"Why is it that I am always hauled in here? Is it because I'm American? Because I'm sure there are laws about that sort of thing." Herido found himself once more in Dumbledore's office, this time joined by the old man, Snape, Quirrell and Hagrid, the latter looking more and more uncomfortable the longer Heri looked at him. There was nothing threatening about the look, but having Addams' constant attention was unnerving, never mind that the boy never seemed to blink.

"Not at all Mr Addams, I believe it has more to do with your involvement in so many worrying events… Herido?" Dumbledore tried to bring the boys focus to him, but he just kept staring at the half-giant.

"Professor?" Heri returned to show he was listening. The headmaster shifted ever so slightly.

"Hagrid, thank you for your time, I believe we can take it from here." Relieved by the dismissal, he quickly nodded and made his way to the door, feeling eyes on him the whole time, and just before leaving he turned to look into the room once more to find Herido turned in his seat staring straight at him, those wide excited eyes and ever so slight smile making his blood freeze.

As soon as the man left Heri sat back with a quiet chuckle to himself before looking up to Dumbledore, who sighed heavily.

"Hagrid is a good man." He said gravely. He couldn't imagine this boy harming a member of staff… oh who was he kidding, he absolutely could, but he hoped he wasn't so stupid as to try, nevertheless he did have a duty of care to them all and had to make sure Hagrid would be safe from any retribution.

"I think you're confused; Hagrid's a nice man. 'Good' is an altogether more elusive creature. Don't you find that?" The three men watched the boy. Snape was here as his Head of House and Quirrell as DADA professor. Dumbledore took a breath to respond before snapping his mouth closed for a moment. The boy had previously scoffed at any discussion of good and bad: that he was now bringing it up could only be meant as a distraction, and he'd nearly fallen for it, eager as he was to engage the boy on the subject.

"It would have been negligent of him not to report what he knew of last night's events, especially as students were harmed." Heri just waved his hand as if to say '…and?' as though he didn't even know why this was being discussed. Dumbledore decided to try a more straightforward approach and hardened his voice. "Hagrid claims you threatened him, should he reveal what you were all up to last night."

Heri's face was the picture of offence.

"That's a vicious rumour and a wicked lie!" He cried. "There was an explosion in the forest last night; the poor man must have hit his head. So sad to see. It's funny what a simple blow to the head can do to a person, isn't it?" Heri forgot about being offended as he contemplated this with a dark smile. "Confusion, memory loss, even changes to personality. If the damage is extensive enough you can completely lose your mind…"

"Herido." The old man interrupted: he couldn't let this go on. "Hagrid is fine. He has been checked over by Mme Pomfrey and given the all-clear." Heri just continued to smile.

"Well, sometimes symptoms don't manifest until a while after the blow." Voldemort wanted to applaud the boy. This eleven year old was threatening Dumbledore's friend to his face in a way that precluded accusation. "Perhaps you could enlighten me as to what I have been accused of saying?"

"Perhaps we could move on, Headmaster?" Snape suggested, thinking that this was going nowhere fast. Dumbledore was just going to have to make provision to keep Hagrid away from the boy.

"Very well, we'll put that to one side for now. It would appear that you and your friends ran amok in the forest, damaging both flora and fauna with the use of dark spells."

"Let me put your mind at ease: I didn't even draw my wand last night." And therefore can't be held responsible, he left unsaid.

"Here in Britain we have very strict laws restricting the use of dark spells…"

"Mmm, in America too." Herido added helpfully, already seeing where this was going and shutting down the man's case as he made it.

"I don't believe they gained knowledge of the spells they were using last night on their own…"

"You're probably right. They aren't that proactive, except maybe Hermione." Heri interrupted again.

"Mr Addams!" Dumbledore was getting tired of this already. "Have you been teaching your friends dark magic?" Heri responded with a single laugh, before waving a hand dismissively.

"I have exams coming up. Hermione has every spare moment of our time blocked out for studying." Ok, so those two things weren't necessarily linked, but the implication was that they were.

