Lah di da, I'm feeling random so God knows how this chapter's gonna wind up being! Anyways...And if it's just icky, well the first 600 words were easy, then I struggled some – I can't write that sort of scene well...well my Charmed one turned out alright but this one....let's just say it didn't...

The Entrance Hall lit up with flickering firelight for the briefest of seconds and once it dissipated a 16 year old, blonde haired teen was stood there concentrating on a rather dull piece of wall with nothing at all on it to draw the eye towards it.

"I know you're there Christopher, why are you hiding? Aren't you a bit old for hide and seek?"

There was a sigh and the brunette reappeared, his face almost impassive and the white laces of his converse already having had an accident involving blood, or at the very least fake blood.

"Figured if you couldn't see me you couldn't force feed me as is what usually happens whenever you haven't seen me in over a week. Severus said you wanted something, please tell me it's someone to torture, I'm going stir crazy in this damn school. I feel like I'm 8 years old again! Honestly, the potions they're making...it's ridiculous!"

"Rather emotional Christopher, not what I ever expect from you-"

"Damn what you expect of me Wyatt! Do you wanna trade places? Be surrounded by adolescents who are frightened, yes frightened, of Tommy, you heard me Tommy boy frightens these kids, they won't even speak his name! So you know what? Screw you, you got me into this mess..."

Wyatt groaned, stupid ego centric 14 year old, why on Earth could he never listen? He was normally pretty decent at it, well pretty decent at being able to actually think things through and not act like the stupid teenager he actually was. Unfortunately this was one of the few times Chris was actually acting his age and showing why Wyatt hated it when he actually did. The blonde teen put his head in his hands as his brother continued his rant choosing not to listen to the insane mess spewing out of his brother's mouth. 10 minutes later he sighed and spoke.

"You quite done? I was under the impression you wanted the power block off, and something to do, if you don't however I suppose I could just leave..."

"No! Take it off, I mean, please Wyatt, I really need it off, would you please take it off?"

The older Halliwell smiled and decided to toy with the younger for a while longer. He had nothing better to do with his night, well afternoon, anyway – unless of course he wanted to go kill off some more witches, but he generally left that to the minions now, give the restless ranks something to do and everything.

"You sure you want it off Chris?" He smirked at his brother's expression, this was going to be fun.

There was a noticeably cockier Christopher Halliwell walking the halls of Hogwarts the next morning. The brunette teenager having gotten his powers back and reduced Malfoy to a gibbering wreck, again, by making out he was going to use him as target practice and lobbing a few fireballs around as he said it. The blonde aristocrat was steering well clear of the Halliwell this morning, preferring to stay in the common room whilst Chris went to breakfast, and leaving as soon as the boy re-entered. Last night was an experience he never wanted to repeat, the boy was a bloody maniac!

"Ah Christopher," Dumbledore was undeterred by the glare Chris sent his way, "I do believe there was an incident in Potions yesterday, I trust that it won't happen again?"

"Whatever you say Oh Great One," Chris muttered sarcastically before moving off to go terrorise some First Years, or better yet Golden Boy. Terrorising Golden Boy could be fun, Tommy couldn't object unless he killed him, heck Tommy couldn't object regardless. It wouldn't be hard to crush him if he did...

"I don't trust Halliwell, I mean what the hell was he doing in the Entrance Hall at 2am last night?" Harry muttered as the three sat in front of the fire in the common room on what were pretty much the three best seats. No one had wanted to sit near Harry so the seats had been quickly vacated when he expressed interest in sitting there. He was sick of it already, why couldn't they just grow up and treat him like a human being already? Just cos they were too dumb to believe the truth...still the loss of the awe struck first years wasn't that big of a hardship for him. It'd be great if that happened every year, he might have chance to get used to his timetable and find all the shortcuts before they did.

"More to the point Harry what were you doing looking at the map at 2am? Don't tell me you stayed up all night just to see if he went anywhere. He's just a kid!" Hermione scowled as she spoke – when she told him to get off Malfoy's case for a year she didn't mean find some other Slytherin to harass for a year!

"He's a Dark Lord Hermione! Harry had every right to make sure he wasn't gonna kill us all in our sleep!"

Hermione rolled her eyes and stood up hardly pleased with the boys, annoyed was an understatement, even pissed wasn't that close to the truth. Yes the boy was a Dark Lord – in America – Dumbledore wouldn't have let him into Hogwarts if he was that dangerous!

"If you're going to be that immature then I'll leave you too it, I on the other hand am going for some human intelligence level conversation. I'll see you in Charms." She snapped at them then walked off, neither boy entirely certain what to say to her, since when did she defend America? She was the one that told them he was a Dark Lord, controlled America and all that. Why on Earth was she getting all defensive over them wanting to keep an eye on a Dark Lord? Would she rather he killed them all in their sleep?

"What's up with her?"

Lavender promptly came up to Ron and smacked him round the back of the head.

"What was that for?" He whined, rubbing the back of his head and looking up at her with a rather pitiful expression on his face.

"The same reason Hermione just stormed off, you're so insensitive Ronald! Get a clue will you?" She glared at him as she stormed out, the majority of the Gryffindor common room laughing at the red headed teen's expense.

"Bit of help would have been nice there mate." Said red headed teen muttered towards his apparent best friend.

