It had been some time since Hermione and the other students had returned to Hogwarts for the next term. Sadly Naruto and Sasuke couldn't visit, something about muggles not going to Hogwarts.
Harry still was very thankful for the gifts, as Naruto sent him a box of shuriken and Sasuke sent explosive tags.
Even Iruka sensei sent him a gift, 5 scrolls with a Jutsu from a certain element each, and a paper to learn his
elemental affinity, Fire.
He also got a cloak of invisibility that belonged to his father long ago, when he told his brothers about it they where unsurprisingly excited, event though Harry would have preferred to be able to wear it and only become invisible when he wanted or when he put the hood on, instead of it being a yes or no kind of thing.
Maybe he would look more into seals and stuff, wizards they had runes so maybe with both together he could modify it so he could wear it and still be visible unless he wanted not to.
Of course, that also included Malfoy and his lackeys had also returned ("all good things come to an end I guess," grumbled Ron.) Hermione, of course, was filled in on everything that had happened involving Harry and his younger brothers. She was a bit put out, partly because Hermione was still intrigued about Harry's younger brothers that she had met only in passing, and partly because that, apart from the one time where Harry had been looking in the Library under his invisibility cloak, they had not actually spent any time looking for Flamel.
"But Hermione," Ron whined, "there was so much other cooler stuff going on!"
Which promptly got him hit over the head by a grumpy Hermione.
It was almost a month later when the search for Flamel finally became fruitful. The three of them had been reduced to searching books in the few ten minutes between lessons. Harry's time had been cut even shorter due to Wood, who was desperate to win the Quidditch cup this year, having bombarded the whole team with more practices than even Harry gave himself for his shinobi studying. The poor Weasley twins were reduced to dive-bombing each other during practices because of facing the withdrawal symptoms from not having any time to prank anyone. Wood had lost it with them and inadvertently revealed that Snape was going to referee the next Quidditch match.
Although Harry found this a little unfair, due to the fact that Snape would definitely be dead set against the Gryffindor side (thankfully, they were playing Hufflepuff and not Slytherin – not that the Hufflepuff team were bad – quite the opposite. No, it was just that Snape would definitely have favoured the Slytherins, even if they had committed all seven hundred Quidditch fouls.) Both Hermione and Ron, who still seemed to think that it was Snape who tried to kill him on that first Quidditch match, were dead set against Harry playing in case Snape 'attempted to do him in again'.
"I really don't know why you guys are getting so uptight about all this," Harry grumbled from his place draped over the sofa, looking at them with one eye closed as he yawned and scratched behind his head with one hand.
"How can you be so calm?" Ron goggled at the raven-haired boy. "Unless you forgot, the guy hexed your broom!"
"You think he did," Harry pointed out. "Look, I know the guy hates my guts and takes points off of people unfairly, has hair greasy enough that it could silence at least ten squeaky doors and is complete bastard with no life except to make everyone's life miserable…where was I going with this again?"
Despite the seriousness of the convocation, both Hermione and Ron rolled their eyes, quite used to Harry's weird quirks in his personality by now, and Hermione said dryly, "Snape and the match."
"Yes, well, anyways, I just don't know if it was Snape that did it."
"Harry, I know a jinx when I see one," Hermione told him seriously after sharing a glance with Ron. "I've read all about them. You have to keep eye-contact and Snape wasn't blinking."
"Yeah, mate he was, like, muttering non-stop under his breath! If that ain't casting a curse, then I dunno what is."
"Aaaah, but not everything's as it seems, ne," Harry said in a sing songy voice.
However, before Ron and Hermione had time to yell at him that this was no time to play silly cryptic games and to take this seriously, there was a large crash behind them. Everyone spun round; Harry's hand already halfway to his kunai pouch, only to pause at the sight that met his eyes. There, lying sprawled across the floor was Neville, his legs locked together completely due to some sort of curse. From the rumpled clothes to the slight redness on his forehead and nose, it was obvious that Neville had had to bunny hop the whole way to the tower and must have already had several other up-close and personal meetings with the floor.
