Breath of the Inferno

by Primordial Vortex

This story is dead and WILL NOT BE UPDATED. It may be rewritten at some point, but that is a very far off thing. Check my profile.

3. Original Recipe or Extra Crispy?

Hey everyone! Been a couple months for this fic hasn't it?

Just some small things to address before we get started:

Some descriptions and a bit of dialog was pulled directly from the books.

I discovered during this chapter that I've been spelling Quirrel's name wrong this entire bloody time. I was missing the second L. Oh well. Not really that important, and I'm not about to go through the other two chapters just trying to fix that for such a relatively unimportant character.

One of you left a flame (in badly broken English of course) basically complaining about Hermione having a role in the story. To any like-minded… deal with it. Or leave. I'll never understand the rabid hate some of you can generate. Happens with pairings (Oh this is H/G bye fgt), happens with Dumbledore, etc etc. Just…get over it. If you honestly can't stand a fictional character to the point where you'll flame an author for including them (especially in this case, since it was Hermione who is a main fucking character in canon) then just fuck off. Just click that X. It's not hard. Don't waste my time and yours bitching about it. You'll just be ignored as I continue on my merry way. For fucks sake, I have characters I dislike too, but I don't grow a raging hate-boner every time they pop up in a positive light.

Now, one thing I'm going to try not to do a lot of for the earlier years in this story are Training Montages(TM). Frankly, that's better left for the later years where more interesting spells can be taught safely. Not that I'm doing anything the books didn't already do. There was fairly little actual class time for…you know…a school. I'm trying to get the through the first three years as quickly as possible really. And really, I'm still just kind of goggling over the fact that the simple Levitation charm took them to bloody Halloween to get to.

Despite that, I realized something pretty important after the last chapter. I'm trying to rush so hard through the early years that I've basically turned it into a four-person isolationist cast. And that really was never the intention. Plus they don't act like the kids that they are often enough. I started to address that in this chapter, and I hope you'll enjoy the scene in question. They'll be interacting more often with the other students in future chapters as well, if all goes well.

As a final little note, I saw a review on a different story that I found a little humorous. The story in question had some very early sexual themes, and one of the reviews basically brought up puberty and how kids wouldn't even be thinking about that stuff till at least fourteen. Older people, if you don't think your kids are at least whacking it by the time they're twelve, I have some news for you. I remember back when I was in seventh grade years and years ago and one of the girls in my class was already pregnant.

Welcome to the internet. You may find your porn fucking everywhere and the delete history button at the top right. Kids these days don't pretend that they're not perverted. Source: Have been twelve. Can confirm.

-]|[-

Now there's something I want opinions on. Harry's dragon form is kind of "evolving" in my head. The clear homage this fic was built on was Smaug of Hobbit fame, mostly because I had just watched Desolation. While he is the main inspiration, I have other dragons in my head who are also giant badasses. Deathwing in particular. While the main personality and the like will remain Smaug, I am considering altering the form a tad. I really want to make him a full Dragon eventually rather than the more Wyvern form he currently has. (Forearms and separate wings (six limbs) vs wings attached to forearms (four limbs)).

And yes, in context of the story and how I planned things, this would work out. I'm not just pulling it out of my ass. (:p) I'm just not yet certain if I'm going to pull the trigger on it. So in the interest of getting the juices flowing, how do you guys feel about this?

-]|[-

CHAPTER III: Original Recipe Or Extra Crispy?

-]|[-

"Fawkes!" The single word that Dumbledore spoke was not yelled. He didn't even raise his voice. And yet that one word carried far farther than a shout could have. A brilliant burst of flames appeared a couple meters above them in the Great Hall, before the most beautiful sound many of them had ever heard filled their ears. Their spirits were lifted and the doom and gloom of the hall appeared to lift entirely as the red and gold phoenix appeared, trilling its song. It circled the hall once, spreading cheer and safety to the terrified students. Dumbledore smiled softly, before springing into action. Immediately, he went to Percy Weasley, who was still laid out from blocking the troll's swing. His forehead was bleeding and his left arm was bent at an awkward angle. Dumbledore's wand swished once, and the boy's arm righted itself painlessly. The cut on his head also closed up, "Take him to Madam Pomfrey, Fawkes. Then come back, we may have others."

The phoenix grabbed the Weasley with another bright note and the two vanished in flames. As the avian went, the lights in the hall seemed to dim again. Dumbledore stood from his kneel and cast his gaze around the hall, zeroing in on a sobbing Hermione and Tracey, with Daphne being out cold in the redhead's arms. Dumbledore came to crouch near them, running diagnostic spells on Daphne primarily, along with a few others on Tracey and Hermione, "Magical exhaustion…" he mumbled to himself, "What happened Miss Granger?"

Hermione was almost hyperventilating, "H-H-Ha-rry!" She cried, and pointed towards Harry's impact zone.

Tracey's head dipped, "One of the trolls got him square with its club." She whispered, beginning to cry anew.

Suddenly, a groan rang through the hall. Everyone's heads snapped towards the mass of tables and chairs in the corner. The pile bulged outward before settling, and then a second later did so again, much further out. The broken bits of wood clattered on the stone floor as Harry threw them off of him. He groaned as he stood up, his shirt and robes in tatters, revealing his toned form. His head was also bleeding. He reached up with one hand and rubbed his neck, groaning once more. His left arm was hanging limply and clearly broken. A horrendous series of cracks sounded through the hall as Harry appeared to pop every one of his joints, "That bloody well hurt." He deadpanned as he walked forward. The hall erupted into cheers! Even the Slytherins were clapping.

"Harry…" Hermione's sobs of despair turned to joy as she eyed him walking forward. "Harry!" She cried and leapt to her feet, racing out to meet him in a hug, "You idiot!" She sobbed into his chest, uncaring of the blood now dripping into her hair.. Harry winced as she nudged his broken arm, but his other came up to run through her hair.

"Sorry Hermione." He grinned lightly, showing bloody teeth.

"You look worse for wear, Mr. Potter." Dumbledore deadpanned as Fawkes came back. The immortal firebird took one look at Harry and landed on his shoulder, crying pearly tears onto the wound on his head. The close proximity to the immortal firebird made the inferno in his chest grow hotter for a moment, and both beings of Fire could feel it. If a bird could look at him shrewdly, he was sure the phoenix would have done so. The large gash under his hair immediately knitted itself closed with a steaming sound and what hair needed to grow back did so. Fawkes sang once more and took to wing again, lifting the spirits of the students in the hall once more.

Harry walked Hermione over to the other two and kneeled. A joyful Tracey grasped her two friends as best she could with the arm that wasn't currently supporting Daphne, "You're alive!" She whispered tearfully.

Harry snorted at Dumbledore, "Anyone get the number of the troll that ran me over?"

Hermione giggled helplessly through her tears, "I…I think it was number One."

Dumbledore's mustache twitched, "Well, let's fix up that arm, shall we?" He waved his wand, and Harry cringed as a shock ran up the limb and the bones righted themselves.

"Thank you sir." He flexed and twisted the limb this way and that, making sure he had full range of motion, "I guess I can cross 'getting my arm broken by a cave troll' off the bucket list." He joked, and was happy to see his two friends giggle.

Dumbledore's mustache quivered again, "Well, you and Miss Granger appear to be fine. Unfortunately, Miss Davis and Miss Greengrass will have to stay in the Hospital Wing for a little while. Magical Exhaustion is a mite more serious than a broken arm." Harry nodded, as did Tracey, "Are you two ladies ready to go? Fawkes shall bring you."

Tracey was the only one of the two still awake, and her eyelids were already dropping low. She merely nodded, appearing to lose what little energy she had and slump over. Fawkes caught her before she fell completely unconscious and in a burst of fire, they both were gone.

Dumbledore stood and went to several other students, reassuring them and helping to calm the ones who were very close to becoming hysterical. Even the Slytherins couldn't help but allow their respect for the man grow. Finally satisfied that he wasn't about to have students burst into more tears, he addressed the hall, "The events of this night will not be forgotten. You can rest assured that the staff and I shall be closely reviewing the security of the school. If need be, I will hire curse breakers and aurors to come in. You may rest assured that this shall not happen again." Every student there could feel the weight of his presence. Every student was forced to acknowledge the fact that this was the greatest wizard in the world. "Everyone here handled themselves beyond admirably. You faced a threat that would make many cower, but you did not falter! Not a single student was gravely injured and all of you shall make a full recovery!" His voice rang clear and loud, and the hall erupted into cheers, "In this moment, you were not Slytherins nor Gryffindors nor Ravenclaws, nor Hufflepuffs. You were all students defending one another as one group! It is my hope that we may see such cooperation and comradery in the future, without the need for strife to force it." He smiled as he saw many students looking at members of other houses contemplatively, "Due to tonight's events, I shall be cancelling all classes tomorrow." The Great Hall cheered again, making his beard twitch in amusement, "Yes, I'm sure you're quite eager to return to the festivities. If any of you feel afraid or uncomfortable due to this attack, remember that the doors of the Heads are always open, as is my own. We will all help you as best we can. Do not hesitate to come and see us. Classes shall resume on Monday." He chuckled, "Don't stay up too late, children! A very good night to you!"

"Well, back to the dormitory!" Harry said, before leading Hermione out, hand in hand.

-]|[-

Harry's eyes snapped open at the rather meek-sounding knocking at his room's door. A quick glance at his clock confirmed what he already knew. It was nowhere near morning. He growled lowly, a sound that had wrought terror in many a goblin in the past. He stood from his bed, a sheet wrapped around his form and held by his left hand. His right opened the door and revealed Hermione in her pajamas.

She did not look well. There were bags under her eyes and she looked like she had been crying, "Harry…" She whispered, biting her lip, "Do you…do you think we could talk?"

Harry's face softened at the distraught girl. He was fairly certain he knew what this was about too, "Come on in Hermione." He closed the door after her and laid back down. She blushed momentarily, but climbed into bed and held him tightly. The only thing separating the two was the thin sheet around Harry's midsection and her pajamas. "You're afraid." He said needlessly. His hand was in her hair and was gently rubbing her head.

"Yeah..." She whispered, "I…I was told this was the safest place in Britain. B-but…there were five of them!" She hissed, "Five! How in the world do five of the dumbest creatures imaginable get in the safest place in the country?"

Harry continued his gentle scratching, "A lot of places that are supposed to be safe turn out not to be." He said finally.

"Harry…" She trailed off, leaning back and up to look at him. She looked cute, biting her lip, "You… How could you do all those things? You're just a first year like me! I…"

"Should not be comparing yourself to me, Hermione." He chuckled, though he stopped when she just looked stricken, "You're brilliant Hermione, but you've never been in danger before now." He said and cracked a grin, "You've dealt with bullies for a long time, haven't you?" She nodded shamefully, "Then you should know that even a school isn't safe. Maybe they're safe from the outside, but not the inside. Kids are cruel little bastards, after all."

"Language!" She chided, getting an eye roll from him, "I know but…" She bit her lip again as she settled down on him once more, "I just don't understand. You didn't even hesitate before charging that troll."

His grin widened as his thoughts turned to fire and death., "Of course I didn't. I wasn't afraid of them at all."

"Why?" She asked plainly, "They were going to kill you! They would have killed us all! And…and how did you survive?! It hit you straight on! I saw it!"

For a long time, Harry was silent. Almost to the point that Hermione thought she may have put her foot in her mouth, "They've been trying to kill me since I was one." He said emotionlessly, "I learned long ago that you had to take care of yourself."

Her breath hitched, "Harry…" She sat up again to look him in the eyes. She looked really nervous, "They? But only V-V-Voldemort-" She finally squeaked out, "-has tried to kill you!"

His smile turned humorless, "Your family…" She flinched, "They were not abusive…but they were neglectful. Distant. Cold and demanding." He eyed her, and with every word her posture closed up.

She sounded and looked close to tears again, "Yeah…" She whispered, "Mother and Father were always more concerned with their practice than me. All they wanted was the perfect child to show off to their wealthier friends."

He embraced her again and pulled her back down, "Distant would have been better with the people I grew up with." He said finally. This girl was brilliant and the hint of steel that had appeared in her spine at the sight of Daphne and Tracey's impending dooms were all good qualities. The three were the best friends he could ask for really. All of them had jumped to his defense when that bloody troll had gotten a lucky hit on him, despite the fact that they had no business being in that fight. Though they hadn't all interacted, it had definitely brought them closer. For a moment, he was that child who had been desperate for friends at the Dursleys, who had been denied them. He wasn't about to let go of these girls, and he had to make sure they all became strong, "My uncle broke my leg no less than four times." Her raspy inhale and the way she almost jerked back in shock almost made him chuckle. She drew out of his arms and sat back, staring at him with shock in her eyes and unknowingly straddling him, "My cousin and his friends all had a game they loved to play, Harry Hunting. They would all chase me and if they caught me, kick me while I was down. Anyone who tried to make friends with me got the same treatment. My aunt brained me with a skillet once, and as soon as I could walk and hold stuff properly she had me doing the chores around the house. All of them. They were the kind of magic-hating muggles who would have deserved to have been targeted in the Blood War."

Hermione was trembling like a leaf and pale as a sheet, "Oh Harry!" She cried finally, practically lunging for him and wrapping him in a bear hug. A normal boy might even have cracked a rib. "What horrible people! How…how could they do that to you?! Why would they do that?!"

Harry shrugged, "Who knows. Hate. Jealousy. At this point it doesn't matter. I learned early on that I had to rely on myself." Okay, so not that early on. It was only after he first transformed that his spine gained its steel, but he wasn't yet ready to reveal that. "Up until I came here, I was utterly alone. Adults ignored me at best and kids were forced away from me. I learned that anything I wanted, I had to fight to get. Daphne, Tracey, and you are my first friends. You're my only friends, to this point." He smiled and lifted her head up, wiping away her renewed tears, "And when I got hit, you all reacted. Maybe not at the same time, but you all put yourselves in danger just because you thought I was hurt. You three are some of the only one I trust. And I'll be damned if I let anything harm any of you before you can defend yourselves." She broke into a watery smile, "So the slightest chance of you three getting hurt meant they were a threat, and I don't suffer threats. Not anymore."

She beamed at him, "Thank you." She had a rosy blush on her cheek. No one had ever said anything like that to her before. It made her feel warm.

"But that wasn't the only thing that bothered you. If it was, you wouldn't have come in looking like you spent the last hour sobbing." He said, brushing a strand of her bushy hair behind her ear.

She looked down again, "I killed it." She whispered finally. And so they got to the root of the issue.

"And you did well." Her eyes snapped to his in shock. Really, she had not picked the best person to be her temporary psychiatrist. He smirked in amusement, "What? Did you think I of all people would admonish you for that? I burned one of them alive. I incinerated it down to charcoal. You did well, Hermione." She still looked dubious, "Think Hermione, what would that troll have done if you hadn't acted?"

She looked away, "Tracey and Daphne would be dead." She whispered.

"That's right. So you saved them." His hand went up to her cheek and gently turned her head so they were staring in each other's eyes, "If the world were a kind place, this never would have happened. We would have enjoyed the feast and gone to bed early for classes tomorrow. But it isn't. Someone let those trolls in to the school, for reasons unknown." He stopped and considered, "Well, not unknown. I can guess at the motive."

"Whatever Cerby is guarding?" He cracked a grin at the nickname they had given the dog.

"Most likely. Seems like quite a good distraction." He said morbidly, "But the point stands. Someone let them in with the intention of them hurting someone. There are those out there without decency. I've felt it personally more than once, and so have you." She stiffened, "Your social climber, uncaring parents." Her lip trembled, "Us or them, Hermione."

"That's…really cynical." She mumbled.

He began laughing, "If they're really out to get you, can it really just be paranoia?" She cracked a short, uncomfortable laugh as well, "I'm not saying that you always need to be on guard for something to take advantage of you or hurt you. If that was how I felt I wouldn't be friends with any of you." She looked like someone had punched her in the gut at his words, "That isn't it at all. What I'm saying is that you can't hesitate. If there is any enemy attacking us, then we have to take care of it. Decisively. Those trolls would have killed every student in that room if we didn't act, and worse, they would have eaten us. So don't feel bad that you killed it Hermione. Be proud that you had the strength to fight for your friends."

