Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the Type-Moon works.

Hello, this idea flew through my head so I had to start it even though I'm already working on a story. This can either be read as a stand-alone or as a companion story to my other story, A Convergence of Fate. If you're confused about that, well hopefully later chapters in both stories will clear it up.

Anyways, chapter 1 start!

Harry would have sighed, if he was able to. Instead, all he could do was remain frozen in this uncomfortable position with blood dripping from his nose into his open mouth. It was the start of his sixth year at Hogwarts and he should have been inside listening to the Sorting and eating the feast by now.

But no. He had decided to hide with his Invisibility Cloak in the compartment that Malfoy had been using on the train ride to Hogwarts and spy on him. Malfoy had always been a bad guy and his very suspicious behavior at Borgin and Burke's Dark Arts Shop had Harry even more suspicious of him. Harry had hidden in order to find out if Malfoy was involved with Death Eater activity on Voldemort's orders. Ron and Hermione didn't seem to care though, they didn't believe that Voldemort would make a schoolchild a Death Eater.

So he had gone off on his own to try to find the evidence that proved Malfoy was at least associated with Death Eater activity or was a Death Eater himself. Harry had hidden in Malfoy's compartment during the train ride, hoping that no one had seen him. Unfortunately, Malfoy had noticed him sneak in by the flash of his shoes beneath his Invisibility Cloak. After the train had arrived at Hogwarts, Malfoy had waited for everyone else to leave the compartment before hitting him with a Petrificus Totalus.

After some taunting and the breaking of Harry's nose by a surprisingly good stomp on the face, Malfoy had thrown his Invisibility Cloak back over his cramped, frozen body and left him to be taken back with the train. If this had happened during Harry's first year, he would have been terrified that he wouldn't have been allowed to attend Hogwarts if he missed the Sorting.

Now he knew better, though that wasn't to say he wasn't worried about his current predicament. Trapped and invisible as he was, it would probably take a long time for anyone to find him. Hermione, Ron, and the rest of his friends would think he had gone into Hogwarts ahead of them and they would leave in the carriages that he now knew to be driven by Threstrals, which took the second year students and above to the Hogwarts doors.

They would probably be worried when he didn't show up for the Sorting of the new first years into whichever of the four houses they wound up in and the following welcome feast, but unless a teacher noticed his absence they wouldn't be able to do anything until afterwards. Everyone would probably search around Hogwarts and the grounds first, they might even think he was in the Forbidden Forest which would be nearly impossible to search.

Eventually, they might think to check the train. But by then it would already be back in London, or wherever the train went when the Hogwarts students weren't using it. After that, they would have to search every compartment and he just had to hope Headmaster Dumbledore or even the magical eye of Order member Mad-Eye Moody came along to see through the Invisibility Cloak.

So, in all, he could be looking at hours or even days of being trapped. Someone would most likely find him before he could starve or dehydrate enough that it would risk his life, so that was good. But he was losing a good amount of blood from his broken nose, and much of it was entering his frozen open mouth. Yes, death by choking on his own blood was the real danger here.

Harry could only lay curled on his back like an overturned turtle, hoping that the compartment would shift enough so he would be turned onto his side. He tried to sigh again then, realizing he still couldn't, tried to focus on something besides his frozen, cramped limbs and prepared to wait.

His wand had fallen out of his hands when he had been frozen. He knew that some witches and wizards could perform spells without speaking, so he tried to summon his wand by saying 'Accio Wand' over and over in his head. Nothing happened.

Just as Harry had accepted the fact that it would be a long time before someone found him, he heard the compartment door open. Wishing he could turn his head to see who was here, he could only wait. Was it someone looking for him? Would they be able to see him under his Cloak? Was it Malfoy come back for more torment?

Footsteps moved from the threshold of the door to his position. His Cloak was suddenly removed.

"Hello Harry Potter. Are you trying to lure out Crumple-Horned Snorkacks by waiting invisibly? Oh poo, that means I just gave you away. I'm sorry," the voice of Luna Lovegood said contritely.

Harry tried to speak, or grunt, or anything, but nothing came out of his open mouth.

"Oh! You're bleeding!" Luna exclaimed, "Episkey."

Harry's nose felt very hot, and then very cold. Hopefully this meant it had been healed and not some other spell effect.

"Hmmm," Luna mused as she approached his frozen body. He could finally see her now that she had moved into his field of view. Her long blonde hair fell past the contemplative expression on her face that was ruined by the colorful form of her Spectrespecs still perched on her nose and slightly obscuring her eyes.

Extending her wand, she prodded his arm curiously. Seeing no change in his position, she moved even closer and grabbed his arm. She tried to give it a pull but quickly found that it was frozen in place. She reached across for his other arm with the same result.

"I can see only two possible reasons for this," she said, "either you've been hit with a spell like Petrificus Totalus or the wrackspurts have built up such numbers around your head that they've shut down your body."

