The day of the Harry's first quidditch match began on a crisp January morning. Despite his love and blatant talent for flying, Harry was a few steps away from a panic attack. For whatever reason, it had not occurred to Harry until that morning exactly how many people would be watching him today. The sheer amount of attention he was getting from his fellow Slytherin's alone was enough to make him nervous. The idea of playing in front of the entire school was a horrifying prospect. Lucky for Harry, he had Draco to keep him calm. The blond was all but glued to his side the entire morning, whispering calming phrases in his ear and sending glares to those who dared pester his best friend as needed. Draco even managed to actually get Harry to eat something, which was a miracle in itself considering Harry's stomach had been a swarm of angry bees since he woke up. Before he had a moment to allow the panic to overtake him, it was already time to go onto the field.

Amelia Bones, being a Hogwarts alumni, knew how popular quidditch games were at the school, especially the Gryffindor versus Slytherin matches. It was for this reason that she chose January 19th specifically as the day she would come investigate her niece's claims. While most parents might not take schoolyard gossip to heart, Amelia knew that Susan was not one to bring something to her attention if she did not truly believe there to be some truth to it. And so, on the day of the quidditch match, when most of the school was out of the way, she lead a small team of Aurors into the school.

Dumbledore met them at the gate with a smile on his face, but his eyes betrayed his apprehension. Apparently the old man had not considered the fact that having the niece of the head of the DMLE might cause him some trouble concerning his obstacle course of doom.

"Amelia, how wonderful it is to see you. Though I take it by your company that this in not a social call?" Dumbledore's tone was warm and welcoming, though the wary look did not leave his eyes.

"No, headmaster, I'm afraid it's not. I've had some rather disturbing information brought to my attention. May we come in so I may discuss it with you?" Ignoring the pleasantries, she got directly to business. Unlike some, she took her job very seriously.

"Yes of course, will these fine young men be joining us?" Amelia held back a scowl at the headmaster's slightly demeaning tone towards the two junior aurors she had brought with her.

"Yes, Headmaster, I did not bring Dawlish and Shacklebolt merely as escorts." He gave a laugh at that before allowing them through the school wards. "I believe we should begin this discussion in your office, Headmaster Dumbledore, as I would rather not make a production of our presence here."

"Of course my dear, just follow me." The Headmaster began walking briskly towards his office, the three behind him scrambling to match his long strides. After a two minute walk and a short lecture on the highlights of muggle sweets, they had arrived at his office. Before he could offer a chair or a sherbet lemon, Amelia began to speak.

"Now Headmaster, I know that as a ministry official I have very little say about how your school is run. I do, however, have a say when there is a potential threat to your students within the school." She sent a pointed look at the headmaster.

"I cannot imagine what you are talking about Amelia, I assure you there is no threat to the students within the school." The man's eyes twinkled as he said this, making Lady Bones distinctly uncomfortable.

"So you would have no reason to keep us from, say, the third floor corridor?" Dumbledore tensed at this, before relaxing once more.

"While there may be something there, Amelia, it is of no threat to my students, I assure you." Amelia scoffed at this, knowing that it was the first year Weasley boy that had found the beast in the first place. Knowing it would be best to actually see the cerberus and the trap door it was supposedly guarding, Amelia stood.

"While I want to believe you Headmaster, I would not be doing my job were I not to see the beast for myself. If we may?" Dumbledore hesitated before nodding.

"I do not see why not my dear. Though do be careful with Fluffy, Hagrid would be most displeased were he to come to harm." Amelia only stared at that. The man was worried about the wellbeing of the overgrown guard dog.

"Of course, Headmaster." And with a nod of her head, she turned to exit and investigate. They made their way quickly to the corridor, only to be appalled by the minimalistic locking charm keeping the door shut. No wonder a first year could get in, a half decent alohomora would have gotten them in. Once inside she cast a quick music charm, having done her homework on the beast before coming to investigate.

Even asleep the beast was a terrible sight to behold. To think that a pair of eleven year olds had come face to face with it and survived was a miracle. Once she managed to pull her eyes away from the slumbering cerberus, she quickly noticed the large trapdoor next to one of its gigantic paws. Her training at the forefront of her mind, she cautiously made her way towards it. She was once again disappointed by the lackadaisical guarding of what Susan had claimed to be an actual sorcerer's stone. The door had not even a locking charm on it, it opened with ease.

