The Boy-who-lived, The Brightest Witch and The Philosopher's tone

Harry first saw Hermione when she barged into the cabin he was sharing with Ron Weasley, the redhead who became his first friend coming to Hogwarts, asking about a toad that belonged to some boy named Neville. She was like a force of nature as she invited herself into the cabin, thinking Ron was going to perform a spell, which turned out to be dud, sold to Ron by his prankster twin brothers. She then bragged, unknowingly, that every spell she tried from the texts worked properly and then used a charm, considerably advanced for a first year, to repair his glasses that were barely held together by cello tape. After warning them about putting on their robes, as they were close to Hogsmeade station, she was gone from the compartment. He remembered seeing her on the boat with him and then talking about the things she read in Hogwarts a history, an actually interesting book which he would never say because it may offend his redhead friend. While he did find her a bit overwhelming, there was something, which he couldn't put a finger on, attracting his attention to her. He was both intimated and impressed with the courage she carried herself, and it came off as no surprise to him when she was sorted into Gryffindor.

The second time he noticed her was when she partnered with him in Potions class, which went bloody awful, for all his excitement for the class. The greasy git...erm... Dungeon bat...ahem...Professor Snape seemed to have it out for him. He quizzed him with questions, that he was sure, would be found far ahead in the book, and made him feel miserable when he couldn't answer them. Hermione knew the answers to all of it. He supposed he shouldn't be that surprised, seeing how single single-handedly earned more points than other First year Gryffindors combined, but seeing the greasy Professor ignore her seemed to touch him wrong. He protested the action, only to have more points deducted from Gryffindor. He stayed miserably quiet rest of the class. When the class ended, he thought she was going to be angry at him for losing so many points, but when he tried to apologize for it, she just patted his shoulder and gave him a sympathetic smile. And Merlin, it looked beautiful to Harry.

The third time he remembered interacting with her was when he was announced as the Youngest Seeker in the century and was afraid of mucking it all up. She dragged him and his redhead friend to a small collection of awards and showed him his father's name written on an award shield that was given for Quidditch. It had certainly raised his spirits, but he was dragged out by Ron before he could thank her properly.

The Fourth time, she accompanied him and Ron to the trophy room, as Ron had gone ahead and accepted a challenge of the duel on Harry's behalf. She told them that she was joining to make sure that they don't get into trouble with teachers, but Harry could see worry for them on her face. The trip to the trophy room had somehow ended with them by chased by Filch and them meeting a cerebus in the forbidden corridor on the 3rd floor. At the end of the adventure, she had been furious not talking to either Ron or him. He was a bit saddened at the loss of possible friendship, but the youngest Weasley had kept him distracted for most of the time.

And now the redhead, his first friend had been a bully and sent her crying. He wanted to protest, wanted to say many things to Ron and run after her, but couldn't bring up the courage to break off his first friendship. Though he knew that Hermione's tears were a line Ron shouldn't have crossed. Harry had already reached to the breaking point of annoyance at Ron's Weasley. He had decided to apologize to her when he saw her next time, for everything he had done, including the Cerebus incident.

He was worried when he didn't see her at the Halloween feast. He asked her dorm mates about it, to which Lavender and Parvati said that she was crying all day in the first-floor girl's washroom. Harry deflated but was filled with rage the next moment when he heard Ron's comment.

"Let her be. She was already a nightmare, now she is also a coward."

Harry has had enough of Ron's attitude. He grabbed Ron by his collar and snarled at him, "I only tolerated your obnoxious behaviour because you were my first friend. Now, I am sure I don't want my friend to be a bratty bully just like my whale of a cousin", he then punched Ron on his face, "Don't talk to me until you have genuinely apologised and have been forgiven by Hermione". He then ran to the first floor to apologise to Hermione.

He soon reached the first-floor girls' washroom and tried to calm himself to gather enough nerves to talk to Hermione.

"H-Hermione?" He called out her name.

"Go away!" He heard her shout; her voice having a crying edge to it.

"Please hear me out once. I-I am really sorry about what Ron said," Harry pleaded.

"W-Why would you care? I am a nightmare anyway!" He heard Hermione's sad voice and his heart broke.

"No! No, you are not. Please listen to me. I-I am coming in," Harry announced and entered the washroom.

"No, don't!" Hermione shrieked to no avail. Harry was already inside as Hermione tried to shoo him away, "You will get into trouble. It's a girl's washroom.

