Hi everybody! This chapter is one of the longest of the story, so I hope you don't get too overloaded on information. Thanks for all your great reviews, and your encouragement to keep going with the series. I give no guarantees in regards to the other books, but I have started the first chapter of book two. But, no promises. We'll see how my inspiration pans out.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: THE RETURN

Returning to Hogwarts was a bittersweet experience for Harrison Evans. On one hand, he got to see his friends again. On the other, he'd been reminded of just how much he'd missed his family. Seeing them for two weeks at Christmas just wasn't enough. He wouldn't get to see them again until the Easter holidays in April.

Then again, upon seeing Hermione and Neville, Harrison was reminded of how much he loved being at Hogwarts.

"Nev! 'Mione!"

The two Gryffindors turned and waved at their friend as he trotted across the platform. He'd said his goodbyes to his mother and brother, and headed through the barrier between platforms nine and ten at Kings Cross station. Leaving them on the other side of the platform had felt somehow symbolic.

"Happy New Year Harris!" Neville said.

"Same to you," Harrison replied. "And you Hermione."

"I missed you," Hermione grinned happily and hugged her best friend. "...both. I missed both of you."

Neville hid a snicker behind his hand, and then glanced at his friends innocently when they turned questioning looks at him.

"Hmm? We should find a carriage."

Harrison rolled his eyes, but followed along behind Neville as they found an empty compartment and took their seats.

"Did you enjoy the rest of your holiday?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, it was great," Harrison replied. "You?"

"Nothing like Boxing Day," Hermione admitted. "What about you, Neville?"

Neville shrugged. "It was alright."

His friends stared at him, a gentle inquiry in their eyes. He sighed softly.

"Every Christmas, Gran and I go visit my mum and dad in St Mungo's. They don't recognise me at all, so...it's not a very happy holiday. Gran tries, and I'm grateful for her, but...it's just not the same."

"I'm sorry, Neville," Hermione said softy, laying her hand on his forearm.

"Thanks. Anyway, sorry to bring everyone down," Neville said. "Besides, there was one good thing about Christmas this year. Gran took me to Ollivander's, and I got a new wand."

He took it out from his pocket, and showed the new wand to his friends. It was clean, and obviously well cared for.

"That's great!" Hermione cried. "How'd you convince her?"

"Well, I told her about how poorly I was doing in Transfiguration, and how someone I really respected said that the 'wand chooses the wizard'. And then she got this really distant look on her face, and she kind of laughed a little. She said she'd forgotten about that," Neville explained.

"So she took you to Ollivander's? Fantastic," Harrison said.

"Yeah. It's a great wand. Ten inches, maple, with a core of dragon heartstring. I'm really looking forward to getting to test it out."

Hermione gave an excited little clap. "That's such great news Neville."

Neville beamed happily, his face glowing with pleasure. He'd been thrilled when his Gran had told him she was taking him to the Wand Maker's.

"So, what did you do over the holidays, Hermione?" Neville asked.

"I got caught up on loads of reading," Hermione said enthusiastically. "We ended up going to my grandmothers for New Years, so I got to see all my cousins. I just wish we'd been able to see each other more than once over the holidays Harrison."

"We were both busy," Harrison replied. "Besides, those two weeks went pretty quickly."

"That's true," Hermione conceded.

"So, what did your family do for Christmas, Harris?" Neville asked.

"Tree, presents, pudding, and lots of ham," Harrison said. "I asked mum if she knew about the whole BWL thing. She had no idea."

"Well, that answers that, at least," Hermione said. "Maybe they, whoever they are, were trying to keep you from growing up with a sense of entitlement. I mean, you could have ended up like Malfoy."

Harrison's nose crunched up in distaste. "Never," he denied vehemently.

Neville scrutinised his friend. "I could see it. You, the stuck up prince of Gryffindor, Hermione and I your lowly subjects."

Harrison glared at his friend. "Shut it."

"Yes, your majesty," Neville teased, adding in a playful bow.

Hermione giggled at the expression on Harrison's face. No, she decided, Harrison would never have been like Malfoy. There was something genuine about her friend that seemed to have skipped the blonde Slytherin, and Hermione had no doubt that, no matter how Harrison had been raised, he'd have always been genuinely kind.

