A/N: Hey, everyone. Thanks for so many reviews last chapter. It was brought to my attention that some things weren't covered when I thought I had mentioned them. Those will be addressed. I have such a bad memory sometimes. ^_^. Enjoy!

Harry laid there looking at Luna for what seemed like an eternity. His eyes just stared at her prone form, and his thoughts raced. He was thinking so many things. Who did this? Why did it happen to her? What would he do to the person when he found them? That last question led to so many more thoughts, much more graphic in nature than the questions he had been asking. After only 30 seconds, which felt like an hour, he turned his head away from her and stared at the ceiling.

He took a deep breath and laid there just looking up, while breathing calmly. Nobody moved or spoke a word, waiting for his reaction. When the words finally came from his mouth, they caught everyone off guard. They were completely calm, with a cold and sharp tone. "Everyone out. Now. I want to be alone."

They looked around at each other, trying to figure out what to say. The looks on their faces ranged from surprise to dismay to sadness. Neville tried to say something, perhaps to change his mind, but Harry, seeing the boy prepare to speak, held up his hand and gave him a look that suggested it would be best not to say anything at that moment. Neville, upon seeing just how serious Harry was, simply nodded and stood up. "Come on, guys," he said, "Let's let Harry rest." A couple looked like they wanted to argue, but decided against it. No point in angering the strongest person in the room, even if he was bed ridden. He wouldn't be that way for long.

Once the last of the group had left, Harry got a chance to look around. It was at that point that he realized what time it was. It was 9 pm. And he and Luna were far from the only ones there. The Hospital Wing looked as though it had been expanded to fit all of the extra beds that it now held. At the very far end of the Hospital Wing, Harry caught sight of a sad and heart breaking sight.

Body bags. There weren't many. In fact, Harry only counted three, but in his opinion, three was too many. Harry just mentally added this to the list of things that Voldemort was going to pay for.

Harry was lost in his thoughts, when Headmaster Dumbledore came in. "Ah, Harry, how are you feeling?"

The green-eyed boy turned to look at him, his expression not revealing much at all. His penetrating stare looked into the eyes of the old man for a moment, before looking away again, coming to a rest on the still form of Luna.

"What happened?"

"With Ms. Lovegood or with the battle?" the Headmaster inquired.

"Either. Both." The headmaster was picking up on the fact that Harry didn't want to say much, but was certainly looking for answers.

"Well, after we drove off Voldemort, you collapsed from exhaustion after using so much magic in such a short amount of time. The number of Patroni that I suspect you produced in such a short period of time strained your magic slightly. Then, you came back into the stadium and were fighting there. Poppy says you just ran out of juice, so to speak" Dumbledore explained. It had been worrying when Harry had slumped over and fallen off of his broom, but he had landed on the seats, and was breathing steadily, so the Headmaster hadn't freaked out.

"I see." Harry said. It explained why he couldn't remember anything from just after Voldemort fled until when he awoke. "And Luna? What happened to her?" Harry's voice was low as he requested an answer.

"Well, we can't be too sure. Her body was found near the Ravenclaw locker room in the aftermath of the attack. One of the Aurors had gone over to stabilize a beam that had broken and saw a foot sticking out from behind the door. He found her, and there were indications of a fight. Spell marks lined the walls. She likely put up a good fight, but she ended up being hit by a Back Breaker Curse." Harry's eyes narrowed in anger and a bit of anguish at the sound of that curse.

"Aside from the obvious, what does it do?"

"Well, in the worst case, the victim's spine is slowly twisted and contorted, until it snaps. However, it is a very slow and painful way to die because the magic of the spell keeps the victim conscious." Dumbledore had seen this curse in action in the past, and as such, disliked even talking about it. But Harry deserved to know. "It takes a special kind of person to cast that spell. Someone with purely selfish motives must cast it; otherwise it will not work as intended. Luckily for Luna, the person was most likely either not purely selfish or lacked the sufficient power level to pull of this attack. Because we don't know who it was that cast the spell, we have no way of being sure. We have only speculation." The headmaster said all of this in a somber tone, sad that a good student like Ms. Lovegood had fallen victim to such a potentially deadly and painful attack.

"So she's going to be okay?" Harry asked. Relief flooded his body as he thought about the how close the girl he was coming to care greatly about had come to death. Dumbledore's next words eliminated his relief.

"No, I'm afraid not. She will certainly live, but she will not be able to walk, and she will always be in a bit of pain. It can be managed, but there will be times when she won't be able to escape it. She should be able to sleep fine, but during her waking hours, she will have pain. It will mostly be in her legs, since the spell hit her low in the back, leaving her mobile on the upper half of her body. I'm sorry that this happened to someone that you care about, Harry," said Dumbledore with a forlorn sigh, "but there are always risks and casualties in war."