She sniffed, and the room was silent for a time. Hermione's mind was racing, even as tired as she was. She was only twelve! She wasn't supposed to be doing any of this! She wasn't supposed to be doing any fighting at all! She wasn't supposed to have blood on her hands! But no matter how she tried to circle around, Harry's words kept ringing inside her head. And he was right. She knew he was right, even if it warred with the societal values she had grown up with. What had those values ever done for her, other than get her bullied and teased? She wouldn't trade her friends for anything. They were the only ones who had ever been there for her, so if that meant she had to get used to the terror and exhilaration of a fight, then she damn well would. A yawn broke through her thoughts, and her eyes were drooping.

Harry grinned and pulled the comforter on top of them, "Go to sleep, Mione." She hugged him closer and nuzzled into him.

"Night Harry." She whispered through her exhausted haze.

-]|[-

The next week saw Hermione's face light up in a rosy-red blush occasionally when she looked at Harry. She had been quite…surprised to say the least the next morning, when Harry stood from the bed and revealed that he slept nude. She had trouble catching his eye for a few days, and he had a blast teasing her over it. Tracey and Daphne, once they had been released from the wing and told what happened, also ribbed her about it in amusement. Of course, the first thing the black-haired beauty had done was to give Harry a bear hug of her own when she saw him. She was trying so hard not to cry, as the very last time she had seen him she had thought the troll killed him. There had been decidedly less amusement when Harry had also told them about the Dursleys. Quite the opposite. He had thought that Tracey was going to reveal a dragon form herself with the way she was almost spitting fire. Daphne had lost control of her lightning and blasted one of the walls accidentally. Even days later, it was still scorched.

All the same, their group had become even more inseparable than they had been, and that was saying something. So it came to no surprise that four students showed up at Hagrid's hut the following Friday, rather than the one who had been called there, "Ello kids." The voice behind the door then addressed someone other than them, "Back Fang! Back!" The door opened and Hagrid's massive face peaked out. He was holding onto the collar of a massive boarhound. Weeks ago, Hermione would have paled and backed off right away at the sight of the massive dog, but after spending quite a few nights playing with Fluffy with her friends, the sight only made her gulp.

They were invited in as Hagrid had to haul the massive dog back. There was only one room inside. Hams and pheasants were hanging from the ceiling, a copper kettle was boiling on the open fire, and in the corner stood a massive bed with a patchwork quilt over it.

"Make yerselves at home!" said Hagrid as he let go of Fang. It immediately became clear that the dog was as much of a softy as Hagrid was, against all appearances. It bounded over to Tracey and Hermione, looking for petting and cuddling. His tail was wagging madly side to side. He was a little weary of Harry, but decided that Harry wouldn't hurt him. Hagrid set about making some tea – which surprised them by being quite good – as well as some rock cakes with raisins in them that Daphne, Tracey, and Hermione were certain were made with actual rocks. They looked at Harry as if he was insane when he actually ate the damn things without even a grimace.

"Well Hagrid, this is Hermione, Daphne, and Tracey." Harry made the introductions, unsure if he should introduce himself as well. He had never met the man before after all.

"Great to meet yeh four finally." The giant man rumbled, "I've heard nothing but good thin's from yer professors." He grinned, and the girls all smiled, "Grea' thin' yeh all did." He said good naturedly, "Them trolls were nasty pieces of work. I heard yeh took one of em down yerself, huh Harry?"

Harry smirked. So that was what this was about? Well, he couldn't begrudge the giant man for being interested, "Yeah, I did."

Hagrid eyed him shrewdly, "Funny, even for a taller and more well-built student than yeh rightly should be, yeh don' look like yeh could muscle down a troll." Hagrid chuckled, "Me? Could have done the same o' course. But I have the bulk ter do that."

Tracey rolled her eyes, "Don't bother Hagrid. We've been trying to get that secret out of him for months. Cheeky blighter."

Harry just sat there looking inordinately pleased with himself, up until Daphne rolled her eyes and smacked him in the back of the head. But Hagrid looked even more interested now, "Months? It hasn' been that long since the trolls."

Tracey giggled, "Well, mister muscles over here decided it would be fun to go see the Cerberus on the third floor."

Hagrid choked on his tea, "Oii! Yeh lot aren' supposed ter know abou' Fluffy!"

Hermione coughed and snorted at the same time. As her eyes watered, she rasped out, "Fluffy?"

Harry burst out laughing, "Its name is Fluffy? That totally doesn't fit!"

Hagrid looked both flustered and a little embarrassed, "He used ter be smaller."

"Oh?" Daphne looked interested, "You've known him since he was small? Is he your dog Hagrid?"

"Yeah, course he's mine." Hagrid said looking quite nervous, "But yeh lot really shouldn' be going in there! It's off limits ter studen's!"

Harry waved him away, "Relax Hagrid. I can handle Fluffy. They've been trying to find out about my strength because of him after all."

Tracey giggled, "I still want to call him Cerby!" She needled Hermione, who had been the first one to call him that.

Hagrid still didn't look happy, "Look yeh lot, that floor is dangerous, and not jus' because of Fluffy!"

But now the quartet were extremely curious, and tried to get more information. Daphne took up the questioning, "We know. We saw the trapdoor after all." The huge man began to sweat, "We don't care about what's down there. Harry just wanted to play with Cerby. He's such a good puppy after all." She smirked when Hagrid relaxed a little. Clearly animals were the way to his heart, "And it isn't good for him to be all alone in that room all the time. He'll get lonely."

Hagrid shook his head, "Yeh still shouldn' be there. I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the…" He trailed off and shook his head, "Should not have said that." He mumbled to himself, before straightening up, "Now yeh lot…yeh forget about that dog and that it's guardin summat! That's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicolas Flamel-" He looked stopped talking and looked quite like he wanted to strangle himself.

-]|[-

"Nicholas Flamel?!" Daphne looked uncharacteristically shocked and her voice was quite shrill, "Nicholas Flamel?!"

Her three friends looked at her in amusement, "Going to tell us who that is or you just going to keep saying his name?" Harry snickered at seeing the usually-composed girl practically freak out.

She glared at him, "Nicholas Flamel…that's an old name. A really old name. As in literally old."

Tracey rolled her eyes, "Well, enlighten us!"

"He's an alchemist." Daphne finally said, "No…he's the alchemist. He's the only known creator of the Philosopher's Stone."

Tracey lost all of her amusement and choked on her saliva, "Oh shit!" She gasped. She may not have paid as much attention as Daphne to big wizarding names – she was only a half-blood after all, and her ambitions weren't really political – but she definitely recognized that. It was a testament to Daphne's shock that she didn't even admonish her friend.

Hermione however, did, "Language!" She chided.

Harry chuckled, "Care to enlighten the dirty muggle-raised peasants?"

"It's no laughing matter!" Daphne said frostily, "I'm even inclined to listen to Hagrid and not go back to that room! It's now clear. Someone let those trolls in specifically to cause a distraction and get past that dog."

Harry saw how serious she was, and he then mirrored her, "Alright, so we have to watch our backs. What is this stone?"

Tracey was the one who replied, "The Philosopher's Stone is an alchemical artifact that allows you to ignore many of the Laws of Transfiguration." She said grimly, "It will turn any metal into puregold and can create an Elixir which will make you immortal."

Oh that really was not a good thing to say to Harry. For the first time in years, he felt a rather insistent pull in the back of his mind. The same kind of nagging pull that had led him to dominate and subjugate his first Gold Cave. The beast within him was beyond hungry to get its claws on that item.

And it was clear on his face, if the widened eyes of his friends told him anything. "No!" Daphne said shrilly, pointing a finger at him, "Get that idea out of your head mister!" Tracey and Hermione latched onto his arms and wouldn't let go, "You're a first year! Absurd strength or not, you're not going down there!"

Since he had first conquered his hoard, he had felt the pull again. Many times more. Eventually, he had learned to dim it out. He had learned to push it to the back of his mind. So once more, he used that incredible willpower to push the feeling down. He smiled at them reassuringly, "Yeah, you're right." He chuckled, 'I have more than enough gold to bathe in at home.'

-]|[-

As they entered November, the weather turned very cold. The mountains around the school became icy gray and the lake turned frigid. Every morning the ground was covered in frost. Hagrid could be seen from the upstairs windows defrosting broomsticks on the Quidditch field, bundled up in a long moleskin overcoat, rabbit fur gloves, and enormous beaver-skin boots. And with the cold and ice came the fever.

Quidditch fever specifically. The entire school practically went mad in the days leading up to the first match of the year. All of the good feelings and comradery the houses had managed to gather in the wake of the troll attacks went up in smoke the minute the house rivalries started cropping up. After a week or two at most of some cooperation between even Gryffindor and Slytherin, the heated arguments over which team was best ruined it all. Before the third week, a student had even ended up in the Hospital Wing. It all came to a head during the first match of the year; Gryffindor vs Slytherin.

Despite his and Hermione's utter lack of interest in the sport, Daphne and Tracey had grown up with it and had wanted to watch the match. They all sat together, but not a single person even dared to think the word 'traitor.' Not after Halloween. Helping to save so many students had earned them all more than a couple points with every house. The game hadn't been going on for more than ten minutes before a few things became clear. Firstly – barring the seeker – the Gryffindor team was obviously the more skilled one. Their Chasers worked together almost flawlessly, and they couldn't have been a group for much more than two years. They had some real talent. Fred and George – or Gred and Forge as they insisted on being called at times – were both two halves of the same brain, and thus had the Bludgers on lockdown. Wood was making save after save, and it was clear that his fanaticism had skill behind it too.

The Slytherins on the other hand, were clearly going for intimidation rather than skill. Their players were almost all bigger and burlier, and definitely meaner looking. After fifteen minutes they had already been fouled a couple times by Madam Hooch. Their Captain Flint had smashed right into poor Alicia Spinnet and almost knocked her off her broom at one point. They definitely were going for aggression where they thought they could get away with it, to make up for the relative lack of skill.

"Budge up there, move along." The giant man who they had tea with a few weeks ago had decided to come watch the game.

"Hagrid!" Tracey greeted him with a smile.

They all squeezed together to give Hagrid enough space to join them. "Bin watchin' from me hut," He said, patting a large pair of binoculars around his neck, "But it isn't the same as bein' in the crowd yeh know? No sign of the Snitch yet, eh?"

"Nah." Tracey said, "Been pretty boring so far actually, except for a few fouls. Neither of the Seekers have seen it yet, and most of the Chaser play has been pretty on the level."

She would have gone on, but a bored Harry interrupted them, "It's behind Bletchley's ear." He lazily scratched his ear.

"EH?!" All three girls as well as Hagrid looked at him wide eyed.

Hagrid brought his binoculars to his eyes and squinted, "Blimey, he's righ'! It's floatin' righ' behind the middle goalpos'!"

Tracey's eyes widened as she spotted it. She burst out laughing, "Boy am I glad that you don't like the sport! Our house would have gotten slaughtered! How long did it take you to find it?"

"Find it?" Harry switched from boredom to smug amusement, "I never lost it." Everyone's eyes went wide, "I've known where it was the entire game. It started out hiding under Hooch's robes, and then it flew so far up you could consider it out of play." The Snitch was made out of gold after all. Even if he hadn't been able to track it with his eyes the entire time, he still could sense it. "Why do you think I've been so bored? The game wouldn't have lasted long enough to even score before I caught it."

"Watch out!" Hermione suddenly screamed. His eyes went wide as one of the Bludgers came rocketing right for him. She froze, so he had to tackle her out of the way, and he made it just in time. The Bludger impacted the section he had been sitting on, throwing wood chips and fragments everywhere. Tracey and Daphne screamed in shock even as Hagrid sprang into action and hovered over them in protection. A rumbling under them told them that the ten inch iron ball was coming back around. Harry dodged out of the way again but tripped because of the bleachers. Wood exploded upward as the cannon ball broke through the stands again.

The attacking Bludger had not gone unnoticed by Fred and George. Fred rushed forward to try to hit the ball out of the way, but it broke right through his bat as if it was made of flimsy Styrofoam. He looked at the broken handle in shock. Harry had gotten up and his eyes were blazing. He flicked his wrist and his angry wand snapped into his hand. With a wave, the bleachers below – which had quickly cleared of panicking students – rose up as if transformed into liquid. The wood became a solid wall in front of Harry and then it thickened more than a dozen times over, expanding into a thick barrier of wood. Another flick of his wand and it transformed into a wall of stone.

With a mighty crash, the Bludger smashed into the barricade. Cracks formed on the stone and a shower of grit rained downward. The angry ball wiggled and broke free, retreated back a couple dozen feet before smashing into it again. The cracks on the stone widened and deepened. It freed itself a second time and shot into the air this time, looking to get around the barrier. But Harry didn't let it. With another flick of the wrist, the broken stone wall became pristine once more, before seemingly liquefying. A giant hand started rising out, chasing the cannonball. It snatched the ball out of the air and held it in a stone fist.

The iron ball was almost screeching angrily as it tried to escape it's stone prison. Harry growled in rage as his fist ignited in flames. Everyone had either scrambled away from him – seeing him as the clear target – or had been pulled away. So no one felt the extreme temperature as he slammed his own fist into the stone hand. White hot heat started flowing up the arm and turning it molten. Little balls of molten rock occasionally exploded off the arm as the blaze rose. When it finally reached the Bludger, the inferno broke the enchantments on it and quickly melted it into slag, which dribbled down the arm. All that was left of the attack was his volcanic-looking limb.

-]|[-

"That's the second time in under a month that we've been attacked." He growled, still furious over what had happened. The Bludger likely wouldn't have hurt him too badly, but he could not say the same about Hermione or Tracey. Daphne could have just transformed into her lightning form, but neither of the other two had such luck. Hermione had been right beside him when it charged at him like a rampaging bull the first time!

He had spent the last night talking with the headmaster and hadn't been able to speak with his friends. The game had been forcefully postponed much to the anger of the truly rabid fans of the sport. When some of the students had complained that the ball had just malfunctioned and that the threat was over, he had snarled and pointed out the snitch which had taken to hiding underneath one of the Slytherin beaters as they stared wide-eyed at the volcanic hand Harry had created. The Seekers were still being grilled by their houses for not seeing it at any point in the game for the next week.

He was only now able to group up with the girls, and they looked a little shaken. He was pacing about angrily, and it was making Tracey a little dizzy. She pulled him down and into a hug, "We're all okay Harry." She whispered.

"Only because it was targeting me and Hagrid was nearby." Harry was having to force down his natural reactions very hard. He very much wanted to transform and rampage until the assailants were dead, and the only real reason he was able to keep that instinct down was that he had no idea who was behind it. "Daphne could have transformed, but you and Hermione were in danger."

Hermione spoke up quietly, still very much shaken, "Obviously someone was jinxing it." She said, "I saw Snape staring at you without blinking. He was muttering under his breath."

"Too obvious." Daphne shook her head, "After the reaming the headmaster gave him, he wouldn't try anything so overt. He would know he'd be a prime suspect if Harry actually got hurt, or one of us."

"It wouldn't be Snape." Harry shook his head in agreement, "He owed my father a life debt which was never repaid. He wouldn't have been able to maintain the concentration to keep the Bludger under his hold if his magic was rebelling."

"So who was it?" Tracey asked in frustration. "And why then? He or she couldn't have stolen the Stone without being in two places at once, so it wasn't a distraction."

Harry sat down heavily, "No idea, but I think we should all start practicing some more defensive magic." He said, getting nods of agreement, "After my little show, whatever asshole-" He smirked as Daphne and Hermione both admonished him automatically, "-it was that attacked me might get the utterly idiotic idea to try to hurt you girls."

"What kind of defensive spells?" Hermione asked curiously. She was still very much afraid. She hadn't been raised well, but she had never been in danger. Her stomach was fluttering and she was feeling very jittery, but the hat had put her into Gryffindor rather than Ravenclaw for a reason. Since the troll attack, she had been internally warring with herself, especially after her talk with Harry was reinforced by speaking with her two female friends. It would take her a while, but she wasn't about to let anyone sour the happiness she had found at Hogwarts. She was done being a victim.

"Some shields obviously." Tracey smirked and bumped her elbow into Daphne's side.

Daphne smirked, "Normally a muggleborn wouldn't be able to cast even a basic Protego until the second or third year." She began to chuckle at the affront on Hermione's face, "But then again, most muggleborn wouldn't be able to rip a troll's club out of its hand with a levitation charm." She smiled fondly at the brunette, who flushed under the attention.

-]|[-

The weeks had continued going by, thankfully with no more attacks. That did not mean that the quartet had lightened up on their defensive self-studying. Daphne had a repertoire of defensive spells that a girl of twelve really had no business knowing, along with more than a handful of offensive spells. Tracey was no slouch herself, though she knew far less spells than her childhood friend. The life of a pureblood heiress was definitely not one that you could be unprepared for, and her parents had given her just under a year of early training to defend herself.

