Harry Potter 1. The Letter

A bell was ringing somewhere from the center of a small town in Connecticut. The ringing cut clear through the tree-lined avenues of the town, now green with leaves on the early spring morning. The last snows had melted a few weeks ago and flowers were beginning to bloom in the front gardens of all the fine houses of the street.

On this particular street, Inverness Lane, in a lovely home wedged between a large house with a string of greek letters on the front and a small brick cottage there lived a wizard. Well he didn't know he was a wizard yet, in fact he wouldn't know for a few more weeks, but today was a very special day. An important day for all witches and wizards, the day this young boy turned eleven. However, he and his family were unaware of the importance of that day in this young man's life.

The young boy in question, the wizard-to-be, awoke as he did every morning, to the sound of the university's bell ringing out from a few streets over. The sun was creeping into his room as he rolled out of bed and stretched a little. The young boy looked about his room and smiled. Around the room there were littered all number of things; a few old action figures sat collecting dust on a shelf, a few novels blocked the sight of an old teddy bear from when he was a toddler, on the floor were several uncollected pieces of laundry and textbooks from school, a desk across from the bed and beneath the room's window there sat a computer (his sole Christmas present from this year) as well as all of his homework neatly arranged and completed in a meticulous scrawl. The young boy's eyes settled on the mirror on the backside of his door.

He was staring at his reflection, his hopes of hitting an early growth spurt were dashed away again as he stared at himself. For the past two years, the young boy had been hoping to grow bigger but now once again no miraculous change had occurred on the eve of his birthday. He was small, now one could tack on the phrase for his age to that statement. He was thin to boot, with slight shoulders and spindly arms. His hair was a sandy mop upon his head framing his face that was with each passing day growing from rounded to angular, at least one part of him was maturing. The young boy grabbed the glasses that sat on the small table next to his bed and put them on, they placed thin oval wires around his pale blue eyes and he sighed. The young boy had hoped that maybe his blurry vision had kept him from seeing how much he had grown but still nothing. As he prepared to run a comb through his hair and get dressed there was a knock at the door.

"William," the voice of a woman called through the door, "Are you up yet?"

"Yes Mom," William called back, "I'll be down in a minute!"

"Alright dear," There was a slight pause, and then she said, "Happy birthday!"

William smiled a little when his mother wished him a happy birthday. He then got himself dressed for school, wearing the new clothes his grand parents had sent him for his birthday. William shrugged, they were a little dorky but not too bad, and he knew his mom would look at him weird if he didn't wear them. He opened the door and stepped out into the second floor of his house.

As he made his way through the hallway, William smiled as the light hit all of the objects lining the walls. William's dad was an anthropology professor at the nearby university and he had adorned the walls of their home with a number of objects that he had been gifted over the years; spears, masks, and a few sets of artwork hung through the second floor where everyone's rooms were, and every time

William passed underneath them he couldn't help but smile. As he passed by the bathroom at the top of the steps he could hear his sister singing horribly in the shower, William shuddered as he made his way away from the horrendous sound.

Entering the kitchen he found his mother cooking breakfast. William smiled, his mother rarely cooked, normally she was out the door quicker with appointments or the like, she too was a professor at the university but she always made an effort to keep her schedule as clear as possible on her children's birthdays. She was a tall woman, made even taller by her heels, with long blond hair kept pulled back from her angular face, which she shared with her son along with his pale blue eyes. When he entered she was staring out the window into their back yard and towards their neighbor's yard.

"Those boys threw another party this weekend," She murmured. Two years ago, a fraternity from the university had begun renting the house next door. They were pleasant enough most of the time, but every so often they would have a big party, and while they tried to be respectful of the noise and garbage, something would always happen. It was at times like these though, towards the end of the semester that things got worse.

William sat down at the table and asked, "What'd they do this time Mom?"

His mother jumped a little and turned, "I'm sorry William I didn't see you come in." She smiled at her son, and then turned back to the yard. As she lifted a few perfect golden brown pancakes from the pan and onto a plate she shook her head, "They left something in our yard, and I'd really like to know how it got there."

William stood up a little to look into the backyard. Laying on its side was a large metal drum with what looked like a pipe or a pump sticking out of it. William's eyes went a little wide as he asked, "Mom, is that a...keg?"

"Yes William," she said through clenched teeth, "Yes it is." She let out a quick breath, "But don't worry about it. Here, I made your favorite." She smiled at him again and set down a shortstack of pancakes in front of him. William knew that while they looked completely normal on the inside of them they were bursting with strawberries and bananas. He smiled as she said, "Now eat up, you can't be late for school, birthday or no birthday."

As William began to tuck into his breakfast, he heard his sister rush down the steps. She was in her last year of middle school and had turned 14 a few weeks back. She was tall like her mother, and moving with lightning speed. She rushed in and grabbed a glass of orange juice and a piece of toast, mumbling that she was late the entire time. As she rushed to kiss their mom on the cheek, her mother cleared her throat and whispered, "Elizabeth aren't you forgetting something?"

The girl stopped dead in her tracks as she was moving out the door, and then said, "Right..." She turned to William and said, "Happy birthday squirt!" Elizabeth then rushed out the door as her mother called out in frustration after her.

William frowned a little, it wasn't his fault that he was short he thought to himself. He kept eating his birthday breakfast as he thought about the coming day of school. One of the last days before he started middle school, he was starting to dread that concept. He'd probably be the smallest kid in the school. William shook his head trying not to think about it.

As he was finishing off his breakfast, he heard his father coming in. His father was also tall like the rest of the family, and he looked sleek and fit rather than merely thin like his small son. He moved with a slight limp as he kissed William's mother good morning and then ruffled his son's hair, "Happy birthday m'boy!" He called, his father always seemed a little louder than necessary, as if his voice was permanently stuck on lecture volume.

As he plopped down across from his son, his wife pointed out the keg sitting in the back yard. He murmured, "Oh don't worry 'bout it Danielle, a few of them are in my intro course I'll be sure to speak with them after class. No reason to worry about it right now." William's mother grumbled a little as she set down two more plates, one for herself and one for William's father. "So excited school's almost over, William?" His father asked excited, "Ready to spend time with your dad this summer?"

William nodded uneasily. Every year his dad would promise to do something with him, but he was always roped into teaching some summer course, or sponsoring someone's research, or any number of other things. This year, his plan was to take his son fishing like he had learned to do on one of his expeditions, "Sure Dad, I can't wait," William responded.

"Great!" His father smiled broadly. And then he looked down at his watch, "Oh boy look at the time son, you don't want to be late for school."

William looked up at the clock, and nodded, grabbing the last few bites of his breakfast before rushing upstairs to brush his teeth, grab his books, and rush for the bus stop. As he stood waiting for the bus, he met one of his few friends in the school, Megan O'Rourke. She was smart like he was and got picked on a lot for it, along with her braces.

As they stood there waiting she asked, "Do you think that they'll still bother you, even today?"

William sighed and with resignation said, "Especially today."

Every morning after he got on the bus, after twenty-two seconds exactly, the school bullies would make a point of acknowledging his presence in the worst way possible. This morning was no different, just as he hit twenty-two mississippi in his head, the big brute of the fifth grade Eric Grossman towered over him. "Happy Birthday Fraser," to emphasize his greeting Eric gave him a shove in the shoulder.

"Please leave me alone," William asked, his voice small and meek.

"Why should I?" Eric asked leaning in a little.

"Cause it's his birthday can't you lay off him for one day?" Megan asked anger in her voice.

"Oooo," Eric's cronies said in the background as Eric asked, "What Fraser your girlfriend protecting you?" There was a ring of chuckles as other students turned around and crowded in the aisle to watch the morning ritual.

"She's not my girlfriend," William said flatly, "Just leave me alone."

Eric shoved him in his seat again, "Or what?"

"Just please leave me alone," William said again his voice a little stronger.

"No come on Fraser what you gonna do?" He shoved the smaller boy again.

"Leave me alone!" He shouted this time, making a meek attempt to fling the boy's thick arm away from him.

"Oh come on Fraser, what's wrong?" Eric grabbed his arms and shoved him down a little. The bus turned letting his weight press down on the smaller boy. Megan shouted for them to leave him alone.

Then something really strange happened.

William wanted to tell him to leave him alone again but instead a roar like some sort of big animal, like a lion or cougar came out instead. He wasn't sure what happened, but Eric stumbled backwards and a few other students quickly turned around. Eric just backed off and sat back down in his seat, his cronies sitting down with him.

William was panting as the school bus pulled into the parking lot. As the other students got off, Eric rushing past him, William turned to Megan and asked, "Megan...what, what happened?"

Her face looked really scared, and a little shocked, "Uh...you...your face...it was...scary."

William shook his head, "What do you mean scary?"

"Like...like a werewolf or something but like...a lion?" She shook her head. "Probably some weird trick of the light."

William nodded, "Yea, trick of the light." As he stumbled off the bus with Megan behind him heading to their classroom he couldn't help but wonder what had happened. After all if it had just been a trick of the light, what had happened to his voice.  
William knew that he had really embarrassed Eric on the bus and that he was going to pay for it. The whole school was talking about how William had scared the crap out of him somehow on the bus. Eric was scowling at him in the cafeteria that day at lunch, William was just happy that Eric was in the other fifth grade class and not his. Of course that didn't do anything to protect him during recess.

William was sitting under a tree, trying to read a book, he really didn't want to be bothered this afternoon. Not today, and not after what happened on the bus. Megan hadn't tried to talk to him since what had happened that morning. William began to wonder just how scary his face had looked. As he finished a chapter and looked up William saw Eric and his cronies coming across the playground. Everyone was parting their way before him as he came. He looked really mad, was all William could think.

"You think you're tough now Fraser?" Eric called out when he got close to the smaller boy.

William shook his head, "No..."

"Oh yeah?" Eric said, "Well that's not what I heard. Everyone's saying you're talking big now." The bigger boy was balling up his fists at that moment.

William got up, looking around for an exit but quickly found that Eric's cronies were closing around him. Beyond them a crowd of fifth and fourth graders were starting to gather to watch. William gulped, wondering if any of the teachers could see what was happening.

Eric had raised his fists now, "If you want to fight me Fraser, then let's do this."

William shook his head, "I..I don't want to fight you Eric."

"You say that now, but it's time to put your money where your mouth is Fraser." Eric ran in and swung out his fist.

William shrieked and dropped down to the ground. Eric's hand slammed into the tree William had been sitting against. Eric let out a shout of pain, and only when he did had William realized what was wrong with dropping to the ground in a fight. Eric's foot caught him square in the stomach and knocked the wind out of him. But instead of slamming into the tree, William swore he went right through it, and rolled out on the other side. He clambered up onto his feet, staring at the tree in front of him. Eric came around it shouting in surprise as he tried to jump on the other boy. Students were already chanting fight when Eric seemed to bounce into him, and then the two of them seemed to rebound away from each other.

Eric slammed into the tree, and William slammed into a nearby fence. As they both landed, the teachers arrived shouting for everyone to go back, and quickly staring down at the two boys. The teachers knew there had been a fight but all they found were two boys several feet apart looking really tired, and not really dirty. Eric was sent to the nurse for some minor cuts on his hand, and William was told to just go back to reading his book. The teachers apparently felt it was too close to the end of the school year, plus it being William's birthday, to send the boys to the principal for fighting.

On the bus ride home, Eric didn't bother him, he just kept scowling at him. Megan sighed, "At least next year we'll definitely be in different classes from him. We won't have to worry about him at all."

William nodded, "I really can't wait for middle school, it's going to be so much better."

Megan smiled, "Yeah, it should be really great. I can't wait to get a new calculator for math class. We're supposed to learn a lot of cool stuff next year." She smiled and looked out the window as she thought about it.

"Definitely," William added, "Plus we get to start really doing like experiments in science courses." He smiled as he thought of it. They got off at their stop and bid each other good bye, Megan wishing him a happy birthday as they wandered off thinking about the year that lay just a summer away.

As William came to his house, he waved to a few of the fraternity members who were standing on their porch, the keg that had been in the Fraser family back yard now sitting in front of them. They waved back, one raising a big mug to him and smiling. William swore there was a giant bird flying over the frat house as he grabbed the mail. He ignored the mail for his parents, and began grabbing more of the birthday cards his extended family was sending. That was until he got the bottom of the pile, there was a thick heavy enveloped addressed to him by his full name (William Abraham Fraser) and had an additional line above his address that was labeled The Front Yard, and there was no return address. He turned it over and saw that the envelope had a big official wax seal on it, the seal had a cat standing in the center of it with an S overlaying it, curved along the top was the word Salem, and along the bottom was the word Institute. William didn't know it, but this letter was probably the most important piece of mail he had ever received.

William was staring at the letter as he entered the house and called out, "Mom! Dad!" He entered into the kitchen setting the mail down on the table with the exception of the thick letter he had received.

His mother stepped out of the family's living room and looked down at him, "What's that William? Another birthday card?"

"I'm...not sure," He answered, turning over the letter again to the thick wax seal, "It's addressed to me though." William slid his finger under the lip of the envelope and brought it across the seal of the Salem Institute and carefully lifted it open. He didn't know why he felt the need to be so careful with this letter but something made him feel like it was very important. From the inside he pulled out several other pieces of paper and a thinner envelope.

William set it down on the table and took a seat, ignoring the concepts of doing his homework right that instant like he normally did as he stared at the sheafs of paper. He opened the first one and began to read it, then made a small sound. His mother, who had moved to stand over him, slipped it out of his hands and read aloud, "Dear Mr. Fraser, A very happy eleventh birthday to you, and congratulations. We are very pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into the Salem Institute For Magical Study for the Fall 2009 semester. Term begins Monday August 31rst with move in day for all students August 30th. Please respond by post owl by July First so we may be prepared for your arrival. Enclosed you will find the needed list of supplies, the closest suppliers to your residence, and a brief letter for your parents explaining your situation. Sincerely, Assistant Dean Michael Tall Elk." His mother was fighting back fits of laughter as she finished it, and setting it down on the table so she could laugh some more.

William wasn't sure what was so funny, and said, "Mom, mom I'm a wizard!" He smiled waving his hands as if he were casting some kind of spell.

His mother merely smiled and then kissed him on the forehead, "Sure you are dear." She ruffled his hair and said, "Your uncle has definitely outdone himself this year with a gag gift."

"But Mom, Uncle George's card came two days ago," William said. She laughed as she walked over to the stove where she had apparently been brewing some tea.

He heard the door open and his father come in, as he arrived he once again called out, "Happy birthday sport." As he approached the table he took note of the mail, and small pile of birthday cards, "Nice haul this year William." He ruffled his son's hair as he gathered up his own mail and moved to greet his wife.

"Oh John," She said as he approached, "You need to see your brother's gag gift this year." She gestured to the letter.

William's father moved back to the table, where William was still sitting wondering why his mom thought this was a joke. Was it that weird that he was a wizard, didn't his father write an entire book about magic only a few years ago. William shook his head and thought that this sort of thing happened all the time in books and movies, why couldn't it happen to him?

His father thumbed through the letter, and frowned, "This is a little complex even for George." He began to move to the second letter, with school supplies and chuckled, "I mean the list of supplies is amusing but still." William could sense that something about this was nagging his father. He walked away from the table and said, "I think I'm going to go and give him a call..."

William's mother raised an eyebrow but smiled adding, "Alright be sure to keep him on the line I'd like to congratulate him on this one, and I'm sure he'd like to say hello to the birthday boy." She smiled in her son's direction as she poured herself a cup of tea.

William thumbed over to the list that was now sitting on the table in front of him. He quickly began to scan it. There was a heap of books, as well as a wand, cauldron, and all sorts of other things finally ending with a school uniform: robes in the school colors. The list said that he could retrieve all of these items from shops in Dragon's Plaza in New York City and provided directions to get there. As his mother began to walk into the next room she patted him on the head, and said, "Start on your homework William." He absently nodded as she passed.

After about fifteen minutes, his father passed by and smiled at him before entering into the living room. William had finally put the letters aside and was starting on his math homework when he heard his parents whispering in the other room. He stopped and strained trying to hear them.

"...got him a singing tie for the gag gift this year," His father said.

"What?" Responded his mother.

"I know, when does William ever wear a tie..." His father replied.

"No," He could hear the frustration in her voice, "I mean if he didn't send it, who did?"

William could imagine his father clearly shrugging in response, "I don't know." There was a pause in the conversation, and William could feel the tension build as his father asked, "Do you think it could be real?"

"What?!" His mother half-shouted, before returning to a whisper. William had edged over to the doorway between the two rooms now, hugging close to the wall. "Real? It's a letter saying our son has been accepted into a place to study magic, and says he needs to buy a wand."

"Stranger things happen, and people believe all sorts of things," His father responded calmly, "It could be an eccentric school for geniuses or...something." William's father seemed almost to be gripping at straws with that comment.

"We are not going to feed into some fantasy just to find out it's some..." His mother struggled and sputtered, "New reality show or prank or something."

"Maybe we should read that letter for parents," His father suggested and there was a pause in their conversation as he began moving to the kitchen.

William shot back into the chair and tried to look as if he was concentrating on his homework. William's dad smiled at him and asked, "Hey mind if I take your..uh...letter there son?"

"Sure Dad," William responded, trying to act disinterested as if the joke had already stopped being funny.

He heard his parents talking even more quietly, so quietly he couldn't even make out the words till finally his mother nearly shouted, "We're not doing this today, we'll wait till the school year's over. End of discussion!" And it was the end of the discussion, William didn't even see his letter again for several weeks.


	2. The Shopping Trip

It was mid-June when William finally saw the letter again. The weather had warmed up in the last few weeks since school had ended. The little street was quiet now, only a few of the fraternity members were in the house for the summer and the brick cottage on the other side of the house was as quiet as ever. He had been sitting outside in the backyard wondering if he should head down the block to talk to Megan when his father popped out.

His father's beard was growing in like he let it every summer, William had remembered when it had all been sleek and black but it was now becoming a mix of gray and black much like his hair. But the beard isn't what William was fixed on, it was what was in his father's hand, it was the thick packet of paper he had received on his birthday well over a month ago. John Fraser took a seat next to his son and asked, "What you up to son?"

"Uh...nothing really Dad," William answered as he tried to stop his eyes from wandering to the yellowing paper in his father's hand with the neatly written letters visible through his fingers.

"William, I'd like to talk to you about this letter," He said tapping the thick packet with his opposite hand. William nodded as his father continued, "Now your mother and I have been talking a lot about it recently and we're still not sure what to do about it. The letter for us assures us that it's real but well we're really not sure what to believe about an anonymous letter that shows up out of the blue on your birthday." He took a deep breath as he paused, "But I've convinced your mother that we should look into it. After all it says we should go to New York City, and well I can't remember the last time we all went into the city as a family. So, we'll go, and if we can get to this Dragon market thing well that's great, and if not, well we'll find something to do, eh?" His dad said with a broad smile.

William nodded, "That sounds great Dad."

"Good, good," His father gave him another broad smile and then patted him on the shoulder. As he stood up, he turned and said, "Oh and I figure I should give you back your letter."

William smiled as he sifted through the thick pieces of paper for the first time since his birthday. He did notice that the letter for his parents was missing but he had figured that would be the case when they had first kept it. Still in a few days time he knew, just knew that he would be off to the Dragon's Plaza, and telling the Salem Institute that he would be attending in the fall.

It was a few days later, and the sun was shining as they were sitting in traffic through the Bronx making their way into Manhattan. William's sister had been informed that morning on the ride through Connecticut about the letter, she hadn't been home when he had received it so no one had ever told her about it.

She leaned over to him and whispered, "You better be a wizard squirt, cause I better not have missed that party for nothing." Apparently their family day in the city (and to William, the shopping trip for his school supplies) had conflicted with some big pool party one of Elizabeth's friends was throwing, and she wasn't about to forgive him based on some letter saying that he might be a wizard.

William sighed, he really hoped he was a wizard cause then he might just turn his sister into a newt for complaining so much. As they pushed into Manhattan, William could hear his father muttering something about other drivers as they began to turn down tons of different streets. William's mother was calling out directions from the letter as they started turning down tighter streets that looked almost as if they were from a different time period in New York, one not made with cars in mind.

As they turned down a slightly wider avenue that ended with a dead end, everyone in the car groaned. That was until William shouted, "Hey look!" His finger pointed directly at a sign for a parking garage down at the edge of the street.

His father nodded, "Good eyes William, I didn't even see that." They glided down the street carefully, and turned down a tight ramp.

An attendant wearing a bright orange vest waved to them, and handed them a quick handwritten ticket. Mr. Fraser set it down on the dashboard as he drove around looking for an open parking space. As he pulled in, it started to slip off, and he grabbed it, then nearly dropped it with a shout. "What?" Everyone asked together.

He held up the slip of paper, and pointed at the spot labeled time. Everyone gasped a little as the number was slowly going up in the second column. William rubbed his eyes as he stared at it, everyone was doing a double take before they set the ticket back on the dashboard and locked the car.

As they made their way to a ramp on the opposite side from the entrance, William couldn't help but notice that a lot of the cars were older and the ones that weren't looked really odd. He spotted a Model T sitting next to a sports car with a grill that he swore was chewing something.

When they mounted the ramp out of the parking garage William had to nearly catch his jaw as he stood there. The entryway came out onto one side of what looked like a massive square. All around him people were hustling and bustling about like they did everywhere else in the city. The thing that really made the eyes pop out of his head was what they were wearing, everyone seemed to be wearing a number of robes in all sorts of shades and fabrics. His mother covered his eyes as a girl a year or two older than his sister walked by wearing a thin fabric that barely covered her, he wasn't sure why but in a way it made him feel strange. When the girl had passed he heard his father remark to his sister, "Never." An older gentlemen passed by in a set of thick robes that were slowly changing from a dark black to blue growing brighter as he passed through the sun. Several people nodded or said hello to them as they passed by, one gentlemen even tipped a bowler hat to them.

Finally his mother whispered, "It's...it's real..."

William's dad laughed and said to her, "You owe me five bucks."

"Out of the way, out of the way," Came a voice from behind them, and the family parted as a thick man waddled past them, he turned his head to stare at them before sarcastically asking, "What are you looking at?" As he kept moving at his fast waddle, they could hear him mutter, "Damn tourists."

"Well, at least that was normal," His mother said after a few moments had passed.

"We should really get moving," William's dad said, ushering the family into the crowd, "The school said that we should set up an account with the bank here, since apparently everyone here uses different money."

William was barely paying attention to his dad as they jostled through the crowds of robed people, trying to take in as much as he could. As they passed through the center of the large square, he saw several street performers doing a lot of things he couldn't even understand let alone name. He looked up and saw owls zooming around in the sky, with people on brooms zipping through the clouds of birds and even one person flew over on a carpet like they were surfing. William could barely see the shops as they passed through the crowds, and finally mounted up thick stone steps to a big marble building that looked very official.

Engraved above a set of thick bronze doors was the word Gringotts. Standing next to the door was a little man with a strange face, and long nails. The creature snapped to attention, the doors swung open and beyond them two more sets opened. As they passed by the being, William not only noticed that it was shorter than he was but also that there was something hanging at the creatures belt, a wickedly curved sword from the looks of it. The thing locked eyes with him, and growled, hand resting on the hilt of the blade. William gulped as he passed through the doors and into the wide hall.

The hall was full of creatures like the one at the door, most of them were standing behind high desks. They were all busily moving and talking. Some were inspecting coins, jewelry, and gems, while others were counting cash or piles of coin, and still some sat filling out thick scrolls while talking to people seated on the opposite side of their desks. At the edges of the hall, people were getting into what looked like a rickety carnival ride and zooming into dark tunnels with the creatures at what looked like the steering wheel.

As his mother approached one of the desks and began conversing with it, William moved closer to his father who was shaking his head, "Amazing, eh, William?"

"Uh, I guess," He answered, "They're a little creepy looking."

"William," His father whispered, leaning down to his son, "They're not human." William nodded, as he looked into the deep eyes of his father, Mr. Fraser continued, "Don't you know what that means?" William shook his head. His father laughed, and said, "They're completely different, a whole different culture, languages, all sorts of things." He shook his head, "It's astounding." John Fraser clasped his son proudly on the shoulder and beamed out at the lines of people and creatures, watching their every move.

After a few moments, William's mother and sister returned, and his mother said, "Oh come on, I'm just glad that's over with." She glared back at the creature sitting behind his desk, and mumbled something under her breath as she did.

They hustled out of the bank, and as they did, William's mother began splitting up the coins and talking to his father explaining what each one was and how much they worth. William vaguely listened as he stared out at the sea of people before him. Before he knew it, his father had clasped him on the shoulder again, "Come on William. Your mother said we should go get your wand, while she and your sister went to the post office."

William nodded, then asked, "Post office?"

His father replied, "Yes, need to tell your school your coming, remember?"

"Oh, right," William responded, nodding vigorously as they began to move through the crowds.

They were moving closer to the shops now, and William saw all sorts of things inside of them. He saw signs advertising dragon meat, new self-stirring cauldrons, and flying broomsticks. People were haggling over prices, leaving stores in a huff, levitating massive amounts of packages, and there were even little creatures who seemed to be running errands all throughout the plaza. They stopped in front of a small shop nestled at a corner of the square.

The shop was a short two story building that looked like it was being heavily intimidated by all the buildings around it. Creaking slightly in the summer breeze was a sign that read Donato Wands, Maker of Fine Wands for Sixty Years. The Fraser men stepped into the tight shop, and the door jingled as it closed behind them.

Boxes were piled high about the shop, and strewn all about several tables were pieces of wood of varying lengths and colors. Crammed in between some of the stacks was what looked like a heavily used work bench. "Hello?" His father called out, as William began to move about the shop.

"Hold on, hold on!" Called out a voice from amidst the stacks. Stepping out of them was a stooped man in a stained white jacket. His hair was thinning and slicked back from his long face, his large nose held a pair of tiny spectacles that he was looking through. His skin was richly tanned, and well weathered as if he was a man well used to labor. The man's hands also seemed to display this, his fingers were short, stubby, and covered in stains. He smiled broadly, gesturing to stools nearby, "Come, sit, sit." His voice had a faint accent to it. He himself grabbed a stool and set himself across from William.

While Mr. Fraser sat down, William stood, meeting eyes with the older gentleman. The old man let out a low 'hmm' as he sat there, appraising William. "Entering the sixth grade, yes?"

William nodded, "At Salem."

"Fine school," The older gentleman said, "They've produced a lot of fine wizards and witches over the years." He then stood and began walking around the small boy, as if sizing him up. He walked off, and after a few moments returned with a collection of wands. The man set them down on one of the tables littered about paused and then picked up one, handing it to William. "Beech, with a Unicorn Hair, very light."

William waved it, and nothing happened. He frowned and tried waving again but before he could bring it through on a back hand, the old crafter had snatched it away. Replacing it with another, "Ash, with Phoenix Feather., Smooth." William tried again, before having it snatched away. The process slowly began to drag on, as the old wand maker continued to gather up wands. After what seemed like dozens, the rest of the Frasers had arrived and were watching the process carefully. Finally he handed him a long, thin piece of dark wood, "Black Oak, with a dragon heart string, very resilient."

As William's hand clasped it, he felt a tingling sensation run up his arm, and as he brought it across the air it felt like he was moving through something thicker than air like water. Warmth seemed to pour down his right arm as he did and there was a loud snap and several bright colors filled the air, and there were suddenly several birds sitting around with wands in their beaks.

"Impressive," the old crafter murmured, as he waved his wand and the birds became boxes once more, "I believe that you're going to be someone to keep an eye on Mr...?" He asked leaving the question open.

"Fraser," William answered, "William Fraser." He shook the older man's hand, and the old man smiled.

After that the process was quick, as there was a rapid exchange of coin and they stepped back out into the crowds moving about on their daily errands. As William looked down at the wand that was now sitting in his hand he noticed that there were ever-so-delicate etchings into the wood that added a hint of artistry to the otherwise unimpressive stick.

His mother was quickly guiding the family through the shops now. Apparently while at the post office she had gotten directions to all of the shops they had needed to visit and was now rushing the family through them with expert efficiency. They had moved through a dark store with a ceiling that looked as if it were covered with the night's sky where they got him a telescope and his textbook for Astronomy, the old witch who ran the shop smiled at him as they passed through. After that they were in a massive store with aisles filled with potion supplies, while his parents were talking to a clerk about what he would need, William began to wander through the store. Every aisle was filled with all manner of supplies, there were lots of normal ingredients, a few he recognized from his parent's spice rack even. But as he moved from one side of the store to another, the tone of the ingredients changed quickly going from a little strange (eyes of newt, tongue of wolf) to completely magical (unicorn's blood, tears of a cyclops).

