The Rise of Overlord Vulcan!

by The Dark Dragen

DEAD, BUT BEING WRITTEN IN THE REWRITE...

4. Chapter 4 - First Year: Part 2!

'Thoughts'

Chapter 4…

5th of January 1992:

It was the evening of the last day of the Christmas Holidays, and the students that had left for the Holidays were returning. As Harry was going down to the Great Hall for the Welcome Back Feast he found himself behind a small group of what looked liked second or third year Ravenclaws. Not really in a rush, Harry stayed behind them. As he did, he heard a black haired girl of the group say, "I'm so glad that I'm back… don't get me wrong, I like home and that, but Hogwarts is something else, it's like home away from home."

"I know what you mean Jenny, there's something about Hogwarts that make it feel like home." A blonde haired girl agreed. Harry himself found he agreed with them; there was something about Hogwarts that made it feel like home instead of a school. "It's a shame we have to deal with that idiot Weasley again." The same blonde haired girl said.

"I know what you mean Lou." A dark red haired boy grumbled. "Just because he's friends with Potter, Weasley thinks he can order us around. As if being friends with Potter can get him whatever he wants, and even get him out of trouble."

"What's worse? It's actually working, people can be so stupid sometimes…" Jenny sighed, massaging the bridge of her nose. "I saw Cho helping Weasley with his homework before the holidays, all because she wants to get into Potter's pants eventually. I really don't get it, that girls a credit to our House when it comes to grades, but she can be so dense sometimes; yeah, sure, helping Weasley with his homework would maybe get her into Potter's social circle, but she could just as easily offer Potter himself help."

As they walked away Harry stood there in shock, it seemed Ron was doing things behind his back Harry didn't agree with. He hated being used and Ron was using his name for his own gain. Harry suddenly felt less hungry, and decided to return to the Gryffindor Tower, where he would wait for Ron to return and he would have a few words with the youngest male Weasley.

o0OoO0o

It was a few hours later before the Gryffindors returned to the Tower. Since Ron wasn't in the Tower, Harry had went up to his room to read for a bit, he was making good headway in his history book, and the way he saw it the farther ahead he was, the more justified him either sleeping or doing something else in History of Magic class was. When he heard the majority of the Gryffindors enter the Common Room Harry finished the paragraph he was reading and marked the page he was on with a mark. Setting the book on his bed Harry stretched and made his way down the dorm stares, his shoulder's squared for the confrontation that would likely ensue downstairs.

o0OoO0o

"I still think you're full of shit Ron." Seamus Finnegan said for the third time as Ron tried to brag to him.

"I swear it's the truth, Harry wanted all the credit for the troll, so he forced me to go back to the Common Room!" Ron argued. He wouldn't normally be talking like this in the Common Room - too close to Harry - but Seamus wasn't buying his lies and if one thing could be said about Ronald Billius Weasley, it's that he was stubborn.

"Ron I-oh…" Seamus started, only to look over Ron's shoulder, his eyes widening before he turned and quickly headed towards the opposite end of the Common Room. Ron finally shutting his trap, as well as Harry's expression, a look that could be described as 'calm as a bomb', by several Muggleborns in the room, attracted the attention of almost every Gryffindor in the Common Room.

Ron turned around, only to pale as he came face to face with Harry Potter. Everyone in the room could sense the power coming off the last Potter. "Forced you back to the Common Room, huh?" Harry parroted.

Ron laughed nervously, looking anywhere but at the dark haired boy in front of him. "I was just-Seamus thought that-"

He stammered. Harry was quick to shut him down, "Funny, I distinctly remember you said, and I quote; 'Who cares, I'm not going to risk my life for someone I don't like. If you want to save her, be my guest, but I'm not helping.' you then shrugged your shoulder, all but dismissing Hermione's very life as an annoyance, and fled back to the Common Room with everybody else."

Ron's ears went pink at having his own words repeated back to him, with perfect inflection no less. "Well… well…" Ron sputtered, his face rapidly matching his ears as he tried and failed to think up something to say to either shift the blame, or weasel his way out of it as he saw the shocked and horrified looks on the other Gryffindor's faces. As always, his mouth moved without his brain being able to even begin to keep up, and words spilled from his mouth. "I have a family that I need to get back to, I can't afford to just throw my life away for some-sore some bossy bint!" Ron screamed.

Harry looked over his shoulder as he heard a gasp. One look confirmed it was Hermione, looking terribly hurt. "Hmph, I'd pick that 'bossy bint' to watch my back any day. Better than a back stabbing, untrustworthy, attention seeking piece of shit like you." He said as he turned back and levelled an even stare back at the redhead. "You're nothing but a prat using my so called fame to get what he-"

However, Harry, who was still not used to being in a magic environment, was taken off guard as Ron, instead of charging at him to throw a punch, pulled his wand and shot a spell at him. Harry's natural reaction was to dodge the off-yellow coloured bolt of magic, so that's what he did; he leaned sideways, letting it fly past him without a thought.

He realized his mistake a second later as he heard Hermione yelp. With a backwards look he saw her holding a hand over her mouth, her wide terrified eyes locked on her hand. Harry didn't know what was wrong, but he felt the rage he'd been holding snap free of the restraints he'd kept it under.

Ron stepped back as Harry turned back around, his expression murderous. His voice, despite the rest of his posture, was still level and calm though. "Do you know what most people think of Wizard's in the Muggle World, Ron?" He asked.

Ron tried to muster his courage and be brave, a Gryffindor, but all he managed to do was squeak out a weak, "What?" as Harry advanced on him.

"That they're squishy."

o0OoO0o

McGonagall hurried to her House's Common Room as the wards tied to her, as the Head of House Gryffindor, reported hostile spell fire. One look and the Fat Lady swung open, and the sight that lay within caused the elderly witch to pause.

Harry Potter had Ronald Weasley pinned on the ground, but not before Ron was able to throw a few spells at Harry. They were easily dodged, but the spells damaged the Common Room - it was pure luck that none of the spells hit anyone. With all the spells that he cast, the taller redhead still found himself on his belly with his arms twisted behind his back. McGonagall just caught the end of what Harry was saying. "- if I ever hear you spreading lies about me again, trying to use my name for your own personal greedy gain, or attacking someone like you did, I'll break your bloody arms." He declared before slamming the other boy's face into the floor.

What was worse, in McGonagall's eyes, was that it looked like the majority of her House was just sitting back and watching this happen. Their expressions varied, but most of them looked happy about such an event taking place. "Mister Weasley, Mister Potter! What is the meaning of this?!"

Harry looked up, not at all surprised, or at least he wasn't showing it if he did feel that way, and stated calmly, "Ron here has been spreading lies about me, using my fame and his position as my 'best mate' to try and get things or favours from others, and when I confronted him about it, he threw a spell at me, I was able to dodge it, but I didn't realize that Hermione was behind me, and she was hit by it."

"Is this true?" The Gryffindor Head of House asked the gathered lions. There were nods all around, so she was forced to accept it as truth. "Mister Weasley, two months detention for slander and cursing a fellow student, they will be spent with Professor Snape and with Filch, helping with whatever they need from you, and you'll help them without magic unless they say otherwise. Mister Potter, detention until you fix the damage to the Common Room." She declared.

The lions sighed as they realized they hadn't lost House Points and started to disburse back to their dorms. Harry got off of Ron, not that the boy was in any condition to do anything but fall limp and cry.

"Professor, I request that we discuss this later, Hermione need to be taken to the hospital wing, and since I was the one who dodged the curse, not considering that someone was behind me, I feel somewhat responsible for what happened to her." Harry asked.

McGonagall was about to speak up, but she saw one of her two favourite students - not that she would tell anyone that, the first being one of the boy's fighting - with teeth so large they came down to her collar bone. She agreed to Harry's request with a nod; she would yell at them all later, Hermione needed medical treatment.

"Thank you." Harry replied as he hurried over, taking Hermione's hand in his own, and lead her out the portrait entrance.

