Welcome! Please check my profile to see my TUMBLR (Usako3000) filled with tidbits, images and spoilery tidbits on this story.

I've been missing for some time, I know. The longest hiatus this story has gone on since I returned to it in 2012. Two major factors: an icky breakup and also a sort of creativity-sucking melancholy over reaching the end of this story. I didn't want to post again until I was sure I was back in the writing mood, and I am! So Yay! I so hope you're all still here with me! It was your reviews that cajoled me and made me smile enough to push through the writing slump!

Harry Potter and the Wish of Life

Chapter 36

An Assortment of Scars

Between both timelines, Harry had seen a great many disturbing things in his life. Still, seeing the flesh of Hermione's arm so viciously torn turned his stomach with disastrous misery and for a moment he was struck speechless.

"Hermione," Ron spluttered, reaching a hand out briefly before dropping it to his side, "Hermione ... I'm so sorry."

Tears leaked down the girl's face as she stood in the center of the room; a small shaking figure that seemed impossibly fragile. "She knew my parents' address. She told me not to tell anyone or they'd be killed … but I knew, I knew I wouldn't be the only one. But I hesistated!" She lamented, turning to Dumbledore, "if only I hadn't hesistated before I came to you, Headmaster!"

"No, Miss Granger. You were very brave to come to me so quickly. Mister Thomas will be fine, and so will your parents," Dumbledore promised. "Now, let's not waste any time, where is the girl?"

"Dean and Ethan are with her, they took her to the hospital wing."

"Then we shall go there-"

"Poppa," James began as the elder man made toward the door, "This is a terrorist act, I will be obligated to call this into –"

"No, not yet. I have questions for her first." The cold paleness of Dumbledore's eyes made it very clear that the aurors might've been an easier foe for Luna to deal with.

"Hermione," Harry turned toward his friend, but she curled away from the two boys and walked out ahead of them.

"Please, I just want to sleep-"

Ron met with Harry's step, "But, we should take you to the Hospital Wing to get healed-"

"There was something on that knife," Hermione said bitterly, her face obscured by her hair, "Dumbledore already tried. It won't heal. It's part of me now."

By the next morning the news had spread around the entire school. Dumbledore announced a rigid curfew so that not even prefects would be allowed in the hallways. Patrolling duties would fall to the professors and ghosts and anyone caught outside would be severely punished.

Two other students who had been attacked came forward – a small Hufflepuff second year, Daniel Poursaleh, and a 6th year Ravenclaw, Andrea Murphy. Both had the scars to prove it, and both identified Luna as their attacker.

Dumbledore had interrogated Luna, but even had he found it difficult to gain lucid information from her. She was apparently claiming innocence though the evidence against her was astounding. The Ministry had been alerted to the event, but with their hands full after the battle at the Department of Mysteries, it would be a few days yet before they would come to collect her.

The student body was in an uproar. While a few Slytherins were unabashedly approving of Luna's actions, the rest of the houses were vicious over what they expected her punishment to entail.

"She should be expelled, I hope! Jailed, even!" Melissa Runcorn shouted loudly, hugging her yearmate, Andrea about the shoulder as the student body milled in the Great Hall after dinner, "Why, I'll owl my father immediately and he'll have her out of this school in a blink!"

Justin Finch-Fletchley nodded emphatically, "Do it Melissa, get her out of here! She's a danger!"

"We always knew she was a lunatic!" Eddie Carmichael from Ravenclaw chimed in, biting angrily into an apple.

"She was probably working with Quirrell and Snape before!"

"-Always wondering around looking lost – that traitor was scouting out for her Death Eater friends!"

Harry and Ethan walked past the crowds without a word. It had been two days and the fervor hadn't yet died down. Everyone wanted Harry's personal commentary on both the Battle at the Department of Mysteries and Luna Lovegood's turn to the dark, and it had been nothing short of tiring.

The two brothers headed straight to their parents' suite. Since the curfew was in place, Harry planned to throw himself on his Father's mercy and beg for the cloak back.

