the Power continued
The memories of Shala were irreplaceable, because they had nowhere to back themselves up.. so in an instant Sirius bored a hole, a tube, really that dropped down through the center of the plaza into the great viewing room, and connected to the holographic Mylar sphere that comprised the center of that viewing room.
As fast as they could move the humans formed a chain , a bucket brigade of memory, Harry stood transfixed face to face with Shala as she expelled the memories to him, and Sirius and Hermione stood at either side of him pulling out an almost continuous strand of memory from either side of his head. After a bit, it became a steady flow on it's own, and all they had to do was guide it toward the hole in the plaza, and down the tube where it would be stored.
Human memory is wispy, grayish strings, like manipulating clouds. They were not however affected by wind, rain or atmospheric travail, they were moved by way of intent.
Harry's intent was that no matter what cost, his friend would be saved. And the people who had gathered just watched and waited while the memory flowed of it's own accord into the hole.
After what seemed to be an eternity, maybe thirty minutes, the flow stopped and they stood around wondering what was next.
Inside Harry2 through Harry6 were hastily erecting their own holographic barrier and containing that which was coming across now...Shala. In an instant of outside time, it was finished, internally it was an eternity gathering and capturing the personality and magic that was Shala. And where it was, was where it would stay until the child was ready, or Harry forced it out.
Finally Harry slumped to his knees and sat with his ankles under him.
Sirius had a cap made, a bronze and stone cap inscribed with runes keeping the integrity of the sphere safe, both from outside as well as inside.
Harry was exhausted, as was Hermione after the expulsion of all of Shala's memories. The great viewing sphere in the center of Black University was full up, and there was a constant monitoring of the sphere from all angles, trying to see the images and record them. Since the memories were unsorted, it would have been an improbable task.
Nevertheless, the watchers watched and recorded.
Shala had expelled the egg, and the worry now was that it might not be viable.. the shell was thin and therefore fragile and they would not risk moving it, so the next best option was to build a nest around it.
This nest, of course had four heavy duty industrial heaters warming it, with flames bellowing forth abundantly from the mechanisms. Meanwhile their friends' ancient body died.
The problem they had to fix was something of a major thing.. the common method for the Queen to create her new body was to hatch a golden egg, that is an exact duplicate of themselves physically, reborn from the effective ashes of the former body. The queen then raised the youngling until it could survive on it's own or with the protection of a trusted ally.. and Harry was Shala's trusted ally in this case.
In normal circumstances the Queen would raise the youngling and then feed the collected memories back into the new shell starting with the most recent, and going backward until they were all stored properly, and the final step was to transfer the essence and internal magic to the child. The elder body then was usually eaten or abandoned, since other than food, it was useless to another dragon.
Normal dragons did not come from golden eggs, normal dragons did not have the millennia of accumulated wisdom and intelligence that a Queen did. That is not to say normal dragons were not intelligent, for they were, quite intelligent, but particularly feral, and prone to bursts of 'animal' behavior.. this is also what made a normal dragon dangerous, the sudden outbursts of instinctual activity which in the wrong case could get you eaten very quickly.
So they watched and they waited.
Back on the surface Harry lay almost inert against the flank of the now deceased body of his friend.
Hermione sat beside him and leaned into him, they were both very weary. Harry was just barely processing, because he had the control of Shala's personality and essence filling up most of his mind.
His few avatars that he had left were spending all their time keeping her contained.. it was essential, for the egg bearing her new body had not yet hatched..
all they could do was bide their time.
Harry would not be able to go back to Hogwarts, and Hermione stayed with him, in spite of her desire to return to the normality of classes.
It had been quite a struggle deciding whether to stay or to go, she knew is she stayed there would be trouble, but if she stayed away, it would be doubled..
she shook her head, mentally rolling her eyes and tried to force out the influence of Harry's musical choices.
He did, however make sure to listen to music he knew she liked as well.
Bother..
this brought to mind Pooh and some of her first memories, reading and how happy it had made her.
Deep down she realized that Harry made her as happy, even more so.
She had enjoyed the previous year, staying in their secret tower, studying and reading and creating..the tournament had done so much for them, even in spite of the plots that had been set to entrap and control him..them.
