A Glimpse of the Hidden
~I pledge my loyalty to Honor, Justice, and Hogwarts~
Part Two
"Thank you so much again!" Harry said.
"It was our pleasure, Harry dear," Mrs. Weasley replied, giving him a second
hug. "Now, off with you before it leaves without you!"
"Goodbye Mum!" Ron and Ginny cried, waving as they disappeared into the
crowd. Ginny went off with a group of fifth year friends, while Harry and
Ron met Hermione in the compartment she had saved for them.
"Hey," she smiled, hugging Harry and giving Ron a peck on the cheek. Harry
rolled his eyes, and Hermione stuck out her tongue. They sat down to, once
again, begin post-holiday conversation.
"So, Hermione, what did you do with your parents?" Harry asked, polite as
usual.
"Nothing much, they're still Muggles you know," she shrugged, "But I was
glad to see them anyway."
"Yeah, I know the feeling," Ron rolled his eyes. "It was great to see Mum
and Dad and all, but it was great to leave again, too!"
Harry said nothing, and the other two wisely decided to change the subject.
The train ride was quite jovial, except for Ron begging for answers to their
Astronomy assignment from a very unwilling Hermione. Harry couldn't help but
laugh. They were still his same two best friends.
"So, what's Defending like?" Harry asked, breaking up another "fight."
"Defending?" Hermione replied, getting a thoughtful look. "Well, it's
challenging..."
"You mean hard?" Ron said, rolling his eyes.
"Well, it's not that Defending itself is difficult, it's juggling Defending
with classes and friends and-" she gave Ron a pointed look, "Boyfriends that
make it harder than it has to be."
"Thanks, Herm, love you too," Ron said sarcastically.
"Yeah, I know," she teased. Harry was just rolling his eyes when they heard
the compartment door open.
"Ginny!" Hermione squealed. Ginny forced a smile.
"Hey, Gin, c'mon in," Ron invited. His little sister looked around the
compartment cautiously. She would never say anything, but she felt like had
walked into a moment between best friends in which she didn't belong.
"No, it's okay," She mumbled, sighing as she turned to leave.
"Ginny Weasley, get your bottom in here right now!" Hermione commanded,
standing up and grabbing Ginny by the shoulders. She forced the younger girl
into the chair next to Harry, who blushed. He hadn't been in this close of
contact with Ginny since summertime.
"If you insist!" she finally said, smiling another forced smile. Ron looked
at his baby sister in concern. No one liked seeing her like this. A look
between the three of them confirmed the beginning of the
'Who-Can-Make-Ginny-Laugh' game.
And so spirited conversation began. Ginny talked, yes, but all her smiles
and soft giggles were very fake. Hermione felt herself sigh. She missed
Draco, everyone did. But Ginny couldn't spend her life moping over him!
No one won the game, much to Harry's dismay. He wanted nothing more than to
hear Ginny laugh, to see her eyes dance in that special way. But she
wouldn't, that laugh was reserved for Draco Malfoy...and it was Harry's own
fault that it hadn't been his.
Ginny was very glad to get out of the train. She didn't like pretending to
be happy, and she most certainly didn't like pretending she belonged with the
tight-knit trio. They shared a bond that they didn't even know they shared. But
Ginny knew...Ginny knew she was only there because she was Ron's little
sister. She quickly excused herself, taking the carriage ride up to the
castle with a few fifth year friends, who welcomed her warmly.
The trio climbed into a carriage with Neville, who smiled. He and Hermione
shared a common bond now, and both the other boys found themselves somewhat
jealous. It was one thing for her to be friends with Ginny, who was a girl.
But Ron was Hermione's boyfriend, and Harry was like her brother. As far as
they were concerned, she didn't need any more boys in her life.
Hermione and Neville didn't realize this, nor would they have cared. They
chatted about Luna fondly.
"Hermione, I thought you HATED Starlight," Harry said.
"I did," she replied, "But that was before I found out I was a Defender.
"She's our coach," Neville explained.
"Thank you, Mr. Stating-The-Obvious," Ron said, and they all laughed.
"Seriously, though, Luna's cool," Neville said.
"And then there's this Luna thing," Harry said thoughtfully.
