Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OCs and the plot.

To make it clear again, Harry and Seth and Damon are nine year old. However, the rest of the Hogwarts students are ten year olds. The solution I found to this is that I moved all of their birthdays one year back, so they are one year older than Seth, Harry, and Damon.

Yes, Damon is exceptionally gifted, however, obviously not as much as Harry and Seth are.

~Christmas Break~

Harry had been sleeping in class again, when he was assigned detention by McGonagall for his repeated ignoring of school rules, which dictated, weirdly enough for Harry, that you could not sleep in class. Who wrote these rules anyways?

Whatever. It was the day before first Quidditch match, and Harry didn't even want to play anymore. It turned out that they wouldn't actually let Seth play because they already had more experienced chasers while their seeker was horrible, which is why Damon Potter was going to be their new seeker.

When Harry heard this, he naturally headed to Snape's office and stated in a very decisive and final voice that he would not play in the upcoming Quidditch match.

Snape had been outraged. He had threatened Harry with detention.

Harry had looked him in the eyes and said in a smooth voice:

"Detention? Sure."

You see, Harry really hated boring stuff. He really, really, did. But what Harry hated even more than that was losing, and if he gave in to Snape's lame "threats", it would, for him at least, count as a loss. And he hated losing.

Perhaps it was because as a child, Damon had eliminated Harry from the contest that was earning their parents affection from the beginning. Actually, scratch that, it was just an excuse Harry liked to use.

It was actually his pride. Harry hated damaging his pride in any form or way. It was probably a weakness his enemies could use to trap him, but therein lay the issue. Harry would, after getting stuck in the trap, consider it a game, and he would definitely not lose. Harry would be the first to admit that he had too much pride, and that was the way he liked it. Stubbornness, pride, and an unwillingness to lose in anything at all made a very dangerous mixture. His pride just wouldn't allow him to lose.

And his pride certainly won't let him cave in to Snape.

"I already said I won't play, right? Give it up already." Harry said, bored, by this time.

Snape sneered at him unpleasantly.

"Hades, report in for detention at nine." He spat out, clearly miffed at having his offer rejected.

Students wished they could enter the Quidditch team on their first year and he just turned it down!

Harry didn't bother to respond, standing up and folding hi hands behind his neck before walking out with a yawn.

Merlin, was Snape persistent!

It was a Saturday, so Harry didn't have any classes to attend. He walked to the Viaduct courtyard, spotting Seth sitting around with Damon Potter and hid friends.

Harry walked over to them and sat down beside Seth. He really felt like sleeping right now. Maybe they should postpone further exploring till later on. He didn't really need it because of the girding potions, but he liked to do it all the same.

"What did Snape want?" Seth asked him when he sat down.

"He was trying to convince me to play in tomorrow's match." Harry said while twirling his wand, clearly unwilling to participate.

"You're not playing?" Damon's eyebrow's shot up, something like disappointment in his eyes. "But you were great on your broom!"

"It's boring," Harry said while closing his eyes and leaning back, "and Seth is not even playing."

"Why shouldn't you play if he's not playing?" Damon asked, puzzled. "Everybody likes Quidditch."

"Then it's about time you met someone who doesn't." Harry was suddenly in a bad mood. Seeing his twin brought back the memories from so long ago. He stood up and walked away.

"Huh? Wait up, Harry!" Seth stood up and turned around to the Gryffindors with a sheepish smile. "Sorry, he can be a little moody sometimes. I'll see you guys later."

Seth took after the Slytherin and fell into pace beside him, talking with him happily.

The trio stared after him.

"That Hades is such a git." Ron said with a snort, jealousy written all over his face.

"He's not that bad…" Hermione said with a slightly pink tinge to her cheeks. "He did help us after all."

"Hmm? Come on, he's okay, Ron." Damon, who liked to irritate Harry on purpose for some reason he didn't know, said while ginning.

"Yeah, right. He probably only saved us to get points for Slytherin." Ron said.

"Let's play Gobstones." Damon changed the focus of the conversation.

"Oh no." Ron groaned. "There he goes again. You always win, Damon!"

"Try it. Maybe this time, you'll win." Damon smirked at him.

"What am I going to do with you two?" Hermione huffed.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Harry was walking ahead of Seth, who was trailing behind and staring at Harry's back worriedly.

Seth caught up with Harry, and turned to him.

