Review please! Add flame to the towering inferno of my design.

Chapter Five

First Week of Term

Professor Severus Snape, Potions Master of Hogwarts, sat at the staff table in the Great Hall, idly listening to the stuttering rambles of Quirrell, the current Defense against the Dark Arts teacher. Snape did not like Quirrell in the slightest, as he did most of the other teachers, but as head of Slytherin House, be maintained a cool composition when dealing with the other staff members. Thankfully, Professor McGonagall finally brought in the first year students, thus silencing the babbling professor as they sat to watch the sorting.

Snape scanned the lines of students, looking for potential new Slytherins. He noticed Draco Malfoy almost immediately, but paused at the two black haired boys that he was walking with. Both struck him as familiar in some way. One looked almost like the spitting image of his old nemesis James Potter, so he presumed that it must be the great and famous Harry Potter. Snape smirked; he would enjoy enacting a small taste of what the boy's father had done to him while he was in school. As Snape scanned the rest of the students, his eyes kept being draw back to the second raven haired boy beside Potter. Could it be, Snape wondered. The boy looked just like an old friend who had left Hogwarts in Snape's third year. He decided to watch the group of boys during the sorting. He noted how confidently the boy acted as he chatted quietly with Potter and Draco during the sorting hat's song. The boy seemed completely calm, which was odd considering that every other child looked ready to bolt out the door at the first loud noise.

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Harry stood nervously as the hat was place on student after student, calling out one of the four houses each time. Draco was right when he said he was going to be put into Slytherin, because the hat had barley touched him when it cried out the name of the house. Harry's heart hammered when his name was finally called. As the hat was dropped on his head, terrifying thoughts kept plaguing what was left of his confidence that Faykan had been keeping built up during the song.

Harry almost gasped when the sorting hat's voice sounded inside his head.

"Hmm, difficult, very difficult, Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, my goodness yes, and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that is interesting… but where to put you. Not Hufflepuff, your talents wouldn't be tested enough, but sadly Ravenclaw would drown you with your intellect, no offence my boy. Now Slytherin, that's a thought. You could be great you know, and Slytherin would help you on the way, no doubt about that. Hmm, but you seem too noble to use their ways to the fullest. So, better be… GRYFFINDOR!"

The hall exploded! Harry took off the hat and made his way to the Gryffindor table, getting slaps on the back and handshakes from his new housemates along the way. When Harry sat down, he turned to face the front, and watched the last four new first years yet to be sorted. Ron looked like a bundle of nerves, standing between Faykan and a tall black boy who had just been called. Harry looked at Faykan, and noticed that despite Faykan's cool front that he was portraying, Harry could tell with three years of knowing the boy that he was actually nervous, not nearly so as Ron, but just enough that Harry could tell in the way his mouth twitched every few moments. Then it was time:

"Undol, Faykan!" McGonagall called, and he confidently walked forward and let her drop the sorting hat upon his head.

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When the young black haired boy came forward, Severus Snape almost choked on his drink. Faykan Undol? Severus stole a glance at Dumbledore, who was watching with intense curiosity just as Snape was feeling himself. He had known a Faykan Undol when he was at school, but surely it couldn't be this same boy.

The hall sat quietly while the hat hummed and pulsated upon the boy's head. Finally, five full minutes after being placed on Faykan's head the hat called out. "SLYTH…" but stopped. Faykan's face couldn't be seen, because the hat was draped over the young boy's head so far only his mouth was visible, but it had clenched when the hat had started to cry out. There was a deafening silence as the entire hall watched the longest sorting that anyone could remember. Nearly twenty minutes later, the hat finally sighed and called out gruffly, "Fine you stubborn boy, GRYFFINDOR!"

Snape was as shocked at the rest of the hall. Never in all his years at Hogwarts, learning or teaching, had anyone managed to force the sorting hat to change its mind once it had chosen a house. But as the boy yanked the hat off his head and dropped it carelessly on the stool, Severus could tell from his face that the boy not only had changed the hat's mind, but had meant to do it. Could the boy have actually known what the hat was going to do? Shooting another look at the Headmaster, who was still watching the boy behind those obnoxious twinkling eyes, Severus could tell that his mentor's curiosity had also been peaked.

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Harry clapped loudly for both Faykan and Ron, who had also been put into Gryffindor quickly compared to Faykan's twenty five minutes under the hat. The other first year Gryffindor boys had all given Faykan long looks that could have been interpreted as awe, or fear. Faykan wouldn't tell Harry what had gone on during his extra long sorting, but whatever it was, it had left him slightly drained.

