During his first week back home Gohan spent a lot of it tending to his baby brother Goten, thankfully his brother was born without a tail just as Trunks had been, which made him curious why he had one.
But he didn't really have the time nor inclination to really investigate that because whenever he wasn't walking around with Goten he was training, being the first week everyone was busy spending it with their family members and that meant spending that time with his mother and now Narcissa.
His parents were never prudes, but they also weren't risque either, so he could see that the lingering touches shared between Narcissa and his mom were more than friendly. But so long as Narcissa made his mother happy, then he was fine to pretend he saw nothing until they were ready to discuss where they were at.
After that week though the owls started to come in, or they would have, by Monday he hadn't heard anything from the Potters, by Thursday he was concerned and walked next door to see if Tonks was home.
"Huh, that's strange," Nymphadora grunted while doing a handstand in the Son backyard as Gohan finished telling her how he hadn't received an owl yet about the ball. "My mum and dad got Mr. Potter's letter."
"Could someone be stealing our mail?" Gohan asked because he figured it shouldn't be impossible for an owl to be intercepted.
"If you think that's what's happening, you can take it up with an auror," Tonks suggested that her little saiyan friend go see the ministry. "Maybe it's Voldemort's doing. They'd probably check into the situation because it's happening to you"
Since that was going to be a problem for later, Gohan just let out a sigh before he helped Tonks with the next step of using her ki. "Alright, you've been able to form your ki for the last couple of weeks without completely draining yourself. Now we need to get you pushing it underneath you, that's how you fly."
"Wicked," Tonks cheered as she got ready and pumped her arms. "Alright, what do I gotta do."
"Well it's not that difficult, now that you can freely form your ki, you just push it underneath you and you'll start to fly. Try not to push too hard or else you might shoot off faster than you expect," Gohan said as he got himself ready to catch Tonks if and when she overestimated how much ki she needed to use.
Nodding with a smile, Tonks focused to find her ki before she rocketed into the air rather than a gentle ascent. Shaking his head Gohan raced up to catch her as she started to panic, because it wasn't as simple as just going up, it would take weeks before she learned the proper control to fly wherever she wanted to.
"You wanted to ask an auror to see if our mail is being intercepted?" Lily questioned her son after he brought it up to her at breakfast.
"Yes, I just think it's weird I haven't gotten any letter from my friends in all this time," Gohan shrugged. He had used the floo to ask Harry and Daphne if they had written anything and they claimed they had, so they too found it weird that their owls weren't delivering the mail.
"Well it's alright if you want to bring it up to them," Lily agreed that it would be for the best that the ministry handle this situation.
Tossing some floo powder into the fireplace, Gohan stepped in and then exited out into a large atrium. "Wow, this place is huge," Gohan said in amazement at the size of the Ministry of Magic. He walked through the bustling crowd of witches and wizards before coming up to a man standing at a check in station.
"Wand please," the tired man said while extending his hand.
Pulling his wand out of his pocket the man stared at it for a moment curiously. "Unidentified wood and… dragon heartstring, twelve inches," looking up, the man saw that it was a child who was looking to enter the ministry. "What brings you here today?"
"I think someone is stealing my mail so I was going to ask an auror for some help in tracking it down," Gohan answered.
Letting out a sigh, the man pointed behind him. "Take the elevators down to level 2, someone will be able to take your statement."
Bowing slightly Gohan was returned his wand and he scampered across the room, passing by a gaudy golden statue. He entered the caged elevator with a number of other people. It didn't take long for the doors to open on the right floor. Gohan felt the long, dark hallway was a bit needlessly foreboding but as he walked towards the door marked for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Entering it was a madhouse of activity. Red robed witches and wizards were shouting and moving suspects they had captured on earlier patrols.
"Excuse me," Gohan politely said to the witch at the podium.
"Sorry we're really busy right now, you'll need to wait," the witch said back while she turned to a particularly resistant suspect.
There was a crack as the arresting auror's nose was broken and the man tossed another auror into the path of a stunner while making a break for the door when a palm slammed into his gut, knocking him out. Gohan caught the man before he hit the floor. "Like I was going to say, I'm here to ask if an auror could help me as I think someone is stealing my mail."
Him nonchalantly holding up a full grown man with one arm was curious and it served as a means of drawing attention to him. Thankfully Gohan didn't need to wait long before an auror with a large badge came over. "Gohan?" James Potter said as he approached Lily's boy while two more aurors took the unconscious suspect from the child. "What seems to be the problem?"
"Hello Mr. Potter," Gohan bowed respectfully. "I believe that someone or something is intercepting my mail and I was hoping that the aurors would be capable of helping me solve this. Tonks suggested I come to you before I go off and do anything myself."
"That's for the best," James agreed with Sirius' cousin's suggestion. "There are some spells we can place on letters being sent to you, it'll let us track where they go."
Offering a smile, Gohan nodded his head. "Thank you, that'll be very helpful. So is there something I should be doing?"
