Well yes, time for another update on my Luna story and it's another long chapter, but be warned, I have a habit of taking things slowly, so by the end of this one you might feel more stuff should have happened, but I'll let you be the judge of that.

Big, massive, huge thanks to my readers and reviewers, you are lovely:

KaramelKat: Thanks a lot for sticking with the story even if it wasn't your cup of tea at first, I'm happy you want to read more:)

Mimi: Thank you for the kind words, I'm so glad I managed to capture some of that HP magic, it's funny because just now I was saying that this story was going to take things pretty slow and I'm happy you concur:)

sadey: yey :)

accio: double yey:)

blurgh: don't worry, not abandoned, I like it too much and am too fond of both Luna and Neville to ever really drop it, thanks for the love:)

DuchessOfDementia: First off, why didn't I think of this penname? Second, I am really flattered you are so attached to this story and really happy you like it so much. Am completely humbled by the Jo Rowling comparison since I adore her to the moon and back. And yes, not following canon when needed can be a nuisance, but I hope never to fall into that. Thanks again for the lovely review:)

im back: I just have, so I'm back too :)

Hope you all enjoy this chapter and sorry for the wait, you know how it gets sometimes when ideas refuse to take shape in your head (incidentally, I rewrote this chapter twice).

Chapter Three: Remembrall

"...but you have to tickle it a bit around the liver area before you can cut off the eczema. Even if it's unconscious, the body will react. It will relax and allow you to make a good incision. I know it's a bit strange but they react very well to laughter," Luna was explaining to a harrowed-looking Dean Thomas as they sat alone in the train compartment.

Parvati and Lavender had left to visit Padma and Seamus had gone in search of the Food Trolley which had yet to make an appearance in that part of the train.

Dean had made the mistake of asking Luna what she was thinking about. She hadn't said a word since the girls left. Truth be told, she had needed time to gather her thoughts after everything she had heard that day, but she was slowly coming back to the present time. And this meant she was already contemplating the things which would procure her immediate pleasure once she was off the train. One of them, she confessed out loud, being surgery.

Out of all possible answers, Dean had not expected that.

"Surgery?" he had asked puzzled.

"Performing surgery, to be specific," she had explained.

"On what exactly?" he had asked again.

"On some of our pets at home," she had said, waving her hand dismissively as if he was not supposed to pay heed. "I was only making a mental plan in my head. Once I reach Hogwarts, I have to put it into practice."

"What plan, Luna? I'd like to hear," Dean had offered, feeling bored enough to listen.

"My father and I have been trying to treat several Shrinking Hippopotamuses, you see."

And that is how it had all begun. Ten minutes later, they were mid-surgery and Dean had gone from curious to shocked, to disgusted, to scared, and finally to visibly shaken as Luna had gone in detail to describe the anatomy and careful procedures of operating on a mass of grease and scales. She had not left out the part where one would have to suck out the puss of the eczema in order to fully cut it out.

"We usually use our mouths, dad and I, because using a chemical dropper can damage the skin," she had said happily.

Luna admitted, though, as she noticed Dean's green-coloured face that she might have gotten carried away with the entire thing, but it was only because she was so excited to save this endangered species. She took pleasure in describing what she considered 'the miracles of medicine', especially when those miracles served to save countless of invaluable creatures.

"Finally, and here is where I'll stop before I start ranting, you isolate the eczema in a sanitized receptacle for further observation. Father likes to put it in a jar and use mould or acid to attack it. Sometimes though, we feed it to the Drotes in the garden, they would eat just about anything you give them and they need energy to burn up the rabbit faeces."

It was then that the compartment doors flew open and a jolly-looking Seamus stepped in, carrying a heap of candy and snacks.

"Who wants Chocolate Frogs?" he asked, holding a brown packet in front of Dean.

He instantly got up and put a hand over his mouth.

"Excuse me...bathroom..." he muttered hastily before shutting the door behind him.

"Huh, what's gotten into him?" Seamus asked, sitting down.

Luna bit her lip guiltily. "It might be my fault. I think he might be squeamish. Though, I tried to leave out the blood and he was really curious about those Shrinking Hippopotamuses even though I told him he shouldn't care."

Seamus made an alarmed face, but before he could inquire any further the compartment doors opened again. Hoping it was Dean so she could apologize, Luna instead saw an erratic looking Ginny Weasley walk in with what looked like a Pumpkin pasty in her left hand.

"Luna!" she yelled happily.

"Ginny!"

The girls pulled each other in a tight hug, Ginny trying not to drop the Pumpkin pasty in her hand. Luna began telling her how much she had missed her. An infinite stream of words fell from their mouths as they tried to make up for the time lost. Seamus had to sit and watch in amusement.

"God, I thought that stupid meeting would never end," she complained to Luna. "Slughorn had me sitting with the likes of Blaise Zabini and he was such a freak. He kept ogling at me as if I had grown another head."

