A/N: Shorter chapter, but its more of a lead up to more exciting things. I just realized that nobody caught (or did and didnt mention) my Unspeakables. Shame on you! *wags finger*
The rest of Harry's summer went by in a blur. He spent some time visiting with Hermione, but he gave her and Ron space, hoping to spark what everyone but the two of them realized was there. He trained mercilessly, finding more and more unique things he could manifest with his mind and then finding interesting ways to put them to use. Simon and Coggy ran him ragged every spare moment he had, building up his body to take the punishment that was Tonks' training. The two men from the Department of Mysteries showed up occasionally, asking Harry to try different things with his incredible psionic and magical reserves. While sometimes their experiments proved fruitless, more than once Harry filed what they had him try away for future use.
His magic lessons with Mark were progressing quickly. While he couldn't absorb books at the rate or quantity that Harry could, he was very adept at absorbing the information Harry outlined for him. Soon he and Mark were dueling, and then sitting down for a few minutes after each duel to show Mark what he was doing wrong. While Harry only had a few weeks to teach him, Mark was showing tremendous progress. Harry informed him that he would talk to Dumbledore about allowing Mark to join the DA lessons. Hearing this both Simon and Coggy voiced their opinion that the DA should have a muggle fighting section and offered up their services as guest lecturers. Harry rolled his eyes but accepted the offer, telling them the same thing he told Mark about discussing it with Dumbledore.
Before Harry knew it he was packing his new trunk, gathering up all of the odds and ends he had collected since the beginning of the summer and storing them in the various compartments. He went up to the owlrey and sent Hedwig ahead of him to Hogwarts. He had just finished shrinking his trunk and sliding it into his pocket when he heard a knock on the door. "You're all packed up then? Ready to head back to school?"
Harry turned to find Mark leaning against his door frame, surveying the empty room. "Yeah, got it all right here," Harry tapped the trunk in his pocket, "students will be coming back here for the school year, right?"
Mark nodded and then let out a sigh, "Yeah but you're a lot more fun than the normal guys who are here. They're usually non-magical kids like Simon and Coggy but with a lot less personality. I might come visit you on the weekends if that is cool with you." Harry shrugged, it really wasn't up to him.
"I don't see why not, tap Dumbledore before you come though, don't want to set anyone into panic mode when you set off the visitor trip ward." They both laughed and Mark held out his hand for Harry to shake. He grabbed it and pulled his newest friend into a brotherly hug, "Stay safe Mark, its crazy out there and while I know you can protect yourself better than most, I don't want to see anything happen to you."
The blond boy nodded, and then led the way down to the sitting room where Mr. Weasley was waiting for him. "I told Ron, Ginny, and Hermione that you'd meet them on the platform so we had better get going. Got everything? Send Hedwig off okay?" Harry nodded and grabbed Mr. Weasley's arm and gave a quick wave to his three summer companions before translocating the two of them to a maintenance tunnel at King's Cross. They hurried out before they were discovered and made their way to and then through the portal to Platform 9 ¾.
It didn't take Harry long to see Ron's head poking above the crowd and he made his way to his three best friends. "How are you guys doing?" He asked all three but his eyes lingered on Hermione who gave him a slight nod before pulling him into a Hermi-hug. She said something into his chest but he couldn't hear her so he pulled back slightly and said, "Try that again."
She huffed and then repeated herself, "I said thank you for coming to get me. I wasn't sure if you would hear me with your shields up but I'm glad I got through." Harry's eyes flicked to the hand she had just entwined with Ron's but said nothing. Instead he began herding the three of them onto the train.
"I'm not sure how you got through Hermione, I think I might have subconsciously left doors in there for you guys so that if anything happened I would be able to help. Since you all have the aptitude I will teach you guys how to mentally contact me or, 'tap' me. It's the first step in manifesting your powers and one of the most useful things to learn in the beginning aside from your shields." It was at this time that the train decided to jerk into motion causing Hermione to respond in kind.
"Ron! Its time for the Prefects meeting we'd better get going." Harry waved to his friends and settled back, pinching the bridge of his nose to stem the headache that was forming. Being around so many wizards, a good portion of which were untrained psions was harsh on his shields. He closed his eyes and began making necessary repairs, repurposing his shields to better handle the heavy traffic they were dealing with. If this was the kind of thing that Snape dealt with every day he could understand why he was so grumpy. On the same note he wasn't sure how Dumbledore kept so cheery.
He built up his walls until he couldn't hear any of the student's thoughts pressing against them and then, thinking of Malfoy, he made one more adjustment. Instead of simply blocking out everything, he allowed a very low level of emotion bleed through, enough that he could detect anyone with hostile intent but not enough that he would be overly distracted by the extra input to his senses.
When he opened his eyes he found that Luna had joined he and Ginny in the compartment and was absently reading a copy of the Quibbler, while Ginny had pulled out her DADA text book and was reading ahead. When his eyes fell to Luna she spoke to him without moving her eyes from the newspaper. "Feeling better Harry? Being around all of these undisciplined minds is hard isn't it?"
Harry raised one eyebrow at her before he realized what she meant. "You're like me aren't you Luna, you're receiving all sorts of signals from everyone around us, that's why you're so distracted all the time." Her crystal blue eyes met his emerald green and she nodded, smiling as she did so.
"You're quiet now Harry, its rather an enjoyable feeling to be around those that can shut themselves off. Usually it is all in a jumble but occasionally I learn something humorous." Harry laughed and shared with her his experiences the night he got to the institute in the beginning of the summer. Thinking back to how Elena helped him form his shields he gave Luna a discerning look.