5th February 1992:

It'd been a month since the fight with Ronald Weasley, and a lot had changed for Harry. At the moment, he found himself in the school library with not only with Hermione, Susan, Hannah and Cedric but also with two new friends he'd made recently; Su Li and Katie Bell.

The night of the fight, when he took Hermione to see Madam Pomfrey, in which Hermione tricked the School Healer into shrinking her front teeth. As they walked back to the Gryffindor Tower, when asked, Hermione admitted that she always hated her front teeth because they made her look like a beaver.

In addition to this, as they were heading back to the Tower Hermione also told him that she'd asked her parents if he could stay for the summer. After explaining why, telling them about Harry's home life, her parents agreed that he could to stay with them over the summer. Although he was upset that Hermione told her parents about his past, he admitted it was necessary and was happy that he wouldn't have to stay at the Dursleys during the summer. In fact he was so grateful of the idea, Harry had hugged her tightly, giving her a taste of her own medicine for once, which was also the first hug Harry had ever initiated, and thanked her profusely. To make sure things were agreed upon by all parties even remotely involved Harry wrote his relatives. Needless to say they were more than happy to get rid of the freak for the summer and hoped to never see him again.

When they got back to the Gryffindor Tower it was pretty late, so the two friends went to bed.

The next day, Harry got up early to clean the Common Room so he wouldn't have to worry about it later on. But as Harry was cleaning the Common Room, he was shocked to see that as the other Gryffindors got up and began to help him clean the room. Neville Longbottom was the first to approach him as he cleaned with the intent to offer him a hand of friendship, which was followed by the Weasley Twins, Fred and George, and the Chaser Trio, Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet and Katie Bell, who were sometimes referred to as the Crimson Vixens both during matches and by their adoring male fans, even off-pitch. When Harry asked why they were helping him, they informed him that most of the Gryffindors had gotten sick of Ron's mouth and they were glad to help Harry because he stood up to the prat. And so in repayment, they were helping him to tidy the Common Room up. With the older years helping with magic it took less than an hour to fix.

A few days later, as Harry and his new friends were studying in the library with Hermione, Susan, Hannah and Cedric in a Study Group that they started, a quiet girl from Ravenclaw named Su Li joined them. It turned out that she was the main person that Ron went to for help, since she was the shyest person in Ravenclaw - or rather, the most inexperienced at dealing with other people - and that the threat Ron made of getting Harry to make problems for her family. Su admitted she didn't fully believe him but it was better to 'not rock the boat', so to speak, so she complied. Harry apologized, feeling guilty for not putting a stop to it sooner and both agreed that it was best to forget about the entire thing and move on rather than dwell on it; they'd both learned a lesson from the situation.

They weren't the only friends he'd gained, but they were the closest.

As the month passed Harry and Hermione was still looking for who Nicholas Flamel was - Harry felt that he'd read the name somewhere before but for the life of him he couldn't remember where.

So it was the 5th of February and Harry, along with Hermione, Susan, Hannah, Cedric, Su and Katie, were in the library doing their homework - the others were doing something else at the time. It was near dinner time and Harry was getting another few books to look for the Nicholas Flamel. But as he got back to his table with them, Katie asked him seeing that they won't the books for their homework, "Harry, what are you looking for? For the last few months you've been looking at different books, books that have no subject to our homework. So what are you looking for?"

After some thought he realized that all this time he had group of people who knew more about the Magical World then him and Hermione, likely combined, and he hadn't even asked for help. He could have kicked himself for not asking them sooner, especially the Hufflepuffs, since he knew them the longest. With a sigh, Harry was about to speak when Su noticed the books he was setting down. "Not homework… third floor corridor?" Su reasoned in her strange way of speech; she spoke as few words as she could get away with while getting her point across. Harry never bothered to ask why, but he could make some assumptions based on knowing that English was her second language and she was possibly self conscious about her lack of fluency.

Harry blinked. "Ah, yeah. Whatever's being kept there has something to do with Nicholas Flamel. I was going to ask for help, me and Hermione haven't had any luck."

"Flamel…?" Su mumbled as she looked down, deep in thought.

As she did, Susan said, "I think I've heard of him, but I can't remember from where." A few of the others nodded, in the same boat as the redhead.

"I know what you mean, I've been nagged by that feeling for a while now." Harry said with a defeated sigh.

Su suddenly sat up and walked away, causing the other's to look at each other in confusion. The petite girl returned a minute later with a book, which she opened to a specific page and set in front of Harry. "Thanks Su, that was really quick. Way to make me feel even worse for not asking my wonderful friends for help." He joked with a chuckled.

Su nodded, holding a straight face as she returning his joke with a, "Welcome." before she smiled back at him lightly, causing the rest of the table to laugh.

Harry grumbled and used one hand to prop up the left side of the book to read the title; The History of Alchemy. Harry skimmed the article quickly before groaning, his head falling into the pages.

"What, is it something we should have realized weeks ago?" Hermione inquired.

"Not sure about that, but I remember where I heard the name at least." Harry said flatly. He then put his hand into his pocket and pulled out his Chocolate Frog Cards; which he had, coincidentally, brought to show Cedric so they could compare collections, both being relatively new to the collecting business. He pulled one out and read the back of it: "'Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the Dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel' No wonder we haven't found him in the books we looked into; they were all published recently. Listen to this, 'As you know, the ancient study of alchemy can do used for many things, as long as you remember the one simple rule: to create, something of equal value must be lost. This is the principal of equivalent exchange. This rule is the most important rule there is in alchemy, and there is no way around it or so it was believed. You see, through alchemy, there is one way you can break this rule at no risk to yourself, and this is to make a Philosopher's Stone, also known as the Sorcerer's Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers.

"It is the hopes of all Alchemists that they too can one day make a Stone of their own. For the prestige of making one, the gold the Stone can produce, and most importantly to many; the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal.

"Although the specifics of how to make the Stone have been lost though time, some say for the better. There have been many reports of Alchemists over the centuries that have been able to make their own Philosophers Stones. However, when investigated further, all these reports were found to be false. There is only one true Stone currently in existence and it belongs to Mr. Nicolas Flamel."

There was silence for a few moments before Hermione said, "Wow, who would have thought that such a thing would be hidden in a school?"

"What sane person would? Who would keep such a trouble magnet in a school full of children?" Harry asked darkly. "I understand that Hogwarts is meant to be the safest place apart for Gringotts, but Hogwarts is full of children; children that could be used as hostages, or hurt somehow if someone wanted to steal the Stone. I'm not saying that they would, but if it was someone who didn't care about children or didn't want to wait for a good time to strike, they could kill everyone here to get it."

As much they were in awe at the fact that the Philosopher's Stone was real and at Hogwarts, they were more horrified as the truth of what Harry was suggesting truly sank in. What if someone did want the Stone bad enough that they would be willing to kill everyone in Hogwarts for it? They all shuddered at the thought and wondered what Professor Dumbledore was thinking.

"Harry, I know that this might be strange, but maybe Professor Dumbledore has something planned?" Hermione suggested, still believing that authority figures like Dumbledore knew what they were doing.

"Something planned or not, the Headmaster is putting the school in danger." Harry shot down with a shake of his head. He still couldn't believe Hermione still believed that authority knew what they were doing; something that seemed completely untrue for basically every adult in the magical world. "That sounds like the exact opposite of his job description. What if some Dark Wizard learned about it and decides the lives of a thousand kids is nothing in the face of eternal life? What then?"

"So what do you think we should do about it?" Cedric asked.

"Simple, I think we should go get the Stone now before someone decides to get it." Harry began to explain his plan, but was interrupted by Hermione, "What!? Harry that would be…"

But Harry held up his hand up to stop her talking, "Theft, I know. I also know that while it's wrong to steal, I can't think of anything else we can do." Hermione looked like she wanted to say something, but after several tries she looked down in defeat, she couldn't think of anything. "If we do it without anybody else knowing, it'll also be another layer of security in case someone else with far darker intentions decides to go after it; they'll think it's still there, but in actuality it'll either be with us, or mailed to the Flamels if such a thing is possible." Harry laid out his plan.

