It was early morning when Warren Bones entered the Leaky Cauldron. There was an elderly witch having her morning tea over in the corner, and Tom Jr. was wiping down tables. Wilbur Wag was nowhere to be seen.

Annoyed, Warren got a cup of tea and some biscuits from Tom and settled at a table to read the Daily Prophet while he waited. He hoped it wouldn't be too long, and found it rather inconsiderate that Wilbur had not managed to make it on time. He flipped through the pages of the Prophet without reading any of it. Where was Wilbur? What was taking him so long? They had a busy day to get started. Warren sipped his tea, but decided against the biscuits. They looked old.

Just when Warren thought he couldn't stand it any more, Wilbur walked in, saying goodbye to his parents.

"I'll remember, mum. Thank you. Goodbye, now," Wilbur said, trying to get his parents to detach themselves and let him go. He closed the door at last, and headed over to Warren's table.

"My goodness, where have you been? We have a lot to do today, and I'd think that you'd appreciate that enough to show up on time," Warren said. Wilbur looked properly chagrined.

"I'm sorry, I'm only five minutes late," Wilbur said. "My parents were driving me mad."

Wilbur Wag was a short, round boy who looked as though his mother dressed him (she did). He was also the only friend that Warren had been able to keep over the last three years at Hogwarts.

It's not that Warren was unlikeable. He went out of his way to be quite likeable. His family had a great amount of wealth, and he tried to share with everyone he passed by. He always bought lots of extra sweets at Honeydukes when they went on Hogsmeade trips to share with his classmates, and he always had spare quills or parchment. His chocolate frog card collection was the most extensive of anyone else's at school. This wasn't because he had any interest in chocolate frog cards, but so that he could accommodate those students that also collected and were missing cards. Everyone knew Warren was the person to trade chocolate frog cards with. Warren didn't believe he had collected them all, there were rumors of a Greta Catchlove card that he'd never seen, and his Armando Dippet had been damaged during an unfortunate incident.

In truth, it was Warren's regular involvement in unfortunate incidents that seemed to drive away anyone who might have considered being his friend. Last year alone, he had set fire to a Hufflepuff boy trying out a new charm for salamanders, and made his own desk disappear. His mission for last year had been experimental magic. Wilbur had given the opinion that an experimental magic mission was rather redundant, since they would spend the whole school year learning new magic, but Warren wanted to learn strange or relatively unknown magic. After a disastrous year of talking socks and ear-less house elves, and several visits with the Headmistress, Warren conceded he might have been better off listening to Wilbur in the first place.

Warren had had a special mission for every year at Hogwarts, and a few years even before Hogwarts. They usually led to trouble. Or, if the trouble wasn't related to the mission of the year, it was attributed to Warren's intense curiosity about everything. In his first year his mission had been to determine who everyone in the thousands of portraits was and find out what he could learn from them. He drove away most of his potential friends that year after being seen many times yelling in frustration to a disinterested monk in a random portrait, or trying to wake up the portrait of Elfrida Clagg on the fifth floor.

His second year, much to the frustration of everyone in the school, his mission had been to see how long a game of Quidditch could go on without the Snitch being caught. Having become the new Seeker for the Ravenclaw team that year, his popularity dropped when he spent all of his games trying to avoid the Snitch, and trying to stop the other teams Seeker from getting it as well. The school wouldn't allow the games to continue into the night, and so they would be stopped and continued the next day. After one game between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor had lasted a month, the team captain threatened to remove Warren from the team if he did not make every effort to catch theSnitch.

"Have you decided on your new mission for this year?" Wilbur asked. He looked nervous.

"I have," Warren said, setting down his tea. "After last year's uninspired mission, I've come up with something grand and less likely to annoy my classmates."

"What is it?" Wilbur asked, eating one of Warren's biscuits.

"I've decided my mission for this year will be to discover and document as many of Hogwart's secrets as I can."

"Like what?" Wilbur asked.

"Like it's secret passageways, secret rooms, unknown areas of the grounds, or historical items unknown or unfound," Warren said, "I think it will be like trying to solve a great mystery, exploring that huge castle and delving into it's secrets."

"Oh. That sounds nice and safe," Wilbur replied.

"Let's not sit here chatting all day; we must get on to Diagon Alley. We have much to buy and much to do," Warren said. Wilbur nodded. He followed Warren out the back door of the Leaky Cauldron and into Diagon Alley, which was alive with morning shoppers.

After they had made their first stop at Gringott's (Warren's parents had given him his own vault, which seemed to provide an endless supply of funds), they made their way to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions.

