A/n: Time for the grand reveal! I don't think I've ever been so relieved in my life, the mystery is over.

Kurt leaned out of the compartment window, "I'll see you at Christmas time, don't you dare pop a day before I get back."

"I don't intend on popping at all," Carole chuckled, "as for child birth, I'm not sure how long I keep Velma in here once she's decided she wants out."

"You know what Kurt means mum," Finn rolled his eyes as he hung out of the compartment adjacent to the one Kurt was in, "he wants to witness the miracle of child birth."

"I didn't get to see Harley crawling out of you and Finn said it looked like demon clawing its way out of hell," Kurt smiled broadly, "I have to see this one because I've banned you from having any more kids."

"Goodbye Kurt," His father shook his head inn disbelief, he kissed Kurt on the forehead and pushed him into the compartment, "I love you."

"I love you too daddy," Kurt waved enthusiastically, "bye.

Hermione shook her head, "your family is so strange, why would you want to see child birth?"

"Educational reasons," Kurt smirked. Their compartment door slid open and in slid Neville Longbottom, Kurt jumped to his feet and extended his arms inviting, "fire of my loins."

"How would that make Cedric feel?" Neville asked as he hugged Kurt tightly.

"It means offspring," Kurt rolled his eyes, "I love you just like I raised you."

Hermione giggled, "Neville, you somehow manage to bring out Kurt's softer side."

"None of Kurt's sides are soft," Luna giggled, adjusting her extra-large turban, "Kurt works out."

"Luna Lovegood," Hermione smiled broadly at their friend, "I think you might be the only person who can match my wit and leave Kurt speechless."

"I guess I can't leave myself speechless," Kurt nodded, then shrugged, "I must agree, that is one of Luna's talents."

"Do tell us Neville," Luna spoke as she supressed a blush, "How was the Serengeti? Did Toto show up and sing for you?"

"There was no singing and no Toto," Neville giggled, "but I got to see a ton of exotic magical plants, some animals too."

"Neville, Luna," Harry smiled as he, Ginny and Ron entered the compartment, "nice to see you again."

"What are we?" Hermione squealed loudly.

"Chopped liver?" Kurt snapped angrily.

"We just saw you two the other day," Ron held his hands up in surrender.

"You also saw Luna the other day," Kurt frowned, crossing his arms over his chest.

"But that didn't stop Harry from greeting her," Hermione let out an indignant grunt.

"I was about to do the polite thing and greet everyone," Ginny held her hands up in surrender.

"Thank you Ginevre," Kurt tilted his head as he smiled warmly at her, "At least you remember your manners."

Ron chuckled, "You know she's just saying that, right?"

"Even better," Hermione mirrored his smile, "It means she still remembers to fear us."

"Guess who hasn't changed in the last week," Harry rolled his eyes at them.

"In case any of you are curious," Luna turned to them for a moment, "I'm doing well." She turned back to the window, watching the landscape whisk by her.

"I'm more curious about the turban," Kurt giggled, "How do you get it that size?"

"My dad use an engorgement charm on it," Luna shrugged as if it were the most obvious thing, "but I suppose using a large scarf might help."

"Wait," Ron's eyebrows shot up as if he was having an epiphany, "if you two haven't changed then that means you must still be insufferable know-it-all's. What's happening at school this coming year?"

"You mean that thing your mum, Bill and Charlie were on about," Harry turned to Kurt and Hermione, "What is going on?"

Neville furrowed his brow, "Is this the same thing that my Gran and I had to go buy dress robes for?"

"They're a pair of know-it-all young wizards," Luna didn't bother turning around this time, "not magic eight balls."

"Besides, where would we have found out about this event?" Hermione quirked a quizzical yet sassy brow, "Do you supposed our muggle parents told us about it?"

"So you don't know either," Harry slumped in his seat, his curiosity dead.

"That's not what Hermione said," Kurt let a devilish smile spread across his face, "Is that what you said?"

"It's not what I said," Hermione shook her head, pursing her lips maniacally.

"What is it?" Harry's face lit up again and a broad smile across his face.

"Wouldn't you like to ask Luna and Neville?" Kurt raised a brow, challenging his friend, "They are, after all, worthy of being greeted by the boy who lived."

