Friday passed by without much event; Tucker got his foot caught in a vanishing step while walking under the Invisibility Cloak and McGonagall gave Harry and Hermione quite a bit of homework, but beyond that, not much went by. Friday night Hermione had taken all of her homework up to Sam's room (she needed one of her old books for Transfiguration) and the two poured over every aspect of the subject, so much that it was hard to believe Sam wasn't a wizard herself. Tucker had managed to get a Quidditch game on the wizard's wireless, so he and Ron listened to that. Ron went into long explanations about every manoeuvre and tactic being used, lasting right until the end of the game. After the game Ron tried to pick up any songs by the Weird Sisters, leading to another music debate between them.

"They're using real instruments, for crying out loud!" Danny heard Tucker shout through the wall, "Get with the times, man!"

"Maybe the times for you Muggles, but here, there's nothing wrong with using a tin whistle or a bhodrán!"

"You ever heard the stuff we can crank out on an electric guitar or synthesiser!? Get down with it, yo!" it was almost frightening how much he sounded like Mr. Lancer at that moment. Danny quickly moved away from the wall and over to where he had left the Marauder's Map.

"Stubborn, aren't they?" Harry commented. He had stopped by Danny's room, though still wanting to wait until tomorrow before he taught him any magic.

"Yep," Danny didn't even look up as he moved one fold of the map off to the side.

----

Saturday morning started with the sounds of electric shocks and shouting waking Danny. He slowly climbed out of bed, walking over to the wall between his and Tucker's rooms. The sounds were coming from there. With a yawn, Danny walked through the wall to find Tucker on the floor, going through the wires of his electronics and trying to attach them to the wizard's wireless.

"Tucker, what are you doing?" Danny asked in a half-tired, half-annoyed voice. Tucker jumped back, screaming, and accidentally gave himself a shock with a wire.

"Use the door from now on!" he shouted, "I'm trying..." a knock came at the door; it was Sam, with bags under her eyes and her hair all over the place.

"Care to explain the noise?" she yawned.

"I'm trying something," Tucker said, "Maybe if I hook up my sounds to this thing, the electricity will be turned into magic and I can play some real music on this thing!"

"Tucker, I don't think that's gonna..." Tucker gave himself another shock.

"Darn it! I'll get this to work if it's the last thing I..." another shock.

"It's not gonna work, is it?" Danny said as Tucker continued to work.

"Nope," Sam yawned again, "Well, we won't get any sleep now. Dobby left breakfast by my room today. Hungry?"

"Yeah, let's eat. Need a break, Tuck?" he didn't answer, "Guess not."

----

After a full morning of going over McGonagall's homework, needing Hermione's help on several points, Harry was more than relieved to get down to the Great Hall for lunch. Hermione had brought down the Daily Prophet, finishing it off from the morning. There was nothing to suggest any activity by the Death Eaters, and now that everyone had begun settling back into life at Hogwarts, that topic had died down considerably.

"You're lucky you haven't got Binns this year," Ron was saying through bites of his food, "Full essay on Grindelwald and he's as dull as ever. I wish I hadn't passed that on my O.W.L. either."

"Ron!" Hermione snapped.

"And the midgets are always asking where the classes are," he waved his hand over to where a couple of first-years were sitting.

"Don't call them midgets!"

"They're titchy!" Hermione groaned in aggravation but said nothing else. Lunch passed by quickly after that, with everyone heading back outside or to their common rooms.

"Hey! Harry!" Harry looked over. Katie was coming towards them, "Ready to go?"

"Oh – yeah," he grabbed his things, said "See you" to Ron and Hermione, and followed Katie to the Transfiguration classroom, where McGonagall sat going over some papers. She still had her walking stick from the end of last year, but she had been moving much better.

"Yes?" she said as they walked in.

"We wanted to talk to you, Professor," Katie started, "About Quidditch this year."

"Ah, yes. We'll be needing a new captain this year."

"That's what we wanted to ask about. Harry and I – we both wanted to see about being captain."

"Is that so?" McGonagall straightened herself out in her chair, "Well, let's see then. Ms. Bell, you've been on the team your whole time at Hogwarts and have proven yourself very adept at the sport. Potter, you've been one of the finest Seekers I've seen, but I must say – do you think you can handle your temper this year?"

"Is Umbridge coming back to see a match?" he asked lightly. Katie laughed quietly, and McGonagall actually smiled.

"I trust neither of you would have a problem if the other got the position?" they both shook their heads, "Well then – I'll have to appoint Ms. Bell. Sorry, Potter," she had noticed Harry's slight look of disappointment, "I'd been thinking about it over the summer, and she's been vouched for by Ms. Johnson and Ms. Spinnet. Was that all?" Katie nodded, "Off you go then," Katie strolled out of the room, but Harry stayed behind.

"Yes, Potter?" McGonagall asked once Katie had left.

"Yeah. Er – did Dumbledore tell you – the rooms out-of-bounds this year –"

"He did."

"Right. About that – do you have a spare wand?" she stared at him fixedly for a moment, her eyebrows raised. Finally –

"Very well then, Potter," she drew her wand from her robes, said "Accio, wand," and an old darkwood wand flew into her other hand.

