Hey I'm back! Thanks for the Reviews!

Sorry to have taken so long with this. Moving a houseboat to a whole new ocean, setting up a new shop, and taking care of six newborns makes for very limited free time.

On the bright side, I have the entirety of the Philosopher's Stone planned out, just gotta finish writing it. Anyways, here's the rest of the obstacles, including the Nanoha vs Troll Rematch, and Part One of the Battle for the Stone. Next chap we get a piece of Nanoha's past, and Harry's chance to shine, the next the moment you've all been waiting for.

That said,

As always,

Enjoy!

(TNPS)

At Nanoha's shout, the two combatant's turned to the five girls. Quirrell studied them, while the troll, which looked vaguely familiar, seemed to stare dumbly at Nanoha. The white mage was a bit disconcerted by that.

Fate, glad that her small size hid her slightly, quickly ducked down further behind the others, sheathing her wand as she had Bardiche activate her visor and camo field. The wraparound, opaque yellow lens with black frame covered the upper half of her face, while the camouflage field prevented anyone except for her friends from recognizing her.

"Good idea," Nanoha thought to her after sensing the switch, "Have Bardiche speak with you too."

Shock and anger flashed across Quirell's face, fast enough that only Fate and Nanoha noticed, before ending with fake shock/concern.

When he spoke, his voice was still rather weak, but no longer stuttered. "Miss. Takamachi, Miss. Potter, Miss. Granger, Miss. Weasley..." He paused as he caught sight of Fate, looking the disguised blonde over. "Who are you?" he asked warily, training his wand on the blond.

"A friend," Fate and Bardiche replied together, Bardiche's deep male electronic tones disguising her voice easily while lending an odd, echoy quality to her voice. Hermione, Ron, and Harry, though surprised by the change in voice, wisely did not react, figuring she had a good reason for the deception. "I am merely here to safeguard the stone."

"I was unaware that the Headmaster had called someone else," Quirrell said suspiciously, though the two mages knew he was fishing for info.

Hermione gained a slight contemplative look, having caught the intent too.

"I was contacted recently," Fate lied casually, her lips set in a thin line. "Supreme Mugwump Dumbledore requested that I watch the stone while he attended to some business at the Ministry." she supplied, using Dumbledore's International title to lend extra credence to her improvised cover. "Just as I was entering the castle to present myself to the Deputy Headmistress, these four, in addition to Nanoha-san's sister Fate, brought warning concerning the Stone's safety. Naturally, I decided to come down immediately with these four, while Fate-san went to inform the Deputy Headmistress. I know Miss. Nanoha and her sister via their relatives, and am aware they were training the other three."

Fate immediately felt a slight pressure brush her mind. "Sir, hostile probe detected," Bardiche sent silently, "Power is insufficient to penetrate barriers however."

"Raise barriers to full power anyway Bardiche; no sense in being arrogant."

To Nanoha she sent over their shared link, "Nanoha, someone just tried to read my mind."

"Probably Voldemorte," Nanoha thought back, "Do nothing yet. Let's make him show himself beforehand. It'll be better in the long run for the others to have some warning that he's attempting to return, and hopefully we can get him to separate us from the others so that we can fight at our full potential."

"I don't agree with that, but you're better than me at strategy. Alright."

"I see," he said slowly, though all five noticed that he didn't believe her. "What is your name?"

Fate gave a small smirk, the right edge of her lips curling upward, the first expression she'd shown in her new persona. "You may call me...Speed Demon."

Nanoha had to bite back a snort at Fate using her own TSAB moniker as an alias, though it was not the first time. "I can vouch for her Sensei," she put in, "I heard about her from Onee-chan and Onii-kun, who know her from bodyguard work. Speed is one of the best, nearly on par with WD herself."

Before anyone could say anything else, the troll...

Spoke.

"Piiink. Fiiiie. Yer. Guuuurrll." His voice was low, guttural, and gravelly, like two rocks rubbing together or a low earthquake, his words long, and drawn out. He stared at Nanoha with beady, coal black eyes, his wrinkled, pale lips in an oddly friendly line.

Nanoha blinked. Though she'd only heard it in a growl, she recognized that voice. "You are the troll from the bathroom," she stated. "I thought you looked familiar."

The large beast gave a long, slow, nod.

Nanoha cocked her head. "You did not speak before," she said curiously.

The troll blinked. "Yuuung. Own. Lee. Speek. A. Dult."

Nanoha pondered that a moment. "So only adults can speak?"

Again, the troll nodded. "You. Straw. Ong. Catch. Club."

Nanoha smiled lightly. "Yes I did."

"Why. Straw. Ong."

Nanoha shook her head, frowning in confusion. "I beg your pardon?"

The troll winced slightly, and Nanoha could tell he was fighting for words.

