A few days later William was sitting in the front seat of his mother's car as they made their way down Inverness Lane. William couldn't help but smile as he watched the trees glide by, glistening in the frost of the early winter weather. A light coating of snow covered the ground throughout the neighborhood and a few children, several years younger than William were having a quick snowball fight.

As they pulled up into the driveway, William realized that the local neighborhood kids weren't the only ones having a snowball fight. At the fraternity house next store, the snow had been cleared away and piled into fortifications at the edges of the yard. The young collegiate men were arranged across the snow forts, laughing and yelling as they tossed snowballs at each other. William also noticed the large metal kegs that rested on at least one side of the field, the older guys filling up plastic cups holding snow balls in their opposite hands. William's mother sighed as she stepped out of the car, glaring across the yard at the fraternity, though they only seemed to smile and wave. William noticed that at least one of them when spotting his mother tossed the plastic cup away faster than William thought possible, it landed somewhere over the man-made snow bank and far out of sight.

As William grabbed his luggage out of the trunk of the car, he also noticed that his sister was sitting on the porch with someone he didn't really recognize. William took Asimov's cage out, the gray owl merely readjusted himself as William made his way up to the porch, dragging his trunk behind him. As he stepped up on to the porch his sister said, "Back from school, squirt?"

William nodded and replied, "Yeah..."

But before he could say anything else, the girl next to his sister burst, "Is that an owl?"

"Uhm," William said, unsure of what he could possibly say as an explanation to why he had an owl, but then concluded the less said the better, "Yes." Then as his sister's friend was about to ask another question, he said quickly, "I have to go unpack." William then turned and left.

Behind him, he could hear his sister's friend giggling, and his sister explaining that William was a little different, and that he went to a school for eccentric geniuses. The other girl just giggled and asked a few more questions, but by the time the conversation was already dying down William had clambered up the stairs to his room.

As he flipped on the light, William couldn't help but blink several times. After months of candle light, and the eerie ambiance of magical illumination, muggle electric bulbs were somewhat intense. His room was as he had left it when he departed in the summer, his computer had sat collecting dust, and his bed still made. William did notice that a few of the clothes he had left strewn about in the last few days of summer had been picked up and probably cleaned and put away by his mother.

William then sat Asimov's cage down in the corner and opened it, the great owl stirred and then flapped out landing atop William's book case where it then rearranged itself to once more return to sleep, his traditional resting spot in the Fraser home. William then slowly unpacked everything else, his robes were tucked away into his drawers, books were put onto his bookshelf, and his cauldron was shoved into the closet. William then removed his quodpot horn which he rested on his desk, and finally the large black cloak that he had found while exploring the school grounds. He still was unsure how to feel about the item, it had a smooth sheen to it, and William was fairly certain that it had some sort of enchantment on it though what he didn't know. William hung it up on the back of his bedroom door and it draped over the majority of it, the cloak also had a few tattered old symbols stitched into it, but they were faded and old. William then finally removed a final item, a wrapped box that Franklin Perry had handed him toward the end of the semester that was addressed to his sister and was apparently a Christmas gift. William shook his head as he set it down on his desk, and then sat down on his bed, it was going to be a long winter break, he could just feel it.

The next few days passed at an agonizing pace to William. The sudden shock of being unable to perform magical spells was worse than last year. Within a few days, William found himself thumbing through his textbooks and performing wand drills at his desk wondering what he could do to pass the time. At first he had tried to catch up on the muggle world through the internet but William suddenly found that that didn't exactly interest him. Even over the past few months there were dozens of new movies, video games, and television shows that had become popular not to mention big news events and the like which were already slowly changing the face of the muggle world from when he had started school last year. As he sat there scrolling through webpages that didn't really interest him, William couldn't help but realize that as much as he didn't know about the muggle world he knew even less about the wizarding world.

William had been a wizard for over a year, and he had only just encountered his first ghost. William had read about ghosts in a few textbooks so it's not like the specter had truly been mystifying or inspired any curiosity in him but William didn't know exactly what the spirit was when he had first met it. He also, despite his readings on werewolves didn't fully understand what the wizarding world had against them, or exactly what the legal position of his friend was as a werewolf. William sighed, but the wizarding world didn't have an internet, there was no way to quickly learn the information he wanted to know not without going to a wizarding bookstore or library. William wrote himself a note, to start digging into the wizarding world when he returned to school, for the mean time he would just have to make due in the muggle world.

