Gohan was packing up his trunk to leave the castle for the holidays when Professor McGonagall entered the boy's dorm. "Mr. Son, if you would come with me for a moment, the headmaster wishes to speak with you."

Shrugging he set his trunk down on the floor and followed his professor to Dumbledore's office. Entering he could see the man sitting at his desk scratching away at some letter. "Ah Mr. Son, thank you for coming on such short notice," Albus stated as he set down his quill and motioned for the lad to take a seat across from him.

A trilling sound from the phoenix on the perch had Gohan looking at the bird. "Huh so phoenixes are real?" Gohan hummed because he'd heard the story from Turtle that Master Roshi managed to kill one with tainted bird seed.

"Of course, Fawkes has been my loyal companion for many decades now," Albus confirmed for the boy that this was indeed the mythical creature. "But showing him to you was not the reason I called for you. I notice that you put yourself on the list for students who are going home for the holidays."

Nodding his head. "Yes sir, I wanted to spend time with my family for Christmas," Gohan answered the headmaster's inquiry.

"Well unfortunately, I am going to have to decline to let you leave," Albus said as he cleared his throat and saw the student sitting with him looking upset. "As you recall last year there was an incident after the holiday break where Voldemort was able to regain a body and a means of immortality."

"Yeah, but I don't see how that has anything to do with me," Gohan questioned just why he was being denied something like this.

Stroking his beard, Albus hummed for a moment before exhaling and speaking. "Well I don't wish to make this sound accusatory but if you had remained in the castle over the break I believe that outcome might have been prevented altogether, so I will be sending a letter to your mother explaining my reasoning for keeping you here."

"Sir, that seems unfair," Gohan protested because he knew that he could just leave if he wanted to. It would be better if he could convince the headmaster to see it his way. "I will only be down in the village surely that would be close enough?"

"I don't believe so, your absence may be entirely what Voldemort wishes as you have demonstrated a great strength that may be acting as a deterrent, I cannot risk that he does not have some plan in place to further his plans this year," Albus said with finality.

Taking a moment to calm himself so as to not just flip the desk over in front of him in a rage, Gohan looked at the headmaster. In a way he knew the man was right, Voldemort was planning something and it had to do with Draco, to what end he didn't know but he was keeping an eye on Narcissa's son. "I'll agree to this on one condition, I want to see which students are also staying in the castle over the break."

"Of course he's staying," Gohan grumbled because Draco had not opted to go home for the holiday. On the one hand, Gohan doubted very much that Draco wanted to be around his father and the Dark Lord right now, but it could also have been a part of whatever scheme that revolved around him this year, and that was the crux of the problem, he just didn't know.

Sitting up in the Gryffindor dorm room as the only student in his house that was remaining over the break, he was one of only a handful of students in the castle who were sticking around at all, just him and the students who would rather risk being attacked than go home. So he'd found that Flora and Hestia Carrow, despite being a quiet pair of twins, were pleasant enough to have light conversation with.

Everyone else had been left the castle for their own safety due to the attacks recently, with another boy turning up petrified in the halls after the dueling club. Not even all the teachers had remained behind either, of course the heads of houses had stayed but surprisingly the only other one had been Gilderoy Lockhart. To which Gohan wondered if he just genuinely did not understand the danger in the castle at the moment.

Coming into the Great Hall for another dinner there was now only one table where everyone would share their meals together, but Gohan let out a sigh to see that Draco was still not in attendance, as far as he knew a house elf was bringing the boy his meals since the club incident. It wasn't helpful at all though because without Draco doing anything, there wasn't a chance for him to stop him from doing anything.

All he could do in the meantime was train and wait.

"Graaaah," Gohan shouted as he tossed up his hands at the table, drawing attention to himself. "What is he doing down there?"

No one ever said patience was a saiyan's strong suit.

Trudging through the castle, Gohan heard a hushed conversation ahead of him. Coming around the corner, he could see that the professors who had stayed were standing in the middle of the hall. "His skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever?" Gohan said as he came up behind the adults.

"Mr. Son," Albus smiled because it would seem that Tom had indeed acted again over the holiday break. He knew now that this had all been a ploy to get at Slytherin's monster, but the only problem now was that they did not know where the Chamber of Secrets was. But before he could say anymore Severus brushed past him.