Harry would have grinned if he wasn't frozen. Luna had figured it out; she would unfreeze him and he wouldn't have to miss the feast.

"I'll try to treat the wrackspurts first," she said with a serious nod of her head.

'No, Luna you were so close,' Harry thought despairingly.

Luna positioned herself behind Harry's head so that he could no longer see her.

"This hair is so messy, it must seem like a nest to them," she said while quickly running her hands through his black hair, causing it to stick up every which way. After that, she waved her hands through the air around his head while making shooing sounds.

"That should take care of the wrackspurts around your head for now, but what about the ones inside your head locking up your body?" she said.

Harry was almost afraid of what she would do next. He was unprepared, however, for the feeling of Luna's mouth attaching to his ear and her blowing into it. Hard. After a few more long exhales she finally decided it was enough and stopped. She once again grabbed onto his arm and attempted pull only to find that he was still frozen.

"Oh poo, I thought for sure that would work," she said, "guess I better try to treat a spell next. Finite Incantatem."

With a flash of red light, Harry could finally move his body again. He rolled over and spat out the blood that had accumulated in his mouth. The first thing he did after stretching his cramped limbs was touch his nose to make sure it was healed and didn't have wings or something.

He turned towards Luna to find that she had taken or Spectrespecs off at some point, revealing her gray eyes that were staring intently at him.

"Thank you Luna," he said sincerely, "but why were you still on the train instead of at the Sorting?"

"Oh, I was worried when you didn't come back to our compartment for your uniform. So I went looking for you."

He glanced down at himself, realizing that while Luna was dressed in her Hogwarts uniform, he was still only in his muggle clothes.

"Well, all the luggage has probably already been taken to the dorms so I'll just have to change there," he said.

The rumbling of the train about to make its departure quickly cut off further conversation. The two soon exited the train, and realizing that there were no carriages or boats left to take them, began the slow walk to the doors of Hogwarts.

The night outside was dark, windy, and a bit chilly. A couple of Lumos charms lit the way under their feet and the lights inside Hogwarts castle were enough to show the way. Walking beside Harry, Luna was humming and seemed to be in her own world.

Normally a walk such as this would be pretty miserable and Harry would be dreading what sort of punishment he would get for missing the Sorting. Again. But with the bright, positive presence of Luna walking beside him, it was almost…nice.

"So, Luna. How were you able to see through my Invisibility Cloak?" Harry broke the silence by asking.

"Hmm? Oh, well my Spectrespecs allow me to see the wrackspurts in the air. When I went into that compartment, there was a large swarm of them around what I later found to be your head. So I reached forward and found your Invisibility Cloak. You should really get that wrackspurt infection fixed, you know."

"Didn't you already take care of that with the hand waving and the, er, ear blowing?"

"While I may have gotten rid of the ones you had currently, that doesn't mean I removed the root of the problem. There's a good chance they'll come back."

"Are they really that big of a problem?"

"Yes, they make people a little sad and cause their thoughts to be fuzzy. Don't you feel the difference now that they're gone?"

Funnily enough, now that it was brought to Harry's attention, he could feel the difference from before. He felt more positive and hopeful, and his thoughts did seem clearer than before. The difference was actually pretty amazing now that he thought about it.

"I can. So, how do I get rid of them for good?"

"Well, wrackspurts are usually attracted to unhappy people. They're repelled by happy thoughts."

"So they're like baby dementors or something?"

"Ooh, that's a great theory! Do you mind if I use that for the Quibbler? I'll source you of course," she asked enthusiastically.

"Er, no, I don't mind."

"Great. But, more importantly, I don't think you've been having many happy thoughts lately, Harry."

"…"

"Harry it's ok to be sad now that he's gone," she consoled while moving closer to him. Not touching, just close enough that he became more aware of her calming presence. "But you also can't hold onto that pain forever."

"Well, what would you know!" he suddenly shouted, "He was…Sirius was the only real family I had left. And now he's gone."

"I do know, I lost my mother when I was little, remember?"

"Right, right. Sorry."

"You don't have to apologize. All I'm saying is that I know how it feels to lose someone, and I can help you."

Harry exhaled noisily. He had to calm down, it wasn't fair to Luna to go off on her like that. He had spent most of his early summer trying not to think about Sirius and failing. When he had been left alone in his room at the Dursley's house it seemed as if Sirius was all he could think about. How it was his fault Sirius was dead. How things could have been different.

Afterwards, when he had gone to the Burrow, he had been able to not think about Sirius more easily. He distracted himself with playing around with his friends. Playing quidditch, getting his OWL results, hearing Bill and Fleur planning their wedding. It had all been a distraction from the pain Sirius' loss brought him.

