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Harry had never been under the impression that any one of the Hogwarts houses was more popular than the rest. At breakfast on Thursday, he began to understand why he kept hearing constant whispers about Ravenclaw. The house in particular was almost mute during the meal - if anyone talked, it was mostly just the first years.

Some of the sixth and seventh years even looked rather distraught.

'What's going on? Harry asked as he sat beside Casey and across from a black-haired first year girl, Paige.

'Haven't you heard?' Paige whispered. 'Just wait. When the mail arrives, you'll see.' She seemed fearful to speak of it.

Perplexed, Harry looked at Casey and received a confused shrug in response.

They ate their breakfast quietly, and kept turning to glance at the Ravenclaw table. He saw several others doing the same, though mostly from Hufflepuff and Gryffindor. Most of the Slytherins preferred to keep to themselves. Harry was not the only one who was baffled. The professors at the staff table wore serious expressions and spoke in lower tones than usual, which caused Harry to worry.

When the owls finally swooped into the Great Hall, there was a mass of activity as people snatched at their Daily Prophet newspapers. Harry had one land in front of him, relieved his dad had subscribed him to it. He'd only wanted to read it like his dad did, but now Harry was glad to be kept updated on things going on in the Wizarding world.

The front page unsettled him instantly.

'What?' Harry gasped. 'Who's Mercy Tallwater?'

'Shhh!' One of the fifth years along the table hissed. 'Have a heart, you brat.' She frowned.

Harry had no idea what she was talking about. Having finished his breakfast, he got up and walked from the hall. Casey followed him. They were joined by Jack and Haylee, who had seen Harry leave the Slytherin table holding the paper they didn't get a copy of.

'Mercy Tallwater is a much-loved former Ravenclaw student who graduated from Hogwarts last term.' Harry read. 'It's reported that she was rarely heard from since then, despite her previous reputation of fast correspondence and exceptional responsibility.' He halted at a few words and glanced at the group.

They wore worried expressions, like he did, before Harry continued.

'It has been officially declared earlier this morning that she is missing.' Harry said, interrupted by Haylee's gasp.

'Missing?' Jack gulped. 'How?'

'It doesn't say.' Harry said.

He thought the article was really brief and short, considering the important information it was reporting.

'No wonder they're so quiet.' Casey looked over at the Ravenclaw table. 'She does seem to have been popular.'

'Mercy Tallwater...' Haylee whispered the name. 'Wait! She was head girl last year.' She nodded.

'Hey, yeah!' Jack nodded and saw the surprised looks on the other's faces. 'Oh, Haylee and I were playing chess Tuesday night and one of the prefects was asking the seventh years if they'd heard from her. No one had. We didn't think much of it, until now. Wow, so I wonder what happened? Did she run away or do you think...?'

He seemed afraid to say it.

'Someone took her?' Casey added bluntly. 'It's possible. If she was that reliable, I doubt she'd just run away.'

'Unless she had a really good reason to.' Harry added in a quiet tone.

The bell rang to signal the start of their lessons for the day. The topic was dropped, and he folded the newspaper to shove it into his bag. The group stepped out of the path of those leaving the Great Hall, and soon parted ways. Harry and Jack headed to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom for their first lesson.

'You've got to be kidding me!' Jack groaned when they got to the room and saw Logan waiting nearby.

'Just ignore him.' Harry advised.

They took their seats near the back of the room, on the opposite end of Logan. The other boy noticed them, but with the safe distance between them he instead ignored the pair entirely. Jack and Harry were very relieved.

When Professor Lockhart made his dramatic entrance, and smiled about how lucky they were to have him as their professor, the boys instantly realised the man was a bit of a joke. Lockhart commented about having the book list requests denied, which many of the male students were glad about, and therefore he decided they would spend their first lesson listening to him read exerts from one of his books. While most of the girls didn't seem to mind, the rest of the class soon thought the lesson was almost as boring as a History of Magic class with droning ghost Professor Binns.

-- 

'What a load of rubbish!' Jack complained, as he and Harry left the class a two hours later. 'And our homework is a quiz on what he'd just read to us? How is any of that going to help us?' He whined.

'I know.' Harry said grumpily. 'And it's a double lesson. It's torture! I've got Charms now, though. Meet you outside after lunch?'

'Yeah, alright.' Jack sighed and they parted ways.

