Disclaimer: We do not own Harry Potter. We merely observe and write upon our findings.

Chapter 1: All in the Golden Afternoon.

All in the golden afternoon,

Full leisurely we glide;

For both our oars, with little skill,

By little arms are plied,

While little hands make vain pretence

Our wanderings to guide.

Lewis Carroll

It was a bright and shining summer day at the Burrow; not cool, but not too warm either. The sun was shining, birds were singing, and the garden gnomes were frolicking much to Mrs. Weasley's frustration. And on this beautiful day Harry Potter; the boy-who-lived, the man-who-was victorious, the master of death and hero to all witch and wizard-kind, was relaxing in the Weasley's garden.

Two years had passed since that horrible and beautiful day; two years since he faced Voldemort, two years since he had experienced death without dying, and two years since he had once and for all rid the world of the Dark Lord. Peace had come slowly to the wizarding world. For a full year after the fall of Voldemort the remaining Death Eaters had caused a great deal more death and destruction in retaliation for the death of their leader. Eventually they had all been captured, and life was finally beginning to return for what passes for normal among wizards.

Peace had also come slowly to Harry himself. This was only to be expected. For sixteen years he had fought for his life. Ever since Voldemort had attacked him and killed his parents, he had been struggling to survive. Whether it was the abuse and neglect of the only relatives he had left, or the constant threat of the dark lord and his various schemes throughout his school years, Harry had been fighting in some form or fashion to survive all his life. Peace was not the normal state of affairs for him.

He was becoming used to peace though. With the threat of Voldemort gone, his life had begun to turn around. He still had his two best friends, Ron and Hermione, whose relationship had blossomed after the war. Now they were engaged to be married, and he had his own very stable relationship with Ginny.

They had renewed their relationship shortly after the Battle of Hogwarts. She was a godsend to him; she was there for him while he recovered both physically and mentally from the war and the losses that they both endured. They had spent a great deal of time after the war just being together; crying and reminiscing about the loved ones they lost, as well as cuddling and snogging like any other young couple that was in love.

But other than living without the umbrella threat of imminent death, very little had changed about Harry Potter himself. He was reminded as he lay there of a summer not five years before, of laying below an open window listening for some sign in the muggle news of the evil he knew lurked out there. But now he listened for a different sort of sign, and it wasn't long before it came to him.

From his position in the garden, he was the first to hear the sharp crack and the familiar voices rising up from over the hill. He sat up quickly, and turned just in time to see Neville and Luna coming down to the Burrow.

Of all their friends, Harry had sometimes thought Neville the most changed and Luna the least. From the plump and forgetful, often frightened young boy he had first met on the Hogwarts Express, Neville had become a tall and lean figure, always smiling with a face bronzed from hours spent in his gardens.

Luna was slender as usual; her white-blonde hair and deep blue eyes giving her a slightly dazed look that suited her personality well. She waved airily at Harry, smiling. "Hello," she said, "I am so glad to see you Harry."

It occurred to Harry for a brief moment that Luna somehow seemed distracted. But then, it was Luna, and he quickly dismissed the idea.

Neville reached out and took Harry's hand. "I hear there's a party tonight," he said.

The mention of the upcoming party brought a smile to Harry's face. Some thought it would never happen, but Ron had finally proposed to Hermione, and tonight was their long awaited engagement party. Mrs. Weasley had been bustling around the house for days, and had just an hour earlier shooed Harry out of the house so she could finish with the preparations for what was promising to be the biggest celebration since Bill and Fleur's wedding. It went unsaid that circumstances were much happier than they had been then.

"You two are a few hours early," Harry replied, "and you want to stay out of the house, Mum's on the warpath." His stomach fluttered a little bit as it always did when he called Mrs. Weasley "Mum", though he did so at her own insistence. He'd felt a little guilty at first, filled with the niggling doubt that he was replacing his mother. But eventually he realized that he nothing could replace the first family he'd ever known. Instead he had found someone who cared for the first time in his life cared for him as a mother should. Once he'd understood that it had been easier to find the words. The final reason for this change of heart had everything to do with the elegant diamond ring he was keeping hidden at the bottom of his trunk.

"So how are you guys doing?" he asked after his friends had settled themselves down beside him.

"Oh, pretty well," Neville replied, "things are growing well in my garden, and that greenhouse Gran bought for me should set up by the end of the week. It won't be nearly as big as the ones at Hogwarts but once it's up I can start growing the interesting stuff."

Harry couldn't hide his amusement over his friend's obvious enthusiasm. With the war over Neville had become much more interested in Herbology. For months it had seemed that every time they saw one another Neville was obsessed with some new, weird plant. After over a year of longing for one, Neville's grandmother had surprised him with a Greenhouse for Christmas. The frustrating wait for the spring thaw had been enough to drive Neville insane.

Of all his friends, Neville's future was most certain. It seemed bound to happen that he would make his career with strange and magical plant-life and with rumors of Sprout's imminent departure from Hogwarts it was widely thought before long they'd be referring to their old friend as Professor Longbottom.

Through an enthusiastic conversation about a cannibalistic flower from South Asia, it occurred suddenly to Harry that he'd hardly noticed Luna. Since she'd arrived she'd given Harry nothing more than a simple greeting. Though she was normally in a state of distraction she seemed much more so than usual. The shadow of sleepless nights was beginning to form under her eyes, and as she stood there she was fidgeting as if she had somewhere else to be. "Are you doing all right, Luna?" he said as Neville broke away and ran over to greet Ron.

"Hm? Oh, I'm as well as I usually am," she said. Used to the airiness, he was unprepared for the faint quiver that seemed to go through her voice.

