After a moment of intense pain and blackened vision, Harry found himself kneeling on the ground, panting and sweating, with a head-splitting migraine, but otherwise fine. Shakily, he stood and looked around. Hermione, Draco, and Ron were laying unconscious on the ground. and at Harry's feet were some robes and dus-

Nope!

Harry sharply averted his eyes and tried to calm himself down as the reality of what he had done threatened to hit him. Not yet. Not today.

Harry stumbled away from the robes and dust quickly, and found himself leaning against the mirror. The dull throbbing of its magic, pulsing like a heartbeat helped Harry calm down and focus. It also reminded Harry of what all this had been about. Slowly Harry's numb fingers fished the Philosopher's Stone out of his pocket. It was like a blood red shard of glass. It almost felt wet, but when Harry shifted it to his other hand and rubbed his fingers, they were dry. Weird, but hey, magic.

Harry looked around the room, wondering what to do now. Harry considered using Rennervate to waken his friends, but Quirrell had hit them with powerful stunners, it would probably take time and effort to overcome his magic with Harry's smaller strength. Instead he looked at the stone. How does it work, I wonder... He thought to himself. He tried to recall what he could about it, but most information on the stone was vague aside from touting its gold transmutation and elixir of life powers. Most forms of Alchemy required complex magic circles, drawn to incredibly fine detail, as well as materials to be changed. Did the stone need the same things or did it work on its own? As he looked at it, he squeezed it slightly, and suddenly there was a searing flash through his head. Harry almost dropped the stone as he reeled. But now he understood...

It grants knowledge...while holding it and focusing on what he wanted to know, the stone showed him how to make it happen. Harry's mind currently knew all the steps necessary to perform gold transmutation. Harry's already healthy bank account could get so much richer! But, after this, Dumbledore was probably going to return the stone to Flamel. Or change the hiding location, since Voldemort's spirit was still at large.

The stone shouldn't have been brought to Hogwarts. Yes, the trick of the mirror(at least as Harry understood it) meant that Voldemort would never have gotten it. It was truly secure. But its presence in the school meant that students were within harms way. It was possible that Dumbledore would just stick it back in the mirror, only taking it out for when Flamel needed his elixir. Harry didn't like that. And more, that seemed like such a waste. Holding it, Harry could feel its potential, realize that it could do so much. And what did Flamel do with it? Make gold and life for himself and his wife. And watch opera. The most recent thing Harry could remember is that he'd helped somewhat in the war against Grindelwald. Flamel was wasting its potential, and selfishly at that.

In a dark and foreboding moment, Harry looked at the stone in his hands lustfully, feeling very much an ambitious Slytherin as he thought about simply keeping it for himself.

But then the innocent child he still was pointed out that to do so would condemn two people to death. Whether or not they were selfish, could Harry do that?

He'd already killed one man, unintentionally maybe, but undeniably so. Did he want two more on his soul? How would he even get away with it?

Harry quickly fell upon the last question to divert his thoughts from guilt. How would he keep the stone? Dumbledore would show up sooner or later. The stone's not in the mirror. Think. Dumbledore can use Legilimency, he can read Harry's mind to find out the truth. So...use the memory charm the Basilisk taught him! The reversible kind. Just put the stone in the Mokeskin pouch and replace the bookmarker in that Animagus adventure book he was reading with a note. But...then Dumbledore's going to wonder where the Hell the stone is, he might even panic if its simply missing. "Geminio." With that Harry now held a duplicate of the stone in his hands. Because of how the charm worked, the duplicate would have no magical properties of its own, but Harry could feel that at least on first glance, it sufficiently felt like the stone itself, including its magical aura. But Dumbledore would be able to tell that it was fake quickly enough. And Flamel would once it didn't work. And as long as it existed, Voldemort would seek it. So how about letting the world think it was gone? Harry quickly pocketed the duplicate and aimed his wand into his pocket. He took a deep breath, both to prepare for the pain and gather his magic. "Reducto!" The Curse was well beyond Harry's current level, and there was no way he could cast it and any level worth a duel. But he did manage to cast it weakly, which was perfect for shattering the duplicate. Harry let out a small grunt of pain though, as a shard embedded in his leg. He resisted the urge to reach in and pull it out, it would help set the scene.

Slowly Harry went back over to the robes and the dust, still steadily keeping his mind from thinking about that. Laying down, Harry pointed his wand at his head for a moment before incanting the spell, hitting himself with the Selective Reversible Memory Charm. As the darkness crept into his head, Harry threw his wand to the side before collapsing and passing out from exhaustion.

A scant fifteen minutes later Dumbledore strode in, once again the imposing Archemage of War. The wards had told him much of what had happened, and they told him that the stone hadn't yet left the mirror room, but Albus still felt the need to hurry. The Elder Wand in hand, Albus quickly scanned the room for threats, and determining that there were none, calmed himself and assessed the situation. Of course Harry and his allies were here, all unconscious. Dumbledore checked each of them over and saw that they would be fine after Madam Pomfrey tended to them. Though Harry would likely need several days rest. Dumbledore sensed the magical strain pulsing in Harry's scar, telling the old man that Voldemort's spirit had come into direct contact with the boy. Troubling, but Harry seemed little worse for wear. What's this? Albus reached into Harry's pocket and pulled out the blood red gem shards. Oh...well...that takes care of that. A sad, tired part of Dumbledore felt relieved that this avenue of return was now cut off for Voldemort. But now his old friend and his wife will pass. Will he be angry with Dumbledore for this failure? That remains to be seen. Slowly, Dumbledore collected all the shards out of Harry's pocket, even healing the wound one of them had made. Once collected, Dumbledore used the most powerful vanishing spell he knew to dispose of the shards. Even broken and fading, Albus could sense the weak magic and felt it was better to get rid of the remains, rather than leave them around for someone to make use of. Gently Dumbledore skimmed the surfaces of the four children's minds, getting the gist of the events before levitating them all and taking them to the Hospital Wing.

Author's Note: Sorry for the long delay, I had kept hoping that someone would try to guess how Harry had gotten the stone but no one tried ;w; But here's the epilogue, which was kind of hard to write. To respond to a lot of reviews from the last chapter, I haven't decided if or who Harry will ultimately end up with. There is definitely a strong connection between Harry and Hermione, and definitely some puppy-love, but many girls (and some boys) are interested in Harry and vise-versa for Hermione. That said, there will be little in the way of actual romance among Harry's year until the fourth year, and even if Harry and Hermione like each other, it will not be a smooth ride for anyone.