Will had forgotten about Peter Pettigrew during all of the hustle of arriving at Hogwarts. He wasn't sure what to do about him, now that he was here though. Leaving Sirius in Azkaban for two more years seemed like a horrible choice, and Will really didn't want to sleep in a room with a serial killer. Does it count as a serial killing if all of them are killed at once? Whatever. Will would talk to Ron about 'Scabbers' in the morning, and see what information he could get from him. Then Will could decide whether or not to bring it to someone's attention.

A glowing hand passed through Will's closed hangings, and the rest of astral-Harry followed.

{Come on, let's go explore! Everyone else is asleep!} Harry said.

"Give me a second," Will whispered, "I gotta fall asleep first!"

Harry waited impatiently while Will got comfortable and, as soon as Will dozed off, he grabbed their bond and yanked astral-Will out.

{Careful doing that!} Will said, {You don't want to accidentally disconnect me from my body, do you?}

Harry paused, {What would happen?} He asked.

{I'm not sure, but I have a few theories.} Will replied, {None of them are good.}

Harry nodded, {I'll be careful,} He promised, then continued, {Come on, let's go!}

They headed off to explore the castle. Harry was looking at everything excitedly, but Will was just trying to memorize the way to the Great Hall from Gryffindor Tower. So far, none of the paintings had noticed them, so Will was pretty confident that they wouldn't be seen by them at least. But there was still something that was bothering him.

Will's parents hadn't seen Will's Astral Body at all, but Harry had seen a disturbance in the air when he moved (Before Will had formed the bond with him, anyway.). This led Will to believe that magical people would be able to see them, at least a little bit. They'd have to be careful. But at least in the dark, it would be easier to hide.

After exploring for a while, (Will was pretty sure he had the route to the Great Hall memorized) Harry stopped.

{Do you feel that?}

Will stopped, {Yes, a sort of pull, right?}

{Let's go!} Harry said, and floated through the wall towards the source of the pull.

{Harry!} Will yelled, diving after him. Harry really needed to learn some sort of caution.

By the time Will had caught up, Harry had found the source. It was a room, deep beneath the castle. It was filled with ghosts, apparently gathering for a sort of meeting. Except they were all silent. They were moving their hands and gesturing as if they were talking, but Will didn't hear anything.

Harry hovered closer, and it was then that the ghosts noticed them.

The Fat Friar floated over, gesturing to Harry, but there was no sound. Will was confused.

Sir Nick patted the Friar on the shoulder and moved in front of him. Suddenly, there was a tickling again, like when he had put on the sorting hat. Will reached out mentally, and was met with an avalanche. Somewhat overwhelmed, he cried out.

{Will! Are you alright?} Harry floated over to him, concerned.

After a moment though, it had subsided. Will realized he was now connected to the castle! And through it, all of the beings that were 'living' off of its ambient magic. He could even feel the House-elves in the kitchen, though they weren't close enough to talk to.

{Can you hear me now?} Nicholas said, somewhat amused.

{Yeah, I can.} Will replied.

{Who are you talking to?} Harry asked, confused.

{Reach out with your mind,} Will explained, {It's a little overwhelming though.}

{It's not a mental connection,} Nicholas corrected, as Harry cried out in shock, {It's a soul connection.}

{Soul connection?} Will replied, somewhat surprised.

{Yes.} Nicholas nodded. {This is how us spirits normally converse with each other. What you've just connected to is the Soul of Hogwarts,} he explained, {It's what allows us spirits to remain here, after we've died. Any sufficiently magical place, after enough time, begins to form its own sort of soul. This is true of most magical objects as well, though those are usually not strong enough to support spirits.} He paused.

{Now, I must say, I've never seen such strange spirits as the two of you. What manner did you die in, to come back golden?} Nicholas asked Harry.

{I'm not dead.} Harry replied, {I'm just astral projecting. I'm able to leave my body and explore.}

{Really,} the Friar breathed, {How interesting, I've never heard of such a thing before.}

{How do you speak to the living?} Will asked, {I haven't been able to figure it out.}

{That's quite simple,} the Friar said, before being cut off.

{And what sort of spirit are you?} Nicholas asked Will.

