Chapter 6: Explanations and Trolls
"Well... that is a long story." Harry began, he was nervous about revealing this truth to her, but there was no backing out of this one, after all it had been his idea to tell her. "The short version is that in the year 2000, someone helped me send my memories of everything I experienced starting with my eleventh birthday."
Hermione just stared at him with a look of shock on her face, it was at this point that Virgil decided to join in the conversation "I think you broke her kid."
Hermione's attention immediately snapped to the new arrival in the room "Who are you?"
"Oh that is Virgil, he isn't really there, but he is... kinda. Anyways he is the one who helped me."
"So you're serious about this. But how... why..."
"Ah yes well, how would be my department and the simple answer is, it's complicated. Basically we took this medallion here and downloaded Harry's memories, and then I put a full copy of my personality in as well, I am a projection of that copy. I then did some really complicated math to calculate a four dimensional launch trajectory for the medallion and knocked it out of the time stream so that it ended up where and when it needed to."
"But what about creating a paradox, you could have destabilized the time-space-continuum that was really-" Hermione was actually taking it a lot better than Harry had expected her to, of course they hadn't gotten around to the why portion of the evening so the worst wasn't over yet.
"Don't worry yourself over it kid, a paradox is impossible because it can only occur with linear causality, and once you start working in non-linear time causality becomes non-linear. Once you travel back in time everything between when you arrive and when you departed never happened. And most importantly time is far to squishy to ever sustain permanent damage without that being your intention. Harry can field the generals of the why while I see if this room will respond to my thoughts" Virgil then walked away from the chairs as the room expanded to include a small workbench Virgil then proceeded to put the room to the test in order to see just how far the room could get with his plan before someone would have to finish.
Meanwhile Harry was telling Hermione about everything that had happened that had led up to the decision to change history "So like I said it's a long story, if someone were to write it down it would probably take like seven books."
"Or eight movies." Hermione replied.
"So do you believe me? I promise that I would never lie to you." Harry asked hopefully.
Hermione gave him a reassuring smile before answering "Yes Harry I believe you. I mean if you were making all this up why on earth would you say that we were friends with Ron Weasley, the boy is insufferable, he has no manners, he says hurtful and insensitive things just because they pop into his head, and isn't all that bright." as she finished her statement she couldn't help but laugh at the thought of being friends with the redheaded idiot.
"Hey don't laugh apparently other me was blinded by the fact that he was his first friend his own age." Harry said defensively.
"I'm sorry Harry I know what it's like to not have any friends, but neither of us is going to have to deal with that ever again because we have each other. Now we just need to decide what to do about all of the stuff that is going to happen over the next seven years."
"Well Virgil and I have talked about it pretty extensively, and we agree that we can't destroy the horcruxes until after Dumbledore dies. Dumbledore is to much of a threat to everyone and if he survives the war then we will be right back where we started from, all the Death Eaters will get away with everything they did while Dumbledore keeps playing god with innocent lives."
"The only thing I don't understand is why Dumbledore is doing this. Why bring the stone here, why even let Voldemort come back before destroying all the horcruxes, why force you to grow up with your awful relatives... Oh Harry I'll write a letter to my parents to see if we can't have you move in with us, you should never have gone to those monsters and I won't let you go back." Hermione nearly broke down at the thought of what her best friend had gone through.
Harry moved to hug Hermione "Shhhh, don't worry I'm sure your parents are already working on a way to get me away from my relatives. You see I have no intention of returning there, and if I tried to do something about it Dumbledore would try to stop me, so Virgil figured that if I dropped a few hints around your parents they would look into what my aunt and uncle had done to me over the years. That way by the time Dumbledore becomes aware of things it will be to late for him to do anything."
Little did Harry know that the investigation that the Grangers had begun was going to come to a much more high profile end a lot sooner than he had anticipated. Shortly after Mr. Mitchell had begun his investigation a stack of files that had been kept by the primary school Harry had attended found it's way to the desk of a clerk whose job it was to log every file that came though the office. At least that was her official job. Doris Allen was a muggle born witch who had worked at the London Office of Child Services for the past fifteen years. In the office she was just a clerk, an extremely efficient clerk but a clerk none the less, but she was also paid by the Ministry of Magic to watch for unexplained events that could be indicative of accidental magic. So when Doris saw the file about the time Harry Potter had ended up on the roof a number of red flags were sent up in her head. From what she had read Harry had somehow managed to apparate with no training at the age of eight, generally speaking the power and complexity of accidental magic was proportionate to the intensity of the emotional state of the child that created the effect. Accidental magic that involved moving the child generally only occurred as an escape mechanism, so if Harry had apparated at eight years old, he had to have been scared for his life. The only thing mentioned in the file which could account for his fear was a mention that he claimed to have been running from his cousin Dudley when he had suddenly ended up on the roof. She contacted her superiors on both sides immediately. To Doris it was unacceptable that Harry Potter had lost so much only to find himself scared for his life at the hands of his own relatives.
When Hermione had calmed down Harry returned to his seat and began to explain what seemed to be Dumbledore's problem "Virgil thinks that Dumbledore spent to much of his young life being told he was brilliant and not enough time being challenged to prove he was right about things. Then his mother dies, and his sister dies, now his mother's death was an accident, but his sister's death is his fault, either directly or indirectly. To make himself feel better he developed a view of the world that allowed him to escape the blame, his mother and sister died because people are ignorant, good people are better off in the afterlife and so you should be okay with dieing and should never kill someone who isn't good, even if it will save lives. After dealing with Grindelwald no one questions his choices, even though he made a lot of really bad choices that cost thousands of innocent lives. And the result is that he feels that it is his right and duty to tell the ignorant masses how to live their lives, while using his followers as disposable pawns to push his agenda."
"Okay but why is he a bigger problem than Voldemort?"
By this point Virgil had come back over, he had been thoroughly impressed by the rooms capabilities "Because Voldemort just wants to kill people, Dumbledore wants to take away your free will bend you to his will and force you to live life according to what he thinks is best. C. S. Lewis put it pretty well 'Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.' Dumbledore would gladly take away everything that makes you human and he would have no qualms about it because he would be doing it for his vaunted 'Greater Good'. Anyways you two should probably put these on" He handed each of them a pair of contact lenses. "These will cause anyone who attempts to read your mind to get a serious headache, the harder they push, the worse it will hurt."
Hermione sat and considered everything she had been told her mind clicked on something that had been briefly mentioned, but she had ignored it at the time as there were more important subjects. As she put on the enchanted lenses she finally brought it back up "Virgil, what exactly did you mean when you said Harry and I are soul-mates? I've done a lot of reading, and I've seen references to people having soul-mates, but there wasn't that much information available."
