Hogwarts, a week later

"Harry", Hermione asked, "Did you find out anything about that stone?"

They were sitting in the Common Room in front of the fire after curfew. There were only a few stragglers in the room who were busy with homework, wizard chess or exploding snap while Harry, Neville, Ron and Hermione were talking. The match-ups for the chess tournament had been announced this morning and Ron was looking for people to play with him. His first match was less than 2 weeks away and any of the Lions who spent any time in the common room had seen him demolish one opponent after another. They weren't going to sign up to be humiliated by him. None of the three presently sitting with him were going to go against him either. They wanted to have a chance to be in the tournament beyond the first round.

Now that Hermione asked him, he realised that he had almost forgotten Fluffy and the Sorcerer's stone. Between raiding Filch's office and the broomstick match, he had not thought about it and the stone was important because it could help people extend their life.

He turned to Hermione, "From what I know, the stone is being kept at Hogwarts for safety. The three headed dog is only the first level of defence. There are bound to be a few more down there. As for what it can do, it can give life to a dying man."

She raised an eyebrow, "How do you know so much about it?"

Harry patiently explained, "It is written in a book that one of the uses of the stone is to give eternal life to the possessor. This is how the Flamels have been staying alive for the last 600 years."

Ron asked him, "Do you figure that Snape wants it to extend his life-span or live forever?"

Neville answered for them, "We don't think that Snape wants it for himself. He wants it for someone else."

Hermione asked him in a small voice, "Who? Who would be powerful enough to force Professor Snape to do something for him?"

"Voldemort", Harry said grimly while Hermione and Ron yelped in shock.

After she was over her shock, she asked him, "Do you really think that Professor Snape is working for Voldemort? But Voldemort is dead, isn't he? You yourself had killed him. Harry I know that he doesn't like you but to say that Professor Snape was a death eater…?"

"Hermione, Snape was a death eater during the war. He only escaped punishment because Dumbledore vouched for him saying Snape had been his spy all along. But, I'm not buying it", Harry replied.

"Why? Do you think Professor Dumbledore would lie? Don't you trust him? Do you think he would save a death eater who has committed crimes?", she asked all those questions in one breath.

After she was done ranting, Harry answered her, "Hermione, I believe that Dumbledore is the greatest wizard alive and I would trust him with my life. But he is not always straight-forward or simple. He has a fault that he believes the best of everyone no matter how much evidence there is to the contrary. He is the Headmaster of Hogwarts, the Chief Warlock and the Supreme Mugwump of the ICW. One cannot acquire such positions in his life if he stays straight and honest. While Dumbledore is a great man, he is also a master manipulator. He is like a chess master who knows all the pieces on the board and moves them according to his plans. As for Snape, my grand-uncle Lord Black told me that he was a death eater and not a spy for Dumbledore, at least not from the start. You see Snape was friendly with Regulus Arcturus Black, Sirius's brother and Regulus was close to his grand-father. Regulus told him that Snape was never Dumbledore's favourite pupil. His circle of friends always consisted of those who became death eaters later. In fact, if we are to believe it, Snape sat in Voldemort's inner circle and was one of his favoured ones. If he was Dumbledore's spy from the start, we would have prevented a lot of deaths. Being inner circle, he certainly would have murdered people or cast at least one unforgiveable in his life. Also there are certain secrets which I don't generally reveal but one of them is that Voldemort didn't die that night. He is still out there somewhere."

She arched an eyebrow, "What is an unforgivable? And how could Voldemort stay alive?"

Harry sighed, "I didn't realise that I was giving a lecture where you can ask questions, Hermione. Alright, I will answer these. I don't know how he survived that night but he is alive. The Unforgivables is used to refer to a set of three curses. Anyone who casts any one of these three would get a one way ticket to Azkaban. Even ministry Aurors and Ministry Officials cannot use an unforgiveable without permission."

She asked again, "What are those three curses?"

Neville snorted, "You don't know when to quit, do you? There are three very nasty curses but just talking about them gives me the creeps and I don't want to give anyone nightmares. Maybe another time."

Hermione figured that none of them were tell her anything more. She also knew that she could find the information in the library if she really looked. Besides, it was bound to come up in their studies sooner or later.

Headmaster's office

The Minister of Magic, Amelia Bones, had come to talk with Albus in his office, "Albus, we need to make some special arrangements for the coming term", she said.

