Disclaimer: I wish I owned the characters. Harry would have relatives who cared for him and Snape would have some closure. Alas, they are not mine. They belong to JKR, Scolastic, WB, etc.

sighs

Feedback is good. Constructive Criticism is excellent. Adoration is always welcomed.

Harry Potter and the Pillars of Truth

Chapter Two

It took more effort than Harry expected to fight through the corridor of the Hogwarts Express to find a compartment with friendly faces, even if they were attached at the lip.

"Christ, Neville, don't the two of you ever stop?" Luna Lovegood made for a rather large, pale barnacle hanging off of her boyfriend's lips. Neville flipped him off, which Harry rather thought was a good sign. The hesitant boy he had met first year had become a strong and confident young man in the past year. Privately, Harry thought that no longer being in potions with the sarcastic -- and sadistic -- Potions Master had quite a bit to do with that.

"Harry, get out of the doorway." Hermione's gruffness propelled him across the threshold. She groaned as she came in. "God, Luna. I can't decide which is worse, your damn Snorkacks or seeing you explore Neville's tonsils."

"Mine could use a good bathing…"

"Ron!"

Harry laughed. "A dark and dangerous expedition, that, tonsil bathing."

"Last I heard, you just called it 'wet,'" snarked Ron.

"Yeah, well, there hasn't been much time for snogging, has there?"

Ron blushed and Hermione sighed.

"Sorry, mate."

Harry punched him in the shoulder. "Not to worry. I've got more important things to worry about than swapping body fluids."

"There isn't anything more important than swapping body fluids," said Luna, somewhat dreamily after the soft pop of her mouth separating from Neville's. "Especially now."

The five of them went silent. Luna's whimsical truths were like that, sometimes. Voldemort had attacked Hogsmeade on the last student weekend of the year, killing several students and the current DADA professor. If not for the members of the Defense Association, far fewer students and residents of the town would have made it to the safety of the Castle grounds, and Hogsmeade itself would almost certainly have been burned to the ground.

Since then, many of the members of the DA had turned to an almost frantic couple-hood, with several engagements (and at least one clandestine marriage) announced. Harry wondered, vaguely, if that was part of what had impelled his parents to marry young and produce him so quickly, the knowledge that there might well be no other chance.

Darwin, he supposed, would have had a field day.

"Um. Right." Harry rather liked Luna, but her vague smile at Neville was creepy. Inquiries on whether they'd gotten to swapping anything other than spit were probably a bad idea. "So, what's everyone going to do for the summer?"

Ron glanced at Hermione. "Well… Hermione and her parents are going to come visit us for a while."

Neville pulled a bit away from Luna, to glance at him in surprise. "They are? You two are that serious?"

Hermione scowled. "It's not about that, Neville. I can't Ward my parents until my birthday --"

"Fucking ministry."

"Language, Ron."

"Well? You've got another term for it? Just because we've decided to pursue our NEWTS shouldn't be enough reason for them to refuse to let you do enough magic to protect your parents from the red-eyed snake that walks like a man."

Luna choked. "Do you mind if I use that?"

"Wha-?"

"I'm writing some articles for my father, and I just love 'red-eyed snake that walks like a man' for Voldemort."

Ron and Neville flinched.

"Honestly, Ron." Hermione looked at her boyfriend. "Voldemort, Voldemort, Volde--" she stopped. "Do you suppose he's like Beetlejuice and shows up if you say it three times?"

Harry stared at her blankly for a moment and then laughed, remembering a video of Dudley's that he'd watched once on the sly. "Wouldn't that be useful? Then we'd only have to do it again to make him go away."

They looked at one another, grinning. "Damn."

"Mate, what're you talking about?"

"Oh, it's a Muggle thing about…" Hermione stopped and the oddest smile crossed her face. "We'll bring the VCR and the tape and see if we can't get it to run at your house. Your dad would love it."

"Molly's going to kill you, you know that, right?"

"And maybe I'll bring a beginning science text… you know, one for little kids, the kind that tries to explain where electricity comes from and that it's not just magic that comes out of the wall?" Hermione's face was almost as beatific as Luna's was when she talked about mythical creatures. "Wouldn't that be fun?"

