A/N: Still not mine, as I'm sure all of you know.

Thanks to etj4eagle for all his help.

Enjoy!

Chapter 10: Flamel

"Hurry up, Harry. The train is about to leave!" Ron said, running as fast as he could through the barrier to platform nine and three-quarters.

Harry followed his friend and together they made it onto the train just in time, with the train's whistle sounding and it beginning to move only moments after they boarded it.

See you in June! Ginny mentally called out from the platform as she madly waved at the departing train, a wave that Harry enthusiastically returned.

"Well, we better find Hermione and Neville," Harry said to Ron once the platform was out of sight before starting to drag his trunk through the train, checking the compartments for the familiar faces of their friends. Not too long after, he found them and a broad smile formed on his face as he entered.

"Hi Harry, Ron! Happy New Year!" Hermione squealed and gave the two of them a hug. Neville behind her rolled his eyes at her antics and settled for a handshake and a much more controlled "how you've been?"

"Oh, we're great," Ron replied smiling. "We've had a very good holiday, loads of presents. How about the two of you?"

"It was ok. My gran dragged me to some sort of high society function on New Year's Eve. Boring as hell and worst of all, Malfoy was there," Neville said making a disgusted face. "They made me sit next to him and act civilly all evening. Worst night of my life." The others groaned and threw him sympathetic looks.

"I had a great time in Paris with my parents," Hermione said next. "We saw the Eiffel tower and we went to the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe. And, then we went to the Wizarding section of Paris and it was so great. It has loads of shops and it's even bigger then Diagon Alley."

And she's off again, Ginny commented in Harry's head, causing him to smother a snort.

Ginny was right, though and soon Hermione was regaling them with an in depth description of how 'Rue de l'Hyppogriffe' and 'Rue du Phénix' looked like. Though after a minute or five of listening to Hermione, Harry tuned her out and reflected on the holidays. He had had an amazing time back at the Burrow. For the first time in his life he really felt like he belonged somewhere. He had a family and it felt incredible. It was a feeling he never wanted to loose – the feeling of a place where he would always be welcome no matter what.

But then suddenly that happiness became overshadowed by what Arthur had told him and Ginny on Christmas. It hadn't taken him long to see why the wonderful thing of him being adopted by the Weasleys had a bad side. Luckily Molly and mostly Arthur were very understanding about his relationship with Ginny. Arthur went even as far as supplying them with a solution for if they really wanted to be together, even if he didn't really like it. He could just as easily have forbidden Harry and Ginny to pursue a relationship considering he was now legally Harry's father. Instead he explained them the situation and offered them some advice, which Harry and Ginny chose to follow, for now. From now on they were just acting like really good friends until they were a bit older. They were still too young to have a real romantic relationship after all. They could address the problem at a later time in their lives and so, for the remainder of the holidays they did just that and neither them nor the parents brought up the subject again.

"- and Harry got an invisibility cloak," Harry heard Ron saying suddenly. Harry's head jerked up at the sound of his name and he saw Hermione and Neville looking at him with awe in their eyes.

"Really? An invisibility cloak?" Hermione gushed. "They are really rare, those. Can we see it?"

Harry smiled and said, "Sure. Let me get it," before getting up and taking it out of his trunk. Then draping it around his shoulders his friends saw just his head floating in there in the air.

"Wicked!" Neville reacted in an unintended copy of Ron's reaction at Christmas.

"That is amazing," Hermione said touching the soft fabric of the cloak.

"Yeah, I know. It was my father's." The adoration was palpable in his voice. Carefully, almost reverently he put the cloak back in his trunk.

Hermione got a thoughtful look on her face. "You know. We could put that cloak to real good use. We still haven't found anything about Flamel."

"And…" Harry prodded not really liking the direction of the conversation.

"And we could use it to look through - " she glanced to the door and her voice dropped to a whisper "- through the restricted section of the library."

Harry sighed. "I don't know Hermione. I don't want it confiscated if they catch us. It's the only thing I have of my parents."

"It's an invisibility cloak! How are we going to get caught?" she shot back.

"I never thought I'd see the day that Hermione would be pushing us to break the rules," Ron remarked with a bit of a proud look on his face.

"Well, Harry? Will you do it?" Hermione said ignoring Ron.

Looking at the eager expression on Hermione's face, Harry found it hard to say no. But then again, his cloak was very important to him. He just couldn't risk it to satisfy her curiosity. "I'll think about it," he finally said not really planning to.

From there the talk in the compartment died out and everyone soon found something else to spend the time with. Harry and Ron started a game of chess with Neville watching and helping Harry try to defeat Ron while Hermione took out a book.

