Harry hesitated before answering him though, asking, "What's the Order? You guys have mentioned it a few times now."

"Oh," they all said, blinking in surprise. Sirius said, "it's an anti-Voldemort group."

Remus gave him a light pop on the head before going into far more detail than that.

Harry nodded along, wondering very much why he had such a sense of Deja vu' of Sirius and Remus telling him these things. He shook it off and thanked them when they had answered all of his questions, and then read on eagerly.

Years later, Harry would never quite understand how he sat through his exams when he kept expecting Voldemort to come charging through the doors at any moment.

"Well, since we managed it every year, I don't think the teachers would accept that," James said lightly, trying to force a joke into a deadly awful moment.

Yet the days kept on, and the exams did come. Before they started, each student was given an Anti-Cheating quill.

"Which work far too well," Sirius laughed.

"Sirius did you-" Lily began, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Oh not me," he said at once, "but I knew this seventh year kid who had written a bunch of

answer's down in invisible ink on his arm, and he got them to come back for his eyes alone during the exam right? Well the Anti-Cheating charm made it so that the ink he used was then invisible to anybody but him on his test to. So he basically turned in a blank paper and made a zero." He trailed off in bits of laughter.

"Is that what happens to all the cheaters?" Harry asked.

"No," Remus responded, his eyes twinkling with mirth, "it's a bit specialized for maximum karma on each cheating student. Thankfully, not that many students are stupid enough to try, so I can't think of many more examples."

Harry smiled and decided to keep going.

They had practical exams first. In Charms they were supposed to make a pineapple dance across a table, and in transfiguration they were to turn a mouse into a snuffbox.

"You're not saying how you did," Lily said, wanting to hear her son's results.

Harry thought a moment and said, "I did alright on the tap dancing pineapple, but it fell off in the end, so I didn't get full marks for it. My snuff box still had whiskers on it, but I got ninety percent of it, so again I didn't get full marks, but I passed." He paused, puzzling for a moment and thinking about his other exams he said, "err, I didn't do that well in astronomy, did awful in potions, did really good on my DADA course, despite Quirrell being an awful teacher really."

"What about Herbology?" Remus prompted.

Harry nodded, saying, "that one I did pretty well in."

"Let's keep going then, since I think that was all of them," Sirius said brightly.

In potions they were set to make a Forgetfulness potion.

"Points for irony," Lily chuckled.

Harry tried his hardest in all of these, despite the near constant prickling of his scar, which had been happening ever since his trip into the forest.

"It's not bothering you now though, right?" James demanded at once, still stuck on the oddity of it paining him at all but since they still had no idea of who or why he'd rather ask this question then one he knew Harry couldn't answer.

"No," Harry said, "and I promise I'll tell you if it does."

They all relaxed at once at that.

Harry had been having nightmares again as well, now accompanied by a hooded figure dripping blood.

"Did not want that mental image," Sirius groaned.

Ron and Hermione didn't seem as worried over the Stone as Harry seemed to,

"They have more confidence I suppose," James offered, having noted several times how little confidence his son seemed to have. Another thing he blamed those Dursley's for.

though Voldemort scared them plenty, but they were both too busy studying to worry about much else.

"And there's that," Remus agreed, those exams were enough to make anyone study, even this lot of trouble makers.

Their last exam was History of Magic.

"Oh yeah," they all said brightly, but it was so easy to forget about this class.

"I did alright on that one," Harry said, shrugging, "not that good, but better than I thought."

"That's all anyone can hope for on that test," Sirius chuckled.

Harry smiled over at him, then felt an odd wincing pain. What was it about a History of Magic exam and Sirius that would cause that? Brushing it off, he quickly hurried on, not really liking the aching feeling that was growing inside of him.

After they left Hermione said this one was easier then she'd been expecting,

"I bet she said that about all of her exams," Lily laughed.

and how she hadn't needed to learn about the Werewolf Code of Conduct from 1637

"That's second year material," Remus rolled his eyes.

or the uprising of Elfric the Eager.

"And so is that," James laughed.

"I'm impressed you guys remember anything from that class," Sirius said, a bit dumbfounded.

She did this a lot, went back through and examined every exam, which only annoyed Ron. The three of them had made it out into the sun by now, and laid out under a tree.

The three friends smiled nostalgically at this, wondering if this happened to be the same tree they always sat under. The odd's made it seem unlikely, but it would still be something if he did.

Fred, George, and Lee Jordan could be seen in the distance tickling the giant squid.

"Be careful with that," James said at once, "that thing pulled Peter in the lake once for doing that."

"He spit him out though," Sirius said, laughing loudly at the memory.

It was a warm and sunny day without a care in the world. Ron was praising that they didn't have to do anymore studying, and that Harry should cheer up more, they wouldn't find out how badly they did for months.

"Now that's the right attitude," James laughed, having told Remus that more than once.

Harry was rubbing at his forehead, his mind not on exams as he told them his scar was still hurting. He claimed he felt it was some sort of warning, that danger was near.

Lily quirked a brow at this, saying slowly, "the last time it happened though, was at the start of term feast. What was dangerous about that?"

Their minds scattered, but they all came back to one idea. They hadn't discussed it yet, but since Harry had told them Snape definitely wasn't the culprit, then the only other person who might be was a stuttering fool who clearly couldn't stand up to anyone.

Easy pickings for Voldemort to control sure, but how? To many questions, not enough patience to wait around and speculate, Harry was already going on.

Ron still didn't seem too concerned, saying that they still had no proof Snape knew how to get past Fluffy, that Hagrid surely wouldn't tell anyone.

"Well, Ron's gotten better at reassuring people," Remus agreed.

