Chosha's Notes

Helloooooo and welcome back to Celestin everyone, or if this is your first time reading it, welcome to the fic! I want to tell you that all votes are now officially CLOSED. As in, no more votes on either one, all right? I'm not going to tell you which one it is, so you'll have to just read and find out, all right? Good. Now, please, don't let me make you wait any longer – on with the fic!

Disclaimer: just a reminder, so I don't get sued. I do not own Harry Potter. All rights belong to JK Rowling, to which all copyright etc is reserved. This applies to all chapters previous and upcoming.

Last time on Celestin

Celestin made his way to Hogwarts to confer with Albus about becoming a student at the school and Albus, who now knows all about Celestin, promises to help out by letting him in to Hogwarts and arranging to help Celestin gain a new trick – the animagus ability.

Chapter Six

Return of Potter

'So, things went well, I take it?'

Celestin glanced up from the chess game he had been playing to look into the amber eyes of his mentor and friend. They were sitting in one of Alric manor's many sitting rooms a little after sundown. The fire in the harth blazed, curtsey of Bede, and several candles were lit as well, spilling a soft glow onto the chessboard the two figures had been concentrating on that seemed, to say the least, rather jumbled. The Vampire was sitting lazily on the crimson coach opposite him; his pale, elegantly chiselled mouth was curved into a semi-smile as he looked over at the green-eyed assassin. Celestin smiled in return as he registered the question.

'As well as I hoped it would. If all goes as planned, I'll not only be in prime position against Voldemort, but I'll also be able to gain a few more tricks to hide up my sleeves.' He said in return, moving the knight to his chosen location.

Marius chuckled as he brushed away the long fringe from a golden eye with an elegant hand. 'So you will, my young friend.' He answered, moving another chess piece on the board. 'Though I am somewhat surprised it went so well. Albus may be willing to help with things like this, but he does tend to be something of a meddlesome old goat, even when he was a younger man. But that's to be expected.'

He glanced at Celestin, who was now frowning at the board, contemplating his next move. Marius had always insisted on playing chess with his charge, not just because he enjoyed the game, but because it was also good practice in strategy – something that Celestin would use a lot when it came to assassinations. And it was very good practice for him, even more so when the pawns you ordered could argue back at you. Still, Celestin always found himself at a loss trying to make sense of the chaotic board, and Marius' seemingly random moves. Plus the fact was that out of all strategy games, Chess was not the boy's favourite.

'I suppose you have made all the arrangements?' Marius continued.

'Uh-huh,' Celestin said, pulling out a parchment envelope from the inside of his brown coat slung over the back of the armchair and slapped it down on the polished wooden table. 'What I'll need to maintain my cover are all there, so it is likely I'll be heading off to Diagon alley again within the next few days. Plus there is also the train ticket from platform nine and three quarters for September 1st.' He smiled, his eyes glittering mischievously. 'I'm looking forward to it.'

Marius shot him an amused look. 'I'm sure you are. You certainly enjoy causing chaos.'

'A habit I picked up from you, no doubt,' he chortled.

They fell silent again as Marius ordered his knight to decapitate one of Celestin's bishops. Celestin looked up at the vampire from under his fringe. There seemed to be tenseness around his shoulders, a harness about the cat-like eyes. However, they were so well hidden that if Celestin hadn't been looking for them and didn't know the man as well as he did, he might have overlooked them. He sighed and looked into Marius' eyes. 'You're worried, though, aren't you?'

Marius raised an eyebrow in surprise. After a moment, he shook his head, his eyes softening as he looked into Celestin's face. 'We cannot predict everything, try as we might.' He said softly, 'It is impossible to predict the consequences of any action. While you're at Hogwarts, it will be close to impossible to get into contact with you at short notice, especially with the new security measures they have been taking since the world cup and with the mail being checked all messages will have to be encoded. You will, in almost every way, be on your own in there. I cannot help but worry a little, because in every way that matters, you are a son to me.'

Celestin gave him a reassuring smile. 'It can't be helped. But worrying about things that might happen isn't going to help us. You know that.'

'It never makes it any less hard to bare.'

Celestin sighed, hiding his eyes under his fringe. 'I know…'

They fell silent once more, the only sound coming from the crackling of the fire in the harth and the ordering of the chess pieces, making the board seem even more random than before. After a moment, Marius spoke again. '…There is something that might be of help to us, in case you need to get into contact with me, and gain help if you needed it.'