Harry clutched his Charms textbook to his chest, as he walked down the corridors, and headed for his next class. Exhaling, he walked inside and took his usual seat between Casey and Haylee.

'What's with you?' Casey asked. 'You look like you've spent an hour staring at a wall.'

'Feels like it.' Harry grunted. 'Defence Against the Dark Arts is stupid. Professor Lockhart had us listen to him read his book – for two hours!'

'That sucks, mate.' Casey shook his head with sympathy. 'We had the same too.'

'I thought it was rather interesting.' Haylee said. 'I don't see why everyone is complaining about it.'

'You're a girl.' Harry said, which Casey nodded his head to in understanding.

Haylee didn't want to know what they were implying, and lowered gaze to flip a page of the book she was reading.

'What are you doing?' Harry wondered, glancing towards where Professor Flitwick was writing notes on the board. There were still a few minutes until the lesson was actually due to start, which Harry was proud to notice because it meant he had shown up early.

'I'm just checking something about...' Haylee paused and looked around, seeing a Ravenclaw girl nearby whispering to another. 'About the girl in the paper.'

She too had realised that saying Mercy Tallwater's name caused rather scolding and upset reactions amongst certain students.

'Are you still on about that?' Casey rolled his eyes. 'Come on, we don't even know her. People have gone missing before.'

'Well excuse me for caring.' Haylee frowned at him.

Harry to lean back, so he wasn't caught in the middle, since they were seated on either side of him.

'I just don't understand what happened and why everyone says she was so popular.'

'What do you mean?' Harry looked at her while Casey made a noise of defeat beside him.

'It just doesn't add up that everyone is talking about how popular, and well-liked, she was by her whole house and a lot of her classmates.' She shared. 'I asked the Fat Friar. He said she was actually a bit shy and kept to herself most of the time.'

'Who's the Fat Friar?' Harry wondered.

'The Hufflepuff ghost.' Haylee was surprised he hadn't heard of him. 'Don't you talk to your ghost?'

'No.' Said Casey and Harry at once.

'Oh.' Haylee shrugged. 'Oscar gave me that look too. Maybe it's just a Hufflepuff thing?' She glanced back to the book.

'Why do you even care so much?' Casey scoffed. 'It's not like you knew her, or can do anything about it.'

'I wasn't going to look into it.' Haylee cast him a glare. 'But everyone is talking about her. Besides, I'm not the only one. A second-year Gryffindor girl and her red-haired friend were leaving the library talking about it too. She said how strange it was for the Daily Prophet to say she's missing, but give no other details.'

'It was a bit weird.' Harry agreed. 'Except Casey's right, there's nothing we can do about it.'

'Yeah, I suppose.' Haylee sighed and snapped the book closed.

As their Charms lesson began, Harry's mind stopped focusing about Mercy Tallwater and wondering what might have happened to her. He even made it through lunch without thinking about what Haylee had said, until he was sitting outside with Jack and pondered on the topic of their house ghosts.

'Have you seen one?' Harry asked Jack, after he'd shared what Haylee told him during Charms. 'Apparently we were supposed to see them during the feast.'

'I'm glad we didn't.' Jack shuddered. 'But no, I haven't seen any other than Professor Binns. Aren't they supposed to be everywhere?'

'Yeah.' Harry frowned. 'Your house ghost sounds friendly enough. Maybe mine is too? I wonder if I'll get to see him.'

'Are you mad?' Jack gasped. 'They're ghosts! Scary animated dead people, remember? I still feel nervous about Professor Binns, and you want to go find another one?'

'Aren't you a bit curious?' Harry asked. 'They're scary, I know. But we'll have to get used to them sooner or later, if we're going to spend seven years here.'

'Yeah.' Jack sighed. 'I was worried about that. I guess it would be kind of cool to see more ghosts, as long as we don't get too close. Where could we look for one?'

'Anywhere.' Said a voice from nearby.

They turned around quickly, and relaxed when they saw Ginny standing there with an intrigued smile on her face.

'I asked my brothers and they said the ghosts are seen later in the day or at night. Percy, he's a prefect, said they're just helping Dumbledore with something and will be floating around everywhere again in a week or two.'

'Great.' Jack muttered sarcastically. 'What are they helping Dumbledore with?'

'I don't know.' Ginny shrugged, sitting down to join them. 'I've only seen Nearly Headless Nick.'

