Disclaimer: Characters and settings property of JK Rowling and Warner.
The end… I keep thinking it's in sight. But it's very elusive, The End.

ooOOoo

Chapter 72: Airs Above the Ground

Harry and Draco spent the rest of the morning sitting in the paddock, watching teams of students spend the morning outside by the lake or over by the Quidditch Pitch where someone (it looked like Seamus) seemed to be teaching them how to play football, and discussing the road in and out of Hogsmeade. Neither of them had a great working knowledge of the area, although Draco knew a few local landmarks, like a couple of Wizarding farms and some bridges which might be useful as rendezvous points for if they were split up. They mapped out possible routes, drawing lines in the dirt with sticks. Hermione and Ron joined them at one point – in time to bring them in for lunch – and Hermione pointed out that if Harry and Draco went (and it was a big if, because she thought they were both insane for even considering going against Professor Dumbledore in such a way) maybe it was best to work out where the trees were before they made any concrete plans.

Harry and Draco couldn't argue with that.

At lunch in the Hall (at the end of the Slytherin table in a tight little knot of Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco – Gryffindors weren't going to bother them when they were at the Slytherin table, and Harry was too tired to put up with the last of the idiots who hadn't taken exploding chess sets and milk jugs as subtle hints to stop harassing him over not killing Voldemort when he was back in time), Ron asked if they were dead set on going through the gates again. "Whoever takes Simon through the barrier might be better off taking a more direct route towards one or the other of the trees. Why risk a frontal assault when you can sneak in from the side?"

Draco grudgingly accepted that Weasley might have a point, not wanting to admit that sneaking in from the side rather than charging into the valley of death was so Slytherin it was embarrassing a Gryffindor had thought of it first.

Ron didn't smirk, but Harry knew him well enough to see when he was trying not to smile.

Hermione had a question about the shoes and wanted to go up to the paddock before afternoon classes to have a better look at Simon's hooves, but as they stood up to leave she and Ron were waylaid by a small group of fourth year Gryffindors who had been too leery of the Slytherins to approach while they were eating but who wanted to know if the Prefects had any thought on how to approach the professors in order to extend this wonderful new thing of cancelling morning classes.

Remus was watching Harry from the High Table in that careful way which meant the werewolf had questions and was waiting for an opportunity to ask them. Millicent was approaching, a gleam in her eye that meant she had ideas.

Draco and Harry decided they hadn't checked the cover was on Simon properly and it would take both of them to investigate. Most unfortunate, but they had to go and make sure the horse was safe and sound right now.

As they didn't have anything better to do after presenting this excuse and hurriedly exiting the castle (Millicent wasn't an outdoors person and Remus avoided Simon wherever possible), they went and saw Simon anyway.

Simon was pleased to be given another slice of bread and company. Harry and Draco were pleased to be able to work on the plan some more. Harry had thought about asking Hagrid about trails through the Forest – would any be useful?

Draco pulled a face. He didn't like travelling through the Forest. It wouldn't be useful to anyone if they were eaten by giant spiders, as he said.

Harry thought they could avoid the spiders quite well, but there was the risk of getting lost… He didn't want to get through the barrier and then thrash around the Forest for two days while Voldemort slaughtered everyone in Hogsmeade.

It was nearly time for class – just enough time to get back to their respective dormitories and pick up their books. They were walking back to the castle in silence, each busy with his own thoughts, when Draco said, "How do we know this isn't a colossal mistake?"

"What? Us choosing to sneak off on Simon instead of Dumbledore and Flitwick, thinking we can do better than two highly experienced and powerful wizards, one of whom is the only one You-Know-Who is afraid of, the other a duelling champion? Not to mention the fact that once we take Simon through the barrier it might be the last chance anyone has of ever being able to get out to fight the forces of the Dark Lord before Hogwarts falls down?"

"Er… yeah. I guess that sums it up."

"Um, I guess we don't know."

"So by sneaking around behind Dumbledore's back we could be dooming not only ourselves but Hogsmeade and Hogwarts?"

