Detention

When I told Cedric about what had happened, he said he was glad of Dumbledore's decision and was more relieved when I started acting like myself again. When Ron and Hermione returned, we told them about had happened—(minus certain details). Ron was disappointed he'd missed out on my nighttime escapades, Hermione was annoyed that'd I'd been reckless, but both of them were excited about what I'd seen between Snape and Quirrell and became more convinced of our previous theory.

A few days later, on rainy afternoon, we were searching yet again and then Hermione came down and placed a huge book on the table. "I had you looking in the wrong section. How could I be so stupid? I checked this out weeks ago for a bit of light reading."

"This is light?" said Ron, earning a glare from Hermione.

Hermione fingered the page until she found it. "Of course, here it is! Nicholas Flamel is the only known maker of the Sorcerer's Stone. 'The Sorcerer's Stone is a legendary substance with astonishing powers. It can transform any metal into pure gold and produces the Elixir of Life which will make the drinker immortal. The only known Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr. Nicholas Flamel, the note alchemist, who last year celebrated his six hundredth and sixty-fifth birthday.' That's what Fluffy's guarding, that's what under the trapdoor, the Sorcerer's Stone," said Hermione.

"No wonder Snape wants it," said Ron. "Who wouldn't?"

"We need to talk to Hagrid," said Cedric. "

"Come on!" I said, as we grabbed our cloaks.

The sky was dark and the hour late when we got down to Hagrid's hut. We knocked on the door and Hagrid opened it.

"Oh, hello. Sorry, don't mean to be rude, but I'm in no mood to entertain today," he said, shutting the door.

"Hagrid, we know about the Sorcerer's Stone!" we said.

Hagrid's face fell and he let us in.

"We think Snape's trying to steal it," said Cedric.

"Snape? You're not still on about him, are you?"

"Hagrid, we know he's after it! He's tried to get past Fluffy, he's tried to kill me and threatened a teacher for crying out loud! What further proof do you need?" I said.

"Snape's one of the teachers protecting the Stone! He's not about to steal it!"

"One of the teachers?" Ron repeated.

"There's more protecting the Stone than Fluffy, isn't there?" said Hermione.

"That's right, except nobody knows how to get past Fluffy but me and Dumbledore. I shouldn't have told you that." Just then, the pot in the fire started rattling and Hagrid took out a large black egg and placed it on the table.

My eyes widened. "Hagrid, tell me that's not what I think it is!" I said, eyeing the black egg. He couldn't be so stupid as to actually have one illegally, could he?

"Hagrid, how on earth did you even get one?" asked Cedric.

"I won it," he said, proudly. "I got it off a stranger I met down at the pub. He seemed quite glad to be rid of it as a matter of face."

Just then, the egg hatched and a black slimy dragon hatchling came out.

"Is that a dragon?" said Hermione.

"That's not just a dragon, that's a Norwegian Ridgeback," said Ron. "My brother works with these in Romania."

"Ain't he beautiful?" Hagrid cooed. "Look, he knows his mummy! Hello, Norbert."

"Oh, for crying out loud!" I muttered as I buried my face in my hands. Had he gone crazy? This was illegal! I looked up as Hagrid spoke and saw Malfoy in the window. Oh, crud! We'd been caught!

We ran back up to the castle, hoping we wouldn't be caught, but we were. Professor McGonagall and Malfoy were waiting for us. Malfoy looked smug and McGongall was furious with us.

"Nothing, I repeat, nothing gives a student the right to walk about the school at night. Therefore as punishment for your actions, fifty points will be taken."

"Fifty?" I repeated, outraged and horrified.

"Each," she said, sternly. "And to insure that it doesn't happen again, all five of you will receive detention."

"Excuse me, Professor," said Malfoy. "Perhaps I heard you wrong. I thought you said the five of us."

"No, you heard me correctly Mr. Malfoy. As honorable as your intentions were, you too, were out of bed out of hours. You'll join your classmates in detention. Your detention will be served the day after tomorrow. Go to bed at once."

While we were glad Malfoy hadn't gotten out of punishment, things couldn't be worse. No one would talk to us and were quite angry about Gryffindor's loss of points. The team was especially angry with me. Wood was the only one who didn't refer to me as 'the Seeker' if he was talking about me and was somewhat nicer than the others. I didn't care about my reputation; I was more concerned about my friends' reputations. I apologized for getting them into trouble, but they all just said it wasn't my fault and not to blame myself.