"I'm sorry about that," Harry chuckled, falling to his knees in the space before the pair, "Kurt, if our rumoured relationship in second year means anything to you, you will tell me."

"Make it worth our while," Hermione interjected, saving Kurt from bursting out laughing and losing at their little game.

"I'll tell you all about Ron's frilly dress robes," Harry gave a lopsided grin.

"Nice try," Hermione wagged a finger in front of the dark haired boy's bottle green eyes, Harry fell back into his seat in disappointment, "Ginny sent us pictures."

Ron's jaw went slack, he turned to his sister with a hurt expression and scolded her at pitch only dogs could hear before calming down and letting out defeated sigh, "Ginny, how could you?"

"It was too funny not to share," Ginny shrugged, "besides, better they see it now and know what to expect. Kurt and Hermione would probably have laughed at you loudly and publicly if I hadn't prepared them accordingly."

"Ginny is right you know," Hermione laid a comforting hand on Ron's shoulder, Kurt nodded in time with her words, "We laughed for an hour, an hour without any concern for how the Ron in the picture felt."

"Speaking of things that came in the mail," Kurt dug in his handbag for a moment before pulling out a cream envelope with scruffy elongated script on the front, "This came for you Harry."

"For me?" Harry held his hand out cautiously.

Kurt rolled his eyes and forced the letter into his hand, "traditional mail."

"Fewer stamps on this than the last letter I got via traditional mail," Harry joked.

"My mother had never used the muggle mailing system before," Ron crossed his arms indignantly, more about the picture than the joke Harry had made about Mrs Weasley, "I don't even know what the point of stamps is if they don't make the letter fly on its own."

"Did you open it?" Harry shot a curious glance in Kurt's direction.

"Of course not," Kurt shook his head in disappointment, "I'm a bitch, not rude."

"Besides," Hermione rolled her eyes, "opening another person's mail is illegal, Kurt would never do it."

"Not unless he thought he could get away with it," Ginny added with a devilish grin.

Kurt chuckled, "they get me. I have no need to open your mail, you'll tell me about it when you've read it."

"How do you know that?" Harry quirked a brow.

"Unless you are suddenly besties with Oma and 'Pa, that letter is from Sirius," Kurt gave a small smile, "I can't be an effective guardian demon without all the details."

"What if it's private?" Harry quipped with a curious brow raised.

Kurt rolled his eyes, "Then you can whisper it to me."

"I said no Parseltongue," Ron snapped, pointing an angry finger back and forth between Kurt and Harry.

"It's not like you can stop them," Hermione chuckled.

"I want to learn how to do that," Neville smiled broadly, "just to mix things up."

"My mum used to have a Parseltongue to English dictionary," Luna shrugged, "you could get one and have Kurt teach you the grammatical structure."

"That sounds like a lot more effort than I'm willing to put into it," Neville deflated in his seat, shaking his head to the negative, "I'd rather hear Kurt talk about Peru."

"I hope it was better than Greenland," Luna crossed her fingers, "Greenland didn't make any sense and Kurt sounded so bored when he spoke about it."

"When one considers that Cuzco was deep in winter, it was rather warm but that didn't stop the temperature from dropping to freezing at night," Kurt smiled broadly, knowing he had his friends undivided attention, "This year's White Lotus training was much more educational and served to contextualize the previous two summers, I suggested they consider opening with this one but they told me the feat was in stumbling in the darkness to your destination."

"That sounds like a dick move," Ginny scoffed.

"That's what I said," Kurt giggled, "Anyway, they took us to this ancient library in Machu Picchu and in order to gain entrance you had to make a worthy and profound contribution of knowledge, of your own creation, for generations to come."

"What did you contribute?" Hermione quirked a curious brow.

"Probably his lightning spell," Ron suggested.

Neville shook his head, "I think I remember Kurt mentioning that spell was a modification, not a creation."

"Neville's right," Kurt gave an impressed smile.

"It was the blue flames," Harry tried guessing, "wasn't it?"

"Wouldn't that also be a modification?" Luna raised a curious brow, "a variation of normal flames."

"Luna too is correct," Kurt gave her that same smile.

"Are you actually going to tell us," Ron furrowed his brow in irritation, "or are we going to play the guessing game forever?"

"You're the one who started the guessing game," Kurt pointed out, "I was ready to answer Hermione."