"Just when you get home ask your mother to put a tracking charm on a letter and send it off to Harry or Susan explaining the situation, they'll get Amelia to put another charm on their letters when they send it back," James instructed the young saiyan on how to go about finding if someone was taking his mail.
"I'll go home right away and get started," Gohan bowed before leaving the department to follow the steps the auror gave him.
In a darkened manor a scared house elf watched from the doorway as the young child in the home was called to the master's study. "Yes father?" Draco gulped as he could see that it wasn't just his dad in the room, but the Dark Lord as well.
"Come to me child," Voldemort said as he crooned his finger. "I have a… gift for you."
Draco cautiously approached his father's desk and saw laid out in front of the Dark Lord was a black leather bound book. Slowly Voldemort passed it over to him. "I believe that this will be of great use to you in your next year at Hogwarts, it had certainly helped me when I was in that dreadful place."
Bowing low to not show his fear, Draco accepted the book and opened it to see it was empty. "Thank you, my lord, I will use this to its full potential. Will that be all?"
Seeing the Dark Lord's mouth split into a smile was terrifying to see, and Draco started to shake in his boots before he was dismissed. Once the door shut, Voldemort looked over to Lucius who was trying and failing to hide the dismay on his face. "It is always good to have loyal subjects, is it not? That even your child can be of use to myself?"
"Yes my lord," Lucius responded while knowing that he had sealed his son's fate but could do nothing about it. "This will… this will rid us of Gohan Son."
Dobby let out a squeak and disapparated, the house elf needed to protect the children from these evil machinations.
Gohan was waiting for the letter back from the Potters when he heard a pop in the next room, it was the same sound as when his mother would apparate but as she and Narcisssa were both downstairs, sitting on the couch together, slowly moving closer to each other. He knew that it had to be an intruder. Faster than mere mortals could even think, he was in his brother's room and had his hands on the small figure that was in the middle of the floor. "You're the house elf from the Malfoys?" he said curiously as he looked over the frightened creature in his grasp.
Dobby grunted and squealed while trying to break the iron grip around his body, but the diminutive creature found it was an impossible task. "No, please, you must let Dobby go, Dobby has to warn Gohan Son about the danger. Gohan Son must not go back to Hogwarts."
Slowly blinking, Gohan took a breath. "Alright, we're going to talk to my mom," picking up the squirming elf and carrying him down to the living room.
Entering, he saw that his mom and Narcissa were very close and when he cleared his throat the two witches pulled away from each other, quickly straightening out their robes and hair. Lily turned and wiped her lip and offered her son a smile. "Gohan, I thought you were upstairs doing homework?"
"I was and then this guy popped into Goten's room," Gohan held up the house elf that had gone limp, giving up trying to escape the young boy's hands.
"Dobby?" Narcissa questioned how her old house elf had gotten into the home and why.
"Yeah, he said I can't go back to Hogwarts because it's dangerous, so I'm gonna guess that your ex-husband is working with Voldemort," Gohan answered, which was enough to make the elf let out a cry of despair that the plotting had been uncovered so soon.
"Oh Dobby is a bad elf, Dobby must be punished," Dobby screamed but couldn't run to find some way to hurt himself, not with Gohan keeping him from going anywhere.
"Dobby, what danger do you mean?" Narcissa asked, but she was also aware that Dobby couldn't betray the confidence of Lucius, he'd been ordered long ago to not do that. It was what protected Lucius many times along with house elf not being allowed to testify as they would say whatever their masters ordered them too.
"I cannot, not even to the no longer missus," Dobby wailed mournfully that he couldn't even tell Narcissa that her son was in mortal danger as well.
"Gohan you can let him go, I believe that we've discovered who has been intercepting your mail. And it's obvious that Voldemort is up to something so just keep an eye out and don't hesitate to defend yourself or the school if you think you need to," Lily instructed him.
Shrugging, Gohan released the elf who just started to sob before disapparating out of the home. Now he was left in the room with his mother and Narcissa who he had interrupted. "I'm gonna go see Tonks, help her with some last minute training before she gets put in the auror program," Gohan pointed to the door as he started to walk towards it.
"Thank you Gohan," Lily waved off her son, while turning to the blonde mother and seductively licking her lips, causing her eyes to widen. "Dinner will be in a few hours, but you can be late if you want."
"Yeah…" Gohan said as he shut the door and left that alone. He'd have to ask about silencing charms and if it was illegal for him to cast some on his room at home over the break.
Turns out it was illegal but even if there was a misunderstanding on why he needed them, the ministry wasn't going to send an auror out whenever a young wizard put up silencing charms at night, the entire government would never get anything done if they did.
Thankfully the summer ball hosted by the Potters soon came, although it had caused a bit of a stir when Narcissa's divorce was made public to the other families. Although one could say that the Marauder's made a bigger scene about Lily giving her a kiss in front of them. "I cannot believe it," James said in awe that Lily was dating another witch. "Can't wait to see what happens when Sevie hears about this."
Severus hearing James' obnoxious voice loudly across the room came skulking over. "And what pray tell you buffoon, would I be hearing?"
