Hey y'all! How's everyone doing? First off, I've never really done this before but I feel like now is as good a time as any to start, I want to thank you guys for the wonderful comments on this story and the other stories I have if you've read them. It's always great for any writer when they receive acknowledgement, no matter how short or detailed, from their readers because it gives such a sense of accomplishment that it makes us want to make sure that we get high quality chapters out for you guys as soon as we can. So cheers to you guys and I hope you know how much joy your comments give me. Anyways, we're now heading back to Hogwarts with this chapter. There will be some big changes already to the plot so I hope you enjoy what I have in store.

Like always, I enjoy any comments, except for those that are just full of negativity and not constructive at all. Just give me something to work with instead of just "It's bad." I also appreciate any positive constructive criticism since I'm always looking to improve my writing and storytelling capabilities.

Thanks for reading this story! Virtual hugs and cuddles to y'all.

Disclaimer: I still do not own anything except any OC's that may come up, any world building that has not yet been officially stated by the books or movies, and any plot points/structures that have not been used in the books or movies.

Warning: No beta, we die like Stingbulbs.

Chapter 2: I Can't Believe I Want to go to School

XXXXXX

The end of summer vacation came too quickly in Seth and Harry's combined opinion. They both greatly enjoyed the month spent at the Burrow with the Weasleys. There were many memorable events that occurred during those 21 days of summer - rowdy dinners that would've ended in food fights if not for Mrs. Weasley's stern warnings, prank wars between the twins and Seth with Harry and Ron caught in the unfortunate crossfire, learning how to de-gnome the Weasleys' large garden, and many Quidditch scrimmages to keep Harry's skills sharp and teach Seth the intricacies of the wizarding sport.

During one such scrimmage, Ron's wand was broken by accident. He'd forgotten that he had it in his pocket when he ran out to play that day and an untimely encounter with a bludger snapped the poor hand-me-down wand like an extra thin twig. Unfortunately for him, the Weasleys' did not have enough money to replace it nor were they willing to accept charity from Harry or Seth.

They could only take it to Ollivanders for a quick fix despite the wand-maker's grievances on that course of action and there was no discount he could offer. In fact, Seth was surprised by the fact that the old wand-maker had never even heard of the concept of discounts before.

Regardless, Ollivander did the best damn repair job he could do and recommended that they replace Ron's wand as soon as they were able to. The wand chose the wizard after all and if his parents wanted Ron to truly reach his full potential, they'd get him his own wand as soon as possible instead of allowing him to continue to use a repaired wand that begrudgingly allowed him to wield it. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley assured Ollivander that they would and Ron perked up at the thought that he'd no longer be the worst in class because of his wand. Though he wilted a bit when Seth reminded him that once he got that new wand, he'd no longer have an excuse for any poor grades involving spell work.

On their last day of summer vacation, Mrs. Weasley put together a large feast with all of Harry and Seth's favorite foods. The twins set off some of their Mr. Filibuster's Wet Start No Heat Fireworks in the living room as Ginny challenged them to an explosive game of Exploding Snap. Then it was one last mug of hot chocolate before they were off to bed.

The next day, everyone was up at dawn but it seemed there were a million and one things to do.

Mrs. Weasley ran about in a bad mood, looking for spare underwear and quills for the boys. People ran into each other on the stairs, some half dressed with toast hanging from their mouths and others fully dressed with toast hanging from their mouths. Mr. Weasley almost broke his neck tripping over a stray chicken as he crossed the yard with Ginny's trunk. Harry and Seth did their best to stay as out of the way as possible but even they inevitably ended up getting involved in the chaos.

And somehow, at the end of it all, nine people, seven trunks, three owls, and a rat were going to fit into one small Ford Anglia. The only obvious answer to how that would be possible was that magic was involved somehow.

"Not a word to Molly," Mr. Weasley whispered conspiratorially to Harry and Seth as he showed them how the trunk had been magically expanded to easily fit all of their luggage.

Soon everyone was piling into the car. Mrs. Weasley saw how Harry, Ron, Seth, Fred, George, and Percy were all seated comfortably together in the back with enough arm and wiggle room to spare.

