The good thing about having friends from different houses was that by the end of the day, everyone had heard about Ness's argument which had landed him in detention with Harry. They were shooting him looks with mixed expressions.

The Ravenclaws seemed unsure about how to deal with the rumors of their new teacher actively provoking a possibly mentally injured student and a muggle hater.

Hufflepuff was fuming but also looking a little skeptical, not sure if it was true or another bold claim by Gryffindor. Their pride was still a little wounded by the two Gryffindor champions of the Tri-wizard cup. Cedric seemed to be on his side but was probably going to have trouble convincing his brethren to be wary of Umbridge. They had the highest ratio of Muggle-born students in their midst. Something Selvis had gleefully pointed out to him one day.

Slytherin—well the few that Ness knew- were shooting him wary looks and glares at their teacher, not liking that she had poked a dangerous lion who had been confirmed to have nearly died thanks to Selvis spreading the word. Malfoy just looked sick while the Gryffindors…

Ness couldn't really tell. Hermione and Ron were fuming about the indignity but were more on Harry's side than his. Which made sense given the argument that had happened mere moments after they had left. He should probably clear that up soon…

Ginny and the fourth years were obviously with him since they had been there but everyone else were just agreeing with the fact that she was a terrible teacher.

And-, "I head she's from Slytherin." That, that lovely divided house system which was probably going to do more harm than good in a few months.

Ness tuned them out as the conversations dipped between Umbridge being an unsuitable teacher and his and Harry's luck at getting detention on their first and third day at school. Instead he Focused on his lukewarm dinner as Ginny fussed under her breath.

"Ginny, fuss any harder and you might actually warm up your food." Ness deadpanned, dreading the time to head up to that toad's office. "I was bound to land in detention some way or another."

"But it shouldn't have been a provoked attempt!" Ginny retorted, "By a new teacher no less!"

"Yea…that's a bit much." Ness agreed glancing at the woman and frowning at how her sweet smile wavered a bit, as if she hadn't planned on so much backlash from her new students. Did she have a different game plan in mind?

Probably since she was directly from the Ministry, Fudge had more or less sent her here in hopes of brainwashing them but hadn't expected such a damaging rebuke from the victims, one of which was a bit well-liked by three of the four houses than the other.

Dinner ended with a small whimper as everyone prepared for bed or last-minute study, everyone but Ness who was trailing behind Harry who was apparently performing the silent treatment. No biggie, the angry stabs at allowing himself to be blackmailed into going along with the enemy still hurt and he doubted he could reign in the bitter thoughts echoing around his head.

Hopefully the Toad wouldn't set him off during detention doing…whatever they were doing. "We're here."

Oh, so Harry wasn't giving him the silent treatment. He looked up from aimlessly studying the walls to see a simple door in front of him and Harry, a door that quickly lead to a pink infested hell with a thousand kitty cats.

Now don't get him wrong, even though he loved King to pieces he still had a soft spot for cats. But this? This was way past crazy cat lady love. At least he hoped it was, he wasn't sure he trusted the Toad's mothering skills with animals given her treatment of her students.

"Right on time." She hummed, a nasty glint in her eyes as Harry silently sat down, his body tense with anger as Ness sat beside him, putting up an invisible wall and focusing on the ugly cats and—oh, that was…odd. Hidden behind a peach pink curtain was an abstract painting that appeared to be…a twisted snow field with a derpy face carved into one of the trees. It was almost…soothing—

"Now Mr. Potter, I believe we have a hundred lines left to do." Oh great, she was talking and pushing a piece of paper and an odd quill towards him. It was setting of several alarm bells off in his head and that ugly smile wasn't helping either, "And you Mr. Earthbound, shall write a hundred-fifty line explaining the dangers of Muggles knowing about the wizarding world. You may copy from this example to your left."

Keep your mouth shut and nod—

"I didn't hear an answer, Mr. Earthbound."

"Oh gee. Maybe because I wanted to preserve what little peace we have." Ness bit his lip and managed a court, "Yes Professor." Before turning to the long scroll of faded paper awaiting a hundred ink filled lines.

