DISCLAIMER: I still down own Harry Potter, and I'm not holding my breath either. If I was, you wouldn't have a story anymore, let alone an author.

NOTICE: CHANGING TITLE! I have every intention of changing the title of this story, shortening it to just THE PATH I WALK. I've been considering doing that for a while, and I've finally decided to. I'll probably do it about a week after my next update, so hopefully everybody gets the message.

I want to apologize again for another late update, but at least this time I sorta have an excuse. I was stuck without my laptop on vacation for two weeks, so I couldn't type, as I keep all my story material there (thank the gods it never crashes, because then we'd all be screwed .). I've also had some school stuff to get done over the summer, so that took up a good bit of my time too. I will try my best to get the next update out quicker than this, alright? Thanx for sticking with my horrible updating schedule for so long ^w^.

This is just a request, but in your reviews, would you mind reviewing my overall writing? Not just the story line, but how my drivel compares to how a novel would read. I'm really interested in what you guys think. So please, let me know, whether it's just on a scale of 1 to 10, ten being best, or it's just a little critique on my work, all will be appreciated. And kudos for you if you made it through all of my author's notes. I'd generally have gotten bored of what it had to say by now :)

P.S. I made this chapter longer than usual in my apology for taking so long ^.^ Enjoi!

Dear Dark,

The Leakey Cauldron hasn't been too bad, although it is very boring. However, I just got a letter from Uncle Severus saying I get to leave for Hogwarts in two day's time. I'll be very glad for that. I miss not having a potions lab, and I've recently read about a few new brews I want to try out. It'd be better if you were there to help, though, because they are very complex. Perhaps I should just wait to try them until the new term starts.

To be honest, I rather pity you, what with being stuck with all of those Weasley red heads. Always so cheerful, it makes them bloody annoying, and you know it. They're probably waking you up early and trying to force tons of food down your throat, aren't they?

I'm staring out a magically charmed window right now, into a bright grassy field with a lone tree. I don't know who designs these scenes, but they really need some help in the head. I mean, who in their right mind would want to have this as their view? But then again, maybe it's just my interpretation of it that makes it such. The tree all by itself seems so lonely. Or maybe I'm projecting on it. Probably.

Love,

Light

I smiled as I read Draco's reply to my previous letter, and in the sanctuary of Ron's bedroom, I immediately began penning a new letter for him.

Dear Light,

It great to hear from you! It's sort of embarrassing how ecstatic I was when I saw my owl flying in with the post. I think I frightened the Weasleys with how excited I was about one simple letter. But they'll get over it, now won't they?

I resent your pity, although it probably is justified. They do get me up early and try and make me eat everything under the sun, and it's really starting to rub me the wrong way. Even Snuffles, my godfather, is getting on my nerves a bit. He's too clingy and pokes too much fun at people when the subject should be dropped, but I don't really blame him. He's been cooped up in his house for way too long, and I guess he uses these visits to unwind.

I love your 'lonely tree' metaphor, though. It's very poetic, my lovely blonde. I find I can relate to that too. I have a tree story to tell as well. When I can't stand my present company anymore, I head outside to the single large tree in the back of the property and just sit around under it, brooding. I usually think of you. Vick, too. I miss his idiocy, as well as you sharp wit. The new term can't start fast enough.

Love,

Dark

I sent my return letter as soon as it was finished. That's pretty much how I spent the dwindling days of my summer, writing Draco. I hung onto his words and waited for the next to arrive. The ache for him in my chest grew every day I went without seeing him. I cursed wizards for not accepting muggle technology. I wished I could phone him, because just hearing his voice would make me feel less depressed. The days drug on.

Ron, Hermione, and I got along pretty well as time passed, but I knew we could all sense the lack of closeness that we'd had before. I honestly hadn't meant to lose that between us, so I was making a conscious effort to spend time with them, only it was hard because they wouldn't stop pestering me, or fussing over me. Needless to say, I spent a lot of time under the tree. I was starting to grow attached to the thing, I even talked to it upon occasions, and I was somewhat sad to leave it when I returned to school.