'Nearly Headless...?' Jack stared, while Harry turned a bit pale.

'He's the Gryffindor ghost. Fred told me about some of the others, though. The Slytherin one is the Bloody Baron - they said he's covered in blood. The Ravenclaw one is hardly ever seen, but everyone calls her the Grey Lady.'

'I don't want to meet your ghost anymore, Cody.' Jack shuddered.

'They're just ghosts, right?' Harry asked Ginny nervously. 'They can't hurt us?'

'I don't think so, no.' Ginny said. 'Well, except for Peeves. He's a poltergeist. Why are you so scared of them, anyway?'

'I'm not scared!' Jack said adamantly in a not-at-all-brave voice. 'I just, uh, don't want to make them angry.'

'Sure.' Ginny rolled her eyes and looked at Harry for an explanation.

'It's a muggle thing.' He told her, unable to think of another way to explain movies to a witch or wizard who hadn't grown up in the Muggle world. 'We're trying to overcome it.'

'And what better way to do that than to find one?' Ginny smirked. 'C'mon, we've got two hours before dinner.'

'What?' Jack stared. 'Are you serious?'

It became very clear that Ginny was serious with her suggestion.

Harry and Jack looked at each other and decided they should face their fear properly before Hogwarts had ghosts everywhere in a week, like she'd told them. With their silent agreement, the two boys stood and followed Ginny back to the castle. She led them to the Grand Staircase, then the fourth floor as a place to start looking.

'Do you really think we'll find one?' Harry whispered even if they were the only ones in the corridors - not including the nosy people in the portraits on the walls around them.

'Maybe.' Ginny shrugged.

'So we could just walk around for ages and not find anything?' Jack groaned. 'That sounds boring. If our houses have a ghost, can't we call them or something? Or do they have a favourite place?'

'I don't know.' Ginny thought about it. 'We could ask one of my brothers.'

'How many brothers do you have?' Jack wondered, as they re-directed to head towards the library.

'Four at Hogwarts.' Ginny answered with a shrug. 'Six in total.'

'Wow.' Jack, who only had one older brother, found that to be rather surprising.

Harry already knew this about Ginny, so he didn't say anything. He remained quiet and listened to Jack asking Ginny a few questions, though he wasn't really paying attention. He could not help wondering if weird things were just happening at the same time, or if the rare sightings of the ghosts had anything to do with the missing former head girl.

The trio entered the library, and Ginny looked around for one of her brothers. Jack and Harry took in the sight of the room, as this was the first time they had been to the library. It was much bigger than they could have imagined.

'I won't ask Ron.' Ginny decided.

She spoke to them in a low voice, looking towards a table where Ron was flipping through pages of a big book and looked really bored. Beside him was a fast-talking girl with bushy hair. Harry was reminded of what Haylee had said and wondered if they were the same two Gryffindors she'd overheard.

'I'll ask George.' Ginny nodded and approached another section of the library where one of the twins was taking notes from a book. She seemed a bit surprised to see him there, though quickly guessed his research was not school-related.

'Hey, Ginny.' George said without looking up. 'I think someone cursed the library. Ron's over there reading, I'm here, and Percy's somewhere by the boring section. School stuff, I think. And now you're here too. That's four Weasleys, which is probably the most this library has ever seen at once.' He joked.

'I didn't know you or Ron even knew what a library was.' Ginny teased. 'And I'm not here for a book. We were looking for you.' She said.

'It's a place with more books than anyone would ever want to read, right?' George smirked and looked up, his gaze instantly going to Harry. 'Who's the Slytherin?' He frowned a little.

'He's my friend.' Ginny said firmly, while Harry fidgeted uncomfortably. 'This is Cody and Jack. We were talking about the ghosts and how no one's really seen them lately. We thought it would be interesting to find one.'

'And not because we're scared of them or anything.' Jack added nervously, looking up at the fourth year Gryffindor.

'Right.' George seemed amused by Jack's words. 'And so you thought I'd be the best one to help you?'

He was surprised, but shrugged and tried to think of where they might find a ghost.

'I'm not sure. I've never seen so few ghosts at Hogwarts, ever. Except Nearly Headless Nick, who hangs around our common room sometimes. Have you tried the Fat Friar? I heard he's more sociable than most these days.' George spoke mostly to Jack with his last question, since Jack was a Hufflepuff.

