Still don't own it. JK Rich, me poor. Chapter Two; hope you enjoy.
Chapter Two
As Harry stepped out of the fire at Grimmauld Place, he noted that the kitchen was unusually quiet. The place was completely empty. Which seemed rather odd to Harry, as it was only a little past the dinner hour and Dobby, who usually spent most of his evenings in the kitchen, was nowhere to be seen. Normally at this time he would be busy cleaning up from dinner and getting ready for the following days meals. For that matter the place appeared to have been unused for quite sometime. There were no dishes or leftover pots from dinner or any kind of evidence that anyone had eaten there at all this evening.
A bit tentatively and with his wand still in hand, Harry headed out of the kitchen and up the stairs to the upper floors. From the step he was just able to make out the slightest sound coming from the floor above, it almost sounding like humming. At the top of the steps Harry stopped. It was definitely humming he heard and it was coming from the drawing room. The door to the room was only slightly ajar and Harry could see a faint flickering light, like that coming from a fire in the hearth.
Harry tentatively pushed the door to the room open a bit further so that he could peer in. There stretched out on the floor in front of a crackling fire, in what appeared to be a pair of men's pajama bottoms and an oversized t-shirt, was none other than Luna Lovegood. She seemed completely relaxed lying there on the floor humming a soft tune that sounded a bit like "Weasley is our King", she was twirling her wand in hand above her head and staring quite blankly at the ceiling. What surprised Harry the most about this scene was not the humming nor the wand twirling or the staring. These were all about par for the course when it came to Luna. But rather it was the small goblet balanced on Luna's stomach and what appeared to be a dusty liqueur bottle on the floor next to her.
Harry cleared his throat before croaking out…"Luna?" The wand twirling stopped and Luna immediately propped herself up on her elbows, lifting her head so that large silvery eyes turned to meet striking emerald ones.
"Oh, hello Harry…have you been there long? I didn't hear you come in," Luna replied in her usual dreamlike voice.
"Err…no. I just got here as a matter of fact. Um…so uh…where is everybody?
"Well…, let's see, Miss Tonks is on duty tonight with the Auror's, Professor Lupin is on some Order business that he did not feel the need to go into detail about, Master Draco, as to be expected, is in his room probably moping about his lot in life and… umm… let's see…oh yes, and today is Sir Dobby's day off. I am not quite certain where he is off to though. As for the other members who frequently stop by, I cannot tell you of their whereabouts. Was there anyone in particular that you were hoping to see? Because I'm afraid it is just me this evening, unless, of course you wish to visit Draco in his room."
"Uh…no, that's alright. There was no one in particular really. I mean I thought I might get a chance to see Remus, but mostly I just needed to get away from the Burrow for awhile that's all."
"Hmm…was three getting to be too much of a crowd, Harry?"
"Yeah, something like that." Harry chuckled; there was no denying that Luna was more observant than most gave her credit for. And for as long as Harry had known her she had never had a problem stating the truth, no matter how painful. Although it was once a disconcerting feature, it had now become one of the many things he had grown to appreciate about the girl.
Harry then remembered the small goblet that was still balanced on Luna's stomach. "Er…Luna, what are…were you doing…um…before I came in?"
Luna followed Harry's eyes down to the goblet perched precariously on her midsection. "Oh well, you see I was just celebrating my first bit of legal magic is all. I would have preferred a bottle of butterbeer or gillywater, but since we seem to be fresh out of both I had to settle for this." She reached over and picked up the rather dusty bottle at her side tipping it gently and filling the goblet, so carefully balanced on her, with an amber liquid. She then removed the goblet from her waist and set it on the floor next to her. Harry watched with great curiosity until something dawned on him.
"Uh—Wait a minute, what do you mean you were celebrating your first bit of legal magic?"
"Well, it's my seventeenth birthday today, and I thought I might try something a bit spectacular to ring in the occasion." Luna gestured towards the ceiling. Harry looked up in the direction Luna was pointing. And there, to his great surprise, was a gapping hole in middle of the ceiling, a hole so big the night sky appeared directly above them. At first he could not believe his eyes, but then he realized something; it couldn't possibly be a hole in the ceiling, otherwise he would be able to see through to the floors above him, but this hole shown only the sky above. "Wow, its like—"
"The Great Hall, yes, only not on the same scale. I wasn't exactly certain how it would turn out considering that there were floors above—Oh, Harry I hope you are not angry with me? I know your Godfather left this house to you—I can transform it right back…"
"What…?" Harry tore his eyes from the night sky to see Luna on the floor with a look of concern on her face. "No, no…I love it Luna! It's brilliant! Really! It is just like at Hogwarts. How'd you do it?" Harry had again returned his gaze to the ceiling. It was completely mesmerizing.