"At this point it doesn't mean much, you two will both be slightly more powerful when you are together and you can get a slight feeling of the other persons mental and emotional state. That is probably why you accepted Harry's story as fact so easily, you sensed that he wasn't trying to deceive you so you were more trusting. You will both probably notice that you won't be able to lie to each other very well. The more time you spend with each other the more noticeable the difference will be. If you two developed a... romantic relationship there would be other effects, but you don't need to know about those right now. I think you two should probably go find Susan, go be kids for a change, hang out with your housemates." With that Virgil disappeared.
"He's right, we should probably get going." Harry said standing up from his chair. Hermione also stood up and they both left to find their friend.
The next few weeks passed quickly, and a sort of schedule emerged; every weekday after classes and before dinner Harry, Hermione, and Susan would meditate outside for an hour, then after dinner the trio would go up to the library to work on their homework. They spent their weekends with the rest of the first year Hufflepuffs and were occasionally they were joined by a couple of the older 'Puffs. A hierarchy had developed, as is natural in any situation where more than a handful of people get together, Harry was the leader due to his natural charm and Hermione and Susan were his inner circle while the others happily tagged along with whatever they decided to do. Harry discovered that with Hermione as his best friend he could actually achieve a lot in classes and soon enough, much to the annoyance of the Ravenclaws, Harry and Hermione were competing for the first and second spot for their year in every class, with Susan taking a close third due to the benefits of having brilliant friends. While Harry and Hermione helped Susan with schoolwork Susan taught them about wizarding law and customs, something Harry really wished he had known about before. Harry and Susan had also helped Hermione get over her fear of flying, after their first flying lesson everyone could see that Harry was a natural at flying, unfortunately without Malfoy around he hadn't had the opportunity to show his skills as a seeker so he would have to wait until second year to join the quidditch team.
By late October all three of them had progressed quite well in their meditation and all were hopeful they would be able to feel their inner beast by the beginning of the winter holidays. There were only a few real problems the first two months of term. Snape had at first been bearable after Harry had mentioned his behavior to Professor Sprout, but he had slowly become more vicious towards Harry and his friends, if he continued Harry felt he would soon have grounds to make a formal complaint to the board of governors and possibly the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Draco Malfoy had been a mild annoyance for most of term, but Harry had grown quite adept at verbal sparring and most times Malfoy stormed off because he had no response to Harry's comments. When Malfoy had challenged Harry to a duel at midnight in the trophy room Harry had countered with an offer to duel him in front of the entire school, Malfoy obviously refused as he hadn't intended to show up to the duel in the first place. The behavior of Ron Weasley had not improved at all, if anything it had grown worse, the redhead had been persistent in his attempts to cozy up to Harry, and as the weeks went by his attempts became more forceful. Ron finally crossed a line on Halloween, the last class of the day was Herbology with the Gryfindors and Ron made his usual attempt to sit next to Harry.
"Harry why would you want to sit next to these losers? You're famous surely you could find cooler friends." Ron said while trying to get Susan to move so he could sit down between her and Harry.
"Ronald I am perfectly happy with the friends I have. Why don't you go sit with someone who actually wants to be your friend instead of harassing my friends and me?" Harry said as politely as he could manage while resisting the urge to strangle the insufferable git.
"Come on Harry you don't mean that, we're friends aren't we?" At this point Susan lost her battle to retain her seat and was forcefully pushed face first into an unknown plant. When she hit the plant a large yellow pod on the plant exploded in her face, filling her eyes with a noxious sap. Professor Sprout used a charm to remove most of the sap while assigning Ron a weeks detention and taking twenty points from Gryfindor, before asking Harry and Hermione to escort Susan to the hospital wing.
While this was occurring Susan's aunt was sitting was sitting in her office reading a very thorough report about the home and relatives of Harry James Potter. Normally the DMLE would not get involved in cases of child abuse and neglect when the family in question were muggles, but because the Dursleys had been aware of magic, and Harry's probable status as a wizard, when they had willingly become his legal guardians their interactions with Harry fell within the DMLE's jurisdiction. Based on what she was reading she was determined to make sure that the Dursleys were held accountable for what they had put Harry through.
Madam Pomfrey took one look at Susan's face and immediately set to work cleaning her eyes. The sap hadn't done any lasting harm and when Madam Pomfrey shooed Harry and Hermione out of the hospital wing she informed them that Susan would most likely be able to join them at the feast that evening. Harry and Hermione shared a look of concern as they exited the wing, if things stayed true to form Susan would be having a run-in with another troll today, and this next one wouldn't be a pushover like Weasley.
Three hours later Harry and Hermione were sitting at the Hufflepuff table, not eating anything due to anxiety about what they both knew was about to happen, when Professor Quirrel burst into the hall shouting about a troll before fainting. Had the situation been less serious Harry and Hermione would have found Quirrel's complete lack of acting skill humorous, as it was they could only chuckle about the fact that he had fallen backwards and Voldemort probably had a broken nose as a result. While the panicking students made their ways to their respective common rooms Harry and Hermione slipped away and took the most direct route to the hospital wing.
"You know I have to wonder why he actually let a real troll in in the first place. The distraction would have lasted longer if the staff had been unable to find the troll, because there wasn't one. With an actual troll the moment the staff found it the threat is over." Hermione mused as they walked briskly down the corridors, Harry had realized that running to a fight was a bad idea as it put you at a serious disadvantage while you tried to catch your breath.
When they found Susan she was running down a hallway, which is a perfectly rational thing to be doing when you are being chased by a twelve foot tall mountain troll. "Right on schedule." Harry grumbled as he pulled out his wand and took note of his surroundings. As he looked he came up with a plan Susan was running past a downward staircase and the troll would charge blindly past it in a few seconds, all that was needed was the proper timing. As the troll passed in front of the staircase Harry yelled at it to get its attention, he then hit it with the same knock-back hex he had used on Malfoy on the train, because the troll had spun to look at the source of the loud noise it had heard the slight push of the hex was enough to send the troll tumbling tail over tea-kettle down the stairs. As an added bonus at the exact moment that Harry knocked the troll over Professor Snape was passing the foot of the staircase. The troll landed on Snape knocking him out, after having received a good deal of head trauma itself on the way down.
"What is going on here?" came the voice of Professor McGonagall.
"Oh, Professor McGonagall, good thing your here. Hermione and I were concerned that Susan would be on her way down from the hospital wing and wouldn't know about the troll so we came to warn her. When we found her she was being chased by the troll, so I knocked it down the stairs with a knock-back hex." Harry quickly explained before Hermione or Susan tried to make excuses.
