WHAT HAVE THEY DONE WITH THE RAIN?

Madness Rising

It was two months now since The-At-Buggerit had started at Hogwart's school of witchcraft and wizardry, and still he had not been sorted. It seemed strange to Harry Potter and his friends, and his enemies, that The-At-Buggerit didn't seemed to mind at all. You would have thought that Dumbledore's son would have been put straight into Gryffindor, no question. But still he just seemed to float around the school, attending most of Harry's classes, but occasionally swapping when he felt like it. None of the teachers seemed to mind, in fact, Harry noticed that most of them just gave a broad smile whenever The-At-Buggerit entered the room and continued with the lesson in a much more jovial manner. When  Harry witnessed even Professor McGonagall engaging in this kind of behaviour, he felt even more confused than ever. But no one else seemed to notice, so Harry put it down to his depressed state again and thought little of it.

As Harry was walking to class one day, lost in thought, he bumped into Luna Lovegood.

"Hello, Harry," said Luna.

"Oh, hi Luna," murmured Harry, looking at his timetable. Luna Lovegood had become a friend of Harry's the previous year, but he hadn't seen much of her so far this year. Luna was another person who seemed to float around the school, though in a far more ethereal way than The-At-Buggerit. Harry knew that he, the rest of the Trio, Ginny and Neville Longbottom were probably Luna's only friends, and he wondered what she had been doing so far this term if not hanging around him. Then he realised that this was an extremely arrogant thought and that of course Luna had far better things to do than go around with a boy who was so obviously depressed and whose friends had so obviously lost the plot. Distractedly, he tried to work out where he was going.

"Have you met The-At-Buggerit yet, Harry?" asked Luna conversationally, apparently unaware that Harry was in no mood to talk.

"Hmm," said Harry, still unable to find the right room on his time-table.

"He's very happy, isn't he? Nothing seems to bother him, does it?" she smiled. Harry stared at her incredulously.

"Er, yes, he is happy…" Harry stared in to her huge, protuberant eyes and frowned slightly, "He's happy…but, Luna, do you think there's something…I don't know…odd?" Harry shook his head, scolding himself inwardly, he had promised himself that this year he would not find anything strange. He knew he was headed for another disaster if he pursued all the little oddities that made up everyday life at Hogwarts…but still he wondered about The-At-Buggerit…

"You know, Harry, I think I do," Luna said suddenly, absently fiddling with one of the huge, kitchen utensil shaped charms that made up the bracelet she was wearing through her fingers and looking into the distance.  Harry watched her expectantly, waiting for some explanation.

"We found the Crumple-horned snorkak this summer, did I tell you?" she said dreamily, changing the subject without hesitation, "It was very exciting," she flipped her long, dirty-blond hair over her shoulder and began to finger-comb the ends,

"Anyway, I have to get to class. Potions, you know. Bye, Harry," and without waiting for a reply she turned and began to walk away, drifting obliviously along with a quill behind her ear and her bag trailing close to the ground behind her.  Harry gazed after her, his jaw slack. Luna was the only person acting normally, and Luna's self wasn't particularly normal or useful. Shaking his head again, he traipsed up a nearby flight of stairs in the hope they would lead him to transfiguration class.

Draco Malfoy had been doing his potions homework when the owl had came. He had been so engrossed in the pattern someone's spilt coffee had made on the tattered old parchment of his textbook that he had jumped in an extremely undignified way and glanced nervously around the Slytherin common room to make sure no one had seen him. Luckily it was well past midnight and the place was deserted. Regaining his composure, Malfoy had picked up a bedraggled screech owl from the floor (It had simply soared through the window; Slytherins like well-ventilated dungeons even in the midst of a storm) that had crashed into his cold stone chair with a squawk. Calmly, Malfoy cast the owl back out into the rainy night without a second thought and opened the letter he had retrieved from its leg. His icy grey eyes scanned the parchment and for once a cruel smirk had not manifested itself on his sharp face. Folding the letter carefully, the blond boy had placed it in his pocket and walked over to the window, frowning slightly. As light rain fell onto his face and trickled down into his robes, Malfoy had wondered why Slytherins liked well-ventilated dungeons.

On the Friday before the second Quidditch game, Ravenclaw versus Hufflepuff, Harry and Ron was exhausted from the even more massive amount of homework piled upon them from the new and exciting Newt classes. They sat in the Library with Ginny and Luna Lovegood, and Harry moaned about his life, even more than usual because Ron was being his unusual chirpy self and he had to make up for it.

"Ah, well, Harry, I'm sure you'll get to be an auror. Remember Professor McGonagall promised to help you last year? You should take her up on it," Ron said bracingly.

"It was really more of a heat-of-the-moment lashing out at Professor Umbridge than anything else, you know," said Harry. Harry stared at his red-haired friend, it felt as if he didn't know him. Every word that came out of Ron's mouth seemed to jangle around in his brain, making him cringe every so often . Luna also stared at Ron, and unusually calculating look in her eye. Harry glanced at her in surprise, but her face had quickly reverted to its usual faraway self and she smiled.

"I've just got to go and get my spell book from Michael Corner," she said sweetly, rising gracefully from the table. Ginny, who had previously been absorbed in the letter she was writing, started at the sound of this name, and gave Luna a sharp look,

"He hasn't stolen it from you, has he?" she asked dangerously,

"Oh, no," said Luna calmly, "He's just borrowed it, I think…"

"But did he ask for it, Luna?" Ron's voice was cheery, as if really, it didn't matter much either way.

"Well, I don't think so…"

"Then he stole it!" roared Ginny, in what Harry thought was an unnecessarily loud tone of voice, seeing as Michael Corner was nowhere in the vicinity. Not even Ginny was spared from the madness, it seemed. Leaning his head on his upturned palms, elbows on the desk, Harry watched as Ginny began to get more and more red in the face, ranting at all of them while Ron observed calmly, occasionally adding a comment or two. Luna, looking decidedly confused, shrugged her shoulders, flicked her stringy hair over her shoulders and ambled slowly out of the library. As her blond head disappeared behind the door, Harry cast a fearful glance at the two siblings, who were still deep in discussion, Ginny's voice rising shrilly over Ron's even tones. A look that could be likened to that of a startled rabbit passed across his features, and he jumped to his feet and raced out to catch up with Luna. In the distance he heard Ginny yell,

"Hasn't that cocky bastard ever heard of the ten commandments? Thou shalt not steal, God damn it!

…the plot thickens...