Waking up in the boys' dormitory felt like waking up from an awful and endless nightmare. It felt weird to be finally back at Hogwarts after over two months of wishing he was there.

They got up earlier that morning, not wanting to be late for their first day again. It seemed incredible that a year had already passed since the day Ben had gone to look for Harry and Ron and the three of them ended up being late.

Ben stood in front of the mirror once he got dressed to fix his hair while Ron had trouble tying his tie. His black eye was beginning to fade, but a very light and disgusting greenish colour still remained.

He wondered if he could get Audrey to let him use her makeup to cover it, but then realised that she would probably yell at him and tell him to go away.

"Is everything okay?" asked Harry, who had just finished putting his robes on.

"What? Oh, yes," he answered, not expecting him to appear right behind him. He took a deep breath, and looked at his friend. "Harry, can you be honest about something?"

"About what?"

"Do you... think it looks bad?" He pointed at the eye with a worried expression.

"Oh," he raised his eyebrows. "Well, it looks like it must've hurt, but you still look ha- good. It makes you look badass."

He chuckled, a bit embarrassed. "Thanks."

"No problem," the boy smiled, hesitating whether to say something or not. "By the way... Don't take this the wrong way, but I know you are lying about it."

Ben froze. "Sorry?"

Harry turned to check nobody was near. Ron was now getting one of his books from under the bed, and the other Gryffindor boys had left.

"I know you didn't get the black eye from falling," he whispered, furrowing his lips. "It looks exactly like the ones I used to get from my cousin Dudley. It's done with rage and strength, you don't get those by falling."

Ben didn't know what to say. Did he still have a chance to lie and make him think it had been an accident? Did he even have to do that?

"I won't tell anybody, I promise, you can trust me."

Harry was clearly much smarter than Ben had thought he was. It wasn't like he thought he was dumb, just not so observant. Or maybe it was just that he had experience with wounds.

"Okay, I'm done!" Ron said happily, walking over to his friends carrying his books. "Let's go have breakfast!"

Harry and Ben took their stuff, and they walked to the Great Hall as Ben asked them about their summer. Hermione was already sitting, having breakfast, as the three boys sat around her.

"What's our first class?" Ron asked Hermione, taking some bacon.

"You know that the timetables are given to all the students, right?" Ben replied teasingly.

"You know that while you were given the timetables, Harry and I were almost getting killed by that bloody tree, right?"

"Touché."

"What does that mean?" asked Ron. "Is that Spanish?"

Ben choked on his orange juice and spilled it over his toast. Harry laughed at him.

"It's French, Ronald," Hermione rolled her eyes. "And, answering your question, we have Herbology."

"Herbology's boring," groaned Ron.

"It's not, it's very interesting and it's actually quite useful," said Hermione, watching him with a stern expression.

"How is it useful?"

"Let me remind you when, last year, you and Ben were almost killed by the Devil's Snare," she scoffed.

"Uh, ma'am?" Ben interrupted her, looking away from the strawberries from a fruit bowl in front of him. "May I remind you that I managed to free myself before you used that spell?"

"Oh, he's right," Harry pointed out, earning an approving smile from Ben.

"Whatever," Hermione shifted in her seat, rolling her eyes. "We should leave soon, Herbology's about to start."

"Hey, I need time to eat, okay?" Ron complained, although none of his friends quite understood what he was saying, since his mouth was full of bacon.

———————————————

They arrived at the greenhouse when mostly all the rest of the students were already there, so they rushed to get a place inside. Professor Sprout wasn't there yet, and everyone was chatting happily. Ben took a look around the room, trying to guess what were the weird plants they had in front of them.

He met Draco's grey eyes from the other side of the room. He was staring at him with an awkward smirk since they entered the greenhouse.

"What happened to your face, Walker?" He sneered, loud enough for everyone to hear.

The students turned to look at Ben, waiting for him to answer.

"Wasn't that what your parents wondered when they first saw you after your birth?"

"Speaking of parents-"

"Shut up, Malfoy," growled Harry from beside him, glaring at the Slytherin before he could continue.

"Oh wow, I see that little Benny can no longer defend himself, now he needs Scarface to defend him."

"Such funny and creative nicknames, Malfoy, did you come up with them on your own or did your mommy help?" said Ron coolly.

