Two uploads in a month?! It's honestly a miracle. I should be finishing up Year One in a few more chapters chapters, but there's a lot of groundwork that still needs to be laid out, but that'll be done in the next two-ish chapters. After that the plot should move along fairly quickly. I'm still debating whether or not to add a summer chapter, but I'll cross that bridge later.

Anyways, Happy Reading!

Samantha

Willow walked into DADA and sighed. Breakfast was hectic to say the least, especially since it was the second time the older Slytherins had escorted her to breakfast. The first time was considered a happenstance, as a one time thing for the twin of the Boy-Who-Lived. The second time was less forgiving in terms of it being brushed off as a coincidence. Unlike last time though, when her friends gave her questioning looks, she was able to mouth "later" knowing that now she knew the answer.

She practically tossed her bag onto the desk, sat down in her seat, and waited patiently for class to start. Willow half hoped that Marvolo would be the one to teach class. Sure he probably may have let the troll in, but at this point he would've been more interesting and helpful than the normal Professor Quirrell. Her mind drifted to Harry and she realized as she was waiting there with her head buried in her arms that she totally forgot to talk to her brother. She shrugged to herself and decided that she could talk to him later. She was lucky she supposed, the longer she thought about how she was going to talk to him, the more she realized that she needed to figure out a different way to approach him. She heard footsteps coming up behind her and recognized them as belonging to Theodore Nott as he cleared his throat and moved over to his seat beside her.

"So are you really going to tell us what happened or was that your attempt to sweep it under the rug." Willow peeked out from her arms as he sat down with a lot more grace than she had previously done.

Sighing, she sat up and leveled a look at Nott.

"That was my attempt to not gossip about the other Slytherins while they were at the table. Flint gave me an explanation about why everyone is acting the way they are, but it's so strange. I can't wrap my head around it." Her hands went up to rub at her temples. Constantly worrying over that was giving her a migraine.

Before she could say anything more, Professor Quirrell walked in along with the rest of the students. He was wringing his hands, there was something different about him. Willow paid attention to him carefully, he looked exhausted, worried, plus he was stuttering even more than usual during his normal class introduction.

After about half an hour of the Professor trying to give a lecture, he seemed to give up and instructed the class to read chapter 6 out of their book before sitting down behind his desk. It was silent for a while. Willow had already read her Defense book and decided to take out her book on blood magic and began to read.

"Ms. P-Potter p-please see m-me af-after class."

Willow looked up, confused, to see Professor Quirrell looking at her. She made eye contact and watched as his eyes flashed red briefly. Understanding swept through her and she nodded her head. She wouldn't be talking with Quirrell, no she'd talk with Marvolo.

"Of course Professor"

She could no longer concentrate on her book as she remembered her conversation with Marvolo and his penchant for calling her Darling. And the Troll.

Oh Merlin, the troll.

She knew that he must've let the troll in, there was no other explanation. But now the question is why did he do it? What was the purpose? What was so important that he needed to risk the safety of everyone in the castle?

Willow was pulled out of the sea of questions that she was drowning in by a movement that she noticed out of the corner of her eye. She watched as Nott slid a folded piece of parchment toward her. Willow pulled it closer to her and unfolded it.

You have a lot of explaining to do. She looked up at him and he raised his eyebrows at her. She rolled her green eyes and huffed writing a response before sliding it back to him.

I have an explanation for breakfast, but I have no idea what's going on with this. That was a straight up lie, but she couldn't just go out and say that Quirrell had a potentially dangerous second soul living inside of him. That would go over like a lead balloon.

You know more than we do.

I have no idea what you're talking about. Nott read this and scoffed quietly.

Yes you do. Willow rolled her eyes, but he was right. She hesitated for a second or two before writing her response.

Yes, but I can't disclose all of it. I'll explain what I can later. I promise. About breakfast and about this.

You better, and please be careful.