Harry agreed, though insisted he felt like he was forgetting something. Hermione told him that was just exam nerves, that she'd woken up last night and gone over her Transfiguration notes, before remembering they'd already done that one.

"I don't think so," Harry muttered to himself, churning everything he had learned so far over in his mind, but then deciding to let the book continue, rather than strain himself again. He really didn't want another memory blast like the last one.

Harry still couldn't make his mind agree, turning everything over as he thought of Hagrid. Hagrid would never let Dumbledore down, would never tell anyone about Fluffy...except- Harry lunged to his feet.

"What did you figure out?" James asked.

Harry wasn't listening, he had figured it out at the same time he had in the book, and he was too panicked to explain so he read on.

Ron startled and demanded to know where Harry was going, and Harry said they had to go see Hagrid, now! Hermione tried to ask why while keeping up with a now running Harry, who explained that it was a bit of a coincidence that Hagrid had just happen to win a dragon egg, when it was illegal to carry them around in pockets.

All four adults sat there like they'd just been smacked in the face.

"Oh bloody hell," Sirius cried.

"How on earth did I miss that," Remus hissed in self-disgust.

"Well we were a bit preoccupied with the dragon itself," James muttered, rubbing his temple in agitation.

"Oh, I really hope Hagrid didn't..." Lily trailed off, looking worriedly at her son who was still

going paler as he kept going.

How it must have been lucky for that wizard to run into Hagrid who wanted a dragon more than anything else.

"I'm confounded, really I am," all three boys were muttering something similar to this, how could they have missed a detail like that?

They reached Hagrid's hut, who was outside sitting in the sun, and Harry began asking about the night Hagrid won Norbert. Asking if perhaps he recognized the stranger who had his egg? Hagrid said he never even saw the face, how he wouldn't take his cloak off,

"And he didn't find that the least bit odd?" James demanded.

but that wasn't so unusual in a place like the Hog's Head.

"Okay, fair point that," Lily agreed, they had all been in there at some point.

It wasn't to out there that he could have been a dragon dealer.

Remus muttered something to himself, yes that's what they had thought at the time, but the timing! It was just too perfect that a dragon dealer would show up when Hagrid had information like that.

Harry wasn't giving them much time for self-pity, he was reading on in too much of a rush.

Harry asked what they talked about, and Hagrid described his job here on the grounds, and the creatures he looked after. Fluffy might have come up at some point, the stranger kept buying Hagrid drinks.

"Oh no," Sirius moaned, wanting to smash his head against the wall.

"Of all the bloody," James trailed off in frustration.

"Did Hagrid not recognize the voice though?" Lily asked.

Remus snorted, saying, "oh please Miss Potion Master, you're telling me you don't know a way to disguise your voice and throw on a hood."

Lily nodded in acceptance of that.

Harry asked if the stranger was interested in Fluffy, and Hagrid agreed he was, three headed dogs were a rarity, but Fluffy was easy enough to handle if you knew what to do with him. Just play him a bit of music and he'd go straight off to sleep-

All four adults face palmed at that.

"It's official," James mumbled, "we are idiots."

"Apparently all you have to do to get information out of Hagrid is just keep him talking for more than five minutes," Sirius agreed.

"Yeah great," Remus said, a bit of anxiety colouring his tone, "now we know you can put the three headed dog to sleep by singing it a lullaby, but Harry you better wipe that look off of your face right now."

They all whipped around to look at their boy, and Harry tried to fix his features, but it was too late.

"Harry, no," Lily begged, "you didn't."

Harry was gnawing his lip to pieces as he struggled to remember, saying slowly, "something happens, I can't for the life of me remember, but something bad happens. So yeah, I'm going to say we did."

All four of them leaned back into their seats, looking on at him in stunned disbelief.

An eleven year old boy went to get past that dog, and probably fifty more enchantments, after a fully grown wizard, possibly Voldemort himself. How on earth was this kid still alive?

Harry decided to keep reading now while they were all still stunned.

Hagrid stopped himself, but it was too late. The three friends tore off again, heading back to the castle, now looking for Dumbledore's office.

The boys were still too stunned to make a mention of where they knew the office to be, not that it would have made a difference then.

They reached the entrance hall before realizing they had no idea where to go, and didn't know anyone to ask.

Sirius opened his mouth, his mind actually starting to turn on again, and said weakly, "if those Weasley twins are anything like I think, they would know."

"You're encouraging this!" Lily blew up at him at once.

"I'm encouraging them to go find Dumbledore's office," he snapped right back. "Jeez, keep your hair on woman."

Lily deflated and apologized at once.

This argument finally shook Remus and James out of there stupors as well. None of them were happy about what Harry said was fixing to happen, but it had already happened. So they would just try to make the best of it as they went, and try to remember to breathe in the process.

Harry began to say they would just have to- but was cut off by a voice calling out to them.

"What were you going to say?" James asked curiously.

"Go to McGonagall," Harry replied, a small smile twitching his lips as he actually did remember who was about to come down the stairs.

It was McGonagall,

"Speak of the teacher," Lily said, trying to make a joke.

who asked what they were up to. Hermione said that they wanted to see Dumbledore, and she asked them why.

"Well I can't blame her for that," Remus agreed, forcing a smile onto his face, "not many students actually want to go see the Headmaster, since it normally means they're in trouble."

Harry hesitated before saying it was a secret,

The three boys snorted in real amusement at this, James saying, "Harry, you really shouldn't have said that."

Professor McGonagall was not pleased, telling them that Dumbledore left ten minutes ago.

Harry fidgeted hard, while the four people around him cried out in a panic. Before they could really start to freak out, the sensory charm went off, and Lily made a beeline for her baby's room.

