Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Under Pressure ❯ Chapter Two: The Sorcerrer's Stone (What Have I Done) ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter Two: The Sorcerer's Stone (What Have I Done?)

 

Up until Christmas break, life at Hogwarts had been riddled with puzzles about the mysterious attacks of giants and the bit on Snape's leg plus the giant three headed dog named Fluffy. But, a new puzzle was proposed to the gang of kids that were the reason there was a girl who was Gryffindor and Slytherin; where they were going for Christmas. They could stay at school for the holidays, or they could go to the Lee Castle, where they would be welcomed as family… all of them. Angel and Faith's father, David Lee, was a well known defense advocate. He trained Aurors against the dark arts. He had also been a Slytherin, who married a Gryffindor, who was not just a Gryffindor, but Godric Gryffindor's heir. Miranda Gryffindor Lee had taken her husbands name, but also kept her own as a second middle name. Her family had not liked the thought of her marrying a Slytherin, but hadn't had much choice in the matter.

Hermione, Ron, Fred, and George were all for staying with the Lees for the holidays, but Harry, Draco, and Faith weren't so sure that they would be welcome until Angel received a letter saying that Miranda and David didn't much care who they were as long as they were friendly. Only then did Harry, Faith and Draco agree to board the train, where they would head for Nine and Three Quarters and ride to the Castle in a car. Angel was the first off the train, and when she stepped off, she was still wearing her Gryffindor robes and green and silver tie.

“What's this, dear?” Miranda asked. “They gave you the wrong color tie.”

“I wanted to wait until Christmas to tell you. I'm in Slytherin and Gryffindor now!” Angel exclaimed.

Her parents smiled at her as they saw the assortment of friends she had dragged along. Faith raced forward and hugged her mother and father while Angel went and pushed her friends forward.

“Left to right, they're Hermione Granger, Harry Potter, the Weasley's, and of course there's Draco,” Angel introduced them. “This is my mum, Miranda Lee, and my dad, David Lee.”

“Come here boys,” Miranda said to the Weasley's, and she enveloped them all in a hug.

“The lot of you,” said David in a stern voice. “Call us Uncle David and Aunt Miranda,” he said in a much softer tone.

Everyone laughed at the shocked look on Harry and Hermione's faces before they headed for the car. Everyone was quite good natured, despite the newcomers, and Harry knew that these people were good people, even if they were possibly dark wizards and witches.

“One thing you have to watch out for with Aunt Miranda and Uncle David is that they like to pull practical jokes. We learned all our stuff from them,” Fred said.

“I see Angel got you all your pendants. We figured she'd have the luck of meeting up with you on the train, and somehow she knew that she was going to be meeting a book worm, so we gave her your mother's and Hermione's,” Miranda told them as David drove off.

“Did you know my mother very well?” Harry asked softly.

“Well… yes and no… we were good friends in school, but later on she wasn't able to send any owls, and we fell out of touch. When we heard that Voldemort was trying to kill them, we wanted to send her the dragon, but it was no use. As much as we pleaded with him, Dumbledore wouldn't allow Peter to take the pendant to them,” Miranda answered.

Harry fell silent in the back seat, wondering if he was ever going to learn more about his parents. Angel sat forward a little in her seat and smiled softly at the boy. Boy would he have a great Christmas this year.

 

Angel sat up in bed and rubbed the sleep from her eleven year old eyes. The house was mostly silent, but it was mostly stone as well, so it wasn't very easy to tell if someone was headed down stairs or not. She swung her feet out of bed and into her slippers before beginning to wake the others. As soon as they were all awake, they headed down stairs where the Christmas tree gave off a magical glow. They rounded the corner out of the stair well and saw Miranda and David waiting for them.

“Now that you're all awake, we can open presents and then we'll all go over to the Weasley's for dinner, like normal,” David told them before stepping aside to reveal presents. Tens of hundreds of presents sat under the Christmas tree, and there was a stack for every child. Harry looked at them and realized that he'd never had so many presents before.

He picked up the top one on the pile and opened it. It was thin and long, like a book. He had two like that. When it was revealed, he saw a diary. He opened it, and found thin, scratchy script inside.

 

25 December, 1986-

 

I got this from my mum today. It's been funny, but I could swear that Lily Evans has been looking at me more. She's a beautiful girl with brilliant green eyes. I wish she could like me, but after my nice little display earlier, I don't think anyone could. It just made me so mad that Snivellus runs around with her all the time, but makes such a hypocrite in front of everyone when he says that muggle-borns are worthless. Maybe I over reacted. Anyway, I hope that it isn't just my imagination. I'll probably write later.

 

James Potter

 

Harry's green eyes turned back to the wrapping. It was addressed to him from Angel. He turned his teary vision on Angel, who was seated next to him, with her hair a now festive red and green. Silently, without needing to know what he was looking at, Angel embraced him, patted him on the back, and reminded him that he had more to open. Setting his fathers diary next to him, he picked up the next package and noticed that it, too, was from Angel. This one was much thicker, but it wasn't as long as his father's diary. He tore the paper off to reveal a deep, emerald green diary with a lock on it. Stuck between the lock and the pages was the key. Harry put it in the lock, turned and let the book fall open to emerald green pages with a beautiful, flowing script on them. He looked at the date, and saw that it was the same as the day of his father's first entry. He couldn't read much else through the tears, though, so he closed the book and pocketed the key.

