Author's notes:

"We have winners! Readers RedheadLover, REGibson, Alatoic01, and The Wolf Paladin guessed right and revealed Hedwig! The best of girls, if I say so myself. Now then, what did they win?" I glance around to find something to give out. Sadly, my room doesn't have much to offer.

"Ah. I have these perfect slices of bacon ready-" I moved to the kitchen and looked at the empty pan that hold the bacon just a moment ago...

"Hoot." said Hedwig innocently, sitting on the fridge. I swear that she could smell it from another dimension or something. I can't help but facepalm. Why haven't I foreseen that coming?

"That was not for you." I loudly berate her to no visible effect. I guess I will have to think about something else.

"Well, thumbs up for you three!" There. Easy, doesn't cost anything. (Weren't there like 4 of them?) Oh well, it was almost perf-

"Ouch. What are you doing, you ruddy bird!? I have no more bacon and that was my finger, damn it!" What a menace. Now that I think about it, she does look a bit fat.

"Ouch, Ouch! Not my hair! And leave my ear alone!" Crazy bird. Now I knew why she was so difficult to sell at the Diagon Alley shop. I should send her away with a letter or something. Hopefully, she will arrive at Harry's place within a few chapters.

Chapter 3 – Odd encounter

Harry apologized for laughing at her, and they made up smoothly. Well, it was not that easily done. Harry tried to ask Neville how to apologize the best, but that went nowhere. Fred and George were of no help too, as what they suggested felt more like pranks than genuine apology. Who ended up helping was actually someone unexpected. Parvati and Lavender overhead Harry's conversation with the twins and inserted themselves into it.

"Fred, why would he give her cat treats?" asked Parvati with a raised eyebrow. She was sitting just behind them on the couch. Now she propped herself up to stare at them.

"No reason. And I'm George." smirked innocently, perhaps George. Harry was 90% sure he was Fred, though. The entire room sensibly chosen to ignore this old remark.

"You should give her a book. Simple." advised Parvati. She didn't sound that interested though and flipped some magazine. Which was odd as she was still propping herself on the couch, face toward Harry and twins.

"Doesn't she have like tons of them already?" asked Lavender, sitting next to her. Parvati just shrugged her shoulders.

"Yes, she does. But she doesn't have this!" remarked likely George, well the other, other George. The one going by Fred just now. Harry looked at the item, interested. It was a silvery half circle earring like thing that looked suspiciously home made.

"Eh. What would that do? Grow donkey ears? Make her trip?" asked Lavender, narrowing her eyes at it, guarded. They all had their fair share of being the target of the pranks, so her suspicion was warranted. Though lately the twins did not prank him at all.

"You wound me, dear Lavender. This is our latest invention." said Fred with a faux theatrical heartache, then switched promptly to showing the piece as if it was a holy grail.

"Straightingly curlygone earring. Straightens even the most unyielding types of hair. Our masterpiece." enthusiastically presented George.

"Yours for the great price of only 2 galleons and 14 sickles. It's practically a steal." urged Fred, now offering said item to Parvati and Lavender instead of Harry, their original goal long forgotten, it seemed. Harry quietly watched from afar, one step back.

Parvati looked at George shoveling the earring into her face as if he ate a bug, rolled her eyes and said. "Not interested." Harry wasn't all that surprised. Her hair was essentially straight already.

"Did you test this?" asked Lavender, not convinced.

"Sure we did, right George?" asked Fred, and wiggled one eyebrow to his twin.

"Of course, Fred. We guarantee it works on everyone." answered George with a bright smile.

Lavender's eyes glinted skeptically. "Everyone? Prove it. Try that on Fred. I want to see it."

"Eh. Well. It doesn't work on short hair." tried George, sounding much less confident than a second ago.

"Try it on, Harry, then. Or is that length not enough?" pushed Lavender once again. Harry freaked out. He did not want to have this tested on him and be pulled onto becoming a test subject.

"Sure-" said Fred, but Harry interjected.

"No." shot out Harry, frightened about what it would do not only to his hair but anything else.

"You heard the man. Not interested. It doesn't work well on men, anyway. So wanna buy?" asked George.

"No way." answered Lavender while Parvati started jiggling at her deadpan given rejection.

"Harry?" asked Fred. Harry only shook his head in the negative.

"Oh well. You are missing out ladies." said George.

"Hey George, think we can try to sell it to some French beauties?" asked Fred as they moved toward the door out of the common room.

"Absolutely." nodded along George.

"Oh revuar!" shouted both of them together, absolutely butchering the French and sending fake kisses flying toward the girls.