She came back down cradling her son, but then noticing how devastated the two boys on the other couch looked, decided to take pity on them and said, "one of you want to hold him while I get his bottle?"

"I'll hold him," Sirius said brightly, forcing the rising panic very far down and focusing on the task at hand.

"I'll get the bottle," Remus said, getting up and making his way into the kitchen before Lily could.

Lily sighed as she sat back down next to her son, and then asked sadly, "is this the bad thing you mentioned?"

Harry nodded, saying, "yeah, sorry I didn't remember that."

"Not your fault," James sighed, running his hand through his hair in agitation.

Remus came back in, and the two boys had a brief squabble who was going to get to feed the baby. Remus won, and Harry decided to keep reading.

He had received a note from the Ministry telling him to go off to London.

"Timing," Sirius muttered snidely, none of them in any way thinking this was a coincidence.

Harry exclaimed his surprise, and McGonagall reminded Harry that Dumbledore was a very important wizard who had many obligations besides Hogwarts.

"True," Lily sighed, "but now? On the day of exams, when all the teachers are the busiest? Perfect opportunity much?"

"To bad McGonagall doesn't agree," Harry said sadly.

Harry tried to reason with her, going all out and admitting this was about the Philosopher's

Stone.

"That'll toss her," Remus said, surprised Harry would admit something like that so quickly, though it only emphasized how much of a panic he was in.

McGonagall began spluttering in surprise about how could they know about that,

"I'll give her that," James agreed, "it would be a shock for a couple of first years to have figured that out."

but Harry cut her off and says that he thinks someone was going to try and steal the Stone. She continued eyeing them with suspicion,

"Suspicious of what?" Lily asked.

"Probably thought this was an elaborate prank," Sirius offered, this being his usual fall back excuse.

but then repeated that Dumbledore wouldn't be back until tomorrow.

"Why?" All of the adults asked in shock.

"He can just go to the edge of the school grounds and apparte," Remus said like it was the most obvious thing in the world, "he'd get there and they would wonder why he was there, then he'd rush back realizing he'd been duped."

"Or the flew network, or a portkey, or bloody anything," James added on.

Harry shrugged, saying weakly, "I've no idea."

All of them sighed in defeat, admitting there was nothing else for it.

She assures them that the Stone is too well protected to be stolen, and tells them to go back outside.

"This is awful," Lily groaned, "I can't even blame her for not believing you, this is pretty out

there, but now you're going to..." she trailed off, too horrified to even say it aloud, and none of them needed her to.

Harry turned unhappily to his friends, telling them that Snape was going to do it tonight, and speak of the teacher, he chose that moment to come up from the dungeons and sneer good afternoon at them.

"Not anymore now that you're here," Sirius said hotly.

"Sirius," Lily snapped, "you're saying you don't believe Harry."

"Of course I believe him," he scoffed, "and I'll admit I was wrong about him wanting to steal the Stone and all that, but it doesn't mean I suddenly like him. He's still been an arse to Harry all year for no good reason."

Lily sighed as she looked up at the ceiling, taking that victory for what it was.

Snape then made a snide comment that they really shouldn't be sneaking around, because Gryffindor really couldn't lose any more points.

"Git," James agreed with Sirius, did he really need to go rubbing that in right now?

Harry waits until he leaves before turning back to his friends and coming up with a plan, saying someone needed to keep an eye on Snape, and asks Hermione if she will.

"That sounds like a horrible idea," Remus said in disbelief, "I can't imagine any of you could follow him without his noticing."

"Hopefully she goes to fetch the cloak, that will make it a bit easier," Sirius offered.

"But Snape didn't do it," James sighed, "so following him is pointless."

"There's that to," Lily chuckled.

Harry was blushing slightly, it's not like he'd known that at the time, so he was just trying to cover all of his bases.

He and Ron would wait outside of Fluffy's door.

"Why?" James demanded this time, "What good would it do you two to hang around out there."

Harry hesitated a moment before answering, "we were hoping if Snape ran into us before he went into the dog, we could stall him long enough someone would arrive. Either that, or go get McGonagall again and force her to come up to see Snape doing something, you know once he'd told us to go away."

"And it's too much to hope none of that happens?" Lily asked without any real hope.

The shake of Harry's head was all the answer she needed, she had already resigned her fate to what Harry had said they were going to do earlier.

That didn't work out so well because McGonagall came around again,

"Maybe she did believe you, and was checking on the Stone herself," Sirius asked.

Harry shrugged, pausing a moment to rub his ears at the telling off he and Ron were about to get.

and told them that if she caught them up in this corridor again she'd take another hundred points away from Gryffindor. Harry and Ron went back to their common room, dejected but at least semi assured Hermione was watching Snape when she came into the portrait hole herself.

"So, that didn't work," James said sadly, wincing when he saw how down trodden Harry looked.

"Cheer up pup," Sirius said bracingly when he noticed this too, "you survive at least."

Harry sighed miserably and said what he had been thinking for a while now, "It's just, looking back, I feel like an idiot. I was wrong about it being Snape, no one believed us even though something really wrong was going on, and nothing we did seemed to have made any difference. For all I know, Voldemort really does get the Stone, and him coming back is all my fault."

"That's nonsense," Remus spoke up first before any of the others could protest, "you were eleven Harry. Think about that for a moment. Yes you were wrong about who was trying to steal it, but three first years figured it out when no one else did. Through a bit of luck yeah, but still, that's more than impressive. As for if," he stressed that word out, "Voldemort did come back, it has nothing to do with it being your fault. I'd blame the bloody school and Dumbledore himself before blaming you for that."

