"Merry early Christmas!" Ness chirped, grinning as Ginny looked at her present bag in disbelief.

"Ness, you could have waited until tonight." Ginny pointed out, grabbing his arm and pulling him back to the breakfast table before he could give Luna her early Christmas gift.

"Nope! I'm getting all of my wizard chores out of the way so I can just relax! Oh! Harry! Happy Early Christmas!" Ness vaguely heard Ginny give a laugh of disbelief as he shoved a present bag into Harry's hands then repeated the process to Hermione and Ron, who looked surprised at his inhuman happiness.

"Ness…? Are you alright?" Hermione asked as Ness eyed Selvis and Luna. Luna was giggling while Selvis was shooting him daggers, daring him to embarrass him in front of everyone.

"Better than every since it's almost Christmas break!" Ness chirped, bouncing on his heels as Ron and Harry shared a look. "It means I get to chill at home without the fear of something blowing up!"

A red and green explosion happened overhead, prompting everyone to wearily duck under the table as the remains of some paper object floated down onto the table. Harry managed a tired mumble of, "Merry Christmas." As Ness headed back to his seat forcing his smile to stay on his face.

After the Quidditch match he and Harry had been on even worse terms than before. It was hard to apologize after nearly starting a fight and derailing a train over a simple disagreement. But it was even harder to apologize for starting/stopping a fight to injury/protect one's worst enemy who had the beating coming to them.

Fred and George easily apologized after the sting of being suspended from Quidditch for life had faded a bit, even thanking him for attempting for preventing the worst outcome from happening. But Ness was sure that it was going to be a bit harder for Harry.

After all, it wasn't like he was working to apologize to him for the fight on the train. He had found himself oddly skirting around the problem and making it up by helping him with DA which was slowly corroding from Umbridge's influence.

After Harry's actions against Malfoy people had become a bit…tense around him, somewhat believing Umbridge's belief of Harry being mental and unhinged given his almost violent attack on Malfoy. Slytherins especially were nervous around Harry since they knew the Golden Trio's hatred of them. Some of it was rightfully earned given Malfoy's underhanded acts and their willingness to go along with it but…

It was unfair to blame just Slytherin for Malfoy's actions which had goaded them all into doing it. For them, it was just a tactic to ensure that they won. They had only taken part in one attack, not both. But it was easy to worry about it since none of them knew how to apologize without making it worse.

Ron was making it a lot harder given how sullen he had become, clearly blaming himself for making the entire school rallying with and against him.

But, that was a small problem for Ness to worry about. For now, he was going to focus on the positive. Which was leaving early in the morning to head home with Selvis for Christmas Break.

For the entire school day, he was an energetic mess, happily skipping around the castle, zoning out in class and happily giving Umbridge giant smiles just to unnerve her.

She couldn't touch him in his happy place. No one could.

"Stop being happy." Selvis ordered during potions, looking annoyed as Ness just smiled at him, "I think I liked it better when you were moody."

"But it's Christmas-,"

"It's the 18th nimrod!"

Potions maaaay have ended with Ness nearly blowing his potion up from being unable to sit still. "You. Owe. Me." Selvis growled, looking thoroughly done with dealing with him as he salvaged their potion and managed to get a decent grade on it.

"And that is why you get an early Christmas gift! Merry-,"

"18th."

"Whatever!" He shoved the bag into his hands and resumed breezing through the school day. Planning on giving Luna's gift to her during DA since she was busy helping someone—yes, someone in her house had asked her to help with an experimental spell—and couldn't meet up at their clubhouse during lunch or break.

His good mood doubled when he snuck into the DA club room ten minutes early than when Harry was supposed to arrive with Hermione and Ron and spotted one of the house elves decorating the entire place with Harry head ornaments made of gold grinning down at him alongside a banner that read, "Have a very Harry Christmas!"

He might have given the elf a heart attack from bursting out laughing from the sheer overkill before suggesting putting up ornaments for all the houses and getting rid of Harry's name.

"Oh…alright." The elf reluctantly agreed, cheering back up when Harry walked into the room five minutes later and nearly fainted from the overkill as they removed the Harry heads. "Look! Mini yous!" Ness joked, tossing one at Harry who clumsily caught it before looking blankly at it.

"Well then!" Ron managed, muffling a couple laughs as Hermione rushed to help the house elf with putting up the new decorations. Ginny and Luna showed up next, Luna having a good giggle as Ginny glanced at the elf in surprise before joining the decoration crew.

Selvis came last and had a fun time rolling around the floor laughing at Harry's 'ego' before Ginny moved to shut up him.

"Very funny." Harry mumbled, his face a bright red as Selvis wheezed, "Potter head!" and resumed giggling. Thankfully, he managed to calm down enough to finish putting the decorations up before anyone else showed up.

"Impressive." Agatha noted as she led her Slytherin housemates inside behind the Ravenclaws, who were admiring their work.

Hufflepuff was impressed as well, proud smiles on their faces as they watched everyone more or less get along before they had to split up for class. "Merry early Christmas Luna!" Ness chirped before going to hide in the closet and play Golden Sun.

Happily listening to the class go on as he bashed monsters' head in with swords and Psy-energy. Harry had greatly improved over the two months, naturally growing into his role as a teacher and a leader with only a few road bumps along the way.

"This is going to be the best Christmas ever." Ness foolishly thought as time passed and the yell of spells and stuns faded into peaceful quiet as the class ended.

"Remember, next time we meet we'll be working on Patronus." Harry explained, sounding very proud of their hard work as people cheered and began whispering about what their Patronus would look like.

"I hope mine's a spider." Luna admitted, prompting a yelp of, "Why would you want that!?" from Ron as Ginny giggled.

"Because, they symbolize being meaningful in making your choices." Luna explained, "And some believe that spiders control fate."

"Spiders shouldn't exist! There horrific, eight legged beasts!"

"I find them to be quite cute." Luna admitted, probably smiling as Ron dissolved into a spluttering mess, "Cute?! CUTE?!"

"Give it up Weasley, she's not right in the head." Selvis interjected before thoughtfully adding, "Although spiders are pretty cool."

