After their conversation following his meeting with Dumbledore things with Draco and the other Slytherins went back to normal. His routine once again fell into place with little outside interference from Dumbledore or Snape. The first couple of weeks following the meeting he had been worried that he might have been hasty to throw the rules in Dumbledore's face like he had, even if he had tried to be polite about it. But no new meetings had been scheduled and no one had asked to see his trunk so by now he had begun to feel more confident that he hadn't made an error in dealing with Dumbledore.

It distracted him from sparring with Gaara when he felt the proximity wards, which he had recently learnt to cast, alert him to the presence of someone at the end of the hallway where the training room was located. No one ever came down this way normally, that was why they had chosen it in the first place. It was especially suspicious that someone would be in the area now. It was Halloween and with the feast currently going on in the great hall, everyone who wasn't them should have been there. Halloween was a holiday that wasn't celebrated in any of the elemental nations as far as he knew.

With his momentary lack of attention a wave of Gaara's sand knocked him to the floor hard. He groaned at the bruises he could already feel forming.

"Why aren't you paying attention?" Gaara asked harshly.

Gaara always fell back into his cold and ruthless persona when they trained. It had served him well as a shinobi and helped him to maintain distance from the fact he was attacking such an important friend. With a half-hearted glare he stood back up and dusted off some of the sand that was now covering his robes.

"The proximity wards I put up just went off," he said looking at the door as if it would open to reveal a disgruntled teacher any second.

"Are you sure that you cast them right?" he raised a disbelieving eyebrow at Gaara who continued to elaborate, "This was the first time we were testing them. It is unlikely that anyone would be down here instead of at the Halloween feast."

They had chosen to skip the feast because they didn't feel the need to gorge themselves on candy at dinner as well as breakfast and lunch. They had gone directly to the kitchens near the Hufflepuff common room to get a few sandwiches before training. They had made their excuses to their house mates who couldn't understand why anyone wouldn't want to eat candy for dinner. Draco in particular had seemed overly disgruntled. He was sure the other boy wouldn't stop whining about it for the next several days not that he intended to pay attention to it. In fact, he was already thinking of excuses he could use to hang out with Gaara more often in the coming week or two.

Upset that the wards he had been practising might not have been working he pulled out the map to check the corridor. He was shocked to see that the dot marked as professor Quirrell was walking past the training room before turning a corner and heading toward the great hall where the dots were too tightly packed to be able to read anyones name clearly.

He turned to Gaara, "Why would Quirrell be in this area of the castle tonight?"

They shared a look that conveyed the sense of wrong that they both felt. As far as they had explored around the training room there should be nothing in the direction the Professor had come from other than more abandoned dungeon rooms. It was only a moment later when they felt a slight vibration from the floor, followed closely by another. He hurried over to the door knowing that Quirrell was far enough past their training room that he wouldn't be able to interfere with them if they got caught up in a bit of a ruckus.

He stepped into the hallway, Gaara hovering just inside the doorway to the room. He could smell an overwhelmingly foul stench filling the hallway. He was not able to keep the look of utter disgust off his face as he turned back to Gaara.

"Have you ever smelled anything so awful?" he asked Gaara who only shook his head backing further into the room his nose crinkled in distaste.

He looked down the way Quirrell had gone first which in hindsight was a terrible decision. As he turned to look the way Quirrell had come there was grunting and the sounds of heavy footfalls accompanying the continued vibrations in the floor. He moved back into the room as the silhouette of something very large became visible through the shadows of the sparsely lit corridor. Then the thing passed directly in front of one of the torches kept lit in the unused areas of the dungeons.

It had to be one of the most intimidating things he had yet seen. It looked like a twelve-foot tall lumpy stone coloured thing with thick leathery skin. Not only did it smell repulsive but the proportions of its body were all wrong. Its legs were fat and stumpy, the arms long and lanky, and the head a tiny bald sphere on its otherwise large barrel-like torso. To make things worse it was dragging a massive wooden club behind it. He had no doubt given the thing's size that if they were hit by the club even with the increased durability that chakra provided they would be left with several broken bones at a minimum.

He inched back into the training room hoping he hadn't been noticed as he slowly closed the door as quietly as he could possibly manage. A part of him wanted to try fighting whatever it was to test himself and his training, another part of him couldn't see how he could possibly kill that thing without giving away the fact that he was trained in combat beyond what anyone not raised as a shinobi would be capable of. Certainly, as a first year even with reading ahead he did not have nearly enough knowledge of spells to hope to fight the thing with magic.

The decision however was taken out of his hands as the door to the room came flying toward him and Gaara. His instincts warned him to get out of the way just in time for the door to miss him. While Gaara brought up a wall of sand to prevent the door from hitting him.

"What do we do?" asked Gaara hiding his emotions behind a flawless mask of calm.

He had no idea but he worried the teachers would come hunting for the creature. If they found it in this room they would also find their wards and all of the weapons he had stashed here in case he was forced to reveal his trunk at some point. He quickly decided that they needed to lead the thing somewhere else until the teachers arrived to help them get rid of it.