"Um."

Draco stopped. "D'you really think we would be?"

Harry frowned, not just because the sun was rising behind Draco. "The prophecy…"

"Could be wrong. And we could be being arrogant."

Coming from a Malfoy, that was a shocking admission. Harry blinked. "You think?" he said, which sounded stupid, but he was tired and more than a little overwhelmed by the plan he and Draco had just hatched.

"I have been known to do so on occasion," Draco said with a hint of a smile. The hint faded. "You know, if Dumbledore tried to use the Imperius on Simon there's a very real danger of them getting stuck in the barrier."

"How do you mean?"

"Those shoes I made – they feed the natural thought-flow of the wearer – Simon, in this case. They allow him to bypass certain obstacles in magical reality."

"What – like Luna's potion?"

"Er… not exactly. The barrier, y'see, is an anomaly in time and space. Horses are edge-creatures, so they are aware of things like that which are, I guess in their way of thinking, an affront to the natural order of thing. You wouldn't have noticed it, but Granger's cat seemed to take the barrier personally…"

"Cats take everything personally."

"Makes them almost human, then. The point is that Simon was able to focus hard on getting through the barrier because the shoes enhanced his belief that the barrier wasn't a natural fence. It allowed him to slide through the edge, if you like, of the, uh, the you-know… the theorum… sorry, I'm not very good at explaining these things…"

"No, I think I've got it. Simon can get through the barrier because the shoes make him believe he can." I wonder if Malfoy ever read The Wizard of Oz? Harry had a brief but bizarre mental picture of Simon in a blue gingham dress, clicking his hooves together. "So what's the difference between your shoes and the Imperius?"

"It's the difference between you knowing you can do something and someone else hoping you can do something. Even with the shoes, Simon wouldn't have gone through the barrier just on my say-so. He had to think he could do it just like he could wade through a stream. And once we were inside, I was essentially helpless. Simon took me through – I really can't stress that fact enough. The shoes just gave him a push in the right direction. The Imperius is a very nasty curse – it works on some extremely deep and dark levels of the psyche and it is known to fluctuate according to the strength of the caster. My father's extremely good at it – and don't you dare use this against me at a later date –"

"–I won't –"

"– and he probably knows more about it than anyone else you or I could name. And he says that it's not very effective on edge-creatures. Best kept to humans, according to him."

"Nice."

Draco shrugged. "Dumbledore probably reasons that as he's the most powerful wizard walking he can maintain the spell long enough…"

"Why the hell does he have to start telling me I'm too damned young to go out after Vold- You-Know-Who?" Harry exploded, the mixture of a succession of bottled rages suddenly popping its cork in a froth of bright anger. "I mean, all these years living with the Dursleys and running around after monsters and… and… and shit, all because of the prophecy, and suddenly he's ignoring it!"

"Probably a mixture of guilt over making you live with the, um, the Drubleys, was it? and letting you run around after monsters and what-not because of the prophecy, combined with a good solid chance of finally ambushing the Dark Lord himself, and the threat to Hogwarts. You must have noticed Dumbledore's a bit obsessive when it comes to this school," Draco pointed out. Harry's sudden outburst had made him jump.

"No, I haven't."

"Well, he is. So is the Dark Lord. If you ask me, he's out there gently twanging the strand of the spell anchoring him to the barrier like a spider feels its web, waiting to feel for the hints that the wards are down just enough for him to invade without actually weakening the castle enough for it to tumble down. I expect the attack will come sooner than Lupin says – the Dark Lord doesn't want Hogwarts destroyed…"

"Why didn't you tell them that?"

"What? Tell them I've started forecasting Dark Lord movements? No, thank you. You can tell them that if you want – from you it'll be manna, but from a Malfoy it'll be a new way of undermining the forces of all that is good."

"I hardly think Dumbledore would think that of you…" Harry sighed.