"Rest in peace Ron." Ness thought, giggling as Ron made incoherent noise until someone led him away, probably Ginny judging by the soft, "There-there."

"So, what's a Patronus again?" Ness asked, once everyone expect the clean up crew had said their good byes and wished everyone a Merry Christmas.

Harry looked at him in disbelief before deadpanning, "It's that white deer I summoned against the dementor."

"Ohh, the ghost animal!"

"Ghost?" Ginny echoed as Ness shrugged, "I've fought a couple."

"Of course. Alongside bears and robots." Selvis grumbled, shaking his head in disgust as he put up the cushions.

"Why have you fought a bear?" Ron asked before he joked, "Did you steal it's honey or something?"

"I wish. Then I could bribe it to spare me." Ness grumbled, remembering the not so fun battles against the bear and his brothers.

"…Americans. Are. Weird." Selvis deadpanned after a long moment of stunned silence.

"And proud of it." Ness replied before they resumed cleaning to head to bed. Confident that something would go his way tomorrow as he closed his eyes and focused on heading home, seeing his friends and family and finally getting some answers about what was going on with his nightmare related to Giygas and the monsters seemingly obeying him.

Of course, nothing wanted to go his way. Which was why he woke up and felt…off. Very, very off.

"Dear Fate, I hate you. A lot." Ness grumpily thought, wondering why it was so dark and very…big. He clearly wasn't back at the dorms but…if he wasn't there, then where was he?

Another illusion like Moonside? A place deeply effected by a powerful being? Wizarding stronghold? "Thinking about it isn't going to help." Ness decided, "I need to find some answers."

His legs felt stiff, like someone had glued the muscles and joints together and never bothered to fix or stretch them out. Making getting up a little tricky as he leaned forward, hissing in pain and concentration as his body struggled to go through with the prompt of movement. "I wonder if this is how statues feel." Ness murmured, trying to stay positive as he touched something stone cold and some fabric covering his legs.

Flowing fabric in the form of a—

"Why the heck am I in a skirt?!" Was this some sort of cruel joke?! He reached up to rub his throbbing head when he noticed how his fingers looked glued together like a—

"I'm a doll?!" A quick—well, sort of slow pat down later confirmed his thoughts. He was indeed in a doll, an old fashion one judging by the rough wood on his legs and the thin but equally rough fabric wrapped around him like a dress.

What on earth was going on? Why was he suddenly a doll?! He'd had weird dreams before, been in completely different worlds and traveled through time in a robot body, but this was ridiculous!

"Alright…breath." Ness murmured, clumsily getting to his feet and hisses as he bumped his head, loosen a coarse curl of brown hair. "I'm somehow…a doll." That was going to take a while to get used to, "And apparently, I'm in a box. So, first order of business. Getting out of the box."

It was clearly a metal box, firmly made for some odd reason since it wouldn't budge no matter how hard he pushed and kicked the door. Was he in a bank? That was the only thing he knew of that had a small metal box to store things.

Although, he doubted banks had reinforced the door and walls with magic. There was a lot of it. And it was slowly driving him crazy.

"Rockin' Omega!" Did absolutely nothing, which was unsettling. Magic hadn't stopped his attacks before, At least, not so quickly. Where was he that required such high-level magic?

Or…maybe it was because he was a different person? Which meant he had different attacks? A quick check through his personal stats quickly informed him that he did indeed have different attacks.

Apparently, the doll was supposed to be a support unit, having Healing Beta, Shield Sigma, PSI Shield Sigma and Defense Down Alpha. But then it had a couple weird attacks, like Fulgur CREPITUS, which would create a bunch of electrical explosions to hurt everyone on the field and Oppungo Flamma, which would grab nearby objects and throw them on people to set them aflame.

It was weird, especially since they had no Greek sign to show how powerful they were. They were just, there. But they seemed to be his best bet.

"Fulgur CREPITUS!" In hindsight, using a lightning-based attack inside a small, cramped metal box was a terrible idea. Light washed over him, the sound of explosions and the crackle of raw electricity nearly deafening him as something landed with a loud bang. "Never. Again." Ness swore, blinking his eyes to get rid of the pure white void obstructing his sight. He was thoroughly surprised to find himself in a simple storage room for random items.

Scratch that. He was in a vault full of jars, metal boxes lining the walls and two giant metal doors. Each item was carefully labeled with the object's name and number of danger.

The wall of shelves were boring names such as, Nurse Doll, Grinning Puppet or Living Shoe with danger levels at a solid ten. The jars had moving liquid and—ew, there was an eyeball in one of them for some disturbing reason—murky green fog that seemed to be following his every move and a spider. Who was writing something on the glass.

The name tags were a bit less boring here—the eye was named Glass Seer, the murky fog was Mist of Tricks and the spider was named Widow.

"What's going on here? Where am I?"

"In jail. Duh." He jumped and spun around, yelping when his stiff legs failed to react and buckled underneath him, sending him crashing to the ground.

"Up here Mary." Mary? Was that this doll's name? He pushed himself up and followed the being's instructions. Blinking at the spider who was waving hello. "Having fun being free?"

He glanced at the smoking door behind him then looked back up at the spider who seemed a bit puzzled by his lack of response. "Yo, Sister Mary. You alright? You seem…off and-," he abruptly stopped then seemed to nod in understanding. "You aren't Mary, you're our new boss."

"What." The spider was joking, right? If he was their new boss then that mean that Giygas's influence was still lingering and—

"Boss? You okay? You're making Mary shake a little-," Widow started when something rippled through the air, something powerful and ancient.

Something that overwhelmed his fumbling mind into screaming in agony and lashing out with whatever it had available. Which meant throwing everything around him with Oppungo Flamma. "Whoa! Whoa! Chill Mary! It's just the other boss!" Widow yelped, a web cocoon forming around the spider as the something abruptly stopped.

"W…w—other boss?" It was probably a good thing that Sister Mary didn't have knees, since he was ready to fall back down to the ground and curl into a shivering ball at how familiar that something had felt.

Was Giygas really back? Was he behind one of the two doors? They seemed big enough for a person to use.

