( A few days later than i had hoped to post this but here you go.

Again i thank my Beta for their hard work. )

Chapter 3

Twilight yawned as they moved about the castle, without being seen thanks to an invisibility spell that Luna and she both knew. Twilight would have liked to have walked around without it, but Luna pointed out it might be safer with it currently. They had already searched the room where Harry normally slept, but he was not there. This did not surprise Luna a lot as he was an early knew Harry was still around and going to the school, as his things were still in the dorm rooms.

Twilight and the others were a little surprised when Luna proved this by pulling a stuffed animal out of his trunk. It was a perfect replica of Luna, even down to how her mane and tail at times could be seen through. Luna noticed that Night's own stuffed animal body was not in the trunk. She hoped this was a sign that Night was still with Harry, but she feared that wasn't the case.

Luna knew the school could be rather confusing, and that was before even taking into account the shifting passages and staircases. That's why they stayed together to search the , and Luna was the only one that knew for sure what Harry looked like, though they could all easily identify Night if they saw her. As they moved down from the upper halls to the lower floors, Luna was starting to get worried, and confused. Even though there were students about, she had not seen any sign of Harry.

When the time for lunch came, Luna led them down to the Great Hall. The other three ponies could not help but stare as they saw the huge hall from the inside for the first time. It seemed to be smaller than the outside suggested, confusing Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash slightly as this room should be bigger than the castle in Canterlot, yet it was almost smaller than the main hall right now.

"This room seems a lot smaller than it should be," Twilight commented.

Luna nodded, "Yes, the room seems to shift size, but that is for another time. I am going up to the rafters to check for Harry."

Luna flew up to the rafters to have a better overview over the kids as they came in to eat. Rainbow Dash took off after her, while Twilight teleported, taking Applejack with her. But Harry did not show up for lunch at all, nor was there any sign of Night. Soon after lunch they went back down to begin their search of the school again.

"Why is he not here?" Luna asked later near day's end, looking rather down.

They hadn't found Harry anywhere within the school. Luna had seen some of Harry's friends moving about the school at times, but Harry was never with them. For that matter, whenever the ponies passed within hearing distance of them there was no mention of Harry or Night. And Luna was quite sure she should have at least been able to feel Night's mental presence by now, being in the same world as her again, but she was still hidden to Luna's mind.

"I am not sure," Twilight said, moving over to Luna.

They were outside, in one of the few different courtyards the school had. This one was rather out of the way, which would serve to hide them for a while. It had been a lucky discovery of Harry's back when he would explore the school with Luna and Night. They had shown it to others, and anyone from Harry's group would use it if they wanted some alone time. Luna felt safe enough there to release the invisibility spell, to Twilight's relief. The courtyard wasn't very big, but it had a few benches, one of which Luna was currently lying on. The use of magic hadn't tired her or Twilight, but she was annoyed and tired of not finding any clue as to where Harry or Night were.

"It does not make sense! His stuff is here, yet he is not here. Nor is there any sign of Night at all," Luna said sighing.

"That is because Harry does not go to classes anymore," A voice said, causing the four ponies to jump.

Luna spun around and blinked in surprise. It was one of Harry's closest friends, Hermione Granger, a witch of great skill and knowledge, but born to non-magical parents. Luna was sure that when Hermione grew up she would be someone who could easily rival Twilight.

"What do you mean by that; his stuff is still in his dorm room," Luna said, getting up and trotting over to Hermione quickly.

"Well, first I want to ask something of you," Hermione said, looking around at the four ponies.

"Sure, as long as you tell me where Harry and Night are," Luna said.

"Are you really Luna, you know, the spirit that inhabited this stuffed animal two years back?" Hermione asked, catching Luna slightly by surprise as she held up the stuffed object in question.

"Yes that is me, but why do you have that?" Luna asked, looking at Hermione closely.

"Okay. Well I had read an easy spell to summon ghosts, and I needed something you held dear. I am not sure if this doll would have worked for that, but I figured it would be worth a shot to try the spell. Also, might I ask if these are some of your new friends?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, though they came with me by accident," Luna said before pointing to them as she named them off, "That is Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Twilight Sparkle."

"It is a pleasure to meet friends of Luna's," Applejack said smiling.

"Agreed," Rainbow said smiling.

"It is my pleasure to meet you," Twilight said.

"It is nice to meet all of you as well, and I am glad you're back, Luna," Hermione said, before dropping her large bag full of books and giving Luna a hug, "We really need your help!"

Luna blinked in surprise as she was hugged. Normally, when she used to be here, Harry would carry her around in his arms, while Night either opted to ride on his shoulder, or walked about. Now, being her normal size, she stood easily the same height as Hermione if not a little taller.

