In short order the winter break came to an end and that meant that all of the students needed to go back up to the castle for the next semester. Thus Gohan found himself on the train in a packed cabin filled with rowdy children and everyone had different stories to tell about their time spent away from the school along with showing off the cool gifts they had received.
While Tonks was telling her friends why she was wearing a training gi and explaining how cool learning about ki was to the compartment, Gohan was content to close his eyes and rest until the door was slammed open drawing attention to a huffing Draco Malfoy standing in the doorway.
"You fucking mudblood piece of shit," Draco shouted as he barged into the cabin and grabbed onto Gohan's robes. "You kidnapped my mother."
Raising a hand to stop anyone from interfering, Gohan heaved a sigh as he got up from the bench. "I figured this would happen," muttering under his breath about the confrontation he had been hoping would take place later. Reaching up he easily broke the human's grip on his collar and then without any effort lifted Draco off the floor and walked him back out of the compartment. "I'm sure your dad lied to you about what happened but, we didn't kidnap your mom."
"She invited us over to have some company, your dad struck her. Hard. Then he tried to pull his wand on her and my mother. We are not holding her hostage or whatever nonsense Lucius fed to you, we are giving her a safe place away from her abuser. And if you don't believe me, send a letter to my house and she will respond, I promise."
Setting Draco down on the floor, instead of throwing him down the length of the train as he wanted to. But it wasn't Draco's fault that he was lied to. Not bothering to listen to any response, Gohan shut the door and drew the blinds, seeing that the shadow Draco cast through the window quietly shuffled away a few moments later. Returning to the bench he let out an exasperated groan. "I should have just killed Lucius, it would have saved me a headache."
Rubbing the bridge of his nose, Gohan looked up after collecting his thoughts to see everyone else in the compartment was staring at him. "What?"
Seeing that no one else was saying what was on their minds, Harry nervously scratched his neck and spoke up. "You uh… wouldn't have actually killed Mr. Malfoy would you?" Uncertain if the strange kid was being serious because from what he saw at the Christmas party a few weeks ago, it might have been completely possible for Gohan to do just that.
"Yeah, but my mom told me not to," Gohan grumbled. Then he noticed others were still looking at him strangely. "I have killed before, a few aliens, demons and some bio-androids but no humans if it makes you feel better."
"I think we're just more confused now than anything Gohan," Daphne chimed in because she had no clue what Gohan was talking about.
"Oh well the first time I killed what could be called a person was on Namek," Gohan thought back to how many times he had taken lives. "Then there were the Spice Boys, Garlic Jr. was just sent back to the Dead Zone and he's immortal so he doesn't count, all the Cell Juniors and Cell himself. So uhh… like twelve people I think?"
"Not like twelve is a whole lot, I mean most of my friends have killed people, except for Yamcha and Bulma. But Vegeta, woooh, does he have a mountain of bodies behind him. Now that I think about it, no one alive has the same numbers as him." Gohan hummed to himself on the thought of how many millions and billions Vegeta potentially slaughtered before getting to Earth.
"Gohan…" Susan slowly and clearly said to get the odd boy's attention. "You're not making any sense, could you please start from the beginning?"
Drawing out a noise, Gohan leaned back into the bench. "Well I guess it really all starts long ago with an ancient prophecy and an alien warlord."
A few breaks here and there for snacks and processing time, along with the need to change into their robes, Gohan started to tell the story his own father had told him growing up. The Hogwarts Express rolled into the station. Disembarking the train Gohan began the walk up to the carriages with the rest of his friend group. "So that pretty much covers it up to when my Uncle Raditz showed up."
Gohan decided to cut the story there because the group was getting separated into different carriages pulled by the thestrals and he'd hate to have to repeat himself so he told them he'd continue telling them about his life the next chance they could all get together.
But with how chaotic things would become in the next few hours that would not be for some time.
The returning feast was grand, students were in high spirits and chatting among themselves, and had anyone really been paying attention they would have noticed that there was an empty seat where the defense professor normally sat. Or they would have questioned it had the doors not slammed open revealing a newly resurrected Voldemort.
