Hello, everyone! Here's the newest chapter for the "Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord" story. Enjoy!

* Review response:
xavierp, Draconica is a true Slytherin, more so than any canon girl of the said house; and the role of the-one-who-causes-problems for the 'golden trio' will be filled soon enough.
The Sinful, Akira Stridder, heh.
Siriusly Grim, Dark Dragen, Highvalour, Kimberley Krystine Mayfield, thanks, folks!
RE5 forever, sorry, but if there will be bushing, it'll be unintended. I can't, it seems, write intentional one...
ChaosLord SilverLink310, I think I have already mentioned that there'll be HG/NL side pairing, but, yes, Hermione with have warm feeling towards both boys.
Kharneth666, not sure if it qualifies, but there was a close-cousins-relationship story with fem-Draco. ("Harry Potter and the Second Life", was the title if I'm not mistaken)
Still Not Dead Yet, maybe, maybe not...
smitty1110, Dumbledore will get what he deserves. In time.

* Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Harry Potter" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"
'human thoughts'
"spells / parseltongue"

Special thanks to NARUHAREM FOREVA for beta-reading this story.

chapter 6: Magical stones

Ronald Weasley surely didn't like the punishment he was given for what he had done to Hermione: two weeks of detentions with Filch and thirty points from Griffindor – unfortunately, negating everything Harry and Neville had earned by defeating the troll – were bad enough, but a letter home professor McGonnagal sent was by far the worst, as it result in him receiving a howler from his very dissatisfied mother on Saturday morning. He wanted to do something to the bushy-haired witch and her new found friends right there and right now for embarrassing him in front of the entire school, but a sharp glare from McGonnagal told him that it wasn't a good idea. So, the red-haired wizard decided to alternate between ignoring the 'golden trio' when around professors and trying to provoke them into starting a fight with insults when not... Not that either Harry, Hermione or Neville cared about what the redhead did as long as he didn't directly attack them...

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In the middle of November, as the first quidditch, the one between Griffindor and Slytherin houses, approached, Wood became even more of the training fanatic than he already was. And so Harry and the rest of the Griffindor quidditch team found themselves on the pitch training their asses off at least trice a week, more if Oliver could reserve the pitch more often...

On Tuesday, November 12, Wood had the team training 'till it was only an hour left before the curfew. Quickly taking shower and changing into his normal clothes, the green-eyed wizard headed back to the Griffindor common room, but when was passing by the corridor on the forth floor, he had heard professors Snape and Quirrell argue about something. For some reason, Harry decided to listen to what that was all about, especially since the DADA professor sounded even more scared than he normally was:

"So no luck there?" The potions master asked.

"N-No. Getting p-past that dog is not s-something we c-can do without alerting the h-headmaster as far as I k-know." Professor Quirrell stuttered.

"The stone is out of your reach till you can figure the dog out then." Snape observed... Not knowing what stone the two professors were talking about, Harry still had figured out that it was both something very valuable, and the very same thing that someone tried to steal from Gringotts during his first visit to Diagon Alley. Deciding that it was not wise to continue eavesdropping, though, the Griffindor seeker hurried towards the common room. The last thing he had heard from the dialogue between two professors was Quirrell agreeing with what the potions master said.

While Harry couldn't make any conclusions about the situation in the whole as he didn't know what stone the professors were talking about was, but he could still make some speculations about who the 'criminal' here was... As much as he disliked Snape, the green-eyed boy didn't think about him as the main suspect: the man had worked at Hogwarts for years, while professor Quirrell joined the teachers' collection only this year, the year when the stone – whatever it was – was brought to the castle. Plus, the DADA professor was in the Diagon Alley the day when there was an attempted robbery at Gringotts, which made him even more suspicious.

Still, without any solid proof, accusing a professor of being after some artifact was at the very least stupid. Most likely, a political suicide, really. But Harry decided to look into this matter as he needed more information before he could act in any way... And the first thing the young Griffindor needed was information on was the stone: it was something very powerful or very valuable, most likely both, since someone had to break into Gringotts to get to it. And the best way to get information about what the stone could be was to ask one of his friends. But Hermione was unlikely to know much about magical stones and he didn't want the girl to bury herself even deeper into the books. Neville too, most likely, would know only so much as his specialization was Herbology. Thus, only Draconica was left... And his teammates from the quidditch team if the Slytherin girl didn't have the information he needed... Still, he would ask Draconica first. In private, of course...

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Next morning, during the double Defense Against the Dark Arts period, Harry had 'secretly' passed a message to the blond Slytherin, saying that he wanted to talk to her today in the library after the lunch. Draconica didn't write anything back, but had nodded to him, signifying that she would come... After the DADA lessons had finished, the green-eyed wizard quickly went down to the Great hall and ate his lunch, hoping that he would be able to get that secluded table in the library for their ...meeting. The blond witch joined him there rather soon...

