Luna had arrived at the usual time for Sunday breakfast, yet, she discovered that the scones were more fresh than usual. Most of the time, they were rather lukewarm. But this was not the case today. The butter melted upon contact with them, pooling in an oily, yellow mess on her plate. Luna didn't mind getting her hands greasy, so long as the food at the Hufflepuff table was even better than usual. Selene was sitting to her right, and Brutus was face-first in his arithmancy homework to her left. The other Hufflepuffs in her year had yet to get out of bed, the table space around them was mostly empty.

"I heard you won a fancy award," said Selene, through bites of her toast, "for saving the school."

What she was really saying was more along the lines of, "how did you stop the school from closing down without getting rid of the person you claimed was responsible?" Luna took the time to chew her scone before responding, "it was pushed into my hands, really. But there won't be any more attacks."

"Hm."

It was a pensive sound, Selene did not like that the culprit had gotten away. However, she had also been there when control of the situation had been ripped from Luna's hands.

"Have you begun to study for exams yet?"

"Urugh, you really are a Ravenclaw."

"They're coming up."

"Sho's shummer," Selene replied, viciously taking another bite of toast. She at least took the time to finish her food before continuing with what she was saying. "Then we can go swimming, and bothering Augusta if Algie isn't in, and make ice cream!"

"Where do you live now?"

"Ireland, right by the sea. There aren't many people close by, except for this one bloke who lives in a lighthouse."

"What's the floo address?"

"The water's mostly shallow, so I'm allowed to go along by the shore by myself. And in the winter, everything freezes up. We can go skating next holiday! Oh and uh, Periwinkle Cottage."

"Sounds lovely," she idly said, wiping her buttery fingers off on a napkin. Luna grabbed her backpack and stood. "The post'll be here in a minute."

"I'm expecting Owley with a response from Uncle, I'll stay."

"I will-" Luna looked to the enchanted ceiling for direction, "see you at tomorrow's dinner."

Just as a great swarm of owls swooped into the Great Hall, Luna began to power-walk out of the room. She saw the headlines upon the Daily Prophet, and knew that she had better speed up. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Abraxas (and his eagle-owl) rising from his seat, newspaper in hand. She reached the moving staircases before he caught up to her.

Abraxas only just managed to jump on before they were swept away. His owl had no trouble swooping after him, even when the stairs moved. Luna didn't listen to what he was saying, she was too concentrated on making sure that she chose the right direction when going up the stairs. Otherwise, they would move in an undesirable position. On the second floor, she needed to ignore the landing, and continue walking until the stairs from fourth joined up. Then, she had to take a back step so the fifth and seventh floors would lock in place with each other.

The end result was that they were completely stranded. The staircase they were attached to was clinging to a wall, but was simply stretching into thin air. It would take outside interference (specifically, starting at the third floor, going down two, up six, and then down three) for them to make the stairs move from where they were. The moment Abraxas realized they were locked in place, he dropped the newspaper, and went to the top of the stairs. He peered over the edge, confirming that they were dazzlingly high up, completely trapped on the seventh floor of Hogwarts.

"L-Luna! Mon Dieu! What the 'eck 'ave you done? First the paper, and now-"

Luna curiously looked at the front page of the Daily Prophet. There was a picture of both her and Tom, cringing slightly in the many flashes of camera light. They stood together awkwardly, it was rather clear that they did not want to be touching. Tom scowled the moment he saw her, and Luna couldn't help but laugh. This did nothing to soothe Abraxas, who was still peering over the edge of the stairs, and breathing heavily.

"I-I ch-chase you all the way up here- I-I tell you to a-avoid 'im- He's involved in things Luna. Things that you shouldn't get caught up in-" The we're involved within his voice was unspoken, but just as clear. "J-just-"

Abraxas kept on leaning over the edge of the stairs. Luna gave a slight tug on his robes before anything bad happened. Then, she primly sat on the stairs, and patted the spot next to her. He reluctantly sat down, still fighting for breath.

"The Tom thing was out of my control. The stairs, not so much."