After writing the note, William made his way downstairs to discover that Elizabeth and her friend were busy doing something in the kitchen. The high school had just finished up the semester the previous day, and his parents were still busy most days dealing with the university's final exam period. This translated to apparently her sister hanging out at the house whenever she wasn't undergoing the harrowing journey that was part-time work in the muggle food service industry. William had met her friend a few times since he returned home, her name was Nicole, and William was not really sure what to make of her, especially since she had already pegged William as a weird little boy.

William crept into the kitchen, hoping he could just get something to drink without having to talk to his sister or her friend. The pair of them were standing by the window watching something going on next door.

"Do you think we could get over there?" Nicole asked.

"I don't know," Elizabeth responded, "They're college guys."

"Exactly," Nicole replied. She stepped up onto her toes and leaned on the kitchen counter to look at something that was going on on the neighbors back porch. "I just can't believe they're all hanging out there without their shirts on in this weather."

William skirted around the pair as he went and grabbed a glass. As he was taking it down from the cabinet though Elizabeth suddenly said, "William what are you doing here?"

"Uh," He replied as he then poured himself a glass of cider, "I'm getting something to drink?"

Elizabeth made a face, and Nicole's eyes just settled carefully on him watching William in a way that could only be described as making him uncomfortable. "Whatever," She then paused and asked, "Do you know when Mom or Dad are going to be home?"

William shrugged as he put the jug of cider back in the fridge and said, "Not a clue." He then slipped past the pair of girls and out of the kitchen. As he left though, William turned to see that Nicole was still watching him carefully, as if any minute William was going to explode or the like. He didn't know exactly what about it made him uncomfortable but it made William wonder what she might know or be thinking. William shook his head as he came back into his room, it was probably nothing.

The countdown to Christmas began as soon as the University's finals were over. William was happy that this year only his father's family was coming, it meant that while his mother was still intensely going over the house with a fine toothed comb looking for anything out of place she was doing it in a much more relaxed manner. Every so often William would be drafted into assisting with the house hold chores, and it was as he scrubbed tiles, vacuumed carpets, and dusted every nook and cranny in the house that he truly started to miss magic. There was no amount of elbow grease that could truly replace blasting a patch of ground with a cleaning charm. William was not particularly good with the cleaning charm, but he was better with magic than he was with a sponge and bucket of soapy water.

The first to arrive was his Uncle George. It was a quiet snow laden morning when William spotted the sports car roar up Inverness Lane, a different vehicle than the one his uncle had been driving a year ago. William moved down the stairs swiftly and opened the door as his uncle slid casually out of the car in a finely tailored suit. George was tall like William's father but younger with an air of vitality about him. George gave William an energetic wave, as he called out, "Hullo there William, mind helping me with some of this stuff?" With a wave of his other hand the car trunk popped open. For a brief moment William imagined that it had happened with magic before spotting the small remote in his uncle's hand. William nodded and crossed the snow covered lawn to show his assent, moving toward the back of the car as he did so.

George came around the back and as he grabbed one of the suitcases and William gathered up the other, he asked, "So how's the semester been William?"

William shrugged, "It's been alright."

His uncle nodded, and then said, "Classes are going alright?"

William nodded, "Yeah, classes are fine."

George closed the trunk and the pair started crossing the lawn, George then asked, "So what's got you so down?"

William paused unaware just how soft and downturn his voice had sounded until that moment, "Just been having some trouble with my friends this semester, that's all."

"Ah," George said with a smile, "I know what that can be like." He then laughed and said, "You'll all get over it, besides the real fights won't start for a few more years."

William looked up slyly at his uncle, and then asked, "What do you mean?"

George gave a wry smile back at his nephew and then answered with a light hearted edge to his words, "William, whatever your friends might be arguing about now might seem important but in another year or so you'll be having arguments over women. And those William can get downright dangerous." He then laughed as they walked into the house closing the door behind them and shutting away the cold and semi-serious air of their conversation.

As soon as his Uncle stepped into the house there was a wide ring of hellos, and how have you beens from his parents and older sister. Soon enough, everyone was settled in the living room with the news on a low volume with various conversations starting and ending as they all just took the moment to relax. Elizabeth was laying down next to the tree, which already had a variety of boxes and bags arranged around it roughly split by person. William could tell though that his sister was directly eying the box William had placed there a few nights ago. It was wrapped in a distinct set of wrapping paper, it had a strange shimmering quality to it and almost seemed to catch your eye when you just tried to look at all the presents arranged. Attached to it was a smooth white piece of paper with an elegant scrawl across it that read, 'To Elizabeth, From Franklin', William was surprised by just how simple the older boy had made the note considering his penchant for the dramatic and there was still the question of exactly what he had sent her.