{I've heard of his kind before.} The deep voice of the Baron spoke, {He is one who has crossed over and come back to this plane, like the ones before him.}

Will paused, shocked.

{Have you come to force us to pass on?} The baron demanded, moving into Will's personal space, {We will not go quietly, as your masters well know.}

{What?} Will asked, confused. All of the other ghosts had backed away from the three of them, leaving Harry, Will, and the Bloody Baron in the center of a large circle.

{No, that's not why I'm here!} Will blurted, waving his glowing stick arms, {I swear I'm not on this plane to force you all to do anything you don't want to do.}

There was a rumbling, a murmur of quiet conversation spread through the crowd gathered around them.

{Then why have you come?} The Baron said after a moment, {Why would they send someone so obviously unprepared to this plane?}

{Yeah, I kind of jumped into this without thinking,} Will replied, sheepishly, {I volunteered to come because I'd always wanted to experience magic. My mission is to destroy Voldemort and the Dementors.}

More muttering. The Baron looked at Will for a moment, then threw his head back in laughter.

{Only a Gryffindor would volunteer for a mission he fully didn't understand, just for something so trivial.} The Baron remarked, {I see. I believe I understand the situation now. I will not stand in your way any longer.} He floated away.

Will sighed in relief. The other ghosts seemed to be a little more cautious of Will, but returned to their conversations.

Will turned, and saw Harry looking at him with a strange facial expression.

{What was all that?} He asked.

{O-oh,} Will stuttered, {The Baron was confused about something, so I explained it to him-}

{Not that.} Harry replied, a flat look on his face, {About the mission, and Voldemort, and Dementi-whats-its. About being from another plane, and having a master of some sort. What was that.}

{I wasn't ready to tell you,} Will replied, {I was going to tell you eventually, but I just-}

{Withheld information?}

Will had never seen Harry like this, so... empty. He was looking at Will like he'd never seen him before in his life. Will reached out to him, but Harry turned around and floated away, passing through the wall and out of sight.

About a week later, Will was a wreck. Well, he'd been doing alright in his classes, but otherwise he was just kind of drifting by. Harry hadn't spoken to him since their Astral-Adventure that first night. He'd been hanging out with Ron, laughing and joking. As far as Will was aware, he hadn't looked at him once.

"I still say you should talk to him," Hermione said, shoveling scrambled eggs onto his plate. She'd been a godsend this past week. Will was pretty sure he wouldn't have gotten through it without her. When she'd seen him sitting alone at the Gryffindor table that first morning, after he'd explained to her what had happened, (that they'd had a fight, but not the nitty gritty details) she'd been by his side since.

"I'm sure he just needs space." Neville said, comfortingly. Neville was a blessing too. He'd listened to Will cry without complaining and had been really supportive.

"I hope you're right, Neville." Will muttered, "I just have to believe he'll talk to me when he's ready."

"And I hope you're ready," Hermione added, looking at the two of them, "We've got double potions first thing. Everyone I've talked to has said that Professor Snape hates it when students are late, so we'll be there bright and early."

"Ooh," Neville winced nervously, "I hope I'm ready. I did as you suggested, Will, and read through the potions book a few times, but it still doesn't feel like it's going to be enough."

"You'll do fine," Hermione soothed, "As long as you keep your wits about you. Remember, slow and steady wins the race!"

"As opposed to?" Neville looked confused.

"The children's story," Hermione said, and was surprised to see no understanding on Neville's face.

"Wizards have different fables growing up, Hermione." Will said, looking at Harry down the length of the table. He looked happy at least.

"Oh, Well, it's a story about a tortoise and a hare. They decide to have a race, but the hare is a lot faster than the tortoise. So the hare gets overconfident and takes a nap before the end, and while the hare is asleep the tortoise crosses the finish line!" She explained.

"That was rather stupid of the hare," Neville said.

"Well, no one ever accused the hare of being smart." Will replied.

"And speaking of smart," Hermione said, "It'd be smart if we got a move on. We don't want to make Professor Snape mad, do we?"

They gathered their things and headed off to the dungeons.

Snape was in top form during class, making fun of Harry during the roll call.