As William moved through an aisle holding a variety of different skins, he bumped right into a much older boy. The teenager stared down at him, as William steadied himself, and then said, "Watch where you're going kid."

William stood up a little straighter and then said, "I'm sorry, I just was..." He looked around the different ingredients and shrugged.

The older wizard rolled his eyes up and down before asking, "Muggle-born?"

"What?" William asked, unsure of what that meant.

"Are you from a non-magical family?" The teen said as if were explaining the obvious.

"Uh yes..." William answered.

"Then that makes you a Muggle-born," He said, "Muggles are people who can't do magic."

"Oh," William said. He began to wonder if that meant he was worse at magic, had other kids already been doing magic for years? Was he behind?

The older student laughed, "You're fine." William looked up and the older boy said, "You have the same look one of my friends had when he found out my entire family was wizards. You're no worse off than any other sixth grade student."

"Really?" William asked, trying to keep the excitement from his voice.

"Yes, really." The older student said as he turned back to the shelves and got down a small jar that was filled with scales, "Now come on, your parents are probably worried or something."

As they turned back down the aisle, William's sister was turning into it, "Oh William there you are..." She paused as she looked at the older boy, "And who are you?"

The wizard gave a light chuckle, "No one in particular." William's sister giggled at this and then the older boy gave a mock bow, "Franklin Perry, of the Philadelphia Perrys."

"Elizabeth Fraser," She extended her hand and the boy gave it a smooth shake, "And you've already met my brother William."

He gave a broad smile and said, "Yes, I was just reassuring him about school."

Elizabeth giggled, "He does tend to get worried about things." William rolled his eyes, as if his sister wasn't deathly afraid of starting high school in the fall.

Franklin let out a low mhmm as he said, "Well I don't want to keep you, your parents are obviously worried."

Elizabeth nodded with surprise, as if this had completely slipped her mind, "Oh yeah, you're probably right." She put her hand on William's shoulder and said, "Come on William..." As she pushed him forward, she kept her head turned and smiled at Franklin one last time, and the tall boy gave a small wave.

William sighed, and as they walked back to their parents he asked, "Did you have to that?"

Elizabeth giggled, seeming to ignore her brother's embarrassment, adding, "I don't know what your talking about."

William shook his head, hoping he was never like that around girls as they returned to their parents. Their mother nodded to them both, and asked, "See anything interesting?"  
Both of the children said, "Yes." William rolled his eyes as Elizabeth giggled. Mr. Fraser raised an eyebrow as he carried the cauldron.

William's mom then said, "The clerk said there's a nice bookstore just a few store fronts down. After that, we'll need to get your uniform and then we're done." William groaned, he had never liked shopping for clothes with his mother.

They quickly made their way down the storefronts to another small shop. There were only a few people inside the store as the family entered. Her mother smiled as they entered looking over the many volumes that rested on the wooden shelves throughout the store. William's mother was a professor of literature, and with her passion for the written word came a love of the books that held it. She took a deep breath, of the musty scent of books with the hints of leather binding.

A plump wizard sat behind a desk, as William's mother began to wander deeper into the store. Elizabeth had waited outside, while William's father frowned and followed after his wife. This left William to actually set about finding his books. The older wizard's eyes followed his parents, and then settled back on William, "Sixth or Seventh Grade?"

William jumped a little, "Sixth," he answered, no one had ever mistaken him for someone older before.

"Salem or Botetourt?" The older man asked as he turned the page in a big book on his desk.

"Salem," William said, wondering if Bot-a-tot was another school. The wizard nodded, and with a wave of his wand, a series of books seemed to just pop into existence. William stepped up and then pointed at the Astronomy text, "I already have this one."

"Oh?" The older wizard seemed more than a little surprised at this statement, but then waved his wand again and the book disappeared with a pop. He then looked down at the small boy, and asked, "Is there anything else you will need today?" William shook his head and the older clerk looking over the books said, "Twelve Galleons and Eight Sickles." William sort of stared back, he had no idea what that meant. Then he slowly realized that even if he had, he didn't have any wizard money on him. The older wizard sighed, and then asked, "Your parents have the money don't they kid?" William nodded at this, and the plump wizard said, "Please go get them then."

William walked down one of the few aisles to the back of the tightly packed store where his parents were thumbing through books. His mother had a concerned look on her face, she was reading a thin black volume the title of which he couldn't make out. His father however was laughing as he flipped through the book in his hand. When William approached, Mr. Fraser looked up and said, "Oh William you need to see this, it's a book about people without magic." He extended the book to his son, and William saw a very strange diagram where lightning hit a rod and then ran to a light bulb. William laughed a little, he wasn't sure how electricity worked but he was pretty sure that light bulbs weren't powered by lightning.

He then said, "Uh, I've got to pay for my books."

"Right, right," His father answered, setting the book back on the shelf, "Come on Danielle."

She nodded absently as she set the book down, and placed her hand on her son's shoulder, "Right, let's get going."

They came to the desk and paid for his books, then stepped out into the sunlit June day. As they began walking, William's mother said, "Elizabeth, why don't you take William to get his school uniform while your father and I put these things in the car." Elizabeth and William gave each other a look, and William tried hard to suppress a groan. "Now go on," their mother said, handing a small pouch of coins to William, "We'll meet up with you in a little bit."

As their parents walked away, Elizabeth asked, "What do you think that was about?"

William shrugged, "I don't know, Mom was reading some weird book in the store, maybe that's it?"

"Whatever," Elizabeth responded, "Let's get your uniform." William nodded as they set off through the square looking for a store that sold Salem uniforms.

After a few moments they walked into a well lit store with a sign hanging above it labeling it as _The Wardrobe_. Music was being played somewhere within the store, and there seemed to be tons of clerks a year or two older than William's sister walking around. There were tons of racks with robes for all occasions but none seemed to explicitly be a Salem uniform. Within a few minutes of walking through the racks, a witch a year or two older than his sister appeared next to them, "Can I help you with anything?"

"Uh," William said as he stared up at the older girl, "I need a school uniform."

The witch smiled, "Starting at Salem?" He nodded, and she smiled again, gesturing for him to come towards the back. They walked past the racks and were brought into an area with tons of raised platforms with mirrors in front of them. Next to every area were an arrangement of tapes, needles, and thread, along with a curtain that could be pulled across for privacy. She gestured for him to hop up onto the platform, and said, "Come on."

William stepped up, and she began to walk around him. He turned a little, and realized that Elizabeth hadn't followed him back here. The girl then stopped, and went over to a small rack, before coming back, "Here try this on."

William wiggled the robe over his head and stared at himself in the mirror. He looked like he was wearing a curtain on himself. The girl tutted, and began walking around him, "Hold still," she said as she began grabbing needles and bunching up fabric, pinning things back, bundling sleeves up. She then stopped and waved her wand murmuring something under her breath as she did. All of the excess fabric seemed to fade away as he stood there watching it. All of a sudden he looked right, the robe hung around him in the right places but wasn't so flowing that he would trip. She smiled at him and asked, "Black or blue?"

"Huh?" William asked, turning towards the older girl.

"The school colors, you have to have robes in them, Black or Blue?" She asked again.

A familiar voice suggested, "Why not go with both?"

William turned around to see that Franklin Perry was standing there along with his sister. The older girl gave him a sharp look, "Hello Franklin."

He bowed slightly to her and he articulated his words carefully, "Miss Vercelli."

She gave him a glare that could kill small animals and then said, "Cut the crap Franklin."

The older wizard laughed, "Fine Marie, I just wanted to offer a suggestion."

The girl sighed, and looked at William, "Do you want both colors?"

William nodded, and said, "I guess it'd be easier than having to choose just one."

The girl nodded, and waved her wand. The robe disappeared, and she then said, "They'll ring you up front." She turned towards Franklin, "Do you also need to be measured?"

"If it's not too much trouble," He said, stepping up as William stepped down, he turned to the Frasers and said, "Till we meet again."

Elizabeth let out another nervous giggle, and waved as she pushed William forward. William looked up at his sister and asked, "What was that about?"

She smiled, "I saw him when you went back there so I decided to talk to him." She then added, "Don't tell Mom and Dad. They probably wanted me to stay with you the whole time or something."

William nodded as they walked up to the counter, William paid for his clothes, counting out the coins very carefully and then was handed the heavy bag filled with several robes. As they stepped outside, they spotted their parents walking down the way, and waved.

The family happily reunited, their parents asking how the clothes shopping had gone. The children omitted the part where Elizabeth had left William alone as they made their way back to the family car. With their shopping done, they all piled in, and made their way out into the other side of New York City. They ate lunch at a restaurant their mother had read about and then made the long drive back to their home.

The entire way home, William could only think about the coming school year, and how he couldn't wait to start practicing spells.


	3. The Train

The summer began to pass with amazing speed to William. Everyday he spent time reading his school books wondering how all the different spells would work. His parents had decided to tell the rest of the family that he had gotten a scholarship to a private school as they came by for summer barbecues and the like. Most of his family was very proud of him despite being completely unaware of where he was really going.

The most awkward part of the summer was when he had to tell Megan he wouldn't be going to middle school with her in the fall. It was even worse when his parents told him that he wouldn't be able to tell her that he was going to a school for wizards, the school had apparently told them in the parental letter that there was some law about telling other people about the magical world. He gulped as he sat on the swing on the playground next to Megan.

She was slowing down as he sat there, not enjoying the great weather and the fact that Eric Grossman was out of town for the next few weeks. Megan looked over at him, and asked, "What's up William?"

He took a deep breath and said, "I'm not going to middle school this fall."

"What?!" She shouted, nearly falling off of the swing as she did.

"Well," He paused, "Not the same one as you anyway."

"You're not going to St. Michael's are you?" She asked staring at him, "Cause I thought you're parents weren't religious or anything..."

"No," He answered, taking another deep breath, "I uh, got a scholarship to this private school out of the state."

"Wow," she murmured, "But why'd you even apply for it?"

"I didn't," William responded, "They sort of do it at random," he explained, "And they think I'll do really well there...so...yeah."

"So..." she said taking a few deep breaths herself, "You're not going to go to middle school with me?"

"No," William answered glumly, "But I'll be back during semester breaks and stuff, we can still hang out..."

"Yeah," She answered looking down at her feet. After a few moments she said, "I uh, just remembered my dad said I had to be home early. Talk to you later..." She got up and ran off to her bike and quickly began making her way home.

William sighed, wondering if they'd ever talk again. He had known Megan was looking forward to middle school, and he knew that he was her only friend just like she was his only friend. William sighed and wished that he could tell her the truth, but the school had said no. He slowly got up and got on his bike to ride back home.

William didn't see his only friend till the day before he was going to school. He was slowly packing stuff away. About a week ago, a letter arrived by owl early in the morning, scaring William right out of bed. The letter had supplied him with directions on how to board the school train in New York City, along with the fact that he would be living in Corey Hall 131 for his time at the Salem Institute. William shrugged as he wondered about who his roommate would be, packing away his clothes and books.

There was a knock at his door, and he looked up. Standing there was Megan, looking a little uncomfortable, "Hi," she said after a moment or two.

"Hey," William said, unsure whether or not to say anything else.

"I'm uh..." Megan shrugged, "Sorry that I haven't talked to you this summer."

"It's ok," William answered, "I sort of understand."

She nodded, and continued, "I just wanted to come and say good bye before you left." She then pulled a small package from behind her and then said, "And give you this uh...going away present."

William smiled as he took the small package from her and set it down on the top of his trunk. He paused looking at it and asked, "What is it?"

Megan laughed, "Envelopes and paper and stuff, you know, in case you wanted to keep in touch. Your mom told my dad that your school was really strict about email and stuff so I figured..." She shrugged and gestured at the package that now sat in his trunk.

"Thanks," William smiled. There was an awkward pause as they both stood there. Megan slowly closed the distance and gave him a hug. William stiffened a little, he and Megan had never hugged, it felt weird, "Erm...Megan?"

"I'm going to miss you," She answered. Just as it started to get awkward she released him and rubbed her eyes a little, "Middle school won't be much fun without you."

"Sure it will," William answered, "No Eric, cool math classes, it will be great." He tried to keep the lack of certainty from his voice, replacing it with a smile.

Megan smiled back, "Yeah, you're right." She then backed up a little, "I uh, got to go but I wanted to well...yep."

William nodded then said, "I'll be sure to write."

"Cool," Megan said, "I'll talk to you later then." She then backed up, gave an awkward wave and left. William heard her leave the house, and say goodbye to his mother as she did. He gave a smile and then bent down to close the trunk, locking it with a simple key.

The next morning the Fraser house was a flurry of activity as his father was wrestling his trunk into the family car, and his mother was checking through the house to make sure that he had not forgotten a single thing. Meanwhile, Elizabeth was grumbling that she didn't see why she had to get up so early just to say good bye to her brother. William was simply standing on the porch to his house, fiddling with his wand as he watched his dad firmly close the trunk with a large huff.

His mother came out of the house, while explaining to Elizabeth the importance of family things like this as she locked up the house. William slid the wand into his backpack and slung it onto his shoulder as he walked away from the house that had been his home for as long as he could remember. He looked over at the small brick cottage that was as quiet as always, no one outside, but the bushes all neatly trimmed. On the other side one of the older guys from the fraternity was standing out on the porch, he smiled at William and raised a thick mug as he did before taking a sip as the Fraser family piled into the car.

As the car glided silently through the early Sunday morning of the town, they saw much more heavily laden cars passing into the university campus as their fall semester was due to start in a few more days. His sister fell fast asleep as they hit the highway, and his mother was fiddling with the radio and directions as his father kept a steady hand on the wheel. William felt tired but for some reason he couldn't bring himself to fall asleep, this was the first day of his training to be a wizard. Well, he reasoned, it was the day before the first day of becoming a wizard, but still he'd be on his way to the school before he knew it.

It wasn't long before they were gliding in amidst the sparkling towers of New York City. After that it was only a matter of parking and dragging the trunk (which had wheels on one side) down the street to the train station. They entered, pressing through crowds of people, coming out to enjoy a Sunday in Manhattan. Just as the directions had stated as they began passing through the crowds William was able to spot a doorway with the number 23 ½ hanging above it. He and his family stepped through the portal and down onto the platform itself.

The platform was wider than average and the train looked like something out of another century as it sat glittering in the lights of the train platform. Students in a variety of clothing were moving about, greeting each other, yelling out, and saying good bye to parents. William made his way down towards the end of the train and stood in front of a doorway. His sister sort of shrugged and then said, "See you in a few months squirt." Their parents shot her a look and she sighed and added, "I mean, I'm going to miss you." She then gave him a quick hug.

His father bent down and gave him a tight embrace, and said, "I know you'll make us proud William, but good luck anyway." After a brief pause he added, "Don't get into any trouble son."

Finally his mother came forward and gave him a hug. When she hugged him, William could feel the tears rolling down her cheeks, "Be careful dear," she whispered, "You know that we love you."

"I love you too Mom," He whispered, trying not to choke up.

"We'll be here in a few months to pick you up," She murmured, "And don't forget to write."

William nodded, and said, "I will Mom."

Just when it seemed like she was never going to stop holding him, a whistle blew and a few people were shouting "All aboard!"

William's mother released him, and smiled at him as he dragged his trunk up onto the train. The door closed behind him and the train sputtered to life as he set his trunk next to a bundle of others that were sitting in the doorway. He waved at his family through the door's window as the train pulled away through the bowels of New York City and then slowly chugged out into the sunlight of late August.

William quickly made his way into the train proper, looking into the compartments as he went before stumbling upon an empty one. He settled down into the window seat, and was about to get out a book to read when there was a loud 'oof' and the door popped open. Standing there was a boy that looked about William's age. He was taller than William and could easily be described as husky. The boy was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and as he stood there in the doorway he asked, voice cutting clear over the low rumble of the train, "Do you mind if I join you?"

"Uh, no," William answered, trying to see around the boy to where he had apparently wrestled his trunk down the train.

The boy smiled and then dragged the hefty trunk through the door before closing it, turning around and introducing himself, "Chris Angeloni!" He extended his thick hand and William took it, trading his firm grip.

"William Fraser," He answered.

Chris took a seat opposite William and then asked, "You're starting this year at Salem too, right?"

"Yes," William answered.

"Great! All I've been able to meet so far are older kids, and, well," he said his cheeks becoming slightly flushed, "They didn't want me around them."

William nodded, and was about to get out his book again when Chris then asked, "So where you from?"

"Connecticut," William answered, and for some reason found himself asking, "You?"

"I'm from north Jersey," Chris responded, and he began to open his trunk. As he began to dig through it, he asked, "What room are you going to be in?"

William paused for a few minutes as he tried to remember before finally saying, "Corey Hall 131."

"No Way!" Chris's head popped up from his trunk, "We're going to be roomies man!"

"Oh, really?" William asked, images flashing across his mind as the prospecting of sharing a room with the much larger boy settled in.

"Yeah man!" Chris then held up his hand, "High Five!" William shyly held it up and was welcomed with a swift stinging sensation as Chris slapped his palm into William's. "This is great, hey, are you a quodpot fan?"

"Uh...quodpot?" William asked, confusion evident on his face.

"You don't know quodpot?" Chris seemed like William had told him he was unaware that the sky was blue, "It's only like the coolest sport ever. You get eleven guys on each team, all of them on brooms, and they're all trying to get the quod, which is like this ball, into a pot. Sounds easy, right?" William shrugged as his soon-to-be-roommate continued, "Well, if you don't get it in fast enough, the ball explodes and you're out of the game." William gulped, as Chris kept going on, "Man, I really want to try out for the team but like sixth graders never make it, you know? But maybe one day I'll get on it, and man, that'll be awesome."

The conversation continued along this vein for a while, with Chris talking near endlessly as William sat nodding and occasionally adding in his own words. As the day was growing long, William had learned that his roommate-to-be had one parent who was magical, but his mother (surprisingly the witch of the family) had actually insisted he had attend muggle school where Chris was never allowed to talk about Quodpot which he was very happy to now be able to mention, at great length. As the train chugged along, Chris asked, "So do you think it's going to be fun?"

William shrugged, "I don't know, I guess so, I mean as fun as school can be."

Chris nodded vigorously, "I just hope that we don't get too bogged down with work and stuff." He looked out the window as the train pulled them through forests and up into mountains.

William's eyes also lingered outside the window, and he then said, "Think we're almost there?"

"Should be," Chris nodded, "The ride was only supposed to take a couple of hours."

As if speaking these words were some sort of indicator, the train started slowing down, and they could hear people piling out into the hallways beyond the compartments. Chris smiled and hopped up out of his seat, tearing open the door, turning back to pull his trunk. William grabbed his backpack and slung it back over his shoulder as he passed out into the corridor and followed Chris down to the doorway. William yanked onto his trunk near the top of the collection and dragged it down with him. As they came out into the waning daylight, it was amazing.

The platform sat at the bottom of a hill from which he could see a few buildings poking up. All around him were tons of students, most of them wearing robes moving around quickly and easily. An older student rushed by them carrying a broom, and it was as he got to the edge of the platform that he jumped aboard it and zoomed towards the school. A couple students had hopped onto their trunks and called out a spell and were now casually surfing their luggage up the hill. Other students were floating trunks and suitcases next to them, with a couple of the younger students carrying them or making several attempts to levitate them before giving up.

There were a few adults standing around, shouting at students who were whizzing by on brooms or riding their luggage but it seemed largely ineffectual. Some older students were standing around shouting out directions for sixth graders. One of these pointed at Chris and William, neither of whom had gotten moving since stepping out of the train, "Hey, get up to Corey Hall and move in!" They both nodded absently as they began to move forward, off of the platform and dragging their luggage up the smooth incline towards the campus.

They made their way through a fine brick wall and open wrought iron gate with the school crest hanging above it. As they made their way in people were calling out greetings to old friends, and a few even waved hello to the new sixth graders as they passed. There were older students gesturing towards Corey Hall for the sixth graders, and once again an adult or two were moving about telling students to move along to their dorms.

William was turning his head as fast as he could to try and take everything in. Trees were strewn across the verdant green fields of the campus, and all of the walkways were finely laid brickwork. Not far from the gate was a wide one story building where tons of students were heading, but several people began telling them to move towards Corey Hall which was further in the campus. It was as he moved forward that William caught sight of the main building itself. The building was made of brick and rose up about three or four stories into the air. All of the windows had dark blue shutters upon them, all currently open to let in the summer sun, and he could see the thick black front doors were currently thrown wide open. The walls had a smooth ivy growing up them extending a little past the first floor in some spots. He stood mouth agape for a few moments, and then Chris tugged on his sleeve and said, "Hey William, come on let's go get into our room."  
William nodded absently as they made their way down a shaded path from the main building toward another squat building. The crowd moving to it was a strange mixture of students who looked like they could easily be seniors in high school, and sixth graders. As they approached they found the doors wide open, and beyond them another set that opened up onto a massive courtyard. Older students were standing at the door and saying, "Everyone pick up your schedules in the quad. Sixth Graders sign in for room keys. Seniors to the left, Sixth Graders to the right!" As they made their way through the dimly lit hallway, the division of students became clear as the older students immediately broke off to the left and the sixth graders moved to the right.

William stood in line in front of Chris as they waited before a set of tables where several small creatures sat with rolls of paper. They were different from what William now knew were Goblins at the bank, they were thinner, with big eyes, and strange floppy ears, their skin was a strange hue, and they made William feel slightly uncomfortable as one waved him forward. "Hello," the creature's voice had a high pitch, and a strange warbling quality to it, "What's Misters name?" The creature asked, its face seemed like a wrinkly mess as it's huge eyes rolled up towards William.

"William, William Fraser," William answered after a few moments.

The creature nodded quickly, snapping its fingers as a scroll shot down from one end of the table and a small packet from another. The small creature then extended them to William, and William slowly took them. He turned to lift up his bags but found they were gone, as he began to turn his head around, the tiny creature said, "Oh, I took Misters things to his room." The creature's face stretched in what William hoped was an attempt at a smile as he walked around the table following the directions of an older student towards his hallway.

As he walked down the hallway looking for his room, Chris caught up to them, "Wow, I had no idea Salem had so many house elves."

"That's what those things were?" William asked turning to his roommate.

Chris laughed, "Of course, what'd you think they were?"

William shrugged, "I don't know, I wouldn't have guessed elves."

Chris laughed again as they came to their room, "Here we are, home for the next few years!" He clapped William hard on the back and dug out the key from the small packet they had been given.

Their room was facing the quad and the windows were open letting in the sounds of the move-in day pour through with the late summer breeze. Their trunks had already been placed on opposite sides of the room, each at the foot of one of the beds.

William walked over to his trunk and immediately got out one of his robes. He wiggled it on and turned to look at himself in the mirror. He hadn't grown much over the summer and he was once again staring at a slight boy in clothing that could be construed as dorky. William sighed, then got his wand and slid it into one of the robe's deep pockets. On the other side of the room, Chris had also slipped on his robe and was now hanging up a poster for his favorite quodpot team the New York Sharks, all of the people in the poster were zooming around quods exploding about them. William slowly began unpacking his clothes and books placing them about his side of the room, slowly moving about the room as he did. He paused at the window a few times as the crowd quickly got worn down and the sun was making its continual progression across the sky.

"Hey, what's your schedule like?" Chris asked from across the room.

William shuffled through the paper he was given, and then said, "Transfiguration, History of Magic, Defense Against the Dark Arts, then lunch, Herbology, Charms, and Potions. With Potions being twice as long on Tuesday and Thursday." Then he sighed as he saw the last part, "And Astronomy once a week late on Wednesday nights."

Chris nodded, "Well we got Defense and Potions together." He pinned his schedule up onto the board set to the wall above his desk, along with a map of the school he began to mark off.

William looked at the map and noticed he had one too, he slowly marked off his classes. All of them but Astronomy, and Herbology were in the main building though different floors. As he began to pin his schedule up on to his own board there was a knock at the door.

They both turned to the older boy who was standing in their doorway. He was wearing the school uniform in black, and had long black hair tied behind his head, in his hand he held a clip board, "Angeloni and Fraser?" They both responded with an affirmative, he nodded, "Dinner's in fifteen minutes, and then Sixth Graders are being given a tour of the school. You're with me and Laura, be in the lounge in five, alright?" Both boys nodded quickly, and the older student walked off down the hall.

The two sixth graders straightened up their room before stepping out and locking the door moving with the herd towards the closest lounge. Standing at the head of the crowd was an older girl, presumably Laura, and the boy who had just spoke to them.

"Hi!" Laura called as the last students came in, "I'm Laura and this is Mike," the guy gave a short wave, "And we're going to be showing you guys around campus after dinner." She smiled, exposing nearly shimmering white teeth, "So come on guys, let's get going!" She then lead them right out through the dorm, past the hall of older boys, a few of which called out greetings to her as she passed. Mike, hung to the back of the group, scowling at anyone to keep from them from straggling.

As they made their way towards the main building Laura went on and on about the school, and how great it was, when the first Quodpot and Quidditch games were, who some of the best teachers were, and even some of the clubs around campus. William tried to pay attention but found it harder due to his position at the back of the group.

He looked back to Mike, who was still marching along behind the group, and began to hang back to ask the question when the older boy said, "Look, I'm only here because I'm serving a detention, don't ask me a question."

"Oh," William answered, speeding up as the older boy just scowled at his back. Chris laughed as William returned. They all quickly passed through the main hall of the school, with wings leading down to different classrooms, and several stair cases leading up through the school, and down to the basement. They made their way over to a door on the opposite of the entrance hall, framed by a pair of stairs on either side and into the cafeteria.

There were tables all over the place, and on the far side of the room were a bunch of people moving through a line of plates. As they moved in, Laura was calling out that all they had to do was grab a plate and start filling it up with food. William stuck close to Chris as they made their way through the line, but it was as he grabbed his plate and made his way to the food that he bumped into a round kid who was only a little taller than himself.

The kid's food dumped up against his robes, and he immediately turned on William. William gulped, he recognized that look, it was the same sort of look Eric Grossman would get on his face when he was about to do something. The boy's chubby face contorted into a mixture of emotions, and then he just growled, "Watch where you're going pipsqueak, or else." The larger boy marched off farther down the line.

Chris shook his head, "Wow, that kid was kind of...big."

William sighed, "Not even a full day at a new school, and I think I've already met the school bully."

Chris laughed and said, "Hey, what's the worst that could happen? I'm sure that he'll forget about it by tomorrow morning.

William nodded, and they sat down to eat their meal. The night passed calmly, with the tour of the school going quickly and without interruption. On the actual tour, William had made sure to get up closer to Laura so he could catch every word. By the time it was over, William could barely believe how tired he was, barely having the energy to clamber out of his robes and into bed at the end of the day. As he drifted off to sleep all he could think was that the school year was about to start and everything would go nice and smoothly.


	4. The First Day

William woke up as the sun crept in through the window next to his bed. He clambered out, and made his way to one of the hall bathrooms a few doors down. There were a ton of people jostling about at mirrors, in toilet stalls, and the showers as everyone was getting ready for the first day of school. William quickly showered, and clambered into his clothing before leaving. As he made his way through the hallway back to his dorm, he yawned a little and bumped right into someone.

As he straightened himself out he found himself face to face with the rotund boy from the line at dinner. The bigger boy scowled down at him, "You again," The big boy shoved him into a wall which William slammed directly into and then slumped down a little as the other boy just waddled off.

William made it back to the room to find that Chris was already gone. He checked the clock on his desk and then immediately grabbed his books and burst his way out of the room, rushing back to lock the door before quickly heading for the main building. Somehow between sleeping, and showering it was only twenty to nine, and he still needed to get to the dining hall and eat breakfast.

As William burst into the dining hall he jogged down to the breakfast line, and piled on as much food as he thought he could eat in five minutes then looked around for a place to sit. As he moved through the tables, he spotted Chris who waved him over. The boy was sitting talking to a girl who looked about their age.

The girl had short blond hair and brilliant blue eyes, and was currently locked in a hard stare with Chris, as William sat down she seemed to finally burst, "How can you even call it a _sport_?!"

Chris looked at her and said, "You're crazy! It's the most intense thing you can do on broom."

"You're just hurling a ball around before it blows up in your face," She called glaring at Chris. As William looked very confused, she rounded on him, "Quidditch or Quodpot?"

"Uhm...erh..." William wasn't really sure what Quidditch was, but suddenly found both the girl and Chris leaning in waiting for his answer, "I don't really know?"

The girl and Chris both groaned leaning back into their chairs. After a few moments Chris said, "William meet Sarah Klein, she's a big Quidditch fan...but I guess we can forgive her."

Sarah snorted then added, "Sure, because I'm the crazy one here who likes sports that require skill."

