Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Dragonball Z.

Chapter 6

In the days following the attack on Colin Creevy, the air was thick with rumors and suspicions. Most of the first years moved along the corridors in groups, as though they thought they would be attacked if they ventured forth alone. Hidden from the teachers, a roaring trade of amulets, talismans, and other protective devices was sweeping the school. Many students from all houses were buying such things in hopes to ward off the attacker.

Gohan was quite sure he was the only levelheaded person left in his dormitory by Monday evening. Even though he was distraught over Colin like everyone else in his year, he wasn't going overboard on the situation like some people were. J.B. and Artemus, for example, had strung amulets around the room, placed a horseshoe over the entrance, and even had the gall to ask Gohan to perform a ridiculously complicated charm that involved hiding the location of their whereabouts through a Secret-Keeper.

Gohan was tempted to slap some sense into them, but begrudgingly placed an Alarm charm on the door that would alert them the instant someone foreign entered their dormitory.

The boys in Gohan's dorm weren't the only ones in Hogwarts acting in total paranoia. He knew of many Hufflepuffs that had bought quite the amount of protective devices and that they had gone out of their way to request a new password every day for the entrance into their dormitories. There were even rumors that something called a Foe Glass had been installed in the Ravenclaw common room and the bathrooms as well.

The only students who weren't behaving like this were the Slytherins because they were in the right house, and the Weasley twins who found the whole thing to be quite funny. In an attempt to 'cheer' Ginny up, they took turns covering themselves in furs or boils and leapt out at her from behind statues. Percy had made them stop, threatening to owl Mrs. Weasley with the news that Ginny was having nightmares because of them.

"While you attend Hogwarts, you have the choice to go home or stay at here for the holidays," Professor McGonagall explained one morning during the second week of December. As she talked to them, she held up a clipboard for all of them to see. "Those of you who want to stay are to sign on this list."

She handed the clipboard to one of the students in the front row who quickly passed it on to Abianne, who was sitting beside him. Ginny and Luna Lovegood were the only people who signed the list to stay behind out of the whole class.

"Everyone else is probably too scared to hang around with the Heir of Slytherin running around," Ginny said in a would be calm voice after Gohan had voiced this fact during lunch. "Percy says that not many people stay behind anyway. I'm only staying because Mum and Dad are going to visit Bill."

"Your brother in Egypt, right?" Gohan asked, shoveling some turkey in his mouth as Ginny nodded in confirmation. "Well, I'd certainly stay around to keep you company, but I promised my mom that I'd come home for the holiday. And even if I didn't come home, my Dad's…er…friend, Vegeta, would come and get me."

"You know, Gohan, you don't talk much about your dad," J.B. observed, poking at his potato. "You always go on and on about your Mum and her baby, but I've never heard you say anything about him. We don't even know what his name is."

"Oh, well…" Gohan mumbled, trying to look anywhere but at his friends. "My Dad's name was Son Goku…"

"Wait a minute, did you say was?" Artemus asked, his brow furrowing. "Did your mum and dad get a divorce or-"

"No!" Gohan cried loudly. His shout caused some of the other Gryffindors to look curiously at their group, so when he spoke again it was much softer. "My Dad's dead."

There was a small, uncomfortable silence following that statement. Gohan refused to meet the eyes of any of his friends at the time and knew they were giving him looks of sympathy.

"Gohan, we're sorry," J.B. said softly, breaking the silence. "If we had known, we wouldn't have brought it up."

"It's my fault he died, so don't start feeling sorry for me," Gohan replied harshly, stabbing his half-eaten chicken leg so hard with his fork that the plate split in two. "If I hadn't been so stupid and arrogant, he'd still be alive."

"Oh don't say that, Gohan," Ginny began, but Gohan cut her off.

"It's true, Ginny," he said furiously. "And I don't think any of you'd understand the circumstances we were in, so I don't want to talk about it any more."

Abruptly, he stood up from his seat, and walked out of the Great Hall, leaving his friends open-mouthed behind him.