"I have returned!" the Dark Lord declared, causing a moment of silence before panic set in among the students. He strode into the room confidently, a living nightmare that haunted the dreams of magical Britain. Hearing the sounds of terror only brought him joy watching young children scurry and take cover underneath the tables of the Great Hall.
"Everyone, quickly away from the door," Albus commanded as he tried to come around the table as quickly as he could. This had been the worst possible situation for Voldemort to have found the Stone. 'If only I had forced Mr. Son to remain in the castle this wouldn't have happened.'
The problem was that a sea of panicking children made it impossible for the headmaster to cast any magic that would have a significant effect without possibly endangering the students. With all of the students rushing away from the door, it was immediately noticeable that one remained behind, a certain young boy with spiky black hair stood defiantly in the path of the mad man. And that was all Minerva McGonagall needed to see to make a decision in this dire moment.
"Gohan!" Minerva shouted over the noise of screaming students as she pointed at the Dark Lord. "Destroy him!"
"Destroy me? No you do not understand, with the Philosopher's Stone I am immortal," Voldemort proudly declared when he heard the challenge, raising up the red gem high into the air.
"Let's stress test that shall we," Gohan tilted his head to the side in amusement as he cupped his hands together. "Ka-me-ha-me..."
Voldemort looked furious at the young half-saiyan in front of him, a reminder of his past failures. "That muggle spell will not stop me this time, Avada Kedavra!"
"HAAAAAAAAAA!"
At the same time a sickly green bolt of magic left the tip of the wand in the Dark Lord's hand, Gohan's attack erupted from his hands and surged forth, engulfing the spell in its white-blue light. For a brief moment no one in the school knew what would happen, after all this was the Dark Lord and he had cast the killing curse, a spell that cannot be blocked. But on the other hand his opponent was Son Gohan, the strangest student anyone in the school had ever met.
The next moment everyone in the hall shielded their eyes from the bright light flooding the room. It took some time for everyone's vision to clear enough to see the result of the attacks.
Gohan was standing proudly and unscathed while the Dark Lord was clutching his side, covering the bleeding stump of where his wand arm had been. "See child, you cannot kill me that way again," Voldemort wheezed as the stone in his other hand began to glow and his arm slowly reformed.
Gohan shook his head at the evil wizard. "I'll just make sure not to miss any of you this time, kame-hame," Gohan began to charge up another attack just as Voldemort's body turned into black mist.
"I will return child, this fluke of yours will not save you next time," Voldemort declared as he took off into the night sky veiled in a shadowy cloud.
No one said anything for a few minutes before someone in the mass of students began to cheer for Gohan. Once that happened the dam broke and students rushed towards Gohan in celebration. The Dark Lord had been repelled and everyone was safe for now.
That was leaving Gohan feeling pretty great until a shimmering silver monkey came bursting into the Great Hall. Gohan easily recognized his mother's patronus and the voice that came out of it. "Gohan, my water just broke."
Thankfully no one had been holding onto Gohan when he rocketed out of the Great Hall at supersonic speeds, or else they could have been seriously hurt if they hit the ground. But Gohan was more worried about his mother than waiting for the students to get over their excitement of Voldemort being fought off to slow down.
Touching down on his lawn less than five seconds later Gohan burst into the house to see his mother huffing on the couch while Narcissa dabbed her forehead with a cloth to mop up sweat. "What do I do?" Gohan shouted as he ran over to his mother's side.
"Just…" Lily groaned from the contraction. "Be here sweetie, Narcissa already floo'ed Mrs. Tonks, she and her husband are coming right away. If you want, you can call Bulma and Krillin to let them know, they'll get everyone else."
Nodding his head, Gohan cautiously got off the couch and walked over to the phone, even though it was late at night in West City he was sure someone at Capsule Corp would be there to answer. That did give him some time to collect his wits about him over the events of the last few minutes. "I'll see you soon," he said into the receiver before hanging up.