"Muggles do know more than we give them credit for, don't they," she mused as she sat in front with Ginny in a seat that was expanded to resemble a park bench, "I mean, you'd never know it was this roomy from the outside, would you."

"Who's gonna tell her?" Seth whispered jokingly to Ron and Harry.

Ron glared at him to do no such thing while Harry snickered.

By the time they were pulling out of the driveway, they had to turn back three times because George forgot his potion ingredients, Fred his broomstick, and Percy his very important prefect duty materials. They were now running late and tempers were running even higher.

Mr. Weasley glanced at his watch then at his wife. "Molly, dear…"

"No Arthur," she firmly refused, already knowing what he wanted to ask.

"But no one would see," he protested, "This little button here is an invisibility booster I installed. That'd get us up in the air. Then we fly above the clouds, be there in ten minutes, and no one would be any wiser."

"I said no Arthur," she sternly refused, "Not in broad daylight."

Mr. Weasley had no choice but to concede to his wife's wishes and they arrived at King's Cross at a quarter to eleven. Mr. Weasley dashed across the road to get trolleys for their trunks and they all rushed to the station, quickly coming upon the entrance for Platform Nine and Three Quarters.

Mrs. Weasley looked nervously at the clock that showed they only had ten more minutes to get to the platform and on the train. "I'll take Ginny through first and then the rest of you follow after. Arthur, you make sure everyone gets through, especially the twins."

"Mum!" The twins cried out indignantly in protest.

"No arguments," she scolded, "Now come on."

Mrs. Weasley ran through the entrance with Ginny. Percy followed soon after, then the twins with some ushering from Mr. Weasley, then Seth. Ron and Harry ran through together. Both noticed a bit of resistance from the barrier but the feeling passed as quickly as it appeared so they thought nothing of it as they appeared on the platform and made a beeline for the train with Mr. Weasley soon bringing up the rear.

Everyone and their belongings managed to make it onto the train with only a few minutes to spare. They all waved good-bye to the exhausted but relieved Mr. and Mrs. Weasley as the Hogwarts Express pulled out of the station.

XXXXXX

Ron dramatically collapsed onto the seat, groaning as the adrenaline rush from the morning left his body. Harry and Seth smiled wryly at him in understanding while Hermione shook her head in exasperation. They'd only just settled themselves into the compartment when Harry realized he'd forgotten to grab the Lockhart book set that was sitting on the desk in Ron's room.

"Oh no, what a shame," Seth sarcastically said, making Ron snicker in amusement.

"Harry! How could you forget your textbooks!" Hermione admonished, "You should owl Mrs. Weasley and have them sent to you as soon as possible. You can borrow my books until then."

"Thanks Hermione," Harry said with a strained smile.

Then Ron realized he was missing something very important when he pawed through his trunk for his wizards chess set. "Oh bugger. Where'd my socks go?"

"Your socks? Aren't they on your feet?" Seth asked, gesturing confusedly.

Ron shook his head. "No, not those socks. My sock bag, the one dad helped me pack last night."

"You mean that bag with the Chudley Cannon colors?" Harry asked. Upon Ron's nod, "I think your mum gave it to Percy by accident."

Ron groaned as if physically pained by the thought. "Really? I don't want to go ask Percy for them because he'll be such a pretentious ninny about it, lecturing me about making sure I'm always prepared and packed with a whole checklist and such. He always acts like he's perfect and never forgets anything important even though he forgot about Scabbers once and left him at Hogwarts during winter holidays two years ago."

He looked over to said rat who was snoozing away on top of his knapsack, soaking in the sun. "He ate so well that when we got him back mum made Percy put him on a diet."

"While that's fascinating and all," Hermione interjected, "Why in the world do you even have a bag of only socks?"

"It's a guy thing, Hermoine. You wouldn't get it," Ron waved her off.

She raised an eyebrow, eyeing him skeptically. "Oh really now?"

"Oi! Don't you harp on me for that!" Ron said indignantly, "I don't harp on you when you yell at us for folding the pages of our textbooks."