But, he was sure that at least two pairs of eyes where on him as he walked out. One set of eyes belonged to the Professor Dumbledore, while the other belonged to a certain, green eyed second year who had lost parents of his own.

That night, Gohan lay awake in bed, glaring steely at his hanging curtains. He had hoped that the issue of his father's death would have never come up while he attended Hogwarts, at least not during his first year. In truth, he had been trying to forget about his father's death and it had been working up until now.

'Thanks a lot for bringing a fresh wave a guilt along,' Gohan thought bitterly. 'And for bringing it up so close to the first Christmas I'll have without him too.'

Another small wave of guilt passed through him, not about his father, however, but for the way he had snapped at his friends and was now blaming them for bringing up bad memories.

Sighing, Gohan rolled over and buried his face into the pillow, trying not to think about what was going to happen tomorrow, whether or not the other three Gryffindors would still want to be his friends…

"What's going on now?" J.B. sighed, as they entered the entrance hall almost a week after the incident in the Great Hall. Much to Gohan's relief, the three accepted his apology without question and they remained friends. No one mentioned the incident again, but Gohan noticed that they never talked about families any more in front of him.

J.B. must have been referring to the large crowd gathered around a bulletin board, looking at a notice and whispering excitedly. Gohan noticed Fred waving him over and he motioned for J.B. to follow him.

"What's all this about, Fred?" Gohan asked, trying to crane his neck to see over Dean Thomas's head.

"They're starting up a Dueling Club! The first meeting's tonight at eight in the Great Hall." Fred replied eagerly. "I wonder if Lee and George know yet…"

"A dueling club?" Gohan and J.B. repeated together, as Fred hurried off to find his twin and Lee Jordan.

"What do they reckon we need to learn dueling for?" J.B. asked to no one in particular. "It's not like Slytherin's monster is going to come up and ask for a duel before Petrifying you."

"I think it's probably for the Heir, not the monster, J.B." Gohan replied sensibly. "How do you 'duel' in the wizarding world anyways?"

"You fight each other using wands only. I've only seen my older cousins do it once they became of age, but it wasn't a proper duel because Agamas cheated and they ended up in a fist-fight." J.B. answered, shaking his head sadly. "It was pretty wicked up until that point."

"So, I take it that you want to go?"

"Of course! Let's go see if anyone else is interested."

Gohan agreed with him and they set off to find fellow first years. Artemus was easy enough to find; he was in the library researching an essay for Snape. He jumped up at the chance to stop studying and three went off to find Ginny. At a quarter to eight, they found her lurking on the second floor and she agreed to join them only after J.B. mentioned that Harry was coming as well.

The foursome entered the Great Hall to find the dining tables gone, replaced by a golden stage in the middle of the room. The Hall was packed with students with their wands out and somehow the five of them managed to squeeze their way to the front to get a good view. Nearby them were Fred and George, Malfoy, Avery, and Neville Longbottom.

"Who do you think will be teaching?" Artemus questioned, looking around the Great Hall for signs of an adult.

"Hopefully it won't be Lockha-" J.B. muttered grumpily just as the spoken walked on stage in robes of deep plum. "Dammit, I jinxed myself!"

"Snape's with him too," Gohan said, observing the Potion's master who looked quite sinister this evening.

"Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent!" Lockhart called, waving an arm for silence. "Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little dueling club, to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I have done on countless occasions-for full details, see my published works.

"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," continued Lockhart, flashing a smile that made all the girls sigh. "He tells me knows a tiny bit about dueling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don't want any of you youngster to worry-you'll still have your Potions master when I'm through with him, never fear!"

"Oooh, Snape doesn't look to happy. I hope Lockhart doesn't hurt him too badly!" one of the girls whispered and the boys rolled their eyes.

"I think she has it the wrong way," Artemus replied, obviously noticing the foul look on Snape's face.

Lockhart and Snape turned to face each other and bowed; at least, Lockhart did, whereas Snape jerked his head as if he was annoyed ("I would be too, if my dueling partner was Lockhart," thought Gohan.). They then raised their wands in front of them.

