. "I THOUGHT THAT THEY WERE

OVEREXATERATING! I DIDN'T THINK THAT THEY WOULD ACTUALLY…" he

was so furious that he couldn't ﬁnish speaking.

Remus didn't say anything. But he too was fuming, wanting to go meet the Dursleys on the next full moon. He listened to Sirius curse at the top of his lungs for a while, suddenly extremely grateful that almost all of the rooms in the old house had Silencing Charms on them as to not wake up Sirius's mother in the hallway downstairs.

"What I wouldn't give to jinx them…" Sirius spat aGer awhile. "Just one jinx… that's all I'm asking…"

"Why didn't Harry ever say anything to us?" Remus whispered to no one in particular. He sat back down and put his head in his hands to calm himself. Why hadn't he ever realized…?

Sirius wasn't listening, he just kept pacing around the room, making threats and cursing the Dursleys with every bit of profanity that he knew.

Muttering to himself, "Damn I can't even think of a good enough punishment for that! But the Dursleys are now right up there with Death Eaters now! So if I ever see them…"

He suddenly rounded on Remus and barked, "Moony?" "What?" he asked startled.

"Do you think he knew?"

Remus looked up at his friend who looked as if he was on the verge of tears and wondering what to say. Of course Remus knew exactly who Sirius was talking about—Dumbledore.

Remus leaned back to rest his head the back of his chair and closed his eyes. He took a long deep breath before answering, "I honestly don't know. I don't know what to think anymore."

Sirius sat back down grumpily. "The next time that Dumbledore comes in," he growled, suddenly sounding like the bear-like dog again, "Remind me— to kill him."

He wanted to get this chapter over and done with as soon as possible so that he could give Dumbledore a piece of his mind.

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 gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike.

"A racing bike?" repeated Sirius truly lost now. "Why the hell would he want a racing bike? From what it sounds like, he hates exercise."

Exactly 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.

"Brat," Sirius mumbled.

Dudley's favorite punching bag was Harry

"What?!" they both yelled again.

"His own cousin hit him?" Remus said in astonishment. "What is wrong with this family?"

but he couldn't o†en catch him. Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast.

"Ah, something else he gets from James. We were able to outrun many a teacher because of that," Sirius reminisced in his memories for a while.

Remus was thinking back to those times too but didn't get as lost in them as Sirius. He waited patiently for a few minutes before punching Sirius's shoulder.

"Padfoot!"

"WHAT?"

"Stop dreaming and read!"

"Ok, you don't need to shout!" he said grumpily.

Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age.

The two practically had steam coming from the ears at this point like they had both had drank an entire cauldron of Pepper-up potion.

He looked even smaller and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was.

"Well that explains why every time I see Harry in Muggle clothes they're always big enough to ﬁt three of him." Remus was looking murderous. "What? They're too cheap to buy him clothes that actually ﬁt?"

"Sounds like they spend every coin they have on that spoiled rotten brat of a son they have," Sirius spat, his eyes were twitching horribly which scared Remus.

Harry had a thin face, knobby knees, black hair, and bright green eyes.

Sirius stopped reading and looked at Remus with a sad smile and over- bright eyes.

Remus was getting worried about the silence that followed. "What?" he asked a little apprehensively.

"Just thinking…" Sirius whispered. "I've missed so much of his childhood. I've missed everything… because I trusted the wrong person."

Remus felt his heart go out to his old friend. "Sirius…" he began gently. But Sirius had just read the next few words and that smile brightened slightly.

He wore round glasses

"Just like James!"

"Yes," Remus said. "Now stop stopping at the end of every line!"

held together with a lot of Scotch tape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose.

Their minds instantly went back to the Dursley's… their anger growing with every wrong that they inﬂicted on Harry.

"What I wouldn't give to punch that kid in the nose," Sirius growled. "See how he likes it."

Remus couldn't even scold him for that because he too was yearning to teach that kid a lesson.

The only thing Harry liked about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead that was shaped like a bolt of lightning.

"Oh, come on!" Sirius whined at the book. "You're a good looking kid! Don't sell yourself short! Just wait a few more years. Blimey," he looked up at Remus. "And I can't believe that he once liked that scar."

"Doesn't he know what it was from?" he asked, but when Sirius went on again, his whole face turned and ugly red.

He had had it as long as he could remember, and the ﬁrst question he could ever remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how he had go†en it. "In the car crash when your parents died," she had said.

"A CAR CRASH?" Sirius screamed. "THEY TOLD HIM JAMES AND LILY DIED IN A CAR CRASH?"

Sirius got up from the couch again and started for the door, wand ready in hand—looking ready to kill. Remus didn't need to be a Seer to know where

he was going. He rushed aGer his friend and pulled out his wand. In one quick motion, Sirius's wand ﬂew up into the air and Remus caught it.

"MOONY! GIVE ME BACK MY WAND NOW!" Sirius bellowed and started towards him.

"Sirius calm down," Remus said trying to keep his voice even, though a part of him agreed with Sirius and wanted to go to with him to get revenge also.

"I'm not waiting for the end of the damn book, Remus," Sirius put his hand on the door knob.

"Sirius you can't!"

"And why the bloody hell not?"

"Killing them won't do any good Padfoot, think of Harry, if you get caught you will be given the Dementor's Kiss and what do you think that'll do to Harry? You won't be able to help anyone, least of all him." It didn't take long for Remus' results to show. Sirius' eyes started to go red and his body was rigid.

"But they lied to him Moony!" Sirius whispered hoarsely. But Remus had clearly heard the pure venom in his voice. "You can't expect me to just sit here knowing that they lied about Lily and James to their only son. They both died protecting him and they tell him that they died in a bloody car crash?! They're turning their sacriﬁce into something… something so ugly!"

"I know how you feel," Remus empathized. "I'm as angry as you are and I promise that they won't get away with it. But we can't do anything yet. Not until Harry is away from them forever, and you're ﬁnally free. I promise that we're going to make them pay! But until then, we have to wait." Remus gently led his friend back to his seat and placing the book back onto his lap. "We need to know everything before we do something reckless."

As a precaution, he made sure to lock the door so Sirius couldn't make a dash for it.

Remus then put his arm around his shoulders. "Let's keep reading, we'll no doubt ﬁnd more things we need to discuss with Harry."

Sirius only responded with a furious grunt and picked up the book with the air of someone ﬁghting to hold back a smart remark.

"And don't ask questions."

'How do you learn if you don't ask questions?' Remus thought angrily though he didn't say anything when he ﬁnally got Sirius to stop his tirade.

Don't ask questions—that was the 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.

"Won't do him any good Dursley, that's the Potter trait," Sirius grinned turning to Remus. "Remember how James went out of his way to mess up his hair so that he always looked like he just got oﬀ a broom?"

Remus laughed. "I forgot what idiots we used to be!"

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.

They snorted at that.

"Of course it does," Sirius said fondly. "And you better get used to it."

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 blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head.

Aunt Petunia o†en said that Dudley looked like a baby angel — (Sirius made gagging sounds) Harry o†en said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.

The two both doubled up on the ﬂoor holding their sides.

"That deﬁnitely sounds like something James would've said!" Sirius said aGer catching his breath. "There's no doubt that he's James's son."

Remus couldn't help but silently nod and let out a few chuckles.

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 up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."

"Yeah daddy," Sirius said sarcastically in a high-pitched baby voice. "You only got me thirty-six presents? That's all?" he shook his head. "Well, they certainly don't spoil him, do they?"

"I wonder… I mean… what are Harry's birthdays like, you suppose?" Remus asked.

"Well, I hope that they at least treat him a little better on his birthday," Sirius said though there was a tone of skepticism in his voice. "If not then that's just another reason to curse them."

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

"The way that they talk to him," Remus said incredulously. "You think that he was still a toddler."

"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 as fast as possible 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 while we're out today. How's that, popkin? Two more 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…"

"I thought that he was supposed to be a month older than Harry," Remus exclaimed.

"He is, why?" Sirius asked him.

"He's eleven and he can't do addition without help?" Remus asked incredulous. "You learn that at age ﬁve!"

"Man, is he really that stupid?" Sirius said shaking his head.

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

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

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

Sirius rolled his eyes, "On second thought, look at his parents. I shouldn't be surprised that he's such an idiot."

Remus nodded.

At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR.

He was ripping the paper oﬀ 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.

"They're treating him like he has some kind of disease that they don't want to become contaminated with," Remus angrily.

"So like the Muggle versions of my family," Sirius commented grimly.

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 restaurants, or the movies. Every year, Harry was le† 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 photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.

"What?" a horriﬁed Sirius exclaimed. "You mean while they're out having a good time, Harry was stuck in a place like that?"

"Are you surprised?" Remus said bitterly. "They're making him cook and sleep in a cupboard as well."

"For gods sake," Sirius yelled out. "He's a child! He's their only nephew for crying out loud! How could they treat him like this? They don't have souls… I can't think of any other explanation."

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

"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.

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

"He has a name Dursley!" Remus snapped. "It's Harry."

"Yeah," Sirius grumbled. "Or is that name to hard for you to remember?"

The Dursleys o†en spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn't there

— or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.

"Why those…" Sirius's voice trailed oﬀ. "Well, now we know why Harry doesn't like talking about his childhood. If he had to live with people like that…"

"It's a miracle that he's turned out the way that he is," Remus said. "AGer all he's been through… how has he managed to stay so light-hearted?"

Sirius shook his head. "No idea. But that just proves that he's something else isn't he?"

"What about what's-her-name, your friend — Yvonne?"

"On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.

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

"Something tells me that's not going to happen, Harry," Sirius hissed through gritted teeth. "You might start having fun."

Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd 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. Sirius looked to be in deep thought when he read this.

"Padfoot?" Remus asked, now concerned at the faraway look on Sirius's face.

"Blowing up their house doesn't sound like a bad idea," he said to himself. "Interesting promise, Harry…"

"I'm not saying that it isn't," Remus sighed. "But like I said before, we're going to have to patient before we can get justice for Harry."

Grumbling to himself, Sirius went back to the book.

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

"Leave him in the car…?" Sirius exclaimed. "He's a human being for crying out loud!"

"That car's new; he's not siGng in it alone…"

"Oh, yes, that's the biggest issue here!" Sirius snapped, growing angrier by the second."

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

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," Sirius moaned. "That might work if your three—but eleven?! Grow a pair why don't you?"

"Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy 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 sp-spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.

"Give me a break…" Sirius hissed under his breath. "He sounds just like the Malfoy's."

Just then, the doorbell 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.

Sirius clenched his ﬁsts tightly. A rat… how appropriate for someone who would be friends with a pig like Dudley.

He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.

"Of course we wouldn't want to cry in front of our friends," Sirius rolled his eyes.

Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was siGng 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 le†, 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."

"Dursley! You hurt one hair on my godson's head I swear that I'm gonna…" as Sirius went on with his list of threats, Remus stayed silent. He didn't trust himself to say anything; but the truth was he wanted to curse the Dursley's so much that he was in pain.

"I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly…"

But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did.

"No wonder he doesn't tell anyone if something's bothering him," Remus said sadly. "I guess aGer years of no one else caring or believing him… keeping things secret must've become a forced habit."

This just gave Sirius another reason to go and relieve some of his anger on his godson's tormenters.

The problem was, strange things o†en happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen.

"Like what?" Sirius asked, though his tone was in a much gentler one than before. As if the little Harry was sitting there in front of him and telling him his worries and fears.

Remus however picked this up and smiled soGly at Sirius, who wasn't looking anywhere but the book.

Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which she le† "to hide that horrible scar."

Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses.

Sirius was ﬁnding it harder and harder to keep reading. And to think that just a couple hours ago he was wishing that he knew more about Harry's past. Why couldn't he just wish that Wormtail had been found and he was free instead? I guess the saying's true… 'Be careful for what you wish for.'

Next morning, however, he had go†en up to ﬁnd his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it oﬀ.

"Accidental magic?" Remus asked.

"Either way I can't blame him, if my hair was sheared oﬀ like that, I'd do the same thing," Sirius said smugly.

He had been given a week in his cupboard for this,

Sirius couldn't take it anymore. He ﬂung the book as far as he could away from him.

"SIRIUS!" Remus yelled jumping up as if he had just been given an electric shock.

"I don't care!" Sirius yelled back, gripping his long hair with his hands—as if he was about to tear it all out. "I can't take it! He was a little kid! Harry was only a child! He had no control over his magic! No witch or wizard can at that age! And now I ﬁnd out that he had been punished for something he couldn't help?!"

Remus spent the next quarter of an hour trying to calm Sirius down; which was no easy task. Sirius just didn't want to sit still; he kept pacing the room and yelling out such threats that they would scare even the Death Eaters. And if not for the fact that Remus took Sirius's wand, (and locked the door) he was sure that his friend would've gone straight to Privet Drive and become the murderer everyone thought him to be.

But Remus did everything he could to stop him. (But not for the Dursleys sake) He personally wanted nothing more than to see them get what they deserved as well; but he didn't want to see the last of his best friends going back to Azkaban.

Finally, once he was sure that Sirius had calm down, he went over to the little book that was lying in the corner and picked it up. "I know how angry you are right now Sirius," Remus said, choosing his words carefully. "But this has already happened. We can't change the past. I'll understand if you don't want to read anymore though…"

Sirius just sat with his face in his hands. "I don't care. Read it if you want," he said in a muﬄed voice.

even though he had tried to explain that he couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly.

Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puﬀ balls).

"He had to wear that?" Sirius cried horriﬁed. That sounded even worse than those ugly, ancient dress robes that his parents made him wear for one of their stupid parties.

The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until ﬁnally it might have ﬁ†ed a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't ﬁt Harry.

"HA!" Sirius called out in triumph, but still unable to look up.

Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished.

"Why should he have been punished for it in the ﬁrst place?" Remus asked the book with an angry look.

On the other hand, he'd go†en into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens.

"What'd he do?" asked Sirius ﬁnally raising his head, looking anxious. "Let me ﬁnish reading and we'll ﬁnd out!" Remus replied gently.

Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was siGng on the chimney.

"He apperated?" Sirius croaked in amazement.

"It seems so; he's very powerful. He wouldn't have been able to learn the Patronus charm at such a young age otherwise," Remus said proudly. "Though I think it was more along the lines that he just ﬂew up there."

Sirius smirked again. "Of course he ﬂew. That's a raw talent… now that I think of it, Lily once said that she did a little ﬂying before she came to school."

Remus chuckled. There really was no doubt who's son that Harry was.

The Dursleys had received a very angry le†er from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard)

"It's not his fault!" roared Sirius quickly losing whatever patience he had leG. "If there's anyone who should be punished it's that whale of a son Dudley!"

was jump behind the big trashcans outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid-jump.

"Harry…" Sirius shook his head in disappointment. "The wind? You can do better than that…"

"He was a little kid, Sirius," Remus reminded him soGly as he turned the page.

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.

"He must be desperate to get out of that place if he rather spend it with those people," Sirius grunted; though he could sympathize as he looked around the room miserably. He wouldn't care if he just had to do shopping for the Order! So long as he could get outside once in awhile… at least once in a week! Just to hold onto whatever piece of sanity he had leG.

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

"Harry just has the worst sort of luck doesn't he?" Remus said sadly. Sirius could only nod dully.

"… roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them.

"My old motorcycle was what really drove my dear old mother mad," Sirius said with a satisﬁed smirk at the memory. "I remember that my fondness for bikes was the bane of her existence."

"I thought that it was your hair that was the bane of her existence," Remus said smiling, glad that Sirius was starting to relax again.

"No, that was James and his hair with Lily, remember?" Sirius said with another smile. "If he didn't mature and stop messing with his hair by our seventh year, I don't think that they ever would've gotten together."

"Though I think that he still did that whenever Lily wasn't around," Remus reminded him and Sirius snorted in laughter.

"I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was ﬂying.

Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a mustache: "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"

"Shows how much you know, Dursely," Sirius snapped back. "And sure, endanger yours and everyone else's life by over-reacting to a little comment! You are already going to die a very painful death, but if I found out that my godson had been hurt…" he trailed oﬀ, though Remus could tell what he was thinking as he grabbed one of the throw pillows and twisted it around in his hands with such force that the stuﬃng was torn out and littering the ﬂoor.

Dudley and Piers sniggered.

"I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream."

"Let's ﬂy your bike to the Dursley's, Sirius," Remus said slightly more cheerful. "I would like to see the looks on their faces when we land."

Sirius laughed in agreement. "I'll have to ask Hagrid what he ever did with it ﬁrst… ah… to see that old beauty again…" he had a dreamy look on his face for a moment and Remus allowed him a few extra minutes to dream about his beloved bike before he continued.

But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than his asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no ma†er if it was in a dream or even a cartoon — they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas.

"It's being stuck with you lot that would give anyone dangerous ideas," Sirius said darkly. "Just listening to you gits would make anyone become a mass murdering psychopath!"

"Thank goodness that didn't happen with Harry," Remus added.

It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice pop.

"Cheap Muggle bastards…" Sirius hissed under his breath again—the pillow was now torn to shreds.

It wasn't bad, either, Harry thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond...

Sirius and Remus both howled with laughter.

"Now that is all James right there!" Remus croaked out with watering eyes. "With a hint of Lily…"

Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. He was careful to walk a li†le way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favorite hobby of hiGng him.

Sirius began to growl like a dog that was longing to bite.

They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his Knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to ﬁnish the ﬁrst. Harry felt, a†erward, that he should have known it was all too good to last.

They groaned.

"Of course it is," Sirius sighed.

A†er lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit 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 largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can — but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep.

"That's a bit of a let-down," Sirius said and Remus cracked another smile.

Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils. "Make it move," he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge. "Do it again," Dudley ordered.

"It's sleeping! What else can it do trapped behind glass?" Remus asked.

"That kid really is spoiled rotten!" Sirius said. "At least be man enough to do it yourself."

Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.

"This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuﬄed away.

"What'd you expect it to do?" Sirius asked incredulously. "Start singing?"

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 their ﬁngers 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 you up; at least he got to visit the rest of the house.

"Yeah, but then again, Harry only gets to see two pigs and a horse. At least the snake is fed properly and well taken oﬀ," Sirius growled.

The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's. It winked.

Sirius and Remus were stunned.

"It winked?" Remus raised his eyebrows.

"I didn't know snakes could wink," Sirius whispered.

"They can't," Remus said slowly. "They don't even have eyelids."

Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked, too.

"What's he doing?" Sirius shook Remus hard, his nails digging into his shoulder.

"I don't know but stop shaking me so we'll ﬁnd out!" Remus said back. "Harry," Sirius croaked out. "Just back away from the snake."

The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly: "I get that all the time."

"Remus?" Sirius croaked. "Is he talking to that snake?"

"No," Remus answered. "He hasn't said anything back… yet."

"I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."

The snake nodded vigorously.

"I can't believe Harry's talking to a snake," said a very shocked Remus. "I can't believe it, Harry can speak Parseltongue?" asked Sirius. "Yeah," Remus whispered. "It was in the Daily Prophet last year

remember? Rita Skeeter wrote it right before the third task. It's one of the reasons why the Ministry doesn't believe him or Dumbledore. Or didn't you read it?" Remus asked. "Now that I think about it, I'm not sure you get to many papers on the run."

Sirius shook his head. "But why didn't he tell us though?" Sirius demanded, adding Rita Skeeter on his hate list. "Why did we have to ﬁnd out from something other than from him?"

"I can't say that I blame him. For years he never bothered telling anyone what was wrong because nobody cared. I guess that maybe he just didn't know if we would be the same. Opening up to anyone isn't an easy thing for him to do," Remus suggested.

"That's RIDICULUS! I couldn't care less if he could talk to snakes or not. It doesn't matter to us!" Sirius yelled again.

"We know that… but does Harry know that?" Remus answered.

"What? Doesn't he realize just how much we care about him? It doesn't matter to us. I couldn't care less if he can talk to snakes or any other animal! I care about him just as much as before!"

"I know Sirius. But I don't think that Harry knows that." Sirius opened his mouth to protest again, but Remus cut him oﬀ, "Listen for a minute. Look what he's had to live with Sirius. Can you really blame him for thinking something like that? We don't care what kind of abilities that he has… nothing he could do could ever make us hate him or think less of him. But he was forced to grow up thinking the exact opposite. Nobody cared about him in that house. So he kept things to himself."

Sirius was looking more like a murderer every second. "That does it. I'm going to make sure that those Dursleys suﬀer if it's the last thing I do."

"I know, and I'm going to help you."

"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked.

The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it. Boa Constrictor, Brazil.

"Was it nice there?"

"Well at least he's being polite," Remus said soGly.

Sirius let out a laugh, "You're the only person I know who would look at Harry's manners when he's talking to a serpent."

The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see — so you've never been to Brazil?"

"I'm guessing so," Sirius said obviously.

As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump. "DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS

SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"

Dudley came waddling toward 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.

"That's it! I'm gonna kill that kid when we visit the bastards house!" Sirius yelled lividly. Remus was just as livid but at least he was doing his best to keep his temper under control.

What came 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 with howls of horror.

They sat straight up, concerned. "What happened now?!"

Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished. The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the ﬂoor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.

"What happened to the boys?" Remus asked worriedly.

"Who cares?" Sirius retorted. A good shock might do that boy a world of good.

As the snake slid swi†ly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come… Thanksss, amigo."

"It's nice to know that snakes have manners too," Remus reasoned while Sirius rolled his eyes.

The keeper of the reptile house was in shock. "But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?"

"In case you haven't noticed," Sirius said annoyed, "But the glass is gone. I'd worry more about the snake!"

The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bi†en oﬀ his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death.

"To bad," Sirius said regretfully. Remus smiled.

But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?"

Sirius shook his head. "Oh, no."

"He only said that to get him into trouble," Remus cried out angrily. "Why else would they do that?"

"They're heartless bastards that's why," Sirius snarled.

Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go — cupboard — stay — no meals,"

"Did that book just say Harry got no meals?" Remus asked furiously.

Sirius was staring at the book looking like he wanted to burn it. "No wonder he's so thin. Hasn't he ever had one decent meal stuck at that house?"

Remus was fuming. It was harder and harder to keep the wolf inside him at bay. His jaw was set and his eyes burned, as his ﬁngers also began to ﬂex themselves… itching to go and curse those Dursleys until there wasn't anything leG.

Sirius roared, "I don't care what Dumbledore says anymore. I don't care if he's safe from Voldemort at that house. If I were Harry, I'd rather face Voldemort than live at that hell."

Before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and 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 he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food.

Sirius smiled slightly, "Even at that young age, he's got a marauder mind, James would be proud."

Remus gave a weak smile in return. "I think that James would've been proud no matter what," he said. "I know that I am."

Sirius looked down at his hands and admitted that he was to. No matter what Harry did or will do, Sirius knew that he would always be proud of who he turned out to be.

He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he'd been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash. He couldn't remember being in the car when his parents had died.

"They didn't die in a car crash," Sirius hissed through gritted teeth.

Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding ﬂash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead.

Remus' voice went up a few notches while Sirius was looking like he was about to be sick.

This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where all the green light came from. He couldn't remember his parents at all. His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.

"He probably didn't even know what they looked like until he went to school," Remus whispered weakly. "Those Dursleys are so low. To actually lie to a child about his parents…"

When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened;

Remus felt like someone had stuck a rusty dagger into his heart. And that one sentence was ﬁnally too much for Sirius. He was so devastated that he got up, walked over to the wall, and began punching it while his body shook with sobs.

"Padfoot!" Remus cried as he dropped the book and tried to get him to stop.

"This is all my fault! I should have gone to Dumbledore that night and told him who the Secret-Keeper was. I was an idiot for not telling him!"

"Padfoot, you never knew that Peter would betray us. How could you've known?"

"But still… if I only told Dumbledore… Harry might never have been sent to that house. I might not have been sent to Azkaban! I could've given him a better life in a home where he would've been loved and cared for like a son! It's all my fault!"

He continued to punch the wall until his ﬁsts began to bleed and he began to choke on his own tears.

"Sirius," said Remus, "Calm down. Look at you, getting so worked up. Stop it; it's not doing you any good." He tried to lead him to one of the armchairs next to the ﬁre, but Sirius stayed where he was.

"You don't understand, Moony…" he said, moving roughly away from him, "Harry may not be my son, but that doesn't mean that I don't care about him. If there's anything I can do for him, to make him happy, I'd do it immediately… and yes, I haven't been able to do that for the 12 years of his life, but I try to make up for the absence in his life Moony, I really do…" he stopped, sighing heavily. "It's my fault that Harry's in this situation…I know that…"

"Sirius, that's not…"

"No, Remus, it is! Look, if I hadn't been such an idiot and persuaded James to make Peter the Secret Keeper, none of this would have happened; Harry would have his parents, I would have James… and everyone would have been happy."

Sirius stopped again, bowing his head, "I owe Harry, Remus, for what happened… and one day I will pay him back for everything that he had to go through because of me. But… reading this… about what my mistake had really done to Harry… what I couldn't do for him while I was stuck in Azkaban…" his voice broke, "It hurts, Moony… it really does."

Remus watched as Sirius turned his head away from him and stared at the ﬁre, his face white. His heart went out to his friend. He had never heard him sound so beaten… so hurt. There was an awkward silence ﬁlling the room, as Remus stared at Sirius, who was staring at the ﬁre. He seemed to be completely lost in thought.

"Sirius, why don't you go upstairs and get some sleep?" suggested Remus, at last, unable to bear the silence anymore, "I'm sure you'll feel at least a bit better aGerwards…"

"Sleep? Remus, do you know what I see, every time I close my eyes and try to sleep?" asked Sirius, not turning his face away from the ﬁre, "I see the house… their house, in Godric's Hollow. I see it destroyed, Remus… the second ﬂoor almost caving in…"

Remus's face had turned white. "I see James… lying on the ground…" Remus was gripping the top of an armchair, for support. When Sirius next looked at him, Remus was forced to draw in a sharp breath. The grey eyes were shining brightly with tears.

"Padfoot…"

"I killed them, Remus… I as good as killed them…" Sirius' voice had dropped to a whisper, and he was shaking rather uncontrollably.

"Sirius…" Remus ﬂinched as Sirius backed away from his, "Please, Sirius, you have to stop this…"

"What did I do to deserve this, Moony? What did I do, to James and Lily?"

"Sirius! SIRIUS! LISTEN TO ME!" Remus yelled, who ﬁnally had enough of watching his friend beat himself up. As he grabbed Sirius by the wrists and forced him to look him in the eye he said forcefully, "Please listen, Sirius.

None of it's your fault! Peter CHOSE to do this; no one could have guessed he would betray us. If you had known then you would never have let this happen. I don't blame you and neither does Harry."

"How do you know?" Sirius demanded.

"I know Sirius. I know how Harry thinks of you. He needs you, Sirius." "He has his friends. What does he need me for?" Sirius said grudgingly. "You're diﬀerent, Sirius," Remus explained. "You're his family."

"He doesn't think that…"

"Yes, he does." Remus cut across him. "I can see it. You could too if you weren't so thick-headed."

"It doesn't matter, Harry should never have been with those monsters. Why didn't Dumbledore leave him with you?"

Remus froze, not knowing what to say to that.

"Moony? Why didn't you ever visit Harry while he was at the Dursley's?"

Remus shook his head mournfully "I wasn't allowed to when he was leG there. The Ministry didn't want a werewolf endangering the boy-who-lived. And it's against the law for werewolves to adopt children in the ﬁrst place. And Dumbledore told me Harry couldn't have any contact with our world until he got his letter."

"Even if you ARE a werewolf he would've been much better oﬀ with you than those bastards!" Sirius yelled.

Remus sat down and ran his hands through his hair, "I tried everything! But no one would listen to me!"

Sirius didn't know what to do. He rubbed his eyes so hard that he saw stars… he was stuck in a cruel reality. Harry was leG in a home where he wasn't cared for and hurt. Sirius didn't know what to say but he did have a few ideas on what he will say and do to the old man when they were done with the book. (If they could ﬁnish it that is.)

He bent down to pick it up and read the last page himself.

The Dursleys were his only family. Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him. Very strange strangers they were, too.

A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley. AGer asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything. A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at him once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a closer look.

"Well that's gotta be creepy," Sirius whispered trying to lighten the mood.

It didn't work.

At school, Harry had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Po†er in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.

"He was bullied," Remus whispered. Remus was horriﬁed. He knew all too well how it felt to be bullied and made fun of for something he couldn't help. For how he looked and what he was… how people would look down on him—even now. The thought of Harry going through the same thing felt like a punch in the gut.

Sirius had no words to describe how he felt. When he was at school, he picked on people for fun. He wasn't proud of it… but hearing these words… how it felt to be made fun of and bullied… how it feels if no one ever listened… or even cared about your feelings.

Harry never did anything wrong and yet he was made fun of and bullied because he was diﬀerent. Now knowing that his godson went through what he inﬂicted on others in his youth made him absolutely sick. He wanted to curl up under a rock—no something lower than a rock—and die.

"Are ALL of these chapters going to make me feel like I'm no better than a Death Eater?" Remus asked wringing his hands.

"They had better not!" Sirius found his voice "I'm already going to kill Dumbledore for the ﬁrst two chapters alone."

Remus nodded, "Maybe I'll help. I want some answers here!"

"You can read the next chapter," Sirius said as he oﬀered the book to him.

Remus opened it up to the next chapter and said, "Chapter 3: The le†ers from no one."

(I'm starting to go back and improve on my writing since it's go†en so much be†er than it was when I ﬁrst wrote this. I hope you all like the

li†le changes.)

Chapter 4

(I own nothing. Copyright belongs to J.K. Rowling)

Chapter 3: The Le†ers From No One

"Chapter 3: The LeMers From No One, " Remus read out loud.

"Does this mean that Harry ﬁnally gets his Hogwarts letter?" Sirius guessed as a smile slowly came back onto his face.

Remus grinned, "I sure hope so. The sooner he gets out of that house the happier I'll be."

The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment. By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started

Sirius and Remus were livid.

"How long do you think he was locked in there?" Sirius snarled through gritted teeth.

"No idea, it doesn't say," Remus spat in disgust. How could anyone treat their own nephew like this? "But I think I rather not know," he ﬁnished truthfully.

"Well, that makes one of us," Sirius hissed. He wanted every detail of injustice that those inhumane monsters did to his godson… all the more reason to justify his future actions when he killed them.

and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and, ﬁrst time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches.

"Poor Arabella," Remus said at the same time Sirius growled like a dog again and said, "What I wouldn't give to teach that great lump a lesson he

won't ever forget!"

Harry was glad school was over, but there was no escaping Dudley's gang, who visited the house every single day. Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, and Gordon were all big and stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot, he was the leader.

They both laughed at that; but it didn't last long because it then said:

The rest of them were all quite happy to join in Dudley's favorite sport: Harry Hunting.

"What's with these people?" snarled Sirius. "They almost make Voldemort look like a nice guy! Almost…"

"Can't they leave the poor boy alone?" Remus asked exasperated. "He hasn't done one thing to him so what's the point?"

"They're bullies," Sirius said dully, remembering how he used to act when he was still a bully himself. "When there's nothing else to do… they pick on anyone smaller than them."

"Who ISN'T smaller than Dudley?" Remus asked lightly.

"Did you just make a joke, Moony?" Sirius said startled and had to ﬁght back a laugh. "Good lord, I can't remember the last time you made a joke!"

Remus chuckled rather forcefully. "I can have fun too, Padfoot. You're not the only one who could tell jokes."

This was why Harry spent as much time as possible out of the house, wandering around and thinking about the end of the holidays, where he could see a tiny ray of hope. When September came 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 private school, Smeltings. Piers Polkiss was going there too. Harry, on the other hand, was going to Stonewall High, the local public school.

"Oh no, you're not!" Sirius yelled out loudly. "You're going to Hogwarts! Just wait until your letter comes!"

Dudley thought this was very funny.

"They stuﬀ people's heads down the toilet the ﬁrst day at Stonewall," he told Harry. "Want to come upstairs and practice?"

"Touch one hair on my godson's head Dudley and I swear that I'm gonna get hold of your head and…" but before he could ﬁnish his threat, Remus read,

"No, thanks," said Harry. "The poor toilet's never had anything as horrible as your head down it — it might be sick." Then he ran, before Dudley could work out what he'd said.

Remus and Sirius started to cackle again, sounding more cheerful than they had been since they opened the book.

"He's quick on his insults! A Marauder aGer my own heart!" Sirius praised proudly.

One day in July, Aunt Petunia took Dudley to London to buy his Smeltings uniform, leaving Harry at Mrs. Figg's.

"Ah, the crazy cat lady again?" Sirius asked.

"It's Arabella, Sirius and you know it," Remus reminded him coolly.

Mrs. Figg wasn't as bad as usual. It turned out she'd broken her leg tripping over one of her cats, and she didn't seem quite as fond of them as before. She let Harry watch television and gave him a bit of chocolate cake that tasted as though she'd had it for several years.

"Well, at least she was treating him better," Remus said reasonably. "But why did she give him such a hard time before? Isn't she supposed to be the one keeping an eye on him when he was growing up?"

"Because I betcha the Dursley's never would've let him go if they thought that he enjoyed it," Sirius replied dully. "And she had to play her part well."

"Still…" Remus said sadly, but he shook his head and continued anyway.

That evening, Dudley paraded around the living room for the family in his brand-new uniform. Smeltings' boys wore maroon tailcoats, orange knickerbockers, and ﬂat straw hats called boaters.

It was too much. They both were laughing so hard that their sides were hurting. "Oh, God, if I had to wear that, I'd never leave the house," Sirius was ﬁnally able to choke out through his tears of laughter.

"I hope Harry got some pictures," Remus said, smiling broadly. "What I wouldn't give to see that!"

They also carried knobbly sticks, used for hiGng each other while the teachers weren't looking. This was supposed to be good training for later life.

And Sirius was getting angry again. "He better not be getting any ideas," Sirius started.

As he looked at Dudley in his new knickerbockers, Uncle Vernon said gruﬄy that it was the proudest moment of his life. "Oh, come on!" Aunt Petunia burst into tears and said she couldn't believe it was her Ickle Dudleykins, he looked so handsome and grown-up. "Give me a break!" Sirius said again. Harry didn't trust himself to speak. He thought two of his ribs might already have cracked from trying not to laugh.

Sirius and Remus both smirked. "He's got more restraint than either of us," Remus said.

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 the sink. He went to have a look. The tub was full of what looked like dirty rags swimming in gray water.

"What the hell…?" Sirius declared.

"What's this?" he asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did if he dared to ask a question.

"Oh, it's the end of the world! He asked a question!" Remus said sarcastically.

"I miss the sarcastic side of you, Mr. Moony," Sirius said smiling. They only started reading, and he was like on an emotional wave… one minute he was on top of the world, and then he was feeling lower than a Flobberworm.

"Your new school uniform," she said.

"You've got to be kidding me," Sirius jeered.

"I wish I was," Remus said not looking at him. Sirius just narrowed his eyes venomously at the book, looking like he longed to burn it.

Harry looked in the bowl again. "Oh," he said, "I didn't realize it had to be so wet."

Sirius and Remus let out another bark of laughter. "Deﬁantly, James' kid!" Sirius grinned fondly.

"Don't be stupid," ("You shouldn't be talking," Sirius muttered darkly.) snapped Aunt Petunia. "I'm dying some of Dudley's old things gray for you. It'll look just like everyone else's when I've ﬁnished."

Harry seriously doubted this, but thought it best not to argue.

"Good idea Harry," Remus advised. The last thing he wanted was for the poor boy in trouble for no reason.

"Ha, if I were him I'd argue until the cows came home," Sirius snarled.

"Yeah, but sometimes that causes more problems than it solves, Sirius," Remus explained.

He sat down at the table and tried not to think about how he was going to look on his ﬁrst day at Stonewall High — like he was wearing bits of old elephant skin, probably.

Sirius could've sworn that the little cracking sound he heard… it was his heart breaking.

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

"Another reason to hate the whale," Sirius said loudly.

They heard the click of the mail slot and ﬂop of le†ers on the doormat.

"Get the mail, Dudley," said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper.

"Thank you! Finally, make the useless lump do something!" Sirius said, but Remus knew better than to get his hopes up.

"Make Harry get it."

"Get the mail, Harry."

"Oh, come on!" Sirius cried out. "Is there no justice in the world?"

"Make Dudley get it."

"You tell him!" Sirius cheered, until he heard the next line:

"Poke him with your Smelting stick, Dudley."

"Don't you dare, Dursley," Remus warned as Sirius looked ready to break something—Remus suspected that it would soon be Vernon's skull.

Harry dodged the Smelting stick and went to get the mail. 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 le†er for Harry.

Both Sirius and Remus smiled; glad that things ﬁnally were starting look up for Harry.

Harry picked it up and stared at it, his heart twanging like a giant elastic band. No one, ever, in his whole life, had wri†en to him. Who would?

'I would've if I could,' thought Sirius sadly. And while he was wishing, if he had his way, he would've made sure that Harry never came close to that house in the ﬁrst place.

He had no friends, no other relatives — he didn't belong to the library, so he'd never even got rude notes asking for books back. Yet here it was, a le†er, addressed so plainly there could be no mistake:

Mr. H. Po1er

The Cupboard under the Stairs 4 Privet Drive Li1le Whinging

Surrey

"Hurry up and open it!" Sirius joyfully. He remembered when he ﬁrst got his Hogwarts letter… the best letter he ever received.

The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was wri†en in emerald-green ink. There was no stamp.

Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Harry saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large letter H.

They smiled warmly at the book as if they were looking at ten-year-old Harry himself. Glad that he would soon be out and away from that abusive household.

"Hurry up, boy!"

"He has a name!" Remus repeated frustrated.

shouted Uncle Vernon from the kitchen. "What are you doing, checking for le†er bombs?" He chuckled at his own joke.

"Oh, funny," Sirius said sarcastically, rolling his eyes at Remus. "Really… very witty. Makes our pranks look lame in comparison don't they?"

Harry went back to the kitchen, still staring at his le†er. He handed Uncle Vernon the bill and the postcard, sat down, and slowly began to open the yellow envelope.

Uncle Vernon ripped open the bill, snorted in disgust, and ﬂipped over the postcard.

"Marge's ill," he informed Aunt Petunia. "Ate a funny whelk…" Sirius let out a short laugh.

"Dad!" said Dudley suddenly. "Dad, Harry's got something!"

"That's right he's got his letter from Hogwarts and he'll be out of that dump as soon as possible!" Sirius said happily.

Harry was on the point of unfolding his le†er, which was wri†en on the same heavy parchment as the envelope, when it was jerked sharply out of his hand by Uncle Vernon.

"HEY!" both marauders yelled getting angry all over again.

"That's mine!" said Harry, trying to snatch it back.

"You tell him Harry!" encouraged Remus.

"Don't let them push you around anymore!" applauded Sirius.

"Who'd be writing to you?" sneered Uncle Vernon, shaking the le†er open with one hand and glancing at it. His face went from red to green faster than a set of traﬃc lights. And it didn't stop there. Within seconds it was the grayish white of old porridge.

"I must say that it sounds like an improvement," Sirius said reasonably, which caused Remus to chuckle.

"P-P-Petunia!" he gasped.

Dudley tried to grab the letter to read it, but Uncle Vernon held it high out of his reach. Aunt Petunia took it curiously and read the ﬁrst line. For a moment it looked as though she might faint. She clutched her throat and made a choking noise.

"Vernon! Oh my goodness — Vernon!" "They better be scared," Sirius hissed.

They stared at each other, seeming to have forgo†en that Harry and Dudley were still in the room. Dudley wasn't used to being ignored. He gave his father a sharp tap on the head with his Smelting stick.

"He doesn't even respect his parents!" Remus said in disbelief. "That kid really is a monster." And he knew better than anyone about monsters…

"I want to read that le†er," he said loudly.

"It's not your letter Dudley!" Sirius yelled.

"Sirius," Remus warned, his ears feeling like they were being burned.

"I want to read it," said Harry furiously, "as it's mine."

"Yeah!" rooted Sirius.

"Padfoot! Shut up and let me read already!" Remus yelled ﬁnally losing patience with his friend.

"Get out, both of you," croaked Uncle Vernon, stuﬃng the le†er back inside its envelope.

Harry didn't move. "I WANT MY LETTER!" he shouted.

"I always knew that he had Lily's temper," Sirius snorted.

Remus nodded, "I rather have faced an army of trolls than an angry Lily."

"Let mesee it!" demanded Dudley.

"OUT!" roared Uncle Vernon, and he took both Harry and Dudley by the scruﬀs of their necks and threw them into the hall, slamming the kitchen door behind them.

"HE PUT HIS HANDS ON MY GODSON!" Sirius yelled, threatening to stand up again, but Remus quickly reached over and put his hand on his shoulder to prevent him from rising. Though he too felt a fury that he never knew before rise up inside him at the thought that anyone could be physical with a child.

Harry and Dudley promptly had a furious but silent ﬁght over who would listen at the keyhole; Dudley won, so Harry, his glasses dangling from one ear, lay ﬂat on his stomach to listen at the crack between door and ﬂoor.

"In my opinion," Remus said. "That's a much better way to hear the conversation."

Sirius stared at him in surprise. "How do you know?" Remus chose not to answer him by reading.

"Vernon," Aunt Petunia was saying in a quivering voice, "look at the address — how could they possibly know where he sleeps? You don't think they're watching the house?"

"Watching — spying — might be following us," muttered Uncle Vernon wildly

"I wish that someone had been," Remus muttered venomously. "Then he would have been taken out of your so-called care."

"But what should we do, Vernon? Should we write back? Tell them we don't want —"

Harry could see Uncle Vernon's shiny black shoes pacing up and down the kitchen.

"No," he said ﬁnally. "No, we'll ignore it. If they don't get an answer… Yes, that's best… we won't do anything…"

"That won't work Dursley," Sirius stated knowingly.

"But —"

"I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took him in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense?"

Sirius and Remus looked at each other in horror before staring back at the book, gapping like ﬁsh out of water.

"Stamp-it-out?" Remus repeated in hardly more than a croak. "What do they mean by stamp-it-out?!" Remus was beyond furious. "You mean to tell me that they thought that they could actually stamp out a wizard's magic? That's impossible! You might as well have tried to stamp out a person's ability to bleed."

Sirius held his head in his hands and choked out a sob, "Harry… what did they do to you Harry?"

That evening when he got back from work, Uncle Vernon did something he'd never done before; he visited Harry in his cupboard.

Sirius snarled sarcastically, "How 'nice' of him."

"Where's my le†er?" said Harry, the moment Uncle Vernon had squeezed through the door. "Who's writing to me?"

"No one. It was addressed to you by mistake," said Uncle Vernon shortly. "I have burned it."

"It bloody hell was NOT a mistake," Sirius said angrily.

"It was not a mistake," said Harry angrily, "it had my cupboard on it."

"SILENCE!" yelled Uncle Vernon, and a couple of spiders fell from the ceiling. He took a few deep breaths and then forced his face into a smile, which looked quite painful.

"Hope it was," muttered Sirius.

"Er — yes, Harry — about this cupboard. Your aunt and I have been thinking… you're really geGng a bit big for it

"He should have never been in there in the ﬁrst place!" Remus growled.

…we think it might be nice if you moved into Dudley's second bedroom.

"SECOND BEDROOM!" Sirius screamed, ﬁnally losing it. "THEY HAD ANOTHER ROOM FOR THAT WHALE AND THEY MADE HARRY SLEEP IN A FUCKING CUPBOARD?!"

Remus just sat there and thought up at least a hundred diﬀerent curses he was itching to try out on these sorry excuses for human beings. Sirius was screaming out profanities and started smashing everything in sight. It must've taken them both at least a quarter of an hour to calm down enough to go back to the book. Sirius ﬁnally asked, "Moony?"

"Yes?" Remus mumbled.

"I really don't think I can take much more of what Harry's life was like and what he had to go through. Do you think it best if we ask Harry about it or should we ﬁnish so we can ﬁnd out everything? And do you think that maybe we should tell anyone else about these books?"

Remus didn't know what he should do. But ﬁnally he came to what he thought to be the best decision, "I think we should try and ﬁnish before we go talking to Harry about it. I have a feeling he will never give us this information unless we ﬁnd out through this book. And as for showing anyone else… I say that we at least wait until we get to the chapters where Harry's at Hogwarts before we show anyone else. Do you agree, Padfoot?"

Sirius didn't want to wait. More than anything right now, he wanted to hug his godson ﬁercely and demand why he kept all of this from them. But he knew that Remus was right. He knew that Harry was never planning on telling them any of this. He gave Remus the okay to continue reading.

"Why?" said Harry.

"Don't ask questions!" snapped his uncle. "Take this stuﬀ upstairs, now." The Dursleys' house had four bedrooms:

"FOUR!?" Sirius repeated in outrage. "And they made him sleep in a cupboard!?"

one for Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, one for visitors (usually Uncle Vernon's sister, Marge), one where Dudley slept, and one where Dudley kept all the toys and things that wouldn't ﬁt into his ﬁrst bedroom.

They both shared a glare at those last few words.

It only took Harry one trip upstairs to move everything he owned from the cupboard to this room. He sat down on the bed and stared around him. Nearly everything in here was broken. The month-old video camera was lying on top of a small, working tank Dudley had once driven over the next door neighbor's dog; in the corner was Dudley's ﬁrst-ever television set, which he'd put his foot through when his favorite program had been canceled; there was a large birdcage, which had once held a parrot that Dudley had swapped at school for a real air riﬂe, which was up on a shelf with the end all bent because Dudley had sat on it. Other

shelves were full of books. They were the only things in the room that looked as though they'd never been touched.

"That little…" Sirius whispered menacingly.

"Sirius, please let me ﬁnish. You can curse all you want to at the end of the chapter," Remus said.

"That's all I ask," he said bitterly.

From downstairs came the sound of Dudley bawling at his mother, "I don't want him in there… I need that room… make him get out…"

"You don't need two rooms you spoiled little…!"

"Sirius! We'll never ﬁnish at this rate!" Remus felt that he was becoming a broken record.

Harry sighed and stretched out on the bed. Yesterday he'd have given anything to be up here. Today he'd rather be back in his cupboard with that le†er than up here without it.

"Well, I for one never want to hear that he was in that bloody cupboard ever again!" Remus stated furiously.

Next morning at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet. Dudley was in shock. He'd screamed, whacked his father with his Smelting stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof, and he still didn't have his room back. Harry was thinking about this time yesterday and bi†erly wishing he'd opened the le†er in the hall.

"Oh, Harry it's not your fault, you didn't know that they would do this," Remus soothed, forgetting that the boy wasn't in the room and that this had happened years ago.

"And you're telling me to be quiet," Sirius said soGly. Remus suddenly felt the urge to put a Silencing Charm on Sirius for the rest of the book.

Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia kept looking at each other darkly.

When the mail arrived, Uncle Vernon, who seemed to be trying to be nice to Harry, made Dudley go and get it.

"Nice my ass," Sirius hissed angrily. "Probably the only reason why they made Dudley go and get it was to make sure that Harry wouldn't ﬁnd any more letters."

They heard him banging things with his Smelting stick all the way down the hall. Then he shouted, "There's another one! 'Mr. H. Po†er, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive —'"

With a strangled cry, Uncle Vernon leapt from his seat and ran down the hall, Harry right behind him. Uncle Vernon had to wrestle Dudley to the ground to get the letter from him, which was made diﬃcult by the fact that Harry had grabbed Uncle Vernon around the neck from behind.

"GO HARRY!" Sirius cheered.

A†er a minute of confused ﬁghting, in which everyone got hit a lot by the Smelting stick, Uncle Vernon straightened up, gasping for breath, with Harry's le†er clutched in his hand.

"Damn it!" Sirius cursed again. "So close!"

"Why are they so desperate to keep him away from the letter?" Remus asked quietly.

"My guess is that they can't bear the idea that their only nephew is going to a school of magic," Sirius snapped. "I mean, remember how upset Lily used to be when her poor-excuse-for-a-sister, hated her aGer she got her letter?"

"I just can't believe that anyone could be this cruel," Remus croaked wearily. He felt sick to his stomach, but at the same time was unable to bring himself to stop.

"Go to your cupboard — I mean, your bedroom," he wheezed at Harry. "Dudley — go — just go."

Harry walked round and round his new room. Someone knew he had moved out of his cupboard and they seemed to know he hadn't received his ﬁrst letter. Surely that meant they'd try again? And this time he'd make sure they didn't fail. He had a plan.

"Ah, THERE'S my little rule-breaker!" Sirius cried happily and Remus smiled back.

The repaired alarm clock rang at six o'clock the next morning. Harry turned it oﬀ quickly and dressed silently. He mustn't wake the Dursleys. He stole downstairs without turning on any of the lights.

"Ahhhh, he's going to wait for the mail, that's something Lily would've done," Remus stated thoughtfully—so long as nothing happens…

He was going to wait for the postman on the corner of Privet Drive and get the le†ers for number four ﬁrst. His heart hammered as he crept across the dark hall toward the front door —

"AAAAARRRGH!"

Harry leapt into the air; he'd trodden on something big and squashy on the doormat — something alive!

"What was it?!" Sirius boomed. "Let me read and I'll tell you!"

Lights clicked on upstairs and to his horror Harry realized that the big, squashy something had been his uncle's face.

Once again, neither Sirius nor Remus could hold in their laughter as they were holding their sides for breath.

"THAT'S BLOODY PERFECT!" Sirius gasped out. "He deserved it! About time he got some payback!"

Uncle Vernon had been lying at the foot of the front door in a sleeping bag, clearly making sure that Harry didn't do exactly what he'd been trying to do. He shouted at Harry for about half an hour and then told him to go and make a cup of tea. Harry shuﬄed miserably oﬀ into the kitchen and by the time he got back, the mail had arrived, right into Uncle Vernon's lap. Harry could see three le†ers addressed in green ink.

"I want —" he began, but Uncle Vernon was tearing the letters into pieces before his eyes.

The laughter quickly died down as they felt for how Harry must have felt when he was forced to watch that.

Uncle Vernon didn't go to work that day. He stayed at home and nailed up the mail slot.

"Ok, that's a little extreme," Remus said, now worried that Harry was stuck with a madman…

"See," he explained to Aunt Petunia through a mouthful of nails, "if they can't deliver them they'll just give up."

"I'm not sure that'll work, Vernon."

"Well, at least one of those Dursley's has some brains! Though not a lot!" Sirius cried.

"Oh, these people's minds work in strange ways, Petunia, they're not like you and me," said Uncle Vernon, trying to knock in a nail with the piece of fruitcake Aunt Petunia had just brought him.

"Thank god for that!" Sirius said gratefully. "We actually have human feelings and emotions! We're not such outstanding bigots!"

On Friday, no less than twelve le†ers arrived for Harry. As they couldn't go through the mail slot they had been pushed under the door, slo†ed through the sides, and a few even forced through the small window in the downstairs bathroom.

Uncle Vernon stayed at home again. A†er burning all the le†ers, he got out a hammer and nails and boarded up the cracks around the front and back doors so no one could go out. He hummed "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" as he worked, and jumped at small noises.

Sirius snorted, "He's nuts isn't he?" he asked Remus, now worried now that if something happened, Harry would've been able to escape.

Remus started a coughing ﬁt that sounded suspiciously a lot like laughing.

On Saturday, things began to get out of hand. Twenty-four le†ers to Harry found their way into the house, rolled up and hidden inside each of the two-dozen eggs that their very confused milkman had handed Aunt Petunia through the living room window. While Uncle Vernon made furious telephone calls to the post oﬃce and the dairy trying to ﬁnd someone to complain to, Aunt Petunia shredded the le†ers in her food processor.

"Who on earth wants to talk to you this badly?" Dudley asked Harry in amazement.

Sirius and Remus growled at the book, "We do!"

On Sunday morning, Uncle Vernon sat down at the breakfast table looking tired and rather ill, but happy.

"Uh, him happy? Sounds sickening," Sirius groaned. "What's he so happy about?" Remus asked confused.

"No post on Sundays," he reminded them cheerfully as he spread marmalade on his newspapers, "no damn le†ers today —"

"Naa, Dumbledore doesn't really care about that little issue," Sirius stated somewhat proudly.

Something came whizzing down the kitchen chimney as he spoke and caught him sharply on the back of the head. Next moment, thirty or forty le†ers came pelting out of the ﬁreplace like bullets. The Dursleys ducked, but Harry leapt into the air trying to catch one —

"Yes!" they shouted again. "Come on Harry!"

"You can do it!"

"Out! OUT!"

Uncle Vernon seized Harry around the waist and threw him into the hall.

Both Marauders looked about ready to curse the book. "What the hell is wrong with this guy?" Sirius demanded.

When Aunt Petunia and Dudley had run out with their arms over their faces, Uncle Vernon slammed the door shut. They could hear the le†ers still streaming into the room, bouncing oﬀ the walls and ﬂoor.

"That does it," said Uncle Vernon, trying to speak calmly but pulling great tuGs out of his mustache at the same time. "I want you all back here in ﬁve minutes ready to leave. We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!"

He looked so dangerous with half his mustache missing that no one dared argue. Ten minutes later they had wrenched their way through the boarded-up doors and were in the car, speeding toward the highway.

Dudley was sniﬄing in the back seat; his father had hit him round the head

for holding them up while he tried to pack his television, VCR, and computer in his sports bag.

"GOOD! Someone had to do it!" cried out Sirius. "I'm just sorry it wasn't me!"

"What did he think was going to do with them anyway?" Remus asked rolling his eyes.

They drove. And they drove. Even Aunt Petunia didn't dare ask where they were going. Every now and then Uncle Vernon would take a sharp turn and drive in the opposite direction for a while.

"Shake 'em oﬀ… shake 'em oﬀ," he would mu†er whenever he did this.

"I don't think that it's possible to shake of a wizard unless you're one as well," Sirius said with a grin.

They didn't stop to eat or drink all day. By nigh√all Dudley was howling. He'd never had such a bad day in his life. He was hungry,

"You can go without eating for one day," Sirius stated, remembering with bitterness how close he had come to starving to death when he was in Azkaban and on the run. He had been forced to eat rats for crying out loud! "Believe me… you won't starve to death." He turned to Remus and said, "With all that fat on him, he could go months without eating and be ﬁne."

he'd missed ﬁve television programs he'd wanted to see, and he'd never gone so long without blowing up an alien on his computer.

"Oh no! poor ickle diddykins didn't get what he wanted!" mocked Sirius. "My heart bleeds for him."

Uncle Vernon stopped at last outside a gloomy-looking hotel on the outskirts of a big city. Dudley and Harry shared a room with twin beds and damp, musty sheets.

"Disgusting," Remus said under his breath.

Dudley snored but Harry stayed awake, siGng on the windowsill, staring down at the lights of passing cars and wondering…

"Wondering what?" Sirius asked.

"It doesn't say," Remus sighed, though he had several ideas. Most likely wondering who was so determined to write to him and why.

They ate stale cornﬂakes and cold tinned tomatoes on toast for breakfast the next day. They had just ﬁnished when the owner of the hotel came over to their table.

"'Scuse me, but is one of you Mr. H. Potter? Only I got about an 'undred of these at the front desk." She held up a letter so they could read the green ink address:

Mr. H. Po1er Room 17 Railview Hotel Cokeworth

Harry made a grab for the letter but Uncle Vernon knocked his hand out of the way. The woman stared.

"Does he really not care who sees him mistreat a child?" Remus said.

"I'll take them," said Uncle Vernon, standing up quickly and following her from the dining room.

"Wouldn't it be better just to go home, dear?" Aunt Petunia suggested timidly, hours later, but Uncle Vernon didn't seem to hear her.

Exactly what he was looking for, none of them knew. He drove them into the middle of a forest, got out, looked around, shook his head, got back in the car, and oﬀ they went again. The same thing happened in the middle of a plowed ﬁeld, halfway across a suspension bridge, and at the top of a multilevel parking garage.

"Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?" Dudley asked Aunt Petunia dully late that aGernoon.

"Yep," Sirius said. "But if you ask me diddykins, your daddy lost his mind long ago."

Uncle Vernon had parked at the coast, locked them all inside the car, and disappeared. It started to rain. Great drops beat on the roof of the car.

Dudley sniveled.

"It's Monday," he told his mother. "The Great Humberto's on tonight. I want to stay somewhere with a television."

"It's not the end of the world if you miss one show!" Remus cried exasperated.

Monday. This reminded Harry of something. If it was Monday — and you could usually count on Dudley to know the days the week, because of television — then tomorrow, Tuesday, was Harry's eleventh birthday.

The two grinned were practically beaming.

Of course, his birthdays were never exactly fun — last year, the Dursleys had given him a coat hanger and a pair of Uncle Vernon's old socks.

Their grins were wiped up their faces.

"Could you read that line for me again please?" Sirius asked Remus trying to hold back his anger. "I think that I might've heard wrong." Remus complied but it still said the same thing.

"Please tell me you're joking," Sirius asked.

"That's what the book says," Remus responded. He shook his head in horror, "They didn't even treat him well on his birthday?!"

"Remind me to spoil Harry rotten on his next birthday," Sirius said in determination. "And on Christmas too come to think of it. Oh, heck of it—

I'm going to make up for those ten years even it kills me!"

Still, you weren't eleven every day. Uncle Vernon was back and he was smiling. He was also carrying a long, thin package and didn't answer Aunt Petunia when she asked what he'd bought.

"Found the perfect place!" he said. "Come on! Everyone out!" "Where were they this time?" Remus asked curious.

It was very cold outside the car. Uncle Vernon was pointing at what looked like a large rock way out at sea. Perched on top of the rock was the most miserable li†le shack you could imagine. One thing was certain, there was no television in there.

"A shack in the ocean?! THAT'S where Harry spent his eleventh birthday?" Sirius cried in outrage. "I almost rather spend it in the cupboard!"

"Storm forecast for tonight!" said Uncle Vernon gleefully, clapping his hands together. "And this gentleman's kindly agreed to lend us his boat!"

A toothless old man came ambling up to them, pointing, with a rather wicked grin, at an old rowboat bobbing in the iron-gray water below them.

"Yeah, I don't think that inspires conﬁdence," Sirius grunted. "Call me crazy…"

"I've already got us some rations," said Uncle Vernon, "so all aboard!"

It was freezing in the boat. Icy sea spray and rain crept down their necks and a chilly wind whipped their faces. AGer what seemed like hours they reached the rock, where Uncle Vernon, slipping and sliding, led the way to the broken-down house.

"Kind of reminds me of the shrieking shack in some strange way," Remus smiled.

But Sirius exclaimed, "It reminds me of the night I broke out of Azkaban… that had to be wettest night of my life. Including those detentions were I had to scrub the ﬂoors with James."

Remus gave him a sympathetic and put his hand on his shoulder for a moment. Sirius gave him a grateful smile before he nodded back to the book. Remus nodded and continued.

The inside was horrible; it smelled strongly of seaweed, the wind whistled through the gaps in the wooden walls, and the ﬁreplace was damp and empty. There were only two rooms.

Uncle Vernon's rations turned out to be a bag of chips each and four bananas.

"I can see that as a meal for Dudley," Sirius barked. "He needs to lose some weight… but Harry's all skin and bones! How can they honestly not care?"

"I don't know, Sirius," Remus sighed. "I really don't know how they can even look at themselves in the mirror or even sleep at night."

He tried to start a ﬁre but the empty chip bags just smoked and shriveled up. "Could do with some of those le†ers now, eh?" he said cheerfully.

"Bastard…" Sirius said, not bothering to keep his voice low.

He was in a very good mood. Obviously he thought nobody stood a chance of reaching them here in a storm to deliver mail. Harry privately agreed, though the thought didn't cheer him up at all.

"Don't worry Harry, they'll get you your letter," Remus said with certainty. "Hogwarts never gives up!" agreed Sirius.

As night fell, the promised storm blew up around them. Spray from the high waves spla†ered the walls of the hut and a ﬁerce wind ra†led the ﬁlthy windows. Aunt Petunia found a few moldy blankets in the second

room and made up a bed for Dudley on the moth-eaten sofa. She and Uncle Vernon went oﬀ to the lumpy bed next door, and Harry was le†

Remus stared at the words before him and scowled. "What?" demanded Sirius.

Remus didn't want to give Sirius any more reason to get angry but he read the last of the paragraph anyway:

to ﬁnd the so†est bit of ﬂoor he could and to curl up under the thinnest, most ragged blanket.

Sirius was silent for a minute. "Let me get this straight," he asked slowly. "They made him sleep on the ﬂoor under 'one thin and ragged' blanket in a cold hut during a storm?"

Remus nodded, waiting for the explosion.

"That does it. I'm really going to kill them," Sirius promised.

The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on. Harry couldn't sleep. He shivered and turned over, trying to get comfortable, his stomach rumbling with hunger.

Sirius gripped his hair in aggravation, infuriated at Harry's lack of comfort, warmth, and food he was forced to go through. Remus was gripping the edges of the book so hard that his ﬁngers turned white.

Dudley's snores were drowned by the low rolls of thunder that started near midnight. The lighted dial of Dudley's watch, which was dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat wrist, told Harry he'd be eleven in ten minutes' time. He lay and watched his birthday tick nearer, wondering if the Dursleys would remember at all, wondering where the le†er writer was now.

"If the letter writer is who I think he is," Remus said lightly, "Then he'll be there soon."

Five minutes to go. Harry heard something creak outside. He hoped the roof wasn't going to fall in, although he might be warmer if it did.

Sirius growled low.

Four minutes to go. Maybe the house in Privet Drive would be so full of le†ers when they got back that he'd be able to steal one somehow.

Three minutes to go. Was that the sea, slapping hard on the rock like that? And (two minutes to go) what was that funny crunching noise? Was the rock crumbling into the sea?

"It better not be!" Sirius said warningly.

One minute to go and he'd be eleven. Thirty seconds… twenty… ten… nine — maybe he'd wake Dudley up, just to annoy him

"Do it!" Sirius said eagerly. Remus chuckled, he too was starting to get excited for Harry.

— three… two… one… BOOM.

"What the hell happened?"

"For the hundredth time—we'll ﬁnd out if you let me read Padfoot!" "Hmph, you don't need to shout."

The whole shack shivered and Harry sat bolt upright, staring at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in.

"Who could that be I wonder?" Sirius asked grinning mischievously. "Well it's your turn to read so let's ﬁnd out," Remus said who shared the

same look as Sirius did. He passed the book to Sirius who grinned broadly and took it.

"Chapter 4: The keeper of the keys…" Sirius repeated his grin now stretching from ear to ear.

Chapter 5

(I own nothing. Copyright belongs to J.K. Rowling)

Chapter 4: The Keeper of the Keys

"The Keeper of the Keys," Sirius repeated his grin now stretching from ear to ear.

BOOM.

Sirius said this so loudly, that it made Remus jump and hold his ears.

They knocked again. Dudley jerked awake. "Where's the cannon?" he said stupidly.

"Wow, Dudley said something stupid? Who would've guessed?" Sirius said mockingly as if nothing could've prepared him for this. They snickered, practically on the edge of their seats, ready to see what happened.

There was a crash behind them and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a riﬂe in his hands – now they knew what had been in the long, thin package he had brought with them.

"What's a rife-all?" asked Sirius confused.

"A Muggle weapon," answered Remus plainly. "A dangerous one. Now keep reading."

Sirius glared at him but did as he was told.

"Who's there?" he shouted. "I warn you — I'm armed!" There was a pause. Then — SMASH!

"Sirius if you keep yelling like that…" Remus warned. "Just adding a little touch of realism," he justiﬁed.

"I'll give you a little touch of realism," Remus grumbled under his breath.

The door was hit with such force that it swung clean oﬀ its hinges and with a deafening crash landed ﬂat on the ﬂoor.

"Now THAT'S how you make an entrance," Sirius said approvingly.

A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.

"HAGRID!" Sirius cheered happily. (He even gave Remus a high ﬁve.)

The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the door, and ﬁ†ed it easily back into its frame. The noise of the storm outside dropped a li†le. He turned to look at them all.

"Well, at least he put the door back," Remus said, grinning broadly.

"Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey…"

They both chuckled at that… it sounded exactly like something Hagrid would say.

"I love Hagrid so much," Sirius laughed. "He's one of the best friends you could ever ask for."

He strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat frozen with fear. "Budge up, yeh great lump," said the stranger.

"I love that!" Sirius said, almost in tears of happiness. Even if he had been unable to do anything to the Dursleys, someone was.

Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terriﬁed, behind Uncle Vernon.

"An' here's Harry!" said the giant.

Harry looked up into the ﬁerce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile.

"Hagrid is really like a great big teddy bear if you think about," Remus said warmly.

"Yeah," Sirius said. "A great big teddy bear with bad hair." Remus smacked him playfully on the head.

"Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," said the giant. "Yeh look a lot like yer dad, but yeh've got yer mum's eyes."

They smiled fondly.

"So he says," Remus said. "Along with practically everyone else that you're gonna meet who knew your parents Harry."

"Yep," Sirius stated. "Including us?" "Especially us," Remus acknowledged. Uncle Vernon made a funny rasping noise.

"I demand that you leave at once, sir!" he said. "You are breaking and entering!"

"In a rather literal way," chuckled Remus. He was in a very good mood. Now that Hagrid was in the scene, it meant that Harry was going to be leaving those 'people'soon.

"Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune," said the giant;

"GO HAGRID!" Sirius cheered. Oh, so far this was his favorite chapter.

He reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of Uncle Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room.

Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on.

"Anyway — Harry," said the giant, turning his back on the Dursleys, "a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here — I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right."

"Well that was… nice of him" Sirius snorted.

"Oh, be nice for once Padfoot, it's the thought that counts," Remus said scolding. "And besides, I rather have that then go without eating."

Sirius was looking horriﬁed at the thought. "No eating…? I don't know what I do if I missed a meal!"

"Yeah," Remus agreed. "Because we all know that your one true love is your stomach."

"I've got twelve years worth of good meals to catch up on," Sirius retorted. 'Now if only you didn't just drink Firewhiskey…' Remus thought privately.

From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly squashed box. Harry opened it with trembling ﬁngers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Harry wri†en on it in green icing.

"That really is nice of him," Remus said.

"Now, you're starting to interrupt at every few lines," Sirius pointed out. Remus glowered at him. "I'm not as bad as you are."

Harry looked up at the giant. He meant to say thank you, but the words got lost on the way to his mouth, and what he said instead was, "Who are you?"

They laughed.

"Deﬁantly James' kid," Sirius praised.

The giant chuckled. "True, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."

He held out an enormous hand and shook Harry's whole arm.

"Poor Harry, you know sometimes I think that Hagrid forgets how much stronger he is than others," Remus smiled.

"Ah, sometimes?" Sirius asked raising his eyebrows.

"What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind."

"Oh, Hagrid," sighed Sirius as he shook his head. "I miss that big lovable lug."

His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shriveled chip bags in it and he snorted. He bent down over the ﬁreplace; they couldn't see what he was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring ﬁre there. It ﬁlled the whole damp hut with ﬂickering light and Harry felt the warmth wash over him as though he'd sunk into a hot bath.

"Do you think he used magic for that?" asked Sirius.

"For lighting a ﬁre? I doubt it," answered Remus pleasantly. "Wizards don't need to use magic for EVERY little thing."

"Tell that to my family," Sirius griped to himself.

The giant sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, and began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat: a copper ke†le, a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs, and a bo†le of some amber liquid that he took a swig from before starting to make tea.

"Wish I could have a swig of that stuﬀ," Sirius said, smacking his lips. "Padfoot…" Remus chuckled. "I think you have enough already." "You can never have too much," Sirius explained.

Soon the hut was full of the sound and smell of sizzling sausage.

"Man, I'm getting hungry now," moaned Sirius.

"We'll eat as soon as this chapter's over, Sirius," Remus promised. "But for now, stop interrupting."

Nobody said a thing while the giant was working, but as he slid the ﬁrst six fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages from the poker, Dudley ﬁdgeted a li†le. Uncle Vernon said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley."

"That whale doesn't need any more food," Sirius barked.

The giant chuckled darkly. "Yer great puddin' of a son don' need fa†enin' anymore, Dursley, don' worry."

"THANK YOU!" Sirius cried standing up his arms over his head, as if he was a priest thanking god, "Someone agrees with me!"

Remus snorted with laughter as Sirius fell back onto his seat.

He passed the sausages to Harry, who was so hungry he had never tasted anything so wonderful, but he still couldn't take his eyes oﬀ the giant.

Finally, as nobody seemed about to explain anything, he said, "I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are."

"He has such good manners," Remus appreciably. This time, it was Sirius who snorted with humor.

The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Call me Hagrid," he said, "everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm

Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts — yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course."

"No, he doesn't," Sirius said and getting angry all over again. "Because of those low-lives sitting behind you, he doesn't know a damn thing! But I'm gonna get them back for this if it's the last thing I do."

"Er — no," said Harry. Hagrid looked shocked. "Sorry," Harry said quickly.

"You have no reason to apologize," Remus said gently.

"Yeah," agreed Sirius, his face darkening. "It's those pathetic excuses for relatives of yours that should be sorry."

'And they will be sorry,' he promised mentally.

"Sorry?" barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. "It's them as should be sorry!

"I guess that it's true," Sirius said smiling. "Great minds think alike!"

I knew yeh weren't geGn' yer le†ers but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yer parents learned it all?"

"All what?" asked Harry.

"Uh oh, somebody's in trouble" Sirius sang and Remus grinned.

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

He had leapt to his feet. In his anger he seemed to ﬁll the whole hut. The Dursleys were cowering against the wall. "Do you mean ter tell me," he

growled at the Dursleys, "that this boy — this boy! — knows nothin' abou' — about ANYTHING?"

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

They both were holding back chuckles at Harry's innocence.

"I know some things," he said. "I can, you know, do math and stuﬀ."

They laughed hard at this.

"He's just too sweet and innocent," Sirius said laughing, but then stopping quite suddenly and looking grave.

"Sirius?" Remus asked surprised.

"Where did that sweet and innocent side go I wonder…?" Sirius asked more to himself than to Remus.

Remus stared at him for a moment before he too began to question that. "Just what happened to him to make him… so… so…" he was having trouble coming up with the right word.

"World-weary?" Sirius suggested unhappily. "Battle-hardened?" Remus nodded sadly.

But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, "About our world, I mean.

Your world. My world. Yer parents' world." "What world?"

"Oh, this is gonna be good," Sirius sighed in happiness. "Revenge is sweet."

Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode. "DURSLEY!" he boomed.

Sirius and Remus both leaned forward, all too eager to hear what happens next,

Uncle Vernon, who had gone very pale, whispered something that sounded like "Mimblewimble."

Sirius roared with laughter, relishing in the Dursley's fear.

Hagrid stared wildly at Harry. "But yeh must know about yer mom and dad," he said. "I mean, they're famous. You're famous."

"What? My — my mom 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.

"No, he doesn't," Sirius snapped. "And no one's to blame except for those pigs."

Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice.

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

"Like you're going to stop him from telling him the truth," Sirius said dryly.

Remus shook his head. "Dursley gets his way far too much. This is a good experience for him."

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

"I love Hagrid's temper," Sirius spoke. "At least, when it's not directed at me."

"You never told him? Never told him what was in the le†er Dumbledore le† fer him? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from him all these years?"

"Get em' Hagrid!" Sirius cheered. "Show those Muggles whose boss!"

"Kept what from me?" said Harry eagerly.

"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic. Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror.

"She's almost as big a drama queen as you are Sirius," Remus stated dryly. "What do you mean almost?!" demanded Sirius in mock outraged.

"Ah, go boil yer heads, both of yeh," said Hagrid. "Harry — yer a wizard."

"YES!" they cried.

"Finally!" Remus yelled out happily.

"The truth ﬁnally comes out!" Sirius yelled in relief.

There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard.

"I'm a what?" gasped Harry.

"Not the reaction I was looking for…" Remus chuckled.

"A wizard, o' course," said Hagrid, siGng back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower, "an' a thumpin' good 'un, I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh be? An' I reckon its abou' time yeh read yer le†er."

"About time," Sirius nodded ﬁrmly.

Harry stretched out his hand at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to

It's not surprising to say that Sirius was so giddy with excitement that he was practically jumping up and down in his seat. It was surprising however to say that Remus was doing the exact same thing right next to him.

Mr. H. PoMer, The Floor,

Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea.

He pulled out the le†er and read:

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. PoMer,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcrafi and Wizardry. Please ﬁnd enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31. Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress

Questions exploded inside Harry's head like ﬁreworks and he couldn't decide which to ask ﬁrst. A†er a few minutes he stammered, "What does it mean, they await my owl?"

"That's the question you ask ﬁrst?" Sirius asked.

"Give him a break, Sirius," Remus said soothingly. "It's a lot to take in."

"Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me," said Hagrid, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a cart horse, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat he pulled an owl — a real, live, rather ruﬄed-looking owl

"An owl?!" Remus exclaimed while Sirius laughed again.

— A long quill, and a roll of parchment. With his tongue between his teeth he scribbled a note that Harry could read upside down:

Dear Professor Dumbledore, Given Harry his leMer.

Taking him to buy his things tomorrow. Weather's horrible. Hope you're well.

Hagrid

Sirius actually turned the book upside down and said, "What do you know? I can read it!"

Remus couldn't stop a smile.

Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in its beak, went to the door, and threw the owl out into the storm. Then he came back and sat down as though this was as normal as talking on the telephone.

"Well it is," Sirius commented.

"For us it is, Sirius," Remus reminded him patiently.

Harry realized his mouth was open and closed it quickly.

"Where was I?" said Hagrid, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the ﬁrelight.

"He's not going," he said.

"You wouldn't dare try to stop him if you knew what was good for you," snarled Sirius, his temper starting to ignite again.

Hagrid grunted. "I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop him," he said.

They snickered approvingly.

"A what?" said Harry, interested.

"A Muggle," said Hagrid, "it's what we call nonmagic folk like them. An' it's your bad luck you grew up in a family o' the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on."

"Harry does have the worst luck out of everyone I know," Sirius said sadly. "Yeah," Remus agreed. "Almost as bad as yours, Padfoot."

Sirius gave him a dark look before going on.

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

"Stamp it out of him?" repeated Sirius furiously. "YOU CAN'T STAMP OUT MAGIC!"

"You knew?" said Harry. "You knew I'm a — a wizard?"

"OF COURSE SHE KNEW!" Sirius screamed his hands over his head, his nerves stretched to breaking point. "LILY WAS HER SISTER! HOW SOMEONE AS SWEET AS LILY POTTER COULD'VE EVER HAD A SISTER LIKE HER I'LL NEVER KNOW! HOW COULD SHE LIE TO HER OWN NEWPHEW LIKE THIS?!"

Remus ﬁngernails where digging to his chair—he was doing his best to keep himself from losing him temper all together—but he might as well have tried to detach his arms for all the good it was doing.

"Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "Knew! Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dra†ed sister being what she was?

Oh, she got a le†er just like that and disappeared oﬀ to that — that school — and came home every vacation with her pockets full of frog spawn, turning teacups into rats.

I was the only one who saw her for what she was — a freak!

Sirius and Remus were now beyond furious. They both knew just how much Lily cared for her sister, and they knew that it hurt her when she found out about Petunia's feeling towards her. And those feelings of jealousy and resentment were now being channeled towards Lily's son—it just made them both seethe with anger.

But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!"

"Of course they would be!" Remus said.

"Any real parents would be happy whatever their child is!" piped up Sirius, thinking bitterly about his own hag of a mother.

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 Po†er at school and they le† and got married and had you, and of course I knew you'd be just the same, just as strange, just

as — as —abnormal — and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!"

"WHAT?" bellowed Sirius. "You mean to tell me that's how he found out?"

"I know she's horrible," Remus said shaking his head from both pity and rage. "But couldn't she have told him a little more… oh, I don't know… GENTLY?"

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 scu†led back to their corner. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Po†er? It's an outrage! A scandal!

"YES!" Sirius said loudly in agreement. "My thoughts exactly! They died like heroes! Fighting to their end to protect their son! To lie to that same boy is an insult to their memories."

Harry Po†er not knowin' his own story when every kid in our world knows his name!"

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

They both looked at each other sadly.

The anger faded from Hagrid's face. He looked suddenly anxious. "I never expected this," he said, in a low, worried voice.

"Neither did I," sighed Remus.

"I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble geGn' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Harry, I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh — but someone's go†a — yeh can't go oﬀ ter Hogwarts not knowin'."

"Good! Someone has to!" Sirius all but shouted.

He threw a dirty look at the Dursleys.

"I just wish he did more than that," Remus grumbled.

"Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh — mind, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great myst'ry, parts of it…"

"You can say that again," Sirius griped.

He sat down, stared into the ﬁre for a few seconds, and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with — with a person called — but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows —"

"Who?"

"Well — I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does."

"Oh, don't make Harry scared to say his name too!" Sirius cried. "It's not that hard!"

"Why not?"

"There's that curious nature that I was looking for," Remus grinned slightly.

"Gulpin' gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared. Blimey, this is diﬃcult. See, there was this wizard who went… bad. As bad as you could go.

Worse. Worse than worse. His name was…" Hagrid gulped, but no words came out.

"OH, COME ON!" Sirius yelled. "It's just a NAME! What's there to be scared of?"

"Could you write it down?" Harry suggested. "Nah — can't spell it.

"Of course not!" Sirius said with a bitter chuckle. "Why have such a dumb name as Voldemort anyway?"

"I've always wondered why he chose that name," Remus muttered to himself.

All right —Voldemort. "

"YES! There you go Hagrid! That wasn't so hard was it?" Sirius cheered.

Hagrid shuddered. "Don' make me say it again.

"Oh, come on!" Sirius groaned again. Remus wanted to rip the book out of Sirius's hands and ﬁnish it himself.

Anyway, this — this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em, too — some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, 'cause he was geGn' himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry. Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches… terrible things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course, some stood up to him — an' he killed 'em. Horribly.

They both shuttered as they remembered some of the horrible murders that Voldemort had done in the ﬁrst war.

One o' the only safe places le† 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 an' wizard as I ever knew. Head boy an' girl at Hogwarts in theirday!

They both smiled sadly at the memory of their late friends.

"I remember the look on James' face when he opened his letter and found that badge in there," Sirius said miserably. "I also remember him writing to Dumbledore and telling him that he must have made a mistake."

"And I remember the letter he got back saying that there wasn't…" Remus said grinning. "I can't really blame him… I mean I thought that it was a mistake at ﬁrst to."

Suppose the myst'ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get 'em 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 ou†a the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Halloween ten years ago. You was just a year old. He came ter yer house an' — an' —"

Sirius put his face back into his hands and was ﬁghting back tears. "I swear… when I get my hands on Peter…"

Remus put his hand on Sirius's shoulder in a comforting way again, and gradually, Sirius regained control.

Hagrid suddenly pulled out a very dirty, spo†ed handkerchief and blew his nose with a sound like a foghorn.

"Sorry," he said. "But it's that sad — knew yer mum an' dad, an' nicer people yeh couldn't ﬁnd — anywa…

Now both Remus and Sirius were shedding tears by this point.

"You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then — an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing — he tried to kill you, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' by then. But he couldn't do it.

Never wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a powerful, evil curse touches yeh

— took care of yer mum an' dad an' yer house, even — but it didn't work on you, an' that's why yer famous, Harry.

No one ever lived a†er he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age — the

McKinnons, the Bones, the Prewe†s — an' you was only a baby, an' you lived."

Remus sighed at that, they had lost many, to friends over that dumb war. A war that never should've happened in the ﬁrst place.

"Yeah… I'm just thankful that Harry did live," Sirius muttered in a whisper. He said it so quietly that only Remus and his heightened hearing could've possibly heard him. "I don't know what I would've done if Harry died that night too."

Remus nodded solemnly—his grip on Sirius's shoulder tightened.

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

Remus hitched back a cry while Sirius had a pained look on his face. Of all the possible things that Harry had to remember… that was deﬁnitely not one of them.

Hagrid was watching him sadly. "Took yeh 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 almost forgo†en that the Dursleys were there.

"To bad," Sirius croaked, trying to lighten the mood.

Uncle Vernon certainly seemed to have got back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his ﬁsts were clenched.

"Now, you listen here, boy," he snarled, "I accept there's something strange about you, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured

Both Sirius and Remus snarled viciously back at the book.

"Touch just one more hair on his head Dursley and I swear that you'll be meeting the killer Sirius Black!" Sirius growled ferociously.

and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdoes, no denying it, and the world's be†er oﬀ without them in my opinion— asked for all they got, geGng mixed up with these wizarding types — just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end -"

Sirius dropped the book before he smashed the table with his bare hands, startling Remus. "I don't give a damn if people insult me…" he said so ferociously that Remus actually got up and retreated a few feet. "But when you threaten Harry—or insult Lily and James—that's when I get angry!"

He looked back at Remus, his eyes ﬂew to Remus's pocket, where his wand was. And for a moment, it looked like he was about to ﬁght Remus for the wand when Remus quickly said, "Finish the chapter without trying to destroy anything else and I swear that we'll talk about the kind of payback that we're going to give to those Dursleys."

Sirius took several calming breaths; it looked like it was taking all his self- control, but ﬁnally, Sirius went picked up the fallen book and said in a bitter tone.

But at that moment, Hagrid leapt from the sofa and drew a ba†ered pink umbrella from inside his coat.

Pointing this at Uncle Vernon like a sword, he said, "I'm warning you, Dursley — I'm warning you — one more word…"

"Do it Hagrid! Do it!" Sirius urged longingly.

In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella by a bearded giant, Uncle Vernon's courage failed again; he ﬂa†ened himself against the wall and fell silent.

"Just one curse, Hagrid," Sirius groaned. "That's all I want!"

"That's be†er," said Hagrid, breathing heavily and siGng 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?"

"Oh, come on kiddo, don't be afraid to say the name too!" Sirius whined. "Well, he doesn't stay afraid for long does he?" Remus said smiling.

"Good question, Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see… he was geGn' more an' more powerful — why'd he go?

Some say he died.

"I wish," Sirius said.

Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human le† in him to die.

"He doesn't," Sirius agreed. "That's enough, Padfoot."

Some say he's still out there, bidin' his time, like, but I don' believe it. People who was on his side came back ter ours. Some of 'em came ou†a kinda trances. Don' reckon they could've done if he was comin' back.

"We all wish that were true, Hagrid," whispered Remus, just loud enough for Sirius to hear.

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, Harry. There was somethin' goin' on that night he hadn't counted on — I dunno what it was, no one does — but somethin' about you stumped him, all right."

"That's right!" Sirius said smiling proudly. "Harry stopped him dead in his tracks."

Hagrid looked at Harry with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but Harry, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake.

"What?" Sirius cried out.

"Why?" Remus shouted at the same time.

A wizard? Him? How could he possibly be? He'd spent his life being clouted by Dudley, and bullied by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; if he was really a wizard, why hadn't they been turned into warty toads every time they'd tried to lock him in his cupboard? If he'd once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come Dudley had always been able to kick him around like a football?

They started to crack up.

"Harry, that's not how it works," Remus said in between laughs. "Well, sometimes it is. Accidental magic wouldn't have come up for all of them though. You're still just a kid."

"Hey, Moony! Can you imagine that Lily and James's son not being magical?"

They both started to crack up all over again at Harry's naive thoughts about their world. "I'm sorry, but that I just can't imagine!" Remus said.

"Hagrid," he said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard."

To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled.

"Not just him, Harry," Sirius chuckled as well.

"Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?"

Harry looked into the ﬁre. Now he came to think about it… every odd thing that had ever made his aunt and uncle furious with him had happened when he, Harry, had been upset or angry… chased by Dudley's gang, he had somehow found himself out of their reach… dreading going to school with that ridiculous haircut, he'd managed to make it grow back… and the very last time Dudley had hit him, hadn't he got his revenge, without even realizing he was doing it? Hadn't he set a boa constrictor on him?

"Yes, and it was bloody BRILLANT!" Sirius said proudly. "That beats the time that I accidently set my parent's bedroom curtains on ﬁre!"

"Right," Remus said rolling his eyes. "You 'accidently' set them on ﬁre."

"Accidently—on purpose—" Sirius said smirking at the memory. "What's the diﬀerence?"

Harry looked back at Hagrid, smiling, and saw that Hagrid was positively beaming at him.