Parvati huffed and stopped jiggling. Lavender openly frowned after that, and both girls turned back to Harry.

"Give her something she likes, Harry." suggested Lavender and continued as if nothing happened. Harry himself had to double take what was the previous conversation about.

"Or a chocolate. You can't go wrong with that." piped Parvati, still pretending to read the magazine. Something about hairstyles or such. To Harry, it seemed boring.

"Yeah. Thanks for the help." answered Harry, abruptly feeling shy now that the twins had abandoned him.

"No problem, Harry." answered Parvati and Lavender nearly at the same time, sounding almost as Fred and George when they did it. They looked at each other and both of them burst into a laughing. They were even shouting something about jinxes for some reason. Harry discreetly made a retreat out of there when they stopped looking in his direction.

Harry ultimately bought some chocolate quills. First, it was chocolate, and second, Hermione liked those, so he was fairly sure it would go well. Leaving her going on about the day looking so ridiculous was a dick move, truly, but Harry realized it all too late to change it. Sincerely, she looked spectacularly funny that way, so he couldn't help himself. At least she wasn't such a person to hold a grudge.

"Thank you, Harry. I accept your apology." replied Hermione as she took the quills from his hands.

"Do you want to research some spells for the tournament? I made a list-" and Harry was no longer listening, only nodding along at the appropriate times and let her move the conversation as she lead them to the library.

Both researched what they could together and spend hours pouring over many books. Hermione called the activity "fun" and Harry wisely kept silent about his different opinion on the matter. Well, Hermione did most of the reading, Harry was just there, picking up spells that could be useful, information about the Triwizard Tournament and, of course, about dragons. He wasn't exactly orderly about it and kept losing focus.

The results were lacking, despite their combined efforts. It was one thing if it was only Harry, but even with Hermione's help? Nothing they found seemed overly helpful. Harry had no idea how to kill a dragon, go past it, or bring something the dragon was guarding. There were too many variables. He needed to narrow it down.

Even if Charlie was right and they had to bring something the nesting dragons were guarding, like one of the eggs, he did not know how to accomplish that. Sure, there was summoning charm, but Harry doubted it would work on the egg itself. And stunning a dragon needed at least 7 fully coordinated dragon handlers if not more for more dangerous species.

It would be great if they could be easily put to sleep as Fluffy was, but no such luck. Most dragons weren't very musical, and unless Harry was somehow secretly male Veela, it would not happen. First, there were like 3 in the whole of France and 0 in the United Kingdom. It seemed unlikely, especially when the book mentioning them was nearing the century being out of date. That meant they were likely all dead now. Hermione suggested that the similar statistic should hold even now, but who cared about that? Secondary, considering the effects, he would know if he was one anyway, so that point was moot. No singing dragons to sleep.

Harry had to clear his mind. He couldn't sleep, his thoughts heavy. Sneaking was nearly Harry's second nature, so when he went away from his warm bed, nobody noticed. The night was crisp and cold, yet the night chill was bearable and the weather was clear, not much wind. All together, the perfect time to do some flying.

Hidden under his invisibility cloak, it took only a brief moment until he was out of the castle and in an open field. It was remarkably easy with the Marauder's Map to guide him. Carefully sticking the cloak close and maneuvering it with more sticking charms, he was able to cover not just himself, but the most of his broom as well. The "exhaust" portion, technically the tip with bristles, was left as is, exposed. Hopefully, it would be enough. He couldn't reasonably cover it anyway, as it would interfere with the flight. Plus, Harry really did not want to burn Father's cloak. The bristles of the brooms could get rather hot after the matches, after all.

He missed flying free. Less so, quidditch. Lately, quidditch matches were marred with terrible memories for him. Dementors last year and Death Eaters just this summer. Blinking the sleep and somber mood away, Harry swept above the Forbidden Forest and let his mind wander. At low speed, it moved basically soundless and produced an only minimum of light. Perfect for cover.

As he flew over to the site with dragons on it, Harry thought about what to use. The Room of Requirements offered several solutions, from blasting it, which should moderately work against some dragons, to crippling dragon's eyes. That got Harry's full attention. Swelling Dragon's eyes shut should work well, as their eyes are their weak point. Plus, it worked well on basilisk. Harry shuddered just remembering that event. Still, that wouldn't get him closer to getting the guarded item if the dragon was trashing around. The dragon was likely to crush her own eggs this way and fail Harry's task. Harry was nearing close and saw a sleeping form of several dragons.

"Who's there?" asked an unknown voice in the dark, scaring him out. Thank Merlin he was great at the broom handling and his flight hadn't even wavered.