"Since when are all of you on a first name basis anyway?" Ron asked
curiously.
"She asked us to use her first name," Hermione said. "And besides, it's SO
much easier than 'Professor Starlight.'"
"I know," Neville replied. "Just before break, I kept wanting to call her
'Luna' in class."
"Yeah, she would've killed us," Hermione sighed.
"But that's Luna for you,"
Harry and Ron exchanged looks, but decided not to say anything. Luna...it
was going to be weird trying to get used to that.
"So...what does Sirius have to do with this?" Harry asked hurriedly, trying
to change the subject.
"Sirius used to be a Water Defender, remember?" Neville said.
"Oh right, right," Harry replied.
"Besides, I think he and Luna were sweethearts in school," Hermione sighed.
"How romantic,"
"When did they tell you that, and how come I wasn't there?" Neville
demanded.
"No one told me."
"Then how do you know?"
"God, Neville, are you BLIND?" Hermione demanded playfully.
"We're here!" Ron announced a bit louder than necessary. Harry and Neville,
who were closest to the door, pushed their way out in a playful race. Ron
followed, holding his hand out to help Hermione, who didn't need any help
but smiled anyway.
"Quite the smooth one, aren't we, Mr. Weasley?" A familiar voice said from
behind them. They spun around to see Sirius grinning at them.
"Hey!" Harry exclaimed, smiling. "What were you doing all break?"
"Oh...buying a house," Sirius replied, grinning even wider. "Do you still
want to move in?"
"Do Quaffles fly through hoops?" Harry replied, grinning himself.
"Yes," Sirius replied, sounding confused.
"It was a rhetorical question, Sirius,"
"Oh. I knew that." Sirius pretended not to hear Harry, Ron, and Hermione's
snickers. "Anyway," he continued loudly. "I came out here to get Hermione
and Neville and Ginny...where is Ginny, by the way?"
"I'm right here," Ginny replied, popping up next to Neville out of nowhere.
"Good, c'mon Dumbledore wants to talk to you," he said.
"What about Cho?" Hermione asked.
"Luna's the Ravenclaw." Sirius replied, shrugging. "Don't worry, you two, I'll have
'Mione back in no time," he winked at Harry and Ron, and then led the other
three away from the Entrance Hall to Dumbledore's office.
"Ah, there you are," the Headmaster smiled as Sirius and the three
Gryffindors entered his office. Luna and Cho were already there, waiting for
them.
"Now, I'm sure you're all wondering what this is all about." The Defenders
and their trainers nodded. "Well, allow me to explain:
"You see, Miss Chang here distracted me at our last meeting, and I
completely forgot why I had it in the first place until all of you went home
for Holidays. And now that you're back, I won't allow myself to get
distracted. I need to distribute points to each of you."
"Points?" Ginny said, sounding confused.
"Yes, child. Now, for Cho Chang's bravery and unbelievable strength to hold together the most terrible forces
of nature, I award Ravenclaw House 100 points." Cho's jaw dropped.
"But...but Headmaster-" she spluttered. Dumbledore held up a hand to
silence her.
"For the strength and bravery of Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger, and
Neville Longbottom, I award Gryffindor House 100 points..." he smiled.
"Each."
Hermione felt her eyes bulge. 300 points?
"What about Draco?" Ginny asked in a small voice. Dumbledore smiled
sympathetically at her.
"On behalf of Draco Malfoy and his deeds, which need no description, I am
awarding Slytherin House 400 points." Hermione nearly fell out of her chair.
FOUR HUNDRED POINTS?!?! Had anyone EVER done that before?
"Is that all, Headmaster?" Luna asked sounding frighteningly unsurprised.
Sirius, however, was staring at Dumbledore in as much shock as any of the
four students.
"Yes, I think so, unless you had something to say Professor Starlight?"
"Not at all," Luna replied, standing and gesturing for all the others to do
the same. They followed her in shocked silence out of the room.
"What the heck..." Sirius muttered.
"You knew about this, didn't you?" Neville said suddenly, looking at Luna,
who grinned mischievously.
"Well, you know, you could've TOLD us about it!" Cho said, sounding half
annoyed, half bewildered.