William was somewhat surprised when they all broke for a light lunch of sandwiches and salad. Time was passing so smoothly for the first time since he arrived home and he wasn't really doing much of anything at all. After lunch, his grandparents arrived which resulted in another rapid exchange of greetings and quick catch up. William hadn't realized it at first but as the conversation turned to his sister and how she was doing at school, William started to feel very tense. He wasn't entirely sure what his cover story should be, what subjects would a normal seventh grader be taking, and what subjects was he supposed to be good with. William took a deep shuddering breath as he tried to think how Transfiguration and Potions compared to Muggle school subjects.

Luckily though, his grandfather apparently had no interest in knowing how he was doing in school, before he even asked how the semester had gone, his grandfather asked, "How's your right hook coming along, William?"

William breathed a sudden sigh of relief as he replied, "Pretty good, Grandpa."

"Good good," his grandfather then cracked a wide smile, "Put up your mitts show us all how you're looking."

William gulped, and he could see his mother looking somewhat concerned, though his sister was clearly trying to stifle in laughter as William stood up and then brought up his 'guard' just like his grandfather had shown him last year. With his hands raised he let his feet settle into his favored dueling stance, and then tried to keep his body moving with that slight sway he watched Clark use before a duel. Dueling and boxing couldn't be that different, could they?
His grandfather had stood up and moved around him, and with a wide smile said, "Ah, you're looking pretty good William. That sway is a little bit too much but you're definitely going to be a great boxer when you fill out a little." Grandpa Fraser then set up his own stance, which was a little firmer though his arms were floating a bit more, "Just like I was!"

Grandma Fraser then laughed a little, and with her laughter Elizabeth could no longer control herself and also burst into a fit of giggles. Meanwhile William's mother had gone to go get a camera so she could take a shot of the two 'fighting men'. Soon enough a round of family photos were being taken in a variety of positions and with plenty of laughter and good natured fun. When dinner time arrived the family decided to go out to eat as the next few days would involve plenty of cooking. Dinner in the restaurant had passed in a bout of various conversations about all manner of things going on and William was able to relax as the spotlight wasn't put on him at any particular point.

When William had gotten home that evening and returned to his room he found two owls sitting on his bookcase. Asimov was standing proud and tall next to the other smaller brown owl. When he walked in the smaller owl hooted and flew over to William landing atop his computer monitor. William winced a little as the owl's talons dug a bit into the plastic of the monitor casing, it then reached out with a note for him.

William opened up the rolled up piece of parchment to find a letter from Chris. Apparently Chris was going to be spending this Christmas with muggle relatives and he much like William was trying to figure out what lies to concoct about what classes they were taking and what their school was like. William laughed, and then wrote a quick response to his roommate saying that he was just as unsure of what to tell muggle relatives but that when they got back to school they'd have to sit down and hash it out. After all, he would only be able to ride out his grandfather's excitement over him being a boxer for so long before it would start to get obvious that he never talked about his school subjects. He handed the response off to the small brown owl and it hooted before taking it and then flying out his open window. Asimov ruffled himself as he watched the other bird flap away, and then the large owl let out a low hoot before also taking flight to go out on a late night hunt. William partially shut the window leaving enough space that early in the morning his owl would be able to nudge the window open but so that not much snow or cold wind would get in.

Christmas, the main event was largely quiet. Last year had been a year of big gifts and lots of discussion, with this year being relatively toned down in terms of gift giving. Mostly the family exchanged various sets of new clothing, a book or two, and a few knick knacks and the like. William was actually quite pleased with the clothing he had received as the majority of it was winter wear which in the cold winters up at Salem William was definitely in need of. Just like last year in one of the books his parents had given him was a note that told him there were another gift that would have to wait till after his relatives had gone, most likely because it involved magic. It was for that reason that he was somewhat nervous when his sister did open up her gift from Franklin Perry, William hadn't thought to wonder what the pureblood boy might have sent as a gift or how magical it might be. Luckily, the gift was not obviously magical but it definitely caused a tad bit of a stir.

Elizabeth had carefully removed the shimmering magical wrapping paper, and then removed the smooth navy blue box in which was a beautiful silver necklace that seemed to catch the light around the room and playfully reflect it about at the center of the necklace was a perfectly set gem that seemed to be a very dark sapphire. "Wow," Elizabeth had murmured as she gently slipped the necklace around her own neck and fastened it with ease.