On the way, Ethan coached him: "Remember, if he hesitates, just talk about how the cloak would help if you need to talk to Poppa or have a dream that is urgent like when Mr. Weasley got hurt."

"Right, how else can I maneuver the corridors?!" Harry practiced before they pushed open the portrait hole.

Inside, they found Hermione and their mother deep in conversation. The Gryffindor girl had been in hiding for the two days since the attack, and Harry regarded her with concern. Dark purple bags marred her eyes and usually frizzy hair was in such a state that even a brush would've had a hard time making its way through it.

"Hi, Harry," She greeted softly, "sorry, I just was stopping by to … to talk to your Mum."

Lily squeezed the girl's shoulders in comfort.

"I mean, that, she'd probably understand me. There's so few of us, afterall."

Muggleborn.

"Oh, did you want some privacy? I was just looking for Dad anyway-"

"No, it's alright. I was just blubbering on," Hermione smiled weakly and rolled her forearm, so the crude carving was visible to them, "Your Aunt Arulbella told me for sure that it's permanent. The only hope was to see what Luna'd put on the knife to make it scar, but they couldn't trace what potion it was. It'd already broken down by the time they tested it. It just … made me feel sad."

Tears filled the girl's eyes and Harry felt his mouth go dry.

"The thing is, I'd been feeling so guilty. Everyone had suffered so much except me, and then this happened, and really it's so small – just a tattoo, really - but it's just …. why did it have to be that?" Hermione turned to look beseechingly into Lily's green eyes, "Why that?"

"That word?" Harry tried tentatively as Lily handed Hermione a tissue.

"Yes!" She sighed brokenly, "Maybe you mightn't understand Harry, but when I found out I was magical, it was so, so very incredible and important. I was so proud of the fact that I was special, but – but –"

"It is something to be proud of," Lily stated quietly. "You never had the luxury of magical parents, of a magical bloodline but yet you were born with magic in your heart. What an accomplishment that is!"

"But we're the only ones who think so!" Hermione exclaimed, "I mean, don't get me wrong. That girl has tried to shame me, but I won't be ashamed. I am a Muggleborn and that is a part of me, but what kills me is that to everyone else we're considering freakish. I hate it that there are people who take the miracle of my magic and make it so dirty. I'll forever have this scar to remind me just how it is. Just how I 'm viewed."

Aside, Harry's lungs ached with the painful empathy that her words pulled from him. How long his abilities had made him the freak in 4 Privet Drive. How often had he wanted to be proud of the things he had been capable of, only to find they produced either hatred from his 'family' or a misplaced sense of fear and awe in the wizarding world?

Lost in the memories of a timeline past, he nodded, absentmindedly rubbing his own scar, "Hermione, what matters is not how others view you, but how those you care for do. And we think you're just brilliant."

Hermione flashed a watery smile, "Oh, Harry. Thank you." If they'd be alone, Harry knew his friend would have caught him in a hug, but the girl was always reserved when parents were around. "I should go, anyhow. Thanks Professor Potter, it means a lot that you took the time to listen to me."

"I'll walk you," Ethan offered, "Good luck, Harry."

Nearby, James raised an eyebrow at his eldest son, "For what, exactly?"

Harry grinned hopefully.

Some time later, after pleading with James for a solid half hour and promising not to use the cloak for any mischief, misbehavior, tomfoolery, or trouble, Harry was once more the proud owner of the invisibility cloak.

Cradling it like a long lost child, he walked the halls briskly, hoping to get back to the tower before curfew. As he walked, Harry thought of all his friends and all the tragedies they'd collectively suffered. They were all such good people and yet he had always been so helpless to save them. Yet, with Hermione … there was a possibility, right? If he was able to find out what had been used on the knife he could wipe the slate clean, rid her of her scar just as he had always wanted to be free of his.

Debating how likely it was that he'd get caught, Harry chewed on his bottom lip before making a firm decision and calling out for Dobby.

The house elf appeared with a pop and gleefully hugged Harry around the knees. "Harry Potter Sir! Dobby is missing you very much! What can Dobby do for Harry Potter Sir?"

