On Sunday afternoon in an abandoned classroom, a few First Years held a meeting to discuss a matter of great importance; the mysterious boy who sometimes showed up in their classes had disappeared!

Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott had been the first two to notice the mysterious boy. He had only shown up in a portion of classes and never spoke to anyone, seemingly trying to blend into the crowd. He'd have blended in better if he wasn't wearing a vintage uniform. Sometimes he attended as a Hufflepuff, but other times he attended as a Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. Hannah could understand the desire to blend in, as she had social anxiety and often wished she could go unnoticed. Even attending this meeting was a big step for her, but with Susan present, she felt a bit better. Susan had taken Hannah under her wing their very first night at Hogwarts, when she walked in on Hannah crying in the bathroom and listened to her worries. With Hannah's support, Susan had come out of her shell a bit, and she wanted to do the same for the boy.

Terry Boot and Anthony Goldstein had also noted the absence of the boy from their classes. At first, Terry had thought the boy must have some sort of illness to be missing so much, and it wasn't until he had overheard Susan and Hannah talking about the boy on the way to class that he realised it was something else. Terry loved a good mystery and had asked for Anthony's help scouring the shelves in the Common Room for any potential information. Anthony was sure that the boy was some sort of academically minded spirit of Hogwarts that was sent to watch over all the First Years and make sure their studies were progressing well. Terry thought he was the ghost of a student who died before he could be Sorted, and thus haunted Hogwarts appearing as a student of every class since he didn't have one. It explained the vintage uniforms! He thought the boy would have been a Ravenclaw in life, because attending class as a ghost was a very Ravenclaw thing to do.

Dean Thomas wasn't sure what to make of the boy, but if he was the spirit of Hogwarts, he wondered what it meant that he had disappeared. He voiced this to the meeting.

"Maybe it means we're doing so well in our classes that the spirit doesn't need to be present anymore?", Anthony suggested.

"Not everyone is doing well though", Dean said, thinking of Neville's poor performance in Potions.

"Perhaps there's a minimum number of students that need to be doing well for the spirit to disappear. We could have met that threshold!", Anthony replied.

"And if it was the ghost of a student, maybe he passed on because he learnt enough."

"But why would he have learnt enough not even halfway through the year, Terry?"

Terry grumbled, but Anthony was right. It didn't seem to make sense.

With a nudge from Susan, Hannah spoke up in a wavering voice, her face pink with nerves. "Susan and I – we think he's just a regular boy, but he's very shy…"

"If he's not a ghost, where did he go then?", Dean asked, worried about how dangerous Hogwarts could be.

There was then a discussion over where he could have disappeared to. Terry thought he could have gotten lost in the Forbidden Forest, while Seamus thought he could have drowned in the Great Lake, and Hannah thought the boy might have been hiding because of someone bullying him. Though none of the students could agree on where the boy had gone, they did agree that they had to figure out.

"But how are we supposed to find out?"

"I think we should ask Harry Potter."

Everyone looked at Susan.

"Well – he's got his snakes. They're good hunters, and I bet they'd be able to find this boy."

She had a point, they agreed. Tomorrow morning, they'd ask Harry to help them on the quest to find the boy.

A few days earlier, Harry and Bob had been walking toward the library, talking about the many uses of magical jewellery, when Bob suddenly tensed, his head snapping toward an alcove ahead of them.

"There is someone hiding behind that suit of armour."

"Uh oh… I wonder what they're hiding from."

"Hmmmm, let us ask."

So, Harry and Bob made their way toward the alcove and shimmied behind the suit of armour. They were met with a shriek from a boy they didn't recognise.

"Whoa! Are you new here?"

"N-no, I'm not!"

"Huh… Wait – but you're a Slytherin! Why haven't I seen you before?"

The boy, who looked to be Harry's age, pressed himself into the corner of the alcove.

"I've been – uh – well, uh…"

"He is scared, as if something hunts him. Ask him what he is hiding from!"

"What are we hiding from?"

Harry shuffled closer, trying to make sure he was hidden by the armour.

At this, the boy whimpered.

"I'vebeenhidingfromyou!"

"…What?"

The boy was looked like he was trying to become one with the wall.

"I've been – h-hiding from you. Well… Your snakes."

"…Why?"

The boy practically whispered, "I'm afraid of snakes."

Harry and Bob exchanged a glance.

"But… you're a Slytherin."

"I know! I just – I couldn't not be. I'm a Nott! I had to be Slytherin. My father would have killed me if I went to Ravenclaw."

"Oh, that's not very nice… Erm, you're not what though?"

"I'm – not what?"

"Oh, so it is Notwhat?"

"No, I – I'm Theo Nott."

"Nice to meet you."

Harry held out his hand, but Bob was wrapped around his wrist, and Theo looked like he was about to faint.

"He should not be afraid of me… I am not even trying to eat him."

"Bob's not going to eat you. Neither will Charybdis. They're really nice!"

"I – I'll take your word for it."

Harry frowned.

"Will you stop hiding now? Wait – where have you been sleeping? I haven't even seen you in the Common Room."

The boy went a bit pink. "I've been sleeping in a storage cupboard. There were old uniforms in there, so I've been swapping out to whatever classes you weren't in... I just put on a different uniform before class."