Willow re-folded the note and put it in her book marking an interesting page about blood magic in respect to the earth. She and Nott returned to reading their respective materials until the end of class. Once class was over she stood up from her seat and turned to her friends. Blaise, Nott, and Malfoy seemed reluctant to leave her. She shooed them away with a small smile and a wink.

"I'll explain when we're all in the common room." They each gave words of confirmation and turned to leave. Nott hesitated again, but with a nod, a reassuring smile, and a promise to be careful from Willow, he turned to leave as well.

Once everyone had left the door closed behind them.

"Your friends seem to care about you." Willow turned to look at Professor Quirrell, no, it was clear by the lack of stutter and red eyes that she was talking to Marvolo. She looked over at him and chuckled softly before agreeing.

"They do, and it's still strange to me. Though now I have to figure out a way to explain the whole "Heir" business and this without telling them about your soul issue."

"Heir business?" Marvolo transfigured a chair across from his desk and gestured for her to sit down.

"Yeah, some of the older Slytherin seem convinced that I'm the new Heir of Slytherin, or something like that." She took a seat and watched as Marvolo's eyes flashed with interest.

He leaned forward. "Do you know why they say that?"

"I do, but that's not why you called me here is it?" There was no way she was going to tell him any of the reasons. She didn't even know why he was even bothering with her, and until Willow knew why, she was going to be very careful with what she told him. It was a gut feeling, almost instinctual, and living with the Dursleys definitely taught her to follow that instinct. Marvolo raised an eyebrow but seemed to ignore her comment.

"You're right. I told you we would speak more yesterday, didn't I? I noticed that you were reading one of the books that I recommended when we first met and I wanted to see how you were fairing with it." Willow brightened with that change of topic. She honestly loved the books that he had suggested to her. They were so intense and just plain different than all of her other textbooks that she got pulled in every time she opened one of them.

"The reading is going quite well actually, I have a pretty decent understanding of the material, and have been itching to get my hands on other books along the same lines." She asked him a few clarifying questions which Marvolo gladly answered, his eyes brightening in response to her enthusiasm. He was genuinely grateful that he chose her to teach instead of her brother.

Willow paused after she finished her questions, hesitant to ask her what was on her mind, for fear of Marvolo saying no, or outright laughing at her. She took a deep breath.

"Marvolo," she began, "Is there anyway that I could learn some of the spell work that the books mention?"

She watched as Marvolo got a particular gleam in his eye that she couldn't quite place, and watched as the gears seemed to turn in his head. He grinned at her and his red eyes seemed to grow brighter and suddenly someone else's face was overlaid on top of Professor Quirrell's. The eyes were still red in color but there was something deeper and brighter to them, their skin was pale, and the chestnut brown hair seemed to be meticulously styled. But the implications that followed this face were too great. It absolutely terrified her.

Willow leaned back in an effort to get away from the sudden onslaught that the vision, or whatever it was, brought that she ended up crashing backwards out of her chair and onto the hard stone floor.

That seemed to be enough to pull her out of that vision for when she scrambled back to her hands and knees she saw Marvolo back in Quirrell's body rushing over to her, his god awful purple robes frantically swirling about him, his red eyes shining with worry.

"Are you alright?"

Willow resisted the urge to cringe away from him and thought for a moment. Sure, she wasn't harmed, but was she really alright? She wasn't sure.

"I think I just saw you." She sensed his confusion and quickly continued before he could interject. "I know that you aren't the original soul for this body. But when you just now I think I saw you, your old body, or face really. You had brown hair and you were pale but your eyes were still red."

Marvolo looked startled, but impressed, or maybe interested, worried? Willow couldn't quite tell. He left her in favor of sitting at his desk.

"You do realize that you can't tell anyone about this. You're a smart girl and you can see that even though Quirrell doesn't seem to be a dangerous man, I am. Please don't give me a reason to prove just how dangerous I can be."

Willow righted the wooden chair and gingerly sat down, feeling his eyes follow her every move, still reeling from the whole experience.

"I won't." She paused, debating on whether or not she still wanted him to teach her. After a beat or two, she made up her mind.

She took a deep breath.