"Well…it was quite simple really. Once I was able to decipher the notes and all."
Harry, tearing himself again from the night sky, looked at Luna. "The notes?"
"Yes. Harry, you did know the ceiling in the Great Hall is only an enchantment, a combination of both Transfiguration and Charms incantations?"
Harry nodded, he remember Hermione mentioning something about this in his first year. "Yeah, it says so in Hogwarts, a History." Not that he had ever read it.
"Did you also know that the enchanted ceiling is a relatively new addition to the Great Hall?" Harry shook his head incredulously, was Luna about to go into one of her strange conspiracy theories or a story about Nargles in the mistletoe. "No really," she replied when she noticed the look of doubt on his face, "it was only transformed some fifty years or so ago, by a student actually."
"Really?" Again, Harry looked at Luna with much skepticism on his face.
"Oh yes, a student performed the enchantment as part of her NEWT Transfiguration exam, and Professor Dumbledore, who was the Transfiguration teacher at the time, found it to be such a brilliant piece of magic that he convinced the Headmaster to leave it that way."
"That's kind of like the swamp Fred and George's made in my fifth year, but much cooler of course. Luna, how did you find out about all of this? Is that in Hogwarts, a History?
"I don't rightly know if it is or isn't. But actually, it was Professor Dumbledore who told me about it and he is the one who gave me the notes that were used to perform this bit of magic. He thought I might be interested in having them considering the student was my mother and all—"
"What—It was your mother who enchanted the ceiling in the Great Hall?" Luna nodded. "Luna, that…that is amazing! Fantastic … I mean… how come you…never told me that before?"
"Well, I haven't really told anyone that before, well until now that is."
"Luna…I can't believe—wait a minute…you said that the ceiling was enchanted some fifty years ago?'
"Fifty-two, to be exact, that's how long ago mum would have left Hogwarts."
"But Luna, that would make your mother like fifty… something…when you were b…"
"Fifty-two Harry, yes, she was fifty-two years old when I was born. It really isn't that old for a witch really. Many witches have had children that late in life. I guess the odd thing is that I was her first child, first and only. Mum didn't think she could get pregnant. It wasn't until dad and she had pretty much resigned to the fact that they would be childless that mum found out she was pregnant with me. Dad credits my arrival with the full moon that occurred on the night of my conception; hence my name. They both considered me their miracle child given to them from the heavens above." Luna paused in thought and then looked at Harry and smiled, "I suppose this is more information than you wanted to know about me, isn't it Harry Potter?"
"No…um really, it's quite fascinating" Harry managed to say, but was actually feeling a bit uncomfortable with this new bit of knowledge regarding Luna. Then something else occurred to him; "Luna, I'm such a git! Today is your birthday."
"Yes, I know."
"No, I mean I didn't know today was your birthday…"
"But I just told you Harry."
"Well, that's it, you just told me. Does anyone else know today is your birthday?"
"Well, my parents would if they were alive and the healer that delivered me and I suppose someone at Hogwarts might have known since they sent…"
"No Luna, I mean, have you told anyone else besides me that today is your birthday?"
"Have I told anyone other than you? No of course not, Harry" Luna replied serenely.
"Luna, why didn't you tell anyone it was your birthday? You should not be spending your birthday alone. You should…"
"Harry, it's quite alright really. I've spent all my birthday alone, well at least since I started at Hogwarts that is. I'm quite use to it actually. Normally, when I was at Hogwarts, I would just get a butterbeer from the kitchens in the evening and then sneak up to the Astronomy Tower to celebrate by myself. It was quite pleasant really, being up so high.—"
Harry felt a pang in the pit of his stomach, the thought of Luna spending her birthdays alone. Who was Harry kidding? He had spent almost all of his birthdays alone, and although he would have rather have been with his friends, being by himself in his room was far better than having to spend time with the Dursleys.
