This is a repost. For some reason, the system had trouble registering hits to the story. This is an attempted fix. My apologies to anyone who was alerted twice to the posting of Chapter 8.

Enjoy.

Harry ducked, the heavy iron Bludger whistling uncomfortably close to his left ear, followed shortly afterwards by the larger and arguably more dangerous red blur that was one of the Weasley twins.

Sensing another blue-grey object streaking towards him, Harry pointed his broom handle at the ground and dived a good thirty foot in a couple of seconds, the handling of his faithful Cleansweep Six coming into its own. The Bludger sailed after him, but was easily intercepted by the second grinning twin, and it careered off to annoy some other unlucky flier.

Harry sighed, a long heavy sound as he zoomed around the back of his own goalposts, watching as Wood made a spectacular save with his left foot.

The match wasn't going well. They were eighty-twenty down, and despite the fact that Lee Jordan kept shouting about Wood playing out of his skin, they were steadily slipping further behind to a Slytherin side that was not only seasoned, but seasoned in winning.

So confident were they, that their Beaters had concentrated almost exclusively on Harry. Being the new-boy on the block, they had deemed him an unknown quantity, and apparently the way to deal with unknown quantities was to pummel them with Bludgers at every opportunity.

What they hadn't counted on was the apparent ease at which Harry was able to avoid the things. To the both the spectators and the increasingly frustrated Slytherin Beaters, it seemed as if Harry had been playing for years, getting out of the path of incoming Bludgers without appearing to try very hard. In many cases, he would quickly duck behind an opposing player and the Bludger would change targets accordingly, in other cases he would simply drop in height or direction at the last minute and the heavy iron ball would scream past, inches from it's intended target.

This concentration on Harry allowed the Gryffindor Chasers almost a free reign, but next to the six times Quidditch Cup Champions, they were being outclassed. Flint, Montague and Pucey simply had too much of a physical advantage over the three Gryffindor Chasers, and the Weasley twins were too busy trying to make sure Harry survived the match to help them out much either. The few times that the Gryffindors had made an effective attack they'd managed to score, but that hadn't happened in a while, and it was looking increasingly likely that it wouldn't happen again.

Harry shot between Montague and Flint, causing the latter to take avoiding action, but grimaced as he watched Pucey intercept a pass between Alicia and Katie. Another Bludger shot past Harry's head, and he quickly changed direction, soaring straight up into the clear blue sky.

That was another thing. It was cold, deathly cold. The lack of cloud cover and any discernible wind meant that there was even a thin sliver of mist hanging over the ice-covered grass, despite the fact that it was almost midday. All this added up to the fact that Harry's fingers were... well he wasn't quite sure, having lost all feeling in them a quarter of an hour ago. His feet were in a similar situation, and although he could still feel his face, just, his glasses were constantly steaming up, which didn't help when the opposition saw you as a moving bullseye.

Having reached the peak of his arcing manoeuvre, Harry looked down at the pitch. All the players except the Slytherin Seeker and Keeper were in the Gryffindor half of the pitch. It looked like Slytherin were on the attack, again, and a cheer from the western end of the stadium, along with Lee Jordan's sultry confirmation, told Harry that they were successful, again.

At ninety-twenty, Harry knew there was no way back for the team. Slytherin were just too good for them. There was only one way they could salvage this match, and strangely, Harry wasn't as worried about it as he'd expected. Before the match, he hadn't stopped thinking about the responsibility the team was placing on his shoulders. But now, floating serenely above the pitch as the two teams prepared to face-off once again, he felt calm, relaxed, even confident.

Harry was in his element, and although he knew he'd never before played a match of this scale, he felt as if he'd done it a hundred times before.

The Snitch was as good as his.

Harry surveyed the pitch below, his eyes pausing in their flight briefly as they caught sight of golden buttons, watches, even earrings (McGonagall was going to kill that girl if she spotted them), but there was no sign of the Snitch. He flicked his gaze over to Terrence Higgs, the Slytherin Seeker, and was comforted by the fact that he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings at all. In fact, he seemed more interested in giving his Captain a congratulatory slap on the back than he was with his job.

Harry cracked a small smile. Perfect.

Not wanting to give his opposite number a reason to pay attention, Harry began a lazy spiralling decent towards the pitch, sweeping the air before him for any sign of the small golden fluttering object that he knew so well. The game had restarted twice by the time Harry's toes skimmed through the pale mist above the grass (it was now one hundred points to thirty, thanks to a spectacular move from Angelina, and another powerful drive by Flint), and he'd seen no signs of the Snitch. Snarling in frustration, Harry flattened himself on his broom and shot at the closest Slytherin player, Adrian Pucey. The large boy's eyes opened in shock, seconds before he fell sideways off his broom.