"Yeah..." Ginny muttered. Luna laughed.
"C'mon...we've probably missed the first course already!"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"I did my homework!" Ron declared at breakfast the next morning.
"It's about time," Hermione rolled her eyes. Harry snorted into his oatmeal.
"I completely finished my Charms essay," He continued, unfazed by Hermione's
lack of enthusiasm. "I wrote all four feet!"
"Uh...Ron?" Hermione said, as Harry began laughing.
"What?" he asked, plainly annoyed that they knew something he didn't.
"That essay was supposed to be five feet," Hermione answered, struggling not to
laugh.
"WHAT?!" Ron shouted. Hermione couldn't help herself, she started laughing
with Harry.
"That's not funny!" Ron insisted. "I need to write a whole other FOOT of
information, and..."
"Calm down Ron," Hermione interrupted, her giggles slowly subsiding. "You
still have plenty of time."
"Plenty of time?" Ron said, beginning to panic. Harry looked at his friend
curiously. "We have Charms FIRST THING, remember?" Harry, who had just been
able to subdue himself, burst into full-fledged laughter again.
"WHAT IS SO FUNNY?!" Ron exclaimed.
"Ron..." Hermione said, her face screwed up in attempts not to laugh. "We
have Charms first thing tomorrow."
"Oh." Ron replied, blushing. Harry calmed down as Hermione let a few stray
giggles escape.
"Well, what do we have today?" he asked, heaping marmalade onto his toast.
"Defense," Hermione replied airily. "I'm assuming you did the work for that
class?"
"We had homework for Defense?" Ron asked with a look of horror on his face.
Hermione's eyes widened, and Harry looked as if he were going to start
laughing again.
"No, just kidding," Ron said, and the three friends laughed like mad as the
owls swooped in with the mail.
"OH MY GOD!" Seamus Finnagen ran in with wide eyes, looking shocked.
"What?" Harry asked in concern.
"We somehow racked up 300 points over break!" Seamus exclaimed, his eyes still saucers.
"WHAT?!" Harry and Ron exclaimed in unison. Hermione, Neville and Ginny began cracking up. Yes, Ginny was actually laughing. If you can believe it.
"What?" Seamus asked, looking even more confused.
"Do you two know something?" Harry asked suspiciously.
"Oh yeah, we're so good!" Neville exclaimed, exchanging high-fives with the girls.
"You guys got those points?" Colin Creevey asked in an awed voice.
"You bet!" Neville said, bursting with pride.
"HOW?" Lavender demanded. Harry and Ron saw them exchange looks and knew. Defending, of course.
"Ravenclaw got a hundred points too," Parvati said, flipping her hair. "At least that's what Padma told me."
"Slytherin got 400," Ginny said shyly.
"WHAT?!" Practically the entire table shouted. They whipped around to see the Slytherins exchanging gossip in a much similar fashion. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Neville exchanged looks, than began laughing. Neville and Ginny dropped out to talk to their friends, but jokes between the threesome just didn't end.
It seemed that the three of them were laughing all day. Hermione was glad to
have her two best friends back together at the castle. It occurred to her
that a year from now they would all be cramming for NEWTs, and then they
would graduate.
Hermione pushed the thought from her head. She didn't want to think about
graduating. She wanted to just stay here with Ron and Harry. She was
perfectly content, at that moment, to just live forever in the castle as a
student.
She was daydreaming all of this as she sat on Ron's lap that night. He and Harry were
discussing Quidditch (what else is new?) and she had dropped out of the
conversation. Suddenly, three owls interrupted them by dropping red note
cards onto their laps...well, Hermione got both hers and Ron's, seeing as
she was kind of taking up all the lap space.
"Professor-" Harry began.
"Starlight," Hermione finished, without even looking at hers. She leaped up
and Ron followed suit. She led them to the portrait hole, where they were
joined by Ginny and Neville.
"This is weird," Neville said as the five of them began their walk to Luna's
office.
"What's weird?" Ron asked curiously. But as he studied Neville's exchange of
looks with Ginny and Hermione, he felt himself blushing.
He and Harry were 'weird.'