"Yea! You know-," Widow started when the something returned, only it seemed to focus more on Widow than him this time around.

"Er…On second thought, don't worry about him. He's retired now or something." Widow stated, nervously tapping his legs against one another as Ness looked at him in disbelief. "R-right…So, where am I?"

"In those corrupted monsters stronghold." Widow hissed, his casual mood vanishing and being replaced with a frightful aura, "They locked us up once Master Giygas vanished! They tampered with out minds!"

Tampered with their minds? Was…was that why they were still alive without Giygas being present? And what did Widow mean by 'vanish'? Was he talking about how Giygas vanished from reality all together or…something else?

"So…you don't have ANY clue where we are?"

"Nope. We newbies have been in here for about three years. The others? Almost ten maybe twenty. They can't tell."

Three years, the start and end of his journey. Twenty and ten? Perhaps his grandfather's adventure. Both of which had Giygas's influence messing things up. But why didn't the Ministry just let them handle it? He doubted his grandfather stayed in one country, he for sure didn't. Traveling all over the world to find and stop Giygas.

"Well…thanks, I'm going to try and get some information." Ness stated, struggling to turn toward the door he hoped was the exit as Widow wished him luck. It was a little unnerving to see how everything had an almost perfect copy in the room. As if to create an optical illusion to ward off intruders like him.

Or, perhaps that was more magic getting in the way as he stopped in front of door number one and pressed his 'ear' against the cold metal. His heart increasing in rhythm as he heard faint, shallow breathing and felt the something from before.

Ness jerked back, muffling a yelp as he saw a misty white hand created by PSI reach through the door, its long fingers desperately reaching out as his worn wooden boots slipped on the stone tiled floor. A scream almost ripping through his throat as the hand wrapped around the doll's head.

His head. And a surplus of jumbled and angered thoughts broke through his fragile defenses. A string of gibberish and techno babble that made his brain spin into a pile of mush before he tried to fight back.

Swiping at the misty hand the best he could while trying to piece the command of Fulgur CREPITUS as the hand struggled to stay still.

L&^%$#

$%^&*i(*&

^%$#$%^tt

(^%$le

br*&$#o

th(*&^

er?

The being seemed to ask as the hand tightened his grip around his head. "I can't breath! I can't think!" cut across the gibberish as Ness moved to trying to mimic a punch and a kick with his wooden limbs.

" ! !" the thing stated, sounding cheerful for a moment as the gibberish halted, leaving a void of silence before—before… Huh? A soft melody started to play, gently bouncing around his head and relaxing him.

This melody was his mother's lullaby, Giygas's lullaby. And the something was playing it note for note. For a moment, Ness forgot he was in some creepy dark room with PSI beings corrupted by Giygas's influence, he forgot that the misty white hand was still lingering around him, coiled around his shoulders like a warm scarf.

He was back home. With Tracey and his mother who were smiling and laughing at something dumb he had said while King barked and tried to join their conversation.

" ?" the something asked, the hand pulling back now and giving him some air.

"Y-yea…thanks." What was this thing? And why did it sort of remind him of…no, that wasn't possible. Hopefully...

Content with its good deed the hand pulled back, disappearing behind the door as Ness turned around and headed for the real exit. Feeling light and relaxed for the first time in months.

Not even the creepy dark hallways with looming railings and gaping voids of darkness hidden behind them could get him down as he hobbled somewhere. Not exactly sure where to go as something pulled towards him, urging him to hurry.

But why? He didn't know as he found himself blocked by a giant door. Taunting him as he tried to push it open and discovered that something heavy was blocking it.

Looks like Sister Mary's inhuman strength wasn't going to work this time around. "Here comes another round of lightning." Ness grumbled, not in the mood to be blinded again as he backed up and readied the attack. "Fulgar-!" he started when the door opened and he found himself looking up at a giant wearing a robe and having carrot orange hair receding from his head.

It took him a moment to realize he was looking up at Mr. Weasley who was looking down at him in an expression warped with confusion and a sleepy frown. "How did you-," Mr. Weasley started, backing up to attack when Ness noticed something behind the man. Something the color of a swamp lake and readying itself to strike.

"Mr. Weasley look out!"

"Wha-," The poor man barely had time to position himself to be able to see both him and the snake when it lunged forward, a faint scream of "No!" echoing inside the beast's head as Ness lunged forward and grabbed its tail, cringing as Sister Mary's strength proved to be useless against living beings as the snake only shuddered from surprise.

"Mr. Weasley! Get to safety! I got this!" Ness promised, cringing as the doll hands began to slip on the beast's smooth tail, his moment of flexibility rapidly vanishing as Mr. Weasley backed up in a stunned daze.

"Or ya know, you could just stand the-RE!" the snake jerked forward, the voice inside its head pleading for him to stop it as Ness threw himself on top of the beast's back, grinning as it spun around and tried to attack him.

"Close the door!" he ordered, relived to see Mr. Weasley jolt back to reality as Ness willed the snake to be blasted by Fulgur CREPITUS!

Super effective! Nagini/H?R?Y took 400 damage!

Wizard took 400 damage!

Wizard is knocked out!

"What?!" He looked up as the snake writhed in pain, its influence fading a bit as Ness spotted Mr. Weasley. His mouth dropping in horror as he saw the man's smoking body and shattered wand. "No! Mr. Weasley! I didn't-," he scrambled to his feet, hobbling over to perform Heal Beta before the man completely withered away when the snake gave an angry hiss and lunged for him.

"Go away!" Ness snapped, irritation bubbling over as his calm and peaceful bubble shattered from the shock of injuring Mr. Weasley. The snake faltered a bit, its eyes fogging over as a mark flashed briefly on its burnt skin.

"Massster?" the snake questioned. His stomach violently dropping as the snake blinked and tilted its head, repeating, "Massster." In a much happier tone.

"N-no, I'm not your-!" Ness started, waving his hands when he remembered Mr. Weasley and how Nagini was originally going for a death blow. "Stay there!" he ordered turning around to heal the man. Shivering when Nagini happily complied.

