Harry and Hermione worked hard and used their knowledge to speed up their prep work considerably, then they put each prepped ingredient into a proper receptacle and sealed them. As an extra precaution, Harry duplicated the completed ingredients and the containers, then stashed them in his pockets. He cast the locking spell on the ones he was going to submit as well, then he banished the curtain.

They still had half an hour left for class, so Harry and Hermione asked what to do with their ingredients. A box was provided and Harry added his to one section and Hermione added hers in another section. With that done, they were allowed to leave. They packed up and added everything to Harry's trunk, then left with a whispered apology to Neville, who only smiled and showed them that he was working on the last ingredient.

Harry and Hermione were in good spirits and made their way to the Griffindor Tower common room. Hermione had more reading to do and promised Harry that she would have the secondary spells ready for him to look over on Sunday to see what ones he might want to learn.

“Thanks, Hermione.” Harry said. “I don't know what I would have done if you weren't here to help me so much.”

“You've helped me a bunch, too.” Hermione said. “I even sent in the forms to have my house added to the magical residence registry.”

“Will your parents like not having their home noticed by the neighbours?” Harry asked.

“Or by robbers, or hooligans, or anyone else.” Hermione smiled. “I think mom freaked out a little when I told her what it meant.”

Harry chuckled. “It has nothing to do with knowing you can magically clean the house when it's registered, does it?”

Hermione laughed. “She can't wait until Christmas break to watch me cleaning the carpet!”

Harry laughed, too. He had told Hermione about his aunt's stunned look as he did it in the living room and she hoped her mother had a similar or better reaction.

“Neither of us thought that magic could be used that way. It was all flashes and bangs in the descriptions, so finding out it could be used to clean everything quietly...” Hermione shook her head. “I really love magic!”

“Me, too.” Harry said. “I'm going upstairs for a bit to keep working on those gem books.”

“We've got a bit of time before supper, so try not to get too wrapped up in it.” Hermione said. “I'll holler if you're not down by then.”

“You just want to test the Sonorus spell inside.” Harry said with a smirk.

“It's a legitimate test.” Hermione said with a grin and they both laughed.

Harry brought his trunk up to his dorm room and placed it on the end of his bed, then set the curtain and the silence spell. He quickly changed out of his robes and put on normal casual clothes, then he took out the things he needed to see if the philosopher's stone really could do what the book claimed. He had his written instructions already and took out the copy of the book and read them over again, just to quadruple check that he had written them properly.

He unwrapped the pewter cauldron and read the written instructions again, then he unwrapped the brown cloth bundle. Unlike with the potion creation where he could hold it with the cloth, he would have to touch the stone with his hands directly. He needed to share his magic with it, just as if he was apparating. He had to let it encompass the metal to be changed as well and then say the chant to change the metal to gold.

Harry spent several minutes calming his mind and preparing for the spell, just as if he was using the copy spell, then he touched the blood red stone for the first time. It was warm to the touch and not cold like he thought it would be. When he shared his magic with it, it glowed slightly, showing that his magic wasn't rejected or not compatible. He smiled and touched the cauldron and let his magic cover the object. He concentrated on letting the stone do its work and said the chant.

The cauldron immediately started to glow with a gold light that seemed to seep through it from the point where the philosopher's stone touched it. It was like when you put a drop of water onto a piece of paper. It spread out from a single point and soaked in. Harry could feel the magic sinking into the cauldron as it slowly turned into gold.

After two minutes, which was the same time that the Geminio spell took to make a copy of a book, the once pewter cauldron was now solid gold. The stone's glow disappeared and Harry felt a little tired, just like he had when first using the complicated copy spell. He looked at the stone in his hand and he wondered if repeated use would let him build up his resistance, just like the copy spell did.

It didn't tire him out anymore to make a copy of a book for Hermione. She absolutely loved it that he would shrink them into almost paperback novel sizes for her, too. She had excellent eyesight and the smaller print didn't bother her at all. There was also no way for her to mix the original and the copies up, even if Harry didn't mark them as copies.

Harry packed everything up and put it away and left out the cauldron. Now that he had it and everyone had seen him getting a package that morning, he would have to show them what it looked like. He was a bit nervous, because if they believed he actually ordered it, they would think that he was wasting his money on something that had no real value besides brewing potions.

He hoped that his friends would understand that he didn't do that; but, he was still nervous about it. At least, he was until he realized that all he had to do was make more and give them to his friends. He chuckled as he wrote out an order for three more cauldrons... no, four... no, five. He had Hermione, Neville, Susan, Ron, and possibly Lavender. She would definitely want one when she saw Neville with one.

Harry would have to wait to give them out until after his plan was completed, though. He didn't want to give himself away, because no one would be stupid enough to spend all that money and then give away five solid gold cauldrons. He added that he wanted them shrunk for easy delivery, then folded the order up and had a really odd idea. He wasn't sure why he had it, considering what had been going on between them.

