Disclaimer: Not mine. I swear. The HPUniverse belongs to JKR. Really. (Unfortunately.)
***I decided that Loneliness needed more to the story, and the suggestion of my FIRST reviewer for that story helped the idea along. Thanx!
AN: Here is the Interlude, which will carry us into the summer, and into Part Two of this growing little story!
AN2: Thank you to Cateagle for pointing out that I forgot to make Nev's section-acrostic bold. Ta! (Updated 8/30/10)
An Interlude, Introduced By Rowena H. Ravenclaw
"…Please wake up, Ro. Please! Sal's disappeared, and Giddi hasn't woken yet…"
"…Please wake up, Lu. Please! Harry's disappeared, and Nev hasn't woken yet…"
"Ginny?"
Luna pushed her eyes open, and looked around herself tiredly. She was in the hospital wing, with Ginny on her bed and clinging to her hand.
An enormous smile spread over the face of her beloved redhead. "Luna! Are you alright? You've been asleep for ages! I was so worried, because Madam Pomfrey couldn't figure out what's wrong…"
Crying tears of exhaustion and happiness, Luna fought to sit up. "…All back, Gin. We're all back. We're all…" She slumped with defeat as Ginny shoved her back into the pillows.
Indignation was written all over Ginny's face. "Luna! Lie down!" As soon as Luna allowed Ginny to tuck her back in, the worried girl pressed a kiss to her forehead.
"Understood message, Ro," Ginny said. "But I was so worried about you. Don't go getting up right away!" A pause. "We're all back?"
Serenity spread over Luna's face. Nearly sleeping, she mumbled her answer. "Harry, Neville, You, Me. Sal, Giddi, You, and Me."
Luna was asleep, but she still felt the light kiss pressed to her lips. "I love you."
"I love you, too."
Glacius… Finis Incantationes
Interlude, Continued By Helga R. Hufflepuff
"I love you."
"I love you, too."
Introspectively, Ginny swept a pale blonde curl out of Luna's serene face, and stood up. The hospital wing was quiet, and the sounds of its occupants sleeping were easily heard. Luna's sleepy words were echoing through her head – "We're all back. Harry, Neville, You, Me. Sal, Giddi, You, and Me."
Ginny left the hospital wing with a faint frown on her face. Neville was still sleeping in the bed beside Luna's – Ro's – bed, but currently, there was too much running through Ginny's head for her to sleep.
Neville was Godric. If Neville was Godric, then Harry was Salazar. A faint smile flickered over Ginny's face as she remembered some of the crazy adventures that Sal had gotten himself into. Harry or Sal, he was just as huge a trouble magnet in this lifetime as the last.
Everyone thought of Godric Gryffindor as the impulsive one, Ginny mused, but it was Salazar who had given the school its motto. Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus – Never tickle a sleeping dragon. How often had Giddi or Ro sung that phrase at Sal when she was throwing hexes at him?
Unknown to the modern populace, Helga's animagus form was not a badger, but a dragon. A Welsh Green, to be exact. (In today's modern world, they were now referred to as the Common Welsh Green, but the Welsh Dragons were near extinction in the Founders' time.) Helga had actually met Sal because he was bored, and decided to go poke that dragon nearby. It was a good thing for him that Helga had stopped herself from killing him.
Speaking of her animagus form, Ginny mused, she should start working on that. Merlin knew that it would probably take Sal and Giddi only a short time to be slithering and roaring around the world, and Ro probably had been practicing ever since she woke in her new body. A snort left Ginny as she stopped on a small balcony, watching the sun rise over Hogwarts.
"Fàilte mochthrath, Mo Teintidh." – "Welcome dawn, My Dragon."
A thin arm slipped around Ginny's shoulders as the sun rose over the East Tower.
Igneus… Finis Incantationes
Interlude, Carried On By Salazar G. Slytherin
"Fàilte mochthrath, Mo Teintidh." – "Welcome dawn, My Dragon."
A thin arm slipped around Ginny's shoulders as the sun rose over the East Tower.
Vacation was fast approaching, and to most, that would be a cause of celebration. But for Harry James Potter, reincarnated Founder of Hogwarts Salazar Slytherin, the summer holidays were the worst part of his life.
Every part of Hogwarts had always sung to Harry, and now that he remembered building the wonderful place, it was physically painful to think of leaving it. He was pacing from one side of Hogwarts to the other when he saw Ginny (Helga!) watching the sunrise from the balcony that had always been the best place to watch the crystal spire of the East Tower. When the sun rose, it threw rainbows everywhere.
