Last year Voldemort had finally been defeated and Harry Potter had become even more famous then ever. Many were so happy, that they overlooked the fact that many of the Dark One's followers escaped.

One of those was the Death Eater Lucius Malfoy. He disappeared right after the final showdown and with him his family and the estate where he lived in.

The Dementors were once again under the control of the Ministerium and still searching for those who escaped. Also Fudge had been forced to retread.

Now the last year for Harry and his friends was about to start at Hogwarts and all of them were looking forward to it.

You could notice the high spirits of everyone already on the train and Harry was the center of attention until Hermione as well as Ron told them to give the boy some air for himself.

Only when the sorting ceremony was finished, you could clearly see a difference. Not many had been sorted to Slytherin and it was also obvious that Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and Parkinson where missing. Not that they were missed by THAT many.

As an addition the green and silver house got an exchange student from china, who was introduced by Dumbledore as Shen Drake Liang.

The very strange thing with this student was, that he looked a lot like Harry. He could actually pass for the boy, with the difference that Shen had brown eyes, was a bit taller and didn't wear glasses.

And of course, he hadn't had that scar.

"You never told us that you had a twin.", some joked to Harry, who only smiled back a weak smile. How he would have loved to have one.

During the festival Hermione leaned over to Harry. "Look at Liang.", she whispered. "The ghosts keep quite a distance to him... Strange, don't you think?"

After a few minutes of watching him, he too noticed, that none of the ghosts, not even the Bloody Baron or Peeves went to close to the new one.

Suddenly the exchange student snapped his head in his direction and looked directly into his eyes. For a moment he even thought that the boys eyes were golden.

"Must be the candle light reflecting in his eyes.", he thought and turned his attention back to the food.

Their happiness was cut short however when they saw the first subject on the next morning. "Starting a day with Snape is definitely a bad omen.", Ron groaned. "Who are you? Trelawny?", Harry wondered, raising an eyebrow.

The golden Trio rolled their eyes at the mention of the Divination teacher. "We are even more lucky... We have Potions with the Slytherins... AGAIN!", Hermione muttered.

"Well, at last those four aren't there to mess with our potions...", the boy-who-lived-and-defeated-Voldemort sighed.

Just a bit later they found themselves down into the dungeons in the potion classroom. As usual Snape strolled into the classroom just in time as the lesson officially started. "I see we have a new face with us... Mr. Leng-", the potions master started but was cut off.

"Liang.", the boy corrected, looking Snape in the eye.

"Mr. Liang, then... What can you tell me about the Devil's Snare?", he asked coldly.

"Devil's Snare is composed of a mass of soft, springy tendrils and vines that possess some sense of touch. Devil's Snare uses its creepers and tendrils to ensnare anyone who touches it, binding their arms and legs and eventually choking them. The harder a person struggles against Devil's Snare, the more faster and more tightly it binds them; if they relax, it will not kill them as quickly.
Devil's Snare prefers a dark, damp environment and shrinks away from fire, so a well-placed flame spell such as Bluebell Flames will drive it away from its victims... It's similar in appearance to the Flitterbloom, which is non-violent...", the boy replied looking bored.

Snape actually looked surprised before taking on his former look. "Very good. 10 points for Slytherin. What do you know about the fluxweed?"

"Fluxweed is an ingredient in Polyjuice potion, but has to be picked at the full moon to be effective therein.", Shen answered.

"Another 5 points to Slytherin.", Snape responded, a satisfied smirk in place. "It seems you aren't a hopeless one as I first thought."

"You shouldn't judge others at their appearance only, if you don't want the same done to you.", the boy said coldly. Everyone held their breath, but Snape only eyed him weirdly, before finally starting the lesson.

It seemed that potions wasn't the only thing the new Slytherin was good at, as they found out. Even thought it was his first day in Hogwarts, by the end of it everyone knew him.

The golden trio also found out that he didn't told a lot about himself, thought if you asked for his assistance on a subject he would be very helpful.

Hermione found him reading the backs of the books in the library. "Are you searching for a certain book?", she asked. The boy turned towards her. "No, thank you. I'm just looking for a book I haven't read yet and catches my interest."

They quickly found themselves be talking about quite many books both of them have read. When Harry and Ron came looking for the girl, they just entered in time to see Liang chuckling. "You would feel at home in China then. The library is almost trice the size of this one... But not as comfortable and nice as this one.", he admitted.

"Is that so?", Hermione smiled back. "You know, I have been meaning to ask you this for quite some time... How comes you are so good at all your subjects? Did you only learn through reading? Or is it something else?"

The exchange student seemed a bit embarrassed. "You don't have to answer.", Hermione quickly said once she noticed his discomfort. "Not, it's alright... I knew that sooner or later people would wonder... Well, in China the school system is a bit different and well... Actually I have already finished school over there, but I wanted to learn more... The headmaster knew this and offered me to come here as an exchange student and I agreed."

"Wow! That's quite amazing...", the girl gapped. Just then she noticed the two boys standing behind Liang. "Harry, Ron! Did you just came? I didn't notice you!"

The Slytherin turned and bowed slightly. All three stared confused at him.

"Right... I forgot that you don't greet like this here in England....", the boy explained. "So you bow in China as a greeting?", Ron wondered.

"Yes, it's a show of respect. A slight bow to people on the same or lower level then you, a deeper bow to... for example teachers and a really deep bow to such people as headmaster or people from the Ministerium and so on... I guess you get the idea..."

They sat down on a table to continue their chat. "Are you good at Quidditch as well?", Harry wondered. His almost twin looked at him with a strange expression. "Quidditch?", he repeated. "Oh, you mean that strange game where you ride a broom, don't you?"

The three others exchanged looks. How could a wizard not know about Quidditch. "It's not very popular in china, at last not at the school I went to... We had a very similar game thought... It's hard to explain in english..."

About an half hour later Liang excused himself. "I still have a few things to do, thought I look forward to continue talking to you soon again...", he said to them with a smile and left.

"How could he become a Slytherin?", Hermione wondered.

Ron shrugged and Harry didn't said anything, but looked towards the door where Liang had left. "Harry?", Hermione asked.

"Huh? What did you say?", he asked turning his attention to her. "I wondered how he could have become a Slytherin...", she repeated looking a bit concerned.

"... Did you notice that he dogged all questions regarding himself directly?", the young wizard asked finally. His best friends looked at him for a few moments replaying the chat within their minds. "You are right!", Hermione said surprised.

They decided not to let the boy that lightly off the next time.

It seemed however, that they shouldn't get a chance to talk to him that soon again. Since they were in their last years the teachers seemed quite hard on them, giving them so much extra-homework that many were on the brink of crying.

Harry was actually grateful that he chose not to do Quidditch this year, whilst Ron was close to ripping his hair out in frustration.

A week before the first Quidditch match Liang didn't turned up for breakfast. His room mates said, that the boy hadn't been in his bed when they had risen that day. Since it was no unusual occurrence for a student to get lost they let the day pass by, but when there was still no sign of him at lunch, Snape went to the room where the boy had lived in and questioned his room mates if they noticed anything missing, without luck.

Except for the boy himself, his usual clothes and his wand nothing seemed to be amiss.