'A girl from my house tried that.' Jack answered. 'Isn't there any place we could all see one?'

'You know something's going on when finding a ghost at Hogwarts becomes a challenge.' George shook his head. 'Well, I suppose you could check the sixth floor. There's a corridor with a witch's portrait. I don't know her name, but she always wears a silly feather hat.' He rolled his eyes. 'Fred and I came across a ghost there on more than one occasion in the last few days, when we were innocently strolling along the sixth floor with no ill-intentions what-so-ever.' He smiled and looked away, which they all chuckled at.

'What were they doing?' Harry asked curiously.

'Floating. Gossiping.' George shrugged. 'What do ghosts really do, anyway?

'Thanks!' Ginny grinned, and urged the boys out of the library.

'Sure. Just watch out for...' George sighed as they vanished from view. 'Peeves.' He finished with a shrug and returned to his book, keeping a stern eye out for Madam Pince or worse, Percy.

--

After taking a few wrong turns and nearly walking into the same suit of armour twice, the three first years hurried into the sixth floor corridor George had mentioned.

'That is one silly hat.' Jack agreed.

He stared at the portrait of a witch with a huge bunch of feathers attached to her hat. She heard him and looked rather offended, to which he only shrugged at.

'I don't see any ghosts.' Harry exhaled with disappointment.

When George said he had seen some ghosts more than once in the corridor, Harry had expected to find a group of them floating around when they'd arrived. All that faced them were a few portraits and a long, empty corridor with tall maroon tapestries.

Even with all the emptiness, the area seemed a little too quiet.

'Well, this was a waste of time.' Jack exhaled loudly.

Harry and Ginny looked at each other nervously, receiving confirmation that the other had felt it too. Jack fell quiet as he began to feel it as well. The air became colder and a brief gush of wind came from a nearby wall.

'Agh!' Jack cried out when, all of the sudden, something hit him on the head. Looking down, they saw a book lying open on the floor.

A cackle was heard and a man appeared floating above them.

'Oh look, ickle firsties!' Exclaimed Peeves with delight, his arms filled with books.

He sent one towards Harry, who knocked into Ginny when he tried to avoid it. He was not so lucky the next time, as a heavy book landed on his toe.

'Ouch!' Harry hopped. 'I thought ghosts couldn't hurt us!'

'That's...' Ginny gasped. 'Peeves!'

'RUN!' Jack yelled, as more books flew at their heads.

The ducked and ran as fast as they could, turning sharply around a corner and crying out when they each collided with a suit of armour. It came cluttering down about them. Somehow, the pieces had only hit Jack's knee and landed on Harry's already-sore foot.

The three first years sat there, out of breath and in shock, as they listened to Peeves laughing in the distance.

'We go to find a ghost, and we get Peeves?' Jack finally broke the tense silence. 'That's bloody typical.'

'What's going on over here?' Came a new voice, one who sounded angry and looking for someone to blame for all the noise.

'Filch!' The trio gasped at once and were still unable to move. Doing so would make a lot of noise and the caretaker was yet to actually discover them.

Maybe if they stayed quiet and still, Filch might not find them?

Harry should have realised their mistake when he felt a breeze in his ear again.

SPLAT!

A bottle of red ink hit a nearby wall, leaving behind a big red smear at the contact.

SPLAT! SPLAT!

More ink bottles hit walls around them. The three friends knew Filch would find them for sure. Once again evading the cackling Peeves, they shoved aside pieces of armour and helped each other up. Harry led the way, as they took off at a run towards another direction. Heading down stairs and around corners, none of them knew where they were going to end up, but did not care as long as they got away from Peeves and Filch.

Each leaning against a stone wall, the three eleven-year-olds gasped for air and felt they could not go any further. Ginny had some ink in her hair and Harry was trying to use his robes to wipe some off his wrist, with no luck.

'We just had to go find a ghost.' Jack muttered to himself. 'What's the worst that could happen with an idea like that?'

'At least we found one.' Harry rolled his eyes.

'The worst one!'

'Quiet!' Ginny hissed. 'I think I hear someone coming!'

They each stared transfixed towards the corner, fearful of Filch rounding it and of them being in a lot of trouble. Instead, however, a Ravenclaw boy from their class emerged and halted at the sight of them.

'What?' Conner asked. He looked around worriedly for whatever had them so on edge.

