Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters mentioned in this chapter. I do not own most of the characters mentioned in this fic. Too bad for me. On with the reading!

Yay! I updated.

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            Harry wandered aimlessly through the school. There was nothing to do. For once, all his homework was done and he had no appointments for the night. Luna was probably in her common room right now; he hadn't seen her all day except at meals.

            He wondered what he should do. It wasn't often lately that he had any spare time.

            "Hello, Mister Potter."

            Harry looked up. The only person in sight was the ghost of Professor Binns. Binns had never talked to him before. Harry didn't even know he knew his name. "Er, hi, Professor Binns."

            "I would like a word with you, James."

            James? thought Harry. He thinks I'm my father! "You would, Professor?"

            "Yes, yes, come along to my classroom. It's about your last test. You didn't do as well as you should have. I can set you up with an excellent tutor. Let's discuss this while we have a cup of tea."

            Harry shrugged. Binns was sure acting weird. His voice wasn't even monotone tonight. The last test he'd taken for Binns's class had been last year. "Alright." He had nothing else to do, so he followed the ghost. Tonight might prove interesting after all.

            They were halfway to the history of magic room when Sir Nicholas and the Grey Lady found them. "Ah, hello, Harry, Bernard. We were looking for you, Harry." Harry realized that "Bernard" must have been Professor Binns.

            Professor Binns blinked. "Not Harry."

            "What?" asked Nick.

            "Who's Harry? That's James. James Potter."

            The Grey Lady approached him and said gently, "No, Bernard. He's gone. This is his son. This is Harry."

            "That looks like James, it is James," he said stubbornly. "James doesn't have a son, he's only 16. This is James and I'm sure Lilly will be along any moment now."

            Grey Lady argued softly with Professor Binns while Nick took Harry aside to explain things. "Harry, we aren't alive. Nothing can be done to us. Or rather, nearly nothing." He was clearly remembering the basilisk that had attacked him 4 years before. "And yet something has happened to Professor Binns. He's not been acting like himself the past week and he is convinced that you are your father. We're very concerned for him."

            "Other than the fact that he doesn't know who I am, he doesn't know who most people are, I don't really see any problems."

            "Harry, he's suffering some sort of emotional trauma. He thinks it's the nineteen-seventies and that he still alive. We caught him in the kitchen earlier trying to eat for goodness sake. He didn't understand why he couldn't do it when he tried."

            "What do you think might have caused this?"

            "We don't know. We came looking for you tonight because we were worried he might tell you . . . things." Nick had hesitated before the last word; it was obviously not the whole truth.

            "What things, Nick? Tell me."

            "Just, information. He knew your parents well. Your mother was his favorite student. That sort of thing."

            Harry knew Nick still wasn't being completely honest with him. "There's more to it that you're not telling me, Nick." He stared at the ghost, but Nick remained unaffected by his glare. "I think you need to talk to Dumbledore. I think he needs to talk to Dumbledore."

            Nick shook his head. "We tried reasoning with him. He won't listen to a word we say. I tried, the Friar tried, even the Baron has tried. Nothing is working."

            Harry didn't like this. "I've got to be going back to Gryffindor Tower, Nick."

            "All right, Harry. Just, anything he says to you, forget it."

            Harry started to leave.

            "James? James Potter?" called Professor Binns as Harry was walking away. His voice started to get louder, frantic. "Come back here now. James! Come back or I'll take house points and give you detention! JAMES!"

            Harry wasn't exactly sure why, but he ran. He ran as though there were an axe-murderer running after him.

            He was out of breath and gasping for air when he reached the common room.

            "Harry! What's wrong?" asked Hermione, concerned.

            Ron led him over to the couch by the fire. "Sit. You look awful, mate."

            "Binns thinks he's alive."

            "What?" asked Ginny, bewildered. This was the last year she would have to take Binns's class and she was thankful for it.

            "He thinks he's alive. He thinks he's in the nineteen-seventies. And thinks I'm my dad." Harry's breathing slowed a little bit. "He tried to get me in his classroom to have a cup of tea and discuss the bad grade I got on my last test."

            "But, how does he think, what . . .?"

            "I don't know, but he does. And he knows something. Something Nick and probably a bunch of other people don't want to me to know."

            "What could that be?" asked Ron.

            "I don't know, but tomorrow I'm going to the library and see if I can find out anything."

            "We'll come help," said Hermione.

            "I'll check the trophy room. Maybe there will be something there. Like a plaque that could explain something about his past," suggested Ginny.

            "Good idea. You check there and the three of us will cover the library," said Ron.

            "Two," said Harry.

            "What?"

            "I'm going to question teachers. See what they know. You two can research the library."

            "Good idea."

            "Hey, anybody know how Binns died?" asked Harry suddenly.

            They all shook their heads. "No. Why?"

            "Something tells me it's important." He frowned. "Well, I'm going to sleep on it and see if we've got any better luck tomorrow."

            "Yeah, all right, Harry," said Ron. "I'll be there in a bit."

            Harry went up the stairs and into his dormitory. He shut the door and put on his pajamas. Drinking a glass of water from the bedside pitcher before he climbed into bed. Things were weird. Definitely weird. What did Binns know that someone didn't want Harry to know? It must be important. Harry had never considered how he died before. Everyone knew about Nick getting chopped in the neck with a blunt axe. No one really knew about how the Bloody Baron died, but they knew it had been violent. Harry and a select few knew that Myrtle had been killed in her bathroom stall by the basilisk more than 50 years ago. But Binns? Nobody ever gave him a second thought. The story went that he had died in his sleep one night and just got up the next day, teaching as though everything was normal. They said the only change in his routine in all these years since he died had been that he entered the room through the blackboard. A few of them even said they didn't think he knew he was dead. Well, know they were right. He didn't think he was dead. But Harry was beginning to suspect that there was something more behind his death. With these thoughts tumbling through his mind, he fell asleep.

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I hope you liked this. I wrote it once, crumpled it up, and completely rewrote it. Originally Harry was going to talk to the Bloody Baron. Then for some reason my mind said, "NO! BINNS!" so my fingers obeyed. There was going to be some big meeting and Binns was going to be coming back to life but that is A) Impossible even in the world of HP (though anybody who denies Sirius's death doesn't want to hear that, I'm sure) and B) I didn't like it. So there it is. Sorry it's been so long since I updated but I was kind of stuck on where to go. All I had was "Harry wandered the halls aimlessly, surprised to have a free night for once". Review please. I'll try to post the next chapter soon.