Chapter 2

Harry had quickly decided that Hogwarts was a semi-sentient maze masquerading as a castle. Sometimes it seemed that the castle enjoyed trying to get the students lost. If not for Hermione insisting they leave early for each class, they undoubtedly would have been late on numerous occasions.

Four days in this place and they'd already lost their way twenty-three times. Something had to be done.

"Nev, Mione," said Harry, trying to get their attention.

They were currently in the library; working on the essays they'd been assigned and helping Neville understand the theory behind several subjects. Hermione seemed to want to marry the library and Neville was so grateful for their help that he didn't care they were missing out on playing games back in the common room. Harry, while not as obsessive as Hermione, certainly enjoyed the library and found no reason to object to this arrangement.

"Harry," whispered Hermione. "I don't like people shortening my name."

"Of course, Mione," smirked Harry. "I was thinking. We should explore the castle or something."

"But we have class in the morning and curfew is in two hours," said Neville.

"Which is why I thought we should wait to explore until tomorrow afternoon or the weekend. We can't keep getting lost like this. And anyway, an old castle like this probably has some really cool secret passages."

Hermione bit her lip, thinking it over. "Alright, but I don't want to get into trouble."

"Why would you? There's nothing in the rules against exploring the castle."

Minerva McGonagall had never married or had children. Her Gryffindors were the closest she would ever get to having a child. Though strict, she thought of them as children and grandchildren of her very own. As a surrogate mother to them, she was fiercely protective of them.

The body of what they assumed was Arabella Figg had been found in her house when neighbors complained about the smell. It was hard to tell whether or not the body really was Arabella's, but it made sense. The body had been subjected to so many curses and jinxes that it was impossible to tell what it had originally been.

She'd been heartbroken when she'd heard the fate of Harry Potter. After they found out about Arabella's death they'd rushed to check on Harry. From what they could get from Petunia Dursley "the freak disappeared in the middle of the night." After numerous attempts to locate the boy, they'd given up.

She'd been so hopeful when they'd started addressing letters. But the quill had skipped over Potter, Harry completely. She was sure that the boy was either dead or out of the country. Hogwarts only invited children living in the British Isles to attend.

"It's that way," she heard a male voice say.

"No, the Tower is that way," insisted a female voice.

"Guys, what if we get lost?" asked a second male voice.

"We're already lost," said the female. "Mr. Big Strong Man over there just doesn't want to admit it."

"We are not lost," growled the first male voice.

"Then where are we?" asked the female, sounding rather smug.

"Here. That's where we are. Here."

Minerva smiled at that. She stood up and opened the door to her office. Three of her Gryffindor First Years were standing several feet away. Granger, Typho, and Longbottom if she remembered correctly.

"Hello Professor McGonagoll," said Miss Granger, the two boys echoing her.

"Good afternoon," she said in reply. "Where are you three heading to?"

"East Tower," said Mr. Typho. "We're exploring so we don't keep getting lost."

She couldn't help but smile sadly at his statement. She could remember quite clearly the numerous occasions James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, and Remus Lupin had given her that excuse.

"Make a left at the end of the hall."

"Thanks Professor," the three of them said, running off.

Closing the door to her office, Minerva felt grateful that those three students had found each other. They didn't fit the typical mold of Gryffindor, and doubtless would have had a tough time making friends with their housemates.

Miss Granger was enough of a know-it-all (though Minerva hated to admit it) that the other boys in Gryffindor would find her annoying. She was too much of a tomboy for her female classmates as well. Maybe some of the upper years would have approved of Miss Granger, but they certainly wouldn't become close friends with somebody so much younger.

Mr. Longbottom was so soft-spoken, timid, and forgetful that his male housemates wouldn't want to be around him. He didn't act like the typical Gryffindor, despite having enough bravery for the hat to put him there.

As for Mr. Typho… That boy would probably make her want to her pull out her hair by the end of the year. He was so cynical for an eleven year old. Not to mention his open disdain of the "typical idiotic Gryffindor courage." A bit of a smart-ass too. But he was intelligent. Mr. Typho acted more like a Slytherin was expected to than a Gryffindor.

Harry rolled his eyes. Some bleach blonde Slytherin boy and Weasley were having a loud argument right in front of the Great Hall. It was far too early in the morning for this sort of thing.

He carefully led Hermione and Neville around the edge of the forming crowd of Gryffindors. Neville looked like he wanted to go help his housemate.

"Don't bother, Nev," said Harry, sitting down at Gryffindor table. "They don't know enough magic yet to hurt each other. And that Slytherin looks like too much of a snob to get physical."

Hermione was shaking her head as she put eggs on her plate. "A week and a half into the school year and they're already fighting. They're going to make us loose points."

"You do realize the point system is a way to control the masses and foster house rivalry and house pride, right?"

"Huh?" said Neville.

"The points don't really mean anything," Harry explained. "They're a reward so people want to do well, or at least not break any rules. Positive reinforcement. When a person looses their house points, their housemates are upset with them. Negative reinforcement."

"I didn't quite think of it that way," said Hermione.

