Within the week William was back on the train to Salem without having to be concerned with pretending to be a muggle or not. After only a few minutes on the train he had switched into his robes, and then moved up the train keeping an eye out for open compartments and any of his friends. As he moved into another car he suddenly heard someone call out the purple nurple spell, William had his wand out in a flash but suddenly realized that no one had cast it at him, up the hall there were a few upperclassmen with their wands out laughing. William shook his head, he couldn't believe it, people were actually starting to use Henry's spell.

William made his way down the car, shaking his head as he went. It was really only a matter of time, William had known, before someone had mimicked the spell but it still caught William by surprise. As he moved through the compartments, he listened in on other students conversations amongst a few of the older students he could hear people discussing howling. William tensed, every time he heard someone mention it William would be ready to have his wand out but they were apparently not talking about Nick.

After a solid ten minutes of searching William nearly smashed face first into Sarah when her light blond head popped out of a compartment. "Look where you're going," she said with a false sense of anger.

William laughed a little and then said, "Hey, I've been wondering where everyone was."

"Well," Sarah replied, "It's just me and Alexandria in here." She then stepped back into the compartment, and William followed her.

As he sat down with a space between him and Alexandria who was looking out at the blankets of snow passing by the window, William asked, "Haven't seen Chris or Nick?"

Sarah shook her head, "Well I saw Chris not too long ago but he was with some people I didn't know, mostly other quodpot fans, the finals are coming up for the national league so you know how that is."

William nodded, his roommate's quodpot fervor had come to a boil at this time last year too, then William frowned, "But you haven't seen Nick at all either?"

"Nope," Sarah said with a shake of her, "At first I figured that he had to be with you but well then again..." The girl then just shrugged casually.

William raised his eyebrows, "Then again what?"

Sarah didn't look at William when she said, "Well..." She coughed, and avoided William's eyes as he tried to look at her.

Alexandria let out a deep sigh, "Really? Must it be spelled out for you William?"

William turned to Alexandria, surprised that the small girl was actually awake more than anything, "What do you mean?"

She tossed her long dark hair away from her face, and then rolled her deep brown eyes, "Nick's been distant from everyone. It really shouldn't be a surprise that no one's seen him."

"Well he has to be somewhere on the train," William explained.

Alexandria let out a quick little laugh, and then said, "Not necessarily, it's entirely possible the school just let him be apparated or portkeyed in by the government. Especially given how so many parents have been complaining."

William's eyes went wide, "Really?"

Sarah then shook her head, "William haven't you been reading any of the papers?"

"What, no, why," William sputtered as he looked between the two roommates.

Alexandria sighed and then extended him a thick folded up bundle of parchment. William quickly found himself unfurling the large bundle to discover that it was that day's copy of The Intelligencer, he had never actually held the paper in his hands before though he had seen a few older students reading it in the morning before. One of the leading stories was about parents up in arms about 'The Salem Werewolf'.

Alexandria shook her head, "I'm just waiting for when one of the parents openly admits their child is using the caverns and they're afraid the werewolf might be down there."

"They're hiding him in the tunnels?" William suddenly found himself asking.

Alexandria laughed, "Well, no one's really sure but I've heard people talking about a Howling Hall. So maybe it's just a name, maybe it's where they're keeping him on the full moon."

William sighed, he began to flip through the paper, when he got to the opinion section it was covered in a debate about werewolf rights and the broader repercussions that the 'situation at Salem' could have on other beings in the country. William shook his head as he nearly dropped the paper, "I had no idea it had gotten so..."

Alexandria slipped her copy out of his hand while Sarah replied, "Yeah, and Nick's probably not reacting to it very well."

William shook his head, "He won't even talk to me anymore."

Sarah nodded, "Yeah, I barely saw him at all last semester and I don't expect that to really change."

William nodded, "Yeah, I guess not." He shook his head, slowly their compartment fell to silence, and then slowly moved on toward what they could expect from the second half of the seventh grade, trying to push away the thoughts conjured by the paper that sat delicately folded in Alexandria's lap.

