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Part Two

"You don't have to be so cold to each other all the time."

Both Theo and Granger—no, wait, she'd told Harry to call her Hermione—started and flushed at that. Then they glared at each other. Then at him.

Harry rolled his eyes and put down the Transfiguration book that he'd been revising. So far, it was his hardest subject. There just seemed to be a lot that you had to think about and imagine as well as wave your wand and incant. "I mean it. Theo, you don't have to glare at Hermione as if she's going to explode in bugs and shower you with them."

Theo stared at him. "That was a very…picturesque image, Harry."

Sometimes it was just best to sneer at Theo and get on with whatever you were doing. Harry did it now, and turned to Hermione. "And Hermione, you don't have to keep acting like Theo is Malfoy's secret twin and he's going to transform when you aren't looking."

"But Ron said that he was a pureblood who felt the way about Muggleborns that Malfoy does!"

"Ron, who upset you so badly that you ran and hid in the bathroom on Halloween? That Ron?"

Raw red color spilled down Hermione's face. She whispered, "Point," and stared at her hands.

Harry just nodded. He was still friends with Ron, in that they talked when they saw each other and sometimes sat with each other in the classes Ravenclaw and Gryffindor shared, but he'd done the wrong thing with Hermione and Harry wasn't going to defend him from that. "So can you both stop?"

"It's very hard, when that's the way you were raised—"

"It's very hard, when you never had friends in primary school—"

"Right, but the people who taught you that way or weren't your friends were stupid, right?"

Theo and Hermione blinked at him. Then the table. Then each other.

"I didn't have any friends in primary school, either, Hermione," Harry said quietly. "And, Theo, I grew up with people who told me all sorts of stupid things. So I know how it is. But it doesn't need to come between you unless you let it."

Hermione gave him a tremulous smile. "When did you get so wise, Harry?"

"Not wise. I just want Hogwarts to be different from the Muggle world, and it will be, if we say so." Harry picked up his Transfiguration book again. "Hermione, come on, how can you write your essays so well?"

Asking Hermione about schoolwork was always a good way to distract her. She beamed and began to chatter on. Meanwhile, Harry noticed Theo watching him with a thoughtful look. Harry just shrugged when Theo opened his mouth, and Theo nodded and started to pay attention to Hermione.

They didn't hate each other when they thought about it. Harry knew some things were really complicated, like the way Gryffindors and Slytherins hated each other, and Malfoy hated Muggleborns, and the Dursleys hated magic.

But some things were easy, if you let them be.

"How was Hagrid?"

Harry had got an invitation to go see the groundskeeper that afternoon at breakfast, and Theo had nodded and assumed he wouldn't ask about it, because Harry knew Hagrid thanks to going shopping in Diagon Alley with him. But Harry had come back from his trip to Hagrid's hut with a weird look on his face.

"You went to see Mr. Hagrid?"

Theo started and glanced to the left. Sometimes he forgot they weren't alone in the Ravenclaw common room, honestly, when they'd made this little corner their own and people so rarely bothered them. But there was Patil sitting down with an eager, shining face.

"You know him?" Harry asked, and Theo had the impression Harry was longing for a distraction from whatever he'd talked about with Hagrid.

"I love creatures, and he knows a lot about them."

"Yeah, he does. He has this enormous dog called Fang, but he's the silliest thing, you should see him…"

Theo let the conversation wash over him without paying much attention, other than deciding to remember that Patil liked creatures, because that might be useful later. He was focused on the way that Harry made big, expansive gestures and smiled widely, in a way that he never did with Theo or Granger or even Weasley.

Something happened.

Theo wouldn't have cared about that a few months ago, but that was before he'd had friends.

The minute Patil was gone, he moved towards Harry and sat on the couch beside him. "What happened?" he asked.

Harry swallowed despite the quietness of Theo's voice, darting his eyes around. Then he sighed and said, "Hagrid said he would have invited me over sooner, but he thought I wouldn't want to come. Because he was friends with my mum and dad, but I'm not much like them."

Theo blinked a little and sat back. "You—want to be like them?"

"I grew up hearing they were drunks and terrible people who got themselves killed in a Muggle accident. Then I heard they were heroes who saved me. Yes."

