Chapter Four
Harry and Hermione, despite being held behind, still managed to beat the bell to their Charms class, figuratively, of course.
Hogwarts wasn't exactly the type of school to have bells.
Still, despite making good time thanks to a secret passage, it was still slim pickings for good seats, since they were sharing the room with the sixth year Ravenclaws. The two eventually ended up sitting further back than they (Hermione) had wanted, but Professor Flitwick's entrance chased all thoughts of bullying somebody out of their seat away.
"Good morning class!" the short professor began, a stark contrast already to McGonagall's ominous and dreary introduction. "It is so very good to see all've your smiling faces and bright eyes again! Oh, and even better to have new faces looking back at me. Transfer students! My, it's like getting the joy of teaching first years without half as many explosions!"
Harry and Hermione both smiled, abashed, as the excitable professor continued to sing their virtues to the class, on and on. Thankfully for them, Flitwick seemed to have quickly realized that perhaps he was getting a touch carried away and stopped.
Before launching into a just-as-peppy lecture about the sort of material they'd be covering that year. "Banishing, shrinking, stunning, hiding, finding, digging, wigging, writing, gliding, and fighting! Plus a few dozen others if we can, and even how to manipulate an interior space if we're lucky! Oh boy!" Professor Flitwick exclaimed with a joyous light dancing in his eyes.
It was his exuberant an unrepentant love of learning that made the short man Hermione's favorite teacher. Everybody learned in Flitwick's classroom, whether they wanted to or not.
Harry could practically feel his young bride bouncing in anticipation as Flitwick skipped right over any kind of review and got right into an, admittedly, engaging lecture-slash-demonstration of the Traction Control spell.
"Developed less than a decade ago by one of our very own alumnus, this nifty charm is applied to both shoes and allows the caster a great amount of control over the friction levels that the bottoms of their shoes experience. While the application phase of the charm is simple enough, it is due to the mental discipline needed to work this spell properly that you all are just now learning it. It is also," Flitwick continued with a mischievous grin, "the reason why so rarely do you hear of an elder student being late for class."
Groans and protests of unfairness meshed together to form that perfect 'disgruntled group of minors' sound. It made the small professor's grin grow to near shit-eating levels, proof positive that he was enjoying their reactions. Still, he supposed he did have a class to teach, and so eventually got the lot of 'em back under control and challenged their ire by saying, "Yes, yes, I often hear of the unfairness of it all when first introducing this charm, but I assure you that even now, at your age, not all of you will find this charm easy to use. Now, the drawbacks make its use limited, but it's still very helpful. You see, you must consciously control this charm for it to work. This makes holding a conversation while using the Traction Control charm difficult for all but the most experienced of multi-taskers. That is to say nothing of having to maneuver around obstacles as you go."
Flitwick proceeded to demonstrate his point by aiming his quirky looking wand down at his tiny, shining black shoes before clearly stating, "Lentus Terra!" A dull brown glow shown from the bottoms of his shoes. Then, to the delight of the class, Flitwick proceeded to walk up and down the aisles at a jogging pace, while appearing to only be slowly strolling casually all the while.
"Like I said," the Charms Professor said as he came to a stop, "control over how much friction your feet experience with the ground. It can allow you to maximize your strides like you just saw, as well as..." Here Professor Flitwick frowned in concentration before kicking off and skating around his desk in big, looping circles, drawing surprised exclamations and applause from the class with his skill, till finally, with a last twirling jump, he came to a stop atop his desk with his arms held up.
Slightly out of breath, Flitwick then said, "Five points to whoever can tell me the mechanics behind what I just did."
Before the last syllable of the word 'mechanics' had left Flitwick's mouth, Hermione had already raised her hand high in the air. Blinking after Flitwick acknowledged her with a, "Yes, Mrs. Evans, wasn't it?" Hermione answered with, "Yes sir. You pushed with your left foot, which you were assigning a good deal of friction at the time, before leading in with your right foot; that had very little friction assigned to it."
"Yes, and how did I go in a circle? Did I push off with one of my feet as ice skaters do?" Flitwick asked back with interest in his eyes.
"No sir, I was watching for that. Instead, you must have applied more friction to the left sides of your feet than your right. That's what made you spin around your desk. You managed to control the spell beyond just 'left foot, right foot' sir, you were able to pick spots on the soles of your shoes to manipulate. It was very impressive, sir," Hermione finished with a smile, relishing the feeling of answering questions in a classroom once again.
