Dudley closed his book 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' and rubbed his eyes sleepily, "Harry, shouldn't we go to bed?"

Two bedside lamps lit the room. The floor was littered with papers all carefully arranged in small stacks. The owl Hedwig was sleeping in her cage in the corner of the room. Dudley had found the name in one of Harry's books and he had liked it. Harry's books were strewn out across the beds where they had been tossed after they had looked through them.

"You may go to sleep if you wish." Harry however, kept his nose buried in his book. For the last month, they had spent every available moment reviewing Harry's schoolbooks. Harry was currently pouring over 'The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1' for the 5th time.

The clock read 5:36am. "You've only got less than two hours if you want to get any sleep at all before you go. You said you wanted to get to the station a couple hours early didn't you?"

Finally Harry pulled his head up, "It's that time already?" he sighed, "I suppose we should go to bed. I just can't seem to figure out what spell to try first!"

Dudley rolled his eyes, "You can use the softening charm to turn you chair into a pillow and sleep. Now go to bed Harry." He gathered up the books and placed them next to Harry's trunk. They had discovered almost immediately that Dudley couldn't open it. When he had tried, it simply didn't budge, as if it was locked or more likely spelled against muggles. "Besides, I'm sure you'll have tried every one by nightfall and then you can wait a whole year to learn more!"

Harry placed his book on top of the stack, "You know I wouldn't stop at learning just the basics." He gestured at the books, "It's all so amazing though. Just think of all there is that is unexplored by the masses."

Dudley grumbled, "Yeah, just make sure to let me in on it too." He turned off his light and settled in to sleep. Harry turned off his light too, and waited for it to come. It only took a moment, "It's so frustrating Harry, I want to come with you." Dudley had wished this aloud multiple times now, and every time Harry's gut wrenched.

"I'm sorry," he whispered into the stillness, "It'll be my job to fix it, and yours to make ready for when I do."

Harry received no response, and in a short while he fell asleep.

Harry's alarm went off promptly at 7:30, and fell silent one second later as Harry hit it. His eyelids felt like they each weighed 10kg but he forced them open. Today, he was going to Hogwarts. Today he was going to do magic. The relative coolness of the floor felt nice after the heat of his blankets, wiggling his toes he ticked off his to-do list; add remaining books and notes to suitcase, eat breakfast, feed Hedwig, load car. It was a relatively short list. He had already taken care of all the necessities.

Harry pulled on a pair of socks and started putting papers into a binder. "It's too early Harry," Dudley moaned, "Do I really have to see you off?"

Harry smiled, "No, you don't have to come if you don't want to. But you'll be missing out…"

Dudley rubbed his face, "I hate you Harry." Dudley sat up slowly in bed, and watched Harry working with the papers. "Just a second," Dudley cut in, stopping Harry as he was reaching for a particularly large stack, almost entirely created by Dudley, "I found a little more about him before bed." Dudley passed him a crumpled paper from his bed. Harry gave him a disgruntled look, "Hey, you would be interested too if suddenly if your Frodo turned up in a history book!"

Harry took the paper, glancing over it caused him to roll his eyes. It detailed an uncommon phrase "Merlin's Pants!" and its proper usage.

"You know Dudley… we're trying to find information that will actually help us." Harry placed the paper in the binder anyway. He cut off Dudley's response before Dudley's mouth was finished opening, "But I promise to send you any information I learn about Merlin. Honestly though, what do you really hope to learn?"

"It'd be real nice to figure out the real date he was born for instance. The muggles seem to put him 500 years earlier than the wizards do."

Harry sighed. What was the point? Sure he had been a powerful wizard, but how would that help the present? "What about houses, what do you think I should go with?"

"Well, if you're looking to be well liked, I'd definitely go with either Ravenclaw or Gryffindor. Hufflepuff will be seen as weak by Gryffindor and Slytherin so you'll lose interest there." They had only found a little mention of the houses in 'A History of Magic', but it hadn't really settled the matter of where Harry was going to go. "You'll get points for going to Gryffindor because it's the house the Potters usually went to, but it will likely alienate the Slytherin house entirely whom you want to be at least somewhat on your side. And Slytherin would almost guarantee that all three of the other houses would despise you. That would leave Ravenclaw. Besides, you'll have ample learning opportunities there."

