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Harry had been trying to ignore his suspicions of the man with the dragon egg and the possibility of it being related to the cerebus standing on a trapdoor hidden in the third floor corridor. He reminded himself that he was an eleven year old boy and this was a school. It was his job to learn as much as he could not to go haring of on adventures better left to trained adult witches and wizards and whatever was going on was really none of his business.
This worked fairly well until Hermione also voiced the same suspicions and came to the conclusion that someone was trying to steal what had been hidden under the trap door. To Harry's surprise she even had an idea of what it might be having researched the idea since 'The Daily Prophet' had reported the break in and Harry had stupidly told her and Ron about Hagrid collecting a small package out of an otherwise empty vault that day.
"The Philosopher's Stone is a legendary substance with astonishing powers. It will turn any metal into pure gold and produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal," Hermione recited, sounding like she was reading from a textbook.
"That's something any thief would definitely want but what makes you think it would be here?" Harry asked.
"The only stone currently in existence belongs to Mr. Nicholas Flamel, the noted alchemist, who last year celebrated his 665th birthday! Dumbledore worked with Flamel on the twelve uses for Dragon's Blood. That's what was in the small package Hagrid picked up for Dumbledore while you were in the bank right before it was broken into, Harry," Hermione replied earnestly. "Snape's trying to steal it for Voldemort."
Neville jumped and shuddered at the name before asking Hermione not to say the name again.
"Why would you think it was him? Every thief on the planet would want to get their hands on it," Harry replied.
"I think that's who I met in the forest during detention with Hagrid. The thing that was drinking the unicorn blood. Firenze the Centaur that helped me and Neville hinted strongly at it," Hermione said.
"And you're only telling us this now!" Harry exclaimed. "Did you try to tell a professor?"
"I told Hagrid," Hermione replied.
"I mean a real professor," Harry said dryly. "Voldemort killed hundreds of witches and wizards, don't you think that the professors should know he's here, for that matter the wizarding police and army or whatever should've been told so they could properly search the forest and kill him."
"If it was important Hagrid would've told Dumbledore," Hermione said.
"Yeah, because Hagrid has a reputation for telling people when he's in over his head, especially when he's done something wrong like taking eleven year olds into the forest to meet Voldemort," Harry retorted sarcastically.
"We need to protect the stone," Neville insisted nervously.
This time Harry didn't hesitate or try to hide his refusal to run off on an adventure. "This is too dangerous for a group of first years, we need to go to the professors," he insisted.
"Who then? Do you even know where Dumbledore's office is?" Neville asked.
"It's protected by a password, I think we should try Professor Flitwick or Sprout, they're more likely to listen to us," Harry replied.
"Professor McGonagall is our head of house. We should go to her," Hermione said decisively, pleased that she wasn't the only one who thought they should go to the professors to sort out the problem, grabbing their hands and dragging them along.
Ron saw them as they made their way to the office and suspecting an adventure in the offering, joined them. Hermione quickly explained what was going on.
"We have to see Professor Dumbledore, immediately!" Ron declared bursting into the deputy headmistress's office without knocking.
Harry cringed; he was fairly sure McGonagall would've refused to listen to them or somehow refused to or been prevented from taking their concerns seriously anyway, but Ron's lack of common courtesy now made it even less likely and he wouldn't even find out if she'd been magically influenced to refuse now she had a legitimate reason to throw them out.
McGonagall looked up frowning, "I'm afraid Professor Dumbledore is not here. He received an urgent owl from the Ministry of Magic and left immediately for London."
"He's gone?! Now? But this is important! It's about...the Philosopher's Stone," Harry said whispering the last two words.
"How do you know about that," Minerva said sounding shocked and angry.
"Someone's going to try and steal it!" Ron said. Harry was grateful that at least Ron had the common sense not to accuse Snape of trying to steal the stone, though he and Neville were both sure that it was the potions master.
"I don't know how you three found out about the stone, but I can assure you it is perfectly well-protected. Now would you go back to your dormitories? Quietly," Minerva said dismissively.
"But Professor, we know about the protections and someone was asking Hagrid about Fluffy, they bribed him with the dragon egg and he told them how to put it to sleep," Hermione said desperately.
Minerva frowned but continued to try to shoo them out of her office. Hermione continued trying to explain but it was clear to Harry that the head of Gryffindor wasn't listening to her.
"Stop Hermione, it won't do any good. She won't listen to us any more than she listened when I told her about Hagrid having a dragon egg," Harry said flatly.
"You told McGonagall about the dragon?" Ron started yelling.
