"Albus . . ." Severus said, barging into the headmaster’s office without knocking. Once he arrived, though, he stopped short. "No students hurt?" he asked.

"No, no students hurt. Many still frightened, but none hurt," Albus answered grimly.

"What happened?"

"We don’t know. The Chimaera is being held by the Ministry at the moment, and they are hoping to be able to track where it came from."

"Who . . ."

"Still unknown, Severus, and probably will continue to stay so. The entire situation appears untraceable. How is young Silas?"

"He appears fine, although . . . what happened between him and the Chimaera?"

"You did not see?"

"I was attempting to stop it. I was not looking at Silas at the time."

"Another mystery, I’m afraid. I was hoping . . ." Albus stopped, thinking. "I have a theory which has entered my mind after view the memory again. Perhaps you would like to see it? I would very much like to have your input."

Severus nodded and they both walked over to the old wizard’s pensieve.

"Headmaster," Severus said, stopping a few feet of the magical object. Dumbledore looked at him expectantly. "Surely you must have some idea how it happened . . ."

"You suspect Professor Trimdol," Albus stated.

"Yes," Severus agreed. "I don’t know how he would have access to a Chimaera, but he would be one who could control it. The Chimaera should not have been that difficult to control."

"I have no reason to suspect Trimdol at the moment, but please be aware that I have been keeping an eye on him."

"You have?"

"Yes, and for all I and the portraits can tell, he has not had contact with anyone outside the castle since he arrived here during the summer. He has been concentrating on his son. William does seem to be faring well, does he not?"

"Silas likes him," he answered distastefully. "But I do not trust him."

"As you do not trust all of the defense professors to pass through here, hmm?" Albus asked, shaking his head. "I will encourage you to keep an eye out, but that is all. Now, the memory?"

Severus cleared his mind as well as he could before taking the few steps to the pensieve and waving his wand slowly over the pool of memories.

"How . . . she . . ."

"Another ghost?" Severus nodded, realizing that Albus probably couldn’t see her. "I thought as much. It had a similar feeling to when Mikey was around. I feel it is the same force that brought the young ghost," Albus said, indicating that Severus should sit, but the younger wizard ignored the invitation.

"Accidental magic?"

"Perhaps. You have worked with Silas and his magic, correct?"

"All first term, and a little before the year started," Severus answered, and the headmaster gave a small chuckle.

"Yes, I remember. Did you feel anything . . . strong there? Stronger than other students his age?"

"He is very smart. He can grasp spells decently within a small period of time."

"But his power," Albus stressed. "Perhaps, if it is as I originally suspected and it is his accidental magic, he must have more power than I originally thought. For now, it seems to be involved in protecting him, but . . . if he gets angry instead of scared . . ."

"You think he could . . . unconsciously conjure something that could harm someone. Or himself. Like . . ."

"Like a Chimaera," Severus finished. "You think that he caused the magical creature to appear."

"I would like to think not," the headmaster answered. "But until we’re sure, perhaps you could teach him some Occlumency techniques."

"You think he conjured a Chimaera! How would he even know what that is? He has not even been in the magical world for a year yet. Most upper level students don’t know much about one, especially details about how the creature would act."

"You said it yourself: Silas is a very smart boy. He reads a lot, does he not?"

"He does have a few magical creature books," Severus relented.

"And it would explain why it did not respond to the spells. It was not entirely a Chimaera."

"And you think that Silas is a danger to students? He was not even in a bad or angry mood when the creature arrived."

"Mikey did not appear all at once, correct?"

"Silas," Severus said, as if he was remembering something. He did not bother to explain his thoughts, he merely left the office as quickly as he could without running. When he realized the students were all either in their dorms or in the hospital wing recovering from the terror, he started running without the fear of someone seeing him.

Entering his room, he was startled, despite, he reasoned, he expected her to be there.

"Lily," he said. It wasn’t a greeting, merely a recognition. She was currently sitting on the couch with Silas sitting in her lap.

"My baby," she said, ignoring the living adult in the room and rocking back and forth. Silas was nearly asleep.

"What are you doing here?" Severus asked sharply, remembering how possessive Mikey was. He hoped that this didn’t end in a similar fashion, especially since Silas was in her lap.