"I—see." Theo wrestled with the odd notion of a parent someone would want to be like, then put it aside for now. "But you managed to convince Hagrid that you wanted to be friends with him?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"He said I spent a lot of time in the library, and he thought I would have more friends, and he thought I would be in Gryffindor, and he thought that I would be—not friends with you."

Theo just nodded. He had assumed it was something like that. "And what did you tell him?"

"That I was friends with you, of course!"

Theo lowered his eyes. "I didn't think you were lying."

"I know. But it matters, that I'm friends with you, you know? It matters a lot."

Theo clenched his hands in his lap and took a deep breath. He wanted to say something. He should say something. This was an important moment, and he had to seize it before it passed. But he couldn't think of anything to say.

He looked up when Harry's elbow nudged his side. Harry's eyes were wide and understanding and he just smiled a little before he turned and picked up a book that was lying next to the couch.

"Do you want to take Arithmancy when we get old enough, or Ancient Runes? They both look really complicated."

"We're Ravenclaws. We should take them both."

"That's not an answer!"

And the moment passed, and the fact that Theo didn't know what to say turned out to be less important than he'd thought.

"Aren't you going home for the holidays, Harry?"

Harry smiled and shook his head at Ron, who was lingering near the doorway of the Great Hall. "No. My family and I agreed it would be best if I stayed here." And that was true even if they hadn't really had a discussion about it. "What about you? The twins were saying something about you going to visit your brother Charlie or something?"

"Yeah. It was just going to be Mum and Dad and Ginny, but my Aunt Muriel decided to go, and so we're all going. She has plenty of money." Ron rolled his eyes a little and then peered over Harry's shoulder. Harry didn't bother to turn. He was sure he knew what Ron would be staring at. "And him?"

"Going home."

Ron relaxed with a whoosh of breath. "I know you think Nott is fine, but—"

"He is."

Ron peered at Harry's face and then nodded uncertainly. "I reckon you really are friends with him."

"I am."

Ron bit his lip one more time and then said, "All right. Then I'll try to get along with him when I get back." He held out his hand, and Harry shook it solemnly, before Percy Weasley yelled something from the Gryffindor table and Ron had to go over to him.

Harry walked to the Ravenclaw table, where Theo was slumped over his plate. Part of that was just because Theo didn't wake up very well in the mornings, but Harry knew a lot more of it was because his father had called him home.

"Can I send you letters?" Harry asked. It was a question he'd been working up to for the last day. On the one hand, Theo was his friend.

On the other hand, his father sounded awful, and Harry didn't want to make it worse for Theo, if Hedwig would make it worse.

Theo started and looked up as if he had forgotten there was such a person as Harry in the universe. That didn't make Harry feel great, but he stood still and waited, and finally, Theo gave his head a choppy nod.

"Yeah. My father will think it's strange if we're friends but we don't exchange letters over the holidays."

Harry felt a sudden burst of relief that the Dursleys had always been indifferent to him. He sat down at the table and loaded his plate with sausages. "All right. I'll do my best."

Theo gave him a fleeting smile and went back to staring at his plate. Harry didn't bother him. Sometimes, that was all a friend could do.

Theo had never found home oppressive before. There was a silence at the heart of it where his mother, Adeline Burke, should have been, but she had been gone a long time, and Theo could always talk to her portrait. He and Father had their silences and their words and ways to shift around each other, and that was all Theo wanted. That and books.

But now there were no friends. No Granger to argue with about history and why Astronomy was a useful class. No Patil to disagree with about the laws relating to creatures and whether there should be a harsher penalty for those who smuggled body parts.

No Harry to sit with him in the morning and walk with him to class and brew with and laugh with.

"You seem to be growing dependent on these others you told me about, Theodore."

Theo leaned back and looked up at his father. Father was a tall man with dark hair and grey eyes that were always narrowed as though against strong sunlight. Theo thought he looked a lot like a member of the Black family, not so much like the portraits of ancestors scattered around the house.

But then again, so did Theo.

"I welcome the opportunity to talk with other people about books I'm reading, Father. That's not the same as dependence."

"You haven't eaten a bite in two minutes."

