Another blisteringly warm July began to give way to August. When the final week of the month came along, a horned owl made its way to the Quandary home. Evergreen was inside the house on the kitchen table eating a plate of chicken and watching a Teen Titans rerun on the TV.

He was about to take a big chomp when he heard something relatively solid smacking against the front door and an owl coo shortly after. He ran to the door with Seta on his heel and opened it. The owl in question flew into the house and landed on the white coffee table that was smack dab in the middle of the room. The owl was small, black, and white, with a speckled, round head and large, yellow eyes with black feathers therearound appearing kind of like eyeliner, and a small, sharp, yellow beak.

At his feet was a familiar sight. It was an envelope with very familiar cursive written by the hand of Professor Agilbert Fontaine. Evergreen picked up the letter and picked up a strip of salmon belly from the fridge to present to the owl. He was quite pleased with this and gulped it down before leaving the house altogether with only two flaps of his wings.

Sitting down, Evergreen opened the envelope, addressed to him with the familiar Gordian knot stamped into the wax holding the envelope closed from the back. Inside was his report card showing that despite his many distractions that last year, he had done very well. He ended up getting a B in his Alchemy class, but the rest of his classes showed a solid A. He smiled and handed the report card off to Seta to look at. The other piece of parchment was a letter from the school. It said:

Mr. Eminent Evergreen Quandary,

We wish to offer congratulations to you for your successful and notable first year at Ilvermorny, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

As a reminder, the 2007-2008 school year begins Monday, August 27 and you will be expected to board your boxcar of the Ilvermorny Express on Saturday, August 25th at 10:00 A.M.

Also, eighth graders and below are not permitted to officially join any school clubs. Only sixth graders, however, are barred from trying out for any of the sport teams on campus.

Attached, you will find a list of required texts and materials that you will collect from your nearest wizard market at your earliest convenience.

Thank you for your continued hard work and we look forward to another exciting year!

Agilbert Fontaine

Deputy Headmaster

ILVERMORNY SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT

AND WIZARDRY

HEADMASTER EDGAR VINCENT ROMULUS

WASHINGTON-FROST

Order of Merlin. First Class

Special Correspondent, Magical Congress of

The United States of America

Evergreen reviewed the letter and then he flipped the page to find his supply list. Some of the books he had purchased the previous year will still be used in his classes, he just needed a few additions. Plus, he just needed some of his clothes in a size up considering how much he had grown that summer. He was pretty much the same height as Link, which said a lot as Link towered over him the previous year.

When Dad came home from an errand he was running, he was overjoyed to see Evergreen's report card. When he eyed the Alchemy score, though, his eyebrows shot up and he mentioned in passing that if Evergreen had issues with the science, it was okay to ask for help from a tutor. Dad reiterated that no one expected Evergreen to manage everything on his own. He had the professors, other students, and even Dad to rely on.

"I know you probably think I'm stupid for saying so, but you can't do everything by yourself. You need help sometimes."

"Dad. I never said that ever." Evergreen responded, impatiently.

"Well, just remember that. Study groups, tutors, extra facetime with your professors, it all helps. But to celebrate your grades, let's go get some ice cream or something."

"Can we go to Laughing Licorice's S-sweetshop? Last year, I noticed that they had some ice cream there." Evergreen inquired.

"I suppose we can. It is a bit of a drive, though."

"Drive? Come on, Dad. Am I a wizard or not?"

"Yes, but you're not supposed to use magic at home."

"That's true enough, but floo doesn't count." Evergreen responded as he grabbed Dad's hand with his left and reached to the fireplace to grab a handful of powder in his right that he threw at their fireplace saying, "Underhill Annex, Oregon".

The Quandarys and Seta materialized within the green flames of another fireplace in a long hallway. They stepped out of it in a slight puff of soot. Evergreen pulled out his wand and removed most of the soot from himself and his two companions. He returned it to his brown, leather holster that Seta had made for him the previous year and turned to Dad.

"Also, I figured, since we're here, why don't we pick up my school things?"

"I guess we could. But ice cream first. I have a real hankering. I could use the pick-me-up as I hadn't traveled by fireplace in years." Dad replied, wiping the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand.

Making their way out of the long hallway of doors and fireplaces, the trio looked around at the large annex. It was just as busy as Evergreen remembered it. He saw a bunch of house elves, some goblins and plenty more creatures that he remembered Professor Woods pointed out and that he learned a few things about in his Creature Care class with Professor Fangholder.