'Did you see Filch?' Harry asked quickly.

'No.' Conner frowned. 'Should I have?'

Not another word was spoken, as Mr Norris came into view and meowed at them with a smug expression on her furry face. Her owner was right behind her, glaring at the group with a very displeased expression.

'Got you!' Filch said with sadistic eagerness. 'Think you could escape, eh? Not this time. I saw the mess you made on the walls, and the floor. I'll have you all in big trouble for this.' He smirked. 'Come on!'

Filch directed them towards some stairs, intending to take them to a Professor's office.

'What?' Conner yelped. 'I didn't do anything!'

'Try telling that to the Professor.' Filch clearly did not believe him.

Harry looked at Conner's stricken face and felt bad for the other boy, as he dragged his feet after Filch and wondered what sort of horrible fate awaited them. Harry could tell right away Filch was not going to believe anything they said. He decided not to mention Peeves until they were faced with a Professor.

'He really didn't do anything.' Harry did try to add some credibility to Conner's words, which the Ravenclaw looked very relieved for. 'He just found us before you did.'

'Rubbish.' Filch said.

No one was feeling too brave when they saw who would be dealing with their punishment for something that wasn't even their fault. Harry, Ginny, and Jack all tried to explain to Professor McGonagall at once about how Peeves had thrown books and ink bottles at them.

She didn't seem very impressed by their sincerity or the tale itself.

'And what were you all doing wandering around the sixth floor half an hour before dinner?' McGonagall asked in a stern tone.

'Uhm, well...' Harry blushed. 'We were sort of...looking for a ghost, Professor.' He ducked his head.

McGonagall didn't know what to think of that. Instead, she had the four first years follow her and asked Filch to show her the mess they'd made.

'I suppose Peeves somehow made the suit of armour collapse as well?' She inquired, looking firmly at their guilty expressions.

'Er, no.' Jack muttered. 'That was us.'

'I see.' McGonagall sighed. 'And since you have no evidence that Peeves was the cause behind this, I'm afraid I have no choice. You will each receive a detention.'

'What?' Ginny gasped.

'That's so not fair!' Jack added.

'I didn't do anything!' Conner joined in.

Harry was very quiet.

He ducked his head and looked down at his feet. The boy felt guilty and annoyed, but also fearful. It was only Thursday, during his first week at Hogwarts, and he had received a detention. It didn't matter that they hadn't really done anything wrong because McGonagall was right – they weren't able to prove otherwise. He felt ashamed, and worried what his parents will think when they heard. He didn't hear when their detention would be or if any house points were taken, as Harry turned to trail behind the others to depart the corridor.

The group soon arrived at the Great Hall where dinner had just started. Without a word to each other about what happened, they each headed for their own house tables. Harry sat down with a miserable sigh. He didn't even greet Casey, who wondered why he looked so glum.

Harry, as much as he missed his parents, was not looking forward to their reactions when they discovered he had been at Hogwarts barely a week and already landed himself in detention.

The first years previously heard about their upcoming flying lesson, which would take place on the second Thursday of the month, however a rather exciting notice was hung in their common rooms on Friday morning. Madam Hooch, for an unspecified reason, was holding the flying lesson that afternoon instead. Regardless of how eager most of the other first years were, Harry had trouble picking if he was more interested in learning to fly or attending his first Potions class that morning.

The enthusiasm faded when Harry, who had not heard from his parents at all after he'd sent them a letter, was feeling a bit non-committal towards both events. It was spurred by his realisation that what separated Potions lesson and flying lessons was another enduring Defence Against the Dark Arts class.

The prospects of spending Potions with Ginny and Casey, then learning to fly a broomstick, were not enough to make him think Friday was going to be a good day. He was a bit nervous when so many of his classmates seemed to have at least been on a broom before. Harry also hoped he wasn't going to be terrible at his dad's best subject. Those worries and thoughts were all Harry could focus on, as he made his way to the dungeons for his first Potions class.

He easily knew the way because it was just around the corner from the Slytherin Common Room.

Harry entered the darkened classroom and went to sit near the middle right beside Ginny, with Casey at his left. And he, rather unknowingly, had already caught the attention of Professor Slughorn.

