Chapter Fourteen

The school year passed quickly for the two pre-teens. They were sorted into Gryffindor, much to Sirius' pleasure. The two quickly made fast friends with their dormmates. Harry met a lad named Ron. They started a fast friendship. Hermione made fast friends with a crafty witch by the name of Kellah Green, whose bed was next to Hermione's in the Gryffindor girls' dormitory. They were still best friends with each other.

The children had acclimated to classes well and were doing fantastically. Hermione had made sure they read so far ahead, they could have finished all their first- and second-year classwork without any problems. Her little group of friends appreciated her helpful nature and she respected that she was not the boss of any of them.

The only real excitement had been the third day Sirius spent with Harry in his animagus form. The pair had been playing out in the fallen leaves by the lake when Harry decided to go in and get started on his homework. Padfoot had obligingly followed the boy into the dormitories. Harry had closed the door behind him and gone to his desk to gather his supplies when Sirius smelled something he never expected to scent - Peter Pettigrew.

Sirius had gone mad with rage. He had chased the rat around the room until he had him pinned in a corner. Then, Sirius had changed from beast to man and stunned the bastard before he could move. Sirius had literally cried to be holding the traitor. The man he had been 10 years ago wanted to end the bastard but the man he was today wanted to see justice done. A quick trip through the trunk and then on to Diagon Alley had seen the bastard handed over to the aurors in short work. He told the truth; he found the rat near his son and captured it. When he held it, he felt something wrong and realized the man was an animagus. The aurors Sirius had found had included none other than Mad Eye Moody in their midst. The man made quick work of discovering if the animal was indeed an animagus. The aurors had been so shocked to have an alive Peter Pettigrew in their midst, that they forgot to ask Padfoot his name. That was fine by Padfoot, who left quickly.

The next day, the Daily Prophet was awash in headlines about the real betrayer of the Potters and the tragic figure of Sirius Black who had died an innocent man in Azkaban. Padfoot would have found it hilarious if it wasn't all basically true. The only thing they didn't have correct was Sirius' status as a dead man. He hoped they never found out they were wrong.

Despite the relative peace, Padfoot knew things were not quite right at Hogwarts. Padfoot had explored the forbidden third floor corridor and knew about the traps that were in place. Harry got headaches every time he was near Professor Quirrell, who had been a relatively mild-mannered bloke teaching Muggle Studies during Sirius' time. The man was now jumpier than a dozen cats on a hot tin roof.

It all came to a head about a few weeks before the end of term. Dumbledore was out of the castle for the evening and Padfoot was stupidly out with a girl he had met in Hogsmeade last weekend. She was something special. Her name was Sandra Robinson. She was an Australian witch recently moved to help her ailing old auntie in her twilight years. Something about this buxom blond with wavy tresses down to her fine, round arse said "keeper" to Padfoot.

Without any adult support, Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Kellah decided to go after the person they thought was trying to steal the sorcerer's stone from the third-floor corridor. Padfoot hadn't been surprised to learn Hagrid had spilled the beans about what was hidden there. The man couldn't keep a secret to save a dragon's life.

The kids had been almost killed getting through the obstacle course of traps set up by the Hogwarts professors. Hermione had sent Harry through to the final trap. Afterwards, she ran back to seek help. She found Padfoot and Sandra, just returning to the house.

"Padfoot! You have to come! It's Harry. He's gone after the stone!" Hermione yelled at full speed at the man. Padfoot was proud to be proven right when Sandra offered to come help instead of escaping the dangerous drama she had no part in.

The group of three raced through Hogwarts back to the third-floor corridor. Hermione led the way and played Harry's flute from Hagrid to put the Cerberus to sleep. Sandra recognized the devil's snare, which is native to Australia, right away. She freed herself, Padfoot, and Hermione. They ran to the next obstacle. Padfoot and Sandra blasted their way across the chess board. Ran past the stinking dead troll and into the room of keys. The key that opened the door was badly damaged by this point because it had been caught roughly so many times. The poor thing could barely rise a meter off the floor. Padfoot chased it in animagus form and caught it in his mouth. A quick shove and they were through to the potions room.

"Hey!" Hermione said. "All the bottles have refilled again! It's this one, Padfoot! This one will take you through to Harry!" The man didn't question the little girl. He threw the potion back and swallowed.

"You two go back through and come back in. Sandra, you can follow me into the next room then." The woman agreed quickly. She grabbed Padfoot and gave him a very serious kiss of good luck. If the situation hadn't been so dire, Padfoot would have followed up on that kiss right away.

Instead, the man burst through the archway into the room with the mirror just in time to see Harry and Quirrell fall to the floor. Where Harry's hands touched Quirrell's face, the man's face was burning. The charred remains of the man's hands were already falling to ash on the floor beside Harry. Padfoot realized what was going on.

The old Dark Nutter, Tom Riddle, the nascent Lord Voldemort, was possessing Professor Quirrell. Padfoot had known something was wrong with the man. If only he'd known he had the Dark Lord sticking out the back of his head, he would have taken care of this sooner.

The man ran over to help his son but was too late. The professor fell back, screaming just as Padfoot reached them. As Padfoot watched, the man turned to ash, completely burned away. A dark wraithlike creature exploded from the man's corpse. Padfoot fell on top of Harry and covered the boy with his own body as the wraith writhed in pain before it exploded in a shower of golden sparks that faded out like shooting stars, shattering the mirror that stood in the center of the room.

Padfoot sat up quickly and turned the boy over. His son seemed fine yet the boy was unconscious. Sandra burst into the room just as Padfoot stood and picked up the boy. A red stone fell out of his pocket. Padfoot picked it up, put it in his own pocket, and promptly forgot about it until much, much later.

Sandra rushed over and helped Padfoot carry Harry back out of the room. The brave lady who tried to help save Padfoot's son helped gather the other fallen children and float them to the hospital wing with a couple of cast levicorpus spells. Headmaster Dumbeldore found them there and was very disappointed that the students went after the stone. He had no idea one of the students was Harry Potter, since the boy's father took credit for the death of the Professor. No one questioned how the man had gotten to the school so quickly to help his son.

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