They quickly crossed the area until they got to the Underhill Market sign, complete with its rhyming scheme and everything. Evergreen read it out loud and they passed underneath the large, iron archway. Once they did so, they were greeted by the bright buildings and blackened brick roads of Underhill Market that Evergreen remembered from the year before. He wondered out loud if the bricks beneath their feet were supposed to be black or if that's just how they reacted to generations of witches and wizards stomping thereon. Dad didn't respond and Seta just said something along the lines of "I don't know. Keep your eyes up, Evergreen!"

They continued through until they got to the large, mirror box that was the American Warlock Bank, the AWB. That is to say, the outside of it was a very plain box that was reflective on every side. The trio walked up to the front doors and pushed their way inside. They were greeted with the sight of about a dozen small humanoids with greyish skin, pointed ears, and long, sharp fingernails. Goblins. There were also a few other witches and wizards inside, but they walked up to one of the tellers who was working.

"Good morning." Dad began.

"Really? What's so good about it then?" the goblin replied.

"Quite a few things." Dad replied, nonplussed at the gruff goblin, "I'm Peter Quandary and my son Evergreen would like to make a withdrawal from the Marina family vault."

"Has he his wand?" the goblin growled.

"Yep," chirped Evergreen. "Right here."

The goblin took the wand, raised it in both hands, lowered it upon the parchment in front of him and then returned it to Evergreen. As he returned it, the goblin's unnerving face broke out into a wide smile. Evergreen fought the urge to shiver at the sight.

"Well, Evergreen Quandary," the goblin began, "My name is Xoctklag and I will be accompanying you today. You have been to our bank before?"

"Yes sir –" Evergreen began but he was cut off.

"Very well. It seems only the wizards raised by the non-magical have the audacity to call a goblin 'sir'." Xoctklag sneered.

"Well, that sucks, then." Evergreen replied.

"How's that, Master Quandary?"

"I don't care what MACUSA may say, you are people as far as we're concerned." Evergreen stated, gesturing to himself and Dad.

"Well spoken. Follow me." Xoctklag replied with a chuckle that sounded like a garbage disposal trying to grind something too large and hard.

The Quandary men with Seta perched on Evergreen's left shoulder followed Xoctklag down the single hallway in the back of the bank, the artificial sunlight from the enchanted ceiling of the whole of Underhill Market waning as they approached the door at the end. The goblin reached to the door and with a touch, it opened. He led the trio down to a dark platform that was illuminated only by a surrounding bluebell inferno that lined every wall on the platform, except for the series of elevator doors that stood before them.

They continued to follow the goblin to one of the elevators off to the left and when it opened, they were suddenly surrounded by blackness, all they could see through the walls of the glass elevator. Xoctklag pressed one of the buttons and immediately, the elevator started jerking about like a wild roller coaster ride. Eventually, the bank's deep caverns surrounding them were illuminated with an eerie glow from the small pinprick of sunlight maybe thousands of feet above them.

Once they stopped, they all disembarked through the opening doors onto a rocky ledge. Before them was a large vault door with the familiar encircled star symbol that Evergreen had used as his family rune during his first year of school. Xoctklag touched a few places on the door, and it opened. The Quandarys made their way in and determined they wouldn't need as much as last year. Maybe 20 Dragots in all. So, they proceeded to collect the cash they would need.

While they were doing so, Seta, who had leapt down from Evergreen's shoulder, called out to them.

"Evergreen, Peter. You have to see this!"

The Quandary men followed the sound of the bunny's voice to a place near the backside of the inner vault. There, they saw Seta standing near an open chest. It looked like one of those that would be in a pirate film, except it wasn't full of anything as immediately remarkable as gold or silver. There were little things, family heirlooms and photographs, of course moving, wizard photographs. One of the photographs really jumped out to Evergreen. There was a young woman with fiery red hair and a green dress with two people on either side of her.

"That's your mom and her parents right before I met her!" Dad exclaimed.

"Really? These are my other grandparents?"

"Yeah, they are! I can't believe it! Look at all this!"

They proceeded to look through the chest full of things more precious than any of the artifacts or silver within the vault. How all those things got there was a mystery. How they didn't see the chest last time they were there was also a mystery. Dad took a more recent photograph of Mom, taken shortly before Evergreen was born and Evergreen took one of her with his grandparents. Whatever happened to them? He wondered, not for the first time.

By the time they got to Laughing Licorice's Sweet Shop, the Quandarys and Seta were already in a great mood. When they entered, they were met by a curious individual. He was wearing a powder blue robe with black lining that Evergreen thought was just so smart looking. The man was a few inches shorter than Dad but was in far better shape. When Evergreen looked up to the man's face, he realized that it was Professor Agilbert Fontaine, Deputy Headmaster of Ilvermorny School!

