The Truth Behind the Turban

Hogwarts Castle

Slytherin Girls Dorm

June, 4th 1992

11:30PM

"Daphne!" Tracy shouted from the bathroom. "Could you bring me my towel? I left it in my trunk!"

Daphne groaned, having been just about to fall into a pleasant, much needed slumber. The other girls occupying the dorm seemed to have the same sentiment.

"Daphne, if you don't shut that night owl up, I will personally cut both of your tongues out." Millicent Bulstrode called from her bed on opposite side of the room.

"Alright!" Daphne exclaimed, reluctantly removing herself from her bed. She headed over to Tracy's trunk, grabbed the towel, and stalked off to the bathroom. "Here's your stupid towel!" She said, throwing the object at Tracy.

"Was the aggressiveness really necessary?" Tracy asked as she dried herself off.

"Yes! You woke me, and the rest of the dorm up. Not to mention the fact that it's nearly midnight!"

"I can't help that I'm a night owl!" Tracy chirped cheerfully. "I think better at night, so why not do my homework then?"

"The rest of us would appreciate it, though, if you left your showers until morning." Daphne said before turning to leave.

"Daphne! Wait!"

The brunette immediately froze in reaction, "What is it?"

"It's a note!" Tracy said, reaching to point it out to Daphne in the mirror, "It's tied onto your hair ribbon. Hold still, so I can get it out."

"What does it look like I'm doing, dancing the tango?" Daphne said, attempting to keep her head perfectly still. "I swear, if you pull my hair, I will be forced to throw you in the lake."

"Stop your yammering!" Tracy commanded. Her thoughts switched gears as she continued, "Who do you think would tie a note to your ribbon?"

"I don't know! I only wear it at night, so they would have at to come into our dorm and tie it on after I changed into my night clothes." Daphne said, squirming a little, "Who, in Merlin's name, would sneak into my dorm to give me a note?"

"Maybe it's from a boy! Open it!" Tracy squealed, handing Daphne the recently freed note.

"Hold on, I have to open the stupid thing! And it's not from a boy." The other girl said whilst struggling with the envelope.

"You can't know that! I bet it's a love note!" Tracy guessed, giggling.

Daphne, who had pried the note open, glared at her friend, "Please, just shut up. The note is from Harry."

"Mmm hmm… You do know he's technically a boy, right?" Tracy said with a Cheshire cat grin on her face.

"I am well aware of that! It's not a bloody love note!" Daphne shouted.

"Alright fine, but you haven't even read it yet." Tracy stopped when Daphne's glare was turned back to her, "Alright! I give. No need to be so defensive. Just read the note."

"I will." Daphne began reading it out loud;

Daphne and Tracy,

I have left this note on one of your person so that you can know where I am if I am not back by morning.

I have gone to explore the third floor corridor with my brother and his friends. The Gryffindors seem to think there is something going on down there. At this point, I am not entirely certain as to what that 'something' might be.

As I don't know what we might find down there, I can't be sure that it isn't dangerous. After all, Dumbledore himself said that certain death awaited those who came down here.
I'm sure that you're thinking that I must have lost my mind for following my brother down here, admittedly, even I am not sure if I have or not.
But I have to keep my brother and his friends from doing something idiotic and getting themselves killed, if that were to happen, I would never forgive myself for knowing and not doing anything.

If I don't return by morning, please tell a teacher.

Your Friend,

Harry

"He's right, he has lost his mind, that idiot!" Daphne exclaimed after finishing the note.

"He felt he had to go to save his brother, though, doesn't that account for something?" Tracy asked of her friend.

"No, it means he's turned into a bloody Gryffindor." The brunette paused, "Or a Hufflepuff. And I don't know which is worse." She said after a moment of thought.

"Well, what are we supposed to do about it?" Tracy questioned.

"Get dressed, we're going to get the boys." Daphne stated, heading back into the dorm to get dressed herself.

"Ow!" Tracy exclaimed five minutes later, as she stepped on something that was left on the floor of the boy's dorm.

"Shhh!" Daphne turned back to her friend, finger firmly pressed to her mouth.

"Sorry!" Tracy whispered, "Honestly though, do they ever clean this room?"

