"I'd always heard Hogwarts' end-of-year exams were frightful," Hermione said as the trio walked to their next destination, "but I've found they're rather enjoyable."

"Speak for yourself," Ron said.

"Hey, guys!" Blaise said as he ran over to join the group. "Aren't you relieved that exams are finally over?"

Harry clutched his forehead again.

"Alright there, Harry?" Ron asked.

"My scar," he answered. "It keeps burning."

"It's happened before," Hermione said.

"Not like this."

"Perhaps you should see the nurse," Blaise suggested.

"I think it's a warning. It means danger's coming. Ahh."

The quartet stopped, and Harry noticed Hagrid playing his recorder.

"Oh, of course!" Harry exclaimed. He began walking quickly in the direction of Hagrid's hut, the other three following him.

"What is it?" Hermione asked.

"Don't you think it's a bit odd that what Hagrid wants more than anything is a dragon, and a stranger turns up who just happens to have one? I mean, how many people wander around with dragon eggs in their pocket? Why didn't I see it before?"

They sprinted to Hagrid as fast as they could.

"Hagrid, who gave you the dragon egg? What did he look like?" Harry demanded.

"I dunno. I never saw his face. He kept his hood up."

"This stranger though, you and he must have talked."

"Well, he wanted to know what sort of creatures I looked after. I told him, I said, after Fluffy a dragon's gonna be no problem."

"Did he seem interested in Fluffy?"

"Well, o' course he was interested in Fluffy! How often do you come across a three-headed dog, even if you're in the trade? But I told 'im, I said, I said, 'The trick with any beast is to know how to calm 'im. Take Fluffy, for example, just play him a bit o' music, and he falls straight to sleep.'"

The members of the quartet looked at each other in shock.

"I shouldn't have told you that," Hagrid said.

The group turned around and immediately went to see McGonagall.

"We have to see Professor Dumbledore, immediately!" Harry said.

"I'm afraid Professor Dumbledore is not here," McGonagall replied. "He received an urgent owl from the Ministry of Magic and left immediately for London."

"He's gone! Now! But, this is important! This is about the Sorcerer's Stone!"

"How do you kno-?"

"Someone's going to try to steal it!"

"I don't know how you four found out about the Stone, but I assure you it is perfectly well protected. Now, would you go back to your dormitories, quietly."

"That was no stranger Hagrid met in the village," Harry said once the group was in the corridor. "It was Snape, which means, he knows how to get past Fluffy."

"And with Dumbledore gone-" Hermione started.

"Good afternoon."

The first years turned around to face the Head of Slytherin House himself. "Now, what would three young Gryffindors, such as yourselves, be doing inside on a day like this?"

Harry looked around to find that Blaise was still there, but Snape hadn't said anything to him.

What if he's just a spy? Harry thought as Hermione did her best to come up with an excuse for Snape.

"You ought to be careful," Snape continued. "People will think you're..." he trailed off as he turned to Harry and frowned as possibility creased his forehead.

"...up to something," he finished.

He turned around and stalked off.

"Now what do we do?" Hermione asked.

"We go down the trap door," Harry said, adding, "tonight."

_________________________________________________________

Blaise was to be picked up by the trio in the potions classroom so he headed down to the common room.

"And where do you think you're going?" A voice Blaise drawled just as he was about to step out of the common room.

Blaise spun around. "Draco."

The blonde simply rose from the armchair he'd been resting on. "Blaise," he acknowledged. "Care to answer?"

Blaise knew that he shouldn't say anything, but this was his best friend once and he could be again.

"Har-I mean, Potter, Weasley, and Granger are going after Snape to get the Sorcerer's Stone. They're waiting for me in the potions classroom."

Draco frowned. "It's Quirrell, not Snape. I thought I'd told you about the conversation between Father Crabbe Senior."

"Right. Well, they think that Snape's going to try to steal the stone tonight so we're going to the trapdoor.

"Oh no, you're not. You're going to your room to owl Dumbledore."

"Make me."

"Enemy of my father or not, your father would not want to hear that you helped The Boy Who Lived to Be Annoying and his so-called 'friends' now, would he?" Draco smirked.

"No," Blaise looked at the ground.

