Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize. All of that belongs to JKR.

Author's Note: Been a while, huh? Sorry, really I am. If it helps, chapter 9 is almost ready to be posted. lol. I'm changing the rating to T, just to be safe. I'm not really completely sure on the rating system they use, even though I've read over what they're all supposed to mean at least twice. Anyway, on with the story...

Heart's Desire

Chapter 8

-----Sirius's Point of View-----

Wow. I couldn't believe that Harry could produce a fully corporal Patronus. From what I've heard, only Aurors and member of the Order of the Phoenix can do that. And to do it in his third year, against tons of Dementors… Wait. Why does it look like Prongs?

I glanced over at James and Remus. They seemed to be having the same thoughts I was. We silently agreed to hang around after the meeting to talk to Harry and the others. After signing the piece of parchment, we walked forward.

"That was amazing!" I blurted out when it was only the three of us, the six of them, and Lily and Alice left.

"Thanks," Harry said, trying not to blush

"Just where did you learn to do that?" James asked.

"I already told you, my third year Defense professor," Harry said.

"But only Aurors can perform that spell!" Lily exclaimed. "Was he an Auror?" she asked as an afterthought.

"No, he wasn't," Harry said. "It's late, we should be going."

"You're not going to avoid us that easy," Alice sad, amused.

"He's right, it's after ten," Felicia said, trying not to grin.

"Oh," was all Alice could say in response.

"Just sign the parchment on your way out," Ron grinned.

"What's with all the secrecy?" Remus asked.

"Well, we wouldn't want to be training people who are going to continually fight against us, now are we?" Ginny asked, as if it were obvious. "It just wouldn't do to let, say, Lucius Malfoy in here, teach him everything we know, and then let him continue being a Death Eater."

"So why did you let Slytherins in?" I asked before remembering that Harry was, in fact, a Slytherin. "No offense intended, of course," I added hurriedly. Harry smirked.

"None taken, I guess," he replied. "You know how we were talking about the poster suddenly becoming visible?"

"Yes," I said slowly.

"It's charmed so that only people who won't spend their entire life fighting with Voldemort can read it. Actually, I should say that it's charmed so only people who will die on the side of the Light, or at the very least against the Dark, will be able to read it."

"So what about Peter?" Remus asked, alarmed.

"I have no idea," Harry said simply. He was lying. It was quite obvious from the look he got in his eye.

"You're lying," I said. Everyone else stared at me. Apparently, they hadn't noticed.

"It's late," Felicia said, glancing at her watch. "Lets go." The six walked towards the door, leaving it open for us. We glanced at each other, and then hurried outside. None of them were in sight.

"How did they do that?" I wondered out loud. Everyone seemed to ignore me.

"We are going to get in so much trouble," Lily was agonizing. I didn't see what the problem was. We were only out after curfew. The worst we could get was a detention. Oh yeah. She had never had one before.

James glanced at Remus and I. We glanced at each other.

"Go ahead. Take them to the common room; we'll be fine," Remus shrugged. I nodded. We headed off in the direction of the secret passage that led to the Gryffindor common room. It came out right behind the portrait of Godric Gryffindor himself. We could hear James showing Lily and Alice the Invisibility cloak. I could practically hear their thoughts. Lily's was something along the lines of 'No wonder they can pull all those pranks!' Alice was thinking, 'Where are they going? The common room is that way!' James was definitely thinking about how close he would be to Lily throughout all of this. I couldn't help but grin.

"So what do you think of the new students?" I asked Remus as we neared the passageway.