Harry sucked some air through his teeth as he got started, almost acting as if he was in physical pain as he went. That…didn't seem right, but maybe Harry hated the Toad even more than he did. He reached into his pocket to produce a battered but still functioning quill when the Toad stopped him.

"Ah, you must use this quill Mr. Earthbound." She nudged the quill forward, making the alarm bells ring even louder in his head as he studied it. Wondering why he had to use that quill.

"Why." He finally asked, looking at her as his headache morphed into a migraine.

"No real reason." She hummed, her eyes daring him to disobey as he picked up the quill and moved to write the simple line. "Muggles are a danger to wizards with the right information." So were Wizards, but she had overlooked that fact just to be cruel.

Freaking Toad-, wait, why was someone scratching at the glass with a fine metal knife? He glanced up and bit back a frown when he saw that no one else was disturbed by this.

Weird…He looked back down and resumed writing, getting to 'Danger to' when the scratching grew louder and more persistence. What was that?! And why was his migraine growing even worse by the minute?

He glanced at the Quill which seemed to be glaring back at him as he finished the line and heard a crack somewhere behind him.

Two lines in, the cracking grew a little louder.

Three lines in. It was sharp and he was starting to see faint outlines of a blue shield in front of him. But he hadn't used PSI shield yet.

Four lines in. He was growing tired, not sleepy tired but physically tired. As if he had taken a nasty attack and his PSI was going overboard by using his stamina to ensure he didn't have any fatal injuries on him.

Five lines in. Pain. —S T O P

"Ah! I wonder when they would show up." What? What was the Toad talking about? Ness dropped the pen—quill—whatever and glared at it, his right hand throbbing like nuts and—blood. He was bleeding. Why was he bleeding? Why was there so much blood—where was it—

His eyes jerked to the paper, his stomach twisting when he saw his blood being used as the ink only extremely faint. How hadn't he noticed? Oh right, because his PSI was going haywire fighting back the cuts—were those words?!

Why—did the quell carve the lines into his hand?!

"Odd that there so faint though…" the Toad hummed, taking his hand and examining it as Harry shot her a hateful glare, pausing only to see if he was okay.

No. He was not okay. Who charms a quill to use your blood as ink!?

Breath. He needed to breath and calm the raging headache to do a status check before he fell into shock. Counting to ten would work too right? Also, why was the Toad still holding his hand? Let go. Letgoletgoletgoletgo!

His hand jerked back, his tired brain figuring out he had lost almost all of his stamina but had dropped his measly 20 PSI points down to 12 thanks to accidentally summoning Alpha Shield to ward off the damage.

"Looks like we'll have to add an extra five to your lines Mr. Earthbound." The Toad hummed, somehow oblivious of his panic attack as he looked at Harry's right hand. Feeling sick when he saw the raw red words carved into pale skin. "I must not tell lies."

Would that be a permanent reminder? Would that be a permanent scar on his physical and mental state?! How was Harry coping with this?! This wasn't right, this wasn't human! This was—

"Mr. Earthbound. Your lines."

His eyes jerked back to her and that toad lipped smile. She was joking. Clearly she could see that he wasn't able to continue with this, right?

"Lines." She prompted as it suddenly became a lot harder to breath, the realization gleefully stealing all of his air as he realized she wanted him to hurt himself with magic.

"I can't continue." His voice was shaky, and he felt like throwing up, "I-I need to see Madam Pomfrey."

"No need for that, the wounds will heal over in no time."

Physically yes. Mentally? No.

He needed to leave, to calm down. Ignore the overwhelming urge to break her mind or let her face plant into her hot, poisonous tea an e.

"Mr. Earthbound, stop wasting time and finish your lines." The Toad prompted, her smile growing a little sour as he tried to figure out a subtle way out of this. Why oh why did Rockin' effect everyone in the room? Why couldn't he just break the quill and—

? Used Immobulus Freeze on Bloodborn Quill

A swirl of blue light and wind wrapped around the Quill.

Super effective!

What? He carefully picked up, relived to find that alarm bells had shut up and shakily resumed writing, feeling sick as the remains of his blood slipped out of the quill in clods.

"No, no, no!" he jumped as the Quill was plucked from his hand and replaced with a new one, the Toad muttering to herself about it somehow being broken as Ness looked at it in horror.