"As you can see, we are holding our wands in accepted combative position," Lockhart explained to the silent crowd. "On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course."

"I wouldn't bet on that," Harry murmured from behind him and Gohan felt inclined to agree.

"One-two-three!" cried Lockhart and both wizards swung their wands up above their heads and pointed them at each other.

"Expelliarmus!" cried Snape. A jet of dazzling scarlet light burst from his wand's tip and Lockhart was blasted off his feet. He flew backward, smashed into the wall, and slid down it to a sprawl on the floor.

Malfoy and a few other Slytherins cheered, and Gohan would have joined them, had Snape been his favorite professor. Many of the girls were voicing concerns of Lockhart's physical state, but many of the boys didn't care at all.

Lockhart was getting to his feet, not looking quite as spectacular as he had before. On his way back to the platform, Lockhart explained that it was the Disarming Charm Snape had used ("Well, duh," Gohan had muttered.) and that it was "pretty obvious what you were about to do and if I had wanted to stop you it would have been only too easy", but thankfully he noticed Snape's murderous look and felt it was now the students turn to duel against each other.

Snape and Lockhart moved through the crowd, putting people into groups of two. Thankfully, Snape headed towards Harry's group first, allowing Lockhart to split the four first years up.

"Let's see…Mr. Root, you may partner Mr. Baracles," Lockhart said, not noticing J.B.'s glare when his last name was uttered. "And Mr. Son, you may partner with Ms. Weasley!" Lockhart flashed Gohan a smile, before patting him on the shoulder in a fatherly way. "Now, Mr. Son, don't be too hard on your girlfriend. We wouldn't want Hogwart's most promising couple to break up over a small little fight like this, now would we?"

And with another pat he was gone, leaving behind an incredulous Gohan and a furious Ginny. Gohan was going to kill Lockhart after this night was over with, provided that Ginny didn't kill him first.

"Face your partners!" Lockhart called moments later as he climbed back on the platform. "And bow!"

Gohan and Ginny bowed to each other. Ginny's lip was curling vindictively and Gohan gulped.

"Wands ready!" instructed Lockhart. Ginny and Gohan both swung their wands over their heads; Gohan's saiya-jin instincts came alive and adjusted nicely to the new form of battle. He barely heard a word of Lockhart's 'disarm only' speech, yet focused all his attention on the countdown.

"One-two-three-"

"Everbero!" Gohan cried instantly, pointing his wand at Ginny, just as the female Weasley cried, "Bogous Batous!"

Both curses hit; Ginny flew back as though she had been hit very hard in the stomach and Gohan suddenly found his face covered in little winged creatures. Gohan let out a call of surprise, dropped his wand, and tried to claw each of the creatures off.

"Stop! Stop!" Lockhart screamed somewhere in the background, above all the commotion of the rest of the duelers.

"Finite Incantatem!" Snape's voice called and the winged creatures disappeared from Gohan's face.

He picked up his wand and then quickly ran over to Ginny, who was just getting to her feet and rubbing her ribs.

"Sorry about that Ginny. Hitting Jinx…It was the first thing that came to mind." Gohan explained, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

"It's all right, Gohan," Ginny replied, rubbing her ribs once again. "Mine was the Bat Bogey Hex." She paused and then continued on in an airy voice, "The after-effects don't show up until later."

Despite her calm tone, Gohan noticed that was a smirk to rival Vegeta's on her lips, and he made a mental note to look up the Bat Bogey Hex the instant Dueling Club was over with.

Lockhart was busy scurrying about around the Great Hall, looking at the aftermath from unsuccessful duels. After making sure no one was hurt beyond repair, he walked back towards Snape saying, "I think I'd better teach you how to block unfriendly spells. How about a volunteer pair-Longbottom and Finch-Fletchy, how about you-"

But Snape interrupted, commenting on how bad Neville's spell casting was.