William nodded trying to eat his breakfast without being dragged into what seemed like one of the most intense conversations he had ever walked into. Chris looked like he was about to say something else, when he suddenly went, "Oh god, I need to get to the Herbology greenhouses in like...five minutes." He jolted up from the table and barreled his way out of the dining hall as he went. Just like the evening before, William watched as the plate faded away with a faint pop.

Sarah watched it too, "That's really cool isn't it?"

William nodded, "I've never really seen anything like it."

She smiled, looking up at the clock, "What do you have first period?"

"Transfiguration," William said, staring up at the clock and trying to shovel the last bits of his breakfast into his mouth as fast as he could.

Sarah laughed, then said, "Well I've got Potions, so I got to go." She then stood up from the table and made her way out.

William waved goodbye before getting up and making leaving the hall as well. He quickly mounted the closest flight of stairs to the second floor, and found his first classroom. All of the room's desks were arranged in a circle around a big chair on wheels. William quickly found a seat and took out his notebook. After a few minutes all of the students were calmly sitting, looking around, and just when someone was going to ask where the teacher was the door burst open.

A young man, only a few years older than the oldest of Salem students jogged into the room, "Sorry I'm late guys," He smiled, "And girls." He was tall with short blond hair and bright blue eyes and wore a deep green robe. As he came to stand in the center of the class, he turned about, looking at each student in turn, and after making a full circuit of the room he spun about in the opposite direction and there was a loud crack.

All of the desks had suddenly transformed into large tortoises that seemed slightly surprised by the fact that they were sitting in a classroom, most with notebooks on their backs. "Welcome," the young teacher said, "To Transfiguration." When he said the class's title he waved his wand and the tortoises became desks again. Everyone clapped and laughed, the teacher began to talk once people had quieted down, "Now you guys are a few years away from doing that sort of thing but I'm not one who feels the need to start off a class with a lot of boring stuff. So we'll spend a few minutes actually trying to change something into something else." He quickly spun his wand about and matches landed on everyone's desk as he began to explain that changing an inanimate object into a similar object was much easier than anything else, but that no one should feel too bad if they couldn't do the spell.

William found that as he practiced the spell the match would sometimes become pointy, or turn into metal but it never quite became the needle everyone was trying to turn it into. However as he looked about the classroom, he found that even that left him far ahead of most of the class. Their teacher, Mr. Caravaggio (or as he preferred Mr. C), took the matches away after ten minutes and then began to launch into an explanation of transfiguration, it's importance and how they were expected to act during class time. He ended the class by getting everyone's name and wishing them all luck in their first day at Salem.

William was riding on a high that was quickly dashed in History of Magic when he met Ms. Codswell. Ms. Codswell wore plain robes and kept her graying hair pulled back into a tight bun. She spent the majority of the period listing what she expected of all of her students, and how students were to compose themselves in her classroom. Everyone kept their eyes straight ahead and furiously took down every word she said. As people left her class she gave everyone a firm glare.

As William shuffled through the hall to his Defense Against the Dark Arts class he caught sight of the big boy who he seemed to continually run into, and he attempted to give him a wide berth before he slowly realized that they were heading into the same classroom. William gulped as he approached the door, slowing so the larger boy could go in first, the boy noticed and gave him a harsh look as he passed through the door. Once inside, William quickly took a seat near Chris, and was shortly joined by Sarah on his other side who smiled at William and stuck her tongue out at Chris then chuckled. As people began to take out pens and paper, the door to a side room opened and in strode an old man.

He wore a set of very old robes that seemed to drape over him like an over sized coat but this did nothing to hinder his smooth, strong, strides across the room. His hair was long and black with flecks of gray and more interestingly three feathers arranged along the left side of his face all pointing downward with red tips. His face was long and wrinkled with the exception of his large and impressive nose. He lifted his thin, wrinkled hands and the room fell silent. As everyone stared at him, he gave a small smile, and then spoke with a smooth cadence, "I am Assistant Dean Tall Elk, and I have been teaching this subject for several decades." He began to pace around the front of the room as he spoke, "In this room I will teach you how to defend yourself from all manner of dark and dangerous forces from minor pests to dementors, over the next several years you will learn how to prepare and defend yourself from such things." Tall Elk stared out over the classroom, "This is not a place to fool around, it is a very serious subject and I will not tolerate mischief in my classroom. I expect you all to be respectful and listen with care." He found his way back to the center of the room, and he waved his arm, a long thin white wand slipped out into it almost as an extension of his body as he waved it upwards murmuring under his breath the whole way. As he brought the wand around himself, colors and light seemed to roll out of it forming in a haze around him, when he was done, the air around his body seemed to shimmer with an array of colors. William couldn't see where he had put his wand as he spoke, "I have just covered myself in an array of protective spells in the manner of a few seconds, this is what I will strive to teach you. We will talk about hexes, counter-jinxes, and all other manner of spells, but I expect you to pay attention to defense rather than anything else that I speak of in my lectures." He let his eyes gaze out over his students, "Do I make myself clear?"

When he asked this the whole room somehow called back, "Yes," in unison. Everyone looked around feeling the strange sense of having an entire class room speak the same time as you.

The assistant dean smiled and then began to launch into a lecture explaining the different spells they would be covering that year. As people left the classroom, Tall Elk nodded at each one in turn. William wasn't sure why, but he liked Tall Elk, the man seemed to be in control of everything that occurred in his room. As William made his way to the dining hall, the big kid from earlier pushed past him with a shove, "Out of my way tiny!" William nearly fell to the floor.

Chris caught up with him quickly and helped to steady him as the thick boy walked off to the stairwells, "Wow, that guy really has it out for you."

"Yeah, I've noticed," William said as he stared after the larger boy, "Do you know who he is?"

Chris nodded, "Yeah, he was in my herbology class this morning. His name's Henry Blackstock, and he's not the friendliest guy I've met."

William nodded, "I just got to try harder at avoiding him."

Chris nodded in return, "Ready for lunch?"  
William shrugged, "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea."

After lunch it was William's turn to trudge out to the greenhouses behind the main school building. Mr. Thorten was very laid back, he seemed mostly to sit at the front and half-explained the subject while sipping from a mug. He gestured around the greenhouse explaining that this is where they'd be spending their first year of Herbology, and what plants they'd be studying. William tried to stay interested but mostly had trouble paying attention to Mr. Thorten's bored drawl. William rubbed his eyes as he jogged back to the main building to get to Charms.

William got into Charms just as the bell was ringing, the old professor at the front of the room gave him a hard look as he took a seat next to Sarah who had waved to him as he had entered. As he sat there he noticed that he once more shared the class with Henry Blackstock. The boy was sitting next to a slim boy with slicked back hair, they had both watched William when he had entered the room. William gulped, the bully was already making friends, this was great, William thought, just great.

Mr. McAllister, as his Charms teacher was named, explained that while Charms was the subject with the most wand waving and spell learning this didn't mean that people would get by with non-sense. "Charms," He said firmly, "Is a serious subject, the work of precision and concentrated effort. Expect to work hard in my class, as I do not care for lolly gagging and horse play." He surveyed all of his students, letting his eyes rest on a few of them including William when he said this.

William had to gulp when Sarah leaned over and whispered, "Jeez, this guy's pretty uptight."

"I'll have you know Ms. Klein that there is nothing wrong with my hearing," McAllister said from the front of the room. Sarah jumped a little in her seat when he said this. "I'll let you slide on the first day, but speak out of turn in my class again and there will be consequences," He let his eyes run over all of his students, "That goes for all of you." As he ended his harsh expectations speech he went on to explain that in the first few weeks they would be concentrating on the simplest of levitation charms and how this along with other simple charms they would learn throughout the year would form the framework around which all of their charms' knowledge would be built.

William left the class quickly, shaking his head at Sarah who mouthed sorry as he passed by McAllister and felt the old teacher's scowl following him down the hall. Somehow within one class period he had already displeased his Charms teacher. He mounted up the stairs to the top floor where he entered a large hall where a lot of students were crammed around work stations facing the front of the classroom. Once more, William quickly found Chris and sat on the stool next to him.

William looked toward the front of the large room where on a raised platform their stood a young woman, probably about the same age as Mr. C, who waved out to the class as people filed in, "Good afternoon class." There were a few poor returns of the greeting, and she once again called out, "Good afternoon class." This time everyone responded and she smiled, "Much better. Class, I'm Ms. Newman and I'll be teaching you potions this year." She launched into an explanation of how they would be learning all about the important techniques and simple potions over the following year. William found himself very excited as she explained that they would be making lots of things, and really rolling up their sleeves and getting work done. As he closed his notebook, he smiled, potions was already reminding him of science back at his old muggle school but he was going to be doing a lot more than he ever did then. As he made his way back to his dorm room with Chris, William smiled, school was already off to a great start, and all he had to do was keep a positive attitude and things were going to be great.


	5. The Grand Games of Quodpot and Quidditch

William had quickly fallen into the rhythm of life at the Salem Institute for Magical Study. His days were spent attending classes, doing his homework, and honing his spells. When he wasn't studying he found himself trying to learn more about the magical world, sitting listening to the news from the Wizard Wireless that sat in the dorm lounge, reading old news archives in the library, or flipping through the bundle of magazines that were delivered every week. William found that the wizarding world wasn't much different from the muggle world except that the pictures moved, and people were interested in different but all too similar things as in the muggle world.

It was because of this interest that as they left Potions on Thursday Chris was excitedly convincing him to attend the first school Quodpot game, "Come on it's the first game of the season!"

William shrugged, "I don't know, I've never been really big into watching sports."

"Yea but muggle sports are boring!" Chris retorted, "This is Quodpot, the best sport ever. Things explode, people fly, it's awesome!"

William looked uneasy as they began to descend down the stair case, "I'm just not sure I'd want to spend my Sunday watching Quodpot, especially with the first Transfiguration exam on Monday..."

"Oh come on," Chris said shaking his head, "Mr. C loves you, and you're like a Transfiguration prodigy or something," William blushed a little. Transfiguration was definitely one of his best subjects, he knew that even now in the first few weeks, but he would never go so far as to call himself a prodigy. "What's the worst that could happen?"

William sighed, he was starting to realize that he was going to be dragged to the game whether he wanted to be or not, but he wasn't about to give in that easily, "A lot of things, I could fail the test or something. Or a quod could blow up in my face and I'm not even playing...."

As he was about to go on though, he heard a call of _Wingardium Leviosa _from somewhere on the floor they were passing. Before he could do anything his note book was casually floating out of his hands despite his attempts to hold on. Standing next to the railing next to the staircases was Henry Blackstock and his crony Theodore Stinson. Both of them had taken to bullying William for reasons he still couldn't figure out, and a magical version of keep away had become their favorite thing since Henry had mastered the spell in Charms last week.

Chris glowered, and William sighed as he made to go after his notebooks. The larger boy was gently flicking his wrist up a little higher as William made an attempt to grab at it. "Why don't you just use magic?" Theodore jeered. William had only finally mastered the subtle swish and flick of the spell and still didn't feel confident enough with it to try and actually wrestle the book from Henry's magical grip.

"Just give it back!" William called after his third feeble attempt to jump for it.

"All you need to do is take it," Henry called back. A few older students had paused to watch the sixth graders, and William quickly found his face become flushed with embarrassment at being bullied by such a simple spell.

Chris was now coming up behind him, and he was pulling out his wand. Chris had helped him finally get the process of the simple spell right in exchange for help with his potions homework. William placed his hand on his roommate's arm though, he didn't want him to come to his defense again. William frowned, there had to be something he could do.

It was as he saw light glisten from Henry's pocket that he realized what he could do. Henry carried pens in his robe pockets, William always saw him slipping them in and out during classes, and while William wasn't very good with Charms, he was more than capable at turning things into other things. As he whipped out his wand and was about to wind up for a quick change from pen to something much pointier, a voice called out, "Break it up!"

Mr. C was striding down the hallway pushing through the older students with a couple of 'excuse me's and 'make way's. At the sound of the young teacher's voice the book dropped with a thud, and several students who had been watching scattered away. "What's going on here?" He asked, concern flashing across his face as he looked between the groups of students, his eyes settling on Henry and Theodore.

As Chris was about to say something, William caught him and said, "Nothing Mr. C, I, I had just dropped my books that's all." He then quickly picked them up, as Henry and his crony started backing up into the dispersing crowd.

Mr. C looked at his young promising student and asked, "Is that all that happened, Mr. Fraser?"

"Yes, sir," William answered, turning his head down to avoid his teacher's gaze.

"Alright," Mr. C said, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder, "Well, why don't you boys head on outside and enjoy the good weather while it lasts."

"Thanks," William replied, and made his way quickly down the stairs attempting to ignore the stares of the crowd.

Chris was racing down after him and when he caught up to him he asked, "What was that about, why didn't you tell on them?"

William sighed, "Cause then they'd have a detention and then be even angrier with me and do worse stuff."

"Oh," Chris muttered and fell silent as they made their way out of the building and into the crisp air of early autumn.

The leaves hadn't quite started to change as they made their way across the campus and back towards their dorm room. As they passed into the warm dorm building, Chris broke the silence with an attempt to turn the subject back to the Quodpot game, "Come on, this weekend, the first game and it's against Kalmag."

"Kalmag?" William asked as they passed through the lounge.

"Come on, The California School of Magic, CalMag," Chris continued, "I thought you were reading up on this stuff?"

"Not all of it," William replied, blushing again at his lack of knowledge, "I can't learn everything in a few weeks."

Chris shook his head with a 'you're hopeless' look on his face, "Well CalMag's supposed to be decent, but some people think that we have a chance to beat them. Come on, don't you want to see us win?"

William sighed as they got to their door, "Do I have a choice in this?"

"Not really, I was planning on dragging you there if I had to," Chris admitted bluntly.

"Alright," William answered, "I'll go."

"Awesome, I promise you you'll love it!" Chris shouted as he set his books down and then headed out, probably to go learn more about the game this Sunday. William just turned to his homework hoping to get it out of the way before dinner.

The next day after Defense as Chris rushed off to finish potions homework he hadn't done Sarah turned on William, her voice prickling with rage, "So you're going to go to the Quodpot game?"

"Uh, I guess?" William replied, sensing the emotion building within Sarah.

"You're coming to the Quidditch game then?" She asked, her eyes narrowing as she did.

"I am?" William asked, stopping in his tracks.

"Well, you want to see a real sport don't you?" Sarah said stopping and turning as well to stare at him.

"I really don't want to go to either," William stated in an attempt to hopefully not be dragged to another sporting event.

"But you are going to the Quodpot game?" She asked again, anger creeping into her voice.

"Well, Chris is dragging me there, I don't seem to have a lot of say in it," He negotiated.

"Quidditch. Next Friday. Both you and Chris are going to come," She stated crisply and clearly before turning around and heading quickly down the hall.

As William was about to head towards the stair case to the dining hall, a voice cut through the air, "Can't even stand up to a girl?" Henry came around him, with Theodore coming up behind William laughing as he did.

William turned away and didn't say anything. Henry gave him a light shove as he did, "And what too afraid to say anything about us yesterday?"

Theodore laughed, "What are you so afraid of William?"

Before anything could happen though, Henry tapped Theodore's shoulder and both boys quickly dashed off down the hall. William looked up, and around, the hallway was largely empty except for a few other stragglers. As he looked down the hall though he saw what had scared off the boys, standing in the doorway to his classroom was Dean Tall Elk. The old man was staring down at William, his eyes unreadable as he looked at the small boy. He turned and reentered his classroom, the door closing with a loud thunk behind him. William frowned, the last person he wanted to look poorly in front of was Tall Elk, though William wasn't sure why but he wanted the professor to think highly of him.

Sunday morning William was awoken to Chris blowing a massive horn in his face. William jumped out of bed as Chris stood in full school uniform with a massive number one foam finger (matching his uniform) on one hand and a blue horn in the other. He blew it again, images of blue and black cats came screaming out of it fading after a few feet. William stared at the boy in a somewhat frightened state, as the taller boy called out, "Good morning! Ready for the game?"

"Uh...sure..." William said as he got out of bed and pulled on his own set of robes, turning to his roommate, "Is all of that really necessary?"

"Oh yeah! It's not a Quodpot game unless you're ready to root on your team," He stated and then picked up another big blue horn and tossed it at William. William ducked as it flew by his head, "You were supposed to catch it."

"Sure, right," William answered as he picked up the horn. He took in a deep breath and gave it a test blow, it let out another outrageous trumpet call, and this time the phrase "Go Salem!" came out in blue and black sparks.

"Awesome!" Chris said, and then burst out the door blowing another trumpet call, this time the magical letters pronounced "CalMag Stinks!" As he marched down the hallway. William trailed after him and noticed that there were a lot of students pouring out of their rooms, with horns, or foam fingers, and one or two with big hats in the shape of a cat's face.

The crowd poured out into the campus joining the trail towards the stadium on the other side of campus, "Wow," William stated as they pushed their way through the hordes of students, "Do you think it's like this every game?"

"I hope so!" Chris called over his shoulder, releasing another trumpet roar, this time joined by a chorus of several others. He then turned back and said, "But I mean, it is the first game of the season."

William nodded as they came into the stadium. William had only seen it while passing on his way to Herbology class, but now as he entered it and started the ascent up through the stands he saw that it was utterly massive. It looked like it could hold twice the school's population, or maybe more, and it was currently decorated in the black and blue of the Salem Institute all over one side, with a smaller side across the stadium in green and red which he assumed were the colors of CalMag.

All of the students were herded towards a certain part of the stands, with visiting alumni, parents, teachers, and just random spectators filling in another area of the stadium nearby. As he sat down next down to Chris, horns were blowing all over their side of the stadium, and as he looked up he saw someone on a broom go zooming past. It was as the broom came back around that he realized it was someone in a black cat costume pumping its fist into the air to the roar of the crowd. The mascot zoomed right over their heads, and when it did a couple of people flung spells into the air which the mascot dodged with an accompanying array of dizzying movements. William shook his head, and asked, "All of this for one game?"

Chris barely heard him over the roar of the crowd and was about to respond when a voice boomed out over the stadium, "Gooood morning Salem! We're all here this morning to kick off the Quodpot season with the inaugural game of the season between the Salem Institute and CalMag!" The crowd roared as the announcer continued, "Now will you please all give a warm welcome to the CalMag Bears!" The home crowd let out a series of jeers and a few people let their horns blow with the "CalMag Stinks!" sparks as if they had been waiting the whole time for this. The California team zoomed out from the other side of the stadium, the first thing that William noticed was that most of them were big, like really big. A few of them had the sun-tanned skin that William would've expected from people on the west coast but to his surprise a lot of them didn't as they zoomed around the stadium before landing in a rigid line on the far side. "And now will you welcome your home team, the Salem Wildcats!" The crowd erupted in a roar, horns blowing, and the mascot zooming over head in a beautiful display of aerial maneuvering. Most of the Salem team was just as big if not bigger than the CalMag team, though William noticed that there were two players who were much smaller, he swore that even one of them was a girl. The team zoomed out over the crowd raising their arms as if letting the glory and adulation ride in over them. After a moment they too landed on one side of the field, and like the few baseball games William had attended everyone had to rise for the national anthem.

As soon as everyone sat down, the players took to the skies and arranged themselves around the field. No sooner had the last player got into position that a ball shot into the sky from the dead center of the field. Three players on each side of the field, the three biggest William noticed, rushed immediately forward crashing in an astounding display of brute force. Just as William recovered from wincing at the sight of it, he noticed the crowd cheering, one of the smaller Salem players had grabbed the thick red ball and a swarm of players were zooming around them. William could barely follow as the ball was tossed around and then all of a sudden a massive collection of Salem players were orbiting the smallest player and barreling through the CalMag side of the field before exploding apart as the little flier tossed for the wide pot. As the crowd stood with a roar, a big CalMag player intercepted it but only started making their way a few feet before the ball exploded with a roar in their hands. They zoomed to the ground and another ball seemed to shoot out from one of the stands and the massive flights of giant players made another head on collision.

The game continued in this fashion for an hour and a half. By the end of the game there were only three players on the Salem team and four on the CalMag squad from the original eleven on each. The winning move was made by what William did learn was Salem's sole female player when two of the giant players flanked her for a straight run towards the opposing pot. They had shoved into the wall of CalMag players as the quod started to shake and rumble signaling it was about to explode. She made a quick pass by the pot simply dropping it into the solution and zooming away. It had broke the tie of the game and the crowd on the Salem side had burst into cheers, horns blowing, the mascot zooming around the stands, and the surviving players coming by for victory high fives. As the crowds began filing out of the stadium, William felt a torrent of emotions moving through him. He couldn't help but admit that it had been fun, and that it was great to watch his school win, but at the same time nearly every play had made him wince and he still wasn't sure he had completely understood the game.

"Awesome, right?" Chris finally asked as they began walking around the brick lined paths of Salem, not necessarily heading toward their dorm as they did.

"It was...alright," William responded after a few moments, trying to hide his grin.

"Just alright?!" Chris shouted, throwing his arms into the air, "That's one of the best amateur games I've ever seen, and you say just alright?!"

William shrugged and chuckled, before saying, "Like I said, I've never really liked watching sports."

Chris shook his head, "You're crazy! I live with a madman!" He continued to shake his head in disbelief and rant as they began turning back to their dorm.

As they passed through the quad William nearly ducked into a bush, he saw Henry Blackstock across the fields, and then he stopped and watched for a moment. The round boy was talking to several older students who were lounging underneath one of the trees near one of the corners. None of them seemed to follow him as he slunk into his hall, but William couldn't shake the feeling that they were watching him anyway. He sighed and shrugged it off as paranoia as he sat down to study for his transfiguration exam.

The week passed with surprising speed to William. He had done very well on his Transfiguration exam, actually managing to set the curve for the subject. Best of all though, William had only run into Henry and Theodore twice that week. William wanted to think that they were either starting to get bored with him or that maybe he was getting better at avoiding them. Still though for some reason he couldn't help shaking the feeling that that wasn't the case, and by the end of the week William found his hand going to his wand and checking over his shoulder as he passed between classes. By Friday evening though he was able to convince himself that nothing was going to be happening, it was all going to be ok.

It was as he was wrapping up his Charms assignment that there was a quick rap at the door. William turned over to look at Chris who also shrugged, people didn't normally come by after dinner. As William got up to open the door, he quickly realized, people didn't normally come by their dorm. When there was another quick rap, he opened it and saw Sarah standing there. Behind her was another girl their age, with long dark hair pulled back from a smooth, pale face, the girl's robe seemed to be of better quality than most of the other students and had a strange cut that made them stand out just a little.

Sarah stated firmly, "The game starts in twenty minutes."

Chris called back, "There's no Quodpot game today."

Sarah poked her head into the room and glowered at him, "Quidditch game tonight, you two said you'd come."

William gulped, and Chris shrugged, the girl behind Sarah sighed. Finally Chris got up and said, "Alright, let me grab my horn..."

Sarah laughed and then said, "You don't need it."

William's eyebrow shot up, "We don't?"

"There's not a big fanfare or anything, it's just a match," She answered.

"How...how can it be a sport without..." Chris looked at his horn and foam finger as Sarah stepped in and grabbed his arm and began to drag him out, "But, but...my horn."

William laughed, closing and locking the door as they walked out. There weren't as many people walking around this time, but as they got closer to the stadium they could see a short line of students marching up into the stands. As they clambered up and got into their seats one of the first things William noticed was there were a lot less people here. The field was lit up by a few magically glowing poles spaced throughout the stands, William was surprised they had night games for flying sports, for some reason it struck him as dangerous.

Sarah had slammed Chris down into the seat next to her, and William sat down on her other side, while the girl who had casually followed them settled in next to him. William gulped, he still didn't know who this girl was, he looked to Sarah but she was too busy glaring Chris into not leaping out of the stands that she didn't notice the growing awkwardness in William. The girl turned her eyes to him and then said, "Hello."

"Uh, hi," William responded, and then added, "I'm uh, William Fraser."

She gave a soft laugh and then answered, "I know, we're in Transfiguration together."

"We...we are?" William asked, for some reason he couldn't remember the girl but she nodded just the same. "Uhm," He mumbled, "I uh..."

"Alexandria Blair," She answered his unspoken question, then continued her introduction, "Of the New York City Blairs."

"Right," William answered. He then paused, and asked the one question that had bugged him for a long time, "Why did you add where your family was from?"

She laughed again, as if he had just asked something dreadfully obvious, "It's what old families do, to differentiate themselves."

William nodded, not quite sure what she meant. It took him a few minutes to realized that by old families she meant, an old wizarding family, he then hesitantly asked, "Your...whole family is..."

"Wizards, yes," She paused, "Well most of them. I think I have a great uncle or distant cousin who isn't..." Alexandria shrugged as she finished her sentence.

Before William could ask the girl another question though an announcer cut through, "Evening folks," It was far from the near over-enthused voice from the quodpot game, "Tonight we have a great game, Salem against Botetourt, and here are your players." William noticed there was no excited calling of the team mascots, in fact the Salem mascot wasn't even there. He barely noticed that there was a small contingent for the other team across the stadium, a token showing of people in navy blue and bright gold. The two teams zoomed into the air, seven players on each team, and they quickly formed in a tight circle in the air. There was a pause as people rose for the national anthem, and then a referee (a presence William had barely noticed in the Quodpot game) zoomed up to them and two people came forth to shake hands. As they shook, William noticed that he recognized the Salem player, it was Franklin Perry the older boy from the apothecary.

He leaned over to Sarah and said, "I know him."

"The captain?" Sarah asked turning to him, "I hear he's an amazing seeker."

William nodded absently and then asked, "Uh, what's a seeker?"

Sarah's jaw dropped just a little before she caught it and said, "You didn't think to look up the rules on quidditch did you?"

William nodded, he heard Chris snort, and he swore he heard Alexandria give another soft laugh behind him. Sarah launched into a frantic explanation of the rules as the players all split off and balls flew out into the air. Before he could get any more information out of her she turned her attention to the game which was quickly coming under way.

The first thing William noticed was that it was a lot less brutal then quodpot. People weren't slamming head long into each other, and there was a lot more maneuvering being done by what Sarah had called the chasers along with quick passes. Still, even though there were a lot less people slamming into each other, there were still the beaters who were slamming thick black balls down towards other opponents though it seemed more to cause them to veer off course and dodge than to smash them off their brooms. William quickly found himself enjoying the back and forth pace of the game, it was a little bit quieter than Quodpot, which was nice. Just as he thought he was getting the hang of it though, the two seekers who had mainly been hanging towards the higher parts of the stadium suddenly fell into a fast dive.

Franklin had pulled into a straight nosedive while the Botetourt seeker was taking a safer corkscrew approach. They passed right through the main field of play where the chasers were going through a number of passes trying to move out from the middle of the pitch while the beaters slammed the black balls towards the center trying to disrupt things. Franklin zoomed right on through but the Botetourt player due to their smooth corkscrew got slammed in the side by one of black balls and slammed into a Salem chaser because of it. The massive red ball jumped into the air with a mad dash, meanwhile Franklin had pulled up at the last second and was now steeply climbing right up the stadium's side. Sarah had stood up and was staring directly downwards, William was trying to figure out what he should be watching when Franklin suddenly zoomed past his field of vision, arm extended. The young player suddenly pulled flat back, hanging upside down and then leveled out performing a beautiful loop before clamping his hand into a fist. There was a loud cheer from a few spectators, and Sarah started jumping up and down letting out a loud whistle.

"Uh, what just happened?" William asked leaning over to Alexandria.

"Perry caught the Snitch. The game's over, we won," Her voice was drawl, and she quickly straightened herself up, pausing only to see if the others were coming.

Chris had gotten up and stretched a little, before saying, "Yep, Quidditch is exactly how I remembered it. At least the other team's seeker got smacked once." He began to slink off through the stands, as many of the other spectators were now slowly making their way out.

William tapped Sarah on the shoulder and said, "Hey Sarah, everybody's leaving."

She nodded absently as if she was hearing him from a long way off, before saying, "That was amazing."

"Right," William answered, "But uh, come on we got to go."

She once more faintly acknowledged him, turning away this time and slowly began walking along with him, "He really is a great seeker. Did you see him, he flew upside down."

William nodded, "Yeah, I was right there..." He had to admit that it was really impressive, but he still wasn't completely sure he had everything straight. He just shook his head.

Both Alexandria and Chris were already way ahead of them and didn't seem to be turning back to wait for them anytime soon. As they walked, William asked, "So who was that other girl?"

"Alexandria?" Sarah said, the question briefly snapping her out of whatever strange Quidditch trance she was in, "Oh, she's my roommate."

"Oh," William nodded, "I didn't even know you had one."

Sarah laughed, "Well I guess she's not like Chris. She keeps to other old family wizards most of the time I think."