Harry slowly stopped in the air and turned around. His heart was pounding fast and loud, but he didn't see anyone. Was the other person hiding as well? Several long moments flew by, but nothing changed. Someone must have been flying on the broom nearby, likely one of the handlers. There didn't seem to be any guards when he followed behind Hagrid just the other day. Just his luck. Harry forced himself to abandon the mission for now and risen high above the ground.

Scouting dragons more closely was not worth this increased danger. He did not want to get caught and backed away slowly. Whoever was sweeping around the perimeter hadn't noticed him, thankfully. It was too bad that he was unable to check for sure. Harry was outside of the Map boundary and not in any of the mapped secret tunnels, not even his name was shown anywhere. Or was that because he was not on the Hogwarts' ground? He hasn't actually checked as this was the first time he brought the map while flying. Maybe later.

While flying back, Harry thought about other spells than a few blasting variants he tried before, so he headed back to the Room. In one book he found a jinx that summoned magic cords to trap the target, Brachiabindo. It was super interesting at first, but Harry's execution was quite shoddy and the rope thin, see through, weak and useless. He might get better over time with it, but it did not seem to be worth to spare the effort, Dragon could easily tear even stronger ones. Bird conjuring was a bust, Harry was doing something wrong and nothing came out of it. Maybe he should try summoning snakes next. Worked for Malfoy, so it should be easy. And his reputation couldn't be any lower, anyway.

Harry's eyes fell into a Confundus Charm. It definitely looked useful enough, but more so against humans by the description. It might work on the dragon if he targeted its eyes, ears, or nose, but its effectiveness was unknown. There was no live target to try it on, after all. Well, Dobby might volunteer, but Harry wasn't too keen on that. Even if it worked on elves, they were far too different from dragons physically, so any positive result would not tell Harry anything.

Another spell with the effect of freezing was likely too weak to overpower a literal fire-breathing dragon, so Harry hasn't bothered to learn it. Stupefy Duo was a stronger version of stunning charm, but took longer to cast. Against magic resistant dragons, it was unlikely to work. Not unless he was more magically powerful, then 7 adult trained wizards. And even then, they hadn't used it, so that was likely a bust as well. No way Harry was better at it then several literal dragon handlers.

Harry yawned sleepily, ending his research and practice session. That was enough for the night. He was barely holding himself conscious. Backing away from the Room, Harry forgot to check that the coast was clear. Big mistake. Harry was speeding up on the empty hallway with his eyes half lid when he suddenly bumped into a something and fell down.

"Ouch!" hissed out a voice that wasn't Harry's own, from somewhere underneath him. Did he stumble and took someone with him? Harry panicked. The gasp sounded surprisingly girlish. Harry screwed up, didn't he? What a moron. Did he squeeze her somewhere? Kicked her gut? Harry sure hoped that he did not. He didn't want anyone hurt. Or other rumors to start.

"Sorry. I wasn't looking." apologized Harry quickly out of reflex, panicking more and shooting to his feet. He shouldn't have done that if he wanted to stay hidden. Looking around, his cloak slipped from his shoulders on impact and was lying on the floor like a piece of rags. His broom was still in his arm, but Harry was no longer invisible before this student, some girl he did not recognize. What should he do? He couldn't flee like that. She was already looking in his direction, still sprawled on the ground.

"Ehm. I won't tell if you don't?" suggested Harry awkwardly, rubbing his neck nervously and tapping his broom on the floor. He had high hopes for this working and salvaging his situation. Both were breaking the rules, out of dorms when they should not, so hopefully she would stay silent about it. Should he help her? Maybe he should. Eh. Too late, it took him too long deciding. Pale, silvery-haired girl slowly stood up on her own, her feet oddly bare. She nodded her head and smiled at him.
"Of course, mister Harry Potter. You and I never met." answered the girl agreeably. She had an odd undertone, as if she was sad about something, her voice wavered at the end. Why? He was prepared for anger flaring or her fleeing in fear, not this. Judging by the colors she wore, she was a Ravenclaw and surprisingly shorter than him. Not one of his classmates. He knew the faces of everyone, at least vaguely. She was probably from the lower year? That made sense why they never met. Her eyes suddenly glinted out of nowhere as she straightened self and moved closer.

"Or did we?" quizzed her voice soon after as she tilted her head to the side and stared straight into Harry's eyes. It was such an intense glare, as if she was peering at his very soul. Harry was mildly uncomfortable and, frankly, quite lost. What did she mean? It took him a moment to realize what she suggested with her question. Have they met somewhere before? He wasn't aware of that. Nevertheless, while racking his brains, he doubted they had met. She looked really memorable for that. The confusion was soon resolved as the girl in question whipped up her hand and offered it up for a handshake.