"We run," he said already heading for the door.

He was lucky the stupid lump was so slow as he was able to get past quickly with a burst of chakra to his legs to help him run faster. Garaa wasn't far behind him. He glanced back over his shoulder and was glad to see that it was following them away from the training room. He let out a relieved sigh as he and Gaara easily stayed ahead of it.

After he was sure it would keep following them he led it up the stairs toward the entrance to the dungeons in the hope that they would cross paths with one of the teachers. He wasn't overly fearful of the creature as he was sure they would have no problem outrunning it. He wasn't even out of breath yet. Then an idea suddenly struck him.

He spun around almost colliding with Gaara who was just behind him also not looking very afraid.

"What are you doing?" Gaara sounded annoyed.

He smiled at his best friend, "I know how a first year can win, watch this."

Pulling out his wand he swished and flicked, "Wingardium Leviosa."

The club it was holding levitated away from the monster's hand and floated in front of its head. The ugly thing blinked stupidly while he moved the club from side to side for his own amusement. When the monster let out a frustrated bellow he finally used the spell to lift the club above its head. Once it was positioned correctly he let the spell end with a thought. A sickening crack echoed through the corridor as the club fell onto the tiny head. He and Gaara had to back up quickly to avoid being crushed as it fell forward knocked unconscious by its own weapon. He lent against Garaa as the adrenaline began to leave his system smiling in satisfaction at his own cleverness.

They were just turning to go back to their common rooms when they heard the sounds of multiple running feet. They shared a resigned glance as Professor McGonagall came hurrying down the hallway closely followed by Snape and Quirrell. The teachers all stopped when the saw the creature laying on the floor with blood and snot leaking from its nose.

Snape pushed his way past the others making sure to glare at Hadrian as he passed as if he had personally allowed the thing into the school. He went over to the creature to inspect it while Professor McGonagall stared at them clutching her chest. He hadn't seen someone look at him with that much anger since he had left the village. But he could sense that behind the anger there was genuine worry which was new but becoming more familiar the longer he spent in the wizarding world.

"What could you both have been thinking?" she said coldly, "You're lucky you weren't killed. Why aren't you in the dormitory with the rest of your houses?"

He barely stopped himself from scoffing, he didn't feel he or Gaara had really been in anywhere near enough danger that their lives were at risk. They hadn't even broken a sweat running, nor had they been running as fast as they were able to. But as the teachers didn't know even a fraction of what they were capable of he adopted a contrite expression looking down at his feet.

"I'm sorry Professor," he said keeping his voice soft, "Garaa and I wanted to spend some time together during the feast. We rarely get to just talk to each other alone because we are in different houses."

Snape made no effort to disguise the sneer in his voice, "You expect us to believe you, Potter. I know for a fact you study with Mr. Sabaku almost every evening after classes."

"Yes, but not alone, the rest of the Hufflepuffs are there also," He glanced up a Snape barely holding back from glaring.

"We don't celebrate Halloween, we were going back to our dorms when this thing came from one of those hallways," Gaara added gesturing vaguely behind the troll.

"Exactly," he agreed, "We started running but it was chasing us and then I remembered the spell Professor Flitwick had been teaching us and levitated the club onto its head."

"You were extremely lucky to have survived. Not many adult wizards could have taken on a full-grown mountain troll with a first year spell and survived. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this," McGonagall told them sternly her lips still white from pressing them together so hard.

He felt a sinking feeling in his stomach but took solace in the fact they hadn't lost any points or been given a detention right away.

"You will find that Slytherin has taken shelter with the Hufflepuffs in their common room to finish the feast," Quirrell said rising from the floor at last where he had collapsed with a whimper upon seeing the troll.

"Thank you, Professors," he said.

McGonagall nodded stiffly in dismissal, "Good night, Mr. Potter, Mr. Sabaku."

Without speaking he followed Gaara to the Hufflepuff common room. He felt kind of excited to see where Gaara spent most of his time when he wasn't with him as outsiders were rarely invited into other houses' common rooms.

The Hufflepuff common room was a cozy low ceilinged den. All the furniture was decorated in creamy light earth-tones. There were plants on almost every shelf and table as well as poufs and large pillows for those who weren't lucky enough to sit on one of the many cushioned couches piled around the walls. There were at least three fireplaces around the room leading to a very warm lit up room.

When he and Gaara stepped through the entrance to Hufflepuff they were immediately surrounded by the other students and not just the other first years as he had expected. Everyone wanted to know if they had seen the troll or in the case of the upper year slytherins if he had lost them any house points. He was warmed inside by the obvious relief on the faces of his friends and made sure to assure the upper years that no points were taken. It was nice knowing that they liked him enough to worry even when he wasn't wearing the masks he had once worn for the villagers of the hidden leaf.

He happily but with an outward air of reluctance relayed the story of their encounter with the troll and how it was the first charm taught to first year students that had saved them. Gaara was mostly content to let him tell the story which he made sure followed the facts of the encounter but kept any details of where they had been or what they had been doing as a secret. Many of the older students he noted looked impressed which could only help to elevate his status in Slytherin in the coming years. He didn't want to always rely on Draco to elevate his status among his peers.