"I take it, you have something to say to me, Potter." Draconica stated, not asked, in a cold and indifferent tone, though, despite being in rivaling houses and rarely speaking to each other, they still were a bit closer than that. But they both had an image to keep up.

"Indeed." Harry replied. "I need some information on a particular subject that is not very well covered by the library and felt that you would the best person to ask for it." The blond witch folded her hands in front of her face and looked into his eyes.

"You do understand that you will have to do something for me in return?" She asked. Harry nodded, even though he personally thought that the Slytherin policy of never giving anything without something in return was going a bit too far: altruism should exist in the world too.

"And what exactly do you want in return for sharing some information with me?" He asked her. Draconica replied almost as soon as he finished his question.

"While it is rare for our houses to agree on one subject or another, we both know that professor Quirrell is barely teaching us anything useful. And I know for the fact that you do some self-study for DADA." The Griffindor wizard nodded, though he wasn't sure how his interlocutress knew about that. "I'd like to go over those notes of yours." Then, after a small pause she added: "This one time, of course." Harry nodded again.

"Agreed."

"So what did you want to ask me about?" Draconica asked.

"Some time ago I have overheard some older students taking about magical stones and got interested in the topic." He lied, but even if the Slytherin girl saw through that, she didn't show it. "But the library there has books only about either precious stones used as foci for staffs, or about stones used for warding." This wasn't necessary a lie as those were the book on stones he had found while waiting for Draconica to get to the library. "I have a suspicion that this is not all about magical stones, is it?" The pretty witch nodded.

"Indeed, that's not all, but those two are the most popular uses for stones in magical arts." She said. "Since it's quite clear that you are looking not into the specific uses of this stone or that one, but more into general magical mineralogy, I will say this:.." She made a small pause, before continuing her 'lecture'. "All precious and semiprecious stones can both be used as foci and as storages for the magical energies. At the same time stones like marble or granite are good materials for rune-based magics. Then there is bezoar that, while not a real mineral, is still called a stone. I think it's safe to assume that you remember its properties from Potions." Harry nodded. "Finally there is the Philosopher's or Sorcerer's stone that is said to be a part of the elixir of life and to be able to turn any metal into gold. While its existence isn't exactly confirmed as Nicolas Flamel, its supposed creator, has never shown it to anyone, his and his wife's lives of more than six centuries long are a good evidence that the stone does exist."

"Thanks! That's about what I was asking for." Harry said, while thinking: 'I doubt that it is just an energy container that is kept at the Hogwarts. And while I do not know the exact limitations of runic magic, the idea of something of that kind hidden there too is doubtful as is just a presence of a really big jewel. That means that the most likely stone that is hidden in the castle is the Philosopher's stone...' "I'll give you my notes at the Astronomy lesson tonight." Draconica nodded.

"See you there then." She replied.

"Have a good evening." The green-eyed wizard told her, while thinking about what to do with the whole 'stone' situation. 'I'm fairly certain that it is the Philosopher's stone out there, but I still need to do some more research, before I can decided what to do about it... On the second thought... It's quite suspicious that Mr. Flamel would give up his stone to have it be kept out here, when it was perfectly safe at his house for the last several centuries... Most likely, the stone at Hogwarts is a fake one, thought it still has to be quite magical, for it has managed to fool the headmaster...' Harry continued pondering on the subject of the Philosopher's stone as he walked back to Griffindor tower.

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Saturday, November 23 finally came, and the first quidditch match of the season was today, after the lunch. That, of course didn't mean that Oliver Wood would let his team relax in the morning as he had called a team meeting at nine in the morning to discuss the strategy for the match... But, really, was there even one person who was listening to that three hours long briefing, Harry wondered. Most likely, no...

When the lunch came, the green-eyed Griffindor found himself so nervous about the match that he had to force himself to eat something at all. He wasn't the only one with such a problem as it looked like Katie too had troubles with eating her lunch... Finally, the time came and Oliver guided his team to the locker rooms, even some of the team members had barely eaten anything. And then there was another briefing, though, once again, barely anyone listened to Wood...

Ten minutes before two in the afternoon, madam Hooch called the teams to the pitch. Harry barely listened to the third-year Griffindor – Lee – announcing members of the team, and professor McGonnagal scolding him for being prejudiced against Slytherin house. Madam Hooch had the captains of the teams shake their hands – it looked like either one tried to crush the other's hand – before opening the chest that held the balls. She released the two bludgers and then the snitch. Finally, she took the quaffle and, blowing her whistle, threw it up into the air, signifying that the match had started.

Harry, completely concentrated on his task of catching the snitch before the other seeker could do that, paid little attention to what was going down there, other than occasionally hearing Lee's especially loud comments when Griffindor scored... Finally, after what felt to be an eternity, the green-eyed wizard spotted a golden winged ball no larger than a walnut hovering not far away from one of the stands. Knowing exactly what he had to do now, he shot after the snitch... A second later the Slytherin seeker started flying after him: the man – Harry couldn't recall his last name at the moment – was using a strategy based on following the other seeker and not looking for the golden winged ball itself. In this situation the green-eyed boy could lead the opponent away from the snitch and have him crash into something, before claiming the victory by catching the ball... And so the young wizard started flying between and behind the stands, trying to lose the other seeker there, while keeping his eyes on the snitch, which was still zipping around the same stand...