"Alright…this should stabilize him…for now." Ness mumbled, feeling sick at how badly Mr. Weasley looked, his PSI managing to cover most of the burns and oddly angled arm in a soothing wave but…he was going to need serious treatment. Magic and PSI didn't mix. He didn't want to risk breaking Mr. Weasley's magic or permanently scarring the man. He needed to call for help.

"Nagini, right?" Nagini happily bobbed her head yes, pausing for a moment as her eyes glazed over for a moment. "I need you to take me to a phone, pronto!"

"Of course, Master." Nagini slithered towards him, stopping and lowering her head to allow him to climb on before they moved on. Nagini gleefully proving how fast a snake could move as they shot down flights of stairs and through pipes and vents to reach the bottom floor.

"Enemies…!" Nagini hissed as a group of people in dark robes rushed into the building, their wands lighting up the room as they hurried into the elevators. Ness's heart jumping for joy when he heard someone mutter, "He's on the fifth floor, hurry!"

The other voice in Nagini's head must have called for help as well! Mr. Weasley was going to get proper help! "It's alright Nagini, there going to help my friend."

"Friend?"

"Yes, the…smoking man upstairs."

"Friend…" Nagini repeated as Ness started to feel lightheaded and…was someone yelling? Not now! He needed to figure out what to do with Nagini!

"Uh, Nagini! Head home and chill until I call for your help!" Ness hastily ordered feeling faint as he heard something else whisper at him, almost… begging him to stay safe before he blacked out and woke up in his own bed. His body feeling numb and almost alien as he waited for the odd sensation to pass before sitting up.

Even though those wizards had shown up, Ness still needed to inform Ginny about what had happened and what to expect when she suddenly got the call to come home.

But he didn't need to do it. As he stumbled the common room he was surprised to see some Fifth years exchanging worried looks. They were mostly boys but there were a couple girls as Hermione tried to shoo everyone to bed.

"What's going on?" Ness flinched at how soft his voice sounded, almost to quiet to be heard among the growing volume of whispers and mutters. "Hey, what's going on?" he repeated, a little louder than before.

A student jumped and turned around, a girl wearing a lilac nightgown who seemed a little familiar. But he couldn't place the name, not when his body was having such a hard time adjusting to his mind. Was it this bad when he had jumped in and out of the robot body to defeat Giygas?

He didn't think so…

"It's Potter! He had some sort of prophecy dream about Ron's dad!"

What. Since when was Harry a psychic?! "He's injured?" Ness asked, trying to play off his disbelief and panic as friendly concern for his friend's dad.

"Not sure, according to the boys he was insisting that he needed to speak to Dumbledore and charged into the Professor's room. When she came back, she told us to get the other Weasleys' and send them to Dumbledore's office as well."

So, Harry did know he was seriously injured. But how? He was the only one with the power to jump into other objects and—wait. Was he the influence surrounding Nagini?

A shiver ran down his spine as he mumbled something about going back to bed. Sleep was impossible to return to, his mind in overdrive wondering how a wizard could influence an animal's decisions yet couldn't.

Harry didn't have any ill will to Mr. Weasley, why should he? And yet Nagini was still attempting to murder the man until Ness overpowered Harry's hold on the snake.

Was there someone else controlling Nagini? Or…something else? Something much worse than his current dilemma?

When morning rolled around he was dead tired. Plagued with worry and guilt for getting Mr. Weasley so badly injured and unable to check up on him. The Weasleys' plus Harry were no where to be seen for the morning train back to the station. Which was odd and a bit worrisome unless they had somehow teleported out of the castle to be at Mr. Weasley's side.

But that didn't make sense either since you couldn't Apparate in or out of the castle unless you were a PSI user. Hermione had drilled that fact in during his second year thanks to the Black fiasco.

"Don't worry about it. You can just write Ginny a letter-," Oh wait…he couldn't do that since she would probably be at a location closer to whatever hospital her father had been taken to. His stomach curled into seven tight knots at the realization he would be unable to check in on his friend from home.

Why couldn't wizards have telephones!? That would make everything a bit easier! With a groan Ness got up, feeling to sick to continue eating and began walking to the carriages. Hoping the brief amount of winter fresh air would help clear his mind into thinking rationally about his situation.

It didn't. Sure, it helped a little to focus on the positives like seeing his family again, chatting with Jeff and Paula about Giygas being back and just being able to relax without the fear of dying or completely losing it.

But the seed of guilt had been planted. And without a way to properly check on Ginny, there was no way to weed the seed out of his mind. Since he had taken the first carriage he was the first one on the train despite everyone's desire to get out of the castle as fast as they could.

Giving him a couple more moments to try and wrestle the weed out of his mind before he gave up and moved to play Puyo-Puyo.

He managed to reach level 4 before the train lurched to life. The sudden movement filing him with relief as the clock began ticking down. Only four or five hours to go before he was back to civilization and then Eagle Land.

He got to level six before Selvis found him, looking winded and thoroughly annoyed as he slammed the door behind him. "Bloody hell—don't just up and disappear like that!"

Ness glanced up, pausing his struggle to beat the Demon Prince to snarkily remark, "How could I disappear if I just walked here?"

Selvis scowled and sat down with a huff, "Magic that's how! And I couldn't even find Ginny to ask if you had already left!"

Ness flinched a little before closing his Gameboy, figuring it was best to tell Selvis now than pretending he didn't know why she was missing. "Mr. Weasley was attacked."

"…What. Wait no, how do you know this?"

"Because I saw it happened. I indirectly attacked him." Selvis opened his mouth, closed it then groaned. "Explain in wizard terms please."

"Yea about that…"

"Earthbound. PLEASE."

"Fine, fine." Ness adjusted his hat before explaining his 'dream', the discovering of being in Sister Mary's body and being forced to use a new set of PSI powers, meeting Widow who informed him of the 'other boss' after realizing who he really was, the other boss's attempt to do something to him before calming him down with his lullaby, finding Mr. Weasley and apparently surprising him and then turning into Nagini's new 'master'.

When he finished, Selvis looked completely and utterly done with the idea of PSI and his insane adventure. "So, all the Weasleys' plus Harry are at Saint Mungo's Hospital—Why are you looking at me like that."

