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The three kids who had been off to rescue Ginny all evening stood before Professor Dumbledore in his office. Fawkes was back on his perch and Dumbledore looked down at the sword and the Sorting Hat on his desk before gazing at the three.

"Oh, I think they're in trouble." Jeremy said.

"Why would they? They saved someone from dying and they saved the world from Voldemort returing while also getting rid of that professor in the most kind way. I don't see the problem. They shouldn't be in trouble." Caroline said.

"Let's hope so." Elijah said.

"You all realize, of course, that in the past few hours, you have broken, perhaps, a dozen school rules."

"Yes, sir." The three said in unison.

"And there is sufficient evidence to have you three expelled."

"Yes, sir."

"Therefore, it is only fitting" The three looked up at Dumbledore, thinking that this was it. They were gonna get expelled. Ron's mother was gonna kill him and the Potters had to return to the Dursleys for life. "that you receive special awards for services to the school."

"Better." Kol commented.

The three looked at each other with smiles formed on their faces before turning back to Dumbledore.

"Thanks, sir." Ron said, thanking their headmaster for not expelling them.

Dumbledore smiled at them as he stood up, walked around his desk so that he could hand some papers to the redhead. "And now, Mr. Weasley if you would, have an owl deliver these papers to Azkaban. I believe we want our gamekeeper back."

Dumbledore turned to Harry and Nora as Ron turned to leave his office with the papers. "Harry, Nora, first, I want to thank you both. You must've shown me real loyalty down in the Chamber. Nothing but that could've called Fawkes to you." The Potters looked at the bird. "And, second I sense something if troubling you both. Am I right?"

"It's just- You see, sir." Harry was the one to tell their headmaster what they both had on their minds. "We couldn't help but notice certain things. Certain similarities between Tom Riddle and us."

"They are nothing like him." Finn said.

"No, they are not. But the things they are able to do is making them think they are." Regulus replied. Nora and Harry were both better than Voldemort could ever be.

"I see. Well, you can both speak Parseltongue. Why? Because, Lord Voldemort can speak Parseltongue. If I'm not mistaken, he transferred some of his powers to you two, the night he gave you these scar."

"Voldemort transferred some of his power"

"To us?" Nora ended her brother's sentence.

"Not intentionally, but yes."

"So, the Sorting Hat was right." Harry said as Dumbledore sat back down on his chair behind the desk. "We should be in Slytherin."

"It's true, Harry. You both possess many of the qualities that Voldemort himself prizes. Determination, resourcefulness, and if I may so, a certain disregard for the rules. Why then, did the Sorting Hat place you in Gryffindor.

"Because I asked it to." Harry answered, glancing at the Sorting Hat on the desk in front of them.

"Exactly, Harry, exactly. Which makes you different from Voldemort. And I believe your sister asked to be in Gryffindor as well despite having all the house as option." Dumbledore looked at Nora, who despite wondering how he know she had gotten all four options and picked Gryffindor herself, nodded.

"It is not our abilities that show what we truly are, it is our choices. If you want proof why you belong in Gryffindor, then I suggest you look more closely at this." He picked up the sword. Harry took the sword by the blade with his hand, and lifted it with his other hand. "Be careful."

Harry and Nora looked down at the sword together and bot noticed the name 'Godric Gryffindor' on it.

"It would take a true Gryffindor to pull that out of the hat. I'm sure if you had the chance, you could have pulled it out as well, Nora." Dumbledore said to Nora who looked down at the letters on the sword, doubtfully.

Nora nodded at him, despite not believing his words. She hadn't seen the sword, how could he know? Was she really as good as everyone believed her to be?

"She's the very best." Elijah said.

"Yes, she is. She just doesn't realize it yet." Rebekah said, supporting her brother.

She was taken out of her thoughts when Dumbledore's office door opened and when the Potters turned around, Barbie stormed into the room, Dobby walking right behind him.

"Dobby!" Nora said, greeting the elf with a wave.

"So this is your master. The family you serve is the Malfoys." Harry said and Dobby looked nervously back at him, before looking up at his master with fear.

"I will deal with you later." Lucius spoke to him through clenched teeth.

In return Dobby whimpered with even more fear.

Malfoy walked up to Dumbledore's desk, using his walking stick to push the Potters out of his way. "Out of my way, Potters." Nora let out a scoff.

"How rude!" Bonnie said.

"Who even pushes kids?" Elena asked.

"Him." Her brother answered.

"So it's true. You have returned." Lucius spoke to Dumbledore.

"When the governors learned that Arthur Weasley's daughter was taken into the Chamber, they saw fit to summon me back." Dumbledore casually answered.

"Ridiculous!" Lucius Malfoy spoke with anger.