"Dobby," Harry lowered his voice, ushering the elf toward a corridor, "Can you take me to where Luna Lovegood is being kept?"

The elf's wrinkled face lifted in curiosity, "Yes, Dobby can, Dobby is the one to feed the bad moon girl – did Headmaster give permission?"

A faint red hue heated Harry's cheeks, "No, but … I need to talk to her. Dobby … can you keep it a secret?"

"Yes yes," Dobby sighed, "Dobby cannot say no to Harry Potter, even if Harry Potter is being very naughty indeed. Dobby will keep Harry Potter safe, yes, Dobby will."

"Thanks, Dobby." Throwing the cloak over himself, Harry followed the elf to the fifth floor where they came to a solitary door guarded by multiple locks. It took Dobby a full seven minutes to unlock every single last latch, but finally, the door swung open to reveal a tiny, cold room.

Inside, Luna sat on a small uncomfortable looking bed. She was pale and haggard looking, her blonde hair straggly and hiding her face. Harry wondered what her interrogation at the hands of Dumbledore had amounted to, well remembering the pain of having one's memories ripped through.

"Hello?"

Astonishment lifted her pale eyebrows up her forehead, "Harry Potter?"

"Uh, yeah." Harry crossed into the room warily, his wand at the ready. "Look, Luna – you're in a lot of trouble, and I understand why you wouldn't want to talk to Dumbledore about your motives, but I want to ask you a question and I'm hoping you'll be decent enough to answer it."

She stared at him blankly.

"You hurt my friend, Hermione."

Luna turned to stare out the window. "The thestrals are restless tonight, they're flying all around the forest. No one ever likes them because they look odd."

"What? No, Lovegood," Harry demanded, "you hurt my friend! I want you to tell me what was on that knife. I can help you, you know, speak good things about you."

"I don't know much about knives. The curve of a spoon is so much kinder." She whispered.

"The 'Loony' thing is getting old. Be straight with me!"

"This fog has not been friendly to me."

"What. Was. On. The. Knife?!" He gritted his teeth.

Suddenly her eyes took on a slight bit of clarity and she looked straight at him, "Once you were the heir of Slyherin, like you, I cry: not guilty."

As she drew the comparison between his circumstances in second year and her own, repulsion filled his voice, "Unlike you, I wasn't lying."

Her pale lips trembled and she turned to Dobby, "Thank you for bringing me a visitor, Sir. Please take him now. He is unkind. Unkind! UNKIND!"

Dobby took Harry's hand gently, "Come Harry Potter, we are here too long."

But now, suddenly, the anger had drained from the boy, and he stared at the mad girl in surprise. "Not guilty?" He asked and she stopped her shrieks, only staring at him mutely as Dobby ushered him from the room.

His last glimpse of her was of a frail solitary figure in a cold, tiny room.

The next morning after breakfast, Harry searched out Hermione in the hallways. Finding her near the library, he took her by the arm and began to steer her toward Dumbledore's office while regaling her with the conversation he'd had with Luna.

"Harry, I can't believe you went there! Your Dad will kill you if he ever finds out-"

"It's not the worst thing I've done," Harry laughed, "But listen, while we leaving she called Dobby 'Sir'."

Hermione turned to face him and frowned, "She attacked me, Harry. I'm not mistaken."

"I'm not saying you're mistaken – but – if she hated muggleborns so much, why would she be so respectful to a house elf? The imperius curse could've been a possibility, right?"

Hermione looked away, "I suppose."

"I just want to give Dumbledore some evidence to look into but I can't tell him I went to see her."

"So, you want to see my memory of it?" The girl caught on quickly as they entered Dumbledore's empty office.

Harry nodded and pointed her toward the pensieve with a empathetic smile, "You've been through a lot, Hermione, and you're my biggest concern …. But …"

"We can't let an innocent get condemned." She affirmed and pulled the silvery string of a memory out of her before tossing it into the basin. "Go on then, Harry. I don't want to relive it."

With a bravado he didn't really feel, Harry crossed the room and entered the pensieve.