He watched, with an inquisitive gaze, as the dark-haired boy walked with hunched shoulders and clutched his textbook to his chest. Harry sat down with a sigh, then struck up a conversation with the red-haired Gryffindor girl, and the professor could clearly see their established friendship. Slughorn remained preoccupied with observing the Slytherin boy with jet black hair, and smiled.

He'd heard some of the whispers and gossips that had spread through the school regarding that particular first year. And he'd heard enough to know the child was the son of Severus Snape. Slughorn was very pleased to have Harry in his class ,and was eager to see if he'd inherited Snape's talent for Potion-making. He saw a lot of Snape in the boy, who went by the name of “Cody Summers” for a reason unknown to Slughorn.

The child soon, much like Severus was known to, seemed to realise he was being watched by an instinctual prickling on the back of his neck. Slughorn had to quickly busy himself with papers when he looked away from the startling green eyes.

As Slughorn told the class a bit about Potions and the exact art it was, he could not help returning his interest to the curious boy who was busy taking notes. The professor wasn't sure what the child thought was so note-worthy, but Slughorn didn't comment. Cody was clearly a keen student, and he hoped to encourage that.

But those eyes...

'You may begin.' Slughorn announced once the instructions were on the board, along with the page number for those wishing to use the aide of their books as well.

He kept a stern eye on the class, but his attention mostly focused on the Snape boy. It had been a while since he'd mentally referred to anyone as that. Slughorn had not expected to ever think it again after the death of Lily.

And yet the boy had her eyes.

To many others, they would see the similar shade and general resemblance, but Slughorn knew better. The number of times he had see her eyes in seven years of teaching - he could not mistake them anywhere. The almond shape, emerald shine, and the expressions she formed with them. He was shocked because as far as Slughorn had heard, her precious baby boy had been missing for the last ten years. No one seemed to realise he was right here, in his Potions classroom, under the guise of being Snape's son.

At first Slughorn wondered if Lily had an affair, as the child seemed to be the son of Severus and Lily, but he hastily shook those thoughts from his mind.

The boy was clearly her son, to Slughorn, not just because of his eyes. It was the way Harry protectively kept his book away from the edge of the table in fear of it falling off, and yet showed no regard for the spillage from the cauldron or slimy ingredients nearby. He drummed his fingers lightly on the wooden surface of the table while he waited, and gripped the knife in the same way she used to - a little close to the blade and at a slightly tilted angle. Those were only a few of the things Slughorn noticed.

To the Head of Slytherin, those small habits made all the difference.

'You're showing excellent progress, Mr Summers.' Slughorn praised the boy when he passed by the cauldron. 'Two points to Slytherin.'

'Thank you, Sir.' Harry blushed and returned to his slicing.

He felt relieved, because if he concentrated on his careful actions any more he felt his brain was going to ache. He was so worried he'd mess his potion up, and make his dad disappointed, that Harry didn't notice he was being carefully watched by his Professor.

Harry didn't realise his secret had been discovered.

As Slughorn paced the room with a smile on his face, the professor had no intention to say anything about the delightful piece of information he was privy to. After what happened all those years ago, if Lily's son was alive and in the care of Severus Snape and a new mother...Slughorn thought the boy should be left in peace.

--

Harry bid farewell to Ginny after Potions class, and dreaded going to his next lesson. It was Defence Against the Dark Arts with Professor Lockhart. He was glad Jack was there, even if Logan was as well, although it was still barely enough to keep him from wanting to skip the lesson. It was so boring and pointless - Lockhart simply read them scenes from his books about things he'd accomplished. And the more he heard, the less convinced Harry was of the truth behind the tales. He could not picture someone like Lockhart being capable of any such brave and inspiring feats.

'We should be learning how to do that stuff, not hearing about it.' Jack grumbled beside Harry, who busied himself with doodling pictures of a snitch floating above a bubbling cauldron on his book.

The only time Harry looked up was when a Hufflepuff boy was called to the front to re-enact a scene for Lockhart and did rather poorly at it. With a sigh, Harry looked back down and shook his head with disbelief. After the week he'd had, Harry could not have imagined on Monday that he'd rather sit through a History of Magic lesson than something like Defence Against the Dark Arts.

When the class finally ended with the ring of the bell, Harry and Jack packed away their books and hurried from the room before Lockhart had the chance to say anything. They headed for the Great Hall and agreed to meet up for their spare time afterwards. Sitting at the Slytherin table with relief, Harry noticed Ian sitting across from him with a moody expression on his face.