"Here we are!" Hermione chirped, interrupting Ron's thoughts. She pushed
open the door to Luna's office without even knocking. Ron shook his head;
this new familiarity with Starlight was going to be 'weird,' as Neville
would say.
"Welcome one and all to Luna Starlight's Flying Circus!" Sirius exclaimed as
they walked in.
"What he MEANS to say is-"
"Tonight, see the mysterious bearded lady!" Sirius interrupted Luna. She
shot him an annoyed look.
"Are you trying to say something about me?" Luna asked playfully.
"No, only that we will have a clown show premiering-" He was cut off when a
jet of light from Luna's wand hit him square in the stomach. Sirius
continued to jabber animatedly...but no sound came out of his mouth. After a
few moments he realized this, and put his hands around his throat.
"As I was trying to say: Welcome back!" Luna said happily, ignoring Sirius
who was flailing his arms and trying to get her attention. The Defenders
snickered. "Today I will be working with Harry and Ron to get them started.
Especially Harry, as I was a Lightening Defender too. Ron, your skills have
already come along quite nicely."
"Thank you," Ron responded automatically.
"The rest of you will be working with Sirius just to touch up," she said.
"Now-"
"Um, Luna?" Ginny said, trying not to laugh.
"What?" Luna asked, sounding rather annoyed at being interrupted.
"Sirius can't talk...or something..." Cho said, giggling. Luna turned and
sighed at Sirius, who was noiselessly stomping his foot and quite obviously
yelling.
"I really prefer him this way," Luna said to the Defenders, who laughed.
However, she pulled out her wand and released his voice anyway.
"-MARRY ME!"
Everyone turned to stare at Sirius, who suddenly realized that he was
audible.
"Um...that was, er, taken out of context. I mean, I was at the end of a
sentence, and...no, no, no! Not THAT sentence. Okay, It's time to practice
or something..." Sirius tried desperately to explain himself to no avail.
Luna gave him a strange look, wistful and angry and most of all, confused. Then
she snapped out of it and grinned.
"All right boys, you come over here. The rest of you go join Silent Bob over
there."
"I take that offensively!" Sirius said, leading the four returning Defenders
away to practice.
~I pledge my loyalty to Honor, Justice, and Hogwarts~
Part Two
"Thank you so much again!" Harry said.
"It was our pleasure, Harry dear," Mrs. Weasley replied, giving him a second
hug. "Now, off with you before it leaves without you!"
"Goodbye Mum!" Ron and Ginny cried, waving as they disappeared into the
crowd. Ginny went off with a group of fifth year friends, while Harry and
Ron met Hermione in the compartment she had saved for them.
"Hey," she smiled, hugging Harry and giving Ron a peck on the cheek. Harry
rolled his eyes, and Hermione stuck out her tongue. They sat down to, once
again, begin post-holiday conversation.
"So, Hermione, what did you do with your parents?" Harry asked, polite as
usual.
"Nothing much, they're still Muggles you know," she shrugged, "But I was
glad to see them anyway."
"Yeah, I know the feeling," Ron rolled his eyes. "It was great to see Mum
and Dad and all, but it was great to leave again, too!"
Harry said nothing, and the other two wisely decided to change the subject.
The train ride was quite jovial, except for Ron begging for answers to their
Astronomy assignment from a very unwilling Hermione. Harry couldn't help but
laugh. They were still his same two best friends.
"So, what's Defending like?" Harry asked, breaking up another "fight."
"Defending?" Hermione replied, getting a thoughtful look. "Well, it's
challenging..."
"You mean hard?" Ron said, rolling his eyes.
"Well, it's not that Defending itself is difficult, it's juggling Defending
with classes and friends and-" she gave Ron a pointed look, "Boyfriends that
make it harder than it has to be."
"Thanks, Herm, love you too," Ron said sarcastically.
"Yeah, I know," she teased. Harry was just rolling his eyes when they heard
the compartment door open.
"Ginny!" Hermione squealed. Ginny forced a smile.
"Hey, Gin, c'mon in," Ron invited. His little sister looked around the
compartment cautiously. She would never say anything, but she felt like had
walked into a moment between best friends in which she didn't belong.
"No, it's okay," She mumbled, sighing as she turned to leave.