Su nodded in agreement. "Proactive. Need alibi."

Harry hummed in thought. "Right…" He was silent for several moments before he took a deep breath and laid out his thoughts, "Okay, Cedric, Hannah, Katie, I think you two should stay behind."

Cedric was quick to object. "I don't mean this condescendingly, but wouldn't it be best to have someone older and more experienced go along?"

"Normally I would say yes, but it's common knowledge that you've become sort of a big brother figure to Susan and Hannah, a role that most would assume would spread to the rest of the Study Group. Not only that, but you take your role seriously, like an unofficial third year Prefect. If you say that we were studying in the back of the library all day, backed up by Hannah if need be, you'd be hard pressed to find someone that won't believe you." Harry explained.

Cedric blinked, looking embarrassed but pleased. "I had no idea my actions had gained a reputation. Thanks for the compliment Harry." He said with happy smile.

Harry returned the smile with a, "I'm only telling the truth. Worst case scenario is we're not back within a few hours and you need to get creative. As for myself, Hermione, Susan and Su, we all have strengths that will help us avoid a 'most gruesome death', which I'm convinced is just the Headmaster being dramatic. Hermione is good at Transfiguration, Su is good at Charms, Susan's second only to Neville in Herbology."

"Why do you think they're the skills you'll need?" Hannah inquired.

"Well apart from Hagrid's pet Cerberus-" They were made aware that it was a Cerberus from other students who looked behind the door of the forbidden corridor, they also learned that it was named Fluffy, of all things. "-I doubt that's the only thing protecting the Stone, I think the other Professors would set something up." Harry reasoned.

"That makes sense, but what about Potions?" Susan wondered. "If you're right and the Professors are helping to protect the Stone. Wouldn't Snape have a hand in it too?"

"Yes I would think so, but I think out of the four of us, we can clear that protection too," explained Harry.

Hermione picked up on his train of though. "I have to agree, we're all good at potions, so whatever Snape's defence, , unless it is as good as it should be - so that only the Professors can get past it - we should be able to get through it. I'm more book smart than anybody here - no offence Su -" She said to the Ravenclaw at the table. Su shook her head and waved her off, assuring her she wasn't offended. "- I might have read something on potions that we might face. Susan and Su are well versed in different but powerful forms of combat magic, and Harry is a natural leader. Even if he doesn't want to admit it." She finished with a teasing smile as the rest of the table laughed. It was well known how humble Harry could be.

Then after a thought about the tasks they might face, Harry asked, "Does anyone know how to get past a Cerberus?"

"I think I have read before that playing soft music would make a Cerberus full asleep upon hearing it," said Cedric.

"Good," said Harry.

"So when are you thinking of going to get the Stone?" asked Katie.

"I say now, sooner the Stone is out of the school, the better I'll feel." Harry declared firmly. "We've been lucky so far, I don't want to push that luck, so I say we get rid of the Stone now. Or would you rather wait for some mad man to come and kill us all to get it?"

"But maybe nothing will happen, nothing has happened yet." Hermione stalled desperately, her common sense and her blind devotion to following the rules warring.

"Again, that's only through luck, and I don't want to push it." Harry countered gently. "If there's no other disagreement to this, I'll grab my flute and I'll meet you three near the corridor." Seeing no argument, Harry left the library to not only get his flute, but also Aneira, just in case they needed the extra protection. Before he left, he warned Cedric that if Susan wasn't back before ten he should inform the one of the professors, as something bad might have happened.

o0OoO0o

It was about half an hour before Harry got to the third floor corridor with his flute and Aneira, but as he got there he saw that the corridor was empty. As he wondered if Filch or one of the Professors caught them, he felt himself being pulled into a classroom. As he turned around, his wand halfway out, he stopped as he noticed that the person who pulled him into the room was Su, with Hermione and Susan standing behind her.

"Sorry we scared you," Susan said apologetically, "but Filch was around and we had to hide in here so he wouldn't find us. Why have you brought your cat with you? How can she be any help?" Susan asked suddenly when she saw Aneira.

"She can help a lot more then you think Susan," Harry said with a smirk. "Aneira's not just a cat, she'd a Tigran." As if she knew what her Master wanted, Aneira jumped out of Harry's arms and onto the ground, where she began to transform into her Tigran form.

Once she turned into a tiger, the girls looked at her in shock. Over the last few months thanks to the potions he was taking he now was about 5'2, and although she was still a 'kitten', in her Tigran form, she just came up to his waist, being around 3'6. She hadn't stopped growing though, and if what he read was true by the time she stopped growing she would be about 4'10 to 5 feet tall; big enough to ride if she allowed it.

"Very useful." Su echoed as she eyed the transformed feline with a calculating eye.

"So, if there's nothing else, shall we?" Harry gestured towards the door, an amused smile on his face as Aneira transformed back into her kitten form and jumped back into her Master's arms.

o0OoO0o

As the four children and one cat walked to the forbidden corridor, Su and Harry kept an eye out for Filch, his cat, and professors, as they didn't want to explain what they were up to. As they headed towards their destination Harry found it strange. He'd thought that something as important as the Philosophers Stone would warrant a guard standing vigil in the corridor, at the very least, but there was nothing…

As they reached the location that was destined to give them 'a most painful death' all Harry found guarding the door was… well, the lock on the door itself. He was terribly underwhelmed by the whole experience. "So any ideas how to open this?" He asked blandly.

"According to the rumours I've heard a simple Alohomora will open it." Susan answered.

Harry frowned as he did so; this made no sense, nothing to protect the corridor from being entered and a door locked not with some massive, complex and advanced locking spell, but one that can be undone by a first year charm? As they entered the corridor there was a low, rumbling growl. All three of the dog's noses sniffed madly in their direction, even though it couldn't see them.

Quickly, Harry put Hagrid's flute to his lips and blew, hoping that this would work or they could be dog food. Harry played a soft tune, one that he'd been practicing since Christmas. Slowly, the dog's growls ceased - it tottered on its paws and fell to its knees, then it slumped to the ground, fast asleep.

"Wonderful." Su complimented as they kept listening to the soft music.

"I have to agree Harry, that was wonderful, you play good." Susan agreed as she looked around. Finding what she was looking for, she said with a pointed finger, "There it is." The other three were right behind her as Susan bent down and pulled the ring of the trapdoor, which swung up and open.

"What can you see?" Hermione asked Susan anxiously.

"Nothing, its pitch black, there's no way of climbing down; we'll just have to drop." The 'Puff answered.

Harry, who was still playing the flute, waved at Susan to get his attention and pointed at himself.

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

Harry handed the flute over. In the few seconds' silence, the dog grumbled and twitched, but the moment Hermione began to play, it fell back into its deep sleep.

Harry climbed over it and looked down through the trapdoor. There was no sign of the bottom. He lowered himself through the hole until he was hanging on by his fingertips. Then he looked up at Su, who was wordlessly gazing down at him. "If anything happens to me, don't follow. Get some help to get me out."

"Right." Su agreed, the slightest hesitation in her voice.

"See you in a minute, I hope…" Harry half-joked as he let go. Cold, damp air rushed past him as he fell down, down, down and -

FLUMP. With a funny, muffled sort of thump he landed on something soft. He sat up and felt around, his eyes not used to the dark. It felt as though he was sitting on some sort of plant.

"It's okay!" He called up to the light the size of a postage stamp, which was the open trapdoor. "It's a soft landing, you can jump!"

Su and Susan followed right away. He landed, sprawled next to Harry.

"What is this stuff?" Susan wondered as she rubbed what she'd landed on.

"Dunno, some sort of plant thing. I suppose it's here to break the fall. Come on, Hermione!" Harry called.