"Have you been studying dark magic together?" Damn it, he should have known the man couldn't be thrown off so easily.

"Were the spells used last night particularly dark?" Heri directed his question to Quirrell.

"I-It w-wasn't clear what had b-b-een used specifically. There w-was a re-remnant of light and, and dark magic in the a-area."

"So," Heri made a point to look thoughtful, channelling Columbo. "It might have been that while they were all playing, some of them got carried away and strayed into using darker hexes and such to prank their friends? Such things aren't illegal are they?"

"It was darker than that, Mr Addams, I would not have made issue of it if I thought it were merely…"

"Did Hagrid tell you there is something in the forest that's been hunting Unicorns? Could it not be that this, no doubt dark creature, left trace magics behind?" Heri was enjoying this greatly. The old man's grandfatherly façade, not that he used much of it with Heri anyway, had been completely stripped away during this conversation. He was mildly surprised it was so easy to rile him.

"Hagrid claims to have seen several spells cast that were…"

"And is the grounds keeper an expert on dark magic, like Professor Quirrell?"

"Well no, but it doesn't take an expert to see…"

"Because the man doesn't even have a wand, which suggests to me that he never finished school, and honestly professor, having spent a little time with him, I'm not sure his strength lies in traditional magics." Dumbledore's jaw was set in a hard line by now.

"Mr Addams, if you could stop interrupting we…"

"Ok." Heri crossed his arms and looked down to the side in a purposely childish jester.

"If you could stop interrupting, perhaps we could move on to…"

"It's just that I'm feeling a little persecuted here." Heri muttered to himself, but loud enough for everyone to hear. Quirrell had to bite his tongue hard enough to make it bleed. He'd been nervous about attending a meeting that could be expose him, but this was brilliant. Herido could easily cry persecution at this point, and anyone hearing the previous conversation would agree with him.

Snape could see how annoyed his employer was getting and couldn't fail to notice his terse words. It was only his brilliant Occlumency skills that prevented him from laughing. He couldn't even think about how he should still be mad at the boy.

Dumbledore had to take a long steadying breath. To think that he'd once thought the boy was easy to get on with.

"You discovered a dead unicorn," He was all business now. "Did you see the creature that attacked it?"

"No, I didn't see any creature." Voldemort decided he liked this boy; he hadn't had this much fun in forever. And nobody even died.

"It's strange how none of your friends could remember what happened."

"Ah, see! Blows to the head are tricky."

"What caused the explosion?"

"That was a simple accident. I was looking for snacks and carelessly discarded several items in my search. The dynamite caps caught fire, the dynamite exploded" Ah so the boy was capable of giving a straight answer.

"You must surely know that weapons are strictly prohibited at Hogwarts." Dumbledore saw an opportunity here. It was an obvious breach of school rules.

"It's not a weapon, it's a construction aid."

"And did you believe you would be doing much construction at Hogwarts? Did you not think dynamite would have been on the list if it was needed?" He spoke slowly now to stop himself shouting.

"I wasn't aware of the entire Hogwarts curriculum, nor whether any time would be set aside for personal projects; it never hurts to be prepared."

The headmaster took moment to think. Were this any other student he would simply expel him, but he really couldn't avoid to start a fight with the Addams family on inference and hear-say. He would never have support for such an endeavour for a start. On top of that two of his friends had parents on the school board that would no doubt take advantage of the situation, stepping in on Herido's behalf to earn favour with his parents. He couldn't really see an expulsion holding.

"Severus, would you take Mr Addams back to his dorm."

Snape was the one to break the silence as they walked to the dungeons.

"I thought it might interest you to know that your friends' wands were tested to discover the last spells cast." Heri looked askance.

"Oh?"

"Eight lumos."

"Yes, well, that makes sense since they were walking in a forest at night." He smiled at the thought of his friends conspiring to hide evidence. Snape smirked down at him. Like those idiots would even consider the possibility of their wands being checked.