"Right," Ron shrank in his seat, "sorry."

"I wrote a research paper on Basilisks," Kurt explained, "It explored their physiology and I was able to present some pretty fresh samples to back up my claims, I also delved into their superior quality as wand materials."

"Wow," Ron fake snored, "that sounds really boring."

"I learnt so much in that library," Kurt's eyes were opened as wide as they would go without him losing an eyeball, "Like the fact that this wand." Kurt flashed his pale, perfectly cylindrical wand, "belonged to Harpo the Foul."

"Harpo the foul…" Hermione knitted her eyebrows as she tried to remember why that sounded so familiar to her, "the first known breeder of a Basilisk? How did you come by that knowledge?"

"Deduction," Kurt smiled brightly, "I was reading about… wand lore and I came across a portrait of him with it in his possession. He was Greek and Mr Ollivander did mention that his ancestors had acquired the wand in that region, he was a basilisk breeder and the wand's core is basilisk plume feather, and he lived at about the time that Mr Ollivander's ancestors migrated to the British Isles."

"But why would it choose you?" Neville quirked a curious brow.

"Why wouldn't it choose Kurt?" Luna countered, "Harpo the Foul was a parselmouth, just like Kurt. Kurt is also a pretty powerful wizard."

"So was Salazar Slytherin and it rejected him," Kurt pointed out.

"Kurt is pretty knowledgeable," Harry tried his hand at reasoning through it.

"As was Rowena Ravenclaw and it rejected her as well," Hermione smiled broadly.

"I'm going to say it and save us all a lot of time," Ron groaned, "it's because he is Kurt Elizabeth Hummel, deal with it."

"I love it when other people say it," Kurt smiled broadly.

"Don't gloat," Ron frowned, "just carry on with the story."

"I can't wait to go back but that research paper took me all year," Kurt pointed a teasing smile at Ron, "I don't know when I'll ever have time like I did last year to write another so I can go back."

"Last year, time was on your side," Hermione teased, before sighing in defeat, "I'm going to miss that."

"One of the things I learnt was that wizards used to study magic for twenty years before the invention of wands," Kurt began to explain, "the ability to perform every day spells flawlessly wandlessly was a skill that took a very long time to perfect, the White Lotus honours that by awarding those who master that feat the title of Grand Master."

"You're a Master," Hermione closed her eyes as if assimilating her thoughts, "how does one qualify for that title."

"There was a theoretical and practical test," Kurt flicked an imaginary stray hair out of his face, "the theory test was on the history of the Order of the White Lotus, their ethos and their traditions; the practical was on the wandless manipulation of fire, how you had personally developed the skill and control using the dancing we'd learnt in the second year and how your power had grown with your patience and discipline. Both tests were about how well you could link up the three summers of teaching translate them into your skill set."

Kurt chuckled, "To think it was Padma and Hermione that told me to look past the actions and see the intentions of the second summer. As I was meditating on it, my thoughts kept wondering back to dancing barefoot on ice and I couldn't for the life of me think of what the intention behind that might have been." He fixed his perfect hair, "last winter I went on to the lake the one day and did it again, ice burns. That's what I'd taken from it and that's how I figured that lowering the temperature of my flames so much so that they were closer to absolute zero would make them burn more intensely, thus the blue flames were born."

"But they warmed my face," Neville furrowed his brow in confusion, "if they're really cold then why are they warm?"

"It's complicated and scientifically nonsensical," Kurt shook his head, "the energy needed to create that extreme cold emits intense heat, it's kind of the intention."

"I guess this is the part where we should just not question it," Luna joked.

"But I have a question," Harry raised his hand.

Kurt supressed a giggle, "yes Harry."

"How do you have the flames coating your hand without burning you?" Harry gave him a searching look, "I remembered when you burned Draco's face the other year."

"That's perhaps the easiest question," Kurt smiled broadly, "When you use wandless magic your body becomes the instrument through which magic is channelled and in much the same way your wand doesn't catch fire when you cast a fire spell, your skin doesn't burn."

Hermione pursed her lips for a moment, "Magic doesn't act on the object that directs it, much like lightning doesn't act on a lightning rod."

Kurt smiled broadly, "Perfectly put."