Flitwick's face burst out into a delighted smile as the gemmed witch perfectly deciphered the complicated technique after a single fifteen second display. 'I'll have to keep an eye on that one!' he mused, giddy at the thought of nurturing such brilliance.
"Spot on, Mrs. Evans! Spot on! That's quite the deduction! And, as promised, five points to Gryffindor for housing such an astute mind! Very well done indeed!"
The Ravenclaw Head of House then carried on with the lesson, explaining how the charm's other drawback was the inability to cast additional spells while it was in use and promising them the chance to practice it next time, when the room was clear of tables and the appropriate cushioning charms had been cast. As he delved further into the lesson, explaining the intricacies of the charm and urging them all to take ample notes, Hermione and Harry both were filled with such a sense of nostalgia that they didn't even feel the content smiles slipping over their features.
They spent the rest of the lesson happily taking notes, listening to their excitable professor, and enjoying the normality of it all.
Charms was the last class the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws had before lunch, so once the excitable Filius Flitwick released them the whole class headed off to the Great Hall, eager to eat. Harry Potter, now Evans, looked around the Great Hall upon entering, and continued scanning the room as he took his seat. Most of the sixth year Puffs were present, sitting huddled and hunched around something or other at their table. Most of the sixth year Slytherins, however, were already sending dirty looks over his way, though none were nastier than the glare coming from Draco Malfoy.
'Still sore from earlier?' Harry thought maliciously as he sneered back. 'Good.'
Hermione, noticing where he was looking and following his gaze, narrowed her eyes in disgust at the blonde slime looking their way. Suddenly feeling irritable and not wishing to spoil her good mood any more than it already had been, Hermione reached under the table and squeezed Harry's knee through his trousers, drawing his attention.
"Pass the jam, darling, and stop glaring. It's annoying." Despite her words, Harry still noticed her spare one last venomous look towards the snakes' table herself. Daisy, however, didn't, and surprised them all by commenting.
"Harry can glare if he wants to! After the stunt Draco pulled earlier, I'm glaring too! Nothing to be ashamed of," Daisy said hotly, although she seemed to regret spouting off so brazenly the moment the words were out of her mouth.
Hermione, despite being shocked at Daisy, still felt her cheeks heating up in offense, and was quick to scowl and snap out, "I didn't say it was shameful, I said it was annoying. And I wasn't talking to you, Daisy. You can do whatever you'd like, but some of us can't afford to be children for much longer, and thus need to start actinglike adults!"
Before anyone else could decide to chime in and escalate things, Harry straightened in his seat and firmly said, "That's enough, the both of you. Daisy, thank you for the support, but Hermione's right; its immature to sit and make dirty faces at people you don't like."
Hermione started nodding her head even as Daisy's drooped before Harry continued, freezing them both mid-action. "However, snapping at people isn't right either. You know she wasn't instigating, and we both know that two wrongs don't make a right. So," Harry said in a controlled voice, "I'm sorry for glaring, honey." Harry then looked pointedly at Hermione even as he started spreading the exact amount of jam she liked onto a slice of bread.
Hermione, red cheeked with embarrassment, gave both Harry and his alternate version bashful smiles as she said, "Sorry for snapping, at the both of you. Harry especially since I was glaring too, and Daisy especially since you were just defending my husband."
Daisy, somewhat taken aback by the mature way Harry'd handled the situation, also apologized.
"Yeah, I'm sorry. Really, I shouldn't've even stuck my nose into you guy's business in the first place."
Hermione frowned and said, "We haven't really know each other for too terribly long, but I do still consider you a friend, Daisy. I don't want you to feel like saying something and then not just because I was short with you. I know it's not very responsible of me, but can we please blame this on the hormones and just forget about it?" Hermione asked with a slightly forced giggle and a pat to her belly.
Three sets of eyes bulged at the action.
"Wah, ya mean you're? Like with a!? Inside?!" Daisy tried to fumble out before erupting into a blushing mess when her eyes landed on Harry. "But, then, doesn't that mean, that you two!? That the two of you!? That is to say, you and he did that?"
All five Gryffindors were blushing now, and eye contact quickly became impossible to establish.
