Disclaimer: Buffy and HP belong to Joss Whedon and JKR respectively/OCs belong to me
Chapter 7: Basilisk
Thomas Seville shook hands with Remus and left, only to find Aditi waiting for him. "Are you here to make sure I leave?"
Aditi laughed. "No, just to make sure you can find your way out."
"In that case, thank you." Thomas held out his arm for Aditi to take. "Have you decided on whether to accept my offer?"
"I'm still thinking about it." Aditi was in no hurry to make up her mind. "When do you require an answer by?"
"The first meeting is set for December 10th, so any time before then would be appreciated." Thomas handed her a coin. "If you need to speak to me, give this to your owl, and I'll contact you."
Aditi was quite intrigued by the man. "You really are quite elusive, aren't you?"
"I simply value my privacy." Thomas reached the edge of the building. "I'll be fine from here." Thomas looked over at Hogwarts. "It's supposed to be the best wizarding school in Europe, isn't it?"
"I think it is, then again, I attended it." Aditi glanced over at her old school. "But I suppose everyone is prejudiced towards their alma mater, aren't they?"
"I would say so." Thomas turned away. "I'll wait to hear from you."
"I'll be in touch either way," Aditi promised before turning to go back into the building.
Thomas made his way to the edge of the wards and disapparated.
Meanwhile, Mione wandered up to Harry's room and knocked on the door. Getting no answer, she unlocked it and went inside. "Harry? H.J.?"
When no-one answered, she turned and headed to leave, only to spot a piece of paper lying on the floor. Picking it up, she saw Harry's name on the outside of it, and, curiosity getting the better of her, she read the note. It was a good thing she did. "Did neither of them read the Defense books I told them to?"
Mione scanned the room and found a glass, which she turned into a mirror, and then she grabbed a sweater of Harry's.
Dashing into the girls' bathroom on the second floor, Mione was about to open the sink when she realized that someone else was in there. As the toilet flushed and a door opened, she found herself face to face with Cassandra Black. "Cassandra, what are you doing in here?"
Washing her hands, Cassandra looked at Mione as if she'd taken leave of her senses. "It's the girls' bathroom, Mione. What do you think I'm doing in here?"
"Yes, um, right." Mione waited for Cassandra to leave.
She didn't. "Why are you holding a mirror and a sweater?"
"I'm cold and wanted to check my reflection." Mione groaned, before saying, "That sounded pathetic, didn't it?"
"Yes." Cassandra closed the outside door. "You weren't thinking of hurting yourself, were you?"
"Not deliberately no." Mione glanced over at the sink on the far wall.
"Mione, what's going on?" Cassandra wasn't leaving until she found out what Mione was doing.
Mione had a feeling that time was most definitely not on her side, and she knew that she was going to have to reveal the Chamber to Cassandra. "Promise me that whatever you see from now on, you'll keep to yourself."
"I promise." Cassandra wondered what it could be.
Mione walked over to the sink and hissed at it, revealing a hole and a set of stairs. "On reflection, I think it might be better if you stayed here."
"What's down there?" Cassandra went to peer down into the hole, only for Mione to pull her back.
"Don't do that," Mione snapped. "There's probably a basilisk down there."
Cassandra hurriedly scooted back. "A basilisk?"
"Yes, and Harry and H.J. are down there with it." Suddenly Mione realized something. "You didn't even flinch when I spoke in Parseltongue."
Cassandra had never heard of it before. "What's Parseltongue?"
"It doesn't matter." Mione listened. "I think it's safe. Stay here."
"No way." Cassandra followed Mione down the stairs, jumping as Mione hissed again and the sink began to move over the hole above them.
When they reached the bottom, Mione listened again. "I can't hear anything."
"That's good, isn't it?" Even though the cavern was quite cool, Cassandra could feel sweat beginning to bead on her forehead.
