Despite the emotional baggage of that chapter, James was very pleased indeed that Harry seemed to have gotten the idea of that dog out of his son's mind. He was all for focusing on Harry finding Nicolas Flamel however, or even moving past that and going along his school looking for something more fun to do, and so read on eagerly.

Harry was having nightmares now, dreaming of his parents disappearing in a flash of green light while an unseen voice laughed.

"Not appreciated, not one little bit," Sirius said, shuddering in disgust, and not mentioning that he had a very similar nightmare the previous night.

"Sorry," Harry said honestly.

"It's not your fault," James said, a shade paler than normal, "it's not like you can help what you dream."

When Hermione came back from break, she was just as disapproving of Harry's nighttime wanderings, fearing if Filch had caught him,

"Ah, he'd have only threatened to string you up by your thumbs or something," Sirius shrugged it off, since they hadn't actually been caught, it seemed rather funny to him.

and disappointment that he hadn't at least found out who Nicolas Flamel was.

"Did she expect you to, honestly?" Remus chuckled.

The three were about to give up hope on ever finding this out. When school started again they'd be back to searching at odd moments through infinite books.

"So we were right the first time," Remus said sadly, "Harry might not figure this out for years."

"Oh come on," James said bracingly, "I'm sure he'll find a Dumbledore Chocolate Frog Card again."

"We don't know how rare they are in this time," Sirius reminded him.

"And he most likely won't reread it if he does," Remus agreed.

"Well then he should start trying to memorize them in his free time," James laughed.

Harry was back to near constant Quidditch practice, since if they won their next game against Hufflepuff, they would overtake Slytherin in the house championship.

"Always a good motive," James and Sirius agreed.

Apart from wanting to win, Harry found he had less nightmares after an intense training.

"Also true," The two players agreed.

Harry's enthusiasm for his next game went down some though. At the next practice Fred and George were miming falling off their brooms and goofing around as usual, when Wood yelled at them to knock it off, they couldn't be doing that kind of stuff at the game, because Snape was refereeing this time.

"What!" The uproar was so loud, the neighbours may have heard that.

"James, tell me you're joking," Sirius said, looking faint.

James just sat there, frozen as he stared at the page.

"But he can't," Lily said weakly, "Madam Hooch always referee's."

"He would have had to get Dumbledore to say yes," Remus agreed, running his hand through his hair in frustration. "Which means that Dumbledore didn't have a problem with this."

"I have a problem with this," James yelped in disgust, "couldn't McGonagall have protested on bias."

They all shared devastated looks, but then glanced at Harry, only slightly reassured that he was still sitting here, looking as upset as the rest of them, but still here. Safe and sound.

George Weasley really did fall off his broom at these words.

"Can't blame him," Remus muttered in disgust.

The whole team began complaining loudly, but Wood pointed out he couldn't do anything about it, they just had to make sure they didn't give Snape a chance to pick on them during the game.

"When does he need an excuse to do anything he bloody wanted," Sirius hissed.

After practice Harry sprinted back up to the common room to find Ron and Hermione playing chess, the one thing Hermione wasn't particularly good at.

"Humility is beneficial in the long run," Lily agreed, distracted. She knew for a fact she wasn't going to be able to settle down again until this particular game was over.

Ron noticed the look on Harry's face at once though, and told him he looked terrible.

"And a good day to you to," James forced a laugh.

Harry quickly caught them up on Snape's sudden sinister desire to be a Quidditch referee.

"Now that's a sentence I never bloody thought I'd hear in my life," Remus said, looking a bit

queasy.

Ron and Hermione both told Harry he shouldn't play, Hermione suggesting Harry could pretend to break his leg, and Ron adding on Harry should really break his leg.

All three boys forced chuckles at this, while James pointed out, "good offers, but Madam Pomfrey could fix that in a second."

"You could have a potion's accident," Remus offered, "those get a bit trickier."

"And accidentally poison himself." Lily snapped.

"Got any better ideas?" Sirius snapped back.