Everyone collapsed to the floor laughing, while Neville's face grew redder and dipped towards the carpet. Harry, glaring fiercely at everyone until they cut themselves off with one of his darker Glares, quickly rushed over to the boy to help him to right himself, while Hermione muttered a quick spell under her breath to cancel the Leg-locker curse. Neville shot them a tearful, yet grateful smile.
"What happened?" Hermione asked kindly as she and Harry led a slightly shaky Neville to sit on the sofa that Harry had just vacated.
"Malfoy," he answered shakily. "I met him in the library. He said he'd been looking for someone to practice on."
Harry almost growled and wondered if Dumbledore would mind ever so much if a student went missing, because the next time he saw Malfoy he was going to kill him! Or at the very least rethink tying him in up by his ankles to a tree in the middle of the Forbidden Forest for a few days. Because no one hurt Harry's friends and got away with it!
"Go to Professor McGonagall!" Hermione was urging the boy. "Report him!"
Neville shook his head, his eyes hidden behind his bangs as he stared down at his hands. "I don't want any more trouble." He murmured.
"You sound like you've given up already," Harry snapped suddenly. Neville jumped and looked up at Harry, wide-eyed. "Listen to me. If you just stand by and let them trip, belittle you and pull you down, then what's stopping them from doing it again and again?" Neville stared at Harry; tears in his eyes as he stood looking down at Neville with shadowed eyes. Carefully, he knelt down and looked Neville in the eye in a way he had done with both his brothers when he wanted to show them he meant every single word he said. "No one stays weak forever, Neville. Strength isn't something we're born with, no matter what anyone says. Strength is something that we must work on over time. But to achieve that strength, you need to believe in yourself, in your own strength and power. After all, there was a reason that hat sorted you into Griffindor."
Neville's eyes were wide; shining overly bright as what Harry said began to sink in. "Harry, I-"
Harry beamed at Neville and stood once more, ruffling his golden hair. "Here," he threw him one of his last chocolate frogs to the boy, who caught it clumsily. "Next time, make sure you're the one sending him splat on his face, ne?"
Neville brushed his eyes with a slight laugh at the picture of the 'Slytherin Prince' flat on his face and unwrapped the frog. Before heading up to bed, he gave Harry the chocolate Frog collectable card, trotting off to the dormitories, looking a little happier than before. With a small smile at the retreating boy's back, Harry absently studied the card (the face of Dumbledore looking up at him curiously) and flipped it over to see what it had to say about the old man. He choked when he read exactly what the card said.
"Flamel!"
"What?" Hermione and Ron suddenly jumped up in surprise. The two of them practically surging towards him, snatching the card out of his hand and reading what was written there. Suddenly Hermione's eyes lit up to dazzling levels and she darted back up to her room, yelling at the two of them to stay where they were, leaving Ron and Harry to share mystified looks and Harry to wonder when Hermione had reached the speed of a genin. A few seconds after that thought crossed his mind, Hermione came back down, taking the steps two at a time. She was carrying a big, thick book that put the Quidditch Through The Ages to shame.
"I never thought to look in here!" she whispered excitedly. "I got this out of the library weeks ago for a bit of light reading."
Everyone fell over.
"Light?" choked Ron. Hermione told Ron to be quiet. She then returned searching through her book, mumbling to herself. At last she found what she was looking for.
"I knew it! I knew it!"
"Are we aloud to speak yet?" Ron grumbled to Harry.
"Mind elaborating?" Harry asked, seeing as Hermione was still chanting 'I knew it!' and seemed to have forgotten the two boys were standing there.
"Nicolas Flamel," she whispered dramatically, "is the only maker of the Philosopher's Stone!"
There was a pregnant pause. If Harry didn't know any better, he was sure there was a whistling of wind and a rolling dust-ball bouncing away in the draft.
"The what?" Asked Ron.
Hermione crashed to the floor. Obviously this wasn't the answer that she was looking for from them.
"Honestly, don't you two read?" She clucked when she had recovered and roughly pushed the book onto Harry's lap. Blinking, Harry leaned over and read:
The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Philosopher's Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers. The stone will transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal.
There have been many reports of the Philosopher's Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr. Nicolas Flamel, the noted alchemist and opera lover. Mr Flamel, who celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday last year, enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife, Perenelle (six hundred and fifty-eight.)