? Used BetaImmobulus Freeze on Bloodborn Quill!

It broke, and no blood came out as Ness carved the words into the paper. Once again the Toad replaced it, once again the ? broke it. Ramping up through levels of power before it grew frustrated and used a new attack.

? Began Rocking his frame.

What? He jumped as the kittens who had been quietly watching them suddenly broke out into panicked and fear filled yowls, running into their neighbors' paintings before they left the room all together. The castle soon erupting in screams of pain, fear, and sheer surprise as Ness faintly saw what they were fleeing from.

Blasts of Freeze Omega creeping through the background and lashing out with a vengeance, like the user had put the attack on his hands and was trying to claw at everything it could reach.

"What on earth!?" The Toad exclaimed as he and Harry to got his feet, shaking from the never ending screams and wails before they abruptly stopped. ? clearly done with his attack or, out of victims to take his frustration out on.

"Well, I suppose our session is over for now." The Toad grumbled, "Come with me, I'll walk you back to your dormitory."

Ness did his best to ignore the tornado swirling in his stomach as he and Harry were ushered out of the room, risking a glance over his shoulder just in time to see the out of place painting seemingly grinning at him.

Had he…? No, he couldn't have. That painting or, ? was clearly alive before he began panicking…right?

The walk to Gryffindor Tower was very noisy, paintings and portraits were weeping, shaking or just being loud with advice to calm everyone else down. Prefects and teachers were rushing around, ordering curious and frightened students back to bed and tending to the hysterical paintings.

"Harry!" Oh right, Hermione and Ron were prefects now. The Toad begrudgingly allowed them to escort them back as she went to see what she could do to help. "Are you two alright?" Hermione asked, flinching a little when she saw him.

"Y-yea, I think so." Harry mumbled, looking at Ness and searching for explanation. "No." Ness simply answered showing his hand and biting back the urge to throw up. "Are you about to…?" Ron started his eyes widening as exhaustion finally set in and he collapsed on the stairs.

Vaguely aware of someone calling his name as he tried to count to ten and move his hands. Distracted, he needed to stay distracted and move around until he could focus and properly calm himself down.

He was safe, there was no giant skull waiting to kill him, there was no magic trying to rip him to shreds. (Yes, there is, it's right on your hand!)

He was safe.

(No, you're not. You're never safe here.)

Safe.

(Lieslieslieslies)

Safe

"Ness." Oh wait, he knew that voice. He looked up, feeling even worse than before as Professor Kale slowly pulled him to his feet, "Come on, let's have some late night hot coco before bed, alright?"

He could only stare blankly as Professor Kale murmured something to Hermione and started babbling about some story his uncle had told him about involving crazy ponies and wild mice.

It made no sense, but it was working wonders for distracting his mind. He barely realized that Professor Kale had placed a glove on his right hand as he sipped on some hot coco, ignoring how his stomach flipped flopped as Professor Kale kept going with his story, or maybe stories since he was talking about Plumbers in red and green.

"Better?" Professor Kale asked after their cups were half empty.

"Y-yea…" Ness replied, feeling a little more awake now that he had some sugar in his stomach. "H-hey, did you see what was attacking the paintings?"

The man shook his head no.

"I…I think Professor To—Umbridge has…" No, that was impossible, PSI based enemies were dead, Giygas had taken his influence away from Earth and reset time. So, there was no way this could be happening…right?

"Has?" Professor Kale prompted as Ness chewed on his lip, unable to deny the clear presence of PSI and the possibilities that someone else had been there.

"I…don't know."

"Need some more time to think about it?"

"…Yea."

"Alright." He glanced at the clock and whistled in surprise, "Midnight already, my where does the time fly." He looked back to Ness, ready to ask if he felt safe enough to head into the dormitories when he found the boy asleep, using his arms and hat as a pillow.

"Ah, camp out in my office." He murmured, grabbing a blanket and pillow to properly put the boy to bed, keeping an unusually sharp eye on a still picture of outer space as he worked.

Morning started up with quiet students and frightened whimpers as they passed the paintings mirroring their expressions, tired and unsure what to be on guard for.

