Cassia's POV

Winter break had come and gone, and we had final exams coming up in a couple of months. One day, Harry, Ron, and I were studying in the Great Hall. Well, Ron wasn't studying. He was going through his Chocolate Frog cards. Hedwig flew to our table, landing in front of Harry.

"Hi, Hedwig," I said, stroking her feathers. She nibbled my finger affectionately.

"I think she likes you, Cass," Harry noted.

"Look at you, playing with your cards. Pathetic! We've got finale exams coming up," Hermione admonished.

Ron put his cards down. "I'm ready. Ask me any question," he challenged.

"Alright. What are the three most crucial ingredients in a Forgetfulness Potion?" Hermione asked.

Ron looked down. "I forgot..."

"And what, may I ask, do you plan to do if this comes up in the final exam?" Hermione asked.

"Copy off you," Ron shot back.

"No you won't. Besides, according to Professor McGonagall, we're to be given special quills bewitched with an Anti-Cheating Spell," Hermione stated.

"That's insulting! It's as if they don't trust us!" Ron protested. He looked at one of his cards and groaned. "Dumbledore again!" Just then, Neville came bunny-hopping into the Great Hall. Almost everyone else started laughing.

"Leg-Locker Curse?" Ron wondered aloud.

"Malfoy," Harry and I said in unison. Neville hopped his way to our table.

"You have got to start standing up to people, Neville," said Ron.

"But how? I can barely stand at all," Neville replied, trying not to lose his balance.

Seamus jumped up. "I'll do the counter-curse," he said.

"No, that's all I need. You to set my bloody kneecaps on fire," Neville objected.

That definitely hurt. Seamus slammed his wand down. "I don't appreciate the insinuation, Longbottom! Besides, if anyone cares to notice, my eyebrows have completely grown back!" he said, pointing to his eyebrows. He turned and walked away, giving us all a glimpse of a burnt spot on the back of his head. Hermione and I tried not to laugh.

"I found him!" Harry exclaimed, pointing to a card. "'Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, his discovery of the twelve uses of dragon blood, and for his work on alchemy with his partner Nicholas Flamel,'" he read aloud. We all looked at each other and raced to the library.

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"I had you looking in the wrong section! How could I be so stupid?!" Hermione exclaimed, dropping a book in front of us with a loud THUMP. "I checked this out weeks ago for a bit of light reading," she added, flipping through the pages. The book was enormous, so I wouldn't exactly call it light reading if it made that much of a noise when Hermione dropped it.

"This is light?" Ron asked, as if reading my mind.

Hermione just glared at him and continued to flip through the book. "Of course! Here it is!" she exclaimed, putting a finger on one page. "Nicholas Flamel is the only known maker of the Sorcerer's Stone," she read to us.

"The what?!" Harry, Ron, and I asked, in complete unison.

Hermione sighed. "Honestly, don't those two read, Cassia?" she asked. I shrugged in response. She continued reading. "The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Sorcerer's Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers. The stone will transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal."

"Immortal?" Ron repeated.

"It means you'll never die," Hermione explained.

"I know what it means!" Ron snapped.

Harry and I shushed him, wanting to know more.

"The only stone currently in existence belongs to Mr. Nicholas Flamel, the noted alchemist, who, last year, celebrated his 665th birthday," Hermione finished reading. She looked at us. "That's what Fluffy's guarding on the third floor. That's what's under the trapdoor--the Sorcerer's Stone."

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That night, we threw on the cloak and headed to Hagrid's. I knocked on the door. Hagrid opened it and said, "Oh, hello. Sorry, I'm in no state to entertain tonight." He started to close the door.

"We know about the Sorcerer's Stone!" All four of us said in sync.

Hagrid let us in and shut the door.

"We think Snape's going to try and steal it," Harry added as we all sat down.

"Snape? Blimey, you're not still on about that, are yeh? Look, Snape is one of the teachers protecting the Stone- he's not about ter steal it," Hagrid denied.