"How would you like me to help you build up some shields? If you're as adept as I think you are we should be able to do it before we get to Hogsmeade." Luna was staring at him now, and not in the way she normally stared. Slowly she folded up the Quibbler and set it aside. Ginny was looking back and forth between the two of them, entirely engrossed in the interaction.
"How do I start?" asked the blonde Ravenclaw, her eyes boring into Harry's. He pushed his shields outwards, not that they occupied physical space, but it was the only way he could imagine sharing them with Luna. As if he had an upturned punch bowel over his head, he extended it and set it around Luna's mind as well. He was focused on what he was doing but Ginny noticed her best friend visibly relax as something Harry did took effect.
"Can you see my shields? See how they're constructed and keep out certain things and then allow in others? I want you to build up your own without any distraction just inside mine, but I only want you to protect your own mind." Luna heard Harry's voice in her head and she complied with his instructions, slowly erecting a picket fence around her thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Harry was about to object to such a loosely defined barrier when a burst of light blue magic erupted from the base of the fence, stretching up and forming a dome over the meadow in her mind, creating a translucent field of magic. "Good, have you got a hold of it? Do you know every inch? Can you recall every detail?"
Luna explored her mindscape, quickly memorizing every last detail that formed her defenses. When she was ready she focused on relaying a message to Harry, "I think I have everything down, what do I do now?"
Harry grimaced, this was the hard part, "I want you to drop your shields and then rebuild them as fast as you can. Do this over and over until you can do it with minimal thought. The repetition builds their strength and gives them roots in your mind." Luna dropped her shields and rebuilt them. It was slow going but eventually she had every blade of grass in place. "Okay, I'm going to drop my shields, tell me how it feels and if your shields drop for any reason focus on putting them back up immediately."
Luna opened her eyes and stared at Harry who was still sitting across from her. To his right were Ginny and Neville and to her left were Ron and Hermione. She raised a pale eyebrow at her tutor, "When are you going to drop them Harry?" The grin that spread across his face shocked her at first until she understood what it meant, "You've already dropped them? This is me on my own?" Harry nodded. Luna felt amazing, as if she was breathing properly for the first time in years. Everything that used to have a haze on it was gone; she could sense things she wasn't aware of before with her mind being overloaded.
Without thinking she launched herself across the aisle at Harry, pressing a kiss to his lips before pulling back, "Thank you thank you thank you thank you!" She called ecstatically, hugging him tightly before returning to her seat.
Harry was smiling, but he was staring at the doorway, he felt a distinct flash of jealousy from the corridor as Luna kissed him. "Did anyone see someone in the hall just now?" He stood and opened the compartment door, glancing left and right down the corridor and finding nobody walking about in their car. He shrugged and sat back down.
"We were all pretty distracted by Luna kissing you like that, what was that about? What have you two been doing? You didn't notice Hermione and I coming back from the prefects meeting." Ron was eyeing his best friend curiously.
"Harry helped me build my Occlumency shields, I have been having such a hard time blocking out everyone else's thoughts for the past four years at school, it was never this bad at home with Daddy." Luna explained about what her life had been like and how she was afraid to go to anyone for help because she didn't want them thinking that she was actively trying to read their minds.
Hermione flashed a grin at Harry, "I think Harry knows exactly what that feeling feels like, he was afraid we'd have a problem with his abilities when we saw him for his birthday. Don't worry Luna, we know you're a good person and a great witch." Luna blushed but Harry still looked distracted. His face suddenly lost emotion and he clicked his fingers, summoning a book out of his backpack.
"Incoming Malfoy, deal with him how you like but I plan on ignoring him." The other five occupants of the compartment all touched the hiding places for their wands for reassurance and then relaxed, waiting for the inevitable confrontation.
Sure enough not a minute later Draco Malfoy was standing in the doorway to their compartment. "I heard Potter and Loony were having a staring contest and I was wondering how Potter was doing it without vomit-" He thought better of finishing his sentence as five wands pointed directly at his face.
Harry turned a page in his book, "It would seem, Draco, that you are at a disadvantage. Why don't you take your trolls and hurry on back to your own cabin before you get hurt." When he finished the page he was on and hadn't heard any movement he looked up to see that Malfoy was attempting to stare a hole through his head. Sighing Harry waved his hand at the three Slytherins and caused them to go flying into the corridor before he twitched a finger, slamming the compartment door shut and locking it. The hand motions were not necessary, but it gave everyone else something to attribute the actions to.
The rest of the compartment had returned to their seats but Luna was looking to each one in turn, "Thank you all for jumping to my defense like that. It is nice to have real friends, not people who pretend to know what I'm talking about just so I'll shut up…" She cast her large blue eyes to the floor but it wasn't long before Ginny and Hermione had pulled her into hugs and Ron and Neville were both patting her gently on the back. Harry sent her a mental tap of comfort before returning to his book.
The rest of the trip passed uneventfully and despite Harry's outward composure he was extremely concerned about the hint of jealousy he felt earlier in the ride. By the time the train arrived in Hogsmeade they had all donned their robes and were all happy to see Hagrid calling for the First Years. They all took time to say hello to the half-giant before the six of them squished into one carriage, Luna on Neville's lap and Ginny on Harry's. Neither he nor the youngest Weasley were affected too much by the situation, despite Ron's death glares behind Hermione's back.
Much to Ron's chagrin, the now lucid Luna started a conversation with Ginny about the selection of eligible boys in Fifth through Seventh years. Harry laughed but wasn't fooled by the nonchalant look Ron affected when Hermione joined in on the conversation.