Kneeling down to the half-saiyan's level, Severus took a deep breath. "Draco has been taken, the wards I had in place to alert me if he left his room were disabled, and I do not know where he is. The house elves cannot find him in any room of the castle. Please tell me that you have some way to find him?" pleading with the young student to help him not fail his godson.

Humming Gohan folded his arms before nodding. "I can try to sense for his ki signature but, and don't take this the wrong way, pretty much everyone in the castle is about the same power level so it might take me a while."

Closing his eyes Gohan started feeling around for energy, the six in front of him were the various professors and then he started counting all the numbers but after it passed into triple digits he realized this was fruitless. "Dammit, there's so many signatures, the students, all the other staff members, the house elves and the owls, I can find all of them but even if I ran around everywhere to check all the rooms, it could still take forever to figure out which one is Draco."

"There has to be something we can do," Minerva commented. "Could we gather everyone in the castle into one room so Gohan can narrow down his search. Or if we somehow rose whatever power we possessed then only Mr. Malfoy would stand out."

"Wait… that's not a bad idea" Gohan's brow rose as he recalled that Draco had been more lethargic lately. "I don't need to find his signature, I just have to find the weakest. Whatever's been going on with him has been making him tired, so if I can find whatever has the lowest ki then I find him."

Turning his head around he snapped it down to the floor. "He's down, and it's very weak," Gohan stated as he began to head towards the dungeons.

Once he arrived at the lowest point he could get to, Gohan was left scratching his head. Turning to the professors coming in behind him. "He's still further down somehow?" Gohan questioned. "But, the castle doesn't go any deeper, does it?"

"The Chamber of Secrets must be buried then," Filius concluded as to why it had gone unnoticed for centuries.

"I need to go through the floor, is that alright?" Gohan asked as he formed a ball of ki in his palm.

"Of course," Minerva answered as she moved the adults back out of the blast zone.

Letting his attack hit the ground shook the entire castle, but waving his wand to clear the smoke Gohan could see that this hole went down a good hundred or so feet into some darkened room. Before he hopped down, a hand was placed on his shoulder. "Let me come with you, I promised Narcissa I would protect her son and I have failed in that regard," Severus requested solemnly.

"Alright," Gohan agreed to let the older wizard accompany him, if this was some complex magic he wouldn't really know what to do if he came across it. "The rest of you should get the aurors or something, we might need help later."

Grabbing onto Severus' hip Gohan held him close to his body and jumped down, slowing their descent through flight. Touching onto the wet stone, sconces lit around the room, illuminating the chamber.

"There he is," Severus said as he ran over to the still body. "Alive, but just barely."

"I had not expected to see you," a voice said and as seemingly out of thin air a teenaged boy appeared.

"Tom Riddle," Severus said to the memory of his former master, drawing and aiming his wand at the entity. "Release Draco Malfoy at once."

"Not when I'm so close to returning," Tom glared. "I had near complete control over him until he put up the last bit of resistance after seeing his classmate struck down. But now there is not much that's left of him, in just a few minutes, his lifeforce will bring me back and I will unleash the king of the serpents on this school to cleanse it of those who would oppose me."

"Well where is it then?" Gohan asked as he tilted his head to the side as he'd been looking around the room for whatever was petrifying the students.

"Gohan Son I presume?" Tom hummed because the memories Draco Malfoy possessed of this mudblood child were clear fabrications in an attempt to dissuade him from continuing to use him as a pawn.

"Yup," the half-saiyan confirmed with a nod. "Look we don't have all day, I've been waiting for this for months, MONTHS. Do you know how long that is? It's like a year for a saiyan, just waiting for all this to come to a head. So come on, show me what you can do."

"Not many are as eager to die as you, I will give you one chance to give up your allegiance to Dumbledore and joy me," Tom offered as he could have some use for the child before disposing of it.

Electing to ignore the yammering specter, Gohan turned towards Professor Snape. "So what are we dealing with?" Gohan asked while watching Severus cast some spells on the diary.

"I do not know, it's powerful dark magic and he'll need immediate care, I can put a stopper on the transfer of his life but it won't hold for long," Severus responded as he pulled out a knife from his robes and slit his wrist, chanting under his breath as the drops of blood fell onto Draco's forehead, causing some of the pallor to recede from his skin.

