6

{ === + === }

…

[Hogwarts Express and Sorting Day]

Nothing special happened.

Well, apart from the fact that Harry and Ron were no-shows, but we know why, so it's not special.

…

On the upside, we got to see Collin the…he was the camera dude, right?

We got to see him and Luna get sorted, which is good.

Also Ginny.

Based on observation she didn't look abnormal, but given that I don't have experience with how she behaves normally I don't have much in terms of a reference point. At least her family seems to be ok with how she is…on the other hand, they seem to be quite worried about Ron not being in attendance, so they may not be aware of any unusual behavior that Ginny exhibits.

"How was your trip?"

What?

Hermione is trying to be friendly.

Er…

Socializing. Small-talk. Normal people stuff.

Oh! Oh right. Right.

"Educational." if I do say so myself. "I got a lot done over the summer."

Hermione looked both suspicious and terrified at the thought of us getting stuff done.

"Like…what?" She asks apprehensively.

She's learning so fast.

"Like things." I grin. "Don't worry your pretty little head over it, alright?"

Her eyebrow went up. "You sound like my dad sometimes."

Erm…wups? "I didn't realize you paid that much attention."

She's young enough to be unfazed by the implications.

…

To summarize, Lockhart's the new DADA teacher, and otherwise nothing of importance is going on. Come to think of it, were it not for the Chamber of Secrets year two would be the most normal year.

If it were not for the strange bullshit that happens every year year two would be the least normal: Dumbledore hired a celebrity to be a teacher.

…

"Hey, Ash." Fred gets my attention as the first day winds down. "Where did Harry and Ron go?"

I frown. "How am I supposed to know something like that?"

To be fair, apart from "they flew here in a car" I don't actually know what's going on.

"They're your friends, right?" George pesters. "You're awfully calm for someone whose friends are in danger."

"They're in danger?" I try to shoot him my sharpest glance. "What do you mean, danger?"

Fred deflates. "So you really don't know?" He glances around for eavesdroppers and leans in. "Off the record, I'm a little worried."

"I'm sure they're fine." I shrug. "What can possibly" wait shit "go wrong?"

…

Despite me trying to jinx it, the two were fine and regaled everyone on the story of how they reached Hogwarts in a flying car back in the common room.

Yay.

…

Howler?

I nuked it with a Prismatic beam. I also burned the table.

…

[The Weeks before Halloween]

…

Let's see…

Lockhart is an ineffectual peacock, McGonagall teaches us better transfig (and is quite pleased at the progress I've made over the summer).

Flitwick suggested that we will begin to learn enchantments at some later time this year HINT HINT this is really fucking important.

What else…what else…

My spells got a little better, par for the course, Malfoy's a little bit of a bigger asshat, Snape's very leery of us keeping small vials of chloroform and the purest alcohol we can find...

Fun fact: it's not alcoholism if it's done in the name of science.

It's not like we're drinking it anyways, so meh.

Uh…what else?

Mandrakes are in, I haven't seen Ginny, and ten year old Luna is adorable and is deserving of hugs. She's also a bit like us when we were ten in the real world: skinny as all hell and devoid of friends.

Hmm…maybe we should promote her into a supporting character four years early? I don't know if I like the idea of a little girl growing up being shunned by literally everybody.

That being said she came out alright, if a bit weird, so…I guess it'll be a tertiary objective for the time being? I dunno. I feel like I should be more focused on the doomsnake though.

Oh. Last thing I forgot.

I've been giving Filch's cat treats. Filch himself doesn't like us, and honestly I don't expect him to like us, but at the very least he approves of the fact that we fight with bladed brass knuckles. Us giving his cat treats is just to help give us an alibi for when the poor thing gets stoned.

Filch is actually pretty interesting to be around. He despises children but is ok with all forms of muggle violence, so he's basically a drunk guy in a bar.

In related news, we're officially the Teacher's Pet of Gryffindor and the Slytherins seem to really enjoy picking a fight. Some of them have insinuated that they held back last year because we were a first year.

In related related news, we've 'invented' the Unrelenting Force shout due to the (perversely) pressing need of having a spell that was both mentally damaging and physically harmless…mostly.

Actually we just need a spell that we can use which will leave no residues.

The shout loses some of its impact because I need to keep my wand in my hand to cast it, but meh, it works, and that's all that matters.

