Chapter 3

Suspicions

After his dramatic departure Luna had tried to follow Harry but with the speed born from mental anguish it wasn't long before he left the range of her hearing, leaving her to stumble after him through the halls.

"Looks like his infestation of wrackspurts is bigger than I thought," she muttered. With an unhappy little sigh she reached one hand out to feel the wall to guide her way and continued walking towards what she was sure would be his destination. Moments later she heard the thudding of feet on stone as a group approached from a corridor to her right.

"Luna!" a female voice called interrupting Luna's musings of where she could find the number of butterbeer corks she would require to make Harry a necklace (she figured it would take at least 20, her own comprised of 16). Luna stopped and turned towards the voice.

"Lily?" The footsteps stilled.

"Yeah it's me and the Marauders, the guys were looking for Harry." They noticed Luna wince.

"He, um, he," words failed her as Luna tried to describe what Harry was going through,knowing he would hate it if she said to much, he was holding onto his secrets like a shilite limpit to the hull of a boat.

She felt so bad for him, he had carried the weight of the war in the other-time, they had just made it through. There had been so many losses and he, of course blamed himself. But finally he had emerged from out of it all and he finally had hope. Hope that he would reconnect with Ginny, for a normal future. Hope that he wouldn't have to return to his relatives. Hope that there would be peace. He had finally found hope and now it had been ripped away from him by three old ladies in grecian robes who sat around a spinning wheel and played with people's lives. Then the wrackspurts had taken over and he had panicked. Shaking her head sadly she said "Professor Dumbledore gave us some bad news which lead to his wrackspurts multiplying and he ran off. He was going too fast, I couldn't follow."

"Any idea where he would have gone?" it was a male voice this time, she suspected it was James.

"Quidditch pitch," Luna replied without hesitation. "If you are going to find him, could someone take me back to the common room, please?"

"I'll do it," Lily volunteered, "You guys go check on Harry." She reached out and took Luna's elbow.

"You know Luna, I'm sure we could make you a stick to use to help you find your way around the castle. Muggles have them. I'll talk to Remus about it, we should be able to charm it to warn you about the stairs and other obstacles."

"Mmm a detection charm and some sort of alarm. Yes?"

"Exactly!" The girls walked the rest of the way to the tower deep in conversation.

Harry had reached the Quidditch pitch before realizing that his Firebolt was over twenty years away. When he realised he let out a frustrated scream . He had stopped outside the broom shed and running a hand over the door at the memories of tucking his own broom inside he couldn't help but murmured the password as it had been in his time. To his surprise, and delight, the door opened, he shook his head; they hadn't changed the password twenty years, wizards really were ridiculous. Looking around he saw the pile of school brooms, looking much less battered then he remembered, he grabbed one, walked back outside and with barely a pause to mount the broom soared into the sky.

Reaching the apex of his arc the boy paused and took a deep breath of the cool air. Exhaling slowly the tension started to leave him and angled the broom down again. Another breath, the broom climbed higher and soon everything below him looked diminished, the forest, the lake, at this height Hogsmeade was just visible in the distance past the school's gates. No noise entered his world. He could almost believe that there was nothing in the world apart from him, his broom and the feeling of the breeze as it ruffled his hair.

His hands ran over the rough wood in front of him and Harry began to wonder just how much the broom could take. With a lopsided grin he angled the handle down towards the ground and he dove, with no care for his own safety. Gravity greatly assisted his descent, at fifteen feet he felt the vibration start in the stick in his hands (he let out a yell of exhilaration at the speed). At ten feet the vibration became a wobble, reefing the handle back towards the sky he pulled out of the dive not five feet from the ground, enjoying the rush of adrenalin.

"Merlin!" a shout echoed across the field as Harry levelled out and turned. "Get over here now!" the black haired apparition screamed. "What do you think you are doing?"

Harry grimaced, well if he was going to be yelled at by his Father for the first time he might as well get it over with.

Pulling the emotion off his face he yelled back "It's called flying. As I hear you are captain of the Quidditch team, I'm sure that you've heard of it."