"Read and find out," Harry said loudly when it looked like they were about to start really arguing.

James threw Harry a grateful look, then read on.

Harry pointed out if he backed out of this game, then Gryffindor didn't have a reserve Seeker, so the team would lose.

"Which is a bad idea honestly," the former Quidditch Captain shook his head, "you should always have a backup team."

"Well you can write him a letter later," Lily muttered.

Before the conversation could continue, Neville hopped into the common room. He had to hop, because his legs were bound together with the Leg-Locker Curse.

"Damn," Sirius let out a low whistle, "I'm impressed he made it all the way to the seventh floor. Where was he when that happened? Just think of going up one stair case like that!"

"He doesn't know the counter curse?" Remus asked in surprise, "it's a pretty basic curse."

James shrugged, deciding to read on.

He must have somehow hopped all the way up here, and the thought promptly sent every student into a laughing fit, except Hermione who jumped to her feet and performed the countercurse.

"Well that was rude," Lily huffed.

"I can imagine it being a bit funny," James said fairly, "but I'm glad Hermione fixed it," he said at once at his wife's sharp glare.

She escorted Neville over to their table and kindly asked what happened, and Neville told them it was Malfoy.

"Not that prat again," Sirius groaned.

"What possible reason could he have for cursing Neville? As far as we know Neville's done

nothing wrong to anyone," Remus said.

"Seems to me that boy doesn't need a reason to curse anyone," James muttered.

He'd seen him outside the library.

"Ouch," Sirius groaned in real pain, "had to hop up a whole floor. I can't believe he didn't just go to McGonagall, then he would have only had to go down some stairs, which would be far easier."

"Shame perhaps," James said, "no student wants to go whining to the teacher's if they can help it."

Lily shook her head in disbelief, she thought that was ridiculous, but could hardly say anything since she didn't exactly go to the teachers with all of her problems either.

Hermione urged Neville to go report this to the teachers, but Neville refused, saying he didn't want any more trouble. Ron insisted Neville shouldn't let Malfoy just walk all over Neville,

"I think that was supposed to be helpful," Sirius said, mouth twitching, "but it didn't come off very well."

"At least he's trying," Lily said in approval.

but it only seemed to make Neville feel worse as Malfoy had already told him he wasn't brave enough to be a Gryffindor.

"Why that little," James yelped, now wanting more than anything to punch that git in the face, "he has no bloody idea what he just said."

"Someone needs to tell Neville he's the lucky one," Remus agreed.

Harry felt around in his pocket and found his last Chocolate Frog card he'd gotten for Christmas and handed it over to Neville.

"That poor dear," Lily sighed, but then she added on, "that was very sweet of you Harry."

Harry smiled at her, knowing he would have done it again in a heartbeat.

Harry told Neville he was worth twelve of Malfoy, that Neville was the lucky one while Malfoy could keep his stinking Slytherin status.

"Much better," Sirius said bracingly, "If that doesn't cheer up Neville then I don't know what

will."

Neville unwrapped the chocolate while thanking Harry, eating the frog but handing the card back to Harry as he went upstairs. Harry glanced down and saw it was Dumbledore again,

"Yes," all five of them cried with joy.

"So long as you look at the back again, you should at least find his name again," Sirius cheered.

"I think I just remember without having to look, finally," Harry said cheerfully.

then Harry gasped and did a double take at the card.

"Yes!" They all cheered again. They didn't even want to imagine the frustration if Harry hadn't remembered that.

He eagerly read out the back of the card's information again, including Dumbledore's famous work on alchemy with his partner Nicolas Flamel.

Lily suddenly burst into giggling, gaining strange looks from all of the boys.

"It's just that, I'm thinking James read that from memory more than anything, and of all the things he's bothered to memorize," then she trailed off still laughing.

It was Hermione's turn to jump eagerly to her feet, sprinting up to the girls dormitories and returning a few minutes later with an enormous book.

"So Hermione read his name at some point to," Remus said in surprise.

"I don't know, she seems like the kind who remembers everything she reads," James said slowly.