"Hello beautiful stranger. I'm Luna Lovegood." intoned Luna. She changed from spacey to a pleasant, melodic voice. It was as if she was singing, a stark contrast from her previous words that were far from cheerful. But why call him beautiful? It was rather odd. Nobody ever said that to him. Wasn't that also a compliment usually used for girls and women? Oh, no matter, he should introduce as well.

"Harry. Eh, hi, my name is Harry Potter." fell down from Harry's mouth after a moment of stepping on his tongue. It was far from a great introduction. In fact, it was terrible. He wanted to dig a hole and hide in it.

"But you already knew about that anyway." continued speaking Harry, in merely a mumble. He didn't feel good about his speech. It was kind of depressing. Everyone knew who he was, yet he had a hard time asking for names of others because of it. Oh, Merlin, was he really that unprepared to introduce himself anymore? It made sense. He had met no one who didn't know who he was as soon as he showed his forehead.

"Nice to meet you, Harry. Can I call you that?" asked Luna, still holding his hand and doing a few lazy shakes. Harry naturally obliged.

"Sure." agreed Harry easily as he saw no problem with people calling him by his name, all the while trying to weasel out of the handshake already, somehow. He had never held a hand of a girl for so long, so he became nervous and self-conscious of it. Yet her grip was surprisingly strong. He failed to stealthily disengage, and she noticed his efforts. Yet despite the firmer grip, she continued holding it with no change of her expression.

"Oh." breathed out Luna and brought their joined hands together close to her face. It was as if she was inspecting it. Why? What was she doing? Was Harry's hand dirty? Nope. She did something more outrageous. She pressed her lips against the top of his hand and kissed his knuckles. What in the world? Harry blushed in confusion, looking at his now freed hand in wonder. Did that really happen? And why?

"Hmm. No, that wasn't right. Am I missing something?" wondered aloud Luna, oblivious to the situation, her index finger pointing to her chin. She left Harry completely dazed and out of his depth here, so he remained silent. He was unsure about what brought this up. Why did Luna kiss his hand? Meanwhile, Luna seemed unfazed, staring into a space, bumping her index finger against her lips repeatedly while humming. Harry didn't know what to think. His head was empty. That was a first kiss he ever received. Not on the lips and it was quite odd, but still. After some short deliberation, Luna brightened up.

"Ah. I got it. Daddy said that it should be boy kissing the knuckles, not the other way around. Silly me..." giggled Luna as she offered her hand. "Your turn, Harry." asked Luna immediately after.

Harry's blush came back with a full force, and he wanted to flee. He was full of awkward thoughts and embarrassment, but he couldn't back out of this. Harry was a Gryffindor, the house of the brave. He should act the part. And, most importantly, his cloak was still on the ground behind the girl. He couldn't leave without it. So he did as he was told. Frankly, he was good at that, even though he wished he wasn't. Dursleys made sure of it. That thought brought him back from the embarrassment and steeled his resolve.

Harry took the offered hand gingerly and copied the move she did for him and lightly kissed her knuckles as well. The contact was only for a briefest of the moment, but Harry blushed up a storm, anyway. He tried to look at anything other than his hand or her face, and to not touch his own mouth. It was very difficult and his focus was completely shattered, until he spotted a familiar pale blue number over Luna's head ticking one number up, taking his mind from the kiss.

It showed 16. What could that mean? And why was he noticing it just now? It was rather high, especially for someone he had just met, but Harry had no clue why. He had to learn about it more. The sooner the better. Could it be a number to show friendliness toward him? It could explain Hermione, even Ron's current low number. Still, that left the question, why was Ginny's so high? They barely spoke to each other. Now it was Luna's odd meeting, and she was already showing a higher number than practically all his classmates, including Neville. Maybe he was wrong about it?

He should test it tomorrow. Harry had class with Snape and Malfoy was in it, too. He would surely gain some insight when seeing their numbers. On the other hand, he still had to prepare for the task and train, so Harry couldn't easily take his time to solve this mystery. No matter, he finally got a moment to retrieve his cloak and hide it behind his back. He could leave anytime now, but choose not to.

"Beautiful night, isn't it?" said Harry to fill the sudden silence and threw his hand vaguely toward the window. They were both idling and simply being just there, lost in the moment. Sure, Harry was sometimes scatterbrained and stared at or into nothing, but he wasn't used to seeing someone behaving similarly. What was Luna still doing there, looking at him?