"To what are you referring, Minister?", he asked curiously.

She smiled, "Please call me Amelia, Albus." Then more sombrely, she continued, " Do you recall that we had announced that education would be available to those werewolf children who are of school going age and able to wield a wand?"

"Ah, yes", he nodded. He knew where this was going, "How many have you found so far, Amelia?"

She was surprised, "You sure guessed a lot from a question, Albus."

His eyes twinkled as he replied, "One of the advantages of being a century old, I suppose."

She chuckled, "We've found 5 of them so far. It's a start, but I suppose there are more out there. I know there have never been werewolf students at Hogwarts before. So I don't knowhow …"

Albus waved his hand as he interrupted her mid-sentence, "If you'll excuse me, Amelia. Indeed, there has been a student at Hogwarts who was a werewolf. I myself went to offer him a place at the school years ago and he was one of the best students of his age. For his monthly transformation, we used to sneak him into a place where he could not harm anyone. And that was before the discovery of wolfsbane. Things should be easier now with them being able to keep their minds while they transform."

Her mouth was open in surprise, "But Albus that was risky. What if he had harmed anyone at the school? Who was it? Also Wolfsbane does not come cheap. I don't need to tell you how bad the condition of the ministry coffers is."

Albus shook his head, "he is living a very respectable life at this moment and is well known in the community. I will not give away his secret. We kept him isolated at a place where he could not harm anyone. I would need some funds to refurnish that place though. As for the other problem, I have heard, Lord Black is starting a potions business under the name of 'Potter Potions' that will only deal with specialised potions. He may be amenable to supply it to us at a lower rate than what prevails in the market. You'd have to ask him though."

She nodded, "Since you already know what preparations you should make, I will leave it to you. As for Lord Black, I will go meet him tomorrow. In our last meeting, he was ready to go abroad saying that the townhouse did not suit him."

Defence professor's office

It had already been three days since that oaf, Hagrid, had let slip to Quirrell about how to tame the Cerberus. Voldemort had yet to test the verity of the half-giant's word. The oaf told him that to tame the three headed beast, he would only need to make it listen to some music.

Music, as it turned out, was neither Voldemort nor Quirrell's forte. Voldemort had never needed to do anything with it and Quirrell apparently had never felt the need to learn to play an instrument either. There was only one solution that occurred to him i.e. he would obtain an enchanted instrument that could play itself and smuggle it into the castle. (Of course, the muggles had something they called a "boom box", but those did not work anywhere on the grounds of Hogwarts due to interference from the exceedingly strong magical field there.)

He could not get an instrument through owl order because he suspected that Dumbledore checked all his mail. He could go down to the village to buy an instrument but that might attract unwanted attention. Dumbledore was friendly with the villagers so it would take no time for the news to reach his ears and he would find a way to poke his crooked nose into his business. He could not ask for leave to go to London on any pretext because he recently had taken a leave and used his only excuse for that. However there was one way for him. Easter holidays were next month and then he could go out without anyone questioning him. For now, he would try and see what he could come up with.

The problem that he expected to encounter was Severus Snape. Snape miraculously always seemed to pop up out of nowhere every time Quirrell went anywhere near that door on the third floor. Any plan had to include some way to be sure that Snape would be otherwise occupied while he made the attempt.

He had spent a couple of days trying to find a way when one of the elves of the castle brought a lute to him. It looked very old and there were runes etched in the mahogany of the top but the enchantment seemed to have worn off. If he could not restore the enchantments, Quirrell would have to play the instrument himself and he just didn't have the skill. Such a frustrating detail, but he was sure he could figure it out.

Headmaster's office

Dumbledore had so many things to do that he was thinking about taking a sabbatical just to get away from it all. But, that was not to be. He was the Chief Warlock even though he had temporarily given his post to Elder Ogden. He was also the Supreme Mugwump of the ICW and the ICW always kept conferring with him on issues of importance. Lastly and most importantly, he was the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and this post was fraught with dangers.

He had the sorcerer's stone to protect from Voldemort, to find his horcruxes and to train young Harry so that when the time for confrontation came, the child would be more than ready. Albus will be beside him but it was Harry's destiny to kill him. Dumbledore could only be the guiding hand and nothing more. He had wanted to retire a decade ago but his love for teaching and the fact that Tom was not yet dead had stayed his decision. If Tom had died, he would have retired happily but that hadn't happened. If Tom had died, he could have placed Harry in foster care of any of the houses of the Grand Alliance and they would have been happy to take him in. In fact, Augusta Longbottom had insisted that Harry should be given into her care as Alice was his godmother.

