A/n: here's Halloween... not much to say for a change. thanks for reading and favouriting and following.

Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or Harry Potter.

For the first time in weeks Kurt found a spare moment to himself where he could sit down and think; think of the success of his first attempt at creating or, more specifically in this case, modifying a spell. Professor Flitwick had been quite impressed, hounding him with questions on how he had discovered the art and what other spells he intended on working on. Professor Snape on the other hand reacted with suspicion and apprehension, interrogating Kurt as to how he acquired such subject matter as it was restricted to junior students; it was quite to his surprise that Kurt had derived the information from the professor's very own notes in detention.

Whilst faculty members were impressed and flawed by his display of superior knowledge and application of magic, his peers were far from impressed. The faculty had showered with compliments praises as though he'd already won gold at the B. ; they used his spell in their examples during their lessons, they made reference to it in disciplinary measures, they awarded him fifty house points and they even had The Daily Prophet cover his supposedly unheard of achievement; they'd even gone so far as to write his father a note of congratulations. All the attention made Kurt feel uneasy, as though the circulation of his name and picture would ultimately result in his misfortune. He knew he was being unnecessarily paranoid; after all, to most he was still nothing more than a nobody muggle-born.

His peers had chosen to react in a more hostile manner; Kurt had fallen prey to bullying in the weeks that followed his try out. These kids weren't the most creative but they knew how to kick some one where it hurt; they cut the strap of his messenger bag daily, they would shove him in the corridors at every given opportunity and steal his stuff when he wasn't watching it like a hawk but he soon taught them a lesson by hexing his stuff to burn his initials temporarily onto the thief's wrist. The part that was worst for Kurt though were the constant whispers behind his back, even people he considered to be close acquaintances would speak ill of him in his absence; he was left feeling desolate and alone but was forced to spend almost every waking moment in crowded spaces.

The practices for the BAT were primarily his responsibility, with a professor attending to keep the peace; he would do as he had done with the Slytherins but with a more interested response and without the constant threat of a coup de tat. He knew that this was primarily due to the fact that the team was made up primarily of his friends and Padma, who as a Ravenclaw had a thirst for knowledge that was unquenchable; as such everyone remained docile and sociable. His research into the tournament had afforded him knowledge into how widespread his opposition was and this had instilled the importance of gaining knowledge from every reach of the planet in an effort to be ready for every possible situation. Kurt had first dissected Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them; storyboarding each species and subspecies, he then added all the minor information such as the species origin, geographical distribution, characteristics, special abilities, affliction to magic and related species. They had then progressed to a similar set up for plants that presented a platform for Neville to show prowess over the subject matter that never seized to surprise all of them.

It hadn't taken long for Kurt to grow bored of the monotony of practices and their lack of room for creative freedom; he felt as though he was limited in his expression and exploration of magic, back home he would have redirected this energy into shopping, writing and his dancing career but he had no such luck. He had sat down in perfect view of the womping willow; he had grown fond of the tree, draw similarities between himself and its aggressive misunderstood beauty, but he was yet to go near it out of both fear and respect; he was writing an update letter to his father. He wrote the letter as he usually did; he emphasized how blissfully consuming the academic curriculum was and how much he enjoyed it, he spoke of his friends and always made reference to one of the many quirky adventures they undertook, he would complain briefly of how medieval Hogwarts was, and finally throw in some bitching about his peers; this assured that the letter had both necessary believability and comfort to put his dad at ease. Another incentive for writing home was that his letters were always returned with news of joy and projects undertaken; his last letter came with white calfskin Birkin for him and a broomstick for Finn, which he apparently had special permission to own.

'Kurt I'm going to surprise you,' he heard Finn's thoughts in his head, 'please don't kill or terribly maim me.'

It made him feel warm fuzzies whenever he heard Finn's thoughts in his head; they let him know that he always had a small piece of home with him. He smiled, 'I'll allow it.'

"Woogly moogly!" Finn jumped out of nowhere and Kurt feigned surprise with a toe curling scream, "It's just me."

Kurt looked at the larger boy's goofy smile, "Don't do that! You could have killed me!" Kurt said clutching his chest as though his heart were racing, he paused for a moment, "how's it hanging Finnocence?"

"A little to the left."

Kurt felt the bile rise; he had to repress this memory for the rest of his life. He stared daggers at his brother, "You disgust me! I think I might mention this to Carole, in my biweekly letter."

"No!" he looked mortified, "I might get a howler like Neville did from his Grandmother."