The girls split up to look for Draco and Terry. Daphne slowly made her way to one of the boy's beds in the room.
She slowly lifted the curtain, sticking her head and wand inside, trying to glimpse who was under the massive duvet.
Her initial search for human life came up negative. Grimacing, she stuck her hand into the darkness. Lifting a pillow, she finally found the lump beneath the covers.
Grinning, she shot two spells in quick succession, a silencing charm and a stinging hex.

The boy in question sprung straight up and squealed something probably would have been a girlish yelp, if he hadn't been silenced of course.
The blonde boy searched wide eyed for the culprit, as soon as his eyes landed upon Daphne, they narrowed. The boy, who happened to be one Draco Malfoy in all his dignified prowess, tried to yell at Daphne before noticing the silencing charm.

Daphne, doing her best to hold back her laughs, held her finger to her lips again, which only angered the boy more. "Get dressed and meet us in the common room, Tracy and I need to talk to you." She whispered.

Draco pointed to his mouth impatiently.

Daphne's grin widened as she shook her head. "Meet me downstairs, then I'll get rid of the charm." She quietly stated, grabbing Draco's wand from his bedside table.

She left the dorm to find Tracy waiting for her in the Hall. "I told Draco to meet us in the common room, did you find Terry."

Tracy blushed, "Yeah, I found him."

Daphne raised a questioning eyebrow. "What happened?"

"Well, Terry's bed was the second one I found." Tracy started, fidgeting furiously.

"Who's was the first?" Daphne asked, taking Tracy's arm and dragging her toward the common room.

Tracy didn't answer until they had reached the quiet, bright light of the empty common room, and were getting comfortable. "Blaise Zabini's." She said, sitting down on the couch.

"So?" Daphne didn't understand why that would pull this reaction out of her friend.

"Well, apparently, in the summer he sleeps without covers." Tracy paused, "In his underwear."

"Oh Merlin, Tracy!" Daphne sighed. "We don't have time for this right now."

"B-but! I saw him mostly naked!" Tracy shouted before blushing and looking around to see if anyone heard.

"Tracy, you didn't see anything that wouldn't have covered by a bathing suit did you?" Daphne asked leaning over her friend,

Tracy shook her head timidly.

"Then it's not a big deal." Daphne sighed, sitting next to Tracy on the couch. "Plus, we have more important things to be worried about."

At that moment, both boys came tumbling onto the room. Terry was the first one to make it to a seat shouting, "Ha! I told you I could make it here faster than you!"

Draco just rolled his eyes and sat in the chair opposite the girls' couch.

"Terry! Shut up! Do you want to wake up the prefects?" Daphne asked firmly.

Draco cleared his throat, looking determinedly at Daphne.

"What?" Daphne asked, having already forgotten about the silencing charm.

Draco rolled his eyes again and pointed to his mouth.

"Oh!" The brunette's eyes lit with recollection, "If I must, I must." She waved her wand and canceled the silencing charm.

"Thank you. Now, dare I ask why I was so rudely awakened in the middle of the night?" Draco said, trying to hold back a yawn, "It's the night after exams for Merlin's sake."

Terry nodded, not bothering to hold back his yawn. "Yeah…"

Daphne handed the note to Draco, who was obviously the more cognizant of the two. "Read this, it's from Harry."

"I suppose that's why you didn't wake him up?" Terry asked with as much bite as he could muster in his half-asleep state.

"He's not here you idiot." Daphne deadpanned.

"What?" At Terry's query Daphne merely pointed to the note in Draco's clutches. Terry quickly made his way over to the blonde and read the note over his friend's shoulder.

"He's done what?" Draco asked incredulously, looking up at the girls with a stunned look gracing his aristocratic features. "Harry wouldn't be that stupid, would he?"

"Tell a teacher?" Terry butted in, questioning the note, "He seriously expects us to just leave this and merely 'tell a teacher'?"

"Well, that would be the intelligent thing to do here." Daphne admitted, as Terry scoffed at her words, "What? We're just first years! What exactly are we supposed to do? Go rushing in to save him? Because that idea is borderline idiotic."

"As much as I'm loathe to say this," Draco started, "Daphne's right. We can't just go in there after him, we'll just get stuck as well. The smartest plan of action would be to find a teacher."

Tracy gave Terry an apologetic look before speaking, "Sorry Terry, but these two are right. The best way to help Harry is to get a professor."

Terry deflated, "Alright, I see where you're coming from. I just…I wish there was more we could do."