We first got to use it when a trio of Slytherin NPCs decided to pick a fight on the grand staircase while we were on our way to the Room of Requirement. Given that blowing the three of them off of said staircase so they splatter against the ground would have been a felony rather than 'acceptable use of force', we instead led them up into the seventh floor hallway.

And then everybody on the floor (and maybe the floor above and below it) heard a loud, childish voice go "FUS, RO DAH!" followed by what sounded like an explosion. I had to add the explosion effect as a spell afterwards, which is kind of stupid, but it's the thought that counts.

We hid in the RoR after we blew the Slytherins into the wall, so there were no witnesses. Our reputation made it pretty clear it was us, though.

They just had no proof…and then we went and used it in the general company of like fifty people after some asshat Slytherin actually tried to shank us with an actual sharp object. It was kind of endearing, actually. The kid obviously saw some muggles try some shit and tried to emulate them with using a fork.

…but yeah we blew him into a nearby stone pillar and we totally did it with our voice and it was totally awesome.

Snape gave us detention for causing a scene, but it didn't make it any less awesome.

…

[Quidditch]

…

Namely, the Gryffindors met the Slytherins on a day of double-booked practice pitches.

Malfoy did not get the Slytherin team Nimbus 2001s.

He however did make it onto the team despite the gift, so in that sense it means Malfoy was at least better than the previous Seeker.

…Though he was dumb enough to toss 'Mudblood' out while we were in attendance.

Ron, per book event, pulls out his wand.

We stopped him from making a mess of himself though.

"Malfoy." I sigh. "Given that it's too damn early for this, I'll pretend I didn't hear it this time."

"What are you, Granger's guard dog?" Draco sneers. "I'm not scared of you."

Insert 'god he's stupid' sigh here.

I shrug. "Alright, fine."

Malfoy drops to the ground, wheezing…much to the surprise of everybody in attendance.

Funny thing: wind can be used to pack a pretty damn good punch. Kicker? It's easy enough to do that I can pull it out without chanting. It's quite possibly the best utility spell I've made so far.

And we discovered it by accident when experimenting with trying to manipulate our prismatic bits.

"Draco, you should be smarter about picking your fights." I sigh again. It's really too damn early for this.

Ron dragged us up, saying we needed more 'Wizardry spirit.' Otherwise we would've slept in and missed this event altogether.

Given that our hit wasn't actually that strong, just surprising, Draco got his breath back pretty quickly. "I'll make a note of that." He grumbles.

The fact that we were at least polite enemies was what saved us from being hexed to molecules by the rest of the Slytherin team. Alternatively, it was what saved the Slytherin team from being drugged to next year.

…

The problem didn't really resolve as we didn't need to carry Tummy Slug Vomiting Ron from the field, but Oliver Wood was like 'well, let them have the pitch, they look like they needed it more' and the Gryffindor team was the bigger man that day.

Given that alternate resolution, the trio just decided to visit Hagrid instead. We followed them because it would be poor sport to go back to the tower and sleep.

This is also the first time I've officially met Hagrid with the power trio, so introductions went around. He of course knew about my reputation of being a maverick odd ball…it's gonna come back and bite me in the ass at some point.

Hagrid also introduces us to his Man Cooking. We are, unfortunately, not Man enough to eat it.

9 out of 10 Dentists love him.

"What's a Mudblood?" Harry asks after a fashion, and the other three…enlighten him on the finer details of overt dumbass racism. He is suitably disgusted.

Ron seems to realize something during the conversation as he frowns and looks our way.

"It doesn't seem to bother you much, does it?" Ron addresses me. "Being called that, I mean."

Note that he says this after Hermione made her dislike of the term very vocal. Can't blame her though, as 'not fitting in' was one of her major worries…hell, it probably is still a major worry.

I shrug. "Seen it, heard it, don't care about it." I'm actually not sure why Hermione reacts strongly to the term itself, since she (I assume) never grew up with the social conditioning of considering it a stigma. Or maybe she's just more empathetic than I am? "My power comes from science and training; I don't need blood to back it up."

"It doesn't bother you at all?" Ron frowns. "Really, mate? You attacked Malfoy and all."

Well, yeah, but "being pure blooded didn't save Draco from being punched in the gut, did it?" I like asking rhetorical questions…especially when it gets a smile out of the trio. "Blood is not everything, if it was, a lot of people would be screwed."

