For anyone who is still with me after all these years, bless you. I have dearly missed you.

To everyone who found this story while I was off fighting my own inner demons and left me reviews that have brought me to happy tears, bless you as well. You've helped me more than you can imagine.

And to those who may find this story for the first time, welcome.

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Harry liked to think that he had dealt with plenty of strange things over the course of his long life. He had been threatened and sort of mentored by snakes, driven off an unpleasant relative, gained two new uncles, learned to do all kinds of real magic tricks, and almost made a vow that would have apparently been very detrimental to his future plans. He'd also handled the whole serial killer that took out your parents still very much wants you dead thing pretty well, in his opinion. Owls and peanut butter ice cream and moving walls were all well and good, but the girl in front of them was a different kettle of fish.

She seemed positively ethereal, with her wide, knowing eyes and a necklace of cork. For some reason, Harry could not quite shake the impression that she might just blow away on the wind at any moment. As if maybe, she weren't fully present in the here and now.

It was almost as disconcerting as the talking mirror had been, although he wouldn't ask Dudley to get rid of her.

"Sorry," Harry forced himself to speak, still feeling uneasy although the adults didn't seem disturbed at all, and Dudley was just fine with his ice cream. "What's a Painted Pipski?"

His Uncle Remus looked thoughtful, but it was the girl he had been asking, and it was the girl who answered.

"Oh a sprite of some kind, I imagine. Mother says they're really Daddy, but I think that's silly, don't you?"

Harry blinked a few times, and the girl promptly moved on to his aunt, setting down her sunflower with great care, as if it were a prize.

"You're much younger than I expected, you know," the girl continued conversationally. "But happy. That's quite nice."

"Who might you be, young lady?" Petunia didn't glower at the girl, but it was difficult to not be ruffled by someone – even a young someone – who genuinely appeared to need mental help out all on her own. How backwards was this world's medical field? Peter had returned with a hook instead of a prosthesis, and now not only was a child off wandering alone, but a child with special needs was off wandering alone.

A small part of her did still think of this as freakish, strange, and abnormal. It was wrong to encourage and enable too many flight's of fancy within a child. Logic was clear and straight forward and it wouldn't lead you astray. This girl was just going to end up hurting herself.

"Have I not introduced myself?" She gave all four a brilliant smile. "I'm Luna Lovegood."

"Pandora's girl?" Remus leaned forward, capturing Petunia's attention. "She's a remarkable Arithmancer and Spell Mistress," he explained briefly before returning his attention to the seven year old. "Why are you off wandering alone?"

"Mother said it would be best to not have 'any extra energies' disturbing the Rookery today, so she and Daddy brought me here," the girl they now knew to be Luna explained.

Dudley had started eating some of Harry's melted ice cream, but he paused briefly, trying to process what he'd just heard. Quite a bit of it didn't make sense, from Arithmancy to whatever she'd meant by energies to Rookery, but he did know something about going to town with one's parents. Usually, you were meant to stay close to them. "Where's your mom and dad now then? Did you get lost?"

The two adults exchanged looks, Petunia feeling even less generously inclined to the girl's parents now. Remus, wondering much the same as Dudley. Xenophilius was known to be a rather eccentric person, possibly even a dangerous one given the whispers he might have been a Grindlewald supporter, but he had no reason to think that either of the girl's parents were not devoted to her.

"Oh he's doing an interview for the Quibbler!" Luna bounced on her feet, smiling widely as she did so. "He suspects Minister Bagnold and her cabinet may have an infestation of wrackspurts or worse. He says that's the only explanation for all the hullabaloo with the Death Eater trials. It's terribly exciting, but Daddy said I can't start interviewing until I'm eleven. So here I am."

None of that had made much sense to any member of the Dursley party, but Remus stood up and kindly asked if that meant her mother was still around or not. Fortunately, her mother was only just across the street, still within viewing distance even if she wasn't paying enough attention by Petunia's estimation. She'd bought the girl an ice cream, then allowed her to go 'talk to a friend'. Remus left to escort the girl back, leaving Petunia to examine the sunflower and the boys to whisper amongst each other in the awkward interim.

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Whatever conversation the adults had didn't take long, but Harry and Dudley both remained preoccupied with all of the odd things Luna had said for quite a while afterwards. She was a nice girl, strange but clearly kind and very trusting in a way that had Petunia wringing that sunflower a little too tightly. She wasn't sure what to do with the thing, but the thought of throwing it away in front of the little blonde had also felt wrong.

Dudley, bless the boy, had taken it off her hands at some point to try and get the animals attention in the Magical Menagerie. It had worked a little too well, and she and Remus had both had to extricate the boy away from a suddenly overly excited… apparently it was called a crup.

Neither adult noticed that Harry had slipped away, although Remus did notice him slipping back into their little group with a smile he recognized from the boy's father. Clearly, he'd found something worth interest. The child was always off researching something, trying to solve some puzzle. As much as he had James' looks, it was Lily that Harry reminded Remus of the most.

The man smiled knowingly back at the nine year old, who didn't look the least bit ashamed at his antics or the fact Dudley might very well have just been covering for him, and Remus ushered the group away from the animals as the young Dursley enthused about how the store was "Just like the zoo, only weirder!" and Petunia assured them they could see about visiting a proper zoo in the future.

Their last visit was to the book shop. Visiting the goblins could wait, Harry's bank account would be best to reserve for schooling. Perhaps this was overly cautious, but Remus didn't have the boy's key and was also not particularly desirous of interacting with the little beasts in front of his adopted nephews. They had a habit of calling him half breed, and he'd done so well living almost exclusively in the muggle world and their banks he was loathe to return to such an environment unnecessarily anyway.