She pondered his actions and the theories that Luna had put forth about the myriad of timelines and following the paths to each and every reality.
Luna had described a horrifying future, where she had ended up stuck with their former friend Ron.
Hermione felt sad, sad that their friend had grown into a very different person than they thought he had been.
She knew that in none of the realities were they compatible and had been somewhat shocked when Luna described a future where she was married to Ron.
The thought of it made her vaguely ill, for they really had nothing in common but Harry, and even then they had different aspirations and hopes for their relationships..
she shook her head, clearing away the thoughts and decided it was time to do something.
"Harry, it's time to get up now, we've done all we can, you have all of her personality collected, now it will be just a bit of a balancing act until her new body catches up.. come, my wizard, get up.."
She was in front of him trying to pick him up off the plaza by pulling on both hands.
He lay against the dragon's body looking as if he was a kid wanting to go back to sleep.
"Gimmee a sec"
Get up you sillyhead..or you'll get wet.."
"lemmee be.."
"Ok, agua..."
"I'm up, I'm up!"
Hermione had a bit of a premonition of some time in the future.. with young boy Potters...
the couple made their way to their quarters.
Winky had made sure there were clothes and food and everything they would need.
Sirius stood a few levels up the inverted pyramid looking down at the plaza and the dead dragon carcass.
Charlie and his team of dragon wranglers were taking care of it, stripping off the hide to be turned into leather, meat for the various purposes, draining the blood and setting aside the bones to be used for wards and runic work..
Shala had specified that her abandoned body was to be used to educate and feed and help improve the lot of all magical beings, and so, every bit was being rendered into their most useful components.
Some days passed.
The Egg was about to hatch.
In order to keep everything at optimal conditions Sirius had his professors and care staff monitoring everything,
It had been forty two days and the egg had been talked to, been kept warm by way of industrial space heaters, the pavers had become scorched on the plaza.
Sirius sighed. He wanted this facility to reflect his new vision for the Black name, and already it was getting burned up, stained, worn and abused.
He looked out over the plaza. "I guess we will just add the various stains to the curriculum, as a learning experience.."
The egg split open and the dainty dragon made her way clear.
The artificial nest was banked around her and assorted food was put at a distance from where the eggshells lay.
The dragon childe was still in an instinctual state and began munching on the remainder of the eggshell as well as the membrane that was left over. Having ingested the materials, the reptilian child curled up to take a nap.
The handlers did as they were instructed to do, they put the food out of reach and made the child work for her dinner. All the exercise made the joints unbend and flex, and the distance covered was exercise in building muscles .
Harry sat on the edge of the nest for hours, slowly letting vapors of Shala out of his storage and into the creature, sips of Shala's essence and personality.
None of this was a copy, it was all the real thing, the real stored magical essence of a great 'Hungarian Horntail' was leaking out of his core, and into the small beast.
If Harry had not been able to capture Shala's essence on that terrible day, she would have been gone forever, and the small dragon would only grow up to be a normal Hungarian Horntail, with the common attitude that they all seemed to have, that is to say, touchy.
It took the better part of two weeks for Harry to finally offload all the alien influences in his head and body, and finally he was able to come down off the high rock of the nest they had built, for now Shala was fully sapient and aware that he was not food, but rather friend.
She did , however show a childish glee in her new body by tackling Harry whenever he wasn't looking, and licking him like some big scaly beagle.
They had decided to a few weeks respite from the mind and memory management procedures, and
work on other things. It had become cold in London where the University resided, and snow lay blanketing the terraces.
The nest was still there and that's where Shala stayed most of the time, but she was venturing out, stretching her wings, so to speak. It would be another few months before she could fly from a dead stop, but for now she was taking 'hops' from one terrace to another, mostly gliding. And some of the students and staff were occasionally used as bump stops for an incoming dragon.
By the end of two weeks, though, Shala had consumed several tons of various bits of livestock, some toasted on the spot, and as a special treat, wards were set up on the central plaza where a medium sized acromantula was port keyed in to show the students and instruct them on the care, feeding and if necessary eradication of the magical arachnid.
The spider, a mere 3 meters across was continually frustrated by a dragon who was enjoying her new youth herding the critter back and forth with growls, nips and the occasional flame.
