Envy had stopped eating meals at the Slytherin table. He no longer sat with his house during Potions, but instead opted to sit with the Gryffindor trio. At his other classes and during the night when he had to return to his dormitory, he stayed away from his housemates. The Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws also glared at him at first, but eventually got used to him.

He found himself the subject of many jinxes over the next few days, but was happy to work with Fred and George to get back at the ones who cast them. He was also informed by the trio, who he was quickly becoming friends with, that Harry had encountered something that could have been Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest during his and Hermione's detention. Envy sort of wished he could have gone after that. Heh, and he thought he was done with being envious.

The spells directed at him lessened during the exams—Envy figured everyone was too hot and tired to try anything. Despite this, he did not completely drop his guard while out in the (scorching) sun with the Gryffindor trio after exams had finished.

"I wish I knew what this means!" Harry burst out.

Envy, not expecting the sudden shout, started, before relaxing again. "What?"

"My scar! It keeps hurting!" He rubbed his forehead. "It's happened before, but never as often as this."

"Go to Madam Pomfrey," Hermione suggested.

"I'm not ill. I think it's a warning . . . it means danger's coming . . ."

Envy sighed and flopped onto the grass. "Lighten up. It's probably nothing."

"Envy's right," Ron agreed. "I mean, with Dumbledore around, Snape wouldn't dare go after the Stone! We never got proof that Snape knows how to get past Fluffy anyway. He's already had his leg almost ripped off, he's not going back in a hurry. Besides, Neville would play Quidditch for England before Hagrid let Dumbledore down."

Envy huffed. "What's up with this Stone business anyway? I think you should trust me enough to tell me by now." It was true, they never let him in on their conversations about the Philosopher's Stone, and, due to his former species, the way he died, and many other things, he was highly interested in this topic. "If I was going to go off reporting to Snape that you suspected him of something, I would have done it already." Though perhaps he would not have told him, just so he could watch the chaos unfold.

Harry glanced between his two friends, who both had thoughtful expressions, then said, "I think we should tell him."

"Me too," Hermione agreed.

They gave Ron a prompting gaze, and he caved in with a sigh. "Yeah."

Their explanation began with Hermione spouting off what was undoubtedly a passage from a library book ("The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Philosopher's Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers . . .") and claiming there to be a Philosopher's Stone in the castle. From this part of the explanation, it was painfully obvious that either the people of this world had not discovered the full extent of alchemy, or their version of it was very different. Seeing as only the wizards seemed to practice it (he'd asked about it at the orphanage, and the caretaker he'd questioned had given him a baffled stare), he thought the latter option to be more likely than the former.

The next part of the explanation was only started—Envy interrupted Harry to tell him that he had already pieced together that Snape was after the Stone because of all the conversations they'd had that had left before him clueless. Harry looked embarrassed for not having realized this sooner, made sure that Envy knew Snape was getting the Stone for Voldemort, then clarified what Quirrell had to do with everything (that explained why they'd been so friendly with him . . .).

Envy whistled. "Quite the plot going on here." Though not even close to the size of the one set up by Father.

Harry sighed and rubbed his forehead again. There were a few minutes of silence, then the Boy Who Lived quite suddenly jumped to his feet. "I just thought of something." Harry had gone very pale. "We need to go see Hagrid, right now."

Envy groaned, but followed Harry's example as he turned and started hurrying in the direction of Hagrid's humble abode (he did not want to end up as lazy as Sloth).

Hermione, who was following with Ron, was the one to stage the question of why they were going to see there large friend.

They scrambled up the grassy slope as Harry explained how odd it was that there had just happened to be a person wandering around with a dragon egg when Hagrid so wanted one ("What? You guys never told me about this!" said Envy). "Why didn't I see it before?"

Envy was pretty sure everyone in their little quad was confused when he said that, and it was partly confirmed when Ron asked about it.

"What are you talking about?"

Unfortunately for the two boys, he didn't answer.

They stopped, out of breath, at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, in front of Hagrid, who was shelling peas into a large bowl.

He smiled. "Hullo. Finished yer exams? Got time fer a drink?" Hagrid had been suspicious of Envy at first, but warmed up to him after finding out that he wasn't so bad.