Harry grinned as Flint started yelling something about 'Blatching', but Hooch hadn't been looking, and immediately put Pucey's fall down to his own incompetence; 'To be quite honest with you, Master Flint, I'm surprised it's taken him this long to fall off.'

With two Slytherin Chasers distracted, the Gryffindor team used their initiative and sped towards the Slytherin hoops. Montague managed to slow them up a little, but a well aimed Bludger from one of the Weasley twins took him out of the equation by completely unseating him. Three seconds later, and the score was one hundred points to forty.

That's when he spotted it. Skimming through the mist, leaving a dark trail behind it, was the tiny golden ball. A quick look over at Higgs told Harry that his opposite number hadn't seen it yet, but the Slytherin was closer. If Harry could just make his way over to it without the boy noticing...

"Hey! Down there! It's the Snitch!"

The call came from a member of the crowd, and Harry got the urge to curse him where he stood. Instead, however, he flattened himself against his broom and sped off before Higgs worked out where the boy was pointing. It didn't take long, the Slytherin shooting off moments afterwards, but it had been long enough. By the time he'd turned his broom around, Harry was already skimming through the mist, just meters behind the Snitch.

As if it knew it had been spotted, the thing tried to fly off, but Harry was more than ready for the move and he was already turning as the fluttering ball took to the sky. A Bludger flew past, brushing Harry's outstretched arm, but he shrugged off the contact and put on a small spurt of speed that brought him easily into grabbing distance.

A moment or two later, and the southern and eastern stands erupted with noise as Harry's hand was thrust aloft, the glittering silver wings clearly visible as they struggled against his iron grip.

"Gryffindor Win!" shouted the magically enhanced voice of Lee Jordan from the commentary box, "by a score of one hundred and ninety points to one hundred. Gryffindor Win!"

As the team gathered around him, Harry couldn't remember a time he'd grinned so much.

Well, perhaps last summer, when Uncle Sirius had managed to super-glue his own fingers together...

--

"That was brilliant, Harry!" Ron yelled ten minutes later, despite the fact that he was standing next to him. "I thought we'd lost for sure."

"Yeh," agreed Seamus Finnigan, "I heard that the Gryffindor team was crap last year, but I didn't think it would be that bad."

A second later, the Irishman found himself face-first in the grass.

"And let that be a warning to you all." said one of the Weasley twins, twirling his Beater's bat threateningly in his right hand.

His twin appeared beside him, looking grim. "Any insubordination will be dealt with swiftly," he grinned evilly, "and painfully."

Beside Harry, Neville gulped audibly.

"Anyway, must dash. We have a party to organise."

They both grinned manically, "And Potter, attendance isn't optional for you."

And then they were gone, lost in the crowd as everybody made their way back up to the castle and out of the cold. Seamus got back to his feet and the group of Gryffindor first years joined in the procession, chatting animatedly about Harry's capture of the Snitch, and when that subject had been done to death, moved onto how many fouls the Slytherins committed that weren't called by Hooch. It was during a heated debate between Dean and Seamus that Hermione caught up with them and pulled Harry, Ron and Neville away from the main group.

"Listen, guys, I've been doing some research into what the stone could be." she whispered as they broke free of the main flow of students, "I mean, there can't be too many stones in existence that require such huge protections."

The four students entered the castle via a side door and appeared in a well-lit corridor not far from Filch's office. Ron sighed.

"Do we really have to do this right now, Hermione? Harry's just helped Gryffindor beat Slytherin for the first time in years! Surely this can wait until after the party?"

Hermione turned on her heel and frowned at Ron. "The party won't start for a good few hours yet, and this is important, Ron." She turned to Harry. "Well done, though. You were spectacular."

Before Harry could respond, the girl had started off down the corridor. The three boys looked at each other numbly before following. Hermione led them down a number of corridors before she found an empty classroom that she deemed private enough to have a conversation in.

"Look," she said, once the gang had made themselves comfortable and the door was closed. "This stone is obviously precious, or Professor Dumbledore wouldn't go to all the trouble of protecting it, and Quirrell or Snape, whoever it was – you guys weren't entirely clear on that point – wouldn't be trying to steal it."

"It was Quirrell." said Neville, "If anything, it sounded like Snape was trying to stop him."