The door knocking after that had Gohan moving to let in Ted and Andromeda, the father of his friend coming over to cast a few spells on Lily to make the birth easier. While Andromeda brought Narcissa into the kitchen to prepare some drinks for Lily to help her recover, even with magic making the process less painful and taking far less time it still was a very taxing endeavor for the mother to undergo.
Not even five minutes later Gohan could sense his friends approaching from the distance and they would likely be arriving soon, so he went back to his mother's side and held her hand, even squeezing as hard as she could, it didn't cause a single flinch from her son.
The door opening to Bulma rushing in to be with her best friend, Vegeta walked over to Gohan's side carrying Trunks in one arm and a bag slung over the other. "Kakabrat."
"Vegeta," Gohan nodded in acknowledgement of the Prince of All Saiyans.
The pure saiyan moved to relax against the wall, not that he was against being in the home, he just didn't have anything to do. He had been assured that the magical earthlings had everything under control and they had even helped with the delivery of his own child so they seemed competent enough.
Over the time it took for Goten to be born into the world more of the fighters arrived and were just milling around and chatting while Lily had her child. As one those who could sense ki turned to the doorway where an older man was standing having let himself in. "I am sorry to intrude but Gohan there is a matter we need to discuss."
"Are you serious?" Gohan raised an eyebrow towards the headmaster for the audacity to enter the home without being invited.
"Wait who are you?" Yamcha questioned and moved over to Professor Dumbledore because he'd never met Dumbledore before and not knowing why this guy just showed up. "You can't just come in here, this is for friends and family."
"Gohan this is serious, the Dark Lord-" Albus continued, ignoring the muggle trying to impede his movement, however many people got into his path to stop him from taking another step.
"Headmaster," Gohan sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Voldemort is not a priority right now."
"It most certainly is-" Albus disagreed before Andromeda chimed in.
"What do you mean Voldemort is not a priority Gohan?" Curious why a man long dead was even being mentioned right now.
"Oh right, yeah he's back alive. Somehow got his hands on the Philosopher's Stone," answering while waving dismissively, Gohan turned his attention back to the headmaster. "Sir, we can deal with him later, he's running with his tail between his legs."
Narcissa and Andromeda both looked horrified that the Dark Lord had returned to the land of the living and was in possession of a means of immortality when everyone was distracted by Lily's loud scream followed by the sounds of a crying newborn. Turning their attention they all watched as Ted passed the swaddled baby into Lily's arms.
"He's beautiful," Lily weakly cooed at her newest son. "Hello Goten."
Heaving a sigh at what he considered to be a great threat to the continued existence of the world was being dismissed out of hand, Albus quietly left the home as everyone inside celebrated the new life brought into the world.
Meanwhile hundreds of miles away, a loud pounding on a door in the dead of night disturbed the quiet home. "Who dares disturb me?!" Lucius roared as he flung open the door with his wand drawn and a dark spell on his lips.
"Lucius, is that anyway to greet your master?" Voldemort hissed at the wand pointed in his face. His red eyes reflected the dim lights from the foyer of the Malfoy Manor.
Seeing the long deceased dark wizard on his doorstep, Lucius faltered before stepping aside. "M-master, how?"
"With no small effort, I have infiltrated Hogwarts to steal the infamous Philosopher's Stone right from underneath the fool Dumbledore's nose." Raising the glittering rock up for Lucius to understand how much power he wielded now.
"But now we have another annoyance to deal with, that wretched son of the mudblood and muggle," Voldemort snarled at the thought of the power displayed by Son Gohan against him.
"You mean Son Gohan my lord?" Lucius guessed the identity of who infuriated the Dark Lord. When he received a nod in return, a sinister smile crossed over the pureblood wizard's face. "I have been formulating plans to have him eliminated. Not to be too presumptive but I have been using your gift to find any holes that I might have overlooked, unfortunately I lack a few much needed parts to enact it."
Entering the study together, Voldemort saw his diary horcrux on the table. This led his maniacal mind to deduce what Tom Riddle would have suggested. "Yes, yes. I can see what your plans entail," dragging a finger along the spine of the black leather, Voldemort was considering ways to ensure that this plan would be fool proof and maximize death and destruction.