"I will go but please listen to me first. I-I don't think you are a nightmare. When you first came into our compartment, I may have been slightly intimated by you, but I thought it was really impressive that you knew so many spells, even before starting Hogwarts. And how you knew every answer to Snape's questions even though they were from the far end of our text", He ignored Hermione's correction of 'It's Professor Snape!' and continued, "And I was very grateful for you showing me my dad's trophy. I didn't know much about my parents before knowing about magic. I really wanted to apologise about dragging you to the trophy room with us and if it weren't for you knowing that door unlocking spell, we would have been caught by Filch and probably lost a great number of points, even get detentions. I am really sorry for not saying anything when Ron belittled you. It's just I didn't have many friends before coming to Hogwarts and I was afraid of losing Ron, who became my first friend. A-And I have told off Ron and I won't be talking to him until he gets you to forgive him. A-And I would r-really like to be your friend."

Hermione's eyes were large when she heard him, and they were as large as Saucers when she heard his last sentence.

"R-Really? You aren't just saying that to make me stop crying, are you?" Hermione asked in a soft voice.

"No!" Harry shook his head vehemently, "I really want to be your friend. Honest!"

Hermione smiled at him bashfully and unsurely and was going to reply but they were cut off from a loud roar coming from just outside the bathroom.

In a moment, the gates were blown in and they both froze when they saw an ugly 12-foot creature, carrying a heavy wooden club stroll in and snarl at them aggressively.

"Hermione, move!" Harry shouted as he saw the troll raising its club to smash them with it, but Hemione was frozen with fear and unable to move. Harry forced her into movement and managed to save both her and him from the wild swings of the club.

"Merlin! What should I do?" Harry asked himself as he saw Hermione cowering under a basin and shivering from fear.

Harry suddenly had an idea and he pointed it to the troll's club and used the levitation charm on it.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

The troll looked up the troll stupidly as Harry levitated it over Troll's head to a great height and then released his spell. Harry then quickly, used the transfiguration spell they had learned a few days ago to change the already heavy wooden club, to an even stronger and heavier metal club.

The club slammed into Troll's head with a loud gong and Harry nearly vomited as he saw Troll's head caving in. He nearly fell on his knees as Transfiguring the wood of that size into metal took a lot out of him. He nearly fell down to his knees due to exhaustion when a brown-haired missile slammed into him.

"Oh, Hary!" He heard Hermione speak, "You saved my life. Thank you so much. You are very brave. I am sorry I wasn't. I was very afraid, and I froze and couldn't help you. I am really, really sorry. And I really want to be your friend. I promise I won't freeze the next time. I-"

Harry chuckled as he heard Hermione ramble, "Don't Worry about it, Hermione. Even I was very afraid when I saw the troll. And if you really want to be friends, then let's be best of friends!"

Hermione nodded into his chest and attempted to burrow herself even more into his chest. 'She is really affectionate. I-I like it', Harry thought as he felt Hermione trying to do an imitation of Boa constrictor on him.

"My word!" Harry and Hermione broke apart after hearing their Transfiguration Professor, "What just happened here? You both are supposed to be in your dorms. Didn't you hear the announcement about the troll!"

Hermione was quick to speak, "It was all my fault profe-", but she was cut off as Harry squeezed her hand shook his head and said, "Hermione was upset because Weasley said some rude things to her. She was in the washroom, collecting herself and I came to fetch her for the feast and apologise, so we missed the announcement about the troll. We were caught unaware and had to take it down, to save ourselves."

"And I suppose we should just believe you that a first year, not even a few months in Hogwarts was able to take down a mountain troll," Snape said with a sneer.

McGonagall fumed and turned at her fellow professor and hissed, "And who do you think took them down, Severus? Do you see anyone else here? Next time think before you declare my students as liars. And if I ever hear you talking to my students like that, you can forget Headmaster's protection, I will personally see to you being put on probation", she then turned towards her cubs who were staring at her in awe, "Miss Granger while you don't look injured, why don't you accompany myself and Mr. Potter to the hospital wing? Mr. Potter, if you wouldn't mind, can you tell me how were you able to take down the troll, as we are on the way to the Hospital wing?"

Harry nodded as they along with Professor Flitwick, left behind Quirrell and Snape to take care of the mess from Troll, "I just levitated its club above his head and transfigured the wooden club into metal like we learned to change matchstick to needle after lifting the levitation charm. The club then slammed into its head. I didn't know it would damage the troll that much."

"Truly?" McGonagall asked astonished, "It does fit the scene we saw. I guess you really are as talented as your father was in Transfiguration. 20 points to Gryffindor for applying what you learned in class in real life."