"Your mother doesn't know magic," Kurt never seized to be amazed by the way his brother's mind worked, "she can't send howlers."

"She'll find a way," Finn sat uncomfortably close to Kurt, "So, you writing in your diary?"

"You know my diary writes itself, I got a quick quotes quill."

"What does it say about Cedric?" Finn asked in a sing song voice, making kissy faces at Kurt, "Does it say that you love him?"

"Why? What'd you here?" Kurt stopped suddenly, "I do not! My feelings for Cedric are purely platonic."

"I don't know what platonic means," Finn said throwing his arm around Kurt, "but it probably means you want to kiss him, hold him and love him."

"Or it could mean I want to murder my brother," Kurt pushed Finn off the bench they were sharing, "ever been struck by lightning?"

"Okay," Finn looked nervous but still laughed, "I'm sorry."

Kurt helped his brother back up, "Now speaking of Cedric," Kurt's curiosity had been piqued, "where is he? Aren't you two inseparable?"

"He's in Hogsmead," Finn said with a bit of whimper, "But he did say he'd bring me back some candy."

"Candy?" Kurt said with faked enthusiasm, "A man after your own heart."

"Totally writing 'Mrs Finn Digory' all over my stuff," He said in a dreamy voice as he dragged Kurt back into the castle, "Then we'll have something in common."

~0~

Kurt stood before the embossed gargoyle once again, Professor Flitwick had delivered his summons from the headmaster. Kurt wasn't sure what his meeting about he could guess it was more likely to about the B.A.T than his conduct because as Fred and George never failed to remind him, he had been noticeably absent from detention lately. Kurt climbed the spiral staircase and knocked on the doors once more. The office invited him in; Kurt still wasn't sure how he felt about that.

The majestic bird didn't look so great, with its feathers moulting, it looked to be very far along in age; Kurt supposed it must have been a different bird because it appeared to be quite healthy and in the prime of its youth a couple of weeks ago.

"Kurt! What a pleasure it is to see you again," the man stood in lime floral robes and a matching biretta with a red plume, "Kurt, I was hoping to match your broach."

The man sounded disappointed, Kurt looked down at the black diamond silver spider broach, "Oh sorry, this one matches my Birkin better."

"Alas," the man hung his hands up in defeat, "please take a seat. Tell me, how are you?"

"I've been better," he paused for a moments, "well, it's Halloween today and it's my dad's favourite holiday; he lives by the slut rule; lingerie and animal ears or occupational headgear, he was going to be a slutty construction worker."

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry to hear that." The man smiled, "I brought you here to congratulate you on your selection for the B.A.T team and your placement as captain; this is a true display of your leadership potential a very important characteristic of Slytherin house."

Kurt smiled politely, "Thank you sir."

The man hung his head in deep contemplation and regret, "But unfortunately not all my news is good."

"Oh my gosh," Kurt whispered, "I went to boarding school and left my dad to die of a broken heart."

"What? No," Dumbledore turned around a black and white picture on his desk of young boy, a few years older than Kurt but with the same dark hair, pale skin and upturned nose. Kurt paused for a moment looking at the way the boy emanated an air of superiority in a similar manner he did, "Is that a relative of mine because I thought I was quite clear in our last meeting about not wanting anything to do with them, regardless of who they were."

"No, not to my knowledge but it has become the belief of many of your peers." He let out a ragged breath, "This is Tom Morvolo Riddle; he was one of the most gifted students to walk these halls. He was gifted in Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts, he too loved to read much like you but soon his subject matter of choice turned to the dark arts. He became more and more curious, he went so far as to practice forbidden magic. He would later become the darkest wizard of all time?"

"Lord Voldermort?"

"You're familiar?" the man seemed surprised, "I'm not surprised, he is notorious. Though he was believed to have been defeated years ago, many still believe him to be at large; so when you present many similarities to him, in both your physical appearance and academic prowess-"

"People think I'm the second coming," Kurt was shocked, his ambiguous parentage made even him unsure and doubtful.

"I knew Tom," Dumbledore said in his soothingly monotonous voice, "He was never as anything like you; he was always cruel. He didn't have friends, he had followers."

"So then why bring it up?" Kurt was curious, was he being baited or played was this a guise to try to get him to pursuit his ancestry?

The man was quiet for a moment longer than Kurt was comfortable with, "I want you to know that magic is alive, it is consuming and dangerous. It can corrupt even the most strong willed, I was once almost drawn into a dark and twisted journey, and it took a great tragedy to set me on my path again. Magic will get into your mind and exploit your thoughts and feelings; I loved Gellert Grindewald within moments of meeting him and I still do. I was so blinded that I let him become one of the darkest wizards of all time before doing anything about it; thousands of lives were lost at his hands because I was too dumbstruck to question his moral standing."