Suddenly Harry lost his control over his – Oliver's – broomstick, as it started moving randomly, trying to throw him off. Concentrating on the task of not falling from the broom, he had to ignore the rest of the world, thus losing the snitch... Thankfully the Slytherin seeker hadn't even seen it at all... Still, the movements of the broom were getting more and more forceful and random... And at one point it succeeded in throwing the young Griffindor off itself, though Harry was still hanging on it with just his left hand still gripping the handle of the broom. Too bad, he didn't have enough strength to hang there for long... Thankfully, the solution to the problem came from the problem itself: the broomstick jerked to the right, ending up really close to one of the support beams of the tribunes, and, using the said beam as a pivot, the young wizard propelled himself back onto the broom...

For another fifteen or so seconds the broomstick continued to thrash around, almost leaving the boy imprinted into another support beam, before it all suddenly stopped and he could control it completely again... Looking around, Harry saw that both teams, as well as madam Hooch, were on the ground in the center of the pitch. So he flew there and landed next to the Griffindor team captain.

"You OK, Harry?" Oliver asked when the green-eyed wizard was finally standing on the solid ground.

"Good of you to finally join us down here." The Weasley twins said together in a mocking voice, though in wasn't hard to hear their concern for their teammate underneath that.

"I'm fine." Harry said. "A bit scared, but OK." Madam Hooch then told him to give her the broom, and, once he did that, she ran a few diagnostics over it.

"Hm..." The witch hummed. "Enhancements are in order... So there was an outside reason for the broom's abnormal behavior." She concluded. She ran the diagnostics again, just in case she had missed something, but the broomstick was in order. "Very well, we will continue the match now, but should the interference happen again, the match will be rescheduled until we can deal with the attacker – we can't have someone interfering with the match by trying to either kill one team's seeker, or by messing with the said seeker's equipment." Both Griffindor and Slytherin teams nodded. "Now back onto your brooms! The match continues." The fourteen players hurried to do just that. One they were all on their brooms and took off the ground, madam Hooch blew into her whistle, signaling the match to continue...

For the next twenty or so minutes Harry circled above the quidditch pitch, looking for the golden snitch, but the damned ball decided to play hide and seek and wasn't showing itself to the Griffindor seeker. And the Slytherin seeker kept following him, hoping to outfly the green-eyed wizard when the golden ball would be finally spotted. Finally Harry grew tired and started doing advanced maneuvers, hoping to shake the other seeker off his tail. It kind of worked as the Slytherin boy was now keeping his distance from him, though he never stopped following Harry's gaze...

A flash of gold near Slytherin loops had revealed the snitch's location, and the green-eyed wizard flew after it with the fastest speed a Cleansweeper six could produce. The Slytherin seeker followed Harry just as fast, but as Harry was closer to the snitch, he had much better chances of catching the ball... Suddenly a bludger appeared, forcing the Griffindor seeker to change his course, and allowing the Slytherin seeker to catch up to Harry a little. The black ball, apparently, picked Harry as its personal target and attempted to hit the young seeker again. But the green-wizard dodged it rather easily. Unlike the Slytherin seeker that happened to be on the same line... With his opponent temporarily out of the competition, it took Harry only some maneuvering around Slytherin's players and dodging some more bludgers to finally catch the golden winged ball, earning Griffindor the first victory in the season with the score of three hundreds and ten against ninety...

The celebration of the victory in the Griffindor tower lasted well past midnight – till professor McGonnagal decided that her lions were too loud for this hour of night – and Harry, as the one who had brought the victory to them was all but forced to stay up. Not that he minded it very much as the Weasley twins brought a box of butterbeer bottles for everyone and several bottles of firewhiskey for older students, along with some snacks from somewhere...

So, when their head of the house sent her students back to their dormitories, Harry fell onto his bed utterly exhausted, but very content with both himself for winning match and with the celebration that followed it...

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On the Monday morning the next week, reply to the letter Harry had sent to the Archives of the Ministry of Magic came, bringing the green-eyed wizard an answer to the question about his 'official' name. Opening the envelope, he read the letter. It was written in a very dry official language, though it was quite easy to see that the Ministry worker was quite surprised by Harry's inquiry... Skipping straight to where his 'official' name was written, the young Griffindor read:

"Hadrian James Potter..." It was followed by his title as the scion of an ancient house of Potter, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera... Harry smiled to himself, before hiding the letter into his bag, promising himself to dispose it as soon as possible – it wouldn't be good if such information leaked to those who would use it to harm him... That done, the young Griffindor returned to eating his breakfast, while thinking about what to do during the History of Magic lesson.

That's all, folks!
The seventh chapter will be published in a week.
Leave me a review.