And we get to see what happens after the exams at the end of the year.
HARRY VI
Harry didn't know how he managed to get through the exams of his first year at Hogwarts. Hermione, on the other hand, would say after this period was over that they were finally refreshing. Ron, on the opposite, said he would make nightmares until the beginning of their second year.
Ron and Hermione had gotten closer during the story with Norbert, but after it was over and they focused on preparing the exams, everything came back to normal. Both got on each other's nerves, and Harry's attempts to reconcile them all failed. In the end, he revised with each individually, one after the other. Harry advanced more in his revisions with Hermione, but they were more fun with Ron. When the exams were finally over, he was relieved. However, it didn't mean that his mind was put to ease. The reassurances of Professor Dumbledore left him with more questions than answers. Harry was no longer sure if it was Snape or Quirrell who was trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone, or if they were accomplices, or even if both were trying to steal the stone on their own and they were opponents. There was even another possibility that had come to Harry's mind about a week before the exams began. He was coming back from the library when he heard Quirrell's voice coming from a nearby classroom.
"No. No. Not again, please." Harry had approached the door to better hear him. "All right. All right."
Professor Quirrell had then run out of the classroom, his hands on his turban. He was crying, and pale. He didn't notice Harry as he ran the other way. Harry had then looked into the classroom, only to find it empty. There was a door that was barely opened on the other side, but when Harry looked into it, it was empty as well.
When he had told Ron, he just said that Quirrell was afraid of everyone, and he didn't want to discuss about it when Harry said it could be about the Philosopher's Stone, saying it wasn't their business. Harry then told Hermione who, despite being so busy with preparing her exams, accepted to discuss it.
"There was really no one in the room?" she had asked.
"No one. It was as if he was talking to himself," Harry explained.
"Strange. Perhaps there is a secret passage in that classroom, and whoever Quirrell was talking to left by using it."
"Maybe. But I only heard Quirrell speak. It was as if someone was threatening him. I really have the feeling that he was alone in this classroom though."
"Harry, he must have been talking to someone. Or else, he's mad and he was talking to himself, perhaps imagining that Snape was threatening him once more."
What Hermione said made sense, but Harry couldn't shake the feeling that there had been someone else threatening Quirrell for real. And something was telling him that it wasn't Snape who did the threats this time.
He didn't have much time to think about it though as they had their exams. Even more bothering was the throbbing pain at his forehead, where his scar was. It had happened before, but never at this scale and never so often in such a short period. He had gone to Madam Pomfrey, but the Healer could not find the cause of the pain. She gave him a potion that was supposed to reduce the pain, but it met no success. The pain came back and forth.
Now the exams were over. Most students were wandering through the park aimlessly, enjoying freedom after weeks of torture. Harry and Ron were among those. Hermione had wanted to go through their exam papers, like after every exam, but Harry wasn't feeling like it and he got outside with Ron instead. They laid under a tree near the lake, stretching out in the grass. Ron looked like he was in paradise. Harry wished he could feel the same. His scar kept itching and he rubbed it all the time.
"Finally, it's over," Ron said, yawning in relief. "No need to memorize every article of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy of 1692. I can't even believe I remember the date!"
Harry would have laughed without his damn scar. He rubbed it more vigorously, but it wouldn't go.
"You could look more cheerful, Harry. We've got a whole week before we find out how badly we've done. There's no need to worry yet."
"My scar keeps hurting me. It's happened before, but never as often as this," Harry complained.
"I thought Madam Pomfrey gave you something for this."
"It's not working."
"Go back and see her again. Tell her about it."
"I don't think she'll have a solution. It's been itching ever since I heard this conversation between Quirrell and... whoever it was he spoke with."
Ron grumbled. "Not this again! Come on, Harry. Fluffy is guarding that stone. And Dumbledore said that we shouldn't worry about it. Even Hermione agreed that we should stop meddling with this. For once, I agree with her."