"Well Mr. Potter, you did an admirable thing trying to look out for a friend's safety, so ten points to Hufflepuff for yourself and Miss Granger. Also for eliminating a danger to the whole school, and for a display of excellent thinking while in danger, another twenty points. I must say Mr. Potter you seem to have learned quite a bit from Mr. Moody's book, he would be proud to know that it has helped you so much. However next time please inform a teacher rather than charging off on your own, you are all extremely lucky to have survived, you may return to your common room." Professor McGonagall dismissed them and called Professor Dumbledore for help extricating the stricken Potions Master from under the troll. Yes old Mad-Eye would indeed find this quite amusing and Minerva decided that she would write him to tell him about it in the morning.
Chapter 7: You Have Me Right Where I Want You
Albus Dumbledore was pleased with the outcome of Halloween night. Harry Potter had rushed off to save a friend rather than go somewhere safe, there was hope that the boy could be properly honed into a weapon. For now though the most important thing was pushing Harry toward the stone, it was of the utmost importance that Harry confront Voldemort down in that chamber.
Harry Potter was also pleased with the outcome of Halloween, the entire school had heard that he had taken down a troll, Dumbledore was most likely preparing to move forward with his plans without a clue that Harry was completely aware of his plans, and after how Ron had acted during that Herbology class not even Dumbledore could blame him for any hostility toward the Weasel.
When Amelia Bones learned of the events of Halloween she redoubled her efforts to see justice done for Harry Potter. The Dursleys were going to pay for what they had done to that wonderful boy, and anyone who got in her way was going to burn.
Alastor Moody smiled to himself as he read about the exploits of Harry Potter in a letter from his old school friend Minerva McGonagall, apparently Potter had a good head on his shoulders. If what Albus kept hinting at turned out to be true about Potter, well they might just stand a chance. Taking down a full grown mountain troll at eleven, with the right help the boy could be a force to be reckoned with.
November passed quickly with little of note occurring, Harry, Hermione, and Susan had all managed to feel their inner beast in the last week of November. Snape continued to grow worse and Harry had to bring his actions to Professor Sprouts attention three times in one month.
The result of Harry's reports to Professor Sprout was a meeting that was held in Dumbledore's office, all of the heads of house were present and it was clear from the start that Sprout, Flitwick, and McGonagall were out for blood.
"Severus your behavior toward Mr. Potter is unacceptable. I am deeply concerned that you see no problem with the way you treat the boy." Professor Sprout stated plainly, she was upset that any teacher could treat any student with the unveiled cruelty that Snape heaped so casually on Mr. Potter. The fact that something like this was being done to one of her kids, she really did think of all the students in Hufflepuff as her children, was too much.
"Potter is as arrogant as is father, I treat him no worse than he deserves." Snape all but snarled at the little woman who had dared to question his teaching methods.
"Severus Snape you are as petty and vicious as you were when you were a student here. Mr. Potter has done nothing that could be characterized as arrogant, he is a kind, intelligent, and determined boy. I cannot believe the levels you would sink to, just to continue a schoolboy grudge against a man who was murdered a decade ago. And worse it isn't just Mr. Potter, every student I have spoken to says you have tried everything you can to cause them to fail, you show blatant favoritism towards Slytherins and even encourage antagonism between the houses. If you don't shape up I will be forced to bring this up with the school governors." Sprout all but yelled at Snape.
"Now Pomona, surely it isn't all that bad. I am certain that Severus has a very good reason for-" Dumbledore began.
"Albus when Pomona called for this meeting I asked some of my Ravenclaws about Professor Snape's teaching methods, and I must say if even a fraction of what I have been told is true I am deeply concerned about the direction the school is heading. I am in complete agreement with Pomona, Severus needs to shape up or leave. His behavior is far from acceptable and the fact that you are willing to defend it raises some questions about your priorities." Flitwick spoke up for the first time since entering the Headmaster's Office.
"Very well, Severus you need to consider whether you wish to remain at this school. You have until the end of this school year to shape up or I will have no choice but to replace you." With that said Dumbledore dismissed everyone. He sincerely hoped Severus would change his ways, the man was far to useful to lose, but he couldn't risk his position here. With Lucius Malfoy on the board of governors defending Severus would be easy, but Lucius would gladly throw his old friend in front of the Knight Bus if it meant removing the Headmaster.
Around the same time that meeting was being held another meeting was occurring at the Granger household outside of London. Amelia Bones had been looking into how the file on Harry Potter had finally made its way into the proper hands when she came across a piece of information that would vastly simplify the legal nightmare that Harry's relocation would otherwise have been, because Harry's case was first brought to light in the muggle legal system in order to move him to a new home they would need to work within the muggle laws concerning such things. However when she discovered that the people behind the start of the investigation were the parents of a mutual friend of her niece and Harry the solution presented itself. In the muggle system the Grangers could apply for legal guardianship, they were in a respected profession and obviously cared about the boys well being, and because they were already aware of the magical world it wouldn't be too difficult to get it dealt with on the magical side. All she needed to do was convince the Grangers that this was the best option for young Harry. It was for this reason that she was currently explaining the finer legal details to David and Jean. Both had been receptive to the idea, especially after they were told about some of the things that had been uncovered about the Dursleys treatment of Harry. They agreed that they would discuss the situation with Harry over the Christmas break, either at the Granger home or in Hogsmead, depending on what Harry decided to do for Christmas.
At the end of November Harry, Hermione, and Susan found themselves running down an abandoned corridor with the Weasley twins. The reason they were running was that they were being chased by Mr. Filch the caretaker. After the events of Halloween the Twins had approached Harry about teaching Ron a lesson for his treatment of Harry's friends, Harry had immediately agreed, all he had asked was that they include Draco Malfoy in the prank, while the blonde had been less annoying than Ron he had still been extremely rude and insulting toward Harry and Harry felt it was only right that he also be taught a lesson. It was during the final preparations for their prank that they found themselves in their current predicament. They had been setting up the trigger for two delayed sticking charms which would have seen Ron and Draco attached at the hip for three hours when Mrs. Norris had come across them. Abandoning their plan the five had made a run for it. They heard Filch getting closer as they turned a corner and ran down a new corridor then cursed their luck when they found the corridor was a dead end, with a locked door. One of the Twins cast a quick "Alohamora" and they all moved into the room on the other side of the door before closing it quickly. They immediately regretted their decision directly in front of them was a giant three-headed dog, luckily it was currently taking a nap and had not noticed that it had visitors. All five students stayed absolutely silent while they listened for Filch, hoping against hope that the caretaker would leave before the dog awoke and decided it was hungry. Just as they were about to leave Susan accidentally kicked a loose floor tile and it went skipping across the floor and hit the great beast in one of its noses. The five students forced there way through the door before the beast could express its displeasure, all five of them deciding they would rather face Filch.
"Blimey." said Fred, or maybe it was George.