In between all his occupations, Dumbledore never found the time for entertainment. In fact nobody ever thought that someone like Dumbledore even needed entertainment. He had been entertained that night when the students had gathered for the broomstick racing. He had been amused when he saw them retrieving the detention slips from Filch's office. Discreetly he had been keeping watch over everyone in the castle to see if he could glean a plan when they would be trying Severus's office for the potions. It was a dare which required guts because they knew that if they were caught, expulsion was likely.

"Headmaster, the students are planning an excursion to Professor Snape's office", reported the Baron as he floated in through the wall.

"Headmaster, the students under my charge are meeting in the common room daily to form a plan about how to get into the Potion master's office", reported one of the portraits. Its occupant generally hung in the Badger's hole but he came up to report when Dumbledore required it.

Dumbledore smirked, "Finally some entertainment that I have been craving."

The serpent pit

The Slytherins were still fuming with the loss of the prank bet. They had not stopped to think that perhaps they could duplicate the records. Also they were still stinging from their own head of house putting them into detention over it.

From the start of his teaching career at Hogwarts, he had never put a Slytherin in detention before. Even when his Snakes had clearly been at fault, he would hand out detentions and deduct points from other houses while rewarding his own students. It was largely due to this unequal treatment that the Slytherins had won the house cup the last seven years in a row.

They had never realized how bad this felt to the other students until now. They were losing points for the silliest things while the other houses continued to add gems to their hour glasses. As things stood, they were in third place, only ahead of Hufflepuff. One loss at Quidditch or one more mis-step and they would find themselves in last place, something they were sure would earn the ire of their head of house. Unfortunately, if they slipped up and got caught in the next step of the prank competition, that's exactly what would happen.

The next task was to steal a particular potion from Snape's personal stores. If they decided to cheat and brew it themselves, the shame of being caught out would be far worse than any detention. They decided they would rather raid Azkaban itself than risk that. Besides, the time it would take to get the ingredients by owl order would run out the clock for the prank. Of course, they could raid Snape's personal stores for the ingredients, but then they were back to raiding Snape's office again. If they were going to do that, they may as well do it right and swipe the potion instead.

Snape's office was a place more dangerous than Azkaban for them. Nobody knew what kind of potions were in his office or what he may have done to secure it against unwanted visitors. Pick the wrong potion or make the wrong move and they would be done for. They needed more information before they could make a plan. They spent two days casing the dungeons where Snape had his office and his classroom. They noticed that once he came out of his office in the morning, he returned only after the day was over. His office was also attached to his sleeping quarters so he was there from shortly after dinner until morning the next day. There was a door at the back of the dungeons which led to his office that was closed for most of the day. They thought that if they came in stealthily, they could take whatever they wanted and make their exit but it would require a solid plan. The window of opportunity which was open to them to commit this heist was between the hours of breakfast to the time when dinner ended.

For the rest of the information that they wanted, they approached Esther Coleman who was a very gifted witch and, as it was rumoured, a favourite of Snape. She had been scoring perfect grades in his class since she had arrived at the school and he doted on her. Rumours were that he was even willing to endorse her should she apply to someplace to conduct research on potions. He himself had been working with the Wolfsbane potion from the time it was invented to try and improve it but he didn't had enough time to conduct his research however and that was one of the reasons that he was always sour. He felt like the students should be more attentive to him and respect him for all the pain that he was taking for them and the sacrifices that he made for them.

Esther was sitting at a table in the corner of the Common Room reading something out of a potions book which they were sure was not a part of the curriculum but was gifted to her from Snape. They decided that their best bet would be Fawley heiress because she was the least suspect among them. Fawley approached her hesitating, "Esther, do you have a minute?"

She looked up and noticed her, "Of course, how can I help you?"

"Esther, I was reading a quiz recently. It had a question which I could not answer. I tried to think of the most appropriate person to ask and you were the first one that came to mind."

Esther's interest was piqued, "What was the question?"

She scrunched up her face as if thinking and then started to speak, "What can give immunity to a wizard to pass through a magical fire unharmed?"