"It could go either way." Mione made her way to the section where the inner door stood open. "Okay, that's not good." Suddenly a slithering sound reached Mione's ears. "Close your eyes now!"
Cassandra did as she was told as Mione threw Harry's jumper on to the ground and hurried to transfigure it into a weasel. The weasel didn't stay in the cavern with Mione and Cassandra. As soon as it scented the basilisk, it gave an excited squeal and rushed into the main chamber. Mione called out, "Harry, H.J., don't kill the weasel."
Sounds of screaming and a nasty smell of ammonia drifted their way before everything went silent. Cassandra was worried. "Do you think the basilisk is dead?"
"I hope so." Mione lifted the mirror and looked into it. In it she could see a reflection of the basilisk's tail but no movement. "Let me just a cast a spell to cover the basilisk over. I don't know if its eyes are closed. Nebulosus Aspergo."
A thin stream of vapor left Mione's wand and blanketed the basilisk's body in a dense, impenetrable layer of fog. "Let's go." The young women walked carefully into the cavern, their wands drawn, where Mione immediately spotted Harry. "Oh no!" Rushing over, she checked him over before letting out a sigh of relief. "He's just petrified."
"Petrified?" Cassandra had believed he was dead. "I thought making eye contact with a basilisk would kill you."
H.J.'s voice drifted down from the upper regions of the cavern. "I'm glad to see you two. Harry was trying to fight it without looking at it but after a while everything went quiet. I risked a glance and saw he wasn't moving. I don't know how he ended up petrified though as I couldn't look."
"H.J., did you ever bother to read the Defense books I got for you?" Mione stood with her hands on her hips.
H.J. knew he was going to get it as he admitted the truth. "No, I didn't have time."
"If you had bothered, then you'd have discovered that basilisks in this world can only be killed by a weasel and not a rooster."
"Mione, what are you talking about?"
Mione turned to Cassandra. "It's a long story."
"One I'm looking forward to hearing."
Mione couldn't miss the tone of incredulity. "I promise I'm not insane or anything."
"Okay," Cassandra said hesitantly, before asking, "So what do we do now?"
"First of all, H.J. should come down."
"I can't get down. My leg's broken. Harry levitated me up out of the way." H.J. looked down at the large drop. "I could use cushioning charms to get down but I don't want to risk it, so I'd appreciate a little help."
At H.J.'s words, Mione and Cassandra both cast cushioning charms before aiming their wands at H.J. "On the count of three, Cassandra and I will levitate you down. We've put down cushioning charms just in case. One, two, three."
H.J. braced himself as he was lifted up and over the drop. The two girls, however, got him to the ground without any problems.
"We're going to have to get you back to your rooms somehow." Mione knew how it would look trailing H.J. along the corridor and up several flights of stairs.
"We'll take him back to our suite, it's only at the end of corridor," Cassandra offered, wanting to hear what it was Mione had to say, even though she had found her new friend's comments unsettling.
"Are you certain it's okay?" Mione had only been friends with Cassandra for a short time, and even though it felt much longer, she didn't want to take advantage of Cassandra.
"I am." Cassandra glanced at Harry. "How do we deal with Mr. Sebastian?"
"Let's get H.J. dealt with first. Harry'll be fine." Mione knew that Mandrake juice would cure him; she just somehow had to locate some mature Mandrakes.
Between them the two girls managed to get H.J. to the top of the stairs and out into the corridor. The trip up the corridor, however, was uneventful, and both girls let out a sigh of relief as they opened the door to their suite and maneuvered H.J. inside.
Luna and Katherine got to their feet at the sight of the assistant flying coach with a bone sticking out of his leg. Katherine went green and fled. Luna, however, simply rearranged the pillows on the sofa. "Put him here." She then turned to Mione. "I told you that you'd need our help."
H.J. couldn't take his eyes off Luna. Up close, she somehow she looked even more like his own Luna than the Luna he had met in the alternate timeline. "And we do. I'm going to need a few things." H.J. reeled off what he'd need.