"No, not another one in sight. I would tell if you if you did," Luna joked, sitting down next to her friend.

"And then Harry and Neville showed up, looking miserable of course, and we wasted ten minutes trying to explain how we all knew each other, all the while the Slytherins were whispering about us like idiots because they have nothing better to do and we just had to take it. Not to mention, Slughorn made Neville promise he would bring photos of his grandma for the next Slug Club meeting, if you can imagine something more embarassing."

"Slug Club? That sounds a bit unorthodox," Luna commented.

"Is that why he called you in, Gin?" Seamus asked surprised. "We all thought you'd get detention or something, not go to a private get-together!"

"I think I would have preferred that, but the truth is a lot weirder. He's rounded up all the...er, interesting students he could find, from his point of view naturally. My Bat-Bogey hex made an impression, apparently, and he decided to invite me to his club. It also helped that I'm a Weasley, of course."

"And he calls it the Slug Club? After his name? That was a smart choice," Seamus drawled sarcastically.

"When you say interesting students, you mean people like Harry and Neville?" Luna asked, wondering why Slughorn had not also invited Ron and Hermione.

"Hardly," Ginny replied, scoffing. "Harry and Neville were brought in because Neville's a pureblood with a tragic past and his parents were favourite students of Slughorn's and Harry...well, I don't think I need to explain that. Otherwise, there were mostly rich or famous purebloods who only had their name to go by, and some blokes who had done something special or knew someone who had done something special. Pretty pathetic, if you ask me."

"It sounds as if he is deliberately avoiding the interesting. Well, at least we can breathe in relief that he does not have the intelligence or the intentions of someone like Cornelius Fudge," Luna commented, alluding to her previous talk to Dean Thomas on the subject.

"Cornelius Fudge? What's he got to do with him?" Seamus asked confused.

"He may be a silly man, but he seems harmless," Luna added as an after-thought.

"You mean Slughorn or Cornelius?" Seamus insisted, feeling he was missing something.

"Mm, I suppose, but that doesn't stop him from getting on my nerves," Ginny replied, ignoring him momentarily.

"Slughorn then," Seamus decided bitterly.

"Well, of course, Seamus. Ginny hasn't even met Cornelius to be able to be annoyed with him," Luna told him surprised.

Seamus simply shook his head in resignation and turned to Ginny.

"I don't suppose you'll go to another meeting, then?" he surmised.

"Suppose I do, out of curiosity at least. I mean the man is hilarious, something good is bound to happen. Plus, it would be heartless of me to leave Harry and Neville on their own," Ginny answered, her cheeks turning slightly red.

"We should crack a window, the excitement has gotten to you," Luna said softly, glancing briefly at her friend. Despite the seemingly innocent remark, Ginny guessed from Luna's furtive look that she had been caught slightly off guard and she quickly changed the subject.

"Enough about the new professor, how was everyone's summer? Luna, you have to tell me everything."

Luna took this request very seriously as she rummaged her brain for something pleasant to tell her about her activities that did not involve scalpels or gardening.

"Well, daddy and I visited some of our relatives in Ireland and one of my aunts who has been out of her minds for two years now, left me her entire personal library and I found some amazing volumes on herbology and history! There was one book dedicated entirely to the bathing of new-born snakes and another one depicting the silent wars between the goblins in East Anglia and..."

"Wow, slow down Luna, you travelled to Ireland? How was that like?" Ginny asked.

"Hang on, why didn't you tell me you were coming to Ireland? I could have shown you some places, you could've met my parents!" Seamus exclaimed in frustration.

"Oh, I'm sorry Seamus, but one of our aunts suddenly died during our stay and we had to prepare an impromptu funeral. I could have asked you to come but we were all grieving and you would have been out of place since you had no emotional ties to her," Luna replied bluntly.

Seamus turned bright red as he tried to choke out an apology.

"I'm really sorry for your loss, Luna, I put my foot in it."

"Nonsense, you shouldn't apologize, I have plenty of aunts to go, still."

Ginny laughed, throwing her head back.

"But how was Ireland anyhow? I mean dead aunts aside?" she asked.

The conversation flowed smoothly after that from Luna to Seamus to Ginny as they exchanged impressions on the places they'd seen and the things they had done. By the end of it they had discovered with surprise that Luna had actually been the busiest of them all, but that was very common for a Lovegood, they always had something of crucial importance to accomplish which occupied most of their time, even if it was never actually accomplished.

