Chapter 15:

This time he pumped a lot of power into the spell completely ending the life of the spider, however, when he turned to the dementor it smacked him to the side, causing him to drop his wand completely. It then hovered over him as if it were going to suck out his soul.

He could feel the happiness around him being drained from his very soul. He heard the girls screaming from far away, and his lights were starting to go out when a bright light entered the hallway. Suddenly he had hope, hope to see the next day. A stag was at his side now, touching his horns to the boy, and he knew his mum had come to the Patronus.

Only his mum had been able to produce such a powerful creature that he could touch. The dementor was gone, and Harry was staring up at the ceiling blankly, exhausted.

He heard the footsteps coming, but he couldn't move. He was entering a stage of shock, for the second time he had fought dementors and lost. He wanted to cry, but he knew three young girls up there would be depending on him until they felt safe.

He started to sit up and groaned as he did so. Suddenly he was being swept up into a pair of soft arms though, and he knew his mother had arrived, he spoke softly, "Good timing mum."

She laughed lightly at the sound of his voice, while Harry coughed, "Someone has to stop Quirrel, he was going for the stone."

She told him to be quiet as she spoke, "Severus and Fillius were going after him, and Dumbledore will be right behind them. It's going to be okay, you did beautifully."

Harry sighed trying to find his feet. Lily Potter was going to admonish him, but then she followed his eyes and smiled knowingly at what had to be done. She cast a strong summoning charm and a pack of chocolate was in her hands and she handed it to her son.

The girls who were a flight of stairs above him rushed down to ensure he was okay, while Harry gave the girls an empty smile, "Is anyone physically hurt?"

Professor Potter was standing at full height now projecting authority, "What the devil were you all doing up here? Trolls, Acromantulas, and Dementors, this is insane."

Harry shuddered, while Hermione interjected, "It's my fault, Professor. Ron Weasley said some rather foul things to me, and I ran off towards the girl's bathroom, when Susan, Hannah, and Harry found me. At first, it was just Susan comforting me, then Hannah came in white as a ghost. She told us that Harry was going to keep the troll busy, but then that giant spider came from the other entrance."

The green eyed Potter spoke gently, "I heard someone scream inside, and though they were just scared, then I heard spellfire and knew that there was trouble, so I outmaneuvered the troll, and was able to get back into the bathroom. I blasted the spider off, but the troll was in the bathroom now."

"I backed into the corner to keep them safe, but I knew the first priority was to get them out alive. At that point, I hit both creatures with my best shots and we stormed into the hallway, that was when the dementor came along. I even saw Quirrel at some point, and I tried to throw a gouging hex, but I think I missed him. That was about when you came in mum, spectacular timing by the way."

Lily Potter was not a happy camper and a much less happy parent. Inwardly she was fuming mad that these things could be happening to her son right under her very nose, but she was also a very proud mother at this moment. There were three girls in front of her right now, all of whom would not be here had her son not had the magical training he had. She spoke quickly, "We don't know where the other breaches in the castle are, so we need to get you three to the great hall, and watch out for more dark creatures."

Harry nodded while Susan was reaching out to hand him his wand, "Thank you for saving us Harry. It may seem that the best thing to happen to us was you getting sorted into Hufflepuff."

Harry smiled at the girl as he took his wand from her, twirling it softly, "Well I am nothing more than disgusted with the First Year Gryffindor house. They are the reason that we ended up in this situation, instead of joining our housemates at the feast."

As they made their trek down towards the great hall, Lily Potter had inquired as to what had actually transpired between the boys, and Harry left out no detail of the conflict. By the time they had arrived in the hall, Professor Potter was one irate witch.

However when they were about to open the doors Harry felt a tingle in his scar, that was a little more painful than the usual prick when Quirrel was around, so when the demon of a man himself opened the doors to greet them Lily and Harry Potter stared at the man in shock.

Out of sheer instinct, Harry's wand was in his hand prepared to fling curses at the man however he greeted them warmly, "Ah children, Pr-P-Professor P-P-Potter, it is splendid to see you made it back safely."

Harry coughed, "When did you make it back to the great hall Professor? I thought I saw you on the third floor just a few minutes ago."

Quirrel's face darkened, but only for a split second, however, Harry caught it, "You must have been mistaken, Mr. Potter. I have been in here the whole night. I was tasked with defending the students with Professor McGonagall and Sprout."

Harry merely nodded his head in acknowledgment, but then found himself confused as he wasn't sure who he saw on the third floor then. Deciding this wasn't important any longer, Harry followed his Puffs over to the house tables inviting Hermione to sit with them, however at the sight of her best friend she stormed over to her embracing Mandy Brocklehurst in a big hug.

Giving a soft smile at the scene Hannah took Harry's hand and guided him to the house table. When they sat a barrage of questions hit the group, which Harry took silently. Even the girls seemed to be having a bit of post-traumatic stress, finally, Darrel Abbot made it over to Harry and noticed that he had a bit of blood on him, "Do I even want to know where you three have been?"

Harry spoke clearly, "We had a run-in with a troll on the third floor, then an acromantula in the bathroom, and finally a dementor, which was just too much for me. My mum came in at the right time and pushed the dementor away."

The hall had gone silent to listen to Harry's words, and they then erupted into chatter again, while Darrel Abbot sighed, "Things are going to be interesting with you around from now on aren't they Potter?"

