Many thanks to those who reviewed, both old hats who have been with me since the beginning of the original, and those who are just starting with the series. Both perspectives have been incredibly useful throughout the current chapter that I am chugging through, which unfortunately needed quite a deal of work. To those specifically who are awaiting the supposed trope of the Wizarding World cast entering Middle Earth and participating with events there, I am sorry to disappoint you now and say that that is not the specific direction this story will be going, however if you bide your time a bit longer, I might surprise you with something even more refreshing. ~F

Chapter Five:

First Week of Term

Harry clapped loudly for both Faykan and Ron, who had also been put into Gryffindor very quickly after Faykan's extremely long time under the hat. The other first year Gryffindors had all given Faykan long looks that could have been interpreted as awe, or even fear. Faykan wouldn't tell Harry what had gone on during his lengthy sorting, but whatever it was, it had left him slightly drained, if the slight loss of color in his face was any indication.

After the last boy, Blaise Zabini, had been sorted into Slytherin; Professor Dumbledore stood up and gave the shortest and most humorous speech Harry had ever heard in his life: 'Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!'

Both Harry and Faykan laughed aloud at the silliness of the words, however Faykan's laughter lasted far longer than Harry's, who wasn't completely sure whether the Headmaster was being serious or not.

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

"Mad?" said Percy, Ron's older brother who was a Gryffindor Prefect. "Well a bit, but he's still a genius. He's widely considered the best wizard in the world."

Faykan mumbled something then, and all Harry heard was 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 type of food that Harry could ever imagine. Hunger overpowered them all then, despite the candy and snacks from the train ride, and they stopped all conversation to dig in.

As they ate, Harry stole a short glance over at the Slytherin table, and saw Draco among his new housemates. The blond boy gave him a brisk nod in acknowledgement before returning to chatting with those sitting around him.

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

"Hopefully not…" Ron started to say, before Faykan jabbed him hard in the ribs, "Ouch! I mean sadly… very sadly," he corrected, looking appropriately rebuked.

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

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

After the magnificent feast, and the last of the desserts had finally disappeared, Professor Dumbledore stood up again and starting to expound upon the new school year's announcements; explaining that the forest on the edge of the grounds was off limits, also that magic was not to be used in between classes, "and finally," he said gravely, "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 dormitories, and Percy Weasley stood to lead the first years out of the Great Hall and up the grand 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 telling the Bloody Baron, the Slytherin ghost, of his wrongdoing, when Faykan walked up to stand next to Percy, glaring daggers at the poltergeist.

"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."

Peeves barely dodged the bolt of light that shot from Faykan's wand, screaming as he spun off course, and stared at Faykan with wide, scared eyes. All pretense of mocking fun lost, Peeves spoke softly, "He speaks words of long lost power… what is it, looks like a little Firstie, but couldn't be…"

"Peeves," Faykan commanded, "Depart this castle, and never return." The roof shook as Faykan spoke, and Peeves screamed again, and flew away, straight up and out of the ceiling. Some of the first years scrambled to the windows just in time to see the small ghost sailing over the forest.

"How… H-how did you do that…?" Percy stammered, staring wide eyed at Faykan.

Faykan smirked, "My father didn't like Peeves much, and had made a special spell to evict him from the castle. I…" he paused as he saw everyone staring at him in the same slack jawed wonder. "…I just found it in a book with a brief explanation…" he added, turning slightly pink, before turning back to the Prefect, and gesturing to Percy to remove his mouth from the floor and lead them on, finally returning to walk with Harry, head slightly down, trying to avoid more attention.

Percy hesitantly returned to leading the first years to the tower, shooting the occasional glace back at Faykan, regaining his confidence when they arrived at their destination and were standing in front of a large painting of a very fat woman in a pink dress, who asked clearly for a password, which Percy clearly stated for them all to hear. 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 Longbottom, Dean Thomas, and Seamus Finnegan were far too tired to chat, so they all collapsed into their respective beds after changing into pajamas and immediately went to sleep.

But unfortunately, the next day didn't go too well for either Faykan or Harry, as the information of what Faykan had done to Peeves had somehow traveled the entire school that night and Harry being… well… Harry Potter. It started in the morning as the first years were getting ready for the day, when the other three boys in their dorm 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 personally wasn't surprised in the least to find that Faykan's strange marks went the entire length on his legs to his ankles as well. Fortunately, Neville, Dean, Ron, nor Seamus appeared to have the nerve to ask Faykan about them, so Harry chose to not pay it any mind as well. And the strange looks remained on both Harry and his best friends as they left Gryffindor tower for breakfast.

