Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter 13

"He's doing what?" Harry asked Oliver in the common room.

"Snape's going to be refereeing the next Quidditch game, so please don't give him another excuse to make us lose the game," Oliver said to Harry as he walked over to sit with some of the other team members.

"Great," Harry said. "Snape's going to make a call on everything!"

"Don't worry Harry," George said from across the room.

"We'll hit him with a bludger if he annoys us too much," Fred said.

"Fred!" Oliver warned from where he was sitting. "This is not a joke!"

"Who said I was joking?" Fred said.

"You shouldn't play, Harry," Ron said. "Look what happened last time!"

"Pretend to break a leg!" Hermione suggested.

"Really break your leg!" Ron said, getting a disapproving look from both Hermione and me.

Suddenly, the Gryffindor common room opened up and someone came hopping in. It was Neville and his legs appeared to be locked together.

"What happened?" I asked watching him hop around.

"Malfoy," Neville grumbled as he focused on not falling over.

"Stay still," I said as I walked over to put the counter curse on him.

"Thanks," he smiled as he moved his legs around once again.

"So, why'd he do that to you?" Harry asked grabbing a Chocolate Frog.

Neville looked down at his feet and mumbled something under his breath.

"What was that?"

"Because he says that I'm a loser and can't do any magic…"

"You're not a loser, Neville," I told him.

"Thanks," he blushed as he sat down in a chair near the fire.

"Yeah," Harry said. "You're worth twelve of him."

"Here," I said tossing Neville a Chocolate Frog.

Then Hermione appeared in the room, her nose buried in a book.

"Hermione, are you honestly still reading?" Ron asked her. "Class doesn't start until tomorrow!"

"I am well aware of that, Ron," she snapped. "I'm trying to find some more about Flamel! You were supposed to do this while I was gone-"

"Hermione, we tried!" I said to her as I plopped down in the couch next to Neville. "We even went in the restricted section, but we nearly got caught."

"I know you all looked…I'm just frustrated," Hermione mumbled as she began to start reading again.

"Do you want this?" Neville said handing over a card a few minutes later.

"Who'd you get?" I grabbed the card and read it.

It was Dumbledore's card, I already had three others of him, so I told Neville that he could keep it and handed it back to him. That's when I remembered something.

"Can I see that for just a moment?" I asked him.

When he handed me the card, I quickly found what I had been looking for.

"That's it!" I said standing up and looking at Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

"What?" Ron asked.

"It mentions on this card that Dumbledore was famous for his 'work in alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel!"

Hermione ran over and grabbed the card to read it quickly. Then she ran up the stairs that led to the girls' dormitories.

"Where is she going?" Ron asked looking at the stairs where she had been moments before.

"No idea…" Harry replied.

I walked back over to Neville, who looked extremely confused as to what was going on, and handed him his card back.

"I'm so stupid!" Hermione said as she returned to the room with a large book in her hands.

"What is-?" Ron began.

Hermione put up a finger as she read in the book.

"Of course!" Hermione said pointing at the page. "Nicolas Flamel is the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone!"

"The what?" I said walking over to Hermione.

"The Philosopher's Stone!" Hermione repeated. "It is known to transform any metal into pure gold and produce the Elixir of Life, which makes the drinker immortal! It says that the only Stone in existence belongs to Nicolas Flamel, who just turned six-hundred and sixty-fifth birthday!"

We all looked to each other, realization on each one of our faces.

"So that's what the dog must be guarding!" I said. "Harry, remember when we went to Gringotts before the start of the term? Hagrid picked something small up from one of the vaults!"

"It must have been the stone!" he said.

"No wonder Snape wants the stone!" Ron said.

I shot Ron a look, still not believing that Snape was actually trying to steal anything from Flamel, Dumbledore, or Hogwarts.

"I think I'm going to play the Quidditch game…" Harry said after a few moments. "I don't want Snape thinking that he's gotten to me…"

"He's everywhere!" Harry said to me as we made our way to Potions class, Ron trailing behind us. "It's like he's following me!"

"I really think that you're being paranoid," I said looking at my brother.

"Why is it that you always stick up for him?" Harry asked me, looking slightly amused. "Why can't you see that he's not the good guy?"

"Snape just seems like he's in a bad mood all the time, I don't think that he's trying to kill anyone…"

We walked into the classroom, almost everyone was there. Hermione was already seated, she always got there before us, along with Neville, Malfoy, and some other Slytherins.

I took my normal seat next to Neville and received a look from Malfoy across the room.

"Can I help you?" I said after a moment of his glaring.

"Oh nothing, Potter," Malfoy spat. "I was just-"

Snape burst in through the door, shutting Malfoy up immediately.

"Today you will brew a cure for boils, you may begin…" Snape said waving his wand to put the directions on the board.

"Remember to turn off the fire before you put the porcupine needles in," I whispered to Neville who nodded.