Celestin glanced at him in confusion, before frowning in irritation. 'Marius, what did we say about being Sphinxish? Care to elaborate a little?'

Marius glanced at him with a half-amused smile, before becoming serious again. 'I believe you already know about the Vampire council.'

Celestin nodded, moving his rather vindictive queen to bash the lights out of the vampire's knight. 'Just about as much as you've told me about and what I gather from any of your associates that come over here. Why?'

'Well,' he said, putting his elbows on the table and resting his chin on his fingertips, 'There is a meeting place we use on the outskirts of Hogsmeade, the village next to Hogwarts, that often has many of my associates staying at all times of the year. For this year, Lord Shadow is also going to be present there.'

Celestin almost knocked the chessboard to the floor. 'Lord Shadow!' he gasped, feeling cross between astonished, impressed and dumbstruck. Lord Shadow, as he was known, was one of the most influential members of the vampiric council. Not only that, but he was also exceptionally strong as well. In the face of Shadow, Marius' strength was like that of a child. However, the two vampires actually shared a close bond, one that only came from the Turning. It had been Shadow who had, with Marius' permission, turned him into the Vampire he was today. The fact was that the two got on famously well for a Maker and Made. Celestin had only ever seen him once or twice, but when he did, the two acted like family – father and son. In a way, Celestin could see that was exactly what they were.

Marius chuckled at Celestin's exclamation. 'Yes. Shadow knows very well what we have hoped to accomplish before this all started and strongly supports what we are doing. I will ask him to watch out for you and aid you when you feel you need that extra assistance. One, of course, can never be too careful. The marking I gave you, adopting you into the vampire clan, will allow you any help you might need if you show it to the vampires.'

'So, where is this place, anyway?' Celestin asked with interest.

'It's an inn on the outskirts of town, known as the Canticle. You'll recognise it by the vampiric symbol you had when you were "adopted", so to speak. Show them your mark and inform them you wish to see Shadow. Shadow, of course, already knows about you and will aid you in my stead.'

Celestin, still feeling somewhat shocked, shook his head with a soft breath of a laugh. 'You never change, do you? Always fret about me…' he met his eyes. 'All right, I'll do that, just stop worrying. I'm not made out of china clay, Marius.'

Marius smiled softly, flashing a pearl-white fang. 'Ah, but to us you are.'

'You just let our mortality scare you.' He shot back, only half playfully. 'And its not my fault I get in to trouble…most of the time. But if it makes you feel any better, I'll contact Shadow if things get tough, okay?'

'That's all I ask. Checkmate.'

Celestin blinked at the man across from him, then blinked at the board. He hadn't seen that one coming that was for sure!

'How do you do that!' he asked incredulously while Marius laughed at the look of disbelief on the young assassin's face as he stared at the board. Celestin threw up his hands in defeat. 'Argh, I've had it! I give up!'

0C0

Merely hours after Celestin had visited Albus and they had made the arrangements for Celestin to attend Hogwarts, the Wizarding world was in an uproar. The Daily Prophet was having a field day – they were selling papers by the dozen. Not only had Death-eaters attacked the world cup, but also the infamous assassin had turned up AND managed to escape right under the ministry's nose. Then the boy who defeated Voldemort 13 years ago and had vanished, long pronounced dead, had appeared – and alive and well no less. In light of all this, the ministry was in a panic to find their long-lost hero, in case the death eaters and this assassin were out for his blood. Celestin found it all very amusing. He had to admit that Marius was right – even if he didn't mean it, Celestin always found causing chaos very funny, especially where the dunderhead of a minister was concerned.

The green eyed assassin walked through the crowded train-station with a small smile as he watched the people hurrying this way and that, rushing about to wherever it was they needed to go, not pausing except to ask the conductor the way to a certain platform. He loved people watching. Magic or muggle world, he didn't really care. Perhaps it had something to do with how he was raised and all the things he had discovered about different cultures. When he started his role as an assassin, people watching had taken on a more sinister quality, of course, but he never quite lost his fascination with it. Were the people off to boarding school, or were they going to work? Were they visiting family, or were they going on vacation? Were they going to meet lovers, or were they just going out with friends? The possibilities were endless.