"Marvolo, I… I would still like for you to teach me." Willow folded her hands in her lap and nervously waited for his answer.

Marvolo sighed and leaned back in his chair.

"I suppose it would make sense for you to learn the magic that you are reading about. Very well I will teach you, however I will let you know that this won't be easy. I will send you an owl with our meeting times."

Willow took this as a dismissal and stood up to leave, saying goodbye and thank you to Marvolo.

"Goodbye Darling. Oh and one more thing." Willow paused and looked at him. "Be a dear a keep this under wraps, will you?"

He smiled dangerously and winked at her. She swallowed hard.

"Of course Marvolo." She gave him a small nod, and left the Defense classroom.

Marvolo watched as Willow exited his classroom and he felt a pressure against the back of his head. It was Quirrell signaling that he wanted his body back, but Marvolo wasn't ready to do that quite yet. He pushed that feeling away and pulled out his bag of personal items that Lucius Malfoy had managed to grab for him. He supposed it was nice to have some of his belongings even if he wasn't in his own body.

He would change that though, and soon. He hit a lucky break when he met Quirrell in Albania and convinced him to become a host and help him obtain a body. That stone, the Sorcerer's Stone. That would be the key to getting his own body, preferably the one he had before that fateful night. People were more willing to follow a face that was more attractive. People were shallow like that but he supposed it worked in his favor last time, and he knew it would this time as well.

He dug through his bag and pulled out a journal with a few pieces of loose parchment tucked carefully inside of it. Marvolo pulled those out, grateful that Quirrell couldn't see what was going on when he was in control. Those pieces of parchment were unfolded with reverence as he said an incantation that revealed the drawings on the page. There were three drawings, one per page, and each one had the same main subject.

Willow.

Marvolo didn't know it was Willow at first, he only recognized himself. These were old drawings, done by a Seer right after he graduated Hogwarts. He laughed the drawings off, believing that he was above such things that were drawn there, but he kept them anyway. They were beautiful. But looking at them now, he began to believe that there was some truth to them. Especially after he met Willow in Diagon Alley.

Marvolo looked at the first picture. It was of a smiling, wide eyed, 11 year old Willow getting handed a stack of books by a man in a turban. The names on the spines matching the names of the books that he gave her that day. Including the one that they had discussed today, Properties of Wizarding Blood and their Application: a Look into Blood Magic

The next picture showed her a couple of years older with a snake wrapped around her shoulders as she faced a group of masked death eaters and a hooded man, which he knew to be himself, with a bright smile. It was a curious picture, she didn't look to be putting on a fake smile to cover up fear. In fact, her eyes shined with amusement and her stance was relaxed as she looked at him.

The final picture however, was the most unbelievable. She was a year or two older than the previous picture but still a Hogwarts student judging by the uniform that she wore. She was sitting with him just outside of the shrieking shack, a picnic blanket laid out and a basket of food next to her. Her head was thrown back in laughter as the drawn version of him looked at her with a warmth in his eyes that he'd never shown to anyone but Nagini. And even then, this look seemed different than any look he had ever given his pet.

Marvolo carefully folded the pieces of parchment back up and tucked them away again. The last drawing was still quite impossible, but as he remembered the drawing that had already come to pass, he thought that maybe impossible was something that could happen.

Stranger things have happened.

It wasn't until after dinner that Willow and all of her friends were all able to gather in the Slytherin common room. At the moment they were seated at one of the rectangular tables that went mostly unused since everyone else preferred either the round tables or desks to study on. Willow found herself seated at the head of the table with Nott sitting to her right, Draco to her left and Blaise sitting next to him. She was exhausted, but she knew that this was coming sooner or later, and figured it was worth it to have her friends in the loop.

Well, mostly anyway.

"Okay, to start.." She launched into a retelling of the past couple of days, leaving out Marvolo and her suspicions about Professor Quirrell letting the troll in. She told them about the older Slytherins' thoughts about her being the Heir and their reasoning. She also told them a modified version of the lessons with Professor Quirrell. He would give her book on advanced topics, test her on the theory and then work on the practical aspects.