Harry wasn't sure it was going to be so clear-cut but he'd have to figure it out when it finally came down to it. Harry got the last of the papers into the binder and slipped it and the books into his trunk. With a heave, Harry tugged the trunk out of the room. "Gah!" he thought "Perhaps the first thing I should try is that levitation spell so I don't have to drag this stupid thing." After finally getting his trunk down to the front door, Harry retrieved Hedwig. He gave her a bit of food and a treat before setting her down on top of his trunk. Then he finished getting dressed.

By this time, breakfast was ready and Harry wolfed down his food. He waited anxiously for the rest of the Dursleys to finish. Finally, as they all put away their plates, Harry couldn't help himself any more. "Is everyone ready to go now?"

Vernon and Petunia both chuckled. Petunia pinched his cheek lightly, "You are so cute when you're anxious." Harry frowned and went to stand by the door. In short order the rest of the Dursleys were ready and they helped him load the car.

They arrived at Kings Cross station a quarter to nine. It was a decent size station as Muggle train stations go, but Harry had been here before so he knew roughly where to go once inside. Professor McGonagal had described how he was to get to school, through the barrier and on to platform nine and three quarters. It was another of those things that no one bothered to tell the children of magical parents since they should already know.

Harry stood next to his trunk and owl, "Well. I'll be back for Christmas if all is going well. Hope everything goes well here as well."

Petunia hugged him, her eyes tearing. "You make sure you write to me!"

"Every week mum, Hedwig here will remind me if I forget." Hedwig gave a dutiful hoot.

Vernon hugged him too, "Stay safe son. We'll be here if you need us."

"Thanks Dad."

Dudley was last to come hug Harry. "You had better become more powerful than anyone!"

"I will Dudley, just wait and see." Harry grinned, "We'll make the world a better place."

"I'm serious Harry! You better be more powerful than Merlin!"

"Then you better be more prepared than King Arthur ever was." Harry kind of liked this metaphor. Breaking away, Harry pulled his cart into Kings Cross and waived back one last time. Just as he was about out of earshot, he heard Vernon almost shout.

"You mean to tell me Merlin was real?"

Harry would have sprinted through the station if he weren't dragging his cart. As it was he was going a little too fast and Hedwig was squawking at him causing people to stare. "Sorry Hedwig." He tried to check his pace but soon enough was going to same too fast clip. In short order he reached the pillars between platforms nine and ten. "Alright, here goes Hedwig."

Tentatively he leaned against the pillar. When he saw his shoulder slip into the stone, he took a full step sideways, pulling his cart along with him. The sound of the station disappeared, only the Hogwarts Express could be heard. Steam rose from the engine on the front. The platform otherwise stood empty, Harry didn't even see a conductor, though to be fair he couldn't see the engine that well.

Harry dragged his cart towards the train. He would just get a seat in the middle of the train, it would make disembarking easier, and he'd be in the middle of the crowd and able to just go with the flow. Reaching the train he looked at his trunk. Hopefully he pulled out his wand and with a flick said, "Wingardium Leviosa." The trunk stayed solidly put on the ground. Disappointed Harry put the wand back in his pocket. He knew he shouldn't have felt so bad about it not working the first time, but Harry couldn't help it, he had failed.

He put Hedwig inside the first seat he came to, and then went to retrieve his trunk. He dragged it up into his compartment and considered how he was going to get it into the overhead racks. "There is no way I'm lifting that up there. I suppose I do need to get a bit more physically fit. There has to be some sort of recreation at Hogwarts." Hedwig hooted, "Heh, I suppose I may as well try to figure out what I did wrong." He pulled out his spell book and settled in to read.

Every so often Harry would pull out his wand, point it at his trunk and cast the levitation charm. Each time it ended in failure. It was with great frustration that Harry started to notice the train filling up. He had spent his first two hours able to do magic, and he had not accomplished a thing. With a muttered curst, he turned to the first spell in the book. With a swish of his wand he muttered, "Lumos" the wand tip cast a soft glow around him. He was glad it hadn't done the same thing as at Ollivanders. The incident at Ollivanders had been a little overboard. "Nox" he muttered, and the light went out.

Content with himself, Harry turned back to the instructions on the hover charm and continued investigating. The diagrams were hard to translate into arm motions in three dimensions. Harry couldn't quite figure out why they didn't use some of those moveable images to indicate how to do it.

It was with his nose in a book, that he finally heard a knock on his door. "Excuse me, I'm Hermione Granger. Would you mind terribly if I sat here?" It was a girl with a bunch of bushy brown hair.