What had happened last night? She had finally put herself to bed after working on her potions homework when the entire castle had woken up in a domino chain of screams. Endless and eternal screams that had abruptly stopped after a few minutes.

No one knew what had happened, no one knew what had set the chain off. She had practically tackled Ron for knowledge when he came back pale and almost sickly, but Professor McGonagall stopped her, forcing Ginny to sit down with the other confused students before she explained.

"It appears that another painting started attacking the others, starting from Professor Umbridge's office and ending right at the entrances of all four houses during Potter and Earthbound's detention." Everyone looked at Harry who had his hand uncharacteristically hidden in his pocket and looking a little shaken.

Ness wasn't there. Setting Alarm bells off in her head until Professor McGonagall added, "Earthbound had a panic attack, from what we aren't sure yet. But he is currently staying with Professor Kale until he is ready to come back to bed."

The fourth years quickly filled the air with possible solutions, "That witc—Professor Umbridge probably provoked him again!"

"Ness is suffering from PTSD, Professor! She probably triggered it!"

"Maybe she set off the paintings when Ness got to mouthy for her to handle!"

"She's a terrible teacher!"

"Quiet." It wasn't angry or sharp, just. Tired. Their House Head polished her glasses with a weary gesture before she faced the worried fourth years, "We don't know for sure what set Ness off, we'll have to wait and ask him. Politely." The other students flinched at the sharp tone "When he's ready to explain what happened and how we can possibly avoid it."

Ginny raised her hand, feeling a little silly at the motion until Professor McGonagall called on her, "Professor, Ness has a letter that excuses him from certain classes but, Professor Umbridge won't accept it."

A flush of red anger briefly colored her face before she swallowed it, "Why not?"

"Because he went to a Muggle Therapist." She finished, "He didn't say if he told her the exact truth or anything, she just refused to listen to him after that."

"Had he told her everything?"

"We don't know." But knowing Ness he would be careful to skirt around the truth to protect her. He didn't want to endanger anyone he cared for after all. "She wouldn't let him explain since he got mad and pointed out that she didn't know the full picture."

"Which is how he got detention." Henry added, looking a little sick. As Ginny sent him a small grateful nod, she doubted she could resume being civil as the anger clawed at her throat, demanding to call Umbridge a couple foul things before the night was over.

"I see, I'll have a talk with her." Professor McGonagall started, before she ordered everyone back to bed. Even though everyone knew that they weren't going to get pleasant dreams or even fall back to a blissful state of unawareness.

Not when something had triggered Ness and another painting to attack. An unknown painting at that since Professor McGonagall hadn't mentioned which one painting in Umbridge's office had started the chain of fear and pain.

When 5 AM rolled around, Ginny couldn't sleep. She was restless, eager to do something to help her friend or maybe solve what was going on at their school. So, she headed out. Careful not to awake any of the poorly sleeping paintings as she tried to contact Luna and Selvis.

"You up to?" Selvis whispered, spooking her a little since she had honestly believed that she was the only awake at the moment.

"I think the better question is, who isn't." Luna pointed out, "All in favor of meeting on the East Roof?"

"Sure, better than sulking in the library." Selvis agreed, quickly adding, "I like to read when I'm nervous. Shut up."

"I wasn't going to ask." Ginny retorted, a little relived to hear that Selvis still had that haughty flame in his voice. The roof they had meet on during their second year was as quiet as ever, even with Luna humming to herself in a lilac purple night robe with outlandish patterns sitting on the edge, kicking her feet in the air.

"Hey," Ginny greeted, wrapping her thin tartan pattern night robe tightly around her, "Bad dreams?"

"Theories." Luna admitted, pausing in her song to look up at the moon.

"Of course, it's theories." Selvis softly grumbled, joining them in an unusual neon green night robe. "Shut up. My cousin made it for me." Selvis grumbled, pointedly looking toward the woods as the girls admired it.

"So, what happened?" Selvis asked, breaking the brief silence and looking at Ginny, "Professor Snape informed us that a painting from Umbridge's office started attacking the other paintings but…" he trailed off, unsure where to go next.