"While I was hoping nothing would be wrong, I knew that was very unlikely. What happened while I was gone, and what do you need my help with?" Luna asked, as Hermione let her go.

"Well, it would be best if I started with last year when we, or more correctly I, first noticed the changes starting," Hermione said, sitting down on one of the benches.

Luna nodded, lying down again as the other three ponies each picked a spot to sit down, as Hermione spoke again, "It first became noticeable about six months ago. Night, who was still walking besides Harry at the time when I first noticed, would start slowing down or acting sleepy. It was as if all the energy suddenly left her. Harry at first would help her happily. But as time went on he seemed to forget about her. First it was a few seconds before he would notice she was not keeping up with us, but then it became longer, which was weird since, well…"

"Well what?" Luna asked.

"Well, I learned that when you were still with us, that you were not some magical puppet made by Harry's magic, but were actually the spirit of a real pony that had become friends with Harry a while back. Harry told me during second year not long after you had left, since I noticed he missed you more than any kid would miss their toy," Hermione said explaining.

"That is rather surprising," Luna said, "Why would he tell you that?"

"Because I was getting rather nosey, he had to tell me a little of where you and Night came from or I might have told a teacher, since I had figured out you were a spirit after realizing that it was not some spell that was keeping Night alive," Hermione said, looking slightly saddened.

"It is okay. Nothing happened from it and it helps us now. Continue, please," Luna asked.

"Yes, of course. Anyway, because of that, I knew Harry wouldn't forget about her like that. Once, when it got that bad that Night fell down and Harry just walked on, I went back to pick her up. When I handed her to Harry, I noticed something that worried me even more. He did not recognize her at all, for that matter, when he looked at me it seemed he was confused as to who I was," Hermione said, a look of hurt crossing her face.

"But it passed after a few moments and at the time I put it all down to him being stressed and distracted by the Dementors and Sirius Black. It was not until Harry came back this year that I fully saw what had happened. He came back, not seeming to know anyone of his old friends, including me, and was unwilling to make any new friends. He started to withdraw even more after a few weeks of school, focusing on his studies even more than usual," Hermione said sighing.

"Sounds like me before I made friends," Twilight said.

"Yes, every one of his friends, including myself, thought this was weird. We thought someone was messing with his mind, but the teachers brushed us off and we couldn't find anything ourselves that helped. And after a few weeks it even looked like Harry had lost most of his magical ability, but we couldn't get close enough to him anymore to even try to help, while the teachers simply thought he was finally hitting some roadblocks with some of the harder spells. While that was bad enough, it only got worse as the event of the year was announced to the school," Hermione said.

"There can be worse?" Applejack said confused.

"Yes. Harry is in a life threatening Tournament this year. Somehow, someone has gotten him into it, and without a way out and with his inability to use magic anymore… well… he will die," Hermione said sighing.

"I… I see," Luna said, a look of worry on her face.

"So let me see if I got this correct. Harry has lost all his memories, is barely able to use magic, and is stuck in a tournament that is threatening to his very life. And of Night there is no sign at all," Rainbow said.

"Yeah, that's about the sum of it. Though now that I think about it, I did see Night once this year, when Harry got on the train. He dropped his trunk on the platform and it opened, and I saw both of your stuffed animal forms in it," Hermione said nodding but then smiled, "And now that you are here we might be able to turn this around."

"How do you plan on doing that?" Twilight asked.

"Recently I learned a spell that lets me summon objects with magic, and the harder I concentrate and the more magic I use in my spell, the easier it should be to pull said object to me. If Night's plushy body is at Hogwarts, I should be able to summon her," Hermione said.

"Then cast it! What are you waiting for?!" Rainbow Dash nearly yelled.

"Well, I went out here so I could try some spells without anyone bugging me or seeing me casting them, but, well, we met up and I could not try out anything yet," Hermione said, pulling out her wand.

Luna nodded, stepping back, as did the others, as Hermione drew upon her magic and cast the spell. Hermione kept focusing as the four watched on, hoping this would work. A purple glow came from Hermione as she focused drawing upon her magic more and more. But she soon had to stop as she realized it was not working.

"Night's body is here, I think, but bound by magical means of some kind. I don't have enough magic to break the bond currently," Hermione said.

"Could we pool all our magic in you to increase the power of the spell?" Twilight asked.

"It would not work; our magic is too different from hers to try that safely. Maybe if we had a year to work on it," Luna said before turning to Hermione, "But I have a different idea that might work to help you gain magical power for a short while."

