Harry looked up when he heard footsteps approaching, he stayed where he was, looking at the stars from under his invisibility cloak, there was no reason to move, there was no reason anybody would be able to see him or make fun of him now. Harry's back was against the cold stone that made up the wall of the turreted part of the Astronomy tower. Harry saw a dirty-blond silvery blue-grey eyed girl who looked like she was probably a year younger than him, maybe a little less though, Harry was young for his class. Harry jumped almost a foot in the air when he heard the girl say "Hello Harry Potter, why are you invisible?" "H-How did you know I was here?" "Oh dear, it looks like you have a wrackspurt infestation… did you not realize you are very loud when you cry, Harry Potter?" "But how did you know it was me? And I don't mean to be rude, but who are you?" "My name is Luna Lovegood, and I knew from the sound of your crying that you must be a male, and there were two males who looked like they wanted to cry at lunch, and only one of them owns an invisibility cloak. So unless Cedric stole your cloak, which is something I don't think he would do, he doesn't seem like he would be mean, it had to be you." Harry did not realize he had been crying and sniffling quite loudly probably for an hour or so. He also did not realize that the slippery silvery material of his invisibility cloak slipped off him when Luna startled him. Luna restated her original question, "Why were you invisible, Harry Potter?" "Well, I was embarrassed, for having kissed Cedric in front of the whole school and the other two schools. I didn't mean for it to happen. It was a love potion." Harry looked depressed. Luna went over to him, sat down, and said "There is no reason to be embarrassed, Harry Potter. Everyone heard you say it was a love potion and professor McGonagall said it too and so did the girl who did it, so everyone knows you were under the effects of a love potion. You are just being silly. I get teased all the time, but I don't let it bother me. I suppose I would get quite depressed if they did bother me." "Luna, please just call me Harry, you don't need to use my surname all the time, and I know everyone knows it was a love potion but that doesn't matter to them. They still make fun of me for it and ignoring them is difficult for me. And my head hurts from where Cho punched me and from where I hit the floor, so I don't think it's wrackspurts (whatever those were) in my head. I just got hit twice very hard." "No, I'm pretty sure it's the wrackspurts, Harry, they make thinking straight very difficult, but getting hit in the head just confuses you, and most of the time has no lasting effects." "Well if you're sure, Luna, why did you come up here? It's way past curfew." "I came up here to think and watch the stars. You can learn a lot from the stars, Harry." "Really? I didn't know that, can you tell me what the stars have taught you?" "No, they reveal themselves to you, it is not for me to say what they can tell you. But for me, they tell me to keep being myself and to not let teasing bother me. And to be careful when handling new or dangerous spells." "How can you tell what the stars say?" "Come here and I can show you what I see tonight, Harry" Luna pointed straight up at Mars and said "Harry, see how Mars is very bright, and making a 45 degree angle with Saturn and Jupiter? Well when Mars is in that position it normally means to be careful with hot things, although Jupiter normally means that your magic will be particularly powerful, and saturn means life, and new growth. So that's where I got that I need to be careful with new spells, and I should probably be careful with new potions too, oh! Maybe somebody will try to give me a love potion!" "Well that could be, but I don't get why the planets have so specific meanings." "Harry, they don't necessarily mean what I said at all, it's all about how they're interpreted, so Mars can mean caution with hot things, or it could mean that you may be prone to getting angry easily. There are quite a few books on the subject, or you could pay closer attention in divination." "I would be a better student in divination if Trelawney would stop predicting my death every five minutes." "Well I could see how that would be annoying, obviously you're not dead, so maybe you should ask Trelawney how she foresaw your death, and maybe you could use the same method she did to see what you're really meant to see." Harry was starting to feel dizzy and his brain could not keep up with Luna. "Luna, thank you for talking to me tonight, but I think it's time for me to go to bed." "Okay, good night." As Harry walked by Luna he realized he was still not wearing his cloak, and he did not want to be caught by Filch at this time of night. Harry also noticed that Luna was wearing some very odd things, like earrings that resembled orange radishes, and a necklace that seemed to be made from butterbeer corks that were strung together, and a rather nice perfume, all together it was not a bad effect, just a little odd. Harry was having trouble sorting everything out in his head, about Cedric and lunch, and about what Luna told him about Trelawney, and that he still hadn't told Ron and Hermione about the graveyard. Harry made his way back to his dormitory and when he went to sleep, he used his invisibility cloak as a blanket so he wouldn't be disturbed when he woke up.