"Did Ginny tell you?"

"Tell me what?" Selvis asked before his eyes widened a bit, "Ah, right. You muggles have a bunch of hospitals spread out that can do different things for different injuries."

"Well, expect the hospitals in Eagle Land, they can fix almost everything." Ness countered.

Selvis ignored that part and went on, "Since he got blasted with…electricity and explosions?" he shot Ness a look of disbelief, silently pleading that he had misheard that part when Ness merely returned his gaze with a blank one, "Americans." The boy grumbled, "He'll need the best of the best wizard wise to heal properly. St. Mungo's is the best for all your magically injuries that can't be explained to muggles."

"Can we visit?"

"Maybe. Depends on how badly injured he is. And if we can catch Ginny to convince her to let us in."

Ness nodded and looked out the window, feeling a little relived that he had a location of where Mr. Weasley was to possibly check on him. Sure, he might not know where exactly, but a name was better than nothing.

"I wonder…" he looked up from his thoughts, muffling a laugh as Selvis happily wrote something in code in his notebook. "Wonder what?" Ness prompted, his laugh escaping him as Selvis looked up with an eager gaze.

"What Mr. Weasley was guarding of course!"

Guarding? Why would he be standing guard? He didn't completely understand the man's role at the Ministry. He didn't really remember paying attention to it at the time since there was no reason to get involved with the law but…he doubted Mr. Weasley would stand guard. In the middle of the night. Alone… Guarding a room with corrupted PSI and possibly Magic items…

"You noticed it too, right?" Selvis asked, giddily bouncing up and down a bit, "Something's off with this story!"

Very off now that he thought about it. Mr. Weasley looked startled and almost dazed when he spotted him. As if he knew he was expecting a disturbance from the front and not from behind.

"Alright Mr. Theorist, what's your idea?" Ness asked, mentally preparing for Selvis's idea. "Well-," a knock cut him off, prompted him to look to the door with a scowl as Ness called, "Come in." allowing Luna to step inside carrying a moon covered travel bag and her usual smile.

"I didn't know you were going on holiday break." Selvis stated, a small frown appearing as Ness nodded in agreement, "I thought you were staying to chill with Ginny."

Luna gave a small shrug and sat down beside him, "I was, but then she disappeared. Medical reasons Professor McGonagall informed me. So, I thought I'd come home to spend some time with my dad."

"And they just let you come, just like that?" Ness asked, snapping his fingers to add empathize to his point.

"With a bit of persuading of course." Luna admitted, her smile growing a bit as Selvis looked at her and covered his mouth like a proud parent. "Yup. Totally the dad." Ness teased, laughing as Selvis snapped, "Shut it Earthbound! I have theories to explain!"

"What about?" Luna leaned forward, her smile sharpening a bit as she properly woke up. Her smile faded and wavered a bit when Ness retold the story, making a point to explain about Oppungo Flamma and Fulgur CREPITUS given Luna's Ravenclaw background. Perhaps she knew something about those attacks that he didn't.

"Interesting." Luna mused, keeping her thoughts to herself for the moment as Selvis launched into his theory, "The reason why Mr. Weasley—Head officer of Office for the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Objects—was guarding a door that lead to something much, much more dangerous to wizards was to prevent someone from getting in!"

"Which was why Nagini attacked him." Ness finished, frowning a little, "But, what was he guarding? And why? I mean, if it was just the PSI corrupted items then yea, maybe he wanted to keep them out of the wrong hands since they're pretty powerful in influencing people or objects. But that doesn't explain the long hallway I walked through."

"Which means Mr. Weasley might be guarding something else in that hallway." Luna mused, "Something that would require him to stand in front of the main door to ensure that no one could slip by."

"But why not just wait in that room?" Selvis asked, "It's almost like he didn't know what he was guarding exactly and was just playing guard!"

"Then…maybe he was just playing guard." Ness offered, the gears sluggishly churning in his head, "Maybe…Maybe there's something in that hallway that Voldemort wants but no one knows what exactly, or maybe Dumbledore knows."

Selvis scoffed in disgust, muttering, "Makes sense, he's buddy-buddy with everyone who follows him. He could easily ask Mr. Weasley to keep an eye on it given his position of power. Not to low, not to high."

"Perfect spy." Luna finished with a small frown, "But…if that was the case then why did Voldemort send Nagini? If that is his spy."

"I don't know. It might have been the other boss I met." Ness countered with a small shrug, "It was coming right at Mr. Weasley with the intent to kill. Maybe it was finally tired of being locked up and reached out for some help."

"Right, it reached out for a green murderous snake." Selvis deadpanned, "The odds of that are 10 to none Earthbound."

"Dude. I've fought living dolls, piles of barf and cranky ladies. I'd believe that it found an snake from the zoo and coxed it over to free it."

"Cranky ladies?! What the hell Earthbound!?"

"I still find fighting the police force a bit more surprising." Luna admitted as Selvis groaned and flopped on his bench in sheer disbelief. Ness started, "I find fighting objects in an illusion of a backward world-,"

"What. The. Hell."

"-More surprising than anything else."

"I give up." Selvis groaned, "Every time I learn something about your adventure. I just get a bigger headache."

"Welcome to my world." Ness dryly replied before focusing on the matter at hand. "What makes no sense to me is that the snake had a second influence floating around. A wizard one, trying to stop it."

"And that's not normal?" Selvis asked his scowl dropping as Ness added, "I think it was Harry somehow."

"…No." Selvis managed as Luna hummed in thought, "That…well…He has had predictions before."

"And he woke up before me. When I left Nagini some wizards were already rushing inside and Ginny was no where to be seen."

"So…Harry was in the snake's mind." Selvis deadpanned as the train came to a slow stop, "Dear lord. I'm going to need more paper for this."

"Maybe a new mind too." Luna offered, giggling as Selvis snapped, "Don't even joke about that." As they relunctly gathered up their things and moved for the train platform. Surprised at how quickly time had slipped through their fingers.