"Alright, let's move on, shall we?" Hermione suggested. "I had an idea over the break. We know that Quirell has been trying to get at Nicholas Flamel's stone. And we're fairly sure that he's doing Voldemort's bidding. What we don't know is how did Voldemort supposedly survive, when according to all sources I've found, Voldemort should be dead."

"Considering the hype surrounding Voldemort's defeat, it's strange to think that Dumbledore isn't taking this a little more seriously," Neville said. "After the war, everyone was terrified that he'd be back. The war lasted for nearly a decade, thousands of people died. Why isn't anyone more worried about what could happen?"

"Ten years later, nothing has happened. People have forgotten. People move on," Hermione said.

"So, how is it possible that Voldemort can be giving Quirrell orders, at Hogwarts no less, and no one seems to notice that he's back? Is he hiding somewhere?" Harrison suggested.

"Maybe in the Forbidden Forest," Neville added. "There's all sorts of creatures living in the Forest. And there was that rumour going around before break about something killing unicorns in there. One more dark creature wouldn't cause much of a stir."

Hermione bit her lip thoughtfully. She'd given the topic a lot of thought over Christmas, but she didn't want the boys to laugh at her.

"I had an idea about how Voldemort and Quirrell could be communicating," Hermione broached.

The boys looked at her, tilting their heads inquisitively. Hermione sucked in a fortifying breath and blurted out her theory.

"Quirrell's possessed, and Voldemort's hiding under his turban."

The boys stared at her, dumb-founded.

"Voldemort is hiding under Quirrell's turban?" Harrison asked.

Hermione nodded.

Neville stared at her, wide-eyed. "How in Merlin's name did you come up with that?"

"Well, I've noticed that every time Harrison gets near Professor Quirrell, he gets very twitchy."

"Twitchy?" Harrison yelped indignantly. "I do not get twitchy."

Neville gave his friend a look of consideration. "Actually, mate, you do now that I think about it."

Harrison huffed and muttered "I'm not twitchy," beneath his breath.

"Anyway, the only time your scar hurts is during Quirrell's classes. And, do you remember what I found in his research? About sharing a soul with your spouse. What if he was using it to research ways to allow Voldemort to possess him?"

"What, like a ghost you mean?" Harrison asked.

Hermione nodded. "There's a lot out there about spirits who have possessed the bodies of people and animals very successfully, especially when it comes to magic users. According to the research I found in Quirrell's study, Voldemort left behind a physical body, so we know that in one sense, he was dead. But, Voldemort was an extremely clever wizard, he'd have known all sorts of rituals to tether his spirit to this world."

"So he could exist as a spirit, take over a body, and then try to get to the Philosopher's Stone. Which would grant him immortality, and wealth beyond measure," Neville summarised.

Hermione let the boys mull over the idea before launching into the next piece of her argument.

"Before end of term, I was talking to the Weasley twins about Professor Quirrell, and they said he'd taken a year off to travel around Albania. He wasn't teaching last school year, and when he came back, he was extremely different. He'd developed a stutter, and he was wearing the turban. Everyone thought it was because of a run-in with a kiss of vampires, and that he'd lost his nerve. But, what if he's hiding something beneath the turban?" she postulated.

"Voldemort hiding beneath a turban," Neville mused. "It's so incredibly unbelievable. And maybe that's the beauty of it. No one would ever go up to him and say 'hey, are you hiding the Dark Lord under your turban?' They'd be laughed out of Hogwarts."

"How can we get him to take it off?" Harrison asked.

"We could set it on fire," Neville suggested.

Hermione gaped at him, aghast at his violent suggestion.

"What?" Neville asked defensively. "You set his robes on fire!"

Hermione blushed darkly. "It has to look like an accident," she said.

"Or a prank," Harrison chimed in.

Hermione turned to look at him thoughtfully. "A prank?"

"Yeah. Something that could still get us in trouble, but could be seen as harmless fun."

Hermione mulled over the new suggestion. "That's a great idea Harrison."

Harrison grinned proudly. "I know."

For the rest of the train ride, they discussed the various ways that they could get Quirrell out of the turban, though each of their solutions required a far greater magical ability than they currently possessed. They tabled the discussion for the rest of the ride, Hermione insisting on conducting some proper research before they committed to a single plan.