"Sure, go ahead." She thanked him and pulled her Trunk in behind her closing the door. She stowed it carefully above the seats, the trunk didn't seem to be nearly as heavy as Harry's. She looked at his trunk but said nothing, and instead took out a book.

A little while later, Harry pulled out his wand. Hermione's attention changed, she was watching him now. Carefully Harry went through the motions and cast the spell. The trunk didn't move. He sighed. It was evidently more complicated than he thought.

"You didn't flick your wand."

"What?"

"For the levitation spell, you're supposed to flick your wand after the swish." She took out her own wand and demonstrated the motion. "I still haven't managed to get it to work myself, but you're definitely missing the flick." She arched her neck to see Harry's book. Harry dropped it a little so she could see it easier. "If you look four pages back it tells you that you need to complete the motion by hooking the subject to the spell. That's what the flick is for."

Indeed, Harry looked back a few pages and there it described using a flick of the wand to attach the motion to an object. For some reason this instruction was not represented in the visual diagrams of the wand motion. Pointing his wand at his trunk one more time, he swished his wand, followed up with a flick and cast the hover charm. This time he could feel the magic well up and pass through the wand.

The trunk lifted, slowly rising. Harry pointed his wand to an upper corner and willed more power into the spell. The trunk rose faster, too fast. With a bump it hit the compartment wall. Harry cut off the spell, pulling his attention away. The trunk clunked down on to the rack.

He let out a contended sigh, "Thank you for the pointer Hermione."

Hermione's mouth hung open a little, "They usually start first years with feathers!"

Harry blinked. "And…?"

"We're not supposed to be strong enough to lift a heavy object like a trunk until second year!"

"Well, regardless thank you for the pointer. You would not believe how stir crazy I was going trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. I've been sitting here for two hours trying to get that spell right. Oh, I'm Harry Potter by the way, nice to meet you." He held out a hand.

She literally squeaked. Harry waited patiently, and after a moment she reached out and shook his hand. "You're Harry Potter? I've never met someone from a book before!"

"What?"

"You didn't know?" She clapped her hands over her mouth.

"No, what books?" He would have to get his hands on those books and send them to Dudley.

"All sorts of books, I mean, you're the Boy-Who-Lived. You defeated the dark lord He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named when you were just a baby. Some have even hypothesized that you beat him because you were even greater and more powerful in the dark arts." Her eyes widened, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you by correcting your wand movements. I… I…"

"What a load of nonsense. I spent the last month reading all my school books with my brother taking notes so that when I finally did get a chance to use magic I could. I worked hard, and I'd appreciate not being labeled as an evil genius to explain away why I can do things others can't."

Hermione scrunched her eyebrows, "I don't remember reading that you have a brother."

"Fine" Harry said, exasperated, "my cousin if you will. I should probably get used to calling them by their biological relationship rather than their real relationship status or everyone is going to keep correcting me."

"I'm sorry Harry. I don't know what came over me. I just…"

Harry visibly cooled, "It's okay. I should probably get used to it anyway. How did you remember what page that note about the flick was on anyway?"

Hermione seemed really happy that he had asked, "I've memorized all of my school books my heart of course. I've started memorizing some other books too, like 'Hogwarts, A History.' Books are amazing; they contain everything you need to know."

Harry stared at her, "You memorized all your books?" She nodded happily, "And you can remember anything out of them once you have them memorized?" she nodded again. Harry grinned, "You and I are going to be very good friends I think."

She fidgeted uncertainly, "I don't know, I hardly know anything about you..."

Harry grinned, shutting his book, he began telling his story. Twenty minutes later, when he was in the middle of a story where He and Dudley had capered about the neighborhood following an escaped pet when there was a rap on the door.

Harry got up and opened the door. A little old witch was standing over a cart filled with what had to be candy. "Anything off the cart my dears?"

Harry couldn't help himself. This was what he was going to spend the 20 pounds on. He pulled out his gift money, which he had kept separate from his other money, and asked for an assortment of everything using up all the money. The witch had smiled, and pulled pieces of candy from everywhere. Finally Harry shut the door and dumped it all on to the seat.

He started picking over the candy, "Would you like some as well Hermione? I won't be able to eat all of this. I just had to try a bit of everything."