Detention was certainly going to be eventful. We were going out with Hagrid at midnight. I tried to ignore Filch's ramblings about the old punishments of letting a student hang by their thumbs in the dudgeons. To my surprise, Hagrid was quite upset when we arrived.

"Hagrid, what's wrong?" I asked.

"Norbert's gone. Dumbledore's sent him off to Romania to live in a colony."

"That's good, isn't it? He'll be with his own kind," said Hermione.

"Yeah, but what if he don't like Romania? What if the other dragons are mean to him? He's only a baby after all."

"Oh, for pity's sake, pull yourself together man!" said Filch, rolling his eyes. "You're going into the Forest, after all! Got to have your wits about you."

"The Forest?" Malfoy repeated. "I thought that was a joke! We can't go in there! Students aren't allowed and there are werewolves in there!"

"There are more than werewolves in those trees," said Filch. "Good-night. I'll be back at dawn for what's left of them."

I rolled my eyes as we entered the Forest. It certainly was creepy and I wasn't terribly fond of it. We made our way to a pool of silvery liquid which Hagrid fingered.

"Hagrid, what is that?" asked Hermione.

"What we're here for. This is unicorn blood. I found one dead a few weeks ago. Now, it's our job to go and find the poor creature. Ron, Hermione, you're with me. Helena, you and Cedric go with Malfoy."

"Okay, then I get Fang," said Malfoy.

"Fine, just so you know, he's a bloody coward," said Hagrid. "One more thing. Send off green sparks if you find something and red sparks if you're in trouble, got it?"

We nodded and then walked off.

Cedric squeezed my hand when I shivered in the chilly night air. Draco carried the lantern and kept complaining.

"Wait until my father hears about this!" he spat. "This is servants' stuff!"

"Stop complaining, Draco. It's your fault we're here in the first place!" I snapped.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you were scared," said Cedric, earning a chuckle from me and a glare from Malfoy.

"I'm not scared, Diggory!" he spat.

"Whatever," I muttered. "Come on, Fang."

We came into a clearing where a dead unicorn lay, its blood freshly spilt and Fang started growling. And then we saw a dark hooded figure with blood dripping from his lips. Malfoy let out a childish shriek and ran for it while Cedric set out red sparks. The figure came to close to us as Cedric stood protectively in front of me.

"Helena, run!" he shouted.

"I'm not leaving you!" I shouted.

Before either of us could run, there was the sound of hoofbeats and a huge centaur came and protected us until the figure disappeared into the skies. We were both breathing hard as we stood up.

"Thank you," I said. "Thank you."

"Cedric Diggory, Helena Potter, no thanks are needed. My name is Firenze. Miss Potter, you are known to many creatures here," he said. "The Forest is not safe at this time, especially for you. You need to leave as soon as you are able."

"But what on earth was that thing?" asked Cedric.

"A monster," said Firenze. "It is a terrible crime to slay a unicorn. Drinking its blood will save you even if you are an inch from death. But at a terrible price. You have slain something so pure that from the moment touches your lips, you will live a half-life. A cursed life."

"But who'd choose such a life?" I asked.

"Can you think of no one?"

Cedric and I exchanged appalled glances.

"You mean to say that thing you saved us from, that was Voldemort?" I said, horrified.

"Do you two know what is hidden up at the school at this very moment?"

"The Sorcerer's Stone," said Cedric.

Just then, Hagrid and the others arrived. Malfoy was being held up by Hagrid who looked furious with him.

"Cedric Diggory, Helena Potter, you're safe now. But no doubt our paths will cross again," said Firenze. "Good luck."

We just nodded and didn't speak until Ron, Hermione, Cedric and I were in a private room to talk about what had happened. Ron and Hermione were both scared and shocked by the information.

"You mean, You-Know-Who's out there right now?" said Hermione.

"Yes, but he's weak," said Cedric. "We had this all wrong. Snape doesn't want the Stone for himself. He wants it for it for Voldemort."

"With the Elixir of Life, he'll be strong again and he'll come back," I said.

"But if he comes back, you don't think he'll try to kill you, do you?" asked Ron.