He fell into the dark corridors of Hogwarts, just behind Luna and Hermione as they walked together. Luna seemed collected, though a little twitchy, while Hermione was completely unaware. Suddenly, Luna drew her wand and in a second, Hermione fell forward onto the floor, body bound and her voice silenced in two swift swishes.

Luna crouched over her, hissing vitriol over her blood status. She berated her for being filthy and unworthy and as she threatened the lives of Hermione's parents, she pulled the knife from her pocket. Though it obviously was coated in something, in the darkness it was impossible to tell even the color of the potion.

He looked around the entire span of the memory but found no one nearby, no possible culprit peering at their own crime. It was useless. A disappointed sigh dropped from Harry's lips before he cringed as the knife made it's way into the tender skin of Hermione's forearm. His friend screamed and thrashed in agony, but it was for vain as her voice could not be heard nor her body able to move.

He was about to pull from the scene, his stomach lurching as Hermione's arm grew bloodier and bloodier by the moment, when he saw it.

Outside, disoriented, Harry blinked.

For as Luna had been cutting into his friend, spitting words of viciousness and hatred, her own tears fell just as much as Hermione's.

Convinced he had secured Luna's freedom, Harry had called both James and Dumbledore immediately. Both men viewed the memory as Harry and Hermione stood by and once they were out of the pensieve shared a grim look.

"Well?" Harry pressed, "You saw it, right? Why would she be crying if she was a Death Eater?"

"Harry," James began, "stranger things have happened. Not everyone who is evil is completely sans compassion."

"The girl is completely muddled. There's no telling what her tears meant." Dumbledore sat behind his desk and wiped his spectacles with a cloth.

"What about Veritaserum? Or Occlumency? Couldn't you-"

"Harry, do you think I hadn't used both? The girl is mad, neither gives anything but muddled answers."

Hermione, who had been quiet all this time, suddenly spoke in a soft tone, "Couldn't Imperius with malicious and forced intent cause madness?" Relief flooded Harry at the simple statement. He had worried that perhaps his push of Luna's innocence may be stepping on her toes, or somehow diminishing what she had gone through by suggesting the assailant wasn't at fault.

"It could," Dumbledore agreed, "but unless you both have a suspect in mind, we have no way to prove to it. The ministry will be coming to claim her tomorrow morning."

"Well, you'll have to hold them off –" Harry began, glancing at Hermione, "we can try and-"

"Hold them off? My dear boy, she is a girl who has committed acts of terrorism and we are in a war, I have no jurisdiction to hold her from the Ministry."

"But-"

"And at this time, we have greater things to worry about. You should be focusing on your training and our task with the horcruxes."

A heated anger took Harry. He didn't need reminding of the oncoming trials, and nor did he like his Great-Grandfather's easy dismissal of someone he was convinced was innocent.

"You'll have to excuse me, Poppa. You once said to me there were many mistakes you made in your life. I just don't plan to be like you, turning a blind eye to injustice." Harry bit out the words and turned on his heel, marching from the room.

He was halfway down the nearby staircase when he heard his Father calling him. Fairly certain he was about to face a telling off for being disrespectful, Harry found himself reluctant to turn but did so. "I know I was rude, but he's not doing the right thing!"

James stopped on the step in front of Harry and frowned, "I understand your frustration, Harry. I do. At times, your Great-Great-Grandfather can seem cold, even cruel. But this is a war and our focus has to go on battles we can win. We have no proof of any tampering with Luna, and the Ministry will be taking her into custody. We have two powers in this world, the Ministry and Dumbledore, any sign of a break between them will show Voldemort the very obvious chink in our armor."

"So, Dumbledore won't fight the Ministry on this?"

"No, for the same reason he didn't fight them on Remus. To pull rank would mean to break apart and right now we're just trying to stave Voldemort off until we can accomplish our mission."

Exhausted and let down, Harry let his shoulders slump.

"Alright, Dad. I won't curse his name."

"Also, why the interest in Luna, Harry? It's not as if you've ever spoken to her before."

