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Chapter 13

June was upon us. Students who had put off revising all year suddenly woke up to the terrible realization that exams were just around the corner.

In Gryffindor Tower, the mood was frantic. That was especially true for Janie, although she was the one Gryffindor who had nothing to fear from final exams. Unfortunately, she did not share my high opinion of her abilities.

"Where are my Charms notes!" she fumbled furiously through her bag. "The ones from just before Christmas? You know - the lecture on magical spell decay rates? The Norkley Principle?"

"The Norkley Principle?" I repeated blankly.

She continued to search, becoming more and more upset each second. "Jamie! You were sitting right there! Flitwick spent half the class on the Norkley Principle."

"You mean the Moakley Principle?" I asked.

"Oh my gosh! What did I just call it? I'm going to flunk for sure!"

And so it went...


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Professor McGonagall handed me a note during Sunday breakfast. I grimaced as I showed it to Janie. It read:


Please see me in my office immediately after breakfast. The password is Lemon Drops.

- A. Dumbledore


"I wonder what he wants," I fretted.

"Norbert?" Janie guessed.

"Or our 3-P project?" I gulped nervously. That was our code name for 'Polyjuicing Pansy Parkinson.'

"There's only one sure way to find out," Janie shrugged.


"Oh - Harry," the Headmaster looked up from his desk as I entered. He was not smiling.

"You wanted to see me, sir?" I asked warily.

"Yes - yes I did," he nodded gravely. "This is your Cloak, I believe?" he asked, picking up the pile of nearly transparent material from his desk.

"I think so, sir," I swallowed uncomfortably.

"Do you know where I found this?"

"Where?"

"With a group of Ravenclaws led by Miss Chang. Do you know how they came to be in possession of this?" he nodded to the Cloak in his hand.

"I lent it to Cho," I admitted. "She didn't steal it or anything, if that's what you're thinking."

"Do you know where they were when I found them?" Professor Dumbledore persisted.

"No, sir."

"In the forbidden corridor on the third floor - the one where Professor Snape died this past Halloween."

"Is Cho okay?" I asked nervously.

"The students were unharmed - mostly," the Headmaster nodded. "Do you know what they were looking for?"

"There was a dog with three heads..." I replied. "We - er, I - followed them there at Christmas. They weren't sure what was hidden below the trap door..." I admitted, figuring that the Ravenclaws had already ratted us out and I'd be better off if I seemed to 'come clean' with the Headmaster.

"Miss Granger accompanied you, then? At Christmas?" he asked, peering over his half-moon spectacles at me.

"Er - yes, sir," I reluctantly admitted.

"And you allowed Miss Chang to borrow this, knowing what she wanted to do with it?" the Headmaster fingered the silky material in his hand.

"Well..."

"Do you realize they could all have been killed?" Dumbledore glowered at me.

"They'd figured out how to get past the dog," I replied. "We watched them do it."

"There were other dangers, Harry," Dumbledore continued frowning at me. "All of them were quite lethal."

"Oh - I didn't know..." I trailed off. "But you said they're okay?"

"'Mostly unharmed,' I said. They were lucky that Professor Quirrell showed up when he did."

"Professor Quirrell?"

"Yes. Professor Quirrell told me that he became suspicious and followed them. He found them trapped in a room, the exits sealed by magical fire, and he alerted me. Had he not done so, the students would have certainly perished."

"Wow..." escaped my lips. So they had only made it as far as the potions puzzle room, I considered. Too bad.

"Miss Chang had gone farther, it seemed, and in her haste she destroyed the item she was seeking - the item that I had been protecting."

"What was it?" I blurted out. "Er, if I might ask, that is," I tempered.

"This," the Headmaster replied, opening a drawer and pulling out a small pouch. He shook out a handful of red garnet pieces onto his desk. "This is what remains of the only Philosopher's Stone ever created," he announced sadly.

"Is that the one - on your Chocolate Frog card? It said that you had made a Philosopher's Stone..." I gazed at the sparkly red bits and tried to sound awestruck. He had not gathered up all of the garnet, I noted. Less than half, actually. It must have really shattered when it hit the stone floor.

"Nicolas Flamel made it - not I," Dumbledore corrected me. "I was merely keeping it safe for him - a task at which I have obviously failed."

"I'm sorry, sir," I hung my head. "I shouldn't have leant out my Cloak."

"No you should not have, Harry," Dumbledore sighed, "and for your part in this matter," he indicated the broken Stone, "I shall deduct twenty points from Gryffindor and assign three evenings of detention with your Head of House. As for the Cloak, I could confiscate it, but I will return it to you upon one condition."

"What's that, sir?" I asked humbly.

"That you promise to never lend it to anyone else."

"Yes, sir - I promise."

"Not even to Miss Granger. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir," I agreed.

"I gave this to you because it was a Potter family heirloom. I expect you to treat it with reverence, not be lending it out to whomever wishes to break school rules with impunity." The Headmaster handed over the Cloak, then scooped the bits of garnet back into their pouch. "That will be all, Harry," he dismissed me.