James' mouth moved without sound for a few moments before he collected himself, "Where did you get that broom, you can't just go breaking into the broom shed and taking someone's broom and nearly smashing it!"

"The shed was unlocked," Harry lied smoothly as he dismounted in front of James. "This was in a pile of identical ones so I assume it is one of the schools brooms, and I have in no way damaged it." He held it out for inspection.

James took it, looking it over carefully, before returning to glare at Harry "You could have been killed!"

"I've done it before," he tipped his head to the side as if considering, "though I was on a much better broom, I was in no danger, thanks for your concern."

James grumbled something about having his heart stop under his breath but backed down.

"So," Remus cut into the uncomfortable silence. "We ran into Luna."

Harry froze, guilt pooling in his stomach as he realised he had run off and left her alone, "Oh Sh.."

"She's with Lily," Remus interjected, watching the emotions slide across Harry's face.

"I'd best go find her and apologise," Harry hung his head cheeks red, grabbed the broom and turned to walk away to the shed.

"Actually she wanted us to talk to you," Remus added gently before he could get to far. Harry stopped and looked up and his eyes met James'. The familiar colour of Harry's eyes registered and James wondered where he had seen eyes like that before. Harry returned the broom to the shed and met the four boys back at the stands.

"Mind telling us what happened?" Remus pushed.

"I'd rather not," Harry sighed, however after a brief glaring contest he gave in. With a groan he sat on a bench and began to speak, "Dumbledore just told us there is no way we are getting to go b….. home."

"Well there's nothing to go home to, is there?" Peter was confused.

Harry had to think quickly, they had only ever given a brief description, Death Eaters attacked and Luna was blinded but they had never said exactly what had happened, so the Marauders obviously thought that 'Home' had been destroyed.

"Well, maybe it would help if you knew more of the story." Perhaps he should discuss it with Luna first.

"Yes," the four boys agreed eagerly, seating themselves around him.

Deciding he would tell Luna later Harry leaned back, face to the sky and closed his eyes as he started speaking. "Well you all know that my parents died when I was fifteen months old. They had known my parents and took me in. Luna and her family lived next door so after that we grew up together. . The Grangers educated us as best they could, hiring tutors and so on. They had always discussed us coming to Hogwarts as we got closer to NEWTS but it never happened. Then a few months ago they discovered that they had become targets for Voldemort."

The boys surrounding him hissed at the name, but didn't comment.

"We had an emergency portkey but one afternoon the Death Eaters came, cutting through the wards like a hot knife through butter. There was a huge fight, the Grangers gave us time to get away. Luna and I, well I think the only way to describe it was my accidental magic, I think it reacted with the portkey. We ended up in the Great Hall. Somehow that magic made Luna lose her sight. I kind of hoped, that everyone got out and that the place was ok and we would be able to go home at least for the holidays and Christmas. That we would see the Grangers and Luna's Dad and our friends again. Now we know we can't we have no one to turn to and nowhere to go!" he roughly brushed his hand against the tears that were forming.

Silence fell, and Harry stood, pushing his feelings away.

"I shouldn't have left Luna, I'm going to go apologise. Thanks guys." They watched him walk off towards the castle remaining silent until he was out of sight.

"So," Sirius turned to look at Remus. "Just how much of that was the truth?"

"You're looking at me because…..?"

"Well using your super-Wolfie powers, clearly you can tell," Sirius smirked at Remus.

"It's a guess but…." He thought about the small clues, the lack of eye contact, and extra tension in the shoulders. "His parents dying when he was young, that's true. Living next to Luna that's a lie. Most of that with the Grangers is a lie, though he probably did know someone called Granger. Fighting the Death Eaters is odd, he has done it but not like that I don't think. The transfer here affecting Luna's sight is true. Him hoping he would be able to go home for Christmas is true, but I kind of get the feeling his meaning of home is a bit….different. What do you think James?"

"I get a weird feeling whenever he mentions his parents, something's really odd there." James rubbed a hand to his chest. "Still I don't suppose it's important," shaking his head he dismissed it. "Let's go in, it's time to eat."