Harry stood up. "I'm going to see her. Maybe she can help me with that problem." He pointed his forehead and proceeded to leave.
"Be careful. She'll try to have you review our questionnaires with her," Ron shouted as Harry walked away.
The itching subsided. It was tempting to go back with Ron and enjoy the sun of late afternoon, but Harry knew it would just come back. He needed to speak to someone, and Hermione was much more receptive to talking about the Stone than Ron was. However, even she was of the opinion that if Dumbledore said the Philosopher's Stone was well protected, they had nothing to worry about. She even told Harry that only Dumbledore and Hagrid knew how to get past Fluffy, and neither of them would ever talk about it.
Harry knew he shouldn't worry. He was almost fed up that people reminded him of this all the time. Even his mother, when she finally replied to his letter where he talked about Norbert and his suspicions on Snape, told him to stay away from anything related to the Philosopher's Stone. However, Harry couldn't help but feel he had to care about it. Whoever it was who wanted to steal the Stone, whether it was Quirrell, Snape or both, or even someone else, had tried to kill him, and let a troll inside the castle who could have killed him and Hermione. Harry didn't trust anybody ready to kill with the power of this stone. His first Quidditch match had almost been the last. The last game of the season, against Ravenclaw, was approaching, but even this and the practices in prevision for this game couldn't get the Stone out of his mind.
As he crossed the park, his eyes fell on Hagrid's hut. He saw him sitting in an armchair outside. He looked like he was squeezing something. Harry knew that Hermione was right. Hagrid would never betray Dumbledore. Even Snape could not get past the three-headed dog at Halloween, and Hagrid would never tell anybody how to get past it. Harry hoped that Hagrid would be as stubborn in keeping this secret as he was stubborn about keeping Norbert. Only Dumbledore could convince him to...
Harry stopped in his track, and he looked at Hagrid again from afar. Hagrid, who always dreamed to have a dragon, and out of nowhere, he met someone and played cards with him, and this someone happened to have a dragon's egg on him. Harry rushed towards the hut. The distance wasn't that far, so he was there in no time. Hagrid smiled at him when Harry stopped in front of him.
"Hello. You finished your exams? Got time for a drink?"
"Hagrid, I've got to ask you something. That stranger from who you got Norbert? What did he look like?"
"I don't know. I never saw his face. He never took his cloak off."
Harry thought this was no good. This person, whether it was Snape, Quirrell or anyone else who might have been working with them, didn't want to show who he was.
"It's not unusual," Hagrid said, probably by seeing Harry's face. "You get a lot of funny folks in the Hog's Head. It's the pub where I played cards that night. He might have been a dragon dealer, after all. No wonder he wanted to hide his face."
"He... He didn't remind you of anybody? He didn't look familiar at all?"
"No. I don't see why he should have been."
"What did you talk about with him?"
"Oh, many things. We spent quite a lot of time playing at the same table. But we talked a lot about my work. I'm the gamekeeper, after all, and he had a dragon on him. He was very interested in what I was doing, the kind of creatures I would take care of. We drank a lot. When he showed me the egg, he wanted to make sure that I would be able to take care of it as well. So I told him about the various creatures I worked with."
"Did you talk about Fluffy?"
"Oh, yeah, of course, we talked about Fluffy. I told him about how I raised him. A dragon certainly didn't seem more difficult for him because it was after we talked about Fluffy that he gave me the egg."
"Did he seem interested in Fluffy?"
"Of course, he was. There aren't many three-headed dogs we can meet in the world, even if we work with magical creatures. But I told him that with beasts, the trick is to know how to calm them down. Fluffy, for example. We just play him a bit of music and he'll go straight to sleep..."
Harry was horrified. "You told him that?"
Hagrid must have looked just as horrified as Harry was. "I shouldn't have told you that! Forget I said it! Hey! Where are you going?"