He looked over to where Luna was waiting for his response patiently. She was probably the best person for him to talk to about this. Ron, Ginny, and Hermione had never lost anyone to his knowledge, so they would only probably be able to offer advice about not blaming himself and moving on. Neville had basically lost his parents, but when he was baby like Harry had. Plus there wasn't really a time that they ever talked without anyone else there.

Luna though, she knew what it was like to lose someone close to her. She would know how he was feeling, the pain and guilt every time he thought of Sirius. They were alone right now, no interruptions or distractions and Harry knew she wouldn't judge anything he said. She had proven herself to be a trusted friend when she went to the Ministry with him, so maybe he could trust her with this too.

"I just, I don't know, I keep thinking back to that moment when Sirius crossed through the Veil of Death. That realization in his eyes. It hurts. I feel so guilty all the time. That it's all my fault Sirius is dead. If I hadn't fallen for Voldemort's trick…If I hadn't gone to the Ministry…Then Sirius would still be alive. And there's the pain of knowing he's gone. I'll never be able to see or talk to him again. I won't be able to go to him for advice, or stories about my parents. We'd only spent a few summers together, and I'll never get the chance to know him better."

Harry had started out calmly, but as he kept talking, he quickly grew more and more distraught. By the end of his speech, his shoulders were shaking and he was fighting to keep the tears in. Luna watched on in concern. She wanted to hold him, but didn't know if he would accept or reject the comfort at this stage. She settled for moving closer to him and running a hand up and down his back.

"I'm sorry," she started quietly, "I can't say something to make you feel better. I can't magically make you stop blaming yourself or stop missing him. I can't just tell you to move on and expect that to work. I'm sorry."

"All I can say is that I know how it feels and that it will get better. It will take time and you'll probably never fully stop missing him, but it will get better. I know how it feels because I've been in the exact same situation as you. You already know that I lost my mother, but I haven't told you the full story yet."

Luna seemed to shrink in on herself as she walked alongside him.

"My mother, she was very smart and kind. Her job was to create new spells, I always thought it was the coolest job in the world. So, there would be many times that I would watch her as she worked at home. It was so fascinating to see her weave the components of a spell together. We would celebrate together every time she finished a new spell."

Luna took a large, shuddering breath. Then continued her story.

"It was a normal day, nothing to indicate that anything would happen. My mother was working on…well, I honestly don't even remember now. I was there with her, watching the runes glowing in midair. Then, something that I had never seen before while watching my mother happened."

"The runes surrounding us began to flash and spin around quickly. It was a little frightening, though what was even scarier was seeing my mother's panicked face as she tried to fix whatever had gone wrong. She spent a few seconds trying to fix it with the runes only flashing and spinning more intensely when she suddenly stopped."

At this point Luna was tightly crossing her arms across her body. Her fingers were tightened on her shoulders and her body trembled slightly.

"She looked at me and I knew, I just knew, that something really bad would happen. She jabbed her wand at me and a shimmering shield burst into existence around me. I couldn't see anything of what happened after that, but I'll never forget my mother's face as she put that shield around me. Sad, but determined, knowing she couldn't say goodbye but trying her hardest to save me."

Luna's speech had grown increasingly loud as she continued on. With a short pause, she continued in a much softer, more subdued tone.

"After that, there was a large boom and the earth shook beneath my feet. The shield dropped around me and I looked around to see that the entire shed my mother worked out of had been destroyed. The building was rubble and nothing remained of my mother. I just sat there in shock until my daddy came running out of the house and picked me up."

Harry stopped and turned to face her, trying to think of something, anything to say. But Luna didn't stop, she kept walking, clutching at herself with her shoulders hunched up. Harry hurried to catch back up to her.

"It took a while to sink in that she was really gone, but when it did the pain and guilt instantly followed. I would never be able to see my mother again. I thought that if only I wasn't there, she could have protected herself instead of protecting me," Luna finished her story with tears in her eyes.

Harry reflected on Luna's story and his own experiences. They seemed remarkably similar. While tragic, it made him feel like she really could help him.

"When did it get better? How did you stop feeling that pain?" Harry asked.

"I've never stopped feeling that pain. But the pain and guilt did lessen, with time."

Luna uncrossed her arms and straightened her body. Her next words were spoken with a more cheerful air than the previous somber tale.

"Daddy was able to help me a bit before he was driven into his work from sadness. I threw myself into the Quibbler and the search for the animals no one else believes in, I still do actually, though to a lesser extent. I began to spend more time with the Faeries that would visit our home. So what I'm telling you, is that it will be hard and take some time. But if you can get people to support you and something to put your focus on, it will get better."

Harry stopped and placed his hand on Luna's shoulder.

"Thank you, Luna," he said sincerely, "thank you for listening and telling me that story, I think I really needed to hear it."

"You're welcome, Harry Potter. If you ever want to talk more, I'll always listen," she said softly.

