The usual stuff, blah blah I don't own Harry Potter, you all know this let's just get to the story, shall we? See the end of the chapter for responses to reviews!

Chapter 2: Thinking Outside the Box

Luna had gone through her classes for the day in a bit of a daze. Her "housemates" had left her alone for the most part, probably better for them as far as she was concerned. Before she knew it lunch had rolled around, and she once again sat herself down across from Harry, just like she did at breakfast. Different from breakfast, however, was the fact that Hermione appeared to be aware of the world around her now as she smiled at Luna.

"Hello, you must be Luna. I'm-"

"Hermione Granger, Harry's other best friend. You seem to be doing much better than you were at breakfast, but aren't you going to eat? Pudding usually isn't served until dinner but this is still remarkably good." Harry gave a wry smile at Hermione.

"I told you she was something else. Steamrolled over Professor McGonagall too while you were off in another world at breakfast." Hermione blushed a bit at this.

"I was trying to figure out a way to free the house elves at Hogwarts." She turned to Luna and continued, "That's why I'm not eating, I refuse to eat food prepared by slaves." Luna tilted her head at this.

"How does starving yourself help the house elves? You can't be much help to anyone if you starve to death." Hermione was left sputtering at this.

"W-well I-" Harry gave a slightly exasperated sigh and pushed a plate in front of her.

"Eat Hermione, you can liberate the house elves when you have food in your stomach." Hermione sighed and started to eat.

"I guess you're right. Besides, we have a more pressing matter to deal with, making sure Harry survives the Tournament. We can meet in the library after classes and work on that."

The rest of Luna's day proceeded as normal, aside from Harry missing dinner which was slightly concerning, but she went to the library as planned and found Hermione already waiting for her.

"Hello Hermione," she said as she sat at the small table Hermione commandeered for them, "will Harry be joining us?" Hermione chewed on her lip in a way Luna found rather cute as she responded.

"I hope so. Hagrid kept him after Care and I haven't seen him since, so hopefully he's alright."

Soon after she said that, Harry came into the library looking noticeably pale, his signature scar standing out considerably more than usual. Luna's brow furrowed in concern.

"Harry are you alright? You seem to have a rather bad infestation of Blibbering Humdingers." She could see Hermione's face scrunch slightly at that, but it quickly returned to a look of concern.

"What did Hagrid need you for? You missed dinner and you look like you've seen a ghost." Harry shook his head.

"Not ghosts, dragons. Hagrid wanted to show me what they'd brought in for the First Task. I have to fight a dragon." Luna grimaced to herself. At least the First Task wasn't changed from her first time through. Now she just needed to figure out a better way to get him through it. Hermione, though, was outraged.

"A dragon?! They're making you fight a bloody dragon?! Are they out of their minds?!" Luna shook her head.

"The wizarding world loves blood sports Hermione, just look at Quidditch." Luna sighed.

"We're going to have to do everything we can to make sure Harry makes it out of this safely." Hermione nodded and grabbed a book on magical creatures.

"Look here, dragons have extremely sensitive eyes, it's one of the only places on their bodies that aren't covered by their magic resistant hide. If you have to go on the offensive try and aim for their eyes with a Conjunctivitis Curse or the like." Harry nodded while Luna thought for a moment.

"Perhaps what we need is to think outside the box a bit. Hermione, do you have a copy of the Triwizard Tournament rules?" Hermione nodded and pulled out a very large volume. "What are the rules for what Champions are allowed to bring into the Tasks?" Hermione flipped through several pages before finding the requested information.

"It says here that Champions are allowed to bring one and only one casting instrument into the Tasks, and defines a 'casting instrument' as an object with a magical focus, such a wand. Why do you want to know Luna?" Luna smiled.

"Because Hermione, there are plenty of magical objects that would give Harry tremendous advantages that don't fall under the definition of 'casting instruments'." Harry looked confused.

"Like what Luna?"

"Like potions." Hermione's eyes widened as the penny finally dropped for her.

"Luna you are a genius! Harry do you know what this means?" Harry smirked cheekily.

"No but I'm sure you're going to tell me." Hermione sighed in exasperation while Luna giggled.

"It means, Harry, that you can take potions in the Task which would give you a huge advantage against the dragon with the right potions." Harry's face lit up at this.

"Fred and George have been making potion-based prank products, I could probably use those on the dragon as well!" Hermione nodded, then looked pensive for a moment.

"This is all brilliant but we should make a back-up plan, just in case." Luna nodded, and Harry grinned mischievously.

"Hermione you're not going to like it but I might have an idea for that." Hermione looked at him skeptically. "If you or Luna brought my broom to the stands, I could summon it with that Accio spell we've been learning and use that to try and outfly the dragon." Before Hermione could get started on her tirade, Harry held up a hand. "Hermione, I know what you're going to say, but we both know I'm one of the best fliers in the school. Besides, this is just the back-up in case our idea with the potions goes south." Hermione crossed her arms but nodded.

"Fine, but only as a last resort." She turned to Luna. "You've been quiet about this Luna, what do you think?" In reality Luna knew that this was how Harry had originally gotten around the dragon, but she didn't want to tempt Fate with a chance for that to go wrong.

"I'm with Hermione on this one Harry, you're a great flier but this is a dragon we're talking about. That idea should be your last resort." Harry nodded.

"So that's our plan then?" Luna shrugged.

"More or less, wouldn't hurt to find a place to practice spells in private though." Harry nodded.

"Alright then, I'll see what I can find." He checked the time. "Blast, it's almost curfew. Meet back here tomorrow?" They all nodded as they began to gather their things to head back to their common rooms, hopefully before curfew.

Luna sighed in relief as she made it back to her common room just before curfew. She started to head up to her dorm room when a very familiar voice made her stop in her tracks.

"Hey there Looney. Cutting curfew a little too close, don't you think?" Luna closed her eyes and let out a sigh. She knew this was coming. This time, things would be different. She turned around, determination in her eyes, and faced her tormentor.

"Hello Chang."

Yes I know it's a bit of a cliffy but I'm still trying to work out exactly what Luna is going to do to get her housemates to back off. The potions idea for the First Task is inspired by Temporal Knight's absolutely brilliant Harry Potter and the Rune Stone Path which I highly recommend if you haven't read it already.

Now to reply to some of the reviews!

griffin blackwood, Nigelcat1, and anonymous Guest: Thank you for the encouragement I really appreciate it!

BlueFlamedTeddyBear: Thank you for the encouragement but you might be a bit disappointed as I'm starting to like the idea of Harry/Hermione/Luna in this story, I hope you still enjoy it!

And last but not least, The Deranged Piggy: I'm very sorry about making you wait another chapter to see what Luna does to her housemates but I hope you are not disappointed when you read it!

Thanks to everyone for continuing to read this story, I will do my best to continue to respond to reviews at the ends of chapters. Goodbye for now!