"We're going to be stuck here forever!" he wailed.

"Oh, did you have plans today?"

"What?" Abraxas asked, surprised at the sudden change in topic. "Euh, just homework."

"Then we can do it here. Or summon a school broom for you."

"What? Do you know how many windows that would break?"

"None, since we're right by the astronomy tower."

"Ah," he flushed slightly.

"And I'm up here to avoid being chased around by others all day," she continued, "now, shall we start on potions? Walburga just gave me a complete list of every potion Slughorn will ever teach us for the rest of our time at Hogwarts."

"I don't see why not."

"Accio Abraxas' school bag."

"Now that is certainly going to break a few windows."

There weren't any shards of glass embedded within his school bag, once it arrived. However, that did not necessarily mean that something wasn't broken. It could have been a door, or maybe even bones, in its place. They would most likely never find out. Since they were sitting at one of the highest points inside of Hogwarts, Luna doubted they would need to worry about it either. Abraxas' owl settled down on the railing, but quickly discovered that it was not ideal for sitting on. After fussing around a bit and scratching up the masonry, it decided Abraxas' shoulder made a pleasant post. A sentiment his owner did not share.

"I think we should work on potions first, it will take the longest."

"Hm, what did Slughorn assign again?" Luna asked.

"Taking notes from the theory section of chapter six."

They got to work, reading the textbook by themselves, and jotting down notes as they went. They managed to keep up a light stream of conversation as they worked, but did not discuss anything too distracting. Luna learned a few more interesting bits about Abraxas: while his branch of the family was from France, the Malfoys had been in England for hundreds of years. He was the youngest sibling of two others: Armando and Ariel. Yes, he was aware that his parents had all given them A names, which just so happened to be in reverse alphabetical order according to birth, before she brought it up. Cygnus Black liked to tail after him in his free time because he was too scared to do the same with Tom. And no, he was not interested in turning his incendio fires lilac by learning how to harness his veela heritage because it was non-existent. (The veela part, not the ability to change the colour of the spell.)

In turn, Luna talked a little about her plans for the future (should getting back to the future not pan out). While she had enjoyed running a newspaper, she could not deny that radio had a certain appeal to it as well. Abraxas suggested she try out for Quidditch announcer next year to gain some experience, because the current one was going to graduate. She also tried to give some cryptic hints as to where she had "mysteriously disappeared to" on Wednesday. Luna was fairly convinced he was aware of the Slytherin House Interhouse Team now, but she could not be certain. He seemed to accept her explanation at least.

Throughout their time doing homework, they shifted positions on the staircase. First, they simply stayed in the middle, their backs hunched over their work. But when that grew uncomfortable, they leaned against the wall, and kept their legs crossed. Then, Abraxas got daring enough to sit on the railing, with his back to the wall. It was certainly wide enough, and he kept one of his legs hooked around it, but Luna couldn't help but feel a small flitting of nervousness within. Even his eagle-owl seemed overly cautious when he did this, Luna didn't doubt that it would carry him itself if he leaned too far right. He smiled confidently, obviously enjoying that she was the one now squirming. The rare smile on his usually frowning face reminded her of Harry. There was a quick stab of sadness as she thought of him. One of her first friends, gone just as quickly as he had appeared. Luna didn't dare sit on the bannister herself, lest she need to help the owl. She chose to not rise to the challenge, and instead sat lengthwise across a step.

Somewhere between the responses and homework questions, they both grew bored, and gave up. They were mostly finished anyway, they told each other, they could finish it later in the day. Abraxas began to fold a paper airplane. He doubled over the parchment and folded it with his thumbnails until the creases were sharp. Then, he gave a lazy throw over the edge of the stairs. It turned around almost immediately, and poked Luna in the nose. She picked it up again, and sent it gliding. Apparently, someone else had been hit in the nose with it, for they heard a voice calling up to them, "hey! Where'd this come from?"

"Why aren't the stairs working?" the second voice wondered.

It took a moment to register, but Abraxas recognized the voices. He rolled off the banister (where there were stairs, mercifully) and crouched down.