One thing was for certain, though. It didn't matter where they were going; it was ridiculously easy to pick out those who were not altogether normal. It seemed as though many of wizards from more pureblooded lines had absolutely no idea how to dress as normal, non-magical folk. Celestin had to force himself not to burst out laughing as one wizard walked passed dressed in what seemed to be a poncho and a kilt. It was hilarious, the looks some people were sending his way.

Celestin, however, had no problems dressing up like a muggle. He was an assassin, so it was only right that he was able to blend into whatever crowds he needed to, so Marius had shown him the ways of both worlds so Celestin could fit into whichever he chose quite naturally. Today he was wearing a loose white T-shirt, a pair of plain, heavy black trousers and boots that looked similar to Doc Martins, except that they were made out of dragon-hide (Not that the muggles could tell the difference, of course). His favourite red robe-like coat was draped on top of his trunk, which he pushed in front of him and he wore a matching red bandanna. He had decided not to take his owl, Hedwig, with him in the station, as it would attract too much attention, so he had already sent her along ahead of him and had shrunk the cage to fit into his pocket. Needless to say, he blended into the crowds of the station.

It was about 10:15 am. Celestin decided that he wanted to get there a little early just so he could get his bearings on the place. He didn't like not knowing about something. It made him fidgety. He snorted, irritated. One of these days, his stupid assassin instincts were going to make him loose his sanity…or what was left of it anyway. Sighing, he made his way towards platforms nine and ten. Marius had already explained that the way to get to platform nine and three quarters was to walk through the wall between the platforms nine and ten. He amused himself with that thought imagining what would happen if a muggle saw someone walk through and tried to copy. The image of them bouncing off the wall was highly amusing.

He chuckled and made his way up to the barrier, pushing his trolley casually towards it as if he didn't have a care in the world. With a last flicker of his eyes over the ignorant crowds, he walked through, feeling an odd shiver pass through him and, when his eyes adjusted, the sight of the Hogwarts express came into view.

Celestin paused for a moment to get a good look at his transportation. It was quite impressive – nowhere near as impressive as the bullet trains over in Japan, but still, it was impressive. The Hogwarts express was a deep crimson steam engine with its name printed at the front. Smoke billowed from the top, ready for when the time came to set off, even if it wouldn't be until 11:00. The station was packed, even though it was so early and the students, with their parents or guardians stood around chatting, or spoke to children who were looking out through open windows on the train, kissing their parents' goodbye. Celestin watched them for a moment with a sad smile, before tearing his eyes away to scan the crowd. He took a deep breath. Well, this was it. Celestin was off to Hogwarts…as Harry Potter. He hid a grimace and headed off towards the carriages to find a compartment.

It didn't take too long and Celestin pushed his trunk into the compartment of the last carriage before throwing himself unceremoniously onto the seat. It didn't seem like long after that when he felt a jolt of the train as it began to move. He glanced at his watch. It was dot on 11:00. Well, at least they were on time. Celestin went back to lazing in the chair again, but after only a few minutes, he sighed in boredom and pulled out a book from his trunk for something to do while he was waiting. Swinging his legs up on the seat, he settled down to read.

However, he hadn't got farther than the first paragraph when the door to the compartment slid open and two figures entered. Celestin looked at them from over the top of his book. The first figure was a tall black boy who appeared to be about Celestin's age with high cheekbones and long, slanting eyes. The other was a girl with golden-brown hair and intelligent sapphire blue eyes, which rested on Celestin.

'Sorry about this,' the girl said, 'but everywhere else is full. You don't mind sharing, do you?'

Celestin looked at them a moment longer, then threw his legs from the seat. 'Sure. Why not?'

They grinned in gratitude and sat down on the chairs opposite. Celestin returned the grin and went back to reading, but was interrupted when the boy spoke. 'By the way, I'm Blaise Zabini, this is Daphne Greengrass.'

'Make fun of the name and I will have to hurt you.' The girl said in a deceptively sweet tone. Celestin grinned. She looked like she might have a lot of spirit.

'Well, at least your parents weren't stupid enough to call you Rhea Lee Greengrass. Get it? Really green grass!' Zabini pointed out. Daphne groaned and whacked him on the head while Zabini ducked out of the way with a snigger. Daphne glared daggers at him before glancing over at Celestin again.