Luna smiled as her horn glowed, channeling her own magic. With a small flash of light a gem-encrusted case appeared. Twilight at once recognized it as the case that held the Elements of Harmony. Luna opened it and brought out a crown with a star on top of it and placed it on Hermione's head. Hermione blinked, looking at Luna slightly confused, while the other ponies looked rather shocked.

"Why are you letting her wear the Element of Magic?" Twilight asked confused.

"Because it is one of the few items that I know of that will be able to boast her magic safely," Luna said, gesturing for Hermione to try again.

"But you said our magic would not help her own," Twilight said confused.

"Yes, because our magic holds within itself pieces of who and what we are. If you and I were to share magic without being used to it, we would be able to tell it was not our own magic at once, and possibly feel a little pain using it. But if we did it with Hermione we would risk actually hurting her. But this item produces magic in its purest form, letting it flow into anyone and help them. It is why the Elements of Harmony can be worn by anyone who shares a link with what they represent, which is why I can still use them," Luna said.

Twilight nodded. Suddenly, a loud bang came from within the castle. Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash all jumped in surprise, as none of them had noticed Hermione had already started her second try while they were talking. They were wondering why Hermione held out her hand, until a stuffed animal flew into it. Hermione was slightly surprised how easy it was to draw power from the Element and push it into the spell to bring Night to her.

Luna smiled, it was the stuffed animal that had housed Night's soul alright, she could feel her sister's magic that had once filled it. What the others noticed, were the details and how much it looked like Nightmare Moon. Hermione smiled and set the stuffed animal down on one of the benches before looking at Luna. Hermione then took off the Element of Harmony and handed it back to her.

"Well done Hermione," Luna said, placing the Element back in the case before asking, "What next?"

"This was as far as I had planned to go for now, you see, I was not sure what they did to Night and without that information I could not go any farther till I got a chance to examine her body. If she isn't in her body, or if I she's otherwise unresponsive and beyond my magical ability, I wouldn't have been able to do anything other than trying to keep her safe and further researching," Hermione said with a sigh.

"And what makes you think Night won't be reverse summoned?" Rainbow asked.

"Well, the spell that bound her should have stopped my own summon. It is a rather easy spell to learn, but with this "Element of Magic" I seem to have overpowered it. If I had succeeded in summoning Night, I would have used that, and hoped they wouldn't be able to overpower my spell if they tried," Hermione said.

"Not the best planning, I might say, Hermione," Luna pointed out.

"Well, without you nothing would have happened anyway, and as I said before when I held up your doll, my next spell to try would have been summoning your ghost. I don't know if that would have worked any better, but if what Harry said about your skills in magic was true, we now should be able to free her before anyone realizes what has happened, I hope," Hermione said, looking at Luna first annoyed then hopeful.

Luna nodded, "I get your point."

"Good," Hermione said a little heatedly, "So can you help me?"

Luna sighed and walked to the stuffed animal nodding, realizing Hermione rash behavior was much like her own. She touched her horn to Night's stuffed animal body and pushed magic into it. She smiled, she could feel Night's soul hidden, and sealed within it.

"She is sealed within the stuffed animal's body. I have the skills needed to break the seal, but I will need some help with providing the power to break it. Twilight, I need you to pool your magic into Night's body while I work," Luna said, looking over at Twilight.

"Wouldn't that risk hurting her?" Twilight asked, remembering what Luna had said about magical types.

"Her magic basically is my own magic's twin, and just like mine ages old and very potent, so she should be able to deal with your magic without much risk of pain, even before she is back to full power. While you do this I will use my magic and your own in the doll to try and break the seal," Luna said.

"Got it," Twilight said, as she started to pool her magic around her horn.

Hermione stepped back a few feet, as did the other two ponies. Luna leaned down letting her horn touch the face of Night, while Twilight channeled her magic in through Night's own horn. The three watched on as the glow from Luna's horn grew slowly brighter and brighter as she worked. As the minute mark passed, they were forced to turn away, as the light was too blinding to stare at any longer.

But still Luna and Twilight worked on, not stopping their work as the light became intense enough to bother them as well. Then, without warning, even to Luna or Twilight, there was a pulse of magic from the stuffed animal. Both Twilight and Luna were thrown back by the force of the magical pulse, and the animal began to glow.

Twilight and Luna tried to watch to see what was going to happen, but the glow became too bright once again, and they were forced to look away. There was another magical pulse, knocking everyone down and causing some of the stones around the courtyard to break, before the light vanished completely. Twilight was the first to fully recover her sight and she looked to where the stuffed animal's body had been sitting. In its place was a pony she would never forget. Nightmare Moon was back, and when she opened her eyes for the first time, Twilight could tell she was also very, very mad.