Harry gave the boy a sad smile, "At least no one can claim I am boring."

This caused the Puffs to laugh while Ron approached the table, "Listen Harry mate, I am really sorry for what I said earl-"

Harry stopped the boy as he stood up from his seat, "It's not me you should be apologizing to. Despite the fact you almost got me and three of my friends killed with your insolence, it was not me you had originally offended."

Ron turned a bright red, at that pronouncement, particularly the part about almost costing the boy who lived his life. He then turned to the Ravenclaw table and approached it carefully, "Hermione I really am sorry for what I said to you earlier. But if you hadn't been su-"

Before Ron could finish with those words Harry's hand flexed and his wand was shooting a stunner at the red-headed idiot, "But before he could a shield appeared before him, and Neville was at the boy's side, "I can't let you hex him, Harry, no matter how much he may deserve it."

Harry growled, "Have you been listening to this idiot, he didn't even have the proper ability to apologize for sending the girl away crying. Which I will now tell you almost got me and two of my housemates killed. I think a good Hex will do the kid some good."

The Professors were about to intervene when Neville spoke sharply, "He's still a fellow Gryffindor, and I won't let you attack my housemates."

Harry sharply asked back, "So your just willing to let mine get killed over one of your bloody Gryffindor's stupidity."

Neville glared, "That's not what I said."

"You're right it's not what you said, it's what you implied."

Sighing he responded, "Do we have to do this in public?"

Harry glared, "You could force the little Weasel to apologize, and maybe I could forget that he almost got us all killed."

Ron looked like he was going to protest, but Neville's look silenced him. He then gave a head nod towards Hermione and Ron turned red, "I already tried apologizing to the bloody book worm once, and he didn't want to hear any of it."

Harry growled, "Insult Hermione one more time Ron, and I will hex you and your savior to an oblivion."

Neville stood a little taller pulling his wand out of his holster, "Are you threatening me, Potter?"

Glaring Harry responded, "If it sounds like a threat, and then you have to draw your wand for good measure, then Longbottom I think you can consider it a threat."

The Great Hall was in total silence when Harry glanced over at Quirrel who seemed to be enjoying the verbal volley. Harry grunted, "Watch your back Weasley, this isn't over."

With that, Harry took his seat back next to Hannah and Susan who were both glaring at Ron Weasley. Hell half the school was. Neville however was staring at Harry with a bit of shock, and more than a little annoyance.

The only Longbottom male had never known Harry to be violent, but this year the boy had been different. Ever since he joined the house of Badgers he had been a little quicker to anger, he wondered for a brief moment if there was something wrong with his Occulmency shields, but then dismissed it as nothing could take his shields apart, at least nothing short of a blast from Dumbledore or Snape.

Neville walked back over to his table with Ron, clearly ready to blast the boy to pieces, as he kept almost getting killed by his best friend. The tall boy knew that if it truly came down to having to pick, he would take Harry, but he still wanted to show his house some loyalty and protection, especially since so many looked up to him.

Harry on the other hand was fuming on the inside. He couldn't believe the nerve of Ron, and then Neville getting in between the two. He was also surprised to see that none of the teachers got involved, even though all were clearly watching.

There were only four teachers in the hallway, but at least Mcconagal was always notorious for being protective of her lions. It is possible that she agreed with Harry, and thought Ron needed to be hexed, but he doubted it.

He wasn't really that mad at Neville, but he was infuriated that Ron would say such hurtful things, and then try to find a way out of apologizing by placing partial blame on the girl.

Harry was interrupted from his thoughts by Darrel Abbot who took his sister's seat next to him whispering quietly, "Well Potter I don't think we are going to be able to avoid two life debts that our family now owes you."

Harry groaned, "Great, and by that technicality Susan and Hermione owes me one as well."

Darrel patted the young man on the shoulder, "Just Susan, with Hermione being a muggleborn and you being the future Lord Potter, you will easily be able to absolve that one, but listen you are starting to turn some heads, and not necessarily in a good way. I have been watching some of the Slytherin and I think some of them may be having a plan to go at you. You need to be careful. We have a Dueling Tournament next weekend, and we have Quittditch this Saturday. I will be doing my best to watch your back, but you need to be careful."

Harry nodded his head whispering his thanks to Darrel as the headmaster came into the room looking grave, but not even remotely tired, "The problem has been taken care of, and the grounds have been swept. There is no intruder, and the creatures that came in have been taken care of and removed. I think it safe for all of you to return to your common rooms, and I wish you all a good night."

Harry was one of the first ones out of his seat, with the girls right behind him. They quickly made it back to the common room, where Harry went straight inside the boy's dormitory and went to the bathroom and turned the water on, and locked the door with a locking ward. He then began to cry as the water hit him. He couldn't keep up with these near-death experiences, or maybe one of them wouldn't be so near. The pressure of being the chosen one was now truly weighing on the boy for the first time.

Something Harry couldn't understand as he lay in the hot water that was rinsing over his stressed body. If Quirrel had been in the hall all this time, then who had Harry almost cursed, was that a figment of fear he noticed in the presence of a dementor or did he really see someone down there. Were there more enemies than Quirrel he had to be aware of? What should he do next? Perhaps most importantly he also asked, what does Dumbledore know.