The rest of the protections were similarly weak. They appeared to be more puzzles than actual protections, aside from perhaps the troll and the Devil's Snare. She had looked at the mirror in confusion until a very bright red stone appeared in her pocket. She had not until that point, actually believed her niece to have been correct in her conjecture about the stone. Returning the stone to her pocket, she paused a moment to scrub her face. She could hardly believe the audacity of the Headmaster to have hidden something of such value within a school. Was the man senile? If a group of schoolchildren could figure out what was in the school, even if they were a rather bright group of children, they were eleven and twelve years of age. Any full grown adult could have easily made a similar leap of logic and come for the priceless artifact, putting all of the students at risk.

First things first, the stone would be brought to the Department of Mysteries. The Unspeakables would know how to handle it and would not be tempted to abuse its power. Straightening her back in preparation for facing the Headmaster once more, she and her two junior Aurors made their way back out of the veritable labyrinth they had made their way through.

Harry had been shaking with nerves up until the very moment they took to the sky. Once they had, Harry remembered why he loved quidditch so much. It was less about the actual game, which was very fun, and more about the absolute freedom he experienced in the air.

Soon enough they were in the air, the quaffle getting taken by the Gryffindor chasers immediately. Harry paid them no mind, aside from dodging stray bludgers, he had no need to pay attention to the other players. His job was very simple, catch the golden snitch.

Since getting his eyes fixed Harry's seeking skills had, if possible, gotten even better. He circled high above the game, absentmindedly pushing strands of hair that had fallen out of its braid back behind his ear. He had taken to wearing his hair like he had on the first day back while he flew, if only to keep his fringe out of his eyes.

It was thirty minutes into the game when it happened. Harry was circling on the far side of the pitch, about thirty feet above the Gryffindor hoops when his broom very nearly threw him off of it. He really wasn't sure what was happening. He had owled gringotts about purchasing a broom from the school, and had done so with Silverstone's help. There was no reason his brand new Nimbus would be trying to buck him off of it. All he could do was hold on for dear life and hope to hell that he didn't fall off.

Down in the stands ten students, seated on opposing sides of the stands all noticed their friend's distress. Hannah and Susan were sat in the Gryffindor stands with Neville, Hermione and to some extent, Pavarti, though the last girl was staying closer to her friend Lavender than to the four of them. Hermione was the first to spot professor Snape and immediately made her way to rescue her friend from the professor.

Meanwhile, Morag and Padma had joined Draco and Daphne in the Slytherin stands. From their side of the stadium they could see Professor Quirrell's wand pointed at Harry, and that was enough to have Draco growling. Draco was three seconds away from risking throwing a hex across the stadium when a familiar bushy headed Gryffindor knocked the professor over in her rush to get to get somewhere. She disappeared under a set of stands only to reappear moments later, leaving a crispy professor Snape in her wake. Draco would have laughed had he not been so relieved to see Harry back on his broom, no longer dangling from the handle moments from falling to his death.

And just like that the game was back to normal. When the game ended with Harry catching the snitch, Draco was one of the first on the field to greet his friend. As soon as he got to the field he be-lined for the only head of bright red hair amongst the swarm of silver and green. For once not caring about decorum, not that it mattered all that much with how rambunctious the rest of the team was being, basking in their victory, Draco scooped Harry up in a bone crushing hug as soon as he had him within arm's reach.

"Don't you go and scare me like that again! I all but had a heart attack!" He withdrew from the hug to hold the redhead at arms length, only to find mirth filled green eyes smiling back at him.

"I won Draco, forget the bleeding broom for a moment and be happy for me! I actually caught the snitch!" Draco took a calming breath and allowed himself to be infected by the victorious mood of those around them. Swinging an arm around Harry's shoulders, he began to direct them off of the field, following the rest of their house down to the common room for a party. Leaning towards Harry's ear so the smaller boy could hear him over all the celebratory noise, he congratulated his friend on a well played match.

