Sorting

Harry anxiously awaited his turn to be sorted. He knew many of the children and wasn’t surprised at what house they were placed in, but he wondered about his special friends. The first to be called was Hermione Granger. He had just met her on the train and she seemed like a know-it-all, but there was something about her that he thought he liked and hoped he would get to know her better. It was no surprise when she was sorted into Ravenclaw. He had known his friend Neville Longbottom for a long time, but he wasn’t sure which house the boy would go to. Harry suspected that Neville would be a Hufflepuff, but knew that Neville’s grandmother still hoped that he would be like his father and be sorted into Gryffindor. The hat took a few minutes, but placed Neville in Hufflepuff. Harry grinned when the hat immediately placed Draco Malfoy into Slytherin. Part of Harry hoped that he would be placed into Slytherin, too. That way he could spend more time near his Dad, but he suspected that “destiny” had other ideas. Ronald would surely be placed in Gryffindor with all of his brothers, so Harry would have a special friend in each house, but where did he belong?

He startled when Professor McGonagall, who he considered to be his grandmother, crisply called his name. As Harry rushed to the stool he glanced up at Remus who smiled and winked at him and  then his father who solemnly nodded toward the stool. Harry spend several minutes under the hat who eventually called out “Hufflepuff.” After taking his seat with his fellow badgers he looked at his father who nodded again. Harry could tell by his father’s eyes that the man was pleased. Uncle Remus grinned at him, but Harry wasn’t surprised about that.

Halloween

It was complete chaos. Everyone was running around screaming until Headmaster Dumbledore used sonorous and called them to order. Harry looked around worriedly for his friends. Hermione was safe with the Ravenclaws and Percy was dragging Ronald into the Gryffindor line. He was able to spot Draco very quickly among the Slytherins and had to wonder why they would be sent to the dungeons. Isn’t that where Quirrell had spotted the troll? As he thought of Quirrell he turned to look at the man who lay passed out on the floor only to notice that the man had his head raised and was looking around the room. As Neville grabbed Harry’s arm to assure that he was following the other Hufflepuffs, Harry noticed that the man had begun to sneak out of the Great Hall.

He pointed him out to Neville. “He’s up to something. I’m going to follow him.”

“You’d better not. Your Dad will kill you if you get hurt.” Harry rolled his eyes at his best friend. “I mean, we should tell someone.”

“The only ones who would believe me are my Dad and Uncle and they’re not around,” Harry whispered and took off after Professor Quirrell. Neville looked around and took off after Harry.

A few minutes later they found themselves in the third floor corridor. Hiding in a doorway, they peeked out to see what Quirrell was up to. Why would he be opening that door? Both boys knew that a very large, very dangerous, three-headed dog was hidden behind it. Quirrell pulled out his wand and pointed it at the door. As he opened it the ferocious dog began barking. Neville and Harry were no longer hiding and stood gaping at Quirrell as he attempted to subdue the dog. That’s when Severus appeared out of the shadows. “What do you think you’re doing, Quirinius?”

“J-just ch-checking to make sure that-that the st-stone is s-safe.”

“I’m sure,” stated Severus. “I will be reporting your actions to Albus.”

“And he’ll want to know why you were here,” replied Quirinius without stuttering.

“Oh, he knows,” Severus intoned. Suddenly he spun around. “And just what are you two miscreants doing here?” he rebuked.

Harry and Neville looked at each other. They knew that he wasn’t really asking. “You two will come with me.” His tone brooked no argument so the boys followed closely in the man’s wake, practically running to keep up.

Harry was disappointed when his father arrived at his office and ordered the boys to sit. Harry had been hoping that this meeting would take place at home. His Dad usually met with him in the office when he was the most angry. He looked out of the corner of his eye at Neville who seemed to be trembling.

“Mr. Longbottom and Mr. Potter,” he drawled, “what were you doing in a forbidden area of the castle?” He waited.

Harry waited too. He knew there would be more. His Dad would be quite angry that they hadn’t gone straight to the Hufflepuff common room as ordered. Honestly, his father was a nut about safety. However, his father didn’t go on. Harry eyed Neville, but the boy was pale and shaking. It occurred to Harry that his best friend might be about to puke so he spoke up. “Dad, it’s not Neville’s fault. He didn’t do anything wrong.”

Severus narrowed his eyes at Harry.