"Those two, next to the tall kid with the red hair..." the whispers usually started, along with pointing in their direction through the crowded corridors. "The two black haired boys?" others would ask. "Did you hear what he did?" they would ask, in reference to Faykan, or "Did you see his scar?" they would say, pointing awkwardly at Harry. that one most of all irritated him.

Soon enough the whispers were starting to get to Harry, but Faykan just put an arm around him and murmured in his ear that he'd better get used to it, because they weren't going to just go away because he didn't like it. That really didn't help Harry much, but it still felt slightly better that Faykan and Ron were both with him the entire day to help shield him from the worst of the attention.

Harry had been worried that they would get lost for sure in the gigantic castle, but it seemed that Faykan had a powerful sense of direction, as well as a knack for finding hidden things, because not only did they make it down to the Great Hall on time, but they had used several secret passages that Harry or Ron would have never noticed otherwise unless Faykan had pointed them out to them as they passed.

When they finished eating, Professor McGonagall came around the Gryffindor table and handed them all their class schedules. Confirming that theirs were all the same (Faykan had mentioned that they would be identical until about third year,) both Hary and Ron happily followed Faykan and his rather excellent mental map of the castle up to the History of Magic classroom for their first lessons in wizarding studies.

Harry had almost jumped out of his skin when their ghost teacher, Professor Binns, glided right through the chalkboard and abruptly began his lecture in such a sad, monotone voice that it almost had two thirds of the class asleep at their desks immediately. The only people who seemed to be immune was the girl from the train, 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 Faykan's narrow handwriting:

'Boring enough is it? The gamekeeper, Hagrid, invited me over to his house on the grounds Friday afternoon, would you like to come with me?' it read.

Harry quickly wrote a reply of, '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 handful of glares from Hermione, who was seated directly behind them. She didn't say anything to them however, at least until after the lesson was over.

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

"Naturally, but since all of Binns' information is as wrong as he is dead, 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, and why do you even care? It's not like we were disturbing you, were we?"

She finally huffed irritably and walked away from them, making sure to sit quite far from them once they all arrived in the Charms classroom for the next class.

Professor Flitwick was a tiny 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, which they had learned from Ron's brother Percy the previous night at the feast, when he pointed out each teacher to them.

She gave the entire class a stern talking to the very first lesson. "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 by 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 rather complicated-looking 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 even 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 firmly, taking an extreme no-nonsense posture in front of the desk that Faykan and Harry shared.

The entire class had turned at Faykan's reluctance to show the Professor and, sighing to himself; Faykan picked up the match and closed his eyes. after a small moment of nothing, not only did Faykan's match become a perfect silver needle, but after a brief pause it also elongated further and twisted around until it resembled a corkscrew shape. Once he was done, Faykan dropped the now extremely bent and twisted metal on the table with a small clunk and ducked his head to hide from the stares of the surrounding students.

McGonagall at least looked very impressed, "Well, apparently you have a fair amount of talent in Transfiguration Mr. Undol, five points to Gryffindor for a perfectly changed needle; however that still does not excuse you from doing the required practice in class, or the homework outside it."

Faykan grinned slyly at her, looking up through his bangs, "Of course, Professor." He said smartly, and turned slightly, beaming back at Hermione's look of absolute shock and mild outrage.

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Draco was having a very exciting first week at Hogwarts, which was more or less what all he had expected it to be, according to what his father had told him regarding the school since he could first understand the stories. True, Draco hadn't had a lot of time to chat with his real friends yet, as he didn't count his housemates in that illustrious category as they weren't to be trusted, especially Theodore Nott. They all stank of the same pureblood prejudices that Draco had chosen to give up in exchange for being granted the friendship of Harry Potter and his group, and so he had all but alienated himself from them to restrict the amount of old habits that he could possibly fall back into.

As consequence to this, Nott had taking over as the unofficial leader of the Slytherin first years extremely quickly in his absence as a influential power, and even Crabbe and Goyle didn't hang around Draco anymore, not that he had really cared about those two. None of the other Slytherins said anything against Draco's almost-friendship with The-Boy-Who-Lived however, not even the older ones, the vast majority of them thinking that Draco was probably making the most promising connections that he could, and therefore being a paragon of their House, and those who doubted were in such a minority that they kept silent to not draw attention to themselves.