When they reached the entrance to the common room, Snape took Heri's upper arm, causing the boy to raise an eyebrow in an 'are-you-mad?' way.

"Don't expect me to cover for you again." Heri's eyes widened as the man turned and left. Well damn.

Even Draco shared Heri's surprise when he shared what Snape had done for them, but all of his friends were more shocked that their little adventure in the woods resulted in no consequences.

"I told you," Heri said, "punishments are only for getting caught."

Heri sat in an armchair before the roaring fire of the common room, a package from home to his right. He'd been sitting in the same position for over an hour now, not that any of his house mates had attempted to rouse him. All his friends had been rounded up by Hermione to study, and though they moaned, now that exams were upon them, they were glad of all the extra effort they'd put in.

He was staring at a coin hovering a few inches above his right palm, flicking it with his thumb every now and then to make it spin.

He just couldn't decide what to do about Voldemort.

His initial reaction to the idea of the Dark Lord's imminent return had been burning excitement. Really, he was overjoyed the man would be rising once more while he was in the country to witness it. He could only assume it would be massively entertaining, especially if his suspicions about his sanity were right. They'd be lucky if anyone in the UK was left standing.

But then he started to think about how things would progress. At some point he'd have to give asylum to most of his friends and that would be a bore. More importantly though, he would only be able to watch. He wasn't ready to play on the same field as Voldemort and if he couldn't play, he didn't think anyone else should either.

It all came down to whether his impatience was stronger than his desire to be involved. It was a maddening decision and he couldn't even ask his brother and sister for advice because he already knew they would want Voldemort set loose just to see where the pieces fell.

Oh, but Pugsley had already helped, Heri realised. He'd told him he thought too much.

He flipped the coin with his thumb once more, only this time he let it fly up and caught it easily. He didn't need to agonise about what to do, he'd let luck decide. He lifted his hand to reveal heads.

"Heri, what's with the box?" Daphne asked at breakfast a few weeks later. The wooden object the size of a shoe box had arrived just before the start of exams and now he was waiting for the mail to come to send it back. Heri never had to go the owlery to send letters – one of the Addams birds always seemed to know when it was needed and came to him. She wondered why he was sending it back at all – why not wait until they all went home and take it himself?

"Isn't that one of Thing's boxes?" Ron asked. "Is he here?"

"Hmm," Heri replied. "It's a Vanishing Box." At the blank looks he continued, seeing no harm in it. "It's like a vanishing cabinet, but much smaller. Thing has a whole network of them at home, it enables him to move around the house quickly."

"But why do you have one here?" Hermione asked. She was probably the only other person present who knew what a Vanishing Cabinet was, and that was only because she'd researched Thing's boxes after her stay with the Addams'.

"Oh, it just seemed like the easiest way of getting the Philosopher's Stone out of the castle." Neville spat a spray of milk clear across the table and the others were speechless for a moment, before all taking at once.

"What?"

"The Philosopher's Stone?"

"What do you mean?"

"How could you go down there without us?! What else was there?" Draco was actually very upset about this. Yes, he'd figured out what the three-headed dog was guarding after ruminating on the whispers between Hermione and Herido way back before Halloween.

"Wait! Is that why Dumbledore has been so distracted lately?" Blaise asked, looking to the head table and the tired looking headmaster.

Dumbledore was indeed disturbed. He'd set up several monitoring wards around the Stone, just to give him a heads-up should anyone find their way to it, but something went wrong. His alarms had indeed gone off and he rushed to intercept whoever was down there, only he arrived to find the place empty and the Stone gone with no clue as to who had taken it. A thorough search of the castle and its lands had been arranged using every method he knew of to locate the damn thing, but it was truly gone. Upon further investigation it seemed that nobody had been in or out of the castle at the time and nobody was acting any differently. To say he'd been embarrassed by the whole saga was an understatement.

"Professor? You asked to see me?" Heri enter the DADA classroom to find Quirrell pacing, a little hunched over and clearly in some pain. At hearing the boy enter, he turned to look at him with something like desperation.