Draco scorned him with barely a sideways glance. "He's a Gryffindor with Gryffindor advisors. I'm a Slytherin. End of story. He's also getting progressively more stressed. The wards crumbling must have really hit him where it hurts. He's overprotective as an overreaction, if you like."

"I don't like. I don't like any of this." Anger bubbled up again. "God – it's ridiculous! What the hell was he grooming me up for if not to take on Vo- oh, all right – You-Know-Who? He's a hundred and, and, and a lot more. Shouldn't he have his own brain straightened out logic-wise by now? Why does he have to keep changing the rules all the time? How the hell am I supposed to deal with him usurping my life to his every whim like this?"

Draco looked amused. "Well, for starters you could stop sulking and start scheming. Like the rest of the school. Or the only part of it that really counts. We Slytherins are used to Dumbledore behaving like he's doing, remember?"

Harry laughed sheepishly. "Sorry. Call me Comrade Harry. Okay, where were we?"

"Well, Comrade Harry – and don't take this as meaning you're suddenly an honorary Slytherin…"

"Wouldn't dare presume so high."

"…we were discussing the Imperius and how it's potentially dangerous if used on a horse. Picture the scene: Dumbledore Imperio's Simon, which gets him and Flitwick into the barrier. At which point Dumbledore isn't able to maintain the Imperius – edge creatures need constant casting, unlike humans, who can have the spell put on them once so long as it's strong enough and reapplied at regular intervals…"

(Harry was a little disturbed at how easily Draco could explain the workings of an Unforgivable)

"…and Simon suddenly comes to his own mind and wonders where the hell he is and why there are two people on his back he isn't familiar with as riders. They're possibly screaming a lot at this point. I don't think I did, otherwise Simon might have panicked when we went through, which he didn't. But who knows what will happen with other people? Simon doesn't seem to find the barrier painful – unlike us, the lucky chap – so he's able to move around in it…"

"The pain was that bad?" asked Harry, the nastiness of what he might be put through suddenly taking a more concrete form in his mind. "What – like the Cruciatus? How did you deal with it?"

"It's a bit different, but still debilitating. It turns you into jelly. And I thought I told you all this already – I hung on to the saddle and prayed Simon would get us through. Everything hinged on Simon, so all I could do was trust in him."

"And it worked."

"It worked. Partly because he trusted me, I think. I suspect Simon might have some sort of conflict going on – he trusts me because he thinks I know what I'm doing – stop sniggering…"

"I wasn't."

"You were."

"Okay, just a little bit… but at the idea of Simon trusting that either of us knows what they're doing…"

"Fair enough." Draco gave Harry an amused smirk. "So… Simon thinks we know what we're doing, but he also thinks he's meant to protect us. So we have this fall-back Dumbledore and Flitwick don't have – as soon as we're unable to give clear commands Simon sort of sighs to himself and rolls his eyes and gets on with business. That's what happened when I was going through the barrier… and when the Dementors attacked."

"Simon bolted, you said. Sounds more like he panicked."

"Yes, but he went back when I told him to."

"Hmm. When I fell into Hufflepuff's Glasshouse while we were out getting the mistletoe Simon didn't expect me to do anything more than climb onto his back. I just hung on and he jumped back through to where you lot were." Harry considered this. "Would he have done that for anyone other than you or me?"

"Luna. But she's… um." There was no tactful way Draco could have finished that sentence, so Harry was grateful he didn't try.

Harry realised he was scratching at his chest, as if he could ease some raw itch inside of him. He took a sharp breath. "We should run some ideas past her. We need to tell her about what we're going to do – but I don't see how she can disagree. You saw how she was with the idea of Dumbledore riding Simon."

"You think she'll want anyone riding her precious Simon through the barrier?" Draco shook his head at the idea.

