The next day was a mess of last minute packing followed by an apparition to the school gates where Hagrid let us in and led us up the path to the school. The rest of the day was spent getting our classrooms ready for our students. I helped Ari set up her classroom first before we moved onto mine, due to the nature of our classes hers took much longer to put together than mine did. But we still managed to finish by the time the train arrived so we could head to bed after the welcoming feast. I for one was ready for this day to end, we had been moving around since early this morning and I was beginning to wear down. Once I got some food into me I would be out like a light, "Alright you big lug, let's get to the hall before Mcgonagall comes after us for being late." I nodded and shook my head in order to clear it of cobwebs, I gave one last yawn and followed her. "And you better get that out of your system now, as a professor you should set a good example and staring at my ass is not doing so."

I chuckled and dragged my eyes away, "I can't help it, you were walking up stairs. I didn't think I would ever have been thankful for Hogwarts' countless staircases before." She turned around and gave me a smirk at that before she turned around, but I noticed an extra sway in her steps. Before I knew it, and before I wanted our walk to end, we had reached the grand hall. I tore my eyes from the view and looked around the room that I hadn't seen in so long ago, it looked exactly as I remembered with the magnificent ceiling and floating candles drawing my attention first. Although the long tables looked weird without at least some students occupying them. When I finally moved my gaze to the head table I noticed that most of the professors had already arrived. I nodded at Dumbledore and took my seat next to my wife, luckily due to teaching a completely new class I was able to choose to sit next to her. "Ah Mr. and Mrs. Havorth, glad you could join us." Flitwick greeted us from Ari's right. "Good to see you again Professor Flitwick." He gave a short laugh at that, "Please we are colleagues now, call me Filius."

"Only if you call me Alex, I don't believe you've met my wife before?" He shook his head and reached out to shake her hand, "You can call me Filius as well Mrs. Havorth." She smiled and shook his hand, "Call me Ari. I have heard a lot about you from my husband." He raised an eyebrow at that, while he might have been my head of house we never had many opportunities to interact during my schooling beyond teacher and student. "I am glad that Alex has found someone able to drag his head out of the clouds. When he was a boy we worried he would spend the rest of his days chasing interesting magics and have no time for something as frivolous as a relationship." I blushed at him throwing my words back at me, if anything he was putting it lightly. I was rather arrogant as a child and thought that everyone around me was too stupid to bother interacting with. And by the time I realized that was driving any potential friends away I had alienated pretty much everyone two years above and below me, and as a teenager I wasn't interested in making friends with children three years or more younger than I was. "It's good to see he managed to catch a wonderful lady such as yourself."

I smiled at that, that was hitting the nail on the head. I definitely didn't make a good first impression walking into her tribe and asking to trade knowledge while acting like I was sure my own knowledge was greater. Got my ass kicked by her that day, and spent the next few months having the meaning of humility pounded through my thick skull. Slowly as I lived and worked in the tribe I began to understand that progress should not overshadow tradition, where we have been is just as important as where we are going. As I learned and changed she started to see me as an eager student instead of the arrogant white man whose ass she kicked that first day. Eventually after a few interesting events our relationship developed from annoyance to friends and friendship into something more. "It was a long road but eventually I got the big lug to change his views." She gave me a kiss on the cheek and I blushed at the show of affection, "Ummm, yeah. It's a long story, I'll tell you another time." My embarrassment kept me from being able to articulate anything more than that, and Flitwick gave a hearty laugh.

We were not able to continue our conversation as the students started to file in and the noise level in the hall reached a point where we would need to shout to be heard. I looked over the hall when the thought hit me, the view from here is much different. From the front of the hall I could see as students came in and greeted friends they hadn't seen in months. I could hear laughter and conversation throughout the hall. When I was a student I would simply walk in and sit down at the very end of the table and take out a book to read. I would only put it away when the new students walked into the hall, going right back to my book after the sorting. At that time I viewed the welcoming feast as more of an annoyance, but now I could see what I had been missing. I reached over and placed my hand on top of Ari's and she looked over before giving me a smile, we were drawn out from our little moment by a quiet cough from Flitwick. Suitably chastised, I focused on the new students when something caught my attention. I reached up to my glasses and fine tuned the settings to try and understand what I was seeing.

My glasses were not your run of the mill eyewear, they were a one of a kind artifact that helped me with my rituals. They allowed me to see magical effects; reds showed magic that affected the physical world, blues were for magic that produced any action the mind could dream up. The second aspect of the glasses had saved my ass a multitude of times, the ability to see whether a specific magic would be helpful or harmful. The color I was seeing now was one of the more rare ones; yellow which showed magic that affected the soul. And the magic I was seeing now was almost black that was slightly tinted yellow. Now don't get me wrong, not all soul magic is dark. The patronus for instance will show up yellow as it is closely tied to emotion which comes from the soul. But the magic I am seeing now is not a patronus and would need to be handled immediately, so I got Dumbledore's attention with a small spell to throw my voice. "There is a new student who is carrying a very dark artifact. Do you want to take care of it now or wait until after the feast?"

