After Transfiguration class a couple days later, in which they were reviewing turning matches into needles, Hari stayed back and let the rest of the class go ahead of him. Minerva’s back was turned to him, putting the labelled attempts into a small box for marking. Hari cleared his throat to get her attention and she jumped, making the match-needle hybrids inside the box rustle with the movement. She turned to face Hari and let her shoulders drop, putting the box aside on her desk.

“Hari. Can I help you with something?” she asked in a falsely casual tone. Only Hari, who had grown up hearing all of her tones and grew accustomed to trying to read people’s moods, knew she wasn’t truly relaxed as her tone suggested.

Hari shrugged, plopping himself on top of one of the desks so that his legs swung back and forth. He saw her lips twitch at this movement, but she made no comment. “I first wanted to say sorry about the other night,” Hari started, fixing his gaze on Minerva.

“Which other night?”

“When Filch caught us out of bed.”

Minerva hummed, lacing her fingers together on her lap. “I see…”

“I’m sorry I betrayed your trust and disappointed you,” said Hari calmly, trying to keep his voice steady. “I broke rules and I disappointed you. If it helps, I didn’t really sleep at all after I went to bed.”

“You know, knowledge of you losing sleep does very little to comfort me, Hari,” Minerva replied, raising an eyebrow. “But I accept the apology, Hari. Have you been worrying about this since then?”

Hari’s cheeks burned and he nodded slowly, looking down at the floor in embarrassment. Minerva tilted his chin to look up into her eyes. He hadn’t noticed that she moved towards him. “Do you think I never caught your father and his friends out of bed in the middle of the night? Did you think I felt betrayed and stopped caring about them then?” Hari shook his head. “Hari, being out of bed past curfew was foolish, but the least of my worries. I gather you know about the Philosopher’s Stone and the dangers it may carry?”

“Yeah. We heard a weird crying sound near the third floor corridor and I wasn’t paying attention to where I was, so we followed the sound and then my scar started hurting really badly. And then when we came to the room it had this massive three headed dog inside it and Hagrid accidentally let slip about Nicholas Flamel and when we looked him up, we found out about the Philosopher’s Stone,” Hari rambled, trying to summarise everything he knew. “I know the Stone can make someone immortal and turns any metal into gold.”

“And why do you suppose that may worry me about you being out of bounds so late at night?”

“Cause Voldemort might be trying to get the Stone. Which, we think he kind of is.”

Minerva blinked. “What do you mean?”

Hari shrugged. “Well, we’ve overheard multiple conversations between Professor Snape and Professor Quirrell and think they might be trying to steal the Stone for Voldemort to come back. I’m not so sure about Severus, but the others are convinced.” It felt good to tell Minerva all this. He had missed speaking to her as much now that he was a proper student at Hogwarts instead of just living with her in the room right next door.

“Hari, I can assure you that neither of them is trying to steal the Stone,” said Minerva with finality. “And I don’t want you or any of your friends worrying about that either, alright? It is not up to a group of eleven year olds to try to stop the unlikely potential of someone stealing the Stone.”

“Did Hagrid tell you about what happened in the forbidden forest?”

“He told me only that you all managed to get out safe and that he knew what slayed the unicorn, mainly. Why?”

Hari delved into the details of what happened in the forest, talking about the cloaked figure drinking the unicorn’s blood and his scar hurting so bad he passed out and Firenze’s warnings and saving him and Draco. When he finished his story, Minerva looked paler than usual, but mostly the same. She sighed.

“That is rather worrying. I shall speak to Albus about it if Hagrid hasn’t yet,” she replied thoughtfully, already preparing to jump into action for Hari. “Speaking of which, why exactly were you three out of bed that night? Apparently you went to Hagrid’s.”

“It was after Hermione overheard a conversation with Severus and Quirrell about knowing how to get past Fluffy. We wanted to ask him about how he got that dragon egg because we thought it was connected to Fluffy,” Hari explained, “And, Minnie, he just outright told us how to get past the dog and that that was what he told some cloaked stranger in the Hog’s Head to get the dragon egg. What if the cloaked person was… someone trying to steal the Stone?”

Minerva nodded as she listened to Hari’s explanation, ruffling his hair once he finished. “I will take what you have told me this afternoon to Dumbledore, Hari. These are certainly very odd, but I do not want you to worry about someone trying to steal the Philosopher’s Stone,” she said. “Now, I believe dinner is being served currently and I suggest you hurry before you miss it.”

Hari hopped off the desk and gave Minerva a short, tight hug before he made his way to dinner. He thought about their conversation the whole way there and felt somewhat lighter at what she had said. At least if she spoke to Dumbledore about their concerns, he could put a stop to whoever wanted to steal the Stone. Hari wasn’t sure he agreed with Minerva’s complete insistence that it couldn’t possibly be Snape and Quirrell, but he was confident, at least, that she would speak to Dumbledore about it.

¤¤¤

“I still think Snape and Quirrell want to steal the Stone, no matter what McGonagall says,” said Ron when Hari told them of his conversation with Minerva after they got back to the common room from dinner. He was sitting draped over the side of the couch, picking at the carpet and lifted his head up to speak.