Theo laughed a little. "I'm thinking about an Arithmantic equation that I saw in a book upstairs, Father."

"Which one?"

"The equation that promises to reveal events from the past clearly. What use would an equation like that be? I thought Arithmancy was used to predict the future. Would anyone profit from knowing the past?"

"Ah." Father smiled, a look that thawed his cold expression a little. "I think you might have misunderstood the intent of that equation, Theodore. It is meant to reveal the past so that someone might better conceal it."

"To cover up your tracks?"

"Exactly. Let me show you…"

Theo listened intently, and he did understand the equation, and he did enjoy it. But at the same time, part of his brain wondered what Harry and even Granger were doing.

"Thanks for the flute, Hagrid."

Hagrid smiled at Harry across the Christmas table, looking a little embarrassed. "Aw, you don't have to thank me for that, Harry. Just thought it would make a good Christmas present."

Harry nodded and dug into the pie in front of him. It was cherry, something he'd made for the Dursleys at times but never got to eat. "Well, still, thank you." And it was. Just having gifts by his bed when he'd woken up, the only boy in the first-year Ravenclaw dormitory, had made him smile all day.

"What other gifts did you get?"

Harry laughed a little. "Mostly books, from Hermione. Granger? I don't know if you know her. She's a first-year Gryffindor," he went on, when Hagrid shook his head. "And she's really into books and studying. She got me two books! Both about magical creatures!"

Hagrid smiled. "Sounds right interesting."

"And Ron got me a poster of the Chudley Cannons." The thought made Harry feel warm, even if the Cannons were a pretty awful team and he hadn't decided what Quidditch players he actually followed yet. "And his mum made me a jumper and sent me sweets!" That awed Harry. He hadn't even met Mrs. Weasley, just saw her on the platform, but she was being so nice!

"And that's all? What about anything from your family?"

"Oh, we don't exchange gifts," Harry said, even though he sort of wondered how Hagrid himself had forgotten he'd called them the biggest lot of Muggles. "But anyway, I sent Hermione a book about magical history, because she's always complaining that Binns's class is boring, and Ron a mirror that will tell him when his cloak is pinned the wrong way. He says Professor McGonagall is always scolding him about that."

"What's wrong, Harry?"

I can't tell you about the other things I got.

But then again, the same way Harry couldn't tell Hagrid about it, he couldn't complain about not being able to tell him, so he just squirmed in the seat and told part of the truth. "I didn't get Mrs. Weasley anything. I didn't know she was going to send me anything, but still."

"She won't regard that, Harry. She's a grand woman, a grand woman. Did I tell you we fought together sometimes during the war…?"

And Hagrid was off and telling a story, which Harry listened to and enjoyed, even with all the parts where Hagrid stopped dead and coughed and said something about how he shouldn't be saying that. He didn't mind if Hagrid kept some secrets from him. He knew Hagrid had expected him to be more like his parents, and besides, it wasn't like a child should be learning everything about the war.

And Harry was keeping secrets from Hagrid, too.

One of them was the beautiful silvery cloak that made you invisible, and which had arrived in a mysterious package from someone who hadn't given their name. Harry had cast a detection charm that Theo had taught him on the cloak, although all it had told him was that the cloak wasn't poisoned.

And he had got a small stone dragon from Theo, which would lie next to his pillow, clinging to the blankets with its claws, and vibrate and growl if someone tried to open the curtains around his bed.

It made Harry smile. Hagrid just thought it was for his stories, and started telling them louder than ever.

Harry hoped Theo liked the gift Harry had sent, but he wouldn't know until the end of Christmas.

Even though it was the best Christmas Harry had ever had, he missed his friends.

"Thank you."

Theo smiled at Harry, who smiled back. It felt as though his presence was a river full of stars that Theo remembered—almost the only thing he remembered—from a fairy tale that his mother had read him before she died.

No matter how much Theo argued with Granger sometimes, it was worth it to have friends, when Harry smiled like that.

"I thought you might like it. I heard one of the seventh-years mention knives that dice Potions ingredients on their own."

Theo nodded. He thought dicing was the most tiresome part of ingredient preparation. He would use the knife carefully, because Snape would probably ban it the instant he caught sight of it, but he didn't pay that much attention to Theo's cauldron either. Harry didn't get the immunity that he should have had as a Ravenclaw, but Theo did.