Lily grabbed Remus by the hand as soon as the Marauders entered the Hall and pulled him over to the Gryffindor table.

"I have an idea about Luna!"

"What about her?"

"We should make her a staff or walking stick like Muggles who are blind use, and we can charm it to give her warnings on approaching dangers or obstacles." The two spent the entire meal discussing how exactly it would work and then set off to find Professor Flitwick.

"Luna," Harry spoke to her quietly. "I'm sorry I ran off, I didn't think. You're missing home just as much as I am. Your Dad and friends…"

Luna inclined her head, "It's ok Harry."

"I wasn't a very good friend, it was selfish."

Luna reached over and blindly grabbed his forearm, sliding her hand down it, she squeezed his hand. "Harry do you remember what I said to you about the DA?"

He stopped breathing, riddled with guilt, "You said it was almost like having real friends."

"I changed my mind Harry. You, Ginny, Neville and Hermione were my real friends. I'm just glad I have one friend with me." She squeezed his hand again before letting it go.

"I had a thought," Harry changed the topic before he became emotional again, she was right at least he had one true friend with him, he wasn't alone and for that he was grateful. "You need to learn how to defend yourself."

"I don't think I can," a frown marred her brow.

"Luna, you rode a thestrals to the Department of Mysteries to take on Death Eaters with me." he said matter-of-factly. "If you can do that, you can do this. We'll start after this and I know just where to do it," for the first time a smirk crossed his face.

Sitting further down the table, Sirius hid the fact he was eavesdropping by shovelling as much food into his mouth as possible. His mind raced- fighting Death Eaters in the Ministry of Magic, surely that would have been all over the prophet! Sirius decided to follow them; it was time to find out just what they were doing.

He turned to James and said in an undertone, "I need to borrow the cloak." James raised an eyebrow. "It's for our…project," Sirius flicked his eyes towards the newcomers. James nodded once in reply and Sirius dashed out of the Hall.

Sirius covered the distance between the hall and the Tower so fast that he was back before Luna and Harry had finished eating. Covered by the Cloak he followed them when they finally walked through the doors and was surprised as Harry led Luna through the secret passageways to the seventh floor. They stopped in the corridor beside the picture of the Trolls dancing.

"Harry!" Luna's voice softly echoed through the space "I think there is a Blibbering Humdinger around, I can hear it breathing." Harry long used to Luna's antics, had figured out that the nonsensical animals were her way of advising the people around her when she sensed things weren't as they should be. He looked around spotting no one, he hurriedly paced the corridor three times. As the door appeared he quickly grabbed her hand and pulled her into the room.

Stunned at the sudden appearance of the door, Sirius missed his chance to slip through it behind them and was left standing outside in the corridor waiting for the pair to return. Who was Harry to know the secret passageways and a room that even the Marauders hadn't discovered?

Harry looked around, the room was divided into two sections. Along one wall was a duelling list with a clear wall protecting the rest of the room, which was set up similar to the Gryffindor common room. A small smile graced Luna's face.

"I know where we are!"

"It looks different to the way it was before," Harry launched into a description of the room. Still holding her hand he led her into the list.

"We'll start with shields and disarming spells only, until you can sense where they are being fired from. Are you ready?"

"Yes," Luna tipped her head to the side, listening for any movement from the boy. He didn't speak as he disarmed her.

"Accio," she called her wand back to herself, listening at the faint whistle it made as it moved through the air. She managed to close her hand around it just before it flew past her.

"Do you need me to speak the spells to start off with?" Harry offered. Luna shook her head.

"Ok then let's try again."

It took an hour before Luna successfully blocked one of Harry's spells.

"Hey!" Harry shouted as his disarming spell rebounded and he dodged out of the way. He ran up to Luna and picked her up into a hug. "You did it! After only an hour! You're brilliant you know that right?"

Luna giggled, "Put me down Harry!" when he complied she continued. "That was hard work, I think it would help if I concentrated on expanding my other senses for a while." Harry led her back to the couch.

"Luna? I've been wondering how you get on in class."