"Yes, it is. The nargles are flying low today." answered Luna seriously as both of them stared outside through the window. It took a moment for Harry to fully register her words. The what?

"Nargles?" questioned Harry, hearing the unfamiliar term. He saw no creatures outside when flying, whatever these were.

"Nargles are known to be mischievous thieves and to often infest mistletoe. Their looks are highly debatable, but my father and I are trying to catch one, but they are slippery." answered Luna dreamily.

"Oh, I didn't know that. Any other creature I should worry about in the castle?" asked curious Harry. That question started long talk about various creatures, where Luna mostly talked and Harry listened. It was fascinating to hear about these creatures, even though more than a few of her claims seemed a bit out there. In any case, he wouldn't dismiss her claims so easily. He had some weird stuff happening to him over the years. Who was he to say these creatures didn't exist just because he was unable to see them? The pleasant talk would have to be cut short, unfortunately. Harry would have liked to talk for longer, but he was begging to feel too drowsy for that. He managed to ask one question before separating their paths. It was burning on his mind ever since she mentioned various creatures.

"What would you do if you had to face a dragon and take away something from it?" asked Harry. Dragon was much tangible than nargles for Harry and much more relevant for days onward.

"Hmm. Not sure. Is it for the task?" asked Luna on point after some deliberation. Harry nodded as an answer.

"I don't know. It seems tough. Wouldn't it be easier if the dragon was not there?" suggested Luna.

"Of course it would. But how could I accomplish that?" retorted back Harry, mildly irritated at her lack of proper ideas. Making the dragon disappear from the spot had to be harder than battling it head on. Maybe Hogwarts had a giant fireplace he could somehow stuff the dragon in? Harry mentally chucked at the gloriously wacky image.

"There are ways. I'll have to ask Daddy. We haven't met wild dragons on any of our trips so far, but I'm sure he has something prepared for that occasion too." said Luna.

"That would be grand." answered Harry lacklusterly, but he barely paid attention. His mind was already in his bed. He had very low expectation that Luna's father would help him in any way. Adults were usually unhelpful and quite dismissing, after all. Still, what-if?

"Okay, so see you tomorrow?" asked Harry half-heartedly. As if she would want to talk with him the next day. She will probably stay away from him as the rest of the student's body, except for a few people. Nobody wanted to associate with the cheater champion these days. Or maybe his expectation was worse than the reality. He was quite bad at reading the true intentions of people, after all.

"Yep. Bye Harry." cheerfully responded Luna, waved both of her hands and skipped away. Harry shook his head to get rid of the image, let her go, and moved to his own dorms in quick succession. Thankfully, he checked the map on his way this time and encountered no more surprises.

Lying on his bed, he couldn't sleep. In his mind, there were floating numbers. Hermione's went up again, climbing on 58. Both Lavender's and Parvati's improved by a point, now showing 12 and 13, respectively. Fred and George stayed the same, 15. Not even his cheat glasses could tell them apart. He couldn't decide if he wanted to cry or laugh about that.

Then there was her. The girl's face stuck on his mind. Harry was once again quite bad at communicating with new people. He hadn't spoken her name even once, and he regretted that now. Luna, Luna Lovegood. Why was Harry always like this? Maybe he should really seek her out tomorrow. Also, there was a burning question that was plaguing his restless mind. Why was she barefoot?

Authors notes:

The Nargles are flying low today – is the name of a short fanfiction story written by McWhite. It's quite wacky, but fun and great read, only slightly over 4k words. I guess the sentence stuck to my head, and it was so Luna's thing to say, I had to use it. Props to the author.

BTW, I had this chapter sitting mostly done, written for about a month and added only a few lines like a 2 weeks ago. It was waiting for editing, but I suddenly choose to rewrote huge chunks of this chapter in a few hours... I think it's better this way now, but I nearly missed out on having it complete for posting on Friday… :P

- - -o- - -

Readers can continue guessing. 3 correct guesses to reveal. Numbers to pick from are: 3,7,13,21,37,42,69. Pair them with the girl you think is hidden behind the number from the picture to reveal her image.

You can try only 3 girls, but you can post your new guess in every new chapter. Some people went for 4 at once, but I can't count the last ones, it would be too easy if everyone added a bunch of them. Try those that didn't make the cut in this chapter. It may work toward revelation, or it may not. I'll try to make a spreadsheet about what was already guessed for the next chapter so both I and you can keep track of it.

Hint for this chapter: There is something that connects all the numbers, but one. One of them is not like the others, it is special. It holds the answers to the meaning of life, the universe, and everything.