"So do we, but this is the best course of action if we plan on helping, not hindering." Daphne countered, standing up.

"Well, if we are going to tell a professor, any idea where one might be at midnight?" Tracy asked.

"There's bound to be one out patrolling, that's what the prefects said at the beginning of the year, right?" Terry recalled.

"Right, let's go out there with no plan and hope we make it, yeah!" Draco deadpanned sarcastically.

"Yes, lets!" Tracy agreed, more enthusiastically, as she ran for the exit of their common room.

Elsewhere in the Castle

Later that night

The footsteps of one Professor Sirius Black echoed through the dark hallways of Hogwarts. Much to the man's chagrin, the corridors were empty.
"Why, in Merlin's name, did I volunteer to take patrol the night after exams?" He questioned to himself. His wanderings that evening had brought forth nothing but boredom, thus causing the man's ire. "I seem to recall the night after exams being much more exciting."

At one point in the evening, Sirius' patrol had taken him past the forbidden third floor corridor. His mind wandered to the Philosopher's Stone and Alex's belief of foul play. Since his little chat with Alex at the beginning of the semester, Sirius hadn't heard much from the redhead about the matter. If he was honest to himself, his suspicions were aroused when the boy went quiet about the subject. At that point though, nothing had happened concerning the corridor, so, while suspicious, Sirius felt no reason to confront his nephew about the matter.

Loud voices echoing though the corridor quickly caught his attention. "I can't believe that Professor Snape wasn't in his office!" One voice sounded.

"Are you really sure that was his office? I'm pretty sure that's just a potions lab." A second, more feminine, voice answered softly.

"Well where else would he be?" The first voice resonated once more.

"Look, either way, we didn't find Professor Snape." A third voice interrupted the first two, this one female as well. "They really should have told us where we can contact the Professors in an emergency."

"Emergency?" Sirius whispered, now rather alarmed. What could these students have gotten into at such an hour? He was just about ready to round the corner and confront them, but the students had beat him to it. They obviously must not have been aware of his presence as one of them walked right into him. On pure instinct, Sirius' arms wrapped around the child to stop them from stumbling to the ground.

Unfortunately, the child took this as an attack. "Help! Help! Something has me!"

The other students, all equally startled, pulled their wands on him. Sirius immediately let the boy he'd caught go and held up his hands. "Hold up, I'm not attacking him. I'm Sirius Black, the—"

"—dueling professor" One of the girls finished his sentence for him.

"Yes." Sirius answered, as the students relaxed.

"Well, I suppose that solves our Professor problem." The boy from earlier said.

"Yes, I heard you had an emergency?" The Professor questioned, "What seems to be the problem?"

Just as the students were about to answer, a yell came up from the opposite end of the corridor. "Sirius! Oh, thank goodness!"

"Is that Granger?" The blonde boy asked one of his comrades.

Sirius, on the other hand, told the four first years to stay put and ran up towards the Gryffindor girl's voice. "Hermione? What's wrong? What are you doing here?"

The girl slowly made her way into the light of the nearest torch, causing Sirius to see what-or more aptly, who- she was carrying. "Is that Ron?"

"Oh, Professor, Ron, Alex and I decided to go down to the forbidden wing." Hermione tried to explain, "We got past most of the obstacles without trouble, but on the chess board, well…" She trailed off, looking to Ron.

"Hermione," Sirius began, causing the distraught girl to look up at him, "Where is Alex?"

"And Harry!" One of the four students behind him called.

The dark haired man looked behind him at the four, only now realizing that they were, in fact, Harry's friends. "Do you mean to tell me Harry is down there as well?"

The blonde girl who had spoken nodded. "Yes. He left us a letter to find."

Sirius frowned, both Potter boys down there with who knows what. Lily was going to kill him. "Alright," He decided, motioning for Hermione to join the group of Slytherins behind him, "Hermione, you go with these four to take Ron to the Hospital Wing. Have Madame Pomfrey contact the faculty and tell them to come to the Third Floor."

The bushy haired girl nodded, going to join the other four students. Before they left, she turned back to the Professor, "Just so you know, there was someone who went down there before us."

Sirius' frown deepened, but he nodded nonetheless. "Thank you."

