Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone!

Well Marauders get to read the first book of the 'Harry Potter' series. Most of the lines are from the book, with few inputs from Marauders and Lily! Enjoy, rereading our favorite series....:tu:

Beginning: A good place to begin!

"May I…?" he gestured towards the seat across from her.

Nodding briefly, she cleared the table of the several rolls of parchment and textbooks she had. "So…" she offered the plate of chocolate chip cookies to him, "May I ask the reason for your traipsing into areas of the school both you and I know you shouldn't have knowledge of?"

Chuckling, he replied, "I could ask the same of you."

"Right-o, then, neither of us will touch upon this subject again," she murmured, reaching for another cookie. "So what brings you here, then?"

"Oh, you don't know?" he raised a brow. "I'm madly in love with you- I stalk you by day and watch you sleep every night. My obsession drives me to the brink of insanity, but you are the very substance of my life." Taking a bite of his cookie, he continued, mouth-full, "I can't breathe without you, eat without you, live without you. I will never have another love like this. Please…"

"Argh!" she covered her face. "Next time you profess your undying love for a girl, try doing without showering her with cookie crumbs!"

Swallowing, James wiped his mouth quickly. "I came down here for a snack," he answered. "And I got one."

"You could have said that; it would have saved a lot of unnecessary, unfortunately identified, flying objects spewing at me," she smiled bitterly, her chin resting on her fist.

"Look Prongs," Sirius said waving a book in front of James," Moony found an interesting book at the Library."

"You find books interesting?" Lily asked disbelievingly.

Sirius was about to say something flippant when James' cry of surprise, made him turn to his friend instead.

"What's the matter, Potter?" asked Lily impatiently.

James, too stunned to speak, just showed her the book's cover.

'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'
J.K.Rowling

"Is Harry your relative, Prongs?" asked Sirius.

"I haven't seen any Harry in the Potter family tree, Padfoot," said James bemused.

"Why don't we read it a bit. It might give us some clues," said Lily thoughtfully.

"Hmmm...Yes, that ought to work. Where are Remus and Peter, Pad"

"I just asked Remus to bring Peter along while I searched for you."

A few minutes later a tired looking Remus and Peter entered the kitchen.

"Who wants to read out loud?" asked James.

"I will, Prongs. Hand over the book here," said Remus.


CHAPTER ONE
THE BOY WHO LIVED

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley..."

That name sounds familiar," muttered Lily. "Where have I heard the name Dursley before?

..., of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.

"Sound like Muggles to me," said Sirius.

"Who cares!' snapped Remus. "Will you shut up so I can keep reading?"

They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.

Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings...

"Grunnings? What kind of a name is that?"

"Sirius, if you don't stop interrupting me, I'll hit you!" threatened Remus.

..., which made drills.

"What are drills?" asked Sirius.

Lily gave him a look. "Honestly, Black, you took Muggle Studies. You should know."

"I only took it to annoy my family. I didn't really pay much attention in the class and dropped it this year."

Lily sighed loudly. "Drills are a muggle tool used to make holes with. For fixing things or hanging things up."

He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large moustache. Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbours. The Dursley’s had a small son called Dudley...

Everyone laughed and James asked, "Who names their kid Dudley?"

... and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere.

The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters.

"Hey!" yelled James. "There's nothing wrong with us Potters! It's you who are gits. "

Mrs. Potter was Mrs. Dursley's sister,

"WHAT!" James yelled. "I'm related to this woman!"

"Now I remember where I've heard the name Dursley before!" exclaimed Lily.” That’s the last name of my sister's boyfriend!"

"Excuse me?" sputtered James. "Your sister's boyfriend?"

Lily nodded and Sirius pointed out, "Prongs, that would also mean that you're married to Evans here."

"I am?" asked James. "Yippeee!" Lily groaned at the idea of being married to James.

but they hadn't met for several years: in fact, Mrs. Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish...

"Is that a word?" asked Peter puzzled.

"It is now," answered Remus.

...as it was possible to be. The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbours would say if the Potters arrived in the street. The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small son, too, but they had never even seen him. This boy was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn't want Dudley mixing with a child like that.

"Hey!" exclaimed Lily. "There's nothing wrong with my son! Even if Potter is the father!"

"Yeah!" seconded James. "Hey, what do you mean 'even if Potter is the father,' Evans?"

"Uh, nothing," answered Lily. "Remus, just keep reading."

When Mr. and Mrs. Dursley woke up on the dull, grey Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr. Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work and Mrs. Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair.

"Attention seeking brat" said all five of them simultaneously

None of them noticed a large tawny owl flutter past the window.

At half past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek and tried to kiss Dudley goodbye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing cereal at the walls.

"He is definitely a spoiled brat," said Sirius confirmed.

"Little tyke," chortled Mr. Dursley as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive.
It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar - a cat reading a map.

Remus frowned at the book. "An animagus do you think?"

"Possibly," replied James and Sirius.

Peter looked puzzled. "Why would there be an animagus in this book? Could it be one of-"

"Shut up!" interrupted Sirius, glancing at Lily. "And when was the last time anyone of us could turn into cats?"

Lily was looking suspiciously at Sirius. "Does this have anything to do with Remus being a werewolf, Black?"

The Marauders turned and stared at her in shock. "How do you know?" demanded James. "Only the four of us know, Evans."

Lily sighed. "Well, Remus is always absent once a month. And his excuses started wearing a bit thin. Then I did some checking on the lunar chart and realized he was always absent during a full moon. I did some reading on werewolves and came to the conclusion he was one. Don't worry, I haven't told anyone. I mean, Remus is nice, unlike you and Black, Potter, and if Professor Dumbledore is letting him attend Hogwarts, I'm sure everything is under control. Now, explain that animagus remark."

James gave Peter a look, then answered Lily's question. "Okay, Sirius, Peter, and I are animagi. We've been helping Remus during his transformations ever since last year. I was reading up on werewolves and found out that animals, and therefore animagi, aren't bothered by them. So I become a stag, Sirius a dog, and Peter a rat, and we help distract Remus when he's transformed. But you can't tell anyone. McGonagall wouldn't be happy, to say the least, and we'd get in loads of trouble since we're unregistered."

"Don't worry, James," assured Lily. "I won't tell anyone. I've never told anyone that Remus was a werewolf. Except for you guys, but you already know." Remus picked up the book again and continued reading.

For a second, Mr. Dursley didn't realise what he had seen -then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight.

"These Muggles are stupid," remarked Sirius.
"Not all muggles are stupid," chided Lily.
James thought of something. "McGonagall can turn into a cat, can't she?"
"Yeah, she can," responded Sirius. "So you were paying attention when she was telling us?"

"That was the lesson on animagi," pointed out James. "We were planning to become animagi. McGonagall did tell us a few things that became very useful for us."

What could he have been thinking of? It must have been a trick of the light. Mr. Dursley blinked and stared at the cat. It stared back. As Mr. Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive - No, looking at the sign; cats couldn't read maps or signs.

Mr. Dursley gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind. As he drove towards town, he thought of nothing except a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day.


But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he couldn't help noticing that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks. Mr. Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes - the get-ups you saw on young people!"

"There's nothing funny about cloaks! Is there?” asked Peter, looking uncertain.
"Well, to Muggles it's funny," replied Lily. "Muggles don't usually wear cloaks. Well, they did in the olden days, but not now."

He supposed this was some stupid new fashion. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdoes standing quite close by. They were whispering excitedly together. Mr. Dursley was enraged to see that a couple of them weren't young at all; why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald green cloak! The nerve of him! But then it struck Mr. Dursley that this was probably some silly stunt - these people were obviously collecting for something ... yes, that would be it.

"Wanna bet?" muttered Sirius.
The others hid smiles.

The traffic moved on, and a few minutes later, Mr. Dursley arrived in the Grunnings car park, his mind back on drills.
Mr. Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office on the ninth floor. If he hadn't, he might have found it harder to concentrate on drills that morning.

He didn't see the owls swooping past in broad daylight, though the people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed open-mouthed as owl after owl sped overhead.

"Sound just like owl post to me," commented Peter.
"Duh!" exclaimed Sirius sarcastically.
"Peter, you don't need to go around stating the obvious," pointed out Lily, looking slightly exasperated.

Most of them had never seen an owl even at night time. Mr. Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning. He yelled a five different people. He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more. He was in a very good mood until lunch-time, when he thought he'd stretch his legs and walk across the road to buy himself a bun from the baker's opposite.

He'd forgotten all about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the baker's. He eyed them angrily as he passed. He didn't know why, but they made him uneasy. This lot were whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn't see a single collecting tin. It was on his way back past them, clutching a large doughnut in a bag, that he caught a few words of what they were saying.

"The Potters, that's right, that's what I heard -"
"- yes, their son, Harry - "

"Why are they talking about my son?" demanded James. "And what do Lily and I have to do with this?"

"You've stopped calling me Evans!" exclaimed Lily.

"Well, yeah. We're married in this book and I can't very well call my wife by her surname."

Mr. Dursley stopped dead. Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it.

He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office, snapped at his secretary not to disturb him, seized his telephone and had almost finished dialling his home number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his moustache, thinking...

No, he was being stupid. Potter wasn't such an unusual name.

"That's true," said Lily. "There was a Muggle children's author whose last name was Potter. Beatrix Potter. Mum read me her books when was little. My favorites were The Tale of Peter Rabbit and the Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle."

He was sure there were lots of people called Potter who had a son called Harry. Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure his nephew was called Harry. He'd never even seen the boy. It might have been Harvey. Or Harold. There was no point in worrying Mrs. Dursley; she always got so upset at any mention of her sister. He didn't blame her - if he'd had a sister like that... but all the same, those people in cloaks...

He found it a lot harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon, and when he left the building at five o'clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.

"Sorry," he grunted, as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell.

"Bet that was hard," said Remus. "Apologizing."
The others nodded in agreement.

It was a few seconds before Mr. Dursley realised that the man was wearing a violet cloak. He didn't seem at all upset at being almost knocked to the ground. On the contrary, his face split into a wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice-

"That sounds sort of like Flitwick!" exclaimed Sirius. "He's tiny and old, and has a squeaky voice!"

"Maybe," said Remus. "Now please be quiet so I can finish reading, Sirius."

that made passers-by stare: "Don't be sorry my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last! Even Muggles like your self should be celebrating this happy, happy day!"

"What!" screeched Lily. "Voldemort's gone?" Peter flinched.

"Must be," replied Remus, frowning. "How did he disappear?"

"Maybe I killed him," suggested James.

"Don't think so, Prongs," said Sirius. "The book seems to be about your son. It's more likely that he had something to do with Voldemort missing." Peter and Lily flinched.

James turned to Lily. "Lily, why is that you're not afraid to say the name, but flinch whenever someone else does?"

"I don't know!" returned Lily. "It's just habit, I guess."

And the old man hugged Mr. Dursley around the middle and walked off.
Mr. Dursley stood rooted to the spot. He had been hugged by a complete stranger. He also thought he had been called a Muggle, whatever that was.

He was rattled. He hurried to his car and set off home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination.

As he pulled into the driveway at number four, the first thing he saw - and it didn't improve his mood - was the tabby cat he'd spotted that morning. It was now sitting on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes.

"Shoo!" said Mr. Dursley loudly.

"Like that's going to do anything!" muttered Sirius.

The cat didn't move. It just gave him a stern look.

"Sounds like McGonagall," commented James.

"How much do you want to bet?" asked Sirius.

James thought for a moment. "Five galleons,' he said finally.

Remus shook his head and continued reading.

Was this normal cat behaviour, Mr. Dursley wondered? Trying to pull himself together, he let himself into the house. He was still determined not to mention anything to his wife.

Mrs. Dursley had had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner all about Mrs. Next Door's problems with her daughter and how Dudley had learnt a new word (Shan't).

"What a wonderful day!" Sirius said sarcastically.

Mr. Dursley tried to act normally. When Dudley had been put to bed, he went into the living-room in time to catch the last report on the evening news:

"And finally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern." The news reader allowed himself a grin. “Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?"

"Well, Ted," said the weatherman, "I don't know about that, but it’s not only the owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain that I promised yesterday, they've had a downpour of shooting stars!

"Wow!" exclaimed James. "We could try that!"

"That sounds like a great idea!" seconded Sirius. "We can do it once school starts again."

Lily looked disproving and Remus shook his head before continuing reading.

Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonfire Night early

"No, just the downfall of Voldemort!" exclaimed Sirius. "A bit better than Bonfire Night!"
"Why are you talking to the book?" asked Remus. Sirius shrugged in reply.

- It's not until next week, folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight."

Mr. Dursley sat frozen in his armchair. Shooting stars all over the place? And a whisper, a whisper about the Potters...Mrs. Dursley came into the living-room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good. He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously. "Er - Petunia, dear - you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?"

"That's the name of my sister!" yelled Lily. "Petunia! She hated it when I got my Hogwarts letter and became mean to me after."

As he expected, Mrs. Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she didn't have a sister.
"No," she said sharply. "Why?"
"Funny stuff on the news," Mr. Dursley mumbled. "Owls... shooting stars... and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today..."
"So?" snapped Mrs. Dursley.
"Well, I just thought... maybe ... it was something to do with ... you know ... her lot."

Mrs. Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr. Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name 'Potter'.

He decided he didn't dare. Instead he said, as casually as he could, "Their son - he'd be about Dudley's age now wouldn't he?"
"I suppose so," said Mrs. Dursley stiffly.
"What's his name again? Howard isn't it?"
"Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me."

"Hey! Harry's a perfectly nice name!" yelled Lily. "I like it and always wanted to name my son that, if I ever had one. And it looks like I did."

Oh, yes," said Mr. Dursley, his heart sinking horribly. "Yes, I quite agree."
He didn't say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed. While Mrs. Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr. Dursley crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there. It was staring down Privet Drive as though it was waiting for something.
Was he imagining things?

"You said you don't approve of imagination, you idiot!" said Remus. "Oh, great! Now I'm talking to the book!"

Could all this have anything to do with the Potters? If it did ... if it got out that they were related to a pair of - well, he didn't think he could bear it.
The Dursleys got into bed. Mrs. Dursley fell asleep quickly but Mr. Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was that even if the Potters were involved, there was no reason for them to come near him and Mrs. Dursley. The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind ... He couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on. He yawned and turned over. It couldn't affect them ...
How very wrong he was.

Mr. Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness. It was sitting as still as a statue, its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of Privet Drive. It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed in the next street, nor when the two owls swooped overhead.

In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all.

A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground.

The cat's tail twitched and its eyes narrowed.

Nothing like this man had been seen in Privet Drive. He was tall, thin and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt.

"Sounds like Dumbledore," commented James. "But what would he be doing in Privet Drive?"

"I don't know," answered Peter. "Maybe tell-"

"It was a rhetorical question, Wormtail. I wasn't really expecting an answer."

He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak which swept the ground and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice. This man's name was Albus Dumbledore.

Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to realise that he had just arrived in a street where everything from his name to his boots was unwelcome. He was busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something. But he did seem to realise he was being watched, because he looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at him from the other end of the street. For some reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse him. He chuckled and muttered, "I should have known."

He had found what he was looking for in his inside pocket.

It seemed to be a silver cigarette lighter. He flicked it open, held it up in the air and clicked it. The nearest street lamp went out with a little pop.

"Cool!" said Sirius and James at the same time.

Remus rolled his eyes.

He clicked it again - the next lamp flickered into darkness. Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, until the only lights left in the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him.

If anyone looked out of their window now, even the beady-eyed Mrs. Dursley, they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement. Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street towards number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat.

He didn't look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it.
"Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."

"Yay, I was right!" cheered James. "You owe me five galleons, Padfoot! Pay up!"

Sirius, grumbling and swearing under his breath, reached into his pocket and counted out five galleons, which he handed to James.

He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather severe looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled.

"How did you know it was me?" she asked.

"My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly."

"You'd be stiff too if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall.

"All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here."

Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.

"Oh yes, everyone's celebrating all right," she said impatiently. "You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no - even the Muggles noticed something's going on. It was on their news." She jerked her head back at the Dursleys' dark living-room window. "I heard it. Flocks of owls ... shooting stars ... Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent - I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense."

"Who's Dedalus Diggle?" asked Peter.

"Hufflepuff student in the year above us," responded Remus.

You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years."

"I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes swapping rumours."

She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on: "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really has gone, Dumbledore?"

"It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore. "We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a sherbet lemon?"

"A what?"

"A sherbet lemon. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of."

"No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for sherbet lemons.

"As I say, even if You-Know-Who has gone -”

"My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like your self can call him by his name? All this 'You-Know-Who' nonsense - for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: Voldemort".

Peter and Lily flinched and the others ignored it.

Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was un-sticking two sherbet lemons, seemed not to notice.

"It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort'sPeter and Lily flinched again. This time, Sirius gave them a look.

name."

"I know you haven't," said Professor McGonagall, sounding half-exasperated, half-admiring. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the one You-Know - oh, all right, Voldemort -

Lily did her best not to flinch, whereas Peter couldn't stop himself and did flinch.

was frightened of"

"You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."

"Only because you're too - well - noble to use them."

"It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs."

"Ugh!" exclaimed James. "That's just a bit-"

"Too much information," finished Sirius, shuddering.

Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said, "The owls are nothing to the rumours that are flying around. You know what everyone's saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?" It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now.

It was plain that whatever 'everyone' was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true. Dumbledore, however, was choosing another sherbet lemon and did not answer.

"What they're saying," she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters. The rumour is that Lily and James Potter

"YES!" shouted James with glee. "There's no doubt now that you’re my wife, Lily!"

Lily groaned, but she did look sort of pleased at the same time. "Maybe you're not so bad after all, Pot-I mean James."

are - are - that they're - dead.

There was a stunned silence in the room. Lily finally said, "James and I are d-dead?" The others all looked shocked.

Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped.

"Lily and James ... I can't believe it ... I didn't want to believe it ... Oh, Albus ..."

Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "I know ... I know ..." he said heavily.

Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on. "That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill the Potter's son, Harry.

"VOLDEMORT KILLED MY-" began James, looking furious as he shouted.

"Calm down, Padfoot," interrupted Remus. "It says 'tried'. I don't think he succeeded in killing your son."

"But - he couldn't. He couldn't kill that little boy. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Harry Potter, Voldemort's power somehow broke - and that's why he's gone."

Lily and James looked proud at the fact that their son somehow defeated Voldemort, and a bit sad as well.

Dumbledore nodded glumly.
"It's - it's true?" faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done ... all the people he's killed ... he couldn't kill a little boy? It's just astounding ...of all the things to stop him ... but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?"

"we can only guess," said Dumbledore. "We may never know."

Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took out a watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge. It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?"

"Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me why you're here, of all places?"

"I've come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle.

"You what?" exclaimed Lily, not believing her ears. "My son is not going to stay with my horrid sister and her husband!"

"Padfoot, promise me you'll be godfather and take care of Harry," said James desperately. "I'll write it in my will."

"Of course, Prongs mate," answered Sirius. "You don't have to ask."

"And if Padfoot can't take Harry in, Moony and Wormtail, you'll look after Harry, right?"

Remus and Wormtail nodded, though Remus looked a bit uncertain. "Will a werewolf be allowed to take in a kid?"

"Don't worry," said James. "When you're going through a full moon, Peter can take care of Harry."

Lily smiled and said, "Well, you guys will definitely be better than my sister."

They're the only family he has left now."

You don't mean - you can't mean the people who live here?" cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four. "Dumbledore - you can't."

"For once in my life, I agree with McGonagall," stated Sirius, looking a little shocked at the fact.

I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. And they've got this son - I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. Harry Potter come and live here!"

"It's the best place for him," said Dumbledore firmly. "His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he's older. I've written them a letter."

"Oh, and you think you can explain all this in a letter?" asked James, sarcastically. "They'll never understand him!"

"A letter?" repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. "Really Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people will never understand him!

"Even McGonagall agrees with me!" exclaimed James. "She even used the same words I did!"

He'll be famous - a legend - I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter Day in future - there will be books written about Harry - every child in our world will know his name!"

Lily burst into tears. "Our son, famous. And we won't be around to see him grow up. Where are you, Sirius?"

"Maybe I'm going after the Death Eaters who told Voldemort where you are," replied Sirius. "Sorry, Peter."

"Exactly," said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he won't even remember! Can't you see how much better off he'll be, growing up away from all that until he's ready to take it?"

"He has a point," said Remus."

"But that doesn't mean Harry should be living with Petunia and her husband!" snapped Lily. "Why can't Sirius take in Harry and not expose him to people in the wizarding world? That would work just as well.

Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed and then said, "Yes - yes, you're right, of course.

"I can't believe it!" exclaimed Sirius. "McGonagall has backed down! She's never done that before."

But how is the boy getting here Dumbledore?"

She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding Harry underneath it.
"Hagrid's bringing him."

You think it - wise - to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?"

"I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Dumbledore.

"I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place," said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, "but you can't pretend he's not careless. He does tend to - what was that?"

"Maybe it's me coming to take Harry away, before you idiots leave him with the Dursleys!" yelled Sirius.
"I hope so!" said Lily and James together.

A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky - and a huge motorbike fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them.

"Cool! I have a flying motorbike!" Sirius practically shouted.

If the motorbike was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride it. He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so wild - long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of dustbin lids and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. In his vast muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets.

"Hagrid!" they all said at once.

"Where am I? And why don't I have a flying motorbike?" asked Sirius. "I wish I had one."

"I hope you don't have one," muttered Remus.

"Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get that motorbike?"

"Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir," said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorbike as he spoke. "Young Sirius Black lent it me."

Remus groaned loudly. "Whoo-hoo!" cheered Sirius. "It is mine after all! But why am I not there to rescue Harry? He's my godson!"

I've got him, sir."

"No problems, were there?"

"No, sir - house was almost destroyed but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. He fell asleep as we were flyin' over Bristol."

Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby boy, fast asleep. Under a tuft of jet-black hair over his forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning.

"Looks like your son has inherited your hair, James!" said Remus.

"We already knew that from the cover, Moony," said James, looking a bit exasperated.

"Oh, yeah!"

"Is that where - ?" whispered Professor McGonagall.

"Yes," said Dumbledore. "He'll have that scar for ever."

"Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?"

"Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in useful. I have one myself above my left knee which is a perfect map of the London Underground. Well - give him here, Hagrid - we'd better get this over with."

Dumbledore took Harry in his arms and turned towards the Dursleys' house.

"Could I - could I say goodbye to him, sir?" asked Hagrid.

He bent his great shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss.

Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog.

"I don't like that comparison!" pouted Sirius.

"Shut up and let me finish this chapter!" snapped Remus.

"Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall. "You'll wake the Muggles!"

"S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. "But I c-c-can't stand it - Lily an' James dead - an' poor little Harry off ter live with Muggles -”

"Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found," Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid Harry gently on the doorstep, took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside Harry's blankets and then came back to the other two. For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundle; Hagrid's shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have gone out..

"Well," said Dumbledore finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations."

Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muffled voice. "I'll be takin' Sirius his bike back. G'night, Professor McGonagall - Professor Dumbledore, sir."

"You'd better return my bike!" said Sirius. "Then I'll go and rescue Harry!"

Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself on to the motorbike and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.

"I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply.

Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street.

He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four.
"Good luck, Harry," he murmured. He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak he was gone.

A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley ...He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Harry Potter - the boy who lived!"

That's all for now...Hope you like it...The idea I admit is not original but I didn't see any fic of this kind here! So I decided to give it a go...Do you want me to continue?

cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=114684


"Look Moony,"said Sirius, chuckling at something he was reading.

Remus looked at the book Sirius was pointing to and smiled mischievously. It was Prongs' personal diary....


This is not a journal. It is an idea notebook. And in this notebook, I, James Potter, am going to write down ideas on how to ask Lily Evans out and then record the results.

This whole idea notebook thing is a bit on the strange side, but I had an empty book and I have nothing else to do with it, so why not write about how wonderful Lily Evans is?

If you were to describe Evans in one word it would be perfect. She has red hair; my favorite color is red. She has green eyes; I like green eyes. And red and green are Christmas colors, and I like Christmas. Evans comes to all the quidditch matches so I can only assume that she must enjoy it, and there's another thing I like. I'm proud to say that I am a Chaser on the Gryffindor House team. I hope to be Captain someday... say next year.

Back to Evans. She's very pretty and I'm not the only one who thinks so. Only half of the male population wants to date her. She's all mine though, or will be anyway, when I ask her out.

I have a brilliant plan all laid out. The Halloween Feast is coming up tomorrow and I'm going to stand up and ask her out in front of everyone. Sirius claims that girls like attention in that way, so I'll give it to her.

She said no! How dare she? People just don't say no to me. That sounded really stuck up, I know, but it's just a fact of life. I'm an only child, only grandchild on both sides and I'm good at a lot of stuff, so 'no' is not a word I'm used to hearing.

But she said it! The first time I asked, she completely ignored me, and the second time she said no and stomped on my foot! It hurt too! I think I have a bruise now.

Why won't she go out with me? I'm a likeable guy, aren't I? I've never had any trouble getting a girl to go out with me before, why now, when I really want to date Evans, is she saying no?

Sirius thinks I've completely lost it; he reckons that Evans is all wrong for me. Obviously, I disagree. Evans is perfect for me. I'll get her someday; I know it.

Remus hasn't exactly come out and said his feelings on the matter, but I can tell that he's of the same opinion as Sirius. Maybe he still likes Evans, he sort of fancied her last year...I thought he's gotten over her, maybe not.

What did I ever, ever do to her? She's avoiding me and sending me nasty looks. Did I insult her hair once? Or maybe she was an innocent bystander in a prank that went wrong? Whatever it was, I don't know because she won't tell me and neither will her friends. Remus says that I'm supposed to figure it out myself. Isn't he so helpful?

Both Sirius and Remus straightened their faces quickly as James, Lily and Peter entered the Room of Requirement. Sirius winked at Remus, before hiding the diary. There would be plenty of time to read it later. It would be useful for the Best-Man's speech, when Lily and James get married. It was inevitable!

James looked at his friends' Poker face and knew immediately that some mischief was brewing. Reminding himself to ask about it later, he volunteered to read the next chapter!

CHAPTER TWO
THE VANISHING GLASS

"Vanishing glass, eh?" said Sirius. "That sounds interesting."
"Sirius, be quiet and let me read," said James patiently.

Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bobble hats - but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby,

"But his name is still stupid!" chortled Sirius, earning laughter from the others.

and now the photographs showed a large, blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a roundabout at the fair, playing a computer game with his father,

"A what?" asked Peter, looking at Lily

"Must be some sort of Muggle entertainment," she replied. "There are computers, but most of them are huge and aren't for private use. Only big companies and the government really have them. They process information or something like that."

being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too.

James began to glare at the book.

Yet Harry Potter was still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Petunia was awake, and it was her shrill voice which made the first noise of the day.

"Up! Get up! Now!"

"Why can't Petunia call him up in a nicer way?" demanded Lily, looking furious.

Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again.
"Up!" she screeched. Harry heard her walking towards the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the cooker. He rolled on to his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorbike in it. He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.

"Nope Harry, that was likely the real thing!" said Sirius.

His aunt was back outside the door.
"Are you up yet?" she demanded.
"Nearly," said Harry.

"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."

Everyone burst out laughing. No wonder Dudley acted like a spoiled child.

Harry groaned.
"What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door.
"Nothing, nothing ..."
Dudley's birthday - how could he have forgotten? Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on. Harry was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept.

"WHAT!" roared James, dropping the book.

"I am so going to kill Petunia!" snapped Lily. "She makes my son sleep in a CUPBOARD!"

Sirius also looked angry, while Peter gave them nervous looks and Remus shook his head.

When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had got the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike.

"These things sound expensive," commented Remus.

"I bet my son doesn't get anything on his birthday," said James bitterly. "Or if he does, it's all cast-off stuff."

Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise - unless of course it involved punching somebody. Dudley's favorite punch-bag was Harry, but he couldn't often catch him. Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast.

"I am going to hex Petunia the next time I see her!" snapped Lily. "Making my son sleep in a cupboard, not buying him stuff, and letting his cousin beat him up!" Peter looked warily at her.

Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age.

"Nope, it's hereditary," said Remus. "Harry must look like you."

"Well, duh," said James. "You've seen the picture on the cover."

He looked even smaller and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was.

Harry had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair and bright-green eyes.

"Awww, Harry has my eyes!" squealed Lily.

"Did I ever tell you that you have beautiful eyes, Lily?" asked James.

Lily gave him a surprised look and Remus said, "That's all James ever talks about when he's thinking about you. If you ask him what his favorite color is during those times, he answers 'green' instead of the usual 'red'." James glared at Remus and Lily blushed.

He wore round glasses held together by a lot of cellotape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose.

James glared at the book, Sirius growled, and Lily's eyes flashed furiously and she muttered about all the things she'd do to her sister.

The only thing Harry liked about his appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead which was shaped like a bolt of lightning. He had had it as long as he could remember and the first question he could ever remember asking his aunt was how he had got it.
"In the car crash when your parents died,"

"WHAT?” roared James. "LILY AND I DID NOT DIE IN A CAR CRASH, YOU IDIOTIC WOMAN!"

she had said. "and don't ask questions."

Don't ask questions - that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys.
Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon.

"Child labor!" muttered James, angrily.

"Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting.

"Hey, he can't help it!" protested James. "It's hereditary and grows that way!"

About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut. Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way - all over the place.

Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large, pink face, not muck neck, small, watery blue eyes and thick, blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head. Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel - Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.

Everyone laughed. "A pig in a wig!" squeaked Peter. "That's really funny!"

"He's inherited your sense of humor, Prongs," said Sirius.

"He'll make a great Marauder," smiled James. Lily smiled also, but added, "As long as he doesn't cause too much trouble, though."

Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile was counting his presents. His face fell.

"Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."

"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mummy and Daddy."

"He still refers to his parents as Mummy and Daddy?" asked Remus incredulously. "I stopped that when I was six!"
The others grinned.

"All right then, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face.

"Who in the world gets thirty-seven presents?" demanded Lily. " Dudley is really spoiled."

Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.

Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right?"

"It is not all right!" shouted James. "You shouldn't go around buying him so many presents and spoiling him!"

Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work.

"I bet it was!" muttered Sirius.

Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty ... thirty ..."

"Unbelievable!" said James. "He can't even add two to thirty-seven! I could do that when I was six-and-a-half!"

"Thirty nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.

"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."

Uncle Vernon chuckled. "Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair.

At that moment the telephone rang

"Telephone?" asked Sirius.
"Sirius, didn't you pay any attention in Muggle Studies?' demanded Lily. "It's a device Muggles use to talk to each other with."

and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a cine-camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games and a video recorder. He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone, looking both angry and worried.

"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him." She jerked her head in Harry's direction.

Dudley's mouth fell open in horror but Harry's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday his parents took him and a friend to, adventure parks, hamburger bars or the cinema. Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away.

"What!" yelled Lily. "Oh, I am definitely going to hex Petunia the next time I see her, and Vernon, too."

Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made him look at all the cats she'd ever owned.

"Ugh," shuddered James. "Cabbages and cats. What a horrible combination."

"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this.

Harry knew he ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, My Paws and Tufty again.

"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.

"Don't be silly Vernon, she hates the boy."

The Dursleys often spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn't there - or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.

Lily got up and paced the room for a minute angrily, muttering under her breath about all the horrible things she'd do to Petunia and Vernon. James glared angrily at the book and wished he could turn stag and charge at them with his antlers lowered. Sirius also glared at the book, while Peter backed away nervously and Remus looked concerned. Finally Lily sat down again and James clamed down enough to continue reading.

"What about what's-her-name, your friend - Yvonne?"

"Petunia and Yvonne are still friends?" asked Lily incredulously. "They've been friends ever since primary school."

"On holiday in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.

"You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer.)

Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.

"Attractive," said James, raising a brow.
"Too bad she couldn't really swallow a lemon," commented Sirius. "It'd be pretty funny if she did." The others nodded in agreement.

"And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.

"Maybe he should!" snapped Lily. "It'd really annoy her."

"I won't blow up the house," said Harry, but they weren't listening.

"I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "... and leave him in the car ..."

"That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone ..."

"So take him with you, idiots!" cried James. "One nice thing for Harry isn't going to hurt you or him!"

Dudley began to cry loudly.

Everyone began snickering. "What a baby!" laughed Sirius. "Reminds me a bit of Regulus when he wanted to suck up to Mum and get me in trouble."

In fact he wasn't really crying, it had been years since he'd really cried, but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.

"Brat!" declared all five of them.

"Dinky Duddydums,

Everyone burst out laughing again at this.

don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.

"Don't cry, darling, Mummy's here to help you!" mocked Sirius in a falsetto.
The others laughed at him.

"I ... don't ... want ... him ... t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge pretend sobs. "He always sp-spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.

Just then, the doorbell rang - "Oh, Good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically - and a moment later, Dudley's best friend Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother.

Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat.

"I don't like that comment!" said Peter, frowning a bit at the book.

He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them.

"What a nice kid," said Remus sarcastically.

Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.

So it's only cool to cry in front of Mummy!" exclaimed Sirius, exchanging grins with James.

Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life.

"Thank you!" said James. "

"Finally you do something nice for my son!" said Lily. "Maybe I'll go easier on the hexes, Petunia."

His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside.

"I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's,

The five of them screwed up their faces in disgust and muttered, "Ugh!"

"I'm warning you now, boy -

"HIS NAME HIS HARRY - YOU IDIOT!" bellowed James, glaring at the book he was holding.

any funny business, anything at all - and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."

"I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly ..."

Sirius didn't look to happy to hear that. "You should do something to get back at him!" he shouted.

But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No ever did.
The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen.

"But you're a wizards, Harry, so you probably did them!" said James.

"Like my sister will ever tell him that," said Lily, looking grumpy. "She hates magic and is jealous of me."

Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barber's looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his fringe, which she left 'to hide that horrible scar'.

"HEY! HE CAN'T HELP IT! HIS HAIR GROWS THAT WAY, LIKE MINE!" roared James.

Dudley laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and his Sellotaped glasses. Next morning, however, he had got up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off.

"Yay!" cheered James. "His hair grew back!"

"Hah! You can't beat a wizard, Dursleys!" added Sirius.

He had been given a week in his cupboard for this,

"WHAT!" shouted James. "THOSE GITS! YOU HAD TO GO SHEAR MOST OF IT OFF IN THE FIRST PLACE! I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS!"

Lily joined James in the shouting. "AND THEN YOU HAVE TO LOCK HIM UP IN SMALL CUPBOARD BECAUSE HE'S SHOWING HE'S A WIZARD. WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU, PETUNIA, I SWEAR..." The others backed away from them. Finally James clamed down and continued reading.

even though he had tried to explain that he couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly.

"It's because you're a wizard!" snapped James and Lily at the same time,

Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old jumper of Dudley's (brown with orange bobbles). The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a glove puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry.

"Excellent, Harry!" said Sirius, smiling broadly.
"That’s our boy!" exclaimed James, looking proudly at Lily.

Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished.

"Why can't you come up with Muggle explanations every time, instead of getting mad at my son!" yelled James.

On the other hand, he'd got into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens.

"Wow!" said Sirius. "Your son gets more and more interesting!"
Remus frowned, while James grinned.

Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual

James glared at the book before continuing reading.

when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney.

"He can Apparate!" exclaimed Sirius

"Or he somehow flew without a broom!" said James.

"More likely apparated," said Sirius.

"Flew!" retorted James.

"Enough!" snapped Remus. "We don't need an argument over whether Harry flew or apparated. Continue reading, James."

The Dursley's had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big bins outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid-jump.

But today, nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living-room.

While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank and Harry were just a few of his favorite subjects.

"Why did he mention Harry so many times?" asked Peter, looking puzzled. "Wouldn't once be enough?"

"This Rowling person is just showing how much Vernon likes complaining about Harry by it," explained Remus.

This morning, it was motorbikes. "... roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorbike overtook them.

"I had a dream about a motorbike," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying."

Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beetroot with a moustache, "MOTORBIKES DON'T FLY!"

"Yes, they do!" said Sirius. "I've got one!"

"But they've got no idea, have they?” said James.

Dudley and Piers snickered.

"I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream."

But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated more than his asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even in a cartoon - they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas.

"So he's not even allowed to have an imagination!" muttered James angrily, glaring at the book again. "Great! Just great!"

It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with people. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice-creams at the entrance and then,

"They'd better get Harry one!" shouted Lily, looking as if she'd start throwing things if they didn't.

because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice lolly.

"Well, at least they bought him something," said Remus in a look-on-the-bright-side voice.

It wasn't bad either, Harry thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head and looking remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond.

Everyone burst out laughing at this. "Your son will make a great Marauder!" said Sirius excitedly.

"I know!" answered James, looking proud. Lily looked torn between being disproving and being proud.

Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys

"Smart move, Harry," said Remus.
"Well, I wouldn't want to walk near them, either," muttered Sirius.

so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favorite hobby of hitting him.

They ate in the zoo restaurant and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbockers glory wasn't big enough, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first.

"That was nice of him, compared to the things he usually does," said Remus brightly.

Harry felt, afterwards, that he should have known it was all too good to last.

"Uh, oh!" said Remus.
"YES!" cried Sirius gleefully. "He's going to do something good!"
"A true marauder!" shouted James happily. Lily and Remus looked worried and Peter uncertain.

After lunch they went to the reptile house.

Sirius sat up straight, an excited expression on his face.

It was cool and dark in here, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone.

"I don't like the sound of this," squeaked Peter.

Sirius gave Peter a look and said, "It's just a book! you don't need to be such a wimp!"

Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place.

It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car, and crushed it into a dustbin -

"It'd be funny of Harry set the snake loose and it actually did crush Dursley's car," commented James, smiling at the thought.

but at the moment it didn't look in the mood.

"Awwww!" whined Sirius.
"Stop that!” snapped Remus. "You sound so childish when you do that!"
"Humph!" huffed Sirius.
"And that's not much better!"

In fact, it was fast asleep.

Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.

"The place sounds scary!" said Peter in a scared tone of voice.

"Make it move," he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.

"Do it again," Dudley ordered

Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.

"This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.

"Think about how the snake feels!" exclaimed a disgusted Sirius.

Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself - no company except people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard for a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up - at least he got to visit the rest of the house.

"Yeah, when you haven't been locked in, Harry!" muttered James. He was glaring again.

The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were level with Harry's.
It winked.

"Why is the snake winking at my son?' asked Lily, looking puzzled. The others shrugged.

Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked, too.

The snake jerked its head towards Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly: "I get that all the time."

"My son is talking with a snake!" said James, looking shocked.
"Maybe he's a parseltongue!" suggested Sirius.
"But he's not talking to the snake and the snake isn’t saying anything, either," pointed out Lily.
"Okay, maybe he isn't one then,” said Sirius, shrugging.

"I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."

"Oh great, maybe he is one after all!" said Sirius, looking annoyed.

James frowned, then said, "Well, even if you are one, we'll still love you, Harry." Lily nodded in agreement.

The snake nodded vigorously.
"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked.

The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it.
Boa Constrictor, Brazil.
"Was it nice there?"

The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see - so you've never been to Brazil?"

As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump. " DUDLEY! MR DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"

Dudley came waddling towards them as fast as he could. "Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs.

James opened his mouth to shout again, but Remus preformed a Silencing Charm on him, so no sound came out. After a few minutes, Remus removed the charm and James, who had calmed down, continued reading.

Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor. What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened - one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.

"What'd he do?" asked Sirius eagerly.

"Well, if you wouldn't interrupt, we could find out,” replied Remus, somewhat angrily.

Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished.

"WOW!" said Sirius, awestruck. "Great job!"

"Well done, son!" exclaimed James.

They all had happy smiles on their faces.

The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out on to the floor - people throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.

"Hey, maybe we should do something like that in the Great Hall one day!" exclaimed Sirius.

"You read my mind, Padfoot," said James. Sirius grinned at him, then took out a piece of parchment and scribbled the idea down. Remus looked disproving and Lily as if she badly wanted to tell them off.

as the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, " Brazil, here I come ... Thanksss, amigo."

"My son is definitely a parseltongue!" exclaimed James, not happy at all. Then he glanced at Remus and said, "But we still love you, Harry. If I'm friends with a werewolf, I can't very well complain about you being a parseltongue."

The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.

"But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?"

The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg,

"Wish it had done so!" muttered James.

while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death.

"And the same to you!"

But, worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?"

"YOU IDIOT! NOW HARRY'S IN TROUBLE! YOU GIT!" bellowed Sirius.
James paced the room angrily and Lily swore under her breath. finally James sat down again and continued reading.

Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go - cupboard - stay - no meals,"

"No meals! For how long?" asked Peter.

'Hopefully only for the rest of the day, or he'd starve," responded Remus.

before he collapsed into a chair and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.

Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking in to the kitchen for some food. He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he'd been a baby and his parents had died.

Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead.

"Avada Kedavra," said Remus breathlessly.
"Merlin, Harry survived avada kedavra!" said Sirius, shocked.
James blinked furiously and Lily wiped away a few tears. "My poor son!" she whispered.

This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where the green light came from.

He couldn't remember his parents at all.

A tear trickled down James' cheek, and Lily wiped even more tears away. Remus gave them sympathetic looks and Peter looked uncomfortable.

His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.

When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened; the Dursleys were his only family.

"Where am I?" demanded Sirius. "I should be rescuing him!"

"Maybe be you got arrested for going after Death Eaters,' said Remus again.

Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him. Very strange strangers they were, too.

"Wizards!" exclaimed Sirius. The others nodded in agreement.

A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley. After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything. A wild-looking woman dressed in all green has waved merrily at him once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple cloak had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day then walked away without another word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a closer look.

At school, Harry had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.

James put down the book. "That's the end of chapter two. Who wants to read next?"

Hope you liked it...Please leave your feedback!

cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=114684

I have finished with the first five chapters and with nothing else to do, I decided to give you these chapters quickly...Do you want the other chapters today? Or maybe post it tommorrow? The bold characters are the ones from the book...Hope it makes it easier for you to read, especially those who want to skip the book part!

Hope you like it!

cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=114684

CHAPTER THREE
THE LETTERS FROM NO ONE

The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment. By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started and Dudley had already broken his new cine-camera, crashed his remote-control aeroplane and, first time on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches.

"What a nice child!" said Sirius sarcastically.

Harry was glad school was over, but there was no escaping Dudley's gang, who visited the house every single day. Piers, Dennis, Malcolm and Gordon were all big and stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot, he was the leader.

The rest of them were quite happy to join in Dudley's favourite sport: Harry-hunting.

This was why Harry spent as much time as possible out of the house, wandering around thinking about the end of the holidays, where he could see a tiny ray of hope. When September came he would be going off to secondary school and, for the first time in his life, he wouldn't be with Dudley. Dudley had a place at Uncle Vernon's old school, Smeltings, Piers Polkiss was going there, too. Harry, on the other hand, was going to Stonewall High, the local comprehensive. Dudley thought this was very funny.