Harry turned his head away from Dumbledore. "I know. I just feel like I should have been able to do something more. All of the work I put in over the summer and everything I've been teaching those kids in our Defense club has been all for nothing apparently." The last part of that sentence came out as a growl.

"Nonsense, Harry!" the Headmaster said vehemently. "None of the kids in that group of yours died and other than Ms. Lovegood, only two were seriously injured. The rest came away with cuts and bruises at most. The three children that are in the body bags over there," he pointed to the far end of the Wing, "were first years. They were friends who had stuck together and were attempting to escape when, as far as we can tell, a small but heavy section of seating collapsed on them. A sad occurrence, of course, but we can take some solace in the fact that they were together at the end."

"Not much solace if you ask me!" Harry said angrily. "Who cares about dying together, when they haven't even had the chance to enjoy life together? Dying together is something old couples worry about, not first years that haven't even experienced their first Hogwarts snow!"

The old man nodded solemnly. His eyes watered slightly at the pain in Harry's voice and the fact that three children died so young, for what was, essentially, no reason. "You are right, Harry. I suppose, then, that we must keep them in our hearts, and remember them when the time comes to fight Voldemort and his Death Eaters, for it is they who are ultimately responsible for this."

Harry nodded, but didn't say anymore. His hands looked relaxed, but his toes, under the sheets of the bed, were curled, like a fist clenched is a sign of defiance, or threatening violence. After another couple of moments in silence, Dumbledore stood and made his way out, only stopping at the door to wish Harry goodnight, and walking on before waiting for a response.

Harry threw the covers off himself, and swung his feet off the bed. His bare feet touched the cold hard floor, but he hardly noticed. He pushed himself up off the bed and stopped for a second to steady himself. Slowly, he walked over to Luna's bed and stood next to her. He reached up and put the back of his hand against her cheek. He softly rubbed her cheek, noticing that she wasn't quite as warm as she should be.

He reached down and grabbed the blanket, pulling it up over her arms and up under her chin. He put his hand on her forehead, and stroked her hair slowly.

"When I find out who did this to you," said Harry, with a fierce conviction, "I'm going to do everything in my power to make them regret ever harming someone close to me. That I promise." He stopped touching her head, and was about to go back to his bed when he could have sworn he saw her move her head, as if she wanted him to continue. He stood there for a moment, watching her to see if she would do anything else, but she didn't, so he passed it off as his imagination.

He got back into bed and went to sleep, still a bit exhausted from the day. 'I must have pushed myself harder than I thought. I'll have to work on stamina. Just one more thing I need to improve on.' He forced himself to end that line of thinking before his frustration kept him awake all night.

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The next day saw Harry awake at dawn and ready to leave the Hospital Wing. He got dressed behind the privacy curtain, and before heading to the common room, he walked over to Luna, placed his hand on hers through the sheets, and said a soft goodbye.

He went and spoke to Madam Pomfrey, who was moving around in her office, for a moment, just to let her know he was leaving. She did a quick check of his vitals, and seeing that everything was okay, gave him the go-ahead to leave.

Harry walked out of the Hospital Wing and started making his way back to the Gryffindor common room. Being that it was 6:30 am, the halls were empty, but it was a nice quiet walk.

He made it there in ten minutes at a leisurely pace. No need to hurry. He entered the common room and the sight that greeted him was an unwanted one. Ronald Weasley had parked a chair right by the door, as if waiting for Harry to return. The ginger haired boy had awoken upon hearing the door open, and, seeing his target, launched himself from his chair. He grabbed Harry's shirt and slammed the green-eyed boy against the wall. Ron's thumbs pushed into Harry's collar bones as he held the brunette against the wall. Ron leaned his face in very close to Harry's, so that Harry could feel Ron's breath on his face. He had to hold his breath because of the stench.

Ron spoke in a whisper, fearful of waking any of the other students. This had to be done quickly and quietly. "I don't know how you made it so that Hermione was healed by the time she got to the Hospital Wing, but I know you are responsible for it. You think we're alone in this school, Hermione and I? You really think we're the only ones that hate you? Think again. You had better watch yourself Potter, because your end is coming. Do you hear me?"

Harry didn't say anything, just gave Ron a flat stare. The red head didn't like this, and shook Harry, saying "Do you hear me!?"

"Are you done? Because I have things to do today. I need to be going." As soon as he said that, there were four distinct snaps that rang out in the common room, after which Ron dropped Harry like a hot potato. Ron fell to the floor mouth open in agony as a result of whatever it was that had just happened to him. He was making no noise, because Harry had covertly silenced him while the boy was ranting and rambling on about Harry's demise.