She finished her explanation and the table went silent for a while. She could tell that they didn't quite believe her explanation about Quirrell, but she hoped that everything else would cover for that.

"You know," Draco began, resting his head on his folded hands. "My father told me about the myth of the Heir when I was younger. I don't remember much, but I can owl him and ask him more about it."

Willow nodded her head and smiled at him, relieved.

"That would be lovely, thank you Draco."

The smile didn't last long though. She yawned and ran a hand over her face in an attempt to wake herself up. She sighed at the quizzical looks that her friends gave her.

"Look guys, something is going on. Something big. Huge actually, and I'm trying to figure it out. Harry knows something else as well. I need to find out what that is, and I'm going to. I just don't know how yet."

Willow leaned back in her chair and looked at her friends. Blaise, Draco, and Nott looked at each other before Nott seemed to make a decision and spoke up.

"You mean we."

Willow cut her eyes to Nott.

"We?"

Draco spoke up next, clearly in agreement with whatever Nott had decided.

"We are going to figure it out. We're your family now and we'll help you. We can do it together."

Nott and Blaise nodded in agreement and repeated the word as well. Willow smiled at all of them and sat up straighter, looking at each of them in the eye.

"Together"

Willow hid in an alcove as Professor Flitwick walked past her on his patrol. She watched him waddle past her hiding spot and waited until she knew that the coast was absolutely clear. She let out a breath that she didn't know she was holding before exiting the alcove and continuing to make her way down the corridor, her socked feet barely making any noise. She was glad that her sneaking skills were cultivated at the Dursleys. Years of sneaking food gave her the edge she needed for her excursion.

She just hoped she remembered where the meeting area was.

She turned another corner and came across the hiding place that the Weasley twins had pulled her into last time. This was it. It seemed a lot smaller than the last time she was here but Willow shrugged and stepped in anyway. She waited for the twins for about five minutes before she spotted their flaming red hair coming down the hallway. She decided to reverse the roles and, when they got close enough, pulled them both into the alcove.

"Hey!" Fred protested.

Willow smiled and lit her wand, illuminating her face and making her green eyes glow.

"Hello boys, I see the tables have turned." Willow wiggled her eyebrows jokingly at them and watched as they caught on and began to laugh.

"Not bad for a little firstie, isn't that right Fred?"

"You're quite right George!"

They both leaned against the opposite wall of the alcove, crossed their arms, and looked at her, their blue eyes twinkling in the wand light.

"So, you want to learn how to make mischief," Fred began, "and you want us-"

"To teach you? Hmmmmm, give us one moment," George continued.

Fred and George peeked out of the alcove to check if the coast was clear and stepped out into the corridor. Willow could hear their whispers, and could even hear her name a couple of times, but other than that it was just a conglomeration of the twins' hushed voices. Their words indiscernible. After another moment or two they came back, both of their faces unreadable. George took a deep breath.

"Well, Willow, after a long application process-" Fred took over.

"We'd like to welcome you to the-"

"Weasley School of Mischief and Wizardry" They said the last part together, grinned, and tipped invisible hats at Willow. She laughed at them as she mockingly bowed.

"I'm humbled and honored to be accepted into this very prestigious school."

"As you should be." George winked at her. "But alas, we must go, we'll send you an owl of everything that you will need, and the stuff that we will teach you." They said their goodbyes to her in unison and left the alcove, leaving Willow alone.

She left a couple of moments later and began to make her way back to her dorm. The silence of the castle gave her time to think about everything that happened today. She felt tears well up behind her eyes and she hid in an alcove to try to collect her thoughts and calm her emotions.

It didn't work.

Willow sunk to the ground and put her head between her knees. The conversations with Marvolo and then with her friends had taken its toll on her and her emotions were finally catching up to her.

Everything may have been coming together, but her emotions were suffering for it. She needed a way to handle it all or she was going to crumble under the weight.

And that was not an option.