"How did you enjoy the dragon?"

"I love it. It vibrates as if it's purring sometimes, did you know?"

Theo just shook his head. He had chosen the dragon from a shelf of old Nott artifacts that stood in a corner of the cellars, and which Father would never notice something missing from. He had only checked that it wasn't cursed and would growl when someone opened the bed curtains before sending it off to Harry.

"Well, it does. I get the feeling that no one's treated it well in a long time."

Theo held his tongue, even though he would have said most of the time that an artifact like that wouldn't care how you treated it. Most of the time, to most people.

Harry wasn't most people, and sitting on the edge of his bed, swinging his feet, he looked as if embodied all the cheer of Christmas that Theo hadn't got to experience.

Harry trudged into the Ravenclaw common room and flung himself face-down on the couch next to Theo, then screamed into the pillows.

"Expressive."

Harry sat up and leaned close to Theo. He hadn't learned any good privacy charms yet. "Promise me that you're not going to leap and shout if I tell you what it is."

"All right."

"Hagrid's got a dragon egg."

Theo closed his eyes and just sat there for a long moment, although he did exhale hard. Then he shook his head. "I don't suppose that you could convince him to give it up for the good of the future dragon?"

"No. He says that he's always wanted one, and he's convinced that he can give it a good life."

Theo leaned back and stared at the ceiling, sighing. This would concern Harry, that was clear, but it also concerned Theo. Harry would be unhappy if Hagrid got put in Azkaban for dragon smuggling, and Theo would be unhappy if his friend was unhappy.

Or if Hogwarts got burned to the ground, there was also that.

"Okay," Theo said. "So our only option is to steal it."

Now Harry was the one who jumped and squeaked hard enough that one of the older Ravenclaws, something Walker, glanced at them suspiciously. "Theo!"

"You said that you don't think you can convince him to part with it. Do you think it's a good idea to just leave the egg where it is?"

"No. He lives in a wooden house."

"Exactly. So we steal it, and then we send it to a dragon sanctuary."

"We can just—do that? Through what, the post?"

"Yes," Theo said firmly. He winced a little, because to do this he would have to betray one of Father's secrets, but it wasn't like Harry was going to trot off to Father's enemies and report it. "I know how to make sure that it doesn't hatch on the way. Father—does things like this all the time."

"He smuggles things?"

"Yes."

Harry watched Theo with wide, unblinking eyes for a long moment, and then he shook his head and muttered, "At least I have a friend who can help me handle this."

Theo probably shouldn't have, but he couldn't help smiling. "We need to make sure that Hagrid doesn't suspect us. And I would say that we need to make sure he doesn't go around accusing people of stealing his dragon egg, but I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be that stupid. Not if he was smart enough to keep the egg a secret in the first place."

Harry nodded. "What do we have to do?"

"Come in, Harry! And—Nott."

Hagrid's voice cooled down a lot when he saw Theo right behind Harry, but there wasn't much Harry could do about that. He stopped and smiled at Hagrid. "Theo said that he's never seen a dragon egg before and he wants to see one."

Hagrid visibly wavered for a moment, and then he nodded and started piling more wood on the fire. "Well, come on in, come on in! You'll never get a chance to see another as fine as this one…"

Theo made admiring noises and asked lots of questions about how warm Hagrid had to keep the egg and what sex of dragon would hatch out of it and the like, while Harry stepped around to the side and leaned close as if admiring the egg, too. Theo caught his eye and nodded.

Okay, Harry told himself as Theo drew Hagrid to the window so that Hagrid could point out the places in the Forbidden Forest that he was planning to hunt the dragon's prey. You have to do this, and it's now or never.

Theo had managed to Transfigure a branch from the edge of the Forest into a wooden model of a dragon egg, because he was better at Transfiguration than Harry was. But Harry was better at learning spells on the fly, and so he'd been looking up and obsessively practicing an illusion that would make the wooden model look like Hagrid's egg.

They would leave the decoy here, and eventually the illusion and the Transfiguration would wear off, but by then, the original dragon egg should be safely away.

