30th May

Sorry I haven't written in a while, we've just received our exam results, I haven't done too badly:

Charms: Outstanding

Potions: Outstanding

Transfiguration: Exceeds Expectations

Defence against the Dark Arts: Exceeds Expectations

Herbology: Exceeds Expectations

Astronomy: Acceptable

History of Magic: Acceptable

But it's when Snape calls you (and Draco) to a 'catch-up' class before the exams (I was off for a week, Draco was 'lost without me') and he tells me to brew the potion we had for the exam. I don't understand why he treats me better than everyone else in my house and most people in Slytherin at that too! Harry, Ron and Hermione still don't recon its fair. It's not like I chose for it to be this way...

Either way, the four of us were sitting under one of the trees on the soft grass just beyond the courtyard. The sun shone down on us as we chatted randomly. Suddenly, Harry jumped to his feet; he was white as a sheet, after a run it seemed as though Hagrid was the man to meet.

Harry spoke to Hagrid, trying to catch his breath, "Don't you think it's a bit odd that what you want more than anything else is a dragon, and a stranger turns up who just happens to have an illegal dragon egg in his pocket? Why didn't we think of this before?" Hagrid was sitting on his front doorstep, looking as puzzled as we were. Harry continued, "You know the night you won Norbert? What did the stranger you were playing cards with look like?"

"Dunno," Hagrid answered, "'e wouldn' take his cloak off."

"What did you talk about? Did you mention Hogwarts at all?" This had turned into a full scale interview.

"Mighta come up... He asked what job I had and I said I was a game keeper, then I told him I wanted a dragon but I don' remember much cause he kept buyin' me drinks. He asked if I could handle a dragon. I said, 'After Fluffy, a dragon would be easy... all you need ter do is play him a bit of music an' he's straight of ter sleep'!"

The four of us suddenly clicked, Hagrid panicked, "I shouldn' have tol' you tha'. Ferget it!"

Harry immediately ran in the direction of Dumbledore's office. Professor McGonagall however, stopped us in our tracks. "What are you four doing inside?" she pursed he lips at us, looking for an answer.

"We need to see Professor Dumbledore, now!" Harry answered.

"Dumbledore? Why? He's at the ministry on urgent business."

Harry froze, so I spoke on his behalf, if anyone could help us, it would be McGonagall, "Someone is going to steal the Philosopher's Stone." I blurted.

She dropped the books she was carrying, a look of shock prevailing in her eyes, "I don't know how you found out about the stone, but it's too well protected. Professor Dumbledore will be back tomorrow. I suggest you return outside."

As we made our way toward the exit, Snape looked all too happy to see us. "Good afternoon." He said in his usual callous tone. "You shouldn't be inside on a day like this."

They looked at me, obviously since I had the best chance of getting us out of this predicament, "Sorry Professor," I said as innocently as possible, "I wasn't feeling so good in that heat..."

He ignored me. "You want to be more careful, Mr Potter. People might think you're... up to something... Be warned, if you go on another midnight extravaganza, you will find yourself expelled before you can say... Gillyweed. Besides, Gryffindor can't really afford to lose any more points, can they...?"

Snape walked off with his usual swagger, we went outside and devised a plan...

"I'm going to have to get to the Stone first." Harry concluded.

"YOU WHAT?"

"You can't!"

"You're mad."

"Don't you understand? If Snape gets to the Stone first, Voldemort's coming back! There would be no Hogwarts to get expelled from. Do you think he'll spare us if we win the house cup? No, I'll be stuck with the Dursleys."

I gulped, thinking of the prospect of home-life.

"You're right..." the three of us agreed.

"We'll have to use the invisibility cloak," Hermione suggested, "Would all four of us fit under?"

"Oh, I won't need it!" I said, smiling.

"Wait. The three of us?" Harry raised an eyebrow, discounting me.

"Four." I added matter-of-factly, "I'll be there too; I just don't need under the cloak."

"But you'll get caught!" Ron looked at me.

"I won't... trust me!" I said with a scheming look in my eyes.

When everyone had finally vacated the common room that night, Harry went upstairs to get his cloak. On his return, a figure spun round in a chair, "What are you doing?" said the familiar voice.