Harry woke up a couple hours later, around six in the morning, after a particularly vivid dream involving Cedric and lunch. Harry felt sick to his stomach just thinking about it. Why did it have to be him? He had just won a whole bunch of gold and glory for himself and he was still the butt of the jokes. Oh well… Harry kept his invisibility cloak on when he went down to the kitchens to get some breakfast. He was starving after missing dinner last night. When Harry got to the kitchens though, he found the door open and a poorly disillusioned sixth-year boy who he recognized as being roughly Cedric-shaped and sized. Harry decided not to say anything and watch the floating stack of pancakes and glass of pumpkin juice leave before he went to get food for himself. Harry entered the kitchen, took off his cloak, and was greeted by an ecstatic Dobby. "Harry Potter sir, how may Dobby help?" the elf said, bouncing up and down happily. "Well Dobby, I'm really hungry, do you think I could have some eggs and bacon down here?" "Yes sir!" said Dobby, and Harry was brought to a rather small table and was asked to sit beside it by another elf that Harry didn't know. Within two minutes Harry was being served by Dobby and everything was just right for him, which was odd because the elves never asked him how he liked his food. There was also a cup of coffee with some milk and sugar added to it. Harry needed that, not having slept much for two nights in a row. Today was Monday and the exams for all of the other students. This meant that Harry had most of a day to himself, which meant he would probably go fly around the quidditch pitch and relax all day by himself, and attempt to not be bothered for a change.
Harry had spent the day by himself, sneaking down to the kitchens in the morning for a quick breakfast under his cloak, and then sneaking back up to Gryffindor tower to grab his broom so he could fly around the quidditch pitch and have some peace and quiet. And he did have his peace and quiet with everyone else taking their exams that day, and tomorrow would be the last day of term. Around seven o'clock that evening Ron and Hermione showed up in the common room looking utterly exhausted, and a little frustrated, most likely from the exams they had just finished. "Hey mate, it feels like the first time I've seen you since the end of that tournament. Ah well, mum said we'll try to steal you this summer as soon as we can." Ron said. "That sounds fantastic Ron, but there's something I need to tell you two." "What's wrong Harry?" Hermione asked in a worried voice. "Well," Harry looked around and noticed that the common room was quite empty except a couple of third year girls who were playing a laid back game of wizard's chess. He bent his head toward Ron and Hermione and said in a whisper "The Triwizard cup, it was a portkey, it took me and Cedric to this graveyard, I have no idea where it took us, but wormtail was there, I think he was trying to bring back Voldemort, he tried to kill Cedric but I got lucky and stunned him and got away." "So that's why you and Cedric looked pale as ghosts when you got back" Hermione whispered. "Everyone thought it was just because of what you faced in the maze, but I just knew something seemed off." "Yeah, well I also know how my name got put into the Goblet of Fire in the first place." and Harry proceeded to inform them of that nights' events in full detail. As Harry was finishing up Fred walked in with a large feathered George storming behind him yelling "You tricked me! Your own flesh and blood! I don't believe you were able to sneak a canary creme into my pudding!" Which let Harry know that dinner was about over and that he needed to finish up his story. "No way, that's bloody mental!" Ron shouted when Harry finished his story about Crouch Jr. and the minister himself getting involved. This seemed to attract a lot of attention from the people who had started filling the common room. It was getting late so Harry, Ron and Hermione went off to their dormitories to sleep. Tomorrow they would be heading to King's Cross Station and back home for the summer. Harry noticed that this time he wasn't as sad to be leaving Hogwarts, with everyone talking about what happened at lunch on that fateful day still.
****PREVIEW OF NEXT CHAPTER****
Harry met Ron and Hermione on the train back to London the next morning, and sat in a compartment with Neville and Ginny. They all talked about the year and Harry was finally able to relax and be with his friends. About a quarter of the way through Fred and George popped their heads into the compartment door and asked to speak to Harry, alone.