Satan Sorted and More Secrets

"You fainted, Potter? You actually fainted?" Malfoy said, looking like Christmas had come early. Harry glared.

"Shove off, Malfoy," Ron spat.

"Did you faint as well, Weasley?"

Gohan shrugged. "What's the big deal?"

Malfoy laughed. "How about you? Did you faint, Son?"

"Yes."

Malfoy started, not expecting a confession. The he howled. "This is priceless! Potter and Son both! Ha ha ha ha! Potty and Monkey boy fainted!" His cronies laughed. Gohan joined them, scratching his head.

As they walked away, Harry spluttered. "How could you…do that?"

"Aw, it's harmless. There are worse things that they could do than laugh. Let them laugh, and hope they don't get creative. What are those things?" Gohan asked, pointing in front of the carriage.

Harry looked. "What things?"

Gohan started. "Can't…can't you see them?" He walked up to one and stroked the creature's head. It nuzzled Gohan's arm.

Hermione stared. "It's strange. I can sense ki there, but I don't see anything."

"Huh," Gohan said and got into a carriage. "That's weird."

Gohan was fidgeting with his tail in the Grand Hall. Hermione and Harry were with Professor McGonagall for some reason. The sorting hat had finished its song and began the sorting. Gohan watched the girl who had stared at him in Diagon Alley…and had sat in their compartment. She was the only one left when the last name was called.

"Satan, Videl. Third year placement." Silence filled the Grand Hall as she timidly approached the stool. She stopped as boos began to fill the hall, echoing off the walls. The Slytherins, who never missed an opportunity to belittle anyone outside of their circles, joined, causing the silverware to rattle.

Gohan's shock at discovering her identity turned into righteous indignation. Why are they doing that? She's done nothing wrong. She hasn't done anything to them! I have nothing against Hercule for taking credit for defeating Cell. Actually, people not knowing that I had anything to do with it was really helpful. People don't bother us. I still sometimes wish that the wizarding world didn't know. I only tease Mr. Satan because he's so silly sometimes...a lot of times. Why don't they stop-

But everyone seemed quite contented in jeering the charlatan's daughter. She stared at her shoes in silence, her eyes filling with unshed tears. Dumbledore stood sternly and opened his mouth-

"STOP IT!" Stunned silence fell. The voice hadn't been Dumbledore's. It had been Gohan's. He glared at his stupefied classmates before huffily taking his seat. Videl stared at him. The Gold Fighter, the boy who had defeated Cell, had stood up for her, had defended her. Of all people, he should hate her worst. Why didn't he?

Dumbledore nodded at Gohan gravely. His lips parted once more. "It seems a shame to begin the year this way. Fifty points will be taken from each house, for the extreme disrespect you have shown tonight. You have made history tonight for the wrong reason. Also, with the exception of Miss Satan, Mister Son, and those not present, you will each serve a detention. On a more positive note, I will award Gryffindor twenty points for Mr. Son's gracious defense of Miss Satan. Continue the sorting." He sat.

Blushing, Videl sat on the stool. Within seconds, the hat cried, "Gryffindor!" The Gryffindorians' attitude hadn't improved. As she walked down the hall to find a seat, students everywhere filled gaps to keep her from sitting by them. Seamus was going to scoot toward Gohan to keep her from sitting there, but Gohan put his hand out and stopped him.

"You can sit here, Videl." He said firmly, more to Seamus than to Videl. Everyone nearby stared. They couldn't understand why Gohan was being so nice to the daughter of the man who falsely claimed he defeated Cell. She sat quickly, face flushing. Ron looked away. He felt guilty for booing earlier.

Harry and Hermione sat on either side of Ron. "Oh, we've missed the sorting!"

"Good thing, too," Ron muttered. "What was that about, anyways?"

Harry started to explain, but Dumbledore stood once more. Pretending that he hadn't addressed them earlier, he raised his arms enthusiastically. "Welcome! Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! I have a few things to say to you, and some quite serious. I think it best to get it out of the way before we become far too befuddled by the excellent feast!"