Not even pausing in stride, Harry moved to stand behind Ginny, and slid an arm over the shoulders of the girl he thought of as a sister, mumbling something about greeting the sunrise as he did so. Unconsciously, he slipped into Gaelic, the language that both Salazar and Godric had grown up with.
The sun had finally crowned the East Tower when a slip-thump noise caught the attention of the motionless teens. Turning swiftly, both Harry and Ginny's faces lit at the sight that met them.
On the top of the stairwell entering the balcony, Luna was leaning on Neville's shoulder, a faint smile on the faces of both of the newcomers. Ginny let out a small cry, and threw her arms around Luna, supporting the blonde herself.
Smiling brightly enough to light a darkened room, Harry swept forward smoothly and grabbed Neville's hands. "We're all together again," he said, feeling his heart swell at the familiar hazel eyes and gold-brown hair.
"Undeniably," Neville agreed, pulling one hand free so as to give Harry a one-armed hug. "Together again, as was meant to be."
Sighing, Harry let his head rest on the taller boy's shoulder. "So much to fix, so much to achieve. Will we be able to do it, Giddi?"
A light kiss on a dark head, and a tightened hug.
"Together, the four of us can do anything, Sal."
Ventosus… Finis Incantationes
Interlude, Completed By Godric S. Gryffindor
A light kiss on a dark head, and a tightened hug.
"Together, the four of us can do anything, Sal."
Cheerily in a nasty sort of way, time seemed to speed up, now that the four of them were together again. Neville sometimes thought that life was just cruel like that – fast when you needed it to slow down, and slow when you desperately wanted it to speed up.
On the balcony, with Harry so close against him and Ginny and Luna doing something against a wall, (Merlin, they were just as randy as they'd been nine hundred and a half years ago!) it just felt… right.
Neville thought, ruefully, as he sat alone on the train, he should have realized that the recovery of Ron and Hermione along with the completion of exams would soon cause a strange space that felt like it just shouldn't be there. Of course, it hurt all the more when he walked into the Room of Requirement to see Ginny and Luna using it for its original purpose – that is to say, the purpose that Ro had made it in the first place.
Silly me, Neville thought, I shouldn't have hoped – But then, the door slid open and shut, and the air rippled. Standing there, hair rumpled, looking a bit sheepish, was Harry.
Tumbling off of his seat, Neville cast a handful of ancient privacy charms and locking charms. A smile broke over his face as Harry slumped tiredly against the wall. Putting his arms around the hassled boy-hero, Neville led him to one of the seats and dragged Harry's trunk up onto a shelf.
Amused, he turned back to face Harry. "I'd forgotten you had that," he said, seating himself beside the half-asleep teen. "It was mine, last time 'round."
"Nnnnngh." Harry's eyes were closed to the barest of slits. "I'd f'rgot that, too. That t'was thine, leannan." Sliding off of his seat, Harry didn't notice the door open and the last two of their quartet enter the compartment.
"Understandable, leannan," Neville whispered, before turning to Ginny and Luna. "Well hello, O Lusty Ones." Luna smiled serenely, and Ginny flushed deeply enough to clash terribly with her hair.
"Shut up," the redhead mumbled. "How're you two?" She looked at the sleeping form of Harry with sympathy. "Idiot and Know-It-All wouldn't leave him alone, so Lu and I went and scandalized them so that he could get away." The jerks of the train pulling into the station caught their attention, and Neville waved Ginny and Luna out so that he could wake Harry himself.
"Harry… Sal… wake up. Train's in, and we need to split."
"Mmmmhmph. Love you, leannan. Write me, I'll send Hedwig."
"I promise."
Constanus… Finis Incantationes
AN: And that's the interlude! Next up, Summertime at the Burrow, the Rookery, Longbottom Manor, and the Dursleys (also known as the most depressing place on Earth)!
Rather than the use the HP canon phrase, "Finite Incantatem," I used the (hopefully grammatically correct) Latin, "Finis Incantationes."
Here's the translations of my Latin. If someone who really knows Latin, (and doesn't just use an online translator like me,) sees something wrong with the wording, please IM me. Ta!
Glacius - Icy
Igneus - Fiery
Ventosus - Windy
Constanus - Steady
Finis Incantationes - End Incantations
I also used some Scots-Gaelic. As with the Latin, I used an online translator, so if you know the language and see something wrong with my pitiful attempts, TELL ME! Ta!
Fàilte mochthrath, Mo Teintidh - Welcome dawn, My Dragon.
Leannan - Lover
Finally, remember to review! TTFN! (Teehee!)