After the last boy, Blaise Zabini had been sorted into Slytherin; Dumbledore stood up and gave the shortest speech Harry had ever heard in his life: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Both Harry and Faykan laughed, however Faykan's had lasted longer as Harry wasn't sure that the Headmaster was being serious or not.

"He's not mad is he?" Harry asked the people around him.

"Mad?" said Percy, Ron's prefect older brother, "Well, a bit but he's still a genius. Best wizard in the world."

Faykan mumbled something then, that sounded something like 'at least this part of the world' but at the same instant, the golden plates in front of all of them magically filled with every food Harry could ever imagine.

As they ate, Harry stole a short glance at the Slytherin table, and saw Draco give his a brisk nod before turning to chat with his housemates.

"Don't suppose it'll be easy to spend time with Draco will it?" Harry whispered to Faykan and Ron.

"Hopefully not… Ouch! I mean sadly," Ron said after a sharp jab in the ribs from Faykan.

"Gryffindors and Slytherins don't traditionally get along too well," Faykan explained, "But we will have some classes with them and there's always the weekends that we can spend catching up with him."

"Oh, good, I guess." Harry sighed in relief. He hadn't been looking forward to not seeing one of his friends for over a week, but it was better than losing him entirely right?

After the desserts had finally disappeared, Dumbledore stood up again and starting to give out the new school year's start of term announcements; explaining that the forest on the edge of the grounds was off limits, that magic was not to be used in between classes.

"And finally, I must tell you that this year; the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death." Dumbledore added as a last minute notice.

A few people laughed, but Harry didn't since the news wasn't very funny to him. Faykan looked slightly concerned when the Headmaster had mentioned it, but he wouldn't comment when Harry asked what the matter was. Finally all the students were dismissed to go to the respective house dorms, and Percy led the first years out of the Great Hall and up the marble staircase. Harry felt very tired so he didn't pay much attention to where they were being led, until he crashed into Faykan's back when they abruptly stopped.

A bundle of walking sticks was floating in midair ahead of them, and as Percy took a step toward them they started throwing themselves at him.

"Peeves, show yourself" Percy called out

A loud, rude sound, like the air being let out of a balloon, answered. There was a pop, and a little man with wicked, dark eyes and a wide mouth appeared, floating cross- legged in the air, clutching the walking sticks.

Percy started arguing with the little man, threatening him with the Bloody Baron, the Slytherin ghost, when Faykan walked up to stand next to Percy.

"Oooooooh!" Peeves said, with an evil cackle. "An Ickle Firstie! What fun!"

He swooped suddenly at them. They all ducked, except Faykan, who simple waved his wand and called out "auta a' kai"[1].

Peeves screamed, and exploded in a shower of sparks that drifted to the floor. Faykan simple turned, gestured to Percy to remove his mouth from the floor and lead on, and returned to walk with Harry.

Percy lead the first years, shooting the occasional glace at Faykan, until they were standing in front of a large painting of a very fat woman in a pink dress, who asked for a password which Percy gave. (Caput Draconis) The portrait then swung forward and they all stepped through it into the Gryffindor common room. After giving the first years the directions to where their dormitories were, Percy and the rest of the first year boys went up a spiral staircase to find, at the very top room, an oak door with a plaque reading. 'First Years' Inside were six four-posters hung with deep red, velvet curtains, each with their individual trunks awaiting them at the foot. Harry, Ron, Faykan, and the three other Gryffindor boys; Neville, Dean, and Shamus were far too tired to chat, so they all collapsed into their beds after changing into pajamas and immediately went to sleep.

The next day didn't go too well for Faykan or Harry, as the information of what Faykan had done to Peeves had somehow traveled the entire school that night and Harry's being, well Harry. It started in the morning as the first years were getting ready for the day, when the other three boy in their dorm finally noticed Faykan's tattoos. Harry and Ron laughed when the other three boys gaped at Faykan's back when they thought he wasn't looking. Harry wasn't surprised to find that Faykan's strange marks went the entire length on his legs to his ankles as well. Fortunately, Neville, Dean, and Shamus didn't appear to have the nerve to ask Faykan about them, so Harry and Ron didn't pay them any mind about it. The strange looks remained on both Harry and his best friends as they left Gryffindor tower for breakfast either.

"Those two, next to the tall kid with the red hair."

"The two black haired boys?"

"Did you hear what he did?"

"Did you see his scar?"