They both were beaming along with them.

"See?" said Hagrid. "Harry Po†er, not a wizard — they started laughing again at this. you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts."

But Uncle Vernon wasn't going to give in without a ﬁght. "Haven't I told you he's not going?"

"If he wants to go then he will!" Sirius scoﬀed, just daring Dursley to try something. He was aching to break their faces anyway…

he hissed. "He's going to Stonewall High and he'll be grateful for it. I've read those le†ers and he needs all sorts of rubbish — spell books and

wands and —"

"If he wants ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop him," growled Hagrid. "Stop Lily an' James Po†er's son goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad.

"Here, here!" Sirius cheered on Hagrid.

His name's been down ever since he was born.

He's oﬀ ter the ﬁnest school of witchcra† and wizardry in the world. Seven years there and he won't know himself. He'll be with youngsters of his own sort, fer a change, an' he'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had Albus Dumbled—"

"I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM

MAGIC TRICKS!" yelled Uncle Vernon.

"Ok, now he's gonna get it!" Sirius said shaking his head. "I hope he gets it good!" Remus was starting to look over Sirius's shoulder, wanting to know what Hagrid does.

But he had ﬁnally gone too far. Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled it over his head, "NEVER —" he thundered, "— INSULT — ALBUS — DUMBLEDORE — IN — FRONT — OF — ME!" He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley — there was a ﬂash of violet light, a sound like a ﬁrecracker, a sharp squeal, and the next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bo†om, howling in pain. When he turned his back on them, Harry saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers.

A moment's silence, then Remus and Sirius burst out laughing,

"THAT IS BLOODY BRILLANT!" Sirius yelled at the top of his lungs, half out of his mind in joy.

"Remind me to thank Hagrid the next time we see him!" Remus cried out in delight.

They continued laughing until their throats were hoarse. Finally, Sirius was able to calm down long enough to ﬁnish:

Uncle Vernon roared. Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudley into the other room, he cast one last terriﬁed look at Hagrid and slammed the door behind them.

Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard.

"Shouldn'ta lost me temper," he said ruefully, "but it didn't work anyway. Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much le† ter do."

That line caused another round of laughter, but their sides were already hurting so badly that they had to put the book down until their laughs turned to gasping and choking. Sirius than stuttered through his lost of breath to say, "You know…? There is this second when I almost feel bad for them. But then I remember, oh yeah I don't care about them!"

He cast a sideways look at Harry under his bushy eyebrows.

"Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts," he said. "I'm — er — not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin'. I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an' get yer le†ers to yeh an' stuﬀ — one o' the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job."

"Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Harry.

"I've always wondered about that," Sirius said curiously.

"Oh, well — I was at Hogwarts meself but I — er — got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an' everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore."

"Why were you expelled?"

That got their attention. Hagrid could just be the worst person alive at keeping secrets but he never let slip how he got expelled.

"It's geGn' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow," said Hagrid loudly. "Go†a get up ter town, get all yer books an' that."

"Damn!" Sirius mumbled. "And for a minute I could swear that he was going to tell Harry for a second."

He took oﬀ his thick black coat and threw it to Harry.

"You can kip under that," he said. "Don' mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o' doormice in one o' the pockets."

"Why would Hagrid possibly have dormice in his pocket?" Remus asked with his eyebrows raised.

"With Hagrid, you don't ask," Sirius said nodding wisely. "I ﬁnd that it's better that way."

Remus grinned, "You know—I think that was the best chapter so far. Well, at least compared to the ﬁrst three."

"Without a doubt!" Sirius agreed ﬁrmly. "I just wish that Harry didn't have to ﬁnd out that way… but at least he knows now and is about to get out of that house."

Remus took the book and read out, "Chapter 5: Diagon Ally."

"NO WAIT!" Sirius yelled suddenly, running out of the room. "LUNCH! I'm starving."

"Sirius!" Remus yelled and sighed with a shadow of a smile. "Idiot," he shook his head fondly and ran aGer him.

Chapter 6(I own nothing. Copyright belongs to J.K. Rowling)

Chapter 5: Diagon Ally

AGer almost an hour long lunch break discussing Harry's home life and plots to get even with the Dursley's, as well as with Dumbledore, they got up and went back to the books. They raced back into the drawling room and Remus picked up the book to pick up where they leG oﬀ.

"Chapter 5: Diagon Alley," Remus read grinning. Sirius joined in grinning. "This should be good."

Harry woke early the next morning. Although he could tell it was daylight, he kept his eyes shut tight.

It was a dream, he told himself ﬁrmly. I dreamed a giant called Hagrid came to tell me I was going to a school for wizards. When I open my eyes I'll be at home in my cupboard.

"You'll never be even near that cupboard if I can help it," Sirius muttered darkly; Remus nodded vigorously in agreement.

There was suddenly a loud tapping noise.

"It can't be her, then. She shrieks like a banshee," Sirius snickered.

And there's Aunt Petunia knocking on the door, Harry thought, his heart sinking.

"Don't think that way Harry." Remus scolded very lightly. "He's pessimistic isn't he?" Sirius muttered.

"Wouldn't you be aGer living with people like those Dursley's?" asked Remus in return.

"That's really sad," said Sirius running a weary hand through his hair, "For you to think that's a dream. I can't imagine how horrible it must've been for him."

But he still didn't open his eyes. It had been such a good dream. Tap. Tap. Tap.

"All right," Harry mumbled, "I'm geGng up."

He sat up and Hagrid's heavy coat fell oﬀ him. The hut was full of sunlight, the storm was over, Hagrid himself was asleep on the collapsed sofa, and there was an owl rapping its claw on the window, a newspaper held in its beak.

Harry scrambled to his feet, so happy he felt as though a largeballoon was swelling inside him. He went straight to the window and jerked it open.

They both grinned broadly at the image of Harry on his 11th birthday.

The owl swooped in and dropped the newspaper on top of Hagrid, who didn't wake up. The owl then ﬂu†ered onto the ﬂoor and began to a†ack Hagrid's coat. "Don't do that."

They both started laughing.

"They don't leave until they get paid," Remus snorted loudly.

"Don't you hate that? I've had quite a few perfectly good robes ripped thanks to impatient Daily Prophet Owls." Sirius griped.

Harry tried to wave the owl out of the way, but it snapped its beak ﬁercely at him and carried on savaging the coat. "Hagrid!" said Harry loudly. "There's an owl —"

"Pay him," Hagrid grunted into the sofa.

"He's not going to understand!" Remus said rolling his eyes.

"What?"

"He wants payin' fer deliverin' the paper. Look in the pockets."

Hagrid's coat seemed to be made of nothing but pockets — bunches of keys, slug pellets, balls of string, peppermint humbugs, teabags… ﬁnally, Harry pulled out a handful of strange-looking coins.

"Give him ﬁve Knuts," said Hagrid sleepily. "Knuts?"

"Like he's going to know what that is, couldn't they have sent someone else like Professor McGonagall? At least send someone that's experienced with Muggle-born families?" Remus complained harshly.

"Remus, they didn't want to scare Harry. And could you please give Hagrid a break? The man's half asleep!" Sirius barked.

"You better not ever let McGonagall here you ever say that."

"The li†le bronze ones."

Harry counted out ﬁve li†le bronze coins, and the owl held out his leg so Harry could put the money into a small leather pouch tied to it. Then he ﬂew oﬀ through the open window.

Hagrid yawned loudly, sat up, and stretched. "Best be oﬀ, Harry, lots ter do today, go†a get up ter London an' buy all yer stuﬀ fer school."

"Oh, so now he gets up?" Remus snorted.

Harry was turning over the wizard coins and looking at them. He had just thought of something that made him feel as though the happy balloon inside him had got a puncture.

"What? Why?" Sirius and Remus both deﬂated at this thought.

"Um — Hagrid?"

"Mm?" said Hagrid, who was pulling on his huge boots.

"I haven't got any money — and you heard Uncle Vernon last night… he won't pay for me to go and learn magic."

"Did he really think his parents would leave him with nothing?" Sirius asked shocked.

"You're already forgetting who he's had to live with for ten years Padfoot," Remus answered gravely.

"Why those…"

"Don't worry about that," said Hagrid, standing up and scratching his head. "D'yeh think yer parents didn't leave yeh anything?"

"But if their house was destroyed —"

"They wouldn't have leG their money in the house!" Remus moaned.

"They didn' keep their gold in the house, boy! Nah, ﬁrst stop fer us is Gringo†s. Wizards' bank. Have a sausage, they're not bad cold — an' I wouldn' say no teh a bit o' yer birthday cake, neither."

"Wizards have banks?"

"Where did he think that we kept our money?" Sirius asked exasperated. "I don't get why he's asking that, obviously wizards have banks… he just saw how the currency is diﬀerent?"

"Just the one. Gringo†s. Run by goblins."

Harry dropped the bit of sausage he was holding. "Goblins?"

"Instead of answering one question, Harry gets a couple hundred new ones," Remus stated.

"He's getting more confused by the minute," Sirius chuckled.

"Yeah — so yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it, I'll tell yeh that. Never mess with goblins, Harry. Gringo†s is the safest place in the world fer anything yeh want ter keep safe — 'cept maybe Hogwarts. As a ma†er o' fact, I go†a visit Gringo†s anyway. Fer Dumbledore. Hogwarts business."

"Hogwarts business… this story might just get more interesting yet," Sirius simpered.

Hagrid drew himself up proudly. "He usually gets me ter do important stuﬀ fer him. Fetchin' you — geGn' things from Gringo†s — knows he can trust me, see."

Got everythin'? Come on, then." Harry followed Hagrid out onto the rock. The sky was quite clear now and the sea gleamed in the sunlight. The boat Uncle Vernon had hired was still there, with a lot of water in the bo†om a†er the storm.

"How did you get here?" Harry asked, looking around for another boat. "Flew," said Hagrid.

"Flew?"

"Yeah — but we'll go back in this. Not s'pposed ter use magic now I've got yeh."

"It's hard to picture Hagrid ﬂying isn't it?" Remus said rolling his eyes.

Sirius laughed out loud at this. "Hey, Moony?" he asked, "Please tell me you know how he ﬂew there!"

Remus thought for a few minutes. "I personally think that he used a thestral… I mean… he can't use a broom, and he doesn't have your

motorcycle anymore… how else could he do it?"

Sirius sighed sadly, "Wonder whatever happened to my bike."

They se†led down in the boat, Harry still staring at Hagrid, trying to imagine him ﬂying.

"Seems a shame ter row, though," said Hagrid, giving Harry another of his sideways looks. "If I was ter — er — speed things up a bit, would yeh mind not mentionin' it at Hogwarts?"

"Of course not," said Sirius. "Of course not," said Harry,

"Yes!" Sirius yelled, sounding delighted, "We think alike!"

"That's great Hagrid encourage him to break rules from the start," Remus said shaking his head.

eager to see more magic. Hagrid pulled out the pink umbrella again, tapped it twice on the side of the boat, and they sped oﬀ toward land.

"Why would you be mad to try and rob Gringo†s?" Harry asked.

"Why does he need to know that? What—is he thinking about robbing the bank?" Remus said sardonically.

"Spells — enchantments," said Hagrid, unfolding his newspaper as he spoke. "They say there's dragons guardin' the high security vaults. And then yeh go†a ﬁnd yer way — Gringo†s is hundreds of miles under London, see. Deep under the Underground. Yeh'd die of hunger tryin' ter get out, even if yeh did manage ter get yer hands on summat."

Harry sat and thought about this while Hagrid read his newspaper, the Daily Prophet. They scowled Harry had learned from Uncle Vernon that people liked to be le† alone while they did this, but it was very diﬃcult, he'd never had so many questions in his life.

"Ministry o' Magic messin' things up as usual," Hagrid mu†ered, turning the page.

"Shocker—the Ministry screwing up," Sirius mocked.

"There's a Ministry of Magic?" Harry asked, before he could stop himself.

"Useless if you ask me," Sirius muttered darkly.

"'Course," said Hagrid. "They wanted Dumbledore fer Minister, o' course, but he'd never leave Hogwarts, so old Cornelius Fudge got the job.

Bungler if ever there was one. So he pelts Dumbledore with owls every morning, askin' fer advice."

"Were these people half-asleep or just stupid to elect that idiot as the minister?" Sirius complained.

"But what does a Ministry of Magic do?"

"Nothing!" Sirius yelled. Remus was ﬁnding it harder to keep reading every second.

"Well, their main job is to keep it from the Muggles that there's still witches an' wizards up an' down the country."

"Why?"

"Why? Blimey, Harry, everyone'd be wantin' magic solutions to their problems. Nah, we're best le† alone."

At this moment the boat bumped gently into the harbor wall. Hagrid folded up his newspaper, and they clambered up the stone steps onto the street. Passersby stared a lot at Hagrid as they walked through the li†le town to the station.

"I don't blame them," Remus muttered.

Harry couldn't blame them.

That caused Remus to smile.

Not only was Hagrid twice as tall as anyone else, he kept pointing at perfectly ordinary things like parking meters and saying loudly, "See that, Harry? Things these Muggles dream up, eh?"

"Really inconspicuous," Sirius sarcastically said, fully agreeing with Remus of how Hagrid's actions were setting a bad example on Harry.

"Hagrid," said Harry, panting a bit as he ran to keep up, "did you say there are dragons at Gringo†s?"

"Well, so they say," said Hagrid. "Crikey, I'd like a dragon."

"Oh no…" Sirius said shaking his head. "Harry, for your own good, stay away from Hagrid's pets!"

"Wait a minute," said Remus, "Doesn't Hagrid er… live in a wooden

house?"

"Yep," said Sirius chuckling, "but we all know that Hagrid is insane, and that little detail doesn't matter to him."

"Sirius…"

"I mean insane in a good way!"

"You'd like one?"

"You don't even know the half of it Harry," Remus chuckled.

"Wanted one ever since I was a kid — here we go."

"Of course he does, a dragon could eat you in any number of ways… sunny- side up, scrabbled, toasted, or just burnt to a crisp. It's deﬁnitely Hagrid's dream pet." Sirius wisecracked. "I want one too so it can fetch my slippers."

They had reached the station. There was a train to London in ﬁve minutes' time. Hagrid, who didn't understand "Muggle money,"as he called it, gave the bills to Harry so he could buy their tickets. People stared more than ever on the train. Hagrid took up two seats and sat kniGng what looked like a canary-yellow circus tent.

"Still got yer le†er, Harry?" he asked as he counted stitches. Harry took the parchment envelope out of his pocket.

"Good," said Hagrid. "There's a list there of everything yeh need."

"Hey, do you think they changed since we were at school?" Sirius asked.

Harry unfolded a second piece of paper he hadn't noticed the night before, and read:

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY UNIFORM

First-year students will require:

Three sets of plain work robes(black)

One plain pointed hat (black) for daywear

One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide orsimilar)

One winter cloak (black, silverfastenings)

Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags

"I don't think that's changed for the last century," Remus commented.

COURSE 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 "That one's diﬀerent," Sirius said.

Magical Drafis and Potions by Arsenius Jigger

"So is that one," Remus agreed.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble

"We didn't have those two books either," Sirius said shaking his head. "You know? I'm starting to feel old."

Remus gave him a slight smile.

OTHER EQUIPMENT

1 wand

1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2) 1 set of glass or crystal phials

1 telescope set

1 brass scales

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

"Why aren't dogs allowed, I never understood that," barked Sirius, it being a sensitive issue for him for obvious reasons.

"Sirius, think about it—dogs like to run outside and play fetch in the sun… students would be in class to busy most of the time, which would be cruel to the animal don't you think?" Remus told him.

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

"They really should take that rule out; I never saw the point in ﬁrst years not being able to have brooms." Sirius stated.

"Sirius," Remus said in a tired voice. "Most ﬁrst years don't know how to ﬂy. Only those that grew up with wizard parents will know how to ride one, but Dumbledore can't let half of the ﬁrst years have their own brooms while the other half don't."

"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 geGng there in an ordinary way. He got stuck in the ticket barrier on the Underground,

They couldn't help but chuckle at the image.

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 a broken-down escalator that led up to a bustling road lined with shops.

Hagrid was so huge that he parted the crowd easily; all Harry had to do was keep close behind him. They passed book shops and music stores,

hamburger restaurants and cinemas, but nowhere that looked as if 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? Were there really shops that sold spell books and broomsticks?

Might this not all be some huge joke that the Dursleys had cooked up?

"They don't believe in imagination remember?" Remus said annoyed.

If Harry hadn't known that the Dursleys had no sense of humor, he might have thought so; yet somehow, even though everything Hagrid had told him so far was unbelievable, Harry couldn't help trusting him.

"That's the best thing about Hagrid," Sirius said happily. "You can't help but

trust him… just not with your secrets."

"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 book shop on one side to the record shop on the other as if they couldn't see the Leaky Cauldron at all. In fact, Harry had the most peculiar feeling that only he and Hagrid could see it.

"Because the Muggles can't see it," Remus said.

Before he could mention this, Hagrid had steered him inside.

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

"How much do you think Hagrid drinks?" Sirius asked interested. Remus raised his eyebrows at Sirius before going back to the page.

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

"Now he's going to notice Harry and make a huge deal out of it," said Remus.

"Why doesn't he just put a giant ﬂashing sign above his head saying 'Boy- Who-Lived', it would be less painful," Sirius proclaimed sarcastically.

"Good Lord," said the bartender, peering at Harry, "is this — can this be

—?"

"Looks like Harry is gonna get his ﬁrst bit of fame now," Sirius muttered.

The Leaky Cauldron had suddenly gone completely still and silent. "Bless my soul," whispered the old bartender, "Harry Po†er… what an honor."

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

"Welcome back, Mr. Po†er, 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 realizing it had gone out. Hagrid was beaming. Then there was a great scraping of chairs and the next moment, Harry found himself shaking hands with everyone in the Leaky Cauldron.

"Doris Crockford, Mr. Po†er, can't believe I'm meeting you at last." "So proud, Mr. Po†er, I'm just so proud."

"Always wanted to shake your hand — I'm all of a ﬂu†er."

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

"I've seen you before!" said Harry, as Dedalus Diggle's top hat fell oﬀ in his excitement. "You bowed to me once in a shop."

"That must be a lot to take in," said Remus, "Especially since you're only eleven and don't even remember what you did to earn your fame."

"He remembers!" cried Dedalus Diggle, looking around at everyone. "Did you hear that? He remembers me!"

Harry shook hands again and again — Doris Crockford kept comingback for more. A pale young man made his way forward, very nervously.One of his eyes wastwitching.

"Professor Quirrell!" said Hagrid. "Harry, Professor Quirrell will be one of your teachers at Hogwarts."

Sirius and Remus looked up at each other.

"Quirrell? Is he talking about Quirinus Quirrell? Wasn't he that know-it-all kid a few years below us when we were at Hogwarts?" Sirius questioned.

"I-I think so…" Remus said slowly. "Never paid much attention to him. He was a quiet one."

"Yeah, even more quiet than you were Remus," Sirius stated, "Was he there when you went to teach?"

"No," Remus answered. "He must have leG right before I taught there."

"P-P-Po†er," stammered Professor Quirrell, grasping Harry's hand, "c- can't t-tell you how p-pleased I am to meet you."

"Since when does Quirrell have a stutter?" Remus observed. "Maybe that's why he never talked," Sirius said reasonably.

"What sort of magic do you teach, Professor Quirrell?"

"D-Defence Against the D-D-Dark Arts," mu†ered Professor Quirrell, as though he'd rather not think about it.

"How he can possibly teach his class, if he's that scared of the subject?" Sirius asked astounded.

Remus shrugged, "No one there told me about the previous two Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers."

"That's probably because they didn't want you to turn and run."

Remus thought about it. It was probably true, but if it was then… what happened to them?

"N-not that you n-need it, eh, P-P-Po†er?" He laughed nervously. "You'll be g-geGng all your equipment, I suppose? I've g-got to p-pick up a new b-book on vampires, m-myself." He looked terriﬁed at the very thought.

But the others wouldn't let Professor Quirrell keep Harry to himself. It took almost ten minutes to get away from them all. At last, Hagrid managed to make himself heard over the babble.

"Must get on — lots ter buy. Come on, Harry."

Doris Crockford shook Harry's hand one last time, and Hagrid led them through the bar and out into a small, walled courtyard, where there was nothing but a trash can and a few weeds.

Hagrid grinned at Harry. "Told yeh, didn't I? Told yeh you was famous. Even Professor Quirrell was tremblin' ter meet yeh — mind you, he's usually tremblin'."

"Is he always that nervous?"

"Oh, yeah. Poor bloke. Brilliant mind. He was ﬁne while he was studyin' ou†a books but then he took a year oﬀ ter get some ﬁrsthand

experience… They say he met vampires in the Black Forest, and there was a nasty bit o' trouble with a hag — never been the same since. Scared of the students, scared of his own subject — now, where's me umbrella?"

Vampires? Hags? Harry's head was swimming. Hagrid, meanwhile, was counting bricks in the wall above the trash can.

The two Marauders burst out laughing. "He's so clueless…" Sirius said through his laughs.

"Sirius, be nice," Remus said, trying to sound scolding but was ruined by his smile.

"Three up… two across…" he mu†ered. "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 — a second later they were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, an archway onto a cobbled street that twisted and turned out of sight.

"Welcome," said Hagrid, "to Diagon Alley." He grinned at Harry's amazement.

Sirius looked down at the ﬂoor sadly. "That should have been James and Lily," said Sirius, "who got to show him his ﬁrst glimpse of Diagon Alley."

Remus put his hand on Sirius's shoulder in a consoling way. "Yeah," he agreed, "It should have been…"

They stepped through the archway. Harry looked quickly over his shoulder and saw the archway shrink instantly back into solid wall. The sun shone brightly on a stack of cauldrons outside the nearest shop.

Cauldrons — All Sizes — Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver — Self-Stirring — Collapsible, said a sign hanging over them.

"Yeah, you'll be needin' one," said Hagrid, "but we go†a get yer money ﬁrst."

Harry wished he had about eight more eyes.

"So did I," said Remus, smiling, "the ﬁrst time I set foot in Diagon Alley."

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 doing their shopping. A plump woman outside an Apothecary was shaking her head as they passed, saying, "Dragon liver, sixteen Sickles an ounce, they're mad…"

A low, so† 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 had their noses pressed against a window with broomsticks in it. "Look," Harry heard one of them say, "the new Nimbus Two Thousand — fastest ever —"

"Oh, Harry's ﬁrst broom!" Sirius cried out happily.

There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver instruments Harry had never seen before, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes, to†ering piles of spell books, quills, and rolls of parchment, potion bo†les, globes of the moon…

"Gringo†s," said Hagrid.

They had reached a snowy white building that towered over the other li†le shops. Standing beside its 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 toward 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 upon them:

Enter, stranger, but take heed Of what awaits the sin ofgreed,

For those who take, but do not earn, Must pay most dearly in their turn. So if you seek beneath our ﬂoors

A treasure that was never yours, Thief, you have been warned, beware Of ﬁnding more than treasure there.

"That warning always gave me the shivers," Remus said with a shutter.

"Like I said, Yeh'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 siGng 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 ou†a Mr. Harry Po†er's safe."

"You have his key, sir?"

"He better," Sirius said, slightly worried. "Harry won't be able to get anything without it."

"Got it here somewhere," said Hagrid, and he started emptying his pockets onto the counter, sca†ering a handful of moldy 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 rubies as big as glowing 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 le†er here from Professor Dumbledore," said Hagrid importantly, throwing out his chest. "It's about the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen."

"Oh no…" Remus said shaking his head. "What is it now?" Sirius asked.

"Harry is the most curious person I know and Hagrid just let slip some secret information!"

"Oh," Sirius said catching on. "What do you know? Harry's getting into Hogwarts trouble before he even goes to school!"

The goblin read the le†er carefully. "Very well," he said, handing it back to Hagrid, "I will have someone take you down to both vaults. Griphook!"

Griphook was yet another goblin. Once Hagrid had crammed all the dog biscuits back inside his pockets, he and Harry followed Griphook toward one of the doors leading oﬀ the hall.

"What's the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen?" Harry asked.

"See?" Remus pointed out.

Sirius stiﬂed his laughter and pride in his godson.

"Can't tell yeh that," said Hagrid mysteriously.

Remus groaned, "Hagrid… you don't say that to an eleven year old! Stuﬀ like that will make him want to know even more!"

"I hope he asks again," Sirius said.

"Sirius!" Remus said coldly. "It's like you're hoping that Harry gets into trouble."

"He's still gonna ask again anyway, you know that!" Remus just ignored him.

"Very secret. Hogwarts business. Dumbledore's trusted me. More'n my job's worth ter tell yeh that."

"He just made it about a thousand times more interesting now," Sirius said, getting curious.

Griphook held the door open for them. Harry, who had expected more marble, was surprised. They were in a narrow stone passageway lit with ﬂaming torches. It sloped steeply downward and there were li†le railway tracks on the ﬂoor. Griphook whistled and a small cart came hurtling up the tracks toward them. They climbed in — Hagrid with some diﬃculty — and were oﬀ.

"I always did love those riding those carts," Sirius said.

At ﬁrst they just hurtled through a maze of twisting passages. Harry tried to remember, le†, right, right, le†, middle fork, right, le†, but it was impossible. The ra†ling cart seemed to know its own way, because Griphook wasn't steering. Harry's eyes stung as the cold air rushed past them, but he kept them wide open. Once, he thought he saw a burst of ﬁre at the end of a passage and twisted around to see if it was a dragon,

but too late — they plunged even deeper, passing an underground lake where huge stalactites and stalagmites grew from the ceiling and ﬂoor.

"I never know," Harry called to Hagrid over the noise of the cart, "what's the diﬀerence between a stalagmite and a stalactite?"

Remus opened his mouth, perhaps to explain exactly what the diﬀerence, but instead decided to continue reading.

"Stalagmite's got an 'm' in it,"

"I don't think that's what he meant," Sirius said with his lips twitching. "I suppose that works as well as anything," said Remus.

said Hagrid. "An' don' ask me questions just now, I think I'm gonna be sick."

Even though they understood that Hagrid gets sick from those carts, they were still upset that he would tell Harry not to speak his mind considering that's what he's been told to do his whole life.

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 from trembling.

Griphook unlocked the door. A lot of green smoke came billowing out, and as it cleared, Harry gasped.

They both smiled broadly.

Inside were mounds of gold coins. Columns of silver. Heaps of li†le bronze Knuts.

"All yours," smiled Hagrid.

All Harry's — it was incredible. The Dursleys couldn't have known about this or they'd have had it from him faster than blinking.

Sirius and Remus growled at the mere mention of Harry's so-called

relatives.

"Good thing that they can't even get into Diagon Alley…" Remus said angrily. "A Muggle can't get in without a witch or wizard."

"Besides, that money doesn't belong to them anyway," Sirius ﬁnished

How o†en had they complained how much Harry cost them to keep?

"Oh, yeah," Sirius cried out exasperatedly. "They need all the money they can get to spoil that pig of a son Dudley!"

And all the 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. "Seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle, it's easy enough. Right, that should be enough fer a couple o' terms, we'll keep the rest safe for yeh." He turned to Griphook. "Vault seven hundred and thirteen now, please, and can we go more slowly?"

"One speed only," said Griphook.

They were going even deeper now and gathering speed. The air became colder and colder as they hurtled round tight corners. They went ra†ling over an underground ravine, and Harry leaned over the side to try to see what was down at the dark bo†om, but Hagrid groaned and pulled him back by the scruﬀ of his neck.

Vault seven hundred and thirteen had no keyhole. "Stand back," said Griphook importantly. He stroked the door gently with one of his long ﬁngers and it simply melted away.

"If anyone but a Gringo†s goblin tried that, they'd be sucked through the door and trapped in there," said Griphook.

"How o†en do you check to see if anyone's inside?" Harry asked. "About once every ten years," said Griphook with a rather nasty grin. "The goblins are always so friendly aren't they?" said Sirius sarcastically. "That's an image I could have done without," Remus said grimacing.

Something really extraordinary had to be inside this top security vault, Harry was sure, and he leaned forward eagerly, expecting to see fabulous jewels at the very least — but at ﬁrst he thought it was empty. Then he noticed a grubby li†le package wrapped up in brown paper lying on the ﬂoor.

"What?" Sirius asked confused. "That's it?"

Hagrid picked it up and tucked it deep inside his coat. Harry longed to know what it was, but knew be†er than to ask.

Remus grinned approvingly while Sirius scowled. "Good for you, Harry!"

"Come on, back in this infernal cart, and 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 Gringo†s. Harry didn't know where to run ﬁrst now that 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 whole life — more money than even Dudley had ever had.

They snarled at the mention of that spoiled pig.

"Might as well get yer uniform," said Hagrid, nodding toward Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. "Listen, Harry, would yeh mind if I slipped oﬀ fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron? I hate them Gringo†s carts."

"He's just gonna leave him there? Hagrid you better not!" Sirius said furiously.

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, when Harry started to speak. "Got the lot here — another young man being ﬁ†ed up just now, in fact." In the back of the shop, a boy with a pale, pointed face was standing on a footstool while a second witch pinned up his long black robes. Madam Malkin stood Harry on a stool next to him slipped a long robe over his head, and began to pin it to the right length.

"Hello," said the boy, "Hogwarts, too?" Remus was trying to guess who it could be. "Yes," said Harry.

"My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands," said the boy. He had a bored, drawling voice.

"Wait," said Remus, "Shouldn't he be picking out his own wand?"

"He sounds like a Malfoy…" Sirius drawled on, thinking about his extended family with distain.

"Then I'm going to drag them oﬀ to look at racing brooms. I don't see why ﬁrst years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into geGng me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow."

Harry was strongly reminded of Dudley.

Remus suddenly knew who this boy was.

"Have you got your own broom?" the boy went on.

"No," said Harry.

"Play Quidditch at all?"

"He will!" Sirius said conﬁdently.

"No," Harry said again, wondering what on earth Quidditch could be.

"Only the best sport in the world!" cried Sirius.

"If he doesn't have a broom, than it probably means that he doesn't play Quidditch," Remus said in a surprisingly cold voice.

"I do — Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?"

"No," said Harry, feeling more stupid by the minute.

"Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been — imagine being in Huﬄepuﬀ, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"

"There's nothing wrong with being a Huﬄepuﬀ, Malfoy!" Remus said loudly.

Sirius looked at him in surprise. "You mean to tell me that he is a Malfoy?"

"He's the only person I can think of who would talk like that when I was still teaching," Remus said forlornly. "And listen to the description… 'a boy with a pale, pointed face'… it can't be anyone else."

"Mmm," said Harry, wishing he could say something a bit more interesting.

"I say, look at that man!" said the boy suddenly, nodding toward the front window. Hagrid was standing there, grinning at Harry and pointing at two large ice creams to show he couldn't come in.

"That's Hagrid," said Harry, pleased to know something the boy didn't. "He works at Hogwarts."

"Oh," said the boy, "I've heard of him. He's a sort of servant, isn't he?"

"He's the gamekeeper," said Harry. He was liking the boy less and less every second.

"Yes, exactly. I heard he's a sort of savage — lives in a hut on the school grounds and every now and then he gets drunk, tries to do magic, and ends up seGng ﬁre to his bed."

"Yes, that's deﬁnitely Draco Malfoy," Remus said rolling his eyes. "He's the only person I know who's that rude."

"Reminds me of his father," Sirius muttered darkly.

"I think he's brilliant," said Harry coldly.

"You tell 'em, Harry," Sirius said proudly.

"Do you?" said the boy, with a slight sneer. "Why is he with you? Where are your parents?"

"They're dead," said Harry shortly. He didn't feel much like going into the ma†er with this boy.

"Oh, sorry," said the other, not sounding sorry at all. "But they were our kind, weren't they?"

They growled at the book.

"They were a witch and wizard, if that's what you mean."

"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get thele†er,

imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. What's your surname, anyway?"

"Wonder what his reaction is gonna be?" said Remus. "That should shut him up," Sirius said with a grin.

But before Harry could answer, Madam Malkin said, "That's you done, my dear," and Harry, not sorry for an excuse to stop talking to the boy, hopped down from the footstool.

"Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose," said the drawling boy.

Harry was rather quiet as he ate the ice cream Hagrid had bought him (chocolate and raspberry with chopped nuts).

"Sounds good," Sirius muttered.

"Sirius, can't you keep your mind oﬀ food for ﬁve minutes?" Remus asked rolling his eyes.

"What's up?" said Hagrid. "Nothing," Harry lied.

They stopped to buy parchment and quills. Harry cheered up a bit when he found a bo†le of ink that changed color as you wrote. When they had le† the shop, he said, "Hagrid, what's Quidditch?"

"Blimey, Harry, I keep forgeGn' how li†le yeh know — not knowin' about Quidditch!"

"Don't make me feel worse,"

"It's not your fault Harry," Remus said gently.

said Harry. He told Hagrid about the pale boy in Madam Malkin's.

"— and he said people from Muggle families shouldn't even be allowed in —"

"You're most deﬁnitely NOT from a Muggle family!" Sirius said angrily.

"Yer not from a Muggle family. (Sirius nodded vigorously) If he'd known who yeh were — he's grown up knowin' yer name if his parents are wizardin' folk. You saw what everyone in the Leaky Cauldron was like when they saw yeh. Anyway, what does he know about it, some o' the best I ever saw were the only ones with magic in 'em in a long line o' Muggles — look at yer mum! Look what she had fer a sister!"

"You can say that again," Sirius muttered darkly.

"So what is Quidditch?"

"It's our sport. Wizard sport. It's like — like soccer in the Muggle world — everyone follows Quidditch — played up in the air on broomsticks and there's four balls — sorta hard ter explain the rules."

"It's not hard to explain the rules!" Sirius yelled wearily.

"And what are Slytherin and Huﬄepuﬀ?"

"School houses. There's four. Everyone says Huﬄepuﬀ are a lot o' duﬀers, but —"

"I bet I'm in Huﬄepuﬀ," said Harry gloomily.

"Why does he keep putting himself down?" Sirius stated. "Does he have any self conﬁdence at all?" Remus cried.

Sirius sighed again. "Those Dursleys sure did a lot of damage haven't they? Damn them to the lowest level of hell."

"Be†er Huﬄepuﬀ than Slytherin," said Hagrid darkly. "There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. You-Know-

Who was one."

"Vol-, sorry —You-Know-Who was at Hogwarts?"

"Unfortunately," Sirius whispered.

"Years an' years ago," said Hagrid.

They bought Harry's school books in a shop called Flourish and Blo†s where the shelves were stacked to the ceiling with books as large as paving stones bound in leather; books the size of postage stamps in covers of silk; books full of peculiar symbols and a few books with nothing in them at all. Even Dudley, who never read anything, would have been wild to get his hands on some of these. Hagrid almost had to drag Harry away from Curses and Countercurses (Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly- Legs, Tongue-Tying and Much, Much More) by Professor Vindictus Viridian.

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

"That's my boy!" Sirius yelled happily.

"Sirius," Remus said giving him a reproachful look. Sirius was staring at him in confusion until Remus said, "That's our job!"

Sirius grinned again.

"I'm not sayin' that's not a good idea, but yer not ter use magic in the Muggle world except in very special circumstances," said Hagrid. "An' anyway, yeh couldn' work any of them curses yet, yeh'll need a lot more study before yeh get ter that level."

Hagrid wouldn't let Harry buy a solid gold cauldron, either ("It says pewter on yer 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 its horrible smell, a mixture of bad eggs and ro†ed cabbages.

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 supply of some basic potion ingredients for Harry, Harry himself examined silver unicorn horns at twenty-one Galleons each and minuscule, gli†ery-black beetle eyes (ﬁve Knuts a scoop). Outside the Apothecary, Hagrid checked Harry's list again.

"Just yer wand le† — A yeah, an' I still haven't got yeh a birthday present."

They both gave grateful smiles towards the book. "Remind me to send Hagrid a 'thank-you' note."

"Of course…"

Harry felt himself go red. "You don't have to —"

"Harry," Sirius said shaking his head. "Come on! It's your birthday!"

"Remind me to talk to Harry about this; he's way too humble for his own good. Far more than even Lily was."

"I know I don't have to. Tell yeh what, I'll get yer animal. Not a toad, toads went ou†a fashion years ago, yeh'd be laughed at— an' I don' like cats, they make me sneeze. I'll get yer an owl. All the kids want owls, they're dead useful, carry yer mail an' everythin'." Twenty minutes later, they le† Eeylops Owl Emporium, which had been dark and full of rustling and ﬂickering, jewel-bright eyes. Harry now carried a large cage that held a beautiful snowy owl, fast asleep with her head under her wing.

"So that's where he got Hedwig!" Remus said happily.

He couldn't stop stammering his thanks, sounding just like Professor Quirrell.

"You deserve it, Harry!" Sirius said.

"And you deserved a lot more!" Remus said sadly.

"Don' mention it," said Hagrid gruﬄy. "Don' expect you've had a lo†a presents from them Dursleys.

"He'd be correct," Sirius muttered angrily.

Just Ollivanders le† now — only place fer wands, Ollivanders, and yeh go†a have the best wand."

A magic wand… this was what Harry had been really looking forwardto.

"That's what everyone looks forward to," Sirius said wisely. "I know I did."

The last shop was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold le†ers 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.

"It seems like Olivander makes a lot of money," said Remus, "I mean everyone goes to him, so why does his shop look like that?"

Sirius shrugged.

A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty except for a single, spindly chair that Hagrid sat on to wait. Harry felt strangely as though he had entered a very strict library; he swallowed a lot of new questions that had just occurred to him and looked instead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. For some reason, the back of his neck prickled. The very dust and silence in here seemed to tingle with some secret magic.

Sirius and Remus exchanged surprised glances.

"You mean to tell me that he can feel magic?"

For once, Remus seemed to be having trouble explaining something."I-I guess so… I really shouldn't be surprised… but not a lot of people have that kind of power."

"He must be really powerful to be able to feel magic," Sirius said proudly.

"Good a†ernoon," said a so† voice. Harry jumped. Hagrid must have jumped, too, because there was a loud crunching noise and he got quickly oﬀ the spindly chair. An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop.

"Don't you hate it when people do that?" Remus asked. "Just appear out of nowhere and scare you half to death?"

"Hello," said Harry awkwardly.

"Ah yes," said the man. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Harry Po†er." It wasn't a question. "You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her ﬁrst wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work."

They both smiled sadly… thinking of Lily.

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

"You aren't the only person to think that Harry," Sirius said knowingly. "He has that eﬀect on everyone."

"Your father, on the other hand, favoured a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A li†le more power and excellent for transﬁguration. Well, I say your father favoured it —

They both smiled a little more sadly at the thought of James.

"Of course James would favour a wand for transﬁguration," Sirius said, trying to lighten the mood.

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. Harry could see himself reﬂected in those misty eyes.

'That would creep me out,' thought Remus.

"And that's where…" Mr. Ollivander touched the lightning scar on Harry's forehead with a long, white ﬁnger. "I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did it," he said so†ly. "Thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands… well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do…"

He shook his head and then, to Harry's relief, spo†ed 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 half when you got expelled?" said Mr. Ollivander, suddenly stern.

"Er — yes, 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 pink umbrella very tightly as he spoke.

"Oh yes, he doesn't 'use' them," Sirius sarcastically drawled out. They cracked up.

"Hmmm," said Mr. Ollivander, giving Hagrid a piercing look. "Well, now

— Mr. Po†er. Let me see." He pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. "Which is your wand arm?"

"Er — well, I'm right-handed," said 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 round his head.

"I still don't get what's the point of the tape measure; it always seemed to me that he still grabbed boxes at random," Sirius complained.

As he measured, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr. Po†er. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand."

Harry suddenly realized that the tape measure, which was measuring between his nostrils, was doing this on its own.

"Poor kid, he's having such a hard time getting used to the magical world," Remus laughed.

Mr. Ollivander was ﬂiGng around the shelves, taking down boxes. "That will do," he said, and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the ﬂoor. "Right then, Mr. Po†er. Try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and ﬂexible. just take it and give it a wave."

Harry took the wand and (feeling foolish) waved it around a bit, but Mr. Ollivander snatched it out of his hand almost at once.

"Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy. Try —"

Harry tried — but he 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, 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 mounting higher and higher on the spindly chair, but the more wands Mr. Ollivander pulled from the shelves, the happier he seemed to become.

"Ollivander likes nothing better than a tricky customer," said Remus.

"Yeah, why is that?" Sirius asked. "It only took me a few tries for me to ﬁnd my wand."

"I never studied wandlore," Remus said. "I don't have the slightest idea how it works."

"Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we'll ﬁnd the perfect match here somewhere — I wonder, now — yes, why not — unusual combination — holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple."

Harry took the wand. He felt a sudden warmth in his ﬁngers.

Sirius and Remus both looked at each other to share a smile. They both remember the same feeling when they got their own wands.

He raised the wand above his head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a ﬁrework, throwing dancing spots of light on to the walls.

Sirius clapped as if he were there and watching his godson buying his ﬁrst wand.

Hagrid whooped and clapped and Mr. Ollivander cried, "Oh, bravo! Yes, indeed, oh, very good. Well, well, well… how curious… how very

curious…"

"What's curious?" Sirius asked Remus who shrugged.

He put Harry's wand back into its box and wrapped it in brown paper, still mu†ering, "Curious… curious…"

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

Mr. Ollivander ﬁxed Harry with his pale stare. "I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr. Po†er. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather — just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother — why, its brother gave you that scar."

The two groaned; both of them forgetting about this little piece of information from the previous year.

"Yeah… that's not going to freak Harry out at all!" Sirius shouted sarcastically. "That wouldn't freak me out at all."

"Then again," Remus said thoughtfully. "The twin cores are what saved Harry last June."

Sirius opened his mouth to argue… but he knew that Remus was right. He leaned back grumpily and gestured for Moony to continue.

Harry swallowed.

"Yes, thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember… I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. Po†er… A†er all, He-Who-Must-Not- Be-Named did great things — terrible, yes, but great."

"Great?" asked Sirius in astonishment, "How can he think what he did was great?"

"I think he just thought the magic involved was great," said Remus, "I don't think he approved of his actions."

Harry shivered. He wasn't sure he liked Mr. Ollivander too much. He paid seven gold Galleons for his wand, and Mr. Ollivander bowed them from his shop.

The late a†ernoon sun hung low in the sky as Harry and Hagrid made their way back down Diagon Alley, back through the wall, back through the Leaky Cauldron, now empty. Harry didn't speak at all as they walked down the road; he didn't even notice how much people were gawking at them on the Underground, laden as they were with all their funny- shaped packages, with the snowy owl asleep in its cage on Harry's lap.

Up another escalator, out into Paddington station; Harry only realized where they were when Hagrid tapped him on the shoulder.

"Got time fer a bite to eat before yer train leaves," he said.

"Good," said Sirius, "Make sure you feed him well before he returns to that hell on earth."

He bought Harry a hamburger and they sat down on plastic seats to eat them. Harry kept looking around. Everything looked so strange, somehow.

"Well you went from the Wizarding world back to the Muggle world it's

going to feel strange at ﬁrst," Remus said sympathetically.

"You all right, Harry? Yer very quiet," said Hagrid.

Harry wasn't sure he could explain. He'd just had the best birthday of his life — and yet — he chewed his hamburger, trying to ﬁnd the words.

"Everyone thinks I'm special," he said at last.

"Well Harry is special," Sirius said as if it was obvious. "The fact that he grew up with those Dursleys and hasn't become bitter is special by itself."

"He has such low conﬁdence…" Remus said disbelievingly.

"All those people in the Leaky Cauldron, Professor Quirrell, Mr. Ollivander… but I don't know anything about magic at all. How can they expect great things? I'm famous and I can't even remember what I'm famous for. I don't know what happened when Vol-, sorry — I mean, the night my parents died."

Remus had to stop reading for a minute to clear his throat, a little choked up. Sirius's bottom lip trembled.

Hagrid leaned across the table. Behind the wild beard and eyebrows he wore a very kind smile.

"Don' you worry, Harry. You'll learn fast enough. Everyone starts at the beginning at Hogwarts, you'll be just ﬁne. Just be yerself. I know it's hard. Yeh've been singled out, an' that's always hard. But yeh'll have a great time at Hogwarts — I did — still do, 'sma†er of fact."

"Well that doesn't answer his question! No wonder he gets so mad when people keep things from him. I sure would if I were him," Remus said.

"Man, I feel like Hagrid is just leaving him to fend for himself," Sirius said, sounding sour. "Everyone in the Wizarding world knows his story and will be asking him questions he doesn't even know the answer to!"

"He's not going to get a moment's peace…"

Hagrid helped Harry on to the train that would take him back to the Dursleys, then handed him an envelope.

"Yer ticket fer Hogwarts, " he said. "First o' September — King's Cross — it's all on yer ticket. Any problems with the Dursleys, send me a le†er with yer owl, she'll know where to ﬁnd me…. See yeh soon, Harry."

"Almost there Harry, almost there," said Sirius encouragingly.

The train pulled out of the station. Harry wanted to watch Hagrid until he was out of sight; he rose in his seat and pressed his nose against the window, but he blinked and Hagrid had gone.

"And that's the end of the chapter," said Remus as he closed the book.

"Well now Harry will be oﬀ to Hogwarts in the next chapter!" Sirius stated sounding cheerful.

"Yes, and we'll get into Harry's ﬁrst year."

Remus looked at his watch. "It's getting really late. I say that we read one more chapter and we'll turn in. We can ﬁnish the rest tomorrow."

Sirius nodded, he was also starting to get very tired. "It's my turn isn't it?"

He took the book that Remus oﬀered, and read out, "Chapter 6: The Journey From Pla√orm Nine and Three-Quarters."

Chapter 7

(Copyright belongs to J.K. Rowling! I own nothing)

Chapter 6: The Journey From Pla√orm Nine and Three-Quarters "Remus?" Sirius began slowly.

"What is it, Sirius?"

"Not that it matters… but umm… there's just the tiny matter of my…" "No."

"But you don't even know what I was going to say!" "You're not getting your wand back yet, Sirius!"

"Oh please! Just give it to me!" he moaned like a little child.

"Gosh, you know that you sound like Dudley now," joked Remus. Sirius gave him the dirtiest look he could muster.

"Don't you ever, ever say that to me again!" Sirius hissed through gritted teeth.

"Sirius," Remus said, "Just read!"

Grumbling to himself, Sirius obliged, "Chapter 6: The Journey From Pla√orm Nine and Three-Quarters. "

"Good, he's ﬁnally leaving the Dursleys," Sirius cheered.

Harry's last month with the Dursleys wasn't fun.

"Did he expect it to be?" asked Remus in surprise. "Why doesn't this surprise me?" Sirius muttered darkly.

True, Dudley was now so scared of Harry he wouldn't stay in the same room,

Sirius grinned and Remus began to chuckle.

while Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon didn't shut Harry in his cupboard, force him to do anything, or shout at him — in fact, they didn't speak to him at all.

"What's wrong with that?" Sirius asked. "I'd say that's an improvement."

Half terriﬁed, half furious, they acted as though any chair with Harry in it were empty. Although this was an improvement in many ways, it did become a bit depressing a†er a while.

Harry kept to his room, with his new owl for company. He had decided to call her Hedwig,

"Nice name," mumbled Remus. "Think I read that in History of Magic once

…"

Sirius stared at him. "You mean to tell me that you actually read that thing?"

"Yes."

Sirius was lost for words for a moment, until ﬁnally he said, "Wow. I don't think I even opened that book."

a name he had found in A History of Magic.

"Told you!"

His school books were very interesting.

Sirius snorted, "He ﬁnds history of Magic interesting? Maybe he's more like Lily aGer all"

"Well, to someone who's never even heard of the Wizarding world, everything about us would be interesting, wouldn't it?" said Remus lightly.

"Well he hasn't been in one of Binn's classes yet. That's why he ﬁnds it interesting."

He lay on his bed reading late into the night, Hedwig swooping in and out of the open window as she pleased. It was lucky that Aunt Petunia didn't come in to vacuum anymore, because Hedwig kept bringing back dead mice. Every night before he went to sleep, Harry ticked oﬀ another day on the piece of paper he had pinned to the wall, counting down to September the ﬁrst.

Sirius smiled. "I used to do that," he said, smiling at the memory.

On the last day of August he thought he'd be†er speak to his aunt and uncle about geGng to King's Cross station the next day, so he went down to the living room where they were watching a quiz show on television.

He cleared his throat to let them know he was there, and Dudley screamed and ran from the room.

Sirius laughed, "Looks like Harry's ﬁnally getting some payback for all those years of misery."

"Let's see how Dudley likes it," Remus said smiling.

"Er — Uncle Vernon?"

Uncle Vernon grunted to show he was listening. "That conﬁrms it … he's part pig!"

"Er — I need to be at King's Cross tomorrow to — to go to Hogwarts." Uncle Vernon grunted again.

"What does that translate to?" Sirius asked.

"Would it be all right if you gave me a li†?" Grunt. Harry supposed that meant yes. "Thank you."

"Just keep it short and simple," Remus advised approvingly.

He was about to go back upstairs when Uncle Vernon actually spoke. "Funny way to get to a wizards' school, the train. Magic carpets all got punctures, have they?"

Sirius and Remus both rolled their eyes.

Harry didn't say anything. "Where is this school, anyway?"

"As far away from you as humanly possible!"

"I don't know," said Harry, realizing this for the ﬁrst time. He pulled the ticket Hagrid had given him out of his pocket.

"I just take the train from pla√orm nine and three-quarters at eleven o'clock," he read.

His aunt and uncle stared. "Pla√orm what?"

"What are they talking about?" Remus asked. "Petunia knows about the platform; I remember seeing her when Lily was going; why would she be staring at him?"

Sirius was grinding his teeth together in anger.

"Nine and three-quarters."

"Don't talk rubbish," said Uncle Vernon. "There is no pla√orm nine and three-quarters."

"Yes there is, and your wife knows it!" Sirius bellowed.

"It's on my ticket." "Barking,"

"I resent that!" Sirius bellowed, causing Remus to laugh.

said Uncle Vernon, "howling mad,

"Hey!" said Remus indignantly which caused Sirius to laugh this time.

the lot of them. You'll see. You just wait. All right, we'll take you to King's Cross. We're going up to London tomorrow anyway, or I wouldn't bother."

"Why are you going to London?" Harry asked, trying to keep things friendly.

"Taking Dudley to the hospital," growled Uncle Vernon. "Got to have that ruddy tail removed before he goes to Smeltings."

"That's too bad, I thought that it suited him," Remus answered while Sirius roared with laughter.

Harry woke at ﬁve o'clock the next morning and was too excited and nervous to go back to sleep. They smiled fondly. He got up and pulled on his jeans because he didn't want to walk into the station in his wizard's robes —

"That's what everyone does," Remus said.

He'd change on the train. He checked his Hogwarts list yet again to make sure he had everything he needed, saw that Hedwig was shut safely in her cage, and then paced the room, waiting for the Dursleys to get up.

Two hours later, Harry's huge, heavy trunk had been loaded into the Dursleys' car, Aunt Petunia had talked Dudley into siGng next to Harry,

and they had set oﬀ.

"Why are they bothering to take him aGer all that they've done?" Remus stated.

"I don't know. But I wouldn't put it past them to pull some kind of dirty trick or something."

They reached King's Cross at half past ten. Uncle Vernon dumped Harry's trunk onto a cart and wheeled it into the station for him.

"Why's he being so nice?" asked Sirius suspiciously. "Just what are they up to?" Remus said just as warily.

Harry thought this was strangely kind until Uncle Vernon stopped dead, facing the pla√orms with a nasty grin on his face.

"That's why," muttered Remus, just as Sirius bared his teeth at the book.

"Well, there you are, boy. Pla√orm nine — pla√orm ten. Your pla√orm should be somewhere in the middle, but they don't seem to have built it yet, do they?"

"How can they do all this to a little kid?" Remus demanded loudly.

"How can you be surprised?" Sirius asked in disbelief. "They locked up their own nephew in a damn cupboard for 10 years!"

He was quite right, of course. There was a big plastic number nine over one pla√orm and a big plastic number ten over the one next to it, and in the middle, nothing at all. "Have a good term," said Uncle Vernon with an even nastier smile.

"Git."

"Pig. No, wait. Don't want to insult pigs."

He le† without another word. Harry turned and saw the Dursleys drive away. All three of them were laughing.

"Damn them!" Remus said angrily, much to the Sirius's surprise. "The poor boy is probably so nervous, and what do they do? They just make fun of him and leave him there…" he trailed oﬀ, sadly at the end.

Sirius began ﬂexing his ﬁngers again—longing to place them around the Dursley's throats. He couldn't believe such a kind hearted woman like Lily could possibly be related to that…that… cow!

"How did Harry get on the train then?" Remus asked worriedly. Sirius looked up at Remus before he quickly went back to the chapter, picking up where he leG oﬀ.

Harry's mouth went rather dry. What on earth was he going to do? He was starting to a†ract a lot of funny looks, because of Hedwig. He'd have to ask someone. He stopped a passing guard, but didn't dare mention pla√orm nine and three-quarters.

"He wouldn't know what you were talking about anyway," Remus said.

The guard had never heard of Hogwarts and when Harry couldn't even tell him what part of the country it was in, he started to get annoyed, as though Harry was being stupid on purpose. GeGng desperate, Harry asked for the train that le† at eleven o'clock, but the guard said there wasn't one.

"Even if there was one, it would've lead him to the wrong place," Sirius muttered.

In the end the guard strode away, mu†ering about time wasters. Harry was now trying hard not to panic. According to the large clock over the arrivals board, he had ten minutes le† to get on the train to Hogwarts and he had no idea how to do it; he was stranded in the middle of a station with a trunk he could hardly li†, a pocket full of wizard money, and a large owl.

"Oh, this is torture. I hope he ﬁnds help," Remus frowned.

Hagrid must have forgo†en to tell him something you had to do, like tapping the third brick on the le† to get into Diagon Alley. He wondered if he should get out his wand and start tapping the ticket inspector's stand between pla√orms nine and ten.

"No, bad idea, very bad idea," Sirius said quickly.

At that moment a group of people passed just behind him and he caught a few words of what they were saying.

"— packed with Muggles, of course —"

They both let out a breath that they didn't even realize that they were holding.

"Thank god," Remus said feeling relieved.

Harry swung round. The speaker was a plump woman who was talking to four boys, all with ﬂaming red hair.

"Hmm," Sirius said with a smirk. "Wonder who they could be?" "The Weasleys," Remus said returning the smile.

Each of them was pushing a trunk like Harry's in front of him — and they had an owl. Heart hammering, Harry pushed his cart a†er them. They stopped and so did he, just near enough to hear what they were saying.

"Now, what's the pla√orm number?" said the boys' mother.

"The platform number never changes," Sirius said with his eyebrows raised. "That's a dumb thing to ask."

"Nine and three-quarters!" piped a small girl, also red-headed, who was holding her hand, "Mom, can't I go…"

"Ginny," Remus smiled.

"You're not old enough, Ginny, now be quiet. All right, Percy, you go ﬁrst." What looked like the oldest boy marched toward pla√orms nine and ten.

Harry watched, careful not to blink in case he missed it — but just as the boy reached the dividing barrier between the two pla√orms, a large crowd of tourists came swarming in front of him and by the time the last backpack had cleared away, the boy had vanished.

"You have to be kidding me; can't Harry ever catch a break?" Sirius demanded.

"Fred, you next," the plump woman said.

"I'm not Fred, I'm George," said the boy. "Honestly, woman, you call yourself our mother? Can't you tell I'm George?"

"Isn't that a bit strange, not being able to tell your own children apart?" Sirius stated.

"Oh, I'm sure she can tell them apart," Remus said. "That's just the twin's favorite joke."

"Sorry, George, dear." "Only joking, I am Fred,"

"Have I ever mentioned how much I love those twins?!" Sirius laughed.

said the boy, and oﬀ he went. His twin called a†er him to hurry up, and he must have done so, because a second later, he had gone — but how had he done it? Now the third brother was walking briskly toward the barrier he was almost there — and then, quite suddenly, he wasn't anywhere. There was nothing else for it.

"Excuse me," Harry said to the plump woman.

"Hello, dear," she said. "First time at Hogwarts? Ron's new, too." She pointed at the last and youngest of her sons. He was tall, thin, and gangling, with freckles, big hands and feet, and a long nose.

They both laughed again. "That is the perfect description." "Harry really is observant isn't he?" Remus said proudly.

"Yes," said Harry. "The thing is — the thing is, I don't know how to —" "How to get onto the pla√orm?" she said kindly, and Harry nodded. "I'm glad that there was SOMEONE there to help him," Remus said.

"Not to worry," she said. "All you have to do is walk straight at the barrier between pla√orms nine and ten. Don't stop and don't be scared you'll crash into it, that's very important. Best do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous. Go on, go now before Ron."

"Thank you!" they both said. "Finally, something goes right for Harry!"

"Er — okay," said Harry. He pushed his trolley around and stared at the barrier. It looked very solid.

He started to walk toward it. People jostled him on their way to pla√orms nine and ten. Harry walked more quickly. He was going to smash right into that barrier and then he'd be in trouble — leaning forward on his cart, he broke into a heavy run — the barrier was coming nearer and nearer — he wouldn't be able to stop — the cart was out of control — he was a foot away — he closed his eyes ready for the crash —

"And it doesn't come," Sirius said grinning from ear to ear.

It didn't come… he kept on running… he opened his eyes. A scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a pla√orm 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 Pla{orm Nine and Three-Quarters on it, He had done it.

They both cheered.

Smoke from the engine dri†ed over the heads of the cha†ering crowd, while cats of every color wound here and there between their legs. Owls hooted to one another 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.

Their smiles slowly faded away. It should've been Lily and James to have shown him oﬀ—it should've been his parents to take him shopping for his ﬁrst wand—they should've been the ones to have raised him and made sure he had the kind of childhood that he deserved.

Harry pushed his cart oﬀ down the pla√orm 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.

Sirius stopped reading as he felt a pang for Neville. He was another one who should've grown up with his parents…

A boy with dreadlocks was surrounded by a small crowd. "Give us a look, Lee, go on."

"That must be Lee Jordon," Remus exclaimed. "You know him?" Sirius asked.

"He's best friends with Fred and George," Remus replied. "You remember? You met him when we saw Harry and the others oﬀ at the start of term?"

Sirius thought about it for a second before a wide smile stretched across his face. "Oh, you mean that kid who called out to Harry 'nice dog'?"

"The very one," Remus grinned again before he leaned back in his chair and waited for Sirius to go on.

The boy li†ed the lid of a box in his arms, 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 compartment near the end of the train. He put Hedwig inside ﬁrst and then started to shove and heave his trunk toward the train door. He tried to li† it up the steps but could hardly raise one end and twice he dropped it painfully on his foot.

"You did that once," Sirius said oflandedly.

"No," Remus said rolling his eyes. "You dropped it on my foot." "Touché," Sirius said.

"Want a hand?" It was one of the red-haired twins he'd followed through the barrier.

"Yes, please," Harry panted. "Oy, Fred! C'mere and help!"

With the twins' help, Harry's trunk was at last tucked away in a corner of the compartment.

"That was nice of them," Remus said.

"Thanks," said Harry, pushing his sweaty hair out of his eyes. "What's that?" said one of the twins suddenly, pointing at Harry's lightning scar.

"That wasn't," he groaned.

"Blimey," said the other twin. "Are you —?"

"He is," said the ﬁrst twin. "Aren't you?" he added to Harry. "What?" said Harry.

"Harry PoMer." chorused the twins. "Oh, him,"

"Oh him," Sirius laughed, "He doesn't even know who he is."

"Well, what do you expect?" demanded Remus in an unexpected cold voice. "The Dursley's only ever called him 'boy' or 'you' remember? He'd been locked in small place for a long time, Padfoot."

That wiped the smile oﬀ Sirius's face.

said Harry. "I mean, yes, I am."

The two boys gawked at him, and Harry felt himself turning red.

"Hasn't Molly taught them that it's rude to stare?" Remus asked.

Then, to his relief, a voice came ﬂoating in through the train's open door. "Fred? George? Are you there?"

"Coming, Mom."

"At least they're somewhat obedient."

With a last look at Harry, the twins hopped oﬀ the train. Harry sat down next to the window where, half hidden, he could watch the red-haired family on the pla√orm and hear what they were saying.

"That's my boy!" Sirius said beaming.

Their mother had just taken out her handkerchief. "Ron, you've got something on your nose." The youngest boy tried to jerk out of the way, but she grabbed him and began rubbing the end of his nose.

"Mom— geroﬀ" He wriggled free.

They both snorted.

"Aaah, has ickle Ronnie got someﬁnk on his nosie?" said one of the twins.

"I'm liking those two more and more every second," grinned Sirius.

"Shut up," said Ron.

"Where's Percy?" said their mother. "He's coming now."

The oldest boy came striding into sight. He had already changed into his billowing black Hogwarts robes, and Harry noticed a red and gold badge on his chest with the le†er P on it.

"Sounds like a prefect," Sirius commented wrinkling his nose. "What's wrong with prefects?" Remus asked.

"Prefects are the enemy!" Sirius said.

"I was a Prefect to you know, or did you forget?" "You don't count."

"Just shut up and read!"

"I can't shut up and read at the same time!" "Sirius…"

"Ok, ok, you don't have to shout!"

"Can't stay long, Mother," he said. "I'm up front; the prefects have got two compartments to themselves —"

"Oh, are you a prefect, Percy?" said one of the twins, with an air of great surprise. "You should have said something, we had no idea."

"That doesn't sound like the Percy I know," Remus said in surprise.

"Hang on, I think I remember him saying something about it," said the other twin. "Once —"

"Or twice —" "A minute —" "All summer —"

"Oh, shut up," said Percy the Prefect.

In spite of the fact that Percy was no longer speaking to the rest of the family, they couldn't help but laugh.

"How come Percy gets new robes, anyway?" said one of the twins.

"Because he's a prefect," said their mother fondly. "All right, dear, well, have a good term — send me an owl when you get there." She kissed Percy on the cheek and he le†. Then she turned to the twins.

"Now, you two — this year, you behave yourselves. If I get one more owl telling me you've — you've blown up a toilet or —"

"You shouldn't have given them any ideas," Sirius said with a glint of the younger Marauder in his eyes.

"Blown up a toilet? We've never blown up a toilet."

"Bet they will now she's mentioned it," grinned Sirius.

"Great idea though, thanks, Mum."

"See?"

"He's just joking, Padfoot!"

"It's not funny. And look a†er Ron."

"Don't worry, ickle Ronniekins is safe with us."

"Poor Ronniekins," Sirius said.

"Shut up," said Ron again. He was almost as tall as the twins already and his nose was still pink where his mother had rubbed it.

"Hey, Mum, guess what? Guess who we just met on the train?" Harry leaned back quickly so they couldn't see him looking.

"Sure, tell everyone," Remus muttered darkly.

"You know that black-haired boy who was near us in the station? Know who he is?"

"Who?" "HarryPoMer!"

Harry heard the li†le girl's voice. "Oh, Mom, can I go on the train and see him, Mom, eh please…"

"Oh, for goodness sake he's not some sideshow!"

"Awww, Ginny's got a crush on Harry," Sirius said happily. "They'd make a cute couple don't you think?"

"You've already seen him, Ginny, and the poor boy isn't something you goggle at in a zoo.

"Thank you!"

Is he really, Fred? How do you know?"

"Asked him. Saw his scar. It's really there — like lightning."

"Poor dear— no wonder he was alone, I wondered. He was ever so polite when he asked how to get onto the pla√orm."

"Never mind that, do you think he remembers what You-Know-Who looks like?"

"He'd better not ask him that! As if he needs reminding of that on his ﬁrst day at school!"

Their mother suddenly became very stern.

"I forbid you to ask him, Fred. No, don't you dare. As though he needs reminding of that on his ﬁrst day at school."

Remus blinked in surprise.

"Great," Sirius said in dread. "You sound just like Molly now!"

"All right, keep your hair on." A whistle sounded.

"Hurry up!" their mother said, and the three boys clambered onto the train. They leaned out of the window for her to kiss them good-bye, and their younger sister began to cry.

"That's sweet," Sirius said.

"Don't, Ginny, we'll send you loads of owls." "We'll send you a Hogwarts' toilet seat."

"These guys are awesome!" grinned Sirius.

"George!"

"Only joking, Mum."

"I wonder if they really did it," Remus laughed. "I'll have to remember to ask."

The train began to move. Harry saw the boys' mother waving and their sister, half laughing, half crying, running to keep up with the train until it gathered too much speed, then she fell back and waved.

Harry watched the girl and her mother disappear as the train rounded the corner. 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 be†er than what he was leaving behind.

"Anything is better than that place!" snorted Sirius. "And Hogwarts is deﬁnitely the best!" grinned Remus.

The door of the compartment slid open and the youngest redheaded boy came in. "Anyone siGng there?" he asked, pointing at the seat opposite Harry. "Everywhere else is full."

"Oh, sure it is," Sirius said sarcastically.

Harry shook his head and the boy sat down. He glanced at Harry and then looked quickly out of the window, pretending he hadn't looked. Harry saw he still had a black mark on his nose.

"Hey, Ron." The twins were back.

"Listen, we're going down the middle of the train — Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."

"Harry," said the other twin, "did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother. See you later, then."

"That was brief," said Remus.

"They probably just wanted to see the 'famous Harry Potter' again," snorted Sirius.

"Bye," said Harry and Ron. The twins slid the compartment door shut behind them.

"Are you really Harry Po†er?" Ron blurted out.

"Don't any of Molly and Arthur's kids have any tact?" Remus asked himself. "Well, there's no need to be subtle is there?!" Sirius said sardonically.

Harry nodded.

"Oh — well, I thought it might be one of Fred and George's jokes," said Ron. "And have you really got — you know…" He pointed at Harry's forehead.

Harry pulled back his bangs to show the lightning scar. Ron stared.

"It's rude to stare!"

"So that's where You-Know-Who —?"

"Wasn't he told not to ask?" Sirius wondered. "No, I think that was just the twins," said Remus. "Yes," said Harry, "but I can't remember it." "Nothing?" said Ron eagerly.

"Nice," Sirius snorted. "Very Polite," "Yeah," agreed Remus.

"Think this is how they became friends?" asked Sirius. "Yes," Remus replied.

"Well — I remember a lot of green light, but nothing else."

"I hope that's all he'll remember," Sirius said as he looked at Remus anxiously.

"Wow," said Ron. He sat and stared at Harry for a few moments, then, as though he had suddenly realized what he was doing, he looked quickly out of the window again.

"Are all your family wizards?" asked Harry, who found Ron just as interesting as Ron found him.

"Er — Yes, I think so," said Ron. "I think Mom's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him."

"A second cousins who's a what?"

"An accountant. Someone who… prepares forms and reports and ﬁnancial stuﬀ for big companies, or rich people," said Remus.

"Oh that sounds… boring."

"So you must know loads of magic already."

The Weasleys were clearly one of those old wizarding families the pale boy in Diagon Alley had talked about.

"No, not quite the same," said Sirius. "They're much better than the Malfoy's could ever hope to be."

"I heard you went to live with Muggles," said Ron. "What are they like?"

"Awful," said Remus immediately.

"Rotten," added Sirius

"Horrible — well, not all of them. My aunt and uncle and cousin are, though. Wish I'd had three wizard brothers."

"They didn't have enough time," Sirius said, trying to smile but failing. James always said that he wanted to have a big family like the Weasleys… it was his dream to have enough kids for a Quidditch team… but now because of Voldemort… that dream will never happen.

"Five," said Ron. For some reason, he was looking gloomy.

"I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already le† — Bill was head boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it ﬁrst. You never get anything new, either, with ﬁve brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand, and Percy's old rat."

At the mere mention of their former friend, Sirius gritted his teeth; looking like he wanted to destroy the book and go on a rampage.

Ron reached inside his jacket and pulled out a fat gray rat, which was asleep."His name's Scabbers and he's useless, he hardly ever wakes up. Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a prefect, but they couldn't aﬀ — I mean, I got Scabbers instead."

"Wormtail…" Sirius growled.

Ron's ears went pink. He seemed to think he'd said too much, because he went back to staring out of the window.

"Nothing wrong with not being able to aﬀord things," said Remus soothingly.

Harry didn't think there was anything wrong with not being able to aﬀord an owl.

They nodded.

A†er all, he'd never had any money in his life until a month ago, and he told Ron so, all about having to wear Dudley's old clothes and never geGng proper birthday presents. This seemed to cheer Ron up.

"… and until Hagrid told me, I didn't know anything about being a wizard or about my parents or Voldemort —" Ron gasped.

"Oooh, he said Voldemort," Sirius gasped sarcastically. "Yes, I do believe he did!" said Remus.

"Oh, the horror!"

"What?" said Harry.

"You said You-Know-Who's name! " said Ron, sounding both shocked and impressed. "I'd have thought you, of all people —"

"Yeah, well, it's not like he's learnt all his life not to say the name," said Remus reasonably. "Everyone else fears him and knows what he's done, but Harry doesn't!"

"I'm not trying to be brave or anything, saying the name," said Harry, "I just never knew you shouldn't. See what I mean? I've got loads to learn… I bet," he added, voicing for the ﬁrst time something that had been worrying him a lot lately, "I bet I'm the worst in the class."

"You won't be! There are plenty of kids who grew up with Muggles! Look at your mother! She was Muggleborn and she was the best in our year!" Sirius said exasperated. "Moony, we really have to do something about his conﬁdence."

Remus said, "You're forgetting that this was four year ago Sirius. He's much more conﬁdent now."

"How is he in class anyway?" Sirius asked inquisitively.

"Oh, he's brilliant in class, he's got a lot of talent. Especially in Defense Against the Dark Arts. I have to say that he was hands-down the best in my class," Remus said smiling. "How else would he be able to teach a bunch of other classmates in a secret Defense group?"

Sirius beamed with pride before continuing, with a grin on his face.

"You won't be. There's loads of people who come from Muggle families and they learn quick enough."

While they had been talking, the train had carried them out of London. Now they were speeding past ﬁelds full of cows and sheep. They were quiet for a time, watching the ﬁelds and lanes ﬂick past. Around half past twelve there was a great cla†ering outside in the corridor and a smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, "Anything oﬀ the cart, dears?"

"I'm hungry again," Sirius said.

"Oh, be quiet," Remus chuckled, smacking his head.

Harry, who hadn't had any breakfast, leapt to his feet, but Ron's ears went pink again and he mu†ered that he'd brought sandwiches. Harry went out into the corridor. He had never had any money for candy with the Dursleys, and now that he had pockets ra†ling with gold and silver he was ready to buy as many Mars Bars as he could carry —

"Mars Bars?" asked Sirius confused. "What kind of candy is that?" "It's not a candy, its chocolate. Delicious, too," replied Remus.

"If it's chocolate, then of course you would think it's delicious!" chortled Sirius.

"Can I help it if I like chocolate?"

"Like it? You're practically in love with it! You never go anywhere without it."

"Just in case something happens!"

"What? You're worried that you'll starve to death as you do your shopping?"

"Forget it! Now read!"

"Fine… you're the one who brought it up!" but the woman didn't have Mars Bars. "Shame," muttered Remus.

What she did have were BeGe Bo†'s Every Flavor Beans,

"Watch yourself with those! I once got a booger ﬂavor once!" warned Remus.

Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs. Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Licorice Wands, and a number of other strange things Harry had never seen in his life. Not wanting to miss anything, he got some of everything and paid the woman eleven silver Sickles and seven bronze Knuts.

"Prices have gone up, haven't they?" muttered Sirius. "Sounds like someone's hungry," Remus said evenly.

Ron stared as Harry brought it all back in to the compartment and tipped it onto an empty seat.

"Hungry, are you?"

"Starving," said Harry, taking a large bite out of a pumpkin pasty.

Ron had taken out a lumpy package and unwrapped it. There were four sandwiches inside. He pulled one of them apart and said, "She always forgets I don't like corned beef…"

"Swap you for one of these," said Harry, holding up a pasty. "Go on —" "The best way to make a friend is through the stomach," said Sirius. "Isn't that how you and James became friends?" Remus asked.

Sirius shrugged with a smirk, "Maybe…"

"You don't want this, it's all dry," said Ron. "She hasn't got much time," he added quickly, "you know, with ﬁve of us."

"Go on, have a pasty," said Harry, who had never had anything to share before or, indeed, anyone to share it with. It was a nice feeling, siGng there with Ron, eating their way through all Harry's pasties, cakes, and candies (the sandwiches lay forgo†en).

"What are these?" Harry asked Ron, holding up a pack of Chocolate Frogs. "They're not really frogs, are they?" He was starting to feel that nothing would surprise him.

"No," said Ron. "But see what the card is. I'm missing Agrippa." "What?"

"Oh, of course, you wouldn't know — Chocolate Frogs have cards, inside them, you know, to collect — famous witches and wizards. I've got about ﬁve hundred, but I haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy."

Harry unwrapped his Chocolate Frog and picked up the card. It showed a man's face. He wore half-moon glasses, had a long, crooked nose,and

ﬂowing silver hair, beard, and mustache. Underneath the picture was the name Albus Dumbledore.

"Is it just me… or do you think that it's a bit ironic that Dumbledore is his very ﬁrst card?" Sirius asked as his eyebrows disappeared into his hair, trying to keep his anger at bay. He was still feeling very cross at the Headmaster at the moment for leaving Harry at the Dursley's in the ﬁrst place.

"So this is Dumbledore!" said Harry.

"Don't tell me you'd never heard of Dumbledore!" said Ron. "Can I have a frog? I might get Agrippa — thanks —"

"Yeah, that's why he wants a frog. For the card!" said Sirius sarcastically.

Harry turned over his card 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,

"Everyone knows that," said Remus.

for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel.

"Who?" muttered Sirius.

Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.

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

"He's gone!"

"Well you can't expect him to hang around all day," said Sirius.

"Well, you can't expect him to hang around all day," said Ron.

Sirius stopped reading for a moment before he let out a bark of a laugh.

"He'll be back. No, I've got Morgana again and I've got about six of her… do you want it? You can start collecting."

"That's nice of him."

"Moony, the cards are just a way to make friends; Harry will go broke trying to ﬁnd Agrippa!"

"Besides, everyone knows there isn't a Agrippa card anyway."

"There isn't?" Sirius said astounded. "You mean to tell me that my life-long dream of collecting all the chocolate frog cards is just a waste?"

Remus nodded solemnly, trying hard not to smile but failing miserably. "Hate to shatter your dream like that."

"NO!" Sirius yelled in mock anguish.

Ron's eyes strayed to the pile of Chocolate Frogs waiting to be unwrapped. "Help yourself," said Harry. "But in, you know, the Muggle world, people just stay put in photos."

"What, they don't move at all?" wondered Sirius. "That's weird." "Doesn't Muggle Studies ring any bells to you?" scoﬀed Remus.

"Do they? What, they don't move at all?" Ron sounded amazed. "Weird!"

"This is getting weird," said Sirius. "Cool!"

Harry stared as Dumbledore sidled back into the picture on his card and gave him a small smile. Ron was more interested in eating the frogs than

looking at the Famous Witches and Wizards cards, but Harry couldn't keep his eyes oﬀ them. Soon he had not only Dumbledore and Morgana, but Hengist of Woodcro†, Alberic Grunnion, Circe, Paracelsus, and Merlin. He ﬁnally tore his eyes away from the Druidess Cliodna, who was scratching her nose, to open a bag of Bertie Bo†'s Every Flavor Beans.

"You want to be careful with those," Ron warned Harry. "When they say every ﬂavor, they mean every ﬂavor — you know, you get all the ordinary ones like chocolate and peppermint and marmalade, but then you can get spinach and liver and tripe. George reckons he had a booger-ﬂavored one once."

"Yeah," said Remus. "I had one of those… ever since I stay as far away from them as possible."

Ron picked up a green bean, looked at it carefully, and bit into a corner. "Bleaaargh — see? Sprouts."

Every Flavor Beans. Harry got toast, coconut, baked bean, strawberry, curry, grass, coﬀee, sardine, and was even brave enough to nibble the end oﬀ a funny gray one Ron wouldn't touch, which turned out to be pepper.

"Please," said Sirius, "Those are just the mild ﬂavors. Wait until you get your ﬁrst nasty one…"

The countryside now ﬂying past the window was becoming wilder. The neat ﬁelds had gone. Now there were woods, twisting rivers, and dark green hills. There was a knock on the door of their compartment and the round-faced boy Harry had passed on pla√orm nine and three-quarters came in. He looked tearful.

"Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?" When they shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps geGng away from me!"

"Why's he trying to ﬁnd a toad? If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could!" said Sirius.

"He'll turn up," said Harry.

"Yes," said the boy miserably. "Well, if you see him…" He le†.

"Don't know why he's so bothered," said Ron. "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could.

"That's just a bit much, isn't it?" Sirius said exasperatedly. Remus nodded.

Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk." The rat was still snoozing on Ron's lap.

"Ha," barked Sirius. "Of course he's not even a good pet! He never did anything even when he was a human…"

"He might have died and you wouldn't know the diﬀerence," said Ron in disgust. "I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting,

"How'd he do that? You aren't allowed to do magic out of school!" Remus said.

but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look…"

"Oh, I hope this will be good," Sirius and Remus both laughed at the traitors predicament.

He rummaged around in his trunk and pulled out a very ba†ered-looking wand. It was chipped in places and something white was glinting at the end.

"Unicorn hair's nearly poking out. Anyway —"

"Strange," Remus said. "His wand looked brand new when I was there."

He had just raised his wand when the compartment door slid open again. The toadless boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes.

"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth.

"And who might this be I wonder?" Sirius grinned broadly.

"We've already told him we haven't seen it," said Ron, but the girl wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then." She sat down. Ron looked taken aback.

"Oh, so she was always like that," Remus said.

"Er — all right."

He cleared his throat. "Sunshine, daisies, bu†er mellow, Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."

The two burst out laughing.

"I can't believe he really thinks that was a spell," Remus laughed.

"I bet you anything that Fred and George had something to do with that," Sirius sniggered.

He waved his wand, but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed gray and fast asleep.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it?

"Too bad," Sirius said.

I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got

my le†er, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcra† there is, I've heard — I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough —

They both felt their jaws drop.

"Even Lily didn't go that overboard!" said Sirius. I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?" "How can she say all that in one breath?"

"She really can talk."

She said all this very fast.

Harry looked at Ron, and was relieved to see by his stunned face that he hadn't learned all the course books by heart either.

"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron mu†ered. "Harry Po†er," said Harry.

"Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you, of course — I got a few extra books, for background reading, and you're in ModernMagical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great WizardingEvents of the TwentiethCentury."

"So she memorized the books and she did background reading?"

Remus whistled, "That's impressive. Then again, she isn't the brightest witch of her age for nothing."

"Am I?" said Harry, feeling dazed.

"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me,"

"I wouldn't want to think about it if it was me," said Remus. "Want to know all about the day my parents died."

Sirius shiGed uncomfortably in his seat.

said Hermione. "Do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryﬃndor, it sounds by far the best;

"Here, here," agreed Sirius.

I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad… Anyway, we'd be†er go and look for Neville's toad. You two had be†er change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon." And she le†, taking the toadless boy with her.

"Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it," said Ron.

Remus and Sirius both shared a look of shock.

"They are friends now though aren't they?" Sirius asked as if unsure. Remus nodded.

"Makes me wonder how that happened…"

He threw his wand back into his trunk. "Stupid spell — George gave it to me, bet he knew it was a dud."

They both started laughing again. "Probably, I would've done the same thing."

"What house are your brothers in?" asked Harry.

"Gryﬃndor," said Ron. Gloom seemed to be se†ling on him again. "Mom and Dad were in it, too. I don't know what they'll say if I'm not. I don't suppose Ravenclaw would be too bad, but imagine if they put me in Slytherin."

"That's the house Vol-, I mean, You-Know-Who was in?"

"Yeah," said Ron. He ﬂopped back into his seat, looking depressed.

"You know, I think the ends of Scabbers' whiskers are a bit lighter," said Harry, trying to take Ron's mind oﬀ houses.

"Another thing he inherited from Lily," Remus said happily.

"Yeah," Sirius said soGly. "He's very good at considering other people's feelings… at least he's a lot better at it than James was."

"So what do your oldest brothers do now that they've le†, anyway?" Harry was wondering what a wizard did once he'd ﬁnished school.

"Charlie's in Romania studying dragons, and Bill's in Africa doing something for Gringo†s," said Ron.

"Did you hear about Gringo†s? 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." Harry stared.

"Someone did what?" Sirius yelled out startled. "When was this?"

"You know… I think I remember reading something about that in the Prophet a few years ago," Remus said thoughtfully.

"What happened?" Sirius asked eagerly. "What did they take?"

"I don't know… from what I remember… the vault that they tried to rob from was emptied earlier that same day."

Sirius' jaw dropped. "What are the odds? Do you know who it was? I mean, who would be mad enough to try and rob Gringotts?"

"No," Remus said, more to himself. "I don't think they were ever caught."

Sirius stared at the book again. "Hey," he said trying to lighten the mood. "Wouldn't it be funny if it was the same vault that Harry and Hagrid emptied when they were there?"

(Hope these guys will be ready to laugh in a few chapters)

"Be serious for once, Sirius," said Remus. "I'm always, Sirius," Sirius said smirking.

"Padfoot, for a joke to get old, it has to be funny in the ﬁrst place."

"Really? What happened to them?"

"Nothing, that's why it's such big news. They haven't been caught. My dad says it must've been a powerful Dark wizard to get round Gringo†s, but they don't think they took anything, that's what's odd. '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 was starting to get a prickle of fear every time You-Know-Who was mentioned. He supposed this was all part of entering the magical world, but it had been a lot more comfortable saying "Voldemort" without worrying.

"Fear of a name, only increases fear of the thing itself," Remus said nodding approvingly.

"Say the name! Come on, Harry!" Sirius chanted. "Sirius read!"

"What's your Quidditch team?" Ron asked. "Er — I don't know any." Harry confessed.

"What!" Ron looked dumbfounded. "Oh, you wait, it's the best game in the world —" And he was oﬀ, explaining all about the four balls and the

positions of the seven players, describing famous games he'd been to with his brothers

'I wish I could've taken Harry to a few of those games…' Sirius thought sadly.

and the broomstick he'd like to get if he had the money. He was just taking Harry through the ﬁner points of the game when the compartment door slid open yet again, but it wasn't Neville the toadless boy, or Hermione Granger this time.

"Now who?" Remus asked curiously.

Three boys entered, and Harry recognized the middle one at once: it was the pale boy from Madam Malkin's robe shop.

They both groaned. "Not him…"

"Of all the possible people it had to be…"

He was looking at Harry with a lot more interest than he'd shown back in Diagon Alley.

"Probably realized who he was talking to and what a mistake he made."

"Is it true?" he said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Po†er's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"

"Yes," said Harry. He was looking at the other boys. Both of them were thickset and looked extremely mean. Standing on either side of the pale boy, they looked like bodyguards.

"Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," said the pale boy carelessly, noticing where Harry was looking. "And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."

"I bet that they're just as bad as Dudley if they're anything like their fathers," scoﬀed Sirius, and Remus nodded.

Ron gave a slight cough, which might have been hiding a snigger. Draco Malfoy looked at him.

"Think my name's funny, do you?

"Cough—Yes—Cough," coughed Sirius.

No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can aﬀord."

Sirius growled as Remus's eyes narrowed in dislike.

He turned back to Harry. "You'll soon ﬁnd out some Wizarding families are much be†er than others, Po†er.

"Yes, the Weasleys are much better than Malfoys," Sirius snapped.

You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort.

"No, he doesn't, so get lost," Sirius snapped.

I can help you there."

He held out his hand to shake Harry's, but Harry didn't take it.

"Atta boy, Harry!" said Sirius. "Potters never make friends with snakes like the Malfoys!"

"I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks," he said coolly.

"Good one, Harry!" Sirius rooted.

Draco Malfoy didn't go red, but a pink tinge appeared in his pale cheeks. "I'd be careful if I were you, Po†er," he said slowly. "Unless you're a bit

politer you'll go the same way as your parents.

"That boy needs to be taught a lesson," Remus said darkly.