His tone took a more serious sound. "As you are by now well aware, apparently because of the search of the Hogwarts Express, our school is currently hosting the dementors of Azkaban, who are here on Ministry of Magic business.

"They are stationed at every entrance, and I must make this perfectly plain: No one is to leave the grounds without permission. Dementors are not fooled by tricks or disguises…not even Invisibility Cloaks. It isn't in the nature of dementors to forgive, so I must caution you to give them no reason to harm you. I trust the prefects and headships to ensure that no student runs afoul of the dementors.

"On a happier note, please welcome two new members to our staff: Professor Lupin, who has accepted the Defense Against the Dark Arts post-" Scattered applause could be faintly heard, the loudest were the ones who had been in the compartment with Lupin. "-and Professor Hagrid, who will be teaching the Care of Magical Creatures. Good luck, professors." The Gryffindor table broke out into applause.

"We should have known," Ron laughed merrily. "Who else would have assigned a biting book?"

"I believe that is everything of import. Now let the feast begin!" Videl gasped as the table filled with food.

…

Harry told them what had happened with Professor McGonagall, and Gohan filled them in what happened during the sorting.

Hermione was livid. "Honestly! You'd think she was Voldemort's daughter," she spat the name viciously. Harry flinched with Ron but for an entirely different reason. Hermione had said the name on several different rare occasions, but never like that. It sounded as though she hated him. Harry stole a glance at Gohan. Surprisingly, Gohan had a knowing and pitying look on his face.

Ron hadn't noticed. After chiding her for using the name, he said, "If she was and everyone knew it, they'd run screaming from the hall."

Hermione pictured that scene and paled. Gohan quickly cleared his throat and said, "Oh, boy! Food!" as if he hadn't noticed it there earlier. He loaded his plate. "Chow time!" He poked chicken into his mouth. Ron and Dean laughed, but Harry knew his Saiyan friend too well to not recognize the avoidance. Harry looked over in time to see Hermione wince.

Harry wasn't the only one who noticed the awkwardness. Videl had also seen the exchange. Hermione recovered quickly and said musingly over at Videl, "You might want to move away a little, Videl. You could lose an arm in there."

Videl looked over at Gohan and gasped. Warming to his appetite, Gohan had already cleaned one plate and was filling it again.

Hermione scoffed. "I'll never complain about Ron's appetite again."

Ron looked up, his cheeks packed full. He swallowed quickly. "You always talk about me eating."

Hermione smirked. "Just because I don't mention how much you eat doesn't mean your table manners aren't open for discussion. At least Gohan is neater when he stuffs his face."

Videl immediately compared the two. Hermione was right. Gohan's face was spotless; his clothes were spotless. Even the area around his plate was clean. Videl looked over at Ron. Gohan had eaten four times as much as Ron already, but still there was no comparison. She looked at Ron's messy appearance and giggled.

Ron glared. "What are you laughing at, Satan?" He emphasized her last name.

She shrugged.

...

After congratulating Hagrid on his post acceptance, the group of Gryffindors trudged to their tower and began unpacking. Videl quickly made friends with Hermione. Not that she had a choice. All of the other Gryffindor girls glared at her and even began ignoring Hermione when she began talking to Videl.

"So, what are your parents like?" Hermione asked conversationally.

Videl bit her lip. "Mother's dead. She's the reason I'm at this school."

"I'm sorry. She was a witch?"

"Yeah. She didn't talk about it much. I guess something terrible happened. She was a Muggle born. And father? I reckon you already know about him. He's got strong arm muscles and stronger vocal chords," she finished, rolling her eyes.

Hermione grinned. "I don't suppose you would tell me how long you've known that your father hadn't defeated Cell?"