"Yes," and "Yes, please," were the Slytherin and Ron's respective answers, but Harry cut them off and started interrogating Hagrid. It wasn't much of an interrogation, really, as Harry only asked what the stranger he was playing cards with looked like when he won Norbert.

"Dunno, he wouldn' take his cloak off."

Now that he was informed of the situation and knew as much as the rest of the "quad", Envy was able to piece everything together with the three Gryffindors. He didn't look quite as stunned as they did.

Harry sank down next to the bowl of peas. "What did you talk to him about, Hagrid? Did you mention Hogwarts at all?"

Hagrid then proceeded to babble in more detail about how he got Fluffy, and Harry asked if the cloaked stranger had been interested in the dog. Envy tuned most of it out until a piece of useful information came up.

"—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 suddenly looked horrified and started spluttering about how he shouldn't have told them that and that they should forget about it, but he was too late—the quad had already taken off toward the castle.

Getting someone to believe that Snape was after the Stone turned out to be quite a hassle. In fact, it didn't even work—McGonagall completely rejected the idea (Dumbledore was unavailable at the time), and they didn't trust anyone else enough to inform them.

Thus, Harry told Hermione to wait outside the staff room so she could follow Snape, and in the meantime the three males of the group would wait around the door to the third floor corridor.

Much to their dismay, however, McGonagall walked by moment after they arrived and sent them back to their respective common rooms after a scalding (but short) rant, which involved major house point deduction (twenty-five points from Slytherin and fifty from Gryffindor).

Envy followed Ron and Harry back to their common room and waited outside with them—they'd decided that, even if he was their friend, he was a Slytherin, and they couldn't let him in.

This suited the him just fine.

Barely three minutes later, Hermione came panting up to them. "I'm sorry!" were her first words. They were followed by an explanation of why she was here, instead of with Snape.

"Well, that's it then, isn't it?" Harry had gone pale again, and his eyes were glittering.

The other three first years stared at him.

"I'm going out there tonight and I'm going to try and get to the Stone first."

Ron and Hermione protested against this statement quite vehemently ("You're mad!"), but Envy agreed with Harry—if this Dark Lord was as evil as he was made out to be (like he was one to talk), he didn't want him to get the Philosopher's Stone and ruin the new life he had with his . . . his friends. "Sounds great to me."

The two Gryffindor's who were in disagreement with Harry and Envy stared at the former as if he too was insane, but the Boy Who Lived smiled. "Thanks, Envy."

He nodded uncomfortably, not used to being thanked. "Yeah, whatever."

Harry proceeded to loudly inform his two Gryffindor friends of why it was necessary that he go after the Stone before Snape could get to it. His point was sound, and the short argument was won.

"I'll use the invisibility cloak. It's just lucky I got it back."

"Invisibility cloak?"

The three stared at Envy again.

"What?"

'-'

Late that night, long after dinner had ended, Envy hid as best he could in the shadows and crept in the direction of the third floor corridor. Snape walked by in the opposite direction, but he paid the him no mind—if the professor wasn't going after the Stone tonight, it was all the better for the quad.

Harry had objected against his friends coming along, but that was an argument that he had lost.

He soon arrived at his destination. The Gryffindors were nowhere to be seen—then again, they were under an invisibility cloak.

"Psst! Envy!"

Envy took a moment to locate the source of the noise.

"Here!" The cloak slipped off Ron, Hermione, and Harry a few feet away.

"How long have you been here?" Envy whispered.

"We just arrived." Harry strode forward. "Well, there you are. Snape's already gotten past Fluffy."

"Huh?" Envy took a closer look at the door, and noticed for the first time that it was ajar. Strange . . . hadn't he just walked by the man . . . ? Huh. Well, he probably had some sort of mysterious shortcut, or maybe someone had forgotten to close the door after feeding Fluffly. "Ahh. We'd better get going." He pushed past Harry and shoved the door open before anyone could protest, and had to jump back in order to keep his head on his shoulders.

The dog's middle head had half its muzzle sticking out of the doorway, and it was sniffing the air and growling.