"Don't know…We heard the screams, but we were merely told a painting got upset for some reason." Luna mumbled, "Perhaps a trapped spirit?"

"Same story, but Ness had a panic attack."

They stiffened and looked at Ginny as she pressed on, feeling a little frustrated at how little they had to go on, "No one knows what triggered it, the other fourth years and I blamed Umbride but…he's staying with Professor Kale for now…"

"What did that Toad do…?" Selvis breathed as Luna played with the fabric belt, "I heard she provoked Ness into getting a detention."

"She did. Probably did the same with Harry." Ginny balled her hands into fists, "It was awful, hearing her poke and prod at Ness's temper then accusing him of making it up and needing to be seen by a wizard therapist."

"He wasn't?" Selvis started when Luna hummed, "He lives in America, so of course he'll see a muggle therapist."

"Oh yea…" Selvis trailed off then frowned, "Hold on, then that means she wasn't planning for the backlash."

They looked at him in dumbfounded silence, prompting him to explain, "Well, she's from the Ministry which is in just as much fire if not more than Hogwarts. I bet she took advantage of Ness and Harry's shaken states to prove to us that they were just faking it and lying."

"He's not though." Ginny pointed out, feeling a little upset. "You saw them, they came out shaken and terrified-,"

"Yes. We know that." Selvis interrupted, "But do the public know that? Maybe, all the Ministry cares about right now is turning the castle loony and an American wizard into their scapegoat for revenge at pointing out how badly their doing their jobs two years in a row."

"Hence why Umbridge is here, to prove to the public that they were right and that Ness and Harry only found out the truth because they were mentally unstable."

Ginny gave a frustrated huff, and folded her arms, "I hate politics."

"Don't hate them that much." A wicked grin appeared on Selvis's face, "After all, it's turning against our dear Toad."

"…"

Selvis gave a weary sigh and deadpanned, "Ness. She didn't expect Ness to have friends outside of his house spreading the news of his treatment. Which is turning everyone against her since they know something is seriously wrong with Ness to turn him into a shell of his former self."

"Oh yea…a couple Ravenclaws were muttering about how lackluster Umbridge's classes were since we had already covered those in our spare time." Luna recalled, "Seeing Ness just upped the fire, someone even asked me if he was alright."

"I think Cedric was shooting him worried looks at dinner." Ginny recalled, "As if he was worried for him."

"We're all just worried that Ness is going to blow up the castle." Selvis deadpanned, "But I can guarantee that some of the other Slytherins will be upset with her just having us read books when crazy things like this is happening."

"Karma~," Luna sang as Ginny mulled that over, a little surprised at how quickly everything was turning in their favor as they hurried back to their dorms to get dress and eat breakfast. The Great Hall moody and fearful as the Gryffindors talked about Ness's PTSD, explained it to others and shot daggers at Umbridge who looked a little miffed about something.

They quickly shut up when Ness appeared, wearing his rainbow hoodie from the train and shorts while looking dead tired. He barely managed a neutral, "Yo." Flashing a peace sign with his right hand—which was now wearing a finger-less glove with a smiley face on the back- in greeting before he started nibbling on some toast dripping with sweet grape jelly.

He didn't seem to acknowledge the unsure glances or sudden lack of conversation as he ate a pale impression of breakfast, ignoring the thankfully warm food and just focusing on his toast. "Are you alright?" Ginny asked, angry at herself for being so nervous around Ness.

Granted, him looking like he had just crawled out of a grave wasn't helping settle her nerves. "Not really," Ness mumbled, forcing a small smile, "Professor Kale and McGonagall are letting me skip today to try and recover, hence the lack of uniform."

"It was that bad?" Harry asked, his voice low and unsure as Ness gave a small shrug, "Sort of…I'm more freaked out about the…symbolism on my hand than anything else."

"Symbolism…?" Ginny glared at the Toad and Ness shakily said, "Harry has it to, it just—affects me more because of…ya know." Dying floated in the air, loud and prickly as everyone looked at him, shocked that this was much worse than they thought it was.

"I'm gonna go now." Ness mumbled, "I need to write some letters." She had a feeling there was something more to the story, but she would wheedle it out of him after classes. He clearly needed sometime alone. Away from wizards.