"How about Malfoy and Potter?" Snape continued, giving all the students a small, twisted smile.

"Harry and Malfoy?" Ginny gaped. "But they'll kill each other!"

"Maybe that's what Snape's hoping for," Gohan muttered, watching as Harry and Malfoy climbed onto the platform, each looking quite determined. Lockhart and Snape each wished the boys luck, before they hustled off the platform.

"On my mark!" Lockhart cried as the boys bowed to each other. "Get set…Go!"

Malfoy raised his wand first and yelled, "Serpensortia!"

The end of his wand exploded and a long, black snake fell to the floor between them. It raised itself, ready to strike, and quite a few people screamed.

"Don't move, Potter," said Snape lazily. "I'll get rid of it-"

"Allow me!" shouted Lockhart. He waved his wand at the snake, and instead of it vanishing, it flew ten feet into the air and flew back to the floor with a loud smack. Enraged, it slithered furiously towards a second year Hufflepuff boy and poised itself to strike -

Harry moved forward; his lips were moving, but nothing understandable was coming from them. Was he…hissing?

Whatever Harry had done had worked on the snake, for it backed away from the Hufflepuff and slumped to the floor, eyes on Harry.

"What'd you think you're playing at?" the Hufflepuff boy shouted, looking angrily at a confused Harry, before he stormed out of the Great Hall.

The Hall was silent and everyone seemed to be looking at Harry as though he had just sprouted fangs and was going to bite one of them. As Hermione and Ron lead him from the hall, many of the other students backed away from their paths.

Gohan hurried over to J.B. and Artemus, who were looking as though someone had died.

"Why's everyone acting so strange?" Gohan asked, staring at his friends. "And what was Harry saying up there? It sounded like he was-"

"Talking to the snake?" Artemus finished in a low voice. "That's because he was. Harry's a Parselmouth!"

"A…what?"

"A Parselmouth, Gohan!" J.B. replied, his voice as low as Artemus'. "It's an uncommon gift that allows you to talk to snakes!"

"So then why was everyone so upset over it?"

Artemus pointed to the Slytherin banner that was hanging in the Great Hall.

"The symbol for Slytherin house is a serpent because Salazar Slytherin was a Parselmouth!" he explained. "So now-despite everything that Harry's done-the rest of the school's going to think he's the Heir of Slytherin!"

The next morning, Gohan woke up to find that it had snowed so hard the night before that the second, fifth, and third years Herbology classes had been canceled and that he now had the face of a bat, along with head cold to boot.

J.B. and Artemus had laughed themselves silly when they saw Gohan's new look and Gohan nearly threw them both out the tower window. Fred and George had burst into the dormitory only minutes after the two other boys had calmed down and had a good laugh over Gohan as well.

The poor demi saiya-jin ended up having to wear his cloak over his face during breakfast so he wouldn't get laughed at again and cause mass hysteria. J.B. had still been snickering at breakfast and ended up choking on his sausage because of it. The only good thing about Gohan's morning had been that Ginny hadn't been there to gloat over her excellently placed hex.

Gohan was now currently in the library, searching for a counter-curse. J.B. and Artemus were sitting on a table nearby, trying to finish a last minute essay for Professor Snape.

"Let's see. Bouncing Jinx…Boils Enchantment…" Gohan muttered, flipping through a page in one of the books he had found.

"Er…Excuse me? Can I get through? You're blocking the way." A voice said from the side and Gohan looked up.

"Oh, hey Harry," Gohan replied, recognizing the older boy. "Sorry, I'm in your way."

"Gohan?" Harry asked curiously, obviously relieved that he hadn't run away upon sight of him. "I didn't recognize you with that cloak on. What's wrong with your face?"

"I got hit with a Bat Bogey Hex last night," Gohan replied, sneezing. "so now I've got the facial features of a fruit bat."

Harry winced and then said, "Why don't you go ask Madam Pomfrey to fix it up for you? I'm sure she wouldn't mind."