Flitwick was also excited. Practically bouncing he announced, "And seems like you have a penchant for charms too, similar to your mother! Add more 20 points for a perfectly executed Levitation charm in time of distress."

Harry looked at Hermione, who beamed at him in happiness. Harry himself was happy, despite going to the dreaded Hospital wing. Not only had he made a real friend, but he also had found that he was doing good in the subjects his parents excelled in. Harry had found a motivation, and he will never look back to those days when he procrastinated and lazed about doing his work. He wanted to be praised if he was ever compared to his parents, not shamed.

--X--

Hermione felt like she was floating on clouds. She had made a friend, a genuine friend who would do all homework with her and even entertain her intellectual discussions. She also relaxed a little, now that she didn't feel that she had to show everyone she was brilliant, for others to consider her as a friend. Harry had told her it may be a defence mechanism against other kids who would isolate her. Hermione felt he might be right about it. It had shocked her that such a sweet boy like Harry hadn't ever had friends before coming to Hogwarts. She at least has had them in her younger years. But she was happy and had written to her parents all about Harry she could. He had even lent her Hedwig, his owl, at least according to Harry (With how much haughty Hedwig was, Hermione thought that Hedwig probably thinks of Harry as her human, if anything). They had so much fun in Transfiguration and Charms class, especially when Harry started to provide her a challenge in class. They have also become very protective of each other. Harry had transfigured Malfoy's shoes into metal while he was running which led to Malfoy having a nasty accident which resulted in breaking his chin, for insulting her. When she had disapproved of his act despite feeling so warm inside, Harry had just told her that no one was allowed to belittle her and call her names. Likewise, she had surprised even herself when she had set Professor Snape on fire, after seeing him jinx Harry's broom in his first match. Harry had been so sweet, giving the golden snitch he caught, to her after the match, even if it was taken back by Madame Hooch. Snitches were expensive and the school couldn't replace many. Harry had been adamant about getting the snitch though, so she finally caved in and with the help of the Weasley twins, they had replaced the snitch that Harry caught in his first game, with a new snitch he had owl ordered. She still couldn't believe how far she had come from being a rule-abiding student to someone who sneaks out of her curfew, set her teachers on fire and help her friend stealing school's property.To her surprise, the twins whom everyone had written off as jokes were quite talented in potions, despite Snape's...er...Professor Snape, she corrected herself half-heartedly, lack of talent in teaching. They were also very nice unlike their younger brother, who would always glare at her like a pouting toddler who had his toy taken by her.

Unfortunately, there were also quite rough spots like Professor Snape's teaching skills or lack of them, Professor Quirrell's incompetence and the matter of the Philosopher's Stone hidden under the trapdoor of the forbidden room on the 3rd floor. They have recently found themselves in one such condition now.

They have found out that Hagrid had somehow found himself taking care of a dragon egg. It had been quite troublesome to make Hagrid see reason about how Nobert couldn't be domesticated. They had written a letter to Charlie Weasley through twins, for smuggling the dragon out of the castle. Unfortunately, Malfoy had got the smell of their latest adventure and he had squealed to the deputy headmistress about it. While they were creating a distraction so that the twins could safely transport the dragon to the Astronomy tower under Harry's invisibility cloak, where Charlie would be waiting. Unfortunately, they were caught by Professor McGonagall and were assigned detention with Hagrid. Malfoy and another Gryffindor boy Neville also joined them. Neville and Malfoy had accompanied Hagrid, while Harry and Hermione were accompanied by Fang, who Hagrid warned about being cowardly. And now, they were witnessing the gruesome scene where a cloaked figure was feasting upon Unicorn blood.

Harry had let out a scream and held his bleeding scar. With Fang bolting out the moment he saw the scene, Hermione calmed herself knowing it was her chance to protect Harry as he had done for her against the troll. Taking a page out of Harry's book, she transfigured the attacker's robe into stone. Unfortunately, he didn't even care about it. Her spell shattered in moments and the figure continued to advance on them. It wasn't helping that Harry's pain was worsening with his advance, as proved from his screams.

First desperation and then rage filled her. She was useless and wasn't able to do anything to help Harry. She was sad that even when she tried it wasn't doing anything to the attackers. The boulders she levitated upon him were quickly banished and the flames she shot at him were quickly doused off. In desperation, she used the most powerful version of Lumos charm she knew.

"Lumos Solanum!"