[][][][][][]

September 1st had finally arrived, and I found myself thanking every god that walked the earth for it.

It was morning at the Burrow, and for once, I'd actually gotten up early, six a.m. to be exact, in my excitement to see Draco again. But of course, no one else had any intentions of being awake before eight o'clock, and we didn't have to leave for the train station until nine. So, already packed, I found myself sitting under my favorite tree, wishing I could take it with me, thinking over some of the time I'd spent with the Weasleys.

My stay had been pleasant, in a torturous sort of way, and even with the annoyances it wrought, I would miss the Burrow. But some aspects of it, I wouldn't be sad to leave behind.

The need to feed, for example, had made my stay somewhat awkward. Because of the return of the Dark Lord, the Weasleys had put wards up around their house that were activated at night, which I found out the first night I'd tried to sneak away and everyone had come at me, wands raised. At first, I'd thought that maybe they'd figured out my secret of vampirism, but thankfully that wasn't the case. But it did, however, pose a problem to satiating my thirst.

It took a few days of a deep, aching hunger to come up with the idea of exiting the wards in my wolf form, where I'd only be detected as an animal and therefore overlooked. My theory worked. I left once more after that, close to my time of departure, so I wouldn't have to worry about sustenance so soon after my return to Hogwarts. But after the first incident, I decided to always have some bottled blood on my person, just in case. I'd honestly been about ready to eat Ron before I'd finally made it past the wards.

[][][][][][]

Only hours later, I found myself in a Ministry car on my way to the London train station. Mr. Weasley had managed to get two of them for us, though he admitted his request was only approved when he'd used my name, although I'm not sure why. Even if it had recently become known that Voldemort really was back, the Ministry still wasn't very fond of me. Maybe I'd had an admirer in the Department of Travel. Who knew?

So there I sat, with Ginny to my left, and Hedwig's empty cage occupying the small middle seat. I'd told her to fly on ahead so she wouldn't have to be cramped all day. Mrs. Weasley was in the passenger seat in the front, chatting away with the Ministry driver while I pondered just why I'd been stuck with Ginny, while Mr. Weasley, Ron, and Hermione followed behind us in the other car.

I was silent as I stole a glance at Ginny. She was blushing, and I could hear that her heart rate was accelerated, obviously from her crush on me. I sighed. Really? They stuck me with her for a matchmaking deal? I was not impressed. I sighed, and turned away when the red haired girl turned toward me, preparing to speak, and gazed out the window.

It's not that I purposely wanted to spurn the girl, but I simply had no interest, what with being gay and having a lover. Plus, if I talked to her here, especially while her mother wasn't paying attention, she'd probably try and put the moves on me. I shuddered in repulsion at the though. It's not that Ginny wasn't a pretty girl, it's simply that her . . . anatomy wasn't what I preferred.

A long silence later, probably awkward on Ginny's part, we arrived at the station. My heart skipped a beat, and my slow breathing picked up slightly. Draco was just out of my reach at Hogwarts, waiting for me. I honestly couldn't wait to get to the school. The sooner the better, as far as I was concerned.

It was obvious to my party that I wanted to get to the train as soon as possible, and there was even a slight hurry to my step. I led the Weasleys to the brick barrier. They never could quite catch up in the crows.

"Slow down there, Harry!" Ron called from behind me. I simply waved him off with the back of my hand and proceeded to walk through onto the platform, just barely remembering to glance around to see if any muggles were watching. Thankfully, none were.

Everyone else was through in no time as well, and Ron and Hermione joined me while Ginny said her final goodbyes to her parents and lugged her trunk off towards her friends so they could find a compartment together.

"Really, Harry," Hermione admonished me once she'd caught her breath, "Why were you in such a hurry to get here? We still have fifteen minutes before the train leaves! Honestly, you must have bats for brains." She grumbled the last part, and if it wasn't for my vampiric hearing, I wouldn't have caught it. I smiled slightly, just a small upturning of my lips.

