'Gideon! How are you doing?' asked the man as he swept his golden locks from his face and extended a hand.

Gideon returned the handshake and made an odd grunt of agreement, unwilling to answer such a question plainly.

Professor Voronov nodded to the boy as he stepped out and gave them his office.

'Thank you for coming to see me, Mr Grimsby,' said Gideon. 'Did the professors tell you anything?'

Grimsby smiled at the boy's astute presumption, 'Well, I did speak with Professor Dandridge. She mentioned that you were considering leaving the school. She also told me you had visited a certain tower. That must have been as confusing as it was fascinating!'

'Yes, it was. And so was this,' Gideon replied, pulling his wand out and pointing it upward, 'vermillious!'

Red sparks crackled from his wand tip, illuminating the glean of understanding appearing across Grimsby's face.

'Ah,' he said simply.

Gideon ended the spell and explained, 'It started yesterday when my new wand arrived.'

'New wand? the man enquired.

'I've been using this one,' he said as he fished out the battered, second-hand shop wand, 'but it hasn't been working.'

Grimsby took it from the boy and examined it, 'No, I don't suppose it would. Used wands are tricky to master at the best of times, but this one is damaged, inflexible, and I can see from the tip that its core was unicorn hair. Unicorn core wands are known for their loyalty to their original owners. Why did you have a used wand, though?'

'I went to Ollivanders, but the old man in there flipped out. The shopkeeper sent me the one I matched with as an apology. Unlike the other, it works. I've done spells with it. That's when I realised the truth, that what you told me in the hospital was true. That it was my fault my mum got hurt—'

'—I never said that Gideon! It's true that you were technically responsible for your mother's injuries, but it wasn't your fault!' Grimsby corrected. 'You didn't do it knowingly or willingly. There's a difference, an important one!'

The conviction behind the man's words and the sternness in his bright, blue eyes alleviated some of the guilt that Gideon had been harbouring. 'Even so,' he continued, 'I know it's all true now, and it's got me pretty mixed up. It's been a rough week.'

Jonathan Grimsby sighed sympathetically, 'Yes, I read in the Prophet about your dad.'

'Well, I didn't!' Gideon responded. 'I was sitting in class, and he just showed up, I thought I was going mad!'

'Have the two of you spoken?' the man asked.

'No. I've tried but he ignores me and runs out of class. Sometimes I see him in the Great Hall, but I can hardly have it out with him right there in front of everyone. Besides, now that I know the truth, how can I face him? How can I stay here? I should be with my mum.'

'I stand by what I said at St Mungo's, Gideon. It's a bad situation, but I'm sure your dad will come around eventually,' Grimsby tried to reassure him. 'As for your mum, she's doing better. With any luck, it's just a matter of time before she wakes up. When she does, though, wouldn't she be happier knowing that you are here? What do you think she would say if she knew you had dropped out for her sake?'

Gideon hadn't considered that. The answer came to him immediately. He knew his mother would want him to carry on with his magical education. In fact, she would be cross with him if he left, and would probably feel guilty if she thought it was because of her.

'You're right, she wouldn't want me to leave,' Gideon said.

'Good,' said Grimsby as if the matter was settled. 'I expect there's more you wanted to ask me, though?'

'Yes. The Occurio. I think I know why, but—'

'Why didn't it respond to your magic? I suspect you've realised, but your magic was triggered during the Dementor attack. From what the witness described, it was probably all released at once owing to the situation. With that, being injured in the process and with the potions you were given at St Mungo's, your magic was severely drained. I wasn't positive that would be the case when I used the Occurio, though.'

'So, why didn't you tell me?'

'It was just conjecture. Then, when the Occurio didn't detect anything, I wasn't sure if your magic would return. With how you were doing at the time, I didn't think it would be wise to get your hopes up. I'm sorry I wasn't more forthcoming.'

Gideon stared out of the window for a few moments. He thought back to his conversation with Mr Grimsby in the hospital tearoom. At the time he was eager for information, but he was also in a bad state emotionally. Perhaps the man had been right to hold back. Still, there were things he needed to know now.