"Hey, isn't Harry almost eleven?" asked James.

Lily nodded. "That would mean he should get his Hogwarts letter soon!"

"And that would explain the title of the chapter," said Sirius.

"They stuff people's heads down the toilet first day at Stonewall," he told Harry. "Want to come upstairs and practice?"

"If you touch Harry, I'll return form the grave and haunt you!" snarled James.

"No thanks," said Harry. "The poor toilet's never had anything as horrible as your head down it - it might be sick."

They all laughed at this statement.

Then he ran for it before Dudley could work out what he'd said.

One day in July, Aunt Petunia took Dudley to London to buy his Smeltings uniform, leaving Harry at Mrs. Figg's. Mrs. Figg wasn't as bad as usual. It turned out she'd broken her leg tripping over one her cats and she didn't seem quite as fond of them as before. She let Harry watch television and gave him a bit of chocolate cake that tasted as though she'd had it for several years.

"Ugh!' they all said, grimacing or making faces.

That evening, Dudley paraded around the living-room for the family in his brand-new uniform. Smeltings boys wore maroon tailcoats, orange knickerbockers and flat straw hats called boaters. They also carried knobbly sticks, used for hitting each other while the teachers weren't looking. This was supposed to be good training for later life.

As he looked at Dudley in his new knickerbockers, Uncle Vernon said gruffly that it was the proudest moment of his life. Aunt Petunia burst into tears and said she couldn't believe her Ickle Dudleykins,

They all laughed and Peter said between laughter, "Ickle Dudleykins! That's too funny!"

he looked so handsome and grown-up.

"If that's what you want to believe," muttered Sirius, raising his brow.

Harry didn't trust himself to speak. He thought two of his ribs might already have cracked from trying not to laugh.

There was a horrible smell in the kitchen the next morning when Harry went for breakfast. It seemed to be coming from a large metal tub in the sink. He went to have a look. The tub was full of what looked like dirty rags swimming in grey water.

"What's this?" he asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did if he dared to ask a question.
"Your new school uniform," she said.

"MY SON IS NOT GOING TO WEAR THOSE RAGS!" shouted Lily, dropping the book in anger.

"Don't worry, he won't have to," said Remus. "He'll get his Hogwarts letter soon." Lily picked up the book and resumed reading.

Harry looked in the bowl again.

"Oh," he said. "I didn't realise it had to be so wet."

"Don't be stupid," snapped aunt Petunia. "I'm dyeing some of Dudley's old things grey for you. It'll look like everyone else's when I've finished."

"I doubt it," muttered Sirius. He and James glared at the book.

Harry seriously doubted this, but thought it best not to argue. He sat down at the table and tried not to think about how he was going to look on his first day at Stonewall High - like he was wearing bits of old elephant skin, probably.

Dudley and Uncle Vernon came in, both with wrinkled noses because of the smell from Harry's new uniform. Uncle Vernon opened his newspaper as usual and Dudley banged his Smeltings stick, which he carried everywhere, on the table.

They heard the click of the letter-box and flop of letters on the doormat.

"Get the post, Dudley," said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper.

"Make Harry get it."

"Get the post, Harry."

"Make Dudley get it."

"Poke him with your Smeltings stick, Dudley."

Harry dodged the Smeltings stick and went to get the post. three things lay on the doormat: a postcard from Uncle Vernon's sister Marge, who was holidaying on the Isle of Wight, a brown envelope that looked like a bill and - a letter for Harry. Harry picked it up and stared at it, his heart twanging like a giant elastic band.

"What's an elastic band?" asked Sirius.

Lily gave him a dirty look. "You remember, those things you flung at Snape during Potions class all last year."

"Oh yeah. That was fun." Lily gave him another look, then continued reading.

No one, ever, in his whole life, had written to him. Who would? He had no friends, no other relatives - he didn't belong to the library so he'd never even got rude notes asking for books back. Yet, here it was, a letter, addressed so plainly there could be no mistake:

Mr. H. Potter
the Cupboard under the Stairs
4 Privet Drive
Little Whinging
Surrey

The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald-green ink. There was no stamp.

"What's a stamp?" asked James.

"A sticky bit of paper with a picture that Muggles buy and stick on their envelopes to pay for delivery," explained Sirius. The others looked at him and he said, "What? I did pay attention sometimes in Muggle Studies!"

Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Harry saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger and a snake surrounding a large letter 'H'.

"Hurry up and open it already!" muttered Sirius. "We know what it looks like!"

"Hurry up, boy!" shouted Uncle Vernon from the kitchen. "What are you doing, checking for letter-bombs?" He chuckled at his own joke.

Harry went back to the kitchen, still staring at his letter. He handed Uncle Vernon the bill and the postcard, sat down and slowly began to open the yellow envelope.

Uncle Vernon ripped open the bill, snorted in disgust and flipped over the postcard.

"Marge's ill," he informed Aunt Petunia. "Ate a funny whelk ..."

"Who's Marge?" asked Peter, looking puzzled.

"Weren't you paying attention?" demanded Remus. "Peter, the author already told us that she's Vernon's sister."

"Dad!" said Dudley suddenly. "Dad, Harry's got something!"

Harry was on the point of unfolding his letter, which was written on the same heavy parchment as the envelope, when it was jerked sharply out of his hand by Uncle Vernon.

"That's mine!" said Harry, trying to snatch it back.
"Who'd be writing to you?" sneered Uncle Vernon, shaking the letter open with one hand and glancing at it.

Sirius growled and James glared at the book.

His face went from red to green faster than a set of traffic lights. And it didn't stop there. Within seconds it was the greyish white of old porridge.

"P-P-Petunia!" he gasped.
Dudley tried to grab the letter to read it,

"He can read?" asked Remus, shocked. "I thought he had the intelligence of a slug!"

The others burst into laughter and Sirius said, "Looks like his intelligence is of a bird. But I bet he needs help reading words longer than cat or dog." There was even more laughter and Peter remarked that he didn't need any help reading.

but Uncle Vernon held it high out of his reach. Aunt Petunia took it curiously and read the first line.

For a moment it looked as though she might faint.

"Yes! Faint, so Harry can read his letter!" said James , jumping up in his excitement and nervousness.

She clutched her throat and made a choking noise.

" Vernon! Oh my goodness - Vernon!"

They stared at each other, seeming to have forgotten that Harry and Dudley were still in the room. Dudley wasn't used to being ignored. He gave his father a sharp tap on the head with his Smeltings stick.

"I want to read that letter," he said loudly.

"I want to read it," said Harry furiously, "as it's mine."

"Get out both of you," croaked Uncle Vernon, stuffing the letter back inside its envelope.
Harry didn't move.

"I WANT MY LETTER!" he shouted.

"Okay, Harry may have been a bit of an idiot not to open his letter in the hall, but you should still give him his letter!" shouted Lily, strands of hair falling from the ponytail it had been tied back in.

"Let me see it!" demanded Dudley.

"OUT!" roared Uncle Vernon, and he took both Harry and Dudley by the scruffs of their necks and threw them into the hall, slamming the kitchen door behind them.

Harry and Dudley promptly had a furious but silent fight over who would listen at the keyhole; Dudley won,

"Awww!" whined Sirius.

"Stop that!" snapped Remus. "I already told you that it was childish." Sirius glared at him, then pouted.

So Harry, his glasses dangling from one ear, lay flat on his stomach to listen at the crack between the door and the floor.

"Vernon," Aunt Petunia was saying in a quivering voice, "look at the address - how could they possibly know where he sleeps? You don't think they're watching the house?"

"Watching - spying - might be following us," muttered Uncle Vernon wildly.

"But what should we do, Vernon? Should we write back? Tell them we don't want - "

"YOU ARE NOT GOING TO STOP MY SON FROM ATTENDING HOGWARTS!" yelled James. He grabbed the pack of exploding snap cards on the table and threw it across the room. It was followed by a quill and a vase of flowers. The vase broke into several pieces. Remus muttered, "Calm down, James," then got up and pointed his wand at the broken vase. "Reparo!" He then put the flowers back in the vase and set it at another table.

Harry could see Uncle Vernon's shiny shoes pacing up and down the kitchen.
"No," he said finally. "No, we'll ignore it. If they don't get an answer ... yes, that's best ... we won't do anything ..."

"But Harry won't secure his place then!" cried James.

Lily reread the summary on the back, then said, "Calm down, James. The summary says that a 'beetle-eyed man' rescues Harry. I guess Hagrid brought him his letter. So we don't need to worry.

"But -”

"I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took him in we'd stamp out all that dangerous nonsense?"

That evening when he got back from work, Uncle Vernon did something he'd never done before; he visited Harry in his cupboard.
"Where's my letter?" said Harry, the moment Uncle Vernon had squeezed through the door.

"He can fit in the cupboard?" asked Peter, looking amazed. "But I thought he was too big!"

"We thought so, too," said Remus, frowning.

"Who's writing to me?"

"No one. It was addressed to you by mistake," said Uncle Vernon shortly. "I have burned it."

"It was not a mistake," said Harry angrily. "It had my cupboard on it."

"SILENCE!" yelled Uncle Vernon, and a couple of spiders fell from the ceiling. He took a few deep breaths and then forced his face into a smile, which looked quite painful.

“Er – yes, Harry – about this cupboard. Your aunt and I have been thinking...you’re really getting a bit big for it … we think it might be nice if you moved into Dudley's second bedroom.”

"YOU GIT!" yelled James. "YOUR FAT SON HAS TWO BEDROOMS, WHILE HARRY GETS STUCK IN A CUPBOARD!"

"Why?" said Harry.

"Don't ask questions!” snapped his uncle. “Take this stuff upstairs, now.”

The Dursleys' house had four bedrooms: one for Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, one for visitors (usually Uncle Vernon's sister, Marge), one where Dudley slept and one where Dudley kept all the toys and things that wouldn't fit into Dudley's first bedroom.

It only took Harry one trip upstairs to move everything he owned from the cupboard into his room. He sat down on the bed and stared around him.

Nearly everything in here was broken. the month-old cine-camera was lying on top of a small, working tank Dudley had once driven over next door's dog; in the corner was Dudley’s first-ever television set, which he'd put his foot through when his favourite programme had been cancelled; there was a large birdcage which had once held a parrot that Dudley had swapped at school for a real air-rifle, which was up on a shelf with the end all bent because Dudley had sat on it.

They all chuckled at this.

Other shelves were full of books. They were the only things in the room that looked as if they hadn't been touched before.

From downstairs came the sound of Dudley bawling at his mother: "I don't want him in there ... I need that room ... make him get out ..."

Harry sighed and stretched out on the bed. Yesterday he'd have given anything to be up here. Today he'd rather be back in his cupboard with that letter than up here without it.

Next morning at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet. Dudley was in shock. He'd screamed, whacked his father with his Smeltings stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof and he still didn't have his room back.

Harry was thinking about this time yesterday and bitterly wishing he'd opened the letter in the hall.

"Well, hindsight is always 20/20," said Lily. the others looked at her and she explained, "Perfect vision is measured as 20/20."

Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia kept looking at each other darkly.

When the post arrived, Uncle Vernon, who seemed to be trying to be nice to Harry, made Dudley go and get it.

They heard him banging things with his Smeltings stick all the way down the hall. Then he shouted, "There's another one! Mr. H. Potter, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive - "

With a strangled cry, Uncle Vernon leapt from his seat and ran down the hall, Harry right behind him. Uncle Vernon had to wrestle Dudley to the ground to get the letter from him, which was made difficult by the fact that Harry had grabbed Uncle Vernon around the neck from behind.

"Get that letter, Harry!" urged James.

After a minute of confused fighting, in which everyone got hit a lot by the Smeltings stick, Uncle Vernon straightened up, gasping for breath, with Harry's letter clutched in his hand.

"Aww!" said Sirius.

"Really mature," muttered Remus sarcastically.

Go to your cupboard - I mean, your bedroom," he wheezed at Harry. " Dudley - go - just go."

"Why doesn't Hagrid hurry up and deliver Harry's letter personally?" wondered Peter. The others shrugged.

Harry walked round and round his room. Someone knew he had moved out of his cupboard and they seemed to know he hadn't received his first letter. Surely that meant they'd try again? And this time he'd make sure they didn't fail. He had a plan.

The repaired alarm clock rang at six o'clock the next morning. Harry turned it off quickly and dressed silently. He mustn’t wake the Dursleys. He stole downstairs without turning on any of the lights.

"Yes!” cried James excitedly.

He was going to wait for the postman on the corner of Privet Drive and get the letters for number four first.

His heart hammered as he crept across the dark hall towards the front door -
"AAAAARRRGH!"
Harry leapt into the air - he'd trodden on something big and squashy on the doormat - something alive!

Lights clicked on upstairs and to his horror Harry realised that the big squashy something had been his uncle's face. Uncle Vernon had been lying at the foot of the front door in a sleeping bag, clearly making sure that Harry didn't do exactly what he'd been trying to do.

He shouted at Harry for about half an hour and then told him to go and make a cup of tea. Harry shuffled miserably off into the kitchen, and by the time he got back, the post had arrived, right into Uncle Vernon's lap. Harry could see three letters addressed in green ink.

"I want - " he began, but Uncle Vernon was tearing the letters into pieces before his eyes.

James began grinding his teeth.

Uncle Vernon didn't go to work that day. He stayed at home and nailed up the letter-box.

"Like that's going to work!" said James. "We have post owls!"

See," he explained to Aunt Petunia through a mouthful of nails, "if they can't deliver, they'll just give up."

"I'm not sure that'll work, Vernon."

"Oh, these people's minds work in strange ways, Petunia, they're not like you and me," said Uncle Vernon, trying to knock in a nail with the piece of fruit cake Aunt Petunia had just brought him.

On Friday, no fewer than twelve letters arrived for Harry. As they couldn't go through the letter-box they had been pushed under the door, slotted through the sides and a few even forced through the small window in the downstairs toilet.

Uncle Vernon stayed at home again.

After burning all the letters, he got out a hammer and nails and boarded up the cracks around the front and back doors so no one could go out. He hummed 'Tiptoe through the Tulips' as he worked, and jumped at small noises.

On Saturday, things began to get out of hand. Twenty-four letters to Harry found their way into the house, rolled up and hidden inside each of the two dozen eggs that their very confused milkman had handed Aunt Petunia through the living-room window. While Uncle Vernon made furious telephone calls to the post office and the dairy trying to find someone to complain to, Aunt Petunia shredded the letters in her food mixer.

"Who on earth wants to talk to you this badly?" Dudley asked Harry in amazement.

On Sunday morning, Uncle Vernon sat down at the breakfast table looking tired and rather ill, but happy.
"No post on Sunday's," he reminded them happily as he spread marmalade on his newspapers,

"no damn letters today -"

"That's what you think!" said Peter. The others nodded in agreement.

Something came whizzing down the kitchen chimney as he spoke and caught him sharply on the back of the head. Next moment, thirty or forty letters came pelting out of the fireplace like bullets. The Dursleys ducked, but Harry leapt into the air trying to catch one -

"Come one, catch one and read it!' exclaimed James, crossing his fingers and jumping up.

"Out! OUT!" Uncle Vernon seized Harry around the waist and threw him into the hall.

"Hey!" exclaimed Sirius.
James looked extremely disappointed as he sat down.

When Aunt Petunia and Dudley had run out with their arms over their faces, Uncle Vernon slammed the door shut. They could hear the letters still streaming into the room, bouncing off the walls and floor.

"That does it," said Uncle Vernon, trying to speak calmly but pulling great tufts out of his moustache at the same time. "I want you all back here in five minutes, ready to leave. We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!"

He looked so dangerous with half his moustache missing that no one dared argue. Ten minutes later they had wrenched their way through the boarded-up doors and were in the car, speeding towards the motorway. Dudley was sniffling in the back seat; his father had hit him round the head for holding them up while he tried to pack his television, video and computer in his sports bag..

They drove. And they drove. Even Aunt Petunia didn't dare ask where they were going. Every now and then Uncle Vernon would take a sharp turning and drive in the opposite direction for a while.

"Shake 'em off ... shake 'em off," he would mutter whenever he did this.

"That's not going to work," said Remus. "Dumbledore will still know where to send the letters."

They didn't stop to eat or drink all day.

By nightfall Dudley was howling."I take offence to that description!" said Remus, looking indignant.


He'd never had such a bad day in his life.

"Welcome to Harry's world!" said James sarcastically.

He was hungry, he'd missed five television programmes he'd wanted to see and he'd never gone so long without blowing up an alien on his computer.

"Isn't alien the word for someone from outer space?" asked Peter.

Remus nodded. "It's also used sometimes for someone from another country."

Uncle Vernon stopped at last outside a gloomy-looking hotel on the outskirts of a big city. Dudley and Harry shared a room with twin beds and damp, musty sheets. Dudley snored but Harry stayed awake, sitting on the window-sill, staring down at the lights of passing cars and wondering ...

They ate stale cornflakes and cold tinned tomatoes on toast for breakfast the next day. They had just finished when the owner of the hotel came over to their table.

"'Scuse me, but is one of you Mr. H. Potter? Only I got about an 'undred of these at the front desk."

She held up a letter so they could read the green ink address:

Mr. H. Potter
Room 17
Railview Hotel
Cokeworth

Harry made a grab for the letter but Uncle Vernon knocked his hand out of the way. The woman stared.
"I'll take them," said Uncle Vernon quickly, standing up quickly and following her from the dining-room.

Sirius growled and Lily wondered, "When is Hagrid going to turn up?" The others shrugged.

"Wouldn't it be better just to go home, dear?" Aunt Petunia suggested timidly, hours later, but Uncle Vernon didn't seem to hear her. Exactly what he was looking for, none of them knew. He drove them into the middle of a forest, got out, looked around, shook his head, got back in the car and off they went again.

The same thing happened in the middle of a ploughed field, halfway across a suspension bridge and at the top of a multi-storey car park.

"He's gone nutters!" muttered Remus.

"Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?" Dudley asked Aunt Petunia dully late that afternoon.

Uncle Vernon had parked at the coast, locked them all inside the car and disappeared.
It started to rain. Great drops beat on the roof of the car. Dudley snivelled.

"It's Monday," he told his mother.

"Wow, he knows the days of the week!" said Sirius sarcastically.

"The Great Humberto's on tonight. I want to stay somewhere with a television."
Monday.

"Yes, Lily, we've discovered it's Monday," said James, a bit impatiently.

"That's what's written in the book!" replied Lily, showing them the page.

"Oh," said James. Lily took the book back and continued reading.

This reminded Harry of something. If it was Monday -and you could usually count on Dudley to know the days of the week,

"But very little else," added James.
The others snickered.

because of television - then tomorrow, Tuesday, was Harry's eleventh birthday.

Of course, his birthdays were never exactly fun -last year, the Dursleys had given him a coat-hanger and a pair of Uncle Vernon's old socks.

"I knew it!' snapped James. "They probably give him rubbish for Christmas as well. Or give him nothing and say that he's been a bad boy!"

Still, you weren't eleven every day.

Uncle Vernon was back and he was smiling.

"Not good at all." said Sirius.
"Better than a scowl, though." said Remus.

He was also carrying a long, thin package and didn't answer Aunt Petunia when she asked what he'd bought.

"Found the perfect place!" he said. "Come on! Everyone out!"
It was very cold outside the car. Uncle Vernon was pointing at what looked like a large rock way out to sea. Perched on top of the rock was the most miserable little shack you could imagine. One thing was certain, there was no television in there.

"Storm forecast for tonight!" said Uncle Vernon gleefully, clapping his hands together. "And this gentleman's kindly agreed to lend us his boat!"

A toothless old man came ambling up to them, pointing, with a rather wicked grin, at an old rowing boat bobbing in the iron-grey water below them.

"I've already got us some rations," said Uncle Vernon, "so all aboard!"

It was freezing in the boat. Icy sea spray and rain crept down their necks and a chilly wind whipped their faces.

After what seemed like hours they reached the rock, where Uncle Vernon, slipping and sliding, led the way to the broken-down house.

The inside was horrible; it smelled strongly of seaweed, the wind whistled through the gaps in the wooden walls and the fire-place was damp and empty. There were only two rooms.

Uncle Vernon's rations turned out to be a packet of crisps each and four bananas. He tried to start a fire but the empty crisp packets just smoked and shrivelled up.

"Could do with some of those letters now eh?" he said cheerfully.

He was in a very good mood. Obviously he thought nobody stood a chance of reaching them here in a storm to deliver post.

"Yeah right," muttered Peter.

Harry privately agreed, though the thought didn't cheer him up at all.

As night fell, the promised storm blew up around them. pray from the high waves splattered the walls of the hut and a fierce wind rattled the filthy windows.

Aunt Petunia found a few mouldy blankets in the second room and made up a bed for Dudley on the moth-eaten sofa. She and Uncle Vernon went off to the lumpy bed next door and Harry was left to find the softest bit of floor he could find and to curl up under the thinnest, most ragged blanket.

"I WILL HEX YOU INTOP NEXT CENTURY FOR THIS, PETUNIA!' roared Lily.

James glared at the book and Sirius and Remus growled.

The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on. Harry couldn't sleep. He shivered and turned over, trying to get comfortable, his stomach rumbling with hunger.

Dudley's snores were drowned by the low rolls of thunder that started near midnight.

The lighted dial of Dudley's watch, which was dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat wrist, told Harry he'd be eleven in ten minutes' time.

He lay and watched his birthday tick nearer, wondering if the Dursleys would remember at all,

"Doubtful," muttered James, glaring at the book again.

wondering where the letter-writer was now.

Five minutes to go. Harry heard something creak outside.

He hoped the roof wasn't going to fall in,

"WHAT!" exclaimed Lily and James

"Don't worry, it won't," said Remus.

although it might be warmer if it did. Four minutes to go. Maybe the house in Privet Drive would be so full of letters when they got back that he'd be able to steal one somehow.

Three minutes to go. Was that the sea, slapping hard on the rock like that?

And (two minutes to go) what was that funny crunching noise?

James paced the room nervously and Lily's voice shook a little as she read.

Was the rock crumbling into the sea?

One minute to go and he'd be eleven. Thirty seconds ... twenty seconds ... ten - nine - maybe he'd wake Dudley up, just to annoy him -

"Yeah! Go on Harry - wake the fat pig up!" urged Sirius.

three - two - one -
BOOM.

The whole shack shivered and Harry sat bolt upright, staring at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in.

"It's Hagrid!" exclaimed James.
"He finally came!" added Lily. The others looked excited.

"Okay, who wants to read the next chapter?' asked Lily. Sirius volunteered and he took the book from Lily.

cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=114684

I was so bored today that I decided to post twice. Hope you like it and please give your feedback!

cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=114684


CHAPTER FOUR
THE KEEPER OF THE KEYS

"Hey!" exclaimed Peter. "That's Hagrid, isn't it?"

"Yes," replied Remus patiently. "We've already established that Hagrid's coming."

BOOM.

They knocked again. Dudley jerked awake.
"Where's the cannon?" he said stupidly.

The others laughed, though only Lily, Remus, and Sirius had any idea what a cannon was.

There was a crash behind them and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a rifle in his hands.

Now they knew what had been in the long, thin package he had brought with them.

"Who's there?" he shouted. "I warn you - I'm armed!"

There was a pause. Then -

SMASH!

The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off its hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor.

A giant of a man was standing in the doorway.

"Finally," said James. "Hagrid turned up."

His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair. The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the door and fitted it easily back into its frame. The noise of the storm outside dropped a little. He turned to look at them all.

"Couldn't make a cup o' tea could yeh? It's not been an easy journey ..."

"Typical of Hagrid," muttered Lily. "It's pouring out, and he asks if he can have a cup of tea!"

He strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat frozen with fear.

"Budge up, yeh great lump," said the stranger.

Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified behind Uncle Vernon.

"An' here's Harry!" said the giant.

Harry looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile.

"Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," said the giant. "Yeh look a lot like yeh dad, but yeh've got yer mum's eyes."

Uncle Vernon made a funny rasping noise.
"I demand that you leave at once, sir!" he said. "You are breaking and entering!"

"Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune," said the giant.

The boys snickered and Lily grinned.

He reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of Uncle Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room.

"Ha ha!" yelled Peter.
The others started laughing.

Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on.

"I take offence to these references!" exclaimed Peter.

"But I thought your form was a rat, not a mouse," said Lily.

"Rats and mice are similar!" retorted Peter, pouting a little.

"Anyway - Harry," said the giant, turning his back on the Dursleys, "a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here - I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right."

From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly squashed box. Harry opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Harry written on it in green icing?

"Why green icing?" wondered Sirius. "Hagrid, couldn't you have made it red or gold icing? Even blue or yellow would be better."

Harry looked up at the giant. He meant to say thank you, but the words got lost on the way to his mouth, and what he said instead was, "Who are you?"

"Harry Potter!" yelled Lily. "you could be bit more polite!"

"Well, he meant to be," said James.

The giant chuckled.

"True, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."
He held out an enormous hand and shook Harry's whole arm.

"What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind."

His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shriveled crisp packets in it and he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace; they couldn't see what he was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire. It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and Harry felt the warm rush over him as though he'd sunk into a hot bath.

The giant sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, and began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat: a copper kettle, a squashy packet of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs and a bottle of some amber liquid which he took a swig from before starting to make tea.

"Mead!” said the boys.
Lily looked disproving. "Typical Hagrid! At least he only took one swig and not several."

Soon the hut was full of the sound and smell of sizzling sausage.

Sirius stopped reading to say, "I'm hungry."

"Well, as soon as you finish reading the chapter, we can go have lunch," said Remus.

Nobody said a thing while the giant was working, but as he slid the first six fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages from the poker, Dudley fidgeted a little.

Uncle Vernon said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley."

The giant chuckled darkly.
"Yer great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' any more, Dursley, don' worry."

They exchanged looks of glee at Hagrid's words.

He passed the sausages to Harry, who was so hungry he had never tasted anything so wonderful, but he still couldn't take his eyes off the giant.

"It's rude to stare, Harry,” commented Lily. The boys looked at her and she said, "Well, it is!"

Finally, as nobody seemed about to explain anything, he said, "I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are."
The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Call me Hagrid," he said, "everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts - yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course."

"Er - no," said Harry.

Hagrid looked shocked.
"Sorry," Harry said quickly.

"Sorry?" barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. "It's them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yer parents learnt it all?"

"All what?" asked Harry.

"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered. "Now wait jus' one second!"

He had leapt to his feet. In his anger he seemed to fill the whole hut. The Dursleys were cowering against the wall.

"Do you mean ter tell me," he growled at the Dursleys, "that this boy - this boy - knows nothin' abou' - about ANYTHING?"

"yep," said Sirius. James frowned, then stopped when he realised that Hagrid was there to explain things.

Harry thought this was going a bit far.

He had been to school, after all, and his marks weren't bad.
"I know some things," he said. "I can, you know, do maths and stuff.

But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, "About our world, I mean. Your world. My world. Yer parents' world."

"What world?"

Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode.

"DURSLEY!" he boomed.
Uncle Vernon, who had gone very pale, whispered something that sounded like 'Mimblewimble'.

"Is that even a word?" asked Sirius.
"Who knows," answered Remus, shrugging.

Hagrid stared wildly at Harry.
"But yeh must know about yer mum and dad," he said. "I mean, they're famous. You're famous."

"What? My - my mum and dad weren't famous, were they?"

"Yeh don' know ... yeh don' know ..." Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry with a bewildered stare.
"Yeh don' know what yeh are?" he said finally.

Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice.

"Stop!" he commanded. "Stop right there, sir! I forbid you to tell the boy anything!"

A braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailed under the furious look Hagrid now gave him; when Hagrid spoke, his every syllable trembled with rage.

"You never told him? Never told him what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer him? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from him all these years?"

"Kept what from me?" said Harry eagerly.

"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic.
Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror.

"SHUT UP!" yelled Lily. "Let Hagrid explain the wizarding world to Harry.

"Ah, go boil yer heads, both of yeh," said Hagrid.

"Yes, do so," muttered James. "it's make Harry's life better."

"Harry - yer a wizard."

There was a silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard.
"I'm a what?"

"A wizard, o' course," said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower, "an' a thumpin' good'un I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh be? An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh read yer letter."

"About time!" exclaimed Lily and James together.

Harry stretched out his hand at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to Mr. H. Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea. He pulled out the letter and read:

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chr. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Mr. Potter,
We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress

"That letter was exactly the same as mine - even the name!" said James, sounding awestruck

"Well, duh!' said Remus giving him a strange look. "You have the same last name as Harry!"

Questions exploded inside Harry's head like fireworks and he couldn't decide which to ask first. After a few minutes he stammered, "What does it mean, they await my owl?"

"Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me," said Hagrid, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a cart horse, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat he pulled out an owl -

"How many pockets does Hagrid's coat have?" asked Lily.
"Who knows?' responded Remus. "Probably hundreds."

a real, live, rather ruffled-looking owl - a long quill and a roll of parchment. With his tongue between his teeth he scribbled a note which Harry could read upside down:

Dear Mr. Dumbledore,
Given Harry his letter. Taking him to buy his things tomorrow. Weather's horrible. Hope you're well.
Hagrid.

Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in its beak, went to the door and threw the owl out into the storm. Then he came back and sat down as though this was normal as talking on the telephone.

Harry realized his mouth was open and closed it quickly.

"Where was I?" said Hagrid, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight.

"He's not going," he said.

"As if you could stop him!' snapped Lily. "So shut up, Dursley!"

Hagrid grunted.
"I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop him," he said.

"You tell him, Hagrid!" said James excitedly.

"A what?" said Harry, interested.

"A Muggle," said Hagrid. "It's what we call non-magic folk like them. An' it's your bad luck you grew up in a family o' the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on."

"We swore when we took him in we'd put a stop to that rubbish," said Uncle Vernon, "swore we'd stamp it out of him! Wizard, indeed!"

"You knew?" said Harry. "You knew I'm a - a wizard?"

"Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "Knew! Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was?

"Hey!" yelled Lily. "You're just jealous that you didn't get a Hogwarts letter too!"

Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that - that school - and came home every holiday with her pockets full of frog-spawn, turning teacups into rats.

"You actually did that?" asked James, looking impressed.

"She's just exaggerating," said Lily. "The only thing I did was levitate a cup to show my parents I could do magic."

I was the only one who saw her for what she was - a freak!

"I AM NOT A FREAK!" shouted Lily. "YOU ARE JUST JEALOUS!"

But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!"

"I told you!" said Lily. "Jealous!' She grinned smugly.

She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed like she had been wanting to say all this for years.

Lily and James were glaring at the book again.

"Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you, and of course I knew you'd be the same, just as strange, just as - as - abnormal - and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!"

Harry had gone very white.

As soon as he found his voice he said, "Blown up? You told me they died in a car crash!"

"CAR CRASH!" roared Hagrid, jumping so angrily that the Dursleys scuttled back to their corner. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's an outrage! A scandal! Harry Potter not knowin' his own story when every kid in our world knows his name!"

"But why? What happened?" Harry asked urgently.

The anger faded from Hagrid's face. He looked suddenly anxious.
"I never expected this," he said in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Harry, I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh - but someone's gotta - yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'"

He threw a dirty look at the Dursleys.

"Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh - mind, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great myst'ry, parts of it ..."

He sat down, stared into the fire for a few seconds and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with - with a person called - but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows -”

"Voldemort," they all said, except Peter, who flinched.

"Who?"

"Well - I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does."

"Why not?"

"Gulpin' gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared. Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went ... bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was ..."

Hagrid gulped, but no words came out.

"Could you write it down?" Harry suggested.

"Nah - can't spell it. All right - Voldemort."

Peter flinched and Lily started to flinch before stopping herself.

Hagrid shuddered. "Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this - this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em, too - some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, 'cause he was gettin' himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry. Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches ... Terrible things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course, some stood up to him - an' he killed 'em. Horribly. One o' the only safe places left was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of. Didn't dare try takin' the school, not jus' then, anyway.

"Now, yer mum an' dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew.

James and Lily were smiling now.

Head Boy an' Girl at Hogwarts in their day!

Lily looked excited, while James looked disgusted. "I'm Head Boy? How did that ever happen? It's terrible! Remus would be better!"

"I'm already terrible as a prefect, letting you and Sirius get away with things," said Remus. "I wouldn't make a good head boy."

Suppose the myst'ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get 'em on his side before ... probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin' ter do with the Dark Side. Maybe he thought he could persuade 'em ... maybe he just wanted 'em outta the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Halloween ten years ago. You was just a year old. He came ter yer house an' - an' -"

Lily burst into tears and James started blinking furiously. Sirius patted James on the back, the continued reading.

Hagrid suddenly pulled out a very dirty, spotted handkerchief and blew his nose with the sound of a foghorn.
"Sorry," he said. "But it's that sad - knew yer mum an' dad, an' nicer people yeh couldn't find - anyway - You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then - an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing - he tried to kill you, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' by then.

"Evil git!" muttered Remus.

But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a powerful, evil curse touches yeh -took care of yer mum an' dad an' yer house, even - but it didn't work on you, an' that's why yer famous, Harry.

James and Lily looked proud.

No one ever lived after he decided to kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age - the McKinnons, the Bones, the Prewetts - an' you was only a baby an' you lived."

"He didn't kill the whole families, did he?" asked Lily, looking shocked. "Amelia Bones is one of my close friends!"

Something very painful was going on inside Harry's mind.

As Hagrid's story came to a close, he saw again the blinding flash of green light, more clearly than he had ever remembered it before - and he remembered something else, for the first time in his life - a high, cold, cruel, laugh.

There was silence in the room, except for a few sniffles from Lily. Then Sirius continued reading.

Hagrid was watching him sadly.

"Took yer from the ruined House myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh ter this lot ..."

"Load of old tosh," said Uncle Vernon.

"I liked it better when he was quiet!" snarled Sirius.

Harry jumped; he had almost forgotten that the Dursleys were there. Uncle Vernon certainly seemed to have got back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched.

"Now you listen here, boy," he snarled. "I accept there's something strange about you, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured -

Lily snapped, "Touch him and I'll find a way to hex you!"

and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdoes, no denying it,

"Hey!" said James. "We're not the weirdoes, you are!"

and the world's better off without them in my opinion - asked for all they got, getting mixed up with all these wizarding types - just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end - "

But at that moment, Hagrid leapt up from the sofa and drew a battered pink umbrella from inside his coat.

Pointing this at Uncle Vernon like a sword, he said, "I'm warning you, Dursley - I'm warning you - one more word ..."

In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella by a bearded giant, Uncle Vernon's courage failed again; he flattened himself against the wall and fell silent.

"That's better," said Hagrid breathing heavily and sitting back down on the sofa, which this time sagged right down to the floor.

Harry, meanwhile, still had questions to ask, hundreds of them.

"But what happened to Vol- sorry - I mean, You-Know-Who?"

"Good question, Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see ... he was gettin' more an' more powerful - why'd he go? Some say he died.

"Good!" said Lily.

Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die. Some say he's still out there, bidin' his time, like, but I don' believe it. People who were on his side came back ter ours. Some of 'em came outta kinda trances. Don' reckon they could've done if he was comin' back. Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers. Too weak to carry on. 'Cause somethin' about you finished him, Harry. There was somethin' goin' on that night he hadn't counted on - I dunno what it was, no one does - but somethin' about you stumped him, all right."

Hagrid looked at Harry with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but Harry, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake.

A wizard? Him? How could he possibly be? He'd spent his life being clouted by Dudley and bullied by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; if he was really a wizard, why hadn't they been turned into warty toads every time they'd tried to lock him in his cupboard?

James and Lily glared at the book again and Sirius growled.

If he'd once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come Dudley had always been able to kick him around like a football?

"Hagrid," he said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard."

To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled. "Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you were scared or angry?"

Harry looked into the fire. Now he came to think about it ... every odd thing that had ever happened when he, Harry, had been upset or angry ... chased by Dudley's gang, he had somehow found himself out of their reach ...

"Because he flew," said James, looking proud.

"Apparated," said Sirius.

"Flew."

"Apparated."

"Shut up!" snapped Lily and Remus together. James fell silent, pouting, and Sirius continued reading.

dreading going to school with that ridiculous haircut, he'd managed to make it grow back ...

And the very last time Dudley had hit him, hadn't he got his revenge, without even realizing he was doing it? Hadn't he set a boa constrictor on him?

"That was wonderful!" exclaimed James. "I was very proud of you when you did that, son!" Lily shook her head in mild disgust.

Harry looked back at Hagrid, smiling, and saw that Hagrid was positively beaming at him.
"See?" said Hagrid. "Harry Potter, not a wizard - you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts."

But Uncle Vernon wasn't going to give in without a fight. "Haven't I told you he's not going?" he hissed. "He's going to Stonewall High and he'll be grateful for it. I've read those letters and he needs all sorts of rubbish - spell books and wands and - "

"They're not rubbish!" snapped Lily. "Being a witch is better than being a Muggle idiot."

"If he wants ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop him," growled Hagrid. "Stop Lily an' James Potter's son goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad. His name's been down ever since he was born. He's off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. Seven years there and he won't know himself. He'll be with youngsters of his own sort, fer a change, an' he'll be under the greatest Headmaster Hogwarts ever had, Albus Dumbled - "

"I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!" yelled Uncle Vernon.

"Uh oh," said Peter, looking nervous. Lily looked questioningly at the boys.

"A Slytherin once insulted Dumbledore in front of Hagrid," explained Remus. "Hagrid was really mad. He told the kid off, then dragged him to Slughorn and made him take points off Slytherin and give the kid detention.

But he had finally gone too far. Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled over his head. "NEVER -" he thundered, "- INSULT - ALBUS - DUMBLEDORE - IN - FRONT - OF - ME!"

He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley -

"YES!" shouted James excitedly
"ABOUT TIME!" added Sirius

There was a flash of violet light, a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal and next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain.

Everyone burst into laughter.

When he turned his back on them, Harry saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers.

They all laughed even harder at this.

Uncle Vernon roared. Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudley into the other room, he cast one last terrified look at Hagrid and slammed the door behind them.

Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard.

"Shouldn'ta lost me temper," he said ruefully, "but it didn't work anyway. Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left ter do."

He cast a sideways look at Harry under his bushy eyebrows.

"Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts," he said. "I'm - er - not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin'. I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an' get yer letters to yeh an' stuff - one o' the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job -"

"Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Harry.

"Because he was expelled," said Remus.

"He never told us why, though," said Sirius, frowning a little.

"Oh, well - I was at Hogwarts meself but I - er - got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an' everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore."

"Why were you expelled?"

"Yeah, why were you expelled?" asked James, leaning forward in his eagerness to know.

"It's gettin' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow," said Hagrid loudly.

"Darn!" said Sirius. "He won't tell Harry, either."

"Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an' that."

He took off his thick black coat and threw it to Harry.
"You can kip under that, he said. “Don’t' mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o' dormice in one o' the pockets.""

That's the end of the chapter," said Sirius. As everyone gotup to leave, Sirius motioned Remus to stay behind. James gave them an odd look before heading off to the dorm.

James' Diary


I love this map. It's the best thing that's happened to me since I don't know when. All I have to do is open it up, say "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," and presto! In my hands I have a highly detailed map of Hogwarts and the surrounding school grounds. We (Sirius, Remus, Peter and I) drew it ourselves in our spare time. We've been collecting information for this map for years, and finally, with the information we've gathered this year, it is complete. Okay, so it's not completely done, but we've fixed it so that we can add new things and make revisions anytime. It's just a matter of knowing what to do.

Now, this map is quite unusual. It can tell me where teachers are, where Filch is, and where the Slytherins are so I can avoid them. It can also tell me where Lily Evans is, so I can run into her by "accident". Not literally run into her, mind you, just...be wherever she happens to be.

Remus reckons that I'm stalking Evans, but I don't think so. Wanting to be where she is doesn't make me a stalker.

Yesterday, I was sitting idly in my dorm room being bored, so I pulled out the map, which we have decided to call The Marauder's Map. I scanned the parchment, looking for a certain Gryffindor redhead and there she was, in the library. So, I hurried down to the library so I could catch her before she left.

The map told me that she was in the back of the library, apparently looking for a book. Well, the map didn't tell me she was looking for a book; I assumed that. I mean, what else would she be doing in a library?

I found her straining to reach a book that was on a shelf way over her head, so I asked which book she was trying to reach. She ignored me, as usual, and continued her fruitless attempts.

Finally, she gave up, and asked me to get Where There's a Wand, There's a Way for her. I realized that I was annoying her, but I was having fun. So, I held the book above my head and said that in exchange for the book, she had to go out with me.

She pleaded with me for a couple of minutes before she decided that kicking me in the shins was the best way to get what she wanted.

Does she have metal plates in the toes of her shoes? I'd like to know, because that really hurt! Another bruise obtained by trying to ask Evans out. Just my luck.

She actually thinks that ignoring me and pretending I don't exist will solve her troubles. I laugh at her.



I like Hagrid. I've known him since the second day of school when I was assigned to have detention with him. I had to help him gather some plants that the potions teacher needed. He often invited the guys and me down to his hut for tea, and the other day, I received an invitation.

Normally, I would have told the guys that we were invited, but I noticed, with my super radar vision, that Evans had also received a letter from Hagrid. It was too good to pass up!

So, later that day, I positioned myself at a strategic spot in the common room where I could see Evans as she left.

When Hagrid opened the door to admit me, Evans choked into her tea and dropped her biscuit.

I had a nice time at Hagrid's as I always do, and I had an especially nice time since Evans was there. Not that she talked me, but she was there, and that's enough for me.

I hope I run into her there again.

On our way back to the school, I decided to take a chance and ask Evans out. Do I even need to say what her answer was?

Someday her answer will be yes.

Someday.




Hogsmeade has to be one of the best places in all Britain. Honeydukes, Three Broomsticks, Zonkos and the Shrieking Shack. What more could a guy of my age want? Well...Evans, but that's a whole different matter.

Walking around the busy streets with your friends, enjoying warm butterbeer together, life doesn't get much better. Until you get to spend the Hogsmeade visit with Evans, that is.

Sirius, Remus, Peter and I had just walked into the Three Broomsticks when I spotted Evans and her friends sitting at a large corner booth. The booth was big enough for all of us, so we joined them.

Being the chivalrous, kind-hearted soul that I am, I graciously paid for Evans' drink.

In all seriousness though, it's only right that the guy should pay for girl. It's Gryffindor chivalry and it's been drilled into me since the day I was born. It's only fitting.

Either Evans does not understand the concept of chivalry or she just doesn't like me being chivalrous, because she sent a nasty glare my way. I smiled back at her, trying to hide that fact that her glare was scaring me.