"Well they're your textbooks!" Hermione bristled like an angry cat, "You need to keep them in good condition for as long as possible since you never know when you'll need them again."

Ron looked at her incredulously. "When would I ever need my textbooks when I'm done with school?"

Before a full-blown argument could erupt between them, the trolley lady stopped by their compartment. Harry leapt up from his seat, grateful for the perfectly timed interruption, and quickly bought all sorts of candies and treats from her cart. Seth pulled out his brand new deck of Exploding Snap and insisted on a few games, which helped distract Ron and Hermione long enough to forget what they were even arguing about in the first place.

Somewhere along the way, their companionable chattering meandered over to the subject of Harry's relatives. Harry spent quite a bit of time and air going on an impassioned rant about his beastly uncle, ghastly aunt, and spoiled brat of a cousin. He also finally revealed that up until his admission to Hogwarts, he'd been forced to live in a cupboard under the stairs and was basically treated like a male Cinderella who was only allowed out of the house to go to school.

Hermione was rightfully indignant. "I'm going to look into child neglect and abuse laws as soon as I go home for the holidays. In fact, I'm going to owl my parents to speak with my aunt who's a brilliant lawyer who specializes in cases involving children."

Harry was touched by her offer but shook his head. "It's fine, Hermione. Honest. My aunt and uncle hate magic but they're also so scared of it that they let me move into the guest room and left me alone for the summer."

She frowned, looking ready to smack some sense into him. "That's not good enough! And they should've let you have your own proper room to begin with!"

Ron nodded vigorously with a mouthful of cauldron cake. "She's got you there," he said once he'd swallowed down the cake and was licking frosting off his fingers much to Hermione's disgust, "Even with how crowded the Burrow is with all of us, mum and dad made sure that we each had as much of our own space as they could give."

"But-" Harry began to protest only to be cut off by Seth shoving a pumpkin pastry into his mouth.

"Harry," Seth firmly said with no room for argument or protest, "Your living situation with your relatives is not okay and nothing you say will convince us otherwise."

Harry backed down, chewing on his pastry with a scowl but everyone could see that he was secretly pleased by their words.

"Now that we've established how horrid Harry's relatives are and how he shouldn't accept their treatment as okay, there is one other thing that's bothering me," Hermione said as she turned to Harry, "You said your relatives left you alone for the most part, correct?"

Harry nodded.

"Then how come you never responded to our letters until Ron went to get you?" She asked, "Did your uncle find them and hide them away? But wait, you had your own room so the owls would've gone straight there instead of dropping the letter off at the front door or the mailbox…"

Harry chuckled sheepishly. "That's a funny story actually."

Then he launched into a dramatic retelling of the events and aftermath of a dinner party on the day of his birthday and no, of course the party was not for him but rather for a client of his uncle's. Anyways, a house elf named Dobby suddenly showed up in his room and warned him not to go back to Hogwarts that year because he would be in 'grave danger.' Whenever Harry would refuse to do so, Dobby would start hurting himself and causing a great commotion. He had to work overtime to make sure his uncle didn't find out what was happening but that ended up back firing when Dobby thought if he got Harry in trouble with his relatives, he wouldn't be able to go back to school. This obviously didn't work considering he was rescued by the Weasleys shortly after.

"Thanks for that by the way, Ron," Harry said, nodding gratefully to his friend, "I don't know what I would've done if I ended up locked in my room for however long my uncle wanted to lock me up."

Ron waved him off, no thanks necessary. "You're my best mate. I'll always have your back just like I know you'll have mine."

"But that still doesn't explain the lack of letters," Hermione pointed out.

"Maybe Dobby was the one stealing his mail?" Seth suggested.

Harry nodded. "He was, actually."

"But why?" Hermione asked, completely bewildered, "What would a house elf want with your mail and why would he be trying to stop you from going to school? For that matter, what even is a house elf?"

The boys looked at her in complete surprise that she didn't know something and had admitted to it.

She looked back at them with rightful offense. "What? It's not like I spend all my time dedicated to the subject of magical creatures. There are so many other more interesting subjects I could be reading about like arithmancy or alchemy."

