Movement into Gray

The days fell into a routine, Harry and Hermione would each duel Ron and Ginny respectively, Neville dueled Remus, and Tonks supervised. Harry had noticed that Ron seemed angry about something, and took it out on him. It was helpful in that it allowed Harry to play just as hard.

Hermione was struggling with the new attitude from Ginny. She fought like she had to prove that she was better than her in this. Like Harry, this allowed Hermione to push Ginny to her upper limit, which was still woefully short of hers or Harry's.

Harry started moving backwards while Ron pressed what appeared to be an advantage. Hermione knew that he was moving towards her, deciding to change up their opponents routine. They didn't have to plan it, they just responded to the idea instantly. Knowing that they were two steps away from each other, they continued to fight waiting for the right moment.

Suddenly, they switched positions and she now faced Ron. He froze for a moment, but that was all she needed. She heard Ginny drop and knew that the fight was over. She leaned back and felt Harry lean against her.

"Neat trick," he asked with a smile on his face. She wasn't sure how she knew that there was one, but she did.

"Yea, worked like a charm," she replied. She had noticed that Neville gave them an odd look, but said nothing.

They both took a step forward and resumed supporting their own weight. It wasn't hard for people to see that they were incredibly at ease and well in tune with each other. Harry went to help Ginny up, but she got up looking slightly upset. She and Ron walked over to the side and sat down to catch their breath, and were soon joined by Neville who watched them as if they were going to do something.

Harry kept his posture relaxed, as he tried to keep from letting his plan from being known, but as usual it was a hopeless endeavor. Hermione blocked his spell and quickly countered. This started their duel with a smile on each of their faces, but they didn't smile for long.

Harry watched as her eyes darkened, her intensity making him want to smile, though he didn't. Harry dodged her spells with relative ease, though it was only because he knew her so well that he was able to. He looked her straight in the eyes, breaking contact only when he had to. He felt as if he were moving through a well rehearsed dance, all they lacked was music.

Harry felt the magic coursing through his body, singing with the intensity of the fight. He saw that Hermione felt the same, her eyes telling him without a word needed. He felt something trying to rise up inside him, something that he couldn't place, so he pushed it back down.

The two of them moved fluidly, responding with only what was necessary to dodge or block the spells. Hermione knew that something was off, she felt a little lost, even though she was pushing with all her might to beat Harry, she felt something rising in her but it suddenly vanished as if it were suppressed.

It wasn't the only time she'd felt it, in fact she had felt it almost every time they dueled. The harder they fought, the stronger it seemed to get, which caused her to feel lost. She couldn't place what it was, but she knew that it was important.

Moving closer, she could see that Harry seemed to be struggling against something, but not against her. She pushed against the barrier, trying to get at what was behind it, but the harder she tried the harder it fought back. When she wasn't much more than two feet from Harry, she saw something flicker in his eyes but it was gone before she could tell what it was.

She knew that she was running on will at this point, but this was the only time she could figure out what was behind that barrier. She gave a final push and felt it give slightly. She wanted to cheer, but found that she couldn't stay standing anymore. Her legs gave out and she fell into Harry.

Harry was worried, Hermione had been pushing herself beyond her limits recently and was spending most of her day exhausted. Harry held her, knowing that today was worse than usual. He had seen triumph in her eyes before she collapsed, and was curious as to why.

Winky summoned everyone to dinner, as Harry helped Hermione down to the kitchen. While he was beginning to enjoy his summer, after all he had most of his friends with him, Harry was afraid that the Sword of Damocles would soon drop onto them.

As Harry and Hermione entered the kitchen to see Luna Lovegood talking to Winky about in a language that made no sense.

Harry noted that everyone else was seated and eating while watching Luna with expressions ranging from amused to confused. As they sat down, Luna turned to greet them. For a moment, she seemed to be looking at them for something, then smiled "so good to see you again Harry, Hermione. How has your summer been?"

Harry smiled as well, "as well as can be expected, how about you?"

She shrugged, "my father and I had a wonderful vacation, we didn't find the Crumple-Horned Snorkacks though." With that, conversation turned to light-hearted things, plans for the school term and various pranks they wanted to do.

After they finished eating Ginny and Luna left to do some of the homework that they still had left to do, Hermione went to the library, and Ron to do 'something' that he didn't want to say. This left Harry in a rare moment of alone time in which he wasn't studying.

It lasted all of one minute.

Bill walked in, reminding Harry that they had to be at Gringotts in an hour. Groaning, Harry muttered, "of course, that's the only possible reason I was left alone." Going upstairs for a quick shower, he found that Winky had already laid out a semi-formal robe for him to wear.

Once he had returned downstairs, there was about thirty minutes before they had to meet with the Goblins. Fortunately through an agreement with the Goblins, Harry would arrive via portkey ten minutes before the meeting.

Harry sat in the lounge with Bill in the lounge and asked, "anything in particular that might be good for me to know before this meeting?"

Bill leaned back into his chair, shifting to get comfortable. "Only that you need to watch what you promise to them. Some things are out of reach for us to promise."

They chatted back and forth about the Goblin they were to meet with, Aljan. Aljan risen through the ranks by making keen business decisions for the last fifteen years, this placed him in a unique position of being the one goblin with strongest ties to the Wizard World.

Soon enough it was time to leave. Harry was nervous about not having Hermione there in case things started to go over his head, but he needed to show that he was strong enough, to himself mostly, that he could face whoever he needed to.