After we finished our drinks, we meandered around the village and eventually ended up at Honeydukes. I bought everyone a slab of chocolate in another attempt at being chivalrous. Evans seemed happy that I bought everyone some and not just her...




As usual, I was bored in History of Magic (who isn't?) and as usual, my mind began to wander and as usual, it wandered to the beautiful Miss Evans.

Okay, that's officially enough 'as usuals' to last me the rest of my life.

Anyway, while Binns droned on about the Goblin Wars of 1869, I decided that just because I'm "laying low" doesn't mean that I can't hang around Evans. She doesn't have to know I'm there.

I'll only get in trouble if she sees me, but if she doesn't know I'm there, she won't get mad at me. So, really, everyone gets to walk away happy.

Merlin, I love my invisibility cloak.

Contrary to what Sirius believes my parents did not buy me this cloak because I'm spoiled rotten. It's been passed down several generations in the Potter family. Since I'm the only child, there was no big debate about who got to inherit it. Normally, I would have received the cloak either upon my coming of age or when my father dies, but my dad felt that I was ready to shoulder the responsibility. I'm glad he thought so; it makes my life here so much easier.

Mostly, I use it to sneak down to the kitchens and nick a bite to eat, but every once in a while, the guys and I use to it play a prank. Lately, I've found a new use for it, but I won't say here what it is; it's too dangerous to do so until I've placed some sort of security spells on this notebook.

I don't think that anyone in my dormitory or even Gryffindor House would read my private writings, but I don't want to take any chances.

At this both both Remus and Sirius let out a chuckle. Tired, they decided to read the rest later.

Arsenal vs Birmingham City match is due to begin! Gotto signoff! Any guesses as to who I would be supporting!

cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=114684

cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=114684

CHAPTER FIVE
DIAGON ALLEY

"Our son is going to Diagon Alley!" said Lily excitedly. "I hope he'll like it as much as I did."

"I am sure he will," James replied to Lily's earnest expression.

Harry woke early the next morning. Although he could tell it was daylight, he kept his eyes shut tight.
"It was a dream," he told himself firmly. "I dreamt a giant called Hagrid came to tell me I was going to a school for wizards. When I open my eyes I'll be at home in my cupboard."

"No you won't," said James. "You'll be under Hagrid's coat in that hut."

There was suddenly a loud tapping noise.
"And there's Aunt Petunia knocking on the door," Harry thought, his heart sinking. But he still hadn't opened his eyes. It had been such a good dream.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

"All right," Harry mumbled, "I'm getting up."

He sat up and Hagrid's heavy coat fell off him.

The hut was full of sunlight, the storm was over, Hagrid himself was asleep on the collapsed sofa and there was an owl rapping its claw on the window, a newspaper held in its beak.
Harry scrambled to his feet, so happy he felt as though a large balloon was swelling inside him.

"Awww," cooed Lily.
James rolled his eyes and exchanged slightly disgusted looks with Sirius.

He went straight to the window and jerked it open. The owl swooped in and dropped the newspaper on top of Hagrid, who didn't wake up. The owl then fluttered to the floor and began to attack Hagrid's coat.

"Don't do that."

"You have to pay him," said Lily. The others looked at her and she explained, "I have the Daily Prophet delivered to me during the holidays."

Harry tried to wave the owl out of the way, but it snapped its beak fiercely at him and carried on savaging the coat.

"Hagrid!" said Harry loudly. "There's an owl -"

"Pay him," Hagrid grunted into the sofa.

"What?"

"He wants payin' fer deliverin' the paper. Look in the pockets."

"Harry'll probably get lost," commented Remus. "Seeing as Hagrid's coat has like a hundred pockets."

Hagrid's coat seemed to be made of nothing but pockets - bunches of keys, slug pellets, balls of string, mint humbugs, teabags ... finally, Harry pulled out a handful of strange-looking coins.

"Give him five Knuts," said Hagrid sleepily.

"Knuts?"

"The little bronze ones."

Harry counted five little bronze coins and the owl held out its leg so he could put the money into a small leather pouch tied to it. Then it flew out through the open window.

Hagrid yawned loudly, sat up and stretched.
"Best be off, Harry, lots ter do today, gotta get up ter London an' buy all yer stuff fer school."

Harry was turning over the wizard coins and looking at them. He had just thought of something which made him feel as though the happy balloon inside him had got a puncture.

"Um - Hagrid?"

"Mm?" said Hagrid, who was pulling on his huge boots.

"I haven't got any money - and you heard Uncle Vernon last night - he won't pay for me to go to learn magic."

"Don't worry, Harry," said James. "Lily and I will have left you some money."

"Don't worry about that," said Hagrid, standing up and scratching his head. "D'ye think year parents didn't leave yeh anything?"

"But if their house was destroyed -"

"They didn't keep their gold in the house, boy! Nah, first stop fer us is Gringotts. Wizards' bank Have a sausage, they're not bad cold - an' I wouldn' say no *** a bit o' yer birthday cake, neither.

"Wizards have banks?"

"Where do you think we keep our money?" demanded Sirius. "Buried in our backyards?"

"Just the one. Gringotts. Run by goblins."

Harry dropped the bit of sausage he was holding.

"Goblins?"

"Yeah - so yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it, I'll tell yeh that. Never mess with goblins, Harry. Gringotts is the safest place in the world fer anything yeh want ter keep safe - 'cept maybe Hogwarts. As a matter o' fact, gotta visit Gringotts anyway. Fer Dumbledore. Hogwarts business." Hagrid drew himself up proudly. "He usually gets me ter do important stuff fer him. Fetchin' you - gettin' things from Gringotts - knows he can trust me, see."

"Got everythin'? Come on, then."

Harry followed Hagrid out on to the rock. The sky was quite clear now and the sea gleamed in the sunlight. The boat Uncle Vernon had hired was still there, with a lot of water in the bottom after the storm.

"How did you get here?" Harry asked, looking around for another boat.

"Flew," said Hagrid.

"I didn't know Hagrid could fit on a broom," said James, looking a bit awed.

"Maybe he flew on something else," said Sirius.

"Or maybe, like Harry, he was able to fly without sitting on something," said James.

"Harry apparated," said Sirius.

"Flew."

"Appar-"

Remus threw a cushion from the couch at Sirius, then another one at James. "We don't need to hear you arguing again as to whether Harry flew or apparated. Now be quiet and let Peter continue reading."

"Flew?"

"Yeah - but we'll go back in this. Not s'pposed ter use magic now I've got yeh."
They settled down in the boat, Harry still staring at Hagrid, trying to imagine him flying.

"Seems a shame ter row, though," said Hagrid, giving Harry another of his sideways looks. "If I was ter - er - speed things up a bit, would yeh mind not mentionin' it at Hogwarts?"

"Of course not," said Harry, eager to see more magic. Hagrid pulled out the pink umbrella again, tapped it twice on the side of the boat and they sped off towards land.

"I think his wand bits are in that umbrella," said Peter.

"Yeah, I do too," said Sirius.

"Why would you be mad to try and rob Gringotts?" Harry asked.

"Spells - enchantments," said Hagrid, unfolding his newspaper as he spoke. "They say there are dragons guardin' the high security vaults. And then yeh gotta find yer way - Gringotts is hundreds of miles under London, see. Deep under the Underground. Yeh'd die of hunger tryin' ter get out, even if yeh did manage ter get yer hands on summat."

Harry sat and thought about this while Hagrid read his newspaper, the Daily Prophet. Harry had learnt from Uncle Vernon that people like to be left alone while they did this, but it was very difficult, he'd never had so many questions in his life

"Ministry o' Magic messin' things up as usual," Hagrid muttered, turning the page.

"There's a Ministry of Magic?" Harry asked, before he could stop himself.

"'Course," said Hagrid. "They wanted Dumbledore fer Minister, o' course, but he'd never leave Hogwarts, so old Cornelius Fudge got the job. Bungler if ever there was one. So he pelts Dumbledore with owls every morning, askin' fer advice."

"What happened to Millicent Bagnold?" asked James. "Did Voldemort kill her?' Peter flinched and James said, "Sorry, Wormtail."

"Maybe she retired," suggested Remus. "It doesn't have to mean that Vol-sorry, Peter, You-Know-Who, killed her."

"But why give Fudge the job?" asked Sirius. "I thought he was a bit of an idiot. In my first year, a seventh year Gryffindor happened to mention to me that Fudge was in Hufflepuff five years above and kept forgetting the passwords to places."

"But what does a Ministry of Magic do?"
"Well, their main job is to keep it from the Muggles that there's still witches an' wizards up an' down the country."
"Why?"
"Why? Blimey, Harry, everyone'd be wantin' magic solutions to their problems. Nah, we're best left alone."

"Yep, that's right!' exclaimed Sirius.

At this moment the boat bumped gently into the harbor wall. Hagrid folded up his newspaper and they clambered up the stone steps on to the street.

"Wait a minute, Peter," said Lily. "How are the Dursleys going to get back?"

"Who cares," responded James.

"But Petunia is my sister. And even though I hate her guts right now, she used to be really nice and liked to play with me."

"Maybe the old guy who let them use his hut will row the boat across to them," said Remus. Lily nodded and Peter resumed reading.

Passers-by stared a lot at Hagrid as they walked through the little town to the station. Harry couldn't blame them. Not only was Hagrid twice as tall as anyone else, he kept pointing at perfectly ordinary things like parking meters and saying loudly, "See that, Harry? Things these Muggles dream up, eh?"

"Hagrid," said Harry panting a bit as he ran to keep up, "did you say there are dragons at Gringotts?"

"Well, so they say," said Hagrid. "Crikey, I'd like a dragon."

"You'd like one?"

"Wanted one ever since I was a kid - here we go."

"I'd like a dragon, too," muttered Sirius. "So it could toast Snivellus."

"Black!" exclaimed Lily. "That's not nice. He may be greasy and a bit of an annoying git, but you can't go around wishing a dragon would toast him."

"I was going to wish that a dragon would eat him, but then realized that Snivellus was too greasy and would give the dragon indigestion."

Lily shook her head in disgust and told Peter to continue reading.

They had reached the station. There was a train to London in five minutes' time. Hagrid, who didn't understand 'Muggle money', as he called it, gave the notes to Harry so he could buy their tickets.

People stared more than ever on the train. Hagrid took up two seats and sat knitting what looked like a canary-yellow circus tent.

They were all smiling.

"Still got yer letter, Harry?" he asked as he counted stitches.
Harry took the parchment envelope out of his pocket.

"Good," said Hagrid. "There's a list of everything yeh need."
Harry unfolded a second piece of paper he hadn't noticed the night before and read:

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

Uniform
First-year students will require:
1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)
2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear
3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)
4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)
Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags

"Looks like the uniform hasn't changed," commented Sirius.

Set Books
All students should have a copy of each of the following:
The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk
A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot
Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling
A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch
One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore
Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander
The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble

"And the booklist is still basically the same," said Remus.

Other Equipment
1 wand
1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)
1 set glass or crystal phials
1 telescope
1 set brass scales

"Equipment's the same as well," added James

Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad

PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST-YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS

"Darn! I was hoping that rules was changed or something!" exclaimed James.

"When was the last time Hogwarts changed a rule?" asked Remus.

James frowned in thought, then admitted, "Never."

"Can we buy all this in London?" Harry wondered aloud.

"If yeh know where to go," said Hagrid.

Harry had never been to London before. Although Hagrid seemed to know where he was going, he was obviously not too used to getting there in an ordinary way. He got stuck in the ticket barrier on the Underground and complained loudly that the seats were too small and the trains too slow.

Everyone burst out laughing.

"I don't know how the Muggles manage without magic," he said, as they climbed a broken-down escalator which led up to a bustling road lined with shops.

Hagrid was so huge that he parted the crowd easily; all Harry had to do was keep close behind him.

They passed book shops and music stores, hamburger bars and cinemas, but nowhere that looked as if it could sell you a magic wand.

"You have to go to Diagon Alley, Harry!" explained Lily.

"Oh great, now Lily's talking to the book too!" groaned Remus.

This was just an ordinary street full of ordinary people. Could there really be piles of wizard gold buried miles beneath them? Were there really shops that sold spell books and broomsticks?

"Of course there are!" exclaimed Lily and James at the same time.

Might this not all be some huge joke that the Dursleys had cooked up?

"Petunia wouldn't recognize a joke if it danced in front of her wrapped in turban," muttered Lily. The others gave her looks, then burst out laughing.

If Harry hadn't known that the Dursleys had no sense of humor, he might have thought so; yet somehow, even though everything Hagrid had told him so far was unbelievable, Harry couldn't help trusting him.

"This is it," said Hagrid, coming to a halt, "the Leaky Cauldron. It's a famous place."

"Harry's at the Leaky Cauldron, James!" said Lily excitedly, grabbing James' hand. "I remember when Professor Flitwick took my family there after I got my Hogwarts letter!"

James had been quite startled when Lily grabbed his hand, but then he had been very happy, as he had wanted to hold hands with Lily for the longest time. He smiled and said, "That's nice, Lily."

It was a tiny, grubby-looking pub. If Hagrid hadn't pointed it out, Harry wouldn't have noticed it was there. The people hurrying by didn't glance at it. Their eyes slid from the big book shop on one side to the record shop on the other as if they couldn't see the Leaky Cauldron at all. In fact, Harry had the most peculiar feeling that only he and Hagrid could see it.

Before he could mention this, Hagrid had steered him inside.

For a famous place, it was very dark and shabby. A few old women were sitting in a corner, drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of them was smoking a long pipe. A little man in a top hat was talking to the old barman, who was quite bald and looked like a gummy walnut.

"Looks like Tom's still barman, then!" said James. The others nodded in agreement.

The low buzz of chatter stopped when they walked in. Everyone seemed to know Hagrid; they waved and smiled at him, and the barman reached for a glass, saying, "The usual, Hagrid?"

"Can't, Tom, I'm on Hogwarts business," said Hagrid, clapping his great hand on Harry's shoulder and making Harry's knees buckle.

"Good Lord," said the barman, peering at Harry, "is this - can this be -?"

The Leaky Cauldron had suddenly gone completely still and silent.
"Bless my soul," whispered the old barman. "Harry Potter ... what an honor."

He hurried out from behind the bar, rushed towards Harry and seized his hand, tears in his eyes.
"Welcome back, Mr. Potter, welcome back."

Harry didn't know what to say. Everyone was looking at him. The old woman with the pipe was puffing on it without realizing it had gone out. Hagrid was beaming.

"Awwww," cooed Lily. "How cute." James gave Lily a sickened look and rolled his eyes in disgust.

Then there was a great scraping of chairs and, next moment, Harry found himself shaking hands with everyone in the Leaky Cauldron.

"Doris Crockford, Mr. Potter, can't believe I'm meeting you at last."

"So proud, Mr. Potter, I'm just so proud."

"Always wanted to shake your hand - I'm all of a flutter."

"Delighted, Mr. Potter, just can't tell you. Diggle's the name, Dedalus Diggle."

"I've seen you before!" said Harry, as Dedalus Diggle's top hat fell off in his excitement. "You bowed to me once in a shop."

"Wasn't Diggle the one that McGonagall said was probably responsible for the shooting stars?" asked Sirius.

Remus nodded.

"He remembers!" cried Dedalus Diggle, looking around at everyone. "Did you hear that? He remembers me!"
Harry shook hands again and again - Doris Crockford kept coming back for more."

A pale young man made his way forward, very nervously. One of his eyes was twitching.
"Professor Quirrell!" said Hagrid. "Harry, Professor Quirrell will be one of your teachers at Hogwarts."

"Quirrell?" asked Sirius. "Isn't he that Slytherin kid two years below us?"

"Yeah," answered James. "He's not too bad for a Slytherin. At least, he doesn't hang around Snape or his cronies."

"P-P-Potter," stammered Professor Quirrell, grasping Harry's hand, "c-can't t-tell you how p-pleased I am to meet you."

"What sort of magic do you teach, Professor Quirrell?"

"D-Defence Against the D-D-Dark Arts," muttered Professor Quirrell, as though he'd rather not think about it. "N-not that you n-need it, eh, P-P-Potter?" he laughed nervously. "You'll be g-getting all your equipment, I suppose? I've g-got to p-pick up a new b-book on vampires, m-myself." He looked terrified at the very thought.

"I didn't know he became such a wimp!" said James. "He isn't like that now."

But the others wouldn't let Professor Quirrell keep Harry to himself. It took almost ten minutes to get away from them all. At last, Hagrid managed to make himself heard over the babble. "Must get on - lots ter buy. Come on, Harry."

Doris Crockford shook his hand one last time and Hagrid led them through the bar and out into a small, walled courtyard, where there was nothing but a dustbin and a few weeds.

Hagrid grinned at Harry.
"Told yeh, didn't I? Told yeh you was famous. Even Professor Quirrell was tremblin' ter meet yeh - mind you, he's usually tremblin'."

"Is he always that nervous?"

"Oh, yeah, poor bloke. Brilliant mind. He was fine while he was studyin' outta books but then he took a year off ter get some first-hand experience... They say he met vampires in the Black Forest and there was a nasty bit o' trouble with a hag - never been the same since. Scared of the students, scared of his own subject - now, where's me umbrella?"

Vampires? Hags? Harry's head was swimming.

Hagrid, meanwhile, was counting bricks in the wall above the dustbin.
"Three up... two across..." he muttered. "Right, stand back, Harry."

He tapped the wall three times with the point of his umbrella.

The brick he had touched quivered - it wriggled - in the middle, a small hole appeared - it grew wider and wider - a second later they were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, an archway on to a cobbled street which twisted and turned out of sight.

"He's there, James," said Lily excitedly, grabbing James' hand again. James grinned and put his other hand over hers.

"Welcome," said Hagrid, "to Diagon Alley."

He grinned at Harry's amazement. They stepped through the archway. Harry looked quickly over his shoulder and saw the archway shrink instantly back into solid wall.

The sun shone brightly on a stack of cauldrons outside the nearest shop. Cauldrons - All Sizes - Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver - Self-Stirring - Collapsible said a sign hanging over them.

"Yeah, you'll be needin' one," said Hagrid, "but we gotta get yer money first."

"Straight ahead, Harry, to the big white building," explained Lily.
The others smiled at her.

Harry wished he had about eight more eyes. He turned his head in every direction as they walked up the street, trying to look at everything at once: the shops, the things outside them, the people doing their shopping. A plump woman outside an apothecary's was shaking her head as they passed, saying, "Dragon liver, seventeen sickles an ounce, they're mad..."

"Oh," said Lily, "that is expensive. Inflation has had effect on the Wizarding World too, it seems."

"But wouldn't most people say one galleon rather than seventeen sickles?" asked Remus.

"Maybe it's a typo," said Lily. "This Rowling person could have meant sixteen sickles."

A low, soft hooting came from a dark shop with a sign saying Eeylops Owl Emporium - Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown and Snowy.

"I've got a snowy owl," said Lily. "My parents got me a one for my birthday, three years ago."
"That's nice," replied James.

Several boys of about Harry's age had their noses pressed against a window with broomsticks in it. "Look," Harry heard one of them say, "the new Nimbus Two Thousand - fastest ever -"

"Wow!" exclaimed James. "I wish I could have one. I could play Quidditch better!"

"You already play well on your Nimbus One Thousand, James," said Remus.

"And I like Quidditch, but it isn't everything, James," said Lily. James and Sirius gave Lily shocked looks.

"Quidditch is a wonderful sport!" said Sirius, waving his arms. "Without it, the wizarding world would be nothing! I wish I could have a Nimbus Two Thousand. Though I really don't need one for playing beater."

"You're a good beater," said Lily to pacify him.

"Thanks," answered Sirius. "I pretend that the faces of my family, except for my cousin Andromeda and Uncle Alphard, are on the bludgers. My mother and cousin Bellatrix are on the bludgers most often."

There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver instruments Harry had never seen before, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, globes of the moon ...

"Gringotts," said Hagrid.
They had reached a snowy-white building which towered over the other little shops. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, was -
"Yeah, that's a goblin," said Hagrid quietly as they walked up the white stone steps towards him.

The goblin was about a head shorter than Harry. He had a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard and, Harry noticed, very long fingers and feet. He bowed as they walked inside. Now they were facing a second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved upon them:

"Skip the poem, Peter," said James. "I like it, but I don't want to hear it. I read it every time I go to Gringotts, anyway."

Peter skipped the rhyme and continued reading after it.

"Like I said, yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it," said Hagrid.

A pair of goblins bowed them through the silver doors and they were in a vast marble hall. About a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins on brass scales, examining precious stones through eyeglasses. There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these. Hagrid and Harry made for the counter.

"Morning," said Hagrid to a free goblin. "We've come ter take some money outta Mr. Harry Potter's safe."

"You have his key, sir?"

"Got it here somewhere," said Hagrid and he started emptying his pockets onto the counter, scattering a handful of moldy dog-biscuits over the goblin's book of numbers. The goblin wrinkled his nose. Harry watched the goblin on their right weighing a pile of rubies as big as glowing coals.

"Got it," said Hagrid at last, holding up a golden key.

The goblin looked at it closely.
"That seems to be in order."

"An' I've also got a letter here from Professor Dumbledore," said Hagrid importantly, throwing out his chest. "It's about the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen."

"This sounds interesting," said James. "Maybe the book title has something to do with it."

"Maybe," said Sirius and Remus.

The goblin read the letter carefully.
"Very well," he said, handing it back to Hagrid, "I will have someone take you down to both vaults. Griphook!"

"Great!" said James, "Harry can see what this You-Know-What is!"

Griphook was yet another goblin. Once Hagrid had crammed all the dog-biscuits back inside his pockets, he and Harry followed Griphook towards one of the doors leading off the hall.

"What's the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen?" Harry asked.

"Can't tell yeh that," said Hagrid mysteriously.

"Awwww," whined Sirius and James together.

"You sound childish," said Remus, disgusted.

"Very secret. Hogwarts business. Dumbledore's trusted me. More'n my job's worth ter tell yeh that."

Griphook held open the door for them. Harry, who had expected to see more marble, was surprised. They were in a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches. It sloped steeply downwards and there were little railway tracks on the floor. Griphook whistled and a small cart came hurtling up the tracks towards them. They climbed in - Hagrid with some difficulty - and were off.

At first they just hurtled through a maze of twisting passages. Harry tried to remember, left, right, right, left, middle fork, right, left, but it was impossible. The rattling cart seemed to know its own way, because Griphook wasn't steering.

Harry's eyes stung as the cold air rushed past them, but he kept them wide open. Once, he thought he saw a burst of fire at the end of a passage and twisted around to see if it was a dragon, but was too late. They plunged even deeper, passing an underground lake where huge stalactites and stalagmites grew from the ceiling and floor.

"I never know," Harry called to hagrid over the noise of the cart, "what's the difference between a stalagmite and a stalactite?"

"Stalagmites are found on the ground and stalactites on the ceiling," said Remus. "'G' for 'ground' and 'c' for 'ceiling'."

The others blinked at him. "Were you a dictionary in a past life, Moony?" asked Sirius. "Or did you swallow an encyclopedia?"

"I read," said Remus simply. "Which is something you rarely do, Padfoot."

"Stalagmite's got an 'm' in it," said Hagrid. "An' don' ask me questions just now, I think I'm gonna be sick."
He did look very green and when the cart stopped at last beside a small door in the passage wall, Hagrid got out and had to lean against the wall to stop his knees trembling.

"Awww," sighed Lily.
"I think the Gringotts carts are fun" said James. "Sort of like the Muggle roller coasters,"seeing Lily's bemused expression, James added," We were bored last summer hols and decided to explore the muggle World a bit."

Griphook unlocked the door. A lot of green smoke came billowing out, and as it cleared, Harry gasped.

"Why green smoke?' asked James. "Red would be better. For Gryffindor, you know."

"Who knows?" said Remus.

"There's only two green things I'm interested in. Smoke isn't one of them."

"What is it? Lily's eyes?" asked Sirius teasingly. James turned red and told him to shut up.

Inside were mounds of gold coins. Columns of silver. Heaps of little bronze Knuts.
"All yours," smiled Hagrid.

"There! Harry has nothing to worry about. He has enough to pay for his supplies with some left over after he graduates," said James.

All Harry's - it was incredible. The Dursleys couldn't have known about this or they'd have had it from him faster than blinking. How often had they complained how much Harry cost them to keep?

James and Lily began glaring at the book again.

And all the time there had been a small fortune belonging to him, buried deep under London.

Hagrid helped Harry pile some of it into a bag.

"The gold ones are Galleons," he explained. "Seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a sickle, it's easy enough. Right, that should be enough fer a couple o' terms, we'll keep the rest safe fer yeh." He turned to Griphook. "Vault seven hundred and thirteen, now, please, and can we go more slowly?"

"Awww," said Lily. James rolled his eyes in disgust.

"One speed only," said Griphook.

They were going even deeper now and gathering speed. The air became colder and colder as they hurtled round tight corners. They went rattling over an underground ravine and Harry leant over the side to try and see what was down at the dark bottom but Hagrid groaned and pulled him back by the scruff of his neck.

"Wow," exclaimed Sirius. "Your son 's not afraid!"

"Takes after me," said James proudly. "The only things I'm scared of are my friends and family dying and dememtors."

Vault seven hundred and thirteen had no keyhole.

"Stand back," said Griphook importantly. He stroked the door gently with one of his long fingers and it simply melted away.

"Cool," said the boys.

"If anyone but a Gringotts goblin tried that, they’d be sucked through the door and trapped in there," said Griphook.

"How often do you check to see if anyone's inside?" Harry asked.

"About once every ten years," said Griphook, with a rather nasty grin.

Something really extraordinary had to be inside this top-security vault, Harry was sure, and he leant forward eagerly, expecting to see fabulous jewels at the very least - but at first he thought it was empty.

"Awwww!" whined Sirius and James.
"He said 'he thought', you idiots! And stop that childish whining." said Remus.
Sirius glared at Remus and James pouted.

Then he noticed a grubby little package wrapped up in brown paper lying on the floor. Hagrid picked it up and tucked it deep inside his coat. Harry longed to know what it was, but he knew better than to ask.
"Come on, back in this infernal cart, and don't talk to me on the way back, it's best if I keep me mouth shut," said Hagrid.

"Maybe the package is the Philosopher's Stone from the title," said James.

"I thought the title was 'Diagon Alley'," said Peter.

"Book title, not chapter title, Peter," clarified Remus. Peter nodded and resumed reading.

One wild cart-ride later they stood blinking in the sunlight outside Gringotts. Harry didn't know where to run first now that he had a bag full of money.

He didn't have to know how many Galleons there were to a pound to know that he was holding more money than he'd had in his whole life - more money than even Dudley had ever had.


James and Sirius had satisfied smiles on their faces.

"Might as well get yer uniform," said Hagrid, nodding towards Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. "Listen, Harry, would yeh mind if I slipped off fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron? Hate them Gringotts carts." He did still look a bit sick, so Harry entered Madam Malkin's shop alone, feeling nervous.

Madam Malkin was a squat, smiling witch dressed all in mauve.

"Hogwarts dear?" she said, when Harry started to speak. "Got the lot here - another young man being fitted up just now, in fact."

"Maybe Harry will start making friends!" said Lily excitedly.

In the back of the shop, a boy with a pale, pointed face was standing on a footstool while a second witch pinned up his long black robes.

"Reminds me of Malfoy," muttered Sirius. "My cousin Narcissa just got married to Lucius Malfoy."

Madam Malkin stood Harry on a stool next to him, slipped a long robe over his head and began to pin it to the right length.

"Hullo," said the boy, "Hogwarts too?"

"Yes," said Harry.

"My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands," said the boy. He had a bored, drawling voice.

"Definitely sounds like Malfoy," said Sirius.

"I hope Harry doesn't decide to become friends with him." said James

"Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first-years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow."

Harry was strongly reminded of Dudley.

"Good, Harry won't be friends with him," said James, sounding satisfied.

"Have you got your own broom?" the boy went on.
"No," said Harry.
"Play Quidditch at all?"
"No," said Harry again, wondering what on earth Quidditch could be.

"WHAT!" shouted James. "Harry doesn't know anything about Quidditch? I am going to somehow pass my talent on to him."

Lily rolled her eyes and muttered, "Just like a man!"

"I do - Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?"

"No," said Harry, feeling more stupid by the minute.

"Bet he'll be in Slytherin," said James. The other nodded in agreement, Sirius looking disgusted.

"Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been - imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"

"I'm glad Harry doesn't want to be this boy's friend," said Lily. "There's nothing wrong with Hufflepuff. Rachel Templeton is there and we're good friends. I help her with Charms and she helps me with Herbology."

"Mmm," said Harry, wishing he could say something a bit more interesting.
"I say, look at that man!" said the boy suddenly, nodding towards the front window. Hagrid was standing there, grinning at Harry and pointing at two large ice-creams to show he couldn't come in.

"Awwww!" cooed Lily, "Hagrid bought Harry an ice-cream! How sweet of him."

"That's Hagrid," said Harry, pleased to know something the boy didn't. "He works at Hogwarts."

"Oh," said the boy, "I've heard of him. He's a sort of servant, isn't he?"

The others looked angry. "Who do you think Hagrid is, you snobby, stuck-up boy?" demanded Lily. "A house-elf?"

"He's the gamekeeper," said Harry. He was liking the boy less and less every second.

"Yes, exactly. I heard he's a sort of savage -

"HEY!" cried the boys in outrage.

"Hagrid's nice!" exclaimed Lily. "A bit careless, perhaps, but nice. Savage is going too far!"

lives in a hut in the school grounds and every now and then he gets drunk, tries to do magic and ends up setting fire to his bed."

They all looked angry, then Remus said, "Well, this kid does have a point."

"Just because it's true doesn't mean he has the right to say it!" said Lily hotly.

"Yeah!" agreed James.

"I think he's brilliant," said Harry coldly.

"Do you?" said the boy, with a slight sneer.

"Why is he with you? Where are your parents?"
"They're dead," said Harry shortly.

He didn't feel much like going into the matter with this boy.

"Well, he is a bit of a creep," said Remus.

"That's an understatement," said James.

"Oh, sorry," said the other, not sounding sorry at all. "But they were our kind, weren't they?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" demanded James angrily. "Who cares about bloodlines?"

"They were a witch and wizard, if that's what you mean."

"Great answer, Harry!" said James, looking happy.

"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. What's your surname, anyway?"

Before Harry could answer, Madam Malkin said, "That's you done, my dear," and Harry, not sorry for an excuse to stop talking to the boy, hopped down from the footstool.

"Good," said James, sounding satisfied.

"Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose," said the drawling boy.

"Not if you're put into stinking Slytherin!" muttered James.

Harry was rather quiet as he ate the ice-cream Hagrid had bought him (chocolate and raspberry with chopped nuts).

"Awww, that's nice of Hagrid," said Lily.
"You already said that," said James.

"What's up?" said Hagrid.

"Nothing," Harry lied. They stopped to buy parchment and quills. Harry cheered up a bit when he found a bottle of ink that changed color as you wrote.

When they had left the shop, he said, "Hagrid, what's Quidditch?"

"Blimey, Harry, I keep forgettin' how little yeh know - not knowin' about Quidditch!"

"Don't make me feel worse," said Harry. He told Hagrid about the pale boy in Madam Malkin's.
"-and he said people from Muggle families shouldn't even be allowed in -"

"Yer not from a Muggle family. If he'd known who yeh were - he's grown up knowin' yer name if his parents were wizardin' folk - you saw 'em in the Leaky Cauldron. Anyway, what does he know about it, some o' the best I ever saw were the only ones with magic in 'em in a long line o' Muggles - look at yer mum!

Lily looked proud. "He thinks I'm one of the best!"

"You are," muttered James, turning red..

Look at what she had fer a sister!"

"So what is Quidditch?"

"Hurry up and tell him!" exclaimed James.

"It's only a game," said Lily. Sirius and James gave her looks as if she were crazy.

It's our sport, wizard sport. It's like - like football in the Muggle world - everyone follows Quidditch - played up in the air on broomsticks and there's four balls - sorta hard ter explain the rules."

"And what are Slytherin and Hufflepuff?"

"School houses. There are four. Everyone says Hufflepuff are a lot o' duffers, but -"

"I bet I'm in Hufflepuff," said Harry gloomily.

"No, Harry, you'll be in Gryffindor, like your parents and the rest of the Marauders." said James.

"Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin," said Hagrid darkly. "There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one."

"Vol - sorry - You-Know-Who was at Hogwarts?"
"Years an' years ago," said Hagrid.

They bought Harry's school books in a shop called Flourish and Blotts where the shelves were stacked to the ceiling with books as large as paving stones bound in leather; books the size of postage stamps in covers of silk; books full of peculiar symbols and a few books with nothing in them at all. Even Dudley, who never read anything, would have been wild to get his hands on some of these.

Hagrid almost had to drag Harry away from Curses and Counter-Curses (Bewitch your Friends and Befuddle your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue-Tying and much, much more) by Professor Vindictus Viridian.

"Wow," said Sirius, impressed, "Harry has good taste!"

"I was trying to find out how to curse Dudley."

"I'm not sayin' that's not a good idea, but yer not ter use magic in the Muggle world except in very special circumstances," said Hagrid. "An' anyway, yeh couldn' work any of them curses yet, yeh'll need a lot more study before yeh get ter that level."

Hagrid wouldn't let Harry buy a solid gold cauldron, either ("It says pewter on yer list"),

"Just like his father!" said Lily. "A total show off!" James smiled.

but they got a nice set of brass scales for weighing potion ingredients and a collapsible brass telescope. Then they visited the apothecary's, which was fascinating enough to make up for its horrible smell, a mixture of bad eggs and rotted cabbages.

Barrels of slimy stuff stood on the floor, jars of herbs, dried roots and bright powders lined the walls, bundles of feathers, strings of fangs and snarled claws hung from the ceiling. While Hagrid asked the man behind the counter for a supply of some basic potion ingredients for Harry, Harry himself examined silver unicorn horns at twenty-one Galleons each and minuscule, glittery black beetle eyes (five knuts a scoop).

Outside the apothecary's, Hagrid checked Harry’s list again.
"Just yer wand left - oh yeah, an' I still haven't got yeh a birthday present."

"Awww, isn't that sweet of Hagrid?" asked lily. James nodded, though he looked just a little disgusted.

Harry felt himself go red.
"You don't have to -"
"I know I don't have to. Tell yeh what, I'll get yer an animal. Not a toad, toads went outta fashion years ago, yeh'd be laughed at -an' I don' like cats, they make me sneeze. I'll get yer an owl. All the kids want owls, they're dead useful, carry yer post an' everythin'."

Twenty minutes later, they left Eeylops Owl Emporium, which had been dark and full of rustling and flickering, jewel-bright eyes. Harry now carried a large cage which held a beautiful snowy owl, fast asleep with her head under her wing. He couldn't stop stammering his thanks, sounding just like Professor Quirrell.

"Hey! Harry has the same kind of owl as I do!" exclaimed Lily excitedly.

"Don' mention it, said Hagrid gruffly. "Don' expect you've had a lotta presents from them Dursleys.

James and Lily glared at the book again.

Just Ollivanders left now - only place fer wands, Ollivanders, and yeh gotta have the best wand."

A magic wand... this was what Harry had been really looking forward to.

The last shop was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 BC. A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window.

"Has that wand ever moved?" asked Sirius. The others shrugged.

A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty for a single spindly chair which Hagrid sat on to wait. Harry felt strangely as though he'd entered a very strict library; he swallowed a lot of new questions which had just occurred to him and looked instead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. For some reason, the back of his neck prickled. The very dust and silence in here seemed to tingle with some secret magic.

"The room hasn't changed much, either," commented James.

"Good afternoon," said a soft voice. Harry jumped. Hagrid must have jumped, too, because there was a loud crunching noise and he got quickly off the spindly chair.

An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop.

"Hello," said Harry awkwardly.

"Ah yes," said the man. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Harry Potter." It wasn't a question.

"You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow.

"I can't believe he still remembers that!" exclaimed Lily. "Though he didn't mention my core. It's unicorn hair."

James smiled. "Fitting. The most beautiful animal in the world provides the wand ore for the most beautiful woman." Lily blushed a little before giving smacking James soundly in the back of his head.

Nice wand for charm work."

"Well, Charms is my best subject besides Potions," said Lily.

Mr. Ollivander moved closer to Harry. Harry wished he would blink. Those silvery eyes were a bit creepy.

"Your father, on the other hand, favored a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration.

James pulled out his wand. "He got my right, too. Though he didn't mention the core, either. It's phoenix feather. And Transfiguration is my best subject." He turned a cushion into a large bag, then back again. Lily rolled her eyes.

Well, I say your father favored it- it's really the wand that chooses the wizard , of course."
My Ollivander had come so close that he and Harry were almost nose to nose. Harry could see himself reflected in those misty eyes.

"And that's where..."
Mr. Ollivander touched the lightning scar on Harry's forehead with a long, white finger.
"I'm sorry to say that I sold the wand that did it," he said softly.

"Thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands... Well, if I'd known what that wand was going out in the world to do..."

He shook his head and then, to Harry's relief, spotted Hagrid.

"Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again... Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy, wasn't it?"

"What about Hagrid's wand core?" asked Sirius.

"Dragon heartstring," answered Lily. "I asked him once."

"It was, sir, yes," said Hagrid.

"Good wand, that one. But I suppose they snapped it in half when you got expelled?" said Mr. Ollivander, suddenly stern.

"Er - yes, they did, yes," said Hagrid, shuffling his feet. "I've still got the pieces, though," he added brightly.

"But you don't use them?" said Mr. Ollivander sharply.

"Oh, no, sir," said Hagrid quickly. Harry noticed he gripped his pink umbrella very tightly as he spoke.

"Yeah right," muttered James sarcastically.

"Hmmm," said Mr. Ollivander, giving Hagrid a piercing look. "Well, now - Mr. Potter. Let me see."

He pulled a long tape measure with silver marking out of his pocket. "Which is your wand arm?"
"Er - well, I'm right-handed," said Harry.

"Hold out your arm. That's it." He measured Harry from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round his head.

As he measured, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr. Potter. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns or dragons or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand."

"Never knew that," said Sirius.

"Well, you'll have to read more," said Remus.

Harry suddenly realized that the tape measure, which was measuring between his nostrils, was doing this on its own. Mr. Ollivander was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes.

"That will do," he said, and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor. "Right then, Mr. Potter. Try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. Just take it and give it a wave."

Harry took the wand and (feeling foolish) waved it around a bit, but Mr. Ollivander took it out of his hand almost at once.

"Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy. Try -"

Harry tried - but he had hardly raised it when it, too, was snatched back by Mr. Ollivander.

"No, no - here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy. Go on, go on, try it out."

Harry tried. And tried. He had no idea what Mr. Ollivander was waiting for. The pile of tried wands was mounting higher and higher on the spindly chair, but the more wands Mr. Ollivander pulled from the shelves, the happier he seemed to become.

"It took me forever to find my wand, too," said Sirius, remembering.

"You started complaining that your arm hurt," added James.

"Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match here somewhere - I wonder, now - yes, why not - unusual combination - holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple."

Harry took the wand. He felt a sudden warmth in his fingers.

"He's found the right wand, then," said James. "That's what happened to me when I found my wand."

He raised the wand above his head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework, throwing dancing spots of light on the walls.

"I did that, too," said James, sounding impressed. "Harry really does take after me!"

Hagrid whooped and clapped and Mr. Ollivander cried, "Oh, bravo! Yes, indeed, oh, very good. Well, well, well... how curious... how very curious..."

He put Harry's wand back into its box and wrapped it in brown paper, still muttering, "Curious... curious..."
"Sorry," said Harry, "but what's curious?"

Mr. Ollivander fixed Harry with his pale stare.
"I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr. Potter.

"You don't say," said Sirius sarcastically.

Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather - just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother - why, its brother gave you that scar."

The others looked shocked and Peter dropped the book. Finally Peter picked it up again and continued reading.

Harry swallowed.
"Yes, thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember... I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. potter... After all, He Who Must Not Be Named did great things - terrible, yes, but great."

They all shuddered again.

Harry shivered. He wasn't sure he liked Mr. Ollivander too much. He paid seven gold Galleons for his wand and Mr. Ollivander bowed them from his shop.

The late-afternoon sun hung low in the sky as Harry and Hagrid made their way back down Diagon Alley, back through the wall, back through the Leaky Cauldron, now empty. Harry didn't speak at all as they walked down the road; he didn't even notice how much people were gawping at them on the Underground, laden as they were with all their funny-shaped packages, with the sleeping snowy owl on Harry's lap.

Up another escalator, out into Paddington station; Harry only realized where they were when Hagrid tapped him on the shoulder.
"Got time fer a bite to eat before yer train leaves," he said.

"Aww, that's sweet," said Lily. smiling. "Buying Harry a meal before he has to return to the Dursleys."

He bought Harry a hamburger and they sat down on plastic seats to eat them.

Harry kept looking around. Everything looked so strange, somehow.

"I felt like that after I went to Diagon Alley," said Lily. "One minutes I'm buying my stuff for Hogwarts, next I'm back to acting like a Muggle."

"You all right, Harry? Yer very quiet," said Hagrid.

Harry wasn't sure he could explain. He'd just had the best birthday of his life - and yet - he chewed his hamburger, trying to find the words.

"Everyone thinks I'm special," he said at last. "All those people in the Leaky Cauldron, Professor Quirrell, Mr. Ollivander ... but I don't know anything about magic at all. How can they expect great things?

"Well, you survived the Killing Curse!" exclaimed James. "That's why!"

I'm famous and I can't even remember what I'm famous for. I don't know what happened when Vol- sorry - I mean, the night my parents died."

The others were silent. A tear fell down Lily's cheek and Peter looked very sad.

Hagrid leant across the table. Behind the wild beard and eyebrows he wore a very kind smile.

"Don' you worry, Harry. You'll learn fast enough. Everyone starts at the beginning at Hogwarts, you'll be just fine. Just be yerself. I know it's hard. Yeh've been singled out, an' that's always hard. But yeh'll have a great time at Hogwarts - I did - still do, 'smatter of fact."

Hagrid helped Harry on to the train that would take him back to the Dursleys, then handed him an envelope.

"Yer ticket fer Hogwarts," he said. "First o' September - King's Cross - it's all on yer ticket. Any problems with the Dursleys, send me a letter with yer owl, she'll know where to find me... See yer soon, Harry."

The train pulled out of the station. Harry wanted to watch Hagrid until he was out of sight; he rose in his seat and pressed his nose against the window, but he blinked and Hagrid had gone.

"Another chapter?" asked Remus.

"No. We will read later. I have to complete my Potions essay," said Lily firmly.

"Whatever for. Slughorn would give you an 'O' just for writing your name," said Sirius , shocked.

However, seeing Lily's stubborn expression they decided to call it quits for the day and plan some pranks to play on Slytherins instead.

