It was November 17th and two days had passed since his runic success. That was a silver lining he could find, his success in runes. Literally he had yet to find a single person in the school that was even pretending to not shun him anymore. The teachers overlooked him, and Hermione was never away from Ron it seemed anymore.

Even when she was alone, she avoided looking at him and he couldn't bring himself to start the conversation. He had decided that until someone spoke to him, he was going to follow suit and shun them all in return.

The shunning was offset by his second silver lining. The Daily Prophet had published the Triwizard Champions Weighing of the Wands article and he was not a part of it. In fact, there was only a small blurb saying he had been unavailable for pictures or interview. The front page had a picture of the champions with their respective headmasters behind them.

Harry was happy that they had gotten on board with him on not wanting to be a champion even if he had to take part by contract. That they had left him out of the article was a good sign!

He had spent the entire day doing whatever he wanted, not even when he ran across Snape had the man gotten on him for skipping class. Harry had enough and was exploring the castle thinking of what he was going to do for the task in six days.

He made his way to the less used corridors until he found a new room. It was an old dueling room that was only a hallway over from the defense room from the looks of it. Muggle weaponry rested against a wall though they were not in good shape anymore.

Seeing the weapons and shields did get him to thinking causing him to let out a small groan. At this rate he was gone to turn into a Ravenclaw. He had made excellent stuff so far but besides the wand performing several magnitudes of order better he had nothing else prepared for the first task .

There were some interesting pieces around the room though. Pikes and swords of all types were along the walls. A selection of different shields was racked not far from the weapons as well. There were even a few pistols with equipment that drew his interest. He had no desire to be a gunslinger, though the powder horns drew his eyes.

They reminded him of the old fashioned hunting horns. When warriors announced their entry onto the battlefield with a call to war. He found one that was both in good condition and looked similar to what he imagined a Viking hunting horn looked like.

It was wooden with worn ivory caps on each end. The plugs had come loose though he had no use for those anyways. A Reparo caused cracks to seal up and cleaned the dirt off though that was it. Still, the beaten look with the intricate scrollwork was awesome.

With war-torn days of old on his mind it got him to thinking of war banners, did the house of Potter have a coat of arms? He had no idea and was determined to find out. Taking the horn, he made his way out of the room back into the castle halls.

Once again no one even glanced at him as he made his way down to the library. It was starting to bring him down though he refused to allow himself to be brought down. He would show them all that he was stronger than them. They could shun him all they wanted; he would prevail in the end.

Even with the few safe library spells, it took him over an hour to find a book covering the history of the Potters. Nothing was known of them until they appeared in the Kingdom of Kent in the 6th Century. Traders and craftsmen the Potters were a wealthy clan. They settled down in Kent where they were still thought to live when the book had been published.

Godric's hollow was clear on the other side of the isle? What the hell had his family been doing over there when they were from Kent? Confused he found that the house of Potter did in fact not have a coat of arms. The muggle house Potter did though the Magic House Potter did not have one.

Harry had no desire to lay claim to the muggle families' rightful coat of arms and so decided to make his own. He started making a mental list and right away a few things became clear.

He hated his scar so no lightning bolts thank you very much. Wands were covering almost every bit of heraldry he had found so far. Magic animals were also popular and he was wanting to stand out.

A basilisk fang was a must, a stag as well. A deep green solid field with red trim, a white stag in the middle with the fang and a hunting horn flanking the stag.

The red and green for his mother, stag for his father, the horn and fang would be for himself. The magical house of Potter would have a standard he would proudly carry.

That night he spent hours in his study room refining the image until it looked exactly how he wanted it to be. Now he had to figure out how to get it made. Shite, Harry had not a naffing clue how to go about getting that done. With the school shunning him it wasn't like he could ask around.

Deciding to call it a night he made his way back to the dorm thinking about how he could get a banner made by the first task. He had a few ideas on what he could do with runes to it. He had already finalized his idea for what he was going to call the House Potter War Clarion. Bastards wanted to shun him he would give them something to remember.

Sitting up from his bed a thought struck him like a bolt. Know that he had thought of it he would not be able to sleep until he checked.

Not even bothering with his cloak anymore he left his dorm well past curfew. He had passed Filch on patrol last night and the man had not even acknowledged Harry. There was no point in sneaking about when everyone ignored your existence.

It was facing the entrance to the chamber of secrets that he heard someone actually speak to him for the first time in days. It was a quiet and tired voice of a girl, which made sense as this was the girl's loo.