"Ginny tells me that you've been having some trouble lately." Though he'd chosen his words carefully Luna tilted her face up towards his, frowning slightly.

"No, not trouble. Trouble means things are wrong, you know? Things can be strange and different, and not be wrong. Can't they?" Clasping her hands behind her back her gaze fell back to the ground and she began to hum to herself.

Fighting back his desire to shake her, he instead put his hand on her back and led her around to the side of the house, where several wooden tables had been erected for the party. Neville and Ron were seated near the front door and, seeing Harry, Ron waved him over. He shook his head, glancing pointedly at Luna as she wandered towards the edge of the site. His friend shrugged and he passed back over.

After a moment she settled down at the farthest table, resting her chin on the wood as she looked off into the distance. Ginny's words came flooding back to him, a warning that Luna wasn't quite the same lately. He'd been unable to believe it of course, because how could she be any stranger than she'd always been. But he was beginning to understand what Ginny had meant.

"She's kind of far off," Ginny had explained to him. "Here, but not here. There, but not there." He'd given her a strange look and she'd shrugged. "That was what she said."

The phrase made sense now. Luna had never before felt absent as she did now. A girl lost inside herself perhaps, or confused by the fantasies that she lived her life by. But he might have been able to understand it if it wasn't for the fact that there was a sudden distance between himself and his old friend that he couldn't understand.

He suddenly realized how strange it was that Luna hadn't asked him how he was doing, or told him some story about whatever strange creature was rumored to be wandering the nearby countryside. But even more uncomfortable to him was the fact that she didn't seemed to show her usual over-the-top excitement, even though she was at an engagement party for two of her best friends. Not long before he'd have expected her to arrive with banners and trumpeters, or at the least with some gift she'd culled from some dark closet at her father's newspaper.

"Something is bothering you." He kept his voice low as he slid down beside her. "Luna, I want to know what it is. Is something going on? Have you had any threats?"

Ron's and Neville's voices floated over the clearing. When she didn't reply Harry turned to watch his other friends. Their conversation was suddenly interrupted by Ron's yelp as Hermione came spinning around the corner. He glanced over his shoulder as she shouted at him for forgetting he was supposed to be De-Gnoming the garden. The two fell into an argument, in which Ron debated that as it was their party they shouldn't be expected to work and Hermione countered that, as it was their party, they should make certain their guests were comfortable.

"Do you ever wonder if there are other people out there? People like you?" A full minute had passed since he'd spoken to her.

"People like me? There are, I guess. Other people who lost their parents, who had important things to do. People like you, who see things differently."

"That isn't what I meant." She looked him fully in the eyes for the first time, and Harry saw something there that he hadn't expected. Strength. "I know I'm not crazy. What do you think?"

Harry smiled, squeezing her arm. "Luna, with what we've been through we're all a little crazy. But you aren't any crazier than I am."

She smiled for the first time. "I'm glad. I think I like the idea of being as crazy as you are."

They didn't have much time to speak further. Mrs. Weasley soon allowed everybody to come inside; all but an agitated Ron, whose constant curses came through the window as gnomes nipped at his fingers. Soon after the guests began to arrive and there was no time to question Luna further. Nevertheless he stayed by her side. He wasn't the only one besides Ginny to have noticed that something was wrong.

Hermione, as busy as she was, continued to shoot glances over in their direction. Brow knitted together, she began to head in their direction. Each time, Harry found an excuse to pull her away. He was certain that she'd noticed, but even Ginny seemed to be helping by unspoken agreement. She would find an excuse to pull Hermione away whenever it seemed that she was honing in on them.

It was a tactic that might have worked, if Luna hadn't been seated near the main table along with the rest of the family for the dinner.

They were halfway through Mrs. Weasley's famous Yorkshire pudding when, with a sharp gasp, Luna shot up in her seat. Her hands were clutched close to her chest, and she was drawing in deep, shuddering breaths. Harry leapt up and went to her but she held her hand out, keeping him away.

"No, all right…I'm all right, now. Just a bit of a shock. I can feel them now. Can't you?" She looked up, her eyes wild and bright. "Can't you Harry?"

"Come on, let's get you inside." He took her by the arm and began to usher her inside, but she pulled away.

"No, out here in the air is best. In the wind, can't you feel? I can almost touch--!" She reached out into space.

Hermione stood, and began to push at Luna. "Listen, go on in. You need to go on in, Luna. I want to talk to you."

"I don't want to talk! I want to be out here!" She began to jog through the grass, kicking off her shoes and pulling her robes to her knees. "Listen, listen to the voices!"

"Luna! Stop! Can't you see you're scaring people?" Hermione said harshly.

"Oh, silly silly! Why be scared? I'm perfectly fine. And so are they! So many of them!" She spread out her arms as if gathering together her unseen ghosts.

"Luna!" Hermione stepped closer. "Please Luna, you need help."

"Oh, no, I'm perfectly all right. Much better! I understand it now, you see, when I didn't before! I finally—"

"FINE!" Hermione screamed, as she only had a few times before. "FINE! If you can't get help now then you'd better find new friends. I don't want to be the one to have to visit you when you're finally committed to St. Mungo's!"

A silence fell over the watching party. People were on edge, waiting for the girls to react. But without a word Luna began backing away and finally broke into a run towards the hilltop where she lived. Hermione, standing stiffly, stared after her, her own eyes glistening with tears. Harry stared from girl to girl. He felt a hand on his arm and he looked down into Ginny, her face pale and drawn.

"Go on. I'll get the brain and you get the blonde."

Without another word Harry broke into a run after Luna.