The spider never left alive, for it had ended up a snack.
It would be more than two years before she would be large enough to flame like a proper dragon, and Harry carefully said nothing when the youngling accidentally flamed from the wrong end.
In order to build up muscle and strength Harry and Shala ran laps around the plaza, first she chased him, then he chased her, and they were each trying to outdo each other with their new feats of athleticism, leaping from level to level, from terrace to terrace, Harry working very hard to enhance his leaps with magic, channeling magic to his legs and torso, in fact it helped build him up quite a bit as well, for he found if he did not channel magic to the appropriate muscle groups, he ended up with strains and pains, no matter how much stretching he did.
It finally came a time when Shala was ready to retrieve her memories and stored history.
Down in the great viewing room, the sphere holding the hundreds of thousands of years of memory was stretched tight.
It had been fabricated out of a holographic mylar which allowed the memories inside to be viewed on it's surface as a projection.
Harry had used this same material as a trap while still fighting the war, when he had stretched it across the gates of Hogwarts, letting the outsiders think that there was someone standing there talking to them.
This sphere was inert, because there was so many things inside, so many diverse and varied memories, and what could be seen was flashes and bits, like scanning through a thousand channels at a fierce clip.
/ok, how do we do this/
/I know you said it would be easy/
/ but when we stored them/
/ we didn't have time to sort /
/an inconvenience/
/if you're sure/
/lets get this underway/
Harry sighed and opened the portal from the center of the plaza down the tube they had created into the memory sphere.
Shala moved forward and put her face over the well of memory and sniffed.
It wasn't long before the first memory came up and into her waiting mind.
It happened to be her last recorded memory from before the demise of
her body, and the events leading up to that particular event.
Once she had ingested that memory she looked up at a terrace above and saw a young military man standing with her female pet.
She winked at him.
Up on the third terrace, Lt Terrance Creevey stood with his nephew who was explaining the ins and outs of the magical world. He had known about his nephews magical ability, because he was the boy's uncle and very close to the family, but now it was almost distressing to be in close proximity to a dragon without the protection of his aircraft. Not to mention that this dragon was winking at him.
"Leftenant Creevey, I'd like to apologize for the last time we saw each other."
Creevey turned and found himself face to face with the young woman who had been riding the great dragon a few months before.
She extended her hand
"I am Hermione Granger-Potter, and the crazy man down there is my betrothed, Harry.
I hope I didn't get you into trouble with your superiors"
Being fifteen years older than her, he made sure to not ogle the young woman, as well as she was the betrothed of a very powerful young man who had an intimidating pet.
This was a very hard task, as Hermione had filled out in all the right places, and there was nothing about her that said 'girl' any more, but rather 'woman'
Calling on his officer training, he stood straight. "Ma'am, no ma'am, there were no problems, thank you."
Hermione was familiar with this behavior, she had been with her father during a reservists family day.
"No need to be so formal, Colin is like family to us, so, you might as well be as good as." " I am Hermione, but if you insist on being formal, Miss Granger will do"
"Well, miss..er, Hermione, it's just that your dragon is well, um.. I know about magic because the boys, but I never.. expected to see.."
Hermione laughed at the stumbling of the military man
"Terrence, may I call you Terrance?
He blushed and mumbled
"Th' boys call me Unka Terry"
"Well then I guess we'll just call you Terry, ok? She raised her eyebrows and carried on.,
"I understand about the things you mean, I mean look at this, here in the middle of London, the Unseen University, Hidden from sight, we have more than two thousand mages right under the noses of mundane London, and they go by every day, without a clue that there is a Dragon less than five kilometers from Kings Cross. Sure, a small dragon, but a dragon, nonetheless."
"In the few years since I was introduced to the magical world, I have seen strange and wondrous things, things that are beyond, way beyond the norm, invisible people, attempted immortality, a class-wide attempt at genocide, creatures from myth and history"
she gestured and Terry saw centaurs holding forth with dwarves and goblins, humans and seeming humans talking and arguing and reading and eating and being friends and colleagues.
She stood on the edge of the terrace overlooking the plaza, Shala was ingesting memories at a prodigious rate, and Harry was there urging her to slow down a bit, not to overdo it.. he was feeling a bit protective of his draconian friend.