Videl sighed. "I guess I always knew, but I didn't want to believe it. I mean, who wants to believe that their father is lying? I went with it. I knew that the headmaster of Hogwarts would contact me eventually. I thought it would have been last year, but now we both know why that wasn't the case."

Hermione nodded. "That's the year Gohan started."

"Yeah. I guess the geezer didn't think Gohan could handle me on top of everything else."

Hermione gasped. Geezer?

"Anyways, I was in Diagon Alley two whole days when it happened. Luckily, I had insisted on doing this alone because I wanted to be, you know, normal for once. I was in Olivander's purchasing a wand when another student overheard my name. When that happened, the boy's parent attacked me, saying bad stuff about me and my father. They said it was foul of my father to take credit for defeating Cell when it was Gohan Son that did it.

"I was rather speechless. Not only did they know about the Gold phenomena, but they also knew the name of who the Muggles called the 'delivery boy.'" Videl snorted bitterly at the title.

Hermione shrugged, rolling her eyes. "Of course, they have room to talk. Wizards only found out a few months ago. Before that, he was called Gold Fighter D. With the exception of a few who read up on it, many wizards also believed that Hercule defeated Cell. I was rather suspicious of Gohan last year, considering what was happening then. Harry, Ron, and I found out about it months before anyone else had known, except for Dumbledore."

Videl stiffened. "How did the wizards find out? On the train Gohan said he didn't want anyone to know."

Hermione chewed her words. She hated saying Voldemort, but it wasn't from fear anymore. She despised everything he stood for. Murder, coersion, rape, her father. She shivered. "V-Voldemort Inferiused Cell. Cell was back. Gohan fought it at the end of last term."

Videl jumped off her bed. The other girls gathered around the two, in spite of themselves. Videl choked. "What? A-are you sure it-"

"We all saw it, and Hermione, stop saying the name. Stop trying to sound brave like Harry."

Hermione glared. "VOLDEMORT!" She shrieked in cold fury. The other girls squealed and shrank away from her.

Videl stared. "You sound like you have something personal against this Voldy guy."

Hermione flinched, gritting her teeth. "Don't ask."

"Hey, Gohan?" Harry asked. Everyone else was asleep.

"Yeah?"

"What's with Hermione?"

Silence.

"You know what's eating her. Say that you don't."

Silence.

"So you do. Is it dangerous?"

Gohan hesitated. "Not yet."

"But it will be?"

"Probably."

"Is there a reason she doesn't want to tell us?"

"There are several."

"Such as?"

Gohan sighed. He didn't want to talk about it. He didn't want anything to slip even by accident. "She fears losing your friendship. She fears hurting you."

"She doesn't trust me," Harry said bitterly.

"She doesn't trust herself," Gohan countered.

"Am I going to find out what this is about any time soon?"

"I donno. Don't bother her about it. She's having a hard enough time dealing with it herself. She'll tell you when she's ready." Gohan's voice shook.

Harry frowned thoughtfully. "It's bad, isn't it? What's got her so upset…it's bad?"

"It's bad to her. You can decide for yourself whether it's bad to you. I've already told her where I stand."

"And where exactly is that?"

Gohan's voice became firmer. "By her side. This isn't going to change our friendship. It's not like she can help it or anything."

"Hmm."

Harry fell back onto his pillow. He could tell the severity of Hermione's problem by the quavering Saiyan's voice. He had only heard pure fear from the half Saiyan only once, but that was when Gohan was facing his father's murderer in the Chamber of Secrets. What about Hermione could affect Gohan so much? Was it that fearsome? Harry felt torn between his desire to help his friend and frustration that she didn't trust him enough with the truth.

Harry tried to push his longing for the truth from his mind, but it remained. It was hard to sleep with thoughts of Hermione and Sirius Black floating around in his brain. After another hour of sleeplessness Harry finally succumbed fitfully.

...