"You are taking care of my baby, my Harry?" she asked, addressing Severus. "I missed him so. I didn’t want to scare him, so I didn’t approach him until he needed me, but . . . my baby. My poor baby."

"He’s not a baby now. And his name is Silas. Silas Prince. Not Harry Potter," Severus replied flatly. Lily didn’t answer, just held Silas tighter and continued rocking.

"Silas?" Severus asked, trying to get his brother’s attention. "Silas, come here."

"Mmn," he replied, slowly opening his eyes. "Severus?"

"Yes, Silas, it is me. Come here, child, we need to talk about something."

Silas slowly was able to loosen Lily’s grip on him, and he walked to Severus.

"No, not Harry," Lily said. "Not my baby!" Silas stopped walking toward his brother, turning to face to ghost. Severus grabbed onto the first year’s shoulder to prevent him from walking away from him. Just as Harry was about to get loose, crying for seemingly no other reason than because his ‘mum’ was crying, the life left the ghost’s eyes, and she fell to the ground, then disappeared in a swirl of colors. Severus sighed.

So they are leaving as they died the first time, he concluded, wondering what would happen if Silas were with them as they ‘died’. He didn’t wish to find out.

"Mum?" Silas asked, crying silently where he stood. Severus gave his a small hug before sitting him in a chair away from the couch, where Lily was holding Silas.

"You okay, Silas?" he asked, and the boy nodded slowly.

"Why . . . why are they all showing up only to die again?" Silas asked, still crying.

"Silas . . ." he began. "The headmaster has a theory. He believes that it could be your accidental magic that is causing the ghosts to come. Both came when you were very scared of something, and both helped you a bit . . . but I still believe it could be dangerous if you are with them when they ‘die’ again."

"Wait . . . so . . . I am making them come?"

"Unconsciously. Like how you appeared on the roof. But I want to teach you to control your emotions and clear your mind, so you would be less likely to cause another one to appear. We don’t know if it really is accidental magic." Severus explained, deciding to keep the Chimaera out of it. It was all speculation, anyway.

"Okay," Silas agreed.

"Good. We’ll start now. The easiest way to control your emotions to keep your thoughts clear of all thoughts except for what you are currently doing. Close your eyes and think about nothing but your breath going in and out of your nose and mouth," he instructed. He watched the boy attempt it for a few minutes before he spoke again. "Okay?"

"It’s hard," Silas said. "I keep thinking about other things."

"It takes practice. I want you to practice that before bed every day, when you find spare time on your hands, and when you begin to feel scared, excited, angry, or any other extreme emotion. I will be testing you in a week."

"How?" Silas asked.

"You will see. For now, just concentrate on keeping your mind clear."

"Okay," he replied slowly.

"Now, bed," Severus ordered, and Silas grumbled on his way to his dungeon room. Silas had to admit that the room was comfy, though. He liked it a lot better than his Ravenclaw dorm room, but not as much as he liked his room at home, although this room was set up in a similar manner. After getting into his pajamas, he snuggled under of his covers to sleep, not noticing Severus hovering in the doorway.

"Did you read the Daily Prophet?" Draco asked Silas a week later as the Chimaera incident started to fade. The Ministry refused to release any information on what happened to the Chimaera, but the rumors were that it was transferred to the Department of Mysteries (no one would explain to Silas what that was exactly), but since he was sure the rumor was started by the Weasley twins, Silas and most of the students doubted it.

After Silas’ close encounter with the Chimaera, the students who accused Silas of making the potions master angry apologized to him, and Silas reluctantly accepted it, mostly because he didn’t want the other students to dislike him. He had enough of that in primary school. He wasn’t sure why it took them that long to apologize, though. Still, it hurt that they did accuse him.

"No," Silas replied. "Do I want to?"

"Maybe," Stephan said, taking the paper from Draco’s hands and tossing it at him. Ignoring his two friends, who were looking expectantly at him, he browsed the paper. He didn’t come across anything of interest until he got a few pages in.

Turning the page to make sure that was it, Silas signed and folded the paper, handing it back to Draco.