'During the attack, before I passed out, I had a seizure of sorts,' Gideon explained. 'It's something that has happened only a bunch of times in my life. Each time, though, it's happened at a moment when I've been especially upset. It reminds me of how underage witches and wizards perform magic by accident. What do you know about it?'

Jonathan Grimsby shifted uncomfortably in his seat. 'I'm not a healer, Gideon,' he said evasively.

'And yet, at least two of those seizures pre-empted visits from you—and your Occurio,' said Gideon accusatorily. 'You didn't show up at our house to see if I had magic, did you? My parents contacted you after I had an episode, to see if what happened with the Dementors had occurred. You came to see if my magic had been released!'

Mr Grimsby remained silent in much the same way that Gideon had during their past conversations.

'Meaning,' Gideon concluded, 'that both you and my parents know something about the seizures, and by extension, what happened to my magic!'

Mr Grimsby smiled at the boy's keen deduction. 'It's true—that the seizures were symptomatic of your magic trying to activate,' he conceded. 'Part of my responsibility entailed monitoring you for such signs. However, as much as I'd like to answer all your questions, Gideon, there are things that I cannot tell you.'

'Why not?' Gideon demanded. 'If there's something wrong with me or something happened to me, I have a right to know!'

'I'm afraid I can't,' Grimsby insisted. 'I encourage you to focus on the positives. Your magic has been released, you won't have any more of those seizures, and you're at Hogwarts! These are good things!'

'Perhaps,' Gideon started, 'if you ignore the fact that the last two years of my life have been a waste, that I've suffered from physical and emotional pain, that I've been abandoned by the only family I've ever known, and that my mum is lying in the hospital, all because of something you won't tell me!'

Grimsby sighed and looked down at his feet before he responded to Gideon's righteous anger, 'I can only imagine how you're feeling, Gideon. All I can say is that I'm sorry this has happened to you. Truly!'

Gideon's nose flared as he huffed in frustration. Annoyingly, he could sense the man's sincerity, and that made it much harder to be angry with him. Grimsby had confirmed some things, but it seemed there was still a few missing pieces of the puzzle.

Perhaps for now, he was right that Gideon should look on the bright side. He was now an average, run of the mill, teenage wizard, not counting his unresolved family issues. But what average teenager doesn't have a few of those?

'Is there anything else on your mind, Gideon?' Grimsby asked softly.

'No,' Gideon answered bluntly.

'Well, you can always write to me,' Jonathan Grimsby reminded him kindly as he stood up to leave. 'I'd like to hear how you're doing.'

Gideon smiled weakly before remembering the carrier bag, 'Oh, I almost forgot about your books. Thank you for lending them to me. You have surprisingly good taste!'

Grimsby looked surprised, 'Actually, they're not mine. All I read is law articles, and I didn't think you'd be interested in those! Alex said it would be okay for you to borrow them. He's always got his nose in one of those things. Could you give them to him when you next see him?'

Gideon was flabbergasted. It hadn't occurred to him that the books might have belonged to Mr Grimsby's son. He certainly hadn't figured Alex Grimsby for a big reader. It was hard to reconcile the kind gesture with the Gryffindor who had befriended Jason Crawley.

'Err, sure,' Gideon agreed, thinking it best not to tell the man what he really thought of his son.

He escorted Mr Grimsby to the Entrance Hall. Along the way the man excitedly pointed out passageways and other things he remembered from his childhood. He seemed happy to have a chance to visit the castle. Not for the first time, Gideon couldn't help thinking of the man as a big kid. They reached the front door, where he wished Gideon good luck with his classes, and said goodbye.

As Gideon turned to head back to the Transfiguration Office, he noticed the sneering face of Alex Grimsby's friend, Greg among a group of students entering the Great Hall. He was watching Gideon with intrigue. Gideon hoped that Greg didn't know what Alex's father looked like. With his luck, though, the chances of that seemed slim.