Gohan had never considered himself a big brother before or what he would do in this situation but seeing his baby brother Goten sleeping calmly in a crib, he was so taken with the idea of setting a good example for Goten to follow that he wondered if this was what led him to being a mentor to Trunks in the future.
"Gohan," Lily called out to her son. Magic was an incredible thing, a few days and she was already back to how she was before her pregnancy, no lethargy or aches from carrying the child and even more so her body still held its incredible figure. "I know you love watching over Goten but you do need to return to the castle today. I have already told Minerva you would be coming back later today."
"Okay mom," Gohan responded with a sigh, he had pretty much just left Hogwarts without telling anyone if and when he would return.
"Come along, Narcissa has tried her hand at making some lunch," Lily smiled as she picked up Goten who had begun to stir himself awake.
Gohan was surprised to see that the food the former Mrs. Malfoy had made was far from inedible. Call him a bit biased but he had assumed that someone like her had never even set foot in a kitchen, and Gohan had been right, he just didn't know that his mother had been giving a helping hand throughout the process. Nor did he notice the glances the two women were giving each other over the meal.
Flying back up to the school Gohan touched down on the lawn just outside the gates where Professor McGonagall was waiting for him, along with a few extra people. "Good afternoon Professor," bowing to his teacher and then to greet those he recognized. "Mr. Potter, Mr. Black."
"Hey squirt," Sirius chuckled at the polite greeting. "Seems we had a uhh interesting report from, well everyone in the school about something that happened a few days ago."
"Oh yeah," Gohan chuckled, because the interaction with Voldemort had already been forgotten since it was so insignificant. "Did you need to ask me about that? It couldn't really be that important."
James Potter coughed into his fist, clearly Lily's boy didn't understand the gravity of the situation they were in. His wife Amelia was up in the castle talking with, i.e. berating Dumbledore for information in a meeting with the minister. He and Sirius had been tasked with interviewing slash interrogating Gohan since everyone said that he had single-wandedly fought off You-Know-Who except that it was done without a wand.
"Mr. Son," Minerva sighed. "It is quite important even for someone of your skill set. Now this isn't an interrogation," sending a glare at the two aurors to let them know what would be tolerated. "If it were then I would need to inform Lily and since she just had her baby a few days ago, I feel it would be unfair to subject her to such an inquiry."
"Right right," Sirius said defensively while holding up his hands to stave off an argument. "Don't need to do that Professor."
"Well I guess I'll just tell you what happened," Gohan shrugged and saw no reason to argue, then started from when he left the Hogwarts Express. "He fled after that, not sure where he went though."
James tapped his quill on the parchment he had of his notes that he jotted down from what information had been provided by the various students, most of which was from his son and niece. But he was glad to see that Gohan had corroborated what he had already been told, which said to him that he wasn't lying. "I do have a question, that spell you used. I've never heard of it before, did Lily create it?"
This Kamehameha that Gohan had used seemed incredibly powerful and James wondered where it had originated from.
"My mom, oh no. That was a technique created by Master Roshi, do you remember the old man from the party?" Gohan shook his head with a chuckle. "My dad learned it and taught it to me years ago."
"Your father, the muggle?" Sirius questioned just how that was possible. Like many of the former Order of the Phoenix members he'd only met Lily's husband a few times. He didn't have anything against the man, in fact he quite liked how energetic Goku was from what he remembered of him. But in Sirius' limited exposure to muggles, he was fairly certain they couldn't do anything like what Gohan was talking about.
"Yeah, it's not like magic is the only thing in the universe," Gohan shrugged.
James tapped his quill on the parchment while biting his lip. "Could you please demonstrate this spell to us?" Wanting to see it for himself something that could seemingly swallow up a killing curse.
Sending a glance to Professor McGonagall who just told him it was up to him, Gohan shrugged and moved a distance away to ensure that no one else was swept up in the attack. Cupping his hands together Gohan looked up into the sky to ensure that nothing was in the path of his attack before charging his ki. A moment later a massive beam erupted into the sky, piercing the clouds and disappearing into space. After cutting off the attack, Gohan turned to the aurors in case either had any questions to see that they were standing slack jawed at his display.