"He acts like that because it's the way he is raised," said Sirius grumpily, thinking of his cousins with hatred.

They didn't know what was good for them, either. You hang around with riﬀraﬀ like the Weasleys and that Hagrid, and it'll rub oﬀ on you." Both Harry and Ron stood up.

"Yes, you show him!"

"Say that again," Ron said, his face as red as his hair. "Oh, you're going to ﬁght us, are you?" Malfoy sneered.

"YES!" yelled Sirius. "Punch him in the nose if nothing else!"

"Unless you get out now," said Harry, more bravely than he felt, because Crabbe and Goyle were a lot bigger than him or Ron.

"But we don't feel like leaving, do we, boys? We've eaten all our food and you still seem to have some."

"Don't touch my Godson's food," growled Sirius. "They don't want your ﬁlthy hands on it! Who knows where they've been!"

"As much as that boy deserves a smack in the face, I don't think Harry and Ron will have a chance against two big bodyguards," said Remus.

Goyle reached toward the Chocolate Frogs next to Ron — Ron leapt forward, but before he'd so much as touched Goyle, Goyle let out a horrible yell.

"YES!" roared Sirius. Then he paused and frowned. "Wait, what happened?"

"You're the one with the book! You tell me!"

Scabbers the rat was hanging oﬀ his ﬁnger, sharp li†le teeth sunk deep into Goyle's knuckle— Crabbe and Malfoy backed away as Goyle swung Scabbers round and round, howling, and when Scabbers ﬁnally ﬂew oﬀ and hit the window, all three of them disappeared at once. Perhaps they thought there were more rats lurking among the sweets, or perhaps they'd heard footsteps, because a second later, Hermione Granger had come in.

They both felt their jaws drop yet again.

"You mean to tell me that Peter actually helped them out?"

"That's what the book says…" Sirius growled angrily. "I bet he only did it to protect the food. Remember when we were still at school? He'd do anything if you fed him."

"What hasbeen going on?" she said, looking at the sweets all over the ﬂoor and Ron picking up Scabbers by his tail.

"I think he's been knocked out," Ron said to Harry. He looked closer at Scabbers. "No — I don't believe it — he's gone back to sleep." And so he had.

"Of course he did!" yelled Sirius. "That's all he does! He's useless!"

"You've met Malfoy before?"

Harry explained about their meeting in Diagon Alley.

"I've heard of his family," said Ron darkly. "They were some of the ﬁrst to come back to our side a†er You-Know-Who disappeared. Said they'd been bewitched.

"Yeah, right," Sirius muttered. "If he believes that then I'm a Flobberworm!"

My dad doesn't believe it. He says Malfoy's father didn't need an excuse to go over to the Dark Side."

"Oh, yes, I have no doubt about that."

"Exactly, The Malfoys are right in Voldemort's inner-circle everyone knows that."

He turned to Hermione. "Can we help you with something?"

"You'd be†er hurry up and put your robes on, I've just been up to the front to ask the conductor, and he says we're nearly there. You haven't been ﬁghting, have you? You'll be in trouble before we even get there!"

"Scabbers has been ﬁghting, not us," said Ron, scowling at her. "Would you mind leaving while we change?"

"Yeah," Sirius muttered approvingly. "Blame the rat."

"All right — I only came in here because people outside are behaving very childishly,

"Gee, acting childishly wouldn't be 'cause they're children would it?" Sirius asked sarcastically.

racing up and down the corridors," said Hermione in a sniﬀy voice. "And you've got dirt on your nose, by the way, did you know?"

Ron glared at her as she le†.

Remus frowned, "They sure got oﬀ to a rough start didn't they?"

Harry peered out of the window. It was geGng dark. He could see mountains and forests under a deep purple sky. The train did seem to be slowing down.

He and Ron took oﬀ their jackets and pulled on their long black robes. Ron's were a bit short for him, you could see his sneakers underneath

them.

A voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts inﬁve minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."

Harry's stomach lurched with nerves and Ron, he saw, looked pale under his freckles.

"Don't be nervous, Hogwarts is going to be some of the best years of your life!" Sirius cried out happily.

They crammed their pockets with the last of the sweets and joined the crowd thronging the corridor.

The train slowed right down and ﬁnally stopped. People pushed their way toward the door and out on to a tiny, dark pla√orm.

Harry shivered in the cold night air. Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students, and Harry heard a familiar voice: "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All right there, Harry?"

"Three guesses who that is," Sirius smirked.

Hagrid's big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads.

"C'mon, follow me — any more ﬁrs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"

Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them that Harry thought there must be thick trees there. Nobody spoke much. Neville, the boy who kept losing his toad, sniﬀed once or twice.

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

"I'll never forget the ﬁrst time I walked through those doors," Sirius said dreamily.

Remus nodded, "One of the best moments in my life."

There was a loud "Oooooh!"

They both smiled; thinking of the look of wonder on Harry's and all of the other children's faces when they saw Hogwarts for the ﬁrst time.

The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.

"Sounds beautiful," Remus said in longing.

"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a ﬂeet of li†le boats siGng in the water by the shore. Harry and Ron were followed into their boat by Neville and Hermione.

"Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. "Right then — FORWARD!"

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

"Makes me feel as if I was there," Sirius sighed dreamily.

"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the ﬁrst boats reached the cliﬀ; they all bent their heads and the li†le boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that 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 harbor, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles.

"Oh, the memories," Sirius sighed again.

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

"Looks like Neville ﬁnally got his toad back," Remus said with a smile.

"Trevor!" cried Neville blissfully, holding out his hands.

"Why is he so happy?" demanded Sirius confused. "Just say you lost it! That's what I do!"

Then they clambered up a passageway in the rock a†er Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto 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.

"Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?"

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

"That's the end of the train ride," Sirius announced closing the book and yawing.

"Next up we'll get to see the sorting!" Remus exclaimed happily.

"Oh yeah! Let's read about that before we turn in!" Sirius said excitedly. "No," Remus said. "It's already late… we can ﬁnish reading it tomorrow."

Sirius grumbled under his breath about how he couldn't wait but Remus said, "Think of it this way… now we have something to look forward to. Oh, you can wait for a few hours Padfoot."

"Fine," snapped Sirius as he stood up and stretched. "Just tell me what the next chapter's called before I go up."

Remus opened the book back up and read out loud, "Chapter 7: The Sorting Hat."

(Hey there! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Next we'll move onto the sorting at last. And guess what? Right before they read chapter 7, our ﬁrst new reader comes in to join them! Can you guess who it is? It'll go up as soon as possible. Thanks forreading!)

Chapter 8(I own nothing. Copyright belongs to J.K. Rowling)

Chapter 7: The Sorting Hat

Sirius opened his eyes gray eyes early the next morning. It took him several minutes to remember why he bothered waking up—and then it came back to him. The book! He jumped out of bed, pulled on his clothes, and headed downstairs as fast, but as quietly, as he could as to not wake up his 'mother'.

Half-way down the stairs, he almost ran into a half-dressed Remus who was pulling his robe over his head. He slid to a stop before he ran down his friend. "Careful," he said quickly.

"Sorry," Remus said. "I wasn't looking."

Remus ﬁnished pulling on his robe and then they both ran downstairs. They ﬁrst went into the kitchen and made themselves a quick breakfast before they went into the drawling room, ready to ﬁnd out what happens to Harry… only there was someone already there waiting for them.

Nymphadora Tonks was sitting in one of the armchairs with the book in her hands. She looked up at them sadly and muttered a weak 'Wotcher.'

"Tonks!" they both shouted, looking at her—to the book she was reading— and then back to her face.

"W-what are you reading?" Sirius said, trying to stay calm.

Tonks shrugged as her hair turning from its usual bubble-gum pink to a dull shade of blue. "I just got back from guard duty late last night. I came in here 'cause I thought that you both might still be up… and imagine my surprise when I found these books just laying here. I thought that it was a joke or something at ﬁrst… but I read the ﬁrst chapter… and I couldn't stop…"

She put the book down on her lap and sighed, "I never knew. He always so polite and quiet—you would never guess what his home-life was like. Now I know why he doesn't like to talk about it."

Remus and Sirius shared a sad look before they joined her, sitting side by side on the moth-eaten couch. "None of us knew," Remus said miserably.

"We've been planning what to do to those Dursleys to get some payback for Harry though," Sirius said with a shadow of a grin, though it didn't reach the haunted look in his eyes. "Want to help out?"

Tonks cheered up slightly. "I've been thinking of a few ideas myself while I was reading chapter 2. But—where did you two ﬁnd these?"

"I found them yesterday," Remus said. "I just came back from dropping oﬀ my report to Dumbledore and I found them…"

He told her all about the Room of Requirements, how they found out how the Dursleys had really treated harry, and all the ideas that he and Sirius had planned for revenge.

"How far did you get through it?" Remus asked.

"I'm almost done with Chapter 6," she answered with a slight smile, "I can't believe that's how Harry and Ron met Hermione. Looking at them now… you would think that they've always been friends."

"Yeah," Sirius said shaking his head. "We can't ﬁgure out how it all happened." He then looked from her to Remus and an idea formed in his head, "You want to read with us?"

She nodded quickly, "Ever since I started, I just can't put it down. Just let me ﬁnish this chapter." She then turned to the book and read outloud, "they all bent their heads and the li†le boats carried them through a curtain of ivy which had 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 harbor, where they 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 a†er Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last on to 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.

"Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?"Hagrid raised a gigantic ﬁst and knocked three times on the castle door.

"That's the end of the chapter, Tonks."

Tonks rolled her eyes, "I know that Remus, and compared to some of the others, I'd say that was a good chapter," said Tonks. They nodded in agreement.

"You want to keep reading?" Remus asked. "Or if you want… I can…" "No," Tonks said. "I want to keep reading. But thanks for asking." She

smiled vibrantly at him, which caused him to blush slightly. Sirius rolled his eyes. "Don't talk to him Tonks," he said. "You'll only end up breaking his heart."

She stuck her tongue out at him before she began reading.

"Chapter 7: The Sorting Hat." They all were grinning widely, all remembering their own sorting all too well.

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.

"She's not," said Tonks.

"But we crossed her anyway," said Sirius. "Why?" asked Tonks looking up to them.

"We know that she wouldn't expel us. We always made life exciting! Besides, her reactions were always the best."

"Unlike Filch," oﬀered Remus.

"Oh, he couldn't recognize a joke if it was standing on the end of his nose." "Like the time that you and James took those wormguts and—"

"All right," Tonks said before they could tell the story, "This will take all day if you don't shut up!"

"The ﬁrs' years, Professor McGonagall," 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 ﬁt the whole of the Dursleys' house in it. The stone walls were lit with ﬂaming torches like the ones at Gringo†s, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magniﬁcent marble staircase facing them led to the upper ﬂoors.

"Ah…" Sirius said happily. "Harry sure is good with descriptions isn't he? It sounds just like the ﬁrst time I saw it."

"He really is observant isn't he?" Tonks approved. "He might make a good Auror one day. Observation is lesson one in training."

They followed Professor McGonagall 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 McGonagall showed the ﬁrst years into a small, empty chamber oﬀ the hall. They crowded in, standing rather closer together than they would usually have done, peering about nervously.

They all laughed, realizing that's exactly how it happened with all of them.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet

"That's always the best part," Sirius said.

"Anything that involves food is the best part to you," Tonks replied.

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.

"A pack of wolves would be considered a family compared to those Dursleys!" Tonks said angrily.

Remus raised his eyebrows at her. She smiled brightly at him and even gave him a small wave. Sirius snorted.

You will 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 called Gryﬃndor,

Sirius gave a loud cheer.

Huﬄepuﬀ,

Tonks applauded noisily.

Ravenclaw, and Slytherin.

Tonks booed the last house and Sirius put his thumbs down as a form of silent booing. Remus was ﬁghting hard not to laugh.

Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards.

"You can call Slytherin's History noble?" scoﬀed Sirius. He thought about something for a moment before he said, "Bet you guys I know exactly what McGonagall's gonna say next."

"No way," Tonks said.

"How could you know?" Remus asked shrewdly.

Sirius smiled as he puﬀed himself up proudly and said in a strict voice that sounded so much like their old teacher that they half-expected him to ask for their homework. "While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rulebreaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor."

Tonks went back to the book and read out loud:

While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rulebreaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor.

"Word for word!"

"Thank you, thank you," said Sirius.

"But how'd you know that's what she was going to say?"

"Because that's what she always says! Said the exact same thing to us, remember?"

Remus laughed as Tonks went on.

I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

"Unless it's Slytherin," Sirius said under his breath.

The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can

while you are waiting."

Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville's cloak, which was fastened under his le† ear, and on Ron's smudged nose. Harry nervously tried to ﬂa†en his hair.

"Not gonna happen," chuckled Sirius. "Potter hair won't lie ﬂat no matter what you do to it. Besides, he's famous… so it won't matter."

"I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly."

She le† the chamber. Harry swallowed.

"Does she always have to scare the students before the sorting?" asked Sirius.

"She just wanted to make a strong ﬁrst impression," replied Tonks. "Well, she never fails does she?"

"How exactly do they sort us into houses?" he asked Ron.

"Some sort of test, I think. Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking."

They all shook their heads, "When does he stop listening to Fred?" asked Tonks.

"Who knows?" Remus said merrily.

Harry's heart gave a horrible jolt. A test? In front of the whole school? But he didn't know any magic yet —what on earth would he have to do? He hadn't expected something like this the moment they arrived.

"its tradition," Remus said smiling. "First-years aren't supposed to know how they'll be sorted until they get there."

"That's mean," Tonks said grumpily. "I was so nervous that I could barely walk up to the stool!"

"Which would be good for them," Sirius said conversationally. "You always manage to break something wherever you go."

She gave him a nasty look before she hit him in the arm with the edge of the book.

"OWWW!" he yelled. "What was that for?!" "For being a jerk!"

"You said so yourself that you're dead clumsy!" "But you aren't supposed to agree!"

"Hmm, women."

He looked around anxiously and saw that everyone else looked terriﬁed, too. No one was talking much except Hermione Granger, who was whispering very fast about all the spells she'd learned and wondering which one she'd need.

Harry tried hard not to listen to her. He'd never been more nervous, never, not even when he'd had to take a school report home to the Dursleys saying that he'd somehow turned his teacher's wig blue.

"Wow! And that was before he got a wand!" said Sirius, impressed, still rubbing his arm.

"Wonder how that happened!" Tonks said laughing. "I would love to hear that story."

He kept his eyes ﬁxed on the door. Any second now, Professor McGonagall would come back and lead him to his doom.

"He's a dramatic little boy isn't he?" snorted Sirius.

"It must run in the family," said Remus, thinking of James.

Then something happened that made him jump about a foot in the air — several people behind him screamed.

"What the —?"

"What is it?" asked Tonks quickly.

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 one another and hardly glancing at the ﬁrst years. They seemed to be arguing.

"THE GHOSTS!" they all yelled happily.

What looked like a fat li†le monk was saying: "Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance —"

"The Fat Friar hasn't changed a bit," said Sirius, wiping a fake tear from his eyes.

"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 really even 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 suppose?"

"Why else would they be there?" asked Tonks.

A few people nodded mutely.

"Of course not…" Sirius said sarcastically. "They just felt like standing there."

"Hope to see you in Huﬄepuﬀ!" said the Friar. "My old house, you know."

"Not Harry!" said Sirius. Tonks frowned at him.

"Huﬄepuﬀ isn't bad!" said Tonks indigently. "I'll have you know that it's a wonderful house!"

Sirius and Remus grinned. Even Tonks couldn't help it.

"Move along now," said a sharp voice. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start."

"Guess whose back?" Sirius said mysteriously.

Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts ﬂoated 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 lead,

"I remember the feeling," said Tonks quietly.

Harry got into line behind a boy with sandy hair, with Ron 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 even imagined such a strange and splendid place.

They all smiled as they thought back to when they ﬁrst saw the Great Hall for their own eyes.

It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were ﬂoating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were siGng. These tables were laid with gli†ering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were siGng.

Professor McGonagall led the ﬁrst years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the ﬂickering candlelight. Do†ed here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver. Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Harry looked upward and saw a velvety black ceiling do†ed with stars. He heard Hermione whisper, "Its bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts, A History."

"She read that?" sneered Sirius.

"Actually," said Remus, "It's a very interesting read."

"To you maybe," Sirius said rolling his eyes. "I fell asleep aGer reading half the ﬁrst page."

It was hard to believe there was a ceiling there at all, and that the Great Hall didn't simply open on to the heavens.

Harry quickly looked down again as Professor McGonagall silently placed afour-leggedstoolinfrontoftheﬁrstyears.Ontopofthestoolsheput a pointed wizard's hat. This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. Aunt Petunia wouldn't have let it in the house.

Sirius's eyes lit up at that and he turned to the others.

"Sirius," said Remus carefully. "We can't take the Sorting Hat to Privet Drive."

"Oh, come on," Sirius whined. "Think of the looks on their faces when they see a talking hat on their front step!"

"I think it's a good idea," Tonks said earning a beaming smile from Sirius. But then she said, "Be a bit cruel to the hat though don't you think?"

He thought about that. "Yeah… I guess so…" Sirius said dully.

Maybe they had to try and get a rabbit out of it, Harry thought wildly,

"Pull a rabbit out of it? Why would they do that?" Not even bothering to answer, Tonks went on.

that seemed the sort of thing — 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 to sing:

"Oh, you may not think I'm pre†y,"

"Wait a minute, Tonks," Sirius interrupted. "You have to sing it!" "What?"

"It's the Sorting Hat's song! You have to sing it!" "No, way!"

"Why not?"

"I can't carry a tune to save my life!" "Come on!"

"No!"

"Tonks…"

"Leave me alone!" "Fine then, I'll sing it!" "NO!"

"Your choice…"

Tonks gave Sirius a dirty look before she opened her mouth and began to sing.

"Oh, you may not think I'm preMy, But don't judge on what you see, I'll eat myself if you can ﬁnd

A smarter hat than me.

'I'd kill to see the hat eat itself!' thought Sirius.

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;

Sirius and Remus both grinned widely.

You might belong in Huﬄepuﬀ, Where they are just and loyal, Those patient Huﬄepuﬀs are true And unafraid of toil;

'We sure are,' thought Tonks proudly.

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw, if you've a ready mind,

Where those of wit andlearning, Will always ﬁnd their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin You'll make your realfriends,

Those cunning folk use any means To achieve their ends.

Sirius rolled his eyes, well at least that last part was true.

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!"

"Nice song," said Remus.

"Much better than ours," Sirius agreed. "Ours was nowhere near as cheerful!"

"Sirius, it was the beginning of a war when we were sorted! Harry and the others were on the other hand were living in peaceful times."

"Peaceful?" Sirius repeated incredulously.

"Anyway…" Remus said blushing, "I think… you do have a nice voice Tonks." She stared at him, startled, before she also began to blush.

"Get a room you two," said Sirius. Tonks, blushing even redder than before, glared at him.

"You better sleep with one eye open tonight Sirius," she hissed. "Ooohhh," Sirius said sarcastically.

The whole hall burst into applause as the hat ﬁnished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again.

"So we've just got to try on the hat!" Ron whispered to Harry. "I'll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll."

"Oh, that is too funny!" Sirius burst out laughing. "I told my brother Regulus that you had to ﬁght the Giant Squid when you were sailing across the lake!"

"Don't tell me he actually believed you?" Remus said laughing as well. "You should've seen the look on his face!"

Harry smiled weakly. Yes, trying on the hat was a lot be†er than having to do a spell, but he did wish they could have tried it on without everyone watching.

The hat seemed to be asking rather a lot; Harry didn't feel brave or quick- wi†ed or any of it at the moment.

"No one does Harry," said Remus wisely. "You always feel like you're about to be sick.

If only the hat had mentioned a house for people who felt a bit queasy, that would have been the one for him.

"What would be the sense in that?" Tonks asked. "If there was a house like that, then everyone would be there."

Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment. "When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Abbo†, Hannah!"

"I know her," Remus said suddenly. "She was such a sweet girl. But she did always have a bad case of test anxiety."

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

"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat.

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!"

"She must be Madam Bones niece!" said Tonks happily. "She is," conﬁrmed Remus. "She's a good student."

"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat again, and Susan scu†led oﬀ to sit next to Hannah.

"Boot, Terry!"

"He's a good student as well," Remus said. "His grades aren't as high as Hermione's but they're still very impressive."

"RAVENCLAW!"

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

"Brocklehurst, Mandy" went to Ravenclaw too,

"She a very impatient girl," said Remus, "But she means well." but "Brown, Lavender" became the ﬁrst new Gryﬃndor,. "Woohoo!"

"How's she in class?"

"She's alright," Remus replied. "She helped to take care of a boggart in my ﬁrst class with them."

and the table on the far le† exploded with cheers; Harry could see Ron's twin brothers catcalling.

"Me and James used to do that to," said Sirius smirking happily. "Every year!"

"Bulstrode, Millicent" then became a Slytherin.

"Oh," Remus said, "She was a horrible student. Her essays looked as if an 8-year-old wrote them."

"At least she did them," Tonks said in surprise. "From what I've heard, most Slytherins don't even bother."

Perhaps it was Harry's imagination, a†er all he'd heard about Slytherin, but he thought they looked like an unpleasant lot.

"It's not your imagination, kiddo," Sirius stated.

"Yeah, they all look like they're either part troll or hag," agreed Tonks.

He was starting to feel deﬁnitely sick now. He remembered being picked for teams during gym at his old school. He had always been last to be chosen, not because he was no good, but because no one wanted Dudley to think they liked him.

They all frowned at that. "Remind me to start making a list of reasons to curse those Dursleys," muttered Sirius menacingly.

"Don't worry," Tonks said irritably. "While I was reading, I made one."

"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!"

"He was also another good student," Remus said.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Sometimes, Harry noticed, the hat shouted out the house at once, but at others it took a li†le while to decide.

"Took less than ﬁve seconds with James," Remus said.

"Took its time with me," muttered Sirius, thinking how he was so worried about being sorted into Slytherin, but to his greatest relief, and his family's shame, he had been placed into Gryﬃndor… and he wouldn't want it any other way.

"Didn't take that long with me, but it wasn't just a couple seconds either," said Tonks, questionably.

"Same thing for me," Remus said nodding. "Wonder why that is," she asked.

"Finnigan, Seamus," the sandy-haired boy next to Harry in the line, sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared him a Gryﬃndor.

They cheered again.

"I liked him," Remus said with a grin. "He had a great sense of humor."

"Granger, Hermione!" Hermione almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head.

"GRYFFINDOR!" shouted the hat.

They all applauded loudly.

Ron groaned.

"Remind me," Tonks said looking at them, "How did they become friends if they hated each other so much?"

They shrugged.

A horrible thought struck Harry, as horrible thoughts always do when you're very nervous.

"Yeah, that just sucks."

What if he wasn't chosen at all?

"Harry!" Sirius cried. "Relax! You're destined for Gryﬃndor."

What if he just sat there with the hat over his eyes for ages, until Professor McGonagall jerked it oﬀ his head and said there had obviously been a mistake and he'd be†er get back on the train?

"That can't happen!" said Sirius. "Can it?" he added uncertainly to the other two.

"No," Remus said.

The three of them all shared a look before Tonk's lower lip began to twitch. Remus and Sirius both then lost all control and soon they were laughing at the top of their lungs. Once Tonk's was able to ﬁnd her voice again, she went back to reading the sorting.

When Neville Longbo†om, the boy who kept losing his toad, was called, he fell over on his way to the stool. The hat took a long time to decide with Neville.

"What do you have to say about him?" Sirius asked Remus.

"He's a good boy," Remus began. "He works so hard… his parent's would've been proud."

They all looked sad at the thought of what happened to the Longbottoms.

When it ﬁnally shouted, "GRYFFINDOR,"

They cheered happily. "Good for him!"

Neville ran oﬀ still wearing it, and had to jog back amid gales of laughter to give it to "MacDougal, Morag."

"Don't know much about him," Remus said. "He never talked in class. Bit of the strong silent type."

Malfoy swaggered forward when his name was called and got his wish at once: the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, "SLYTHERIN!"

"Typical," snorted Tonks.

"Well, you can't blame the hat for not wanting to touch his ﬁlthy hair," said Sirius bitterly.

Malfoy went to join his friends Crabbe and Goyle, looking pleased with himself.

"Friends?" Sirius asked. "More like servants."

There weren't many people le† now. "Moon"…,"No†"… , "Parkinson"… , then a pair of twin girls, "Patil" and "Patil"… , then "Perks, Sally-Anne"… , and then, at last —

"Po†er, Harry!"

"Yes, ﬁnally! Go Harry!"

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

"Poor Harry," Tonks said shaking her head. "He can't go anywhere without having someone gawking at his forehead."

"PoMer, did she say?" "The Harry Po†er?"

"How many other Harry Potters are there?"

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

"Gryﬃndor! Come on! Gryﬃndor!" chanted Sirius.

"Sirius," Remus interrupted, "You do know that this already happened don't you?"

"Shut up Remus!"

"Hmm," said a small voice in his ear. "Diﬃcult. Very diﬃcult.

Sirius stopped chanting. "What's so diﬃcult? He's a Gryﬃndor! Simple as that!"

Plenty of courage, I see.

"Exactly!" cried Tonks. "You can't think of Harry without thinking about how much backbone he's gone. So Gryﬃndor!"

Not a bad mind either.

"That's true. He's a brillant student…" Remus said slowly.

There's talent,

"That's for sure," Remus interrupted again.

oh my goodness, yes — and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting… So where shall I put you?"

"So in other words," Tonks said… "He could've done well in any house."

Harry gripped the edges of the stool and thought, Not Slytherin, not Slytherin.

"That's right, Harry!" said Tonks. "Any house is better than Slytherin!"

"Not Slytherin, eh?" said the small voice. "Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that

Harry in Slytherin? That just sounded so wrong.

— no? Well, if you're sure — be†er be GRYFFINDOR!"

"YES!" they all cheered.

"You bet is better be Gryﬃndor!" Sirius yelled out proudly.

Harry heard the hat shout the last word to the whole hall. He took oﬀ the hat and walked shakily toward the Gryﬃndor table. He was so relieved to have been chosen and not put in Slytherin,

"So are we Harry."

he hardly noticed that he was geGng the loudest cheer yet. Percy the Prefect Snort got up and shook his hand vigorously, while the Weasley twins yelled, "We got Po†er! We got Po†er!"

Harry sat down opposite the ghost in the ruﬀ he'd seen earlier. The ghost pa†ed his arm, giving Harry the sudden, horrible feeling he'd just plunged it into a bucket of ice-cold water.

"I hate it when they do that," shuddered Sirius.

"True, but it's way worse when they walk right through you," Tonks said.

"Good point," Sirius said still grinning. "Remind me never to come back as a ghost."

He could see the High Table properly now. At the end nearest him sat Hagrid, who caught his eye and gave him the thumbs up. Harry grinned back. And there, in the center of the High Table, in a large gold chair, sat Albus Dumbledore. Harry recognized him at once from the card he'd go†en out of the Chocolate Frog on the train. Dumbledore's silver hair was the only thing in the whole hall that shone as brightly as the ghosts.

They all smiled at that.

Harry spo†ed Professor Quirrell, too, the nervous young man from the Leaky Cauldron. He was looking very peculiar in a large purple turban.

And now there were only three people le† to be sorted. "Thomas, Dean," a Black boy even taller than Ron, joined Harry at the Gryﬃndor table.

"I like Dean as well. He's real polite," Remus said.

"Turpin, Lisa," became a Ravenclaw and then it was Ron's turn. He was pale green by now.

Harry crossed his ﬁngers under the table and a second later the hat had shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Harry clapped loudly with the rest as Ron collapsed into the chair next to him.

They all applauded as well. Happy for Ron.

"Well done, Ron, excellent," said Percy Weasley pompously across Harry. as "Zabini, Blaise," was made 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 realized how hungry he was. The pumpkin pasties seemed ages ago.

"I'm hungry now," moaned Sirius. "HUNGRY?!" Tonks yelled. "You just ate!" "I can't help it!"

"You're unbelievable!" "Thank you!"

Albus Dumbledore had go†en 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.

"That old…" Sirius began threateningly. "Sirius!" Remus said warningly.

"Sorry! But I'm still angry at him! For keeping me locked up in this dump of a house… and for being the one who just leG Harry with those…" he couldn't think of a word bad enough to call the Dursleys.

"I'm sure that he had his reasons," said Remus soothingly.

"Well, they sure as hell better be good ones!" Sirius yelled. He rested his head against the back of the couch, refusing to look the other two in the eye.

"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's always been oﬀ his rocker," said Sirius.

"Why do you say that?" Tonks asked with her eyebrows, which had turned thick and bushy, raised.

"Because he made James Head Boy! That's proof enough!"

He sat back down. Everybody clapped and cheered. Harry didn't know whether to laugh or not.

"Is he — a bit mad?" he asked Percy uncertainly.

"See?" Sirius said triumphantly. "Harry agrees with me!"

"Mad?" said Percy airily. "He's a genius! Best wizard in the world! But he is a bit mad, yes. Potatoes, Harry?"

Harry's mouth fell open.

The dishes in front of him were now piled with food. He had never seen so many things he liked to eat on one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and, for some strange reason, peppermint humbugs.

"I happen to like peppermint humbugs," Sirius said.

"You would eat anything if you could catch it!" Remus sighed.

The Dursleys had never exactly starved Harry,

"Oh, yes they did!" Sirius yelled.

but he'd never been allowed to eat as much as he liked.

Sirius was livid.

"If he thinks that being locked in a cupboard without meals isn't starving him, then I hate to see what he thinks is," Remus stated heatedly. Tonks nodded furiously.

Dudley had always taken anything that Harry really wanted, even if It made him sick. Harry piled his plate with a bit of everything except the peppermints and began to eat. It was all delicious.

"It sounds like it," Sirius said. "He better eat his ﬁll."

"Sirius," Tonks said with a slight laugh, "You sound like my mother."

"Laugh it up," Sirius said. "I take that as a complement! Andromeda is tough as nails."

"That does look good," said the ghost in the ruﬀ sadly, watching Harry cut up his steak.

"Let the kid eat!"

"Can't you —?"

"I haven't eaten for nearly ﬁve hundred years," said the ghost. "I don't need to, of course, but one does miss it.

"There is no way that I could be a ghost," Sirius said. "I would miss eating too much!"

"Padfoot…" Remus chuckled.

I don't think I've introduced myself? Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington at your service. Resident ghost of Gryﬃndor Tower."

"I know who you are!" said Ron suddenly. "My brothers told me about you — you're Nearly Headless Nick!"

"I would prefer you to call me Sir Nicholas de Mimsy —" the ghost began stiﬄy, but sandy-haired Seamus Finnigan interrupted.

"Nearly Headless? How can you be nearly headless?" Sir Nicholas looked extremely miﬀed, as if their li†le chat wasn't going at all the way he wanted.

"What do you expect with a nickname 'Nearly Headless' Nick?" Sirius said.

"Like this," he said irritably. He seized his le† ear and pulled. His whole head swung oﬀ his neck and fell onto his shoulder as if it was on a hinge. Someone had obviously tried to behead him, but not done it properly.

Looking pleased at the stunned looks on their faces, "Remember when he did that to us?" Remus asked. "Ha, ha, that was so cool!"

Nearly Headless Nick ﬂipped his head back onto his neck, coughed, and said, "So — new Gryﬃndors! I hope you're going to help us win the house championship this year? Gryﬃndors have never gone so long without winning. Slytherins have got the cup six years in a row!

"Six years?!" Sirius gasped. "I blame the Slytherins! They must've sabotaged theGryﬃndors!'

"Sure they did," Remus said rolling his eyes.

"Oh, come on!" Sirius cried. "You know as well as I do that it sounds like something they do!"

"Be quiet and let me read!" Tonks yelled.

The Bloody Baron's becoming almost unbearable — he's the Slytherin ghost."

Harry looked over at the Slytherin table and saw a horrible ghost siGng there, with blank staring eyes, a gaunt face, and robes stained with silver blood. He was right next to Malfoy who, Harry was pleased to see, didn't look too pleased with the seating arrangements.

"How did he get covered in blood?" asked Seamus with great interest. "I've never asked," said Nearly Headless Nick delicately.

"He never says anything anyway," Sirius stated. "I can't tell you how many times I'd asked him but he refuses to tell me anything!"

"You always were rude," Tonks said. Sirius huﬀed angrily.

When everyone had eaten as much as they could, the remains of the food faded from the plates, leaving them sparkling clean as before. A moment later the desserts appeared. Blocks of ice cream in every ﬂavor you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate éclairs and jam doughnuts, triﬂe, strawberries, Jell-O, rice pudding…

Sirius moaned.

"We can eat aGer we ﬁnish the chapter!" Tonks said, ﬁnally at the end of her patience.

As Harry helped himself to a treacle tart, the talk turned to their families. "I'm half-and-half," said Seamus. "Me dad's a Muggle. Mom didn't tell him she was a witch 'til a†er they were married. Bit of a nasty shock for him."The others laughed.

"What about you, Neville?" said Ron.

"Well, my gran brought me up and she's a witch," said Neville, "but the family thought I was all-Muggle for ages. My Great Uncle Algie kept trying to catch me oﬀ my guard and force some magic out of me

"You can't force magic out of a witch or wizard!" Remus cried out, astounded that someone would actually try.

"What's with people these days?!" Sirius demanded. "You can't stamp it out or force it to reveal itself!"

— he pushed me oﬀ the end of Blackpool pier once,

"How could someone do that to a little kid?!" Tonks yelled out in shock.

I nearly drowned —

"What did that prove might I ask?"

but nothing happened until I was eight. Great Uncle Algie came round for dinner, and he was hanging me out of an upstairs window by the ankles when my Great Auntie Enid oﬀered him a meringue and he accidentally let go.

"Oh, yeah!" Sirius cried. "He accidently let go of his 8-year-old great nephew while he had him handing outside a window!"

But I bounced — all the way down the garden and into the road. They were all really pleased, Gran was crying, she was so happy.

"Did he say bounced?"

"I'm just glad that he was alright!"

And you should have seen their faces when I got in here — they thought I might not be magic enough to come, you see. Great Uncle Algie was so pleased he bought me my toad."

"He bought him the toad? What kind of uncle is that?!" Sirius exclaimed.

On Harry's other side, Percy Weasley and Hermione were talking about lessons

"Why am I not surprised?" Remus said, smiling to himself.

("I do hope they start right away, there's so much to learn, I'm particularly interested in Transﬁguration, you know, turning something into something else, of course, it's supposed to be very diﬃcult —";

"Typical Hermione," Remus smiled fondly at that.

"You'll be starting small, just matches into needles and that sort of thing

— ").

Harry, who was starting to feel warm and sleepy, looked up at the High Table again. Hagrid was drinking deeply from his goblet. Professor McGonagall was talking to Professor Dumbledore. Professor Quirrell, in his absurd turban, was talking to a teacher with greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin.

"Snape…" Sirius spat.

It happened very suddenly. The hook-nosed teacher looked past Quirrell's turban straight into Harry's eyes — and a sharp, hot pain shot across the scar on Harry's forehead.

They all shared a worried glance "What happened?" Tonks asked.

"Harry's scar hurt him!" Sirius whispered.

"That only happens when Voldemort is near him… or feeling a particularly powerful emotion," Remus said.

"But he couldn't have be anywhere near Harry back then… was he?" Tonks asked.

They didn't know what to say to her. "Ouch!" Harry clapped a hand to his head. "What is it?" asked Percy.

"N-nothing."

"That's was most certainly not nothing…" Sirius said trying to stay calm.

"You forget Sirius," Remus said dryly. "This was before Harry realized that it was Voldemort causing his scar to hurt. Harry probably thought that it was nothing."

Sirius started Voldemort every curse word that he could think of under his breath.

The pain had gone as quickly as it had come. Harder to shake oﬀ was the feeling Harry had go†en from the teacher's look — a feeling that he didn't like Harry at all.

"Why that… Harry's not even in his class yet, and Snape already hates him just by looking at him!"

"Sirius…" Tonks said.

"He's just a kid! He doesn't know the ﬁrst thing about what happened between Snape and James. Snape only hates him because of things that me and James did! If he wants to take his anger out on someone then why not me?"

"Sirius! We don't know if that's the case! There might be more to the story! Let's just ﬁnish the book before you go and confront Severus."

Sirius glared but didn't say anything. He only motioned for Tonks to keep reading.

"Who's that teacher talking to Professor Quirrell?" he asked Percy. "Oh, you know Quirrell already, do you? No wonder he's looking so

nervous, that's Professor Snape. He teaches Potions, but he doesn't want to — everyone knows he's a†er Quirrell's job. Knows an awful lot about the Dark Arts, Snape."

"Bet he does," muttered Sirius to himself.

Harry watched Snape for a while, but Snape didn't look at him again. At last, the desserts too disappeared, and Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again. The hall fell silent.

"Ahem — just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered.

"Fed and watered?" "They aren't horses."

"I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well."

Sirius grinned as he thought about all the times that they went into the forest—good, fun times.

Dumbledore's twinkling eyes ﬂashed in the direction of the Weasley twins.

"He always did that you and James, remember?"

"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors.

"Yeah, that'll happen…" Sirius said ironically, "When Snape says something nice about James."

"Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch.

"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 diea very painfuldeath."

They stared at each other, all of them confused and alarmed.

"Do you think that Dumbledore was joking, or was he actually serious?" Tonks whispered.

They shook their head, not knowing what to believe.

Harry laughed, but he was one of the few who did. "He's not serious?" he mu†ered to Percy.

"Must be," said Percy, frowning at Dumbledore. "It's odd, because he usually gives us a reason why we're not allowed to go somewhere — the forest's full of dangerous beasts, everyone knows that.

"Never stopped us though did it?" grinned Sirius.

Tonks laughed. She heard many stories about how he and the other Marauders would wander the forest and the grounds when they were at school… sounds like a fun time.

I do think he might have told us prefects, at least."

"Oh yes, because you're just so important," Sirius said shaking his head. "He's sure full of himself isn't he?"

"Just because you're a prefect… or even if your Head Boy and Girl… that doesn't mean that Dumbledore is going to tell you everything," Remus said.

"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore. Harry noticed that the other teachers' smiles had become rather ﬁxed.

"Awesome! We should sing too!" "Oh, not again," Tonks said smiling.

"You two can sing! Leave me out of it!" Remus said.

Dumbledore gave his wand a li†le ﬂick, as if he was trying to get a ﬂy oﬀ the end, and a long golden ribbon ﬂew out of it, which rose high above the tables and twisted itself, snakelike, into words.

"Everyone pick their favorite tune," said Dumbledore, "and oﬀ we go!"

"I'm not doing it Sirius!" Remus yelled as his friend grinned at him. "Oh, come on Remus!" Tonks said smiling. "I sang!"

"We'll sing together!"

And the school bellowed:

"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts, Teach us something please,

Whether we be old and bald Or young with scabby knees, Our heads could do with ﬁlling With some interesting stuﬀ,

For now they're bare and full of air,

Dead ﬂies and bits of ﬂuﬀ,

So teach us things worth knowing, Bring back what we've forgot,

Just do your best, we'll do the rest, And learn until our brains all rot."

Remus sang this as fast as he could before going very red in the face. Sirius and Tonks both ﬁnished it at the same time at a slower tune.

Everybody ﬁnished the song at diﬀerent times. At last, only the Weasley twins were le† singing along to a very slow funeral march.

Dumbledore conducted their last few lines with his wand and when they had ﬁnished, he was one of those who clapped loudest. "Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Oﬀ you trot!"

"What's with him and the horse references?!"

The Gryﬃndor ﬁrst years followed Percy through the cha†ering crowds, out of the Great Hall, and up the marble staircase. Harry's legs were like lead again, but only because he was so tired and full of food. He was too sleepy even to be surprised that the people in the portraits along the corridors whispered and pointed as they passed, or that twice Percy led them through doorways hidden behind sliding panels and hanging tapestries.

They climbed more staircases, yawning and dragging their feet, and Harry was just wondering how much farther they had to go when they came to a suddenhalt.

"Now what?"

A bundle of walking sticks was ﬂoating in midair ahead of them, and as Percy took a step toward them they started throwing themselves at him.

"Peeves!" Sirius said ecstatically, clapping his hands together like a little kid at Christmas.

"Peeves," Percy whispered to the ﬁrst years. "A poltergeist." He raised his voice, "Peeves — show yourself." A loud, rude sound, like the air being let out of a balloon, answered.

They all chuckled. "He hasn't changed a bit!" "Do you want me to go to the Bloody Baron?" "He's going to tell on him? That won't work!"

"Besides," Remus said, "You really shouldn't give him that warning so early in the year."

There was a pop, and a li†le man with wicked, dark eyes and a wide mouth appeared, ﬂoating cross-legged in the air, clutching the walking sticks.

"Oooooooh!" he said, with an evil cackle. "Ickle Firsties! What fun!" He swooped suddenly at them. They all ducked.

"Go away, Peeves, or the Baron'll hear about this, I mean it!" barked Percy. Peeves stuck out his tongue and vanished, dropping the walking sticks on Neville's head. They heard him zooming away, ra†ling coats of armor as he passed.

"I love that guy!" Sirius yelled laughing so hard that his eyes watered.

"You want to watch out for Peeves," said Percy, as they set oﬀ again. "The Bloody Baron's the only one who can control him, he won't even listen to us prefects. Here we are."

"Oh, give it a rest Percy. You've only been a prefect for one day and you're already getting a big head."

"If Peeves doesn't listen to the teachers, or even to Dumbledore, there is no way that he'll listen to a prefect," Tonks said.

At the very end of the corridor hung a portrait of a very fat woman in a pink silk dress.

"Password?" she said.

"Caput Draconis," said Percy, and the portrait swung forward to reveal a round hole in the wall. They all scrambled through it — Neville needed a leg up — and found themselves in the Gryﬃndor common room, a cozy, round room full of squashy armchairs.

Percy directed the girls through one door to their dormitory and theboys through another. At the top of a spiral staircase — they were obviously in one of the towers — they found their beds at last: ﬁve four-posters hung with deep red, velvet curtains. Their trunks had already been brought up. Too tired to talk much, they pulled on their pajamas and fell intobed.

"Great food, isn't it?" Ron mu†ered to Harry through the hangings. "Get

oﬀ, Scabbers! He's chewing my sheets."

Sirius began growling again… his hands itching to strangle Wormtail.

Harry was going to ask Ron if he'd had any of the treacle tart, but he fell asleep almost at once.

They all smiled happily.

Perhaps Harry had eaten a bit too much,

"You can never eat enough!"

"Sirius," Remus said shaking his head. "Not everyone has a stomach of scrap iron."

because he had a very strange dream. He was wearing Professor Quirrell's turban, which kept talking to him, telling him he must transfer to Slytherin at once, because it was his destiny.

"That's a weird dream," Tonks said.

"Why's he dreaming about that?" Sirius asked worriedly.

Harry told the turban he didn't want to be in Slytherin;

"Good Harry, don't let anyone tell you what to do," Sirius encouraged before adding under his breath, "Especially if it's a turban."

it got heavier and heavier; he tried to pull it oﬀ but it tightened painfully

— and there was Malfoy, laughing at him as he struggled with it — then Malfoy turned into the hook-nosed teacher, Snape, whose laugh became high and cold — there was a burst of green light and Harry woke, sweating and shaking.

They all stared at each other. "That was… strange," Tonks said.

He rolled over and fell asleep again, and when he woke next day, he didn't remember the dream at all.

"And that's it," Tonks said, closing the book.

"Why would he be dreaming like that?" Sirius asked his friend getting even more troubled by the second.

Remus shook his head. "It could be that it was just a dream… but…"

"We shouldn't worry about it," Tonks said. They both looked at her a little worried, as if questioning her sanity. She sighed in frustration and said, "Look, it says here that he didn't even remember it when he woke up so it's not like that we can ask him about it."

Sirius sighed. "Fine ﬁne, but that doesn't mean I have to be happy about it."

"Yeah, I'll read next," Remus said holding out his hand. Tonks passed it over to him… but just as Remus opened it back up and read out, "Chapter 8: The PotionsMaster…"

Knock, knock.

Remus stopped dead as they turned their heads to the door… someone was in the hallway—and knocking to come in.

(For those of you asking, I'm not putting any of the Weasleys in this story… but I am adding a few of them when they read the Chamber of Secrets.)

Chapter 9

(I DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER! ALL COPYRIGHT BELONGS TO J.K.ROWLING!)

Chapter 8: The Potions Master

Knock, knock.

Remus stopped dead as they turned their heads to the door… someone was in the hallway—and knocking to come in. Remus quickly stuﬀed the book underneath his cushion before he called in what he hoped was a calm voice, "Come in."

It Albus Dumbledore who opened the door and was quickly followed by Kingsley Shacklebolt, Mad-Eye Moody, Minerva McGonagall, and Severus Snape, all of them looking grave and tired.

"There you all are," Minerva said brieﬂy. "We were looking for you."

"We came here for a meeting. Making sure how everything was going and we were wondering why you weren't already downstairs," Kingsley said in that calm tone that just seemed to relax everyone.

Dumbledore ﬁnally noticed the death glares being sent his way from Sirius, but merely raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Is something the matter, Sirius?"

Sirius narrowed his eyes until they were narrow slits and growled in response. Remus groaned. Sometimes, Dumbledore truly had the worst timing. Sirius got up and was strolling forward like he was about to put his hands around Dumbledore's throat.

"Sirius!" Remus yelled and took hold of the back of Sirius's robes to keep himself from attacking the Headmaster.

"Remus!" he bellowed back, "Let me go!"

"Sirius what—," Minerva cried, startled as Mad-Eye quickly stepped between the struggling Animagus and Dumbledore, and Kingsley had to help Remus hold onto Sirius. Tonks was looking from Sirius to Dumbledore, but she too was giving him a nasty look. Snape loomed behind them, looking like he was trying hard not to smile.

"What were you thinking putting him there?" Sirius demanded as he continued to ﬁght against Remus and Kingsley. "You told me that he was in a good home, that he would be perfectly safe there! You will not be sending him back!"

"What are you babbling about now, Black?" Severus asked with his lip curling.

"Harry," Sirius spat viciously.

"What about Harry?" Albus questioned, rather sharply.

"You just leG Harry with those pathetic excuses for human beings called the Dursleys and just leG him there!"

Albus just stared at him in confusion. "I assure you, he was safe," he interjected calmly, but this only seemed to make Sirius even angrier. He knew that Sirius has always been very protective of Harry, and that had only intensiﬁed aGer what happened last June.

"Safe?" Sirius laughed bitterly. "You called getting locked up without food for days on end, being safe? Tell me, what possessed you to just dump him there? Why didn't you at least go and check up on him? Make sure that he wasn't being abused?!"

"Abused?" Minerva said looking at them all in bewilderment.

"I assume Harry has been telling you about his school years?" Albus interjected, speaking calmly but certainly not feeling as such.

"So it's true?!" Tonks yelled a little high-pitched. "You knew that he was mistreated at that house and you still leG him there?"

"What are you all talking about?" Minerva demanded, striving over.

Tonks glared at Dumbledore again before she went to where Remus stashed the book and held it out to her. Minerva took it and stared at the cover in astonishment before she showed it to the other four. Kingsley was so surprised that he actually let go of Sirius's robes and Remus had to work twice as hard to keep his friend from killing Dumbledore.

Albus took the book from Minerva and stared at the cover as well. His face didn't show the slightest bit of change… but he did go very white. He looked up at them and asked, "Where did you get this?"

"F-found—them a-at the s-school," panted Remus who was ﬁghting a losing battle, Sirius was getting angrier every second and was ﬁghting harder and harder to push Remus oﬀ him.

"Yeah," Sirius spat. "That's just the ﬁrst book, talks all about Harry's ﬁrst year at school and everything that happened before he went there!"

Before he could go on, Tonks added, "There are three other books that talk about his others years. They're all from his point of view…"

"You should read chapters one and two," Sirius spat. "See the kind of home that you leG him in!"

"Sirius, I understand that you're upset," Albus said quickly. "But you must understand that Harry needs to go back until he's seventeen. It's the safest place from Voldemort…"

Sirius laughed again. It wasn't a happy laugh, it was a humorless, menacing laugh that caused the hairs on the back of everyone's necks to stand up. "Safe from Voldemort maybe, but he sure as hell an't safe from those Dursleys! Do you know the kind of things they did to him when he was

growing up? They kept him locked in a bleeding cupboard under the stairs! His own cousin was using him as a punching bag! You call that safe?"

"Sirius," Albus tried to explain but Sirius was on a roll.

"No. I am his godfather and I will not let him go back there to those bastards! We can protect him better than they ever could. At any other place, and we'll make sure that he's never alone."

"I told you before Sirius that the blood wards—"

"Blood wards be damned! Good job they've done keeping him safe from the outside, but what about what's going on inside the house? Huh? Never thought of that, did you? You just dumped him oﬀ and leG him there.

Doesn't matter though does it? It's all for the greater good of the Wizarding world isn't it? And if one young boy gets neglected and abused along the way what should it matter?"

"I assure you, Sirius, I had no control over this," Albus said, actually backing up a little bit. It was times like these that made it believable that was the murderer that everyone believed him to be. Sirius was so furious that he didn't even notice the slight ﬂinch when he said the words 'the greater good'.

Before Sirius was able to pull himself free, Remus pulled Sirius from the room and up the stairs before he could do something that he might regret later.

"Let me go Remus!" he yelled as he fought tooth and nail to get back downstairs to where the crowd of confused and dazed people where standing.

"Sirius," Remus gasped. "I know that you're angry but killing him isn't going to do any good!"

"I don't care what Dumbledore says," Sirius hissed. "I'm not going to allow Harry to go back to that house."

"And we aren't going to," Remus said ﬁrmly, forcing him to sit at the top of the stairs. Gasping for breath, he panted, "I don't know how, but we're going to make sure that Harry never sets foot inside Number 4 ever again. But if you go on some tirade, and destroy everything in your path until you get your way, then you'll be no better than the Dursleys. I'm sure that we can work it out peacefully."

Sirius sat there for a minute, taking harsh breaths—he seemed to be ﬁghting back tears. "Damn it! Why do you always have to be right?"

"With you and James around," Remus said with a miserable laugh, "One of us Marauders had to be."

It took some time for Remus to calm Sirius down. They both were a real mess—just as they were when they ﬁrst read about what Harry had really been put through for 10 years. Finally, aGer a couple hours, they were both ready to face everyone again. To be honest they had forgotten about their guests until they found them all still in the drawing room.

Tonks was back in her seat and was staring dejectedly at the ﬂoor, Moody was standing next to the empty ﬁreplace and seemed to be lost in thought, Kingsley gave them both a slight nod as he went back to staring at the book that was in Dumbledore's hands, Minerva and Severus were both sitting on the couch—Minerva's mouth was twitching horribly and it looked like she was about to cry, Severus was staring straight ahead of him… with an unreadable look on his face.

Albus was sitting there with the book wide open on his lap. It looked like he was reading—but his eyes weren't moving. He seemed to be in shock.

*Dumbledore's POV*

He sat there… trying to get a grasp on himself. He had always been aware that Harry wasn't happy with the Dursleys, but he didn't realize that it was more than just a little neglect.

No, that wasn't completely true… deep down inside he did know, but he just dismissed the idea. He put Harry in that house, despite the warnings that Minerva had given him, and just leG him there. He couldn't stand for any of his students being harmed in any manner, especially Harry. Anger was coursing through his body, ﬁghting to break away.

At the same time, guilt also raged though him. He knew that Sirius was furious with him. That he blamed him for the abuse that Harry was put through, and he had every right to do so. AGer Lily and James had died he had been given the task of ﬁnding a ﬁtting family to take Harry in, and Sirius wasn't a possible option.

He had placed Harry with the Dursleys, believing that the blood wards that Lily's sacriﬁce provided would be well worth the small amount of neglect Harry might have suﬀered. Though Harry's safety from Voldemort had been his main concern, it was not worth Harry being hurt physically or emotionally.

*Normal POV*

Remus put his hand on Sirius's shoulder to prevent him from launching himself at Dumbledore and strangling him. He looked over at Tonks and asked, "Did something happen?"

She gave him a watery smile and whispered, "While you two were gone, Snape said that he didn't believe anything that the book had to say." She gestured her head to Severus who was still staring at the wall as if he was trying to ﬁgure something out.

"So we read the ﬁrst two chapters again…"

"That's what happened," Minerva said so soGly that they almost missed it. "That's exactly what happened that night. Hagrid told me that Dumbledore was going there and I waited all day for him to show up. That conversation that we had in the book…"

"It went exactly like that," Albus ﬁnished for her. "Which means that everything that happens aGer that is most likely true as well."

"I still cannot believe you put Harry there!" Sirius yelled starting to get angry again. "I'm sure that you knew that Petunia hated Lily, ever since Lily got her Hogwarts letter? Why place him with the one person who hated him more than anyone?"

"I admit," Albus said quietly, not looking at him. "I knew that Petunia had strong negative feelings her sister, but I had hoped that she would overlook petty childhood grudges, and care for Harry as if he were her own, especially in light of Lily and James deaths. I hope that she wouldn't take her anger and hatred for her sister on her nephew."

Both Sirius and Remus stared at him in disbelief.

"Dumbledore, you do see the kind damage those Muggles did to him. This must be the reason why Harry always thinks so little of himself that he had no second thoughts about risking his own life. You do realize that right? I don't understand how he has been able to keep it quiet for so long, but I refuse to send him back there," Sirius enquired coldly.

Dumbledore opened his mouth, apparently to try and come up with some kind of justiﬁcation, but then Tonks cut in, "Why don't we ﬁnish reading the book before you both tear each other apart?" She looked to everyone in the room before going back to the book. "The three of us got to chapter 8 and I want to know what happens."

"But we can't stay here long," Kingsley said in his deep voice.

"It's the weekend so there's no class to worry about," Minerva said wiping her eyes on the end of her cloak. "But I don't like leaving the students alone up at the school with that toad Umbridge for too long."

"Still," Remus said, sitting down. "Can you stay for this chapter? We had just gotten through with the sorting and it's really getting good."

They all talked about it for a while but at last they all gave in. Dumbledore, Minerva, and Severus all had to go back to Hogwarts aGer this next chapter, and Kingsley had to get back to the Ministry.

"So," Sirius said, throwing the dirtiest look he could muster at Dumbledore. "Who wants to read?"

They were all quiet for a moment, but then Kingsley came forward and picked up the book, "If no one mines," he asked in his deep voice. When no one did he read, "Chapter 8: The Potions Master."

"Ah! A whole chapter to devoted to you!" Sirius said as he looked at Snape with anger. "Just great. We get to hear all about you."

"Shut it," Severus hissed.

"Before we start I just want to say that you better not hold a grudge with Harry just because of James!" Sirius said threateningly. "You want to take you anger out on someone, then direct all your hate to me. But leave Harry alone."

"How touching," Severus said hissed. "What a loyal dog you are, Black."

"Severus," Minerva said interrupting the two. "You can both settle this later."

They both feel silent, but they continued to glare at each other with loathing as Kingsley began.

"There, look."

"Where?"

"Next to the tall kid with the red hair."

"Nice description of Ron," Tonks said smiling slightly.

"Wearing the glasses?"

"Did you see his face?" "Did you see his scar?"

"Who didn't with everyone whispering about him?" Sirius yelled. "Can't they leave the kid alone?" Tonks agreed.

"I wouldn't be able to handle that," said Minerva. She felt bad for Harry. Famous for something he didn't know anything about?

"Yes," said Kingsley. "I can see how that would get annoying very quickly."

Whispers followed Harry from the moment he le† his dormitory the next day. People lining up outside classrooms stood on tiptoe to get a look at him, or doubled back to pass him in the corridors again, staring.

"Merlin, didn't their parents teach them any manners?" Minerva asked.

"I think this may be when he stops liking his scar," Remus said, barely smiling.

"Oh, I doubt that," Severus sneered. "He is an attention seeking…"

"Severus," warned Albus quietly. Sirius glanced at him and thought, 'Well, I guess having Dumbledore here is doing one good thing.'

Harry wished they wouldn't, because he was trying to concentrate on ﬁnding his way to classes.

"See Severus?" Albus said, "Harry wants to go to class."

"Maybe at ﬁrst," Severus replied coolly, "I doubt that it lasted long." The others rolled their eyes.

There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts:

"Good observation," Mad-Eye said approvingly. "You should pay close attention to every detail no matter where you are."

"Did he count them?" Kingsley asked skeptically.

"I think Hermione might have had something to do with that," Remus replied with the corners of his mouth twitching.

wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere diﬀerent on a Friday;

"Ah, those are the best ones!" Sirius said smiling. He remembered his ﬁrst year when he was heading up to the bathroom… only to somehow wander straight into a broom cupboard… however, this became a good thing because he and James were able to use it later on to hide from Filch.

some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump. Then there were doors that wouldn't open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending. It was also very hard to remember where anything was, because it all seemed to move around a lot. The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other, and Harry was sure the coats of armor could walk.

"They can," Minerva conﬁrmed with a hint of a smile on her face.

The ghosts didn't help, either. It was always a nasty shock when one of them glided suddenly through a door you were trying to open.

Everyone shuddered at diﬀerent memories of when that happened to them.

"I hate it when they do that," Remus grumbled.

Nearly Headless Nick was always happy to point new Gryﬃndors in the right direction, but Peeves the Poltergeist was worth two locked doors and a trick staircase if you met him when you were late for class.

"Who would take his directions?" Remus asked with a laugh.

"Aw, well—it makes a ﬁne excuse when you're late for class," Tonks said, smirking.

"No one used it in my lessons, though," Minerva stated ﬁrmly. "Nor mine," Severus said coldly.

"Well… would either of you fall for it?" Sirius asked brightly.

"Only if it was a ﬁrst-year," Minerva answered. "But that doesn't mean that they would escape detention."

Kingsley said, "That's a bit harsh."

"You really haven't changed," Sirius said with a laugh.

He would drop wastepaper baskets on your head, pull rugs from under your feet, pelt you with bits of chalk, or sneak up behind you, invisible, grab your nose, and screech, "GOT YOUR CONK!"

"I've been trying to get him to not do that," said Minerva said exasperated, "But he just won't listen."

"Wow. He's gotten even worse than when we were at school, Remus," Sirius said shaking his head.

Even worse than Peeves, if that was possible, was the caretaker, Argus Filch. Harry and Ron managed to get on the wrong side of him on their very ﬁrst morning.

"The ﬁrst morning?" said Remus, shocked, "It took you and James until late aGernoon before you got on his bad side!"

"Blimey, I think he's broken our record," Sirius whispered. Sirius was actually really excited about this part in the books; he would ﬁnally get to know what his godson had really been up to at school. He was looking

forward to seeing Harry enjoying himself now that he was away from those Dursleys.

"You see Headmaster?" Severus said triumphantly. "He's a determine rule- breaker just like his father was."

"Harry's not a troublemaker, Severus," Albus said coolly. "At least not without good reason. And I'm sure that there must be a good reason here…"

"I agree," Minerva said. "As far as I know, Potter doesn't go around pulling pranks like you both did," she looked at Sirius who smiled brilliantly at her.

Severus glared at them both coldly. No matter what, he wasn't going to fall for Potter's act. He knew better then to be suckered in like everyone else has.

Filch found them trying to force their way through a door that unluckily turned out to be the entrance to the out-of-bounds corridor on the third ﬂoor.

"Woops," said Tonks.

"That would do it," said Kingsley, trying to hold back a laugh. "Yeah, they have terrible luck," Mad-Eye grinning darkly.

"Just why is that corridor forbidden anyway?" Remus asked Albus.

"Yeah… Why would that cause 'anyone to die a painful death?'" said Sirius, thinking about what Dumbledore had said in the last chapter.

"I'm sure that you'll ﬁnd out if we go on," said Albus pleasantly, before Severus was able to point out that they were out-of-bounds themselves.

He wouldn't believe they were lost,

"He never does," said Sirius.

"That's because you usually weren't," snapped Severus.

was sure they were trying to break into it on purpose, and was threatening to lock them in the dungeons when they were rescued by Professor Quirrell, who was passing.

Sirius started chuckling when Quirrell was mentioned.

"M-m-mister F-f-ﬁlch," he said trying to get everyone else to laugh. But only Tonks, Remus, and Kingsley did. The teachers were all sitting there, stony-face while Mad-Eye gestured to the book impatiently.

"What's with all of you?" Sirius asked in annoyance.

At ﬁrst, they seemed unable to answer, but then Minerva said rather stiﬄy, "Let's just say that Quirrell wasn't the most—ah—popular teacher."

Filch owned a cat called Mrs. Norris,

"That cat is still there?" Sirius cried out incredulously. "Cats are only supposed to live for like a few years!"

The teachers all shrugged. "We don't know how that is either," Minerva said.

a scrawny, dust-colored creature with bulging, lamp like eyes just like Filch's. She patrolled the corridors alone. Break a rule in front of her, put just one toe out of line, and she'd whisk oﬀ for Filch, who'd appear, wheezing, two seconds later.

"For an old guy, you've got to admit he can get around," Tonks said. "How do they communicate like that?" Remus asked to himself. "Who knows?" Sirius shrugged.

Filch knew the secret passageways of the school be†er than anyone (except perhaps the Weasley twins) and could pop up as suddenly as any

of the ghosts. The students all hated him,

"I'm betting that the teachers do too," muttered Sirius which caused Albus and Minerva to smile slightly.

and it was the dearest ambition of many to give Mrs. Norris a good kick.

"Isn't it everyone's?" said Sirius.

"Everyone without expectations," said Severus, and Sirius scowled at him once again.

And then, once you had managed to ﬁnd them, there were the classes themselves. There was a lot more to magic, as Harry quickly found out, than waving your wand and saying a few funny words.

Severus rolled his eyes, "Of course it is."

"Give him a break," Sirius snapped back at once. "He grew up with those pathetic excuses for Muggles and had no idea that magic was real! What are you supposed to think?"

Severus just yawned widely as if Sirius wasn't worth his time. Sirius felt himself getting angry all over again and felt a longing to turn him into a bat or something…

They had to study the night skies through their telescopes every Wednesday at midnight and learn the names 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 li†le witch called Professor Sprout, where they learned how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi, and found out what they were used for.

Easily the most boring class was History of Magic,

"It always is," said Moody knowingly.

"That also goes without saying," Tonks agreed.

which was the only one taught by a ghost.

Professor Binns had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of the staﬀ room ﬁre and got up next morning to teach, leaving his body behind him. Binns droned on and on while they scribbled down names and dates, and got Emetic the Evil and Uric the Oddball mixed up.

"It would be more interesting if Professor Binns had a less boring voice," Sirius said, just thinking about that class made him yawn.

"I never understood why he was a teacher before he died," said Minerva shaking her head, "I mean, he doesn't even enjoy the subject!"

"However," Albus said, "We can't do much about it unless he wants to stop teaching."

"That could be problematic on your exams..."

Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a tiny li†le wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk.

Several of them had fond smiles on their faces at the mention of the tiny teacher. He was by far one of Hogwarts best teachers.

At the start of their ﬁrst class he took the roll call, and when he reached Harry's name he gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight.

Everyone but Severus laughed. Albus smiled at him, knowing that many of the teachers had similar reactions when the boy ﬁrst arrived. And not simply because he was famous… because of his resemblance of his parents

—who most of them had taught themselves.

Professor McGonagall was again diﬀerent. Harry had been quite right to think she wasn't a teacher to cross. Strict and clever,

"Remind me to thank Potter when I get back," Minerva said with a smug smirk.

she gave them a talking-to the moment they sat down in her ﬁrst class.

"Transﬁguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."

"I tell all of my classes that," she said steadfast.

"I remember when you used to warn us," said Sirius with a smile. "About a million times," muttered Remus rolling his eyes.

"But you always let us back in," Sirius ﬁnished.

"I still wonder why I did," Minerva said shaking her head.

"Hey, we made class interesting!" Sirius said with a grin and holding his hands up innocently, "Wasn't that reason enough?"

She only rolled her eyes at him, trying hard not to laugh.

Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again. They were all very impressed and couldn't wait to get started, but soon realized they weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time.

"Way to get their hopes up!"

"I don't think so. It is one of the ways to get their interest, so they will work hard," Albus said and Minerva nodded in agreement.

A†er taking a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle. By the end of the lesson, only Hermione Granger had made any diﬀerence to her match; Professor McGonagall showed the class how it had gone all silver and pointy and gave Hermione a rare smile.

"He got rare right," muttered Mad-Eye under his breath.

"Never smiled at me in class," said Sirius with a pout.

"You have earned yourself a detention almost on a daily basis so why would I smile?" Minerva said.

The class everyone had really been looking forward to was Defense Against the Dark Arts,

"So Quirrell was even more of a disappointment than I thought," Remus said shaking his head. "Looks like I didn't have to much competition."

"Believe me, Remus," Minerva sighed. "You have no idea how right you are."

but Quirrell's lessons turned out to be a bit of a joke.

"That's for sure," mumtterd Severus.

His classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward oﬀ a vampire he'd met in Romania and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days. His turban, he told them, had been given to him by an African prince as a thank-you for geGng rid of a troublesome zombie, but they weren't sure they believed this story. For one thing, when Seamus Finnigan asked eagerly to hear how Quirrell had fought oﬀ the zombie, Quirrell went pink and started talking about the weather;

Sirius and Tonks both laughed out loud while Remus grinned.

for another, they had noticed that a funny smell hung around the turban, and the Weasley twins insisted that it was stuﬀed full of garlic as well, so that Quirrell was protected wherever he went.

Sirius was laughing again.

"What's so funny now?" growled Severus, who wanted to get this chapter over and done with as soon as possible.

"C'mon, the guy is tragically funny," Sirius said, still laughing.

Severus just glared at him.

"Okay is there like a rule that says that Slytherins aren't supposed to laugh or something?" he asked in a mock curious voice.

"No," Severus hissed, "We just don't laugh at your pathetic jokes." "Ok, break it up gentlemen," said Kingsley as Sirius barred his teeth.

"There is something weird about the turban," Mad-Eye said to himself, "It has been mentioned to oGen for my liking."

Harry was very relieved to ﬁnd out that he wasn't miles behind everyone else.

"We knew he wouldn't be," said Remus. "I wouldn't bet on that," said Severus.

All of them, even Albus gave him a cold stare, silently telling him to keep his opinions to himself.

Lots of people had come from Muggle families and, like him, hadn't had any idea that they were witches and wizards. There was so much to learn that even people like Ron didn't have much of a head start.

Friday was an important day for Harry and Ron. They ﬁnally managed to ﬁnd their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast without geGng lost once.

Tonks and Sirius applauded. Severus rolled his eyes, Albus smiled this time, with a very quiet, small chuckle.

"What have we got today?" Harry asked Ron as he poured sugar on his porridge.

"Double Potions with the Slytherins," said Ron. "Snape's Head of Slytherin House. They say he always favors them - we'll be able to see if

it's true."

They all gave Severus a quick glance before turning their attention back to Kingsley.

"Wish McGonagall favored us," said Harry.

"I never favor any of my students over the other. Regardless what House they are in," she said briskly.

"Oh, I think you do," said Kingsley with a tiny smile. "You just aren't as open about it as the Severus probably is."

"What makes you say that?" she demanded.

"I think you might favor Harry, Ron, and Hermione… just a little bit more than the others."

"And you believe this because…?"

"Well, anyone else would have been expelled long ago; especially for all the trouble that those three get into. I don't think it was just Dumbledore that refused to expel him."

She gave him a disgruntled look before she turned away, her cheeks tinted a slight red and said, "Just read."

The others laughed at her expression, though Severus raised his in triumph. He knew that she favored them!

Professor McGonagall was head of Gryﬃndor House, but it hadn't stopped her from giving them a huge pile of homework the day before.

"Of course it wouldn't," said Minerva like she couldn't believe that any proper teacher could be so subjective.

Just then, the mail arrived. Harry had go†en used to this by now, but it had given him a bit of a shock on the ﬁrst morning, when about a

hundred owls had suddenly streamed into the Great Hall during breakfast, circling the tables until they saw their owners, and dropping le†ers and packages onto their laps.

"Hey, I remember your ﬁrst owl from home," said Remus to Padfoot. Sirius laughed acidly.

"What?" asked Tonks eagerly.

"It was a Howler," Sirius said grinning fondly at the memory. "The whole Hall heard my dear old mother yell at me for… you know… how I was a disgrace to the family name and she cursed the day I was born."

"What did you do?!" she asked interested.

"I think it was something about … yeah, it was for getting into Gryﬃndor, wasn't it?" said Remus.

Sirius laughed again. "AGer that, I got nothing but Howlers from home."

Hedwig hadn't brought Harry anything so far. She sometimes ﬂew in to nibble his ear and have a bit of toast before going oﬀ to sleep in the owlery with the other school owls.

'That's nice of her,' thought Remus.

This morning, however, she ﬂu†ered down between the marmalade and the sugar bowl and dropped a note onto Harry's plate.

Harry tore it open at once. It said, in a very untidy scrawl:

Dear Harry,

I know you get Friday afiernoons oﬀ, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me around three?

I want to hear all about your ﬁrst week. Send us an answer back with Hedwig.

Hagrid

Sirius, Tonks, Remus, and Albus beamed; grateful more than ever for Hagrid being there.

Harry borrowed Ron's quill, scribbled Yes, please, see you later on the back of the note, and sent Hedwig oﬀ again.

It was lucky that Harry had tea with Hagrid to look forward to, because the Potions lesson turned out to be the worst thing that had happened to him so far.

"Oh no," Remus moaned with another quick glance at Severus. He was sure this lesson was nothing more than an excuse for Severus to take his anger towards James out on Harry.

"What did you do?" Tonks scowled at Snape, sure that he had something to do with this.

Severus couldn't help but smirking while listening to this sentence. He could see himself ﬁnding comfort in making Potions a living hell for Potter's son. He didn't even notice the glares from everyone in the room.

"You better not have taken your anger out on my godson. He's innocent!" Sirius said, glaring at Severus with pure spite. "He's got absolutely nothing to do with what happened between you and James."

Severus just shrugged in boredom. "What makes you think I did anything." "Call it a educated guess," he snarled back.

At the start-of-term banquet, Harry had go†en the idea that Professor Snape disliked him. By the end of the ﬁrst Potions lesson, he knew he'd been wrong. Snape didn't dislike Harry —

"That's unexpected…" Tonks said slowly. Severus looked at the book, taken aback.

"Oh," Sirius said confused while everyone else stared at it with similar expressions of surprise.

he hated him.

"Ok, never mind," Tonks said tiredly. "That makes much more sense."

"Oh," said Sirius, suddenly going back to being angry. Severus just smirked to himself.

Potions lessons took place down in one of the dungeons. It was colder here than up in the main castle, and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals ﬂoating in glass jars all around the walls.

"You're such a professional," Moody mocked.

"Did you just make a joke Mad-Eye?" Tonks said surprised. "You told me that you never made a joke a day in your life."

"And you believed that?" Moody asked as his grin made him look even more scarred and scary than usual.

"I'm just glad that you never got your hands on the Defense against the Dark Arts job," spat Sirius, turning his attention back to Snape. "Then you would have an excuse to shoot curses at him."

"Poisoning is still a good option," Severus answered slyly. Everyone was now glowering at him, including Minerva and Dumbledore. Sirius was ﬁghting the urge to punch him.

"You're lucky, I don't have my wand," Sirius hissed.

"Actually, I am in luck, you don't even know how to use it!" Severus answered with another smirk.

"Enough!" Albus said loudly, which shut them both up, but continue to stare nastily at each other.

Snape, like Flitwick, started the class by taking the roll call, and like Flitwick, he paused at Harry's name.

"Ah, Yes," he said so†ly, "Harry Po†er. Our new - celebrity."

"Well, that's the fact," Sirius said through gritting teeth. "This won't be good," Tonks muttered.

"No kidding," Moody agreed.

"How could you?" Remus whispered. "He was just a little kid… why do you have to do this?"

"Oh, I'm pretty sure he does enjoy it," Severus said, with his eyebrows raised.

"You don't know a damn thing!" Sirius snarled like a dog, longing to bite. Kingsley went on before they broke into a ﬁght.

Draco Malfoy and his friends Crabbe and Goyle sniggered behind their hands. Snape ﬁnished calling the names and looked up at the class. His eyes were black like Hagrid's,

"Do not compare him to Hagrid, Harry," Sirius ordered grumpily.

but they had none of Hagrid's warmth. They were cold and empty and made you think of dark tunnels.

"Creepy," the Tonks muttered and looked up into Severus's eyes and saw that it was true. She shivered at the realization. Severus had a vein going in his face… looking close to popping.

"The boy is very observant," said Mad-Eye again in a impressed tone.

"Yeah, it's creepy how he can describe everything in perfect detail," Kingsley said. "No oﬀense," he added to Snape who was looking more

vicious than usual.

'Why is he looking at Snape's eyes is what I want to know?' thought Sirius privately. 'You'd think Harry would see that his greasy hair more than anything.'

"Kingsley," Albus commanded, before the air grew any tenser, "Please continue."

"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 they caught every word - like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gi† of keeping a class silent without eﬀort.

"Again, Harry, stop comparing him to good people!" Sirius said with a sarcastic tone. "Snape frightens them into listening, at least Professor McGonagall earns your respect."

Minerva actually gave him a tiny smile, quite pleased. Severus muttered under his breath that sounded suspiciously like, "Suck-up."

"As there is li†le foolish wand-waving here,

Everyone's eyebrows were raised.

"Foolish wand-waving?" asked Remus calmly. "You're a wizard aren't you?" asked Sirius.

Severus looked as if he wanted nothing more out of life than to slip a poison into Sirius's drink.

many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the so†ly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching

the mind, ensnaring the senses… I can teach you how to bo†le fame,

brew glory, even stopper death - if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

"Well, that screwed up the whole speech," Sirius said harshly.

Minerva was shocked. How could a teacher actually call a class that? She gave him a dark look.

Albus frowned, "And you were doing so well Severus," he said. "It was a very impressive speech up until the ending."

"Just speaking the truth," he shot back. If his goal was to make himself less popular with them, he succeeded as they all gave him dark looks.

More silence followed this li†le speech. Harry and Ron exchanged looks with raised eyebrows. Hermione Granger was on the edge of her seat and looked desperate to start proving that she wasn't a dunderhead.

"Naturally," Tonks laughed.

"Po†er!" said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

"Oh, so now you're going to pick on Harry…" Sirius ground out through his teeth as he began ﬂexing his ﬁngers again.

"The Draught of the Living Death," Albus answered immediately, "But that's not a ﬁrst year question, Severus." But he didn't sound angry or even upset—he was more—disappointed at Severus than anything.

"That's a bloody 6th year question!" said Sirius furiously. Minerva was furious as well, but she had a much better hold on it than Sirius did.

Powdered root of what to an infusion of what? Harry glanced at Ron, who looked as stumped as he was; Hermione's hand had shot into the air.

"Wow," Remus said smiling. "So even here, she was answering questions that no other ﬁrst year would know."

"I don't know, sir," said Harry. Snape's lips curled into a sneer.

"Tut, tut - fame clearly isn't everything."

"And Harry is already well aware of that, thanks," Tonks snapped.

"Have you ever heard him say that it was?!" Sirius yelled at Severus. "You called on him for no reason! Can't you even bother to see that Harry isn't James?!"

"How could you act like that towards a student?" Minerva agreed, also starting to get angry at her colleague. "Regardless of who his father was?"

Severus didn't say anything. He merely looked at the ceiling and pretended not to hear anything.

He ignored Hermione's hand.

"Of course he did! He just wants to torture Harry now," Sirius said, indignantly.

"Let's try again. Po†er, where would you look if I told you to ﬁnd me a bezoar?"

"He didn't know that one either," Severus said, a shadow of a smirk returning.

"Of course he didn't," Remus said through gritted teeth. "He hasn't been taught it yet, and has grown up with Muggles. But I'm sure that you already knew that didn't you?"

Once again, Severus didn't reply.

Minerva was getting redder and redder by the minute. "How is he supposed to know these things before you've taught them anything?"

"What do you want from me?" asked Severus. "At least that question is taught in the ﬁrst year."

"Yes, but not until the end of term," Remus said grimly.

Hermione stretched her hand as high into the air as it would go without her leaving her seat, but Harry didn't have the faintest idea what a bezoar was. He tried not to look at Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, who were shaking with laughter.

"Like they would know," Sirius scoﬀed. Any real teacher would've turned to them and ask if they knew. But of course, Snape was only using the title 'teacher' to bully students.

"I don't know, sir."

"Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Po†er?"

"For your information he did Snape!" Sirius yelled, angry, "And you know very well that your ﬁrst question wasn't even in the book, and the second one isn't until later, so how would he remember it?"

"Don't yell at me," he said serenely, "Yell at Potter."

Harry forced himself to keep looking straight into those cold eyes. He had looked through his books at the Dursleys', but did Snape expect him to remember everything in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi?

Snape was still ignoring Hermione's quivering hand.

"What is the diﬀerence, Po†er, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

"Aren't they the same thing?" Tonks asked.

"That's a trick question!" said Remus exasperated, "There isn't a diﬀerence!"

Severus just ignored the accusing staring as he continued looking up at the ceiling as though fascinated by it; not saying anything or even looking at them.

At this, Hermione stood up, her hand stretching toward the dungeon ceiling.

"Why don't you call on Hermione, she has the answer!" Remus asked wearily.

'Cause he's a git,' thought Sirius bitterly.

"I don't know," said Harry quietly. "I think Hermione does, though, why don't you try her?"

The tension diﬀused slightly as everyone started to laugh.

Everyone ready also started laughing, except Snape.

"Now, was that something Lily or James would've said?" Sirius wondered.

"Lily," Remus said quickly and Severus felt like he was about to be sick. That boy like Lily? Impossible. That remark came from his worthless father… no doubt.

Sirius laughed louder, "Good job, Harry. Show him what you get from her."

A few people laughed; Harry caught Seamus's eye, and Seamus winked. Snape, however, was not pleased.

"Sit down," he snapped at Hermione. "For your information, Po†er, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite.

"So what was the diﬀerence?" Tonks asked him brightly and he just rolled his eyes as if he thought that he was surrounded by idiots.

Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?"

"Indeed, how dare they not guess what you want?" Tonks mocked.

"I don't know," Sirius said sarcastically. "You didn't tell them to write it down."

"Shut up, Black," he snapped back. Sirius held his hands up in mock surrender. "Don't get mad at me cause you're a pathetic excuse for a teacher."

There was a sudden rummaging for quills and parchment. Over the noise, Snape said, "And a point will be taken from Gryﬃndor House for your cheek, Po†er."

"I'd have given him a point for that," muttered Sirius.

"And you say that I make a bad teacher, Black," Severus hissed.

Things didn't improve for the Gryﬃndors as the Potions lesson continued. Snape put them all into pairs and set them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils. He swept around in his long black cloak, watching them weigh dried ne†les and crush snake fangs, criticizing almost everyone except Malfoy, whom he seemed to like.

"Of course you would," hissed Sirius. "You and Lucius were the best of pals."

"Sirius," warned Albus wearily.

He was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Malfoy had stewed his horned slugs when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing ﬁlled the dungeon. Neville had somehow managed to melt Seamus's cauldron into a twisted blob, and their potion was seeping

across the stone ﬂoor, burning holes in people's shoes. Within seconds, the whole class was standing on their stools while Neville, who had been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed, moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs.

"Idiot boy!"

"He's hurt and you insult him?!" Remus said, angrier than he had been in a long time.

Minerva looked horriﬁed, "That was completely uncalled for and totally unprofessional! You should never treat a student like that!"

Severus rolled his eyes and said, "Is it my fault that Longbottom couldn't mix a potion if his life depended on it?"

Remus had to ﬁght to keep Sirius from getting up and attacking him. Wisely, Kingsley read on.

snarled Snape, clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of 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.

"And you still show him no sympathy?" Tonks demanded.

"Is it my fault that he forgot to add the quills?" he asked silkily.

"You were supposed to be teaching him!" Sirius snapped. "So if he did it wrong, then you must've got something wrong."

"Besides, Severus," Albus said lightly. "I seem to recall a certain student several years ago who loved to experiment with potions and caused several accidents himself."

Severus didn't say anything at all, but a faint blush was creeping up his face at Dumbledore's words.

"Take him up to the hospital wing," Snape spat at Seamus. Then he rounded on Harry and Ron, who had been working next to Neville.

"You - Po†er - why didn't you tell him not to add the quills?

"Since when was that Harry's responsibility?" Remus wanted to know.

"Maybe, just maybe, he was concentrating on his own bloody potion?" Sirius suggested angrily.

Thought he'd make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That's another point you've lost for Gryﬃndor."

"Now that is completely unfair!" Sirius shouted.

"I couldn't agree with you more," Tonks said venomously.

"How could you be so horrible to him?" demanded Sirius. "He's not James!"

"I thought that I was being fair," Severus said calmly with a shrug. "I only took two points from him."

"For absolutely no reason at all other than being related to James!" Sirius snapped back.

This was so unfair that Harry opened his mouth to argue, but Ron kicked him behind their cauldron.

"Don't push it," he mu†ered, "I've heard Snape can turn very nasty."

"You mean he's not already?" Sirius asked incredulously.

As they climbed the steps out of the dungeon an hour later, Harry's mind was racing and his spirits were low. He'd lost two points for Gryﬃndor in his very ﬁrst week-why did Snape hate him so much?

"It's not you he hates. It's me and James!" Sirius said to the book bitterly.

"You should still be adult enough not to take it out on a kid," Tonks said to Snape angrily. "And what has Neville done for you to snap at him like that?"

"That is unfair," Kingsley agreed deeply. "You don't know a person's character just because you think you knew his parents. Look at Sirius; he's nothing like he's family."

As Sirius nodded approvingly at that last commit, Snape looked at Dumbledore, waiting for him to stick up for the boy as he always did. But Dumbledore didn't say anything; he only looked at Snape, cold disappointment in his eyes. Snape looked the other way.

"Enough," Mad-Eye sighed. "At this rate, we won't ﬁnish the book until next month."

"Cheer up," said Ron, "Snape's always taking points oﬀ Fred and George. Can I come and meet Hagrid with you?"

"Nice save, Ron," Tonks muttered. "Distract him."

At ﬁve to three they le† the castle and made their way across the grounds. Hagrid lived in a small wooden house on the edge of the forbidden forest. A crossbow and a pair of galoshes were outside the front door.

"Sound like when we ﬁrst went there," Sirius smiling at little as he thought back to when he ﬁrst saw the hut.

When Harry knocked they 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 them 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 ke†le was boiling on the open ﬁre, and in the corner stood a massive bed with a patchwork quilt over it.

"Make yerselves at home," said Hagrid, leGng go of Fang, who bounded straight at Ron and started licking his ears. Like Hagrid, Fang was clearly not as ﬁerce as he looked.

"Too true," Albus said, a smile slowly coming back to his face. "Yeah, all he does is eat and sleep," Tonks said.

"I don't understand why he does that. If the animal has a name that sounds dangerous it means that he's perfectly harmless. But if it's a normal or cute sounding named… those are creatures you have to worry about," Kingsley laughed.

"This is Ron," Harry told Hagrid, who was pouring boiling water into a large teapot and puGng rock cakes onto a plate.

"Another Weasley, eh?" said Hagrid, glancing at Ron's freckles.

'Maybe his insecurities aren't completely without reason,' thought Remus. "I spent half me life chasin' yer twin brothers away from the forest." "And the other chasing us!" Sirius called out proudly.

The rock cakes were shapeless lumps with raisins that almost broke their teeth, but Harry and Ron pretended to be enjoying them as they told Hagrid all about their ﬁrst lessons.

"Good… avoid those cakes if you can help it. Only Sirius can eat those and not complain," Remus said.

"HEY!" he complained, "I only ate them when I was starving."

"How could you be starving with the meals that the house-elves served?" Tonks asked incredulously.

"I just used too much energy between the meals," he stated.

"If only you used that energy for your homework," Minerva asked shrewdly.

Sirius gave her an apologetic look.

Fang rested his head on Harry's knee and drooled all over his robes. Harry and Ron were delighted to hear Hagrid call Filch "that old git." Everyone roared with laughter, even Severus managed a smirk.