Ron stared at her in horror. "Hermione, love, you've got to be kidding me! Mum'll kill you."

"Whatever for? Educating your father so he'll at least be nattering on about something he knows about?"

"Wull, yes, actually." Ron's gaze turned pleading. "Please, Hermione, he'll never shut up if you actually tell him about elkticity."

"Electricity, Ron. And it's telephone. Honestly, I don't understand how people with a fairly thorough grounding in Latin can't understand how such words are constructed. Speaking over a distance… Oh, never mind."

Wise of her to be able to recognize when her boyfriend's eyes had begun to glaze over from a familiar argument. It was one that Harry never got involved in because Ron really didn't need them to gang up on him. That and it was fun to watch the fire in Hermione's eyes bounce off the glazed indifference in Ron's.

Neville watched the two of them in interest. "You know, Ron, it might be a good idea for you and your family to have a better grounding in Muggle affairs if you really intend to marry Hermione."

"Of course I intend to marry her!" Ron's gaze was suddenly fierce. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Peace, Ron." Luna's gaze turned sharp. "We all know you love her. It's just that Hermione comes from a different world than the one you grew up in. Don't you think you should know more about it?"

"I…" Ron stared at his hands. Harry and Hermione frowned, practically in unison.

"Ron?"

"I… I've been Dreaming, okay?"

Harry heard the capital letter -- one that had begun to appear as Ron had actually advanced into NEWT Divination.

Hermione's hand lifted, gently cupping his chin and forcing him to look at her. "You don't think you need to know about the Muggle world, do you?"

Ron stared at her. "No. I won't."

"Nothing is held so fast that it can't be changed, Ron," Luna said softly.

"Perhaps not." Ron's eyes closed. "But I know what I see, and it varies little from night to night. I just wish I knew when."

"Divination is terribly imprecise." There was no mockery in Hermione, not the way there had been when they were younger. "Are you sure?"

"We've time and time, Hermione. Time enough and time too little. I just… want to enjoy the time we have."

Luna nodded and then looked at Neville. "See, I told you that there's nothing more important than a little exchange of bodily fluids."

They all laughed.

"What about you, Harry?"

"I've got a plan, which the Dursley's have little enough part in. I'll be of age soon, and not even Dumbledore can force me to stay there." A wicked little smile edged Harry's mouth. "I plan on having an… educational summer."

"One where you can actually do your homework? Study for NEWTs?"

Typical Hermione. Harry grinned. "Study, anyway. Hey, Neville, I've been meaning to ask, your parents were Aurors, right?"

Neville nodded, face suddenly grim.

"Did they leave any textbooks behind? Do you know?"

"I don't, but Gran will…" Neville grinned. "Oh, it's like that, is it?"

"Even if you could just send me the titles…"

"Probably the best choice… how's this -- I'll see if I can get the titles and go to Diagon Alley to see if I can pick up some updates?"

"Oh!" Hermione looked jealous.

"Hermione, it'll be okay. I'd like to invite you all to my birthday party. It'll be on the thirty-first of July. I'll owl you with further details, shall I?"

"Harry, Dumbledore --"

"I don't much care what Dumbledore thinks."

"Really?" came the aristocratic drawl from the doorway. "I find that rather unlikely, Potter. You and Weasel and Mudblood spend a lot of time on your bellies for him."

Harry snorted, not even bothering to look at the slight blond he knew was standing in the doorway.

"Malfoy, I think you have me confused with the cretins who give up their bellies to the --" he glanced at Ron "-- red eyed snake that walks like a man. I'm a lot of things, but a whining cur offering up his throat to a madman isn't one of them. Fortunate, since it means that I'll never be put down like a rabid dog, right, Malfoy?"

"You filthy, mudblooded son-of-a-whore!"

Hermione's wand was out and pressed lightly against Malfoy's forehead, stopping his forward lunge. Harry hadn't even seen her move.

"What was that, oh gloriously pureblooded one?" she asked sweetly. She'd been kicking his ass in DADA on a weekly basis since sixth-year started.