The whispers were starting to get to Harry, but Faykan just put an arm around him and murmured in his hear that he'd better get used to it, cause it wasn't going to go away. It didn't help Harry much, but it still felt slightly better that Faykan and Ron were with him. Harry was worried that they would get lost for sure in the gigantic castle, but it seemed that Faykan had a mental compass inside him, because not only did they make it down to the Great Hall on time, they had used several secret passages that Harry or Ron would have never noticed otherwise.

When they finished eating, Professor McGonagall had come around and handed them all their class schedules. Noticing that theirs were all the same, Faykan mentioned that they would be until about third year, they followed him and his excellent sense of direction up to History of Magic.

Harry had almost jumped out of his skin when their teacher, Professor Binns, glided through the chalkboard and immediately started to lecture in a sad monotone voice that almost immediately had two thirds of the class asleep at their desks. The only people who seemed to be immune were Hermione Granger, and Faykan. Harry was about to fall asleep himself, when a bit of parchment fluttered in front of his nose. Grabbing it he read:

'Boring enough is it? The giant man, Hagrid, invited me over to his hut on the grounds Friday afternoon, would you like to come with me?'

Harry quickly wrote a reply 'I'd love to' on the back and passed the parchment back to his best friend. They continued to write back and forth to each other the rest of the class, earning a glare from Hermione, who was seated behind them. She didn't say anything to them however, until after the lesson was over.

"You are aware, that you won't be able to get away with passing note in classes, aren't you?" she said, with an air of superiority.

"Naturally, but since all of Binns' information is dead wrong, what's the point of paying attention in there?" Faykan countered, earning several sniggers from the surrounding first years.

Hermione opened her mouth to protest, but Faykan held up his hand, "Were not going to do it in all our classes Hermione, why do you even care? It's not like were talking out loud."

She finally huffed and walked ahead of them, arriving only slightly ahead of them in the Charms classroom.

Professor Flitwick was a tiny little wizard who stood on a pile of books to see over his own desk. At the start of class he read off the roll, and when he reached Harry's, he gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight behind his desk.

Later on, in Transfiguration, the boys learned why Professor McGonagall was not a teacher to cross. She gave the entire class a stern talking to the very first lesion.

"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts, anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."

She then, after a very showy display of transfiguration turning her desk into a pig and back, set them all to work trying to change a match into a pin after copying down a lot of complicated notes. By the end of the lesson, Hermione had been the only person, aside from Faykan, who made any difference to her match. Professor McGonagall showed the class how it had turned silver and slightly pointy. She gave Hermione a rare smile, before turning her attention to the table that Faykan and Harry were sitting in. Harry was trying with all his might to get the match to change, while Faykan just sat calmly, not attempting to do anything with his match.

"Mr. Undol, are you not going to try and change your match?" McGonagall said, slightly abashed.

"If you want me to I will, but I don't feel the need for extra practice." Faykan replied coolly.

"As a matter of fact I would like to see how well you can do to not think you need practice Mr. Undol." She replied sternly.

The entire class had turned at Faykan's reluctance to show the Professor, and sighing; Faykan picked up the match and closed his eyes. Not only did Faykan's match become a perfect needle, but it elongated further and twisted until it resembled a corkscrew.

McGonagall looked impressed, "Well, apparently you have a lot of talent in transfiguration Mr. Undol, five points to Gryffindor; however that does not excuse you from doing the required practice in class, or the homework outside it."

Faykan grinned slyly at her, "Of course Professor." He said smartly, and beamed at Hermione's look of absolute shock.

Defense against the Dark Arts turned out to be a joke, much to the disappointment of everyone. Professor Quirrell stuttered so much it was almost impossible to understand what he was trying to say, and the subject matter he attempted to teach didn't seem to be very helpful.

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Draco was having a very good first week at Hogwarts. True, he hadn't had a lot of time to chat with his friends, he didn't count his housemates as they weren't to be trusted, especially Theodore Nott, who practically stank of the same pureblood prejudices that Draco had chosen to ignore to be granted the friendship of Harry Potter and his group. As consequence to this, Nott had taking over as Ice Price of Slytherin rather quickly, and even Crabbe and Goyle didn't hang around Draco anymore, not that he cared. None of the other Slytherins said anything about Draco's almost friendship with The-Boy-Who-Lived however, seeing that Draco was probably making the most promising connections that he could. Had they only known that it was Harry who allowed Draco to be his friend, it probably wouldn't be the current case in Slytherin house. As such, Draco was merely ignored as a loner, rather than persecuted as a 'Blood-traitor'.