Tom cackled madly as he watched Severus Snape provide his own life energy to try and slow the drain from his student. "Go on, that only makes me stronger, hastening my return."

"It won't matter if the moment you have a physical body I send you to Hell," Gohan folded his arms across his chest.

"Then we must simply do away with you," Tom said before hissing and a giant stone face began to open and a low rumble started to make its way forward.

"Gohan close your eyes, the King of Serpents is a basilisk, it kills anyone who meets its gaze," Snape shouted as he put together what was coming towards them.

Nodding his head, Gohan shut his eyes and took a deep meditative breath. "It's no problem Professor," smiling as even without his sight, the sounds of the beast scraping along the wet stone created a picture of the battlefield in his head. "It'll be over quick."

"Oh yes it will," Tom grinned as the snake rushed forward towards its prey.

Gohan waited until the last possible moment before vanishing and reappearing above the serpent. The fight was over in an instant, his fist crushing the skull of the animal in one blow. "And that takes care of that," dusting off his hands as he took a look around the room to see a shocked Tom Riddle.

"That is all well and good Mr. Son," Severus grunted as he felt the pull of the magic draining him faster than before. The draw tied directly into the emotions of the entity. And as it had just experienced a level of anger it never reached before, there would only be minutes before he too collapsed. "But this does not end the problem."

"Right," Gohan went over to the book and fired a ki blast at it. Once the smoke cleared it showed a completely unmarred tome. "Dammit, double strength."

The next blast only managed to send the book up into the air. "What is it made of?" Gohan asked because that blast was enough power to level a skyscraper but did nothing to the leather.

"It's just a simple book but the dark magic is protecting it from harm, you need to cleanse it somehow," Severus panted as he felt sweat starting to form on his brow.

"Well I don't know how to do that… but I know someone who might," Gohan snapped his fingers as he picked up the book. "Sorry professor this is going to be uncomfortable but you and Draco are coming with me."

Severus nodded firmly as he was hoisted onto the young lad's shoulder and Draco picked up into Gohan's arms. Then they were off, Gohan sprinting towards the heavy metal door which broached no resistance to a powerful kick that shot it off the hinges. The potion master could feel the contents of his stomach shifting as visions of damp tunnels raced past him. "Going up," Gohan warned as he leapt and kicked through the ceiling above them.

Not wanting to comment on them exiting through a girl's lavatory, Gohan made his way outside before his hair flashed gold. "Really hold on this time, we need to get to the otherside of the planet."

Severus gulped because he assumed that Gohan was intending to get there in less than a minute because that was about all the time that Draco had left. But he didn't have a chance to protest because if he dismounted then the drain on Draco would claim him, so he would have to be strong.

Gohan was thankful that he knew the way to The Lookout by heart and that he could always sense for Mr. Piccolo's signature. So it only took little more than a dozen seconds to touch down on the platform and have the two namekians hurrying over. "I don't have much time to explain but we need to remove a powerful curse, what options do we have?" Gohan blurted out as Severus returned to chanting his counter curse even as his body wavered from the loss of blood and energy.

"Oh yes, do bring me more people to subjugate," Tom said as his memory moved with the diary.

"Ignore him," Gohan said as the two namekians raised an eyebrow at the translucent visitor.

"The Sacred Water could do the trick, if it can cure Garlic's Black Water Mist then this should be no problem," Piccolo explained as Dende moved over to tend to the human who was looking more gray by the second.

"Korin will have that then," Gohan nodded and raced to the edge of the platform.

"Now, who are you?" Piccolo hummed as he'd been left with the odd human specter.

"I am the Great Lord Voldemort peasant, you will bow to me," Tom proudly declared, soon he'd be returned to life, having the strength he once had along with the energy he'd stolen from Draco and Severus.

"I bow to no one," Piccolo snarled as he glowered down at the impudent earthling. He caught on pretty quickly to what was happening, having all the knowledge of Kami and his father on magic and curses to draw from. The lifeforce of entities tied to physical objects were not unfamiliar to namekians, due in part to their connection with the Dragon Balls, but that required them to be alive, this was more akin to Shenron trying to bring himself back by draining energy from Dende.