"Oh it's easy Harry, there is a spell I use that will read a page of my books to me and then another that I cast on my quill to take dictation of my notes and write my assignments."

"That's brilliant. How are you finding classes?"

"Pretty good, practicing can be a little difficult though, but if we can use this room I'm sure I'll be ok."

"I know Lily and Remus are looking at making you a walking stick but what we really need is to find you an eye like Moody had; if we could fix it to a cane then it might help you get around, though it would get in the way if you need to defend yourself."

"But how would it help me to see, I can't put it in the socket like he could!"

"When Hermione, Ron and I went back to ministry to retrieve the locket, that was the first of Voldemort's soul ties, from Umbridge she had Moody's eye stuck to her door. It was linked up to some sort of alarm spell, it still worked so when it detected us it set off an alarm."

"So it must have been able to detect the visual world and then send that message somewhere," Luna concluded. "We just need a book to tell us how to make one, or how to spell it properly if we can buy one."

Her face went even paler for a moment, "Harry, what we are going to do for money?"

"Well, Dumbles has given us a few Galleons to last till the end of school, then I'll get a job, or …I'll go hunting a Basilisk! And have it rendered down and sold," he joked.

Luna tried to look stern "Harry, you don't even know where to find one, and if you did it is too dangerous!"

Harry mimicked her voice, "Luna, I know EXACTLY where to find one and I have done it before." He considered this for a moment before becoming more serious. "Though to be fair I won't be able to just pull the Sword of Gryffindor out of the sorting hat or have Fawkes on standby with Phoenix tears, but on the upside I won't have a horcrux to deal with at the same time either."

"Harry Potter! It's a living creature you can't just kill it!"

"Well I'm pretty sure it will only take orders from Riddle now but I'll try to talk to it first to see if it will listen to me, if that will make you feel better. If it does then we will leave it alone and maybe ask it to donate some venom and shed skin for us to sell."

While they had been talking, a book had appeared on the shelf above the fireplace. Expanding the senses by Eysil Coverlid "And the room provides. Here, I want to practice dueling for a bit, the room has produced this book." Harry placed the book into Luna's hands and made his way back to the lists where a Duelling dummy had appeared.

"Level 1," Harry called to the dummy and prepared to duel.

An hour later and Harry was dripping with sweat as he emerged from the lists thanks to the exertion of duelling, he hadn't made it past the first level.

"When do we begin the hunt?" Luna screwed up her nose at the smell of sweat as Harry approached. His heart began to race, and his breathing was shallow as he started to panic.

"I don't think I can do it again, Luna," he whispered.

"You won't be alone Harry," she reassured him.

"If Dumbles hadn't lied to me so much I would just turn it all over to him, but I just don't trust him," Harry fell onto the couch beside her.

Luna nodded, "Was it because he didn't tell you he loved Grindelwald?" Harry laughed at that.

"No his preferences aren't any of my business. Look it's nearly tea time and I want to wash up, I'll tell you more another time."

"Harry, The longest journey begins with a single step," Luna reached out and grabbed his arm before he could move away. "I think we should tell them the truth. Not yet, we need to look out for those who…."

"Aren't to be trusted," Harry supplied. "If it gets out we're here, then our life expectancy will be measured in minutes. At the very least they will capture and torture us for what we know. After Hermione, I WON'T allow that to happen to you," Harry's voice grew louder as he became more impassioned. "I won't fall in the trap of sacrificing people for the Great Good, without their knowledge or consent."

Luna rubbed his arm gently "So then we find out who is to be trusted, we tell them and when their wrackspurts have flown away they can help," Luna said lightly. She followed with a sad whisper, "I don't think we can save them all, the eurumpets will get some of them."

Harry slung an arm over her shoulder as they walked out the door, "I'll save as many as I can."

"But who will save you Harry?"

He gave her a wry grin as he replied, "When do I ever need saving?"

Luna laughed, "Do you want the short list or the long?"

"Short, of course," He laughed along.

"You should have been saved from the Dursleys." The smile drained from his face.