"Nothing, Neville." I spoke calmly.

"You're going out again, aren't you?"

"No, no, no!" Hermione tried the same strategy as me.

"You can't go out, Gryffindor'll get caught again." He stood and made his way toward the portrait door. He lifted his fists into the air, his voice shaking as he said, "I'll- I'll fight you."

Ron looked to Hermione, who was already on the job, "I'm really sorry, Neville... PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!" He fell to the ground in the body-binding curse.

As we headed for the third floor, Hermione frantically started looking for me.

"Kathryn?"

"I'm here!" I said.

"I can hear you, but I can't see you!" Ron spoke next.

"That's the point, isn't it?" I questioned.

"What spell did you use? Do you have an invisibility cloak? Did you brew a potion?" Hermione questioned in return.

"No, no and... no!"

"Are you an invisibilia?" Ron asked.

"So that's what it's called?"

"SHHHHH!" Harry pleaded. Peeves was at the other end of the corridor, he flew towards us.

"Who's there? Know you're there, even if I can't see you. Are you ghoulie or ghostie or wee student beastie?"

We stopped dead in our tracks.

Harry was the one to talk, in a low, hoarse whisper, "Peeves. The Bloody Baron has his own reasons for being invisible." He nearly fell out of the air, bowing and apologising repeatedly. Harry then continued, "I have business here, stay away from this place tonight." I think it was safe to say we would be seeing no more of him.

The door to the third floor corridor was already ajar. Someone had already gotten past Fluffy. A harp was sitting in the background, it stopped playing and the three-headed dog started to stir. Harry took out the flute he received from Hagrid for Christmas and blew it. It was a horrible noise, but it sent Fluffy straight off to sleep and that's all that mattered. For now. Harry handed the flute over and jumped through the trap door.

When he reached the bottom, there was a 'flump' sound. The sound when you flumped yourself onto a beanbag in the common room, sort of sound. He called up to us, "It's some sort of plant thing, and it's here to break the fall, jump!"

Within seconds, the four of us where lying on this 'plant thing', which turned out to be Devil's Snare.

"It likes the dark and the damp." Hermione mentioned.

"So... light a fire!" Harry choked as the plant started to strangle him.

"But there's no wood!" Hermione complained.

"HAVE YOU GONE MAD? ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?" Ron hollered.

"Oh, yeah..." Her cheeks turned pink as she whipped out her wand. The plant loosened its grip and they set themselves free.

Ron mocked Hermione continually through the following passageway. A light appeared, and with the light came the sound of wings. Small bird-like keys flew around the room. The door to continue was locked. Brooms were provided so we could catchthe key to the door. The only problem was that there were hundreds, lucky we had a seeker among us.

"Off you go, Harry." I jerked my head toward the broom. He figured out which key was for the door- the one with the bent wing- and he touched the broom to mount it. Suddenly hundreds of keys darted in every direction. After a short struggle, Harry grabbed the key and chucked it to Hermione who trembled as she opened the door which the four of us escaped the mayhem.

"Phew!" Ron wiped his forehead as he firmly shut the door behind us.

We were standing on a giant chess board.

"Now what?" Harry asked.

"It's obvious, isn't it? We've got to play across the board! I think we've got to be chessmen." He walked over to the stone Knight and touched it, making it come to life. The horse pawed at the ground and the knight turned his head to look at Ron. "Do we have to play across?" he asked. The knight nodded in response.

"This is madness." I said, "I watched you play chess over Christmas."

Hermione had a look of panic on her face, "You don't suppose that this is going to be like real wizard's chess, do you?"

"I think it's going to be exactly like wizard's chess." Ron was in his element, "Now, don't be offended or anything, but you're not particularly good at chess-"

"Not offended." Harry spoke on our behalf.

"What do you want us to do?" I asked, curtseying to him sarcastically.

"Harry, you take the place of the bishop. Hermione, you can take the place of that castle and Kathryn..." He looked at me, thinking how pathetic I would be and smirking to himself he said, "You can be a pawn."

"Which is which one...?" I looked for guidance, I was helpless.

"The small one, with the round head." He shook his head at me, pointing.