Ron looked unconvinced as he plonked himself down on a desk. "I dunno. I wouldn't put it past him to be protecting the stone just so he could steal it for himself, the slimy git."

"That's Professor Snape, Ronald." Hermione said, scowling. "And before we go pointing fingers, surely we should work out what they're meant to be stealing?"

Harry saw Ron go to argue, but cut him off. "Okay, Hermione. So what have you found?"

Hermione rocked forwards on her toes, looking slightly uncomfortable. "Well, actually, I haven't found much. After all, all I've had to go on is the word 'stone', and there are loads of valuable stones that might be worth stealing. The Rosetta Stone, an original Bloodstone of the Vampire nation, the Koh-i-Noor..."

"Kochi-what?!"

"Koh-i-Noor, Ron. It's a very valuable diamond set into the Queen Mother's crown. It's said to place a curse on any and all males that try to possess it, but offer great protection to female owners."

"Which, of course, is why Snape would want to steal it..."

Hermione scowled at Ron, again. "My point is that just the words 'the stone' is too little to go on. If we're going to figure out what it is they're trying to steal, we need more information."

"Gee... Thanks, Hermione. I'm so glad we had this little chat, I've learnt so much..."

"That's enough, Ron!"

The room went silent, and everyone turned slowly around where they were to stare at the figure of Neville, who was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and a frown on his face. It took a moment for him to realise that everyone was looking at him.

"What?"

Hermione coughed. "Anyway, there's something else I think could help us. Remember that break-in at Gringotts earlier this year?"

Harry nodded, "Me and Nev were there that day, but we never saw anything weird."

"Neville and I, Harry. But yes, I've been looking into the details, and the Daily Prophet reported that the vault that was broken into had been emptied the very same day." she paused, possibly for dramatic effect. "What if, whatever was taken from that vault, whatever was almost stolen that day, was the very same thing that Dumbledore's got locked up in that corridor?"

As she said it, something flickered in Harry's brain. A memory of a large man with lots of hair looking very pleased with himself.

'Official Hogwarts business... Anyway, can' stop! Gotta get this back t' Dumbledore a-s-a-p...'

"Hagrid..." Harry said under his breath.

"Gazoontite." replied Ron.

"No. Hagrid! Hagrid was there! And he was on 'Official Hogwarts business'." Harry smiled in wonder, "He was so excited about it that he practically told us exactly what he was doing! He was the one who emptied the vault! I can't believe I didn't figure this out before!"

"This is all good and well, but it doesn't help us work out what's being protected." Neville said from his position by the door.

"Not necessarily. Harry, Ron, both of you have parents in the Ministry, perhaps over the Christmas break you could probe them for information about the break-in?"

Ron shook his head. "'My folks are going to visit my brother Charlie in Romania, so those Weasleys that are already here are staying at Hogwarts over the holidays."

"You didn't tell me that." Harry said, frowning at his best friend. "You know, you could always come stay at mine for Christmas. Mum would love to have you over. Actually, that invitation extends to everyone here, you'd all be welcome."

Neville flushed red and Hermione beamed. "I'd love to, Harry, but I think Mum and Dad have set their hearts on me coming home this Christmas. I've never been away from home for so long in one go, and I think they're worried I'd forget about them or something."

"Yeh, same here, Harry." said Neville, "I don't think Gran plans on letting me out of her sight for the entire holiday."

Ron, on the other hand, wasn't quite as refined in his answer. "Really?! Cool! Just wait until the twins hear about this!"

"Good, that's settled then." said Hermione crossing her arms authoritatively. "You can both work on getting information out of Harry's parents, together."

Harry and Ron grinned at each other. This might just turn out to be fun.

It was snowing in Godric's Hollow. The white stuff had started falling a week ago, and despite the fact that, on average, it only snows five days a year in the south west of the UK, it hadn't stopped since. It was causing chaos on the roads, and there were reports on the Muggle news that little old ladies were being trapped in their own houses by the snowfall. Even the Quidditch match between Falmouth and Wigtown had been postponed because they couldn't find the moorland pitch.

But of course, when you're eleven, excess snow tends not to be a problem.

"Haarrieee, stop it! Muuum! Harry's being horrible again!"

Lily looked up from her cooking preparations and peered out the window to where her children were playing. "Harry! Stop putting snow down your sister's back!"

Back out in the field, Harry pouted and let go of his sister's hood. He was about to argue that he hadn't been doing anything of the sort, when something very cold and very wet hit him in the back of his head. He turned to find Ron standing not far away, a second snowball in his gloved hand and an evil grin on his face.