"GO! I'll go after them. And do not tell anyone!"

"Fluffy sleeps with music!"

Having no clue what Blaise had meant, Draco raced out of the common room and went straight to the potions classroom only to find it empty.

"Great," Draco muttered. "Must've kept Blaise too long."

He dashed to the third-floor and saw that the door from when he'd followed the Try-Hard Trio was open. Upon entering, he found the three-headed dog's snout (or one of them) stuck in the trapdoor.

The other two heads saw Draco and the dog pulled out its third.

"Um, uh-" What had Blaise said? Something about music?

"Er, Alouette, gentille alouette. Alouette, je te plumerai." Draco's mother used to sing this--though the Black family wasn't French--until he was around seven. She would go about the house singing in her lovely voice. She never sang anymore, though, and Draco knew why. Singing was apparently a sign of happiness, and happiness was a weakness in the Malfoy household.

Draco could almost hear his father saying, "One must never be too happy with oneself. It will only lead to letting one's guard down, and it is evident what happens next."

Draco finished off the song, and by that time the dog was asleep and out of the way of the trapdoor.

Draco jumped in and landed in a messy tangle of plant roots. He noticed that Weasel was there, screaming his head off, but he hadn't seen Draco yet.

He immediately recognized this plant as the Devil's Snare and he knew he was supposed to relax, but he couldn't be seen. First, he had to save that rotten blood traitor who clearly didn't know how to relax.

"Lumos Solem!" Draco yelled, but the light was too blinding for Weasley to see him. The roots of the plant retracted, and the two boys sank through.

The Weasel landed right in front of Potter and Granger while Draco landed a few feet behind them and was somehow hidden.

"Ron, are you okay?" Potter asked.

"Yeah."

"Okay."

"Lucky we didn't panic."

The other two glared at the Weasel and Draco almost snorted.

"I wonder how he got out, though," Granger said.

"It doesn't matter," Potter said. "He's safe, and we've got to go on."

"What's that?" Granger asked when the group heard a noise.

"I don't know. Sounds like wings."

The group entered the next room through a door and was met by a large amount of flying keys.

"Curious," Granger said. "I've never seen birds like these."

Honestly, Draco thought, for an insufferable know-it-all, you sure aren't acting like one.

"They're not birds," Potter said, "they're keys."

Kudos to him.

"And I'll bet one of them fits that door," he finished as he stepped up to the broom in front of him.

"What's this all about?" Granger asked.

"I don't know. Strange."

Weasel walked up to the door and said, "Alohomora!"

The door didn't budge.

"Well, it was worth a try."

Granger groaned. "What are we going to do? There must be a thousand keys up there!"

"We're looking for a big old fashioned one. Probably rusty, like the handle."

"There! I see it! The one with the broken wing!" Potter exclaimed. He looked back at the broom and hesitated.

"What's wrong, Harry?" Granger asked.

"It's too simple."

"Oh, go on Harry!" Weasel said. "If Snape can catch it on that old broomstick, you can! You're the youngest Seeker in a century!"

"I'm less than two months older than him!" Draco complained, revealing himself.

"Malfoy!" Weasley said. "What are you doing here?"

Draco smirked and replied, "Is that any way to thank your savior, Weasel?"

"Savior?" Granger said.

"Well, do you really think this moron is capable of relaxing while in the clutches of the Devil's Snare?"

"That was you? The one who said 'Lumos Solem?'"

"Correct."

"Why?"

"He was being obnoxious."

"Was not!" Weasley yelled.

"You're wasting time. Get on the broom, Potter."

Surprisingly, Potter obeyed. However, the moment he touched the broom, the keys came flying at him, as in literally flying. He tried swatting them away, but they wouldn't leave.

"This complicates things a bit," Weasley remarked.

"No kidding, Weasel," Draco replied. He pointed his wand at Potter and yelled, "Protego!"

An invisible shield encased Potter, and the keys couldn't get through. Potter looked for the right key and took off after it, the keys following.

"Where did you learn that?" Granger asked Draco, her curiosity getting the best of her. "We haven't covered it this year."

"Having a father like mine can be an advantage sometimes," Draco said, shrugging. "I bet it's worn off by now, though."