As Hermione said, the library would hopefully provid them with all the answers they would need.

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The welcoming feast was as good a meal as ever, and Harrison deliberately took a seat so as to face Draco Malfoy. Harrison kept smiling at the silver-haired boy, and would pretend to whisper in Hermione's ear, while pointing at the Slytherin bully. By the end of the meal, Malfoy was a nervous wreck, glancing around at his classmates to see if any of them knew about the bad bet he'd made.

Everyone else seemed to have forgotten about it. In point of fact, Draco himself had all but forgotten about the arrogant bet he'd made with Evans on the first day of term. He couldn't even really recall what had made him wager his wand against the bandana-clad boy. Except that Evans was a muggle, and Draco was a pureblood. He'd been sure that he would be better than Evans at everything he tried.

Being a pureblood hadn't helped Draco achieve higher marks in class. Evans and the Granger girl were coming at the top of every class, and all the first years knew it. It would only be a matter of time before it came out that Draco had welched on the bet. And that would ruin his reputation at the school.

Draco snarled angrily at the Gryffindor table. Another challenge, then. He could challenge Evans to a duel. Draco's father had taught him a lot of spells that weren't covered in the Hogwarts curriculum, and so Draco felt he would have a distinct advantage over the mudblood.

Draco nodded decisively. He would challenge Evans to a midnight duel. And when Draco won, he would be the proud owner of Evans' wand.

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"You made him extremely nervous," Hermione said as they made their way out of the doors of the Great Hall and towards the staircase that would lead to the common room.

"Actually, towards the end, he looked kind of pissed," Neville said.

"Well, if I thought I was going to lose my wand, I'd probably look pissed too. Oh, look, here he comes," Harrison said, pointing out the approaching student.

Draco Malfoy strode up to the trio and mounted the steps until he stood above them. His father had always taught him to take the higher ground in any confrontation.

"I want a rematch, mudblood," Malfoy demanded.

"Oh, really?" Harrison drawled. "And why would I want that when I won your wand fair and square?"

"Won it? You haven't earned it. I propose a wizard's duel. Tonight," Malfoy said.

"And when I win, what do I get?" Harrison asked.

"My wand," Draco replied.

Harrison shook his head. "I already won that. What else?"

Draco hadn't really thought about that. "What else is there? Money?"

Harrison shook his head. "Nothing quite so ordinary. Tell you what, if I win, the word 'mudblood' gets dropped from your vocabulary. For the rest of your life. How does that sound?"

Draco flushed a deep pink. "Fine. And when I win, I get your wand, and I get to call you whatever I like."

Harrison shrugged. "Alright then. Tonight. Where?"

"The Astronomy Tower. At midnight."

"I'll be there."

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"Really?" Hermione asked, her eyebrows raised.

"What? Like I was going to say no to that?"

"Harrison, I hate to point this out, but while you may be better in terms of class work, I'm pretty sure that Malfoy is going to know more spells than all of us combined," Neville gamely added.

"Well, he wouldn't know more than Hermione," Harrison said. "Look, Malfoy's an idiot. One good stunning spell, and he'll be out like a light."

"And where, pray tell, do you plan on learning a stunning spell?" Hermione demanded.

"Well, how hard can it be? Let's find the twins and get them to teach us."

Hermione rolled her eyes. There were so many ways this plan of Harrison's was going to go wrong.

They found the Weasley twins in the Gryffindor Common Room, and Harrison quickly managed to get them to agree to a private tutoring lesson. When they heard that it was a matter of honour and pride, they were doubly interested. The newly formed five-some made their way out of the common room and towards an unused room.

"You bet your wand?" George asked. "Dangerous move."

"Not even we'd bet our wands, and-" "We've bet some stupid things in our time."

The first years had no doubt that this was true.

"Chores for a month-" "Homework for a week-" "Our little sister Ginny-" "But never our wands."

"You bet your sister?" Hermione was horrified.

"Babysitting duty," George clarified. "So you need to learn some offensive moves?"

"Nothing too complicated," Harrison replied. "Maybe a stunner or two."

"Well, your standard stunner is 'stupefy' and 'impedimenta'. Fred, you stun, I'll block."