"What is a great bloody beast like that-" Said George, or was it Fred?
"-Doing in a school?"
"Well I doubt it was here for the great academic opportunities here." Joked Hermione, she really had come a long way since befriending Harry, before she had never been very good at humor.
"Well," said Harry "in Greek mythology a Cerberus guarded the entrance to the underworld, maybe it is here to guard something."
"But Harry," Hermione brought up, playing along with Harry's obvious plan "what could possibly be so important to need that thing to guard it?"
Harry was glad that Hermione had caught on so quickly, now that they had run into Fluffy it was time to get started on the hunt for the stone. "Well it is probably whatever that hing was Hagrid was getting from Gringotts on my birthday. I mean what are the odds that Hagrid retrieves something for Dumbledore that is so important that it needs to be in a high security vault at Gringotts, and then an entirely different thing is now hidden in the off-limits corridor here?"
Susan was intrigued by this thought "Maybe we should ask Hagrid about it?"
Fred and George were also getting interested "Yeah even if he won't tell us what it is if we can get him talking he might let slip a couple of clues we could use to figure it out. He isn't exactly known for being tight-lipped." Harry and Hermione agreed to the solution and they decided to speak with Hagrid on Saturday.
So it was that on Saturday morning Harry, Hermione, Susan, and the Weasley Twins found themselves drinking tea and talking to Hagrid. The conversation was mostly innocuous with the occasional leading question from one of the students, which led to a couple of revelations, first was that Fluffy was guarding something belonging to Nicholas Flamel, many of the teachers had protections placed around whatever the object was, and that Fluffy could easily be put to sleep with some music. Leaving Hagrid's hut for lunch all five agreed that they would need to do some research into Flamel to figure out what could be hidden in the school. Harry and Hermione secretly agreed to tell Susan and the Twins that it was the Philosopher's Stone after Christmas break.
Harry had decided to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas, despite receiving an invitation from the Grangers to spend the break with them, his main reason for this was that he was concerned that Dumbledore wouldn't give him the cloak if he couldn't keep an eye on Harry's early uses of the cloak. Agreeing with Harry, Hermione informed her parents that she would be staying as well since many of her friends were going to be there for Christmas. Susan had also decided to stay for Christmas though she did tell Harry and Hermione that her aunt wanted to meet with them over the break, and that she had already made arrangements with Professor Sprout for them to meet her in Hogsmead the first Saturday of break.
When the snow outside had made it impossible for them to meditate outdoors they had begun meditating in one of the many unused rooms in the castle. One day a week before break began Harry made his first discovery about his form. "I think I'm a bird of some sort!" Harry exclaimed unable to contain his excitement. Susan and Hermione were impressed, they had all gotten good at pulling on their inner beast, but neither of the girls had managed to learn anything unique enough to give them a real clue what they were. Both knew they were warm-blooded quadrupeds with tails, but that really didn't narrow it down much. They had spoken with Professor McGonagall about their work on the transformation, she was very impressed by their progress. By her estimation they would have discovered their form by March or April, if their excellent progress continued they might complete their transformation by the end of their second year.
Snape had actually been bearable during the month of December, the Hogwarts rumor mill did its usual job of finding the true story right away and then quickly distorting it so that it bore no resemblance to the truth. As a result by December 1st it was common knowledge that there had been a meeting with all the heads of house in which Snape had been given an ultimatum, by the 8th the accepted truth was that Snape had been put under the imperius curse.
Harry, Hermione and Susan were escorted by Professor Sprout down to The Three Broomsticks on the day of their meeting with Amelia Bones. When they arrived Madam Rosmerta showed them into a private room in the back, inside were three people waiting for the kids.
"Mum, dad, what are you doing here!" Hermione said as she ran to hug her parents.
David and Jean both hugged their daughter "Perhaps it would be best if Madam Bones explained why we are here." Jean said letting go of Hermione "Hello Harry, I hope you have kept Hermione from spending too much time studying."
"Hello Mrs. Granger" Harry said as he too received a hug "I have been trying, but you know how she can get." This comment earned Harry a mock glare from Hermione.
"Mr. Potter, Miss Granger, it is a pleasure to finally meet you, Susan has told me quite a bit about you. However today I am here in an official capacity as the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. If we could all take a seat I can explain the situation." Amelia Bones said gesturing to the chairs that were set around a circular table. Everyone took a seat at the table and Amelia continued "Harry I am here because while you have been at Hogwarts certain facts about your life with your relatives have come to the attention of the DMLE. Normally the Dursleys would be outside our jurisdiction, but because they willingly and knowingly took in a wizard as their ward, their treatment of you falls squarely within our laws. They will be put on trial next week and regardless of their sentence you will not be returning to their home."
"Thank you Madam Bones, I can't tell you how much it means to me to know I'll never have to go back there. But how did the DMLE get involved?" Harry asked the beginnings of a smile on his face. He had expected to get the Dursleys arrested in the muggle judicial system, but this was poetic justice. After they had spent years abusing and neglecting him because he was a wizard they would now find themselves at the mercy of witches and wizards.
"Well apparently the day after you left for Hogwarts Mr. and Mrs. Granger asked a friend in Child Services to begin an investigation of your relatives, because they were worried about how you were treated. As a result a number of files that had never been seen by anyone outside of the school you attended found their way into the hands of a Ministry of Magic employee, whose job it is to look through all the files that pass through Child Services and look for signs of accidental magic and subsequent abuse of the magical child by their family or peers. This employee passed your files up the chain of command and they eventually made it to my office. Normally the solution to a problem like this would simply be for a magical family to take you in, however because you are who you are there would be concerns raised about every potential family as everyone would want to take you in so that they could get a little of your fame. Also the fact that your case has gotten pretty far through the muggle justice system means that we would need do quite a bit of Obliviation in order to make your case go away. Luckily because of the fact that the Grangers are the ones who initiated all of this we are presented with a much simpler solution. The Grangers could become your legal guardians, this would eliminate the need to obliviate so many muggle civil servants, and using this as an excuse would undercut any objections that might be raised by the Wizengamot." Amelia finished her explanation and looked Harry directly in the eye "What do you think Harry? Is this an acceptable solution?"
Harry didn't trust his voice enough to speak so he simply nodded a huge grin on his face. Upon seeing him nod Hermione engulfed him in a massive hug.
Amelia was glad to see that Harry would be more than happy to live with the Grangers "Well it has been a pleasure meeting you Harry and Hermione, but I am afraid we must be going. There is quite a bit of paperwork that needs to be finished." With that they all said their good-byes and went their separate ways.