"Now," Hermione preened at her victory, "I expect we'll be arriving soon, I suggest you all get changed into your school uniform and robes."

~0~

Kurt sat at the Slytherin long table as the first years were walked into the great hall in two straight lines; he remembered the day he had been in the same position, the day he met Hermione Granger. The memory of his first day at Hogwarts and being outshone by his future best friend was not one he would soon, or more accurately ever, forget. Kurt watched the small first years being called one by one, taking their place atop the stool and having the sorting hat placed on their heads. Kurt noted that none of them missed the chair but that would always be the mark he left on the sorting hat.

"Hummel," Draco sneered his name, "you left quite the impression on my grandmother."

"Old people generally love me," Kurt gave the fair haired boy a condescending smile, "it has something to do with me having manners."

"Manners wouldn't have saved you during the riot," Draco snapped, "they were making quite the show out of your kind, you must have been so afraid."

"I had no need to be afraid," Kurt smiled broadly, "I was with the brightest witch of the age and the best in our year." Kurt let his smile fall as he rose to his feet, "but your father told you all about that."

Kurt crossed the aisle to the Gryffindor table, before he could sit down his attention was drawn away from his friends by an exclamation of utter exhilaration, "Oh my god. Breathe, breathe, breathe."

"I think one of your first years is dying," Kurt whispered to Hermione.

A soaking wet child dressed in a fur coat so large it could only belong to Hagrid stood up and wondered over to where they were sitting, "I can't believe it's really you."

"No," Kurt chuckled, "just one of Harry's fans."

"You're Kurt Elizabeth Hummel," the small boy's eyes were wide as saucers as he squealed his words of glee, "and you're his best friend, Hermione Granger."

"This is new," Hermione raised a curious brow.

"Dennis Creevey," the boy extended a wet hand toward him, "a pleasure to meet a pair legends like yourselves, my brother has told me all about how you stay saving the day."

"You're all wet, you might catch a cold, what to do about that?" Kurt shook his slowly, he took a deep breath and blew warm gale force winds out of his lungs that dried the young boy like a super powered hairdryer. Kurt took the boy's hand, "it's a pleasure to meet you as well. You know, Dennis is one of my favourite names."

"That was bloody amazing," Dennis was vibrating from excitement, he turned over his shoulder to his brother, "did you see that Colin? My life has just been made, I'm ready to die now."

Kurt chuckled, "that's the most adorable thing ever."

"Did you hear that Colin?" the boy squealed gleefully as he bounced back to his seat, "I'm adorable!"

Hermione shook her head in disbelief, "and people think you're evil."

"Wait," Kurt's eyes shot open wide, "People only think I'm evil, I could have sworn I sent out a newsletter confirming it."

"I think you should consider sending out a newsletter every time you learn something cool," Ron suggested, "what you just did was amazing."

"I told you guys I was the nicest person you knew," Kurt shook his head with a chuckle, "and to think you didn't believe me."

"Nobody is going to believe that," Neville wagged a reproachful finger as he spoke, "but we appreciate you with all your flaws."

"Oh wow," Kurt's tone was flat, "thanks."

"Might I have your attention for a moment," Professor Dumbledore moved to his podium and the brass owl opened its wings, "I have a few start of term announcements. Firstly, Quidditch is cancelled for the year."

"This was supposed to be my year," Ginny groaned amongst a sea of protests.

"About time they got rid of that barbaric sport," Kurt smiled, goading his friends on.

"Before it tried to kill Harry for a fourth time," Hermione mirrored his smile.

"Secondly," Professor Dumbledore paid the protests no mind, "we will be undergoing slight renovations over the next month and as such the third floor corridor on the left side as well the unused dungeons will be out of bounds."

"What do you think 'renovations' is code for?" Ron hissed around their group, "I think we should go have a look after dinner."

Hermione rolled her eyes, "If you wait for him to finish you will find out it is not a code for anything."

"Likely story," Ron scoffed.

"These renovations lead me to the third announcement of the night," Professor Dumbledore spoke with a small smile on his weathered face, "this year our school will have the great honour of hosting the Triwizard Tournament. This will be the first time that such a tournament is held in over a century, the tournament is a great test of one's knowledge, strength and wills. Eternal glory awaits the wizard who shall win this tournament." The hall was filled with murmurs, "For the duration of the Tournament we will play host to Durmstrang Institute from Norway and Beauxbatons Academy from France, the renovations are preparations of chambers for our guests."