Harry smiled at him, but still didn't look totally convinced, until Lily said, "Harry dear think about all you've done in this year alone. All those things that gave us panic attacks, you got through them on your own, with the help of your friends. You're clearly a very smart, capable boy, who's doing everything he can to do the right thing. We are all more than proud of you, no matter what comes of this."

It seemed to take a while for this to sink in, but then Harry really did begin to smile, until he was beaming around at all of them.

Baby Harry burped in Remus' arms, and the timing of that was so unexpected, they all couldn't help but laugh for a few minutes, just enjoying each other's company.

Sucking in a deep breath, Harry read on with confidence.

She explained that she got caught out there as well, and that they were out of options now. Harry however, said that they were done going around, it was time they go get the Stone themselves. Ron told Harry he was mad.

"Kind of want to agree with him," Sirius rolled his eyes, when he caught sight of Harry's face he quickly added on, "in the best way possible of course."

Harry snorted in amusement at that before reading.

That he refused to sit around and just wait for Voldemort to come back to full power, and possibly turn Hogwarts into a school for the Dark Arts.

"Now there's a horrifying thought," Remus agreed.

Or worse be sent back to live with the Dursleys full time while waiting for Voldemort to come find him.

"No," James said in fear, "that is a horrifying thought."

All five of them shivered in disgust at that idea.

Finishing with the reminder that Voldemort killed his parents.

Then the four adults sighed, unable to argue with him after this little speech.

"Did I mention how proud we are of you?" James asked in a conversational tone.

"It never gets old to hear it," Harry said, smiling around at them all.

"Then we'll just have to say it more often," Lily said, running a hand lovingly through his hair again.

Harry leaned into the touch, feeling relaxed and ready to take on the world, quite the opposite of how he'd been feeling then. Upset and angry at the world for leaving him in a no win situation, or at least that's how it had felt.

Ron and Hermione exchange a small look before Ron voiced whether the cloak would cover all three of them.

"It should," Sirius said brightly, "it covered all four of us, at least our first year. Starting second year, we had to crouch, and after that, it never covered more than two of us at a time."

"Good to know," Lily snorted at this random input.

Harry repeated all three of them in confusion.

"Come off it," Remus chuckled, "you didn't really think your friends would let you go alone after that little speech."

"I didn't want them to be in danger," Harry said sadly.

"Well, if they're anything like my friends, you couldn't stop them if you wanted to," James

laughed.

Hermione pointed out that Harry certainly wasn't going alone. Harry pointed out to them that if they got caught, they were likely to be kicked out of school as well. Hermione chose that moment to say that she'd already heard from Professor Flitwick that she had gotten a perfect score on her exam.

They were all pulled out of the dark path Harry was about to jump down, once again stunned in the face of Hermione Granger.

"Has anyone ever made a perfect score?" Lily asked.

"Guess they have now," Sirius laughed.

Declaring no one was throwing her out for that.

"Going to have to agree with her on that one," Remus chuckled.

The three of them were quite for the rest of the night, to wound up for what they were going to do to talk much. Hermione kept herself apart, trying to read up and hopefully come across a spell they were going to have to get past.

"I would like to repeat that, the teachers of this school set up those enchantments. Unless she's reading past a seventh year level, then I will be truly astounded if she comes across them," Sirius said.

Harry merely shrugged, he had a good feeling that it was only because of Hermione that he had survived this night at all.

When Harry went upstairs to get his cloak, he came across the flute Hagrid had sent him for Christmas and pocketed it.

"Convenient," Lily muttered.

Just as they were leaving for the trapdoor, a voice called out what they were doing.

"Not Percy, anyone but Percy," Sirius was saying to himself. He too had already resigned his fate to hearing about more death threats to his little pup, he really didn't want it to be delayed by a Prefect.

It was Neville, and Harry was quick to try and reassure him they weren't up to anything, and that Neville should go back up to bed.

"You clearly weren't any better at lying then, then you are now," Remus wanted to laugh, but he was still a bit too wound up to really.

Neville doesn't believe them, and instead guesses right that they were going out again. He insists that they shouldn't, that Gryffindor would just get in trouble again.

"Kids got a point," James said.

"Don't suppose you explain everything and he comes along?" Sirius asked.

"No," Harry said, wincing as he did vaguely remember feeling guilty for what was about to

happen.

Harry tries to tell him otherwise, but Neville stands his ground and says he'd fight them not to leave.

"Wow," they all said in surprise, not having seen this coming at all.

Ron snaps that Neville was being an idiot,

"And here Ron was the one telling him not to let people call him an idiot," Lily said, finding even more irony as this went on.

but Neville snaps back that Ron was the one telling him that he should stand up to people.

"I don't think he meant them," Remus said lightly, still very glad Neville had taken those words to heart.

Then he puts his fists up and repeats he wouldn't let them leave, didn't want to see them get into more trouble.

"This is the best Gryffindor student yet," James laughed, then looked at Harry and said, "except for you and your friends of course."

Harry snorted, but still felt feelings of guilt as he kept going.

Hermione apologizes for what she's about to do, then cries out the spell Petrificus Totalus.

"Ouch," all five of them winced in sympathy.

"I suppose, since you were really desperate to get around him, that was the best way to go," Remus said sadly.

"Snape did that to me once," Sirius said in regret, "bastard left me stuffed behind the broom shed for an hour before James found me."

Lily had her lips pursed, forcing herself not to say anything.

Harry still felt really guilty for doing this, but then for some odd reason he pondered why he had this feeling like Neville was going to be rewarded for it?

They felt guilty for it, but still turned and left while slipping the invisibility cloak on.

