Everything Black | Harry Potter

13. Tom's Diner

Easter was approaching fast and with it, Harry and Draco's deadline.

Oh, and the end of year exams.

They'd been lucky in that way – while Hermione had initially been frothing at the mouth over the book about Nicolas Flamel she'd 'found' a few days ago, Dumbledore had miscalculated the timing of his well-placed hint.

After all, the only thing that could pull Hermione away from the lure of figuring out a nice and mysterious mystery is the all-consuming knowledge that exams were right around the corner.

"Right around the corner?" Ron sneered. "Hermione, the exams are ages away."

"Ten weeks," Hermione snapped back. "That's not ages, that's like a second to Nicolas Flamel."

"But we're not six hundred years old," Ron reminded her. "Anyway, what are you studying for? You already know it all."

"What am I studying for? Are you crazy? You realise we need to pass these exams to get into the second year? They're very important, I should have started studying a month ago, I don't know what's gotten into me .  .  ."

Before this, Harry and Draco had of course begun preparations to distract the other three from the mystery of the stone, though they soon proved pointless – between Hermione, Hermione's study plans and the professors alike, their fellow first-years were kept more than busy over the brief Easter break.

In an effort to use their good luck while it lasted (and perhaps gain the upper hand that had skilfully eluded him for most of his life), Harry had even suggested they just take the stone now – after all he and Draco knew that Quirell (mort Harry attached to the end with an internal snicker) wouldn't make a move for the stone until the end of exams. Without interference from the two resident time travellers, there'd be nothing to accelerate the meeting of a drunk Hagrid and a 'myst'rious bloke 'oo wanted t' know 'bout Fluffy' ("Honestly Potter, how much more suspicious could a person be?").

It's not like the duo didn't know how to get past all the traps – not even the trick magic on mirror Erised could hinder them really. The flaw, or more accurately the plural flaws with that idea – as Draco kindly pointed out – were as follows:

1stly: "What in Merlin's name would we do with the stone Potter? Keep it in your trunk? Mail it in anonymously? Hand it back to Dumbledore or Flamel with a 'sorry we stole it, just wanted to stop and evil dark lord, have a good day!' And here I thought we were keeping a low profile."

2ndly: "What do suppose will happen when the Dark– Quirell gets to the last room and the stones not there and you don't turn up to burn him to crisp? . . . I'm sorry, what? You'll lie in wait for him to turn up and ambush him? I'll give you that, it's a good short term plan, but we can't be thinking short term Harry – how do you think the Dark Lord is going to rationalise you not only taking and hiding the stone as a precaution but also attacking him in surprise like you knew one touch is all it would take to defeat him? . . . No, I'm not saying he'll immediately jump to time travel. . . I'm saying he became one of the most feared dark lords of all time for a reason – while not exactly sane, he is smart Harry, scarily so. Moving forward he's be wary, meaning adjusted plans meaning- . . . Yes Harry, meaning we can't predict what happens next."

And 3rdly: "Harry, the first obstacle is a Cerberus. A giant, three headed dog, with claws and four times the amount of teeth than any creature in this world needs. . . Easy?! Yes, well, unlike he who battles dragons every other Thursday, I'm quite content putting off all encounters with bloodthirsty beasts until absolutely necessary, thankyouverymuch!"

Something about that last comment - all encounters with bloodthirsty beasts – had tickled Harry's brain, but he'd brushed it off in favour of dodging Draco's vengeful jinx at the sound of Harry's snicker.