"Harry Potter, our very own… celebrity." Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle let out some childish guffaws as if that was clever or something.

Will supposed Snape must practice his impressive speeches in the mirror, seeing as it was pretty much word for word what Will remembered from the books. Including the 'Stopper Death' and 'Dunderheads' line.

"Potter!" Snape barked, "What do you get when you mix powdered root of asphodel with an infusion of wormwood?"

Will watched Harry hesitate. Come on, they'd studied this! Will had made sure of it! Hermione, of course, raised her hand.

"I don't know, sir."

"Clearly, fame isn't everything, is it?" Will wanted to punch Snape. What kind of person uses a position of authority to belittle and insult children?! Bastards, that's who.

"How about another, then. Where would you be most likely to find a bezoar?" Okay, Harry has got to remember this one, they'd made jokes about it! "Um… The stomach of a goat, sir?"

"Oh, I guess you did open your textbooks at least once before coming." Snape smirked. He must have had enough with Harry, because he moved on.

"Weasley! What's the difference between Monkshood and Wolfsbane?" Hermione nearly punched Will in the eye, she raised her hand so fast.

Ron looked clueless. "I dunno, sir. But Hermione looks like she does, so maybe try asking her?"

"One point from Gryffindor for your cheek, Weasley." Snape hissed. He went on, "For those of you who didn't know the answers to the questions I posed, powdered root of asphodel and wormwood infusion mix to form an extremely powerful sleeping potion known as the Draught of Living Death. And Monkshood and Wolfsbane are different names for the same plant, also known as Aconite." He paused, "Why aren't you all writing this down?"

Everyone scrambled for their quills.

After Snape finished his introduction to potions, going over the safety rules and so forth, he had them split into pairs. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, there were an uneven number of students, so Will, Hermione, and Neville formed a group of three. They split the work between them. Hermione read from the book, Neville crushed and cut up ingredients, and Will stirred and added the processed ingredients to the potion. This seemed to work for them. Hermione functioned as a supervisor, keeping them focused and on time for the different steps, Neville was actually pretty good with his hands, owing to all of the work he'd put in in the Longbottom greenhouses, and Will had a good sense of rhythm and timing, keeping track of the number of stirs and being able to use both hands for different tasks simultaneously was similar to trying to sing and play an instrument at the same time.

They managed to get through the first potions lesson without any big disasters happening.

Things remained rather the same until Will woke up to find a notice in the Common Room, one explaining that Flying classes would be beginning today, and they'd be having them with the Slytherins. Great. Will knew Harry was looking forward to these, but Will was having a hard time finding the enthusiasm. The idea of flying just made him think of Harry, which made Will's emotions spike painfully.

Will knew that Hermione and Neville were both nervous for this lesson, so he'd tried to be as supportive as possible. All of the books Hermione found on the topic only seemed to make the two of the more agitated.

"It's going to be okay, Hermione, Neville, in class we'll just take it slow and steady alright?" Will soothed.

Neville chuckled. "Like the rabbit, right?"

"Hare," Hermione corrected, "and no, it was the tortoise who was slow."

"Oh," Neville laughed, "Right." Just then, an owl flew down and dropped a small package in Neville's scrambled eggs. Neville opened it to find a small sphere.

"Oh! Gran got me a Remembrall." Neville said, somewhat happy, "They're supposed to help you remember if you've forgotten something. If you hold one and have forgotten something, it will turn red!"

"Like that?" Hermione asked, pointing to the now red Remembrall in Neville's hand.

"Oh dear." Neville grumbled.

"That's kind of useless," Will laughed, "It tells you if you've forgotten something, but not what it was? How's that supposed to help? If you'd remembered what it was, you wouldn't have needed a Remembrall in the first place!"

Neville considered, then shrugged, laughing. "You're right, it is kind of useless." He set it on the table, where it was quickly snatched up by Malfoy, who had walked over. Will was about to reply, but Mcgonagall interfered.

"What's going on over here?" She asked.

"Malfoy took my Remembrall, Professor," Neville explained.

"I was just looking," Malfoy said dismissively, dropping it into Neville's hand.

"Normally, people look with their eyes, not their hands." Will said.