As Harry struggled to sleep, Hermione lay, fidgeting with the chain on her new time-turner. She was surprised that Dumbledore had trusted her enough to let her have one. She surmised that Piccolo knew of her parentage, and if Piccolo knew, then Dumbledore knew. She laughed silently, wondering the look on the old man's face when Piccolo told him. A mental picture of a bug-eyed Headmaster floated inside her head. She giggled. It was nice to know she could still have fun, like the old Hermione.

"Are you still awake, Hermione?"

Hermione sat up. "Videl? Why are you still awake?"

"I could ask you the same."

Hermione sighed. "Yes. I suppose you could. Sometimes I wished I never got that letter from Hogwarts."

"Wow. I guess that's one thing we're going to have in common for awhile." They smiled at each other.

The next morning everyone was in the dining hall perusing their new class schedules. Hermione and Ron argued over her class schedule. Harry was glaring over at the Slytherin table where Malfoy was entertaining his crew by performing mock fainting fits. Harry gestured toward Gohan, who shrugged.

Later, as they climbed the North Tower for Divination, Hermione nudged Gohan. "See me after the lesson," she whispered in Namekian. Harry looked over at them questioningly.

...

"Huh?" Gohan's eyes shot open as he heard his name called. Someone giggled. Professor Trelawney stared at him.

"I said, Mr. Son, what do you see in Miss Granger's cup?"

Gohan scratched his head. "Oh, sorry about that. It's kinda warm in here. Hmm…let's see. It looks like a box."

Sighing, Trelawney took the cup from Gohan. Hermione rolled her eyes. "See another Grim, Professor?"

The Professor's eyes narrowed while examining the cup. "Miss Granger, have you ever heard of Pandora?"

"You mean the myth?"

"Pandora is not a myth, Miss Granger. It's a charm. The Pandora Charm." Harry's eyes shot up from his cup, examining Hermione's face.

Hermione raised a brow. "Can't say that I have. Why?"

Trelawney nodded at her. "You might want to explore the topic a bit. You may find the subject of gold gilded cages rather fascinating."

Ron, Harry, and Gohan all exchanged glances. They, of course, had remembered when Hermione told them about her dreams. Hermione stared. She couldn't know, could she? She recovered quickly. "And why would that interest me?"

Professor Trelawney said in a mysterious voice. "My Sight tells me that it is important for your future…and your past."

Hermione smirked. "You shouldn't have added that last part," she whispered. "If there was one thing you could say that would ensure me avoiding any knowledge, it would be that."

"You cannot avoid destiny forever, Miss Granger." Trelawney said loftily as she picked up Gohan's cup.

Hermione grumbled darkly. "Perhaps not, but maybe I can avoid you instead, batty old fraud."

Gohan gasped as his hyper sensory ears heard her comment.

"You have an interesting cup, Mr. Son," Trelawney said.

"Huh?"

Trelawney pointed into the cup. "See there? The lion and the serpent? And that? That's a bonding ring. According to your cup, someone with ties to Gryffindor is going to pursue a relationship with someone with ties to Slytherin."

Harry, Ron and Hermione looked over at Gohan. Harry and Ron's face were filled with disbelief, but Hermione paled. Then, surprisingly, she blushed. Ron saw her behavior and choked. He nudged her. "Hey, Hermione….you don't fancy someone from Slytherin, do you?

She paled once more. Then, she scoffed. "Don't be silly, Ronald. You don't really believe that rubbish, do you?"

Ron blushed. Professor Trelawney glared and stalked away. Hermione smiled with grim satisfaction. Well, at least I know how to get rid of her. She glanced away in time to see a horrified look on Videl Satan's face. Hermione looked at her fearfully. They met each other's eyes. Uh oh.

As everyone left the room for their next class, Hermione, Gohan, and Videl remained behind. Videl approached shyly. "Headmaster said that I should see you to go to Arithmancy."

Hermione stared. "Oh! Okay. Come on." She led them to the Arithmancy classroom and pulled them into the instructor's office, who grunted acknowledgement of their presence. She pulled the device from underneath her robes.