And Harry did have someone he could blame for the theft if Hagrid asked him, someone he didn't like.

You might have done well in Slytherin after all, Theo had remarked when Harry had told him that part of the plan.

Theo glanced towards him from where they stood at the window. He jerked his head impatiently.

Right. Harry had to stop standing there and thinking, or Hagrid would turn back around and they might not get another chance before the egg hatched. Even looking at pictures of dragon eggs in books hadn't told Harry how close it actually wats to hatching.

He took out the wooden egg from underneath his thick coat, which he'd worn down from the castle despite the warmth of the air today, and dumped it on the floor. Then he waved his wand over it and whispered, "Tenebrae lux," concentrating as hard as he could on what he wanted the egg to look like.

The wood sparked and took on a dark appearance that was pretty close to the egg in front of the fire. Meanwhile, Harry clenched his jaw and grabbed hold of the real egg, dragging it after him and underneath the table.

It hurt. He hadn't known how hot the shell would be! But then again, he'd burned his hands before cooking for the Dursleys.

This was nothing all that terrible.

Harry swallowed down his agony and cast another illusion spell, this time to make the egg look like part of his coat. By the time Hagrid turned around again and ambled back to the fireplace, it was done.

He hoped.

Hagrid seemed not to know anything was wrong, and hummed happily to himself as he tended the fake egg. Then he winked at Harry as Harry and Theo started making their excuses to leave. "Sure, Harry, sure. And hey, Nott, you're better than I thought you were."

Theo gave Hagrid a tight smile, and he and Harry stepped out the door. The minute they were out, Theo whirled around and seized Harry's hands, casting a charm that made Harry gasp in relief as his blisters stopped yelling at him.

"You're such an idiot," Theo whispered.

"Hey, we did what we had to do." Harry blinked the tears out of his eyes and stepped back so that Theo could conjure a sling for the egg, something he knew how to do for reasons he hadn't told Harry. "You're sure that you can get this to one of your dad's contacts?"

"Sure."

Theo sighed in relief as he watched the owl soar away with the special silver cage that would shrink the dragon egg and keep it in stasis. Only now could he allow himself to believe that the dangerous risk they'd taken was over.

"Thanks, Theo."

Theo turned with a small smile to Harry. "You're welcome."

They were in the owlery, and Harry turned to hold out his arm to his monster of a snowy owl, who soared down and clacked her beak at Theo. Theo looked back calmly. He was mostly sure that Harry wouldn't let her eat him.

"Hedwig, behave." Harry shook his head at Theo over her head. "She's just upset that she didn't get to be the one to take the dragon egg."

Theo laughed a little. "She's too distinctive."

"I know, and we discussed this." Theo had the strong impression that Harry was talking to Hedwig, not him. "You can't carry the illegal dragon egg on the dangerous journey to the dragon sanctuary."

Hedwig hid her head beneath her wing.

"You'll have to get to like Theo," Harry told her, and turned to face Theo a little as he spoke. "Since he's the one who'll be taking care of you during the summers."

Theo blinked at him. He knew how much Hedwig meant to Harry, although only because of listening to the way he spoke of her and watching the expressions on his face than because Harry had outright told him. "But Harry…she's your only friend in that Muggle house."

"And I'm afraid of what they'd do to her because of that."

It took a long moment for Theo's whirling thoughts to settle, but then he nodded. "Merlin knows my father won't notice one more bird in our owlery."

"There, see? He's agreed to keep you. How can you hate him? Treat him like a lady."

Theo watched as Harry scratched at Hedwig's breast feathers, and thought it was a good thing that Harry didn't want to take advantage of his Boy-Who-Lived fame. The world could be in trouble if he did, if the way he charmed people was actually conscious.

Hagrid told Harry tearfully a few days later that his dragon egg had actually burnt up, and he must have got it too close to the fire or too hot or something. Harry made sympathetic noises and hid a sigh of relief. He wouldn't have to blame Malfoy for stealing the egg, then.

Theo sighed in disappointment when told they wouldn't blame Malfoy.

"But aren't you curious?"

"No," Theo said flatly, without looking up from his book.