"Something is off about them," Remus said slowly. "Like how could Harry become invisible at will, like he did in the hospital wing? The others transformed, but he became invisible. If it's a cloak, why didn't he share? Ron and Felicia both turn into small enough animals. How did they know that Transfiguration trick? I've never heard of it, none of the 7th years I asked had heard of it, and every time we play a prank, McGonagall and Dumbledore are stuck just like everyone else. And they're Transfiguration Masters! That duel in Defense Against the Dark Arts was amazing, well above Auror level, even, because Moody is one of the best there is! Where did they learn that? I bet Harry could even beat Dumbledore! I heard one of the Headmistress portraits tell another that Moody offered them all positions as Aurors as soon as he had talked to Dumbledore. Most people would kill for that opportunity! They turned it down! They can all produce fully corporal Patronuses, and apparently have been able to for a while. Harry has been able to for three years. To top it off, his Patronus form is Prongs! And then, from what I've heard, they got a letter yesterday morning that made even Dumbledore scared!"

"How did you figure all that out? I mean, I knew the stuff I was there for, like the Patronus, but the rest of it…," I trailed off, amazed at how much more observant Remus is than I am. We stopped in front of the tapestry that hid the portrait that hid the passage.

"Well, I have no doubt that Mr. Lupin is quite a bit more observant," Dumbledore said from behind us. We both turned, shocked. Neither of us had heard him approach. "And I also have no doubt that you will be told all you need to know when the time is right. At the moment, however, I believe it is after curfew, and that you need to get back to Gryffindor Tower. Good night." With that, he turned and walked off. Remus and I glanced at each other.

"We better hurry up," Remus said, giving the password to the portrait behind the tapestry. We walked in silence the rest of the way, until it was time to give the Gryffindor Tower password to the portrait of Gryffindor. We figured that this had originally been the only way into the castle, but it was either too hard to find or students had trouble remembering both passwords. Why else would the passage lead from an ordinary corridor to here?

"Did you have a good time?" I asked James, dropping into an armchair beside him. He still looked as if he were in shock about something. Well, not something. In shock about the fact that he had been so close to Lily.

"It was fine," he said.

"That's nice. Now, we have some important matters to discuss. Is Peter back yet?" Remus asked.

"I don't know. I haven't been up to the dorms yet," James answered, staring into the fire.

"Well, lets go see. We can't exactly sit here in the common room and discuss this, now can we?" Remus said logically.

"We can't discuss it in the dorm, either. Ron and Neville will more than likely be up there," I pointed out. "Do any of you believe what they said about the parchment? You know, about it being charmed so that only people who wouldn't die for You-Know-Who could read it?"

"I don't buy it," Remus said immediately. "I mean seriously, what spell is there that would know the future like that?"

"Maybe it's not their future," a voice said from the shadows. Lily stepped forward. Funny, James hadn't said that she had gone upstairs. Maybe she just came back down.

"Yeah, right," James said, rolling his eyes. "How could it not be their future?"

"Well, maybe they're going into hiding after this year. I'm sure you've all heard the rumors that they turned down the chance to be Aurors. Maybe it's because they won't be around. The town they're from sounds pretty restrictive. In fact, I'm kinda surprised that they even left it."

"They said You-Know-Who had infiltrated the security there," Remus said, almost distractedly.

"So? Why didn't they just set up new wards? It seems like the kind of place where it would be hard to get a spy. Anyway, if the teenagers are all trained like those six are, imagine how the adults would be trained! If anything, they're putting them back by making them go to Hogwarts! They're way above even our 7th years!" Lily exclaimed, dropping onto the couch next to James.

"Forget 7th year. They know at least one more thing about Transfiguration that apparently McGonagall and Dumbledore don't," I said. Lily looked at me in shock.

"What do you mean?" We explained about the prank war, and the prank we had tried to pull on them. "How long was it supposed to last?" she asked.

"All day. But they ate something that turned them into bright yellow canaries, and about a minute later they were back to normal. Or as normal as they ever get," I answered, thinking of the necklace Laura had made from the feathers. "They said something about similar Transfiguration charms canceling each other out, or that the second one went over the first one, so it only lasted as long as the last one cast."

"I had never heard that before," Lily said, puzzled. "And I've talked to McGonagall I don't know how much, first trying to figure Transfiguration out, and then trying to figure a way out of your pranks."