Far Beneath the Castle

Cautiously, the twins emerged from the fiery barricade. The first thing both boys noticed was the glittering mirror centered in the cavernous room before them. "Is that?" Alex questioned to himself, earning an odd look from Harry. "It is!"
The redhead quickly made his way down the steps toward the floor of the great room. Once his feet hit the floor of the main room, a fire erupted on the stairs. This fire spread across the wide staircase, cutting off Alex's exit and trapping Harry away from his twin.

"What?" Alex exclaimed, whipping around to face the flames. Just as his eyes made contact with Harry's for a moment, a voice startled him from behind.

"If it isn't Alex Potter."

Alex twirled around to meet the face of—"Professor Quirrel?"

"What? Expecting someone else?" Quirrel questioned with a sinister smile on his face.

"I—" Alex went to reach for his wand, but was thrown against the wall by Quirrel before he could grasp the wood. The force caused his wand to fall from his pocket and land on the floor, useless.

"You're too nosy to live, Potter. You've been scurrying around the school noticing things all year. I thought that just maybe the troll Halloween would throw you off. How was I to know that would only intensify your curiosity?" He bent to pick up the discarded wand. "After all this, I thought killing you would be a little harder." The man gave him a smug look and turned his back to the redhead, focusing instead on the mirror.

"Well, if you're going to kill me, why haven't you?" Alex asked, summoning his bravery.

"Quiet boy!" Quirrel hissed. The man's fist hit the mirror before him in frustration, "I see myself, handing the stone over to my master…but where is it?"

From where Alex was hanging against the wall, it looked as though Quirrel was having an argument with himself. The man kept whispering to himself as he stared, fixated, at the mirror.

"Trust Dumbledore to do something like this…" The robed man whispered in a voice unlike any Alex had ever heard.

"I don't understand." Alex interrupted, "I thought Snape was trying to get the stone."

Quirrel's eyes rolled before he answered, "It might look that way, mightn't it?"

"But the dog bite…and the cursed broom?" Alex puzzled aloud.

"Bite?" Quirrel laughed sinisterly, "The stupid dog must have gotten him when he thwarted my attempt at the stone on Halloween."

As the trapped boy went over the information he was just given, Quirrel continued searching the mirror. "Could the stone be inside the mirror?" He grasped a loose stone and held it up, "Should I break it?"

As he went back for the swing, the growling, raspy voice called out, "WAIT!"

Quirrel stilled immediately, "Yes, Master?"

"Use the boy…"

Alex looked on in horror as Quirrel turned to him and smirked once more. In that moment, Alex realized that he wanted nothing more than to keep the stone away from Quirrel and his mysterious 'Master'. The sinister man waved Alex's wand, summoning the boy towards the mirror.

'I must lie' Alex thought to himself. With a glance behind him at the fiery staircase where he had last seen his twin, Alex remembered something Harry had said earlier that day. 'You're a really bad liar, I've learned that.' Internally, the boy smiled as he thought, 'No better time to learn, eh Harry?'

Quirrel shoved Alex in front of the mirror and hissed, "What do you see?"

His gaze turned to the mirror. He couldn't see Quirrel at all, instead he saw Harry standing next to him. Alex was almost tempted to see if his brother was, in actuality, behind him. He didn't, of course, he knew it was only the mirror. The Harry in the mirror was smiling at him as he tossed something into the air and caught it. He revealed it to be a blood red stone before grinning and placing it in the front pocket of mirror Alex's jeans. Much to the real Alex's surprise, he felt a small weight in his own front pocket.

Quirrel, growing impatient, grabbed the back of Alex's neck. "What do you see, boy?!"

The sudden pain caused Alex to cry out. His brain blanked as Quirrel's grip tightened on his neck. Suddenly any lie he could have thought up, he realized, might get him killed. Instead, he decided, to use the truth. A version of it, anyway.

"I-I see my brother, smiling at me."

"LIES!" The growling voice screeched. "Let me speak to the boy…"

Alex's blood felt as though it stopped flowing through his veins as he watched his previous professor remove his turban.

"Face…to…face…"

As the last word was uttered, the turban had been completely removed. Alex was staring at a face on the back of Quirrel's head. "Wh-who are you?"

"Isn't it obvious?" The thing asked, "I am Lord Voldemort."

If possible, Alex's eyes went wider. Voldemort's eyes traveled up and down the body of the small redheaded boy before him. "Now, won't you give me that stone in your pocket?"