"How long have you been in the magical world?"
"Five years ago Professor McGonnegal came to my home and demonstrated that magic was real.
Since then I have had a fairly intense relationship with magic."
Terry snorted "If half of what the boys have said is true, then I would say your relationship with magic" he gestured to Harry and herself, "Is more than intense." "Besides, you can't fool me, I have seen you at angels 40 on the back of a dragon."
Hermione had the good taste to blush.
"Well, I suppose that you could say..."
she was interrupted by Harry who had bounded up the terraces to her side.
"Hey, Hi.. I'm Harry."
"Terry Creevey, I'm their uncle." the men shook hands
"We have been working with Shala here retrieving her memories and getting her started on the next couple thousand years.."
"Thousand?"
"Yes, a Queen dragon can live up to five thousand years at a time, your average dragon has no mind like the Queens, and last maybe three hundred at best."
"Really? Wow. We never heard anything like that from Prof Hagrid.." Colin injected.
Harry nodded, "yeah, I learned it from the time I was with Shala.."
Luna had returned to Hogwarts but was unhappy.
Her best friends were not there. She understood that problems Harry was having maintaining his equilibrium while carrying the mental essence of a dragon in his mind.. She had been present at the open house of Black University with her father, as he was going to make a presentation on the Hidden Creatures' for the academia. She saw Harry and Stubby Boardman at the opening ceremony , she had seen Harry and Hermione reading the articles being put forth for consideration, and she had seen Harry collapse in front of the audience an the world.
She stayed rooted to her seat watching Hermione on her flight to Shala the Dragon and her altercation with a Roc and the huge spiders.. and when the Dragon landed in the plaza of the University Luna was watching from the first terrace as Hermione ran towards her man.
Things quieted down overnight, and everyone was told by Stubby Boardman that Harry was now resting comfortably, only to find out that the next day the great old dragon died after laying her golden egg.
Her father never did get to present his speech on the Hidden Creatures.
Over the next few days, Luna was almost overwhelmed with potentials
She had become better in protecting herself mentally, and not being overwhelmed by the psychic blowback of seeing so many alternate realities and potential realities.. She had gone into seclusion for almost two weeks at the Rookery and slowly dictated several of the more pressing potential realities and what she thought might be the triggers of these paths.
September first came and she boarded the Express, and spoke with Neville and several of other friends she had made. Somehow she did not miss the Weasleys or Malfoy..
Padma sat with her in the train compartment and renewed her promise of protection for the fourth year girl.
"Thank you Padma, It is nice to have someone watching your back, it was so nice having Harry and Hermione stand up for me the last year.." Luna sniffed a bit, her eyes watery. Padma noticed this and put he arm around the young Ravenclaw. "Is everything all right, Luna? Has someone been bothering you?"
Luna leaned her head into the older girl's shoulder, tears beginning to run down her face.
"No, no.. I am just worried about Harry, because, because.. well you know.."
Padma put both her arms around the blond girl and held he closely.
"Yes, yes, Luna, I do.." They had both gotten a message via mirror once the express was underway. Hermione had made it a point to speak with each of their friends updating them on the situation with
Harry and Shala, and her intentions as well.
The compartment that Luna and Padma were in had been inhabited by the membership of the Smart Girl's Table, Daphne, Padma,Luna, Penny Katie and Angelina Spinnet, several others.. They had been called together by Hermione, who filled them in on her plans for the upcoming semester, that is to stay with Harry come what may. The young ladies were not entirely surprised, since they had watched that relationship grow over the last three years.
Hermione spoke with each from the mirror that was mounted on the wall, and she answered some of the questions thrown at her by her friends, some she adamantly refused to answer, the very personal questions..Alica made her promise to come out and try out as a reserve Qudditch player.."No excuses, I've seen you fly, hell, the world has seen you fly girl, you can't say that you don't know how.." Hermione blushed
Later, after the various 'girls' left to go about their business:
Luna sniffled and clung to Padma for another minute and then made herself sit up straight and dry her tears..
"I know you are my friend, Padma, truly, I do, but they are so close to my heart, and the mirror is not enough.." Padma started to speak, but Luna carried forth..