It looked like someone had set off a miniature sun in the middle of the forest. For a few moments, the occupants of the jungle were confused if Sun had already risen. The attacker, who wasn't expecting it screeched and backed off, just in time to be clobbered by strong forelimbs of a centaur, which forced him to run away.

The Centaur had kept both Harry and her company before Hagrid and others have found them, talking about stars and planets. She had, of course, understood bits from his sentences, unlike Harry who was completely uninterested in Astronomy, beyond the name of the stars. After reaching the Gryffindor common room, Harry had gripped her in a tight embrace, the first he had ever initiated, and thanked her profusely for saving his life. The kiss to the cheeks that had followed resulted in making both of them blush a glowing crimson before Harry ran to his dorms. Hermione touched her cheeks where Harry had kissed her and walked to her dorms in a daze, before falling asleep with a goofy grin on her face. Hermione Granger had discovered her first-ever crush in her life.

In Crawley, a dentist felt the urge to murder someone, before he ignored it and went back to cuddling his beautiful wife.

--X--

A few days after the Forbidden Forest incident, Harry and Hermione were sitting in the Kitchens. The duo was very grateful that the twins had shown them the place. Hermione had nearly gone in a stroke, learning about Elves, which she thought was slavery and thus barbaric. She even went into overdrive, thinking about the ways to free them. The twins looked bemused at that and then forced her to sit silently and then proceeded to explain how that would be a genocide, seeing the elves needed a bond with either Wizards and Witches or ambient places like the castle so that they could live. Without the bond, first, their mental state starts to destabilize, followed by their magic and finally biological death. Hermione was horrified at listening to that but didn't completely give up until she interviewed as many elves as she could. After a day filled with horrified squeals and tear-filled visages of elves, when asked their opinion on being free, Hermione was finally mollified and gave up on her Idea of House-elf rebellion.

Now they were sipping hot chocolate in the kitchens, away from the general chatter of Great Hall. Harry looked constipated as if he wanted to say something to Hermione but also stopping himself for some reason.

"What is it, Harry?" Hermione asked a bit annoyed from all the nervous energy Harry was showing.

"W-Wha... Ah I-I," after babbling incomprehensibly for a moment, he took a deep breath and sighed, "H-Hermione, do you remember what Firenze told us that day?"

Hermione took a sip of her beverage "About the stars?"

"No," Harry shook his head, "About the identity of the cloaked thingy that attacked us."

Hermione gulped a bit at that, "Y-You mean about him being y-you-know-who?"

Harry nodded, "Yeah. I have thought a bit about it. Hermione, I don't think he would stop coming after me if he is alive. It means that I will be in constant danger," he gulped a bit and spoke nervously, "a-and it means, whoever c-close to me would also be targeted. S-So any s-smart person would distance themselves from m-me. I m-mea-"

"No!" Hermione said nearly shouting, "I w-will not leave you alone. Y-You promised that you would be my friend and that we would be best friends for life. I am not letting you go, just because you have a noble streak a mile wide!"

Hermione's eyes were as wide as saucers, and she was breathing heavily as she spoke, "We are going to be in thick and thin, together. N-No matter the obstacles, we will always defeat them, if we are together. So, Harry James Potter, you can take your noble advice and shove it!"

Harry hugged her tightly, and rubbed her back soothingly, to calm her.

"D-Do you understand what I said, Harry Potter?" Hermione asked resolutely.

Harry smiled at her and kissed her hair "I was afraid you would say something like that," he then took out a considerably thick tome out of his book bag and placed it on the table. "So, if we are going to be in trouble, we better be prepared for it."

Hermione was looking at the book - Spells and Arithmancybehind them by Cygnus Black, with a hungry gleam in her eyes, her previous state of distress forgotten.

"This is the book, which has hundreds of spells and their known modification all along with the theory behind it, instructions and warnings. From what I read, it's the best-selling-book among modern-time duelers. We will be learning from the book and practising the spells so that we won't have any problems when we would need them in real life." Harry explained.

"W-Wow Harry! You really have thought about all this!" Hermione beamed, "I agree with you on everything, but we also would have to find a place to practice these spells. Preferably, where no one could find us."

Harry rubbed his neck sheepishly, "I-I might have forgotten about it."

Before Hermione could answer, a squeaky voice attracted their attention, "Flopi can help master and mistress with that!"

They followed the voice to find a house-elf, fiddling with her hands, excited to be of help.

"Really? That would be brilliant, Flopi!" Harry exclaimed.

Hermione shook her head at her best friend's excitement, even though she was no less excited than him. She smiled down at the house-elf, "We would be grateful if you could do that Flopi."