"It's Cygnus and Orion!" Abraxas excitedly whispered.

"Shall we tell them the ghosts of Hogwarts are punishing them for their sins by scrambling the order in which the stairs move?"

A diabolical grin swept across his face, and an equally mischievous one tugged at her own lips. How could they not? They didn't want Cygnus and Orion to leave, so they hastily wrote back on a parchment, folded it simply, and sent it down. Their quiet gasps could be heard even from the seventh floor.

"So, you can hear us?"

Luna started to write, and Abraxas began stockpiling planes for her to use.

"Say we have heard every misdemeanour uttered in their entire lives," he suggested.

"I like the word choice," she said with a nod, doing as he said.

Another note was launched, and they watched as it slowly spiraled out of their sight.

"They could use this against us!"

"They could stop you from being the Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black Orion!"

"We have to placate them," Orion said, steeling his resolve, "but what do we say?"

"Oh mighty ghosts!" Cygnus began. "I am- ouch what was that for?! We are cousins Black by blood, and brothers by choice! Our great uh- how many great is it? What does that make him?"

"I dunno', this is Walburga's area of expertise!"

"Our great relative! Yes him! He was headmaster of this prestigious school! And so we're sorry for whatever we have done to er, wound you so horribly."

"We shall leave you alone," Luna said, reading the next plane aloud to Abraxas, "but we will not fix the stairs."

"Fair enough."

They sent their final message. Abraxas had made so many extra that he shoved them over the side as well, letting them fall into the confusion. Luna tossed two planes up as well. They crept to the edge of the stairs and looked over. Luna wondered if this was what it was like, sitting on a cloud while it snowed below. Parchment planes flew thick through the air, pelting down upon the boys. They grinned widely to help fight the desire to laugh, and Abraxas squeezed her hands. Cygnus and Orion left, and they let go, laughing even as they tumbled down to the base of the stairs.

There were a few more students who came by to loudly complain about the stairs not working as they should, but they had to save their parchment for finishing their homework. Once that was done, there was hardly anything left to do, and it was just barely lunchtime. The thought made Luna hungry, she wondered what amazing meal she was likely missing out on. She also wondered why she had not thought of that flaw in the plan before. But then Abraxas (he had a large sweet tooth) pulled out some Every Flavour Beans and a French sweet known as calisson. They were made out of candied melon, orange, apricot and almond paste, which was placed upon a wafer. They were topped with royal icing, and cut in eye-shapes, which Luna felt was befitting of the delicate little candies. He had them sent from home, he explained, as they nibbled upon them. He also told her of the supposed origins of the calisson, a story invented more as a legend, contrary to the facts which did exist.

"There was a King, René d'Anjou, and he had recently married his second wife. Being years younger than 'im, she was unhappy with the arrangement. The King, he wanted to get along, since, they were married, and being at the other's throat is not practical-"

"Quite," she agreed, leaning closer, to grab another calisson.

"So, he asked his cooks to devise something which would cheer her up. So, the calisson was born."

He took a break to eat another.

"Was she happy?"

"All descriptions of her said she was a wonderful, sweet person. Whether the calissons did that, most likely no."

"Does it mean anything?"

"Huh?"

"Calisson."

"That is another story entirely, much more factual and historical. It most likely means chalice, but the French verb, se caliner, to cuddle bears a resemblance. It fits, seeing as the King seduced his wife with the-eep!"

Abraxas' fingers softly brushed her own, but that was unsurprising, it had already occurred before. Despite that, he still froze. Maybe the biting bogles had crawled from her hand to his own through the prolonged contact, and his veela instincts could sense it. Or maybe it was due to there being a letter at the bottom of the box, written in elegant, flowing cursive script.

"My sister," he explained, a slight sneer marring his expression.

"What does she say?"

"Find a person to cuddle with, already."

"You're being pushed to marry now?"

"Yes. That's why he-" Abraxas gestured to the eagle-owl on his shoulder- "is still sticking around. Ruddy bird's been waiting for a reply the entire time. I should have guessed."