A/N: Okay finalized species for animagus forms: Harry- Common Raven, Hermione- Red Fox, and Susan- Irish Terrier. Check out the wikipedia pages for these if you want some good pictures for visualization. A reviewer asked if memories alone would account for the behavior change in Harry, well here is my thinking; Harry's change in behavior is mostly due to a massive infusion of confidence, he gained that confidence because he can see from the memories he received that he will become a total BAMF over the next few years,, he lacked that confidence in canon because is transition to BAMFism was gradual and he really didn't notice it until the end.
Chapter 8: A Very Harry Christmas
Harry and his friends spent most of the weeks leading up to Christmas in the common room with their fellow Hufflepuffs, though they did occasionally meet up with the Weasley Twins to do research in the library. Most of this research was toward finding a reference to Nicholas Flamel but there was also quite a bit of research into new forms of magic that could be used for pranks. The Twins were delighted that they had managed to so thoroughly corrupt the three first years, and Harry and Hermione were pleased that Susan and the Twins were so interested in finding Flamel. When they weren't in the library or the common room Harry, Hermione, Susan, and the Twins would come up with ideas for pranks to pull on those people that they generally agreed had it coming. The Twins had discovered just how good the three first years were at pranking when they had decided that they needed to teach one of the Slytherin fifth years a lesson after he called Justin a mudblood. The Slytherin in question learned just how awkward sticking charms could make a simple situation like picking your nose. Susan was very imaginative when it came to designing 'object lessons in humility' as they called them, while Harry and Hermione were always able to find some obscure spell that could make even her more outlandish plans work.
Christmas morning found Harry being forcibly dragged from his bed by two very excited witches who had grown tired of waiting for Harry to wake up so they could open their presents. Harry was surprised by the number of presents he had waiting for him, there were the expected presents from Hermione, Susan, Hagrid and Dumbledore, though of course he wasn't supposed to know it was from Dumbledore, but there was also a present from Amelia Bones, David and Jean Granger, many different first years who Harry, Hermione, and Susan had avenged after they were picked on by a Slytherin, and perhaps most surprisingly Mad-Eye Moody. Hermione had gotten him a box set of The Lord of the Rings, her parents had sent him a nice Swiss pocket watch, Susan had given him a book on the history and traditions of the Wizengamot, Amelia had sent him a book about using different types of magic in duels, Hagrid had sent him the same flute he had last time, and most of the first years had sent some kind of candy. When he opened Moody's present he was not entirely surprised to find a collection of books on practical defense, along with the books was a small box which contained an enchanted wand holster that was immune to summoning charms, could turn invisible, and would launch the users wand into his hand with a thought. Moody also sent a note stating that he had heard from a mutual friend that Harry had taken down a troll with a spell he had learned from Moody's book, which he said he was glad had actually managed to teach at least one person something, and had decided to recommend some other books he thought were worth actually looking through. Harry was extremely pleased that he had received the cloak from Dumbledore, one of the primary concerns with the plan was that Dumbledore might have withheld the cloak until he could be certain of controlling Harry.
After they had finished opening presents and thanks had been exchanged they made their way up for breakfast. When they reached the Entrance Hall they met Fred and George who showed them into a secret corridor.
"Merry Christmas you three-" Fred started
"-We got you a little something-"
"-It is the secret to our success-"
"-And after watching the work you three have done-"
"-We have decided that you are worthy successors-"
"-And partners in crime-"
"-Now you won't be getting this immediately-"
"-But in a couple of years we will gladly pass it on to your keeping-"
"-We present to you, the Marauder's Map." they finished together and with a flourish George drew a piece of parchment from a pocket, tapped it with his wand and said "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good". Immediately lines of ink crisscrossed the parchment forming words.
Messrs. Wormtail, Moony, Padfoot, and Prongs proudly present the Marauder's Map
Then the lines formed a map of Hogwarts complete with little dots that showed the name and location of every person in the castle. Harry, Hermione, and Susan all gave appropriate exclamations of awe, though Harry's was more due to the ease with which he had gained access to the map, and they all thanked Fred and George for their trust and generosity. All five of them then made their way to breakfast while discussing the other presents they had received, Fred and George were amazed that Harry had received an invisibility cloak and begged him to let them borrow it on occasion. After breakfast they went back to the Hufflepuff common room where Harry began reading the book Susan had given him. While he was reading the book he came upon the name of House Potter on a list of the Most Ancient and Noble Houses.
"Susan, what exactly does it mean for a house to be 'Most Ancient and Noble'?" Harry asked, not wanting to take the time to scan the rest of the book for an answer.
Susan looked up from the book she had been reading "Oh, well in 1628 many of the smaller houses wanted to restructure the Wizengamot, mostly they wanted to eliminate the practice of taking seats by conquest. In order to get the reforms through they needed to grant some concessions to the more powerful houses, the Most ancient and Noble Houses were the result. The main points of difference are that you, as the last heir of House Potter, can take up your position as head of House Potter at thirteen, which would grant you the title of Lord Potter, and you can take your hereditary seat on the Wizengamot at fifteen instead of seventeen like the other houses with seats."
Harry was intrigued by this development "So if I chose to at thirteen I could take up the title of Lord Potter. What would that do for me?"
Susan giggled at Harry's obvious enthusiasm "You could insist that people call you Lord Potter, most of the other advantages have been stripped from the position over the years. I mean you could demand a trial before the Wizengamot for someone who you feel has wronged your family, but there isn't much point to that because most of the things you could claim that for are already illegal and would see someone put on trial anyways."
Harry thanked Susan for the insight, not letting on how useful that option might be to him in future. That night Harry convinced Hermione and Susan to join him in a test run of the invisibility cloak to head down to the restricted section of the library. Shortly after they arrived in the library Filch made his way past the library, the trio quickly hid themselves under the cloak and made their way out of the library as stealthily as possible. While they were making their way back downstairs Harry began to feel the first pull of a subtle compulsion charm, had he not been waiting for it he might have simply followed it without noticing, but as it was he knew exactly what was going on and followed the charm to find what he already knew to be at the other end. He led the girls to what should have been an empty classroom, only it wasn't inside the room, sitting in full view was the Mirror of Erised.
"I wonder what this mirror is doing here." Harry asked aloud, stepping out from under the cloak to stand in front of the mirror. When he stepped in front of the mirror and looked into it he gasped, and it was only partly for show. He was not alone in the reflection in the mirror, but he had expected that, what he had not expected to see was himself and Hermione as he knew they would look nearly a decade from now. Mirror-Harry turned to face Mirror-Hermione and gave her a loving look before drawing her into a passionate kiss before returning to look out of the mirror. Behind the future version of himself and Hermione were his parents and other relatives. "I-I can see my parents in here." Harry said, stepping back from the mirror.
Susan moved to look into the mirror "Whoa, I can see myself, but I'm sitting at a desk. The nameplate on the desk says I'm... the Minister of Magic."