"Poor kid," they all said one more time before coming back to the ugly realization of where Harry and his friends were off to so fast, and suddenly wishing Neville had really stopped them.

They travelled through the mostly deserted hallways, only coming across Mrs. Norris whostood there for several moments just staring at them.

"Always hated it when she did that," Remus said.

Just before they made it to the door, they also ran into Peeves. He recognized someone was there, even if he couldn't see them,

"I always loved the way he talked to himself," James chuckled.

and muttered to himself that he should call for Filch if someone was creeping around the castle.

"You see Lily," Remus said, bringing up an argument from much earlier, when their biggest fear in the world was Harry getting caught by Filch. "Peeves' first instinct when he doesn't know what's going on is to call Filch. He does want to keep this castle safe as anyone else."

Lily nodded, accepting this logic.

Harry got the sudden idea to try and imitate the Bloody Baron, telling Peeves he had his reasons for being invisible.

"Wow," James said with glee, "I didn't think to do that until the end of my first year to."

"Yeah, but you did a horrible impression of him, and you still got caught," Sirius laughed.

"Peter was the best at faking it," Remus added, laughing at his two friends as they made faces at each other.

Peeves instantly bought it, nearly falling out of the air in his surprise.

"Well he clearly bought Harry's," Sirius said in surprise.

Harry then instructed Peeves to stay away from this area for the rest of the night, which Peeves agrees to at once.

"Bloody brilliant son," James said, clapping Harry on the back, then wincing when he had to remind himself where Harry was sneaking off to.

They finally made it to the door, to find it already left cracked open.

"It's rude not to close the door behind you," Lily rolled her eyes, wishing that was the worst thing about this situation.

Harry offered his friends one more chance to go back, but they both refused.

Harry sighed, missing his two friends more and more the longer this went on. He hoped they were alright, whenever they were.

They entered Fluffy's room to find a harp sitting off to the side, deciding Snape must have

left it there.

Sirius couldn't help it, he cracked up laughing at that. "Sorry," he gasped, getting the stank eye from Lily, "I just couldn't help myself. Picturing that slime ball in a dress, playing the harp," he trailed off, giggling like a child, and even Harry, James and Remus joined in.

Fluffy was not happy to see them, beginning to growl at once, but Harry quickly put the flute to his lips and began playing, putting the dog to sleep instantly.

"Well that was easy enough," Lily said in surprise.

"Wish that was all it took to put all dogs to sleep," James said, throwing a smirk at Sirius.

Sirius put his nose in the air, ignoring that comment.

Ron and Hermione slip around the dog to the trapdoor, Ron offers Hermione if she'd like to go first.

"Chivalry is flattery," Remus chuckled.

She snaps not, so it's Ron who pulls on the ring,

"Guess it would be a bad thing if I said they were lucky the dog didn't just land on the stupid door," James sighed.

which swings the door open.

"Still can't believe these two doors are so easy to get past," Remus sighed.

"Speak for yourself," Harry grumbled, finding being in the room with Fluffy not a very pleasant memory no matter what state he was in.

Hermione asks if Ron can see anything, which he denies, saying it's just a black drop.

"And break your necks cause you're not old enough to know about cushioning charms," Lily muttered.

Harry waved his arm around and then pointed at himself.

"You are getting far too noble for your own good," Lily sighed. If she thought it out logically, she was kind of happy Harry went first, because she knew he was safe and sound. If one of his friends had gone first, she might be afraid they would get really hurt, or worse. It still didn't have to make her happy though.

Harry passes the flute on to Hermione so she can continue playing and then goes around to where Ron is, lowering himself down a bit, before turning to Ron and instructing that if he didn't hear from Harry, to go to the owlery and send an owl to Dumbledore, telling him what was going on.

All four adults balked at this, Sirius demanding, "you couldn't have thought of that hours ago?"

"It was too late by then," Harry defended, though really he hadn't thought of it until that moment. At their still disbelieving looks, Harry half shouted, "You didn't think of it either."

That cooled them all down.

Ron agreed, and Harry muttered that he'd see him in a minute then, he hoped.

Remus snorted slightly, not really wanting to think 'famous last words' but the thought flitted across his mind anyways.

Then Harry let go and fell through the air before landing with a flump.

"Better then squish I suppose," Sirius muttered, keeping a protective eye on the Harry reading for any sign of injury he might remember.

He seemed to have landed on something soft.

"Soft?" Remus asked, "Why would you go past a three headed dog, down a long drop, just to land on something soft?"

All of them noticed the edge of unease going into Harry's voice as he shrugged before continuing.

He felt around a bit, though his eyes weren't properly adjusting, and decided he must have landed on a plant.

"Not good, very not good," Sirius said at once, going slightly bug eyed.

"I'm agreeing with you on that," Harry said, readjusting himself, "I don't like this plant, it-" he

broke off in agitation, letting out a huff of frustration before going.

He called back up to his friends, who were quick to jump down next to him. Ron landed first, noting it was lucky the plant was there, but as Hermione landed she screamed in fear that they should take a look at themselves.

All four of the graduates were going over every deadly plant they had learned while in school, and the longer this dragged on, the worse it was getting.

She tried to get to her feet and struggled toward the far wall,

"Struggled?" James asked weakly.

because the moment she landed the plant came to life and began trying to wrap itself around her.

"Devil's Snare," Lily groaned.

"That'll suffocate you unless you light it on fire!" Remus yelped.

"Still not helping," Sirius snapped at them, then he turned to Harry and said, "keep going, I want to see which one of you remembers that."

Harry and Ron had been still too long, and were now wrapped up tightly.

"How do you not notice that?" Lily winced in disgust.

