We get a hotel close to the hospital Bella is staying at. When we do, dad insists that I lay down on the bed, although I make him lie down beside me so I can cuddle up to him and take advantage of his ice cold skin. It's about the only thing that is working on my fever. My dad doesn't like to sit still, but combined with my high fever and puppy dog eyes, he doesn't complain. There's a silence in the room. James made a video and according to Bella, he had mentioned Alice's human life. She is deciding whether to watch it or not. None of us have given our input, but I want to help. So, I do. "I think you should watch it" I say, my voice impaired due to my stuffed nose. Everyone looks at me. "If it were me, I would want to. You might want to do some fact checking, but it could give you a glimpse into your human life. That's what you've wanted, isn't it?" I ask.

She looks from me to the tape. She seems to make up her mind. She gets up and sticks the tape in the VCR. For a long while, nothing. Then, Bella comes into the room. She seems to be looking at something out of frame. "Bella? Bella?" I hear a woman call. It cuts out, and then she turns. James comes into frame. Dad tenses at my side and tightens his grip on me. "Sorry about that, Bella, but isn't it better that your mother didn't really have to be involved in all this?" James says is a fake kind voice. "Yes," Bella answers, sounding strangely relived. I raise my eyebrows. "You don't sound angry that I tricked you." "I'm not." she says in a brave voice. "How odd. You really mean it. I will give your strange coven this much, you humans can be quite interesting. I guess I can see the draw of observing you. It's amazing - some of you seem to have no sense of your own self-interest at all."

James seems to be observing her, looking curious. I observe him to. He looks ugly. That is a word I've never applied to a vampire before. If it were between me and him in a beauty contest, I'd win hands down. "I suppose you're going to tell me that your boyfriend will avenge you?" he asks. "No, I don't think so. At least, I asked him not to." "And what was his reply to that?" "I don't know. I left him a letter." "How romantic, a last letter. And do you think he will honor it?" "I hope so." "Hmmm. Well, our hopes differ then. You see, this was all just a little too easy, too quick. To be quite honest, I'm disappointed. I expected a much greater challenge. And, after all, I only needed a little luck." Bella waits in silence.

"When Victoria couldn't get to your father, I had her find out more about you. There was no sense in running all over the planet chasing you down when I could comfortably wait for you in a place of my choosing. So, after I talked to Victoria, I decided to come to Phoenix to pay your mother a visit. I'd heard you say you were going home. At first, I never dreamed you meant it. But then I wondered. Humans can be very predictable; they like to be somewhere familiar, somewhere safe. And wouldn't it be the perfect ploy, to go to the last place you should be when you're hiding - the place that you said you'd be. But of course I wasn't sure, it was just a hunch. I usually get a feeling about the prey that I'm hunting, a sixth sense, if you will. I listened to your message when I got to your mother's house, but of course I couldn't be sure where you'd called from. It was very useful to have your number, but you could have been in Antarctica for all I knew, and the game wouldn't work unless you were close by.

Then your boyfriend got on a plane to Phoenix. Victoria was monitoring them for me, naturally; in a game with this many players, I couldn't be working alone. And so they told me what I'd hoped, that you were here after all. I was prepared; I'd already been through your charming home movies. And then it was simply a matter of the bluff. Very easy, you know, not really up to my standards. So, you see, I'm hoping you're wrong about your boyfriend. Edward, isn't it?" James says. Bella doesn't say anything. "Would you mind, very much, if I left a little letter of my own for your Edward?" He goes to the camera. At first I think he's going to turn it off, but he doesn't. He focuses it more on Bella. I scoot closer to my dad. "I'm sorry, but I just don't think he'll be able to resist hunting me after he watches this. And I wouldn't want him to miss anything. It was all for him, of course. You're simply a human, who unfortunately was in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and indisputably running with the wrong crowd, I might add."