Had she been overt about her knowledge, no doubt the same rumors that followed Severus Snape in his early school years would have followed her. Thankfully, she had an angry, extremely powerful dragon nearby to soak up most of the attention. With the danger that they had found themselves in twice, she passed her knowledge on to her friends. They had begun dueling one another, though as none of them were too well versed in healing spells they kept it fairly light. The nimbleness and increased stamina given to them by Harry's gym had really worked wonders for them. Daphne was amazed to see how much more powerful she felt when she easily performed a routine that would have brought her to her knees months ago.

Hermione was the most academic of the three in her fighting style. She had no inborn abilities after all, so she relied on sheer knowledge to get her through her duels. Tracey had taken to training her Valkyrie powers much more heavily, and she often dueled from the air. Daphne had gotten much more comfortable embracing the lightning, and had exhausted herself several times trying to increase her endurance. But it was Harry who really was the most terrifying, because he made it absolutely clear that he was a transfiguration genius. The display during the Gryffindor vs Slytherin match had become positively tame with some of the things he came up with. And that was without even counting his fire, which he never used on the girls.

So it was that they continued to grow. The pace of their regular classes had become positively mind-numbing with how boring they were. Several other students in their year were equally as talented in some classes, such as the Patil sisters – and wasn't it quite the surprise to find out that the giggly Gossip Queen Parvati was her more studious sister's equal in magic – the Bones Heiress, as well as several others of the Slytherins. So at least they weren't alone in their boredom. But they were quite in need of a break from the tedium, so they were ecstatic to see the Yule vacation signup sheet. All three of the girls put their names up – though Hermione did so reluctantly – while Harry decided he would quite like to explore more of the castle. It wasn't as if he couldn't come and go as he pleased.

One morning in mid-December, Hogwarts woke to find itself covered in several feet of snow. The lake froze solid and the Weasley twins were punished for bewitching several snowballs so that they followed Quirrel around, bouncing off the back of his smelly turban. The few owls that managed to battle their way through the stormy sky to deliver mail had to be nursed back to health by Hagrid before they could fly off again. No one could wait for the holidays to start. While the common rooms and the Great Hall had roaring fires, the drafty corridors had become icy and a bitter wind rattled the windows in the classrooms. Worst of all were Professor Snape's classes down in the dungeons, where their breath rose in a mist before them and they kept as close as possible to their hot cauldrons.

Well, that was how it was for the other students. Harry's group thankfully had a built in furnace. That possibly contributed to Draco trying to be nasty after a few weeks of silence, "I do feel so sorry…" The blonde said during a Potions class, "For all those people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because they're not wanted at home." Quite obviously, he was staring directly at Harry as he said this. Harry didn't even deign to give him an eye roll. The downside to heating up the surrounding area was that he had to be extra careful with potions. Draco – seeing that he was having no effect whatsoever on his self-named rival – decided to toss a small toad foot instead. Harry's hand snapped out like lightning and grabbed the offending appendage, but his lapse in concentration meant that the flame under his cauldron burned a little hotter.

He and Daphne – his partner for the class – hissed angrily as their potion turned the wrong color. Malfoy looked quite smug when Snape came around tutting as if he was actually disappointed, "Five points from each of you. Such a pity." He vanished their potion without another word.

The two were in a bad mood for the rest of the period as they scrambled to try to get another potion ready, and by the time they left the room Daphne was ready to fry the blonde asshole. Ron Weasley had left the room in a huff as well, and had run into Hagrid who was carrying a giant Christmas tree. The two exchanged pleasantries for a little while. "Would you mind moving out of the way?" Came Malfoys cold drawl from behind the two. The quartet watched from a distance, "Are you trying to earn some extra money, Weasley? Hoping to be gamekeeper yourself when you leave Hogwarts, I suppose. That hut of Hagrid's must seem like a palace compared to what your family's used to."

Ron dove at Malfoy just as Snape came up the stairs.

"WEASLEY!" Ron let go of the front of Malfoy's robes as Snape came stalking out of his dungeon with his robe flowing behind him.

"He was provoked, Professor Snape," said Hagrid, sticking his huge hairy face out from behind the tree. "Malfoy was insultin' his family."

"Be that as it may, fighting is against Hogwarts rules, Hagrid," said Snape silkily. "Five points from Gryffindor, Weasley, and be grateful it isn't more. Move along!"

Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle pushed roughly past the tree, scattering needles everywhere and smirking.

"I'll get him!" They heard Ron say as he ground his teeth at Malfoy's back, "One of these days, I'll get him!"

Harry smirked and clapped the redhead on the shoulder, "Well if you do, get him good. Or maybe get the twins to give him a good pranking. I'm sure he'd be delighted to wake up with pink hair and green skin." He passed by without another word. Now that he didn't have to deal with his blasted snoring and that the redhead had finally stopped insulting his friends, he was in turn not as antagonistic. Harry still didn't like the youngest male Weasley, but he very much disliked Malfoy more.

Hermione sighed, "I wish I could stay." She bemoaned, "I'm not looking forward to not being able to use magic for two weeks!"

Tracey winced in sympathy, "Tell you what, you can come stay with us during the summer if you like!"

Daphne smiled, "I'm sure my parents would love to meet you! If you want we can try to have you come over during the holidays."

Hermione looked incredibly happy that her friends were willing to invite her over. "I wish I could. No doubt my parents have some trip or another planned for us." Said trip would involve no small amount of boredom as she would be led by her parents everywhere they wanted to go and nowhere that she wanted to go. At least she would get to see the sights. She nibbled on her bottom lip, "That would be great if I could at least meet them." Her voice lowered to a bit of a whisper, "I really don't want to stay with my parents for the entire break." Harry of course caught the words, and he pulled her into a hug.

He said nothing, but he would really miss his girls. They left the next day, and Harry alternated between exploring more of the castle on his own, and going back to the Yukon to make sure his hoard was untouched and that the alert wards Albus had helped him set were still active.

-]|[-

"Daphne! Tracey!" A miniature version of Daphne barreled into her sister and Tracey and almost knocked them over, "Ohmerlinimsohappytoseeyoudidyouhavefunathogwartsdidyoumakelotsoffriends?"

Laughter sounded up from ahead of them, as both of their sets of parents watched in amusement, "Astoria honey, do you think you could have said that a little faster? I'm sure Daphne and Tracey had a bit too easy of a time understanding you." Daphne's mother Selene said in amusement. She looked very much like an older version of Daphne, except with icy blue eyes.

"Oh leave the poor girl alone." Tracey's mother Cassandra – Cassie to those who knew her – swatted her best friend in the arm playfully, "She hasn't seen her two big sisters in four months." She had fiery red hair like her daughter, though her eyes were green to her daughter's blue, and she had no freckles. Contrasting her daughter once more – which infuriated Tracey at times – she was very much not a short woman.

"And neither have we." Alexander Greengrass was a fairly well built man with a goatee. He swept Daphne and Tracey up in a huge hug, "How are our two princesses today?"

Daphne smiled and pecked her father on the cheek, as did Tracey, "Hi daddy!"

"So, did you like Hogwarts?" Tracey's father Beorn picked up his own daughter from his best friend and kissed her on the cheek. He was a short and stocky man, and the oddball out with blonde hair. He wouldn't have been out of place in a forge.

Daphne was set down on the floor and went back to hugging her sister, "How have you been pixie?" She grinned as her younger sister instantly became outraged at the nickname - as she always did. She stomped her foot and pouted, "Hogwarts was…okay." She said neutrally.

Selene rolled her eyes, "Let me guess, the classes were dreadfully boring?"

Tracey grimaced, "Man, am I sure glad to be home!" She stretched, "I think I would have gone crazy if I had to deal with the slow pace for another day."

The adults laughed, "Well, we did warn you." Alexander shrugged, "We would have been fine with teaching you girls a few defensive spells, but noooooo…" he grinned as the two girls flushed.

A few hours later, everyone was all settled and dinner had been served, "You know…" Cassie said suddenly, "You two still haven't mentioned if you made any friends." She smirked at her daughter and the girl she considered her daughter, "So spill! I know you two haven't kept entirely to yourselves!"

"Oh! Oh! And what was that 'big event' you a…alluded? to after Halloween Daphie?" Astoria's big, bright blue eyes shone up at her big sister.

"Oh that's right!" Selene said suddenly, "Neither of you would say a word in your letters."

Daphne swallowed the piece of steak she had been chewing on, "Good job pixie!" She smiled at her little sister, who once again puffed up at the nickname, "We've made no true friends in Slytherin." She said, "We're amicable with a couple of course but obviously we despise Malfoy and his ilk are far too common in our house."

Their parents deflated. "I had really hoped you two would go to Ravenclaw." Selene replied.

Beorn nodded, "I had hoped as much as well, though I doubted that hope would come true." He shrugged, "We warned you two that you would have a lonely time if you went to Slytherin."

Tracey grinned, "Oh? But who said anything about being lonely?" She winked at their family, "Daphne said we made no real friends in Slytherin." Daphne had her head bowed, but it was quite clear that she was smirking.

Alex's eyes widened, "Oh, good show princess." He laughed, "So, you made friends in the other houses? That's a bit brave if I remember my time in school. Ravenclaw?"

Twin head shakes were his response, as well as widening grins, "Hufflepuff then." Cassie grinned, "They'll be loyal at least." She said cheerfully.

"Not them either." The two girls had Cheshire grins on their faces as the adults went wide eyed.

"Oh my, how did you two get a pair of Gryffindors as friends?" Selene mumbled, "Last I knew the house rivalry was as strong as ever."

"Oh it is." Daphne confirmed, "We met our two friends on the train before we were sorted. One of them literally couldn't care less about where he ended up. As far as he was concerned, the whole thing was a waste of time which wouldn't matter after graduation." She took a sip of her juice. The adults all smiled in amusement.

Tracey continued where she left off, "Really, he let our second friend pick the house, and she ended up in Gryffindor so he followed suit." She grinned, "Her name is Hermione Granger, a muggleborn."

Beorn smiled and ruffled her hair, "Good to see you practice what you preach." He grinned, "Maybe she could even help you when it comes time to make that dream come true, huh?"

"Definitely." Daphne pushed her plate away, "Hermione is brilliant." She said firmly, "Before we even got off the train, we wanted to see if she was any good at magic. She learned the levitation charm in ten minutes." Five pairs of eyes widened at the new information.

"How wonderful!" Selene clapped her hands once, "It's always nice to see someone new being able to integrate so well. Most muggleborns lag behind for such a long time."

Cassie let out an unladylike snort, "Some purebloods could take lessons from them."

"Well yes." Selene bobbed her head in agreement, "The likes of Crabbe and Goyle are quite troll-like." She smiled, "So, who's the lucky guys with three pretty ladies for friends?"

Tracey grinned, "Harry Potter!"

Astoria dropped her fork, "REALLY?! The-Boy-Who-Lived?" She exploded in excitement. Daphne cringed as the blast of shrill sound rang in her ear, "IWANTTOMEETHIMIWANTTOMEETHIMIWANTTOMEETHIM!"

"Stop it pixie!" Daphne flicked her sister on the nose, immediately getting her to stop jumping up and down and rub her nose in irritation, "He really hates it when people react like that. And he hates that stupid name."

Beorn let out a deep belly laugh, "Merlin's Beard, you girls sure don't do anything by half!"

Alexander smiled, "So, what's Mister Potter like?"

Daphne smiled softly, while Tracey hummed, "Harry… Harry is awesome." Tracey bit her lip in thought, "But…If we weren't best friends, we would probably be terrified of Harry." She said finally. She wasn't about to lie to her parents.

Selene's eyes narrowed, "Explain." She said sharply.

Daphne leaned back, "Harry is gifted at Transfiguration." She said after a moment of thought, "And I don't mean that in the way that we're talented. Before Harry even took his first step in the Castle, he was probably better than some fourth years in the art."

Tracey grinned in remembrance, "I can remember it like it was yesterday." She said dreamily, "We were on the train and Malfoy came to mouth off, and he called Hermione…that." Her parents scowled, as did Daphne's, "Harry snapped the book he was reading – one written by Dumbledore – shut."

Selene's jaw dropped and she looked at the other adults in bewilderment, "That's…We don't like Albus, but we would never say he isn't a brilliant man. This Harry sounds pretty interesting."

Beorn nodded as Tracey continued, "And he starts lecturing us about Transfiguration." Tracey grinned dreamily, which the adults definitely didn't fail to catch, "Like he can't read the mood at all and didn't see how it hurt Hermione." She grinned as the adults began to scowl, "And then we blink and he's holding a giant bloody spear in his hand!" She grinned in excitement as their jaws went slack in shock, "The book is gone and he drives the thing through the compartment floor, and all of a sudden he's standing in front of the blonde peacock and his two bodyguards and he dwarfs them." She started laughing, "He was actually already taller than you, daddy!" Her father groaned and thumped his head on the dinner table as the adults got over their surprise and started needling him.

Daphne smirked in amusement, "Draco looks like he's about to foul himself, and Harry shut him down quickly. And then he got him in trouble after he ran to a prefect, because Harry transfigured the book wandlessly and there was no proof." She had a butter-wouldn't-melt grin on her face, "Oh, and did we forget to mention that he has a three-core wand?"

Dead silence. Their parents looked utterly shocked, "W-well." Selene licked her lips to wet them, "Well." She repeated helplessly. If it had been an adult, that really wouldn't have been too out of the ordinary. But a first year who hadn't even been sorted yet? And the wand was a huge tell.

Alexander looked thoughtful, "That's…impressive."

"That isn't the half of it." Tracey said, and now both girls looked nervous.

Selene sobered immediately on seeing her girls looking uncharacteristically tense, "What happened?"

Daphne swallowed thickly, "Halloween…We didn't want to say anything in our letters." She mumbled, and now the adults were positively alarmed, "Someone let five Cave Trolls into the cast-"

"WHAT?!" Cassie shrieked, her hair practically coming alive in her fury as she rose. Rainbow magic started swirling around her furiously. Selene hurried to get up – as did Beorn – and the two scooped their daughters into their laps.

That was nothing compared to Alexander. The room started smelling of ozone as a few tiny, stray bolts of lightning sparkled near the man. Everyone stiffened. Alexander was definitely the most powerful person in the room, and his fury was something to behold, "What. Happened." He said through gritted teeth.

"No one was hurt!" The two girls hurried to reassure her parents. Thankfully the pressure they felt diminished, as Alexander got a handle on his temper, "One of the Weasleys broke his arm because he used a Protego to block a club. That was the only real thing of note."

Alexander took a calming breath as Astoria got up and ran to him, cuddling into his side. He rubbed her head and smiled at his younger princess, "Daddy got a little mad." He winked as the young girl giggled. He turned back to Daphne, "So the teachers took care of them?"

Tracey cringed, which did not go unmissed, "Well, kinda." She made a wishy-washy motion with her hand, which did not put any of them at ease.

Daphne took a calm breath and continued, "The adults kept all of us together in the Great Hall. Dumbledore commanded the ghosts to watch over us and act as a distraction, and he had the younger students all go as far into the hall as we could, so that the older ones could protect us. He and the other teachers left to go hunt the trolls, but not before sealing the doors of the hall."

Beorn growled, "Sensible, but also foolish. At least one of them should have stayed behind just in case. Still, strength in numbers is not a bad tactic against beasts as dumb as trolls."

Tracey picked up, "Unfortunately, the trolls got into the Hall. I think whoever let them in also made sure they would find their way there as hidden as they could be." She smirked – back to her normal self – which caught the adult's attention.

"Oh boy, I've seen that smirk before." Cassie said in trepidation, "What happened next?"

"They were armored." Daphne said, "So nothing the older students really did was working. They were giving them minor injuries at best." She smirked as well, "And then Harry ignores all orders for younger students to stay safe and crushes one of the trolls with a punch." You could have heard a pin fall. "The troll goes flying across the hall and then Harry reveals the third terrifying thing about him." She grinned happily in satisfaction, "He ignited his fists in fire and then turned the dumb brute to charcoal."

The dining room was silent but for Astoria's excited breathing, before Alexander broke it, "I would very much like to meet this Harry Potter. Hermione Granger as well."

Daphne smiled, "Good, because Hermione is probably going to spend the summer with us."

Selene smiled happily, "Oh dear, I wasn't aware we were expecting a fourth daughter."

