Putting Harry on the trail

This afternoon, I realize something rather important. All the changes I've made to the story so far will keep Harry from taking care of Quirrell! He did not go with Hagrid to Gringotts to get the philosopher's stone, he did not have Hermione in his friends to help him pass Fluffy and the devil's snare, or to tell him about Nicolas Flamel.

If I don't hint him on what's happening in the school right now, I'm really going to have to deal with it myself, and I don't want to.

I take a page out of my notebook and write him a letter in which I tell him about the philosopher's stone hidden in the forbidden wing of the castle, and a professor who want to steal it without giving a specific name, hoping that for once his father's bad influence would work in my favor so that he would suspect Rogue immediately.

I'm trying to give him just enough information in the letter to get his attention. When I finish writing the note, I decide to take on the appearance of Ron. It feels kind of weird not to be in my athletic body anymore. I feel so heavy, it's unbearable. I transform my clothes to replace the colors of Slytherin by those of Gryffindor and the illusion is perfect. No one would know I'm Sean and not Ron.

Then I go looking for Ron. The last thing I want is to meet him in the middle of the common room. But I am reassured when I see him with Harry and the boys of Gryffindor, whose name I did not bother to learn, eating candy near the boathouse.

The next step in my plan is to find a Gryffindor who's easier to handle than his friends. I only need a moment to find Neville sitting alone in the castle yard.

"Neville!" He turns around and seems surprised to see me walking towards him. "Here you are, I need you. What's the common room password? I forgot it and I can't remember it."

"Oh! It's devino sera." Devino sera? What the hell is that password?

"Oh yes, I remember now! Thank you!" I leave Neville alone while I head into the common room of Gryffindor. It was really too easy, I know how to take the appearance of people, but I am not able to copy their character or ways of moving. Normally, if I'm dealing with an attentive observer, he'd be able to expose me. Lucky for me that most people don't pay attention to others.

I arrive in front of the fat lady. "Devino sera."

"Very well, come in." The portrait moves on its hinges to open the passage to the common room of Gryffindor. I can't believe how easy it was to get into another house's common room. Maybe I'll try to get into the others later.

There are not many people in the common room, just a student relaxing while reading a Quidditch magazine in front of the fireplace. I walk as quietly as possible up to the rooms. I have to open a few doors before I come across Harry and Ron's dorm. I easily found it because Scrabbers was in his cage as planned. I'm not one hundred percent sure it's Peter Pettigrew, but I already have another plan for him so I'm not gonna do anything to him right now.

I place the letter under the blanket of Harry's bed which is easy to find since it is the one to the right of Ron's bed. Once my misdeed is done, I quickly leave the common room to avoid getting caught. The last step before letting Potter do his job is to unlock Fluffy's door since I know none of them can use the door opening spell.

----------POV Harry Potter----------

After returning from the lake with my friends, we went to eat our dinner in the great hall. It feels good to be surrounded by people who understand my value in this school where everyone seems to see me as a normal person.

After I finished eating, I go back to our room with Ron. When I sit on my bed, I hear the wrinkle of a piece of paper. I lift my blanket and I come across a hidden note in my sheets. Do I have an admirer? I quite often get notes in our anonymous mailbox thanking me for defeating You-Know-Who.

"What is that?" Ron sits on his bed next to mine.

"I don't know, I just found it in my sheets."

"Open it, Harry." He gets closer and sits on my bed.

When I open the letter, there is only a message without a signature.

"Harry Potter. Hogwarts is in danger and you are the only one who can save it. The philosopher's stone is hidden within its walls. In the forbidden wing, a guard is there to protect it. A teacher is not what he claims and aspires to its power. Fail and Voldemort will return to power."

The message is disturbing. At first, I thought it was a scam, but no one would dare write Voldemort's name as a joke.

"It's obviously a bad joke. I'm sure it's a prank from Fred and Georges." Ron is the first to react to the letter. But I don't think he's right.

"No, I think it's real. Think about it, if You-Know-Who is really about to come back, why doesn't the person who has information about him go to the auror or Dumbledore? The only possible reason is that he knows they won't make it because I'm the only one who defeated You-Know-Who." The more I think about it, the more I convince myself that it really is what I needed. If I prevent the theft of the philosopher's stone and bring the culprit to justice, all will recognize my worth and those who doubt that I have really defeated You-know-who will be unable to say anything. "In any case, we just have to go and check. If we really find a guard in the forbidden wing as the letter says, then there is probably some truth in this story. We'll go tonight while the others are asleep."

The hours pass as we prepare with Ron. We go to sleep early to be well rested when we wake up. Around midnight, we both tiptoe out of our beds to get out of the common room and onto the grand staircase.

It takes several long minutes for it to take the right configuration that takes us to the third floor and the door of the forbidden wing.

"Harry, are you sure this is a good idea? If we get caught, we're going to get expelled! Or worse, my mom is going to send me another howler!"

"Stop being a pussy, maybe we will finally get a chance to be treated like heroes."

I open the door and walk down the hall. It's pretty dark and I'm using one of the only spells I know right now. "Lumos." A light appears at the end of my wand and I can finally see more clearly.

We walk down the corridor with Ron, who gets more and more worried as we progress. We try the doors one by one, but most of them are just empty classrooms. After searching the rooms along the walls, there is only one left. The room at the end of the corridor.

"This is the last one, if there's nothing here, that would mean we wasted our time." I open the door and I found in front of us a huge three-headed dog.

The creature is massive, with three mouths big enough to devour us with one bite. With Ron, we scream our lungs out and hurry out of the room while the huge dog barks at us. I don't think we've ever run that fast to get back to the common room.

"What was that thing?" Ron is a lot more breathless than I am, I think that all the food he eats does him no good. I should take him to play Quidditch with me more often.

"I think it was the guardian we were looking for."