Cassandra was astounded. "You're going to heal your own leg?"
"Yep, but to do it, I'm going to have to vanish my bone and re-grow it." H.J. was nowhere near confident enough to try and realign it on his own.
Cassandra shuddered; she had had to take Skele-Gro as a first year when she had shattered her hipbone falling down the stairs. "I know where Madam Pomfrey keeps it, or at least I did. But I'll need help in distracting her."
"I'll go with you," Mione offered. "I can say I'm interested in healing. She doesn't know me well enough to know it isn't true."
"Let's go then." Cassandra headed out of the door with Mione, leaving Luna and H.J. alone. Katherine remained in the bedroom, waiting until someone told her it was all over.
Luna tilted her head and looked at H.J. "Why were you staring at me?"
"You remind me of someone." H.J. winced as the pain in his leg grew worse.
Luna's look was quite penetrating. "You're wearing some sort of glamour, aren't you?"
H.J. wanted to be honest with Luna and so he opted for the truth. "Yes."
"I thought so. Your aura looks wrong," Luna commented. "Mione's is very similar. It's almost as if they're vibrating."
H.J. groaned. "Please don't tell me you believe in auras and all that divination crap."
"Of course I do." Luna was looking at H.J. as if he was mad.
"I was hoping that you might be different." H.J.'s wife had been adamant that divination was a true science, and it had been one of the few things they had ever argued about. He had been able to deal with her 'feelings' about things but refusing to believe in divination, he had just put them down to Luna being Luna.
"Different from whom or what?" Luna sat on the floor and crossed her legs, before looking up at H.J.
"Now's not the right time." H.J. smiled. "But I'll show you at some point."
"How?" Luna asked interestedly.
It was H.J.'s turn to look at Luna quizzically. "In a pensieve, of course."
"But they're illegal," Luna answered in matter-of-fact voice. "They're considered a violation of privacy."
H.J. was shocked. "But they just hold memories."
"But if used wrongly they can be an intrusion of privacy," Luna pointed out.
"Not if the memory is freely shown." But even as he said it, H.J. felt himself cringing at the thought of what he'd done to Severus. He had felt nothing but disgust for his birth father when he had seen James belittle Severus in the memories that Severus had hidden from him.
Luna easily read H.J.'s expression. "Did you look at someone's memories when you shouldn't have?"
H.J. could not see any reason to hide it, and told Luna what he'd done. "I felt so guilty afterwards but the temptation was too great. I wanted to see what my teacher was hiding from me."
"Do you regret doing it now?" Luna asked quietly.
"No." H.J. truly didn't. "It was because of that moment that things changed between me and him."
"You look sad." Luna stood up and took H.J.'s hand, making him shiver.
H.J. squeezed Luna's hand gently. "That's because I miss him."
"When you're ready, you'll talk to me about it." Luna was confident in her statement.
"I will," H.J. promised.
At that moment, the outside door opened, and Cassandra and Mione stepped back inside. Cassandra's face fell momentarily at the sight of Luna and H.J. holding hands, before she gave them a bright smile and held up the bottle of Skele-Gro. "We've got what you wanted."
Mione also held out a pain relief potion and antiseptic cream. "I told Madam Pomfrey that Luna'd cut herself and that I'd deal with it." She smiled apologetically at Luna. "I hope you don't mind."
"Not at all." Luna let go of H.J.'s hand. "I'll fetch a glass."
H.J. had to refuse. "I can't take painkiller and Skele-Gro together, but thanks anyway."
Despite not being able to take the potion, after vanishing his bone and cleaning up the cut, H.J. felt a little better. He looked up at Mione from his place on the sofa. "Don't you think you'd better retrieve Harry?"
Mione went red. "I'd forgotten about him."
Cassandra smiled at her friend. "You've already said he was going to be all right."
"I'd still better go fetch him." Mione headed towards the door.