"It was easy to hide, easy to play 'Looney', just make up outrageous things as metaphors for the things of the day.." Padma nodded, they had discussed the writings of Swift among others.
"Harry gave me back my mother, as close as real as she could be, with the portrait..I left the portrait with my daddy, he is so lonely without her..."
(sniff')
Hermione is like.. I don't know.. not a sister, but ..well, I don't know how to describe it, what I feel..I know the only way the universe works is that if they are apart, we all die, every one of us, but I want to be there for them, be a part of them, their...happiness..does that make sense?"
Pale blue eyes met dark brown.
Padma sighed. "Luna," she spoke softly. "What you are describing is love. Love for your friends, the desire for your friends to be happy and show them that yo love them as much as they love you."
The definition of love is that you care for their happiness more than your own.. a lot of people will say that love is physically giving yourself to your lover, but I think it is much much more than that."
Luna waited for the Asian girl to finish.
"I think it is how far are you willing to go with them, and how far they will accept you, but then you will have to wait, because they will not be here for the foreseeable future, so it's best you just ponder this for now, Luna, don't get worked up about it, and if it is to work out, it will."
Luna sniffed and nodded.
"I know that is the right path to follow, Padma, I can see the potentials shedding away.." she spoke with her eyes closed. And..and. A potential for happiness."
Padma smiled, "That's good, Luna..I'm glad."
The rest of the trip they spoke of runes and arithmancy.
The tribunal that had taken over the government the previous season was finished with heir work. Every Death Eater had been questioned and every known Death Eater and unmarked supporter had been captured.
Now they had a decision to make.
There had been several propositions as to what to do with these people, and it had taken a lot of arguing.
It came down to this.
A death Eater had done horrible things to gain that mark on their arm, crimes against humanity.
Therefore, they were not permitted to live.
Once this vote was unanimous, the order was given and each and every one of the captured, marked Death Eaters was introduced to eternity. Since there was no actual confirmation that the Veil was an actual portal into the afterlife, it was decided that the veil was to be sealed off so no one could accidentally fall through it.
They tried to brick it up, but the bricks disappeared overnight where the veil itself brushed against it, so it was enclosed in a wrought iron cage that was bolted down beyond the reach of the veil.
It was decided that dementors were a dark construct and needed to be destroyed as well, so they would not be fed or tolerated any longer, so all known dementors were forced into the lowest leveled of Azkaban and that facility was sealed with huge concrete and stone plugs, and the castle imploded on top of the pile.
Once this was done, the wardstones having been destroyed, the former castle fortress sank into the sea, never to be seen again.
Deep, deep below Hogwarts, one by one, each prisoner was taken from their enclosure and hooked up to a drainer.
When this was turned on, their magic and their life was drained. The magic was added to the ambient magic powering the school and he wards of the castle. Their life returned to earth, for all life comes from earth.
Once the executions were finished, all the bodies were transfigured into stones and taken far out to sea and dropped over the side, never to be seen again.
Every one of the marked ones had their lands and monies confiscated and those were placed into a reparations fund for the victims of Voldemorts war. Much land was up for sale and before those lands could be sold, manors and shrines and ritual circles were destroyed by cursebreakers, leaving nothing but scorched earth.
Because there had been a lot of questioning covering decades of crimes, a lot of places were found and marked.
Once the places were erased from the face of the Earth, the Centaurs and Dwarves were given free reign to change the landscape into good natural habitat for various creatures and very little was sold to new buyers but rather the lands were held in trust for the beings of the magical world.
The tribunal was disbanded but not until they voted on a keeper of the reins of power, and Arthur Weasley was voted in as Minister of Magic, but he had stated under no circumstances would he do more than a four year term, so someone should plan ahead for the next Minister.
They also polled the former Wizengamot and elected honest men and women to be a panel of Judges, five of them, to pass judgment on all crimes and conflicts. These were limited to a five year term based on willingness to serve.
Out of the remaining heads of departments, and the few left from the wizengamot a council of senators were there to promote and vote for laws. Twenty one formed the Senate.