James steps towards her, smiling. "Before we begin, I would just like to rub it in, just a little bit. The answer was there all along, and I was so afraid Edward would see that and ruin my fun. It happened once, oh, ages ago. The one and only time my prey escaped me. You see, the vampire who was so stupidly fond of this little victim made the choice that your Edward was too weak to make. When the old one knew I was after his little friend, he stole her from the asylum where he worked - I never will understand the obsession some vampires seem to form with you humans - and as soon as he freed her he made her safe. She didn't even seem to notice the pain, poor little creature. She'd been stuck in that black hole of a cell for so long. A hundred years earlier and she would have been burned at the stake for her visions. In the nineteen-twenties it was the asylum and the shock treatments. When she opened her eyes, strong with her fresh youth, it was like she'd never seen the sun before. The old vampire made her a strong new vampire, and there was no reason for me to touch her then." he sighs. My heart speeds up tenfold. "I destroyed the old on in vengeance." "Alice" Bella breathes. I look at Alice, who is still as a statue.

"Yes, your little friend. I was surprised to see her in the clearing. So I guess her coven ought to be able to derive some comfort from this experience. I get you, but they get her. The one victim who escaped me, quite an honor, actually. And she did smell so delicious. I still regret that I never got to taste... She smelled even better than you do. Almost as good as that little blonde friend of yours. Haven't smelled anything like her in centuries. I have plans for her. It'll be easy to get here way from the blonde vampire and big vampire -" a low growl builds in my dad's chest at these words and he holds me tighter, "- I don't mean to be offensive. You have a very nice smell. Floral, somehow..." He steps towards her and lifts a lock from her hair. After this, I hide my face in my dad's chest. I plug my ears so I don't have to listen to the rest.

Dad and I head back to Forks the following night. As it's her Easter Break to, mom spends as much time as she can with me. I'm sick for a solid few days before I feel like getting out of bed. After I'm feeling better, my mom and I go on a shopping spree. At nights before bed is when I study for exams, which will begin very soon after break. I hardly see Bella after our stint in Phoenix. Her broken leg prevents her from leaving the house very much. The rest of break though, is very much like I pictured it. Spending time with family, and studying. This makes break go by all too quickly. Before I know it, it's time for me to go back to Hogwarts.

The plane ride is quick even though takes hours. My mom, dad, and Jasper - who, to my delight, agreed to accompany me to the airport - immediately take me to King's Cross Station. For the first time since I met them, I am delighted to see Malfoy's gang of Slytherins. They notice our approach at once. Before she sees my company, Pansy sneers at me. Then she sees who I'm standing with, and she steps back a couple steps. "Who are they?" dad asks. I point them out. "Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle, Pansy Parkinson, and Milicent Bulstrode" I say. "What are they feeling?" I ask Jasper in a quiet whisper. "Vincent and Gregory are admiring your mother. They are also a bit curious to. All four of them are a bit scared. Milicent is extremely jealous and a bit spiteful. Pansy is jealous to. I also think she isn't too fond of you" he says. "Awesome" I say with a bit of an evil grin. I give each of them a hug - my mom hugs me so tightly that dad has to call her off - and then I disappear onto the platform.

It doesn't take me long to find a compartment to myself. As soon as the train takes off, I fall asleep because time change is a real pain. I wake up a little before noon just as the lady who runs the food cart comes by and I have lunch. I try my hardest not to fall asleep again, otherwise I won't be able to sleep tonight. I decide to study to keep myself awake. I practice wand movements and incantations. I also get changed into my uniform. After quite a few hours, I am notified that we will be at Hogwarts in ten minutes. I wait in the corridors with the rest of the students who went home for break and when the train stops, we get off. It's a lot hotter here than Forks. We go up a path that leads to carriages. No horses, just carriages. Unfortunately, since there is so few of us, there are only three carriages. By my crappy luck, I'm in a carriage with Crabbe, Goyle, Parkinson, and Bulstrode.

