...LUNA...

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"Don't worry, it'll be okay," Hermione said, giving a firm grip on Harry's hand. Gohan put a firm hand on his shoulders. These gestures sure brought Harry some calmness and confidence but he was still in no mood to do what he was about to do. Ron was walking a few steps behind them. He had his eyes locked on one certain person and he was really pissed off at the moment but he had to show that he was normal. He had an inside feeling that if things went on like this, it wouldn't end well for him. And he hoped it never happened. He needed it. They needed it. It was a brilliant plan after all. It had been knitted with sheer amounts of probabilities and there had been put a lot of hard work to let the circumstances be in the plan's favour. No. It simply couldn't fail and Ron promised himself that he would not be the reason for the plan's failure.

"How bad is it?" Harry asked, looking down on the floor.

Hermione and Gohan kept quiet. Maybe Harry was right about skipping breakfast. They could later have it in the school kitchen, a marvellous place the twins had showed Harry, Hermione and Ron last year.

Not hearing any words from his friends, Harry knew he was right after all but the damage was done. He was in the great hall and now he couldn't step back. That would only prove the rumours to be nothing but true. And Harry knew the rumours were NOT true. And so, with all the confidence he had, Harry raised his head, trying to keep his vision straight but ultimately he lost the fight as his eyes wandered over the students sitting in the hall.

Every single set of eyes were on him.

Harry gave out a sigh. 'Nothing's changed,' he thought. 'Maybe I should convince myself that my life will have these kinds of experiences.'

It had been three days after the events of the duel and Harry was desperately trying to avoid everyone's eyes as much as he could. Though he couldn't escape the glares and stares during class hours, he tried his best to do the same thing in the free times. And that was the very reason that for the last three days he was having his meals at the school kitchen. He was thankful that his friends accompanied him. He desperately needed someone to talk as everyone avoided him. Everyone but one girl.

Harry looked over to the table at the left end of the hall. Yes, all eyes were at him but his eyes were searching for one particular pair of eyes and it wasn't hard for him to find it as he spotted her quite soon. She was sitting at the other end of the table, away from other students of her house. A first year and friends with Ginny. He remembered Ginny mentioned her name to him once. Luna Lovegood. A bit weird or rather a quirky girl as Harry would like to put it; he had seen that this girl saw the world around her in a very special way. It was like she lived in a whole lot different world while still living in the real world at the same time. Randomly mentioning one creature or another that none had ever heard or seen. He had only been in her company for a couple hours during the summer after the Weaselys had rescued him from the Durseleys. She would often come over to the Burrow and she and Ginny would talk and play for hours. And he had noticed her noticing him unlike others since the duel's day. Her eyes didn't say that she believed what others were believing at the moment. Her eyes spoke of something else – something he wasn't able to understand. But then he had never been able to clearly understand people's expressions unless they were his close friends like Hermione and Ron. And he knew Gohan and probably Neville were also coming in that category soon. They were his friends but not as close as Hermione and Ron were but he was willing to give them a chance. He liked having friends and he wanted to have as much as he could. Dudley had made it his second most primary duty to not have Harry any friends and so since that baby elephant wasn't here, Harry would not let go of any chance he would have for befriending others. Of course, gits like Malfoy would never be his friends but he might give them a second chance if the git shows some changes.

Carefully walking over to their house table, the group of four sat where Neville had saved them seats. Harry mumbled a thanks to the round faced boy before he began filling his plate up. Ron was already stuffing food in his mouth while Hermione and Gohan gave Harry caring stares. At least they weren't showing sympathy towards him as Harry thought it that way. He would really hate if someone showed him sympathy at the time like this. He looked across the tables. Even his housemates were eyeing him. Most of their eyes with filled with fear while some showed hate – pure hate. Why, because Slytherin was a parseltongue? He didn't even know Slytherin was one until he heard the students say it. He didn't know Voldemort was a parseltongue until the students start saying it. And since he was now a parseltongue, he was either a Slytherin or as dark and evil as Voldemort. Sighing, he looked up at the staff table. The professors were quietly having their breakfast. He looked at each of them carefully. Their behaviours had changed slightly towards him save for a few. Hagrid passed him a faint smile. Harry responded back with a smile of his own. McGonagall had an expressionless face but she always had one. She was a stern professor so she had to maintain her demeanour. Flitwick was busy focussing on his meal and so were other professors. Snape had avoided him. Slytherin head had avoided him as much as he could, not asking any questions from him during potions class, not taking any points from him. Well, the latter would happen if Snape would ever speak with him. His behaviour was the strangest as Harry put it. Dumbledore showed no signs of anything. It was like nothing had happened in the school. He would still greet him with a warm and loving smile and Harry liked it. Dumbledore was the only person apart from his friends whom he could look upon.