End of chapter...If you are wondering why there are so many 'Awws' in this post, it's my sisters doing...Anyway, feedbacks please...

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I will post one more chapter later tonight! Enjoy...

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CHAPTER SIX
THE JOURNEY FROM PLATFORM NINE AND THREE-QUARTERS

"Harry's about to go get on the train!" exclaimed Lily after reading the title. "This will be great." The others smiled.

Harry's last month with the Dursleys wasn't fun.

"Is it ever fun?" asked Sirius, looking annoyed.

True, Dudley was now so scared of Harry he wouldn't stay in the same room, while Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon didn't shut Harry in his cupboard, force him to do anything or shout at him - in fact, they didn't speak to him at all.

"A bit of an improvement," said James, glaring at the book.
"But it does get depressing after awhile. Petunia wouldn't speak to me except when necessary after I got my letter, so I know from experience," said Lily.

Half-terrified, half-furious, they acted as though any chair with Harry in it was empty. Although this was an improvement in many ways, it did become a bit depressing after a while.

"Told you!' exclaimed Lily, looking angry. James patted her on her back.

Harry kept to his room, with his new owl for company. He had decided to call her Hedwig, a name he found in A History of Magic.

"What kind of name is Hedwig?" asked Sirius. "Why couldn't Harry have come up with a better name?"

"I think Hedwig is cute," said Lily defensively. James and Sirius gave her slightly disgusted looks.

His school books were very interesting.

"I guess Harry takes after Lily in this matter," said Remus. "Thought he was more like you, James." James glared at him.

He lay on his bed reading late into the night. Hedwig swooping in and out of the open window as she pleased. It was lucky that Aunt Petunia didn't come in to hoover any more, because Hedwig kept bringing back dead mice.

Peter shuddered.

"Come on, they're mice, not rats!" said Sirius a bit impatiently. "So don't be so scared, Wormtail."

Every night before he went to sleep, Harry ticked off another day on the piece of paper he had pinned to the wall, counting down to September the first.

On the last day of August he thought he'd better speak to his aunt and uncle about getting to King's Cross station next day, so he went down to the living-room, where they were watching a quiz show on television. He cleared his throat to let them know he was there, and Dudley screamed and ran from the room.

"Wimp," they all muttered, and then they all burst out laughing at this.

"Er - Uncle Vernon?"

Uncle Vernon grunted to show he was listening.

"Er - I need to be at King's Cross tomorrow to - to go to Hogwarts."

Uncle Vernon grunted again.

"Would it be all right if you gave me a lift?"

"It'd better be!" growled James, starting to glare at the book.

Grunt.

"Maybe Hagrid turned him into a pig," said Sirius hopefully. The others laughed at this comment.

Harry supposed that meant yes.

"Thank you."

He was about to go back upstairs when Uncle Vernon actually spoke.
"Funny way to get to a wizards' school, the train. Magic carpets all got punctures, have they?"

"Actually, they're illegal in Britain!" said James.

"Yeah, only the magic schools in the Middle East use magic carpets," added Remus.

Harry didn't say anything.

"Where is this school, anyway?"

"I don't know," said Harry, realizing this for the first time. He pulled out the ticket Hagrid had given him out of his pocket.

"I just take the train from platform nine and three-quarters at eleven o' clock," he read.

His aunt and uncle stared. "Platform what?"

"Nine and three-quarters."
"Don't talk rubbish," said Uncle Vernon, "there's no platform nine and three-quarters."

"Yes, there is!" said Lily hotly. "You've seen me get through the barrier before, Petunia!"

"It's on my ticket."
"Barking," said Uncle Vernon,

"I take offense to the word he just used," said Sirius, annoyed.

"Howling mad, the lot of them. You'll see.

"No, you will, Dursley!" exclaimed James.

You just wait. All right, we'll take you to King's Cross. We're going up to London tomorrow anyway, or I wouldn't bother."

Lily and James glared at the book, while Sirius growled and Peter and Remus both frowned.

"Why are you going to London?" Harry asked, trying to keep things friendly.

"Taking Dudley to the hospital," growled Uncle Vernon. "Got to have that ruddy tail removed before he goes to Smeltings."

They all laughed at this.

Harry woke at five o' clock the next morning and was too excited and nervous to go back to sleep. He got up and pulled on his jeans because he didn't want to walk into the station in his wizard's robes - he'd change on the train.

"Good plan," said Lily.

He checked the Hogwarts list yet again to make sure he had everything he needed, saw that Hedwig was shut safely in her cage and then paced the room, waiting for the Dursleys to get up. Two hours later, Harry's huge, heavy trunk had been loaded into the Dursleys' car, Aunt Petunia had talked Dudley into sitting next to Harry and they had set off.

Lily looked excited as she read and James was fidgeting and wringing his hands.

They reached King's Cross at half past ten. Uncle Vernon dumped Harry's trunk on to a trolley and wheeled it into the station for him.

James frowned and said,” Strange. That's unusually kind of him."

Harry thought this was strangely kind until he stopped dead, facing the platforms with a nasty grin on his face.

"Well, there you are, boy. Platform nine - platform ten. Your platform should be somewhere in the middle, but they don't seem to have built it yet, do they?"

"It's hidden from Muggles, you idiot!" yelled James.

"And Petunia knows how to get on the platform because she's seen me do it before!" added Lily.

He was quite right, of course. There was a big plastic number nine over one platform and a big plastic number ten over the one next to it, and in the middle, nothing at all.

"OH!" shouted Lily. "I AM GOING TO KILL PETUNIA!"

"Have a good term," said Uncle Vernon with an even nastier smile.

He left without another word. Harry turned and saw the Dursleys drive away.

James and lily glared at the book again. Peter and Remus were frowning and Sirius muttered unpleasant things under his breath.

All three of them were laughing. Harry's mouth went rather dry. What on earth was he going to do? He was starting to attract a lot of funny looks, because of Hedwig. He'd have to ask someone.

He stopped a passing guard, but didn't dare mention platform nine and three-quarters. The guard had never heard of Hogwarts and when Harry couldn't even tell him what part of the country it was in, he started to get annoyed, as though Harry was being stupid on purpose. Getting desperate, Harry asked for the train that left at eleven o' clock, but the guard said there wasn't one. In the end the guard strode away, muttering about time-wasters.

Harry was now trying hard not to panic. According to the large clock over the arrivals board, he had ten minutes left to get on the train to Hogwarts and he had no idea how to do it; he was stranded in the middle of a station with a trunk he could hardly lift, a pocket full of wizard money and a large owl.

Hagrid must have forgotten to tell him something you had to do, like tapping the third brick on the left to get into Diagon Alley. He wondered if he should get his wand and start tapping the ticket box between platforms nine and ten.

At that moment a group of people passed just behind him and he caught a few words of what they were saying.
" -packed with Muggles, of course -"

"Wizards!" exclaimed James in relief. "They can tell Harry how to get on the platform!"

Harry swung round. The speaker was a plump woman who was talking to four boys, all with flaming red hair. Each of them was pushing a trunk like Harry's in front of him - and they had an owl.

"Sound like the Weasleys," commented James.

"Who're the Weasleys?" asked Peter.

"They're this family who have red-hair, freckles, and usually several children," answered Sirius. "They're considered blood-traitors and my grandfather's cousin Cedrella got blasted off the family tapestry for marrying a Weasley."

Heart hammering, Harry pushed his trolley after them. They stopped and so did he, just near enough to hear what they were saying.

"Now, what's the platform number?" said the boys' mother.

"Nine and three-quarters!" piped a small girl, also red-headed, who was holding her hand. "Mum, can't I go ..."

"Awww! Isn't she cute!" cooed Lily, a mothering expression on her face. The boys looked sickened.

"You're not old enough, Ginny, now be quiet. All right, Percy, you go first."

What looked like the oldest boy marched towards the platforms nine and ten. Harry watched, careful not to blink in case he missed it - but just as the boy reached the divide between the two platforms, a large crowd of tourists came swarming in front of him, and by the time the last rucksack had cleared away, the boy had vanished.

"Fred, you next," the plump woman said.

"I'm not Fred, I'm George," said the boy. "Honestly, woman, call yourself our mother? Can't you tell I'm George?"

James and Sirius grinned. "I like this boy," said James. "I wonder if his twin is the same." Sirius nodded, thinking the same thing.

"Sorry, George, dear."

"Only joking, I am Fred," said the boy, and off he went.

James and Sirius were chuckling at this.

"Oh great!" groaned Remus. "All we need is another generation of you two!"

"Come on, you join in sometimes," pointed out Sirius.

"That's because I can't talk you out of it!" retorted Remus.

His twin called after him to hurry up, and he must have done, because a second later, he had gone - but how had he done it?

Now the third brother was walking briskly towards the ticket barrier - he was almost there - and then, quite suddenly, he wasn't anywhere.

There was nothing else for it.

"Excuse me," Harry said to the plump woman.

"Hullo, dear," she said. "First time at Hogwarts? Ron's new, too."

She pointed at the last and youngest of her sons. He was tall, thin and gangling, with freckles, big hands and feet and a long nose.

"Not the most flattering description," said Lily. The others nodded in agreement.

"Yes," said Harry. "The thing is - the thing is, I don't know how to -"

"How to get on to the platform?" she said kindly, and Harry nodded.

"Not to worry," she said. "All you have to do is walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Don't stop and don't be scared you'll crash into it, that's very important. Best do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous. Go on, go now before Ron."

"Er - OK," said Harry.
He pushed his trolley round and stared at the barrier.

It looked very solid.

He started to walk towards it. People jostled him on their way to platforms nine and ten. Harry walked more quickly. He was going to smash right into that ticket box and then he'd be in trouble - leaning forward on his trolley he broke into a heavy run - the barrier was coming nearer and nearer - he wouldn't be able to stop - the trolley was out of control - he was a foot away - he closed his eyes ready for the crash - It didn't come ... he kept on running ... he opened his eyes.
A scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a platform packed with people.

"He did it!" cheered Lily and James. Then Lily caught herself, cleared her throat, and resumed reading.

A sign overhead said Hogwarts Express, 11 o'clock. Harry looked behind him and saw a wrought-iron archway where the ticket box had been, with the words Platform Nine and Three-Quarters on it. He had done it.

Smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of the chattering crowd, while cats of every color wound here and there between their legs. Owls hooted to each other in a disgruntled sort of way over the babble and the scraping of heavy trunks. The first few carriages were already packed with students, some hanging out of the window to talk to their families, some fighting over seats. Harry pushed his trolley off down the platform in search of an empty seat. He passed a round-faced boy who was saying, "Gran, I've lost my toad again."

"Oh, Neville," he heard the old woman sigh.

A boy with dreadlocks was surrounded by a small crowd.

"Give us a look, Lee, go on."

The boy lifted the lid of a box in his arms and the people around him shrieked and yelled as something inside poked out a long, hairy leg.

"I like this guy, too," said James smiling. "He sounds interesting and cool."

Remus groaned and Sirius said, "It's great that we get to read about the next generation of troublemakers." Lily made a face.

Harry pressed on through the crowd until he found an empty compartment near the end of the train. He put Hedwig inside first and then started to shove and heave his trunk towards the train door. He tried to lift it up the steps but could hardly raise one end and twice he dropped it painfully on his foot.

"Want a hand?" It was one of the red-haired twins he'd followed through the ticket box.

"Yes, please," Harry panted.

"Oy, Fred! C'mere and help!"

"Awww, that's nice of those twins!" said Lily.

With the twins' help, Harry's trunk was at last tucked away in a corner of the compartment.

"Thanks," said Harry, pushing his sweaty hair out of his eyes.

"What's that?" said one of the twins suddenly, pointing at Harry's lightning scar.

"Blimey," said the other twin. "Are you-?"

"He is," said the first twin. "Aren't you?" he added to Harry.

"What?" said Harry.

"Harry Potter," chorused the twins.

"Oh, him," said Harry. "I mean, yes, I am."

There was some laughter at Harry's reply, though it was nice laugher.

The two boys gawped at him and Harry felt himself going red. Then, to his relief, a voice came floating through the train's open door.

"Fred? George? Are you there?"

"Coming, Mum."

With a last look at Harry, the twins hopped off the train.

Harry sat down next to the window where, half-hidden, he could watch the red-haired family on the platform and hear what they were saying.

Their mother had just taken out her handkerchief.

"Ron, you've got something on your nose."

"Mum - geroff." He wriggled free.

"Aaah, has ickle Ronnie got somefink on his nosie?" said one of the twins.

Sirius and James grinned. "I've spoken like that to Regulus before," commented Sirius.

"Shut up," said Ron.

"Where's Percy?" said their mother.

"He's coming now."

The oldest boy came striding into sight. He had already changed into his billowing black Hogwarts robes and Harry noticed a shiny silver badge on his chest with the letter P on it.

"Argh! Prefect!" exclaimed Sirius.

"Hey! I'm a prefect," reminded Remus.

"But you're a Marauder, and you let us get away with stuff," responded Sirius.

"Can't stay long, Mother," he said. "I'm up front, the Prefects have got two compartments to themselves -"

"Oh, are you a Prefect, Percy?" said one of the twins, with an air of great surprise. "You should have said something, we had no idea."

"Hang on, I think I remember him saying something about it," said the other twin. "Once-"

"Or twice-"

"A minute-"

"All summer-"

"Oh, shut up," said Percy the Prefect.

Everyone was laughing. "These guys are so cool!" exclaimed Sirius

"They 're so much like us!" continued James

"They even talk like you two,' said Remus, slightly disgusted. "You two sometimes finish each other's sentences."

"How come Percy gets new robes, anyway?" said one of the twins.

"Because he's a Prefect," said their mother fondly. "All right, dear, well, have a good term - send me an owl when you get there."

She kissed Percy on the cheek and he left. Then she turned to the twins.

"This looks familiar, Padfoot," commented James, grinning.
"Yeah, Prongs!" he replied.
"The warning," they said together.
At Lily's confused look, Remus explained, "Mrs. Potter always tells Sirius and James to behave themselves before they get on the Hogwarts Express."

"Now you two - this year, you behave yourselves. If I get one more owl telling me you've - you've blown up a toilet or -"

"Hey, we ought to blow up a toilet!" exclaimed Sirius.

"We did," reminded James. "Remember when we threw a firecracker in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom?'

"Oh yeah," said Sirius. "Then we need to do it again. That incident was in second year." Lily rolled her eyes.

"Blown up a toilet? We've never blown up a toilet."

"Great idea though, thanks, Mum."

"It's not funny. And look after Ron."

"Don't worry, ickle Ronniekins is safe with us."

"Shut up," said Ron again.

Everyone started laughing again.

He was almost as tall as the twins already and his nose was still pink where his mother had rubbed it.

"Hey, Mum, guess what? Guess who we just met on the train?"

Harry leant back quickly so they couldn't see him looking.

"You know the black-haired boy who was near us in the station? Know who he is?"

"Who?"

"Harry Potter!"

Harry heard the little girl's voice.

"Oh, Mum, can I go on the train and see him, Mum, oh please ..."

"You've already seen him, Ginny, and the poor boy isn't something you goggle at in a zoo. Is he really, Fred? How do you know?"

"Asked him. Saw his scar. It's really there - like lightning."

"Poor dear - no wonder he was alone. I wondered. He was ever so polite when he asked how to get on to the platform."

"Never mind that, do you think he remembers what You-Know-Who looks like?"

Their mother suddenly became very stern.
"I forbid you to ask him, Fred. No, don't you dare. As though he needs reminding of that on his first day at school."

"All right, keep your hair on."

"When I said to my mother once, she started screaming," muttered Sirius bitterly.

James winced. "It was worse than a banshee." The others grimaced.

A whistle sounded.

"Hurry up!" their mother said, and the three boys clambered on to the train. They leant out of the window for her to kiss them goodbye and their youngest sister began to cry.

"Don't, Ginny, we'll send you loads of owls."

"We'll send you a Hogwarts toilet seat."

The boys laughed and Lily grinned.

"George!"

"Only joking, Mum."

The train began to move. Harry saw the boys' mother waving and their sister, half laughing, half crying, running to keep up with the train until it gathered too much speed; then she fell back and waved.

"How sweet," cooed Lily. James and Sirius looked sickened.

Harry watched the girl and her mother disappear as the train rounded the corner. Houses flashed past the window. Harry felt a great leap of excitement. He didn't know where he was going to - but it had to be better than what he was leaving behind.

The door of the compartment slid open and the youngest red-headed boy came in.
"Anyone sitting there?" he asked, pointing at the seat opposite Harry. "Everywhere else is full."

Harry shook his head and the boy sat down. He glanced at Harry and then looked quickly out of the window, pretending he hadn't looked. Harry saw he still had a black mark on his nose.

"Hey, Ron."

The twins were back.

"Listen, we're going down the middle of the train - Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."

"Cool!" said Sirius and James together, grinning. "Those guys choose their friends well, too!"

"Right," mumbled Ron.

"Harry," said the other twin, "did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother. See you later, then."

"Bye," said Harry and Ron. The twins slid the compartment door shut behind them.

"Are you really Harry Potter?" Ron blurted out.

Harry nodded.

"Oh - well, I thought it might have been one of Fred and George's jokes," said Ron. "And have you really got - you know ..."

He pointed at Harry's forehead.

Harry pulled back his fringe to show the lightning scar. Ron stared.

"So that's where You-Know-Who-?"

"Didn't his mother forbid him form asking questions about that?" asked Peter, frowning.

"No, she only forbade the twins, or rather Fred, so Ron can ask," responded Remus.

"Yes," said Harry, "but I can't remember it."

"Nothing?" said Ron eagerly.

"Well - I remember a lot of green light, but nothing else."

"Wow," said Ron.

He sat and stared at Harry for a few moments, then, as though he had suddenly realized what he was doing, he looked quickly out of the window again.

"Are all your family wizards?" asked Harry, who found Ron just as interesting as Ron found him.

"Er - yes, I think so," said Ron. "I think Mum's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him."

"What's an accountant?" asked Sirius.

"It's someone who keeps track of monetary records for businesses," replied Lily. "Don't wizards have them?'

"They do, I just didn't know what they were called," said Sirius.

"So you must know loads of magic already."

The Weasleys were clearly one of those old wizarding families the pale boy in Diagon Alley had talked about.

"I heard you went to live with Muggles," said Ron. "What are they like?"

"Horrible - well, not all of them. My aunt and uncle and cousin are, though. Wish I'd had three wizard brothers."

"Five," said Ron. For some reason, he was looking gloomy. "I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left - Bill was Head Boy

James and Sirius frowned at that.

and Charlie was captain of Quidditch.

"That's much better," said Sirius and James at the same time.

Now Percy's a Prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny.

"They are," said Sirius and James, grinning.

Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first. You never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand and Percy's old rat."

They all looked at Peter. "What?" he asked. "Oh, you think I'm the rat, don't you? What would I be doing as a rat?"

"Maybe to keep an eye on Harry until I rescue him," answered Sirius.

"But why would I be living with the Weasleys for several years?" Peter asked. The others shrugged and Lily continued reading.

Ron reached inside his jacket and pulled out a fat grey rat, which was asleep.

"Must be you Peter!" said Sirius, grinning. "You're fat and grey, and even as a human, you sleep a lot!" Peter glared at him.

"His name's Scabbers and he's useless, he hardly ever wakes up.

Sirius was about to make another comment, but Peter threw a cushion at him.

Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a Prefect, but they couldn't aff- I mean, I got Scabbers instead."
Ron's ears went pink. He seemed to think he'd said too much, because he went back to staring out of the window.

"Must be poor, then," commented Sirius. "That must also be why Cedrella got disowned."

Harry didn't think there was anything wrong with not being able to afford an owl. After all, he'd never had any money in his life until a month ago, and he told Ron so, all about having to wear Dudley's old clothes and never getting proper birthday presents. This seemed to cheer Ron up.

" ... and until Hagrid told me, I didn't know anything about being a wizard or about my parents or Voldemort -"

Peter shuddered upon hearing the name.

Ron gasped.

"What?" said Harry.

"You said You-Know-Who's name!" said Ron, sounding both shocked and impressed.

"I'd have thought you, of all people-"

"I'm not trying to be brave or anything, saying the name," said Harry. "I just never knew you shouldn't. See what I mean? I've got loads to learn ... I bet," he added, voicing for the first time something that had been worrying him a lot lately, "I bet I'm the worst in the class."

"You won't be. There's loads of people who come from Muggle families and they learn quick enough."

"Exactly!" said James. "Your mother's muggleborn and she's the smartest witch in the year, as well as being prettiest!" Lily blushed.

While they had been talking, the train had carried them out of London. Now they were speeding past fields full of cows and sheep. They were quiet for a time, watching the fields and lanes flick past.

Sirius yawned widely and muttered, "Boring!" Lily gave him a sharp look before continuing to read.

Around half past twelve there was a great clattering outside in the corridor and a smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, "Anything off the trolley, dears?"

Harry, who hadn't had any breakfast, leapt to his feet, but Ron's ears went pink again and he muttered that he'd brought sandwiches. Harry went out into the corridor.

He had never had any money for sweets with the Dursleys and now that he had pockets rattling with gold and silver he was ready to buy as many Mars Bars as he could carry -

"What are Mars Bars?" asked Sirius, puzzled.

"They're a Muggle chocolate bar," explained Lily. "They're quite good, though if you have too much, I think you get sick of them."

but the woman didn't have any Mars Bars. What she did have were Bertie Bott's Every-Flavor Beans, Droobles Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron cakes, Liquorice ands and a number of other strange things Harry had never seen in his life.

Not wanting to miss anything, he got some of everything and paid the woman eleven silver Sickles and seven bronze Knuts.
Ron stared as Harry brought it all back into the compartment and tipped it onto an empty seat.

"Hungry, are you?"

"Starving," said Harry, taking a large bite out of a pumpkin pasty.

Ron had taken out a lumpy package and unwrapped it. There were four sandwiches in there. He pulled one of them apart and said, "She always forgets I don't like corned beef."

"I don't like corned beef either,” stated Sirius.

"Swap you for one of these," said Harry, holding up a pasty.

"Awww," sighed Lily "He's going to share his food, how sweet of him!"
James smiled, but he rolled his eyes and Sirius made a gagging motion.

"Go on -"

"You don't want this, it's all dry," said Ron. "She hasn't got much time," he added quickly, "you know, with five of us."

"Go on, have a pasty," said Harry, who had never had anything to share before, or, indeed, anyone to share it with.

It was a nice feeling, sitting there with Ron, eating their way through all Harry's pasties and cakes (the sandwiches lay forgotten).

"Not surprising, seeing as they're corned beef! Ugh!" said Sirius.

"What are these?" Harry asked Ron, holding up a pack of Chocolate Frogs. "They're not really frogs, are they?" He was starting to feel that nothing would surprise him.

"No," said Ron. "But see what the card is, I'm missing Agrippa."

"I'm missing Agrippa, too!" exclaimed Sirius. "I think I've got something in common with Ron."

"What?"

"Oh, of course, you wouldn't know - Chocolate frogs have cards inside them, you know, to collect - Famous Witches and Wizards. I've got about five hundred, but I haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy."

The others looked at Sirius, who said, "Well, I've got Ptolemy. So I don't have all that much in common."

Harry unwrapped his Chocolate frog and picked up the card. It showed a man's face. He wore half-moon glasses, had a long crooked nose and flowing silver hair, beard and moustache.

"Dumbledore," muttered everyone.

Underneath the picture was the name Albus Dumbledore.

"So this is Dumbledore!" said Harry.

"Don't tell me you'd never heard of Dumbledore!" said Ron.

"Well, he hadn't until he read his Hogwarts letter," said James.

"Can I have a frog? I might get Agrippa - thanks -"

Harry turned over his card and read:

Albus Dumbledore, currently Headmaster of Hogwarts.
Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Professor Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.

Harry turned the card back over and saw, to his astonishment, that Dumbledore's face had disappeared.

"He's gone!"

"So? it's only a photo," said James.

"If you took Muggle Studies like I did, you'd know that Muggle photos don’t move," responded Sirius. Lily glared at him and he said, "I already told you that I occasionally did pay attention in Muggle Studies, Evans."

In the meantime, James was frowning. "So Muggle photos don't move at all? Weird!"

"Well you can't expect him to hang around all day," said Ron. "He'll be back. No, I've got Morgana again and I've got about six of her ... do want it? You can start collecting."

Ron's eyes strayed to the pile of Chocolate Frogs waiting to be unwrapped.

"Help yourself," said Harry. "But in, you know, the Muggle world, people just stay put in photos."

"Do they? What, they don't move at all?" Ron sounded amazed. "Weird!"

The others looked at James. He shrugged and said, "Coincidence?"

Harry stared as Dumbledore sidled back in the picture on his card and gave him a small smile. Ron was more interested in eating the frogs than looking at the Famous Witches and Wizards cards, but Harry couldn't keep his eyes off them.

Soon he had not only Dumbledore and Morgana, but Hengist of Woodcroft, Alberic Grunnion, Circe, Paracelsus and Merlin. He finally tore his eyes from the druidess Clidona, who was scratching her nose, to open a bag of Bertie Bott's Every-Flavor Beans.

"And they do mean every flavor!' exclaimed Peter. "I got one I think was dirt-flavored." The others shuddered.

"You want to be careful with those," Ron warned Harry. "When they say every flavor, they mean every flavor - you know, you get all the ordinary ones like chocolate and peppermint and marmalade, but then you can get spinach and liver and tripe. George reckons he had a bogey-flavored one once."

"Yuck!" muttered everyone, looking disgusted and glad that they'd never come across such a bean.

Ron picked up a green bean, looked at it carefully and bit into a corner.

"How can you bite into a corner?" asked Remus. "They're round, not boxish."

"Bleaaargh - see? Sprouts."

"Yuck!" everyone repeated.

They had a good time eating the Every-Flavor Beans. Harry got toast, coconut, baked bean, strawberry, curry, grass, coffee, sardine and was even brave enough to nibble the end off a funny grey one Ron wouldn't touch, which turned out to be pepper.

"Other than the pepper and sardine-flavored ones, the beans Harry's eaten weren't bad," commented Sirius.

The countryside now flying past the window was looking wilder. The neat fields had gone. Now there were woods, twisting rivers and dark green hills.

There was a knock on the door of their compartment and the round-faced boy Harry had passed on platform nine and three-quarters came in. He looked tearful.

"Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?"

When they shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"

"He'll turn up," said Harry.

Lily looked proud that her son was being so nice and polite.

Sirius frowned. "If I had a toad I'd lose it as quickly as possible. Thank Merlin I've got an owl."

"Yes," said the boy miserably. "Well, if you see him..."

He left.

"Don't know why he's so bothered," said Ron. "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could.

They all looked at Sirius, who said, "Coincidence! Like the last time with James!"

Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk."

The rat was still snoozing on Ron's lap.

"He might have died and you wouldn't know the difference," said Ron in disgust.

"Padfoot, don't you say that about Peter sometimes?" asked James.

Sirius growled and snapped, "Shut up, Jamesie!"

"Don't call me that!" retorted James. "The last time I've been called that was by my grandmother when I was six!"

"I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look..."

He rummaged around in his trunk and pulled out a very battered-looking wand. It was chipped in places and something white was glinting at the end.

"Unicorn hairs nearly poking out. Anyway -"

He had just raised his wand when the compartment door slid open again. The toad less boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes.

"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said.

"Didn't he already ask them that?” asked Peter.

"He did, he obviously didn't tell her that," replied Remus.

She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair and rather large front teeth.

"Not a flattering description, either," muttered James.

"We've already told him we haven't seen it," said Ron, but the girl wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then."

James and Sirius groaned. "Sounds like a know-it-all," said Sirius. "Even you aren't like that, Remus."

She sat down. Ron looked taken aback.

"Er - all right."

He cleared his throat.

"Sunshine, daises, butter mellow,
Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."

They burst out laughing and Sirius said, "Ron's a bit dim! That's not-"

"A spell, just some stupid rhyme someone made up!" finished James.

He waved his wand, but nothing happened.

Scabbers stayed grey and fast asleep.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard -

Lily paused to take a breath and said, "It's hard to read what this girl's saying. She hasn't stopped to take a breath."

I've learnt all our set books off by heart, of course,

The others looked disgusted and lily exclaimed, "Even I didn't do that!"

I just hope it will be enough - I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"
She said all this very fast.

Harry looked at Ron and was relieved to see by his stunned face that he hadn't learnt all the set books off by heart either.

"Who does?" muttered Sirius and James.

"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered.

"Harry Potter," said Harry.

"Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you, of course - I got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."

James and Lily smiled proudly.

"Am I?" said Harry, feeling dazed.

"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," said Hermione. "Do either of you know what house you'll be in?

"Harry'll be in Gryffindor, of course!" cried James, which was seconded by the others.

I've been asking around and I hope I'm in Gryffindor,

Everyone groaned at this, for the girl really sounded annoying

It sounds by far the best,

"Well, that's true," said James. "It-"

"Is the best," finished Sirius.

I hear Dumbledore himself was one, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad... Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."

And she left, taking the toad less boy with her.

"Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it," said Ron.

They all laughed and James and Sirius said together, "I agree.'

He threw his wand back into his trunk. "Stupid spell - George gave it to me, bet he knew it was a dud."

"What house are your brothers in?" asked Harry.
"Gryffindor," said Ron.

"I knew those guys were cool!" said Sirius.

Gloom seemed to be settling on him again. "Mum and Dad were in it, too.

"The entire family sounds all right to me," said James, looking happy..

I don't know what they'll say if I'm not. I don't suppose Ravenclaw would be too bad, but imagine if they put me in Slytherin."

"That's the house Vol- I mean, You-Know-Who was in?"

"Yeah," said Ron. He flopped back into his seat looking depressed.

"You know, I think the ends of Scabbers's whiskers are a bit lighter," said Harry trying to take Ron's mind off houses.

"Awww," cooed Lily again. "Isn't it sweet? Harry's trying to cheer Ron up!" James rolled his eyes and Sirius made a vomiting motion.

"So what do your oldest brothers do now they've left, anyway?"
Harry was wondering what a wizard did once he'd finished school.

"Charlie's in Romania studying dragons

"Cool," said the boys all together.

and Bill's in Africa doing something for Gringotts," said Ron.

"If he's a curse-breaker, it's as cool as Charlie's job," said James. "If not, it's not as cool, but still okay."

Did you hear about the Gringotts? It's been all over the Daily Prophet, but I don't suppose you get that with the Muggles - someone tried to rob a high-security vault."

The others looked at each other, frowning at this.

Harry stared.

"Really? What happened to them?"

"Nothing, that's why it's such big news. They haven't been caught. My dad says it must've been a powerful Dark wizard to get round Gringotts, but they don't think they took anything, that's what's odd.

"What if what the thief or thieves tried to steal was what Hagrid fetched from that vault?" asked Peter, Everyone blinked, for what he said actually was smart for once.

'Course, everyone gets scared when something like this happens in case You-Know-Who's behind it."

Harry turned this news over in his mind. He was starting to get a prickle of fear every time You-Know-Who was mentioned. He supposed this was all part of entering the magical world, but it had been a lot more comfortable saying 'Voldemort' without worrying.

"Dumbledore's right, you know," said Remus. "Fear of a name increases the fear of the thing itself." The others nodded.

"What's your Quidditch team?" Ron asked.

"Ron likes Quidditch!" said James, jumping up and looking excited. The others gave him strange looks.

"Er - I don't know any," Harry confessed.

"What!" Ron looked dumfounded. "Oh, you wait, it's the best game in the worl -" And he was off, explaining all about the four balls and the positions of the seven players, describing famous games he'd been to with his brothers and the broomstick he'd like to get if he'd had the money.

He was just taking Harry through the finer point of the game when the compartment door slid open yet again, but it wasn't Neville the toad less boy or Hermione Granger this time.

Three boys entered and Harry recognized the middle one at once:

"Must be the snob in Diagon Alley," spat James. Sirius nodded.

It was the pale boy from Madam Malkin's robe shop. He was looking at Harry with a lot more interest than he'd shown back in Diagon Alley.

"Is it true?" he said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"

"Yes," said Harry. He was looking at the other boys. Both of them were thickset and looked extremely mean. Standing either side of the pale boy they looked like bodyguards.

"Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," said the pale boy carelessly, noticing where Harry was looking.

"And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."

"I knew it!" exclaimed James. "The git!"

Ron gave a slight cough, which might have been hiding a s******. Draco Malfoy looked at him.

"Think my name's funny, do you?

"Well yeah, it is pretty funny," said Sirius.

No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles and more children than they can afford."

They all began glaring at the book.

He turned back to Harry.
"You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter.

"Yeah, all families, wizarding or muggle, are better than yours!" said Sirius. "Well, except the Lestranges and any other than are pureblood fanatics like the Malfoys!"

You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort.

"Which means he won't become friends with you!" said Lily fiercely.

I can help you there."

He held out his hand to shake Harry's, but Harry didn't take it.

"Good for you Harry!" exclaimed James.

"I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks," he said coolly.

The others laughed with satisfaction.

Draco Malfoy didn't go red, but a pink tinge appeared in his pale cheeks.
"I'd be careful if I were you, Potter," he said slowly. "Unless you're a bit politer you'll go the same way as your parents.

Everyone glared at the book.

They didn't know what was good for them, either. You hang around with riff-raff like the Weasleys and that Hagrid and it'll rub off on you."

Both Harry and Ron stood up.

Ron's face was as red as his hair.
"Say that again," he said.

"Oh, you're going to fight us, are you?" sneered Malfoy.

"Unless you get out now," said Harry, more bravely than he felt, because Crabbe and Goyle were a lot bigger than him or Ron.

"But we don't feel like leaving, do we, boys? We've eaten all our food and you still seem to have some."

"If you or your cronies touch Harry's food, I'll hex you!" growled Sirius.

Goyle reached towards the Chocolate Frogs next to Ron -

Ron leapt forward, but before he'd so much as touched Goyle, Goyle let out a horrible yell.
Scabbers the rat was hanging off his finger, sharp little teeth sunk deep into Goyle's knuckle -

"Well done, Peter!" cried Sirius, clapping Peter on the back, Peter grinned, though he did add that they didn't know if the rat was him.

Crabbe and Malfoy backed away.

"Wimps," everyone muttered.

As Goyle swung Scabbers round and round, howling, and when Scabbers finally flew off and hit the window, all three of them disappeared at once.

Perhaps they thought there were more rats lurking around the sweets, or perhaps they'd heard footsteps, because a second later, Hermione Granger had come in.

Everyone groaned at this.

"What has been going on?" she said, looking at the sweets all over the floor and Ron picking up Scabbers by his tail.

"I think he's been knocked out," Ron said to Harry. He looked closer at Scabbers. "No - I don't believe it - he's gone back to sleep."

And so he had.

Everyone laughed, except Peter, who was pouting.

"You've met Malfoy before?"

Harry explained about their meeting in Diagon Alley.

"I've heard of his family," said Ron darkly. "They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared. Said they'd been bewitched. My dad doesn't believe it. He says Malfoy's father didn't need an excuse to go over to the Dark Side."

"He doesn't," muttered Sirius, looking angry. "That's why Cissa married Lucius."

He turned to Hermione. "Can we help you with something?"

"You'd better hurry up and put your robes on, I've just been up the front to ask the driver and he says we're nearly there.

"Didn't she say this before?" asked Lily. the others nodded.

You haven't been fighting, have you? You'll be in trouble before we even get there!"

"Hey! Peter was the one fighting, not Harry and Ron!" cried Sirius and James together.

"Scabbers has been fighting, not us," said Ron.

Sirius and James looked at each other, blinking, then burst out laughing. The others joined in.

"Would you mind leaving while we change?"

"All right - I only came in here because people outside are behaving very childishly, racing up and down the corridors," said Hermione in a sniffy voice. "And you've got dirt on your nose, by the way, did you know?"

"Charming girl," said Remus sarcastically.

Ron glared at her as she left. Harry peered out of the window. It was getting dark. He could see mountains and forests under a deep-purple sky. The train did seem to be slowing down.

He and Ron took off their jackets and pulled on their long black robes. Ron's were a bit short for him, you could see his trainers underneath them.

"A voice echoed through the train: "we will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."

Harry's stomach lurched with nerves and Ron, he saw, looked pale under his freckles. They crammed their pockets with the last of the sweets and joined the crowd thronging the corridor.

The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way towards the door and out onto a tiny, dark platform. Harry shivered in the cold night air. Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students and Harry heard a familiar voice: "Firs'-years! Firs'-years over here! All right there, Harry?"

"Hagrid," everyone muttered.

Hagrid's big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads.

"C'mon, follow me - any more firs'-years? Mind yer step, now! Firs'-years follow me!"

Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark either side of them that Harry thought there must be thick trees there. Nobody spoke much. Neville, the boy who kept losing his toad, sniffed once or twice.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here."

There was a loud "Oooooh!"

The narrow path had opened suddenly on to the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.

"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore.

Harry and Ron were followed into their boat by Neville and Hermione.

"Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself, "Right then - FORWARD!"

And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the castle overhead.

"This was different from our journey across the lake," said Remus, looking amused.

"Sirius fell in!" piped up Peter. "We all had a good laugh."

Sirius grinned. "Well, I had to make a splash!" Everyone rolled their eyes or groaned at the pun. "Siriusly, I did."

The others groaned at this pun and Remus said, "Enough, that pun is dead and rotting."

It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.

"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy which had a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbor, where they clambered out on to rocks and pebbles.

"Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" said Hagrid, who was checking the boats as people climbed out of them.

"Trevor!" cried Neville blissfully, holding out his hands. Then they clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last on to smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle.

They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.

"They're about to meet McGonagall!" exclaimed Lily, looking excited. Sirius and James shuddered.

"Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?"
Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.

cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=114684

Phew...Have a good read!

cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=114684

CHAPTER SEVEN
THE SORTING HAT

The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there.

"McGonagall," muttered. James and Sirius, wincing, for their experiences with McGonagall were usually ones when they were in trouble. Lily kept her expression neutral.

She had a very stern face and Harry's first thought was that this was not someone to cross.

"You're right about that," said Lily. James and Sirius winced.

"The firs'-years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."

She pulled the door wide. The Entrance Hall was so gig you could have fitted the whole of the Dursleys' house in it. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors.

They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Harry could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right -

"The Great Hall," muttered everyone.

the rest of the school must already be here - but Professor McGonagall showed the first-years into a small empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, standing rather closer together than they would usually have done, peering about nervously.

"Awww," cooed Lily. "They're all scared."
"Everyone is scared the first time they come to Hogwarts," said Remus.
"Yeah, but it's still cute."
James rolled his eyes.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term-banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room.
The four houses are called Gryffindor,

"The best house," said the boys.

Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards.

"But the Slytherin ones are all evil!" said James. "Well, except for Slughorn. Even he is a bit crazy."

While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn you house points, while any rule-breaking will lose house points.

"Only, Sirius and James haven't grasped that fact yet," said Remus.
Sirius and James glared at him.

At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

"GRYFFINDOR RULES!" shouted Sirius and James. Lily and Remus rolled their eyes.

"The Sorting ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting.

Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville's cloak, which was fastened under his left ear, and on Ron's smudged nose.

Harry nervously tried to flatten his hair.

"Pointless," said James. "I haven't been able to flatten it, and neither has my father or grandfather."

"I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly."
She left the chamber. Harry swallowed.

"How exactly do they sort us into houses?" he asked Ron.

"Some sort of test, I think. Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking."

"That was mean!" said Lily.
The boys were laughing.

Harry's heart gave a horrible jolt. A test? In front of the whole school? But he didn't know any magic yet - what on earth would he have to do?

He hadn't expected something like this the moment he arrived.

He looked around anxiously and saw that everyone else looked terrified too. No one was talking much except Hermione Granger, who was whispering very fast about all the spells she'd learnt and wondering which one she'd need.

James and Sirius looked annoyed.

Harry tried hard not to listen to her. He'd never been more nervous, never, not even when he'd had to take a school report home to the Dursleys saying he'd somehow turned his teacher's wig blue.

James and Sirius laughed. "We are so going to have to play that prank on Snivellus!' exclaimed James.

"Only instead of turning his hair blue, we make it flash red and gold!" said Sirius.

Remus groaned and glared at the book. "Why did it have to appear? Now it's giving those idiots prank ideas."

He kept his eyes fixed on the door. Any second now, Professor McGonagall would come back and lead him to his doom.

Then something happened which made him jump about a foot in the air - several people behind him screamed.
"What the -?"

He gasped. So did the people around him. About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to each other and hardly glancing at the first-years.

They seemed to be arguing.

"Peeves," they all said.

What looked like a fat little monk was saying, "Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance-"
"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost - I say, what are you all doing here?"
A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first-years.

Nobody answered.

"New students!" said the Fat Friar, smiling around at them. "About to be sorted, I suppose?"

A few people nodded mutely.

"Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" said the Friar. "My old house, you know."

"Harry's going to be in Gryffindor!"

"Move along now," said a sharp voice. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start."

Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall.

"Now, form a line," Professor McGonagall told the first-years, "and follow me."

Feeling oddly as though his legs had turned to lead, Harry got into line behind a boy with sandy hair, with Ron behind him, and they walked out of the chamber, back across the hall and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.

Harry had never even imagined such a strange and splendid place. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles which were floating in mid-air over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the Hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. Professor McGonagall led the first-years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them.

Sirius began looking bored.

The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver. Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Harry looked upwards and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars. He heard Hermione whisper, "It's bewitched to look like the sky outside, I read about it in Hogwarts: A History."

"Someone's actually read that?" asked Remus.
"I did," said Lily and Remus together.
"I have, too," muttered James going red. Sirius began laughing and James retorted, "Mum made me read it!"

It was hard to believe there was a ceiling there at all, and that the Great Hall didn't simply open up to the heavens.

Harry quickly looked down again as Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first-years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat.

This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. Aunt Petunia wouldn't have let it in the house.

"How old is that hat?" asked Sirius

"Probably as old as the school," replied James'

"Actually a bit less, as it was designed by the founders to carry on choosing the appropriate house for the students," said Remus.

Maybe they had to try and get a rabbit out of it, Harry thought wildly,

Everyone burst out laughing.

that seemed the sort of thing - noticing that everyone in the Hall was now staring at the hat, he stared at it too.

For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth - and the hat began to sing:

"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,
But don't judge on what you see,
I'll eat myself if you can find
A smarter hat than me.
You can keep your bowlers black,
Your top hats sleek and tall,
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat
And I can cap them all.
There's nothing hidden in your head
The Sorting hat can't see,
So try me on and I will tell you
Where you ought to be.
You might belong in Gryffindor,

Sirius and James cheered. Peter joined in. Lily rolled her eyes and Remus said, "The others houses aren't so bad, either!"

Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve and chivalry
Set Gryffindors apart;

"Yep!" said Sirius. "Gryffindors are the best and set apart from the others."