“I mean, Professor Snape. Sorry, sir.”

Snape nodded. He wasn’t surprised that Harry had forgotten, but he was angry enough that he wasn’t going to make it easy for the child.

“I believe that I saw Mr. Longbottom in the third floor corridor with you. Or was that my imagination?”

“Yeah, but he was only there because he didn’t want me to do something stupid.”

“Explain, Mr. Potter.” So Harry told his father what had happened. The man eyed the both sternly. “You both know better than to put your lives in danger. Mr. Longbottom, you are lucky that I am not calling your grandmother, this time.”

Neville sighed. “Thank you, sir.”

“You will be serving detention with me tomorrow at 7:00.” Neville nodded. “Mr. Potter, you have three detentions with me, beginning tomorrow at 7:00.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Mr. Longbottom, come with me. I’ll walk you to your common room.” Both boys started to rise, “No, Mr. Potter, you will wait right here. I believe we need to discuss this more.” Harry nodded. He was pretty sure that he would have to endure a very long lecture and some time over his father’s knees in a few minutes.

Christmas

Harry eagerly boarded the train at Hogmeade station. He and his friends had things to discuss. It was hard to get any privacy at the castle, but they could sit together on the Hogwarts Express and not worry about eavesdroppers. When they arrived at King’s Cross, Severus would be there waiting to floo Harry directly back to the castle. Harry walked down the aisle looking for his friends, but most cars were full. Finally, as he walked into the final car, he saw Draco standing at the end of the aisle. Harry almost snorted, but managed to hold it in. The well-coiffed boy had his arms crossed and was tapping his foot impatiently.

“What took you so long, Harry? We’ve all been waiting for you.”

“What’s the rush? We have all day.”

Just then Hermione leaned out of a compartment, “C’mon, Harry, I have news.”

Harry, Ron, Neville, Draco, and Hermione had been trying to discover what the three-headed dog was guarding. From some chats with Hagrid, they knew it had been at Gringotts, brought to the castle by Hagrid, and had something to do with Nicolas  Flamel. That’s where they got stuck. They couldn’t find anything about a Nicolas Flamel.

Harry settled into the compartment with his friends and looked expectantly at Hermione. Instead of talking, she began passing out chocolate frogs. “What’s this about? I thought you had news,” grumbled Ron as he stuffed a chocolate frog into his mouth.

As the rest of her friends nodded agreement with Ron, Hermione ordered, “Read your wizard cards.” She paused. “Does anybody have somebody that we personally know?”

“I have headmaster Dumbledore,” Neville answered.

“Read it to us, please,” requested Hermione.

Neville, reluctantly began to read the card aloud. “Albus Dumbledore, Currently headmaster of Hogwarts.”

“Like we didn’t know that,” interrupted Draco, who was quickly hushed by Hermione.

Neville continued, “Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the Dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon’s blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner,  NICOLAS FLAMEL!”

“It was right in front of our noses all along,” Harry lamented.

“How did you discover this, Hermione, you almost never eat chocolate frogs!” exclaimed Ron.

Hermione shrugged, “I decided it would be fun to collect them. I’ve been sharing my candy with Lavender and Pavarti, and they’ve been giving me their doubles.”

Hermione’s friends laughed, but Neville soon got them back on topic. “I’m still not sure who Nicolas Flamel is.”

“Oh, sorry. He was easy to find once I knew he was an alchemist,” Hermione explained. Then she went on to explain what she had discovered including that she suspected that Fluffy was guarding the philosopher’s stone.

“But why would Quirrell want the philosopher’s stone?” asked Draco.

Neville, who along with the others strongly suspected the Dark Arts professor because of what he had witnessed on Halloween, “Lots of people want power and having lots of gold will give you power.”

Draco snorted as he whispered, “And lots of it.”

“We’ve got to tell someone that he’s after it,” Ron stated.

“My Dad already knows and he’ll kill me if he finds out that we’ve been researching it.”

“Well, I guess since he already suspects Professor Quirrell and the headmaster is aware, we should just keep our eyes and ears open. We can tell someone if we learn something new that would help,” Hermione suggested.

“Yes, I guess our research has really just caught us up to what Uncle Sev already knew.”

