Hiram took about a week to get fully accustomed to the story behind Craig's abilities. Craig took to the idea of having a confidant at the AWA better than he'd thought he would; having someone he could talk openly with was more enjoyable than he'd imagined.

One late afternoon several months later, Craig sat with Hiram in the AWA's student center discussing Craig's voices. "Let's see…Mata Hari?" Hiram asked.

Craig considered for a moment. "Nope," he said. "Fiction. She wasn't a spy, or at least, she never told anyone anything of great importance. And she never kissed her executioners, either."

"What about JFK? Were there any other gunmen?" Hiram asked, intrigued.

"No," Craig said, immediately. "Oswald acted alone."

"That was fast," Hiram observed.

"Whistler asked me that one once," Craig said, sheepishly. "When he brought it up, so many other dead people started yelling their heads off that I blacked out for nearly a week."

Hiram looked alarmed. "Are you okay now?" he asked.

Craig nodded hastily. "Yeah, I'm fine," he said. "They shut up quick, for a wonder."

"Well, I'm floored," Hiram said. "You could just about solve every historical mystery the muggles could think up."

Craig laughed. "I could probably solve a few they couldn't think up, too," he said. "For instance, did you know that Karl Marx was homosexual?"

Hiram's eyes got wide. "Are you…kidding?" he asked, looking as though he were on the verge of hysterical laughter.

Craig shook his head no. "Not kidding," he said. "He never told anyone, though. Figured they wouldn't listen to him if they knew he was gay."

Hiram got philosophical. "Too bad they did listen to him," he said. "Just think, Craig – if you'd told the right people that at the right time, you could have used homophobia to stop the Cold War from ever starting."

Now Craig got philosophical too. "Maybe," he said. "But the Cold War just doesn't seem that important anymore – or that world-shattering, I should say. I mean, do you think the enormously powerful magical community would have let the muggles blow the world to kingdom come?"

"How could we have stopped them without revealing ourselves?" Hiram asked.

"They could have managed it," Craig said. He'd been reading his textbooks and was astounded at the things that could be found there. "It may have been a bit of a stretch," he admitted, after a moment under Hiram's skeptical look.

A bell rang. Hiram and Craig both rose to head for their next class; however, the skeptical look remained firmly planted on Hiram's face.

"Would you stop looking at me like that?" Craig asked.

Hiram finally smiled. "Make me," he said.

Craig shook his head in a mixture of sadness and bemusement. "I could, you know," he said.

Hiram bit his lip sheepishly. "Yeah," he mumbled. "I was kinda hoping you wouldn't, really…"

Craig regarded his friend. "I think I'll let you live this time," he said, and, after a second, he broke down laughing.

"What the hell's so funny about that?" Hiram asked.

"If I killed you, I'd have to put up with you up here," Craig said, pointing to his head. "I'd rather just keep you alive…at least you shut up sometimes out here!"

So it was that Craig's first year at the AWA passed. Nothing else of great note occurred during that year; a few more trips to Wolf Point, the general, if bare, passing of classes, and the developing closeness of Craig and Hiram's friendship and trust.

His second year was to contain something a bit more…extreme.