As for the rest of the people of Britain and the UK, it was announced that on man(or woman) could represent the rights of any one thousand people, , all they needed were for one thousand voting age people to say, "I want this person as my representative" and that person to accept them as a constituent.
This formed the Congress. It also formed an informal Census..
After the first elections, there were thirty nine representatives. Everyone hoped that soon there would be more.
The Representatives were all taking care of the needs of the people, and bringing up potential laws, and once they had one they all agreed on, they proposed it to the Senate. That body was expected to verify that the law did not conflict with Mundane law, or any other previously held law, and once having done so, voted to either forward it to the Minister of send it back for revision.
Once it made it to the Minister, he could send it back or sign it. Having done that, the law was there after to be enforced by the Judges.
It was basically the form of government with some checks and balances like that of the Colonies.
It kept ultimate power from being in one person's hands and made law a bit less of a circus and more of a procedure.
Luna had gone back to Hogwarts for her fourth year, and expected that it would be a different situation, now that she had friends..Padma as an older year to watch over her, and several others who were acquainted with her via Harry and Hermione.
She was sorely disappointed when it was found that Harry and Hermione were not at school. Harry's self education had already taken him far beyond OWLS and NEWTS, as he had absorbed enormous amounts of information through various sources.. It was not know but to a few that he had taken the remains of Tom's soul bit and stripped it of all useful information and exorcised the rest, and his compartmentalization and internal study were the route to multiple masteries, much to the amusement of the pretty Ravenclaw.
She regarded academic achievement as a necessary evil in the society in which she lived and preferred to learn by doing and experiencing and researching .
Her time in Harry's tower had opened her eyes to a wealth of knowledge and access to people beyond the norm, People like Nicholas and Pernelle Flamel, People Like Jack Golinard and Charles Shepherd, not to mention the various participants in the ill-fated Tri-Wizard Tournament and the observers from the ICW and around the world.
The school was aghast as they saw Harry collapse in front of an audience of thousands of magical academics in the opening of he Black University, and the amazing flight and confrontation between Hermione and Shala the Dragon.. The Flight was replayed again and again on the new mirrors that everyone seemed to have. The teacher for Care of Magical Creatures showed it to point out the various wild and dangerous things that inhabited the magical world, with a stern warning that no student under any circumstances was to attempt to speak with a dragon, or Merlin forbid attempt to ride on one.
Luna did get a bit of backtalk from people who thought she was an easy target without her two powerful friends there to protect her, but those people were shocked to find that at the next meal they could not gain access to any form of food but white bread and water, no matter how hard they tried.
Luna thanked the elves who made that happen kindly and said that it was all right she could fend for herself.
The elves of Hogwarts agreed, somewhat grudgingly, but among themselves they were keeping an eye on the young woman.
Unfortunately, there were others keeping an eye on her as well.
Every couple days she was in contact with Hermione or Harry, and they encouraged her in her studies and frequently helped her find new obscure magics and artifacts to help her studies and this filled the young woman's heart with happiness, not so much about the books and artifacts, but that someone loved her for who she was, no matter how weird.
She had also, at the counsel of Madam Pomfrey , began therapy with Mr Cromwell, the man who had helped Harry organize his mind, as well as having helped her mother in the years past.
After she had formed strong enough containment for her gifts, her ability to see potential realities, her jumble of thoughts became quite a bit more calm and easily controlled.. she had always managed to have some kind of control, but this was much better.
It was close to October, there was snow lying about on the grounds and the castle was drafty and cold, a precursor to a hard cold winter. Luna hurried from the greenhouses back to the warm entrance to the castle when she heard a voice.
"Hey! Lovegood, Hey! Wait up..Luna.."
A heavily wrapped figure jogged up to her, steam exuding from his nose and mouth as he puffed like a steam engine from the exertion of jogging uphill.
A boy, Wearing a Yellow and Black scarf, his eyes and hair just peering above the wrapped shoulders..
"Ahh, I, ..pant pant.."
"And you are?"
she inquired
He stood up straight and held out a hand to her,
"Justin..Justin Finch-Fetchly, Miss Lovegood, I am a fifth year Hufflepuff, and I wished to ask you if you would like to go to Hogsmeade with me this weekend."
She gave a shy smile and tilted her head as if looking through him, and since she was actively working at suppressing her abilities, she did not catch any glimpse of the potentials of this question..