As the days passed the conversation on the train ride quickly became a distant memory for William as the students were once more thrown back into the deep end of the magical world. Papers, exams, and all manner of work were already starting to pile up as William once more found himself returning to the library on a fairly regular basis. William was making his way out of his dark secluded corner one evening, and as he passed by one of the larger common areas that were less lax regarding the sound of the students involved he spotted the smooth spiraling purple bolt that indicated that someone was going to be purple nurpled.

William could only shake his head as he moved along the edges of the library. Apparently the start of the semester was an explosion of new hexes being traded about and the purple nurple hex had become one of the most popular within just a few days. William really could not figure out why it was such a popular spell though he figured that the fact that it didn't really do much, especially when casted in light fun like most people seemed to be using it, was part of it.

However, in continuous use, it could become quite bothersome William had learned, and was reminded of as he stepped out of the library. As William moved across the small courtyard in front of the library, a few books critiquing or commenting on wizarding society beneath his arms, William heard Henry's voice call up the spell loud and clear. The purple bolt shot out across the courtyard swiftly, moving in a tight corkscrew, a movement that showed the stark contrast between Henry's casting of it and the average person whose spell moved lazily and spiraled almost humorously across the distance between caster and victim. With the books in his hand, William just wasn't fast enough to get his wand up in time, and suddenly it felt like someone had part of his chest in a tight clamp and was just twisting it. William fought back a yelp as he let his books drop, and he suddenly yanked out his wand and concentrated hard trying to think of a spell but as he looked across the courtyard all he could really see was Henry's retreating back. William sighed, as usual Henry had performed a simple hit and run, the bully wasn't always going to stand around and taunt William since he knew he couldn't win in a fight against a duelist.

William rubbed his chest, and looked into his robe where he could already see the bruise forming on his chest with several other smaller bruises. William slowly gathered up the rest of his books as he made his way back to the dormitory. When he sat down on his bed back in Corey Hall, Chris who was busily doing some work at his desk asked, "Another long night in the library?"

William nodded, "It just feels like it never ends."

Chris nodded and turned a little, "I know man, but they do this like at the start of every semester, it'll get easier in a few weeks."

"Yeah," William replied, "I hope so."

Chris then asked, "So, have you given any more thought to like, the muggle classes?"

William nodded as he propped himself up, "Well I mean, I figure Potions is like chemistry or whatever science would make sense for people our age."

Chris nodded, "Yeah, do you think Charms would be good for like English or something?"

William shrugged, "I don't know, you're better at me then Charms do you think people could believe you read a lot of books."

Chris groaned, "I hadn't even thought about that, I mean I don't really read constantly but I don't know, is it that weird that I could be good at like...whatever it is Muggles do in like middle school English."

William laughed, "I don't know, I could ask my sister I guess but we might as well go with it since I don't know where else we would fit it."

Chris nodded, "Yeah, I guess you should ask your sister." Chris then shook his head, "I never liked muggle school, I couldn't believe all those years that my mom made me go knowing that I'd eventually be coming here to study things no one would even believe."

William gave a weary nod as he stood and began to undress for bed, "I know what you mean. I saw my best friend from elementary school over break and every time I see her I just..." William shook his head, "It's so hard to pretend that I'm not a wizard."

Chris nodded gesturing to how William was carefully gliding his clothing to a hamper, a hamper that he would eventually be undone and cleaned by house elves or he would make an attempt at a clean and press charm to make sure they were clean to wear in a few days. "I'm sure," Chris said, as he then with a wave of his wand put out the candle that had been sitting on his desk, "Not being allowed to use our wands outside of school is the real killer."

William nodded as he clambered into bed, "At least you live in a house with someone who is magical."

William could hear Chris falling into bed as he responded, "Yeah but we're in a muggle neighborhood, I have to be so careful just to do something like ride a broom, it's ridiculous."

William laughed, "Yeah." William then laughed a little bit more.

After a few minutes his roommate asked, "What's so funny?"

William took a few deep breaths before he said, "We're talking about how it's weird that we can't fly brooms around where we live."

"Oh," Chris replied, then said once more, "Oh," giggling as he said it. The pair of roommates continued laughing until eventually they grew tired and fell asleep.