"Don't get too carried away, Potter," she handed it to him, "Or someone will be bound to notice. There's a more spacey room three doors down the corridor you can use."

"Thanks," he took it, and headed out of the room himself.

----

After trying all morning and giving himself several burns on his hands, Tucker had finally given up on attempting to play any of his music on the wizard's wireless, instead going with Danny to Sam's room for lunch. Ron and Hermione had come up earlier, and the five of them were now sitting around, Hermione and Sam discussing Hermione's organisation S.P.E.W. (Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare), and Ron showing Danny and Tucker some diagrams of Quidditch plays. A knock came at the door; it was Harry.

"Hey," Danny greeted him.

"Ready to try some magic?" Harry handed him McGonagall's old wand.

"Right now?"

"I said this weekend, didn't I?" everyone's attention was now on them. Danny looked at the wand for a moment, grinned, and went ghost.

"Let's do it."

"Right. There's a room down the corridor we can use later, but for now we can practice in here. First, just to make sure this'll work –" he tried to think of a really simple spell, "Try this," he waved his wand and said the word "Lumos." A white light formed at the end of his wand, narrow and flashlight-like.

"Lumos," Danny repeated, waving his wand. A light appeared at the end of his wand. His light was a bit dimmer and tinted green, but he had done it.

"Awesome!" Danny smiled, and Tucker and Sam looked impressed.

"Good. And to get rid of it – Nox," he flicked his wand, and the light vanished. Danny did the same.

"Is the Marauder's Map still in your room?" Harry asked.

"Yeah. I'll go get it," he walked through the walls and came back with the map in his hand.

"Just one other test, or whatever word fits," Harry took the map, tapped it with his wand, and said "Mischief managed." The entire contents of the map vanished, the ink seeming to sink back into the parchment.

"How'd you do that?" Tucker asked. Harry handed the map back to Danny.

"Tap it with your wand and say 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.'" Danny did so, and the map reappeared.

"Okay," Harry grinned, "So far so good. Let's go to that other room now. I think you're ready to try some other spells," he led Danny out the room and down the corridor. Tucker and Ron followed, and after a bit of deciding, Sam and Hermione set down their things and went with them. Three doors down the corridor they found a large, spacey room, completely empty and pretty dark. Tucker grabbed two torches from the corridor and placed them in the room.

"Right," Harry took off his cloak and rolled up his sleeves, "You want to start with rudimentary spells and charms or things that'll help with your powers?"

"The second one," Danny said. He hoped their was some kind of silencing spell; he could use it the next time he ran into Technus or The Box Ghost.

"Thought so. All right – Ron?" Ron snapped to attention, looking a bit nervous, "Can you come over here?" the worry in his look increased, but he pulled out his wand and dragged himself over so he was a few feet across from Harry, as if they were about to have a duel.

"This is pretty basic, you should be able to do it – the Disarming Spell," he aimed his wand at Ron, who closed his eyes, and shouted, "Expelliarmus!" a jet of scarlet light shout out of Harry's wand, sending Ron's wand flying and knocking Ron himself back a few steps; he lost his balance on one and fell over.

"Sorry," Harry walked over and helped Ron up, "Well...that's the spell. Don't worry if you can't do it, a lot of people had problems with it last year and we learned it back in our second year. So, you want to try it?" Danny nodded, but he didn't feel too confident now. They learned it in their second year and were still having problems with it three years later?

"Ready?" he vaguely heard Harry say. He stood across from him and raised up his wand.

"Expelliarmus!" Danny had expected nothing to happen, or a faint red spark to fall out of the wand; what he did not expect was a swirling green-yellow jet to fire out and knock Harry's wand to the ceiling, hitting with a shower of green and yellow sparks and falling to the floor with a clatter. Harry, Ron, and everyone else looked just as taken aback as he did; Harry did a double-take, looking at Danny in disbelief.

"Bloody hell!" Ron exclaimed.

"Wow..." Danny stared at his wand, "Guess...guess all my practice with my ghost powers helped?" he laughed, half in awe, half in worry.

"'K," Harry said, still looking shocked, "Looks like you can do that all right. Let's try...Shielding Charms," he walked over to retrieve his wand, "They only work on minor curses, but..."

"I've got a ghost-power like that already," Danny said, "I don't know if it works with magic, though."

"Want to try it out?" Danny nodded, "Right. Get ready," Harry raised his wand, "Expelliarmus!" the scarlet light shot of his wand, and Danny waved his hands, forming the thin ectoplasmic shield in front of him. The second the beam hit, both the shield and the spell seemed to be sucked into Danny's wand. Not knowing what else to do, Danny fired the spell back at Harry.

"Protego!" the jet of light, now a mix of red and green, came back towards Danny again; this time, he raised a dome-shaped barrier around himself, and the spell just dissolved into it.

"Brilliant," Harry grinned, "You want to keep at it?"

"You bet!" they started again. Ron and Tucker still had their mouths hanging open in shock; Sam and Hermione were smiling.

"Another Harry (Danny)" they said at once.

Thus, we end the characters stating the parallels between the trios. Still wanting more action? It's coming!