"No one likes Filch," Sirius spoke up.

"It's the truth," Tonks nodded. "The cold, hard truth."

"An' as fer that cat, Mrs. Norris, I'd like ter introduce her to Fang sometime.

"Oh, I would kill to see that," Sirius grinned.

"What'll happen? That mutt's a coward remember?" Mad-Eye pointed out. "He would probably turn and run."

"Oh, yeah," said Sirius, disappointed.

D'yeh know, every time I go up ter the school, she follows me everywhere? Can't get rid of her - Filch puts her up to it."

Harry told Hagrid about Snape's lesson. Hagrid, like Ron, told Harry not to worry about it, that Snape liked hardly any of the students.

"And no one likes him in return," Sirius muttered under his breath.

"But he seemed to really hate me." "Rubbish!" said Hagrid. "Why should he?"

Yet Harry couldn't help thinking that Hagrid didn't quite meet his eyes when he said that.

"Looks like you can't lie to Potter," Mad-Eye exclaimed. The boy didn't even seem to need Legilimency to tell that someone wasn't being honest.

"Hagrid's still a bad liar, huh?" Tonks laughed.

"Honestly, you tell him a secret and the whole school will know…" Minerva sighed and Albus laughed.

"How's yer brother Charlie?" Hagrid asked Ron. "I liked him a lot - great with animals."

"Very smooth, Hagrid," Sirius snorted.

Harry wondered if Hagrid had changed the subject on purpose. While Ron told Hagrid all about Charlie's work with dragons, Harry picked up a piece of paper that was lying on the table under the tea cozy. It was a cuGng from the Daily Prophet:

GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST

"That's insane," Kingsley said shaking his head. "I read about that a few years ago and I still can't believe it."

Investigationscontinueintothebreak-inatGringoMson31 July, widely believedtobetheworkofDarkwizardsorwitchesunknown.GringoMs goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day. "But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you," said a GringoMs spokesgoblin thisafiernoon.

"That's a nice way to tell them to mind their own business, isn't it?" Tonks stated happily.

"Yeah, goblins really are charming aren't they," Sirius laughed.

Harry remembered Ron telling him on the train that someone had tried to rob Gringo†s, but Ron hadn't mentioned the date.

"Hagrid!" said Harry, "that Gringo†s break-in happened on my birthday! It might've been happening while we were there!"

There was no doubt about it, Hagrid deﬁnitely didn't meet Harry's eyes this time.

"Bless him, he couldn't lie to save his life," Sirius stated.

He grunted and oﬀered him another rock cake. Harry read the story again. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied earlier that same day. Hagrid had emptied vault seven hundred and thirteen, if you could call it emptying, taking out that grubby li†le package. Had that been what the thieves were looking for?

"Not bad for an eleven-year old," muttered Mad-Eye looking impressed.

"He put the pieces together pretty fast," Remus said nodding, equally impressed.

"I only hope he doesn't tell anyone else," Minerva muttered.

As Harry and Ron walked back to the castle for dinner, their pockets weighed down with rock cakes they'd been too polite to refuse, Harry thought that none of the lessons he'd had so far had given him as much to think about as tea with Hagrid. Had Hagrid collected that package just in time? Where was it now? And did Hagrid know something about Snape that he didn't want to tell Harry?

"It sure looks like it," Sirius said, just as curious.

"That's the end of the chapter," Kingsley said closing the book and looking at all of them.

Albus sighed as he looked down at his watch before he muttered, "We should to get going." The other two teachers looked at him in surprise and maybe even a little bit disappointed. "You wish to leave the school with Umbridge in charge then?" he asked them.

That got them both to stand up immediately. Albus sighed once again as he also got up to join them, "We'll talk more about this later," he promised Sirius. "But right now we should get back and see how things are fairing."

Sirius just gave him another dirty look as his anger at the Headmaster returned. "I don't care what you say," he whispered. "But I'm not going to allow Harry to be sent back to that house."

"Sirius…" Dumbledore started, but then shook his head, changing his mind. "We'll talk about this later," he repeated. He then turned to Kingsley and Moody and asked, "Will you both be leaving as well?"

"I think I'll read one more chapter before I go," Kingsley answered evenly. "I don't have to be anywhere right at this moment and I'm a little curious to read some more."

Moody's eye swirled around the room, looking at each of them separately before he said gruﬄy, "I think I might be here for a little while as well. I'm also curious on what the boy does."

Albus nodded.

"But Headmaster," Minerva said, though she would never admit to it, she clearly wanted to stay a little longer as well.

"We'll come back as soon as we can," Albus promised her. "Maybe even as soon as later tonight in fact. But we can't leave the school for too long with Umbridge lurking within the walls."

As the three of them headed to the door, Moody suddenly brought up a question that was on all of their minds, "What about Potter? Are going to tell him about the books?"

Albus, Minerva, and Severus all stopped dead as they all began to stare at the book once again. They were all quiet for a brief moment before Remus said, "To tell you the truth Dumbledore—I don't know what we should do. I mean we're reading all about Harry's thoughts and secrets without his knowledge or permission…"

More silence followed that statement. And it was slowly, but surely, driving Sirius insane. It didn't take long before he just had to say something, just anything to break the silence.

"No!" he yelled.

He then hesitated for the briefest second, eyeing the book unsurely. It felt wrong to go behind his godson's back this way, but they found the books, and Sirius liked to think it was for a reason. He was also becoming increasingly worried about Harry the more he read. He was worried at just how much Harry was keeping from him and what was so bad about his past that was making him act like this. He didn't want Harry to feel like they had gone behind his back however. He didn't want to damage the trust he had formed with the boy over the last few years. But if there was anything he could do to help him… anything at all that might help ease the burden oﬀ his godson's shoulders and make him happier then he would do it.

These books might give him the answers he needed to do just that.

Remus seemed to be thinking somewhere along the same lines. "These books might help us help Harry… right?" Remus was almost determined to read it, and when he looked at Sirius he saw the same determined look on his face. "But if Harry were to ﬁnd out about them then he might never trust us again…"

"I think we should keep quiet about them. Especially if it might help Harry," Tonks reasoned soGly. She didn't like this more than they did, but she didn't think that Harry would appreciate it if he found out about them

reading up on his life. The teachers nodded in silent agreement and leG aGer that, leaving the rest of them alone.

Moody stared at the empty ﬁreplace for a moment before he asked in his gruﬀ voice, "Well? Who's going to read now?"

"How about you Mad-Eye?" Tonks asked brightly. "No," he growled.

"Everyone else here has," Sirius said. "No way."

"But…"

"What part of 'no' don't you understand?"

"Alright," Remus said peacefully, "I'll read." He took the book from Kingsley and picked up where he leG oﬀ, "Chapter 9: The Midnight Duel."

Chapter 10(I own nothing. Copyright belongs to J.K. Rowling)

Chapter 9: The Midnight Duel

"Alright," Remus said peacefully, "I'll read." He took the book from Kingsley and picked up where he leG oﬀ, "Chapter 9: The Midnight Duel."

"Awesome! He's already dueling!" cried Sirius happily, "We didn't get round to that 'till like second year!"

Remus looked at him in amusement, but he was biting his lower lip in worry. "But Harry was only a ﬁrst year. How could he be ready for a duel so soon?"

"This should be excellent," Tonks said eagerly, leaning forwards to listen better.

Harry had never believed he would meet a boy he hated more than Dudley, but that was before he met Draco Malfoy. Still, ﬁrst-year Gryﬃndors only had Potions with the Slytherins, so they didn't have to put up with Malfoy much.

"That's still one lesson too much," Tonks muttered.

"Something tells me that's who he's going to duel with," Moody exclaimed with his eyebrows half raised.

"And how exactly is he going to do that? He doesn't know any real spells just yet," Remus answered. "The most that they'll be able to do is shoot sparks at each other."

"I don't know… but he's going to win!" Sirius repeated stubbornly.

Or at least, they didn't until they spo†ed a notice pinned up in the Gryﬃndor common room that made them all groan. Flying lessons would

be starting on Thursday — and Gryﬃndor and Slytherin would be learning together.

"Ah, his ﬁrst ﬂying lesson!" Sirius said joyfully. He was really looking forward to this.

"Yeah," Kingsley said gravely, "But he just said that he had it with the Slytherins. You know that something is going to happen."

"Spoil my good mood why don't you," Sirius grumbled.

"Typical," said Harry darkly. "Just what I always wanted. To make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Malfoy."

Sirius smirked, "Or a chance to show him up!"

"This is going to be one interesting lesson," Remus muttered with a smile.

He had been looking forward to learning to ﬂy more than anything else.

"You don't know that you'll make a fool of yourself," said Ron reasonably. "Anyway, I know Malfoy's always going on about how good he is at Quidditch, but I bet that's all talk."

Malfoy certainly did talk about ﬂying a lot. He complained loudly about ﬁrst years never geGng on the house Quidditch teams

"I still say that they should get rid of that rule!" Sirius declared.

"You really think any ﬁrst year would be good enough to be on the team?" Kingsley asked curiously.

"Not that I ever heard of it," Tonks said with a shake of her head. "You have to be a Quidditch prodigy in order for the teachers to bend the rules."

and told long, boas√ul stories that always seemed to end with him narrowly escaping Muggles in helicopters.

"Right, yeah, like that happened," Tonks snorted. Who would be dumb enough to believe that?

"Wouldn't it be great if Malfoy really did ﬂy into a helicopter?" Sirius asked pensively.

"How do you even know what a helicopter is?" Mad-Eye asked.

"Believe it or not," Sirius grumbled. "I did take Muggle Studies at Hogwarts!"

Mad-Eye's eye rolled in disbelief.

He wasn't the only one, though: the way Seamus Finnigan told it, he'd spent most of his childhood zooming around the countryside on his broomstick. Even Ron would tell anyone who'd listen about the time he'd almost hit a hang glider on Charlie's old broom. Everyone from wizarding families talked about Quidditch constantly.

"Ah—Quidditch," Sirius sighed happily as he began to dream slightly.

"Can I interrupt?" Moody asked, annoyed. "We're trying to read a book here."

Ron had already had a big argument with Dean Thomas, who shared their dormitory, about soccer. Ron couldn't see what was exciting about a game with only one ball where no one was allowed to ﬂy.

"Yeah," Sirius agreed. "I don't see the point of it. At least make the players attack each other."

"In a way they do," Remus told him. "Just in a diﬀerent way than in Qudditch."

Harry had caught Ron prodding Dean's poster of West Ham soccer team, trying to make the players move.

Neville had never been on a broomstick in his life, because his grandmother had never let him near one. Privately, Harry felt she'd had good reason, because Neville managed to have an extraordinary number of accidents even with both feet on the ground.

"That's a little mean," Tonks said taken aback.

"No…" Remus admitted slightly. "Neville does have his mother's—ah— grace to put it gently."

"Oh," Moody said understanding. "So in other words he's dead clumsy like Tonks here."

"Hey!" she yelled at him.

Hermione Granger was almost as nervous about ﬂying as Neville was.

"Yeah," Remus laughed, understanding how nervous Hermione was. He himself wasn't a very good ﬂyer either. "Book smarts won't help you here."

This was something you couldn't learn by heart out of a book — not that she hadn't tried.

"What? How can she do that?" Sirius asked incrediously.

At breakfast on Thursday she bored them all stupid with ﬂying tips she'd go†en out of a library book called Quidditch Through the Ages.

"Oh, I loved that book!" Sirius said happily. "You've read it?" Tonks asked, surprised.

"He sure has," Remus said smiling at her. "And that's probably the only book that he's read all the way through."

Sirius glared at him without any real heat.

Neville was hanging on to her every word, desperate for anything that might help him hang on to his broomstick later, but everybody else was very pleased when Hermione's lecture was interrupted by the arrival of the mail.

Harry hadn't had a single le†er since Hagrid's note, something that Malfoy had been quick to notice, of course. Malfoy's eagle owl was always bringing him packages of sweets from home, which he opened gloatingly at the Slytherin table.

"Git," Sirius coughed.

A barn owl brought Neville a small package from his grandmother. He opened it excitedly and showed them a glass ball the size of a large marble, which seemed to be full of white smoke.

"Ooh, a rememberall!" Tonks said happily.

"I think those things pretty useless," Kingsley stated with amusment. "It only lets you know when you forgot something, but they don't tell you what."

"At least they let you know when you're forgetting anything," Tonks said a little grumpily. "I think they're neat!"

"It's a Remembrall!" he explained. "Gran knows I forget things — this tells you if there's something you've forgo†en to do. Look, you hold it tight like this and if it turns red — oh…" His face fell, because the Remembrall had suddenly glowed scarlet, "… you've forgo†en something…"

Neville was trying to remember what he'd forgo†en

"See?" Kingsley said pointedly. "Pointless."

when Draco Malfoy, who was passing the Gryﬃndor table, snatched the Remembrall out of his hand.

Harry and Ron jumped to their feet. They were half hoping for a reason to ﬁght Malfoy, but Professor McGonagall, who could spot trouble quicker than any teacher in the school, was there in a ﬂash.

"What's going on?"

"Malfoy's acting like a git," Sirius grunted. "You know… nothing out of the ordinary."

"Malfoy's got my Remembrall, Professor."

Scowling, Malfoy quickly dropped the Remembrall back on the table.

"Just looking," he said, and he sloped away with Crabbe and Goyle behind him.

"Sure he is," Moody growled. "And I'm a ballerina." They all laughed at that.

"I never knew that you could be so funny Mad-Eye," Tonks said grinning.

At three-thirty that a†ernoon, Harry, Ron, and the other Gryﬃndors hurried down the front steps onto the grounds for their ﬁrst ﬂying lesson. It was a clear, breezy day, and the grass rippled under their feet as they marched down the sloping lawns toward a smooth, ﬂat lawn on the opposite side of the grounds to the forbidden forest, whose trees were swaying darkly in the distance.

The Slytherins were already there, and so were twenty broomsticks lying in neat lines on the ground. Harry had heard Fred and George Weasley complain about the school brooms, saying that some of them started to vibrate if you ﬂew too high, or always ﬂew slightly to the le†.

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

"Appropriate for a ﬂying instructor then," Kingsley said conversationally.

"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.

"Ugh," Sirius groaned. "You think that Hogwarts would get some new brooms. These sound like the same ones that we ﬁrst used!"

"I think that these add just a little bit of character," Tonks smirked.

"Stick out your right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch at the front, "and say 'Up!'"

"UP" everyone shouted.

Harry's broom jumped into his hand at once, but it was one of the few that did.

"Oh," Sirius said excitedly. "That proves that he has a natural giG for ﬂying!"

"You already knew that," Remus said patiently.

Hermione Granger's had simply rolled over on the ground, and Neville's hadn't moved at all. Perhaps brooms, like horses, could tell when you were afraid, thought Harry; there was a quaver in Neville's voice that said only too clearly that he wanted to keep his feet on the ground.

"You know, I've never thought of it that way," Kingsley said, speculatively. "Someone should look into that. What do you think?"

"I think that it's worth looking into," Remus agreed. "If only we weren't in the middle of a war."

Madam Hooch then showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding oﬀ the end, and walked up and down the rows correcting their

grips. Harry and Ron were delighted when she told Malfoy he'd been doing it wrong for years.

Sirius and Tonks both laughed at that.

"That outta take him down a peg or two," Sirius said, chortling.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick oﬀ from the ground, hard," said Madam Hooch. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle — three — two —"

Sirius was practically bouncing in his seat at this.

But Neville, nervous and jumpy and frightened of being le† on the ground, pushed oﬀ hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch's lips.

"Come back, boy!" she shouted, but Neville was rising straight up like a cork shot out of a bo†le — twelve feet — twenty feet.

"My gut tells me that something bad is about to happen," said Mad-Eye interestedly.

Harry saw his scared white 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 Neville lay facedown on the grass in a heap.

"Told ya," Moody said in a know-it-all tone.

"You could sound a little more sympathetic for the poor boy," Kingsley told him. "It's only been his ﬁrst week and he's hurt."

His broomstick was still rising higher and higher, and started to dri† lazily toward the forbidden forest and out of sight.

Madam Hooch was bending over Neville, her face as white as his.

"Broken wrist," Harry heard her mu†er. "Come on, boy — it's all right, up you get."

Several of them winced. Though Mad-Eye, who had far worst injuries, didn't looked bothered at all.

She turned to the rest of the class.

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

Neville, his face tear-streaked, clutching his wrist, hobbled oﬀ with Madam Hooch, who had her arm around him.

No sooner were they out of earshot than Malfoy burst into laughter.

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

They all glared, wishing that they could get their hands on that little rat. "Remus?" Sirius asked slowly, "Why didn't you ever give that git a detention when you were teaching there?"

"I wish I could've," Remus muttered resentfully. "But I'm afraid that Malfoy was always careful not to let any teacher know that he was bullying other students. So no one had any proof."

"When Dumbledore comes back," Tonks said with her ﬁsts clenched, "We should make him read this. See if he could do anything."

"Are you forgetting that all of this is ancient history?" Moody exclaimed in annoyance. "This all happened almost 4 years ago; keep reading."

Remus obliged, but he was still frowning.

The other Slytherins joined in.

"Shut up, Malfoy," snapped Parvati Patil.

"Ooh, sticking up for Longbo†om?" said Pansy Parkinson, a hard-faced Slytherin girl. "Never thought you'd like fat li†le crybabies, Parvati."

"Look!" said Malfoy, darting forward and snatching something out of the grass. "It's that stupid thing Longbo†om's gran sent him."

The Remembrall gli†ered in the sun as he held it up.

"Oh, he better not break that," Sirius threatened. "What's with Slytherins being so awful? I think that must be a requirement."

"Sirius," Kingsley said in his calming tone. "Everyone is a little bit of a monster when they're children. Most ﬁghts break out when they're young. Wait for them to grow up a little more."

Sirius snorted. He had a feeling that brat was only going to get worse in the next few years.

"Give that here, Malfoy," said Harry quietly. Everyone stopped talking to watch.

"I can see where this is going," Mad-Eye said, his eye beginning to spin around like a globe.

"Get him, Harry!" Sirius whooped. "This sounds like something James would do."

"No, actually," Remus replied, as a proud smirk also appeared on his face. "I think this sounds more like Lily when she was standing up for someone."

Sirius thought that over and smirked. "Yeah. She had a habit for always standing up for the underdog. Ah, too bad that she hated brooms. I think it's safe to say that she didn't get her talent for ﬂying from her."

Malfoy smiled nastily.

"Punch him!" Sirius advised.

"I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbo†om to ﬁnd — how about — up a tree?"

"Give it here!" Harry yelled, but Malfoy had leapt onto his broomstick and taken oﬀ. He hadn't been lying, he could ﬂy well.

Hovering level with the topmost branches of an oak he called, "Come and get it, Po†er!"

Harry grabbed his broom.

"Yes!" Sirius cheered.

"No!" shouted Hermione Granger. "Madam Hooch told us not to move — you'll get us all into trouble."

"Well, he does have a good reason," Remus replied.

"And this way," Kingsley spoke, "If Harry gets caught then at least Malfoy will be in trouble to."

Harry ignored her. Blood was pounding in his ears. He mounted the 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 realized he'd found something he could do without being taught — this was easy, this was wonderful.

Sirius, Remus, and Tonks all had identical wide smiles on their faces.

"That's my boy!" Sirius cried out proudly. He remembered the rush of freedom the ﬁrst time that he ﬂew with his motorbike. It was the best feeling in the world… oh, he missed that screaming metal deathtrap more than ever… he would have to ask Hagrid what he ever did with it.

He pulled his broomstick up a li†le to take it even higher, and heard screams and gasps of girls back on the ground and an admiring whoop

from Ron.

He turned his broomstick sharply to face Malfoy in midair. Malfoy looked stunned.

"Ha! The git doesn't expect him to be able to ﬂy!" Sirius yelled gleefully.

"Knock him oﬀ his broom," Tonks cheered on as if they were at a Quidditch matc.

"Give it here," Harry called, "or I'll knock you oﬀ that broom!"

"Do it!" Sirius encouraged.

"Oh, yeah?" said Malfoy, trying to sneer, but looking worried.

"Yeah, not so tough now when someone stands up to you, eh, Malfoy?" Sirius jeered.

Harry knew, somehow, what to do. He leaned forward and grasped the broom tightly in both hands, and it shot toward Malfoy like a javelin.

Malfoy only just got out of the way in time; Harry made a sharp about- face and held the broom steady. A few people below were clapping.

As was Sirius. "Look at that!" he called to them all. "First time on a broom and he's kicking Malfoy's butt! That is pure ability there!"

"Yes, yes," Kingsley chuckled. "We can hear it as well, Sirius."

"No Crabbe and Goyle up here to save your neck, Malfoy," Harry called. The same thought seemed to have struck Malfoy.

"Catch it if you can, then!" he shouted, and he threw the glass ball high into the air and streaked back toward the ground.

"He didn't?!" Tonks yelled, her good mood falling faster than the Remembrall.

"He did," Remus said shaking his head. "Why am I not surprised?" Sirius asked.

Harry saw, as though in slow motion, the ball rise up in the air and then start to fall. He leaned forward and pointed his broom handle down — next second he was gathering speed in a steep dive, racing the ball — wind whistled in his ears, mingled with the screams of people watching

— he stretched out his hand — a foot from the ground he caught it, just in time to pull his broom straight, and he toppled gently onto the grass with the Remembrall clutched safely in his ﬁst.

Sirius stared at Remus, stunned. "Can we read that again?" he pleaded.

Remus nodded, thoughtfully. How could a ﬁrst year be that good? He then re-read the paragraph again and Sirius yelled at the top of his lungs, "That was bloody brilliant!"

"And that was his ﬁrst time on a broom?" Tonks said stunned. "I know that everyone says that he's a good ﬂyer… but this…"

"You know the old saying," Kingsley asked smiling. "'Birds of a feather ﬂock together…' it applies to both humans and birds. They look out for their own."

"Don't get too excited just yet…" Mad-Eye interrupted the celebrating.

"HARRY POTTER!"

His heart sank faster than he'd just dived. Professor McGonagall was running toward them.

"You've got to be kidding me…" Tonks groaned.

Sirius sighed, "C'mon, don't give him detention! He was standing up for Neville!"

"Something tells me that she's not going to punish him, Sirius," Kingsley said attentively.

He got to his feet, trembling.

"Never — in all my time at Hogwarts —"

"Have you ever seen such a natural ﬂyer," Sirius ﬁnished for her cheerfully.

Professor McGonagall was almost speechless with shock, and her glasses ﬂashed furiously, "— how dare you — might have broken your neck —"

Sirius ﬂinched horribly at that line. "It wasn't his fault, Professor —" "Be quiet, Miss Patil —"

"But Malfoy —"

"That's enough, Mr. Weasley. Po†er, follow me, now."

Harry caught sight of Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle's triumphant faces as he le†, walking numbly in Professor McGonagall's wake as she strode toward the castle. He was going to be expelled, he just knew it.

"Overreacting much?" Sirius chuckled.

"Yeah Harry," Tonks said. "You wouldn't be expelled. The worst that McGonagall will do is give you a detention and lose some points. At least she'll know who to recommend for the Gryﬃndor Seeker next year."

He wanted to say something to defend himself, but there seemed to be something wrong with his voice. Professor McGonagall was sweeping along without even looking at him; he had to jog to keep up. Now he'd done it. He hadn't even lasted two weeks. He'd be packing his bags in ten minutes. What would the Dursleys say when he turned up on the doorstep?

"You aren't going back there," Sirius said ﬁrmly. "So stop worrying!"

Up the front steps, up the marble staircase inside, and still Professor McGonagall didn't say a word to him.

She wrenched open doors and marched along corridors with Harry troGng miserably behind her. Maybe she was taking him to Dumbledore. He thought of Hagrid, expelled but allowed to stay on as gamekeeper.

Perhaps he could be Hagrid's assistant. His stomach twisted as he imagined it, watching Ron and the others becoming wizards, while he stumped around the grounds carrying Hagrid's bag.

"Argh, again with negative thoughts!" Sirius cried exasperated. "He sure thinks low of himself doesn't he?" Remus said sadly. That

sentence got them all depressed and angry at the Dursleys all over again.

Professor McGonagall stopped outside a classroom. She opened the door and poked her head inside.

"Excuse me, Professor Flitwick, could I borrow Wood for a moment?"

Wood? thought Harry, bewildered; was Wood a cane she was going to use on him?

"NO!" Sirius yelled.

"What was his Muggle school like if that's what he expects from teachers?" Tonks wondered, shocked.

"He's got quite an imagination," Kingsley said.

"Just another thing he gets from his mother," Moody answered.

But Wood turned out to be a person, a burly ﬁ†h-year boy who came out of Flitwick's class looking confused.

"No kidding!" Sirius said, stunned. "What's going on here?"

"Follow me, you two," said Professor McGonagall, and they marched on up the corridor, Wood looking curiously at Harry.

"In here."

Professor McGonagall pointed them into a classroom that was empty except for Peeves, who was busy writing rude words on the blackboard.

"You can always count on Peeves to lighten up any situation," Sirius said beaming. But he was still baﬄed to what was going on here.

"Out, Peeves!" she barked. Peeves threw the chalk into a bin, which clanged loudly, and he swooped out cursing. Professor McGonagall slammed the door behind him and turned to face the two boys.

"Po†er, this is Oliver Wood. Wood — I've found you a Seeker."

The room was ﬁlled with stunned silence.

"SHE MAKED HIM A SEEKER!" Sirius cried ecstatically. "AND HE'S JUST A FIRST YEAR!"

"Just a ﬁrst year…" Remus said, half pleased, half stunned. "Why should I even be surprised?"

"Only Harry would be put onto the team and not in detention aGer a stunt like that," Tonks said, happy for him.

"A bit risky though," Kingsley said, still calmly. "Quidditch can get pretty rough… and he's only eleven…"

But Sirius wasn't listening. He was so happy that it took some time to get him to calm down and sit still. Finally, Moody lost his temper and threatened that he would jinx Sirius so badly that he will be forced to crawl everywhere for the rest of his life unless he shut up and stop moving. Sirius did what he was told, but nothing could wipe the grin oﬀ his face. He had to be sure to ask Harry why he didn't tell him all this before.

Wood's expression changed from puzzlement to delight. "Are you serious, Professor?"

"No, I…"

"Don't you dare ﬁnish that joke," Remus warned him.

"Absolutely," said Professor McGonagall crisply. "The boy's a natural. I've never seen anything like it. Was that your ﬁrst time on a broomstick, Po†er?"

"On a real broom anyway," Sirius said smiling. He had bought baby Harry that toy broomstick for his ﬁrst birthday… of course, Lily threatened to turn him into a rug for doing that… he grinned at the memories. Even back then, it was obvious that boy was going to be a star player.

Harry nodded silently. He didn't have a clue what was going on, but he didn't seem to be being expelled, and some of the feeling started coming back to his legs.

"Of course not," Sirius scoﬀed. "AGer all, I ﬁnished school and I wasn't expelled."

"How, I'll never know," Remus muttered to himself good-natured.

"He caught that thing in his hand a†er a ﬁ†y-foot dive," Professor McGonagall told Wood. "Didn't even scratch himself. Charlie Weasley couldn't have done it."

Wood was now looking as though all his dreams had come true at once. "Ever seen a game of Quidditch, Po†er?" he asked excitedly.

"No," Sirius said, his grin fading slightly at those words. He should've been the one to have taken him to games… but…

"Wood's captain of the Gryﬃndor team," Professor McGonagall explained.

"He's just the build for a Seeker, too," said Wood, now walking around Harry and staring at him. "Light —speedy — we'll have to get him a decent broom, Professor — a Nimbus Two Thousand or a Cleansweep Seven, I'd say."

"I shall speak to Professor Dumbledore and see if we can't bend the ﬁrst- year rule. Heaven knows, we need a be†er team than last year. FlaMened in that last match by Slytherin, I couldn't look Severus Snape in the face for weeks…"

"I don't blame her," Sirius muttered, still smiling. "I try to avoid looking at him whenever I can too."

"Quidditch really is the only thing that McGonagall is willing to bend rules for," Remus laughed.

Kingsley hid his smile. He remembered Dumbledore once telling him that in her youth, Minerva had been a giGed Quidditch player, although a nasty fall in her ﬁnal year (a foul during the Gryﬃndor versus Slytherin game which would decide the Cup winner) leG her with concussion, several broken ribs and a lifelong desire to see Slytherin crushed on the Quidditch pitch.

Professor McGonagall peered sternly over her glasses at Harry.

"I want to hear you're training hard, Po†er, or I may change my mind about punishing you."

Then she suddenly smiled.

"Just the ﬁrst of many examples of McGonagall's favoritism to Harry," Kingsley said with a smile.

"Your father would have been proud," she said. "He was an excellent Quidditch player himself."

"Did she just say something nice about James Potter?" Mad-Eye said in surprise. "That's got to be a ﬁrst one for me."

"Yeah," Sirius said in wonder.

"You're joking."

"No I'm not," Sirius began but Remus laughed.

"No, Sirius," he said with a grin. "I'm reading again."

It was dinnertime. Harry had just ﬁnished telling Ron what had happened when he'd le† the grounds with Professor McGonagall. Ron had a piece of steak and kidney pie halfway to his mouth, but he'd forgo†en all about it.

"Seeker?" he said. "But ﬁrst years never — you must be the youngest house player in about —"

" — a century," said Harry, shoveling pie into his mouth. He felt particularly hungry a†er the excitement of the a†ernoon. "Wood told me."

"A century," Sirius repeated with awe in his tone. "And he never told me…?"

Ron was so amazed, so impressed, he just sat and gaped at Harry.

He wasn't the only one feeling that was—Sirius was the exact same way, gaping at the book.

"I start training next week," said Harry. "Only don't tell anyone, Wood wants to keep it a secret."

"Not going to happen," Kingsley smirked.

"Somehow news travels fast in Hogwarts," Tonks agreed. "You can't keep anything quiet for long."

Fred and George Weasley now came into the hall, spo†ed Harry, and hurried over.

"Well done," said George in a low voice. "Wood told us. We're on the team too — Beaters."

"Are they any good?" Tonks asked Remus.

"They're excellent," Remus said. "Not only are they built like Bludgers, but it's impossible to tell them apart when they're in the air."

"I tell you, we're going to win that Quidditch cup for sure this year," said Fred. "We haven't won since Charlie le†, but this year's team is going to be brilliant. You must be good, Harry, Wood was almost skipping when he told us."

"Of course he is!" Sirius said proudly.

"Anyway, we've got to go, Lee Jordan reckons he's found a new secret passageway out of the school."

"Bet it's that one behind the statue of Gregory the Smarmy that we found in our ﬁrst week. See you."

"They found that in their ﬁrst week?!" Sirius groaned. "We didn't ﬁnd that one until the end of our ﬁrst semester!"

Fred and George had hardly disappeared when someone far less welcome turned up: Malfoy, ﬂanked by Crabbe and Goyle.

"Having a last meal, Po†er? When are you geGng the train back to the Muggles?"

"Oh! That kid is really starting to get on my nerves," Sirius said.

"Yes, but he's also going to be sorry when he realizes that Potter's on the team," Mad-Eye said briskly.

"Oooooohhh, I can't wait to see his reaction when he ﬁnds out," Tonks smirked.

"You're a lot braver now that you're back on the ground and you've got your li†le friends with you," said Harry coolly. There was of course nothing at all li†le about Crabbe and Goyle, but as the High Table was full of teachers, neither of them could do more than crack their knuckles and scowl.

"I'd take you on anytime on my own," said Malfoy. "Tonight, if you want. Wizard's duel. Wands only — no contact.

"Not the best idea," Remus advised worriedly. "I hope that Harry just says no." But then again… the title of the chapter was called 'the Midnight Duel…'

"What? No! If he says that, then Malfoy will call him a coward! Also, Harry can take him any day of the week," Sirius complained.

"He doesn't know any spells yet!" Remus reminded him

"What's wrong with using your ﬁsts? Besides, he didn't know how to ﬂy either, and looked what happened! He's youngest player in a century!" Sirius answered.

"Shut up both of you!" Mad-Eye barked.

What's the ma†er? Never heard of a wizard's duel before, I suppose?"

"Of course he has," said Ron, wheeling around. "I'm his second, who's yours?"

Malfoy looked at Crabbe and Goyle, sizing them up.

"Crabbe," he said. "Midnight all right? We'll meet you in the trophy room; that's always unlocked."

"Yeah, in the day," Remus said shaking his head. "But it's locked at night. This is obviously a trap."

"And what if it isn't?" Sirius retorted.

When Malfoy had gone, Ron and Harry looked at each other.

"What is a wizard's duel?" said Harry. "And what do you mean, you're my second?"

"Well, a second's there to take over if you die," said Ron casually, geGng started at last on his cold pie.

"Nice Ron," Tonks chuckled.

"Not the best way to relax him…" Sirius commented.

Catching the look on Harry's face, he added quickly, "But people only die in proper duels, you know, with real wizards. The most you and Malfoy'll be able to do is send sparks at each other. Neither of you knows enough magic to do any real damage. I bet he expected you to refuse, anyway."

"And what if I wave my wand and nothing happens?"

"Just punch him," Sirius advised. "That's what I'd do."

"And that is exactly why you would make a bad Auror," Moody said gruﬄy, "You're too impatient."

Before Sirius could come up with a good insult, Remus read out, "Throw it away and punch him on the nose," Ron suggested. "Well, I suppose that works too," Tonks said. Sirius grinned at that.

"Excuse me."

"Wonder who that is?" Remus asked with a sly smile. They both looked up. It was Hermione Granger. "Can't a person eat in peace in this place?" said Ron. Hermione ignored him and spoke to Harry.

"I couldn't help overhearing what you and Malfoy were saying —"

"Sure you could," Tonks declared with a smirk. Hermione was almost as nosy as Harry was.

"Bet you could," Ron mu†ered.

"— and you mustn't go wandering around the school at night, think of the points you'll lose Gryﬃndor if you're caught, and you're bound to be. It's really very selﬁsh of you."

"And it's really none of your business," said Harry. "Good-bye," said Ron.

All the same, it wasn't what you'd call the perfect end to the day, Harry thought, as he lay awake much later listening to Dean and Seamus falling asleep (Neville wasn't back from the hospital wing). Ron had spent all evening giving him advice such as "If he tries to curse you, you'd be†er dodge it, because I can't remember how to block them."

"Helpful," Sirius said sarcastically.

"Like you knew how block, when you were a ﬁrst-year," Tonks said. "Moreover, it's not that bad advice," Remus pointed out.

There was a very good chance they were going to get caught by Filch or Mrs. Norris, and Harry felt he was pushing his luck, breaking another school rule today.

"Yes," Remus said nodding. "You really shouldn't be doing this, Harry." "Where's your sense of adventure?" Sirius demanded.

"And how would you feel if they got caught and Minerva decides to punish him?" he asked and Sirius fell silent.

On the other hand, Malfoy's sneering face kept looming up out of the darkness — this was his big chance to beat Malfoy face-to-face. He couldn't miss it.

"I'm getting the feeling that Malfoy is setting Harry up," Tonks said with a sigh.

"Yeah, that does sound like something a gang of Slytherins would do," Sirius agreed, his smile ﬁnally fading.

"Half-past eleven," Ron mu†ered at last, "we'd be†er go."

They pulled on their bathrobes, picked up their wands, and crept across the tower room, down the spiral staircase, and into the Gryﬃndor common room. A few embers were still glowing in the ﬁreplace, turning all the armchairs into hunched black shadows. They had almost reached the portrait hole when a voice spoke from the chair nearest them, "I can't believe you're going to do this, Harry."

A lamp ﬂickered on. It was Hermione Granger, wearing a pink bathrobe and a frown.

"Of course she would be," Remus said.

"Just how did they become friends?" Tonks asked in amazement. "We should ﬁnd out soon," Kingsley declared.

"You!" said Ron furiously. "Go back to bed!"

"I almost told your brother," Hermione snapped, "Percy — he's a prefect, he'd put a stop to this."

Harry couldn't believe anyone could be so interfering.

"But he'll be grateful for that interfering in the future," Kingsley said coolly.

"Come on," he said to Ron. He pushed open the portrait of the Fat Lady and climbed through the hole.

Hermione wasn't going to give up that easily. She followed Ron through the portrait hole, hissing at them like an angry goose.

"She does sound like Molly here," Mad-Eye noticed amused. Everyone else grinned at the comparison.

"Don't you care about Gryﬃndor, do you only care about yourselves, I don't want Slytherin to win the house cup, and you'll lose all the points I got from Professor McGonagall for knowing about Switching Spells."

"Go away."

"All right, but I warned you, you just remember what I said when you're on the train home tomorrow, you're so —"

"So what?" Sirius asked.

"It doesn't say," Remus said in surprise, and before they could ask what he was talking about, he went on:

But what they were, they didn't ﬁnd out. Hermione had turned to the portrait of the Fat Lady to get back inside and found herself facing an empty painting. The Fat Lady had gone on a nighGme visit and Hermione was locked out of Gryﬃndor tower.

"What are the odds of that happening?" Remus said, closing his eyes and trying not to laugh.

"It's just one thing aGer another."

"Now what am I going to do?" she asked shrilly.

"That's your problem," said Ron. "We've got to go, we're going to be late."

They hadn't even reached the end of the corridor when Hermione caught up with them.

"I'm coming with you," she said. "You arenot."

"D'you think I'm going to stand out here and wait for Filch to catch me? If he ﬁnds all three of us I'll tell him the truth, that I was trying to stop you, and you can back me up."

"Why would they do that?" Sirius demanded.

"It wouldn't hurt for them to take her with them!" Tonks said indigently. "I'm sure that she knows more useful spells than they do."

"You've got some nerve —" said Ron loudly.

"Shut up, both of you!" said Harry sharply. "I heard something."

Mad-Eye nodded approvingly. "He's paying attention to his surroundions…"

It was a sort of snuﬄing.

"Mrs. Norris?" breathed Ron, squinting through the dark.

Sirius and Tonks both held their breaths.

It wasn't Mrs. Norris.

It was Neville. He was curled up on the ﬂoor, fast asleep, but jerked suddenly awake as they crept nearer.

They sighed with relief.

"What's he doing there?" Kingsley asked in surprise.

"Thank goodness you found me! I've been out here for hours, I couldn't remember the new password to get in to bed."

"Keep your voice down, Neville. The password's 'Pig snout' but it won't help you now, the Fat Lady's gone oﬀ somewhere."

"How's your arm?" said Harry.

"That's nice of him," Tonks replied.

"Fine," said Neville, showing them. "Madam Pomfrey mended it in about a minute."

"Then what took him so long to get back to the common room?" Sirius demanded.

"Maybe he got lost?" Tonks suggested.

"Good — well, look, Neville, we've got to be somewhere, we'll see you later —"

"Don't leave me!" said Neville, scrambling to his feet, "I don't want to stay here alone, the Bloody Baron's been past twice already."

"And the plot thickens—" Tonks said dramatically.

Ron looked at his watch and then glared furiously at Hermione and Neville.

"If either of you get us caught, I'll never rest until I've learned that Curse of the Bogies Quirrell told us about, and used it on you."

Hermione opened her mouth, perhaps to tell Ron exactly how to use the Curse of the Bogies, but Harry hissed at her to be quiet and beckoned them all forward.

They ﬂi†ed along corridors striped with bars of moonlight from the high windows. At every turn Harry expected to run into Filch or Mrs. Norris, but they were lucky.

"I don't like this," Sirius said now getting worried.

They sped up a staircase to the third ﬂoor and tiptoed toward the trophy room.

Malfoy and Crabbe weren't there yet.

"Cause they aren't going to show up!" Moody barked.

The crystal trophy cases glimmered where the moonlight caught them. Cups, shields, plates, and statues winked silver and gold in the darkness. They edged along the walls, keeping their eyes on the doors at either end of the room. Harry took out his wand in case Malfoy leapt in and started at once.

"Good thinking," Mad-Eye agreed.

"Alastor, I don't think that they're going to attack," Kingsley said. "I don't think they're even going to show up."

"I know that, but, still," Moody said irritated. "Those are good impulses. They could save his life at any time."

The minutes crept by.

"He's not going show, is he?" Sirius said, clearly disappointed.

"He's late, maybe he's chickened out," Ron whispered.

Then a noise in the next room made them jump. Harry had only just raised his wand when they heard someone speak — and it wasn't Malfoy.

"Sniﬀ around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner."

"Why am I not surprised?" Tonks said.

"Man," Sirius said shaking his head. "This kid is as low as you can get. If it were James vs. Snape, Snape would at least have the guts to show up!"

"Did you just compliment Snape?" Remus asked with a smirk.

Sirius thought about this for a second before he muttered sulkily, "Just read."

It was Filch speaking to Mrs. Norris. Horror-struck, Harry waved madly at the other three to follow him as quickly as possible; they scurried silently toward the door, away from Filch's voice. Neville's robes had barely whipped round the corner when they heard Filch enter the trophy room.

"They're in here somewhere," they heard him mu†er, "probablyhiding."

"This way!" Harry mouthed to the others and, petriﬁed, they began to creep down a long gallery full of suits of armor. They could hear Filch geGng nearer. Neville suddenly let out a frightened squeak and broke into a run he tripped, grabbed Ron around the waist, and the pair of them toppled right into a suit of armor.

"Now do you see why your clumsiness is a bad thing?" Moody asked Tonks and she stuck her tongue out at him.

"At least I never tripped into a suit of armor like that!" she said. 'At least, not since I was at school anyway…'

"Yeah, but you tripped over that dumb umbrella stand several times," he pointed out.

She gave him a nasty look and Remus continued, trying not to laugh.

The clanging and crashing were enough to wake the whole castle.

"RUN!" Harry yelled, and the four of them sprinted down the gallery, not looking back to see whether Filch was following — they swung around the doorpost and galloped down one corridor then another, Harry in the lead, without any idea where they were or where they were going — they ripped through a tapestry and found themselves in a hidden passageway, hurtled along it and came out near their Charms classroom, which they knew was miles from the trophy room.

"Well, it looks like they just discovered a secret passage. There is one near the trophy room now that I think about it," Remus said.

"There is?" Tonks asked surprised.

"Yeah," Sirius concurred. "That shortcut is the only way I know that can get you to the Charms classroom that fast."

"I think we've lost him," Harry panted, leaning against the cold wall and wiping his forehead. Neville was bent double, wheezing and splu†ering.

"I —told — you," Hermione gasped, clutching at the stitch in her chest,"I

— told — you."

"I don't think that now is the best time for an 'I told you so,'" Sirius said, though slightly amused.

"We've got to get back to Gryﬃndor tower," said Ron, "quickly as possible."

"Malfoy tricked you," Hermione said to Harry. "You realize that, don't you? He was never going to meet you — Filch knew someone was going to be in the trophy room, Malfoy must have tipped him oﬀ."

"It's obvious now," Tonks said.

Harry thought she was probably right, but he wasn't going to tell her that.

"Let's go."

It wasn't going to be that simple. They hadn't gone more than a dozen paces when a doorknob ra†led and something came shooting out of a classroom in front of them.

It was Peeves.

"That's bad!" Sirius and Remus said together.

"Why? He's not going to tell Filch," Kingsley said confused.

"But he's not going to be quiet either," Sirius answered. "Man, just one bit of bad luck aGer another."

He caught sight of them and gave a squeal of delight. "Shut up, Peeves — please — you'll get us thrown out." Peeves cackled.

"Wandering around at midnight, Ickle Firsties? Tut, tut, tut. Naughty, naughty, you'll get caughty."

"Not if you don't give us away, Peeves, please."

"Should tell Filch, I should," said Peeves in a saintly voice, but his eyes gli†ered wickedly. "It's for your own good, you know."

"He won't do that," Sirius smirked. "The more students chucked out, the happier Filch will be. And making him miserable is Peeves duty."

"Get out of the way," snapped Ron, taking a swipe at Peeves. This was a big mistake.

"Yeah," Sirius said. "I made that mistake once. Me and James got caught and McGonagall gave us both detention for a month."

"Well, you both did deserve it," Remus said grinning from ear to ear. "What happened?" Tonks asked interested.

Remus was about to tell her when Moody slammed his staﬀ down, causing them all to jump. "Hurry up!"

"Ok!" Sirius said. "You don't need to shout."

"STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" Peeves bellowed, "STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!"

Ducking under Peeves, they ran for their lives, right to the end of the corridor where they slammed into a door — and it was locked.

"This is it!" Ron moaned, as they pushed helplessly at the door, "We're done for! This is the end!"

"They were all so dramatic when they were eleven weren't they?" Sirius said smiling.

"Can't blame them," Tonks said lightly. "It's almost as if the castle is against them here."

They could hear footsteps, Filch running as fast as he could toward Peeves's shouts.

"Oh, move over," Hermione snarled.

She grabbed Harry's wand, tapped the lock, and whispered, "Alohomora!"

"I bet that they're glad that they brought her along now," Kingsley said.

The lock clicked and the door swung open — they piled through it, shut it quickly, and pressed their ears against it, listening.

"Which way did they go, Peeves?" Filch was saying. "Quick, tell me." "Say 'please.'"

"Don't mess with me, Peeves, now where did they go?"

"Shan't say nothing if you don't say please," said Peeves in his annoying singsong voice.

"All right —please."

"NOTHING! Ha haaa! Told you I wouldn't say nothing if you didn't say please! Ha ha! Haaaaaa!"

Sirius roared with laughter, "Good one!"

And they heard the sound of Peeves whooshing away and Filch cursing in rage.

"He thinks this door is locked," Harry whispered. "I think we'll be okay — get oﬀ, Neville!"

For Neville had been tugging on the sleeve of Harry's bathrobe for the last minute. "What?"

Harry turned around — and saw, quite clearly, what. For a moment, he was sure he'd walked into a nightmare — this was too much, on top of everything that had happened so far.

"What is it?" demanded Tonks.

"What on earth could've happen now?!" Sirius cried.

They weren't in a room, as he had supposed. They were in a corridor. The forbidden corridor on the third ﬂoor. And now they knew why it was

forbidden.

Everyone was holding their breath.

They were looking straight into the eyes of a monstrous dog,

Sirius sighed in relief, and then realized what Remus had just read. "Wait— what's so bad about that?"

"If you be quiet and let me read then maybe we'll ﬁnd out!" Remus yelled, very tense.

a dog that ﬁlled the whole space between ceiling and ﬂoor. It had three heads. 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.

Sirius had gone very white, feeling light-headed, he looked at the others. Remus and Tonks both looked as scared and stunned as he did—while Mad-Eye was standing there looking both interested and relaxed. Kingsley on the other hand looked like he was trying to ﬁgure out a complex question.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Sirius screamed.

It was standing quite still, all six eyes staring at them, and Harry knew that the only reason they weren't already dead was that their sudden appearance had taken it by surprise, but it was quickly geGng over that, there was no mistaking what those thunderous growls meant.

Harry groped for the doorknob — between Filch and death, he'd take Filch.

"You better take Filch, Harry!" Sirius yelled, fear ﬂooding through him.

"Another good show of instinct," Moody said thoughtfully. "Most people would freeze up and get killed."

"You aren't helping!" yelled Sirius.

"Sirius!" Remus said as he put a calming hand on his shoulder, "Calm down! They're just ﬁne! You know that they're just ﬁne."

Sirius didn't seem to be able to hear him though. He kept wringing his hands and looked like he was about to scream.

They fell backward — Harry slammed the door shut, and they ran, they almost ﬂew, back down the corridor. Filch must have hurried oﬀ to look for them somewhere else, because they didn't see him anywhere, but they hardly cared — all they wanted to do was put as much space as possible between them and that monster. They didn't stop running until they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady on the seventh ﬂoor.

"Where on earth have you all been?" she asked, looking at their bathrobes hanging oﬀ their shoulders and their ﬂushed, sweaty faces.

"Oh, nothing much," Sirius mocked. "Just got back from a fake duel, been chased across the school by Filch, and were almost eaten by a giant three- headed dog!"

"Never mind that — pig snout, pig snout," panted Harry, and the portrait swung forward. They scrambled into the common room and collapsed, trembling, into armchairs.

It was a while before any of them said anything. Neville, indeed, looked as if he'd never speak again.

"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" said Ron ﬁnally. "If any dog needs exercise, that one does."

"That's a good question," Tonks said, still looking a little pale. "What were

they thinking?"

"No idea," Sirius growled. "But next time that Dumbledore comes around here… remind me—to kill him!"

"What I want to know is," Moody said thoughtfully. "How could they just stand there listening to Peeves' taunting of Filch but did not happen to notice that the beast sat ﬁxed behind them?"

"Oh, shut up!" Sirius snapped at him.

Hermione had got both her breath and her bad temper back again. "You don't use your eyes, any of you, do you?" she snapped. "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"

"The ﬂoor?" Harry suggested. "I wasn't looking at its feet, I was too busy with its heads."

Sirius gave a hallow laugh, "Yes they would keep him busy. I know that it would distract me!"

"Granger is another one who has some good intuition," Moody said to himself. "She's also very observant."

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

"The package!" Remus cried out, ﬁnally understanding what was going on. "What package?" Sirius demanded.

"That package that Hagrid got from Gringotts!" Remus said rubbing his eyes. "I can't believe that we never realized it before!"

"What are you talking about?" Tonks demanded.

"The Sorcerer's Stone!" Remus said, showing them all the front cover. "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone! That's what's going on! Hagrid got the stone from Gringotts and they hid it in the school! The dog is standing over a trapdoor! I bet you anything that the dog is guarding it!"

It took some time for it all to sink in.

"But why is the stone in the school in the ﬁrst place?" Tonks demanded.

"Maybe if we stop interrupting every ﬁve minutes," Moody said, sounded irritated, "Then we'll ﬁnd out!"

Remus quickly went back to his page and read out:

She stood up, glaring at them.

"I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed — or worse, expelled. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed."

"Or worse? She needs to get her priorities straight!" Tonks yelled incredulously. "What was with these kids back then?"

"So why did she risk getting expelled, and didn't stay there and get eaten by the dog?" Sirius asked a little hysterically.

Ron stared a†er her, his mouth open.

"No, we don't mind," he said. "You'd think we dragged her along, wouldn't you."

But Hermione had given Harry something else to think about as he climbed back into bed. The dog was guarding something… What had Hagrid said? Gringo†s was the safest place in the world for something you wanted to hide — except perhaps Hogwarts.

It looked as though Harry had found out where the grubby li†le package from vault seven hundred and thirteen was.

"Great, now they're going to try and ﬁnd out more," said Sirius fearfully.

"But you know they're ﬁne, Padfoot," Remus said soothingly. "This all happened years ago!"

"I know that!" Sirius yelled. "And I also know that I don't like where this is going!"

"Speaking of going…" Kingsley looked at his watch, "I still have a little bit of time," he said. "I think I can stick around to read more, but just for one more chapter I think. AGer this next one I really must be getting back."

They all nodded at him before Remus held out the book. "Do you want to read again before you go?"

Kingsley thought about it for a moment and then nodded, "I don't see why not." He took the book and clearing his throat before he said, "Chapter 10: Halloween."

Chapter 11

(I own nothing. Copyright belongs to J.K. Rowling)

Chapter 10: Halloween

Kingsley thought about it for a moment and then nodded, "I don't see why not." He took the book and clearing his throat before he said, "Chapter 10: Halloween."

"Finally!" said Sirius clapping his hands together. "The Halloween feasts are always the best!"

Malfoy couldn't believe his eyes when he saw that Harry and Ron were still at Hogwarts the next day, looking tired but perfectly cheerful.

"Shocking isn't it?" Sirius asked with a grin. "The look on his face must've been a sight to see."

Indeed, by the next morning Harry and Ron thought that meeting the three-headed dog had been an excellent adventure, and they were quite keen to have another one.

Remus gave a deep sigh. "Typical," he said. "What's wrong?" Tonks asked.

"What's wrong is the boy is already a danger magnet and he wants to go looking for adventure," Moody exclaimed shaking his head. But then an evil smirk stretched across his twisted face. "I like the way that these kids think."

They looked at him wearily. They didn't like the way that he was smiling… that couldn't be a good thing.

In the meantime, Harry ﬁlled Ron in about the package that seemed to have been moved from Gringo†s to Hogwarts, and they spent a lot of

time wondering what could possibly need such heavy protection.

"The Sorcerer's Stone," Sirius said in a tone of awe.

"Yes, we know, Sirius," Tonks said a little annoyed. "But they don't."

"It's either really valuable or really dangerous," said Ron.

"Or both," Sirius said, knowing how dangerous that Stone can be in the wrong hands.

"Or both," said Harry.

Sirius smiled at that.

But as all they knew for sure about the mysterious object was that it was about two inches long, they didn't have much chance of guessing what it was without further clues.

"So hopefully, they give up and forget about it," Remus said with a straight face. They all stared at him.

"You really believe that?" Kingsley asked incredulously.

Remus looked up at him and said with a sigh, "Not for a second."

Neither Neville nor Hermione showed the slightest interest in what lay underneath the dog and the trapdoor.

All Neville cared about was never going near the dog again.

"Good, Neville," Remus nodded appreciatively. "At least one of them has common sense."

"Where's the fun in that?" demanded Moody. He would've been looking for another adventure as soon as possible as well if it had been him.

Hermione was now refusing to speak to Harry and Ron, but she was such a bossy know-it-all that they saw this as an added bonus.

"Ok, just what happened to them to make them change their attitudes towards each other?!" Tonks cried out. "How did they all become the best of friends if they all hated each another like this?"

"I'm sure that we'll ﬁnd out soon," Remus said, but he sounded a little unsure. "You think that meeting a giant three-headed dog would be enough."

"I bet that it takes something really big for them to all make peace," Sirius stated.

"We won't ﬁnd out if you all don't SHUT UP!" Moody yelled. "Calm down, Alastor!" Kingsley called out.

All they really wanted now was a way of geGng back at Malfoy, and to their great delight, just such a thing arrived in the mail about a week later.

Sirius and Tonks both leaned in with anticipation.

As the owls ﬂooded into the Great Hall as usual, everyone's a†ention was caught at once by a long, thin package carried by six large screech owls.

Sirius grinned. He had a pretty good idea what it was.

Harry was just as interested as everyone else to see what was in this large parcel, and was amazed when the owls soared down and dropped it right in front of him, knocking his bacon to the ﬂoor.

They had hardly ﬂu†ered out of the way when another owl dropped a le†er on top of the parcel.

Harry ripped open the le†er ﬁrst, which was lucky, because it said:

DO NOT OPEN THE PARCEL AT THE TABLE.

It contains your new Nimbus Two Thousand,

"So that's how he got his ﬁrst broom," Sirius said fondly. But then his happy expression turned into one of guilt.

"What's wrong Sirius?" Kingsley asked. "Nothing," he said.

"No," Remus said understanding. "I think I know. You still feel responsible that Harry's broom got destroyed in his third year."

Sirius glared at him. "It's true. Those dementors were at the game because of me."

"What are you both talking about?" Tonks demanded. Kingsley and Moody both looked interested as well.

"It's not your fault," Remus said ﬁrmly. "It's the dementors that caused Harry to fall oﬀ his broom, not you. Besides, you more than made up for it. You gave Harry his Firebolt. There's no need to feel guilty."

Sirius gave him a grateful smile, but everyone else still looked confused. "What are you both talking about?" commanded Tonks.

"Really," Kingsley said, "Neither of you are making much sense."

Remus waved his hand and promised that he would tell all them later before he nodded towards Kingsley to continue.

but I don't want everybody knowing you've got a broomstick or they'll all want one. Oliver Wood will meet you tonight on the Quidditch ﬁeld at seven o'clock for your ﬁrst training session.

Professor McGonagall

"McGonagall, I owe you one!" Sirius yelled to the ceiling, earning smirks.

Harry had diﬃculty hiding his glee as he handed the note to Ron to read. "A Nimbus Two Thousand!" Ron moaned enviously. "I've never even

touched one."

They le† the hall quickly, wanting to unwrap the broomstick in private before their ﬁrst class, but halfway across the entrance hall they found the way upstairs barred by Crabbe and Goyle.

"Oh, this is gonna be good," Sirius grinned. He leaned in, hoping that they give a good description to the look on Malfoy's face when they ﬁnd out who the new Gryﬃndor Seeker is.

Malfoy seized the package from Harry and felt it.

"That's a broomstick," he said, throwing it back to Harry with a mixture of jealousy and spite on his face. "You'll be in for it this time, Po†er, ﬁrst years aren't allowed them."

"No, you aren't allowed you slimy git. Harry on the other hand is. Unlike you, Harry's special," said Sirius proudly.

Ron couldn't resist it.

"It's not any old broomstick," he said, "it's a Nimbus Two Thousand. What did you say you've got at home, Malfoy, a Comet Two Sixty?"

"That's right Ron, hit him where it hurts the most," Tonks said approvingly. "His pride."

Ron grinned at Harry. "Comets look ﬂashy, but they're not in the same league as the Nimbus."

"What would you know about it, Weasley, you couldn't aﬀord half the handle," Malfoy snapped back. "I suppose you and your brothers have to save up twig bytwig."

"Bloody bastard," Moody muttered.

Sirius folded his arms and growled, "I'm really wishing that Malfoy had the guts to show up to that duel. What I wouldn't give to see Harry crush him in a fair ﬁght."

Before Ron could answer, Professor Flitwick appeared at Malfoy's elbow. "Not arguing, I hope, boys?" he squeaked.

"Po†er's been sent a broomstick, Professor," said Malfoy quickly.

"He's gonna tell on him now?" Tonks grumbled. "Tattletale."

"So what? I wish I could've seen his face when he found out that Harry was put onto the team!" said Sirius excited, rubbing his hands together like a little kid who was promised a big treat.

"Yes, yes, that's right," said Professor Flitwick, beaming at Harry. "Professor McGonagall told me all about the special circumstances, Po†er. And what model is it?"

"A Nimbus Two Thousand, it is," said Harry, ﬁghting not to laugh at the look of horror on Malfoy's face.

The people at the Grimmauld Place didn't have that problem. Everyone, but Moody, roared with laughter at Malfoy's expense.

"And it's really thanks to Malfoy here that I've got it," he added.

Everyone laughed even harder at that; even Moody's mouth was twitching.

"You know?" Sirius hooted. "He's right! If Malfoy wasn't acting like a pompous git, then McGonagall never would've seen Harry on a broom!"

Harry and Ron headed upstairs, smothering their laughter at Malfoy's obvious rage and confusion.

"Well, it's true," Harry chortled as they reached the top of the marble staircase, "If he hadn't stolen Neville's Remembrall I wouldn't be on the team…"

"That only makes this victory all the sweeter," Sirius grinned.

"So I suppose you think that's a reward for breaking rules?" came an angry voice from just behind them. Hermione was stomping up the stairs, looking disapprovingly at the package in Harry's hand.

Mad-Eye shook his head in disappointment, "You know that Granger is very intelligent. She's very talented… but, at the same time she is very narrow minded. I think that she have a very diﬃcult time grasping that people are diﬀerent from her. Diﬀerent views, diﬀerent principles, and even diﬀerent opinions."

They all looked at him—and they all realized that they agreed. "But that's not a bad thing is it?" Tonks asked worriedly.

"Not necessarily," Remus said slowly, "But it can be a bit of a problem."

"Harry broke the rules for a good reason," Sirius interrupted. "And McGonagall must have seen the entire thing."

"And what makes you say that?" Remus asked with his eyebrows raised.

"She saw that Harry didn't do it for attention," Sirius said. "He was sticking up for a friend and was trying to get something that belonged to that person back from a total jerk. If he had done it to show oﬀ—then I'd say that he would've been in big trouble."

They all thought about that…

"I'll have to be sure and ask her," Kingsley said thoughtfully before he went back to the book.

"I thought you weren't speaking to us?" said Harry.

"Yes, don't stop now," said Ron, "it's doing us so much good." Hermione marched away with her nose in the air.

They all only continued to wonder what on earth could've happened for them to become friends. They couldn't imagine any three people less likely to become friends.

Harry had a lot of trouble keeping his mind on his lessons that day. It kept wandering up to the dormitory where his new broomstick was lying under his bed, or straying oﬀ to the Quidditch ﬁeld where he'd be learning to play that night.

He bolted his dinner that evening without noticing what he was eating, and then rushed upstairs with Ron to unwrap the Nimbus Two Thousand at last.

"Wow," Ron sighed, as the broomstick rolled onto Harry's bedspread.

Even Harry, who knew nothing about the diﬀerent brooms, thought it looked wonderful. Sleek and shiny, with a mahogany handle, it had a long tail of neat, straight twigs and Nimbus Two Thousand wri†en in gold near the top.

"Sounds like she was a real beauty," Sirius said warmly. "Sirius," Tonks said annoyed. "It's a broom. Not a girl."

As seven o'clock drew nearer, Harry le† the castle and set oﬀ in the dusk toward the Quidditch ﬁeld. Held never been inside the stadium before.

Hundreds of seats were raised in stands around the ﬁeld so that the spectators were high enough to see what was going on. At either end of the ﬁeld were three golden poles with hoops on the end. They reminded Harry of the li†le plastic sticks Muggle children blew bubbles through, except that they were ﬁ†y feet high.

Too eager to ﬂy again to wait for Wood, Harry mounted his broomstick and kicked oﬀ from the ground. What a feeling — he swooped in and out of the goal posts and then sped up and down the ﬁeld. The Nimbus Two Thousand turned wherever he wanted at his lightest touch.

Sirius groaned in longing. Wishing that he could go out and hit the ﬁeld and soar. What on earth did he do to deserve this kind of torture? What he wouldn't give to ﬂy again… just for a few minutes of happiness… was that to much to ask?

"Hey, Po†er, come down!"

Oliver Wood had arrived. He was carrying a large wooden crate under his arm. Harry landed next to him.

"Very nice," said Wood, his eyes glinting. "I see what McGonagall meant… you really are a natural. I'm just going to teach you the rules this evening, then you'll be joining team practice three times a week."

He opened the crate. Inside were four diﬀerent-sized balls.

"Right," said Wood. "Now, Quidditch is easy enough to understand, even if it's not too easy to play. There are seven players on each side. Three of them are called Chasers."

"James was a brilliant Chaser," Remus said fondly.

"Yeah, he was," Sirius said with a sad smile. It should've been James to have bought Harry his ﬁrst broom and taught him how to ﬂy… he also knew that James would've been bouncing oﬀ the walls if he knew that his son was made the youngest player in a century… Harry was the Quidditch star that he had always wanted.

"Three Chasers," Harry repeated, as Wood took out a bright red ball about the size of a soccer ball.

"This ball's called the Quaﬄe," said Wood. "The Chasers throw the Quaﬄe to each other and try and get it through one of the hoops to score a goal. Ten points every time the Quaﬄe goes through one of the hoops. Follow me?"

"The Chasers throw the Quaﬄe and put it through the hoops to score," Harry recited. "So — that's sort of like basketball on broomsticks with six hoops, isn't it?"

"Basketball?" Sirius asked confused. "A Muggle sport," Remus answered.

"What's basketball?" said Wood curiously. "Never mind," said Harry quickly.

"Now, there's another player on each side who's called the Keeper — I'm Keeper for Gryﬃndor. I have to ﬂy around our hoops and stop the other team from scoring."

"Three Chasers, one Keeper," said Harry, who was determined to remember it all. "And they play with the Quaﬄe. Okay, got that. So what are they for?" He pointed at the three balls le† inside the box.

"I'll show you now," said Wood. "Take this."

He handed Harry a small club, a bit like a short baseball bat.

"What's baseball?" Tonks asked this time.

"Just another popular Muggle sport," Remus said simply.

"I'm going to show you what the Bludgers do," Wood said. "These two are the Bludgers."

He showed Harry two identical balls, jet black and slightly smaller than the red Quaﬄe. Harry noticed that they seemed to be straining to escape

the straps holding them inside the box.

"I love the Bludgers" Sirius grinned

"You would," Remus said rolling his eyes. "When we were growing up, you were practically a living Bludger yourself."

"Stand back," Wood warned Harry. He bent down and freed one of the Bludgers.

At once, the black ball rose high in the air and then pelted straight at Harry's face. Harry swung at it with the bat to stop it from breaking his nose, and sent it zigzagging away into the air — it zoomed around their heads and then shot at Wood, who dived on top of it and managed to pin it to the ground.

"Sounds like Harry would've made a fair Beater as well," Sirius said beaming with pride.

"See?" Wood panted, forcing the struggling Bludger back into the crate and strapping it down safely. "The Bludgers rocket around, trying to knock players oﬀ their brooms. That's why you have two Beaters on each team — the Weasley twins are ours — it's their job to protect their side from the Bludgers and try and knock them toward the other team. So — think you've got all that?"

"Three Chasers try and score with the Quaﬄe; the Keeper guards the goal posts; the Beaters keep the Bludgers away from their team," Harry reeled oﬀ.

"Very good," said Wood.

"Er — have the Bludgers ever killed anyone?" Harry asked, hoping he sounded ofland.

"Nope," Tonks said cheerfully. "At least not at Hogwarts."

"Never at Hogwarts. We've had a couple of broken jaws but nothing worse than that.

"I wouldn't bet on that," Sirius said laughing again. "I remember a lot worse injuries when we were there. Like that one guy who nearly had his leg ripped oﬀ?"

Remus shuttered. "Oh, don't remind me," he begged. "I was there watching the game and I still don't know how it happened."

Now, the last member of the team is the Seeker. That's you. And you don't have to worry about the Quaﬄe or the Bludgers —"

"— unless they crack my head open."

"That doesn't happen oGen does it?" Tonks asked.

"Not if you have a pair of really good Beaters," Sirius answered.

"Don't worry, the Weasleys are more than a match for the Bludgers — I mean, they're like a pair of human Bludgers themselves."

"I'm starting to see more of myself in these two every chapter," Sirius said gaily.

Wood reached into the crate and took out the fourth and last ball. Compared with the Quaﬄe and the Bludgers, it was tiny, about the size of a large walnut. It was bright gold and had li†le ﬂu†ering silver wings.

"This," said Wood, "is the Golden Snitch, and it's the most important ball of the lot. It's very hard to catch because it's so fast and diﬃcult tosee.

It's the Seeker's job to catch it. You've got to weave in and out of the Chasers, Beaters, Bludgers, and Quaﬄe to get it before the other team's Seeker, because whichever Seeker catches the Snitch wins his team an extra hundred and ﬁ†y points, so they nearly always win.

"So, in other words, the other players are useless," Mad-Eye said. That got an uproar from everyone. They yelled on for some time until he ﬁnally bellowed, throwing what little patience he had leG to the four winds. "JUST SHUT THE HELL UP AND READ!"

That's why Seekers get fouled so much. A game of Quidditch only ends when the Snitch is caught, so it can go on for ages — I think the record is three months, they had to keep bringing on substitutes so the players could get some sleep.

"What?" Sirius gasped. "Three months? Come on! How could you spend three months playing a game? Are these players just that bad?"

"I heard that the referee forgot to let the Snitch loose," Kingsley explained laughing. Sirius joined in as well. "Oh, that makes much more sense!"

"Well, that's it any questions?"

Harry shook his head. He understood what he had to do all right, it was doing it that was going to be the problem.

"We won't practice with the Snitch yet," said Wood, carefully shuGng it back inside the crate, "it's too dark, we might lose it. Let's try you out with a few of these."

He pulled a bag of ordinary golf balls out of his pocket and a few minutes later,

"I'm guessing that golf is another Muggle sport?" Sirius asked shrewdly. "Yes, glad to see that you learned something," Kingsley said with a smile.

he and Harry were up in the air, Wood throwing the golf balls as hard as he could in every direction for Harry to catch.

Harry didn't miss a single one,

Sirius's grin got even wider if possible. Just when he thought that he couldn't be any prouder of Harry…

and Wood was delighted. A†er half an hour, night had really fallen and they couldn't carry on.

"That Quidditch Cup'll have our name on it this year," said Wood happily as they trudged back up to the castle. "I wouldn't be surprised if you turn out be†er than Charlie Weasley, and he could have played for England if he hadn't gone oﬀ chasing dragons."

"So Harry could play for England too?" Tonks asked excitedly.

"Oh, that would be perfect!" Sirius cried out. His godson doing something that he was good at and loved? Without having to worry about Voldemort? That would be a dream come true!

Perhaps it was because he was now so busy, what with Quidditch practice three evenings a week on top of all his homework, but Harry could hardly believe it when he realized that he'd already been at Hogwarts two months. The castle felt more like home than Privet Drive ever had.

"I doubt that place ever felt like home!" Remus growled, getting angry just at the thought of that place.

"No surprise there, really," said Tonks grumpily. "AGer what he had to go through with those…" she seemed to be having trouble coming up with a word to call the Dursleys.

"It would've been horrible for me too, and I've lived with my mother until I was sixteen!" exclaimed Sirius.

His lessons, too, were becoming more and more interesting now that they had mastered the basics.

On Halloween morning they woke to the delicious smell of baking pumpkin wa†ing through the corridors. Even be†er, Professor Flitwick announced in Charms that he thought they were ready to start making objects ﬂy, something they had all been dying to try since they'd seen him make Neville's toad zoom around the classroom.

"The teachers always pull this," Tonks snapped. "They'll get you all excited for a spell and then take forever to actually get to it."

Professor Flitwick put the class into pairs to practice. Harry's partner was Seamus Finnigan (which was a relief, because Neville had been trying to catch his eye).

Ron, however, was to be working with Hermione Granger.

"This should end well," Sirius said sarcastically.

It was hard to tell whether Ron or Hermione was angrier about this. She hadn't spoken to either of them since the day Harry's broomstick had arrived.

"Now, don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practicing!" squeaked Professor Flitwick, perched on top of his pile of books as usual. "Swish and ﬂick, remember, swish and ﬂick. And saying the magic words properly is very important, too — never forget Wizard Baruﬃo, who said 's' instead of 'f' and found himself on the ﬂoor with a buﬀalo on his chest."

"I don't see why he says that," Sirius said shaking his head. "That's not really true."

"How do you…" Tonks began but Remus cut her oﬀ by saying, "Believe me, you're better oﬀ not knowing."

It was very diﬃcult.

Harry and Seamus swished and ﬂicked, but the feather they were supposed to be sending skyward just lay on the desktop. Seamus got so impatient that he prodded it with his wand and set ﬁre to it — Harry had to put it out with his hat.

"HA!" Sirius roared with laughter.

Ron, at the next table, wasn't having much more luck.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" he shouted, waving his long arms like a windmill.

"You're saying it wrong," Harry heard Hermione snap. "It's Wing-gar- dium Levi-o-sa, make the 'gar' nice and long."

"You do it, then, if you're so clever," Ron snarled.

"I think he's going to regret saying that," Tonks predicted.

Hermione rolled up the sleeves of her gown, ﬂicked her wand, and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

Their feather rose oﬀ the desk and hovered about four feet above their heads.

"Oh, well done!" cried Professor Flitwick, clapping. "Everyone see here, Miss Granger's done it!"

Ron was in a very bad mood by the end of the class.

"It's no wonder no one can stand her," he said to Harry as they pushed their way into the crowded corridor, "she's a nightmare, honestly."

"What a jerk!" Tonks yelled indigently. "Just because he couldn't do a spell, he doesn't have to take it out by saying something so cruel! What if she heard him?"

Someone knocked into Harry as they hurried past him.

"Any bets on who it is?" Mad-Eye asked.

It was Hermione.

That made Tonks look even more furious.

Harry caught a glimpse of her face — and was startled to see that she was in tears.

"I think she heard you."

"So?" said Ron, but he looked a bit uncomfortable. "She must've noticed she's got no friends."

"Poor girl," Remus said sadly, knowing all too well what it felt like to not have any friends.

Hermione didn't turn up for the next class and wasn't seen all a†ernoon. On their way down to the Great Hall for the Halloween feast, Harry and Ron overheard Parvati Patil telling her friend Lavender that Hermione was crying in the girls' bathroom and wanted to be le† alone. Ron looked still more awkward at this, but a moment later they had entered the Great Hall, where the Halloween decorations put Hermione out of their minds.

A thousand live bats ﬂu†ered from the walls and ceiling while a thousand more swooped over the tables in low black clouds, making the candles in the pumpkins stu†er. The feast appeared suddenly on the golden plates, as it had at the start-of-term banquet.

Harry was just helping himself to a baked potato when Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the hall, his turban askew and terror on his face.

Everyone stared as he reached Professor Dumbledore's chair, slumped against the table, and gasped, "Troll — in the dungeons — thought you ought to know."

"WHAT?" Remus, Sirius, and Tonks all shouted.

"WHY WASN'T I TOLD ABOUT THIS?" Sirius yelled hysterically as he stood up, half-furious, half-alarmed. "A troll! You have got to be kidding me!"

"And yet why am I not surprised?" Kingsley wondered aloud.

"Great!" Sirius yelled. "First a giant dog nearly kills and then a troll! They're going to run into it, I know they will! When I get my hands on Dumbledore for letting this happen I'm gonna…"

"Sirius," Remus yelled, getting up and pulling him back down to his seat. "Relax! We don't know what happens yet! They might not go near it!"

"You really believe that?" Sirius shouted.

The truthful answer was no. But Remus didn't think that Sirius needed any more reason to cause his blood pressure to rise so he simply said, "Let's ﬁnd out what happens before you go aGer Dumbledore, ok? Kingsley hurry up!"

He then sank to the ﬂoor in a dead faint.

"Pathetic," muttered Moody.

There was an 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!"

Percy was in his element.

"Oh, yes, Percy the Prefect, how could we have forgotten?" Sirius cried out sarcastically, "Get to the part where they leave the troll alone and let the teachers deal with it."

"Wow," Remus said staring at him. "What?" he demanded hotly.

"Nothing," Remus said startled. "It's just that… I think that's the ﬁrst time I ever heard you say 'just leave the danger for someone else to deal with'.

Normally, you would cheer on the underdogs to go and deal with the problem themselves."

Sirius glared at him. "Most of the time yes. But this is my eleven-year-old godson we're talking about here! My godson against a full grown mountain troll! I rather have him safe and alive thank you."

"Follow me! Stick together, ﬁrst years! No need to fear the troll if you follow my orders! Stay close behind me, now. Make way, ﬁrst years coming through! Excuse me, I'm a prefect!"

"How could a troll get in?" Harry asked as they climbed the stairs.

"Don't ask me, they're supposed to be really stupid," said Ron. "Maybe Peeves let it in for a Halloween joke."

"He would never go that far. Peeves likes pranks, but he wouldn't try to kill anyone," Sirius said knowingly.

They passed diﬀerent groups of people hurrying in diﬀerent directions. As they jostled their way through a crowd of confused Huﬄepuﬀs, Harry suddenly grabbed Ron's arm.

"I've just thought — Hermione."

"What about Hermione?" Sirius asked annoyed.

Tonks jaw dropped. "She doesn't know about the troll!" she screamed. "And knowing their luck it's bound to go aGer her! And something tells me it will!"

They all went pale at that statement.

"Well," Moody said causally. "Looks like now we know how the three of them became friends. Nothing pulls people together like taking on a trolls."

"Shut up!" Sirius yelled at him this time, staring at the book, shell-shocked. "I need to know what happens."

"What about her?"

"She doesn't know about the troll." Ron bit his lip.

"Oh, all right," he snapped. "But Percy'd be†er not see us."

Ducking down, they joined the Huﬄepuﬀs going the other way, slipped down a deserted side corridor, and hurried oﬀ toward the girls' bathroom. They had just turned the corner when they heard quick footsteps behind them.

"Percy!" hissed Ron, pulling Harry behind a large stone griﬃn.

Peering around it, however, they saw not Percy but Snape. He crossed the corridor and disappeared from view.

"What's Snape up to?" Sirius asked before remembering that he was more worried about the troll.

"What's he doing?" Harry whispered. "Why isn't he down in the dungeons with the rest of the teachers?"

Sirius frowned as well, not liking where this was going.

"Search me."

Quietly as possible, they crept along the next corridor a†er Snape's fading footsteps.

"He's heading for the third ﬂoor," Harry said, but Ron held up his hand.

"Why's he going there?" Tonks asked.

"Worry about that later!" Sirius snapped, feeling like his heart was about to beat out of his chest. "Kingsley hurry up and read!"

"Can you smell something?"

Harry sniﬀed and a foul stench reached his nostrils, a mixture of old socks and the kind of public toilet no one seems to clean.

And then they heard it — a low grunting, and the shuﬄing foo√alls of gigantic feet.

Sirius had lost what little color that was leG in his face. For a moment, Remus thought for sure that Sirius was about to faint.

"Sirius," he said quickly. "They're ﬁne, remember? I'm sure that nothing serious happened…"

Sirius didn't seem to have heard him. He was just staring in horror at the book and didn't seem to be breathing.

Ron pointed — at the end of a passage to the le†, something huge was moving toward them. They shrank into the shadows and watched as it emerged into a patch of moonlight.

It was a horrible sight. Twelve feet tall, its skin was a dull, granite gray, its great lumpy body like a boulder with its small bald head perched on top like a coconut. It had short legs thick as tree trunks with ﬂat, horny feet. The smell coming from it was incredible. It was holding a huge wooden club, which dragged along the ﬂoor because its arms were so long.

Sirius groaned at them actually ﬁnding it; though he was still hoping they didn't have to face it.

"Very realistic description isn't it?" said Tonks said wrinkling her noise.

"Yeah, real great mental image," Sirius yelled sarcastically, "Thank you for having such an imaginative mind, Harry!"

"He sure knows how to create a horrible image!" said Kingsley disgustedly.

The troll stopped next to a doorway and peered inside. It waggled its long ears, making up its tiny mind, then slouched slowly into the room.

"The keys in the lock," Harry mu†ered. "We could lock it in."

"Yes," Sirius sighed, relieved that they weren't really going to ﬁght a troll aGer all.

"Good idea," said Ron nervously.

They edged toward the open door, mouths dry, praying the troll wasn't about to come out of it. With one great leap, Harry managed to grab the key, slam the door, and lock it.

"Yes!"

Sirius let out a sigh of relief. So that's what happened… they weren't forced to ﬁght it aGer all. Now all they had to do was…

Flushed with their victory, they started to run back up the passage, but as they reached the corner they heard something that made their hearts stop — a high, petriﬁed scream — and it was coming from the chamber they'd just chained up.

Sirius paled at once again. "NO!" he yelled. "You've got to be kidding me!"

"Like I said!" Tonks yelled, also terriﬁed. "That's just their luck! What are they going to do?!"

"Isn't it obvious?" Moody said looking very interested as he leaned over Kingsley's shoulder to get a better look at the book. "Anyone want to make any bets if they make it out unharmed? Minor injuries? Or maybe maimed to the brink of death? Any takers?"

Kingsley, who just noticed that Sirius looked ready to either faint or attack Moody, quickly said, "You all know that they make it out alive don't you?"

"Just read!" everyone bellowed at him. "Don't yell at me!" Kingsley said, still calm.

"Oh, no," said Ron, pale as the Bloody Baron. "It's the girls' bathroom!" Harry gasped. "Hermione!" they said together.

It was the last thing they wanted to do, but what choice did they have?

HARRY JAMES POTTER!" Sirius bellowed so loudly that everyone jumped before he, himself, got up from his seat and began to pace. "What on earth were you thinking ﬁghting a fully grown mountain troll?" Sirius ranted, thinking about how close his godson must have been to getting killed.

"But if they didn't then Hermione would have gotten killed!" Tonks yelled trying to defend them.

Sirius pretended not to hear her. "I am most deﬁnitely going to be having a word with Dumbledore about this, you can rest assure. Even if it was out of Dumbledore's hands that doesn't mean that they should've gone and fought a troll!"

"This is getting good," Moody said approvingly. Sirius looked like he was about ready to duel him to the death. Sensing danger, Remus waved to Kingsley to hurry up and get the chapter over with, but worried about what he'll ﬁnd out once it was ﬁnished.

Wheeling around, they sprinted back to the door and turned the key, fumbling in their panic. Harry pulled the door open and they ran inside.

Hermione Granger was shrinking against the wall opposite, looking as if she was about to faint. The troll was advancing on her, knocking the sinks oﬀ the walls as it went.

"RUN!" Tonks screamed frantically. Why do these three keep getting into these positions? First a giant three-headed dog and now they risk getting clubbed to death by a troll in a bathroom… what a way to go.

"Confuse it!" Harry said desperately to Ron, and, seizing a tap, he threw it as hard as he could against the wall.

The troll stopped a few feet from Hermione. It lumbered around,blinking stupidly, to see what had made the noise. Its mean li†le eyes saw Harry. It hesitated, then made for him instead, li†ing its club as itwent.

"NO!" Sirius screamed, sounding close to completely losing it all together.

"Oy, pea-brain!" yelled Ron from the other side of the chamber, and he threw a metal pipe at it. The troll didn't even seem to notice the pipe hiGng its shoulder, but it heard the yell and paused again, turning its ugly snout toward Ron instead, giving Harry time to run around it.

"They work amazingly well together," Remus said trying his hardest to keep his calm.

"Come on, run, run!" Harry yelled at Hermione, trying to pull her toward the door, but she couldn't move, she was still ﬂat against the wall, her mouth open with terror.

"Ah," Moody groaned. "She panics too easily. That's how most people get killed."

Sirius bit his lip so hard at that statement that he drew blood; not that he was paying attention to the pain.

The shouting and the echoes seemed to be driving the troll berserk. It roared again and started toward Ron, who was nearest and had no way to escape.

"Someone do something!" Tonks shrieked.

Harry then did something that was both very brave and very stupid:

"Oh no!" cried Sirius, hiding his face in his hands. "NO, Harry! Don't be an idiot!" said Remus anxiously.

He took a great running jump and managed to fasten his arms around the troll's neck from behind. The troll couldn't feel Harry hanging there, but even a troll will notice if you stick a long bit of wood up its nose,

"He didn't!" gasped Sirius, looking up. "Didn't what?" demanded Tonks.

"Sure looks like it. His wand went up its nose!" cried Kingsley. They were all sitting there trying to digest that for a second. "That's disgusting!" Tonks cried.

and Harry's wand had still been in his hand when he'd jumped – it had gone straight up one of the troll's nostrils.

Howling with pain, the troll twisted and ﬂailed its club, with Harry clinging on for dear life; any second, the troll was going to rip him oﬀ or catch him a terrible blow with the club.

Hermione had sunk to the ﬂoor in fright; Ron pulled out his own wand — not knowing what he was going to do he heard himself cry the ﬁrst spell that came into his head: "Wingardium Leviosa!"

"He cries the one spell he can't do yet?" Sirius yelled. "How the hell did they make it out of this alive?!"

The club ﬂew suddenly out of the troll's hand, rose high, high up into the air, turned slowly over — and dropped, with a sickening crack, onto its owner's head. The troll swayed on the spot and then fell ﬂat on its face, with a thud that made the whole room tremble.

The whole room went deathly quiet. No one said anything… they just stared at the book in disbelief. They actually did it. They actually just beat a twelve foot troll when they were just eleven years old. Three ﬁrst year students just beat a fully grown mountain troll without any injuries.

"I think that the people who actually work with trolls for a living could take a leaf out of their books," Moody said conversationally.

Sirius let out a laugh that sounded more like a cross between a sob and a shriek.

Harry got to his feet. He was shaking and out of breath. Ron was standing there with his wand still raised, staring at what he had done.

It was Hermione who spoke ﬁrst.

"Now she can move…" Sirius grumbled, through numb lips.

"Is it — dead?"

"No," Remus said calming down at last. "Most likely just been knocked out

—but it won't remain that way forever."

"They need to get out of there," Kingsley agreed.

"I don't think so," said Harry, "I think it's just been knocked out."

He bent down and pulled his wand out of the troll's nose. It was covered in what looked like lumpy gray glue.

Tonks wrinkled her beak-like nose in disgust. "Ewww…"

"Urgh — troll boogers."

He wiped it on the troll's trousers.

A sudden slamming and loud footsteps made the three of them look up. They hadn't realized what a racket they had been making, but of course,

someone downstairs must have heard the crashes and the troll's roars. A moment later, Professor McGonagall had come bursting into the room, closely followed by Snape, with Quirrell bringing up the rear.

"Thought he fainted," Sirius growled.