The boys had to be firmly told they could pick no more than five books each once they entered, and that those books would have to be approved by both Petunia and himself. Petunia might not have agreed to even that many books about magic in her house if she hadn't felt guilty about keeping it a secret so very long, or if it hadn't been for the byplay between Harry and Dudley earlier at Fortescue's. Dudley was still visibly interested in what his father would consider nonsense, but it was more an interest in keeping a common ground with his cousin. How could he expect to stay close to his cousin, Dudders had asked her quietly, if he went off to this Hogwarts place and came out making as much sense as the Lovegood girl had.

And hadn't that been a problem she had with Lily? Bright, beautiful Lily who couldn't slow down long enough to explain anything and instead frightened and confused her left and right while their parents had gushed and preened? She and Vernon had raised the boys differently, better. Harry had been explaining things to and learning with Dudley for years now. He hadn't shown any signs of wanting to dump his cousin when he had learned about magic, instead the boy had been very insistent Dudley come and see Diagon Alley with him. And they'd been sharing things like the Bertie Bott beans for so long, magic was almost a special secret that joined the two cousins as brothers not just by blood but by choice.

Petunia did not want to be the first person to block that friendship.

She made sure with Remus' help that all of the books they selected were appropriate for their ages in terms of content. Remus was more particular about any potential spell books, reminding both boys that Harry would not be getting a wand just yet so it would do them little good. With that in mind, they selected a rather eclectic variety. A few he had to pick up and skim, the others he already recognized. Fear no Fowl, which was a decent introduction to magical creatures of all kinds. Brewing Glory, which covered historically famous potioneers along with basic techniques. Remus made a mental note to gently let Petunia know she might need to keep an eye on her good knives. I Did Not Stop For Death, which appeared to be an unauthorized foray into some of Moody's antics. He almost vetoed that one, but with Harry so determined to be ready and survive Voldemort's inevitable return, he'd said nothing just again, alerted Petunia. The remaining selections covered herbology, a cultural guide that was truthfully intended for foreign magic users rather than muggles but it would at least help, household charms, basic first aid, and some discussions on magical theory.

It was the latter that Remus regretfully had to tell Harry to leave behind for now. There was no point in trying to study something he didn't have the correct grounding for.

When Harry came back with a determined face and what amounted to an Arithmancy for Dummies book, Remus had let it go. The boy was good at maths, and he'd be hounding all of his family members to know what that word had even meant otherwise. At least this way, he'd have a book to use as reference when he inevitably had to explain.

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Harry and Dudley had been very pleased with their birthday trip overall. Harry had been able to visit the snakes in the menagerie and verify they did also talk. They seemed marginally more intelligent than what he could remember new snakes sounding like, but he wasn't positive and didn't know if it meant much regardless. It had still been really cool to see them and learn their names, what they ate, where they came from.

The boy had been disappointed that Uncle Remus and mom wouldn't let them get any useful books, like Jinxes for the Jinxed or anything. That would have a good practical use. He didn't think they'd gotten that bad of a haul though. Dudley had agreed to help him find books about more subtler applications of magic. Uncle Remus had said wandless magic was rare, but they both knew Harry was perfectly capable of doing some things on command. So why would it be so rare? He was only nine, and he'd been practicing for a while now.

The magical creatures book was already both boys' favorite, as it came complete with gruesomely cool photographs and was even charmed to make sounds at the tap of a wand! Uncle Remus had assured their mom it wouldn't be a problem, but Harry had privately promised Dudley to do his best to try anyhow.

He had strongly debating getting more history books, even if they did look thick and dull and boring, but Mafalda had given him so many already. Even a few different copies that Harry was trying not to forget he needed to comb through. Mafalda did not do things for no reason. Not like the girl Luna he'd met today who seemed to drift through the world at a whim not quite her own. Luna was sweet where Mafalda was sharp. Both had helped him though, and Harry wouldn't deny it, even if Mafalda had been far more intentional about it.

No, the only truly bad thing about this visit? The thing that had given all of his excitement a bad taste? Was that going to Hogwarts meant leaving Dudley behind. It didn't matter to him that Dudley would be going to his own boarding school. Smeltings was only a word that he occasionally heard Uncle Vernon toss about in reference to 'the old days' or 'my day' or 'when I was a little older than you'. The school Smeltings did not have an entry in Harry and Dudley's dictionary, and thus Harry didn't really know much about it.

The last thing he wanted was to leave his best friend, his brother basically, even though Dudley had reminded him staying behind wasn't an option. Once they were home - and Uncle Vernon had jokingly (he thought) said he was glad they still looked normal with nothing out of place - Dudley had quoted Aunt May and Uncle Ben at Harry until he'd relented.

Relenting, here means instigated a pillow fight that neither Uncle Vernon nor Uncle Peter who were both pleasantly sloshed wanted to deal with, so it was left to a worn out Aunt Petunia to remind her children that it was bedtime and to go to their beds and sleep.

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A/N: I know this is short, but it has been so long since I've been able to write, and so much has happened. It's probably for the best this story rested in the meanwhiles even though I missed you all and had never thought, never intended to leave in the first place.

Is there a preference between short and more frequent updates versus longer updates staggered more? (nowhere near this long apart again though)

I also want to thank every single one of you who kept reviewing even after it had been years.
You have done so much for me, and so much more than you could know.