"I just want to make sure we get a good compartment." I lied smoothly; after all, I couldn't exactly tell them I was eager to get back to school to see my Slytherin boyfriend, now could I?

As the minutes ticked by and we only had ten left to get on the train, we all said goodbye to the elder Weasleys, with hugs all around, and some tearing up from the matriarch. Finally aboard the train, we made our way to the back looking for an empty compartment. As it were, the only one left was at the very end of the train.

"Do you need some help with that?" I asked Hermione as she struggled to stow her trunk in the rack above her seat. I didn't wait for an answer though, and just lent a helping hand.

"Thanks," she said once we had it up, and she collapsed on the seat next to her. "That's hard work!" she moaned.

Ron spoke up, "Yeah, and so is homework!" he grumbled.

Hermione frowned. "Not it is not, Ronald! It's easy when you actually try." She lectured.

Ron turned to me for support. "To each his own." I shrugged, and sat down beside Hermione, who cursed under her breath when she looked at her watch.

"Ron, we have to go to the prefect's meeting!" She informed. "If we don't leave now, we'll be late!" she fretted.

"So let us be." The read head grumbled unenthusiastically, obviously not looking forward to the drab gathering.

She frowned. "We can't. We have to set the example for the younger students, so we must be on time! Now go!" she shooed him toward the compartment door, but before she left, she turned to me. "We're sorry for leaving you like this, Harry, but we have to . . ." she trailed off, anxiety on her face. Apparently she thought she was being a bad friend if she left me here alone.

I waved her off. "Go on, I know you wouldn't leave me if you didn't have to." I said with a reassuring smile, letting her know I wasn't mad.

She smiled back gratefully. "We should only be gone for about half the ride, but maybe more depending on what we're discussing." She informed.

"Alright, I'll see you then." And they left, shutting the door behind them.

I sighed, sort of relieved to be left in solitude. I'd missed the quiet. I also felt tired. My earlier energy and adrenaline were deserting me, leaving me feeling drowsy. No matter how excited I was by the prospect of seeing Draco tonight after two weeks of separation, I couldn't fight the tiredness, and since I had no one to keep company, I decided to take a nap. I lay myself down on one of the seats and closed my eyes, waiting for sleep to come to me.

I was about to drift off into dreamland when I heard the door open, which caused my lips to curve downward a slight amount. It was way too early for my friends to be back, after all, they'd only been gone a whole ten minutes, so unless one of my other friends came to see me, I'd no idea who it was, and I didn't feel like opening my eyes.

The door closed once again, only there was a beating heart inside the room with me now. With the closing of the door, a scent drifted over to me on the breeze it created, and I jumped a mile in the air once I'd recognized it.

"Draco!" I practically screeched, now wide awake with eyes wide open, glued to the figure of my slim blonde lover before me.

He was wearing a lazy smirk, although I could see the open warmth in his eyes clearly. His scent surrounded me, familiar, comforting, as was the rhythmic beating of his hear. "It's been a while." Was all he had time to say before I jumped on him.

"Draco." I said again, slightly breathless as I pulled him into a crushing hug, but still minding his fragile human bones. "My Draco." I breathed out, simply reveling in the feel of having in my arms once again.

I don't know how long our embrace lasted, his arms wormed around my waist, our hearts beating side by side. It could have been only minutes, or hours, but it was a perfect moment in time. However, all good things must come to an end. I pulled Draco down onto the seat I'd just vacated, and sat myself beside him, snuggled right up against him.

"What are you doing here?" I fired off the question that had been buzzing in my brain as soon as I'd seen him.

His response was full of mirth. "I finally see you after two weeks, and all you have to say to me are questions about my location?"

I smacked him playfully. "Answer the damn question." I mumbled out with a slight growl, only I wasn't mad at all, just feigning.

