The morning after the students returned from their Christmas break, Professor Snape posted seven long lists on the common room bulletin board. Immediately the upper years were gathered around, whispering and exclaiming or groaning. Aria and Harry shared a slightly intrigued look before asking Daphne if she knew what the fuss was about.
"I think it's the mid-year class standings," Daphne replied, "going off snippets of conversation I've overheard. Apparently, Marcus has managed to rise in the rankings of the fifth years, displacing Prudence and she's not happy about it."
Once the bulletin board cleared the younger years were able to gather and look at their lists.
"Granger's on top," Tracey stated, "no surprise there. Draco, you've come in second!"
"Congratulations," Aria managed to say, noting her own name just below Draco's at Number 3 for first years.
"I can't believe a Muggleborn was able to take the top spot away from someone like Draco," Pansy cried. "It's clear she's cheating."
"Don't be an ass, Pansy," Daphne scolded, stepping on the girl's foot. "If you took the time to study a little bit more like the rest of us, you and Millie wouldn't be so far down the list."
Aria noted that Pansy and Millicent sat at Number 25 and 27 respectively out of 41. Crabbe and Goyle were in the very last two spots. The rest of the Slytherin first years were placed decently throughout the rankings. She, Draco, Daphne, Tracey, and Harry were all in the top ten, with Daphne at Number 5, Tracey at Number 7, and Harry at Number 10. Blaise and Theo had scored the 15th and 19th slots. The remaining top ten first years went to Susan Bones of Hufflepuff at Number 4, Hannah Abbott another Hufflepuff at Number 6, with Mandy Brocklehurst and Terry Boot both from Ravenclaw at Numbers 8 and 9.
A quick glance at the other years and Aria noted that most years had a core group of Slytherins lumped in the teens and upper twenties, but very few in the top ten, very different from her own year.
"I can't believe you got third," Millicent said to Aria. "How'd you do it? Who'd you cheat off of?"
"Leave it, Millie," Daphne begged.
"Maybe you should study more," Aria pointed out. "Hermione and I put in a lot of studying, so do Daph, Tracey, Harry, and Draco."
"Oh, come off it," Millicent cried, "you really expect me to believe that you and Granger are smarter than a bunch of us purebloods? My dad says your kind can barely hold a quill!"
"Only because Muggles don't use quill and ink anymore," Aria argued.
"Well, we're going to go and say you cheated," Pansy stated, "then there'll be an investigation and they'll find out that you did cheat and then they're expel you and snap your wand!"
Aria's eyes widened. Snap her wand?
Thankfully her friends weren't the only ones tired of listening to Pansy and Millicent. Tracey Paddington, the fifth-year prefect, who had just finished soothing Prudence for having been beaten in the fifth-year standings by Marcus, used a rolled up Daily Prophet to hit Pansy and Millicent across the back of their heads.
"Why don't you two go find trouble elsewhere?" Tracey demanded. "Trouble that does not include unfounded remarks about your fellow housemate's academic success. We all saw how you two didn't study for your exams."
"You can't hit us!" Pansy cried. Tracey hit her again with the newspaper.
"What are you going to do?" the prefect jeered. "Tell on me to your mummy or daddy? Please." Pansy and Millicent scowled at her but seemed to sense that the older students in the common room were tired of hearing the bickering, and so the two flounced back up to the first year dormitories. Tracey turned towards the remaining first year girls, causing Aria, Daphne, and Tracey to step closer to each other in case the prefect decided to also come after them with the newspaper.
"Good job at representing Slytherin," the prefect said, pointing the newspaper towards them. "I don't think Slytherin's ever presented so well in the top ten before. I'm sure Professor Snape is just over the moon."
"As much as he is able," someone muttered, and the students laughed.
"Can Pansy and Millicent really accuse me of cheating?" Aria asked Tracey.
"Oh, they can," Tracey replied. "But they've got to have some sort of evidence. If we could easily accuse people of cheating, I suspect more of us would do it just to get back at people we didn't like. Don't worry about it, Bourne."
That wasn't exactly the most comforting thing Aria had ever heard.
During that first week back, Professor Snape began calling individual Slytherins into his office to discuss their class rankings. As luck would have it, he started with the first years and went in alphabetical order, which meant that Aria was the first to go.