Envy glanced at the Gryffindors. "Someone brought a musical instrument, right? Because I don't want to hear you guys sing."

Harry nodded and pulled a carved wooden flute, then started playing some notes. Despite the seemingly random order of pitches, the dog slowly relaxed and was soon breathing at a steady pace. There was a great thump as the rest of monster's body fell to the floor.

Ron let out a quiet sigh of relief. "Great, it's asleep. But . . ." He gestured at the full doorway. "How are we getting through?"

Hermione lifted her wand and leveled it at the sleeping dog. She opened her mouth to say a spell, then paused. The sound of Harry's flute filled the silence. "Ah . . . I read the the Levitation Charm works on small animals and children, but I don't think it would work on Fluffy . . ."

Envy groaned and slapped his forehead. "I'm not good enough at Transfiguration to change it into something smaller."

Left with no other choice, the first years, excluding Harry, started the process of pushing the dog's snout back through the door. The beast's neck had stretched out just enough that they were able to push its head back in a way that would leave room to squeeze by.

There was a moment when Harry stumbled as he got past the middle head, and the music stopped for a second. It frightened the other members of the quad, and even scared Envy a bit—he was starting to realize how powerless he was. But Harry didn't fall, and the "music" continued.

The trapdoor could be found a couple yards behind the dog's backside and underneath its tail. Envy shoved the offending body part aside and Ron pulled open the trapdoor. All that could be seen below was blackness.

Envy grinned. "Well, who's going first?"

Harry waved his hand wildly to catch their attention, then pointed at himself.

"You want to go first?" Ron asked. "Are you sure? We don't know how deep this thing goes. Give the flute to Hermione so she can keep him asleep."

Harry nodded and passed the flute off to Hermione. Then came a speech about not following if something happened to him and blah blah blah, which Envy had expected. And then, Harry jumped.

It was about ten seconds before there was a faint, muffled thump. Harry's call that it was okay was distant, but heard, and Ron and Envy both let out sighs of relief. The latter was the first to muster up the courage to jump after their black-haired friend.

The air was cold and damp, and when Envy landed it took him a moment to realize that he was perched on a mess of a plant.

There was another thump a few seconds later, right next to him, and a short discussion was held between the three of them about why the plant was there, although Envy realized that now was not the time for wondering about trivial things like that.

Ron called for Hermione to come down. The flute immediately stopped, and there was a ferocious bark from the dog, but the female of their group had already jumped.

Another short conversation ensued—it was hardly a conversation, really. Hermione voiced her thoughts on how far under the school they must be, and Ron commented on how lucky it was that the plant was there.

It was only when Hermione uttered a shriek and some frantic words, leapt away, and started fretting that they noticed the vines that had wrapped around their limbs.

Rather than joining in with the other three's freak-out session, Envy chose to pay full attention to getting rid of this plant. He didn't get to try anything more than morphing his fingernails to grow long and sharp before Hermione's trademark bluebell flames swooped in for the rescue and the plant shriveled and curled in on itself, desperate to get away from the burning light.

Envy was just as quick as the plant to get away from the fire, and he almost got wrapped up again before he realized that the fire wasn't aimed at him. "Hey, watch the flames!"

Hermione flushed pink and muttered a quiet apology while Envy hurried to join she and the others at the wall, also shrinking his fingernails behind his back.

They continued down a stone passageway, and as they approached the next room there was a strange sound, like the fluttering of hundreds of wings. It turned out that was exactly what it was.

What seemed like a thousand glittering birds flew around the room in random patterns. It took Envy a moment to realize that the birds were, in fact, keys, of all different colors and sizes with wings attached to them.

The other three didn't seem to notice this, and Envy decided to be kind enough to point it out.

"He's right!" Hermione exclaimed. "One of those keys must go to that door." She indicated the exit set in the wall opposite them.

They hastened across the room (fortunately, the keys refrained from attacking them) and tried every manner of unlocking charm they knew on it, but even after Envy blasted it with a few hexes and tried to kick the door down, it wouldn't budge

They resorted to using some brooms which just happened to be lying around, and Harry managed to capture the right key (Ron had guessed what they were after based on the lock).