Quirrell took one look at the troll, let out a faint whimper, and sat quickly down on a toilet, clutching his heart.

"And they call this guy a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" Moody said in disappointment. "No wonder they didn't learn anything."

Snape bent over the troll. Professor McGonagall was looking at Ron and Harry. Harry had never seen her look so angry. Her lips were white.

"Wow, I don't think we've ever managed to get her that mad before, huh Moony?" Sirius said, now starting to return to his own self, now that the three of them were out of danger.

"Nope," Remus said in agreement. "I count ourselves lucky."

Hopes of winning ﬁ†y points for Gryﬃndor faded quickly from Harry's mind.

"What on earth were you thinking of?" said Professor McGonagall, with cold fury in her voice. Harry looked at Ron, who was still standing with his wand in the air. "You're lucky you weren't killed. Why aren't you in your dormitory?"

"They just saved someone's life!" Sirius cried in outrage. "They risk their lives to save someone they didn't even like and you're going to punish them?!"

Snape gave Harry a swi†, piercing look. Harry looked at the ﬂoor. He wished Ron would put his wand down.

Then a small voice came out of the shadows.

"Please, Professor McGonagall — they were looking for me." "Miss Granger!"

"How does she intend to get them out of trouble here?" Remus asked in astonishment.

Hermione had managed to get to her feet at last.

"I went looking for the troll because I — I thought I could deal with it on my own — you know, because I've read all about them."

Sirius was speechless. "Hermione… the rule-obsessed student lying that she broke the rules?" Suddenly he smiled again, "Now that's the Hermione I know!"

Ron dropped his wand. Hermione Granger, telling a downright lie to a teacher?

"If they hadn't found me, I'd be dead now. Harry stuck his wand up its nose and Ron knocked it out with its own club. They didn't have time to come and fetch anyone. It was about to ﬁnish me oﬀ when they arrived."

Sirius forced a laugh. A little higher than usual and maybe even considered hysterical, but he didn't care. He was just glad that they all came out of this alive. "It sounds almost funny when she puts it like that."

Harry and Ron tried to look as though this story wasn't new to them.

"Well — in that case…" said Professor McGonagall, staring at the three of them, "Miss Granger, you foolish girl, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?"

Hermione hung her head. Harry was speechless. Hermione was the last person to do anything against the rules, and here she was, pretending she had, to get them out of trouble. It was as if Snape had started handing out sweets.

Everyone laughed at that one. It was such a ridiculous and yet a perfect comparison.

"If Snape ever does start giving out sweets in class then we know that the world is about to end," Sirius said.

"Miss Granger, ﬁve points will be taken from Gryﬃndor for this," said Professor McGonagall. "I'm very disappointed in you. If you're not hurt at all, you'd be†er get oﬀ to Gryﬃndor tower. Students are ﬁnishing the feast in their houses."

Hermione le†.

Professor McGonagall turned to Harry and Ron.

"Well, I still say you were lucky, but not many ﬁrst years could have taken on a full-grown mountain troll. You each win Gryﬃndor ﬁve points.

Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. You may go."

"Five points? Just ﬁve points?" said Sirius, indigently. "They defeated a mountain troll for them!"

"No," Tonks said confused, "She gave them ten points."

"Five points, they just lost ﬁve from Granger," Moody explained.

"Minerva probably did that so that the other students won't think that they'll win points by doing something so stupid," Remus said, ending the argument.

They hurried out of the chamber and didn't speak at all until they had climbed two ﬂoors up. It was a relief to be away from the smell of the troll, quite apart from anything else.

"We should have go†en more than ten points," Ron grumbled. "Five, you mean, once she's taken oﬀ Hermione's."

"Good of her to get us out of trouble like that," Ron admi†ed. "Mind you, we did save her."

"She might not have needed saving if we hadn't locked the thing in with her," Harry reminded him.

"You know they're right!" Tonks said in realization.

Mad-Eye smirked. "I doubt it. I don't think that it would have mattered. She was frozen and couldn't move remember?"

They had reached the portrait of the Fat Lady. "Pig snout," they said and entered.

The common room was packed and noisy. Everyone was eating the food that had been sent up. Hermione, however, stood alone by the door, waiting for them. There was a very embarrassed pause. Then, none of them looking at each other, they all said "Thanks," and hurried oﬀ to get plates.

But from that moment on, Hermione Granger became their friend. There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them.

Kingsley closed the book and said, "That's the end of the chapter."

They were all quiet for a time aGer that. Not knowing what to say or how they should feel. Finally, Kingsley stood up. "I must be going. If I wait around any longer it's going to look suspicious at the oﬃce."

"Yeah," Sirius said distracted. "You do that."

Remus also got up and led Kingsley down the stairs and to the door. "You coming back?" he asked.

"Not tonight," Kingsley said regretfully. "I'm going to be stuck at work until late. But I might be able to come tomorrow."

"Good," Remus said with a smile. "Until then."

"Let me know what happens," Kingsley said, "I can see that we're only getting started with their adventures together." And with a nod of the head, he turned and leG. Remus came back into the room where Tonks, Sirius, and Moody were all still waiting. Sirius was still looking pale—and ready to kill Dumbledore for not doing a better job of protecting the school.

"Well that's…" Tonks said ﬁnally. "One way to make a friend." Sirius shook his head. "Why didn't they ever tell us?"

"Maybe they were worried about our reactions?" Tonks suggested.

"Maybe… seeing the way that we all reacted a moment ago, I can't say that I blame them," Sirius replied slowly. "But still… it makes me feel like they didn't trust us enough to tell us."

"No," Remus said as he reached over and put a consoling hand on his friend's shoulder. "I just don't think that they wanted to bother us with this."

"Bother?" Sirius yelled incredulously. "We wouldn't have been bothered at all! I just would've known to kill Dumbledore sooner. And I would've come up with punishments for the Dursleys! Why Harry never told us about what his life was like there…"

"You can't blame him," Tonks said sadly. "If it were me, I would just want to forget it. It's enough that he has to deal with them every summer, but he doesn't want to think about them during the rest of the year."

Sirius merely scowled at her… that is until a thought struck him; one that liGed his spirits slightly. If he was sent to go live with Dudley, he would probably have turned out to be the crazed murderer that nearly everyone thought he was. In fact, it was probably a miracle Harry had turned out the way he did. Not many people would have been able to just let all the things

that the Dursleys did go. And that was just another reason he was proud of his godson.

"Yes, and you keep forgetting Black," Moody said from his position near the ﬁreplace. "This all happened four years ago and we're in the middle of a war right now. They probably felt that bringing up a minor incident with a troll, while we're busy with ﬁghting against Voldemort, wasn't important.

Especially if it happened when they were eleven." "Minor?!" Sirius repeated skeptically.

"Padfoot," Remus said. "They're safe now, that's all that matters. They came out of the ﬁght alive. This was their ﬁrst ﬁght together and they're all just ﬁne."

"That's the problem," Sirius said wearily. "This really was probably their

ﬁrst ﬁght. Who knows what happens to them from this point onwards?"

He glowered up at the others—no one was foolish enough to contract him. Sirius wanted to keep reading, but his stomach had other ideas. He could hear it beginning to growl, demanding to be fed. Remus smiled again and said, "I think that this is a good time to have lunch now. We can ﬁnish the book aGer we eat."

They all agreed; feeling hungry themselves. As they all got up and headed towards the kitchen, Remus muttered for Sirius's ears alone, "Look at it this way… if the three of them never fought that troll together, they might never have become friends."

Sirius smiled as he thought that over. "Life can be funny that way can't it? Who knew?"

*Later*

Once they all had eaten, they returned to the drawing room and were getting ready to read the next chapter. "So—who wants to go?" Remus asked picking up the hardback.

He held it out to Moody, who glared and said, "Not on your life." "All of us have already read, Mad-Eye," Tonks said cheerfully.

"I'm not doing it," he said gruﬄy. "You want to know what happens so badly then you read."

"Well if you're going to be sour about it," Tonks said, "I'll read next, Remus."

Remus gave her the book before he leaned back in his seat and waited. Tonks opened it up again and smiled at the chapter. "I think you're going to like this one, boys," she said.

Sirius raised an eyebrow and asked, "Why?" Tonks then read out, "Chapter 11: Quidditch."

Chapter 12(I own nothing. Copyright belongs to J.K. Rowling)

Chapter 11: Quidditch

Tonks then read out, "Chapter 11: Quidditch ."

"YES!" Sirius cheered punching the air with his ﬁst. "The ﬁrst Quidditch match! What happens?" he asked excitedly.

"We won't know unless you let me read," Tonks said, smiling at her cousin's constant mood shiGs.

As they entered November, the weather turned very cold. The mountains around the school became icy gray and the lake like chilled steel. Every morning the ground was covered in frost. Hagrid could be seen from the upstairs windows defrosting broomsticks on the Quidditch ﬁeld, bundled up in a long moleskin overcoat, rabbit fur gloves, and enormous beaverskin boots.

"Nope," Sirius said beaming, "Hagrid hasn't changed one bit."

"And we were oﬀ to such a nice start," Moody grumbled. "I was hoping we could through this chapter without interruptions."

The Quidditch season had begun.

"YES!" Sirius yelled.

"Sirius!" Remus said to him, but he was smiling to, "Relax."

On Saturday, Harry would be playing in his ﬁrst match a†er weeks of training: Gryﬃndor versus Slytherin.

"That's always the best match to watch," Tonks commented. "It's always the dirtiest game of the season," Sirius grinned.

If Gryﬃndor won, they would move up into second place in the house championship.

"Well, of course they'll win!" cried Sirius conﬁdently. "How do you know?" asked Tonks in surprise.

"Isn't it obvious? Harry's on the team now! They're gonna own that ﬁeld. The Slytherins are about to get their butts kicked across that ﬁeld and back again!" he cheered.

Hardly anyone had seen Harry play because Wood had decided that, as their secret weapon, Harry should be kept, well, secret. But the news that he was playing Seeker had leaked out somehow,

"Somehow it always does at Hogwarts," Remus stated warmly.

and Harry didn't know which was worse — people telling him he'd be brilliant or people telling him they'd be running around underneath him holding a ma†ress.

"You will be brilliant, Harry," Remus smiled.

"Bet you that it was Malfoy…" muttered Sirius, but still grinning like a manic.

"I don't think the mattress one is worse…" Mad-Eye said to no one in particular.

"How is being told you're brilliant a bad thing?" asked Tonks him. "Because he's nervous," replied Remus. "All the more pressure because

they expect him to be amazing, and will be that much more disappointed if he loses."

"He won't lose," Sirius said conﬁdently.

It was really lucky that Harry now had Hermione as a friend. He didn't know how he'd have go†en through all his homework without her, what with all the last-minute Quidditch practice Wood was making them do.

She had also lent him Quidditch Through the Ages , which turned out to be a very interesting read.

"I must be," Remus agreed with a grin at Sirius. "It is the only book that you've ever read from cover to cover."

Sirius stuck his tongue out at him. "Can I help it that I was a genius in school and didn't need to read the textbook?"

"There's that humility that I was looking for," Tonks said sarcastically.

Harry learned that there were seven hundred ways of commiGng a Quidditch foul and that all of them had happened during a World Cup match in 1473; that Seekers were usually the smallest and fastest players, and that most serious Quidditch accidents seemed to happen to them; that although people rarely died playing Quidditch, referees had been known to vanish and turn up months later in the Sahara Desert.

"I really never found out how that worked," Tonks said in interest. "Just disappear in the middle of a game and not to show up until they're found wandering the desert?"

They all shrugged. Sirius obviously couldn't care less about this as he focused entirely on the book, now impatiently bouncing in his seat— wanting to get to the game already.

Hermione had become a bit more relaxed about breaking rules since Harry and Ron had saved her from the mountain troll, and she was much nicer for it.

"They're a bad inﬂuence on her then," Sirius said grinning widely. "Reminds me a bit of you Remus."

Remus let out a hallow laugh. "Yep… I used to be like that… that is until I met you and James."

The day before Harry's ﬁrst Quidditch match the three of them were out in the freezing courtyard during break, and she had conjured them up a bright blue ﬁre that could be carried around in a jam jar.

"That's impressive for a ﬁrst year," Tonks said, while everyone nodded in agreement.

They were standing with their backs to it, geGng warm, when Snape crossed the yard. Harry noticed at once that Snape was limping. Harry, Ron, and Hermione moved closer together to block the ﬁre from view; they were sure it wouldn't be allowed.

"No," Remus said knowingly. "It's not allowed."

"That's never stopped us before though has it?" Sirius asked, nostalgically. "All those times that we…"

"Sirius," Tonks said, "If you take a trip down memory lane, then we'll never get to the Quidditch match."

Sirius shut up at once and Moody shook his head. Wishing that he thought of that before.

Unfortunately, something about their guilty faces caught Snape's eye. He limped over. He hadn't seen the ﬁre, but he seemed to be looking for a reason to tell them oﬀ anyway.

"Of course he would," Tonks muttered.

"They need to work on their innocent faces," Sirius sighed.

"What's that you've got there, Po†er?"

It was Quidditch Through the Age . Harry showed him.

"Library books are not to be taken outside the school," said Snape. "Give it to me. Five points from Gryﬃndor."

"That is not a rule," Remus stated angrily.

"Are you really surprised?" Sirius griped. "Snape would never turn down an opportunity to take points from them. Including making up rules!"

"He's just made that rule up," Harry mu†ered angrily as Snape limped away. "Wonder what's wrong with his leg?"

"Dunno, but I hope it's really hurting him," said Ron bi†erly.

Sirius had to cough to hide his chuckle… but even then, no one was fooled.

"Ron just has so much sympathy for others doesn't he?" Tonks said sarcastically.

The Gryﬃndor common room was very noisy that evening. Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat together next to a window. Hermione was checking Harry and Ron's Charms homework for them. She would never let them copy ("How will you learn?"), but by asking her to read it through, they got the right answers anyway.

"So it all works out anyway!" Sirius said happily.

Harry felt restless. He wanted Quidditch Through the Ages back, to take his mind oﬀ his nerves about tomorrow. Why should he be afraid of Snape?

"You shouldn't," Sirius agreed ﬁrmly. "He didn't scare anyone back in school, and he's just even more pathetic now."

GeGng up, he told Ron and Hermione he was going to ask Snape if he could have it.

"Be†er you than me," they said together,

"Such supportive friends he's got there, huh?" Moody said, rolling his magical eye.

but Harry had an idea that Snape wouldn't refuse if there were other teachers listening.

"No," Sirius said grumpily. "He would still refuse."

He made his way down to the staﬀroom and knocked. There was no answer. He knocked again. Nothing.

Perhaps Snape had le† the book in there? It was worth a try. He pushed the door ajar and peered inside – and a horrible scene met his eyes.

Snape and Filch were inside, alone. Snape was holding his robes above his knees. One of his legs was bloody and mangled. Filch was handing Snape bandages.

"What?" they all cried out.

"How did that happen?" Remus said in shock.

"Blasted thing," Snape was saying. "How are you supposed to keep your eyes on all three heads at once?"

"He tried to get past the dog on the third ﬂoor?" Remus frowned. "What was he doing near that thing?" Sirius asked suspiciously.

Harry tried to shut the door quietly, but — "POTTER!"

"He's in trouble now," Tonks whistled.

"Get out of their Harry!" Sirius yelled out, knowing that Harry would be likely to get detention for the next month if he stayed.

Snape's face was twisted with fury as he dropped his robes quickly to hide his leg. Harry gulped.

"I just wondered if I could have my book back."

"You have to admire him for still trying to get the book back," Sirius groaned. "To bad that there's no chance of that happening now."

"GET OUT! OUT! "

Harry le†, before Snape could take any more points from Gryﬃndor. He sprinted back upstairs.

"Did you get it?" Ron asked as Harry joined them. "What's the ma†er?" In a low whisper, Harry told them what he'd seen.

"You know what this means?" he ﬁnished breathlessly.

"No, what?" Tonks asked brightly.

"He tried to get past that three-headed dog at Halloween! That's where he was going when we saw him — he's a†er whatever it's guarding! And I'd bet my broomstick he let that troll in, to make a diversion!"

"Yeah!" Sirius said immediately. "He's trying to steal the Stone!"

Hermione's eyes were wide.

"No — he wouldn't," she said. "I know he's not very nice, but he wouldn't try and steal something Dumbledore was keeping safe."

"I agree with Hermione," Remus said, with a reproachful look at Sirius. "Oh, come on Remus!" Sirius yelled.

"You just want an excuse to blame Severus," Remus said patiently. "We don't know the whole story yet so just relax and wait before doing

anything."

Sirius began muttering under his breath what he really thought of that idea before Tonks began reading again.

"Honestly, Hermione, you think all teachers are saints or something," snapped Ron. "I'm with Harry. I wouldn't put anything past Snape. But what's he a†er? What's that dog guarding?"

Harry went to bed with his head buzzing with the same question. Neville was snoring loudly, but Harry couldn't sleep. He tried to empty his mind

— he needed to sleep, he had to, he had his ﬁrst Quidditch match in a few hours – but the expression on Snape's face when Harry had seen his leg wasn't easy to forget.

"That doesn't surprise me, I have seen Severus angry before, and it's not easy to forget," Tonks joked.

"Really?" asked Remus. "What did you do?"

Tonks merely smiled at him and said, "I'll tell you later."

The next morning dawned very bright and cold. The Great Hall was full of the delicious smell of fried sausages and the cheerful cha†er of everyone looking forward to a good Quidditch match.

Sirius beamed, looking forward to this as if he was one of those kids.

"You've got to eat some breakfast." "I don't want anything."

"Just a bit of toast," wheedled Hermione. "I'm not hungry."

"Harry," Sirius groaned. "You need to eat for energy! You'll have a better chance of kicking Slytherin's butt!" He then thought to himself, 'And you

need all the food you can get…' he shivered. He was sounding more like Molly every second and it was scaring him.

Harry felt terrible. In an hour's time he'd be walking onto the ﬁeld.

"Harry, you need your strength," said Seamus Finnigan. "Seekers are always the ones who get clobbered by the other team."

"That's the one think that you want hear before your ﬁrst Quidditch match," Sirius said sarcastically.

"Thanks, Seamus," said Harry, watching Seamus pile ketchup on his sausages.

"Who wants ketchup on their sausages?" Tonks asked in disgust. "I mean… on your eggs sure… though I prefer syrup…"

"I'm not coming to your house for breakfast," Moody growled.

"Wouldn't matter," she shot back. "You never eat anything that you didn't make yourself."

By eleven o'clock the whole school seemed to be out in the stands around the Quidditch pitch. Many students had binoculars. The seats might be raised high in the air, but it was still diﬃcult to see what was going on sometimes.

Ron and Hermione joined Neville, Seamus, and Dean the West Ham fan up in the top row. As a surprise for Harry, they had painted a large banner on one of the sheets Scabbers had ruined.

Sirius growled angrily at the mention of the rat.

It said PoMer for President, and Dean, who was good at drawing, had done a large Gryﬃndor lion underneath. Then Hermione had performed a tricky li†le charm so that the paint ﬂashed diﬀerent colors.

"That should make Harry feel better," Remus said smiling. It would be good a major boost to see that your friends were there and believed in you.

Meanwhile, in the locker room, Harry and the rest of the team were changing into their scarlet Quidditch robes (Slytherin would be playing in green).

Wood cleared his throat for silence. "Okay, men," he said.

"And women," said Tonks ﬁrmly.

"And women," said Chaser Angelina Johnson.

"I like the way that she thinks," Tonks said happily.

"And women," Wood agreed. "This is it." "The big one," said Fred Weasley.

"The one we've all been waiting for," said George.

"Something tells me that Wood gives the same old speech," said Sirius smirking.

"We know Oliver's speech by heart," Fred told Harry, "we were on the team last year."

"Shut up, you two," said Wood. "This is the best team Gryﬃndor's had in years. We're going to win. I know it."

He glared at them all as if to say, "Or else."

"Obsessed much?" Tonks said with her eyebrows raised.

"Right. It's time. Good luck, all of you."

Harry followed Fred and George out of the locker room and, hoping his knees weren't going to give way, walked onto the ﬁeld to loud cheers.

Madam Hooch was refereeing. She stood in the middle of the ﬁeld waiting for the two teams, her broom in her hand.

"Now, I want a nice fair game, all of you," she said, once they were all gathered around her.

"With the Slytherins playing? Hell will freeze over before that happens," Sirius said.

Harry noticed that she seemed to be speaking particularly to the Slytherin Captain, Marcus Flint, a sixth year. Harry thought Flint looked as if he had some troll blood in him.

Sirius laughed. "Harry deﬁnitely got that cheek from his mother."

Remus also began to smile as Tonks said, "Who knew that Harry's thoughts could be this funny? To be honest, I always thought that he had a bit of a dry sense of humor."

"Can you guys stop interrupting every ﬁve seconds?" Moody demanded harshly.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the ﬂu†ering banner high above, ﬂashing Po†er for President over the crowd. His heart skipped. He felt braver.

"Mount your brooms, please."

Harry clambered onto his Nimbus Two Thousand. Madam Hooch gave a loud blast on her silver whistle.

Fi†een brooms rose up, high, high into the air. They were oﬀ.

Sirius was making the whole couch vibrate as he was shaking with excitement.

"And the Quaﬄe is taken immediately by Angelina Johnson of Gryﬃndor

— what an excellent Chaser that girl is, and rather a†ractive, too —" "JORDAN!"

"I love this guy!" Sirius said roaring with laughter, forgetting about what Moody just said.

"Sorry, Professor."

The Weasley twins' friend, Lee Jordan, was doing the commentary for the match, closely watched by Professor McGonagall.

"I bet that this commentary gonna be interesting," Tonks giggled.

"Oh, believe me," Remus said chuckling, "His commentaries are always interesting."

"Oh, that's right," she said thinking it over. "You saw them play." "Yes," Remus nodded. "It was impressive to say the least."

"And she's really belting along up there, a neat pass to Alicia Spinnet, a good ﬁnd of Oliver Wood's, last year only a reserve — back to Johnson and — no, the Slytherins have taken the Quaﬄe, Slytherin Captain Marcus Flint gains the Quaﬄe and oﬀ he goes — Flint ﬂying like an eagle up there — he's going to sc— no, stopped by an excellent move by Gryﬃndor Keeper Wood and the Gryﬃndors 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 the Slytherins — that's Adrian Pucey speeding oﬀ toward the goal posts, but he's blocked by a second Bludger

— sent his way by Fred or George Weasley, 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 Bletchley dives — misses — GRYFFINDORS SCORE!"

Tonks said all this really fast, and was out of breath by the end. But she still had enough air to shout out last two words as if she was the one commenting.

Sirius let out a loud whooping noise… Lee's commentary made him feel like he was really there in the stands watching the game.

Gryﬃndor cheers ﬁlled the cold air, with howls and moans from the Slytherins.

"Budge up there, move along." "Hagrid!"

Ron and Hermione squeezed together to give Hagrid enough space to join them.

"Why did they just change views all of a sudden?" Sirius asked in surprise.

"Who knows, who cares?" Mad-Eye snapped back. Why did he have to come back for a Quidditch chapter?

"Bin watchin' from me hut," said Hagrid, paGng a large pair of binoculars around his neck, "But it isn't the same as bein' in the crowd. No sign of the Snitch yet, eh?"

"Nope," said Ron. "Harry hasn't had much to do yet."

"Kept ou†a trouble, though, that's somethin'," said Hagrid, raising his binoculars and peering skyward at the speck that was Harry.

"Considering that it's Potter, then yes, it is something," Moody exclaimed.

Way up above them, Harry was gliding over the game, squinting about for some sign of the Snitch. This was part of his and Wood's game plan.

"Keep out of the way until you catch sight of the Snitch," Wood had said. "We don't want you a†acked before you have to be."

"Actually, I rather not have him attacked at all, if you don't mind!" said Sirius quickly. Once again, he was surprised at how easily 'concerned guardian' appeared.

When Angelina had scored, Harry had done a couple of loop-the-loops to let oﬀ his feelings. Now he was back to staring around for the Snitch.

Once he caught sight of a ﬂash of gold, but it was just a reﬂection from one of the Weasleys' wristwatches, and once a Bludger decided to come pelting his way, more like a cannonball than anything, but Harry dodged it and Fred Weasley came chasing a†er it.

"All right there, Harry?" he had time to yell, as he beat the Bludger furiously toward Marcus Flint.

"Hope it cracked his head open," Sirius muttered to himself.

"Slytherin in possession," Lee Jordan was saying, "Chaser Pucey ducks two Bludgers, two Weasleys, and Chaser Bell, and speeds toward the — wait a moment — was that the Snitch?"

Sirius was almost hyperventilating from anticipation. This was it!

A murmur 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 le† ear.

Harry saw it. In a great rush of excitement he dived downward a†er the streak of gold. Slytherin Seeker Terence Higgs had seen it, too.

Sirius began chanting, "Come on Harry! You can't let that troll get it before you!"

Neck and neck they hurtled toward the Snitch — all the Chasers seemed to have forgo†en what they were supposed to be doing as they hung in midair to watch.

Harry was faster than Higgs — he could see the li†le round ball, wings ﬂu†ering, darting up ahead — he put on an extra spurt of speed —

"Yes…" Sirius urged, excited, his heart racing.

WHAM!

"What?!" Sirius cried outraged.

"Please, don't let it be a Bludger," begged Remus.

"No, it's worse," Tonks said, frowning as she read the next line to herself.

A roar of rage echoed from the Gryﬃndors below — Marcus Flint had blocked Harry on purpose, and Harry's broom spun oﬀ course, Harry holding on for dear life.

"Foul!" screamed the Gryﬃndors.

"That cheating scumbag!" Sirius roared. "Is he trying to kill him?"

Madam Hooch spoke angrily to Flint and then ordered a free shot at the goal posts for Gryﬃndor. But in all the confusion, of course, the Golden Snitch had disappeared from sight again.

Down in the stands, Dean Thomas was yelling, "Send him oﬀ, ref! Red card!"

"Red card?" asked Sirius confused.

"Let her read and you'll ﬁnd out Black!" Moody barked suddenly, causing them to jump.

"Can you stop doing that, Mad-Eye?!" Tonks shouted.

"I'll stop doing it if you all stop interrupting!"

"What are you talking about, Dean?" said Ron.

"Red card!" said Dean furiously. "In football you get shown the red card and you're out of the game!"

"I kinda like that idea," Sirius muttered.

"You're starting to sound like a mother hen, Black," Moody pointed out and Sirius ﬂushed.

"Who asked you?" he snapped back, though he couldn't deny that he had been thinking like that for some time.

"But this isn't football, Dean," Ron reminded him. Hagrid, however, was on Dean's side.

"They oughta change the rules. Flint coulda knocked Harry ou†a the air."

"Yeah," Sirius agreed forcefully.

Lee Jordan was ﬁnding it diﬃcult not to take sides.

"So — a†er that obvious and disgusting bit of cheating —"

"He has guts saying that next to McGonagall," Sirius and Tonks both said at the same time. They looked at each other in surprise before they smiled.

"Jordan!" growled Professor McGonagall.

"I mean, a†er that open and revolting foul…"

"He's asking for it," Tonks grinned.

"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."

It was as Harry dodged another Bludger, which went spinning dangerously past his head, that it happened.

"What happened?" Sirius cried, starting to panic all over again. Moody was about to tell him oﬀ about interrupting again; but just shrugged and looked away, knowing that getting Sirius Black to listen was hopeless.

His broom gave a sudden, frightening lurch.

"What?!" everyone but Moody cried.

"Why do I get the feeling that this isn't supposed to happen?" Tonks said anxiously.

"Because it isn't!" Sirius yelled, gripping the edges of his seat tightly.

For a split second, he thought he was going to fall. He gripped the broom tightly with both his hands and knees. He'd never felt anything like that.

It happened again. It was as though the broom was trying to buck him oﬀ.

"It sounds like someone is cursing his broom," Moody observed evenly. "What?" Sirius yelled for the third time in panic. "Who would do that?"

But Nimbus Two Thousands did not suddenly decide to buck their riders oﬀ. Harry tried to turn back toward the Gryﬃndor goal-posts — he had half a mind to ask Wood to call time-out — and then he realized that his broom was completely out of his control. He couldn't turn it. He couldn't direct it at all. It was zigzagging through the air, and every now and then making violent swishing movements that almost unseated him.

"Get to the ground now!" Sirius said seriously.

"What is this happening?" Remus said, extremely worried. "No, a better question is, 'Why does this always happen to Harry?!' "

Lee was still commentating.

"Somebody look up and notice what's happening!" Tonks ﬁnally screeched.

"Slytherin in possession — Flint with the Quaﬄe — passes Spinnet — passes Bell — hit hard in the face by a Bludger, hope it broke his nose — only joking, Professor — Slytherins score — A no…"

The Slytherins were cheering. No one seemed to have noticed that Harry's broom was behaving strangely. It was carrying him slowly higher, away from the game, jerking and twitching as it went.

"Is everyone blind?" Sirius cried out, sounding close to having a breakdown. Can't his godson play a game of Quidditch without having to worry about dying?

"Dunno what Harry thinks he's doing," Hagrid mumbled. He stared through his binoculars. "If I didn' know be†er, I'd say he'd lost control of his broom… but he can't have…"

Suddenly, people were pointing up at Harry all over the stands. His broom had started to roll over and over, with him only just managing to hold on. Then the whole crowd gasped. Harry's broom had given a wild jerk and Harry swung oﬀ it.

"NO!" everyone, including Moody, yelled.

He was now dangling from it, holding on with only one hand.

Sirius's heart was pounding so hard against his ribcage that it was painful. What was happening here?

"Did something happen to it when Flint blocked him?" Seamus whispered.

"Can't have," Hagrid said, his voice shaking. "Can't nothing interfere with a broomstick except powerful Dark magic — no kid could do that to a Nimbus Two Thousand."

"That's interesting…" Moody said thoughtfully, trying to ﬁgure out who could be cursing Harry.

"Interesting?" Sirius cried hysterically. "Tell me, how is Harry almost being thrown oﬀ his own broomstick interesting?!"

At these words, Hermione seized Hagrid's binoculars, but instead of looking up at Harry, she started looking frantically at the crowd.

"What are you doing?" moaned Ron, gray-faced. "I knew it," Hermione gasped, "Snape — look."

Sirius had gone very white. Hatred for Snape that he had never felt to such a degree began to overpower all of his reasoning. He stood up, slowly… and it didn't take anyone long to guess what was going through Sirius's mind.

"Sirius!" Remus yelled as he ran forward and grabbed Sirius by the wrist. "Don't do anything rash! We don't know that it WAS Severus who was cursing Harry's broom! The book only says that it looked like him. Please wait until we ﬁnd out what happens before you go oﬀ and curse anyone!"

"Just let me go, Remus," Sirius growled, ﬁghting to get away. "I don't care about ﬁnding out what happens here! I don't know how much more of this I can take, anyway! Reading about how many times that Harry almost died… and this is just his ﬁrst year! It's going to get worse from this point onwards! And I don't care what you say… I don't need a wand to take down Snape!"

"KNOCK IT OFF!" Moody roared, startling them all.

"How many times to I have to explain that this ALREADY happened?" he yelled. "Even if you go aGer Snape, that's not going to change the past. So stop being so dramatic! The kids are all still alive aren't they? So relax and read already! I'm tired of listened to you all getting so theatrical!"

They all stared at Moody as if he just grew another head. Sirius didn't know what to say to all that, he didn't even notice when Remus pulled him back to his seat; a hand on his shoulder to prevent him from getting up again.

Tonks seemed to snap out of it quicker than the other two and went on.

Ron grabbed the binoculars. Snape was in the middle of the stands opposite them. He had his eyes ﬁxed on Harry and was mu†ering nonstop under his breath.

"He's doing something — jinxing the broom," said Hermione. "What should we do?"

"Leave it to me."

"What's she gonna do?" Remus asked in concern. Get another teacher?

Before Ron could say another word, Hermione had disappeared. Ron turned the binoculars back on Harry. His broom was vibrating so hard, it was almost impossible for him to hang on much longer. The whole crowd was on its feet, watching, terriﬁed, as the Weasleys ﬂew up to try and pull Harry safely onto one of their brooms, but it was no good – every time they got near him, the broom would jump higher still. They dropped lower and circled beneath him, obviously hoping to catch him if he fell.

'Don't think like that!' Sirius thought apprehensively.

"Weren't there supposed to be a couple of them running around with the mattress?" Moody asked lightly. Sirius thought that he was going to crack

and snap Mad-Eye's neck if he wasn't so worried.

Marcus Flint seized the Quaﬄe and scored ﬁve times without anyone noticing.

"Someone's life is in danger and you're thinking about scoring some goals?" Tonks yelled incredulously.

"He's a Slytherin!" Sirius snarled, "What do you expect from a nest of snakes?"

"Come on, Hermione," Ron mu†ered desperately.

Hermione had fought her way across to the stand where Snape stood, and was now racing along the row behind him; she didn't even stop to say sorry as she knocked Professor Quirrell headﬁrst into the row in front.

Moody blinked in surprise. Why would that be mentioned?

Reaching Snape, she crouched down, pulled out her wand, and whispered a few, well-chosen words. Bright blue ﬂames shot from her wand onto the hem of Snape's robes.

Everyone was stunned for a few seconds. Sirius broke the silence as he said soGly, "She set Snape on ﬁre?"

Tonks nodded slowly, "That's what the book says."

Sirius and Remus both stared at each other before the wide grin appeared on Sirius's face for a brief moment. "The next time that I see her… remind me to shake her hand! Set a teacher's robes on ﬁre? Why didn't I ever think of that?!"

It took perhaps thirty seconds for Snape to realize that he was on ﬁre. A sudden yelp told her she had done her job. Scooping the ﬁre oﬀ him into a li†le jar in her pocket, she scrambled back along the row — Snape would never know what had happened.

It was enough. Up in the air, Harry was suddenly able to clamber back on to his broom.

"Oh, thank God," Sirius sighed with relief.

"Neville, you can look!" Ron said. Neville had been sobbing into Hagrid's jacket for the last ﬁve minutes.

Harry was speeding toward the ground when the crowd saw him clap his hand to his mouth as though he was about to be sick — he hit the ﬁeld on all fours — coughed — and something gold fell into his hand.

"Is that…?" "I think it is!"

"I've got the Snitch!" he shouted, waving it above his head, and the game ended in complete confusion.

"He caught the snitch in his mouth?" Tonks cried. "I don't think that has happened before."

"But that's bloody amazing!" Sirius shouted. "That has got to be the best catch I ever heard of!"

"He didn't catch it, he nearly swallowed it," Flint was still howling twenty minutes later,

"Sore loser!" Tonks booed, pointing her thumb down.

"They won fair and square. He didn't break any rules!" Sirius cried happily.

but it made no diﬀerence — Harry hadn't broken any rules and Lee Jordan was still happily shouting the results — Gryﬃndor had won by one hundred and seventy points to sixty. Harry heard none of this, though.

He was being made a cup of strong tea back in Hagrid's hut, with Ron and Hermione.

"It was Snape," Ron was explaining, "Hermione and I saw him. He was cursing your broomstick, mu†ering, he wouldn't take his eyes oﬀ you."

"That doesn't mean that it is Severus though," Remus said quickly, his hand on Sirius's shoulder. "Dumbledore told me that he did save Harry's life in his ﬁrst year… I think that this is what he meant."

"But how can you be so sure?" demanded Sirius.

"Something does seem oﬀ to me," agreed Moody while he paced the room. "But I don't think that it's Snape who's doing this."

"Who do you think it is then?" asked Tonks eagerly. "That's none of your business."

"Rubbish," said Hagrid, who hadn't heard a word of what had gone on next to him in the stands. "Why would Snape do somethin' like that?"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at one another, wondering what to tell him. Harry decided on the truth.

"Potter's far too honest for his own good," Moody said shaking his head.

"I found out something about him," he told Hagrid. "He tried to get past that three-headed dog on Halloween. It bit him. We think he was trying to steal whatever it's guarding."

Hagrid dropped the teapot.

"How do you know about Fluﬀy?" he said.

"Fluﬀy? Hagrid named that—that thing ﬂuﬀy?" Tonks asked shocked.

"What do you expect? This is Hagrid we're talking about…" Remus said, though he too was amazed. "He calls a dog that couldn't hurt a ﬂy Fang, and a gigantic three-headed dog that would tear you limb from limb Fluﬀy."

"Like I said," Sirius stated, "It's his pets with the nice names you've got to watch out for."

"Fluﬀy?"

"Yeah — he's mine — bought him oﬀ a Greek chappie I met in the pub las' year — I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the —"

"The Sorcerer's Stone," Sirius said, unable to keep quiet. "We know that! But they don't!" Remus reminded him. "Yes?" said Harry eagerly.

"Now, don't ask me anymore," said Hagrid gruﬄy. "That's top secret, that is."

"But Snape's trying to steal it."

"Or that's what they think," Remus pointed out to Sirius who looked ready to agree. Sirius threw him a dark look before turning back to the book.

"Rubbish," said Hagrid again. "Snape's a Hogwarts teacher, he'd do nothin' of the sort."

"So why did he just try and kill Harry?" cried Hermione.

"Yeah…" Sirius agreed, clenching his hands tightly as he thought about the greasy-haired git.

The aGernoon's events certainly seemed to have changed her mind about Snape.

"I know a jinx when I see one, Hagrid, I've read all about them! You've got to keep eye contact, and Snape wasn't blinking at all, I saw him!"

"I'm tellin' yeh, yer wrong!" said Hagrid hotly. "I don' know why Harry's broom acted like that, but Snape wouldn' try an' kill a student! Now, listen to me, all three of yeh — yer meddlin' in things that don' concern yeh. It's dangerous. You forget that dog, an' you forget what it's guardin', that's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicolas Flamel —"

"Nicolas Flamel?" repeated Tonks. "What? Is he the guy who made the Stone or something?"

Remus shrugged. "Must be…"

"Aha!" said Harry, "so there's someone called Nicolas Flamel involved, is there?"

Hagrid looked furious with himself.

"I don't blame him, Dumbledore's trying to keep the Stone safe… and Hagrid just goes and gives the three most curious students in the whole school a hint," Moody declared.

"Well," Tonks said, holding the open book out to them, "That's the end of another chapter. So who wants to read now?"

She looked meaningfully at Mad-Eye, who glared at her and threatened to permanently rearrange her face if he asked again.

Sirius, who had calmed down, but was still anxious volunteered just so that he would have something to do. He took the book and turned the next page. He had just read out, "Chapter 12: The Mirror of Erised…" when there was a sudden knock on the door downstairs.

(Hope you enjoy it! Can anyone guess who's downstairs?)

Chapter 13

(Copyright belongs to J.K. Rowling! I own nothing)

Chapter 12: The Mirror of Erised

Sirius, who had calmed down, but was still anxious, volunteered just so that he would have something to do. He took the book and turned the next page. He had just read out, "Chapter 12: The Mirror of Erised…" when there was a sudden knock on the door downstairs.

Remus got up quickly and raced downstairs to see who it was. Sirius, Tonks, and Moody all sat there, waiting for him—wondering who it was this time. A few minutes later, Albus and Severus both came into the room, quickly followed by Remus.

As soon as Sirius saw the two men, he got up and was clearly trying to make his way over and kill them both.

Moody, who foreseen what Sirius was planning, pointed his wand at Sirius and created a shield charm around him to keep him from advancing.

"MOODY!" he roared, "LET ME OUT!"

"Sorry, Black," he said though he didn't sound sorry at all, "I hate to be the one to tell you this, but murder is frowned upon."

"I take it that what you've all read hasn't been pleasant," Albus asked gravely. He turned to the others and said, "Minerva said that she's coming a little bit later, she had a few matters to take care of back at the school."

"Is there a problem Black?" Severus asked as his lip began to curl.

"A problem?" bellowed Sirius. "Yeah, I got a problem! You try to kill Harry in his ﬁrst year! What the hell were you doing jinxing his broom?!"

Severus looked confused for a moment before he realized what he was talking about. "I assume that you read Potter's view on the Quidditch match?" he asked silkily.

"So you DID try to kill him!" Sirius yelled, ﬁghting to get to him and wrap his hands around his ﬁlthy neck.

"Sirius!" Albus said loudly, stepping forward. "I assure you that Severus was NOT trying to kill Harry. Someone else was jinxing his broom, and Severus was trying to save him."

"Oh, like your one to talk!" Sirius yelled, rounding on him. "A TROLL?! You let a bloody troll in the school? What the hell were you thinking?!"

"Sirius," Remus said, trying to be the voice of reason, "Dumbledore wasn't the one who let the troll in…"

"Enough," Albus said, coming between them. He surveyed Sirius through his half-moon spectacles and said sincerely, "Sirius… I'm sorry that you had to ﬁnd out this way. But you have to believe me when I say that I had no control in any of these events. If I did, I wouldn't have let them happen. I didn't realize that there was a troll in the castle until too late, and although you might not believe me, but Severus was trying to save Harry during his ﬁrst Quidditch match."

Albus didn't mention this… but he, himself, nearly had a heart-attack with he saw that Harry's broom was trying to buck him oﬀ. He watched frozen as the broom continued to jump and roll over until Harry was almost succeeded in throwing him oﬀ, hanging on only by one hand. He didn't understand why he felt fear like this… he was so close to going out onto the ﬁeld himself to stop it when all of a sudden, Harry was able to pull himself back onto his broom and streaked towards the ground. He remembered watching as Harry hit the ground on all fours, and looked as if he was about to be sick. It wasn't until he heard on the commentary that Harry was safe and was even able to catch the snitch in his mouth did relief—warm and wonderful relief—swept over him like a wave.

He couldn't believe something like this had happened under his nose. Severus came to him later that day and told him how he believed that it had been Quirrell who had jinxed the broom. He felt a deep anger that threatened to overcome his calmer and more reasonable side. For a moment he wanted to go down and confront him about this… but he was somehow able to hold himself back from doing something stupid. The best he could do was ask Severus to keep a closer eye on him and to go on with life.

A long silence ﬁlled the room.

Sirius continued to glare at him until ﬁnally he ﬂung himself back down into his chair, but continued to give both newcomers dirty looks. Albus sighed unhappily before he turned to Remus and asked, "How far have you all read?"

"We all read up till just aGer Harry's ﬁrst Quidditch match," Remus said. "Did Harry really catch the Snitch in his mouth?" asked Tonks eagerly.

Albus gave her an almost forced smile and nodded. "Yes," he said. "Certainly a ﬁrst for me."

He glanced worriedly at Sirius for a few minutes until he asked if he could read next if nobody minded. Remus nodded, and carefully picked up the book that Sirius ﬂung aside and handed it to him. "We were just about to start chapter 12. Apparently Hagrid accidently let slip the name Nicholas Flamel to the trio."

Albus blinked in surprise before he chuckled soGly. "So that's what happened. I always wondered how they found out about Nicholas." He then nodded to them all before he choose to sit on the couch, while Snape kept smirking at Sirius, as if daring him to try and attack him.

"Chapter 12: The Mirror of Erised," read Albus. Just below the title, was a picture of a large mirror… and a sad smile slowly appeared on his face once he realized what this was going to be about.

"What?" Remus asked puzzled. "What's the Mirror of Erised?"

"Well since the chapter is named aGer it, I'm sure we'll ﬁnd out," Tonks smiled.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "The book is named aGer the Sorcerer's Stone, and I still don't know what that is exactly."

"Just when I thought that you couldn't get more arrogant, Black," Snape sneered.

Sirius made to get up again, but Moody refused to lower his shield. "'Fraid I can't let you do that," Mad-Eye said.

Sirius gave him a glare that would've stuck him dead if he were able, before he turned back to Snape and growled, "You're lucky I'm over here!"

"Please," Snape said calmly, "You couldn't beat me in a duel if I had my hands tied behind my back."

"Is that a challenge?"

"Enough!" Albus said, interrupting the two. "Don't you wish to see what happens?" he asked.

They didn't answer, they just gave him malicious looks as he continued.

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.

"Brilliant," Sirius grinned.

"That turban again," Moody said. Albus looked up at him, wondering if Alastor had already ﬁgured out who the real villain was.

The few owls that managed to ba†le their way through the stormy sky to deliver mail had to be nursed back to health by Hagrid before they could ﬂy oﬀ again. No one could wait for the holidays to start.

While the Gryﬃndor common room and the Great Hall had roaring ﬁres, the dra†y corridors had become icy and a bi†er wind ra†led the windows in the classrooms. 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 hotcauldrons.

"You trying to kill them?" Sirius demanded coldly.

"You know you should have put heating charms down there for them, Severus," Albus oﬀered politely.

Severus rolled his eyes. "Why not just give them cushioned seats and sweets as well?" he asked annoyed.

"I do feel so sorry," said Draco Malfoy, one Potions class, "for all those people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because they're not wanted at home."

"That git!" Sirius said furiously. "How could anyone actually say that someone?"

"I thought you already ﬁgured it out, Black," Mad-Eye said in mock surprise, "He's a git."

"Besides, Christmas at Hogwarts is the best!" Remus said. AGer all, he spent every Christmas at school.

Sirius smiled as he nodded in agreement. In fact… the Christmas he had this year was the ﬁrst one he had back at Grimmauld Place since he leG for school in his eleventh year.

He was looking over at Harry as he spoke. Crabbe and Goyle chuckled. Harry, who was measuring out powdered spine of lionﬁsh, ignored them.

Malfoy had been even more unpleasant than usual since the Quidditch match. Disgusted that the Slytherins had lost, he had tried to get everyone laughing at how a wide-mouthed tree frog would be replacing Harry as Seeker next.

"That isn't really funny…" Tonks smirked shaking her head, "There are like, what? A tree frog? Come on… isn't he more creative than that?"

"Lame," Sirius said in agreement.

Then he'd realized that nobody found this funny,

"Ha!" Sirius said smugly, to Severus in particular who just raised his eyebrows, unimpressed.

because they were all so impressed at the way Harry had managed to stay on his bucking broomstick. So Malfoy, jealous and angry, had gone back to taunting Harry about having no proper family.

Sirius glared at the book, as if hoping that it would burst into ﬂames. "Padfoot, don't take your anger on the book," Remus said soGly.

It was true that Harry wasn't going back to Privet Drive for Christmas. Professor McGonagall had come around the week before, making a list of students who would be staying for the holidays, and Harry had signed up at once. He didn't feel sorry for himself at all; this would probably be the best Christmas he'd ever had.

Sirius tried to ignore the painful pang in his heart as memories of the Christmas before James and Lily died tried to force their way to the front of his mind. Shutting his eyes tightly, he fought hard against the ﬂood of emotions that were ﬁghting to break out.

Ron and his brothers were staying, too, because Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were going to Romania to visit Charlie.

When they le† the dungeons at the end of Potions, they found a large ﬁr tree blocking the corridor ahead. Two enormous feet sticking out at the bo†om and a loud puﬃng sound told them that Hagrid was behind it.

"I was going to say," Tonks laughed. "Last time I checked, trees didn't have feet."

"Hi, Hagrid, want any help?" Ron asked, sticking his head through the branches.

"Nah, I'm all right, thanks, Ron."

"Would you mind moving out of the way?" came Malfoy's cold drawl from behind them. "Are you trying to earn some extra money, Weasley? Hoping to be gamekeeper yourself when you leave Hogwarts, I suppose

— that hut of Hagrid's must seem like a palace compared to what your family's used to."

"He just keeps getting worse every chapter," Tonks said shaking her head. She then turned to Snape and demanded, "Why do you let the kids from your house act like this?"

Severus just shrugged, "I'm afraid I can't control what the students in my house do."

"Then maybe you need another Head of House?" Moody suggested.

"I can live with that," Sirius smirked to himself as Severus gritted his teeth.

Ron dived at Malfoy just as Snape came up the stairs. "Of course," snarled Sirius, hate in his eyes. "WEASLEY!"

Ron let go of the front of Malfoy's robes.

"He was provoked, Professor Snape," said Hagrid, sticking his huge hairy face out from behind the tree. "Malfoy was insultin' his family."

"Be that as it may, ﬁghting is against Hogwarts rules," said Severus silkily, Albus sighed sadly.

"Be that as it may, ﬁghting is against Hogwarts rules, Hagrid," said Snape silkily. (Snape smiled.) "Five points from Gryﬃndor, Weasley, and be grateful it isn't more. Move along, all of you."

Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle pushed roughly past the tree, sca†ering needles everywhere and smirking.

"And they expect someone to clean them up too," Tonks said shaking her head. "They think that they're the greatest thing since sliced bread don't they?"

"Don't worry," Mad-Eye yawned. "There's this think called Karma. Sooner or later, they're going to be getting a rude wake-up call and see the world doesn't work like they think it should."

"I'll get him," said Ron, grinding his teeth at Malfoy's back, "one of these days, I'll get him —"

"I hate them both," said Harry, "Malfoy and Snape."

"Me too," said Sirius, shooting Snape a disgusted look.

"Oh, trust me Black, the feeling is mutual," sneered Snape, Albus just sighed again, feeling as if he was dealing with a couple angry ﬁve-year-olds who didn't want to have a play date with each other.

"Come on, cheer up, it's nearly Christmas," said Hagrid. "Tell yeh what, come with me an' see the Great Hall, looks a treat."

"It always does," Albus said smiling—and everyone who had seen the decorations at school nodded at once as well.

So the three of them followed Hagrid and his tree oﬀ to the Great Hall, where Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick were busy with the Christmas decorations.

"Ah, Hagrid, the last tree — put it in the far corner, would you?"

The hall looked spectacular. Festoons of holly and mistletoe hung all around the walls, and no less than twelve towering Christmas trees stood around the room, some sparkling with tiny icicles, some gli†ering with hundreds of candles.

"Ah," Sirius said smiling and thinking back. "This brings back fond memories."

"Hmm," Remus said simply, his eyes becoming glassy for a moment as he remembered all the spectacular times at school.

"How many days you got le† until yer holidays?" Hagrid asked.

"Just one," said Hermione. "And that reminds me — Harry, Ron, we've got half an hour before lunch, we should be in the library."

"Oh yeah, you're right," said Ron,

"Your right?" Sirius gasped in horror.

"Weasley actually wants to go to the library?" Severus said in equal surprise. "From his homework I would've thought that he never opened a book."

"Severus," Albus said warningly.

tearing his eyes away from Professor Flitwick, who had golden bubbles blossoming out of his wand and was trailing them over the branches of the new tree.

"The library?" said Hagrid, following them out of the hall. "Just before the holidays? Bit keen, aren't yeh?"

Sirius shook his head; unable to believe what he was hearing.

"Oh, we're not working," Harry told him brightly. "Ever since you mentioned Nicolas Flamel we've been trying to ﬁnd out who he is."

"Harry, you aren't supposed to come out and tell everyone what you're doing!" Sirius said exasperated, but feeling better knowing what they were really up to.

"He is too honest for his own good, isn't he?" Tonks giggled.

Severus glowered—wishing that they would keep their noses out of things that didn't concern them. But Albus smiled proudly; he just couldn't help but feel pleased that the three of them had indeed done the work probably.

"You what?" Hagrid looked shocked. "Listen here — I've told yeh — drop it. It's nothin' to you what that dog's guardin'."

"We just want to know who Nicolas Flamel is, that's all," said Hermione.

"To bad that it's none of their business," Severus hissed.

"Why are they acting like all of this is a game?" Tonks asked lightly.

"Life is a game," Sirius laughed. "If you can't play then what's the point?"

"It is curiosity," Albus explained with a smile. "I am sure that if it had been any of us in their places, we would want to know as well." No one seemed to have been able to ﬁnd anything to say to that. He smiled at them all in turn before turning the page.

"Unless you'd like to tell us and save us the trouble?" Harry added.

"Not going to happen, Harry," Sirius said grimly. "Things don't work out that way, I'm afraid."

"We must've been through hundreds of books already and we can't ﬁnd him anywhere — just give us a hint — I know I've read his name somewhere."

"You know? I think I have too…" Tonks said thoughtfully. "But I can't remember where…"

Albus just kept going, though he had a good idea to where they did hear it before… if any of them collected chocolate frog cards.

"I'm sayin' nothin', said Hagrid ﬂatly.

"Just have to ﬁnd out for ourselves, then," said Ron, and they le† Hagrid looking disgruntled and hurried oﬀ to the library.

They had indeed been searching books for Flamel's name ever since Hagrid had let it slip, because how else were they going to ﬁnd out what Snape was trying to steal? The trouble was, it was very hard to know where to begin, not knowing what Flamel might have done to get himself into a book.

'Oh, plenty,' Albus thought in great amusement. 'However, none of it is recent. You would have to look in an extremely old book for any chance.'

He wasn't in Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century, or Notable Magical Names of Our Time; he was missing, too, from Important Modern Magical Discoveries, and A Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry.

"It can't be recent. Nicholas is far, far older than I am," Albus said with a chuckle.

"Really?" Tonks said interested. "Then maybe you can ﬁll us in on what this Stone is and why it's so important?"

"I'm sure that you'll ﬁnd out later on," Albus said smiling in a mysterious way.

And then, of course, there was the sheer size of the library; tens of thousands of books; thousands of shelves; hundreds of narrow rows.

"We get it!" Sirius said in annoyance. "Hogwarts has a lot of books! Get to some good parts already!"

"Patient as always, Padfoot," Remus said sarcastically.

Hermione took out a list of subjects and titles she had decided to search while Ron strode oﬀ down a row of books and started pulling them oﬀ the shelves at random.

Harry wandered over to the Restricted Section. He had been wondering for a while if Flamel wasn't somewhere in there. Unfortunately, you needed a specially signed note from one of the teachers to look in any of the restricted books, and he knew he'd never get one. These were the books containing powerful Dark Magic never taught at Hogwarts,

"I should hope not," Mad-Eye said darkly. Otherwise that would've just made his job of catching Death Eater scum even harder.

and only read by older students studying advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"What are you looking for, boy?" "Nothing," said Harry.

"Really Harry?" Sirius sighed with a smile. "You need to learn how to make up better stories..

Madam Pince the librarian brandished a feather duster at him. "You'd be†er get out, then. Go on — out!"

Wishing he'd been a bit quicker at thinking up some story,

"You and me both, kid," Sirius said shaking his head. "Well, you're young so I can forgive you for that."

"I'm starting to think that you might be a bad inﬂuence, Sirius," Tonks joked and he grinned back happily.

Harry le† the library. He, Ron, and Hermione had already agreed they'd be†er not ask Madam Pince where they could ﬁnd Flamel. They were sure she'd be able to tell them, but they couldn't risk Snape hearing what they were up to.

"Damn right, I would have had them in detention faster than blinking seeing how I'm the only one who actually does his job…" Severus muttered to himself.

Harry waited outside in the corridor to see if the other two had found anything, but he wasn't very hopeful. They had been looking for two weeks, a†er all, but as they only had odd moments between lessons it wasn't surprising they'd found nothing. What they really needed was a nice long search without Madam Pince breathing down their necks.

"Good luck," Tonks muttered, remembering all the times that she would look at them as if she were a vulture… waiting to ﬂy down and grab any book that no one was reading.

Five minutes later, Ron and Hermione joined him, shaking their heads. They went oﬀ to lunch.

"You will keep looking while I'm away, won't you?" said Hermione. "And send me an owl if you ﬁnd anything."

"And you could ask your parents if they know who Flamel is," said Ron. "It'd be safe to ask them."

Remus laughed. "Yes, it would be safe. Seeing as how Hermione's Muggle- born."

"Very safe, as they're both dentists," said Hermione.

Once the holidays had started, Ron and Harry were having too good a time to think much about Flamel.

"Of course they were," Mad-Eye said bored.

They had the dormitory to themselves and the common room was far emptier than usual, so they were able to get the good armchairs by the ﬁre. They sat by the hour eating anything they could spear on a toasting fork — bread, English muﬃns, marshmallows — and ploGng ways of geGng Malfoy expelled, which were fun to talk about even if they wouldn't work.

"Sounds like fun," Sirius said laughing. He remembered how he and James used to sit and dream up ways to prank Snape.

Ron also started teaching Harry wizard chess. This was exactly like Muggle chess except that the ﬁgures were alive, which made it a lot like directing troops in ba†le. Ron's set was very old and ba†ered. Like everything else he owned, it had once belonged to someone else in his family — in this case, his grandfather. However, old chessmen weren't a drawback at all. Ron knew them so well he never had trouble geGng them to do what he wanted.

"That's true about those chess pieces," Tonks muttered, even those she didn't like chess all that well. "The new ones don't ever trust you and you have to almost force them to move."

Harry played with chessmen Seamus Finnigan had lent him, and they didn't trust him at all. He wasn't a very good player yet and they kept shouting diﬀerent bits of advice at him, which was confusing. "Don't send me there, can't you see his knight? Send him, we can aﬀord to lose him."

"What's the point?" Remus laughed again, "No one can beat Ron at chess. He has to be one of the best chess players that I've ever seen."

On Christmas Eve, Harry went to bed looking forward to the next day for the food and the fun, but not expecting any presents at all.

Sirius was looking murderous. He didn't want his good mood that Harry was actually enjoying himself to be spoiled, so he held back a response. How could anyone be so inhumane to actually treat their own nephew like this?

When he woke early in the morning, however, the ﬁrst thing he saw was a small pile of packages at the foot of his bed.

"Happy Christmas," said Ron sleepily as Harry scrambled out of bed and pulled on his bathrobe.

"You, too," said Harry. "Will you look at this? I've got some presents!"

Severus frowned for a few minutes at that, horriﬁed that he was actually feeling pity for Potter.

Sirius frowned, "I really don't like that he is just so used to not getting presents at all. That's something I hope to ﬁx." He was going to do everything he could to make up for those ten years of birthdays and Christmas's no matter what.

"What did you expect, turnips?" said Ron, turning to his own pile, which was a lot bigger than Harry's.

Harry picked up the top parcel. It was wrapped in thick brown paper and scrawled across it was To Harry, from Hagrid. Inside was a roughly cut wooden ﬂute. Hagrid had obviously whi†led it himself. Harry blew it — it sounded a bit like an owl.

"Remind me to thank Hagrid," Remus said smiling.

A second, very small parcel contained a note.

We received your message and enclose your Christmas present. From Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia. Taped to the note was a ﬁ†y-pence piece.

"Oh, that's nice," Tonks sneered. "What is he supposed to buy with that? A grape?"

"I was expecting a pair of socks and a coat hanger," Sirius was furious, like the rest of the room.

"I bet that they were probably just afraid that he'd use magic on them if they weren't somewhat friendly to him," Mad-Eye said grumpily.

"To bad that they don't feel that way now," Tonks said regretfully.

"That's friendly," said Harry.

Ron was fascinated by the ﬁ†y pence.

"Weird!" he said, "What a shape! This is money?"

Remus smiled, "He sounds just like Arthur."

"You can keep it," said Harry, laughing at how pleased Ron was. "Hagrid and my aunt and uncle — so who sent these?"

"I think I know who that one's from," said Ron, turning a bit pink and pointing to a very lumpy parcel. "My mom. I told her you didn't expect any presents and — oh, no," he groaned, "she's made you a Weasley sweater."

"A Weasley sweater?" Albus asked with a twinkle in his eyes. "Ahhhh," Tonks cooed. "That's so sweet."

Snape rolled his eyes.

Harry had torn open the parcel to ﬁnd a thick, hand-kni†ed sweater in emerald green and a large box of homemade fudge.

"Every year she makes us a sweater," said Ron, unwrapping his own, "and mine's always maroon."

"That's really nice of her," said Harry, trying the fudge, which was very tasty.

His next present also contained candy — a large box of Chocolate Frogs from Hermione.

"Harry seems so surprised that he got presents. He had to know his friends would get him something!" Sirius's mouth hung open.

"What do you expect?" Moody asked. "When you have 10 years of nothing, it takes some getting used to."

Albus's eyes sadden at those words, but he brightened up slightly at the next line.

This only le† one parcel. Harry picked it up and felt it. It was very light. He unwrapped it. Something ﬂuid and silvery gray went slithering to the ﬂoor where it lay in gleaming folds.

Ron gasped.

Sirius and Remus's eyes widened at the description. "Is that…?"

"It has to be!"

"What?" Tonks asked, startled by their excited expressions.

"I've heard of those," he said in a hushed voice, dropping the box of Every Flavor Beans he'd go†en from Hermione. "If that's what I think it is

— they're really rare, and really valuable."

"What is it?"

Harry picked the shining, silvery cloth oﬀ the ﬂoor. It was strange to the touch, like water woven into material.

"I can't believe it," Sirius said close to laughter.

"So that's how it happened," Remus said grinning broadly. "I was beginning to wonder how he got it."

"What are you both talking about?" Tonks demanded.

"It's an invisibility cloak," said Ron, a look of awe on his face.

And Tonks let out a soG noise of understanding.

"I'm sure it is — try it on."

Harry threw the cloak around his shoulders and Ron gave a yell. "It is! Look down!"

Harry looked down at his feet, but they were gone. He dashed to the mirror. Sure enough, his reﬂection looked back at him, just his head suspended in midair, his body completely invisible.

"I remember when I ﬁrst tried it on," Sirius said nostalgically and Remus laughed. The ﬁrst time that he saw the cloak, he thought for sure that he was seeing things.

Severus on the other hand was glaring at Albus who just smiled back at him.

He pulled the cloak over his head and his reﬂection vanished completely. "There's a note!" said Ron suddenly. "A note fell out of it!"

Harry pulled oﬀ the cloak and seized the le†er. Wri†en in narrow, loopy writing he had never seen before were the following words:

Your father lefi this in my possession before he died.

It is time it was returned to you.

Use it well.

A Very Happy Christmas to you.

There was no signature. Harry stared at the note. Ron was admiring the cloak.

"Use… it… well?" spat Severus indigently. He stared at Dumbledore, was he trying to get Potter to break rules?

Albus chuckled at Severus's expression and said, "Now Severus, Harry hardly ever used it for deliberately breaking rules. And I'm sure that you know this as well as I do."

Snape just stared incredulously at him.

"I'd give anything for one of these," he said. "Anything. What's the ma†er?"

"Nothing," said Harry. He felt very strange. Who had sent the cloak? Had it really once belonged to his father?

"You bet!" Sirius said happily. "Ah, such good memories…"

"Keep going Dumbledore," Mad-Eye said. "Otherwise Black will go on about the good ol' days."

Before he could say or think anything else, the dormitory door was ﬂung open and Fred and George Weasley bounded in. Harry stuﬀed the cloak quickly out of sight. He didn't feel like sharing it with anyone else yet.

"Happy Christmas!"

"Hey, look — Harry's got a Weasley sweater, too!"

Fred and George were wearing blue sweaters, one with a large yellow F on it, the other a G.

"I bet they reversed them," Sirius laughed.

"Nah," Tonks disagreed. "I bet that they put them on right just to make us think that."

"You know, I wouldn't put it past them," chuckled Remus.

"Harry's is be†er than ours, though," said Fred, holding up Harry's sweater. "She obviously makes more of an eﬀort if you're not family."

"Why aren't you wearing yours, Ron?" George demanded. "Come on, get it on, they're lovely and warm."

"I hate maroon," Ron moaned halheartedly as he pulled it over his head.

"Yeah," Tonks laughed. "Sounds like he really hates it."

"You haven't got a le†er on yours," George observed. "I suppose she thinks you don't forget your name. But we're not stupid — we know we're called Gred and Forge."

Sirius roared with laughter, "These guys are great! I have to remember to call them that next time I see them."

"What's all this noise?"

Percy Weasley stuck his head through the door, looking disapproving. He had clearly go†en halfway through unwrapping his presents as he, too, carried a lumpy sweater over his arm, which Fred seized.

"P for prefect! Get it on, Percy, come on, we're all wearing ours, even Harry got one."

"I — don't — want —" said Percy thickly, as the twins forced the sweater over his head, knocking his glasses askew.

Mad-Eye raised his eyebrows. So even back then he was feeling diﬀerent from the rest of the family… interesting.

"And you're not siGng with the prefects today, either," said George. "Christmas is a time for family."

'Too bad they don't feel that way anymore,' thought Remus sadly, thinking about how Percy wasn't talking to the rest of the family.

They frog-marched Percy from the room, his arms pinned to his side by his sweater.

Harry had never in all his life had such a Christmas dinner. A hundred fat, roast turkeys; mountains of roast and boiled potatoes; pla†ers of chipolatas; tureens of bu†ered peas, silver boats of thick, rich gravy and cranberry sauce – and stacks of wizard crackers every few feet along the table.

"I'm hungry," Sirius groaned.

"You're always hungry, Sirius," Remus reminded him. "Can I help it if I have a large metabolism?"

"More like a bottomless pit," Snape muttered. Sirius bared his teeth at him. Why did he have to read the book with a git like Snape around?

These fantastic party favors were nothing like the feeble Muggle ones the Dursleys usually bought, with their li†le plastic toys and their ﬂimsy paper hats inside. Harry pulled a wizard cracker with Fred and it didn't just bang, it went oﬀ with a blast like a cannon and engulfed them all in a

cloud of blue smoke, while from the inside exploded a rear admiral's hat and several live, white mice. Up at the High Table, Dumbledore had swapped his pointed wizard's hat for a ﬂowered bonnet, and was chuckling merrily at a joke Professor Flitwick had just read him.

Albus laughed out loud at that. "I remember doing that… it feels like it happened so long ago."

"What was the joke?" Sirius asked interested.

"Could you just get a move on?" Mad-Eye asked as Albus opened his mouth to answer. Albus's eyes twinkled and he promised, "I'll tell you later."

Flaming Christmas puddings followed the turkey. Percy nearly broke his teeth on a silver sickle embedded in his slice. Harry watched Hagrid geGng redder and redder in the face as he called for more wine, ﬁnally kissing Professor McGonagall on the cheek, who, to Harry's amazement, giggled and blushed, her top hat lopsided.

"Oh," Sirius said cackling. "What I wouldn't give to have seen all that!"

"Sounds like someone had a little too much to drink that Christmas," Moody said with one of his lop-sides grins.

When Harry ﬁnally le† the table, he was laden down with a stack of things out of the crackers, including a pack of nonexplodable, luminous balloons, a Grow-Your-Own-Warts kit, and his own new wizard chess set. The white mice had disappeared and Harry had a nasty feeling they were going to end up as Mrs. Norris's Christmas dinner.

Harry and the Weasleys spent a happy a†ernoon having a furious snowball ﬁght on the grounds.

Then, cold, wet, and gasping for breath, they returned to the ﬁre in the Gryﬃndor common room, where Harry broke in his new chess set by

losing spectacularly to Ron. He suspected he wouldn't have lost so badly if Percy hadn't tried to help him so much.

"Harry's too polite to tell him to get lost anyway," Tonks said. Snape snorted.

A†er a meal of turkey sandwiches, crumpets, triﬂe, and Christmas cake, everyone felt too full and sleepy to do much before bed except sit and watch Percy chase Fred and George all over Gryﬃndor tower because they'd stolen his prefect badge.

"Why does that sound familiar?" Sirius asked Remus with a smirk, who gave him amused look.

It had been Harry's best Christmas day ever. Yet something had been nagging at the back of his mind all day. Not until he climbed into bed was he free to think about it: the invisibility cloak and whoever had sent it.

Ron, full of turkey and cake and with nothing mysterious to bother him, fell asleep almost as soon as he'd drawn the curtains of his four-poster. Harry leaned over the side of his own bed and pulled the cloak out from under it.

His father's… this had been his father's.

'The only thing he has leƒ from James,' Sirius thought sadly, his eyes soGening at that depressing thought.

He let the material ﬂow over his hands, smoother than silk, light as air.

Use it well, the note had said.

He had to try it, now. He slipped out of bed and wrapped the cloak around himself. Looking down at his legs, he saw only moonlight and shadows. It was a very funny feeling.

Remus and Sirius both nodded; feeling as if you weren't there when you obviously were.

Use it well.

Suddenly, Harry felt wide-awake. The whole of Hogwarts was open to him in this cloak. Excitement ﬂooded through him as he stood there in the dark and silence. He could go anywhere in this, anywhere, and Filch would never know.

"You see Headmaster?" Severus asked smugly. "He's a trouble-maker… just like his no good fa…"

"You don't want to ﬁnish that sentence," snarled Sirius, threatening to get up again. Mad-Eye strengthened his shield just in case.

"Ok, you two," Albus said, "That's enough."

Ron grunted in his sleep. Should Harry wake him? Something held him back — his father's cloak — he felt that this time — the ﬁrst time — he wanted to use it alone.

He crept out of the dormitory, down the stairs, across the common room, and climbed through the portrait hole.

"Who's there?" squawked the Fat Lady. Harry said nothing. He walked quickly down the corridor.

Where should he go? He stopped, his heart racing, and thought. And then it came to him. The Restricted Section in the library.

"Out of all the places that you could go you chose the library?!" asked Sirius incredulously.

"Not everyone hates the library like you do, Sirius," Remus sighed.

He'd be able to read as long as he liked, as long as it took to ﬁnd out who Flamel was.

He set oﬀ, drawing the invisibility cloak tight around him as he walked.

The library was pitch-black and very eerie. Harry lit a lamp to see his way along the rows of books. The lamp looked as if it was ﬂoating along in midair, and even though Harry could feel his arm supporting it, the sight gave him the creeps.

The Restricted Section was right at the back of the library. Stepping carefully over the rope that separated these books from the rest of the library, he held up his lamp to read the titles.

They didn't tell him much. Their peeling faded gold le†ers spelled words in languages Harry couldn't understand. Some had no title at all. One book had a dark stain on it that looked horribly like blood.

'Most likely,' Albus thought. But he hoped that Harry didn't try to open any of them… he would regret it if he did…

The hairs on the back of Harry's neck prickled. Maybe he was imagining it, maybe not, but he thought a faint whispering was coming from the books, as though they knew someone was there who shouldn't be.

"Those are some very sharp senses," Moody mused.

He had to start somewhere. SeGng the lamp down carefully on the ﬂoor, he looked along the bo†om shelf for an interesting looking book. A large black and silver volume caught his eye. He pulled it out with diﬃculty, because it was very heavy, and, balancing it on his knee, let it fall open.

Albus winced inwardly, knowing what was about to happen…

A piercing, bloodcurdling shriek split the silence — the book was screaming!

"Yes," Albus said to the room. "That happens to anyone who opens a book from the restricted section without permission."

"Eﬀective alarm," Tonks said with a shudder.

Harry snapped it shut, but the shriek went on and on, one high, unbroken, earspliGng note. He stumbled backward and knocked over his lamp, which went out at once. Panicking, he heard footsteps coming down the corridor outside —

"He better get out of there," Tonks said worriedly.

"What do you expect him to do?" Sirius asked as if she just asked what one and one equaled. "Stick around and get caught?"

stuﬃng the shrieking book back on the shelf, he ran for it.

He passed Filch in the doorway; Filch's pale, wild eyes looked straight through him, and Harry slipped under Filch's outstretched arm and streaked oﬀ up the corridor, the book's shrieks still ringing in his ears.

He came to a sudden halt in front of a tall suit of armor. He had been so busy geGng away from the library, he hadn't paid a†ention to where he was going. Perhaps because it was dark, he didn't recognize where he was at all. There was a suit of armor near the kitchens, he knew, but he must be ﬁve ﬂoors above there.

"There're must be hundreds of suits of armor in the school, Potter," Severus sneered.

"He was only a ﬁrst year, Severus," Remus reminded him patiently. "We all got lost many times don't you think?"

Severus was ﬁghting back the smart retort that he was longing to throw at him.

"You asked me to come directly to you, Professor, if anyone was wandering around at night, and somebody's been in the library Restricted Section."

Harry felt the blood drain out of his face. Wherever he was, Filch must know a shortcut, because his so†, greasy voice was geGng nearer, and to his horror, it was Snape who replied, "The Restricted Section? Well, they can't be far, we'll catch them."

"Great…" groaned Sirius before hollering at Snape, "Can't you leave him alone?"

"Is it my fault that Potter was out of bed?" he asked calmly. "No. I was just doing my job."

"You son of a…"

Dumbledore wisely went on before things got messy.

Harry stood rooted to the spot as Filch and Snape came around the corner ahead. They couldn't see him, of course, but it was a narrow corridor and if they came much nearer they'd knock right into him — the cloak didn't stop him from being solid.

"A lesson that some of us learned the hard way," Remus smiled at Sirius who blushed at the few times that he had accidently walked into someone or something when he had been under the cloak. It was easy to forget that little detail though if you couldn't see your own feet.

He backed away as quietly as he could. A door stood ajar to his le†. It was his only hope. He squeezed through it, holding his breath, trying not to move it, and to his relief he managed to get inside the room without their noticing anything. They walked straight past, and Harry leaned against the wall, breathing deeply, listening to their footsteps dying away. That had been close, very close. It was a few seconds before he noticed anything about the room he had hidden in.

It looked like an unused classroom. The dark shapes of desks and chairs were piled against the walls, and there was an upturned wastepaper basket – but propped against the wall facing him was something that

didn't look as if it belonged there, something that looked as if someone had just put it there to keep it out of the way.

"Oooo," Tonks said eagerly. "What is it?" Albus merely smiled at her and read:

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 oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.

"That must be the Mirror of Erised," Tonks said in amazement. Looks like they will ﬁnally know what's so special about it.

"Wow," Severus said rolling his eyes again. "What gave you that idea?" She glared at him before she asked, "What language is it in?"

"Mirror language," Albus answered simply.

"Really?" said Remus interested. "Wait, let me take a look at that for a minute." He reached across Tonks and took book from Dumbledore.

"Oh, come on Moony," Sirius moaned.

"Sorry," he said, "I just can resist. Erised… Erised… E-R-I-S-E-D… Got it! D-E- S-I-R-E! It's desire backwards!" He looked up to see that Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling and he was beaming, so he quickly read the other words again and said, "It says, 'I show not your face but your heart's desire'!"

Albus beamed.

"Does it really?" asked Tonks as she looked over his shoulder. "Huh… well fancy that?"

"Can we hurry this up?" Severus said irritably. "I don't want to read this book any longer I have to."

"If that's the case Severus," Albus asked as he turned the page, "Why did you come back here to read in the ﬁrst place?"

Severus frowned at him. "Just read," he grunted.

His panic fading now that there was no sound of Filch and Snape, Harry moved nearer to the mirror, wanting to look at himself but see no reﬂection again.

He stepped in front of it.

He had to clap his hands to his mouth to stop himself from screaming.

"What?" everyone but Dumbledore exclaimed. Albus felt a deep sadness rise up in him… he knew what Harry saw.

He whirled around. His heart was pounding far more furiously than when the book had screamed — for he had seen not only himself in the mirror, but a whole crowd of people standing right behind him.

"Why did he see people behind him?" Sirius asked Dumbledore. "Are they ghosts?"

"I guess that you could think of like that," he answered aGer a minute of silence. "Though not exactly." He then read on before they could ask what he meant.

But the room was empty. Breathing very fast, he turned slowly back to the mirror.

There he was, reﬂected in it, white and scared-looking, and there, reﬂected behind him, were at least ten others. Harry looked over his shoulder — but still, no one was there. Or were they all invisible, too? Was he in fact in a room full of invisible people and this mirror's trick was that it reﬂected them, invisible ornot?

"I highly doubt that," Mad-Eye grunted.

He looked in the mirror again. A woman standing right behind his reﬂection was smiling at him and waving.

He reached out a hand and felt the air behind him. If she was really there, he'd touch her, their reﬂections were so close together, but he felt only air – she and the others existed only in the mirror.

She was a very pre†y woman. She had dark red hair and her eyes — her eyes are just like mine, Harry thought, edging a li†le closer to the glass.

Severus, who had already been sitting still, now froze completely, turning as pale as a ghost.

Remus groaned, recognizing the description.

Bright green — exactly the same shape, but then he noticed that she was crying; smiling, but crying at the same time. The tall, thin, black-haired man standing next to her put his arm around her. He wore glasses, and his hair was very untidy. It stuck up at the back, just as Harry's did.

"Prongs…" Sirius said sadly, suddenly wishing that he could reach out and grasp Harry's shoulder at that moment.

Harry was so close to the mirror now that his nose was nearly touching that of his reﬂection.

"Mom?" he whispered. "Dad?"

They just looked at him, smiling. And slowly, Harry looked into the faces of the other people in the mirror, and saw other pairs of green eyes like his, other noses like his, even a li†le old man who looked as though he had Harry's knobbly knees — Harry was looking at his family, for the ﬁrst time in his life.

Sirius cursed under his breath, his heart clenched at the fact Harry never got to meet James and Lily. He put his head in his hands, trying to hide the single tear slowly falling from his eyes. Harry… Harry didn't even realize

that he was looking at his parents… he didn't even know what they looked like until that one moment… he didn't have anyone there when he needed them most…

Tonks looked like she was about to cry as well.

Remus looked like he was just recovering from a particular bad full moon.

Mad-Eye just turned his back on all of them, as he stared into the empty ﬁreplace.

Snape didn't say anything, but he started to stare at the wall again… ok… so Potter didn't have the spoiled and pampered childhood that he always thought the boy did… but… but he was still an arrogant prat just like his father. He was determined to hang onto that.

Albus felt a terrible sadness inside him. He knew all too well the kind of hold the mirror had over Harry for those few nights. He too was once obsessed with staring into the glass himself. The fact that Harry had lost everything in that one night… and that all he wanted was a family… it felt like a shard of ice pierced his heart.

Albus intended to move the mirror that very night, into the chamber. He'd placed it in one of the many unused classrooms and was preparing to move the stone down into the chamber any second aGer he ﬁnished putting his protection on it. He was under a Disillusionment Charm as a precaution, and was about to start work on the mirror, when he heard a noise outside in the hallway.

That was when he noticed that it had been Harry. He had been curious about how Harry would react to the mirror, he drew back into the shadows and watched. He remembered wondering what Harry would see when he looked into it. He had wondered if it would it show him as a powerful wizard in control of an army? Perhaps in the mirror he would be surrounded with riches, to make up for the poverty in which he'd lived most of his life. Would it show him with a family, safe and away from the

Wizarding world? That one moment had revealed to him about the boy's future, and what kind of heart he had.

There in the mirror, he could see Harry's refection staring at the mirror in wonderment. There Albus saw the terrible sadness in his eyes, as he stared hungrily into the mirror, his hands pressed against the glass. As Albus watched Harry struggle with his emotions, the boy moved forward as though in a trance, until he was nearly nose-to-nose with the mirror. He stood staring at his reﬂection for several minutes, giving Albus plenty of time to wonder what it was he was seeing, before whispering, "Mum?

Dad?"

A sad smile found its way onto Albus's face. What Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, wanted more than anything else in the world was what millions of children took for granted everyday: his parents. Not fame, not riches, but a family…

Sighing heavily, Albus went on in a forced tone.

The Po†ers smiled and waved at Harry and he stared hungrily back at them, his hands pressed ﬂat against the glass as though he was hoping to fall right through it and reach them. He had a powerful kind of ache inside him, half joy, half terrible sadness.

"He needs to get out of there," Moody said, ﬁnally speaking again. "That mirror is bad news."

How long he stood there, he didn't know. The reﬂections did not fade and he looked and looked until a distant noise brought him back to his senses. He couldn't stay here, he had to ﬁnd his way back to bed. He tore his eyes away from his mother's face, whispered, "I'll come back," and hurried from the room.

Albus knew that was true. AGer the boy leG, he had sat in his oﬃce for several minutes, thinking about what happened. This was an interesting mess to say the least. On the one hand, Harry had been able to pull himself away from the mirror on his own, so he didn't seem likely to go insane.

However, if his intent to come back was anything to go by, he had deﬁnitely been deeply aﬀected by it. Not that Albus could blame him… he had a sneaking suspicion that until he looked in the mirror, Harry didn't know what his parents even looked like.

Albus wondered if he should've moved the mirror like he intended that night. On the other hand, this was another test of character for Harry. He'd found out about Fluﬀy, and he had a feeling that it would only be a matter of time before he ﬁgured out what was being kept at Hogwarts. Would it be such a bad thing for him to know how the mirror worked as well?

As Harry didn't know how the mirror worked, not yet anyway, Albus doubted he would know any better than to come back to look at it again. Therefore, he could reasonably be expected to try to come back, most likely tomorrow night with the invisibility cloak, as he wouldn't want anyone to ask why he was sneaking around in classrooms over the holidays. He had a bad feeling that Harry wouldn't stop until he saw that mirror again. He would have to explain it to him and prevent him from continuing to search for it.

Albus decided to leave the mirror were it was for the night. He placed a locking charm on the door to the classroom, but he intended to arrive before Harry tomorrow night anyway. He brought himself out of his thoughts and back to the book.

"You could have woken me up," said Ron, crossly.

"You can come tonight, I'm going back, I want to show you the mirror."

"Oh no, Harry! Don't go back!" Sirius croaked, but at the same time he was glad that Harry wanted to see his parents again.

"I'd like to see your mom and dad," Ron said eagerly.

"And I want to see all your family, all the Weasleys, you'll be able to show me your other brothers and everyone."

"It doesn't work like that," said Remus miserably. "I show not your face but your heart's desire. I think that the mirror only shows the thing we desire most."

"You can see them any old time," said Ron. "Just come round my house this summer. Anyway, maybe it only shows dead people.

"Tactful Ron," Tonks said shaking her head.

Shame about not ﬁnding Flamel, though. Have some bacon or something, why aren't you eating anything?"

Harry couldn't eat. He had seen his parents and would be seeing them again tonight. He had almost forgo†en about Flamel. It didn't seem very important anymore. Who cared what the three headed dog was guarding? What did it ma†er if Snape stole it, really?

"That mirror is bad news," Remus said, echoing what Mad-Eye just said. "I'm not trying to steal the Stone," Severus said outraged.

"We know, Severus," Albus said soGly. "But they don't know that." Snape began to gripe to himself bitterly.

"Are you all right?" said Ron. "You look odd."

What Harry feared most was that he might not be able to ﬁnd the mirror room again. With Ron covered in the cloak, too, they had to walk much more slowly the next night. They tried retracing Harry's route from the library, wandering around the dark passageways for nearly an hour.

"I'm freezing," said Ron. "Let's forget it and go back."

"Yes, do," Sirius agreed at once.

"No!" Harry hissed. "I know it's here somewhere."

They passed the ghost of a tall witch gliding in the opposite direction, but saw no one else. just as Ron started moaning that his feet were dead with cold, Harry spo†ed the suit of armor.

"It's here — just here — yes!"

They groaned, knowing that this wasn't going to end well.

They pushed the door open. Harry dropped the cloak from around his shoulders and ran to the mirror.

There they were. His mother and father beamed at the sight of him.

Sirius gave a sharp intact of breath, feeling a pang of jealously that he couldn't see the mirror as well…

"See?" Harry whispered. "I can't see anything."

"Look! Look at them all… there are loads of them…"

"He can't see them, Harry," Remus said bitterly. "Because it's not his greatest desire…"

"I can only see you."

"Look in it properly, go on, stand where I am."

Harry stepped aside, but with Ron in front of the mirror, he couldn't see his family anymore, just Ron in his paisley pajamas.

Ron, though, was staring transﬁxed at his image.

"I wonder what it'll show him?" Mad-Eye said in interest.

"Look at me!" he said.

"Can you see all your family standing around you?"

"No — I'm alone — but I'm diﬀerent — I look older — and I'm head boy!"

"Head boy?" Sirius repeated incredulously. "That's what his heart desires most? Blimey, he had low goals doesn't he?"

"Sirius, be nice," Remus told him.

"What?"

"I am — I'm wearing the badge like Bill used to — and I'm holding the house cup and the Quidditch cup — I'm Quidditch captain, too."

"Ah," Remus said, "I get it." "Get what?" Tonks asked.

"Ron is has ﬁve older brothers… he felt that he needed to do great things like they all did, but they had already done it all, so he would see himself as everything, better than them all."

"Oh," Sirius said getting it as well. "That makes much more sense." "Like you could ﬁgure it out on your own," Severus said sarcastically.

"Can't you keep quiet?" Sirius demanded, "It would make such a nice change."

"I could say the same about you," Severus told him darkly.

"How about you both shut up?" Moody growled, raising his wand ominously.

Ron tore his eyes away from this splendid sight to look excitedly at Harry. "Do you think this mirror shows the future?"

