"What's
his name?" Luna was looking curiosly up at the ceiling of Ron's
room. The ghoul was throwing pipes and had startled Neville.
Harry, Luna, Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Neville, were all
squeezed tightly
into Ron's room. Normally, the room barely
fit Ron and his belongings,
never mind five extra people, but
they were gathered to arrange the first DA
meeting of the
school year, even though it hadn't officially started yet.
Luna continued to stare at the rafters, as dust fell on
everyone's
shoulders, and no one answered her. Which was
reasonable, since no one
heard her.
"What is his name?" she asked again, louder this time.
"Did you say
something?" Hermoine shouted over the noise. She had been
taking ideas for a new headquarters until they went back to
Grimmauld
Place.
"Yes, I did," Luna nodded without breaking her gaze.
"Well, what was it?" Hermione said
impatiently. She had never really liked
Luna and told herself
that getting angry or trying to straighten her out
would make
matters worse. But even Hermoine didn't listen to herself
sometimes.
"I said, 'What's his name?'" Luna
looked at the ceiling a little
differently now. "I think it
may be Brian."
"Please don't tell me you're
talking about the ghoul," Hermoine shook her
head and
sighed.
"Well, since you said please, then I won't,"
Luna smiled at Hermoine and
looked at the ceiling again,
another pipe crashed against something solid
and metal.
"No, maybe it's Albert,"
"Ron, do you happen have any
working plumbing in the attic at all?" Neville
asked
cautiously, looking at the ceiling and taking a step towards the
doorway.
"Yeah, why do you ask?" Ron questioned,
the ghoul continued hitting the
solid metal pipe.
"Just wondering,"
"No, wait," Luna paused, squinting at
the ceiling. She turned and walked
directly out of the room
stopped two feet from the door and waited, while
everyone else
looked at her through the doorway.
She sat down on the
landing and stared back at them. They all sat that way,
just
looking at each other, with "Albert" hacking away at the pipe
still,
until Luna looked up at the ceiling.
"'Henry,'"
She looked at them again suddenly, "You might not want to stay
in there, he seems rather upset."
"What does that
matter?" Hermoine said and stared at Luna as everyone else
raced into the hall and down to Ginny's room. As she and
Luna continued to
stare at each other, a small smile crept on
to Hermoine's face as nothing
happened, seemly proving Luna
wrong.
Henry took his final blow at the pipe and sent the
wrench he was using
through the attic's floor, landing on
Ron's bed. Hemoine looked at it and
then at Luna, who was
now knitting.
Large amounts of water suddenly showered
Ron's room, Hermoine still
included, and took to ruining
everything.
Luna continued knitting a cobalt blue scarf,
and paid no mind to the
drenched Hermoine as she got up from
the floor and walked down the
staircase saying, "Yes,
'Henry' suits him well."
That
night at dinner, no one dared speak. No, they were too busy trying
to
keep straight faces. Apparently, Hermoine's hair had a
lot more frizz than
anyone knew, and she had been using a
small amount of Sleekeazy's Hair
Potion every morning since
last term, just to contain it. Well, with the
absence of
Sleekeazy, her hair rebelled, and not prettily.
The only
person that wasn't turning purple with laughter or pride, was
Luna. She sat cross-legged on the pick-nick bench in the
garden, knitting a
silver coin-purse, taking breaks to lick
her fudgesicle.
While the others continued to stifle their
laughter, Hermione straightened
herself and stabbed at
mushroom in the spaghetti sauce meaningfully. Harry
and Ron
tried to do the same and failed miserably, while Ginny was
pretending to be very interested in her lemonade. Neville was
trying so
hard not to laugh, that he went to the toilet until
he had recovered.
"Say anything and I'll curse you,"
Hermoine threatened calmly, making Ron
stop in midair,
open-mouthed and fore-finger pointing at her hair. Harry
and
Ginny both choked on their drinks.