The distant 'music' stopped. There was a loud bark from the dog, but Hermione had already jumped. She landed behind Harry.

"We must be miles under the school." She said with wonder. Harry could feel her bushy hair hitting him, leading him to believe she was looking around, trying to find any hint of light.

"Lucky this plant thing's here, really." Susan admitted.

"Lucky!" Hermione shrieked. "Look at you three!"

She leapt up and struggled toward a damp wall. She had to struggle because the moment she had landed, the plant had started to twist snakelike tendrils around her ankles. As for Harry and the others, their legs had already been bound tightly in long creepers without their noticing.

Hermione had managed to free herself before the plant got a firm grip on her. Now she watched in horror as her three friends fought to pull the plant off them, but the more they strained against it, the tighter and faster the plant wound around them.

"Stop moving!" Susan ordered them. "It's Devil's Snare!"

"That's a start, anyone remember how to get rid of it?" Harry asked.

"…We need light, or fire, but the 'Snare grabbed my wand when I hopped off of it!" Hermione panicked after a rapid and unsuccessful search for her wand.

"Su, Susan, can either of you get to your wand?" Harry asked the other two girls as the vines crept up his chest. He felt mildly uncomfortable as one of the smaller vines slipped underneath his shirt.

Susan was about to reply in the negative, but the quiet but firm voice of the 'Claw among them beat her to it. "Yes… close your eyes!" She barked as she raised her wand. The rest of the group quickly complied, trusting her to know what to do. They were glad they did when a ball of light as bright as a miniature sun formed at the tip of her wand. The Devil's snare actually screeched as its thinner vines were flash fried from the intensity of the light.

Once the plant was free and they couldn't see a silhouette of the world through their own eyelids Harry walked over and patted Su on the back. "Good job Su, that was some quick thinking." He shifted as Aneira on his shoulder meowed in agreement.

"I think I just got a tan." Susan quipped as they all moved forward on mutual consent; speed was the key.

"Well at least we weren't turned into atomic shadows." Hermione tried to up the mood with a joke, only to get confused looks from the two magical raised girls and a snort from Harry. "Atomic shadows are created after using a Muggle explosive called an atomic bomb. After the explosion people's outlines are imprinted into walls they were standing near."

Unsurprisingly, this only increased the nervousness the girls were feeling, though it did distract them from the nervousness they were feeling before about getting passed the obstacles.

"Looks like there's only one way." Harry said, pointing down a stone passageway which, just as he'd said, was the only way forward.

All they could hear apart from their footsteps was the gentle drip of water trickling down the walls. The passageway sloped downward, and Harry was reminded of Gringotts. With an unpleasant cold knot forming in his chest, he remembered the dragons rumoured to be guarding vaults in Gringotts. If they met a dragon, a fully-grown dragon… he shuddered at the thought.

"Can you hear something?" Susan whispered.

"Wings." Su answered.

Harry nodded, "Yeah, sounds like lots of them too. Not much further, there's light up ahead."

They reached the end of the passageway and saw before them a brilliantly lit chamber, its ceiling arching high above them. It was full of small, jewel-bright birds, fluttering and tumbling all around the room. On the opposite side of the chamber was a heavy wooden door.

"Do you think they'll attack us if we cross the room?" Hermione wondered.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they did." Harry admitted. "They don't look very vicious, but I suppose if they all swooped down at once… well, there's no other choice… I'll run."

He took a deep breath, covered his face with his arms, and sprinted across the room. He expected to feel sharp beaks and claws tearing at him any second, but nothing happened. He reached the door untouched. He pulled the handle, but it was locked.

The other three followed him. They tugged and heaved at the door, but it wouldn't budge, not even when Hermione tried her Alohomora Charm. Harry was getting more suspicious, why wasn't this kind of magic on the first door? Something wasn't right about all this. Harry wasn't sure what yet, but he was certain this wasn't right.

"These birds… they can't be here just for decoration." Hermione said.

They watched the birds soaring overhead, glittering-wait, glittering?

"They're not birds!" Harry said suddenly as he took a closer look at the so called birds. "They're keys! Winged keys; look carefully. So that must mean…" He looked around the chamber while the other three squinted up at the flock of keys. "Aha!" He cheered as he saw a half-dozen broomsticks lined up against the wall. "We've got to catch the key to the door!"

"But there are hundreds of them!"

"Big, old-fashioned, silver; like the handle." Su supplied, tapping her nail against the tarnished metal she was talking about to make a pinging sound.

Harry got a good look at the lock before seizing a broomstick and kicking off into the air, soaring into the midst of the cloud of keys. Harry grabbed and snatched, but the bewitched keys darted and dived so quickly it was almost impossible to catch one. It didn't help the key's behind him were attacking him.

However, he had a knack for spotting things other people didn't. After a minute's weaving about through the whirl of rainbow feathers, he noticed a large silver key that had a bent wing, as if it had already been caught and used a few times already.

It was a few more minutes before he was able to catch it. Acting fast he snapped the wings off the key and flew down, throwing the key to Hermione, who ran to open the door. As Hermione was opening the door, Harry was flying about to keep the keys at bay. As soon as Hermione opened the door, he flew down and through the doorway. The second he was through the three girls slammed the door behind him.

The next chamber was so dark they couldn't see anything at all. But as they stepped into it, light suddenly flooded the room to reveal an astonishing sight.

They were standing on the edge of a huge chessboard, behind the black chessmen, which were all taller than they were and carved from what looked like black stone. Facing them, way across the chamber, were the white pieces. The four first years were unnerved to find that the white pieces had no faces, just blank slates.

"Now what do we do?" Hermione whispered.

"I… guess we have to play our way across?" Susan guessed.

Su was the next to voice her thoughts, "Risky. Requires skills we do not have."

"Yeah, like hell." Harry said darkly, none of them were good at this game, and he suspected that it would be like the real Wizarding Chess where the figures would attack each other, and if they had to play the pieces… 'Not happening.' Harry thought, before an evil smile crossed his face. Not only would the chess pieces attack them, it would take time. Time they didn't have a lot of. He decided to do what his cousin would do when faced with anything that made him feel inferior; break it.

Before he could do anything, Hermione asked as she saw the smile, "What are you planning Harry?"

"Going to go through this the easy way." Harry said with a smirk, and before the girls could say anything, he weaved his wand, "Reducto!"

A chess piece exploded to dust, and for the next ten minutes or so, chess pieces were exploding and Harry was smiling as he did so. By the end of it, Harry was outright grinning in the middle of a pile of rubble, 'I've got to thank Cedric for teaching me this spell.'

The girls looked at him strangely, "What?" He asked innocently, "Destroying them was a lot easier than wasting time playing through the game, if we did it might have taken hours to play. Anyway, we're on a schedule." Then, as he started to walk away, he threw over his shoulder, "Besides, what eleven-year-old boy doesn't like breaking things when they can get away with it?"

While Susan and Hermione were speechless, Su breezed past them and joined Harry as he ventured across the room and to the next door. "Looked fun." She admitted, a small smile on her face that could even be dubbed mischievous.

As they entered the next they were shocked to see a troll, who attacked them as soon as they entered the room. They were able to dodge the attack. The troll was at least a metre taller than the one that Harry faced on Halloween, and looked a lot meaner. It was this point that Aneira transformed into her tiger form and stood next to her Master, waiting to attack.

The troll charged towards Su, who used some form of repulsion spell to knock the beast away from her. Whatever the spell, it made it angry and went after Hermione, the person closest to it, in it's anger. Hermione froze in fear at the sight of another fully grown Mountain Troll threatening her - it reminded her of what nearly happened on Halloween. Because of this, Harry was forced to throw a few fireballs at the troll to distract it as he shoved Hermione out of the way.