Sitting in front of her Head of House, she waited with some fidgeting, as he peered over her grades for a moment before handing her a copy of all her classes and first term grades.
"I am very pleased with how the first year Slytherins did," Snape told her, offering her a bottle of Butterbeer. "Well done on your third place standing. As you can see, you've got very high marks."
"Is there anything I can do to improve them?" Aria asked. "And what are these letters next to the number scores?"
"Ah, that is the traditional wizarding grading system," Snape explained, "used on your OWLs and NEWTs which you take in your fifth and seventh years."
"OWLs and NEWTs?"
"Ordinary Wizarding Levels and Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests. Equivalent, I suppose, to the Muggles' Ordinary Levels and A-Levels. The letter grades are thus: O for Outstanding, E for Exceeds Expectations, A for Acceptable, P for Poor, D for Dreadful, and T for Troll. Those last three are failing grades."
Aria ran her eyes over her grades again. Now she could see what was going on. There was the number grade, which was most likely based off the Muggle grading system, and then the letter grade which was the wizarding grade.
"So, I got Outstandings in all my subjects except Potions and Herbology?"
"That is correct."
"Is that how I got beat out by Draco?"
"I cannot discuss another student's grades with you, Miss Bourne. Safe to say though that if you desired to rise in the ranks for the end of the year, then you would do well to spend a little extra time with your potions and herbology books. Perhaps a tutor?"
"What did I do wrong in potions?" Aria asked. "My potions come out right and my essays are good."
"Your essays are good," Snape agreed, "but they could be better. You're lacking in the theoretical side of potions, which is a common thing for most first years. If you would like I can find you a tutor for potions, one that can help you focus specifically on the theoretical side of potions."
"I could just study harder with Hermione," Aria muttered.
"As much as you would like to, you cannot rely on Miss Granger to be your study partner for all things," Snape advised. "You will need to learn to take help from others. So, a tutor then?"
"Yes, please. What can you tell me about my Herbology grade?"
"Professor Sprout's notes simply state that if you didn't hurry so much in the Greenhouse, you'd be less likely to make mistakes in the practical lessons. If you want a tutor in herbology, you'll need to speak to Professor Sprout." Aria frowned. She did not enjoy the practical side of Herbology that much.
"I'll think about it," she said. "I mean . . . I could just see what taking my time does right?" Snape hummed in agreement while she finished off the Butterbeer. With a flick of his wand, Snape made the bottle vanish and Aria was dismissed with her grades. She was almost to the portrait hole when the portrait of Slytherin burst open and Tracey bounded out, her normally neat hair flying everywhere in a half-done braid, almost as if she had been in the middle of doing it before deciding that tearing out of the common room like the demons of hell were after her was a better idea.
"Aria!" Tracey cried, grabbing Aria's hand. "I tried to stop her, I really did!"
"Whoa, whoa, slow down, Tracey. Stop who?"
Tracey yanked Aria into the common room where Pansy, Millicent, and a group of other students gathered around a table with a familiar box open before them.
"What are you doing?" Aria demanded, marching up to grab the box. Third year Cassius Warrington blocked her from grabbing it back, shoving her back into Tracey.
"We didn't do anything," another third year, Graham Montague said. Miles Bletchley, also third year, sneered.
"You're all looking at something that clearly belongs to me," Aria retorted. "Items that were in my trunk which means that Pansy or Millicent stole the box."
"That's rich coming from you," Kennedy Carrow sneered. Beside her Yoland McDoogal giggled. "Let's talk about stolen items shall we? What's a little mudblood like you doing with unicorn hair, blood, and horn? Where'd you get it? Did you steal it from Professor Snape, I'm sure he'd really like to know where you got these from." She grinned in triumph as if she had just won the lottery. Aria, however, managed to push down the panic that she felt beginning to build inside her, latching onto the one name of the person who could get her out of this.
"Yes," she replied, "I'm sure Professor Snape would be interested in discussing stealing with us. Perhaps Tracey here can pop on down to his office and bring him back?"