Hermione was quick to recognize what it was, Devil's Snare,

Lily was genuinely shocked that she knew that, it wasn't a common plant and wouldn't normally be learned until much later in life because of just how dangerous but inconspicuous it looked. She wondered how Hermione had come across this, but couldn't work up the nerve to ask Harry if he even knew.

and Ron's response was to say that he was so glad that he now knew the name of what was killing him.

The boys couldn't help it, they all released a weak laugh. All of them could appreciate sarcasm in the face of danger.

Hermione told them to shut up so she could remember how to kill it, which Harry asked her to hurry up with as he was having problems breathing.

"While I understand the need for urgency," Lily muttered, suddenly wishing Harry wasn't the one reading so she could clutch his hand again, "when does yelling ever help?"

Harry just gave her an exasperated look.

All Hermione could seem to remember was that this plant liked living in the dark and damp, and Harry told her to light a fire then.

"The Bluebell Fire she conjures all the time should work," Remus said swiftly, then winced when James and Sirius glared at him for that interruption.

Hermione agreed this was a good idea, then wailed that there wasn't any wood!

"No wood," Sirius said, looking faint, "bloody hell I suppose we should just be grateful she didn't shrink against the wall and freeze up again."

Ron lost it and shouted at her that she was a bloody witch! Hermione came to her senses and conjured the Bluebell Flame again, which the plant began cringing away from at once. When they were free, Harry praised that it was lucky Hermione payed attention in Herbology.

"Lucky that girl reads more than any other human," James huffed, Merlin were they only past two obstacles? "Devil's Snare is advanced that is. Easy enough if you have its weakness around, but still a hassle."

While Ron said it was lucky they didn't lose their heads in a crisis, then repeated back mocking Hermione that there was no wood around.

"I only hope her freezing doesn't become a habit," Sirius said sadly.

"I hope they don't keep getting into situations where she has to freeze up," Lily snapped.

Harry convinced them to press on then, and they began heading down a dark passageway. Harry couldn't help but be reminded of the underground of Gingtott's, and then his mind leapt to what would happen if they found a dragon down here.

"Don't," Sirius said at once, going almost white, "don't you dare say there's a fully grown dragon hanging around down there."

Harry paused for a moment, before shaking his head slowly, no he felt like he wouldn't run into another dragon that soon, before reading.

He was listening hard, and instead heard something rustling and clinking ahead.

Sirius shivered, remembering the clankers, this wasn't getting any better.

They reached the end of the passage and instead saw the chamber was full of jewel bright birds.

"Not dragons then," Remus said bracingly to Sirius.

"What are they then?" Lily asked, "jewel birds? I've never heard of anything like that."

None of them could think of what they could be, so didn't stop Harry as he read.

Harry watched them for a moment, but they didn't seem to harmful, so he put his hands above his head and decided to sprint across and try to get to the next door.

All four of them held their breath slightly through this, not wanting to mention how dangerous that could have been.

Nothing happened, he reached the opposite side untouched.

"I'm going to have grey hair by the end of your first year," James said miserably, for some reason hearing his son make it through all of these horrible problems weren't getting easier the more he heard about them.

Ron and Hermione were quick to join him, but all three pulling together couldn't open the door, not even Hermione with her Alohomora charm.

"They couldn't have used that spell on Fluffy's door," Lily huffed to herself.

Harry turned his attention back to the birds, knowing they couldn't just be there for

decoration, before he took a closer look at them individually and realized they were keys.

"Charmed keys, of course," Remus said, rolling his eyes.

Looking around the rest of the room more properly, he also noticed some brooms off to the side. He realized they would have to catch the key to the door.

"And they're all going be identical, and you've got to know a seventh year charm to figure out which key goes to the lock," Lily said, not really able to hide the hope in her voice that even Hermione wouldn't know that spell.

Ron looked from the keys to the door handle and decided that the one they were looking for was probably silver like the door handle.

"They weren't all the same colour?" Lily asked in disbelief.

"No," Harry said, "they were every colour you could think of, and they all had different wing

colours to."

The three of them went over to brooms and began swooping through the storm of keys, Harry managing to spot the one they were looking for.

James couldn't help but give a slow clap in applause for his son noticing something like that, the other two Quidditch nuts in agreement.

Lily wanted to smack them all again.

Harry pointed it out to the others, and Ron went speeding in that direction, nearly crashing into the ceiling in the process.

Sirius couldn't help the snort that came when he heard that. He was so stressed, any small amount of humour was welcome.

Harry changed tactics and instead told them to stay where they were, block of the key's path while he chased after it.

"You're really taking charge of them," James said in surprise.

"I can recall more than one occasion where you gave us the game plan on the spot," Remus told him.

Harry managed to catch it and quickly went back to the ground, stuffing the key in its whole and letting it fly off again.

"What if the door locked behind you?" Lily yelped, "you should have kept that key."

Harry shrugged, for some odd reason he had no feelings whatsoever about going back through all of this. He had no idea why that was, perhaps there was another exit where the Stone was being kept?

"How come Quirrell didn't keep it," James pointed out.

"Maybe there's some charm, preventing it from leaving that room," Remus offered. "After all, they weren't traveling along the open passage either."

They were able to pull that door open now and went through into the next chamber.

"Anyone want to take a guess?" James offered weakly, his knee bouncing in both fear and

anticipation, he couldn't help it. Despite the real danger Harry was walking towards, he and his friends had made it pretty far, farther than anyone would have given them credit for.

When no one answered him, Harry just read on.

They had come across a humongous board squared off with black and white sections, with huge chess pieces taller than they were stationed in their correct locations.

"And guess who's the excellent chess player," Remus said in disbelief.