She'd also killed with the wand gently pointed between Malfoy's pale-pale eyes.

"Bitch."

"Prize of my litter, Malfoy. Back up." Her grip on her wand changed. "NOW."

"I don't take orders --"

"From Mudblood filth, yes, yes, yes. I'll only repeat this once more, Malfoy. Move." Chocolate-dark eyes glittered, feral. "Now."

"I'll get you."

"You and Dr. Claw."

Harry laughed. Everyone else looked bewildered.

"The Dark Lord knows who you are, Granger. I wouldn't be so cavalier."

"You haven't got the swashbuckling moves to be a cavalier, Malfoy, so I wouldn't worry about your deficiency." Hermione smiled. "But tell Voldemort that I know who he is, too, next time you see him. I'm sure he'll be thrilled."

"Hermione."

"Shut it, Ron."

"Yes, do 'shut it,' Weasel." Malfoy backed away from her wand. Hermione kicked him in the balls, sending him to the floor while holding off his thugs at wand-point.

"Keep silent, Malfoy, in the presence of your betters."

Harry gaped. Luna tittered. Neville simply appeared bored, his wand out and dangling idly from his fingers.

Ron looked besotted. It wasn't a good look on him.

"You tell Vol-de-Mort that I am Hermione Jane Granger, Muggleborn witch. You tell him that I stand against him and everything he stands for. I stand with Harry Potter for what is right and what is just. Dumbledore and the Ministry can kiss my ass and thank me for the privilege."

Malfoy vomited on her shoes.

"Ewww."

"Sano," mumbled Harry, removing the stench of Malfoy's last meal. He glanced at Malfoy's thugs. "Get him out of here. He appears to be a bit… indisposed."

Goyle stared at him for a moment. "Mobilicorpus."

Malfoy rose from the floor and drifted out. Hermione shut the door and warded it.

"We should have thought of that before."

Harry shrugged. He didn't really have any privacy, so there was little point in worrying about it.

"Hermione… What the fuck do you think you were doing?"

"Hmmm?" Hermione was staring at the door with an odd look on her face. She glanced back at Ron. "What?"

"Are you insane? You just challenged Voldemort."

"So I did." She looked at Harry. "'First they came for the Jews/and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew…'"

"…and then they came for me/and there was no one left to speak for me."

Harry stared at Luna in surprise.

"Just because it's a Muggle poem," Luna huffed.

Hermione laughed. "Ravenclaw."

"Yes. I was curious about this man called Hitler…" Luna looked at Ron. "He was very like the Dark Lord."

"And for as little reason," Hermione agreed. "People did not speak out, and were cut down."

"Lord, it's S.P.E.W. all over again!"

"No Ron." Hermione shook her head. "Do you remember what I used this for, in Hogsmeade?"

Hermione held up her wand.

"You protected the retreat of the third-years."

"I killed." Hermione took a deep breath. "I used the practice that we did in the DA on aiming our curses and deliberately severed a man's head from his body."

Ron stared at her. "I thought that was an accident."

"No. It wasn't."

Harry nodded. He too had used normally painful -- but non-lethal -- curses to kill that day. He wondered if Hermione had the same nightmares he did about it.

"Something you might want to remember, if you really do want to marry me. I can and will kill. I am not so nice and pretty that I will just stand by. I will speak. I will kill. And I probably will die." She stared at him. "But I will not go silently. I will not be rounded up and executed whenever that monster gets around to it."

Neville and Luna stared at her and then at Harry.

"My name is Luna Lovegood, and I stand with Harry Potter."

"My name is Neville Longbottom, and I stand with Harry Potter."

The two looked at Ron.

"Of course I stand with Harry. Where the hell else would you find me?"

With that, they all cracked up and talked about inconsequential things until the train pulled in to London.

-----

Author's note:

The exchange between Luna and Hermione comes, of course, from Pastor Martin Niemoller's poem:

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out--because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the communists
and I did not speak out--because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out--because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me--
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

As taken from:

scott . hayes . org / thoughts / niemoller.html

Thank you for the reviews.