You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true
And unafraid of toil;
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
If you've a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find there kind;
Or perhaps in Slytherin

James and Sirius now booed. Peter joined in. Remus rolled his eyes and Lily said, "Slytherins aren't all bad. What about Professor Slughorn?" James and Sirius ignored her.

You'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folk use any means
To achieve their ends.

"Damn right!" muttered Sirius.

So put me on! Don't be afraid!
And don't get in a flap!
You're in safe hands (though I have none)
For I'm a Thinking Cap!

"That's a nice song," said Lily. The others nodded in agreement.

The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again.
"So we've just got to try on the hat!" Ron whispered to Harry. "I'll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll."

The boys laughed.
Lily snapped, "How horrible of him!"

Harry smiled weakly. Yes, trying on the hat was a lot better than having to do a spell, but he wished he could have tried it on without everyone watching.

The hat seemed to be asking rather a lot; Harry didn't feel brave or quick-witted or any of it at the moment.

"Awww," said Lily. "Poor Harry!"

If only the hat had mentioned a house for people who felt a bit queasy, that would have been the one for him.

"Oh please. If that were true, then most of the first years would end up there!" James said.

Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment.

When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Abbott, Hannah!"
A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moment's pause - "HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat.

The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. Harry saw the ghost of the Fat Friar waving merrily at her.

"He's a ghost!" exclaimed Remus. "Why does he always have to be sop cheerful?"

"I don't know," responded Peter. "Maybe-"

"It was a rhetorical question,. Peter."

"Oh, sorry."

"Bones, Susan!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah.

"Looks like Voldemort didn't kill all the Bones!" exclaimed James. "Oh, sorry, Peter."

"Boot, Terry!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

The table second from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them.

"Brocklehurst, Mandy" went to Ravenclaw too, but "Brown, Lavender" became the first new Gryffindor

They all cheered, James and Sirius the loudest.

and the table on the far left exploded with cheers; Harry could see Ron's twin brothers catcalling.
"Bulstrode, Millicent"

"Bet she's a Slytherin," muttered Sirius. "One of my great-grandfathers married a Bulstrode."

then became the first Slytherin. Perhaps it was Harry's imagination, after all he'd heard about Slytherin, but he thought they looked an unpleasant lot.

"Nope! It's not your imagination, Harry," said James, "They are evil and unpleasant! Well, except for Slughorn."

He was starting to feel definitely sick now. He remembered being picked for teams during sports lessons at his old school. He had always been last to be chosen, not because he was no good, but because no one wanted Dudley to think they like him.

"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Sometimes, Harry noticed, the hat shouted out the house at once, but at others it took a little while to decide. "Finnigan, Seamus", the sandy-haired boy next to Harry in the line, sat on the stool for almost a minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor.

The boys cheered again.

"Granger, Hermione!"

Hermione almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head.

"GRYFFINDOR!" shouted the hat.

The boys cheered. When Lily frowned at them,. James explained, "Come on! She is a Gryffindor, so perhaps she isn't so bad after all."

Ron groaned.

A horrible thought struck Harry, as horrible thoughts always do when you're very nervous.

What if he wasn't chosen at all?

"That won't happen!" exclaimed James. "You got your letter, Harry!"

What if he just sat there with the hat over his eyes for ages, until Professor McGonagall jerked it off his head and said there had obviously been a mistake and he'd better get back on the train?

When Neville Longbottom, the boy who kept losing his toad, was called, he fell over on his way to the stool.

The boys laughed. Then Peter asked, "Would Neville be the son of Frank Longbottom?"

"You mean our dorm mate? Maybe," said Sirius. "But Frank isn't clumsy or loses things like you, Wormtail. And the girl he's dating, Alice-what's-her-name, isn't clumsy, either."

"It's Alice Spencer," said Lily severely. "Honestly, she's my best friend and dorm mate and in our house and year, so you would think you'd know her last name. And anyway, who said Frank marries Alice? They could break up and Frank marries someone else."

The hat took a long time to decide with Neville. When it finally shouted "GRYFFINDOR",

They all cheered.

Neville ran off still wearing it,

The boys laughed again.

and had to jog amid gales of laughter to give it to "MacDougal, Morag."

Malfoy swaggered forward when his name was called and got his wish at once: the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, "SLYTHERIN!"

"Knew it!" exclaimed Sirius. James looked angry.

Malfoy went to join his friends Crabbe and Goyle, looking pleased with himself.

There weren't many people left now.

"Which means it'll soon be Harry's turn!" said Lily excitedly.

"Moon" ... "Nott" ... "Parkinson ... then a pair of twin girls, "Patil" and "Patil" ... then "Perks, Sally-Anne" ... and then, at last- "Potter, Harry!"

As Harry stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall.

James nodded and smiled proudly.

"Potter, did she say?"

"The Harry Potter?"

The last thing Harry saw before the hat dropped over his eyes was the Hall full of people craning to get a good look at him. Next second he was looking at the black inside of the hat. He waited.

"Hmm," said a small voice in his ear. "Difficult. Very difficult.

"No, it isn't!" exclaimed James, starting to look nervous. "Just shout 'Gryffindor'! It's really easy!"

Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind, either. There's talent, oh my goodness, yes - and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting ... So where shall I put you?"

"Gryffindor, of course!" yelled Sirius.

Harry gripped the edges of the stool and thought, "Not Slytherin, not Slytherin."

"Good, Harry," muttered James.
Sirius began to repeat, "Not Slytherin, not Slytherin!" and started pacing around the room.

"Not Slytherin, eh?" said the small voice. "Are you sure?

"OF COURSE HE'S SURE!" shouted James. "HE DOESN'T WANT TO BE SORTED INTO SLYTHERIN!"

You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that -

"NO!" shouted Sirius.

Peter had started to bite his fingernails in his nervousness and Remus had a worried frown on his face. Lily looked anxious.

no?

"Yes, it's no!" yelled Peter, jumping up and surprising everyone.

Well, if you're sure -

"Yes, he's sure!" shouted Remus, having caught his friends’ nervousness.

"Harry belongs in Gryffindor like his parents!" added Lily.

better be GRYFFINDOR!"

They all looked relieved. They then began cheering, James and Sirius the loudest.

"That was close," muttered Lily. "Why did the Hat want to put Harry in Slytherin?"

"Dunno," answered James. "It put Harry in Gryffindor in the end, so it's all right."

Harry heard the hat shout the last word to the whole Hall. He took off the hat and walked shakily towards the Gryffindor table. He was so relieved to have been chosen and not put in Slytherin, he hardly noticed that he was getting the loudest cheer yet. Percy the Prefect got up and shook his hand vigorously, while the Weasley twins yelled, "We got Potter! We got Potter!"

They all laughed.

Harry sat down opposite the ghost in the ruff he'd seen earlier. The ghost patted his arm, giving Harry the sudden, horrible feeling he'd just plunged into a bucket of ice-cold water.

Peter shivered and said, "I hate it when they do that!"

He could see the High Table properly now. At the end nearest him sat Hagrid, who caught his eye and gave him the thumbs-up. Harry grinned back. And there, in the centre of the High Table, in a large gold chair, sat Albus Dumbledore. Harry recognized him at once from the card he'd got out of the Chocolate Frog on the train. Dumbledore's silver hair was the only thing in the whole Hall that shone as brightly as the ghosts. Harry spotted Professor Quirrell, too, the nervous young man from the Leaky Cauldron. He was looking very peculiar in a large purple turban.

And now there were only three people left to be sorted. "Turpin, Lisa" became a Ravenclaw and then it was Ron's turn. He was pale green by now.

"Poor Ron," said Lily.

Harry crossed his fingers under the table and a second later the hat had shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"

They all cheered.

Harry clapped loudly with the rest as Ron collapsed into the chair next to him.

"Well done, Ron, excellent," said Percy Weasley pompously across Harry as "Zabini, Blaise" was made a Slytherin.

James and Sirius booed.

Professor McGonagall rolled up her scroll and took the Sorting Hat away.

Harry looked down at his empty gold plate. He had only just realized how hungry he was. The pumpkin pasties seemed ages ago.

Albus Dumbledore had got to his feet. He was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide, as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there.

"Dumbledore never changes, does he?" said Sirius.

"He's a great man," added James.

Remus nodded. "He made it so I could come here."

"Welcome!" he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"

They looked at each other, puzzled. Then Remus said, "Must be one of those things he says so the feast appears."

He sat back down. Everybody clapped and cheered. Harry didn't know whether to laugh or not.

"Is he - a bit mad?" he asked Percy uncertainly.

"Mad?" said Percy airily. "He's a genius! Best wizard in the world! But he is a bit mad, yes. Potatoes, Harry?"
Harry's mouth fell open. The dishes in front of him were now piled with food. He had never seen so many things he liked to eat on one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, chips, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup and, for some reason, mint humbugs.

James looked up to see that Sirius was drooling and Peter looked hungry. "Padfoot!" exclaimed James. "We just had a big lunch! How can you be hungry again?" Sirius shrugged and wiped his mouth.

The Dursleys had never exactly starved Harry, but he'd never been allowed to eat as much as he liked. Dudley had always taken anything that Harry wanted, even if it made him sick.

"Brat," they all muttered again.

Harry piled his plate with a bit of everything except the humbugs and began to eat. It was delicious.

"That does look good," said the ghost in the ruff sadly, watching Harry cut up his steak.
"Can't you-?"

"I haven't eaten for nearly four hundred years," said the ghost. "I don't need to, of course, but one does miss it. I don't think I've introduced myself? Sir Nicolas de Mimsy-Porpington at your service. Resident ghost of Gryffindor Tower."

"But instead of saying all that rubbish," said Sirius, "just call him Nearly Headless Nick!"

"I know who you are!" said Ron suddenly. "My brothers told me about you - you're Nearly Headless Nick!"

They all burst out laughing.

"I would prefer you to call me Sir Nicholas de Mimsy -" the ghost began stiffly, but sandy-haired Seamus Finnegan interrupted.

"Nearly Headless? How can you be nearly headless?"
Sir Nicholas looked extremely miffed, as if their little chat wasn't going at all the way he wanted.

Peter shuddered. "I had to ask that question like Seamus did. I regret it to this day."

"Like this," he said irritably. He seized his left ear and pulled. His whole head swung off his neck and fell on to his shoulder as if it was on a hinge.

"Ugh," they all said. Peter shuddered again.

Someone had obviously tried to behead him, but not done it properly. Looking pleased at the stunned looks on their faces, Nearly Headless Nick flipped his head back on to his neck, coughed and said, "So - new Gryffindors! I hope you're going to help us win the House Championship this year? Gryffindor have never gone so long without winning.

"WHAT?" shouted everyone.

Slytherin have got the cup six years in a row!

"NOOOO!'" shouted Sirius and James.

Lily and Remus both looked shocked and Peter said, "That hasn't happened before!"

The Bloody Baron's becoming almost unbearable - he's the Slytherin ghost."

Harry looked over at the Slytherin table and saw a horrible ghost sitting there, with blank staring eyes, a gaunt face and robes stained with silver blood. He was right next to Malfoy who, Harry was pleased to see, didn't look too pleased with the seating arrangements.

Sirius laughed his bark-like laugh and James commented, "The same thing happened with Snivellus our first year. He had to sit next to the Baron, too. Funny how things are similar in Harry's time."

"How did he get covered in blood?" asked Seamus with great interest.

"I've never asked," said Nearly Headless Nick delicately.

When everyone had eaten as much as they could, the remains of the food faded from the plates, leaving them sparkling clean as before. A moment later the puddings appeared. Blocks of ice-cream in every flavor you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate éclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, jelly, rice pudding...

Sirius muttered, "Mmmmm," and they all looked at him to see that he was drooling again. James grinned and then kept reading.

As Harry helped himself to a treacle tart, the talk turned to their families.

"I'm half and half," said Seamus. "Me Dad's a Muggle. Mam didn't tell him she was a witch 'til after they were married. Bit of a nasty shock for him."

They all laughed.

The others laughed.

"What about you, Neville?" said Ron.

"Well, my gran brought me up and she's a witch," said Neville, "but the family thought I was a Muggle for ages.

"Does he mean a Squib?" asked Remus.
"Probably."

My great-uncle Algie kept trying to catch me off my guard and force some magic out of me - he pushed me off the end of Blackpool pier once, I nearly drowned - but nothing happened until I was eight. Great-uncle Algie came round for tea and was hanging me out of an upstairs window by the ankles when my great-auntie Enid offered him a meringue and he accidentally let go.

"That was mean of him!" exclaimed Lily, looking indignant.

But I bounced - all the way down the garden and into the road. They were all really pleased. Gran was crying, she was so happy.

"Awww," cooed Lily again. James rolled his eyes.

And you should have seen their faces when I got in here - they thought I might not be magic enough to come, you see. Great-uncle Algie was so pleased he bought me my toad.

"How cute," Lily cooed once more. Sirius looked disgusted and James made a gagging motion before continuing to read.

On Harry's other side, Percy Weasley and Hermione were talking about lessons (I do hope they start straight away, there's so much to learn, I'm particularly interested in Transfiguration, you know, turning something into something else,

"She's interested in Transfiguration!" said James. "Hermione isn't so bad after all!"

"Anyone who's interested in Transfiguration and not in Slytherin isn't so bad to you, James," said Remus.

of course, it's supposed to be very difficult -"; "You'll be starting small, just matches into needles and that sort of thing -")
Harry, who was starting to feel warm and sleepy, looked up at the high table again. Hagrid was drinking deeply from his goblet. Professor McGonagall was talking to Professor Dumbledore. Professor Quirrell, in his absurd turban, was talking to a teacher with greasy black hair, a hooked nose and sallow skin.

James dropped the book in shock. "It can't be!"

Sirius looked horrified. "Don't tell me Snivellus is a teacher?"

Remus picked up the book and found the page again. "If you would read, James, then we'd find out."

It happened very suddenly. The hook-nosed teacher looked past Quirrell's turban straight into Harry's eyes - and a sharp, hot pain shot across the scar on Harry's forehead.

"Must be Snape!" snapped Sirius. "He's practically a Voldemort supporter." Peter flinched and Sirius said, "Sorry, Wormtail."

James was frowning. "I guess. It would explain why Slytherin won the House Cup for the last six years. In the book, I mean."

"Ouch!" Harry clapped a hand to his head.

"What is it?" asked Percy.

"N-nothing."

The pain had gone as quickly as it had come. Harder to shake off the feeling Harry had from the teacher's look - a feeling that he didn't like Harry at all.

"Who's that teacher talking to Professor Quirrell?" he asked Percy.

"Oh, you know Quirrell already, do you? No wonder he's looking so nervous, that's Professor Snape.

"NOOOOO!" yelled Sirius and James.

"That's horrible!" exclaimed Peter. Remus looked aghast and even Lily didn't look very happy. Even though she defended Snape, she had to admit that he was very unpleasant person and wouldn't be a nice person toward Harry.

He teaches Potions, but he doesn't want to - everyone knows he's after Quirrell's job.

"Because he's a total Dark Arts freak!" exclaimed Sirius.

"True," said James, frowning.

"He can't be too bad, or Dumbledore would never have hired him," pointed out Remus. James nodded, but Sirius didn't look convinced.

Knows an awful lot about the Dark Arts, Snape.

"Even Percy agrees with us!" said James.

Harry watched Snape for a while, but Snape didn't look at him again.

At last, the puddings too disappeared and Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again. The Hall fell silent.

"Ahem - just a few more words now we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you."

"BORING!' said Sirius loudly. Remus threw a pillow at him and told him to shut up.

First-years should note that the forest in the grounds is forbidden to all pupils.

"Only James and Sirius keep forgetting!" said Remus, looking annoyed.

And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well."

They all grinned.

Dumbledore's twinkling eyes flashed in the direction of the Weasley twins.

"Those guys are so cool," said James exchanging grins with Sirius. "They'd make great Marauders."

"I have also been asked my Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used in the corridors.
Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch. And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to anyone who does not wish to die a most painful death."

"I wonder if that's where the package Hagrid took from Gringotts is hidden," mused Remus. The others thought this was possible.

Harry laughed, but he was one of the few who did.

"He's not serious?" he muttered to Percy.

"Must be," said Percy, frowning at Dumbledore. "It's odd, because he usually gives us a reason why we're not allowed to go somewhere - the forest's full of dangerous beasts, everyone knows that. I think he might have told us Prefects, at least."

"And now before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore. Harry noticed that the other teachers' smiles had become rather fixed.

"Well, none of them can sing!"

Dumbledore gave his wand a little flick as if he were trying to get a fly off the end and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which rose high above the tables and twisted itself snake-like into words.

"Everyone pick their favorite tune," said Dumbledore, "and off we go!"
And the school bellowed:

"Stop!' yelled Remus. "James, skip the school song. Neither you and Sirius can carry a tune in a bucket, and you always chose a really slow song and end up being the last ones to finish."

"Awww," whined Sirius and James. Remus glared at them, so James skipped the song.

Everybody finished the song at different times. At last, only the Weasley twins were left singing along to a very slow funeral march.

Everyone laughed.

Dumbledore conducted their last few lines with his wand, and when they had finished, he was one of those who clapped

"Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"
The Gryffindor first-years followed Percy through the chattering crowds, out of the Great Hall and up the marble staircase.

Harry's legs were like lead again, but only because he was so tired and full of food. He was too sleepy even to be surprised that the people in the portraits along the corridors whispered and pointed as they passed, or that twice Percy led them through doorways hidden behind sliding panels and hanging tapestries. They climbed more staircases, yawning and dragging their feet, and Harry was wondering how much further they had to go when they came to a sudden halt.

A bundle of walking sticks was floating in mid-air ahead of them and as Percy took a step towards them they started throwing themselves at him.

"Peeves," muttered Sirius. The others nodded in agreement.

"Peeves,” Percy whispered to the first-years. "A poltergeist." He raised his voice, "Peeves - show yourself."
A loud, rude sound, like the air being let out of a balloon, answered.

James and Sirius were laughing very hard, while Remus, Lily, and Peter had amused smiles.

"Do you want me to go to the Bloody Baron?"

"Threatening him with the Baron," said Sirius, "that's low!"

There was a pop and a little man with wicked dark eyes and a wide mouth appeared, floating cross-legged in the air, clutching the walking sticks.

"He's cool and annoying at the same time!" exclaimed James and Sirius together. Lily looked disgusted.

"Oooooooh!" he said, with an evil cackle. "Ickle firsties! What fun!"

He swooped suddenly at them. They all ducked.

"Go away, Peeves, or the Baron'll hear about this, I mean it!" barked Percy.

Peeves stuck out his tongue and vanished dropping the walking sticks on Neville's head. They heard him zooming away, rattling coats of armor as he passed.

They were all laughing again.

"You want to watch out for Peeves," said Percy as they set off again.

"Bit of an understatement, isn't it?” commented Sirius, laughing.

"The Bloody Baron's the only one who can control him, he won't even listen to us Prefects. Here we are."

At the very end of the corridor hung a portrait of a very fat woman in a pink silk dress.

"Password?" she said.

"Caput Draconis," said Percy, and the portrait swung forward to reveal a round hole in the wall. They all scrambled through it - Neville needed a leg up -

"You did too, remember Peter?" asked James.

"Oh, yeah," said Peter.

and found themselves in the Gryffindor common room, a cozy, round room full of squashy armchairs.

Percy directed the girls through one door to their dormitory and the boys through another. At the top of a spiral staircase - they were obviously in one of the towers - they found their beds at last: five four-posters hung with deep-red velvet curtains.

"Nothing's changed, then," observed Sirius.

Their trunks had already been brought up. Too tired to talk much, they pulled on their pajamas and fell into bed.

'Boy, they must be very tired," commented Sirius.

"That didn't happen with us," said James. "Well, except for Frank. He said 'good-night', then went to bed. Us Marauders spent an hour talking and finding out more about ourselves than we did on the train or during the feast.

"Great food, isn't it?" Ron muttered to Harry through the hangings. "Get off, Scabbers! He's chewing my sheets."

They all looked at Peter. "Do you do that?" asked Remus incredulously.

"Hey!" answered Peter. "I don't! And when did we decide that I was Scabbers?"

"Sorry, Peter," apologized Lily.

Harry was going to ask Ron if he'd had any of the treacle tart, but he fell asleep almost at once. Perhaps Harry had eaten a bit too much, because he had a very strange dream.

He was wearing Professor Quirrell's turban, which kept talking to him, telling him he must transfer to Slytherin at once,

Sirius frowned at this.

because it was his destiny.

"But it's not," said James and Lily, worried looks on their face.

Harry told the turban he didn't want to be in Slytherin;

"Good, Harry, very good," muttered James.

it got heavier; he tried to pull it off, but it tightened painfully - and there was Malfoy, laughing at him as he struggled with it -

James stopped reading to glare at the book. Then he continued reading.

then Malfoy turned into the hook-nosed teacher, Snape, whose laugh became high and cold - there was a burst of green light and Harry woke, sweating and shaking.

James and Lily looked at the book sadly.

He rolled over and fell asleep again, and when he woke next day, he didn't remember the dream at all.

cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=114684

cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=114684

cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=114684

Here's the next post. I don't know what else to do with my hols...

cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=114684


Easter Holidays started today and I decided to come home since Evans didn’t stay at Hogwarts. Being at home will give me time to think.

Here’s my letter to Evans:

Dearest Evans, (I know it sounds mushy, but girls like that fluffy stuff)

I hope you’re having a good holiday. Since you decided to go home for Easter Break, so did I.

Life here is rather boring without you. I miss being able to glance across the classroom and see your pretty face. I would feel much less lonely if I knew that I could call you my girlfriend.

Yours always,

James Potter

Okay, that was a tad cliché, but I meant every word. I do miss being able to see her everyday even if all she does is yell at me.

Arrow, my owl, just came back without a reply. While it means that Evans received my letter, it also means that she obviously didn’t bother to take the time to respond to it. She might not have even read it.

Well, like the old saying goes, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

The only problem is that I have tried again. And again, and again, and again, but I’m not any closer to winning the heart of one, Lily Evans.

Dearest Lily-Flower,

I’m saddened that you didn’t reply to my last letter. Arrow likes carrying mail. He actually gets quite upset if you don’t have anything for him to carry.

I miss you, Flower. Please, please, please, please, please go out with me? It would make me really, really, really happy.

Yours always,

James Potter

I do realize that Lily-Flower is highly over-used, but I like it. She is named after a flower after all, and no, I did not just realize that fact. She has a very pretty name. Lily Evans…. Her name would sound nice as Lily Potter too.

I also realize that this letter sounds highly desperate. It’s supposed to, because I am desperate.

Arrow just returned with a “letter” from Evans.

Potter: The answer is still “no”.

That’s it! That’s the whole letter. What a waste of parchment.

If that’s the way she wants to be, fine. Two can play this game.

"What game do you think they are playing, Moony?"

"Shhh...Padfoot," said Remus pointing towards James, Lily and Peter who were just entering the room.

The name 'Lily-Flower' sprang up in Sirius' mind. He barely managed to contain his laughter but sobered at the look Remus was giving him.

"So who's turn is it to read?" asked Remus, hoping to divert attention away from Sirius. Fortunately, James was busy staring at Lily to pay attention.


CHAPTER EIGHT
THE POTIONS MASTER

"There, look."

"Where?"

"Next to the tall kid with the red hair."

"wearing the glasses?"

"Did you see his face?"

"Did you see his scar?"
Whispers followed Harry from the moment he left his dormitory the next day.

People queuing outside classrooms stood on tiptoe to get a look at him, or doubled back to pass him in the corridors again, staring. Harry wished they wouldn't, because he was trying to concentrate on finding his way to classes.

"That sounds annoying," commented Lily.

There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts: wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump. Then there were doors that wouldn’t open unless you asked them politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending. It was also very hard to remember where anything was, because it all seemed to move around a lot. The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other and Harry was sure the coats of armor could walk.

The ghosts didn't help, either. It was always a nasty shock when one of them glided suddenly through a door you were trying to open.

Everyone shuddered, Peter the worst.

Nearly Headless Nick was always happy to point new Gryffindors in the right direction, but Peeves the poltergeist was worth two locked doors and a trick staircase if you met him when you were late for class. He would drop waste-paper baskets on your head, pull rugs from under your feet, pelt you with bits of chalk or sneak up behind you, invisible, grab your nose and screech, "GOT YOUR CONK!"

Everyone was laughing again.
"It's really annoying when Peeves does it to you, but when you read about it, it's really funny!" exclaimed James.

Even worse than Peeves, if that was possible, was the caretaker, Argus Filch.

"Yeah, he is worse," said James.

"But remember all those things we've nicked out his cupboard of confiscated stuff?" asked Sirius.

"Oh, yeah." Lily gave them disgusted looks

Harry and Ron managed to get on the wrong side of Filch on their very first morning.

"Wow, that beats us," said James, looking deeply impressed. "We didn't get into trouble-"
"With Filch until our third day."

Filch found them trying to force their way through a door which unluckily turned out to be the entrance to the out-of-bounds corridor on the third floor.

"He's even found the entrance to the forbidden corridor!" exclaimed Sirius, looking impressed.

He wouldn't believe they were lost,

"Does Filch ever believe the stories of a student?" asked Remus.
"Doubt it." replied Sirius.

was sure they were trying to break into it on purpose and was threatening to lock them in the dungeons when they were rescued by Professor Quirrell, who was passing.

"Thank goodness he was there," said Sirius, looking relieved.

James looked a little suspicious. "Why would Quirrell be there? He is in Slytherin, after all, and the only decent Slytherin I've ever met was Slughorn."

Filch owned a cat called Mrs. Norris, a scrawny, dust-colored creature with bulging, lamp-like eyes just like Filch’s. She patrolled the corridors alone. Break a rule in front of her, put just one toe out of line, and she'd whisk off for Filch, who'd appear, wheezing, two seconds later.

"Mrs. Norris sounds like the cat Filch has now," commented Remus. The others grimaced.

Filch knew the secret passageways of the school better than anyone (except perhaps the Weasley twins)

"And us four," said James proudly. They all grinned at each other.

and could pop up as suddenly as any of the ghosts. The students all hated him and it was the dearest ambition of many to give Mrs. Norris a good kick.

"And right now most of us students want to give Mrs. Terson a good kick," said Sirius.

And then, once you managed to find them, there were the lessons themselves. There was a lot more to magic, as Harry quickly found out, than waving your wand and saying a few funny words.

They had to study the night skies through their telescopes every Wednesday at midnight and learn the names of different stars and the movements of the planets. Three times a week they went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology, with a dumpy little witch called Professor Sprout, where they learnt how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi and found out what they were used for.

Sirius yawned and said, "Boring." Remus glared at him, then continued reading.

Easily the most boring lesson was History of Magic,

"Agreed," everyone muttered.

Which was the only class taught by a ghost.

"Why hasn't Binns been kicked out yet?" asked Peter.

"Who knows?" answered Lily. 'He doesn't even know he's dead, despite the fact that he can't hold a book or chalk."

Professor Binns had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of the staff-room fire and got up the next morning to teach, leaving his body behind him.

Binns droned on and on while they scribbled down names and dates and got Emeric the Evil and Uric the Oddball mixed up.

Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to be seen over his desk.

"I love Flitwick," said Lily. "He's my favorite teacher!" The others gave her looks.

At the start of their first lesson he took the register, and when he reached Harry's name he gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight.

Professor McGonagall was again different.

James and Sirius shuddered.

Harry had been quite right to think she wasn't a teacher to cross.

"That's an understatement." said Sirius.

Strict and clever,

"You're not kidding!" exclaimed James, wincing.

she gave them a talking-to the moment they had sat down in her first class.

"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."

Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again.

They were all very impressed and couldn't wait to get started, but soon realized they weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time.

After making a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle.

"Simple!" said James, "I was able to do that on my very first lesson! I hope Harry does as well!"

By the end of the lesson, only Hermione Granger had made any difference to her match; Professor McGonagall showed the class how it had gone all silver and pointy and gave Hermione a rare smile.

"Darn!" said James. "I was hoping he'd inherited my talent for Transfiguration."

"Maybe he inherited my talent for Charms," said Lily.

The class everyone had really been looking forward to was Defense Against the Dark Arts,

"Everyone likes that subject,” commented Remus.

but Quirrell's lessons turned out to be a bit of a joke. His classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire he'd met in Romania and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days.

His turban, he told them, had been given to him by an African prince as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie, but they weren't sure they believed this story. For one thing, when Seamus Finnegan asked eagerly to hear how Quirrell had fought off the zombie, Quirrell went pink and started talking about the weather; for another, they had noticed that a funny smell hung around the turban, and the Weasley twins insisted that it was stuffed full of garlic as well, so that Quirrell was protected wherever he went.

"What kind of Defense teacher is he?" asked James, looking disgusted.

Harry was very relieved to find out that he wasn't miles behind everyone else. Lots of people had come from Muggle families and, like him, hadn't had any idea that they were witches and wizards. There was so much to learn that even people like Ron didn't have much of a head start.

Friday was an important day for Harry and Ron. They finally managed to find their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast without getting lost once.

"What have we got today?" Harry asked Ron as he poured sugar on his porridge.
"Double Potions with the Slytherins," said Ron. "Snape's head of Slytherin house. They all say he favors them - we'll be able to see if it's true."

"It will be," growled Sirius, looking angry.

"Wish McGonagall favored us," said Harry.

Professor McGonagall was head of Gryffindor house, but it hadn't stopped her giving them a huge pile of homework the day before.

Just then, the post arrived. Harry had got used to this by now, but it had given him a bit of a shock on the first morning, when about a hundred owls had suddenly streamed into the Great Hall during breakfast, circling the tables until they saw their owners and dropping letters and packages on to their laps.

Hedwig hadn't brought Harry anything so far. She sometimes flew in to nibble his ear and have a bit of toast before going off to sleep in the owlery with the other school owls.

This morning, however, she fluttered down between the marmalade and the sugar bowl and dropped a note on to Harry's plate. Harry tore it open at once.

Dear Harry, (it said, in a very untidy scrawl)

"Hagrid," they all muttered.

I know you get Friday afternoons off, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me around three? I want to hear all about your first week. Send us an answer back with Hedwig.
Hagrid.

"Awww," cooed Lily. "That's really nice of him.

Harry borrowed Ron's quill, scribbled 'Yes, please, see you later' on the back of the note and sent off Hedwig again.
It was lucky that Harry had tea with Hagrid to look forward to, because the Potions lesson turned out to be the worst thing that had happened to him so far.

At the start-of-term-banquet, Harry had got the idea that Professor Snape disliked him. By the end of the first Potions lesson, he knew he'd been wrong.

They all looked puzzled by this. "Does this mean that Snape likes Harry?" asked Lily.

Snape didn't dislike Harry - he hated him.

"Sounds more like it!" said James, looking angry.

Potions lessons took place in one of the dungeons. It was colder here than up in the main castle and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls.

"Why did the lessons get moved to the dungeons?" asked Remus. "Slughorn doesn't hold his classes there.

Snape, like Flitwick, started the class by taking the register, and like Flitwick, he paused at Harry's name.

"Ah, yes," he said softly, "Harry Potter. Our new - celebrity."

James looked angry. "Darn you, Snape! You're so unfair!"

Draco Malfoy and his friends Crabbe and Goyle s******ed behind their hands.

Sirius grabbed a piece of parchment and scribbled something down. When the others looked questioningly at him, he explained, "I'm making a list of things to get back at Snape for."

Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class. His eyes were black like Hagrid's, but they had none of Hagrid's warmth. They were cold and empty and made you think of dark tunnels.

"You are here to learn the subtle science, and exact art of potion-making," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word - like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort.

"As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death - if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

"They're probably dunderheads because you don't do a decent job of teaching!" raged James.

More silence followed this little speech. Harry and Ron looked at each other with raised eyebrows. Hermione Granger was on the edge of her seat and looked desperate to start proving that she wasn't a dunderhead.

"Potter!" said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

"We didn't learn that till second year!" exclaimed Lily angrily. "I am getting you for this, Snivellus!"

Powdered root of what to an infusion of what? Harry glanced at Ron, who looked as stumped as he was, Hermione's hand shot into the air.

"I don't know, sir," said Harry.

"You shouldn’t be polite to him, Harry!" said James.

"But he's a teacher," pointed out Lily.

Snape's lips curled into a sneer.
"Tut, tut - fame clearly isn't everything."
He ignored Hermione's hand.

Sirius began scribbling on his parchment again, muttering angrily as he did so.

"Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

Hermione stretched her hand as high into the air as it would go without her leaving her seat, but Harry didn't have the faintest idea what a bezoar was.

"Isn't it a thing from a goat?" asked Remus

"Yep," answered Sirius,

He tried not to look at Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle, who were shaking with laughter.

James began muttering under his breath.

"I don't know, sir."
"Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter?"

"See, this is what happens when you go around bullying Snape!" snapped Lily, glaring at James. Then she glared at the book. "And if you were a decent person, Snivellus, you'd forgive what James has done to you and treat our son fairly!"

Harry forced himself to keep looking straight into those cold eyes. He had looked through his books at the Dursleys', but did Snape expect him to remember everything in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi?

"Obviously," they all muttered.

Snape was still ignoring Hermione's quivering hand.
"What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

"There is no difference," muttered Remus.

At this, Hermione stood up, he hand stretching towards the dungeon ceiling.
"I don't know," said Harry quietly. "I think Hermione does, though, why don't you try her?"

A few people laughed; Harry caught Seamus's eye and Seamus winked. Snape, however, was not pleased.

"Sit down," he snapped at Hermione. "For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?"

"Slughorn’s a much better teacher than him!" cried Sirius.

There was a rummage for quills and parchment. Over the noise, Snape said, "And a point will be taken from Gryffindor house for your cheek, Potter."

"WHAT!" roared James. "He politely told you he didn't know the answer and suggested someone who did! He wasn't being cheeky at all!"

Things didn't improve for the Gryffindors as the Potions lesson continued. Snape put them all into pairs and set them mixing up a simple potion to cure boils. He swept around in his long black cloak, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs, criticizing almost everyone, except Malfoy, whom he seemed to like.

He was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Malfoy had stewed his horned slugs when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon. Neville had somehow managed to melt Seamus's cauldron into a twisted blob and their potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning holes in people's shoes.

"It wouldn't have happened if you'd paid more attention like Slughorn does!" snapped Sirius.

"Or maybe Neville is just bad at Potions, like I am," said Remus.

Within seconds, the whole class was standing on their stools while Neville, who had been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed, moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs.

"Idiot boy!" snarled Snape, clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?"

"Professor Slughorn would never behave like that!" exclaimed Lily indignantly. "He'd send the student to the hospital wing."

Neville whimpered as boils started to pop up all over his nose.
"Take him up to the hospital wing," Snape spat at Seamus. Then he rounded on Harry and Ron, who had been working next to Neville.

"I suppose he'll blame Harry for it and take off more points," muttered James bitterly.

"You - Potter - why didn't you tell him not to add the quills?

"Because he was busy making the potion!" exclaimed Remus. Lily and the Marauders were glaring at the book. Sirius scribbled on his parchment and Remus said that for once he'd been willing to go along on a prank on Snivellus.

Thought he'd make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That's another point you've lost for Gryffindor."

"UNFAIR!' shouted Lily. "I'm agreeing with Remus on the prank thing."

This was so unfair that Harry opened his mouth to argue, but Ron kicked him behind their cauldron.

"Don't push it," he muttered. "I've heard Snape can turn very nasty."

As they climbed the steps out of the dungeon an hour later, Harry's mind was racing and his spirits were low. He'd lost two points for Gryffindor in his very first week -

"It's not so bad," said Sirius. "James and I lost about forty points are first week."

why did Snape hate him so much?

"Because he thinks you're like me!" exclaimed James angrily.

"Cheer up," said Ron.

"Yeah, listen to Ron," said Remus. "James and Sirius lose an average of fifty points a week while they're at Hogwarts." James glared at him and Sirius threw a cushion.

"Snape's always taking points off Fred and George. Can I come and meet Hagrid with you?"
At five to three they left the castle and made their way across the grounds. Hagrid lived in a small wooden house on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. A crossbow and a pair of galoshes were outside the front door.

When Harry knocked they heard a frantic scrabbling from inside and several booming barks. Then Hagrid's voice rang out, saying, "Back, Fang - Back."

"I don't understand Hagrid," said Lily. "His nice pets get vicious names, while the dangerous ones get cute names like Fluffy or Snowball or whatever." The others nodded in agreement.

Hagrid's big hairy face appeared in the crack as he pulled the door open.
"Hang on," he said. "Back, Fang."

He let them in, struggling to keep a hold on the collar of an enormous black boarhound.

There was only one room inside. Hams and pheasants were hanging from the ceiling, a copper kettle was boiling on the open fire and in the corner stood a massive bed with a patchwork quilt over it.

"Make yerselves at home," said Hagrid letting go of Fang, who bounded straight at Ron and started licking his ears.

They all were laughing. "Fang's only a puppy now, but he likes to do that to Sirius whenever we visit!" laughed Remus.

Sirius threw another cushion at him.

Like Hagrid, Fang was clearly not as fierce as he looked.
"This is Ron," Harry told Hagrid, who was pouring boiling water into a large teapot and putting rock cakes on to a plate.

They all winced, for they all had experience with Hagrid's cooking.

"Another Weasley, eh?" said Hagrid, glancing at Ron's freckles. "I spend half me life chasin' yer twin brothers away from the Forest."

"Those guys are really amazing!" said James, looking impressed.

"So much like us," added Sirius.

The rock cakes almost broke their teeth, but Harry and Ron pretended to be enjoying them as they told Hagrid about their first lessons.

"Awwww," cooed Lily. "They're so nice and polite!"

Fang rested his head on Harry's knee and drooled over his robes.

Everyone laughed and winced at the same time.

Harry and Ron were delighted to hear Hagrid call Filch "that old git."

"AN' as fer that cat, Mrs. Norris, I'd like ter introduce her to Fang some time.

"Maybe we should set up Fang with Mrs. Terson now!" suggested Sirius. "Since we won't be around when Filch gets Mrs. Norris!" The others thought it was a good idea, except Lily, who looked uncertain.

D'yeh know, every time I go up ter the school she follows me everywhere? Can't get rid of her - Filch puts her up to it."

Harry told Hagrid about Snape's lesson. Hagrid, like Ron, told Harry no to worry about it, that Snape liked hardly any of the students.

"But he seemed to really hate me."

"Actually, he really does," commented Peter.

"Rubbish!" said Hagrid. "Why should he?"

James began laughing bitterly. "Hmm, maybe it's because of us Marauders?"

Yet Harry couldn't help thinking that Hagrid didn't quite meet his eyes when he said that.

"He probably only said it to make Harry fell better," said Remus thoughtfully.

"How’s yer brother Charlie?" Hagrid asked Ron.

"I liked him a lot - great with animals."
Harry wondered if Hagrid had changed the subject on purpose.

"Probably." said Sirius.

While Ron told Hagrid all about Charlie's work with dragons, Harry picked up a piece of paper that was lying on the table under the tea cosy. It was a cutting from the Daily Prophet:

GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST
Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 July, widely believed to be the work of dark wizards or witches unknown.
Gringotts' goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day. "But we're not telling what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you," said a Gringotts spokes goblin this afternoon.

Harry remembered Ron telling him on the train that someone had tried to rob Gringotts, but Ron hadn't mentioned the date.

"Hagrid!" said Harry. "That Gringotts break-in happened on my birthday! It might've been happening while we were there!"

"So Harry's birthday is on July 31!" exclaimed Lily excitedly.

James frowned. "Good thing Hagrid emptied the vault. But who would try to steal the Philosopher's Stone or whatever was in the vault?"

There was no doubt about it, Hagrid definitely didn't meet Harry's eyes this time. He grunted and offered him another rock cake.

"Trying to change the subject aging?" said James, lifting a brow.

Harry read the story again. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied earlier that same day. Hagrid had emptied vault seven hundred and thirteen, if you could call it emptying,

taking out that grubby little package. Had that been what the thieves were looking for?

"Probably," muttered Sirius.

As Harry and Ron walked back to the castle for dinner, their pockets weighed down with rock cakes they'd been too polite to refuse, Harry thought that none of the lessons so far had given him as much to think about as tea with Hagrid.

Had Hagrid collected that package just in time?

"Since it wasn't nicked, I'd say it was," said James. The others nodded in agreement.

Where was it now?

"Probably in the forbidden corridor," said Sirius.

And did Hagrid know something about Snape that he didn't want to tell Harry?

cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=114684

cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=114684




CHAPTER NINE
THE MIDNIGHT DUEL

Harry had never believed he would meet a boy he hated more than Dudley, but that was before he met Draco Malfoy. Still, first-year Gryffindors only had potions with the Slytherins, so they didn't have to put up with Malfoy much.

Or at least, they didn't until they spotted a notice pinned up in the Gryffindor common room which made them groan. Flying lessons would be starting on Thursday - and Gryffindor and Slytherin would be learning together.

"Typical," muttered James, looking angry.

"Typical," said Harry darkly.

The others looked at James, who said, "He's my son! We're bound to sometimes say the same thing!"

"Just what I always wanted. To make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Malfoy."

"But you already flew, Harry, so you won't make a fool of yourself." said James.

"He apparated," said Sirius.

"Flew."

"Apparated."

"Flew."

"App-"

"Shut up!" exclaimed Remus. "We don't need you to continue a pointless argument!"

He had been looking forward to learning to fly more than anything else.

"Don't worry," said James. "You probably inherited my flying and Quidditch talent." Lily rolled her eyes.

"You don't know you'll make a fool of yourself," said Ron reasonably. "Anyway, I know Malfoy's always going on about how good he is at Quidditch, but I bet that's all talk."

"I don't think it'll be all talk," said Sirius. "Lucius Malfoy isn't bad, and he was on the Slytherin team before he graduated."

Malfoy certainly did talk about flying a lot.

"That's because it's the best!" exclaimed James.

"There's more to life than just flying and Quidditch!" exclaimed Lily. Sirius and James gave her shocked looks.

He complained loudly about first-years never getting in the house Quidditch teams and told long, boastful stories which always seemed to end with him narrowly escaping Muggles in helicopters.

"None of which will turn out to be true," said Sirius.

He wasn't the only one, though: the way Seamus Finnigan told it, he'd spent most of his childhood zooming around the countryside on his broomstick.

"That's more believable," said Sirius.

Even Ron would tell anyone who'd listen about the time he'd almost hit a hand-glider on Charlie's old broom.

Everyone from wizarding families talked about Quidditch constantly.

"Well, it is the best game ever!" said Sirius.

Ron had already had a big argument with Dean Thomas, who shared their dormitory, about football.

"That's the game the Muggles like to watch, right?" asked Peter. Lily nodded.