Harry let out a long low whistle.
"See?" said Hermione. "The dog must be guarding Flamel's Philosopher's Stone! I bet he asked Dumbledore to keep it safe for him, because they're friends and he knew someone was after it, that's why he wanted the Stone moved out of Gringotts!"
"A stone that makes gold and stops you from dying!" said Ron. "No wonder Snape's after it! Anyone would want it."
Harry just hoped that no one from the Hidden Countries knew about this. Who knew what it would be like trying to defeat a shinobi that just wouldn't die? He sighed in exasperation. Nothing was ever simple, was it?
The next few days were interesting. He had played his second Quidditch match, having defeated Hufflepuff and got through unscathed in record time, having not been hexed again (although Ron had said it was because Dumbledore had come to watch that Snape had been unable to hex him.) During which Ron and Neville had fought Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle – Neville was forced to stay in the Hospital wing for a while before he regained consciousness. But not before Ron had given Malfoy a black eye (and ended up with a heavy nosebleed, although he said it was worth it) and Neville had at least managed to get a few in before he was knocked out. Harry made sure to visit his friend a few times.
However, as Harry had stated before, Murphy's law seemed to have an obsession with the raven-haired genin, and once more decided to come into play. This time, it was when Harry and his friends found another creature hiding within Hogwarts, or in this case, Hogwarts' grounds. This time, however, it wasn't a three-headed dog like the one believed to be on the third floor, but a dragon. Said dragon hatched from its egg at Hagrid's hut shortly after Harry, Hermione and Ron had found out about it when Hagrid reluctantly agreed to tell them a little about the enchantments guarding the stone.
Apart from the fact that it was plain stupid to have something even more of a pyromaniac than Harry living in something that could easily be reduced to firewood, it was a well-known fact (according to Ron, seeing as Harry was just looking at him cluelessly) that dragon breeding was outlawed in England. So how the hell Hagrid had managed to get a dragon in the first place and had thought it was a good idea to raise it in a wooden house was beyond him.
What was worse was, despite Harry constantly telling his friends to lower their voices if they had to persist in talking about the Dragon (that Hagrid had named 'Norbert'), Malfoy had somehow managed to overhear about Hagrid having a Dragon and had seen it hatch through a window. Harry quickly assessed that Hagrid would be punished heavily if it were found out and, seeing as Harry liked the man, despite his odd sense in pets (first Fluffy, now Norbert!) Harry had suggested that they give the newborn dragon to Charlie, Ron's brother, who, if he remembered rightly, worked with dragons in Romania. Soon, Ron had sent a letter with Hosenka (Harry had allowed her to be borrowed, as she was much faster than the school owls and used to flying long distance) to ask Charlie to take the dragon off their hands.
It was a week later when they received the reply. The only problem was that they needed to get the dragon to the tallest Astronomy tower to give to Charlie's friends at midnight. Even worse was that, when Ron had been bitten by Norbert and had no choice but to go to see Madame Pomfrey about it, seeing as it was beginning to swell up like a balloon and turn an odd green colour, Malfoy had come and 'borrowed' one of Ron's books as an excuse to come and laugh at him. He taunted the boy on telling the teachers just what it was that had bitten him. Unfortunately, the book he took had the letter from Charlie asking for the dragon to be at the top of the tallest tower at midnight Saturday was inside, so now the Slytherin knew their plans too.
Harry was seriously wondering how he had managed to make friends with a guy who was so stupid to not have burned the note or otherwise destroyed it. Goes to show you that not everyone was cut out to be a ninja. However, he tried not to be too hard on the boy, since he was still very ill from the bite and stuck in the hospital wing.
However, Harry still had his trump card of the invisibility cloak, even if that meant showing it to Hermione, seeing as they needed two people to carry the dragon and Ron was still stuck in the hospital wing. Harry couldn't help but sigh however, wondering whether any of the other Genin back in Konoha was receiving such whacked out missions as Harry seemed to be doing.
Saturday finally came and Harry and Hermione were at Hagrid's hut and sweat-dropping as Hagrid continued to mother the poor dragon despite the fact it was already waiting in a large crate for them to transport.