All throughout their talk, however, Luna had felt a strange sense of detachment between them. It was as if she were somewhere else right now, looking at them behind a screen, seeing, but not really participating or engaging emotionally in what was happening. She knew she belonged to their group and she was aware she was welcome, but there was still an unspoken feeling of uneasiness which seeped into her heart from time to time and reminded her that she had not yet managed to understand them fully and they, in turn, had not her. And this was of great importance to her. If she could not look through a person and see their innermost being, she could not be entirely satisfied and she was left feeling cheated. One would think Ginny was not a mystery to her anymore, but Luna was constantly surprised by her, despite their close friendship, and she was always starved to know more because her friend had this quality about her that most human beings had that made her such a riveting puzzle to solve. But she did not see the same hunger and curiosity in Ginny. The girl did want to get closer to Luna, but she didn't have the patience or didn't feel the need to know her so thoroughly because she already had so many friends and siblings, and also because Ginny was the kind of girl, Luna believed, who didn't need too much information to become someone's good friend. She usually acted on instinct and her instinct rarely failed her. That did not mean Ginny would accept just anyone to be her friend, but it did mean that the friendships she made were driven mostly by feeling.

That is why Ginevra Weasley did not feel cheated if she did not always understand Luna.

Luna did not mind too much. She valued her friendship more than that, but there were moments, such as these, when she felt she was surveying them from a faraway place, where few could reach her and few could reach them, because they were sealed from her as well. Each of them, it seemed, was carefully concealed in a glass castle and breaking the glass was made more difficult by the fact that she was the only one aware they were actually apart.

It was at this point in Luna's thoughts that Dean Thomas returned to their compartment, looking considerably paler than usual.

"Gin, sorry, I can't kiss you right now..." Dean began as he sat down next to her and placed one hand over her knee. "I need to find my tooth brush first."

"I take the fault for that," Luna chimed in. "Dean probably felt sick from my story. I am sorry, I put too much emphasis on detail, when a simple summary would have sufficed. I would kiss her for you Dean, but I don't think it would have the same effect."

Dean almost fell out of his seat at that. Seamus burst into laughter and patted Luna on her leg.

"Good one, Luna, good one," he said, chuckling to himself.

"Is that so, Luna?" Ginny asked, batting her eyelashes at her playfully, trying to keep herself from giggling.

"Something stuck in your eye?" Luna asked sheepishly.

"Never mind," Ginny droned, rolling her eyes, "has that Food Trolley shown up yet? All I managed to snatch from Slughorn was a Pumpkin pasty."

"Afraid you just missed it. I've got some Sugar Quills if that's up your street. Though I suppose we'll be arriving soon, it's getting really dark. Better keep your appetite for the feast," Seamus told her.

Luna looked out the window and noticed that the fields were no longer visible as the night sky and the green lines on the horizon had melted into a blurry image of darkness. Only here and there some small lights immerged from a couple of stray houses perched on top of the hills they passed and when they did, they could see the thin imprints of the buildings on the dark, blue sky and the feeling of isolation and solitude was increased by that one clear vision.

Luna was glad they didn't have to stop in the middle of nowhere at night. She wasn't afraid, but she didn't want to feel like the people in those houses probably felt when they saw a train passing by, filled with happy children. She realized how miserable that could be for someone stuck in a desolate land, especially if that someone did not enjoy being there in the first place.

Her father and mother had lived in complete isolation for a while, before she was born. They had told her everything. It had been an experiment, something they had needed to try for themselves before they started a family. They had enjoyed it for a while, but once the novelty was gone and they found themselves with nothing left to do, they returned.

Still, she had applauded their courage. They had braved it out for four years. She was sure she could never be that strong.

"I'd better go back to my compartment and get my luggage and robes," Luna said more to herself.

Ginny was about to get up as well, meaning to walk her to her compartment, but Dean's arm which was encircled around her waist stopped her midway.

"Oh, Ginny please don't trouble yourself, I can get back on my own. I'll send your love to everyone, don't worry," Luna told her, smiling sweetly.

Ginny gave her a look that said "you're up to something and I know it".

Luna refused to acknowledge it, however.

When she was safely alone again, she wandered down the corridor for some time (not really rushing to get her things since they still had some minutes left), lost again in her own plans for Hogwarts and how she would divide her activities this year, when she almost walked into someone.

She looked up and much to her surprise she found herself staring right into Hannah Abbott's left nostril.

"Hannah, hello!" Luna exclaimed happily. "I haven't seen you since the DA!"

Hannah looked around concerned, fearing people might hear.

"Not so loud, Luna, the DA's still sort of secret. I mean it's not everyone's business," she explained.

"Oh, right, of course, I'm just happy to have run into you," Luna excused herself.

"I'm equally pleased," Hannah said, smiling. "I was actually looking for Ginny. Zacharias Smith came up to me with a complaint involving her. He said I should give her detention for physical assault. Something about a Bat-Bogey hex. Do you know something about that? He did look like he'd been mangled."

Luna shook her head, chuckling slightly.

"That was me, unfortunately."

"You?" Hannah echoed in disbelief.