"Though you know Harry, I don't think 'caught' is the right word for what you did. I think 'nearly swallowed' is more accurate, don't you agree?" Harry poked him in the side in retaliation, only for Draco to follow suit. Unwilling to leave it there, Harry ducked under the blonde's arm and shoved him playfully before running ahead.

"Last one to the common room is a flobberworm!" Harry shouted before ducking between two seventh years.

"Your on Potter!" Draco yelled back, causing the upper years around them to giggle at their childishness. In that moment, they were not The-Boy-Who-Lived and the Slytherin Prince, but rather, two eleven year old boys fooling around with their best friend in the aftermath of a well won quidditch match.

It was not a shock to Amelia to find that the game had ended while she had been going through the protections in the third floor, so she was not surprised to find little Susan running towards her from a crowd of students. She was pleased by the rather large and rather diverse group of first years that trailed after her niece. Susan gave her a quick hug and then began to speak rapidly to her aunt in what she quickly recognized as Susan's distressed tone of voice.

"I'm so glad your here Aunt Amelia, you won't believe what just happened!" Susan grabbed one of the boys stood behind her, a Gryffindor by the look of his robes and scarf. "Neville and I were- oh, ummm, this is Neville Longbottom- anyway, I was sat with him, Hannah and Mionie for the game, Hermione Granger I mean. "She gestured towards a bushy haired girl wearing another red and gold scarf. "We were watching the game- that the Slytherin / Gryffindor game if you didn't know- when Harry's broom started trying to buck him off of it." Despite her niece's rambling, Amelia was following the story, and gasped. "Well, I figured that his broom was being jinxed, and you know how you taught me that you can spot someone jinking someone real easy 'cuz they have to keep eye contact and say the incantation without stopping?" Amelia nodded, proud that some of her lessons had stayed in Susan's head. "Well we, 'Mione, Hannah, Neville and I that is, saw professor Snape doing just that." Susan paused a moment to catch her breath.

"That is a dangerous claim Susan, are you sure it was your professor?" Amelia was never one to take the first version of a story as the only version of the story.

"That's the thing, Padma and Morag were sitting with Daphne and Draco- That's Padma Patil, Morag MacDougal, Daphne Greengrass" She gestured to each friend as she said their name, "and Draco Malfoy, though he's off with Harry just now- and they saw Professor Quirrell jinxing the broom. So I figure, one of them was jinxing it and the other was trying to counter it." The two Ravenclaw and the one Slytherin girl shuffled their feet where they stood behind Susan when Amelia turned her sharp, inquiring gaze on them.

This really was quite a lot to take in all in one day. Amelia sighed deeply, adding 'questionable choices in staff' to her list of things going against the Headmaster just now. "Alright, first thing I need to ask; How is Mr. Potter doing, he is the 'Harry' you mentioned right? The same one from your study group?" Susan had sung the praises of their study group throughout the winter break, talking almost non-stop about all her new friends. Mr. Harry Potter had been one she spoke the most about, especially concerning his rather curious upbringing and entrance into the wizarding world: something else Amelia intended to look into at some point.

Susan's friend Hermione flushed at the question, causing Amelia to raise an eyebrow. "Well, like I said, Neville, Hannah, Hermione and I thought it was Snape jinxing the broom, to 'Mione went and… well… shesetSnapeonfire, please don't get her in trouble! Oh, and Harry was fine after that, he caught the snitch and everything..." Amelia blinked, her mind taking a moment to process the jumbled ending of her nieces explanation, before she began to chuckle. She turned to the a very nervous looking Hermione.

"A Gryffindor indeed, Miss Granger. Don't worry, considering the circumstances I think I can overlook your actions. But if it was Snape that you distracted, and after that the jinx ended, then don't we already know who was jinxing the broom?" Amelia was, despite the circumstances, enjoying working out the situation with her niece and her niece's friends.

"Not exactly, Madam Bones." It was the Greengrass girl that had spoken. "When Granger went running over to Snape, she knocked Quirrell over, so we still don't know which one of them it was." Daphne gestured to the muggleborn as she spoke, but other than the rather formal use of surname, Amelia was glad to find no hostility seemed to come from the Slytherin. While Amelia was not one to appropriate stereotypes, there tended to be some truth in the one about pureblooded Slytherins and their opinions on muggleborns. Knowing Susan she never should have even considered that her niece would befriend a blood-bigot.