"No, but she can't argue with the fact that he's in danger now no matter where he is – as soon as the wards break and Hogwarts is vulnerable to attack…"

"Yes. Look, we're getting ahead of ourselves here. We don't have to make a final decision until tomorrow night. Let's… let's just see how things play out. We can have our going through the barrier as Plan A. But Plan B – letting Dumbledore run around getting spells thrown at him if Simon shows he's prepared to accept him as a rider and there are no mind-altering spells used on him other than what's already in those silver shoes – that should be kept firmly in mind as a solid option. I have to admit to being keen on the idea of people other than me being targets."

"Good idea. Let's not rush into things. Rushing into things tends to end up with me injured in some fashion."

"Hm. You know, there's a positive side to –" He stopped mid-insult and dropped the smirk in favour of a frown. "I've got History now, and I thought Luna had a class first thing, too. What's she going up to the paddock for?"

"Huh?" said Harry, still weighing up the ramifications of sneaking around behind Dumbledore's back, not liking any of the probable outcomes. It seemed like he, Draco, Simon and Hogwarts as a whole were in a lose-lose situation. Sinking deeper into depression, he wasn't really listening.

Draco nodded towards the shadows to the side of the castle. "Luna. Sneaking around."

Harry frowned, and frowned harder when he realised Draco was right. It was Luna, and she seemed to be on her way back to the paddock. It was either that or she was simply out for exercise, but Harry wouldn't put Galleons on that.

The two boys sat down on a rock, pretending to look over at the lake. Out of the corners of their eyes, they watched Luna.

Yes, she was definitely heading back towards the paddock. She was trying to be sneaky, which must have been why Malfoy had noticed her. There was nothing more noticeable than anyone trying to sneak around without being noticed.

"Maybe she forgot something."

Draco shook his head. "She didn't take anything up to the paddock. I got the impression she was cross with me for being there before her, rather than simply because I'd let Creevey take some photos."

"Hum."

Harry retied his shoelace.

"Don't you have a class now?" Draco asked.

"Yeah. History, same as you."

"I guess we should be getting up to it. You know how Binns gets when students are late."

"What, remembers their names at them?"

"Mm. Pretty vindictive. I don't want my name remembered at me. I guess we should start going if we don't want to be too much later."

"Yup."

Neither moved.

They waited until Luna was halfway up Squirrel Hill.

"You know," Harry began thoughtfully, "If we go along the edge of the Forest…"

"And then along under the shade of those oak trees, you mean?"

"Yeah. Then we can, I don't know…"

"Sneak up on her to find out why she's being sneaky?"

"Yeah, okay, it's a dumb –"

Draco was already striding towards the Forest. "Stop dawdling, Potter."

ooOOoo

They didn't go too close immediately. While they could have hidden from Luna, horses have excellent hearing and Simon would probably whinny and turn Luna's attention to them. So they waited under the shade of the spreading branches of an oak. At first sight, Luna didn't seem to be doing anything out of the ordinary, just talking to Simon, which wasn't odd as far as standards of Hogwarts behaviour went. Harry had even come across Dumbledore talking to the horse, although he hadn't been close enough to make out what he'd been saying.

She'd taken off the horse's cover, draping it over the fence, and clipped a leadrope under his chin. Again, all perfectly normal. Luna giving Simon food wasn't unusual, either. She held something on her hand and Simon, after giving it a cursory sniff, ate it. Again, perfectly normal. Harry was beginning to feel embarrassed at his suspicions.

"Let's go," he muttered. "We'll only be a ten minutes late for class…"

Draco shook his head. "Something's not right."

"What? Luna patting Simon and giving him a carrot? Yes, highly questionable. Call the authorities. Come on."

"Wait," Draco hissed. "Oh, bloody hell… Look at Simon!"

He began to run up the hill, scrambling up the steeper bits and using his hands to pull him along faster. "Luna…!"

"What's wrong with -? Oh." Harry swore softly under his breath and hurried after the Slytherin. This was beginning to look bad. Very bad.

Simon didn't seem to think anything was amiss. He whinnied to Draco and Harry when he saw them. The fact that he was floating with all four hooves two feet above the ground didn't seem to register in his horse brain.