"Ginny Weasley, get your bottom in here right now!" Hermione commanded,
standing up and grabbing Ginny by the shoulders. She forced the younger girl
into the chair next to Harry, who blushed. He hadn't been in this close of
contact with Ginny since summertime.
"If you insist!" she finally said, smiling another forced smile. Ron looked
at his baby sister in concern. No one liked seeing her like this. A look
between the three of them confirmed the beginning of the
'Who-Can-Make-Ginny-Laugh' game.
And so spirited conversation began. Ginny talked, yes, but all her smiles
and soft giggles were very fake. Hermione felt herself sigh. She missed
Draco, everyone did. But Ginny couldn't spend her life moping over him!
No one won the game, much to Harry's dismay. He wanted nothing more than to
hear Ginny laugh, to see her eyes dance in that special way. But she
wouldn't, that laugh was reserved for Draco Malfoy...and it was Harry's own
fault that it hadn't been his.
Ginny was very glad to get out of the train. She didn't like pretending to
be happy, and she most certainly didn't like pretending she belonged with the
tight-knit trio. They shared a bond that they didn't even know they shared. But
Ginny knew...Ginny knew she was only there because she was Ron's little
sister. She quickly excused herself, taking the carriage ride up to the
castle with a few fifth year friends, who welcomed her warmly.
The trio climbed into a carriage with Neville, who smiled. He and Hermione
shared a common bond now, and both the other boys found themselves somewhat
jealous. It was one thing for her to be friends with Ginny, who was a girl.
But Ron was Hermione's boyfriend, and Harry was like her brother. As far as
they were concerned, she didn't need any more boys in her life.
Hermione and Neville didn't realize this, nor would they have cared. They
chatted about Luna fondly.
"Hermione, I thought you HATED Starlight," Harry said.
"I did," she replied, "But that was before I found out I was a Defender.
"She's our coach," Neville explained.
"Thank you, Mr. Stating-The-Obvious," Ron said, and they all laughed.
"Seriously, though, Luna's cool," Neville said.
"And then there's this Luna thing," Harry said thoughtfully.
"Since when are all of you on a first name basis anyway?" Ron asked
curiously.
"She asked us to use her first name," Hermione said. "And besides, it's SO
much easier than 'Professor Starlight.'"
"I know," Neville replied. "Just before break, I kept wanting to call her
'Luna' in class."
"Yeah, she would've killed us," Hermione sighed.
"But that's Luna for you,"
Harry and Ron exchanged looks, but decided not to say anything. Luna...it
was going to be weird trying to get used to that.
"So...what does Sirius have to do with this?" Harry asked hurriedly, trying
to change the subject.
"Sirius used to be a Water Defender, remember?" Neville said.
"Oh right, right," Harry replied.
"Besides, I think he and Luna were sweethearts in school," Hermione sighed.
"How romantic,"
"When did they tell you that, and how come I wasn't there?" Neville
demanded.
"No one told me."
"Then how do you know?"
"God, Neville, are you BLIND?" Hermione demanded playfully.
"We're here!" Ron announced a bit louder than necessary. Harry and Neville,
who were closest to the door, pushed their way out in a playful race. Ron
followed, holding his hand out to help Hermione, who didn't need any help
but smiled anyway.
"Quite the smooth one, aren't we, Mr. Weasley?" A familiar voice said from
behind them. They spun around to see Sirius grinning at them.
"Hey!" Harry exclaimed, smiling. "What were you doing all break?"
"Oh...buying a house," Sirius replied, grinning even wider. "Do you still
want to move in?"
"Do Quaffles fly through hoops?" Harry replied, grinning himself.
"Yes," Sirius replied, sounding confused.
"It was a rhetorical question, Sirius,"
"Oh. I knew that." Sirius pretended not to hear Harry, Ron, and Hermione's
snickers. "Anyway," he continued loudly. "I came out here to get Hermione
and Neville and Ginny...where is Ginny, by the way?"
"I'm right here," Ginny replied, popping up next to Neville out of nowhere.
"Good, c'mon Dumbledore wants to talk to you," he said.
"What about Cho?" Hermione asked.
