In the years to come, Harry would never quite remember how he got through his exams when he half expected some shadowy, unknown villain to come bursting through the door at any moment to steal the Stone. While he wasn't particularly concerned about who or what got a hold of the life giving Stone, he was still rather on edge after his experience that night in the Forbidden Forest. Not that he would ever admit that to anyone.
Yet the days crept by, and there could be no doubt that the Cerberus was still alive and well behind the locked door.
It was sweltering hot, especially in the large classroom where they did their written papers. They had been given special, new quills for the exams, which had been bewitched with an anti-cheating spell. Harry had attempted to break the spell with some semi-dark magic but it hadn't worked.
They had practical exams as well. Professor Flitwick called them one by one into his class to see if they could make a pineapple tap-dance across a desk. Harry went just a bit further by charming some music to play and having his pineapple dance in tune with it.
Professor McGonagall watched them turn a mouse into a snuffbox – points were given for how pretty the snuffbox was, but taken away if it had whiskers. After concentrating, Harry managed to make his snuffbox very nicely done up in green and silver colors, along with the Slytherin emblem on the top.
Severus made them all nervous (except for possibly Harry and Draco) by breathing down their necks while they tried to remember how to make a forgetfulness potion.
Harry put all of his effort into it, trying to ignore the sudden flashes of heat that Grindelwald's Pendant was wracked with. It had been oscillating between hot and cold ever since his trip into the Forest. But no matter how hot it burned, Harry couldn't bring himself to take it off.
Draco thought that Harry, for some odd reason, had a bad case of exam nerves because Harry couldn't sleep, but the truth was that Harry had been having his old dream again – he would wake up practically every night in a sweat, his father's shout of 'Avada Kedavra' still ringing in his ears.
Maybe it was because they hadn't seen what Harry had seen in the Forest, or maybe because they didn't have a Dark Lord's Pendant burning around their neck, or maybe because none of their fathers were Dark Lords themselves, but Draco, Hermione, and Neville didn't seem as worried about the Stone as Harry. The idea of a unicorn blood sucking monster who was seeking immortality scared them, but they were so busy with their studying that they didn't have much time to fret about what Hagrid or Quirrell might be up to.
Their very last exam was History of Magic. One hour of answering questions about batty old wizards who'd invented self-stirring cauldrons and they'd be free, free for a whole wonderful week until their exam results came out. When the ghost of Professor Binns told them to put down their quills and roll up their parchments, Harry couldn't help cheering with the rest.
"That was far easier than I thought it would be," said Hermione as they joined the crowds flocking out onto the sunny grounds. "I needn't have learned about the 1637 Werewolf Code of Conduct or the uprising of Elfric the Eager."
Harry nodded his agreement, his hand fumbling around with Grindelwald's Pedant. He and Hermione had both taken to studying together all night after they had come back from Easter Break, and they'd apparently read more books than they'd needed to.
Both Harry and Hermione also liked to go through their exam papers afterward, but Draco and Neville both said that this made them feel slightly ill, so they wandered down to the lake and flopped under a tree. The redheaded Weasley Twins, Fred and George, and another Gryffindor boy by the name of Lee Jordan were tickling the tentacles of the giant squid, which was basking in the warm shallows.
"No more studying," sighed Neville happily, stretching out on the grass.
Draco glanced at Harry, who was strangely silent. "You could look more cheerful, Harry. You might obsessively study before exams, but you dislike it, unlike some people."
Hermione glared at him.
"We've got a week before we find out how badly we've done," said Neville with all the cheer Harry lacked. "There's no need to worry yet."
"Sorry," Harry replied, "I've been distracted lately."
"You've been obsessing over that necklace," Draco pointed out. "It's cursed, I tell you."
Harry sighed and glanced down at it. "Something - something's not right. I have a bad feeling . . . I think something's going to happen. I'm worried about the Stone. I think danger is coming . . ."
Draco couldn't get worked up, it was too hot.
"Nothing can happen to the stone while Professor Dumbledore is here, Harry," Neville said brightly, the euphoria of a study-free immediate future preventing him from getting upset. "He is, after all, the only wizard You-Know-Who ever feared. I don't think some half-alive . . . thing . . . could get to the stone if he's here."
Hermione looked at him strangely. "Don't you know?"
"Know what?" Harry asked suspiciously. A sense of foreboding was curling in his stomach.
"The headmaster had business with the Minister of Magic," she answered. "I overheard Professor McGonagall say something about it. Dumbledore's in London – he must've left about ten or twenty minutes ago – Harry?!"
Harry hadn't waited for her to finish her sentence. He was already on his feet, running towards the school.
Hermione, Draco, and Neville glanced at each other and then back at Harry before jumping up and sprinting after him.
"What are you four doing inside?"
Harry felt his heart drop at the sharp voice of Professor McGonagall. There was no way he was going to be able to get to the Stone now. All he could do was try to wiggle out of the situation without loosing too many points.
"Why, nothing, Professor," Harry answered smoothly. "We were just getting-"
"Someone's trying to steal the-"
Harry slapped a hand over Neville's mouth. He had to force himself not to grimace – McGonagall had to know they were up to something now.
"What was that?" Professor McGonagall asked, staring at them all as if any one of them might suddenly pull out their wand and cast the killing curse at her.
Harry took his hand off of Neville's mouth and awkwardly slid it around to the other boy's shoulders, lightly patting his shoulder with his fingers. He smiled disarmingly. "-Poor Neville here is in a bit of fluster because Sally-Anne Perks tried to steal his rememberall. I swear that thing attracts more thieves than Knockturn Alley does Death Eaters. We were just going to lock it in his dorm so that no one could make off with it again." Harry silently prayed that McGonagall didn't ask to see the aforementioned rememberall, as it was currently locked in the Hufflepuff dorm. People did have a tendency to want to play with the fragile glass object as if it was a toy, and Neville kept loosing it, so he'd decided it was for the best to just keep it locked in his trunk.
McGonagall still had that wary look in her eye. "And it took all of you to do that?"
Harry shrugged. "He needed a bit of protection. It wasn't as if we were going to go into the Hufflepuff dorm with him, Professor. Now if you'll excuse us . . ." Harry moved to go around the teacher.
McGonagall stepped in front of him. "I'm certain that you of all people, Mr. Riddle, will be able to make sure that Miss. Perks does not attempt to steal Mr. Longbottom's rememberall again. It's against school policy to have students running about the halls when there is no one there to supervise them. I suggest you go back outside and stay there."
Harry shot her his best hateful glare. He'd never heard of that particular policy. He ripped his gaze away from the teacher to look at his friends.
"Come on, all of you. Let's do what Professor McGonagall says and go back outside."
Neville whimpered a bit.
"Don't worry, Neville." Harry patted the other boy's back. "We care about keeping your things safe even if some people don't."
McGonagall opened her mouth to retort but Harry had managed to herd his friends away before she could utter the first syllable.
"What in the bloody hell was that about, Harry?" Hermione hissed quietly.
"We can't have her any more suspicious of us than she already is," he replied.
"Why?"
"Tonight. It's going to happen tonight."
"What, Harry? What is going to happen tonight? Stop talking in-" Hermione paused and winced at the horrible pun she was about to make. "Stop talking in bloody riddles!"
"Someone is going to try to steal that goddamn Stone tonight, Hermione!"
Oh yes - something very sinister was going to be occurring in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in a few hours time. He was sure of it.
And he was going to make certain that he would be right there when it happened.