Kennedy's grin disappeared. Yolanda's giggling stopped. Even the third-year boys looked surprised at Aria's insistence of getting Professor Snape. If they were smart, which Aria doubted they were, they would either recognize that A) Professor Snape already knew about the ingredients and therefore Aria had not stolen anything or B) Aria felt like she had nothing to lose and intended to bring them down with her.
"Go on," Aria egged them. "Get Professor Snape. Tell him how you discovered stolen potions ingredients in my trunk." No one moved. Behind her Aria heard Tracey hop from foot to foot, agitated.
"Is there a problem?"
Aria breathed a sigh of relief hearing Frank Treworgy's voice come from the common room entrance. He and Teddy came closer.
"I found this in Bourne's trunk," Pansy declared, pushing the box from the centaurs forward. "It's got stolen potions ingredients." The seventh-year prefect handed his school bag to Teddy before looking in the box, then at Pansy, at Aria, and finally at Teddy who rolled his eyes towards the ceiling.
"Bourne, did you give Parkinson permission to go into your trunk?" Frank asked.
"No."
"Parkinson, why were you going through Bourne's trunk? If you suspected she had things in there that didn't belong to her, you should have approached a prefect."
Pansy's face flushed pink even as the other students glared at Frank, as if him performing his prefect duties were offensive. Frank closed the box.
"Bourne," he said, "go up to your room and bring your trunk down so that Lawrence can put anti-theft wards on it." Aria scurried up to the dorm room and came back in record time, dragging her battered secondhand trunk behind her. Teddy set his and Frank's school bags down while Frank handed the box back to Aria who immediately put it back into her trunk.
"I hope you all like detention," Frank snapped at the gathered students.
"You can't be serious!" Yolanda cried. "Teddy, you're just going to let these . . . people treat us like this?"
"If by people you mean a prefect," Teddy replied, "then yes. I am." He began waving his wand over the trunk. Aria watched as her trunk glowed blue for a second before the light faded. Teddy had Tracey try and open the trunk, but she could not. Aria had no problem opening the trunk.
"Teddy!" Kennedy snapped. "What would your parents say?"
Teddy straightened, glaring at his fellow seventh year.
"I think they would want me to treat, with respect, the girl who was gifted rare potions ingredients by the centaurs," he said, "at the bequest of the unicorns."
The group of bullies stared at him like he had grown a second head.
"What?" Millicent cried.
"The unicorn potion ingredients," Teddy repeated, "were a gift from the unicorns to Bourne. The centaurs were the ones who harvested the ingredients and delivered them. The box, I believe, was centaur made." Aria nodded.
"Why were the unicorns gifting Bourne hair, horn, and blood?" Miles asked, his voice now soft and hesitant.
"A Fiend killed one of the unicorns over Christmas break," Aria explained. "A mother unicorn. Its baby found me, Ron, and Harry and I was there when the unicorn died, and the Fiend tried to kill the baby. And me too, I guess. Apparently, the unicorns were grateful that I had attempted to bring comfort to the dying mother and had protected the foal."
Miles' jaw dropped. Cassius and Graham glanced at each other, looking even more confused than normal.
"You expect us to believe that?" Yolanda cried. "A little first year, and a bloody mudblood at that, gifted something from the unicorns and centaurs?"
"You don't have to believe it," Frank said, "but it still remains the truth."
"Shut it, Treworgy!"
"Enough," Teddy growled at the girls. "This conversation is over. Bourne's to be left alone. If you don't leave her alone, then you'll have me to answer to."
Aria turned wide eyes on Teddy. That was new. Welcome, certainly, but new and unexpected.
"Let the rest of Slytherin know," Teddy went on. "Bourne's under my protection." He turned back to her. "Get your trunk out of here."
"Er . . . right. Thanks!" Aria and Tracey retreated to their room where Aria stowed her trunk at the foot of her bed like before.
"That was amazing!" Tracey cried. "Teddy Lawrence has made himself your protector. Wait until Daphne here's about this!"
"Her and every other Slytherin," Aria muttered, glancing at Pansy's trunk, and having half a mind to go through her things. She barely managed to ignore the temptation and ended up on Tracey's bed, showing off her grades which Tracey congratulated her on and then demanded they be study partners. When Daphne returned to the room Tracey immediately began filling her in on everything she had missed, and Aria was forced to relay everything that had happened over break.