BANG!

The door of their compartment was thrown open and a volley of spells made their way in before any of the occupants had the time to react. Harry was hit with a painful stinging hex, but just barely managed to dodge a second spell that he vaguely recognised as the Jelly-Legs Jinx. Hermione got hit with a weird curse that caused her lips to grow together and Ron went down hit by a stunner. Only Neville was spared because Harry was sitting in the line of fire. Harry quickly recovered from the stinging hex and pulled his wand to defend himself. Neville was a bit faster since he wasn't hit and immediately managed to get one of the attackers with the Bat-Bogey Hex. A girl's voice shrieked in response.

It was only then that Harry recognised his attackers. Malfoy stood there flanked by his usual two cronies and the screaming girl that Harry knew to be Pansy Parkinson. Apparently, Malfoy hadn't gotten over his humiliation during the train ride home and had decided to enact revenge upon Harry and his friends. Realizing this, anger flared in Harry's veins. This was a cowardly attack and he could not - no, would not - tolerate that.

A new volley of spells erupted from the attackers, but a strong Protego by Harry protected them with the spells bouncing off in random directions, one of the ricochets clipping Crabbe's shoulder who promptly fell down unconscious. Retaliating, Harry shot a 'Furnunculus' back at Malfoy whose skin immediately erupted in huge painful boils all over his body. Harry followed it up with a Jelly-Legs, which caused Malfoy to topple over on his back, and finally finished him off with another Bat-Bogey on Ginny's insistence. In the meantime, Neville had hit Goyle with a stunner. Then turning his attention to Parkinson who was still screaming from Neville's Bat-Bogey hex, he hit her with a stunner before walking over to where Malfoy was laying on the ground.

"You cowardly piece of shit!" Harry growled with his eyes flashing angrily. "Don't you ever attack me or my friends again! Stupefy," he snarled having to resist the urge to kick Malfoy in the ribs.

Are you ok, Harry? a concerned Ginny asked him.

Rubbing his arm where the stinger had hit and winced a bit, Harry replied, Just a little sore, Gin. Nothing serious. Then turning his attention back to their attackers, Harry started levitating them out of the compartment, while Neville went out in search of the Head Boy or the Head Girl. Hearing a muffled moan from his left and feeling someone pull on his sleeve, Harry turned and saw for the first time the effects of the curse that Malfoy had hit his friend with.

"Hang on, Hermione," Harry said, before pointing his wand and saying, "Finite Incantatem." However, to his dismay there was no reaction whatsoever. Instead, he could only watch as Hermione's fear began to get the best of her as her fingers desperately searched the skin where her mouth was before. Thankfully, it was not long after Harry's failed spell that Neville re-entered the compartment followed closely by the Head Boy as well as the witch that pushed the trolley with snacks.

"Oh my! What happened here?" the witch asked concerned in a high pitched voice, before quickly reviving Ron and then moving over to Hermione.

"Wha- what happened," Ron groaned, sitting up shakily. He had a large bump on his forehead from where he had hit his chessboard.

"Malfoy wanted revenge for the ride home I guess," Harry responded his anger evident in his voice. "We managed to get them, but they got Hermione with a nasty spell. I can't seem to reverse it."

"Bloody hell," Ron cursed when he saw Hermione. "Does it hurt, Hermione?" he asked in an unnaturally concerned voice. She shook her head in denial. "Don't worry; we'll fix you in no time."

Neville turned to the Head Boy. "This guy -" he snarled pointing at Malfoy. "- came in and attacked us together with his friends. We defended ourselves and we managed to stun them all." He sounded distinctly proud by that fact.

"That's right," Harry confirmed. "But they got Hermione with some weird sort of curse and I can't seem to reverse it," he added with a little desperation in his voice. "I tried a 'Finite' and a 'Finite Incantatem' but it doesn't go away."

The witch started trying to reverse the curse on Hermione while the Head Boy got out his wand and said, "Let's see what their story is." Stepping out of the compartment, he enervated Malfoy and waited for the boy to catch his bearings. Malfoy's eyes shot up and met the questioning and slightly angry ones of the Head Boy.

"They - They attacked us," Malfoy stammered out immediately pointing straight at Harry. "We just walked past and they hexed us. We couldn't do a thing."

"Really?" the Head Boy asked sceptically. "Then who cursed - Hermione was it, right? Then who cursed Hermione?"

"They did themselves. They are trying to trick us," Malfoy lied desperately. It really didn't sound convincing, though, and Harry was pleased to hear a note of panic in his voice.