The conversation devolved to much lighter topics then. There was plenty more holiday to go to ease them into the rest of the first term.

-]|[-

Christmas day dawned and Harry remained asleep, determined to be as lazy as possible. Years of not getting gifts had conditioned him to not expect any, even if he sent a few out to the girls. So he was quite surprised when he finally left his blanket-coffin and saw a small stack of presents at the foot of his bed. He blinked in shock at the sight, before a small smile lit up his face. He crawled over and grabbed the gift on the very top of the pile, which was from Hagrid. The man had whittled a wooden flute for him, and it sounded quite like an owl.

From Hermione he had received a wizarding primer on Gobbledegook. He had mentioned being interested in the language, and since Harry disliked sweets Hermione hadn't known what else to get him. Of course, she thought he was interested so that he would be able to speak to the dirty beasts in their own language, but his interest was far more personal. Who knew what secrets lay inside his cavern? Thousands of goblins were born, lived, and died for millennia without ever leaving that cavern. He knew that there were dozens of manuscripts and the like inside his hoard and he was quite eager to tear every secret those blasted imps had out of them. Thankfully learning languages as a wizard was nowhere near as tedious as learning them as a muggle. There were special spells which turned the language center of the brain up to much higher learning potentials.

Daphne and Tracey had combined for their gift; a copy of one of their family's books on transfiguration as well as another on fire magic. Tracey had also sent a few gags from Zonko's, much to his amusement. The final gift was wrapped in silver paper and was incredibly light. He opened it carefully and unfurled a shining, silvery cloth. It felt very fluid, almost like it was liquid woven into a material you could grasp. A note fluttered out of it.

He picked it up and immediately smirked. There was no name, but there didn't need to be. He recognized the handwriting easily enough. It wasn't as if he hadn't seen it a thousand times in some of his advanced transfiguration books.

Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you. Use it well.

A Very Merry Christmas to you.

He wrapped the cloak around his body and went to go look in the mirror. His jaw dropped as he realized his entire body sans his head was gone. "An Invisibility Cloak!" he grinned viciously. Oh yes, he would use this well indeed.

-]|[-

The rest of the Christmas break passed without too many incidents of note. Of course, there was the Great Snowball War of 91 that he had fought against the twins and some of the other stragglers. He was pretty sure Albus had enchanted some snow to give the others an even chance against him. The twins had likewise once again enchanted snowballs to follow Quirrel around and smash off his turban, which greatly amused him. He really didn't like Quirrel. The man was far too much of a coward and there were times when he felt the man to be a little shifty.

For once, he actually enjoyed himself at a Christmas Feast that had other people involved. During his time at the Dursleys, he often had to cook most of the food and then eat very little of it. Dudley and his parents had lavished each other with gifts; electronics, bicycles, even a pet one Christmas (which Dudley sat on). Harry of course, would eat his tiny portion and then be sent off to his cupboard with a pence or two as a 'gift.' Usually he didn't even get to keep it since Dudley would just steal it. This time was different. Harry had never in all his life had such a Christmas dinner. A hundred fat, roast turkeys; mountains of roast and boiled potatoes; platters of Chipolatas; tureens of buttered peas, silver boats of thick, rich gravy and cranberry sauce – and stacks of wizard crackers every few feet along the table. These fantastic party favors were nothing like the feeble Muggle ones the Dursleys used to buy, with their little plastic toys and their flimsy paper hats inside. Harry pulled a wizard cracker with Fred and it didn't just bang, it went off with a blast like a cannon and engulfed them all in a cloud of blue smoke. Harry had cringed at that one and had to fight to keep from transforming due to the pain in his ears. At least he got to keep the Rear Admiral and chuckled as panicked live mice ran around.

Up at the High Table, Dumbledore had swapped his pointed wizard's hat for a flowered bonnet, and was chuckling merrily at a joke Professor Flitwick had just read him. Even Minerva had let down her hair, laughing at a joke Hagrid had told and even blushing like a schoolgirl when the increasingly drunk giant had kissed her on the cheek, much to the amazement of the Weasleys.

Later that night, Harry used his new cloak for the first time. He left the tower to the sound of a snoring Fat Lady, and made his way down to the library. He wanted to see if there was anything interesting inside the Restricted Section of the library. They were allowed nowhere near that section as regular students, and especially not as first years. The first book he opened made even him cringe. He was no stranger to death. He had killed his own relatives and likely tens of thousands of Goblins at this point, but at least he just killed them. His fire was hot enough in his full form that they might even have died painlessly. He didn't curse their skeletons to rip themselves out of their bodies and tap dance to mock them as they died.

Still, he read on, because if these spells existed then he would damn well know how to counter them. An hour or three passed before he got tired, so he closed the book and went to bed. He repeated this pattern for a couple nights, until he got really unlucky. The book he picked up began screaming. It howled at the top of its proverbial lungs, and even when he slammed it shut it kept on screaming. Throwing his cloak on, he calmly sidestepped Filch and his cat and continued on his way. Or he would have, if Mrs. Norris hadn't smelled him. She hissed in his general direction and made to follow him.

Filch began crowing in triumph, "Oh my sweet, have you sniffed out our little sneak?" He began jogging – and Harry used the term very, very lightly; who the hell threw their knees up to their chests while running? – behind his cat. Harry growled and shot forward. His fist crashed into the sadistic caretaker's jaw and flipped him over, knocking him unconscious. In the same moment, Harry released the shackles on his presence, and the panicking Mrs. Norris went ramrod straight with her back arched as high as it would go. A low growl from his invisible form had the cat join her master in dreamland.

Harry smirked and walked away, but not before throwing the only basic healing spell he knew at the man. The unconscious body twitched as the small fracture healed. He was too fired up right now to go to bed, so he went exploring instead. He found himself on the sixth floor and a golden light drew his attention. He stepped inside and noticed that the only thing in the room was a mirror. It was magnificent; as tall as the ceiling with an ornate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet. Near the top were a carved set of words, Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.

He deadpanned. That was just gibberish. If it wasn't for the fact that it was carved on a mirror he probably wouldn't have realized that that it was merely backwards with spaces in places they shouldn't have been. "I show not your face but your heart's desire." He said as he took off the cloak and looked into the mirror.

Only he wasn't the one who stared back, nor what was clearly his older self the only thing shown. He stood tall and proud, heavily muscled and covered in armor. Daphne, Tracey, and Hermione were beside him, all older as well with their arms around him as well as each other. Each of them were wearing their own armor and their eyes were glistening with hidden power. But perhaps most importantly, they were all smiling happily. Behind the main scene were his parents. They were smiling proudly at them. Everyone in the picture was surrounded and protected by his dragon form, now massive to the point where even his current form seemed small. And all around were piles and piles of gold. Everywhere.

"So I see you – like hundreds of others – have discovered the delights of the Mirror of Erised." Albus's voice rang clearly behind him. Harry didn't jump or even flinch.

"Good night sir, isn't it?" He smiled, drinking in their forms as well as his parent's forms.

"That it is, though not for poor Argus I imagine. That wasn't quite what I had in mind when I told you to 'Use it well.'" Albus came to stand beside him.

Harry's eyebrows rose, "Hmm…the paintings?"

"Indeed. You may be invisible, but you still leave a mark. It is strange how being invisible can make one so nearsighted."

Harry snorted, "I'll keep that in mind." He asked a question that had been on his mind for a while, "Why do you even allow Filch to stay here? He clearly despises children and gets his jollies off of terrorizing us. He doesn't even have all that much to do in the first place. We have hundreds of House Elves here that do most of the work."

"No remorse at all for hitting him?" Albus asked him reproachfully.

"I healed him didn't I?" Harry tossed back, "I wasn't about to have him chasing me all over the school, and I didn't know a spell to knock him out."

Albus sighed, "There are times like the Christmas dinner that allows me to forget you are who you are and think that you're a normal child. That allows me to forget that you were denied your happiness and that you feel older than you are." He deadpanned, "And then you seem to delight in showing me otherwise. You shall have detention, to be determined at a later date." Harry shrugged but didn't complain. He deserved it after all. "As for Argus… If I didn't allow him to keep his job, he would be hard pressed to find another."

"That's right, he is a squib isn't he?" Harry mused. He felt very, very little magic coming from the cruel asshole, "Frankly sir, he doesn't deserve it. He spits on your kindness every time a student hears him wishing to bring back corporal punishment. I heard him muttering about stringing Fred and George up by their thumbs. He belongs nowhere near children. He doesn't even do anything important. The House Elves do most of the work, and they actually enjoy it."

Albus's mustache quirked in amusement, "You have not been the first to tell me so, nor I imagine will you be the last." But he decided to get back on track as he turned to the mirror, "The happiest man on earth would look into this mirror and see nothing at all. He would see himself exactly as he is. I for one, like to see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks. Another Christmas gone by, and I got not a single pair."

"The greatest desire of our hearts, huh?" He snorted, "I imagine the weak willed have wasted away before this thing."

"They have. The mirror is not cursed, but for some it may as well be. It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live." Albus replied, "May I ask what you see when you look into it?"

Harry was silent for a moment, "Things that were stolen…things that are…and others, which have not yet come to pass. Yet." He smirked at the sight of his titanic form as well as his human form. Well, he certainly had a lot to aspire to.

Albus laughed softly, "Well, you certainly lack no confidence in yourself. Work hard then, Harry. Work hard and attain your dreams."

Harry turned, "Well, that's enough adventure for one night. Good night, Albus."

"To you as well, Harry." He turned back to stare into the mirror, "I will be moving this mirror, of course, so do not bother to come looking for it again."

"As if I would." Harry shot back, "Time I spend in front of it is time I'd be wasting on making it come to life." Harry stopped at the door, ready to throw his Invisibility Cloak back on, "If I may ask, what do you really see?"

Albus did not answer for a moment, "My greatest mistake…" he whispered.

Harry closed the door behind him and vanished into the night.

-]|[-

"So why exactly did you have us build this monstrosity?" Beorn asked as he stared at the giant new wall in the backyard. The area around it was much warmer than it should have been in winter, and the wall itself was covered in stones of various shapes.

Tracey grinned as she cracked her knuckles, "Harry showed us this muggle thing called bouldering."

Daphne transfigured their shoes and attire, "We would have left him to do his own thing, but he knew exactly what buttons to push so that we would take it as a challenge." Their parents and Astoria noticed that the girls looked much fitter than they had four months ago. They had never exactly been dumpy at all, but now their muscles looked a lot more defined, "I'm glad he did, because when we started to practice dueling I lasted at least four times longer than I did before we went to Hogwarts." The two girls raced over and started to climb under the befuddled gazes of their parents and Daphne's sister.

-]|[-

Before too long, the break was over and the students started arriving to continue the school year. Hermione had made a beeline for him and when she latched on, she did not let go. The two weeks she was forced to spend being paraded about by her parents was just torture. Tracey had been no less enthusiastic in showing her affection, though Daphne was more reserved. At least until they were in private, and then she latched on to Harry and Hermione like a limpet too.

A few weeks passed and the school year was back into full swing. Classes were as boring as ever and Quidditch had once again taken over the school. Wood in Gryffindor was training the team straight into the ground. One day Fred and George limped in looking very much like they wanted to let off a hundred pranks at once on a single person. "Snape's refereeing the match!" One of them declared, much to the horrified groaning of most of the rest of Gryffindor.

They were interrupted when Neville walked in, bunny-hopping into the common room. Harry wasn't quite sure how he climbed into the portrait hole, seeing as how someone had clearly hit him with the leg-locker curse. Most of the rest of the tower erupted into laughter, and the increasingly red-faced boy looked like he was about to cry. Hermione got up and took out her wand, "What happened Neville?" She started walking over.

But before she could do anything about it, Harry's voice cracked like a whip, "Oh it's funny is it?" Everyone quieted down, "Perhaps I should do the same to all of you and leave you on the first floor. You'll have a grand old time of it I'm sure." Several people looked away in shame.

Neville's voice trembled, "It was Malfoy…he found me outside of the library." He mumbled, "Said he was looking for someone to practice it on."

Hermione sighed, and began waving her wand, but Harry's hand snapped out and caught her wrist, "No." He said shortly, "Neville has to learn to fight for himself, otherwise he's only ever going to get walked over." He let go of her wrist and crossed his arms, "Finite Incantatem." He said clearly, looking at a morose Neville, "You know the spell. You've done it in class. Now's the time to use it."

Neville looked like he was about to cry as he tried the spell. He stuttered through it and predictably, nothing happened. "I can't do it!"

Harry growled low. How in the world did this coward get sorted into Gryffindor? "Calm yourself." He said sharply, "Of course you can't cast it. You don't even believe in yourself. How can you expect it to work if even you're doubting it? Now take a deep breath, and do it properly. You know you can do this!"

Neville sniffled, and several people in the common room started feeling bad for the boy, but he did as told. He took a few calming breaths, and then tried the spell again. But this time when it failed, Harry's eyes narrowed, even as Neville burst into tears. Hermione finally took pity and canceled the curse herself, "Finite Incantatem." An older student came by and cast a cheering charm on the distraught boy, calming him down a little. Or at the very least he stopped crying. Everyone in sight felt bad for the poor kid.

Well, almost everyone.

Harry reached down and snatched Neville's wand out of his hand. Most people in the common room glared at him. Taking another's wand without permission was a pretty bad insult. He looked at it and turned it over in his hand, "Neville, whose wand is this?"

Neville started, "I-it's mine!" He stuttered in surprise.

Harry turned a glare on him and he cringed, "Whose wand was this then?"

Neville stammered, "I-it was my d-dad's wand. Why?"

But Harry hadn't even heard the last word. He had already thrown his arms up in exasperation, "Well of bloody course you can't cast a spell with it!" Neville recoiled, looking like he was about to start crying again. "Every wand is special! If any of you tried to use my wand it would probably try to fry you!" He ranted, and no one who had seen it in action doubted that. Harry still occasionally lit things on fire when he used the wand, "This wand is completely wrong for you! It's literally fighting your magic and making things a dozen times more difficult! It might as well be a fucking stick for all the good it's doing!"

"Language!" Hermione jabbed him in the ribs. She turned to Neville, who was looking pale, "Harry's right though Neville. I tried using Tracey's wand a few weeks ago and I couldn't get a single spell to work. Even spells I already knew failed!" Neville's jaw dropped at that, "You're a pureblood aren't you? You should know this! Who gave you this wand?"

"…My grandmother…" He whispered.

"Well your grandma's a bloody idiot!" Harry hissed, tossing the wand back to Neville. Even Hermione smacked him in the arm for that one, "Go to Professor McGonagall and tell her about this! You're practically five months behind because of this idiocy!" He hauled the boy up and ushered him out of the common room. When he walked back in, Hermione was shaking her head at him. Half of the common room was glaring at him while the others were nodding and metaphorically tipping their hats at him, "What are you lot looking at?" He growled, and the rest of them looked away. Ron Weasley was looking at his own wand as if it was diseased.

Hermione shook her head, half in reproach and half in bemusement, "You're all heart, huh Harry?"

He merely smirked back.

-]|[-

Neville had in fact seen a marked improvement in his school work. After he had stuttered through a conversation with McGonagall, the Deputy Headmistress had called Augusta and gave her what Neville was calling a 'legendary' lambasting. He had never seen anyone brave enough to tear strips out of his grandmother's hide, and Minerva had practically torn entire chunks out. Not a day later, Neville was the proud owner of a new wand, just in time for the next Quidditch game, where Malfoy had taken to taunting him and Ron and caused a decently sized fight. Neville had not only returned the favor on Malfoy sending him crashing nose-first into the bleachers, but Ron had also given the blonde a black eye when he had gotten up. Of course, Crabbe and Goyle had smashed them in return, but it had given the dumpy boy a much needed boost in confidence.

The weeks went by, and before anyone knew it, Easter had arrived. And with it, came Hermione's realization that exams were ten weeks away and she hadn't evenstartedrevisingyetohmygod. Needless to say, Hermione was a right terror for a few weeks while her friends looked on in bemusement. She had even started trying to draw study plans for them, and that was when the boot came down.

"No, Hermione." Harry said, "We're not going to follow your study plans."

"But we need these tests to pass into second year! Why aren't you guys taking it ser-Ow!" She rubbed her nose and glared daggers at Tracey, who had flicked her in the nose.

"We are taking it seriously." A calm and collected Daphne was casually browsing through the Defense textbook, "We're just not driving ourselves to distraction."