"Luna!" shouted Harry. "Grab the rope! Don't let him float away!"

God help them all if Simon bobbed off like Aunt Marge. If he went through the barrier it would be a disaster.

Luna had the leadrope in both hands and a guilty look on her face. She bit her lower lip as Draco and Harry slid between the rails of the fence.

"Er…" Luna began, but was interrupted by Draco, who was rapidly going scarlet with fury.

"What the hell did you feed him?"

"I was trying out that potion I've been working on…"

"A POTION?"

"Just one to… uh… make him smarter…"

"He doesn't need to be smarter! He –" Draco ducked as Simon landed gracefully next to them and then, with a merry kick of his legs, the horse arced away again, this time turning a back flip at the end of the leadrope.

By all signs, the horse was enjoying itself mightily.

Draco gaped like a cod. "You didn't give him a smart-potion. You gave him… you gave him something that's probably illegal! Damn you, Luna, you didn't make Simon smart, you just made him high!"

Luna squeaked, tripped over a bush as Simon pulled her sideways, and let go.

Harry grabbed the leadrope as it swished past.

Simon gave an impatient toss of his head. It was clear the horse wasn't in an earthbound frame of mind.

"Oh, bloody hell!"

Whatever the potion had done to Simon, it seemed to be contagious. Harry, yanking at the rope, found himself yanked right back.

And up.

Simon flicked his head and Harry, bobbing like a balloon, swung up and around and over. He grabbed at a handful of mane on the way.

He certainly wasn't planning it, but the next thing he knew, he was astride Simon's back.

Simon tossed his head, snorted, and kicked his back legs.

Luna screamed: "Simon! Come back!" as Draco shouted: "Potter! Get back down here with my horse!"

But it was too late. As Simon soared into the sky, Harry called back: "How? Ideas, please!"

Draco pulled out his wand. "Accio equus!"

Simon dodged the spell, shook out his mane, and spun around, Harry clinging to his back. Harry must have accidentally dug in his heels, because Simon snorted as happily as if he'd just been told he was allowed to go full throttle and bounded off up into the sky.

"Harry!"

"Potter, get back here!"

"Simon," Harry coaxed, "please be a good horse and get back onto the ground. Please."

Simon began to fall again, in a great arc down towards the stones where he'd baled up Sirius. Harry groaned – there would be broken legs at the end of this, he just knew it.

"Oh, Merlin, look out, Simon…"

Simon's hooves touched a boulder with a finesse that would have done a sparrow proud and then the horse vaulted back up into the sky. Thirty feet up and with his worst ever case of vertigo, Harry looked down and saw the fence pass underneath them, Draco and Luna scrambling over it as they tried to keep up with Simon. Then he and Simon were falling down, down towards the bottom of the hill.

"Whoa, Simon!"

Simon hit the ground like it was a trampoline. This time up he managed a backflip. Harry wondered about the potion – he should have fallen, but was glued to the horse's back by what could only be the power of Simon's hallucination.

Simon didn't seem to mind. His ears were pricked and his eyes were bright. He was having a marvellous time.

Harry wasn't. He wished he had his broom.

He especially wished his broom now they seemed to be heading towards –

"…No, not the roof!"

– the roof of the castle.

Simon's hooves scrabbled on the slates as the horse landed light as thistledown. Harry gulped. Simon looked around in delight and swished his tail. From a nearby tower surprised faces gaped at the sight. Fingers pointed. Ah – it was the Divinations classroom and class must have just started: Trelawney pushed a student aside and blinked through her thick glasses at the spectacle; Harry wondered if she'd later claim to have predicted this.

… The Ascendant for Tuesday will be a horse ridden into the First House by Potter in Opposition to the Dark Lord… the Page of Swords will be crossed by the Tower Reversed… Yes, of course I knew it meant that there would be a black horse on the roof after lunch. Pass the sherry, will you?

Just another day in the life of Harry James Potter.

"Harry! Harry! Harry, look at me! Hold that pose! Brilliant! And if you could just look to your – awk!"