"Let's see about that," the Head Boy said. He picked up Malfoy's wand and pointed his own at it. "Priori Incantatem." A grey mist rose from the wand. First it flashed red and Harry thought that might have been the stunner Malfoy had shot. After that a mouth formed in the mist with the lips gradually disappearing. "It seams like you are the one who cursed Hermione." He did the same with the other wands and noted down all the spells that were used by those involved on a piece of parchment. When he was done, he said, "You are all confined to your compartments until we reach Hogsmeade. I will take the matters up to your Heads of House and the appropriate actions will be taken."

In the meantime the witch had managed to reverse the damage done to Hermione and had left escorting the four attackers back to their compartment. Hermione was currently checking her reflection in the window to see if everything had returned to normal. Seeing nothing amiss, she sighed in relief and sunk back in her seat.

"Are you ok, Hermione?" Neville asked, dropping himself into the seat next to her.

"I am now. It was so frustrating, not being able to talk, I mean," Hermione answered still a bit upset. She touched her lips again as if to check as everything was still there. "I couldn't even help you guys."

"I really hope he gets expelled," Ron stated his ears red in anger.

Harry sighed. "I wouldn't bet on it. It's his Head of House that will have to decide what his punishment is. I wouldn't be surprised if Snape just lets him get away with it."

"No, me either. Bloody Slytherins," Ron cursed and for once Hermione didn't even correct him.

Neville shrugged. "Yeah, well. Nothing we can do about it now. Let's forget about it. We'll see tonight. Here Ron, have a Chocolate Frog."

This calmed Ron down sufficiently and he happily opened it and swallowed the Frog in one bite. Then he took the card. "Too bad. Dumbledore again," he said disappointed. "Still no Agrippa. I'm starting to believe that card doesn't exist. How many Chocolate Frogs do I have to eat before I finally get her?"

Harry laughed at this. "I don't know, Ron. With the amount of Frogs you eat in a day, I would have expected you had her like twenty times already."

Ron just shrugged. "Well, this is the twenty-sixth Dumbledore I've got. Anybody want it?"

"Sure," Neville responded. "I'll take it. I don't have any at home, because my gran never lets me eat sweets. I think it might be fun to begin collecting too."

"Catch!" Ron threw the card across the compartment towards Neville. The latter was too slow to catch it and the card bounced of on his forehead. "Woops, sorry," Ron said sheepishly.

"Thanks, Ron," Neville said sarcastically while rubbing the sore spot on his face. Then he looked at the card he just got and read the text on the back. His eyes went wide and he read the card four times before slumping back in his seat. "I've found him," he whispered shocked.

"What?" Hermione asked distractedly while searching her bag for a new book to read.

"Flamel! I've found him," Neville exclaimed a bit louder.

Hermione dropped her book bag and jumped up. "You have? Really? Tell me! Tell me!" she demanded looking ready to drag it out of him. She started crossing the compartment to get closer to Neville but lost her balance on the way through. With a thump she fell and ended up on top of Neville knocking him and her to the ground.

Harry and Ron burst out laughing as the two tried to get themselves back up. "Easy there, Hermione," Ron smiled helping her back in her seat. "He'd probably tell you without you knocking it out of him."

"I'm not sure if I want to, anymore," Neville commented with a shudder. "I don't know much and if she wants to know more I could get hurt."

"Sorry about that, Neville," Hermione apologised. There was silence for two seconds before she spoke again. "Now, are you going to tell me or what?"

Neville looked hesitant but the corners of his mouth were twitching. "You're not going to hurt me?"

"Of course not… If you tell me."

"Oh, fine. Here, Hermione," Neville said taking out the card and giving it to her.

She knocked it to the side and continued her glaring. "I don't want no Chocolate Frog card. I want you to tell me what you know about Flamel!" she said in a deadly cold voice.

"'Mione. Read the back," Neville said hurriedly.

"What?"

"On the back, Hermione," Neville repeated thrusting the card back in her hand.

She shot him a questioning look and finally accepted the card from him and started reading. Her eyes scanned the card and then almost bulged out of their sockets. "You did find him. I almost thought you were just messing with me," she said excited. "Alchemy! Oh, I know just what book I need. I've seen it before we left Hogwarts for the holidays, but I wasn't allowed to take it home with me so I left it in the library. Oh, I really need to go to the library. Are we there yet?" She was effectively bouncing in her seat by now.

"I knew I shouldn't have said anything 'til we were at Hogwarts," Neville said sighing.

"And getting hexed because you held out on her? Better you than me, mate," Ron said shaking his head. "Oy, Hermione. Could you please relax? It's still a while until we get to Hogwarts."

Hermione humphed and sank down in her seat. For the rest of the trip she just sat there staring out of the window and nervously tapping her foot.