However, this made the troll angrier and it start to swing it club about in anger, and Harry got hit because of it. Before the Troll could do anything more, he was systematically turned to a frozen troll-sicle, thanks to Aneira, for a few seconds before then being turned to bloody frozen chunks learning a valuable lesson in exactly why you shouldn't attack the friends of a girl who'd been trained as a warrior all her life as Su demonstrated her skills in Battle Magic. After Su's impressive display was done Susan showed her budding talent in the art of healing and was able to heal Harry's wounds. Luckily, his injuries were minor, as broken bones and internal bleeding was out of her range of expertise.

"Thanks Susan. Hermione, are you okay?" Harry asked, concerned for the bushy haired girl. Susan understood the rushed words of thanks, and was equally worried for Hermione; knowing the full story of what happened on Halloween, or at least the 'public' version of it.

Hermione was shaken, but she was rapidly recovering from her freeze-up. "I'm fine." She said firmly after a few deep breathes. "Let's continue on."

Harry nodded, giving her hand ones last squeeze before walking over towards Su, his face brightening into an amazed look. "Su that was awesome! I had no idea you could cast spells like that." He praised, offering her a hand up.

The panting girl looked away, blushing lightly, not even slightly used to being able to show off her skills for her friends, or even anybody that wasn't family, but took his hand regardless.

Once everyone had regained their bearings and breath, the four continued on to the next room. They hardly dared to look at what came next after entering the next doorway, but there was nothing to be alarmed over; just a table with seven differently shaped bottles standing in a line.

"Snape's?" Harry asked, getting thoughtful looks before nods from the girls. "So what did the greasy bat set up for his protection for the Stone?"

They stepped over the threshold, and immediately a fire sprang up behind them in the doorway. It wasn't ordinary fire either; it was purple. At the same instant, black flames shot up in the doorway leading onward. They were trapped.

"Look!" Hermione seized a roll of paper lying next to the bottles. Harry and the other two girls looked over her shoulder to read it:

Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,

Two of us will help you, whichever you would find,

One among us seven will let you move ahead,

Another will transport the drinker back instead,

Two among our number hold only nettle wine,

Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line.

Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,

To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:

First, however slyly the poison tries to hide

You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;

Second, different are those who stand at either end,

But if you would move onward, neither is your friend;

Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,

Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;

Fourth, the second left and the second on the right

Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight.

Hermione let out a great sigh and Harry, amazed, saw that she was smiling.

"Brilliant," Hermione said. "This isn't magic; it's logic, a puzzle. A lot of the greatest wizards haven't got an ounce of logic, sorry girls." She added to the others in the room, they nodded in understanding, "They'd be stuck in here forever."

"But we won't, will we?" Harry said confidently. "I for one don't want to be stuck here until Dumbledore or one of the other professors finds us."

"Of course not." Hermione agreed. "Everything we need is here on this paper. Seven bottles: three are poison; two are wine; one will get us safely through the black fire, and one will get us back through the purple."

"But how do we know which to drink?" Susan asked.

Hermione smiled mischievously, "Oh I already figured it out. But before I say which, I would like you three to guess which one we should take."

Harry figured it out a few minutes after Hermione's challenge, and Su and Susan, surprisingly, considering their upbringing, got the answer right several minutes after Harry.

As Harry was examining the bottles more closely Susan had tried a Duplication Charm on the vials of potion, to see if she could make three extra potions so that each of them could go through the fire, since there was only enough for two people. However, she was only succeeded in making three extra glass vials, which were empty.

As the three of them were deciding who would go with Harry to get the Stone, Harry tested the fire to see if he could touch it and to his pleasant surprise, he found out that he could. He wasn't sure because the fire was obviously magical in nature, and thus likely different than normal fire in ways he couldn't explain yet. So as the three girls argued about who would get the correct potion and go with and who would stay behind, Harry slipped through the imposing black flames unharmed into the next room.

As Harry entered the next room, he found himself in a chamber. It was empty apart for a few torches that were a lit, a mirror that Harry recognized as the Mirror of Erised and no way out apart for the way he came in. Harry quickly realized that the mirror was some way part of finding the Stone, so he looked into the mirror. Hoping to find the Stone so that he could send it back to the Flamels.

When he looked in the mirror this time, he didn't see his family, all he saw was himself standing next to his twin, both of whom were standing in front of a burning building with charred corpses littered around. Harry wondered what was going on; how was this going to help find the Stone. That's when his reflection give him a smirk and a wink, before it dropped a red stone into his pocket, before Harry and Lucy within the mirror turned around to gaze at the building.

Harry was a little miffed at being ignored by his own reflection, but before he could think more about it, he felt something in his pocket that wasn't there before. Taking whatever it was out of his pocket, Harry found that it was the Philosophers Stone. Smirking to himself, he placed the Stone back into his pocket and left the chamber.

He was amused to find the three girls still arguing about who would get the correct potion and who would stay behind when he walked back through the firewall. At the same moment he walked through the fire the girls looked up and saw him coming back.

"What the hell!" Susan shouted as she rushed over to him, as he stepped through the flame wall.

Su, despite her normally shy nature, gasped as she saw him take his last step through the flames.

Harry chuckled as Susan patted his chest, as if patting out invisible little fires. He batted her hands away lightly with a chuckle, "Girls, I'm fine. I probably should have told you this sooner, but I'm able to manipulate fire. I haven't researched it, but I think I'm a Fire Elemental."

Both non-gryffindor girls glared at him in response, nonplussed.

"It never came up! Nobody in our study session has any inborn traits or skills, or at least none that they've talked about!" He explained himself, "And I've only met you guys and I wasn't sure if I could trust you with my secret. Are you going to tell me that you and others haven't got secrets that you haven't told us or things you don't want to talk about?" Harry asked as he gave, challenging them to say otherwise. As he know that all family's had their own secrets, or at least things that they didn't want others to know.

"…" Su's blank stare told Harry he was right, as did Susan's defeated sigh. "So if that was the case, why reveal it now?" asked Susan.

Harry looked a bit sheepish as he admitted, "I didn't mean to, I saw you three arguing, and since I thought it might take a while, I thought I'd see if I could touch magical fire without being harmed. Once I found out I could I figured it'd just be quicker to see what was ahead myself. If it was dangerous I could always yell for you girls to run away. It just happened that you looked up when I decided to come back…"

"…Stone?" Su asked after a moment of consideration.

"I've got it here." Harry answered as he pulled the Stone out of his pocket. "Now let's get out of here."

As he said that the three girls started to walk towards the table so they could drink the potion to leave the chamber but as they did, Harry asked with a smirk, "And where are you three going?"

"Getting out of here, like you said." Hermione answered uncertainly, unsure of why Harry was asking.

"I did say that, but I've got a faster way out of here." And a lot safer, but Harry wasn't going to say that. As he knew that as soon as they got back up top they would have to face Fluffy, something he didn't want to but knew he would have to if the girls didn't find out about his powers. But now…

"How?" Su asked.

"I can teleport. But only to places that I've seen in person or high quality pictures of, granted, but I could teleport us to the room you pulled me into easily enough." He explained.

"But Harry, there are wards around Hogwarts that-" Hermione began winding up for a lecture before Harry took her arm by suddenly and flamed out of the chamber and into the unused classroom that they were in earlier. "-stops all forms teleportation in and out of Hogwarts…" She finished lamely as she saw where she was. She was shocked to find that the two of them were in the classroom that they were in earlier, just like he'd said. "B-But how is this possible, the, the wards and… and…" She trailed off as she tried to deny what he'd done using logic, but found she couldn't.

He shrugged, "I have no idea, but I for one am happy the wards don't seem to affect my ability. Back in a sec…"

He flamed away, reappearing briefly with Susan before doing the same with Su. When he let go of Su's hand he stumbled back against the desk behind him breathing heavily, holding his head as it rolled to the side. "Are you okay?" Hermione asked, beating the other two to the punch because they were busy getting over their surprise at the successful teleportation.

