It was a few weeks later when Ron and Hermione decided to take a break from researching to play some chess while Harry was at Quidditch practice. I watched them play, occasionally trying to help Hermione. However, neither me nor Hermione was the best at chess, so Ron usually beat us. However, in the middle of the game Harry came over with a grim expression.

He told us the bad news about Snape refereeing the game.

"Don't play."

"Say you're ill."

"Pretend to break your leg."

"Really break your leg."

"Just play."

The three of them turned to me with a horrified expression.

"What? It's not like Snape can do anything. If anything, it's better having him refereeing the game. Somebody is bound to see him at all times while he's on the field. It would be harder to keep an eye on him in the bleachers."

Just as Ron was about to open his mouth to make a retort, Neville fell through the porthole. His legs were locked together by the Leg-Lock Curse. Hermione and I both hopped to our feet as everyone else burst out laughing at his predicament. I barely beat Hermione to the draw and performed the countercurse on Neville.

I helped him to his feet as Hermione worried over him. He began to explain as we led him back to sit by Harry and Ron.

"Malfoy. I met him outside the library. He said he'd been looking for someone to practice on."

"He's been bothering me, too. I'll have to show you a few escape methods sometimes."

The words slipped out before I could think about it and I was surprised at how smooth I sounded. Now that I thought about what I said, I was getting worried about what I'd just said. It suggested that we might hang out in the future, and that didn't sound at all like me. I was about to get very flustered. However, before he could reply, Hermione butt in.
"Go to Professor McGonagall! Both of you. You have to report him!"

I shrugged and Neville shook his head as he muttered, "I don't want more trouble."

"You've got to stand up to him, Neville! He's just used to walking all over people, but that's no reason to lie down in front of him and make it easier."

"There's no need to tell me I'm not brave enough to be in Gryffindor, Malfoy's already done that."

"Don't say that, it's not true at all," I assured.

Harry gave Neville a chocolate frog as he added, "Yeah, you're worth twelve of Malfoy. The Sorting Hat chose you for Gryffindor, didn't it? And where's Malfoy? In stinkin Slytherin."

Neville gave a weak smile as he opened his chocolate frog. "Thanks you two...I think I'll go to bed....D'you want the card, you collect them, don't you?"

I watched Harry as he started talking about his card and the sudden realization came upon him and he gasped.

He began reading out to the card until he got to "his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel!"

Hermione and I shared a look as she realized she had lent me the book that had Nicolas Flamel in it last week and we both hopped to our feet.

"Just a second," I said, and Hermione and I ran up to our dormitory to grab it from my bedside. We then ran back to the two, who were looking very confused. Hermione began explaining what we were doing as I found the right page.

I looked up when I found it and looked at Hermione. "We were right."

She quickly came to sit next to me in the chair and began reading, "Nicolas Flamel is the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone!"

Harry and Ron just looked confused and before they could say anything I pushed the book over to them to read. Once they finished the passage they looked up in realization.

"So Fluffy is obviously guarding the stone, right? It would make sense that if Flamel and Dumbledore are buddies he would ask Dumbledore to keep it safe."

"And if Dumbledore knew someone was after it, it makes sense that he would want to move the Stone out of Gringotts!" Hermione added excitedly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I had just come out of Potions and I was glad to finally get out of that. They had just been getting worse from Snape doing everything he could to be absolutely horrible to Harry. I was glad that today was the match, because I didn't think I could stand another day of Fred, George, and Harry talking about how they were all going to die with Snape refereeing the game.

Outside of the locker room I wished the twins and Harry good luck and went to sit with Hermione and Ron in the bleachers. They were still anxious about Snape refereeing, but I was glad I didn't have to worry about it. Sometimes it was nice knowing what was going to happen.

We had settled down when Ron whipped around to see Malfoy sitting behind us. I sighed and ignored their arguing as I focused my eyes on the match. I had purposely not read what happened in the match so I could still be a little bit surprised at what happened. Knowing everything was great most of the time, but surprises were also nice.