Inter-house politics aside, Draco was enjoying his classes. He hadn't had his godfather's class yet, but only Binns' and Quirrell's classes had been less than enjoyable.

Outside the classroom, Draco found solace in wandering the corridors, both during the day and after curfew. He had only been almost caught once, when he ran into the Squib caretaker's Cat, Mrs. Norris. Running through the twisting tunnels of the dungeons, Draco had been encountered by a strange black fox that he had followed back the Slytherin common room, through several secret doors. But before Draco could take a good look at his rescuer, the fox had vanished, disappearing around a corner like a grey-black shadow.

Draco had kept his eyes out for the fox every since that Wednesday night, but he hadn't had any luck in finding it again. He had his hopes up though, as his father had never mentioned anything about a magical fox that helped lost students before that he had found one of Hogwarts' many secrets.

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Friday morning found Severus Snape in a highly edgy mood. It was the first class that he would be teaching the combined Gryffindor and Slytherin first years, which meant three things. First, he would have to make the same show for his Slytherins that he always did, giving them favor over the Gryffindors. Second, he got to see if his godson had done his practicing before the school year like he had asked him to. Third, and most importantly, were the two Gryffindor boys, Potter and Undol.

Potter was a personal challenge Severus had set for himself. He was going to test the boy and see who he took after, his mother, or his vaunted father. Undol on the other hand… ever since McGonagall had told them all how far highly developed the boy's power and control was in her first class, Dumbledore had tasked them all with watching the boy closely, to see why he was so very advanced for a first year. Snape had his suspicions, but years of knowing Albus Dumbledore like he did said that Snape knew he would need evidence before telling the Headmaster of his ideas.

As the first years filed into the classroom, Severus watched from his nook near the door. He watched as Potter, Undol and a Weasley boy came in together, chatting animatedly about something or other, and sat together near the front of the room. Draco came in later alone, which surprised Snape. He had figured that Draco would take after his father, Lucius and become the leader of Slytherin house, but it appeared that had not happened. Severus wondered as to why, but it was answered for him when Undol waved Draco over and the three Gryffindors made room for the one Slytherin boy to join them at the front.

'Interesting' mused Severus, 'perhaps there is hope for the boy yet.'

The rest of the students came in after, most notably Theodore Nott flanked by Crabbe and Goyle, who sniffed at the sight of Draco sitting with the three Gryffindors, and took a seat at the back with his cronies.

After the rest of the class took their seats, Severus stepped out of his hiding place and slammed the door, making everyone jump. He then walked quickly to the front of the room. Severus started his class by taking the roll, stopping at Harry's name.

"Ah, Yes, Harry Potter, our new, celebrity." He said coldly. Nott sniggered as his head of house appeared to disregard the Potter boy with his black eyes. Severus said nothing more for the moment, ignoring the whispers that must have followed Potter all week and plunged into his same first year speech about what was expected from the students and what they could take from his classes if they weren't complete dunderheads.

The student's sat in quiet anticipation as he spoke; Snape never had had any trouble keeping his student's attention, as he was very gifted in the art of word craft. Finally he figured it was time to test Potter's knowledge of his subject.

"Potter!" Severus called suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Severus didn't expect anyone in the room to know the answer, least of all Potter, so when after a glace at his friends, Potter turned to him and said "The Draught of Living Death, sir?" Snape was pleasantly surprised, apparently the boy hadn't let his fame go to his head and forego his studies.

"Correct, let's try another shall we? Where, Mr. Potter would you look if I asked you to find me a bezoar?" Snape was again surprised when the boy answered correctly.

"In the stomach of a goat sir." Potter said, slightly more confidently.

"Correct." Severus decided a harder question was in order. "What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood, and wolfsbane?"

Harry looked slightly confused as Snape said the names of the two ingredients, and he smirked, clearly the boy didn't study completely for this class. But even he was shocked when Potter finally spoke up."

"I'm sorry sir, but is that a trick question? They're the same plant, sir."

"Correct Potter…" Snape was actually quite pleased. The boy took after his mother more than he had first guessed at. She had been very studious and bright. Looking towards Potter's friend, he could tell it was thanks to Undol that the boy had developed such study habits.

"Well, Mr. Potter, clearly fame isn't everything to you. Three points to Gryffindor for not being a dunderhead. Well? Why aren't the rest of you copying that down?"