Harry was already running back to the castle. He had to see Dumbledore. Whoever was trying to steal the Stone, he now knew how to get past Fluffy. He ran like hell, causing many people in the park to stare at him on his way. He had to see Professor Dumbledore. But where was his office? When Harry got inside the castle, he realized he had no idea where his office may be. The castle was almost empty. All students were outside, enjoying the end of exams. How was he going to find Dumbledore?
But then, he thought about when Hagrid told them about the professors who helped protect the Stone. He just had to find one. Harry's choice went to the first name that came to his mind. He ran to the Transfiguration classroom as fast as he could, again meeting nearly no one in the corridors. The castle felt so empty around him. He thought that if someone wanted to get under the trapdoor, now would be a perfect time. He didn't knock at the door when he arrived. He almost broke through it. He was lucky. Professor McGonagall was there. She was writing something at her desk and raised her eyes from it the moment Harry burst into the room, panting, out of breath.
"Mr Potter? What are you doing here? Have you been running away from the Forbidden Forest or what?" she asked, looking at him oddly.
"Professor McGonagall. I'm sorry. I need to speak to the Professor Dumbledore."
She looked at him suspiciously. "The Professor Dumbledore is a very busy man, Potter. If you want to tell him something, you can tell me."
Harry thought about it for a moment. It was to Dumbledore he needed to talk, but after all McGonagall was Head of Gryffindor House, and among the people who helped to protect the stone.
"It's about the Philosopher's Stone," he finally let out.
Her face became very serious all of a sudden. She waved her wand and the door of the classroom shut down. "Really, Potter? You have a gift for getting involved in things that don't concern you." She sounded exasperated.
"Professor, I think someone is trying to steal it."
She sighed. "Look, Potter, I don't know how you managed to discover that the Stone was at Hogwarts, but I can assure you that it is very well protected. No one could possibly steal it."
"But Professor..."
"Potter, please. You already had more than enough trouble this year. I know you never tried to get into these troubles, so please don't start now. If someone tries to steal the Stone, I can promise you that he will fail. You don't have to worry about it. And it is not your place to worry about it." She waved her wand again. The door reopened. "I suggest you go back outside and enjoy the sunshine. Your exams are over."
Harry understood that she wouldn't listen anymore. Her face said so. Reluctantly, he walked out. But before he left the room, she added something.
"Anyway, Mr Potter, even if I wanted to let you see the Headmaster, I couldn't. Dumbledore left ten minutes ago for London."
He turned to her. "What? He's gone?"
"Yes. He received an urgent owl from the Ministry of Magic and flew off for London at once."
Harry wanted to say something, but McGonagall's stare told him she wouldn't hear anything else. So he left. Dumbledore was gone. The castle was almost empty. He hurried to the Gryffindor's common room. He wasn't surprised to find Hermione there, but he was surprised to find Ron as well. He would have thought he was still by the lake. In the meantime, his scar kept itching again.
"Harry, are you alright? You look pale," Ron said.
Apparently, Ron was worried about him and went to the common room to check on him, but only found Hermione. Harry told them everything he just learned, from what Hagrid told the stranger who gave him the dragon's egg to what McGonagall told him.
"You mean that Snape..." Ron began.
".. Or Quirrell, or whoever is trying to steal that stone knows how to get past Fluffy now," Harry summarized. "And since someone tried to steal the Stone at Gringotts during summer and didn't get caught, we can guess he can get through all the other protection spells the professors put into place," Harry completed.
"But you told McGonagall. Surely she will take precautions," Hermione said. "I mean, she is Deputy Headmistress. It's her who is managing Hogwarts when Dumbledore isn't here."
"Perhaps, but I would feel better if Dumbledore himself was there. Don't you find it a big coincidence that he gets called away right at the moment the corridors of the school are empty, and someone finally knows how to get through that dog? Furthermore, McGonagall wasn't very receptive. I didn't even get the chance to tell her that someone knew Fluffy's weakness."