Harry, Hermione, and Neville quickly settled into a routine. They went to class, did their assignments in the library after dinner, played games together in the evening, and on the weekend they'd wander the castle and the grounds.

With Hermione and Harry's help, Neville was getting strait As (Acceptables) along with the occasional E or O (Outstanding and Exceeds Expectations), generally in DADA or Herbology and sometimes Charms. Harry and Hermione generally received Os and Es in everything except for Potions. Harry still didn't like being at Hogwarts, but he'd come there to learn to control his magic and took his education seriously.

Harry was of the firm opinion that Professor Snape should not be teaching students. The man treated anybody who wasn't a Slytherin horribly. Not to mention that his teaching methods were atrocious. Writing instructions on a board and yelling at the students to do the potion was not teaching.

Neville was struggling in the class, mostly because Snape frightened him. Every Friday afternoon, the three of them would go over what they were "taught" in Potions and try to figure out why the potion worked the way it did. Then they'd make the potion again (generally this was done by having Neville make the potion while Harry and Hermione offered him tips). Neville had yet to make a mistake on a potion they brewed potions by themselves and now seemed to have at least a basic understanding of what was going on in class.

Harry would occasionally send Umé out with a fake letter from his grandmother. At night and earlier in the morning when his dormmates were asleep, Harry would study his datacards. He'd managed to keep up with his yearmates back on Coruscant, but sometimes the effect his studying had on his sleep schedule was difficult. After all, he was getting two educations at the same time.

It took a while to for a message from Earth to reach Coruscant, but he and his grandmother were keeping in regular contact. He'd gotten several messages from friends back home, but after the first month, it seemed to taper off.

He'd been expecting that. Really, he had. By the end of the year he probably wouldn't even be speaking to them. All because he was currently on the other side of the galaxy.

The room was hazy, everything seemed to blur around the edges. She could faintly make out a brown haired girl cowering under what looked like a sink. In the middle of the room was a large… she couldn't even begin to name what the thing was, with a boy hanging off it's back.

A black haired boy jumped in front of the creature. The black haired boy shouted something she couldn't hear and pointed a… stick at the creature. Her eyes widened at the blue light that came from the stick.

The creature seemed to be angry. It swung its club around, smashing the black haired boy into a wall. Swinging again, the boy was thrown at another wall.

She cried out, shouted something, but no noise came. She closed her eyes as the boy hit the ground. Fighting tears, she opened her eyes. The boy with black hair lay on the ground, a puddle of blood steadily growing…

"…ya? Jaya? What's wrong?"

After a moment Jaina Solo's eyes opened. She latched on to Jacen letting herself cry. All her twin was able to get out of her was "He's dead." The next day Jaina refused to tell either of her brothers what she had dreamed about.

Despite being terribly busy with this Caamas Document nonesense (so what if an entire planet was made unliveable, it was nothing compared to some of the things she'd seen Death Eaters do to their victims. She knew plenty of people who would rather have lived on Caamas during and after the Imperial Bombardment rather than be attacked by Death Eaters… well they would if they knew what Caamas was) Arabella still found time to write to Harry. They'd worked out a schedule of sorts. She sent him a letter once every two weeks and he did the same.

His letter was a week early. Arabella felt her stomach drop to her knees. That couldn't possibly be good. It was nearly the end of her lunch break (not that she'd actually left her desk), there wasn't enough time to read it. But it was so early.

With a shaking hand she opened the letter.

Iella Antilles paused at the doorway. She'd intended to ask Arabella Typho about some of the reports she'd filed, but the sight of the woman was not what she expected.

Arabella was generally known as being completely unflappable. Something had happened, that much was obvious. Her skin was a horrible gray color that matched her hair. She sat behind her desk staring unblinkingly at a datapad.

"Arabella, are you all right?" asked Iella.

After a moment Arabella closed her eyes. "My grandson. He's alive, but he wrote me the letter from his school infirmary."

She faintly remembered meeting the black haired, green-eyed boy at one of Arabella's Yule parties. He seemed like a nice enough boy. She couldn't really tell, he'd been surrounded by friends at the time.

"What happened?" she asked, sitting in a spare chair.

Arabella opened her eyes. "A mountain troll snuck into the school during their Halloween Feast. Harry and his friends were cornered by it."

"What's a monta toll?" asked Iella.

"Mountain troll," corrected Arabella. "A three meter tall creature from my home planet. They're very dangerous, but a troll shouldn't have been able to sneak into the school. It's supposed to have better security than that."

"How badly injured was Harry?"

"He didn't say, but according to the letter, he should have been out of the infirmary by the time I got this letter." Arabella shook her head. "I think the boy is more frightened of what I'll do when I get my hands on him than he was of the troll."

"Why would you say that?"

"Listen to this," said Arabella, her color returning. "'Grandma, Halloween was definitely interesting. Is it a traditional to let dangerous creatures into a place were helpless children reside on Halloween? Just wondering. Anyway, Weasley was really mean to Hermione (he called her an annoying know-it-all with no friends even though Neville and Hermione and I are really close) and she ran off to cry in one of the toilets.