A scowling, red-faced Clementine reached across Jasper's lap and started swatting at Daisy's shoulder while shouting, with a furious blush, "You idiot! Obviously that's what that means! What else could the meaning of that possibly be taken to mean!?" Idiot!"
As Daisy half-heartedly tried to defend her inelegant line of questioning to her friend the five teens slowly regained their composure. After Daisy and Clementine finally cut it out, and a few seconds of silence had passed, Jasper suddenly frowned thoughtfully.
"So that's what you meant," he said. "When you mentioned how you couldn't afford to act like children for much longer…"
A somewhat tense silence stretched as Hermione and Harry failed to respond and instead shared a look. Harry then handed his wife her slice of bread, which had the strawberry jam she'd asked for earlier already spread across it, before carefully thinking of how to answer Jasper; not wanting to just come out and say that they had plans to kill Voldemort and all of his followers, but also not quite willing to flat out lie to the boy.
"Well, yes, that's partially correct. And certainly the most important reason. But… ah, how to say this?" Harry asked himself with a light sigh. "Ya remember what Professor McGonagall said earlier? And you also remember what we said, back on the ride here? Well, pretend if you will, that you've gone through what we have as far as dark witches and wizards go. Now, imagine what even the thought of sharing a countrywith disgusting scum like the Death Eaters would feel like. In a situation like that, there are really only two options available to ya." Harry took a second to establish eye contact with Daisy and then Clementine to drive home how serious he was before focusing back on Jasper.
The air seemed to thicken for the trio sat across from the new students as Harry slowly leaned in and said, with an alien power suddenly audible in his voice, "We could flee." Despite actually being quite quiet, Jasper and his two female friends still felt odd shivers shoot up and down their spines at the dark-haired teen's words, starching the little hairs on their arms and legs; forcing them to stand at attention. "Or," the blazing, emerald eyed Harry whispered as his face stretched into a mean grin while he pulled Hermione snug against his side with one smooth movement of his right arm, "You can do the… other thing."
Daisy and Jasper both stared at Harry with shocked expressions, but Clementine twitched.
Though something deep inside of her flooded with unease at the thought of looking away from the male Evan's hypnotic green eyes, Clementine managed to avert her gaze over to Hermione; suddenly, inexplicably, overcome with an insistent desire to see just what she thought about what Harry was saying.
With one of her soft hands pressed comfortably against her belly and the other wrapped firmly 'round her husband's thin waist, the sheer, zealous adoration that blazed in Hermione's warm brown eyes as she gazed up at Harry stayed burned into Clementine's mind through the rest of lunch and all the way up to her bed in Gryffindor Tower. It was perfectly normal for the young Miss Black to occasionally take such midday naps, but the dreams of smoldering green fire and flashing black claws that dominated her subconscious were very, very new.
Harry and Hermione, as well as Jasper, all had Spell Crafting after lunch, while Daisy and Clementine were free for the rest of the day. After the two girl had split off, Harry and Hermione let the male Granger lead the way through the castle's twisting and turning hallways. When they arrived they discovered that, like some of the students were saying the Defense Against the Dark Arts class had been, Spell Crafting too was absent of its normal instructor. Instead, overseeing the class was the perpetually down Grey Lady, who morosely pointed to the reading assignment on the board and mumbled for them to complete it before silently sinking into the stone floor.
"Poor thing," Harry heard a thin, wisp of a girl say sadly from his right. Sitting next to him was a petite, silvery blonde haired girl with big blue eyes that gave her soft features a default look of surprise, although with how expressive her eyes were it was easy to see that she was sincere in her sadness.
Harry felt his heart clench at the sight of Luna Lovegood, looking just as innocent and uniquely cute as she had on the day of her death.
From their first meeting on the Hogwarts Express, where she's plainly told him to his face that she believed in him even while he'd been looking down on her for being odd, all through his fifth year where she'd freely given him her unending loyalty, till finally at the Department of Mysteries where she'd been struck down by the completely insane Bellatrix Lestrange, Luna Lovegood had always, always, been an exceptional girl.
Equally exceptional, was the incredibly large weak spot Harry harbored for the young Lovegood girl.