"Right..." William said, not quite sure what that meant. He didn't bother to ask further questions though, just kept walking through the campus. Leaves were slowly starting to turn as the weather started to grow colder, a little earlier than William was used to but it was definitely preferable to the warmer weather of a few weeks ago.

As they came into Corey Hall, Sarah waved turning off towards the girl's hall on the other side of the building, "See you later, William."

"Yeah," He called back, "See you later."

As he stood in the center of the hallway, he shivered slightly, but he wasn't quite sure if it was due to the drop in temperature over the past week. He shook his head and made his way back to his room, hoping that he'd fall asleep easily.


	6. The Dueling Club

As the new week began, William's fears were confirmed. Henry had apparently just been laying low for a few days, because on Monday he hit William with a Jelly legs curse right before Charms, nearly making him late, but luckily he stumbled in just as the bell rang, only earning him a glare and short verbal reprimand from McAllister. It was a few days later though that he and Theodore pulled off their biggest stunt yet.

It was shortly after Defense class, and Chris had once again rushed off to finish homework he should have done the night before. Sarah had forgotten some things back in her room so she had to rush back before lunch. William was left alone as he walked towards the dining hall. With the renewed bullying from Henry, William had started to try to find different ways through the school. He was heading for one of the alternate staircases, and it was as he rounded a corner that he heard Theodore call out a levitating charm, swiping his books from his hands with a laugh.

As William jumped and then yanked out his wand to pull them back with his own levitation charm, Theodore hit him squarely with a Jelly legs curse, causing him to stumble about as his books clattered to the ground. Henry then came around the corner laughing and called, "Petrificus Totalis!" William's body snapped to attention and he wasn't sure why. He gulped as he fell face first, but was happy when he felt nothing. Both boys were laughing, though he could barely hear them, they lifted him up and then put him against the wall. Henry then placed his wand on the wall and murmured a spell William didn't know, but he could barely make out what looked like glue pour out from Henry's wand. The bullies then high fived each other before sticking their tongues out at William and walking off.

William wasn't sure how long he was hanging there before Assistant Dean Tall Elk rounded the corner. He frowned when he saw the young boy, and quickly ran his wand over the child. William immediately felt like his whole body was covered in pins and needles as he slumped off of the wall, and nearly fell down again. The older man placed a hand on his shoulder though, and despite the wrinkles and his age, his grip was firm and strong. Tall Elk then said, "My office Mr. Fraser." William nodded, scrambling to pick up his books and followed Tall Elk down the hall, back to the classroom through it and into the old teacher's office.

William had never actually been in the Assistant Dean's office, he had never even caught glimpses between classes. The room was dimly lit by a small fire stirring on one wall, it grew larger when they entered the room but not by much. There were several decorations around the room, William couldn't help but stare at the large buffalo head that hung over the fireplace, and while at first William thought it had been mounted there he slowly realized that it seemed to have fittings for someone's head, as if it could be worn. On another wall there was a shelf, in the center of it was a thick sack that looked neatly folded and taken care of despite the weathering of many years, next to the bundle there was what William recognized immediately as a gun, it was shining in the firelight and it looked exactly like the six-shooters cowboys were supposed to have. Next to the shelf there was a massive feathered head dress set a few feat above it, so that the head dress stopped a few inches above the ground. As he continued turning about the room, he noticed other strange things; old shirts covered in beads and paint, several small pictures of native americans in dynamic stances on empty backdrops, and finally a small moving picture of a boy a few years older than William looking very uncomfortable as he sat in a straight backed wooden chair wearing a suit that seemed to clash with his very being. Tall Elk smiled as William gazed about the room, sitting down in a comfortable looking leather chair on one side of his desk, he gestured for William to sit as he answered his unspoken question, "I have lived through many winters Mr. Fraser, you should not be surprised by what you see here."

William nodded slowly, he had figured out that wizards had lived longer than muggles, but he had never quite had it thrust into his face like this before, "Right, sir." He paused, and then asked, "Sir, have I done something wrong?"

"That depends on how you look at it William," The older wizard said after a small pause, "You have not broken any rules, or to my knowledge even done poorly on any of your exams so far." He took a deep breath as he then concluded, "But you continue to do yourself a great disservice."

William was very confused when his defense teacher said this, he looked at the older man and then asked, his confusion evident through the singular word, "Sir?"

"Nearly everyday since you've arrived, I have watched you get picked on by those two boys," He said, his tone grave, "Not once have I seen you rise to defend yourself." William was about to protest but Tall Elk merely lifted his hand, "While forgiveness is a great quality, and the ability to cope with great pain is admirable, there is also a point where the reasoning that you merely need to live in this world without trouble is no longer enough." William didn't quite understand his last comment but held his breath unsure if the professor was waiting for a response or not. "It worries me, when I see bright young boys such as yourself get picked on and be ridiculed. It does not help anyone to sit there and take it, it makes you bitter and it only lets those other boys go on thinking it is right."

William nodded, and Tall Elk seemed to be pausing for a moment to gauge his response, William seized the opportunity to respond, "Dean, I don't want to start any fights, not..." William sputtered, "Not that I'd even know how to."

The old wizard nodded his head slowly, "I thought this might be the case," the old teacher explained, "That is why I wanted to inform you that I sponsor the dueling club here at the school."

William stared at his teacher, not once had a teacher ever suggested he fight the bullies. If any of his teachers back at school had ever shown him how to throw a punch, he wasn't quite sure what would happen to them. Before he could explain himself though Tall Elk laughed, it was rich and deep almost melodic, "I do not abdicate the breaking of Salem's Rules of Conduct Mr. Fraser." He paused then continued, "However, many times over the years have I seen the change brought over my students when they learn the finer points of Wizard Dueling. It provides many things Mr. Fraser that are important to students." The dean stood up, and moved over to the door, opening it and gesturing for William to leave, "We will be meeting this evening in the basement of the stadium. I hope to see you there at eight o'clock sharp Mr. Fraser."

While William had his doubts he couldn't help but nod and say, "Yes, Dean Tall Elk."

The old man nodded approvingly as William made his way out of the classroom and into the halls, quickly moving to the dining hall before he had to make it to his next class.

William had marched down to the stadium that night wearing his robes and carrying just his wand, he had been completely unsure what he was supposed to bring to the club. It had taken him a few moments to finally find the stairwell that lead down into the basement, and after navigating the maze of locker rooms, team offices, and several empty rooms, he finally found the large chamber where the dueling club met.

The first thing he noticed was that there were dozens of students there, from every grade at Salem. William also immediately felt like he wasn't prepared for this at all. Most of the older students seemed to be wearing specialized uniforms, with wearing lots of padding and leather, most of them had pants on instead of robes. Several of them seemed to be wearing matching jackets with the school colors and seal on them, chatting amicably on one side of the room. Some of the older students even seemed to have several medals pinned on one of their sleeves. Two students who were standing far apart from everyone else were actually wearing just a light pair of pants each and were slowly circling each other, before William could blink there was a flash of different colored lights and both of them looked as if they had run a marathon. They stumbled up to the other, half hugging, half supporting each other before moving over towards a large set of kegs on one side, where they poured themselves buckets of water before settling down on benches and starting to drink greedily.

Tall Elk entered from the far side of the room, and when he did everyone went silent. The uniformed students quickly rushed off to one side of the room, almost like soldiers falling into ranks. Other students seemed to break off into grade, it was when this happened that William caught sight of three other sixth graders. He quickly rushed to them and fell in next to a thin boy a few inches taller than him with dark black hair and muddy brown eyes, he too was wearing his school uniform, the boy nodded at William in greeting.

Tall Elk walked down the column that had been formed by the students, he then began calling out names and different positions as instructors, referees, and a few jobs that William didn't quite understand. The one that he paid attention to though was, "Clark, instruct the sixth graders."

"Sir!" Barked a sharp voice, out came a young woman, at least two years older than William's sister who stepped out and moved down to the younger students. She was wearing highly polished black boots, blue pants, and a dark black leather jacket with an array of medals down the right sleeve. Her curly red hair was pulled back from her face and she laid her green eyes down on the young sixth graders. Clark's eyes finally settled upon William, before simply stating, "You're new."

"Y..yes," William stammered, trying to avoid her gaze.

Her lips curled into a smile and then she said, "Alright, you're a few sessions behind but that's not too bad at this point." She then began pacing around the four sixth graders, "Today we will be continuing our drills on the shield charm. Rosenberger, incantation!"

"Protego!" A girl on the other side of the line called, William could barely see her due to the two boys in the way.

"Hobbes, demonstrate!" Clark called as she stood behind the sixth grade boy.

Hobbes next to Rosenberger jumped forward and held his wand directly in front of him, "Protego!" He shouted at the top his lungs, the air shimmered for a brief moment. He quickly came back into line.

Clark seemed to turn her nose up and then added, "Passable." She came around the line to stand in front of the boy next to William, "Hawthorne, for the new boy, why are we learning this charm?"

The boy immediately called out, "Because it provides a basic line of defense against a majority of the hexes used in a duel."

"Hobbes, another reason," She asked immediately.

"There is no point in attacking unless you can not be hit yourself," He stated.

The older girl shrugged at the answer, and rounded on the young girl at the end, "Rosenberger, why?"

"The protego spell is not only effective but it can be more effective based on the placement of the wand directing the spell. The better prepared the duelist, the more likely they can stop a spell from any direction." Rosenberger rattled off quickly and sharply.

Clark merely nodded in her direction, before coming back down the end of the line and turning to William, "Name?"

"William Fraser!" William found himself shouting.

"Fraser, wand out." Clark called out. William quickly pulled out his wand and stood with it at his side. Clark then suddenly gripped him and kicked his feet widely apart, rearranging his arms as he went. Suddenly he found his right foot forward with his left pointed to the side so that he seemed to be half-sitting as he stood there. His wand lay casually parallel with his right leg, and his left arm was position down behind him. "This Fraser, is your wand out position. It is the ready position you will assume in every duel." William nodded as Clark walked back to stand in front of them all, "Wands out!"

The other three sixth graders fluidly moved into the ready position. Clark also fell into it so quickly that William had barely noticed the shift in her posture. She then quickly demonstrated the protego spell, and then began drilling them on it. She corrected wand positions as they continued, made sharp comments regarding foot work, and continued to ask questions as they went. After only a few minutes she was asking William questions as well, some he could only guess at, others he found himself capable to answer as the drills continued. It had been well over an hour when she had finally told them to get some water.

William found himself practically stumbling over to the water jugs. As he did, the boy who had been standing next to him the whole time gripped his arm a little to straighten him up. William turned to look at the other boy, but he just said, "I nearly fell over after my first time, you looked like you were going to fall flat on your face."

William laughed and nodded, as he collapsed onto the bench. The other boy grabbed two cups of water and sat down next to him. He handed him the cup and then said, "Nick Hawthorne."

William nodded, "William Fraser," he suddenly found himself clinking cups with the other sixth grader and smiled as he greedily gulped down the water.

Nick also took massive gulps as he did, as he brought the cup away he asked, "So what brought you to the club?"

"Dean Tall Elk told me he wanted me to come, and I guess, I don't know," William shrugged, "I don't want to like..." William shook his head, "I don't know."

Nick nodded, "I know what you mean. He's pretty cool for some old teacher."

William laughed and then said, "Yeah, I hadn't expected it to be this hard though."

Nick shrugged, "I guess you're right, but it's a lot of fun. I mean we haven't gotten to do anything besides this spell yet, but in another week or two we'll start learning something new."

"Really?" William asked, then as Nick nodded, he added, "I guess I'll have to really catch up."

Nick nodded, "Well we've only been doing this so far, but you're already doing pretty well for your first night."  
William smiled, "Thanks."

As he drained the last drops from the cup Clark was shouting, "Sixth graders to me!" The two boys scrambled to rush over as Clark began once more drilling them and demanding demonstrations of the spell. This only lasted about another half hour though as the junior members were dismissed as they all had earlier curfews than the older high school age students. Clark had smiled when she bid them all goodbye, slowly removing her thick jacket and moving towards where several older students were sparring.

Rosenberger and Hobbes moved on ahead of William and Nick as they all made their way back towards Corey Hall. William shivered in the early October air, the first leaves of autumn beginning to crunch underneath his feet. Nick whistled a little as they walked back. They slowly began talking about classes, and it was when they did this that William had realized that Nick sat a few rows behind in History of Magic. They both laughed at the fact they hadn't recognized each other the entire time, and then fell into silence once again as Nick mentioned their upcoming exam.

The weeks were quickly blending together as William found himself regularly attending meetings of the dueling club. With more of his time being devoted to it, he also found himself hanging out with Nick a lot more as the two shared similar schedules on the days when there were club meetings. Nick had also been raised in the muggle world, though his dad had been wizard he had left Nick's mother years ago. One evening as they were walking towards the stadium, William caught sight of a group of students moving across the grounds. He gestured towards them, and asked Nick, "Hey, what do you think they're doing?"

The taller boy shrugged as he looked over at them, "I'm not really sure, looks like a bunch of older kids."

William nodded but then as they passed from a stand of trees into one of the open fields around campus William noticed that while most of them were taller and older looking there were two younger students with them. One of them looked like a thick ball clambering after them while the other was a thin shadow seeming to stretch out from the ball. "That's Henry Blackstock and Theodore Stinson..." He murmured as he watched the group pass.

"You mean those bullies?" Nick had quickly become familiar with the two when he found William once more being harassed by them, though he had been able to stop one or two of their jinxes, William wasn't still able to stop or avoid them entirely. Besides he could only stop the spells he saw coming, and it was very rare when the two boys came directly at him.

William nodded, "Yeah." He paused for a moment watching the shadows creep further away from the main parts of campus but he then shook his head, "Come on let's go."

When they arrived at the club that night, Clark was once more standing before the four sixth graders at the start of the meeting. "Alright," she said sharply, "You have all proven yourselves capable of deflecting and blocking spells with the shield charm." The session previous Clark and two other students had spent twenty minutes flinging simple hexes at the sixth graders which they all had to stop or deflect without suffering from the spells. By the end of the night, all of the sixth graders had been hit at least once but were still considered passable by the older students who believed they'd get the hang of it through practice (which they were encouraged to do all the time). Her hard green eyes settled on her young charges, "Which is why over the next few weeks of the semester I will begin teaching you several jinxes and hexes that you may or may not be learning in other courses this year. These are the types of spells that you will be expected to know by the end of your first year, they will be your bread and butter when you spar for at least the next year if not longer. We will start with the Jelly Legs hex, and other jinxes that affect the legs, then move up to the arms and then the body as a whole." She then started off by demonstrating the Jelly Legs hex, by spinning at William and calling out the incantation. William snapped his wand while shouting out for his shield charm, the air before him shimmered and glowed when the spell hit it. Clark smiled at him, "Very good Fraser. Now I will do that slower so you may all watch and learn." And so the night passed with the sixth graders drilling the wand movements of the spell, learning its precise pronunciation and in the last few minutes testing it out on each other before they all were told to head back to their dorms.

As William collapsed into his bed that night, his legs barely function and his arms feeling like dead weights he couldn't help but smile. He wasn't exactly sure why but his time at the dueling club had been his greatest time at Salem so far. When he fell asleep that night his slumber was deep and restful.


	7. The Halloween Incident

October began to scream towards the Halloween celebrations quicker than William could have ever anticipated. The dueling club continued to build his knowledge of spells though the sixth graders were still unable to spar. By now William also found himself with several grades for the first semester, and continually found himself flustered by his low marks in History of Magic. He wasn't sure why but William just seemed unable to follow the lengthy amount of history the course had already covered, and the frosty persona of Ms. Codswell did nothing to alleviate his problems. Still, William was doing well in most of his classes, and positively excelling in Transfigurations and Potions and his grades in Defense were steadily climbing. He wasn't sure if his grades in Defense were because he joined the dueling club or if since joining it he began to take the subject more seriously and study for it diligently.

Still it was sometime towards the end of the month that William decided to sit down and draft another letter to Megan O'Rourke back home. William wrote his parents on a regular basis, informing them of his classes and that he had joined a club, they would write back to tell him about life at home and how they missed him. Still he had only wrote Megan once at the beginning of the year, it had been a rushed letter explaining how he was quickly adjusting to school away from home and how great it was. Now though he finally had stuff to say, and it was as he was about to start going on about how great the Dueling club was and how his grades were great when he suddenly realized that he couldn't tell her any of this.

He sighed, crumpling the letter after a few moments more of staring at it. He then stared at the blank sheet of paper, and began to write about more general things. William found himself asking more questions about things back home than actually saying anything about his time at Salem, but still he figured that was better than actually letting slip about the world of magic. William shook his head staring at the letter, still feeling strange about abandoning his childhood friend and not being able to tell her the truth. He fumbled with the letter in his hands for a few minutes before finally folding and tucking it into an envelope. As always he provided a fake muggle return address, something the school had posted in one of the lounge bulletin boards early on to be provided to muggle relatives. He then etched her address into the center of the envelope, and stood to make his way to the campus post office.

As William headed out he tugged on a scarf and his thick leather potion gloves. The cold New England weather had finally settled around the campus and while there was no snow yet, the weather was certainly hinting at snow in the next few weeks. Leaves were regularly falling off the trees, covering the once green fields with collections of reds, browns, and orange. They crunched beneath William's feet as he marched to the squat building attached to the owlery which served as the school's post office. William stepped into the dimly lit room, and found it surprisingly empty for the late afternoon.

Normally students were rushing to mail off their letters before the office closed, William shrugged and quickly proceeded to the counter. The school only had one person actually assigned to its post office, an old wizard who wore very official blue robes with an owl silhouette over the left breast. While some days he was assisted by students who were serving detention, today there didn't seem to be any. As he peered over his spectacles, his eyebrows jumped up and he asked, "May I help you young man?"

"I'd like to mail a letter," William said, setting the letter down on the counter.

The old man nodded, inspecting it for a moment, tapping the stamp in the top right and quietly chuckling to himself. He shuffled off into the back for a few moments, and William could hear an owl fly off as the old man returned. The post-wizard settled back onto his stool, checking something off in a book and then saying, "That will be five knuts."

William carefully counted out the coins and as he placed them onto the table he asked, "Sir, why isn't there anyone here today?"

The older wizard shrugged, looking about as if to confirm the boy's question before replying, "I'm as surprised as you are young man, normally the place is packed before a federal holiday."

"Federal holiday?" William asked again.

"Well, Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, but the government only operates during the week so the federal holiday is moved to tomorrow," He smiled a little, and added, "I'm quite looking forward to my three day weekend."

William stared at the old man and asked, "When did Halloween become a federal holiday?"

The old wizard guffawed for a few moments before explaining, "Well it has been since before I was born, boy." He scratched his chin a little and then snapped his fingers, "I don't think the muggles have it down as one though..."

"Right," William nodded slowly backing off as the old timer began to reminisce aloud about Halloween when he was young. William quickly ducked out of the post office and began to quicken his pace, wondering if the old wizard was still talking even though he was gone. He smiled though as he thought of Halloween being around the corner it would definitely be one of the nicer parts of the year.

The night of Halloween was a really big deal on campus, the one thing that William did notice though was that not many people were actually dressing up in costume, though many of the high-school age students were wearing dress robes for the dance that would be held later on that night. The school itself was decorated to the tee. Jack-o-lanterns floated by in the hallways, some of which seemed to actually belch candy, while others belched fire (though the fire was enchanted to tickle, it was still more than enough to make most people jump up in fright). Animated skeletons were also wandering about the campus, shaking their bones, singing haunting melodies, and generally scaring people. Finally bats had taken up residence in the tops of high ceilings and were now swooping about the school, screeching and flying by the students.

William was walking down the brick paths with Nick and Chris making their way towards the Halloween dinner. "Think Henry is going to do something tonight?" Nick asked looking about as he did.

William shook his head, "No, he already shot me with a jelly leg's curse after I blocked Theodore's in the hallway." He sighed, even with his practice in the Dueling club he wasn't able to stop the two bullies cold, and it didn't look like his ability to do so would slow them down anyway.

"Well at least that's good," Chris stated as they made their way into the entrance hall.

The dining hall itself wasn't large enough to fit all of the student body at one time, so extra tables had been set about the large entrance hall along with a bundle of different games. William noticed that there was everything from bobbing for apples to something that looked like the magical version of a shooting gallery. The hall was lit solely by the jack-o-lanterns which were moving in a mesmerizing dancing pattern. As the boys made their way through the hall Chris said hi to several other students, many of whom called back, and once or twice there were rapid introductions. This didn't surprise William, as he had begun to spend more time with the dueling club Chris had started meeting tons of people often introducing them to William at different times.

As they descended the small flight of steps into the dining hall they found the place packed. As they got into line, they were quickly approached by Sarah and her roommate. Alexandria gave Nick a strange look when the girls joined them in the line but she didn't say anything, she merely made a strange face. Sarah immediately confronted William though, "Why weren't you at the Quidditch game?"

"Erhm, what?" William asked. He hadn't even known there was a quidditch game let alone remember ever agreeing to go to one.

She sighed, "There was a quidditch game yesterday, I felt like I was the only one there!" Alexandria gave one of her soft laughs, and Sarah scowled at her.

"I'm sorry," William responded, "I was writing a letter back home...it must've slipped my mind." He shook his head, not wanting to admit that he wasn't even paying attention to the school sports.

Chris just clasped his shoulder and then said to Sarah, "Forget it, he like the rest of the country, is too enthralled by the glory that is quodpot to remember your crazy sport!"

Sarah's face burnt up in a rage, as she began shouting about the superiority of quidditch. Chris began to add fuel to the fire with several more comments, and they quickly descended into their usual sports bickering as the line continued to progress forward.

As Nick watched on with an amused look on his face, Alexandria sidled in next to William, "William," she asked, "Who is that friend of yours?"

"Oh, that's Nick," William answered. He then slowly hit his head, "Sorry I forgot to introduce you guys." After a few times around Alexandria he realized that old wizarding society seemed to follow a lot of rules he really couldn't understand. One of them seemed to do with introductions and remembering people, but he still wasn't sure of the ins and outs of it. As Chris and Sarah's argument began to gather a small crowd of both spectators and joiners in, he lead Alexandria over to Nick. "Oh hey Nick, this is Alexandria." He made a gesture to the girl.

Nick nodded, to her, and seemed about to extend his hand to shake when the girl made a curtsey motion and stated, "Alexandria Blair, of the New York City Blair's." She then extended her hand palm downward, and slightly limp.

Nick looked slightly confused and frightened and he shared a quick look with William who could only shrug, Alexandria normally mentioned her family but he had never seen her do something so formal. Nick took her hand and made an awkward shaking motion, "Uh, Nick Hawthorne from Falmouth, Massachusetts?"

Alexandria's face immediately flushed nearly scarlet and she quickly stood upright and slid her hand out expertly from his awkward and weak grasp. "I'm so sorry," she stated, "I, uh, thought you were someone else..." She seemed to shimmy away from him, her face turning redder by the moment.

By this point, Chris and Sarah had settled into a glaring silence, and as Alexandria shuffled away through the crowd, Nick asked, "What was all that about?" William merely shrugged, as mystified as the other boy.

Sarah looked over at them, and after her fleeing roommate, "From the looks of it, she just made some sort of old blood faux pas thing." She shrugged, "She cares way too much about that stuff."

"Faux pas?" Nick repeated after a moment.

"You know, like a mistake, but in high society," Sarah shook her head, "I saw her forget to do something really ridiculous a few weeks ago, she cried about it later on. I don't get it at all."

Nick nodded numbly, before adding in a mumble, "Wonder who she thought I was..."

"Who knows," William responded, turning back in the direction the girl had fled. It was a little strange, but as the group came to the tables laden with plates constantly refilling themselves with heaps of food, and more importantly desserts and candy it faded into some distant past. The fun of the evening only continued as they ate, and played games in the entrance hall.

The fun came to an abrupt halt when Nick started looking a little green, when he coughed and heaved a little William agreed to walk with him back to the dorms. They had made it halfway back to the dorm when Nick actually did retch onto the grass, and groaned a little. William helped him stand straight and half-carried half-walked Nick to his room, where he deposited the taller boy onto his bed and placed a bucket next to the bed. He patted Nick on the shoulder and said, "Feel better man," before heading back out.

All William was thinking was that he could make it back in time to still have some fun, when he rounded a bush to get onto the main path and a voice shouted "_Serpensortia!"_ A small horde of green snakes flew around him and William jumped in fright.

As he grasped his hand around his wand and began to yank it from his robes' pocket, he distinctly heard Henry's voice call out the body bind spell. William quickly found himself once more rigidly at attention, as Henry laughed coming up from behind him. Theodore popped out from the bush laughing as well. Both bullies quickly grabbed him and began dragging William off through campus. They dropped him on one of the seldom used paths, and that's when Henry pulled something out from underneath his robes.

It was a small box maybe a foot long, William attempted to figure out what it was, he was worried wondering what possible end Henry could have envisioned for this already ridiculous prank. This is why William was slightly surprised when it was merely a carton of eggs. They all sat there gleaming white in the moonlight, Henry casually levitated one with his wand and flung it at the small boy frozen on the ground. Theodore laughed and quickly joined in. The boys laughed and flung eggs for a few minutes, while William held his eyes shut, happy that neither of the other sixth graders hadn't realized he couldn't feel the eggs hitting him. After a while the egg throwing stopped and William watched as they wandered off.

The small boy had no idea how long he had been laying there frozen on the brick path before he heard a bubbly giggle coming down the path, followed by a deeper laugh. Rounding down the way William saw two older students decked out in their dress robes. It took him a few moments before he noticed that the girl of the pair, giggling and her hair all about her shining in the late moonlight was Clark the hard-nosed instructor from the dueling club. He spotted the older boy, with a thin goatee pulling out a flask when Clark let out a small shriek of surprise.

"Holy shit," murmured the older student as she knelt down to stare at him. She immediately had her wand in hand. She had already cleaned him off when she canceled the body bind.

Like always William was overcome with a feeling of pins and needles across his body. However this time there were the addition of several sore spots around his body where the eggs had hit him hardest. He winced as he began to sit up.

Clark held him still though and said, "Don't try to move yet."

The older boy had rushed over and was now kneeling over William, running his wand over him and murmuring several incantations, "He'll be alright...I think."

Clark nodded and then helped William into a sitting position. William could already feel his face flushing, as the normally cold girl looked at him with such profound concern. She rubbed his hair a little and then said, "Come on let's get you to the nurse."

"No," William answered sort of shrugging off the older girl.

Her eyes went wide, and William looked away blinking at the tears that were forming in his eyes for some reason. The older boy nodded and settled down next to William, "Here kid, drink some of this."

Clark then shook her head, grabbing the flask from the older student's hand, tucking it into her dress robes, and she reprimanded him in a whisper, "Brian!"

Brian seemed to hold his hands in a 'what?' expression, before turning back to William, "I get it kid, don't worry. I've been taking healing magic for the past year, and I think I can take care of this."

Clark glared at the older boy, as he began to gently press his wand across William's body, murmuring incantations the whole way. As he did so, a warm sensation spread over the boy, the soreness was replaced by a good relaxed feeling in his muscles. William felt his eyes drying up, he was still embarrassed but ultimately he felt pretty good. Clark helped him up and passed the small flask back to the older student, "Look, I should walk him back, it's past curfew and..." She shook her head at the younger duelist.

"Yeah, I understand," Brian responded. He gave her a quick hug and a peck on the cheek before saying, "We should do this again some time." He smiled at her as he walked off.

Clark nodded, and blushed slightly when she caught William staring up at her, "Come on squirt." She said and she gave him a gentle shove on the shoulder.

The air was tight with silence as they walked back to Corey Hall, neither of them asking the questions that were on each other's minds. William broke the silence though with a slow realization, "My sister calls me that."

"Huh?" Clark responded absently.

"My sister she calls me squirt sometimes," William explained, he hadn't thought of his sister much since he had come to school and he suddenly found that weird.

"Oh," Clark said, pausing a little before saying, "I didn't know you had a sister."

William nodded, realizing suddenly that for someone who he saw several times a week he didn't know much about Clark either, he paused trying to remember if he had ever heard someone call her by her first name. William turned to stare at the older girl, she looked so different than she did at the dueling club. Instead of her tight Salem duelist uniform she was wearing a deep green dress, it had a slight frill on the end of the sleeves that was mixed with gold and white and her bright red hair was spilling out behind her as opposed to bunched up. The final thing he noticed was the slight click as they walked, and he saw that she was wearing high heels, which explained why she was slightly taller than he remembered. It all seemed very unlike the Clark he knew, as he looked at her face he realized she was thinking the same thing about him. They both looked away from each other at that moment.

Finally she asked the question that was hanging over the whole interaction, "What happened Fraser?" Her voice was nowhere near as demanding as it was in club but it was definitely not the soft informal tones she had used earlier.