"So many questions…So little time." Luna complained, but it sounded more of a hushed whisper if you didn't glance at her slightly annoyed expression. Ness nodded in agreement and looked around for his mom and sister. His heart performing a violent dive complete with a couple somersaults when he didn't see them anywhere on the platform.

Alright, maybe he was supposed to take the plane back by himself. No biggie. He had done it two years ago. He could do the same now. He just wished someone had told him they would be picking him up when—

"Oh, that stupid Toad!"

Selvis and Luna jumped from the murderous amount of venom in his voice as Ness groaned into his hands, "They couldn't tell me what they were doing since she was snooping through my mail! Arrgggh!"

"I'm guessing your folks are late?" Luna asked as Selvis shrugged, "So are mine, we could walk around for a bit."

"In the middle of December?" the looks they gave him were just ironic. As if asking if he wouldn't enjoy a brisk walk around London in the middle of winter. Then again…the snow wasn't that deep compared to American winters, so perhaps walking around wasn't that bad.

"Fine, we'll walk." Ness grumbled, "But I'm finding a payphone."

"I'm finding breakfast." Luna hummed, "Then I'm taking the night bus back."

"That exists?" Selvis asked, glaring down at his luggage with the sudden realization that they were stuck drugging it around for the morning. "Yup." Luna stated, popping the p as she grabbed her things and started off with Selvis grumbling that this was now a bad idea as Ness used his mitted hand to try and find some change for a payphone.

They ended up stopping into a café called Café Oz a small walk away from the station. It served breakfast, light lunches and coffee. It was a nice little place with large windows to give an open feel to the room and the warm smell of coffee and toasted bread.

Luna and Selvis moved to order something while Ness grabbed the payphone outside to call his mom. "Hello?" his heart swelled with relief and joy to hear his mother's voice after so long. "Hey Mom, it's me, Ness!"

"Oh! That explains the odd number! I thought you were a random salesman trying his luck from overseas."

Ah, he pitied the man who accidentally got his father instead of his mother. He had no patience for those kinds of people given his office job. "I'm calling from a payphone outside of this café called Café Oz."

"Wondering if we're coming to get you?"

"Basically."

"Oh honey, I wish we were but there's storm warnings. So you might be delayed a day or two."

Ah, there was the bad news. He could try teleporting home but his luggage was way to heavy since he had brought everything instead of just his clothes. He didn't trust that witch of a teacher to stay out of his things.

"But don't worry! I asked Jeff to take you in for a bit!"

"Jeff?"

"Oh, did you forget? Jeff lives near England, in Foggyland, Winters."

"Foggylands…" Ness frowned and tried to remember where Winters was on that map he had carried around for a bit on his journey to stop Giygas, "Oh yea! It was by England! I remember now."

"I guess you forgot since it's been a while, huh?"

So, it seemed. But…why did remembering Foggylands suddenly feel…wrong? He knew it was close by to London. Or, it felt like that way…even if he didn't remember even seeing London on the world map…What the heck?

"I'll go call Jeff and tell him you're at the café, have a good breakfast dear!"

"Will do! Stay warm!" Ness replied before hanging up and returning to find Luna and Selvis debating in the back of the café. Luna was eating a weird sandwich stuffed bacon and some purplish red sauce with a cup of orange juice while Selvis was enjoying a pasta dish. His fork agitatedly stabbing the air as he spoke.

"Luna. How on earth would PSI beings even have magic to begin with!?" Selvis was saying as Luna calmly argued, "Widow mentioned something about their minds being tampered with, and PSI stems completely from the mind and life experiences. Maybe they tainted it with Magic when they were trying to figure out what they were."

"As Ness has proven, PSI+ Magic is a bad idea! He's a walking basket case!"

"Said basket case can hear you." Ness interrupted, smirking as Selvis banged his leg against the table in surprise, "So who's picking you up?" Luna asked, pushing a simple pork sausage sandwich in his direction as he sat down.

"Jeff, he's the guy who made my baseball bat." Ness replied, "Now what's this about PSI beings having magic."

"Just another one of Luna's crazy theories." Selvis grumbled, rubbing his bruised knee as Luna chipperly replied, "It's possible."

"For PSI beings to be influenced by magic? As if!"

"Well…that would explain Nagini." Ness admitted, his stomach twisting into an uncomfortable knot, "When I attacked her, I mostly attacked the wizard barely touched Nagini to get rid of the influence."

"Hah." Luna cheered as Selvis threw his hands up, "Okay fine! PSI and Magic can affect one another! Hence why Ness used a wizard jinx-,"

"I did what now?"

"Oppungo's a jinx that can summon living creatures or pick up objects in the area and throw them at a target the caster chose." Luna explained, "But it's odd to hear that it sets things on fire and attacks everything."

"Unless Flamma was related to PSI somehow." Selvis pointed out, "That would explain the fire aspect."

"Yea…but not why Sister Mary, a healer had it." Ness mumbled, feeling sick from the idea of magic corrupting PSI or vice-versa. Had that weird painting used it? Were all the attacks used to disrupt the castle life used magic/PSI at the same time? Why? And why did they want to follow him.

"But that doesn't explain Fulgar CREPTIUS. I've never heard about a spell like that." Selvis tapped his cup in thought as Luna murmured, "It sounds Latin though…and magic is mostly made up of Latin words."

"I suppose that would explain the lack of Greek symbols." Ness focused on his sandwich, suddenly not hungry as it became clear that wizards had tampered with PSI objects and cursed them to use both magic and Psi. But why let so many roam free? And why were they following his order?

"Fulgar Creptius—it means Lightning Explosion in Latin." Luna and Selvis stiffened as someone joined them at their table. At first Ness was ready to glare at them when he recognized the person in Christmas suit and thick black glasses on the stranger's face as they pulled out a notebook and began writing some notes about the odd attack name.

"What does it do exactly?" Jeff asked, glancing up at Ness who was trying not to laugh at his friend's eager gaze. He forgotten how much Jeff liked puzzles, although it made sense given how long he would stay up in order to repair something broken.

"What the name says, attacks everyone on field with lightning charged explosions. I almost killed someone with it."

"Interesting." Jeff mused, writing it down and putting question marks around how the attack came to be. "Is this a new attack or…?"