He looked at me out of the corner of his eye before I heard his voice in my ear, "Is it currently a danger to the students?" I gave a subtle shake of my head, from what I was seeing the artifact was almost hibernating. "Then we will wait so as to not alarm the students. Who is the affected student?" I didn't know their name so I waited until they were called up to be sorted before I signaled him. His eyes widened slightly and a grave look flashed over his face before he quickly suppressed it. Apparently the headmaster knew young Ms. Ginny Weasely, the name struck a chord with me as well but I couldn't remember where exactly I had heard it from. With the last few students sorted Dumbledore stood to give a few words before bidding the elves to bring out the food. I smirked and held back a chuckle, he always had to put on a show. Unlike the students, the teachers could request specific foods from the elves, so I ordered a pasta dish I had enjoyed in Italy. Ari ordered her own meal and we shared bites back and forth, something that drew smiles from the other professors.

Half way through the meal our attention was attracted by a loud bang outside. The noise in the hall didn't even pause, but Dumbledore sent Snape a look and he got up to see what had made the noise. A few minutes later Snape came storming back in and whispered something in Dumbledore's ear, his eyebrows rose and he gestured for Mcgonagall to follow him. Some mummering circled around the tables at that but it soon faded, and a few minutes later they both returned and the story passed along the professor's table until it reached us. Apparently two students had been locked out of the barrier at the station and they had decided to take a flying car one of their parents had enchanted to school. Not only was it extremely dangerous during the flight itself and when they landed, as they landed on a very unhappy Whomping Willow, but they had been seen by Muggles when they left the station. All and all it was a mess, the students were not totally at fault so they were not punished severely. In the meantime, some enchanters would be sent to the barrier and see if everything was still working as it should. It would add to an already bad situation if this was more than a badly thought out prank and Muggles were able to enter Platform 9 .

After the meal was over Dumbledore gave his end of meal speech and a wave of magic washed over the teacher's table. I was startled for a moment but once the students started to sing I understood and gave a dirty look at the chuckling professors. Apparently when the students took different tunes to sing the school song they were subjected to bleeding ears. But the spell Dumbledore cast changed it to sound rather pleasant for the professors, with my glasses I could see a light blue ward so it changed the sound itself. To me it sounded like an instrumental tune, but I could tell Ari was hearing something different by looking at her fingers tapping along on the table. I grabbed her hand when I saw tears in the corner of her eyes, she turned to me and gave a shaky smile "What do you hear?" She gave me a confused look and I explained, "Dumbledore cast a spell that makes everyone hear something different." The smile returned and this time it was wistful, "It sounded like a lullaby my mother used to sing when I had trouble falling asleep. It was one of the songs in the tribe that told the story of our ancestors" I squeezed her hand, she had told me her mother died when she was younger and I knew she was happy to be able to hear it again.

After the song was over the perfects started to lead the new students away when Mcgonagall had Percy Weasley grab his sister and lead her to Dumbledore's office. As she was doing that I told I had something to discuss with Dumbledore and she could meet me in our quarters. She nodded and gave me a kiss on my cheek before Dumbledore led me to his office, "What can you tell me about the magic you observed?" I thought for a moment before answering his question, "There is not much I can tell you, all I know is that it is some sort of very dark soul magic. It also seems connected to some sort of artifact that is in some sort of stasis. If I didn't have my glasses I wouldn't have been able to notice it." He seemed to become more grave when I told him what type of magic it was and when I mentioned how I wouldn't be able to notice it without my glasses an expression of self-blame crossed his face. "You shouldn't blame yourself Dumbles, the magic was very contained with only a thin tether connecting to Ginny." He shook his head at that, "I am the Headmaster, every student that goes here is under my protection. I should have seen it, the wards should have alerted me. That they did not concerns me immensely." I perked up at his last comment, "I can take a look at them if you want me to."

He kept walking but looked over his shoulder at me, I could feel the amusement rolling off him in waves. "I think Mr. Havorth, that we have enough to deal with for now. We can return to discussing your quest for exploring interesting magic another time." We made it to the gargoyle and it leapt aside when Dumbledore gave it the password, I gave him a side eye at Jelly Slugs being the password. He chuckled when he saw my face, "You would be surprised how using such a ridiculous password can protect my office. Everyone seems to think I would use something profound, like inspirational historical figures, powerful magical creatures, or confounding magical oddities. Plus I have a rather large sweet tooth." I suppressed my laughter and followed him onto the spiraling stairs, we walked up and by the time he made it to the last stair we had arrived in front of his door. We entered the office and he sat behind his desk while I sat on one of the available chairs. While we waited for our guests to arrive I looked around his office.

