Better Be Slytherin!

'I can go get the Stone myself.'

--HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS--

AND:

The vines pulled tight around him and wrapped him in their coils, but he simply relaxed and the snare loosened, letting him fall through into the room below.

That must've been Pomona's contribution, he thought, as he brushed off his robes.

He walked forward, keeping one eye peeled for anything charmed (by Filius) or transfigured (by Minerva) and the other watching for a foolish Slytherin boy who was liable to get them both killed.

--HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS--

After Harry left Millie that afternoon, he made some very fast plans. He didn't want to get either of his friends in trouble -- as he knew he was likely to be -- so he didn't share his ideas with them further. After dinner, when the Common Room was revved up with a post-finals party hosted by the 7th Years who were due to leave Hogwarts for the last time in a couple weeks, it was not difficult for Harry to sneak off under his Invisibility Cloak and go looking for the Bloody Baron.

Finding the Baron actually took the longest out of all his preparations. He had thought the Baron was watching him all the time, except while he was in his bedroom, but when he finally found the ghost, the Baron was hovering near the girl's bathroom on the second floor, the one none of the girls wanted to use, according to Hermione. Harry had never asked her why.

Harry removed only the hood of the Cloak as he approached the ghost. 'Hello,' he whispered. 'I need a favor.'

The Baron's eyes grew wide with surprise or fear. His voice was lower than usual when he intoned, 'What are you doing out of bed, young Harry Potter? You should not be about on a night like this.'

'A night when Snape tries to steal the Stone, you mean?'

'That is foolishness, as I have told you time and again. Severus Snape would never attempt to steal the Sorcerer's Stone.'

'I heard him and Quirrell plotting,' Harry said for the millionth time. The ghost sighed. 'It's true!'

'I know what you believe you saw, but you must know that not everything you see is what is true.'

Harry glared. He hated being told, however obliquely, that he was too stupid to understand what he had seen. 'Whatever. Someone is going to steal the Stone tonight, and I want to stop them.'

'That is a particularly Gryffindorish idea.'

'Well, the Sorting Hat did say I could do well in Gryffindor.'

The Ghost nodded slowly. 'So you have said. I believe, however, on a night such as this, that you would do better to stay true to your more Slytherin qualities.'

'I can't. If someone gets the Stone, then Voldemort will come back. He'll have even more power. Enough so he can kill me this time.'

The Bloody Baron floated closer. His mouth was twisted angrily, and his eyes were like dark fire. 'So you would put yourself within the man's grasp? Deliver yourself to a mad man by following him into the crypt? That is even more foolish than I imagined!'

'No, that's why I need your help!' Harry cried. 'If we work together, we can get the Stone before Voldemort does.'

'And how would we do that, Harry Potter?' the Baron spat.

'You have to possess me. Like you did before, when I was attacked in the dungeons. Possess me, but let me keep my memory.'

'Absolutely not!'

'But you know way more spells than I do, and you can cast magic when you possess me.' Harry pursed his lips and glanced over his shoulder, in the general direction of the stairs to the third floor, where Fluffy's room was. He tried his last gambit. 'If you won't help me . . . it's not likely I'll make it out of there alive.'

The Bloody Baron glared at him. 'I could possess you and then just cast a stunner at us both. Keep you from the crypt.'

'You could, but then I'd bleed out from your chest wound before anyone found me, like before. And you wouldn't be able to get help for me either, because of the stunning spell.'

For a long moment, the ghost continued to glare, even as he moved closer and closer to Harry. Close enough that goose flesh rose on Harry's arms under the cloak. Finally, the Baron gave one sharp nod. A different, more admiring light entered his ghostly eyes. 'You certainly are Slytherin enough, Harry Potter. I will do this. But you must let me control your body. I can not fight with you for control if we come up against an enemy.'

'You can have control if we have to cast spells. But I control us the rest of the time.'

'You foolish--'

'It's this way or no way, and I go alone!' Harry interrupted.

'Very well,' the Bloody Baron said, not sounding very happy.

'Swear on it.'

'I swear on it,' the Baron said, and Harry let the ghost flow into his body before he pulled the hood of his cloak over his head again and they vanished from sight.