"'Hermione said she wanted to be alone for a little while so we went to go pay Weasley a visit. By the way, if Dumbledork or McGonagall asks, Nev and I had nothing to do with Weasley's black eye. We went to the feast without Hermione and saved her a spot, but she didn't show.

"'Near the end of the feast Quirrell came running in shouting about there being a troll in the dungeons, then he fainted. Just wondering, is it normal for a man to faint after telling us about danger? The guy's scared of his own shadow. It would have made more sense for him to faint upon seeing the troll.

"'Anyway, Nev and I went off to find Mione because she didn't know about the troll. But by the time we got to her, the troll was entering the toilet. Long story short, Nev and Mione are just fine and I may have gotten thrown against a wall… or three.

"'I need to go now. Madam Pomfrey thinks I'm asleep and she generally does bed checks at this time. I should be back in class by the end of the week.

"' Harry

"'P.S. If I started doing these sorts of foolish, idiotic, Gryffindorish things on a regular basis, you'd tell me, right?'"

"I'd expect that sort of thing from my husband, not a child," said Iella. "Where is he going to school, anyway?"

"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, on Earth."

"Earth?"

"Look it up, they have a little bit about it on record." Arabella sighed. "Not that it's very accurate. Although it's referred to as Terra, which isn't what we call the planet. We haven't called the planet that since the fall of the Roman Empire. Now, there must have been a reason why you came to my office."

Harry sat across from Hermione and next to Neville as she got him caught up on what he'd missed, tutoring Neville at the same time. Normally they'd spend Saturday exploring, but since Harry had only been let out of the Hospital wing that morning, they'd decided to hole up in one of the hidden rooms they'd found and study.

Their fellow Gryffindors were rather annoyed with them. Threatening Weasley (and punching him… several times) might not have been the best idea. Not that Harry or Neville regretted it.

Harry was still surprised at how fierce Neville was when defending Hermione. Neville was the one to throw the first punch when Weasley called Hermione that "stupid know-it-all bint." And when that troll had cornered Hermione… Harry still couldn't believe Neville had leapt upon it's back. If not for Harry's attempt to distract it, Neville could have been killed. As it was, Harry had broken four ribs, punctured his lung, broken his left arm, and received a bad concussion.

Harry now understood why Neville had been put in Gryffindor. He might not stand up for himself, but Neville would certainly stand up for others.

Soon enough it was Cristmas break. Hermione and Neville had both been called home by their family, leaving Harry alone at Hogwarts. Well, alone except for the Weasley brothers.

The one good thing he could say about being left alone for break was that he had plenty of time to study. Most of the days leading up to Christmas were spent in the library or one of the numerous secret passages he and his friends had found reading datacards on his datapad, coming out only for food taken from the school kitchen.

Unfortunately he had to make an appearance at dinner on Christmas Eve. McGonagall had insisted on the one occasion he had actually seen her (apparently she'd been worried that he was pining for his friends or being tormented by fellow students cough-Weasley-cough).

Harry sat down at Gryffindor table, as close to the Professors as possible. Best not to tempt Weasley or his brothers. Hopefully Weasley would realize that picking a fight right in front of his teachers was a bad idea (although Harry wasn't sure Weasley had enough brain cells for that level of thought).

When Weasley sat down across from him, Harry realized that his suspicions about the boys brain cells were probably correct. Weasley had an angry look on his face.

"I'm going to tell McGonagall about what you and Longbottom did," he hissed.

Harry shook his head, making a clucking noise. "And who do you think they'll believe? Two boys who other than taking on a troll have done nothing wrong, or the boy who has been in four separate fist fights and two duels with Malfoy?"

Grabbing his book bag Harry stood up. "I'll leave you to think that over."

Harry awoke Christmas morning to find four presents at the edge of his bed. Hermione had given him a book entitled "Magical to Muggle Survival Skills: Everything Young Wizards Need to Know When They're Stranded Without a Wand" by Arbor Bog. "What To Do When They're Really Out To Get You" by Phineas Nigellus Black had been given to him by Neville.

He was unsure about the last two presents. One was obviously from his grandmother, but the other… Harry really didn't know who the other could be from.

Noting that Weasley was still asleep, Harry carefully opened the larger of the two presents. Inside was a box full a datacards, a vibroblade and a blaster. The knife came with a sheath that was obviously meant to be fastened around a leg, arm, or attached to a belt. The blaster came with four different holsters meant to be worn in different ways, depending upon whether or not he wanted to conceal the blaster and where he wanted to put the weapon.

'Harry

'I don't want there to be another troll incident. I'm trusting you remember how to use your gifts. Be careful and don't get caught. Your second present is something that belonged to your father. I retrieved is from Dumbledore right before we left Earth.

'You Grandmother'

Unsure of what to make of the note, Harry hid his presents behind the bed hangings and carefully opened the second present from his grandmother. A silvery, shimmering cloth fell from the packaging. A cloak?

Once again making sure that Weasley was still asleep, Harry moved to the center of the room. Standing in front of the mirror, he put the cloak on. He couldn't help but gasp. An invisibility cloak!