''His life in general had been a neatly wrapped package of lies.'' – Elizabeth Brundage, 'Somebody Else's Daughter'


Chapter II – Living a lie

''Alright,'' Luna simply consented with her usual smile, surprising the boy. ''I had a feeling that your answer would be something like that and made some plans to that end.''

''Plans?'', the Gryffindor simply asked, still shocked with her calm attitude.

''Yes. I talked with Dobby before leaving the castle and he assured me that he could take you anywhere you needed to go. As a matter of fact, I asked him if it was possible to take you directly to Gringotts and he confirmed it.''

Harry didn't say anything, he just nodded slowly at her, as he was rather stunned (in a positive way) at her practicability and decisiveness. She took it as a sign to continue explaining.

''You'll go to the bank and talk with the goblins about your vaults. If you are the Black Heir, you can demand emancipation,'' she said matter-of-factly. Harry froze at that and silently questioned her with his eyes. ''When a wizard or witch is the last heir to two or more pureblood families, they can claim their inheritance early, at the age of fifteen actually. This law was created a long time ago as a measure to prevent the extinction of the pureblood families. If the heir can take the mantle of the family early on, he or she may marry early as well and have offspring or they can appoint someone else as their own heir if they wish so. That last part depends of each family's bylaws, though. There are different requirements that needed to be met so an outsider can even be considered a suitable heir in the first place.

''Anyway, this means that if you accept the Potter and Black Lordships, you'll be automatically free from the Dursley's and Dumbledore's clutches. There is nothing that anyone can do to prevent or revoke them, and that is, I guess, one of the reasons that you were not told of Sirius' Will. Though you should have received a letter summoning you to the Will Reading, anyway.''

She stopped for a second, thoughtfully. Harry mused idly that the Sorting Hat had been right in putting her in Ravenclaw; the girl was a fountain of knowledge, though she didn't rub you in the face with it all the time, contrary to a certain Gryffindor girl.

''Have you ever received mail from Gringotts?''

Harry didn't even have to think about it, he could count in the fingers of both his hands the number of people he had ever received letters from: Hogwarts, Hagrid, Sirius, Hermione, Ron, the other Weasley's (mainly Mrs. Weasley), Dumbledore and the Ministry. And that was just pitiful, he reckoned sullenly.

''No, I never received a single letter from them,'' he answered, already suspecting of what his friend was going to say to that, and he didn't like it at all.

''Well then, you shall tell the goblins that your correspondence has been intercepted by Dumbledore,'' Luna merely stated, not seeming surprised. ''Here is what we are going to do. We are going to call Dobby and he will take you to Gringotts, after he delivers a letter to my father.''

''Your father?'', Harry simply asked, not understanding what Mr. Lovegood had to do with this.

''Of course. Do you think I'll just abandon you to the goblins after this shocking news, silly? I'll go with you and help you in any way I can, even if just to keep you company. I just need to tell daddy that we need to make a little detour before we go home. You'll pop directly out of here with Dobby but I need to leave the train like everyone else so as not to raise any suspicions,'' she explained patiently.

Luna was right, of course, Harry thought, as he watched her stand up, and he did the same. She called for Dobby and, as soon as the creature popped in, the house-elf almost threw himself at the 'great Harry Potter, sir' in boisterous happiness, before Luna skilfully distracted him from his exuberant antics. Whatever Harry decided to do to free himself, he couldn't implicate Luna in his actions. After all he learned, Harry was certain that they wouldn't care if they had to use her to get him back in their clutches.

''If we are lucky enough, they'll suspect that I've been kidnapped by Death Eaters and we'll gain some time to do what we need without anyone the wiser,'' Harry said thoughtfully, before beaming at his only friend for the first time and momentarily forgetting his troubles. ''Brilliant, Luna! I have never doubted that you were an excellent Ravenclaw. This moment only serves to confirm my beliefs.''

''Flattering will get you everywhere, Harry,'' the girl teased, happy that her friend was feeling better. Then she turned serious again. ''Do you want to go right now to the bank or you prefer that I accompany you right from the start?''

Harry hesitated. He was all for going to Gringotts and just be done with it, but he feared that there were still more unpleasant news to come and it would be nice to have Luna at his side for support. With everything that he now knew, he would be having a hard time trusting anyone and starting second guessing everything that had happened up until now.

''If it's no trouble, I'd like you to go into the bank with me,'' he finally decided a little shyly. He hated feeling weak (and that was exactly how he was feeling at the moment), as he was so used to do everything alone that he felt somewhat awkward asking for help.

''Sure,'' Luna just responded in usual dreamy manner, smiling at him.