Fred nodded and pointed his wand at his brother. Harrison watched carefully, studying the older boy's stance and wand movements as he cried out "Stupefy".

George slashed his wand upwards and yelled "Protego" which sent the bolt of magic flying harmlessly to the side.

"If I'd hit my dear brother, he'd have gone flying. Chances are, no firstie is going to know the Shield Charm."

"In fact, most firstie's won't even know a stunner," George said.

Fred beckoned Harrison to stand closer. He guided Harrison's wrist through the motions of the stunning spell and then stepped back.

"Alright, aim it at that bookcase over there," he instructed.

Harrison nodded, took a deep breath, and then shot the spell at the bookcase. "Stupefy!"

The bookcase rattled violently, but stayed standing, thanks to the supporting wall behind it.

"Sweet!"

The twins grinned at Harrison's enthusiasm.

"Alright. Now for the second spell." "The Impediment spell isn't as effective, though it will slow your opponent down-" "and sometimes that's all you need. The wand movement starts high on the left-" "and crosses diagonally down to the right with your wand ending up aiming at your opponent's feet."

Harrison was a quick learner, and under the twins guidance, he'd learned both stunners, and the shielding charm. It took until dinner time, and Hermione and Neville had both begun learning the spells as well. Hermione, of course, was a fast learner. Neville seemed considerably more proficient with his new wand, which in turn, boosted his confidence, which then made his desire to learn even more noticeable.

The twins also taught the trio a handful of mostly harmless jinxes, which were more likely to embarrass the victim, rather than hurt them.

When it was time for dinner, the group made their way down to the Great Hall, and the first year trio decided to spend the rest of the evening practicing what they had learned. Curfew for first years was set for nine o'clock, and so they reluctantly went their separate ways, with a solemn promise to meet in the common room at eleven twenty.

Hermione could barely concentrate on the assignment that she was working on, though as it was an extra-credit essay, it wasn't of the utmost importance.

Neville spent the time whispering 'lumos' spells with his new wand, impressed by the intensity of the light he was able to create. He'd never had so much success with his magic before, and he had a feeling that he was going to enjoy lessons far more now.

Harrison practiced the wand movements needed for each of the spells he'd learned that afternoon. He'd noticed that several of the wand movements for different spells flowed easily into each other, and would be faster to execute if said in a certain order. Of course, the downfall to that was that a pattern could be deciphered. He'd need to mix up the spells he'd learned so as not to become predictable.

He practiced the movements and combinations until his watch finally ticked over to eleven thirty. He grabbed the invisibility cloak he'd dug out of his trunk, and slipped into the shoes he'd left at the side of the bed. He crept over to Neville's bedside and shook his dozing friend. Silently the two boys made their way down to the common room.

Unsurprisingly, Hermione had beaten them downstairs. They greeted each other silently, and then crept out of the common room. Once they were outside the portrait door, Harrison unfolded the cloak.

"Is that-" Neville was so astonished that he couldn't even finish the question.

"Yep," Harrison replied proudly.

Hermione, hating to be left out of the information loop, glared at the boys. "What is it? Besides a cloak?"

"It's an invisibility cloak," Harrison replied.

Hermione gaped at him in disbelief. "They're meant to be really rare. Where'd you get it?"

"It was sent to me over Christmas," Harrison explained. "They sent it with a note that said it belonged to my father, and that it was time it was returned to me."

"Who sent it?" Neville asked.

Harrison shrugged. "I couldn't swear to it, but the handwriting on the note matched a letter that Dumbledore wrote to my mum."

"Strange. I wonder why your father gave it to the headmaster," Hermione said.

Harrison shrugged. "No idea. But, I thought we should all get under this. I don't want to get caught in the corridors after curfew."

"Good idea," Neville said. "I'm not keen on losing any points."

With very little fuss the trio fit themselves under the cloak with Hermione between the two boys.

It was awkward at first, but the trio eventually found their rhythm, walking almost as though they were in a three-legged race. Or, rather a five-legged race. It took nearly the whole half hour to navigate their way towards the astronomy tower. They arrived with less than two minutes to midnight.

"Let's stay under the cloak until Malfoy gets here," Neville suggested. "Then we can scare the hell out of him."

Harrison laughed. "Great plan."