Suddenly, Potter swooped down and chucked the key at them, yelling, "Catch the key!"

Granger caught it and ran to the door as Draco yelled back to Potter, "Well, do expect us to eat it instead?"

"Hurry up!" Weasel told his friend who was unsuccessfully jabbing the key in the door.

Frustrated, Draco went over.

"Move," he said to Granger, grabbing the key from her.

He shoved it in the keyhole and the lock twisted, permitting entrance into the next room. He held the door open for Potter's mates, and finally, Potter appeared. The minute he flew in, Draco slammed the door shut, hearing the winged keys sticking to the door like darts.

The group glanced around the new room. 

"I don't like this. I don't like this at all."

"Shut up, Granger, you Gryffindor coward."

"Don't you dare!"

"Ron, he's not worth it!"

"Pothead's right, you know."

"How about you shut it, Malfoy?" Harry demanded.

Draco rolled his eyes and mirthlessly laughed at him. "Coward," he muttered.

"Where are we? A graveyard?"

"Oh, totally, Potter. Because graveyards have life-sized chess pieces."

Draco walked onto the giant chessboard and flames appeared from each side, giving the room some light. The others followed him when the light came on.

"There's the door!" Potter exclaimed.

The three Gryffindors went ahead only to be blocked by the pawns.

"It's not supposed to be easy, you know!" Draco called to them.

The three backed up from the pawns as Draco stood and watched the pawns replace their swords.

"Now that do we do?" Granger asked.

"Honestly, Granger, you don't have to keep asking that." Draco paused a moment before he realized something.

"Of course!" he said.

"What?" Weasley demanded.

"No one would think that it'd be simple to get across a life-sized wizards' chessboard. That's why it's here."

"I don't quite follow you."

"Of course not," Draco muttered. Then to the others, he said, "What I mean, is that no one would think to use a simple size-changing spell, or to even de-Transfigure it."

He pointed his wand at a pawn that was blocking the door and yelled, "Reducio!"

The pawn immediately grew smaller, back to its normal size, in fact, but the other pieces stepped forward.

"That sort of worked," Draco said.

"Where did you learn that?" Granger asked.

Draco thought back to his countless weeks of preparation since Christmas break. He'd  been wandering around aimlessly, trying to find the perfect place to learn and practice without being seen. He'd even gone up to the seventh floor, and that's when luck struck. It was a room absolutely fit for Draco's needs. He had started to call it the Necessity Room, and whenever he had the chance, he would go up, learn, practice, and sometimes even nap.

"The Manor has an extravagantly large library," Draco told Granger as he did not wish to reveal anything to anyone about his secret training.

Granger's eyes gleamed with excitement, and Draco found himself rolling his eyes again. Irritating little know-it-all. Draco put on a smug look and said, "I know more spells. Confringo!"

The piece he'd aimed at exploded, and before anything else could happen, the four first years were shouting the two spells until the entire room was in flames from "Confringo".

A bishop had accidentally fallen to pieces on Weasley, and so they headed to him.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Granger said, lifting the heavy pieces from the weak boy's body.

"Ron, you okay?" Harry asked.

"Uh...mm...eh." That was all Weasley could croak out before going unconscious.

"I don't reckon that's a word, do you?" Draco said as the other two glared at him.

"This is your fault," Granger accused.

"Of course. Let me just apologize for saving your lives and time. Speaking of which, Quirrell's probably already down there."

"You mean Snape?" Potter insisted.

"No," Draco confirmed, "I mean Quirrell.

Potter shrugged and said, "Come on, Hermione, we have to go on!"

"Excuse me?" Draco said. "You expect me to stay here with Weasley? In this burning room?"

"Fine! We'll bring him along!" Granger said, frustrated.

So they took him with them to the next room. There were some flasks filled with assorted liquids on a table in the room.

Draco and Potter put the ginger they'd been carrying on the ground.

 Draco wiped his hands on Potter's robes.

"What're you doing?" Potter asked indignantly.

"Liberating myself of the germs obtained by touching a blood traitor's hand-me-down robe."

"HE IS NOT A BLO-"

"Boys! I found something."

Draco and Potter turned around to find Granger waving around a piece of parchment.