As the class scrambled to write down the questions and their answers, Severus waved his wand at the chalkboards and they magically filled with the instructions for brewing a simple boil curing potion. After the class finished copying down the notes, with the exception of Undol, Snape noticed that he had only read the boards and nodded, Severus swept around the room splitting the children up into pairs to start brewing the potion. He paired Draco and Potter, and Weasley and Undol, wanting to see how the Gryffindor golden boy would do when separated from his two best friends. He was just inspecting their potion later, which was doing perfectly well to his surprise, when he heard a cry of alarm. Turning about, he saw Undol grabbing Neville Longbottom's hand, preventing him from putting porcupine quills into his cauldron.

"No Neville, you need to take it off the fire first, or it'll explode." Undol was reprimanding the boy as Snape glided over to stand behind the black haired boy.

"Mr. Undol what do you think you are doing?" he said coolly.

"I'm preventing my housemate from blowing up the classroom sir." Faykan replied with a slight edge of annoyance that he was being questioned.

"I see, however you did not need to lay a hand on another student, so I think that will be a point from Gryffindor." Severus sneered. Looking over at his and Weasley's cauldron, and noticed that not only was it perfectly simmering, but it was actually better than could be expected from first year with the ingredients that Severus had left for them to use. He was sure now that this boy knew a lot more than he was letting on now.

"Sir, I think that's rather unfair of you to take a point from us for that." Faykan replied before Weasley could stop him, now sternly looking up at Severus.

"Oh, do you now…" Snape said, eyes boring into the boy. There was something eerily familiar about how the boy was looking at him, Severus noticed, and he shook it off before turning his attention back to the young upstart who had talked back to him. "Then perhaps a detention over this weekend will teach you to respect your elder's judgment." He sneered as he spun back to the front of the room.

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Despite the altercation between Professor Snape and Faykan, Harry noticed that Faykan's attitude hadn't been overshadowed in the slightest by the Potions Master, if anything; Faykan looked pleased that he had detention with the man.

"You shouldn't really have pushed it Fay," Ron commented, "I've heard Snape can turn real nasty." Faykan just shrugged, grunting as he led Harry and Ron across the grounds towards Hagrid's Hut.

They arrived at the small wooden building of the edge of the Forbidden Forest just a few minutes before three, and as Harry knocked they heard several booming barks from inside. Hagrid's voice rang out afterward, saying, "Back, Fang. Back!"

The door opened a small crack, and the three boys could just barely see Hagrid's big, hairy face peering around to see them.

"Hang on a sec," he said. "Back Fang."

He finally let them in, as he struggled to restrain an enormous black boarhound from tackling any of them.

"Make yerselves at home," Hagrid said when he had shut the door, releasing Fang, who immediately went straight for Ron and started licking his ears. Clearly the dog was completely harmless, like Hagrid himself, Harry thought.

"Hello, Hagrid," Faykan said finally "As you already know Harry, let me introduce Ron."

Hagrid eyed the red haired boy as he started making tea and placing rock cakes onto a plate.

"Another Weasley, eh?" said Hagrid. "I spent half me life chasin' yer twin brothers away from the forest ye know."

Harry and Ron took a rock cake each, while Faykan declined, which turned out to be the wiser choice, as they almost broke Harry's teeth when he bit into it, but he pretended to enjoy it. They all took turns telling Hagrid about their first week. Fang rested his head on Harry's knee and drooled all over his robes.

Ron commented on how unfair Snape was to Faykan that day, but Hagrid told him not to worry about it as Snape hardly liked any of the students.

As the conversation turned from school to Ron's brother Charlie, who was studying dragons in Romania, Harry caught a glimpse of a cutting from the Daily Prophet. It outlined that on July thirty-first; someone had broken into Gringotts and attempted to steal something from the vaults. But apparently nothing had been taken as the vault in question, number 713, had been emptied earlier.

"Hey, Faykan," Harry said after reading the snippet several times over, "Were we in Diagon Ally on July thirty first, my birthday?"

"Uh, yea I do believe we were, why?" Faykan asked slightly puzzled.

Hagrid piped in from tending to the kettle of tea, "As a matter o fact, I was at Diagon Ally that day too. I was pickin' up sumthin' for Professor Dumbledore from a vault in Gringotts."

"Did it happen to be vault seven hundred thirteen, Hagrid?" Harry asked warily. When Hagrid abruptly changed the subject to the weather, Harry knew that he was correct in presuming that it had been. By the time they left, Harry had more questions in his head than before they arrived: what was in the vault Hagrid had taken that someone else tried to steal? Why did Dumbledore want whatever it was taken out? And where was the thing now?

[1]auta a' kai : go unto nothingness