While Susan was looking into the mirror Hermione was examining the frame of the mirror. "Look at this" she said pointing to the words engraved at the top of the mirror "The words are backwards, but it says 'I show not your face, but your hearts desire'. The mirror must be enchanted to show our deepest desire." Susan had moved out from in front of the mirror so Hermione moved to look into the mirror, when she looked into it tears formed in her eyes and after only a few seconds she looked away.
"What did you see?" Harry asked her gently, moving to stand next to her.
"I-I don't want to talk about it. Can we get out of here, please." Hermione said moving away from the mirror.
"It's alright, you don't have to say anything about it." Harry said pulling her into a gentle hug. She relaxed into the embrace returning Harry's hug. While this exchange was occurring Susan picked up the discarded cloak and handed it to Harry. Ten minutes later all three were in bed, but only Susan was asleep, Harry and Hermione were both kept awake by what they had seen in the mirror.
Harry felt no desire to look into the mirror again, but it was important that his meeting with Dumbledore occur. It was time to begin his plans against Dumbledore, and this was an important first step. So it was that Harry found himself looking past the mirror for an hour the next three nights before Dumbledore finally made his presence known.
"Mr. Potter." Dumbledore said from behind Harry.
Harry smirked inwardly to himself, spun around quickly to face him, drew his wand and, as if on instinct, muttered "Expeliarmus". Dumbledore who had not been expecting anything of this sort from Harry was caught unaware and found his wand flying into Harry's hand.
"Oh, Professor Dumbledore. I'm sorry about that, you really shouldn't sneak up on people late at night. You never know how they might react without thinking." Harry said as he handed Dumbledore back his wand. If Harry hadn't known just how important it was to maintain his composure he would have been jumping up and down shouting in joy as he felt the Elder Wand transferring allegiance away from the old man.
"Do not worry about it Harry. You are right I should be more careful when making my presence known." Dumbledore's grandfatherly smile barely hiding the sense of dread he felt at losing total control of the Elder Wand to the boy he had been trying so hard to control. He could only hope any spell work he did with the wand would still work on Harry, because as far as he knew he wouldn't be able to win the wands allegiance again until Harry reclaimed the wand, and that was unlikely since he wouldn't know that he could do so. "I see you have discovered the wonder of the Mirror of Erised." Harry only nodded "I trust you have figured out what it does?"
"I show not your face, but your heart's desire." Harry quoted to Dumbledore
"Quite true, remember though it does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live. The mirror will be moved tomorrow and I ask you not to go looking for it." Dumbledore said looking into Harry's eyes. He immediately regretted it as his mental probe was met with a splitting pain in his head.
"Of course Professor, good-night." Harry said before slipping out of the room and putting his cloak back on.
Harry spent the next couple of days playing chess against Susan, Hermione and the Twins. Under normal circumstances Hermione would have begged off playing chess, but she understood that Harry was deciding who would need to go through the trapdoor with them in order to beat McGonagall's giant chess set. After what became a week long chess tournament Susan was the clear winner and Harry and Hermione agreed that they would definitely put her in charge of the chess set.
They spent the rest of their break relaxing and it was during one of those lazy afternoons that the opportunity to push the hunt for the stone along presented. Harry had been slowly working his way through the candy he had received for Christmas and he was currently working on the chocolate frogs, when he found the exact card he needed, Albus Dumbledore.
"I found Flamel. Listen to this Albus Dumbledore is best known for... his work on alchemy with Nicholas Flamel." Harry said showing the card to Hermione and Susan.
"Let's go find Fred and George, they'll want to know we finally found Flamel." Susan suggested.
"And now that we know what subject to work in we can find out more about him in the library." Hermione added.
The trio set off to find the Twins so they could relate their discovery. They found them in a classroom on the fifth floor that they commonly used as a meeting room. As soon as they entered the room Susan blurted out "We found Flamel, we're headed to the library, we'll explain on the way." And with that the Twins joined them in the hallway and they headed to the library with Harry explaining how he had come across the information. They were in the library for all of fifteen minutes before Hermione had found the reference they were looking for.
"Nicholas Flamel is the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone." Hermione read from the book, she then proceeded to read an excerpt about what the stone was capable of.
"Well I think that settles it." Said George.
"Dumbledore has hidden the stone under the third floor corridor." Finished Fred.
"He must be really concerned about someone trying to steal it if he is going to all this trouble to protect it." Susan pondered out loud.
"Someone has already tried, I think. Twice if I'm not mistaken." Harry added "There was a break in at Gringotts this summer, and whoever let that troll in at Halloween probably wanted a distraction to have a go at the defenses around the stone."
"They probably didn't get in though or there would be no point in keeping the defenses up. Though given enough time whoever it is probably figured out how to get past all the defenses. So they'll probably try again." Hermione said "But who could it be?"
"Well if we're right and they did let that troll, we can be sure they don't have good intentions if they think unleashing a troll on a school is an acceptable distraction." Susan added helpfully
"But who would be stupid enough-"
"-To try and steal it-"
"-Right out from under Dumbledore's-"
"-distinctive-"
"-though rather crooked-"
"-nose?" The Twins bounced back and forth.
"Well keeping Dumbledore busy in the school obviously didn't work, so they'll probably wait until he is out of the school." Harry supplied.
"We should warn a teacher. Someone should know that the stone isn't safe." Susan said.
"Well we could, but how do we explain how we know about the stone? They'll probably go after the stone the next time Dumbledore leaves the castle, we just need to stop them when they go after it." Harry said
No one could come up with a counterargument so each of them nodded in turn.
"So we're agreed, when Dumbledore leaves we go down the trapdoor and stop whoever is going after the stone." Harry said and they all nodded their agreement.
A/N: Hope you liked this chapter. Next Chapter goes to right before the confrontation with Quirrel. Please review.
Chapter 9: Through the Rabbit Hole
January and February passed without incident while Harry and his friends fell back into the same schedule they had followed before Christmas. All five of them kept an eye on Dumbledore's seat at the high table so they would know immediately if he left for any reason. They set up plans on where to meet and even convinced a few portraits to carry messages so they could contact each other if they were in their common rooms. Snape had apparently found his rhythm, he would be totally professional while teaching his class, he even explained the reasons why potions were made in specific ways, outside of the class he was a ruthless disciplinarian who regularly handed out the strongest punishments allowed by the school rules.