Despite their very recent conflict, Harry and Elle took one look at each other before reaching down to scoop out their own handfuls of snow.

The Potter-Weasley snowball massacre of 1991 had begun.

Two hours later, three very tired, very wet, but very cheerful children stumbled in the back door to the Potter residence.

"There you are!" said Lily Potter, "I was thinking I was going to have to dig you three out." She paused in her work to wave her wand in their direction. Suddenly all three kids found themselves hit in the face with a towel.

"Aww, Mum..." Harry wined, once he'd untangled himself from the cottonous mass of fluff. "Can't you just charm us dry? Ron says that's what Mrs Weasley does."

Lily grinned, "And with seven children to deal with, I don't blame her. But seeing as there's only three of you, I think I can make sure you dry yourselves off enough not to ruin the furniture." she smiled again as her son muttered something under his breath, "Plus, how will you ever learn to look after yourselves if..."

"...if we get everything done for us. We get it, Mum." Elle grumbled, having heard the phrase repeated often over the course of her life.

"It's good to know you're listening. Now, once you're dry, get those towels up to the laundry basket, and wash your hands. Lunch is almost ready. Harry, you can show Ron what to do."

Harry mumbled something else, but nodded. "Come on," he said, dumping his jacket by the back door and heading towards the hall, "The laundry basket's upstairs."

The three kids made their way to the upstairs bathroom, and after a bit of shoving and water-flicking at the basin, they worked their way back to the kitchen where Lily had laid them out some sandwiches.

"Can we eat in the living room? I want to show Ron how the TV works."

Lily smiled at the confused but excited look on the Weasley boy's face. "Sure, dear. Just make sure you don't get crumbs everywhere, because you know who'll be cleaning it up."

"Yes, Mum." both Harry and Elle said as they led Ron into the Living room.

It was slightly smaller than the kitchen, owing to the fact that it didn't have to accommodate a kitchen table, but that just made it that more cosy. It was stuffed full of sofas and comfy-looking chairs, set against a red and gold colour scheme that wouldn't have looked out of place in the Gryffindor common-room. On the main wall sat the chimney place, whilst the TV and other Muggle contraptions were on the opposite wall – as far away from the very powerful magical transportation portal as possible.

"Oh, cool!" Ron said, instantly spotting the Muggle technology. "Dad's going to be so jealous..."

The next hour basically consisted of Ron channel hopping using the 'Muggle wand', and Harry explaining exactly what the images that it showed were. At one point Ron stumbled upon an American cop program, with lots of car chases, cardboard box pyramids (that needed destroying) and extremely poor marksmanship by both cops and robbers. Harry didn't actually get around to working out what the storyline was, because Ron's endless stream of questions kept him distracted. Even when Harry's Dad arrived home in an explosion of green flame (almost setting the cat on fire in the process), Harry had just enough time to tell his Dad where he might find his mother before he was again bombarded by another question about the 'gun-thingy'.

Of course, that all changed with their second visitor.

"Those Muggle wands are crap!" Ron was saying for the fifth time in as many minutes, "Why don't they just hit each other? It would save a lot of time."

Harry sighed, whilst Elle just laughed behind her hand.

"Because, Mr Weasley, if everyone was shot at the beginning of the program, there wouldn't be much point in watching, would there?"

Both Potters and Weasley turned on the spot. There, smiling serenely down at them, was the larger-than-life figure of Albus Dumbledore. If he hadn't spoken, Harry doubted whether any of them would have even noticed he was there. The thought scared him.

"Harry, Eleanor, I don't suppose you could tell me if your parents are in."

Harry's mouth gaped like a fish, but Elle answered for him. "They're in the kitchen, Mr Dumbledore, sir." she said, without a hint of the awe that had frozen her brother.

"Thank you."

The headmaster headed for the kitchen, and the three kid's attention turned once again to the television, but Harry couldn't help but keep looking over his shoulder to the door that lead to the kitchen. Usually wedged open, it was now closed, and he couldn't shake the feeling that he was missing something important.

Minutes later, and the Headmaster left via the Floo, flashing them a warm smile as he passed.

"Does Dumbledore usually come around your house like that?" Ron asked, staring at the empty grate once the fire had died down.

Elle shrugged. "Not really, but our house is always full of people."

"Yeh," agreed Harry, "It's not unusual for random people we've never met before to come over. Mum likes to do her interviews for the Prophet here, and Dad has loads of work friends..."