''Is Dobby taking Harry Potter, sir, away now?'', the house-elf asked eagerly, after popping back in, returning from delivering the letter to Mr. Lovegood, looking at the Boy-Who-Lived with his typical unadulterated adoration.

''There are still several hours before we reach London, so I'll stay for now,'' Harry answered fondly. Dobby was another that he could at all times count on. Even if his methods sometimes were not the best, the little elf always meant well. ''I've decided that I'll stay with Luna for now and when we are almost at King's Cross Station, I'll call you to take me away and we'll both wait for Luna and his father before going to Gringotts.''

Dobby frowned at that.

''And if the bad people do something to Harry Potter, sir, before he can escape?'', the elf fretfully asked, grasping at his long ears in anxiety.

''I'll be under my Invisibility Cloak the whole time,'' Harry assured him, bending down and grasping said Cloak that had been previously discarded on the ground.

''And he'll stay with me the entire time, right?'', Luna said kindly, as the boy nodded. ''Don't worry, Dobby. Everything will be okay.''

After other reassuring words from Harry and the promise that he'd call the elf if he was in any danger, Dobby finally calmed down and popped out.

''If anyone asks after me, you'll say that you haven't seen me yet today, okay? I don't want anyone suspecting of you and put you in danger,'' Harry said before donning the Cloak and casting a silence spell to muffle his steps and the swish of the Cloak as he moved.

Luna merely smiled at him and donned her dreamy mask before opening the door and peeking outside. Up until now, Harry still wasn't sure if that side of her was only a façade or if she really was that way sometimes. Not that he really cared, as his friend, he loved her either way.

After judging the hall free of roaming students, both of them left the compartment and walked towards the front of the train until they found another free room. As they sat down and made themselves comfortable for the long journey, Harry let his mind wander. Not to think about what had just transpired, but about his five years at Hogwarts. He tried to look at them from another point of view, someone more mature and not with the eyes full of wonder from a lonely and miserable child yearning for friendship and for someone to simply care about him.

Now that he really reflected about it, the ordeals that had happened to him every end of school year seemed just a little too convenient to be entirely bad luck or mere coincidence. Although he was fairly certain that it was sheer dumb luck that he hadn't died, or had been permanently injured in some manner in any of those instances.

In the Philosopher's Stone's case, it was suspiciously evident that Dumbledore wished for the stone to be found. Why make such flashy and easy defences when he could have heavily warded it in his quarters? Harry wasn't any expert in wards, far from it actually, but surely existed some powerful spells out there to protect an object from being found by undesirable parties. Something akin to the Fidelius Charm, perhaps? If that complex charm was able to protect and hide living beings from being discovered, Harry was sure there had to something similar that worked on objects.

But what the highly skilled and powerful Headmaster had chosen instead had been a handful of very simple and flimsy protections.

An alohomora, really? This was a charm that a first year learned in their first trimester at Hogwarts. It should be considered a miracle that nobody had been severely maimed or killed by Fluffy, Hagrid's Cerberus, all through that year. There were no more protections whatsoever between a simply locked door and a massive killer beast. And the other Professors' trials were no better. All of them were possible of being accomplished by three resilient first years.

It seemed, to Harry at least, that only Snape had really tried to make something rather difficult to pass through (because logic didn't seem something regularly employed in the Wizarding World), with the exception of the Mirror of Erised. For that Quirrel had needed Harry, but…

Harry straightened up suddenly as his mind screeched to a violent halt as his suspicions came together to make a picture that made his veins freeze in horrific realization.

From the beginning, Harry was meant to go in search of the Stone. All those defences were actually meant for him and not for Voldemort. Dumbledore had wished to test him in that dangerous game of his. The old wizard had wanted to know if his precious Golden Boy was up to the challenges that awaited him in the future. The seemingly random clues dropped throughout that year had been explicitly to increase Harry's curiosity about what was hidden in the forbidden third floor's corridor.

With that heart-stopping discovery, all the tribulations that had happened after that flashed quickly through his mind, making him physically sick with all the gathered implications. He didn't know exactly what the headmaster wanted for him, but a happy and safe life surely was not. Harry was merely a chess piece in a giant chess board with Dumbledore and Voldemort as the opposite players, and ready to be sacrificed if the old man could progress in his game of playing with human lives.

Pulling out his wand, he swiftly warded the door of the compartment with locking and silencing spells and immediately called for Dobby, all the time fighting against the urge to get reacquainted with his breakfast.

Luna looked up worried, immediately dismissing The Quibbler edition of that month she had been reading, as Dobby appeared ready to take Harry away.