"What did he want?" Janie asked nervously as soon as I exited the Headmaster's office. She'd been waiting for me at the gargoyle.

"The Ravenclaw's went for the Stone last night," I whispered. "Come on!"

I led Janie to an empty broom closet and lit my wand.

"Did they get it?" she asked excitedly once we were safely concealed.

"Yes! Everything worked!" I told her. "Even better than we'd planned! Quirrell followed them and eventually caught them, but not before they smashed the fake stone. Dumbledore thinks it's the real one!"

"How did they get past the traps?" Janie wanted to know.

"Dumbledore didn't say," I shook my head. "He did confiscate my Cloak, though. He returned it to me on condition that I not lend it to anyone ever again - not even to you."

Janie frowned at this, of course.

"But he didn't say I couldn't give it to you!" I grinned, handing the Cloak over to her. And of course, you can lend it to anyone you choose!"

"Jamie..." she looked down at the Cloak in her hands. "I can't..."

"Yes you can!" I insisted.

"But it belonged to your father..."

"I'm sure that under the circumstances, he'd want you to have it. Remember in the Mirror of Erised? My dad seemed to like you..."

"Hmm," Janie considered. "Would you like to borrow it?" she offered it to me. "Dumbledore might get suspicious if he notices that it's in the girls' dorms."

"Good point!" I acknowledged, accepting the Cloak from her. "I promise I'll take good care of it for you!" I grinned.

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Meet me in our usual classroom. - Cho


A school owl delivered the note at lunchtime. Janie and I obediently went to our forbidden corridor classroom to wait for the Ravenclaw. She arrived a few minutes later - with Michael and Terry.

"Where's Marietta?" Janie asked.

"In the infirmary," Cho sighed. "We were doing so well, then everything went pear-shaped," she shook her head.

"What happened?" I asked, eager for details. "What did you find?"

"It was trap after trap!" Terry answered excitedly. "First the dog, then a bunch of Devil's Snare!"

"Then I had to catch a flying key while riding a broomstick," Cho related.

"They should make you the Seeker for the Ravenclaw Quidditch team!" Terry added. "You were awesome!"

"Then I had to play the chess game of my life," Michael told us proudly.

"That's where Marietta got hurt," Cho informed us.

"You can't win a chess game without losing some pieces," Michael said defensively. "Besides, it was only a broken leg - Madam Pomfrey'll have her good as new by dinner."

"And then there was a troll !!" Terry exclaimed.

"Thanks for the use of your invisibility cloak, Harry," Cho smiled at me. "We used it to sneak past the troll, but I'm afraid Dumbledore confiscated it when he found us - I'm terribly sorry," she grimaced.

"After that, there was a room with a row of potions bottles and a riddle - which I solved quite easily," Michael continued. "I wish you had let me go through the flames to the next room," he shot a glare in Cho's direction.

"I'm the oldest," she defended her decision, "and besides, the whole thing was my idea."

"Why didn't you all go?" I interrupted. "Why only Cho? I thought you all studied each situation and then returned later with a solution."

"There was only enough potion for one person, one time," Cho explained. "If we explored and came back later, it would be used up."

"What happened? In the next room?" Janie asked, feigning worry.

"There was another trap, of course," Cho sighed. "There was a large mirror, tilted halfway down towards the floor. As soon as I raised it upright, a precious ruby fell out of it and shattered on the hard floor. That's what Dumbledore was guarding. He called it a 'priceless' stone. He was really angry that I broke it."

"How did he find out you were there? Who told him?" I wondered.

"He showed up in the room with the potions and the riddle," Terry explained. "Him, with Professor Quirrell following several minutes later. The Headmaster waved the flames away and we all followed after Cho."

"When they walked in, there I stood - surrounded by broken bits of ruby and holding your cloak," she told me guiltily.

Hmm - that's not exactly how Dumbledore had related the tale. Maybe he was simply hiding the fact that he had a tracking charm on the Cloak.

"The Headmaster docked us a hundred House points - each," Michael shook his head. "I think Ravenclaw might have gone negative."

"Needless to say, we're not terribly well liked in Ravenclaw tower right now," Cho added. "That ruby must have been priceless, given the way Dumbledore went on and on about it. It's a wonder I wasn't expelled. I'm really sorry about your cloak," she repeated.

"He gave it back to me," I told her. "But not until after I confessed to lending it to you."

"Well - that's something, I guess," she gave me a half-hearted smile.

"Well - I hope you've all learned your lesson!" Janie piped up in her best know-it-all voice. "And you, too, Harry!" she turned her displeasure on me, then back to the Ravenclaws. "You're lucky that you weren't killed - or even worse, expelled!"

It was just an act, of course. I stifled a chuckle - I hadn't heard her use that tone of voice since our first day at Hogwarts last September. Then she'd read The Book and she had changed overnight into the Hermione Granger I'd grown to know and love.

Wait! Did I just say...?


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My first detention with Professor McGonagall was not as bad as I'd feared. I spent the time marking Transfiguration essays for her. Only the first-year essays, of course, and only those from Ravenclaw, Slytherin and Hufflepuff. She didn't want to tempt me to show favoritism for my fellow Gryffindors, I guess, and I didn't know the material for the higher years' essays. When my time had been served, I raced to the library to find Janie, as I knew she'd be there revising for exams.