The next room contained only a chessboard. A giant chessboard. Envy wasn't much good in the way of strategy games, and neither were Harry and Hermione, so Ron took charge.

Each of them were sent to different parts of the board, Hermione a rook, Harry a bishop, and Envy got to be the other bishop. Their red-haired friend took the place of a knight and directed them from square to square, taking almost as many white pieces as the enemy did black.

The game ended when Ron sacrificed himself so that Harry could take the king. Envy refused to admit being scared for the Weasley (pieces were taken out in this game the same as with normal sized wizard chess) and only checked for a pulse.

They easily passed through the next room, as the troll inside had already been knocked out, and entered a small chamber. Purple flames sprang up in the doorway behind them, from which Envy jumped away, and black fire came to life in the doorway leading onward.

The only things in the room were a table, several bottles placed in a line (on the table), and a rolled up bit of parchment (also on the table).

Hermione was quick to seize the paper, and Harry and Envy read it over her shoulder. He couldn't make heads or tails of the riddle, and judging by his expression, neither could Harry.

Hermione, however, was ecstatic, and started babbling on about wizards' stance toward logic. She paced back and forth along the table, pointing at the bottles and muttering before she clapped her hands. "Got it. The smallest bottle will get us through the black fire—toward the Stone."

As the smallest bottle didn't hold much potion, it was decided that Harry would go through the black flames, while Envy and Hermione would go back through the purple ones.

Hermione went first, shuddering as she swallowed a mouthful of the stuff in the round bottle. Apparently, it was like ice. Envy was able to confirm this when he swallowed some.

As with the potion, Envy's bushy-haired friend went through the flames first. But Envy stopped half a foot away and simply stared at the fire.

"Envy?" came Harry's unsure voice. "Are, uh, are you okay?"

The Slytherin took a couple steps back from the doorway, his eyes closed as he tried not to remember that day, the day he died.

But fire was swirling all around him, white hot flames, his flesh smoldering as Mustang's voice shouted at him—

"Envy!"

He snapped out of it, blinking in surprise as he realized that he wasn't burning, and that Harry was gazing at him with concern.

Envy shook his head and shuddered. "You know what? I think I'll stay right here in this room. You go on, and I'll wait here for you to come back or for Dumbledore to come help."

Harry gave him a hard look as if trying to figure out what was bothering him. ". . . All right." He couldn't seem to think of anything else to say, so he simply downed the contents of his bottle and, with only a moment's hesitation, stepped through the fire.

'-'

Envy didn't hear much of what happened in the room beyond the black fire.

"LIAR!"

"NEVER!"

"SEIZE HIM!" Another, "SEIZE HIM!"

"AAARGH!"

Dumbledore swept in and let out a barely noticeable sigh of relief at the sight of the former homunculus.

"KILL HIM! KILL HIM!"

The heads of both professor and student snapped to the flames still licking the door frame. The headmaster drew his wand, and with a flick of it the fire disappeared, and at the same time the two burst through the door. Envy heard two voices calling Harry's name, and was shocked to realize that one of those voices was his.

Thanks so much to Suuki-Aldrea for being this story's one hundredth follower! Thanks to all of you, really—I'm so happy about how far this fic has come. I don't expect it to get far past two hundred followers at this point, but that's fine by me! One hundred and nine alerts is already quite a bit. :D One particular guest reviewed several times informing me of how happy they are with how I made Envy normal and how much they love the story. THANK YOU. Your reviews made my day. :)

Also, as you should be able to see, the purpose of Malfoy's suspicion was to draw Envy closer to the trio. Finally. But if Envy's with the trio, we have to follow the story line a bit more closely. I'm unhappy with the amount of lines quoted directly from the book in this chapter, although there's not that many . . . Anyway, I'm thinking I should focus a little more on Envy's new personal life. That is what the story's supposed to be about, isn't it? Another also, I forgot about Envy's owl. ;-; The poor thing has been neglected.

Next chapter is the end of first year! Hooray! :D By the way, this chapter is twice as long as my average ones. I'm so proud of myself.

Please review! You'll get a free owl if you do. :D

-Quiet Leaf