"Come on, I reek!" The door slammed shut behind them and Sirius slid out from under the Cloak. What the heck was that all about?

"That Luna is loopy!" Sirius was relaying what he had overheard to the others. "She talks about Wrackspurts and all sorts of weird stuff…"

Lily had approached and before Sirius could get into his stride she cut across him, "It's a code." Lily flopped into the seat next to James.

"What?" James and Sirius stared at her.

Remus thought for a moment, "Wrackspurts?"

"Confusion or befuddlement, people who aren't seeing things clearly."

"Blibbering Humdinger?" Sirius asked.

"Context?" Lily countered. She thought for a moment after Sirius explained, "Deceit, someone who is hiding."

"You think she knew I was there!" Sirius seemed shocked.

"She is very intuitive, possibly to the level of being a seer. There are a lot of things that she just seems to know, like despite not being able to see she always seems to know who is approaching. It might have to do with the loss of her sight, though watching Harry, I suspect some of it is just her. She's….eccentric. I like her."

"Yeah but you like everyone Lily. She drives me nuts!" Sirius stated.

"And that's another reason that I like her," Lily grinned. "You know it isn't very ethical to follow them, don't you?"

"They are lying to us Lily!"

"That isn't an excuse. Still what else did you find out?"

"Not much I got caught outside the door," Sirius sighed and repeated his tale. Lily couldn't think where she had heard the name Dursley before, but she felt like she should know it. "There's only one thing I really found out and that is that they've clearly been here before, they knew about whatever that room was. I turned around when they went in and the door was gone. We need to keep an eye on them!" Nobody disagreed.

A week later Luna and Harry were in the Room of Requirement again this time it looked like a potions lab. Despite the Marauders efforts they were currently alone. Harry had a book open in front of him and was pouring a thick mixture into a spherical mould. Lily, Remus and Luna had spent long hours in discussion with the Charms master and had discovered the means to produce an eye like Moody's.

"We let it cool for five minutes and then do the incantation to produce the colour." They had spent the hour before practicing and had managed to produce an iris colour that was nearly identical to Luna's own. "The other option is we leave it white, so it will just look like a sphere? That might not be quite so creepy."

Luna nodded her agreement.

"Ok then after we add it to the staff and we are done."

Harry had ventured into the Forbidden Forest and obtained a straight branch which Luna had stripped the bark from and carefully whittled by touch into a long thin cane. The original branch had an angled off-shoot at one end creating a vee which had been made into a handle. The time passed and Harry removed the eye from the mould. Holding the eye in his right hand and the cane in his left, he bought the two together, murmuring the next enchantment as he did so. The two merged.

"Oh!" Luna squealed. "I can see! Kind of….."

"Kind of?"

"Well it's odd, because I can see through things and everything is in layers. It's a bit like one of those machines that muggles have that allow you to see inside people."

"An X-ray machine?"

"Mmm, I think so." The eye whirred in its place. "Oh!" Suddenly Luna laughed. "I can see behind me." It whirred again.

"Hmm I think we need to make it a little quieter." Luna passed Harry the stick. After consulting with the book he murmured another spell, before passing it back.

"Thank you Harry!" Luna stood up and walked over to him and gave him a hug.

Harry watched her walking around the room for a moment before he was struck by a thought, "Luna, I just realised we could have set the eye into a necklace! Then you wouldn't need to worry about carrying the stick around.

Luna pulled her butterbeer cork necklace out of her bag, it didn't take long for the eye to be removed from one and added to the other.

Luna grinned, "This works much better! I still need to practice duelling without it though, in case something happens."

Harry followed her from the room, "Tomorrow's Sunday so we'll come back then, but it will have to be after the Quidditch match."

"You should have tried out Harry. Quidditch has only good memories for you."

"Yeah," Harry shook his head with a wry smile, "Except that time my broom was cursed, and the time the bludger was cursed and that other time with the dementors. Excluding the fact that we were still in the hospital wing at the mercy of Pomphrey at the time, if I had known we were not going to be able to go back I would have, now it's too late, besides I don't have my Firebolt, it was left in my trunk at the Weasley's when the Death Eaters attacked the wedding," he shrugged. Neither noticed the small blonde boy that was watching them from behind one of the shiny suits of armour. As they walked slowly to the staircase and down to the kitchens he scurried away.