Luna followed her. "Where are we going?"
Cassandra grinned. "You'll see."
The three girls went out and H.J. lay back. He glanced over at the bedroom door as he heard the handle turn. "You can come out now, Katherine."
Katherine looked a little sheepish as she re-entered the sitting room. "Sorry, but I'm not very good around blood."
"It's okay." H.J. could see she was dying to ask. "Before you ask, I did it when I slipped trying to escape from a basilisk."
Katherine laughed out loud as she sat down. "Of course you did."
H.J. hadn't expected her to believe him. "Wait until the others get back and we'll tell you all about it."
Katherine studied his face carefully. "You come out with a statement like that and expect me to wait to hear all about it?"
H.J. recognized sarcasm when he heard it. "You're going to be in for a shock." He then outlined what had happened, but he could tell that Katherine still disbelieved him.
Katherine discovered H.J. was telling the truth when, a short time later, the door flew open and Harry was levitated inside the room. "What's happened to Mr. Sebastian?"
"He's been petrified." Luna's face was alight with excitement. "There's a cavern beneath the school and a dead basilisk."
Katherine swung round to look at H.J. "You were telling the truth."
"I try not to lie unless it's necessary." H.J. was enjoying the surprise on Katherine's face. "Now we need to do a little oath taking."
All three of that world's girls went silent. Cassandra was the one who took point. "When you mentioned a different world, you meant it, didn't you? You're not really from the U.S., are you?"
Mione shook her head. "We're not, but we don't want to tell you more until we get oaths from you not to tell anyone what's happened today, not unless we give you permission to do so."
"Mione, what happens when you swear an oath where you come from?" Cassandra asked.
"You die if you break it," Mione answered.
"The same happens here, but when you take the oath it feels as if you're being torn apart."
Katherine knew this from experience; Harry had once tricked her into making an oath, something her brother had regretted when, for the first time ever, their father had spanked his son for his stupidity.
"It's not like that where we come from," Mione said before going on to explain. "A white light covers you and washes over you, a little like being submerged in a quick warm shower. I didn't realize that it would be different here."
"It doesn't matter if it is, I'll still do it," Luna offered bravely.
Katherine's voice was a little shaky as she followed suit. "Then so will I."
"As will I." Cassandra could hear her own voice shaking. "I think doing it together might be a good idea."
Mione stopped them. "We may have a better option."
H.J. frowned. "What option?"
"A simple promise. I trust the girls, H.J."
Luna beamed at Mione. "Thanks for the confidence." She then surprised everyone by going ahead and making a vow anyway. "I swear on my life and my magic to keep secret our conversation today unless you say otherwise."
Cassandra grabbed Luna as she crumpled to the ground. "You could've warned us."
Luna had tears in her eyes. "Ouch."
H.J. was shocked at how pale she had gone, and he lifted up the flagon that contained the pain potion. "Take some of this."
Mione took it from him as he was unable to move very far, and she poured some into a fresh glass before passing it to Luna. "You really didn't have to do that."
"I know but it felt right." Luna rarely went against her inner feelings, and this time had been no different.
"I'm so not looking forward to this." Cassandra pulled out her own wand and repeated the same oath as Luna had. Both Katherine and Mione grabbed her as her legs gave way.
Mione handed out the second dose of painkiller, which Cassandra gratefully took. After waiting a few minutes until Luna and Cassandra had both fully recovered, Katherine gritted her teeth and followed suit.
Once the unpleasant part was out of the way, Mione fixed everyone drinks in the small kitchenette and handed them out. She could see Luna giving Harry little glances every now and then. "He'll be all right. I just need to access some mature mandrakes."
"Snape will probably have some, or at least know where you can get some." Katherine's dislike of her stepfather came through in her tone. "But I don't know how you're going to get some without his asking some difficult questions."
"I have something he wants." H.J. knew that he could get whatever he needed from Severus, if he was willing to barter a little of the basilisk.