"Maybe it was something else Harry just read, maybe a book on alchemy," Sirius suggested.

Hermione began eagerly tearing through the pages, saying she had checked this book out weeks ago for some light reading.

"Still an overachiever," Lily said indulgently.

Ron mocked the word light due to the bulk of the book, but Hermione shushed him as she flew through the pages until she found what she was looking for. Ron grumpily asked if they could speak again, but Hermione ignored him.

"Well that's just rude," Sirius laughed.

"You'd think he'd be a bit more excited at having finally found out a lead," James chuckled.

Hermione read out eagerly that Nicolas Flamel was the maker of the Philosopher's Stone.

"So she did read his name elsewhere," Lily said in surprise.

"Guess even Hermione can't remember everything," James shrugged.

None of them noticed both Remus and Harry seemed to be thinking really hard about something.

This meant nothing to either Harry or Ron, so she pushed the book towards them and had them read the passage, while mocking the fact that they never seemed to read,

"Well none of us knew it either," Lily said, rolling her eyes.

the book said the Stones properties including giving immortality and turning metal into gold.

After James got done reading that, he looked up to see everyone in the room looking at him like he'd grown a second head.

"You mean that's a real thing?" Remus spluttered.

"You've heard of it," Sirius demanded.

"As a rumour," he admitted, "like James said earlier, alchemy is one of the most untested studies. There have been rumours for years that someone made a stone that could utilize its magic, but I didn't think it was real."

"You still could have mentioned something," Lily said, staring at him wide eyed.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Did anyone else catch on that Elixir of Life?" James demanded, "this thing sounds like a piece of eternity in your hand."

"You really think that's what's being hidden in the school?" Lily asked in concern.

This brought the other four boys up short. They had been so excited at figuring out this mystery, they hadn't come around to this yet, but now Remus said slowly, "well then it may not even be hiding from a dark wizard. Anyone would want it."

'Someone like a disgraced Death Eater' Sirius thought bitterly, but chose not to say that. He really didn't want to start another fight.

"Why now though?" James asked slowly, "do you think Flamel may have passed away and he left it to Dumbledore, or-"

"Hello, Elixir of Life," Remus reminded him, "I don't think that's it."

"Well, now we know what it is," Harry said, finally cutting them off, "now let's so what we did with that information."

All four adults turned wide eyed looks at him, Lily demanding, "Why would you have to do

anything with this? You followed your curiosity because you stumbled across this, fine. Now you know, and you can let it go."

Harry gave her an exasperated look, but when he looked around and all the boys were nodding in agreement, he decided to keep silent. There was no need in preemptively getting yelled at for what he was sure he had done. If his gut was anything to judge by.

James felt quite excited that at least one of their curiosities about this book had been answered so far, so he read on.

The book then gave a little information on Flamel, including his place of residence and his age, 665.

"How current was that book?" Remus asked in curiosity.

Harry shrugged, saying, "I don't know, I didn't ask."

Hermione then comes to the conclusion this must be what was being hidden in the school.

"Yes," Lily said slowly, "that makes sense, but are you telling me Dumbledore couldn't have come up with a better idea than a school full of children?"

"What better place than in plain sight," Remus offered.

"Yes, but since we've already established that someone did figure it out, and is after it," James said, "I'm going to agree with Lily on that one."

Sirius couldn't help but agree with them as well, thinking that anyone that had the powers to break into Gringotts and not get caught could certainly make it into the castle as well.

Harry agrees, saying something like that, it was no wonder Snape wanted it. Anyone would.

Lily pursed her lips, James had read that with a little too much conviction, and the other boys around him were all nodding in agreement. Unbelievably though, none of them verbally agreed.

They spent the rest of the night discussing this, but it wasn't until the next day during their DADA class where they were learning about treating werewolf bites,

Before either of his friends could open their mouths to make a sarcastic comment Remus snapped, "can it you two or I'll shove your heads into a lake."