"It belongs to someone else, I somehow jumped into a doll called Sister Mary and took her over. She was a support unit with Fulgar CREPITIUS and Oppungo Flamma."

"Oppungo Fire…But she could heal?"

"Yup. Selvis and Luna-,"

"Who?" Jeff looked up and flushed as he realized the other two people sitting across from him. Selvis was looking at him in disbelief and horror as Luna gave him an owlish look. As if asking, "Where did you come from, and why?"

"A-ah. Good morning." Jeff managed, doing his best to ignore Ness as he doubled over and laughed at his friend's demise. "You could have warned me!"

"Nah, this was funnier."

Jeff scowled and adjusted his glasses, "I'm Jeff Andonuts, I attend Snow Wood Boarding School in Foggylands."

"Foggy what now?" Selvis asked, prompting a small frown from Jeff as he wrote something else down, murmuring something about this being an after effect of something.

"Never mind, it's not that important. What is important is how you jumped into a Doll's body." Jeff gave him a look that clearly translated to 'Don't leave anything out or face my ray gun' as Ness sighed and dutifully retold the story.

"So, you met with the 'other boss', saved/attacked Mr. Weasley and gained a snake as your party member?" Jeff stated, his frown deepening when Ness nodded. "This…merely proves my theory as correct."

"What theory?" Luna asked, eagerly leaning forward as Jeff adjusted his glasses, "Well, I asked around a bit to see if… he was still around and got an interesting survey."

"Of?" Ness pressed, dreading the answer as Jeff flipped open his notebook, filled with advance mathematics and machine schematics.

"Those in Snow Wood Boarding School recalled the animals acting usually aggressive around his arrival but don't remember anything else other than them calming down. The Tessie camp don't recall anything out of the ordinary happening during our journey,

"Dr. Andonuts recalls helping us out but not exactly sure why and other variables remember his presence but not when it disappeared." Jeff glanced up from his notebook, his expression solemn. "So far, all I've gather pointed towards our final battle being disrupted and leaving memory blanks in the series of events for those not directly involved. I haven't gotten Paula's numbers but…It points towards having a 50% chance of him either being back or his left-over minions being woken up thanks to a trigger and responding to you since you have his influence."

"And I bet the lullaby makes the numbers jump up a bit." Ness guessed, feeling sick since only a handful of people knew about his lullaby, his great grandparents, his mother, his friends and Giygas.

"Yes. But I'm hoping its merely a fluke." Or he was trying to downplay his fears like a good friend. Ness offered Jeff a shaky smile as Luna and Selvis exchanged looks. Silently trying to understand the hidden meaning in their conversation.

"So…Fluke aside, where do you think Ness was?" Luna asked, trying to shift the conversation back to something they understood.

"Obviously, a location with high security. Beings who were influenced by him were very dangerous and unruly. It makes sense that wizards would want to study and possibly take them apart to see what made them tick."

"So, Ministry of Magic." Selvis deadpanned, "Since that's the only place that could have top notch security and Mr. Weasley."

"That sadly doesn't answer why he was there in the first place though." Luna murmured, "He definitely wasn't there to stop Voldemort from accessing the PSI beings…"

"Well, it sounds like they have an entire section set aside just for things they can't understand then, a mystery location." Jeff mused, the word mystery triggering the memory of buying a book in early fall. Perhaps he and Jeff should take a look at it when they got back…

He really missed home. And things making sense. Jeff and Luna traded theories around for a bit, both getting slightly frustrated on science versus magical lore as Selvis silently watched, enjoying the moment of revenge before Ness suggested they start heading back to the station.

Breakfast hours were nearly over, and he really wanted to head home. "Ah, I'll head back to the Sky Runner 3.0 then." Jeff announced, shoving his hands in the thin pockets on his wind breaker. Clearly used to the chilly and wet weather of London as they walked out of Café Oz.

"The Sky what now?" Selvis asked as Ness nodded and looked around for the alien like ship.

"Sky Runner, it's a device my fa…Dr. Andonuts made and I improved upon to travel across country." Jeff exclaimed looking a little sheepish as he added, "It now has a 98.5 chance of not exploding when landing."

"What."

Ness laughed as Luna and Selvis looked at him in disbelief. Silently asking him if he had ridden in the exploding craft before. "It wasn't that bad."

"Earthbound. WHY." Selvis demanded as Luna shook her head in disbelief, "You are one brave person."

"Truly." Jeff agreed before waving good bye and walking toward a small snow covered park, where he had landed. "All PSI users are insane." Selvis deadpanned once he was sure Jeff was out of ear shot.

"Actually, Jeff is a normal human." Ness clarified, grinning at their wide eyed expressions, "He's just super smart and able to build himself tools to help in battle."

"A muggle. Helped save the world." Selvis spluttered before throwing up his hands and yelling, "America is crazy!" as he walked away. Done with the instantly known as Ness.

"Impressive." Luna hummed, giggling as Selvis disappeared into the crowd, "I never thought muggles could fight using tech-no-logy."

"…Please tell me you stretched that part out to be funny."

"Did I say it wrong?"

"…" Ness face palmed as Luna shrugged, "Anyway, I'll be trying to get some information out of Ginny. If Harry was Nagini then he might have told them something."

"And er, Mr. Weasley…?"

"Of course." Luna offered him a warm smile, "You were only trying to help Ness, it wasn't your fault that you got stuck with unknown attacks."

"Still."

"Still what? How were you supposed to predict being trapped in a doll's body while fighting a murderous snake while dealing with PSTD?" Ness opened his mouth to argue about how he could have handled the situation better but had nothing.

Prompting a grin of victory to appear on Luna's face before they exchanged good bye hugs and parted. Returning to the world they belonged to.

Jeff was waiting in a small patch of dense brush with the Sky Runner, looking a little miffed as he tinkered with a broken object. He jumped when Ness playfully poked him, teasing, "It would kill you not to be a science nerd for a day."

"Says the Baseball champ." Jeff retorted, pushing his glasses up and looking around the empty park.

"Trouble?"