"You're such a sappy bint, Loony. Didn't mummy ever teach you that ghosts don't have feelings? Before she went and blew herself up, I mean," an incredibly cruel seventh year Ravenclaw sniped from a row ahead of where they were sat. He was nicely tanned, with short, spiky black hair and bright blue eyes that held a surprising amount of malice behind them. A silver hoop through each of his ears gave the handsome older teen a 'Popular Rebel' look, and he was apparently deemed likable enough to have two buddies congratulate him on his remark, with one of them even slapping his friend a high five.
Luna Lovegood lightly bit her bottom lip and looked down, Harry Evans blinked once, and Hermione Evans shook her head knowingly.
At one point in time, Harry had thought himself to be slightly in love with the unbendingly faithful, offbeat, girl. He'd eventually managed to figure the feelings out to be more familial in nature, and had all but adopted the littler 'Claw as a sister around halfway through fifth year, but the fact still stood.
Harry Potter adored Luna Lovegood.
Hermione gave a small wince as she noticed her husband's left hand twitch fractionally under the table.
A second later, 'Popular Rebel Asshole' sprung from his seat and gave an agonizing shriek of pain as the small silver hoop dangling from his left earlobe was bloodily ripped from his flesh by an invisible force, spraying a small line of red onto 'High Five Guy's' face. As the now red hoop quietly sung a soft ringing from its owner's desk, like a coin that was nearly finished spinning, Jacob, Popular Rebel Asshole's real name according to his other, blood-free friend, reached for his pocket.
Luna gave a startled, "Eep!" at the sudden violence and flinched back when her bleeding tormentor screamed at her and started to dig out his wand.
She needn't have worried, though, for with another small twitch of Harry's hand, the seventh year Ravenclaw's legs shot straight out in front of him, leaving him to fall painfully onto his back. A sickening thud sounded out when momentum inevitably caused his head to fly back and smack against the hard stone floor. Instantly, the teen's angry snarl morphed into a painful, dazed groan.
When the downed 'Claw's friends made to draw on Luna, Harry and Hermione calmly stood up. Before the two seventh years could decide what to do, Harry smiled falsely and pleasantly said, "Easy there blokes," stretching the 'e' of easy, "For ya go 'n make some really stupid fucking decisions, may I suggest you look down? See that? On the ground there? Yeah? Good. Now, I'm no doctor," Harry said with a slight chuckle, "but it looks to me like your stupid cunt friend could use some medical attention, like, pronto, yeah?"
The class seemed taken aback by the teen's casual use of such awful vulgarity, and indeed at the entire spectacle in general, but when the two Ravenclaws failed to follow his advice Harry seemed to take it personally, frowned, and said, not so pleasantly, "What, are you fucking deaf? I thought I fucking told you stupid cunts to take your boy and scram! Hermione, baby, did I not tell these stupid cunts? Did I not?"
Hermione seemed to be enjoying Harry's dramatic act and didn't bother hiding her amused smirk as she looked down her nose at the two, now unsure, boys, and played along.
"Why, I do believe you did at that sweetheart. And what good advice it was, too. Just look! I'd bet that their poor friend down there could really use their help, and yet here these two morons remain, gaping up at us, like fish. Oh, for shame," she said while shaking her head in mock disappointment, still smirking.
Of course, neither of the two meant what they said half as much as they seemed to. Harry had already cast three basic healing charms on the prone boy and Hermione didn't like hearing Harry use such bad language, but for Luna's sake, they had to make a strong impression. Hermione viewed the girl with similar familial affection as Harry, although he looked on the girl with much tenderer eyes than even she, and Hermione had previously come to love the blonde like a sister. Even if they got into trouble, which Hermione was already pretty sure they'd be able to maneuver out of if they had to, she felt that this demonstration was worth it.
Harry's resolve need not be commented on.
Between the demonic looking Brit's aggressive tone and colorful vocabulary and his bejeweled companion's sharp, condescending remarks, both of the Ravenclaw boys were feeling their faces flush with anger and embarrassment at being talked down to, especially since they had an entire class bearing witness to it all. Luckily, for the two Ravenclaws honestly, their friend really did look like he could use a stay in the school's medical wing. And so, with many dark mutterings but no retaliation, the two hefted their friend onto his feet and led him out, into the hall.
Silence reigned in the classroom once the three had departed, and nearly twenty pairs of eyes remained trained on the two newcomers as they retook their seats, though not before managing to manhandle Luna Lovegood in-between them.