''Can you, please, retrieve a Calming Draught and a Stomach Soother from somewhere, Dobby?'', the distressed wizard asked faintly, his face beyond pale and his breathing uneven.

The little elf popped silently away without a word, knowing that there was no danger at the moment.

''Harry, breath slowly and put your head between your knees,'' Luna said, worried, taking charge of her friend.

Harry did as he was told and eventually felt a little better. He heard Dobby return and felt Luna put a glass vial in his hand.

''Stomach Soother,'' she simply informed him as he gulped the contents down before she exchanged it for another one, ''Calming Draught,'' and he did the same again.

He felt the potions start working right away: his stomach and his breathing calmed down. He felt Luna rub comforting circles with her hand on his back and he just laid there like that for a minute. When he finally lifted his head, he noticed that the elf was still with them and thanked him for his quick actions and reassured both that he was alright now.

''What happened?'', Luna asked worriedly and patiently, after Dobby popped out again, without letting go of him.

''I…'', he stopped and took a deep breath. ''I just realized that my life has been manipulated from the beginning, Luna. Dumbledore… he has been testing me ever since I came to Hogwarts. Everything dangerous that has happened to me, one way or other, has been influenced by him. All these years, all this time, everything has been a lie, Luna.'' Harry fought hard not to cry as the full meaning of his own words sank into his mind, even with the Calming Draught working to the fullest. ''My relatives hate me, the headmaster plays with my life and others' as if we are disposable pawns, my friends only tolerate me because they are get paid,'' he laughed hysterically, not feeling any amusement. ''Hell, even my future wife has been chosen already without my knowledge. And I am still expected to save all their sorry arses from Voldemort dutifully and without complain. Tell me, Luna, what has ever been true in my life?'', he asked in despair, feeling all his life shattering in pieces inside his head, and feeling too weak to do anything about it at the moment.

''I am true, Harry. I'll always be here for you,'' the girl assured him, looking him in the eyes, as tears streamed down her face, her expression miserable. ''You always can count on that. And I am sure that you'll eventually find support and companionship in the most unlikely places.''

Harry chuckled weakly at that, Luna was already making him feel better, even if she continued to spout cryptic words.

''Is that another of those things that you simply know?''

''Yeah, you could say that,'' she laughed lightly as well, hugging him without really thinking about it. ''You know, ever since I met you, I thought of you as an older brother. You always indulged me with my weirdest comments and never dismissed me or called me loony. For that you will always have my gratitude and my support.''

Harry blushed, unused to compliments and not knowing what really respond to something like that. He just hugged her closer and let the action and the silence around them do all the necessary talking.

''Thanks,'' he said, sometime later as they disentangled themselves. ''I really needed that.''

''Don't mention it,'' Luna merely replied, as if Harry hadn't had a mental breakdown in front of her just a few minutes ago. ''Do you want to read The Quibbler? There's this article about the Flying Serpents sighted in China that I think you'll like,'' she offered him the magazine that she had been reading before. Her features had returned to her dreamy-like countenance.

''Sure,'' the black haired boy accepted without hesitation, taking her behaviour in stride.

He was reaching for the magazine when there was a disturbance right outside the door. Luna grasped the Cloak forgotten on the ground and threw it silently at Harry, as he casted the usual spells around himself and sat still in the far most corner of the compartment. Luna took off the spells warding the door, before seating next to Harry, seemingly immersed in The Quibbler once more.

One instant later, the door was rudely opened without a single knock. Ron and Hermione stood there for some time in silence, as if suspicious that something was going on. In his corner, Harry was trying valiantly to stay put and not do something that, while satisfying at the time, he would surely regret it later.

''Yes?'', Luna asked at last in her typical dreamy manner, shifting her attention from her reading to the two Gryffindors, when she saw that the couple of intruders were in no hurry to break the silence. ''Can I help you with something?''

''Have you seen Harry?'', Hermione demanded, visibly fighting to be gracious and not starting another of her rantings about how the magazine that Xenophilius Lovegood ran was nothing more than a load of worthless crap, though not expressed in those exact words. ''We've been searching for him around the train but we can't find him.''

''I haven't seen him today at all, but I found a whole nest of Blibbering Humdingers in my way out of the castle this morning,'' she told them thoughtfully, never losing her dreamy persona. ''It's very possible that there will be an invasion of them this summer. Perhaps, I should send a letter to the Headmaster warning him about it. I've actually never seen such a big infestation but my dad says that they are far from pleasant and troublesome to get rid of. What if they'll have to close the school down later on to take care of them?''

