Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone (rewrite)

Chapter 18

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Noone said anything for what seemed like and entirety. In the end it was the baby dragon, who had just sneezed a small jet of fire, that snapped them all out of it. "Weve got to get back to the school" Draco said, pushing Harry in the direction of the door. Hagrid bit his lip. "no I don think that Ron would go an do somhing like hat" Hagrid reasoned. "hose Weasley boys are always kind to me". "To you yes but not to us Hagrid" Teddy said, grabbing his cloak, fumbling with the clasps. "Yea Hagrid Weasley would jump at the chance to drop us in all sorts of trouble" Harry said, now releasing just how much trouble the red-haired Gryffindor could drop them into. The three boys left Hagrids at a dead sprint. By the time they reached the now deserted entrance hall they were all gasping for breath. Seeing the large empty hall, the small trickle of hope that they would make it to the common room without being caught was extinguished when, just as they had descended the steps to the dungeons, the torch's emedilty lit. "And just what do you three think you are doing" came a voice from the top of the stairs they had just descended. At the top the staircase Professor McGonagall, in a tartan bathrobe and a hair net, stood with a smirking Weasley by her side. Noone said anything for a minute, Draco was about to open his mouth, probably to try and charm his way out of the situation but was instantly cut off by the deputy head. "Dentation" she shouted, "all four of you". The three Slytherins looked at one another, each thinking that they must have misheard McGonagall. Weasley was looking at the deputy head too, a look of confusion on his freckle covered face. "But there's only three of them" he said, pointing to the group of Slytherins at the bottom of the bottom stairs. McGonagall turned to face him, and the way Weasleys face paled made Harry feel just a little better. "While I am sure you had noble intentions Mr Weasley" McGonagall said in an obvious scarsctic tone, "no first-year student is permitted to be out of bounds after curfew".

McGonagall escorted the first years back to their common room before marching off with Weasley hot on her tail. Harry cursed himself for not thinking of taking the invisibility cloak before heading down to Hagrid's. "Don't blame yourself mate" Draco said, leading the way to their shared dormitory, "not like we showed any real restraint was it". Teddy shrugged, "I suppose we got of light enough if you think about it" he said, pulling of his cloak, "just the one detention". "Yes, but we lost a collective 60 points" Harry shot back. Harry knew that Teddy was right, they had gotten off easy when McGonagall had only given the boys a single detention, despite that he still couldn't help but seem somewhat ashamed. Slytherin house had become his family since starting Hogwarts and now he was partly responsible for losing them house points.

Then, about a week before the exams were due to start, Harry's new resolution not to interfere in anything that didn't concern him was put to an unexpected test. Walking back from the library on his own one afternoon, he heard somebody whimpering from a classroom up ahead. As he drew closer, he heard Quirrell's voice. "No -- no -- not again, please --" It sounded as though someone was threatening him. Harry moved closer. "All right -- all right --" he heard Quirrell sob. Next second, Quirrell came hurrying out of the classroom straightening his turban. He was pale and looked as though he was about to cry. He strode out of sight; Harry didn't think Quirrell had even noticed him. He waited until Quirrell's footsteps had disappeared, then peered into the classroom. It was empty, but a door stood ajar at the other end. Harry was halfway toward it before he remembered what he'd promised himself about not meddling.

"I suppose it could have been Snape" Teddy said while scratching the side of his head. Harry had told his friends about what he had head in the deserted classroom. Noone wanted to believe it was their head of house but the evidence was starting to pile up, painting Snape as the culprit. "If it was Professor Snape" Draco said, "and I am not saying it was but if it was him then Quirrell's told him how to break his Anti-Dark Force spell". "There's still Fluffy" Pansy said, setting aside her Astronomy homework. Harry had to give Pansy that one, getting past Fluffy seemed quite impossible. "Maybe Snape's found out how to get past him without asking Hagrid," said Daphine, looking up at the thousands of books surrounding them. "I bet there's a book somewhere in here telling you how to get past a giant three-headed dog. So, what do we do, Harry?" Harry looked around at his friends, all of whom were now looking at him like he had the answers. "Weve got no proof of anything" he said flatly, "all we can do is sit back and let everything unfold". While it wasn't the answer they had wanted to hear, it was the most logical.

The next morning, during breakfast, notes were delivered to Harry, Draco and Teddy. All three contained the same message:

Your detention will take place at eleven o'clock tonight. Meet Mr. Filch in the entrance hall.

Professor M. McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

Harry turned to look over at the Gryffindor table to see that Weasley had also received a note. "What in the name of Merlin will we be doing at that time of the night" Draco said, throwing his note in Pansy direction. Pansy read the note and started to laugh, "poor Draco" she said, speaking as you would to a small child, "won't get your beauty sleep".