"Prof-"

He raised a dismissive hand let out a shaken breath, "Dark magic exploited Gellert's psychological instabilities and corrupted my love for him; I'm not telling you to give up on your noble pursuit of knowledge or to fear the future but rather I implore you to anchor yourself to reality."

Kurt wasn't sure how to react, "Thank you."

"In parting, I hope you don't disregard the words of a crazy old fool," He said with a giggle.

"What?" Kurt said meeting his attempt at lifting the mood halfway, "Those are my favourite kinds of words."

Kurt got up to leave when the headmaster stopped him, "Now you said this was a Birkin?"

"Yes," Kurt smiled; it had been so long since he'd spoken fashion, "it's made by Hermès."

"I take this is a muggle thing?" Dumbledore said as he inspected the bag, "It is quite lovely."

"I know, my mother was originally on the waiting list before she died," Kurt paused for a moment at the hallowed memory, "They hand make everyone, spent six years on the list for one."

Dumbledore didn't seem to grasp the concept well, "You are joking; it takes muggles six years to make a bag?"

"No, you wait six years for them to make yours;" Kurt giggled, "They are very exclusive, all the biggest people have them, Donatella Versace has two."

"Very well," Dumbledore laughed, "I must get one, can't have Donatella out doing me."

"I know right," he promptly exited before he could be roped into any further conversation.

Kurt hurried down to his Charms class. when he arrived he was greeted by a sea of unpleasant face barring Neville who, as always, was pleased to see him. He carried himself with pride and got shout from Finn across the classroom as he took his seat. He knew that today they'd be doing the levitation charm which was one of the first spells Kurt witnessed and practiced, he'd also deprived himself the pleasure of helping Neville by teaching him how to walk himself through spells. Kurt had taken to jotting down duelling strategies and ideas for new spells. He placed the given feather in front of him as instructed as he had elected to participate for a change; he quite easily levitated the feather without drawing any attention but chose to challenge himself by levitating something heavier and more precious, he placed his brooch on the desk in front of him.

"Wingaurdriam leveosar." Ron said waving his wand furiously.

"Stop." Hermione said, "You're going to put someone's eye out like that."

Neville suddenly screamed out, "Oh god! My favourite eye!" as Ron's wand flew across the class room. Kurt had been the first to scream in horror at the mustard liquid that oozed from between the boy's fingers, the streaks of red made Kurt's stomach churn. Ron had long since broken down in tears, having permanently partially blinded one of his class mates despite being warned. "Jokes!" Neville said with a laugh as he removed his hand to show a sachet of liquid and a clear unharmed blue eye, "Fred and George helped me with it."

"What the fuck?" Kurt was so angry that he couldn't help his instincts, "I thought you had actually lost an eye!"

"Mr Hummel! That language is unacceptable, detention, the same goes for you Mr Longbottom." Professor Flitwick spoke firmly, "The pair of you needs to stop disrupting my class, the rest of you back to work."

"Accio wand," Ron's wand flew into Kurt's hand, he handed it to Ron who was pretending he hadn't been in tears, "It's wingardium, not wingaurdriam."

Kurt was smug as he handed the boy his wand, "And it's leviosa, not leveosar," Hermione added with a laugh.

"If you're so brilliant," Ron whined, "you do it."

"Wingardium leviosa," they both said, Kurt's spider flew onto Ron's desk whilst Hermione's feather tickled him causing the red haired boy to scream.

They were dismissed which signalled the end of the school day, Kurt and Hermione were lazing their way out of the classroom over to the library when the overheard the conversation:

"It's wingardium not wingaurdrium," Seamus said in a nasal high pitched voice that Kurt supposed was an imitation of himself, the group of Gryffindor boys laughed.

"And it's leviosa not leveosar," Ron said adding a forced overbite at the end of his imitation of Hermione, "Nightmares, the pair of them, no wonder got no friends."

"Stuck up and self-entitled," Seamus added.

"No one can stand either one of them," Dean quipped with a pained facial expression, "At least they have each other till they discover how irritating they are."

Hermione stormed past them and away from Kurt in tears, Kurt couldn't contain his anger but knew from his meeting with professor Dumbledore that it wasn't the time for magic. He shoved Dean to the ground, right hooked Seamus in the face and kicked Ron in the nuts before running off to console Hermione.