"Ooo boy," Grandma Fraser said with a low whistle, "Some young boy really fancies you."

Soon enough the whole family was commenting on how the person who sent that must be really important, and Elizabeth's entire face became fairly flushed. Luckily because of the commotion over the gift no one else besides William noticed the note within the box, that Elizabeth carefully plucked up and slipped into the pocket of her pajama pants.

After their traditional late breakfast, William returned to his own room, where there was another carefully wrapped book sitting on his desk. He opened up the wrapping paper to discover that his mother had apparently purchased him a book about potion making, a note within the book mentioned that she had purchased it after he mentioned how much he had been enjoying potions in several of the letters. William flipped through the tome and discovered that it was definitely beyond what he was expected to know in school for at least a few years but William was also happy to note that one of the last potions it detailed was the Wolfsbane potion which he had already brewed under the guidance of Franklin Perry. As William examined few of the other potions in the book he decided that in his down time he would have to give them a try.

As he flipped through the pages William was surprised when there was a knock at his door, when he turned he saw his sister standing there. She casually walked in and then said, "So what does Franklin mean in this note?" She then handed him the smooth piece of parchment.

William unfurled it and glossed over most of the note since it seemed to be about how much Franklin liked his sister, and then read his explanation of the necklace itself. William's eyebrows shot up when he read aloud the purpose of the necklace, "It protects you from muggle-repelling charms."

"Yeah," His sister replied, "But what does that mean?"

"Well," William said as he tried to explain, "Lots of places in the wizarding world have spells on them to keep normal people away."

"Why?" Her sister said, "I've gone around that Dragon's Plaza place, what's the big deal?"

William shrugged, "I'm not really sure. I don't get it." William handed the parchment back to Elizabeth with a casual shrug.

She sighed, "Whatever, I figure he'll explain it better whenever I see him again." She shook her head, then stood up, "See you later." William nodded as his sister walked off.

William shook his head as he tried to comprehend why Franklin would give his sister a necklace that lets her bypass muggle repelling charms unless he wanted to take her some place that had them.

As William sat there, he suddenly realized, that Salem probably had muggle-repelling charms. William then grabbed a piece of paper and quickly scrabbled a note asking how the school quidditch team was doing, and then signed it. William woke up Asimov, and the large owl carefully eyed the note before hooting at it, and taking it. William then said, "Take it to Sarah, Asimov." The owl nodded then took flight zooming through the opening in William's window.

A few hours later Asimov returned with a reply. The first paragraph or two was Sarah saying how William really shouldn't just send people owls on christmas about something like quidditch. She also admonished him for not going to any of the quidditch matches this semester, after all she had shown up to one or two of the quodpot games. Finally though, she launched into a long explanation of how the team was doing. She also accompanied it with an analysis of what could happen in the team's last few games before the playoff series began, who Sarah expected to get in and how Salem could do against them. Ultimately though the answer was obvious, Salem was definitely pulling ahead in quidditch and could probably make the final game with just a little bit of luck. William sighed, Franklin was captain of the quidditch team and was probably planning on trying to smuggle his sister in to watch the final game at the end of the year.

Christmas passed easily once William had finally discovered the purpose of Elizabeth's gift from Franklin, though he chose not to announce his thoughts about the gift to anyone. It seemed as soon as his extended family had arrived they were gone. Their departure was followed by a shorter much less agonizing post-family gathering clean up, and before William realized it the new year was almost upon them.

Like every year William's family was going to the university's New Year's party, and that day everyone was getting ready. It was as William was getting dressed that he realized something quite important. His muggle formal wear was drastically out of date with the amount he had grown since he had last worn it. His pants were tight and didn't even reach his ankles all the way down, and his shirts all barely fit him. With the hours till the party being narrow and most stores being closed William's father suggested he try on the kilt. William gulped as he found that it still fit quite nicely and appropriately. William sighed, with that and one of the nicer sweaters his grandmother had given him this year he was wearing a strange but still more than acceptable set of formal wear for any party. Still William thought as he got into the family car for the brief ride over, it was bad enough that he felt very strange about his place at the muggle party but adding a kilt on top of it and he would stick out like a sore thumb.