"Well then, apparently I have not only the Headmaster to track down, but two professors as well. Thank you for informing me of the situation Susan. I'll see you at Easter." With another hug from her charge, Amelia was back to her original mission of tracking down the Headmaster, now with the sidequest of the two professors. Deciding it was best to divide and conquer, she sent Dawlish and Shacklebolt to find the Professors and bring them up to the Headmaster's office, where she would be having quite the conversation with Albus Dumbledore.

Back in the Slytherin common room, there was a party raging on. Once the adrenalin rush from winning the game had worn off, Harry found himself shaky and unsure of himself. Whatever had happened with his broom during the game had been terrifying. It hadn't lasted terribly long, but long enough to scare the pants off him. Winning had helped distract him, but from what Draco had told him after the game, Quirrell had tried to kill him today. The prospect of another teacher having it out for him, even if Snape had reigned his cruelty in recently, was not a pleasant thought. Draco noticed his friend's unease and discreetly pulled him away from the chaos around them and up to the quiet of their dorm.

"Need to lay down and occlude for a bit, Harry?" Draco asked quietly, once they were in their room. Harry just nodded, not feeling up to speaking right then. Draco walked him over to his bed and had turned to go read in his own bed when a clammy hand grabbed his wrist. He turned questioningly towards his friend, but understood what he was being asked when he was pulled towards Harry's bed. "Want me to sit lay down with you then?" Harry just nodded again, face flushed in embarrassment at his weakness. He couldn't help it that Draco's presence calmed him almost as much as his occlumency rooms did, and right now, he could do with both. Once Draco had settled next to him, he sank into his mind and began to work through the events of that day.

Snape was annoyed. He had been in an interrogation room in the depths of the Ministry for hours. It was reminding him of the Death Eater trials at the end of the war and it was making him anxious. He knew that he had done nothing wrong, he had been casting the anti-jinx, but he had enough enemies to be somewhat worried. It was a relief when they had brought in the veritaserum. After three questions he was given the antidote and permission to leave.

Quirrell was not quite as lucky. When the veritaserum had been brought out to him, he had begun to flail and scream before something flew out of the back of his head and quickly out of the interrogation room, leaving Quirrell unconscious in his seat. A diagnostic charm later found him to not be unconscious as originally thought, but dead. The Aurors were at a loss. It wasn't until an Unspeakable had been brought in to view the memories that it was identified as a possession. The violent exit of the spirit had killed Quirrell, or perhaps he had been dead for a while. Either way, the investigation was a dead end from there.

Having handed off the professors to the interrogators, Amelia made her way back to the school to have words with the Headmaster. Leader of the Light or no, his actions had been rash and irresponsible. He had not actually done much that was implicitly illegal, but child endangerment was no laughing matter, especially from the headmaster of a bloody school. She was in a righteous fury by the time she had made her way back up to his office. Not bothering to knock, she used the password he had told them earlier and stormed in, pleased to find him sat at his desk.

"Ah, Amelia, I was wondering when you would be back. We had quite the exciting day today, though, did we not?" Amelia glared at the crazy old goat.

"If you call cracking down on an attempt at murder on one of your students from one of the professor's you hired as well as my having to trudge through a bloody obstacle course that was hiding the Sorcerer's Stone basically asking for someone to break in and take it, exciting then yes, my day has been quite thrilling." Through her entire tirade the headmaster had smiled kindly at her, like she was some errant student and not a very influential ministry official. "Here is what is going to happen Albus," Her voice had gone from a near shout to a low, dark tone. "You have been given an official warning on the grounds of child endangerment. We have yet to come to a conclusion on the potential of you no longer being suit for looking after the school, but right now it is a near thing." Amelia couldn't help but smirk when the damnable man's glittering smile finally fell. "You currently do not have a Defense professor, seeing as yours was possessed. - How you missed that in your interview I do not know - regardless, I will be placing one of my aurors as the replacement teacher for the rest of the year. They will double as a decent instructor, and as your parole officer. If they see something that even suggests you're planning another stunt like the one with the stone, then you can kiss your position as headmaster goodbye. Am. I. Understood?" Each word seemed to hit the old man with a physical force, as he sagged further back in his chair with each.

