Thanks to Silverly and also another friend of mine named Proto for proofreading. I own nothing.

Prologue VI

October 1, 1986

It had been nearly a month since Waver had arrived at northern Scotland.

Classes were going smoothly thus far, mostly. It didn't take long for him to be noted as being the top of the class for written assignments. Practical casting wasn't quite as easy as it looked on paper, but Waver had generally succeeded.

The greatest annoyance was Professor Snape. Waver really had no idea why he was even allowed to teach. For starters, he seemed to inherently dislike three-quarters of the student body, as it turned out he treated members of Slytherin vastly differently from the other three houses, which Waver learned from accidentally eavesdropping on some Gryffindors leaving the dungeons after class with him. And in addition to that, he didn't actually seem to want to teach. He just wrote directions on the blackboard most of the time without actual explanation as to why the directions worked. As a result, Waver often found himself having to explain to his classmates after looking up the information in the library.

It was really a shame, because potions were otherwise something he was decent at; they were not terribly difficult once he knew the properties of the ingredients and steps. The explanations he gave to his classmates were clear and concise, and he rarely messed up on his own once he'd done his research. The only thing that seemed to give him trouble was a teacher who seemed to adamantly refuse to recognize Waver's apparent genius for the brilliance it was, and preferred to view him as an annoying pest.

Waver had, of course, voiced his discontent. All it got him was a week's worth of detentions. Which just made the whole situation all the more infuriating.

At least the library didn't hate him. It was a much more effective instructor, for all intents and purposes.

His progress in looking into Harry Potter's survival had gone nowhere. No matter how much he read on countercurses, he couldn't piece together a way James and Lily Potter could have created one that only protected Harry and not themselves. The Defense Against the Dark Arts professor was useless as well. When Waver asked, he just brushed him off and pretended he was too young to understand in an attempt to hide his own lack of knowledge on the matter of the events that night.

The last of his problems was his classmates in Herbology and Flying classes.

It was not that Waver was bad at Herbology. Sure, he wasn't fond of the dirt, but that wasn't the issue either. It was simply that the class was taken jointly with the Slytherin house, much like how Potions was taken with Hufflepuff. Waver had been right to ask the Sorting Hat to not place him there, as the lot of them were completely insufferable and seemed to agree with that older student in Madam Malkin's on the matter of people of non-magical background. They looked down on him and scoffed at him even as he topped their scores. In particular, they seemed to find his constant detention with Professor Snape hilarious.

Professor Sprout had tried to keep their behaviour under control; she had already given them a few detentions, but the time immediately following class as the students left the greenhouses seemed to be the prime time for teasing.

Flying was worse than Herbology. Same set of house pairing as Herbology for Waver's year, so the issues that applied to it applied to them. It just happened to be worse due to a major problem for Waver for the class: he was incredibly terrified of heights, and it did not take long for his classmates to discover this fact. The teasing over this was relentless, and would just cause Waver to angrily lash out at whoever brought it up. Unfortunately, people just seemed to find it more amusing than scary. Jinxing them was out of the question as long as Madam Hooch was there, and as a result she was often the one who had to diffuse the situation. Which, like Professor Sprout cleaning up the eggs that Peeves had thrown, was nothing short of humiliating.

Waver was aware the teasing over fears was beginning to become something of an epidemic due to a current infestation of Boggarts plaguing the school, to give some additional paranoia of people finding out things Waver feared other than flying. He'd been lucky enough to avoid personally encountering any, but he had started looking up how to deal with them for when he did. He wasn't sure what it'd transform into, as he doubted it could convincingly turn into something to represent a fear of heights, since the fear would be too conceptual for the Boggart. So it had to turn into something else, and Waver really could not deduce what it could possibly do.

Waver sighed as he continued on his way to the dormitory. He had Wednesday afternoons off, so he spent that time learning as much as he could.

Today's goal was to deal with the boggart that had made its home in his classmate, Adrian Figg's, closet. Figg had staunchly refused to touch the closet again after discovering it, and Waver was already aware the other three boys had agreed to study in the library for the afternoon, making it ideal to practice dealing with a Boggart while out of sight of anyone who might want to tease him over whatever it turned into. If he could deal with this one, then encountering another when not alone would be quickly dealt with before anyone else could figure out anything else he feared.

Determined, Waver marched through the door labeled "first years" and approached the cabinet. He could definitely do this. Boggarts weren't that dangerous. They just wanted to scare whoever they faced. And he had read as much as he could on them and how to deal with them in light of the infestation. He just needed a practice target. Yeah.

He put a hand on the cabinet, carefully loosening the ropes that held the handles shut. Why was he hesitating? Pushing the thought into the corner of his mind, he pulled open the door.

Nothing came out of the cabinet.

That was strange. The boggart definitely was still here, as the ropes his roommate had tied to keep it contained were still present.

"Why are you so useless?" Waver looked around. Still nothing. The creepiest thing about the voice that was spoken had been that it was identical to his own. But this was almost certainly the boggart's doing, so he just had to find it, cast the spell, and laugh at it.

"You can't find me?" The boggart(?) kept taunting. "How pathetic. Maybe that is why your Defense Against the Dark Arts score is so low, you worthless-"

"Riddikulus!" It wasn't Waver. A fifth year prefect had walked into the room and dealt with the boggart, causing it to properly materialize and change from whatever invisible being it was to a pile of three stuffed lions, the closet's owner on his heels. Wasn't he supposed to be studying?

"Why did you open it?" The prefect demanded. "It's not truly dangerous, but first years still shouldn't be handling these."

"If they're all over the school, we have to learn how to handle them." Waver replied angrily. "I planned to use that one for practice on the charm to deal with them after looking it up."

"So why were you just standing there?" the prefect retorted. "Detention on Saturday, Velvet, for being so reckless." He left, leaving Waver alone with Figg.

"...Why-"

"Don't ask about it." Waver deflected. "It's a long story."

Figg seemed unfazed. "By the way, Shunpike was looking for you. Something about not understanding what he did wrong on his boil-curing potion exam."

Waver blinked at the sudden topic change. "I explained that to him about five times, I even made sure he wrote it down. If he doesn't get it by now it's his own fault."

"I tried to tell him you would say that." Figg sighed. "I'm taking a nap. Don't make too much noise if you intend to stay in here."

Review replies:

RedBurningDragon: Yeah, it's not a position he was suited to.

-Glace