March brought with it great excitement for the three Hufflepuffs, in the second week of March while they were meditating Hermione felt a change in the tension on her inner beast. She suddenly found herself sitting in a forest clearing, while she looked around wondering how she had gotten there a small brown fox walked out of the forest. It walked up to her looked her straight in the eye and she immediately heard a voice in her mind "Welcome mistress, I am Vulpes, the fox. Join with me and we shall run far and learn much." She awoke to find herself sitting under the same tree she had been under before with Harry and Susan looking at her. Two days later Harry had a similar dream, He found himself sitting on a rock near a small stream a raven landed on his arm and he heard a voice in his mind "Welcome master, I am Corvus, the raven. Join with me and we shall fly from here and find what you seek." A week later Susan also found her form a small reddish dog that spoke "Welcome mistress, I am Canem, the hound. Join with me and we will hunt down those who would harm our friends."
McGonagall was impressed when they told her that they had completed the first step and found their forms. She offered to help them with the second step of the transformation and they gladly accepted her offer, after all this step was the one that had the greatest number of potential mistakes. And of course each of those mistakes had dangerous consequences. The second step was forcing a transformation, it involved creating a ritual circle and empowering it under the full moon. Once they had forced the transformation they would remain in their form for five minutes before returning to their normal body, however their senses would immediately be improved by achieving their first transformation. The next full moon was in two weeks so they would all meet Professor McGonagall then in the Entrance Hall.
The night of the full moon arrived and the three children were waiting eagerly for McGonagall to arrive in the Entrance Hall. She arrived ten minutes later carrying three leather pouches and a small camera, she handed one of the pouches to each of the Hufflepuffs before escorting them out onto the grounds. By this time the full moon was high in the sky and provided plenty of light to see by, they made their way to an flat open patch of grass and each of the three students took up a spot where they would have plenty of space to work. McGonagall went over the process with them one last time to make sure they all understood it and they set to work.
First they each withdrew a small silver dagger from the pouch and used it to carve a circle with a seven foot diameter into the soft ground. They then took a bag of fine white sand and poured it into the circular trench they had just carved. Next they carved a series of runes just inside their circle, filling each with sand as it was carved. Finally they withdrew a small jar of gray-green paste and used it to paint a rune on their forehead, the paste had a strong but pleasant herbal smell to it which helped them not focus on what it was made of. At this point McGonagall went around and double checked their work, finding no problems she told them all to proceed. They began a long quasi-Latin incantation slowly making their way around the circle, as they passed each rune it seemed to take in the light cast by the moon until it glowed just as brightly as that celestial orb. Then they returned to the center of their circle and intoned "interius anima regat corpus" and upon completing those words each of them began to change into their forms.
Anyone who has ever asked an Animagus how that first transformation feels has gotten a similar response, it is perhaps the most unnerving sensation they have ever experienced. The process is not exactly painful, but that is not to say that anyone who goes through it would willingly repeat the process. The first transformation is all about teaching your body how to take that new form, but at this point your body isn't designed to make that transformation and must be dragged kicking and screaming, sometimes literally, into that new form. Those who have undergone this process and taken polijuice potion have made comparisons, both give you the feeling that your body is melting into a new form, but with polijuice it is both faster and much more painful. That is to say nothing of the visual to which any observer is treated, which is easily as unnatural as the sensation the person undergoing the transformation feels. With a fully trained Animagus the transformation is both swift and elegant as the body slides fluidly from one form to another. The first transformation is anything but elegant, the body is being forced into a new and wholly unnatural form and it fights that as hard as it can, the result is a jerky transformation which happens piecemeal across the entire body, different body parts flicker unevenly between their old shape and their new one, while the whole body pulses changing size either becoming larger or smaller depending on the final form.
After three extremely disturbing minutes the transformation and there before the Scottish professor stood a raven, a fox, and an Irish terrier. The raven was over two feet in length with striking green eyes and its plumage looked slightly ruffled as though it had been in a strong wind. The fox had chocolate brown eyes, and instead of the red one would usually associate with this species of fox it was instead a very bush light brown. The terrier had passionate blue eyes and beautiful red fur which was a little long and wavy between its ears. Professor McGonagall took a picture of each of them with the camera she had brought with her, the wizarding version of a Polaroid, and waited for them to transform back. When the students returned to their human form McGonagall handed each of them the picture of their form and a small stack of forms.
"Now that you have completed your first transformation you are required by law to register your form with the Ministry. I expect all three of you to bring me these forms, completed, within the next week and I will take care of filing them with the proper authorities. I am very proud of you three, not many have the dedication to reach this stage of the transformation, especially not at such a young age." Having said her piece McGonagall then escorted them back to their common room.
As Harry was saying good-night to the girls he reached up to scratch his head, brushing some hair off his forehead in the process. Hermione immediately reached out and grabbed his arm a look of shock on her face. "Harry, your scar... it's gone."
"Well the book did say the transformation would get rid of any scars we had." Harry pointed out.
"Yes but not curse scars. Those kinds of scars never go away and can't be hidden." Hermione said biting her lower lip.
"Well I guess it was just an ordinary scar, and nobody bothered to check so everyone just assumed it was a curse scar." Harry shrugged before heading to bed.
Over the next couple of days all three of the new animagi were sore, once this soreness passed they would be able to begin the final stage of the animagus transformation. Now that their bodies knew what the transformation should feel like it was simply a matter of training their bodies to do it more easily. They would spend the next year transforming one part of their body back and forth, essentially stretching their metaphorical muscles until there was no resistance to the transformation, at which point they would be full animagi.
March turned into April and April into May with nothing of any significance happening. Ron Weasley apparently hadn't realized that Harry had no interest in being his friend as he had returned to his behavior from the beginning of the year. Malfoy grew bolder taking every opportunity to belittle Harry and his friends, he apparently couldn't make the connection between his inappropriate comments and the embarrassing situations he always found himself in within the next three days. Hagrid got caught with a dragon in his hut, but Dumbledore managed to keep him out of trouble with the Ministry. One day a couple weeks after Hagrid had lost his newest pet he mentioned in passing that some of the unicorns had been killed and the centaurs said that whatever had killed them was drinking their blood. Dumbledore would occasionally leave the castle, but he would always return before dinner the same day. Harry was already pretty certain when Quirrel would make his attempt, but one could never be too cautious when dealing with dark wizards. Harry had somehow convinced Hermione that they didn't need to reread all their notes for the entire year to review for exams, instead they spent that time helping their fellow first years review in the library. These review sessions soon grew beyond just the first year Hufflepuffs, it was not uncommon to find many of the first year Gryfindors, though on the occasions when Ron showed up he was asked to leave by everyone when he became too disruptive. Many Ravenclaws also showed up for these sessions, and most surprisingly Daphne Greengrass, Tracey Davis, and Blaise Zabini of Slytherin also made regular appearances though they didn't need as much help as many of the others. When Harry inquired why those three chose to study with them instead of the other Slytherins Daphne explained that with the possible exception of Theodore Nott none of the other Slytherin first years were all that bright and they really gained nothing from studying with them.