Harry was biting his lip to keep from laughing, while Lily asked in genuine curiosity, "I remember some of that lesson, but I thought there was no cure for a werewolf bite?"

Remus sighed, looking up at the ceiling in self-hatred before answering, "there's not, but there are some solutions you can use on the infected wound so it won't scar as badly."

Harry cocked his head to the side as he investigated Remus, but thought it rude to ask to see Remus' bite, so he just let James go on.

that Harry remembered his coming match and close proximity to Snape. Harry tells his friends that he's going to play.

"So long as you don't fall off your broom again, sure," Lily muttered.

"Did anyone put in an inquiry why your broom acted up anyways?" James asked, realizing no one had mentioned this.

Harry shook his head, saying, "No, Professor McGonagall asked me about it, but when I told her I had it under control, she gave me a suspicious look and walked away."

All four adults exchanged uneasy looks, this didn't sound like the Professor McGonagall they knew. Something was up with their old head of house, she was acting very odd around their Harry.

James shook his head, still concerned, and decided to keep a closer eye on her actions.

The nearer the match grew, the more nervous Harry felt.

"I really can't believe my luck," James said with disgust, "I finally got a Quidditch chapter, and it's going to be awful."

Harry was gnawing on his lip for a moment, then he suddenly cracked up laughing.

"Just what was so funny?" James demanded.

"I don't know," he said honestly, "I just feel like there was another record broken in this game. Can't remember what though."

"It wasn't the record for the most bones broken by the youngest Seeker was it?" Lily demanded.

"No," Harry answered right away, shaking his head.

"Well, then let's get to it," Sirius said with high spirits now.

Could they really be expected to win the coming up game with such a biased referee?

"Still can't believe Dumbledore allowed that," Remus said in disgust.

Harry seemed to be having a lot of trouble avoiding Snape lately, he even wondered if he was being paranoid. The man kept popping up in corridors he happened to be in, and from the distrustful way he watched him, Harry couldn't help but wonder if Snape somehow knew they'd found out about the Stone, if perhaps Snape could read minds.

All four adults grimaced in disgust at this idea. If Snape had learned Legilimency, Harry's life would be a disaster.

At Harry's questioning look at all of them, Sirius said bracingly, "there is a form of magic, very difficult though, that can kind of do that. I doubt Snape can though, so you should be good. It's really difficult to learn."

Harry cracked a smile at that, then asked his Dad to go on.

The day of the match, Harry walked down to the pitch in the late afternoon,

"Afternoon," Lily interrupted, clearly distracted with worry and catching on a small detail she asked, "games usually start at eleven in the morning?"

"I don't remember, but something weird happened that morning," Harry said, shrugging.

"Dumbledore made an announcement the pitch was going to be closed, so it got pushed back. I never found out why."

The four of them were privately wondering if, perhaps, Dumbledore had heard about the last game, and had been investigating something? Why would he have waited so long since the last game though?

as Ron and Hermione were saying good luck to him, their expressions made it clear they were wondering if they were ever going to see Harry alive again.

"His friends are really chipper aren't they," Sirius chuckled, though he couldn't blame them one bit for this feeling.

Ron and Hermione went up to the stands, and Neville soon joined them, asking why they had brought their wands.

"You mean the students don't just carry their wands around with them everywhere?" James asked. He always had his on him, even while on the pitch.

Harry shrugged, saying, "No, Ron told me that teachers started discouraging it, so that fights wouldn't break out in the stands."

"Fair enough," Lily agreed.

Harry wasn't aware that Ron and Hermione had quietly been practicing the Leg-Locker Curse, which they fully intended to use if Snape showed any intentions of starting to hurt Harry.

"Brilliant," all five of them said in approval.

"Oh I hope they use it on him," Sirius said with glee, then when both parents through him a severe look, he tossed his hands in the air and said, "outside the pitch of course. I don't want them to have the excuse now."

Lily huffed, but James was appeased enough to go on.

In the locker rooms, Wood was turning his attention to Harry and told him that he wasn't trying to put pressure on him, but it was really important Harry gets the Snitch before Snape can favour Hufflepuff too much.