"Well you're not a girl, are you? Are you looking for Blibbering Humdingers as well?"

Turning to the sound he found a petite blonde girl in her nightdress staring at him with her head cocked to the side. Deciding to ignore most of the question he was trying to not stare at her in her nightdress.

"Umm… no, I'm going to visit the Chamber of Secrets. Do you want to come?"

He wasn't sure why he invited her along. Part of it was due to being flustered over a young girl in her nightdress. Another part, the larger part, was due to her not shunning him.

"Oh yes, will you take me down there to perform dark rituals to call the ancient beast that will cleanse the school? If so I need to tell you I am allergic to goblin silver, so use a moon silver blade instead okay."

Harry decided that it was best to go along with it. He was desperate enough for attention he would take what he could get. Besides she was cute so that helped a great deal.

"Thanks, I'm sure that could be important to someone to know. I don't plan to do any dark rituals or call ancient beasts tonight. Just need to grab some stuff from down there real quick."

She nodded along and moved over beside him.

"Well how do we get to the chamber? Do we have to hold hands? Daddy said I could only hold hands with a boy if I was married or there was an important reason. Going to a thousand-year-old secret chamber seems important."

Harry had to laugh letting a smile split his face for the first time since his name came from that blasted goblet.

"Hand-holding isn't required though it would make the big slide more fun so we can do that."

A blush lit up Harry's face as he held out his hand not sure if she would take it or not. Distracting himself he looked over to the sinks and hissed for them to open.

He was startled slightly as her hand slipped into his but he smiled even more looking down at her hand. Tugging it lightly he made his way over to the slide. Casting a Lumos as he remembered how dark it had been.

Realizing he was holding the hand of a girl without knowing her name he blushed even harder as he started talking again.

"I'm Harry Potter by the way, nice to meet you."

Luna looked down at the hand she was holding and let out a quiet laugh.

"Yes, nice to meet you Harry Potter, I am Luna Lovegood, you can call be Luna if you want."

Harry was also staring at the he hand held in his as he replied to her.

"Luna is a pretty name, call me Harry please."

A smile broke across her face as she was taking in everything that was happening.

"I would be happy to call you Harry."

Taking a step closer he looked up to her face only to see she was looking at him as well. They smiled to each other before going down the slide.

Harry watched as Luna stared at the chamber and carcass of the dead basilisk. It was not a pleasant smell at all. Harry had gagged and nearly vomited until the smell had disappeared quite suddenly.

Luna had informed him she was well familiar with the Bubble-Head charm from the expeditions with her father around the world. It seemed like a mighty useful charm to learn and he made a mental note of it.

Still without the living magic of the basilisk the venom and blood had decomposed the body something fierce. The flesh and skin around the venom had been the first to go as the head was nearly completely bare.

The whole of the beast was a rotting vile mess that was beyond saving. It was the skull that he had wanted and the skull was fine along with the rib bones as well. He wanted to send off the skull and rib bones to be made into his banner stand and pole.

Well at least one person was not shunning him so he decided to go with his only hope.

"Luna I want to get a banner made before the first task. If there is time I would also want the skull and ribs used for a stand and pole. Do you have any suggestions on how to actually get that done?"

Luna looked down at him from where she had climbed on top of the statue. Tilting her head she appeared to be thinking.

"Nope, but if we send them to daddy he can have them ready in a few days at most for you. Just promise to let me do an interview with you and it's a deal!"

Harry didn't even have to think about it he smiled up at Luna and agreed.

"How will we get it all to him though?"

Harry had only wanted to check if it was still here and usable or not. He hadn't thought on how he was going to transport the giant items.

"Shrinking charms of course."

Here matter of fact and simple solution had Harry facepalming at the answer. That was such an obvious solution he had no idea how it had slipped his mind. Casting some powerful cutting charms he managed to get the skull and a dozen ribs free. Levitating them to the side he began casting scouring charms at them until he was sure they were clean.

Shrinking them took a little bit of effort but was doable. After Luna was done measuring the nostrils of the statue, she agreed she was ready to leave as well.

It was once they were at the bottom of the slide that Harry realized he had no idea how he had gotten up the last time. Thinking for a second he started hissing words at the stairs. Stairs, steps, walkway, not-slide, reverse, go up, and others before giving it up as a bad job.