He sat up, and began to search for his quill and ink.

"What am I supposed to say?" he muttered, more to himself than to her. "I haven't exactly been looking-"

"It's hard to look for what can't be found."

He calmed again, as a new idea bloomed. Luna already knew what was coming before he even opened his mouth. There was a calculating look in his eyes, and he was twisting around the family ring which sat upon his finger. For a Slytherin, he really was quite obvious with most of what he did.

"Say, Luna, what's your dowry?"

Luna pointedly stared at Abraxas until he started to fidget under her gaze.

"Euh, that's a no then?"

"You must bring back a live specimen of the crumple-horned snorkack, or face my father in a wizard's duel to the death. No seconds allowed, international free-for-all rules apply. Plus, just to be fair, he decided to ban any withering flesh curses. You have to be old and experienced enough, to have a few wrinkles, for it to work."

"E-experienced?! Definitely a no then," he quickly said, crumpling up the letter he had started. "Wait. Shouldn't you be paying me in a dowry?"

"It helps prevent any unwanted forced marriages from the groom's side," she replied.

"It definitely works," he darkly muttered. "What even is a crumple-thorned-"

"Horned," she corrected.

"If you haven't found it yet, then I doubt I can," Abraxas firmly replied. "Now, back to the letter…"

"Tell her that you're focusing upon OWLs," Luna suggested, "tell her no one wants a husband without an education."

"Oh, that's a good one."

He started to scribble a quick response. Luna was amused to watch him write in chicken scratch, and then sign his name in a ridiculous, overly curly response. She had never known that the letter B could have so many loops to it, and the final S seemed to never end. That seemed to be the effect he was going for, judging by the smirk on his face. Abraxas wiped the icing on his fingers in smears across the parchment, rolled it up, and then offered it to the owl. Luna had never seen an owl look offended before, but there was a first time for everything. Grudgingly, the owl stuck out his leg, while turning his head one-hundred eighty degrees away from the sight. Then he took off, using Abraxas as a launchpad.

They spent the rest of the afternoon finishing off schoolwork, and talking about inconsequential things. Supper time rolled around, and they were hungry enough to dare trying the less appealing jellybeans to appease their appetites. After the dinner crowd had come and gone (most complaining about having to take the long way to their common rooms because of the broken stairs) Selene arrived. Luna had told her of the solution to get the stairs unstuck from their uncooperative state. She ran up landings, and then slid back down the railing as she went from flight to flight. They made sure to hold on to the railing tightly as they were swung around. Eventually, they reached the landing for the fifth floor. This was perfect, as it was right by the Ravenclaw commons. They waved in thanks to Selene, and then farewell to the stairs which had held them for so long.

They strode back to Ravenclaw Tower in an amicable silence. Luna was about to head up the winding staircase, to the entrance, but Abraxas cleared his throat.

"Yes?"

"Luna, um, before you go, I'm... Really, I'm not a bossy person. But he's a someone with very strong opinions, on blood, and other things..." Abraxas managed to stammer. "He's said things that frankly scare me. He's seen what war looks like, he goes back to it in the summer. Yet..."

"What do you think?"

"It doesn't matter what I think."

He did not even give her a chance to argue the point. He swept away, his robes billowing behind him.

Prolonged absence from the future had caused her to forget Snape could do something similar. Her desire to learn the robe-billowing-dramatically technique was suddenly refueled.

Luna returned to her room, after nearly walking into her former one. She didn't notice it at first, as she had undressed almost immediately, but there was another package upon her bed. She peeled off her socks with her toes, leaving her hands free to pick up the small box of cardstock. She opened it, and a deck of cards came tumbling out, spilling across her blue bedspread. They were tarot cards. Animated tarot cards, their intricate designs displaying things. Horrible things... There was a small note, in the handwriting of one she had received before.

I trust you will have use for these in the future.

But you most likely already knew that.

Your assistance on Saturday was greatly appreciated,

TMR

Yet another small problem to add to the list of them time-travel seemed to bring.