Over the next few days, Aria discovered how quickly the Hogwarts grapevine grew. By the end of the first night, everyone in Slytherin had learned about what had happened over Christmas break including Pansy's theft and Teddy's declaration of protection; by the second night most of Hogwarts had heard about Aria and Ron and Harry's run in with the unicorns and centaurs and then that led to the story of Norbert and Hagrid's "rescue of an endangered species that almost burned down his hut."
Pansy ended up with two weeks of detention for stealing from Aria's trunk and the others in the group received a week for "doing nothing to stop her." Yolanda, however, received a few extra days for her use of the term 'mudblood.' Frank and Teddy were both seen with mixes of admiration and downright hostility within Slytherin now, but thankfully everyone seemed to take Teddy's words to heart and were not bothering her.
Since the weather (and a troll) had interrupted Samhain, Prudence was insistent that Slytherin celebrate the Spring Equinox. Therefore, as the day approached, there was a flutter of activity within the house itself that nearly left Aria dizzy watching everyone prepare for it. The common room became decorated with bright colored flowers that kept popping out of people's wands and filled the entire dormitory with sweet fragrances. Marcus Flint was put in charge of the egg hunt while Tracey Paddington had been bullied by Prudence to help run an egg decorating event the night before the equinox. Prudence had even managed to convince Teddy Lawrence to be her counterpart at the altar. Apparently, this included candles, altar decorations, milk, and honey.
Aria was looking forward to watching.
Tracey managed to have the egg decorating in the Great Hall and from there it became a school wide event. Aria was impressed at how at ease Tracey looked as she organized tables and supplies and doled out instructions. It was clear why Professor Snape had chosen her to be prefect.
Aria and her friends decorated eggs in their house colors. Seamus painted one egg in the colors of the Irish flag while Dean painted one of his in the colors of Arsenal. Once every egg was painted, students who wanted an egg for their own spring altar were allowed to take their eggs while Marcus gathered up the rest for the egg hunt.
It had been years since Aria had attended an egg hunt. The last one had been put on by the YMCA at the community playground. She had eaten tons of chocolate and given herself a belly ache!
As the egg hunt went on, Aria and her friends discovered that it wasn't just the decorated eggs that were hidden, but special eggs with treats inside. Those these weren't simple chocolate treats like in the Muggle world. There were prank items, chocolate frog cards, different candies, and even money! Aria discovered two eggs with Sickles in them while Neville found a Galleon.
It was a wonderful interlude between the holiday break and the last leg of the school year. With the warming days students became restless and teachers more demanding. Fifth and seventh years panicked every other day in preparation for their OWLS and NEWTS. Even Prudence and Marcus had stopped bickering to focus on their studying.
One late spring morning the Transfiguration classroom door burst open and Ron, Hermione, and Neville came skidding in late to the lecture. The Head of Gryffindor's mouth thinned as she peered over her spectacles at her late students.
"May I ask why you three are late?" McGonagall demanded.
"One of the st-staircases changed," Hermione gasped out, slumping into the empty seat next to Aria. "We ran as fast as we could!"
"Hmph. Now, as I was saying . . ."
Aria gave Hermione a look over. Her hair practically stood up on end as her robe was disheveled, almost like she had fallen and had not fixed it in her hurry to get to class. Besides that, Hermione was shaking like a leaf!
Aria quickly tore a piece of parchment out of her notebook.
Are you all right?
Hermione glanced at the note before nodding, taking her things out of her schoolbag and setting them up on her desk, as if she had not just burst into the classroom almost ten minutes late. Aria gave her a pointed look. Hermione glared at her.
"We'll talk later," she whispered, taking up a quill. "Now what did I miss?"
Aria almost groaned, pushing her notes to her friend to copy. What a spoil-sport Hermione could be!
After class, Aria felt that Hermione was purposefully packing up her things slowly just to annoy her. Once all of Hermione's things were packed away, Aria grabbed her arm and dragged her from the classroom. Harry, Ron, and Neville trailed behind. Aria waved Daphne and Tracey off.