Neville had returned
and tried to sit down again, but then Hermoine looked
up, he
hair bouncing violently with the movement. He spurted with
laughter,
doubled over, and started to roll on the grass. Luna
looked down at him
curiously and suggested "If you stain
your clothing, I know a charm that can
fix that."
There was no helping it, the garden erupted around them.
When the noise had died down, the army settled back
into Ron's room to
discuss important topics.
"Now,
does anyone have any ideas about where we should meet?" Harry
stood
on Ron's bed, while Hermoine sat next to him with some
parchment and a
quill.
Everyone shuffled and looked at
their shoes. They were supposed to have
discussed this over
dinner, but no one had even thought about it.
"There is
Ginny's room. It seems to be a bit smaller, but at least we
wouldn't have to shout over the ghoul-"
"Henry," Luna corrected.
"-Over Henry so much," Harry
suggested. No one took to the idea, but
Hermoine did glare at
him.
"Well, if no one has a better idea- Yes, Luna?"
He was interrupted by Luna's
risen hand, that nearly reached
the ceiling.
"What about the attic?" She asked politely.
"What do you mean? Then we would be in the middle of the ghoul's-"
"Henry's"
"-tantrum.
We wouldn't get any thing done. Besides, no one has been up
there for years, there is probably too many Doxies to speak
of." Hermoine
said firmly.
"Actually, there aren't
many at all. Before dinner, I went to speak to
Henry, turns
out that he is quite lonely. He also takes to eating Doxies,
since they bother him so much, they aren't very friendly, so
there haven't
been any recently."
"You spoke
with the ghoul? I can't believe it, you actually believe that
you can talk to a ghoul? This is maddening! The next thing
you'll say is
that you chat with
the giant squid on
occasion!"
"No, I don't. He isn't very friendly, he wouldn't even give me his name."
"And so the ghoul is?"
"He prefers 'Henry' and, yes, he is,"
Harry had decided that that was enough. "Okay, so I'll
check out the attic
and Ron said he could see about Percy's
room-"
"No I didn't"
"-and Ginny's
room is still an option, and Neville, you can check around
the
rest of the house-
"What?"
"-to see if
anything else is open. Luna, I think you'd better come
with
me."
Hermoine was glaring at her still, turning a little
red, and not the for
the first time this year, she almost
buzzed with electricity. Everyone shyed
out of the room as
Harry and Luna walked upstairs to the attic. And yes, it
started
to get mushy.
"I'm really glad that I get to see you
the rest of break, I mean, just
Hermoine's reaction to you
is worth giving up the extra bedroom and bunking
with Ron.
"Don't you two sleep in the same room all term anyway?"
"Yeah but his snoring seems to get a lot louder here. Must be the food."
"Oh, you're joking.
Bill and Charlie both had there own rooms, correct?
Well, with
them gone, Fred, George, and Percy vacated, all six of us could
have our own room. So if Ron really is that loud..."
"Alright I get it. I still like you here, okay," Harry
said with a smile,
"Neville's not too bad either, I
suppose he could only take so much of his
grandmother. I don't
blame him."
"She does wear some unfortunate clothing;
I couldn't imagine wanting to
wear something dead in the
summer, even if it is a hat."
They acceded quietly to
the attic (Henry was very upset, frightened even,
and noise
wasn't the best greeting at the moment), and Luna called to
Henry
as they reached the slanted attic door.
"Henry,
it's Luna. I've come to see how you're doing. You're toe
isn't
bothering you any more is it?" She almost sang this
in through the attic
door; "I've brought my friend, Harry.
He has come to talk to you about
visiting more often, would
you like that? Henry?"
She popped her head in and looked
around the corner, curiously. "I wonder
were he went. Oh
well, come in Harry, there's plenty of room in here,
you'll
see."
Harry walked in cautiously, wand at the ready, and
peered around the corner
to see something he wasn't
expecting. With all the rickety staircases and
tiny rooms in
the Burrow, he had always expected the that the attic would
be
small, consisting of used magical things, rafters and old dust.
Nothing,
even at Hogwarts, would have prepared him for this.