'Hey.' Harry said, trying to be a bit friendly.

He felt awkward not greeting the other boy when they were seated so close. Ian nodded in response, and a minute later had risen from his seat to wander out of the hall.

Filling up on ham rolls, and fruit salad, Harry soon made his way outside to join Jack in a nearby courtyard. They lazed on the grass and stared up at the cloudy sky, allowing the time to pass in relaxation, but little chatter. It was quite peaceful, until they were joined by Ginny. She spent the last twenty minutes of free time complaining about her brothers. Apparently Ron was being annoying by asking her to play chess all the time, and Percy kept making countless comments about who she spent her time with.

It was then time for the group to head to their first flying lesson, which was only a five-minute walk from where they had been. Ginny wasn't as enthusiastic, since she'd ridden a broom many times before and even played games with her brothers over the summer.

However, Jack and Harry were rather excited and equally nervous.

Harry picked one side of the rows of first years badly assembled by house, and was glad when Jack stood to his right while Ginny was on the left. He looked around and caught sight of Haylee a little down the opposite row. She stood beside Oscar, and Conner was across from his fellow Ravenclaw. Harry didn't see any of his room-mates so far, but figured they were further down the line or hadn't arrived yet.

Madam Hooch strode towards them and bid the first years a good afternoon. They returned the greeting, and attentively watched her as she began to explain how they were going to fly the broomstick beside each of them. Harry looked down at his and noticed a few twigs sticking out in odd angles. He thought it was very different to the shiny new ones he'd seen in the store window at Diagon Alley.

'Hold your hand over the broom, and say “up”. Go on.' Hooch instructed.

'Up!' Harry said, alongside all the other first years. 'Whoa!' He gasped as the broom flew upwards to his waiting palm without hesitation.

Ginny and Jack's had done the same - so had Conner's and a giddy Hufflepuff girl with wide-brim glasses. They were the only ones Harry could see who had their brooms already, while the rest of the students kept trying and some were having no success at all.

Finally, after a short while, everyone had a broomstick in their hands.

Hooch taught them how to mount them, and corrected a few of those who were doing it wrong. Harry followed her instructions, as she said to grip them tightly so they didn't fall off the end. Jack took those words very seriously - his hands paled a little from the tight grip in fear of falling in mid-air.

'When I blow my whistle, I want each of you to kick off from the ground hard.' Hooch continued and raised the whistle towards her lips. 'Hold your broom steady, hover for a moment, and then touch back down. 3...2...1.'

She blew the whistle and several brooms either shot into the air or barely made it an inch off the ground. Harry kicked at the grass and felt an amazing feeling of freedom fill him inside as he rose into the air and the wind breezed around him. He didn't think to look at how anyone else was doing - Harry was flying! He smiled widely and continued to rise with natural motions.

Looking down, he saw Hooch was distracted with a Ravenclaw girl who was going a little too fast and straying from the group. Taking a chance, as he didn't want to land yet, Harry found it easy to direct his broomstick higher so he could overlook the grounds.

It was simply stunning.

Harry stared over the trees of the Forbidden Forest, caught the sight of the Quidditch Pitch in the distance, admired the tall and wide castle nearby, spotted older students wandering around the grounds in groups of three or four, caught a glimpse of the Weasley twins running from an angry-looking Gryffindor girl, and...

'What is that?' Harry frowned, looking back towards the forest.

He saw a parting some distance away. It was as though a clearing in the trees was shaped like a nearly perfect circle, which he didn't think was possible. The trees around it had odd shades of blueish leaves instead of green. Some even looked to be wilting as though they'd absorbed too much sunlight. Harry wasn't sure why it struck him as strange, or the fact he'd noticed it at all, but as someone who spent most of his life caring for plants and learning about them - he got a shiver at the sight of it.

'Mr Summers!' He heard Hooch call to him.

Frowning, Harry lowered and landed alongside the rest of his classmates.

Flying had been a wonderful experience and he was sad it was over so soon. Twenty minutes later, he was leading the way across the grounds with Ginny and Jack hurrying to keep up with him. They yelled at him to slow down and tried to figure out where he was taking them, but Harry had not said a word. He wanted to go to the forest and investigate, but knew it wasn't a good idea because it was probably forbidden for a reason.

No, his focus was on the Quidditch Pitch.