Draco's face twisted into an angry scowl. Right when he was about to insult the redhead, Professor Sprout waddled into the room with a wide smile. It wasn't like anybody ever paid much attention to her at first, but Malfoy probably didn't want to risk getting detention, so he went silent.

"Morning everyone!" she exclaimed joyfully. The other students were back to their conversations, and ignored her. Instead of getting mad, Professor Sprout, she clinked her shovel to a nearby flower pot. "Morning everyone!"

"Good morning, Professor Sprout!" They chanted in chorus.

"Welcome to Greenhouse Three, second years. Now, gather around, everyone," they took a step forward, approaching the large table in front of them. "Today we're going to re-pot Mandrakes!" So that's what those weird plants Ben had been looking at were. "Who here can tell me the properties of the Mandrake root?"

Hermione shot her hand up in the air.

"Yes, Miss Granger."

"Mandrake, or Mandragora, is used to return those who have been petrified to their original state. It's also quite dangerous. The Mandrake's cry is fatal to anyone who hears it."

"Excellent! Ten points to Gryffindor!" Professor Sprout smiled proudly.

The Gryffindors smiled at her, realising how lucky they were to have someone so smart in their house. Professor Sprout waited a couple of seconds before continuing with her class, and cleared her throat.

"Now, as our Mandrakes are still only seedlings, their cries won't kill you yet, but they could knock you out for several hours, which is why I've given each of you a pair of earmuffs for auditory protection. So, could you please put them on right away? Quickly! Make sure the flaps are tight down! And watch me closely. You grasp your Mandrake firmly... you pull it sharply out of the pot..."

A piercing, high-pitched scream filled the room, causing the students to cover their earmuffs with their hands to block out the horrible sound.

"Got it? And.... now you dunk it down into the other pot... and pour a little sprinkling of soil to keep him warm." Neville began stumbling around, face as pale as paper, and fell to the floor with a thud.

Professor Sprout sighed. "Longbottom's been neglecting his earmuffs."

"No, ma'am," said Seamus Finnigan casually. "He's just fainted."

"Yes, well, just leave him there," Professor Sprout shrugged like an unconscious student was the most normal thing ever. "Right, carrying on. Plenty of pots to go around. Grasp your Mandrake, and pull it up!"

Ben hesitated at first, but grabbed hold of the plant in front of him. He ripped it from its pot, as the Mandrake began shrieking even louder while trying to wriggle out of his grasp like it had gone insane.

Draco was staring at his plant with a smile as he tickled it. He then had the wonderful idea to play with it by sticking his finger on its mouth. But the Mandrake was having none of it, and snapped shut its mouth around Draco's finger.

Ben decided that Draco's Mandrake was his new idol.

———————————————

Ron had broken his wand during his and Harry's encounter with the Whomping Willow. He thought that he could perhaps fix it somehow so, even though Ben told him it was impossible to repair a wand, he decided to use tape to glue the two halves together.

"Say it," he looked at Harry in desperation. "I'm doomed."

"You're doomed."

A little blonde boy appeared out of nowhere and was standing in front of Harry, looking at him with admiration as he held a big camera a few inches from Harry's face.

Before the black-haired boy could react, he pressed a button and blinded Harry with the flash. "I-I'm Colin Creevey, I'm in Gryffindor too!"

Harry visibly didn't know how he was supposed to react. "Oh, uh- Hi Colin," he said awkwardly. "Nice to meet you."

"Do you think your friend here could take a photo of you and me standing together? You know, to prove I've met you. It's for my dad, he's a milkman, you know, a muggle like all our family's been until me." Colin said very quickly, with an excited smile. "No one knew all the odd stuff I could do with magic until I got my letter from Hogwarts! Everyone just thought I was mental!"

"Imagine that!" said Ron, forcing himself to smile.

There was an awkward silence, and Ben felt sorry for Colin.

"That's so cool, Colin!" he grinned happily. "I bet you'll have lots of fun stories to tell your parents when you go back home!"

"I hope so!"

"Ron, is that your owl?" asked Dean, watching a brown owl approach Ron. The animal suddenly landed straight in a bowl of chips, making the students who saw it laugh.

