Chapter Six

Luna Lovegood's Secret

Over the next week, Harry had exhausted almost every theory and idea about Malfoy he could come up with and Ron, Hermione and the rest of the people at the burrow were quite fed up with listening to his constant raving. On the night before school was to start, Tonks was invited over for dinner along with Lupin, Shacklebolt, and many other Order members. Many of the invited guests did not show up however, leaving plenty of food and discussion for few who made the trip to the burrow.

Tonks was showing no signs of improvement when Harry saw her that evening. Her hair was still a repulsing shade of green and now looked so tangled and greasy that if Harry didn't know that she could change her hair colour, he'd have very well thought that she was wearing a wig made of seaweed. Her attitude matched her sulking face and she didn't say much throughout the entire dinner. She did however, seem to overreact to some news about Lupin; something that seemed to surprise everyone at the table except Mrs. Weasley. It wasn't until after dinner, when the table broke off into several small discussions that Harry discovered the reason for Tonks' rather odd reaction.

Fred and George, who had been playing a game of explosive snap and caught site of Harry looking rather glum, called him over to the corner.

"It's girl trouble isn't it?" George asked Harry who almost missed his chair attempting to sit down.

"No, it's really that-"

"It's fine Harry, we're not going to tell anyone." Fred smiled as he pulled another card from the deck, "It's almost normal to have a crush on an older woman."

"O-older woman?" Harry croaked, his face turning red, "I don't-you can't mean that-"

"Tonks would probably appreciate it anyways, what with Sirius and Lupin gone." Harry looked at the floor, remembering for what seemed like the millionth time what had happened earlier that summer. "Sorry," George added, "I just meant that Tonks could use someone hanging around her nowadays."

"Wait a minute," Harry said, dropping from his chair to the floor and completing a circle around the expanding tower of cards, "What do you mean Lupin's gone too?"

"Keep your voice down!" Fred urged. He looked up to see if anyone was watching them, when no one was, he leaned in close to Harry. "We overheard Tonks talking with mum just a little while ago, gotta love them extendable ears," he said, beaming at George, "but anyways, it seems that Lupin's gone into hiding; hanging out with the werewolves underground. Right dangerous job if you ask me, I wouldn't want-"

"He's living with werewolves?" Harry shouted suddenly, causing everyone in the room to stop what they were doing and look at him. "I-er-he's living with werewolves? What a great twist to your story Fred!" he blurted out, hoping to remedy the situation. It must have worked because everyone seemed to drift back into their original conversations and the noise level of the room returned to normal.

"Yes," George said, leaning in even closer. Harry could barely hear him. "Tonks is all upset that he's gone without telling her. Apparently Lupin's been staying with Tonks since the whole…incident." There was moment of silence then Fred piped up and pulled another card from the deck.

"Well, at least she'll be happy to have someone around," he chimed, giving Harry a smile.

"Uh, right then," Harry said, avoiding the googly faces the twins were now giving him, "I'll just be going to bed now." Without so much as a word to anyone, Harry walked up the stairs and went to bed.

The journey to King's Cross station the next morning was the same as usual; hectic and full of bickering, cursing and the throwing of objects between the Weasleys. Harry was used to this by now, Hermione however, found it a little too amusing.

"Ginny, you shouldn't be doing that," she said in an attempt not to laugh at her friend who now had thrown four hair brushes at her brother.

"Why not?" Ginny questioned, winding up and throwing another brush at Ron, "It's not like there's anything in that stupid head of his."

"You're just bitter that I got mum's attention with my seven O.W.L's" Ron retorted before lobbing a brush back at Ginny. Just then, Mrs. Weasley walked in and Ron's flying brush caught her in the side of the head. She turned in Ron's direction and Harry could've sworn he'd see steam spouting from her ears.

"OUT RONALD!" She screamed, causing everyone in the room to cringe, "GET IN THE CAR NOW! EVERYONE!" Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny all raced towards the door, none of them looking at Mrs. Weasley.

"It was only a joke," Ron muttered as he passed through the door.

"OUT!"

They made it to platform nine and three quarters just in time. The Hogwarts Express took off almost immediately after Harry's feet crossed its threshold. He turned around to wave goodbye to Mrs. Weasley who had become very emotional the second they got onto the platform. She kept mumbling something about safety between her wailing sobs, and even though she had been yelling only a few minutes before, Harry couldn't help but feel sad for her. She knew that even Hogwarts wouldn't be totally safe anymore and Harry didn't feel any better when he remembered what he had discussed with Dumbledore and Professor Yewdine a few weeks before.