"Is this the big secret event?" Harry whispered in Kurt's ear.

"Yes," Kurt smiled broadly.

"How did you know?" Ron hissed at him.

"Santana mentioned it in a letter," Hermione smiled broadly.

Neville's face lit up, "Santana's coming?"

Kurt held a finger over his lips as the headmaster continued to speak, "The final announcement, this year we welcome Alastor Moody to the staff as our new Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts."

"Alastor Moody?" Harry furrowed his brow, "the Auror your father was talking about?"

"Damned if I know," Ron shrugged.

Hermione shrugged as well, "it would make sense to have a dark wizard catcher teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts."

There was a loud clap of thunder above and screams came from around the room. A man, Kurt had previously believed to be a wooden statue in the corner due to a skin condition, stepped forward and pointed his wand through the transparent ceiling at the clouds, clearing them. Professor McGonagall stood at the staff table, her anger evident in her facial expression, "that was completely uncalled for, have you never heard thunder before? Are you unfamiliar with the flash of lightning?"

"Thank you Professors McGonagall and Moody," Professor Dumbledore smiled at them both, Professor McGonagall had taken her seat and Professor Moody was taking in some liquid courage from a hip flask, "The rest of you best be off to bed so tomorrow you might be spooked by some sunlight."

~0~

"You're going to love Professor Moody's lesson," Cedric leaned down and nibbled at Kurt's ear lobe for a moment, "I can guarantee it."

"I won't know if you don't let me go," Kurt giggled, trying to keep his mind focused on the class he'd had to wait all weekend and all of Monday for, "I would love to stay here with you, we could spend your entire free period… tempting each other but Hermione would murder me if I missed class." Kurt let out a high pitched breath as Cedric teased at the nape of Kurt's neck with his teeth, "don't make me have to immobilize you."

Cedric chuckled and pulled Kurt into a deep kiss, "Go, I'll see you later."

"I love you," Kurt planted one last chaste Kiss on Cedric's cheek as they straightened each other's clothes, "and I'll see you later."

"I don't think anything makes me happier than being loved by you," Cedric smiled broadly leaning in for a last kiss.

Kurt stopped him in his tracks, "we're going to have to be happy together some other time." Kurt gestured to the classroom door over his shoulder, "I have to go be happy with someone else."

"Tell Hermione I said hi," Cedric held onto his hand as he walked away until they were too far to touch but even then he kept his hand extended in Kurt's direction.

"Mr Hummel," Professor Moody spoke as he faced the chalk board, writing his name, "you're late, I'll see you after class."

"I'm actually on time but sure," Kurt shrugged, slipping into the seat beside Hermione.

"What's that on your neck?" Hermione giggled girlishly.

"I slipped and fell in the bathtub," Kurt brought his hand up to cover the purple mark on his neck.

"You have one on both sides," Hermione teased.

Kurt cursed Cedric for marking him and wished he'd brought a scarf, "I was drunk and fell twice?"

"If memory serve, you prefer to shower," Hermione whispered in his ear.

"Fine," Kurt rolled his eyes, "they are hickeys, I have a boyfriend and we're really intimate right now; I'm not going to apologise for it."

"Don't," Hermione smiled broadly, "I think it's cute."

"I am Professor Moody, I will be teaching you Defence Against the Dark Arts because Dumbledore asked me to do it," The man stood imposingly at the front of the classroom, "end of question. Any questions?"

Ron raised his hand and Harry pulled it down, "he's being rhetorical."

"Right," Ron nodded, "rhetorical."

"Who can tell me how many Unforgivable Curses there are?" Kurt was flawed by how perky the man sounded as he spoke of the darkest magic still known to man. Kurt and Hermione raised their hands, "Yes, Mr Hummel."

"Three."

"And why are they unforgivable?" Hermione's hand stayed up, "Yes, Miss…"

"Granger, sir," she spoke calmly, "they are so named because the use of any of them on a human is an automatic life sentence in Azkaban."

"They were first classified as such in seventeen-seventeen due to their status as the most powerful and sinister spells in practice at the time," Kurt added.