I don't think I was actually convincing, but at least they seem pretty ok with the explanation.

…

[Open Chamber]

…

We arrive on the scene with the general population.

I don't remember what happened in the books, but the end result is that the trio went off to do some random thing and we, as a member of the general student body, only stumble upon the stoned cat after the deed is done.

So…it plays out almost exactly like it does in the books.

Mrs. Norris gets petrified, the power trio is discovered at the scene…Filch goes into murder mode.

Differences: Malfoy did not toss around the mudblood term, possibly because I was present and staring daggers at him. LOCKHART of all people insinuated that the attacks might be targeting muggleborns.

Of course, it didn't sound as if he said it out of malice, but damn is it suspicious.

How is it suspicious? The message on the wall is literally a threat against us normal folk.

…

He's going on my list of suspects.

We currently have exactly one suspect: Ginny.

…well, strictly speaking, we have two: Ginny and Draco.

Ginny is a suspect because of our prior knowledge.

Malfoy is a suspect on the assumption that Lucius never made the dead drop, since we didn't see it happen to confirm one way or the other. If Lucius's logical reasoning works the same way as it does in the books (drop for vengeance) then Draco would be the least likely candidate, but the possibility is still there.

We're adding Lockhart since his comment felt a little weird. Yes, it was pointing out the obvious, but still.

…So how do I actually do the investigation without rousing suspicion?

We wait for a little bit and see if Harry finds the journal instead of jumping at possibilities.

We've already planted a cover story about being really interested in magical books, so hopefully if Harry gets his hands on the journal he'll be a naïve little kid and show it to us. Unless he's already shared the fact that we like magical books with Ginny and Ginny shared that with the journal, in which case Riddle might be more on guard…

I'm getting sidetracked in what-ifs.

Resolution: The trio are let go since there wasn't any evidence, and the Chamber of Secrets is now the talk of the school.

As we head back to the common room…

"Hey." Fred elbows me.

The twins have been coming to me for consultation with disturbing frequency.

I hold up a hand to stop Fred. "I know as much as you do about the Chamber, which is to say, very little." I then stare at him, which is his cue to lean in closer. "That being said, keep a mirror with you from now on." I murmur.

It says a lot about how much he trusts my guidance (despite having next to zero reason to do so) when he doesn't even question why.

"Should I tell the others?" Fred asks in a low tone. 'Others' always meant at least George.

"As long as it's your idea." I reply.

…

[3rd Person Camera]

…

"What are we going to do with a mirror?" George asks Fred when the twins share news.

"To look around corners, I think." Fred, with another analytical gaze at the water on the floor, replies. "It's probably a reflection thing."

"So…what's so dangerous that we need to scout ahead?" George muses.

…

…

…

And then the days move on.

Harry gets a Homing Bludger to the arm and Lockhart proceeds to take the bones out of said arm. Harry then spends the night in the Hospital wing so his arm can be properly re-boned.

We debated about the virtues of blasting the bludger out of the air with our prismatic beam, but ultimately we decided that losing every last bone in your arm due to the incompetency of the education system was an integral part of growing up.

Plus, y'know, we could've hit Harry and instantly killed him.

When Harry got out of the hospital, he let us know that Collin Creevy (Creevey?) got petrified as well…though that became common knowledge even without his help. Personally I'm pretty glad that the butterfly effect didn't make his condition any worse.

…

…

The trio then switched to talking about using Polyjuice because Malfoy is their designated villain and thus must be evil. Ergo they must do an epic infiltration that involves being Draco's two thugs.

I hear them planning to rob Snape. I must pretend to act as if I have morals.

I think we're a year too late for that.

"Do you really think Malfoy would keep his mouth shut if he was actually the heir?" I ask them.

"No, but I think he's definitely up to something." Ron insists. "Whose side are you on, anyway?"

Hrm…well, it's not like this is definitively dangerous or anything. "I'm on my own side. If the three of you want to ask him stupid things then by all means go ahead."

They eventually settle on a plan while we retreat to our corner because the best thing is happening soon.

…

[Dueling Club]

…

Not gonna lie, I was looking forward to this part.

I bought all my combat gear with me. Let's fucking go, man.

The Great hall is packed with students, and yet there's a small clearing around us because we're just so utterly overjoyed at being able to fight it out.