They arrived at the school just before dinner time. Hermione wanted to check out the library immediately, but the others managed to drag her to the Great Hall for the feast. Unfortunately, her patience was tested beyond just waiting till the end of dinner, as following the end of the meal they were approached by professor McGonagall.

"Mr. Potter, Mr. Longbottom, Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger," her stern voice called out. "Your presence is required in the Headmaster's office. We would like to discuss this afternoon's… incident with all involved parties. Please follow me." She led the group through the corridors and up the stairs to the – to Harry – familiar hallway with the stone gargoyle at the end. She spoke the password and they took the revolving stairway to the top.

Upstairs Snape was waiting with the four Slytherins and he sneered maliciously at the Gryffindors when they entered. To the side the Head Boy was standing, probably waiting to give testimony of what had happened afterwards. Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk wearing a smile and a happy twinkle in his eyes.

"Good evening Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger and you too, Mr. Longbottom," he greeted jovially. "So good of you to join us. Please sit down. All of you." Dumbledore waved his wand and chairs for everyone materialised in the office. After everyone had found a seat, he continued. "I heard you had a minor scuffle on the way here. Could you please tell me what happened, Miss Granger."

Hermione started at being addressed personally but quickly described what had happened. "Well, we were sitting in our compartment and suddenly Draco, Pansy, er… Crabbe and Goyle -" Here Hermione flushed, probably for not knowing Crabbe and Goyle's first names since no-one addressed them by those. "- entered our compartment with their wands out and started hexing us. Ron got stunned immediately, I got hit with a hex that sort of glued my lips together and I think Harry got hit with a stinging hex. Neville didn't get hit. Together, Harry and Neville managed to defend themselves and eventually they stunned them all."

"I see. And may I ask what your story is, Mr. Malfoy?" Dumbledore asked next shifting his gaze to the blonde boy.

"She's lying," Malfoy managed to get out looking very pale. "We didn't do anything. They attacked us. We were just walking by."

"Does anyone of you have any witnesses?"

Both groups of kids shook their heads.

"Mr. Taylor. You checked the wands of our students. What did you find out?"

The Head-Boy cleared his throat and started listing his findings. "Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger didn't fire a single spell. Mr. Potter first cast a shield charm, followed by the 'furnunculus' curse and a Jelly-Legs jinx. Then a spell I don't know."

"Bat-Bogey hex," Harry interrupted.

"Right. A Bat-Bogey hex, apparently. Then a few stunners and finally a few reversal charms, probably to try and counter that hex on Miss Granger. Mr. Longbottom did a … Bat-Bogey hex, followed by a stunner.

"Mr. Malfoy first cast a Lip-Locker hex, which hit Miss Granger, followed by a stunner and a cutting curse. Miss Parkinson only cast a Stinging hex. Mr. Crabbe cast a Jelly-Legs jinx followed by a stunner and Mr. Goyle cast two stunners."

"Thank you, Mr. Taylor," Dumbledore said. He pondered for a few moments while absently moving his fingers through his long beard. "The evidence suggests that our Slytherin students instigated this confrontation," Dumbledore said, causing said students immediately to begin protesting. "However, as there are no impartial witnesses to this event, this can not be proven beyond doubt. All that is proven is who participated in this fight. Since fighting is clearly against school rules, all those involved will have to serve a week of detentions." All of the students groaned at this news. "Only Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger will be excused from this, as they have not fired a single spell. Please report with Mr. Filch after dinner starting tomorrow. Any questions?"

You're getting punished for defending yourself? Ginny screamed outraged in his head.

Harry sighed deeply before mumbling, "No, professor."

"Very well, report to professor Sprout for your detentions. You'll probably be helping in the greenhouses," Dumbledore said giving a discreet wink to Neville, whose eyes lighted up at the prospect of spending a large amount working in his favourite place of the school. "Very well, off you go. I'm sure you can all use a good night's sleep after such a long and tiresome day."

The students mumbled their goodbyes and set of towards their common rooms accompanied by their Heads of Houses.

I don't understand, Ginny said miserably. He's punishing you for defending yourself! He's basically saying you should let yourself get hexed next time instead of fighting back.

I do, Harry replied. I don't like it, but I do understand. He didn't have any concrete evidence that Malfoy and his friends started this fight. Well, he did have evidence, but it was all - what's the word? - circumstantial evidence. And he had to punish Malfoy and the others for fighting, because otherwise they would just do it again the next time. And, because he didn't have any real evidence as to who started the fight…

He had to punish all of you, Ginny finished. Right... That doesn't make it fair, though.

