A/N: Sorry about the wait - life got in my way. I'll make it up for you by not having another terrible court scene ever again, okay?

For as long as he lived, Harry would never be able to remember the rest of that day. It was all a blur of excitement and happiness. He could only recall fragments – Hermione's squeal of happiness on his behalf over the phone – the crushing hug from Fred and George. What he remembered most clearly was the feeling of giddiness to which nothing could compare. He would later say that he only felt it six times in his whole life – when his marriage proposal was accepted, during the actual ceremony, and at the births of his children.

So it was with a wide smile and a sense of confusion that he woke up the next morning with Professor Flitwick dozing in a chair next to him. Harry sat up quietly, trying not to wake the professor, but the little old wizard started awake. Harry sighed. "What happened last night, professor?"

Flitwick blinked sleep from his eyes or a moment before he answered. "We won our case, then returned here, and the Weasleys threw a party. Charlie Weasley had actually just portkeyed in for a visit, and we borrowed his cell phone to call your friend Miss Granger. We stayed until after dinner, then left."

"And now where are we?"

"We're in Jonathan's home," said the professor. "We have two days to get you familiar with this place before the muggle's Child Services come to check how well you're settling in – after all, they think you've been living here since school let out."

"Okay." Harry slipped out of bed and looked around for his trunk. After a moment, he found it and started to pull off his pajamas, but then he stopped and blushed. "Professor, do you mind…?"

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Flitwick exclaimed, and he stepped outside. "Come downstairs and have some breakfast once you're dressed!" he called, voice fading as he went down himself.

When Harry went downstairs, he found both Professor Flitwick and Professor Snape sitting at the table while food prepared itself in the kitchen.

"Good day, Professors," Harry said politely.

"No need to be so formal, Harry," said Flitwick. "It's summer, after all, and I've basically just adopted you. Call me Filius."

"No," said Snape.

"No?"

"No," Snape said firmly. "Mr. Potter must get used to calling you Professor Dellian. Remember, they believe he's been taught by Dellian for most of the last year. It should be a still formal relationship, perhaps beginning to thaw but not informal yet. I do suggest, Filius, that you take more interest in Mr. Potter next year and see where your relationship goes."

"Severus is here to coach us," Flitwick explained.

"And I expect to be treated with as much respect as you show me at school," Professor Snape said sternly.

Over the next two days, Snape worked both Harry and Professor Flitwick as hard as any pair of students in Potions. But it paid off. The visitor from child services was completely fooled. According to Snape after he went through Flitwick's memory of the event, Harry was a natural actor.

"It makes me wish that the wizarding world had acting of some sort," he mused.

"Maybe you could start an acting club!" Harry suggested. "Professors can do that sort of thing, right?"

Snape shook his head. "I would have had to start preparing for it over the summer. It's too late now. Next year, perhaps."

"Oh, come now, Severus," Flitwick said enthusiastically. "I'll help! We might have to start a month into the year, but that will give the students time to settle in anyway."

"We have no theatre, no script, and no spells for lights," Snape insisted. "We need to build, write, and spellcraft–"

"We can surely find or adapt a room to use as the theatre, adapt a muggle script, and I can help you with the spellcrafting," Flitwick interrupted. "I got an O in my spellcrafting NEWT, just the same as you."

"Oh, I know a secret passage which can lead anywhere in the castle!" Harry volunteered. "As long as it's below the seventh floor, anyway… I bet it could take you to a good room to use as a theatre."

"Well, we should get started on this if we're going to do it," Flitwick said. "We'll check your passage tomorrow."

"Were you not planning on taking Mr. Potter to Diagon Alley tomorrow?" Snape asked, raising an eyebrow.

"So are the Weasleys," Harry said, not wanting to interfere with their expedition. "I could go with them!"

"There, you see?" Flitwick said to Snape.

"I would feel better if they had more adults with them," he insisted. "Two adults for six children?"

"Charlie will be there," Flitwick pointed out. "You remember Charlie, of course."

"Three adults for six children, then," Snape retorted. "Two of whom are Fred and George Weasley? With all of Diagon Alley to roam?" He snorted. "At least four adults."

Flitwick waved a hand dismissively. "I'll speak to them about that, it'll be fine."

"Of course we'll take him, we'd love to!" Molly said earnestly. "And don't worry about the kid-to-adults ratio, Selene Lovegood from over the hill is coming along too."