Esther snorted, "A second year could answer that one. The Fire Protection Potion also known as the Ice Potion is a potion used to move through flames unscathed. When drunk, it induces a sensation of ice and frigidity in the drinker, and provides protection from most magical fires."

She grinned, "Thank you Esther. Do you happen to know its colour or what it is made of?"

She nodded, "it is dark Purple to Black in colour, as you would know. Professor Snape ensures that all of us can even brew it in our sleep if need be. I am curious how you did not guess the answer already."

She said evasively, "You know potions are not my forte. I can hardly get by with the grace of Professor Snape and the help of my year mates here and there. Esther, do you know where one can get the potion ready to consume without brewing it or buying it?"

Esther smirked, "Oh Professor Snape keeps them in stock just in case. There is always a vial or two in the desk in his office."

She asked excitedly, "Have you ever been inside his office? I've heard that it's a dangerous place."

She nodded, "yes it's a very dangerous place. Lots of potions in there which no one knows about and he has booby trapped his office."

She asked in confusion, "booby what?"

She smiled, "he has traps in his office. If someone were to enter without his leave, they won't be able to get out."

She shuddered internally but hid it well, "Thank you again for your help, Esther."

As she made to move away, Esther stopped her, "You know what they say. Information never comes for free. I have a price for what I just gave you."

She nodded, "Alright, how many galleons do you want?"

Esther snorted, "Galleons? That would be too easy a price for such crucial information, wouldn't it? I want a favour for the favour I have just done for you."

She said apprehensively, "What favour?"

Esther grinned, "Your father is acquainted with Mr. Belby and I want to work with him. I have heard that he will not take in an apprentice unless they are endorsed by someone in a position of influence. Who better than Lord Fawley? I want your father to give me that endorsement."

She internally thought, "Well, that's easy. She would get the endorsement from her father. He never denied anything to her." She turned to Esther, "Alright, I will get that endorsement for you while I'm home during the Easter Holidays."

That was one problem solved. Now they knew the potion was fairly simple to brew, that Snape always had some on-hand and that his supply was kept in his desk. All they had to do was figure out how to get it from his office without getting trapped there.

The Badgers

The Hufflepuffs too were thinking about the next heist. It was not easy but then if it were, Potter-Black wouldn't have asked. They also figured that there was no other way around it like the detention records. The potion was beginner level but he wanted from Snape's personal stores.

They too had been stalking Snape and recording his movements. They too had recorded his activities and when he did them. Like the Serpents, they knew that they had to work within a time limit. They needed help from outside their team. They would have to seek out the Serpents who dwell in the basement like them. Together they could find what they needed.

Cedric had called a meeting of his team members, "So a week has already passed and we are still at the same place where we started. Do you people have any ideas?"

Abercrombie said, "We have a definite window in which we have to act. By ourselves, we don't have much chance of getting the job done. We need help."

Cedric asked him again, "So what do you people reckon?"

Wilson smirked, "Why don't we ask the Serpents? We will just have to take two samples and give them one."

Cedric nodded, "Good thought. I will talk to Bole about it."

Harriet asked, "Why do we need their help? I mean why would they help us?"

"Because we know that there is only one door to his office. That door lies in the dungeons where he holds his classes. We can't get in during the day because he practically spends every minute in there. The only opportunity we would get is in the night or during the dinner hour. We will need to create a distraction, get him away from the office and then we can move in."

"What about Filch? Won't he come to investigate if there's a commotion in the castle?"

Cedric grinned, "No worries on that count. One of us will take care of that. Lock him in his office from the outside with a locking charm and put some silencing spells around it. He can spend the night sleeping in his office, while we carry out our plan."

"But Cedric, are you sure this is the only way? I mean Potter-Black isn't a person who would keep things simple."

Cedric said thoughtfully, "Unless he can walk around unseen and unheard and do a lot of complex magic, there is no other way for him to do it either."

Eagle's nest

The Ravenclaws were huddled around Murphy. They too had been reconnoitring Snape's dungeons. They apparently came to the same grim realisation that the only way was to get into Snape's stores.

"So Esmeralda, what do you think?", Murphy asked of her.

She mulled over her thought for a minute before she replied, "The only place where we can get those potions is his office unless there is some other place that he keeps them."

Gupta who had been scratching his chin in thought asked, "The infirmary uses potions, don't they? Where do you people reckon the supplies come from?"