I know. But at least the detentions won't be so bad. He could have assigned them with Filch or Snape or something.

In the meantime they had arrived in the common room. Harry wanted to talk a bit more with his friends about what happened, but under the stern glare from professor McGonagall, all retreated to their dorms.

I still think they need more punishment, Ginny said while Harry prepared for bed. The mischievous tone of her voice created a smile on Harry's face.

I agree. Planning tonight?

Sure thing. See you in a few minutes!

Sweet dreams…

Harry woke up the next morning, feeling refreshed. He and Ginny had spent a large portion of the night brainstorming on ways to get back at Malfoy and his cronies. They had a few good ones, but they needed some assistance in carrying them out. And they knew just where to find it.

After waking up Ron, by repeatedly whacking him on the head with his pillow, Harry took a quick shower before heading down with his friends, Neville had awoken on his own. When they arrived down in the common room it was to find that Hermione was already there, at one of the tables, reading an enormous book. She was reading frantically through the book trying to sate her almost insatiable thirst for knowledge and as such she didn't even notice when Ron, Harry and Neville plopped down in seats close to her.

"Morning, Hermione," Neville greeted loudly trying to coax some reaction from the girl.

Nothing…

"HERMIONE!" Harry said a little louder.

Still nothing…

Finally, Ron had enough and in one swift motion he slammed the book shut she was reading in.

"HEY!" she screamed, startled, before turning her gaze to Ron and asking angrily. "What was that for?"

"Finally, some reaction," Ron sighed sinking back in his seat. "We've been trying to get your attention for ages. What's so interesting about that book anyway?"

"Oh," Hermione said and deflated, before her eyes gleamed again in excitement. "Well, I woke up early today and went to the library to find that book on Alchemy I told you about yesterday. And I found him!" She opened the book again and quickly turned to the right page. "Here! Nicholas Flamel. There's a whole section about him. It's so interesting. Do you know he invented over three hundred different potions including…"

"Hermione," Ron interrupted groaning. "Just tell us what Dumbledore's hiding here. We don't need to know all that."

"Right. Sorry. Flamel is the only known maker of the Philosophers Stone," she said as if that explained everything.

Neville's eyes betrayed a flash of recognition but Harry and Ron were both clueless.

The Philosophers Stone! No wonder someone is trying to steal it, Ginny said.

You know what it is?

Of course! It's …

However, before Ginny could explain Hermione launched into a long and very detailed speech about the stone and its properties. Listening to the spiel, the three boys shared a small exasperated smile with each other, but they let the bushy-haired girl finish her lecture.

"So, it's a stone that can change any metal into gold and can create the 'elixir of life' which makes the drinker live longer," Harry surmised.

"Yes, that's what I said, wasn't it?" Hermione said looking at him funnily.

"That and about a million other words," Ron grumbled quietly.

Hermione still heard him and huffed. "I was just giving you some interesting background information. If you don't want to know, then just don't listen."

"Fine, fine," Ron conceded not really wanting to fight so early in the morning.

"So who do you think is trying to steal the stone?" Neville asked.

"Snape," Ron said with more than a little venom in his voice. "I'm sure it's that good for nothing Slytherin."

"I don't think so," Harry said pensive. "Remember on Hallowe'en with the troll and Fluffy and all? I … er … someone pranked him that evening and I doubt he would have tried to steal the stone wearing a pumpkin on his head."

Ron sniggered silently as he relived the image, while Hermione nodded in agreement. "It has to be someone that was already in the castle," she reasoned ignoring Harry's slight slip-of-the-tongue. "It says in 'Hogwarts: A History' that no one can cross the wards without permission from the Headmaster. So it had to be either someone on the staff or a student."

"I think it's Quirrell," Harry said. He had been thinking about it over the last few months and was now sure that he was the one responsible. But as usual, he only had suspicions.

"Quirrell? The guy's probably afraid of his breakfast. He would faint just seeing Fluffy," Ron said with rolling eyes.

"I'm pretty sure," Harry replied, "but I don't have proof." He then started to explain all the things he had noticed about the professor.

"So you think he's trying to steal the stone for someone else? It could be," Hermione admitted. "It certainly looks that way, if you heard right that day."

Ron stretched and stood up. "I still think it's Snape, but you guys can speculate all you want. I'm hungry and I'm going to have breakfast before there isn't any left."

The others laughed and followed the redhead to the Great Hall.

Classes that day continued just in much the same vein as they had been last term, except that Snape seemed to have regained some of his venom over the holidays. The snide remarks and insults at Harry's address had returned, but he kept them quiet enough so that nobody else overheard him. It made Harry a bit upset, but he expected that he would have been much more affected if it wasn't for Ginny soothing him in his head.