"Harry? What was Ness…" someone in Ron's year started when Hermione spoke up, her voice clipped and angry, "He probably means the message carved into his hand thanks to a charmed quill."

Harry shot her an annoyed look as Ginny practically crawled over and yanked Harry's right hand for proof, her breakfast coming back up at an alarming rate as saw the faint, "I must not tell lies." Scratched into his pale hand.

"Oh my god." Ginny breathed, letting it drop as Harry looked away, either ashamed or embarrassed that everyone at their table knew about it.

"D…does this normally happen at Hogwarts?" A first year asked, her eyes wide and filled with frozen tears as her friends tried to comfort her. "No…I think that this year is…just a bad one." Ginny mumbled, moving to help calm the girl down as the other tables looked at them, sensing something amiss but unsure why. She caught a Selvis trying to mouth, "What's up?" and Luna with her eyes narrowed, holding a charm and possibly trying to read her mind to keep it private.

It didn't work but the signs of concern were nice. It showed that Selvis was right, everyone was turning against Umbridge. And throughout the week it showed.

Every teacher expect Umbridge changed their lesson plans to included defense spells and charms for them to use. The history teacher substitute talked about how their ancestors fought against unknown enemies to give them hope. Professor Kale was very keen on emotional support, having cups of hot coco for every student in his class and teddies bears for the first and second years to coddle and hug.

Umbridge had moved up to taking her frustration out on the teachers as she became High Inquisitor, allowing her to observe (harass) teachers to ensure they were fit for the job.

"I hope one of them accidentally hexes her." Selvis grumbled as they walked up to Astronomy class, Ness had thankfully been able to rejoin lessons after that terrible screeching event and had been very…off.

"Doubt it, that'll give her a chance to fire them right on the spot." Ness pointed out, throwing a ball up with his left hand. His right hand limply laying at his side.

"Maybe whatever stirring up trouble at Hogwarts can hex her." Ginny offered, frowning as Ness flinched a little. "Ohhh, you know something!" Selvis exclaimed, looking giddy to finally get something to answer his many questions.

"Maybe…" Ness muttered, pushing the door open to the West Tower where their classmates were watching Professor Kale, happily setting up as the Toad watched from a corner, to avoid being 'disruptive'.

"…Maybe we can throw her off a-," Ness started when Ginny and Selvis elbowed him hard, hissing, "No, Ness."

"Kill joys." He muttered, the group briefly dispersing to grab empty telescopes and blankets as Professor Kale cleared his throat, signaling that the lesson was starting.

"Alright, now today we're going to focus on one of Jupiter's Moons, Io. Now can anyone tell me how many moons Jupiter has exactly?"

A Slytherin girl by the name of Samantha raised her hand, "53."

"Excellent Samantha! Now, Io can be told apart from its many brothers and sisters by its yellowish hue caused by its many active volcanoes." Professor Kale explained, moving on to explain what Muggles believed Io to symbolize and what it meant to wizards to show the vast differences as they searched for Io.

"Ah! Professor! I think I found it!" someone cried as Ginny tweaked her telescope, trying to find Io among the starry backdrop of space.

"Here she goes…" Ness muttered, startling her out of her search as she caught the tale end of that dreadful cough, "Oh er, Yes Umbridge-," Professor Kale started when he spotted a student jousting a telescope, trying to get a better view, "Ah! Rose be careful with that one, one of the legs are loose and I haven't gotten around to fixing it yet!"

"Oh! Sorry Professor!"

"Hem-hem!" If that hadn't been a poor example of a fake cough Ginny was sure the woman was actually talking about the hems of dresses. "Oh right, you had a-," Professor Kale started when he once again got distracted by student, giving his telescope a frustrated glare, "Ah, here try zooming out a bit Henry."

"Thanks Professor."

"HEM. HE-,"

"Tea's in the yellow tea pot Umbridge!" Umbridge shot him a venomous glare as she tried to speak up, only to get interrupted by Ness, "Professor, is this Io?"

"Let me see." Ginny wondered if it was a silent conspiracy to ensure that Umbridge never got a word in edge wise given how energetic Professor Kale was when it came to studying the stars, "Ah, you actually found Autonoe, that's a satellite moon."