Lockhart struts onto the center stage, boasting of his incredible feats (half of the student body buys it).

His opponent, the great Professor Snape!

The two face off, and Lockhart does his countdown.

Funny thing is: Lockhart's stance is loose, and he gives off an aura of being an experienced duelist.

And then Snape blows him into the wall where he hits his head and dies. GG.

…

No, that doesn't actually happen.

Lockhart counts to three but makes no obvious motion to cast. Snape uses the disarming spell (holding the syllable like 'ex—pelliarmus' as expected) and Lockhart is blown back a few paces, his wand no longer in his hand.

"A wonderful demonstration, Professor Snape." Lockhart says warmly. "And I must thank you for showing the care to control your spell's force in this demonstration."

A bit of a non-sequitur: we have the reputation of being a teacher's pet. Last year we were…appreciative, of Quirrell; it was pretty obvious we at the very least respected him as a teacher (even if we did it for the purpose of de-fanging him as much as possible). Thus, people were pretty surprised when we seemed to give Lockhart, who was supposed to be superior to Quirrell, the barest of our attention.

We made it clear that our lack of respect was because we found the difference between his skill as a professor and his book capabilities odd. Our reputation meant that more than a handful of students also voiced the fact that Lockhart didn't do any practical demonstrations despite his fame.

The result of this interference? Lockhart made a serious effort to demonstrate his prowess and has actually improved as far as teaching abilities go.

He's a lot more capable than he was in the book, even if the reason for that improvement was the protection of his own ill-gained fame. I mean, yeah, the bar wasn't high, but still. Deserving of respect.

"But perhaps it would be more expedient to have our students experience things hands-on!" Lockhart declares. "Uh…Potter, Weasley."

Oh, boo.

We're nowhere near the front. He can't actually see us.

I'm the bald spot of a very crowded lawn! He can totally see me!

"Weasley is one to cause mayhem with even the simplest of charms." Ala-er, Snape says. "May I suggest someone from my own house…Malfoy, perhaps?" And he turns with a snap and a flourish.

Snape is the best. He really comes into form during this movie, doesn't he?

The two of them salute like fencers (wand upright in front of their faces) and get some distance, then they get into their proper wow their postures are shit.

They don't need to do hand to hand.

Still. Malfoy's weight is almost entirely on his back foot, and Harry definitely has no idea what he's doing.

No shit, this is the first time they're 'dueling'. Lockhart helps Harry fix his posture and Malfoy readjusts when Snape steps lightly on his foot.

"One…" Lockhart counts down. Malfoy sneers. I feel kinda sorry for him.

"Two…!"

Malfoy suddenly starts casting, but Harry, much faster with his wandwork, gets his counterspell off just as he finishes. The two spells meet in the middle and explode like fireworks.

Harry has to deal with my shit on a near-constant basis.

It keeps his reflexes up, like how his resistance to pain can be built up by shooting him with progressively larger bullets.

I'm not actually hitting him. On purpose. That said, his repertoire is still pretty small.

We have no room to talk.

Also Lockhart goes "I said disarm only!" but nobody cares.

Harry does get his head back in the game faster than Malfoy did though, and fires his…whatever it was, at Malfoy. I think it was a tickling charm if the spell's idea of tickling was to do it with repeated gut punches.

Snape drags Malfoy up to his feet by the collar but Harry's already in his next cast: the disarming spell that was supposed to be used. The instant Draco goes into his stance Harry fires his spell, and Draco's wand sails off at an arc into Harry's hand.

Malfoy never got his Summon Snake spell off because Harry was just better. Cue jeers from the Slytherins and cheers from the Gryffindors.

We have a very self-satisfied smirk on our face right now.

Harry got in trouble with Snape for using spells besides the disarming spell (and for not showing good sportsmanship), but Lockhart bails him out by being unusually bombastic about Harry being a 'natural duelist' and 'champion in training'.

I don't care about any of that, because it's go time for the rest of us.

We are very happy about all of this. It is disturbing to the people around us.

Nonlethal spells are easier to cast, and chaining enough of them together means I can do some really nasty things without blowing a huge part of my energy.

…of course, being a dirty fighter doesn't hurt.

The Great Hall gets magically expanded at this point so we have more room.