Esmeralda snapped at him, "What are you getting at? Don't we already know that Professor Sn…"

She stopped speaking mid-sentence and turned to him, "You know you're a genius."

Agnes asked her, "What genius are you talking about?"

She was smirking, "Oh, as he said, the potions in the infirmary are supplied by Professor Snape. Now there is an off-chance that arranged among Madam Pomfrey's racks of potions is an unassuming looking bottle of the sought after potion. Who is to stop us from going to get it?"

They looked at each other in anticipation. Hadrian Potter-Black was going to lose this round.

Lion's den

"Harry, mate, sorry to break it to you but…", said Fred to Harry.

"…But we're really behind", continued George.

"If we are to get that potion"

"We should at least have a plan."

Harry nodded, "Yeah, we need a plan alright. We'd be risking our necks just marching into his office and lifting a potion. The problem is that it's Snape's office. Nobody knows how many protections are in there. We need to team up with others."

They both looked at him incredulously, "Are you mental, mate?"

Harry shook his head, "No, I'm not. The thing is that we'll need someone to check if he has wards in his office. Someone else should know exactly where he keeps it because I am not sure if we will be able to find it easily."

They both nodded, "So which devil do we choose?"

Harry said simply, "One of those who resides in the dungeons and can slither around a lot. Arrange a meeting with Lucian Bole."

The unholy alliance

When they met, Bole was eyeing him suspiciously, "What's your game, Potter-Black? Why would you team up with your competitor?"

Harry smirked, "Ah Lucian, we are in the same fix. We need to get Professor Snape away from his office for at least an hour. The only way he would willingly go out is if the Slytherins call him to say, mediate in a dispute between two members of his house."

"What do we get if we call him away from his office?", Bole asked him, "What are we going to gain from this transaction?"

Harry nodded, "It's as easy to lift two potions as one. We'll cheerfully provide you with one potion, worth 10 points in the competition if you do your part well."

They could see that the fish had taken the bait. Lucian was looking in the distance as if trying to visualise himself as the prank master of Hogwarts. After sharing a look with his friends, he turned to Harry again, "Alright, Potter-Black. We will do this together."

Harry nodded, "Just so you know, if we are blabbed upon or we are put in detention, we won't be able to deliver on the potion and whoever blabbed will have a lot to answer for."

Bole raised his eyebrows questioningly, "Are you threatening us, Potter-Black?"

Harry gave a maniacal grin, "Oh no. I don't waste my breath on threats. You may consider that a promise. That is the way of the Blacks."

The grin actually made Bole shudder with fright. It was the typical half grin which tugged at one corner of his mouth while the other end remained firm. It was accompanied with a glint in the eye which was full of malevolence, promising untold horrors. His grandfather had told him about it and how the Black's in the past had it. Half of the reason behind their aura was this grin.

They hastily made their exits wondering if they had made a deal with the devil himself. It was like riding a lion. You can't hold on anymore yet you can't let go. They would have to ensure that they got through this.

Harry on the other hand, hadn't wanted to take this tone with the serpents but he knew how crafty they could be. He wasn't naive enough to believe that they would remain steadfast and loyal to the alliance they had made amongst themselves so he had to subtly hint at what lies in store should they fail to abide by it.

The meeting between the Slytherins and the Hufflepuffs took place near the dungeons. The Slytherins had to refuse saying that the Serpents had already figured out a way to do the task without their help. Maybe they could team up next time.

The heist

Esmeralda decided that she had been away from her broom for far too long. She was not on the team but owned a broom all the same and loved to go flying. She was joined by Davies and a few of the members of the Ravenclaw team who wanted to get an early start on practicing for the next season.

They took off as one and were soon chasing after one another on the Quidditch pitch performing manoeuvres. Appleby was calling the formations that they were supposed to form and fly. During one such manoeuvre, which was supposed to catch a member of the opposite team in a pincer trap, Esmeralda had Davies approach her from the other side. They both flew at Carmichael who was acting as the member of the opposite team. Carmichael saw them coming at him flying at a high speed and freaked out. As they neared him, he nose-dived at the last possible moment making it impossible for them to pull out of it in time. Esmeralda swerved her broom sideways in hopes that she could pass by without knocking Davies off his broom yet Davies too moved in that direction. As a result, her broom handle caught him in the stomach and he was thrown off his broom while her broom bucked and started going crazy. She was able to control it after 5 minutes of hard manoeuvring only to find that Davies was unconscious and laying in the snow which had accumulated on the pitch.