Herbology afterwards also helped him in dealing with his anger. They were handling Singing Lily's and the song of the beautiful flowers really relaxed him. So much so, that in History that afternoon he drifted away into a very nice nap.

The evening came soon and Harry and Neville were getting ready for their detentions.

"It's not fair," Hermione said sadly. "They attacked us and you only defended yourself. You shouldn't have detention."

"I know, Hermione," Harry sighed. "But like I explained, Dumbledore didn't really have a choice."

"But…"

"He even made sure it would be a nicer detention for us then for the Slytherins. You know how much Neville here enjoys it in the greenhouses," Harry said playfully thumping Neville on the back.

"Maybe Sprout'll even teach us something," Neville agreed eagerly.

Harry laughed. "She might. Come on, Neville. We don't want to be late."

They said their goodbyes and soon were heading to the first of their detentions. Harry had to laugh at the eager look on Neville's face. It was not often somebody looked so happy going to detention. They arrived there at the same time as the four Slytherins who threw them some ugly looks, but nobody said anything. The tasks they had to do were curiously distributed. While Malfoy and his friends had to mix fertilizers in Greenhouse Two, Harry and Neville had to prune some of the tamer plants in Greenhouse Three, to the very obvious delight of Neville. Professor Sprout told them in a conspiratory whisper not to let anyone know about the easy detentions. Obviously, the two Gryffindors gladly agreed.

A few hours later they were dismissed. Back in the common room, Neville went straight to bed. Harry on the other hand had some business to attend to with two identical redheaded boys who were currently whispering to each other in a secluded corner of the common room.

"Hello, Gred and Forge," Harry said greeting them quietly before sinking down into the seat in front of them. "I am in need of your expertise. Certain individuals need to… be taught a lesson. I was wondering if I could ask your assistance in this matter," he stated formally.

Fred spoke up. "Aah, little Harry." Harry growled in response. "Sorry. Mr. Potter. How could I forget."

"Tell us," George continued. "Is this concerning a certain four Slytherins who had the audacity to attack you?"

"Yep," Harry confirmed. "I have a few ideas on what to do, but I don't know how to. Or if it's even possible."

"Why would we help you disrupt our school?" Fred asked grinning.

George whacked him on the head. "Of course we will help him disrupt the school. How can you even ask such a thing?"

"I was only being sarcastic," Fred grumbled.

"Well, don't be. There will be no joking about pranks," George said solemnly but with a bright sparkle in his eyes. "This is a very serious business and our little adoptive brother requires our expert assistance. We must not even speculate about the option of saying no."

"Of course we will help him. I was only trying to remind our little adoptive brother that he can always count on us to aid him in the act of causing mischief and mayhem."

"Hmm. Good point." George turned to Harry. "Harry, you must never ask for our assistance again. Next time, just state what you need and we will provide to the best of our abilities."

"I agree," Fred said. "Now, what is it that you needed?"

Harry laughed. "Thanks. Well. Here's what I had in mind…" Harry spent the next few minutes explaining what he had in mind. The twins nodded from time to time and Fred was even taking a few notes. All the while they looked incredibly serious. "Now, I know how to do the first two, but I don't know how to do the others. Can it be done?" Harry asked anxiously when he had finished.

Fred looked over his notes. "The third one will be no problem. I know what potion you want to use. We've actually made it ourselves once."

George winced. "Yeah, That didn't work out too well, though. We were planning on using it on Snape, but he caught us just as we were spiking his drink."

"That's when we started suspecting that Snape was reading our minds."

"And, shortly afterwards we learned Occlumency."

"He never caught us again, did he dear brother?"

"Can't say he did, but he did come awfully close that one time when …"

"Er… Guys. Back on topic please?" Harry asked effectively stopping the reminiscing between the brothers.

"Sorry," the twins chanted together.

"Right… the pranks," Fred continued. "We'll get you the recipe for that potion. We have no idea how to do the last one, though. We will have to research that. Or find out a suitable alternative for it. We'll let you know."

"We only have one request to make," George added. "We want help in the distribution. They attacked our little brother and our adoptive little brother. They deserve all that's coming to them."

Harry smiled and shook the hands the twins held out. "Deal."

After that, Harry stood up and went to bed. Exhausted by the long day he quickly fell asleep.

"Hi, Harry!" Ginny greeted cheerfully when Harry joined her in the dream.

"Hey, Gin," Harry replied and gave her a long hug. "The plans for the pranks are working out great, aren't they?"

