Raylynx's POV

I returned to Hogwarts in time for the usual staff meetings before the start of term.

There was, yet again, a new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor named Gilderoy Lockhart. When we met, I said, "Pleased to meet you," and he grinned and shook my head heartily, and said, "I bet you are." Behind him, I saw Professor McGonagall looking rather repulsed.

On the morning of September 1st, the Daily Prophet suddenly printed an Evening Prophet version, which it only did on special occasion. The headline read: "Flying Ford Anglia Mystifies Muggles".

My eyes widened. I had been over at the Weasleys enough times to recognize that car.

This is terrible news. If they find out that Arthur Weasley tampered with that car, they'll use it as propaganda against him to reject the Muggle Act he and my sister have worked so hard on.

To make matters worse, when evening fell and the students finally gathered in the Great Hall, I didn't see Harry. My heart stuttered anxiously. Where is he? I don't see Ron, either. Does their absence have anything to do with the flying car? My heart sank, as I quickly surmised that Harry and Ron had probably been the ones driving the flying car.

Then, I saw movement at the very end of the Great Hall- two small faces looked in on us.

Dumbledore noticed, but he was in the middle of making his Welcoming Speech.

I started to get up anyways, even though McGonagall shot me a sharp look, and then I saw that Snape, who always sat at the far end of the table, was already gone. I cursed. What if Snape reaches them first and tries to expel them? Only the particular Heads of House and the Headmaster can do that, but I wouldn't put it past Snape to try.

I pushed back the other teachers, earning some annoyed rebuffs, but finally, I made it out of the Great Hall myself. I quickly made my way towards where I had seen Harry and Ron. I reached them a minute later. Snape was speaking to them, saying in a very cold voice, "Or maybe, he's waiting to hear why you two didn't arrive on the school train."

"Boys!" I said, running up to them. "Are you two all right? What happened?"

They were both sporting a few cuts and bruises, and I wondered what had happened to them.

Snape's upper lip curled when he saw me. "I believe one professor will be sufficient until the Headmaster can join us, Professor Kingsley."

Ignoring Snape, I knelt down and looked into Harry's face.

"Were you attacked?" I asked them.

"No, Professor," Harry said. "Well, not by a person or anything."

"The Whomping Willow had a go at us," Ron supplied grimly.

I was about to suggest that they go to the Hospital Wing, but Snape cut into the conversation and ordered, "Follow me." He strode away, expecting Harry and Ron to follow him.

I sighed and nodded at the boys. It would do no favors for them to anger Snape now.

Snape led us down a narrow stone staircase that led into the dungeons and opened the door to his office.

"In!" he commanded. He subtly tried to keep me from entering, but I wouldn't have it, and pushed past him. It was cold in here, as the fireplace was dark and empty. The boys were shivering. I raised my wand, and flames erupted brightly in the fireplace.

"So," Snape said softly, ""the train isn't good enough for the famous Harry Potter and his faithful sidekick Weasley. Wanted to arrive with a bang, did we, boys?"

"No, sir" Harry started, "it was the barrier at King's Cross, it -"

"Silence!" Snape snapped. "What have you done with the car?" He unrolled the Evening Prophet and hissed, "You were seen." He began to read the article allowed.

""Two Muggles in London, convinced they saw an old car flying over the Post Office tower ... at noon in Norfolk, Mrs. Hetty Bayliss, while hanging out her washing ... Mr. Angus Fleet, of Peebles, reported to police ... Six or seven Muggles in all. I believe your father works in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office?"

Harry and Ron both looked like they had been doused in guilt.

Snape smiled nastily. "Dear, dear… his own son…"

"Professor Snape," I said warningly.

Snape ignored me and continued, "I noticed, in my search of the park, that considerable damage seems to have been done to a very valuable Whomping Willow."

"That tree did more damage to us than we -" Ron blurted out.

"Silence!" snapped Snape again.

"Professor," I said, barely keeping my voice civil. "Perhaps we should request the Headmaster and Professor McGonagall's presence. Neither you nor I have any right to make a decision here."

Snape glared at me. However, he acquiesced and said, "Very well."

He turned back to the boys and said, "Most unfortunately, you are not in my House and the decision to expel you does not rest with me. I shall go and fetch the people who do have that happy power. You will wait here."

With that, Snape left.