Harry's lips twitched a little as he dropped the stack of books they were using to revise for their History of Magic exam on the table in the library. "Leave him alone, Hermione. Neither of us is curious about what's up on the deadly third floor."

"But there's something really interesting there! And Ron said that he went to visit Hagrid, Harry, and Hagrid said something about Nicholas Flamel. He's just the most famous alchemist ever. And you're both Ravenclaws! The House of curiosity and intellect!"

"The House of not getting killed by acting stupid," Theo drawled.

"I just want to know! I wouldn't try to take whatever's up there!"

"So you know it's something you can take?" Harry asked her.

Hermione turned bright red and fell silent.

Theo, homing in as always on a weakness, pushed aside his Charms tome and leaned towards her with a small smile. "Did Granger break the rules? Hermione Granger, of all people?" he almost crooned.

"No! I was trying to keep other people from breaking the rules!"

"That sounds like you did."

Harry just shook his head. He was starting to think that Hermione was incredibly smart, but not good at people. For one thing, she didn't seem to understand that Theo was needling the truth out of her expertly.

"I did not! Fred and George are always sneaking out of the Tower, and they did it again the other night, and I followed them to make sure they wouldn't lose us any more points after that huge fight Ron had with Malfoy put us so far down last week, and they went up to the third-floor corridor, and they managed to unlock the door, and I saw this three-headed dog standing on a trapdoor."

Hermione said that all so fast that Harry wished for some sort of reality rewind button. Theo, meanwhile, had groaned softly.

"Look, whatever's up there doesn't belong to a first-year Gryffindor, or a third-year one either," Theo added, probably because Hermione had opened her mouth to say something about Fred and George. "Just leave it alone. What do you care what it is? It's defended by a three-headed dog, it must be safe."

"Not if the door could just be unlocked by anyone!"

"Then that's Dumbledore's fault—"

"He's a great wizard—"

Harry raised Muffling Charms around his ears and went back to reading. Honestly, he cared more about his History of Magic exam than whatever was up there.

Theo walked around the corner into the owlery. Harry had bolted into Ravenclaw Tower, said he had something to show Theo and to come up to the owlery in ten minutes, and run away again.

"Harry, did you get—"

He stopped and stared at Harry standing over Granger, who was tied up and leaning against the wall of the owlery. Theo blinked and looked from Harry to Granger and back again, wondering for a moment if someone had got hold of Harry's hair and brewed Polyjuice.

"What's going on?" he asked softly.

Granger tried to say something, which was when Theo first noticed that Harry had gagged her as well. Harry shook his head and his wand at the same time and said, "She thinks Snape is going to try and steal whatever's hidden up in the first-floor corridor. She was going to go after him herself."

"I knew you were smart, but you're also insane," Theo told Granger.

Granger made angry muffled noises at him.

"I don't think it's Snape," Harry said, and Theo had to nod. Snape wouldn't be that obvious if he was going after something important, and he probably would have managed to already steal it and replace it with a decoy anyway. "But even if it was, there's no way that you can face an adult professor by yourself, Hermione. I'm keeping you here until you come to your senses."

From the way that Granger's face was flushed, Theo thought that would be a long time. He turned to Harry. "Or we could tell a professor, and then presumably they could protect whatever that thing is."

"Hermione said she tried." Harry gave Granger an intensely disappointed look that Theo instantly wanted to never have aimed at him. "Except she acted as though the thing was in imminent danger, and Professor McGonagall told her to forget about it and that it was protected."

Theo raised his eyebrows. "And did she talk to anyone else?"

"No. She thought she had to go after the thing herself."

Theo just shook his head. "Can you take the gag off? I don't think we should gag her. She's not going to shout loudly enough to be heard by anyone up here."

Harry gave him a weird look, but removed the gag. Granger drew a breath that seemed to suck up half the air in the owlery. "You can't just do that! You can't just tie me up and fling me against the wall like a sack of leaves!"

"Do you know how to get past the three-headed dog?" Theo asked.

Granger turned and stared at him in angry confusion. Theo waited, and after long moments, she finally said, "No. Don't be ridiculous."

"Then how would you protect whatever the thing was? Even if the thief went down before you and did something that disabled the dog, how do you know that would last long enough for you to get past it? And how do you know that any of the other traps or guardians they've set up would be things you could get past?"