"It’s not really a big deal," Draco assured him. "There are articles like that in there every year or so. Usually when Potter hadn’t been sighted for a while."

"I used to get strangers greet me and give me stuff when I was younger. Could that pertain . . ."

"Most likely," Stephan said, looking slightly jealous.

Silas shrugged, poking at the pie that was sitting on his dessert plate, not really that hungry anymore. Could they somehow track him down as Harry Potter? His scar was pretty well hid now, so unless someone did a counter spell to take down the illusion, they couldn’t see it. But if everyone found out he was Harry Potter . . .

Silas shook his head. He didn’t want anyone to find out. So many strangers came up to him whenever he went out of the house, it was scary. If that was how he was treated in the muggle world, where only a few wizards hung about, it was bound to be much worse in the wizarding world. No, he preferred being known for being good in his studies, for being Severus’ little brother, and for being accident-prone. At least he didn’t have the entire wizarding world on his tail at the moment.

"I need to go find Severus," he said, realizing the time. "He’s going to see if I can clear my mind well enough, or something like that." He explained to his two friends what Severus explained to him, a little more about Mikey and what happened with his mum (just because she wasn’t his mother by blood, didn’t mean that she wasn’t his mum), and how they were connect. Both agreed that clearing his mind would be good.

"We’ll see you later, Silas," Draco said, and Stephan nodded, and they both pushed their plates away and cleared a space on the table so they could play a game with their chocolate frog wizard cards.

Silas found his brother in his office immediately, grading papers.

"Are you caught up in you classes, now?" Severus asked as soon as he entered.

"Yeah. I mean, yes, I am. Grading papers?"

"Yes. Sit down. As soon as I am done with the fifth year papers, I will test you," he said shortly, and Silas sat down in a chair on the edge of the room, choosing not to sit right across from his brother.

Bored, Silas looked around the office. Severus kept many ingredients for potions in his office. He remembered that Severus told him once that he had the biggest store in Hogwarts, and probably more than most potions masters. It was an upside of working at the best magic school in the area, he had said.

Silas jumped as whatever was in the jar he was looking at moved.

"It’s alive?" Silas asked, pointing to the jar of the orange-ish looking liquid. The . . . things . . . were no longer moving.

"Toadpole used in potions usually need to be fresh."

"Tadpoles? As in baby frogs? They don’t look like tadpoles. Are they . . ."

"No, toadpoles. Those are adults. There are . . . babies, to use the word you used, in the jar next to it, and eggs in the jar next to that."

"Ew," Silas stated, choosing to look at other jars, preferably ones that weren’t living. That must be horrible, being alive for the sole purpose of being a potion ingredient. Thankfully, none of the jars he looked at seemed to be alive. Nothing blinked at him or swam, anyway. Still, the jars of dead things all around the office were slightly unsettling. He wondered why he didn’t notice it much before.

Probably because I was always busy while in here, he figured.

"Finished," Severus announced, putting the paper aside. "Now, you remember how I told you once that – if necessary – I would be able to see your memories? I am going to cast a charm that will allow me to see some of your memories. It will be your job to keep me out. It will not be so hard if you practiced as I had instructed you to. Close your eyes and clear your mind. I will give you a few minutes."

"So, to block my mind, all I have to do is clear it?" Silas asked, curious. He had heard of references to this type of thing in a few runes books he had read, but it wasn’t much.

"No. Blocking me entirely from your mind, in addition to a few other objectives, would be called Occlumency. At this time, I am teaching you how to keep your mind clear. It will protect you against subtle attacks and the use of the legilimancy spell, but if anyone tries to force their mind into yours, keeping your mind clear would be very little resistance."

"Oh," Silas answered. "Are you going to teach me Occlumency sometime, then?"

"When you are older. The situation does not call for it now, but perhaps in a few years. It is a very difficult task to master. Now, clear your mind. I will not remind you again."

Glaring at his older brother, Silas closed his eyes and breathed deeply. A few minutes later, he opened his eyes to find his brother looking at him intently. Before Silas could process what was happening, Severus pointed his wand at him.

"Legilimens," he said quietly.

"No!" Silas yelled, and he felt Severus leave his mind.

