RON

It's been a week since the class has continued and the four of us have become more bothered by the mystery guy we had discovered more than a month ago. The pile of assignments especially in Potions made us feel worse and overwhelmed, except for Hermione who seems very eager to answer each one of them and Iro who only suffers in Charms and Astronomy.

"AHG!!! I can't believe we still haven't seen anything about Nicholas Flamel!" Hermione hissed in frustration. Among the four of us, she's the most keen to know how the guy was involved in whatever Fluffy is guarding.

"Be quiet Hermione!" scowled by the boy sitting next to her. His sea-green eyes were focused on reading the parchment in his hands. Iro then without permission grabbed Harry's finished Charms assignments; Harry did the same as well to Iro's Potions and copied each other's answers. It has become our routine since Iro is terrible at Professor Flitwick's class and me and Harry in Snapes'. But of course! There's this bushy brown girl who always squeals at us.

"Seriously, you three? I don't know what to do with you! You'll never learn if you keep doing that." she shrieked, "Anyways, we still have to find who Flamel is." Hermione finished.

"You know Hermione, I think we should solve Harry's problem first." I began, "Snape is refereeing the next Quidditch match. Let's first make sure that Harry's going to leave the Quidditch pitch alive and bones tacked." I finished, which made the two boys nod.

Iro then from the other side of the table leaned closer to the person next to me, "Don't worry Harry, I'll watch over Snape." he whispered, "And if he started to do anything to you, I'll surround him with darkness so he won't see anything. And the good news is no one will suspect me... well except from Professor Dumbledore, who's very much aware of my abilities. But it's okay, I'm sure he'll understand why I had to do that." Iro calmly assured Harry while laughing evilly. I don't know but what he said made all the hair on the back of my neck stood up.

"Iro you're giving me goosebumps, did you know that?" I squeaked, "And how would you possibly do that in a broad daylight. You can't even control your abilities yet."

"Oh is that a challenge? You want me to test it on you Ronny dear?" He teasingly asked, smiling mischievously. I snapped my eyes wide open as I felt the cold shiver rippling in my spine when I remembered the creepy black clouds. I frantically shook my head and leaned closer to Harry for support.

"No Iro, thanks." I then noticed the other two clearly felt the same thing that I had.

"Remind me not to anger Iro, or not to be at his bad side. I don't want my vision to blacken." They both immediately nodded in agreement. We all received a loud humorous laugh from Iro. "Hey I'm just kidding you know. Those clouds also gave me the creeps, and it exhausts the Hades out of me just conjuring those." he assured. After a while of silence, Hermione then started to speak and divert the subject, "Why can't you just not play Harry?" she worriedly asked. But the seeker just shook his head.

"I can't, there's no substitute seeker to fill me in. If I do that, Gryffindor can't play at all" he justified.

"So, what's the plan now? Seriously?" I asked, and glared at Iro when I said the last word. Which he just smirks by the way. I then noticed Hermione release a sigh and signaled us to lean closer to her.

"Iro and I will watch over Snape, and you Ron will focus on Harry. You'd immediately alert us if something is happening to him." We all nodded in her plan.

We continued to do our bloody assignments in the common room, when suddenly, we heard someone jumping, coming in from the portrait door. We looked at its direction and saw the round face of Neville Longbottom. I looked down at his body and saw his two legs stuck together.

"Is that Leg-Locker curse – who did that to you?" I asked when Neville managed to topple over where we are. Hermione then stood up from her seat and pulled her wand and performed the counter-curse.

"Well, let me guess? Malfoy did that? Didn't he?" Iro said with a furious tone of voice. - 'He's very protected when it comes to his friends.' I thought. I saw Neville then nodded to Iro.

"I met him in the library. He said he'd been looking for someone to practice that on."

"Report him to Professor McGonagall, Neville! Or at least learn to stand up to him" I demanded, but he just shook his head.

"I don't want more trouble guys, and I know I'm not brave enough to stand against him." Neville nervously said. Harry then stood next to him and handed a box of chocolate frogs from his pocket.