Harry shook his head at her like she was a lost cause and Seth smiled wryly at how much she continued to remind him of his sister.

Ron looked rather pleased to finally have a leg up in knowledge and couldn't wait to gloat about it at a later time. "House elves are magical beings that are really loyal to their masters to the point where they'll hit and berate themselves for not being able to follow an order. They're basically like magical servants and caretakers and the only way they can be freed from their current master is if someone gives them clothes."

"That's barbaric!" Hermione cried out in scandalized horror, "They're basically like slaves! Do they even get paid or go on holidays? Why hasn't anyone done anything to help them?"

Ron shrugged. "Not really and even if you asked them if they wanted to, they'd refuse so what's there to help? They like doing chores and stuff. Don't you know Hogwarts has got hundreds of them? Where'd you think all the food comes from and who cleans the rooms of the castle and does our laundry?"

Hermione sputtered. "But, but-"

"You know," Ron said thoughtfully, "House elves are only really found with old wizarding families with lots of money cause Merlin knows mum would love to have one to help around the house."

Harry tilted his head in confusion. "Where are you trying to go with this?"

"The Malfoy's are rich and old enough to have some house elves," Ron stated like it was obvious.

Seth was unimpressed by what he was trying to imply. "Really Ron? You're trying to say Draco Malfoy would be petty enough to try and stop Harry from going to school?"

Ron rolled his eyes. "Look, I may not like the git but even I know he's not stupid enough to do something like that. No. I'd bet his father would."

"Why's that?" Harry asked.

Ron shrugged. "Cause he's a former death eater who only managed to escape getting tossed into Azkaban by saying he was under the Imperius Curse which dad says is a lie and he only got off cause he paid lots of people off. It could be revenge for what happened at the bookstore since it's not like he can go after my family without it being obvious."

Seth rubbed his chin in thought. "Interesting…"

Hermione shook her head. "That's enough speculating about Malfoy," she huffed, "Honestly, with the amount of time you two spend thinking and talking about him, anyone would believe you fancied him."

Ron looked physically sick at the notion and gagged. "Never in a million years would I ever fancy Malfoy of all people."

Harry nodded so vigorously at the sentiment that he mimicked a bobble head and had Seth snorting in amusement.

"And you!" Hermione rounded on Seth and pointed at him in accusation, "Don't think I've forgotten, mister!"

"Oh come on, Hermione. Really? Here?" He whined like a champ.

She crossed her arms with a frown. "At least here there's no way for you to escape without being blocked by Ron or Harry."

He winced and tried to play it off as a scowl. "Whatever," he grumbled petulantly.

"Wait, hold on," Ron interjected, looking just as lost as Harry, "What haven't you forgotten?"

Hermione glared at Seth before he could give some lousy excuse to change the subject. "Seth's going through some trouble with his family but he won't tell me what nor admit to it and claims he's fine even though he clearly isn't," she explained.

"We are not having this conversation in the middle of a train car," Seth firmly stated.

She scowled fiercely at him. "Well if not here and now, then when?"

Harry nodded in agreement, proving himself to be an absolute traitor. "Yeah Seth. You can't keep this sort of stuff bottled up. I haven't got any siblings and even I know that."

"Well I do, too many if you ask me," Ron said, adding in his two cents, "But if there was any sort of trouble in the family, you can bet your arse that mum would make us all sit and talk it out else there would be hell to pay." In a surprisingly good imitation of his mother that clearly showed how often he heard this exact lecture, "It's no good bottling up your thoughts and feelings. One day it'll all come spilling out and you'll say things you wish you hadn't said and regret it for the rest of your life. So you better sit down and talk it out else you'll be de-gnoming the garden for the rest of the month!"

"A bit too late for that though," Seth muttered angrily.

"Seth," Hermione firmly said.

"Hermione," he sarcastically said back.

She gave him a pointed look but he stood firm and they engaged in a stare down. Harry and Ron whipped their heads back and forth, watching with great curiosity to see who would win in out stubborning the other. Unfortunately for Hermione, Seth was used to engaging in stubborn contests with his family, particularly with his sister, so she was the first one to give up and look away.

