Disclaimer and author's note: All of the characters, plot, and settings from the Harry Potter canon are the copyright protected property of J.K. Rowling. I thank her for allowing fanfics such as this one to be published on this fanfic site. The new characters and plot in this story belong to me. This story is a follow-on to "Emako the Red-Headed Twin", which can be found on this site.

I won't waste your time or mine by repeating descriptions of characters, settings, and events, which have been described by Ms. Rowling. I have not described Emako, other than to say that she looks exactly like same-aged Lily Evans, which brings us back to Ms. Rowling's descriptions. On this site is the first Emako story: Emako the Red-Haired Twin. It's short and covers the Philosopher's Stone year.

Also on this site is my initial Harry Potter series "Harry Potter Finally Graduates", of which parts 1-3 are finished and Part 4 is in progress. All of these stories take place after Harry Potter slays/facilitates the death of Voldemort.

Emako The Student Ghost

Chapter One – A Summer Without Twin Or Friends

I spoke to both Harry and Draco after my memorial service. They sat together, along with Ron and Hermione and the Marcon twins. I was beginning to see Headmaster Dumbledore as a potential ally, but still less than totally convinced that he wouldn't try to do me harm.

I had spent the memorial service surrounded by Peeves, the Bloody Baron, and Nearly Headless Nick. They promised to keep me safe and to train me up to be a proper ghost. More immediately, they agreed to be my voice for what to me were heart-rending and extremely vital meetings with those most important to me, before they must depart Hogwarts for the summer.

Spending the entire memorial service hovering above the lawn in front of the main entrance had weakened me. The Baron and Nick helped me back into the castle, while Peeves arranged my meetings. I met Draco first, waiting for him at our black sofa in the Slytherin common room.

"I'm sorry that I can't actually touch you, my love. I shall try to remain here as your friend for as long as you are at Hogwarts. I promise to do my best to become visible to you and to be able to speak so that you can understand me. For now, you must not interrupt the Baron. I have much to do before all of you board the Express and not a lot of energy to do it. I have two messages. First, you should know that it was Snape who poisoned you. He wanted to be my boyfriend when I graduated Hogwarts and he saw you as a rival. Please don't give me away, but know he is your enemy. I have made a peace with Dumbledore. I think him not as guilty as I once did. Don't worry, I will stay on my guard. Second, I want you to find a new girlfriend, someone who is fully alive. I cannot insist, but it would make me very happy if it was someone not named Pansy. Be very careful this summer and keep Harry safe. The Death Eaters will know that you and I almost killed Voldemort. Now you talk. I can listen perfectly well."

"This is so hard. I'm not ready for another girlfriend. I still love you. I know that I will at least need to speak to you and it is just too awkward doing that through the Baron. I promise to look after Harry."

My meeting with the twins was quick and easy. I told them to take my bed, because it had far stronger charms than theirs. Pansy and her allies might want retribution for the twins being my friends. They promised to be careful. I told them both that I would be very pleased if one of them became Draco's new girlfriend. I said they could trust him.

My farewell with Harry went surprisingly well. I rested upon his head as I spoke through Nick. I told him about Snape and reminded him that Lucius Malfoy probably was a Death Eater. I trusted him not to get himself Imperiused, but he must be checked out as soon as he returned to Hogwarts. Most importantly, he must avoid finding any proof that Lucius was evil. That would be far too dangerous for himself and Draco. He must keep his eyes and ears open, avoid snooping, and pretend not to have observed most of what he saw and heard.

I told Hermione that I would need her best thoughts on how I could best use my ghostly abilities to keep her and Harry safe. I chose not to meet with Ron.

I watched them all leave from my perch near the entry door. I was too weak to trail them outside. Nick lured me to the Gryffindor common room as soon as my friends left the castle. It was obvious that he was trying to keep me amused and not too sad.

Nick urged me to begin my program of summer instruction right away. Clearly he was distracting me from the sadness of watching Harry and Draco disappear for the summer, but he also had a lot to teach me. I didn't know the simplest things, like how to sleep properly.

