Okay, author's note time, this is very much needed. To make this story work, everything that happened at the end of the sixth book, will be happening at the end of Harry's seventh year. Harry wouldn't be very much in the mood for any type of romance, or most likely even at Hogwarts if Dumbledore had died a few short months ago. Sirius is dead; Dumbledore alive, and people know that Voldemort is risen. Snape was never the DADA teacher, Slughorn was, but he quit. Confused? E-mail me.

"Hi. May I borrow Luna for a moment?" Draco said, poking his head into the compartment.

What the hell? I said to myself. Why does Malfoy want to talk to Luna? Luna cocked her head in a way I found bloody adorable.

"Well… I suppose." Her huge blue eyes were curious, and she stood up fluidly, despite the moving train. My shoulders tensed up and I shot Malfoy a hate filled glare. Without Luna noticing, he shot me a smirk and raised his eyebrows up and down once. I locked my jaw and pulled my hands into fists, then crossed my arms. Luna walked in a dance like fashion out of the compartment to my immense annoyance. The moment the door was closed, I snapped my head towards Hermione.

"What's that about?" I demanded. She looked at me in a surprised fashion.

"I'd highly appreciate it if you wouldn't use that tone with me, Harry." She told me. "And I don't know. Perhaps Malfoy just wants to speak with Luna."

"If he even starts in on her…" Ginny began angrily.

"We'll get him, Ginny." Neville said, nudging her gently.

"Malfoy just wants to speak with Luna." I said doubtfully. "After everything that bastard has done?"

Ron spoke up. "I agree with Harry. Malfoy is a little prick who probably just wants to screw Luna."

"Why would that be?" Hermione said in a frosty voice.

Oblivious to Hermione's anger, he said, "Did you look at Luna? She's hot. She's still weird, but she looks hot." Hermione stood up and sat by Ginny. "What?" Ron asked, unaware that he'd said anything wrong. She shook her head. Ron looked exasperatedly at me. Neville laughed at Ron. Hermione looked furiously out the window, as though she was attempting to melt it with her gaze.

"Ron, no." Ginny told him passionately that what he said was completely wrong to say around his girlfriend of only three months.

"But why is it such a problem, Harry?" Hermione asked me, determined to act as though Ron had suddenly sprouted wings and flown out the compartment window 20 minutes ago, and that would have been completely normal. I opened my mouth, about to reply, but I wasn't exactly sure what to reply with. I shut it and opened it again.

Only to shut it once more. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat.

She looked at me confused, I smiled a little, but I was still curious as to what could possibly be going on out there. Why do I care so much about what Luna and Malfoy(at the name Malfoy, something flared hideously in my chest)are talking about? I puzzled on that for a few moments. Maybe it's because she looks so bloody hot. Oh no. This is Luna, it's too, too wrong to be thinking of her that way.

"I don't know." I said uncomfortably. "Maybe because Malfoy is an idiotic git, and I don't want him talking to someone as innocent as Luna."

"Innocent?" Ginny laughingly questioned. "You've apparently been to Hogsmade with her." Neville, Ron and I looked at her in an alarmed fashion. She rolled her eyes. "Oh come on. I don't mean she's a kleptomaniac or a slut or something, but she's not exactly dressed in virginal white." I glared at the compartment door and huffed angrily. I started chewing on the inside of my cheek and Ginny looked at me surprised. She nudged Hermione and murmured something. Hermione knitted her eyebrows together as though she was puzzling something, then shrugged and nodded in agreement.

"What?" I said, confused.

"Ohhh, nothing." Ginny sing-songed, giggling.

"What?" I demanded from Hermione.

She smiled at me as though she pitied my idiocy. "Oh, Harry."

"Can someone tell me what's going on?" Neville asked.

"Or me for that matter." Ron cut in and added his two cents.

I looked at them both annoyed. "Or maybe the person who it's about… me!"

"Don't worry about it Harry." Ginny teased me. Hermione laughed.

"Women." Ron.

"Are brilliant." Hermione said as if she was finishing his sentence. Ron shot her a look.

"If you two are going to be together, you might as well stop arguing." Ginny broke up the argument quickly. "I mean the only reason you bickered before was because you were so bloody blind to how you felt about each other. Now you're both just being stubborn." Neville smacked his hand to his forehead.