Professor Voronov was waiting for him upon his return. 'You got the answers you needed; I trust?' he asked.

'For the most part,' said Gideon.

The man scanned his face before asking, 'So, will you be continuing your education here at Hogwarts, Mr Maxwell?'

'Yes, Sir,' he confirmed, 'but I would like to take your test again.'

***

'My, my!' said Professor Long after a few moments of stunned silence. 'How interesting!'

For the second time, Gideon had just completed demonstrating his magical capabilities for her and Professor Voronov. This time, however, the results were starkly different. This was evident by the smoking ashes and oversized, sliced, blue apple sitting atop the Transfiguration teacher's desk.

'To what do you attribute this sudden turnaround, Mr Maxwell?' the deputy headmistress asked with a note of fascination on her usually passive face.

Gideon told the truth—half of it anyway, 'My new wand, Miss. I was using a second-hand wand before. Hornbeam with a unicorn core. Apparently, we weren't a good match.'

'I see,' she said with intrigue. 'And this one?'

'Acacia,' Gideon began, then, thinking that he would prefer to keep his wand's mysterious core secret, he twisted the truth once more, 'with a feather core.'

'A remarkable difference! That must explain it.' she commented in Professor Voronov's direction, in a tone that sounded suspiciously unconvincing.

'You should run along to breakfast, Mr Maxwell,' said Professor Voronov. 'We will need to speak with the headmistress.'

***

Gideon ate his breakfast cereal with a quiet confidence. Week two at Hogwarts with his new wand, felt like a second chance to prove himself. He didn't have a chance that morning in History of Magic or Potions, but Charms gave him the opportunity he had been waiting for.

'Okay, let's see how hard you've all been practicing!' announced Professor Keane excitedly as she released a rain of feathers on the students, one landing softly in front of each of them for levitation practice. Today her lustrous hair was tied loosely over one shoulder, and she wore form-fitting azure-coloured robes with rather revealing cut-outs.

Looking around, Gideon noticed that the others had all managed to levitate their feathers with differing degrees of success. Vinny and Emma were having theirs duel each other like parrying swords, when a third appeared and deftly circled the pair.

'Who's doing that?' Vinny demanded loudly, which naturally drew the whole class's attention to what was going on. The mystery feather began to spin and dance through the air at speed, then to the pupils' surprise, did several loop-the-loops!

'Oh, well done, Gideon!' praised Professor Keane as she clapped wildly. The students turned to see Gideon's quick hand movements corresponding to the feather's flight path. 'What an improvement! Twenty points to Slytherin!'

'Twenty?' cried a disgruntled Hufflepuff.

'So, you're not a Squib?' asked Emma.

'Doesn't look like it,' said Gideon, smiling as he made his feather circle his head like a halo.

Vinny looked quite perturbed by this, stating, 'He must have been pretending he couldn't do magic, so we would all be impressed when it turned out he could! Another lie!'

Gideon rolled his eyes, brushed off the comment and mischievously made his feather tickle the boy's nose, infuriating Vinny but delighting those around him.

Gideon didn't get a chance to perform any more magic in Defence Against the Dark Arts. Their professor—his father—had been true to his word when he said they would be learning theory first. Oddly, this time it was Gideon avoiding eye contact. Moreover, he didn't try to follow the man after their lesson on repelling trolls. He knew they had to speak eventually, but the pangs of guilt were still too fresh.

***

That evening, Gideon had been reading Monday's Prophet in a comfy leather-backed chair by the Common Room fire, when Professor Voronov entered. He asked the prefects to assemble the House, and after a few minutes the room was filled to the brim with Slytherins.

'I have a couple of quick announcements to make,' Professor Voronov informed them, 'Firstly, I have received a good level of interest in the house Quidditch team. Trials will take place on the pitch this Sunday at three o'clock. Our new Captain, Jago Hargreaves, will have final say on the line-up. Please do not complain to me if you are not selected!

'Secondly, I wanted to say how happy I am with our first week points balance. Slytherin are currently in the lead by a small margin. I expect that to continue. Interestingly, a significant amount of our points total came from our first-year students, in particular, Mr Gideon Maxwell!'