Lily blinked, then blinked again, before whispering, "no way."

"Something wrong Lily?" James asked her.

She pursed her lips for a moment, before shaking her head saying, "Just anxious for this to be over." Privately she was thinking about coincidences, and how she didn't believe in them...

Harry and Hermione were stunned, but Ron pointed out it was obvious, they had to win the game to get across.

"Glad that's so obvious," Sirius snorted.

Then he deduced that they would have to be chess pieces.

"Be the chessmen," Remus demanded, "you just said they were how big? No offense Harry, but I don't really think just because you take the places of the pieces, you get their ability to break apart don't really think just because you take the places of the pieces, you get their ability to break apart the other pieces."

Harry was suddenly looking very nervous, fidgeting all over, and Sirius smacked Remus lightly for worrying the kid. Harry was feeling odd for a different reason though, he wasn't worried about himself. Ron, something to do with Ron here, he huffed and kept going.

"Did you at least try to walk past them," Lily asked with almost a hint at sarcasm, as she knew as well as anyone that wouldn't work.

"Yes," Harry shrugged, "but they blocked us. Don't know why that wouldn't be mentioned."

Ron walked up to the knight piece and touched the rider's horse, which came to life with a stamp of its hoof and looked expectantly at Ron.

"They're transfigured then," James sighed, running his hand through his hair.

Ron quickly came to the decision of what pieces they should be, Harry a bishop and Hermione next to him as a castle,

"The castle and bishop aren't next to each other," Lily pointed out.

"He meant on the same side of the king, not on opposite ends," Harry smirked.

and Ron would be a knight.

"I think he seems to rather be enjoying this too much," Remus said a little weakly.

The three pieces Ron had indicated walked off the board.

"Oh good," James said, brightening at Remus' earlier words, "I'm hoping that means the white pieces will just walk off as well."

They got into position and waited for the white to move first, while Harry couldn't help but fear, what if they lost?

"Not helping Harry," Lily muttered. She wanted them to lose, to be stuck in this chamber until a teacher came down for them, or preferably Dumbledore.

The bad part came when Ron sacrificed a piece which the queen demolished, slamming it to the floor as hard as it could, and dragging it off the board.

"Great," Sirius muttered, trying to stop a shaking feeling beginning in his legs, "just what I wanted to hear."

Ron was an excellent chess player though, and managed to take as many pieces as he lost, still managing to keep Harry and Hermione out of the game as much as possible.

"That's got to be the most complicated game of chess ever," James breathed, "having to go the whole game without losing three particular pieces."

The end of the game came near, and the Queen's piece turned a blank, expectant look on Ron.

All five of them shuttered at this, not liking that mental image one bit.

Ron whispered to himself that he would have to let himself be taken.

"NO!" Harry yelped so loudly, baby Harry began crying again.

Harry shuddered, then apologized, James ignored that and said quickly, "but he's alright yeah? I mean..." he trailed off, Harry looked pretty frightened, and none of them could stand it if Harry's best friend was killed like this.

"I-" Harry began weakly, looking around at all of them miserably, "I want to say yes, but I can't remember and-"

Lily leaned forward, smoothing the hair down on his head for a brief moment, then his hair sprang back up again and Lily forced a smile onto her face saying, "don't push for the memory. Just trust your gut, it's been right so far yeah?"

Harry sucked in a deep breath before he concentrated, not on his pounding head, but exactly where his mother had said. After a moment, Harry opened his eyes again, and they could all see that he had calmed down. He nodded, whispered, "yeah, he's going to be fine," and then read on quickly wanting to get past this, what he felt, was the worst part of the book so far.

Hermione and Harry tried to protest, but Ron convinced them it was the only way to get forward and keep the Stone safe. It took some persuading, but he did convince them, and then stepped forward to let the queen pounce on him.

Harry's voice was stuttering worse than he remembered Quirrell's voice, so hoping to distract him and calm him back down Remus asked, "one step? He didn't mean that literally? Knights can only move three paces?"

Harry was instantly distracted, his thoughts breaking away from that horrid mental image of his best friend falling to the ground without getting back up, and answered, "err, yeah when I say he stepped, I meant he stepped two forward, and once to the left. Right into the Queen's sight," he finished in a mutter.

They all exchanged upset looks, but it had worked. Harry was marginally calmer, enough that as he read his voice was intelligible.

She came forward and knocked Ron to the ground, where he stayed, clearly knocked out.

Harry was shaking by the end of this, he could have done without that memory being restored, but it was over now, and he trusted his gut. Ron had to be fine, otherwise any permanent injuries he had would be all his fault.

Harry still took three steps forward to the left,

"I thought Hermione was the castle," James blurted.

"Three spaces diagonally to the left," Harry corrected himself, feeling out of sorts, and not

knowing why the book wouldn't have mentioned that detail.

and claimed checkmate. Harry and Hermione were free to pass, though they hesitated and

continued staring at Ron for a moment longer before Harry comforted the both of them

that he would be fine.

"Did it work then?" Remus asked.

Harry shrugged, he had to believe it then as he had to now, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to live with himself.

They forced themselves to go on, trying to figure out what could be next as they went down the list of teachers, realizing all that was left was Snape and Quirrell. They reached the next door, and Harry pushed it open.

"Please be potions," Lily muttered, "I can deal with a potions test." She had remained quiet

throughout most of this, fearing she might throw up if she thought to hard about where her son was.

They came into a room with a troll in it,

"Another troll?" James said in surprise.

"That must have been Quirrell's thing," Sirius pointed out.

"Well, at least now you have practice taking that out," Remus said brightly.