"Addams," well, something had changed. "It's been a while since we had a chat."

"Oh, I wasn't aware you'd missed me." He sat on one of the front row desks and watched the nervous wreck of a man for a moment before deciding to be honest. It was almost the end of the year after all. "In truth, I rather thought our talks had run their course. I was enthralled by what you had to share about your master, but you, yourself are rather average. No offence." The man grimaced. "Although, you look rather ill right now. What have you been up to?" Maybe the man had something of interest to add after all.

"Sometimes," he said, looking more subdued with every word, "I find it hard to follow my master's instructions – he is a great wizard and I am weak – "

Heri nodded in earnest. "Exactly my point. You alone bore me." Quirrell shivered.

"Ah, but I am never alone. I have let my master down many times. He has had to be very hard on me." He looked up at Herido with a wonderfully haunting gaze. "He does not forgive mistakes easily." Damn it! Heri thought, it was like the man was purposefully reminding him of how awesome Voldemort was just to make him question his actions.

"Do tell." Heri eventually decided he might as well sit back and enjoy torturing himself with regret. There was nothing to be done about it now.

Unfortunately, Quirrell didn't seem to want to entertain today.

"There's no time for that now Addams, tell me, do you have the Stone?" It wasn't like he didn't know the question was coming.

"What Stone?" No! Voldemort thought – it was funny with Dumbledore, but he was not about to play this game with the boy! His high voice broke like wind chill through the classroom.

"Let me speak to him… face to face…" Herido watched with growing anticipation as Quirrell reached up and began to unwrap his turban – the professor had been victim of his master's wrath since learning the Stone was gone and was not about to disobey such a simple order.

Heri broke into a wide grin when the… face, of Voldemort was revealed. Two faces on one head! The man really was a character!

"Herido Addams…" the face whispered.

"Lord Voldemort." Heri stood to greet the man; it was only polite after all. "Wait, have you been there this whole time?"

"Yes… see what I have become?"

"So cool." Heri said quietly, though Voldemort heard and was a tad confused – he hadn't been expecting that reaction, even from Addams.

"Once I have the Elixir of Life, I will be able to create a body of my own… so why don't you just hand it over?" Voldemort really was an evil git, this was so difficult, but Heri had flipped a coin and it defeated the object if you went against its decision.

"I don't have the Stone, sir." He said with a shrug.

"Liar!" Voldemort snarled suddenly, surprising Heri who thought they were having a pleasant enough conversation. Heri's eyes watered at the sudden pain that flared to life behind his scar, but this time he just about managed to stay upright. "I know you have it! Give it to me, and together we can take this world for the Dark!"

"Truly, I don't." Heri insisted, his voice a little shaky, which Voldemort mistook for dishonesty and order Quirrell to seize him.

The pain became blinding once again as Quirrell advanced on him, and as Heri raised a hand to bat the man away wandlessly, his wrist was caught. Both Herido and Quirrell let out a shocked cry from the pain they felt from that simple action and jumped a few paces away from each other. The pain in Heri's head was much more manageable at this distance.

"Ok," He started with a ragged breath as he looked up into the furious eyes of Voldemort, "I think we need to establish a no touching rule!"

"Seize him! SEIZE HIM!" Voldemort shrieked again. "I need that Stone!" Heri easily avoided being touched this time, having worked through enough of the pain to move. If he'd had any remaining doubts about the man's sanity, they were well and truly crushed now. If Voldemort were thinking clearly, surely he'd know the pathetic wizard had no chance against him… or maybe that was Heri's own pride talking.

"Master, I cannot…"

"Then kill him you fool!" Ok, no, definitely crazy. Seeing no way of talking this out, Heri decided to make the most of it and took out his wand – time to practice what he'd learnt this year.

"Spongify!" Heri looked at the rubbery floor and shook his head. He could admit he hadn't thought that one through. But, he thought as he effortlessly dodged an attack from Quirrell, there wasn't really much Hogwarts taught that helped when being attacked by a homicidal maniac.