"How is that not pressuring him?" Remus demanded.

"It's not like Harry can magically catch the Snitch sooner just because he wants to," James agreed.

Fred was at the entrance and watching the crowd, and suddenly exclaimed that

Dumbledore was in the stands.

"Really?" All four of them said, beaming at once.

"Nobody would be dumb enough to hurt Harry with him around," Lily said at once, forestalling at least Remus and Sirius from saying the same thing, substituting Snape's name.

Feeling quite chipper now, sure Snape was still going to be an arse during the game but at least Harry was safe, he read on with high spirits.

Harry felt elated, positive at once that Snape wouldn't try anything with the headmaster present. Perhaps that's why Snape looked so sour as the teams came onto the field,

"Nah," Sirius said, "he always looks like someone shoved a dung beetle up his nose."

"Maybe because of how often you tried to?" Remus offered, fighting back a grin.

something Ron noticed as well. He didn't get much time to celebrate the good fortune, as Malfoy made an appearance.

"Gah," James said in disgust, "they really should keep the houses away from each other, at least during a match."

"How on earth would they go about reinforcing that?" Lily demanded, "and that's still not even fair. It is possible to have friends outside of your own house."

All four boys rolled their eyes at her, but it just didn't seem worth the argument at the time.

Malfoy apologized for knocking into Ron,

"I'm so sure," Harry muttered to himself.

but Ron completely ignored him as Malfoy began a tirade of insults. Ron was too busy watching the game, where George had decided to hit a bludger at Snape.

"Well now he's just provoking him," Lily frowned.

Sirius gnawed his lip for a moment before grudgingly agreeing, "yeah, okay, I'll give you that one."

Snape was doing exactly as predicted as the game progressed, including awarding a penalty to Hufflepuff for no reason.

"Someone should call him on that though," James said, narrowing his eyes, "you do have to actually have a reason for penalizing."

Remus sighed and rubbed his brow, this was going to be a long game.

Malfoy was still talking behind Ron, going on about how the people on the Gryffindor team are only their out of pity, like the Weasley's because they were poor. Then he made a crack at Neville, saying he should be on the team because he had no brains.

"Can we please switch back to me in the sky," Harry said, frowning back severely. He really didn't want to sit around and listen to Malfoy insulting his friends, and unable to do anything about it.

"I would if I could Harry," James agreed, gnashing his teeth for a moment before continuing.

Neville turned on the spot and stammered out he's worth twelve of Malfoy.

"Aw," Lily smiled, "I'm glad he took your words to heart."

"Because they're true," the other boys agreed.

Malfoy wasn't impressed, but instead cracked up laughing. Further insulting both him and Ron at once as he said that if Neville had as much brains as Ron had gold, they'd both be dead.

"I think I'd be much more offended if he didn't keep falling back on the same dumb joke," Sirius grumbled.

Hermione hadn't been paying attention at all, keeping her focus on the game, and suddenly screamed out Harry's name.

"What?" the three adults without the book said, trying to cut James off, but he wouldn't hear it and kept going.

Harry was pelting towards the ground in a dive,

"That's not accidental," Remus breathed.

and Malfoy made yet another poor attempt at a joke by saying Harry must have spotted some money he could lend Ron.

"That one wasn't even funny," Sirius said in disgust, still too keyed up to get back to what Harry was doing to get to mad.

Ron snapped. He flew out of his seat and tackled Malfoy to the ground.

"Yes," all four boys cried with high spirits.

"That git had it coming to him," Sirius crowed.

Lily was smiling to herself, not able to find any bad feelings about this. The boy really had been asking for it.

Neville only hesitated a second before climbing back and helping, as Crabbe and Goyle began to do the same.

"Loving this kid more and more," Remus said.

Hermione wasn't paying attention to any of the boys, Ron who was punching Malfoy in the face, or Neville who was a whirl of fists amongst Crabbe and Goyle.