"Good for the first try, but your mind wasn’t clear enough. Your emotions are still hanging on your consciousness too freely."

"I practiced!" Silas said, angry. "I really did."

"I do not doubt that, Silas. I was telling you that you need to keep practicing. We will try again in a week."

"Okay," Silas sighed, giving his brother a confused look as Severus guided him to the desk chair.

"Silas, what has been bothering you? Are you still worried about Mikey? Or was it Lily?"

"I . . . well, kinda," Silas started, and Severus didn’t bother to correct him. Instead, he pulled up another chair and sat across from him. "But . . . what will happen if they find out that I’m Harry Potter?"

"This again?" Severus asked.

"Well, there was that article in the Daily Prophet today. Did you see it?" Silas asked, looking up at his brother, worried. "What if they really do start looking and find me? There are people who know, you know."

"Yes, I know. But the protections will not allow anyone but you, me, and a few other people to say anything about it. They would have to find specific documentation or see your scar."

"But it’s still possible, right?"

"Yes, it is still possible." Silas looked down at his lap, playing with the hem of one of his sleeves. "But do not worry about that now. If it happens, which I find very unlikely as I set up the precautions myself, we will deal with it then. Even then, I am sure the hype would not last very long, as you would be known as Silas, not Harry."

"I don’t know," Silas whined, and Severus gave him a look.

"Just don’t worry about it, now. The more you think about it, the better the chance that you will reveal something about it yourself. Yet another reason to keep your mind clear," Severus said quietly, almost dangerously, and Silas felt compelled to nod. It was rare that he heard that tone of voice from Severus, and this was the first time toward him. Slowly, he built up his courage.

"Is something wrong?" Silas asked his brother, who had started to look through some papers in a draw in his desk. He didn’t stop until he pulled out a small book and put it in one of his pockets.

"Just worried, Silas, that is all."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," he snapped, then sighed. "I need to speak with the headmaster, Silas. Go find your friends, and remember to keep your mind clear, understand?" Severus asked, and Silas nodded, getting up and walking past his brother. He left the office without saying anything more, confused.

Monday morning, still exhausted from a sleepless night, Silas was sitting at the Ravenclaw table studying for the small exam that he forgot about until the night before. Worst part was that it was potions. Sure, he knew most of the potions that the exam was on, he wasn’t ready for it. Not as well as he should be, especially for one of Severus’ exams. He really didn’t want to risk doing horrible on a potions exam, particularly with the way that he acted on Saturday. Something was wrong that he wasn’t telling.

Silas ignored the owls that fluttered in for mail, not expecting anything. After all, all his friends were at Hogwarts, and he didn’t know anyone outside of Hogwarts besides the muggles from when he lived with the Dursleys.

That’s why he was surprised when one of the school owls landed in front of him and held out his leg with a letter on it. Confused, he took the letter.

It was on a single piece of parchment, no envelope, and his name was written in flowery letters in purple ink. Slowly, he opened it, wondering who had written him.

"What is it?" Stephan asked, also going through his notes.

"Dumbledore wants to meet me for lunch," Silas answered, looking at the head table. Dumbledore and a few other professors (the ones that were looking at him) gave him a smile, and Severus gave a nod. "And I think they were talking about me," he whispered to his friend, turning back to his notes and pretending to study.

"Who?"

"The professors. When I looked at the head table, they all smiled at me."

"Scary."

"Yeah," Silas answered.

"So, are you going?"

"I have no choice, do I?" Silas asked roughly.

"Well, what’s so bad about that? He is the headmaster."

"That’s the point. He doesn’t usually invite students for lunch, does he?"

"Well, it’s probably because your brother is working for him. I’d go if I were you."

"I told you, I don’t have any choice. I don’t really want to, though," Silas said, and both students were quiet for the next few minutes, studying. Checking the time, Silas got up.

"I have to get to Runes. See you later."

"Bye," Stephan answered, switching his attention to his potions book.

A few hours later, Silas walked out of the potions classroom relieved. Turned out he did know everything he needed to know for the test. With that out of the way, he turned his attention to the meeting that was supposed to be happening . . . now.

Stalling, he dropped his book bag off in his room (in the dungeons to waste more time) before heading to the headmaster’s tower.