As he took a bite from his sausage, Harry felt someone sit beside him. Thinking of who it might be, Harry turned and for a moment he was surprised to see Luna sitting there, giving him her dreamy stare. He felt a bit uncomfortable, receiving such a stare. Her stares were the weirdest once if he wanted to be honest with himself.

"You look troubled?" Luna asked in her sing-song voice.

'Is it that obvious?' Harry thought as he mentally rolled his eyes at the question. 'Of course I'm in trouble. I'm been in some since the day I entered this magical world.'

"I am fine, Luna," Harry said.

"No you are not," she said. "I can tell you are a very bad liar, Harry," she said.

"You wanted something, Luna?" Hermione asked, trying to divert the young girl's attention.

"I just wanted to tell you, Harry, that you are not what you are letting other people think you are," she said. "You are definitely not Salazar Slytherin's heir."

Harry looked at her with wide eyes. Was she telling what he heard her tell right now? She did believe him not being Slytherin's heir.

"How...How can you say that?" he asked. "You don't know me very well."

"I say that because I would've known if you were Slytherin's heir," she said as she came closer to him, close enough that Harry knew she wanted to whisper something only to him. "Just the way I know that Neville is the heir of Hufflepuff and you are heir of Gryffindor and not Slytherin."

The group heard harry drop his fork which made a clinking sound as it hit the plate. They looked at him who was staring Luna with wide eyes.

"Wha...What?" Harry croaked.

Luna smiled. "I can see it around you," she said, her eyes scanning Harry from top to bottom with a satisfied smile on her face. "And the founders would like for you to keep this a secret. Don't let anyone know about it," she said, whispering again so only Harry could hear, "because they told me that something very bad is going on in the school."

For a moment, Harry thought to shout at the girl but something stopped him from doing that. Instead, he asked, "Is it because of that message that was written on the wall? The thing about the Chamber of Secrets?" he asked.

Luna shook her head. "The founders didn't tell me that," she said.

"You can talk to the founders?" he asked.

She nodded with a happy gleam on her face. "They are very good companies except for Salazar. Well, he is a bit grumpy but he's friendly and is nothing like the history books have mentioned him," she said.

"And they told you that I am the heir of Gryffindor and not Slytherin?" he asked. She nodded. "And that Neville is the heir of Hufflepuff?" she nodded again. Harry put his hand on his head as he felt a bit dizzy.

"They also told me to tell you not to tell this to anyone. And don't let Neville know that he's an heir of Hufflepuff," she said.

"Why?" he asked.

"That's something they didn't tell me. I asked them," she said, "but they didn't tell me. And if you think that I am telling you stories then visit Gringotts. The founders told me that since you are the only heir alive of Gryffindor, his vault would now belong to you. All you need to do is notify the goblins and they will take care of the rest. I have to go now. They won't be able to hold the charm for any longer."

"Charm?" Harry said as his eyes caught that something was wrong. He looked around and was shocked to see none of the students were moving. It was like they had all been frozen or something. He then looked at Luna who was smiling back at him.

"Don't think about what I told you because you know magicals can read each other's minds. And it will be bad if some bad ones come to know about this secret," she said.

"Why? What will happen if anyone comes to know about it?" he asked.

"They will kill you, for instance," she said dreamily.

"For what?" Harry asked.

"Since you are an heir, if you are killed by someone sneakily or in a duel, your heir ship will go to that person and he or she will then become the heir of Gryffindor by conquest?" she said.

"Conquest?" Harry asked.

