Hey there... remember me? Miss me? At all? I hope so. I'm so sorry for everything. Gosh, how much do you hate me? Well... here's is the much delayed chapter 8. If you haven't given up on me, I applaud you!! If you have, I can't blame you. But I am back on this pen name, at least to finish this story. This is probably going to be it for Jen Summers, then I'm probably just gonna keep publishing under my new name that I had to get with my new computer. I hope you enjoy, and remember... I'm sorry!

Disclaimer: If I was JKR, I could wait this long to add to a story and not feel terrible about it. As it is, I feel awful for letting anyone down.

"Sit." The cold voice commanded. They obeyed. "Does everyone remember where we left off?"

"Yes." They replied.

"Good. I'll leave them to you then, Macnair."

"Yes, my Lord." The deep voice replied. It struck me as ironic that a man who seemed so confident and self-assured could simply fade into a meek, eager servant to a high pitched voice. Macnair continued. "Now, when killing a Muggle, what are our guiding principles?"

They responded, "Efficiency in time of combat, torture for sport." The light haired man smiled.

"Good." He conceded succinctly. I stared in horror at his audience. Blank, dead eyes came back at me. Not aware anything but the light haired man who was teaching them. They were young, only eleven or twelve years of age.

"Hey!" I yelled at the small boy closest to me. "What the hell is going on?" He stared straight ahead, not abashed at my blatant yelling and disregard for the man who they all seemed to revere so much. I tried the child next to him: Nothing. I rounded on Macnair. "What are you doing to them!" He also ignored me, and continued writing on the board.

There was a young girl who was actually looking at me. I ran up to her and demanded to know what was happening. Instead of cowering down under me, as most children her age would have, she tilted her head at me, her hair spilling over her narrow shoulder. She looked at me as if she was not sure what to make of me, and she had pity in her eyes. I went to grab her as gently as I could while making her understand how upset I was. My hands passed through her arms. Her pearly blue arms.

She was a ghost.

And so was I.

I bolted upright, sweating and shaking. I hated getting these nightmares. I felt like a child again, haunted by flashes of green light. I glanced around my dorm at my bunkmates, who seemed undisturbed. Ron was snoring softly, his limbs thrown out in every direction. Dean looked like he was about to fall off the bed. Neville shifted. No one was plagued by these mentally unsettling dreams the way I was. I threw myself back on my bed.

"Merlin, I hate Mondays," Were the first words any of us in the dorm heard.

Seamus growled at Ron, "It's not even Monday, you twit." Ron shot him a nasty look.

Neville looked at us nervously. "Guys, come on, knock it off." Seeing that his words had no affect on our overly irritable friends, he continued, "Seriously, before Dean and Harry and I hex the hell out of you." The pseudo threat broke the tension, and soon we'd returned to horsing around in the morning.

"Harry," Ron told me seriously, "I love the hair. I mean, did your wand back fire or are you naturally that lucky?" This lighthearted humor that was apparent through are room was a sharp contrast to the panic I felt last night. I pushed the thought out of my mind.

"Don't be jealous, Ron. I can tell you went through a lot of work to get that cowlick on the side of your head. Don't be hard on yourself." I fired back, somewhat redeemed. He grinned, and we all continued with our dreaded morning preparations. After we'd finished, Ron and I met up with Hermione in the common room. He greeted her with a peck on the cheek, as was there custom. I'd taken to this rather gracefully if I do say so myself. Not that I do, that'd be weird.

"How was detention, Harry?" Hermione asked me while we were walking to the Great Hall, looking at me reproachfully. Before I could respond, she cut me off. "I hope it helped you realize that my position as Head Girl will do absolutely nothing to save you from detention when you insist on pulling childish pranks. Really, Harry. Was it necessary to transform your hawk into a miniature version of Snape? Was it worth it in the long run? I think not."

I smiled at her and met Ron's eye. "It was still bloody brilliant." He mouthed, attempting to hide this from Hermione. But her eagle eyes missed nothing.

"Ronald! I simply don't see how wasting valuable study time in detentions that could have been so easily avoided is amusing!"

"And that, Hermione, is why we don't take you anywhere fun," I retorted, grinning fully now.

"I'm quite glad of that," She sniffed at me.

Ron seemed to be enjoying the fact that Hermione's diatribe was aimed at someone other than himself this early in the morning, when Hermione tended to be her crankiest. "But seriously," He asked, "How was it? What'd he make you do? Something that would totally degrade you and knock down your self worth."

"Yeah," I responded casually, "You know, the usual." He laughed at me, and Hermione gave an exasperated sigh.

"Lovely Harry, really." She rebuked me sarcastically.

I decided to tell them the disgusting truth, even if I rather would have forgotten about the whole thing. Aside from everything that happened after detention, that is. "He made us clean out the jars he keeps in his office, with no magic, and replace the liquid in them. The stench was bleedin' unbearable." I shuddered at the memory.

"Ugh," Ron said, completely repulsed. I'm about to go eat.

"Like you'll have any trouble," Hermione told him. She turned to me and continued, "But that can't have been safe! Some of those chemicals must be toxic, I'm sure of it!"