"Why is it green?" Ness asked, earning some curious eavesdropper as Professor Kale gave his theory then turned to Umbridge, "You were saying something?" he asked, ignoring the soft snickers from those glad to see Professor Kale subtly turn the tables on the toad.

"Yes," Umbridge stiffly stated, "According to your papers, you were born in America and attended an everyday school."

"That's correct, worked my way up to college in hopes of becoming an astronomer and study the stars." Ginny didn't like where this was going and neither did any of the other students, their work slowly being forgotten as Umbridge continued, "And yet here you are, an astronomy teacher in Hogwarts."

"I was surprised given how very little magic I have." Professor Kale was a squib? She never would have guessed it but…that would explain why he was so prepared for such emotional attacks. He never had magic to rely on, so he used the skills Muggles had to make up for it.

"And your parents were both Muggle born wizards." Umbridge hummed, her smile tightening a little at the very title of 'Muggle born'. A couple Gryffindors stiffened in offensive as Professor Kale hummed in agreement and moved to encourage the students to resume their studies.

"Please get to the point Umbridge, it's late and I'd like my class to get to bed on time without Flitch breathing down their necks."

"Simply put, I'm wondering how a mere squib was even offered such a high ranking job. Granted, your much more talented than Trawleny." Professor Kale stiffened a little his glasses hiding his eyes a little. "But how could you possibly defend your students from this new threat? Hmmm?"

They looked at their teacher, their breaths held at the fact that Professor Kale couldn't protect them and that Umbridge was right for once. "You know…you tend to sell those without magic or pure blood short Doleres." Professor Kale noted, adjusting his glasses and reaching into his robe pockets. "After all…all these attacks started and will continue because you keep poking holes in an already tense situation."

"So, you claim, I don't exactly see any proof of this Astra." Umbridge replied.

"Don't trust everything you see with your eyes Umbridge, after all. Dumbledore didn't just hire me for my smarts." He adjusted his glasses one last time and turned to face Umbridge, his calm sliver eyes glowing a starry purple and blue.

They recoiled slightly as Professor Kale looked up at the stars then back at her, "Umbridge, A teacher of none shall soon get her comeuppance when the holes she poked form as one before Hallow's eve."

"W…what?" Umbridge stammered as Professor Kale bluntly stated, "You'll soon have an empty classroom, with those you insulted looking toward someone they can trust, who can teach, who can protect. I'd be careful if I were you." The glow faded from his eyes as he turned around, "After all, the stars never lie, they merely misinform all who cannot think to see all options. Trawnly can see what will happen. I can see what might happen without fail. Class dismissed."

And with that their teacher walked toward the exit, pausing only to add, "Also, I carry brass knuckles around to defend myself. The best offensive is a good surprise." Before he left.

They watched the doorway in stunned silence before Ness whispered, "You just got owned…" and walked out, she and Selvis quickly following behind him as the others got the message, amazed at their simple, forgettable teacher.

"Well…looks like we'll have a school revolution on our hands soon." Selvis faintly noted, pausing at the stairwell that separated them to their dormitories.

"Yea…I never knew Professor Kale was a Squib though." Ginny admitted, glancing at Ness and jumping at how pale he looked, "Ness?"

"He's not a squib." He mumbled.

"What, is he 'Superman' or 'Ironman'?" Selvis teased, looking very proud of himself for being able to reference American superheroes.

"No. He's." Ness glanced around before pointing at his wand. The wand that was useless since he was a PSI user—

"No way…" Ginny breathed as Selvis whispered, "I thought you guys were elemental people!" and glanced around, pulling them back into the shadows to have a semi private conversation.

"I don't know, PSI is fairly new, remember? But for him to be an adult PSI user…" Ness trailed off and shook his head, "That's impossible, there's no way he could have been around for Giygas's first attack."

"First attack?" Ginny echoed as Selvis frowned, trying to recall something, "I think it was mentioned in that weird comic…He was some sort of super villain who could bring things to life or something." Selvis glanced to Ness, "Right?"

"Pretty much-," Ness started when he stopped, his eyes widening in horror and an emotion Ginny couldn't figure out as he shakily breathed "Peanuts."