"Well done, I've been told you were both quite precocious," Professor Moody turned and wrote on the board, "The ministry says I shouldn't show you what these curses do till NEWT level but I think differently, I think you need to know what to expect." He turned around and gazed around the class with a twitch of his tongue, "who can name the three curses? Mr Weasley, stand, let's hear it."

Ron got to his feet slowly, "I do know of one, my dad told me about the imperius curse."

"Oh, yes," Professor Moody nodded rigorously, "that one gave the ministry hell some time back." Professor Moody walked over to a jar on his desk and from it pulled out a large spider, "Imperio." There was a faint spray of rainbow coloured mist in the spider's direction and Professor Moody then began to wave his wand around; the spider responded according, moving in time with what Kurt supposed to be the man's thought. The spider bounced around the classroom spreading panic and causing havoc before the man summoned it back to him, "The mind controlling spell. Countless wizards have claimed that they only did You-Know-Who's bidding under the influence of the imperius curse, the question is how do we separate the liars from those telling the truth?"

"Was this before the invention of veritus serum?" Kurt spoke sarcastically and rolled his eyes.

"The next curse," Professor Moody looked around the classroom, "who knows it?" Neither Kurt nor Hermione raised their hands, "Mr Longbottom, stand up."

Kurt and Hermione looked over at Neville in disbelief, the boy spoke in a voice barely above a whisper, "The… The cruciatus curse."

"Oh yes," Professor Moody replied as if being reminded of an old song he once loved, "that one brings back a memory or two." He pointed his wand at the spider, "Crucio." There was a faint red glow and the spider buckled under the pain, letting out a high pitched cry- Kurt didn't even know ordinary spiders made sounds.

"Stop it," Hermione cried out; Kurt was pulled out of his transfixed trance and his gaze followed Hermione's to Neville, who was clearly bothered by the man's actions, "Stop."

Professor Moody noticed the result of his actions and desisted, he stepped up to Kurt and Hermione's desk and placed the spider in front of Hermione, "Would you like to give me the last curse Ms Granger?" Hermione shook her head angrily, "Avada Kedavra." The spider fell dead as if sleeping, "the killing curse, unstoppable and nobody has survived to tell the tale after being on the receiving end of this curse. No one except for one, and he's sitting in this room."

"Didn't even take half the lesson for this to become about Harry Potter," Draco sneered.

"We'll be ending it there," Professor Moody sent a pointed accusing look in Draco's direction, "All of you, get out." Kurt began to pack his books, "not you Mr Hummel, you sit there."

Kurt watched his friends get up and leave in irritation but none the less sat quietly, waiting for Professor Moody to speak to him. Kurt watched the man drag Neville into his office, they disappeared for five minutes and Kurt wondered what they were talking about; he briefly considered listening in but thought better of it. When they emerged from the adjacent office Neville was smiling and had a large book in his hands, he waved merrily at Kurt on his way out of the classroom.

"Now, Mr Hummel," the man leaned on the large oak desk before Kurt's much smaller student desk, "Professor Dumbledore has given me the freedom to interview potentially problematic students."

"You're wasting your time with me," Kurt smiled broadly, "I'm a model student; I'm almost top of my year and I've saved this school from certain destruction."

"So, I've been told," the man took a drink out of his flask, "but given your background, I hope you don't mind entertaining me."

"And what background might that be?" Kurt chuckled, "my dangerous Islington upbringing?"

"You feign ignorance," the man raised a brow, it looked unnatural on his stiff skin, "I understand why? It's terrible what they did."

"What who did?" Kurt was caught unawares by the statement, "I'm not known for my ignorance, some might say I know everything."

"Yet you don't know what your own parents did?" The man gave him an accusatory glare, he probably expected Kurt to shrink under the scrutiny but Kurt sat up proudly.

Kurt's voice was laced in anger and condescent as he shot back his reply, "The only thing I know about my parents is that they abandoned me."

"Then allow me to educate you," the man leaned forward and Kurt could smell garlic on his breath, "I have reason to question you because you are the son of imprisoned Death Eaters Bellatrix and Rudolphus LeStrange."

I hope you liked it and I love to hear from you! Please try to refrain from mention that Kurt is the son of Bellatrix and Rudolphus LeStrange directly in reviews for the benefit of others. In case you're wondering, it came to me in a dream.