I get…my first match is with a Hufflepuff 2nd year, by the looks of it. Weedy kid, too. He doesn't seem very pleased that I'm his opponent. I'm so sorry.

But.

"Relax, I'm not going to eat you." I say while bouncing very excitedly on the balls of my feet. "Though I hope you have insurance."

1!

"Why did it have to be the maniac?" The Hufflepuff NPC groans. It's a very apt summary.

2!

Wish it saved him though.

3!

"Exp-" Hufflepuff NPC Student 1 shouts, before being winded by our literally undetectable wind attack to his lungs. I think I'll call it the sucker punch from now on.

Given that the guy is now wheezing, I just walk up to him and take his wand from his hands. Victory!

How underwhelming.

It's not a sport, it's a duel. I just need to win.

This…Bullshit Tactic 101 of a duel continues for about four more kids before we catch someone's attention and get invited to the center stage.

My opponent is Marcus Flint, the Slytherin Quidditch captain. I think he's still salty over how I treated his team. More importantly, he's seen the sucker punch before (and odds are he's been watching for some of the previous fights) so he probably has a counter.

Lord have mercy, I'm actually going to have to try.

"Your reputation precedes you, Mister Ash." Snape says with a thin smile. "I hope an upperclassman will not be too much of a challenge for you?"

"Nah." I bow to Flint. "Thank you for the challenge."

He's a little taken aback but bows in return. "Sure, brat."

It says a lot about what kind of duels are taking place when Lockhart has stopped advising 'disarm only'.

He also said something about playing fair.

Did he? I wasn't really listening.

The rest of the room has quieted down to watch the duel that's going to happen here on the center stage…before then, it was just Lockhart showing off somewhat ineffectually to his progressively smaller cluster of admirers.

1!

Flint begins casting immediately.

We hit his arm with the sucker punch and his spell fizzles and shoots off into the ceiling.

"Dude, at least wait until 'three' to start." I grumble.

He grins…he was testing us after all.

"Now now, that's not very sportsmanlike, Mister Flint." Lockhart reprimands.

2!

I take the battery out of my belt and grip it tightly in my left hand.

Flint sees it and obviously does not approve.

To be honest, I need to practice my defense and counters. My offense is good, but it relies a lot on the element of surprise…so let's hold back for a few spells.

"Three!" Lockhart yells.

…

[3rd Person Camera]

…

Flint actually hesitates for a second, expecting Ash to make the first move. When it's clear that Ash is focused on defense, however, he begins his attack.

His first spell out is a leg locker curse. Ash parries it off with a shower of sparks.

"Equal and opposite force, huh?" Ash remarks, glancing at his wand hand. "It's just the key point that I need to be wary of."

Oh, you think you're so good you don't even have to look? Flint scowls. Fine. He fires a Total Petrification at Ash.

Ash evades it by diving to the side, barely staying on the raised dueling platform.

"Do a lot of running?" Flint taunts. "You're fast." He nevertheless keeps optimal distance from the person that has a reputation of resolving to physical violence at the first available opportunity.

"I do what I must." Ash grins. "Because I can."

Flint fires a stunner at Ash and is surprised that the twelve year old recognizes the spell, given the sudden alarm on Ash's face.

Ash, for his part, summons what looks like a small metal plate and puts it between him and the spell. The stunner hits the plate and crumples it like a sheet of paper, and it goes no further.

"Ok, that worked out better than I thought it would." Ash mutters. "Question is, will that work against the big one?"

Big One? Flint frowns. A killing curse? Why would he know about something like that?

The raised platform helped gather attention, and now the room is silent as they watch the fight between Slytherin Captain Marcus Flint and Human Explosive Ash.

Ketchum.

Ash stretches. "Alright, I suppose that's plenty of testing for now." His stance gets lower. "My turn, Marcus."

Flint takes no chances and readies a protective charm. His cast is interrupted by something blowing his arm away from position.

Ash charges at Flint. "The wand thing really is a drag. What kind of wandless spells do you know?"

Flint, seeing the distance, stops getting back into stance and instead throws a punch.

Ash hits the fist with a Sucker Punch and then blocks it with his arm. Despite the reduced force, the sheer size difference breaks Ash's charge and sends him back a few steps.

"Right, yeah. Twelve." Ash mutters. "Gotta have something better to make in-fighting worth it."