"We have to protect it!"

"Why? If the thief is a professor, then—"

"It's the Philosopher's Stone!"

"The which?" Harry asked.

Theo put a hand in the middle of his forehead and exhaled slowly while Granger tried to explain to Harry at an extremely high volume and with extremely high rapidity what the Philosopher's Stone was.

Of course. Of course it would be something that could be stolen and associated with Flamel. I should have seen it.

But honestly, Theo hadn't cared that much.

He interrupted when Granger started trying to convince Harry to follow her down past the trapdoor and into whatever space the Stone had been kept in. "Granger, what evidence do you have that Professor Snape is trying to steal it?"

"He was injured on Halloween!"

"So what?"

"He was limping, and Ron saw that he had a bloody bite on his leg! He must have been trying to sneak past Fluffy."

"Fluffy?"

Granger blushed brilliantly. "That's what—Hagrid said he named the dog."

Theo shook his head, while Harry looked a little hurt. He was probably wondering why Hagrid had never told them about Fluffy.

(Because they had never asked, Theo would tell Harry firmly later. Because they were great students who spent their time bring great, unlike Granger who didn't have to study as much and so got involved in stupid "adventures.")

"And do you have any other evidence?" Theo asked patiently.

"He was threatening Professor Quirrell! Ron overheard them!"

Harry continued to look hurt. Theo sighed and mentally added "telling Harry there was no need to sneak around after Weasley and Weasley was still Harry's friend" to his mental list. "What was he saying?"

"That Professor Quirrell had better not go after the Stone if he knew what was good for him—"

"Then couldn't it be Quirrell who's the thief?"

"Professor Snape could get past the dog and handle whatever other traps were there! Could you imagine Professor Quirrell doing that?"

Theo had to concede the point, but Harry interrupted before he could continue the argument. "I always get headaches in Quirrell's class. Maybe he does have some kind of powerful magic or dabbles in Dark Arts?"

Theo pivoted in place to stare at Harry. "You never mentioned that."

"I didn't."

"No."

Harry met Theo's eyes and then looked down, visibly abashed. It was the only thing that kept Theo from getting further upset. "I'm sorry. I suppose, since it started happening before we became friends, I just got used to it and didn't tell you."

"Where does it happen?"

"My scar."

"Do you think—"

"Could we keep our attention on the professor trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone?" Granger asked loudly.

"Why should we? I still don't think Snape is the culprit, and if the traps are as good as the Headmaster promised, then they'll do more to protect the Stone than three first-years could."

"We have to stop him!"

Harry opened his mouth, but Theo subtly shook his head at him. Granger wasn't a Ravenclaw, but she was pretty good with logic when she bothered to apply herself. Sometimes she just got a bit hysterical, though.

But, well, Gryffindor.

"Imagine that Snape gets the Stone," Theo told Granger. "What do you think he's going to do with it?"

"Live forever and use it to make lots of gold!"

"It can do that?" Harry interrupted in interest.

Theo raised a hand, and Harry fell obediently silent. Theo was still concentrating on Granger. "Okay, say he does that. Don't you think it's going to be immediately obvious that he's using the Stone that way? Because I don't know what you've been told, but Hogwarts professors aren't paid that well."

"But he might keep it quiet and just store the gold in Gringotts and not use it right away!"

"Say that he did. Why is that a terrible thing?"

"Because—because he shouldn't steal the Stone from people who need it!"

Theo shrugged a little. "Apparently the person who needs it most is Nicholas Flamel. You have to drink the Elixir of Life every day or every week, depending on the stories, to stay alive and in the best of health. And apparently he doesn't need it, or he wouldn't have stored it behind a bunch of traps. Can you see someone working past those traps every day to drink from the Stone?"

Granger stared at him.

"So will it be so terrible if Professor Snape steals it?" Theo repeated. "Or Quirrell? We can go and tell Dumbledore when he gets back from wherever he's gone." He'd heard from some older Ravenclaw students who had tried to ask Dumbledore's permission to take their NEWTS early that he'd left the school. "And then he can go after them, even if they've fled."

"I—that almost makes sense, Nott."