Silently, he opened the rest of his packages, revealing a box of wet light fireworks, a book on Quidditch strategy (he had recently become the youngest seeker in Hogwarts history), a Wizarding Chess set (Ron had beaten him every time they'd played on the chess board in the library), magic smoke bombs from Faith, and a green scarf from Draco, who said it matched his eyes. Everyone got the traditional Weasley and Lee gift package; the former containing sweets and a unique sweater, Ron's being Maroon as always, Hermione's having an owl knitted on a blue background, and Harry's being green with a snitch on the front, and the latter containing lots of sweets and a unique cloak for everyone that were all black, but unique on the back (Ron's did not have any maroon on it, despite Miranda's protests). After the presents were opened, everything turned into a blur as they all went over to the Weasley's and then came back. A little while later, they boarded the train. Hermione was absolutely giddy to tell everyone what she had dug up in the Lees' extensive library.

“The stone is the Sorcerer's stone!” Hermione said once they were all in a compartment.

“It… It is?” they all asked.

“Yes! It causes immortal life, that's why Snape must be after it,” Hermione exclaimed.

“Uncle Sev's not after it! I found out that he was blocking the way from Quirrel. He had me listen in on a conversation with him, and Quirrel was pretty evil sounding. He's gonna steal the stone for Voldemort,” Angel said sharply.

“Quirrel?” the Weasley twins asked.

“Yes, Quirrel,” Angel replied.

“We have to stop him,” Ron said softly.

“What's this we stuff? I'm going down there,” Harry told them.

“And we're coming with you,” Ron, Hermione, Faith, and Angel told him in unison.

“All right, but the Lee twins will stage a watch at the door and keep everyone distracted,” Harry replied.

“No! We're going down too. You might need us,” Angel insisted.

“You go down… I'll keep watch. Harry has a point when he says that; we need someone to keep anyone from barging in, especially Quirrel,” Faith told her other sister.

Angel nodded reluctantly, but Harry continued to insist until they were back that she should stay as well. Angel told him when they got off the train that she would destroy Lily's diary if he tried to argue the lineup any further.

 

Silently, the golden quintet crept down the halls to the door on the third floor corridor. Suddenly, Draco appeared in front of them.

“What are you doing? Do you want to get yourself killed?” Harry growled.

“Angel's not the only brave Slytherin. I'll help Faith keep watch, since you wanted two people,” Draco replied before taking position in the back of the line.

With no time to turn him back, Harry pressed forward, stubbornly cursing the persistence of Malfoys. They moved into the room to see the dog asleep with only the beautiful sound of an enchanted harp playing. Draco and Faith wished them luck before shutting the door. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Angel were left in the room with the dog. Angel went to the hole and leaped down without so much as a second thought.

“Come on! That harp won't play forever!” Angel growled back up.

One by one, the three remaining people jumped and landed on the plant.

“Oh no! This is a devil's snare!” Hermione cried as the vines began to wrap themselves around her.

“Stay still. We'll fall right through to the floor!” Angel urged.

“Are you mad? We'll die of suffocation!” Ron cried.

Angel, who had never even struggled against the vines, fell through to the floor and kept screaming for them to stay still. Harry and Hermione fell through to the floor, but Ron continued to scream and struggle.

Hermione whipped out her wand and muttered a spell, before light filled the room. The devil's snare shrieked and released Ron to the floor. Angel ushered them all on to the next room, which they found filled with keys. Harry mounted the broom and raced forward toward a big old fashioned one with a bent wing. He grabbed it like a snitch and flew back down to where he handed off the key to Ron and led the keys away. Ron threw open the door and Angel screamed at Harry to fly through. They barely managed to get the door shut in time.

In the next room stood a giant chess board, on which Ron ended up getting knocked off so Harry could take the king. He reminded Angel and Hermione that his sacrifice was so that they could go on, and they headed forward once more.

“This is Uncle Sev's doing,” Angel said softly as she looked on into the room.

Hermione took the scroll from the end of the table and began to read. Finally, she pointed out two bottles, and Harry told her and Angel to go back. They obeyed without question and retrieved Ron. Hermione took Ron to Madam Pomfrey while Angel raced up to the Owlery to send a letter to Dumbledore.

 

“Harry? Oh Harry, what have I done?” Angel whispered over his limp body.

“We all should've gone down there! I would've been able to make more of the stupid potion and then we all could've gone!” Draco howled.

“Oi! Could you two be any louder? I thought I was supposed to be sick!” Harry groaned.

“HARRY!” they both chorused as the wrapped their arms around him.

“Wow… I'm being hugged by a boy and a girl… this could turn fun…” Harry smirked.

“Yeah, it could be,” Angel replied, licking her lips.

“You guys are such perverts!” Draco laughed.

“Ahem,” Snape cleared his throat.

“Oh, Uncle Sev! Stop being so serious! We're only playing, weren't we Harry?” Angel replied.

“Maybe,” Harry replied.

`Hehehe, just like his father,” Angel giggled.

“Quite so,” Snape replied harshly. “You know about the honor bindings, do you not?”

“Dad hasn't placed them. Why?” Angel asked.

“Don't make me do it in his stead,” Snape told her.

Angel gulped in surprise and then proceeded to growl at him. Snape drew back as small little girl went to a deadly black and white tiger. She very nearly leaped at Snape, if not for Harry and Draco grabbing her and holding her back until she calmed down.

“Don't ever try to control my life! Only my father has even a fraction of that right!” Angel yelled.

“Does he now?”

`Yes, Lord Lucius, only my father can even remotely control my actions. Anything else sets me off, but Uncle Sev didn't know that. I apologize, but my nice little scream was for his protection,” Angel replied as she shrugged off Draco and Harry's grasp so she could bow.

Draco stood and bowed in turn, but Harry could only nod.

“So you're the boy who I owe my life to? My name is Lucius Malfoy, but you may call me Uncle Lucius, since it seems Draco here is as smitten with you as a school girl,” Lucius said, eyeing his son.

Draco turned red and muttered a small “It's not like that” while he stared at the floor.

What have I done?