"We aim to please," James said offhandedly. I don't know if he had registered the fact that Lily was sitting so close to him, as he was still staring into the fire. Of course, maybe he had registered the fact and just didn't want to be caught staring. I, myself personally, wanted to ponder this line of thought some more, but Remus decided to interrupt.

"Maybe this will look clearer in the morning," Remus said, standing up and stretching, causing his back to crack. "I, for one, am exhausted. I guess that comes from using all of that magic at the meeting." Remus started up the stairs, and I decided I had nothing better to do. I left Lily and James sitting in the common room, staring at an almost extinguished fire.

-----Luna's Point of View-----

"Do we have to do this?" Ginny puffed. Harry simply nodded. We were running around the lake. Again. We hadn't done this since the day before we got sent back in time. We were all a little rusty.

"We're almost done," I told her consolingly. Really, only half a lap to go…a quarter…we're done.

"Now what?" Ron asked. He wasn't out of breath at all. Neither was Harry. Of course, I suspect they've worked out a little more since we got here. At the very least, they've gone flying. I have no doubt, though, that Harry's been out here every morning.

"Are we done now?" Ginny asked, glaring at Harry. He smirked.

"Unless you want to duel. If not, your more than welcome to go back inside," he grinned. He knew for a fact that Ginny would never turn down a chance to duel, no matter if it was with swords or wands or just about anything else. She still wasn't very good with guns, though. Of course, that was just practice, or lack thereof.

"Of course I want to duel!" Ginny exclaimed excitedly. "How?"

"Just wands," Ron said hurriedly. He didn't like dueling with swords in practice. He was fairly good at them, better than most of us. That, of course, left him to duel with Harry so he could advance his skill, and Harry was much better. Of course, he had trained with professional duelers for quite a while before anyone even thought of teaching the rest of us.

"Sure. Who wants to go first?" Harry questioned. Ron eagerly raised his hand, as did Ginny. Harry smirked. The last time this pair had dueled, it had been…amusing to say the least. He quickly cast a privacy and Notice-Me-Not spell around us and then conjured a large area for dueling. They had only been dueling for a short while before it became much more personal, like all their duels did. They started threatening to tell Mrs. Weasley what one or the other of them had done. We watched in amusement until Ron managed to drag up something from when Ginny was 2. We decided it was time to interfere.

"Do you want to try dueling against multiple opponents?" Hermione questioned. We all glanced at each other. None of us had really tried that before. We had dueled three on three and the like, but never one on two or anything.

"Sure!" Harry said eagerly. Eventually, we all agreed. It was agreed that Harry would go first, dueling with Hermione and Ginny. None of us really knew why Harry actually kept practicing. He was already on the same level as Voldemort, and he wouldn't be able to surpass him until he killed him, seeing as the prophesy said that Harry would be marked as Voldemort's equal, not his better. Everyone was slightly scared of how powerful Harry would be after he killed Voldemort, especially Harry. He was already Voldemort's equal, and he hadn't even gotten his magical inheritance yet! After that was factored in, plus how powerful he would really be if the prophecy wasn't in the way, plus the power he could possibly get after killing Voldemort. He had the potential to be the most powerful wizard since Merlin. He could possibly be more powerful. After all, no one who knew Merlin is still alive to compare the two.

The bell rang as they were finishing up. Harry had successfully disarmed both quite a few times, but let them get their wand back, not wanting the duel to be over already. We hurried back into the castle, not wanting to miss breakfast. We split up as soon as we entered the Great Hall.

The days continued like this, with nothing much out of the ordinary happening. Well, right up until a week before the Christmas holidays, anyway.

Author's Note: How did you like it? Don't forget to tell me in a review! hehe. Ships in this story will probably be Harry/Hermione, Ron/Luna, and Neville/Ginny. More suggestions are welcome, however, as this is definately not set in stone. It's not even typed into the computer or written on paper, so... Another reason to review! lol. Chapter 9 should be up a lot faster than this one was! Sorry for the wait. Thanks for the reviews!