Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: Harry's just passing the time while Hermione and Ron are busy, but perhaps he should pay a little more attention to what that weird girl is saying.

Chapter 10: Luna Lovegood

"Why, if she tells how I caught her she must admit to being an unregistered animagus," Hermione told Harry calmly. "And if she writes another article about us I’ll just tell the ministry myself."

"I'm sure kidnapping an adult is a worse crime than being an animagus," Harry tried to explain his worries.

"Well, I can't keep her forever," Hermione declared. "Or kill her. That would be worse. I have to let her go and she doesn't want to lose her best way of gaining information. I suppose I could wait until after my birthday so I'd be closer to being an adult as well, but then she'd have to explain a longer absence. No, I'll go and do it now. You don't have to come along if you don't want to."

After some reflection Harry decided that he didn't. The less he had to do with this the better and Hermione was hardly likely to need any help opening a jar.

So while Hermione and Ron headed up the Astronomy tower Harry went down to the Great Hall to see how the preparations for the feast were coming along and maybe hang out with Draco, Vincent and Gregory.

The house-elves shooed him away from the Great Hall however and the Slytherins were nowhere to be seen. Harry was just about to return to Gryfindor Tower and sit in the common room until his friends returned when he heard someone call out to him.

"Why are you all alone?" Ginevra asked from her half-hidden seat on a windowsill. "Where are Ron and Hermione?"

"Oh they went up the Ast ... to the library," Harry lied hastily. "I was going to meet some other friends here, but they didn't come."

"He means they've gone up the Astronomy tower to snog and didn't want him to watch," the girl sitting next to Ginevra announced.

"No they didn't! They don't snog!" Harry returned indignantly.

"Yes they do," the girl insisted calmly. "But that's alright. You can tell us. We won't tell. We don't care."

"That's Luna," Ginevra explained. "We were dormmates at the primary institute, but she's in Ravenclaw now."

"Okay," Harry said wondering why Ginevra expected him to care. Luna didn't seem like a particularly pleasant person to him.

"Have you seen her yet?" Luna asked.

"Her? Her who?"

"Why, Professor Umbridge, of course," Ginevra explained. "The new DADA professor. We saw her earlier when she was floating her luggage in. I think she looks nice. She has kitten-plates."

"She has what?" It didn't sound at all nice to Harry.

"Plates with pictures of kittens on them," Ginevra explained. "As wall decorations. I like kittens."

"That doesn't necessarily make her nice," Harry remembered, though he did hope that she was. He was bad at Defence Against the Dark Arts, after all, and unfriendly teachers tended to scold him assuming that he simply wasn't making an effort.

"She's not nice," Luna announced. "She looks like a toad."

"That doesn't mean that she can't be nice," Harry pointed out.

"I know," Luna said. "But she isn't. She's a spy."

"A Death Eater?" Harry gasped.

"No, an under-secretary," Luna replied calmly.

"A what?" Ginevra asked.

"A senior under-secretary," Luna supplied readily. "Of the minister. The headmaster didn't want her, but the minister made him take her anyway. Maybe he didn't want her either."

"How do you know?" Harry asked. "Did you overhear the teachers talking?"

"No, I'm not a sneak. But you are, aren't you?"

"What? Of course not! And I never said you were. What I meant was did you happen to hear the teachers say that when you happened to be passing by?"

"And I said I didn't. I just know."

"Luna has the sight," Ginevra explained. "Only she can't control it all that well, yet. She just sees things at random, like you do in your dreams."

"They are not random," Luna said. "And they aren't dreams."

"Obviously not," Harry agreed. Luna was clearly awake after all and she also must have been when Professor Umbridge had floated her kitten-plates past her and Ginevra.

"You shouldn't listen to them," Luna told him. "He is trying to trick you."

"Who is?" Harry asked completely at sea.

"Why he is, of course. The headmaster knows, but he doesn't want to tell you, because he doesn't want him to know."

Harry shook his head and decided to ignore it. At least Luna's predictions were less unpleasant than Professor Trellawney's, even if they were more confusing. Or were they predictions at all? From the way Luna spoke she saw the present and past, but not the future. Shouldn't a proper seer be seeing the future?

But what about him and his dreams then? They were visions of the present as well, but Madam Pomfrey had called it seeing. He'd have to ask Professor Trellawney.

But of course that would have to wait until the next Divination lesson. Right now he had to get rid of Luna, find Ron and Hermione and get ready for the welcoming feast. There'd be a sorting and ice cream and cake and then he'd be a fifth year. Wasn't that much more exciting and important than what a seer could and couldn't see?