Hermione and Ron looked at her as if she had spouted something utterly ridiculous and they didn't know whether they should laugh at that or just ignore it all together (not an uncommon occurrence where Luna was concerned). After some awkward silence, the two fifth years Prefects decided on the latter option and moved on as if Luna had merely answered in the negative to their inquiry.

''Well, if you see him, please tell him that we are looking for him and that we want to say our good-byes before leaving the train,'' Ron said, remarkably polite. It seemed that Hermione's lessons in manners were finally bearing fruit after long gruelling years; that, or he was too gobsmacked to act his usual insensitive, rude self towards the Ravenclaw blonde witch. At his side, Hermione seemed to be still unresponsive after Luna's latest eccentric, verbal attack.

''Sure,'' the peculiar girl consented easily, disregarding their behaviour in the same fashion that they tried to ignore hers. She turned her attention once more towards her article and proceeded to act as if they had already left the room. Harry couldn't really decide if that was her natural behaviour or if his single friend was a closeted genius Slytherin.

When they finally left, Luna swiftly spelled the door again and proceeded to have a very good laugh at the Gryffindors. Harry just looked on, utterly stunned. He had never seen her laugh that way and with this latest behaviour, the boy confirmed his suspicions that Luna really knew what she was doing when she spouted all those odd things. At seeing her friend's face, the girl laughed some more until she was red in the face and tears dropped from her eyes.

''I take back what I said, you are not a perfect Ravenclaw, no, you are a Slytherin to the core,'' Harry stated in something close to awe when he final found his voice, though he still felt somewhat dazed from this incredible outcome. ''All this time, you were messing with everyone and nobody ever was the wiser. Wow! Talk about acting talent!''

Luna regarded him silently, biting her lip; her full laugh already only a memory.

''Are you mad?''

''Mad? No, why should I?'', Harry asked confused at her sudden question and attitude change.

''I lied to everyone and… well, after you found out that you have been lied to practically all your life…'', she trailed off, worriedly.

''Oh,'' the boy simply said, as understanding downed on him. ''That's different, Luna. I am royally pissed at a lot of people right now because they lied to me about important things that concern my own life. What you've been doing is hiding your true self from people and you haven't hurt anyone by behaving that way. In fact, I can bet that is precisely the contrary. Don't think that I forgot how some people in your own House have been bullying you,'' he assured her in a stern voice, somewhat being a little callous to be kind. ''I don't really mind at all,'' he added more gently when he saw that the girl wasn't totally convinced. Then he remembered something and with a mischievous air confessed. ''Did you know that I was supposed to go to Slytherin?''

Luna looked at him in surprise, having not expecting that.

''Oh yes, can you imagine the reactions of everyone if they find out?'', he wondered. '' Weasley and Granger's –'' he refused to call them by their first names anymore, since he no longer considered them his friends, ''– faces at that news? Or better yet, Snape's? I reckon that he'd have an aneurism right there,'' he added sadistically as Luna laughed at the imaginary situations that his words invoked. ''So you see, I am a snake in lion's fur and you are a snake in eagle's feathers. We are perfect for each other, just like… family'', he finished that sentence with a soft voice and a thoughtful smile.

''Yeah, just like family,'' she agreed wholeheartedly, beaming at him.

After that, the remainder of their journey passed smoothly and uneventfully, each one of them lost in their own thoughts. When they noticed the changing scenery outside their window, they decided it was time for Harry to take his leave.

Thankfully, Hedwig had been told the last evening to return to her beloved owner after a couple days enjoying her last days of freedom. Harry hadn't been sure what would happen this summer at the Dursley's – would he be able to freely roam around Privet Drive like last year or would he be locked up in his bedroom just like in the summer after his first year? Not knowing and not wishing to make his precious owl suffer more than strictly necessary, he had pondered for a while if he should ask Ron or Hermione to take care of Hedwig for the holidays' duration. In the end, though, he decided against it, not wanting to be completely alone in the hell on earth that was number four, Privet Drive.

Harry admitted to himself that he was being selfish, but he couldn't help it. He was fairly sure that he wouldn't be able to stand another summer all alone if he hadn't at least his feathered companion during those long, boring and terrible months, just after he had lost his remaining family member.

It didn't matter that Harry currently didn't have any plans on ever returning to the Dursley's. As she had showed previously, Hedwig was a very smart owl and she would find her owner regardless of his location. Therefore, the young wizard wasn't minimally worried that his precious pet would be unable to return to him.

Hedwig was awesome like that.

At last, Harry informed Luna that he'd be waiting for her and her father just outside of Gringotts, but out of the way of the passers-by and that he'd approached them when they got there later. With a quick hug and a reassuring smile, Luna sent him on his way with Dobby.