"Uh," He stumbled, unsure of what to say, he finally said, "Just some people playing a prank." It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't quite the truth.

She frowned but didn't contradict him or anything, she merely stated, "I know Tall Elk wouldn't approve, but I feel confident that you could deal with them Fraser."

William nodded, unsure of how to respond to that comment. They were now standing outside of his dorm hall and she smiled at him. "Now get to bed," She paused for a brief moment before adding, "squirt." Clark ruffled his hair on the last word and he quickly slipped into the dormitory. As the door closed with a thud, Clark frowned worried about the younger student and what had happened. Despite her gut feelings she decided against informing anyone as she turned on heel and made her own long walk back to her own dorm.


	8. The Woods

William had finally told Nick and Chris about what had happened on Halloween night a few days later. Ever since then Chris was slowly plotting their revenge plan, and while at first William had been against it, he was slowly becoming convinced it was a good idea. Nick was the one who had finally helped to push him over the edge though. The three of them were sitting in the dining hall, and Nick stated firmly, "William, you can't just let them keep doing this."

Chris nodded vigorously, "Yeah, this is starting to get ridiculous. I mean what they did..." He shook his head and looked away a little, "It's not something that can just be forgotten."

William shrugged, "I don't know guys, I've never really found provoking bullies to be worth it." William shook his head, only remembering all too well the few times he had stood up to Eric Grossman and the problems it had landed him with. "Plus," he added, "I've never been one to start a fight."

Nick laughed and asked sarcastically, "Is that why you're in the dueling society?"

William shrugged, avoiding the glances of his friends, "I don't know, I don't want to start fights just cause I'm in the dueling club."

Nick shook his head and laughed again, but Chris continued, "Come on William, I've got this all worked out, what's the worst that could happen?"

While William wanted to go on and list everything that could possibly go wrong, he sighed and then asked, "You're going to do this with or without me, aren't you?"

"Probably!" Chris said with a thump on the table, "C'mon, it'll be great!"

"Alright, fine," William relinquished.

Chris' plan took a few days of preparation. It started with Nick and William creeping into the kitchen area of the basement. William had never been down here, but apparently Nick had come by at several points during the school year already. They passed through a nondescript door in the basement and down a flight of stone steps. While William had proceeded with an air of secrecy, Nick tromped down like there was nothing wrong about creeping into the kitchens shortly before curfew. It was as they came off the dark stairs and into the kitchen that William realized why.

The space itself was large, it seemed to look almost like a natural cavern, and despite the late hour several fires were roaring. House elves were bustling about the area, several wearing either genuine chef's hats or ones constructed of pillow cases and scraps of towels. The little elves were snapping their fingers, sending all manner of foodstuffs about the room. A small knot of older students were standing about a wooden table where plates and bags were quickly landing themselves from somewhere else in the kitchens and the students bustled off carrying small containers of soup, a plate of pancakes, sandwiches, and at least one student with a whole pie. William sort of stood there stunned until Nick merely explained, "They do late night snacks, I heard some seniors talking about it in the first week and I checked it out. They don't care what you ask for either." Nick stood calmly behind the older students, with William trying to look clam and composed next to him.

William took a deep breath, no one knew they were getting stuff to play a prank. He shook his head, no one knew, and no one would know as long as they kept it simple. When they stepped up to the wooden table, a tiny elf stared across at them, its large eyes resting on them warily.

Nick's voice seemed to catch in his throat, and he ended up coughing a little. William gulped, and then said shakily, "T-t-t-t-two pump...pump...pumpkins, and two...uh, two dozen eggs."

The house elf nodded, staring at the two boys, it then asked, "What kind of eggs?"

"R-raw," Nick said finally finding his voice.

The house elf looked at them strangely but snapped its fingers. After a few moments a brown bag and two large pumpkins zoomed over and settled down on the counter top. William grabbed the bag and Nick gripped the pumpkins as they slowly backed away and then stumbled up the stairs. The house elf watched them carefully as they left, and William could feel himself shaking as they prowled back through the dimly lit school and back to the dorm.

The next day, the three boys were carefully laying down their trap. They were on one of the seldom used paths leading to the edge of campus, through some of the nice old stands of trees that dotted the area. Chris smiled as he levitated the pumpkin upwards into the tree, "I'm telling you this is going to be great."

"Are you sure they come through here?" Nick asked as he set a carton of eggs behind the bush he was going to hide behind.

"I saw them pass by a few days ago, and a couple of days before that. They're always coming back here for something," He shrugged, beginning to levitate the other pumpkin.

"What do you think they're doing out here?" William asked as he buried his carton of eggs in the snow a little and made sure that the pine tree would offer him enough cover.

"Probably plot out stupid pranks," Chris suggested as he smiled at the neatly settled pumpkins.

"You mean like this one?" William asked.

"This, is no stupid prank!" Chris defended, "The elegance of dropping pumpkins on them and then hitting them with Jelly Legs curses, followed by a round of eggs that have been turned a bunch of different colors is priceless!"

Nick laughed as he came out from around the bush and shook his head, "I don't know, but I think it might work."

William shrugged, "I hope so, otherwise I really don't want to know what they're going to do to me next." Everyone laughed a little uneasily at this but they nodded and then tramped off down the overgrown path preparing to return after darkness had fallen.

William gulped, he tried to ignore the cramps in his legs as he crouched silently in the snow. It had been at least an hour and still nothing, he knew Nick was on the other side in an equally awkward position, and every so often he could hear the rustling in the treetops that indicated Chris was still there on his broom. The plan was set, all Chris had to do was fling off the pumpkin's bottoms and then drop the pumpkins on the bullies covering their faces with pumpkin guts, which is when Nick and William would hit them with some curses and the eggs before running off before the pair of bullies could react. It would go off without a hitch as long as the two boys came down the path. William took a deep breath as he lay there trying to think warm thoughts wishing that he could produce some flames but knew they'd tip off the other boys to their presence.

It was as he did this that he heard a rustling from down the path and rose up a little to peak around the pine tree he was hiding behind. It was when he did this that he suddenly saw a huge hitch in their plan. There was definitely Henry Blackstock and Theodore Stinson, calmly walking down the path, wands raised producing a dim red light but with them, was a small contingent none of them had been expecting. There were several older students walking along, all of them were wearing black robes that seemed to shift and blend with the shadows cast by the dark colors flowing out from their wands. William went painfully still as the students passed by, Chris didn't drop the pumpkins in fact William couldn't even hear him rustling through the upper branches of the trees, across William spotted not even a small cloud of frosted breath from Nick's side of the path. After the group passed, William slowly crept out onto the path, Nick joining him in a slower more deliberate motion. As they stood staring after them, Chris finally descended on his broom not quite landing besides the other two sixth graders.

"What do you think they're all doing out here?" William asked after a very long heart beat had passed.

"I don't know, but I wonder why Henry and Theodore are with them," Nick supplied.

"We should follow them," Chris stated calmly and clearly after another painstakingly long heart beat. The other two boys looked at him like he was crazy but he continued, "Come on, we've come all the way out here. I mean, what's the worst that could happen?"

William surprisingly found himself nodding, "Alright, but we should like cut around the path or something."

"Right," Nick answered, casually slipping past William to slide between the leafless trees, his feet barely crunching the snow. William attempted to follow in his friend's footsteps as Chris glided slowly behind and above them on his broomstick. The trio very slowly and very carefully traced the path by following the woods until they came to the edges of the light cast by the older student's wands.

Within the dark panorama of colors they could make out shapes moving, and a crisp voice calling out, "We gather here to welcome our young friends into our fine circle." There was a small chorus of murmurs from among the gathered, though no one seemed to openly cheer. The voice continued, "While they are young they have proved themselves quick studies over these past few months, and have shown that they have no problems about stirring up trouble." There was a wave of chuckles from this. "We all know that the coming months will be long and arduous but ultimately important."

Several of the eldest members nodded vigorously at this. The voice continued, "Several of us will be graduating this year as well, which is why it is all the more important that we have taken these young boys under our wing." At this there were finally a few calls of 'hear, hear!' from the crowd.

"Now," the voice said, seeming to move slightly, "Their entrance into our circle is not the only reason we are here tonight." William still couldn't see the speaker clearly as they moved about the cluster of dark robes within the clearing, "Tonight we receive another missive from our leader, and if I am not mistaken here it is now." As he finished that sentence William spotted a large black owl come swooping into the clearing from across it, it landed somewhere in the center of the robed figures before flapping up and away, going back the way it had came. "Our leader sends kind words," The voice read aloud, "And offers us several suggestions on how to further the cause here at the school. I believe that several of you will surely be happy the know what shall happen but that is all for now." The voice then called out something in a language that William didn't understand, and the crowd offered a responding call. Very quickly the group dispersed in pairs and trios. Chris tugged on William's robes as he turned and began floating back along the direction they came.

By the time the group had arrived back at the spot of their intended prank the majority of 'the circle' had already passed by, though the boys waited a few more minutes to be sure before stepping out onto the path and heading back to their dorms themselves.

It wasn't until they had slipped into the side door they had propped open that Chris finally broke the silence that had been over them since agreeing to follow the group, "That was insane."

"What do you think they're doing?" William asked looking between his two friends.

"I don't know," Nick answered, shaking his head, "It looked dangerous though."

"Do you really think that they'd be involved in something dangerous?" William asked in disbelief.

"Who knows," Chris replied, "I just think we should forget about it for a little while."

"Right," William and Nick said in unison. William paused and then added, "I think we might want to keep an eye on them though, I mean, they're the ones who're teaching Henry and Theodore."

Chris and Nick both nodded, and with that the boys slowly made their way back to their dorm rooms, being sure to creep stealthily through Corey Hall just in case a teacher or house elf were prowling the corridors for unruly students.


	9. The Big Duel

A few days later and the events of the night along the path had quickly fallen from William's mind. He awoke one morning to find an envelope on his desk that was not from his family, but Megan. With the few weeks since he had sent the letter he was beginning to wonder if she would ever reply to it. Slowly William broke the seal of the envelope and took out the sheets of paper from within and began to read quickly. He immediately felt a little bad for his old friend, whereas his time at Salem was one of fun and success, Megan was not having the time she imagined she would at middle school. Apparently while the first few weeks had been good, it had only been a matter of time before Eric Grossman had reared his ugly head in the cafeteria as well as on the bus again. She went on about how he taunted her for "her boyfriend" leaving her to go to some fancy private school. The only solace she had found within the walls of the middle school was apparently with the mathletes, which were apparently a bunch of other smart kids from around the school district who were really good at math and liked to do other really cool stuff. William shook his head, wondering if that was what he would be doing if he hadn't been a wizard. He read on, as with the mention of the mathletes the letter became a little bit brighter, mentioning the few friends she had made thanks to them though they didn't seem to be able to offer her much protection from Eric or other people like him. Finally, she asked if he would be coming back home for Thanksgiving and his heart sank a little. For some reason the school didn't let the students go home for the Thanksgiving weekend, since it so often fell too close to midterms and the end of the fall semester. William sighed setting the letter back on his desk so he would be sure to write a response when he returned from class later that day.

The last few weeks of the semester quickly drew to a close after William had responded to Megan's letter happily informing her that he would be home for a good while in the winter even though he wouldn't be home for Thanksgiving. The Thanksgiving feast itself was a big occasion, similar to Halloween, with the dining hall as well as the entrance hall being filled with tables and this time many wizard wireless sets tuned into the several traditional games of quodpot that were played on Thanksgiving day. There was once again a dance for the older students at some point when most of the younger students had eaten their fill and the quodpot games were over.

William had sat up in the lounge that night with Chris, Nick, and Sarah, they all were mainly talking about their approaching midterms. There was a brief moment when Nick and William began to ponder the surprise that Clark had promised the sixth graders for the last Dueling Club meeting of the semester, but ultimately they decided to leave the mystery be figuring it'd be better to actually be surprised than anything else. As the turkey weighed them down and their eyes started to droop the sixth graders said their good nights and turned in.

The last meeting of the dueling club was wedged in the middle of the days of midterms which comprised the last week and a half of the semester. William was just about halfway done with his midterms. The first day had been Charms, a rigorous theoretical portion followed by a very brief practical in front of Mr. McAllister. His continual glaring had made William slightly flustered when he tried to perform his charms but he had managed to actually perform them, and when he finally did get them going he had gained in confidence. Still, he was well aware that the early stumbling in his practical was going to be reflected in his grade. After that had been Potions which had been a long exam, filled with several theoretical portions broken up by the mixing of two potions. William knew he had aced it though, he had begun his actual practical work long before most of the other students, and the practical work had been solid with each potion achieving its proper color and thickness, he had poured and stoppered them without missing a drop. Finally, earlier today had been History of Magic, William was fairly sure that they had not even covered that much information in the first semester but somehow it had all been crammed onto the pages of their midterm. William was still reeling from the examination as he descended into the basement of the stadium for the dueling club.

When he entered the usual room he found it strangely arranged. Most of the students were arranged around in a large circle that had been drawn into the middle of the room. Dean Tall Elk smiled as he stepped into the room and gestured to the right. William walked over to stand next to Nick at one edge of the circle. Across from them stood Hobbes and Rosenberger both looking more than a little nervous. Nick was visibly sweating, and gulped loudly before taking a deep breath and steadying himself. Tall Elk was walking towards the edge of the circle opposite the door. He then said loudly, "Welcome students to our normal end of the semester celebrations. As always it will be a night of fine dueling and good food." He smiled broadly at the sixth graders standing amidst the circle, "Tonight we will start off by having the sixth graders participate in a team duel with Hawthorne and Fraser on one side against Hobbes and Rosenberger on the other. Duelists please move towards the center."

William gulped and gripped his wand as he and Nick strode forward. They paused a few paces from their opponents both of whom were clamping down on their nerves. It was as Dean Tall Elk raised his wand and began the countdown to the start of the duel that both William and Nick shared a sidelong glance and then nodded, their grips becoming tight and assured. As sparks shot up from Dean Tall Elk's wand, their opponents immediately leaped to the offensive while the friends both raised shield charms in a beautiful shimmering silver.

Hobbes ducked off to William's side while Rosenberger moved opposite toward Nick. The partners quickly found themselves moving, carefully erecting shields as they pressed their backs against each other's. As they stood there back-to-back they began to juke and jive apart at precise moments, hexes and jinxes leaping over their shoulders. Sometimes they would spin around and protect the other, and at a rare opportunity send out a countering spell against their opponents. William wasn't quite sure how long the duel was lasting but he noticed that while he and Nick were holding their own in a tightly knit circle at the center their opponents were quickly dragging their feet. As Hobbes last hex barely grazed his shield he turned his head slightly to catch Nick's eye. Nick nodded and was already in the middle of raising his wand when William turned about and called out a Jelly Legs curse which immediately forced Hobbes to slump over in defeat. As he turned to look at Rosenberger, William couldn't tell if Nick had hit her with a simple jinx or put her in a body bind as she lay seemingly motionless on the floor.

The room burst into applause as the two duelists wiped sweat from their brows. William suddenly found himself feeling very tired, as he was pressed out of the circle, Tall Elk and older students tending to his opponents. He quickly found himself sitting down at a bench that was erected on the side of the room, and being handed a plate with a sandwich and a smooth brown bottle being pressed into his hand. William took a sip and found that it was some sort of soda; it tasted creamy, warm, and sweet all at once as it glided down his surprisingly dry throat. William also began attacking his sandwich as the duels progressed through the seventh and eighth graders.

As he continued to sip on what someone informed him was butter beer he noticed that the seventh and eighth graders seemed to have much more formal duels. Whereas the sixth graders had been slinging spells about quickly and heatedly, the older students seemed to start off from a more structured beginning and seemed to almost entertain a series of spells with each other. Eventually it would devolve with some random spell cutting one opponent down but it was quite impressive. As the participants continued to grow older it became much more nuanced, with more of an exchange occurring, and a little bit more flair being added to the bouts. Of course, William knew that he would never forget what he saw last.

Clark had been called into a bout against another older student, they both took to the center and raised their wands in the classic salute that William had seen at the start of every duel but his own. They both then stepped back a little. While the man seemed to fall into the traditional ready stance, Clark had merely bent her knees and relaxed her shoulders letting her wand casually rest by her side. Slowly they both began to pace along the edges of the circle, continuing to spiral out from the center. At some point though they both launched into a flurry of action. Jets of light, bursts of sound, and all manner of sparks were colliding about the small arena. The air around the circle was shimmering from the intensity of the duel within.

William immediately noticed that Clark was rolling about and on several occasions had actually leaped up and spun in the air. The guy she was dueling was no slouch either, he was moving almost too fast for William to keep up; juking, diving, rolling, and jumping in what seemed to be a fluid series of maneuvers. Clark seemed to pick up on his rhythm and began to follow it, slowly moving ahead of him until she somehow had come perpendicular to him as he made for a dive. In mid-dive she hit him with a jet of red light followed by a quick snap of several other colors, each matched with a deafening sound like a gunshot. The older student lay in a heap on the far side of the dueling ring. His body seemed to be covered in a series of boils, hives, and rashes, possibly even a few burns as he lay there out cold on the stone floor of the basement. Clark had merely collapsed to one knee, her hair plastered to her head, sweat pouring off in rivulets, and her breathing very heavy.

As her opponent was dragged off by two other older students, their wands already waving over him, Clark slowly staggered to her feet. She wobbled for a brief moment, and a student stepped forward but she quickly shrugged him off. The older girl stumbled out of the ring and collapsed onto the bench not far down from William. He could merely stare as her chest rose and fell rapidly, only now that she was so close could he tell that the color of her jacket had begun to shift from the amount of sweat that had poured off of her. As she sat there she slowly began to unlatch and shift out of the thick dueling jacket, and one of her fellows brought her a big mug and a plate piled high with three or four sandwiches. The older girl just smiled and slowly began to dig in.

Tall Elk strode to the center, waving his long white wand around the shields which had been erected around the dueling circle fading away with a glow of muted colors. He smiled at all of his students, a strange expression on his normally very serious face. "You have all impressed me greatly this evening, and I am quite proud to call you all my students," His eyes seemed to rest on each student in turn, as he continued speaking, "The fall semester is finally over and I know all of you will do well on your examinations. I hope to see you all in the spring, and I hope that you are all ready to continue training." He gave a warm smile, "I am off to bed, and I hope you all shall soon follow, but I do understand the need for revelry." He chuckled to himself as he walked off, his footfalls barely audible on the stone of the basement floor. The party continued for a while longer, mostly students eating up the last bits of food, or sneaking off bottles of butter beer and sandwiches back to their room. Slowly William rose from his seat and left, with Nick casually following in step next to him as they came out of the room.

Nick handed him a bottle of butter beer as they came out into the cold winter's night. "That was awesome," He said after cracking open the bottle and taking a long sip.

William followed in kind, "Yeah, it was like," He shook his head, "You knew what I was going to do."

"Exactly!" Nick nearly shouted, "Oh man, it was so crazy, and then at the end when we just sort of pushed them over." He laughed, and William found himself joining in as they came closer to Corey Hall.

As they stood in the sixth grader corridor about to part towards their separate rooms, Nick raised his bottle and said, "To us, the coolest sixth grade duelists at Salem."

William laughed a little bit and clinked his bottle with Nick's, before joining in, "To us!" They both downed the remaining contents of their bottles and moved off towards their rooms, both collapsing in the bed; bodies tired, bellies full of butter beer.


	10. The Semester Break

William clambered up the long steps into the New York City station. Returning students had been broken up into intervals so that muggles wouldn't see a horde of people seeming to pop out of nowhere. The train ride back had been quiet, everyone was still tired from the end of midterm examinations and the end of semester revelry that had joined it. William knew that his last few midterms had been very mixed.

The morning after the dueling club he had taken his herbology exam. It had been a dry run of multiple choice, and essays, with no practical. William hadn't been very surprised by this, but he knew that he could do more with the plants he had learned about this semester than he could write about them not that Mr. Thornten seemed to care though. Astronomy had been that night, and William hadn't realized till later that the star chart section of his exam had been slightly off, just enough to be noticeable which meant just enough to hurt his grade. On Friday he had his transfiguration midterm which he knew that he had passed through with ease; William knew every equation, every incantation, and his practical had been astounding according to Mr. C. After the weekend, William had to sit through the DADA midterm, where he found himself surprisingly capable. His responses had been straightforward and direct but definitely correct, and he knew his practical had been a strong showing of his skill with defensive magic which Tall Elk had not seemed very surprised by at all. William had been going over these thoughts as he mounted the steps and came out into cold train station.

William had switched into muggle clothing on his way back. It felt strange to be wearing jeans and a sweater again after months of thick robes, around his neck he wore his school scarf, and he was wearing his thick dragonhide gloves from potions for their warmth. William already knew that his parents wouldn't be hovering by the platform entrance, it was another precaution to prevent muggles from noticing the arrival of students. All family reunions happened closer to other platforms. He smiled broadly when he caught sight of his mother, William had already known his father had been unable to come down and his sister still had school for another week or so. As he approached, he resisted the urge to rush forward and give her a hug just in case any other students were watching him. However his mother had very different plans as she rushed forward and closed the gap in a few strides. She wrapped him up in a big, chest crushing hug, and murmuring how much she had missed him, she kissed his forehead and somehow though William knew he should feel embarrassed, but he didn't blush or pull away. It was good to see his mother again.

The ride out of the city and into Connecticut was peaceful, his mother asking him about his classes, and all the things he had wrote about in his letter. William noticed how nervous she was when he brought up the Dueling Club and the fact that he and Nick had dueled two other sixth graders a few days before he had come home. Still though his mother didn't seem to say anything about it, good or bad, she had just given a nervous smile and had said, "That's great, dear."

When he had gotten home, William carried his trunk right up stairs to his room and looked around. It was strange now to look around it. His computer still sat on his desk, and he just stared back at it, it had a small layer of dust around it and William was debating whether or not to clean it as he turned to look at other things. There were still a lot of his old muggle toys laying about on shelves with some of his favorite books, which seemed more clean than his computer. Finally his eyes settled on his bed, untouched since the day he had left for school, neatly made like he had done before he had left that morning.

Slowly he opened his trunk and pulled out his robes, setting them in an empty drawer of his dresser amazed that he wouldn't need them for several weeks. Next came his books that he began to tuck away on a shelf that he had cleared away during the summer, happy now that none of them had the titles on the spine, he had quickly learned to differentiate them by differences in the binding. Finally he began to pull out other things from his first semester, his quodpot horn, a quidditch pin that Sarah had given to him when she dragged him to another match that semester, a few of the chocolate frog cards he had manged to collect, and finally a few pictures. A few days after the duel, he had learned that one of the older students had been taking pictures that night, and had given him a few that he had been in. Plus, several students had offered to take pictures of other people in the last few days of the semester sometimes for free, and William and his friends had jumped at the chance. William set them down on his desk, smiling at the group picture with Nick, Chris, Sarah, and finally Alex who hung off a little from the group. Finally, he sat down at the edge of his bed, having unpacked William was starting to feel a little more at home, still even now things were strange like something he couldn't put his finger on.

The days passed slowly, the semester at the college was still finishing up and finals were looming on the muggle students. His parents were kept busy answering students' questions, and reading through papers. Once or twice there were actually teaching assistants or students in the house pouring through papers and examinations in the kitchen or living room with his mom or dad. They knew that he went to some private middle school somewhere but ultimately they seemed to ignore him for some reason or another. Meanwhile his sister was going through her first midterms in high school and was more on edge than she had ever been, often seeming to ignore him or become very annoyed with him very quickly. William found himself trying to reintegrate with the muggle world with his computer but in the end, it didn't seem to interest him, he began to wonder what was going on in the wizarding world with each long day that passed.

The only thing that he had to look forward to at the end of the week was seeing Megan again. She had been very excited that he had returned, and had dropped by his house the day after he got back to say hi but she had had to go quickly to do her homework and finish up several end of the semester projects. Several days later though they had agreed to meet up again, and William was looking for to the break in his seemingly endless time at home. As it seemed common these days his parents were out, and his sister was at her school library studying with friends, when Megan arrived and rang the doorbell.

He opened it and was immediately greeted by a strong hug. Megan immediately said, "William, I'm so happy your back!"

He laughed and said, "I'm happy to see you again too!"

They went inside and sat down, starting to talk about the past few months without the other. William once again tried to relate things in the vaguest details possible mentioning that his classes were different and harder than he had expected but he still doing well. He used the excuse that his school was strict about outside contact through the internet as to why he hadn't heard about a lot of the things that had happened in the past few months beginning to wonder how long that excuse would hold. William glossed over the dueling society unsure if there was any type of muggle equivalent, and merely explained that he had started meeting people and that he met some of them through a club at the school. Megan didn't seem to mind how vague he was, making William wonder if she had noticed how general he was being. She had gone on to further explain the injustices of middle school, "So Eric Grossman has suddenly started to become like, popular!"

"Really?" William said, slightly surprised. No one had ever stood up to Eric, but they had never truly liked him either.

"Well, he joined the football team, I don't think they let him play yet but he's there and people like him now," She sighed, "It sucks."

William nodded, "Yeah, there's a bully at school but no one...likes him."

Megan looked surprised, "You never mentioned a bully."

William shrugged, "I don't know, I don't like thinking about it."

"Oh," Megan said, her tone low and still surprised. There was an awkward pause, and she suddenly jumped up when she saw the clock, "Uh, I got to go meet up with some of the other mathletes." She paused and then asked, "Do you, uh, want to come?"

William shook his head, "No, thanks though. I think I'm supposed to stay at home," He lied. William wasn't sure why but the concept of hanging out with the mathletes didn't intrigue him the way it might have a few months ago. She smiled and he walked her to the door. Megan promised they would hang out again soon but they didn't see each other for several weeks.

Christmas snuck up on the Fraser clan rather quickly that year. It seemed that there was only a few days of breathing room between the end of everyone's semester and the day when relatives would begin arriving for the Christmas celebration. The house was especially hectic as this year both sides of the family would be here in full, and it was quickly becoming a pressing matter to find space for eight extra people within the house.

This put a lot of pressure on William as he would be sharing his room with his two cousins for several days which meant the pushing of everything magical into the depths of his closet. He sighed even having to put away his magical photographs which though they normally stayed still around muggles (or the muggles didn't notice) he couldn't risk the possibility of movement over the holidays. The few magical trinkets he did have were hidden carefully behind boxes of old clothes and books in his closet, neatly tucked away where someone would only go if they were digging around.

Meanwhile outside of his room the house was becoming even crazier, as futons were unfurled, extra bedding was found, and his mother slowly seemed to be losing her mind. His father was attempting to enter into the Christmas spirit despite the stress of the holiday. Procuring and securing the tree in the family living room had been a major event involving a lot of grunting and cursing from William's father as he had dragged it in and gone through the process of steadying it in its stand. William's mother was slowly cleaning every inch of the house to an extent it hadn't been in years, always seeming to mutter under her breath about someone or something that William never quite caught. As the arrival date of their various relatives loomed over them, the flurry of activity reached a fever pitch before grinding to a swift halt.

The first to arrive had been Uncle George, the younger brother of William's father. William liked his Uncle George, he was younger than his dad by more than a couple of years and he was fond of pranks and practical jokes. He had roared in from New York City in a sports car, wearing one of his many suits. George looked like his older brother but his hair was still a solid dark color, and he seemed to carry more vitality with him in every step. His arrival resulted in a tour of tight hugs and hair ruffling, several quick jokes and a round of laughs before the Brothers Fraser stepped into the backyard to discuss the upcoming holiday.

After that, William and his mother had gone to the airport to pick up Grandma Corcoran (his mother's mother). They had waited like they always did by the baggage claim as his Grandmother came out from the gate. She was an older woman, shorter than William's mother but of similar build, with long wavy gray hair pulled into a tight bun. She immediately pulled William into a tight hug saying how much he had grown, and how he looked so much like his grandfather. Grandma Corcoran then embraced her daughter, and as they waited for her bags the pair began to talk about adult things so William slowly zoned out, only coming back to help his grandmother with her bags. The drive back home was quiet with his grandmother tired from the flight in.

When they arrived back at the Fraser house, William immediately noticed the old station wagon that signaled the arrival of his other grandparents, Grandpa and Grandma Fraser. In fact as they pulled up he immediately saw the wispy blue haze of his Grandpa's pipe coming up from the porch, and it was as they came out he waved and shouted, "Hello there!"

Pleasantries were exchanged, and he tromped out across the lawn, hugging Mrs. Corcoran first and then his daughter-in-law. Finally he held his big weathered palm to William, and he took it with pride as his grandfather proceeded to give a big manly hand shake, "How ya doin' m'boy?"