"Bloody bird's a menace," Ron grumbled, taking the envelope from the owl's beak. He turned it over, read the back, and his expression turned into a terrified one. "Oh, no..."

"Look everyone!" announced Seamus, attracting lots of attention. "Weasley's got himself a howler?"

"What's a howler?" Harry asked Ben.

"Er- You'll see..."

"Go on, Ron," said Neville with a worried look. "I ignored one from my gran once... It was horrible."

Ron swallowed hard before shakily opening the envelope under the gaze of a bunch of students. He pulled the letter out, and let out a shriek of fear when the voice of Mrs. Weasley was heard all over the Great Hall, attracting everyone's attention. "RONALD WEASLEY!"

He jumped back and tossed the letter to the table. However, it continued yelling, and levitated up until it reached Ron's eye level, now looking like it had a mouth.

"HOW DARE YOU STEAL THAT CAR! I AM ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED! YOUR FATHER'S NOW FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK, AND IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT! IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE, WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT HOME!"

Ron had gotten the message, as had the entire Great Hall, who had heard Mrs. Weasley's screams and were watching him with wide eyes. The letter seemed to have finished, so Ron allowed himself to catch his breath, but it suddenly turned to Ginny Weasley, Ron's younger sister.

"Oh," said the letter with a soft tone. "And Ginny, dear, congratulations on making Gryffindor. Your father and I are so proud."

Ben wondered how it would feel to have your parents tell you that they are proud of you. The letter turned to Ron for the last time and stuck out its tongue before tearing itself up.

The Great Hall was silent, waiting eagerly for Ron to react. But the boy seemed to be in a sort of trance, staring at the shreds of the letter scattered around the table.

Harry and Ben shared looks, not knowing what to do next. "Are you okay, Ron?" He nodded, not even looking at Harry.

"We should, uh... leave or we'll be late for class." Ben stood up, followed by Hermione and Harry, and a hesitant Ron.

———————————————

Hermione was oddly excited for their Defence Against the Dark Arts classes that year, but she wouldn't admit it was because of their new teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart. He was a very famous author who had received a lot of prestigious awards, such as 'Order of Merlin' and 'Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award' five times in a row. More than half of the witches were in love with him.

Ben was quite sure even his aunt Lydia fancied Lockhart, which was a rather unpleasant idea.

"Let me introduce you to your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher..." called Lockhart, standing at the top of the staircase in the front of the room. "Me!"

He flashed his students a smile so bright that it almost hurt. Ben wondered how it was humanly possible to have such pearly white teeth. Maybe he could ask Hermione, since her parents were teeth doctors.

"Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award," He continued, walking down the stairs slowly. "But I don't talk about that. I didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her!"

He began laughing at his own joke, soon joined by some girls, including Hermione. Neville, from beside Ben, seemed to be confused whether he should laugh, too, or not.

Ben was choking from laughter, but trying not to show it so he didn't look like he was amused by the joke.

"I see you've all bought a complete set of my books, well done. I thought we'd start today with a little quiz. Nothing to worry about, just to check how well you've read them, how much you've taken in."

He handed Hermione her test, "Thank you." she said, her cheeks as red as a tomato, and turned to Susan Bones before giggling.

Ben's laughter stopped at once. He looked down at his paper, fearing what he was going to find.

1. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favourite colour?

2. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition?

3. What, in your opinion, is Gilderoy Lockhart's greatest achievement to date?

"Oh no!" cried Neville. "I haven't read any of his books yet!"

"Maybe if you answer randomly you get some right," shrugged Ben, reading the next question.

When Lockhart had handed out the test papers he returned to the front of the class and said, "You have thirty minutes, start... now!"

Purple.

To appear in muggle toothpaste commercials.

Defeating the Wagga Wagga Werewolf.

He continued answering the questions based on the little facts he knew about him. Ben was aware that he didn't have the slightest chance of passing that test, but it was mildly entertaining to make answers up.

Half an hour later, Lockhart collected the papers and flipped through them in front of the class.

"Tut, tut... Hardly any of you remembered that my favourite colour is lilac. I say so in 'Year with the Yeti', though Mr. Walker here wrote purple." Ben raised his hand. "Yes?"

"Aren't lilac and purple the same?"