"Well, Harry you must go and tell her then. Right now."
"I don't think she's going to listen to me anyway. And we don't have any proof."
"Well, there doesn't seem to be much you can do it about it," Ron said. "I mean, if the professors put protections into place..."
"Ron, whoever is trying to steal that stone, he tried to kill me. He managed to curse my broomstick, and even Hagrid says only dark magic can do it. If Snape was indeed trying to save me, then both his and my mother's combined efforts failed to cancel the curse. And he managed to get into a vault at Gringotts and to get out unnoticed. This is supposed to be impossible. You really think that some spells cast by the professors are going to stop him? And when this person gets the Stone, what will he do? We already know that he's willing to kill to get it. I don't know about you, but I don't want to see the Philosopher's Stone in the hands of someone like that."
"Harry may not be wrong," Hermione conceded. "And with Dumbledore gone... It's very likely that they will take action tonight. Maybe we could tell Snape? After all, if he's really just trying to protect the Stone..." she started to suggest.
"No, we can't. We cannot trust Snape. Anyway, the way he is, I don't think he would believe us any more than McGonagall did."
"That's an understatement," Ron said. "He would probably remove additional points from Gryffindor only because you made him lose his time. And that is if he wasn't the one trying to kill you at the Quidditch game. And I'm quite sure it was him. You saw him, Hermione, didn't you?"
They looked at each other. They were really out of options. Harry then stood up.
"Where are you going, Harry?" Hermione asked.
"To the third floor. I'll check if McGonagall added new protections. It's the least I can do," he answered as he walked out of the common room.
The corridors were still mostly empty. There were a few students there and there, especially younger ones, closer to Harry's age, who went to bed early and who could not stay in the corridors for too late. Harry quickly arrived at the forbidden corridor. The place around it seemed totally normal, with no one at the horizon. So McGonagall put no one to guard the door leading to Fluffy. Harry approached it, to see if anything had been done to reinforce the protection of the Stone, if only a spell to block the door more efficiently. He was nearing the door when a familiar voice resonated behind him.
"Potter!" Professor McGonagall was there, and she forced Harry to walk back towards her. Reluctantly, Harry did so. "Really? I'll start believing that you're looking after troubles just like your father."
"Professor, I just wanted..." he tried to say, she cut him immediately.
"You really think that you're harder to get through than a pack of enchantments!" The Professor sighed. She seemed to calm down a little. "Look, whatever your intentions were when you came here, this is none of your business. I don't want to see you anywhere near this door again. If you come back, I'll remove points from Gryffindor and place you in detention, if that's what it takes to keep you away from all this. Now come. I'll accompany you back to your common room. And I order you to not leave it until next morning."
Harry didn't have much choice. He followed Professor McGonagall. He didn't even try to tell her about the stranger who had learned things about Fluffy from Hagrid. She would probably not listen to him. She walked in silence next to him until they arrived in front of the portrait of the fat woman. McGonagall gave the password and watched Harry as he walked in. Then the portrait closed behind and Harry was prisoner of Gryffindor's common room. He never thought of this place like a prison, but now he did. Ron and Hermione rushed at him the moment the portrait was closed.
"And?" Hermione asked.
"There's nothing more. McGonagall caught me and brought me back here. She believes their spells are going to be sufficient to protect the Stone," Harry said, trying to speak low enough that no one else in the common room would hear him.
"That was a good try," Ron said. "I guess there's nothing else we can do now."
"Yes, there is." Harry had taken the decision while McGonagall was walking him back to the common room. "I'm going under the trapdoor tonight. I'll try to get to the Stone first."
"You're mad!" Ron said.
"You can't, Harry!" Hermione added. It was strange to see Ron and Hermione agreeing.
"What other choice do I have? I can't have someone who tried to kill me and other people get the Stone. Imagine what he could do if he becomes immortal or can produce as much gold as he wants."