"Did he really take on both of them?" Harry asked, remembering vividly the size of those two boys.

"And holding his own it seems," James responded easily.

In the air Harry was still diving and finally came up just in time, Snitch in hand.

"Amazing," Remus yelped.

"How long did that match actually last?" Sirius demanded, feeling giddy as a child.

"Record short," Harry beamed, feeling pride blazing in him. This, he thought, was a real

accomplishment. Nobody could just say he was a famous name now, he had done something to be really proud of.

Lily and James suddenly squashed their son in a hug between them, causing peals of laughter from in between them.

Only after they had all settled down did James finally manage to go on.

The stands exploded with applause, that had to be a record short capture of the game.

"I think the official time was three and a half minutes," Harry said brightly.

Remus let out a low, throaty whistle before saying, "I'm pretty sure the record before that was fifteen. Way to go kiddo."

Hermione was dancing in her seat in pleasure, calling out to wherever Ron was in

excitement.

"Ron and Neville are a little busy dishing out their own justice," James grinned.

On the ground Harry jumped off his broom only to have a crowd of people swarm him with congratulations. Harry spotted Snape land a bit away and spit bitterly on the ground.

"I'm sure he did," Sirius snarled, happier than anything that this overgrown brat hadn't been able to pick on this team for too long, but most of all unable to hurt his pup.

Harry couldn't be happier with himself. He'd now proven he wasn't just a famous name, but had done something he really could be proud of!

"Now that's an accomplishment I'll never forget," James agreed, forcefully ignoring the sting those words left in himself.

Ron and Hermione could be spotted jumping around happily, Ron holding a bleeding nose.

"I hope we get to hear how bad Malfoy got it," Remus said quietly to Sirius, who grinned

vindictively.

Not to long later as Harry was putting his broom away, he was feeling quite pleased with himself about having one upped Snape, speaking of Snape... Harry spotted a hooded figure coming out of the castle.

"Hooded?" James murmured, that was never a good thing.

The shadow was heading right for the Forbidden Forest. Harry couldn't help but wonder why Snape would be heading there while everyone else was at dinner.

"Are you sure you're not just jumping to conclusions?" Lily said fretfully, picking at the hem of her shirt. Even she couldn't deny how suspicious this was.

Harry shook his head slowly, the happy feeling gone at once as it was once again replaced with the pounding pain of forgotten memories.

James sucked in a deep breath, couldn't he have savoured this victory at least until the end of this chapter, but decided to just read on.

Harry jumped back on his broom and began following.

"Can't blame you there," Remus agreed, anyone would have followed that odd sight.

Gliding quietly behind him, he watched Snape enter the forest and come across someone else hiding in there, Quirrell.

"Odd place for a teachers meeting," Sirius muttered, shifting his weight about in agitation.

Harry couldn't really make out what they were saying, but he was sure he heard Quirrell stutter that this was an odd place for them to meet.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Remus yelped, "Quirrell's in on it!"

"So could he have been the one who let the troll in, as a distraction so Snape could get the Stone?" Sirius asked, unable to decide how he felt about this, "I mean he seems like an incapable moron, so-"

"Stop," Lily said forcefully before they could go on speculating, "I want to hear this."

Snape hissed back that this was as good a place as any, since students weren't supposed to know about the Philosopher's Stone.

"Well we were right about the Stone," James said lowly.

"How did Snape know you knew?" Sirius demanded.

Remus was shifting his weight around, maybe they were wrong, maybe Snape had learned Legilimency.

James wasn't giving them much time to think about it.

Then he wanted to know if Quirrell had figured out how to get past Fluffy yet.

"Why would either of them need to know?" Lily yelped, going pale as a sheet.

"Obvious ain't it," Sirius said, eyes narrowing in disgust, "they're in it together or something."

"Oh, that's just so obvious is it!" Lily yelled, looking ready to breathe fire.

"Okay you two," James snapped, "let me keep going or we'll be arguing for the rest of the year!"

Both of them huffed, and looked away from each other in annoyance.