I do my best to pretend they're not there when the carriage takes off. It seems, though, Parkinson has other plans. "So, Cullen, who was that with you at Kings Cross?" she asks me in a nasty voice. "The blonde woman is my mother. The brown haired man is my dad. The blonde man is my uncle" I answer shortly. She asks me more questions, but I ignore them completely. I only answered her first question to scare her . Soon, we go through a pair of iron gates and we get out of the carriage. I get out first and go as fast as I can up the steps to get away from them. When I get in, I see some students filing into the Great Hall. Probably dinner time. I follow them and figure out that they are some of the last to enter, as the Great Hall is mostly full. I spot Ron's bright red hair within a minute, so I start to walk near them. I also notice something else. The House Point hourglasses. Gryffindor's hourglass is significantly lower in points now than it was when I had left. We are in last. Not just last. Dead last. I still have my eye on the hourglass when I sit down next to Harry.

"Chloe! How was your break?" Hermione asks eagerly. I ignore her question. "Why are we so low on points? We weren't this low when I left. Slytherin is in the lead!" I exclaim in a voice that is at least two octaves higher than my normal voice. I look at Harry and Hermione, who both look ashamed. In a quiet voice, they tell me what happened. My jaw drops. "You couldn't have just let it go? That last Quidditch Match was a waste! There's no way we can catch up" I say, not able to hide my disappointment. "Don't give us a lecture" Harry groans. "We've heard it all from everyone else. The Quidditch team hasn't called me 'Harry' ever since. They refer to me as 'The Seeker'." he says. I don't lecture them on it, but I can't help but be mad. I had been looking forward to wiping Malfoy's smug look off his face. Now he'll just be worse. If they had ignored Hagrid's dragon problem or, better yet, remembered the invisibility cloak, this wouldn't have happened. "How was your break?" Hermione asks again, this time more hesitant. "Sick for half of it. Finished my homework in a few days. Spent time with my parents" I answer with little patience. I try to give the hint I'm no longer in the mood for talking. "Oh. Sorry" Hermione says. No one talks to me for the rest of the evening. After dinner, we head up to Gryffindor tower. I head straight up to the girl's dormitory and go to sleep as soon as I lay down.

Over the next few days, I slowly grow less and less mad at my friends. We all study for exams together, which begin a few weeks after I return. During the written exams, we have quills with an anti-cheating spell, which are extremely easy for me. I am always the first one to finish. The practical exams are fun to. For Professor Flitwick's exam, we have to make a pineapple tap dance across a desk. For Professor McGonagall's exam, we have to turn a mouse into a snuffbox, and mine is very pretty if I do say so myself. Even with Snape breathing down my back, I manage to make a perfect Forgetfulness potion. I find that I have to help Harry study in between exams because his scar has been hurting. He thinks it's because danger is coming.

The History of Magic exam is really easy. The four of us discuss it after we're done. "That was far easier than I thought it would be" Hermione says. "I needn't have learned about the 1637 Werewolf Code of Conduct or the uprising of Elfric the Eager." I nod. "Feels like I wasted a bit of Easter break studying things that weren't even on the exam." After the History of Magic exam, we flop down under a tree. "No more studying," Ron says happily. "You could look more cheerful, Harry, we've got a week before we find out how badly we've done, there's no need to worry yet." Harry keeps rubbing his forehead. "I wish Iknew what this means!" he bursts out. "My scar keeps hurting - it's happened before, but never as often as this." "Go to Madam Pomfrey," I suggest. "I'm not ill," Harry says. 'I think it's a warning... it means danger's coming..."

"Harry, relax, Hermione's right, the stone's safe as long as Dumbledore's around. Anyway, we've never had any proof Snape found out how to get past Fluffy. He nearly had his leg ripped off once, he's not going to try it again in a hurry. And Neville will play Quidditch for England before Hagrid lets Dumbledore down." "I can't help but feel like there's something I have forgotten to do..." Harry says. "That's just the exams. I woke up last night and was halfway through my Transfiguration notes before I remembered we'd done that one." Then, Harry jumps to his feet. "What's up with you?" I ask. "I've just thought of something. We've got to go and see Hagrid, now." I groan and get up. I catch up with him easily. "Why?" pants Hermione. "Don't you think it's a bit odd that what Hagrid wants more than anything else is a dragon, and a stranger turns up who just happens to have an egg in his pocket? How many people wander around with dragon eggs if it's against wizard law? Lucky they found Hagrid, don't you think? Why didn't I see it before?"