"Alright fine, I'll drop it," she reluctantly conceded, "But don't think I'll let it stay that way. You're my friend Seth, so one way or another, I will have you talk about your feelings."

Seth snorted in amusement and smirked. "I'd like to see you try."

Harry and Ron shook their heads in sympathy for their poor friend when they saw the look of 'challenge accepted' in Hermione's eyes.

Their conversation then switched gears as they talked about the classes they would be taking and the quidditch trials they could participate in now that they were old enough to officially try out, barring Harry of course who already was basically guaranteed to be Seeker until he graduated.

Ginny made an appearance halfway through the ride to drop off Ron's sock bag that Percy had handed off to her along with a lecture she was to repeat verbatim to him. The quartet laughed at her shortened and mocking version of Percy's boorishly long lecture about preparedness. She grinned brilliantly at them but became tongue tied when Harry gleefully complimented her humorous imitation.

Seth and Hermione shared knowing looks while Ron and Harry were highly confused by her suddenly shy demeanor.

The twins soon arrived to act as her saving grace, steering her away and back to her newly gained firstie friends before they talked shop with Seth about pranks for the year. Apparently some of the Ravenclaws were doing a collaboration with a few Slytherins and it was going to be bloody brilliant.

The rest of the train ride was spent playing games, talking with their friends visiting from different parts of the train, and eating sweets at a moderate pace set by the ever-watchful Hermione.

XXXXXX

When they arrived at Hogwarts, instead of being directed to the lakeside cavern like last year, the second years were guided towards a wide dirt path that winded through a sprawling forest softly lit with floating lanterns. There were multiple carriages lined up and being pulled away by an invisible force when enough students were boarded.

The older students explained to the confused second years that only first years rode the boats to the castle in order to make their first arrival to Hogwarts a more magical experience. Which was fair since going down a dirt path in a horseless carriage didn't really scream magic except for the carriages themselves.

Harry nodded along in understanding though he sulked a bit from not being able to ride the boats and experiencing the awe-inspiring sight of the castle from the lake again. Ron wasn't too put off by it, no doubt already warned about this by his older brothers. However, Seth and Hermione were among the few who noticed how some of the older students winced when Pavarti Patil asked what kind of magic was used to enchant the carriages only to receive a shrug in response.

They wondered what that reaction was about but it seemed Seth would be the only one to get the answer when they arrived at the carriages and he saw black skeletal horses hitched up to them.

He blinked in surprise, taking in the sight of the horses that, while horrific in appearance, seemed quite docile. The horses never did anything more than flick their bony tail whenever the students would get a touch too rowdy.

Hermione noticed him staring at the empty space in front of the carriages. "Is something the matter?" She whispered in concern.

He shook his head and whispered back, "It's nothing, really."

She gave him an unimpressed look and he decided to concede just this once. "Okay, fine. Do you see anything pulling the carriages?"

She shook her head and looked at him in confusion. "No, but I assumed it was some sort of transportation related charm."

"Well I don't think that's the case cause I'm seeing black skeletal horses," he said.

"Black skeletal horses?" She repeated in confusion. Then she frowned and crossed her arms in thought. "They must be a creature that's usually invisible except under certain circumstances. The library should have a book that can give us an idea as to what sort of magical creature it is. It can't be anything bad though, otherwise they wouldn't be used to pull the carriages."

Seth hummed in acknowledgement of her plan. They climbed up onto a carriage with Harry, Ron, and Neville who was gently prompted into shyly telling them all about what he'd done during the summer. His grandmother had wanted him to improve on his studies, only barely accepting the passable charm and potion grades he had ended the year with, so he spent most of his time studying. Ron and Harry returned the favor by launching into a grand retelling of the 'Heroic Summer Rescue from Harry's Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Relatives' (title still in the works) with helpful and unhelpful interjections from Hermione and Seth respectively as they rode to the castle.

XXXXXX

Everyone applauded at the end of the sorting hat's song that really wasn't any different from last year's save for a word or two to make the rhymes flow more smoothly. Then Seth kind of zoned out for the entirety of the sorting, his attention only being caught by three students.