'Anyway, we hadn't seen you before, so we guessed you must be new here, but you do look a little old to be a first year,' she added.

'I'm not,' Celestin replied. 'I guess you could say I was home schooled for a while and I'm starting out late. I'm in fourth year.'

'Oh, that's our year!' Daphne said with a welcoming smile. 'Cool. So, what's your name then?'

Celestin contemplated telling them the name he had been using for the past thirteen years, but decided against it. With a grin, he held out his hand. 'Oh, I'm Harry Potter.'

Daphne took the hand. 'Well, welcome to Hogwa- Harry Potter!' She yelped. Zabini stared at him in a stupor as Daphne jumped off her seat in utter shock. 'You're JOKING!'

Celestin wanted to burst out laughing at the looks of shock on their faces. 'No I'm not.'

'Prove it.' Zabini commanded.

Hm, that one was definitely a strong personality wasn't he? He liked the guy already. Celestin gave him a sly smile. 'Alright then,' and pulled off his red bandanna, pushing back his fringe to reveal the still-red lightning-bolt shaped scar on his forehead. Zabini eyes looked as if they were about to fall out of their sockets and he began to splutter.

'Merlin, It really it Harry Potter!' Daphne managed to squeak.

'You were expecting maybe Santa Clause?' Celestin joked good-naturedly.

Daphne managed to shake her head, staring at the scar for a moment in fascination. 'Well, It's just the fact that everyone said that, well, you were dead.'

'They did?' Celestin said, his tone light. 'Strange, no one saw fit to inform me. You would have thought I would have stopped walking around…' Zabini and Daphne laughed at the comment. Celestin shrugged. 'I just don't like getting attention like that.' what assassin does? he thought with a shudder.'Imean, I only remember a little of what happened and that's nothing brilliant. A family friend who found me raised me and I was known as Celestin for a while, so you probably wouldn't have known it was me.'

'You had an Alias?' asked Zabini. His face broke into a grin. 'Wow! I wish I had one.'

'You know, there were rumours that you were coming to Hogwarts running down the whole train.' Daphne said. 'It was the first time any of the Gryffindors have even spoken two words to us Slytherins that WEREN'T insults!'

Celestin almost paused when he heard the girl say that, but then decided to ignore it. These two seemed nice enough and not the type to be a death-eater (and he had to admit, if anyone knew what it took to be a good candidate as a death-eater, it would be him.) Besides, he wasn't here to get involved in some age old Gryffindor-Slytherin wars. Befriending these two also would help him get the inside scoop on any potential death-eater types, even if he himself didn't become a Slytherin.

'So, you two are in the Slytherin house, huh? Anyone I should watch out for?' he asked, keeping his tone light.

'What, in Slytherin, or in general?' asked Zabini.

Celestin smiled. 'Well, either really. You guys have been here longer than I have, so I don't know how things run properly just yet. And, from what I understand, Slytherins tend to be good judges of character, seeing as they are the more cunning of the four houses.'

Daphne gave him a grin. 'Why, thank you good sir. Since you asked so nicely, I guess we can give you an overview. Okay, the first thing is that-'

Suddenly there was a knock on the door and it slid open, causing Daphne to cut off and they all glanced round to see who it was. Celestin looked them over.

This time it was two boys who stood in the doorway, looking a little nervously round at them. The first was a boy with sort, mousy-blond hair and intelligent grey-blue eyes. He was quite tall – about five foot ten, give or take an inch, with broad shoulders. The second boy was bout a head shorter than the first and built lighter as well, with slightly longer, curly dark brown hair and a cheerful face with sparkling brown eyes that seemed full of energy and life. Both of them were wearing their school uniforms already. Celestin could see a blue crest with a bird on the front in black – some sort of eagle it looked like. Must be in Ravenclaw then.

The taller boy glanced round at them, before sighing and turning to his companion. 'This is the last car and it being used, Tony.'

Tony rolled his eyes. 'Wow, I would never have been able to work that one out, Terry. Thanks for the news flash.'

'Shut it,' Terry retorted, before turning to the other three again. 'Hi, Daphne, Zabini.' He said wearily. 'You don't mind us joining you, do you. There's literally no room. If I didn't know any better, I'd say they've got more first years this year.'