Our hero bent over Ron, grabbed the front of his shirt, and pulled him up to look him in the eyes. In a calm voice that was sharp enough to cut steel, he said, "I just broke both of your hands and both of your feet. Snapped them clean in half. This is only a fraction of my power. If you know what is good for you, you'll end all attempts to intimidate me or anyone else in this school. You are nothing. You're like a bug to be squashed, and wiped off the bottom of my shoe, so that I don't dirty the floor with your filth. There's a revolution coming in this world Ronald Weasley, and you will not stand in my way. Payment is coming to those who have betrayed and insulted me, and you are in my sights. You're absolutely right; I had everything to do with Hermione's miraculous recovery, but who's going to believe you? Hermione? Your 'followers'? As if I care."

He released Ron, stood up straight, and started walking toward the stairs. He paused at the bottom and said over his shoulder, "You should be glad I'm going to let you live, Ron. What you're about to witness will change the game completely, and leave the Wizarding World reeling." With that, he ascended the stairs, only to find Neville standing at the top, hiding in the shadows. He had heard most of the conversation, and was stunned. Harry passed the boy and didn't say anything. He just winked and kept on walking.

The rest of the day was a bit hectic for Harry. He went to breakfast with the Gryffindors at around 8 am, during which there was a memorial service for those three victims of the attack yesterday. It was a solemn and somber affair, and even the Slytherins didn't make a sound. Some of them looked disinterested, or even smug, but the hard gaze of their Head of House kept their lips sealed. After all, these three were innocent. They had been Ravenclaws, which was a house that was often closer to Slytherin in terms of camaraderie than other houses. Plus, two of them had been pure bloods from neutral families, while the third had been a half-blood from a moderately light sided family. In the big picture, anyone with a brain could see that their deaths were unnecessary.

The Great Hall had banners of black to mourn for the victims. The parents of the students were sitting at the Ravenclaw table, near the front of the Hall. The Headmaster and Professor Flitwick both made short speeches about the three promising students. One of the Ravenclaw second years, a girl who had spent a lot of time with the three, was visibly distraught, and was being comforted by one of the children's parents.

It was over somewhat quickly, and not many of the students could eat much because of the sadness in the air.

There were Aurors present throughout the day, walking the halls and the grounds, and there were grief counselors from St. Mungo's on hand to help the students who were having trouble coping with what had occurred. Some students, like the young Ravenclaw, took advantage of the opportunity.

It had been decided by the staff that the students would have Monday and Tuesday off as well to help cope with the emotions surrounding the events, and let the staff help with whatever needed to be done in the aftermath.

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Harry was doing a lot of writing. He was writing letters to people. He was reading books about stuff. He was thinking about things.

If you were one of the people Harry spoke to that day, and you asked him what he was doing or what he was writing, that was the most information you'd get. He was being very secretive. He was hidden away in a dark corner of the Library, surrounded by what looked to be legal books. He made numerous trips to the Owlery to send those letters and documents. He used many of the school owls, simply because he had multiple things to send to multiple places, and Hedwig was delivering a letter to Sirius.

He spoke to Dobby a few times that day, giving the house elf vital instructions about certain things that needed to be done.

After lunch, he called a meeting with the PDC, during which he told them a few things. A couple of those things had them shocked and worried, but Harry explained that everything would be alright, and that if they couldn't do what he had suggested, that he would be able to cover for it. Luckily for him, only three or four saw any problem with being able to work something out, and they were muggleborns, meaning that there wasn't much to worry about. Of course, he didn't tell them about his goal with all of this, but he did explain why it was happening, and he made them all sign a contract stating that they wouldn't speak of it until it came to light. The contracted stated that if they spoke, they were responsible for paying his attorney's fees. Considering he had the best and most expensive attorneys in the Wizarding World, they kept their mouth shut. No one refused to sign it, because that would just be stupid. He was a powerful wizard and he was, they all believed, the only chance at defeating Voldemort.

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Harry went to bed that evening content and feeling good about all that had been accomplished today. He had taken the first steps to altering the landscape of the Wizarding world, and it felt great. He closed his eyes, and slipped off into the land of nod, wherein he had a dreamless sleep.

The next morning, in the Great Hall, the morning papers were delivered in a flurry of wing movement. The papers were dropped on tables and the owls paid. And then the conversations and panic started. People who understood the implications of the headlines that morning were scared. Well, all but the PDC. Most eyes in the Hall turned to Harry when they saw it. The headline read as follows:

Gringott's Bank Sued!

Harry Potter Claims Goblin Negligence Resulted in Theft of Funds

Harry just smiled.

A/N: I know that a lot of the second half of the chapter seemed vague and a little rushed, but I was trying to tell you what was going on without giving anything away. No, this wasn't all planned in one day, it just all got set in motion in one day. For clarification, in case anyone is wondering. The Touch requires contact, as the name implies, while the poison from the needle doesn't. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please let me know what you think. I hope I didn't miss anything again. -_-'