"Are you okay?" Seth said, trying to ease the atmosphere.

"Yeah." Harry grinned as his eyes were pinned determinedly forward.

Seth felt a pang in his heart. Sometimes, Harry withdrew into a sort of shell, and Seth, staring at his back, always felt sad. Seth's footsteps faltered and he watched Harry from behind.

Harry was just walking, and yet he seemed so… lonely. Seth felt a twinge of powerlessness mixed with sadness. Why did he look so lonely? Seth knew there was something in Harry's past he didn't like to share, and the best he could do was pull him back out of his shell.

"Do you remember when you found me at the orphanage?" Seth smiled melancholically. "I was surrounded by a couple kids. I wasn't going to hold up for much longer, but then you came and scared them off."

Harry stopped walking but still didn't turn around.

Seth laughed as he remembered the scene and turned his eyes to the ceiling in reminiscing.

"It was my first time. It was the first time anybody had stuck up for me." He said with a wide grin. "And since then, well, you've gotten me out of a lot of trouble too. I just can't seem to help falling in problems, huh?" Seth laughed again.

"But you know, Harry. I'm really happy I can be beside you. I… am really glad I met you." Seth grinned before walking in front of Harry.

"Why do you always say such embarrassing things?" Harry said with his fringe hiding his face.

"What's so embarrassing about it? It's what I really feel." Seth said, looking back over his shoulder with a smile and resumed walking.

Harry had a slightly embarrassed blush on his face and smiled a bit awkwardly to himself.

Wasn't it the other way around? It was him. Harry was the one who was really glad he met Seth.

"Thanks." Harry called out to Seth before starting to walk forward again.

Seth knew what Harry was thanking him for, and just grinned back at him in response.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

They walked around the fourth floor, both now in a good mood and ready to explore. They had walked into an unused classroom which looked like it hadn't been used since, well, forever.

A large mirror which looked out of place was in the center of the room. Harry looked at it curiously. There was an inscription written on the frame.

Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.

Harry stared at the letters, mind working through the details. They were obviously mirrored, given that they were on one. He decoded the sentence only to find what it meant was:

I show not your face but your heart's desire.

Harry's eyes widened. Could it be? It was a magical mirror.

"What's taking you so long?" Seth called from the door.

"Just a second." Harry replied.

It shows your heart's deepest desire, then?

Harry had an urge to look into it and was immediately alarmed. Did he even want to know his heart's most secret wish? It was definitely not healthy. This mirror was a trap for weaker men. Was he really so sure he wouldn't be ensnared too?

He almost lowered his eyes to look at it-

"-Did you find anything?" Seth asked.

Harry turned around, looking at Seth who was fidgeting impatiently at the door. It was extremely hard to deny himself a tiny look. Just a tiny look, his mind whispered. And yet he knew that that was how most things started. He might regret not looking into it in the future, but for now…

"It's nothing, I just though I saw something." He said as walked back out of the room without looking back at the mirror.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Christmas break had passed quickly, and Harry and Seth soon found themselves ten weeks from exams.

Harry and Seth had stopped organizing which parts to explore first and started just randomly picking parts of the tower to search. This night had them looking around the tallest tower in Hogwarts. It had been Harry's pick this time, and his choice did not disappoint.

They were at the top of the tower, looking at the view when they saw two Gryffindors come up the stairs laughing with a crate between them.

What in the world?

Harry had definitely picked a good spot. He hoped they got caught. Oh he so loved watching trouble unfold.

He looked at Seth and put a finger on his lips while smirking. Seth nodded and looked curiously at them.

A few minutes later, a few figures on broomsticks landed on the tower and Damon ran over to them with the crate.

Apparently, they were the eldest Weasley's friends, and they came up to pick up a… dragon? Harry looked keenly at them, interest in his eyes.

They had devised a way to carry the crate between them and had flown off after shaking hands with the Gryffindors. Hermione and Damon were happily talking about how Malfoy got detention. Ironically enough, as soon as they opened the door leading to the staircase, Filch's wrinkled face stared at them gleefully.

"Well, what do we have here? Students out of bed! Well, this is trouble." He said gleefully, almost jumping with joy.

Harry stared at them with an amused smirk. Detention for all their troubles.