"Shut up Ron. Yes, I wrote to her anonymously, actually, I was trying to do the right thing and help Hagrid and keep the school safe. Dragons are class XXXXX dangerous beasts, they have no place in a school full of curious kids. I thought she was friends with Hagrid and would be willing to keep him from getting in trouble but still get rid of the dragon before anyone got hurt, and she did exactly what she's planning to do now. Absolutely bloody nothing, and leave it up to us sort things out, then punish us for doing it like she did Hermione and Neville last time when they got caught after handing the dragon over to Charlie's friends. Well I for one have had enough," Harry said turning away from his self-appointed 'best mate' and towards his transfiguration professor. "If you can't be bothered to get off your arse to save the school and the philosopher's stone from Voldemort, I don't see why I should be either. I'm going to pack my trunk. Hopefully when the shit hits the fan at least some of us will be able to get away."
"Fifty points from Gryffindor for your language Potter," Minerva said crisply.
"You know at the start of the year when you said your house would be like your family, I didn't think you meant it would be like the Dursleys. Happy to punish me for every slight transgression without ever listening to me or giving a damn about my welfare," Harry said disappointedly.
"Potter, I never received that letter," Minerva said troubled.
"Or you received it and someone made you forget about it, like they made the police in Little Whinging forget when I went to them for help. That doesn't change the fact that we're genuinely worried about the safety of the Philosopher's Stone and you're not even prepared to listen to our concerns," Harry replied, not sure if he even believed that McGonagall didn't remember receiving the letter.
"Sit down and tell me exactly why you are so concerned about the stone. I don't even want to know how you figured out it was hidden in the school," Minerva said tiredly.
"I was with Hagrid when he collected it from Gringotts," Harry replied.
"Hagrid accidentally told me that what was hidden in the school had something to do with Nicholas Flamel," Hermione said.
The professor shook her head disappointedly. "I don't want to know."
"Hagrid won a dragon egg of a stranger in the pub, he can't describe them they had their hood up the whole time and probably a concealment charm. The stranger asked him about Fluffy and Hagrid admits to telling them that music will put the Cerebus to sleep, we know someone tried to break into the third floor when the troll was let in on Halloween, and the Centaur told Hermione that Voldemort is in the forbidden forest drinking the unicorn blood, Dumbledore being out of the castle is a perfect opportunity for someone looking to steal the stone," Harry said succinctly.
Minerva sighed, when put like that they were possibly right, the stone was at risk. She was about to agree to check it when stopped by a compulsion charm to leave the whole situation alone.
"Go to your common room or go outside and enjoy the sunshine. Dumbledore will return soon and I will tell him of your concerns," she replied.
Harry having seen the sudden fogginess in her eyes realised she'd been magically influenced. He wasn't convinced she'd do anything but he hoped it would at least convince Hermione and Neville because there was nothing else they could say to change things and the other professors had almost certainly been spelled the same way. "Thank you for trying," he said before standing and leaving. The other's followed, surprised when Harry did indeed return to the dorm and start packing.
"What are you doing?" Hermione demanded.
"Not leaving my packing to the last minute," Harry replied drolly.
"You think we're still in danger, that Professor McGonagall isn't going to protect the stone?" Hermione asked suspiciously.
"Or that she'll try, and fail. Voldemort wasn't the most feared dark lord in centuries because he could be beaten, Hermione," Harry replied.
Hermione frowned caught between wanting to defend her favourite professor and worrying about Harry being right.
"I can't believe you wrote to a professor and told them about the dragon. Do you know how much trouble you could have gotten Hagrid into?" Ron demanded.
"Obviously he didn't really write to Professor McGonagall at all. I can't believe you tried to lie to her fact about it," Hermione snapped.
"Don't call me a liar! I wrote to her. I don't know why she doesn't remember getting the letter," Harry snapped.
"You could have got Hagrid arrested," Ron yelled.
"If you knew how much trouble Hagrid would get into having a dragon then why on earth would you risk being caught carrying it up to the Astronomy tower? Oh wait, you didn't, you were safely in the infirmary after giving Malfoy the letter to make sure we'd be caught. Neville and Hermione could have been arrested because of you," Harry turned on the redhead who had claimed to be his best mate most of the time and refused to talk to him the rest of the time. He still hadn't apologised or his treatment of Harry after the night the dragon was sent to Romania but he sometimes tried to hang around when Harry was with others, mostly Hermione and Neville because he knew the two of them wouldn't send him away. Harry tolerated him so long as he didn't get up in his business about things.
"Do you think that McGonagall's going to do something about Snape?" Neville asked.
Harry didn't reply. He was sure she'd been spelled not to interfere and he didn't want to get caught up in trying to save the stone if the others decided to try to play hero, and he wasn't convinced that Snape was the villain.
"Of course, she will," Hermione said confidently.
"Shouldn't we go and make sure," Neville asked doubtfully.
"No Neville, we should leave it to the fully trained staff. Whoever is trying to steal the stone isn't going to be stopped by first year spells," Harry said calmly.
Unfortunately, at dinner all the staff except Dumbledore were present and seemed to be calmly talking socially. There was no sign of them planning to defend the stone as Ron and Hermione insisted on following them up until they disappeared into the passageway leading to the staff quarters where no student could pass the wards.
A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed followed or favourited this story for your support.