It was a common thing for Luna to cover for Ginny when she saw fit.

"He did mention something about Loon - I mean Lovegood taunting him," Hannah said, correcting herself quickly.

"Well, I started it. Ginny was just with me at the time and Zacharias had been unjustly mean to her so I wanted to throw him off a little, but I guess I ended up doing more," Luna lied, smiling in polite sadness.

"And you threw him off with such a painful hex? What can I say, I didn't know you had it in you," Hannah commented, inspecting her with the same suspicious eye as if her story didn't quite add up.

"Of course now I sorely regret it. It was a foolish mistake and I wouldn't ever want to hurt anyone...too badly. I hope he's all right. I really am sorry."

Hannah smiled ruefully. "He will be, it's not that bad. But I do have to give you detention, I'm afraid. You can't pull that off at Hogwarts and get away with it, even though we're not technically there yet. Don't worry, no one likes Zacharias, so I'll just make you clean one of the green houses, I know you like spending time there."

Luna beamed at her in gratitude. "Oh, I would love that! Thank you, Hannah. Just set the date and I'll be there."

"There's no rush. We'll talk after the feast," Hannah dismissed her, preparing to leave.

Then, remembering something suddenly, she turned towards her and took out a small, round object from her pocket.

"Oh Luna? Is this yours? I know you have a habit of...collecting certain items."

Luna took the light glass ball from her and stared at it in awe, as the dark crimson smoke inside it puffed and wheezed softly.

"I believe this is a Remembrall."

"Oh, so it's yours then?"

"No, but I think I know whose it is."

Hannah looked at her questioningly.

"Neville's, of course," Luna said matter-of-factly. "He would be wise enough to carry this around."

"Oh, right, Neville Longbottom. Nice chap. Well, I was afraid it was some awful joke from the twins' shop. You wouldn't believe how many First-Years have tried sneaking dung bombs on the train. Could you please make sure Neville gets it back?" Hannah asked.

"Of course, I was about to suggest that," Luna replied, her eyes glued to the small ball.

"Thanks a lot, Luna, I'll keep in touch," she mumbled briefly, squeezing her shoulder as she passed by.

"I will too, tonight then!" Luna shouted after her, waving her hand.

Now that she had Neville's Remembrall, she had a more imperious reason to reach the compartment faster, but then at the same time, she stopped and realized she had Neville's Remembrall, not just some meaningless trinket she could easily discard.

She wouldn't be a terrible person if she snuck a peek, would she?

Well, I probably would, but he's my friend and I am curious to know what is on his mind. And this is the closest I'll get, she reasoned with herself.

She took out her wand and pointed it at the ball, murmuring a Revealing Spell. Luckily, Neville had forgotten to secure it with a password. The password seemed useless though since he had to change Remembralls once every six months.

The ball uncorked slightly and made a fizzy sound after which Luna heard a soft, female voice speak smoothly into her ear.

"Neville Longbottom, age sixteen, Gryffindor student at Hogwarts in his Sixth Year, has put down six important notes since this morning:

1. Write to grandmother as soon as possible about three extra pairs of pants.

2. Give Trevor a tranquilizer.

3. Save a seat for Luna Lovegood on the train, because she is late.

4. Take Luna Lovegood's luggage with you in case she doesn't come back to the compartment.

5. If no. 4 happens, make sure you leave the luggage in the lost luggage closet near the Entrance Hall.

6. Write Luna Lovegood's name on it, if it is not already inscribed."

Luna held out the ball in her hand as it sealed shut once more and turned into bright red again.

Her Ravenclaw brain quickly surmised that Neville had been taking notes throughout the train ride since he couldn't have known she would be late, or leave the compartment at one point. She admired his promptness and quick-thinking.

Then, of course, the observations stopped and she was left wondering what she should say or feel at the moment since everything was so confusing and pleasant in her head. She was truly touched that Neville was so caring and thoughtful towards her. Even though he was her good friend and had proven last year that he cared about her just as much as she did about him, it still came as a surprise because no one usually bothered this much for her needs and whenever it happened, she felt a deep sense of gratitude mixed with an odd feeling of fright, almost as if she wasn't quite sure what the real intentions behind the gesture were, because she had been tricked so many times in the past and while she usually tried keeping her faith in people, she couldn't help but wonder sometimes.

The doubts quickly vanished, however, when she realized once more that this was Neville she was talking about, the nicest boy she had met, after Harry Potter, and she chastised herself for being even slightly suspicious.

She was going to return to their compartment and thank him personally for his kindness and maybe even give him a hug.

On second thoughts, I'd better just tell him I looked at his notes and that I am terribly sorry. I don't want him to be upset with me, though, but I should tell him the truth, she told herself, when she reached the familiar sliding doors.

Upon entering the compartment, however, she found it completely empty and, as if on cue, her luggage was also gone.