"Harry. Ron," I said. "Are you two sure you're all right?"

"Are we going to be expelled?" Ron asked nervously.

"Well," I said, "I'm sure you two will receive appropriate sanctions. After all, you put the secrecy of our world at risk, and that is, as I'm sure you're aware, the highest crime."

Harry blanched.

"But I think the answer to it will be to teach you to think and to use magic more appropriately," I said. "Although I cannot speak for the Headmaster or for Professor McGonagall, I don't believe the answer is to expel you."

"But, why did you have to resort to the flying Ford Anglia?" I asked, confused. "You mentioned something about the barrier at King's Cross."

Harry nodded. "Yes, Professor, it wouldn't let us through."

I frowned, deeply confused. "The barrier wouldn't let you through?"

"So, we had no choice, Professor," Harry said, looking feverish. "We didn't want to do it!"

I could see several flaws in his logic. For one, I knew that Hagrid had gifted him with an owl, but I nodded quietly and let him finish explaining his story to me.

Professor Snape returned with Professor McGonagall. She looked extremely severe, and worried. I stood aside as she entered.

"Sit," she said to the boys. Once they had, she ordered, "Explain."

The boys reiterated their story, but as soon as they finished, Professor McGonagall spotted the same flaw that I had: "Why didn't you send us a letter by owl? I believe you have an owl?"

Harry's mouth dropped open. "I - I didn't think -"

"That," said Professor McGonagall, "is obvious."

"Professor, if I may-" I began, but there was a knock on the office door. It was Dumbledore.

In a quiet but grave voice, Dumbledore said, "Please explain why you did this."

Harry told a version of the story yet again, and then Ron said hopelessly, "We'll go and get our stuff."

"What are you talking about, Weasley?" barked Professor McGonagall. A sense of relief flowed through my body. They weren't going to be expelled. Of course, I didn't believe for a moment that either Dumbledore or McGonagall would let Harry leave Hogwarts, but the mere possibility of it had set me on edge, and if anything were to account for expulsion, it would be exactly this- revealing the magical world to non-magical folk.

"Well, you're expelling us, aren't you?" said Ron.

"Not today, Mr. Weasley," said Professor McGonagall.

She looked over at Dumbledore, who nodded and said, "But I must impress upon both of you the seriousness of what you have done. I will be writing to both your families tonight. I must also warn you that if you do anything like this again, I will have no choice but to expel you."

Snape looked to be in disbelief. He said angrily, "Professor Dumbledore, these boys have flouted the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Wizardry, caused serious damage to an old and valuable tree - surely acts of this nature -"

I opened my mouth to retort, but Dumbledore beat me to it. "It will be for Professor McGonagall to decide on these boys' punishments, Severus. They are in her House and are therefore her responsibility."

He turned to Professor McGonagall, while Snape looked over at me. I gave him a sly, but victorious grin.

"Come, Severus," Dumbledore called to Snape, "there's a delicious-looking custard tart I want to sample."

They left Snape's office together.

"You'd better get along to the hospital wing, Ron, you're bleeding," I said gently.

"Not much," said Ron, hastily wiping the cut over his eye with his sleeve. "Professor, I wanted to watch my sister being Sorted -"

"The Sorting Ceremony is over," said Professor McGonagall. "Your sister is also in Gryffindor."

"Oh, good," said Ron.

"And speaking of Gryffindor -" Professor McGonagall said sharply, but Harry cut in: "Professor, when we took the car, term hadn't started, so - so Gryffindor shouldn't really have points taken from it - should it?" he finished, watching her anxiously.

Behind Harry, I grinned. It was bold of him to respond when he'd barely missed expulsion, but he was right, and it was something James would have said.

Professor McGonagall gave him a piercing look, but she saw my smile, and very nearly smiled back.

"I will not take any points from Gryffindor," she said. "But you will both get a detention."

Professor McGonagall raised her wand again and pointed it at Snape's desk. A large plate of sandwiches, two silver goblets, and a jug of-iced pumpkin juice appeared with a pop.

"You will eat in here and then go straight up to your dormitory," she said. "Professor Kingsley and I must also return to the feast. Come, Professor."

I nodded. Shooting one last look at Harry and Ron, I followed Professor McGonagall back to the feast.


