A/N: I do not own Harry Potter or any character thereof. Only the story line is mine so please don't sue! I don't own anything!

Chapter 29

November 18, 1991

Hermione, Ron, and I still haven't figured out what Fluffy is guarding. Every chance we get, we spend the time in the library looking over books to try to figure out who Nicolas Flamel is.

We figure that once we know that, we'll be able to see what Snape is trying to steal. We already know that he let the troll in on Halloween. The wound I saw on his leg had to have came from the three headed dog.

I still swear that I've seen that name somewhere before. I checked all those books I read at the beginning of the year with no luck.

I figure that the other two will find out who he is before I do. Oliver still has us practicing 5 days a week. As it is, I hardly have time to study now.

Sleep call.

H. Potter

Once December arrived, McGonagall made Wood cut down practices to 3 days a week because exams for most of the teacher's were coming up.

Oliver wasn't pleased. Harry, however, was because that meant that he would actually have time to sleep.

"You're holding your wand wrong Harry."

Harry glanced down at his wand then back up at Hermione.

"This is how I hold it for charms. It works find then."

Hermione's eyes widened. "Harry, are you performing your transfiguration spells the same way you do your other practicals?"

Harry nodded, slightly confused.

"Harry, that's how half of my stuff blew up," Seamus chimed in while Dean was nodding.

"You have to hold it like this while transfiguring items." She corrected his hold on his wand.

Curiously, he asked, "Is it different for each subject?" He knew in the upper years that potions and herbology used spells.

"No." Ron said. "Well, maybe for defense on certain shields and blocks, but otherwise it's mainly just transfiguration."

"Ugh. I'm surprised I've done as well as I have then. It had to have been accidental."

Neville laughed. "Sounds like my luck!"

Holding his wand appropriately, he tried transfiguring his rock into a ball. It only turned into round rock (which was closer than what it had been turned into previously), but that was without Harry concentrating anywhere near the level he was 5 minutes before.

Harry grinned at Hermione. "Thanks!"

His classmates just chuckled. He looked at Seamus and asked, "Did she help you too?"

He nodded. "I almost blew up the table over there." Seamus pointed across the common room to a table where a bunch of 3rd years sat.

That sent Ron into a fit of giggles.

As Christmas slowly approached, Harry was getting excited. As soon as McGonagall had brought the list around inquiring who would be staying over the holidays, Harry had been the first to sign up.

Ron had also stayed because his parents were going to visit one of his older brothers in Romania. Everyone else in his year in Gryffindor was going home.

During the last potion's class before the holiday began, before Snape had even entered the room, Harry heard Malfoy talking across the room.

"I do feel so sorry for all those people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because they're not wanted at home."

He saw that Malfoy was looking at him and he just shrugged back in his direction. Ever since the Slytherin's had lost in that Quidditch match, Malfoy had been trying to make everyone laugh by saying that a wide-mouthed tree frog would be replacing Harry as seeker next. However, no one really found that amusing because they had all been impressed by the way that he had managed to hang onto his broom.

During the exam, he focused on the potion he was making. He found out long ago that if he tuned the room out, he really enjoyed this class.

Ever since he officially became friends with Hermione, he noticed that she really was friendlier if she done things first. He had yet to figure out why though. So during charms, he continued to make sure she showed Flitwick her spell-work first. Defense wasn't a problem because those were all essays. Potions, however, was the only class that he had himself do a mini-compromise with. He would first make the potion correctly, just to make sure that he could, then, as long as it wasn't an exam, he would sabatage his own work (when the Slytherin's didn't do it for him that is) every 2 or 3 weeks so that she got the better grade. His essay work though, he would not mess with in any class. All the other subjects he had no problem letting her do better in because he, himself struggled in them.

As he was stirring his potion clockwise and infusing a little bit of his magic, a flying fish scale flew across the room and landed in his cauldron - in effect ruining it. He looked up and saw Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle looking quite smug with themselves.

Snape passed by at that moment and Harry saw him smirk as he wrote down something that looked suspiciously like a zero in his papers.

Right before the bell rang, Snape gave them holiday homework, which made everyone groan.

Harry was in a foul mood as they trekked towards transfiguration.

"You need to calm down Harry. He can't fail you for it because he saw Crabbe throw it," stated Hermione matter-of-factly.

Ron looked at her in disbelief. Harry just snorted. "I saw him give me a zero Hermione."

Her eyes widened.

"It's alright. It shouldn't affect my grade in there too much."

Evidently she agreed because she never said anymore about it.

Harry had calmed down a little for the practical part of his test in transfiguration. However, he still added a tad too much power behind his spell because on the 4th try when it finally worked, his small stick that he was supposed to transfigure into a candle turned into a very fat candle, one very much not in the set parameters.

"Ugh. I'm sorry Professor McGonagall."

She had her lips pressed together and shooed him out so another student could do it.

After lunch, Ron wanted to take a nap and Hermione wanted to pack, so Harry told them that he was going to the library to get started on his holiday work.

Hermione looked on approvingly even if there was a touch of suspicion in her eyes. Ron went nuts.

"Look at it this way Ron. If I get it all done today and tomorrow, I don't have to worry about it anymore and you can even look at it if you need to."

That seemed to win it for him, so he headed up the stairs to the dormitory to take a nap while Harry followed long enough to collect his books.

He found what he dubbed as 'his table' empty in the library and pulled out his herbology essay. He looked up in time to see Neville approach him.

"Hi Harry. Is it okay if I work with you?"

Harry smiled. "Sure." He knew that with Neville, he'd be able to get more work done as opposed to if he worked with Dean or Seamus.

