Disclaimer: YAWN!!! I'm so tired of repeating this, so I'll let you use your HP knowledge to fill in the blanks.
A/N: This excuse goes out to all of you who are anxious to see Luna come into the story. I am currently favoring (that's not really the word for it-more like obsessing over) the Harry/Ginny ship, so it is becoming increasingly difficult to remember my original intent. However, I AM going to keep on with my plan and put Harry and Luna together EVENTUALLY, and save HG for a later fic. It's just going to be a little harder than I expected. Ah, well. Enough of my babbling, here's the next chapter!
Chapter 9-To-Do List
Harry returned to his room to find Hermione, Ron, and Ginny waiting for him.
"Well? What did he say?" Ginny's impatience was showing.
"About what?" Harry played ignorant, and was answered by several pillows flying his way. Fortunately, every one of them fell exactly 6 inches short of hitting him. "Alright, alright! What do you want to know?"
Hermione gave him a skeptic look that said, "As if you don't know." Instead of saying this, she started listing a few of the many questions that were on the surface of her mind. "First off, I'd like to know what an ever-changing aura is. And don't even pretend that you didn't ask any questions." She and the other two were now looking up at Harry expectantly.
"Well, I did manage to ask some questions, but not nearly as many as I wanted." He went on to explain everything about auras, Hermione occasionally nodding as if to confirm the trueness of the facts. It was when he got to the part of the ever-changing auras that Hermione stopped nodding and started to listen. After finishing his little lesson, Harry surveyed his friends, searching for any type of reaction.
Hermione was looking stunned and eager, and Harry could see the gears in her mind working overtime, thinking up a whole assortment of books to look up. Ron was staring blankly at the wall, words obviously failing him. Ginny was much the same, only she was gazing intently at Avii.
"Hello? Earth to everyone?" Harry made an attempt to get his friends out of their trances.
Ron was the first to 'wake,' so to speak. "That's crazy, Harry. Only I wonder what the colors actually mean. It'd be really interesting to find out..."
"Is Ronald Weasley suggesting a study session!?!" Hermione said in mock surprise. "Today will be marked in history books as 'The Day Ronald Weasley Wanted To Read.' What a wonderful holiday that would be, don't you think, Ginny?" She glanced over to Ginny, who was laughing fit to burst.
"Oh, sod off, why don't you! I only said I was curious!"
Hence, all the tension that had formerly resided between the four evaporated quickly.
"Well, I suppose it would be a good idea to look it up."
"Right, so we'll add that to our 'to-do' list," Harry said. "It currently consists of about fifty things, including researching my sudden change and defeating the most powerful wizard to cross the face of this earth." A momentary silence placed itself in the room before Hermione had the sense to ask another question.
"Did you find out anything else? You were gone for a full two minutes, and I can hardly think that a lesson about auras could take that long." She grinned mischievously at Harry, who met it with a smirk.
"Well, Dumbledore's aura is a very bright white, and mine's ever-changing. What more could you ask of me? I'm not exactly a spout of information like some people I could mention." Harry glanced pointedly at Hermione, causing her to go a pleasant shade of magenta. "Only joking. Actually, I found out a bit more about the charm he uses to speed us up." Ron's attention perked considerably at this proclamation, prompting Harry to chuckle somewhat Dumbledore-like. "Did I show you what he got me for my birthday?" The other three shook their heads as he pulled out his new watch.
"Doesn't Dumbledore have a watch like that?" Ron asked.
"Yes, he does, and I was never able to figure out how he could make sense of it. Until I unwrapped it on my birthday. Another one of those 'random pieces of knowledge' dropped itself into my mind when I saw it, and I knew that it must have something to do with the charm. Dumbledore said that he had to go through quite a bit of trouble to get it for me, and even then it wasn't supposed to be 'for me.' He lied to the ministry and said he had lost his and needed an new one. Pity he wouldn't tell me how to work the spell."
Ron groaned. "I smell another library visit. Why can't things be easier than searching through endless books?"
Hermione ignored his statement and said, "Wow, Harry, Dumbledore must really like you. To go through all that trouble to get you a birthday gift?" Harry heard another gear clink into action and decided to change the subject. He still hadn't told his friends about the prophecy, and didn't feel the time was ripe yet.
"You know, Sirius once told me that there was a library in this house. I wonder if we could look up some of this stuff in there instead of waiting for term to start." He turned his attention towards the painting of his godfather, who was currently leaping around jovially in his dog form. "Sirius, could you tell me where it is?"
The dog morphed into the man Harry missed so much, laughing softly. "Not one to be fooled, are you, Harry? Knew I was listening in the whole time...I can actually tell you where the study is, but I don't know how much use it will be to you. The Blacks were known for their, shall we say, interesting collection of books? All the same, there were some useful tomes in the library as well. If you go up to the master bedroom I used to stay in, you'll see a mirror on the right-hand wall. I believe the password is 'serpent's lounge.' Not very original if you ask me, but, then again, it's not something you're likely to say to a mirror in normal circumstances."
"Thanks, Sirius," Harry managed to say before bolting out of his own room speedily. The others thanked him as well and followed their hasty friend.
A/N: Even though it's short, I rather liked this chapter. I got a lot of stuff in there that I really wanted to. If you hadn't noticed by now, I like to drop rather obvious subtle hints. 20 House Points goes to anyone who can guess what's going on with Harry. There are a few things I'm planning on doing with him, so any one will work.
Just so you know, things will really start to pick up when Harry goes back to Hogwarts, including romance (although it will probably take a back seat to everything else because I suck at anything to do with it.), explanations, and revelations. It'll all come together eventually.