"What is it, Hermione?" Potter asked, heading forward.

"Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,

Two of us will help you, whichever you would find,

One among us seven will let you move ahead,

Another will transport the drinker back instead,

Two among our number hold only nettle wine,

Three of us are killers, waiting bidden in line.

Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,

To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:

First, however slyly the poison tries to hide

You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;

Second, different are those who stand at either end,

But if you would move onward, neither is your friend;

Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,

Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;

Fourth, the second left and the second on the right

Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight."

"A bit long, don't you think?" Draco commented.

"Brilliant," said Hermione. "This isn't magic - it's logic - a puzzle. A lot of the greatest wizards haven't got an ounce of logic; they'd be stuck in here forever."

"Getting a little rude here, aren't we?" Draco drawled.

"But we'll get stuck in here, too," Potter said, ignoring Draco, who found that he didn't quite enjoy being ignored.

"Potter, quit being so big headed. Obviously, you are not the one with brains here, so no matter how hard you tried, you wouldn't be able to come up with the correct answer."

Granger blushed and said, "He's right only when he says I can come up with the answer. Just let me read this."

"I wasn't talking about you," Draco snapped at her. "Perhaps if you had a brain as well, you'd be able to figure that out."

"Excuse me! I've beaten you in every class!"

"You know this because which professor told you?"

Granger looked down at her feet and muttered, "No one did."

Raising her voice a bit, she continued, "I just assumed because you don't answer questions..."

"Oh yeah. That's right. Forgive me for not being an insufferable know-it-all."

Granger huffed. "If you're so bright, you figure it out!"

"Precisely what I've been asking to do."

Before Granger realized what Draco had just done, he snatched the parchment from her. He looked at the parchment, then up at the potions. He did this several times before coming to a conclusion.

"The smallest one will help you go forward, and the purple one on the end will send you back. Who's taking what?"

"Well, how can you be so sure, Malfoy?" Granger asked.

"The second from the left and right taste identical. Two of the bottles are only nettle wine, so it's obviously those ones. The potions on the left side of either are poisoned, so that leaves the third and fourth from the left, and the potions at the right end. The last one will not help you move forward, yet it can't poison you. That's the one that will take you through the purple fire and back into the chess room. That leaves the dwarf and giant. One has to be poisoned, but it obviously won't kill you since it says that in the riddle. The big bottle's obviously got enough potion in it for more than one person, and I highly doubt it's that one. So the smallest one is for getting through the black flames."

Granger and Potter gaped at Draco who looked back at them with a smug expression.

"Hermione-" Potter started.

"Harry, he's right. It makes sense."

"But how can he be confident that it's the smallest, and not the biggest, that will get the drinker through the black fire?"

"Malfoy?" Granger looked at him.

"Fine, I'll just smell the poison. If one of you ends up dying because you didn't believe me, it's your own fault."

The other two speechlessly watched the Slytherin uncork and smell the bottles.

"Confirmation," Draco said. "This is nettle wine....this one, too. So those two are poisons. Not smelling those."

"Why not?" Potter asked.

"What if it's the kind of potion that can kill you if you smell it?" Draco said.

"They have those?"

"Honestly, Potter, if you were any slower, you'd be going backwards."

He went to the smallest potions and hesitantly brought it to his nose. He sniffed.

Almost immediately, he covered the bottle, set it down, and fell to the ground.

Potter and Granger rushed to him.

"Idiot!" Granger said. "How on Merlin's beard are we going to explain this?"

"So you're not concerned about my well-being at all?"

Granger jumped back at Draco's words with a gasp.

"Malfoy! You're alive!"

"No kidding, Granger. For a moment, I thought I was a ghost through whom you couldn't pass. I must admit I am slightly hurt that you care more about your reputation as a goody-two-shoes than my health."

"I-I-I-" Granger stuttered before Draco cut her off.

"Only joking. No one can hurt me, and I'm not only poisoned; just a really good actor."

Draco picked up the bottle and declared, "This is safe. Who's going forward?"

"I will," Potter replied, taking the bottle.

"Harry-" Granger tried to object only to find herself being interrupted again...by the same person.

"Granger, you can take this back." Draco handed her the bottle. "There's enough in there for you and Weasley."