Harry shrugged as he read a Potions book, "I don't really care about taking first place, so I'm not stressing on the theory. I know most of it anyway and we'll all ace the practicals. Only thing I really need to worry about is Potions and History." Harry could brew sure, but he had definitely not inherited his mother's hands.

"We already know this stuff Hermione." Tracey stretched, "You're trying to cram so many things into that big brain that it's going to start leaking out of your ears!" She teased, and Hermione huffed. Tracey pulled her into a hug, "You need to relax. You're going to get top three easily. We still have weeks and you've already read through your notes twice! You practically have the textbooks memorized, but you're going to force yourself to panic and miss points because of all this!" Hermione looked horrified at that. Tracey giggled and waved her wand. Every book that wasn't in a hand flew into their proper bags, "Now, it's the first good day we've had in months! We're going to go outside and enjoy it, and I don't want to hear a word about studying until at least tomorrow! Got that missy?"

Hermione glared sullenly at her friend, up until she noticed Hagrid, "Oh hello Hagrid! What are you doing in the library?" She smiled up at the huge man, momentarily forgetting to glare at her friends.

Hagrid looked kinda shifty, which immediately caught their attention, "Jus' lookin'. An' what're you lot up ter?"

Harry chuckled, "Oh, we're just amusing ourselves watching Hermione go spare." Hermione glared at him, "She's panicking over exams even though we still have over two months until then."

Hagrid began to chuckle along with him, and Hermione looked betrayed up at him, "Relax Hermione! Yer goin' to do great! Yer teachers say nothin' but good thins' about yeh. Drivin' yerself sick isn' goin' ter help anyone." He ruffled her hair, making it look more messy than usual. But Daphne noticed he kept his other hand behind his back. She nudged Harry surreptitiously, and he started paying more attention, "Anyway, I'm off!"

When he turned around, Harry kept a close eye on his hand. Hermione frowned, "What was he hiding?"

Harry sounded extremely bemused, "Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit." The three girls choked.

-]|[-

"Please tell me that is NOT a dragon egg." Tracey pleaded against all hope.

"It's a dragon egg." Hermione and Daphne deadpanned, looking incredibly frustrated. Plus the room was utterly sweltering.

"You do realize you live in a wooden house right Hagrid?" Harry just sounded utterly amused.

"Err…" He began to bluster, "Always wanted a dragon." He mumbled as he looked down. Hagrid seemed to have just now come to that realization.

Harry began to cackle, "Oh Hagrid, don't ever change!" He almost fell over laughing.

"It's not that funny." Despite herself, Daphne's lips twitched, "Hagrid, this must have cost you a fortune. You didn't blow your life savings on it did you?"

Hagrid perked up, "Nah, didn' spend a Knut." He said proudly, "Won it las' night. I was down in the village havin' a few drinks an' got into a game o' cards with a stranger. Think he was quite glad ter get rid of it, ter be honest."

Eyes narrowed all around. Tracey looked at him seriously, "You've always wanted a dragon and a stranger pops by who just happened to have one?" Hagrid stared at her blankly. She huffed and started mumbling under her breath, "Gryffindors."

"Oi!" Harry proclaimed in affront.

"Anyway!" Hermione said loudly, "What are you going to do with it Hagrid? You know you can't keep it right? The Ministry will be after your blood if they find it…and seeing as how we're right next to Hogwarts students could be in danger. Someone is bound to find it."

Hagrid deflated immediately, having not considered that. Hermione almost felt bad. It was like taking a baby's toy away, "I'll probably keep it fer a few weeks. It won' be strong enough ter travel before tha'. I did a bit o readin'." He pulled a large book from under his pillow. "Got this outta the library – Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit – it's a bit outta date, o' course, but it's all in here. Keep the egg in the fire, 'cause their mothers breathe on em, see, an' when it hatches, feed it a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour. An' see here – how ter recognize different eggs – what I got there's a Norwegian Ridgeback. They're rare, them."

The girls wrinkled their noses at the dragon's would-be diet. Daphne spoke up, "Right, so after it hatches you'll raise it for a few weeks. What would come next?"

Hagrid rubbed his beard thoughtfully, "Could probably call up ol' Charlie Weasley. He became a dragon handler after he graduated. Good lad." Everyone else rolled their eyes. Of course he would say that.

Tracey sighed in relief, "Well, at least you have a plan."

-]|[-

The next two weeks passed quickly as the anticipation as well as trepidation grew in the three girls. Hermione was right back to panicking over exams – which were still weeks away – despite all efforts to calm her down. It was honestly started getting more than a little aggravating, "Hermione you are being irrational." Harry finally snapped one night and Hermione drew back with a squeak, "We're all far ahead of most of our peers already. We've started doing self-study on second year work ages ago, and in Defense we're way past that already! The early years are designed to get the weaker students – both pureblood and muggleborn alike – to the same familiarity with their magic as the stronger students! This stuff is all easy and you know it! You're not going to fail anything! You're already way past the mark! Fucking relax already!"

Hermione looked like she was about to tear up, and Daphne sighed, "While he was gruff, Harry has a point. You're just wasting time trying to review material you already know by heart!"

She looked down as her lip quivered, "I just…"

"Have nothing to prove to anyone." Tracey said as she yanked the distraught girl into her lap and hugged her from behind, "We all know you're brilliant, and you know it as well. We're not going to let you have a bloody breakdown." Her lips quirked, "Who know, you might even have it before the exams and miss them entirely."

Hermione let out a horrified gasp, and the three burst out laughing. She pouted, "It's not funny!" That only made them laugh harder, and despite herself, she began giggling too.

The next day, Hagrid was giving them very specific looks during breakfast, and they knew that the big day had probably come. They went to Herbology and then raced over to Hagrid cabin. Hagrid greeted them looking flushed and excited. "It's nearly out." He ushered them inside.

The egg was sitting there on the table. It was huge and pitch black, and already full of cracks. A funny clicking noise came from it as the dragon inside writhed about, trying to get out. All of a sudden, there was a scraping noise and the egg split open. The baby dragon flopped onto the table and looked straight at Harry. It had a long, skinny body and overly large wings. It had a long snout with wide nostrils, the stubs of horns and bulging, orange eyes.

The second it had burst out of the egg and laid eyes on Harry, it hissed angrily. The girls jerked back and away from the table, while Hagrid was crestfallen that it hadn't seen him first. The tiny baby dragon leaned forward on its wings and did its best impression of a growl. It was clearly trying to intimidate Harry.

As for the boy himself, Harry was just disappointed. The baby had none of the intelligence Harry had hoped to see in its eyes. He had hoped that the dragons he'd slaughtered had merely been dumb brutes with their will beaten down by the Goblins, but it was clear that they were probably the norm. The dragons on this world were just dumb animals. Predatory, highly dangerous animals, but compared to dragons of muggle fantasy they may as well have been mindless beasts. The fact that this tiny little baby could clearly sense something was offabout Harry but couldn't sense that it was trying to intimidate the biggest fish in the ocean didn't give it any points.

Harry's eyes narrowed and he leaned forward. The baby reared back and sneezed, letting out a puff of fire. It splashed on Harry's shirt. "Harry!" Hermione shrieked in fear and the other two girls looked very much like they wanted to draw their wands and just put the dragon down. But Harry didn't flinch. He smirked, "You'll have to work on that, little one." He raised a hand and the fire licking at his clothes were drawn to his palm. There, it blazed into a far hotter inferno before he closed his fist and the flame instantly guttered out. His skin was unblemished and the Norwegian Ridgeback crawled away, now having an idea that it had picked a fight it couldn't win.

"Blimey!" Hagrid exclaimed, reminding them all that he was even there, "He really didn' like yeh fer some reason Harry!" Hagrid picked up the Ridgeback and let it start clambering all over his huge form.

Harry shrugged as he fixed his clothes with a wave of his wand, "Couldn't tell you why." He turned to the girls who were looking at him suspiciously, "Am I not likable?" He pouted outrageously. They rolled their eyes and began to giggle.

By the time the week was out, Norbert – the name Hagrid had given the dragon – had grown three times as large, and every time they came by, it seemed to want to pick a fight with Harry. One day, Daphne got a little too close, and Norbert decided he wanted a taste. As its neck reared back slightly in preparation to pounce on Daphne, a low rumble filled the hut. Everything stopped moving as the dragon stared at Harry with – for the first time – actual fear in its eyes. Harry was growling and it put the little dragon on edge. It started crawling back, low to the table.

"Stop tha' Harry! Yer scaring Norbert!" Hagrid said as he picked the baby back up.

Harry stopped growling, "Well, Norbert should learn to keep his fangs to himself."

The girls were staring at him in shock, "What was that?!" They exclaimed as one.

"He was about to bite Daphne." Harry shrugged with a small smirk.

"But how did you do that?" Hermione asked, only getting a large grin in response. "Oh no mister! You're telling us!" Harry merely stretched and put his feet up on the table, "Harry!"

After another week, Norbert had finally gotten too big and they managed to force Hagrid to write to Charlie. Later that week, Harry hauled the much larger, crated-up dragon and its (now headless) teddy up to the tallest tower in the dead of night over his shoulder. The Invisibility Cloak worked wonders to hide them. The dragon could tell who was carrying it, and it had been smacking itself into the crate earlier that night. Hagrid had been forced to drug it with a sleeping draught. Charlie himself couldn't come pick up the dragon, but he had friends who were coming to visit him. They were the ones who showed up to pick up the Ridgeback.

Charlie's friends were a cheery lot. He spent a few minutes making small talk with them as they showed off the harness they had made for Norbert. After getting the young dragon secured safely, they shook hands with him and flew away. Harry watched as the forms shrunk on the horizon, half-itching to go on his own flight, "Sad to see your little friend go?" Albus's voice rang from behind him.

Harry chuckled as he turned and eyed the headmaster, who was seated on the stone steps with a steaming cup of tea in his hand. "It was no friend of mine." Harry walked up to Albus and sat heavily next to him, "The dragons in this world are just beasts." He said with a sigh, "None of them are like me. None of them have that intelligence. That sentience."

"You'll find many grown dragons are quite intelligent in their own right." Albus admonished lightly.

"Ah, but that's the key isn't it? In their own right. A tiger is intelligent in its own right." Harry shot back as he looked at the night sky, "They're smart yeah, but they're smart for animals. I had thought that the dragons the goblins enslaved were merely mindless brutes who had their will and fire beaten out of them, but Norbert was just like them. It could tell something was off about me. It might even have been able to smell it. And yet it was just mindlessly aggressive with me, despite all the times I shut it down."

Albus sighed as he drained his cup, "Take solace then, in the fact that only one of your forms is alone." He chuckled, "It was good that you convinced Hagrid to let the poor thing go. Another few days and I would have had to go down and do it myself. He was getting rather large."

Harry snorted and got up, "Well, that's enough for me. See you in the morning Albus."

"Good night, Harry."

-]|[-

There were only two weeks left in the school year, and Harry got a bit of a surprise as he was walking down with Hermione to meet up with Daphne and Tracey. As they passed by a classroom they knew was not in use – they had used it themselves after all - they heard somebody whimpering from inside. The two friends – and boy did Hermione look loads better now that Norbert was gone and that they had managed to get her to relax a bit – looked at each other curiously. Harry whipped out his invisibility cloak and wrapped the two of them up. Unseen to him, Hermione blushed lightly as she pressed into him. It was Quirrel in the room, and he was practically moaning, "No, no…Not again! Please!" He sounded like he was begging. A raspy voice responded, sounding incredibly threatening. Even Harry couldn't quite make out what was said. It sounded…muffled, "All…alright." Quirrel sounded simply defeated as the word was sobbed out.

Next second, Quirrel came hurrying out of the classroom straightening his turban. He looked like he had just managed to stop crying, and he was utterly oblivious to all around him. As his footsteps died down, Harry threw the cloak off and they peered inside casually as they walked past. There was no one else in the room, though the back door was ajar. "What was that?" Hermione whispered to him.

Harry didn't know, but what he did know was that the second voice didn't sound like anyone he had heard all year. They walked down for lunch and met up with Daphne and Tracey, who sat at the Gryffindor table with them. A few owls entered the hall – slower stragglers who hadn't made the morning post – and much to his surprise, a small note landed in front of him. Harry blinked. That was…unusual. There weren't many birds that would carry mail to him. He unfolded it and instantly recognized Albus's writing.

Harry,

This letter may only be read by you, but please burn it as soon as you are able. I am in the very unenviable position of asking you for aid. I promised I would not treat you with kid gloves, as I shall be keeping to that.

Something has been killing unicorns – Harry's eyes widened in shock – inside the Forbidden Forest. Hagrid has been trying to take care of the issue, but he can only cover so much ground on his own. The only reason I am even considering asking you is because of your – ahem – party trick. I have no doubt that you will be able to remain safe, and due to your skills you will be able to cover a lot of ground. However, should you choose not to do this, I will not think less of you. If you decide to do so, I shall inform Hagrid that you are to have detention with him tonight at eleven.

Albus

Harry calmly folded the note and tucked it inside his robes, "What did it say?" Hermione asked curiously.

"I'll tell you later." He promised and they continued their conversation. He made a show of stretching and glanced at the head table. Albus was looking straight at him, and he gave a little nod of his head. Albus nodded back lightly, and engaged professor McGonagall in conversation once more.

-]|[-

Harry cut out the middle man that night and simply dove out of the window in his room. It was pitch black out and he transformed only his arms into wings, and gently glided down to Hagrid hut. He knocked lightly, and Hagrid greeted him with a smile, "Alright Harry?" Hagrid was holding a giant crossbow and had a quiver of arrows slung over his shoulder. His boarhound Fang was at his heels, "Now, listen carefully, 'cause it's dangerous what we're gonna do tonight, an' I don' want yeh takin' risks. Follow me over here a moment."

Harry said followed the huge man to the edge of the forest line. They were still pretty far away when his nose picked up on it.

Blood.

Clearly inhuman blood, but blood all the same.

Holding his lamp up high, Hagrid pointed down a narrow, winding earth track that disappeared into the thick black trees. A light breeze lifted their hair as they looked into the forest. "Look there. See that silvery stuff shining on the ground?"

"Unicorn blood." Harry said in disgust.

Hagrid managed to smile weakly at Harry's knowledge, but sobered quickly, "Tha's righ'. There's a unicorn in there bin hurt badly by summat. This is the second time in a week. I found one dead last Wednesday. We're gonna try an' find the poor thing. We might have ter put it out of its misery."

The two walked grimly down the path, up until they came upon a fork in the road, "Righ'," Hagrid said uncomfortably, "If yeh find the unicorn Harry, send up green sparks. If yer in trouble, send up red an' I'll come runnin'. Take Fang with yeh,"

Harry shook his head, "I'll cover more ground alone." He smirked, "You watch yourself."

"Are yeh sure?" Hagrid patted him on the shoulder and at Harry's nod, took Fang down the left path, "Be careful Harry."

Harry watched as the giant man disappeared into the trees, before turning his suddenly blazing eyes to his own path. He transfigured his arms and flew into the trees. He was silent as he could be, occasionally landing on a tree as he followed the trails of unicorn blood. Harry passed by a mossy tree stump and his sharp ears could hear the babbling of a brook nearby. But then another sound replaced it. Something was slithering on the leaves, and it was making too much noise to be a snake. It sounded more like a cloak trailing on the ground.

He bit back a growl. So it wasn't a 'something.' It was a 'someone.' The sound vanished rapidly, even to his ears. Harry took off again, but quickly landed a few minutes later when he heard light breathing. He transformed his arms back just as a centaur walked into sight. To the waist he was a man, with red hair and a furry beard, but below that was a horse's gleaming chestnut body with a long, reddish tail. The two stared at one another for a few seconds, not saying a word. Then, the centaur looked upwards, "Mars is bright tonight." He said. He had a deep, sorrowful voice, "Unusually bright."

"Blood has been spilled." Harry replied, "Unicorn blood. Have you seen the one who caused it?"

"Always the innocent are the first victims." he said without blinking. "So it has been for ages past, so it is now."

Harry snorted, "Right. Centaur." He scratched at his hair as he muttered, "Should have known better than to expect a straight answer. What is your name?"

"Ronan, young warrior." Ronan said, right as another centaur walked into the clearing. He was wilder-looking than Ronan and had black hair, "Bane." Ronan greeted the other.

Bane walked up next to him, "Mars is bright." He said simply.

Harry smirked as he looked up himself, "And for whom does Mars shine bright?"

The centaurs blinked, before a light smile sprang up on Bane's face, "That, young warrior, even we can't tell. A storm is coming."