"Luna's the Ravenclaw." Sirius replied, shrugging. "Don't worry, you two, I'll have
'Mione back in no time," he winked at Harry and Ron, and then led the other
three away from the Entrance Hall to Dumbledore's office.
"Ah, there you are," the Headmaster smiled as Sirius and the three
Gryffindors entered his office. Luna and Cho were already there, waiting for
them.
"Now, I'm sure you're all wondering what this is all about." The Defenders
and their trainers nodded. "Well, allow me to explain:
"You see, Miss Chang here distracted me at our last meeting, and I
completely forgot why I had it in the first place until all of you went home
for Holidays. And now that you're back, I won't allow myself to get
distracted. I need to distribute points to each of you."
"Points?" Ginny said, sounding confused.
"Yes, child. Now, for Cho Chang's bravery and unbelievable strength to hold together the most terrible forces
of nature, I award Ravenclaw House 100 points." Cho's jaw dropped.
"But...but Headmaster-" she spluttered. Dumbledore held up a hand to
silence her.
"For the strength and bravery of Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger, and
Neville Longbottom, I award Gryffindor House 100 points..." he smiled.
"Each."
Hermione felt her eyes bulge. 300 points?
"What about Draco?" Ginny asked in a small voice. Dumbledore smiled
sympathetically at her.
"On behalf of Draco Malfoy and his deeds, which need no description, I am
awarding Slytherin House 400 points." Hermione nearly fell out of her chair.
FOUR HUNDRED POINTS?!?! Had anyone EVER done that before?
"Is that all, Headmaster?" Luna asked sounding frighteningly unsurprised.
Sirius, however, was staring at Dumbledore in as much shock as any of the
four students.
"Yes, I think so, unless you had something to say Professor Starlight?"
"Not at all," Luna replied, standing and gesturing for all the others to do
the same. They followed her in shocked silence out of the room.
"What the heck..." Sirius muttered.
"You knew about this, didn't you?" Neville said suddenly, looking at Luna,
who grinned mischievously.
"Well, you know, you could've TOLD us about it!" Cho said, sounding half
annoyed, half bewildered.
"Yeah..." Ginny muttered. Luna laughed.
"C'mon...we've probably missed the first course already!"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"I did my homework!" Ron declared at breakfast the next morning.
"It's about time," Hermione rolled her eyes. Harry snorted into his oatmeal.
"I completely finished my Charms essay," He continued, unfazed by Hermione's
lack of enthusiasm. "I wrote all four feet!"
"Uh...Ron?" Hermione said, as Harry began laughing.
"What?" he asked, plainly annoyed that they knew something he didn't.
"That essay was supposed to be five feet," Hermione answered, struggling not to
laugh.
"WHAT?!" Ron shouted. Hermione couldn't help herself, she started laughing
with Harry.
"That's not funny!" Ron insisted. "I need to write a whole other FOOT of
information, and..."
"Calm down Ron," Hermione interrupted, her giggles slowly subsiding. "You
still have plenty of time."
"Plenty of time?" Ron said, beginning to panic. Harry looked at his friend
curiously. "We have Charms FIRST THING, remember?" Harry, who had just been
able to subdue himself, burst into full-fledged laughter again.
"WHAT IS SO FUNNY?!" Ron exclaimed.
"Ron..." Hermione said, her face screwed up in attempts not to laugh. "We
have Charms first thing tomorrow."
"Oh." Ron replied, blushing. Harry calmed down as Hermione let a few stray
giggles escape.
"Well, what do we have today?" he asked, heaping marmalade onto his toast.
"Defense," Hermione replied airily. "I'm assuming you did the work for that
class?"
"We had homework for Defense?" Ron asked with a look of horror on his face.
Hermione's eyes widened, and Harry looked as if he were going to start
laughing again.
"No, just kidding," Ron said, and the three friends laughed like mad as the
owls swooped in with the mail.
"OH MY GOD!" Seamus Finnagen ran in with wide eyes, looking shocked.
"What?" Harry asked in concern.
"We somehow racked up 300 points over break!" Seamus exclaimed, his eyes still saucers.
"WHAT?!" Harry and Ron exclaimed in unison. Hermione, Neville and Ginny began cracking up. Yes, Ginny was actually laughing. If you can believe it.