Flopi bobbed her head excitedly, "Master and Mistress be meeting Flopi on the seventh floor," with that she popped away, probably to the destination.

Harry and Hermione looked at each other for a moment, before shrugging and leaving for the seventh floor. They were under the invisibility cloak so that they did not attract much attention. Soon they crossed the sixth-floor stairs and saw Flopi in front of a portrait of a wizard trying to teach the trolls how to tap dance.

As soon as Flopi saw them, she began explaining "We elf be calling it come and go room. You be walking three times in front of the Barmy portrait and thinking about what you want. Then the gate will be showing."

The duo looked at the elf a bit dubiously, but Harry started to do as Flopi had instructed. After the third stroll, a gate appeared on the wall out of nowhere. The duo got inside and gasped. At the side was a replica of Harry and Hermione's favourite couch from the Gryffindor common room. Even the fireplace was present. In the centre, there was a duelling platform, while on the other side, dummy targets were present.

"This is the coolest thing I have ever seen in the castle," Harry confessed.

"It's really impressive", Hermione agreed as a desk appeared in front of her when she was uncomfortable in reading the book on the sofa.

"Which spells do you want to start with?" Hermione questioned.

"How about we start with Protego, Finite Incantatem, Expelliarmus and Stupefy," Harry proposed, "After that, we will learn others as they would need a larger amount of magic than these."

"Alright! Let's see Protego. The basic shield charm is able to defend any spells other than the Unforgivables. Though it might be overpowered by supercharging the spells. The wand movement is clockwise twirl, and the incantation is PRO-TEY-GO!" Hermione read from the book, "The arithmancy behind i-"

From that day, they would use Harry's invisibility cloak to sneak out to the Room of Requirements, after curfew and learn new spells. Due to this, Harry was better prepared than he canonically should be, for the day he faces Quirrelmort.

--X--

Hermione never thought that authority figures could be so useless. Dumbledore had left for the ministry on his broom, creating a perfect chance for Snape, a thief doesn't deserve to be called Professor, to steal the philosopher's stone. When she and Harry had gone to McGonagall about it, they had been dismissed on the threat of detentions if they were ever caught discussing anything about the Philosopher's Stone being in school.

Harry had decided that since the faculties were not going to anything about the theft, they would be taking the responsibility of defending the stone from falling into Voldemort's hand.

Unfortunately, they were overheard by Ron Weasley, ex-friend of Harry as the prat hadn't even apologized to her, and he demanded to accompany them, or he would tattle on the duo breaking the curfew. Not having enough time to argue with the bratty Weasley, even though she wanted to try the new spell they had learned to petrify and leave him there, Harry had agreed to it. Further, they were joined by Neville who wanted to stop them from losing any more points from Gryffindor and when Harry convinced him that they were doing the correct thing, Neville tagged along.

The four first years reached the forbidden third-floor corridor hidden from sight under Harry's invisibility cloak. Hermione like before, used an Alohomora to open the gate, which had the trapdoor guarded by Cerebus. They jumped in through the trapdoor as the Cerebus was already sleeping from the music being played by the harp. They all landed on tentacles that tried to strangle them. As expected, the Herbology prodigy Neville, immediately recognized it.

"It's Devil's snare. If you struggle, they will strangle you more. Just calm down and you will pass."

Neville, Hermione followed by Harry were soon dropped through the plants. Ron panicked and continued to struggle, as the tentacles started strangling him.

"T-They are afraid of sunlight," Neville remembered and stabbed his wand towards them, "Lumos Solanum!"

Unfortunately, Neville's wand only gave off a dim light making the boy go slack in embarrassment, "Sigh! I really am a squib", he muttered hanging his head down in shame.

"Lumos Solanum!", Hermione's wand didn't betray her, and intense light burst from it, making the plant retract its tentacle as fast as it could, freeing Ron in process, who fell down on the ground with a thump.

"You are welcome," Hermione sniffed and moved to the next part of the trap, followed by an amused Harry and two sulky first years.

"Mental that one", Ron murmured but no one paid attention to his words.

The next part of the trap consisted of a school broom, and hundreds of flying keys that had one genuine key that could open the next gate, as 'Alohomora' didn't seem to work on it, much to Hermione's frustration. Hermione quickly recognized the bronze key with broken wing as it was different than others and Harry used his natural flying skills to snatch the genuine key from the bunch. He threw it at Hermione, who rushed to open the gate while Harry kept the now hostile keys distracted from his companions. As soon as the other three reached the other side of the gate, Harry shot through the gate and Hermione slammed it shut, making the offensive keys get stuck in the gate.