"I'm great Grandpa!" William said enthusiastically as his grandfather mussed his hair Then both William and his grandfather helped Grandma Corcoran with her bags as they all made their way in, his pipe now out and forgotten.

The night passed quickly into a large family dinner with his grandfather going on about the grand Fraser fighting spirit, and telling one of his famous war stories over dessert. Outside of this were the standard catch-up conversations. Uncle George had seemed to mention that something important was brewing at the large corporation he worked at but as always when he discussed his job everything was in very vague terms. His sister and Grandma Fraser were discussing things that William couldn't follow, but they seemed to be laughing about something that William definitely didn't understand.

After dinner, William had gone up to his room to look at his photos from school. He knew that it was the last time he'd be able to look at them as his cousins would be coming in the next few days. There was a knock at his somewhat ajar door, and he looked up and saw his grandfather smiling at him. The old man was tall like William's father and uncle, his hair had faded to a silvery gray in his old age and he still kept a fine goatee in his advanced age. As usual he was wearing a simple pair of slacks and a flannel shirt in the clan print. "You were quiet tonight William," He said as he sat down next to his grandson.

William nodded, "Sorry," He said quietly.

His grandfather laughed and shook his head, "Nothing to be sorry about m'boy. I was just wondering if everything was alright."

William shrugged, and then explained, "I guess I'm just missing my friends from school."

The older man nodded with a small expression of, "Ah," he then patted the boy on the shoulder, "I understand ye." He then peered over his grandson's shoulder and asked, "Oh is that some of 'em?"

William gulped, he had just been staring at one of the photos from the night of the duel. In it he and Nick were standing, looking ragged but pleased, he hadn't noticed before now but Clark stood in the background with a look of approval on her face. He then nodded, "Yeah, that's my friend Nick."

His grandfather smiled looking at the picture, "You boys look like you had just been in a fight."

William blushed slightly, unsure of how to explain, "Well we kind of were but it was in this uh, after school club."

Grandpa Fraser's face lit up and his smile grew wide, "Your father hadn't told me that you had joined any sort of boxing club."

William shrugged and tried to keep his face from becoming too flushed. He wasn't sure what to say, he squirmed a little and said, "Well...I guess..." He then shrugged.

"Well yes, your father was never been fond of fighting," His grandfather smiled as he seemed to look off somewhere in the distance, "I should show you some pointers sometime, I had quite the right hook when I was a young man." He laughed holding up his old weathered fists for a second before setting them down and saying, "We Frasers have a long history of fighting, it's in our blood." He patted his grandson on the shoulder, "You should be proud of your heritage William."

William nodded, "I am Grandpa."

"Good," He smiled at his grandson and said, "Well I'll leave you to it, William. Good night."

William nodded, "Good night, Grandpa." He wasn't sure why but he felt better as his grandfather left his room and closed the door. That night he fell asleep to dreams of men in tartans marching through wide verdant fields.

The next day had been fairly relaxed, everyone sleeping in, and breakfast being a long affair with Grandma Corcoran cooking a large meal for everyone. Conversations were up and down between people eating, reading newspapers or stepping out to answer phone calls. William found the relaxed pace of the day to be perfect until the tense run up to his cousins and uncle's arrival.

William's parents had never gotten along with his uncle and aunt. He was his mother's older brother, and he had never approved of her marriage to William's dad, nor did he seem to care for her position as a professor either. Brian Corcoran was a big man, tall and thick with wiry muscle, he had been bald for as long as William could remember, and he always wore impeccable suits or business clothing. William knew he was some kind of accountant for big corporations, and his Aunt Jennifer was some sort of corporate lawyer who was also tall and sharp like her husband. Finally there were William's cousins both older than him, one his sister's age and the other only a year older. They were miniature versions of their father, big, gaining in muscle, and very business-oriented. William had never gotten along well nor necessarily poorly with them but he hadn't seen them in a year or two so he was beginning to wonder what they were like now.

They arrived shortly before dinner, his uncle blasted his horn as his giant SUV crunched up in the light snow that had been falling throughout the day. William came out to stand on the porch along with his father, looking out in the quickly fading light as their relatives stormed out of their vehicle. His uncle came huffing around the side dressed in a thick and smart looking overcoat, bald head shining in the light of the street lamp, while William's aunt slid out gracefully from the passenger side and began to casually walk up the driveway towards the door a smile lighting her face. From either side poured a set of whoops that were William's cousins, both of whom were big, though the larger of the two (his cousin Brian he believed) had made a mad dash for the back of the SUV and was already heaving what seemed to be as many bags as possible onto his shoulders. When it seemed like he had the whole load Uncle Brian shouted, "Go!" The older boy rushed forward across the snow covered lawn in a pulverizing step with over exaggerated breathing coming to a swift halt before the porch where he stood stepping in place. "Good job boy, relax!" The older boy immediately stopped moving in place but continued to hold the massive amount of bags.

Aunt Jennifer had stopped short of coming onto the porch to marvel at her son. After only a few brief moments Uncle Brian and William's other cousin Stephen finally came up to the house. Uncle Brian offered as way of explanation, "Junior made the football team this year, quite impressive for a freshman!" He thumped the boy proudly on the back and Brian seemed to barely move under the pressure of his father's backslap and the many bags.

"Very good," Mr. Fraser said with a hint of amusement, "Well the boys are staying up with William in his room, and you and Jennifer have our guest bedroom at the top of the stairs."

"You heard him boy!" Uncle Brian called out, and without a moment's notice Junior slipped past William and his father and clambered up the stairs in a rush. After this display of athleticism the true round of pleasantries began as everyone moved into the house, and everyone came out from the other rooms to greet each other.

Before William had realized it the family was already sitting down to dinner. They had dragged in an extra table creating a very cramped space within the kitchen as the whole family crammed in to eat. William was sitting between his sister and cousin Stephen and across from Brian Junior. Conversation was constant amongst the relatives but he only could catch snippits of it;

"Well I was just wondering..." Grandma Fraser stated.

"...I've said before, haven't met the right girl Ma..." Uncle George said.

"Lay off the boy." Grandpa Fraser butted in.

"Hardly a boy," William's father mumbled half-heartedly.

"Well you know the hectic speed of office life," his Aunt Jennifer was saying.

Both Grandma Corcoran and William's mother nodded slightly as his Aunt continued.

It was as he was trying to pay attention to what his Aunt was saying that he felt a rough kick from his sister, and heard Brian ask him again, "So you going out for any sports at that private school of yours?"

"Ehrm," William stated stalling for time, "Uh, not really."

His cousins both seemed to groan, and Stephen said, "Not even baseball or something?"

William shook his head, "Nope."

Brian scoffed, and muttered something under his breath that William couldn't catch. Stephen continued, "Don't you do anything there?"

William gulped trying to think of something. That's when the conclusion his grandfather had jumped to last evening came back to him, "Well, I joined the uh, Boxing club. But we don't really do much yet."

"Boxing?!" Brian half-shouted. Stephen looked at his small frame with a hint of awe and respect.

Despite the near shout of his cousin, conversation at the table continued on in its usual fashion. His sister's eyebrow was cocked in surprise, and she bit her lip to prevent from laughing.

"Y-yeah," William said trying to inject confidence to his voice, "They don't let us younger kids like spar or anything but we learn the technique and stuff."

"Awesome," Stephen said, giving him a manly thump on the back.

Luckily the realization that their cousin wasn't a total nerd made them gloss over any continual talk of sports and lead into more general conversation that William was able to ignore for a time adding in when his limited knowledge of the muggle world would let him. While dinner on the younger side of the table passed with relative ease, the adults seemed to be getting very tense by the time Grandma Corcoran asked rather loudly, "Why don't we all have some pie now? Hmm?" She stood and said, "No reason to eat it in here either, the night's not too bad and there's plenty of space in the living room." All of the adults tersely nodded, with Uncle George and Grandpa Fraser both heading outside with a cigar and pipe respectively.

William helped his grandmothers clear the plates away largely so he could avoid any probing questions by his cousins about his boxing experiences. He ate his pie quickly before heading up to his room and hoping that the next few days would pass quickly and painlessly.

The day of Christmas Eve had been full of mounting tension amongst the adults that William didn't quite grasp. He had tried to ask his Uncle George about it, but he had just ruffled William's hair and told him not to worry about it. Grandpa Fraser was equally tight lipped, instead giving him a quick lesson on his "patented" right hook. Everyone went to sleep uneasily that night, when Grandmother Corcoran had encouraged everyone to get to bed early or "Santa would pass them over". Not that anyone in the house truly believed in Santa Claus anymore but it was something that she said every year and William doubted she was going to stop soon.

Christmas morning was the traditional round of gift giving. With the excitement of the morning the tensions of the previous day had seemed to dissipate. William was surprised by several of his gifts. Uncle George had insisted he open his gift first, and it was revealed to be a kit for pulling pranks filled with a variety of things like itching powder and stink bombs while most of the adults chided this gift William couldn't help but notice that his Grandfather complimented his son for the brilliant present. Uncle Brian had gotten him a baseball glove, apologizing later that it was "for the wrong sport" and promised to make it up to him in the next year which made William blush and feel a little strange. Grandma Fraser had made him a wool sweater that was a little big (so that he could grow into it) that he knew given the cold of the previous semester he'd need at school. His parents had given him several books and various pieces of clothing along with a note tucked in with several pairs of socks that there was something else after the relatives had gone. Grandma Corcoran had presented him and his cousin Brian with pocket watches, a traditional Corcoran gift when young boys "started to become young men", apparently they were both receiving them a little earlier than usual but no one seemed to comment on it. Finally though had been the big gift from Grandpa Fraser. His grandfather had presented the very plainly wrapped gift with a tad more pomp than his usual gift giving, and he wore a huge smile on his face as William removed the twine around the gift. William's jaw dropped when he saw what lay inside, it bore the print that he had grown accustomed to seeing on his grandfather's shirts over the years, and the one or two rare occasions when his grandfather had worn his kilt. Inside was a bundle of thick wool with the Clan Fraser tartan, and as he pulled it out the room realized it was a kilt, and William was unsure how to react.

His grandfather was brimming with pride as he said, "You headed away to school a little earlier than I had been expecting but I won't argue when it's time for a boy to become a man."

William looked at Uncle George and his father for a moment, but before he could say anything his Uncle George broke the silence of the rest of the room, "Try it on William! I'll go get mine!" He stood up without a moments notice and was out of the room.

His father then stood up, and said, "Come on William I'll help you get it on." He then lead his son up the stairs while the gift giving continued.

Up stairs in his father's room, William's father opened up his own closet and begin tearing through several pieces of clothing towards the back of the closet. As he did, he answered, "It is a tradition for boys in our family to get our kilts eventually, Grandpa gave me mine when I went to college, and George when he started his senior year of high school." Slowly he pulled out his own kilt and shook his head at the piece of clothing.

William nodded, then asked awkwardly, "Uh, when will I wear it?"

"Apparently today," His father said. The older man asked William to step out while he got into his, and then assisted William with the strange and foreign piece of clothing before they headed downstairs.

By this point all the wrapping had been cleared away, and presents stacked neatly to be taken away or already placed inside luggage. Standing by the tree was his Uncle George and Grandpa Fraser who had both changed into their kilts. Before William knew what was going on there was a rapid set of photos being taken of the three generations of Fraser men all decked out in their kilts standing with pride and an awkward air in front of the Christmas tree. William wasn't sure why but for some reason as he stood there with his father, uncle, and grandfather the strangeness of the gift that had hit him when he had opened up the wrapping was replaced with a sense of happiness, as if he had finally been let in on some sort of secret club or family secret that he wasn't aware was even there. After this, the holiday passed with an air of fun and revelry appropriate for the season.

The days following saw everyone slowly leaving. First his cousins, and uncle had left the morning right after Christmas, with Grandma Corcoran catching her flight back to Ohio that afternoon. Uncle George had left that night after receiving some phone call from work that was pulling him back there earlier than expected. Finally Grandma and Grandpa Fraser had left the morning after, William once more trading a proper hand shake with his Grandfather when they had left.

In the days after Christmas William had quickly forgotten that his parents had mentioned another gift. It was as he was reading one of his new books that his father knocked on his door, "William?"

"Yes Dad?" He turned as the door swung open and his father stepped in holding a large cage.

William stared in awe as he looked at the large owl inside of it. The creature was easily two feet tall and it sat with a quiet majesty within the cage. Its feathers were a deep gray, its eyes a brilliant yellow, and rising above the eyes were horn-like feathers. The large owl let out a low call as it turned its head about the room. "Wow," was all William managed to get out as his father set the bird down in a corner of the room.

"Yeah," His father answered, "He's pretty amazing." He smiled as he turned, "Your mother and I figured that since you write us so much there was no reason to waste the money on postage when you could have your own owl."

William nodded, and then stood up still mesmerized by the large bird. His father smiled, "Well, I'll leave you to get acquainted with him." He smiled as he left the room, closing the door slightly as he did.

William slowly opened the door and extended his arm, the owl hopped onto it first clenching its talons down before settling with a much lighter gentle grip as William pulled back from the cage. The owl looked around then hooted again. William stared at the bird and muttered aloud, "What should I call you..." Just then the bird took flight, circling the room before settling onto William's bookshelf, on one of the new books his parents had gotten him for Christmas, as William looked over the spine he whispered to himself, "Asimov!"

The last few days of the year saw William unsure of how to pass the time. He had sent Asimov off with letters to Chris and Nick telling them about his vacation and they had responded but still he found himself with little to do during the day. The small amount of work he had to do over the break was easy for him so it only occupied him for a day or two after Christmas and so William found himself now practicing wand movements. Sixth graders weren't allowed to cast spells outside of school, and muggle students in general had to be really careful, so William could only practice the movements and pronunciations separately. He often found himself sitting at his desk swishing and flicking or making the swift swing and hard stop of a protection spell. Hours passed with him going through the hexes he knew and occasionally pouring over his textbooks looking for new ones.

On the last day of the year, William's parents reminded him that that evening was the traditional university New Year's Eve party. Ever since William could remember, his family had gone to the university's big party. It was held in one of the major buildings at the school, William could never remember what it was called but he knew exactly what it looked like. More importantly though, starting middle school meant that William no longer had to stay in the "kid room" which had always been watched over by someone and a little lame. He remembered last year, he and Megan had passed the time playing a game of Uno with one of his father's grad students who had somehow been roped into watching over the children. This year though, no kid room, he'd be allowed to move about the party without supervision, William smiled at the thought.

A few hours later he was grimacing as he put on his old suit. Everyone had to dress semi-formally, even the younger people. William hadn't realized that he'd grown a little in the past year, the coat felt a little awkward on him, and the pants were a little tight. He wished that he could cast a spell, not that he knew any that would make his clothes fit right but William knew that there had to be one. Slowly he came out of his room and down the stairs. His father was straightening a tie in front of a mirror, and running his fingers through his recently trimmed beard. From the kitchen his mother came out wearing a formal evening gown and quickly tugging on her winter overcoat, she sighed stepped up to her husband and quickly fiddled with his tie giving it a sleek and straightened look. Finally his sister came down the stairs wearing a dress similar to his mother's but shorter, William could only roll his eyes as she quickly tugged on her coat before their parents noticed.

"Alright!" His dad said looking at everyone, "Let's go." They all marched outside to the family car and as they began driving down the roads to the campus, their parents continued going over the ground rules of the party, where they would meet after midnight, and so on. William barely listened, he knew how the party went and instead found his hand trailing to the pocket on the inside of his coat where he had slid his wand. He knew he wasn't supposed to bring it some where there'd be so many muggles but William didn't want to get out of the habit of carrying it and for some reason he couldn't bring himself to leave it at home after what had happened on Halloween.

They all piled out of the car and made their way to the large brick building, as William walked slightly behind his family he suddenly found himself realizing for the first time how much like his school the university campus was like. Old brick buildings seemed to be everywhere, with ivy crawling up their sides or now bare trees flanking them. Up the old worn white steps they went, stepping through the old wooden doors, and quickly through the well lit corridors where the party was already in full swing.

William stood by his parents for the first half hour or so while his family went through the standard yearly introductions. Several of his parents' friends and colleagues commented on how he'd grown, and one or two even congratulated him on his 'scholarship' to 'that private school', he nodded along remembering the lie his family used to explain his absence. Eventually though William's parents finally relinquished him and he was able to mingle about.

The first thing he did was wiggle out of the main hall where all of the old professors were chit chatting about any number of things that he didn't understand. William made his way about the rooms in a way he never had been able to before, he breezed by the kid room smiling at the fact he was no longer exiled to it, still he wasn't sure what to do. As he passed through several of the other rooms, William suddenly became supremely aware of how much he missed his school. Passing by he saw people dancing to music, he saw several older kids talking about how they wanted to get out of the town, and even saw some kids his own age too old for the kids room but not old enough to dance or talk with the older kids and wasn't even sure what to say to them. He found himself a floor above the actual party just calmly walking around through dimly lit hallways, once or twice he had nearly stumbled into people (young and old) up to things he never wanted to see. William shook his head, staring out a slightly frosted window that overlooked the campus. All he could think was that he couldn't wait to get on the train in a few days and get back up to school.

William found his hand once again inside his jacket, fingers fumbling about his wand and having to really try not to take it out. It was as he stood there that he heard a familiar voice say, "William!"

He turned around, Megan was standing there, she smiled immediately and rushed up to him, "I was wondering if you were even here!"

William laughed, hand slipping from his jacket he nodded and said, "Yeah I'm here."

She stood next to him, and they both fell quiet for a few minutes. She was wearing a dress, and William couldn't help but notice it was a lot different than the simple one she had worn last year, it was more like his sister's but not quite. She then frowned and said, "Hey, I'm uh sorry we haven't hung out..."

William shrugged, "It's cool."

She nodded slowly, before asking, "How was Christmas?"

"Good, except for sharing my room with my cousins," He answered, it had been pretty cramped in his room for those few days, "How about you?"

"My dad and I went up to my grandparents in Boston," She smiled, "It was really cool, we went ice skating at one point."

They paused again, unsure of what to say to the other, William suddenly found himself blurting out, "I sort of miss being at school." Megan nodded, not quite commenting on anything just listening as William continued, "I mean I miss you, like it's weird not having a best friend anymore." She blushed slightly but nodded, "But I miss being there a lot too, like I've made a few friends and I do stuff, and even the classes are pretty cool." He wanted to say how much he missed casting spells but caught himself.

Megan frowned slightly as she stood there, and then opened her mouth as if to speak before closing it again. Finally she asked, "Is it that different?"

William nearly burst out laughing. He bit his lip, he really wanted to tell her that yes it was, because he was a wizard and he learned spells and made potions but he didn't. After a minute he said, "I guess it is, I didn't realize that it was going to be but it is."

She nodded, her face showing how unsure she was of what to say.

William swallowed hard, he needed to tell his best friend, he really wanted to tell her. But just as he got ready to say "I'm a wizard!" at the top of his lungs, the large bell that sat on campus rang out the first note of the New Year. Even a floor below he could hear the slightly drunken bellow of the adults singing Auld Lang Syne off key. He sort of shook his head, catching his declaration before it formed, and then just turned to Megan and said as loudly as he could, "Happy New Year!"

She laughed for some reason and said, "Happy New Year!" For some reason, they quickly hugged, the awkwardness of the past few minutes quickly forgotten. After that they hung out like they did the year before, remembering that they had been talking to their best friend, and even though in a few days William would go back to a school for wizards she couldn't know about, and she'd go back to a school where she learned math that William would never know, they were still the same kids they had been just a few months ago.


	11. The New Semester

A few days later William was very happy to be back on the train to Salem. He had quickly changed into his robes and met up with Nick where they discussed their holidays. Nick had apparently gone through similar withdrawal from magic that William had and had been doing wand drills in his spare time as well. Nick didn't seem to make mention of what he had actually done over the holidays beyond that he was very bored. They had managed to spot Chris at one point or another but he had been with a much larger group of students who had all been ranting about some great Quodpot upset that had happened in the playoffs. Apparently, the end of the season for the professional sport was quickly approaching and tensions were running high in the wizarding world.

It seemed like the semester was going to be great until they were stepping off of the train. As Nick and William stepped out of their compartment and made to move down the hall, Henry Blackstock who seemed to have put on some extra weight during the holiday season blocked their path. Nick turned to find Theodore slip out of another compartment and while he didn't physically block the way he immediately tore out his wand and shouted a curse.

William spun around and shouted "_Protego!"_ The air in front of his friend shimmered as the curse hit. Nick turned and called, "Watch your back, _protego!_" The air exploding as Henry's curse hit. William forced his way forward to Theodore while Nick slid forward to begin repelling Henry. The whole corridor was quickly alight with various sixth grade spells, and William could notice the surprise from the bullies, they had definitely not been expecting a fight. As the duelists pressed their advantage though Theodore sneered and made a deep guttural noise as he seemed to spin his wand in a spiral. At the end of it a dark shadow shot out of it and gripped onto William's shoulder before he could do anything. The slip up let Henry get a jelly leg's curse onto Nick, and the pair of bullies laughed and rushed off the train before either boy could get up.

William's arm felt limp at his side, and his shoulder throbbed for a few seconds. Before he knew what had happened his arm felt like pins and needles were running down it as if he were just using it for the first time in a while, and the pain immediately disappeared from his shoulder. "Whoa," Nick said, "That was..."

"Crazy," William responded with a wince, as he got up with help from his friend.

"Where do you think he learned that?" Nick asked looking after where Theodore had run off.

"I don't know," William answered, "Come on, let's go before we get in trouble."

The pair grabbed their luggage quickly, and had to jog a little to get in with the massive returning crowd of students. The day passed easily as students once more settled back in. William found that he had plenty of room to place Asimov's cage and Chris commented on how awesome it was that his parents had gotten him an owl. The roommates passed the day unpacking and redecorating the room again. William smiled as he was able to post his photos from last semester onto the wall above his desk, and set all of his wizarding items around his side of the dorm room without any fear of onlookers.

It was a few days after classes started when Nick, Chris, and William were all hanging out in the lounge that they finally told him about the duel on the train. Chris was surprised when they told him about the final spell that ended it.

"Well, I mean, it's obvious where he figured it out," Chris stated as they finished their story.

"What do you mean?" William asked, slightly confused.

"Uh," Chris said flatly, "Those creepy older kids?"

"Really?" Nick cut in, "I wouldn't think that..."

"Oh come on, they're all totally up to something," Chris stated, "And it's definitely well, y'know..." He trailed off and looked around.

"No," William stated, "what do you mean?"

"Well, it's..." Chris shrugged, "They're probably up to something dark."

"And you think Henry and Theodore are doing stuff like that?" Nick asked in a sharp whisper.

"It's possible," Chris answered.

William shook his head, "I don't know, that'd be really big even for them."

"Well there's only one way to figure it out," Chris stated. The other boys were quiet as Chris gave them a devilish smile, "We could keep an eye on them."

"Oh no," William shook his head, "No..."

"Oh come on!" Chris said, his smile becoming a determined smirk, "What's the worst that could happen?"

The conversation then quickly turned into a long and protracted argument over whether or not it was a deadly idea to keep on eye on the older kids and the bullies. Ultimately though William knew his curiosity was going to get the better of him and that Chris wasn't going to let up. They all eventually agreed that they would keep their eyes peeled but they wouldn't be following the older students, well at least not yet.

After that conversation the semester quickly gained full steam. William felt like his life was getting swallowed up by classes, and the semester break seemed like some sort of cruel trick to lull students into a false sense of security about their work. While a lot of them commented that William had obviously been practicing his form over the break, that didn't seem to get him anything towards the new spells that were being taught in Charms or help him at all in History of Magic. William had to admit that he hadn't cracked open his History text book beyond what was necessary throughout the break and he was paying for it now.

Ms. Codswell was on another one of her lectures regarding proper conduct and diligence in her classroom as William sat in his desk trying to pay attention. William kept trying to pay attention or at least look like he was while she spoke directly at the class. Even though it was a short little speech that she gave at least every other day, William already couldn't remember what incident had sparked it this time. When she finished she turned back to the board and continued with her lecture, and William felt his body slump in response to her lack of attention to the classroom's students. Slowly he scrawled his notes waiting for the bell that would signal his time to go to Defense.

Defense had continued to be one of his favorite classes . He settled in half-asleep next to Sarah who shook her head, "History that bad, eh?"

William had nodded sleepily, "It's so terrible, and I still haven't figured out what she wants on this paper."

Chris plopped down opposite him, "Just give up, that's what I've done, she's just a monster plain and simple."

Sarah chuckled and then dropped her voice to a whisper, "Hey did you guys hear about what happened last night?" The boys shook their heads, and Sarah continued, "Apparently someone had set something on fire out in some woods at the edge of campus. The teachers are keeping it all hushed up, but apparently it was some sort of message or something."

"What sort of message?" William asked.

She shrugged, "I don't know, but something creepy." Before she could explain more Tall Elk stepped in from his office and began his lecture on how to counter curses after they'd already taken effect. William found himself quickly copying the notes, happy to hear how to remove a binding curse after so many months.

As they left the class and Sarah went off in the other direction, Chris grabbed him by the arm and said, "Man, do you think it was them?"

"Who?" William asked slightly confused.  
"Those creepy kids," He answered, "Didn't they say something about doing stuff?"

William shrugged, "I don't really remember but maybe?"

"We got to start following them William," Chris answered.

"Maybe we should tell a teacher?" William suggested.

Chris shook his head, and then said, "Oh come on man, where's your sense of adventure?"

William sighed and then said, "Alright, but I bet you it's nothing."

Word had circulated through the school rumor mill by the time of the next Duelist meeting. Not that there was much time to speak as Clark called out for various demonstrations and drills from the sixth graders. "Practice without spellcasting can only go so far, Fraser!" She barked in half-compliment as William attempted one of the jinxes from the previous semester.

Everyone was equally fumbling through their drills as they continued through the meeting. William was sweating profusely as Clark corrected one of his hand positions, and then moved on to Nick next to him. The return to school had been met with immediate and harsh reintroduction to dueling by Clark, she expressed her opinion that what little work they had done over the holidays was nowhere near as much as it should have been. She also dropped several slices of the rumors into her reasoning, stating that dark wizards would come and get them in their dorms at night or that a dragon was now traipsing about the campus grounds waiting for unsuspecting students to let down their guards. William was surprised that she was willing to help fuel some of the insane rumors to get the students to work harder but William couldn't help but admit that he was working harder.

By the end of the night he and Nick were walking back through the cold late winter evening. Nick finally asked, "So are we going to go following those guys again?"

"I think so," William responded, "Not sure when though."

"Right," Nick responded, "I think the sooner the better."

"Agreed," William found himself saying. He wasn't sure why but after dueling club he always felt a bit more ready and prepared despite the fact that he felt like he was going to collapse from exhaustion every time.

A few days later Tall Elk asked him to stay after class. The elderly wizard proceeded into his office without another word. William crept in after the master duelist, the fire once again came to a robust height as the pair entered. William once again found himself marveling at the variety of objects across the room, before coming to rest on his professor who came to relax in his thick comfortable leather chair. William took the seat across from the old man, and slowly the older gentleman waved his long white wand and a set of mugs appeared on the table. He gestured for William to take one before gathering one up himself. William sipped the warm concoction finding it spicy yet sweet all at once, the assistant dean smiled and answered the unspoken question, "A drink brewed by some friends of mine to the south, very good in the winter time."

William smiled and sipped once more surprised by the variety of tastes. He then finally asked, "Sir, have I done something wrong?"

The old professor laughed, "Always asking if you have done something wrong William. Do you have a guilty conscience?"

William shook his head, "No, sir. I guess I just never thought of teacher's asking to see you as a good thing..."

The elder laughed heartily, "I suppose that is true. However, I called you in here to ask how you were doing, it has been several months since you started attending my club and I must say I see an improvement in you in many ways. I merely wanted to make sure that you are alright."

William smiled, he had never thought of a teacher asking him something like that in elementary school, "I'm doing great, sir."

"No more troubles like you had at the beginning of the school year?" The old man asked letting his eyes settle upon the young student.

William felt it hard to meet the older man's piercing gaze but eventually said, "Not really, sir. Things have been getting better."  
The older man nodded slowly. William knew it was a lie, well a warping of the truth, he just hoped that Tall Elk didn't care. After a few moments the elder spoke, "I see, well that is very good. I hope things in your classes continue to be as good as they were last semester William." William nodded, taking a sip, the professor then said, "You are free to go."

William smiled thanked the professor for the drink as he set the mug down and then slowly slipped out of the office door. It felt strange to have said such a simple white lie to Tall Elk but he had a feeling that the teacher knew the truth and seemed to have an understanding of why William had done it. He quickly made his way to the dining hall where he joined Chris who was quickly chowing down, and finishing up homework for his next class. William smiled and laughed, things were really back to the way they should be.