We all stood in position and the game began. There was no act of mercy shown as black and white pieces were bashed and battered beyond recognition across the board. Ron thought long and hard about his next move...

"Yes, it's got to be done, I have to be taken." He thought aloud.

"NO WAY!" the three of us shouted in return.

"Chess is all about sacrifices," he shot a look at me, "I've got to do this. This makes you free to checkmate the king, Harry."

I shivered. He was about to get badly hurt and we had to stand there and watch.

Ron stepped forward a square. The white queen pounced. Ron was struck across the head with her stone arm and he plummeted to the floor. The white queen then dragged Ron off to the side, blood pouring from a wound on his head.

Shaking at the sight, Harry took three spaces to the left, the white king through his crown to the ground. We had finally won.

I ran over to Ron's limp body, he was so pale as he lay there out for the count.

"Go on!" I told Harry and Hermione. I was otherwise useless to them. I took my cardigan off and placed it under his head. "I'll see to him!" I nodded reassuringly. They stood and ran toward the next door; they looked back as I placed Ron in the recovery position, "GO!" I shooed them.

There was nothing I could do other than run for help. I grabbed one of the brooms from the room of enchanted keys. I was shaking, my heart pounding, I had to save their lives. I had to do something useful. I climbed onto the broom, kicked off from the ground and found myself passing the devils snare within seconds. I thought of Fluffy and didn't have Harry's flute, I had to do something, fast. So I sang the first thing that came into my head, from our first night at Hogwarts:

"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, hoggy warty Hogwarts,
Teach us something please,
Whether we be old and bald,
Or young with scabby knees,
Our heads could do with filling,
With some interesting stuff,
For now they're bare and full of air,
Dead flies and bits of fluff,
So teach us things worth knowing,
Bring back what we've forgot,
Just do your best, we'll do the rest,
And learn until our brains all rot."

Fluffy was fast asleep as the sound of my voice filled the third floor corridor. I ditched the broom, and ran for the stairs. At the front of his office, I ran into Professor Dumbledore who had just arrived back from the ministry. Madam Pomfery was there too for some reason, I quickly explained what was happening and we were soon on our way.

We found Hermione at Ron's side, what she said was a blur. She mentioned potions and that Harry went off by himself. Madam Pomfery saw to Ron's wounds at the scene which were mostly superficial (thank goodness). I followed Dumbledore to find Harry, who was found unconscious at the end of the underground passageways beside the Mirror of Erised, a lump of dust on the floor and what looked like Professor Quirrell's turban.

As Harry and Ron recovered in the hospital wing, we positioned the final pieces of the puzzle in place. It was Quirrell after all; he magically had Voldemort's head bound to the back of his own. It was Voldemort, the parasite who was trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone for himself. He was the one who tried to kill Harry. The Stone was destroyed so that it could no longer be used for harm. Nicholas Flamel has enough of the Elixir left to set his affairs straight. As for Snape, he really just doesn't like Harry for some reason...

Dumbledore told us that 'the truth is a beautiful and terrible thing and we should treat it with great caution'. I think he was telling us politely to button it, great man, Dumbledore.

30th June

This was the end of first year, our dormitories were empty and we were on the train back to platform 9 ¾ to return home to our families for the summer.

"You must come and stay over the summer, the three of you!" said Ron on the platform.

Harry and I were both grateful for something to look forward too. That and another fantastic year at Hogwarts waiting for us at the start of September, I honestly couldn't wait!

"Have a good summer!" Hermione said to us all.

"Oh, I will," Harry gave me a nudge and smiled, "They don't know we're not allowed to use magic outside of Hogwarts! Enjoy!" I raised my eyebrows and smirked at him, the imagination flowing already.

I walked toward the car park, in the search for my parents. I felt a light tap on my shoulder, it was George, my heart leapt as he handed me a small wrapped package.

He cleared his throat and his brown eyes looked straight into mine, "Meeting you this year is the best thing that has ever happened to me and I just want to say I-"

"George! Car's this way, dear!" it was Mrs Weasley. He had no choice but to follow. He looked over his shoulder and smiled at me, just like that first time we saw each other ten months ago...