Hermione was infected by his good mood and good naturedly they shared candies. They experimented with Jelly beans that came in literally all flavors. Captured some escaping chocolate frogs, and overall having a great time when there was another knock at the door. Looking up from where he sat on the floor, Harry saw white hair. He inwardly cursed.

Composing himself he stood and opened the door. "Good morning Draco."

Two thugs stood behind Draco, towering protectively. "Good afternoon Potter." Harry winced at his own slip, "This is Crab, and this is Goyle." He gestured to the two thugs, "Have you come to a decision yet? There is not much time left."

Harry was probably supposed to notice being called by his surname, he ignored it. "I believe I have Draco."

Draco waited, obviously wanting more. Harry remained silent. One of the thugs "And what is your decision?"

"Draco, you and I have much in common. We both have goals. It would be great if we could both work together."

"And what are your goals Potter? Perhaps I can assist you."

"My goal is to rule the world."

Draco's eyes narrowed, "Are you trying to mess with me Potter? I do not appreciate being made the fool."

"No-no not at all. I truly wish to rule the world."

"Well…" Draco was uncertain how to respond. "That certainly does strike my interest. So you have decided that the house of Malfoy would be able to help you?"

"Oh, I'm sure the Malfoy's are able to help me rule the world. The question is whether the Malfoys will agree to my terms."

"Agree to your terms? Heh, that's a laugh." He gestured to his cronies, "Look Potter I have allies, you're new to this so I'll give you a pointer. The Malfoys have more power than any other noble family in the wizarding world. You'd be right to remember it, and when you decide that my help is worth a price, you come and find me. I'm sure we can think of reasonable price for our aid."

Harry grinned tightly, "You shall see soon enough Malfoy. Your eyes shall be opened, and when that time comes…" he lowered his voice almost to a whisper, "When that time comes Draco, you will join me. I have no doubt about it."

"Don't try to threaten me Potter!"

"It is not a threat. It is a foretelling. What I see shall come to pass and you will know it true." Harry was mentally shaking his head, this was utter nonsense. It wasn't coming out as well as the foretellings in the Lord of the Rings. Ah well, if at first you don't succeed. With an ominous intonation Harry continued, "The light has come to fight the darkness. The world will be rent in two and you shall be forced to pick your side."

"You're no seer! Come Crabbe, Goyle, let's leave Potter to his delusions of grandeur. He'll come to his senses once he figures out the real order of things."

They departed, pushing roughly past a boy walking down the train. The boy simply lowered his head and apologized. After Draco was gone the boy looked up and saw Harry "Hi," he said timidly, "I'm Neville Longbottom, I'm looking for my toad Trevor, have you seen him?"

"Hi Neville. I'm Harry Potter. And no I haven't seen your toad. If I do, I'll let you know." Neville gapped mouth open.

Hermione overheard Neville's question and spoke up, "You could ask the prefects in the front cabin, they should have a spell that'd help you find him. I'm Hermione Granger by the way."

Neville shook himself, "That's a good idea, thank you both." He walked off up the train. Harry slid the door shut and turned around.

Hermione had her arms crossed and was glaring at him.

Harry chuckled. "What are you so angry about?"

"You know what you just did Harry?"

"Ehh…"

"You want to rule the world?" Her voice was filled with scorn, "You're going to end up just like the last dark lord who wanted to rule the world, killing those in your way, murdering people. You're no different."

"Whoa, whoa time out. I am very much different. My goal is to make the world a better place."

"Oh, your goal is to make the world better. Do I need to spell it out for you? Even you-know-who's goal was to make the world a better place. No dictator believes they are evil, most think they are making the world a better place when they come to power. For you-know-who it was pure blood wizards. What your excuse?"

"If I tell you, will you promise not to laugh?"

"Of course I won't laugh. I'll probably be even angrier! It had better be good if you want us to have any chance of being friends."

"Fine. No laughing okay?" She nodded, "Alright, well… My goal is to unite the magical world under my rule. Then I will join my bro-," he stumbled changed what he was going to say, "err cousin who will have united the muggle world. We will then unite both worlds and create an intergalactic human species."

Hermione was good, her mouth hardly twitched. "I believe you meant, interplanetary." Her voice sounded a bit strained.

"So yes, I want to rule the world." He said matter-of-factly. "I want to make muggles and wizards live together without attempting to kill each other. I want to meld science, art, and magic for all to see and use. Muggles will become interplanetary," he put an extra emphasis on the word, "eventually, but I guess you could say I'm a little biased for wanting it to happen during my lifetime. Add magic in and who knows how much faster it'd happen."