Had they known that it was Harry who allowed Draco to be his friend, it probably wouldn't be the current case in Slytherin house, but instead a far more hostile place for the eleven year old. Even as it was, Draco was merely ignored as a loner with high ambitions, which was only a few steps up from being persecuted as a 'Blood-traitor' or 'Muggle-lover'.

Slytherin inter-house politics aside, Draco was quite enjoying his classes. He hadn't had his godfather's class yet, but only Binns' and Quirrell's classes thus far had been less than fully enjoyable in both study and application.

Outside the classroom, Draco found solace in wandering the corridors, both during the day and somewhat after curfew, originally starting as an effort to distance himself from those in his house, but quickly evolving into a game to find several new secret every day.

He had only been almost caught once, in one the earliest days of his nighttime wanderings, when he had accidentally run across the Squib caretaker's cat, Mrs. Norris. Running through the twisting tunnels of the dungeons, Draco had been surprised by the appearance of a strange black fox-like creature, which had darted around the corner of a junction in the corridor.

Following the route that it had taken purely on the gut instinct that the animal might know where it was going better than he, the creature had somehow led Draco all the way back the Slytherin common room, through various secret doors that Draco would never have found without following the creature's trail. But before Draco could take a good look at his rescuer, the animal had already vanished, disappearing around a corner like a grey-black shadow.

Draco had kept his eyes out for anything fox-like creature ever since that night, but he hadn't had any luck in seeing it again. He had his hopes high, as his father had never mentioned anything about a magical creature that wandered the castle helping lost students; that he had potentially found one of Hogwarts' many secrets, one that even his father had not found before him.

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The end of the first week found Severus Snape in a highly edgy mood. It was the first lesson that he would be teaching the combined Gryffindor and Slytherin first year class, which meant three things important things.

First, he would have to make the same show for his newest Slytherins that he always did, giving them apparent favor over the Gryffindor students, at least in public, to teach them that they needed a united front to survive in the world. Second, he got to see if his godson had done his practicing before the school year like he had asked him to since his eleventh birthday. Finally, quite possibly most importantly as well, was the presence of 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. That would gage how much he would expect from the boy in the coming years. Undol on the other hand… ever since McGonagall had mentioned in the staff room how highly developed the boy's power and control over his magic 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.

It was not necessarily a plot to spy on the boy, but it was well understood that those with bad backgrounds tended to be more magically powerful than others, and if the boy was being mistreated in some fashion, it was imperative for them to see the signs before they manifested in poor choices and habits.

Severus had some of his own suspicions of what may or may not be happening, mainly worries that there could truly not be any more of the Undol family alive, and the horrifying ramifications if the boy was being forced to try and take on a life and role he was not, but many years of knowing Albus Dumbledore like he did informed Severus that he would need solid evidence before telling the Headmaster of his fears. The sheer amount of danger the boy would be in if he was indeed an Undol was staggering, that Severus almost hoped that it wasn't true.

As the first years filed into the classroom, Severus watched from his nook near the door. He watched as Potter, the boy who was presumed to be Undol as well as a Weasley child came in together, chatting animatedly about some boyhood thing or other, and sat together near the front of the room. Draco came in later alone, which surprised Severus.

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.' He had hoped for a long time that the youngest Malfoy might be the one who'd break the cycle of his forebears and break the cycle of muggle hatred and intolerance. This was a good first step, but Severus would keep his peace and see if it would last.

The rest of the students came in after a few more moments, most notably Theodore Nott, now 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, watching the group of four with a calculating glare.

After the rest of the class took their seats, Severus stepped out of his hiding place and slammed the door, making nearly everyone jump, except for 'Undol'. Severus took note of the perceptiveness of the boy, and walked quickly to the front of the room, and started his class by taking the roll, stopping at Potter's name. The test then began.

"Ah, Yes… Harry Potter. Our new… celebrity…" He said coldly, dragging out the words with venom dripping off each one. Mr. 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 hounded both Potter and 'Undol,' for the entire week and plunged into his same beginning of term speech he used yearly for the new students about what was expected from those who wished to succeed in his class and what they could take from his lessons if they weren't complete dunderheads about learning.