"Almost?"

Granger scowled at him.

"I think it's for the best, Hermione, really," Harry said, eyes bright and earnest. "Think about it. If it's Snape and he's evil, we can't stop him on our own. Quirrell might be a little easier, but maybe not, not if his stories about surviving vampires are true. And if the traps are that strong, then they won't get it after all."

Granger gave a long, slow sigh. "If you're sure. And I reserve the right to say I told you so if one of them ends up immortal or something."

"I'm sure," Harry said, and finally freed her from the ropes. Granger stood up, massaging her arms, and gave Theo a thoughtful stare.

"You're an interesting debater, Nott."

Theo just inclined his head and said nothing.

"It is disappointing, Harry, what happened."

"What happened, sir? And why is it disappointing? I had the impression that you caught Professor Quirrell before he got anywhere with the Stone?"

Professor Dumbledore sighed and stared at Harry over his glasses. Harry had heard that his eyes were always twinkling, but they weren't right now. "We did indeed catch Professor Quirrell, Mr. Potter, who was hosting the spirit of You-Know-Who."

"Wow, really?"

Professor Dumbledore nodded and sat back in his chair with what looked like tiredness. Harry wondered if he'd had to have a big duel with Voldemort or something. "Yes. It is disappointing, however, that you prevented Miss Granger from telling someone so that Professor Quirrell had time to get close to the Stone."

Harry shook his head. "She did tell Professor McGonagall, sir, but the professor didn't believe her. And how could she have stopped him? I'm sure you defeated You-Know-Who with no problem, because you're a great wizard, but Hermione's in first year, even though she's really smart. How could she have stopped him?"

"You could have gone with her."

"Into a bunch of traps, sir? After a bloke possessed by the spirit of a Dark Lord? Why should I have?"

Harry's astonishment was genuine, and strangely enough, that seemed to be the thing that Professor Dumbledore found most exasperating. At least, he looked away with his mouth all tightened up after Harry had told him that. "You may go, Mr. Potter."

Harry stood and nodded respectfully. He assumed that he probably wouldn't get all the answers, and in reality, he wasn't sure that he wanted to ask the questions. Just like he hadn't really cared about knowing what the three-headed dog was guarding, but he'd had to find out anyway.

He went back to Ravenclaw Tower. Theo was sitting in the common room, and he stood up the instant he saw Harry, his eyes dark. "Would you come with me, Harry, please?" he asked in a loud voice.

Harry nodded. He knew what this was about, and he and Theo needed privacy to discuss it. "Of course, Theo."

They left the Tower and walked out onto the grounds. The Weasley twins and some of the other kids were teasing the Giant Squid by blowing bubbles at it. They avoided the lake and walked towards the edge of the Forest.

"Why didn't you tell me about your scar hurting in Quirrell's class?"

Harry sighed and turned to face Theo. Theo was standing with his arms folded as if he were cold, but his face was the real cold thing. Harry winced. "I meant what I said, Theo. It happened before we were friends, and then by the time we were, it was just something that happened. I even thought maybe it was an allergic reaction to the garlic that he kept all over the place."

"Even though it was happening right over your scar?"

"Look, Theo, until this year, the scar was just something that I thought was a memento of the car crash that killed my parents." Harry hunched his shoulders against the memory. "I'm not used to thinking of it as special."

"But now you know it is."

"Yes, and I won't hide it from you again! But I'm not going to apologize for not knowing that something was wrong."

Theo took a deep breath and then relaxed his shoulders, leaning back against the tree behind him. "Thanks, Harry," he said. "I don't want you to lie to me or keep things hidden from me unless you feel you have to, and—I think the scar is too important to do that with."

Harry nodded slowly. He could understand why Theo had felt threatened by Harry's silence. Harry was Theo's first friend, that was pretty obvious. He would get upset if he thought that Harry was keeping secrets, or even just moving on and leaving him behind.

Harry couldn't promise that he would never have to do that, but he would do his best to make it not happen.

"Thanks for taking care of Hedwig this summer," he said.

Theo flashed his smile and walked back with him to Hogwarts, talking about their summers in a way that made Harry remember Theo was his first friend, too, and he was going to miss him like fire this summer.