"Wait a minute. One of the teachers?" I repeated.

"Of course! There are other things protecting the stone, aren't there? Spells, enchantments," Hermione trailed off.

"Exactly. Waste o' time, if you ask me. Ain't nobody able ter get past Fluffy. Ain't a soul knows how, 'cept fer me an' Dumbledore. I shouldn't have told you that," Hagrid said, muttering the last part.

Just then, we heard a clanging sound coming from the fire. Hagrid walked over to the fireplace, wearing oven mitts, and cautiously took what looked like a giant egg out of the pot and placed it on the table for us to see.

"Hagrid, what exactly is that?" Harry asked.

"I know what that is!" Ron said, excitement in his voice, "But Hagrid, however did you get one?"

"I won it. Off a stranger I met in the pub. Seemed quite happy ter be rid of it, to be honest," Hagrid answered.

We heard the egg crack. It cracked again, and then it hatched. Pieces of the egg's shell went flying all over the place. A baby dragon stood in the middle of the table. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I all looked at it with wide eyes.

"Is that...a dragon?" Hermione asked.

"That's not just a dragon...that's a Norwegian Ridgeback," Ron replied, "My brother Charlie works with these in Romania."

"Ain't he beautiful? Oh, bless him, he knows his mummy," Hagrid said, stroking the dragon. "Hello, Norbert," he cooed.

"Norbert?" Harry and I repeated.

"Well, he's gotta have a name, don't he?" Hagrid defended. He tickled Norbert under his chin, making Norbert sneeze straight at Hagrid. His beard caught on fire. "He'll have to be trained up a bit, of course," Hagrid muttered as he patted his beard to put out the flames. He looked out the window. "Who's that?" he asked. We all looked to see a blur of platinum hair running away.

"Malfoy," I spat.

"Oh, dear..." Hagrid mumbled.

We all hurried back to the castle as fast as our legs would carry us.

"Hagrid always wanted a dragon. He said so the first time I met him," Harry explained.

"Now he's got one. And worse, Malfoy knows," Ron added.

"I don't understand. Is that bad?" Hermione asked.

"It's bad," I replied.

"Good evening," McGonagall said, appearing in front of us. Malfoy came out and stood beside her. I would've hexed him right then and there if it hadn't been for Harry holding my arm so I couldn't take out my wand.

McGonagall led us into her classroom. "Nothing, I repeat, nothing gives a student the right to walk about the school at night," she scolded us, "Therefore, as punishment for your actions, fifty points will be taken."

My jaw dropped.

"Fifty?!" Harry and I exclaimed in disbelief.

"Each," McGonagall continued, eyeing all 5 of us. "And to ensure it doesn't happen again, all 5 of you will receive detention."

Malfoy frowned. "Excuse me, Professor," he said, coming closer. "Perhaps I heard you wrong. I heard you say the 5 of us."

"No, you heard me correctly, Mr. Malfoy. You see, as honorable as your intentions were, you, too, were out of bed after hours. You will join your classmates in detention," McGonagall told him. At this, Malfoy had a look of horror on his face.

I smirked. "That's karma for you, Malfoy."

"Shut up, brat," Malfoy shot back at me.

"Brat? That's the best you could come up with?" I asked.

"You want worse?" Malfoy challenged.

"Bring it on," I snapped, pointing my wand at him.

"Enough!" McGonagall almost shouted, making both of us jump. "Unless you desire to lose more points for Gryffindor or Slytherin, I would not advise violence," she warned us.

I put my wand down, but made an I'm-watching-you gesture at Malfoy, before McGonagall sent us all back to our dormitories. We were devastated.

Two hundred points lost. That put Gryffindor in last place. In one night, we'd ruined any chance Gryffindor had had for the house Cup. Harry was just as devastated as I was. It felt as though the bottom had dropped out of my stomach. How could we ever make up for this?

Only Ron stood by us. "They'll all forget this in a few weeks. Fred and George have lost loads of points in all the time they've been here, and people still like them."