Colin was hanging out the window with his camera. Someone yanked him back inside, much to Harry's relief. The last thing he needed right now was Colin and his camera adding to the surreal horror of the situation.

A breeze lifted the mane and it flopped lightly along Simon's neck. He lowered his head a little, seemingly puzzled as he stared at the roof. Simon looked around, gazing down towards the ground then at the faces staring back at him. He went very, very still, only the faint expansion and contraction of his ribcage as he breathed suggesting he hadn't been turned into a statue.

Then the long neck craned around. The eye turned on Harry widened in disbelief. White showed around the upper rim of the dark, dark iris.

Harry remembered the dream of the eclipse. If Simon panicked now they would die. No matter what Luna might think, he didn't hold out much faith in his ability to bounce. Too many falls off brooms had taught him the truth of that. As for Simon…

Simon was giving Harry a what-the-bloody-fuck-are-you-doing-on-my-back? look. What turn had his hallucination taken now? It was frighteningly like having someone – not a horse someone – looking back at Harry.

Harry stroked his hand along Simon's neck, hoping to soothe the horse. "Good boy, Simon. There's a good horse. There we go. Good horse."

He continued like that a little longer, and something seemed to fade in Simon's eye. The horse blinked.

The threat of eclipse passed.

The muscles which had been tensed up like rock under Harry softened as Simon relaxed again. He even yawned. Harry could barely credit it.

"There's a good boy. Um. Now how do we get down? I suppose you've not bothered to think of that, eh? Want to go in through a tower window?"

Simon may not have wanted to, and it was unlikely he even understood the question, but the horse seemed to have decided it was time to return to the ground. Perhaps he was hungry.

"Oh, now wait just a minute… Simon! Noooo!"

Simon set off along the roof at his rolling canter, his hooves ringing out like crumpled thunder. A few slates were knocked loose to skid down the roof and disappear into the long tumble to the ground… Harry turned his attention back to the business of clinging to Simon. While the canter was more comfortable than a trot, Harry was in no way comforted.

Not when the horse was cantering down the slope of the roof.

We're going to die we're going to die we're going to die we're going to die we're going to-

Harry caught his breath, too scared to scream or get out his wand as Simon leaped over the gutter, shying at an equally startled gargoyle, and cantered down the wall.

Harry didn't feel like he was ninety degrees from gravity. He felt like he was about to die, yes, it was a familiar sensation, albeit unwelcome, but his senses told him he was on the level. Literally, if not figuratively.

They cantered past a window. Heads stuck out of it like a cluster of rabbits checking to see if the coast was clear.

Another window. Simon laid his ears back at one face he saw within, but didn't pause to attack.

"Harry…!"

"I'll explain later, Professor!" Harry called back to the aghast Lupin. "Look out, Simon!"

Simon jumped over a balcony, shying at a screaming knot of Ravenclaw girls, clearing a covered walkway with a magnificent bound, then swooping down across the rose garden, landing lightly in a courtyard just beyond it.

"Whoa, Simon…" Harry, mane clenched in one hand, dared to pull on the leadrope. If Simon stopped, good. If he unseated Harry, that was okay, especially given how bony the horse's back was: it was like a broom without the cushioning charm. Falling five feet was better than fifty any day of the week. But the horse chose to stop by the wall.

A rose climbing over the stone wall was in bud. Simon bit one off, mouthed it then spat it out.

If only the bloody animal had thought to spit out whatever idiocy Luna had fed him.

Harry dismounted, his knees buckling slightly. He grabbed at Simon's mane to steady himself. "Bloody hell," he breathed, leaning his forehead against Simon's shoulder. He wobbled over and sat down on a bench, wincing as his backside touched stone. "Bloody hell." Simon followed and then began nibbling at the blades of grass growing up around the edges of the flagstones. Harry scratched the horse's forehead and looked back up the wall. Far above, the silhouette against the sky which was the gargoyle shook its head at him, but Harry couldn't decipher if it was in disbelief, disgust or sympathy. "Bloody hell."