First was Colin Creevy to Gryffindor, who practically vibrated in excitement and zoomed over to where Harry was seated. He tried to ask him something only to get shushed and dragged away by Percy.

Second was Luna Lovegood to Ravenclaw, who had a presence that was reminiscent to those touched by the influence of magical creatures such as himself and his sister. He wondered what sort of creature gave her their blessing and what sort of influence it had on her.

Third was Ginny who got into Gryffindor as expected and grouchily handed over a knut each to the twins. Apparently they had a bet going that she would be able to convince the hat to send her to a different house but no dice. The hat was adamant about all Weasleys being in the same bloody house no matter what.

Soon the sorting came to an end and Dumbledore did his customary opening speech. He introduced Gilderoy Lockhart as Hogwart's new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Lockhart smiled and waved in his aquamarine robes meant to accentuate his eyes. Snape scowled darkly at him from one side while McGonagall frowned impatiently on the other. Hagrid was already drinking from his goblet while looking thoughtfully at Draco.

Finally the speech came to an end with Dumbledore tacking on an invitation to 'drink and be merry with anyone and everyone for we are all friends tonight!' Seth could practically see the cogs turning in many students' heads at the possible ways the Headmaster meant for that to be interpreted. Food appeared in the serving dishes and the feast began.

But before everyone could tuck in, a rather large handful of students got up from their tables to go sit at other tables that most definitely weren't their own houses. The first years looked around in confusion, some of the older years shifted uncomfortably, and the professors looked either resigned or amused while everyone else just shrugged and rolled with it.

Seth beamed proudly to himself as he also got up and made his way over to Slytherin where he plopped himself down beside a sour-faced Draco looking like he swallowed a lemon.

"What are you doing here, Sorenson?" He hissed irritably.

Seth ignored the Slytherin's foul mood, happily filling his plate with all sorts of food. "What? I can't eat dinner with one of my dear old friends?"

Draco scowled. "You and I will never be friends, Sorenson. Never in a million years and not even if you paid me a million galleons."

Seth put his hand on his chest, dramatically feigning hurt and indignation. "Well I never," he said with the accent of a properly educated young lady from the South, "Who else is going to deal with your edgy Slytherin self? Surely not any of the other Slytherins."

Blaise snorted in amusement at Seth's impression. "He's right about that. Our dorms are already depressing enough. We don't need you to add to that dreary atmosphere."

"Well if you guys had let my mum send some of her things, we really could've spruced the place up. Add in a little color besides green, silver, and black, black, black" Theo reminded disapprovingly.

Blaise deadpanned at him. "Your mother may have a great fashion sense but her interior decorating skills leave much to be desired. If anything, we should be asking Vincent and Gregory for assistance."

Theo shook his head in disbelief. "I still can't believe those dunderheads have a better sense of decorating than everyone combined."

"Hey!" Vincent cried out as if Theo had just committed a great offense against him, "I may be stupid but I'm not an idiot. Everyone knows paisley is a crime against wizardry."

Gregory nodded sagely though the effect was ruined by the large chicken leg held in his hand and the grease smeared around his mouth. "That's right," he said around a mouthful of chicken that had everyone grimacing in disgust. Then he spotted an untouched tray of treacle tarts and eagerly pointed to it. "Vince, look! Tarts!"

"Give it here!" Vincent eagerly said, making gimme hand motions.

Seth, Theo, and Blaise watched in fascination as the two pigged out on the deserts with terrifying ease while Draco sneered.

"You know, if you boys really want to ask someone for advice on how to spruce up our dormitory, you should ask Professor Lockhart," Pansy eagerly suggested.

"Right?" Daphne nodded in agreement. She glanced over and giggled bashfully at the sight of the handsome professor. "Did you see his robes? They're the perfect shade of aquamarine that makes the color of his eyes stand out."

Millicent sighed wistfully like a love lorn maiden standing on the balcony and waiting for some handsome stranger to whisk her away. "His hair is so artfully styled. His teeth are so brilliantly white. And I bet his skin is smooth to the touch."