"What are you talking about?" I ask, but Harry doesn't answer. He just sprints across the grounds to Hagrid. "Hullo," he says, smiling. "Finished yer exams? Got time for a drink?" "Yes, please," said Ron, but Harry cuts him off. "No, we're in a hurry. Hagrid, I've got to ask you something. You know that night you won Norbert? What did the stranger you were playing cards with look like?" "Dunno," says Hagrid casually, "he wouldn' take his cloak off." That's a little sketchy. "It's not that unusual, yeh get a lot o' funny folk in the Hog's Head - that's one o' the pubs down in the village. Mighta bin a dragon dealer, mightn' he? I never saw his face, he kept his hood up." Might have been? That's not reassuring.

"What did you talk to him about, Hagrid? Did you mention Hogwarts at all?" I ask. "Mighta come up," says Hagrid. "Yeah... he asked what I did, an' I told him I was gamekeeper here... He asked a bit about the sorta creatures I look after... so I told him... an' I said what I'd always really wanted was a dragon... an' then... I can' remember too well, 'cause he kept buyin' me drinks... Let's see... yeah, then he said he had the dragon egg an' we could play cards fer it if I wanted... but he had ter be sure I could handle it, he didn' want it ter go ter any old home... So I told him, after Fluffy, a dragon would be easy..." "And did he - did he seem interested in Fluffy?" Harry asks. "Well - yeah - how many three-headed dogs d'yeh meet, even around Hogwarts? So I told him, Fluffy's a piece o' cake if yeh know how to calm him down, jus' play him a bit o' music an' he'll go straight off ter sleep -" At those words, we sprint off to the castle.

We only speak when we are at the entrance hall. "We've got to go to Dumbledore," says Harry. "Hagrid told that stranger how to get past Fluffy, and it was either Snape or Voldemort under that cloak - it must've been easy, once he'd got Hagrid drunk. I just hope Dumbledore believes us. Firenze might back us up if Bane doesn't stop him. Where's Dumbledore's office?" We look around, but don't know where he is. "We'll just have to -" I begin, but a voice cuts me off. "What are you four doing inside?" Professor McGonagall, who's carrying a large pile of books, asks. "We want to see Professor Dumbledore," says Hermione. "See Professor Dumbledore? Why?" she asks suspiciously. "It's sort of secret," Harry says. "Professor Dumbledore left ten minutes ago. He received an urgent owl from the Ministry of Magic and flew off for London at once." she says. My heart drops.

"He's gone?" says Harry frantically. "Now?" "Professor Dumbledore is a very great wizard, Potter, he has many demands on his time -" "But this is important." "Something you have to say is more important than the Ministry of Magic, Potter?" "Look. Professor - it's about the Sorcerer's Stone -" Professor McGonagall drops the books in her arms and I look at Harry with wide eyes. Is he stupid? We're not supposed to know about the stone. "How do you know -?" she splutters. "Professor, I think - I know - that Sn - that someone's going to try and steal the Stone. I've got to talk to Professor Dumbledore." She eyes all of us. "Professor Dumbledore will be back tomorrow. I don't know how you found out about the Stone, but rest assured, no one can possibly steal it, it's too well protected." she says finally. "But Professor -" "Potter, I know what I'm talking about," she says shortly. "I suggest you all go back outside and enjoy the sunshine." We don't.

"It's tonight," says Harry, once she's out of earshot. "Snape's going through the trapdoor tonight. He's found out everything he needs, and now he's got Dumbledore out of the way. He sent that note, I bet the Ministry of Magic will get a real shock when Dumbledore turns up." "But when can we -" Hermione gasps. Snape is standing there. "Good afternoon," he says smoothly. We stare at him. "You shouldn't be inside on a day like this," he says with a twisted smile. "We were -" Harry begins. "You want to be more careful," says Snape. "Hanging around like this, people will think you're up to something. And Gryffindor really can't afford to lose any more points, can it?" Harry blushes.