"Less muttering." Flint growls and gets back into dueling stance. "More fighting." He's enjoying this.

Ash grins. "Ok." Around his head, four small crystals pop into being. "Strike with great vengeance!" He yells (with an odd accent) and the crystals zip towards Flint.

Flint, no stranger to flying objects zooming towards him, backsteps readily. Two crystals slam into and shatter upon the stage. He sights the third from his left and shatters it with a Blasting spell. He loses track of the forth, makes an educated guess, and ducks. It zips over his head and vanishes after a moment.

Wow. "Petrificus Totalus." Ash casts as Flint begins to recover from his dodge.

With the agility of a seasoned Quidditch player, Flint wrenches himself, despite his poor position, into a roll and evades the spell.

Ash blinks. "Shit, man."

Flint grins. "You think you're all that, huh?" He waves his wand.

…

[1st Person Camera]

…

Oh…well it had to happen at some point.

Marcus summoned some snakes. Some very…angry, snakes. There are actually a lot of snakes, wow.

Twelve snakes, to be exact.

I like snakes. But I'm pretty sure this group of snakes isn't up for petting.

Given that they're hissing and slithering towards us, no, probably not.

Let's back up a bit. I need a minute to get my spells ready.

…

I then hear hissing from the sidelines. The snakes get distracted.

Harry's trying to get them to stop, isn't he?

The kids around Harry are visibly alarmed by the fact that Harry is hissing at them from the sidelines and are backing away from him as quickly as they can.

Damage control, damage control!

"Harry, bugger off." I yell. "I don't need help to win this one."

"You're helping him?" Ron's in disbelief, looking between Harry and me with neck-breaking speed. "You speak Parseltongue, Ash?"

"What's Parseltongue?" Harry asks.

"Can you imagine Harry helping Flint out?" I ask him back.

Ron blinks and then nods. "Right, right."

"Sorry, mate." Harry apologizes. "But I got worried."

He's nice. Pity the book event just shits all over that. "I know, Harry, and thanks. But I got this."

WIND! OBEY MY COMMAND!

I kick up wind around the snakes and launch them all into the air.

So we made a snake tornado. A snakenado, if you will.

A Sharknado but with significantly less budget.

The snakes, now angry and confused, start trying to bite at everything.

In retrospect Lockhart's spell would have been better on many levels. Oh well.

Chant…point wand at left hand…gather the power in the left hand battery…and…emit!

As the snakes drop from the sky, crackling electricity wraps itself around our left hand and extends outwards like a pole that we hold straight up toward the ceiling.

When the snakes hit the ground, we slam the pole onto the snakes, where the electrical power discharges with a resounding roar.

…

Good lord that was loud…much louder than I expected.

We've, uh…

There is a massive charred black bar on the ground, wide enough to encompass the now very much roasted snakes.

Everybody's staring at the black line in shock.

"Told you I got it covered." I say lightly to break up the silence. "Now then, where were we?"

Truth be told, I don't actually have the power to shoot it off a second time (without seriously decreasing its range), but they don't need to know that.

We make our point by regathering the crackling lightning onto our fist, and Flint, speechless, instinctively backs up a step.

Lockhart quickly steps in to prevent a perceived murder. "T-that's quite enough, uh…thank you, young Ash."

"I must ask, what did you think you were hoping to accomplish, making a spell of that power?" Snape asks. "Surely you were not planning on using it on Marcus here, were you?"

"No, that would be a felony." I can stop posturing and take some deep breaths now. "Besides, I'm pretty sure he'd survive if he got hit by it."

Flint stares at us in utter disbelief of our cavalier attitude towards murder.

"You should take care of the spells you use, Young Ash…lest they become your downfall." Snape says evenly with the barest hint of a warning.

I wonder if that means he regrets making Sectumsempra? "Duly noted, professor."

…

The rest of the dueling club's first day passes without much fanfare. I was running on fumes after my fight with Flint, so I sat out the rest.

That and nobody really wanted to duke it out with us after we created a snakenado and burned it to the ground.

Plus I may have created rumors that I can speak with snakes with my little exchange with Harry, so they're giving me a bit of space.

So…yeah. Good things have happened.

We have a very loose definition of what can be considered 'good'.

.

.

.

{ === + === }

Author Notes:

I think Chamber of Secrets will be four chapters (counting this one) and one follow-up.