Harry Potter and the Prince of Slytherin

Draco after the fight with Troll realized how weak he was and handling things alone would prove to be very difficult. Draco wanted to take this chance to strengthen his group mainly Theodore since compared to Pansy or Daphne, he was the strongest ally he had. So after he left the library he went to find Theodore and told him about some stuff about what Ron said and the philosopher's stone and both of them went to Hagrid's hut, and just as expected Draco didn't need to say anything since Harry and the group blabbered all the information out. As Draco thought, Theodore was very interested in the stone after learning that it was in Hogwarts. So when the time comes Draco would have an ally to go along with him.

The main problem of taking the Philosopher's stone was that it was inside the Mirror of Erised. Draco couldn't look for the stone before because he didn't know where it was, to begin with, but right now he was sure that it kept inside the Mirror of Erised already. Originally, Dumbledore had placed an enchantment on the mirror, hiding the stone inside of it, and allowing the mirror to transfer the stone only to one who wanted to find the stone but not to use it.

Anybody wishing more than simply to find it would just see themselves making gold or the Elixir of Life. This is because the greatest desire of anyone wanting to use the stone would not have their greatest desire to be finding it in the first place; anyone just wanting to find the stone but not use it would thus have their greatest desire to find the stone thus have their wish granted.

Draco was sure that it would be impossible for both him and Theodore to retrieve the stone because they had nothing but the desire to use it. So due to that, Draco had set up his second trap, enticing Harry by leaving some clues. Draco wasn't stupid enough to blurt out things without keeping his mouth shut so he had to do it in a way that it wouldn't be predictable. With Hermione caught up with what he said, Draco was sure that with Harry's savior character, he would surely go to the third floor to stop anyone from stealing it. Now that he had left enough traps for Harry to fall through, the only remaining part was to wait for Harry to go to the third floor and take out the Philosopher's stone for him.

The other unexpected thing was the Dragon, Draco had completely forgotten all about it since the Dragon didn't play any particular role in the books, it was just there for the sake of showing Malfoy's bad side and seeing Voldemort living up off Unicorn blood. But even though he had to resort to blackmailing he still got what he wanted. Draco wanted to try and tame the Dragon enough to let it do some work for him. Even though a Dragon could be defeated by dozens of wizard or a powerful wizard at once, but no one has ever gone wrong with having a few extra cards in hand.

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Harry and Ron went back to the Gryffindor's common room and were discussing what to do.

"I am sure, Black will tell this information to Snape," Ron said. "We should have checked our surrounding before talking."

"That's what I am worried about." Harry replied.

"I heard Percy once say that there is a charm that prevents outsiders from listening, we should learn it." Ron said.

"We should, but we have already made the mistake now and Black knows everything." Harry said, "I wonder how long he has been spying on us."

"Since he knows all about it, from the very start I guess." Ron said with a frustrated tone, "Do you think he is also planning to steal it?"

"No." Harry shook his head, "He wasn't interested in this before as well and even this time, he was more interested in getting the Dragon from Hagrid."

"Right, that Dragon." Ron said, "We can't let him take it."

"What can we do about it?" Harry said, "It's not ours, to begin with, and Hagrid already took the payment. It's probably good as well since I don't want Hagrid to go to Azkaban."

"He did take the payment but we can make Black lose money, can't we?" Ron said smiling as if he had the greatest plan, "If the Dragon is gone before he can take it then neither Hagrid nor us would get in trouble."

"How can we do that?" Harry asked interested, he wanted some payback for his conversation being eavesdropped upon and making him lose his trust with Hagrid.

"How about we tell, Professor McGonagall?" Ron suggested.

"Wouldn't Draco leak the information out then?" Harry said getting worried.

"Not if we tell Professor McGonagall, we might get scolded but as Hagrid said McGonagall is one of the teachers protecting the philosopher's stone and she will certainly stop Draco if she finds out that he knows everything." Ron explained, "And that is only if he leaks the news otherwise we don't even have to go through all that."

"What do you mean?"

"Listen, on the day Black takes back the Dragon after it's hatched we can inform Professor McGonagall and she will capture Draco red-handed with a Dragon in his hand." Ron said smirking, "With this Hagrid would have fulfilled his end of the bargain and on the other hand, Draco would get caught with a dangerous creature which will probably get him some punishment and maybe even expelled and if he tells others about the stone we can tell everyone that Draco was the one who did it, and due to him having motive as well, I am sure everyone will believe us."

Harry nodded, "It's a great plan but are you sure Hagrid wouldn't get into trouble for it?"

"I am sure," Ron said.

"What are you talking about?" Hermione's voice came in, shocking both of them.

"No-Nothing," Ron said stuttering, he was sure that Hermione would certainly not let them complete their plan if she knows about it.

Hermione looked at Harry and Ron who were acting suspicious, "How come you came out of the hut so quickly?"

"We thought Hagrid was angry with us, so we excused ourselves and came running out," Harry said.

"He should be." Hermione said nodding, "I came back apologizing as well, you guys should do too."

"It was Black's fault, to begin with." Ron said in a righteous voice, "If he hadn't eavesdropped on us, none of this would have happened."

Hermione rolled her eyes and didn't say anything, she already knew no matter what she says, Ron will always blame Draco so why even try.

"Aren't you going to defend him?" Ron asked suspiciously, "Or do you finally realize that he is a bad guy?"

"He isn't." Hermione said sitting on the sofa next to the fireplace, "Yeah, he shouldn't have eavesdropped on you but considering your loud voice, I don't think he even has to try."

"Hermione, I am with Ron on this. Didn't you see how he and his friend tried to blackmail Hagrid." Harry said siding with Ron.

"He did but he did apologize at the end, didn't he?" Hermione said opening a book, "And besides since Hagrid himself is okay with it, you guys should stop blaming him as well. Oh! and forget about the stone from now on, as Draco said it's very dangerous and even if Snape did want to steal the philosopher's stone we can't do anything about it. Maybe we will tell a Professor when we catch him in the act."

Harry and Ron looked at each other and turned back to Hermione, "But we can't let him steal it, you know how much he hates Harry, what if he comes after him when he gets the stone." Ron said.

Hermione closed her book while trying to figure out a way, "Well if he does steal it, we can tell Dumbledore about it, I am sure he will protect Harry."

Harry and Ron looked at each other in shock, seeing how fast Hermione changed her mind about things.