Michael POV

We had to floo into the Headmistress's office. With the hard stone floor, it was one of the worst experiences I've had yet with the floo network. Sitting up on the floor, I saw Harry and the Headmistress laughing, and I also noticed Fawkes on a perch with his head under his wing trying to hide a laugh of his own.

"Hello Headmistress," I said standing up, "Thank you for allowing me the privilege of staying in the castle during the school year"

"The pleasure is all mine Mr. Davis. It seems like we will be having a real fun time with you around this year," she said, one more laugh escaping her.

"It honestly never gets old; it actually gets funnier the more times it happens." Harry added with a laugh.

"Have you ever considered a rug in front of your fireplace?" I asked, knowing that it would be my only way in and out of the castle not including Hogsmeade trips. "It would be a great help for me and I think the color red would really go well with the office," I added, trying to appeal to her Gryffindor heritage.

"A red rug. I like your style Mr. Davis; I might just have to get it."

"Thank you Ma'am, it would be much appreciated. If you wouldn't mind, may I ask what Fawkes is doing at the school?" I was confused as I only knew him as Dumbledore's familiar.

"You may, and when Albus died, Fawkes decided to return to Hogwarts and keep me and the hat company throughout the year. He is not my familiar, as he was Albus's, but a free phoenix. Although he does listen to Albus's portrait more than he does me."

"Wow! It's honestly so cool learning new stuff everyday. The books honestly don't do the magical world justice."

"I'm glad to hear that." Now onto logistics. You will be staying in your own separate quarters next to Harry's with a connecting door through them. They are on the 2nd floor of the castle on the left side. I'll let Harry show you to your new room, as I have to get back down to the Hall to finish setting up for the feast tonight." She turned to Harry, "Only an hour and a half, don't be late."

"Course not Minnie," Harry said, a bit sheepishly. "I do have one last question."

"Of course, what is it?"

"Would it be possible for Michael to be a part of the 3rd year runes class? It would be very helpful for the work that he will be doing for the department."

At this, the portrait of one of the older headmasters added a thought.

"The Hogwarts bylaws do hold a clause that allows apprentices to attend courses if their masters deem it necessary. Of course most students whose masters asked them to take a course at Hogwarts just went and found a new master to work under who knew all that they needed to learn. It really became a sign that the master was incompetent if he or she needed to ask the appentice to take a course." The portrait then let out a cough.

Dumbledore's portrait then spoke up.

"I'm sure that the public today has forgotten the stigma that has come with masters and Hogwarts classes, and if they haven't, it will be easily said that Harry is the only person who knows what he needs to teach Michael, and also the public will never see Harry as incompetant with all that they owe him."

"They don't owe me anything."

"They do; many of them owe you their lives. Not in a life debt kind of way since they weren't in any immediate danger, but indirectly. Killing Tom saved a lot of lives from being lost in what could have been the future."

McGonagall brought the conversation back to academics.

"Well, since the Hogwarts charter allows it, I don't have a problem with Mr. Davis being in the Beginning Runes class. However, you also need to talk to Bathsheda for her permission, seeing it is her class."

"Of course. We will leave you to finish setting up for the feast, we have to get things set up in his room before the feast.

"I will see you both soon." With that, the Headmistress activated a portkey on her desk and was gone.

"Only the Headmistress can create portkeys which can travel within Hogwarts." Harry clarified to me. "Anyways, let's get going. Remember, the staircase from the 5th to the 4th floor has a trick step. It is a recognizably different colour, but students do tend to miss it every once in a while."

We walked out of the Headmistress's office and started to walk the halls of Hogwarts. When we got down the staircase, I was in awe of everything happening. It took my brain a few seconds to process everything. All the portraits on the wall were casually having conversations, mostly about the excitement of the students' return. The hallway was lined with suits of armor, and I think I saw one of them wink from underneath their helmet. We walked through the castle slowly, and Harry explained to me the timing of the moving staircases and he told me some of the tricks that he had learned during the years about how to time your way to a specific class, so as to not be late because of the moving staircases.

"Wouldn't it be easier if the staircases didn't move?" I asked,

"Now that you mention it, it would've been a lot easier if the stairs didn't move. However, it would've actually been counterproductive to my fight with Voldemort because I wouldn't have found the 3rd floor corridor when Draco challenged me to the midnight duel first year."

"I'll never say anything against the moving staircases again," I quickly said.

After a laugh, Harry said, "Although they might be great instruments of fate, the staircases are actually very problematic for the students here." After a bit of silence, Harry spoke up again. "I think that the legend goes that the founders bought Hogwarts as a smaller castle, and built off of it. I think that the moving staircases, as well as the trick step, were a part of the original castle that the founders bought. The spells and enchantments on them are so old that no one knows where to even start in removing them."

"Wow! Now why aren't these facts put into the books for muggles to read?"