Harry just laughed claiming that Ron had deserved it and girls were nasty when they got bitchy – there was no way he was getting involved, he had to suffer alone. Ron pouted, doing a rather impressive impression of a small child denied chocolate, and the only effect that had was making Harry laugh even harder. The pout changed to a scowl as Harry stuck his tongue out and ran up into the dorm. Something along the lines of stupid git came out of Ronald's mouth at that point, along with a 'some friend'.

"Good morning class." Dolores Umbridge scowled as there was no reply, the 5th year students merely looking at her with various expressions ranging from excitement to disgust, well, she'd soon change that, she'd already seen Hogwarts needed improving; this was just another thing to add to the list.

A stir near the door caught her attention as all the students turned to look at what, well who, had just come through the door. Her lips curled into an almost snarl as she realised which student had just walked, well been dragged through her door. Mr Halliwell. The kid who was there during the summer, and looking like he was no happier to be here now than he was then, although it was rather hard to tell given that his face gave almost nothing away.

"Apologies Professor Umbridge, it would appear that Christopher here got a bit lost – didn't you Christopher?"

The last part was said rather forcefully to the brunette, Professor McGonagall's glare boring into him as she waited for his answer, not that there was any other answer than 'yes' if the boy didn't want detention for the next 2 months. There was a rather noticeable pause as the other 5th years craned to get a look at the brunette that had been causing such a stir amongst them ever since he was sorted on the first of September.

"Sure. I got lost. I'm here now. But do I really have to stay in here? She has Blood Quills in her bag."

Unsure of what to say McGonagall merely pushed the fourteen year old into a seat, Malfoy promptly moved to the other side of the room, and stalked off with a curt nod in Umbridge's direction.

"When I say good morning I expect a reply. Let's try it again shall we?" She forced a smile onto her features even as she looked at the fourteen year old, he should not be in here (!), and that lying Potter boy. Boy Who Lived he may be, but even with that status you can't go around spreading lies about You Know Who's return. That is just not acceptable, at all.

"Today marks the start of your O., commonly known as owls, and under new Ministry guidelines there will be no need for wands in this lesson. Books out and please read chapter 1, An Introduction to Defence Against the Dark Arts."

Dolores smiled at the now scowling and muttering group of teenagers. Dumbledore was hardly going to take over the Ministry with students who weren't taught the practical side of their spell work was he? The Minister would be glad about that.

"But Professor-"

"Raise your hand when you wish to speak in my class Miss?" Not that she was that bothered about names bar picking out Potter's friends – the dangerous ones that were a threat to the country.

"Hermione Granger, and how are we supposed to pass our OWLs if the first chance we have to actually do the spells is in the exam?"

One of Potter's sidekicks then. What a surprise that she was one of those who could not see the sense of Cornelius, following Dumbledore so blindly in her faith that he was right and could do no wrong. She would have to change that, so much to report in such little time – it was pitiful that such a great educational institution such as Hogwarts could have fallen so low in its standards to have ended up like this.

"The Ministry believes that with the correct theoretical knowledge you will be able to perform the practical with no difficulty."

Another voice punctuated the room and she almost groaned. Potter. What lie had he come up with now?

"So how are we supposed to learn to protect ourselves! Voldemort's out there and theory doesn't do any good out in the real world. What happens if Voldemort comes and attacks in the night? What then?"

"Mr Potter, how dare you lie to me?! Now listen here children, you have been told that a certain dark wizard has returned. This. Is. A. Lie. There is no reason to be afraid. He will not be coming to attack you in the night as Mr Potter so preposterously proposed. He is dead. It. Is. A. Lie."

"No it's not! I saw him! I fought him!" Harry was now stood with his eyes flashing and his school books forgotten spread over his desk and the surrounding floor. It was bad enough his school mates thought he was a liar but to have some Ministry bitch say it too? That was too far.

"Detention Mr Potter! Tonight my office, 7 o'clock. I will inform your Head of House accordingly."

"Look Dolores, he is out there. He's not exactly a threat but he's out there. So please for the sake of my sanity leave Golden Boy alone and teach us something? Or better yet, let us all leave so I don't have to suffer your presence anymore."

Christopher Halliwell sat with his arms crossed as he looked at the teacher he was supposed to respect (that hadn't happened since he was 8) and quite calmly told her that the man they all feared was in fact alive, and wasn't even a threat. That was going to go over oh so well, what with going against everything she stood for. Well if you wanted to get technical she did believe he wasn't a threat – just not in the way he was thinking.

"Mr Halliwell, I will ask you to treat me with the respect I deserve. I am your teacher and your better and you will treat me as such-"

"Respect is earned Dolores, not given. Show me you deserve it and I'll give you it."

In an uncharacteristic move Chris shoved his chair back and walked, not stormed – walked, out of the classroom conveniently leaving his school bag shoved under his desk. Umbridge shook herself before ordering the class to read Chapter one and write an essay on what the author was saying about the Dark Arts for the next lesson. She needed a word with Minerva and Severus. The behaviour of those two teens was horrendous – and to think she hadn't even reprimanded him over his lack of uniform. Maybe she was losing her touch some.

Very sorry for the lateness. I seriously am, unfortunately I hurt my wrist and couldn't type, it hurt too much. I'm hoping the chapter makes up for that though, my wrist's still dodgy but I had a lot of this written before I hurt it at my rugby match (just a note for anyone who reads any other fics and is looking out for an update – my wrist is still sore so my writing's slow).

And also, I'm not sure about the slash any more – I seem to be getting a rather negative response to the idea of it. I'll let you know what I decide anyway – I just thought about it cos it's definitely something new for me – but I don't want to lose any of you at the same time. I'll let you know.

Ldf x