"He's got lots o' rats an' some brandy fer the journey," Hagrid told them in a muffled voice. "An' I've packed his teddy bear in case he gets lonely."
Harry gave Hagrid an incredulous look as a tearing sound came from the crate. "You might want to scratch the bear from the list, Hagrid," Harry laughed nervously.
"Bye-bye, Norbert!" Hagrid sobbed as Harry tossed the invisibility cloak over them with practised ease from using Kakuremino no Jutsu at the academy. "Mommy will never forget you!"
From somewhere in front of Hagrid, there was a loud spluttering sound that sounded a little like Hermione.
"Mommy?" Harry's disembodied voice choked.
Even with Harry's Taijutsu training and a spare set of hands, getting Norbert up to the tallest tower was easier said than done. Even when Harry - who had most of the layout of Hogwarts committed to memory from the times he and the Weasley twins had played pranks and such - had taken them down the quickest routes, it was still difficult sneaking around with a big hulking crate filled with a small but heavy dragon.
There was a sudden movement and, even though they were invisible, Harry put a hand over Hermione's mouth so she would not make a sound. With a jerk of his head, he guided them backwards into a nook so as not to be in range for collision by whatever it was that was moving towards them. The shape and movement of the shadows looked almost like two people grappling at each other. Abruptly a light flared, causing their eyes to sting at its suddenness.
There was McGonagall, dressed in a tartan dressing gown and a hairnet and had a squirming Malfoy by the ear. Her face was contorted in anger.
"Detention!" she was yelling as she pulled the boy along. "And Twenty Points from Slytherin! Wandering around in the middle of the night, how dare you-"
"You don't understand, Professor," Malfoy whined painfully. "Harry Potter's (Harry grimaced at his stubborn refusal to at least call him Uchiha) coming – he's got a dragon!"
"What utter rubbish! How dare you tell such lies! Come on – I shall see Professor Snape about you, Malfoy!" the voices died away as they descended the stairs.
After that, knowing that the rest of the way to the tower was clear, it seemed that getting the crate up the spiralling stairs was much easier. It wasn't until they had reached the top, however, and that Harry had pulled the cloak off of them that Hermione danced an odd little jig with glee. Harry watched her in amusement, having never seen the studious girl act so childish.
"Malfoy got a detention!" Hermione quietly squealed in delight. "I think I could sing!"
"Don't," Harry advised her, although he thought it would be funny to see her do just that. "We haven't got through this yet. We still need to get rid of Norbert and get back to the common room without anyone spotting us."
It was about ten minutes later, sitting with a thrashing box-bound dragon and chuckling at odd occasions at the look on the Slytherin's face (serves him right for what he did to Neville and how he was treating Ron at the hospital, Harry thought, feeling an odd sense of justice. Perhaps he would thank Ron for not getting rid of that note later) when there was a movement in the sky. Harry watched as four small dots descended towards the tower, growing until Harry could make out four brooms. Realising these must be the friends that Charlie had spoke of in his letter, Harry jumped to his feet, followed by a slower Hermione, who had only just spotted them herself.
Charlie's friends were rather friendly and cheerful, despite the lateness of the hour and proudly showed them their harness for the crate as they buckled Norbert safely and securely with them between two of the brooms. After a quick shaking of hands and muttered thanks between them, the four friends jumped back on their brooms and were off into the sky, steadily shrinking as they disappeared from view.
Harry quickly grapped the invisibility cloak again and made Hermione – who was feeling very pleased with their task and had almost forgotten that they still weren't off the hook just yet – pause long enough to cover them with the cloak once more. Slipping back down the staircase, narrowly avoiding Filch, who was patrolling close by ("thank goodness you remembered that cloak Harry, otherwise we'd be in so much trouble!" – Hermione) they quickly made their way back to the common room once more.
Falling back on the comfy chairs and sighing in relief, Harry couldn't help but wonder what Iruka-sensei and his brothers would think if they heard of that little escapade. He wasn't sure if Iruka would have blown up at him for breaking almost all the school rules, or congratulate him on a (most likely C-class) mission well done.