The tiny blonde looked so completely lost, and in such a different way than she normally did, that it was all Harry could do not to throw his arms around the girl and draw her firmly into the embrace he so sorely ached for. Resisting that urge but unable to completely keep his hands to himself, Harry made due with flashing Luna a warm smile and settling a big clawed hand on her head. Giving her signature messy blonde hair an affectionate ruffle, which had Luna's already prominent blue eyes widening even further, Harry then said, "Sorry 'bout all that nastiness love. See, normally, I'm not the kinda bloke to go runnin' off at the mouth 'round those of a more delicate inclination; yourself for example. Horrid manners that, but unfortunately I'm something of a hothead, ya know? Passionate creature, I is," the green eyed boy proclaimed while blasting a charming smile at the slight girl. "Name's Harry by the way. Harry 'Merlin Two-Point-O' Evans."
Luna let out a startled giggle at the strange boy before quietly asking, "Is that really your name?"
Hermione's snort drew the young Ravenclaw's attention to her left. The older witch then said to the younger, "No, Harry's middle name is 'Silly Idiot'. His parents were blessed with very good foresight, you see, as well as a penchant for giving things rather fitting names."
Harry's playful pout and Hermione's teasing scorn were causing an unsure but amused upturning of Luna's lips when, quite suddenly, the face of the devilish looking boy on her right lost its smile, and instead adopted focused, furrowed eyebrows and a slight pursing of the lips that spoke of seriousness.
"No," Harry began solemnly, staring deeply into Luna's big blue eyes as he spoke. "That's not it either, actually. My name is Harry James Evans. You're gonna want to remember it, Little Lovegood, because from now on the two of us are friends. So mote it be."
Luna felt an electric jolt of shock shoot through her system at the emerald-eyed boy's unexpected declaration, but before she could respond an irritated voice butted back in.
"See, what did I say? A silly idiot. What my dear husband surely meant to say, of course, was that the three of us are friends from now on," Hermione said, dryly rolling her eyes at Harry before squeezing Luna's hand tightly.
"I'm Hermione by the way," the sparkling witch added suddenly, feeling her cheeks heat up slightly in embarrassment at how out of order she'd just sounded.
'Next time, its 'Introduce Yourself' before 'Declare Lifelong Friendship', ugh', Hermione thought, though from the sudden, slightly-confused, wobbly smile the young witch nestled between her and Harry was sporting, Hermione figured that Luna didn't much mind the odd faux pas.
The young Ravenclaw seemed a touch unsure of herself, but still possessed enough courage to introduce herself back to the two strangely friendly strangers.
"My parents named me Luna, because of my hair color. It's strange to me, though, since the moon can be so many different colors depending on the circumstances. Are the two of you quite sure that we're friends now? It's just that, well, I would feel rather awful if you were only teasing me, you see," the young Lovegood informed them in her plainly open, honest way.
"I'm sorry to report, Little Luna, that it's true. 'Fraid that means you're stuck with us from now on," Harry responded with a winning smile.
"Yes, yes," Hermione said distractedly as she leafed through 'Magical Engineering: Spells', which just so happened to be the rather thick book they were all supposed to be reading. "We're quite sure. Now, if you don't mind, I would very much like to get started," she continued, "I haven't worked on making a new spell for more than a year now and I'm quite excited to begin."
"I am afraid, Mrs. Evans, that you will have to wait just a little longer still," a calm old voice claimed from the doorway unexpectedly. "You two as well, Mr. Evans, Miss Lovegood."
Albus Dumbledore was stood just outside the doorway, poking his bearded face in, flashing the startled class a patient smile.
"I was hoping that the three of you wouldn't mind joining me in my office for a spot of tea." Dumbledore said pleasantly, "If you please?" he asked, beckoning to them with a wave of his wrinkled hand.