"How can it? All my family are dead — let me have another look —" "You had it to yourself all last night, give me a bit more time."

"Oh this can't be good," Tonks moaned.

Albus sighed unhappily, "Once again, the mirror is just so entrancing that it turns friends against each other. They need to get out of there."

"You're only holding the Quidditch cup, what's interesting about that? I want to see my parents."

"Don't push me —"

A sudden noise outside in the corridor put an end to their discussion.

Albus smiled. He had done that. AGer watching the two of them starting to ﬁght, he used a spell to knock something over in the hallway and remind them where they were.

They hadn't realized how loudly they had been talking. "Quick!"

Ron threw the cloak back over them as the luminous eyes of Mrs. Norris came round the door. Ron and Harry stood quite still, both thinking the same thing — did the cloak work on cats?

"No," Sirius said knowingly. "But you can't help but think it."

A†er what seemed an age, she turned and le†.

"This isn't safe — she might have gone for Filch, I bet she heard us. Come on."

And Ron pulled Harry out of the room.

"Good," Remus said. Now if only Harry would just forget about that mirror… but he knew that would be close to impossible…

The snow still hadn't melted the next morning. "Want to play chess, Harry?" said Ron.

"No."

"Why don't we go down and visit Hagrid?" "No… you go…"

"I know what you're thinking about, Harry, that mirror. Don't go back tonight."

"What do you know?" Tonks stated. "Ron can be sensible every once in awhile."

"Why not?"

"I dunno, I've just got a bad feeling about it — and anyway, you've had too many close shaves already. Filch, Snape, and Mrs. Norris are wandering around. So what if they can't see you? What if they walk into you? What if you knock something over?"

"You sound like Hermione." "I'm serious, Harry, don't go."

"No, I'm…" Sirius began, but Remus cut him oﬀ. "Sirius, you aren't helping."

But Harry only had one thought in his head, which was to get back in front of the mirror, and Ron wasn't going to stop him.

That third night he found his way more quickly than before. He was walking so fast he knew he was making more noise than was wise, but he didn't meet anyone.

And there were his mother and father smiling at him again, and one of his grandfathers nodding happily. Harry sank down to sit on the ﬂoor in front of the mirror. There was nothing to stop him from staying here all night with his family. Nothing at all.

Except —

"So — back again, Harry?"

"What is it?" Sirius said in worry.

"No one that you need to worry about, Sirius," Albus assured him.

Harry felt as though his insides had turned to ice. He looked behind him. SiGng on one of the desks by the wall was none other than Albus Dumbledore.

"What were you doing there?" Tonks asked him in surprise.

"I hope that you're there to punish Potter for breaking curfew?" Severus asked though he didn't sound hopeful. Albus merely smiled at him.

Harry must have walked straight past him, so desperate to get to the mirror he hadn't noticed him.

"I — I didn't see you, sir."

"Strange how nearsighted being invisible can make you," said Dumbledore, and Harry was relieved to see that he was smiling.

"Of course you were! You're Dumbledore!" Sirius announced. "You could tell everyone that you're about to die and then you would oﬀer them a lemon drop wouldn't you?"

Albus laughed at that, "I probably would."

"So," said Dumbledore, slipping oﬀ the desk to sit on the ﬂoor with Harry, "you, like hundreds before you, have discovered the delights of the

Mirror of Erised."

"I didn't know it was called that, Sir."

"But I expect you've realized by now what it does?" "It — well — it shows me my family —"

"And it showed your friend Ron himself as head boy."

"How did you…" Tonks began, but Albus just went on in a hurry.

"How did you know —?"

"I don't need a cloak to become invisible," said Dumbledore gently. "Now, can you think what the Mirror of Erised shows us all?"

Snape glowered at Albus, he had known all along and didn't do anything.

Harry shook his head.

"Let me explain. The happiest man on earth would be able to use the Mirror of Erised like a normal mirror, that is, he would look into it and see himself exactly as he is. Does that help?"

Harry thought. Then he said slowly, "It shows us what we want… whatever we want…"

"Well, he's on the right track, at least," Remus said.

"Yes and no," said Dumbledore quietly. "It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts. You, who have never known your family, see them standing around you. Ronald Weasley, who has always been overshadowed by his brothers, sees himself standing alone, the best of all of them.

"Wow, almost makes me feel bad for him," Tonks said. "That's gotta be tough trying to compete for everything." Of course, she was an old child

herself so she had no idea how that would feel.

"However, this mirror will give us neither knowledge or truth. Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible.

"The Mirror will be moved to a new home tomorrow, Harry, and I ask you not to go looking for it again. If you ever do run across it, you will now be prepared. It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that. Now, why don't you put that admirable cloak back on and get oﬀ to bed?"

"I'm glad that you told him not to go looking for it again, Dumbledore," said Remus gratefully.

"Obsession is a dangerous thing," Albus replied. "I couldn't let him go out every night and try to ﬁnd it."

"But you knew that Potter had been up for the third night in a row!" Severus said hotly. "And you didn't even take of points or give him a detention. You mind telling me why?"

"I had my reason, Severus," Albus said slowly. "You should know that by now."

Harry stood up.

"Sir — Professor Dumbledore? Can I ask you something?"

"He just did," Tonks said cheerfully.

"Obviously, you've just done so," Dumbledore smiled. "You may ask me one more thing, however."

"What do you see when you look in the mirror?"

"Yeah," Sirius said looking at him. "You know that's a good question."

"But a personal one as well," Remus said. "You're no fun," Sirius complained.

Albus shot a grateful look at Remus before he became lost in thought for a moment. It was a simple question that deserved a simple answer. And yet it was in no way simple. The briefest glance into the mirror showed him what should have been.

'I see myself,' he thought despairingly. 'Myself. But I am not alone. All those people who should be here, are. I see my mother, happy and free like she was supposed to be. I see her happy and in love with my father, who is standing right next to her, happy to be here, happy to be in this family. Free from prison. I also see that me and my brother close again like we once were.'

Albus's thoughts paused there for a moment…

'But if the Mirror was going to show me one thing, and one thing only, it would be my sister… Ariana. She would be laughing and playing, the opposite of that fragile, delicate creature I once knew. She would be happy, healthy, and her eyes glowing as they once did whenever she smiled. The one thing that I desire more than anything else, however ﬂeeting my glance, would be for her to forgive me. For her to forgive me for failing her when she needed me the most. For failing to be the one thing she needed… a big brother.'

Albus shook his head in sadness… having been too ashamed to ever tell anyone what it was… so he lied.

"I? I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks." Harry stared.

"Socks?" Sirius laughed as everyone else stared at the Headmaster. "Your heart's desire is socks?"

Albus forced himself to beam at them all and simply said, "You can never have enough socks."

"One can never have enough socks," said Dumbledore. "Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn't get a single pair. People will insist on giving me books."

"Ok," Sirius said, still chortling. "I know what to get you for Christmas next year."

Albus merely smiled back, though his heart still ached painfully.

It was only when he was back in bed that it struck Harry that Dumbledore might not have been quite truthful. But then, he thought, as he shoved Scabbers oﬀ his pillow, it had been quite a personal question.

"Well, that was a pretty good chapter," Tonks said happily.

Moody merely smiled as he slowly crossed the room to the door. "You going somewhere Mad-Eye?" she asked.

"'Fraid so," he muttered curtly. "I got to go. I've got some things that need doing. I have guard duty tonight and I need to keep an eye on some of our Death Eater friends to make sure that they aren't acting like Death Eaters." He put his wand back inside his cloak and said, "If Black kills you Dumbledore then it's your own fault."

"I'll keep that in mind," Albus said with a smile.

"Well, we couldn't have picked anyone who can keep an eye on someone better than you, Mad-Eye," Tonks said teasing.

"Good luck to you Alastor," Albus said politely. Alastor gave them all a stiﬀ nod before he turned and limped out of the room. They all looked at the door that Moody shut behind him for a few minutes before they all turned back to the book. "I'll read now," Sirius said gruﬄy.

"You sure?" Albus asked with his eyebrows raised. "You're not going to attack me now that Alastor's gone?"

"I would like to," Sirius admitted. "But if I kill you now then I won't get a chance to yell at you later if something else happens under your watch."

"Fair point," Albus said. He held out the book for Sirius to take.

Sirius found where Dumbledore leG oﬀ, and read out loud, "Chapter 13: Nicolas Flamel."

(Hope you all enjoyed this part and McGonagall will be coming in at the end of the next chapter. And if anyone has a good wizard joke I would love to hear it!)

Chapter 14(I own nothing. Copyright belongs to J.K. Rowling)

Chapter 13: Nicolas Flamel

Sirius found where Dumbledore leG oﬀ, and read out loud, "Chapter 13: Nicolas Flamel."

"Oh," Remus said quickly. "Chapter 13… such a superstitious number; this chapter should be good."

"Nicolas Flamel?" Tonks repeated faintly, "Do they ﬁnally learn who this bloke is?"

"Did you ﬁgure that out all by yourself?" Sirius asked sarcastically with a wicked grin. "Well why else would this chapter be named aGer him?"

She stuck her tongue out at him. "I know I've heard his name before…" she said in a puzzled tone. "But I just can't remember where."

Albus smiled at her serenely, he too was looking forward to this. Sirius went on as if no one interrupted.

Dumbledore had convinced Harry not to go looking for the Mirror of Erised again,

"Good," said Remus in relief. Harry had enough on his plate without becoming obsessed with that mirror.

and for the rest of the Christmas holidays the invisibility cloak stayed folded at the bo†om of his trunk.

"WHAT!?" Sirius exclaimed in horror. "Come on! Why didn't he use it to sneak into kitchens… or exploring the school and grounds? Harry… do you not know a good opportunity when you see one?"

"Maybe because he didn't want to risk getting in trouble?" Albus suggested. Severus snorted at that remark. "AGer all, I may not be the next person to catch him wandering aGer hours."

Harry wished he could forget what he'd seen in the mirror as easily, but he couldn't. He started having nightmares. Over and over again he dreamed about his parents disappearing in a ﬂash of green light, while a high voice cackled with laughter.

Everyone in the room shivered.

Tonks said in barely above a whisper, "That's terrible. That would keep me from sleeping alright."

Severus shiGed guilty in his seat—knowing that he was responsible for the Dark Lord to go aGer Lily in the ﬁrst place. He kept his face impassive, and tried to force those feelings down to some distance corner of his heart.

"You see, Dumbledore was right, that mirror could drive you mad," said Ron, when Harry told him about these dreams.

"He's sure sympathetic isn't he?" Tonks said mockingly.

"He's not going mad, he's just having nightmares!" Sirius said disdainfully before he shivered a bit as he imagined just how horrible it must've been for Harry.

Hermione, who came back the day before term started, took a diﬀerent view of things. She was torn between horror at the idea of Harry being out of bed, roaming the school three nights in a row ("If Filch had caught you!"), and disappointment that he hadn't at least found out who Nicolas Flamel was.

"I hope they ﬁnd out soon," Tonks said shaking her head. "I'm losing my mind trying to remember where the hell I've read his name before!"

They had almost given up hope of ever ﬁnding Flamel in a library book, even though Harry was still sure he'd read the name somewhere.

"I know the feeling," Sirius said as Tonks nodded promptly.

Once term had started, they were back to skimming through books for ten minutes during their breaks. Harry had even less time than the other two, because Quidditch practice had started again.

"YES!" Sirius yelled so suddenly that most of them jumped.

"Why do you insist on doing that?!" Remus said annoyed as he rubbed his sensitive ears.

"I can't help it," he grinned back.

Wood was working the team harder than ever. Even the endless rain that had replaced the snow couldn't dampen his spirits. The Weasleys complained that Wood was becoming a fanatic, but Harry was on Wood's side.

If they won their next match, against Huﬄepuﬀ, they would overtake Slytherin in the house championship for the ﬁrst time in seven years.

"Seven years?" Sirius shouted incredulously, his spirits dropping almost at once. "What happened to the team?" he demanded.

No one was able to give him an answer—except for Severus. "Well, this just proves what I've always believed. That Gryﬃndor has mediocre players…" Severus commented, earning a death glare from almost everyone.

Quite apart from wanting to win, Harry found that he had fewer nightmares when he was tired out a†er training.

"Yet another good thing about Quidditch," Sirius said happily, feeling a great sense of relief that Harry found a way to stop those nightmares. It

was bad enough he remembered parts of that night without him visiting it in his dreams.

Then, during one particularly wet and muddy practice session, Wood gave the team a bit of bad news. He'd just go†en very angry with the Weasleys, who kept dive-bombing each other and pretending to fall oﬀ their brooms.

"Will you stop messing around!" he yelled. "That's exactly the sort of thing that'll lose us the match! Snape's refereeing this time, and he'll be looking for any excuse to knock points oﬀ Gryﬃndor!"

"YOU?!" Sirius bellowed at Severus. "If I remember correctly, you couldn't stay on a broom for 30 seconds before falling oﬀ! Why the hell would you want to referee?"

"I have an enough knowledge of Quidditch, Black," Severus said scathingly.

"I don't care about that," Sirius said, his tone becoming harsh. "It's you being near Harry that I'm worried about."

"I'm not quite sure what you're talking about," Severus said disdainfully, his eyes narrowing.

"You tried to kill Harry in the last match!" Sirius yelled back, getting ready for a ﬁght.

"Sirius!" Albus said quickly. "I thought that I already told you that Severus was trying to save Harry, not hurt him. And he only wanted to be refereeing this match to prevent anything like that happening again."

Snape gave Sirius a smug smile. But Sirius snorted in a way that clearly said,

'I'll believe it when I see it.'

George Weasley really did fall oﬀ his broom at these words.

"Snape's refereeing?" he splu†ered through a mouthful of mud. "When's he ever refereed a Quidditch match? He's not going to be fair if we might overtake Slytherin."

"Thank you," Sirius muttered under his breath. "I'm glad to see that someone agrees with me."

Severus just glowered at him.

The rest of the team landed next to George to complain, too.

"It's not my fault," said Wood. "We've just got to make sure we play a clean game, so Snape hasn't got an excuse to pick on us."

Which was all very well, thought Harry, but he had another reason for not wanting Snape near him while he was playing Quidditch…

Sirius sent Severus another glare. He didn't care what anyone else said. He was never going to trust Snape. If he thinks that he could get away with hurting—even so much as threatening—his godson… he was going to regret it.

The rest of the team hung back to talk to one another as usual at the end of practice, but Harry headed straight back to the Gryﬃndor common room, where he found Ron and Hermione playing chess.

Chess was the only thing Hermione ever lost at, something Harry and Ron thought was very good for her.

That caused Sirius to smile again for a moment before he looked up at Remus and gave him a knowing grin. Remus merely rolled his eyes at him. Sirius and James used to play chess against him at school and they both felt that the lovable werewolf losing was good for him as well.

"Don't talk to me for a moment," said Ron when Harry sat down next to him, "I need to concen—" He caught sight of Harry's face.

"What's the ma†er with you? You look terrible."

"Very tactful," Tonks muttered.

Speaking quietly so that no one else would hear, Harry told the other two about Snape's sudden, sinister desire to be a Quidditch referee.

"Sinister is right," Sirius agreed. "You sure aren't making yourself popular, Snape."

"Like I need to be fawned over like some brainless ape like you and Potter were?" Severus asked silkily, and it was only when Albus shot them both warning glances that prevented Sirius from attacking him.

"Don't play," said Hermione at once. "Say you're ill," said Ron.

"Pretend to break your leg," Hermione suggested. "Really break your leg," said Ron.

"Whoa, that a little overkill," Tonks laughed and Remus smiled.

"Wouldn't have mattered anyway," Albus responded. "Madam Pomfrey could mend broken bones in a second so… that wouldn't have helped matters."

"I can't," said Harry. "There isn't a reserve Seeker. If I back out, Gryﬃndor can't play at all."

At that moment Neville toppled into the common room. How he had managed to climb through the portrait hole was anyone's guess, because his legs had been stuck together with what they recognized at once as the Leg-Locker Curse. He must have had to bunny hop all the way up to Gryﬃndor tower.

"Poor Neville," Tonks said sympathetically.

"How much does anyone want to be that it was Malfoy?" Sirius said vehemently.

"Now you are blaming students without any proof," Severus said smirking. Seeking to prove a point, Sirius went on and sure enough…

Everyone fell over laughing except Hermione, who leapt up and performed the counter curse.

Neville's legs sprang apart and he got to his feet, trembling. "What happened?" Hermione asked him, leading him over to sit with Harry and Ron.

"Malfoy," said Neville shakily.

Sirius smiled triumphantly. The smirk slid oﬀ Snape's face.

"Severus," Albus said very seriously looking over at him. "You cannot let your students get away with this. You say that the other teachers don't discipline the students correctly, however yours now think that they can escape without any punishment at all. You have to do something about that."

Severus glared back, but couldn't help but feel as if Dumbledore had a point… not that he would admit that…

"I met him outside the library. He said he'd been looking for someone to practice that on."

"Go to Professor McGonagall!" Hermione urged Neville. "Report him!" Neville shook his head.

"I don't want more trouble," he mumbled.

"Well," Severus said smoothly, "If he refuses to report it, there's nothing that anyone could do."

"Does that make it right?" Tonks snapped back.

"You've got to stand up to him, Neville!" said Ron. "He's used to walking all over people, but that's no reason to lie down in front of him and make it easier."

"You could've said that in a nicer way, Ron," Tonks said shaking her head— causing her new blond locks to bounce. "He just doesn't know the meaning of the word tact does he?"

"But he is right," Sirius pointed out defensively.

"There's no need to tell me I'm not brave enough to be in Gryﬃndor, Malfoy's already done that," Neville choked out.

"Of course you are Neville," Albus said gently. "There are many diﬀerent kinds of courage…"

Harry felt in the pocket of his robes and pulled out a Chocolate Frog, the very last one from the box Hermione had given him for Christmas. He gave it to Neville, who looked as though he might cry.

"Yes," Sirius said, smiling at Remus again. "Chocolate always makes everything better."

"Awww," Tonks cooed. "That was so nice of him!" "He's is great kid," Sirius said proudly.

"If that's true, then he doesn't get that from his father," Severus replied.

"I'm warning you Snivilus," Sirius growled, getting angry again. "One more word and I'm gonna…"

"Sirius, Severus," Albus said wearily. "Please, enough."

"You're worth twelve of Malfoy," Harry said. "The Sorting Hat chose you for Gryﬃndor, didn't it? And where's Malfoy? In stinking Slytherin."

"Excellently put, Harry," Sirius said proudly, not even noticing the sour look on Snape's face.

Neville's lips twitched in a weak smile as he unwrapped the frog.

"Thanks, Harry… I think I'll go to bed… D'you want the card, you collect them, don't you?"

As Neville walked away, Harry looked at the Famous Wizard card. "Dumbledore again," he said, "He was the ﬁrst one I ever —" Albus smiled, knowing where this was going.

He gasped. He stared at the back of the card. Then he looked up at Ron and Hermione.

"I've found him!" he whispered. "I've found Flamel!

"Took 'em long enough!" Sirius said beaming.

I told you I'd read the name somewhere before, I read it on the train coming here — listen to this: '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'!"

"Ohhhh…" said Tonks, smacking her forehead, cursing her own stupidity, "That's where I read it before! On the back of a sticking frog card!"

Hermione jumped to her feet. She hadn't looked so excited since they'd go†en back the marks for their very ﬁrst piece of homework.

Most of them chuckled at that.

"Stay there!" she said, and she sprinted up the stairs to the girls' dormitories. Harry and Ron barely had time to exchange mystiﬁed looks before she was dashing back, an enormous old book in her arms.

"I never thought to look in here!" she whispered excitedly. "I got this out of the library weeks ago for a bit of light reading."

"Light?" Sirius repeated slowly. "Didn't it say enormous?"

"I believe it did," Remus said grinning broadly. "Well, this isHermione we're talking about."

"Light?" said Ron, but Hermione told him to be quiet until she'd looked something up, and started ﬂicking frantically through the pages, mu†ering to herself.

"Wow," Tonks muttered. "She's starting to sound like she's losing her mind here."

"Stress can do that to anyone," Remus said evenly. "And I guess that ﬁnding the answer in a book you had for weeks would make anyone angry with themselves."

At last she found what she was looking for. "I knew it! I knew it!"

"Are we allowed to speak yet?" said Ron grumpily. Hermione ignored him.

"Ah," Sirius said happily. "Such good friends here." Several of them snorted as he then read out with a relish…

"Nicolas Flamel," she whispered dramatically, "is the only known maker of the Sorcerer's Stone!"

"Well, we ﬁgured that," Sirius said to the book. "But what does this Stone do exactly? That's what I want to know."

"Keep reading Black and I'm sure that you'll ﬁnd out," Snape said in a bored tone.

Sirius began to growl at him, but nevertheless, went back to the book.

This didn't have quite the eﬀect she'd expected. "The what?" said Harry and Ron.

"Oh, honestly, don't you two read? Look – read that, there." She pushed the book toward them, and Harry and Ron read:

The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Sorcerer's Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers. The stonewill transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinkerimmortal.

Sirius let out a low whistle.

"Wow," Tonks said. "That's one impressive rock."

"Now I see why it needed to be guarded so heavily," Remus said looking up at Dumbledore and asked, "But who's trying to steal it? And why?"

Dumbledore gave him a sad look and asked dully, "Can you think of no one who would who would be desperate enough to gain immortally that they would try and steal something from under my nose?"

Everyone had gone very pale at that statement; knowing full well who would be that desperate.

Sirius' eyes ﬂashed across to Severus. Who glared and hissed, "I didn't have anything to do with trying to steal it if that's what you're thinking."

"Why do I doubt that?" Sirius asked.

Dumbledore rubbed his tired eyes. This was getting real old, real fast.

There have been many reports of the Sorcerer's Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr. Nicolas Flamel,

the noted alchemist and opera lover. Mr. Flamel, who celebrated his six hundred and sixty-ﬁfih birthday last year, enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife, Perenelle (six hundred and ﬁfiy-eight).

"Didn't it just say that it was an old book?" Remus asked. "If Flamel was 665 years old the previous year… then that means that he was celebrating the big 666 the year that this book was written. Not only is that a dodgy number, but books don't typically look old for at least 50—100 years. This would mean that he would be over 700 years old…"

"Wow," Tonks whispered impressed.

"That's true," Albus said calmly. "Flamel lived to ripe old age of 734."

"You mean he's dead?" Tonks asked, startled. "But he had the Stone and…"

"My dear," Albus said gently, "Nicolas and Perenelle both lived very long and wonderful lives. They felt that it was their time to ﬁnally rest. They will both be missed, certainly, but I can assure you that they were ready."

Tonks stared at him.

"On that cheerful note," Sirius said, "Has anyone else noticed that Flamel is another music lover? I just noticed that there are a lot of music references in this book."

"Why do you feel the need to bring that up?" Severus asked. Sirius shrugged. "It just keeps popping up too much for my liking."

"See?" said Hermione, when Harry and Ron had ﬁnished. "The dog must be guarding Flamel's Sorcerer's Stone! I bet he asked Dumbledore to keep it safe for him, because they're friends and he knew someone was a†er it, that's why he wanted the Stone moved out of Gringo†s!"

"A stone that makes gold and stops you from ever dying!" said Harry. "No wonder Snape's a†er it! Anyone would want it."

"I wasn't aGer it!" Severus snapped at Sirius who was glaring at him. "Is it my fault that they jump to conclusions?"

"Funny," Sirius said sarcastically, "It does sound like something you would've done."

"And no wonder we couldn't ﬁnd Flamel in that Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry," said Ron. "He's not exactly recent if he's six hundred and sixty-ﬁve, is he?"

Albus chuckled at that, "No… he wasn't."

The next morning in Defense Against the Dark Arts, while copying down diﬀerent ways of treating werewolf bites,

They all looked to Remus who was looking a little green at that line, but didn't dare say anything. Remus knew that there was no cure… most likely it was about stopping the bleeding and prevent the burning pain of the curse overtaking your body… he shuddered horribly at the memories.

Harry and Ron were still discussing what they'd do with a Sorcerer's Stone if they had one. It wasn't until Ron said he'd buy his own Quidditch team that Harry remembered about Snape and the coming match.

"I'm going to play," he told Ron and Hermione. "If I don't, all the Slytherins will think I'm just too scared to face Snape. I'll show them… it'll really wipe the smiles oﬀ their faces if we win."

"You tell, 'em," Sirius cheered under his breath.

"Just as long as we're not wiping you oﬀ the ﬁeld," said Hermione.

"Well, that's comforting," Tonks said in an undertone.

As the match drew nearer, however, Harry became more and more nervous, whatever he told Ron and Hermione. The rest of the team wasn't too calm, either. The idea of overtaking Slytherin in the house

championship was wonderful, no one had done it for seven years, but would they be allowed to, with such a biased referee?

"That is a good question," Sirius said with another glower at Snape. "If he had it his way, he would've made sure that none of the other teams ever won!"

Severus just yawned widely, he couldn't care less what Black said.

Harry didn't know whether he was imagining it or not, but he seemed to keep running into Snape wherever he went. At times, he even wondered whether Snape was following him, trying to catch him on his own.

Potions lessons were turning into a sort of weekly torture, Snape was so horrible to Harry. Could Snape possibly know they'd found out about the Sorcerer's Stone?

"No," Sirius growled, frowning. "You're just bullying Harry."

"Potter is hopeless at potion's Black," Snape said snidely. "I was just doing my job."

"No," Tonks said reproachfully, "But aren't you there to teach them to be better at potions? You just might be a bad teacher."

Snape looked like he swallowed a lemon.

Albus also looked frustrated at him. "And even if Harry was hopeless at potions, Severus, teachers aren't supposed to torture their students just because they are not getting perfect scores."

"Oh sure, blame me," Severus snapped at them. "Well, if you weren't such a git…" Sirius snarled. "Sirius," Albus said sternly. "Please continue.

Harry didn't see how he could — yet he sometimes had the horrible feeling that Snape could read minds.

"I told him before that no one can actually read another's mind," Snape said exasperated. "This is Legilimency and…"

"Yes, Severus," Remus said. "But he didn't know about Legilimency back then did he? He was only eleven."

Harry knew, when they wished him good luck outside the locker rooms the next a†ernoon, that Ron and Hermione were wondering whether they'd ever see him alive again.

"Great friends he's got," Tonks giggled.

"They were all so dramatic in their ﬁrst year," Remus conceded.

This wasn't what you'd call comforting. Harry hardly heard a word of Wood's pep talk as he pulled on his Quidditch robes and picked up his Nimbus Two Thousand.

Ron and Hermione, meanwhile, had found a place in the stands next to Neville, who couldn't understand why they looked so grim and worried, or why they had both brought their wands to thematch.

"What are they planning?" Remus said in surprise.

Li†le did Harry know that Ron and Hermione had been secretly practicing the Leg-Locker Curse.

"Wow. So even back then they were watching each other's backs?" Sirius asked, incredulously.

"Of, course," Remus said, proud of the trio, "They all fought a troll together. That alone should be proof enough."

They'd go†en the idea from Malfoy using it on Neville, and were ready to use it on Snape if he showed any sign of wanting to hurt Harry.

"Now, don't forget, it's Locomotor Mortis," Hermione mu†ered as Ron slipped his wand up his sleeve.

"I know," Ron snapped. "Don't nag."

"They bicker like an old married couple," Sirius said smiling.

Back in the locker room, Wood had taken Harry aside.

"Don't want to pressure you, Po†er, but if we ever need an early capture of the Snitch it's now. Finish the game before Snape can favor Huﬄepuﬀ too much."

"The whole school's out there!" said Fred Weasley, peering out of the door. "Even — blimey — Dumbledore's come to watch!"

"Really?" Tonks asked the Headmaster. "You hardly ever come to matches."

"Well," Albus said shrugging, "I wanted to make sure that nothing happened to Harry this time."

"You needn't have bothered," Severus spat. "The match didn't last long now did it?"

"Really?" Remus asked interested. "How long…?" "Read," Snape said grumpily. "I'm sure that it'll say it." Harry's heart did a somersault.

"Dumbledore?" he said, dashing to the door to make sure. Fred was right. There was no mistaking that silver beard.

Albus smiled as he began to stroke his long whiskers with a thoughtful look on his face.

Harry could have laughed out loud with relief, he was safe. There was simply no way that Snape would dare to try to hurt him if Dumbledore

was watching.

"Maybe that's because I wasn't!" Severus exploded in anger.

Perhaps that was why Snape was looking so angry as the teams marched onto the ﬁeld, something that Ron noticed, too.

Severus rolled his eyes. He had been angry because there was no point that he referee in the ﬁrst place! He shot Dumbledore an angry look— wondering why the old man conveniently forgotten to tell him that he would be at the match.

Albus smiled back serenely when he noticed the put-out look on his potions master's

face. He had hoped that maybe Severus would learn to enjoy himself and become more open-minded… however, it couldn't have been any clearer to him that it hadn't worked at all.

"I've never seen Snape look so mean," he told Hermione. "Look — they're oﬀ. Ouch!"

Someone had poked Ron in the back of the head. It was Malfoy.

"This keeps getting better and better," snarled Sirius.

"Oh, sorry, Weasley, didn't see you there." "I'm sure he didn't," Remus said sarcastically. Malfoy grinned broadly at Crabbe and Goyle.

"Wonder how long Po†er's going to stay on his broom this time? Anyone want a bet? What about you, Weasley?"

"Five minutes," Severus muttered to himself, though Sirius didn't hear him.

Ron didn't answer; Snape had just awarded Huﬄepuﬀ a penalty because George Weasley had hit a Bludger at him.

"He deserved that penalty," Snape said defensively.

"Well, I admire George for his guts," Sirius grinned, earning him a cold look from Snape.

Hermione, who had all her ﬁngers crossed in her lap, was squinting ﬁxedly at Harry, who was circling the game like a hawk, looking for the Snitch.

"You know how I think they choose people for the Gryﬃndor team?" said Malfoy loudly a few minutes later, as Snape awarded Huﬄepuﬀ another penalty for no reason at all. "It's people they feel sorry for.

"He did NOT just say that!" roared Sirius enraged.

"Why does he think that?" demanded Tonks, also angry.

See, there's Po†er, who's got no parents, then there's the Weasleys, who've got no money — you should be on the team, Longbo†om, you've got no brains."

"Why that little…" Tonks said angrily. "Albus…?" Sirius growled.

"I'll keep an eye on Draco," Albus promised. He then cast a meaningful look at Snape, who nodded grouchily.

Neville went bright red but turned in his seat to face Malfoy. "I'm worth twelve of you, Malfoy," he stammered.

"That's right, Neville!" Tonks cheered. "Stand up to him!"

Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle howled with laughter, but Ron, still not daring to take his eyes from the game, said, "You tell him, Neville."

"Longbo†om, if brains were gold you'd be poorer than Weasley, and that's saying something."

"Every time he opens his mouth, it just gives me another reason to kill him," Sirius hissed.

Ron's nerves were already stretched to the breaking point with anxiety about Harry.

"I'm warning you, Malfoy — one more word—" "Ron!" said Hermione suddenly, "Harry —" Remus groaned. "What's happened now?" "What? Where?"

Harry had suddenly gone into a spectacular dive, which drew gasps and cheers from the crowd. Hermione stood up, her crossed ﬁngers in her mouth, as Harry streaked toward the ground like a bullet.

"You're in luck, Weasley, Po†er's obviously spo†ed some money on the ground!" said Malfoy.

"THE SNITCH?" Sirius asked stunned. "Already?"

"But it was only a few minutes!" Remus said in surprise. "No way!" Tonks grinned.

Ron snapped. Before Malfoy knew what was happening, Ron was on top of him, wrestling him to the ground.

"Yes!" most of them cheered. "Get 'im Ron!" applauded Sirius

Neville hesitated, then clambered over the back of his seat to help.

"Get him, Neville," Tonks roared approvingly.

"Come on, Harry!" Hermione screamed, leaping onto her seat to watch as Harry sped straight at Snape — she didn't even notice Malfoy and Ron rolling around under her seat, or the scuﬄes and yelps coming from the whirl of ﬁsts that was Neville, Crabbe, and Goyle.

Up in the air, Snape turned on his broomstick just in time to see something scarlet shoot past him, missing him by inches — the next second, Harry had pulled out of the dive, his arm raised in triumph, the Snitch clasped in his hand.

"That has got to be one of the fastest catches I've ever heard of!" Remus said stunned.

"Plus he almost ran you over Snape!" Sirius said gleefully. Snape was looking more and more like a vicious guard dog every second.

The stands erupted; it had to be a record, no one could ever remember the Snitch being caught so quickly.

"Ron! Ron! Where are you? The game's over! Harry's won! We've won! Gryﬃndor is in the lead!" shrieked Hermione, dancing up and down on her seat and hugging Parvati Patil in the row infront.

Harry jumped oﬀ his broom, a foot from the ground. He couldn't believe it. He'd done it — the game was over; it had barely lasted ﬁve minutes.

"That's my boy!" Sirius cried out for what felt the hundredth time.

As Gryﬃndors came spilling onto the ﬁeld, he saw Snape land nearby, white-faced and tight-lipped — then Harry felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up into Dumbledore's smiling face.

"I'm glad that he found something to keep his mind oﬀ the mirror," he said gently when they looked at him.

"Well done," said Dumbledore quietly, so that only Harry could hear. "Nice to see you haven't been brooding about that mirror… been keeping busy… excellent…"

"Oh no, sir," Tonks groaned. "Did you have to remind him?" Albus bowed his head slowly in apology.

Snape spat bi†erly on the ground.

Sirius's grin was threatening to tear his face in half.

Harry le† the locker room alone some time later, to take his Nimbus Two Thousand back to the broomshed. He couldn't ever remember feeling happier. He'd really done something to be proud of now – no one could say he was just a famous name any more.

The evening air had never smelled so sweet. He walked over the damp grass, reliving the last hour in his head, which was a happy blur: Gryﬃndors running to li† him onto their shoulders; Ron and Hermione in the distance, jumping up and down, Ron cheering through a heavy nosebleed.

Sirius let out his bark-like laughter.

Harry had reached the shed. He leaned against the wooden door and looked up at Hogwarts, with its windows glowing red in the seGng sun.

Gryﬃndor in the lead. He'd done it, he'd shown Snape…

"To true," Sirius agreed wholeheartedly.

And speaking of Snape…

"NOW WHAT?!" Sirius cried infuriated. "Can't you leave them alone?" Snape on the other hand didn't have a clue what was going on.

A hooded ﬁgure came swi†ly down the front steps of the castle. Clearly not wanting to be seen, it walked as fast as possible toward the forbidden forest. Harry's victory faded from his mind as he watched. He recognized the ﬁgure's prowling walk. Snape, sneaking into the forest while everyone else was at dinner — what was going on?

"That's a good question," Sirius said, turning his hate-ﬁlled eyes towards Snape and demanded, "What were up to?"

Snape, who just realized what was about to happen, just shared a startled look at Dumbledore. He didn't realize that Potter had seen him.

Harry jumped back on his Nimbus Two Thousand and took oﬀ. Gliding silently over the castle he saw Snape enter the forest at a run. He followed.

"Of course he would," Snape said annoyed. "Potter's always eavesdropping on matters that don't concern him.

"It's his Marauder genes," said Sirius, "He can't help it." Remus nodded in agreement.

The trees were so thick he couldn't see where Snape had gone. He ﬂew in circles, lower and lower, brushing the top branches of trees until he heard voices. He glided toward them and landed noiselessly in a towering beech tree.

He climbed carefully along one of the branches, holding tight to his broomstick, trying to see through the leaves.

Below, in a shadowy clearing, stood Snape, but he wasn't alone. Quirrell was there, too. Harry couldn't make out the look on his face, but he was stu†ering worse than ever. Harry strained to catch what they were saying.

Severus just shook his head in disbelief. How could he not notice that Potter was there?

"… d-don't know why you wanted t-t-to meet here of all p-places, Severus…"

"Oh, I thought we'd keep this private," said Snape, his voice icy.

"Well, that's not happening," Sirius said suspiciously. "Why are you threatening Quirrell?"

"Wouldn't you like to know, Black," Severus answered coldly.

"Students aren't supposed to know about the Sorcerer's Stone, a†er all."

"But Harry, Ron, and Hermione do," Tonks said before she could stop herself.

Harry leaned forward. Quirrell was mumbling something. Snape interrupted him.

"Have you found out how to get past that beast of Hagrid's yet?" "B-b-but Severus, I —"

"You don't want me as your enemy, Quirrell," said Snape, taking a step toward him.

'I'll say,' Sirius thought privately.

"I-I don't know what you—"

"You know perfectly well what I mean."

An owl hooted loudly, and Harry nearly fell out of the tree. He steadied himself in time to hear Snape say, "— your li†le bit of hocus-pocus. I'm waiting."

Severus frowned. He thought that he heard something in the trees, but he just dismissed it as some nighttime animal and didn't pay attention to it.

"B-but I d-d-don't —"

"Very well," Snape cut in. "We'll have another li†le chat soon, when you've had time to think things over and decided where your loyalties lie."

He threw his cloak over his head and strode out of the clearing. It was almost dark now, but Harry could see Quirrell, standing quite still as though he was petriﬁed.

Snape smirked, glad that he was able to scare him somewhat.

"Harry, where have you been?" Hermione squeaked. "We won! You won! We won!" shouted Ron,

"You don't say?!" Remus laughed.

thumping Harry on the back. "And I gave Malfoy a black eye, and Neville tried to take on Crabbe and Goyle single-handed! He's still out cold but Madam Pomfrey says he'll be all right

"You go boys!" Tonks shouted, punching the air.

talk about showing Slytherin! Everyone's waiting for you in the common room, we're having a party, Fred and George stole some cakes and stuﬀ from the kitchens."

"Nicking food from the kitchens isn't exactly hard," Sirius said shaking his head. "The elves down there just can't wait to give it all away!"

"Never mind that now," said Harry breathlessly. "Let's ﬁnd an empty room, you wait 'til you hear this…"

"Of course he would tell those two," Snape growled.

"Just because you don't have any friends…" Sirius hiss in an undertone, refusing to let Snape get to him.

He made sure Peeves wasn't inside before shuGng the door behind them, then he told them what he'd seen and heard.

"So we were right, it is the Sorcerer's Stone, and Snape's trying to force Quirrell to help him get it. He asked if he knew how to get past Fluﬀy — and he said something about Quirrell's 'hocus pocus' — I reckon there are other things guarding the stone apart from Fluﬀy, loads of enchantments, probably, and Quirrell would have done some anti-Dark Arts spell that Snape needs to break through —"

"So you mean the Stone's only safe as long as Quirrell stands up to Snape?" said Hermione in alarm.

"NO," Snape yelled out loud. "I'm not trying to steal anything!"

"We know that Severus," Albus conﬁrmed. "But like I said, they didn't know all that."

"It'll be gone by next Tuesday," said Ron.

"Tuesday? It'll be gone by the next half-hour if you want my opinion" Sirius commented.

"That's the way to think positive!" Remus said sarcastically.

"Alright. That's the end of the chapter," Sirius said, closing the book. "Who's next? We're getting near the end. Only four more chapters to go."

"Thank God," Snape said so quietly that no one could hear him.

But before anyone could volunteer, they heard from downstairs the familiar knocking on the front door. Albus looked up, a small smile on his face. "That must be Minerva. She said that she would be here soon."

Tonks got up and said that she would get it. She leG, and sure enough, a few minutes later, Minerva McGonagall came through the door followed by Tonks.

"Sorry for taking so long," she sighed. "But that toad Umbridge is just getting worse every day!"

"What did she do now?" Snape asked bitterly.

"She put up yet another one of those ridiculous degrees!" Minerva said furious. "I lost count of how many she put up… but now all teachers are forbidden to give the students any information that isn't related with the subjects they were hired to teach."

They all groaned.

"When will she get the hint that no one wants her around?" Snape snarled. "For once… you and I are in agreement," Sirius spat.

Minerva sat down, looking exhausted. "I just don't know what to do. Every time I see her… I just want to turn her into a toad."

"Really?" asked Snape. "I personally won't see a diﬀerence. I suggest a poison."

Minerva sighed before she turned to Dumbledore and asked, "So what have I missed?"

Tonks quickly ﬁlled her in on everything they had read up to that point. Tears began to form in her eyes when they told her about the Mirror of Erised, but she held them back and let them continue. Once they were ﬁnished, she laid her head back against the chair and close her eyes. "Everything seems to happen to Potter doesn't it?"

No one, not even Snape, could disagree with that statement.

Sirius held the book out to her and asked, "You want to read now? There's only four more chapters leG."

She thought about it for a moment before she nodded. She took it and turned to the next chapter. "I wonder what will happen next," she asked before she read out, "Chapter 14: Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback."

Chapter 15(I own nothing. Copyright belongs to J.K. Rowling)

Chapter 14: Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback

"A Norwegian Ridgeback?!" Tonks repeated in astonishment. "It keeps on getting worse doesn't it?"

"Please, please, please tell me that this isn't about a real dragon," Sirius begged McGonagall who was just staring at the picture of the dragon hatching out of the egg.

"I have no idea," Minerva answered, her lips trembling. "Just what is going on?" Rather than wait for an answer that no one had, she just read out.

Quirrell, however, must have been braver than they'd thought. In the weeks that followed he did seem to be geGng paler and thinner, but it didn't look as though he'd cracked yet.

"Well, that's a good thing, isn't it?" Tonks asked, confused to the teacher's stony looks.

"Don't believe everything you read," Minerva muttered to herself as she turned back to the book.

Every time they passed the third-ﬂoor corridor, Harry, Ron, and Hermione would press their ears to the door to check that Fluﬀy was still growling inside. Snape was sweeping about in his usual bad temper, which surely meant that the Stone was still safe.

Severus rolled his eyes. The reason he was in his bad temper was because was stuck watching Quirrell. He knew that Quirrell was planning on stealing

the stone, but he could never catch him in the act.

Whenever Harry passed Quirrell these days he gave him an encouraging sort of smile, and Ron had started telling people oﬀ for laughing at Quirrell's stu†er.

"That's a good sign then," Sirius said gleefully. "As long as Snape's in a bad mood then it means that everything's ﬁne."

Severus glared at him, it seemed to take every ounce of self-resistant he had to keep himself from responding to that.

Hermione, however, had more on her mind than the Philosopher's Stone. She had started drawing up study schedules and color coding all her notes. Harry and Ron wouldn't have minded, but she kept nagging them to do the same.

"Ah," Sirius whispered. "Just like you used to do to us Moony."

Remus merely chuckled at the memories. "Because you were too lazy to do the same."

"Why bother when you were a genius?" Sirius asked happily and Severus gagged.

"Hermione, the exams are ages away."

"Ten weeks," Hermione snapped. "That's not ages, that's like a second to Nicolas Flamel."

"Yeah, but they're not six hundred years old," Sirius reminded book Hermione.

"Ten weeks?" Tonks repeated in horror.

"Well," said Albus laughing slightly. "Now we know just how much work she puts into her homework."

"Yeah," grouched Severus. "But this was back in their ﬁrst year. I bet she grows as lazy as all the other Gryﬃndors."

They all chose to ignore him.

"But we're not six hundred years old," Ron reminded her. "Anyway, what are you studying for, you already know it all."

"He makes a fair point," Minerva admitted. "I don't think that we had any more to teach her in her ﬁrst year. She had moved up to second and even third year material."

"Amazing she is," Tonks said smiling. "She's going to make something of herself someday, I bet!"

"What am I studying for? Are you crazy? You realize we need to pass these exams to get into the second year? They're very important, I should have started studying a month ago, I don't know what's go†en into me…"

"Oh, come on, Hermione!" Sirius groaned. "It's not the end of the world because you took some time oﬀ from studying! Believe me, if it weren't for us, Moony here wouldn't have had any fun at all!"

Remus laughed at that. Though he couldn't deny that he had a point— those times with Sirius and James—he conveniently forgot about Wormtail

—were some of the best in his life.

Unfortunately, the teachers seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Hermione. They piled so much homework on them that the Easter holidays weren't nearly as much fun as the Christmas ones.

"They never are," Sirius agreed, sadly. Honestly, how do teachers expect them to enjoy their holidays when they gave them so much work? Made no sense!

It was hard to relax with Hermione next to you reciting the twelve uses of dragon's blood or practicing wand movements. Moaning and yawning,

Harry and Ron spent most of their free time in the library with her, trying to get through all their extra work.

"I'll never remember this," Ron burst out one a†ernoon, throwing down his quill and looking longingly out of the library window. It was the ﬁrst really ﬁne day they'd had in months. The sky was a clear, forget-me-not blue, and there was a feeling in the air of summer coming.

Sirius groaned at the description, understanding the feeling all too well. Before they found these books, Sirius would spend all day drinking and staring out the window at the sky before he fell asleep and woke with a hangover the next day.

Though with all the anger he was currently feeling at the revealed secrets from this book, he might have to start drinking again.

Harry, who was looking up "Di†any" in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, didn't look up until he heard Ron say, "Hagrid! What are you doing in the library?"

A few eyebrows shot up around the room. "Hagrid was in the library?" Tonks asked blinking in surprise. "There's a ﬁrst."

"Yes, I don't think that I've ever seen Hagrid in the library!" Minerva said and just couldn't imagine her friend ﬁtting between the shelves.

"Well, Hagrid did attend Hogwarts at one time," Albus reminded them all.

"Yeah," Sirius said, trying to hide a snort. "But he's not a student anymore. So why would he have any reason to go to the library? I mean, it's not like being gamekeeper needs a lot of study."

Hagrid shuﬄed into view, hiding something behind his back. He looked very out of place in his moleskin overcoat.

"Jus' lookin'," he said, in a shi†y voice that got their interest at once.

"Of course it would," Severus muttered in sarcasm.

"An' what're you lot up ter?"

He looked suddenly suspicious. "Yer not still lookin' fer Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?"

"Little behind the times I'm afraid, Hagrid," Albus said with a chuckle, his eyes twinkling.

"How can you laugh?" Minerva demanded. "They weren't supposed to know about the stone in the ﬁrst place!"

"Oh, we found out who he is ages ago," said Ron impressively. "And we know what that dog's guarding, it's a Sorcerer's St-"

"What does Weasley think he's doing?" Severus asked smacking himself in the head with his hand. "I know that he's hopeless, but to talk about that in a place where anyone…"

"They were children, Severus," Remus reminded him gently.

"Shhhh!" Hagrid looked around quickly to see if anyone was listening. "Don' go shoutin' about it, what's the ma†er with yeh?"

"I've been wondering that for years," Severus muttered, but heard him because at that moment, Tonks began talking in a loud voice.

"Yeah, Ron!" Tonks yelled out mockingly. "Go ahead and shout about the one thing that you aren't supposed to know about?"

"There are a few things we wanted to ask you, as a ma†er of fact," said Harry, "about what's guarding the Stone apart from Fluﬀy —"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Did any of them have any sense at all back then?"

"SHHHH!" said Hagrid again. "Listen — come an' see me later, I'm not promisin' I'll tell yeh anythin', mind, but don' go rabbitin' about it in here,

students aren' s'pposed ter know. They'll think I've told yeh —"

"Well he might not have come right out and told them about the Stone… but he as good as told them," Tonks pointed out happily.

"See you later, then," said Harry. Hagrid shuﬄed oﬀ.

"What was he hiding behind his back?" said Hermione though√ully.

"Good question," Tonks smirked. "One of the many things that you can't help but love about Hagrid. He can't hide anything to save his life."

"Yet, another unfortunate habit of his," Minerva said looking at Albus with her eyebrows raised.

Albus nodded, knowing that Hagrid did have a tendency to let things slip, but you couldn't has for a more loyal and caring friend… something that Albus always respected from his old friend.

"Do you think it had anything to do with the Stone?"

"I'm going to see what section he was in," said Ron, who'd had enough of working. He came back a minute later with a pile of books in his arms and slammed them down on the table.

"Dragons!" he whispered. "Hagrid was looking up stuﬀ about dragons! Look at these: Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland; From Egg to Inferno, A Dragon Keeper's Guide."

"Oh no," Minerva moaned. "Don't tell me that… he didn't…" "What?" Tonks asked, although she already suspected the answer.

"I think what Minerva is trying to say is that Hagrid somehow got a hold of a dragon," Albus said in a tense voice, and everyone stared at him.

"He has always said that he wanted one…" Remus said slowly.

"You don't think he really has one do you?" Sirius asked, trying to keep his voice under control. "I mean, sure we all know that he loves dragons so isn't it just possible that he just wanted to read up on one?"

"Possibly," Albus said slowly… "Though, not very likely. Those books are how to care for dragons… we have a wide selection of dragon books… if Hagrid was just interested, then why pick out the ones that speciﬁcally tell you how to treat and raise a dragon?"

"It really wouldn't surprise me," Remus mumbled as all the color began to fade from his face.

"What is Hagrid doing with a dragon?" Minerva demanded out loud.

"What I want to know is how he got it?" Tonks cried out. "I mean… it's not like you can just go into the Magical Menagerie and ask to see their dragon selection?"

Albus sighed. "Hagrid had always wanted a dragon… I know that he would be willing to do almost anything for one. But I don't believe that he did anything illegal to get it."

They all stared at each other for a brief moment before Minerva went back to where she leG oﬀ.

"Hagrid's always wanted a dragon, he told me so the ﬁrst time I ever met him," said Harry.

"But it's against our laws," said Ron. "Dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks' Convention of 1709, everyone knows that.

"I didn't know that," Tonks said looking up thoughtfully. "Wow, you do learn something new every day don't you?"

"Even if it is outlawed," Sirius said smiling. "That won't stop Hagrid from wanting one."

It's hard to stop Muggles from noticing us if we're keeping dragons in the back garden — anyway, you can't tame dragons, it's dangerous. You should see the burns Charlie's got oﬀ wild ones in Romania."

"But there aren't wild dragons in Britain?" said Harry.

"Yes, Harry," Sirius smiled. "But you just don't see them that oGen. You won't see one walking down the street past your house… though that's not a half-bad idea…" he added.

"Sirius," Remus said warningly. "You aren't going to send a dragon to Privet Drive."

"Who said anything about sending a dragon there?" he asked. "I'm talking about feeding the Dursleys to a hungry one! I mean, Dudley alone should be enough to ﬁll him right up! I bet that he'll taste just like pork!"

They all laughed at that. Minerva just gave him an incredulous look and read out:

"Of course there are," said Ron. "Common Welsh Green and Hebridean Blacks. The Ministry of Magic has a job hushing them up, I can tell you. Our kind have to keep puGng spells on Muggles who've spo†ed them, to make them forget."

"So what on earth's Hagrid up to?" said Hermione.

"Nothing legal is my bet," Tonks said ﬁrmly.

When they knocked on the door of the gamekeeper's hut an hour later, they were surprised to see that all the curtains were closed. Hagrid called "Who is it?" before he let them in, and then shut the door quickly behind them.

It was stiﬂing hot inside.

"Yep," Tonks said knowingly. "He's hiding something."

"How much is everyone willing to bet that it's has something to do with a dragon?" Sirius asked sighing, not knowing how he should feel about the situation. He felt both impressed and amazed that Hagrid had a dragon… but he also felt terriﬁed that something could happen to Harry and the others.

"We all know that it's a dragon!" Snape snapped.

Even though it was such a warm day, there was a blazing ﬁre in the grate. Hagrid made them tea and oﬀered them stoat sandwiches, which they refused.

"So — yeh wanted to ask me somethin'?"

"Yes," said Harry. There was no point beating around the bush. "We were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Sorcerer's Stone apart from Fluﬀy."

"Good Harry," Remus said sarcastically, "Nice and direct."

Hagrid frowned at him.

"O' course I can't," he said. "Number one, I don' know meself. Number two, yeh know too much already, so I wouldn' tell yeh if I could. That Stone's here fer a good reason. It was almost stolen ou†a Gringo†s — I s'ppose yeh've worked that out an' all? Beats me how yeh even know abou' Fluﬀy."

"Well, that's a pretty lengthy story," Tonks smirked. "Something about a midnight duel, and not having a clue where they were going."

"Oh, come on, Hagrid, you might not want to tell us, but you do know, you know everything that goes on round here," said Hermione in a warm,

ﬂa†ering voice.

"Oh, she's good," Tonks said at once.

"Not as good as getting Hagrid drunk," said Sirius reasonably. "But almost." "Sirius," warned Albus, but he was smiling.

Hagrid's beard twitched and they could tell he was smiling. "We only wondered who had done the guarding, really." Hermione went on. "We wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you."

Hagrid's chest swelled at these last words. Harry and Ron beamed at Hermione.

"Well, I don' s'pose it could hurt ter tell yeh that…

"Oh, she's really good," Sirius laughed. "Nice one Hermione!"

let's see… he borrowed Fluﬀy from me… then some o' the teachers did enchantments… Professor Sprout — Professor Flitwick — Professor McGonagall —" he ticked them oﬀ on his ﬁngers, "Professor Quirrell — an' Dumbledore himself did somethin', o' course. Hang on, I've forgo†en someone. Oh yeah, Professor Snape."

"Snape?" asked Sirius startled before he turned his attention to the Potions Master, who had a smug smile on his face. "So you must have known everyone else's enchantments already before you tried to steal it!"

Snape groaned. "Black," he snarled. "Can't you grow up and just admit to the fact that maybe you're wrong about me trying to steal the Stone?"

"The day that you take back everything you've ever said about James," Sirius said back. Snape looked like he would rather swallow a handful of broken glass than ever admit that.

Seeing where this was going, Albus pulled out his wand and placed a shield charm over both men.

"What the…?" Snape yelled.

"Not again!" Sirius shouted at the same time.

"Enough both of you," Albus said, sounding tired. "I cannot make you two get along. But can't you try to behave yourselves for a little while?"

They both turned their noses up at the old man and just chose to ignore him. Albus nodded to Minerva to just keep reading.

"Snape?"

"Yeah — yer not still on abou' that, are yeh? Look, Snape helped protect the Stone, he's not about ter steal it."

Said man just smirked even wider.

Harry knew Ron and Hermione were thinking the same as he was. If Snape had been in on protecting the Stone, it must have been easy to ﬁnd out how the other teachers had guarded it. He probably knew everything — except, it seemed, Quirrell's spell and how to get past Fluﬀy.

"You're the only one who knows how to get past Fluﬀy, aren't you, Hagrid?" said Harry axiously. "And you wouldn't tell anyone, would you? Not even one of the teachers?"

"Not a soul knows except me an' Dumbledore," said Hagrid proudly. "Is that true?" Tonks asked the old Headmaster and he bowed his head. "Perhaps," he said lightly.

"How?" she asked him. "What do you do to get passed a giant three- headed-dog?!"

"Very simply to be honest," Albus admitted. He smiled at their waiting expressions and answered, "Rather than ruin the surprise… I think that you can wait and see if Hagrid let's that slip."

"Oh, come on!" Sirius groaned. Albus beamed at him—though he was also worried. It would only be a matter of time before Sirius found out about what his godson had went through… as if Sirius didn't need another incentive to kill him.

He made a silent prayer as Minerva went on.

"Well, that's something," Harry mu†ered to the others. "Hagrid, can we have a window open? I'm boiling."

"Can't, Harry, sorry," said Hagrid. Harry noticed him glance at the ﬁre. Harry looked at it, too.

"Hagrid — what's that?"

"Here it is," Remus whispered.

But he already knew what it was. In the very heart of the ﬁre, underneath the ke†le, was a huge, black egg.

"That… that…" Minerva stuttered. "That man! I can't believe him! Albus you must talk some sense into his head. I'm not saying that Hagrid should be sacked, but hiding a dragon in a wooden hut?! I'm starting to think that there's something wrong with him."

"Maybe," Albus sighed. "I'll have a word with him once we get back to the castle."

"Ah," said Hagrid, ﬁddling nervously with his beard, "That's — er…"

"Where did you get it, Hagrid?" said Ron, crouching over the ﬁre to get a closer look at the egg. "It must've cost you a fortune."

"Yes," Remus said leaning forward to make sure he didn't miss a single word. How could he have gotten a dragon egg?

"Won it," said Hagrid.

Tonks raised her eyebrows. "That deﬁnitely sounds shady…"

"I don't think Hagrid is thinking about that," Sirius moaned. "He was too busy fawning over his knew dragon."

"Las' night. I was down in the village havin' a few drinks an' got into a game o' cards with a stranger. Think he was quite glad ter get rid of it, ter be honest."

"You don't say?" Remus asked ironically as Tonks rolled her eyes.

"Who wouldn't? Carrying around a dragon egg in your pocket is illegal. I would be more than happy to get rid of it if it were me," Sirius said.

Albus on the other hand was looking like he was lost in thought. He had a pretty good idea who that 'stranger' was.

"But what are you going to do with it when it's hatched?" said Hermione.

"Yes," Minerva interrupted herself. "What is he going to do with it? Keeping something that breaths ﬁre in a house made of wood? Just what he was thinking?"

Before she could work herself into a rant, Albus put a comforting hand on her shoulder and she snapped out of it.

"Well, I've bin doin' some readin'," said Hagrid, pulling a large book from under his pillow. "Got this ou†a the library —Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Proﬁt — it's a bit ou†a date, o' course, but it's all in here.

Keep the egg in the ﬁre, 'cause their mothers breathe on I em, see, an' when it hatches, feed it on a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood

every half hour. An' see here — how ter recognize diﬀ'rent eggs — what I got there's a Norwegian Ridgeback. They're rare, them."

"Not to mention one of the most dangerous breeds of dragon there is!" Remus added, his voice a little higher than usual.

"Correct me if I'm wrong," Sirius said to Minerva. "But didn't you just say that he still lives in a wooden house?"

Minerva nodded worriedly.

He looked very pleased with himself, but Hermione didn't.

"Easy to see which one is the sane one," Tonks muttered with an exasperated shake of the head.

"I don't blame her," Remus agreed.

"Hagrid, you live in a wooden house," she said.

But Hagrid wasn't listening. He was humming merrily as he stoked the ﬁre.

So now they had something else to worry about: what might happen to Hagrid if anyone found out he was hiding an illegal dragon in his hut.

"They're only eleven years old!" Sirius yelled out incensed. "They shouldn't have had to worry about things like this! They should've only been concerned about homework and having fun! Not illegal dragon eggs, three- headed dogs, and stones that make you live forever!"

"Believe me, Sirius," Albus said gravely. "You aren't the only one who wishes that."

"Keep telling yourself that, old man," he snarled at him. "As far as I'm concerned, I still blame you for letting this happen on your watch!"

"Sirius!" Minerva began but Albus raised his hand to her.

"It's alright, Minerva," he sighed. "Sirius is within his right to hate me."

"Dumbledore, you know can't be blaming yourself for everything that happened that year?" she demanded and he only sighed heavily.

"It had all happened on my watch," he said tiredly.

"But…" she began but he merely held up a hand. "Minerva, you're loyalty means so much to me. But I am certain that we can talk more about this later."

She was still frowning, but didn't argue as she continued.

"Wonder what it's like to have a peaceful life," Ron sighed,

'Why oh why couldn't they have that?' wondered Tonks, mournfully.

as evening a†er evening they struggled through all the extra homework they were geGng. Hermione had now started making study schedules for Harry and Ron, too. It was driving them nuts.

Sirius smirked. Remembering well how Remus had a bad habit of doing that as well.

Then, one breakfast time, Hedwig brought Harry another note from Hagrid. He had wri†en only two words: It's hatching.

Sirius leaned forward, wanting to both hear about the dragon hatching and wishing that his godson would just forget about it and leave Hagrid to deal with it.

Ron wanted to skip Herbology and go straight down to the hut. Hermione wouldn't hear of it.

"Of course she wouldn't," Sirius sighed. "Come on, Hermione! This could be a once in a lifetime chance!"

"Hermione, how many times in our lives are we going to see a dragon hatching?"

"We've got lessons, we'll get into trouble, and that's nothing to what Hagrid's going to be in when someone ﬁnds out what he's doing—"

"Which is an excellent point," Minerva said ﬁrmly, and for some reason shooting Sirius a dark look as he said that.

"Shut up!" Harry whispered.

Malfoy was only a few feet away

"Of all the possible people…" Tonks groaned. "Can't he just leave them alone and mind his own business?"

"No, he can't," Sirius spat bitterly. "AGer all, he's a Malfoy. It's in their genes to be conceited gits. I mean just look at his father."

and he had stopped dead to listen. How much had he heard? Harry didn't like the look on Malfoy's face at all.

"I don't like Malfoy's face at all," Sirius grunted to himself.

Ron and Hermione argued all the way to Herbology and in the end, Hermione agreed to run down to Hagrid's with the other two during morning break. When the bell sounded from the castle at the end of their lesson, the three of them dropped their trowels at once and hurried through the grounds to the edge of the forest. Hagrid greeted them, looking ﬂushed and excited.

"It's clear that they're up to something," Tonks said, wrinkling her nose. "At least make it less obvious that something's going on!"

"They didn't want to wait any longer than they had to," Sirius tried to justify. "They could've just made it look like they wanted a chance to get away from their schoolwork before they headed up to the castle!"

"Still," Remus reminded him, "If they weren't careful, someone else could've seen the dragon…"

"It's nearly out." He ushered them inside.

The egg was lying on the table. There were deep cracks in it. Something was moving inside; a funny clicking noise was coming from it.

They all drew their chairs up to the table and watched with bated breath.

All at once there was a scraping noise and the egg split open. The baby dragon ﬂopped onto the table. It wasn't exactly pre†y; Harry thought it looked like a crumpled, black umbrella.

"Appropriate for someone who uses a pink umbrella for a wand," Sirius stated with a smirk.

Its spiny wings were huge compared to its skinny jet body, it had a long snout with wide nostrils, the stubs of horns and bulging, orange eyes.

"Wow," Tonks said. "Wonder where Harry learned to be so descriptive?" "He's good as it," Remus agreed.

It sneezed. A couple of sparks ﬂew out of its snout.

"He's a dickens isn't he?" Sirius said mockingly. "And he's just hatched? I wouldn't be looking forward to his terrible two's."

They all smiled at that in spite of themselves.

"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid murmured. He reached out a hand to stroke the dragon's head. It snapped at his ﬁngers, showing pointed fangs.

"Yeah," Sirius said sarcastically. "He sounds like a real looker."

"Why didn't they come to us and said anything?" Minerva demanded to Albus who just shrugged and said, "I don't think that they wanted to get

Hagrid in trouble."

"But they needed to get rid of that… that… monster!" she said ﬁnally. "It's a danger to everyone in the castle as well as to Hagrid!"

"I agree," Albus nodded, looking grave. "I ﬁnd it remarkable that they were able to keep this quiet from me for so long… I wonder how they got rid of it."

"I wonder how Hagrid let them get rid of it," Tonks said to no one in particular.

"Bless him, look, he knows his mommy!" said Hagrid.

"He's actually lost it," Severus said.

"Hagrid," said Hermione, "how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, exactly?"

"To fast," Remus said slowly. "They are one of the fastest growing dragons in the world. They can reach to about six feet long within a month."

"Oh, that's just brilliant!" Sirius yelled out loud. "Remind me to have a few choice words with Hagrid if I ever get out of this house!" He then turned onto the teachers and demanded, "And you never knew?"

"How on earth could we have know what was going on in that hut?" Minerva demanded. "Believe me if we had then we would've settled it before something happened!"

Hagrid was about to answer when the color suddenly drained from his face — he leapt to his feet and ran to the window.

"What's the ma†er?"

"Someone was lookin' through the gap in the curtains — it's a kid — he's runnin' back up ter the school."

"Great," Sirius muttered. "Malfoy…"

Harry bolted to the door and looked out. Even at a distance there was no mistaking him.

Malfoy had seen the dragon.

Something about the smile lurking on Malfoy's face during the next week made Harry, Ron, and Hermione very nervous.

"A week?" Severus said raising an eyebrow. "You mean to tell me that he knew that Hagrid was keeping a dragon for a week and didn't bother telling anyone?"

"I guess that he wanted to wait and see if they all got into trouble," Remus said lightly. "Something to hold over their heads…"

"Brat," Sirius whispered to himself.

They spent most of their free time in Hagrid's darkened hut, trying to reason with him.

"Just let him go," Harry urged. "Set him free."

"Where though?" Tonks asked. "I mean, it's not like he could just let it go into the forest or anything."

"I can't," said Hagrid. "He's too li†le. He'd die."

They looked at the dragon. It had grown three times in length in just a week.

"Looks like you were right, Remus," Sirius groaned. "Three times in a week? How could anyone not notice it?"

"Thinking back, it's amazing that we never did," Albus said, shaking a head at his own blindness.

Smoke kept furling out of its nostrils. Hagrid hadn't been doing his gamekeeping duties because the dragon was keeping him so busy. There were empty brandy bo†les and chicken feathers all over the ﬂoor.

Minerva shook her head angrily. "That dragon…! How come none of us ever noticed?"

"How were you supposed to know that Hagrid was doing something so stupid?" Tonks asked.

"I've decided to call him Norbert," said Hagrid,

They all sat there in stunned silence for a few minutes before Tonks ﬁnally said, "Norbert? Really Hagrid?"

Sirius snorted loudly before saying sarcastically, "Norbert… what a lovely name for a dragon."

"Hagrid's got a unique philosophy for naming his creatures doesn't he?" Albus said, shaking his head incredulously. "If his pets are harmless then he gives them vicious names… if they're dangerous then he gives them sweet ones."

"There is deﬁnitely something wrong with him," Snape said.

looking at the dragon with misty eyes. "He really knows me now, watch. Norbert! Norbert! Where's Mommy?"

"He's lost his marbles," Ron mu†ered in Harry's ear.

"I agree," said Sirius sighing.

"Hagrid," said Harry loudly, "give it two weeks and Norbert's going to be as long as your house. Malfoy could go to Dumbledore at any moment."

"More likely he would've gone to me," Severus said with his lip curling. "Why he never did though…"

Hagrid bit his lip.

"I — I know I can't keep him forever, but I can't jus' dump him, I can't." Harry suddenly turned to Ron. "Charlie." he said.

"YES!" Sirius yelled happily. "Brilliant Harry!"

"What do you know?" Severus said silkily. "Potter does have some brains aGer all."

Almost everyone was glaring at him. Dumbledore just gave him a disappointed glance before he said with a rather forced smile, "I say that they're lucky that Ron has a brother who works with dragons,"

Remus nodded in agreement. Minerva sighed in relief, glad that they found a way to get rid of the thing.

"You're losing it, too," said Ron. "I'm Ron, remember?"

"Honesty Ron," Tonks said exasperated. "You know, Harry has never met Charlie, so how come he was the one who came up with the idea of contacting him instead of Charlie's own brother?"

They all just shrugged.

"No — Charlie — your brother, Charlie. In Romania. Studying dragons. We could send Norbert to him. Charlie can take care of him and then put him back in the wild!"

"Brilliant!" said Ron. "How about it, Hagrid?"

And in the end, Hagrid agreed that they could send an owl to Charlie to ask him.

"Wow," Sirius said impressed. "I would love to know what they said to convince him of that!"

"Probably something like, 'It would be best for Norbert if he was with his own kind,' or something like that," Remus said with a shrug. "They have to remember that Hagrid thinks about his pets in a diﬀerent way than the rest of us do."

"I'm only relieved that they got rid of it!" Minerva said ﬁrmly. "Why they never told us…?"

"Like I said, Minerva," Albus reminded her. "They most likely didn't want to get Hagrid in trouble."

The following week dragged by. Wednesday night found Hermione and Harry siGng alone in the common room, long a†er everyone else had gone to bed. The clock on the wall had just chimed midnight when the portrait hole burst open. Ron appeared out of nowhere as he pulled oﬀ Harry's invisibility cloak. He had been down at Hagrid's hut, helping him feed Norbert, who was now eating dead rats by the crate.

"It bit me!" he said, showing them his hand, which was wrapped in a bloody handkerchief.

"Oh no…" groaned Sirius, racking his brains trying to remember if Norwegian Ridgeback's were poisonous.

Unfortunately, Minerva cleared up that problem by gasping, "Ridgebacks are poisonous. He needs to go to hospital wing!"

"Great," Tonks said. "Just one thing aGer another."

"I'm not going to be able to hold a quill for a week. I tell you, that dragon's the most horrible animal I've ever met, but the way Hagrid goes on about it, you'd think it was a ﬂuﬀy li†le bunny rabbit. When it bit me he told me oﬀ for frightening it. And when I le†, he was singing it a lullaby."

"And here I was thinking he'd already lost it," snorted Tonks.

"Ok, now he's lost his mind," Remus said in disbelief.

There was a tap on the dark window.

"It's Hedwig!" said Harry, hurrying to let her in. "She'll have Charlie's answer!"

The three of them put their heads together to read the note.

Dear Ron,

Howareyou?ThanksfortheleMer—I'dbegladto take theNorwegian Ridgeback, but it won't be easy geUng himhere.

"Wow, Charlie," Tonks laughed. She had gone to school with Charlie and he had always been a real good friend. It's good to hear that he hadn't changed since she last saw him. "You're talking about taking a dragon and you're asking him how he is. You're one of a kind."

I think the best thing will be to send him over with some friends of mine who are coming to visit me next week. Trouble is, they mustn't be seen carrying an illegal dragon.

Could you get the Ridgeback up the tallest tower at midnight on Saturday? They can meet you there and take him away while it's still dark.

Send me an answer as soon aspossible. Love,

Charlie

"Thank goodness that that's taken care of," Minerva calming down. But then she stopped for a moment as she remembered what had happened that night four years ago when she had caught Malfoy out of bed. 'You don't understand, Professor. Harry Po1er's coming — he's got a dragon!'

This couldn't have been happening…

"Minerva?" Remus asked in concern. "Are you alright?"

"Yes," she said, though a little shakily and went on before they could ask her…

They looked at one another.

"We've got the invisibility cloak," said Harry. "It shouldn't be too diﬃcult

– I think the cloak's big enough to cover two of us and Norbert."

It was a mark of how bad the last week had been that the other two agreed with him. Anything to get rid of Norbert — and Malfoy.

There was a hitch. By the next morning, Ron's bi†en hand had swollen to twice its usual size.

"Oh, no," moaned Sirius.

He didn't know whether it was safe to go to Madam Pomfrey — would she recognize a dragon bite?

"Most likely," Albus said. "At the least, she would know that nothing normal could've done it."

"And still no one knew?" Sirius gasped.

"Poppy usually doesn't ask too many questions," Remus said, having spent a great deal of time with Madam Pomfrey treating his own injuries when he was at school—both as a student and as a teacher. "She only informs a teacher if their student will need to be in the hospital for a long period of time or if it is serious."

By the a†ernoon, though, he had no choice. The cut had turned a nasty shade of green. It looked as if Norbert's fangs were poisonous.

Harry and Hermione rushed up to the hospital wing at the end of the day to ﬁnd Ron in a terrible state in bed.

"It's not just my hand," he whispered, "although that feels like it's about to fall oﬀ. Malfoy told Madam Pomfrey he wanted to borrow one of my books so he could come and have a good laugh at me. He kept threatening to tell her what really bit me — I've told her it was a dog, but I don't think she believes me —

"Of course not," Minerva huﬀed. "She's not stupid."

"She just feels that it's best not to ask questions because she doesn't want to know," Remus repeated knowingly.

I shouldn't have hit him at the Quidditch match, that's why he's doing this."

"I really don't think he needed a reason to be a git," said Tonks, bitterly.

Harry and Hermione tried to calm Ron down.

"It'll all be over at midnight on Saturday," said Hermione, but this didn't soothe Ron at all. On the contrary, he sat bolt upright and broke into a sweat.

"What now?" Sirius cried out.

"Midnight on Saturday!" he said in a hoarse voice. "Oh no oh no — I've just remembered — Charlie's le†er was in that book Malfoy took, he's going to know we're geGng rid of Norbert."

"Well, this year just gets better and better doesn't it?" Sirius said, throwing his arms up in the air dramatically. "How did they manage to get through this year without losing their minds?"

"Now I really don't get it," Tonks said confused. "Malfoy had the letter… so why didn't he go to one of the teachers and tell them what was

happening? He's so quick to tattle on those three every other time, so why not this time? Especially if he now had the letter as evidence?"

"Maybe he didn't think anyone would believe him?" Remus suggested. "Maybe he thought that the teachers would think that he made up the whole story just to get them in trouble?"

At that statement, the teachers were all glancing at each other. Truthfully, none of them were sure of what they would've believed if he did go to them.

Harry and Hermione didn't get a chance to answer. Madam Pomfrey came over at that moment and made them leave, saying Ron needed sleep.

"It's too late to change the plan now," Harry told Hermione. "We haven't got time to send Charlie another owl, and this could be our only chance to get rid of Norbert. We'll have to risk it. And we have got the invisibility cloak, Malfoy doesn't know about that."

"Thank god for that," Sirius agreed.

They found Fang, the boarhound, siGng outside with a bandaged tail when they went to tell Hagrid, who opened a window to talk to them.

"Now Norbert bit Fang?" Sirius gasped. He hated it when any dog got injured. "But Ridgebacks are poisonous? I hope he got Fang treated."

"I won't let you in," he puﬀed. "Norbert's at a tricky stage — nothin' I can't handle."

When they told him about Charlie's le†er, his eyes ﬁlled with tears, although that might have been because Norbert had just bi†en him on the leg.

"I say maybe both," Albus said calmly, though he was wearing a frown.

"Aargh! It's all right, he only got my boot — jus' playin' — he's only a baby, a†er all."

The baby banged its tail on the wall, making the windows ra†le.

"Hagrid is in serious denial if he thinks that he can handle this," Tonks said. "It takes a whole team of trained Dragon Tamers to deal with the babies!

And they don't have to worry about anyone discovering them."

Harry and Hermione walked back to the castle feeling Saturday couldn't come quickly enough.

They would have felt sorry for Hagrid when the time came for him tosay good-bye to Norbert if they hadn't been so worried about what they had to do. It was a very dark, cloudynight,

"That should work in their favor," Tonks said at once, remembering her Auror training. "Helps hide them as well as the cloak can… and it should also help with Charlie's friends… they don't need to be worried about being seen as much."

"Looks like Mad-Eye's training has ﬁnally sunken in," Sirius teased her and she smiled back. "I was his top student!" she said proudly.

and they were a bit late arriving at Hagrid's hut because they'd had to wait for Peeves to get out of their way in the entrance hall, where he'd been playing tennis against the wall. Hagrid had Norbert packed and ready in a large crate.

"He's got lots o' rats an' some brandy fer the journey," said Hagrid in a muﬄed voice. "An' I've packed his teddy bear in case he gets lonely."

Sirius felt his jaw drop. "A teddy bear? It's oﬃcial… the fragile thread of Hagrid's sanity has ﬁnally snapped."

"I can't believe I'm saying this…" Snape said grudgingly. "But I have to agree."

From inside the crate came ripping noises that sounded to Harry as though the teddy was having his head torn oﬀ.

Albus could help but chuckle at that, while everyone just stared at the book incredulously, that does sound like something Hagrid would do.

"Bye-bye, Norbert!" Hagrid sobbed, as Harry and Hermione covered the crate with the invisibility cloak and stepped underneath it themselves. "Mommy will never forget you!"

How they managed to get the crate back up to the castle, they never knew. Midnight ticked nearer as they heaved Norbert up the marble staircase in the entrance hall and along the dark corridors. Up another staircase, then another – even one of Harry's shortcuts didn't make the work much easier.

"Well, I would imagine not," Minerva said coldly.

"Yes," Remus agreed. "It's hard enough to travel under the cloak with just the two of them… let alone carrying a crate with a dragon in it!"

"Nearly there!" Harry panted as they reached the corridor beneath the tallest tower.

Then a sudden movement ahead of them made them almost drop the crate. ForgeGng that they were already invisible, they shrank into the shadows,

"Who is it this time?" Tonks asked worriedly and Minerva's eyes narrowed.

staring at the dark outlines of two people grappling with each other ten feet away. A lamp ﬂared. Professor McGonagall, in a tartan bathrobe and a hair net, had Malfoy by the ear.

Sirius suddenly began laughing. He laughed so hard that he almost fell out of his chair. "That is bloody brilliant! Talk about irony! I love it!"

He was in such a good mood that he didn't notice the guilty look on McGonagall's face. Remus and Tonks both did though, and they didn't like the way that she kept looking at the other two teachers… as if they knew something that they didn't.

"Detention!" she shouted. "And twenty points from Slytherin! Wandering around in the middle of the night, how dare you —"

"You don't understand, Professor. Harry Po†er's coming — he's got a dragon!"

"What u†er rubbish! How dare you tell such lies! Come on — I shall see Professor Snape about you, Malfoy!"

"Looks like I was wrong once again," she said jerkily. Severus rolled his eyes as he thought, 'Honestly, how could Draco be so stupid? McGonagall was never going to believe someone unless they had some proof.'

The steep spiral staircase up to the top of the tower seemed the easiest thing in the world a†er that. Not until they'd stepped out into the cold night air did they throw oﬀ the cloak, glad to be able to breathe properly again. Hermione did a sort of jig.

"Malfoy's got detention! I could sing!" "Don't," Harry advised her.

"I'm sure she's not that bad of a singer," Sirius said still chortling. But then he saw that no one else was laughing. The teachers were all looking pale… and Remus and Tonks kept looking at one teacher to another, as if trying to understand what was going on.

"What is it?" Sirius asked slowly as the smile slowly faded from his face. Rather than tell him, Minerva just kept reading.

Chuckling about Malfoy, they waited, Norbert thrashing about in his crate. About ten minutes later, four broomsticks came swooping down out of the darkness.

Charlie's friends were a cheery lot. They showed Harry and Hermione the harness they'd rigged up, so they could suspend Norbert between them. They all helped buckle Norbert safely into it and then Harry and Hermione shook hands with the others and thanked them very much.

"I would've kissed them if they were volunteering to take a dragon away," Sirius said happily. He couldn't believe that they almost pulled this oﬀ! This sure beat anything that he did at school! (Mostly because he and James had a bad habit of yelling what they did to the rest of the school at mealtimes.) In hindsight, that was probably not the smartest choice.

At last, Norbert was going… going… gone.

They slipped back down the spiral staircase, their hearts as light as their hands, now that Norbert was oﬀ them. No more dragon — Malfoy in detention — what could spoil their happiness?

Sirius had to agree. They successfully got rid of Norbert, Malfoy was caught and given a detention, and they were going to head back to their beds and pretend that last night never happened. So why does McGonagall look so guilty?

The answer to that was waiting at the foot of the stairs. As they stepped into the corridor, Filch's face loomed suddenly out of the darkness.

"That could spoil anyone's happiness," Tonks frowning. "Well, well, well," he whispered, "we are in trouble." They'd le† the invisibility cloak on top of the tower.

"I can't believe them!" Sirius howled, rubbing his hand over his tired eyes. "They leG the cloak behind?!"

"I guess they were so happy to be rid of Norbert that they just weren't thinking," Albus said.

"Weren't thinking is right," sneered Snape.

Minerva sighed unhappily before she held the book out to Snape, who looked at her with his eyebrows raised. "What are you doing?" he asked soGly.

"Well," she said smugly. "Unless I'm mistaken, you're the only one here who hasn't read. I think that it's now your turn?"

He glared at her. "No thank you," he grunted through gritted teeth.

"Something tells me that you might enjoy this next chapter," Albus sighed forlornly. The other three in the room looked at them all in confusion.

"What are you all talking about?" Remus asked them.

No one answered him. Severus just gave Minerva and Albus a dark look, but at long last he took the book from her. "Just this one chapter," he hissed darkly. He turned to the next chapter and read out, "Chapter 15: The Forbidden Forest."

Chapter 16

(I own nothing. Copyright belongs to J.K. Rowling)

Chapter 14: The Forbidden Forest

Sirius had gone very white. "Could you repeat that?" he asked numbly. "The Forbidden Forest," Severus repeated with a rather nasty grin.

"Why do I get the feeling that something bad is about to happen?" Tonks asked anxiously.

"Please tell me that they don't go in there," whimpered Sirius. But no one answered. Minerva looked guilty. "Why were they in there?" he asked her, not sure if he really wanted to know the answer, "Don't they already have enough on their plates?"

"Well," Minerva said slightly defensive, "I didn't know that they were trying to get rid of an illegal dragon!"

"But why the hell would they be sent into the forest?!" Sirius yelled.

"What are you so worried about?" demanded Severus harshly. "You and your little gang of 'friends' practically lived in the forest when you were going!"

"Yes," Sirius admitted angrily, "But the four of us could take care of ourselves during those times! We're talking about a few ﬁrst years who…"

"Just shut up already!" Severus yelled. "I don't want to hold this book longer than I have to!"

Sirius and Remus both glared at him as he started reading again.

Things couldn't have been worse.

"Don't bet on that," muttered Tonks under her breath.

Filch took them down to Professor McGonagall's study on the ﬁrst ﬂoor, where they sat and waited without saying a word to each other.

Hermione was trembling. Excuses, alibis, and wild cover- up stories chased each other around Harry's brain, each more feeble than the last.

"Think you could've come up with a story here?" Tonks asked Sirius who shrugged. "I never been caught on top of the Astronomy tower in the middle of the night while I just got rid of a dragon so I don't know."

He couldn't see how they were going to get out of trouble this time. They were cornered. How could they have been so stupid as to forget the cloak?

"I can understand…" Tonks announced compassionately. "They were just so happy to get rid of the dragon and that Malfoy got caught that it just must've—slipped their minds."

"Doesn't excuse the fact that they were so stupid," Snape grunted.

There was no reason on earth that Professor McGonagall would accept for their being out of bed and creeping around the school in the dead of night, let alone being up the tallest astronomy tower, which was out-of- bounds except for classes.

Add Norbert and the invisibility cloak, and they might as well be packing their bags already.

Snape actually snorted at that before glaring at Dumbledore, "Yeah, like you would ever expel Potter."

"Now that I know the entire story, I understand why they were out of bed," Minerva said emotionlessly. "Maybe if they came out and told me what they were doing, I wouldn't have been so hard on them."

"What did you do?" Sirius demanded.

"I'm sure that you're about to ﬁnd out," she said sadly.

Had Harry thought that things couldn't have been worse? He was wrong. When Professor McGonagall appeared, she was leading Neville.

"Neville?" repeated Remus in surprise. "What was he doing?"

"Let me continue," Severus hissed at him, "And you'll get your answer."

"Harry!" Neville burst out, the moment he saw the other two. "I was trying to ﬁnd you to warn you, I heard Malfoy saying he was going to catch you, he said you had a drag—"

Harry shook his head violently to shut Neville up, but Professor McGonagall had seen. She looked more likely to breathe ﬁre than Norbert as she towered over the three of them.

"Wow," Sirius said staring at her. "It's nice to see aGer all these years, you haven't lost your touch."

"I would never have believed it of any of you. Mr. Filch says you were up in the astronomy tower. It's one o'clock in the morning. Explain yourselves."

It was the ﬁrst time Hermione had ever failed to answer a teacher's question. She was staring at her slippers, as still as a statue.

No one in the room had the heart to smile at that. All of them were feeling so bad for her, except for Snape who seemed to have been enjoying himself.

"I think I've got a good idea of what's been going on," said Professor McGonagall. "It doesn't take a genius to work it out. You fed Draco Malfoy some cock-and-bull story about a dragon, trying to get him out of bed and into trouble.

Albus sighed before looking at her, "No, I think that maybe you brieﬂy forgot that Harry is not his father."

Minerva sighed quietly. "Maybe," she said ﬁrmly. She knew that he was right, remembering just how angry she was because they refused to tell her the whole story. But now that she ﬁnally understood what happened that night, she was regretting being so hard on them…

I've already caught him. I suppose you think it's funny that Longbo†om here heard the story and believed it, too?"

Harry caught Neville's eye and tried to tell him without words that this wasn't true, because Neville was looking stunned and hurt. Poor, blundering Neville — Harry knew what it must have cost him to try and ﬁnd them in the dark, to warn them.

Minerva shook her head, feeling worse with every line. It was terrible to hear about this from Potter's view… knowing what really happened…

"I'm disgusted," said Professor McGonagall. "Four students out of bed in one night! I've never heard of such a thing before!

Sirius and Remus both stared at her in disbelief before they burst out laughing. "Never heard of such a thing?" Sirius repeated as he continued laughing.

"Don't tell me that you forgotten about us!" Remus said.