	12. The Sense That They're Up To Something

It was several weeks later when William, Nick, and Chris were once again prowling through the woods on the edge of campus. Chris was once more floating in the midst of the tree limbs atop his broom, keeping an eye out for the older students while Nick and William waited down in the underbrush. They had eventually come to find out that there was an extensive amount of trails through the woods at the school and while they weren't strictly off-limits they also weren't exactly where students were supposed to spend their time either. It seemed that the small dark society that existed at Salem used them quite regularly to hold their meetings. There had been several misses in which William had waited for several hours before realizing that they weren't coming out that night. Also, he assumed there were several nights when he had been studying or too tired from dueling club to trek out and wait for them that they had come by. Finally though the dark students had come out, in small groups with their wands once more lit in decidedly sinister colors, the boys had then moved along their very winding way through the trees and bushes to finally settle outside of a clearing the students were within.

As William settled down in one part of the ring, Nick continued on, and he knew Chris was hovering off in the opposite direction. They had all agreed that they'd keep separate when they watched the bullies to make sure that they weren't likely to be caught. William hunkered down behind a bush and brushed aside some of its leaves with a careful and steady hand. Peering through the leaves he watched the strange scene. Several older students were talking, or reading from books, and seemed to be practicing several wand motions or incantations every once in a while producing something strange. One group of older students were make slashing motions and whispering words William couldn't make out, after about thirty minutes one of them was able to produce the wisps of a purple flame that hit a tree and seemed to do nothing. However what caught his eye was the small knot of young students around a pair of older kids. William immediately recognized the voice of one of them, he was the student who had spoken the first night William had followed them, "Tonight we continue your outside the classroom education," the older boy said.

In the dim light of the other students' wands William could finally make out the apparent leader. He was shorter than William was expecting, with a shock of red hair, and a wide build. The wizard's face was recently shaved and he spoke in a clear strong voice, "This evening I will teach you a minor charm that can have some very interesting applications." He walked around the small gathering of students, "Some of you may already be familiar with the severing charm. Great for cutting a hole in a bag or getting robes free from a jammed door. But this simple charm can serve a more appropriate purpose." He then gestured to his partner who was standing there with a slight smirk. The other student stepped forward and waited wand held aloft, as the leader made a swift stabbing motion and called out, "_Diffindo!_" The other student took a sharp intake of breath, and there was the sound of tearing cloth and William just barely noticed the blood spilling out of them. They fell to the ground and several other students stepped up and waited a few moments before someone actually attended to the injured student. "As you can see, this is great for inflicting both minor and major injuries upon opponents. Much more useful than you'd expect..." The older student then went on to explain the theory of it, and began encouraging the younger students to try it out on the surrounding vegetation.

William was surprised when they all hesitated. He had begun to feel while watching the demonstration like he were in the basement of the stadium with Clark explaining another good jinx for use in duels between younger students. Whenever she gave them the chance to actually try things out he jumped at them. As several students tried he suddenly realized why they were so hesitant. The older students paused to watch their junior members give the spell a go. Some of them, the oldest of the bunch got it alright, but some of the younger students a year or so older than William had trouble. Almost immediately older students hit them with minor jinxes and hexes or the severing charm itself, making fun of them for failing. William noticed the ring leader immediately hitting Henry with the severing charm across the cheek and scowling at him before berating him for being a, "Useless sack of crap!" Theodore quickly grasped the spell after only one or two cuts and jinxes, with Henry taking another ten minutes of minor injuries before finally succeeding in cutting off a tree limb from a thick tree not far from William.

Eventually after everyone seemed satisfied with their spell work for the evening they began to disperse. The younger students seemed to have to contend with their minor injuries on their own. The older students didn't seem to talk much as they left, calmly making their way down the path with or without the aid of wand light. A few minutes after they had all left, William and his friends gathered in the clearing.

"Wow," Nick finally said, staring at the spot where the sixth grade bullies had been given a small taste of the spells they were going to presumably unleash on William.

"That was scary," William answered as he looked around.

"Yeah man," Chris responded, and he looked around the rest of the clearing, "But what do you think the other students were up to?"

"I'm not sure," William replied as he looked to where a short time ago the small clumps of older students had been, "I'm not sure I want to."

Nick and Chris nodded glumly before the three of them turned down the path and eventually made their way back to their own dorm room.

A few days later and they were practicing the bluebell flames charm in class. Several students were grumbling that of course McAllister would teach them this spell only halfway through February as the coldest month was coming to an end. William found himself carefully watching Henry and Theodore, Henry still bore a red mark on his cheek where one of the older students had cut him with magic and seemed to be slightly angry. William hoped that nothing would happen after class, he wasn't in the mood to deal with them. Sarah caught his glance as she began to summon forth the small blue flames into a basin then dismiss them with a flick. "What's up William?" She asked, gesturing to let him know it was his turn to summon the flames.

"Oh, nothing really," He screwed up his face in concentration as he murmured the incantation and brought flames to life.

"You've been staring at that Henry guy all morning," She stated simply before adding the warning, "You better watch out if he catches you staring, I mean, he already doesn't like you." She then smiled slightly before muttering the color changing charm causing the flames to change from blue to purple and then pink.

The flame was quickly diminished and McAllister was standing over them, "While impressive Ms. Klein, the Color-Changing charm has already been covered." He glared at her as she quickly went back to practicing the proper charm, "Now please the both of you cut the chit-chat or you will most certainly see your grades suffer." Both sixth graders quickly tightened up their lips before returning to their work. A few rows ahead of them, Henry and Theodore snickered as they too shifted their flames from blue to red to green and finally black before dismissing them.

It was easily another week before William and Chris once again were able to spot the dark students in the woods. Nick had to stay in to finish potions work that was due the next morning. The boys had quickly come to accept that spying on the other students was something that would come after their other priorities but they always tried to make sure that at least two of them were out. The students had once again gathered in a seemingly random clearing in the woods. This time Chris and William almost hadn't seen them, they had been on a path several dozen yards away but the night had been so dark that the wand light had given the older students away.

This time there was more talk of the master, and their various plans for disruption at the school. Several of the younger students seemed anxious, and William noticed Henry uncomfortably fidgeting while Theodore watched with a various amount of emotions crossing his face. William began to get nervous as the older students continued to talk, after the burning at the start of the semester they hadn't seemed to do anything not that he was sure it had been these people at all. After an hour, they seemed to break up and while William had been about to get off of his quickly cramping legs he realized that the tight group of older students wasn't leaving.

"Now that they're gone we can get down to business," their leader stated firmly.

One of the students, William recognized him as the other one who taught Henry and Theodore, quickly spun his wand about and murmured an incantation. William gulped a moment before the leader barely inclined his head and added, "Thank you Dan." He looked off down the path and said, "I think we might need to cut off the other kids soon."

Several of the students nodded their assent, but one of them, a girl maybe a year older than William's sister asked, "Why?"  
"Because they're not dedicated to the cause," voiced an older student.

The leader scoffed, and answered, "No, because they're useless and stupid. The freshmen will blab if they hear about the master, and the middle school kids are a waste." He shook his head, "And those sixth graders. That fat little pile of shit is entirely inept, and that creepy little bastard that hangs around with him is too excitable."

"Did you hear they keep using what they learn here against some nerdy little sixth grader?" Asked a voice at the edge of the circle.

"Exactly," grumbled the leader. William found himself rubbing his arm where two days before Theodore had gotten him with a severing charm, it had been a glancing shot but it was still red. "They definitely can't be trusted." Everyone slowly nodded and voiced their assent, "Good," the leader stated, "We will cut them off in a few weeks, and then get down to business. Dismissed." Everyone then gave some sort of strange and vague salute and the leader returned it. Slowly the group broke apart, and wound out through the path, the leader and his friend were the last to leave dismissing whatever spell the older student had cast earlier as they headed back down the path.

William and Chris met on another path not far from the clearing and as they casually walked back, William asked, "Who do you think their master is?"

"I don't know," Chris responded, but then rubbed his chin in thought, "But I kind of want to know."

William shook his head, "I'm not sure we should keep doing this Chris, it could get dangerous."

"No way," Chris said, "If they haven't found us yet they're not going to. Hell, that one guy even cast a spell and didn't find us."

William found himself nodding to his roommate as they stealthily walked through the trees back to Corey Hall, as always through a side door they had propped open before returning to their dorm room.

The beginning of March brought the start of the Quodpot finals. Salem had apparently daringly been able to maintain its position in fourth place out of seven to make it into the playoffs, the first time they'd done so in at least a decade.

The entire school was ecstatic for the upcoming game. Even Sarah had to relent and admit that she wanted to watch Salem play this particular game of Quodpot. The first match would be a tough one against the first place team and apparently the returning champions, Salem's first match against them back in November had apparently been tight though which made William slightly excited to see a very good game. William wasn't sure exactly where in the Rocky Mountains the Rocky Mountain School of Wizardry was but for some reason it evoked images of big forests on steep mountainsides with students flying brooms seemingly right from the mountains themselves.

The day of the game the school seemed to be going wild, it was a Friday and the school was decked out with banners that read "Cats Eat Birds!" in reference to the Rocky Mountain School's team the Eagles or more commonly "Go Salem!". Potions class seemed almost unbearable, especially with Chris in the seat next to him. He was wearing a pin that flashed "Go Salem/Cats Eat Birds" every few seconds, and obviously struggling to pay attention to his potion making. William had to duck as his cauldron bubbled and spat a painful brothy substance everywhere, while trying to maintain the near sludge-like integrity that the potion was supposed to have within his own cauldron. Ms. Newman, also showing her support for the quodpot team with a pin didn't seem to be angry with her students for not doing well. She explained how she understood what it was like before a big game for the students, especially one where so much was riding on it. She ended class with a smile and a cheer of "Go Salem!", almost universally the class cheered and rushed back to Corey Hall.

Everyone was getting fully decked out for the event. William had been able to secure one of the pins and grabbed the big blue horn that Chris had given him before the first match. Meanwhile, Chris ever full of school spirit had obtained one of the big cat head hats at some point after Salem had entered the playoffs, and wore it with his only set of black school robes. He donned his big foam finger and grabbed his horn with his only free hand before shouting, "GOOOOOOOO SALEM!" at the top of his lungs.

The whole hall was in a massive uproar as students poured out, blaring horns, and shouting at the top of their lungs. When they passed through the senior boys' hall it become obvious that the seniors were up to a bit more intense form of partying when several smells affronted William's nose, and a few seniors stumbled out of their dorm rooms with a shout and a blare from their own horns. The campus grounds were finally coming out of the last snow as the horde of students tromped their way out to the stadium. Chris and William had met up with Nick, and Sarah as they clambered through the towers to the student seating. As they grabbed a set of seats, William realized just how full the stadium was, even the side of the opposing team normally holding only a token amount of fans was packed with students in the opposing school's colors with someone in an eagle costume soaring over them to the cheers of their fans. Meanwhile three different people in Salem cat outfits were soaring in formation above the Salem contingent and for once not being met with any minor jinxes but the wide acclaim of all the students.

It was only a matter of moments before the announcer was calling out the arrival of the Rocky Mountain School Eagles. The first thing William noticed was that they were huge, Quodpot players in general were really big but these players seemed to tower over everyone. There were ten guys and one girl, and even she was really tall but barely made it to the shoulders of the two young men flanking her. They all wore stainless uniforms of white and red, and flew up in perfect formation in a massive wedge before forming a line before their cheering fans. The Salem team came roaring out in mid flight circling over the cheering Salem students before screeching to a halt one at a time to form a line before them.

The national anthem was played and the opposing teams quickly fell into their respective positions on the field. No sooner had the last person fallen into place on either side that the ball shot up from the ground. A wedge of three massive men from the Rocky Mountains surged forward with their female captain flying behind them. They crashed directly into the four man group from Salem, with the female Eagle pulling back quickly as two Salem players gave chase, players from the opposing team came crashing down from the sky directly atop them pulling off after they made contact. The Eagles made every effort to make the game as bloody as possible, with the Wildcats struggling to give back in kind.

The game progressed with astounding speed, with the Salem players being regularly beaten and scored upon. Even as the Wildcats adjusted to the rapidly descending Rocky players who accompanied every surge forward, the Eagles were regularly landing the quod into the pot on their side of the field. Everyone was cheering till their throats felt raw. By the end of the game there was only one player on each side, the female captain of the Eagles and the slighter male player on the Wildcats.

The Eagles were well into the lead but still for some reason the crowd waited with bated breath as the Eagle captain surged forward. The Salem boy had set himself squarely in front of the pot and seemed ready not to grab the ball but to just block any shot. It was as William sat confused he suddenly saw the clock, there were still ten minutes left in the game, that meant that if the quod exploded in the Eagle captain's hands, there was still plenty of time for the lone slight Salem player to score perhaps just enough to win the game with no opposing team to stop him. All of the Salem students sat at the edge of their seats. The girl poured on the speed as she passed the halfway point of the field becoming a white blur with red edges as she came directly at the pot. There was a bone cracking crunch as she crashed directly into the Salem boy and pushed him along with the quod directly into the pot flying on past him as she did. The opposing crowd roared at what was obviously a game ending injury, and the Salem crowd sat stunned. While the quod did fly up from the ground again, the Eagle captain didn't even notice simply making a victory lap of the field before landing and walking off the field. The clock was reset and the game was declared over with Salem being decisively crushed. Though not officially out of the playoffs a defeat like that did not spell out anything good for the post-season.

The mood was decidedly gloomy as the students filed out of the stadium and made their way back to their various dorms. William found himself laying in bed that night surprised at how numb he felt, it had just been a sports match but for the first time in his life he found himself caring that a team had lost, because they were _his _team. He shook his head at the way his roommate had rubbed off on him before turning over and falling asleep.

A few days after the Quodpot game, William was sitting in the forest again, Nick was somewhere on the other side of the clearing where, he wasn't sure. He had continued spying to keep his mind off the recent defeat Salem had been handed and also because William had been expecting the creepy older students to do something at the last game but they hadn't. Now he crouched watching them carefully through the bushes.

Their leader seemed to be pointing at something on the ground, "Everything will have to be arranged perfectly. No slip ups, no I had an exam the next day, nothing of the sort. We shall not bring shame to the master by failing in this." Everyone seemed to voice their agreement in low murmurs.

William noticed that no one there seemed to even be a Freshmen let alone any younger. Judging by how quickly and casually they talked he began to realize that they handled a lot outside of these wider gatherings since he felt like he had missed several things they all seemed to know implicitly. "If we do this right," continued the leader, "The master will be greatly pleased, as this will help him greatly in the coming weeks."

"Do you think the cover will work?" Asked one of the circle members, she was one of the oldest students and looked very disturbing in the purple light of her wand.

"We have designed it to work perfectly as long as we all move together in our assigned groups," Answered the leader, "No one is to work on this alone or with someone they're not supposed to. We do this exactly as we were instructed."

"Right," replied several older students around the circle.

"Good, dismissed." The leader said, before quickly waving his wand and standing up. Once more everyone left in pairs and trios with the leader and his fellow tutor waving their wands together and departing at the same time.

After what seemed an eternity, William heard Nick's small hooting noise that they used as their meet up signal now just in case any of the older students hung back in fear of being watched. Slowly William prowled off through the brush to meet up with Nick. The taller boy shook his head, "This is starting to sound scary. I think we should really keep watching them till we know what they're doing."

"Right," William answered as they began to move out along an old deer trail, he murmured a small bluebell flame into existence to ward off the cold of the early March night, "What do you think they're up to?"

Nick shook his head, "I don't know but we need to find out and tell a teacher soon."

William nodded, "Yeah this might be getting to be more than we can handle..." With that ominous phrase they made their way across campus in silence, ignoring the foreboding sense in the air.


	13. The First Flight

The spring semester was quickly progressing and the weather was fast following suit. By the end of March the last snow had fallen and melted away with students slowly beginning to hang outside once again. Meanwhile classes were continually pushing upon the students and William found himself spending more and more time in the library trying to complete his assignments. With the business of the semester they had all decided that it was ok to spy on the older students alone, after all as Chris had pointed out they still hadn't been caught and the older students regularly checked the area with spells.

Salem had continued to be trounced in the Quodpot playoffs though they weren't quite out yet. Still the continually depressing broom-based games caused Chris to suddenly realize that William had no clue how to fly. The larger boy continued to pressure him at nearly every meal that he had to learn how, as it was what wizards did.

It was a bright and warm March day when William finally agreed to be taught how to fly. The roommates had made their way out to a field not far from their dormitory where Chris set the broom down on the ground, then set William next to it. "Alright," Chris stated as he stood in front of him, "First things first, call your broom up."

"Huh?" William responded.

Chris groaned and held his hand out before continuing, "You have to like call it up from the ground, just hold out your hand like me and say up."

William held his hand out and said questioningly, "Up?" He heard the broom rustle on the ground next to him but it didn't shoot into his hands.

"With more enthusiasm, come on man this is flying!" Chris half-shouted as he stood opposite William.

"Up!" William shouted in frustration, the broom shot into his hand with a loud thwack. "Ouch!" He called as the broom fell back to the ground and he began to rub his now throbbing hand.

"You have to grab it when it comes up," Chris responded, stepping forward, "Like this. Up!" As he said it the broom rose quickly and he clasped his hand around it with ease. He dropped it back to the ground, "Now you try it."

William nodded, "Up!" He called again this time gripping tightly when he felt the hard slap against his hand. He grimaced as he held the wand in his still throbbing right hand.

"Cool, now mount it. Sort of like a bicycle," Chris stated, miming the motions.

William cautiously swung one leg over and found the broom surprisingly comfortable. He then set his hand down in what felt like the most likely place though Chris quickly came over and readjusted his grip. William found that the proper grip was horrendously uncomfortable, but Chris merely shook his head and explained, "You'll get used to it. Now kick off!"

William's eyebrows shot up, "Kick off?"

"You know, off the ground, into the air," Chris replied, sending his hand in an upward motion with a broad smile. William bent his knees a little and gave a good jump into the air, which he found quickly launched him several feet higher from the ground. "Now keep your hands tight and try to level out."

William quickly found himself vaguely holding together, though he tried to keep himself within shouting distance of his more experienced roommate. Still as the afternoon passed, he continually found himself falling off and to the ground, or crashing directly into it. By the end of the day, his glasses were slightly bent and his body a little bruised but ultimately he felt good, flying was just really cool not that he went very high or fast but still it beat a bike any day.

Flying lessons with Chris became another part of William's routine. However it was one that quickly brought him all manner of problems. Sarah immediately began criticizing him for "flying like a quodpot player" which according to her explained why he could barely turn and kept crashing into the ground since he was so clearly not built for that type of flying. This would inevitably rouse the regular argument of Quidditch against Quodpot. William noticed that Nick was becoming distant and nervous, not even seeming to pay attention to the arguments or even say much to William after class or during lunch.

The worst that happened though was one day after practicing flying, Chris had hung back to get some practice himself while William headed in to the dorm to wash up before dinner. As he entered the hall bathroom and turned on the sink, a stall door opened. Standing behind him was Henry Blackstock, the boy held his hand up and made a wobbly crashing motion accompanied by a noise like an airplane crashing to the ground with an accompanying explosion noise.

"Nice flying Fraser," Henry said as he stepped out of the stall.

William kept his hand from immediately flying to his wand, he didn't want to start a fight. He decided to just ignore the bigger boy, as he began to rub soap over his hands and arms. "Hey, Fraser," Henry said, "I'm talking to you." He then prodded the smaller boy. William began to rub his bar of soap into his wash cloth and rubbed his face. "How'd you like to really fly?" Henry taunted. William sighed the heavy set boy was now right next to him, leaning against the sink beside him. "Eh?" Henry jeered, "Want to feel the wind in your hair?"

Before William knew what had happened, Henry had swung his wand about and William had gone flying, landing then skidding across the tiled floor of the boy's bathroom. William stumbled up, "What was that for?"

"I'm just teaching you how to fly!" Henry called back, suddenly whipping his wand about and levitating William's soap up, "Here let me help you clean up!" He flung the soap with a flick of his wrist and it went zooming for William.

"_Protego!_" William instinctively shouted, the bar of soap flying harmlessly away into the wall.

"Always with the shield charms!" Henry shouted, "Why don't you ever fight back!?" He seemed irrationally angry, as he swung his arm around in a slashing motion, "_Diffindo!_"

William ducked and summoned forth another shield charm as the hot red light came flying toward his face. "_Rictumsempra!_" William shouted from his kneeling position on the floor, with the bubbly pink light shooting forward.

Henry let out a grunt as he swung it off with his own shield charm. As he called out another jinx William rolled away into a nearby stall. Clark had just begun talking to them about movement in the dueling club and he suddenly realized why as he didn't have to do anything to block the spell, merely move out of the way.

William quickly slid from one stall to the next as Henry rushed forward. As he passed before the open door, William shouted, "_Tarantallegra!_" The spell hit Henry hard forcing the larger boy to suddenly begin dancing about, William quickly stepped out and Henry quickly swung his wand and cast the counter curse.

As William got ready for the next wave of spells, he was surprised when Henry just barreled into him with his weight, knocking him to the floor. "You're lucky Fraser!" Henry growled as he beat a hasty retreat from the bathroom.

William sat winded on the floor for a few minutes. He was breathing heavily and he still couldn't quite grasped that in mid-duel Henry had just barreled into him without using any magic. Had it really been that intense of a fight. As he slowly clambered up to his feet, and felt the various new sores on his body William realized that yes, he had just given the bully a run for his money. William sighed, he knew this would only result in further retaliation later.

The days continued to pass, and William found himself looking over his shoulder waiting for the revenge to eventually arrive from Henry and Theodore but for some reason it didn't come.

However he quickly noticed that he wasn't the only one looking over his shoulder every so often. Nick had become continuously jittery in the past few days as the world pressed further into the month of April. As they were walking to Dueling club one night, and Nick kept looking around particularly up at the sky he asked his friend, "Hey what's up with you today?"

"Huh?" Nick said as if he was being interrupted mid-thought, "Oh, nothing." Nick quickly covered up, "Just been really busy recently, homework's been a bit of a killer."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," William responded, still not quite sure if he believed his friend.

As the dueling club progressed he noticed that Nick eased a little, and by the end of the night he seemed to be his normal self. Still, William had to wonder if it had more to do with the fact that Clark had run them through enough drills that all of the sixth graders felt like they were about to fall over rather than anything involving Nick feeling better.

It was a full five days more of Nick's jittery and anxious jumping about and looking over his shoulder before William finally found out what was up.


	14. The Night Everything Went Wrong

It wasn't long before sunset in the middle of the week when Nick practically kicked open the door to Corey Hall 131. Both William and Chris had been busily working on their homework when Nick rapidly closed the door and half-shouted in a rush, "We gotta do something right now!"

Chris was the first to respond, "What?"

"We have to do stuff, it's happening tonight!" Nick shrieked, eyes darting around as he did.

"What's happening?" William asked with a clear voice.

"The...the master guy, of those older guys. He's coming!" Nick shouted rapidly, "We have to do something."

"How do you know that?" William asked, alarm overcoming him. No one had been able to actually keep track of the older students over the past week due to the continuing pile of classwork.

"Alright," Nick said with a deep breath, "It happened a few weeks ago. I had been going through the woods following the older students..." Nick then slowly began to explain.

Several weeks prior to that night, Nick had been alone on spy duty. He had carefully spotted and followed one of the older students wandering into the woods. Slowly but surely Nick had followed the student, avoided their wand light, and made it to the clearing they were using that night. He had as always carefully and cautiously moved around to the other side of the clearing from the path and hunkered down.

He had been settled down against a tree and behind a bush, half watching them but more intently listening. The leader had proclaimed, "That on this glorious night our Master shall arrive and impart upon us his plan." The small circle of students had given a cheer at this though they were careful to quickly stifle it.

The dark wizards-to-be waited carefully, slowly murmuring amongst themselves as they waited. Nick had pushed aside some of the leaves so he could get a better look at the master when and if he arrived. Unlike several times before when the master had promised to arrive and explain his glorious plan but instead only sent his owl with an apology, there was a loud pop and a brief plume of smoke darker than the night sky itself and there he stood.

Nick claimed that he was instantly scared of the dark cloaked figure. All of the students had immediately shifted their wand light to a deep scarlet as the figure stood before them. It was big and muscled, and all Nick could make out was a set of hairy arms. Then before the figure had begun to even addressed his assembled zealots, he paused and sniffed the air. "What is this!" He had growled and spun about, his wand flashing as he did.

Nick had suddenly found himself dragged forward as if by some invisible hand. Then the man's practically clawed hands gripped him by the chest and hauled Nick into the air. "A child dare spy upon me?" He had apparently said.

Nick was already squirming and panicking as the dark wizard held him. He had snarled at Nick before speaking, "Boy, you will not disrupt my return in a few week's time." The wizard had raised his wand to him and scowled, "You are so lucky that I do not want anything to be disrupted or I would kill you now." He had then turned to the assembled and asked, "Who was responsible for security?"

Slowly one of the students raised their hand, the one who had helped the leader teach the bullies their spells, "_Crucio!_" The dark wizard snarled immediately, and the boy almost instantly writhed in pain and released a loud shout. The wizard cast a silencing spell on the student before he continued to torture him. Nick watched as the sixteen year old continued to lay there on the ground, silently screaming.

"This is the fate that awaits you boy," The old wizard had snarled, "If you so much as tell a soul of my triumphant return." Nick had tried to swallow but found his mouth supremely dry as he stared into the near bottomless black eyes of the dark wizard. "Do you understand boy?" The man asked, running his dark and seemingly sharp wand underneath Nick's chin. Nick nodded furiously, "Now run along boy, and I will know if you linger."

Nick had beat a hasty retreat through the woods that night. It was only several days later that he had begun to piece together the other things they had all over heard over the semester and realized when and where the master was going to appear. However, the memory of the older student's silent screams had kept him frightened until this very moment.

Nick now stood in his friends' dorm room and shouted again, "Guys we need to do something!"

"Right," William answered, "We need to go find a teacher right now!"

"No!" Nick shouted, "Don't you get it there's no time, he's going to be here in the next fifteen minutes!"

"Are you sure?!" Chris nearly shouted.

"Yes! They kept talking about sunset," Nick said, "They're going to be here soon, and explaining everything took a lot more time than it should have." Nick shook his head, "We have to go, we can figure out about telling a teacher afterwards."

Chris nodded vigorously, grabbing his broomstick quickly, "Alright man, I'm ready."

"No, no, no, no!" William quickly shouted, "Guys we're not superheroes we can't just go out and fight a dark wizard. That's crazy!"

"Come on William, there's no time," Chris said, stepping before his roommate. William had found himself moving to block the door. "William don't you realize we're the only ones who can act?"

William shook his head, "No we need to go to a teacher or something."

"There's no time," Nick said gesturing outside, "The sun is already setting, and the teachers might not even believe us."

"Come on man," Chris pleaded, "Haven't you ever thought about how sometimes there's only one option?"

It was as Chris said that that William suddenly found himself remembering a story his dad had told him a few years ago. William's father had once told him about how he had gotten his limp, on his first field trip out to Africa. Apparently his father had somehow offended a local unrelated to the people he was working with and hadn't realized it. Before he knew what was happening the man had pulled out a gun. He remembered his father clearly telling him about how with that larger man waving a gun in his face, he realized that sometimes you don't have any other options. So his dad had grabbed the gun and started wrestling with the much larger man. Somehow the gun went off and he got shot right in the left leg, but ultimately he didn't die. He had to go home early, and he still limped every so often but he was alive to talk about it. William nodded, thinking about his father's story, he finally relented to his friend, "Alright let's get going."

Chris clasped him on the shoulder and said proudly, "Kick ass!" Nick tore the door open and the boys quickly closed it, not bothering to lock it behind them as they rushed down the hallway.

As they ran across the fields towards the far end of the campus, William shouted to his friends, "If things start going bad, we have to be willing to run like as quickly as possible away from there."

"Definitely," Nick called over his shoulder as they run up and over a hill.

"And get a teacher?" Chris asked huffing over the rolling hilltop slightly behind his roommate and friend.

"Yes," William shouted back as they rushed beneath a large oak tree by the stadium.

Nick wheeled around to the far side of the stadium as they continued running at full speed. The boys fell silent, the sun was setting quickly now, and William suddenly realized just how fast it got dark on campus. They tore past the stadium, Chris having at some point mounted his broom to keep up with the two other boys.

Nick lead them directly into the forest, not along any prescribed path, just tearing along through the underbrush without even looking behind him. William quickly found himself huffing and puffing to keep up with his long legged friend, robes whipping behind him as he rushed beneath branches and over roots.