"All right, spill," Aria ordered as they walked down the corridor. "Why were you late to class?"
"The staircase did move on us," Hermione told her. "Except it put us at the forbidden third floor corridor. We were going to go through the corridor to go around, but Mrs. Norris showed up and we ran. We ended up inside this room."
"That doesn't seem too scary," Harry commented.
"It was scary!" Neville insisted. "There was a three headed dog in it!"
"It's called a Cerberus," Hermione said.
"Hold on, a what?" Ron cried.
"I don't care what it's called, Hermione," Neville whined.
"A Cerberus," Hermione repeated as if Neville hadn't said a word. "You know, from the Greek myths? It guards the underworld?"
"Anyway," Aria cut off Hermione's lecture. "What happened then?"
"Well, it snarled at us. Slobbered dreadfully. We screamed and ran back out the door. Thankfully Mrs. Norris was nowhere to be seen."
"Shouldn't a dog like that be outside?" Harry asked, concern dripping from his voice. Aria had a sudden image flash through her mind of Harry marching to the third-floor corridor to free the animal.
"We have a three-headed dog of legend in the castle, and you're worried that it's not getting enough fresh air?" Ron cried, his voice rising to almost a squeak.
"It's not right, locking animals away like that," Harry argued. "That corridor doesn't have any windows. It's all inside."
"Should we call animal control?" Aria asked.
"I think it's guarding something!" Hermione stated, shutting Ron and Harry up.
"Why?" Neville demanded.
"Because it was standing on a trap door, Neville. Didn't you see it?"
"No!" the boy snapped. "I didn't see what the beast was standing on. I was trying not to get eaten by one of its heads. And if you hadn't noticed, it had three!"
Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Besides, Hermione, what could it possibly be guarding?" Ron asked. "It's not like Dumbledore's going to be hiding something of value in Hogwarts."
Harry froze. Aria nearly ran him over. They all stopped to stare at him as he stared off into the distance, his mouth falling open as he breathed out,
"Oh. I know."
Aria looked at Hermione, then Ron, then Neville.
"What is it?" she finally asked, hoping that her sigh wasn't too heavy.
"When I was in Diagon Alley with Hagrid this summer, we stopped off at a vault just after I got money from mine," Harry told them. "It was empty, except for this small package. It was the same vault that was broken into this past fall."
"Gringotts got broken into?" Aria questioned.
"You didn't hear?" Neville asked.
"Sorry, must've slipped my mind seeing between Draco Malfoy's grandfather and a mountain troll."
"I think you were in the hospital wing," Harry soothed. "Anyway, they never found out who tried to break in. Hagrid had said that the package was for Dumbledore and that it was very important."
"Why didn't you say anything?" Ron asked.
"I was worried about Aria!"
Aria giggled, pressing her forehead against Harry's shoulder for a second before straightening.
"We should go ask Hagrid," Hermione said, "as it is, he's the closes thing to animal control on campus, right? So even if the Cerberus isn't hiding something, he should know about it."
"We do have a free period," Aria commented. The five traipsed through the wet grounds towards Hagrid's hut, avoiding the larger puddles left by the spring rains. Smoke curled from the chimney and firelight glowed from the windows, giving off a warm and welcoming aura that had Aria thinking about the fairy houses she use to build in her backyard with her mum when she was little.
The giant of the man greeted them with claps on the back, moving to put on a kettle for tea. Fang lumbered over to greet them, letting Aria and Hermione pat his head, but waiting for the boys to come closer before slobbering all over them. Harry, Ron, and Neville laughed as they wiped the drool off their robes.
"Boys are disgusting," Aria whispered to Hermione. "Why are we friends with them?"
"God knows," Hermione answered with a laugh. "We must be desperate." They made a show of trying to eat Hagrid's Rock Cakes, but slipped the cakes into their school bags to either give to Fang later or throw them to the Giant Squid.
"So, what brings ya down to my neck o' the woods?" Hagrid asked once he had poured everyone tear.
"Ron, Hermione, and Neville accidentally stumbled onto the third floor," Aria said. "You know, the one that's forbidden."
"We were trying to escape Mrs. Norris!" Neville defended. "And the stairs had moved. It wasn't like we asked to be put there."