"Then there's our Uncles. They're always around."

Ron nodded knowingly. "Sounds like my house, only, all the people in my house are family."

"They you can shout at them. We have to be nice to everyone." Elle said, somewhat stroppily.

Ron laughed, "Only stupid people aren't nice to the twins. If they don't like you, things tend to happen to you."

"You obviously don't know Elle very well," Harry said, grinning at his sister. "If she doesn't like someone, things happen to them too..."

Elle grinned mischievously back.

The three quickly got bored of the television, and moved onto telling stories of pranks, usually involving Uncle Sirius or the Weasley twins. When those stories dried up, Ron challenged Harry to a wizard's chess game, which he won quite soundly. He then played Elle and got a surprise when she gave him a run for his money.

When she won their second game, Harry knew he'd never forget the look on Ron's face, especially since his mother had taken a photo of the occasion.

By the evening, Ron had managed to scrape a narrow lead in the number of wins, and they had broken for supper, after which Lily had told them to give the game a miss until the next day. Elle had argued, but the arrival of her Uncles had distracted her enough for all thoughts of the next game to evaporate in a cloud of hugs and laughter.

--

"What d'you reckon Dumbledore wanted?"

It was much later in the day. Indeed, they had been told to go to bed about an hour ago, but neither of the boys had even thought about going to sleep yet. It was a routine that they'd gotten into over the Christmas break. They'd get ordered up to bed, then they'd stay awake and chat about anything and everything for about an hour. The last two nights had been the Quidditch league. Then, after the hour was up, they'd sneak back downstairs to listen in to Harry's parents talk.

Harry shrugged, "I dunno. It must have been an hour by now. You wanna go find out?"

Ron grinned. "Hell yeh!" he jumped off his bed and practically ran to the door. "Come on, Harry!"

"One second." the Potter youth responded, his head deep inside his Hogwarts trunk. A few seconds later, he reappeared, a shiny cloak grasped in his hand.

"Oh, good thinking." Ron said, helping Harry throw the Invisibility Cloak over them both.

Harry shrugged as he slid his wand out of his sleeve. He reached down and tapped first his feet, then Ron's. "Silenti!" he whispered.

"What're you doing?" Ron whispered, following Harry's lead, despite the fact they were still in his room. Harry grinned at him.

"It makes your footsteps silent." he said, jumping up and down on the spot to demonstrate, "Uncle Sirius taught me that one."

Ron grinned right back. "When we get back to Hogwarts, you're teaching me that!"

The pair slipped out of Harry's room and down the hall, pausing at the top of the stairs to listen for anyone moving about below before they attempted to descend.

"Living room." Harry whispered, nodding towards where a chink of light was spilling out into the ground floor hallway. Ron nodded back in a wordless agreement, and they started down the stairs together, carefully missing the steps that creaked.

One on the ground floor, they made their way over to the door, thanking whatever deity that would listen that the door had been left slightly ajar. It was an uncommon mistake by Harry's parents, and he intended to capitalise.

Coming right up against the crack, they were disappointed to find that it was too small for them to slip through, but it did allow them a good view of the room, and they could still hear everything that was said.

As it happens, they had arrived at exactly the right time.

"So, what d'you think about the break-in?" Remus was saying, leaning against the fireplace, glass in hand.

Sirius looked confused, "Break-in? You mean Gringotts? Surely not again!"

"No, no. The same item, but different location." James replied from his place in his favourite chair. He shifted himself in an effort to make himself more comfortable. "For the past few months, the item that was in Vault 713 has been under the protection of Dumbledore and his staff, in Hogwarts."

"In Hogwarts? Are you saying that someone's broken into Hogwarts?!"

James looked uncomfortable at the question and looked to his wife for help.

"At this point, we're unsure. Dumbledore came to see us earlier today and told us what he could..."

"The absolute minimum he deemed it necessary for you to know, you mean." Sirius spat, "Someone manages to break into Hogwarts, but he's still keeping secrets?"

Remus waved his free hand in a placating fashion. "Calm yourself, Sirius. We're not saying anyone's broken into Hogwarts, just that someone breached the wards around the Stone..."

"Remus!"

"Stone?"

The room went silent as everybody looked accusingly at everybody else. James and Lily managed to hold in their annoyance at Remus, but Sirius looked like he wanted to explode.

"What 'Stone'? And why is it that everyone seems to know what's going on, except me?"

James and Lily shared a long-suffering glance at each other, and seemed to come to a mutual decision without the need for words.