The office was filled with various magical knicknacks, most of the enchantments were easy to understand, books with preservation enchantment or artifacts that monitored things not currently visible. Others were harder to understand, either with esoteric magic attached to them or things that seemed to have no purpose. I was staring at a metal object whose purpose seemed to be swinging back and forth at random intervals, or at least I couldn't understand what caused its pace to change. My attention drifted from the object when Dumbledore's legendary familiar flew in through the window. He landed on a perch next to the headmaster's desk and tilted his head while staring at me with rather expressive eyes. It was not the first time I had seen a phoenix but it was the first time I had been so close to one, I was lucky to come across a mated pair during my travels in east Asia. After staring at me for a minute it crooned and leaned forward. I reached my hand out but paused right before touching him, he crossed the remaining distance and pushed his head into my hand so I could run my fingers through his plumage.

As I kept my new friend entertained Dumbledore spoke, "It would be very unwise to not trust someone who has been judged worthy by a Phoenix. Once we conclude our current business I will take you to see the wards." My head snapped up when I heard him but before I could speak the door opened and Mcgonagal walked in leading a rather nervous Ginny behind her. I focused on where I could still see the dark magic while Dumbledore tried to comfort the young girl. "It is alright Ms' Weasley, you are not in any trouble. Mr. Havorth has noticed something that he would like to ask you about." He turned to me and nodded for me to take the lead, "I would like to ask about whatever you are keeping in your robe's left pocket." She paled at that and took a small step back before stopping and lowering her head, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a small book. She hesitated briefly before passing it to me and I looked over it before passing it on to Dumbledore. He had a better chance to figure out what it was than I did as I would need my tools to really dive into what it was and how it worked.

When he saw the book his pupils dilated and he took a sharp breath in, it was a good thing Ginny still had her heads lowered or his expression would have made her nervousness even worse. Even I was getting a little nervous at his current expression, but after putting the book down he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "Ms. Weasley, I would like to know where you came across this book." She raised her head and started to explain she found it in her cauldron between the pages of one of her school books. She thought her parents had gotten her a diary for her to write in, but when she used it she met Tom. The diary apparently talked back and even had its own thoughts and feelings, as she described the entity in the book she became more animated and told us how she poured out her heart into its pages. As she spoke our faces became grave, it seemed like over the past few months Tom had become her closest friend. "Ms. Weasley, you grew up in the magical world. I am sure your parents warned you about trusting unknown magical artifacts."

While Dumbledore and I could tell Mcgonagall was saying that out of worry and concern, Ms. Weasley could not and tears started to leak out of her eyes. "Minerva, why don't you take Ms. Weasley down to the hospital wing. I am sure she could use some dreamless sleep tonight. Also, could you add what has happened with Ms. Weasley in your letter about tonight's earlier events before you send it to her mother. A lot has happened so she may visit the school tomorrow morning if she wishes to do so." Mcgonagall nodded and placed her hand on the young girl's shoulder and led her out, once they left I turned to Dubledore. "I'm betting you have some idea what that book is." Dumbledore shook his head, "I only have an idea what it could be, but I know who made it. He was a rather talented student named Tom Riddle, although you may know him by his other name. Lord Voldemort." My eyes widened as thoughts raced through my mind. If that book was made by him then it was a lot more dangerous than I thought. My gaze turned more wary as I took another look at the diary, "It is good to see that your quest for interesting magic comes with a cautious nature."

My eyes flicked up to meet his own, "Magic is great and all, but I rather enjoy living." I could see him smile before he set the book down, "I am sorry to say that I will not be able to allow you to study the wards just yet. I think this will keep our attention for a while yet." I leaned back in my chair and stroked my chin in thought, "I have tests I can run that could tell us what that is, but I would ask that you be there when I do." He nodded and agreed to my request, we spent the next hour discussing the tests I could run and when he would have time to do them. We decided to wait until the weekend as we would both be very busy during the first week of school. Once we were done planning I gave my farewell and walked back to my quarters. When I got there Ari was sitting on the couch in our living room, as I walked over I looked around and saw she had unpacked while I was talking to Dumbledore. "Hey, so what were you talking with Dumbledore about?" I stared at her and hesitated, I didn't want to worry her but this wasn't something I could keep from her. "Well it all started when I saw some rather interesting magic attached to a new student…"