"That Mrs. Norris is a right 'andful," Hagrid agreed.
"I think she's lovely," Aria said with a sniff.
"I 'ope ya didn't get into any trouble?"
"Not with Filch," Hermione answered. "But we did hide in a room and stumbled upon a Cerberus—"
"Ah! That'd be Fluffy."
The quick confession from the beaming Hagrid brought Hermione's sentence to a halt. Aria paused in putting sugar in her tea. The man had named the creature?
"That thing has a name?" Neville all but shrieked.
"Of course it's gotta name!" Hagrid replied, insulted. "Got 'im off a Greek chap this summer. Was gonna keep 'im 'ere with me an' Fang, but Dumbledore suggested that we use Fluffy for—" Hagrid trailed off with a frown.
"Shouldn't've said that," he muttered.
"Why would the headmaster want to lock Fluffy up?" Harry asked. "There's no windows. Has Fluffy been locked up all school year?" His voice got angrier by the sentence.
"Well, Cerberuses make excellent guard dogs," Hagrid told Harry. "But I don't know 'bout Dumbledore's business. That's between 'im and Nicholas Flamel." He paused again.
"Shouldn't've said that. More tea?"
Aria accepted another cup before sharing intrigued looks with Hermione and Ron. Harry continued to question Hagrid about Fluffy's comfort in the room, was Fluffy getting enough to eat, did Fluffy have enough room to move around in, did Fluffy get let out to use the bathroom?
After classes the five of them went to the library. Aria and Hermione immediately went to the card catalog. Aria climbed the ladder until she found the drawer labeled FL-FO and rifled through it until she found Flamel, Nicholas. There were seven books with him mentioned. She rattled them off to Hermione before returning the card to its place and climbing back down.
"Three of these books are in the Restricted Section," Hermione said, looking at the call numbers.
"So, he must be a dangerous person," Neville said.
"Not necessarily," Harry answered. "Whatever he does could be dangerous though."
"Why are we looking up this guy again?" Ron asked.
"Curiosity," Hermione answered. "Let's check out these first four books. If they don't give us good answers, we can have Aria ask Percy to get us permission to use the Restricted Section."
"Aria?" Ron cried. "Why not me?"
"Because he likes Aria. As a friend, Ronald. Don't give us that look."
"This is quite sneaky of you," Aria told Hermione, ignoring Ron's sputtering.
"The Slytherin in you must be rubbing off on me," Hermione drawled.
"Why does my brother like Aria but not me? I'm his brother!"
"Maybe because I share my cookies with him," Aria answered. "Or maybe because I talk to him for reasons besides asking him questions." Harry and Neville laughed, and they were hushed by Madam Pince who glared at them while they went and found a table to sit at as well as the four books on the paper Hermione had written down.
Aria pulled Obscure Talents from the shelf. The heavy tome's dust filled her nose and she sneezed, almost falling off the ladder. Neville steadied her and she smiled gratefully at him before they joined the others.
Flipping to the back of the book in hopes of finding an index, Aria discovered there wasn't one. She flipped to the front of the book and found the table of contents, but did not know which chapter to begin looking in.
A Ravenclaw sixth year slipped around a bookshelf and tossed several chocolate frogs at them.
"Sorry," she whispered, "Madam Pince is after my hide. Don't let her see!" the student disappeared into the stacks and Aria and her friends hurried to hide the candy just as Madam Pince rounded the shelf, not even stopping, in her pursuit of the Ravenclaw.
"Maybe we shouldn't eat them while reading here," Hermione said. Aria opened a chocolate frog and expertly caught it, cramming the sweet into her mouth. She grinned with bulging cheeks at Hermione who huffed with amusement. Aria glanced at the chocolate frog card and gasped, nearly choking on the chocolate as she slapped the card down onto the table, pointing wildly at it while trying not to cough and alert Madam Pince.
"Nicholas Flamel!" Harry cried.
"It says here that he's most famous for his achievements in alchemy and his successful completion of a Philosopher's Stone," Hermione read. "He's also known as a mentor and friend to Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore."
"So, alchemy's real?" Aria asked. "Like turning things into gold?"