Luna must have noticed the look on his face because she replied;
"Honestly, solitude is so unappreciated these days. It is not such a bad thing to spend one's birthday by oneself, really. I mean it is my birthday isn't it, who else but myself should I want to spend it with?"
"How about your friends for one…"
"Well, I never have been very well endowed in that area, at least not while I was at Hogwarts."
"Maybe not, but you have friends now…friends who would have like to have known it was your birthday so that they…so that we could have helped celebrate it with you.
"Don't be silly Harry. Everyone is much too busy now to be worrying about my birthday."
"I don't think that's true, Luna." Luna only shrugged. And Harry had a thought. "Listen Luna, would you mind if I joined you tonight to help celebrate your birthday?"
Luna turned her large eyes on him and replied. "If it is because you are pitying me Harry Potter, than no thank you. Because I know for a fact that there are other, more important, things than my birthday you should be concerning yourself with right now."
"It is not out of pity Luna. It is because you are my friend and I would like to spend your birthday with you. And the truth is I need a break from those other things you are talking about. Honestly there isn't any place I'd rather be right now than here celebrating your birthday with you." And Harry meant it.
Luna smiled in her dreamy way and replied, "Oh well, in that case I should conjure up another goblet then."
"Sounds great. So what are we drinking?" Harry asked sitting down on the floor next to Luna as she flicked her wand causing another small goblet to appear next to the first. Harry was momentarily impressed at how easily Luna had done this.
"Firewhiskey. It's the only thing, other than pumpkin juice, I could find. And pumpkin juice really did not seem appropriate for such an occasion."
"No, definitely not" said Harry as Luna filled the second goblet with the amber colored liquid from the dusty bottle and handed it to Harry.
It was then that Harry realized he had never actually tried Firewhiskey before. Holding the goblet at eye level he stared blankly at it and as though reading his mind Luna replied;
"The first one burns a bit, but after that it goes down quite nicely, if I do say." Harry looked dubiously over his glass to the girl sitting next to him who sprightly lifted her own goblet and tapped it gently on the side of Harry's and said in a very theatrical sort of way,
"May we live to learn well, and learn to live well." Luna then proceeded to tip her head back and pour the contents of her goblet down her throat. Harry quickly followed suit. Only to realize that Luna had not been kidding when she said the first one burns. Harry only barely managed to keep the fiery liquid down. And before he knew what was happening Luna was filling up his goblet again.
"This time you make the toast Harry."
"Uh…er…" Harry honestly didn't think he even had a voice to toast with but with a raspy voice he managed to blurt out "To Luna, on her birthday!" Holding up his goblet to tap Luna's he noticed she was staring at him with a look of disappointment.
"The sentiment was sweet, but the content was a bit weak, wouldn't you say Harry?"
"Sorry, but you put me on the spot, I'm not really very good on the spot."
"Oh, I know the perfect toast for that…" Luna cried out before chanting with her goblet raised
"I used to know a clever toast,
But now I cannot think it,
So fill your glass to anything,
And damn your souls, I'll drink it!"1
Harry busted out laughing. "Hey, I liked that one." And then tentatively took a sip of his second gobletful of Firewhiskey.
"Harry, I told you it gets better the more you drink, but you have to swig it. No sipping. My birthday, my rules." Luna sounded just a bit like Ginny.
"Er…right." He said and did as he was told, tipping the contents of his goblet to the back of his throat. Not as bad, this time, he noted. He quickly held his goblet up for a refill. And Luna readily obliged, and then filled her own. When she was done Harry, still holding his goblet up said, "Okay I think I have one…
Here's to you, as good as you are,
And here's to me, as bad as I am;
But as good as you are, and as bad as I am,
I am as good as you are, as bad as I am. "1
"Good one Harry!" Luna said before both swigged the contents of their goblet. She quickly refilled them once again and then said, "how about this one…
Here's a health to you and yours
who have done such things for us and ours.
And when we and ours have it in our powers to do for you and yours
what you and yours have done for us and ours,
Then we and ours will do for you and yours
what you and yours have done for us and ours."1
"Er…right. Was I supposed to understand that? It sounds very much like something a Ravenclaw would say."
"Wit beyond measure…"
"Right…just so long as you're not going to make me repeat that toast Luna."
"No Harry, just drink to it."
And that he did .
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
1-All are very old Irish Toast. I did not write them, only borrowed them.
Please review, if you like.