"Oh, that's good," Flitwick said with a smile. "Professor Snape expressed some concern. Is there a particular reason that she's coming?"

"Well, her daughter is coming with us as well," Arthur explained. "Normally both of them take her, but Xenophilius is overworked right now. Oh, there they are now!"

A tall, slim woman with light blonde hair cropped into a pixie cut had appeared at the top of the nearby hill. A moment later, a shorter girl with shoulder-length hair that was otherwise identical appeared next to her. They came down the hill quickly, apparently racing each other to the bottom.

"Selene!" Molly called happily. Meanwhile, Fred and George stepped forward and each put out a hand out. The Lovegood women dashed towards them and held out their own hands to slap them. Harry leaned forward in excitement, ignoring the running commentary that Charlie began to provide. A few seconds later, there was a pair of load smacks, so close together it was it was impossible to tell whether Luna or Selena had reached their respective Weasley twin first.

"A tie!" the elder twins declared in unison.

"Luna!" Ginny exclaimed, and ran forward to hug the younger blonde girl.

"Hello Molly, Arthur, it's great to see you again," said Selene Lovegood, stepping forward to hug the rulers of the Weasley clan. "And Professor Flitwick! I haven't seen you in years!"

"Not since your wedding, hm?" Flitwick said. "You know, I wish you had come to Hogwarts, I'm sure you would have been in Gryffindor."

"Ah, but Beauxbatons was so much fun!" Selene said with a smile. "It prepared me so well for spellcrafting."

"We actually hired a new Arithmancy and Spellcrafting professor a few years back," Flitwick said. "Victor Vector, I think you know him?"

Meanwhile, Ginny was introducing Harry to Luna. "So I'm not sure where I'll go," the slim blonde was saying. "I mean, my dad was a Ravenclaw, but I've always felt more like a Hufflepuff."

"Just remember that it doesn't matter which House you're in," Harry told her. "You'll make friends either way – in your House or outside of it. Ginny's one of my best friends, and she's in Ravenclaw, after all."

"Oh, I know!" Luna said cheerfully. "As long as I'm not in Slytherin, anyway. I'm a halfblood, after all, I don't think I'd do too well with the kind of people who go to Slytherin. Anyway, Harry, what's your favorite class…?"

Luna was a friendly, energetic girl. She preferred skipping to walking and would happily hug near-total strangers. She whistled, badly, and sang, quite well. She was interested in, apparently, everything. People, magic, muggles, everything. Harry thought that she was adorable. Like a puppy that was just discovering the world, really. As they walked from the Leaky Cauldron down Diagon Alley towards Gringotts, her head was rotating everywhere, left, right, almost like she was watching a game of ping pong no one else could see.

"Haven't you ever been to Diagon Alley before?" Harry asked her, but she didn't seem to hear, fascinated by a flying glass hummingbird that was floating in front of her.

"It's wizarding tradition not to bring your kids to Diagon Alley until it's time to get their school supplies," Ginny explained. "Sort of like not telling them how they get Sorted – it's more special when you see it all as once."

"Oh, I guess that makes sense," Harry agreed. "But what if, say, there's a single mother who can't afford a babysitter?"

"It's only a tradition, some people don't follow it," Ron put in with a shrug. "Mum didn't. She has to go shopping for food every now and then, and she just brought those of us who weren't at school along. Florean Fortescue, the ice cream man, is always happy to watch kids for free while parents do their shopping."

"Nice of him."

"Yup."

They went through Gringotts quickly. Molly grabbed the few galleons which were laying on the otherwise empty floor of the Weasley vault and quickly hustled them along. Harry felt rather guilty about pouring a full thirty galleons into his own pouch from his enormous trust vault, both for his school supplies and his pocket money until Christmas, when Professor Flitwick would take him to Gringotts again. The Lovegood's vault was of a more modest size, but Selena too withdrew thirty galleons.

"Allright," Molly declared as they left Gringotts. "I remember everyone's sizes, so I'll swing by Madam Malkin's to get robes. Charlie, you're on apothecary duty. Selene, I know that you need to get Luna's wand, but after that why don't you rendezvous with Arthur at Flourish and Bott's to help them get books?"