Selvis scowled and gently nudged the boy, "So am I right or wrong? Pretty much is a neutral answer Earthbound-,"

"How long did that comic run?" Ness asked, looking desperate as he looked at Ginny for an answer. She frowned in thought, trying to remember how long the comic had actually gone for before she answered, "I don't exactly know when it stopped, but I know I stopped seeing them around the time Ron went to Hogwarts."

"My neighbors were muggles." Selvis explained, "I used to babysit their kids and every time they would force me to read an old newspaper comic detailing your adventure a year before I started Hogwarts.."

"…Ness? You okay?" Ginny asked as Ness looked awful, pale and clammy as he thought something over. What was so concerning about that comic that it would make Ness look so feverish? Was something important and secret printed that he just realized the wizarding world could read about?

"No. Because this entire situation is screwed up." They glanced at one another before looking at Ness, trying to figure out a way to help or maybe calm the boy down when he suddenly broke into a barely contained walk.

"Hey wait!" Selvis protested, scowling a little as he caught up to him and tried to pull him back, taking caution to grab his right arm and not his hand, "What's going on, we can help-,"

"Letters—I need to write some letters." Selvis recoiled from the look of pure fear and apprehension on Ness's face. It was so odd, so unsettling to see the boy who had braved through their crazy school despite the fear of getting his family killed, or worse look so…so different over one simple name.

A name he had barely reacted to earlier in the year. "Ness, you need to calm down. Why do you need to write home." Ginny tried, feeling vastly unhelpful to calm the damaged boy down.

"You shouldn't-," he take a shaky breath before he forced out, "You guys shouldn't know about Giygas."

"Well, we don't know him, we just know his name-," Selvis started, slowly letting Ness go as he looked at Ginny, pleading for her to help him as they walked on a minefield of emotions.

"No. You guys shouldn't know about him at all." Ness replied, looking frustrated as the candles began to flicker, "Because Giygas erased the entire thing from time."

"Wha-," Oh. OH. Ginny and Selvis weakly shared glances as Ness ran, probably not even realizing he had teleported himself back to the dormitory as the two wizards tried to stomach the idea of a person so powerful and clearly unsettling to Ness that he had erased his adventures. Or, attempted to.

"So…do we mug Professor Kale or do we just tip-toe around Ness?" Selvis asked, sounding sick as Ginny mumbled, "Let's just. Wait. We can't help Ness if he doesn't calm down and explain who Giygas is."

"Right. Right. So, we murder the Toad then?"

Ginny gave a weak snort of laughter as Selvis kept going greatly unsure of himself, "I'm pretty sure I know a couple kids back home who knew how to kill toads. Salt was a big favorite of theirs. Then again Muggle kids are quite weird."

"At the moment, everyone is weird." And the weirdness might never end. Not at this rate.

The joys of actually reading the Earthbound Wiki and finding out new things. Joys.

Also thank you all so much for the reviews! I kept giving myself heart attacks when I saw them since I tend to think on the pessimistic side of things ^-^;

Helenthemoon: Yea, and we haven't even entered the month of tricks and spooks yet! :D

Baronlily: To your first review (Unless I mixed them up since my email is a cluttered mess.) I guess I got this good from taking things I saw in other fanfictions and working it into my style, like the spacing for " e' was picked up from an angst story about Izuku from My Hero Academia since it's theorized he would suffer from panic attacks thanks to his horrible childhood. Plus, writing creatively almost everyday ever since I was around 12(?) Sort of helps since I have far to many ideas in my head.

Also thank you for saying I'll be a great author! I'm sort of aiming for an author career since I love to write and draw out things and making people happy.

CybeastFalaz: Umbridge has personally moved into hell by ticking a mentally damaged Ness and his friends off. And she's BARELY into the school year.

Ed/Guest: I almost cried from this since I was worried I was screwing things up by having no real clue who Ness was or how his adventure started at first. THANK YOU SO MUCH! :D Also, this story has been going on since 2016? Man I'm a slow updater. ;_

Also, According to the calendar of 1995 and the Master timeline of HP-Lexicon, Harry's first three days of school started and ended on a weekend.