Cassandra knew what the something was. "So how did you know that thing was down there?"
"As I've already said, we're not from this world." Mione could see the skepticism in Katherine's face. "I can see you still don't believe me." Mione remained seated and pulled out her wand. "I swear on my life and my magic that what I'm about to tell you today is the truth."
Mione didn't even flinch as she was bathed in white light and it dissipated. Guessing that because they were from a different world the oath taking obviously didn't affect them, she said, "H.J., your turn."
H.J. pulled out his wand. As he made the oath, pain ripped through him making him glad he was lying down. "Shit, that hurt!"
Mione couldn't give him any painkiller. "Sorry, H.J. I thought you'd be immune like me."
Katherine stared at Mione. "You must be like Uncle Remus. It doesn't affect him either."
H.J. suddenly remembered Remus swearing an oath at the Dursleys. "That's why I never thought anything about it. I saw him swear an oath when we collected Camille."
"Is it true you're adopting her?" Luna had heard the rumors.
"Yes. Her parents have refused to have anything to do with her because she came here…" H.J. began to explain.
"I thought she was a half-blood, or at least that's what I've heard," Katherine piped up.
H.J. frowned. "Don't you know who Camille is?"
"What do you mean?" Katherine didn't understand why H.J. was asking.
"She's your aunt's daughter." H.J. could see that Katherine was confused by his comment. "Don't you know about your mother's sister?"
Katherine was now even more confused. "Petunia died years ago."
"No, she didn't," H.J. informed her. "She's married to a man named Vernon Dursley. They had two children: Dudley, who's a complete waste of space, and Camille. Petunia and Vernon have been mistreating Camille because she's magical. Your aunt, however, is a squib."
Katherine was reeling. "Why didn't Mum or Dad tell me?"
"I don't know," Mione said. "But Camille is your cousin."
"Mum must've known I'd find out about her." Katherine shook her head. "I know you're telling the truth but it's so hard to learn about it like this."
"I believe your mother thought you'd never find out. You'd never have connected Camille Dursley to yourself," Mione sensibly pointed out.
Something occurred to Katherine. "Why didn't Mum offer to take her?"
"I think Severus had a lot to do with it." H.J. wasn't totally sure though of Lily's reasons.
"I want to meet her." Katherine found that as the initial shock was fading, she was quite excited to discover that she'd got a magical relative who she might actually like. "I don't care what Mum or Severus says."
"I'm sure Camille would like that." H.J. had spoken to the young girl on several occasions since collecting her, including the time he'd asked if she'd like to be adopted by him. "I think she's feeling a little lonely and lost right now."
Cassandra knew that Orion was quite a soft touch. "I can ask Orion to keep an eye on her." Camille had been sorted into Orion's house of Hufflepuff.
"What's happened to her parents?" Luna asked. "I don't know about where you come from, but here it's a death sentence if you assault a pure-blood or half-blood child."
Mione had a vague recollection of reading something about it. "If that's true, why is your Voldemort still alive?"
"He never hurt a pure-blood or half-blood child during his campaign," Cassandra informed her.
"But he must have killed pure-bloods and half-bloods," Mione protested.
"The same law doesn't apply to adults, just children under the age of seventeen." Cassandra knew more about Voldemort than her suitemates.
"So does the law apply to Muggles and Muggle-borns if they're harmed?" Mione asked.
"No." With Sirius being who he was, Cassandra was quite au fait with the laws of the wizarding world.
H.J. had found out the previous evening what had happened to the Dursleys. "Getting back to Camille's parents; Vernon and Petunia are both in Azkaban. Camille pleaded on their behalf. Neither of them will be executed but they'll both spend the rest of their lives there."
"What about Dudley?" Mione asked.
"He was deemed innocent of doing anything wrong as he had had no idea that Camille was a witch. It was his parents' influence that caused him to reject Camille. He's gone to live with Vernon's sister but has to see a wizarding psychologist on a regular basis." H.J. gave a shudder at the thought of Marge.