Easter

Draco, Harry, and Ron were fully enjoying their Easter Holidays and rushed down to see Hagrid. Hermione, of course, was rewriting her notes for all of her classes. Usually, Hagrid greeted the boys with a friendly welcome, but today he barely opened the door. Upon discovering the dragon, who just happened to be hatching right when they arrived, the boys were flabbergasted. Harry, however, saw this as an opportunity and he began questioning Hagrid about how he obtained the egg. Hagrid, who was busy getting to know his new dragon, through the use of baby talk, which sounded ridiculous coming from the half giant, was too distracted not to answer.

Harry: “Where did you get a dragon egg?”

Hagrid: “I didn’t find it; i won it. DIdn’t I Norbert. Yes, Mummy won you in a game of cards.”

Norbert: Hiss. Spit. Scratch. Nip. Blow fire.

Harry: “Who did you beat at cards?”

Norbert: Belch.

Hagrid: (tickling Norbert under the chin) “Aww, there’s a big burp, Norby. Mummy knows that feels good.”

Harry: “Hagrid.”

Hagrid: “Hmm?”

Norbert: Spits fire.

Harry: “Who’d you beat at cards?”

Hagrid: “I don’t know. He had his head covered.” Hagrid switched to his sing-song voice.
“Didn’t he, Norbert? Yes, he did.”

Norbert: Burps fire.

Harry: “But why?”

Hagrid: “Because I wanted to be a dragon Mummy. Didn’t I Norbert? Yes I did.”

Harry, who knew that Hagrid wasn’t good at cards: “So this guy would have let anybody have the egg, if they beat him at cards?”

Hagrid actually stood and looked at Harry: “No, of course not. He made me tell him about my experience with dangerous animals.”

Draco, who had caught on: “Like what?”

Hagrid bend back down toward the ferocious, baby dragon, feeding it brandy mixed with chicken blood: “I told him about the Thestrals and Aragog. Oh, yeah, and Fluffy of course. I told him that vicious animals usually just need to right approach. Fluffy falls asleep every time he hears music.”

Ron, who was feeling very afraid: “Well, Hagrid, we have to go. Take good care of Norbert.”

Draco: “Bye, Hagrid”

Harry: “We’ll see you soon.”

Norbert turned and blew fire toward them.

As the boys ran toward the castle, Ron exclaimed, “You have got to tell your Dad about this.”

“But we don’t want to get Hagrid in trouble.” Draco was having very mixed feelings about finally meeting a dragon.

“My dad will take care of it without getting Hagrid in trouble. Besides, I think he told Quirrell how to get past Fluffy.”

“I don’t want to be there when you tell him, “ shuddered Ron.

“Me neither,” added Draco.

“That’s fine. You two go revise and I’ll go see my Dad.”

Harry was a bit worried that his father would be angry, but Severus was too pleased  that his son had come to him to be angry. He made Harry promise to stay in their quarters and sent messages to Harry’s friends restricting them to their houses. Then he paid three visits.

His first visit was to Hagrid where he admired Norbert, had some further discussion with Hagrid about how he had obtained the dragon, and convinced the man that Norbert would be better off at a dragon reserve. Hagrid promised to arrange for Norbert to be moved within a week.

His next visit was to Albus Dumbledore. After an argument about his son’s destiny, he found Remus and the two of them headed for the obstacle course that surrounded the stone. Upon arrival in the final chamber they found something they were not expecting. Voldemort, from the back of Quirrell’s head, was trying to convince Harry to produce the stone.

The voice hissed, “GIve me the ssstone, Misssster Potter. If you work with me, we’ll be ssssuperb. We’ll bring your parentssss back from the grave.”

Harry didn’t know what to do. He certainly didn’t want to help Voldemort get a body, but he did like the idea of bringing his Mom and James back to life, but he didn’t really believe Voldemort. Severus and Remus froze. Why was Harry here instead of where he was told to be and how could they rescue him without somebody being killed.

They didn’t have time to respond before Voldemort spoke again. “Timesss up, Missster Potter, Avada Kedrava.”

Harry fell to the ground. Severus and Remus ran forward screaming, “NOOO!”

Meanwhile, Harry was looking around. He seemed to have been transported elsewhere, out in the country with green fields as far as he could see. He spun around and noticed that two people were walking toward him.  He considered running, but there was nowhere to go, so he slowly walked toward them. When they got close, he recognized them. It was his mother and James. He rushed into his mother’s arms and then hugged James, too. “You’re alive?”