Harry gave her a stiff salute. He couldn't help it – Molly's demeanor had been just like that of a sergeant he had seen on the telly at Jonathan Dellian's house. After a moment, Fred and George copied him, and seconds later the whole group was saluting to Sergeant Molly Weasley.

She stared for a moment, then smirked and saluted back. "At ease, soldiers! Now off with you!"

When they got to Flourish and Bott's, though, there was an enormous line, stretching out the door and curling around in the Alley outside. Someone had helpfully created a glowing red line which hung in the air, showing the path to follow in the line – it looked to be at least an hour long.

Arthur let out a heavy sigh. "Looks like lots of people are getting supplies today. I guess we'll have to wait."

"Arthur!" came Selene's voice. "We've got Luna's wand already!"

"That was fast," Harry commented as the Lovegood women joined them in the line.

"Ollivander said he knew just the one for me," Luna said with a happy smile. "Eleven and a quarter inches, alder and unicorn hair."

"Very nice," Ginny commented, looking at the beautiful swirling pattern carved into Luna's new wand. "Did he say–"

"Move." commanded an imperious sounding voice, and the line shifted out of the way.

Harry wrinkled his nose. The voice was familiar. He had never heard it before, but it reminded him of… he turned, and saw Draco Malfoy and Draco Malfoy from the future.

Lucius Malfoy was almost exactly how Harry imagined an older Draco. His hair was grown out to his shoulders, silky-smooth and pure silver, and his eyes were as sharp as blue ice, darting around and observing every detail of the area. He wore an impeccable suit in charcoal grey underneath a cloak of regal blue silk. Draco, standing next to him, was wearing what looked at first glance like normal Slytherin student robes, but upon closer inspection turned out to be made from fine silk. The Slytherin house crest was made from an enormous emerald with silver inlaid upon it.

The elder Malfoy arched a brow at Arthur Weasley and his children as he passed. "Weasley," he said curtly with a nod. Arthur nodded back, mouth kept tightly closed. Every line of Arthur's body told Harry and the others don't draw his attention, just let him by.

Luna, apparently, didn't get the memo. "Hello!" she said brightly. "Who are you?"

Malfoy raised both eyebrows in apparent surprise. "I am Lord Lucius Malfoy, girl. Who are you?"

"I'm Luna Lovegood," she said happily, while the rest of the group mouthed no at her.

"Lovegood, Lovegood," Malfoy said slowly, rolling the name around his mouth. "Of the Lovegoods from southern France?"

"Formerly of the Lovegoods from southern France," Selene said, stepping forward and pulling Luna back. "Not anymore."

Malfoy smiled coldly. "Ah, you must be Selene. The one who was disowned. A pity," he said, running his eyes up and down her slim form. "You're just my type."

"I'm married, Malfoy," she spat.

"That was," Malfoy observed, "exactly the problem, was it not? And now you have so little money…" he smiled again, still as cold as midwinter. "Would you like to solve that small problem?"

"Never," she swore. "Come on, Luna, let's go." She turned and swept up the path that had formed in front of Malfoy and entered the store. Harry and the Weasleys quickly followed.

"I'm sorry about that, but the man gets under my skin like few others," Selene said apologetically. "Wait. Where's Luna?"

"Here, mother," Luna said, coming up behind them and tucking something into her bag. "Lord Malfoy pointed out a book I had dropped."

"What book?" Selene demanded. "We thought that old bag was empty."

"It was in the bag," Luna said, pulling out a battered copy of The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1. "It must be leftover from when it was your school bag."

"I suppose it's one less thing to buy," Selene said after a moment of hesitation. "Come on."

"What was that all about?" Harry asked Selene as they went through the bookstore.

"Oh, just someone from my past," she said. "The Lovegoods are rather like the Malfoys, but French and even worse. My dear Xeno is muggleborn, and they disowned me when I married him. Lord Malfoy," she sneered, "was one of my suitors before that."

"So Mr. Lovegood took your name?"

"My family took my friends, my livelihood, and my possessions from me," Selene said with a snarl. "I refused to give up my name. Xeno understood perfectly, and he decided to take it in order to show his support."

"Oh, okay," Harry said, seeing that Selene needed to get off the subject. "So you went to Beauxbatons, not Hogwarts? Tell me about it."

"Well…"

A/N: Let me just remind everyone that this is the last week that the poll for the name of the series will remain open.