"What?" Seamus asked, looking even more confused.
"Do you two know something?" Harry asked suspiciously.
"Oh yeah, we're so good!" Neville exclaimed, exchanging high-fives with the girls.
"You guys got those points?" Colin Creevey asked in an awed voice.
"You bet!" Neville said, bursting with pride.
"HOW?" Lavender demanded. Harry and Ron saw them exchange looks and knew. Defending, of course.
"Ravenclaw got a hundred points too," Parvati said, flipping her hair. "At least that's what Padma told me."
"Slytherin got 400," Ginny said shyly.
"WHAT?!" Practically the entire table shouted. They whipped around to see the Slytherins exchanging gossip in a much similar fashion. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Neville exchanged looks, than began laughing. Neville and Ginny dropped out to talk to their friends, but jokes between the threesome just didn't end.
It seemed that the three of them were laughing all day. Hermione was glad to
have her two best friends back together at the castle. It occurred to her
that a year from now they would all be cramming for NEWTs, and then they
would graduate.
Hermione pushed the thought from her head. She didn't want to think about
graduating. She wanted to just stay here with Ron and Harry. She was
perfectly content, at that moment, to just live forever in the castle as a
student.
She was daydreaming all of this as she sat on Ron's lap that night. He and Harry were
discussing Quidditch (what else is new?) and she had dropped out of the
conversation. Suddenly, three owls interrupted them by dropping red note
cards onto their laps...well, Hermione got both hers and Ron's, seeing as
she was kind of taking up all the lap space.
"Professor-" Harry began.
"Starlight," Hermione finished, without even looking at hers. She leaped up
and Ron followed suit. She led them to the portrait hole, where they were
joined by Ginny and Neville.
"This is weird," Neville said as the five of them began their walk to Luna's
office.
"What's weird?" Ron asked curiously. But as he studied Neville's exchange of
looks with Ginny and Hermione, he felt himself blushing.
He and Harry were 'weird.'
"Here we are!" Hermione chirped, interrupting Ron's thoughts. She pushed
open the door to Luna's office without even knocking. Ron shook his head;
this new familiarity with Starlight was going to be 'weird,' as Neville
would say.
"Welcome one and all to Luna Starlight's Flying Circus!" Sirius exclaimed as
they walked in.
"What he MEANS to say is-"
"Tonight, see the mysterious bearded lady!" Sirius interrupted Luna. She
shot him an annoyed look.
"Are you trying to say something about me?" Luna asked playfully.
"No, only that we will have a clown show premiering-" He was cut off when a
jet of light from Luna's wand hit him square in the stomach. Sirius
continued to jabber animatedly...but no sound came out of his mouth. After a
few moments he realized this, and put his hands around his throat.
"As I was trying to say: Welcome back!" Luna said happily, ignoring Sirius
who was flailing his arms and trying to get her attention. The Defenders
snickered. "Today I will be working with Harry and Ron to get them started.
Especially Harry, as I was a Lightening Defender too. Ron, your skills have
already come along quite nicely."
"Thank you," Ron responded automatically.
"The rest of you will be working with Sirius just to touch up," she said.
"Now-"
"Um, Luna?" Ginny said, trying not to laugh.
"What?" Luna asked, sounding rather annoyed at being interrupted.
"Sirius can't talk...or something..." Cho said, giggling. Luna turned and
sighed at Sirius, who was noiselessly stomping his foot and quite obviously
yelling.
"I really prefer him this way," Luna said to the Defenders, who laughed.
However, she pulled out her wand and released his voice anyway.
"-MARRY ME!"
Everyone turned to stare at Sirius, who suddenly realized that he was
audible.
"Um...that was, er, taken out of context. I mean, I was at the end of a
sentence, and...no, no, no! Not THAT sentence. Okay, It's time to practice
or something..." Sirius tried desperately to explain himself to no avail.
Luna gave him a strange look, wistful and angry and most of all, confused. Then
she snapped out of it and grinned.
"All right boys, you come over here. The rest of you go join Silent Bob over
there."
"I take that offensively!" Sirius said, leading the four returning Defenders
away to practice.