"Curiously, Lucius, several of them were under the impression that you would curse their families if they did not agree to suspend me in the first place." Dumbledore said.

"How dare you!" Lucius asked him, clearly offended, but Nora was sure that the only reason he got so mad was because it was true.

"I beg your pardon?"

"My sole concern has always been, and will always be, the welfare of this school and, of course, its students." Lucius glanced at Harry and Nora on the side of the office where he had pushed them to, before returning his look back to the headmaster. "The culprit has been identified, I presume."

"Oh, yes." Dumbledore nodded.

"And? Who was it?" Lucius asked.

"Voldemort." Dumbledore answered after looking sideways at Nora and Harry.

"Ah!"

"Only this time he chose to act through somebody else by means of this." He held up Tom Riddle's diary so that Lucius could see.

"I see." Lucius answered and Nora felt something pulling on her sleeve. When she looked down Dobby was staring at her, nodding his head at the diary, before looking up at his master.

"You're joking." Damon scoffed.

"So that was the second book he put back in Ginny's cauldron." Finn said, finally knowing what it was.

"Fortunately, our young Potters here discovered it. One hopes that no more of Voldemort's old school things should find their way into innocent hands. The consequences for the one responsible would be severe." Dumbledore raised his eyebrows at Lucius, who instead turned to face Nora and Harry.

"Well, let us hope that Mr. and Miss Potter will always be around to save the day."

"Oh, don't worry, sir. We will be." Nora gave him a fake smile. Almost as fake as Lucius was himself.

Malfoy turned to Dumbledore, nodding at him. "Dumbledore. Come, Dobby, we're leaving." Lucius turned around and before stepping down the stairs, he viciously kicked Dobby down them.

Dobby quickly stood back up, holding his arm in pain as he whimpered more when the cane hit the back of his head. He quickly hurried out the door before his master.

"Sir," Nora started. "I wonder if I could have that for just a moment." She said, pointing her hand at the diary as an idea came to her.

Dumbledore nodded at her.

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Nora and Harry hurried off the stairs after Lucius and his house elf, catching up with him in the corridor in front of the Griffin statue that lead to the headmaster's office.

"Mr. Malfoy! Mr. Malfoy!" Nora and Harry shouted. Lucius only looked back when they repeated themselves. We have something of yours." Nora pushed the diary in the man's hands.

"Mine? I don't know what you're talking about."

"I think you do, sir. We are not stupid, unlike you. I think you slipped the diary into Ginny's cauldron that day back at Diagon Alley." Nora replied, whispering the unlike you part so that he wouldn't hear. Even if he heard, she was still right. If you plant a diary with the ghost of a sixteen-year-old murder, you should at least try to be as discrete as possible.

"You do, do you?" Lucius said, passing the diary to Dobby, half knocking the elf aside. "Why don't you prove it?" He asked leaning forwards to the twins, who didn't reply. Both not interested in that at all, knowing that there was no way they could prove it anyway. The headmaster would probably believe them, but they just hoped the plan had worked now. "Come, Dobby." Lucius commanded of the poor house elf as he started to walk away again.

"Open it!" Nora and Harry whispered to Dobby, who opened the diary without questioning why. But when he opened it, a sock was inside of it.

"Dobby!"

"Master has given Dobby a sock."

Lucius stopped walking and turned back around. "What? I didn't give you a -"

"Master has presented Dobby with clothes. Dobby is free." Dobby said, happily.

"I'm so happy for Dobby." Bonnie said, happy that the elf didn't have to live with the Malfoys anymore. From what she had seen Lucius Malfoy was not the person to care much about someone's else's feelings.

"Me too." Rebekah admitted. "Even though his plans didn't always worked out like he wanted them to, he did want the best for Nora and Harry."

Lucius looked back at the Potters. Nora smirked at him before moving her robe away from her left feet, revealing her bare ankle.

"You lost me my servant!" He yelled at them with so much anger that Nora honestly thought it was not good for anyone to have inside of them. Malfoy pulled his wand out of his cane and started walking towards the two Potters.

Dobby stepped in front of them, holding out his hand. "You shall not harm Nora and Harry Potter!"

"Avada-"

Dobby hit his ex-master with a spell, sending the man flying back across the corridor. He folded his arms and glared with anger at Malfoy. And Nora and Harry couldn't help themselves and let out a laugh.

"Both your parents were meddlesome fools too." He pointed at them. "You mark my words, Potters, one day soon you are both going to meet the same sticky end!"

"Says the one who ends up in Azkaban." James said.

"Well, that day is not today and I'm kind of a 'live one day at the time' kind of girl, so I don't really care." Nora spoke back and Lucius glared at them once more before turning around to leave, this time without the house-elf he had just lost.

"Harry and Nora Potter freed Dobby! How can Dobby ever repay them?" Dobby asked, staring at them with big eyes.