Neville saw what Harry was going to work on first and grinned. He pulled the same stuff out.

By 2:00pm, Neville almost had his essay finished while Harry only had 1 of the required 2 feet written.

"You really like Herbology don't you?" Harry inquired quietly of Neville.

He nodded almost sheepishly. "It's the only subject that I'm good at."

Harry frowned. "You're good in charms. I've seen you do spells faster than some people in that class."

"I'm not as good as you or Hermione."

"Hermione is better than everyone in everything," Harry said grinning.

When Neville raised his eyebrows a little, Harry squirmed and turned his attention back to his homework.

After Neville was finished with his, he offered to look over Harry's. He only had 18 inches so far.

Fifteen minutes later found both of them working on their astronomy stuff. When it came time for dinner, they had just finished it up.

"Hermione once said that they go easy on the first years. I'm going to dread the next few years if this is easy."

Neville agreed whole heartedly.

Once they arrived back in the common room, they saw Ron and Hermione playing wizards's chess. That was the only thing that she seemed to lose at, which is something everyone thought was good for her.

The next morning, after breakfast, found Hermione reminding Harry and Ron to continue their search for Flamel.

"Hermione, we've looked in all those books on your list. We're out of ideas," protested Ron.

"You've not looked in the restricted section," she whispered. "Happy Christmas." With that, she bounced out of the room, pulling her trunk behind her.

"I think we've been a bad influence on her," pointed out Ron.

Harry nodded his head as they set up the chess board. Harry was still not any good at it but it was still fun to play.

Severus was sitting in his chambers when Albus flooed into his room.

"Minerva told me what happened and that thanks to your quick thinking and actions, Harry is still alive. Do you know who it was?"

Severus shook his head. "I have my suspicions but unfortunately no way to prove them."

Albus nodded as he sat in one of the chairs by the fireplace. "I want you to referee the next Gryffindor match Severus."

"Excuse me?!" Severus did a double take at the Headmaster because he was sure he heard the man wrong.

"I want you to referee the next match. With you there, you could be closer to catch him should he actually fall. I'll be in the stands the next time, so hopefully both will be a deterrent on any future attempts on his life."

Severus scowled and glared at the same time at Albus, who in turned just twinkled at him.

They talked for an hour before the Headmaster left.

Over the next few weeks, Severus caught Potter, Granger, and Weasley glaring at him quite a few times. He just assumed it was because he continually managed to find ways to give Potter detention whenever he could.

He was pleased to note that Potter started turning in lower quality work. He just assumed that his beginner's luck was finally running out.

Quirrell kept trying to talk to him but his incessant stuttering was getting on his nerves. So, he continued to ignore him.

As the holiday's approached, Severus found himself avoiding certain Headmaster's and all his holiday cheer.

He kept trying to avoid the staff meetings but was unable to. He and Albus still had not figured out who Minerva nd Filius kept whispering about and it was amusing to see what happened when Albus' curious twinkle went unanswered. That didn't happen very often.

Severus almost wished he were in on the secret just so he could annoy the man as well.

During the last potion class of the holiday, Severus was about to stride into his classroom when he heard Malfoy taunting Potter. Ever since Slytherin had lost that game, Draco had taunted him as often as he could.

Talk about a sore loser.

He eyed the class diligently, making sure no one was cheating - well - that no Gryffindors' were cheating. If Malfoy didn't help Crabbe and Goyle, he was sure that neither would be able to find their way out of a room with the door open. They were both as thick as their fathers, if not thicker.

Severus kept his eyes on Potter and saw that the boy was on his way to a perfect potion. He still tried to figure out how he did, on occasion, turn in a perfect potion. A person has to know exactly how much magic to put behind each stir otherwise it would be too weak or too strong, which was indicated by the color.

However, before he could ponder that thought anymore, Crabbe launched something across the room at Potter.

It landed in the cauldron - which did indeed ruin it. That solved the problem of having to give him a decent grade. Severus made sure that the brat saw him mark down a zero on the piece of paper he was carrying.

He smirked at Potter's face.

Sunday evening found Severus having tea with Albus in his office.

"I've decided to give Harry his father's invisibility cloak for Christmas."

Severus choked on his tea. "What?!"

Albus reached into a drawer and removed the silvery material.

Severus touched it. "Albus, I've never seen a cloak like this."

Albus' eyes twinkled. "Nor have I. I had it in my possession the night that James and Lily died."

Severus stiffened slightly.

"This belongs to Harry now. I'm sure he would be able to find many uses for it."

Severus' eyes narrowed in suspicion. "You're just inviting him to sneak around and cause all sorts of rule breaking. It certainly explains a great deal of the Maurader's mysterious escapades around school though," he added as an after thought.

Albus chuckled. "It does indeed. And to ease your own mind, if you catch Harry using it to break any school rules, you are of course, free to give him detention or take house points as you see fit. It certainly hasn't stopped you thus far this year."

A predatory gleam came across Severus' eyes but Albus kept speaking.

"I must admit that I do find myself curious as to what he'll do with it. I imagine he'll explore the castle more than anything, which he can do a lot easier while not being directly seen."

Severus huffed at the Headmaster in obvious disbelief that the boy who lived would only explore.

A/N: Thanks everyone for the reviews so far!

A/N: This story will stick mostly to canon of the Sorcerer's Stone book, and some quotes are from the book directly. However, every once in a while, a scene or two from the movie may sneak in. (All that of course aside from the fact that a lot of scenes from my own mind are sneaking in as well - evil cackle!)

A/N: Some of what's written in the Sorcerer's Stone will change to suit my whims for my own story! Don't hate me! (Evil smirk!)