He'd overheard the Weasley twins mention something about the school brooms, and how they hid some behind an old tapestry in one of the changing rooms when the others had been replaced by newer models. He wasn't sure which one, but was determined to check them all. Jack and Harry finally found the tapestry of a meadow and checked behind it. Sure enough, there were five broomsticks stashed there. They looked rather worse for wear, but Harry didn't care.

'Oh.' Ginny realised what they were doing when Harry handed her a broomstick.

'Are you sure about this?' Jack asked, despite the eagerness in the way he'd accepted one as well.

'Why not?' Harry shrugged. 'We know how to fly now, and the only rule is that we're not allowed to own a broomstick. No one said we couldn't ride one.'

'Yeah, that's true.' Jack nodded, while Ginny shrugged and mounted her broom.

The three first years, without thinking that someone might be able to see them, rose into the air and flew around the Quidditch pitch with grins on their faces.

The freedom and delight of flying never faded. They flew and dove through the skies above the pitch for at least an hour. As it started getting dark, Ginny landed and waited for the boys to join her. Harry and Jack decided on a race before they returned to the ground, which resulted in Harry winning by a bare inch. The wind had whipped fast at their faces as they'd flown, which was why they hadn't heard Ginny frantically calling for to him to stop.

A moment later, they found out why.

'Mr Summers! Mr Bailey!' Came the angered and shocked voice of Madam Hooch. 'I expect each of you to land this instant!'

'Uh oh.' Jack gulped.

'Where did you get these brooms?' Hooch asked accusingly.

'We found them in the stands.' Harry lied quickly.

Jack and Ginny nodded, as though this wasn't new to them. They were surprised and impressed with how fast and convincingly Harry had come up with the lie. They thought he was trying to stay out of trouble, which was partially true, but really Harry was worried the twins would be the ones who were blamed if he told the truth.

Madam Hooch clearly didn't believe him.

She didn't say anything else as she took the broomstick from Ginny and told her to return to the castle. Harry and Jack were told to follow her. The colour drained from their faces when they discovered who she was taking them to see.

'We're going to be expelled!' Jack whimpered, as they watched Hooch say the password to the gargoyles and a spiral staircase appeared. 'She's taking us to Dumbledore!'

Harry couldn't speak.

His insides felt like sludge, and his hands shook with nerves. Hooch had caught them in the act - he tried to think of a way to get out of trouble for what had happened, but nothing came to mind. They'd sneaked off to fly around on brooms when they weren't supposed to, without supervision, and they'd been caught.

It was all over.

He'd barely lasted a single week at Hogwarts, and now he had to leave. Harry didn't think he would ever be able to face his parents again, and considered running away to live in the Leaky Cauldron with the gold he had in his vault. Would they snap his wand? Was he even allowed to use his gold after being expelled and making his parents so terribly disappointed in him? Were his parents going to regret ever adopting him as their son?

What happened to wizards who got expelled in their first week of school?

He stood near the doorway while Madam Hooch addressed Dumbledore. Both boys were shocked to hear her talking about how well they had flown, and how she thought it would be a waste of talent to not have them try out for their house Quidditch teams. Harry wanted to know what they were saying, but couldn't hear over Jack's whispers of excitement and relief.

'I will speak with you regarding this matter at a later date.' Dumbledore finally said.

Madam Hooch fell quiet, which caused Jack to as well. Harry didn't think it sounded too promising, but Madam Hooch seemed to think it was very good news.

'Come along, boys.' Hooch said. 'Dinner is about to start. We need to get these broomsticks back to the pitch. Strange, I thought we'd donated these already.'

'I wish to have a word with Mr Summers first, if you don't mind?' Dumbledore interrupted.

'Bye.' Jack said to Harry. The sandy-haired by looked very confused about what happened, while he was being ushered from the office by Madam Hooch.

Harry nodded and turned back to the headmaster.

He wondered why he'd been asked to stay when Jack hadn't. Had he done something else wrong? Why would the headmaster be interested in talking to him? His dad warned him Dumbledore sometimes had strange motives that might seem nice at first, but usually had something to do with big plans, and other stuff Harry wished he'd paid more attention to now.

'Have a seat, Mr Summers.' Dumbledore gestured to a chair across from him. 'I believe there is a matter in which we need to discuss. Not to worry, there's just a few questions I would like to ask you.'