I don't own Harry Potter

Chapter 11- Reactions and Suspicions

Remus couldn't believe it when he read the letter from McGonagall. And after he had told Harry to be careful! He and the other Marauders had been caught out after curfew many times themselves, but according to the letter, not only had Harry and Hermione been caught out after curfew. Not only had their escapade led to Neville being caught out after curfew trying to warn them about Malfoy. But according to McGonagall, Malfoy had told her that Harry and Hermione were smuggling a dragon out of the castle. Luckily for Harry she had believed they had told Malfoy that story to get him out of bed, which was bad enough, but if she had believed him, it would have been even worse. Remus, of course, knew Harry well enough to know that if Harry said there was a dragon involved, there was. He had an idea that Hagrid was involved with the dragon and Harry had been trying to help him, but still, that was definitely not the best course of action.

He knew Harry would probably think he was overreacting, but Harry obviously didn't understand what could have happened. All it would have taken would be for whoever was after the stone to catch Harry out at night like that. Whoever wanted that stone had to be a dark wizard or witch, and that meant they would love an excuse to get their hands on Harry. They wouldn't hesitate to kill him.

Nobody knew for sure where Voldemort was, so the person behind all this could easily be working on Voldemort's orders. The very thought of Harry getting hurt made Remus sick inside. But Remus told himself he couldn't go to the school every time Harry got in trouble. No other parent would do that. But he would definitely write to Harry about it. And he was half tempted to make it a howler. Merlin knew how much he loved Harry and hated the thought of doing anything to punish him. He couldn't remember ever having to discipline Harry for anything before. But now, he had to do something.

Harry,

In all the time I've known you I never would have thought this of you. Now in our time we Marauders got into our fair share of trouble, but back then we knew nobody at Hogwarts was going to hurt us. You know that someone jinxed your broom and let a troll into the castle, so you should have known you could have been hurt. Or worse. I have a feeling I know why you did it, but that's no excuse. You probably weren't thinking that way, but you were, in fact, risking your life. There are Death Eaters out there who would love a chance to get their hands on you. Not all of them ended up in Azkaban. And even if the person behind this isn't a Death Eater, you've had plenty of proof of what they'd do if they thought you were in their way. You can't take that risk.

You've always been loyal to your friends. But if your friend is who I think it is I know he would rather have dealt with the trouble himself if he'd realized the danger to you. He wouldn't want to take a chance on you getting hurt any more than I do.

I can imagine the points that were taken away and the detention seem like punishment enough, but I'm going to take away flying privileges for the summer as well. I'm sorry if it seems harsh, but I don't want to see anything happen to you. You have to understand how reckless your behavior has been., and as much as I hate to do this, I'd rather have you disappointed by me than hurt by a dark witch or wizard. Someday when you have children of your own I know you'll understand.

Love, Dad.

Harry sighed. Even loss of flying privileges couldn't make him feel much worse than he already did, although he did feel bad about worrying his dad that way. His only thoughts at the time had been helping Hagrid keep out of trouble, and as his dad had guessed, he hadn't given a thought to getting in trouble himself, much less being in danger. Now he was paying the price, and the worst punishment by far was from the other students. McGonagall had taken fifty points each from Harry, Hermione, and Neville. If Ron hadn't had to stay behind because Norbert had bit him they would have lost more points yet. As it was, Gryffindor was already in last place.

All the other students except the Slytherins were mad at him. They'd all wanted to see Slytherin loose the house cup, no matter who else won it. Now, with Gryffindor out of the running and Slytherin so far in the lead, it looked like any chance of that was gone, and as far as the other students were concerned, it was all Harry's fault. Harry was just glad they didn't blame Hermione and Neville too. Poor Neville was looked down on enough as it was. As if that weren't punishment enough, the three of them had a detention along with Draco. If it hadn't been for the situation, Harry would almost have thought it was funny that they were being sent out after dark as a punishment for doing the same thing.

He was just glad that their detention would be with Hagrid looking for a wounded unicorn in the Forbidden Forest. He had heard plenty of stories of both the Marauders and the Weasley twins being in detention and knew that it could be worse. They could be cleaning bedpans in the hospital wing or sorting out rotten slugs from good ones without being allowed to use gloves. Draco didn't see it that way though, and started complaining as soon as he found out what they'd be doing.