The students sat in quiet anticipation as he spoke; Snape never had had any trouble keeping his pupils' collective 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, not even facing the boy. "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 glance 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 all of his studies.

"Correct… let's try another shall we?" Severus acquiesced, before starting into round two, "Where, Mr. Potter would you look if I asked you to find me a bezoar?" The Potions Master was again surprised when the boy answered correctly.

"In the stomach of a goat, sir," Potter said, slightly more confidently than his first answer.

"Correct." Severus nodded again, more impreesed, deciding a harder question was in order. "And, 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." The boy said, much to Severus' shock and surprise.

"Correct, Potter…" he said, actually quite pleased with the results of his test. The boy took after his mother more than he had first guessed at. She had been very studious and bright. Looking towards Potter's friends, he could tell it was thanks to 'Undol' that the boy had developed and maintained such study habits. With genes like his there had to be some outside force keeping him in line so that his mother's genius could shine through Potter's features and possible inherited traits.

Severus would have to make sure that such preparations didn't go to waste, while still maintaining a high standard of excellence for the boy. Let it not be said that Severus Snape would blame the boy for the sins of his father, nevertheless he would make sure that the boy was pushed to whatever heights Potter would dare to reach in the subject Severus taught. Not to mention that Severus would do everything in his power to make sure such talent and skill did not go to the boy's head, like it would have for his father.

"Well, Mr. Potter, clearly fame isn't everything to you. I will award three points to Gryffindor for you not being a useless dunderhead…" he said, to the muted amazement of the gathered class. Severus was well aware that his reputation always preceded him before any new class, and the action of gifting points to Gryffindor, while not impossible, was rare enough to garner attention. "Well?" he said suddenly, glaring at the rest of the students, "Why aren't the rest of you copying that down?" he said sternly.

As the class scrambled to write down the questions and their answers, Severus waved his wand at the chalkboards around his desk, and they magically filled with the instructions for brewing a simple boil curing potion. After the class finished copying down these notes, with the exception of 'Undol' (Snape noticed that the black haired boy had merly read the boards and nodded to himself, as though they were what he expected,) Severus swept around the room splitting the children up into pairs to start brewing the potion.

He paired Draco with Potter, and Weasley with 'Undol', wanting to see how the Gryffindor golden boy would do when separated from his two Gryffindor friends. Later, when he was inspecting their potion, which was doing perfectly well to his pleasure, he heard a cry of alarm. Turning about rapidly, 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. One cursory glance told Severus that the boy had done right by stopping Longbottom, as the results would have melted the cauldron at the least, and much more at the worse, but this was the perfect opportunity for him to prepare a place and time for him to speak with the boy privately, concerning the implied family history that the boy claimed.

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

"I'm preventing my housemate from blowing up the classroom, sir." The boy replied with a slight edge of annoyance that he was being questioned. Another point went to the side of Severus' mind that this boy was more than likely who he claimed to be, but he needed more direct proof before he would allow himself to even consider that one of his good friends had had a child before his abrupt departure from the world.

"I see, however I do not see that you needed to place a hand on another student to transmit the urgency, so I think that will be a point from Gryffindor." Severus said, his traditional Slytherin sneer firmly in place. Looking over at his and Weasley's cauldron, and noticing that not only was it perfectly simmering, but it was actually better than could be expected from first years with the ingredients that Severus had left for them to use. He was sure now that this boy did indeed know a lot more than he was letting on now. a point into the boy being an imposter was added in his mental tally, as it was simply impossible for an eleven year old to be this perfect in so many drastically different classes.

"Sir, I think that's rather unfair of you to take a point from us for that." 'Undol' replied before Weasley could visibly stop him, and was now sternly looking up at Severus with frighteningly familiar eyes.

"Oh, do you now…" Snape said, his own eyes boring back into the boy. There was something disturbingly 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 replied as he spun back to the front of the room, before smirking to himself while the class could not see his face.

That would allow ample time for him to gage whether this boy was some vagrant coming out of the woodwork with a dead family's name, or the long lost descendant of his old friend. And if he would admit the truth to none but himself, Severus couldn't decide which option was more desired, for better or for worse for the child in question to truly be the heir of the house of Undol.

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

"You shouldn't really have pushed it, Fay," Ron commented, shortening the other boy's name casually as they trekked out of the castle, "I've heard Snape can turn real nasty."