Sirius, having knocked back his drink, set it down on a table behind him. "That once Lils got back into the dating pool you didn't even have a chance before my cousin snatched her up."
Narcissa rolled her eyes at Sirius' antics, she was grateful that he divorced her from Lucius, but did he have to be such a child about her dalliances with the red-headed mother. She could see Severus looking at the two of them in shock and almost imperceptibly the corners of his mouth twitched into what one might consider a smile. "I believe that it is not the end of the world that Lily has found happiness in the arms of someone so caring," Severus said before taking a sip from his own drink.
"Is that your way of saying that at least you can picture them together and that's almost as good as winning?" Remus snickered at the potion's professor.
"I think you three are getting a little too much enjoyment out of this and James, I'm sure Amelia would love to hear about this conversation, should I go get her?" Lily raised an eyebrow as James realized he was close to getting in trouble.
"Oh yeah, let's get them together," Sirius gasped. "A Devil's Triangle with three birds."
James slugged Sirius in the shoulder. "That's my wife," he barked out only to get punched back by his best friend.
"And that's me cousin," Sirius howled with laughter as the two started shoving each other with Remus trying to keep the peace and play scorekeeper at the same time.
Turning her attention to the professor. "So Severus," Narcissa said, garnering his attention. "Since Quirrell is no longer teaching, who has Albus found to fill the position of Defense?"
Snape sighed because he'd once again petitioned to teach the course only to be denied. "Unfortunately with the Dark Lord's return," Snape glanced at his left arm. "The offers are being declined and applicants have rescinded their requests. So we have only garnered a single person who still wants the job."
"Who?" Lily asked because she was curious just who would be brave enough to accept a role that might see them as a target by Voldemort.
"Gilderoy Lockhart," Severus flatly growled. It was extremely vexing that someone like him was given the position.
"Gilly?" Lily exclaimed because she had heard about this man after returning to the magical community, he was quite famous and many a witch was enraptured by the man and his supposed accomplishments. All she remembered was the young boy who started the school during her fifth year. He had a penchant for exaggeration that seemed to have ballooned into a fraudulent career.
"The same," Severus sighed.
"The kids won't learn a thing from him?" Lily protested, she'd be taking this up with Dumbledore about ensuring that the education of the students wasn't impacted, even if that meant she would request private tutors for her son. Unfortunately Lily knew that going up to the school to make an offer to teach wasn't possible right now as with her newborn that was where she had to put most of her focus.
"Hey Gohan," Harry spoke up as he and the other kids were off to the side of the party since it was mostly boring politics being discussed. "Can I ask you a favor?"
"Sure, what is it?" Gohan replied while sipping the punch.
"You trained with Tonks and she got stronger, can you do the same for us? I mean with You-Know-Who back we're going to have to fight at some point," Harry explained what he wanted from his weird half-alien friend.
"It'll probably be a lot of effort and well, Tonks was older when she got started," Gohan swirled his drink. "You aren't likely to see the same type results for a while since your bodies are still growing."
"But you were doing this when you were a little kid?" Daphne probed because she was pretty certain he began when his father had died many years ago.
Gohan just rubbed the back of his head with a chuckle. "Remember I'm not one hundred percent human, what normally would have been devastating to an earthling's body was actually fairly standard for saiyans growing up. Krillin and Yamcha didn't really get into intense training until they were in their teenage years and Mr. Piccolo threw me into a mountain when I was four."
"Actually I'm sure it was a plateau from what he told me," Lily chimed in only to get a look of confusion from her son. "What, do you really think that after he took you I didn't chase him down to find you? What kind of mother would I be if I just sat at home waiting for you to come back."
"Wait, why don't I remember this?" Gohan inquired why he didn't recall this happening.
"Oh you were so asleep for all the training Piccolo was subjecting you to, that you slept through all the screaming," Lily sipped her goblet of juice.
"Screaming?" Gohan raised an eyebrow.
"Ignoring the entire problem with your uncle, he still killed my husband and kidnapped my son, I tortured him for that," Lily said bluntly. It was a risky move but as Piccolo hadn't expected her to apparate behind him it meant that he wasn't ready for the Cruciatus she hit him with. She and by extension him learn a lot about a Namekian's ability to regrow limbs. But when Piccolo explained everything about how only he could adequately train her son for the threat headed towards Earth, she agreed that he could continue with his plan. Of course the charms she had set up let her know if Piccolo was taking things too far, but he was a quick learner and kept things from getting too out of hand.
It had all worked out though so she didn't decide to dwell on it. Gohan just blinked rapidly before putting everything together. "Is THAT why Mr. Piccolo is afraid of you?!"
"Well, one of the reasons, and it's not just him," Lily swirled her drink before walking away.
Gohan stood with a confused look on his face as he tried to piece together everything he knew about his mother, and he only had more questions than answers. Turning back to his friends, Gohan decided that ignoring that would be the best choice for his own sanity's sake. "Uh but yeah, we can start real light, get a good foundation to build off of."