Nora crouched down next to him. "Just promise me something."

"Anything, Miss."

"Never ever try to mess up our Quidditch game again."

"Or try to save our lives again."

Dobby gazed up at her and Harry with an admiring smile.

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It was the last feast of the year. All the petrified students had been giving the mandrake, recovering quickly. Even Nearly Headless Nick, also back to his normal ghost form, had returned, now floating around the table, getting greeted by students.

Nora was joking around by the Gryffindor house table with the twins and Nora, when suddenly Neville caught her attention. "Nora, Harry, Ron, it's Hermione."

As soon as the boy was done speaking, Nora's head turned towards the entrance of the Great Hall, where Hermione stood. The three smiled at the girl as she started running over to the three, who stood up.

Nora was the first one to receive a hug from Hermione.

"Just so you know. I'm never letting you out of my sight again." Nora whispered as she tightly embraced the girl.

"If these two are not friends for life, I don't believe in friendship anymore." Caroline stated.

"Good to know." Hermione giggled as she let go of Nora and hugged Harry as Nora and Ron watched with overjoy off having the girl back to normal.

Then it was Ron's turn and suddenly thing turned awkward between the two. Both of them stepped forwards to hug each other, before quickly taking a step back.

Ron shortly smiled at Hermione as the two extended their hands, shaking each other's. "Welcome back, Hermione."

"It's good to be back. Congratulations. I can't believe you solved it!"

"Offended." Nora gasped, laying her hand over her heart, pretending to be hurt.

"Oh, you know what I mean, Nora." Hermione said and Nora smiled at her, playfully.

Professor McGonagall tapped her glass with a knife, the sound catching everyone attention. "Could I have your attention, please?"

The four quickly sat down next to each other.

"Before we begin the feats, let us have a round of applause for Professor Sprout, Madame Pomfrey, whose Mandrake juice has been so successfully administered to all who have been Petrified." Dumbledore's voice echoed through the hall after he raised from his seat to stand over the students as he spoke. Everyone applauded except for some Slytherins. "Also in light of the recent events, as a school treat, all exams have been canceled."

"Well done, love." Fred said from next to her.

"I thinks someone is thinking different about that." Nora replied, nodding her head to Hermione, who was shaking her head, whispering 'no' over and over again.

"Who could not be happy with no exams?" Jeremy asked, confused.

"Why did they never do this while we were in school?" James asked the other two.

"Because we never had a Basilisk trying to eat someone alive." Regulus blankly replied.

Dumbledore sat back down and the door of the Great Hall went back open and Hagrid walked in. "Sorry, I'm late." The four look at him in amazement to see him back here. "The owl that delivered my release papers got all lost and confused. Some ruddy bird called Errol." Immediately everyone who knew that was the owl from the Weasley's turned to Ron, who looked wide-eyed at Dumbledore, who smiled at him, reassuring him.

By now, Hagrid had made his way over to the four second years.

"And I'd just like to say that if it hadn't been for you, Harry, Nora, Ron and, Hermione, of course, I would, uh, I'd still be you-know-where, so I'd just like to say thanks." He chuckled and the four smiled at him.

"There's no Hogwarts without you, Hagrid." Harry said, standing up, but he was still looking up at the gamekeeper.

Nora stood up as well and embraced the giant, who also grabbed Harry into the hug with them.

Dumbledore and McGonagall stood up and started to applaud. Hagrid looked over to them as the Potters joined in with the applause, causing the entire hall -except for a few- to applaud for Hagird as well.

People started coming up to Hagrid to shake his hand and when Nora looked to her right, she saw a tear rolling over Hermione's face from joy.

Hagrid also wiped a tear from his face as he glanced around him at all the happy students.

"And with that, they're second year is done." Lily said.

"How much worse than this will it be this year?" Kol asked.

"We have to admit their third year is the most peaceful year in some sort of way. You will all understand when we're done with watching." Lily said and Elijah nodded with a bit relief.

"Maybe we should take a break with watching till tomorrow?" Regulus asked, looking outside to see it already being dark.

"All right." Some said as the others nodded.

It was better to take a break, not just because everyone would do better with sleep, especially the humans, but also so that the Mikaelsons could process another year as peacefully as possible. Most of all Elijah, who was wishing that he could hug his little girl now more than ever.

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I don't know if all of you guys have been confused with the dates, because I know some have and I understand why. Normally, like they are now should be right. Because they're watching in 2011 and Nora and Harry were born in 1994, making them 17 in 2011. I counted wrong the other times because I always started counting from 2010 :) 

And act 3 is coming for you all as soon as possible!!

Words: 2743

Posted: July 13, 2024

Be sure to comment. I love reading them and it keeps me motivated!

xoxo Kat <3