"We ghosts recharge while we sleep. We can draw energy from Hogwarts' magical charms and other defenses. I often sleep inside the rock arch at the entry door. Just as we can pass through a stone wall, we also can stop inside. It is most invigorating. It does take practice. Novice ghosts have been trapped for days. It's easier to pass through a wall than it is to start moving from a dead stop inside one. We'll start slowly. Since we are already in Gryffindor, you should sleep in Harry's bed. Dumbledore has it totally covered in charms."

I thanked Nick and went right to bed. I was totally drained. Harry's bed comforted me with the echo of his recent presence. I slept for eighteen hours and awoke refreshed. I found that Nick had stayed to guard me.

"You look much stronger," he informed me, "strong enough to try sitting inside a stone. I prefer the keystone of the entry arch. It is one of the most magical spots in the castle."

Nick flitted ahead of me, leading me to his favorite resting spot.

"The stone at the very top of the arch is our target. Follow me. We are going to move through the stone more slowly than we normally would."

I followed him. It was harder to move slowly and I almost became stuck, just as I was leaving the stone.

"The trick is to keep pushing all the way through. You can't relax. Follow me again. We're going to move half as fast this time."

At least it wasn't twice as hard, but it certainly wasn't easy. Nick said I had worked enough for the morning. Dumbledore wished to see me. He was in his office.

Nick and I just drifted through the wall into Dumbledore's office. Dumbledore was leaning forward above his desk as he slowly added words to a parchment scroll.

"She's here," Nick announced, causing Dumbledore to snap upright.

"I have a present for you Emako. Since your spirit was still inside Hogwarts, I didn't bury your wand with your body. I thought perhaps you might get some use from it. You are almost unique as a very young Witch turned ghost, while still retaining her wild magic. I don't know if you've met Myrtle. She was our youngest ghost, prior to yourself. She died at the end of her third year, so her wild magic was totally extinguished by wand training. She still might be able to help you. Of equal importance, I think you can help her. She needs to be coaxed out of her bathroom.

"To find a young Witch who died young enough to retain her wild magic, you'd have to go all the way back to 1492. Hajar Alaoui came to Hogwarts as her parents fled the Inquisition. That was a bad time to be either a Witch or a Moor in Spain. Her parents tried to hide her, but the strength of her raw magic was impossible to hide. She was whisked to Hogwarts within days of her family arriving in Italy.

"The headmaster helped her to direct her raw magic. Unfortunately, she did not find safety at Hogwarts. Taunted mercilessly by the Slytherins and generally ignored by her fellow Gryffindors, she jumped from the Astronomy tower at the end of her first month. Her wild magic was still so strong that she flew several hundred yards and climbed to a thousand feet, before striking the magical barriers and falling to her death. Her ghostly spirit graced this school for over four hundred years and she is said to be the most powerful ghost ever to inhabit Hogwarts."

"What happened to Hajar?"

"She grew powerful enough to easily travel beyond Hogwarts and chose to return to her old world. She is back in the former Moorish section of Spain, where she haunts the Alhambra, but I saw her here at Hogwarts a dozen years ago. She wanted to discuss Voldemort. He worried her. Most of what I've learned about your potential I was taught by Hajar. Professor McGonagall is on her way to Spain. My hope is that Hajar will agree to share her knowledge with you. Until then, I will teach you to the best of my ability. First, you must learn as much as you can from your fellow Hogwarts ghosts. I think you must be as substantial as the other ghosts to benefit from my teaching."

Nick summoned the Baron. Together, they managed to transport my wand atop the frame of a portrait of a shriveled old gent mounted high on the wall next to the Gryffindor portal. I thanked them, but they refused to leave me until I did more practicing. This time they demanded that I dislodge a portrait using my pushback magic. I tried. I tried really hard. I did succeed in nudging the portrait a half inch out of alignment on my third attempt, but it was downhill from there. I returned to Harry's bed for a nap.

It took three weeks until I learned to stop and sleep inside a stone, without requiring three ghosts to push me back out of the stone. Another week had me moving the portrait a full inch out of skew. I was feeling more comfortable as a ghost. Dumbledore said he could sort of see me if he squinted in just the right light. I could speak to him directly, without the help of another ghost.