She went after his broom to retrieve it. When she landed, she asked Agnes, "So did we succeed?"

Agnes glared at her, "Succeed?! You could have killed him! Could you not try to be more careful? You got him right in the guts. You may have ruptured something. It was lucky that I was ready with a wand to catch him when he fell. You'd better get him up to the infirmary right away."

Murphy and Gupta seemed to appear as if on command. Gupta conjured a stretcher while Murphy said, "We'll get him there. Don't you worry."

As they trotted off the pitch, Agnes and Esmeralda fell in behind them. Agnes said, "We'll make sure they don't lose their way."

This was part of the Ravenclaw's plan. They needed to visit the infirmary under some pretence and nick the potion from Madam Pomfrey's potion cabinet while she was distracted. They had decided to injure one of their numbers so that they would have a genuine reason. It was not neat but it was all that they could think of.

When they entered the infirmary, Madam Pomfrey took charge of Davies while the rest of them fussed over him and kept distracting the witch. Davies came around as Madame Pomfrey began to examine him. He wasn't too badly hurt, but he'd be sore for a while. Esmeralda and Agnes took up their positions to watch Madame Pomfrey while Gupta and Murphy entered her office. To their good luck, the cabinet was open. However there were so many bottles and vials of potions that it boggled Murphy's mind as to whether he could find it in time. He decided to use his wits which were his greatest treasure and pointing his wand forth, he incanted, "Accio Ice Potion."

To their dismay nothing happened. They even rifled through the cabinet on the off-chance that maybe the bottles were charmed with anti-summoning hexes. However there was nothing. In their search, they even forgot the signal Agnes was supposed to give to let them know that the mediwitch was on her way to her office. Agnes coughed loudly but oblivious to everything else, these two were found going through her cabinet at their leisure. She whipped out her wand and shot two powerful stingers at their butts making them yelp. When they turned, they gasped in shock.

Madam Pomfrey sternly asked, "What do you two think you were doing?"

Gupta was thinking furiously and came up with an excuse, "We wanted a potion for cramps, Madam Pomfrey. You know that time of the month?"

She eyed them evilly, "Really? Are you two witches that you would need potions for that time of the month?"

Before they could say anything else, she picked up a parchment and wrote some lines on it, "Take this to Professor Flitwick. Detention this evening, here in the hospital wing scrubbing bed pans for me."

As they were leaving and were outside of the hospital wing, Murphy asked her, "What were you thinking mentioning that time of the month?"

He replied innocently, "I heard some senior girls in our house talk about that time and that unbearable pain it caused. I could not think of anything else."

Muphy face-palmed himself and muttered, "The girls aren't going to be too happy with us."

The four of them failed to see Neville Longbottom in the infirmary who had come in under the pretence of getting a pepper-up potion and noticed everything that happened. He had listened to what went on in Madam Pomfrey's office and could hardly restrain himself from howling with laughter.

The Slytherins and the Lions chose that night to raid Snape's office. Harry had already seen that Snape was around the third floor so there was little possibility that he could come out of nowhere and catch them.

Neville, armed with the cloak, was assigned to looking at the map and informing them if he came around. Harry and Richard Griffith both had been posted halfway from the grand-staircase to Snape's office. Their job was to distract him and keep him away from his office until they got the signal.

Some way from the Dungeons, Du Vant and Lee Jordon were hiding in the shadows. They were to act if Harry and Griffith failed to stop Snape. The twins, Bole and Fawley heiress entered the office. The door was unlocked by the twins who had learned of a spell from the map. This spell was a prank spell designed by the Marauders. It could over-ride any minor locking charm and had been forgotten in time as the knowledge was never communicated to the coming generations. The twins had needed to open the door for Snape out of habit had used a spell which could not be unlocked by most common unlocking spells.

As the office door opened, they all held their breath and waited to see if somehow a caterwauling charm would go off. To their relief, there was nothing of the sort. The second thing they did was to stun all the portraits in his office. They were not yet seen but knew that they could be seen if they ignited the tip of their wands and the portraits would report them instantly.