The next morning, the voice of Molly Weasley thundered throughout the Great Hall as her Howler shrieked at Ron. I turned and looked up at Dumbledore, and even though he'd hidden his head in a bowl of cereal, I could see the upturned corners of his mouth through his beard.

I did not have my first class until the afternoon, so I walked down to the Whomping Willow with Professor Sprout and Professor Lockhart. I had a certain fondness for this tree, however vicious its nature, and I wrapped it tenderly with bandages. Lockhart yapped away, fluttering about here and there, but not actually doing anything correctly. At one point, even the tree had had enough of him and grabbed his gleaming golden hair. Lockhart yelled, and Professor Sprout had to coax the tree to let go of him. Finally, when we had finished, Lockhart was all too pleased to leave. But as Professors Lockhart and Sprout ran into the incoming second-years, I heard Lockhart say, "Just been showing Professor Sprout the right way to doctor a Whomping Willow! But I don't want you running away with the idea that I'm better at Herbology than she is! I just happen to have met several of these exotic plants on my travels . . ."

"Greenhouse three today, chaps!" said Professor Sprout, said in a disgruntled voice.

I smiled to myself, and then I stared up at the Whomping Willow, whose bandaged arms swayed gently in the air.

"I must admit, a bandaged tree is oddly prevalent in invoking pity."

I turned to see Dumbledore standing just a little way away.

"Was it your idea to plant the tree?" I asked him. "When Remus Lupin arrived…"

He nodded. "It was a good excuse. I always wanted to leave behind something at Hogwarts, to leave my own mark-"

"And you chose a murderous tree," I said.

He chuckled. "It's not murderous if you know where to tickle it."

We began to walk up the grounds to the castle together.

"Professor," I said, "last night, Harry and Ron said that they found the King's Cross barrier closed to them. How is it possible to close such a magical barrier, and why would someone want to do that?"

Dumbledore frowned. "It is not easy to close such barriers without permission. But one thing is clear."

"What is that, Professor?"

"Someone is trying to stop Harry from coming to Hogwarts."

"They wish to harm him," I said.

"Or protect him, possibly," Dumbledore said quietly.

I looked at Dumbledore in confusion. "Protect him from Hogwarts? That makes no sense." I lowered my voice as I said, "As I told you in my letter, Voldemort is in Albania."

Dumbledore nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, thank you, Professor Kingsley, for your information regarding Voldemort's whereabouts. It is quite helpful to know that he is in Albania. Were you able to discover anything else?"

The series of images flashed in my head: A dark stone, Voldemort's marred, inhuman face screaming, a glittering tiara, a vampire reaching for me, a leather-bound journal, and a huge snake with giant, vicious fangs.

"No, Headmaster."

"Very well then."


After my first week of classes, I was exhausted. I made it back home on the weekend to see Jasper, but I fell asleep waiting for him. Jasper was also very busy. He was undertaking the last steps to publish the Camouflage Potion to the public. As Umbridge had spread rumors of Jasper throughout the Ministry, he found it easier to register under a pseudonym and often wrote letters instead of going in person, which was very time-consuming.

When Jasper finally came in, he found me sleeping on a stack of parchment. He saw the words on the parchment: "Reasons for the Release of Sirius Black…"

He gently picked me up and took me to my bedroom and laid me down on my bed. He saw an ink spot on my cheek and started to reach over to wipe it off when a piece of paper fluttered down from a tall stack of pamphlets on my desk.

He turned and saw the pamphlet, which bore the heading: "Protesting the Imprisonment of Sirius Black". Jasper turned back to me and gazed at my sleeping face. He slowly reached up and touched the ring on his necklace.

It had only been three months since we had started seeing each other. It was too early to say where we were going with this, but when I opened my eyes and said sleepily, "Jasper?" and reached for him, he leaned down and softly kissed me, and we both hoped that it would work out.

The only thing that Jasper and I argued about was whether or not I could stay the night of his transformations.

"I'm not going to have you risking your life for me."

"I'm not," I protested. "You know me. I didn't have any trouble when we transformed on that mission together, remember?"

"Well, there aren't any trees to climb inside my flat, darling."

I looked at him with a sarcastic expression.

"I'll see you in the morning," he said, reaching out to tuck a strand of my hair behind my ear. "Please. For me."

The way he asked me made it impossible to resist him, so I gave in, and refrained from visiting him on the nights of his transformations, though I always made sure to visit him the morning after, regardless of how busy I was at Hogwarts.