Ron couldn't see what was exciting about a game with only one ball where no one was allowed to fly. Harry had caught Ron prodding Dean's poster of West Ham football team, trying to make the players move.

They all began laughing.

Neville had never been on a broomstick in his life, because his grandmother had never let him near one.

Peter flinched. "He'd probably fall off, like me."

Privately, Harry felt she'd had good reason, because Neville managed to have an extraordinary number of accidents even with both feet on the ground.

"Like me," said Peter, sounding gloomy.

"You're not always so clumsy," said James, trying to make Peter feel better.

Hermione Granger was almost as nervous about flying as Neville was.

"That's because you can't learn it from a book," said Sirius, sounding amused.

This was something you couldn't learn be heart out of a book - not that she hadn't tried.

"For the love of Merlin!" muttered Sirius.

At breakfast on Thursday she bored them all stupid with flying tips she'd got out of a library book called Quidditch through the Ages.

"That's a good book," said James. "I've read it."

Neville was hanging on to her every word, desperate for anything that might help him hang on to his broomstick later, but everybody else was very pleased when Hermione's lecture was interrupted by the arrival of the post.

Harry hadn't had a single letter since Hagrid's note, something that Malfoy had been quick to notice, of course.

"It doesn't matter if Harry doesn't get any mail!" said James.

Malfoy's eagle owl was always bringing him packages of sweets from home, which he opened gloatingly at the Slytherin table.

A barn owl brought Neville a small package from his grandmother. He opened it excitedly and showed them all a glass ball the size of a large marble, which seemed to be full of white smoke.

"Sounds like a Rememberall," said Sirius. "Didn't you have one, Peter?"

"Yeah," responded Peter. "But I lost it fourth year."

"It's a Rememberall!" he explained. "Gran knows I forget things - this tells you if there's something you've forgotten to do. Look, you hold it tight like this and if it turns red - oh..." His face fell, because the Rememberall had suddenly glowed scarlet, "... you've forgotten something..."

Neville was trying to remember what he'd forgotten when Draco Malfoy, who was passing the Gryffindor table, snatched the Rememberall out of his hand.

Harry and Ron jumped to their feet. They were half hoping for a reason to fight Malfoy, but Professor McGonagall who could spot trouble quicker than any teacher in the school, was there in a flash.

"How does she do that?' asked James, frowning.

"It gets annoying," added Sirius.

"What's going on?"

"Malfoy's got my Rememberall, Professor."

Scowling, Malfoy quickly dropped the Rememberall back on the table.
"Just looking," he said, and he sloped away with Crabbe and Goyle behind him.

"Why are those two always with him?" asked Lily.

"Probably because he's a wimp and needs those two around for protection," answered Sirius.

At three-thirty that afternoon, Harry, Ron and the other Gryffindors hurried down the front steps into the grounds for their first flying lesson.

James looked excited and kept bouncing up and down in his seat.

It was a clear, breezy day

"Perfect Quidditch conditions!" said James happily.

and the grass rippled under their feet as they marched down the sloping lawns towards a smooth lawn on the opposite side of the grounds to the Forbidden Forest, whose trees were swaying darkly in the distance.

Sirius smiled. "The adventures we've had there..." Remus, James, and Peter smiled as well, while Lily looked halfway disapproving.

The Slytherins were already there, and so were twenty broomsticks lying in neat lines on the ground. Harry had heard Fred and George Weasley complain about the school brooms,

"That's because they're rubbish!" exclaimed Sirius and James.

saying that some of them started to vibrate if you flew too high, or always flew slightly to the left.

Their teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived. She had short, grey hair and yellow eyes like a hawk.

"Well, what are you all waiting for?" she barked. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."

Harry glanced down at his broom. It was old and some of the twigs stuck out at odd angles.

"Stick out your right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch at the front, "and say, 'Up!'"

"UP!" everyone shouted.

"Harry's broom will go up to his hand at once!" exclaimed James excitedly. "Just you wait and see!"

Harry's broom jumped into his hand at once,

"YES!" shouted James, looking happy and excited. Lily smiled proudly and the others looked happy.

but it was one of the few that did. Hermione Granger's had simply rolled over on the ground and Neville's hadn't moved at all.

"Mine didn't move either," commented Peter. "But I was afraid of flying."

Perhaps brooms, like horses, could tell when you were afraid, thought Harry; there was a quaver in Neville's voice that said only too clearly that he wanted to keep his feet on the ground

"There was a quaver in my voice, too," said Peter. "At least, that's what Sirius said he heard."

Madam Hooch then showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows, correcting their grips. Harry and Ron were delighted when she told Malfoy he'd been doing it wrong for years.

"Ha ha!" laughed James. Sirius joined in.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," said Madam Hooch. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet and then come straight back down by leaning forwards slightly. On my whistle - three - two -"

But Neville, nervous and jumpy and frightened of being left on the ground, pushed off hard before the whistle had touched Madame Hooch's lips.

Peter winced and exclaimed, "I didn't even do that! I kicked off with everyone else."

"Come back, boy!" she shouted, but Neville was rising straight up like a cork shot out of a bottle - twelve feet - twenty feet.

"Poor Neville," muttered Remus sympathetically. "He's clearly not much like Frank Longbottom."

"Nor like Alice," said Lily. "Well, except maybe in looks."

Harry saw his scared white face look down at the ground falling away, saw him gasp, slip sideways off the broom and -

"Ouch," said James, wincing. "Just like you, Peter."

Peter nodded, looking glum. "Yeah, I fell during the first lesson, too. I sprained my ankle."

WHAM - a thud and a nasty crack and Neville lay, face down, on the grass in a heap. His broomstick was still rising higher and higher and started to drift lazily towards the Forbidden Forest and out of sight.

Madam Hooch was bending over Neville, her face as white as his.

"Broken wrist," Harry heard her mutter. "Come on, boy - it's all right, up you get."
She turned to the rest of the class.

"None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch'. Come on, dear."

Neville, his face tear-streaked, clutching his wrist, hobbled off with Madam Hooch, who had her arm around him.

No sooner were they out of earshot than Malfoy burst into laughter.

They all glared at the book.

"Did you see his face, the great lump?"
The other Slytherins joined in.

"Shut up, Malfoy," snapped Parvati Patil.

"Ooh, sticking up for Longbottom?" said Pansy Parkinson, a hard-faced Slytherin girl. "Never thought you'd like fat little cry babies, Parvati."

"Ugh, what a horrid girl!" exclaimed Lily. "No wonder she's in Slytherin."

"Look!" said Malfoy, darting forward and snatching something out of the grass. "It's that stupid thing Longbottom's gran sent him."

"The Rememberall?" asked Peter, looking up from the book.

"Sounds like it, the git!" snarled Sirius.

The Rememberall glittered in the sun as he held it up.
"Give that here, Malfoy," said Harry quietly.

"Whack him with a broom if he doesn't, Harry!" exclaimed James. Sirius joined in egging Harry on, while Remus and Lily looked faintly disapproving and Peter waited for Sirius and James to stop so he could continue reading.

Everyone stopped talking to watch.
Malfoy smiled nastily.
"I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to collect - how about - up a tree?"

"How about having Harry punch you in the face and give you three black eyes?" inquired James.

"But we only have two eyes," said Peter, looking confused.

"It's just something to show how much we don't like Malfoy," explained Sirius.

"Give it here!" Harry yelled, but Malfoy had leapt on to his broomstick and taken off. He hadn't been lying, he could fly well - hovering level with the topmost branches of an oak he called, "Come and get it, Potter!"

"NO, HARRY!" yelled Lily. "You'll get in trouble and be expelled!"

"He's not going to get expelled," said James. "He'll just get a detention or two and maybe lose a few points."

Harry grabbed his broom.

"No!" shouted Hermione Granger. "Madam Hooch told us not to move - you'll get us all into trouble."

"Just ignore her, Harry!" said Sirius, looking excited.

Harry ignored her. Blood was pounding in his ears. He mounted the broom and kicked hard against the ground and up, up he soared,

"See!" retorted James, looking triumphantly at Sirius. "Harry can fly! He inherited my talent!"

air rushed through his hair and his robes whipped out behind him - and in a rush of fierce joy he realized he'd found something he could do without being taught -

James smiled smugly at Sirius, who glared at him.

this was easy, this was wonderful. He pulled his broomstick up a little to take it even higher and heard screams and gasps of girls back on the ground and an admiring whoop from Ron.

He turned his broomstick sharply to face Malfoy in mid-air. Malfoy looked stunned.

"Ha, ha, ha-ha, ha!" laughed Sirius.

James looked gleeful. "My son is better than Malfoy at flying!" Lily couldn't help smiling.

"Give it here," Harry called, "or I'll knock you off that broom!"

"Yeah, Harry, you tell him!" said James.

Oh, yeah?" said Malfoy trying to sneer, but looking worried.

"You should look worried!" exclaimed Sirius. "Your cronies aren't up there to help you!"

Harry knew, somehow, what to do. He leant forward and grasped the broom tightly in both hands and shot towards Malfoy like a javelin. Malfoy only just got out of the way in time; Harry made a sharp about turn and held the broom steady. A few people below were clapping.

"No Crabbe and Goyle to save your neck, Malfoy," Harry called.

"Don't say that!" cried James, looking alarmed. "He'll get cold feet or something!"

The same thought seemed to have struck Malfoy.
"Catch it if you can, then!" he shouted, and he threw the glass ball high into the air and streaked back towards the ground.

Harry saw, as though in slow motion, the ball rise up in the air and then start to fall. He leant forward and pointed his broom handle down - next second he was gathering speed in a steep dive, racing the ball - wind whistled in his ears, mingling with the screams of people watching - he stretched out his hand - a foot from the ground he caught it, just in time to pull his broom straight, and he toppled gently on to the grass with the Rememberall clutched safely in his fist.

"Definitely seeker material!" exclaimed James proudly. "It would have been nice of he could be a chaser like me, but as long as he's good at Quidditch, I don't really care."

"HARRY POTTER!"

"Oh no!" groaned Sirius. "It's probably McGonagall!" James nodded gloomy and Lily, Remus, and Peter looked worried and concerned.

His heart sank faster than he'd just dived. Professor McGonagall was running towards them. He got to his feet trembling.

"Never - in all my time at Hogwarts -"
Professor McGonagall was almost speechless with shock, and her glasses flasher furiously,

"Not good." said James.
"We've never made her speechless before," commented Sirius. "We should try to do that in our last year-and-a-half of school."

"- how dare you - might have broken your neck -"

"It wasn't his fault, Professor -"

"Yeah! Stick up for Harry!' exclaimed James.

"Be quiet, Miss Patil -"

"But Malfoy -"

"That's enough, Mr. Weasley. Potter, follow me, now."

Remus suddenly looked thoughtful. "McGonagall loves Quidditch and really wants Gryffindor to win. There's always the chance that she won't punish Harry, or at least punish him lightly, and have him be the reserve seeker for Gryffindor." The others perked up at this.

Harry caught sight of Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle's triumphant faces as he left,

James and Sirius scowled.

walking numbly in Professor McGonagall's wake as she strode towards the castle. He was going to be expelled, he just knew it.

"He won't be expelled," said Remus. "Flying a broom without permission will just land you in detention."

He wanted to say something to defend himself, but there seemed to be something wrong with his voice. Professor McGonagall was sweeping along without even looking at him; he had to jog to keep up. Now he'd done it. He hadn't even lasted two weeks. He'd be packing his bags in ten minutes. What would the Dursleys say when he turned up on the doorstep?

Up the front steps, up the marble staircase inside and still Professor McGonagall didn't say a word to him. She wrenched open doors and marched along corridors with Harry trotting miserably behind her. Maybe she was taking him to Dumbledore. He thought of Hagrid, expelled but allowed to stay on as gamekeeper. Perhaps he could be Hagrid's assistant. His stomach twisted as he imagined it, watching Ron and the others become wizards while he stumped the grounds, carrying Hagrid's bag.

"Don't worry, Harry," said James. "You won't be expelled."

Professor McGonagall stopped outside a classroom. She opened the door and poked her head inside.
"Excuse me, Professor Flitwick, could I borrow Wood for a moment?"

Wood? thought Harry, bewildered; was Wood a cane she was going to use on him?

"Nope," said Remus. "Dumbledore got rid of corporal punishment when he became Headmaster."

But Wood turned out to be a person, a burly fifth-year boy who came out of Flitwick's class looking confused.

"Follow me, you two," said Professor McGonagall, and they marched on up the corridor, Wood looking curiously at Harry. "In here."

Professor McGonagall pointed them into a classroom which was empty except for Peeves, who was busy writing rude words on the blackboard.

"Peeves is so predictable," commented Remus.

"He's great, too," said Sirius and James, smiling broadly.

"Out, Peeves!" she barked.

"Well, I wouldn't argue," said James.

Peeves threw the chalk into a bin, which clanged loudly, and he swooped out cursing. Professor McGonagall slammed the door behind him and turned to face the two boys.

"Potter, this is Oliver Wood. Wood - I've found you a Seeker."

They all blinked in shock and Remus exclaimed, "I was expecting that McGonagll might make Harry a reserve seeker, but not that he'd actually be a full teammate!"

Wood's expression changed from puzzlement to delight.
"Are you serious, Professor?"

"McGonagall is always serious!' said James, sounding slightly bitter.

"Absolutely," said Professor McGonagall crisply. "The boy's a natural. I've never seen anything like it.

"Wow!" said James, looking awestruck. "Harry's even better than me!"

Was that your first time on a broomstick, Potter?"

Harry nodded silently. He didn't have a clue what was going on, but he didn't seem to be being expelled, and some of the feeling started coming back to his legs.

"He caught that thing in his hand after a fifty-foot dive," Professor McGonagall told Wood.

"Fifty-foot!" said James, looking deeply impressed. "That's amazing!" Lily looked proud, even thought she wasn't as wild about Quidditch as James was.

"Didn't even scratch himself. Charlie Weasley couldn't have done it."

Wood was now looking as though all his dreams had come true at once.

"Ever seen a game of Quidditch, Potter?" he asked excitedly.

"Wood's the captain of the Gryffindor team," Professor McGonagall explained.

"He's just the build for a Seeker, too," said Wood, now walking around Harry and staring at him. "Light - speedy - we'll have to get him a decent broom, Professor - a Nimbus Two Thousand or a Cleansweep Seven, I'd say."

"Get the Nimbus," said James. "It sounds the best!"

I shall speak to Professor Dumbledore and see if we can't bend the first-year rule. Heaven knows, we need a better team than last year. Flattened in that last match by Slytherin, I couldn't look Severus Snape in the face for weeks..."

"WHAT!" roared Sirius, looking disgusted.

"Well, Harry'll beat them!" declared Lily, earning surprised looks from the others

Professor McGonagall peered sternly over her glasses at Harry.

"I want to hear you're training hard, Potter, or I may change my mind about punishing you."
Then she suddenly smiled.

"Your father would have been proud," she said.

"I am." said James quietly, smiling sadly. Lily smiled sadly as well, while Remus, Peter, and Sirius gave them sympathetic looks.

He was an excellent Quidditch player himself."

James wiped away a single tear and Lily patted his arm. "I'll go out with you, James," she said softly.

"You will?" asked James incredulously.

"I married you, didn't I?" asked Lily. "And I've seen a different side of you ever since we've been reading this book. It's much nicer and if you keep it up, I'll continue going out with you and fulfill the future by marrying you."

James smiled and hugged Lily, who blushed. Sirius and Remus looked at each other mischievously. It was time that they put the diary into good use.

"You're joking."
It was dinner time. Harry had just finished telling Ron what had happened when he'd left the grounds with Professor McGonagall. Ron had a piece of steak-and-kidney pie halfway to his mouth, but he'd forgotten all about it.

"Seeker?" he said. "But first-years never - you must be the youngest house player in about -"

"-a century," said Harry, shoveling pie in his mouth.

"Wow!" exclaimed James, even more impressed. "Harry is good!"

He felt particularly hungry after the excitement of the afternoon. "Wood told me."
Ron was so amazed, so impressed; he just sat and gaped at Harry.
"I start training next week," said Harry. "Only don't tell anyone, Wood wants to keep it a secret."

Fred and George Weasley now came into the hall, spotted Harry and hurried over.

"Well done," said George in a low voice.

"How did they find out?" asked Sirius.

"Either they're on the team as well or they're really good at finding out information," said James.

"Wood told us.

"So much for keeping it a secret!" said Sirius.

We're on the team too - Beaters."

"Ah," said Sirius.

"I tell you, we're going to win that Quidditch Cup for sure this year," said Fred. "We haven't won since Charlie left, but this year's team is going to be brilliant. You must be good, Harry, Wood was almost skipping when he told us."

"He is good!" said James, proudly. Lily smiled and sat closer to him.

"Anyway, we've got to go; Lee Jordan reckons he's found a new secret passage way out of the school."

"Bet it's that one behind the statue of Gregory the Smarmy that we found in our first week.

"Wow!" said Sirius. "I can't believe they found it so quickly. It took us at two or three weeks to find that one!"

See you."
Fred and George hardly disappeared when someone far less welcome turned up:

"Malfoy!" growled James. Lily patted his arm.

Malfoy, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle.
"Having a last meal, Potter? When are you getting the train back to the Muggles?"

"He's not!' retorted Lily hotly.

"You're a lot braver now you're back on the ground and you've got your little friends with you," said Harry coolly.

There was of course nothing at all little about Crabbe and Goyle, but as the High Table was full of teachers, neither of them could do more than crack their knuckles and scowl.

"That's never stopped James and Sirius," muttered Remus. James and Sirius glared at him.

"I'd take you on any time on my own," said Malfoy.

"Yeah, right," said James.

"Tonight, if you want. Wizard's duel. Wands only - no contact. What's the matter? Never heard of a wizard's duel before, I suppose?"

"Probably not," said Lily, glaring at the book.

"Of course he has," said Ron, wheeling round.

"Ron would help Harry, of course!" exclaimed Sirius, looking happy.

"I'm his second, who's yours?"

"You'd be my second, wouldn't you, Padfoot?" asked James.
"You need to ask?" replied Sirius. James grinned at him.

Malfoy looked at Crabbe and Goyle, sizing them up.
"Crabbe," he said. "Midnight all right? We'll meet you in the trophy room, that's always unlocked."

When Malfoy had gone, Ron and Harry looked at each other.
"What is a wizard's duel?" said Harry. "And what do you mean, you're my second?"

"A second is there to take your place if you die, but that won't happen for you." said Remus.

"Well, a second's there to take over if you die," said Ron casually, getting started at last on his cold pie. Catching the look on Harry's face, he added quickly, "but people only die in proper duels, you know, with real wizards. The most you and Malfoy'll be able to do is send sparks at each other. Neither of you knows enough magic to do any real damage. I bet he expected you to refuse, anyway."

"I'd bet it, too," said Sirius.

"And what if I wave my wand and nothing happens?"

"Throw it away and punch him on the nose," Ron suggested.

"I like Ron," said Sirius.

"Excuse me."

"It's probably that Granger girl," said James, looking thoroughly annoyed. "Lily and Remus are smart, but they don't act so know-it-allish and annoying." Remus and Lily exchanged looks.

They both looked up. It was Hermione Granger.

"Can't a person eat in peace in this place?" said Ron.

Hermione ignored him and spoke to Harry.
"I couldn't help overhearing what you and Malfoy were saying -"

"Bet you could," Ron muttered.

"- and you mustn’t go wandering around the school at night, think of the points you'll lose Gryffindor if you're caught, and you're bound to be.

"What an annoying girl!" muttered Sirius. "Even being in Gryffindor doesn't make her nice."

It's really selfish of you."

"Shut up!" exclaimed James, losing patience.

"And it's really none of your business," said Harry.

"Goodbye," said Ron.

"Well said, guys!" exclaimed Sirius.

All the same, it wasn't what you'd call the perfect end to the day, Harry thought, as he lay awake much later listening to Dean and Seamus falling asleep (Neville wasn't back from the hospital wing).

Ron had spent all evening giving him advice such as "If he tries to curse you, you'd better dodge it, because I can't remember how to block them."

There was a very good chance they were going to get caught by Filch or Mrs. Norris, and Harry felt he was pushing his luck, breaking another school rule today.

"Of course, your father doesn't think along those lines," said Lily, giving James an exasperated look.

On the other hand, Malfoy's sneering face kept looming up out of the darkness - this was his big chance to beat Malfoy, face to face. He couldn't miss it.

"Half past eleven," Ron muttered at last. "We'd better go."

They pulled on their dressing-gowns, picked up their wands and crept across the tower room, down the spiral staircase and into the Gryffindor common room. A few embers were still glowing in the fireplace, turning all the armchairs into shadows. They had almost reached the portrait hole when a voice spoke from the chair nearest them: "I can't believe you're going to do this, Harry."

"Not Granger again!" said James. Sirius began muttering curses under his breath.

A lamp flickered on. It was Hermione Granger, wearing a pink dressing-gown and a frown.

"You!" said Ron furiously. "Go back to bed!"

"I almost told your brother," Hermione snapped. "Percy - he's a Prefect, he'd put a stop to this."
Harry couldn't believe anyone could be so interfering.

"Remus never acts like this when he tries to talk us out of a prank!" exclaimed Sirius.

"That's because I'm your friend and because I know I won't succeed," pointed out Remus, smiling ruefully.

"Come on," he said to Ron.

"That's it, Harry," encouraged James. "Just ignore her!"

He pushed the portrait of the Fat Lady and climbed through the hole.

"Yeah, walk away!' added Sirius.

Hermione wasn't going to give up that easily.

"WHY CAN'T YOU JUST GO AWAY, YOU ANNOYING GIRL?" shouted James.

She followed Ron through the portrait hole, hissing at them like an angry goose.

"Don't you care about Gryffindor, do you only care about yourselves, I don't want Slytherin to win the House Cup and you'll lose all the points I got from Professor McGonagall for knowing about Switching Spells."

"Harry'll win the points back in Quidditch, so who cares?" said James.

"Go away."

"Thank you!" exclaimed Sirius.

"All right, but I warned you, you must remember what I said when you're on the train home tomorrow, you're so -"
But what they were, they didn't find out.

"Ha ha!" cried James. "The Fat Lady's went on a nighttime visit and isn't there!"

Hermione had turned to the portrait of the Fat Lady to get back inside and found herself facing an empty painting.

They all laughed.

The Fat Lady had gone on a night-time visit and Hermione was locked out of Gryffindor tower.

"Now what am I going to do?" she asked shrilly.

"That's your problem," said Ron. "We've got to go, we're going to be late."
They hadn't even reached the end of the corridor when Hermione caught up with them.

"How annoying can this girl get?" demanded Remus.

"Lots," replied Peter, sounding gloomy for some reason.

"I'm coming with you," she said.

"You are not."

"D'you think I'm going to stand out here and wait for Filch to catch me? If he finds all three of us I'll tell him the truth, that I was trying to stop you and you can back me up."

"Yeah, like Harry and Ron will back you up," muttered James.

"You've got some nerve -" said Ron loudly.

"Shut up, both of you!" said Harry sharply. "I heard something."

It was a sort of snuffling.

"I hope it's not Mrs. Ter-I mean Mrs. Norris!" exclaimed Lily nervously.

"Mrs. Norris?" breathed Ron, squinting through the dark.
It wasn't Mrs. Norris.

"PHEW!" they all exclaimed.

It was Neville. He was curled up on the floor, fast asleep, but jerked awake as they crept nearer.

"Did he forget the password?" asked Peter. "I sometimes forget." The others shrugged.

"Thank goodness you found me! I've been out here for hours. I couldn't remember the new password to get into bed."

"Awww," cooed Lily. Peter looked sympathetic, while James rolled his eyes and Sirius stifled laughter.

"Keep your voice down, Neville. The password's 'Pig snout' but it won't help you now, the Fat Lady's gone off somewhere."

"How's your arm?" said Harry.

"Fine," said Neville, showing them. "Madam Pomfrey mended it in about a minute."

"Well, she can fix anything," said Sirius.

"Good - well, look, Neville, we've got to be somewhere, we'll see you later -"

"Don't leave me" said Neville, scrambling to his feet. "I don't want to stay here alone, The Bloody Baron's been past twice already."

"Oooh," shuddered Peter.

Ron looked at his watch and then glared furiously at Hermione and Neville.

"If either of you get us caught, I'll never rest until I've learnt that Curse of the Bogies Quirrell told us about and used it on you."

Hermione opened her mouth, perhaps to tell Ron exactly how to use the Curse of the Bogies, but Harry hissed at her to be quiet and beckoned them all forward.

They flitted along the corridors striped with bars of moonlight from the high windows. At every turn Harry expected to run into Filch or Mrs. Norris, but they were lucky. They sped up a staircase to the third floor and tiptoed towards the trophy room.

Malfoy and Crabbe weren't there yet.

"They must have chickened out!' exclaimed James, looking happy.

The crystal trophy cases glimmered where the moonlight caught them. Cups, shields, plates and statues winked silver and gold in the darkness. They edged along the walls, keeping their eyes on the doors at either end of the room. Harry took out his wand in case Malfoy leapt in and started at once. The minutes crept by.

Remus frowned. "I'm getting a bad feeling about this. I think Malfoy may have tipped Snape or Filch off about it."

The others suddenly looked worried. "Harry'll get caught!" wailed Lily.

"He's late, maybe he's chickened out," Ron whispered.

"RUN! Get out of there!" yelled James.

Then a noise in the next room made them jump. Harry had only just raised his wand when they heard someone speak - and it wasn't Malfoy.

"If it's Snape..." growled Sirius. He picked up his quill and was ready to write on his parchment.

"Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner."

"Filch," said James, looking angry..

It was Filch speaking to Mrs. Norris.

Horror-struck, Harry waved madly at the other three to follow him as quickly as possible; they scurried silently towards the door away from Filch's voice. Neville's robes had barely whipped round the corner when they heard Filch enter the trophy room.

"They're in here somewhere," they heard him mutter, "probably hiding."

"I'm starting a new list ' said Sirius. "Things to get back at Draco Malfoy for." He grabbed a fresh sheet of parchment and began writing.

"This way!" Harry mouthed to the others and, petrified, they began to creep down a long gallery full of suits of armor.

"Oh no, armor!" moaned Remus.

James frowned, then looked concerned. "Neville is clumsy like Peter!" he gasped. "No offense, Peter."

They could hear Filch getting nearer. Neville suddenly let out a frightened squeak and broke into a run -he tripped, grabbed Ron around the waist and the pair of them toppled right into a suit of armor.
The clanging and crashing were enough to wake the whole castle.

Everyone winced and Remus muttered, "I knew it!"

RUN!" Harry yelled and the four of them sprinted down the gallery, not looking back to see whether Filch was following -they swung around the doorpost and galloped down one corridor then another, Harry in the lead without any idea where they were or where they were going.

"Not a very good escape plan," said Remus.

"But they don't have the-" began James. He then broke off, glancing at Lily, who looked anxious.

They ripped through a tapestry and found themselves in a hidden passageway, hurtled along it and came out near their Charms classroom, which they knew was miles from the trophy room.

"Phew," said Lily, sighing in relief. The others sighed as well.

"I think we've lost him," Harry panted, leaning against the cold wall and wiping his forehead.

Neville was bent double, wheezing and spluttering.

"I - told - you," Hermione gasped, clutching at the stitch in her chest. "I - told - you."

"We've got to get back to Gryffindor Tower," said Ron, "quickly as possible."

"What a genius!" said Remus sarcastically.

"Malfoy tricked you," Hermione said to Harry.

"We've already figured it out, Miss Know-it-all!" said Sirius.

"You realize that, don't you?

"Just said so, haven't I?"
"Shut up, Sirius," said Remus.

He was never going to meet you - Filch knew someone was going to be in the trophy room, Malfoy must have tipped him off."

Harry thought she was probably right, but he wasn't going to tell her that.

"Why can't men ever admit that they've been wrong?' demanded Lily. "It's so stupid!'

"Oh, and it isn't stupid when women claim they can't go to a party because they're fat or have nothing to wear?" returned James. Lily blushed and shut her mouth.

"Let's go."
It wasn't going to be that simple. They hadn't gone more than a dozen paces when a doorknob rattled and something came shooting out of a classroom in front of them. It was Peeves.

"Well, maybe Peeves will be okay with Harry," said Sirius. "He's okay with us Marauders."

He caught sight of them and gave a squeal of delight.
"Shut up, Peeves - please - you'll get us thrown out."

Peeves cackled.
"Wandering around at midnight, ickle firsties? Tut, tut, tut. Naughty, naughty, you'll get caughty."

"You were saying?" said Lily, glaring at Sirius, who cowered under her glare.

"Not if you don't give us away, Peeves, please."

"Should tell Filch, I should," said Peeves in a saintly voice, but his eyes glittering wickedly. "It's for your own good, you know."

"Get out of the way," snapped Ron, taking a swipe at Peeves -

"You idiot!" exclaimed James. "That's not how you get Peeves to not tell on you!"

This was a big mistake.

"A huge one!" said Sirius.

"STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" Peeves bellowed. "STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!"
Ducking under Peeves they ran for their lives, right to the end of the corridor, where they slammed into a door - and it was locked.

"This is it!" Ron moaned, as they pushed helplessly at the door. "We're done for! This is the end!"

"Not if you do the Alohomora spell," said Remus. The others looked hopeful.

They could hear footsteps, Filch running as fast as he could towards Peeves's shouts.
"Oh, move over," Hermione snarled.

"She would be the one to know it," muttered Sirius.

She grabbed Harry's wand, tapped the lock and whispered, "Alohomora!"

The lock clicked and the door swung open - they piled through it, shut it quickly and pressed their ears against it, listening.

"Which way did they go, Peeves?" Filch was saying.

Lily looked worried "Don't worry," said Sirius. "Peeves loves taunting Filch, so he's not going to tell."

"Quick, tell me."

"Nope," said James. "Peeves won't tell you!"

"Say 'please'."

"Yes!" exclaimed Sirius, smiling. Lily still looked uncertain.

"Don't mess me about, Peeves, now where did they go?"

"Shan't say nothing if you don't say please," said Peeves in his annoying sing-song voice.

"All right - please."

"NOTHING!" Ha haaa! Told you I wouldn't say nothing if you didn't say please!

They all burst out laughing.
"It’s wonderful when Peeves does that!" said Sirius between laughter.

Ha ha! Haaaaaa!" And they heard the sound of Peeves whooshing away and Filch cursing in rage.

"He thinks this door is locked," Harry whispered. "I think we'll be OK - get off, Neville!" For Neville had been tugging on the sleeve of Harry's dressing-gown for the last minute. "What?"

Harry turned around - and saw, quite clearly, what. For a moment, he was sure he'd walked into a nightmare -this was too much, on top of everything that had happened so far.

They weren't in a room, as he had supposed. They were in a corridor.

"Harry's found the forbidden corridor!" cheered James.

"But Dumbledore wouldn't lock it in a way that could be opened by Aloho-" said Remus.

"Everyone thinks it's dangerous," interrupted Sirius. "Dumbledore did say it was out-of-bounds unless you wished to die a very painful death."

The forbidden corridor on the third floor. And now they knew why it was forbidden.

They were looking straight into the eyes of a monstrous dog, a dog which filled the whole space between the ceiling and floor. It had three heads. Three pairs of rolling, mad eyes; three noses, twitching and quivering in their direction; three drooling mouths, saliva hanging in slippery ropes from yellowish fangs

Everyone looked nervous and Peter had a quaver in his voice as he read.

It was standing quite still, all six eyes staring at them, and Harry knew the only reason they weren't already dead was that their sudden appearance had taken it by surprise, but it was quickly getting over that, there was no mistaking what those thunderous growls meant.

"RUN, YOU IDIOTS!" shouted James.

Harry groped for the doorknob - between Filch and death, he'd take Filch.

"I'd do the same," said James.

They fell backwards - Harry slammed the door shut, and they ran, they almost flew back down the corridor. Filch must have hurried off to look for them somewhere else because they didn't see him anywhere, but they hardly cared - all they wanted to do was put as much space as possible between them and that monster.

They didn't stop running until they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady on the seventh floor.

"Where on earth have you all been?" she asked, looking at their dressing-gowns hanging off their shoulders and their flushed, sweaty faces.

"Why does she even bother?' asked Sirius. "She knows nobody will tell her."

"Never mind that - pig snout, pig snout," panted Harry, and the portrait swung forward. They scrambled into the common room and collapsed, trembling into armchairs.

It was a while before any of them said anything.

Neville, indeed, looked as if he'd never speak again.

"Poor Neville," said Lily, looking concerned.

"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" said Ron finally. "If any dog needs exercise, that one does."

Hermione had got both her breath and her bad temper back again.

"Here we go again," muttered Sirius, rolling his eyes.

"You don't use your eyes, any of you, do you?" she snapped. "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"

"Yeah, when we meet a three-headed dog that's about to eat us, we look at its feet," said James sarcastically.

"The floor?" Harry suggested. "I wasn't looking at its feet, I was too busy with its heads."

"No, not the floor. It was standing on a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something."

"The Philosopher's Stone!" they all said together.

She stood up, glaring at them.
"I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed - or worse, expelled.

"Dying is a hit worse than being expelled!' exclaimed Sirius

Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed."

Ron stared after her, his mouth open.

"No, we don't mind," he said. "You'd think we dragged her along, wouldn't you?"

But Hermione had given Harry something else to think about as he climbed back into bed.

The dog was guarding something... What had Hagrid said? Gringotts was the safest place in the world for something you wanted to hide - except perhaps Hogwarts.

"Yes! Yes!" exclaimed James.

It looked as though Harry had found out where the grubby little package from vault seven hundred and thirteen was.

cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=114684

cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=114684


CHAPTER TEN
HALLOWE'EN

Malfoy couldn't believe his eyes when he saw that Harry and Ron were still at Hogwarts next day, looking tired but perfectly cheerful.

"Ha, ha!" laughed James and Sirius.

Indeed, by next morning Harry and Ron thought that meeting the three-headed dog had been an excellent adventure and they were quite keen to have another one.

"Spoken like the son of a Marauder!" declared James proudly. Lily sighed and shook her head.

In the meantime, Harry filled Ron in about the package that seemed to have been moved from Gringotts to Hogwarts, and they spent a lot of time wondering what could possibly need such heavy protection.

"A Philosopher’s Stone!" exclaimed James. "That’s what it is Harry."

"One, he can't hear you," said Remus. "Two, you only know what it because you've seen the book's title. Harry hasn't."

"It's either really valuable or really dangerous," said Ron.
"Or both," said Harry.

"Both correct," said James.

But as all they knew for sure about the mysterious object was that it was about two inches long, they didn't have much chance of guessing what it was without further clues.

"It's a Philosopher's-" began Sirius.

"Shut up!" snapped Lily. "We've already been over it once with James."

Neither Neville nor Hermione showed the slightest interest in what lay underneath the dog and the trapdoor. All Neville cared about was never going near the dog again.

"I would too," said Peter.

Hermione was now refusing to speak to Harry and Ron,

"Thank Merlin," muttered James and Sirius at the same time.

but she was such a bossy know-it-all that they saw this as an added bonus.

All they really wanted now was a way of getting back at Malfoy, and to their great delight, just such a thing arrived with the post about a week later.

They all looked excited and waited eagerly for Sirius to read about it.

As the owls flooded into the Great Hall as usual, everyone's attention was caught at once by long thin package carried by six large screech owls. Harry was just as interested as everyone else to see what was in this large parcel and was amazed when the owls soared down and dropped it right in front of him, knocking his bacon to the floor.

"It muss be Harry's broomstick!' exclaimed James, jumping up excitedly. "I hope it's a Nimbus!"

They had hardly fluttered out of the way when another owl dropped a letter on top of the parcel.
Harry ripped open the letter first,

"Who cares about the letter?" asked James, sitting down. "I want to see what model he has!"

which was lucky, because it said:

DO NOT OPEN THE PARCEL AT THE TABLE.
It contains your new Nimbus Two Thousand, but I don't want everyone knowing you've got a broomstick or they'll all want one. Oliver Wood will meet you tonight on the Quidditch pitch at seven o'clock for your first training session.
Professor M. McGonagall

"Wow," said James, looking impressed. "My son has the best broom! Thank you, McGonagall! Sirius, how about if we go easy on our pranks and nighttime marauding for awhile as a sort of thank-you to her?"

"Well, I guess it would fine," answered Sirius.

Harry had difficulty hiding his glee as he handed the note to Ron to read.

"A Nimbus Two Thousand!" Ron moaned enviously. "I've never even touched one."

They left the Hall quickly, wanting to un-wrap the broomstick in private before their first lesson, but halfway across the Entrance Hall they found the way upstairs barred by Crabbe and Goyle.

"Ha!" laughed Sirius. "Now they can get back at them!"

Malfoy seized the package from Harry and felt it.

"Get you dirty hands of the package!" snarled James.

"That's a broomstick," he said, throwing it back to Harry with a mixture of jealousy and spite on his face. "You'll be in for it this time, Potter, first-years aren't allowed them."

"Actually, you're not allowed them," said James, looking gleeful.

Ron couldn't resist it.
"It's not any old broomstick," he said, "It's a Nimbus Two Thousand. What did you say you've got at home, Malfoy, a Comet Two Sixty?"

James grinned. "And seeing as the Comet's the second-best broom now, it won't be so great in Harry's time!"

Ron grinned at Harry. "Comets look flashy, but they're not in the same league as the Nimbus."

"Yeah, you tell him, Ron!" said Sirius.

"What would you know about it, Weasley, you couldn't afford half the handle," Malfoy snapped back.

"Who cares if the Weasleys aren't rich?" demanded James. "They're a billion times better than your family!"

"I suppose you and your brothers have to save up, twig by twig."

"That cheeky little prat!" exclaimed Remus indignantly.

Before Ron could answer, Professor Flitwick appeared at Malfoy's elbow.

"Aww!" whined Sirius, earning a glare from Remus.

"Not arguing, I hope, boys?" he squeaked.
"Potter's been sent a broomstick, Professor," said Malfoy quickly.

"Tattletale!" said Sirius.

"Yes, yes, that's right," said Professor Flitwick beaming at Harry. "Professor McGonagall told me all about the special circumstances, Potter. And what model is it?"

"A Nimbus Two Thousand, sir," said Harry, fighting not to laugh at the look of horror on Malfoy's face. "And it's really thanks to Malfoy here that I've got it," he added.

James and Sirius burst out laughing, while the others looked merely amused by the situation.

Harry and Ron headed upstairs, smothering their laughter at Malfoy's obvious rage and confusion.

James was holding his side due to all his laughter.

"Well it's true," Harry chortled as they reached the top of the marble staircase. "If he hadn't stolen Neville's Rememberall I wouldn't be in the team ..."

"So I suppose you think that's a reward for breaking rules?" came an angry voice from just behind them.

"That Granger girl is more than annoying," muttered Sirius angrily.

Hermione was stomping up the stairs looking disapprovingly at the package in Harry's hands.

"Well. I suppose Hermione has a point," said Lily. "She does want Gryffindor to win the House Cup and it can't if they lose too many points. Which you and Sirius haven't seem to figured out, James."

"Well, Hermione doesn't have to be so annoying about it!' retorted James.

"I thought you weren't speaking to us?" said Harry.

"Good point!" said Sirius.

"Yes, don't stop now," said Ron, "it's doing us so much good."

Hermione marched away with her nose in the air.

Harry had a lot of trouble keeping his mind on his lessons that day. It kept wandering up to the dormitory, where his new broomstick was lying under his bed, or straying off to the Quidditch pitch where he'd be learning to play that night.

"Just like his father!' muttered Lily. "I like Quidditch, but I'm not obsessed with it!"

He bolted his dinner that evening without even noticing what he was eating and then rushed upstairs with Ron to unwrap the Nimbus Two Thousand at last.

"I'll never see his first Quidditch game," said James sadly. "I'll only be able to read about it." Lily wiped away a few tears.

"Wow," Ron sighed, as the broomstick rolled on to Harry's bedspread.
Even Harry, who knew nothing about the different brooms thought it looked wonderful. Sleek and shiny, with a mahogany handle, it had a long tail of neat, straight twigs and Nimbus Two Thousand written in gold near the top.

"Wow," said the Marauders.

Lily shook her head. "It is a good broom, but nothing to get so worked up about." James and Sirius gave her looks as if she had just spoken blasphemy.

As seven o'clock drew nearer, Harry left the castle and set off towards the Quidditch pitch in the dusk. He'd never been inside the stadium before. Hundreds of seats were raised in stands around the pitch so that the spectators were high enough to see what was going on. At either end of the pitch were three golden poles with hoops on the end. They reminded Harry of the little plastic sticks Muggle children blew bubbles through, except that they were fifty feet high.

Too eager to fly again to wait for Wood, Harry mounted his broomstick and kicked off from the ground. What a feeling -

"I know what you mean," commented James, smiling dreamily.

he swooped in and out of the goalposts and then sped up and down the pitch. The Nimbus Two Thousand turned wherever he wanted at his lightest touch.

"Wow..." said James. "I wish I had a broom like that."

"Hey, Potter, come down!"

Oliver Wood had arrived. He was carrying a large wooden crate under his arm. Harry landed next to him.
"Very nice," said Wood, his eyes glinting. "I see what McGonagall meant ... you really are a natural.

James and Lily smiled proudly.

I'm just going to teach you the rules this evening, then you'll be joining team practice three times a week."

"Three?" asked James. "We have to train for four and sometimes even five nights a week."

"That's because Kevin is even more of a Quidditch nut than you or this Oliver Wood guy."

He opened the crate. Inside were four different-sized balls.

"Can I skip it?" asked Sirius. "I love Quidditch, but reading this section will be boring."

"No," said James. "We will not miss a single moment of my son's life at Hogwarts. And I love to hear about Quidditch."

"Right," said Wood. "Now, Quidditch is easy enough to understand, even if it's not too easy to play. There are seven players on each side. Three of them are called Chasers."

James smiled broadly. "Like me!"

"Three Chasers," Harry repeated, as Wood took out a bright red ball about the size of a football.

"This ball's called the Quaffle," said Wood. "The Chasers throw the Quaffle to each other and try to get it through one of the hoops to score a goal. Ten points every time the Quaffle goes through one of the hoops. Follow me?"

"The Chasers throw the Quaffle and put it through the hoops to score," Harry recited. "So - that's sort of like basketball on broomsticks with six hoops, isn't it?"

"What's basketball?" said Wood curiously.

"What is basketball?" asked Sirius, looking up from reading.

"Muggle sport," replied Lily. "Two teams have to try to get an orange ball through a hoop on both ends of the co-er, pitch. It's called basketball because the hoops originally were baskets. They got replaced with a net attached to the hoop."

"Just like in Quidditch!" exclaimed James.

"Yes, but the baskets weren't on one side," said Lily. "You basically had to dunk the ball into the basket.

"Never mind," said Harry quickly.