He followed them with Seth close behind to beside the door of McGonagall's study, where she was assigning detention to Malfoy, Damon, Neville, and Hermione. They had all lost 50 points each, and were to go into the forbidden forest as punishment.

Harry grinned, Ah, how good it was to be so advanced I magic. It meant that they would never catch him or Seth. Seth was listening to them sympathetically, though.

"Well, maybe we should pay them a little visit on their detention." Harry suggested.

Seth seemed to be considering the idea but Harry didn't give him time to think before putting a hand on his shoulder and leading him away from the study. They were about to be led out, and it wouldn't exactly be pleasant for them to suddenly bump into Harry and Seth to find that two more students were roaming around at night.

"Anyways, you'd better head to bed about now, before they go back to your dorms." Harry pushed him towards the Gryffindor dorms before turning with a wink in the direction of the dungeons. "Catch you later."

This would be interesting. He would give them a right scare in the forbidden forest.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

It was a week from exams, and Harry and Seth were probably the only ones in the whole school who weren't preparing for them, in any sense of the word. Their teachers didn't say anything about that because they had witnessed already what the boys could do in class. They could perform all the spells correctly on their first try, and sometimes they did things with their wands that first years shouldn't have learned yet.

Of course, Harry and Seth's agreement on dividing the subjects between them went right down the drain as they both hated to lose. They were equally good at everything which made competing with each other rather difficult.

The only thing that Harry sucked at was dealing with animals, which were always afraid of him. It was probably because their instincts were warning them about him. Fortunately though, it wasn't included in the core classes. Seth's weak subject was Herbology, which, unfortunately for him, was included.

It was Harry's luck at work again, ensuring he would win. Harry had the devil's luck, you could say, and it wasn't helped by the fact that he was also extremely intelligent, smart enough to get out of trouble.

Harry also remembered the giant dog. He had forgotten over the year due to other stuff but he was curious about what it was guarding, so he sent a letter to Voldemort asking him about it. He expected the reply to arrive tomorrow morning or so.

But for today, he would settle for looking around the forbidden forest and scaring the moonlight out of the Gryffindors, and maybe even Malfoy.

As soon as curfew was over, he waited in the forbidden forest with Seth. Harry was currently lying on a thick branch, waiting for them to arrive.

"Harry."

"…"

"Harry!"

"What is it?" Harry sighed. When were they going to come?

"I'm bored." Seth called out from below.

Harry thought for a moment.

"I know. You can go explore the forest while I wait for them. When you get bored looking around, just use the ring to let me know where you are." Harry suggested. "You can take the right side and I'll take the left."

"Okay. Let's meet up in… an hour?" Seth said with questioning tone.

"Sure."

Harry hopped off the branch and landed on the floor with a thud.

"Ready, set, and go!" He turned with a smirk and ran into the dark expanse filled by trees.

Harry wandered around. He found a few species of snakes, mushrooms, trees, and some birds flying around. It wasn't as fun as he thought it would be.

At least that's what he thought until he saw Malfoy and Damon come with fang. Harry grinned and ducked under a trunk. He shifted his body into its "shadow" state and flew over the trees, stopping a few steps ahead of them.

They still hadn't noticed him yet, and they were looking around cautiously. Harry repressed a laugh and started making weird noises, like a beast that was sniffing around for food.

Malfoy's startled scream tore through the forest, and Harry started moving in quick short steps towards them, making hungry animal noises that threatened to turn into loud laughs.

Malfoy bolted with fang and Damon looked at him with alarmed eyes, stumbling back. Unfortunately, Harry felt his ring activate, signaling the end of the hour. He sighed inwardly and flew behind a tree, shifting back to normal. He could hear hooves approaching as he twisted the ring on his thumb once. He was immediately transported into the other side of the forest, and Seth was waiting for him.

"Did you find anything?" Seth asked.

"I got Potter and Malfoy; gave them a good scare." Harry cracked up again as he remembered their faces.

"Merlin, Harry, no wonder I heard Malfoy scream at the top of his lungs." Seth sighed at his friend's mischievousness.

"Bit of a chicken, isn't he?" Harry laughed again. "You should've seen how he ran!"

They headed back to the castle through the dark night air. Harry told Seth about the letter he sent to his father and they agreed to explore the room once the reply arrived. After a few minutes, they both headed towards their rooms, each feeling excited at the prospect of another adventure.

Well, that's that. I think I'll take a break for a while.