Faykan just shrugged in response, muttering something under his breath that neither of the other Gryffindors could hear 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 despite its size, much like Hagrid himself, Harry thought. It seemed like a perfect fit in his opinion between owner and pet.

"Hello, Hagrid," Faykan said finally "as you already know quite well who Harry is, allow me to introduce Ron, another of our friends."

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

"Another Weasley, eh?" Hagrid said after a moment. "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 the hardened mound almost broke Harry's teeth when he bit into it, but he pretended to enjoy it nonetheless. They all took turns telling Hagrid about their first week, while Fang rested his shaggy 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. In fact, if he was giving them that kind of attention, Hagrid implied that it meant that the Potions Master might expect them to actually be capable of succeeding in his class, and wanted to push them a bit, but Harry wasn't so sure about that.

As the conversation turned from school to Ron's brother Charlie, who was studying dragons in Romania, Harry caught a glimpse of a small 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?"

"Um, no, I do believe we were there a few days earlier, 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 on the Thirty-firs'... I was pickin' up sumthin' fer Professor Dumbledore from a vault in Gringotts. Contemplated buyin' sumthin' for yer as well Harry, but as yer wouldn'ta remembered me it seemed rather good that I didn'…"

"Did it happen to be vault seven hundred thirteen, Hagrid?" Harry asked warily, suspicion sinking into his stomach. Something seemed too much to just be coincidence.

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 could have been in the vault that Hagrid had taken right before someone else tried to steal it? Why did Dumbledore want whatever it was taken out? And where was the unknown thing now?

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Albus Dumbledore watched from the high tower that held the Head office as a trio of red and gold clad students, along with one in silver and emerald, departed from Hagrid's cabin on the grounds. It pleased him that Harry was making so many friends, and even those in different houses, especially Slytherin.

From the reports around the castle, barring Severus', the boy was also doing extremely well in all his classes. However, that was not necessarily what piqued the Headmaster's interest. Severus had dropped several not-so-subtle hints regarding Harry's closest friend, Mr. Faykan Undol.

It seemed that this other black haired Gryffindor was causing quite a stir among the staff and student body with his prodigious talents and easy charisma. It was reassuring that such a boy was there to watch over Harry, just in case the business of the third floor corridor became somewhat extreme, which unfortunately Albus more than expected. The likelihood of the robbery at Gringotts mere hours after Hagrid removed the item of great prize were too slim for Albus to consider it possible that their bait and switch had worked.

No, it was down to the defenses that had been set in place to hinder or potentially capture the mysterious thief, and uncover who he was working for and to what end. Albus had his suspicions, but until the party in question made a move, Albus was unwilling to take action against them. Just the chance of someone making the accusation of the Dark Lord's return would cause a tidal wave of scorn and rejection from the war weary wizarding world, and Albus knew that his political power would be diminished, if not eradicated unless he had absolute proof of his claims.

Still, even as he watched the four children enter the castle once more, Albus allowed himself to dwell on more pleasant thoughts.

Potential Spoilers Ahead, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Writing this at roughly 2 am, so sadly it may end up briefer than most. Primarily this was just a retooling of some of the less than polished phrasing that I was trending towards when I started out, as well as diverting a touch more from the canonical story. I did rewrite out much of the into to Draco's first bout of wandering the school at night, which some may remembered was when the mysterious fox was first introduced, but I felt that it may be better to hang onto that little tidbit of information a touch longer than I had before.

Mostly left the scene with Severus' first class the same, as it was a perfect introduction to how they would interact for a while, but I flushed out, and will continue to in most of the future scenes where Faykan and Severus are together, the relationship that Severus held onto from his days at Hogwarts, as I felt strongly that it was highly underplayed.

the Albus section is entirely new information, generally a summation of what occurred, and emphasizing that Albus is very much aware of all that goes on inside the castle, to a point. Again, another interaction that I felt was lacking, and that was Albus' reasoning for allowing Faykan to stay so close to Harry for the first three years at Hogwarts, until he eventually decided that he was too much of a problem, which felt like a drastic change of character to me, and portrayed the man as more of a villain than I intended. So I will be adding in more scenes with Dumbledore, who was absent until the middle of the 2nd book originally, and further develop just what he had in mind to do with the young scion of the house of Undol.