He opened up the parchment and next to the five standard size 2 cauldrons, he added one large cauldron to the order. There was only one person in the entire school that would use a large cauldron for potion making, because an identical one sat on the shelf right behind Professor Snape's desk.

Harry also wrote out letters to both Bertha and Amelia to let them know what went on at the school that week, especially about Neville's encounter with his Gran the Sunday before, then sealed them and the order in separate envelopes. He went to the window and leaned out to see Hedwig fly over.

“Hi, Hedwig.” Harry said as she swooped in. “I've got letters for Amelia and Bertha, and an order for 6 cauldrons from Potage's Cauldron Shop.”

“Hoot!” Hegwig said.

Harry chuckled as he guessed what she was saying. “Shrunken, of course. You're the best delivery owl in Britain; but, even you are limited by the size of things you can carry.”

“Hoot.” Hedwig said and he gave her belly feathers a gentle stroke as he put the right amount of money into her leg pouch.

“I should buy more owl treats, too.” Harry said and wrote out a quick note for two large packages. He added the money to her pouch and gave her all four envelopes. “Thanks a lot, Hedwig.”

Hedwig touched his face with a wingtip and then dove out of the window.

Harry leaned out and watched her swoop down close to the ground and shoot off into the sky. “We have to try that together sometime!”

The door to the dorm room opened and Ron, Neville, Dean, and Seamus piled in with their potions equipment.

“Who are you yelling at?” Ron asked as he put his things on top of his trunk.

“Hedwig.” Harry said and closed the window. “She just did a great ground swoop and took off.”

“Wow, really?” Ron asked and darted over to the window to see Hedwig in the distance. “She dropped from here to the ground?” He asked, surprised. “Is she crazy?”

“No, she does it all the time.” Harry said and turned back to his bed... to see Neville, Dean and Seamus staring at the solid gold cauldron that he had left on his bed.

“It's not real, is it?” Dean asked in a whisper. “Tell me it's not real.”

Ron turned from the window to see the same thing. “BLIMEY!” He yelled and darted over to it. He tried to pick it up and grunted at the weight of the thing. “It's... real.” He said and lifted it up about a foot and then dropped it. “There's no way you're carrying that to potions class.”

“Forget carrying it!” Seamus said. “How much money did he waste on buying the thing?”

Ron, who had been getting money from Harry all week for pretty much nothing, had to defend Harry's odd spending habits. “Hey, it's his money. If he wants a potion enhancing cauldron to try and rub it in Snape's face, I'm all for it.”

A gold cauldron does that? Harry asked himself.

“I doubt that having potions finish earlier and stronger is worth getting a solid gold cauldron!” Seamus exclaimed.

“Are you kidding?” Neville asked. “I would have finished the last potion and not gotten 'Dreadful' if I had one of them.”

Seamus looked like he was going to keep arguing, then Dean took his arm and shook his head. They both looked at the gold cauldron and looked at Harry, then both shook their heads slightly and went to their own beds to put their things away.

“No wonder you didn't want to open this at breakfast this morning.” Ron said and sat next to it. “The whole school would have freaked out about it.”

“You're not.” Harry said and looked at Neville. “Neither are you.”

“I kind of expect new and slightly scary things now.” Neville said with a smile.

Harry had to smile, because Neville had been secretly scared of the ghosts and being able to fight them off was something he was very grateful for. His Patronus charm was coming along well, too.

“I've seen my brothers do a lot of weird things, especially my older brother Bill.” Ron said. “He's a Curse Breaker for Gringotts.”

“He's a what?” Harry asked.

“The goblins love gold, in case you didn't know that.” Ron said, which made Harry and Neville laugh. “Bill's a wizard they pay to enter old tombs, mausoleums, and ruins to search for treasure.”

“You're kidding!” Harry exclaimed.

“Nope! He's one of their top earners, too.” Ron said, a bit happy to have an audience. “In fact, he told me about one time...”

Harry sat down on the other side of the cauldron and Neville sat down on the floor in front of them. They both listened to Ron spin a tale of action, adventure, danger, and treasure.

Sometime later, Hermione's extremely loud voice interrupted the end of the story. “HARRY! IT'S TIME FOR SUPPER!”

The others let out yells and shouts of surprise and Harry burst out laughing.

“Blimey, what the hell was that?” Ron asked and rubbed his ears to try and stop the ringing.

“I think it's suppertime.” Harry said and stood, helped Neville up from the floor, then tucked the gold cauldron into his trunk. He led Ron and Neville from the dorm room and down the stairs. “I can't believe you actually did it.”

Hermione was waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs with a huge grin. “I did warn you.”

“He didn't warn us.” Ron said a little loudly, because he couldn't quite hear right.

Harry smiled. “You can tell us the end of the story on the way to the Great Hall, since it's a long walk.” He said pointedly and Hermione and Neville understood that there would be no shortcuts this time.

They all went to the Great Hall and listened to the end of Ron's story about his brother Bill.