"Because they'd have defeated you and so they would rightfully claim the title of being an heir of the founder," she said. "This is how it's always been. I need to go now. Hogwarts can't hold on to the spell much longer. She is weak and tired for a long time. I was told that you are of a curious nature and that you will find everything out yourself if you are given a hint. I gave you whatever hint I was told to be given, Harry. It is now your job to find out what those hints are for." She got up and started to move towards her table when she stopped and turned towards him. "And trust Gohan," she said. "He and you are going to gain a lot from each other in the long run. I know this will be a bit hard for you but he's hiding something and the founders would not like to force you to ask him about it. Just wait for the right moment and he will tell you himself. Just, trust him more than anyone you ever did. His help is something that you will need desperately in the coming future."

He watched her skip over to her house table where she sat where she was sitting a few minutes ago. As she busied herself with her breakfast, a dizzy feeling washed over him and he heard Hermione's words.

"Are you okay?" Hermione asked.

He turned to look at her. She was looking at him with concerned eyes. He smiled. "I'm...fine," he said.

"Are you sure?" she asked again.

"I am," he said with a warm smile and a nod which seemed to satisfy Hermione as she nodded back and went on to eating her breakfast. He then looked at Gohan. The boy was busy eating a large course of meal but had enough grace to not let anyone else feel disgusting about it unlike Ron. No one liked to sit near him during meal times. The way he ate made others forget their hunger. Finally, he let out a tired sigh as he thought focussing on food would be a better thing to do at the moment. He had a lot going on in his mind right now. He ignored everyone's stare who were still staring at him. He ignored the slight angry stare of one of the staff member as well.

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A warm feeling washed over Luna and she smiled. "It was my pleasure," she said.

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Sighing a bit loudly, Hermione sat on her bed and let the curtains fall around it, securing her from any sort of disturbance. It was the student-made rule of every dorm in Gryffindor house that if a student was sitting on their bed with the curtains drawn, their privacy would be respected.

She hadn't got enough time to look at the book she had sneaked out from the restricted section. She had returned the book and was luckily not caught by Madam Pince. And she was smart enough to copy the whole book down before returning it. She knew it wasn't possible to read the entire book before the teachers would know it was missing from the library.

"Let's take a look," she said as she flipped the first page and her eyes wandered over the contents of the book. A smile came upon her face when she found what she was looking for but it soon changed into a determined expression. It really was hard for someone to hide anything from Hermione Granger.

Flipping through the pages, she opened the one she wanted to see. As she read on through the lines and as she scanned the pictures in the book, her expression changed from a determined one to a horrified one. Was Gohan really in his right mind? If he was, then he sure was doing some silly mistake. She now needed to find out if this guy Gohan had once spoken of was the same guy in the book. She still couldn't come to believe that Gohan would hide something like this.

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"I can't believe this! Are you sure?" Harry asked.

"I am absolutely sure, Harry. He spoke that name that morning. I knew I had heard that name in the previous year. Turns out, it was the name I had found in this book when I was searching for the book on the Philosopher's Stone. There's something off about him and I know that. The way he stays secretive about many things, the way he never have spoken about his family...all this is really curious to be if you see it this way. We only need to find if this man in the book is the one Gohan spoke of because there can be two different people with same names, you know?" Hermione said.

There was no one in the common room and Hermione was looking for a time like this to tell Harry about what she had found out.

"I don't know...Hermione. We'd have known if Gohan was hiding something like this from us," he said, not paying full attention to what Hermione had just said.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"Yeah. Why?" he asked.

"It's that you seem a little off about something since yesterday," she said.

"No, I'm not," Harry said.

"Harry Potter, you are really very pathetic in hiding away your emotions," Hermione said as she glared at him.

"It's nothing I'm telling you," he said quickly. "And even if it is, it's not that important."

"If you don't want to share it then it's alright," Hermione said after a moment's pause. "But don't let it be the reason to not trust your friends."

"What?" Harry asked.

"You seem a bit distracted about whatever it is that you don't want to tell us," she said slowly. "It's just that, I don't want whatever it is that's bothering you, to be a cause of distance in our friendship. I see you have ignored Ron and me since yesterday. If it is anything about what people are thinking about you being Slytherin's heir, then it's just plain stupid of you to believe them. You and I both know the students here believe the rumours more than what's taught to them and rumours aren't true."

