Author's Note: I make no money from writing, and own no part of Harry Potter
"Some people never go crazy, what truly horrible lives they must lead."
-Charles Bukowski
side note: Harry had his leg broken earlier in the wider story, and is coming from discovering he is less normal than he originally thought. also, the story luna tells i lifted from Tom Waits in the movie Wristcutters: A Love Story. go watch it.
Reaching the bottom of the spiral staircase still in a daze, he saw Neville straighten from leaning on the wall, but didn't say anything. Harry stayed there, looking at his friend; the puzzle helping him organize the past week back into the trunk in his mind. He stuffed everything in there when it got too much.
'Might have to build a bigger one."
"Hey, Neville. How was your summer?" he asked after finding no obvious sign of change in his friend.
"Informative. Fancy it?" he gestured down the hall. Nodding his assent, they walked down the hall, Neville insisting he had to say behind him when Harry tried to walk side by side. They decided on the room of requirement, and made their slow way, tap-tap-tap wedging itself between the two friends. Climbing the last of the steps to the seventh floor, they came upon Luna Lovegood, sat barefoot upon a checked blanket in front of a portrait of a glen and a pond, residents sat for tea as well.
"Once upon a time;" she began "there were two trees deep in a magical forest: one was straight, and the other was crooked. Every day, during the morning stretches, the straight tree would say
'O! Look how straight and beautiful I am! See how my branches grow toward the sun unerringly! Look at you,' he would groan at the crooked tree 'look at your decrepitness.'
The crooked tree would say nothing, growing the only way he always had, close to the ground and around himself, knotting. When the sun would go down and the winds blew, the straight tree would say
'O! Look how I sway! The moon caresses my leaves, and the wind grooms them' Look at you' he would groan again at the crooked tree 'you will never see the moon.'
The crooked tree would say nothing, allowing the wind to bend him the way it would. One day, during morning stretches, a foreman walked into the forest. Looking around, he said
'Cut all the straight trees.'
The crooked tree is still there, still growing; still strange.'
Finishing as they reached her blanket, she turned her attention from the portrait, rising to wrap them both in a hug.
"Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom. How very good to see you here." she said brightly.
"Right...Hey, how come you hug me every time you see me? Not that I don't enjoy it" Harry asked as she folded her legs underneath her, back on the blanket.
"Thank you, Harry Potter. You only realize there are no more chances until there are none left, usually."
Struck by the sentiment, he remembered that she could see Thestrals too. He remembered the same thing about Neville a moment later.
"No, Thank you, Luna. I'll see you around." he said, tap-tap-taping away
"Bye, Luna." Neville waved. Reaching their destination, his year-mate was pacing before Harry could apologize for his leg. The door that appeared was green and opaque; greenhouse glass. Limping in, he couldn't stop the 'Wow' that escaped when he saw the large lounge area.
The room was a Hexagon, with six distinct sections centered around a large lit fire pit, each with a comfortable-looking sofa, light, and side table. The room was tiered, with grass on the lowest and more exotic cuttings up and out of reach, and a bookshelf covering a sixth of the wall space. They found seats on a third near a confined Venomous Tentacula.
"Like it? I designed it this summer, a gift from Gran. I left some space to enchant the tiers to move, more safety features, things like that. I call it The Arboretum."
"You? Wow! Well done, Nev, this is spectacular. What did you want to talk about? Do you need help with a spell, or something?" he guessed, it was the best he could come up with. Neville just shook his head.
"It's crazy, I didn't believe Gran at first, and she had the reaction I'm having now." He laughed "complete disbelief."
"Huh? About what?" he asked, making his friend laugh harder. He was starting to become paranoid when the normally shy boy sobered.
"Sorry, I apologize. For my reaction, as well as shirking my duty all these years. True, we were both ignorant, but that's really no excuse.
"Hey, I'm not ignorant" he replied petulantly.
"Right...spoken like a true ignorant. It's okay, my gran apologized, and you have more than a valid excuse. The Longbottoms and the Potters have been sworn brothers-in-arms for centuries, since the time of the founders, in fact."
"Brothers-in-arms? What does that mean?"
"Basically, from your grandfather, all the way back to when Hogwarts was built, no Potter rode into battle without a Longbottom, and vice-versa."
'Yeah, im definitely going to need a bigger box.'
Harry was silent. First the sword, now this.
'What is going on?'
"I don't understand, everyone says my dad ran with three others, and none of them were Longbottoms."
"Yeah," he said bitterly, looking away. "Gran explained that. Her dad was in the war with Grindewald, along with your grandfather. When he died, she swore she would never tell her son of the alliance. She didn't want to lose him like she lost her father. Look what happened to him anyway. Maybe if she had told him...maybe both our lives would have been very different."
"Yeah..." Harry reflected. "So, do we need to do anything,? and does this mean you're going to keep walking behind me?" Neville started out of his memories.
"What?"
"That thing you were doing, walking behind me."
"no, I mean, you want me as your ally?"
"Of course! I brought you with me to The Department, didn't I?" Neville beamed when the dots connected in his head. "So, what do we need to do?"
"Okay. First, you know that thing people say, 'I've got your back' or 'watch your back'?"
"Aye..."
"Our families literally invented that. So yes, im going to keep walking behind you. Stand up, and take this." Neville passed him an ornate dagger he pulled from his robes. It was only three inches long, and had a disk of metal where the oak handle met the metal of the blade; a leaf imprinted on one side, an old-style clay pot on the other.
"So, what's going to happen is: you cut your right hand, and then cut my left hand. Then pass me the dagger and ill cut my right hand, and your left. Then we shake both hands with the dagger in our right hands, well use it to cast a few drops into the fire. Good?"
"Good. And Nev? Thanks. I've always wanted a brother." Harry said with a grin.
"Me too."
As they performed the ritual, they had no way of knowing the minute just flipped to 5:34, the first minute of twilight, or the significance. Down the hall, Luna smiled into her teacup.
They decided to round up the remainder of their troupe, and after collecting her as she was packing the checked blanket into a wicker basket, found the rest behind the portrait of the Fat Lady. Harry stared at her for a moment, Luna and Neville laughing behind their hands.
"Erm... I don't suppose you could just...open up...could you?"
She glared at him in annoyance, then swung open, to the three's surprise. He turned to his new brother, wondering if he ever tried just asking before seeing it had been pushed open from the inside by the new first years.
"Hello," Harry said, their conversation dying. "You must be the new first years."
They looked scared stiff; here was the bloke who'd crashed the opening feast, literally. Who spent his spare time dueling Dark Lords and facing Dementors. They mumbled something unintelligible and took off at great speed, chancing awe filled glances over their shoulders.
Harry sighed and turned back to the portrait, slipping through after Luna.