Harry, What's That Blood on You?

Hagrid hadn't believed them, and it left Harry and the others feeling down. They were still talking about it over dinner.

Candlelight flickered in the Great Hall, casting the three of their shadows across the long table.

Ron stabbed at the Yorkshire pudding on his plate as if venting his frustration, poking it full of holes.

"I just don't get it," he complained in a low voice. "Hagrid saw Quirrell jinx Harry at the Quidditch Match, so why is he still defending him?"

Hermione was a little puzzled too. She put herself in Hagrid's shoes, tried to think like him, and went over what had happened from his perspective. "Maybe Dumbledore didn't tell him everything. Professors are always like that, telling you half the story and keeping the rest to themselves because they think children shouldn't know too much."

Hagrid was far too old to be considered a child, but from Dumbledore's perspective, perhaps he really was still a child.

Of course, there was another possibility, and a more likely one: Dumbledore thought Hagrid couldn't keep a secret.

Harry stared at the High Table on the raised platform.

Quirrell was stammering away to Snape, whose expression suggested he was smelling a barrel of rotten Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans.

She lowered her voice and told her friends in secret, "Voldemort wants the Philosopher's Stone."

"The Philosopher's what?" Ron hadn't heard her clearly. He frowned and asked again.

"Stone." Harry shoved a spoonful of mashed potatoes into her mouth. "Nicolas Flamel's Philosopher's Stone."

Hermione frowned deeply, looking incredulous. "Nicolas Flamel? The alchemist who's over six hundred years old? I read about him today. I think he's already 665 this year."

Harry nodded. "Yes, that's him."

By the time Harry returned to the dormitory, her drowsiness was as thick as a deep swamp, threatening to swallow her whole.

With her eyes half closed, she fumbled into her pajamas, her eyelids heavy as lead. After a quick wash, she threw herself onto the bed and fell asleep on the spot.

In a haze, she tumbled into a bizarre dream-two Voldemorts were chasing her through a maze. One had the back of Quirrell's head, and the other had a Basilisk's golden, vertical pupils...

"Harry! Wake up!"

Hermione's voice pierced the dream like a sword.

Harry sat bolt upright and saw the brown-haired girl standing beside her bed with a candleholder raised, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

"I remember now!" Hermione thrust a thick old tome in front of Harry. "The Philosopher's Stone can turn any metal into pure gold, and it can make the Elixir of Life too!" Her finger tapped a portrait of Nicolas Flamel on the page. He was holding the wondrous Philosopher's Stone. "You-Know-Who must want to use it to come back to life!"

Harry rubbed her eyes, the remnants of the dream still swirling in her mind.

She still wasn't fully awake. Hermione's voice seemed to come from far away, and Harry couldn't make out anything she was saying.

"We have to tell Hagrid." Hermione jumped off the bed.

Harry heard that clearly. She scratched her head, fought back the overwhelming urge to sleep, and grabbed the Invisibility Cloak before following Hermione. "If Voldemort sends Quirrell to steal the Philosopher's Stone..."

Then that fat three-headed dog called Fluffy wouldn't be able to guard it.

They had just reached the common room when Ron came charging down from the boys' dormitory, his hair sticking out as though he'd been struck by lightning. He had clearly just gotten out of bed too. "I just saw Quirrell heading for the Forbidden Forest!"

The three exchanged glances, then all looked at the Invisibility Cloak in Harry's hand.

In the distance, the clock tower chimed midnight. Moonlight shone through the windowpanes, casting a web of shadows across the floor.

The Invisibility Cloak was only big enough for one adult. Squeezed beneath it, the three shuffled toward Hagrid's Hut like a clumsy six-legged beast.

Harry stepped on Ron's boot, and Hermione's hair kept brushing against Harry's nose.

"What should we say?" Ron muttered. "'Hi, Hagrid, we think You-Know-Who is going to steal the Philosopher's Stone'?"

Hermione was about to answer when the wooden door suddenly opened from within-Draco Malfoy was standing beside Professor McGonagall.

"You three, come out. I heard your voices." Professor McGonagall's square glasses reflected the moonlight. "Fifty points from Gryffindor! Each!"

The Invisibility Cloak slipped off the three of them, revealing three astonished faces.

Draco turned his head away, looking a little guilty.

"Besides losing points, the four of you will also be accompanying Hagrid on night watch tonight," Professor McGonagall said. Draco hunched his shoulders. Although he didn't know why he was being punished too, as things stood, being punished was far better than not being punished.

The night-watch party was split into two groups. As soon as Hagrid left, Harry could no longer contain her anger and was the first to taunt Draco. "Young Master Malfoy isn't sleeping at this hour? Playing thief in the dormitory?"

Draco's lips moved. He wanted to explain that when he'd seen Harry and the others leave, he'd been a little worried about her safety, but he also knew full well that, with his abilities, going with them would be no help. All he could do was fetch Professor McGonagall. It wasn't exactly honorable, but it would still achieve his goal.

He just hadn't expected Professor McGonagall not to send them back, and to make them patrol the Forbidden Forest at night instead.

It all sounded like excuses, so in the end, Draco simply looked away without explaining.

His silence made Harry even angrier.

She strode deeper into the Forbidden Forest, her boots stamping heavily on the fallen leaves. Suddenly, an icy hand seized her wrist.

"Don't go any farther!" Draco's voice trembled, and his face was paper-white in the moonlight. "Up ahead there's..."

Harry shook off his hand, only to see a horrifying sight not far away.

A figure in a silver cloak was bent over a unicorn, a spine-chilling sucking sound coming from beneath the hood.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Harry's spell lashed out like a whip. As the cloaked figure fell stiffly to the ground, Draco sucked in a breath, his expression somewhere between terror and admiration.

Harry was about to look for a vine she could use as a rope when a giant python suddenly shot out of the undergrowth, coiled around the cloaked figure, and vanished with them.

It all happened so fast it seemed like an illusion.

"You're bleeding." On the way back to the castle, Draco suddenly pointed at the back of Harry's robes. In the moonlight, a dark stain stood out against the fabric.

Ron leaned closer, curious. "Huh? When did you-"

"You two! Turn around!" Hermione screamed after getting a clear look at the bloodstain behind Harry, her face flushing bright red. She pulled Harry over and covered her backside with her schoolbag. "We're going straight back to the dormitory! Now!"

The two boys turned around in confusion. All they heard were Hermione's hurried footsteps and Harry's bewildered question: "What's going on? I'm not hurt."

"You're not hurt!" Hermione lowered her voice almost to a whisper. "It's... it's a girl thing! Merlin, didn't your aunt tell you about it?!"

...Huh? What thing?

Harry was confused.