Harry mentally sighed as Hermione thought that it was something to do with what the bloody message was about. But was he ready to tell the real thing to his friends? And Luna had told him to trust Gohan the most because he and Gohan were to gain help from each other in the coming future. What did she mean about that? He had known Gohan since the beginning of this year's term and the boy was likeable. He was humble, patient and good natured and had not yet shown anything bad about him but then it could all be deceiving, too. And he wasn't completely sure about what Luna had said, too. Half of what that girl said appeared to be nothing but part of fairy tales. But then two years ago he wouldn't have believed that there was a magical world. Two years ago he wouldn't have believed that he and his parents were magical. Two years ago he wouldn't have believed that unlike in the muggle world, here he was regarded as a celebrity.

He sighed. Why did it all happen to him? Couldn't he lead a normal life?

"Have you told Ron anything about it?" Harry asked, looking at the book.

"No," she shook her head. "You know how he is. Even though he's our friend, there might be a chance that he might spit it out by mistake. And, he's got anger issues and we both know about it. And people don't think clear when they are angry. I just don't want to risk it by telling Ron about it. I hope you understand," she said.

Harry knew what Hermione was talking about. "Alright, we will look for what you think is going on," he said.

"There's also one more thing I would like to tell you," she said. "And it's about Gohan as well."

"What?" he asked.

The night I borrowed your cloak to go to the library too get this book out, while I was returning, is w Gohan out of the common room and in the corridor. And he just vanished in front of my eyes," she said.

"What do you mean 'he vanished'?" Harry asked.

"He vanished, Harry. Literally! I still don't know whether or not that was something I saw or was it real but after sometime, once I had returned back to the common room, Gohan came in as well. He was out that night doing what I don't know. And he caught me. I was under your cloak, completely hidden and had used silencing charms all over me and yet he found me," she said.

"Was that why you and he were exchanging stares that day?" he asked. Hermione nodded.

"He's up to something, Harry and I think it's related to this man in this book. I am not getting a good feeling about this all," she said.

"It's all going to be alright," Harry said. "If what you're saying is true..."

"It is true," Hermione said.

"Yeah," Harry stammered a bit, "We need to see what Gohan is up to," he said. He knew if whatever Luna had told him was true then he, too, needed to find out what Gohan was up to. This was all needed if he wanted to trust this guy.

"And there's one more thing," Hermione said.

"What now?" he asked warmly.

"That night, when I discovered Gohan was out during curfew hours, we both saw Ron, too, was out."

"Ron?" Harry asked. This was new to him. "What was Ron doing out at that hour?" he asked.

"I don't know. I thought he was with Gohan as he returned soon after Gohan had returned but Gohan denied it. He said he was not with Ron and that Ron was sleeping when Gohan went out," she said.

"This is getting weirder after every passing moment," Harry said. "First, that message and Filch's cat being petrified. Then everyone believing me to be Slytherin's heir. Then it is what you are saying about Gohan and Ron...not that I don't believe you," he said quickly as he saw Hermione glare at him. "We will solve it all out," he said. "We did last year. What's this year? Just a couple hard things to do."

Hermione smiled at him as she placed her head on his shoulder. He let his hand rest on her shoulder sa he sighed mentally. What was to do now? There was the shock of him being Gryffindor's heir and then Luna telling him that Neville was Hufflepuff's heir and then that he had to trust Gohan more than anyone. Then Hermione shows him a book and tells things that makes him doubtful towards Gohan...and Ron. Why Ron? He was his best friend. Why would Ron do something and not tell him about it? And what about Gringotts? He knew students were immediately notified about whatever it was related to their vaults at Gringotts. So if he was Gryffindor's heir and he had Gryffindor's vault to his name now, wouldn't he have got a letter from Gringotts? Or what Luna said about others not wanting him to know about it was true?

He let his head fall on the backrest of the couch as he closed his eyes for a moment to calm his mind. This was all getting weird with every passing moment.

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A/N: Thanks for reading...