"Hey Harry, if you wanted, I'm sure I could owl my gran and ask if you could come back to the manor with me," Neville offered quietly.
Harry smiled lightly at that. Harry knew that Neville spent most of day visiting his parents and that he cherished that time. "Thank you Neville, but I think I want to stay here. Maybe next year or something?" Harry said. He was looking forward to having some alone time; not that he didn't like the friends he had made, it was just that they were still children. Yes, he was now eleven again, but he was also eighteen. He wanted some time to himself.
Neville looked slightly concerned but nodded. "If you're sure," he said reluctantly.
"I do really mean it, thank you, Neville," Harry said.
"Are you sure, Harry? My aunt would happily have you," Susan offered, having heard their whispered conversation.
Sending her a smile, Harry nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure."
"Okay, then, but you had better owl me every other day to let me know you're okay," she said.
Laughing, Harry replied, "I promise."
~
A few days later, the castle emptied out as people returned home for the holidays and Harry was left alone with the few others who had remained. Like last time, this included the Weasleys. Harry was startled to realise he hadn't even spoken to the twins yet in this life and felt guilty for a moment before he realised that feeling bad was silly - they didn't even know him in this life. During breakfast on the first day, Harry, who was sitting with a 4th year Ravenclaw and two 7th years, was not remotely surprised when Ron appeared.
"Hey mate, you want to hang out?" he asked.
Harry, keeping his displeasure masked, said, "Sure, maybe. I just need to head up to the common room."
Ron gaped at Harry for a moment; clearly he had been expecting him to say no. "Really?" he asked incredulously. "Great!"
Harry kept from rolling his eyes. "Sure, there's no one else our age here," Harry said. He wondered what Dumbledore was up to; Harry had almost hoped he would stop sending Ron as, each time he had, Ron had ended up either in trouble or causing an argument.
Ron happily ignored Harry's comment. "We could play chess or go and explore the castle; I bet there's loads of things hidden here," Ron said.
Harry barely stopped him from snorting. "Whatever," he mumbled instead.
"We could go check out the dungeons now that the slimy snakes are gone," Ron said.
Harry didn't even hide his displeasure. "There's nothing wrong with Slytherins," he said.
Ron just snorted. "Right, it's okay, Harry. You stick with me and I'll show you, you just need to learn that they're evil," he said. His certainty actually made Harry feel almost sorry for him.
~
Harry was exhausted after finally ditching Ron after a day of the boy trailing after Harry, telling him how evil Slytherins are, how Harry really should have been in Gryffindor, and how 'don't you think Snape's been acting suspicious?'. It was like he was hiding something or going after something; at least he had figured out Ron's purpose, though. Dumbledore obviously didn't want his boy hero to forget about the stone and had sent the redhead to make sure Harry was suspicious of Slytherins and thinking about who was after it.
Thinking about the stone, Harry had come to a conclusion. He couldn't let Quirrellmort get it. Letting Voldemort return now would be disastrous, as he would return insane like he had in Harry's fourth year, and Harry refused to allow that to happen. He would rather Tom be forced to wait, wandering as a spirit, than return as an insane Voldemort. However, Harry didn't really want Dumbledore to have the stone either; he didn't want to rescue it and go through all of the trials he had last time just to have the old coot destroy it. Instead, Harry had a better idea. He would take the stone and hide it away secretly. Then, after he had fixed Tom, which he would do, he could give it to him as a peace offering for delaying his return.
With that in mind, Harry started to plan; he couldn't have to old coot growing too suspicious of him, now.
Finding ways to ditch Ron was becoming tiresome for Harry as Christmas approached. The redhead just would not take the hint that Harry had no desire for his presence. His persistence would have been commendable, if not for the fact he was ultimately trying to befriend Harry in the hopes of stealing from him and killing him.
With the lack of students, Harry had taken to literally running everywhere he needed to go and checking around the corners. He would have just worn his invisibility cloak, but he didn't want people to become worried and therefore pay closer attention to him if they realised he hadn't been seen for hours on end. So, instead, he dodged and checked as if he was a criminal on the run.
Harry had taken to trying to ignore him after a few days as it seemed that whenever he left his common room, Ron would appear. If it wasn't for the fact that Harry had checked twice, he would have thought he had a tracker on him, alerting the redhead of his movements.
"Come on, mate, stop being so boring. All you seem to do is want to read books and hang out in the library," Ron whined as Harry continued to walk towards the library. He needed to check one final thing before he could go after the stone.
"Well, I am a Ravenclaw - and there's nothing wrong with the library," Harry said. He almost cringed as he mimicked Hermione and then internally cringed again as he remembered her broken body.
"The library, really?" Ron asked skeptically, before he developed a slightly odd look. "Why are you in there so much anyway? Are you researching something - a mystery?"
Harry considered what to say for a moment before he concluded that putting Ron on the case would help him in the end. Dumbledore would once again be sure of Harry's path and Ron would hopefully leave Harry alone.
"Well, I have this theory," Harry said, "that whatever was stolen from Gringotts is now in the school, I just don't know what. It's probably on the 3rd floor, I saw a three headed dog there."