Peter hurriedly called out the password to the Fat Lady and practically vaulted through the portal as she let out an indignant huff. Never the fittest of the boys, Peter collapsed onto a rug in front of the Marauders.

"I take it you found something out then?" Remus looked down on the red faced boy. Peter nodded and kept breathing deeply, miming for the others to hold their questions.

Finally he began, "You were right…Sirius….They were in …..hidden room. Tomorrow after ….Quidditch….they're going again."

"So what's the plan James? We don't all fit under the Cloak anymore."

"Remus and you, Padfoot. Go and stake out the corridor after the match, under the Cloak and then follow them in. Remus see if you can figure out how that room works!"

"Did you hear anything else?" Remus asked Peter now that the boy was breathing easier.

"Luna suggested that Harry should have tried out for Quidditch, but he said his Firebolt was left at the Weasley's, whoever they are, when Death Eaters attacked a wedding. Do you think that was the attack before they came here?" Remus shrugged.

"So his Firebolt is his broomstick?" Lily asked.

"It can't be, there isn't one on the market with a name like that," James answered with a frown. "And the Weasley's? They can't mean Molly and Arthur? They graduated a couple of years before we started, and were married ages ago. We definitely would have heard if they had been attacked."

"Captain!" a voice called across the common room. "Burbage can't play tomorrow!"

James turned to face Hestia Jones who was hurrying towards him, "What happened?"

"Potions accident, burns everywhere, he'll be ok but not for a week!"

"Damn!" James swore, "We've no replacement seeker, he was the only one who tried out."

"Harry plays seeker," a dreamy voice floated across the group as Luna walked past returning from the kitchens holding a bowl of chocolate pudding and a spoon. "He has misplaced his broom but if you could find him one to borrow, I'm sure he wouldn't mind. Flying helps to clear the wrackspurts away." She took a scoop of pudding and sucked it off her spoon as she turned away.

"Thanks Luna, but we don't know how he would fit with the team," James tried to dismiss the option. "I'll just ask McGonagall if we can move the match due to extenuating circumstances."

Unfortunately due to the lateness of the hour it was impossible change the match.

"I'm sorry James," McGonagall was saying. "It's the eve of the match, there is no way Professor Slughorn will agree to a change now. Is there no one else who plays seeker? What about that new boy? Harry? I've seen him flying around the pitch on one of the school brooms and he seems to have talent."

"But will he fit in with the rest of the team?"

"At least we wouldn't have to forfeit the match," McGonagall countered the complaint.

"Argh," James groaned as he stood from his chair.

"I want Gryffindor to win that cup too," the professor reminded him. "Unless you have a valid reason for not wanting to use him, go ask the boy, surely it can't be that bad."

James couldn't put into words why he didn't want Harry to play, he had seen the other boy fly and knew he was good, there was the secrets issue but it wasn't a lack of trust, it was odd, it was almost as if he didn't want to see the boy who resembled him so closely, risk getting hurt.

Back in the common room James sank into the chair. He watched the messy haired boy studying on the rug in front of the fire.

"Just ask, I'm sure he doesn't bite," a voice near his ear suggested. Red hair cascade over her shoulders as Lily leaned over the back of his chair. Groaning again James stood and moved over to the boy.

"Uh Harry?" he started hesitantly. "We don't have a seeker for the match tomorrow, Luna said you played. Care to join us?"

Harry turned and looked at him with his big green eyes, James saw a flicker of emotion in their depths, was it joy?

"I would, but I don't currently have a broom."

"I've asked Burbage and you can borrow his, just for the match."

"Would he mind if we headed out early so I can try it out and get used to it?"

"I'm sure that'll be fine; I'll meet you at the pitch at six." Harry nodded and turned back to his book, his heart beating wildly, he was going to play his first Quidditch match with his Father! How was he going to get to sleep now!