"Ginny, wrong thing to say." He said to her quietly. Ginny waved that off.

"Stubborn!?" They both shouted.

"I am not stubborn—"

"Oh don't even get me started on you, missy. What about—"

"Shut up." I commanded in an infuriated voice. "I have a headache." At their alarmed looks I stopped. "Not a scarache, but a headache… like a sinus infection or something."

"If you have a headache, maybe drinking some of this would help." Said a dreamy voice. My head snapped around to see the voice's owner so fast I felt in crack a little. Luna had been standing there, leaning against the compartment for God knows how long. It didn't appear she'd heard my questions about what her and Malfoy had been doing or talking about when she was outside of the compartment. But that didn't mean anything. He knew that Luna normally had a serene expression on her undeniably very, very pretty face, so who knew what she'd heard. She pulled a little bottle out of her robe pocket.

I stared at the bottle. It contained a blue liquid that seemed to be constantly swirling. It had silver shimmers in it that randomly turned a blinding gold. The bottle had no label, but it did have a cork stopper that had a thin silver chain coming from the top of it and swirling around and down the bottle. I gave her a tight smile and glanced at Hermione. She shook her head frantically. This wasn't the head shaking that indicated that she knew what it was, but she was using common sense to tell me not to use it. "Um, no thanks Luna. I'm fine; it's really not that bad.

She shrugged her small shoulders sweetly. "Okay" she put the small bottle back into her pocket. "But if you need it, just ask." A slightly pained look came across her face, and she stretched in that intoxicating way of hers.

Ron was unprepared for this and stared at her obviously. I looked away quickly to avoid doing just that. Hermione's eyes were on me at this point, worried about my headache still, no doubt, so luckily she didn't see Ron. When Luna stopped stretching, he looked away quickly as if he'd just looked at his own mum naked. I smirked, and immediately was reminded of Malfoy. A huge part of me was tempted to ask what he had wanted, but I bit my tongue. I didn't want her to get suspicious or anything. Wait… suspicious of what? The realization dawned on me. Oh no. I can't like Luna Lovegood.

I glanced at the girl in question. She was fingering her light blue bag gently, as though tempted to reveal its contents to the apartment. I tried to look away, to focus on anything but Luna. My eyes wouldn't obey, and they kept flickering back to her. I tried to settle on a trivial part of her. Her feet seemed good. I glanced at them. From what I could see of her black shoes (were those real ballet shoes?) her feet were small. Small feet that led to legs. Long legs for such a small person. I shook my head slightly. Her hands! Good, good. She had small hands with long fingers. Her nails were painted a shimmering aqua, and she had a slightly dull silver ring with a small, small diamond (or what appeared to be one) in it.

"Alright Harry?" Neville asked, concerned. I broke out of my trance. I wasn't sure whether to strangle Neville, or get down on my knees and praise him for taking me out of my fascination with Luna for the moment.

"Yeah." I said. I gave him an odd look. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"You looked like your eyes were about to bug out of your head." Ginny informed me.

"Maybe his glasses are magnifying his eyes." Luna said excitedly. She leaned forward to examine me. She tilted her head to the side, and my breath caught in my throat. Luna smelled so good. Sweet… but clean and minty at the same time. My head swam because of her closeness. She sat back, and cool air hit my face. "They," She began, waving to my eyes, "Appear to be normal. Maybe a trick of light, Gin."

Ginny nodded. "It's possible, I suppose."

"What were you all talking about while I was gone?" Luna asked. Gone with Malfoy. A monster in my chest roared wrathfully.

"Uh, um." I cleared my throat. "We were… um well, talking about, uh—"

"This year's Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and if they will last." Neville cut in smoothly and firmly. I looked at him, surprised. Neville had apparently changed over the summer. He even looked different. His face had lost some of it's fat, so he no longer had a perfectly round face. He looked older, thinner and stronger. But his feet were still huge, with allowed Harry to see that he was still the slightly awkward boy who he had known since first year. Ginny looked at Neville in a delighted surprise before turning to see if Luna had bought the lie.