He ran a hand through my long black locks as he began to answer my demanded question. "I'd been at Hogwarts a little over a week now, but you already knew that. Only the staff knew I was there at all, somehow I think that Dumbledore figured out I didn't want my whereabouts to be known because I overheard some of the professors talking about how they weren't to say anything about my stay there." He glanced at me before continuing, "I swear, our headmaster knows things he shouldn't. Severus didn't tell him I wanted to stay hidden, that's for sure." His lips were curved into a frown, his thoughts pensive, probably wondering how the old headmaster found out what he did. Did he have ways to spy, or was he just really good at reading people?

To pull Draco from his distractions, I placed a small, chaste kiss to the corner of his mouth, effectively destroying his previous frown. "You were saying?" I innocently said, my eyes theatrically wide.

He smiled at me. "Last night after dinner, Dumbledore asked me to stay behind for some reason. Naturally, since he was giving me sanctuary, I complied. It seemed he wanted me to ride the train back to Hogwarts as to not raise suspicion for why I was already there in the first place. It was also a chance to see you, so of course I wasn't going to turn it down."

His voice had turned a bit husky toward the end of his story, and I picked up on it quickly, and just after he pulled me into a deep kiss. It was mind-blowing, the feel of his soft, sweet lips on mine again after so long. Minutes passed and the kiss deepened, and I leaned farther into my love, pulling him closer to me as I did so. I parted my lips and breathed onto his mouth, my tongue darting out to lick his bottom lip, demanding rather than asking for entrance into his luscious mouth.

He easily complied, and my tongue soon won the short lived battle for dominance. The kiss itself was amazing, and through it we communicated more than we would have in an hour of talking and catching up. He told me though his movements just how much he had missed me, how much he had wished I was there beside him, how hard it was for him to sleep without me beside him at night.

He also told me that he was worried about the coming year, worried about how we'd stay together, worried about how we'd treat each other in the halls, worried about Voldemort. The list went on. In turn, I projected to him all my feelings of love, and happiness at being reunited.

Somewhere in between the beginning of the kiss and now, we ended up lying on the seat, Draco under me, and myself between his legs, our chests touching, our mouths moving. I groaned into the kiss, and shifted my hips slightly on his, pulling another groan from my throat, and one from his as well.

I did it again, and Draco's responding gasp broke the kiss, so while he recovered, I moved on to his neck, lightly sucking and biting, all the while gently rolling our hips together. Draco groaned. It was only when I really started to get hard, and Draco as well, I could feel his length pushing into my thigh, that I pulled back, breathing heavy.

"Draco," I gasped, "are you alright with this?" I asked him breathlessly. After all, the last thing I wanted to do was push him to hard and too fast and end up losing him.

He looked at me through lust lidded eyes. "What do you think?" he asked me huskily, and pulled my face down so our lips met again, while simultaneously thrusting his hips up into mine.

I smirked into the kiss. "I guess I'll take that as a yes." I mumbled through his lips, and thrust harder into his hips, while sliding his shirt up with one of my hands, the other holding part of my weight so I didn't crush Draco.

I ran my hand over his taught and quivering stomach, and slowly inched teasingly higher to his nipples, which were already hard. I lightly pinched one, and Draco gasped, breaking the kiss when he was overcome by stimulation. Once he recovered, he latched himself onto my neck, and sucked hard, most definitely leaving a mark, but with my vampire healing, it wouldn't last long.

I moved my hand to his other nipple, the first being sufficiently teased, and repeated the process. We continued on like that for a while until the throbbing of my manhood began to become painful, and with a groan, I pulled away from Draco, sitting up on my knees, and momentarily admiring his flushed form beneath me, until I dove for the clasp on his pants, intent of relieving him of his hard on.

An hour passed, and content, we lie together, very close indeed, on the bench in the compartment, silent and comforting, loving the contact, and satisfied in many ways. Hours later, it seemed, we finally had to pull apart and go our separate ways.