"But there are werewolves out there."

Harry knew not many people even bothered to think that werewolves were normal most of the time. It always bothered him that people seemed to think even a werewolf who hadn't transformed was dangerous.

"The moon isn't full tonight Malfoy. I don't think we need to worry about that."

Malfoy didn't answer, but gave Harry a dirty look when Hagrid paired the two of them. Poor Hagrid knew Harry wouldn't like the arrangement, but Harry understood since the other option would have been pairing Draco with Neville, and with Draco always bullying him that would never have worked out. They also got to take Fang with them. Hagrid warned them that Fang was "a bloody coward" and wouldn't be much protection. But even Fang turned out to be braver than Malfoy did once they found the unicorn, along with a hooded figure leaned over it, looking like it was drinking the unicorn's blood. Draco ran away screaming, with Fang making a run for it about half a second later as the hooded figure looked up. Seeing Harry, it moved towards him.

Harry had heard of the Cruciatus Curse, although of course he had never felt it, but he could imagine the pain from it must be something like what he felt in his scar now. He knew he had to think of a spell, and fast. He managed a repelling jinx and a few other spells, some he had learnt at Hogwarts and a few that his dad had taught him, but it was very tiring to shoot so many spells so fast. He felt like he was on the verge of blacking out when he heard hoof beats and who or whatever was under the hood was driven away.

"So Snape doesn't want the stone for himself. He wants it for Voldemort," Harry said after filling the others in on what he'd seen and what Firenze the centaur had told him.

"Don't say that name!"

"I'm not the only one who does, Ron. My dad and Dumbledore both say it. It's not as if saying it is going to change anything one way or the other. Anyway, that person under the hood, it had to be either Snape or Voldemort." Ron and Hermione flinched. "And if either of them gets their hands on that stone, it's only a question of time before Voldemort comes back."

All three of them looked uneasy, but Hermione's nervousness was mixed with thoughtfulness.

"But at least Dumbledore's still here. Everyone's always saying Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who ever feared."

Harry had to admit that helped ease his mind. And it also helped that his invisibility cloak, which he'd accidentally left in the astronomy tower the night they'd sent Norbert away, was somehow put under his bedcovers that night. Yet he'd started having nightmares more and more often, and his scar had started hurting again. With all that on his mind it was hard to concentrate on exams, but somehow he managed to focus long enough to study. It turned out a portion of the exams were things Remus had taught him long ago. He had hoped part of the History of Magic exam would have something about the 1637 Werewolf Code of Conduct, something he naturally knew about in detail, but it hadn't come up.

The mood was only slightly more relaxed once exams were over. They were taking advantage of the beautiful weather by lazing around by the lake. But while Hermione kept talking about how enjoyable she thought the exams were and Ron was saying how glad he was not to have to study anymore, Harry couldn't shake the feeling something was wrong.

"I know you're worried about Snape and You-Know-Who, Harry, but Snape can't know how to get past Fluffy, and I don't think Quirrell's told him how to get past whatever protection he's in charge of. And Dumbledore's still here. So Snape can't possibly get that stone, and without it You-Know-Who can't come back to power, can he?"

Harry had to admit that made sense.

"Come on Harry. Why don't we play some wizard's chess or exploding snap?" Ron suggested. "Or we could go visit Hagrid."

"Sure, visiting Hagrid sounds good." Harry agreed. With all the studying and exams, they hadn't had much time to visit him lately. Not since the detention in the forest, in fact. He was probably still feeling sad about Norbert being gone. Wait a second. Norbert. Harry jumped up suddenly, looking almost as if he was seeing the hooded figure again.

"Harry, what's wrong?"

He turned to his friends and said "Isn't it a bit strange that the thing Hagrid wants most in the world is a dragon, and someone comes along who just happens to have one? I mean they're illegal aren't they, so they can't be easy to come across."

Hermione and Ron looked at each other.

"But Harry, Hagrid would never betray a secret," Hermione started to reason.

"Not willingly, no. But remember how he let it slip to us about Flamel? And he told us he won Norbert off a man at a pub. If Hagrid was drinking who knows what he let slip."

Hermione and Ron looked at each other, and all three of them were thinking the same thing: They had a big problem.