"This is a Time Turner. It will allow us to take several classes at once...we are going back in time...to nine o'clock." She placed the chain around herself, Gohan, and Videl and spun the device a quarter turn. Everything in the room happened in reverse for one short moment, and then things returned to normal. Hermione looked at the empty instructor's desk. "Come on, let's find some seats."

They walked inside the room in time to see Draco Malfoy choose a seat. Seeing Gohan, he placed the back of his hand on his forehead and collapsed into the chair in a mock swoon. Gohan chuckled good-naturedly, scratching the back of his head. Malfoy stared at the unfazed half Saiyan.

"Good morning, class," the professor declared sternly, once he had performed roll call. "Welcome to Arithmancy. I am your instructor Professor Vector. You may call me Professor or Professor Vector.

"Now. Today, we will be studying our own birthdays…and have discussions with our friends. Please turn to page eleven of Numerology and Grammatica,and begin.

Gohan, Hermione, and Videl sat silently as they calculated their birthdays. "Well," Gohan said enthusiastically. "I'm a six."

Hermione snorted. "Obviously."

"Huh? What are you, Hermione?"

"A one. Videl?"

"One. Hermione, can I ask you something?"

Hermione flinched. "If it has anything to do with…him," she said him between gritted teeth, "Then no."

"Oh. Okay. Never mind, then."

"BOY! GET OVER HERE! I WANT A WORD!"

Harry winced, turned, then grinned. "Phew! It's only Vegeta. For a moment I had thought it was Uncle Vernon." Harry, Gohan, Ron, Hermione and Videl had been taking a walk around the castle when they heard the Prince of Saiyans shrieking from above the forbidden forest tree line. After his maniacal address, Vegeta fell from the sky and landed next to them with a soft thud. Videl looked around at the group; she became more surprised with their unaffected expressions than she was by the fact that she had seen someone hovering twenty meters in the air.

"Hello, Vegeta." Harry said calmly with a small smile. Vegeta glared angrily. Harry grinned at his friends. "I see Vegeta is still mad at me for ditching him the night I blew up my aunt."

Vegeta growled. "Stupid boy! And you wouldn't have gotten past me if you hadn't distracted me with that bloody human balloon! Guess who spent the entire night tracking down that pitiable excuse for a blown-up life form…Huh? Not to mention having to put up with those ministry morons! If it wasn't for that Weasley man, I would have blasted the lot of them!"

"Er…sorry?"

"You're gonna be sorry during our next sparring lesson! You made me look like an amateur back there! I should have never taught you Ki suppression!"

Gohan and Hermione gasped knowingly, and a calm yet dangerous voice asked. "You taught him Ki suppression? Vegeta," Videl turned to the speaker and gasped. He was at the Cell games. His green skin was recognizable anywhere.

Vegeta scoffed. "Don't lecture me, Namek! You're the one who taught the girl how to sense ki."

"You know as well as I that Ki sensing is completely different from Ki suppression. And now, I trust, you understand why."

Vegeta grumbled. He hated when the Namek had a point. Sadly, Piccolo often had a point.

Piccolo turned to Harry. "I assume you can sense Ki, as well?"

"Yes, sir," Harry replied.

"And I trust you shan't do anything as reckless as hiding from us again? The goal is to keep you alive. It is difficult to achieve that unless we know where you are."

Harry nodded. The truth was he feared Vegeta would turn him in to the Ministry for performing unauthorized magic.

Piccolo smirked at Harry's thoughts. "That is ridiculous, Harry. Neither Vegeta nor I answer to the wizarding authorities. You can trust us…well, me, anyways." Vegeta shot him a dirty look.

Harry grinned at Vegeta and nodded to Piccolo.

As they strode to the castle, Hermione said, "Why didn't you tell us you could sense and suppress your ki?"

Harry shrugged. "I donno. You have your secrets, and I have mine."

Hermione paled. Then, she sighed. "Fair enough."