I sat up, pulling Draco with me. Reluctantly, I said, "Ron and Hermione will be back soon." And that was enough to get the message through. If we didn't want to be caught together, then Draco would have to leave. It wrenched at my heart to watch him go quietly, so soon after getting him back.

And he left without complaint, just stealing one last embrace from me, as well as a sweet, lustless kiss.

I sighed in the oppressing silence of the compartment that now consumed my surroundings. With nothing better to do, I pulled out my wand and cast a refreshening charm. It wouldn't do for the air to smell like sex when my friends got back. I smiled as I cast the spell, thinking back on Draco. Although we hadn't gone all the way, we sure as hell had gotten somewhere.

That done, I lay back down on the bench, much more spacious now that I had it all to myself, and, influenced by the light of the day and previous exhausting activities, began to drift to sleep. It was only minutes later I was awoken by the door opening, and my arguing friends rejoined me, none the wiser of my earlier company.

I sat up with a yawn, jaws opening wide, and said with a soft smile, "Welcome back."

Hermione being Hermione, smiled back as well, saying that the prefect meeting went well, but she was glad to be free once again.

Ron simple grumbled, "It was horrible, mate! Worse than last year, I recon. You're lucky you didn't get picked for this sodding prefect business." Whereas, Hermione smacked him upside the head for his language.

I chuckled at their antics. "I'll take your word for it, Ron." And after that, Hermione was glaring at me, too.

After things settled down, we passed the rest of the ride in comfortable companionship, playing exploding snap, and munching on chocolate frogs from the trolley.

"Harry . . ." Hermione began after a while, "You seem, I dunno, happier? Since we got on the train. It's like you were tense or something over the summer, but now . . ." the brainiac was having trouble describing what she meant.

I shrugged nonchalantly as the snap cards exploded on me, and I lost the game. "It's just good to be going home." I said, although this year, that wasn't exactly true. My home was now at Vick's manor, but they didn't need to know that. But Hogwarts was sort of like the home I'd grown up in, but then moved out of, like children move away from their parents. Only I was going back. A bit of a strange metaphor, really, but it sufficed.

Not long after that deep bit of conversation, we felt the train begin to slow, so Ron and I decided to put our robes on, and Hermione already had hers on (Honestly, boys! Why must you always wait until the last minute?).

Robes on and train stopped, the three of us joined the mass exodus off the train, and scrambled quickly towards the carriages in Ron's wake. He said he was starving and wanted to get to the Great Hall as soon as possible, but Hermione shot him down saying that no matter when they got there, they'd still have to wait until after the sorting to eat. Ron started moping like a child then. It was quite hilarious, really, but I did my best to keep my mirth concealed.

I opened a carriage door, bowing slightly, "Ladies first." Hermione smiled graciously and entered, Ron lagging behind. Neville caught up to us as well, and asked to join. "Of course," I waved him on in, and shut the door, leaving myself outside and my friends wondering what the bloody hell I was doing.

"Don't worry, I'll still be riding with you. Just not inside." I said. You see, as we were walking toward the carriages, I got the bright idea to ride on the back of one of the thestrals instead of inside the stuffy thing it was pulling.

I allowed the one hitched to our carriage to sniff my hand, and having done so, it proceeded to rub its head on my hand, telling me it wanted pet. I smiled slightly. No thestral had ever acted like this for me before. Maybe it sensed something in me akin to it. After all, we were both considered dark creatures.

The other carriages began to pull away, everyone but me inside of one, and Neville hanging out the door, watching me with a question on his face, mouth opening as if to voice it. However, I jumped onto the back of the thestral nimbly before he could get any words out. I turned back to him and grinned. He just shook his head at me, and slipped back inside as we got on our way.

From my perch on the thestral, I could easily make out the words of Neville telling the others what I was doing, and I clearly heard Hermione's protests. "Honestly? What is that boy thinking? He could get in trouble!" but I'd never heard it said that you had to ride in the carriages up to the school, so what could it hurt?