Her face was shining with excitement, "Oh yes! Daddy and I talked about that this summer. He thinks the job is cursed. He does have some crazy theories, but he's always entertaining to talk to. I think that lots of people feel the same way about me."

Luna's blatant honesty was showing itself, and there was a small awkward silence before Ginny spoke. "We probably won't even have DADA this year. I mean, no one has managed to keep the job for over a year."

"But we need Defense Against the Dark Arts!" Hermione cut in. "Especially with You-V-Voldemort," Ron shuddered, "Finally out in the open. I'm sure the students who were in the DA should be fine, but what about those who weren't?"

"Relax, Hermione." Ron told her. "I'm sure they found someone. Breathe through your worry." Hermione glared at him.

"I do miss the DA." Luna said. "It was like having friends."

"You do have friends Luna." Ginny told her. "Unless you don't like me or something." Luna looked as though she was trying hard to conceal a smile.

"How could someone not like you?" Luna said sweetly.

"Well," Ron sighed, "Let me tell you. I'm really good at this one." Ginny threw a licorice wand at Ron. He caught it in his mouth. "Eh, fanks!" He mumbled through a full mouth. Ginny rolled her eyes at her brother's immaturity. "Don't roll your eyes at me young lady." He mock scolded her. She laughed.

"What flavor is this one?" Luna said curiously, holding up a brown jellybean with tan specks all over it. Ron gave it an odd look. He took it from her and examined it.

"I don't know." He said after a long pause. "Cocoa?

"I don't think so, Ron." Neville said, eyeing it warily. Luna took it from Ron, looked at it for a moment and popped it in her mouth. She wrinkled her nose and swallowed it.

"Wood." She stated. "It was a wood flavored jelly bean."

"What does wood taste like?" Ginny asked curiously.

"Stop it Ginny." Ron made a face. "This sounds so wrong."

"What?"

"Wood… like Oliver Wood."

"Ron!" Ginny shouted. "You're a pig. Get your mind out of the gutter."

"What!? You said it not me." Ron attempted to defend himself.

"And you thought of it. Why must you turn a perfectly normal conversation about jelly bean flavors into something disgusting… and involving Quidditch?"

"I just said what everyone was thinking. Am I right guys?" No one said anything. Ron looked at me. I smiled slightly at him, amused. "Fine, you know what? Go ahead. Lie to yourselves." Some might have thought these words were fighting words, but Ron was smiling and joking.

"Haven't you ever eaten a popsicle on a stick Ginny?" Luna asked as if nothing had happened.

"A what?"

Hermione cut in before Luna could with one of her conspiracies. "Muggle treat. Frozen juice on a wooden stick, sometimes with a joke. The stick, I mean, not the frozen part." Luna nodded in agreement.

"The stick talks?" Ron questioned.

Hermione exasperatedly rolled her eyes. "No Ronald. Why didn't you take Muggle Studies?" She sighed. "Printed on the stick."

"Frozen juice on a wooden stick." Ginny laughed. "Oh, Muggles. They do find ways to amuse themselves, don't they?" I grinned at her.

"You have no idea." I informed her dryly, thinking of Dudley's ways of amusing himself.

"We'd better change into our robes." Hermione said, being the responsible one she was.

I was vividly reminded of our first year, back when Hermione was me and Ron's number one enemy. I took a moment to reflect on all that had changed. This was our last train ride to Hogwarts. I stared at Ron and Hermione, now a couple, but still my best friends, and vowed to remember them like this. No matter what happened outside of Hogwarts, or inside it for that matter, they were with me. I knew them well enough by now to know that they always would be, whether I wanted them or not. I sighed and stood up, my legs slightly achy from sitting in a cramped position for so long.

"We must be somewhere close to Hogwarts." With that, she stood and beckoned the other girls out of the compartment.

When they left I looked at Neville and Ron. "Hey guys. This is our last train ride to Hogwarts."

Neville furrowed his eyebrows. "Yeah. I forgot about that. Weird."

Ron smiled wryly. "It's been a ride."

"Yeah." I shook my head. "One hell of a ride."

Done. I get a review, I'll update, but if it's only one then it will take me longer. Lol You don't have to review if you don't want to, but if you do it would be greatly appreciated. I really like to know how I'm really doing, so… yeah, I'm done, sorry. : ) kthanksbye