“Yeah, well, if they don’t believe us, maybe the actual adults are right,” Hermione pointed out from the top of her book which she was reading curled up in one of the overstuffed armchairs.

“But the ‘actual adults’ didn’t overhear those conversations between Snape and Quirrell, did they?” Ron snapped.

Draco groaned towards the ceiling and hit both Hermione and Ron in the arm with his notebook. “You two are insufferable when you argue,” he complained, rolling his eyes. “I say we just wait and see what happens. Maybe we’re right and maybe the ‘actual adults’ are right. We’ll have to wait to find out and see where our knowledge takes us now that Hari’s told someone. As long as Dumbledore’s still in the school, it’ll be fine. ”

Ron sighed heavily and rolled off the couch and onto the carpet, looking up at the ceiling. “Anybody up for a game of chess?” he asked hopefully.

“Will it get you to stop whining?” Draco teased, sneering. Ron smacked him in the leg but sat up and went to get their chess sets anyway. When he returned a minute later, carrying the chessboard and the two bags of chess pieces, Draco was already sitting on the floor in front of the sofa, waiting for him.

“Hari, did you manage to turn your match into a needle today?” Hermione asked, moving to sit beside Hari on the couch. He was half watching the chess game, letting Draco use his legs to lean against, while trying to get through his latest Potions essay.

He turned to her question. “Yeah, pretty much. It still could probably light a fire if you tried, but it was metal and pointy at least,” he replied, putting down his essay. “You did it perfectly, didn’t you?”

Hermione ducked her head in embarrassment, but Hari could see the faint smile on her lips. “I wouldn’t say it was perfect, but it was certainly metal and sharp as well,” she replied to her lap. Hari snorted, picking up his quill to start writing again. “Have you still not finished your potions essay, Hari? That’s due tomorrow!” She leaned over Hari’s shoulder to glance at the half-finished essay on his lap.

Hari brushed her off and said, “I didn’t think it would be this hard! Who knew it was so easy to forget the Forgetfulness Potion?” Hermione rolled her eyes and plucked the essay out of his hands, going over what he had written so far and making corrections and tick marks all over the page. Hari watched her work, muttering, “Thanks, Hermione. You’re a lifesaver.”

“I’m just making sure you don’t fail all your classes with your poor work ethic, Hari.”

“Yeah, but that’s saving my life. I live with Minerva McGonagall, Hermione. She’d have my head.”

Hermione rolled her eyes again, glancing up from Hari’s essay. “Exactly. I don’t know how it didn’t rub off on you, living with her,” she chastised, going back to checking over his essay. She handed it back a few minutes later saying, “That looks pretty good overall. You just need to write another paragraph about the use of lethe river water and then a conclusion and it’ll be done.”

“Cheers, Hermione.” Hari gave Hermione a one armed hug and turned back to writing his essay, not noticing the looks in his direction from Ron and Draco. He continued working on his essay with Hermione reading beside him and Draco and Ron playing chess on the floor until he finally finished and let Hermione read it over once again. Once she deemed it worthy enough to turn in, Hari packed up his school bag, said goodnight to the others and made his way upstairs for bed.

¤¤¤

In the middle of the first week of June, Hari and the others went up to Minerva’s office, at Ron’s insistence, to ask her if she had spoken to Dumbledore yet about what Hari told her. After finishing their dinner, Ron led the way and knocked on her door, stepping aside to allow her to open the door.

“Why am I not surprised to see you four again?” she said as soon as she opened the door and looked down at the four students standing outside her door. “Can I help you?”

“We were just wondering if you’ve spoken to Dumbledore yet,” Ron asked.

“As a matter of fact, I haven’t,” she replied. At the aghast look on their faces, she continued, “I was about to go and speak to him about it, but Dumbledore received an urgent letter from the Ministry, requesting his presence. I will speak to him about your concerns tomorrow or whenever he gets back.”

“But what if the letter’s a trap, Minnie?” Hari asked, wide eyed. Surely Dumbledore leaving the school was a bad sign. “What if the person that wants to steal the Stone is just trying to get him away from the school so they can do it?”

Minerva tilted her head to the side, fixing Hari with her ‘I hear what you’re saying, but you’re probably wrong’ face. “The Ministry of Magic often requests Dumbledore’s presence, so it is not that out of the ordinary for him to be called to the Ministry. Like I said, I will give him your concerns as soon as he is back and I can assure all of you that he will deal with the matter as he sees appropriate.” She peered at all of them. “Now, I suggest you four get up to your common room before you are out past curfew… Again.”

She gave them all a polite nod and shut the door to her office once again. As they made their way back to the common room as she said, they began discussing how suspicious it was that Dumbledore would be out of the school that night.

“It’s like you said just a couple days ago, Draco. With Dumbledore out of the school, someone’s bound to steal the Stone with him gone,” Hari said as they hurried up the stairs. “I bet you someone sent a fake letter and they’re going to steal the Stone tonight.”

“So what do we do?” Ron asked as they reached the portrait of the Pink Lady. “‘Hippogriff,’” he said to the portrait, which swung open and they stepped inside.

They looked at each other knowingly. Hari gritted his teeth. “We’re going to have to make sure we get to it first.”