"That was probably the point," I told her bluntly. Ron snorted at me, easily amused. She furrowed her eyebrows together, considering what I'd just said. Ron helped her open up the colossal wooden doors to the Great Hall. Oh our way to our usual spot in at the Gryffindor table, I caught a glimpse of dark blonde waves at the Ravenclaw table and couldn't stop the rush of blood that came to my face. Unsure of how to react after almost kissing this girl with the dark blonde waves last night… I ducked my head. I tried to do this subtly to avoid searing questions from Hermione, but to no avail. She gave me a funny look.

"Harry, you look ill." Oh, perfect. Really, exactly what a guy with a crush on a girl in very close proximity wants to hear. Of course she wasn't that close, but I felt like she was much closer than she really was. I was probably just hyper-aware of Luna or something.

"I'm fine," I croaked out, less manly than I'd intended it. She smiled at me, but I could see the concern in her eyes that had not yet passed. She followed my inadvertent glances' path and landed on the current possessor of my affections. She smiled at me brightly, and I shot her a look that begged 'Please, don't say anything.' Ron, however, caught this look.

When we sat down, he leaned over and muttered, "Alright, mate?" I shot a pointed glance at Luna. "What?" He asked blankly, clearly not getting it. Hermione, overhearing our conversation rolled her eyes at him.

"He likes her." She said, exasperated with him.

"I knew that, 'Mione." Ron responded, looking affronted at the idea that he had no idea who I was interested in while she did. "Excuse me if I think that Harry has more on his mind than the opposite sex." With a quick glance at me, he hastily added "No offense, Harry."

"None taken." I was glad they were getting on with another one of their rants rather than ask me my reason for being embarrassed around Luna. I knew what there reactions would be. Hermione would squeal at what she thought was the overall cuteness of it, and Ron would roll his eyes, annoyed that I'd been so close to actually going for it and not finishing. I wasn't in the mood for that right now. I sometimes wished that my friends didn't pry so much.

I felt a bit guilty after thinking that. They did just care. But sometimes I just wanted someone who could tell when I actually wanted to talk about something.

Which I do have, with Luna. After that thought entered my head, I quickly looked down to hide my mortified look from the rest of the Great Hall. As soon as my brief peace had started, it ended when Ginny sat down. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed being around Ginny. She was funny, and clever, and had been amazingly supportive of my pathetic attempts to start something with Luna. But at the moment, I don't think I could handle anyone talking about Luna when all I wanted to do was kick myself for not grabbing her and kissing her the second I had a chance to.

As I'd predicted, as soon as I sat down, Ginny started in on me. "I noticed you and Luna both had detention last night. Have any fun?" Her words were laced with suggestion, and I shot her a sour look in response. "I may have to take these matters into my own hands." She told me.

"Don't even think about it, Gin." Instead of realizing the terrifying threat I'd just given her, she had the gall to laugh.

"You may be the Big Bad in your mind Harry, but you don't scare me." With that, she left her semi-full plate and flounced away, announcing to everyone at the table that she'd just called a seat-check. I didn't bother to watch where she was going, and instead turned my attention to Ron and Hermione.

They'd stopped their bickering and were quietly conversing about what Hermione had done while they were apart this summer on her brief vacation to Australia with her parents. Her fingers rested halfway under his, and although I knew it must have been paining him, Ron was eating with his left hand. The quiet intimacy of the moment made me feel a little awkward around them. I'd get over it. I was fine with them being a couple, but when they shared couple moments, it was a little strange.

I was quickly distracted from this however, when I saw Ginny in my peripheral vision, huffing and stomping over to us. Hermione looked at her strangely. Ginny, too irritated to speak, jerked her head backwards to the Ravenclaw table. Ron, Hermione and I turned to look at the source of her frustration.

Frustration was not the emotion that gripped me when I realized what was happening.

Fury was a bit more accurate. Something roared inside me. It didn't feel like a monster in my chest. It felt more like a fire that was running through my muscles. It was partially adrenaline coursing through my veins. My body was begging me to hit something.

Draco Malfoy, that pale, pointed little bugger, was leaning over Luna talking rather closely into her ear. Luna did not look upset, she did not look affronted. She looked indifferent. He leaned a little closer to her, his lips practically brushing her ear (at this point I realized my hands were clenched into tight fists and my feet were planted on the floor as if I was about to push away from the bench). Then, finally, with no response from her, he smirked infuriatingly and walked back to his own table. With his departure came Ginny's who marched over to Luna, grabbed her by her arm and practically dragged her over to the Gryffindor table with no explanation other than, "You're sitting with me from now on!"

I gulped a swig of pumpkin juice and prepared to look like an idiot for the rest of the meal.

….. ….. ….. …..

I'm glad I'd prepared myself. I could barely bring myself to look at Luna throughout the whole meal without remembering how strangely wonderful she had felt so close to me. So how was I supposed to react with this? I knew Ginny would kill me if I didn't act on these feelings soon. But seriously, what if things got out of hand like they did with Cho? I shuddered at the memory.

A worse thought came to my head. What if I didn't react, and someone else, such as Malfoy did?

Not as good as you all deserve. Trust me, I know. But this chapter did have its purpose. I hope you can see some sort of improvement in my writing from my older chapters. And on my next chapter, Luna's POV is back, which I know more people enjoy. I know it's a lot to ask, and more than I deserve, but I need to know if you guys still want me, so if you can, hit the button and review, please! (Feel free to yell at me and tell me I suck.)