Luna felt her shoulders stiffen in apprehension at the Headmaster's offer/order. Never in her half a decade of attendance at Hogwarts had she been called into his office before…
The blue eyed girl gave a tiny flinch of surprise when both of her hands were easily claimed by her new friends, with Harry gently wrapping one of his deadly black claws around her right hand and Hermione interlacing her own smooth fingers with Luna's smaller ones on her left hand. The small action went unnoticed by the majority of the class, but the elderly Dumbledore had always seen more than most. He felt the white whiskers on his face ruffle as his lips stretched upwards ever so slightly at the venerable surge of warmth that went shooting up the young Lovegood's back at the friendly action; leaving the girl looking much more at ease than before and with an astoundingly beautiful smile on her lips. The sight caused the elderly wizard's eyes to twinkle more intensely, but that and his negligible smile were all the genuine emotion he allowed to shine through. There were mildly serious accusations being flung in the three's direction after all, and while he wasn't the kind of man to judge a person before they'd been proven guilty, he certainly didn't want to make light of the situation just yet either.
As the three students joined their Headmaster out in the stony hall, the class behind them could be heard busting out into hushed whispers that oozed speculation. Soon though, the dull roar resonating from the room abruptly cut off when the thick oaken door swung shut, leaving the small group outside to stand in silence.
Albus tilted his head ever so slightly to the side as he studied the youths before him from atop his half-moons, paying special attention to how they interacted with one another. The lad, Harry, seemed the most at ease. The way he rubbed the small Lovegood's fingers reassuringly seemed genuine in its absentness, and there was no tenseness in his muscles to speak of; a good indicator that the boy wasn't afraid of getting into trouble at the moment.
Well, either that, or he just didn't care.
'Hopefully his ease is indicative of innocence, and not experience,' the white haired wizard thought.
To Albus's rightmost was the chocolate eyed young woman who'd caused that little incident in the Great Hall the day before; over a few potatoes if he was recalling correctly. He knew it was terribly impolite, but the gestureless charm to hyper-focus his hearing had already been cast before he'd even had the chance to think about it properly. The looks being exchanged between young Professor Potter and the black haired youth had peaked his interest, and he was ashamed to say that he'd always been bad about keeping his curiosity in check.
Now, despite his misgivings about how he'd come upon the knowledge, he was pleased to have done so.
'Kids these days, pregnant at sixteen,' Albus thought, even as he took note of how Hermione seemed to mirror her husband's apathy at the situation. 'Although, I suppose, had Gellert been a girl…'
Albus gave himself a mental admonishment for thinking such age inappropriate thoughts, although part of him wanted to smile lecherously at the mental picture.
Resisting the urge and turning his eyes to the last member of the group, Dumbledore gave Luna Lovegood, fifth year Ravenclaw, a once over.
The girl seemed to be doing well, 'Very well, in fact,' the powerful wizard thought, comparing the small girl nestled between the two newcomers to the one he'd seen sitting despondently at the House of the Wise's table in the Great Hall. Pale, messy blonde hair was still poorly kept, although young Hermione was now threading her fingers through it over and over again, trying to instill some kind of order as they waited patiently for him to finish his observations.
Albus spared a quick thought as to whether or not the young woman, who had the shortest hair he'd ever seen on a female student, prank victims notwithstanding, knew what she was doing with so much hair, but promptly remembered the near-constant bombardment of criticism his wardrobe drew and decided that he, at least, certainly had no say in matters of style.
Furthering his comparison, Albus thought that the girl may have been standing a tad straighter, which was doubly impactful considering the reaction she'd had to being called by him earlier. Her smile seemed leagues more genuine as well, and most encouragingly, he noticed, was how the small 'Claw was even leaning back into the male Gryff's shoulder a bit.
While Albus mournfully confessed to himself that he hadn't paid the poor girl as much attention as she deserved over her years at Hogwarts, the way she'd lean ever so slightly away from those around her had most certainly not gone unnoticed. After a quick word with her father and a quicker one with Filius though, he'd been left to the conclusion that her aversion to physicality had more to do with general social awkwardness brought on by bullying and the loss of her mother than anything else. While he was saddened for her, he didn't exactly have the time to personally deal with each and every personal problem that the students at Hogwarts had, much as he may want to, and so he left such duties to the different Heads of House.
While he was unsure of how much help Filius had been to the young Lovegood, he was willing to bet that the two sixth years sandwiched at her sides would prove much better in that regard.
Finally done with his silent musings, which had only taken a touch longer than a minute in the real world, Albus gave the three a disarming smile and said, "Ah, forgive an old man his ponderings. I was off in space." The wizened old headmaster gave a small smile of amusement at the confusion he'd caused Luna with the muggle saying, but also carefully stored away the knowledge that both Evans were familiar with such phrases. Keeping his thoughts off of his face, Albus turned and said pleasantly, "Come now, we will be much more comfortable up in my office than out here in this drafty old hall, I assure you."