"Me. Big," he rumbled finally, thumping his chest, "Me. Straw. Ong. You," he pointed a three inch thick finger at the brown haired mage, "Tie. Nee. Tie. Nee. Weak. Not. Straw. Ong."

Nanoha pondered that a moment to translate, before her face lit up as comprehension dawned. "Oh! You equate size with strength."

The troll gave a slow nod.

Nanoha shrugged. "I honestly do not know. I am only glad that I can match you."

Again the troll nodded. "Me. Too. Not. Want. Hurt."

Nanoha blinked. "You did not want to hurt us?"

The troll gave a long shake of his head. "Not. Want. Hurt. Humans."

"You do not?" Nanoha asked, puzzled. "Why did you attack us then?"

"Scream. An. Noi. Ying." He gave a shockingly pointed look at Hermione.

Hermione blushed as the troll continued. "Meant. Scare. Miss. Length. Never. Full. Strength. In. Case. Miss. On. Guard. Job. Hit. Not. Hurt. Bad."

Nanoha smiled lightly. "You know what it is like then. To live day after day, scared of breaking something, or someone." She sighed heavily as the troll nodded. "It is like living in a world of...what is the word...easy to tear..." she paused, hand to her chin in thought as she went through her English vocabulary. The troll adopting a similar look caused the others to look rather bemused. Even more so when the two's faces lit up as they found the word and spoke at the same time: "Cardboard/Parch. Ment."

Nanoha shrugged with a grin at the troll's answer. "Parchment works too," she agreed.

"Well," she continued, "I do not suppose you could let us through?"

The troll shook his head. "Job. Not. Per. Son. Nal."

"Well, I have a weapon this time, so in that case," Nanoha hefted the comically massive stone sword she had lifted from chess set, surreptitiously tapping on her limiter to release it fully, something that Quirrell noticed, "How about a rematch? No wands, just strength."

The troll gave a nod. In a sense of self-preservation honed from the same profession that had given him his rapier, the possessed professor quickly joined his students on the edge of the room as the troll and world's strongest child began to circle each other, Nanoha taking the sword in a two hand, right-handed grip.

Quirrell and Voldemort found the scene nearly comical, a child staring down a being three times her height wielding something twice her size while the sword she herself hefted was nearly the same. But at the same time, if what the two now suspected was true given what had happened during the Quidditch Game and here...

"Before we begin," Nanoha said, "may I know your name?"

"Chad."

Nanoha smiled. "Pleased to meet you. I am Nanoha. Well Chad, it's been a while since I could let loose, and we both can take it," Nanoha looked the troll in the eye, a brilliant smile on her face, "So do not hold back!" she chirped.

The troll gave a lopsided grin, exposing gray gravel like teeth. "Not. Plan."

He moved, bringing his club down, up, around, and down in an overhead lunge.

Nanoha pumped magic into her limbs, her almost healed core easily handling the negligible strain as she brought the sword up into an angled Ox Guard, right hand on the hilt, left hand bracing the blade as she held it at a negative thirty degree angle, going for deflection rather than outright blocking.

Stone meeting wood with a dull thud, the clash of the two titans- albeit one pint-sized- began.

Shocks ran up and down her arms as their weapons connected, and Nanoha had to lock her joints to keep herself upright as like in the bathroom cracks radiated from her feet as the blow was channeled through her to the floor. She may be able to match him in strength, but he still outweighed her a great deal, his extra mass lending his blow almost more momentum than she was capable of handling.

Key word being 'almost'. It was her upper limits without Raging Heart activated, but still... It was the first time that she'd been able to let loose since fighting the Book three years before, and she couldn't help but think: 'This is going to be fun!'

Unlocking her joints she bent her knees to further reduce the strain before pumping them full of magic and for the first time in two years leaped. She soared into the air, her angled sword keeping the club away from her. As soon as she cleared the club she brought her sword around and spreading her legs- causing her audience to blush- brought it down at Chad's head in an overhead smash similar to the one he had attempted not five seconds earlier.

With speed belied by his large size, Chad brought his empty hand up and swatted her. Nanoha blocked with her repurposed chess blade, but not being on the ground and over 10 times lighter than her opponent she was knocked away.

Still, Nanoha was more than familiar with midair combat, both magical and non. Twisting in midair, she had barely alighted on the wall before pushing off. Rocketing towards Chad she spun in midair, striking at him with a horizontal slash. A dull thud rang out as Chad blocked with his club, knocking her aside again.

Their blows continued for nearly 10 minutes, the others watching in awe as Nanoha, though knocked back by Chad's every blow, bounced off the walls like a pingpong ball, holding her own against an opponent three times her size.