After stumbling for a moment from the landing, Harry quickly got his bearings, which didn't help much. They had appeared in an empty office with no way of figuring out where exactly in the building they were.

Soon enough a goblin entered. He carried himself with a sense of dignity that didn't seem to be arrogance. His features were sharp, and his eyes moved with intelligence and curiosity. He seemed to appraise Harry for a moment before saying, "welcome gentlemen, I am Aljan. If you would be seated."

Once seated, Aljan said, "I am not like my compatriots, I prefer not to beat around the bush. What can you possibly offer Gringotts Mr. Potter, that could convince us that your side is better than no side?"

A quick glance at Bill made it clear that this was not what he expected. "Aside from the fact that Voldemort," Harry noted that Aljan didn't flinch, "will most likely try to exterminate your entire people?"

Aljan smirked, "your people have not been able to do it, what makes you think he can?"

"Possibly by throwing one of his allies at you, the giants that we know are on his side for example, and taking down the survivors. What little I understand leads me to believe that even your magic has a lessened effect against them." Harry sat back and waited for a reply. He noted that Bill was oddly silent.

"That still leaves what you could offer us in exchange for our cooperation."

Harry looked him straight in the eye, "from what I understand of the last time Voldemort rose to power, the human magic folk were too proud to ask for help from those who might benefit from a stable economy, I don't have that problem. By working with us, you help create a stable environment where business can flourish, instead of fear. After all, if people are scared they tend to keep more cash in a place where they can control it." Harry was unsure where all this was coming from, it seemed as if he were channeling Hermione or something.

"That is very true Mr. Potter," Aljan said, his face turning serious, "but what would you require of us?"

Harry took a steadying breath, what did he want from them? He vaguely heard the voice that often sounded like Hermione point out that goblins are very effective in combat. "I would like for some of your fighters to aid us in the event we have a large scale confrontation with Voldemort's forces. Also any intelligence you can provide would be welcomed."

Aljan nodded, "I will discuss it with my superiors. To whom should I address the response?"

Harry calmly met his eyes and replied, "Harry Potter."

Aljan nodded and quickly departed. Another goblin escorted them to the more public areas of Gringotts and they were left to their own devices. As they walked out into Diagon Alley, Harry glanced at his watch, and realized he needed a new one. "How long did all that take? My watch is busted."

Bill glanced at his watch, "about an hour, which means there are another two before anyone expects you to be back." He smiled, "anything you want to do in the mean time?"

Harry nodded, "get a new watch." As they exiting the Leaky Caldron to go into muggle London, they passed a wizard in a floor length black jacket. The only reason that they noticed him was that he was muttering under his breath about the foolishness of 'non magic folk'. By the time Harry turned to get a closer look, the wizard was gone.

The rest of the trip was uneventful and they soon arrived back at Grimmauld Place ahead of schedule. After Bill left, Harry wandered around looking for where everyone was. Since he wasn't in a hurry, and he knew that Winky would have told him if something were wrong, he wandered towards the dueling area.

Harry entered quietly, only to duck as a spell nearly hit him. Harry watched as Luna, who he admitted he thought of as a little off, was fighting against both Ron and Ginny… and winning.

Apparently Luna's Ravenclaw side was showing, because Harry was fairly sure that most of the spells she was throwing around were beyond anything that had been taught in the DA. Harry quickly disillusioned himself and sat back to watch the end of the fight.

He noticed Hermione, Neville, Remus and Tonks watching with shocked expressions. As he quickly made his way over to them, he noticed Hermione was taking note of every spell that was being fired back and forth.

Turning back to the duel, Harry noted that Ron and Ginny made an excellent team, they moved quickly to keep each other from being overwhelmed by Luna attacks. Luna was very quick, even with her opponents on opposite sides.

Luna conjured several statues, obviously using herself as the model, which she then sent to attack Ron while she turned her full attention on Ginny. Unfortunately that was her slip up. Ron fired a stunner which hit Luna in the back. In truth it was a cheap shot, but it worked.

As Ginny helped Luna back onto her feet, Harry started clapping. Hermione jumped. at which point he realized that he was still disillusioned. Quickly canceling the spell, he said, "well done. I walked in towards the end." Smiling he looked at Ron and Ginny, "you two make a good team." Turning to Luna, "I'm pretty sure we didn't get into actual dueling practice, so that was very good. Where did you learn to do all of that?"

Luna smiled, her eyes taking on a distant look, "oh, I studied while we were back at Hogwarts." As she met his eyes, a slight pained look flashed over her features. Harry suddenly got the image of a girl walking to class alone, sad because no one wanted to be her friend.

Harry said nothing, but he could tell Hermione and Luna knew something had happened. As everyone started to leave towards their various individual pursuits, Harry knew that he needed to talk to Dumbledore. If he were right, he had just read a memory of Luna's. He hoped he was wrong, because he didn't want to think of a friend being shunned.

A quick letter via Dobby was met with a similar response. Dumbledore would meet tomorrow to discuss the renewal of his Occlumency lessons.

A/n: 2298 words. A few of you got the Babylon 5 reference. For those of who didn't, B5 was a sci-fi show that aired in the US a few years back. The only reason I made those comments was that I like those two characters and some elements of their arcs will be similar. Twenty points if you get the reference to a character named Aljan.

Now if only my muse will be as helpful as G' Kar's… Oh, and by the way, Ron is my least liked character that is a good guy.

Nairojam: but who would be G' Kar?