Seeing the gigantic chess set up for the next part of the trap, Hermione was somewhat appeased about Ron tagging along. Soon, the game started with Harry being the King's side Castle, Hermione as the Queen's side castle and Ron himself taking the position with a Knight. She was appalled to see the barbaric game as it progressed, but Ron managed to surprise them both with his brilliant strategy by sacrificing himself, giving Harry the chance to checkmate the white King. It almost made her forgive him for being such a prat, but she remembered he had tagged along for glory, which he probably would be getting for the gameplay he pulled off.

The next part of the trap was a puzzle which was solved very easily by a proud Hermione, who was holding a vial of Flame freezing potion. Unfortunately, it only seemed to be enough for one. Harry volunteered himself for confronting Snape, while Hermione takes Ron to the hospital wing and alert the teacher about the threat.

Seeing Harry's self-deprecating expression, Hermione squeezed his hand and spoke, determination shining as golden flecks in her brown eyes "Harry, you are a great wizard. You really are!"

"Not as good as you" Harry retorted.

Hermione half-smiled, "Me... Books and cleverness... There are other things that matter. Like Friendship and Bravery and...and", Hermione gulped, "...and love-"

A smile made its way on Harry's face and he scooped Hermione in a tight hug. Hermione melted into his hug and sighed as she felt him kiss her hair "J-Just be careful Harry... Good luck!"

With that, they separated ways. Harry gulped down the potion and walked through the fire prepared to confront, who he thought was going to be Snape, while Hermione returned to the chamber where Ron was, unconscious, probably a good thing seeing she couldn't stand him as soon as he opened his mouth, either to eat or to speak.

Harry himself was no less surprised when he saw his defence professor instead of Potion's. He couldn't help but express his incredulity in his words, "Professor Quirrell?"

"Yes, it is I. No one suspected the p-poor s-stuttering P-Professor Quirrell, did they?" Quirrell mock stuttered, emphasizing the part he played of a nervous Professor.

"B-But I thought, Professor Snape-"

"Ah, Severus does give such an impression. doesn't he?" Quirrell cut off Harry's sentence.

"B-But he tried to kill me," Harry protested.

"No, I tried to kill you and have been successful if I wasn't forced to break my eye contact with your broom when Snape's robes caught fire." Quirrell gloated.

Harry went still "Does that mean that you let the troll in?"

"Yes, I did to make distraction, so I could go for the stone. Unfortunately, Severus stopped me from doing so and got bitten by the Cerebus for his troubles. But he also got suspicious of me after that and started to keep a closer eye on me. But today, when Dumbledore left for the ministry, I got the perfect opportunity to take the stone. Now seeing you are here, maybe I will get the chance to get rid of you for my master." Quirrell monologued.

Quirrell then swiped his wind towards Harry, "Why don't you stay there? Incarcerous!"

Harry, prepared due to his mock duels with Hermione, was already casting his counterspell, "Evansco!"

The conjured ropes disappeared before reaching Harry. Quirrell raised his eyebrows and said, "A fourth-year spell. Somewhat impressive!", before moving to the left in order to dodge a red spell coming from Harry.

Harry was already launching his spell chain, "Stupefy! Stupefy! Stupefy! Stupefy!"

"Protego!" Quirrell used the shielding spell to tank the incoming spell, before using 'Depulso!', sending Harry flying into a wall.

Harry was quick to be back on his feet, knowing he couldn't much take time to recuperate. Already he was on severe backfoot, with Quirrell having an edge on him due to experience, and from the subtle pain in his scar.

"Reducto!" Harry used the strongest spell he knew and watched in despair as Quirrell batted it aside like it was a nuisance.

"As I said, Impressive for a first year to be able to use 4th year spells, but useless in front of power I received from my master!" Quirrell gloated and fired a stunner at Harry.

"Protego!"Harry defended it with his shield and fired another spell chain of his, "Reducto! Diffindo! Incarcerous! Stupefy! Stupefy!"

Unfortunately for Harry, Quirrell was done entertaining him as Voldemort who was living behind his head saw Harry's plan of stalling them until his mudblood friend could bring help, when he managed to use Legilimency.

"Enough! Stop playing with the boy. Use him... Use him to get thestone!" Voldemorthissed at the DADA professor.