I made my potion as usual, and made sure to watch Neville in the process. This had become a normal thing because he normally did mess up and we ended up losing points. I tried to watch him as closely as possible because normally I looked away just as he messed up. Today, however, he always glanced at me for approval before he did anything.

"Your time is up," Snape said as he stood up from his desk at the end of class.

He began to walk around the room, checking everyone's cauldron as usual. Most people, because this was a fairly new potion, had made little errors that made the potion completely unacceptable in Snape's eyes.

"Weasley," Snape sneered. "You were supposed to add three porcupine needles, not four. Five points from Gryffindor…"

"Potter, you obviously kept your potion under the fire entirely too long…another five points."

After Snape had passed them, the two of them looked back at me, both obviously anger at the teacher.

"Mr. Longbottom…" Snape said as he stood over Neville's potion, as if waiting to see a catastrophe.

Neville looked as though he was shaking, after all, it was a common theme for him to lose points in Potions class.

"Miss Potter, what have I said about helping Longbottom?" Snape said, still observing Neville's potion.

"I was just-" I started.

"Helping him?" Snape said as he walked over to my cauldron. "I've told you, Longbottom needs to learn to do these things by himself-"

"How is he actually supposed to learn anything when he doesn't get any help?" I cut in.

"Detention," Snape said. "Don't interrupt me in class, Miss Potter. I expect you in my office, tomorrow night…"

He walked off, still not looking at me as he passed.

After a few moments, Neville spoke up.

"Oh my gosh," he whispered to me.

"What?" I looked over at him.

"I didn't lose any points," he smiled over at me. "Thanks!"

"Anytime, Neville…"

Ron, Hermione, Neville, and I took our seats in the stands, looking out at the field as the game was about to begin.

"Well, at least you get to watch the game," Ron said, thinking about my detention.

"Yeah," I said looking around at the stands. "Look! Dumbledore is here!"

"Wow! He doesn't normally come to the games!" Ron said.

Then the teams began to walk out onto the field. Today, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor came onto the field, with Snape trailing behind them.

"He looks pissed," Ron said.

I looked at the Potions master, and couldn't help but notice the same thing.

"There they go-OUCH!" Ron said as he was poked in the back.

I turned around to see Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle sitting behind us.

"Sorry, Weasley, I didn't see you there," he said, an evil grin going across his face. "I wonder if Potter is going to fall off his broom today…I think that calls for a bet! Anyone want to go against me, how about you, Weasley?"

I tried my best to ignore Malfoy, but the look I saw on Ron's face said that he was having difficulty paying attention to the game.

"You know how the Gryffindor team picks their players, Goyle?" Malfoy said, speaking intentionally loud. "They only choose the pathetic ones. You see, there's Potter, who has no parents, then you have the Weasleys, who have no money - hey Longbottom, you should be on the team, you don't have any brains!"

Crabbe and Goyle burst into laughter, Ron and Neville went bright red.

"I'm worth twelve of you, Malfoy…" Neville muttered.

Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle laughed even more.

"You tell him, Neville," Ron said, still looking at the game.

I nudged him and smiled, proud that he stood up for himself, and he smiled back, still red in the face.

"If brains were gold, you'd be poorer than Weasley, and that's pathetic!" Malfoy sneered at Neville.

"Say one more thing Malfoy, I swear!" Ron warned.

Hermione shot him a look, not wanting a fight to start.

Then, suddenly, Harry dove towards the ground towards the Snitch.

"Look! Potter must have found some gold, Weasley, you're in luck!" Malfoy laughed.

That's when Ron snapped. He turned around and jumped on Malfoy, wrestling with him. Before you knew it, Neville had joined in and was trying to take on both Crabbe and Goyle.

"Guys!" I yelled at the people fighting behind me.

I stood up when Crabbe and Goyle pushed Neville down. They went to grab him up again, when I pulled out my wand and pointed at them. Then I was pushed to the ground by some Slytherin girl, who I recognized as Pansy Parkinson.

"Oh, hell no!" I said, standing up again.

I put my wand in my jacket and looked at the girl. I walked slowly up to her and smiled in her face. She looked confused for a moment, but was cut off when I punched her dead in the face and knocked her to the ground. I was pushed forward slightly when Crabbe bumped into me because Neville had punched him also, knocking him backwards.

"HE'S CAUGHT THE SNITCH!" Hermione shrieked as the rest of the crowd began to cheer.

Everyone that was fighting stopped and looked back at the field.

"We won!" Ron cheered through a bloody nose.

I turned to see that Neville was knocked out on the ground, but I also noticed that both Crabbe and Goyle had black eyes blossoming on their faces.

Hope that was better than the last chapter! I think I have some idea what I might do with the whole godparent thing that I mentioned in my last chapter, but I'm not going to say what exactly. However, I am still taking suggestions! Oh, and sorry for not posting yesterday, I was actually watching the Harry Potter weekend on ABC. :D

So, if anyone has any thoughts or suggestions, please tell me! PLEASE REVIEW! I want to know what everyone thinks of the story so far!