Katherine by now had fallen silent again as she dealt with the repercussions of what she'd found out. Cassandra put her arm around Katherine and pulled her close to her. "We'll invite her here. You can meet her in private then."
Katherine gave Cassandra a small smile. "Thanks."
Luna decided to get back on to what she really wanted to know. "So, let's hear about how you know about the cavern beneath the school."
It was almost midnight when H.J. and Mione finished explaining about their respective timelines and worlds. They'd taken several breaks to eat and for H.J. to send a note to Severus requesting a meeting the next morning, and a response to it had been received within an hour.
All three girls were still trying to assimilate the knowledge they'd learnt and felt exhausted. Cassandra yawned. "I'd never have believed you if you hadn't sworn that you were telling the truth."
"It's fantastical I know." Mione also yawned, feeling completely drained.
"I can't believe that your version of Dad was so horrible." Cassandra thought the world of Sirius. "Dad would never betray us like that."
"Harry believed the same of his Sirius." Mione knew that Harry had been devastated to find out that Sirius had not been the man he had portrayed to the world. "But on the other hand, H.J.'s Sirius is probably closer to being like your dad. I mean, he died to save H.J."
"Dad would do the same for any one of us." Cassandra stared at Mione. "It's strange to think that in your world you were my half-sister."
"I never considered Sirius my father." Mione felt her emotions bubbling over as she thought about Severus. "Papa was my true father."
"That's something I find hard to comprehend: Snivellus actually being nice." Katherine really did loathe her stepfather. "I think I feel about him the way you felt about Uncle Sirius."
"Do you think we can trust Severus?" Despite Katherine's dislike of Severus, H.J. still wanted to believe that he could trust Severus.
"No." It was Cassandra who answered him. "I shouldn't really tell you this but after what you've told us, you need to know. Dad had him investigated when Voldemort was trying to take over. Dad managed to find out where one of the meetings Voldemort was holding was to take place. He and two of his men followed a random Death Eater after the meeting. They followed the Death Eater all the way back to the Snape Estate. Dad got a warrant and Professor Snape was arrested."
"So why isn't Snape in Azkaban?" Mione couldn't see how Severus had wriggled out of being convicted.
"Because when Dad questioned him under Veritaserum, Professor Snape swore he'd not been there that evening," Cassandra explained.
"In my world, Death Eaters are almost invulnerable to Veritaserum. It might be the same here," Mione suggested.
It made sense to Cassandra. "Either way it doesn't matter now. Professor Snape was found to be innocent of any wrongdoing but I still don't think he was telling the truth."
"So Severus has to be out, H.J." Mione knew that they couldn't take the risk.
"I agree." H.J. sighed disappointedly. "But I still need him to sell the basilisk parts."
"If you need cash, I've got a trust fund you can access," Luna offered. "You can simply pay me back when you have the money."
"That's very kind of you," H.J. said, thanking the young girl. "But if basilisk is as expensive here as it is back home, then we're going to make a tidy sum."
"It's very rare," Cassandra informed him. "Particularly the skin, which can be used in armor. I know because Dad has a protective vest made out of it. It cost him a fortune."
Mione glanced at H.J. who guessed what she was about to do, and simply nodded. "We'll give your father enough to make another vest, if you'd like."
Cassandra smiled and shook her head. "That won't be necessary. Basilisk skin doesn't wear out."
Mione remembered what Cassandra had told her about becoming an Auror herself. "In that case, perhaps you'd like a vest."
"Really?" Cassandra was stunned at what Mione was offering her. "A vest sells for 150,000 Galleons."
"You're joking, right?" Mione couldn't believe how much a vest would cost; it was almost five times as expensive as the same item would be where she had come from.
"No, so you might want to reconsider your offer."
"We don't," H.J. assured her. "The same offer is open to you two girls as well."