Then, as Nanoha alighted on the wall again, instead of pushing off immediately she bent her knees and pushed with all her strength. The room shook as the rock, spell reinforced wall cracked under the strain, Nanoha a white blur as she shot forward faster than the eye could follow, bringing her stone sword down on Chad's wooden club as hard as she could.

Crack! The club and the sword snapped in two and Nanoha kept on going. Reversing her grip on the broken hilt she rammed the pommel into Chad's temple. Chad teetered, and then dropped like a stone- no pun intended- onto his stomach. Nanoha backflipped and landed on his back in a threepoint crouch.

Letting out a breathy sigh, she looked at the broken hilt in her hand with regret. "What a waste," she said sadly, tossing it aside. Jumping off his back, she walked over and patted his forehead. "Sleep well my new friend."

"It appears the rumors of your going toe to toe with a troll were not exagerated?"

Nanoha looked at her wayward professor while limiting herself again. "No sir. I do not often use my full strength though, for obvious reasons."

Quirrell nodded at that. "Understandable." He turned to look at the others. "I do not suppose you will consider going back?"

All four shook their heads.

Harry stated, "If Snape is stealing the Stone for Voldemorte, it's up to us to help out."

"Not to mention you do not have the authority to order me away in the first place," Fate pointed out.

Quirrell frowned at that, then said, "Come along then."

He then headed for the door, Harry, Hermione and Ron behind him while Nanoha and Fate brought up the rear.

Opening up an encrypted mental channel Fate thought to Nanoha, "I don't like this Nanoha. We can't trust him."

"I know," Nanoha agreed, "but what choice do we have? If we try and take him now we'll put the others in danger, and even if we take him down OK, we don't have evidence that he's trying to steal the Stone. It would be our word against his and unlike the TSAB, I highly doubt the Wizarding World would take the word of a kid over an adult."

"OK," Fate resigned, "But as soon as I can I'm shoving a Plasma Zanber up his ass, secrecy be damned," she added bitterly.

Nanoha mindchuckled as they walked into the next room. A smaller one this time, there was a table with different size bottles and a piece of paper on the left wall, and a black and a black line five feet from both doors. No sooner were the six past the first line than there was a whoosh and two sets of flames rose up in front of the doors, black in front, purple behind them.

"What is that," Hermione wondered as Nanoha went near the black fire to take a closer look.

"Black Ice Flame," Quirrell replied, not paying attention to Nanoha as he walked over to the table, "Like Fiend Fyre it burns through any magical or mundane defense, except for one potion."

Odd, Nanoha thought, waving her hand through the flames, and me apparently.

He picked up the smallest bottle. Holding it up to his ear he shook it. "As I suspected, someone already drank part of it."

Harry gritted his teeth. "Snape then."

"It appears so," Quirrell said with a mental smirk. "There's still just enough for two. I would prefer if Harry accompanies me."

Before Fate could protest the turbaned man looked at her. "He, or she rather, has faced the Dark Lord before, and I highly doubt Professor Snape knows you are here Speed Demon. If he gets past Harry and I you can surprise him."

"Good idea," Nanoha interjected, "but I'm coming too. Harry and I are smaller, so we can take half a dose. And facing badguys is in my job description."

Though it was obvious Quirrell did not want to agree, he nodded, "Quite true. Plus it would better to have as many people as possible." He downed half of the potion, then handed it to Harry.

Before Fate could begin to protest Nanoha sent, "I'm immune to this fire too Fate. I'll make sure to drink last. If anything happens I'll let you know and you can down it and come running."

"Fine," Fate conceded as Harry took a drink of the potion bedfore handing the small blue vile to Nanoha, "but I really wish you wouldn't take such risks Nanoha. You're going to give me a heart attack one of these days," Fate added ruefully.

"It's not as much of a risk then it would've been at the begining of the year since my Linker Core's almost healed," Nanoha pointed out as she took the proffered container. "Don't worry though." Putting it to her lips, she upended it, using the tip of her tongue as an impromptu stopper. "I plan on doing everything I can without risk to make sure Harry and I are safe." Keeping it just long enough to make it appear like she drank it, she brought it down feigning a swallow, put the cork back in and tossed it to Fate, looking her in the eye. "And I do mean EVERYTHING."

Fate's eyes widened behind her visor as she caught the vile. "Even..."

"You two should go on ahead," Quirrell said, "You're smaller and I can aim over you. I highly doubt Snape to too far gone to kill children."

Nanoha nodded, as much to Fate as to agreeing with Quirrell, who did have a point. "Yes," Nanoha sent to her sister/girlfriend, "Even that." she added mentally.

Nanoha and Harry walked side by side into the flames. Like always, Leaning close, Nanoha whispered, "Harry, if something happens to me, and it looks like Voldemorte is going to win, I want you to call out, 'Raging Heart, Oh Nay Guy. It will bring help."