Albus was also chuckling and Tonks was beaming, even Severus was rolling his eyes at her.

"No," Minerva said, but she too was smiling. "I just wanted to make them ashamed of what they did."

"I think you succeeded," Tonks muttered.

You, Miss Granger, I thought you had more sense. As for you, Mr. Po†er, I thought Gryﬃndor meant more to you than this. All three of you will receive detentions — yes, you too, Mr. Longbo†om, nothing gives you the right to walk around school at night, especially these days, it's very dangerous —

"Um," Tonks said confused. "What exactly is so dangerous 'these Days?' Are you talking about the Stone? And what goes on in the Astronomy tower that is so important that it's oﬀ-limits except for classes? I mean, even the dungeons are accessible…"

"I was talking about the Stone," Minerva admitted. "But I also wanted to scare them to not sneak out again."

"Well," Severus muttered, "You failed spectacularly!"

She glared at him before saying, "And we have reasons why the tower is oﬀ-limits most of the time."

When she said that, she gave a furious stare at Sirius, who blushed and turned away in embarrassment. Remus and Dumbledore were chuckling, as Tonks stared at them all. "Am I missing something?"

Remus shook his head and seemed to be ﬁghting hard to keep himself from bursting out laughing, "Sirius and James… err… how do I put this?"

"Come on!" Sirius stated also starting to smile. "It wasn't that bad!"

"The prank that you two pulled that day is the reason why the tower is oﬀ- limits!" Minerva said sternly. "I still have nightmares about it!"

"What happened?" Tonks said eagerly.

"Trust me on this!" Remus said, grinning broadly. "You don't want to know! Let's just say that it involved bubotuber pus, Dragon dung, and a multiplying spell."

Severus, who rather not listen to them praising Potter and Black for their stupidity, went on.

and ﬁ†y points will be taken from Gryﬃndor."

"FiGy?" Sirius cried out in horror and outrage while Severus smiled smugly. "Just for being caught out of bed?!"

"I am sorry," Minerva replied stiﬄy. "But they did break the rules."

Sirius stared at her. "They did it to help Hagrid! He's their friend and he would have been in a lot more trouble if anyone had found out about Norbert."

"True, but no one else knew that."

"But you only took away twenty from Malfoy!" Sirius argued.

"Just keep reading!" she said to Snape, ending the conversation before it turned into an all scale argument.

"Fi†y?" Harry gasped — they would lose the lead, the lead he'd won in the last Quidditch match.

"Fi†y points each," said Professor McGonagall, breathing heavily through her long, pointed nose.

"That's a little harsh," said Tonks staring at her old teacher, "A hundred and ﬁGy… just for being caught out of bed?"

"While Slytherin only loses twenty?" muttered Sirius. "There really isn't any justice!"

"Professor — please —"

"You can't —"

"Don't tell me what I can and can't do, Po†er. Now get back to bed, all of you. I've never been more ashamed of Gryﬃndor students."

"Oh, sure," Sirius growled furiously. "Make them feel worse about themselves!"

Minerva refused to answer, though she lowered her head in shame. She had just been so upset with them, that she acted out of anger rather than calmly thinking things through.

A hundred and ﬁ†y points lost. That put Gryﬃndor in last place. In one night, they'd ruined any chance Gryﬃndor had had for the house cup.

"It's just the house cup though," Tonks said. "It really isn't important."

"They're just ﬁrst years though," Sirius said dismally. "They always take things so seriously, and Slytherin had been wining it for seven years. I don't blame them for being upset."

Harry felt as though the bo†om had dropped out of his stomach. How could they ever make up for this?

'You did more than enough,' Albus thought sadly. AGer all… if it hadn't been for them, Voldemort would've returned four years sooner.

Harry didn't sleep all night. He could hear Neville sobbing into his pillow for what seemed like hours. Harry couldn't think of anything to say to comfort him. He knew Neville, like himself, was dreading the dawn.

What would happen when the rest of Gryﬃndor found out what they'd done?

At ﬁrst, Gryﬃndors passing the giant hourglasses that recorded the house points the next day thought there'd been a mistake. How could they suddenly have a hundred and ﬁ†y points fewer than yesterday? And then

the story started to spread: Harry Po†er, the famous Harry Po†er, their hero of two Quidditch matches, had lost them all those points, him and a couple of other stupid ﬁrst years.

"Well, something tells me that the rest of the house wasn't so understanding and forgiving…" Sirius moaned. Everyone else but Snape nodded unhappily. Rather, Severus looked happier than he had been in a long time and went on almost cheerfully.

From being one of the most popular and admired people at the school, Harry was suddenly the most hated.

"See," said Severus turned excitedly to Dumbledore. "He does care about being admired and showing oﬀ to everyone!"

Albus shook his head "No Severus, he doesn't care about popularity, but of being hated… wouldn't you if the rest of the school had turned their hatred to you for a simple mistake?"

Snape simply scowled at him while everyone else grinned.

Even Ravenclaws and Huﬄepuﬀs turned on him, because everyone had been longing to see Slytherin lose the house cup. Everywhere Harry went, people pointed and didn't trouble to lower their voices as they insulted him.

"Now that's just cruel," Tonks said unhappily.

"Why those…" Sirius trailed oﬀ outraged, "They made a mistake! That doesn't mean that everyone has to go out their way to make things hard for them! And besides, from what I've read, Harry and Hermione were really the ones who had been earning points for the house all year!

Hermione in class and Harry on the Quidditch ﬁeld!" "That's just life," Remus said brutally honest.

Slytherins, on the other hand, clapped as he walked past them, whistling and cheering, "Thanks Po†er, we owe you one!"

Only Ron stood by him.

"Of course, he would," Sirius said approvingly. "What are friends for?"

"They'll all forget this in a few weeks. Fred and George have lost loads of points in all the time they've been here, and people still like them."

"Exactly!" Sirius yelled out pointedly. "They must've lost more points than the rest of the school together and people don't give them a hard time!"

"They've never lost a hundred and ﬁ†y points in one go, though, have they?" said Harry miserably.

"Well — no," Ron admi†ed.

It was a bit late to repair the damage, but Harry swore to himself not to meddle in things that weren't his business from now on. He'd had it with sneaking around and spying.

Severus raised an eye-brow in shock, while Sirius and Tonks actually burst out laughing; Remus and Minerva looked dumb-founded, and Albus chuckled at their responses.

"Wonder how long that will last?" Snape responded in disbelief.

He felt so ashamed of himself that he went to Wood and oﬀered to resign from the Quidditch team.

At that, everyone sat up and stared at the book in stunned silence.

"He can't do that!" Sirius exclaimed, looking up to stare at everyone. "There's no way that quitting the game will help! They won't stand a chance if he resigns!"

"He doesn't know what else to do," Remus said miserably. "He thinks that he doesn't deserve to be on the team anymore."

"They really are down aren't they?" Tonks assumed stunned.

"Resign?" Wood thundered. "What good'll that do? How are we going to get any points back if we can't win at Quidditch?"

But even Quidditch had lost its fun. The rest of the team wouldn't speak to Harry during practice, and if they had to speak about him, theycalled him "the Seeker."

"Now, that is just rude," Albus said in disappointment that they would turn on each other like this.

"Even Gred and Forge?" Tonks shouted in amazement.

"It says, 'the rest of the team,'" Severus said coolly. "So I'm going to say yes."

"Why those ﬁlthy hypocrites!" Sirius said fuming. "They must lose more points in one week than everyone else in the house put together, and they go and give Harry a hard time?!"

Remus nodded. "While I was still teaching, I've noticed that sometimes their jokes reach beyond funny and border on the line of almost cruel and hurtful."

"Remind me to have a word with them when I get back to the castle," Minerva said darkly.

"Why didn't they just tell everyone else about Norbert then?" Tonks asked. "It would've gotten everyone oﬀ their backs. Who knows, they might even be impressed that they were helping to get rid of a dragon."

Albus shook his head, "Doesn't matter, Norbert was already gone. And that's beside the point. They did it so that Hagrid wouldn't get into trouble.

If they told the truth, then all their eﬀorts would've been for nothing."

"Those are some real friends," Tonks muttered nodding her head impressed. "Hagrid's lucky."

Hermione and Neville were suﬀering, too. They didn't have as bad a time as Harry, because they weren't as well-known, but nobody would speak to them, either. Hermione had stopped drawing a†ention to herself in class, keeping her head down and working in silence.

"Some of the most peaceful weeks I've ever had," Severus said silkily, earning himself some angry glares.

"I wish that they came to me and told me what was going on," Minerva sighed. "I was wondering why she stopped answering my questions in class. I'm ashamed at how my house was acting towards them."

Dumbledore was shaking his head, "They were just kids."

"But kids have been known to be cruel," Remus muttered sadly.

Harry was almost glad that the exams weren't far away. All the studying he had to do kept his mind oﬀ his misery.

"Ok, now we know that they were depressed," Sirius groaned. "To be glad to take exams?"

He, Ron, and Hermione kept to themselves, working late into the night, trying to remember the ingredients in complicated potions, learn charms and spells by heart, memorize the dates of magical discoveries and goblin rebellions…

Then, about a week before the exams were due to start, Harry's new resolution not to interfere in anything that didn't concern him was put to an unexpected test. Walking back from the library on his own one a†ernoon, he heard somebody whimpering from a classroom up ahead. As he drew closer, he heard Quirrell's voice.

"No — no — not again, please —"

"No! Now what's happening?" Tonks cried exasperated.

"I bet that it has to do with Snape," Sirius grunted and Severus rolled his eyes.

It sounded as though someone was threatening him. Harry moved closer.

Severus smirked, knowing that the brat would never keep his promise.

"All right — all right —" he heard Quirrell sob.

Next second, Quirrell came hurrying out of the classroom straightening his turban. He was pale and looked as though he was about to cry. He strode out of sight; Harry didn't think Quirrell had even noticed him. He waited until Quirrell's footsteps had disappeared, then peered into the classroom. It was empty, but a door stood ajar at the other end. Harry was halfway toward it before he remembered what he'd promised himself about not meddling.

Severus felt his jaw drop. Did he read this right?

"From the look on your face, Severus," Albus said smiling, "I take it that you never believed that Harry would at least try to keep his promise."

Severus shot him a dark look as Sirius laughed in a mocking way.

All the same, he'd have gambled twelve Philosopher's Stones that Snape had just le† the room, and from what Harry had just heard, Snape would be walking with a new spring in his step — Quirrell seemed to have given in at last.

"Oh, is that what he thinks?" Severus growled furiously. "It's always my fault isn't it?"

"Well, you sure aren't acting the part of a good guy though are you?" Sirius snarled threateningly. "And it usually is your fault!"

Severus just ignored him.

Harry went back to the library, where Hermione was testing Ron on Astronomy. Harry told them what he'd heard.

"Snape's done it, then!" said Ron. "If Quirrell's told him how to break his Anti-Dark Force spell —"

"I wasn't even in the room!" Severus yelled out exasperated.

"How do we know that?" Sirius asked him snidely and Severus opened his mouth to call Sirius something horrible, but Albus just cleared his throat, now growing very tired of this.

"There's still Fluﬀy, though," said Hermione.

"That's true," Tonks said looking slightly more hopeful.

"Maybe Snape's found out how to get past him without asking Hagrid," said Ron, looking up at the thousands of books surrounding them. "I bet there's a book somewhere in here telling you how to get past a giant three-headed dog. So what do we do, Harry?"

"He'd better not try anything dangerous," Remus said.

"Are you kidding?" Snape asked incredulously. "Those three are always butting into other people's business and doing stupid and dangerous stunts. I bet that it's going to get them killed one day."

"I'm warning you, Snape," Sirius growled again. "Insult them just one more time and I'm going to…"

"I'm afraid that you two can't do anything," Albus said pleasantly. "Due to the fact that neither of you can move outside the shield charm…"

They both gave him dark, reproachful looks before they let it go.

The light of adventure was kindling again in Ron's eyes, but Hermione answered before Harry could.

"Go to Dumbledore. That's what we should have done ages ago. If we try anything ourselves we'll be thrown out for sure."

"I wish they had gone to me," Albus murmured.

"Maybe that would've been the best course of action," Remus said nodding. "But what would you have done if they had?"

Albus looked thoughtful at that, as he began to wonder what he would've done if they did go to him.

"But we've got no proof!" said Harry. "Quirrell's too scared to back us up.

"Those are two good points," Tonks agreed.

Snape's only got to say he doesn't know how the troll got in at Halloween and that he was nowhere near the third ﬂoor — who do you think they'll believe, him or us? It's not exactly a secret we hate him,

"No?" Sirius asked in mock seriousness, "They all hate Snape? Who would've thought?" He gave Snape a smug smile; who in turn, could only shoot him a livid look that clearly wished that he could curse him into oblivion.

Dumbledore'll think we made it up to get him sacked.

"No, I wouldn't," Albus said kindly.

Filch wouldn't help us if his life depended on it, he's too friendly with Snape, and the more students get thrown out, the be†er, he'll think.

Albus agreed sorrowfully, at the time he had been well-aware that the trio had already ﬁgured out about the Stone, but he wished that they had gone to him about their suspicions. He might've been able to put their minds at ease.

But Harry was making some excellent points—going to him might not have been the wisest action.

And don't forget, we're not supposed to know about the Stone or Fluﬀy. That'll take a lot of explaining."

"Yeah, I can see why he's the leader of this little group of misﬁts," Tonks smirked. "The three of them just seem to belong with each other in some strange way don't you think?"

Albus smiled broadly as Sirius and Remus burst out laughing. "I couldn't agree with you more," Remus chuckled.

Hermione looked convinced, but Ron didn't. "If we just do a bit of poking around —"

"No," said Harry ﬂatly, "we've done enough poking around." He pulled a map of Jupiter toward him and started to learn the names of its moons.

"He made some excellent points," Remus said sympathetically.

"He really knows how to make it sound like there truly wasn't anything that they could've done huh?" Tonks said.

Snape just decided to keep reading, he would bite his own tongue oﬀ before he ever admitted it, but he was slightly impressed with Potter's leadership and stubbornness… even if they thought that HE was the one behind the scheme to steal the Stone.

The following morning, notes were delivered to Harry, Hermione, and Neville at the breakfast table. They were all the same:

Your detention will take place at eleven o'clock tonight. Meet Mr. Filch in the entrance hall.

Professor McGonagall

"Eleven at night?" Remus asked startled, and looked at his former teachers in surprise, "Don't you think that it's just a little late for a detention?

Especially for a few ﬁrst years who were caught out of bed?" No one answered him. They didn't like where this was going.

Harry had forgo†en they still had detentions to do in the furor over the points they'd lost. He half expected Hermione to complain that this was a whole night of studying lost, but she didn't say a word. Like Harry, she felt they deserved what they'd got.

"I feel so bad for them," Tonks said gloomily.

At eleven o'clock that night, they said good-bye to Ron in the common room and went down to the entrance hall with Neville. Filch was already there — and so was Malfoy. Harry had also forgo†en that Malfoy had go†en a detention, too.

"Well," Sirius said with a shrug, "At least he's there suﬀering too." "Follow me," said Filch, lighting a lamp and leading them outside. Tonks frowned, "Why were they going outside?"

"Well," Severus said, enjoying the look of horror on their faces, "This chapter is called, 'The Forbidden Forest,' so what did you expect?"

It took Sirius, Tonks, and Remus a minute to fully digest what was happening.

Sirius was ﬁrst to ﬁnd his voice, but he began yelling at them all, "YOU SENT MY ELVEVEN-YEAR-OLD GODSON RIGHT INTO THE FORBIDDEN FOREST?!"

"They were just caught out of bed!" Tonks cried incredulously. "You can't actually be serious!"

"They're only ﬁrst years!" Remus yelled in agreement, "They didn't deserve that!"

"Hagrid said that he wanted their help with something," Minerva said, holding up her hands in a way to defend herself.

"But this is the Forest! It's dangerous!" Sirius complained. "Especially at night! Couldn't you at least have done this in the middle of the day or something? Trust me, I know the kind of creatures that live in those woods! Two years ago I'd been forced to live in there, and you wouldn't believe the kind of things that roam that place at night!"

"They were with Hagrid," Albus said as if that settled everything.

"I bet you'll think twice about breaking a school rule again, won't you, eh?" he said, leering at them.

"Oh yes… hard work and pain are the best teachers if you ask me… It's just a pity they let the old punishments die out… hang you by your wrists from the ceiling for a few days, I've got the chains still in my oﬃce, keep 'em well oiled in case they're ever needed…

They all looked at Dumbledore and he said reassuringly, "Don't worry. As long as I am Headmaster, that form of punishment will never happen."

Right, oﬀ we go, and don't think of running oﬀ, now, it'll be worse for you if you do."

They marched oﬀ across the dark grounds. Neville kept sniﬃng.

Tonks cooed sadly, having grown fond of Neville throughout this book.

Harry wondered what their punishment was going to be. It must be something really horrible, or Filch wouldn't be sounding so delighted.

Sirius shivered horribly at the idea of his eleven-year-old godson… just a tiny little boy—being forced to go into the forest. He knew better than

anyone how dangerous that place was… if so much as one hair had been harmed on his godson's head… so help him before he found someone to kill.

The moon was bright, but clouds scudding across it kept throwing them into darkness. Ahead, Harry could see the lighted windows of Hagrid's hut. Then they heard a distant shout.

"Is that you, Filch? Hurry up, I want ter get started."

"I think that Hagrid must've been feeling guilty that they got caught because of him," Remus said.

"That explains why Hagrid was so insistent on asking me if he could give them the detention," Minerva said thoughtfully.

Harry's heart rose; if they were going to be working with Hagrid it wouldn't be so bad. His relief must have showed in his face, because Filch said, "I suppose you think you'll be enjoying yourself with that oaf? Well, think again, boy — it's into the forest you're going and I'm much mistaken if you'll all come out in one piece."

"He's horrible," Tonks said. No one disagreed with her.

At this, Neville let out a li†le moan, and Malfoy stopped dead in his tracks.

"The forest?" he repeated, and he didn't sound quite as cool as usual.

"We can't go in there at night — there's all sorts of things in there — werewolves, I heard."

Remus smiled in spite of himself. "No, there aren't anymore."

Neville clutched the sleeve of Harry's robe and made a choking noise.

"That's your problem, isn't it?" said Filch, his voice cracking with glee. "Should've thought of them werewolves before you got in trouble,

shouldn't you?"

"Well, they weren't planning on getting caught were they?" Sirius snapped. "And how could they know that they would be forced to go into the forest? Which is forbidden for a reason!" he added before glaring at the teachers who looked ashamed.

"It's your jobs to protect the students and you send them into the forest for being caught out of bed? Why?" he asked exasperated.

"Looking back, it was very harsh," Minerva said slowly. "But Hagrid insisted on it, and promised that nothing was going to happen to them."

"Well, for his sake, he better be right," Sirius grumbled.

Remus fought a smile. Sirius was sounding more and more like Molly Weasley every chapter. Funny how alike those two were despite the fact that they think so diﬀerently.

Hagrid came striding toward them out of the dark, Fang at his heel. He was carrying his large crossbow, and a quiver of arrows hung over his shoulder.

"Abou' time," he said. "I bin waitin' fer half an hour already. All right, Harry, Hermione?"

"I shouldn't be too friendly to them, Hagrid," said Filch coldly, "they're here to be punished, a†er all."

"That's why yer late, is it?" said Hagrid, frowning at Filch. "Bin lecturin' them, eh? 'Snot your place ter do that. Yeh've done yer bit, I'll take over from here."

"You tell 'em Hagrid," Tonks cheered. "It's bad enough that they're punished by the rest of the school 24/7 without getting it from Filch as well."

"I'll be back at dawn," said Filch, "for what's le† of them," he added nastily, and he turned and started back toward the castle, his lamp bobbing away in the darkness.

Malfoy now turned to Hagrid.

"I'm not going in that forest," he said, and Harry was pleased to hear the note of panic in his voice.

"You aren't the only one, Harry," Sirius said with a grin.

"Yeh are if yeh want ter stay at Hogwarts," said Hagrid ﬁercely. "Yeh've done wrong an' now yeh've got ter pay fer it."

"But this is servant stuﬀ, it's not for students to do. I thought we'd be copying lines or something, if my father knew I was doing this, he'd—"

"You can't go running to daddy for every little problem in your life," Tonks said indigently.

"What a spoiled brat," Sirius said. "Then again, this is a Malfoy we're talking about…"

"—tell yer that's how it is at Hogwarts," Hagrid growled. "Copyin' lines! What good's that ter anyone? Yeh'll do summat useful or yeh'll get out. If yeh think yer father'd rather you were expelled, then get back oﬀ ter the castle an' pack. Go on."

"You tell him, Hagrid!" cheered on Sirius. "Show that brat that the universe doesn't rotate around him!"

Malfoy didn't move. He looked at Hagrid furiously, but then dropped his gaze.

Everyone but Snape smiled triumphantly.

"Right then," said Hagrid, "now, listen carefully, 'cause it's dangerous what we're gonna do tonight, an' I don' want no one takin' risks. Follow

me over here a moment."

He led them to the very edge of the forest. Holding his lamp up high, he pointed down a narrow, winding earth track that disappeared into the thick black trees. A light breeze li†ed their hair as they looked into the forest.

"Look there," said Hagrid, "see that stuﬀ shinin' on the ground? Silvery stuﬀ? That's unicorn blood.

Everyone but Dumbledore gasped, even Minerva and Severus didn't know about this.

"How could anything hurt a unicorn?" Tonks asked tearfully.

"Forget hurting one," Remus said slowly. "It's almost impossible to even catch one!"

Sirius was growling at Dumbledore. "Did you know about this?" he asked soGly.

"Yes… and no," Albus admitted. "Hagrid said that he wanted their help with a problem in the Forest. I didn't know about the unicorn being hurt until the next day."

"But you still allowed them to go into the Forest where something hurt a unicorn?!" Sirius yelled, staring at his old Headmaster as if only seeing him for the ﬁrst time. "What if whatever hurt the unicorn hurt them?!"

"I assure you that they were safe with Hagrid," Albus said. "Just keep reading and you will see."

There's a unicorn in there bin hurt badly by summat. This is the second time in a week. I found one dead last Wednesday. We're gonna try an' ﬁnd the poor thing. We might have ter put it out of its misery."

"Oh, no!" Tonks said, looking close to tears. "The poor thing. I hope they helped it."

"And what if whatever hurt the unicorn ﬁnds us ﬁrst?" said Malfoy, unable to keep the fear out of his voice.

Sirius frowned at having said the same thing just moment ago and ignored the amused looks the others giving him.

"There's nothin' that lives in the forest that'll hurt yeh if yer with me or Fang," said Hagrid.

"An' keep ter the path. Right, now, we're gonna split inter two parties an' follow the trail in diﬀ'rent directions. There's blood all over the place, it must've bin staggerin' around since last night at least."

"I want Fang," said Malfoy quickly, looking at Fang's long teeth.

"All right, but I warn yeh, he's a coward," said Hagrid. "So me, Harry, an' Hermione'll go one way an' Draco, Neville, an' Fang'll go the other.

"That makes no sense," Remus said, confused. "Nothing in the Forest will hurt them as long as they're with Hagrid or Fang?" He looked at Dumbledore and asked, "Is that really true? Didn't he just say that Fang is a coward? So…?"

"We really need to have a long talk with him once we get back," Minerva said angrily.

Now, if any of us ﬁnds the unicorn, we'll send up green sparks, right? Get yer wands out an' practice now — that's it — an' if anyone gets in trouble, send up red sparks, an' we'll all come an' ﬁnd yeh — so, be careful — let's go."

The forest was black and silent. A li†le way into it they reached a fork in the earth path, and Harry, Hermione, and Hagrid took the le† path while Malfoy, Neville, and Fang took the right.

Well at least Harry and Hermione were with Hagrid… that was the only thing that Sirius could except about this whole situation.

They walked in silence, their eyes on the ground. Every now and then a ray of moonlight through the branches above lit a spot of silver-blue blood on the fallen leaves.

Harry saw that Hagrid looked very worried.

"Could a werewolf be killing the unicorns?" Harry asked.

Everyone noticed the bitter and slightly hurt expression on Remus's face. He must've notice the way that they were all looking at him because he said grimly, "It's ok, I'm used to it."

"Not fast enough," said Hagrid. "It's not easy ter catch a unicorn, they're powerful magic creatures. I never knew one ter be hurt before."

Sirius nodded. He remembered all the times that the four of them were in the forest and Remus had escaped. He never once had been able to catch a unicorn… something that Remus had always been so grateful for. Sirius knew that Remus would never forgive himself if he killed such a wonderful, pure creature.

They walked past a mossy tree stump. Harry could hear running water; there must be a stream somewhere close by. There were still spots of unicorn blood here and there along the winding path.

"You all right, Hermione?" Hagrid whispered. "Don' worry, it can't've gone far if it's this badly hurt, an' then we'll be able ter — GET BEHIND THAT TREE!"

"WHAT?!" Minerva shouted, causing them all to jump.

Albus smiled slightly, he knew that she would never admit it, but the fact was that Minerva was very protective of her Gryﬃndors… almost as much as he was.

Hagrid seized Harry and Hermione and hoisted them oﬀ the path behind a towering oak. He pulled out an arrow and ﬁ†ed it into his crossbow, raising it, ready to ﬁre. The three of them listened. Something was slithering over dead leaves nearby: it sounded like a cloak trailing along the ground. Hagrid was squinting up the dark path, but a†er a few seconds, the sound faded away.

"That's creepy," Tonks whispered. Again no one disagreed with her.

"I knew it," he murmured. "There's summat in here that shouldn' be." "A werewolf?" Harry suggested.

"Enough with the werewolf theory already," Sirius croaked hoarsely.

"That wasn' no werewolf an' it wasn' no unicorn, neither," said Hagrid grimly. "Right, follow me, but careful, now."

They walked more slowly, ears straining for the faintest sound. Suddenly, in a clearing ahead, something deﬁnitely moved.

"Who's there?" Hagrid called. "Show yerself — I'm armed!" And into the clearing came — was it a man, or a horse?

"Oh," Sirius sighed, letting out a breath of air that he didn't realize he was holding. "It's just a centaur."

To the waist, a man, with red hair and beard, but below that was a horse's gleaming chestnut body with a long, reddish tail. Harry and Hermione's jaws dropped.

"Oh, it's you, Ronan," said Hagrid in relief. "How are yeh?" He walked forward and shook the centaur's hand.

"Good evening to you, Hagrid," said Ronan. He had a deep, sorrowful voice. "Were you going to shoot me?"

"Can't be too careful, Ronan," said Hagrid, paGng his crossbow. "There's summat bad loose in this forest. This is Harry Po†er an' Hermione Granger, by the way. Students up at the school. An' this is Ronan, you two. He's a centaur."

"Something tells me that they're already aware of that," Minerva said.

"We'd noticed," said Hermione faintly.

"Good evening," said Ronan. "Students, are you? And do you learn much, up at the school?"

"Erm —"

"A bit," said Hermione timidly.

"A bit?" Minerva huﬀed, "I sure hope that it was more than just a bit!"

"I'm sure that she's just trying to be polite to Ronan," Remus said soothingly. "Centaurs can be oﬀended very easily."

"A bit. Well, that's something." Ronan sighed. He ﬂung back his head and stared at the sky. "Mars is bright tonight."

"Yeah," said Hagrid, glancing up, too. "Listen, I'm glad we've run inter yeh, Ronan, 'cause there's a unicorn bin hurt — you seen anythin'?"

Ronan didn't answer immediately. He stared unblinkingly upward, then sighed again.

"Always the innocent are the ﬁrst victims," he said. "So it has been for ages past, so it is now."

"What?" Sirius asked bewildered.

Albus smiled sadly. "Oh, centaurs rarely make sense to humans. At ﬁrst, you think that they don't know what they're talking about… but if you take the time to stop and think about their words, you realize that they make a lot of sense."

"To someone like you maybe," Sirius griped crossing his arms.

"Yeah," said Hagrid, "but have yeh seen anythin' Ronan? Anythin' unusual?"

"Mars is bright tonight," Ronan repeated, while Hagrid watched him impatiently. "Unusually bright."

"Yeah, but I was meanin' anythin' unusual a bit nearer home," said Hagrid. "So yeh haven't noticed anythin' strange?"

Yet again, Ronan took a while to answer. At last, he said, "The forest hides many secrets."

"They are so frustrating!" Sirius yelled.

"Only to someone as thick-headed as you Black," Severus said haughtily.

"Oh, really?" Sirius said coldly. "Then maybe you can tell me what they meant?"

Severus's face turned an ugly oatmeal color. "I don't have to answer that," he said briskly.

Sirius merely grinned victoriously.

A movement in the trees behind Ronan made Hagrid raise his bow again, but it was only a second centaur, black-haired and - bodied and wilder- looking than Ronan.

"Maybe this one will be a little more helpful," Tonks said brightly.

"Hullo, Bane," said Hagrid. "All right?"

"Good evening, Hagrid, I hope you are well?"

"Well enough. Look, I've jus' bin askin' Ronan, you seen anythin' odd in here lately? There's a unicorn bin injured — would yeh know anythin' about it?"

Bane walked over to stand next to Ronan. He looked skyward. "Mars is bright tonight," he said simply.

"WHO CARES?!" Sirius yelled. "You should," Albus sighed.

"What are you talking about?" he demanded. "They aren't making any sense at all."

"Yes, they are," he answered, looking grave. "Well, what then?" Minerva asked.

"War," Albus said almost harshly. "The red planet symbolizes war. When they say that Mars is bright, it means that that there is a danger nearby or happening in the very near future."

They all stared horriﬁed at him, until Snape snapped out of it and went back to reading.

"We've heard," said Hagrid grumpily. "Well, if either of you do see anythin', let me know, won't yeh? We'll be oﬀ, then."

Harry and Hermione followed him out of the clearing, staring over their shoulders at Ronan and Bane until the trees blocked their view.

"Never," said Hagrid irritably, "try an' get a straight answer out of a centaur. Ruddy stargazers. Not interested in anythin' closer'n the moon."

"I agree with that," Sirius said knowingly.

"Are there many of them in here?" asked Hermione.

"Oh, a fair few… Keep themselves to themselves mostly, but they're good enough about turnin' up if ever I want a word. They're deep, mind, centaurs… they know things… jus' don' let on much."

"That would be annoying," Tonks said. "To know someone who knows things that you don't."

They all looked at Dumbledore who smiled back knowingly.

"D'you think that was a centaur we heard earlier?" said Harry.

"Did that sound like hooves to you? Nah, if yeh ask me, that was what's bin killin' the unicorns – never heard anythin' like it before."

They walked on through the dense, dark trees. Harry kept looking nervously over his shoulder. He had the nasty feeling they were being watched.

"With Harry's senses," said Remus nervously. "They probably are." "Yes," agreed Albus, and to everyone's amazement, he was smiling. "Why are you looking so happy, professor?" Tonks asked suspiciously.

His eyes started twinkling at her. "You all should know how hard I work to protect my students, there is no way that I would allow Harry, or any student for that matter, to wander alone and unprotected in the Forbidden Forest. I asked someone to just keep an eye on them for me. So yes, they are being watched… but by a friend, not foe."

"Who?" Tonks asked eagerly.

Albus only smiled. "I'm sure that you'll ﬁnd out before the chapter is over." He nodded his head to Severus who continued.

He was very glad they had Hagrid and his crossbow with them. They had just passed a bend in the path when Hermione grabbed Hagrid's arm.

"Hagrid! Look! Red sparks, the others are in trouble!"

"You two wait here!" Hagrid shouted. "Stay on the path, I'll come back for yeh!"

"Did he just leave Harry and Hermione alone in the middle of the Forest?!" Remus roared, looking scared. "I don't care if you had someone following Harry and the others, Headmaster… Hagrid should've known better than to leave two children in the Forest on their own!"

Most of the room nodded in agreement. "He has no sense at all," Sirius said ﬁercely.

They heard him crashing away through the undergrowth and stood looking at each other, very scared, until they couldn't hear anything but the rustling of leaves around them.

"You don't think they've been hurt, do you?" whispered Hermione.

"I don't care if Malfoy has, but if something's got Neville… it's our fault he's here in the ﬁrst place."

"That's cold," Tonks said. Though if she had to be honest, if one of them had to be leG behind in the forest, she prefer it if it were Malfoy.

The minutes dragged by. Their ears seemed sharper than usual. Harry's seemed to be picking up every sigh of the wind, every cracking twig.

What was going on? Where were the others?

At last, a great crunching noise announced Hagrid's return. Malfoy, Neville, and Fang were with him. Hagrid was fuming. Malfoy, it seemed, had sneaked up behind Neville and grabbed him as a joke. Neville had panicked and sent up the sparks.

Minerva's and Severus's jaws fell open stunned, and then they were both yelling.

"That idiot!"

"What was he thinking?"

"That was hardly the time for pranks!"

"Especially in the middle of the night in the Forbidden Forest!" "What was he trying to prove?"

They both continued for a short time until they calmed down enough to ﬁnish.

"We'll be lucky ter catch anythin' now, with the racket you two were makin'. Right, we're changin' groups — Neville, you stay with me an' Hermione, Harry, you go with Fang an' this idiot. I'm sorry," Hagrid added in a whisper to Harry, "but he'll have a harder time frightenin' you, an' we've go†a get this done."

"Oh, come on!" Sirius cried infuriated. "They're going to kill each other!"

"I just want them out of that place," Minerva said under her breath. "The sooner they get out of there, the sooner I'll breathe easy."

So Harry set oﬀ into the heart of the forest with Malfoy and Fang. They walked for nearly half an hour, deeper and deeper into the forest, until the path became almost impossible to follow because the trees were so thick. Harry thought the blood seemed to be geGng thicker.

"That can't be a good thing," Remus muttered anxiously, hoping that they don't ﬁnd the unicorn.

There were splashes on the roots of a tree, as though the poor creature had been thrashing around in pain close by. Harry could see a clearing ahead, through the tangled branches of an ancient oak.

"Oh, they just had to be the ones to ﬁnd it!" Remus called angrily.

"Look —" he murmured, holding out his arm to stop Malfoy.

Something bright white was gleaming on the ground. They inched closer.

It was the unicorn all right, and it was dead. Harry had never seen anything so beautiful and sad. Its long, slender legs were stuck out at odd angles where it had fallen and its mane was spread pearly-white on the dark leaves.

"Oh, the poor thing," Tonks and Minerva both said tearfully.

Harry had taken one step toward it when a slithering sound made him freeze where he stood. A bush on the edge of the clearing quivered… Then, out of the shadows, a hooded ﬁgure came crawling across the ground like some stalking beast. Harry, Malfoy, and Fang stood transﬁxed. The cloaked ﬁgure reached the unicorn, lowered its head over the wound in the animal's side, and began to drink its blood.

Everyone felt themselves go very green. Dumbledore looked somber; knowing who it was and what was happening.

"That thing is drinking the blood?" Tonks cried in a strangled voice.

"Do they even know what they're doing?!" Remus cried. "Drinking unicorn blood is a terrible curse!"

"AAAAAAAAAARGH!"

Malfoy let out a terrible scream and bolted — so did Fang. The hooded ﬁgure raised its head and looked right at Harry — unicorn blood was dribbling down its front.

It got to its feet and came swi†ly toward Harry — he couldn't move for fear.

"NO!" shouted Minerva, panic-stricken.

"Get out of there!" Sirius cried, his heart going a hundred miles an hour. "It's going to kill you!" Tonks shrieked.

Remus bit his lower lip so hard that he tasted blood.

Then a pain like he'd never felt before pierced his head; it was as though his scar were on ﬁre.

"But… but I thought that his scar only hurts with Voldemort's near and…" Tonks stammered before she realized what she was saying. She stared at the book in shock as everyone suddenly caught on.

Everyone, even Snape and Dumbledore were looking scared.

"Run," Sirius croaked in a ﬁerce whisper. "Don't just stand there watching! Get out of there before he kills you!"

Half blinded, he staggered backward. He heard hooves behind him, galloping, and something jumped clean over Harry, charging at the ﬁgure.

"Thank Merlin," Remus said, putting his face in his hands. "God, I don't know how much more of this I can take."

The pain in Harry's head was so bad he fell to his knees.

They all started to tense up again, wondering what else could happen.

It took a minute or two to pass. When he looked up, the ﬁgure had gone. A centaur was standing over him, not Ronan or Bane; this one looked younger; he had white-blond hair and a palomino body.

"Are you all right?" said the centaur, pulling Harry to his feet.

"Thank you," Sirius mouthed to the centaur, as if hoping that he could hear him.

"Yes — thank you — what was that?"

The centaur didn't answer. He had astonishingly blue eyes, like pale sapphires. He looked carefully at Harry, his eyes lingering on the scar that stood out, livid, on Harry's forehead.

"Even among other species," Sirius said impressed, "He's famous."

"You are the Po†er boy," he said. "You had be†er get back to Hagrid. The forest is not safe at this time — especially for you. Can you ride? It will be quicker this way.

"My name is Firenze," he added, as he lowered himself on to his front legs so that Harry could clamber onto his back.

Everyone but Dumbledore was shocked, "The centaur allowed Potter, to ride on his back?!" asked Snape, forgetting about his hatred for the boy for a brief second.

"That's just unheard of!" Tonks asked enviously. "Harry really is something else."

"Harry and Firenze both," Albus said with a nod.

There was suddenly a sound of more galloping from the other side of the clearing. Ronan and Bane came bursting through the trees, their ﬂanks heaving and sweaty.

"Firenze!" Bane thundered. "What are you doing? You have a human on your back! Have you no shame? Are you a common mule?"

"Do you realize who this is?" said Firenze. "This is the Po†er boy. The quicker he leaves this forest, the be†er."

"Yes," Sirius agreed at once. "I like this centaur."

"What have you been telling him?" growled Bane. "Remember, Firenze, we are sworn not to set ourselves against the heavens. Have we not read what is to come in the movements of the planets?"

Ronan pawed the ground nervously. "I'm sure Firenze thought he was acting for the best," he said in his gloomy voice.

Bane kicked his back legs in anger.

"For the best! What is that to do with us? Centaurs are concerned with what has been foretold! It is not our business to run around like donkeys a†er stray humans in our forest!"

"Ok, what's with them?" Tonks said angrily. "A life was in danger! Shouldn't they be congratulating him for saving someone?"

"Centaurs don't think like that," Albus explained. "To them, going against what they believe the stars and planets predict is a terrible crime."

"Well, that's just rubbish," Sirius said angrily. "I don't let any star or planet tell me what to do!"

Firenze suddenly reared on to his hind legs in anger, so that Harry had to grab his shoulders to stay on.

"Do you not see that unicorn?" Firenze bellowed at Bane. "Do you not understand why it was killed? Or have the planets not let you in on that secret? I set myself against what is lurking in this forest, Bane, yes, with humans alongside me if I must."

"I always liked Firenze," Minerva said, smiling appreciatively. "What's going on?" Tonks asked. "I mean… he just showed up out of

nowhere! There is no way that this is a coincidence! Firenze knew who Harry was and wasn't surprised to ﬁnd him there… and he even knew where in the forest of ﬁnd Hagrid…" she stopped and looked up at Dumbledore.

"Yes," Albus said contentedly. "Looks like my friend ﬁnally showed up." "Your friend?" Snape repeated.

"This is the person you asked to keep an eye on them?" Remus said quickly. "Yes. And I'm glad that I did," Albus said.

And Firenze whisked around; with Harry clutching on as best he could, they plunged oﬀ into the trees, leaving Ronan and Bane behind them.

Harry didn't have a clue what was going on.

"Like that's new," Severus muttered.

"Like you would do better if you were eleven and was almost killed by something dripping in blood!" Tonks retorted coldly.

"Why's Bane so angry?" he asked. "What was that thing you saved me from, anyway?"

"I rather not know," Remus said soGly, dreading the answer.

Firenze slowed to a walk, warned Harry to keep his head bowed in case of low-hanging branches, but did not answer Harry's question. They made their way through the trees in silence for so long that Harry thought Firenze didn't want to talk to him anymore. They were passing through a particularly dense patch of trees, however, when Firenze suddenly stopped.

"Harry Po†er, do you know what unicorn blood is used for?"

"No," said Harry, startled by the odd question. "We've only used the horn and tail hair in Potions."

"Yes," Severus said. "Because they are powerfully magical creatures and their hair and horns grow right back."

"That is because it is a monstrous thing, to slay a unicorn," said Firenze. "Only one who has nothing to lose, and everything to gain, would commit such a crime. The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price. You have slain

something pure and defenseless to save yourself, and you will have but a half-life, a cursed life, from the moment the blood touches your lips."

Albus sighed his age showing on his face, Tonks and Minerva looked horriﬁed and disgusted, Sirius and Remus were both pale and numb, Severus was looking like he was about to be sick.

Harry stared at the back of Firenze's head, which was dappled silver in the moonlight.

"But who'd be that desperate?" he wondered aloud. "If you're going to be cursed forever, death's be†er, isn't it?"

"True," Albus said dully. "But it's amazing what people will do to prolong their lives; because they are unable to abandon their addiction to being alive."

"It is," Firenze agreed, "unless all you need is to stay alive long enough to drink something else — something that will bring you back to full strength and power — something that will mean you can never die. Mr.

Po†er, do you know what is hidden in the school at this very moment?"

"So Voldemort is aGer the Stone," Remus said slowly. Sirius sent a rude glare at Severus at those words.

"Wait…" Tonks asked, "How did Firenze know the Stone is in the castle? Is it the stars… or did someone tell him?"

Albus answered, "A little of both I think." "What does that mean?"

But as Dumbledore opened his mouth to explain, Snape snapped at them, "Look, we're almost done with this chapter! Can you be quiet for a little longer?"

"The Sorcerer's Stone! Of course — the Elixir of Life! But I don't understand who —"

"Can you think of nobody who has waited many years to return to power, who has clung to life, awaiting their chance?"

It was as though an iron ﬁst had clenched suddenly around Harry's heart. Over the rustling of the trees, he seemed to hear once more what Hagrid had told him on the night they had met: "Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human lefi in him to die."

"I wish he did die," Sirius growled. "Then we wouldn't be going through a second war!"

"Do you mean," Harry croaked, "that was Vol- " "Harry! Harry, are you all right?"

"Thank goodness, they ﬁnally found each other," Minerva sighed.

Hermione was running toward them down the path, Hagrid puﬃng along behind her.

"I'm ﬁne," said Harry, hardly knowing what he was saying. "The unicorn's dead, Hagrid, it's in that clearing back there."

"This is where I leave you," Firenze murmured as Hagrid hurried oﬀ to examine the unicorn. "You are safe now."

Sirius snorted. It was clear to everyone that almost being killed in the forest by Voldemort wasn't Sirius's idea of being safe.

Harry slid oﬀ his back.

"Good luck, Harry Po†er," said Firenze. "The planets have been read wrongly before now, even by centaurs. I hope this is one of those times."

"I really like Firenze," Sirius said gratefully. "If I ever get a chance to meet him, remind me to shake his hand and thank him for this!"

He turned and cantered back into the depths of the forest, leaving Harry shivering behind him.

Ron had fallen asleep in the dark common room, waiting for them to return. He shouted something about Quidditch fouls when Harry roughly shook him awake.

"Of course," Severus said with a sneer. The boy was pathetic.

In a ma†er of seconds, though, he was wide-eyed as Harry began to tell him and Hermione what had happened in the forest.

"Just what you want to hear before you go to bed," Tonks said with a shiver. "I'm guessing that they aren't going back to sleep anytime soon aGer this."

Harry couldn't sit down. He paced up and down in front of the ﬁre. He was still shaking.

"Snape wants the stone for Voldemort… and Voldemort's waiting in the forest… and all this time we thought Snape just wanted to get rich…"

"It's not me!" Severus yelled loudly. "Why do I doubt that?" Sirius snarled.

"Sirius," Dumbledore said, looking stern, "I can guarantee that it is NOT Severus who's trying to steal the Stone."

"Who is then?"

"Why should we tell you?" Snape said with a grin. "There are only two more chapters aGer this one. I'm sure that you'll ﬁnd out. So why should we spoil the ending?"

Sirius didn't say anything for a minute, but ﬁnally growled. "I don't care what anyone says," he looked at Dumbledore as he said that before ﬁnishing, "Hell will freeze over before I trust you, Snape."

"The feeling is mutual," Snape hissed.

"Stop saying the name!" said Ron in a terriﬁed whisper, as if he thought Voldemort could hear them.

"Oh, get a grip, Ron!" Sirius yelled. "It's just a name!"

Harry wasn't listening.

"Firenze saved me, but he shouldn't have done so… Bane was furious… he was talking about interfering with what the planets say is going to happen… They must show that Voldemort's coming back… Bane thinks Firenze should have let Voldemort kill me… I suppose that's wri†en in the stars aswell."

"Will you stop saying the name!" Ron hissed.

"Harry's was almost killed by Voldemort that night and someone is plotting to steal the Stone," Remus said incredulously, "And he's scared of a name?"

"We have to do something about that the next time we see him," Tonks decided.

"So all I've got to wait for now is Snape to steal the Stone," Harry went on feverishly, "then Voldemort will be able to come and ﬁnish me oﬀ… Well, I suppose Bane'll be happy."

"Don't talk like that Harry!" Albus said so silently that no one heard him.

Hermione looked very frightened, but she had a word of comfort.

"Harry, everyone says Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was ever afraid of, with Dumbledore around, You-Know-Who won'ttouch

you. Anyway, who says the centaurs are right? It sounds like fortune- telling to me, and Professor McGonagall says that's a very imprecise branch of magic."

"I do," Minerva said grumpily. She had always hated the subject and wished that Dumbledore would just get rid of the class.

The sky had turned light before they stopped talking. They went to bed exhausted, their throats sore. But the night's surprises weren't over.

When Harry pulled back his sheets, he found his invisibility cloak folded neatly underneath them.

Sirius brightened up slightly, "The cloak?"

"But how did he…?" Tonks asked, but just shook her head. "Never mind."

There was a note pinned to it:

Just in case.

"Things keep on getting stranger and stranger," Sirius said, lying back against his armchair.

"That's the end of the chapter," Severus said, glad that it was over and ﬂung the book to Sirius. "I'm not reading again."

"Now now," Remus said with a smile. "I know that you enjoyed reading with us didn't you?"

Severus gave him a disgusted look. "Not in a million years," he growled. But secretly, he was enjoying reading the books… even if it was about Potter…

"God," Sirius whispered rubbing his hand over his exhausted eyes. "And remind me… this is just Harry's ﬁrst year? I don't know if I can take anymore. The ﬁrst book has already giving me several heart attacks, and something tells me that it's just going to get worse."

"How could it get any worse?" Tonks asked.

"And to think," Albus said as he looked to the table, where the other three books lay, looking innocent. "We still have three more aGer this one."

They were all silent for a few minutes, trying to absorb what they all just found out. Finally, Minerva asked, "Who is going to read next?"

No one answered at ﬁrst, but then Tonks held out her hand and said, "I'll do it."

"If it's alright, Dora," Dumbledore said soGly, "Do you mind if I read the last chapter?"

"Not at all, professor," she said with her mouth twitching slightly. "And please, call me Tonks. I've told you that a million times already."

Chapter 17

(I own nothing. Copyright belongs to J.K. Rowling)

Chapter 16: Through the Trapdoor

He chuckled slightly as she took the book and opened it, "We're almost done here," she said to no one in particular. She glanced at them all for a brief second before she read out, "Chapter 16: Through the Trapdoor." And there… below the name was the picture of a giant three-headed dog with drooling mouths standing right over the trap door. This couldn't be good.

"Through the trapdoor?" repeated Remus, pale as a ghost.

"Oh, just great," Sirius groaned, burying his face in his clammy hands. "They had to go aGer the Stone, didn't they? Why couldn't they just leave it to the adults?"

"What are they thinking?!" Tonks screamed in panic. "Were they trying to get themselves killed?!"

"Something tells me that they didn't have much choice in the matter," said a familiar gruﬀ voice. They all jumped and turned around to see Moody and Kingsley both standing in the doorway watching them.

"Miss us?" Moody asked with his lopsided grin.

"Mad-Eye! Kingsley!" Tonks yelled, in relief. "When did you two get here?"

"Just now," Kingsley said deeply. "We thought we drop in and see how things are going. We've been thinking about the book all day."

"Just how far are you?" Moody asked curiously.

"We just got to the second-to-last chapter," Albus said politely. "Come and sit down."

"Yeah," Sirius said grumpily. "We're just getting to the good part. They're about to go through the trapdoor and get the Stone."

They both stared at the group as if expecting them to shout out, 'Just kidding!' But when no one did, Kingsley just had to ask, "What happened?"

Telling them everything that they missed only took a few minutes. The two of them shared a startled look for a moment before sitting down and waited for them to continue.

"Something tells me that this is going to be one interesting chapter," Mad- Eye said with a wicked grin. "I want to see how far they get."

Severus growled in annoyance under his breath as Tonks started reading again.

In years to come, Harry would never quite remember how he had managed to get through his exams when he half expected Voldemort to come bursting through the door at any moment.

"He thought that the Dark Lord was just going to go busting in through the door?" asked Snape with a small sneer.

"I think Voldemort's a bit more subtle than that," Mad-Eye stated.

"That's ridiculous just thinking about it," Minerva commented. "I don't expect Voldemort to get into Hogwarts as long as Albus is a headmaster."

Albus blushed at the praise, but he knew that was far from true… as they would soon ﬁnd out.

Yet the days crept by, and there could be no doubt that Fluﬀy was still alive and well behind the locked door.

It was sweltering hot, especially in the large classroom where they did their wri†en papers. They had been given special, new quills for the exams, which had been bewitched with an Anti cheating spell.

"They're no fun," Sirius said knowingly.

"Not that you needed to cheat, Sirius," Remus reminded him smiling and Sirius cheered up almost at once.

"When you're a genius, you don't need to cheat," he said proudly and they all rolled their eyes at him.

They had practical exams as well. Professor Flitwick called them one by one into his class to see if they could make a pineapple tap dance across a desk. Professor McGonagall watched them turn a mouse into a snu6ox — points were given for how pre†y the snu6ox was, but taken away if it had whiskers. Snape made them all nervous, breathing down their necks while they tried to remember how to make a Forge√ulness potion.

"How ironic" Sirius said dryly, before he glared back at Snape. "Did you want them to fail on purpose or something?"

"Yes, do tell," Minerva agreed, "You can't expect them to pass if you're intimidating them!"

"I ﬁnd that this teaching method causes even slackers like Potter and Weasley to take their studies seriously," Severus sneered.

"Slackers?!" Tonks repeated outraged. "Enough," both Kingsley and Albus said.

"We can talk about this later, Severus," Albus said, with a nod to Kingsley.

Harry did the best he could, trying to ignore the stabbing pains in his forehead, which had been bothering him ever since his trip into the forest. Neville thought Harry had a bad case of exam nerves because Harry couldn't sleep, but the truth was that Harry kept being woken by his old nightmare, except that it was now worse than ever because there was a hooded ﬁgure dripping blood in it.

"That would keep me up at night," Sirius said sadly. "Does he always have such… ah… vivid nightmares?"

Minerva looked at Albus in confusion. "But I don't understand. Why was it hurting? Shouldn't it have stopped once Potter was safe back in the castle? I mean…" she sounded scared. "There was no way that Voldemort could've been in the school?"

Albus shrugged, not looking forward to what was about to come. "I'm sure that we'll ﬁnd out."

Maybe it was because they hadn't seen what Harry had seen in the forest, or because they didn't have scars burning on their foreheads, but Ron and Hermione didn't seem as worried about the Stone as Harry. The idea of Voldemort certainly scared them, but he didn't keep visiting them in dreams, and they were so busy with their studying they didn't have much time to fret about what Snape or anyone else might be up to.

Albus sighed, feeling sorry for his favorite student, and he wished that there was some way of helping him… but then he remembered that he wasn't couldn't even risk looking at him these days.

Their very last exam was History of Magic. One hour of answering questions about ba†y old wizards who'd invented self stirring cauldrons and they'd be free, free for a whole wonderful week until their exam results came out. When the ghost of Professor Binns told them to put down their quills and roll up their parchment, Harry couldn't help cheering with the rest.

"There we go," Sirius said cheering up slightly. That sounded much more like how a kid should be acting instead of having to worry about saving the world. He preferred this side of Harry to the hardened, tired one that he had seen over the holidays.

"That was far easier than I thought it would be," said Hermione as they joined the crowds ﬂocking out onto the sunny grounds.

Sirius groaned at the thought of the sunny grounds and wished that he could see that… even to roll in the grass as Padfoot.

Hermione always liked to go through their exam papers a†erward, but Ron said this made him feel ill, so they wandered down to the lake and ﬂopped under a tree. The Weasley twins and Lee Jordan were tickling the tentacles of a giant squid, which was basking in the warm shallows. "No more studying," Ron sighed happily, stretching out on the grass. "You could look more cheerful, Harry, we've got a week before we ﬁnd out how badly we've done, there's no need to worry yet."

"He's taking the idea of failure rather well," Tonks said happily.

"But something tells me that Harry's not worried about schoolwork," Sirius said forlornly.

Harry was rubbing his forehead.

"I wish I knew what this means!" he burst out angrily. "My scar keeps hurting — it's happened before, but never as o†en as this."

"Go to Madam Pomfrey," Hermione suggested.

"I'm not ill," said Harry. "I think it's a warning… it means danger's coming…"

"Harry has good senses," Kingsley said approvingly. "I agree that something bad is about to happen…"

Ron couldn't get worked up, it was too hot.

"Harry, relax, Hermione's right, the Stone's safe as long as Dumbledore's around. Anyway, we've never had any proof Snape found out how to get past Fluﬀy. He nearly had his leg ripped oﬀ once, he's not going to try it again in a hurry.

Sirius smirked at the idea of Snape getting his leg ripped oﬀ by Fluﬀy… "Yeah…" he said slowly, before rounding on Snape. "What were you doing near that dog?! I knew it! I knew that you were…"

"I wasn't trying to steal that damn Stone!" Severus yelled, ﬁnally losing patience. "I was trying to head oﬀ the real thief!"

"Who's the real thief then?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Mad-Eye said coolly.

They all turned to him and Remus asked, "You know who's really behind this?"

"Of course," Moody said with a sly smile. "But why ruin the surprise? What are you waiting for Tonks? Hurry up and read!"

"OK! You don't need to shout," Tonks said annoyed.

And Neville will play Quidditch for England before Hagrid lets Dumbledore down."

"Now that's a little harsh," Tonks said frowning.

Harry nodded, but he couldn't shake oﬀ a lurking feeling that there was something he'd forgo†en to do, something important. When he tried to explain this, Hermione said, "That's just the exams. I woke up last night and was halfway through my Transﬁguration notes before I remembered we'd done that one."

"How could you forget which exam you did?" Sirius asked exasperated. "Once you're through with it, you shouldn't have to think about it!"

"Which makes me wonder how you passed, Sirius," Minerva said with her eyebrows raised.

"I'm a genius," he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I thought that we've been through that."

"Don't forget modest," Remus chuckled, earning a playful shove in the shoulder.

Harry was quite sure the unse†led feeling didn't have anything to do with work, though. He watched an owl ﬂu†er toward the school across the bright blue sky, a note clamped in its mouth.

Albus frowned slightly as his eyes narrowed.; knowing full well what that letter was.

Hagrid was the only one who ever sent him le†ers. Hagrid would never betray Dumbledore. Hagrid would never tell anyone how to get past Fluﬀy… never… but…

"But…?" Sirius asked warily.

Harry suddenly jumped to his feet. "Where're you going?" said Ron sleepily.

"I've just thought of something," said Harry. He had turned white. "We've got to go and see Hagrid, now."

"Did I miss something?" Sirius asked.

"You really are dense aren't you?" Moody said, his magical eye rolling in his head. "He's talking about that bloody dragon!"

"What about it?" Tonks asked, but then her eyes widened in understanding and she quickly went back to the book.

"Why?" panted Hermione, hurrying to keep up.

"Don't you think it's a bit odd," said Harry, scrambling up the grassy slope, "that what Hagrid wants more than anything else is a dragon, and a stranger turns up who just happens to have an egg in his pocket?

"Good Potter," Moody grunted. "He's got the potential to be an excellent Auror."

Kingsley and Remus nodded approvingly.

"Well, James and Lily were his parents," said Remus simply. "So it's only natural that he would have their brains."

"Yes, but that doesn't excuse Hagrid for causing all this," Sirius growled angrily.

"Causing all what?" Minerva asked in surprise.

"He practically started all of this! He got Harry curious about the Stone back at Gringotts, he told them about Flamel, and now I just know that he's about to let slip how to get pass Fluﬀy."

They all thought about that, before they realized that he was right.

"I will certainly be having a nice long talk with Hagrid as soon as I get back," Albus said simply.

How many people wander around with dragon eggs if it's against wizard law? Lucky they found Hagrid, don't you think? Why didn't I see it before?"

"What are you talking about?" said Ron, but Harry, sprinting across the grounds toward the forest, didn't answer.

"What is he going on about?" Sirius asked, "What does that bloody dragon have to do with going aGer the Stone?!"

"The stranger who gave Hagrid the egg, probably got him drunk," Remus explained wretchedly. "Which means…"

Sirius had gone very pale, "Which means that Hagrid might've slipped how to get past Fluﬀy to him and…"

"He ﬁnally gets it," Severus sneered. But Sirius was focused on the book that he didn't even bother to insult him.

Hagrid was siGng in an armchair outside his house; his trousers and sleeves were rolled up, and he was shelling peas into a large bowl.

"Hullo," he said, smiling. "Finished yer exams? Got time fer a drink?" "Yes, please," said Ron, but Harry cut him oﬀ.

"No, we're in a hurry. Hagrid, I've got to ask you something. You know that night you won Norbert? What did the stranger you were playing cards with look like?"

"Dunno," said Hagrid casually, "he wouldn' take his cloak oﬀ."

"And he ﬁnds that normal?" Tonks asked exasperated.

"He was probably too excited about the dragon egg to be thinking about that," Remus reminded them.

He saw the three of them look stunned and raised his eyebrows. "It's not that unusual, yeh get a lot o' funny folk in the Hog's Head —

that's one of the pub down in the village. Mighta bin a dragon dealer, mightn' he? I never saw his face, he kept his hood up."

"And Hagrid wasn't suspicious at all?" Kingsley asked in surprise.

"Not if he was visiting the Hog's Head," Albus explained. "I'm afraid that it's a popular fashion in there."

Harry sank down next to the bowl of peas. "What did you talk to him about, Hagrid? Did you mention Hogwarts at all?"

"Mighta come up," said Hagrid, frowning as he tried to remember. "Yeah… he asked what I did, an' I told him I was gamekeeper here… He asked a bit about the sorta creatures I took a†er… so I told him… an' I

said what I'd always really wanted was a dragon… an' then… I can' remember too well, 'cause he kept buyin' me drinks…

"Buy him drinks," Sirius sighed. "That's the best way to get any information from him."

"Hagrid," groaned Minerva. "Albus, we simply must do something about his drinking habit."

Kingsley shook his head gravely as Moody grunted, "He just had to let slip about that giant mutt didn't he?"

Let's see… yeah, then he said he had the dragon egg an' we could play cards fer it if I wanted… but he had ter be sure I could handle it, he didn' want it ter go ter any old home… So I told him, a†er Fluﬀy, a dragon would be easy…"

"If Norbert was easy, I hate to see how to take care of Fluﬀy," Tonks shuddered.

"And did he — did he seem interested in Fluﬀy?" Harry asked, trying to keep his voice calm.

"Well — yeah — how many three-headed dogs d'yeh meet, even around Hogwarts? So I told him, Fluﬀy's a piece o' cake if yeh know how to calm him down, jus' play him a bit o' music an' he'll go straight oﬀ ter sleep —"

"Hagrid!" Minerva cried incensed.

"He did not just tell the three most curious students in the school how to get that dog…" Kingsley groaned.

"Ah, music—of course!" Remus cried out. Now it all made sense what happened during their ﬁrst encounter with Fluﬀy. Harry thought that it didn't attack them because their sudden appearance surprised it? It looks like the real reason it didn't attack was because Peeves' singsong voice was keeping it a bit sleepy!

Tonks on the other hand was gaping at the book, ignoring everyone else. "That's it?" she asked incredulously. "All that you needed to get passed it was to play it a lullaby?"

"Ironic all the music reference kept popping up isn't it?" Sirius said stunned. "It's as if this was meant to happen. And now, Snape knows how to get passed that monster."

"For the last time," Snape yelled, "I'M NOT TRYING TO STEAL THE STONE!"

Hagrid suddenly looked horriﬁed.

"I shouldn'ta told yeh that!" he blurted out.

Tonks shook her head and rolled her eyes, "You shouldn't have told the

'dragon dealer' either."

"Forget I said it! Hey — where're yeh goin'?"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione didn't speak to each other at all until they came to a halt in the entrance hall, which seemed very cold and gloomy a†er the grounds.

"We've got to go to Dumbledore," said Harry.

Almost all of them blinked in astonishment. Snape's jaw actually dropped slightly. "You mean to tell me that he was actually going to tell someone of authority about this?"

"I think that he always tries to tell someone what's going on," Albus said slowly, "But unfortunately, they usually don't believe him or something prevents him from doing so."

He felt a deep sadness when he realized just how hard things must be for Harry right now with the Prophet having a go at him every other day and that toad Umbridge giving Harry a hard time at school.

"Hagrid told that stranger how to get past Fluﬀy, and it was either Snape or Voldemort under that cloak — it must've been easy, once he'd got Hagrid drunk. I just hope Dumbledore believes us. Firenze might back us up if Bane doesn't stop him. Where's Dumbledore's oﬃce?"

"He doesn't know where your oﬃce is?" asked Sirius sighing in disappointment. He had been sent to Dumbledore's oﬃce his very ﬁrst week and countless times aGer that.

"No," Albus sighed sadly. "They were so young and innocent back then." "Innocent?" Snape yelled. "They're anything but innocent."

They all just chose to ignore him.

They looked around, as if hoping to see a sign pointing them in the right direction. They had never been told where Dumbledore lived, nor did they know anyone who had been sent to see him.

"What about the twins?" Minerva asked surprised.

"Yes," Albus chuckled. "They are almost weekly visitors. Not that it would've helped them here."

"What do you…?"

But Albus merely shook his head, nodding to the book instead of answering.

"We'll just have to —" Harry began, but a voice suddenly rang across the hall.

"What are you three doing inside?"

It was Professor McGonagall, carrying a large pile of books.

Minerva bit her lower lip, knowing what was about to happen—and now that she saw it like this, she realized that she should've at least stayed to

listen to what they had to say. If she only thought about listening… they might've avoided everything that had happened that night.

"We want to see Professor Dumbledore," said Hermione, rather bravely, Harry and Ron thought.

"See Professor Dumbledore?" Professor McGonagall repeated, as though this was a very ﬁshy thing to want to do. "Why?"

"Well anyone could tell that they were up to something," Minerva said with a frown.

"But if you were there, then why did they go through the trapdoor?" Remus asked. And suddenly McGonagall looked guilty.

Harry swallowed — now what?

"It's sort of secret," he said, but he wished at once he hadn't, because Professor McGonagall's nostrils ﬂared.

"Professor Dumbledore le† ten minutes ago," she said coldly. "He received an urgent owl from the Ministry of Magic and ﬂew oﬀ for London at once."

"That must've been the message that Harry saw ﬂying towards the castle!" Tonks cried. She stared at Albus and said, "It was a fake!"

"Indeed," Albus sighed. "Of course, I wasn't aware of it at the time."

"Tell me," Kingsley asked the Headmaster. "Just what was so important that you just had to drop everything you were doing and rush over to London?"

"Especially when you knew that someone was going to try to steal the Stone?" Tonks added, equally curious.

Albus shook his head and said, "It's not important. But let's just say that I truly thought that it was urgent. And besides this was years ago. Keep reading."

"He's gone?" said Harry frantically. "Now?"

"Professor Dumbledore is a very great wizard, Po†er, he has many demands on his time – "

"But this is important."

"Something you have to say is more important than the Ministry of Magic, Po†er?"

"Anything is more important than the Ministry," Sirius growled. "I rather have Fluﬀy as Minster of Magic than that idiot Fudge."

No one could disagree with him on that.

"Look," said Harry, throwing caution to the winds, "Professor — it's about the Sorcerer's Stone —"

Whatever Professor McGonagall had expected, it wasn't that.

"That certainly did catch me oﬀ my guard," Minerva said, smiling very slightly at the memory.

The books she was carrying tumbled out of her arms, but she didn't pick them up.

"How do you know —?" she splu†ered.

"Wow," croaked Sirius while staring at her. "It takes a lot to stun you. I should know. I had to work hard to do it—and here they are without even trying."

"Yes," she answered with a slight chuckle, "They truly did have me stunned. And that was just the ﬁrst of many times I can assure you."

"Professor, I think — I know — that Sn— that someone's going to try and steal the Stone. I've got to talk to Professor Dumbledore."

She eyed him with a mixture of shock and suspicion.

"Professor Dumbledore will be back tomorrow," she said ﬁnally.

"But the Stone will be gone by then!" Tonks yelled.

"There goes two teachers that should've been there to help," Sirius muttered angrily. Albus and Minerva shiGed in their seats guilty.

"I'm sorry that I gave them all such a hard time," Minerva said regretfully, "But you all have to understand how outrageous their story sounded."

"I don't know how you found out about the Stone, but rest assured, no one can possibly steal it, it's too well protected."

"You want to bet on that?" Sirius asked shrewdly and the teachers all ﬂushed.

"Maybe it wasn't so protected aGer all," Remus said with a smile. "Especially if three ﬁrst-year students were able to get through."

"Insult our pride why don't you?" Albus asked with his eyebrows raised.

"But Professor —"

"Po†er, I know what I'm talking about," she said shortly. She bent down and gathered up the fallen books. "I suggest you all go back outside and enjoy the sunshine."

But they didn't.

"Of course they didn't," Snape said annoyed.

"It's tonight," said Harry, once he was sure Professor McGonagall was out of earshot. "Snape's going through the trapdoor tonight. He's found out everything he needs, and now he's got Dumbledore out of the way. He sent that note, I bet the Ministry of Magic will get a real shock when Dumbledore turns up."

"Were they?" Tonks asked him and Albus nodded.

"As soon as I realized that it had been a trap, I went back to the school as quickly as I could," Albus told them.

"But what can we —"

Hermione gasped. Harry and Ron wheeled round. Snape was standing there.

"Of course you were," Sirius growled angrily. Snape just shrugged, unconcerned.

"Good a†ernoon," he said smoothly. They stared at him.

"You shouldn't be inside on a day like this," he said, with an odd, twisted smile.

"Why were you trying to scare them?" Mad-Eye asked.

"I was trying to discover and put a stop to whatever it was that they were planning," Snape said. "I could tell that they were up to something, but if I had known that they were attempting to pull a stunt so idiotic and foolish I would have given them detention for the rest of the year."

They all stared at them. "What?" he demanded.

"Why Severus," Albus said with a little smile. "For a second there, it almost sounded like you were concerned for them."

Snape looked horriﬁed at the thought. "You must be imagining things, Dumbledore," he said tartly. They didn't looked convinced, but they let the matter drop as they turned back to the book.

"We were —" Harry began, without any idea what he was going to say.

"You want to be more careful," said Snape. "Hanging around like this, people will think you're up to something. And Gryﬃndor really can't aﬀord to lose any more points, can it?"

Harry ﬂushed. They turned to go outside, but Snape called them back.

"Be warned, Po†er — any more nighGme wanderings and I will personally make sure you are expelled. Good day to you."

Minerva blinked. "That was strangely… pleasant, for you."

"I agree," Albus said with a hint of laughter. "But I'm afraid Severus you really did not make a good case for yourself. So I can't say that I blamed them for thinking it was you."

He just glared at them all.

He strode oﬀ in the direction of the staﬀroom.

Out on the stone steps, Harry turned to the others.

"Right, here's what we've got to do," he whispered urgently. "One of us has got to keep an eye on Snape — wait outside the staﬀ room and follow him if he leaves it. Hermione, you'd be†er do that."

"Why me?"

"Because she's the less suspicious," Sirius said obviously and shared a secret smirk with Remus. AGer all, with Remus as a lookout, it was easy for them to get away with things because none of the teachers expected polite, well-mannered Remus to be causing any trouble.

"It's obvious," said Ron. "You can pretend to be waiting for Professor Flitwick, you know."

He put on a high voice, "'Oh Professor Flitwick, I'm so worried, I think I got question fourteen b wrong… '"

They all laughed at that. It did sound like something Hermione would say.

"Oh, shut up," said Hermione, but she agreed to go and watch out for Snape.

"And we'd be†er stay outside the third-ﬂoor corridor," Harry told Ron. "Come on."

But that part of the plan didn't work. No sooner had they reached the door separating Fluﬀy from the rest of the school than Professor McGonagall turned up again and this time, she lost her temper.

She raised her hands defensively as they all looked at her. "Like I said, if I had known what was going on, I wouldn't have been so hard on them."

"That didn't mean that you had to be so harsh on them!" Sirius said.

"I suppose you think you're harder to get past than a pack of enchantments!" she stormed. "Enough of this nonsense! If I hear you've come anywhere near here again, I'll take another ﬁ†y points from Gryﬃndor! Yes, Weasley, from my own house!"

Harry and Ron went back to the common room, Harry had just said, "At least Hermione's on Snape's tail," when the portrait of the Fat Lady swung open and Hermione came in.

"Shouldn't have jinxed it," Sirius said with a shake of the head.

"I'm sorry, Harry!" she wailed. "Snape came out and asked me what I was doing, so I said I was waiting for Flitwick, and Snape went to get him, and I've only just got away, I don't know where Snape went."

Moody looked up at him and asked, "Tell me, did you really believe her?"

Snape shrugged, "I did wonder what she was up to. But had it been anyone other than Granger I would have been mistrustful."

"Well, that's it then, isn't it?" Harry said.

The other two stared at him. He was pale and his eyes were gli†ering.

"I'm going out of here tonight and I'm going to try and get to the Stone ﬁrst."

"No!" Sirius groaned putting his face in his hands, furious and petriﬁed that Harry actually did something so stupid. On the other hand he couldn't help but feel his pride for his godson beginning to swell even larger.

"Even if he did get the Stone ﬁrst," Remus said worriedly, "Wouldn't it have been easier to take the stone from Harry than from whatever's protecting it?"

"He has to make sure it's safe," Moody grunted with a nod, "The boy's doing the right thing."

"You're mad!" said Ron.

"You took the words right out of my mouth, Ron," Sirius nodded.

"You can't!" said Hermione. "A†er what McGonagall and Snape have said? You'll be expelled!"

"SO WHAT!" Harry shouted. "Don't you understand? If Snape gets hold of the Stone, Voldemort's coming back! Haven't you heard what it was like when he was trying to take over? There won't be any Hogwarts to get expelled from! He'll ﬂa†en it, or turn it into a school for the Dark Arts!

Losing points doesn't ma†er anymore, can't you see? D'you think he'll leave you and your families alone if Gryﬃndor wins the house cup? If I get caught before I can get to the Stone, well, I'll have to go back to the Dursleys and wait for Voldemort to ﬁnd me there, it's only dying a bit later than I would have, because I'm never going over to the Dark Side!

Albus, Remus, and Sirius smiled proudly. "That's my boy!" Sirius yelled.

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Albus said appreciatively. (And this was coming from the man who always knew what to say.)

"I must have a word with him the next time I see him," Kingsley said, grinning. "I wonder if he ever thought about getting involved with politics. He's a natural leader."

Snape pretended to gag.

"James and Lily would've been so proud if they saw him at that moment," Remus said quietly.

Sirius could only nod, trying hard not to let the proud tears fall from his eyes.

I'm going through that trapdoor tonight and nothing you two say is going to stop me! Voldemort killed my parents, remember?"

He glared at them.

"You're right Harry," said Hermione in a small voice.

"His instincts are usually almost right," Remus whispered.

"I'll use the invisibility cloak," said Harry. "It's just lucky I got it back." "But will it cover all three of us?" said Ron.

"They're going with him aren't they?" Tonks whispered. "Of course they are," Moody said.

"Yes," Remus agreed. "They always have each other's backs."

"All — all three of us?"

"Oh, come oﬀ it, you don't think we'd let you go alone?"

"Of course not," said Hermione briskly. "How do you think you'd get to the Stone without us? I'd be†er go and look through my books, there might be something useful…"

"Well, it's always good to know that you can rely on your friends," Tonks said. Remus looked up at Sirius nodded, agreeing completely.

"But if we get caught, you two will be expelled, too."

"Not if I can help it," said Hermione grimly. "Flitwick told me in secret that I got a hundred and twelve percent on his exam. They're not throwing me out a†er that."

"A hundred and twelve percent?!" Sirius laughed in amazement.

"Like I said," Remus said as everyone else shook their heads incredulously. "She's the brightest witch of her age."

"She's sure diﬀerent from the girl who once said, 'Or worse, expelled' isn't she?"

A†er dinner the three of them sat nervously apart in the common room. Nobody bothered them; none of the Gryﬃndors had anything to say to Harry any more, a†er all. This was the ﬁrst night he hadn't been upset by it.

Hermione was skimming through all her notes, hoping to come across one of the enchantments they were about to try to break. Harry and Ron didn't talk much. Both of them were thinking about what they were about to do.

"I can only imagine what was going on in their heads at that moment," Kingsley said slowly.

"Something like, 'what the hell are we doing?' is my bet," Sirius said.

Slowly, the room emptied as people dri†ed oﬀ to bed.

"Be†er get the cloak," Ron mu†ered, as Lee Jordan ﬁnally le†, stretching and yawning. Harry ran upstairs to their dark dormitory. He pulled out the cloak and then his eyes fell on the ﬂute Hagrid had given him for Christmas.

Sirius ran his hands through his hair. It's almost like Hagrid wanted this from the start? First, he took him to Gringotts to where the damn Stone was, then he let slip about Nicolas Flamel as well as how to get past Fluﬀy, and ﬁnally this? He was going to kill Hagrid as soon as he next saw him.

He pocketed it to use on Fluﬀy — he didn't feel much like singing. He ran back down to the common room.

"We'd be†er put the cloak on here, and make sure it covers all three of us – if Filch spots one of our feet wandering along on its own —"

"He would think that he's losing his mind?" Sirius asked hopefully and Remus hit him in the shoulder to get him to quiet.

"What are you doing?" said a voice from the corner of the room. Neville appeared from behind an armchair, clutching Trevor the toad, who looked as though he'd been making another bid for freedom.

"Oh, this can't be a good thing," Remus said. Really, can't anything go right for them? Just once?

"Nope," Tonks said making a popping sound.

"Nothing, Neville, nothing," said Harry, hurriedly puGng the cloak behind his back.

Neville stared at their guilty faces.

Sirius sighed loudly. "Unbelievable. They can go up against Voldemort, Dementors, and every other sort of horror out there, and yet they can't lie to save their lives." He made a mental note to teach them all how to think up a convincing lie right on the spot.

"You're going out again," he said.

"No, no, no," said Hermione. "No, we're not. Why don't you go to bed, Neville?"

Harry looked at the grandfather clock by the door. They couldn't aﬀord to waste any more time, Snape might even now be playing Fluﬀy to sleep.

"You can't go out," said Neville, "you'll be caught again. Gryﬃndor will be in even more trouble."

"Neville," Sirius said through gritted teeth. "I know that you're just concerned, but now isn't the time to be worrying about that cup!"

"You don't understand," said Harry, "this is important."

But Neville was clearly steeling himself to do something desperate.

"I won't let you do it," he said, hurrying to stand in front of the portrait hole. "I'll — I'll ﬁght you!"

"Oh, this wasn't what they needed," Sirius said, slapping himself in the forehead. "He's not doing anything but wasting their time!"

"It's not like he knows about the stone," Tonks reminded him coldly.

"Neville, "Ron exploded, "get away from that hole and don't be an idiot

—"

"Don't you call me an idiot!" said Neville. "I don't think you should be breaking any more rules! And you were the one who told me to stand up to people!"

"I might be going out on a limb here, but something tells me that he didn't mean to them," chuckled Mad-Eye.

"Well, he did need to learn to stand up for himself," Minerva said. "Couldn't he have picked another time?" Sirius asked wound up.

"Yes, but not to us," said Ron in exasperation. "Neville, you don't know what you're doing."

He took a step forward and Neville dropped Trevor the toad, who leapt out of sight.

"Go on then, try and hit me!" said Neville, raising his ﬁsts. "I'm ready!" Harry turned to Hermione.

"Do something," he said desperately.

"When in doubt," Tonks nodded sagely. "Turn to Hermione."

"One of them needs to have a brain," Severus muttered to himself.

Hermione stepped forward.

"Neville," she said, "I'm really, really sorry about this." She raised her wand.

"She's going to curse him?" Severus exclaimed in surprise.

"She didn't have any other choice," Moody said grinning. "They didn't have enough time to explain."

"Besides," said Tonks with her eyebrows raised, "It sounds like something you would do, Mad-Eye."

"Petriﬁcus Totalus!" she cried, pointing it at Neville.

Neville's arms snapped to his sides. His legs sprang together. His whole body rigid, he swayed where he stood and then fell ﬂat on his face, stiﬀ as aboard.

"That's harsh," Sirius winced. "I wouldn't want to be in his shoes." "Couldn't she have done something kinder?" Tonks asked.

"I thought that it was an excellent idea," Mad-Eye smirked. "Simple and to the point."

"Yeah, remind me not to get on your bad side," Remus smiled. "Then stop interrupting every few lines," Moody suggested.

Hermione ran to turn him over. Neville's jaws were jammed together so he couldn't speak. Only his eyes were moving, looking at them in horror.

"What've you done to him?" Harry whispered.

"It's the full Body-Bind," said Hermione miserably. "Oh, Neville, I'm so sorry."

"At least they apologized," Tonks said, though she still felt bad for the boy who thought that he was only doing the right thing.

"We had to, Neville, no time to explain," said Harry.

"You'll understand later, Neville," said Ron as they stepped over him and pulled on the invisibility cloak.

But leaving Neville lying motionless on the ﬂoor didn't feel like a very good omen.

"Yes, I could see why they would think that," Kingsley said, wondering if he could've done that to a friend in that situation. But then again, there wasn't much choice here.

In their nervous state, every statue's shadow looked like Filch, every distant breath of wind sounded like Peeves swooping down on them.

"They sound as paranoid as you, Mad-Eye," Tonks said happily and he rolled his eyes at her.

At the foot of the ﬁrst set of stairs, they spo†ed Mrs. Norris skulking near the top.

"Oh, let's kick her, just this once," Ron whispered in Harry's ear, but Harry shook his head. As they climbed carefully around her, Mrs. Norris turned her lamplike eyes on them, but didn't do anything.

"I think that she senses them there," Remus said slowly. "She can sense that someone's there, but she doesn't know who."

"I always hated that cat," Sirius grumbled to himself. "Why doesn't she hurry up and die already?"

Tonks poked him hard in the side.

They didn't meet anyone else until they reached the staircase up to the third ﬂoor. Peeves was bobbing halfway up, loosening the carpet so that people would trip.

"It's like something is trying to prevent them from doing it," Kingsley said shaking his head.

"How do they get out of this?" Remus asked to himself. "It's not like they could wait for him to leave…"

"Who's there?" he said suddenly as they climbed toward him. He narrowed his wicked black eyes. "Know you're there, even if I can't see you. Are you ghoulie or ghostie or wee student beastie?"

"He has such a way with words, doesn't he?" Sirius asked shrewdly.

He rose up in the air and ﬂoated there, squinting at them.

"Should call Filch, I should, if something's a-creeping around unseen." Harry had a sudden idea.

"Peeves," he said, in a hoarse whisper, "the Bloody Baron has his own reasons for being invisible."

"Brilliant," Albus laughed.

"Why didn't we think about that?" Sirius howled joining in and beginning to cackle.

Peeves almost fell out of the air in shock. He caught himself in time and hovered about a foot oﬀ the stairs.

"So sorry, your bloodiness, Mr. Baron, Sir," he said greasily. "My mistake, my mistake — I didn't see you — of course I didn't, you're invisible — forgive old Peevsie his li†le joke, sir."

"I can't believe this!" Sirius roared with laughter. "All those years and we never once thought of doing something like that?!"

"Not that it's saying much," Severus said silkily, "But it looks like Potter's smarter than you."

The smile wiped of his face and he barred his teeth at Snape, wondering if he could get away with biting him as Padfoot.

"I have business here, Peeves," croaked Harry. "Stay away from this place tonight."

"I will, sir, I most certainly will," said Peeves, rising up in the air again. "Hope your business goes well, Baron, I'll not bother you."

And he scooted oﬀ.

"That is the best behavior I think we'll ever see from Peeves," Minerva said impressed.

"Brilliant, Harry!" whispered Ron.

A few seconds later, they were there, outside the third-ﬂoor corridor — and the door was already ajar.

"Looks like the thief has already down there," Sirius said worriedly. He gave a quick look of hate towards Snape before turning back to Tonks and waited to hear what happens next.

"Well, there you are," Harry said quietly, "Snape's already got past Fluﬀy."

Seeing the open door somehow seemed to impress upon all three of them what was facing them. Underneath the cloak, Harry turned to the other two.

"If you want to go back, I won't blame you," he said. "You can take the cloak, I won't need it now."

"Don't be stupid," said Ron. "We're coming," said Hermione. "I should've known," Kingsley said.

"Those are some real friends," Remus sighed, thinking back to those times when he felt the same… to know that there were friends there by your side.

"Yeah, only true friends will follow you into the lion's den… or in this case, the dog's lair," Tonks agreed.

Harry pushed the door open.

As the door creaked, low, rumbling growls met their ears. All three of the dog's noses sniﬀed madly in their direction, even though it couldn't see them.

"What's that at its feet?" Hermione whispered.

"Looks like a harp," said Ron. "Snape must have le† it there."

"You play the harp?" Sirius asked with raised eyebrows. "IT'S NOT ME!"

"It must wake up the moment you stop playing," said Harry. "Well, here goes…"

He put Hagrid's ﬂute to his lips and blew. It wasn't really a tune, but from the ﬁrst note the beast's eyes began to droop. Harry hardly drew breath. Slowly, the dog's growls ceased — it to†ered on its paws and fell to its knees, then it slumped to the ground, fast asleep.

"Wow," Remus said impressed. "That's it?"

"That's… it," Tonks said simply. "Wow… that's so simple that's almost stupid."

"I'm sad to say that I agree with you," Mad-Eye grunted.

"Keep playing," Ron warned Harry as they slipped out of the cloak and crept toward the trapdoor. They could feel the dog's hot, smelly breath as they approached the giant heads. "I think we'll be able to pull the door open," said Ron, peering over the dog's back. "Want to go ﬁrst, Hermione?"

"Real gentleman, he is," commented Sirius with a half-hearted smirk, though he was more worried than anything over what was about to happen.

"No, I don't!"

"I can't say I blame her," said Minerva darkly.

"All right." Ron gri†ed his teeth and stepped carefully over the dog's legs. He bent and pulled the ring of the trapdoor, which swung up and open.

"What can you see?" Hermione said anxiously.

"Nothing — just black — there's no way of climbing down, we'll just have to drop."

Sirius felt his breath catch in his throat. "You mean to tell me that they're just going to drop down? But there could be anything down there! Or worse—nothing!"

"I like that," Mad-Eye said grinning. "Jumping headﬁrst into the unknown… Sounds like a grand old time."

"You're not normal though," Tonks said cheerfully. "You don't count."

She looked at the page and said, "Well, we won't know what happens if we stop now."

Harry, who was still playing the ﬂute, waved at Ron to get his a†ention and pointed at himself.

Sirius groaned at that. Trust Harry to actually volunteer to go ﬁrst.

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

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

Harry climbed over it and looked down through the trapdoor. There was no sign of the bo†om.

They all groaned. "And he still goes!" Sirius moaned to himself, hiding his face from them.

He lowered himself through the hole until he was hanging on by his ﬁngertips. Then he looked up at Ron and said, "If anything happens to me, don't follow. Go straight to the owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore, right?"