We turn to go outside, but Snape calls us back. "Be warned, Potter - any more nighttime wanderings and I will personally make sure you are expelled. Good day to you." He strides off. Harry turns to us. "Right, here's what we've got to do," he whispers. "One of us has got to keep an eye on Snape - wait outside the staffroom and follow him if he leaves it. Chloe, you'd better do that." "Why me?" I ask. "It's obvious," says Ron. "you can pretend to be waiting for Professor Flitwick, you know. Also, you haven't gotten in trouble yet." Ron says. He puts on a high voice with a crappy American accent. "Oh Professor Fitwick, I'm so worried, I think I got question fourteen b wrong...'" "Oh shut up" I say, but agree to do it anyway. I head off in the direction of the staffroom.

I try to stand as casually as I can. Ten minutes later, Professor Snape comes out of the classroom. He sneers at me. "I thought I told you to go outside" he says in his oily voice. I try to look as innocent as I can. "I was waiting for Professor Flitwick. I have a question for him about his exam" I say. He looks at me, observing. "Well then. I will get him for you" he says. I try not to look worried. He opens the staff door again. "Filius, Miss Cullen wishes to speak with you" he says. I hear Professor Flitwick's squeaky voice from inside the staff room. "Bring her in" he says. Professor Snape looks at me and holds the staffroom door open for me, looking at me. I can't say 'nevermind' because then he'll get suspicious. I have no choice but to go into the staffroom.

It's a room that looks like a place to relax. It has mismatched chairs, a wardrobe, among other things. Professor Flitwick is sitting on the couch grading papers. When I enter, he gets up and walks up to me. "You have a question?" he asks. I put on a worried face and tone. "I'm really worried about how I did on your exam. I'm afraid I failed" I say. I smiles up at me. "Oh, you did not fail. Quite the opposite. Don't tell anyone, but you got a hundred and twelve percent" he says. A look of fake relief washes over me. "Thank you so much. That makes me feel a lot better. I'll get out of your hair now" I say and rush out of the staffroom. When I leave, to my horror, Snape is gone.

There are a hundred places he could be, so I sprint back to Gryffindor tower. "I'm sorry, Harry" I say. "Snape came out and asked me what I was doing, so I said I was waiting for Flitwick, and Snape went to get him, and I just got away, I don't know where Snape went." "Well, that's it then, isn't it?" We stare at him. "I'm going out of here tonight and I'm going to try and get to the Stone first." "You're mad!" says Ron. "You can't!" says Hermione. "After what McGonagall and Snape have said? You'll be expelled!" "SO WHAT?" Harry shouts. "Don't you understand? If Snape gets hold of that Stone, Voldemort's coming back! Haven't you heard what it was like when he was trying to take over? There won't be any Hogwarts to get expelled from! He'll flatten it, or turn it into a school for the Dark Arts! Losing points doesn't matter anymore, can't you see? D'you think he'll leave you and your families alone if Gryffindor wins the House Cup? If I get caught before I can get the Stone, well, I'll have to go back to the Dursleys and wait for Voldemort to find me there, it's only dying a bit later than I would have, because I'm never going over to the Dark Side! I'm going through that trapdoor tonight and nothing you three say is going to stop me! Voldemort killed my parents, remember?" We glare at him.

"You're right, Harry," says Hermione. "I'll use the invisibility Cloak," says Harry. "It's just lucky I got it back." "But will it cover all four of us?" says Ron. "All - all four of us?" "Oh, come off it, you don't think we'd let you go alone?" "Of course not," Hermione says. "How do you think you'd get to the Stone without us? I'd better go and look through my books, there might be something useful..." "But if we get caught, you three will be expelled to." "Not if I can help it," I say. "Flitwick told me in secret that I got a hundred and twelve percent on his exam. They're not throwing me out after that."