"Yes, Madam Bones, you have made your position clear. I only wish you to know that it was never my intention for any of the students to come into contact with the cerberus or the stone." Now that wasn't entirely true, as he had been hoping to see young Harry Potter prove his position as a young hero for the Light, but Amelia didn't need to know that. "I will consent to having one of your aurors fill the vacant spot. It will be rather helpful actually, as filling it this suddenly would have been a nightmare." He leaned back in his chair and scrubbed his hands across his face, trying to come off as the overworked old man he often felt he was. It usually garnered some sympathy from those around him, he could only hope it would do so with the still fuming Madam Bones. Looking up, he found himself to be slightly successful, as she no longer looked like she was on the verge of killing him, perhaps just maimin him a little. Oh well.

Susan had relayed the information her Aunt deemed safe enough to tell over a letter, to the study group at their next gathering. Harry was relieved that Quirrell had been caught (Madam Bones had decided against telling the children that their Professor had been possessed and was now dead) and the rest of the group was glad to hear that Snape was not the perpetrator. Hermione was more embarrassed than anything else. The group was also informed that the situation with the stone had been resolved, and that they should continue to keep out of the third floor corridor just in case the Headmaster had not yet removed the danger there.

With their main topic of gossip gone, the group begrudgingly went back to actually studying. Anyway, this was Hogwarts, something else of interest was bound to happen at some point, they just had to be on the lookout for it. For now, they could wait.

When Snape had returned to his quarters he continued his most recent project, namely finding Harry a place to stay over the summers while Hogwarts was out of session. It was a rather unfortunate situation, seeing as, no one they could trust had legal claim over the boy and were he to be brought to the Ministry someone influential like Lord Malfoy or Lord Nott would likely get custody. What he really needed was someone to bounce ideas off of, but since the Headmaster was currently tied up with Amelia Bones cleaning up his own mess, Severus didn't have many other options. It was just his luck, that one of the less visited portraits in his quarters decided to be present today. Salazar Slytherin looked down at the current Head of his house from his position above the fireplace. What Severus didn't know was that the man was so often absent due to his preferring to spend time in the company of his fellow founders, whose portraits resided together in a, now unused, portion of the school. The Ward's Chambers, to be exact.

"What is troubling you, Master Severus?" Severus started at that, before turning to the portrait. Due to his potion's mastery the founder insisted on the title, even if Severus had been told to refer to the founder as 'Salazar'. That aside, his current predicament was solved, if the man in the portrait would agree to work with him that is.

"I am having issues with one of my charges, Salazar. You see-" And so he retold the entire story, his part included, to a surprisingly attentive portrait. He should have expected this, seeing as, from what Severus understood, Salazar cared deeply for his students.

Salazar was quite disgruntled by the end of the tale. The story was rather too close to many that he had heard in his time at the school. Back when the school had been founded, witch hunts were a very real threat. The number of children that came to Hogwarts fleeing their own families was astronomical. It was high enough, that they had created the Ward system. This was not to be mistaken for the wards around the school, but rather, a Ward of Hogwarts was a magical child that came to the school and found it too dangerous outside the school walls to return home. As these children were usually a cowed, unloved group, a ritual had been added to the system to bond the children to the school. Originally only the Headmaster and the four House head's had access to the knowledge that Lady Hogwarts was sentient, but with the addition of the Wards, these special children bonded to her as well. Many years after Salazar's time, after the witch hunts had ended and the statue of secrecy protected the wizarding world from muggles, the practice had died out. From there, the ban on blood magic in Britain made the bonding ritual illegal.

Illegal or not, Salazar knew that Severus would agree that the ritual was the boy's best shot. He was proven right rather quickly. Not only that, but the man's reaction to finding out the school was sentient was rather amusing in itself. Once he had calmed down, Severus had to ask.

"You said that the House Heads and Headmaster used to Bond to the school… Is there any reason, beyond the obvious fact that it's technically illegal, that I could not do the ritual as well?" Salazar laughed at that, and assured the young man in front of him that he could indeed also do the ritual. Though, the ritual for the House Heads was rather different than the one for the children.

