Time after Time
By: ComplexSimplicity
A/N: Agh! Sorry I'm a day late! Thank you SO MUCH for all the reviews though!! LoL! I was SO surprised, I seriously didn't expect so many!! I'm glad you all like it ^_^ Hope you continue to enjoy, and thank you muchly for reading!
Episode 2: Back to Gryffindor Tower
"You'd better get those two off to bed," said Fudge, looking back at Professor McGonagall with a dismissive nod toward Harry and Marietta. She said nothing, but marched Harry and Marietta to the door… (p.623)
While Marietta, still feeling the effects of the Memory Charm, simply stared at the empty space ahead of her, Harry immediately marched off towards Gryffindor Tower, a myriad of emotions running through his head. The red hot anger that had quelled inside of him when he found out Marietta was the sneak was now beginning to melt the frozen fear that had taken over his mind in the office. No matter how he fumed though, he simply couldn't manage to get rid of the icy numbness that had taken over his upper body. Dumbledore was gone. Gone. In the end his temper got the better of him, and after coming to an abrupt stop in the middle of a corridor, Harry turned and slammed his fist against a portrait of a wizened looking old wizard.
"OW!" Harry yelped, muttering curses under his breath while he started nursing his throbbing hand. Before he could move though, the portrait promptly swung open, and made contact with his left temple.
"BLOODY HELL!" Harry screamed, now moving his free hand to his temple while his injured hand remained curled up at his side.
"You knocked?"
"Luna?" Harry's hand dropped from his temple, and he peered curiously at the girl. Just past her was, of course, the Ravenclaw common room. Harry breathed a bit easier when he saw Cho walking swiftly up the staircase. At least she had made it back okay as well.
"That would be me. Are you alright? You seem to have banged your head against the portrait." Luna said in her typical sing song voice. Luna was clad in a pair of flannel pajamas, and Harry vaguely noticed how the blue Ravenclaw colors brought out the crystal blue in her eyes.
"Actually," Harry started out heatedly, preparing to blow up. Oddly, he found that he had no desire to rant and rave at her for smashing her godforsaken portrait door into his left temple…perhaps it was Luna's dreamy appearance, the way she always looked so dazed all the time.
"Never mind…I suppose you got back to your common room alright then?" Harry inquired, referring to the escape they had all made from the Room of Requirement.
"Quite. I don't see why everyone was running though…best to simply walk away, no one suspects a thing." Luna replied distractedly, using her wand to shift a few strands of hair from her face. This comment left Harry ogling at her.
"So you just strolled on out of there? You didn't run and you didn't get caught?" Harry asked her incredulously.
"Yes and no." Luna responded, peering at Harry with a wistful expression in her eyes.
"Pardon?" Harry questioned, a bit confused with her answer.
Luna gave a twinkling laugh, not quite a laugh, but far from being a giggle.
"Yes to the first question and no to the second." She clarified, playing with her bracelet made from Butterbeer caps.
"Oh…" Harry replied, turning a light shade of pink. He wasn't quite sure why he was blushing…perhaps it was the heat. At night. In the dead of March.
"So what are you still doing up?" Harry asked, loosening his tie a bit, and shoving his glasses back up the bridge of his nose.
At this Luna's eyes lit up, and she tugged him into the common room which was almost empty now, save a few studious students who were sitting in the corners and scribbling away on sheaves of parchment that littered the numerous tables of the Ravenclaw common room.
Taken aback, and sincerely praying that Cho wouldn't walk downstairs once more, he let Luna drag him over to a chair in front of the pleasantly burning fire. Turning an even darker shade of red that was not helped in the slightest by the fire, Harry shrugged his cloak off once Luna's grip left his arm.
"I've been caring for this Netterbee that I found in your hair. Remember that? It's come along quite well-this is the biggest one me or daddy's ever seen!" Luna replied happily. The Netterbee had grown to an enormous size-well enormous compared to the tiny dot it had been before. Now, it was crawling around the bottom of the glass and was roughly the size of a large beetle. It had been transferred into a larger jar, and the spikes were now at least a centimeter long; Harry also observed that a pair of tiny wings had just started to grow in.