"Now, there's another player on each side who's called the Keeper - I'm the Keeper for Gryffindor. I have to fly around our hoops and stop the other team from scoring."

"Three Chasers, one Keeper," said Harry, who was determined to remember it all. "And they play with the Quaffle. OK, got that. So what are they for?" he pointed at the three balls left inside the box.

"They're the Bludgers and the Snitch," said James.

"I'll show you now," said Wood. "Take this."
He handed Harry a small club, a bit like a rounders bat.

The boys looked at Lily questioningly, who explained, "It's a Muggle sport."

"I'm going to show you what the Bludgers do," Wood said. "These two are Bludgers."

He showed Harry two identical balls, jet black and slightly smaller than the red Quaffle. Harry noticed that they seemed to be straining to escape the straps holding them inside the box.

"Stand back," Wood warned Harry. He bend down and freed one of the Bludgers.
At once, the black ball rose high in the air and then pelted straight at Harry's face.

Lily looked worried and opened her mouth to protest, but James put a comforting hand on her arm. "It'll be all right, Lily."

Harry swung at it with the bat to stop it breaking his nose and sent it zig-zagging away into the air - it zoomed around their heads and then shot at Wood who dived on top of it and managed to pin it to the ground.

"See?" Wood panted, forcing the struggling Bludger back into the crate and strapping it down safely.

"The Bludgers rocket around trying to knock players off their brooms. That's why you have two Beaters on each team. The Weasley twins are ours- their job to protect their side from the Bludgers and try and knock them towards the other team. So - think you've got all that?"

"Three Chasers try and score with the Quaffle; the Keeper guards the goalposts; the Beaters keep the Bludgers away from their team," Harry reeled off.

"Harry learns Quidditch quickly!" exclaimed James, looking proud.

"Very good," said Wood.
"Er - have the Bludgers ever killed anyone?" Harry asked, hoping he sounded offhand.

"Not at Hogwarts," said James, soothingly.

"Never at Hogwarts. We've had a couple of broken jaws but nothing worse than that. Now, the last member of the team is the Seeker. That's you. And you don't have to worry about the Quaffle or the Bludgers -"

" - unless they crack my head open."

"Don't worry, the Weasleys are more than a match for the Bludgers - I mean, they're like a pair of human Bludgers themselves.

Wood reached into the crate and took out the fourth and last ball. Compared with the Quaffle and the Bludgers, it was tiny, about the size of a large walnut. It was bright gold and had little fluttering silver wings.

"This," said Wood, "is the Golden Snitch, and it's the most important ball of the lot. It's very hard to catch because it's so fast and difficult to see. It's the Seeker's job to catch it. You've got to weave in and out of the Chasers, Beaters, Bludgers and Quaffle to get it before the other team's Seeker, because whichever Seeker catches the Snitch wins his team an extra hundred and fifty points, so they nearly always win. That's why seekers get fouled so much.

"Well yeah," said James. "Most people would prefer to a ten-point penalty shot than a hundred fifty point catch of the snitch."

A game of Quidditch only ends when the Snitch is caught, so it can go on for ages - I think the record is three months, they had to keep bringing on substitutes so the players could get some sleep.

"Really?" asked Peter, looking awestruck. "I never knew that."

Remus was frowning. "It sounds a bit ridiculous. How can the seekers be so atrocious that they can't catch a snitch in a few days at least? And think of the points! The chasers will have scored so many times that the two teams would automatically place first and second in the League!"

The others nodded in agreement, though James gave Remus a weird look. "You must have a lot of time on your hands if you can think of stuff like this."

"Well, that's it - any questions?"
Harry shook his head. He understood what he had to do all right, it was doing it that was going to be the problem.

"We won't practice with the Snitch yet," said Wood, carefully shutting it back inside the crate. "It's too dark, we might lose it. Let's try you with a few of these."

He pulled out a bag of ordinary golf balls out of his pocket, and a few minutes later, he and Harry were up in the air, Wood throwing the ball as hard as he could in every direction for Harry to catch.

Harry didn't miss a single one, and Wood was delighted.

"That's my boy!" said James proudly. "You'll be a great seeker. I'm going to get you a shirt that says 'World's Best Seeker' and use a spell so that it will be sent to you in your time."

After half an hour, night had really fallen and they couldn't carry on.

"Aww!" whined James.

"You sound so childish," muttered Remus. "Just stop it." James glared at him.

"That Quidditch Cup'll have our name on it this year," said Wood happily as they trudged back up to the castle.

"Of course it will," said Lily. "I'm not Quidditch-obsessed, but I don’t want Slytherin to win the Cup."

"I wouldn't be surprised if you turn out better than Charlie Weasley, and he could have played for England if he hadn't gone off chasing dragons."

"Then that means Harry could play for England, too," said James, looking happy.

Perhaps it was because he was now so busy, what with Quidditch practice three evenings a week on top of all his homework, but Harry could hardly believe it when he realized that he'd already been at Hogwarts two months.

"Remember all the trouble we cause our first two months, Prongsie?" asked Sirius.

"Yes. And don't call me Prongsie, Siri!" said James.

"Don't call me that!' snapped Sirius. "It sounds like a girl’s name."

"I won't if you'd stop calling me Prongsie and Jamesie and any other ridiculous nickname." Sirius sighed and nodded.

The castle felt more like home than Privet Drive had ever done.

Lily smiled sadly.

His lessons, too, were becoming more and more interesting now that they had mastered the basics.
On Halloween morning they woke to the delicious smell of baking pumpkin wafting through the corridors. Even better, Professor Flitwick announced in Charms that he though they were ready to start making objects fly, something they had all been dying to try since they'd seen him make Neville's toad zoom around the classroom.

Professor Flitwick put the class into pairs to practice. Harry's partner was Seamus Finnigan (which was a relief, because Neville had been trying to catch his eye). Ron, however, was to be working with Hermione Granger.

"Oh dear," said Lily, looking concerned.

"This'll get interesting," said Sirius, rubbing his hands in excitement.

It was hard to tell whether Ron or Hermione was angrier about this. She hadn't spoken to either of them since the day Harry's broomstick had arrived.

"Now, don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practicing!" squeaked Professor Flitwick, perched on top of his pile of books as usual.

"Swish and flick," they all chanted, then burst out laughing.

"Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important, too - never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said 's' instead of 'f' and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest."

"I can't believe he still scares them with that story!' exclaimed James incredulously.

It was very difficult.

"Looks like Harry hasn't my talent for Charms," said Lily, smiling ruefully.

"Well, he's good at Quidditch at least," said James. "And maybe he'll be good in another subject, like Defense Against Dark Arts."

Harry and Seamus swished and flicked, but the feather they were supposed to be sending skywards just lay on the desktop.

"Oh, well,' said James. "You'll get the hang of it eventually."

Seamus got so impatient that he prodded it with his wand and set fire to it - Harry had to put it out with his hat.

They all burst out laughing again.

Ron, at the next table, wasn't having much more luck.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" he shouted, waving his long arms like a windmill.

"You're saying it wrong," Harry heard Hermione snap. "It's Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the 'gar' nice and long."

"Miss Know-it-all's being annoying again!' said Sirius, exasperated.

"You do it, then, if you're so clever," Ron snarled.
Hermione rolled up the sleeves of her gown, flicked her wand and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!"
Their feather rose off the desk and hovered about four feet above their heads.

"Show-off!' declared Lily and James together.

"Oh, well done!" cried Professor Flitwick, clapping. "Everyone see here, Miss Granger's done it!"

"Hooray!' said Sirius sarcastically.

Ron was in a very bad temper by the end of the class.

"I would be too,” muttered Sirius.

"It's no wonder no one can stand her," he said to Harry as they pushed their way into the crowded corridor. "She's a nightmare, honestly."

"Maybe she is, but that is a bit harsh!" exclaimed Lily

Someone knocked into Harry as they hurried past him. It was Hermione. Harry caught a glimpse of her face - and was startled to see that she was in tears.

"I think she heard you."

"So?" said Ron, but he looked a bit uncomfortable.

"See? It was a bit harsh!" said Lily.

"She must've noticed she's got no friends."

"She doesn't have any friends?" exclaimed Remus. "Even I made friends within the first week, and I wasn't expecting to make any because of my condition. And my friends remained my friends when they discovered my condition."

Hermione didn't turn up for the next class and wasn't seen all afternoon.

"She must really be hurting inside if she skips class," commented James.

On their way down to the Great Hall for the Halloween feast, Harry and Ron overheard Parvati Patil telling her friend Lavender that Hermione was crying in the girls' toilets and wanted to be left alone.

Ron looked still more awkward at this, but a moment later they had entered the Great Hall, where the Halloween decorations put Hermione out of their minds.

A thousand live bats fluttered from the walls and ceiling while a thousand more swooped over the tables in low black clouds, making the candles and pumpkins skitter. The feast appeared suddenly on the golden plates, as it had at the start-of-term banquet.

Harry was just helping himself to a jacket potato when Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the Hall, his turban askew and terror on his face.

"What happened?' asked James.

"If you'd let me read, we could find out!" said Sirius.

Everyone stared as he reached Professor Dumbledore's chair, slumped against the table and gasped. "Troll - in the dungeons - thought you ought to know."
He then sank to the floor in a dead faint.

"How did he know there was a troll?" asked James, looking suspicious.

"And how did it get inside the school?' added Sirius. The others shrugged.

"Maybe Peeves let it in for a Halloween joke," said Peter finally. "And Quirrell found it."

There was uproar. It took several purple firecrackers exploding from the end of Professor Dumbledore's wand to bring silence.

"Prefects," he rumbled, "lead your houses back to the dormitories immediately!"

Percy was in his element.

"Follow me! Stick together, first-years! no need to fear the troll if you follow my orders! Stay close behind me, now. Make way, first-years coming through! Excuse me, I'm a Prefect!"

"How could a troll get in?" Harry asked as they climbed the stairs.

"Don't ask me, they're supposed to be really stupid," said Ron. "Maybe Peeves let it in for a Halloween joke."

The others all looked at Peter, who shrugged and said, "Coincidence?"

They passed different groups of people hurrying in different directions. As they jostled their way through a crowd of confused Hufflepuffs, Harry suddenly grabbed Ron's arm.

"Oh no!" gasped Lily, realizing. "Hermione doesn't know about the troll! Harry must have realized that too!"

"I've just thought - Hermione."

"What about her?"

"She doesn't know about the troll."

Ron bit his lip.
"Oh, all right," he snapped. "But Percy'd better not see us."

Ducking down, they joined the Hufflepuffs going the other way, slipped down a deserted side corridor and hurried off towards the girls' toilets. They had just turned the corner when they heard quick footsteps behind them.

"Darn! They've been spotted!" cursed James.

"Percy!" hissed Ron, pulling Harry behind a large stone griffin.
Peering around it, however, they saw not Percy but Snape. He crossed the corridor and disappeared from view.

"What he is doing?" asked Sirius suspiciously. "Why isn't he with the other teachers?"

"Maybe he's after the Stone and is using the troll as distraction," suggested James.

"But Snape wasn't in Diagon Alley on the day of the break-in," pointed out Remus. "Not that we know of, anyway. Quirrell was there, though. Maybe he wants-"

"Moony, Quirrell was there just to get a book on vampires!" exclaimed Sirius. "He's the last person to go after the Stone." Lily and James looked thoughtful, though. Remus had made a good point.

"What's he doing?" Harry whispered. "Why isn't he down in the dungeons with the rest of the teachers?"
"Search me."

Quietly as possible, they crept along the next corridor after Snape's fading footsteps.
"He's heading for the third floor," Harry said,

""See!' exclaimed Sirius. "Snivellus is using the troll to distract everyone so he can look for the Stone!" Remus, Lily, and James didn't look too convinced, though.

but Ron held up his hand.
"Can you smell something?"

"It must be the troll," moaned Lily, looking nervous. Peter cowered in his seat.

Harry sniffed and a foul stench reached his nostrils, a mixture of old socks and the kind of public toilet no one seems to clean.

Everyone looked really anxious.

And then they heard it - a low grunting and the shuffling footfalls of gigantic feet.

"RUN!" screamed Lily. "HARRY AND RON, LEAVE NOW!" She would have jumped up if James hadn't grabbed her.

Ron pointed: at the end of a passage to the left, something huge was moving towards them. They shrank into the shadows and watched as it emerged into a patch of moonlight.

Peter covered his eyes and squeaked in fear. Lily rocked back and forth, moaning, and James, Sirius, and Remus shuddered. Finally Sirius continued reading.

It was a horrible sight. Twelve feet tall, its skin was dull, granite grey, its great lumpy body like a boulder with its small bald head perched on top like a coconut. It had short legs thick as tree trunks with flat, horny feet. The smell coming from it was incredible. It was holding a huge wooden club, which dragged along the floor because its arms were so long.

Peter shuddered and squeaked in fear again.

The troll stopped next to a doorway and peered inside. It waggled its long ears, making up its tiny mind, then slouched slowly into the room.

"I have a feeling that it's the girls' loo," muttered James grimly. Lily gasped and tried to jump up again, but James restrained her.

"The key's in the lock," Harry muttered. "We could lock it in."

"Bad idea!" exclaimed Sirius. Remus was biting his nails and Peter buried his head under a cushion.

"Good idea," said Ron nervously.

"It's not!' cried Lily hysterically. "Hermione's in there!"

They edged towards the open door, mouths dry, praying the troll wasn't about to come out of it. With one great leap, Harry managed to grab the key, slam the door and lock it.
"Yes!"

"NO!" shouted everyone, except Peter, who was still cowering under the cushion..

Flushed with their victory they started to run back up the passage, but as they reached the corner they heard something that made their hearts stop -

Peter let out a terrified squeak and fell off the sofa, still clutching the cushion over his head. Remus helped him up and said, "It's all right, Peter. It's just a book."

A high, petrified scream - and it was coming from the chamber they'd just locked up.
"Oh, no," said Ron, pale as the Bloody Baron.
"It's the girls' toilets!" Harry gasped.
"Hermione!" they said together.

It was the last thing they wanted to do, but what choice did they have?

Everyone looked extremely anxious, while Peter looked positively terrified.

Wheeling around they sprinted back to the door and turned the key, fumbling in their panic -Harry pulled the door open - they ran inside.

Hermione Granger was shrinking against the wall opposite, looking as if she were about to faint. The troll was advancing on her, knocking the sinks off the walls as it went.

"Confuse it!" Harry said desperately to Ron, and seizing a tap he threw it as hard as he could against the wall.

"Good idea, Harry," said James, keeping one hand on Lily to restrain her.

The troll stopped a few feet from Hermione. It lumbered around, blinking stupidly, to see what had made the noise. Its mean little eyes saw Harry. It hesitated, then made for him instead, lifting its club as it went.

"NO! NO!" screeched Lily, breaking free from James.
"Everything will be all right!" exclaimed Remus. "Otherwise the book would end with this chapter." Lily clamed down somewhat.

"Oy, pea-brain!" yelled Ron from the other side of the chamber, and he threw a metal pipe at it.

The troll didn't even seem to notice the pipe hitting its shoulder, but it heard the yell and paused again, turning its ugly snout towards Ron instead, giving Harry time to run around it.

"Come on, run, run!" Harry yelled at Hermione, trying to pull her towards the door, but she couldn't move, she was still flat against the wall, her mouth open with terror.

"RUN, YOU LITTLE IDIOT!" shouted Lily.

The shouting and the echoes seemed to be driving the troll berserk. It roared again and started towards Ron, who was nearest and had no way to escape.

"No! Do something!" yelled Sirius, dropping the book. He then picked it up and resumed reading.

Harry then did something that was both very brave and very stupid:

"Just like his father," muttered Lily angrily. James would have glared or said something, but he was too concerned about his son.

He took a great running jump and managed to fasten his arms around the troll's neck from behind. The troll couldn't feel Harry hanging there, but even a troll will notice if you stick a long bit of wood up its nose, and Harry's wand had still been in his hand when he'd jumped - it had gone straight up one of the troll's nostrils.

"Very good, Harry!' exclaimed James. "Now run!"

Howling with pain, the troll twisted and flailed its club, with Harry clinging on for dear life; any second, the troll was going to rip him off of catch him a terrible blow with the club.

Lily burst into hysterical sobs and wouldn't listen when James and Remus tried to comfort her.

Hermione had sunk to the floor in fright;

"She's the smartest one, but she's totally useless now!" spat Sirius bitterly.

"She can’t help it!' retorted Lily between sobs.

Ron pulled out his own wand - not knowing what he was going to do, he heard himself cry the first spell that came into his head: "Wingardium Leviosa!"

"Great!” exclaimed James sarcastically. "A spell he can't do!" Lily moaned.

"Not necessarily," said Remus. "Sometimes in moments of stress or fear you can do things you couldn't do before." This cheered James and Lily up a bit.

The club flew suddenly out of the troll's hand, rose high, high up into the air, turned slowly over - and dropped, with a sickening crack, on to its owner's head.

Lily dried her eyes, hiccupping, while the others looked relieved. Peter had removed the pillow.

The troll swayed on the spot and then fell flat on its face, with a thud that made the whole room tremble.
Harry got to his feet.

He was shaking and out of breath. Ron was standing there with his wand still raised, staring at what he had done.
It was Hermione who spoke first.

"Now she's working again!" said Sirius sarcastically.

"Is it - dead?"

"I don't think so," said Harry. "I think it's just been knocked out."
He bent down and pulled his wand out of the troll's nose. It was covered in what looked like lumpy grey glue.

"Urgh!" muttered Remus, making a face. "Troll bogies!" The others grimaced.

"Urgh - troll bogies."

They looked at Remus, who shrugged.

He wiped it on the troll's trousers.
A sudden slamming and loud footsteps made the three of them look up. They hadn't realized what a racket they had been making, but of course, someone downstairs must have heard the crashes and the troll's roars. A moment later, Professor McGonagall had come bursting into the room,

"Oh no!" exclaimed James. "Why is it McGonagall the one who shows up?"

closely followed by Snape,

"But Snape wasn't with them!" exclaimed Sirius.

"Maybe he joined them a few minutes later," said Remus.

with Quirrell bringing up the rear. Quirrell took one look at the troll, let out a faint whimper and sat quickly down on a toilet, clutching his heart.

Snape bent over the troll. Professor McGonagall was looking at Ron and Harry. Harry had never seen her look so angry. Her lips were white. Hopes of winning fifty points for Gryffindor faded quickly from Harry's mind.
"What on earth were you thinking of?" said Professor McGonagall, with cold fury in her voice.

James and Sirius were shuddering.

Harry looked at Ron, who was still standing with his wand in the air. "You're lucky you weren't killed. Why aren't you in your dormitory?"
Snape gave Harry a swift, piercing look.

"Don't look at Harry like that!' exclaimed James.

Harry looked at the floor. He wished Ron would put his wand down.
Then a small voice came out of the shadows.
"Please, Professor McGonagall - they were looking for me."

"Hermione's going to help them!" said James, looking happy.

"Miss Granger!"

Hermione had managed to get to her feet at last.
"I went looking for the troll because I - I thought I could deal with it on my own - you know, because I've read all about them."

Ron dropped his wand. Hermione Granger, telling a downright lie to a teacher?

"Wow, I'm impressed!" said Sirius, grinning.

"If they hadn't found me, I'd be dead now. Harry stuck his wand up its nose and Ron knocked it out with its own club. They didn't have time to come and fetch anyone. It was about to finish me off when they had arrived."

Harry and Ron tried to look as if this story wasn't new to them.

"Well - in that case ..." said Professor McGonagall, staring at the three of them. "Miss Granger, you foolish girl, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?"

Hermione hung her head. Harry was speechless. Hermione was the last person to do anything against the rules, and here she was, pretending she had, to get them out of trouble.

"Well, you did save her life, Harry!" exclaimed Lily. "You were very brave, too, but don't do anything so idiotic again!"

It was as if Snape had started handing out sweets.

"If Snape gave me sweets, I'd have to test them to make sure they aren't poison," muttered Sirius.

Miss Granger, five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this," said Professor McGonagall. "I'm very disappointed in you. If you are not hurt at all, you'd better get off to Gryffindor Tower. Students are finishing the feast in their houses."
Hermione left.

Professor McGonagall turned to Harry and Ron.

"Well, I still say you were lucky, but not many first-years could have taken on a full-grown mountain troll. You each win Gryffindor five points. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. You may go."

"Well, they didn't get a lecture," said James, surprised and happy.

"They should have gotten more than ten points," said Sirius.

"Five, you mean, once McGonagall's taken off Hermione's," said Remus.

They hurried out of the chamber and didn't speak at all until they had climbed two floors up. It was a relief to be away from the smell of the troll, quite apart from anything else.

"We should have got more than ten points," Ron grumbled.

"Yeah," said Sirius. "Wait, Ron said basically the same thing I did!"

"Five, you mean, once she's taken off Hermione's."

"And Harry said basically the same thing I did," said Remus, looking surprised.

"Good of her to get us out of trouble like that," Ron admitted. "Mind you, we did save her."

"Exactly!" said Lily, very firmly.

"She might not have needed saving if we hadn't locked the thing in with her," Harry reminded him.

"Even if you didn't lock it in, it would still have gone for her!' said James.

They had reached the portrait of the Fat Lady.
"Pig snout," they said and entered.
The common room was packed and noisy. Everyone was eating the food that had been sent up. Hermione, however, stood alone by the door, waiting for them.

"It better not be another lecture!" snapped Sirius.

There was a very embarrassed pause. Then, none of them looking at each other, they all said "Thanks", and hurried off to get plates.

"Awww," said Lily, smiling. The others were laughing.

But from that moment on, Hermione Granger became their friend.

"WHAT!" shouted Sirius.
"It makes sense," said Remus. "You and James weren’t so keen on being my friend when we met on the Hogwarts Express because I was a bit of a bookworm. Then I happened to know a spell that stopped Snivellus from bullying Peter. The two of you were impressed and became my friend after that." Sirius nodded slowly.

There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them.

"Very true," said James. "Looks like Hermione really isn't so bad a person and is showing some of the qualities that got her in Gryffindor."

Sirius smiled and said, "That's the end of the chapter."

I was bored of announcing that so I made Sirius do it...Feedbacks!!!

cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=114684

cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=114684


CHAPTER ELEVEN
QUIDDITCH

James looked excited. "We'll get to see how Harry does in a Quidditch match!"

As they entered November, the weather turned very cold. The mountains around the school became icy grey and the lake like chilled steel. Every morning the ground was covered in frost. Hagrid could be seen from the upstairs windows, defrosting broomsticks on the Quidditch pitch, bundled up in a long moleskin overcoat, rabbit-fur gloves and enormous beaver skin boots.

The Quidditch season had begun.

"WOO HOO!" cheered James. The others merely looked excited..

On Saturday, Harry would be playing in his first match after weeks of training: Gryffindor versus Slytherin.

"Ugh," said Sirius. "Slytherin will cheat, of course."

If Gryffindor won, they would move up into second place in the House Championship.

Hardly anyone had seen Harry play because Wood had decided that, as their secret weapon, Harry should be kept, well, secret.

"Why secret?" asked Lily. "It doesn't make much sense."

"Harry's a first year," explained James. "If he's kept secret, the other teams won't think he's much good."

But the news that he was playing Seeker had leaked out somehow, and Harry didn't know which was worse - people telling him he'd be brilliant or people telling him they'd be running around underneath him, holding a mattress.

"Isn't being told you're brilliant better than being told you'll be bad?" asked Peter, looking confused.

"Yes, but since Harry is nervous, he'll start expecting that he has to achieve some sort of standard," answered James.

It was really lucky that Harry now had Hermione as a friend. He didn't know how he'd have got through all his homework without her, what with all the last-minute Quidditch practice Wood was making them do.

"Wood is really a maniac Quidditch captain," said James.

"Well, you'd be the same if you were captain!" snapped Sirius. "You love Quidditch so much that you'd probably have practice every day."

"I would not!' retorted James. "For one thing, the other houses need to practice, too."

She had also leant him Quidditch Through the Ages, which turned out to be a very interesting read. Harry learnt that there were seven hundred ways of committing a Quidditch foul and that all of them happened during a World Cup match in 1473; that Seekers were usually the smallest and fastest players and that most serious Quidditch accident seemed to happen to them;

Lily looked anxious as she read. James whispered, "It'll be all right. Harry's a good flyer."

that although people rarely died playing Quidditch, referees had been known to vanish and turn up months later in the Sahara Desert.

They all laughed.

Hermione had become a bit more relaxed about breaking rules since Harry and Ron had saved her from the mountain troll and she was much nicer for it.

"Just like you, Remus," said Sirius. "After you became our friend, you got more relaxed about rule-breaking," Remus made a face.

The day before Harry's first Quidditch match the three of them were out in the freezing courtyard during break,

"I hope Harry's all bundled up, or he could catch a cold, or get chilled at the very least!" exclaimed Lily, looking worried.

"When did you get so fussy and concerned?" asked James.

"Harry's my son! I have to worried about him."

and she had conjured them up a bright blue fire which could be carried around in a jam jar.

They were standing with their backs to it, getting warm, when Snape crossed the yard.

"Darn!" said Sirius. "Why does Snape have to show up?"

Harry noticed at once that Snape was limping.

"Good," said James and Sirius together. Remus and Lily frowned.

"That's not nice, you two," scolded Lily.

Harry, Ron and Hermione moved closer to block the fire from view, they were sure it wouldn't be allowed.

"Well, there isn't a rule that says it isn't allowed," said Remus.

"But there isn't a rule that says it is allowed," pointed out Lily. "Snape would probably look at it that way."

Unfortunately, something about their guilty faces caught Snape's eye.

Sirius looked angry and picked up his quill, ready to write.

He limped over.

"What could have happened to his leg?" asked James.

"Who knows?" responded Sirius. "I hope it really hurts."

He hadn't seen the fire, but seemed to be looking for a reason to tell them off anyway.

"What's that you've got there, Potter?"

It was Quidditch Through the Ages. Harry showed him.

"Library books are not to be taken outside the school," said Snape. "Give it to me. Five points from Gryffindor."

"THERE IS NO SUCH RULE!" yelled Lily, looking indignant.

"He just made it up," said James, looking angry. Sirius scribbled, "Making up a rule to take points from Gryffindor" on his parchment.

"He's just made that rule up," Harry muttered angrily as Snape limped away. "Wonder what's wrong with his leg?"
"Dunno, but I hope it's really hurting him," said Ron bitterly.

The Gryffindor common room was very noisy that evening. Harry, Ron and Hermione sat together next to a window. Hermione was checking Harry and Ron's Charms homework for them. She would never let them copy (How will you learn?), but by asking her to read it through, they got the right answers anyway.

"That's really sneaky of them!" exclaimed James, smiling. "They've the qualities of a good Marauder." Lily groaned.

Harry felt restless. He wanted Quidditch Through the Ages back, to take his mind off his nerves about tomorrow.

Why should he be afraid of Snape?

"Right! Snape's just an-an-overgrown bat!" exclaimed James.

Getting up, he told Ron and Hermione he was going to ask Snape if he could have it.

"Rather you than me," they said together, but Harry had an idea that Snape wouldn't refuse if there were other teachers listening.

He made his way down to the staff room and knocked. There was no answer. He knocked again. Nothing.

"Darn!" said Sirius. "There's no one there!"

Perhaps Snape had left the book in there?

It was worth a try. He pushed the door ajar and peered inside - and a horrible scene met his eyes.
Snape and Filch were inside, alone.

"The images!" cried Sirius, shuddering. The others gave him disgusted looks and Remus threw a pillow at him.

Snape was holding his robes above his knees.

Sirius opened his mouth again, but James said, "Shut up, you prat! Filch and Snape aren't doing what you're thinking, so get that filthy idea out of your head." (Sorry for the wry humor!)

One of his legs was bloody and mangled. Filch was handing Snape bandages.

"Snivellus must have tried to get past that dog!' said Sirius. "He must be after the Stone!"

"I think it's a-what's the word, red herring," said Remus. "Snape's the obvious answer, but in reality, it's somebody else." James and Lily looked thoughtful, but Sirius wasn't convinced by Remus' argument.

"Blasted thing," Snape was saying. "How are you supposed to keep your eyes on all three heads at once?"

"Get out of that room, Harry!' yelled Lily, looking worried. Then she continued reading.

Harry tried to shut the door quietly, but -
"POTTER!"

"Darn! Snape saw Harry!' James said, looking angry.

Snape's face was twisted with fury as he dropped his robes quickly to hide his leg. Harry gulped.

"I just wondered if I could have my book back."

"GET OUT! OUT!"

Sirius began to scribble on his parchment, looking angry.

Harry left, before Snape could take anymore points from Gryffindor. He sprinted back upstairs.
"Did you get it?" Ron asked as Harry joined them. "What's the matter?"

In a low whisper, Harry told them what he'd seen.
"You know what this means?" he finished breathlessly. "He tried to get past that three-headed dog at Halloween! That's where he was going when we saw him - he's after whatever it's guarding!

"Even Harry agrees with me!" exclaimed Sirius, looking triumphantly at Remus. However, Peter was the only other person that fully believed that Snape was after the Stone. Remus still held to his theory that it was a red herring and someone totally unexpected would be after the Stone. James and Lily agreed that the signs all pointed to Snape, but they also believed that Remus' theory had merit.

And I'd bet my broomstick he let that troll in, to create a diversion!"
Hermione's eyes were wide.
"No - he wouldn't," she said. "I know he's not very nice, but he wouldn't try and steal something Dumbledore was keeping safe."

"Yeah," said Remus. "Snape isn't dumb enough to go after something Dumbledore's protecting. Besides, he wouldn't be teaching at Hogwarts if Dumbledore didn't trust him."

"Honestly, Hermione, you think all teachers are saints or something," snapped Ron.

They all chuckled at this.

"I'm with Harry. I wouldn't put anything past Snape.

"Exactly my point!" exclaimed Sirius. "Snape knows a lot of spells and would figure out how to go after the Stone. Remember our first year, on the Hogwarts Express? He was about to hex Peter and would have if Remus hadn't known 'Waddiwasi' and caused an Every Flavor Bean to zoom up and get lodged in Snape's nose!"

Only Peter looked convinced.

But what's he after? What's the dog guarding?"

Harry went to bed with his head buzzing with the same question. Neville was snoring loudly, but Harry couldn't sleep. He tried to empty his mind - he needed to sleep, he had to, he had his first Quidditch match in a few hours - but the expression on Snape's face when Harry had seen his leg wasn't easy to forget.

The next morning dawned very bright and cold.

"Excellent Quidditch conditions!" said James happily. "If only it weren't winter and so cold and snowy now. I'd love to go out and play."

The Great Hall was full of the delicious smell of fried sausages and the cheerful chatter of everyone looking forward to a good Quidditch match.

James exchanged smiles with Sirius.

"You've got to eat some breakfast."

"I don't want anything."

"Just a bit of toast," wheedled Hermione.

"I'm not hungry."

"You still have to eat!' exclaimed James.

Look who's talking," said Lily. "I seem to remember that you couldn't eat much of anything before your first match. You could only manage a bite or two of toast and a sip of orange juice." James blushed.

Harry felt terrible. In a few hours' time he'd be walking on to the Quidditch pitch.
"Harry, you need your strength," said Seamus Finnigan. "Seekers are always the ones who get nobbled by the other team."

"Thanks, Seamus," said Harry, watching Seamus pile ketchup on his sausages.

By eleven o'clock the whole school seemed to be out in the stands around the Quidditch pitch. Many students had binoculars. The seats might be raised high in the air but it was still difficult to see what was going on sometimes.

"Get to the match," said James, looking impatient.

"I would if you'd stop interrupting me and let me read!' said Lily.

Ron and Hermione joined Neville, Seamus and Dean the West Ham fan up in the top row. As a surprise for Harry, they had painted a large banner on one of the sheets Scabbers had ruined.

The others looked at Peter, who said, "For the last time, you don't know if it's me!"

It said Potter for President and Dean, who was good at drawing, had done a large Gryffindor lion underneath. Then Hermione had performed a tricky little charm so that the paint flashed different colors.

"Awww!" cooed Lily. "That's really sweet of them!" James rolled his eyes in disgust.

Meanwhile, in the changing rooms, Harry and the rest of the team were changing into their scarlet Quidditch robes (Slytherin would be playing in green).

Wood cleared his throat for silence.

"OK, men," he said.
"And women," said Chaser Angelina Johnson.
"And women," Wood agreed. "This is it."
"The big one," said Fred Weasley.
"The one we've all been waiting for," said George.
"we know Oliver's speech by heart," Fred told Harry. "We were in the team last year."

James and Sirius burst out laughing. "I really like those guys," said Sirius.

"Shut up, you two," said Wood. "This is the best team Gryffindor's had in years. We're going to win. I know it."

He glared at them as if to say, "Or else."

"Right. It's time. Good luck, all of you."

Everyone looked excited.

Harry followed Fred and George out of the changing room and, hoping his knees weren't going to give way, walked on to the pitch to loud cheers.

James and Sirius began cheering, soon joined by Peter. Remus and Lily gave them amused looks.

Madam Hooch was refereeing. She stood in the middle of the pitch, waiting for the two teams, her broom in her hand.
"Now, I want a nice fair game, all of you," she said, once they were all gathered around her. Harry noticed that she seemed to be speaking particularly to the Slytherin captain, Marcus Flint, a fifth-year. Harry thought Flint looked as if he had some troll blood in him.

"I wouldn't be surprised," muttered Sirius.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the fluttering banner high above, flashing Potter for President over the crowd. His heart skipped. He felt braver.

"Mount your brooms, please."
Harry clambered on to his Nimbus Two Thousand.

Madam Hooch gave a loud blast on her silver whistle. Fifteen brooms rose up, high, high into the air. They were off.
"And the Quaffle is taken immediately by Angelina Johnson of Gryffindor -

"Yeah!" said James, excitedly.

what an excellent Chaser that girl is, and rather attractive, too -
" JORDAN!"
"Sorry, Professor."

They all burst out laughing and Sirius said, "I bet McGonagall's the one keeping an eye on him."

The Weasley twins' friend, Lee Jordan, was doing the commentary for the match, closely watched by Professor McGonagall.

"Knew it!" said Sirius.

"And she's really belting along up there, a neat pass to Alicia Spinnet, a good find of Oliver Wood's, last year only a reserve - back to Johnson and - no, Slytherin have taken the Quaffle,

"Boo!" yelled Sirius and James.

Slytherin captain Marcus Flint gains the Quaffle and off he goes - Flint flying like an eagle up there - he's going to sc - no, stopped by an excellent move by Gryffindor Keeper Wood and Gryffindor take the Quaffle -

"YAY!" yelled James and Sirius.

that's Chaser Katie Bell of Gryffindor there, nice dive around Flint, off up the field and - OUCH -

James winced. "Bet it's a bludger."

that must have hurt, hit in the back of the head by a Bludger -

Quaffle taken by Slytherin -

"BOOOO!" shouted Sirius and James.

that's Adrian Pucey speeding off towards the goalposts, but he's blocked by a second Bludger -

"YES!" shouted James. "Go Weasley twins!"

sent his way by Fred or George Weasley, can't tell which - nice play by the Gryffindor Beater, anyway, and Johnson back in possession of the Quaffle, a clear field ahead and off she goes - she'd really flying -

dodges a speeding Bludger - the goalposts are ahead - come on, now, Angelina - Keeper Bletchley dives - misses - GRYFFINDOR SCORE!"

"Hooray!" cheered James and Sirius. The others were excited as well, but not as much as those two.

Gryffindor cheers filled the cold air, with howls and moans from the Slytherins.

"Ha ha!" said James, mockingly.

"Budge up there, move along."
"Hagrid!"

Ron and Hermione squeezed together to give Hagrid space to join them.
"Bin' watchin' from me hut," said Hagrid, patting a large pair of binoculars round his neck, "But it isn't the same as bein' in the crowd. No sigh of the Snitch yet, eh?"

"Nope," said Ron. "Harry hasn't had much to do yet."

"Kept outta trouble, though, that's somethin'," said Hagrid, raising his binoculars and peering skywards at the speck that was Harry.

Way up above them, Harry was gliding over the game, squinting about for some sign of the Snitch. This was part of his and Wood's game plan.

"Keep out of the way until you catch sight of the Snitch," Wood had said. "We don't want you attacked before you have to be."

Lily looked a bit worried as she read.

When Angelina had scored, Harry had done a couple of loop-the-loops to let out his feelings. Now he was back to staring around for the Snitch.

Once he caught sight of a flash of gold but it was just a reflection from one of the Weasley's wrist watches, and once a Bludger decided to come pelting his way, more like a cannon ball than anything, but Harry dodged it and Fred Weasley came chasing after it.
"All right there, Harry?" he had time to yell, as he beat the Bludger furiously towards Marcus Flint.

"Slytherin in possession,"

"BOOOO!"

Lee Jordan was saying. "Chaser Pucey ducks two Bludgers, two Weasleys and Chaser Bell and speeds towards the - wait a moment - was that the Snitch?"

"GO HARRY!" yelled James, springing up.

A murmur ran through the crowd as Adrian Pucey dropped the Quaffle, too busy looking over his shoulder at the flash of gold that had passed his left ear.

"Where's Harry?"

Harry saw it. In a great rush of excitement he dived downwards after the streak of gold. Slytherin Seeker Terence Higgs had seen it, too. Neck and neck they hurtled towards the Snitch - all the Chasers seemed to have forgotten what they were supposed to be doing as they hung in mid-air to watch.

"You shouldn't do that!" exclaimed James. "Score while the other team's distracted!'

"Calm down, James," said Lily, "and let me continue reading."

Harry was faster than Higgs -

"Good! Go, Harry!" said James.

he could see the little round ball, wings fluttering, darting up ahead - he put on an extra spurt of speed -

WHAM!

"THEY BLOCKED HIM!" yelled James. "THOSE CHEATING SLYTHERIN SCUM!"

A roar of rage from the Gryffindors below - Marcus Flint had blocked Harry on purpose and Harry's broom span off course, Harry holding on for dear life.

"Foul!" screamed the Gryffindors.

Madam Hooch spoke angrily to Flint and then ordered a free shot at the goalposts for Gryffindor.

"So she should!" said James, still frowning over what Slytherin did.

But in all the confusion, of course, the Golden Snitch had disappeared from sight again.
Down in the stands, Dean Thomas was yelling, "Send him off, ref! Red card!"

The Marauders looked puzzled and Sirius was about to ask what a red card was when Lily said, "It's a card the referee has in football. If a player fouls badly, the referee can send him or her off by holding up the card." (What's with red-cards and two-footed challenges now-a-days! Want to protect players from the dreaded Metatarsal injury, I guess. I am drifting off. Anyways back to the game.)

"This isn't football, Dean," Ron reminded him. "You can't send people off in Quidditch -

"They should start doing it!' said Lily angrily. "That Flint could have knocked Harry off his broom!"

and what's a red card?"

But Hagrid was on Dean's side.
"They ought to change the rules, Flint coulda knocked Harry outta the air."

"Even Hagrid agrees with me!'" said Lily.

Lee Jordan was finding it hard not to take sides.

"How? Just by simply stating the truth?" asked Sirius.

"So - after that obvious and disgusting bit of cheating -"

" Jordan!" growled Professor McGonagall.

"I mean, after that open and revolting foul -"

"That's really brave of him, saying stuff like that next to McGonagall," commented James,. looking very impressed. "Sirius and I don't even have the guts to do that!"

" Jordan, I'm warning you -"

"All right, all right. Flint nearly kills the Gryffindor Seeker, which could happen to anyone, I'm sure, so a penalty to Gryffindor, taken by Spinnet, who puts it away, no trouble, and we continue play, Gryffindor still in possession."

"We're in the lead!' yelled James, looking very excited.

It was as Harry dodged another Bludger which went spinning dangerously past his head that it happened.

"What happened?" asked James, looking worried.

"If you'd let me continue reading, we could find out," said Lily, a trifle acidly.

His broom gave a sudden, frightening lurch. For a split second, he though he was going to fall.

Lily almost dropped the book. "What's going on? Brooms don't just lurch like that, do they, James?"

James shook his head. "Not good brooms like Harry's is. Maybe a school broom, though."

He gripped the broom tightly with both his hands and knees. He'd never felt anything like that.
It happened again. It was as though the broom was trying to buck him off.

Remus frowned, "Could someone be jinxing it? That's the only reason I can think of as to why the broom is acting like that."

Lily looked really anxious and James began biting his nails.

But Nimbus Two Thousands did not suddenly decide to buck their riders off. Harry tried to turn back towards the Gryffindor goalposts; he had half a mind to ask Wood to call time out - and then he realized that the broom was completely out of his control.

Lily began trembling and when she continued reading, it was in a shaky voice.

He couldn't turn it. He couldn't direct it at all. It was zig-zagging through the air and every now and then making violent swishing movements which almost unseated him.

"Someone else read!' Lily exclaimed. "I can't take much more of this!" Sirius took the book and continued reading.

Lee was still commentating.
"Slytherin in possession -

Flint with the Quaffle - passes Spinnet - passes Bell - hit hard in the face by a Bludger, hope it broke his nose -

There were a few weak chuckles.

only joking, Professor -

"That's a big lie," said James.

Slytherin score - oh no..."

James groaned and Sirius yelled, "Booo!"

The Slytherins were cheering. No one seemed to have noticed that Harry's broom was behaving strangely. It was carrying him slowly higher, away from the game, jerking and twitching as it went.

"He'll fall off!" yelled Lily, jumping up. "Someone has to help him!"

"Dunno what Harry thinks he's doing," Hagrid mumbled.

"It's not Harry!" cried James. "It's the broom! It's out of control!"

He stared through his binoculars. "If I didn' know better, I'd say he'd lost control of his broom ... but he can't have ..."

"Exactly my point! Harry's too good to lose control of his broom!" said James.

Suddenly, people were pointing up at Harry all over the stands. His broom had started to roll over and over, with him only just managing to hold on.

Lily gasped and looked as if she were ready to faint. Remus reached into his pocket, pulled out a chocolate frog, and made Lily eat it.

Then the whole crowd gasped. Harry's broom had given a wild jerk and Harry swung off it. He was now dangling from it, holding on with only one hand.

Someone has to help him!" shouted Lily shrilly. While the chocolate had kept her from fainting, it hadn't calmed her nerves any.

"Did something happen to it when Flint blocked him?" Seamus whispered.

"Can't have," Hagrid said, his voice shaking. "Can't nothing interfere with a broomstick except powerful Dark Magic - no kid could do that to a Nimbus Two Thousand."

"Then who would?" asked Peter in a trembling and squeaky voice.

At these words, Hermione seized Hagrid's binoculars, but instead of looking up at Harry, she started looking frantically at the crowd.

"What are you doing?" moaned Ron, grey-faced.
"I knew it," Hermione gasped. "Snape - look."