"Uh anyway, I'm going to go to class now Professor," Gohan said after realizing that both the aurors weren't going to be asking him anything else.
"Enjoy yourself Mr. Son," Minerva nodded and dismissed her student into the castle. "So do you believe me now when I say that You-Know-Who is absolutely screwed this time."
Gohan was surprised at the attention he was getting in classes after the incident in the Great Hall. "Is it really that big of a deal that I beat Voldemort?" Gohan asked his group of friends who worked somewhat well at keeping Gohan from being mobbed by the other students.
"It's huge!" Susan exclaimed. "Gohan, that monster started a war last time, I- I lost my mom and dad to his death eaters."
"Oh," was all Gohan could respond with. To him Voldemort was just some guy with a fancy rock right now. He had heard the stories from his mom growing up but either she down played a lot of it or all these years of seeing how strong his dad and himself became had made Lily reevaluate the threat a dark wizard possessed.
"But you beat him," Tonks exclaimed.
"Well, I mean, he's not that strong," Gohan nervously rubbed the back of his head. "He's only a little stronger than Dumbledore."
"Only a little?! Gohan, Dumbledore is the most powerful sorcerer in the world," Harry commented having grown up hearing stories of the war from his parents. He and his cousin Susan had been told that Dumbledore could do really impressive feats with his magic.
"Well I've been training with Tonks for a while and she's about as strong as them both now," offering a shrug because he didn't quite know how to explain to them that while Voldemort might be more powerful than the average wizard, compared to any of his friends the man didn't even register.
"I am?!" Tonks shouted.
"Oh yeah, you can form your ki pretty easily now right?" Gohan nodded before forming a glowing ball in his palm.
Tonks nodded and firmed her features. It took a second but she managed to form the ki similar to Gohan, albeit with small signs of exertion. "Yeah, it takes some effort but I've been practicing like you told me to Gohan."
"Yup," Gohan smiled. "So unless someone else in the castle has been hiding their ki signature, then Tonks is probably one of the strongest students in the castle since she can push her ki into casting."
"How can you be so sure?" Hermione questioned just how Gohan could know something like that.
"It'd be really hard to explain everything right now, but remember how a few years ago the moon was destroyed?" Gohan asked, knowing that had been reported for a while.
"Yeah," Hermione nodded because that had been an insane period of time, the moon was just gone one night and then back later. It didn't feel real, like someone had pranked the world.
Gohan looked a bit nonplussed. "I'm sorry about that."
"You did that?" Susan gaped. It had been a horrible time for the magical community because of the moon's disappearance.
"No, but I'm the reason it happened. Piccolo blew up the moon," Gohan sighed. "That was when I was about four and a half years old, the me of that age was still stronger than Voldemort then, by a lot."
"You sound insane," Harry shook his head.
Gohan just offered a shrug in response because it was quite possible that he wasn't entirely cogent.
Meanwhile Dumbledore was explaining to Madam Bones what his plan had been. "Yes, I had considered it possible that Voldemort had survived that night, but without proof I couldn't bring anything forward, nor would I have done so publicly," Dumbledore explained himself while righting his office after Amelia had torn into him for what she considered to be the schemes of a lunatic.
"If I brought it before the wizengamot, there was a chance that either no one believed me, or worse that only his followers did," Albus sighed heavily. "Had they gone en masse to look for him, he could have had more aid than I could potentially account for, and when Nicolas told me that someone had been after his philosopher's stone I assumed the worst."
"But in your school?" Amelia snarled because had this plan gone anymore sideways it would have been on the ceiling. "With children, with Susan and Harry!"
"Regrettably, yes," Albus nodded while stacking some papers. "I couldn't simply take the stone and hide somewhere, I needed to draw him out."
"Why couldn't you have just told James or myself, he was in your Order, he could have gathered the troops to lay a trap," Amelia shouted back at the wizard.