Alex tried to hide his surprise and glared at the specter. "No."

Voldemort's lips crinkled into a smile. "Very well, you have chosen your fate."

The confusion appeared on Alex's face in a flash, the fear quickly following and taking hold of his whole body in a moment.

"Quirrel? Kill him"

Quickly, the man turned to face Alex and whipped out his wand. "Ava—"

"No!" Both inhabitants of the room turned to look at the entrance to the chamber. Flying over the flames, was Harry. He zipped in on one of the brooms from the key room and pushed his brother as hard as he could away from the murderous man. "Don't you dare touch my brother!"

(A Few Minutes Earlier…)

Harry stepped back as the flames flew up in front of him, separating himself and his twin. He watched as the flames flew higher, until they were much taller than his eleven year-old self. Harry knew that he had to get himself over the flames somehow, unfortunately, he knew that these were magic flames. A simple water charm wouldn't put out the unnatural fire.

"Sometimes," Harry mused to himself, looking behind him, "To go forward, one must go back."

The doorway, which had been bursting with the flaming gate not long before, had now grown dark. Harry took a breath and re-entered the logic challenge room.

Once again, as he stepped inside, the flames lit up again. Luckily, the vials must have had some sort of refilling charm on them. All were full when Harry examined them again. He drank the one he knew would take him back, and traveled through the other doorway.

When he stepped into the next room, he gagged. He'd nearly forgotten the stench of the troll room the first time around. Much to Harry's horror, unlike the first time around, the troll was awake.
Sitting in the middle of the room, the troll sat and twirled its massive club in its hands. Fortunately for Harry, the troll hadn't seen him yet. Stowing away his wand, the Slytherin decided to attempt to circumnavigate the room instead of fight through the troll.

Slowly, too slowly, he made his way around the edge of the room. He tried to keep his breathing light as he carefully planned each step before he took it. He prayed to whoever would listen that the troll wouldn't look, that each step would make no noise.

Harry later decided that whoever was up there must have had their voicemail on, because when he was halfway around the room his luck ran out. The troll gave a sudden grunt, startling Harry into miss-stepping and losing his footing. The dark haired boy knew he had made a sound, and a loud one at that. Without waiting to see if the troll had noticed him, he scrambled up behind a pillar.

Once he was hidden behind the pillar, he gathered up the courage to look around his safeguard. Instead of the comforting sight of the troll still sitting in the middle of the room, Harry was met with a different, terrifying sight. The beast was lumbering towards his hiding place, slowly but steadily.
Harry attempted to keep his breathing neutral and his mind calm. He needed to think. He recalled from his Defense book that troll's hides were impervious to magic, so that ruled out his wand. He looked around him for something that might help him defeat the troll. Frustratingly, all he could see were loose rocks that had fallen from the decaying pillar he was using as shelter.

With a spark of an idea, Harry looked up at the pillar towering above him. It was decrepit, whether that be due to age or the troll, Harry might never know. Smiling, the boy decided the listing pillar would suit his needs quite nicely. He ran around to the side of the pillar and pulled out his wand. He watched as the troll picked up on his presence and began to move faster. Silently, Harry hoped that the knockback jinx Quirrel had taught his Defense class earlier that year would be sufficient to do what he needed. 'It's times like these,' Harry bemoaned silently, 'when I wish I were more of a bookworm.'

Once the troll was close enough, the first year fired off the most powerful knockback jinx he could manage, "Flipendo!"

To the boy's relief, the weight barring stone flew out from underneath its load. Slowly, gravity seemed to realize it now had control over all of these stones. As if a switch was turned, the stones toppled towards the unaware troll. Harry covered his eyes before they hit, not wanting to see anything that might haunt his dreams later.

Once everything was settled Harry uncovered his eyes, noting with clear surprise the unconscious form of the troll. "Dear Merlin, if that only knocked it out, what does it take to kill these things?"

Shaking the stone dust out of his hair, Harry put the thought of the troll behind him, He still had to help his brother, and thus he carried on.

Moving through the quiet chess room was quite eerie, but none of the pieces moved to attack him. His passage onto his next room was simple.
In the key's room, he could still hear the tinkering of the charmed metal. He raced underneath all of them and snatched the remaining broom, noting that Hermione must have used the other one to get out.