"Thank you." Katherine was astounded by the offer. "I'd be mad to refuse."
Cassandra got up. "I'm off to bed. I need some sleep. We can talk more again in the morning."
Katherine and Mione both followed suit, leaving H.J. alone with Luna for the second time that day.
H.J. turned his attention to Luna. "So now you know why I was staring at you earlier."
"I do." Luna played with her hair a little nervously.
"Luna, I know you're not her. I admit I was attracted to the Luna in the alternate timeline but I think it's because essentially she was the same Luna I married."
"But I'm not." Luna gave a slightly sad smile. "I certainly don't expect you to be attracted to me. No-one ever is."
"I thought Orion had a thing for you." Mione had told H.J. when he had asked about Luna.
"He does but I know he's not the one for me." Luna had no idea who was, but she knew that it wasn't Orion. "Don't ask me how I know, I just do."
"My Luna was the same." H.J. smiled as he thought about his wife. "She told me after we were married that she just knew she was going to marry me the first time she set eyes on me."
"She sounds as if she was nice." Luna had to admit to herself that she was more than a little curious about the alternate Luna to whom H.J. had been married.
"She was, and she was also the most important thing in the world to me." H.J. closed his eyes momentarily as he pictured Luna in his mind. "And you're now going to tell me, that like Orion, I'm not meant to be with you."
"I thought you didn't believe in divination." Luna gave an impish smile before becoming serious. "You're right. I know we're going to be friends but again, I know that you aren't supposed to be with me."
"I think that perhaps my Luna is the only one I was meant to be with." H.J. sat up and tentatively stretched his leg as he spoke.
Luna disagreed. "I don't believe that. I somehow know you're going to be happy one day."
"I glad you think so." H.J. could not quite bring himself to believe what Luna was telling him. "But I have more important things to deal with than my happiness."
"You mean your Voldemort, don't you?" Luna asked.
"Yes." H.J. got to his feet, relieved when his leg, even though still tender, did not give way. "He's out there somewhere but I just don't know where."
"Perhaps he's decided to make the most of his second chance," Luna suggested.
H.J. shook his head. "No. The Fates said otherwise, and as much as I hate to admit it, I believe them."
"In that case, we'll all help you," Luna offered. "You'll have problems tracking down information in this world. Our newspapers aren't allowed to print a lot of things but Cassandra knows a lot. I think you can't go wrong with trusting her dad."
"We don't know Sirius that well, and, after the Amicus debacle, we're a little dubious about just simply trusting someone like Sirius." H.J. started to walk towards the door. "I think I'd better head off to bed."
"Sleep on the sofa." Luna walked over to the girls' bedroom and poked her head around the door. "Everyone's in bed, so you can go in and use the bathroom."
H.J. decided he didn't really fancy the walk back to his own rooms and did as Luna suggested before returning to the sofa, where he discovered that Luna had fetched some spare blankets and more pillows for him. "At least I'll have company."
Luna glanced at the frozen figure of Harry that was propped up against the wall. "It's hard to believe that that's Mr. Sebastian."
"Trust me, it's Harry." H.J. yawned. "He'll tell you himself if we can get the Mandrakes and brew what we need. Mione can set up a potions lab in the Chamber."
Luna gave Harry another glance. "I'm looking forward to talking to Mr. Sebastian."
"You like him, don't you?" H.J. suddenly realized.
Luna blushed. "I think he's really nice, well from the two times he's helped me in the library, I do. But I also know that I'd never do anything to hurt Mione by trying anything, and besides he's practically a teacher."
H.J. felt a little saddened that Luna didn't look at him in the same way she had looked at Harry. "I think you'd better get some sleep and I'll see you in the morning."
"Goodnight, H.J." Luna impulsively kissed him on the cheek. "Sleep well."
H.J. touched his cheek before carefully lowering himself on to the sofa and dousing the lights.