"You're worth twelve of Malfoy, Neville. – The sorting hat put you here in Gryffindor for nothing. And where's Malfoy? In the stinking Slytherin." Iro and I just smirk to what he blatantly said, which we agreed by the way. Neville's lips then twitched in a weak smile as he unwrapped the chocolate frog. Then he handed Harry something.

"You collect them, don't you? – I'll go to the room now. Thank you, guys." We smiled at him, and with that he left.

"What did Neville give to you, Harry?" Iro asked curiously, but I already know what that is. Those are the cards indicated with every box of chocolate frog. Every card has a famous witch or wizards and some information about them.

"Oh, just a card from the frog, he knows I collected them. I got Dumbledore again. He was the first on I ever..." he said halfway through until he gasped from where he stood and looked again on the card. Then he looked at the three of us with amusement and disbelief..

"I've found Nicholas Flamel! I told you I'd read the name somewhere before. On the train coming here. Listen...

Dumbledore is particularly famous

for his defeat of the Grindelwald in ,

for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood,

and his work on alchemy with his partner,

Nicolas Flamel!"

After Harry read the card, Hermione abruptly stood and ran off to somewhere telling us to stay. I shot glance at the card, remembering what the blond boy had done to Neville, until out of nowhere, a thought engrossed me.

"Hey Iro" I began, "Neville said Malfoy's been looking for someone to practice the Leg-Locker Curse, didn't he?" I said, with now an evil grin. The two just nodded with muddled faces. "Well, how unfortunate of him, because we also have something to practice on, you know, something that includes dark clouds." I emphasized every word, and eyed Iro. They seemed to quickly catch it as they immediately reflected my expression.

Suddenly, a familiar voice spoke behind us, "Uhm... guys, I don't really know if I wanted to hear what you're talking about. You're scaring me with your expressions." We glanced back and saw Hermione holding an enormous book in her arms.

"Oh, nothing necessary Hermione, we just found the best way to get back on Malfoy" Harry said and looked particularly in Iro, who just simply nodded with a grin.

"What are you planni... - oh, no you don't!? you're going to use Iro's abilities, didn't you?" Hermione immediately said upon her realization to our plan.

"Hermione, Iro needed practice with someone, surely he'd understand that as he himself did the same to Neville." I explain, "Plus, he deserved that." I said in finality which made Hermione roll her eyes and sigh.

"Whatever, but I'm not going with you." She blurted out, "Anyways, I got this book out of the library weeks ago for a bit of light reading. But I haven't had the chance to do that."

"Light?" I demanded, but she just glared at me. She started to flick the pages frantically, then stopped when she found something.

"I knew it! Nicholas Flames is the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone"

"The what?" the three of us asked in unison. It made Hermione look at us, and released a sigh. "Boys..."

"Here, read this!" she said, and pointed something on the page. Harry and I looked at the book and read what's written on it.

The Philosopher's stone is a legendary substance with astonishing powers.

The stone will transform any metal into pure gold.

It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal.

The only stone currently in existence belong to Mr. Nicholas Flamel, the noted alchemist and opera lover.

He celebrated his 665-birthday last year with his 658-year-old wife Mrs. Perenelle.

Harry and I let out a faint gasp as we read the numbers, "Okay what does it say?" Iro asked. I forget he's dyslexic. I told him what was written in the book, and he just listened to me obediently.

"So that must be what Fluffy is guarding for."

"Yeah it is, a stone that makes gold and makes you immortal. – no wonder Snape wanted that by himself. Anyone would want it." Harry suspiciously said which made me hummed in agreement. Images immediately flashed in my head when I asked myself to What I would do if I had the stone.

'Who wouldn't want that?' I mumbled but Iro spoke confidently to my left, "Not me!" He began, "I don't want immortality" Harry and I both raised an eyebrow to him, but Hermione spoke suddenly.

"No wonder we couldn't find him in the Study of Recent Developments because Flamel is not exactly considered as recent if he is 665 years old."