"Fine… fine. The magical drain skyrockets when I take other people though. Caught me off guard." Harry panted. Internally he was just happy it worked, as he'd never teleported another person before and wasn't sure if he could do it or not. He doubted anything bad would happen to the girls because of how the ability worked – his magic acting as a cocoon, the fire being what tore a hole for him to zip through to his destination – but he was still unsure if the spell would work, as opposed to fizzling out. "Now if you three don't mind, I would like to get something to eat and go to bed, teleporting three people without rest took a lot out me." Harry suggested. The girls nodded in understanding. Just because he could do the impossible and teleport inside Hogwarts didn't mean the Wards that normally prevented it didn't take their pound of flesh, so to speak, in retribution for being beaten. At least, that was their theory.

o0OoO0o

Half an hour later Harry's head finally hit the pillow and he was out like a light. He was glad his friends hadn't asked any more questions since he was too tired to answer them properly. He was glad he was even able to get to sleep with how active his thoughts were.

Harry awoke to find himself in the park near Privet Drive. As he surveyed the area to see if anybody was nearby he was happily surprised to see his twin 'sister' standing near the slide. It was then that he realized he was dreaming, "Lucy, is that really you?" He asked in shock at seeing his first true friend; someone he thought he'd never see again.

"Yes brother, it is me…" Lucy said with a warm smile.

"Lucy!" Harry cried out happily, as he ran over to and hugged her. "Why did you leave me sis, I needed you."

"I know you did Harry, but at the same time you didn't." Lucy said, eagerly hugging him back. "I didn't want to leave you, but I had to."

"What are you talking about Lucy?" Harry asked in confusion.

Lucy sighed, putting her head on his shoulder and staring off into the distance. "Harry, we both know I'm not real. Though there were some strange times where we could touch when we fought years ago, but I have a theory for that; your magic made me temporarily corporeal when we fought. It explains your exhausting after we were done." She finished her explanation, happy to feel him nodding, agreeing with her theory. "Anyway, back on topic, I know you want me to stay with you, but I can't… with me there you wouldn't have reached out and made friend; friends you needed. After all, when you have me, who needs anybody else." She pulled back and looked at him as she said the last line, smirking arrogantly.

Harry chuckled at his sister's pompous act, but a frown overtook his face a second later. He was incredibly happy to have his sister with him again, "I want you to stay." He said stubbornly.

"It wouldn't work, even if I did stay. Brother, it's not normal for someone to have an imaginary friend that's a complete separate entity. They'll probably call you schizophrenic, which you probably are, and I'll 'die' for real because of the potions they'll likely give you." Feeling him stiffen and his arms tighten around her she hugged him harder as well, assuring him she was there and wasn't going away just yet. "That doesn't mean I won't be here for you. If you need to talk about something you can't talk to your new friends about, if you're confused about something and you need guidance, if you need me in any way I can help you with, I'll be here. You just have to accept that you're not going to need me that often, and I may fade away further because I won't have a purpose."

"Never!" Harry exclaimed firmly. A feeling of red hot hatred suddenly formed, aimed at his friends; they were making his sister fade away again! Just as quickly as it appeared it disappeared. It was silly to blame them for something they had no control over. "I'll always need you." He finished in a whisper.

"We'll see…" She said, finally disengaging from the hug and sitting down on the end of the slide. "For now let's talk about why I'm here now. You need my help in puzzling out your thoughts and feelings about tonight and how things didn't add up, as well as why the Stone was so poorly protected."

"You're right, it didn't make any sense and I could really use a sounding board." Harry said quickly, glad to move the topic away from such depressing matters.

o0OoO0o

It seemed to Harry that he and his sister talked for hours, but he wasn't sure how long they truly talked for. Lucy did agree with him that the situation was strange, that the Stone was so badly protected that four first years could get past the so called protections in less than an hour, with no serious injuries.

After some talking, they realized if four first years could get past the jokes referred to as defences, how easy would it be for someone older and more skilled to get past them? It was then that he realized that the Headmaster was up to something - or at least suspected him of being up to something - but he wasn't sure what or why. After a sad goodbye (for now, Harry insisted) Harry awoke.

When he brought this to his Study Group the part of the group who didn't know about the Stone were shocked to hear it was in the school and that four of them went after it. The entire group, aside from Su, Suasn and Hermione, were shocked at the ease of the obstacles, but Hermione was quick to the defence of her idols. It seemed like every time Harry suggested an idea she blew it off completely and insisted there must be some reason for their actions that they couldn't understand. "Harry, I know it's strange, but do you really think that the Headmaster is up to something? He may only brought the Stone here to-"

"Hermione!" Harry finally snapped. "You need to knock this off; just because somebody is in a position of authority doesn't make them infallible, or incapable of scheming. If Dumbledore had the students' bets interest in mind he wouldn't have brought the Stone to the school - where students could get hurt, or even killed - in the first place."

"I don't want to think so, but Harry's right." Angelina reluctantly admitted. She didn't like the thought of Albus Dumbledore being a scheming old man because of what it meant for the student body at large, but facts were facts. "The job of a Headmaster is to keep the school and its student's safe, bringing the Stone here is doing the exact opposite. He must be up to something; maybe he wants to lure someone to the school, or some other reason we don't know. Whatever the case, it doesn't mean good things for us." The others nodded in agreement and Hermione sighed as she accepted their point. Her faith wasn't broken, but it was shaken for the first time and Harry admitted to himself he couldn't fix her dependence in one swoop.

"We'll keep an eye on him. If he's really up to something it'll probably fall apart since we've stolen the end game piece before the trap can be sprung." Harry suggested. "He also might try something else; something that would be the school in danger again. From now on we'll be ready."

"We agree…" Fred started their usual routine this time.

"…We should keep an eye out." George continued.

"We don't want anything to happen." Both boys finished with conviction.

"By the way, what happened to the Stone?" George wondered curiously.

"I sent it back to the Flamels during lunch with Hedwig." Harry answered.

"Is that what that was? I thought I saw you give Hedwig something but I couldn't tell if it wasn't just more bacon." Hermione spoke up.

Harry shrugged, "The staff table seems to enjoy watching me like a hawk for various reasons, so I had to be discreet. I wrapped the Stone in a note I wrote and had her hold it in between helpings of bacon."

"Do you think that Hedwig'll be able to find the Flamels?" Susan asked.

"I have full confidence that Hedwig will be able to find them," Harry said confidently, then casting the time spell, he said, "Anyway, I'm off to get something to eat, after using so much power last night, I'm still hungry and tired. So I'll see you lot later." Before the others could ask what he was talking about, he left to get something to eat before turning in early… leaving Su, Susan and Hermione to explain what he meant. It was no surprise that the others were shocked to learn that Harry had fire elemental powers.

o0OoO0o

7th March 1992:

It'd been over a month since Harry sent the Stone off to the Flamels and things had settled down and become… well, pretty boring really. It became like a normal school experience should be, granted it was normal for a magical school, but still, Harry found, to his surprise, he wanted something interesting to happen. The only event of note that happened was the group deciding they needed a leader, someone to be in charge so chaos didn't happen. The group at large nominated Harry, to his shock. He tried to say that Cedric, Angelina or Alicia should be a better leader because they were older and more experienced than him, but was rebuffed.

While the three agreed that they might know more than him at the moment, they also said that he and Hermione were rapidly approaching the point where they were intellectual equals, making his argument moot. After a long talk Harry was persuaded into becoming the leader of the group.

Harry shared with the other about some of his 'secret' abilities. It was no surprise that they were shocked about this; there hadn't been a recorded elemental in decades. It was Cedric that gave him the nickname Vulcan. Cedric was someone who liked to read about the mythical gods and beings, seeing that many them had connections to the Wizarding Worlds like Werewolves, Mummies and many other things. In fact Vulcan was one of the so called Roman Gods, he was meant to be the Roman God of beneficial and hindering fire, including the fire of volcanoes. He was in fact a powerful Fire Elementalist by the name of Vulcan Drusus. Seeing that Harry was also a Fire Elemental and a powerful one at that, Cedric thought it fitting that he should be nicknamed Vulcan.