"Wow…" Harry commented, truly interested. Luna wasn't so bad to hang around after all…
"Fascinating isn't it?" Luna commented, her face pushed up against the opposite side of the glass. For a split second, Harry found himself staring into Luna's sparkling blue eyes through the glass, but the moment ended when the Netterbee climbed up Harry's side of the glass, and he promptly shot back into his seat, startled and flustered at the same time.
"Well, I'll put him away now…I've named him Horatio." Luna commented distantly. Then, without a word to Harry, she started off back towards the portrait entrance.
Scrambling to his feet, and grabbing his cloak, Harry got up as well, and followed her lead to the portrait hole where the old wizard was grumbling quite loudly, very much annoyed for being left wide open.
When Harry caught up to her, he was surprised to see Luna's eyes so full of excitement and anticipation.
"I forgot to tell you at the meeting. I've learned how to do the Patronus. Want to see?" Contrary to the electricity given off by her eyes, Luna's voice remained dreamy and calm as ever.
"Sure." Harry shrugged, a smile beginning to cross his face.
"Expecto Patronum!" Luna shouted suddenly. Harry jumped a bit, taken aback by the strength that her voice held. No longer was it airy and faint, but powerful and commanding. The echo of it reverberated through out the corridor, and sounded off into the still night. Watching with a stunned look across his features, Harry took no notice of the small, silvery Crumple-Horned Snorkack that gamboled around the room, and instead, continued to gawk at Luna, who had started humming spontaneously right after she performed her Patronus. Shaking his head slightly, and blinking a few times, Harry looked to see if it was really Luna after all. Of course, there she was in front of him, still humming her bizarre little tune, swaying slightly in all directions and eyeing her Patronus form adoringly while twirling her wand at an unbelievably high speed between her fingers.
"It's a Crumple-Horned Snorkack. Don't you love how it's horn is so wrinkly and pug-like? I can't wait to see one for myself. No one's ever seen one before, but maybe I will with father over summer this year…" Luna commented casually, her head tilted to one side, her voice dreamy and out of place as ever.
"I don't get it. How do you know it's a Crumple-Horned Snorkack if you've never seen one? How do you know they even exist?" Harry asked her, his brow furrowed, a bit of frustration in his voice as the reality of the earlier situation hit him once more.
"I just do." Luna answered thoughtfully, still gazing at her Patronus. "I just do."
"But how? How can you be so sure? How do you know everything will be okay?" Harry asked hurriedly, almost as if he were desperate for an answer.
"It's just faith I suppose. Like how you know there will always be a tomorrow, or that there will always be Zangolas flying in the sky. Faith isn't knowing that everything is going to turn out fine, faith is just believing that whatever is meant to happen will happen." Luna replied dreamily, her head slightly tilted to one side.
After a few moments of silence, Luna reached into the pocket of her pajama pants, and extracted a large silver pocket watch. Flipping the lid of it open, she observed the arrangement of the planets for a bit before snapping the watch shut, and slipping it back into her pocket.
"Well, I'm going to bed now. Say hello to Ronald and Virginia for me will you Harry? Good night, and don't let the Billiots bite." A vague smile crossed her face and she motioned her hand dismissively in a gesture of farewell as she closed the portrait door.
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A/N: You know what to do ^_^ REVIEWREVIEWREVIEW!!! Hehe! It makes me happy, and when I'm happy, I write faster, LoL! ^_^ Thanks again for reading…hope you liked it ^_^ This isn't the original one actually-I wrote two because I wasn't sure what to do with it, and in the end decided to post this one though I'm not completely satisfied with it-do you like it? Let me know ^_~
Next chapter will be up ASAP- I can't guarantee a date because school starts next Thursday and it's high time I started the summer reading project for Advanced Placement English that I've been putting off all summer long, LoL!
REVIEW!
.:*Priscilla*:.