"I think they heard you." He heard Harry say.

Kurt was running down the third floor corridor when he heard his name being called, he turned to see dreamy Cedric Digory waving him over. He was tempted to go over and melt at the presence of the ever charming fourth year but knew better, "I can't, my best friend is having a crisis." He said before running off.

He cautiously entered the third floor girls' bathroom, "Hermione!" he called after her but there was no response, "I know you're in here!"

"Be quiet!" Moaning Mertyl screeched at him, "I'm trying to brood about joys of death."

Kurt had never taken her for brooding type but he complied none the less, "Hermione, come on, I don't like this place."

"Go away," Hermione said from the last stall between sobs; Kurt sat down in front of the stall door quietly and waited.

"Does it ever stop hurting?" Kurt was woken from a light slumber by the barely whispered words.

"What?" he was still slightly groggy and didn't quite understand the question, he compiled his thoughts and readied himself to answer the question.

"Do the words and snide comments and whispers ever stop hurting?" Hermione was still sobbing and her voice was coarse like gravel, "Does the pain of their laughter ever end?"

"Never," Kurt answered his voice was soft, light and distant; he paused to recompose himself, he was meant to make her feel better, "But it stops mattering and slowly it becomes insignificant. Slowly the words become your own to use and the laughter becomes your joy. After long enough; the whispers are inaudible."

"So the pain and hurt never go away but I never have to feel like this?" Kurt was silent and unable to answer, he didn't know what to tell her, "Kurt?"

"I can't say for sure," He didn't want his best friend becoming emotionally detached like he had slowly become, "If you don't want to feel this way then you don't have to but part of life is feeling awful." Kurt laughed to himself, "I once read somewhere that, 'that which does not kill you: leaves scars, ruins your lungs, dries out all of your tears, leaves you lying awake at four in the morning wishing you weren't alive and lets you live to feel incomparable joys.' It's already tomorrow in Australia."

The words hung in the air, Kurt thought of them as well. He had never given himself advice like that, not even when times were toughest; he had a new perspective and angle to view life from, at point when he felt he had himself figured out.

"The world isn't ending today," she said finally breaking the lingering silence. She opened the stall causing Kurt to fall backwards, "Thanks."

"Don't thank me, just send money." Kurt smiled at his friend, "Help me up you dumb whore."

She pulled him to his feet, "You know we should get down to dinner because I am huu… hooo… hhee… hhuuu…-" she suddenly fell silent with horror sweeping over her face.

"Use your words," Kurt giggled, "Sound it out, hu-ng-r-ee."

She let out a shrill high pitched howl that caused a temporary ringing in Kurt's ears, "What is the big deal? What could Mertyl possibly be doing?" he turned around to see callused grey legs that stretched quite high to a broad torso with long simianesque arm that carried a wooden club and a disproportionately small head with large ears sticking out on either side, a bulbous nose and a set of misshapen teeth. Kurt screamed while his mind tried to figure out what was happening, "OGRE!" the word suddenly came pouring out of his mouth and he couldn't stop, "OGRE! OGRE! OGRE!"

Hermione finally put her hand over his mouth, "Go left," she whispered as she ran right.

Kurt took off at high speed; he dropped his wand in his haste. The ogre was confused for a moment, destroying the stalls in an effort to get Kurt before taking off after Hermione, as he regained his composure he was knocked out of the way and into the wall by Ron and Harry who entered the bathroom right then.

"Hermione," Harry shouted as she hid under the basins, the troll swung its club and destroyed the basins causing water to spray all over the place, "Look out!"

Ron and Harry started throwing debris at the troll whilst Kurt tried to shake off what he was beginning to suspect was a concussion, "Accio wand." He willed the wand to him, he had to lean against a wall to shake a dizzy spell.

When he had himself back in check, the troll had Harry in hand and was swinging its club at him, "Wingardium leviosa," Ron said under Hermione's trick advisement which stopped the club in mid-air. Kurt, even in his dazed state, couldn't give Ron the satisfaction of rescuing him.

"Reducto," he destroyed the club and turned his attention to the troll, "Reducio." The troll began to shrink; when it was knee height he kicked it toward the basins but his fracture concentration cause it start growing sooner than usual. As a result, a full grown troll was flung through the wall into the corridor, effectively knocked out. He saw a furious McGonagall with the rest of the Hogwarts staff in tow before his vision began to fade to blurs and words melted into slurs, "I think I need an ambulance," Kurt said as everything melted to darkness.

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