June began and with it came final exams, Harry and Susan were confident with their preparation, but Hermione was her usual nervous wreck leading up to exams. When Harry made a comment to Hermione, in private, that he knew from experience that she would do just fine Hermione accused Harry of cheating because he had memories of the classes from before. Harry pointed out that it really didn't count because he had never actually paid attention to most of his classes originally.
The day finally came that Harry knew they would have to go after the stone, they had just finished their last exams and Hermione had to finally admit that Harry was right and she had gotten far to worked up over them. As they sat down to dinner they were approached by every first year who had showed up to one of their library sessions with thanks for all their help. Harry looked up to the High Table and nudged Hermione directing her attention to Dumbledore's empty seat. She nodded and alerted Susan to Dumbledore's absence while Harry made contact with the Twins, they were all agreed, tonight was the night. The Twins were going to use the map to make there way down to the third floor while Harry, Hermione, and Susan used Harry's cloak to make their way there.
Shortly before midnight they all met up at the top of the third floor stairs, the Twins moved under the cloak and they made their way to the forbidden corridor. They all froze when they heard Peeves the Poltergeist "Who's there? Know you're there even if I can't see you. Are you ghoulie or ghostie or wee student beastie?" Peeves squinted in their direction trying to find them "Should call Filch, I should, if somethings a-creeping around unseen."
Without warning the Twins stepped out from under the cloak and bolted in the other direction, drawing Peeves away from their companions destination "Good luck" they called as they ran. Harry hoped they wouldn't get caught but as it was they didn't have time to worry. When they reached the room that Fluffy occupied they saw that a harp was sitting near its feet.
"Well I guess that proves someone is using this opportunity to go after the stone." Hermione said pulling a wooden box out of her bag. She opened it and a soft melody came out of the music box she had asked her parents to send her from home. As soon as the sounds of the box reached Fluffy all six hungry eyes closed and soon the room was full of rumbling snores. Harry wanted to make a comment comparing those snores to those of a certain redheaded Gryfindor, but it would have confused Susan, so he held his tongue.
Harry opened the trapdoor and looked in "Alright, I'll go first and call up to you if it's safe" and with no further comment he jumped down the trapdoor. He landed in what seemed like a patch of soft vines and quickly climbed out of them, he waited a few moments to maintain appearances before calling up to the girls "Be careful when you get down here, there's some devil's snare. Just get out of it quick and you'll be fine." Hermione and Susan joined him at the bottom of the shaft a few moments later.
"That was way to easy, you don't even need to know about devil's snare to get past it, you just need to be cautious about sitting on strange plants." Susan pointed out.
"Hell you just need to be in a rush and the stupid plant won't have time to react." Harry added.
"If this is any indication of the defenses, its a good thing we're here or the stone would be as good as gone." Hermione huffed.
They walked through a door which led into a tall chamber, the chamber contained hundreds of winged keys. "Huh, this one seems pretty straight forward, just get the right key and unlock the door." Hermione said.
Susan walked over to the other door and examined the handle "It's probably a big, old-fashioned, silver one like the door handle here."
It only took Harry a couple of seconds to find the key with his newly improved eyesight, he actually hadn't needed his glasses since they had made the first animagus transformation and he had even greater clarity on distant details. "There it is, it even has a busted wing." He drew his wand aimed at the key and called out "Diffindo" the cutting charm sliced through the wounded wing and the key dropped to the floor.
As he was doing this Susan had finally noticed the brooms in the corner "Hey we can use these to... or we could just do that." She shrugged when she saw Harry take down the desired key with a single well-placed spell. Harry unlocked the door and they all continued through to the next chamber. As they entered the chamber lights appeared from nowhere to reveal a giant stone chess set.
"Chess, why did it have to be chess. I HATE chess." Hermione said, getting a chuckle from Harry.
Harry made a drum-roll sound "I present to you yet another obscenely obvious challenge." adopting a more serious tone "Now all we have to do is beat a giant chess set in a game, no problem. Susan it's your show."
Susan looked at the chess set for a moment and then made her decision "Alright Harry, you replace the king, Hermione you take the queen's spot. I'll take the king-side rook." They all moved into position and the game began. The game continued as Susan made move after move slowly maneuvering the other side into a position it couldn't win from. "Oh, crap. We can win in two moves, but I'll have to sacrifice myself." Susan finally said.
Fucking deja vu thought Harry but what he said was "If your sure there isn't another way Susan go for it. Based on Dumbledore's record against the Death Eaters I doubt he could bring himself to put up a lethal defense, even around something as important as the stone."
Susan nodded "Alright I'll make my move the knight will take me, and then you tell our bishop to move forward-right three spaces, and that'll be checkmate. Good luck you two." She then moved forward to await her fate. The white knight moved and struck her with its sword before dragging her off the board and returning to where she had been stand. Harry gave the bishop the final command and the white king threw its crown onto the board admitting defeat.
Harry and Hermione checked on Susan, who was unconscious but definitely alive, before continuing through a room with an unconscious troll and into the last challenge before the mirror.
"Alright, originally this was the right bottle to go forward, but I can't remember which one will send you back so you might as well double check everything before I drink this." Harry told Hermione pointing to the smallest bottle.
Hermione read through the scroll provided then spent a couple minutes studying the bottles on the table "Alright, that one is still the one you need to drink, and this one will send me back. Harry these bottles are probably charmed to refill, I can go with you."
At this point Virgil decided to make his first appearance since Christmas "Not a good idea Hermione, for one thing this is the actual Voldemort not just a chunk of his soul, he will remember this encounter. If you are there it will draw the worst kind of attention on you the moment he comes back. Not to mention there is no way of knowing how Dumbles will react to someone going with Harry to face the final challenge, he wants a reckless lone wolf type, not a general."
Hermione looked like she was about to argue but she decided that Virgil was probably right. "Alright, I'll go back. Just be careful Harry, your my best friend, my first friend, I don't know what I'd do without you."
Harry looked her right in the eyes "I know exactly what I am doing. I will be fine and I will come out of that room alive. You are not going to lose me."
"Okay." Hermione hesitated for a moment before continuing "Harry before you go, there's something I need to tell you. When... when I looked into the mirror... at Christmas, I saw us and... I want a chance..."
"I know Hermione, I saw it too." For the rest of their lives, neither of them would ever be able to say who had initiated it, but they found themselves sharing a kiss. Without another word Harry gave Hermione a tight hug, picked up the small bottle and drained it before walking through the wall of fire between him and Voldemort. As he prepared to face the Dark Lord he fingered a small iron rod in his pocket and went over the plan one last time in his head.
He stepped into the chamber containing the Mirror of Erised and said to the man standing before the mirror "Professor Quirrel. I'd say I'm surprised, but I'm really not."