It was then that Fawley heiress stepped forward and started casting minor detection spells which were beginner levels to find if there were any wards. The results had her spread her eyes in surprise. A complex pattern of wards was laid down on the floor and each ward was meant to do a different function. One of the wards would make people stick to the floor while another would make them levitate upside down. The third was supposed to petrify them. She carefully wove a way around the wards which had been laid down and found their way around it eventually to his desk. As she stepped forward to open the table, the twins held her hand back, whispering, "Let's inspect its exterior before we open it."

She nodded, "Good suggestion, go ahead."

They inspected it very closely and found that a thread was glued in such manner to the drawers that if they were opened and then closed carelessly, it would not return in the same position and give away the fact that someone had been in his office.

After ensuring there was nothing else, Fred (or was it George) pulled out a small piece of rope and tied it to the handle of the drawer that they wanted to open. When Bole and Fawley looked at them questioningly, they shrugged, "Not all traps are magical. And you never know, there might be a sticking charm that activates when the drawer is opened."

As they carefully tugged on the rope, the drawer gently slid open to the welcome sight of several phials of a very dark purple-black potion. Their eyes spread wide at the sight.

George exclaimed, "Jackpot!"

Fred whistled, "The dungeon bat has been busy..."

George continued, "Looks like he brewed an entire batch of it recently."

Fred carefully levitated two phials out of the drawer. He pocketed one and handed the other to Bole. By that time, George had slowly let the rope go slack as the drawer slid shut. They had the goods. Now all they had to do was wait for the pranksters to gather and announce the winners of this round of the competition.

Snape was sure to miss the phials later. When he did, he would have all the dorms searched. Of course, he wouldn't find anything in the Gryffindor tower. Fred and George had a place in another part of the school to keep their phial that would not be searched. They couldn't help it if the Snakes didn't take a similar precaution, but they weren't about to suggest it either. Someone might get caught and put in detention or even expelled, but it wouldn't be any of the Lions.

They decided to leave it to Harry and Richard to keep Professor Snape busy long enough to deposit their potion in the safe place and get everyone back to their dorms. The twins were not ready to tell about this secret place. They swore that they would not inform on the Snakes, but they wouldn't be too bothered about it if the Snakes didn't have the wits to hide their potion sufficiently.

As they were leaving, they informed Harry about what he was to do. Harry convinced Griffith to return to the dorm promising him that they would meet the next day at Slytherin table. When he was at a suitable distance, he said to no one in particular, "Come out, Minion."

Neville appeared out of the cloak, scowling, "You do realise that we have taken a hard task, minion? I mean if Snape finds out that we're out after curfew, he'll do everything in his power to get us expelled. And still, we're going to deliberately seek him out to do something to him. Are we completely mental?"

Harry waved aside his concerns, "We'll stay under the cloak and use the map to find him. When we find him, we'll stun him before he even knows we're there. Then we'll have Kreacher deposit him somewhere outside of the school at some place where he won't wake up until morning."

Neville said apprehensively, "That's too much work for a prank. Why don't we leave him in the Shrieking Shack instead? That way, he'll be quite safe and won't be lost. But he's also a teacher. Do you think it's right?"

Harry shook his head, "If they can prove that we attacked a teacher, we'll be expelled for sure. But when your mates are counting on you, you don't worry about how hard it is or the consequences. You just get the job done. Besides, if he connects us with the missing potions, we'll be expelled anyway. So in for a knut, in for a galleon."

Neville reluctantly agreed, "Alright. Let's do this."

One glance at the map showed that Snape was still on the third floor. Only now, Quirrell was there too. Immediately, a flash went through Harry's mind and he thought that he'd better do something to stop Snape because he didn't believe that Quirrell would make much of an obstacle to keep Snape from the Sorcerer's Stone. They hurried through the shortcuts to arrive at the third floor in time to see Snape menacing Quirrell, his wand at the turbaned professor's throat, The Defence teacher's face white with horror. From under the invisibility cloak and behind the tapestry that hid the secret passage, they carefully poked out the very tips of their wands. Neville stunned Snape and Harry stunned Quirrell. The two professors slumped against each other then tumbled to the floor. They couldn't take a chance by leaving any witnesses.

With the two professors down, Harry summoned his aged house elf. It was the work of less than a minute for Kreacher to deposit Snape in the Shrieking Shack. A moment later, Quirrell was tucked neatly into his own bed.

For all the bravery that Quirrell had shown in the face of Snape, it was the least that they could do for him.