"But Harry... It's too dangerous," Hermione said, horrified.
"More dangerous that letting that person use the Stone? I'm going there tonight. Don't try to stop me."
He went to the dormitory. Neither Ron nor Hermione followed him. There he did one last thing before he went to Fluffy. As he looked to Hedwig taking flight, he realized that maybe it would be the last time he would see his owl. Harry knew the spells protecting the Stone had to be powerful. Dumbledore and the other professors certainly made sure they were after the failed burglary at Gringotts. There wouldn't be much chance for him to get to the Stone. But he would try. Up to now, the person who tried to steal the Stone let a troll enter Hogwarts, cursed Harry's broomstick and gave Hagrid a dragon's egg. All actions that could have dire consequences. They were lucky no one was gravely injured or killed. The next time, once this man got the Stone, they wouldn't be so lucky. He thought of all the people who told him to stay away from this for his own safety. Dumbledore. McGonagall. Ron. Hermione. Even his mother. But he couldn't stay away this time, not with Dumbledore gone and the other professors unwilling to believe him when he said the Stone was in danger.
Once night had fallen and he was sure that everyone was sleeping in the dormitory, Harry slipped out of his bed and went down the stairs in the common room... only to find Ron and Hermione waiting for him.
"Don't try to stop me," Harry warned them.
"We will not," Hermione said. She looked at Ron, then back to Harry. "We thought and talked about this. We're coming with you."
Harry didn't expect this. He looked to Ron, who strangely looked very determined this time. "We're not letting you go alone. You won't hold a single minute if you're alone. With us, at least you got a shot."
He looked at both of them. He felt emotions submerging him. "You don't have to do this."
"We're in this together," said Hermione, just as determined as Ron was.
Finally, Harry agreed. But before they went in the corridors, Harry left the common room the first. He made sure no one was watching, just in case McGonagall had placed a sentinel near Gryffindor's common room to make sure Harry would stay in bed that night. He shouldn't have told her about his suspicions. He would not have attracted as much attention. When he was sure there was no one, he made a sign to Ron and Hermione to follow him. They walked through the corridors, very careful to not make any noise that might alert Filch, Mrs Norris or anyone else. By chance, they met no one. There was no Malfoy this time who warned Filch about students being out during the night.
When they neared the door giving on Fluffy, Harry asked his friends to stop again.
"I'll get close to the door first," he whispered. "If I'm caught, go back to the common room. No need for the three of us to get detention."
They let him go ahead. Harry almost expected McGonagall to appear out of nowhere like earlier today, but she did not. The place really looked empty. He indicated to Ron and Hermione that the way was free. With a Alohomora, they unlocked the door. Before Harry opened the door, he looked at his two best friends in the world.
"Last chance. You know you don't have to follow."
"We do!" they both answered in unison. Had the situation been different, Harry would have laughed to see them so synchronized. He took from his pocket the wooden flute that Hagrid gave him for Christmas.
"Let's go then."
He opened the door. Harry, Ron and Hermione entered the forbidden corridor together, ready to face everything the protection spells would throw at them. They were ready to sacrifice everything to get to the Stone first.
In canon, Harry felt compelled to stop Snape (because he thought it was Snape) from stealing the Stone because he knew it was to Voldemort that the Philosopher's Stone was destined. However, in this fanfiction, since Norbert's adventure ended differently, Harry and Hermione never went in the Forbidden Forest while being on detention, and Harry never crossed Voldemort's path. Still, I think that with everything the burglar did so far, Harry would still feel compelled to stop him. As for Ron and Hermione, despite the animosity between them right now, I don't imagine either of them leaving Harry to go in the dungeons alone.
The next three chapters will be about the attempt to steal the Philosopher's Stone. I will publish them in a row (one per day) beginning next Friday (November 13) since they are so close in the action. I don't want to leave too much time between each chapter's publication.
Please review.
Next chapter: Hermione