“No, honey,” Lily said quietly, her finger tracing the side of her boy’s cheek.

“Am I dead?”

Lily didn’t answer so Harry looked to James. “Probably not.”

“Well then, what’s going on? Is this heaven?”

“No, Harry. This is just a place for us to meet and talk.” She paused, “Let’s sit down and have tea.” A table for three with tea and biscuits appeared in front of them. James pulled out a chair for Lily and then invited Harry to sit down. He did.

James spoke, “Harry, we have some things we want to tell you.”

Lily added, “Yes, Harry. We want you to know how much we love you.”

Harry didn’t respond as he felt tears filling his eyes.

“And Harry,” James added, “We’re so glad that Severus and Remus are raising you. They’re doing a fine job.”

“James knows that Severus is your biological father.”

“And I’m fine with that, but you should know that I’ll always love you, just as much, even though I’m not your biological father.”

“Thanks,” whispered Harry. “I miss you, both of you.” He looked at each of his parents.

“And we miss you,” Lily said.

“But, why am I here? What’s going on?”

“You know how Headmaster Dumbledore is always talking about your destiny?”

“Yes, but Dad.” Harry grimaced just a bit here.

“It’s okay, he’s your Dad.”

“Well, Dad and Uncle Remus said to ignore him.”

“And they were right,” Lily reassured as she lay her hand on top of Harry’s.

“But Albus was sort of right, too,” explained James. Harry tilted his head. “There was just a bit of Voldemort inside of you.”

Harry gasped and started to push back from the table, but Lily grabbed his hand. “It’s okay. It’s gone now.”

“It is?”

“Yes, Voldemort killed it himself when he shot Avada Kedavra at you.”

“Now there’s just one piece of him left. When that piece dies, he’ll be gone forever.”

“That’s good news, but how will he die? He’s on the back of Quirrell’s head.”

“When that piece of his soul leaves Professor Quirrell, it won’t have any place to go and it will dissipate.”

“Huh?”

“It will just disappear.”

“Oh.”

“So, what am I doing here?”

“Oh, Honey.” Lily pulled Harry in for another hug.

“When Voldemort used the Avada Kedavra on you, he didn’t just kill his soul, he killed you, too.”

“But you said that I’m not dead.”

“Well you aren’t really.”

“Sweetie, you have to make a choice. You can go back or stay and go on with us.”

“But, that’s not…”

“I know, it’s not fair, but you should know that time is weird here.”

“Yes, it feels like we’ve only been here a few days, but it’s been years.”

“But, it feels like you’ve been with us for a couple of hours, but it’s only been a few seconds.”

“Would you like to see?” Harry nodded. James pulled a mirror out of his pocket. Harry peered into it and saw the room with the mirror.  His Dad and Uncle were hovered over his body and Quirrell/Voldemort was aiming his wand at them.

“Oh, no.”

“Would you like to go back and warn them?” Lily asked gently.

“Yes, but then I won’t see you anymore.”

“That’s true, but you know we love you and, although it will feel like a long time to you, we’ll see you again, soon.”

Harry hugged both Lily and James tight. “Goodbye, I love you.” Suddenly he was back in the room with the mirror. He sat up suddenly, “Look out.” Remus and Severus both turned and fired spells at Quirrell.  Apparently one cast Alarte Ascendare, while the other cast Incarcerous, because as ropes formed around him, he flew straight up and banged his head on the ceiling. Then he dropped to the ground, where he lay still.

Harry looked at his Dad. “Is he dead?”

“Just knocked out, I think.” Just then a black goo leaked out of Quirrell’s left ear and seeped across the floor toward Harry. Severus grabbed Harry and pulled him away, but the goo, turned and headed for him.

“Wait, Dad. I think that’s Voldemort.”

“I know, move away.”

“No, he can’t get me.” He pulled away from his father and reached toward the goo. Remus and Severus both grabbed at him, but not before the goo touched Harry’s hand. They all stared as it turned into steam and disappeared, leaving a small black stain on the floor. “He’s gone,” Harry said and looked up at his father who looked super angry.

“How dare you touch that! You could have been killed!”

“But I wasn’t. Mum and James told me something like this would happen.”

Just then,  Quirrell groaned. “We have to take care of Quirinius, but rest assured that we will be having a long discussion about this young man.”

Harry just sighed. He was pretty sure his father would listen to him later.