"But what about you?" Granger asked.

"Don't tell me you're concerned. I'll be well off."

"I'm not concerned; I just don't trust you."

"Then stay until I've done my duty. Potter, move on."

"You'll be okay, Harry," Granger said, turning to her best friend. "You're a great wizard. You really are."

Draco snorted as Potter replied, "Not as good as you."

"Me? Books and cleverness. There are more important things. Friendship and bravery. And, Harry, just be careful."

Potter nodded, and drank the potion. He said to Draco, "If you mess up, you're dead."

Draco smirked. "I'm about as dead as You-Know-Who himself. Wait, bad analogy."

Potter almost smiled before remembering who he was talking to, and stepped through the fire.

 "What are you going to do right now?" Granger asked as Draco rummaged for things in his pockets.

"Recreate Potter's potion."

"What? You can't do that! You're only a first year. Besides, where would you get the ingredients?"

"Don't be ridiculous. Even though I know precisely which ingredients are used, I didn't bring my potions kit with me. I did bring a large enough flask, however. I always have one with me. Aha!"

Draco took out a flask that looked exactly like Potter's. To Granger's surprise, the potion it contained looked identical as well.

"Shocked? Or should I say, stunned?" he smirked.

"H-how did you do that?" Granger asked.

"Magic."

Granger rolled her eyes and said, "If that's the real thing, then you must have sent Harry on without the real potion."

"I'm not stupid, Granger. I simply duplicated it."

"We haven't learned that yet! That's N.E.W.T level magic!"

"I'm flattered, but I should get going before Potter screws something up."

"But how did you know the spell? And why didn't I see it?"

"I learned it from one of my Manor library books, and you didn't see me do the spell because you were too caught up in the moment."

"Was not!...Why did you read so much?"

"What else was I supposed to do?"

Draco swallowed the potion in one gulp and stepped through the fire.

He ran right through the next room for the troll had been dealt with (presumably by Quirrell as Potter had no such ability to do such a thing). He needed to sprint if he wanted to catch up with Potter.

Finally, Draco found him walking as slowly and as cautiously as possible. Up ahead, he could see the top of a turban.

This was it. Draco's chance to win trust and be a hero - even if the latter would be anonymous and unnoticed by anyone.

"Professor Quirrell!" he called, striding ahead of Potter. "I have lured Harry Potter here."

The professor turned to look at Draco and spoke, "However unnecessary your help is, as I had suspected Potter to come on his own, it will be greatly appreciated."

He then turned to Potter.

Potter said the one thing he could get out, "You?"

He took a few steps forward, continuing, "N-no, it can't be! Snape - he wa- he was the one-"

"Yes, he does seem the type, doesn't he? Why next to him, who would suspect 'p- p- poor st- st- stuttering Professor Quirrell?'" Quirrell interrupted Potter, acting out the stuttering part he had been playing all year long.

"But- but that day, during the Quidditch match, Snape tried to kill me." Potter took a few more steps down the stairs.

"No, dear boy, I tried to kill you! And trust me, if it weren't for that Granger girl, I would have succeeded, even with Snape muttering his little countercurse."

For once, Draco was glad Granger got the credit for what he did. Quirrell must have seen her leaving the teachers' box and assumed it was her doing.

"Snape was trying to save me?" Potter asked incredulously.

"Idiot Potter, of course he was!" Draco said, pretending to be on Quirrell's side. "Quirrell's the one who let the troll in!"

"Very good, Draco, yes," Quirrell confirmed. "Snape, unfortunately, wasn't fooled. When everyone else was running about the dungeon, Snape went to the third floor to head me off. He, of course, never trusted me again."

Quirrell turned back to the mirror and Draco noticed Potter reach for his forehead in pain. Draco looked at the turban...

"He rarely left me alone," Quirrell said, still going on about Snape. "But, he doesn't understand. I'm never alone. Never."

Suddenly, Draco understood.

"Now, what does this mirror do?" Quirrell asked aloud. "I see what I desire. I see myself holding the Stone. But, how do I get it?"

"Use the boy!"

A/N: I encourage you all to share this book with your friends, comment, vote, and keep on reading! Thank you all so much!