And with that the long bearded Headmaster of Hogwarts turned and led the way towards his office; up and down grey stone corridors and even through a secret passageway once. Between the old wizard's firm knowledge of the schools layout, wonky as that layout may be, and the shortcut they'd taken, it was hardly three minutes later that the four found themselves riding up the majestic turning staircase and arriving at Dumbledore's office.
Harry, much like the two girls on his left, had followed the oddly dressed mage (although after knowing him for so long the sparkling blue and white robe he wore mapping out different constellations seemed almost tame) in silence. Stepping into the Headmaster's office, with its whirling and whizzing trinkets, garish furniture, bookshelf lined walls, overflowing candy bowl, and perched sleeping phoenix, Harry couldn't help the briefest look of melancholy from flashing across his face, although luckily Albus's back had been to him during the moment of weakness.
A second wave of the emotion passed through him again when a wrinkled hand motioned for them to take their seats before its owner offered them all a piece of candy.
"Are you quite sure?" Albus asked with a ghost of a frown marring his brow upon finding no takers.
Unable to help himself, Harry gave the powerful wizard a smile and relented with, "Oh, if you insist, Headmaster. What've you got?"
A much happier looking Dumbledore described the candies in the bowl, sounding not a little like a car salesman, oddly enough, before adding his recommendation of, "And while they are all well and good in their own ways, I have found that the lemon flavored ones stand out in their excellence; truly, a cut above."
Giving the enthusiastic wizard an amused shake of his head, Harry nevertheless relented and nabbed himself one of the yellow sweets.
After unwrapping the lemony treat and quickly popping it into his mouth, Harry then, like Dumbledore across from him, let the smile slip from his face, as the mood sobered and the air in the office lost its easy cheer.
Giving the three across form him a small nod to acknowledge the change in tone, Albus then asked, in a voice that, while lacking any threatening undertones, carried a full dose of authority, "As you may have suspected, the three of you have been asked up here due to the incident that occurred earlier involving three older Ravenclaw boys. Had Professor Weasley been available today, he would have resolved this issue, and barring that, Professors McGonagall and Flitwick, but as young Mr. Weasley will be absent until sometime tomorrow and both Heads of House are currently teaching, we wind up here." Albus allowed his features to grow slightly grim before he continued. "I suppose that it may have been acceptable to let other disturbances slide in this instance, or at the least wait until one of the more appropriate channels were available to address the issue, but I'm afraid that the serious nature of this situation requires more immediate attention."
Harry, despite the Headmaster's tone, was unconcerned for the most part. 'As long as he's still being long-winded about this, it's safe to say that Dumbledore really doesn't see this as more than a schoolyard scuffle. It's when he's getting straight to the point that he's being serious,' Harry thought, confident in his knowledge of the Headmaster's character.
"Mr. Evans, if you would, please describe exactly what happened earlier," Dumbledore quasi-demanded from across the desk.
Harry only took the briefest of moments to decide between telling the Headmaster the truth or not, before deciding that, in this case, a half-truth may be best.
"Ah, well, you see, Little Luna here looks a whole lot like her mum, who I can just barely remember helping my parents out with somethin' when I was little. That's not to say that I really knew-her knew-her," Harry said, aiming an apologetic look at Luna, who looked surprised, "it's just that, well, I guess since I'd been around her mum, and the apple didn't really fall too far from the Lovegood tree, Luna just felt kinda familiar to me, or something. Anyway, then, uh, Jason? Jacob? Yeah, Jacob! Well, he said something pretty foul to Luna, and it involved Selene, and that just pissed me right off. I'm still a bit new to this," Harry said, flexing his claws, "so it's sorta hard for me. Not using magic, I'm actually loads better now. Nah, I mean not using it. These days, my magic has something of a mind of its own when it comes to familial ties, and since my brain just went, 'Little Sister', when I saw Luna, it kinda wigged out in her defense. I know that sounds like B S, and yeah, maybe even consciously I didn't exactly want nice things to happen to him after what he said, but I'm being honest when I say that family bonds, be they by blood or love, truly do affect me more significantly than others," Harry said earnestly, giving the Headmaster a little nod to reinforce what he said. "And not just like, emotionally, or mentally, or whatever," he continued. "I mean physically, biologically, my responses in regards to them are almost involuntary."