The thestral swayed as it walked, its gait slow and steady, plodding along. I found myself falling into rhythm with it, moving as it did, watching the land pass by as we moved toward the castle. I watched the quidditch pitch pass by, along with the lake, where I could faintly make out the first year boats, and of course Hagrid, who stuck out like a mountain among the young children.

Nearly ten minutes had passed by the time the trip from Hogsmeade to Hogwarts began, and we were not arriving at our destination. Those who had already arrived were slipping out of their carriages, many of them giving me strange looks because it appeared as I wasn't riding anything to them, the lucky souls who had never seen death.

The carriage stopped, and I slipped quietly to the ground, making no sound, and stroked the thestral absentmindedly as I waited for my friends to get out. They did swiftly, Ron seeming to have forgotten that getting to the Great Hall sooner didn't mean food would come quicker, and he drug us all away quickly, shouting at us to hurry up.

We all complied, figuring it wasn't worth it to fight him, and we ended up sitting at a nearly empty table, myself beside Hermione, and Ron and Neville sitting together across from us.

"Why won't food show up?" Ron wined, poking at his empty plate with his fork.

Hermione scowled at him. "Enough of that rubbish. Now hush, the sorting will be starting soon." If by soon, she meant at least ten minutes for the rest of the school to meander inside after chatting with their friends, she was right.

As she shushed everybody, I let my gaze wonder up to the professors' table, searching for my sire. My eyes soon landed on Vic, for he was unmistakable up there. His long blonde hair stood out from the more muted tones of the other professors. And he looked bored out of his mind. At least until he caught my gaze anyway.

I saw a slight spark in his mischievous eyes as they met mine, and he winked, but of course no one else caught it, wrapped up in their own affairs as they were. I saw his eyes dart to my currant company as well, taking in whom my friends were, hopefully so he would know who not to give a hard time to during his class. I could only hope those were his intentions. Maybe he really just wanted to bug the crap out of them so it would annoy me. That option was very plausible as well. With Vic, I could only guess.

Eventually, the sorting did get under way, with the nervous first years being led in by Professor McGonagall, who looked as strict and daunting as ever. That probably didn't help the new students get over their fears easily. Come to think of it, parading them in front of the entire school and singling them out one by one for every person in the room to ogle didn't exactly make one's first Hogwarts experience very memorable, or at least not in a pleasant way. But that's not entirely true. Once they finally get sorted, and are welcomed into their new houses with roaring applause, things tend to seem better. As it were, it did for me.

A good bit of time later, the last student, a girl by the name of Zyfell, Jeanette, was sorted into Hufflepuff, and Dumbledore stood up for his traditional short speech before the feast commenced. He stood regally before his podium, or as regal as he could be in periwinkle robes with neon embroidery around the hems, and said, "I welcome all students to Hogwarts this year, the new and the old. Now, I do believe you all deeply desire for me to step back, and allow you all to eat, so, with that overwhelming consensus, I shall do just that. Enjoy!" and he returned to his seat with a smile coloring his lips and a twinkle in his eye. I rolled my eyes good-naturedly at him. I truly wondered why he even bothered to give beginning of the year speeches when they were that pointless.

The tables filled with enormous platters of food of all sorts, sans sweets as they would come later. An exclamation of jubilation came from Ron, who promptly piled his plate high with half the contents of the serving plates before us. I put a small piece of turkey on my dish, blanketed it with a layer of gravy, and poured myself a shallow bowl of cream of potato soup, and began to nibble at it. There was no conversation in the hall as of yet, as everyone was more or less taken with filling their empty bellies, but chatter would soon be ringing off the walls, no doubt.

"Harry," Hermione said after swallowing a bite of mashed potatoes, "You're still not eating very much!" she worried over me. "Are you sure you're feeling all right?"

"I'm fine, just not very hungry." I assured her.

"It seems you're never hungry anymore." Grumbled Ron around a chicken leg.