Lily was frowning, puzzling over it, before saying slowly, "if that troll's been down there since the beginning of the year, and put down there by Quirrell most likely, why on earth wouldn't that troll on Halloween make anyone suspicious of him."

"Furthermore," Remus agreed, going wide eyed at what he realized Lily was saying, "none of them would have found it the least bit off he fainted at it? It's clearly what he put down there, since there's no other subject except potions, and for some reason I don't see Snape doing this."

"I think Dumbledore did know," Harry muttered, speaking without thinking, "he just didn't have any proof, so he put Snape on him to watch him, ouch!" he finished, pressing his hand to his temple.

All four of them gave him upset looks, but Harry came back quickly enough. Blinking and

rubbing his temple still, he huffed, "anyways, yeah, I've no idea why he didn't get sacked, cause you guys make an excellent point."

The four of them gave each other agitated looks, but didn't stop Harry as he kept going.

which was already unconscious.

"Well that made it easier," Sirius muttered.

Harry muttered how happy he was they didn't have to deal with that one as well,

"Yeah, wouldn't want more troll boogies on your wand," James agreed.

as they finally made it to the last room which seemed the barest of all. It only held a single table, with seven different vials on it.

"Snape's," Remus sighed, this might not be good.

The moment they stepped into the room, a purple fire sprang up behind them,

"Oh," Lily said at once, "that's a really difficult potion you have to make. If you get one thing

wrong, you'll be poisoned before you finish swallowing," ignoring the agitated looks the boys were giving her, and she said they freaked her out, she continued, "but it takes weeks to prep that potion correctly. How on earth..." she trailed off when she saw Harry giving her a small smile, then she blushed when she realized she'd done it again.

Almost laughing at the look on his mom's face, Harry kept going, feeling very calm all of a

sudden.

at the same time that a black flame went up in front of them, blocking the next doorway.

"That's a completely different potion," Lily said, unable to stop herself, "but very similar to the purple flame, only one ingredient is different, so this just got even more difficult."

James snorted, he loved his wife.

Hermione noticed a slip of paper that held a riddle on it, detailing how to find the correct potions bottles to get through each fire.

"Oh I get it," Lily said brightly, "the potions are already brewed in the different bottles, and you've got to use logic to figure out which ones. Very clever."

"I'm rather insulted you're so impressed with this," Sirius told her honestly.

Lily sniffed, suddenly wishing she were in the room with Harry then so that she could have a proper look at this riddle herself. If she really wanted to, she might even be able to figure it out right now just from these clues, but she allowed Harry to go on.

Harry felt stumped, but Hermione exclaimed she could do this. Claiming that a lot of the greatest wizards couldn't because this was purely logic.

"Sirius," Lily coughed under her breath.

"Aw," Sirius cooed at her, "you just called me one of the greatest wizards."

Lily twisted her face in annoyance at him, while the other three boys laughed at the exchange.

Harry asked if they'd be stuck as well,

"Nah," Remus said, the happy feeling gone at once as a knot began forming in this throat when he remembered what was behind that door, he pressed on anyways, "Hermione's the most logical witch at that school. You're in safe hands."

and Hermione promised she could work it out. After reading over the riddle several more times, she came up with the solution, saying that the smallest bottle was the one that would lead them forward, towards the Stone. Harry looks in it and sees that it is hardly one swallow's worth.

"Why wouldn't Quirrell have just drank it all?" James asked.

"It probably magically refills itself after you go through," Remus suggested.

Then Harry asked which would take her backwards.

"You're sending her back?" Sirius demanded.

"Yes," Harry said stoutly, he didn't regret this decision one bit.

"You think she'll go?" Remus asked, Harry's friends seemed very loyal to him, something they all

"You think she'll go?" Remus asked, Harry's friends seemed very loyal to him, something they all treasured deeply.

"Oh, she left," Harry said quietly, though he read for them.

Hermione pointed out the correct bottle, and Harry convinced her that she should go back. Get Ron, and go get a message to Dumbledore, while Harry admitted that he couldn't hold Snape off for long, recognizing he wasn't really a match for him.

"You recognize this now?" James asked, feeling faint, "after all that?"

Harry shrugged, he really didn't have a plan when he had walked into this, and yeah he had to admit he felt rather lucky to be alive right now.

Instead of letting all of them get a comment in about how stupid he felt right now, he kept reading loudly.

Hermione pointed out that what if You-Know-Who was in there with them?

They all shuddered in disgust at the idea of that, while Harry fought off the impulse to agree Hermione wasn't too far off.

Harry reminded that he'd gotten lucky the first time, while pointing at the lightning scar on his forehead, and hopefully he'd get lucky again.

"Luck?" Lily muttered, looking faint, "I very much doubt what happened then was luck."

Harry gave her a puzzled look, wondering if his mother might have an idea what did happen that night, but he was too eager to hear about Ron being okay.

Hermione was getting teary by this point, telling Harry that he was such a good person and that he should be careful as she gave him a hug.

"You two are adorable," Remus said weakly.

"I almost burst into tears at that little speech," Sirius snickered, he agreed with Hermione, but it made it easier on him if he just picked on his little Harry. It was how he coped.

Harry told Hermione to drink her potion first, asking if she was positive of which it was?

"I wouldn't lose faith in her now," James said, he had full confidence in the girl.

Hermione took her drink and shuddered, saying it felt like drinking ice.

Lily nodded, she had faith in the girl to, but the description of the correct potion felt reassuring.

Harry watched her go back through the purple flames before drinking his own and going into the final chamber. What he found inside was not Snape, it wasn't even Voldemort.

"Well the no Voldemort part was reassuring," Remus muttered as Harry passed him the book.