Quirrell shielded the first two spells, dodged next and batted away the last two stunners. Harry watched wide eyes as Quirrell dismantled his best efforts like nothing. He also heard the voice coming from Quirrell's turban and his heartbeat fastened when he guessed what it could be. He fell on his knees as the pain in his scar worsened.

"Ah... Looks like the boy hero knows about me", The same voice hissed surprising Harry, "It'scalled Legilimency boy! I can read your mind. It'ssurprising that you don't know about it, seeing two of your professors and the headmasterused iton you, so many times."

"V-Voldemort?" Harry hissed out a bit nervously.

"Let me talk to the boy," The voice now recognized as Voldemort ordered his servant.

"B-But master. You are not on your previous level of strength-"

"I am strong enough for this!", Voldemort replied fiercely.

Quirrell went for removing the turban from his head and Harry took a chance and surprised even himself by ruthlessly blasting his, now ex-professor's head, using a well-aimed 'Reducto'.

Quirrell didn't even understand what had happened. One moment, the boy was incapacitated in front of the power of his master, he had hosteled his wand, and was using his hands to remove the turban so that he could talk to Potter, and the next moment all he remembered was a loud bang and darkness.

Harry saw his ex-professor getting murdered by his own hands and his stomach couldn't take it. He vomited for moments before being attacked by a wraith of Voldemort, who tried to possess Harry seeing Quirrell was dead. He was nearly successful before he felt a burning sensation even in his wraith-like state, which was worse than he felt when he died from the rebounding Killing curse. 'The Mudblood's protectioooooo-' wasthe last thought as it was banished by a silvery white light coming from Harry. Harry thought he saw the silhouette of a silver fawn nuzzling into him before everything went black for him.

Harry never noticed that in the Mirror of Erised, his prone form was surrounded by three persons. One was his father and mother who were looking at his reflection with concern, while third was Hermione, who ruffled his hair, kissed his cheek and then started to fish for the invisibility cloak in his pocket. After reflection-Hermione found it, she wrapped a blood-red stone in the cloak, and put the cloak back in his pocket. After a moment, the figures disappeared and only the reflection of unconscious Harry was left when the mirror got a crack. Soon more of the cracks followed and in moments the mirror broke into pieces. Harry remained in the realm of Hypnos, unknowing of the events that took place in the last few moments when Hermione Granger entered the room with Dumbledore in tow, who proceeded to carry him to the hospital wing.

--X--

When Harry opened his eyes, he saw a blur that looked like Hermione sitting beside his bed, probably doing her homework. He groped around his table to find his glasses, which caught Hermione's attention. With a squeal of 'Haryyy!' she pounced upon him, hugging him for all it was worth and started babbling about how afraid she was that he wouldn't wake up, how she had taken notes for him so that he didn't fall back in studies and how the whole school knew about the Philosopher's stone incident, which she doubted, and he agreed, was due to Ron Weasley. They talked about a few other things before they were interrupted by the headmaster, who asked about what had happened in the antechamber and how had he defeated Quirrell, which led to Harry vomiting again. He was saved from the mess by the headmaster, who conjured a bucket for him to puke in.

He explained what had happened and how he defeated the Professor taking advantage when he was disarmed and used a 'Reducto!'to finish him. He looked at Hermione fearfully as if expecting repulsion or fear, but she continued to burrow herself into his side tightly, as the story continued. When he talked about using the 'Reducto!', she wrapped her hands around his waist with a wail of 'Oh Harry!' and proceeded to explain how he had done nothing wrong and even though she would have liked if he hadn't had to deal with Quirrell, she would prefer an alive Harry than a moral but dead one. It did bring a smile to Harry's face but resulted in a frown on Dumbledore's which went unnoticed by the duo.

Dumbledore's frown got more pronounced when Harry didn't ask any further questions as if he wasn't interested in Voldemort's attack. He would have preferred if Harry would have asked, and he would have denied the knowledge stating Harry was too young for it. It would have attracted Harry's interest and increased the importance of his presence in Harry's life. Defeated, he left the duo with pile of chocolates and other get-well-soon gifts.

At the end-of-the-term-fest, Dumbledore proceeded to give Neville, Ron, her and Harry 30, 50, 50 and 60 points respectively, completely turning the Slytherin's name on the House Cup to Gryffindor's. The houses other than Slytherins applauded loudly and then left to pack for their return journey to home.

--X--

After completing their packing, Harry and Hermione met in the Room of Requirements for the last time of the session. They were sipping on some cold beverage, they had asked Flopi to deliver to them.

"Have you sent the letter to the Flamels about their stone?" Hermione asked.