"Why couldn't they do that in the beginning?" Minerva demanded.

"They're kids," Kingsley said simply. Kids always feel like they have to do everything on their own.

"Besides," Albus added sadly, "I'm not sure that the owl would've reached me in time."

"Right," said Ron.

"See you in a minute, I hope…"

And Harry let go. Cold, damp air rushed past him as he fell down, down, down and —

FLUMP.

"Flump?" Sirius said slowly. "That's it?"

"That's what it says," Tonks said slowly. "That's good right?" "Stop questioning it every few seconds and maybe we'll get some

answers!" Mad-Eye barked at them and Tonks jumped as she turned back to the page.

With a funny, muﬄed sort of thump he landed on something so†. He sat up and felt around, his eyes not used to the gloom. It felt as though he was siGng on some sort of plant.

"A plant?" Tonks said nervously. "Must be Spouts protection." She knew all too well what her ex-Head of House was capable of and knew that it wasn't going to be good for them.

"Oh, it is," Minerva said, and she was actually biting her nails which wasn't a good sign.

"What is it?" Remus asked fearfully. But she didn't seem to be able to answer which made them all start to panic a little as Tonks read on in a faster voice.

"It's okay!" he called up to the light the size of a postage stamp, which was the open trapdoor, "it's a so† landing, you can jump!"

Ron followed right away. He landed, sprawled next to Harry. "What's this stuﬀ?" were his ﬁrst words.

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

"Break the fall?" Sirius scoﬀed. "Yeah, we don't want the thieves to get hurt or anything do we?"

"Why do I have the bad feeling that the plant isn't there for decoration?" Remus said beginning to see what they were sitting on.

Moody and Kingsley both looked grave, suddenly realizing what it was.

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

"We must be miles under the school," she said. "Lucky this plant thing's here, really," said Ron. "Lucky!" shrieked Hermione. "Look at you both!"

"What?" Sirius cried and looked ready to wrestle the book out of his cousin's hands just as she said: She leapt up and struggled toward a damp wall. She had to struggle because the moment she had landed, the plant had started to twist snakelike tendrils around her ankles. As for Harry

and Ron, their legs had already been bound tightly in long creepers without their noticing.

Tonks gasped. "That's Devil's Snare!" she cried out.

"Of all the possible things that they had to land in…" Sirius cried in panic.

Snape clutched the arms of his chair, ﬁghting to look unconcerned. "Just the ﬁrst protection and already they're in trouble."

"They were only ﬁrst years!" Minerva yelled agitatedly. "What did you expect?"

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

"Stop moving!" Hermione ordered them. "I know what this is — it's Devil's Snare!"

"And that helps them how?" Sirius demanded.

"Oh, I'm so glad we know what it's called, that's a great help," snarled Ron, leaning back, trying to stop the plant from curling around his neck.

"Shut up, I'm trying to remember how to kill it!" said Hermione.

"Well, hurry up, I can't breathe!" Harry gasped, wrestling with it as it curled around his chest.

"No, play dead," Albus advised. "The more you struggle the faster it'll kill you."

"They needed to light a ﬁre," Mad-Eye said conversationally. "Or else they would've been strangled or squeezed to death.

"Could you talk about the fact that they could've died just a little less causally?" Sirius snapped and several of them nodded ﬁrmly in agreement.

"Devil's Snare, Devil's Snare… what did Professor Sprout say? — it likes the dark and the damp."

"So light a ﬁre!" Harry choked.

"Yes — of course — but there's no wood!" Hermione cried, wringing her hands.

"There's no wood?" repeated Sirius in disbelief.

Moody snorted, "She shouldn't lose her head in a crisis that only makes things worse."

"HAVE YOU GONE MAD?" Ron bellowed. "ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?"

"Oh, right!" said Hermione, and she whipped out her wand, waved it, mu†ered something, and sent a jet of the same bluebell ﬂames she had used on Snape at the plant.

Severus barred his teeth angrily at that reminder, but it was just a sign of how afraid that Sirius was that he didn't even crack a smile.

In a ma†er of seconds, the two boys felt it loosening its grip as it cringed away from the light and warmth. Wriggling and ﬂailing, it unraveled itself from their bodies, and they were able to pull free.

"Oh, thank god!" Sirius sighed and leaded back in his seat; he hadn't moved from that spot, the he was sweating as if he just ran a mile.

"Lucky you pay a†ention in Herbology, Hermione," said Harry as he joined her by the wall, wiping sweat oﬀ his face.

"Yeah," said Ron, "and lucky Harry doesn't lose his head in a crisis — 'there's no wood,' honestly."

"Whew," Tonks said wiping her forehead. "Two challenges down…"

"Only, ﬁve to go," Mad-Eye said with a grin that made Sirius want to curse him.

"This way," said Harry, pointing down a stone passageway, which was the only way forward.

All they could hear apart from their footsteps was the gentle drip of water trickling down the walls. The passageway sloped downward, and Harry was reminded of Gringo†s. With an unpleasant jolt of the heart, he remembered the dragons said to be guarding vaults in the wizards' bank. If they met a dragon, a fully-grown dragon — Norbert had been bad enough…

Sirius looked up at Dumbledore so quickly, he hurt his neck. "Please tell me that there isn't a dragon."

Albus shook his head, "No, we couldn't have a dragon brought into the school."

"But then how did you get Fluﬀy into the third ﬂoor?" Tonks asked interested.

"Later," Kingsley said.

"Yeah, I want to see what happens," Remus said quickly.

"Can you hear something?" Ron whispered.

Harry listened. A so† rustling and clinking seemed to be coming from up ahead.

"Do you think it's a ghost?"

"I don't know… sounds like wings to me."

"Wings?" Kingsley asked surprised.

"His senses never cease to amaze me," Remus said quietly.

"He was born to be a Seeker," Sirius said proudly, but he was still wringing his hands tightly at the thought of what could be next.

"There's light ahead — I can see something moving."

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

"Birds…?" Remus mused, trying to ﬁgure what the task was and who set it up.

"What are they supposed to do here?" Sirius asked slowly.

"Do you think they'll a†ack us if we cross the room?" said Ron.

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

Sirius tensed up.

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

"Why am I not surprised?" Kingsley said tiredly.

"Why should the door be unlocked?" Severus asked bored.

The other two followed him. They tugged and heaved at the door, but it wouldn't budge, not even when Hermione tried her Alohomora charm.

"Of course not," drawled Snape, "You either solve the challenge and go forward or give up and go back."

"Okay, these kids are talented for their age," Moody stated, "But I highly doubt that something as simple as Alohomora would work."

"Of course not, that would be too easy," Minerva grumbled.

"True, but the simplest charms are oGen the best," Albus replied. It was a shame that people oGen underestimated what they believe to be small and uncomplicated. More frequently, simple is better.

"Now what?" said Ron.

"These birds… they can't be here just for decoration," said Hermione. They watched the birds soaring overhead, gli†ering —gli†ering?

Tonks frowned before she questioned, "Since when do birds glitter?"

"They're not birds!" Harry said suddenly. "They're keys! Winged keys — look carefully. So that must mean…" he looked around the chamber while the other two squinted up at the ﬂock of keys. "… yes — look!

Broomsticks! We've got to catch the key to the door!"

Albus felt a swell of pride at Harry ﬁguring all out, while Snape rolled his eyes and spat out, "Potter would have done the challenge that involved Flying."

"Someone sounds bitter," Remus said with a smile and Severus just ignored him.

"But there are hundreds of them!"

"Oh, that's just perfect!" Sirius cried out in frustration.

Ron examined the lock on the door.

"We're looking for a big, old-fashioned one — probably silver, like the handle."

"What do you know?" Mad-Eye asked as Sirius did a double-take. "This might not be so hopeless aGer all."

They each seized a broomstick and kicked oﬀ into the air, soaring into the midst of the cloud of keys. They grabbed and snatched, but the bewitched keys darted and dived so quickly it was almost impossible to catch one.

"So it's just like a bunch of Snitches," Sirius summarized quickly. He grinned. This was great! Harry would be in his element!

Not for nothing, though, was Harry the youngest Seeker in a century. He had a knack for spoGng things other people didn't. A†er a minute's weaving about through the whirl of rainbow feathers, he noticed a large silver key that had a bent wing, as if it had already been caught and stuﬀed roughly into the keyhole.

"He could see the right key through hundreds of other keys?" Tonks said in awe, "He really could play for England once he leaves school."

"That one!" he called to the others. "That big one — there — no, there — with bright blue wings — the feathers are all crumpled on one side."

Ron went speeding in the direction that Harry was pointing, crashed into the ceiling, and nearly fell oﬀ his broom.

They all laughed at that, glad to have something take some of the tension out of the room.

"We've got to close in on it!" Harry called, not taking his eyes oﬀ the key with the damaged wing. "Ron, you come at it from above — Hermione, stay below and stop it from going down and I'll try and catch it. Right, NOW!"

Ron dived, Hermione rocketed upward, the key dodged them both, and Harry streaked a†er it; it sped toward the wall, Harry leaned forward and

with a nasty, crunching noise, pinned it against the stone with one hand. Ron and Hermione's cheers echoed around the high chamber.

"Another example at how well they work together," Remus aﬃrmed.

They landed quickly, and Harry ran to the door, the key struggling in his hand. He rammed it into the lock and turned – it worked. The moment the lock had clicked open, the key took ﬂight again, looking very ba†ered now that it had been caught twice.

"Maybe the Stone wasn't so protected aGer all," Mad-Eye grinned evilly. "That thing could've been stolen at any time."

Minerva and Severus just looked embarrassed, but Albus was staring at the book as if he was lost in thought. None of them bothered to answer, but Mad-Eye didn't seem to have been expecting one.

"Ready?" Harry asked the other two, his hand on the door handle. They nodded. He pulled the door open.

The next chamber was so dark they couldn't see anything at all. But as they stepped into it, light suddenly ﬂooded the room to reveal an astonishing sight.

They were standing on the edge of a huge chessboard, behind the black chessmen, which were all taller than they were and carved from what looked like black stone. Facing them, way across the chamber, were the white pieces. Harry, Ron and Hermione shivered slightly – the towering white chessmen had no faces.

"Chess?" Sirius asked, now thoroughly confused. Minerva sighed, this was her challenge.

"Now what do we do?" Harry whispered.

"It's obvious, isn't it?" said Ron. "We've got to play our way across the room."

"Good thing that Ron's there then," said Sirius happily. "They should get through this without any problems."

"Don't count your dragons before they hatch," Mad-Eye growled, his magical eye noticing how pale that Minerva turned.

Behind the white pieces they could see another door. "How?" said Hermione nervously.

"I think," said Ron, "we're going to have to be chessmen."

"Of course you are," Minerva said awkwardly. They all looked at her for a brief second before they understood why she was looking so upset.

"This is your challenge?" Sirius asked, knowing the answer. She could only nod, refusing to say anything else.

He walked up to a black knight and put his hand out to touch the knight's horse. At once, the stone sprang to life. The horse pawed the ground and the knight turned his helmeted head to look down at Ron.

"Do we — er — have to join you to get across?" The black knightnodded. Ron turned to the othertwo.

"This needs thinking about…" he said. "I suppose we've got to take the place of three of the black pieces…"

Harry and Hermione stayed quiet, watching Ron think. Finally he said, "Now, don't be oﬀended or anything, but neither of you are that good at chess —"

"They won't be oﬀended," Sirius said grinning broadly. "And they shouldn't worry, Ron's the best chess player I've ever seen."

"We're not oﬀended," said Harry quickly. "Just tell us what to do."

"Well, Harry, you take the place of that bishop, and Hermione, you go there instead of that castle."

"What about you?"

"I'm going to be a knight," said Ron.

Most of them smiled at that.

The chessmen seemed to have been listening, because at these words a knight, a bishop, and a castle turned their backs on the white pieces and walked oﬀ the board, leaving three empty squares that Harry, Ron, and Hermione took.

"White always plays ﬁrst in chess," said Ron, peering across the board. "Yes… look…"

A white pawn had moved forward two squares.

Ron started to direct the black pieces. They moved silently wherever he sent them. Harry's knees were trembling. What if they lost?

"No, don't think like that Harry," Sirius muttered underneath his breath.

"Harry — move diagonally four squares to the right."

Their ﬁrst real shock came when their other knight was taken. The white queen smashed him to the ﬂoor and dragged him oﬀ the board, where he lay quite still, facedown.

Tonks gulped and everyone else was looking sick.

"Why did you have to have such a vicious challenge?" croaked Sirius.

"I didn't know that some of my students would be the ones to try to get past it!" Minerva gasped, going back to biting her nails. Really, how could

she have known? If only she wasn't so stubborn and listened to them when they came to her for help…

"Had to let that happen," said Ron, looking shaken. "Leaves you free to take that bishop, Hermione, go on."

'Some sacriﬁces must be made in every ba1le,' Albus thought bitterly to himself, suddenly feeling sick with haven even thought that.

Every time one of their men was lost, the white pieces showed no mercy. Soon there was a huddle of limp black players slumped along the wall.

Twice, Ron only just noticed in time that Harry and Hermione were in danger. He himself darted around the board, taking almost as many white pieces as they had lost black ones.

"We're nearly there," he mu†ered suddenly. "Let me think — let me think…"

The white queen turned her blank face toward him.

"Yes…" said Ron so†ly, "It's the only way… I've got to be taken."

"NO!" almost everyone shouted.

"Is he crazy?" Tonks shrieked, "There had to be another way!"

"No," Albus said shaking his head. "There wasn't. If they didn't take that opening then and waited for another, it might've been too late."

"This is chess," Kingsley agreed grimly.

"And sometimes you have to make sacriﬁces," ﬁnished Mad-Eye, unknowingly repeating what Albus thought a minute ago. "Weasley understands that."

"NO!" Harry and Hermione shouted.

"That's chess!" snapped Ron. "You've got to make some sacriﬁces! I make my move and she'll take me — that leaves you free to checkmate the king, Harry!"

"But —"

"Do you want to stop Snape or not?" "Ron—"

"Look, if you don't hurry up, he'll already have the Stone!" There was no alternative.

They all groaned again, shivering at that very idea. How could anyone be willing to sacriﬁce themselves like that for victory?

"Ready?" Ron called, his face pale but determined. "Here I go — now, don't hang around once you've won."

He stepped forward, and the white queen pounced. She struck Ron hard across the head with her stone arm, and he crashed to the ﬂoor —

They all looked worried and sick, forgetting for a moment that Ron was alright. Minerva looked like she was about to cry.

Hermione screamed but stayed on her square — the white queen dragged Ron to one side. He looked as if he'd been knocked out.

"He was just ﬁne," Albus said quickly. "He was bruised and injured, but the chess pieces weren't created to kill."

Minerva sighed in relief, glad that she had thought of that as she charmed the pieces in the ﬁrst place.

Shaking, Harry moved three spaces to the le†.

The white king took oﬀ his crown and threw it at Harry's feet. They had won. The chessmen parted and bowed, leaving the door ahead clear.

With one last desperate look back at Ron, Harry and Hermione charged through the door and up the next passageway.

"There goes my spell," Minerva sighed, getting her composer back. "I can't believe that they were able to get this far. Most adult wizards wouldn't have been able to make past the ﬁrst obstacle."

"Good thing that they aren't 'most wizards' though aren't they?" Sirius said with his head held high.

"What if he's —?"

"He'll be all right," said Harry, trying to convince himself. "What do you reckon's next?"

"We've had Sprout's, that was the Devil's Snare; Flitwick must've put charms on the keys; McGonagall transﬁgured the chessmen to make them alive; that leaves Quirrell's spell, and Snape's."

"And mine," murmured Albus quietly.

They had reached another door. "All right?" Harry whispered. "Go on."

Harry pushed it open.

A disgusting smell ﬁlled their nostrils, making both of them pull their robes up over their noses. Eyes watering, they saw, ﬂat on the ﬂoor in front of them, a troll even larger than the one they had tackled, out cold with a bloody lump on its head.

"Urgh, good thing that was already taken care of—" but he stopped dead, as if realizing something.

"Sirius?" asked Tonks. "What's wrong?"

"A troll…" he whispered through numb lips.

"Ah," Mad-Eye said grinning, "You ﬁnally caught on have you?"

"Caught on to…" Tonks suddenly shut up, understanding what they were saying. She re-read that part again, before sharing a startled expression with Remus. "It's HIM! He's the one behind this isn't he?"

They stared at the teachers, who didn't react at all, conﬁrming their fears.

"I'm glad we didn't have to ﬁght that one," Harry whispered as they stepped carefully over one of its massive legs. "Come on, I can't breathe."

He pulled open the next door, both of them hardly daring to look at what came next - but there was nothing very frightening in here, just a table with seven diﬀerently shaped bo†les standing on it in a line.

"Yours," whispered Kingsley to Severus who nodded. He was curious to see how they would react to his test of logic.

"Snape's," said Harry. "What do we have to do?"

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

"If you're stupid challenge get's them killed…" Sirius threatened, but Tonks read out:

"Look!" Hermione seized a roll of paper lying next to the bo†les. Harry looked over her shoulder to read it:

Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind, Two of us will help you, which ever 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 neMle wine, Three of us are killers, waiting bidden in line. Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,

To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four: First, however slyly the poison tries to hide

You will always ﬁnd some on neMle wine's lefi side; Second, diﬀerent are those who stand at either end, But if you would move onward, neither is your friend; Third, as you see clearly, all are diﬀerent size,

Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides; Fourth, the second lefi and the second on the right

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

"A riddle…" Remus said shaking his head. "Typical. You always had a fondness for them."

Severus only smirked as Tonks swallowed. "Hermione will ﬁgure it out though."

"I'm sure she does," Severus sneered, suddenly sounding grumpy.

"You sure know how to be a git don't you?" Sirius hissed. He ﬁnally had to admit that Snape wasn't the one who was trying to steal the Stone but that

didn't mean that he had to like it.

Hermione let out a great sigh and Harry, amazed, saw that she was smiling, the very last

thing he felt like doing.

"Brilliant," said Hermione. (Snape couldn't help but smirk again at the compliment.) "This isn't magic — it's logic — a puzzle. A lot of the greatest wizards haven't got an ounce of logic, they'd be stuck in here forever."

"To true," Albus sighed. It was so sad that someone could be so talented, but had no common sense either. It reminded him of the Ministry for a moment.

"But so will we, won't we?"

"Not with Hermione there," said Remus conﬁdently.

"Of course not," said Hermione. "Everything we need is here on this paper. Seven bo†les: three are poison; two are wine; one will get us safely through the black ﬁre, and one will get us back through the purple."

"But how do we know which to drink?" "Give me a minute."

Hermione read the paper several times. Then she walked up and down the line of bo†les, mu†ering to herself and pointing at them. At last, she clapped her hands.

"Got it," she said. "The smallest bo†le will get us through the black ﬁre

— toward the Stone."

Severus groaned in disappointment.

"You make it sound like you wanted them to stay trapped in that room!" Tonks said in horror...

"Or accidently drink the poison!" Sirius snarled. "Or…"

"Just shut up and read!" Severus snapped at them. There was only one more chapter to go and he wished that they would get to it already.

Harry looked at the tiny bo†le.

"There's only enough there for one of us," he said. "That's hardly one swallow."

They looked at each other.

"And now Harry's going alone…" Sirius said bitterly, his fear for Harry now going up and through the roof.

"Which one will get you back through the purple ﬂames?" Hermione pointed at a rounded bo†le at the right end of the line. "You drink that," said Harry. "No, listen, get back and get Ron. Grab

brooms from the ﬂying-key room, they'll get you out of the trapdoor and past Fluﬀy — go straight to the owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore, we need him. I might be able to hold Snape oﬀ for a while, but I'm no match for him, really."

"Then get out of there!" Sirius murmured panicky.

"Good, he knows his own weaknesses and limits," Moody nodded approvingly. "Not too cocky in your own stills… that's also good. They all would make excellent Aurors with some training."

"Moody," Minerva said exasperated, "Would you stop that? Don't encourage them!"

"You can never start too soon for training to protect yourself," he said turning away from her.

Snape was looking annoyed at being called the thief, and a little smug at Potter admitting that he was no match for him.

Albus's eyes on the other hand were twinkling slightly—both worried for Harry—and secretly glad that Harry admitted needing him.

"But Harry — what if You-Know-Who's with him?"

"Well — I was lucky once, wasn't I?" said Harry, pointing at his scar. "I might get lucky again."

"Luck? Sirius asked incredulously. "That's what he thinks it is? Just luck?"

"I wouldn't call it luck," Albus commented, while most of the room nodded in agreement.

Hermione's lip trembled, and she suddenly dashed at Harry and threw her arms around him.

"Hermione!"

"Harry — you're a great wizard, you know."

"Did she just admit that Harry's better than her?" Sirius said astonished.

"Poor girl," Minerva commented. "She must've been so worried about never seeing Potter again…"

"I'm not as good as you," said Harry, very embarrassed, as she let go of him.

"Me!" said Hermione. "Books! And cleverness! There are more important things — friendship and bravery and — oh Harry —be careful!"

"Yes, please be careful," Remus begged.

"You drink ﬁrst," said Harry. "You are sure which is which, aren't you?"

"Positive," said Hermione. She took a long drink from the round bo†le at the end, and shuddered.

"It's not poison?" said Harry anxiously. "No — but it's like ice."

"Quick, go, before it wears oﬀ." "Good luck — take care."

"Just get going already!" Moody barked.

"GO!"

Hermione turned and walked straight through the purple ﬁre.

Harry took a deep breath and picked up the smallest bo†le. He turned to face the black ﬂames.

"Here I come," he said, and he drained the li†le bo†le in one gulp.

It was indeed as though ice was ﬂooding his body. He put the bo†le down and walked forward; he braced himself, saw the black ﬂames licking his body, but couldn't feel them — for a moment he could see nothing but dark ﬁre — then he was on the other side, in the last chamber.

There was already someone there — but it wasn't Snape. It wasn't even Voldemort.

"Hah" muttered Snape triumphantly to Sirius, who just looked away. "You're still a git though," he muttered grudgingly.

"Well," Tonks said hoarsely, tossing the book over to Dumbledore. "That's the end of the chapter. You said that you wanted to read this next part, Sir?"

He nodded as he took the book from her and stared at it. He then looked up at them all and said, "Now all of you keep in mind that this has already happened. We can't change it. And we all know that Harry, Ron, and Hermione all make it out in one piece."

"Something tells me that we aren't going to like this next chapter," Sirius whimpered.

"Well, we're about to ﬁnd out," Remus stated. He looked back to Dumbledore and said, "Go on."

With a sigh, Albus turned the page to the ﬁnal chapter. He read out almost silently, "Chapter 17: The Man with Two Faces."

(Only one more chapter and an epilogue to go. This chapter was a nightmare to write. So I hope that you all enjoyed it. Thank you all for all of your options and ideas on which characters should make a appearance I found them all so helpful. I made my decisions and I hope that you will all enjoy the next story as much as this one.)

Chapter 18

(Copyright belongs to J.K. Rowling! I own nothing)

(Hope you all enjoy this last chapter. All that's le† to put up is the epilogue which will be going up as soon as possible.)

Chapter 17: The Man With Two Faces

With a sigh, Albus turned the page to the ﬁnal chapter. He read out almost silently, "Chapter 17: The Man with Two Faces."

"What does that mean?" Sirius was too tense to be able to control himself. "Well, if you be quiet you'll ﬁnd out, Padfoot," Remus replied gently.

It was Quirrell.

"Damn it," Sirius groaned. He already knew that it was Quirrell when he heard about the troll knocked out in the last chamber but he didn't understand how it was possible. How could a stuttering Defense teacher that was jumpy and afraid of his own shadow, be the one trying to steal the Stone?

Severus smirked in triumphant. "You see? I told you I wasn't aGer the stupid Stone. Why would I be aGer it in the ﬁrst place?"

Sirius glared at him. "I don't know, but you don't exactly strike me as

innocent."

"Knock it oﬀ both of you," Moody said bad-temperedly. "If you paid any attention to the book then you would've seen right away that it was Quirrell who was behind it from the very start."

"You!" gasped Harry.

Quirrell smiled. His face wasn't twitching at all.

"Me," he said calmly. "I wondered whether I'd be meeting you here, Po†er."

"What happened to the stutter?" Tonks wondered aloud. "It was just an act," Kingsley said angrily.

"But I thought — Snape —"

"Severus?" Quirrell laughed, and it wasn't his usual quivering treble, either, but cold and sharp. "Yes, Severus does seem the type, doesn't he? So useful to have him swooping around like an overgrown bat. Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor, st-stu†ering P-Professor Quirrell?"

Tonks snorted, "Accurate description if I do say so." "What?" Severus asked furiously.

"She just means that Quirrell got you down to a T," said Sirius grinning evilly.

"Yeah," Moody added, "How could anyone suspect him when you were there?"

"Why you…" Severus growled furiously.

"He's a good actor," Minerva said grudgingly, frowning slightly. She couldn't believe that she had to deal with that annoying stutter for a whole year.

Albus went on before Severus got even angrier.

Harry couldn't take it in. This couldn't be true, it couldn't.

"Unfortunately it is," Albus sighed unhappily read: "But Snape tried to kill me!"

"Yeah, what about that?" Sirius demanded harshly and glared at Snape who looked ready to strangle him.

"If you just listen for once, you'd know!" Severus retorted. "That's a bit rich coming from you," Sirius reply angrily.

"No, no, no. I tried to kill you. Your friend Miss Granger accidentally knocked me over as she rushed to set ﬁre to Snape at that Quidditch match. She broke my eye contact with you. Another few seconds and I'd have got you oﬀ that broom. I'd have managed it before then if Snape hadn't been mu†ering a countercurse, trying to save you."

Sirius's jaw dropped and Severus smirked smugly.

"Snape was trying to save me?"

"Of course," said Quirrell coolly. "Why do you think he wanted to referee your next match? He was trying to make sure I didn't do it again. Funny, really… he needn't have bothered. I couldn't do anything with Dumbledore watching.

"See?" Tonks said to Snape. "Maybe if you were a little nicer, then none of this would have happened."

As she and Snape both began an argument, Sirius was lost in his thoughts. It took those words to ﬁnally convince him that Snape was trying to protect Harry, not hurt him—though he still wasn't happy with the way that the git still bullied his godson and the rest of the students.

He would never admit to it, but Sirius felt a sudden wave of gratitude go through him, and he almost shuddered. He was, and he felt slightly sick for realizing it, actually thankful for Snape being there. As much as he hated to own up it, but it sounds like he owned Snape one…

Maybe it was time to ﬁnally make peace with the git—for Harry's sake if nothing else.

All the other teachers thought Snape was trying to stop Gryﬃndor from winning, he did make himself unpopular…

"Doubt you were all that popular to begin with," said Moody conversationally.

Severus was baring his teeth at them again.

"Yes," said Minerva surprisingly. "I imagine that's not that hard for you to do, Severus. You do seem like someone who would do that if it meant keeping Gryﬃndor from winning."

"I'm warning you all," he snarled so viciously that they all felt a slight shiver go up their spines.

"Then stop being so biased towards your students and you don't have to worry anymore," Sirius answered—thankfully for him Albus had chosen then to read the rest of the sentence and caused them all to forget about their angry towards each other.

and what a waste of time, when a†er all that, I'm going to kill you tonight."

"You sure as hell are not!" Tonks and Remus shouted together.

"Don't you dare!" Sirius yelled feeling fear in the pit of his stomach, "You'd better not touch a hair on my godson's head!"

"You all do remember that Harry made it out alive don't you?" Kingsley asked, causing some of them to ﬂush in embarrassment.

"Doesn't mean that he doesn't make it out unscathed," Sirius said hoarsely and gripped the edge of his seat in fear.

Quirrell snapped his ﬁngers. Ropes sprang out of thin air and wrapped themselves tightly around Harry.

Sirius's ﬁsts clenched on top if his knees, his nails digging painfully into his palms, almost drawing blood. 'Harry is just ﬁne,' he kept telling himself. 'He made it out alive. You know that, so stop worrying already.' But still, he

couldn't stop the feelings of fear and despair that were creeping into his heart.

"You're too nosy to live, Po†er. Scurrying around the school on Halloween like that, for all I knew you'd seen me coming to look at what was guarding the Stone."

"You let the troll in?"

"Certainly. I have a special gi† with trolls — you must have seen what I did to the one in the chamber back there?

"Is that meant to impress Harry?" Kingsley asked in an unimpressed tone. "When he and two other ﬁrst-years were able to do the same thing?"

"This just keeps getting better and better, and they were just kids!" Sirius groaned miserably, and they all silently agreed. It was frightening to hear how an eleven year old child was ﬁghting a fully grown wizard and come out of it alive.

Unfortunately, while everyone else was running around looking for it, Snape, who already suspected me, went straight to the third ﬂoor to head me oﬀ — and not only did my troll fail to beat you to death, that three-headed dog didn't even manage to bite Snape's leg oﬀ properly.

'That's a shame,' thought Sirius privately.

"Now, wait quietly, Po†er. I need to examine this interesting mirror."

"Mirror?" asked Sirius confused.

"The Mirror of Erised," Albus answered. "That was my challenge." "What are you supposed to do?" Remus asked curiously.

"I'm sure that it'll explain it if you don't ﬁgure it out ﬁrst," he answered looking grim.

It was only then that Harry realized what was standing behind Quirrell. It was the Mirror of Erised.

"This mirror is the key to ﬁnding the Stone," Quirrell murmured, tapping his way around the frame. "Trust Dumbledore to come up with something like this… but he's in London… I'll be far away by the time he gets back…"

Actually Albus knew that he would be back at the castle by this point… if not already going through the trapdoor by this point.

All Harry could think of doing was to keep Quirrell talking and stop him from concentrating on the mirror.

"I saw you and Snape in the forest —" he blurted out.

"Yes," said Quirrell idly, walking around the mirror to look at the back. "He was on to me by that time, trying to ﬁnd out how far I'd got. He suspected me all along. Tried to frighten me — as though he could, when I had Lord Voldemort on my side…"

Quirrell came back out from behind the mirror and stared hungrily into it. "I see the Stone… I'm presenting it to my master… but where is it?"

"That's his heart's greatest desire?" Sirius tried to joke, but he couldn't even bring himself to smile. "You think that he would want something more… ambitious."

"Death Eaters don't," Mad-Eye growled. "Trust me. They only suck up to their so called, 'Master' in the hope that he doesn't kill them."

Snape bit his tongue, preventing him from answering that.

Harry struggled against the ropes binding him, but they didn't give. He had to keep Quirrell from giving his whole a†ention to the mirror.

"But that means that Quirrell will be putting all his attention on Harry," Sirius whimpered worriedly.

"Really," Tonks said shaking her head, "He needs to learn what's more important. He values his life far too little."

"But Snape always seemed to hate me so much."

"Well, we do know who to blame for that," Minerva said as she shot a glare to Remus and Sirius, before she turned a slight glare at Snape and said, "Although, it's very childish of you Severus, to take it out on Potter." Severus just looked away, unconcerned.

Remus and Sirius both shiGed uncomfortably in their seats. Their actions all those years ago were coming back to haunt them—or rather haunt Harry. And it wasn't even Harry's fault… he was the absolute last person to deserve this.

"Oh, he does," said Quirrell casually, "heavens, yes. He was at Hogwarts with your father, didn't you know? They loathed each other. But he never wanted you dead."

"Well, you could've fooled me," Sirius muttered so no one could hear him.

"But I heard you a few days ago, sobbing — I thought Snape was threatening you…"

"That's a good point," Remus said, scratching his head and looking from Snape to Dumbledore, "If you weren't the one who was threatening him… then what was going on?"

For the ﬁrst time, a spasm of fear ﬂi†ed across Quirrell's face.

"Sometimes," he said, "I ﬁnd it hard to follow my master's instructions — he is a great wizard and I am weak —"

"Voldemort was there? Inside the school?!" Minerva exclaimed, going even whiter than before if possible, Dumbledore was looking slightly sick, and the others were staring at the book in horror.

Remus shuddered and bit his lower lip as he grew tense. Harry was just a little kid when this was happening, and this was only their ﬁrst year? This just kept getting worse.

Of course, this also proved that Harry was clearly capable of handling much more than they given him credit for. And maybe it was doing more harm than good by keeping him in the dark… he would have to speak with Dumbledore about this later.

"You mean he was there in the classroom with you?" Harry gasped. "He is with me wherever I go," said Quirrell quietly.

"What?" everyone but Albus gasped.

"But…but…" Tonks began, "That means he's… down there too!"

"I met him when I traveled around the world. A foolish young man I was then, full of ridiculous ideas about good and evil. Lord Voldemort showed me how wrong I was. There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it… Since then, I have served him faithfully, although I have let him down many times. He has had to be very hard on me." Quirrell shivered suddenly. "He does not forgive mistakes easily.

When I failed to steal the stone from Gringo†s, he was most displeased. He punished me… decided he would have to keep a closer watch on me…"

"That would explain why Quirrell was in the Leaky Cauldron the day Harry went to Diagon Alley." Remus said. He thought about that for a moment before he suddenly shouted, making them jump, "This must have something to do with the turban! Quirrell wasn't wearing one that day in the Leaky Cauldron… and then he turns up at school wearing it. The turban

is connected somehow and…" his voice faltered, as he had paled, his mouth hanging open slightly.

"What?" Severus asked startled at the look on the werewolf's face. "So you ﬁgured it out," Albus said gloomily.

"Figured what out?" Tonks demanded.

"The man with the two faces…" Mad-Eye spoke as he looked up sharply and met Remus's wide eyes.

"What are you…? Wait… You don't mean… that he was…" Sirius was unable to continue, too sick with the idea.

Quirrell's voice trailed away. Harry was remembering his trip to Diagon Alley — how could he have been so stupid? He'd seen Quirrell there that very day, shaken hands with him in the Leaky Cauldron.

"Yes, because kids are supposed to be able to see who's a Voldemort supporter right oﬀ-the-bat!" Sirius yelled irritably. Tonks was right; Harry really values his life far too little. He had no problems risking his life; he was naïve, stubborn as a mule, and no matter what the situation he doesn't ask for help!

Damn those Muggles, because of them his godson thought so little of his own life that he would constantly rush head-ﬁrst into danger. He was going to kill them if it was the last thing he did.

Quirrell cursed under his breath.

"I don't understand… is the Stone inside the mirror? Should I break it?"

Albus shook his head. The mirror can't be destroyed… at least not as easily as smashing it. It would take powerful Dark Magic to do so…

Harry's mind was racing.

What I want more than anything else in the world at the moment, he thought, is to ﬁnd the Stone before Quirrell does. So if I look in the mirror, I should see myself ﬁnding it — which means I'll see where it's hidden! But how can I look without Quirrell realizing what I'm up to?

He tried to edge to the le†, to get in front of the glass without Quirrell noticing, but the ropes around his ankles were too tight: he tripped and fell over. Quirrell ignored him. He was still talking to himself.

Sirius was trembling at the reminder of how vulnerable Harry really was at the time. He was tied up, didn't have any experience, and was ﬁghting against a freaking Death Eater! And where was the Headmaster? Oﬀ in London! He gritted his teeth as his ﬁngers twitch, inching to place them around the old man's throat.

"What does this mirror do? How does it work? Help me, Master!"

And to Harry's horror, a voice answered, and the voice seemed to come from Quirrell himself.

"Use the boy… Use the boy…"

"NO!" Minerva shocked everyone by yelling.

"Don't you dare touch my godson! If you did anything to him then I swear that I'll…"

"Sirius, please calm down," Albus said, raising his hand in a soothing manner. "This has already happened; you know Harry's just ﬁne. And besides," he was silent for a brief minute before he ﬁnished, "Quirrell is already dead."

Everyone but the other two teachers stared at him. "What?" Remus asked. "What happened that night?"

"You're all about to ﬁnd out," Albus told them sadly. "And as upsetting as all this is, you all have to remember that this already happened and that

we can't change it."

"I know old man!" Sirius yelled upset. "Do you know how hard it is for me to hear this and know that I wasn't there to help? This is torture!"

"I know," Albus said gently. "And believe me, when I say I understand. In fact, I'd say that most," he gave a sideways glance at Severus as he said that before going on and saying, "if not all of us feel the same way."

Quirrell rounded on Harry. "Yes — Po†er — come here."

He clapped his hands once, and the ropes binding Harry fell oﬀ. Harry got slowly to his feet.

Tonks sighed a little in relief when she heard that Harry untied, but it didn't last long when she remembered that he was still in danger.

"Come here," Quirrell repeated. "Look in the mirror and tell me what you see."

Harry walked toward him.

I must lie, he thought desperately. I must look and lie about what I see, that's all.

"Please make it convincing," Sirius begged as he gripped the arms of his chair to keep himself from jumping up and going on another tirade. He knew that Harry made it out alive—but that didn't mean he made it out unharmed. Harry was the only family he had leG—he was the most important person in the world to him.

That was the only reason why he had obeyed every one of Dumbledore's stupid orders and stayed at Grimmauld Place. He couldn't risk getting caught because that meant leaving Harry, and that was worse than prison.

"I am sorry to say that lying isn't going to change anything," Severus said coolly, "The Dark Lord is a powerful Legilimens."

"Oh, shut up!" Sirius yelled. "You aren't helping!"

Quirrell moved close behind him. Harry breathed in the funny smell that seemed to come from Quirrell's turban.

He closed his eyes, stepped in front of the mirror, and opened them again.

He saw his reﬂection, pale and scared-looking at ﬁrst. But a moment later, the reﬂection smiled at him. It put its hand into its pocket and pulled out a blood-red stone. It winked and put the Stone back in its pocket — and as it did so, Harry felt something heavy drop into his real pocket. Somehow — incredibly —he'd go†en the Stone.

Most of the room nodded in understanding; already guessing or knowing how it happened. The few who didn't gasped loudly and blinked in confusion.

"Voldemort's going to be aGer Harry now," Minerva said wearily. "Like he wasn't already," Tonks muttered.

"Well?" said Quirrell impatiently. "What do you see?" Harry screwed up his courage.

"I see myself shaking hands with Dumbledore," he invented. "I — I've won the house cup for Gryﬃndor."

"Convincing lie for a kid," Tonks said eagerly. Now if only Harry could get out of there before Quirrell could ﬁgure out what was going on.

Quirrell cursed again.

"Get out of the way," he said. As Harry moved aside, he felt the Sorcerer's Stone against his leg. Dare he make a break for it?

"Yes," Sirius gasped as if it was obvious. "Run now before he turns his attention back to you!"

But he hadn't walked ﬁve paces before a high voice spoke, though Quirrell wasn't moving his lips.

"He lies… He lies…"

"Typical," McGonagall moaned.

"Po†er, come back here!" Quirrell shouted. "Tell me the truth! What did you just see?"

The high voice spoke again.

"Let me speak to him… face-to-face…"

"Face to…" Sirius trailed oﬀ. "He's down there with them!" "Poor kid," Moody said shaking his head.

"Master, you are not strong enough!" "I have strength enough… for this…"

They all shuddered at those words. It was worse that Dumbledore's voice grew very cold when he spoke those words.

But thinking about Harry facing Voldemort that night with no one to protect him made all sorts of feelings and thoughts go through their minds.

Minerva and Tonks were both terriﬁed for the child Harry, Moody was deeply impressed that Potter stood his ground against Voldemort despite such a young age, Kingsley was astonished that a kid could've done all this on his own, and Snape well… he didn't know what to think or believe.

Albus, Sirius, and Remus felt a ﬁerce pride for the boy—but also felt heartbreakingly miserable. Harry wasn't supposed to have to do these kinds of things, he was just a teenager. He lost his parents when he was only a year old, spent ten years of abuse and neglect with those demons called the Dursleys, and spent the last ﬁve years ﬁghting for his life and being mocked and ridiculed by the whole Wizarding world!

How can this possibly be right? What the hell could be the reason for this? Harry's lost his childhood and now he was forced into a main role in the war that was impossible to ﬁll.

Why did this have to happen?

Harry felt as if Devil's Snare was rooting him to the spot. He couldn't move a muscle. Petriﬁed, he watched as Quirrell reached up and began to unwrap his turban. What was going on? The turban fell away. Quirrell's head looked strangely small without it. Then he turned slowly on the spot.

They all held their breaths…

Harry would have screamed, but he couldn't make a sound. Where there should have been a back to Quirrell's head, there was a face, the most terrible face Harry had ever seen. It was chalk white with glaring red eyes and slits for nostrils, like a snake.

They all shuddered again. Minerva was soGly crying, her face was partially buried into a white handkerchief, Albus was frozen in his seat, but his face was etched with disgust and horror, and Severus was looking like he was about to be sick.

"That's disgusting," Tonks whispered who also seemed to be ﬁghting tears.

"He really is a monster," Kingsley said sadly, his eye was twitching horribly at the description.

"Harry Po†er…" it whispered.

Harry tried to take a step backward but his legs wouldn't move.

"Really not the time to freeze up," Sirius gasped, as he began griping large handfuls of hair, looking like he was on the verge of losing his mind.

"See what I have become?" the face said. "Mere shadow and vapor… I have form only when I can share another's body… but there have always been those willing to let me into their hearts and minds… Unicorn blood has strengthened me, these past weeks… you saw faithful Quirrell drinking it for me in the forest… and once I have the Elixir of Life, I will be able to create a body of my own… Now… why don't you give me that Stone in your pocket?"

"Voldemort speaks with a forked tongue," Mad-Eye said with a smirk. Most of them rolled their eyes at the bad joke.

"So Quirrell was the one who attacked the unicorns," Kingsley said to himself.

"Yeah, he needed to drink it to make him stronger and stay alive," Remus answered.

Dumbledore nodded solemnly, "Unfortunately."

So he knew. The feeling suddenly surged back into Harry's legs. He stumbled backward.

"Don't be a fool," snarled the face. "Be†er save your own life and join me… or you'll meet the same end as your parents… They died begging me for mercy…"

"NEVER!" Sirius bellowed, his blood boiling and his ﬁngernails cutting into his palms. "They would never beg for their lives. Never."

"Sirius," Albus called out. "We all know that's not true. Voldemort was just saying that to make Harry weak."

Sirius snarled at him like some monstrous beast before he began grinding his teeth together.

"Besides," Tonks said with a slight smile. "You heard what Harry said in the last chapter. He will never join him."

Sirius smiled proudly in spite of himself.

"LIAR!" Harry shouted suddenly.

"You tell him kid," Moody said nodding.

Quirrell was walking backward at him, so that Voldemort could still see him. The evil face was now smiling.

"How touching…" it hissed. "I always value bravery… Yes, boy, your parents were brave… I killed your father ﬁrst; and he put up a courageous ﬁght… but your mother needn't have died… she was trying to protect you…

Severus's ﬁsts clasped tightly in silent rage and… jealousy. Jealous that Lily had loved her son more than she had ever loved him…

Now give me the Stone, unless you want her to have died in vain." "NEVER!"

Harry sprang toward the ﬂame door, but Voldemort screamed "SEIZE HIM!" and the next second, Harry felt Quirrell's hand close on his wrist.

"NO! RUN!" Minerva yelled in panic.

"You better let go of him if you know what's good for you!" Sirius growled angrily under his breath. Everyone else was holding their breaths…

At once, a needle-sharp pain seared across Harry's scar; his head felt as though it was about to split in two; he yelled, struggling with all his might, and to his surprise, Quirrell let go of him.

"What? Wait, why would he let go?" Kingsley asked confused, "He could have just killed Harry just then."

"I don't ever want to hear you say something like that again," Remus said furiously.

"Just keep reading!" Tonks yelled.

The pain in his head lessened — he looked around wildly to see where Quirrell had gone, and saw him hunched in pain, looking at his ﬁngers — they were blistering before his eyes.

"What's going on?" Minerva asked anxiously.

"Seize him! SEIZE HIM!" shrieked Voldemort again, and Quirrell lunged, knocking Harry clean oﬀ his feet landing on top of him, both hands around Harry's neck — Harry's scar was almost blinding him with pain, yet he could see Quirrell howling in agony.

"Master, I cannot hold him — my hands — my hands!"

And Quirrell, though pinning Harry to the ground with his knees, let go of his neck and stared, bewildered, at his own palms — Harry could see they looked burned, raw, red, and shiny.

"Then kill him, fool, and be done!" screeched Voldemort.

"Don't you dare!" Sirius shouted at the top of his lungs.

Quirrell raised his hand to perform a deadly curse, but Harry, by instinct, reached up and grabbed Quirrell's face —

"AAAARGH!"

Quirrell rolled oﬀ him, his face blistering, too, and then Harry knew: Quirrell couldn't touch his bare skin, not without suﬀering terrible pain —

"But why is that?" Tonks asked in amazement. "It sounds like you're sticking your hand in a ﬁre or something…"

"It a matter of speaking…" Albus said slowly, that was an excellent way of putting it.

his only chance was to keep hold of Quirrell, keep him in enough pain to stop him from doing a curse.

Harry jumped to his feet, caught Quirrell by the arm, and hung on as tight as he could. Quirrell screamed and tried to throw Harry oﬀ — the pain in Harry's head was building — he couldn't see — he could only hear Quirrell's terrible shrieks and Voldemort's yells of, "KILL HIM! KILL HIM!" and other voices, maybe in Harry's own head, crying, "Harry! Harry!"

"Who was it?" Tonks asked. "Dumbledore," Snape said at last.

They all stared at him in surprise before turning their eyes on the old man who was looking solemn. "I ﬁnally arrived in time to pull Quirrell oﬀ Harry," he clariﬁed. "But I'm sure that this chapter will have a better explanation."

He felt Quirrell's arm wrenched from his grasp, knew all was lost, and fell into blackness, down… down… down…

Something gold was glinting just above him. The Snitch! He tried to catch it, but his arms were too heavy.

"What's going on?" Sirius demanded. "Don't you dare tell me that it was just a dream or something!"

"No," Albus said, and they were surprised to see a slight smiling on his lips.

He blinked. It wasn't the Snitch at all. It was a pair of glasses. How strange.

He blinked again. The smiling face of Albus Dumbledore swam into view above him.

"Oh, good," Tonks sighed closing her eyes. "He's safe."

"I'm glad that you saved him, Dumbledore," Sirius said resentfully. "But don't think that I'm not going to make you pay for dumping Harry oﬀ at that house."

"Of course not," Albus sighed.

"Good a†ernoon, Harry," said Dumbledore.

Harry stared at him. Then he remembered: "Sir! The Stone! It was Quirrell! He's got the Stone! Sir, quick —"

"Calm yourself, dear boy, you are a li†le behind the times," said Dumbledore. "Quirrell does not have the Stone."

"Then who does? Sir, I —"

"Harry, please relax, or Madam Pomfrey will have me thrown out."

"How long has he been out?" Tonks asked him worriedly. "A while," Albus answered simply.

"A while?" Sirius repeated coldly. "What do you mean by a while? How long are we talking?"

Albus merely turned the page.

Harry swallowed and looked around him. He realized he must be in the hospital wing. He was lying in a bed with white linen sheets, and next to him was a table piled high with what looked like half the candy shop.

"Ah, so he's back to being the famous Harry Potter again," Remus said bitterly.

"So now that he's saved the day, everyone wants to be his friend?" Sirius growled. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Tokens from your friends and admirers," said Dumbledore, beaming. "What happened down in the dungeons between you and Professor Quirrell is a complete secret, so, naturally, the whole school knows. I believe your friends Misters Fred and George Weasley were responsible for trying to send you a toilet seat. No doubt they thought it would amuse you. Madam Pomfrey, however, felt it might not be very hygienic, and conﬁscated it."

Everyone began to laugh, even Severus was grinning.

"How long have I been in here?" "Three days.

Sirius looked horriﬁed. 'Three days?' he mouthed. He thanked his lucky stars that Lily wasn't here otherwise she would've skinned him alive for not being there to have prevented this from happening.

Mr. Ronald Weasley and Miss Granger will be most relieved you have come round, they have been extremely worried."

"But sir, the Stone —"

"Yeah, stop this pussy-footing and give us some answers!" Sirius agreed callously.

"I see you are not to be distracted. Very well, the Stone. Professor Quirrell did not manage to take it from you. I arrived in time to prevent that, although you were doing very well on your own, I must say."

"Yes," agreed Moody, "Very impressive for an eleven year old."

"But still…" Tonks sighed. "Being in a coma for three days in the Hospital Wing wasn't worth it."

"You got there? You got Hermione's owl?"

"We must have crossed in midair. No sooner had I reached London than it became clear to me that the place I should be was the one I had just le†. I arrived just in time to pull Quirrell oﬀyou."

"You're lucky that you got there in time," Sirius hissed at Dumbledore who stared innocently at the ceiling for a brief moment until Sirius looked away.

"It was you."

"I feared I might be too late."

"You nearly were, I couldn't have kept him oﬀ the Stone much longer –"

Dumbledore sighed as he shook his head, "I wasn't talking about the Stone."

"Yes, Albus," Minerva said as she ﬁnished drying her eyes. "You always did take the safety of the students personally."

He bowed his head respectfully to her. "As do you, professor."

"Not the Stone, boy, you — the eﬀort involved nearly killed you. For one terrible moment there, I was afraid it had. As for the Stone, it has been destroyed."

"Destroyed?" said Harry blankly. "But your friend — Nicolas Flamel —"

"Oh, you know about Nicolas?" said Dumbledore, sounding quite delighted.

"That was a surprise," Albus agreed with a smile. "There are only a few places where you could ﬁnd out about Nicolas and his Stone…"

"You did do the thing properly, didn't you? Well, Nicolas and I have had a li†le chat, and agreed it's all for the best."

"That's it?" Tonks asked in surprise. "Just like that?"

"Yes," Albus said. "But Nicolas had lived to a ripe old age… and as I said before, he and Perenelle felt that it was ﬁnally their time to go."

"But that means he and his wife will die, won't they?"

"They have enough Elixir stored to set their aﬀairs in order and then, yes, they will die."

Dumbledore smiled at the look of amazement on Harry's face.

"The young believe that there is no worst fate than death," Albus said fondly. "I believe that's because they haven't had a chance to truly live yet. But if they are lucky and live to old age, they see that it is nothing to be afraid of."

The others all sighed… understanding what he was talking about. To die and be free from pain and this world would be so easy… simple… life on the other hand is something that you must struggle through just to see another day.

"To one as young as you, I'm sure it seems incredible, but to Nicolas and Perenelle, it really is like going to bed a†er a very, very long day. A†er all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure. You know, the Stone was really not such a wonderful thing. As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all — the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them."

"You always were good with words," Moody said as Dumbledore chuckled slightly.

Harry lay there, lost for words. Dumbledore hummed a li†le and smiled at the ceiling.

"You sure don't sound like you're completely sane, sir," Tonks smirked and Albus chuckled again.

"Maybe…" he answered a little slyly.

"Sir?" said Harry. "I've been thinking… sir — even if the Stone's gone, Vol-, I mean, You-Know-Who —"

"Call him Voldemort, Harry. Always use the proper name for things. Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself."

"Finally," said Remus. "So you were the one to convince him to call him by name. Thanks for that."

"Yes, sir. Well, Voldemort's going to try other ways of coming back, isn't he? I mean, he hasn't gone, has he?"

"No, Harry, he has not. He is still out there somewhere, perhaps looking for another body to share… not being truly alive, he cannot be killed. He le† Quirrell to die; he shows just as li†le mercy to his followers as his enemies. Nevertheless, Harry, while you may only have delayed his return to power, it will merely take someone else who is prepared to ﬁght what seems a losing ba†le next time — and if he is delayed again, and again, why, he may never return to power."

"To bad that it wasn't meant to be," Kingsley sighed.

Harry nodded, but stopped quickly, because it made his head hurt. Then he said, "Sir, there are some other things I'd like to know, if you can tell me… things I want to know the truth about…"

"That is the big issue here," Mad-Eye agreed deeply, his magical eye shooting a very hard look at Albus who refused to look at him.

"The truth." Dumbledore sighed. "It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution. However, I shall answer

your questions unless I have a very good reason not to, in which case I beg you'll forgive me. I shall not, of course, lie."

"Well… Voldemort said that he only killed my mother because she tried to stop him from killing me. But why would he want to kill me in the ﬁrst place?"

"That damn prophecy," Sirius spat before he shared a dark look with Dumbledore.

"I told you this before Sirius," Albus stated ﬁrmly, "Harry is not ready to know about it."

"Is that really what you think?" Sirius demanded. "Or is it what you want?" Dumbledore merely ignored him and went back to reading.

Dumbledore sighed very deeply this time.

"Alas, the ﬁrst thing you ask me, I cannot tell you. Not today. Not now. You will know, one day… put it from your mind for now, Harry. When you are older… I know you hate to hear this… when you are ready, you will know."

"Of course you didn't tell him," Sirius grumbled under his breath.

And Harry knew it would be no good to argue. "But why couldn't Quirrell touch me?"

"Yes," Severus asked coldly. "Why is that?"

"Your mother died to save you. If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. He didn't realize that love as powerful as your mother's for you leaves its own mark. Not a scar, no visible sign… to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever. It is in your very skin. Quirrell, full of hatred, greed, and ambition, sharing his soul with Voldemort, could not

touch you for this reason. It was agony to touch a person marked by something so good."

Severus's bottom lip began to shake faintly but he turned away so no one could notice it. He tried to ﬁght down the sudden surge of jealously and sadness that appeared. 'Lily…' he thought.

Dumbledore now became very interested in a bird out on the windowsill, which gave Harry time to dry his eyes on the sheet.

"Awww," both Minerva and Tonks cooed kindly.

When he had found his voice again, Harry said, "And the invisibility cloak

— do you know who sent it to me?"

"Ah — your father happened to leave it in my possession, and I thought you might like it." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "Useful things… your father used it mainly for sneaking oﬀ to the kitchens to steal food when he was here."

"You mean to tell me that you gave Harry the cloak?" Remus asked in astonishment.

"But what were you doing with it?" Sirius shot at him.

"I asked James if I could borrow it for a few days," Dumbledore said sadly. "That is all. I had planned on returning it right aGer Halloween however…" He trailed oﬀ, not wanting to give the real answer, he just kept going.

"And there's something else…" "Fire away."

"Quirrell said Snape —" "Professor Snape, Harry."

"Yes, him — Quirrell said he hates me because he hated my father. Is that true?"

"Very true," Severus muttered.

"Well, they did rather detest each other. Not unlike yourself and Mr. Malfoy. And then, your father did something Snape could never forgive."

"What?"

"He saved his life."

"He did NOT save my life!" Severus yelled at Dumbledore.

"Severus," Albus sighed exasperated with a sideways glance at Sirius as he spoke. "You just refuse to see the truth. But if I recall correctly he did save you."

"How?" Tonks asked interested.

"Never you mind," Snape roared at her, causing her to ﬂinch.

"We'll talk about this later," Albus said with ﬁnality that they let it drop.

"What?"

"Yes…" said Dumbledore dreamily. "Funny, the way people's minds work, isn't it? Professor Snape couldn't bear being in your father's debt… I do believe he worked so hard to protect you this year because he felt that would make him and your father even. Then he could go back to hating your father's memory in peace…"

Severus growled, though he had to be grateful that Dumbledore didn't tell Potter the real reason.

Harry tried to understand this but it made his head pound, so he stopped.

"And sir, there's one more thing…" "Just the one?"

"How did I get the Stone out of the mirror?"

"That's what I'd like to know," Tonks agreed.

"Ah, now, I'm glad you asked me that. It was one of my more brilliant ideas, and between you and me, that's saying something. You see, only one who wanted to ﬁnd the Stone — ﬁnd it, but not use it — would be able to get it, otherwise they'd just see themselves making gold or drinking Elixir of Life.

"Brilliant," Kingsley said approvingly. "You truly know your stuﬀ don't you, Albus?"

Dumbledore blushed delightedly at the praise.

My brain surprises even me sometimes… Now, enough questions. I suggest you make a start on these sweets. Ah! BeGe Bo†'s Every Flavor Beans! I was unfortunate enough in my youth to come across a vomit ﬂavored one, and since then I'm afraid I've rather lost my liking for them

— but I think I'll be safe with a nice toﬀee, don't you?"

He smiled and popped the golden-brown bean into his mouth. Then he choked and said, "Alas! Ear wax!"

Laughter rang out across the room.

"Yes," Dumbledore nodded, "AGer that, I swore oﬀ those beans for good."

Madam Pomfrey, the nurse, was a nice woman, but very strict. "Just ﬁve minutes," Harry pleaded.

"Ah," Remus smiled. "He's trying to ask Poppy if his friends can visit."

"How do you know?" Tonks asked in surprise.

"Because that's the same line I used whenever I was in there and my friends came to visit," Remus said fondly.

"Yeah," Sirius agreed. Of course, whenever they went in there, they would stay for about half an hour and have a party before they would be thrown out of the room by a furious Madam Pomfrey.

"Absolutely not."

"You let Professor Dumbledore in…"

"Well, of course, that was the headmaster, quite diﬀerent. You need rest."

"I am resting, look, lying down and everything. Oh, go on, Madam Pomfrey…"

Sirius laughed. "Good one, Harry!"

"Oh, very well," she said. "But ﬁve minutes only." And she let Ron and Hermione in.

"Harry!"

Hermione looked ready to ﬂing her arms around him again, but Harry was glad she held herself in as his head was still very sore.

"They must've been so worried," Kingsley stated.

"You don't know the half of it," Minerva conﬁrmed. "I don't think they would've leG the Hospital Wing if Poppy didn't make them. They both were worried sick until we were ﬁnally able to convince them that Potter would make a full recovery."

"Oh, Harry, we were sure you were going to — Dumbledore was so worried —"

"The whole school's talking about it," said Ron. "What really happened?"

It was one of those rare occasions when the true story is even more strange and exciting than the wild rumors.

"I know," Tonks agreed. "We all just read what really happened and I'm not sure I believe it!"

Harry told them everything: Quirrell; the mirror; the Stone; and Voldemort. Ron and Hermione were a very good audience; they gasped in all the right places, and when Harry told them what was under Quirrell's turban, Hermione screamed out loud.

"I don't blame her," Remus muttered. He had broke out in a cold sweat during this whole chapter, and he was only just starting to calm down from it.

"So the Stone's gone?" said Ron ﬁnally. "Flamel's just going to die?"

"That's what I said, but Dumbledore thinks that — what was it? — 'to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.'"

"I always said he was oﬀ his rocker," said Ron, looking quite impressed at how crazy his hero was.

Dumbledore chortled at that.

"I'd be oﬀended if I were you," Moody exclaimed.

"Oh, but you aren't me," Albus beamed with his twinkling eyes. "And I believe that you have to be just a little bit crazy to make it through this world."

"A little?" Sirius asked under his breath.

"So what happened to you two?" said Harry.

"Well, I got back all right," said Hermione. "I brought Ron round — that took a while — and we were dashing up to the owlery to contact Dumbledore when we met him in the entrance hall — he already knew — he just said, 'Harry's gone a†er him, hasn't he?' and hurtled oﬀ to the third ﬂoor."

"D'you think he meant you to do it?" said Ron. "Sending you your father's cloak and everything?"

They all stared at him.

"You better not have," Sirius growled menacingly. "I don't care who you are, I'm going to make you regret it."

"Well," Hermione exploded, "if he did — I mean to say that's terrible — you could have been killed."

"No, it isn't," said Harry though√ully. "He's a funny man, Dumbledore. I think he sort of wanted to give me a chance. I think he knows more or less everything that goes on here, you know. I reckon he had a pre†y good idea we were going to try, and instead of stopping us, he justtaught us enough to help. I don't think it was an accident he let me ﬁnd out how the mirror worked. It's almost like he thought I had the right to face Voldemort if Icould…"

"Is that true?!" Sirius yelled furiously, standing up again.

"Sirius," Albus said soothingly. "This happened years ago. Even if it was true there's nothing we can do about it."

"So you did do it!"

"Who cares?" Mad-Eye snarled. "I'm getting tired of all these interruptions! Just ﬁnish the damn book already!"

"I did mean to test him," Albus said slowly and carefully. "I wanted to see what kind of person he was… however, you must believe me Sirius… I had no intention of letting him ﬁght against Quirrell and Voldemort as he did. Unfortunately, by the time I had realized I'd been tricked… it was too late."

"You shouldn't have been testing him in the ﬁrst place!" Sirius yelled at him.

"I know that you are furious at me, Sirius," Albus said grimly. "But the last thing that I ever wanted to happen was to risk any of my students like this."

Sirius opened his mouth to argue again, but Mad-Eye slammed his staﬀ down onto the ﬂoor in anger. Albus took his chance to read, though he wasn't to upset at that.

"Yeah, Dumbledore's oﬀ his rocker, all right," said Ron proudly. "Listen, you've got to be up for the end-of-year feast tomorrow. The points are all in and Slytherin won, of course — you missed the last Quidditch match, we were steamrollered by Ravenclaw without you — but the food'll be good."

At that moment, Madam Pomfrey bustled over.

"You've had nearly ﬁ†een minutes, now OUT" she said ﬁrmly.

"Not bad for your ﬁrst time," Remus said trying to defuse some of the tension in the room. "Normally, she would have to throw you out…"

Sirius smirked slightly, though he was still angry.

A†er a good night's sleep, Harry felt nearly back to normal.

"I want to go to the feast," he told Madam Pomfrey as she straightened his many candy boxes. "I can, can't I?"

"Professor Dumbledore says you are to be allowed to go," she said stiﬄy, as though in her opinion Professor Dumbledore didn't realize how risky

feasts could be. "And you have another visitor."

"Risky yeah," Tonks said rolling her eyes. "You could choke on a chicken bone, or poke your eye out with a fork."

"Or poison," Moody reminded her as he held onto his private ﬂask.

"Oh, good," said Harry. "Who is it?"

Hagrid sidled through the door as he spoke. As usual when he was indoors, Hagrid looked too big to be allowed. He sat down next to Harry, took one look at him, and burst into tears.

"Poor guy," Tonks said sympathetically, "He thinks it's his fault." "Well it was," Severus hissed.

"Was not!" Tonks yelled back.

"He told them how to get past the blasted dog and everything else didn't he? He even gave Potter that ﬂute! It was like he was begging them to go!"

"Yeah but… but it just wasn't his fault!" Tonks said stubbornly.

"It's — all — my — ruddy — fault!" he sobbed, his face in his hands. "I told the evil git how ter get past Fluﬀy! I told him! It was the only thing he didn't know, an' I told him! Yeh could've died! All fer a dragon egg! I'll never drink again! I should be chucked out an' made ter live as a Muggle!"

"Poor bloke," Sirius said, feeling bad for him despite the anger he had.

"Hagrid!" said Harry, shocked to see Hagrid shaking with grief and remorse, great tears leaking down into his beard. "Hagrid, he'd have found out somehow, this is Voldemort we're talking about, he'd have found out even if you hadn't told him."

"Yeah," Tonks nodded and stuck her tongue out at Severus whose turn it was to roll his eyes.

"Yeh could've died!" sobbed Hagrid. "An' don' say the name!"

"VOLDEMORT!" Harry bellowed, and Hagrid was so shocked, he stopped crying. "I've met him and I'm calling him by his name. Please cheer up, Hagrid, we saved the Stone, it's gone, he can't use it. Have a Chocolate Frog, I've got loads…"

"Chocolate makes everything feel better," Sirius said, ﬁnally smiling again and nudged Remus playfully as he turned red. It was no secret that Remus ate chocolate on a daily basis… but it was for—medical purposes.

Hagrid wiped his nose on the back of his hand and said, "That reminds me. I've got yeh a present."

"It's not a stoat sandwich, is it?" said Harry anxiously, and at last Hagrid gave a weak chuckle.

"Good," Kingsley said. "Because those sandwiches will keep you in the hospital."

"That's mean," Tonks pouted. "But true," Sirius stated.

"Nah. Dumbledore gave me the day oﬀ yesterday ter ﬁx it. 'course, he shoulda sacked me instead — anyway, got yeh this…"

It seemed to be a handsome, leather-covered book. Harry opened it curiously. It was full of wizard photographs. Smiling and waving at him from every page were his mother and father.

Sirius smiled, his anger towards Hagrid fading completely. It wasn't fair, you just couldn't be angry with the gamekeeper for long.

"Sent owls oﬀ ter all yer parents' old school friends, askin' fer photos… knew yeh didn' have any… d'yeh like it?"

Harry couldn't speak, but Hagrid understood.

"That was so kind of him!" Minerva said with a brief smile.

"I must thank him for that," Remus agreed. He remembered receiving that letter.

*Flashback*

It had been a couple days aƒer a hard full moon and Remus was resting in his shabby ﬂat, trying to sleep. When all of a sudden, he heard tapping at the window. He looked up at his window to see a handsome tawny owl sitting there looking at him.

Sighing, thinking that it was another stupid summon from the Ministry, he wearily got up from his chair and opened the window.

"Can I help you?" he said tiredly, sounding very hoarse as he always did aƒer his transformations. He looked down at the leg that it was sticking out and realized that the Hogwarts crest as on it as well as his address and name. He sighed, thinking that it was another le1er from Dumbledore asking him to take a job. He had been writing a le1er a year about him taking up a teaching job at schoolsince…

His eyes saddened. Since that Halloween. But naturally, he refused to put any other child in danger because of him and his condition. But it wasn't…

Instead of Dumbledore's thin, slanted handwriting it was in a messy scrawl. Hagrid? Why on earth would he be writing? He quickly tore it open and read:

Dear Remus,

I know it's been a long time and this is a lot to ask, but I was wondering if you'd send a few of your old pictures of James and Lily. It's not for me, though, and I'm not asking for nothing much. It's for Harry, Remus. It's his ﬁrst year of Hogwarts he's been having a rough time… and it's probably allmy fault, but I won't go into it.

I know it's probably asking a lot from you, as they were your good friends,but I know that this would mean so much to him.

Hope you're well,

Hagrid

Remus reread the le1er several times, frowning slightly. Oh, he had several pictures of Lily and James. From when they were at school, to when Lily and James had Harry.

*End of Flashback*

Remus could only smile as he leaned back comfortably. It hadn't been easy to give away any of his old pictures, but Harry deserved them more than he ever did… they were his parents…

Harry made his way down to the end-of-year feast alone that night. He had been held up by Madam Pomfrey's fussing about, insisting on giving him one last checkup, so the Great Hall was already full. It was decked out in the Slytherin colors of green and silver to celebrate Slytherin's winning the house cup for the seventh year in a row. A huge banner showing the Slytherin serpent covered the wall behind the High Table.

Sirius pretended to gag.

When Harry walked in there was a sudden hush, and then everybody started talking loudly at once. He slipped into a seat between Ron and Hermione at the Gryﬃndor table and tried to ignore the fact that people were standing up to look at him.

"Sure, suck up," Sirius said, still sore at how they treated his godson and the others because they made one little mistake! And now, here they were worshipping him again.

Fortunately, Dumbledore arrived moments later. The babble died away.

"Another year gone!" Dumbledore said cheerfully. "And I must trouble you with an old man's wheezing waﬄe before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year it has been!

"That's putting it lightly," Tonks muttered. No contest, this year beat her ﬁrst year hands down.

Hopefully your heads are all a li†le fuller than they were… you have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts…

"Now, as I understand it, the house cup here needs awarding, and the points stand thus: In fourth place, Gryﬃndor, with three hundred and twelve points; in third, Huﬄepuﬀ, with three hundred and ﬁ†y-two; Ravenclaw has four hundred and twenty-six and Slytherin, four hundred and seventy-two."

"Like they deserved it," Sirius said sarcastically.

A storm of cheering and stamping broke out from the Slytherin table. Harry could see Draco Malfoy banging his goblet on the table. It was a sickening sight.

"That's how I feel," Sirius said, but then he noticed the ugly look on Snape's face. "What are you so sour about? You won didn't you?"

Snape didn't answer, he just glowered. Minerva on the other hand was grinning proudly, which only confused Sirius even more.

"Yes, Yes, well done, Slytherin," said Dumbledore. "However, recent events must be taken into account."

"You didn't…" Kingsley said, grinning. Dumbledore merely smiled back and said, "Well, I think they deserved it didn't you?"

The room went very still. The Slytherins' smiles faded a li†le.

"Ahem," said Dumbledore. "I have a few last-minute points to dish out.

Let me see. Yes…

"First — to Mr. Ronald Weasley…"

Ron went purple in the face; he looked like a radish with a bad sunburn.

Most of them laughed at the description.

"… for the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryﬃndor house ﬁ†y points."

Gryﬃndor cheers nearly raised the bewitched ceiling; the stars overhead seemed to quiver. Percy could be heard telling the other prefects, "My brother, you know! My youngest brother! Got past McGonagall's giant chess set!"

Minerva applauded half proud/half annoyed at that remark.

At last there was silence again.

"Second — to Miss Hermione Granger… for the use of cool logic in the face of ﬁre, I award Gryﬃndor house ﬁ†y points."

"Ron and Hermione certainly deserved those points," Tonks said.

"Yeah," Sirius agreed. "So don't you dare say that they didn't deserve them!" he snapped at Snape who continued to look bitter.

Hermione buried her face in her arms; Harry strongly suspected she had burst into tears.

Remus laughed, "That does sound like Hermione."

Gryﬃndors up and down the table were beside themselves — they were a hundred points up.

"Third — to Mr. Harry Po†er…" said Dumbledore. The room went deadly quiet. "… for pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Gryﬃndor house sixty points."

"Sixty for almost dying?" Sirius asked under his breath. "No justice…"

The din was deafening. Those who could add up while yelling themselves hoarse knew that Gryﬃndor now had four hundred and seventy-two points — exactly the same as Slytherin. They had tied for the house cup

— if only Dumbledore had given Harry just one more point.

The others who didn't know what happened that year looked up at Dumbledore, wondering what was going to happen now…

Dumbledore raised his hand. The room gradually fell silent.

"There are all kinds of courage," said Dumbledore, smiling. "It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. I therefore award ten points to Mr. Neville Longbo†om."

Everyone but Snape cheered at those words.

"Neville must've been stunned," Remus chuckled. "I wish I could've seen the look on his face."

Someone standing outside the Great Hall might well have thought some sort of explosion had taken place, so loud was the noise that erupted from the Gryﬃndor table. Harry, Ron, and Hermione stood up to yell and cheer as Neville, white with shock, disappeared under a pile of people hugging him. He had never won so much as a point for Gryﬃndor before. Harry, still cheering, nudged Ron in the ribs and pointed at Malfoy, who couldn't have looked more stunned and horriﬁed if he'd just had the Body-Bind Curse put on him.

"HA!" Sirius cheered triumphantly. "Take that you lousy, cheating, son of a…"

"SIRIUS!" Minerva yelled warningly.

"Which means," Dumbledore called over the storm of applause, for even Ravenclaw and Huﬄepuﬀ were celebrating the downfall of Slytherin, "we need a li†le change of decoration."

He clapped his hands. In an instant, the green hangings became scarlet and the silver became gold; the huge Slytherin serpent vanished and a towering Gryﬃndor lion took its place.

"Wow," Tonks said, her eyes getting huge. "Wish I could do that." Albus merely smiled good-naturedly at her.

Snape was shaking Professor McGonagall's hand, with a horrible, forced smile. He caught Harry's eye and Harry knew at once that Snape's feelings toward him hadn't changed one jot. This didn't worry Harry. It seemed as though life would be back to normal next year, or as normal as it ever was at Hogwarts.

"To bad that it didn't happen," Albus said only loud enough for him to hear.

It was the best evening of Harry's life, be†er than winning at Quidditch, or Christmas, or knocking out mountain trolls… he would never, ever forget tonight.

Almost every smiled at that. Glad to know that this boy had some good memories as well as bad… he had something that he felt that he could look back on and be proud of.

Harry had almost forgo†en that the exam results were still to come, but come they did. To their great surprise, both he and Ron passed with good marks; Hermione, of course, had the best grades of the ﬁrst years.

"Of course," Minerva said proudly.

"Didn't expect it to be anyone else," Remus said happily

Even Neville scraped through, his good Herbology mark making up for his abysmal Potions one. They had hoped that Goyle, who was almost as stupid as he was mean, might be thrown out, but he had passed, too. It was a shame, but as Ron said, you couldn't have everything in life.

"True," Sirius said knowingly. AGer all, he wanted to see Wormtail's skull crushed in his hands… but he had to wait for that.

And suddenly, their wardrobes were empty, their trunks were packed, Neville's toad was found lurking in a corner of the toilets; notes were handed out to all students, warning them not to use magic over the holidays ("I always hope they'll forget to give us these," said Fred Weasley sadly);

"Even if we did," Minerva said ﬁrmly, "The Ministry wouldn't."

Hagrid was there to take them down to the ﬂeet of boats that sailed across the lake; they were boarding the Hogwarts Express; talking and laughing as the countryside became greener and tidier; eating BeGe Bo†'s Every Flavor Beans as they sped past Muggle towns; pulling oﬀ their wizard robes and puGng on jackets and coats; pulling into pla√orm nine and three-quarters at King's Cross Station.

"I can't believe that you sent him back to that place!" Sirius growled, his good mood fading as his anger for his old professor resurfaced.

"You know that I had no other choice Sirius," Albus said regretfully.

"You could've done something!" Sirius yelled. "We're almost done with the book so I won't say anymore about it. But when we're done I'm going to kill you!"

Dumbledore merely gave him a sad look. He knew that there was no way that Sirius was going to let this drop, neither was anyone else. He would face though. He deserved no less.

It took quite a while for them all to get oﬀ the pla√orm. A wizened old guard was up by the ticket barrier, leGng them go through the gate in twos and threes so they didn't a†ract a†ention by all bursting out of a solid wall at once and alarming the Muggles.

"You must come and stay this summer," said Ron, "both of you — I'll send you an owl."

"Yes," Remus approved, "Get him out of that terrible home!"

"Thanks," said Harry, "I'll need something to look forward to." People jostled them as they moved forward toward the gateway back to the Muggle world. Some of them called:

"Bye, Harry!" "See you, Po†er!"

"Still famous," said Ron, grinning at him.

"Not where I'm going, I promise you," said Harry.

They all glared at the book at just mentioning Privet Drive. Dumbledore's ﬁngers turned white as he gripped the book tightly.

He, Ron, and Hermione passed through the gateway together. "There he is, Mom, there he is, look!"

It was Ginny Weasley, Ron's younger sister, but she wasn't pointing at Ron.

"Harry Po†er!" she squealed. "Look, Mom! I can see —"

"That is so cute!" Tonks giggled.

"Be quiet, Ginny, and it's rude to point."

"That does sound like, Molly," Remus said fondly.

Mrs. Weasley smiled down at them. "Busy year?" she said.

"Very," said Harry. "Thanks for the fudge and the sweater, Mrs. Weasley."

"He does have such good manners," stated Remus.

"Oh, it was nothing, dear." "Ready, are you?"

It was Uncle Vernon, still purple-faced, still mustached, still looking furious at the nerve of Harry, carrying an owl in a cage in a station full of ordinary people. Behind him stood Aunt Petunia and Dudley, looking terriﬁed at the very sight of Harry.

"I hope so," growled Sirius menacingly. "Maybe now they'll treat him right."

"You must be Harry's family!" said Mrs. Weasley.

"Hardly," muttered a furious Tonks. "They're the absolute last things I would ever call Harry's family!"

"In a manner of speaking," said Uncle Vernon. "Hurry up, boy, we haven't got all day." He walked away.

Harry hung back for a last word with Ron and Hermione. "See you over the summer, then."

"Hope you have — er — a good holiday," said Hermione, looking uncertainly a†er Uncle Vernon, shocked that anyone could be so

unpleasant.

"Why am I not surprised?" Moody jeered.

"Oh, I will," said Harry, and they were surprised at the grin that was spreading over his face. "They don't know we're not allowed to use magic at home. I'm going to have a lot of fun with Dudley this summer…"

Sirius blinked in surprise before he began to laugh. "That's my boy! He's a true Marauder!"

"Heaven forbid," Minerva sighed as Snape looked horriﬁed at the thought.

Albus gulped as he closed the book slowly. And without looking at any of them said in a calm voice, "That's the end of the book. I understand that you'll all angry at me, and I can't say that I blame you. So if you want to rage at me… anything at all… go right ahead."

Chapter 19

(I own nothing. Copyright belongs to J.K. Rowling)

Chapter 18: Epilogue-A†ermath

Stunned silence was all that answered for a brief moment and then Sirius said in a surprisingly quiet tone, "We should have gotten him out of that house faster." Sirius stopped caring about what happened to himself long ago; all he knew was that he was going to ﬁght with everything he had to make sure that Harry was never going back to that house. Dumbledore be damned. They could make any house just as safe, and in Sirius's opinion Harry was safest if he was as far as humanely possible from the Dursley's.

Despite, Sirius's calm voice, Albus knew that this was just the calm before the storm. He was willing to bet everything he owned that it wasn't going to take long for them, like a volcano, to explode.

And sure enough…

Sirius was shaking in anger.

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING PUTTING HIM THERE?! JUST WHAT WAS GOING THROUGH THAT 'BRILLIANT' MIND OF YOURS WHEN YOU JUST LEFT HIM ON THAT DOORSTEP?! YOU SAID THAT HE'D BE SAFE THERE AND LOOK AT WHAT HE WAS FORCED TO GO THROUGH! TO HELL WITH VOLDEMORT! SO WHAT IF THE BLOOD WARDS PROTECTED HARRY FROM HIM?! WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE PROTECTING HIM FROM THOSE MONSTERS?! THEY AREN'T EVEN HUMAN! THEY'RE TOO EVIL FOR HUMANITY! THEY'RE AS BAD AS DEATH EATERS IF YOU WANT MY OPINION! I COULDN'T CARE LESS WHO YOU ARE OR WHAT YOU SAY ANYMORE, HE WILL NOT BE GOING THERE AGAIN!"

Everyone watched with wide eyes as Sirius yelled at Dumbledore who looked miserable and old.

"Sirius," Albus said sadly, "I understand that you're upset and I'll personally confront them about this, but Harry's safety is our biggest priority

But Sirius wasn't going to give up that easily. "BUT WHAT ABOUT HIS HAPPINESS?" he demanded. DOESN'T HIS HAPPINESS AND PEACE OF MIND COUNT FOR NOTHING AT ALL? OR IS HE JUST A TOOL FOR YOU TO USE IN THE WAR? I SHOULD JUST…"

"I had hoped…" Albus began weakly.

"HOPED FOR WHAT?" Sirius demanded. "HOPED THAT EVIL BITCH PETUNIA WOULD TREAT HARRY RIGHT?! YOU ALREAD ADMITTED THAT YOU KNEW THAT SHE HATED LILY AND THAT THERE WAS A GOOD CHANCE THAT SHE WOULD HATE HER SON! YET YOU STILL LEFT HIM THERE AND JUST FORGOTTEN ABOUT HIM!"

He went on and on for what felt like hours, "I BELIEVED YOU! I BELIEVED THAT HARRY WAS IN A GOOD AND SAFE PLACE—BUT THIS JUST SHOWS WHAT AN IDIOT I'VE BEEN HUH? AND THEN THERE'S EVERYTHING THAT THAPPENED AT THE SCHOOL! HE FACED TROLLS, THREE-HEADED DOGS, AND VOLDEMORT? HE WAS BLOODY ELEVEN, AND HE WAS ALREADY RISKING HIS LIFE? WHERE WERE YOU WHEN HE WAS IN DANGER? I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT I…"

But before he could rant on any further, Moody got up and slammed his staﬀ down onto the ﬂoor with such force that everyone jumped and spun around to stare at him. Moody stepped between them and growled, "Believe or don't believe… whatever it takes to make you happy." He turned from them all and wandered back to the ﬁreplace and lit it with a wave of his wand. He sighed and grunted, "Doesn't matter anyway… what's done is done."

Sirius opened and closed his mouth several times like he forgotten how to speak. They all stared at him, wondering what to say next.

"So…" Tonks said quietly, hoping to break some of the tension. "When do we read the next book?"

"Not now," Albus muttered while his eyes were completely devoid of light. "We shouldn't leave the school for too long these days. But tomorrow's Sunday so we can come back early and start on year two."

And with that said, Remus took the Sorcerer's Stone and placed it on the table before reaching for a second book, which was just a little bit bigger than the ﬁrst. The cover showed harry… but he was holding onto the tail of a phoenix that he recognized immediately as Fawkes… and on his belt, what appeared to be, a ruby-encrusted sword… what was going on?

Behind them, there was a large stone chamber with tall pillars engraved with snakes—but the worst part was a large stone door… with a long serpent's tail sticking out. Remus gulped nervously as he read out, "Harry Po†er and the Chamber of Secrets."

"The Chamber of Secrets?" repeated Kingsley. "Isn't that just a legend?"

Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Snape all looked up sharply, before sharing a dark look with each other. Their actions didn't go unnoticed. "What?" Sirius demanded, his eyes looking from one to another, and was starting to break out in a cold sweat.

"I'm afraid that we don't have time to explain," Albus said as he checked his watch and stood up. "I'd tell you myself, but it's getting late and we have to get back to the school. But we'll be back tomorrow though, I promise."

He wanted to get out of the house as soon as possible, he knew that if he stuck around any longer, then Sirius was sure to try and kill him. He removed the two shield charms around Severus and Sirius before heading to the door. But Sirius quickly got up and blocked his path.

They both stared at each other, both wondering what they would do. The others looked at the pair, suddenly feeling anxious. Sirius glared at him for

a long time. "Your life's been prolonged," he growled. "I'll wait until we ﬁnish reading the books until I kill you. If you die now… I won't get to slaughter you later for anything else I might read. You might have a chance to live if the things in the next three books turn out better than the ﬁrst… if not… I'll rather enjoy torturing you to death."

Moody's eye spun around to the back of his head to stare at Sirius. "You're letting him go?" he asked. "From all the murder attempts and death threats, I'd expected you to follow through with them."

Sirius snorted. "I'm only letting you go because I want someone to keep an eye on Harry for me while he's up at school. I dislike like you Dumbledore… but I hate that hag Umbridge. I don't trust her at all… and if you die… then she can do anything she wants."

Albus nodded without looking at him, "Thank you."

"Don't think you're oﬀ the hook!" Sirius shouted. "I am going to make you pay for leaving Harry with those bastards. I just hadn't thought of a good enough punishment…" he looked up at Snape and said, "Look, I said this before. If you want to take you anger out on someone, then come here and take it all out on me. But leave Harry alone. He's got enough on his plate without you bullying him."

Snape rolled his eyes, "I'm not making any promises." True, he had new sympathy for the boy, but that didn't mean that he was going change anything else he thought about him. He was forced to admit that Potter didn't have the wonderful childhood like he thought… but as far as he knew the boy was still as arrogant and selﬁsh as his father had been. And until someone gave him proof otherwise, nothing was going to change his mind.

Sirius growled again his hand moving towards his wand. "Gentlemen," Kingsley said as he also stood up. "We're all tired and hungry. Why don't we all leave and calm down before we start getting violent?"

The teachers didn't need telling twice, they all leG quickly—but were unable to hide their guilty faces. Kingsley sighed. "Sorry," he said to those still remaining. "But I have to leave as well. I don't know when I'll be back, but I do want to see what happens next. Until then…" he bowed to them all before he to, swept from the room.

Moody soon grunted that he had a couple things leG to do before turning in for the night and leG also, leaving Sirius, Tonks, and Remus alone—trying to digest all this new information. AGer awhile of sitting there, feeling miserable, Remus suggested that they all eat dinner and then go to bed.

And because no one could think of anything else to do, they agreed.

They all had a quiet dinner and even a little Firewhiskey to help with the misery they were all feeling. They didn't talk at all—which was a good thing because Sirius was too busy thinking if they had any Howler paper around for him to send one to Dumbledore—and when they did it was only to say goodnight.

But to everyone who had been reading the book… they all laid awake in bed for hours… lost in their own thoughts.

(Thanks for bearing with this story. I know that a few of you might be a li†le disappointed that Sirius didn't try to a†ack Dumbledore or even try to jinx him. But I want to wait until Sirius ﬁnds out about Harry's treatment during the second book, so please wait until then. I'll be puGng up an author's note here to let you all know when the next story is up, which should be soon. I hope you all enjoyed this and will enjoy the next book just asmuch.)

Chapter 20

The Chamber of Secrets has just started going up again! Discovering the Legend 2: Read Chamber of Secrets!