Daphne waved a hand to the empty seats. 'Go on then, cuz. But you,' she added, glaring at the smaller boy. 'You better behave yourself, Anthony Goldstein, you hear me!'

Anthony snapped to attention. 'Yes, Ma'am!'

Celestin looked between Terry and Daphne, trying to find some sort of family resemblance and failing miserably. 'You two are cousins?' he said rather redundantly, deciding to give up.

Daphne nodded, 'Yeah, on my mother's side, unfortunately.'

'Hey!' Yelped Terry.

Daphne just sniggered at the ruffled look on the Ravenclaw's face, Anthony laughing along as well. Finally, he looked over at Celestin. 'Oh, you must be another first year, right?'

'No,' Celestin said, feeling a slight growl in his voice. 'What is it with everyone automatically thinking I'm a first year anyway?' he ranted to no one in particular. 'I mean, I know I'm not tall, but you don't have to rub it in or anything…'

Anthony stared, 'Huh? You mean…you're in our year?'

Celestin almost wanted to say 'give the boy a medal,' but decided against it. He would rather have allies than enemies while out of any territory he was used to, so instead said, 'Yeah. I was home schooled, but I'll be in fourth year here this year.'

'Cool,' Anthony said with a grin. 'Well, guess we'll have to introduce ourselves. I'm Anthony Goldstein and that there is Terry Boot. So, who are you then?'

Celestin exchanged a look with Daphne and Zabini, both of whom looked back at him slyly and Celestin had to stop himself from chuckling. 'I'm nobody in particular…' he said idly, picturing what these two were going to do once they found out what his real name was.

Terry obviously didn't know what was going through his head and looked at Celestin sympathetically. 'Its all right if you've got a stupid name. We promise,' at this, he elbowed Anthony, 'we wont laugh, will we?'

Anthony rubbed his arm and glared at Terry. 'No, we wont. There was no need to hit me, Boot!'

'Oh, I don't know…' Celestin said, thoroughly enjoying himself - Zabini and Daphne were now holding their sides trying not to laugh. Terry glanced at them worriedly for a second.

'Awww, come on,' Anthony was pleading, 'be a sport.'

'Oh, all right then,' Celestin said, then grinned, pulling back his fringe to reveal his scar. 'I'm Harry Potter'

Their jaws almost hit the floor in such a comical way it they could no longer keep the laughter suppressed. It had the two Slytherins and Celestin rolling about in a fit of laughter. It looked like Terry was the first to get his wits back. A muffled squeak emerged from his mouth. 'That's "nobody in particular"!'

Zabini roared with laughter again, Daphne falling on him in an effort to stop laughing. Anthony finally got hit wits together again. 'That was mean! …I like you already!'

If anyone had looked into the compartment just then, they would have thought the whole lot of them insane.

TBC

Chosha's Notes

Good lord, I never realised the train section was going to be so long – I had to stop at this point and I'm going to have to finish the rest of the chapter on the next update! Anyway, here you have it – what I decided from the paring vote. I like the character of Blaise when female, don't get me wrong, but I have the image of a tall black boy stuck in my head after reading the sixth book and everything. Daphne is never really explored – only mentioned in book five, I think. So I though I'd use her. I don't want Daphne as an airhead, so you'll most likely see her as a strong (slightly violent) character. I hope it works out all right, though.

Terry is mentioned on more than one occasion, but as I am not reading the book while writing this, I don't know if he looks like this or acts like this. Sorry if I've done that wrong. If you know any better, please tell me. Anthony's is also a real character from the books – if you read book five you'll see him as one of the characters that went to the DA meeting at the Hogs Head with Michael Conner and Terry. But, there is no description of him either, so I made up my own. I hope you'll come to like my version of Anthony Goldstein.

As for the house I'm putting Celestin-Harry into…well, you'll have to wait and see. I haven't given much away by having him befriend both Slytherins and Ravenclaws. You'll find out soon enough.

Next time on Celestin

Celestin begins to get to know his new friends and some info on Hogwarts itself. We also get to see some old characters and Celestin finds out just which house he's going to be in. Next episode: Return of Potter – Part two!

Well, till next time – Ja ne!

Chosha Kurenai xXx