Harry mounted the broom and flew through all the puzzle rooms, back to where his brother was trapped by the fire.

Once he reached the final room, he flew over the wall of fire. He had naught but a moment to comprehend the scene before him. Quirrel, wand raised against his brother ready to strike. Harry felt the rage rise inside of him. "No!" He screamed as he flew towards the duo, quickly dismounting and pushing his brother away. "Don't you dare touch my brother!"

As Harry stood, arms outstretched in front of his twin, Quirrel somehow sighed with relief without moving his mouth. This confused the dark haired boy slightly, not that he would show it in front of this man. "Ah, Quirrel! Here I was thinking you had brought me the wrong twin!"

'Wrong twin?' Alex frowned at this. He stared, puzzled, between his brother and Quirrel.

"Who are you, really?" Harry questioned, glaring at his opponent.

Quirrel made a majestic turn, revealing the back of his head to Harry. As he caught sight of Voldemort, he felt his scar burn. As a result, his grip tightened on the broom in his right hand.

"I, am the Dark Lord Voldemort!" He smiled proudly as he said this, sending a gloating air down towards the boys.

"What do you want with Alex?" Harry probed further through gritted teeth.

"Your twin had been rather meddlesome over the school year, it's not proper for a first year to be messing with things he shouldn't." Voldemort said threateningly, glaring down at the redheaded twin.

"Harry," Alex whispered to his brother, "He has my wand, I can't help."

At this revelation, Harry frowned. Voldemort, as though realizing his victory was in sight, smiled with a triumphant gloat. "Quirrel!" The man turned to face them again, "Finish them, and get me that stone!"

Quirrel again shot out the killing curse towards Alex. However, Harry was faster. With his left hand, Harry shot a knockback jinx at his twin, blasting him into the wall. With his right, he gripped the broom as hard as he was able and hit Quirrel's wand hand, knocking the wand away from its owner.

"Ah!" Both Quirrel and Voldemort yelled. Harry pocketed his wand and held the broom like a cricket bat.

"Back off!" He yelled at the man.

Quirrel cradled his injured hand to his chest. With his other hand, he pulled out Alex's wand and sent out a blasting curse. Harry attempted to block the curse with his broom, causing the wooden object to explode. The wood splintered in his hands, littering his arms and face with cuts.

Grimacing from the impact, Harry let out a small sigh off pain. This caused Quirrel to grin and begin to advance on the injured boy. Harry pulled out his wand and racked his brain for any spell that might help. Most of the spells he knew Quirrel would be able to easily knock away.
His frantic brain latched on to one that might help and along with it, a semblance of a plan.

"Fumos!" He yelled, watching the room fill with smoke from his wand. Once completed, he stowed his wand once more and moved from the last place Quirrel had seen him.

"Argh! Quirrel! Stop bumbling and find the boy!" Voldemort growled out.

Harry could hear Quirrel waving the wand about as he attempted to catch a glimpse of the bespeckled boy. As soon as he thought his attacker was close enough, Harry pounced. He pulled the wand from Quirrel's grip and stowed it with his own.
For lack of leverage against the larger man, he grasped the injured arm and squeezed. Harry thought his attack might have had a better outcome than anticipated. All the small boy could hear were the agonizing screams of the two voices.

Suddenly, the voices stopped, and the arm he was grasping went limp. Harry immediately took his hands off the man. He then heard a squeal and noticed the fog was distorted near the man's head. For a moment, Harry thought he saw a face in the fog, but then it was gone and along with it, the squealing noise.

Harry wasn't sure he could move away from the limp man. He looked down at the arm he had been holding, somewhere in his shocked brain he noticed two hand shaped burn marks. Harry wondered where they could have come from, looking at his own hands. They were unscathed, save for a few splinters from the broom.

He heard a loud voice yell out, "Finite Incantatem!"

The fog Harry had created began to clear. The dark haired boy weakly stood, pulling out his wand and pointing it in the direction of the voice. The owner of the voice caught eyes on Harry rather quickly, calling out his name.

Harry saw his rescuer and smiled, seeing the friendly face of the dueling master. He attempted to thank him for his heroism, but Harry's tired body had other ideas. It must have sensed it was safe to pass out, so that's what it did. The last thing Harry remembered before losing consciousness was being caught by two arms before he hit the ground.