Hermione flexed her wand hand, staring down at it as she did. She hadn't yet grown used to having her own body again, much less that body being twelve. At least she'd managed to duck out of further questioning from the headmaster; she had never regretted just not having the time for mental defences as much as she did now.

Being back in classes was a dream come true for her. So why couldn't she pay attention instead of going back in the same old circles?

"And there I was, dueling with a Vampire Queen and her hideous hag servants!"

Oh. Right. Hermione didn't have the mentality Luna did - Hermione was a little terrified of and for her friend, in fact, in that regard - but she could certainly do without Lockhart wasting a full year of instruction. And having to sit here after getting the word from Ginny the night before that Luna had actually woken was not something calculated to make the Gryffindor happy, but Ginny had also told her that they weren't allowing visitors again now that she was awake until they could do a more complete examination.

Hermione rather hoped it was just a physical one. A mental evaluation had a lot of possible outcomes, but almost none of them were good. Hermione could carry on the work now, of course, and she believed manage it in more subtle and probably less bloody ways, but she was still worried about her friend.

"Honestly." She muttered to herself, watching now as Lockhart forced Harry to play as the Queen, with Ron putting in a rare acting role as one of the hags. "What COULD I have been thinking when I sent that man a valentine the first time?"


Severus Snape was tired of dealing with Gryffindors. In fairness, he was almost always tired of dealing with Gryffindors, but the first year Albus had sent him to interrogate had worn out her welcome faster than any other, not counting Potter. Dumbledore had wanted him to take a try at working mental magic on the girl, however, as she had been almost completely nonresponsive since waking up, and so he was now waiting on the blond to wake up, thanks to the potion he had used on her. He'd had to wait until Madam Pomfrey was out of the hospital wing, having a meeting with Dumbledore, insuring privacy.

He wasn't waiting long, and it would be easiest to access her deepest thoughts right as she woke up, before whatever natural defenses Albus had mentioned could become active. Albus had mentioned chaos beyond his capacity to handle, and there was quite a lot of that, but there was also a.. hole, perfectly calm. Severus couldn't imagine how Albus had missed that, but he placed himself in it, envisioning an avatar to limit himself to that space, then looking to see what he could find.

It looked completely barren; an absolute void within the mind. Some part that had been destroyed, possibly? This was not something normal, but the girl had always been a bit of a freak.

"You're not welcome here." A voice rang out, footsteps approaching ominously in spite of the complete lack of anything to walk on.

"Miss Lovegood, I assume? I was sent to pull you out of yourself, as much a waste of my talents as that is." Severus was impressed, however, in spite of himself - it wasn't everyone who could keep thoughts together to even speak with an intruder.

"You haven't the right..." And a crack rang through the area, as a woman appeared, messy blond hair to her waist. She looked to be in her twenties, and Severus was immediately on his guard. This wasn't Miss Lovegood, clearly. The woman continued, speaking. "But then, we hadn't the right, either. We should have just gone on, instead of going back and taking what wasn't ours... Too late, now."

"Who are you?" Snape asked, resisting the urge to flex his mental muscles at the woman. She had home pitch, after all. "What did you take from Miss Lovegood?"

"Everything, but she would have given it to me anyway. She isn't the one I regret most. You aren't welcome here." She repeated suddenly, looking Snape in the eyes for the first time. That was when Severus realized he was mistaken - her eyes were completely mad, but this was most definitely Lovegood. And.. he felt the heat rising just in time, pulling himself out of her mind just before the flames could hit.

He stumbled back from Lovegood's bed in shock, drawing his wand and aiming it at the girl. "You're clearly under some sort of possession. You're going to have to come with me to have the headmaster and ministry deal with it."

Lovegood shut her eyes again for a moment, then opened them. "You're going to force me to sing, then? Threaten me, torture me more, put a nargle in my ear?"

"Just get up. I know you can walk; Pomfrey would have let you out of here a week ago if you weren't hiding in your own mind." Snape gestured with his wand, and the girl rolled out of bed...

And vanished with a soft pop.

Severus cursed loudly, not understanding - had she had a portkey? There was no way she could apparate in here... And then he stumbled forward once more as her weight fell on him from behind, her arms wrapped tightly around his neck and her legs around his waist. "Do exactly what I say, or I'll splinch your torso out." Her wispy voice said in his ear. "I'd rather not; it's quite messy, and the house elves would be upset."