Harry walked out of the clearing without another word. He merely inclined his head towards the two centaurs. When they were out of sight, he took to the air again. For nearly half an hour he searched, to the point where the trees became so thick that he couldn't comfortably fly any longer. The path became hard to follow as he landed and continued on foot, but he took heed that the sprinkles of blood were becoming more numerous as well as larger.

Harry almost growled as he broke through into a clearing. The unicorn was shining bright, though it was clearly in agony. It was twitching and the reason was obvious. Before the unicorn was a black shadow and from the slurping sounds he could hear it was clearly draining the divine being of its blood.

Harry's blood boiled as he flung himself into the clearing. His feet thundered on the forest dirt and the cloak reared back and began to turn. Before it come even complete the motion, Harry was on it and his leg was screaming through the air. His boot connected with the thing's head with a thunderous crack. The thing screeched like a wraith as bones shattered under the tremendous force. The sound was almost like a reverse-phoenix song, as the unicorn began to writhe in pain. The cloak went flying and smashed into a huge tree trunk, splintering it.

The being rose to its feet hissing and screeching angrily and a very human hand appeared holding a wand. But Harry was already in motion. He had spun with the kick and then sank to his knees protectively before the unicorn, and his torso was already transforming. A hellish glow shone from his chest as the inferno built within him. With a roar of fury, he threw his partially-draconic head forward and unleashed his dragon fire.

The world erupted into light as night became day and the blaze scorched through the air towards the bastard who would harm a creature so pure. The being's wand flashed and a blue translucent dome appeared in front of it. He was confident that his flame-freezing shield would be able to hold back a silly first year's fire. Even a first year as powerful as Harry.

The being under the cloak really should have known better by now. Horrific screeching rang through the air once more, but this time it held an agonized tone that empowered the two rather than hurting them. The flame barreled straight through the magical shield as if it wasn't even there. Flesh started to sizzle and bubble as the being apparated away in a fit of panic. The inferno continued on, burning trees to cinders in a massive cone in front of them.

Finally, Harry cut his flow out and eyed the destruction. The landscape had been completely demolished. Trees had hemispheres literally burned through them, making them look cartoonish in some cases as sections of their trunks were simply missing. The ground was partially molten and a heat haze rose up from it. Small flames still licked this way and that. Harry turned to the unicorn, even as he sent up green sparks into the night sky. "Shhh." He whispered as he gently rubbed the unicorn's mane.

It neighed thankfully, it's black eyes shining with suppressed tears of pain. Blood was gushing from its neck, and they both knew it would take a miracle for the poor thing to survive. Harry suddenly had an idea, "Fawkes!" He yelled into the night sky. For a moment, the only movement in the clearing as the word echoed around them was the trembling of the poor stallion. Then fire erupted near them and that glorious song filled their hearts with hope.

The beautiful scarlet and gold firebird trilled its song as it landed near them. It began crying into the noble being's wound, which closed before their eyes. Harry grinned, "Thank you my friend." He lightly scratched at Fawkes' plumage. The unicorn was looking much better now as the healing powers of the phoenix went to work, and Fawkes vanished in another plume of fire. Harry grinned as he helped the still-wobbly Unicorn up onto its legs. It was now clear to him that the unicorn was much larger than he had thought when it had been downed. It was very much a stallion. It sputtered and nudged him thankfully, "You be strong now. That son of a bitch won't come around here again."

Hooves clapped against the forest floor and the unicorn whirled around – almost drunkenly – to protect its new friend. A younger centaur burst into the clearing, and the unicorn relaxed at seeing one of the guardians of the forest. He had white-blond hair and a palomino body. "Are you alright?" He smiled as he saw the strengthening unicorn, "I am very glad to see our friend here was saved." He ran his fingers through the unicorn's mane. He had astonishingly blue eyes that shone like pale sapphires. He looked carefully at Harry, "I thank you, young warrior. My name is Firenze."

"Harry Potter." Harry nodded at him in greeting, "You're certainly more talkative than Ronan and Bane were."

"Indeed. They do not like humans." Firenze looked at him, "Do you know the purpose of Unicorn's blood, Harry Potter?"

Harry eyed him with a frown, "I do not. It hasn't come up in any classes. We've only used the horn and tail hairs."

"That is because it is a monstrous thing, to slay a unicorn," Firenze told him. "Only one who has nothing to lose and everything to gain, would commit such a crime. The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death. Yet you shall pay a terrible price. You have slain something pure to save yourself, and you will have but a half-life from the moment the blood touches your lips. A cursed life."

Harry's blood was boiling once again, and he itched to immolate that foul creature once more, "I see." He said evenly, "A coward then, who would rather be cursed forever than die." He cursed, "I can't think of many who would be that desperate."

Firenze did not look surprised at his reaction, "Unless of course, you only needed to buy time to drink something much more powerful. Something that will bring you back to full strength and power. Something that will mean you can never die. Young warrior, do you know what is hidden in the school at this very moment?"

"That bloody Stone." Harry growled, shaking the clearing, "Voldemort." He began to quake in rage and the clearing began to warm up. His parent's killer had been not feet from him. The unicorn nudged him and whinnied, taking the edge off. Harry ran his fingers through its mane again, trying to calm down.

Another burst of fire appeared, with Albus touching down beside them. He hurried over as Fawkes sang, "You've done a great thing Harry." He smiled and patted his student on the shoulder, "Because of you, an innocent and pure being was saved. Fawkes told me of the sad state he found you two in." He nodded to Firenze, "Good night Firenze. It has been a long time."

Firenze nodded, "It has indeed, headmaster. Mars is bright tonight."

Albus inclined his head, "It is indeed. Tonight could have gone much worse." He turned to Harry, "What happened?"

"Voldemort." Harry growled, the temperature of the clearing spiking, "Somehow, it was drinking the unicorn's blood. I burned it."

But before another word could be said, Hagrid burst into the clearing, "Thank Merlin yer alrigh' Harry!" He blinked, "Professor Dumbledore! Firenze! Wha' are you lot doin' here?"

Albus smiled, "Harry had the rather brilliant idea to call for Fawkes. We were able to save the Unicorn because of it. But the story can wait for another time." He said, "We must get back up to the castle. Good night Firenze."

"You as well headmaster." Firenze galloped away.

Harry smiled and patted the pure unicorn, "You should be safe now. And if that thing comes back it will regret it." The unicorn shook its head and whinnied as it stood on its hind legs, before galloping off into the night.

"Blimey, unicorns don' usually allow boys to come near em." Hagrid said in amazement, "Yeh've made a loyal friend there." All three of them smiled as they started walking back through the forest up to the castle.

-]|[-

Harry and his three friends entered the empty classroom and closed the door behind them. Harry had been most insistent on speaking with them and was almost pushing them in. "Ack! Stop that Harry!" Tracey admonished, "What's this about?"

Harry leaned on one of the desks, "You remember that note I got yesterday? I told you I'd tell you about it later." He decided to go with a little white lie, "Back during the Christmas break I got detention for punching Filch."

"You what?!" Hermione yelped in shock, "Why would you do that?"

Tracey sniggered, "Oh, what I wouldn't have given to see that up close. Filch is such a foul little cretin. You know he deserved far worse Hermione."

Hermione fidgeted, "Well…"

Harry chuckled, "Anyway, I was trying out the Cloak and I ran into a screaming book." The girls looked deadpan at him, "Literally. It started screeching the second I opened it. And seeing as how I was out of bed at night, Filch showed up while I was walking out of the library. If it had been just him, I would have gotten away easily, but that damn cat of his could smell me. I wasn't about to lead them on a merry chase, so I cut out the middleman." He shrugged without remorse, "But that's not important. What's important is that the Headmaster finally wanted me to serve it. I had quite thought he had forgotten about it actually."

"So why did it take so long for him to assign it and why didn't you just tell us about it?" Daphne asked a little suspiciously.

"Haven't the foggiest, but I served the detention with Hagrid." He dodged around the second question, "We went into the fores-"

"You WHAT?!" They all yelled with wide eyes, "But that's so dangerous!" Hermione yelped.

"There are rumors that werewolves live in that forest!" Tracey exclaimed.

"What is that man thinking?" Daphne muttered to herself.

Harry raised an eyebrow at them, staring at them with a stupid look on his face.

Daphne scoffed, "Wipe that look off your face! Just because you're tough doesn't mean you can't be taken by surprise! And not all creatures will be moved through force!"

Harry made a wishy-washy motion with his right hand, "Either way, we went in because something had hurt a unicorn."

The girls choked, "WHAT?!" Tracey rasped as she began to cough.

"Is Dumbledore insane!" Daphne croaked incredulously, "Well…more insane than usual." She amended herself.

"I can handle myself girls." Harry chuckled, "I didn't have a scratch on me." He became serious and the girls stiffened, "I found both the unicorn as well as the thing attacking it. Its screech was almost like a reverse-phoenix song." He said ominously, "Some stupid son of a bitch-" He glared at Hermione as she made to interrupt him and she flinched back in shock, "-was drinking its blood."

"Oh Merlin!" Daphne clapped a hand over her mouth in horror.

"That's…" Hermione looked green.

"I'm going to be sick." Tracey looked even greener.

"According to Firenze – a centaur of the forest – Unicorn Blood will keep anyone who drinks it from dying, even if they already have both feet in the ground and just need to fall in to finish the job. But in return, you will forever be cursed for having slain and forcibly drained such a pure being of its blood."

"Who would do such a thing!" Hermione exclaimed in horror.

"Someone with nothing to lose." Harry said, crossing his arms, "Someone who only needs to delay the inevitable, not stall it entirely. Someone looking to get his hands on a much sweeter elixir. One that can return him to full power."

Daphne and Tracey paled to the color of milk. Tracey's freckles stood sharply on her skin and Daphne almost looked like a black-and-white painting with colored eyes. "The Stone." Tracey rasped.

Harry nodded, and Hermione spoke up, "But who would do it? Who would be that desperate?"

Daphne was shaking her head, "No, no, no, you can't mean who I think you mean! He's dead!" She hissed, looking very much like she was about to have a panic attack.

Hermione's eyes bugged out and she drew back in fear, "You can't mean…!"

"He's dead? Then show me a body." Harry said blandly. The girls looked terrified out of their minds. Harry shook his head, "Sorry girls, but do you really think one of the most terrifying Dark Lords in centuries wouldn't have a back-up plan?" The girls tried to swallow, but there was just nothing to swallow, "He's weak now. A wraith. Neither living nor dead really." He shrugged weakly, "Or at least that's what the headmaster told me. He's long suspected that Voldemort tried to make himself immortal." It was rather disconcerting to see his girls look so out of it. They were normally so collected, barring Hermione's silly panic attacks over exams she was sure to pass. He smirked, and that caught their attention.

"Why are you smirking?" Daphne demanded, "So many people died under his rise! No one could trust anyone! He can't come back!"

"And he won't." Harry said, his smirk growing wider, "Last I saw of him, he was running with his tail between his legs after I shattered his face and incinerated everything in the general vicinity. Whatever time he bought with the Unicorn Blood I destroyed." His smirk turned bloodthirsty.

That brought their thoughts crashing to a halt, "He…he didn't try to freeze your flame?" Tracey asked in wonder. The color was returning to her skin at the knowledge that they were safe for now.

He began to laugh, "Oh, I'm sure he tried. But none of you have ever seen me use my fire."

They blinked, more calm returning, "Yes we have! You used it on the troll, and you used it on that cursed Bludger!"

He only laughed harder, "Trust me ladies…no you haven't." He eyed them in satisfaction as a shiver went up their spines at that knowledge, "Anyway, he'll be desperate now. He'll be rushing for the stone stupidly, as whatever body he's managed to cobble together fails on him. He sounded like he was in agony last I heard."

Hermione shook her head, "Everyone knows that Dumbledore was the only one He ever feared! He won't do anything with the Headmaster in the castle! Not as weakened as he is!"

Harry stared at her, and a small smile grew on his face, "You're right." He said cheerily, and smiles of relief grew on their faces. But Harry's smile was for a different reason.

He now had his signal.

-]|[-

The days had turned absolutely sweltering by now, and all of the students in the castle were much more interested in the lake than on the looming exams. Still, the teachers tried their best to keep them on target. When the exams hit, they had both written – done with special quills spelled to be anti-cheating. How that was actually accomplished was a mystery. Did they read your mind? – as well as practical tests. Around a third of the first years were practically sleeping through the exams. Like Harry and his group, they blazed through the written exams and then escaped out to the grounds.

Charms was simple as could be, as was Transfiguration. They had to make a pineapple tap dance for Charms, among other things. Harry honestly wondered what the point of such a stupid spell was. Others would have been much more practical. "Well, I guess it gives a foundation for later animation spells?" Had been Hermione's equally-confused response when he mentioned it.

Transfiguration had them transforming a small slug into a snuffbox. The first year of Transfiguration focused mostly on nonliving inanimate-to-inanimate transformations for the majority of the year, and only just had started living animate-to-inanimate. Invertebrates were the easiest creatures to start the students off on, which was why the slug was used. They got points for how opulent they could make the box, and had points taken away if the box still felt slimy.

The rest of the tests were not very difficult either. Their last exam of the year was history, but that was tomorrow. Today ended off with Defense, and immediately upon entering the room, Harry realized something was wrong. He had not seen much of Quirrel in the past week. Their last few classes had been canceled as the man claimed to be sick. But when Harry walked in, he knew that wasn't the case. Quirrel smelled as if he had bathed in garlic, and he clearly was trying to hide some stench. Against Harry's nose, it was futile. Harry knew the smell of seared flesh very, very well. Quirrel reeked of it. He also had burn paste slathered all over his body. And last but not least, he was moving very, very gingerly.

Harry had to fight very hard to keep the triumph off his face, and he calmly proceeded to smash through the test and exit the room. Once out of sight, a dark grin grew on his face. Oh he would enjoy this. He wiped the look off as an ecstatic Tracey leapt from the room and jumped on him, "We're done!" She crowed happily. She had her legs wrapped around his waist and was pumping her fist in glee. Harry held the excited redhead in bemusement.

"While she's certainly…enthusiastic, Tracey has a point." Daphne had a big smile on her face as she hugged her two friends from the right, "No more boring classes!" She sighed in happiness, "At least until September. Hopefully next year isn't as mind-numbing."

"I wouldn't care if they were." Hermione said happily and she mirrored Daphne to their left, "If it wasn't for the school, I never would have met you." She sniffled, and they tightened their group hug.

"Freedom!" They watched in amusement as Parvati Patil raced out of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom while tearing off her clothes – revealing a one-piece bikini – and yelling, "Freedom!" She stuffed them in her bag as she went and hurried off towards the lake.

"She has the right idea you know." Harry smirked, "Let's go enjoy ourselves!"

"But I don't have a swimsuit!" Hermione yelped as they dragged her along.

Tracey facepalmed as Daphne let out a happy little laugh, "Are you a witch or not?" Hermione went red in embarrassment. They were only a few minutes after Parvati and there were already a good number of students swimming in the lake.

They had all either switched or transfigured their robes into swimsuits and were about to jump in when Harry froze. He eyed the water with a deadpan look on his face. The girls had already jumped in (or were thrown in by an evil, eager redhead) and were splashing each other when they realized Harry wasn't with them. Tracey blinked up at him, "Hey Harry, what's the hold up?"

Harry had an uncharacteristic blush on his face, "Err…" They all blinked owlishly at him. Who the hell was this and how had they managed to steal Harry's skin without them noticing? "I ah…I've never actually swam before." He scratched his chin in a little embarrassment.

They goggled at him, before Tracey broke into laughter and started to crow, "Ahaha! Finally! I've been waiting all year to find something you're not great at!"

"Tracey!" Hermione squeaked, "Don't laugh!"

Daphne had a smirk tugging at her lips, "Well you're not going to learn if you just stand there." Her eyes were sparkling in her amusement.

He half shrugged, "Well, in for a Knut I suppose." He bent his knees and then leapt, far over their heads in a single bound. Their eyes widened in shock as he flew over them and cannonballed into the drink. When he came back up, he seemed to have the right idea with his feet but his arms were swinging wildly. And that was when he came to the realization that his other form was actually cringing at being inside the water. Every draconic instinct he had was telling him to transform and boil this entire lake away from him. He also felt a little weaker than he normally would. He had to clamp down on everything with his iron will, but that meant he started to sink as his concentration was taken completely off of trying to float.

"Harry you idiot! You don't just jump into the deep end on your first time!" Tracey – the best swimmer of their group – came over and dragged him a little bit closer to the land.