"Possibly…I was getting a lot of strange looks from people in trench coats. But unlike in Threed, no one asked me about the mysterious air craft." Jeff sighed and opened the door, grumbling something about the locals just being weird as they prepared to leave.

He'd forgotten how thrilling it was to see everything shrink in size as the Sky Runner floated high into the air and shot off, turning the small buildings and ant like people into murky blurs as it started to lightly snow.

"So…how was school?" Jeff asked as the ground below them turned a milky white, the snow growing as they neared Foggylands.

"Terrible." Ness deadpanned, "The only reason I survived was because I found a magical room designed to suit my needs."

"So, a sanctuary?"

"…Now that you mention it, yes."

"Interesting. I wonder if magic and PSI are more intertwined than we first thought."

"I don't think so. Or rather, I hope not. Magic and PSI attacks seem incredibly dangerous." He shuddered at the exploding candles prank. If that had been magic and PSI, then what else could it blow up? People? Objects?

Jeff's sudden hum snapped him out of his thoughts as he looked at the boy, "What? Did you think of something?"

"Merely wondering something,"

"About?"

"Well, you know how Poo's people are all PSI users, right?"

"Yea, Dalaam is naturally suited for those for PSI or something."

"So, if wizards abhor PSI, then why haven't they taken any actions against Poo's people?"

Huh…that was a good question, he hadn't read anything about a war against Dalaam. And Poo had never mentioned it either. Actually, he doubted Poo even knew about wizards given how he had just started worrying about his safety at Hogwarts.

"That's…really weird."

"Another thing, when I looked at my map I couldn't find a single place called London."

What.

"I had to ask around for a bit before someone from London informed me it was the capital of England."

"And Selvis and Luna never heard of Foggyland before…"

"Right, which means that something truly has happened to impact the time and space continuity for two major locations to be unheard of by the other party."

"Actually…It took me a while to remember you lived around England, I don't know why but…"

"Perhaps it's because you've been the most effected thanks to your constant interactions with wizards?"

"…Maybe." Ness leaned back and adjusted his hat, truly wondering what on earth was going on with their world as the Sky Runner hummed and bounced up and down in a gentle rhythm.

Just how many mysteries were there? Wait…Mysteries? "Oh yea!" Jeff almost sent the Sky Runner into space as Ness dug around in his bag, "I found a book at Hogwarts! About this department in the Ministry related to mysteries or something!"

"And it was important enough to nearly make me crash the Sky Runner?" Jeff dryly asked, face palming when Ness shot him a blank look. "Never mind, what mystery department are they talking about?"

"Er…"

"You have read the book. Right?"

"…I might have gotten distracted by blood thirsty unicorns."

"…Right. Wizards." Jeff said after a long moment of silence.

"You can blame Luna for that interesting idea."

"Great, now read the book. It might answer some questions."

"Right, right." The book wasn't very informative. Mostly a handful of theories and loose speculations about the mystery department. Some theories talked about holding legendary beings or monsters in the spiraling hallways of the Mystery Department.

Others talked about cursed objects or powerful artifacts that could completely upset the order of balance. Some talked about the people who worked there, the Unspeakables who had their mouths sewn shut in order to protect the secrets or horrors they had seen at work.

There was one theory that talked about the Ministry holding an alien like being behind the worlds most powerful magic and counter charms to ensure it's capture. That stood out a bit, but how on earth would some wizards be able to capture an alien?

"I bet that's the most real theory in that book." Jeff grumbled as the Sky Runner slowed and landed in front of a small mansion on a hill near Doctor Andonut's lab.

"Make yourself at home." Jeff explained, pushing the doors open to reveal an oddly empty foyer with science notes and paintings lining the walls, "Dr. Andonuts's in his lab. As usual."

"Does he live there or something?" Ness asked, kicking his shoes off and following Jeff into the living room.

"Yes." Ness flinched from the edge in Jeff's voice but didn't comment on it. Instead, he focused on dragging Jeff away from his little workshop corner to play video games. Using the fact that it was winter break and that they needed to relax to combat Jeff's protests of working on something to possibly hinder wizards.

"You know. It would be nice to actually win a round." Jeff dryly commented as his character flew off the map and died. "It's not that hard." Ness retorted, laughing as Jeff tried to kick him off the couch to gain a point without the fear of losing a stock.

He failed and muttered a bunch of angry science formulas under his breath as Ness tried not to double over laughing. "Dude, it's seriously not that hard-,

"Ness. Shut up."

"I'm just saying-,"

"I will win."

"…I think showing you how to play Smash was a bad idea."

"Very."


Alright, random question. But did ANYONE other than me believe that Nagini was albino? Or some other color besides green? Since I've always remembered or pictured Nagini as a white snake back when I was happily rereading the books as a kid. It just made sense for Voldemort, the big bad to have this super rare snake to be his BFF and loyal partner in crime instead of this everyday colored snake be Nagini.

It threw me for a loop since I stumbled upon a news article about the backlash of Nagini's human actress- That is so weird to think about since it's just out of NOWHERE for me to understand despite never caring for the movies- being played by an Asian actress and someone joked about how JK changed something about a character to make it cannon, prompting me to check the wiki, confirm with my mom who read the series as well, then be salty that Nagini was just a boring green snake from possibly the jungle. - I like Albino Nagini.

Also, fun fact. Cafe Oz is a real place located almost right next to the Kings Cross Station, I did research! :D And it actually looks pretty okay despite my dislike for getting anything other than pancakes for breakfast.

HelentheMoon: I blew something up! Twice! Now if only Mr. Weasley hadn't gotten in the way... ;-

M1nhTre37: Sadly, Porky won't be showing since he's busy preparing for his much more important role in another time, but something else is appearing! Dun dun dun!

Pickledpopcorn:'returns bow with a curtsy' Thanks! And I'm vaguely surprised that I'm even at 33 continuous chapters since a lot of my stories- that aren't for random drabbles or fun- usually end under 27 chapters. Plus thanks again for making this your favorite story despite me being horrible with constant updates despite me having a lot of free time...which I usually spend writing or crafting other stories and art projects that may never be shared with the public! ^-^;; I need to work on that...