Quirrell advanced on him again, but this time Heri held his ground and brought up his wand. He watched his former professor do the same and smiled. Heri wouldn't block, chicken was always fun.

Heri was quicker off the mark in casting – grateful for his upbringing that gave him such an edge over an experienced wizard.

"Diffindo!" Heri sent an overpowered severing charm at the man before the words of his killing curse had even finished forming. He walked over to Quirrell's head, several feet away from his body, watched in fascination as the lips continued to move in a manner Heri thought resembled a fish and decided he was altogether pleased with the situation. Ok, technically the spell had come from Hermione making him read ahead, but it was still a nice light Hogwarts friendly spell. His repertoire of light spells paled into insignificance in relation to his other magics, but wanted to have it all and this proved that he could use those lighter spells and wand magic just as easily as any other. Unfortunately, it seemed he still hadn't learned how to give warnings.

Hearing a sound like rushing wind, he turned to witness Voldemort's spirit rising free of Quirrell's body. Oh, he'd actually forgotten about him, too wrapped up in enjoying his small victory. He held up his hands as the darkness turned to him.

"I think we can both agree that was self-defence." But it was no good, and before he knew it he passed out, his soft smile facing Quirrell's frozen look of horror.

"I can't believe you got away with it again!" Neville said as he helped himself to trifle from his seat at the Slytherin table.

"Again?" Heri asked honestly, "I don't think I've ever killed a professor before." He was pretty sure he'd remember if he had.

"That's not what he meant." Draco defended.

"There was nothing to get away with!" Hermione stated with an amused smile. Everyone agreed she was a lot nicer to be around once exams were finished. "It was proven that a teacher attacked Herido with dark magic, what else could he do?"

While they settled into a discussion about all the wicked things Heri could have done, the twins joined them.

"All done." They happily declared with grins that screamed trouble.

"What have you idiots been up to now?" Ron asked, only half caring.

"Don't be so mean, little brother…"

"We were merely doing a favour for a friend." They smiled at Heri and Daphne groaned, but leaned in with everyone else to hear what they'd been up to.

Dumbledore had made it impossible for Herido to get anywhere near Hagrid without exposing himself outright, so he'd drafted in some help. Among the goodies uncle Fester had gifted the twins was enough Devil's Breath to last them the year. Heri wasn't sure exactly how they'd used the rest of it, but they had just enough left to help him. The powder, once blown into someone's face, makes them highly suggestable, meaning you can persuade them to do just about anything, after which they don't remember a thing. Fester had given it to the twins so they could distance themselves from any pranks that could get them into serious trouble, but Herido needed it to gain access to the half-giant. Apparently the twins had used the Head Girl to delivery Heri's gift – nobody would suspect her.

The evening proceeded peacefully for a while. Slytherin had won both the House and Quidditch Cups and everyone was even more scared of Herido than they'd been before. He just hoped they all calmed down over the summer, or next year wasn't going to be any fun at all.

Heri was starting to worry their plan had failed when a scream lit up the Great Hall. The commotion that followed drew everyone's attention to the Head Table, were Hagrid was pawing at his face and the smooth skin where his mouth should have been. Heri smirked. He would have preferred the personal touch, but he supposed this was a good enough example of what happens to people who can't keep their mouths shut. He'd used a curse he'd been given as a birthday gift years ago and had no idea how to undo it. He hoped it would take Dumbledore a long time to figure out what to do and wondered how wizards took nutrients when they were nil-by-mouth.

"You can be really scary sometimes." Blaise said at the look of glee on Herido's face.

"The beast is lucky to be alive!" Draco scoffed.

After enjoying the man's distress, Heri watched his friends discuss their plans for summer. He supposed being away at school had been fun after all, and could only hope something would turn up to try and kill him next year as well.

So that's it for part two! I hope you enjoyed.

Thank you to everyone for reading, following, favoriting and reviewing, and I hope you'll stick with me for part three. xxxx