"Well Harry that goal doesn't sound evil." Her mouth definitely twitched, "I'll keep my eye on you then and if you do anything bad, I'll stop you myself."

"That works for me."

"But you can't ally with the Malfoys."

"What? Why not, sure he sounds a spoiled brat but if he has connections…"

"Harry, his family was implicated as death eaters for You-Know-Who." Harry choked, "The only reason his father got off is because he managed to convince the ministry that he was under the Imperius curse."

"I see." He ran his hands through his hair, thinking. "So I guess I have to think of a way to keep him off balance if I want any chance at convincing the rest of them to join me. Any ideas?" Hermione shook her head. "Didn't think so, if you think of something..."

They fell into a silence, both mulling over the problem. After a moment Harry shrugged, "Oh well, no use getting too worked up. I'm going to change into my school robes." He reached up and pulled his trunk off the rack. His arms burned as he brought it to the ground, "I really need to work out more."

"I'll leave while you get dressed." Hermione started to get up.

"Oh no, you don't have to. I'll change in my trunk." He opened the main compartment of the trunk and stepped in. His head was just about to dip out of sight when he said, "I'll be just a minute." Hermione shook her head in wonder.

Harry quickly put on his school robes. He looked himself over. "This doesn't make me look very impressive." He muttered, he added the dragonhide boots which had come in a dark shade of green with scales that silently conformed to his foot. "Better, I suppose. At least it looks better than my shoes." He tried the gloves but immediately took them off. They were too bulky looking on his hands to come off as an accessory.

He looked around hoping for some inspiration. Spotting the binder of notes he started flicking through it. The notes were really useless. Proper wand motions, additional potion instructions that might make potions stronger, even some transfiguration notes, none of it would help. He flicked another page and another, nothing. He flicked through more and more rapidly. Finally he came upon the rather large section devoted to Merlin his scanning slowed as he turned the pages, he had yet to read these. Harry's eyes caught on a page he hadn't seen before. A grin split his face as he read. Dudley was going to receive a chocolate frog in the mail. He knew what he was going to do. Now he just had to figure out how to make it as spectacular as he could.

He took the page out and went up to speak to Hermione. "Take a look at this." She blinked as Harry handed her the paper.

"Well you look more like a wizard." She said eyeing his robes. "What's this?" Her eyes quickly scanned the paper.

"Do you think I can get away with it?" Harry grinned manically.

Her mouth dropped open, "Oh Harry, you shouldn't- It won't- it'll ruin-"

"They won't know what hit them. It'll be perfect."

"But your-"

"It'll work out. So, how am I going to make this as spectacular as possible? Any ideas?"

Hermione looked at him carefully, considering. "Harry, if you do this, there is no turning back." Harry waved unconcernedly, "Alright, just don't say I didn't warn you. Now explain to me just what magic you have already done and we'll start from there."

Harry was either feeling hungry or anxious, he couldn't tell which. Night had fallen and they had arrived outside the great hall of Hogwarts. The train had arrived at the station and Hagrid had ferried them across the lake on boats. Hermione had added her own little cinematic flair to the plan and he was ready. It would begin soon.

The doors opened, and the first years filed into the hall. The students were all clapping, he ignored them. His back was straight, his head high, and he walked casually down the hall as if the clapping was all for him. It wouldn't do to spoil the image he wished to portray this night. He maintains his composure all the way through the hats song.

The other students began getting sorted, one by one into their houses. When Hermione's turn came up, he unconsciously stroked his hair, would she go where they had planned? The hat shouted "GRYFFINDOR!" and Hermione went off to sit at their table. His composure broke and he smiled, it would work. He clapped his hands along with everyone else. "This is going to be perfect." Draco went to Slytherin, no surprises there. Neville also went to Gryffindor, which was a little surprising but he didn't really know Neville well enough to judge.

McGonagall was closing in on Harry's turn, two more names. Harry had butterflies in his stomach. He forced them into stillness. One more name, his arms started shaking in anticipation, he calmed them and lightly touched his wand. It was ready. "Potter, Harry."