"Good day, Professor!" Evergreen called out.

"Good day." Professor Fontaine replied, turning completely around with a fistful of Underhill's famous laughing licorice, grape flavor. "If it isn't Evergreen Quandary."

"Yes sir."

"And you must be Peter. I am Agilbert Fontaine, you likely know me from the letters." The professor said, offering his hand.

"Nice meeting you." Dad replied, taking the professor's hand in a firm grip.

"You know, the headmaster thinks your son is a true wonder." Professor Fontaine remarked, as he and Dad ended their handshake.

"He really is a great kid. I lucked out in that department." Dad replied, ruffling up Evergreen's hair which was met with a fair amount of complaining.

"He is. Excellent grades in his first year, success on the stage, and overcoming the darkest of magic with non-verbal light magic." Professor Fontaine turned to Evergreen. "Which spell did you use to destroy that wand (If you don't mind me asking)?"

"My wand has three runes inscribed on it that all had something to do with destruction and chaos. I just focused on those runic symbols, and it just happened."

"Merlin's beard… incredible. Please, anything you want here is my treat. I insist. I do recommend, however, trying something…"

Neither Dad, nor Evergreen had any desire to argue with the professor, so they allowed him to buy their ice cream. Evergreen ordered the omni berry ice cream and Dad wanted to try the fizzy tang chocolate. The omni berry ice cream was amazing. The ice cream itself looked like a light lavender color, but every bite tasted exactly like a different berry. Some Evergreen recognized, others he did not. Dad said that his ice cream literally popped like Poprocks with every bite. It was a wonderful bit of magic and Professor Fontaine took some pleasure in seeing their first-time reactions to the treats.

When they left the sweets shop, they went about and picked up all of Evergreen's school supplies. They bought a few new books from Word for Word, plus one written about wand lore that Evergreen found interesting. They also bought new school uniforms from the fast-talking Sir Appleseed and some more potions materials from Wildwood Cauldrons and some more writing materials from The Write Place. Dad was curious about the music shop No Strings Attached and he ended up buying a pitch pipe that automatically tunes any nearby instrument in seconds. Evergreen expressed some hesitation in letting Dad buy it, but he just told Evergreen to let Dad worry about Dad for a change. Plus, Dad told Evergreen that for only 1 Kerat and 1 Quark, it was the best $15 they ever spent.

On their way out of the market, Evergreen noticed Apollo Warin, Ilvermorny's, athletic, clean-cut, dark-haired student body president across the way with the curvy, long, raven-haired Victoria Snow, prefect of their house. They were discussing something, and Evergreen felt the need to give them a pleasant hello. So, he did.

"Apollo, Victoria. Hi!" he said, approaching them.

Their conversation was put on hold for the approaching boy. Apollo's face showed an expression of slight confusion, while Victoria's face broke out into a pleasant grin. Evergreen guessed that she recognized him, but Apollo didn't. That made sense, he figured, he only met the boy once and he wasn't even sure which house he was in. Wampus, maybe?

"Evergreen Quandary." Victoria spoke.

"Yeah. My dad and I were just picking up my s-school stuff. You know, letters came today."

"Yes, they did, and so we are here." She replied, "I heard some interesting things about you last year from our head girl. Is it true that you can see through Polyjuice potion?"

This made a deep belly laugh come out of Evergreen, surprising both older students.

"If I could, Habitatio would have been figured out months before." Evergreen stopped, suddenly aware of the tense feeling that was held between his two schoolmates. "Is everything okay?"

"Yes Evergreen. Everything is fine." Apollo answered. "Ilvermorny is in need of a renewal of its protection spells. Nothing to worry about. They do it every year before the students come back."

Evergreen could tell that he would not be getting any better answers from the two of them, so he just said his goodbyes and went back with Dad. Seta remarked that there was more to their conversation than they led Evergreen to believe, but he was already aware. Something was going on, but he probably wouldn't have to worry about it as there were dozens of teachers and hundreds of upper-classmen who could help to repair any broken spells necessary to the protection of the school. Evergreen did have quite a bit of practice with repairing charms as he practiced the charm for hours with Beatrice in his one and only detention in his previous school year. This year, however, he won't get any detentions and he was resolved to allow the adults to do their thing if danger came about. He was only 12 years old, after all.

A/N: It's been a little while, but I am BACK with another installment of the Evergreen Quandary story. I am quite pleased with the way this has turned out so far. If you like it, let me know in all the ways you fanfic enthusiasts do! HAPPY NEW YEAR and 'til the next time!

-EQ