"Thanks for the advice, but I'm pretty sure that the counter-curse is in here somewhere," Gohan sniffled, gesturing to the books. "If I can't find it before Transfiguration, I'll go to Madam Pomfrey."

"All right then," Harry replied, walking past. "See you around, Gohan."

"Yeah, see you,"

Nearly fifteen minutes later…

"ATTACK! ATTACK! ANOTHER ATTACK! NO MORTAL OR GHOST IS SAFE! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! ATTAAAACK!"

Peeves' voice was so loud, that it was audible nearly two stories below in the library, shocking many of the students; Ron ripped a long hole in his parchment, Dean Thomas tore a page out of the book he was reading, and Gohan dropped a book on J.B.'s head.

Loads of people reacted in panic when the registered Peeves message and there were very few-Gohan included in this group-who ran upstairs to see what had happened. Gohan was just rounding the corner when he heard Peeves voice again, only he was singing this time;

"Oh Potter, you rotter, oh what have you done,

You're killing off students, you think it's good fun-"

Desperate to see what had transpired to accuse Harry, Gohan ignored Dumbledore's main wish to not use his powers, and used his ki to be raise himself above the heads of the other students.

Lying on the floor was the Hufflepuff boy from last night and he had obviously been Petrified. But the strangest sight was of Nearly Headless Nick. He was jet-black instead of his usual pearly white and wasn't moving. Had he been Petrified too?

'But…How can that be?' Gohan thought as he watched McGonagall lead Harry away. 'What can harm a ghost?'

After the news of the double attack spread around the castle, the panic increased ten-fold. Many more people signed up to go back home for Christmas and Hogwarts was probably going to quite empty over the holidays, but that didn't stop the teachers from decorating the castle and trying to get the students in a festive mood.

Gohan (The Bat Bogey Curse wore off after 48 hours, so he didn't have to go the nurse at all) took notice that more and more people were whispering about Harry in the corridors now. Some skirted around him if he crossed their paths and someone had even shrieked once. Gohan didn't know how people could think that Harry was the Heir of Slytherin when Draco Malfoy was a much more obvious choice.

At least Fred and George found the whole Heir business funny. They would march ahead of Harry in the corridors, shouting things like, "Make way for the Heir of Slytherin, seriously evil wizard coming through…"

Percy and Ginny didn't find it amusing and neither did McGonagall, as she proved when she gave the twins a detention for following Harry to class one day to do his every bidding.

The term finally ended on a cold December morning and many of the students looked much more relaxed once they were on Platform Nine and Three Quarters. Gohan ending up meeting both J.B. and Artemus' families when they got off the train and found both of them to be quite nice. He said his goodbyes with a smile and pulled out the Portkey Dumbledore had given him earlier this morning. Within a few seconds of his touch, the Portkey activated and transported Gohan back to 439 East Mountain District.

The Son home looked quite homey with snow covering the landscape around it. Gohan sighed and dropped his trunk. He was home at –

TWACK!

Gohan went flying backwards into a snow bank. Sputtering indignantly, he shook the snow off of himself and rubbed his cheek where it had been punched. He looked up and instantly found Vegeta looming over him, smirking like mad.

"Haven't been training while you were at that magic school, have you boy? Did you even notice that I was in your vicinity?" Vegeta asked, narrowing his eyes at Gohan.

"No, I didn't, Vegeta! It's not like I was expecting to be jumped once I got home!" Gohan cried, getting to his feet. "And you know I can't train while I'm at school!"

"All right then," Vegeta replied, turning around and walking towards the house.

Gohan gaped. Had Vegeta just agreed to what his had said? Did he hit his head too many times while he had been away?

The older saiya-jin looked at Gohan over his shoulder, his smirk still in place.

"That just means, boy, that I'll have to work you even harder during your break,"

Gohan groaned and fell back into the snow bank.

"This is so not the way I wanted to spend my holiday…"

A/N: The main delay for this chapter was writer's block. The part with the Dueling Club had me stumped for quite a long time. I also had to go out of town for a few days as well. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.