The professor paused for a brief, but very embarrassing, half-hearted round of applause for Gideon before continuing, 'Which leads me to my final announcement. Owing to an admissions mix-up, Mr Maxwell should have been listed as a transfer student. That error must be corrected. As such, with immediate effect, he will be recognised as a third-year. I trust that you will all be supportive during his transition. Now, please wait here for a few moments.'

Gideon supposed Professor Voronov had done things in such a way to save him some explaining, but he wished the man had warned him ahead of time. He sunk a little in his chair and felt like hiding behind his newspaper with everyone's eyes on him. A couple of people patted his head from over the chair and an energetic boy and girl he had seen around congratulated him.

'Lucky you, getting to skip two years!' said the boy. It was true. It meant that Gideon's two years spent at Middling hadn't been a waste. His hard work had paid off.

'I wish we could do that! You'll be able to go on the Hogsmeade visits now!' said the girl. 'There's a new shop I'm dying to see! I'm Jade by the way. He's Jasper.'

'We're second-years—and twins,' Jasper added.

'Nice to meet you!' Gideon said. 'It's a shame you're not in my year. It's going to be weird getting to know a whole different set of people.'

'Who are the third-year boys, Jas?' asked Jade.

'Erm, there's Eoin O'Leary, Dorian Thompson, Tim Benton, and Gio Romano. You might know Gio, though, Gideon? His little brother, Vinny started this year with you.'

Gideon sighed internally. He didn't want his fresh start to be marred by having to contend with the brother of someone who had it in for him.

Professor Voronov appeared from the dormitory corridor and announced that everyone could return to what they were doing. Before departing, he pulled Gideon to one side and let him know that each of his teachers would be setting him make-up homework, which he should collect after class.

'You'll also need to decide on your two additional subject options and let me know by the end of tomorrow,' he said, handing him his new timetable. 'Finally, you'll now be staying in the fifth dorm on the right with the other third-year boys. Your things have already been moved. Please inform me of any problems. Good evening to you.'

Gideon realised he hadn't considered that he would be changing rooms, so he went to take a look. Sure enough, his four-poster bed and trunk were now by the window in an identical dormitory two doors down from before.

'Are you okay with being by the window?' asked a spiky-haired boy sitting on the bed next to his. 'The light and shadows have always kept me up at night!'

'No, that's fine! I like the window,' said Gideon.

'I'm Dorian. So, Professor V said you're a transfer student?

'I was wondering about that! Hey, I'm Eoin,' said a boy with an Irish brogue, who had just entered and overheard the conversation. 'What other magic schools are there besides Hogwarts? Or was it abroad?'

'Actually, it wasn't a magic school,' Gideon explained, 'to be honest, it was a Squib school, Middling Academy.'

'Oh, I've heard of that place!' said Eoin. 'But how'd you end up there?'

'I guess I'm a late bloomer,' Gideon joked. 'It's a good school, though—'

'Oi! What's this about?' asked a newcomer to the room with another by his side.

'Gio, Tim, this is Gideon, he's joining our year,' Dorian informed them.

Gio, was the spitting image of Vinny, only about a foot taller. His lanky friend Tim was even more so, which made Gideon's late bloomer joke seem all the more ironic.

'I liked that it was just four of us. It feels claustrophobic in here now!' whined Gio.

'Get over it, mate!' said Dorian.

Gio appraised his new dormmate, 'Aren't you the one my bro's been telling me about? The Squib who lied about his age?'

'Would you give it a rest, Gio?' snapped Eoin. 'Professor V just explained they made a mistake with him, and he's just finished telling us he used to go to a Squib school. You'd have heard if you weren't stuffing your face with seconds in the Great Hall! Your bro's just stirring!'

Gio and Eoin stared each other down until the former shrugged. 'Vinny can be a bit of a brat. Good to meet you, Gideon,' he said nonchalantly as they shook hands. 'So... What's with the eye patch?'