I was successfully ignoring the bickering and focusing on the game with Hermione until I overheard Draco mock, "You should be on the team, Longbottom, you've got no brains."

I whipped to face Draco and glowered at him. I suddenly remembered this exchange very clearly and I was no longer successfully ignoring it.

Neville stammered out a comeback, which I followed up with, "Well, why aren't you on the team, Malfoy? You haven't got a speck of decency in you. Neville's right, he's better than you'll ever be."

Draco didn't seem too phased and instead moved to mocking Ron's family's lack of money while continuing to make fun of Neville.

"You should really shut your mouth, Malfoy." I glared.

At the same moment, Ron started to get involved as well. "I'm warning you, Malfoy. One more word--"

Hermione yelled at us to look as Harry dove towards the ground.

Of course, Malfoy had to make one less mockery.

"You're in luck, Weasley, Potter's obviously spotted some money on the ground!"

Ron climbed over the seats, hesitantly followed by Neville. I hesitated to do anything. I was great at arguing, but I'd never actually been in a fist fight. I knew nothing too bad would happen. I didn't remember exactly what the result of the fight would be, though.

However, after Neville was knocked aside, completely unconscious, I decided I had to do at least something. I curled my fingers in and hit Crabbe right in the eye with the heel of my palm. He wasn't expecting me to get involved and fell back in surprise. I quickly pulled back and turned to stand with Hermione. I realized as I hurried next to her that she was cheering for Harry and I quickly joined her.

Apparently, Gryffindor had won while I was distracted. Harry was lifted into the teams shoulders and was being carried away.

We cheered until he was carried out of sight. I turned to Crabbe holding his hand over his eye as he, Malfoy, and Goyle sulked away. I smiled and couldn't help feel a little proud that Crabbe was still holding his eye. My hand did hurt a little, but it was absolutely worth it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hermione, Ron, and I walked down the hallway looking for Harry. Some Gryffindors passed us in the hallway and invited us to come up and celebrate. They told us about Fred and George and the treats they had stolen to celebrate. It sounded really tempting, but I decided to stay with the other two until we found Harry.

We eventually found him and Ron filled him in on the fight. Harry didn't seem too interested though, and instead seemed far more interested in telling us something. Apparently, he didn't want to tell me though.

"You won't believe me anyway, so there's no point in you listening," he told me, as he ushered Ron and Hermione into a room.

Hermione looked back at me as she was led away and offered me an apologetic expression. I just shrugged and turned back to walk to the common room. As soon as I arrived, I was pulled over to a couch by a pair of arms.

"Hello, Miss America! So nice of you to finally join us!" Fred greeted as George plopped me down in between the two of them.

"So, how do you think we did out there?" George inquired.

"I'm sure you'll agree we performed fantastically."

"Actually, I didn't get to see much. I got kind of distracted. There was a fight behind me and I might have punched Crabbe in the eye."

They gawked at me for a second until their gaping mouths turned to grins.

"You punched Crabbe?" Fred said in awe.

"In the eye?" George clarified.

"Yeah, I got him pretty good, too. He was still holding it when he left."

"Didn't take you for the fighting type, Blake," Fred smirked.

"Well, Neville tried to take Crabbe and Goyle both on," they both looked surprised at this and I added, "Yeah, it didn't go too well for him."

"I didn't want to get involved, honestly, and was just going to continue watching the game. But Goyle knocked Neville out cold and I decided I had to at least try and get one punch in. I was probably more surprised than Crabbe that my punch actually worked."

"Well, you won your first fight, that calls for celebration!" George decided, as he steered me over to where they had laid out all the stolen treats. "Take your pick."

I smiled and dug in.

That night in our dormitory, Hermione filled me in on everything Harry overheard between Snape and Quirrel. How, according to what Harry heard, the stone's safety relied on Quirrel holding out from telling Snape his secret. Of course, it was all a bunch of dragon dung, but it was nice to know Hermione trusted me enough to tell me, even if Harry didn't.

I promise to be a bit more regular now. All of my AP classes have finished giving out homework so I should have more time to write now. Sorry for the wait and thanks for reading!