"You may also want to consider inviting your fellow House Heads to partake in the ritual with you. The headmaster has already, as it was not illegal back when he was made the head of Gryffindor in 1912." Severus considered this for a moment.

"Do the other House Head's have their corresponding founder's portrait in their rooms as well? Because I would see them taking the request to perform a blood based ritual better from them than from me." He knew how they would react were he to ask, and it would not be pleasant.

"They do indeed. I can ask my fellow founders to spread the word, though I can see Godric being an ass about it simply because I am the one asking." The founder sighed, looking very much like a certain potions master in that moment. "I will be sure it is done and return to you when it is. Inform the headmaster about your new options for the young Potter boy." With a flourish, the portrait was once again empty, leaving a rather heartened potion's master. Despite how terrible his day had been so far, he could not help but smile. For the first time in Merlin knows how long, things were looking up for Harry Potter. And Severus couldn't wait to let the boy know.

Harry woke up curled into the warm solidness of his best friend. It was such an unfamiliar feeling that, despite his rather comfortable and warm position, he jerked into wakefulness in a matter of seconds. Once his racing mind caught up with him he allowed his tensed up muscles to relax. Sometime during the night they had moved from lying side by side to being so wrapped up in each other it was hard to tell where one boy started and the other began. They were sharing Harry's pillow and due to the eye correcting potion, Harry could practically count Draco's long golden eyelashes.

Harry knew it was not normal to study wake up snuggling your best friend and go on to stare at them instead of untangling yourself, but Harry had never been normal anyway. Draco must have closed the curtains without Harry noticing, because only a sliver of light shone into the fourposter. It wasn't much light, but it was enough for Harry to spot a little beauty mark under the corner of Draco's left eye that he had never noticed before. It was strange to see his normally very stoic and composed friend look so relaxed.

After an immeasurable stretch of time, Harry grew bored, he had never had a lie in growing up and could hardly be bothered to find out why most people enjoyed them so much. Untangling himself from Draco proved to be quite the challenge as the still sleeping blonde seemed loath to let him go. Eventually he resigned himself to the act that he would just have to wake Draco up if he wanted to be free, awkwardness be damned.

"Draco." He shook his friend's shoulder as he whispered in his ear, not wanting to wake the rest of the dorm. "Draco wake up you git. You're more clingy than the giant squid, I swear to Merlin." This elicited a groan from the now groggy blonde.

"Go back to sleep Harry. Not all of us get up at the ass crack of dawn every day. Let me sleep." Harry laughed gently at that.

"I will as soon as you stop clinging to me like some kind of teddy bear." Draco cracked open a single, bleary, silver eye and started a bit at how close his face was to Harry's. He carefully extracted his limbs from where they were clinging to Harry, immediately missing his warmth on the cold January morning.

"Sorry mate. The hell is a teddy bear?" Draco only looked mildly embarrassed at the position he had woken up in. It wasn't like they hadn't fallen asleep cuddled up in the Come and Go room before.

Harry let out a small huff in what would have been laughter had he not been trying to keep quiet. "I guess that's a muggle term then. A teddy bear is a stuffed toy, usually a bear, that young children usually sleep with. Doesn't really matter." Draco just nodded in understanding, not even cringing at the word muggle. Harry was quite pleased with the progress his friend had been making in that respect, Hermione's inclusion to their study group helped immensely.

"You feeling better this morning? Yesterday was a bit much." Draco's quiet question pulled Harry back to the present. He thought on the question a bit before answering. While he felt fine now, he always felt better when close to Draco. He wasn't sure how he'd feel once they got beyond the safety of his bed.

"I think I'm feeling better. My head's not swimming anymore, so that's good. I'll keep you updated as the day goes on, sound good? I'm not sure how I'll feel when not hidden away in here with you." He didn't want to say he was fine now only to have another panic attack as soon as they entered the common room or, Merlin forbid, the Great Hall.

"If you don't feel up to people today we could always go and find the kitchens, father gave me some general information about how to find them. Maybe some adventure would be good for you?" Harry could have kissed Draco for his consideration, well, maybe not kissed, but regardless, he was very, very pleased with his best friend in that moment. The blinding smile Draco got for his efforts was one of the most honest Harry had expressed since, well, probably ever.