James glared at the book. "What in Merlin's name is Snape trying to do? Kill my son? Or ruin Gryffindor's chances for winning?"

Sirius began getting ready to add to his list again.

Ron grabbed the binoculars. Snape was in the middle of the stands opposite them. He had his eyes fixed on Harry and was muttering non-stop under his breath.

"Snivellus is jinxing the broom!" cried Sirius. He began scribbling on his parchment.

"He's doing something - jinxing the broom," said Hermione.
"What should we do?"
"Leave it to me."

Remus frowned. "I can't believe that Snape would do this. Maybe he would do it to Sirius' son, if he had one, for the prank you played on him last year, Sirius. That was totally out of line. But he wouldn't do it to James' son!" Sirius didn't look at all convinced.

Before Ron could say another word, Hermione had disappeared. Ron turned his binoculars back on Harry. His broom was vibrating so hard, it was almost impossible for him to hang on much longer. The whole crowd were on their feet, watching, terrified, as the Weasleys flew up to try and pull Harry safely on to on of their brooms, but it was no good - every time they got near him, the broom would jump higher still. They dropped lower and circled beneath him, obviously hoping to catch him if he fell.

"Good..." muttered James.

Marcus Flint seized the Quaffle and scored five times without anyone noticing.

"That git!" snapped James.

"Come on, Hermione," Ron muttered desperately.

"I hope she can think of something good!' exclaimed Lily, starting to bite her nails from nervousness.

Hermione fought her way across to the stand where Snape stood and was now racing along the row behind him; she didn't even stop to say sorry as she knocked Professor Quirrell headfirst into the row in front.

Remus frowned. "Why would the author bother mentioning that Hermione knocked into Quirrell? Maybe it's a red herring again."

Lily and James looked at Remus thoughtfully. "You have a point," said James. Sirius didn't look convinced, but Peter did.

Reaching Snape, she crouched down, pulled out her wand and whispered a few, well chosen words. Bright blue flames shot from her wand on to the hem of Snape's robes.

"Brilliant!' exclaimed Sirius. "Maybe we should set Snivellus alight!"

James glared at him. "No life-threatening pranks, Padfoot! Not after that one you stupidly did last term. If I hadn't rescued him, Remus might have done something unforgivable!" Sirius shut up and had the grace to look a little ashamed.

It took perhaps thirty seconds for Snape to realize that he was on fire. A sudden yelp told her she had done her job. Scooping the fire off him into a little jar in her pocket she scrambled back along the row - Snape would never know what had happened.

It was enough. Up in the air, Harry was suddenly able to clamber back on to his broom.

Everyone looked relieved, Lily and James most of all. Lily took the book from Sirius and continued reading.

"Neville, you can look!" Ron said. Neville had been sobbing into Hagrid's jacket for the last five minutes.

"Awww," cooed Lily.

Harry was speeding towards the ground when the crowd saw him clap his hand to his mouth as though he was about to be sick -

Lily looked anxious again.

he hit the pitch on all fours - coughed - and something gold fell into his hand.

James' mouth dropped open in shock. "Harry's got the snitch! I can't believe it!" Lily beamed and the others cheered.

"I've got the Snitch!" he shouted, waving it above his head, and the game ended in complete confusion.

"Wow, my son manages to stay on his broom while it's out of control, then manages to catch the snitch!' said James, looking very impressed.

"He didn't catch it, he nearly swallowed it," Flint was still howling twenty minutes later, but it made no difference - Harry hadn't broken any rules and Lee Jordan was still happily shouting the result - Gryffindor had won by one hundred and seventy points to sixty.

Everyone cheered again.

Harry heard none of this, though.

"Why? Is Harry not okay?" asked James a bit anxiously.

He was being made a strong cup of tea back in Hagrid's hut, with Ron and Hermione.

"Hagrid will make sure he's all right," said James, looking relieved.

"It was Snape," Ron was explaining. "Hermione and I saw him. He was cursing your broomstick, muttering, he wouldn't take his eyes off you."

Sirius began cursing under his breath and glanced at his list.

"Rubbish," said Hagrid, who hadn't heard a word of what had gone on next to him in the stands. "Why would Snape do somethin' like that?"

"Maybe because he's an evil git who hates James and takes it out on his son?" asked Sirius sarcastically.

Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at each other, wondering what to tell him. Harry decided on the truth.
"I found out something about him," he told Hagrid. "He tried to get past that three-headed dog at Halloween. It bit him. We think he was trying to steal whatever it's guarding."

Hagrid dropped the teapot.

"How do you know about Fluffy?" he said.

"Excuse me?" said Lily, dropping the book in shock. "Who in their right mind would name a vicious dog that looks like Cerberus Fluffy?"

"Hagrid," responded Sirius. "And who's Cerberus?"

"It's a three-headed dog in Greek mythology (My limited knowledge of Greek Civilization finally put to use!)," explained Remus. "It's supposed to guard the Underworld."

"Fluffy?"

"Yeah - he's mine - bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las' year - I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the -"

"Yes, go on and tell them that it's a Philosopher's Stone!" urged James.

"Yes?" said Harry eagerly.

"Now, don't ask me any more," said Hagrid gruffly. "That's top secret, that is."

"But Snape's trying to steal it."

"Exactly!" said Sirius.

"Rubbish," said Hagrid again. "Snape's a Hogwarts teacher, he'd do nothin' of the sort."

"So why did he just try and kill Harry?" cried Hermione.

The afternoon's events certainly seemed to have changed her mind about Snape.
"I know a jinx when I see one, Hagrid, I've read all about them! You've got to keep eye contact, and Snape wasn't blinking at all, I saw him!"

Sirius gave the others smug looks. "Are you convinced yet?"

Remus asked, "Then why bother mentioning that Hermione knocked into Quirrell? Maybe Quirrell was the one jinxing the broom and Snape was trying to do the counter jinx." Lily and James looked thoughtful again.

Sirius asked in disgust, "How do you come up with these ideas? It's just like the ones in The Quibbler."

"I'm tellin' yeh, yer wrong!" said Hagrid hotly. "I don' know why Harry's broom acted like that, but Snape wouldn' try an' kill a student!

"Really?" asked Sirius. "This is James' son we're talking about!" Lily and James looked worried.

Now, listen to me, all three of yeh - yer meddlin' in things that don' concern yeh. It's dangerous. You forget that dog,

"Yeah, like they're going to forget humongous dog with three heads very quickly," muttered James sarcastically.

an' you forget what it's guardin', that's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicolas Flamel -"

"I don't think you were supposed to mention that name!" said James, smiling.

"Who's Nicolas Flamel?" asked Peter.

"An alchemist," relied Remus. "On the back of Dumbledore's chocolate frog card, it says that Dumbledore has done alchemy with his partner Nicolas Flamel."

Aha!" said Harry. "So there's someone called Nicolas Flamel involved, is there?"
Hagrid looked furious with himself.

"Well, you did let slip a name!' said James.

Lily said, "That's the end of chapter eleven."

cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=114684

Gosh, I am tired. Cheers, Good Day!

cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=114684

CHAPTER TWELVE
THE MIRROR OF ERISED

"What in Merlin's name is a Mirror of Erised?" asked Remus. The others shrugged.

Christmas was coming. One morning in mid-December, Hogwarts woke to find itself covered in several feet of snow. The lake froze solid and the Weasleys were punished for bewitching several snowballs so that they followed Quirrell around, bouncing off the back of his turban.

Everyone bust out laughing. "We should do that to Snape!' said Sirius.

Lily nodded. "It would get back at him for the way he's treating my son and for maybe being the one jinxing Harry's broom."

The few owls that managed to battle their way through the stormy sky to deliver post had to be nursed back to health by Hagrid before they could fly off again.


No one could wait for the holidays to start. While the Gryffindor common room and the great Hall had roaring fires, the draughty corridors had become icy and a bitter wind rattled the windows in the classrooms. Worsr of all were Professor Snape's classes down in the dungeons, where their breath rose in a mist before them and they kept as close as possible to their hot cauldrons.

"The classes are bad enough already," muttered James angrily.

"I do feel sorry," said Draco Malfoy, one Potions class, "for all those people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because they're not wanted at home."

James glared at the book. "I suppose he's referring to Harry, the git!"

He was looking over at Harry as he spoke. Crabbe and Goyle chuckled. Harry, who was measuring out powdered spine of lionfish, ignored them.

"Yeah, ignore them!" said James. "You're a billion times better than those three idiots."

Malfoy had been even more unpleasant than usual since the Quidditch match. Disgusted that Slytherin had lost, he tried to get everyone laughing at how a wide-mouthed tree frog would be replacing Harry as Seeker next.

"That wasn't funny!' exclaimed Sirius idignantly. "It was impressive! James couldn't do anything like that!"

"That's because I'm chaser, not seeker. Though I did play seeker last year when Adam Fawcett couldn't make it to a match."

Then he'd realized that nobody found this funny, because they were all so impressed at the way Harry had managed to stay on his bucking broomstick.

"Ha ha!" laughed Sirius, a nasty smile on his face.

So Malfoy, jealous and angry, had gone back to taunting Harry about having no proper family.

"Well, your family is no better!" retorted James.

Remus sighed. "If you're done interrupting, may I continue reading?"

It was true that Harry wasn't going back to Privet drive for Christmas.

"Who cares?" said James. "He'll have a great Christmas at Hogwarts!'

Professor McGonagall had come round the week before, making a list of students who would be staying for the holidays, and Harry had signed up at once.

He didn't feel sorry for himself at all; this would probably be the best Christmas he'd ever had. Ron and his brothers were staying too, because Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were going to Romania to visit Charlie.

"See? Ron's staying, so Harry will someone to keep him company!" said James happily.

When they left the dungeons at the end of Potions, they found a large fir tree blocking the corridor ahead.

"Must be Hagrid helping with the decorations," said Lily.

Two enormous feet sticking out at the bottom and a loud puffing sound told them that Hagrid was behind it.
"Hi, Hagrid, want any help?" Ron asked, sticking his head through the branches.

"Oh, yeah, he'll be lots of help," said Sirius sarcastically.

"Nah, I'm all right, thanks, Ron."

"Would you mind moving out of the way?" came Malfoy's cold drawl from behind them. "Are you trying to earn some extra money, Weasley? Hoping to be gamekeeper yourself when you leave Hogwarts, I suppose - that hut of Hagrid's must seem like a palace compared to what your family's used to."

"Shut up!' snapped James, looking angry. "You're just a mean, bullying git!"

Ron dived at Malfoy just as Snape came up the stairs.

"Oh, great!" moaned Siirus.

"WEASLEY!"

Ron let go of Malfoy's robes.

"He was provoked, Professor Snape," said Hagrid, sticking his huge hairy face out from behind the tree. "Malfoy was insultin' his family."

"Be that as it may, fighting is against Hogwarts rules, Hagrid," said Snape silkily. "Five points from Gryffindor, Weasley, and be grateful it isn't more. Move along, all of you."

Sirius began adding to the list., which was now starting to fill the parchment, despite the small handwriting.

Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle pushed roughly past the tree, scattering needles everywhere and smirking.

"I'll get him," said Ron, grinding his teeth at Malfoy's back, "one of these days, I'll get him -"

"I hate them both," said Harry, "Malfoy and Snape."

"Well, we hate them too," said James.

"Come on, cheer up, it's nearly Christmas," said Hagrid. "Tell yeh what, come with me an' see the Great Hall, looks a treat."

So Harry, Ron and Hermione followed Hagrid and his tree off to the Great Hall, where Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick were busy with the Christmas decorations.

"Why isn't Snape helping?" asked Sirius, an evil smile on his face. "Can you imagine himwith his head covered in tinsel?"

"Maybe we should do that for a prank," said Remus. "Deck him out in Christmas decorationms and make his robes flash red and green."

Sirius and James gave him suprised looks. "You're willing to go along on prank on Snivellus?"

"Only because of the way he's treating Harry." Remus turned red and hastily picked upt eh book and resumed reading.

"Ah, Hagrid, the last tree - put it in the far corner, would you?"

The Hall looked spectacular. Festoons of holly and mistletoe hung all around the walls and no fewer than twelve towering Christmas trees stood around the room, some sparkling with tiny icicles, some glittering with hundreds of candles.

"I love the Great Hall at Christmastime," said Lily dreamily. "It always looks so lovely."

"How many days you got left until yer holidays?" Hagrid asked.

"Just one," said Hermione. "And that reminds me - Harry, Ron, we've got half an hour before lunch, we should be in the library."

"Why are they going there?" asked Sirius, looking disgusted.
"Probably to look for Nicolas Flamel," replied Remus.

"Oh yeah, you're right," said Ron, tearing his eyes away from Professor Flitwick, who had golden bubbles blossoming from out of his wand and trailing them over the branches of the new tree.

"The library?" said Hagrid following them out of the Hall. "Just before the holidays? Bit keen, aren't yeh?"

"Oh, we're not working," Harry told him brightly. "Ever since you mentioned Nicolas Flamel we've been trying to find out who he is."

"You what?" Hagrid looked shocked. "Listen here - I've told yeh - drop it. It's nothin' to you what that dog's guardin'."

"They're trying to find out who Nicolas Flamel is, not what the dog's guarding!" said Sirius.

"Bt once they find out who Flamel is, they'll realise what the dog's guarding," pointed out Lily.

"We just want to know who Nicolas Flamel is, that's all," said Hermione.

"Unless you'd like to tell us and save us the trouble?" Harry added. "We must've been through hundreds of books already and we can't find him anywhere - just give us a hint - I know I've read his name somewhere."

"I'm sayin' nothin'," said Hagrid flatly.

"Awwww," said James.

"Quit that childish whining, James!' snapped Remus.

"Just have to find out for ourselves, then," said Ron, and they left Hagrid looking disgruntled and hurried off to the library.
They had indeed been searching books for Flamel's name ever since Hagrid had let it slip, because how else were they going to find out what Snape was trying to steal? The trouble was, it was very hard to know where to begin, not knowing what Flamel might have done to get himself into a book.

"Why can't you look on the back of Dumbledore's chocolate frog card?" demanded James. "Then you'll figure Flamel out!'

He wasn't in Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century, or Notable Magical Names of Our Time; he was missing, too, from Important Modern Magical Discoveries, and A Study of recent Developments in Wizardry. And then, of course, there was the sheer size of the library; tens of thousands of books; thousands of shelves; hundreds of narrow rows.

"Yes, we know, the library's huge," said Sirius, beginning to sound bored.

Hermione took out a list of subjects and titles she had decided to search while Ron strode off down a row of books and started pulling them off shelves at random. Harry wandered over to the Restricted Section. He had been wondering for a while if Flamel wasn't somewhere in there.

"He might, but he's also in the main library," said Lily.

Unfortunately, you needed a specially signed note from one of the teachers to look in any of the restricted books and he knew he'd never get one. These were the books containing powerful Dark Magic never taught at Hogwarts and only read by older students studying advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"Cool," said James and Sirius together.

"What are you looking for, boy?"

James winced. Lily gave him a questioningly look and he explained, "Once I accidentally ate some of my mum's Easter sweets int he library. Pince caught me and chased me out with my book bag whacking me at intervals."

"Nothing," Harry said.

Madam Pince the librarian brandished a feather duster at him.
"You'd better get out, then. Go on - out!"

Wishing he'd been a bit quicker at thinking up some story, Harry left the library. He, Ron and Hermione had already agreed they'd better not ask madam Pince where they could find Flamel. They were sure she'd be able to tell them, but they couldn't risk Snape hearing what they were up to.

Harry waited outside in the corridor to see if the other two had found anything, but he wasn't very hopeful. They had been looking for a fortnight, after all, but as they only had moments between lessons it wasn't surprising they'd found nothing. What they really needed was a nice long search without Madam Pince breathing down their necks.

"Yeah, like at night," said Sirius.

"I wonder what happened to my invisibilty cloak," said James. "I could pass it on to Harry."

Five minutes later, Ron and Hermione joined him, shaking their heads. They went off to lunch.

"You will keep looking while I'm away, wont you?" said Hermione. "And you'll send me an owl if you find anything."

"And you could ask your parents if they know who Flamel is," said Ron. "It'd be safe to ask them."

"Very safe, as they're both dentists," said Hermione.

"What are dentits?" asked James.

"It's dentists," corrected Lily. "They're people who work on your teeth. Like pulling them out, straightening them, cleaning them, and getting you dentures. That's false teeth."

Once the holidays had started, Ron and Harry were having too good a time to think much about Flamel. They had the dormitory to themselves and the common room was far emptier than usual, so they were able to get the good armchairs by the fire. They sat by the hour eating anything they could spare on a toasting fork - bread, crumpets, marshmallows - and plotting ways of getting Malfoy expelled, which were fun to talk about even if they wouldn't work.

"We've done that many times over getting Snape expelled," said James, sighing at the memory.

Ron also started teaching Harry wizard chess.

This was exactly like Muggle chess except that the figures were alive, which made it a lot like directing troops in a battle. Ron's set was very old and battered.

"Almost allof his stuff is," said Lily sympathetically.

Like everything else he owned, it had once belonged to someone else in his family - in this case, his grandfather. However, old chessmen weren't a drawback at all. Ron knew them so well he never had trouble getting them to do what he wanted.

"Ron'll beat him, then," said James. "Though bad Harry hasn't inherited my chess skills. I'm not too bad at it."

Harry played with chessmen Seamus Finnigan had leant him and they didn't trust him at all.

He wasn't a very good player yet and they kept shouting different bits of advice to him, which was confusing: "Don't send me there, can't you see his knight? Send him, we can afford to lose him."

On Christmas Eve, Harry went to bed looking forward to next day for the food and the fun, but not expecting any presents at all.

"Don't worry!" exclaimed James. "I'm sure Hagrid and Ron and Hermione will have given you something."

When he woke early next morning, however, the first thing he saw was a small pile of packages at the foot of his bed.

"I was right!" exclaimed James, exchanging smiles with Lily.

"Happy Christmas," said Ron sleepily as Harry scrambled out of bed and pulled on his dressing-gown.

"You too," said Harry. "Will you look at this? I've got some presents!"

"What did you expect, turnips?" said Ron, turning to his own pile, which was a lot bigger than Harry's.

There were a few chuckles at this.

Harry picked up the top parcel.

Everyone looked excited.

It was wrapped in thick brown paper and scrawled across it was To Harry, from Hagrid.

"Hagrid!" said Lily. "How nice of him!" James smiled broadly.

Inside was a roughly cut wooden flute. Hagrid had obviously whittled it himself. Harry blew it - it sounded a bit like an owl.

"Nice," said Sirius, smiling.

A second, very small parcel contained a note.
We received your message and enclose your Christmas present. From Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia.

"I can't believe they actually sent Harry something!" said Lily, amazed.

Sellotaped to the note was a fifty-pence piece.
"That's friendly," said Harry.

"How much is fifty pence?" asked James.
"Not very much," replied Lily. "It can buy you some candy, I think."

Ron was fascinated by the fifty pence.

"Weird!" he said. "What a shape! This is money?"

"You can keep it," said Harry, laughing at how pleased Ron was.

There were some more chuckles.

"Hagrid and my aunt and uncle - so who sent these?"

"I think I know who that one's from," said Ron, going a bit pink and pointing to a very lumpy parcel. "My mum. I told her you didn't expect any presents and - oh, no," he groaned, "she's made you a Weasley jumper."

"That's really nice of her!" said Lily, smiling.

"If we can change the future and not die, we are definitely going to have to be friends with the Weasleys," said James.

"I agree, but we are not changing it," said Lily.

Harry had torn open the parcel to find a thick, hand-knitted sweater in emerald green and a large box of home-made fudge.

"That's a nice present," said Peter. "My mum sends me jumpers for Christmas."

"Every year she makes us a jumper," said Ron unwrapping his own, "and mine's always maroon."

"That's really nice of her," said Harry, trying the fudge, which was very tasty.
His next present also contained sweets - a large box of Chocolate Frogs from Hermione.

"That's nice of Hermione," commented James. "My son has great friends."

This left only one parcel. Harry picked it up and felt it. It was very light. He unwrapped it.
Something fluid and silvery grey went slithering to the floor, where it lay in gleaming folds. Ron gasped.

Sirius gasped. "It can't be your invisibility cloak, can it, James? Maybe you left it to me before your death and I sent it to Harry."

"Maybe," said James, looking excited.

"I've heard of those," he said in a hushed voice, dropping the box of Every-Flavor Beans he'd got from Hermione. "If that's what I think it is - they're really rare, and really valuable."

"What is it?"
Harry picked the shining, silvery cloth off the floor. It was strange to touch, like water woven into material.

"It isan invisibiltycloak!' exclaimed James. "I hope it's mine!"

"It's an Invisibility Cloak," said Ron, a look of awe on his face. "I'm sure it is - try it on."

"Yeah, try it on, Harry!" said James.

Harry threw the Cloak around his shoulders and Ron gave a yell.
"It is! Look down!"

James and Lily looked very excited.

Harry looked down at his feet, but they had gone. He dashed to the mirror. Sure enough, his reflection looked back at him, just his head suspended in mid-air, his body completely invisible. He pulled the Cloak over his head and his reflection vanished completely.

"Let's just hope he doesn't get into as much trouble as his father," said Lily, looking torn between happy and disapproving.

"There's a note!" said Ron suddenly. "A note fell out of it!"

"We'll find out who sent it!" exclaimed Sirius.

Harry pulled off the Cloak and seized the letter. Written in narrow, loopy writing he had never seen before were the following words:

Your father left this in my possession before he died.
It is time it was returned to you.
Use it well.
A Very Merry Christmas to you.

James was smiling broadly. "Harry got my old cloak! I remember when my dad passed it down to me."
Remus was frowning. "I think Dumbledore mught have sent it. His handwriting is narrow and sort of loopy."

There was no signature.

"Darn! We don't know who sent it!' said Sirius. "Well, I bet three galleons that it was me."

Remus sighed. "I bet two galleons that it was Dumbledore."

James frowned in thought, then finally said,"Two galleons that it's Dumbledore." Peter ended up betting a galleon that it was Dumbledore, too, while Lily refused to bet.

Harry stared at the note. Ron was admiring the Cloak.
"I'd give anything for one of these," he said. "Anything. What's the matter?"

"Nothing," said Harry. He felt very strange. Who had sent the Cloak? Had it really once belonged to his father?

"Well, of course!" said James. He ran upstairs and came back down a couple of minutes later with his cloak. "See?"

"Uh, Prongs, he can't see of hear you," said Sirius.

Before he could say or think anything else, the dormitory door was flung open and Fred and George Weasley bounded in. Harry stuffed the Cloak quickly out of sight. He didn't feel like sharing it with anyone else yet.

"I didn't either," said James. "Just with Sirius and after the holidays with Remus and Peter."

"Merry Christmas!"

"Hey, look - Harry's got a Weasley jumper, too!"
Fred and George were wearing blue jumpers, one with a large yellow F on it, the other with a large yellow G.

"Awww," cooed Lily. "How cute!"
"I bet they've put the wrong jumper on, though," said James, grinning.
Sirius grinned as well. "Me too. We'd do the same if it was us."

"Harry's is better than ours, though," said Fred, holding up Harry's jumper. "She obviously makes more of an effort if you're not family."

"Why aren't you wearing yours, Ron?" George demanded. "Come on, get it on, they're lovely and warm."

"I hate maroon," Ron moaned half-heartedly as he pulled it over his head.

"You haven't got a letter on yours," George observed. "I suppose she thinks you don't forget your name. But we're not stupid - we know we're called Gred and Forge."

Sirius and James looked at each other and burst out laughing. The others chuckled.

"What's all this noise?"
Percy Weasley stuck his head through the door, looking disapproving.

"Does this guy even know what fun is?" asked Sirius.

"Probably not," responded James.

He had clearly come halfway through unwrapping his presents as he, too, carried a lumpy jumper over his arm, which Fred seized.

"P for prefect! Get it on, Percy, come on, we're all wearing ours, even Harry got one."

James smiled broadly.

"I - don't - want -" said Percy thickly, as the twins forced the jumper over his head, knocking his glasses askew.

"Wow," said Sirius. "I wish I could meet those twins. They're as cool as us."

"Yeah," said James. "I wouldn't be surprised if Peeves saluted them someday."

"And you're not sitting with the Prefects today, either," said George. "Christmas is a time for family."
They frog-marched Percy from the room, his arms pinned to his sides by his jumper.

There was more laughter at this.

Harry had never in all his life had such a Christmas dinner. A hundred fat, roast turkeys, mountains of roast and boiled potatoes, platters of fat chipolatas, tureens of buttered peas, silver boats of thick, rich gravy and cranberry sauce - and stacks of wizard crackers every few feet along the table. These fantastic crackers were nothing like the feeble Muggle ones the Dursleys usually bought, with their little plastic toys and their flimsy paper hats.

Harry pulled a wizard cracker with Fred and it didn't just bang, it went off with a blast like a cannon and engulfed them all in a cloud of blue smoke, while from the inside exploded a rear-admiral's hat and several live, white mice.

Up on the High Table, Dumbledore had swapped his pointed wizard's hat for a flowered bonnet and was chuckling merrily at a joke Professor Flitwick had just read him.

"Dumbledore's great!" said Sirius. "He always exchanges his hat for something feminine. At least the couple of times we've stayed at Hogwarts for Christmas."

Flaming Christmas puddings followed the turkey. Percy nearly broke his teeth on a silver Sickle embedded in his slice. Harry watched Hagrid getting redder and redder in the face as he called for more wine, finally kissing Professor McGonagall on the cheek,

"Urgh!" they all said, making faces..

who, to Harry's amazement, giggled and blushed, her top hat lop-sided.

Everyonme burst out laughing. "McGonagall's drunk!" yelled James. "Too bad we can't see her like that!'

When Harry finally left the table, he was laden down with a stack of things out of the crackers, including a pack of non-explodable, luminous balloons, a grow your own warts kit and his own new wizard chess set.

"You should try the warts kit on Malfoy," said James.

The white mice had disappeared and Harry had a nasty feeling they were going to end up as Mrs. Norris' Christmas dinner.

Harry and the Weasleys spent a happy afternoon having a furious snowball fight in the grounds.

"Excellent!' I love a good snowball fight!' said James. "We should have one when we're done reading this book."

"Which will be tomorrow," said Remus, "considering that it's four o'clock now and we still have five or six chpaters to go."

Then, cold, wet and gasping for breath, they returned to the fire in the Gryffindor common room, where Harry broke in his new chess set by losing spectacularly to Ron. He suspected he wouldn't have lost so badly if Percy hadn't tried to help him so much.

After a tea of turkey sandwiches, crumpets, trifle and Christmas cake, everyone felt too full and sleepy to do much before bed except sit and watch Percy chase Fred and George all over Gryffindor Tower because they'd stolen his prefect badge.

There were chuckles, the loudest from Sirius and James. "Those two are great!"

It had been Harry's best Christmas day ever. Yet something had been nagging at the back of his mind all day. Not until he climbed into bed was he free to think about it: the Invisibility Cloak and whoever had sent it.

"It was me!' said Sirius.

"Or Dumbledore," said James. "The handwriting describes is like Dumbeldore's."

Ron, full of turkey and cake and with nothing mysterious to bother him, fell asleep almost as soon as he'd drawn the curtains of his four-poster.

Harry leant over the side of his own bed and pulled the Cloak out from under it.
His father's ... this had been his father's.

James removed his glasses and wiped away a tear.

He let the material flow over his hands, smoother than silk, light as air. Use it well, the note had said.

He had to try it, now. He slipped out of bed and wrapped the Cloak around himself. Looking down at his legs, he saw only moonlight and shadows. It was a very funny feeling.

Use it well.

Suddenly, Harry felt wide awake. The whole of Hogwarts was open to him in this Cloak. Excitement flooded through him as he stood there in the dark and silence. He could go anywhere in this, anywhere, and Filch would never know.

Ron grunted in his sleep. Should Harry wake him?

"You should," said Sirius. "I went with James."

"Yeah, but Harry might want to have some time alone with it first," said James. "It is the first thing he's gotten that connects him to his parents, I mean, us."

Something held him back - his father's Cloak - he felt that this time - the first time - he wanted to use it alone.

He crept out of the dormitory, down the stairs, across the common room and climbed through the portrait hole.

"Who's there?" squawked the Fat Lady. Harry said nothing. He walked quickly down the corridor. Where should he go? He stopped, his heart racing, and thought. And then it came to him. The Restricted Section in the library.

"Good idea," said James.

Remus frowned. "Uh, Harry isn't familar with the Restricted section. Some of the books there scream and stuff. Harry could open a book that screams and alert Filch or a teacher."

"Oh, right," said James.

He'd be able to read as long as he liked, as long as it took to find out who Flamel was. He set off, drawing the Invisibility Cloak tight around him as he walked.
The library was pitch black and very eerie. Harry lit a lamp to see his way along the rows of books.

"Why doesn't he just use Lumos?" asked James.

"He might not have learned it yet," said Remus.

The lamp looked as if it was floating in mid-air, and even though Harry could feel his arm supporting it, the sight gave him the creeps.

Peter shuddered.

The Restricted Section was right at the back of the library. Stepping carefully over the rope which separated these books from the rest of the library, he held up his lamp to read the titles.

They didn't tell him much. Their peeling, faded gold letters spelled words in languages Harry couldn't understand. Some had no title at all. One book had a dark stain on it that looked horribly like blood.

"Probably was," muttered Sirius.

The hairs on the back of Harry's neck p prickled. Maybe he was imagining it, maybe not, but he thought a faint whispering was coming from the books, as though they knew someone was there who shouldn't be.

He had to start somewhere. Setting the lamp down carefully on the floor, he looked along the bottom shelf for an interesting-looking book. A large black and silver volume caught his eye. He pulled it out with difficulty, because it was very heavy, and, balancing it on his knee, let it fall open.

A piercing, blood-curdling shriek split the silence - the book was screaming!

They all winced. "Harry had to go and open a screaming book," moaned Remus. "I knew this was a bad idea."

Harry snapped it shut, but the shriek went on an on, one high, unbroken, ear-splitting note. He stumbled backwards and knocked over his lamp, which went out at once.

Panicking, he heard footsteps coming down the corridor outside - stuffing the shrieking book back on the shelf, he ran for it.

"Excellent idea!" said Sirius

He passed filch almost in the doorway; Filch's pale, wide eyes looked straight through him and Harry slipped under Filch's outstretched arm and streaked off up the corridor, the book's shrieks still ringing in his ears.

He came to a sudden halt in front of a tall suit of armor. He had been so busy getting away from the library; he hadn't paid any attention to where he was going.

Perhaps because it was dark, he didn't recognize where he was at all. There was a suit of armor near the kitchens, he knew, but he must be five floors above there.

"Well, yeah," said James. "You just ran from the library, Harry, and the kitchens are nowhere near it."

"You asked me to come directly to you, Professor, if anyone was wandering around at night, and somebody's been in the library - Restricted Section."

Harry felt the blood drain out of his face. Wherever he was, Filch must know a short cut, because his soft, greasy voice was getting nearer, and to his horror, it was Snape who replied.

"Doesn't Snape ever sleep?" asked Sirius sourly.

"Who knows?" answered James. "I wonder why he told Filch to tell him if anyone was wandering about at nightr."

"Maybe to make sure Quirrell or whomever doesn't go after the Stone," said Remus. Sirius groaned, but Lily and James looked thoughtful.

"The restricted Section? Well, they can't be far, we'll catch them."
Harry stood rooted to the spot as Filch and Snape came around the corner ahead. They couldn't see him, of course, but it was a narrow corridor and if they came much nearer they'd knock right into him - the Cloak didn't stop him being solid.

"As Sirius and I found out when we accidentally ran in McGonagall!' said James, shuddering.

He backed away as quietly as he could. A door stood ajar to his left. It was his only hope.

"That's lucky," said James. "Maybe it's the Room of Requirement producing a hiding place."

"I don't think so," said Sirius. "The Room of Requirement is on the seventh floor."

He squeezed through it, holding his breath, trying not to move it, and to his relief he managed to get inside the room without their noticing anything.

"Thank Merlin!' said Lily, relieved.

They walked straight past and Harry leant against the wall, breathing deeply, listening to their footsteps dying away. That had been close, very close.

It was a few seconds before he noticed anything about the room he had hidden in.It looked like a disused classroom. The dark shapes of desks and chairs were piled against the walls and there was an upturned waste-paper basket - but propped against the wall facing him was something that didn't look as if it belonged there, something that looked as if someone had just put it there to keep it out of the way.

It was a magnificent mirror, as high as the ceiling, with an ornate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet. There was an inscription carved around the top: Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.

"It must be the Mirror of Erised!' exclaimed Remus, after his attempt to read the inscription. James grabbed the book. "Hey!" protested Remus. James ignored him and began scribbling on a scrap of parchment.

Finally he said, "I checked out my theory and it was right. The insciption is merely the backwards writing of 'I show not your face but your heart's desire,' So basically this is the Mirror of Desire." He handed the book back to Remus.

His panic fading now that there was no sound of Filch and Snape, Harry moved nearer to the mirror, wanting to look at himself but see no reflection again.

He stepped in front of it.
He had to clap his hands to his mouth to stop himself screaming.

They all looked at each other, puzzled.

He whirled around. His heart was pounding far more furiously than when the book had screamed - for he had seen not only himself in the mirror, but a whole crowd of people standing right behind him.

"But the room is supposed to be empty!" exclaimed Sirius.

"Maybe the people are in the mirror," suggested Peter. Everyone looked at him, for he hadn't spoken since his bet of a galleon.

But the room was empty. Breathing very fast, he turned slowly back to the mirror.
There he was, reflected in it, white and scared-looking, and there, reflected behind him, were at least ten others. Harry looked over his shoulder - but, still, no one was there. Or were they all invisible, too? Was he in fact in a room full of invisible people and this mirror's trick was that it reflected them, invisible or not?


He looked in the mirror again. A woman standing right behind his reflection was smiling at him and waving. He reached out a hand and felt the air behind him. If she really was there, he'd touch her, their reflections were so close together, but he felt only air - she and the others existed only in the mirror.

She was a very pretty woman. She had dark red hair and her eyes - her eyes are just like mine, Harry thought, edging a little closer to the glass. Bright green - exactly the same shape, but then he noticed that she was crying; smiling, but crying at the same time.

Lily gasped. "T-that's me! Harry is seeing me!"

The tall, thin, black-haired man standing next to her put his arm around her. He wore glasses, and his hair was very untidy. It stuck up at the back, just like Harry's did.

"And that's me!" cried James. "Harry is seeing us in the mirror!' A few tears rolled down his face, while Lily sobbed on hi shoulder. He patted her sympathetically, while Remus, Sirius, and Peter looked very sad. Finally Remus resumed reading a soft voice.

Harry was now so close to the mirror now that his nose was nearly touching that of his reflection.
"Mum?" he whispered. "Dad?"

They just looked at him, smiling. And slowly, Harry looked into the faces of the other people in the mirror and saw other pairs of green eyes like his, other noses like his, and even a little old man who looked as though he had Harry's knobbly knees -

Lily sobbed harder, while James removed his glasses to wipe his eyes.

Harry was looking at his family for the first time in his life.

"How sad," murmered Sirius. "I'm going to get the Death Eaters that betrayed you two to Voldemort!"

"Me too," said Peter, flinching.

The Potters smiled and waved at Harry as he stared hungrily back at them, his hands pressed flat against the glass as though he was hoping to fall right through and reach them.

Lily cried even harder, and Peter and Remus had a few tears in thier eyes.

He had a powerful kind of ache inside him, half joy, half terrible sadness.

James began sobbing and patted Lily on the back. Sirius now had a few tears as well.

How long he stood there, he didn't know. The reflections did not fade and he looked and looked until a distant noise brought him back to his senses. He couldn't stay here; he had to find his way back to bed.

Lily finally lifted her head and wied her eyes. "Yes, go back to bed, Harry. You need your sleep."

He tore his eyes away from his mother's face, whispered, "I'll come back," and hurried from the room.

"You could have woken me up," said Ron, crossly.

"You can come tonight, I'm going back, I want to show you the mirror."

"I'd like to see your mum and dad," Ron said eagerly.

"And I want to see all your family, all the Weasleys, you'll be able to show me your other brothers and everyone."

"So they think the mirror shows your family?" asked James.

"Must be," answered Sirius.

"You can see them any old time," said Ron. "Just come round my house this summer. Anyway, maybe it only shows dead people. Shame about not finding Flamel, though. Have some bacon or something, why aren't you eating anything?"

Harry couldn't eat. He had seen his parents and would be seeing them again tonight. He had almost forgotten about Flamel. It didn't seem very important anymore.

"Wait!" exclaimed James. "Maybe you shouldn't go look in the mirror again."

Lily nodded. "You could go mad, Harry."

Who cared what the three-headed dog was guarding? What did it matter if Snape stole it, really?
"Are you all right?" said Ron. "You look odd."

What Harry feared most was that he might not be able to find the mirror room again. With Ron covered in the Cloak too, they had to walk much more slowly next night. They tried retracing Harry's route from the library, wandering around the dark passageways for nearly an hour.

"I'm freezing," said Ron. "Let's forget it and go back."

"No!" Harry hissed. "I know it's here somewhere."

They passed the ghost of a tall witch gliding in the opposite direction, but saw no one else. Just as Ron started moaning that his feet were dead with cold, Harry spotted the suit of armor.
"It's here - just here - yes!"

They pushed the door open. Harry dropped the Cloak from round his shoulders and ran to the mirror.

"He's a bit obesessed," commented Siirus.

There they were. His mother and father beamed at the sight of him.

"See?" Harry whispered.

"I can't see anything."

"Look! Look at them all ... there are loads of them ..."

"I can only see you."

Remus frowned. "I think it's because it shows only your heart's desire. That's what the inscription read. And apparently Ron's desire isn't his family."

"Look in it properly, go on, and stand where I am."

Harry stepped aside, but with Ron in front of the mirror, he couldn't see his family any more, just Ron in his paisley pajamas.

Ron, though, was staring transfixed at his image.
"Look at me!" he said.

"Can you see all your family standing around you?"

"No - I'm alone - but I'm different - I look older - and I'm Head Boy!"

"What?"

"I am - I'm wearing the badge like Bill used to - and I'm holding the House Cup and the Quidditch Cup - I'm Quidditch captain, too!"

"That must be Ron's desire, that he's better than his brothers," said James thoughtfully.

Ron tore his eyes away from this splendid sight to look excitedly at Harry.

"Do you think this mirror shows the future?"

"How can it? All my family are dead - let me have another look -"

"You had it all to yourself last night, give me a bit more time."

"You're only holding the Quidditch Cup, what's interesting about that? I want to see my parents."

"Don't push me -"

A sudden noise outside in the corridor put an end to their discussion. They hadn't realized how loudly they had been talking.
"Quick!"

"Uh, oh!" said Lily, looking worried.

Ron threw the Cloak back over them as the luminous eyes of Mrs. Norris came round the door. Ron and Harry stood quite still, both thinking the same thing - did the Cloak work on cats? After what seemed an age, she turned and left.

"This isn't safe - she might have gone for Filch, I bet she heard us. Come on."
And Ron pulled Harry out of the room.

The snow still hadn't melted next morning.

"Want to play chess, Harry?" said Ron.

"No."

"Why don't we go down and visit Hagrid?"

"No ... you go ..."

"I know what you're thinking about, Harry, that mirror. Don't go back tonight."

"Why not?"

"I don’t know, I've just got a bad feeling about it - and, anyway, you've had too many close shaves already. Filch, Snape and Mrs. Norris are wandering around. So what if they can't see you? What if they walk into you? What if you knock something over?"

"He sounds like Hermione!" said James, looking annoyed.

"You sound like Hermione."

Everyone looked at James, who shrugged.

"I'm serious, Harry, don't go."

But Harry only had one thought in his head, which was to get back in front of the mirror, and Ron wasn't going to stop him.

"Stubborn, like his father," said Sirius. James threw a cushion at him.

That third night he found his way more quickly than before. He was walking so fast he knew he was making more noise than was wise, but he didn't meet anyone.

And there were his mother and father, smiling at him again, and one of his grandfathers nodding happily. Harry sank down to sit on the floor in front of the mirror. There was nothing to stop him staying here all night with his family. Nothing at all.
Except - "So - back again, Harry?"

Harry felt as though his insides had turned to ice. He looked behind him. Sitting on one of the desks by the wall was none other than Albus Dumbledore.

"Oh, it's Dumbledore," said James. "Dumbledore's nice and understanding."

Harry must have walked straight past him, so desperate to get to the mirror he hadn't noticed him.
" I - I didn't see you, sir."

"Strange how short-sighted being invisible can make you," said Dumbledore, and Harry was relieved to see that he was smiling.

They all looked relieved.

"So," said Dumbledore, slipping off the desk to sit on the floor with Harry, "you, like hundreds before you, have discovered the delights of the Mirror of Erised."

"I didn't know it was called that, sir."

"But I expect you've realized by now what it does?"

"It - well - it shows me my family -"

"And it showed your friend Ron himself as Head Boy."

"So Dumbledore was watching them! That crafty old man," said James.

"How did you know-?"

"I don't need a cloak to become invisible," said Dumbledore gently. "Now, can you think what the Mirror of Erised shows us all?"

Harry shook his head.

"You desire," they all said, having figured it out.

"Let me explain. The happiest man on earth would be able to use the Mirror of Erised like a normal mirror, that is; he would look into it and see himself exactly as he is. Does that help?"

Harry thought. Then he said slowly. "It shows us what we want ... whatever we want ..."

"Yes and no," said Dumbledore quietly. "It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts. You, who have never known your family, see them standing around you.

James looked stony, while Lily's face was sad.

Ronald Weasley, who has always been overshadowed by his brothers, sees himself standing alone, the best of all of them. However, this mirror will give us neither knowledge or truth. Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible.

"The mirror will be moved to a new home tomorrow, Harry, and I ask you not to go looking for it again.

"Awww," whined Sirius.

"Stop that!' snapped Remus. "At least Harry isn't in trouble."

If you ever do run across it, you will now be prepared. It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that.
Now, why don't you put that admirable Cloak back on and get off to bed?"

"Dumbledore likes my Cloak?" said James, looking amazed.

Harry stood up.
"Sir - Professor Dumbledore? Can I ask you something?"

"Obviously, you've just done so," Dumbledore smiled. "You may ask me one more thing, however."

"What do you see when you look in the Mirror?"

"I? I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks."

"What?" they all exclaimed.

Harry stared.
"One can never have enough socks," said Dumbledore. "Another Christmas gone and I didn't get a single pair. People will insist on giving me books."

It was only when he was back in bed that it struck Harry that Dumbledore might not have been quite truthful. But then, he thought, as he shoved Scabbers off his pillow, it had been quite a personal question.

"Well, it was," said Lily.

"But we know what to get Dumbledore for Christmas," said James.

"That's the end of the chapter," said Remus.

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