Harry stared, vaguely remembering sleeping in the cupboard under the stairs before he first spoke to Brownie. Aunt Petunia had quickly moved him to a bedroom after he started telling her Brownie's stories. After that, Harry only went into the cupboard to get cleaning supplies or hide when eating things he wasn't supposed to.

"You should probably sleep in a bed… We're going to get you used to snakes."

Harry wrapped his arm around Theo's shoulders, dragging him out from behind the armour. Simultaneously, Bob slithered from Harry's wrist to Theo's neck, giggling as the boy tensed up.

"You've gotta sleep in the Slytherin dorms and come to class with the rest of the Slytherins from now on."

Tensely, Theo walked along with Harry to the Common Room.

"He is sweaty and gross… Would like a bath after this."

"Sure thing, Bob.

After letting Bob down so he could go for a bath, Harry dragged Theo toward Charybdis' chaise longue. A lot of students seemed to be surprised by Theo's presence. Blaise did a double-take when looking up from a book, waved with a perplexed look on his face, then went back to his book.

As they neared Charybdis, Harry could feel Theo slowing down. "Harry I don't think I can do this…"

"Shhhhh."

"Nooo, honestly! I didn't realise she was so big. She could eat me!"

"Yeah, so could I, but I'm not going to, and neither is she."

This had the effect of startling Theo into movement, inadvertently bringing him closer to the giant python.

"This is Theo. He's scared of snakes, so you should be slow around him."

"Very slow… I will be like a swaying tree branch in a gentle breeze. Calm, beautiful, and –"

A loud synchronised screech from further in the Common Room made everyone jump, Charybdis included, which in turn made Theo screech and make to run away.

"Stop him!"

Charybdis lunged, wrapping her coils around Theo and immobilising him.

"Ah, that maybe wasn't the best idea…"

The weight of Charybdis' coils forced Theo to the floor, where he slumped, crying silently.

"Aw man, now I feel bad."

"This boy is scared… Make him stop!"

"I don't know how!"

"Tell him stories like how Petunia told you after nightmares."

"I – right. Once upon a time –"

At that point, Pansy, Daphne, and Millicent strolled up. It appeared they had been the source of the screech.

"Theo, darling! We thought you were dead!", Daphne exclaimed.

"I didn't... I thought you had Dragonpox or something and were in quarantine.", Millicent grumbled.

"Where have you been? And why are you crying on the floor?", Pansy asked, with absolutely no tact.

Theo didn't answer at first, somewhat surprised that they had noticed his absence. He didn't think people would have realised he was gone. It was nice to be noticed… Thinking about his friends caring about him, he was briefly distracted from the fact that he was surrounded by a giant snake. Said snake then flickered her tongue against his cheek, causing him to start literally trembling in fear.

"He is jiggling me."

"What do you mean 'jiggling you'?"

"Like this…"

Theo yelped as she tightened and loosened her coils.

"Harry, why is he crying?"

"Oh – he's scared of snakes! I'm trying to get him used to them, but he started crying and then I didn't know what to do so I was going to tell him a story to calm down."

"I have a snake story!", Millicent piped up. "My friend Lycan has a snake called Eris, and she's a really silly snake. She likes to stretch herself up to try to reach the ceiling fan. You wouldn't be afraid of her. She's like a puppy! She likes cuddling, but she's not nearly as big as Charybdis, so she wouldn't squish you."

Theo whimpered at the thought.

Daphne and Pansy chimed in with their experiences with Charybdis, telling Theo about her colour changing and literacy.

"She – she can read?"

"Yeah, she's really smart. So is Bob… Bob's more book smart than Charybdis though, since he's gone to school with me all my life."

After a bit of talking about the snakes, Theo gradually relaxed.

"He is calmer now."

"Yeah, he looks it… it's good he stopped crying."

"So… Are you good now?"

Theo was brought out of his conversation with Daphne and realised he was actually okay with Charybdis wrapped around him.

"I – I guess so…"

"Great! If you start to get scared again, we'll just hunt you down."

"Ah, he is jiggling again."

Lucius was taking brunch in Malfoy Manor's orangery, as he had been craving the warmth and scent of the fruit trees. He was currently squinting at a letter Draco had sent.

"Narcissa, dear… Take a look at this."

Narcissa looked at where Lucius was pointing.

'Please send more copies of La Mode Illustrée as Charybdis loves them. I'm teaching her French, and she's trying on all the different styles. She's very beautiful. I think you would like her.'

"…Well, it sounds like Draco likes this girl."

"Indeed. Charybdis… He doesn't mention her surname."

"She's got to be a Pureblood, if she's in Slytherin."

"Ah, but Harry Potter is in Slytherin and he's a half-blood."

"Hmmm, quite right… Oh – oh my. Darling, look –"

Lucius had gone wide-eyed. Worriedly, Narcissa looked at the letter.

'Can you send me some sort of protein potion? Charybdis likes me to carry her but she's pretty big, so I need to get stronger. She's even heavy just when she lies across my lap!'

"We must meet this girl. Tell Draco to invite her for Yule."

"Yes, yes… That's a good idea…"