There was the sound of feet pelting past the wall.

"Potter! Potter!" It was Draco. "Potter – are you still alive?"

Through the overwhelming fugue of delayed shock, Harry found room to be mildly flattered Malfoy wasn't asking about Simon first. "Over here."

Footsteps skidded to a halt somewhere further along the other side of the wall than Harry and Simon were, then came back a little slower. "Where?" called Draco's voice.

"Here."

There was a scrabbling of feet against stone and muffled swearing and then Draco, his hair flopping over his very pink face, was sitting astride the wall, panting. Simon gave him a friendly whinny.

"Oh, thank God he's okay… He is, isn't he?" Malfoy gave Harry a sharp look suggesting that if Simon wasn't okay then it was completely Harry's fault, no two ways about it.

"I think he's fine. Although I'm not sure about getting him out of here. It's a bloody maze – we might have to take him through the castle again."

Draco groaned and then looked behind himself at the sound of another pair of running feet and gasping-for-breath. His eyes hardened into chips of ice. Harry didn't need to guess who it was before he heard Luna's voice, even breathier now, ask, "Draco – are they there?"

"Yes, no thanks to you."

"Help me up."

Draco's lip curled as he bit back what would probably have been harsh words and hauled her up onto the wall next to him, the twist of his mouth suggesting he'd rather shove her headfirst down a well.

Luna was as pink as Draco. They'd both run a long way. "Harry!" she puffed. "Thank goodness you got him down… Oh, Simon…" she shook her head and tsk'd sadly as she looked down at the horse. She lifted her leg over the wall and slid down from it as if she was dismounting from a horse.

Simon lifted his head when she pulled on the leadrope, but, now that his adventure was finished, he seemed more interested in the few blades of grass which had taken seed here. He seemed to resent her pulling his head up so that she could peer deep into his eyes.

"Hello? Hello? Anyone home?" she said. Then she rapped between his eyes with her knuckles. "Hello?"

Simon shook his head, irritated.

"That's enough," said Harry, suddenly very angry. He was shaking, not just from fright. Blood pounded in his ears. If Luna wanted to be crazy she could bloody well do it on her own time. Much as he cared about her (even if she didn't care about him anymore), he wouldn't stand back and let her do her kooky experiments on an innocent horse. "He's not a fucking guinea pig for you to test out your latest insane theory on."

Despite his tone, kept deliberately flat so as not to upset Simon, the harsh words struck home. Luna jerked back like she'd been slapped. "I… I…" She rallied with a deep breath. "I wasn't just testing things out on him. I – Harry." She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. "Did you – when you were up there, did you… did you get… some, um, some sense that he was… I don't know… different? More, um, focussed?"

"Different? Well, I have to say he doesn't usually think he's a balloon, so yes. He was different. And quite focussed on not falling, thank Merlin, because otherwise we'd both be dead."

Luna's expression was so tense she might have had tetanus. "But did he seem different? You'd know if he did."

"No," said Harry, deciding on the spot it was best not to tell her about that terrifying moment when Simon had looked at him like he had the concept of Harry as a person, like Simon was a person – a human person. He might have imagined it, and either way he didn't want to encourage Luna into another stretch of her bizarre imagination. Her latest flight of fancy had literally and life-threateningly become Simon's.

Luna looked like she might cry. Then she nodded. "Well, if you say so."

"He says so," hissed Draco, coming down off the wall. "And I say you're not to be trusted with Simon. Remember what you said about me nicking off with him to go through the barrier? How I should have consulted you and Harry? Well, don't you think Potter and I should be granted the same courtesy?"

Draco like Harry was keeping his voice soft for Simon, but his colour was still high and his eyes glittered.

Luna nodded. "Yes. I'm sorry. But I didn't know he'd react like this."

Draco puffed out his cheeks. "So what were you expecting?"

Luna stared at him with her wide, silvery eyes. "Something more."

ooOOoo