A low buzz filled the hall, "Did she say Harry Potter? The Harry Potter?" He heard quite a few people whispering Gryffindor. He kept his composure, it would not do to break his façade yet, he needed the suspense to build into a crescendo. He walked slowly to the stool with the hat. He looked out at the crowd, picked up the hat and placed it on his head thinking as hard as he could, almost shouting at it. "Stop, I'm not prepared to be sorted yet!"

"My, my." The hat said in his head, "Why should I stop, you clearly know where you want to go. I could sort you right now."

"I would like your help actually." Harry thought back.

"And why would I do that? It's quite clear to me where you should go. If there's nothing more, then better be-"

"Stop! You sort people into houses and in so doing you push onto them a stereotype, 'all Gryffindors are courageous', look at Hermione, clearly she is clearly Ravenclaw material but went to Gryffindor because it suits her heart. And yet, her sorting will make Ravenclaw less, for the books and cleverness that is their credo will be overshadowed by Hermione's intellect. You are sorting people into the houses, and at each sorting the houses split more in competition. A thousand years ago you were created, a thousand years of separation you have caused. Help me fix it."

"You are more right than I wish you to be Harry Potter." The hat said grudgingly, "You could be great you know. It's all here in your head. Must this truly be your decision?" Harry gave a mental nod. "Very well, I will wait and do as you wish. Just promise me that you will return for me one day, you have no idea how dull life can be when the highlight of your year is singing a new song."

Harry smiled, "You have my oath on it. Now, I'll be just a moment getting ready."

Harry focused inwardly. They had done this on the train, but he would need more power than ever before. He let the fire start to spin through his body, feeding it his emotions, feeding it his future, he fed it everything. He spun the fire into frenzy around him a whirl of fire. It was not enough he could feel it, so he added lightning and darkness. He added rain, sleet, and hail. He let the storm rage around him, and centered himself just as he had done at Ollivanders. When all was still, bottled within the calm and the calm had covered his whole body, he stood and opened his eyes to look across the great hall.

The hall had fallen silent, still. He had been under the hat for at least five minutes before he had stood. They looked at him now, waiting, confused. McGonagall's eyes widened at the look in his eyes and flicked to his wand, she could see it, the magic. None of the other teachers had any idea what his eyes held, they were behind him, the hall forward, perfect.

The brim of the hat split speaking normally, "Who comes to stake claim?" McGonagall was clearly dumbfounded, but she seemed confused enough not to interfere. More than one student could be heard letting out an audible "What?"

Harry responded his voice clear and cool, resounding through the hall, "I Harry Potter do stake claim."

"And by what right do you claim?" The hat was slightly louder, filling the void of silence that fell over the hall.

"I claim by the right of the last scion of Potter. I claim by the right of free peoples everywhere. I claim by the right of the oppressed, the forgotten. I claim by right of power and light." His voice filled with emotions ripped through the hall, the calm inside rippled in anticipation of the release and began to heat.

"And to what do you claim?" Each word the hat spoke was articulated loud and clear.

"I claim the inheritance to the true Order of Merlin, to its guiding principle," He raised his wand to the ceiling above, to the sky, "and to the light that has gone before to light our way through the darkness. I do claim!" The words had risen in volume until the last three words came out as a shout, and a blast of light blazed from Harry's wand and slammed into the ceiling. The enchanted ceiling began to glow brighter, and brighter. The night became brighter than that of the noonday sun.

McGonagall had started moving forward, "Quickly," Harry thought to the hat, "we're running out of time." The rest of the hall was shielding their eyes, and for the most part, staring in wonder. Harry was pleased to note Draco was visibly shaken.

The hat spoke in Harry's head while it spoke to the hall. To Harry it said, "May your way be true, Harry Potter, and good luck." To the hall, it spoke quickly finishing just before McGonagall whipped the hat off Harry's head. "I grant thy inheritance and sort you true. To Slytherin, as Merlin did before you!"

The hall broke into pandemonium. People were crying, people were laughing, two twins at the Gryffindor table in particular. Harry could see Draco mouth open, as Crabbe and Goyle poked him on the shoulder to get his attention "Let them chew on that." He thought. Harry didn't here McGonagall's question. Her mouth was moving, he tried to focus but McGonagall was shaking. McGonagall was getting fuzzier, "Oops, used a little too much magic." Harry thought, and then he blacked out.

In the Forbidden Forest, a centaur paused and looked towards the sky. "Mar's is bright tonight, unusually bright."

AN: Thank you all for reading. All reviews are appreciated.