William sighed as they arrived and he clambered up the steps to the main university building, a large brick building with ivy along the sides of it that carefully reminded him of Salem's main academic building. As he walked in alongside his family, several people gave him interested and bemused looks for the kilt that he was wearing. William shook his head, he might as well have just worn a set of his school robes. As soon as they were within the party proper, William slunk away from his family at the earliest possible convenience. For a brief moment William thought about trying to follow his sister, but then thought better of it. There was no reason to draw attention to himself by trying to hang around high school students who would probably think he was weird no matter what he did.

Finally much like the previous year, William found himself moving about the edges of the party popping into various rooms where people were discussing all manner of topics grabbing various finger foods as he went and carefully avoiding any conversation or attention. As William skirted about the party he bumped directly into a girl with red frizzy hair in a smooth dress. William was surprised when the girl smiled broadly at him, and as he fixed his glasses back on properly he realized that it was Megan O'Rourke.

"William!" She half-shouted, "You are here!"

William coughed and replied, "Yep, I am."

Megan smiled and then paused when she saw he was wearing his kilt, "Are you wearing a dress?"

"No," William replied, "It's my kilt. It's the only thing I had that fits." He then sighed, realizing that that was probably not the smartest thing to say.

"Really?" Megan replied.

Before she could create some plausible reason why William should have a pair of suit pants he said, "Yeah, crazy I know but just what happens." He gulped, wishing for one moment that he could explain that at his school everyone wore robes because they were all wizards. Sometimes an ability to explain the magical world to people would make everything ten times easier than trying to keep it a secret.

She then smirked and asked, "So what are you wearing underneath it?" Megan giggled a little as she looked directly at it.

"Underwear?" William replied a little uncomfortably.

"Oh," Megan said with a hint of surprise to her voice, "I just thought that...never mind."

William could only arch an eyebrow in surprise as Megan suddenly started walking and he found himself falling into step with her. She was wearing a modest dress much like she had last year, skirting the line between young girl and young woman. "So uh," He said to break the silence, "How have you been?"

She shrugged as they made their way into a stairwell, "I'm alright, Eric's laid off a little, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time before he starts making fun of my D&D group."

"D&D?" William asked as the pair mounted the steps, pausing at the landing to look out the window.

"Dungeons and Dragons, I told you about it in the letter," She said with a slightly exasperated groan.

"Oh right," William replied, the game where she pretended she could cast magical spells. William stared out at the snow covered landscape of the campus, sparse trees, and large brick buildings dominated the majority of it. While gazing out across the campus all William could think was that it looked so much like Salem.

Megan was standing beside him, gazing through the frosted window pane, she then turned and asked, "What are you looking at?"

William shook himself a little as he was broken from his reverie, "I was thinking about my school."

"Oh," Megan responded then as she looked out on the university where their parents worked she asked, "Does it look like this?"

William shrugged as he stared across the almost barren landscape of the university. He then shook his head, "Sort of," he explained, "My school just has, this, I don't know, something is different that's all."

Megan nodded as she looked out across the campus, "What's it like, going to a boarding school?"

William smiled for a brief moment, "It's different but kind of cool. I don't know it's not like being home. I feel like I have more freedom but at the same time, curfew's are stricter and rules in general are just..." William finally shrugged, "It's just too hard to explain I guess."

Megan nodded carefully at his words and then said, "That's pretty cool. Sometimes I wish I didn't go to school here."

William bit his lip and then said, "It's not all good. My school's kind of weird, so..." He shrugged. As William stood there and Megan stood next to him they stared out at the campus that looked like Salem and wasn't. William found his hand extending to his wand, tucked on the inside of his kilt, and he wished for nothing more than the ability to pull it out and just perform a simple spell. As always, William could do nothing to ease the awkward isolation of living amongst muggles, he was powerless to explain to his best friend from elementary school any of the wonders he had seen. If he did, she'd forget them within the hour and William could very well be expelled and forget it all too. William sighed and then asked her about life at home, the people they had known in elementary school and everything else.

The conversation meandered through their shared memories for quite some time. Megan talked about the people William did and didn't know that she heard about through the middle school rumor mill, and slowly forgot that William went to a different school. William however, never could seem to shake the fact that after only a year and a half of being wizard he was already clearly an outsider in the muggle world. There was no going back once you entered the magical realm, only moving forward. William had to accept that fact and be prepared for the next few years, and the brief periods he would have to endure in the muggle world. Still as the university bell tolled midnight, William tried to push these thoughts away from his mind, and focus instead on being with his best friend again, and on merely enjoying one of his few nights in the muggle world.