"Apparently, Rowling only recorded the facts that were most prevalent to my life."

"Well she should consider writing these things down and publishing them. I know she could make a fortune off of all of this information."

"She isn't actually allowed to publish anything else. Her international trial was very tense, and she only got away with what she did by 2 votes. As a result, she isn't allowed to publish anything else. Actually, last year, some muggle using Rowling's name wrote and published a thing called "The Cursed Child" in which they make some very weird assumptions about my kids and parenting skills."

"I read it. I'm glad that it is confirmed that it isn't true, although I would've guessed that, because it was written before Al was at Hogwarts. It is really funny how the muggles believe that something that insane could be real."

"Yes, the thing is that since it was written by a muggle, none of the wizards actually know that it exists. I have an agreement with Kingsley that the knowledge of that book will never get out to the wizarding public."

"How can you do that with so many muggle-borns?"

"Well, in an ingenious move and a deal with the goblins, we 'convinced' the publishers into only using one facility to make the books right after they got released. There are wards on the machines in the facility that make muggle-borns who read the books not able to talk about them with wizards. Did you see that you hadn't brought it up until I specifically mentioned it? I only did so since I trust you not to talk about it with anyone else. The only ones who know about it in the wizarding world are you, me, and the Minister."

"Wow, that's crazy."

"There are a few copies that got out before we set up the wards, but since the muggle writer is in America, There is a very small chance that any British muggle-born actually gets their hands on one."

We stopped in front of a portrait of a knight in full armor on a horse.

"This is Sir Lancelot, yes, the one from legends. He is the guardian of my chambers. Yours are just over there," he pointed to another picture down the hall. "That one is Sir Galahad. You will need to set your own password with him when we get back." He turned to Lancelot and said, "Sirius Black."

With this, the portrait swung open revealing an office type set up with a desk as well as a couch that looked very comfortable. Besides the door we had come into, I saw that there were 5 other doors.

"The door on the left leads to my office, which is connected to my classroom. The room to the right of that one leads to my room. You are allowed into this common room whenever, but not my room unless I give you permission to enter." I nodded. "The two doors next to it are rooms for my kids, I guess we won't be needing one of them this year. The one on the far right leads to your common room, and the password for that door also needs to be set. I ask that you make your passwords different so that anybody who you let come into your room can not come into my quarters."

"Ok" I said, walking over to the door. Harry cast a spell on the door and prompted me to make a password. "Chicago" I said thinking of my hometown. Harry cast another spell on the door and the door opened. Walking through, I saw a nice cozy space with a couple of couches as well as a desk. I would definitely see what kind of decorating I could find in London since I guessed Hogsmeade didn't have furniture shops. Maybe a nice bean bag chair would look nice in the corner.

Walking to the passageway that led to the outside hallway, Harry took out the piece of the wall that he had taken before we left. He used some sort of spell to fuse the wall chunk to this wall, and when he powered the runes, there was a wave of magic throughout the room. I felt my ears pop, and I had some goosebumps on my arm.

"Now you will be able to use your devices in here and also in your room. The protection does not go into my quarters as it is recognized as a different area by the magic."

"Nice, and you said that my mom is going to send over everything in a bit right?"

"Yes, it should be here when you wake up. Now, you should get some regular robes on, we need to get downstairs for dinner tonight. You do have to sit at the head table with me tonight and for official feasts like Halloween, but you can sit at any table any other time."

"I promised Vic that I'd sit with her tonight, I hate that I'm going to have to say no."

"I'm sorry, but rules are rules and since you are an apprentice you need to sit with me at the head table."

"Fine, I wish you would have told me this before I had made a promise to someone about dinner."

"Why don't you get your robes put on? Just the normal everyday robes, the unspeakable ones are only for times like when you need to access the restricted section for a book. Since Hogwarts has the most extensive library on the island, unspeakables do come by to find information from time to time, so you won't look out of place."

"If that's the case, why did we have to go to the department to get the book on soul runes?"

"The department has its own specialized library for topics as secret as soul runes, but there isn't as much space in the department as there is in a big castle to house a giant library, so the unspeakables have to resort to coming into the castle for their research. I've found out that a good amount of the headmaster or headmistress's job is to monitor who is coming in and out of Hogwarts."

"Wow," I said, when I had a thought, "What about Rookwood? Wasn't he a Death Eater and an unspeakable?"

"He was, and also one of the smartest Death Eaters. This is top secret, but there are records of him coming into Hogwarts for the library before he was identified as a Death Eater. It is only by good luck that he wasn't one of the crazy Death Eaters who would go and kill students in the halls. He was smart enough to know that he needed to hold on to his job as long as he could for some of his plans to come through."

With that thought, I went into my bedroom, and put on my robes for the feast. I couldn't wait to get my phone back. Today had really not been fun, not having it, and I hoped it would still be decently charged in the morning.