The three girls squealed in unison, making the rest of the boys cringe. Tracey scooted away to put some distance between her and them.

"I really should have left for the Hufflepuff table when I had the chance," she lamented, "They would've been too busy with mother henning to care about what sort of hair products Lockhart must use."

Blaise chuckled and shook his head. "Not too sure that would do much good. Even the girls over there are gushing over him."

They all looked over and saw that most of the Hufflepuff female students were indeed gushing over Lockhart while the male students dutifully took over the rest of the mother henning roles without batting an eye.

Theo patted her sympathetically on the back. "It's alright. If history has anything to say about it, Lockhart's only going to be here for the year."

Tracey grimaced, not looking forward to a painful year of ear bleeding girl talk in the dorms. "That's a year too long for me. Are we even going to learn anything of substance from him?"

"I knew I wasn't the only one thinking that but Pansy said I was just jealous of Lockhart," Draco said, finally contributing to the conversation. He scoffed. "Who would be jealous of a man who peacocks to such an extreme? How the girls, barring you of course Tracey, can't see past that, I'll never know."

"It is a little strange how smitten most of the girls are when it comes to Professor Lockhart," Theo agreed. Then he grimaced. "Ugh, that just sounded disgusting."

Blaise nodded at the sentiment. "Right? That man would sooner be a professor than my mother would settle down with a working class man." Then he grew thoughtful as a sudden idea came to him. "Now that I think about it, I've met men more handsome and charismatic than Lockhart so how is he able to charm girls and women so well?"

And just like that, the second years, barring Pansy, Millicent, and Daphne who continued to gush over Lockhart, launched into a fascinating discussion as to how Lockhart got to be so popular. Their theories ranged from potions to charms to distilled creature pheromones and so on and so forth. The discussion was so riveting that Draco forgot his initial hostility towards Seth as the two engaged in a debate over which Asian country Lockhart would've had to get ingredients from in order to make a potion potent enough to greatly enhance his natural male pheromones.

The feast soon came to an end with the customary school song sung at a variety of tunes and rhythms before they were ushered off to their respective dorms.

Later that night, in the Gryffindor boy's dorms, the second year boys talked about what they'd been up to during the summer. Seamus had been grounded for the majority of the summer after he and his father, a muggle bomb specialist in the Scottish Royal Navy, accidentally made the town hall explode in a brilliant display of pyrotechnics, both magical and muggle. Dean went on a vacation to New Zealand where he filled an entire sketchbook with beautiful landscape drawings. Neville recounted his three month long study period and then they all listened in rapture to Harry's great rescue. Seth managed to give a boring enough description of his own summer that they soon skipped right to horsing around as late as they could until it was time to turn in for the night.

As Seth pulled the covers up over him, he smiled and thought that despite what happened with his family during the summer, it was damn good to be back at Hogwarts.

And scene! Now I'm sure all the differences that were made in this chapter were super obvious such as the fact that Harry and Ron didn't get blocked from the platform and have to use the car to get to Hogwarts. The reason for that is because I don't believe Mrs. Weasley would leave Harry and Ron alone to cross the border without supervision. Sure she could give a pass to Percy and maybe the twins, but definitely not two 12 year olds when she was already escorting Ginny through the barrier despite Ginny having no doubt crossed the barrier multiple times with her family growing up. So yeah, the boys get through with Mr. Weasley following after so Dobby can't just block the barrier (which is a really weirdly specific skill to have and is just a complete plot hole when you start to think about it) otherwise, Mr, Weasley, a member of the Ministry, would've been super suspicious about why that happened. And because of that, I had to make it so Ron broke his wand during the summer instead of because of the Whomping Willow which also means there is no flying car ex machine later on in the story.

Hope you enjoyed the train ride conversations because they're meant to be golden quartet bonding times as well as some set up for Seth's state of mind and how the notebook will factor into it. Also had some inter-house mingling during the feast because Dumbledore is a crafty old coot and also it'll make the reaction to the opening of the chamber more interesting. Plus I wanted to give the Slytherins more personality besides being bullies and future death eaters. Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and are looking forward to the next. Until then!