"Why do we need to go in here? My robes are just fine," Wilbur said.

"I always like to get new robes each school year, you know that, Wilbur," Warren said as he browsed through the shop. Wilbur waited in an armchair by the door while Madam Malkin fitted him for his standard black school robes, and then two sets of robes for weekends or outings to Hogsmeade. They were light blue and gray, and matched his eyes. "I think you should get some new robes, too, Wilbur. It's important to always look your best."

"I don't want to waste money on robes when the ones I have are perfectly fine," Wilbur argued.

"Then I'll buy you some," Warren said, and before he could object, Wilbur was being fitted for some nice olive-colored robes. Once Madam Malkin had sent them out the door with their multiple boxes, their next stop was Flourish and Blotts, right next door.

Flourish and Blotts bookshop was crammed with Hogwart's students and their parents, getting their books for the coming school year. Warren sighed.

"This is why I didn't want to wait until the last minute," Warren said to Wilbur. Wilbur shrugged.

"I couldn't get my parents to take me until today. They only come to London maybe once a week, if that," Wilbur explained. They pushed their way through the crowded rows of books until Warren found one of the shopkeeper's apprentices re-shelving some books.

"Don't I know you?" Warren said to the boy. He was a pale, thin boy with unruly blonde hair, not much older than them. "Yes, I think you attend Hogwarts with us. Hufflepuff, isn't it? I'm sorry, I've only heard you referred to as Fuzz-Head."

"That's me, Davey 'Fuzz-Head' Alderton," the boy said. "I work here during the summer. You're Warren Bones, of course, and Wilbur. I remember you from your second year, when you had Jimmy Caldwell hit that Bludger at our Seeker for trying to catch the Snitch." Warren laughed, remembering how outraged Jimmy had become when he realized that Warren wasn't going to catch the Snitch either.

"That would be me," Warren said.

"You're not going to try your new approach to Quidditch again this year, are you?" Fuzz-Head asked.

"No, no, I have an entirely new mission this year," Warren said. "I was wondering if you could help us find some books on Hogwarts."

"What about Hogwarts? You're not planning on blowing it up or something, are you?"

"Don't worry, my new mission for this year is uncovering and documenting all of Hogwart's secrets," Warren told him.

"That's going to be quite a project, then," Fuzz-Head replied. "I've found a few secrets myself, actually."

"Oh? Like what?" Warren asked.

"I found a secret passage in the library," Fuzz-Head said. "For some reason, it leads to a broom cupboard on the fifth floor."

"How fascinating," Warren said, digging in his pockets for something to write with. He found a broken quill and handed it to Wilbur, who wrote the secret passage down on his hand.

"I'll also being needing a notebook," Wilbur said.

Davey 'Fuzz-Head' Alderton led them through the shop, pulling out a leather-bound book for Wilbur to write notes in, and leading them to some books on Hogwarts.

"This is the definitive guide," he said, handing Warren a large book. "Hogwarts, A History. Over 1,000 pages regarding the history of Hogwarts and the castle itself."

"I have been meaning to purchase it, but for some reason never got around to it," Warren said, taking the book from Fuzz-Head. "This will be an excellent help in our research."

"This is a book on the basic architecture of Hogwarts," Fuzz-Head said as he took a smaller book down. " I bet it doesn't have much more in it than you could see for yourself, but it might help." Warren nodded and took that book as well.

"This one is just a bunch of hype by Rita Skeeter, mostly conjecture and rumors about the castle." Warren looked down and saw the cover featured a picture of Hogwarts at night, with the title in bright red, "The Dark Heart of Hogwarts".

"Perhaps it will at least give us some leads," Warren said, adding the book to his growing pile.

Fuzz-Head found them several other books, including one on the development of Hogsmeade, and a slim volume on the founders of Hogwarts.

"Thank you, Fuzz-Head, you've been most helpful," Warren said, as they made their way over to find some school books.

"No problem, happy to help," he said. "Hey, do you think you might like some help with your project once we're at school?" Warren's eyes gleamed.

"Absolutely, we'll need all the help we can find, exploring the various passageways, corridors, and dungeons," Warren said, sounding pleased with this new development.

"Right, then. I'll find you guys when we get to Hogwarts," Fuzz-Head replied.

"Why don't we meet on the train, instead, so we can start mapping out our plans ahead of time?" Warren suggested. Fuzz-Head agreed, and they left him to get back to work stocking the shelves.