"Why would you ask me to go to Hogsmeade, Justin Finch-Fetchly, you do not know me except, perhaps by reputation."
His face was already red from the cold and the students passing them on the path from the greenhouse to the Castle
"Well, I have seen you with Harry and Hermione. And that alone says you are good people, you are in Ravenclaw, and that implies that you are quite intelligent, and just looking at you in the Great Hall, at the Yule ball last year, it's obvious you are quite pretty, so I figured, why not? We could have fun"
This time it was Luna's turn to blush. She wasn't quite practiced at the art and science of flirting, so she looked him in the eye and said
"Yes"
He gave her a sideways grin.
"yes"? Good! I will meet you tomorrow at breakfast then! "Ok, I gotta get to class, bye!"
the young man virtually skipped away, leaving a bemused Luna looking down the path after him.
That night she called Hermione on her mirror.
"And he just ran up and asked me, just like that!"
The older girl smiled at her friend.. "Well, he was right, you know, you are smart and pretty, and I have not heard anything bad about him other than he is a bit of a ponce..so, give it a go, you might like him! Who knows?" she grinned at the girl..
Luna blushed and smiled back.
Hermione raised an eyebrow at this unspoken admission.
"Soooo, anything you want to tell me, Luna, dear?"
"Not just yet, ask me tomorrow.. "
"Good night Luna"
"Good Night Hermione"
The next morning, Justin met Luna at the entrance to he Great Hall and they talked about unimportant things as they had breakfast and when it was announced that the carriages were ready to transport the students, Justin rose and held out his hand
"Shall we Miss Lovegood?"
She held out her arm formally, like a queen
"We shall, Mr Finch-Fetchly"
and they made their way regally to the carriage.
Hogsmeade was bustling with life, as the students were swarming, glad to be free of the Castle for a few hours.. The shops were merrily advertising their wares and the Three Broomsticks and Madam Puddifoots tea room were doing a booming business.
The shops and whatnot farther back in the side streets and alleys were doing well also, mostly from local residents avoiding the rush of students, as life and business must go on. Deals for Hogs and fish and crops were being traded amongst the farm and livestock purveyors, And the various workmen from the branches of the magical world did their usual business.
One brick structure was not inhabited by humans at all, but was a local outlet for elves to acquire the groceries and needs to provide for their families, those elves who still were working for families, that is.
The biggest daily orders, of course were for Hogwarts and the daily shipments of foodstuffs and goods was quite large, as there were some four hundred students and staff to take care of, not to mention the daily needs of the livestock and creatures on the castle grounds.
Luna and Justin strolled along the main street and looked at things and commented on various and sundry, Justin from his muggle heritage and Luna from her own unique viewpoint.
Justin managed to ask a few pertinent questions that Luna didn't recognize as being a threat, and she kept her gift tightly under wraps, as she had been trained.
"So, you can see the futures that are possible based on any given decision?"
He was friendly and genuinely curious.
She smiled brightly and nodded. "Yes, but I have to know about the subject to be able to understand the possibility"
He tried to understand this
"So, if you wanted to see the outcome of the league football games you have to understand football, then"
"At the very least, I need to know the difference between Man U and Arsenal, Chelsea or Everton."
she blushed prettily
"To understand the game you have to understand who's playing."
Justin took her by the hand and walked her up a back alley out of sight of the schools prefects and adult supervision.
Luna was shivering with excitement, wondering what was going on, letting herself be led into the alley.
Justin found an out of the way nook and spun her into his arms and held her tightly for a moment.
She snuggled into the collar of his warm winter coat, a smile on her face, enjoying the body contact.
"Luna..I really like you, now that I have had a chance to talk to you." he spoke over her head, his breath drifting away as steam.
She started to reply and stand up to face him but he clutched her to his chest.
"I just wanted to say , I'm sorry"
He released her and stepped back as she raised her eyes questioningly.
Before she could speak, rough hands grabbed her and put a sack over her head and magic suppressing manacles on her wrists, and she was whisked away by a portkey.
and that is Chapter 26 now with more Luna..
soon to come, "Where in the World is Luna Lovegood?
TimW