Daphne was eying him in a lot more interest than was usual nowadays, "You seemed a lot more uncomfortable than you should have been. You were actually doing well for a few seconds before you cut out entirely." Her grin was widening, "Thanks for the clue to your secret Harry." Harry gaped at her in shock as Tracey and Hermione's faces lit up in glee, "You'll get used to it. My family also feels extremely uncomfortable in the water when we're first getting used to it. No one can be inside with us or we'll electrocute everything until we get a handle on things. With how often you use fire…" She grinned massively, "Are you an elemental as well? I've never seen you transform like me."

Harry let out a small laugh of relief, "Swing and a miss, Daphne!"

The girls groaned in dismay. Daphne pouted and mumbled, "Damn!"

Tracey pointed at her in triumph, "You swore!"

Daphne blanked her face and went back to her cool confidence, "No I didn't."

"Yes you did!" Tracey bobbed her head adamantly.

"Get your finger out of my face."

"It's not on your face it's on my hand!" Hermione and Harry groaned out loud at that one. Daphne turned her head away with a sniff, "Why you little! Come here!" Tracey dove at Daphne and threw the suddenly squeaking girl under the water.

Hermione rolled her eyes and grabbed Harry by the hand, "Come on mister! You have some swimming to do." For the next couple hours, the group just unwound and had fun, and for once, they interacted with the other students in more than a scholarly setting.

Parvati and her sister Padma joined together to wandlessly throw a wave in their direction, "That's how it is, huh Patil?!" Harry yelled with a grin, "Fine!" He lowered his hands into the water with levitation magic surging through them, and then threw a massive column of water back towards the Indian twins. It arced through the air raining on everyone in its path,

They squeaked in shock but then grinned widely. They cupped their hands inside the water close to each other's hands and the liquid began to churn. They both swiped their arms up and away and an equally sized column shot out and raced towards the giant one Harry had shot. They impacted each other and exploded, sending rain and spray everywhere. They were all laughing happily as it happened. Students watching cheered and clapped as they watched.

Parvati and Padma swam over and joined their group, laughing gaily, "Holy crap Harry!" The more outspoken Parvati exclaimed, "Your wandless control is awesome! We both had to combine to equal yours!"

Harry chuckled, "Well, I've been doing wandless magic for longer than I've been using my wand."

Padma had a huge grin on her pretty face, "Harry, do you think you could help us power a spell? We can't shape it the way we want and power it at the same time yet."

"Sure." Harry was pretty interested, "What do you want me to do?"

They arranged him into a triangular formation with them as his three girls watched in interest. They all held their hands in the water with their fingers arched a little inward. They all relaxed and then Harry felt little fingers of their magic touching his own. He allowed his own power to be guided by theirs and a massive column of water rose straight up about a hundred and fifty feet before stopping and forming railings. With looks of intense concentration on the girl's faces, the water at the top started spilling out and forward, and looks of utter glee filled every muggleborn and halfblood's faces as they realized what they were working on. It was a water slide that was actually made out of water.

"Gred, Forge, I do believe we're being shown up by a bunch of firsties." Wood was with the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team looking on with giant smiles.

"Well old boy, we can't have that can we?" The team huddled together and provided magic for Wood to form their own creation. In their case, it was much larger and more tubular than the other slide and went through winding twists and turns. The smaller slide was more of a thrill ride straight down before turning back up and flinging the rider up and into the water.

Finally, Harry and the twins finished, and now Harry looked at it in confusion, "Wait…now what? Can we cut off and keep it standing?"

Parvati chuckled, "No. At least one person needs to be working it. Can you keep this shape and motion on your own?"

"Yeah." Harry confirmed, "Not that hard really. Shaping it might have been a problem though. It's a fun exercise in control."

Padma smiled as the two carefully disengaged, "We've been learning how to do this ourselves since last summer. Our parents love muggle thrill rides and they came up with this idea. Our grandparents are probably rolling in their graves at how un-pureblood they act sometimes."

Parvati swam in front of Harry, who was a few feet from the spout, "Going up!" She yelled in glee and plunged her hands in. The current gently swept her upwards and brought her to the top, where she grabbed onto the railings and positioned herself. She lay straight and crossed her legs and crossed her arms over her chest, "GeroniMOOOOOO!" She screamed as she was flung downward and then went up and flying off the end of the slide and into the lake.

Tracey squealed, "Oh! Oh! Oh! ME! I WANT TO GO! I WANT TO GO!"

Padma laughed, "Go ahead!" She began to giggle, "Maybe we should have made it a two-seater instead."

Tracey raced ahead of her with a massive grin on her face and practically flew up the spout, "I LOVE YOU GUUUUUUYYYYYYSSSSSSSSSSS!" Padma stuck her hands in and followed the redhead.

Hermione was looking nervously at the slide, "I think I'll EEP!"

"No you won't!" Daphne got behind her and wrapped her in a hug, "Going up!"

"Ack! Daphne! NOOO! I'm afraid of heights!" Hermione feebly struggled as the two rode the spout up.

"Don't worry. I've got you." Daphne smiled lightly, "Besides, Harry's controlling this right now. You don't think he'd let any of us get hurt do you?"

Hermione nibbled her lip, "Oh fine." Her shrieks of both terror and then exhilaration as she went down before Daphne followed had quite a few people in stitches.

By now, Parvati and Tracey had returned and the Indian showed the Valkyrie how to insert her magic into the spell, "Girl, we have got to hang out more often." Parvati grinned at the redhead.

"Hell yeah!" Tracey smirked back, "This is the most fun I've had in ages." She grinned, "Hell, maybe we could get the furnace over here to keep the water warm in winter too."

The two gradually grabbed control from Harry so that he could have a turn. He deadpanned at them, "To keep this entire area warm enough in the winter I'd be boiling the parts closest to me."

Parvati cringed, "Yeah, we'll pass on that. I don't look good boiled." Tracey let out an unladylike snort at that, and they started to giggle.

Finally, they took control away from Harry, he plunged his hands in and rode the current up. As he soared down and then through the air, he mused that he could get used to this whole water thing.

-]|[-

The merriment eventually had to come to an end. They had gained two new friends which made them very happy, though it would be a long time before they were as close to the Indian girls as they were to each other. The girls were pretty well exhausted by now and they were practically falling over during dinner. Harry was the only one with energy to spare, and his close eye on the head table revealed Quirrel fidgeting and looking at his watch every couple minutes while Albus was nowhere in sight.

Albus never missed dinner with the students. Sometimes he was missing for breakfast and lunch, but he was always there for dinner. Harry enjoyed his food – loaded with meats of course – and kept up small talk with the five girls. All of them had sat at the Ravenclaw table with Padma that night, and Harry was enjoying himself trying to keep the girls awake. But it was a losing battle. As soon as they were dismissed from the hall, they broke into separate groups. Harry, Hermione, and Parvati went to Gryffindor Tower, Tracey and Daphne to the Slytherin Dungeons, and Padma to the Ravenclaw Tower. Hermione was actually falling asleep on him as they made their way up the stairs and he ended up having to carry her and her into bed himself. He said goodnight to a sleepy Parvati and made his way into his own room.

There, he waited and rested, until at around eleven that night he jerked awake as the alert spell he put on Fluffy's door went off. He smirked and threw his Cloak on and raced out of the tower. He made his way down to the Forbidden Corridor and gently opened the door. There was a harp playing and Fluffy was out like a light. He made his way to the trapdoor and gently moved the huge dog's paw off it. He spelled it open and turned his arms into wings before quickly floating his way down.

He landed softly. Far too softly. He heard slithering and felt slimy-feeling vines start to encircle his legs, "Devil's Snare." He snorted and took a deep breath. He blasted an inferno of fire straight downward and it radiated outward from him. The murderous plant actually shrieked. It immediately let go and tried to get away, but it was a futile attempt. Most of the deadly strangulation plant burned to a crisp and what little of it survived was a twitchy mess. Harry didn't glance back as he went down a stone passageway. All he could hear apart from his footsteps was the gentle drip of water trickling down the walls. He idly hoped that whatever was holding the liquid back wouldn't decide to suddenly fail, otherwise he was probably going to have to make a mess.

His ears quirked. A soft rustling and clinking seemed to be coming from up ahead. As he stepped out of the passageway and into a brilliantly lit chamber, he realized that thousands of tiny keys with metallic wings were flying overhead. He raised an eyebrow at that realization, "They wouldn't really hide the bloody key right next to the door would they?" He strode across the room calmly and took note of the old-fashioned silver handle on the door. He narrowed his eyes and turned his gaze up, searching for a key in the same style. He almost facepalmed as he saw it fluttering about with a bent wing, "Are they bloody idiots? Is this a defense or an obstacle course?" He leapt up without even bothering to transform his arms into his wings and his hand closed snugly around the key.

He fell back down and to his utter bemusement, the other keys didn't react at all. He idly noticed broomsticks in the room and realized that he had probably bypassed this room entirely by simply leaping for the key. He shoved the key in the hole while muttering disparaging remarks about the people who put this whole thing together. It flew off as soon as the door opened, now looking incredibly beat up. Both of its wings were bent.

The next chamber was so dark that a normal human wouldn't have been able to see anything at all. Even he could barely make out the large shapes in the room. He took another step in and a brilliant light filled the chamber, revealing a giant chess board with a complete giant chess set. The towering figures had no faces.

He walked past them towards the white pieces; clearly McGonagall wanted the move-first advantage in this game. As he got close, the white pieces drew their arms and crossed their weapons, blocking his way to the door behind them. He snorted, "So I'm guessing I would have to play to make it past you?" The white king nodded, "Once again, is this a defense or an obstacle course?" His bemusement was rapidly dwindling. "Right, so here's a different idea-" His body warped as he let the beast within take over.

His massive form had grown and was far larger than the chess set before he even completed the transformation. With a single swipe of his massive arm, the white pieces were destroyed entirely. Clouds of grit and dust engulfed the room. Behind him, the furious black pieces turned on him, drawing their own weapons and diving for him. Sparks flew through the room as their stone blades and hammers and maces scraped uselessly off of his armor. He snorted, a plume of smoke escaping from his nostrils, "Useless." His spiked tail swung to the left and took out half of the black chessmen, before swinging right and finishing the destruction. He shrank and warped back into his human form, before continuing on.

He almost fell to his knees as he opened the door. An overpowering, horrid smell made his eyes water. His hand shot to his face and clogged his nostrils as best he could. Breathing through his mouth wasn't much better. He swore he could taste the smell. He raised an eyebrow at the sight of the troll lying uselessly face-down in front of him. Clearly Quirrel had left the lump on its head. It was bleeding freely from a nasty looking wound on its head. Harry hurried to escape the room and the stench. The troll had probably been in here for so long and it was such a small corridor that it smelled absolutely putrid.

The next room had nothing overtly dangerous in it. It was a small room with a small table in the middle of it. Seven differently sized bottles lay on it. His eye began to jerk. He took a step forward and immediately, purple, magical fire sprang up behind him. He didn't even twitch as the area heated up, completely unaffected. The doorway ahead was engulfed with pitch black flames.

Quite irritated at this point, he picked up the instructions to what was no doubt Snape's puzzle –that was really all he could call it at this point – and read.

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.

"How exactly is this supposed to defend a Philosopher's Stone if they put the bloody means to get past the trap in the room?!" He let out a sigh in disgust. It was obvious from the fact that it was already half drained that the correct vial was the smallest one. Bloody typical. Wouldn't want multiple people getting through after all. All of these bloody things should have been filled with poison! Hell, the real key shouldn't have been in the room a couple chambers back! He ignored the puzzle entirely and strode past the table. He calmly put his hand into the black fire and smirked as he only felt pleasantly warm. His robes weren't burned either, so he was forced to assume that this fire was dedicated only to attacking living matter. Too bad using fire on him was less than useless. He strode right into it without a care in the world and came out on the other side. He immediately frowned as he took in the room. It was certainly big, but there were dozens of pillars holding the ceiling up. He wouldn't be able to fully transform in here. Not without the risk of bringing the ceiling down on them, and he had no idea where in the school they were. For all he knew they were right below the lake.

Quirrel was standing there with a half-smile, half grimace on his face, "Potter. I had wondered if I would be seeing you here."

Harry stepped forward calm as you please, "Professor." He said cordially, "Congratulations on conquering that rather silly stutter." He was pleased to Quirrel's eyebrow twitch, "Have to say though. The garlic really isn't working out for you. Run into a little fire recently?"

Quirrel's lips drew back in a snarl, "Foolish brat. I shall pay you back a thousand-fold for that incident."

Harry took in the rest of the room, keeping most of his attention on the man in the middle. His eyebrow raised at the sight of the Mirror of Erised. He decided to keep talking. Perhaps he would be able to find Voldemort, "So, I assume you bewitched that Bludger to try to murder me?" He let out a small bark of laughter as the man's eyebrow twitched again, "Not very intelligent. You had the rest of the school on high alert for a long time. Perhaps you wouldn't have had to drink the Unicorn Blood and curse yourself for eternity if you hadn't taken so bloody long getting here."

Quirrel laughed this time, "Yes, a moment of weakness on my own part. I knew you would cause problems for me right from the off so I decided to eliminate you. But it was no huge delay. These trials were laughably easy to overcome. That thrice-damned Cerberus was the only hold up. It wouldn't have mattered whether I had attempted to take your life then or not. Hagrid was very reticent to share the secret until I put both a drink in one hand and a dragon egg in the other." He drew his wand lazily, "Your death would have merely been icing on the cake while I waited to find that egg. After all…who would suspect p-p-poor, st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrel?" He had a cruel, mocking smile on his face as he stared Harry down, "Alas, Severus was muttering a little counter-curse of his own. That allowed you the time to react to my Bludger, and made it weaker than it should have been."

Harry blinked in surprise. 'Huh…who would have thought?'

Quirrel pointed his wand at Harry, "A wasted effort. After all, I shall be killing you tonight. You never should have come here, Harry Potter." He flicked his wand, and powerful ropes shot from them and wrapped themselves tightly around Harry, "How pitiful." He sneered, "That great Harry Potter…so scared he can't even draw his wand to fight back."

Harry raised an eyebrow at the man in front of him. And then he looked down at the ropes before looking back at Quirrel with a look on his face that clearly said, 'Mate, you're some kind of idiot aren't you?' And then he flexed and threw his arms up. The sound of snapping and shredding rope rang through the chamber as Quirrel's spell failed spectacularly. The conjured fibers hit the floor and faded from existence.

Quirrel's eyes narrowed, "Those ropes should have been beyond the power of even a wizard's muscles."

"I punched out a troll and you're shocked over some silly rope?" Harry cracked his knuckles lazily.

For the first time, a look of surprise overcame Quirrel's face, "I'll admit, I thought the Hogwarts Rumor Mill was simply being overactive as usual." He looked quite interested and smiled evilly, "How interesting. Saint Potter performing illegal rituals."

Harry burst out into laughter, "Saint Potter?" He choked out in between laughter, "Mate, you haven't been paying too much attention have you?" He made no attempt to deny the other claim. Let the idiot think he was right.

"Let me speak to him." All the merriment in Harry's posture evaporated at the raspy new voice. His blood started to boil as a look of fear overcame Quirrel.

"Master you are not strong enough for this!" He said in a small amount of panic.

"I have strength enough… for this..." The voice whispered out once more. He watched as Quirrel reached upwards and started unwrapping his garlic-soaked turban. The purple cloth slowly fell away and he lifted it off, revealing his bald dome. And then he turned.

Where there should have been simple bald skin was a chalk-white, leathery, red-eyed face. It moved of its own accord, getting used to being in the light once more. Its eyes were slit and it had slits for nostrils, much like a snake. Harry snarled, "Voldemort."

"Harry Potter…see what I have become? Mere shadow and vapor…"

Harry forced his rage down with herculean effort. His lazy smirk crossed his lips once more, "Yes, you do look quite pathetic."

The face snarled even as Quirrel stiffened in rage, "I have form only when I can share another's body... but there have always been those willing to let me into their hearts and minds... Unicorn blood has strengthened me, these past weeks... you saw faithful Quirrel drinking it for me in the forest..."

"Faithful?" Harry laughed, "Not quite what I would call his begging and his pleading." A look of surprise crossed Voldemort's face, "Oh yes, I heard you. For the 'Greatest Dark Lord in Centuries' you sure aren't very secure." Voldemort's face twisted into a grimace, "Not even a simple silencing spell to keep others from overhearing you. Had I been ten feet closer I would have seen Quirrel whining to you."