The twins had fun when they learned this; whenever it was just their group around they started calling him 'Master Vulcan, God of Fire' and when one of the girls was within arm's reach they would grab them and they would chant, "Oh Might God of Fire, we offer you this maiden in offering of your greatness." And they push the girl onto him. Harry was embarrassed by the whole thing, but was happy the twins joke made his friends laugh. He found the physical abuse the chosen girl would visit on the twins after they managed to get out of his lap even more amusing.

The short bit of normalcy stopped for a while on the 7th of March when the group was having breakfast when post came. Apart from the normal mail owls the Great Hall was shocked to see a vulture of all things fly in and land in front of Harry, a small package on his leg. While Harry was blinking stupidly at the bird, the carrion's beady eyes were locked onto Errol, the Weasley's elderly own who'd delivered a letter to Percy with eyes that just seemed to say, "Tonight. You." followed by licking its lips in hunger, which made the poor old owl shuffle around, trying to avoid its gaze.

Harry eventually took the package and opened it, his eyes widening further when a blood red stone the size of a gold ball landed in his hand.

Hermione goggled at it, taking her eyes off the bird that was still leering at a very nervous Errol, looking as if death was staring at it. "I-is that the Ph-Philosopher's Stone?" She asked incredulously, never expecting to see the thing again.

Harry, just as caught off guard as her replied, "I don't know." He decided to read the note, hoping for an answer, and did so in a voice loud enough for Hermione to hear. This, consequently, let the entire silent Hall hear, since his voice was the only sound being made.

Dear Mr. Potter,

I thank you for returning my Stone to us, but to be honest with you I was shocked that I would ever see it again. You see, my wife, Perenelle and I, have after a long talk and have decided that after living for over six hundred years we've seen and done so much that it was time for us to leave this world, or as I say, move on to the next Great Adventure. However, we couldn't bear destroying our precious Stone ourselves, and would keep using it if we still had it, even if we didn't desire to do so. So we sent the Stone to Albus, asking him to destroy it for us. However, we never thought that he would use it as bait and endanger students of the school, so I would like to thank you for removing the Stone from Hogwarts.

So as thanks, we've altered our Will to add you four for doing so:

To Hermione Granger: We've done a bit of research about you, and we found you're an excellent student and known bibliophile. Taking this into account, we've gifted you a good portion of the Flamel Library, on the condition that you share the books with your friends.

To Su Li: We've met your family in the past and worked with them on several occasions; we even discovered they were one of our descendants! So we're more than happy to gift you with our books on Battle Magic. To help you to further your studies, we've hired you a teacher to help you this summer.

To Susan Bones: We know of your family, and our two families were once allies. But over time things happened and we lost track of your family. We know that your family has lost many of its Heirlooms, but over the centuries we've been able to track them down. We always meant to give them back, but we always got a lead on a new one and said to ourselves that we would wait until we'd acquired that item before gifting them back.

The above items are in a vault in your names in Gringotts, the keys are in this package…

Lastly, to Harry Potter: We are very grateful for what you have done, and so we leave our Philosopher's Stone to you. We were unsure what to do with the Stone, but Perenelle is a bit of a Seer, not a skilled one, but she still as a bit of the skill and she saw that you would need all the help that you can get against the threats that you'll face in your life.

Signing off for the last time,

Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel.

As Harry finished the letter, he, the girls named in the will, their group and the people who heard the letter (that being effectively everyone) were in shock. No one knew about the Philosopher's Stone being at Hogwarts, and now it was here in front of Harry Potter. This just made him even more famous for now being in possession of the legendary Stone. But the older students were shocked that the ancient couple would give a priceless magical item to an eleven year old. So it was no surprise that this became the new hot topic and whispers begun to spread around the Hall. Within minutes, the news of what the vulture brought was known by everyone.

At the Staff Table Dumbledore sent Harry suspicious looks when he saw the Stone, so did the other Professors who knew it was at Hogwarts. The Stone should be safely hidden and protected on the third floor corridor, so they had to wonder how Harry was able to get it. Whilst the Professors were thinking about it Dumbledore was worried as many of his plans were ruined now. He was using the Stone to lure Professor Quirrell into getting the Stone, as he knew that Quirrell was possessed by Tom Riddle, now known as Voldemort. He wanted them to face Harry down in the Mirror Chamber, as he wanted to see how well Harry would do facing the tasks he had the other Professors set up and to let Harry that Tom was still alive in such a way that would also centre Voldemort's attention back on Harry. However, if what he was hearing was true, he'd already failed. The Flames left it to him in their Will and legally, he couldn't take it from Harry.

It was the final crush in a long line of flaming wrecks that were once his schemes, really. Harry hasn't been following his plans for a while; he wasn't friends with Ronald Weasley, he was making friends with other houses - something he didn't want to happen because he wanted Harry to rely on Ronald for all his information about the Magical World, which would all be filtered through from Dumbledore himself of course. So many schemes not going according to plan, all because Potter had to become friends with that that Granger girl. If she wasn't around Harry would no doubt have never started digging himself out of the nasty hole Dumbledore wanted him in, endlessly reaching out for aid, but only getting Dumbledore's useless but seemingly helpful assistance.

As for Quirrell himself, he was staring at the Boy-Who-Lived in shock. He'd been planning to get the Stone for his Master and the only problem he'd had was getting past the damn three head dog of Hagrid's. That was the only thing getting in his way. The plan was to get him drunk and give him a dragon's egg in exchange for information on the Cerberus. It looked like his luck was picking up though; somehow Potter now had the Stone and all he had to do was to take it off him. His thoughts mirrored the being on the back of his head, confirmed when a voice the rest of the Staff Table head hissed, "Get the SSStone!"

Before any of the Hogwarts Staff could react, Quirrell scrambled over the table, pulling his wand as he did so. The students only turned to look at the previously meek man when he screamed without his customary stammer, "That Stone rightfully belongs to my Master, Potter! Hand it over!" and launched a Slicing Charm that cut a jagged line where Harry's hands were. Luckily, the last Potter, as well and Hermione and the twins who were in range of the curse, pulled their hands back before the curse hit, leaving their plates to get carved in half by the spell.

As the other professors were still in shock, Quirrell conjured up a burst of Dark Fire around the Head Table so they couldn't interfere. Once he did this, he looked at Potter as the other students that weren't a part of Harry's group made sure the other got out safely. "Give me the Stone so I can give it to the Dark Lord, if you do, I'll let you live for now." Quirrell offered.

"How rude," Harry said as if nothing happened as he seat back down to eat his breakfast, "We were having breakfast, talking and receiving our mail, and you had to attack us. Didn't your mother teach you any manners when you were little?"

As he said this, the professors, his friends and the students who hadn't yet left, looked at Harry as he gone mad; he was acting so calm and controlled. It seemed as if he didn't have any worries at all, like someone trying to kill him was an everyday sort of thing. In a way it was for Harry, Vernon's abuse was occasionally lethal and Harry only avoided this grim death at the hands of his uncle through practiced means until Vernon's slow brain would realize that he couldn't explain away his nephew's death like he could all his injuries.

Another thing, Harry never did like Quirrell, there was something off about the man as if he was hiding something. Harry might not be sure what it was, but he knew that something was off. For someone who was meant to be their defence professor he was jumpy and weary of things, constantly fearing something was going to jump out of the shadows. Harry knew that someone meant to help them fight the Dark Arts shouldn't be acting like this and if he was, it was some kind of act to lower people's guard around him. This was something Harry wouldn't allow himself to do, and now he was grateful that he didn't. He was calm for a very simple reason; if he allowed his fear to take over he would make mistakes, mistakes that would get people hurt, more importantly get himself hurt or killed - so he would remain calm.

Either way, Quirrell was angry at how Potter talked to him and how he was acting. In retaliation he sent another Slicing Charm at Potter. The man faltered when Potter avoided the curse with a casual lean.