They continued their walk to Hogwarts, no longer touching but close enough to feel the warmth of the other.

"Although, that was probably the most serious I've ever seen you Luna."

"Harry, do you think you can take Stubby Boardman's place in the revival of the band? You could grow out your facial hair, call yourself Stubble Boardman."

The comment was so out of the blue that Harry burst out laughing. Luna had always said that Sirius Black was actually the lead singer, Stubby Boardman, so it was almost like a joke saying that he should inherit that singer's place. It wasn't really that funny, but it was just what was needed to change the mood from the morose state it was in and Harry laughed until his sides hurt in giddy relief.

After a while of companionable silence, the pair reached the doors of Hogwarts. Harry tried to push on the doors only to find that they were locked. Raising his wand, he performed a quick Alohamora, but when he tried the doors again they were still locked. He looked around but didn't see any other entrances and the windows were too high for him to be able to scale the wall and climb through.

"I guess we'll have to wait out here until someone opens the door," Harry said.

"That's alright, they'll probably notice that you're missing and come check."

Harry and Luna settled against the wall a little away from the doors so that they could comfortably sit down but also not get hit when someone opened the doors.

"How did you end up trapped in the compartment with your nose broken?" Luna broke the silence by asking.

"Er, Malfoy hit me with a Petrificus Totalus, stomped on my nose, covered me in the Invisibility Cloak, and left me," Harry replied, a bit embarrassed.

"But wouldn't someone have noticed you two fighting on the train?"

"Well, it wasn't exactly a fight."

"So, he ambushed you?"

"Kind of. I was hiding on top of the luggage rack in his compartment, he stayed behind after everyone had left and got me before I could even knew that he knew I was there."

"But why were you on the luggage rack? Were you looking for something the nargles had taken from you?"

"Er, no. I was trying to find evidence that Malfoy was a Death Eater so I was kind of spying on him."

"Do you believe he's a Death Eater?"

"He's been acting really suspicious lately; at Borgin and Burke's and on the train. I think Voldemort wants to use him for something in the school."

"Hmm, it's possible. But I didn't think you were the type to spy on people when you didn't have any evidence."

He snorted. "I've acted on hunches and no evidence a lot more than you'd think."

"Maybe. Weren't you always acting with your friends though?"

"Well, yeah."

"Why not this time?"

"Hermione and Ron don't believe Malfoy would be a Death Eater while he's still in school. So I went on my own."

"Hmm," she hummed, closing her eyes in thought. "Alright, I think I know what's going on. You're focusing your attention on Malfoy as a distraction from Sirius and not being able to directly act against Voldemort. You're focusing on the problem you believe you can solve instead of the ones you can't right now."

Harry eyes widened in realization. That was exactly what he was doing. He wasn't allowed to join the Order yet and he didn't know of any other way to fight Voldemort at the moment. He also wanted to focus on something so he wouldn't think about the pain of losing Sirius as often. He didn't really care about what Malfoy was doing. Only that it could be helping Voldemort somehow.

"Wow, when did you get so wise, Luna?" he asked rhetorically.

"Oh, probably when I began to spend more time with the Faeries around my house."

"Well, even though I know why I'm focusing so much on Malfoy right now, I still want to stop him if he's working for Voldemort."

"Hmmm, I don't know if I can help you with that. I think you need something else to focus on besides Malfoy though. I'm not saying you're wrong, just that this might turn into an unhealthy obsession and I don't think you want that. You can still try to stop him if he's working for Voldemort, just maybe not put all of your attention on it."

Harry looked a little green just thinking of developing an obsession with Malfoy. He quickly nodded his agreement with Luna.

"What else could I focus on though? Quidditch?" he asked.

"No, while that would help, I think knowing your past, you need some kind of mystery to really get your attention. Luckily, I have just the thing."

"You do?"

"Yup, recently I was given a task. A quest if you will," she replied.

"A quest? Like those medieval knights that went on quests to slay dragons and stuff?"

"Oh, goodie. You do know what I'm talking about. Yes, a quest. It's really important and I think you would be able to help me a lot. I'm supposed to keep it a secret but I can bring in one or two people to help. This way, I could get help on my quest and you could get another mystery to focus on."

"Alright," he humored her, "I'll help you in your quest."

"Yay," she pulled him to his feet in excitement, "I know we'll be able to do it."

"Alright," he said, smiling at her excitement.

After a short moment, they both settled back against the wall to wait for the doors to open.

"Oh," Harry said, realizing something, "what is the quest, Luna?"

She smiled up at him innocently.

"Why, it's to find the Holy Grail, of course."

As always, constructive criticism is much appreciated to improve any flaws you find in my writing. I also really enjoy questions, they either make me feel validated that your question will be answered in a later chapter, or they make me think "Oh, yeah. What about that?" which could help avoid any future pitfalls I may put myself into.