It left him thinking if that would have worked and clearly, the evidence that it could be done stood before him. "You earthlings are certainly creative," Piccolo muttered to himself. Even his own people had never attempted something like this before.

Gohan came back up in less than a second and uncorked the jug and poured the shimmering liquid onto the pages. Tom began to laugh until he noticed his body smoking, "No, no, this is impossible," he screamed as he felt the curse burning away, unanchoring his soul from its binder.

"That's this kid's specialty," Piccolo smirked before letting a wash of golden ki energy erupt over the diary, wiping it out completely.

Gohan looked to see that Draco's skin started to regain its color and Dende had laid Professor Snape down to heal him. "Now if we had a way to remove the Dark Mark?"

"I think that I can manage that," Dende said as he saw how the sacred water handled that cursed object. He poured some onto Draco's arm and then pushed his healing energy into it until the ink burned into wisps of smoke. The skin, while tender and red, no longer held a single drop of that dark ink.

"Could you, remove mine?" a tired voice asked as Severus rolled up his right sleeve, making Dende look to Gohan for what to do next.

"You were a follower of his?" Gohan questioned because he never suspected that one of his teachers had been a Death Eater.

Nodding his head shamefully to confirm that in the past he held a different allegiance. "I was your mother's neighbor as she grew up, we went to Hogwarts together, and I… I loved her, but things in the castle were complicated, with the Dark Lord's power on the rise, conflict between the houses became more like preemptive attacks between the Light and Dark, until I said something to your mother that I couldn't take back. After that it was easy for the Dark Lord and his followers to convince me to join them, they offered what I thought that I wanted."

"I thought that I would obtain power and once I had it, Lily would recognize me as her truest friend. But that didn't happen, she found another person, a better person to connect with," admitting to what he had hoped would be reality if he supported that monster.

"Hearing that she married your father, it drove me to madness. I listened to a prophecy of a child who would oppose the Dark Lord and conveyed its message to him. Only after I learned of who it could pertain to did I realize just how much I had changed. I had set the Dark Lord on the path to kill your parents, it wasn't what I had wanted. Everything I had done to get Lily into my arms and I might have just killed her myself," confessing to the child what part he had played in nearly killing the woman he loved.

"I went to Albus, begged him, pleaded with him to protect your mother, but in the end it was the man who I hated that did what I could not. And after all these years I finally had a chance to prove to your mother that I was better and now I realize that I had still been acting in folly, I only have to prove to myself that I am better," Severus said as he looked at his godson, a person he had sworn to protect and now had kept that sacred duty. Then he looked to his arm where the dark mark lay on his skin, it disgusted him how much he had allowed another to control him and he wished to be rid of it forever.

"I would like a second chance to prove that I am not the same as I was. To be free of this burden of guilt," Severus held out the limb, he never wanted to look at it again.

Piccolo nodded and Dende poured the water on the flesh and Severus winced as he felt the magic leaving his body. "You know, most of us started out that way, hating Goku, wanting him dead," Piccolo said as he could see the relief wash over the earthling's face as the ink turned to smoke. "And funny enough it was this squirt here that gave me a reason to turn my life around."

"He has an incredible power," Severus said as he looked at the child who had done more for him than he thought possible for one person to do. "To make others want to be better, that can inspire more change than anything else I have seen him do."

"Yeah, he's a good kid," Piccolo patted the saiyan on the head. "We'll keep an eye on this one for a couple of days while he recovers, if we're having any problems we'll contact you."

Professor Snape nodded because if Gohan trusted these people then it would behoove him to trust them as well. "Come along Mr. Son we will need to inform the headmaster about what has transpired," Severus waved his hand and waited for Gohan to grasp it. "We'll apparate this time though."

"Oh gee," Gohan rolled his eyes because he hated apparating, it always made him feel weird. But they were back to Hogwarts in only a few jumps and boy did they have a story to tell to the aurors who were waiting for them.

Author's Notes: I figured that since Draco over the summer would be forced to use the Diary before even getting to Hogwarts and more frequently than Ginny would have the control would have happened much faster and Draco wouldn't have ditched the book like Ginny did. So it would all come to a head much sooner than in canon. Don't worry though, I still got a couple of ideas for the rest of Gohan's year before a certain Space Pirate Yo Ho Ho's his way to Earth.