Resolving to bring a broom next time he cast sticking charms on Luna and his shoes trudging up the slide. The incline as surprisingly low and it took far longer going up than down for some reason. Chalking it up to magic doing strange things once again he was happy it had not been a total slog.

"I had fun Luna, thanks for going down with me. You want me to walk you to your dorm?"

Luna was smiling at first, it had been fun, but by the end her smile was noticeably forced.

"No I don't sleep in Ravenclaw Tower, it's full of nargles."

Harry had no clue what a nargle was but he recognized when someone was saying something was bad without saying it was bad. He had tried that same thing until he had given up on that before at the Dursley's.

"Well I don't have anything special but I do have a hidden room you can use. It's really hidden, no one can find it swear!"

Luna smiled brightly as Harry offered his secret hideout to her. Secret hideouts were important as they were secret. That he would offer his for her made her happy.

"That would be nice, I carry a bed with me for nights when the nargles are really bad."

Harry was sure whatever was happening was likely on par with his shunning. Hogwarts was not a happy place for some, for some it was a horrible place sometimes. Harry decided that no matter what he would help Luna however he could.

They made their way to the room but as they approached it Luna found she couldn't see the room and was wandering off away from it non-stop. He tried to drag her into the room and even that didn't work.

It was only after he remembered what runes he had written that he realized what had happened. He tried to find the words to remove them but couldn't get them to leave the wood, at most they were visible for a minute or two before settling back down again. He tried to erase or change any of the words but they were fully integrated and resisted any change.

Finally after calling her name for what had to be the hundredth time he had an idea.

"Luna your last name was Lovegood right? It's important for what I want to try."

Luna looked up from the suit of armor that was for some reason important to her and nodded her head going back to inspecting the armor.

Harry called the writing back to the surface before casting the word spell again adding three more words to it. He planned to overlay the new words on top of the old ones. To prevent others from doing the same he also planned to end it with punctuation this time.

"This room is secret so stay away unless you're me, Property of Harry Potter and Luna Lovegood!"

Harry wasn't sure why he was so trusting of the girl but something about her made him trust her almost fully.

The spell was strong but since he was laying it over a near-identical one it was only a bit more intense than the first time. Still, after he finished, he sat down against the door panting.

Luna skipped over and stopped for a second. She read the words as they faded and smiled brighter than any Lumos ever cast. Seeing Harry was worn out she sat down beside him laying her head on his shoulder.

He had truly meant it when he said he had a secret room. She hadn't even been able to think about the room or door he had been talking about. Even him carrying her found her somehow falling out of his arms the one time they had tried that. This room was the most secure room she could imagine, and Harry had added her name to it!

Outside her family, no one had ever even approached doing something like this. It was an amazing thing that Harry had done for her. A room she would always be safe in, a room next to the library even!

A softly whispered thank-you escaped from her lips as she collected herself resting there beside Harry. How long they rested she could not say but soon enough Harry was jostling her to get up. He opened the door for her, and she entered into the medium-sized classroom. It was a large room of close size to the dada classroom.

Harry had only taken a small portion of the room leaving plenty for her to set up her portable bed. Levitating around some objects and casting a few cleaning charms it was set up easily enough.

The bed was shaped more like a tent with a comfy padded floor than a traditional bed. It was her travel bed and she was used to so there was no issue with it.

Harry looked at the bed and was interested in it. It looked like a circular tent that had an open flap on part of it. The whole thing was no more than a three feet tall and as many wide yet the inside looked a fair bit bigger.

"Luna is it bigger inside? Do you know how they did it? Was it runes?"

Luna smiled and began explaining the tent to an awestruck Harry.

"It's a magic tent, five times bigger on the inside than the out. It's enchanted not made with runes. I'm only in my first year of runes but I know people can't do that with normal runes. Yours can though, those were interesting. Especially how you embed them in the door instead of carving them in the door, really tricky."

Harry blushed again at her compliment this time, he was doing that a lot with her, blushing. He thought for a few seconds and came up with a good idea.

" I could make it always clean and comfortable for you, it would also keep you safe and have good dreams. Can I try, I'm sure it won't mess anything up."

Harry was sure it wouldn't mess anything up for one reason. He knew if that he was sure it would be fine then his magic would work fine. If he hesitated it would fail to work right.

"Are you sure Harry, do you need to rest first? The work on the door really made you tired. Maybe a rest up first and do the bed later?"

Harry yawned surprising himself at how tired he was. Nodding to her idea he wished her a good night and promised to come visit first thing in the morning.