Quirrell said he didn't, and Snape said they would talk again soon, when Quirrell had decided where his loyalties were.

Lily blinked several times, releasing a breath slowly. Oh how she dearly wanted to think Snape was saying Quirrell wasn't being loyal to Dumbledore, or something along that line.

If Sev was implying that Quirrill's loyalties should lay with him, that Sirius was right and these two were really in on trying to steal the Stone... she viciously forced her thoughts to stop right there, and allowed James to keep going.

Then he put his cloak back over his head and walked away.

"What do you make of that then?" Remus said, a rather ugly look on his face. Despite his earlier opinion, he was now thoroughly behind Harry and the others in thinking Snape was trying to steal the Stone, and dumping Harry Potter out of the way was a nice little distraction for Dumbledore. He never thought he'd say it, or even think it, but it seemed Dumbledore had been wrong with this person.

"Exactly what you do Remus," Sirius muttered back, "that Harry needs to stay the bloody hell away from that backstabber."

While James looked ready to defend his two friends, the other two looked torn, confused, and hurt. Lily just couldn't make herself believe it, not until Severus was walking out of the castle with the Stone in his hand.

Harry felt just as conflicted on the inside, but it was a battle of gut and mind. His eleven year old memories had him totally convinced that Snape was up to no good, and that they had to put a stop to this. While his gut was telling him he was being an idiot, and to get all the facts straight.

Taking a deep rattling breath, James knew very well he couldn't post on either side. He had promised Lily he wouldn't press judgment, no matter how compelling the evidence. He also knew he would back up his friends till death, because he felt they were right.

With no winning side to an awful argument, James simply kept going on.

Harry sprinted back to the castle to find his friends, and when he did Ron was eager to tell him how he'd given Malfoy a black eye, and Neville had taken on Crabbe and Goyle all on his own. He was out cold in the Hospital wing,

Shaking his head in slight amusement, James was more than happy to hear about these Gryffindor victories.

"Neville really is the kind you should draw into this group you've got," Sirius laughed, thinking briefly that if Harry did, they would sort of have their own set of Marauders going.

"Agreed, couldn't be prouder of the boy," Remus chuckled.

Harry was smiling around at them all, feeling a bit more at peace now that his innards weren't at war anymore, and said, "I think we just know Neville as a friend, but I don't think I ever get as close to him as I am with Ron and Hermione."

James was still happy to hear that, so read on eagerly.

but Harry quickly brushed them off and informed them what he'd overheard. Mentioning how Snape had something about Quirrell's 'hocus-pocus' and how he now thought there were other things guarding the Stone,

"Agreed," all four adults said, already having come to that conclusion.

like other enchantments like some anti-Dark Arts Spell that Quirrell put up, that Snape needed to break through.

Sirius snorted and said, "Now that I don't buy. If anyone needed help getting past Dark Art spells', it would have been Quirrell."

"Then besides Fluffy, who honestly I've no idea how to get past," Remus asked, "what on earth is Snape and Quirrell trying to figure out?"

"Who knows," Lily sighed, "hocus pocus could mean anything, relating to any magic." Then she sat back with her lips pursed, the only thing she could think to add was that Sirius had just delivered a real compliment to Severus, but she didn't think he would appreciate her pointing that out.

Hermione gasped as she realized that the Stone was only safe so long as Quirrell didn't tell Snape this information. Ron groaned that it would be gone within the week.

All four adults sighed in discontent, why on earth wasn't this book getting any easier to read?

When James made to pass the book to Sirius, Remus pointed out, "Eh hem. I do believe it's my turn, since Harry skipped me."

Harry blinked, then blushed saying, "Oh crap, I'm sorry. I just had a good feeling about Christmas coming up, and-"

Remus laughed at the way Harry seemed to think he was actually mad, before reaching forward and saying, "I think I might forgive you. Just this once though."

After taking the book and going to the right page, he glanced up to see James whispering into Harry's ear, "and every other time. Don't worry about it."

Harry's smile was all the confidence he needed to keep going.