He looked around and took a deep breath enjoying the scene. Ginny had recreated their secret place behind the Burrow this night. He smiled when he saw the little 'upgrades' she had added in this dream world. Whereas in reality the ground was hard and covered in dirt, here it was soft and covered in thick, fresh, green grass. Instead of the hard wooden boxes they normally sat on, she had created a soft two person sofa. Harry smiled at his friend in appreciation and together they sat down.

"Yeah, they are," Ginny agreed. "Too bad I still can't see the results of the pranks that I help plan."

"I know. But we'll do some better ones next year," Harry said.

"We'd better," Ginny grumbled. "I wouldn't want to have missed all the fun."

Harry shrugged and they sat in silence for a while before Harry spoke up. "It's too bad we can't include Neville in the pranks. He has as much right for a little bit of revenge as me."

"I know, Harry. But we talked about this before. His mind isn't protected and he will surely get detention if Snape reads his mind. And you can't teach him now or Snape will know for sure you know Occlumency."

"Yeah, you're right. But still. It makes me sick knowing Snape is rummaging through my friend's brain."

"Me too. Teach him the basics just before the summer vacation. He can help us with the pranks next year if he practices over the summer."

Harry nodded seriously. "Great idea…" Then he smiled. "Enough seriousness. Want to go swimming?"

Harry waited a week to start with the first part of his pranks; his detentions had left him with very little spare time. The next week, however, he had loads of it; Quidditch hadn't restarted again and lessons were still starting up. Harry made judicial use of this extra time by preparing everything. He also found that Ginny's Christmas gift came in really handy, as two of the recipes that he needed were in it, saving him many hours of having to research them in the library, just leaving the few hours of prep time for those potions. And, while he was working on those two, Fred and George had found how to do the other two and they had even gone as far as to make the potions for him.

On the next Monday, Harry and the twins managed to spike the four Slytherin's food.

It went of without a hitch…

Ginny's suggestion was to make the four Slytherins undesirable to spend time with, even in their own house. She had proposed to feed them all a powerful laxative. While that would have certainly made the four very smelly company, it would also mean they had to spend most of the day on the toilet and they just might be excused from the lessons. Instead, Harry had prepared a different surprise for each of them.

He had given them all an unattractive physical ailment. Crabbe was giving a potion that made him excessively sweat, Goyle got one that made his breath smell terribly, Pansy had the unladylike urge to burp all the time and Malfoy developed a bad case of gas. Once the symptoms began appearing, it took just a mere five minutes before the Slytherins around them scooted away, leaving at least five foot on each side of them. This, however, was not to be a one shot prank, as Harry had enough potion to ensure that they retained their ailments for another three days.

All in all, the effect was better than Harry and Ginny could have hoped for. By the end of the week nobody dared to sit close to any of the four anymore, just in case they suddenly developed their problems again. They were shunned and ignored by everyone in the castle. If they sat down at a table somewhere others stood up to sit somewhere else. And as an unanticipated bonus, the four Slytherins managed to annoy each other as well; they couldn't handle each other's irritating traits and so they ended up spending most of their time alone.

In all, they were very undesirable.

Now that the prank was over and his detentions were all done, Harry could go back to concentrating fully on his studies.

Harry was still something of a prodigy in Transfiguration and professor McGonagall kept finding new challenges for him. After the spells to change the base material of an item, she had taught him spells that affected the size of an object: the Shrinking and Expanding charms. And, now that he had mastered those as well, McGonagall was mostly teaching him all of the shortcuts that she had mentioned during that first lesson all of the way back in September. Most of these shortcuts allowed him to accomplish the various transfigurations with less mental focus than the standard approach and as expected Harry quickly mastered them. The majority of these spells were not taught at Hogwarts, which had been one of the reasons why McGonagall had chosen them, as she did not want to start him on second year material quite yet - turning animals into objects and back.

As for Defence Against the Dark Arts, Quirrell was still his unpleasant self with his usual boring as hell lessons. Having decided that Quirrell was the most likely culprit for the attempt on the Philosopher's Stone, Harry spent most of his time in class keeping a close eye on him and as such noticed that he looked a bit sickly. Quirrell was very pale and looked like he had lost a lot of pounds in a short time, but other than that nothing seemed remotely suspicious anymore. Harry had been so sure that Quirrel had been the one who had attempted to steal the stone, but even McGonagall didn't seem to be following Quirrell all the time like she did before the holidays; seemed like she hadn't found anything suspicious about the nervous professor and decided to stop wasting her time following the guy around.