Voldemort fought down a retort of rage, "You think you're clever, boy?" Voldemort laughed suddenly as Harry's eye twitched. He hadn't been called that in a long, long time, "A first year, taunting a superior opponent. I may be weakened, but my follower is very much alive and able."

"Yes, bravo. You took the entire school year to play some music for a giant dog. Congratulations." Harry clapped mockingly. The rage on Voldemort's face brought cheer to his heart, "But I can't help but notice, you still don't have what you want." He grinned, "Is the silly little mirror delaying you?"

Quirrel snarled and spoke before his master could, "Is the Stone in the mirror, Potter? Do I have to break it? I can see it!" He sounding quite deranged, "I can see it clearly! I am presenting it to my master!"

Voldemort had calmed during his servants little speech, "Ah, but how you interest me, Harry Potter." The being tried to pull off a smile, but it ended up being more of a grimace, "You face me without fear, and have more power inside your body than most." Quirrel started to pace backwards, allowing Voldemort to circle Harry. Harry moved in time with his steps, keeping his senses sharp, "For the Boy-Who-Lived to be performing such dangerous rituals, and so young!" Voldemort sounded absolutely delighted, "You could join me." He said in his best 'dark and seductive' tone, "I could show you so much more…so much you haven't seen. There is no good nor evil…only power and those too weak to seek it."

Harry snorted, "Coming from the parasite, that doesn't sound too convincing."

"Don't be a fool." Voldemort snarled, "You need only help me acquire the Stone, and you shall live as my apprentice. I value bravery, but I shall not offer again. There is a limit to my patience. Your parents were brave too. I killed your father first, and then your mother as she begged for your life. So too, shall you die. But not before I kill your spirit. If you refuse me, I shall find each and every one of your little friends and they shall beg for death as you watch helplessly."

All of the good humor vanished from Harry's face as his wand snapped into his hand. Quirrel's eyes widened as Voldemort forced their body to dive out of the way. A brilliantly bright lance of flame shot out of Harry's wand. The roar filled the room as it drilled straight through one of the stone pillars. Slag started dribbling, leaving a puddle of melted rock glowing on the stone floor.

Quirrel groaned in agony as all of the burns on his torso and arms were aggravated once again, "Kill him!" Voldemort's high-pitched voice cracked through the air. Quirrel struggled to his feet whimpering as his decimated body protested every movement. Voldemort's eyes widened in surprise as Harry advanced on his downed opponent and unleashed a devastating punch right to the parasite's face. Quirrel's head jerked forward and smashed on the stone, bouncing up even as blood started gushing from the new wound. He lay flat and did not move again. Voldemort's face was frozen in pain and an imprint of his knuckles were actually burned onto the head-face. The skin around the mark was red and blistered.

Harry snorted in disappointment. Either Quirrel was actually as horrible as his classes made him out to be, or he was far too injured to actually fight. Harry's blood was boiling in his veins and the room was getting unbearably hot for anyone other than him. He stepped over Quirrel's corpse and moved to the Mirror. He wasn't about to leave empty handed and let this night go to waste.

He stepped in front of the Mirror and gazed into it. Curiously, it was his own reflection staring at him this time, and not the older version of him. But he wore the same calm, confident smirk that Harry always wore. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a blood-red stone. It was about the size of a tangerine. He winked and put it back into his pocket, and Harry felt his eyebrow twitch as a weight appeared in his real pocket.

Suddenly, he dove out of the way as a jet of green light shattered the Mirror of Erised forever. It's frame grew dull and gray and shards of glass rained on the floor. He snarled at Quirrel as Quirrel stood up. His trembling hand was holding a flask of some sort, and silvery liquid was dribbling from his mouth. Unicorn Blood.

The trembling steadied and then stopped entirely as his cracked forehead healed over with a steaming sound. He dropped the flask to the floor and gasped, "You'll pay for that you son of a bitch!" He snarled, and then he twitched, "Master?" He twitched again, "Master! What are you doing?" He gurgled, his eyes rolling into his skull, "Master, NOOOO!" Sickening cracks rang through the air as the joints in Quirrel's body reversed. His legs and arms snapped backwards a hundred and eighty degrees with gut-wrenching tearing sounds as the man screamed in agony. Blood started dripping in rivulets down his clothes and soaking them. The bones in his feet snapped and tore as they readjusted themselves for proper standing. Then, a wave of healing magic tore through his body to right all of the damage Voldemort had done to his servant.

Quirrel was now either dead or living on borrowed time. Blood leaked from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth and there was clearly no one home. The corpse turned around revealing Voldemort's snarling face once more. The blackened marks of his knuckles stood prominently, marring the already ugly mug. His reversed limbs were barely holding together due to the magic of the unicorn blood, and he was holding Quirrel's wand so tightly it was almost splintering, "Why must I do EVERYTHING MYSELF?" Voldemort's high-pitched voice roared angrily, "I WILL HAVE THAT STONE, BOY!"

He waved his wand, and over a dozen different curses flew from its tip in that one motion. Harry's eyes widened as he only recognized two of them, and one was the dancing-skeleton curse! Harry waved his own wand and a massive stone section of the floor rose in front of him. The curses all splashed uselessly against it, though a follow up Bombarda blew it apart in a massive explosion. Harry was forced to dive out of the way of the incoming shrapnel. He hit the floor and rolled to his feet, catching another exploding spell with one of his own. The two spells collided and a shockwave radiated out, blowing the two combatants back. Harry – the less experienced but decidedly fresher – recovered first and waved his wand, turning the stone floor into liquid. The liquid stone rose up in a mighty tsunami which Harry turned molten with fire. The wave of magma splashed uselessly against the stone shield Voldemort raised, taking a page out of Harry's book. It rose with some Runes already written on it, showcasing the skill of the Dark Lord. The magma solidified almost immediately, losing most of its heat through whatever Runes were written on Voldemort's defense.

Harry growled and took control of the rock again, forming it into a massive hand which tried to grab Voldemort. The Dark Lord didn't break a sweat, though he shattered the rock into dozens of pieces. He shot a ball of shadow at Harry which was easily dodged. But Voldemort had decades of experience on the younger mage and had realized that Harry favored his left when dodge-rolling. A piercing hex caught Harry right above his right hip and blew a Sickle-sized hole straight through him. Harry crashed to the floor clutching his wounded side with a pained, angry snarl. His green eyes slit vertically and he subconsciously transfigured his torso down to his lower legs into his draconic form. He still felt the pain of the wound, and he was forced to hide behind a series of stone walls as he tried to heal himself. He pressed his hand – which was glowing white – to the wound and let the magic to go work, while he also tried healing himself through transfiguration. Neither alone would have worked, as he wasn't the best at healing nor was even his prodigious talent with Transfiguration enough for Grandmaster work, but the two combined for a temporary bush fix. He would need it properly examined later on.

A second piercer from Voldemort – once the Dark Lord realized Harry had erected a series of barriers – drilled through the stone protection and smashed into Harry again. But this time, it splashed uselessly off of him as his armor protected his body. Another wave of explosions blew the wall to bits and Harry blew all of the grit away. Just in time too, as another wave of dark, arcane death was flying straight at him. Voldemort had yet again shot forward over a dozen dark spells with a simple swipe of his wand, and this time Harry didn't recognize any of them. Voldemort hadn't even reused any of the previous ones.

Harry decided not to take any chances. Voldemort had apparently read him like an open book once in this fight already and it had gotten him his first real injury in a very long time. He wouldn't put it past the Dark Lord to know a couple curses that ignored physical defenses outright rather than piercing them. He jumped straight up and stuck his transfigured hands directly into the stone. Hellfire and acid followed him up and he leapt around and got behind a pillar, sliding all the way to the floor as rubble clattered around him. The acid impacted the ceiling in front of the fire and ate away at it at a rapid pace. A blasting curse demolished the top of the pillar and sent huge chunks of stone crashing downward. Voldemort kept shooting spells through the pillar, but he was aiming for the top and was missing completely. Section by section, the pillar vanished in deafening booms as Voldemort worked his way down. Harry levitated the rubble pieces wandlessly and transfigured them into masses of spears, which he fired at Voldemort.

He tore his way out from behind his hiding place and watched as spear after spear sailed by the inhumanely-fast Dark Lord. He was moving so fast and fluidly despite the decimated body he occupied that he even blurred. Harry fell to a knee and punched the ground with transfiguration magic roiling in his fist. A wave rose in the solid stone and sped towards the Dark Lord. It radiated out from him, and caught the distracted Voldemort by surprise. Voldemort tripped as the rolling stone caught him in the foot, sending him crashing forward. A spear finally caught him in the shoulder drawing a cry of agony from the monster. It hit him so hard that he went corkscrewing through the air. A second caught him in the hip, returning the favor from earlier. A gout of fire hotter than Harry had fired before followed the wave of stone. Voldemort managed to right himself but stumbled to his knees. He used his strongest regular flame-freezing shield, but the inferno wasn't to be denied. Voldemort tried to run out of the flames immediately, but stone hands rose out of the floor and clamped down on his already battered thighs.

The roar of flames drowned out the demonic screech of rage and agony from the Dark Lord. When it finally petered out, Quirrel's flesh was blackened, cracked, and bleeding. His clothes were burned away revealing his decimated body. What bandages had managed to survive were fused with his flesh. The stone hands holding him had melted and revealed utterly destroyed thighs. Voldemort was somehow still stumbling about almost drunkenly. Magic was the only explanation for how the being was still standing, "Damn you Harry POTTERRRRR!" He roared as Harry closed in on him. A cutting curse caught him in the pants and tore his pockets open. The Stone went clattering away as Voldemort's eyes zeroed on it hungrily.

And then Harry revealed his claws as he took a swipe at the demon in front of him. Voldemort howled in agony as Harry tore right through his host's shoulder and ripped his wand arm clean off. He wandlessly prepared a blasting curse in his other hand, but Harry tore that one off as well. Blackened, diseased blood splashed onto the stone to either side of them. His left hand would have crushed Voldemort's throat, if his throat wasn't actually Quirrel's spine. Harry wrapped his hand around Voldemort's neck and charged forward, slamming him through another stone pillar before slamming him into yet another. Even if Quirrel wasn't dead before, he certainly was now and having his face smash on the stone was just an extra insult at this point. Voldemort snarled, baring his teeth at his nemesis. Smoke rose up from Harry's hand as Quirrel's already burned skin started to sizzle under his grip. Dark veins started to become apparent on the little healthy skin the man had as more and more of him blackened and started turning to ash.

Harry reared his right hand back with a bloodthirsty snarl on his face even as Voldemort cursed him, "DAMN YOU HARRY POTTER! I WILL KILL YOU! IF IT'S THE LAST THING I DO! I WILL KI-" Harry drove his hand forward, straight through Quirrel's spine and then chest, and pulverized the pillar behind the man. Whatever burning was afflicting the man accelerated rapidly as his body turned entirely into ash and crumbled.

Harry tore his blackened arm from the pillar, sending a shower of grit to the floor. He eyed the pile half with disgust and half with curiosity. Harry hadn't meant to burn Quirrel with his touch, and yet it had happened anyway. He turned and walked away towards the stone, before he heard what sounded like a whirlwind behind him. He turned and watched as Quirrel's ash rose up in a slow, tiny dervish and formed into a shadowy, dusty head. It was Voldemort, and he howled in fury as he shot forward. Harry opened his mouth and roared back, letting out a blaze of dragon fire. The vapory head aborted its suicidal charge as it felt itself become hot despite the fact that it should have been invulnerable in this form. Cursing his nemesis, Voldemort dodged the fire and raced out of the chamber. In the dead of night, not even the hurrying Albus Dumbledore would see Voldemort's spirit race out of the school.

Harry cut his flame and took a deep breath. He turned again and resumed his now pretty exhausted walk towards the stone. The day had caught up to him and when he felt his other half's instincts take hold of him, he was powerless to resist. He fell to his knees with a groan and he almost wretched. This urge was so much stronger than almost every one that came before it. Harry felt almost like a stranger in his own body as his mind turned draconic and he got to his feet. He watched detached as he picked up the Philosopher's Stone and stared at it like a prize. His head had started transforming, growing larger and draconic. He roared in victory as he brought the famed stone up to his gaping maw and swallowed it whole.

As soon as it was too late, Harry felt the dragon recede and he almost choked as he gained full control back. He struggled to get the stone down his throat and he was forced to transform further so the damn thing would actually slide down his enlarged tube. He felt the foreign object settle inside of him and pulse. The magic forced him to his knees again as a blood-red glow started shining from his chest. The damn thing started pulsing rapidly and Harry felt his magic start overcharging to the point that it had become painful. He let out an inhuman roar of agony as a red pillar of magic shot out of his body.

The chamber started to crumble as the magic made the room shake as though an earthquake ripping through it. With the damage from the battle already causing problems, the room started shaking itself apart. Rubble clattered downward from the ceiling and smashed over Harry. A pillar fell not feet in front of him, cracking the stone floor as it shattered into giant pieces. Another did the same behind him. More and more of the ceiling broke away and crashed downward, until Harry was completely buried.

-]|[-

That's all folks!

Yet another enormous chapter. For a moment there I actually thought this one wasn't going to break 20k. It seemed like it was going to be over a lot sooner, but then it kept getting added to and…well… over 28.5k now.

I had a lot of fun with the Quirrelmort fight. That was not how it was going to end originally in my head, but that was how it ended up. Hope you all enjoyed it! You all got to see more of Harry's eventual battle style here. You'll note he used very few spells like charms or hexes. That's what basically every Harry does in fanfiction really. Here, he's focused heavily on using his vastly superior physical attributes, his dragon form and fire (which he will definitely be learning more of), and most importantly, his Transfiguration. Transfiguration is SUCH an underused ability in fanfiction, and it's really a shame. I rarely see it being used as his biggest strength. Usually it's just Charms and DADA, or perhaps Runes. Sure, he'll learn and use those eventually, but the goal was always for Transfiguration to have the limelight. At least in this fic, and at least for him.

-]|[-

Some things to address:

Why did Hermione's Christmas get no details? I was honestly a bit stuck on what to write for her. None of it seemed important, and was just reinforcing stuff she had already told Harry about. It basically would have just been her being miserable as she was dragged this way and that in some new city her parents wanted to visit. The chapter was already long enough to the point I decided not to include it.

Why was Harry able to acquire the Stone when he clearly wanted it? Simply, I changed the final protection. I felt that the original Canon protection was far too grey-area to really be acceptable. After all, Quirrel never wanted to use the stone. He wanted to give it to his master. As far as I was concerned, that was a wee bit too close to the edge to really be safe. In canon Harry just wanted to keep it from Quirrel, and that was enough for him to end up with it. Never mind the fact that it would have been far safer IN the mirror than in his bloody pocket.

So Harry ate the Stone. He ate the fucking Stone. I was cackling like a madman when I originally thought that one up way before I even really started writing the story.

Next chapter SHOULD be out without too huge of a delay. I'm firmly planted in the HP fandom currently, so I'm actually going to get started on the next chapter before I even post this one. I'm really eager to get to the Basilisk in book two because you KNOW I have to make the two giant beasts try to tear each other apart.

Last time this third chapter just had one of my line breaks in it for a couple months as One Piece took over my attention. Hopefully I have enough HP reading material to keep my fancy for long enough to get past book two. (And hopefully Overwatch doesn't murder my writing time too often. :p )

-]|[-

Speaking of One Piece:

No progress at all has been made on chapter six of Supernova. I haven't even begun writing it actually.

However, after months of actual nothing, I finally got Crush! moving once again. It's just under 9k words at this point, though I can't give a date for the next installment since I petered out and switched to HP.

-]|[-

Here's something I don't usually do: I'm opening up suggestions for the Animagus forms the girls will eventually have. I could go for the obvious on some of them (Thunderbird for Daphne) but I was thinking that maybe there are better options I haven't personally heard about. The only restriction is that it MUST be some form of animal, mythical or otherwise. No aliens or demons or anything like that.

And I still want spell suggestions people!

-]|[-

Though the first book isn't entirely finished, in all practicality it basically is. That puts it at around 82.6k words total including Author's Notes, which is just a couple thousand over the original Philosopher's Stone at just under 77k. And really, that's all I could have asked for. I REALLY did not want to have reached the end of the first book with something stupid like 300k words like some stories end up doing. I can't actually name one off the top of my head, but I'm sure it exists. People just get bored when everything is fluff and it doesn't feel like the plot is moving. Authors and readers alike.

Cheers everyone!

Primordial