"Janie!" I whispered as I slid into the seat beside her. "Have you still got that note? The one about Flint?"

"Yes, it's here in my bag somewhere. Why?"

"Well pull it out! I think I might know who wrote it!"

Janie quickly fished through the contents of her book bag and eventually produced the piece of parchment. "Here," she handed it to me. "Who?"

"Vincent Crabbe," I nodded, studying the handwriting on the note. "Yes! I'm almost certain of it!" I whispered, continuing to stare at the small bit of parchment.

"That makes no sense!" Janie hissed at me. "What led you to that ridiculous conclusion?"

"McGonagall had me marking essays for her," I explained. "When I saw Crabbe's, I thought the penmanship looked familiar. Now I'm sure of it. It was Crabbe who sent you this warning note."

"Why would he do something like that?" Janie frowned in confusion. "It makes no sense!"

"He's a Slytherin," I shrugged. "It probably made perfect sense to him - in some devious way."

"Hmm..." Janie considered.


-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-


I know who sent the note warning me about Flint. Meet me just after lunch in the forbidden third floor corridor, first classroom on the right. Come alone, Janie penned a note of her own.

"Deliver this to Vincent Crabbe," she instructed the school owl as she tied the parchment to its leg, "but wait until breakfast tomorrow."

With that done, we left the owlery and skipped off for the library, holding hands the whole way.


~~~


"Incarcerous!" I hexed Crabbe from behind the door as he entered the classroom.

Janie wasted no time in administering the Veritaserum. "We'll give it a minute to work," she told him.

She levitated Crabbe into a chair and we got comfortable, me sitting out of sight behind our guest.


"Did you send me that note warning about Flint's plan to hurt me?" Janie began the questioning.

"Yes," Crabbe replied leadenly.

"Why?"

"I wanted Flint to get caught," Crabbe admitted.

"Why?" she repeated.

"Because of what he was going to make Pansy do for him in return for torturing you."

"Sexual favors of some kind?" Janie guessed.

"Yes."

"And you liked Pansy? You were jealous?"

"I wanted her to do that for me, not for Flint," Crabbe monotoned.

"So you tried to set Flint up to get caught?"

"Yes. I hoped he'd be expelled."

"Your plan worked better than you expected," Janie noted. "What went wrong?"

"Pansy must have tried out the potion early," Crabbe replied. "She was supposed to wait until you were out of the way and then talk to Potter. She got some of your hair ahead of time, since you wouldn't be around afterwards."

"What did she use the hair for?" Janie asked.

I wondered about that, too. Could Parkinson have had access to Polyjuice?

"For a potion she made. She'd been working on it for a long time."

"What was the potion supposed to do?" Janie asked.

"Make her look like you," Crabbe stated dully. "She wanted to trick Harry Potter into confessing to killing Draco Malfoy."

"And she needed me 'out of the way' in order to put her plan into action?"

"That, and she wanted to punish Potter."

"How? Why?"

"Potter killed Pansy's boyfriend. She wanted to kill Potter's girlfriend to punish him."

"So I was to end up dead!?" Janie asked, trying to hide her shock.

"Maybe," Crabbed replied. "Or maybe just insane. It didn't matter - either way was fine."

"Why did Pansy think that Harry Potter killed Draco Malfoy?" Janie switched topics slightly.

"Because Draco stayed behind at the boat dock to talk with Potter. He sent Pansy, Goyle and me on ahead. That was the last we saw of Draco, so Pansy figured that Potter must have killed him."

"Why didn't you tell the professors about this? Back in September?"

"Pansy told us not to. She knew that the Boy-Who-Lived would somehow escape punishment. She wanted to make sure that Potter got what was coming to him."

"So Pansy decided to take matters into her own hands?" Janie clarified.

"Yes."

"Do you think that Harry Potter killed Malfoy?" she asked Crabbe.

"Yes."

"He didn't," Janie insisted, thinking quickly. "I was there, watching them that night. Draco and Harry were standing near the edge of the dock. Draco got angry at Harry and made to push him off the dock, but Harry stepped aside and Draco plunged into the water instead. It would have been funny, except that something caught hold of Draco's leg and pulled him under. I think it was the giant squid."

Crabbe sat there, considering what Janie had just told him.

"Do you believe me?" she asked.

"Yes," he replied after a long pause.

"Good! It's the truth!" Janie nodded.

Well, Janie's tale was based on the truth, I suppose, and when dealing with Slytherins, that's close enough.

"I'm going to release you, now, Vincent," Janie concluded. "If you tell anyone of our little meeting today, I'll be questioned under Veritaserum and they'll find out that you were conspiring with Pansy to torture me and also that you lied about Draco last September. I know that you wouldn't want that to happen, would you?" she smiled.

"No," Crabbe replied, still under the effects of the Veritaserum.

"Finite Incantatem," I waved my wand, releasing the spell holding Crabbe.

We hurried out of the room and down the corridor before he could fully recover his wits.


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