"Not technically, lilac is a pale shade of violet, with a slight pink hue," he explained with a smile. "Purple is a colour intermediate between red and blue."

"Oh, alright..."

"However, I will mark it as correct to show my deep generosity." Before Ben could thank him, Lockhart continued talking. "A few of you need to read 'Wanderings with Werewolves' more carefully, I clearly state in chapter twelve that my ideal birthday gift would be harmony between all magic and non-magic peoples. Though I wouldn't say no to a large bottle of Ogden's Old Firewhiskey!"

He gave them a roguish wink which startled Ron. He was staring at Lockhart in disbelief as Hermione looked at the professor with heart eyes, and almost jumped when he mentioned her name.

"...but Miss Hermione Granger knew my secret ambition is to rid the world of evil and market my own range of hair-care potions, good girl! In fact..." he flipped her paper over. "Full marks! Where is Miss Hermione Granger?"

Hermione raised her hand shakingly.

"Excellent!" beamed Lockhart. "Quite excellent! Take ten points for Gryffindor! And so, to business..."

He lifted a cage covered with a red cloth from behind his desk. "Now, be warned! It is my job to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizardkind! You may find yourselves facing your worst fears in this room. Know only that no harm can befall you whilst I am here. All I ask is that you remain calm."

Based on the drama Lockhart was talking about, Ben expected there to be any monstrosity in that cage, and tensed in his seat, alert. The man yanked the fabric up, revealing small electric blue creatures with large dark eyes. They were squealing and climbing up the cage in an attempt to escape.

"Cornish pixies?" laughed Seamus Finnigan.

"Freshly caught Cornish pixies," specified Lockhart, as though it completely changed the situation. "Laugh if you will, Mr. Finnigan, but pixies can be devilishly tricky little blighters. Let's see what you make of them."

He opened the cage, and the pixies shot in every direction like rockets. Everyone began screaming, trying to hide from the creatures as they flew around, grabbing books and tearing pages out of them, and even throwing them away.

Two pixies seized Neville by his ears, and lifted him up into the air. "Help!"

"Neville!" shouted Ben, jumping on a chair to try to grab the boy. Students ran out of the classroom, pushing people away, and almost making Ben fall from the chair.

Neville was way out of range, and the pixies dangled him from the chandelier. Ben threw a book at one of the creatures now taunting Neville, knocking it down.

"Someone get me down!"

The other pixie decided to try and get back at Ben for attacking his partner, and went straight for him until Ron grabbed his robes and he fell on his back.

A pixie tunged in Hermione's hair. "Get off me!"

"Stop!" exclaimed Harry before grabbing a nearby book. "Hold still," he smacked the creature off Hermione.

"Peskipiksi Pesternomi!" Lockhart bellowed. Absolutely nothing happened, and one of the pixies seized his wand and he gasped dramatically.

Ben would have laughed if it wasn't for the fact that another pixie was trying to steal his shoe.

The creature who stole Lockhart's used it to break the chain holding a huge skeleton, which fell to the ground with a thud. Another one grabbed his headshot, and the Professor gave up, running to take it like his life depended on it.

"Well, I'll ask you three to just nip the rest of them back into their cage."

"NO WAY!"

"Can you believe him?" roared Ron while one of the pixies bit his ear. Ben used a spell he had heard from his grandmother, and the pixie got yeeted back, crashing against a wall.

He ran towards it, and put it back into the cage. "He just wants to give us some hands-on experience," said Hermione, before immobilising two pixies at once with a Freezing Charm.

"Hands on?" spat Harry, trying to grab a pixie dancing out of reach with its tongue out. "Hermione, he didn't have a clue what he was doing!"

"Your crush on him is clouding your judgement, Hermione," agreed Ben as Ron and him carried some of the last pixies in the cage.

"Rubbish, I don't have a crush on him." Hermione stood up, looking at Ben. "You've read his books-"

"No, I actually haven't."

Hermione was startled. "Well, if you had, you would've seen all the amazing things he's done." She introduced the last two pixies in the cage.

"He says he's done," Ron muttered only for Ben and Harry to hear.

They closed the cage, and turned to look at the mess in front of them. It looked like a herd of wild elephants had passed by, knocking down everything in its path. Neville was still hanging from the chandelier.

"Why is it always me?"

Poor boy.