Hermione rolled her eyes, but didn't protest. The trio sat on a desk in the middle of the room, facing the door to await for Malfoy's arrival. It was silent in the tower, and more than a little creepy.

"I wouldn't want to be alone up here, that's for sure," Harrison whispered.

"Wonder if Malfoy's bringing his muscle?" Neville mused.

"His trained gorillas, you mean?"

Neville snorted.

"Don't be insulting," Hermione chastised. "Gorillas are extremely intelligent creatures."

Harrison tried to stifle his laughter behind his hand. Neville wound up with the hiccups from laughing so hard.

After over fifteen minutes of waiting, the trio were fading fast, yawning and falling into micro-sleeps. Hermione's head fell onto Harrison's shoulder, and he didn't even try to move her. Ten minutes after that, the trio had had enough.

"He's not coming," Harrison said.

"Coward," Neville muttered.

"I don't care anymore. Let's get back to the common room. C'mon, Hermione, wake up," Harrison said, gently shaking his friend.

Hermione blinked her eyes rapidly, momentarily befuddled by her surroundings.

"Time'sit?" she murmured sleepily.

"Half twelve," Harrison replied. "Malfoy's not coming."

"Not all that surprising when you think about it," Hermione said. The trio stood and made their way carefully down the stairs, cloak in place over their bodies.

They carefully made their way through the hallways, tiptoeing past the teacher's offices, despite knowing that none of the Professors would be in them at this time of night. They crept passed the forbidden third floor corridor, and exchanged nervous glances. The idea that a Cerberus lay behind the door was vaguely terrifying to them.

They crept down the next hallway and came to an abrupt halt when they saw Professor McGonagall leading an indignant Draco Malfoy through the hall.

"Out of bed at this hour," McGonagall was chastising the student. "What were you thinking Mr Malfoy?"

"It's Evans!"

Harrison sucked in a nervous lungful of air before remembering that beneath the cloak, they stood invisible to the student and Professor.

"He challenged me to a duel!" Malfoy said.

"At midnight?" McGonagall asked sceptically.

"Yes! In the astronomy tower. He said I was a coward if I didn't show up."

McGonagall didn't appear to believe Malfoy's version of events. The pair were interrupted by the arrival of Mr Filch, the caretaker of Hogwarts, and his cat Mrs Norris.

"Students out of bed?" Filch inquired.

"Just the one so far," McGonagall replied.

"He's up there! In the astronomy tower!" Malfoy insisted.

McGonagall sighed and looked to Mr Filch. "Perhaps you could go and look, just to satisfy Mr Malfoy's curiosity. Be on the look-out for Mr Evans, he's a first-year Gryffindor."

Mr Filch nodded, and came walking towards where the trio stood, standing as closely to the wall as was humanly possible. Filch strode past without hesitation, but Mrs Norris took a moment to sniff around at the bottom of the cloak. The trio held their collective breaths and waited for the cat to move on.

"Come on, Mrs Norris," Filch called from down the hall.

The cat reluctantly followed its owner, and the trio breathed a little easier.

"As for you, Mr Malfoy, I believe it's a visit to see Professor Snape."

Malfoy sighed and reluctantly followed behind the Professor.

The trio waited for more than a minute until they were completely certain that they'd been missed.

"I have never been so scared in my life," Neville whispered.

"Join the club," Harrison replied.

"Let's just get back before we're caught," Hermione said.

The boys nodded and they began moving again. They took a left turn and Hermione gasped and stopped abruptly.

"What's wrong?" Harrison asked worriedly.

"I completely forgot!"

"Forgot what?" Neville asked.

"The mirror!"

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A/N: So, I saw the Harry Potter Exhibition in Sydney this morning. Quite, quite awesome. Although, I wasn't entirely convinced that some of the props were actually taken from the films. Malfoy's wand/cane looked extremely fake, the snake head was all wrong. And maybe I just can't judge how big 12 – 18 year olds would be, but damn the costumes were tiny.

Anyhoo, if you're in Sydney and you haven't seen it yet, it's worth the money. I was a little disappointed that the gift shop had sold out of the Nimbus 2000 broomsticks, though, as I seriously wanted one. Anyone want to sell me one? (I'm mostly kidding, though if you do, I'd be thrilled.)