Once he had finished relating the events of the evening the older students drifted away to continue the feast in their own friend groups leaving the path clear for the other first years to crowd around them.

"I'm glad you managed not to die," Pansy told him when she reached him.

"But fighting the troll, even in a clever way, was still a stupidly Gryffindor thing to do," Draco added with a relieved smile.

"What Draco isn't saying is that he was horribly worried about you. The poor thing couldn't even eat," Daphne smirked at Draco while linking her arm with his.

"Noted, I will try to be more considerate of Draco's nerves if I should happen to be faced with another troll in the future," he said causing the other first years to smile or laugh depending on their natures.

He was satisfied to see the last of the lingering tension and worry leave the faces of his fellow first years. Draco was pouting but thankfully didn't make a scene likely due to the presence of the Hufflepuffs. He allowed Daphne to pull him by their linked arms toward the area the first years had claimed for themselves to finish the feast which had been spread across all of the tables in the common room. Gaara and his Hufflepuffs took the seats across the table from them as Draco slipped into the seat beside him.

"So,out of curiosity, what were you and Gaara up to while you were missing the feast?" Justin asked.

He filled his plate with a few of the savoury options available amid the copious amounts of candy before answering with a shrug, "We were talking in one of the empty classrooms between our common rooms."

"That's kind of boring," Ernie sighed.

"Too boring, what were you doing really? Pansy leaned around Daphne sensing gossip.

"I assure you we were doing nothing worthy of gossipping over. We were really just talking," he assured her looking bored.

With a sharp look she let it go but he knew he wouldn't be hearing the last of her. Luckily, their usual training time was far earlier than Pansy would ever wake up. He smiled back before changing the subject to one of the essays they were meant to be working on for history of magic which they all shared.

He was surprised how well the Hufflepuffs and his Slytherin year mates got along considering how the Slytherins still stubbornly refused to join the study group. He hoped that after the feast they would be friendly enough with each other that the Slytherins would start coming to the library if only to save himself from having to go over every assignment for their shared classes twice, once with each group.

Tuning out of the discussion about the assignments he had already finished he decided to treat himself to some candy for dessert. It was Halloween after all. He took a chocolate frog from the pile making sure he caught it before it could land on anything unsanitary, like the floor.

He felt his lip curl in disgust as he saw a picture of the Headmaster smiling benevolently from the face of the card. Not wanting to look at the man he flipped the card. Though he couldn't care less about the defeat of a dark lord years before he was born he did find himself intrigued about the twelve uses of dragon's blood. He wondered how many of the uses were in potions which was one of his strongest subjects even if the teacher left a great deal to be desired. He resolved to look up the uses of dragon's blood and maybe alchemy just in case the two were related.

After a couple of hours Snape came into the Hufflepuff common room to lead the Slytherins back to their own common room so they could go to sleep in their own beds. He wasn't the only person grateful they wouldn't need to sleep on the floor or share with a Hufflepuff though he would have been luckier than many since he had Gaara to bunk with if it had been necessary.

The next day found the Slytherins following him to the library to study with the Hufflepuffs and Neville. The Slytherins had deemed the Hufflepuffs tolerable the night before which meant they were now willing to give his study group a try bit made no promises about continuing to come if they didn't find value in the 'Puffs' contributions.

He just rolled his eyes and led the way to their regular table before going into the shelves to search for some books to help him with his research into he uses of dragon's blood. Not knowing what the uses of dragon's blood were he wasn't sure what section the books would be in. For now, he decided to get a book on alchemy because it made some sense that the uses might have been found while Dumbledore was working on Alchemy with his partner though he also accepted this could be wrong as the partner hadn't been mentioned in relation to the dragon's blood just the alchemy. Either way he thought it was a good starting point.

He pulled out a book on Alchemy for beginners and started reading the introduction. The Introduction of the book was basically a sales pitch for the study of Alchemy. It started with a brief overview of why it was useful and worth your time before going into noted alchemists and the various feats they accomplished through the study and application of alchemy. It was at the end of the introduction that he found an answer he had been searching for, for months.

He felt a wide grin spread across his face as he read that Nicholas Flamel, Dumbledore's partner, was best known for creating the ultimate cheat through alchemy. The philosopher's stone, eternal life and wealth, he could do a lot with that. He closed the book and went back to the study group debating if he should tell Gaara what he had found or keep it to himself.

In the end he had decided to tell Gaara about the stone during training the next morning. Gaara seemed to know that there was no way he was returning the stone so he didn't even bother to suggest that option. They agreed to keep the information to themselves and do nothing with the stone, just keep it safe in his trunk as they had already been doing. With any luck the stone might be able to help him have his life as a shinobi and as a wizard depending on how the stone worked. He would need to be especially sneaky in trying to research exactly how the stone produced the elixir of life and how that elixir extended his life. The last thing he needed was Dumbledore getting overly suspicious.