Harry frowned. "Why," she whispered as they entered into the next room. It was a large one, and least a hundred feet in length and width, the floor made of slabs of gray stone ten feet long and three wide. The ceiling was at least a hundred feet high. In the center of the room, on a raised three step dias surrounded by a six pillars, was the mirror of Erised. It was the first time Nanoha had seen it and she eyed the simple, silver framed mirror with interest.

To Harry's shock, the room was empty. "Wha..."

"Incarserous!" Quirrell said from behind them.

Though she could have easily dodged, Nanoha allowed herself to be caught by the thick cords. "That is why," Nanoha deadpanned.

"What," Harry exclaimed in shock, "but Snape..."

"Yes," Quirrell interrupted roughly with a smirk, "Does seem the type doesn't he? Made my job much easier with a guy as easy to hate as him."

He looked at Nanoha sharply. "Did not seem to fool you however."

Nanoha smiled. "You need to work on your acting skills Sensei. It was painful to watch actually."

Quirrell shook his head. "No matter," he said dismissively, "There is nothing you can do now." He walked over to the mirror. "Now, I see myself holding the Stone. I am presenting it to my master, but how do I get it," he asked angrily.

"Use the girl," a thin, raspy voice called out.

'Voldemorte,' Nanoha thought, "Fate, Voldemort's here, but he hasn't shown himself. He has Harry and I captured, but hasn't tried to harm us yet."

"Understood. Standing by."

Quirrell blinked. "Which one Master? They're both girls."

"Potter," Voldemorte spat exasperated.

Obliging Voldemorte, Quirrell levitated Harry over to the dias. For the second time, Harry saw herself with Ron on one arm, and Ron's sister Ginny on the other, surrounded by their friends and family, though Nanoha was flanked by two Fates. Harry's own parents stood behind Harry, smiling. MirrorHarry smirked, reached into her pocket and brought out a large, blood red, uncut ruby. MirrorHarry was about to put it back in her pocket but Harry thinking quickly thought desperately, 'No! Give it to Nanoha!"

MirrorHarry paused, then nodded, tossing the Stone to MirrorNanoha, who put in her upper coat pocket.

Behind Quirrell, Nanoha's eyes widened slightly as she felt a great burst of magic in her pocket's pocket dimension.

"What do you see," Quirrell asked.

"I-I'm shaking hands with Dumbledore," Harry stammered, "I've beaten Nanoha and Fate for the Quidditch Cup."

Nanoha sighed. We need to work on her lying, the mage thought ruefully as Quirrell screamed on frustration and used his wand to levitate Harry back to Nanoha.

Then the thin raspy voice called out, "Potter lies. Let me speak to them."

"But Master you aren't strong enough," Quirrell said worriedly.

"I have strength enough for this," Voldemorte insisted.

Resigned, Quirrell began to undo his turban, revealing the same snake face with blood red eyes that Nanoha had been seeing. Razor sharp pain shot through their scars.

Nanoha gritted her teeth. "Voldemorte!" Nanoha and Harry both hissed.

"Yes! You see what I've become! See what I've done to survive!"

"Join the club," Nanoha retorted, "You have no idea what I have been through."

"No I don't," Voldemorte agreed, but only because for some reason he could not read Nanoha's mind, "But there is something that can help me Takamachi, the child that should not have been there. Something that conveniently enough, lies in your pocket."

Nanoha's eyes narrowed. "So why have you not taken it then?"

Voldemorte smirked. "Fair enough! Get her!"

Turning, Quirrell started for the bound mage.

"It will not do you any good," Nanoha informed them making Quirrell halt.

"What do you mean," Quirrell demanded harshly.

Nanoha smirked. "It is currently in a pocket dimension that can only be access by myself by my own free will." She hesitated for a moment, she absolutely did not want to do it, but if Voldemorte and Quirrell were to be stopped with a minimum of bloodshed, it was her best option. "There is one way you can get it though."

Quirrell glared. "What is that?"

"You know that I can use a sword. I have proven that."

Quirrell raised an eyebrow. "Yes but what is your point," he demanded.

"That sword at your side," Nanoha inquired with a nod at Quirrell's rapier, "Do you know how to use it, or is it just for show?"

Quirrell looked insulted. "I'll have you know I was the best of the best before I started teaching at Hogwarts."

Nanoha smiled, one that hid her apprehension. She really hoped she would not regret what she was about to do. "In that case, I challenge you to a duel."

Everyone's eyes widened. "What?" Quirrell asked.

"You heard me,"" Nanoha said sternly. "I challenge you to a duel," she repeated, a hard look in her eye, "With the Philosopher's Stone as the prize."

(TNPS)

See ya next time!