When he mentioned this to his friends, it only increased their suspicion that Snape was really the one trying to steal it, especially Ron's. The fact that he was a 'greasy git' was enough of proof in Ron's mind to convict the unpleasant Potions professor. Speaking of which, the latter had become even more unpleasant lately. Harry suspected that Snape suspected that a prank had befallen his four favourite first years, since he had been trying to break into his mind ever their sudden drop in popularity amongst the inhabitants of the castle. Fact was that even he now seemed to avoid the unfortunate Slytherins. He still doted on them and let them get away with everything they did, but he now kept a safe distance in doing so.

As for Quidditch, the practices started up again during the last week of January. It was still bitter cold outside and the pitch was frozen solid, but that didn't defer Oliver Wood from getting them up at the crack of dawn that Saturday to get them ready for the game against Hufflepuff at the end of February.

"Wake up, Fred!" the burly fifth year captain yelled at his team-mate when he started dozing on his broom. "This is no time to sleep. The match against Hufflepuff is less than a month away and we need to win. We are at the top of the rankings now and we will even overtake Slytherin in the House Cup if we win, which hasn't happened in years."

"Relax, Ollie," Fred soothed. "We have the best team I've seen since I started Hogwarts. There's no way we're going to lose against the 'Puffs."

Wood's scowl got deeper at that comment and he growled back, "No, I won't relax. And you shouldn't too. Our victory is definitely not a sure thing, especially not with Snape refereeing."

The entire team gulped audibly and George even slipped of his broom to the ground causing him to yelp loudly as he bruised his backside. Ginny who had been listening in choked on her drink when she heard that.

"Er… Did I hear you right?" Fred asked while his brother was recovering. "Snape's refereeing?"

"Yes, you heard me right," he snapped back. "Why Snape suddenly has the urge to be a referee, I don't know. But I do know his ideas of 'fair play' are not going to be in Gryffindor's advantage. So I want everyone to be on top of their game come game-day. Is that understood," he bellowed, now addressing everyone in his team.

"Yes, sir!" Fred said cheekily with a sloppy salute.

The glare that the redhead got his way could have melted the Quidditch pitch if it had been directed that way and in response Fred paled and mumbled a quick apology along with a promise that he would do anything in his power to ensure their victory.

The rest of the team repeated that promise quickly and soon they were back in the air diligently practicing the many moves and strategies Wood had devised.

"And they're off!" the magically enhanced voice of Lee Jordan announced on the long awaited and in some cases dreaded day of the Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. Harry, especially, had been a bundle of nerves that morning, hardly able to swallow his breakfast. The taunts coming from the Slytherin table didn't help one bit. This occasion was apparently special enough to break Malfoy and his cronies out of their seclusion from the rest of the school. They wasted no time to rally the others of their house in a small competition to come up with the most original insults, which in Harry's eyes they lost by a wide margin.

Harry's friends too were worried about today as they remembered what had happened during the last match, especially Ron. Ron was still convinced that Snape was the one who had tried to kill Harry and was sure that Snape was going to try again today. He had almost pleaded with Harry not to play today. However, Harry wasn't too concerned about Snape; McGonagall had assured him that the Potions professor had in fact saved his life that day and that was enough for him.

Harry had no idea why Snape did volunteer to referee this match, but the fact that he could sabotage the Gryffindor's play had probably played a major part in his decision.

Unfortunately, their expectations about Snape were fulfilled; he was very biased. Not one minute into the game and Hufflepuff was awarded a penalty because George hit a Bludger towards the opposing team, which of course is part of basic game play. Following that penalty, the Gryffindor team played furiously and their three female chasers played their hearts out. However, the opposing team was good too and the many unfair penalties were weighing on the Gryffindors. Consequently, the Hufflepuffs were slowly but surely racking up a significant lead in points and an hour in the game it looked hopeless with the 'Puffs leading three hundred and ten to one hundred and forty.

During this time, Harry was franticly searching for the Snitch so as to end the match as quickly as possible, but it had yet to make an appearance. He couldn't believe they were about to lose, all because Snape was so unbelievably biased. Why did they let him be the referee anyway? His bias was a well-known fact to everyone in the castle. If it had been Madam Hooch as usual, they would probably be in the lead by now. Seeing a glint of gold, Harry abandoned his angry musings and shot off like an arrow from a bow, tearing after the elusive Snitch. A spectacular dive later and the little winged ball was fluttering in his hand trying to escape.

With the game finally over, the Gryffindors groaned loudly while the Hufflepuffs gave their team some lack lustre applause .They might have won, but the way in which they did so was really not to their liking, especially for the House that valued honesty and fair-play so much. The Slytherins were the only ones who seemed moderately happy with the results of the game, because it left them in the lead for the House Cup.

It was a very subdued Harry who returned to the Gryffindor tower and only Ginny's soothing presence kept him from getting depressed.