"Is that the best that you can do Quirrell? The standards around here for Professors are terrible." Harry mocked.

"You think you're so smart and cocky, defying the Dark Lord! Let me show you what happens to people who get in his way!" Quirrell snarled in rage as he cast another Slicing Charm followed by a Bone Splintering Hex.

However, none of the spells hit Harry as he magically lifted the plates near him that took the spell and turning them into dust. The Weasley Twins reacted first, chaining together their massive arsenal of pranking spells. Su followed a split second later, her spells were unknown to everyone but possibly the trapped Staff, but the damage done to the castle when Quirrell dodged them was startling. Susan was casting Shield Charms to protect the students from stray spells, whilst Hermione was throwing Tripping Jinxes at the rogue professor whenever she could. Harry was helping by throwing his own fire spells, using his wand, and taunting the older man. Quirrell proved to be surprisingly powerful, and was barely taking any damage despite the assault from so many sides.

What they didn't know was that Quirrell had feasted on even more Forcibly Taken unicorn blood the previous evening and as boosted by the effects.

Suddenly Harry saw the tell-tale green pinpricks of light at the end of Quirrell's wand and saw he was glaring right at Hermione. Before he knew what he was doing, or thought what to do, his feet moved with a burst of speed he sprinted towards the craze man faster than he'd ever moved in his life.

Quirrell glared at the Blood Traitors and at the little Mudblood Bitch who dared to get in his way to get the Stone for his Master. They were good, but this had to end now, and he would do so by killing the Mudblood Bitch. Gathering his magic and the hate needed he cried out the name of his spell, "Avada Ked-ugh!" Only to be interrupted by Potter as the boy slammed into him; sending him to the floor. He briefly looked up, only to see Potter's fist screaming towards his face.

As Harry's fist hit Quirrell's face the Boy-Who-Lived was shocked to see Quirrell's face blistered when he pulled his fist back. While he was looking at this Quirrell raised his wand, the tip glowing a sickly green again. Reacting quickly Harry pinned his arm down and grasped his neck. Harry ignored the sharp tingling feeling in both of his hands. Within seconds, Quirrel was burned alive, leaving nothing but ash behind, which revealed a Dark Wraith that rose out of the ash like some kind of twisted phoenix before fleeing Hogwarts.

As the wraith fled, the Dark Flames began to disappear, allowing the Professors free. At the same time, Harry's friends rushed over to see if he was okay. "Harry, Harry, are you alright?" Asked a concerned Hermione as she looked him over. He was panting heavily, and his hands both looked a little raw, but he didn't appear to be injured.

"I'm… alright." Harry answered slowly, feeling a bit weak.

"What was the hell was that thing that came out of Quirrell?" Cedric wondered as he stared at the wall it had fled through.

"I have no idea," Harry replied honestly.

"That was the wraith of Lord Voldemort." they heard from behind them, all but Harry, Hermione and Su flinched at the name, as they turned round they saw Dumbledore behind them, "It seems that the late Professor Quirrell was possessed by Voldemort."

"So that was Voldemort… interesting." Harry muttered to himself before speaking up, "So what happened to him? Why did he become ash when I touched him?"

Dumbledore shook his head, "I would prefer if we talked about this in my office. The fewer people that know about this ability's specifics the better. If you want to tell your friends about this later, although I prefer you didn't, you can do so later."

Harry would have preferred to have his hands looked at first, but the old fool could possibly give him information on an invaluable weapon against the man who was probably going to be dead set on killing him. "Alright, lead the way." He accepted the offer before they were off, Dumbledore leading Harry to his office.

o0OoO0o

20th of June 1992:

Once they were both seated Dumbledore explained that the reason Quirrell turned to ash when Harry touched him was because his mother's sacrifice. When Harry give him a strange look, Dumbledore explained that because of Harry's mother's love when she died, because of Quirrell's unique situation of being possessed he, as a proxy of Voldemort, could not stand Harry's touch. Harry didn't believe a word of it, because he found it laughably implausible that his mother was the only mother to love her son enough to sacrifice themselves for their children - he suspect that thousands died protecting, or even directly shielding, their children only to have their lives snuffed out by Voldemort or his men anyway.

Then Dumbledore tried to get the Philosopher's Stone from Harry, telling Harry that it would be safer with him then it was with Harry. He had a valid point, Harry would be made a target by those desiring to possess the Stone once word got out that he had it. That valid point fell flat when Harry flat out told him no; that the Stone was safer with him if four first years could get the Stone from Dumbledore already. Dumbledore was flustered, and insisted he be given the Stone, this time on grounds that Harry wasn't ready for such a large responsibility so suddenly, but Harry wished the Headmaster a good day and left the office in response. He left a dumbfounded Headmaster and several dozen snickering portraits behind him.

The rest of the year went back to normal; that is to say, Harry was bored out of his skull. He noticed that Hermione's attitude had changed, becoming more clingy towards him. Harry could only guess it was because he'd saved her three times now; twice from mountain trolls and again against Quirrellmort - the nickname the braver fraction of the student body had given him - and was determined to pay him back somehow.

But by the end of the school year she eventually eased up. Harry had reminded her that he was staying with her family, thanking her again for the opportunity, and it seemed to click that she was already helping him a large deal. She still stuck close to him, but she wasn't constantly trying to help him with things. Harry could live with that. She did make it known that she was planning on helping him work out some sort of plan so he would never have to go back to his relatives. She had already planned on helping him find a place to either rent or set up a plan to have him stay with their friends, moving from house to house on a weekly schedule or something of the like, but after he saved her she wanted to hopefully give him a family experience by going on vacation with them; to show him how a real family acted so he would accept what the Dursleys did was wrong.

"Harry, Harry wake up, the trolley lady is here." Hermione's voice called out to Harry.

As Harry slowly woke up and rubbed his eyes he yawned before he ordered what he wanted, "Thanks Hermione." He thanked her, and then the trolley lady as he grabbed his purchases and sat back down.

"So what have you lot planned for the summer?" Harry asked his friends, as he began to eat and drink his purchases.

That's how they spent their remaining hours on the train; talking about their holiday plans. Susan was going to spend some time with her aunt before going to Hannah's where they would go to Greece for a few weeks before returning to get their school things. Su was going to China to learn more Battle Magic with her family and her new tutor before returning to get her school items. The Vixens were going to spend time at each other homes, no real plans aside from hanging out with each other until they needed to go back-to-school shopping. The Weasley Twins were staying home to work on their pranks and maybe see their friends. Harry answered that he really didn't have any solid plans, since he was going to be spending his summer with the Grangers. His plans were whatever theirs were. They all agreed to keep in contact over the summer, and if possible, meet up.

Now before they knew it, they had arrived at King Cross.

Once they arrived at the station the Twins bid them goodbye before looking for their friend Lee. Susan, Hannah, Su, and Alicia were Flooing home right away, so they gave their goodbyes right there in the compartment, giving hugs and well wishes before they grabbed their trunks and left. While they were packing Cedric popped in to grab his trunk and give his own goodbyes, thankful he was able to catch the group before they all left.

Only Harry, Hermione, Angelina and Katie were left to make their way through the portal to King Cross. Angelina and Katie decided to part ways in a very memorable way as they both hugged Harry, kissing his cheeks at the say time before skipping away through the portal, leaving a blushing Harry. Hermione rolled her eyes but smiled at her flustered friend but couldn't fight the smile at seeing him act so normal. With only Harry and Hermione left, Hermione asked, "Are you ready to meet my parents Harry?"

"Yeah." Harry said slowly with a smile. "I hope they'll like me."

"I'm sure they will." Hermione assured him. "Come on, they're probably already here."

And with that the two of them went through the portal.

TO BE CONTINUED!

Authors Note: Here's the next chapter of Vulcan, I thank you for reading and I hope that you keep on reading and enjoying the story as much as I enjoy writing this. Please let me know what you think of the story, as I would like to know what you think of it…