The Baron made a startling suggestion: I could sleep inside Dumbledore's head and soak up energy from the greatest living Wizard, himself. This struck me as extremely rude. I remembered how violently I had thrown Dumbledore's prying tendrils out of my mind.

"No, I won't do it. It's wrong and it's icky."

"It will establish a closer bond between you and Dumbledore. He will see and hear you better and you will boost your power."

"No!"

"Please, at least ask his permission to give it a try."

I was surprised when Dumbledore agreed. It was surprisingly easy to do. We ghosts can scrunch ourselves down into a smaller and more concentrated package, but we are still too thin to damage our sleeping spot. Just like a fog drifting in one ear and out the other, which sounds nicer than what I actually did, which was to enter by way of Dumbledore's right nostril. I felt cozy and I gained strength. I did not eavesdrop on Dumbledore's thoughts. I'm not sure I would have been able to do so had I tried. I felt that to try would be very dishonest.

I felt stronger the next morning and Dumbledore complimented me on my increased materiality. "I can actually see that your hair is red and your eyes green. You are well on your way to becoming a proper ghost. Now, you can return my favor and help Myrtle."

I traveled on my own to the Moaning Myrtle bathroom. My fellow ghosts advised me that Myrtle chose not to associate with them. Peeves insulted Myrtle years ago and she had sulked in her bathroom and its plumbing ever since.

My voice was still too quiet to summon Myrtle. I recruited Nick to help. Nick called for Myrtle. When she showed up, obviously upset that Nick had entered her territory Nick just said "we have a new female ghost who would like to meet you. Dumbledore sent her. I will leave you. I know when I'm not wanted."

"You're barely visilble, but I can tell that you were very young when you died."

"First year. I was Avada Kedavraed at the end of term. It was Quirrell and Voldemort. I saved my twin and I am determined to hang around Hogwarts for six more years to keep him safe. I need to turn myself into a real ghost, before Harry returns. Dumbledore thought we might be able to help each other."

That apparently was the wrong thing to say. Myrtle became very agitated. "No! This and the other baths are my home. I have tried to leave. I was always teased. The students and other ghosts enjoyed making me cry. I'm safe here. You can visit me, but I'm safe in here and I won't come out. Tell that to Dumbledore. He thinks I'm a simple girl who can be persuaded how wrong she is. I know what's best for me. I will help you, if you wish."

"Thank you. You and I are the only ghosts who died at Hogwarts as students. I think we may be different from the others in some way. I want to become more solid. I have to be stronger and more solid if I am to help Harry."

"I'm sorry, but mainly it takes time. It was three years after I died that anyone noticed I was here. Even then, Peeves mocked me as not quite substantial enough and certainly not brave enough to be a real ghost. It was five years until I became as you see me. The other ghosts say that you must sleep within highly charmed stones to gain strength, but I know that magic is very strong in this room. Moving through stone does build strength, but so does moving through the pipes. Would you like me to show you? None of the other ghosts enter the piping. It's my private kingdom, but I'm willing to share with you. If you learn to travel the pipes, you can watch all the boys as they take their baths. That's so much fun."

I didn't think I'd be spying on the boys like that, but I told Myrtle that I certainly wanted to explore the piping and eagerly accepted Myrtle's offer. She informed me that we entered the land of pipes by simply diving through the toilet bowl. I followed her. I didn't have to push as hard as I did when I passed through a wall, but this was constant effort and eventually I became very tired. I was about to tell Myrtle that I couldn't go on, when we popped up in a very fancy bath.

"Prefect's bath," Myrtle told me. "The cutest older boys bathe here. You have to learn to find this room on your own. It's the most fun you can have as a ghost. I guess since you travel the corridors, you could just pass through the wall. You can do that when you leave, so you'll know how to find your way back if you can't travel by pipe. You look a little faint. Did I tire you out?"

Yes, I'm pooped. I'm going to go sleep in Harry's bed.

"See me tomorrow in my bathroom. The more you swim the pipes, the stronger you will become. I didn't start long distance pipe journeys until I had been a ghost for two years. Had I started earlier I think I could have taken this form much quicker."