Just as he approached the gargoyle, it started turning and opening. Sighing, he stepped onto the magical escalator.

"Silas! How are you, my boy?" Dumbledore asked, hand waving toward the chair across from his desk. Silas sat down, smelling the food that was on the cleared desk.

"Okay," he said, eyeing the meat ravioli that was in one of the bowls in front of him.

"Oh, yes. Ravioli is good, isn’t it?" Dumbledore asked, smiling. "Severus said it was one of your favorite foods."

"He knows I’m here?" Silas asked, looking up to see Dumbledore taking some food from the center plates.

"Go ahead and serve yourself, Silas. Yes, Severus knows you are he. In fact, he is the one who suggested I talk with you. He is worried, you know."

"He seems different now," Silas replied, trying to distract himself from the conversation by serving himself several huge pieces of ravioli.

"He has been looking for ways to protect you. Have you seen any more ghosts?"

"No. I mean, none that aren’t supposed to be around."

"Of course," Dumbledore replied with a small chuckle. "A normal day does not go by without seeing several, does it not?"

"No. This is good! Why don’t we have ravioli more often here?" Silas asked, and Dumbledore gave him a small smile.

"You would have to ask the house elves about that. I have very little control over what they decided to serve."

"But they’re house elves. You could just tell them to make something. That’s what happens at Draco’s house."

"I prefer giving them free reign over food. They are the experts, after all," Dumbledore said, and Silas missed the odd look that he gave the young boy.

"Yeah. They do make really good food."

"That they do, that they do. So, I am assuming that you and Draco are really good friends?"

"Yeah. I mean, yes. He’s a little spoiled, but we try to ignore when he gets into those moods."

"We?" Dumbledore asked.

"Stephan and m. . . I," Silas answered, getting another chuckle from the old man for the self correction. "So . . . Severus isn’t angry at me?" he asked, figuring that if Severus wanted him to talk with Dumbledore, nothing was going to go wrong.

"No, he isn’t. Why would you think that?" Dumbledore asked.

"He’s been real . . . snappy lately," Silas answered.

"And he isn’t normally?"

"Not to me. To other people, yeah," he said, and Dumbledore chuckled . . . again. "What?"

"That must take some effort for him. He usually lets his anger out on others."

"Not me," Silas repeated. "He likes me. I think."

"Yes, of course he does. He cares very much about you," Dumbledore assured him.

They ate in silence, except for the music (classical?) that was playing from somewhere in the room, until Silas thought of something and spoke up.

"Isn’t it weird how each time the ghosts showed up, it was somehow connected to that room?" he asked, taking a hot croissant from the basket near his right.

"What room, Silas?" Dumbledore asked after he finished chewing.

"The one near the charms classroom. I first saw Mikey there, and he loved it there. That’s where he spent most of his time, when he wasn’t with me. And that’s where Mum brought me."

"Really?"

"Yes. Do you think it’s because I feel comfortable there? That my magic likes it there?"

"Perhaps," Dumbledore replied. "I will look into it."

"Okay," Silas said and they continued to eat in silence.

"Severus, what are you doing here?" Minerva asked, walking into the staff room. "Don’t you usually correct work in your office or classroom?"

"I am not correcting work. Albus left me some tomes on accidental magic to look through."

"For Silas?" she asked.

"Yes. The accidental magic theory of Albus’ seems a little far fetched."

"Accidental magic?" Minerva asked, confused.

"Albus has not filled you in?"

"He doesn’t talk much about Silas. What is this theory?"

"Albus believes that Silas’ accidental magic has been conjuring the ghosts when he gets overly scared or nervous, in addition to a few other . . . things. But from what all I can find, that takes power. Even more power than accidental apparation."

"Which he can do?"

"He did once," Severus replied, and Minerva thought for a bit.

"I don’t know. He stopped You Know Who when he was one year old. I wouldn’t doubt him being that powerful."

Severus gave her a small glare, but didn’t answer. As he continued to search through the book he was looking through, Minerva sat at the table in her usual spot and began working on preparing for her first year class next semester, knowing that arguing with Severus when he was in that type of mood was not a good thing.