One day, Dumbledore called me into his office.

"Ah, Professor Kingsley. I have something for you," he said.

He waved his hand towards something at the end of the room, which had been covered by a sheet. The cloth fell off, revealing a sleek black cabinet.

I paused. "Er- thank you for this- this piece of interior decoration, but I'm afraid I don't have room for a spare cabinet in my office."

Dumbledore smiled, amused.

"This, Professor Kingsley, is a Vanishing Cabinet. Argus Filch had it brought up to me after Peeves wrecked it."

"I imagine Professor Flitwick would be more adept at repairing this," I said.

Dumbledore shook his head. "I have no more use for it. You see, it used to be the Longbottoms' Vanishing Cabinet. If they were threatened, they would step inside the one they had at home to transport immediately to a safe location. Augusta Longbottom donated this one to Hogwarts after the Longbottoms' tragedy."

I paused, and I looked back at the Cabinet. It didn't save them, I thought sorrowfully.

"What do you wish for me to do with it?" I asked Dumbledore.

Dumbledore opened his hands and he said, "Whatever you wish."

"Where does it lead to now?" I asked.

Dumbledore shook his head. "There is no way of knowing. Not only is it broken, but the other Vanishing Cabinet used to belong to Caradoc Dearborn, and his house was ransacked shortly after his disappearance."

"I would not use it, except maybe to store vegetables of questionable age," Dumbledore said, with a slight wink.

I waved my wand and had the Vanishing Cabinet float after me as I left, but I was truly confused as to what I was supposed to do with it.

Finally, I took it up to the Room of Requirement, and put the cloth back over it. It would stay here for the time being, I decided.


I wanted Jasper to meet Remus, but for some reason, I was a little anxious about it. I couldn't bring myself to actually invite Remus over when Jasper was around. I think I knew that I would feel very uncomfortable and embarrassed if Remus saw me with Jasper. Although nobody knew that Sirius and I had been sneaking moments together during the war, Remus obviously guessed that we had formed some kind of relationship, so having Remus see me with someone else just felt strange. I knew that it was wrong to feel like that, but I did.

And then, Jasper's uncle, the quirky traveling Magizoologist, contacted him for help in hunting down a rumored species.

Jasper had felt torn, thinking about declining to spend more time with me, but I could tell immediately that he felt a great loyalty to his uncle, and that he wanted to go. Jasper was, despite his gentlemanly manners, a rather restless individual. He preferred high-pressured circumstances and the lack of adventure in his life after losing his position in the Ministry was slowly but surely beginning to weigh on him.

"Go," I urged. "This is the uncle that you said you owed your life to."

Jasper looked up at me. "I won't be able to contact you for a few months, though."

"That's all right," I said. "I'll miss you, but maybe this is what you need- to be off on an adventure again."

Jasper sighed. "We've only just started to see each other."

"I'll be here when you return," I reminded him.

He hesitated, but finally nodded. "All right," he replied. "Thank you for understanding."


Thus, with Jasper gone, I had my weekends to myself. Although I desperately wanted to rest, I knew that this was my chance. I knew, for once, where Voldemort was (in Albania), and therefore, in knowing that Harry was far safer than he was before, I finally ventured outside of Hogwarts to follow a lead that I had been holding onto for over a decade.

It had come from my conversation with Borgin when I interrogated him about Voldemort.

Borgin had told me that when Burke managed to track Tom Riddle down to barter the ring of Marvolo Gaunt, Tom Riddle had been in Little Hangleton.

Marvolo Gaunt, Little Hangleton.

With those words etched deeply into my mind, I began my search into Voldemort's past once more.

Little Hangleton turned out to be a village nestled between two steep hills. I could see its church and graveyard, and across the valley on an opposite hillside, there was a handsome, though very old-looking, manor looking down at the town.

There was no winning strategy to the hunt. I had nothing more to go off of. And the search became more difficult still when none of the town records had the name "Gaunt" in them and nobody could remember a "Gaunt" in town.

However, I did come to know a very curious fact, which was that the great manor overlooking the town was frequently referred to as "the Riddle House".

Tom Riddle.

Is it a mere coincidence?

I stared up at the manor, frustrated by how Marvolo Gaunt and Tom Riddle and this Riddle House could possibly fit together.