His belly flipped at his Father's loaded question. Knowing there was no way he could explain his unauthorized visit to her holding cell, Harry tried to school his face into an innocent expression. "Er, well, I just have a hunch…she's always been so innocent and friendly."

"Hm." James' gaze was piercing. "Alright then. Just know that I'll be watching the map carefully today, Harry. Don't do anything foolish."

"No sir, nothing foolish!" Harry saluted his father playfully as he made a quick retreat.

The children met at lunch time in the hospital wing. Sally-Anne, Parvati and Theodore were the only remaining inhabitants as Eloise had been discharged early that morning. It was hard to think it had only been three days since the horror in the Department of Mysteries and already another situation had occurred.

"How are the others?" Harry asked as he took a seat beside Parvati's bedside.

"They're okay. Sally-Anne is still knocked out with some dreamless sleep potion … it's lucky Slughorn's had our year brew batches for the last week."

"Yeah, Ron mentioned. I guess without OWL's looming he's decided to go off lesson plans and take it easy."

Ethan refuted the idea, "No, our year's been doing them too."

Harry was going to voice a comment over why that would be, when he noticed the number of empty potion bottles on Parvati's own sidetable. It occurred to him with sickening realization that given all the terrible events in the past and the ones yet to come, that Slughorn was simply taking precaution to prevent the nightmares of reality from plaguing Hogwarts in sleep.

"And Theodore?"

Parvati shook her head sadly, "Nothing … Madame Pomprey is getting worried, no idea why he won't wake up. He seems back to normal health but he has yet to open his eyes."

Hermione, Ron and Draco arrived soon after and the discussion turned to Luna.

"So, how do you feel about it, Hermione? Do you think Luna is guilty or not?"

Fidgeting with the sleeve of her uniform, Hermione chewed on her bottom lip. "I …. I'm torn about it, but … I think Harry's right. I just feel something's off about the whole situation. But I don't know where I'd begin to consider other options."

"Goyle? Crabbe?" Parvati offered.

"I don't think so," Ron noted, "They were both in detention with Filch that night, courtesy of me."

Hermione made a good point, "I'd imagine if she was under imperius that whoever it was would have wanted to be somewhere around the area to better control the situation?"

Reclining beside Parvati on her hospital bed, Draco nodded, "Yeah, at least, assuming that it's a student. I don't think anyone our age would be so proficient enough to manage it from a far distance."

"Well, Runcorn is coming tomorrow morning to collect her, if we don't figure it out by then he'll have her dragged off and I doubt they'll offer a trial."

"Runcorn? Melissa's Dad?" Parvati asked, turning her face to Draco, "She was talking about him today – he's high up in the Ministry – and said they'll definitely not offer a trial . They'll probably take her to Nuremburg and leave her there."

"Melissa Runcorn was here again?" Ethan asked.

"Mhm. Visiting Theodore again. Super devoted to him – sitting beside him, giving him sips of water – I'd never have thought of them as a couple."

"I doubt they will be," Draco said, "Her dad might be Ministry but he's a pureblood supremacist, dark. No way she'd be allowed to marry Theodore now that he's disinherited for turning."

And just like that, it dawned on Harry. "Bloody hell," he adopted Ron's favourite phrase, "I've got it."

The others turned to him with curiousity in their eyes.

As his Father's warning rung in his ears, Harry continued on, "And I've an idea."

To be Continued ….

Luna: Whodunit and what's Harry 'great' idea going to be? Is he going to make James regret giving him the cloak back? More specifically, can anyone imagine what exactly the purpose of the attack is?

Dumbledore: Is it a good idea for him to remain Ministry aligned? Should he be taking a stand or are his motives right?

This chapter is definitely a bit more of an interlude chapter than most, mostly due to wanting to get back into the story, and so the chapter is a bit shorter to allow for me to get back into a routine a little faster. Nevertheless, I would still love to hear your thoughts and comments!

SQUEE: We are so so close to 2000 reviews!… I can barely believe it and I am SO SO GRATEFUL! As a thank you I'll be taking TWO usernames out of those who review this chapter and will work them into the next chapter! :D