DISCLAIMER: THE BOOK BELONGS TO J. I HAVE ONLY BORROWED BOTH CHARACTERS AND PLOTLINE.

CHAPTER 11

Startled out of his sleep in the morning, Harry sat up blearily. All that he had learnt the last night came flooding back. He had a sudden urge to see Darren. Quickly getting dressed Harry walked down to the great hall, seeing only a few a people he decided to eat something before he did anything further. Nibbling on toast Harry watched as people started to slowly trickle in, in ones and twos finally he spotted his brother who was walking over to him.

Darren waved and hurried over to his side "Harry we need to talk." Unsettled Harry wondered if Darren had heard already and the mentally shook himself he was getting paranoid.

Darren dragged him out of the hall and stood in front of him restlessly.

"Calm down Darren. What happened?"

"Okay you know how Hagrid is nuts about big dangerous creatures?"

"Right…yeah and?" asked harry cautiously. This was not going in the direction he had imagined.

"Well he met this bloke in a bar and got a dragons egg from him," Darren whispered, " and now the big oaf wants to look after it. I swear that man will be the death of me."

Harry laughed bewildered trust Hagrid to house a dragon, and looking at Darren he said carefully there was no way anyone would miss a dragon Dumbledore would not allow it, it was illegal. Darren nodded and smiled secretively.

"Oh no, don't tell me your helping him!" groaned Harry.

Of course I'm going to he's Hagrid, but we're convincing him to give it to Charlie."

Harry shook his head and then sighing he asked if they needed his help Darren patted him on the shoulder promised to ask if he did and then walked back in. Harry turned to the sun squinting in its bright light, Darren had a knack of finding trouble if he knew about Voldemort he would try to help for sure. Harry would not see his brother forced into that kind of situation, no, he had to plan on his own.

Classes seemed to drag on today very slowly at history of magic Draco had to pinch him awake three times. Finally after refusing to join the others on the quidditch field he headed to the library, he had to find out all he could about the philosophers stone, already he knew that it was a stone with the power of alchemy, it defied all principles of transfiguration in that it could change the very nature of an object, also an added perk it gave the user an immortal life. Of course Voldemort would want it, it was priceless.

He searched for it in many books before spying on a thin book with the name Nicholas flamel. His hand ghosted over the book why did the name seem so familiar? Suddenly grinning happily to himself Harry realized Nicholas Flamel was the creator of the stone, it was the on chocolate frog cards!

Pulling out book Harry read about the man he was currently 625 years old as was his wife Perenelle, they had accomplished a lot in the field of potions, and had assisted Dumbledore with discovering the uses of dragon blood. They were currently living quietly, one day at a time travelling and enjoying life in general.

Harry now had to find out if the stone was here in Hogwarts definitely, and he also had to find out who was after it for Voldemort, and how he was going to protect Darren.

Closing the book he headed over to the classroom where Draco was waiting for him after a thorough work out in the quidditch arena, to work on the potion.

"Harry," Draco said drawing Harry's attention to him,and added worm wort to the cauldron carefully stirring it twice, a purple mist could be seen hanging over it, " it's almost ready for resting."

Harry walked over to it and peered inside. It was. Draco was right .

"By the way Harry I've spoken to Snape about the Occlumency lessons, apparently this year might be difficult it seems all the teachers are involved in something important and it is going to be hard to get free time with him."

Harry just nodded he knew what was happening , Snape was protecting the stone. Then by all means Harry would not disturb him. "It's alright once the potion is brewed we have 5 years we can take our time." They sat down and pulled out their newest transfiguration homework and began working on it while the cauldron simmered away.

Four things Harry could gleam of the situation one, there was a philosophers stone involved, and after talking to Draco he was pretty sure it was in Hogwarts. Two, If it was being protected in Hogwarts he was pretty certain he knew where it had to be, the third floor. Three all the teachers were involved in its protection which meant they all must have created obstacles to prevent anyone from getting to it and lastly he knew why they were protecting it so thoroughly and from whom.

The first thing he had to do was discover what was protecting the stone so that he could estimate the danger involved and if indeed the protection was infallible. He knew that he would have to get information from the source itself.

Taking about two days to come up with a plan the first thing he did was go to the Weasley twins. They had just invented extendable ears that could be useful for spying as they acted like muggle bugs that were implanted for listening in on private conversations. Coming up with a plausible excuse Harry managed to get a pair from the twins.

There were two magically charmed earpieces connected by a translucent thread, Harry worked on it modifying it a bit so that it would work without the cumbersome thread that would be discovered if people tripped over it.

That night he went to the teachers' common staffroom where they held meetings and met during breaks. Finding a large wooden beam at the edge of the roof, he levitated one of the earpieces and firmly affixed it on the hidden side, testing it he found that it worked perfectly.

He knew that it was impossible to listen to all the conversations, and it was also a violation of privacy not that Harry was stickler for rules, obviously! So he decided that he would wait for the next meeting and tune in then. Luckily he already knew that it was to be held immediately after they'd all returned from Christmas holidays. This he had heard from Madam Hooch who wanted to bring to notice the deplorable state of the school brooms. Satisfied with the nights work he went back to his tower to sleep only stopped by Violet who looked concernedly at him and asked why didn't eat more regularly.