Both of them had been astonished when a blood-red stone had dropped out of Harry's invisibility cloak when he took it out of his pocket, to sneak off to Room of Requirements after curfew. Hermione wanted to ask about how it got there, but seeing Harry gape like a fish, Hermione came to a conclusion he himself didn't know. To confirm their suspicion about it being the real Philosopher's stone, they had touched a block of lead to it and the stone had successfully turned into gold. To the surprise of them both, none of them proposed taking it to the headmaster. When they talked about it, Harry had revealed that Voldemort had hinted about Quirrell, Snape and Dumbledore usingLegilimencyto take a peek into his mind. The headaches he got further attested to the theory. Hermione had been appalled "But Harry!", she had said, "it's illegal to use legilimency on anyone who is not criminal in the eyes of the law as it is a serious breach of privacy!" When asked about her reason for distrust of the headmaster she said, "Didn't you feel Harry? The traps were less of a trap and more of an obstacle course especially made for us four. Herbology for Neville, Keys for you, Chess for Ron and Puzzle for me. It was 100 percent a setup and I suspect Headmaster was behind it. And now you have said he could read minds. It makes me feel uneasy." Harry had then comforted her by pressing his lips on her hair and they resolved to find a way to negate the effects of Legilimency. They had found the book on Occulmency but it was a long process, which takes at least 6 months to deploy even basic of the mental shields and then followed by a legilimancer to check their mental defence. They decided to check books in Diagon Alley, on legilimency, as it wasn't available in Hogwarts library due to being considered borderline dark art.

"No, but I have it ready. I will send it from the train so that there is the least chance of the post being tampered with. Are you sure, you don't want to put your address on the letter?" Harry asked.

"No, it's alright. I told you that I and my parents are going abroad, for the holidays. So, we probably won't be here to receive the Flamels." Hermione replied.

"Yes, yes... to Italy. I remember. I hope you have lots of fun!" Harry wished and then smiled sweetly, "I will miss you."

Hermione beamed at him and a moment later slammed into him, "Oh Harry, I will miss you a lot too. But it is only for a month. We will meet when I return. Won't we?"

Harry's smile falters for a bit unknown to Hermione but he replies in a thick voice, "Of course!"

They spend some more time in the ROR, before leaving for the Hogsmeade station, to catch the Hogwarts Express, back to Kings Cross, which consists of 4 hours of cuddling, joint reading, feasting on wizarding treats and games, before Hermione is ready to meet Hermione's parents.

--X--

"Mum! Dad!" Hermione hugged them enthusiastically, "I have really missed you a lot!"

"Not more than we did, Pumpkin", Her father's voice was thick with emotions.

"What your father said," Her mother agreed.

Harry wanted to turn away from the scene, feeling like he was intruding on something personal.

"And who's the handsome young man with you, Hermione?" Her mother asked after they had had their heartfelt reunion. Her father's attention was now also on Harry, which made him unconsciously nervous.

Hermione's eyes brightened, surprising both of her parents. She held Harry's arm and dragged the reluctant boy in front of them.

"Dad, Mom! This is Harry Potter, my best friend," She then addressed Harry, "Harry, these are my parents, Dr. Daniel Jacob Granger and Dr. Emmaline Helena Granger."

Harry caught the offered hands and engaged them both in handshake, "It's a pleasure! Sir, Ma'am."

"My! You are the young man who fought a troll for our daughter," Emma fangirled, lost for a moment in the fantasy of fiction, containing a Green-eyed warrior and wild-haired princess. Dan's clearing of the throat brought his wife out of wonderland.

"Sorry about that. I was just thinking about green-eyed grandchi-"

"MUM/ EMMA!" The daughter-father duo screamed in mortification. Harry himself was glowing like a lantern.

"Just kidding, darling. You know I have every right to tease my daughter." Emma said to which Hermione huffed in reply.

They talked about a few more things before Harry's uncle arrived and the children bid each other goodbye, with Hermione giving him a bone-crushing hug and Harry kissing her hair, making her sigh in contentment. This made the Granger parents raise an eyebrow at the intimate action but didn't say anything. They actually liked Harry and not just because he was Hermione's friend, but because Harry had a very likeable personality.

"Come on boy! I don't want to be in presence of freaks anymore than I need to," Vernon bellowed as he dragged Harry and his trunk towards the car.

Harry sighed and mentally prepared himself for the two worse months of holidays. Still the smile on his face as he thought of Hermione couldn't dettered no matter whatever filth Vernon was spewing as they continued on with the drive to Surrey.

--X--