"We only found out when Dumbledore came to see us earlier today, same for Remus."

The man nodded slowly, "He came to see me a little after James and Lily." he paused, his gaze flicking over to the couple for a second, before returning to the glass he was slowly turning in his hands. "Apparently he wants our help protecting the Stone."

"Oh, for the love of... What 'Stone'!?"

"The Philosopher's Stone, Sirius." James said suddenly, reacting to Sirius' outburst. "Dumbledore is protecting Nicolas Flamel's stone for him."

Silence followed that proclamation. A silence in which everyone in the room could almost hear Sirius' brain working overtime. Eventually, he spoke.

"Someone's trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone." he said simply, as if trying out the idea. "Someone's trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone, and Dumbledore's asked you to help protect it."

Silence once again descended, but it didn't last long.

"Why didn't he ask me!?"

James couldn't help but smirk, whilst Remus and Lily shook their heads in disbelief.

"He didn't ask you, Padfoot, because he knows you don't trust him. For that reason alone, he's decided that he can't trust you." Remus said, his expression pleading with Sirius not to explode.

"But, he knows that you'd tell me anyway..."

Remus cut him off, "Then why bother taking the trouble to tell you in the first place?"

Sirius shrugged, followed by another long pause in the talking.

"So, tell me more about this break-in." Sirius said, apparently resigning himself to the fact that he'd burnt those bridges long ago, "Unsurprisingly, Dumbledore hasn't deemed it serious enough to report to the Auror office, or I'd know about it."

"Oh, you know Albus. The last thing he'd do is tell the Ministry what he's up to. The only reason he's told us is because he knows we can't talk, not after everything he's done for us."

Sirius barked a mirthless laugh, "Still holding that over you, is he? It doesn't surprise me."

"You shouldn't be so critical, Sirius. Albus is a good man. A little controlling at times, but as long as any of us have known him, he's hasn't done anything but help us."

Sirius held James' gaze for a couple of seconds. "You're avoiding the question. The break-in?"

Lily sighed and sat on the arm of her husband's chair, "Albus set up a few proximity wards, to alert him in the event of a break-in. On Halloween the same set were breached twice, but there's no way to know who it was. However, we do know that none of the wards around Hogwarts herself were breached."

"But, if you don't think anyone broke into Hogwarts, who is it that breached the wards? Someone inside Hogwarts itself?"

This time, James was the one who answered. "Obviously, he trusts his staff not to steal it. After all, he's asked all of them to provide protection for the stone, but that just leaves the students, and that's just as unlikely. For one thing, they don't even know what's being protected, but more importantly, none of them have the skills required to get past any of the protections."

"Isn't it possible that a student just stumbled through the wards by accident?" Sirius said after a short period of thinking.

Lily grimaced. "Not likely. The first protection is a Cerberus."

"A Cerberus!"

"Apart from some of the seventh years, I doubt any student would be up to the task of surviving one of those things. Let alone be willing go back for second crack at it." Lily shivered, "It's part of the reason Albus hasn't gone to the Ministry for help. If they discovered he was keeping a Cerberus in the castle..."

"...his good relationship with Fudge would be down the pan, and the Hogwarts Governors would have him out within hours." Sirius smiled a grim smile, "Lucius has tried with much less to go on."

"That's why he's asked us to help. Three extra defences mean that, even if the unthinkable happens and one of the teachers is the thief, there are barriers that they won't know about." James sighed, "Hopefully it will prove the difference if someone tries to break-in again."

"Let's hope so." Sirius said, looking at his watch and standing up. "I'm glad we had this little chat, but I've got some real work to do tomorrow, and I need my beauty sleep."

Remus laughed. "If you got any more beauty sleep you'd wake up as Lockhart, and we find you hard enough to live with already."

The discussion quickly turned into a debate between Sirius and the rest of the room as to how annoying he would be if he acted more like Lockhart. As amusing as it was, Harry nudged Ron back they way they came. Being careful to miss the creaking steps once again, they silently made their way back to Harry's room.

As soon as the door closed, Ron threw off the cloak and turned to face Harry.

"Can you believe what we just heard?!"

Harry couldn't help but grin.

"Hermione's gunna die when she finds out..."

I'm not entirely happy about how this chapter turned out, but that's what happens when you get writer's block. Some people deal with it by trying something else for a while, I'm dealing with it by soldiering on. So far, it seems to be slowly working.

I'd be glad to hear any comments on how to improve this (and any other chapter). I hope you enjoyed it anyway.

Happy New Year!

Chris