Harry turned around to see Ginny exiting to look for a compartment and Ron and Hermione heading off for the Prefect's car.

"We'll see you after lunch Harry," Hermione called to him before shutting the door.

Harry stepped into the next car and began browsing the compartments for a place to sit. He immediately realized that he was the object of everyone's attention; in every compartment he passed, people would stop what they were doing, staring at him as if star-struck. More than once, groups of girls would stop talking when he passed and look at him smiling and giggling. In one case, the door of a full compartment opened and a bold-looking, dark haired girl with deep brown eyes stood facing him.

"Hi Harry, I'm Romilda Vane. There's plenty of room in here, would you like to sit with us?" She said, attempting to drag him into the compartment.

"Er, I'm fine thanks," Harry mumbled as he pushed his way away from the compartment door. Just then a familiar voice came from behind.

"Hiya Harry!"

"Neville!" Harry cried turning to see the tall, clumsy looking friend he'd known for six years. "Tell me you have a compartment."

"Yeah, Luna and I grabbed one and we saved a spot just for you!" Neville explained, leading Harry away from the ogling hands of Romilda Vane and her friends. When they had escaped into the next cart, Neville slowed his pace.

"It's crazy isn't it?" He said, slightly out of breath.

"You're telling me," Harry replied, sounding just as exhausted. "Is this all about-"

"The Department of Mysteries? Yeah," said Neville as he stepped in front of Harry to open the door to the last cart of the train, "There's been at least a dozen articles in the Prophet over the summer. All of them are labeling you as a Hero! There's even mention of Luna and I! Gran was so proud to hear about what I had done. You wouldn't believe it Harry, I'm someone now, and I owe it all to you."

"I-well," Harry stammered, feeling himself turning pink, "It wasn't really me-"

"You're going to continue with the DA this year, aren't you?"

"Er-maybe I'll just-"

Neville swung the door of the very last compartment open and his mouth dropped in horror. Harry pulled the door open and felt his stomach drop. Sitting on top of a shredded pile of school robes with its teeth bared, was a Lynx.

"Harry, d-d-do something," Neville babbled fumbling through his pocket. Harry reached for his wand but quickly dropped it as his hands were now shaking uncontrollably. He watched in horror as Neville aimed his wand at the Lynx and shouted a most ridiculous incantation. To Harry's surprise, the Lynx keeled over.

"I did it Harry!" Neville shouted running into the compartment and pointing in the face of the now sleeping Lynx. "Look! It's out cold!"

Harry couldn't believe it. What was a Lynx doing on the Hogwarts express? Had someone tried to set him up? And how did Neville manage to subdue it with such a silly incantation (something about pizza and broccoli water)?

Just as Harry sat down across from an ecstatic Neville, something most unexpected happened. The Lynx turned into Luna Lovegood.

"Hi Harry," she said subtly, "I hope I didn't scare you too bad."

Harry was at a loss for words.

"I really wasn't-"

"We got you good," Neville laughed, putting his arm around Luna and pointing at Harry. "Did you see his face?"

Harry felt his insides starting to burn.

"That wasn't very funny Neville," he seethed and Neville stopped laughing. "This really isn't the time to be joking around and you know that."

"We just wanted to show you Luna's new ability," Neville murmured, looking as if he were going to cry, "sorry…"

"It's fine," Harry said, suddenly feeling guilty about blowing up on his friend, "I didn't mean it to sound like that. It really is an amazing talent Luna, when did you learn that?"

"Just over the summer," Luna said quietly, "After the incident in the Department of Mysteries, my dad went overboard with the praise. He said I was the greatest witch he'd ever known and that I had the potential to do anything I wanted." At this, she blushed and looked at her feet. "I mentioned to him that I had always dreamed of being an Animagus. He must've taken it literally because he enrolled me in a class to develop the ability the next day. I ended up finding it quite easy to do, and I mastered it a short time. I credit that," she said, looking up at Harry with a twinkle in her eye, "to our DA meetings."

"Er-thanks," Harry said as he smiled at her.

The next hour or so went by in silence. Luna pulled out an issue of the Quibbler and began reading it in her usual upside down fashion, Neville kept looking over at her with a rather creepy smile, and Harry sat and stared out the window, watching the landscape pass by in a blur.

Things sure had changed in the past couple months. He had gone from a liar to a hero, a dateless nobody to a girl magnet, and his friends had replaced his relatives as family. Luna was an Animagus now, Neville had the confidence of Draco Malfoy, Ron was crying, and Hermione was a lot more cheerful than she probably should be. As the lunch trolley rolled up, Harry asked himself how much weirder this year was going to get.