"This is an excellent turn of events, Wilbur," Warren said as they looked through school books. "Incidentally, do you have our book list for this year?"

Wilbur pulled out a battered page of parchment and unfolded it, squinting down at it in concentration.

"Standard Book of Spells Grade 4, of course," Wilbur said. "Most of the rest we already have, although I do recall you need a new copy of Magical Drafts and Potions."

"Oh that's right. My unsuccessful attempt at an improved Pepperup Potion," Warren said, grabbing a copy of the potions book. "I believe it ate right through the book, desk, and was starting on the floor before we were able to clean it up."

Warren and Wilbur shoved themselves up to the counter to purchase their books, then headed back out into Diagon Alley. They wove their way around the many witches and wizards going about their business. Already loaded down with several boxes from Madam Malkin's and all their books, navigating was getting a bit difficult.

"Perhaps we should head back to the Leaky Cauldron to stow our purchases so far, and then we can hit the apothecary," Warren suggested. Wilbur nodded, and they made their way back down the busy street. They stowed their purchases in their school trunks, which they had left by the fireplace, and headed for the apothecary. They replenished their potion ingredients, and Warren bought a new silver knife and a new set of scales to replace the one he had thrown off the astronomy tower when experimenting with gravity. They skipped Quality Quidditch Supplies. Wilbur didn't play, and Warren wasn't that interested beyond the basic equipment. He had purchased his Firebolt V the year before, and it was serving him well. Warren stopped as they neared Eeylops Owl Emporium.

"I should get an owl," Warren pronounced.

"What for? You already have Drusilla."

Drusilla was Warren's pet Fwooper. The Fwooper had been a gift from Warren's father on his tenth birthday, brought back from a trip to Africa, and there had been a problem getting Hogwarts to allow Warren to bring the bird. Their first issue was with the fact that a Fwooper's song can drive the listener insane. This bird had been purchased legally, however, with it's silencing charm in place. Their next issue was that the allowed pets so far at Hogwarts had been owls, rats, cats, and toads, and that allowing Warren to bring his Fwooper would encourage students to bring even more exotic and potentially dangerous pets into the school. Warren's father can be persuasive, though, and the bird was allowed to be brought to the school. Warren kept her in a beautiful tall golden cage that hung from the ceiling in the Ravenclaw common room and was allowed to stay there during the summer so as not to draw Muggle attention. The house elves tended to her during the summer months. Because of the silencing charm, she didn't disturb the other students, and they seemed to enjoy the rather pretty colors of Drusilla's plumage.

"Drusilla isn't really adapted to carrying mail," Warren said. "I once tried to have her deliver a message to you while you were in the Owlery one day, and she dropped it in the lake. Also, Professor Tuttle saw her and scolded me for letting her out of her cage."

"Do you send and receive a lot of mail? I hadn't noticed," Wilbur said.

"I do have plans of contacting people who may have knowledge about Hogwarts and it's secrets, and so may have more correspondence than usual this year," Warren explained. Wilbur seemed satisfied with this answer. They stepped into the Owl Emporium and Warren viewed his options. He decided on a tawny owl, citing, "It's fairly common, doesnt draw attention to itself, and is unpretentious."

"Is it male or female?" Wilbur asked the shopkeeper.

"This one's a male."

"What shall you name him, then?" Wilbur asked Warren.

"I shall name him Felix."

Their last stop was to the stationery shop. Warren only purchased some ink and parchment, and a standard quill.

"With all your new correspondence, I would think you would have bought more," Wilbur observed.

"I intend to, but in Hogsmeade. I prefer Scrivenshaft's, especially for my quills. And we'll also go to the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes in Hogsmeade, that way we'll have a better idea of what we might need. I'm so glad George Weasley opened the new location; since Zonko's closed down, it was Diagon Alley or nowhere," Warren said. "Also, we'll need to get extra candy on the train, especially chocolate frogs, and we'll get more at Honeyduke's. "

"Is there anything else we'll need here in Diagon Alley?" Wilbur asked.

"I think I'm done. How about you?"

"I think I have everything I'll need," Wilbur said.

"Excellent. I think we're well prepared for this new year of possibilities," Warren said, smiling with satisfaction. "I say we return to the Leaky Cauldron for a nice lunch, and we can start planning until your parents arrive."

Once they were back to the Leaky Cauldron, Warren and Wilbur put their additional purchases into their trunks, and Warren placed Felix on top, snug inside his cage. They found a nearby table, and ordered their lunch. They talked well into the late afternoon, Wilbur scribbling down ideas until his parents arrived and had to pull him away.