At some point Nick started slowing down, and William did too. He suddenly realized just how much sweat was pouring down his forehead and dripping onto his glasses as William stumbled slowly and carefully after his friend. Chris was panting slightly as they came through a stand of trees and ducked beneath a set of bushes.

Beyond them were the dark students, only the oldest of them. Somehow they were at a wall, William had never actually seen the backside of the school grounds, he had assumed the school wall was only in the front at the entrance. Now he was staring at the far end of it, and an old decrepit gate that apparently formed at a back corner of it.

The older students apparently had not noticed their arrival despite the speed and sound of it. Instead they merely stood there, as the sky continued to darken and slowly they lit their wands spreading dark red light everywhere. A figure steadily approached the gate and stood at it, with the sky continuing to lose light with every passing moment.

William caught sight of the figure, and was immediately struck with terror. Nick's description barely did the beast of a man justice. The figure was muscular to a degree William didn't realize was possible. His skin was covered in coarse hair that seemed to shimmer in the wandlight of his disciples. He wore a heavy flowing dark cloak and loose baggy clothing that didn't seem to cover much of him. His face was what scared William though. The man's teeth were a gruesome yellow, and he had sharp frightening features, his beady little eyes piercing the coming night, his large nose kept ruffling as he sniffed the air.

"Behold master, we are here as you asked!" The leader called out as soon as the figure appeared before the gate.

"Excellent, now break the gate and let me in before night falls!" His voice was deep yet somehow bore a hissing quality to it that made it extremely disturbing. It struck William somewhere deep in his gut, and even though he was far away he felt like he could feel the phlegm and spittle fall upon him.

"Of course my master!" The ring leader stated. He then raised his wand and shouted something in a guttural tongue as he brought it down before the gate. The old iron bars screeched in protest and then seemed to bend slowly but surely till they themselves formed a new passageway into the wall.

"Ah yes!" The dark wizard said as he stepped onto the campus. He breathed in deeply, and let out a low 'mhmm' as if he had just bit into a particularly delicious steak. William wasn't sure why but he suddenly felt like the air had dropped several degrees in temperature.

Nick suddenly turned to look at him and Chris then whispered, "Are you ready?"

William took a deep breath and thought about his father's story as he gripped his wand, "I guess so."

Chris nodded, none of his usual bravado or comments, his face was set with fierce determination as he slowly sat up and mounted his broom once more.

As the Master stepped further into what William realized seemed to be some kind old courtyard, he sniffed the air once more and growled, "What is this?"

Nick rushed out onto the brush covered brick, with William at his heels they quickly turned to stare at the assemblage of older students and their dark mentor. "Aha!" Nick shouted pointing his wand at the older students, William followed suit.

The dark wizard merely laughed, night had now completely fallen upon the old courtyard and surrounding wood. The first stars were just now beginning to twinkle out into the night's sky. The Master continued to laugh, waving his hand, "Take care of the little ones, but leave them alive."

"Yes, Master!" Came the resounding call from the students.

William suddenly found his mouth very dry as a flurry of spells was called forth by the group of older students. Time seemed to slow down as the various lights and fires and who knows what else rushed toward him. Both he and Nick seemed to somehow find their voices to shout, "_Protego_!" as they both jumped to the side. Most of the spells tore through their shield charms and flew through where they had just been.

William landed hard on the bricks, but quickly brought himself to his feet putting all of his effort into a shield charm. Another spell or two slammed directly into it, causing him to stumble back a bit. Nick seemed to be doing the same. They both struggled to a standing position and moved closer together calling the shield spell every few seconds with more random jets of light hitting them.

As they stood at the entrance to the courtyard they saw Chris come crashing down barreling into one of the older students knocking him down quickly. Still as he banked around the courtyard his broom was hit and he barely managed to stay aloft as it shook violently beneath him.

With that momentary distraction William quickly shouted to his roommate, "Chris, get Tall Elk!" A dark shadow in the shape of a snake crashed right into his leg as he said this. The pain reminded him of the spell Theodore had cast at the beginning of the semester only about ten times as strong. He immediately collapsed on it, calling out the shield charm as he did just in time to block another spell.

Both he and Nick were already sweating as if they had been dueling for hours as they continued to hold back the massive array of curses that were being flung at them. But one thing was quickly becoming obvious, the older students weren't trying very hard. Whereas the two sixth graders were struggling to not die, the high school students were merely flinging whatever spells came to mind into their shields. Meanwhile behind them William caught sight of what was going on with their Master.

For a brief moment William had been reminded of a James Bond movie his dad had watched with him once where the bad guy had stood behind his horde of minions while James Bond fought them quickly and easily. He had figured that was what this Master had been doing but it was something completely different. The dark wizard had shed his clothing and was quickly growing not hair but fur all over his body. The man was letting out all manner of shouts and there were a number of horrendous bone smashing sounds coming from the strange creature which was now occupying the space where the dark wizard had once stood.

As William barely blocked another spell, biting back the pain that was dissipating from his quickly numbing leg, he saw the sky above him. Not only was it twinkling with a number of stars but looming large over the horizon was a massive full moon. As he saw this, and the furry man-like beast that was now coming to form behind the older students he suddenly realized what the dark wizard was. It let out an outrageously loud howl as the realization that that was a werewolf hit him like a ton of bricks.

He barely held a shield in place as another student hurled a curse at him. Sweat was brimming through his eyes as he stood there, he vaguely felt something trickling down his legs and tears falling down his cheeks. William shook his head, he wasn't an action hero, he had just started middle school. William suddenly found himself wishing for the first time since he had become a wizard that this was all a dream, that he would wake up in his bed and realize he had to go to school and get picked on by Eric Grossman while he and Megan talked about the next Mathletes meeting. All of this zoomed through his head as the creature lunged forward.

And he breathed a selfish sigh of relief as it didn't crash into him. This was right before the horror of what was happening suddenly hit him, "No!" He shouted desperately as the massive ball of fur and muscle collided with Nick.

The creature tore right into Nick's neck and pressed him down to the ground. The barrage of dark magic had suddenly stopped as everyone paused to stare at the beast that tore off chunks of flesh from Nick's neck and bayed at the full moon, warm flecks of Nick's blood spraying onto William. As the creature howled, the red liquid pouring down its throat there was suddenly a sound like a thunder clap.

William felt temporarily blinded as a literal bolt of lightning crashed directly into the werewolf and sent it flying into the school wall. He turned his head to see the tall robed figure of Tall Elk not far behind him. In the blink of an eye the teacher appeared before William, his face had a look of grim determination set into it as he stared at the assembled students.

All of them though did not pause when he appeared, there was an immediate reprisal of several dark spells. Tall Elk never hesitated, as he spun his wand about, that was the one thing William saw in his teacher was that there was never a moment's thought in what he did.

The old man called out spells that William didn't know existed as jets of light poured out from him in a steady stream like a fourth of July fireworks display. William noticed that the dark wizards lost legs and arms that landed somewhere behind them. Others were suddenly flung up into the trees, getting lashed down by a horde of leaves and branches come to life. One student even seemed to be swallowed into the ancient brick and his head covered in a massive black bag. All of this was accompanied by the continual noises like airplanes roaring over head or like buildings collapsing. William had never quite heard something like this before, and he wasn't entirely sure but he was fairly certain his ears were ringing a thousand different notes as Tall Elk continued his barrage. None of the dark magic ever touched the old duelist, bouncing off a continually shimmering aura of rainbow colors that enveloped the old wizard. Finally after all of the students and the werewolf seemed to be thoroughly down for the count, did Tall Elk turn around and stare at William, "Wait here." It was not a request, and it was not friendly, William glumly nodded at his professor. The old man suddenly knelt down and picked Nick up gingerly in his arms, murmuring under his breath as he did. As he rose back to a standing position he disappeared with a loud pop.

William could only sit there, sweating, panting, and staring at the carnage before him. The area where Tall Elk had stood was clear, there was a ring of blackness where every spell had been stopped, chunks of the ground were missing and smoke was rising from the ground itself. Meanwhile the students who had opposed him were pinned down and unconscious by everything that had been there, several were actually missing their wand arms. The werewolf was plastered and held tight by the iron gate he had passed through barely ten minutes before hand.

He wasn't sure how much time had passed before there were dozens of more loud pops and several men in blue robes with American flags on their shoulders appeared. They quickly began to clear up the mess, and bind everyone but William. Most of them seemed to just grab their charge and disappear. Meanwhile others began looking over the scene shaking their heads and commenting on the obvious insanity of the battle. Finally one of them stepped up and summoned a blanket and draped it around William, "It's alright son, everything will be ok." He then began to look William over, when he realized that William still couldn't feel his leg he picked up the boy in a fireman's carry. Suddenly it felt like William was being slid through a keyhole and then pushed right out of it.

He shut his eyes tightly from the oppressive white light of wherever he was. After a few moments he felt himself put onto a soft bed and heard people who sounded like doctors talking over him. He slowly opened his eyes to the harsh white light. There was a man in what looked like green medical scrubs standing over his leg, and running his wand above his body, "Don't worry, you're safe now. We're trying to help you."

Slowly William realized he was in a hospital, a wizarding hospital. It wasn't exactly where he had been expecting to end up but he wasn't about to say that. It felt like hours before he could feel the pins and needles in his leg that signified it was waking up, with it came a massive amount of pain. They gave him a potion that killed that along with putting him into a deep dreamless sleep.


	15. The Next Few Days

William came to several hours later, still in the hospital bed. Rays of sunlight were pouring in through thin white drapes hanging over the window. "Morning squirt," A voice said from his other side.

"Elizabeth?" He asked, his throat dry, voice cracking as he turned his head to the other side.

"Who's that?" The fuzzy figure asked. Slowly William recognized the voice as Clark's.

"My sister," He explained, his voice barely audible due to the dryness of his throat. He fumbled about for his glasses.

"Oh right," Clark replied, and then she handed him his glasses, "Here you go."

William nodded his thanks, as everything came into view. He looked around and realized that he was in a simple spotless room on a clean white bed. On a bedside table was a pitcher of water and a full glass. Slowly he sat up and grasped the glass and hurriedly gulped up its contents. Quickly beginning to feel more alive as he asked the older student, "What are you doing here?"

"Tall Elk dragged me out of bed last night so someone would be here while the school contacted your family," She explained. Clark shook her head as she looked over her young charge, "What the hell were you thinking?"

William gulped, and felt his cheeks flush deeply, "I...I don't know. Everything seemed like the right idea at the time."

Clark sighed, and patted him gently on the head, "Yeah, it always does I guess. But still, you know you should have gone and gotten a teacher right?"

William nodded as he frowned, he wasn't sure why but he suddenly found himself saying, "I was so scared, I suddenly wished I wasn't a wizard anymore." He shook his head, "I know we should have gone to someone but..." He shrugged.

Clark suddenly gave him a strong hug, "It's ok, William." She then looked down at him and said, "Listen, you did well in a way. You held your own, and convinced one of your friends to do the right thing and get an adult which is a little more than most sixth graders would do."

William shook his head, "We didn't hold anything, we barely could cast a shield charm..."

Clark giggled and then explained slowly, "William, most sixth graders can barely cast that spell let alone use it to hold off a bunch of juniors and seniors hurling dark magic at them." She giggled and ruffled his hair, "Anyway, don't beat yourself up the school is going to do that for you."

"I'm in big trouble aren't I?" William asked.

"Oh yeah," Clark responded, "You guys could have been killed. Hell, Hawthorne almost was. All this could've been avoided if you had just told a teacher about it. The Dean is not going to be too pleased with you guys."

William shook his head and said, "But..."

Clark gave him a sad smile, "No buts Fraser. That's just what happens."

"Right," He said looking down a little. Then he asked, "Did you say the school is contacting my family?"

"Yep," Clark responded, "Arranging for muggles to come anywhere in the Wizarding World is a big hassle so it's going to take a while."

"But they know everything that happened?" William found himself asking.

"Just about," Clark answered, and then she giggled as William immediately frowned. "Don't worry about it, I'm sure they'll just be happy you're ok," Clark offered in consolation.

"What happened to Nick?" He asked after another brief spell of silence.

Clark shrugged, "I know he almost died and that he's alive but they seem to be keeping it all hushed up."

"Oh," William expelled. He frowned as he sat there.

After a few minutes, there was a knock and the door opened, William gulped as he turned his head. Assistant Dean Tall Elk had poked his head in, "Emily," he said in his normal voice, "William's family has arrived, if you could give them some privacy."

William's eyes widened a little. He had never heard anyone refer to Clark by her first name, he hadn't even heard it till that very moment. She blushed slightly as she stood smoothing out her robes, a more casual set William finally noticed in a deep purple shade. She nodded, stated, "Of course, sir." Then as she left she mouthed 'good luck' to William and exited the room. Tall Elk looked at William with a sigh as he stepped aside.

Mrs. Fraser rushed in immediately, with a cry amounting to, "My baby's alright!" But it came out so quickly and rushed and jumbled with tears that William couldn't make it out at the time. She quickly wrapped William up in a near bone crushing hug before tearing back afraid that she might have hurt her son even more.

William's father came in next, his face a little grim as he looked about and then came to stand next to his wife, "Are you alright son?"

William nodded, his sister hadn't entered yet, William wondered if Clark had stopped her in the hall or the like. "I'm fine Dad," William finally answered as he looked up into his parent's eyes.

His mother quickly sat down and took his hand in her own and shook her head. Time seemed to quickly pass as his parents continued to be worried over his condition. William had been waiting for them to begin yelling at him or at least ask him why he did what he had done. Instead though they merely hugged him, gave him water, and seemed to merely dote over him for most of the day.

Eventually when his mother had taken a break to get some coffee with his sister who had only popped in a few times throughout the day he asked his father, "Dad, aren't you angry?"

His father seemed surprised by the question. He sat down on the edge of his son's bed, and released a deep sigh, "William, you did something horrendously stupid. God only knows why you did, but you did. But far more importantly than anything else that happened, is that you're ok. Your mother and I were worried sick when one of your teachers literally appeared in front of the dinner table and explained everything that happened. But, we spent a whole night filling out forms, and waiting in offices, just so that we could be with you and make sure you were alright." He looked at his son, and patted William's leg, "We were so worried, that at the end of the day we only wanted you to be safe." Mr. Fraser then said simply, "Besides we know that your school will give you a more appropriate punishment and explain why what you did was foolish and dangerous much better than we ever could." He then leaned over and squeezed his son's hand, "I want you to listen to your teacher, Mr. Tall Elk, he explained a lot of things throughout the night. He knows what he's talking about, and we told him to give you a talk about what you did because I definitely have no idea how to explain why you shouldn't go rushing into forests to fight dark wizards or other sorts of craziness. I can tell you that I never want you to worry your mother or me like this again, but I don't know about this magic stuff and how it's dangerous, just that it is son." He then looked at William and shook his head, "Now look at me I'm rambling William. Just promise me you'll listen to your teachers and not get into trouble like this again."

William nodded slowly, "I promise Dad, I never want to do something like that ever again."

"Good, that's what matters," His father then pulled him into a hug and said, "Now get some rest. The doctors have said you can go back to school tomorrow, which means we won't see you for another month or so. Just be good William."

"Good night, Dad," William said as his father smiled at him and closed the door as William suddenly found himself tired once more.

The next morning, William was able to say good bye to his family before he had to go back to Salem. Clark would be returning with him, she was standing in the hallway across from his parents. After he hugged his mother for the last time, she placed a hand on his shoulder and whispered, "Hold on." She then closed her eyes tight and William once more felt the same tightly squeezing feeling as when he had been brought to the hospital. He felt like he was slammed directly into the ground, and found himself wobbling and staggering on the school grounds.

"What was that?" William asked when he finally regained his composure.

"Apparation," She explained looking over him, "Good no lost limbs or anything." William's eyes burst open as he stared at the older student, she offered by way of explanation, "Well, I just got my license."

William nodded and then looked around, "What time is it?"

Before Clark could answer he heard the bell to start first period and she then said, "Tall Elk said you could be late to your first class Fraser, you did just get discharged from the hospital." William nodded and began slowly walking to his dorm, Clark then called after him, "That doesn't mean you can skip." William then quickly picked up the pace.

The first two periods had never been more awkward. Every student was just staring at him, apparently the entire school had learned that he had fought a group of student terrorists a few days before hand and were now merely gawking at him. No one made mention of it to him directly though. Alexandria, Sarah's roommate, did smile at him though and gave him a vague congratulations over it after Transfiguration was over. Mr. C acknowledged him but didn't say anything in regards to the event, merely treating him like he always had with a friendly and slightly proud demeanor. Ms. Codswell however had glared at him throughout the entire period, his return had coincided quite nicely with her description of some of the first Dark wizards in the US and how some people met untimely ends by opposing them unprepared before several experienced and knowledgable people were able to band together and stop them. William gulped as he fled her class and continuously firm glares.

Defense was very strange. He immediately noticed that Henry did not look at him at all, he seemed to be ignoring William completely, William wondered if Henry had realized just how crazed the older students had been. After class when Sarah and Chris continued on William hung back to speak with Tall Elk.

The older man stared at him and then frowned. He then spoke slowly, not making a move to go to his office, "William, I have already spoken to Mr. Angeloni and I vaguely understand why you boys did what you did." He then shook his head, "However, I hope you realize just how foolish it was." William nodded but didn't speak, waiting for the Assistant Dean to continue, "Dark Forces are not something to be trifled with. It takes years to learn enough about them to combat them properly, and experience to fight them well. I am, as is the Dean himself, very grateful that you attended the Dueling Club for if you had not you would have had no chance at all to hold a shield charm against those criminals. Yet I feel the need to impress upon you the extreme difference between dueling and actual combat. A duel is a controlled environment William, nothing will ever happen to you in the basement of the Quodpot stadium that can't be fixed or prevented with ease because in a duel the goal is to beat your opponent with finesse and skill rather than to actually harm them. Combat is dangerous and not a pleasant thing, I have seen far too much of it in my long life and I wish I had not William." He paused, his hand drifting to touch the feathers tied in his hair, "I know that you are aware of what could have happened to you, and what has happened to Nicholas." William gulped, he had learned that Nick was infected with lycanthropy and wouldn't be returning to school for at least another two days that morning before he had left. "It is for that reason I do not feel that there is any reason to reiterate why you should never do what you did again, do you understand William?"

"Yes, sir," William said calmly and clearly.

"Good," Tall Elk gave him a softened smile, "I am proud of you William, you have become one of my best students both inside and outside of the classroom. I hope that you understand that I still welcome you at the dueling club, but still fully support whatever action the Dean takes as punishment. He has informed me that you are to go to his office right after your last class of the day."

William nodded and then stated, "I understand, sir."

"Very well," Tall Elk responded, "Then I wish you luck William, you may go."

William nodded and then quickly made his way out of the class. The rest of the day followed in a similar fashion. He noticed that Theodore glared in his direction when he entered Charms though he quickly directed his attention away from William just as quickly. Ms. Newman did ask him if he was alright through her Potions class, and seemed almost to walk on eggshells around him frowning in his direction when she thought he wasn't looking. Finally as the day ended he made his way to the main office on the second floor of the building.

He had passed by the old wood paneled room several times throughout the year though he never imagined that he would have to enter it to see the Dean for punishment. William had never been in the principal's office in elementary school, though he had seen students get sent there before unsure of what punishments were passed down. He entered the old room and was struck by the number of small photographs and trophies which lined one wall. On the wall to the right of the door was a large portrait, that William found himself slowly drawn to. It was the portrait of a very old man with dark gray hair in plain simple clothing standing before the main school building of Salem surrounded by trees that were no longer there. A small brass plaque sat beneath it that read, John Proctor 1632-1715, Founder of the Salem Institute for Magical Study established 1695. William took in a sharp breath as he looked up at the portrait, he vaguely knew the name but he wasn't sure why. The old man in the portrait frowned deeply at him and then said, "You're the boy who got into the fight at the northern courtyard?"

William jumped back, "You...you can speak?"

The old portrait frowned, "Of course I can." His voice was deep and rumbling, conveying a sense of strength not unlike an old tree. "You are him, aren't you?" The portrait asked again.

"Y-ye-yes, sir," William found himself stammering out.

The old portrait harumphed and then said, "Let me tell you a lesson, boy. Do not go looking for trouble, it never leads one to good places, even when you do it for the right reasons." He then coughed for a moment, rubbed his neck, and walked out of the frame.

William was just staring glassy eyed at the now empty portrait, when he heard the door to the Dean's office open, "Ah, Mr. Fraser," The dean said, his voice was stern and deep, "Do come in."

William nodded and made his way into the Dean's office. The dean gestured for him to take a seat, and William carefully alighted himself upon the straight backed wooden chair. The dean sat down at a desk opposite him and William suddenly realized that he had never actually seen the man before.

The Dean had a worn and weathered look to him, his hair was nearly gone except for a small bit at his temples and running along the back of his head. He looked to be middle aged, maybe a decade older than William's father, and had the harsh bearing of a disciplinarian. The man spoke firmly, "I do not like to see such excellent students come to me for punishment, Mr. Fraser. In fact if there is one thing I hate more than repeat offenders, it's good students who do foolish things." William gulped, and tried to keep his eyes facing the Dean, "That is why, Mr. Fraser I am going to be sure that your punishment along with Mr. Hawthorne's is appropriate enough that the two of you will be sure not to get involved in something such as this ever again." He leaned across his desk, "And if you ever do, well Mr. Fraser, I am not someone you wish to become familiar with, do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir," William said quickly and surprisingly loudly.

"Very good," He stated. The dean then casually leaned back in his chair, "You will be serving detention every day from now until the end of the semester, including the weekends. I am also prohibiting you from attending the dueling club for the rest of the year. Next year, I expect you to be a model student Mr. Fraser, a model which your fellow students can look to with pride." He stood up and walked to his window gazing out on the fields behind the main school building, "Now Mr. Fraser I believe you have a detention you should be serving."

William shot up, "Yes, sir!" He then quickly departed the dean's office. He frowned detention wouldn't be so bad he had thought and it was only for about a month. William smiled, it seemed almost like he was getting off easy...


	16. The End of the Year

One of the first things that William learned was that detention at Salem was nothing like it was at muggle schools. One of the teachers who was put in charge of it had actually said, "Ever since they got rid of corporal punishment it has become so hard to discipline students." Most detention involved varying amounts of physical or menial labor without the use of magic. William was generally joined by a variety of students who were there for a varying degree of offenses.

After several days at which point he was deemed healthy enough for the harsher detentions Nick joined him. The other boy looked terrible, he was pale and his neck was still pink and red from where he had been bitten. Nick was largely silent through their detentions and quick to make excuses like the fact that he had work to do or the like. William frowned, suddenly it seemed like Nick was avoiding him.

Finally after one particularly harsh day of detention in which they had been pruning bushes all along the school wall, William caught him. "Hey Nick," William said, "What's up?"

Nick shrugged, "Just have to go do some potions work you know."

"Right," William responded, staring at his very sullen friend. "Is something wrong?" He finally asked after a few moments.

Nick gulped and then said, "William, they're not sure if they're going to let me come back for school next year."

"What?!" William shouted.

"I'm a werewolf now," Nick said, "Parents are freaking out they say I'm dangerous and are worried about the safety of their children."

"But, that's insane," William said, "We...we fought students who were studying the dark arts!"

"Yeah, that were being lead by an evil werewolf who bit me," Nick said with a sigh, "It's all over the news and everything." He shook his head, "I just don't get it, I just, I don't even know what's going to happen."

William frowned and then said, "It'll be ok Nick."

"I hope so," Nick said as he stared at the stars slowly twinkling into existence and the waning moon on the horizon.

Finals quickly landed like a bomb through the student body. Suddenly every lounge in the dorms were full of books and studying students, every table at the library had people writing papers or studying at them, and even most of the secluded parts of campus had study groups talking in hushed whispers. William found himself starting awake at his desk with a face down in a book, exhausted from the intense detentions he'd be serving right up until the first day of final examinations.

If Midterms had been intense, then Finals were even worse. Each subject had a full day devoted to it, each exam being broken up by lunch, one portion was theoretical while the other was practical with the exception of History of Magic which consisted of an exceedingly long multiple choice section in the morning and a grueling essay and short answer section in the afternoon.

The practicals were always short occurring rapidly in one-on-one meetings with the teacher either within their classroom or office with the exception of Potions which consisted of mixing three potions from a list that the sixth graders had learned that year. William knew he had done very well on his various theoretical portions it was the practicals where things had been markedly different.

In Potions he knew for a fact that he had mixed everything perfectly, not running into any troubles as he mixed three of the toughest potions on the list, Ms. Newman had smiled at him as he had turned in his work giving him a slight thumbs up as he left. Transfiguration had also gone very smoothly, he had made teacups become sponge cakes within one wave of his wand and Mr. C had definitely beamed with pride when he had done this, suggesting that William would do very well in Transfiguration the following year. Charms had been much tougher, with McAllister glaring at him and starting off by asking him how he had liked detention at Salem, William had been nervous succeeding at the first few charms but eventually stumbling with the more recent ones from later in the year, McAllister had tutted and shaken his head throughout the whole thing and dismissed William with a wave of his hand. The Herbology practical had been merely disheartening as Mr. Thorten had gestured to his board where instructions were and then to the various plants around the room, William wasn't sure but he thought he might have killed a plant by accident though he wasn't sure how he had done it. Finally had been Defense, Tall Elk had him run through not just the variety of hexes, jinxes, and counters to them, but then released one of the small imp-like creatures they had discussed over the end of the year and had William take care of it. William had handled everything with passing colors, banishing the imp with the standard hex for small pests and Tall Elk had smiled at him. He relayed that the dueling club missed William and Nick and was greatly awaiting their return in the fall. William had smiled, shook his professor's hand and then left.

With finals over, William found himself slowly packing his whole room away into his trunk. He and Chris had helped each other pack and had begun to talk about the various happenings at the school that year, reflecting on everything that had happened. Chris had mentioned that he had to say goodbye to a couple of people and would probably miss William on the train, "Hey man, keep in touch," Chris said, "And you should totally get a broom while you're home."

William frowned and said, "I don't think so."

Chris just shook his head, laughed and said, "Come on, what's the worst that could happen?" William shook his head as his roommate left Corey Hall 131 for the last time that year.

Shortly after he had left, William received a knock at his door and looked up to see Sarah there, "Is the quodpot fan gone?"

William laughed, "Yes, he's making the rounds I think."

"Thank God," Sarah said with a sarcastic laugh as she came in, "So how you doing?"

William shrugged, "Good, kind of sad that I have to go home for a few months."

"Yeah, going back to the muggle world is so..." She shrugged.

"Boring?" William asked.

"Yeah," She laughed a little, then said, "But at least my grandpa is around so I'll be able to go to Quidditch games at least once or twice."

"That's pretty cool," William said, even though he didn't like quidditch he couldn't hide the fact that he was slightly jealous of Sarah for being able to ditch the muggle world at least for a little while.

She smiled, "Don't be a stranger William." Then got up and left just as casually as she had arrived. William laughed and shook his head as the blond girl had left, writing himself a note to send her a letter at least once.

As he had finally closed up his trunk and gotten Asimov into his cage he turned around to find Clark standing there. She was in another set of casual robes, this time a light blue, and her red hair was pulled back from her face. She smiled at him and said, "Ready to head home, Fraser?"

William shrugged as the older student looked at him, "I guess."

She giggled a little, "I remember the end of my first year here, it was..." She frowned, "A little upsetting."

William nodded, "I'm not sure I really want to go home."

She nodded sympathetically, "It's always harder for muggle-borns I think." She then walked up to him and gave him a hug, "But it'll be ok, just a few months then you'll be back to work at the dueling club."

William laughed, "Will you still be instructing us next year?"

Clark shrugged, "Not sure, depends on what Tall Elk decides. It'll be my last year so I'll be a little busy. We'll see what happens." William nodded, "See you in a few months, squirt." She giggled and ruffled his hair as she wandered out of the room.

William found his train ride home to be surprisingly peaceful, it was quiet, and seemed to give him time to slowly adjust to the fact that he would be back in the muggle world for a few months. He even found himself smiling as he got off of the train. As he did he caught sight of Nick getting ready to leave the platform. William rushed over and called out, "Nick!"

The taller boy stopped and turned saying, "Hey William," as he did.

William stopped short of his friend and asked, "Any news?"

Nick broke into a wide grin, "They're going to let me stay."

"That's great!" William called out, "So I'll see you next year?"

"Definitely," Nick said, his grin still big and wide. He then turned and mounted up the stairs.

William then slowly gathered up his bags and made his way up into New York City, in some ways happy that the school year was over, in others very sad to be on his way back home. Overall though he was sure of one thing, he was very glad that he was a wizard.


End file.