I wrinkled my nose slightly in distaste, an admonishment for talking with his mouth full on the tip of my tongue, but I bit it back. "Just because I don't have three stomachs like someone I know, doesn't mean I'm not hungry. Compared to you, it's no wonder it doesn't look like I eat much. I'll stick with normal portion sizes, thank you very much."

Ron stared at me for a moment, before shrugging, deeming me a lost cause. "You don't know what you're missing, mate." And once again, he was shoveling food into his face.

Turkey finished, I sipped at my soup, spoonful after spoonful, and found myself rather liking it. Maybe it had something to do with the delicious taste of it, or maybe it had to do with it being a creamy liquid whose texture reminded my palate of that of blood. I'm thinking it was the later.

Soon enough, the main course disappeared and a wide array of deserts took their place. I promptly grabbed myself a rather large slice of chocolate cake, and began to devour it, relishing in the rich goodness.

"So you won't eat healthy food, but you'll gorge yourself on junk food?" Hermione was looking at me exasperated.

I smiled, "To each his own." I said in an exaggerated mysterious tone.

"At least he's eating." Ron supplied with a shrug.

Hermione sighed, shoulders slumping. "I give up. There's no reasoning with either of you, is there?" she groaned.

"Come on, Hermione. A sweet tooth isn't really that bad, is it?" I prompted her, trying to pull her out of her slump. I didn't see why she fell into one anyway. Maybe it was like when she was trying in vain to get us to do our homework during the past years. We'd generally ignore her, and she'd get all aloof. "If it makes you feel better, I'll have some apple pie too . . ." I trailed off.

She snorted a laugh. "Apples are good, yes, but not so much when they're part of a pie. I think you'd be better without." So I simply went back to my cake, relishing the smoothness of the chocolate on my tongue.

Disserts disappeared when the hour was striking nine, and the younger students especially were starting to yawn, whether the sleepiness was caused by their full bellies, or tiring themselves out from earlier excitement, I didn't know, and the heads of houses promptly instructed the prefects to escort the house's new students to their respective dormitories.

The upper Gryffindor students filed out ahead of Ron and Hermione, who were left with the duty of gathering the first years, and I hung back with them as they waited for the children to gather together. When they were all there, the three of us upper years led the way through the halls and the ever changing staircases towards the familiar portrait of the Fat Lady.

Along the way, a brave first year came up to walk beside us, weaseling his way next to me, and asked bluntly, "You're Harry Potter, aren't you?"

I kept moving along, but glanced at him anyway. Coming up with an interesting reply, I said, "Of course not, are you daft? Do you really think Dumbledore would let the Chosen One here in such a public place, especially now that You-Know-Who is back?" I snorted at him. "Of course not! He'd be at too much of a risk from wanna be Death Eater students, obviously. So no, I'm not Harry Potter, I'm just someone sent here who looks like him, so that everybody thinks he's at Hogwarts, and not off at some specialized training camp learning to fight Death Eaters." I finished dramatically, saying it like it should be obvious.

The poor kid believed me too, because he slunk back to the other students, none of which whom had heard the conversation, and walked with them wide eyed in amazement. I chuckled, while Hermione elbowed me.

"Ouch!" I feigned pain, after all, she'd barely put any force behind it. "What'd I do to deserve that?" I demanded, mock angry.

"You shouldn't go spreading rumors to first years like that!" she huffed.

"Way to go mate, did you see the look on his face?" was Ron's opinion on the matter.

"But of course, my friend, I wouldn't have missed it for the world." I said to my red headed friend, whom I grinned at over Hermione's fuming head.

Remember how your conscious spoke to last time you were here, telling you to review? Well, those of you who reviewed, congratulations, your conscious is very happy and loving you for listening to it! Those of you who didn't on the other hand, well, I think yours might need CPR '-.- Its turning very blue, and looks very sad, indeed. Please, save your conscious from a horrible death today, and review ^^ And remember waaaay back at the beginning when I asked you to review my writing? Well, if you do, your conscious will be feeding your brain cookies for a week. So, ask yourselves, isn't a single review worth a lot of cookies?