"And keep Tom away entirely, I needed to seem like I was wary but not too much so," Dumbledore shook his head. "Tom is a master of manipulation, anything overt and I risk too much."
"Risking the children was too much," Amelia cut in, growing all the more tired of Albus' excuses. He always said things were regrettable, but never apologized for them.
"That was why I had planned for Mr. Son to handle it, he is clearly capable of whatever feat of magic was done that defeated the Dark Lord ten years ago, I had hoped in confrontation he could do so again, but it seemed that he spent the holidays at home, which provided a window of opportunity for plans to fail," Dumbledore conceded that his plan had not accounted for Gohan not remaining in the castle.
"And now what is your plan?" Amelia questioned, because she was going to have to take this directly to Fudge, who was already fielding hundreds of owls, including some from ministers from the other magical communities about what had happened in the school.
"I have a few ideas but so far they have not born fruit," Albus confessed because his only back up to Gohan destroying the Dark Lord was the dragon ball in his desk that he still could not get to work. "For the time being I will simply have to ensure that the students are properly educated and aware of the threats that may be on the horizon."
Amelia really didn't like that answer, but she what she liked even less was how she didn't have a better plan, but there was a silver lining to this, Fudge was guaranteed to up her department's budget, and Andy's and Ted's girl had always wanted to be an auror, so maybe she can get trained with Moody, anyone who can survive growing up with Lord Black as a constant in their life surely could handle that much chaos.
Gohan sat with his friends at the dinner table for the end of the year feast, despite the hiccup of Voldemort's return nothing else really exciting had happened for the rest of the school year, rumors around the castle was that Hagrid was seen playing with a large cerberus on the lawn and that the third floor corridor had been cleaned up and was now safe again, but he got the feeling that the adults were keeping things to themselves again. Which was an odd situation because despite being a child, whenever he faced a threat to the Earth, no one kept anything to themselves, he was always informed as an equal, so it was quite frustrating to not be told what was going on.
Still the feast was grand even if Slytherin had ended up winning the house cup for the end of the year. But unlike the last couple of years, it was much closer as Snape was no longer taking points willy nilly.
Gohan was swept up into a tight hug by Tonks who exclaimed loudly that she was going to the auror academy because she'd demolished the scores set by any of the past graduating students, at least in regards to casting spells. He tried to tell her that she had been the one to put in all the work but it was really hard to focus on that when he found that he liked being held like a teddy bear by pretty girls.
But she had promised that for the summer she was going to train with him to get stronger because she had only a couple of months to get ready before she started at the academy.
His other friends like Harry and Susan had promised to invite him to their family's big summer gala event, it was pretty much a given that James would be inviting Lily and she would go, but they were hoping that Gohan would still attend. He had such interesting stories to tell and would be a main focus as the Potters had said that this was going to be as much of a recruitment and fundraiser against Voldemort as it was a chance to have some fun and mingle.
Hermione had sadly said that she would have a hard time keeping in touch as she didn't have an owl but Gohan reminded her that he had a phone and if she gave him her address it would only take him a few minutes to get to her house. The very studious girl was still having trouble understanding that someone like Gohan could exist, it was frankly a difficult concept to grasp along with magic being real that aliens were too.
The last person Gohan had seen before reuniting with his mother and Narcissa at the train station was Draco sullenly looking over at his mother while he walked to his father. And it took considerable effort on Gohan's part not to turn Lucius to a smear just seeing his smug face, and the man's remark that nearly reduced Narcissa to tears at the station had him forming a crackling ball of ki in his hand. "Gohan," Lily sharply said. "We don't kill people in public."
Letting out a snort, Gohan relaxed his hand and let the energy he formed dissipate harmlessly, it would have been a bit overkill anyway in such a crowded place. Narcissa ruffled Gohan's spiky hair in thanks for sticking up for her, but considering the stories that Lily had been telling her over some drinks about the life she had lived, she was well aware that Lucius was playing a losing game with an opponent such as Gohan.
Arriving home though Gohan felt that something was coming and he should do some training of his own, things were never peaceful for long.