Harry let out a little noiseless sigh, only half acting now, and said, "Still, that's honestly no excuse. I recognize that what I did was wrong, and I do take full responsibility for my actions."
Dumbledore sat back in his overstuffed chair, keeping how impressed he was at Harry's accountability entirely internal as he let the tense silence stretch a bit, wanting to stress the wrongness of the young Gryffindor's actions with as little actual punishment as possible. Also, he was going over what else the raven locked teen had revealed, half disturbed and half intrigued at the thought of how the young man, and perhaps his wife as well, were being influenced by the dark additions which had been forced upon them.
He was drawn from his musings by the feather soft tinkling sounds the ruby shards made on the young Mrs. Evan's face as she frowned before saying, "If that's the case, then I deserve punishment as well."
Hermione scowled at Harry's sudden squawking before she turned towards him and said, irritated, "Oh stuff it, Harry. We've been together for how long now? I knew exactly what was going to happen the moment that jerk started running off at the mouth, and so it was my responsibility to stop you. You once told me that letting something happen was as bad as doing it yourself, so there. Headmaster," she said firmly, turning her determined face back towards him, "I demand the same punishment as my husband."
The upwards tilt of her jaw sternly warned against those who may have tried to sway her opinion.
Harry seemed to abandon his disagreements at the movement and just frowned at her in annoyance instead, although the fierce love and appreciation swimming in his eyes did much to detract from his expression's intended effect.
Before Dumbledore could speak on the matter, Luna chimed in, arguing in a voice that was severely lacking in its typical dreamy quality.
"No, neither of them should be punished. If I had just stood up for myself in the first place then Harry and Hermione wouldn't have had to for me. I-if you do punish them, then… T-then I demand the same punishment too!"
Harry was looking distressed at the thought of getting the two girls in trouble, but before he could be cut off again Albus decided to say, "Enough, enough; no more talk of this horrific punishment you all seem to think I'm about to give out, please. Between your newness here at Hogwarts, and the fact that your actions were in defense of a friend, and the healing spells Madame Pomfrey reported Mr. Golday and Mr. Jones knowing nothing about, and that, based on what you have told me, you were not in full control of your actions, and these two wonderful young ladies' show of solidarity, I do believe, in this case, and this case alone, that perhaps a single detention tonight will do. With Professor Potter, maybe? She has expressed some small interest in the two of you, which I am taking to hopefully mean that she will not be too terribly remiss with me for saddling her with you three on such short notice," he half stated half confessed with a warm chuckle.
More surprised by the man's forgiving nature than he should have been, Harry never the less overcame the feeling and replied, "That's very kind of you, sir, but honestly, these two didn't do anything wrong. Hermione," he said, turning to his left to look at the girls, "Luna, I really do appreciate it, but please-"
"No," Dumbledore interrupted firmly, "I shall hold Miss Lovegood and Mrs. Evans to their word. Mr. Evans, while normally I would advocate against punishing the blameless, I think that this is for the best. Simply assisting our lovely Professor Potter with preparing a meal for her family and keeping an eye on young Levi is hardly a cruelty, but the though behind it is what really matters."
The aged wizard's face turned serious as he leaned forward, solemnly saying, "You must understand, lad. Especially in these dark times… It is the innocent, always, always the innocent, who pay for those actions made in haste."
Albus Dumbledore's face lost any remaining warmth when he paused to frown. He then let out a small sigh before leaning back in his throne like chair and whispering out, "I truly believe, for many reasons, Mr. Evans, that you would do very well to remember that. Oh yes, very well indeed."
Now seemingly distracted by an errant thought, Albus simply said to the three, his eyes fixed on a random point off to the side, "Class will have been dismissed by now. Why don't the three of you go collect your things and hunt down Mrs. Potter? I'm sure she won't object to your assistance…"
With their dismissal audible in the wizard's voice, Harry, Hermione, and Luna all rose from their chairs and made their exit, calling out polite farewells to the inattentive mage that went unanswered.
AN: The long lost update, I know, but here it is. The next chapter's already written, but needs a little tweaking before it's ready for release. Thank you for your patience, and please remember to favorite, follow, and review!