"I think if he had the chance, he would've tried to kill me tonight," I admitted.

They all looked horrified until Hermione spoke up. "Hang on, we're forgetting one thing. Who's the one wizard that Voldemort's always feared? Dumbledore. As long as Dumbledore's around, Helena, you're safe. As long as Dumbledore's around, you can't be touched."

I was a bit relieved by this, but I was still worried. As time passed, we four became likeable again in the eyes of the other students and managed to scrap through our exams without too much difficulty. After the last exam was over, we all headed down to the lake to relax. But I couldn't.

"Helena, what's wrong?" asked Cedric.

"It's my scar. It keeps burning," I murmured.

"Maybe you should see the nurse," said Ron.

"I'm not ill!" I said, in exasperation. "I think it's a warning. I think danger's coming." I saw Hagrid and then a horrible thought hit me. "Oh, no!" I started running and the others followed me. "Don't you think it's a bit strange that what Hagrid wants more than anything is a dragon and a stranger turns up who just happens to have one? How many strangers have dragon eggs in their pockets if it's illegal? Why didn't I see it before?"

We ran over to Hagrid.

"Hagrid, that stranger you got the dragon egg from, what did he look like?" asked Cedric. "Did you get a name?"

"No, no name. And I never saw his face, he kept his hood. I can't remember much to be honest. He kept buying me drinks, I was a bit tipsy."

"What did you talk about? Your job? Fluffy?" asked Hermione.

"Well, he asked about what kind of creatures I looked after. I told him, I said, "After Fluffy, a dragon's going to be no problem. He was very interested in Fluffy, no surprise there, anyone would be. So, I told him, I said, 'The trick with any beast is to know how to calm it. Take Fluffy for example, just play him a bit of music and he falls straight to sleep.'" He looked as horrified as we were as we exchanged appalled glances and ran back up the castle.

We ran into Professor McGonagall, who was carrying some books. "Professor, we need to see Professor Dumbledore, immediately!" I said, breathlessly.

"I'm afraid Professor Dumbledore's not here. He received an urgent owl from Ministry of Magic and left immediately for London ten minutes ago."

"He's gone? Now? But this is important!" said Ron. "This is about the Sorcerer's Stone!"

Professor McGonagall looked shocked. "How do you know—?"

"There's no time to explain," said Cedric. "We think someone's going to try to steal it!"

"I don't know how your four found out about the Stone, but I can assure you it's very well protected. Now, I suggest you all go out and enjoy the sunshine while you have the chance," said Professor McGonagall.

We could see arguing would prove to be useless, so we obeyed. We went into the corridor, but we weren't enjoying ourselves and nor did we leave.

"That was no stranger Hagrid met at the pub, that was Snape," said Cedric. "And now he knows how to get past Fluffy."

"And with Dumbledore gone…" Hermione was cut off by Snape who just came up behind us.

"Good afternoon, now what would three young Gryffindors and a young Hufflepuff be doing inside on a day like this? You'd better watch yourselves. People will think you're up to something," he said.

"We were just making plans for the day, Professor," I said, as I beckoned for the others to go. "Excuse us."

We waited until he was out of sight and then Ron said, "Now what're we going to do?"

"We're going through that trapdoor, tonight," I said. "There's no other way around it."

"Alright, then. Curfew's at nine o'clock. I'll meet you outside your portrait hole at ten past," said Cedric. "Bring your Cloak and make sure no one follows you."

We nodded and then went to dinner and then to our common rooms. At nine o'clock, we snuck out.

We'd almost gotten out but then Trevor, Neville's toad was ribbiting at us.

"Trevor, go!" Ron hissed. "You shouldn't be here!"

"Neither should you," said Neville, appearing out of nowhere. "You're sneaking out again, aren't you?"

"Neville, please, just listen…" I began, but he didn't listen.

"No! You'll get Gryffindor into trouble again!" he said. "I-I'll fight you!"

"Do something!" Ron hissed to Hermione.

"Neville, I'm really, really sorry about this," she said. She aimed her wand at him. "Pertrificus Totalus!"

Neville's body instantly went stiff and he collapsed to the floor. Hermione had done a Full Body-Bind Spell. We all apologized, but we had no choice. Snape had to be stopped, no matter what.