Dumbledore cursed his method of allowing Severus to conduct the mental examination of Miss Lovegood. Madam Pomfrey was giving him quite an earful about budgetary concerns, and he couldn't brush them off the way that he normally did. At least the length of time undoubtedly meant that Severus would have a full report.

"Unfortunately, we can't keep antidotes to every possible accident on hand, my dear. I'll see what we can do about getting more in, but.. Ah, if you'll excuse me, I'm afraid I have a meeting scheduled with Severus about the NEWT Potions classes' progress." Dumbledore said with a smile. "And it sounds like he is on his way up."

Indeed, Severus was climbing into the office, though he seemed to be having some trouble. "Severus, are you alright?" asked the nurse, approaching him. "You walk like you're suffering from severe joint pain..." She reached out a hand, professional concern on her face, right up to the point where a red bolt shot out from Severus's back and hit her in the chest.

Albus stood up, anger on his face, as a blur appeared around Severus and then sharpened into the form of young Luna Lovegood. She had a wand out and pointed at Pomfrey, a dreamy expression on her face. "Just what are you doing?"

"She couldn't know. You shouldn't know, but I no longer have a choice.. And don't even think about moving against me, headmaster, or I'll have to take very drastic action against your friend here." Luna wasn't pointing the wand at Snape, but Severus didn't seem to be fighting, either. "I want to stay at Hogwarts, and I want my wand back even if that's not possible."

Severus spoke up at that, sneering. "What makes you think there's any chance you'll stay at Hogwarts after attacking a Professor like this, girl? Much less if you do kill me?"

"After I tell you, I don't think the Headmaster will want me anywhere he doesn't know where I am," came the reply from the small girl. "Promise you'll listen without attacking and I'll let him go," Luna added. The headmaster nodded, and Luna released Severus, dropping lightly down onto her feet and rubbing at her legs. Severus turned to glare at the girl, holding out his hand.

"Oh, fine, but only because I don't need it to escape. And it's not a very good one for me; you must not have liked Transfiguration or Arithmancy much." Luna added, dropping the wand back in Snape's hands. "If it stops respecting you, you can just remind it that I would never be disloyal to my wand for something like it if I had a choice."

"You promised to tell us why you shouldn't be expelled. And arrested, for that matter, Miss Lovegood."

Luna smiled at that. "Oh, I did, didn't I? Well, I shouldn't be expelled because I don't want to lose my friends, and you don't want to lose sight of me. And I shouldn't be arrested because I really don't want to have to fight anyone who is probably on the side of right. Especially since against aurors, holding back would be a bad idea. But first... Professor Snape said you had my wand?"

Dumbledore nodded at that, pulling it out of a drawer and placing it on the desk. "And you will get it back when I decide that you shouldn't be expelled, or the pieces before I call the aurors"
Luna looked at it, almost longingly. "Distrust is a sign of infestation by griblings, headmaster. You should watch out for that. Long term time travel isn't really possible." She added the last, thinking it explained everything.

"Of.. What?" Dumbledore said, lost by the non sequitor.

"Time travel over a long time isn't really possible. We've proven it, because if it were just time travel, there would be a paradox when it came time to send our younger selves back again because they're both dead." Luna seemed immune to the stares she was getting from the pair. "No, it's got to be traveling to a different time period in an alternate universe. Very slightly different; I haven't found the change yet. It's probably something totally irrelevant to me, like who won a quidditch game in the thirteen hundreds."

Dumbledore looked thoughtful, trying to decipher the mad girl's ravings. "You travelled here from a different time, then, with someone else? And, from what I can tell, you replaced your younger self, either in body or taking over her mind?"

"Oh, yes, Headmaster. Very good. And can you guess why?"

"Voldemort, then?" Snape flinched back at the name, but Luna herself seemed utterly unaffected.

"No. You're too focused on the worst symptom to see the problem; you're a good person, of course, but you don't see how many aren't. Voldemort is the figurehead; he's fierce, but removing him doesn't really solve the problem. I'm here to remove the corruption at the top of society before it gets a chance to bring open war."