"No," Ron said, "that's what Muggle get wrong. Alchemy's kind of a dying art. It's used in warding a lot, and runes and astrology. Bill had to take a class on it when he was an apprentice curse breaker. I remember he had a book and was telling Percy about it."
"I suppose the Philosopher's Stone would be as good as gold," Hermione commented. "Muggles say that it gives you eternal life?"
"Not eternal life," Neville said, eyeing Aria as she flipped through the book in front of her. "But it does make you live longer. At least according to our stories."
"Found him!" Aria cried. "It says here that Nicholas Flamel is the only alchemist in modern times to successfully create the Philosopher's Stone. When used to create the Elixir of Life, it can grant the drinkers years to his or her lifespan. Flamel celebrated his 600th birthday in 1990."
"So, he's at least 602 now," Harry said.
"That's ancient!" Aria cried. "I suspect he's been drinking this Elixir for centuries!"
"Is that what Fluffy's guarding?" Neville asked. "The Elixir?"
"Can't be," Ron said. "The stories say you can't have a working elixir without the stone right? Which story was it, Nev? The one with the knight that tried to drink it without the stone?"
"Was it a knight? I can't remember."
"Harry, how big was the package Hagrid picked up from Gringotts this summer?" Aria asked.
"Not too big. Could be the size of a stone I suppose."
"You think Dumbledore's hiding it at Hogwarts?" Neville whispered. "Is he nuts? Someone tried to break into Gringotts for it! Hogwarts is nowhere near as fortified as the bank!"
"Well, according to Hogwarts, A History—"
"I think what Neville meant, Hermione," Aria cut her off, "is that people are going after the Stone and the headmaster might've brought it into a school? Where curious students such as us might find it?"
The friends all eyed each other.
"What should we do?" Neville asked.
"We should tell someone," Hermione decided. "Do you think the other teachers know?"
Everyone shrugged.
"We should go to Snape or McGonagall," Aria suggested. "I think Snape's the best option."
"You should go talk to him," Ron said. "He likes you."
"Yeah," Neville agreed. "He hates the rest of us."
"He doesn't hate you," Aria cried, "he's just grumpy."
"Should we tell a teacher?" Harry questioned as they began to pack up. Aria returned the book to a book cart. "What if we just get in trouble for being somewhere we shouldn't be?" He worried his bottom lip. Aria gave him a playful nudge with her backpack.
"Oh, whatever trouble we do get into will be worth it," she cried. "Come on, don't you want a little adventure? It's much better than homework!"
"And if Professor Snape writes home?"
"Eh, it's not the first time I've been grounded."
Harry still did not look convinced. In fact, the grip on his own school bag tightened.
"I'm going with Aria," he declared to the others. "When she talks with Professor Snape."
"It's your own funeral," Ron said.
"I'll build an altar for you at Samhain," Neville added.
Aria and Harry managed to get to Snape during the start of his office hours before any panicked students could make it down to his office. He was grading a pile of essays and for a moment she wondered if the essays were never ending. He never seemed to have a smaller pile on his desk.
"Good evening, Miss Bourne, Mr. Potter," Snape greeted, barely glancing over the top of the essay pile. "You do not seem to have any school items with you. Is this a personal problem?" His face pinched like he was hoping it wasn't a personal problem.
"Is Dumbledore hiding the Philosopher's Stone at Hogwarts? Aria asked. Her Head of House shook his head in disappointment.
"Why are you asking me?" he questioned. He sounded disappointed.
"There was a moving staircase and Mrs. Norris," Harry answered.
Professor Snape looked at the pile of essays and set his quill down with a sigh. He rubbed his temples.
"I am unsure how any of you were able to come to this conclusion," he said, "but seeing as I doubt only you two were involved in whatever investigation took place, I should not be surprised. Rest assured, and you can assure your little comrades too, that I and the other professors here at Hogwarts have taken every precaution to ensure the safety of every student here. We have, surprisingly, had very few incidents surrounding the forbidden third-floor corridor besides the natural inclination to rule-breaking that comes with being a Weasley or Prewett twin. I suggest, though, it avoid detention and the ire of your Head of House you put this behind you. Yes?"
Aria and Harry nodded.
"Good. I would hate to have to write home."