"That's enough," Mcgonagall interrupted, "Malfoy, head back to your table." Malfoy slunk off.

Will wondered if Malfoy and Harry had had that 'talk' Malfoy and mentioned on the train.

"Alright." Madam Hooch called, and the students gathered around her. "We've got enough brooms for all of you laying out, so just walk up next to one, go on!"

Everyone did as they were told.

"Now, stick your hand out over the broom and say UP!"

Will looked at his broom. It was a rather crooked one, missing a lot of its bristles. Welp, might as well go for it! "Up!" He called, and the broom gave a halfhearted sort of wiggle, before flopping down again.

"UP!" He cried, wishing he could just be in the air already, and the broom slapped against the palm of his hand. Whoa. He looked around at the others. Ron and Harry had their brooms already, but Neville and Hermione were struggling. Hermione's looked like a kid who didn't want to get out of bed, ignoring their mum and rolling over again. Neville's looked like it hadn't even moved.

"You have to want it, I think," Will said, and Hermione nodded.

"But I don't want it!" Neville cried, "I'd rather keep my feet on the ground, thank you very much."

"We're not going to be able to move forward if we always keep our feet on the ground," Will said, "Sometimes we have to fly, even if we don't want to. In those situations, it's usually best to think of those supporting us, who want us to succeed, and do it for them. Come on, Nev', it might actually be really fun! How will you know if you don't try it?"

"UP!" With a slap, Hermione's broom hit her hand. She smiled, and nodded to Will. "Will's right Neville, it's okay. The professor will be here to catch you, so don't worry and just let yourself have a little fun, okay?"

Neville sighed, nodded, then glared at his broom. "UP!" it was a bit more hesitant than Hermione's, but Neville's broom hit his hand.

"It looks like everyone has called their brooms, yes? Yes. So now we're going to mount our brooms. I'm going to blow the whistle, and when I do, I want you all to lightly push off with your feet. Then you'll hover in the air for a moment, before pointing the nose of your broom slightly downwards to land on the ground again, does everybody understand?" Hooch explained.

"Slow and steady wins the race, yeah?" Will whispered to Neville, and he nodded, a serious look on his face. Will looked over at Hermione, who nodded as well.

"Alright, everybody get ready!" Hooch yelled, and when they all did, she blew the whistle.

Will lightly pushed off, keeping his eyes on Neville. Neville had pushed off a bit hard, but it wasn't too bad overall. Hermione was hovering with her eyes closed. Will angled his broom down, and landed back on the ground with a thump, jarring his legs a bit. He could have done that better.

Looking over, Hermione was standing, still with her eyes closed, but with a little smile on her face. Neville's smile was anything but little.

"I did it! I really did it!" Neville beamed.

"Yes, you did!" Madam Hooch said, grinning a wide grin, "All of you did! Now, we're going to try that again, but this time we're going to hover for a bit longer, okay?"

About forty minutes later, Will and Hermione were tossing a ball back and forth to each other, on brooms a ways up. This was apparently to help with coordination and balance. They'd been split into pairs again, and Neville had been put with Ron and Harry.

"How are you holding up?" Will called, throwing the ball to her.

"I'm alright! As long as I don't look down!" Hermione called back, catching the ball with both hands. It had taken her a while to even be willing to remove one hand, let alone both.

"Good!" Will called, "Do you want to try this a bit farther apart?"

"Sure, that sounds-" She cut herself off with a gasp. Will spun his broom around.

Harry was doing a spectacular dive, and caught something small right before he hit the ground.

Will gaped. That was impressive. But Hooch didn't seem to think so. She called everyone down, and gave them a bit of a lecture. After she was done she dismissed them. As they headed inside, Mcgonagall was waiting for them.

"Mr. Potter, may I speak to you a moment?" She asked. Harry and Ron glanced at each other, but Harry acquiesced, following Mcgonagall away.

"You don't think he's in trouble, do you?" Hermione asked, worried.

"I think he'll be just fine." Will said. Hermione gave him a weird look.

Alright, this chapter was a bit hard to get out, not because of the subject matter or anything, just a bit of writer's block, I guess. Next chapter will be Fluffy and maybe Halloween?