Disclaimer: Harry Potter and his world still don't belong to me. Oh well, them's the breaks.
Warning! Lots of yakkety-yak.
ooOOoo
Chapter 96
The rain was falling steadily by the time Harry was allowed to return to Hogwarts. It swathed the hills in misty veils and shrouded the castle. Astronomy Tower was blotted out by the lowest clouds. Harry stopped the broom at the gates and dismounted. He wanted to savour this view of Hogwarts from this side of the gates. Hogwarts was the first home he'd known. And now he was coming back. Did other students feel like this, or did they only get this warmth in their chests when they got to the houses where their families lived?
There was a soft pop from behind him – Tonks, Disapparating. She'd followed him on another broom, Harry and his bodyguard flying swiftly in case they were stopped on the road. Tonks' wand had dispersed the floating blue strands Draco had warned him about, and they'd flown above the Infernii curses set into the road.
"Harry…"
Luna. Harry didn't bother to say her name, let alone ask something as trivial as how long she'd been waiting by the gates. He strode through the gates and felt the wards tingle up his legs like a hearty welcome and threw Tonks' broom into the bushes and grabbed her and kissed her and after that split second of her surprise she was kissing him back and Harry had finally, truly come home.
Some time later, when the universe had regained some relevance, Harry pulled back. "I saved the world for you," he whispered.
He didn't need unicorn blood magic to see that her eyes were a silver softer than mistletoe potion. They glowed with some inner light akin to that of the unicorns. Harry wondered if the truth of Luna paralleled people's need for horses: as the other worldliness of unicorns was too far beyond the human sphere and horses allowed you to approach that wonder, so Luna bridged that middle ground between the every day and the esoteric. More than that, she was willing to share it with him. Her lips curved. "Just for me?"
His own lips twitched. "Mm-hmm."
"Oh. Thanks. I appreciate the thought."
"Any time." He pulled her into another spine-melting kiss. Her hands were in his hair and her body was supple against his.
"Wet kisses are pretty good, aren't they?"
Harry would murder Ron at the earliest opportunity. He settled for an interim glare.
Ron countered with a grin. He stepped forward with his hand out. "Welcome back, mate."
Harry shook his head and clasped Ron's hand, laughing as Ron tugged him into a hug and slapped his back. "You did it, Harry. You bloody well did it."
"So did Malfoy. You gonna hug him?"
Ron started to laugh. They broke apart. "I'll give him a very warm nod of recognition," Ron replied, his freckled face beaming. "I will, however, kiss that horse of yours on the nose. How come you didn't come back with him?"
"Had to wait for the Aurors. Malfoy wanted to see Simon back."
"Before he could have his horse confiscated, you mean?" Ron shook his head.
Harry smiled. "Something like that. Then Tonks took me to Hogsmeade – I had a cup of tea that nearly took the lining of my mouth out, and a lot of questions that finished the job. Some I was even able to answer."
"Crikey, sounds like our OWLs."
"Was, a bit," Harry chuckled tiredly. It was lucky Tonks had taken his testimony with a recording spell and then let him go before the other Aurors caught up with him, because he'd been dying to get back to Hogwarts to ask a few questions of his own and Tonks had hinted there could be quarantine issues and he mightn't get back as soon as he wanted unless he was sneaky about it. She'd let him steal her broom. If anyone asked, he was so tired he couldn't think straight and had thought she'd meant for him to stay at Hogwarts instead of Hogsmeade.
He had the tiredness part down pat.
Ron's being here answered in part his most pressing question. "Nice to see you're alive, Ron. Is Hermione okay too?"
"She's fine. So is Elmsworthy," he added with less enthusiasm.
"How'd you survive the tree? I mean, there was an explosion…"
Ron's eyes widened and he shook his head. "One explosion? Two! Can you believe it? The first when the tree went boom in a big way, and then again when the barrier collapsed in on itself… something to do with time realigning itself, Hermione said – all I know is that it was evening and then it was morning. It was bloody lucky you taught Elmsworthy that wall of sky spell, Luna, because we'd have been smeared through the Forest without it. It was… but you look knackered, mate. Like an Inferi, only without the exuberance. Let's get you inside and out of the rain."
Luna nodded as if he'd just uttered words of infinite wisdom. "That sounds sensible, Ron." She took each of them by the hand and they began to walk up the road towards the castle. Even through the damp filter of the rain, the rising sun was warm on Harry's back. He took off his cloak and ruffled his fingers through his hair. The water might even make it lie flat for once. The raindrops were clean and the rising sun turned them silvery, as pretty as a school of fish darting through shallows, so silver that he could almost fancy that some of the unicorn blood had altered his eyesight permanently.
"Did Draco get back okay?"
"I helped him take Simon back to the paddock," Luna said. She was swinging her hands; Ron's and Harry's went along for the ride. Harry quite liked this, especially as Ron's expression was one of 'I-hope-Hermione-doesn't-see-this'. "He said you'd be along soon. So long as you didn't get waylaid by Rita Skeeter. Not sure what that meant. I don't know if he'll be back at the castle yet… he wanted to be sure Simon was going to be alright – that was quite a chunk taken out of his hoof when the shoe came off, you know. I said I'd be going back to the gates, and he asked me to tell you that he'd take care of his horse."
Harry snorted.
Luna smiled. "Well, he's never been the brightest spark in the wand. I mean, who in their right mind thinks Simon belongs to them?"
Harry considered this. He pursed his lips. "You?"
"Oh, I know exactly where ownership lies." She smiled up at him, her teeth like pearls between her parted lips. "He looked after you, didn't he."
"Who? Simon? Yes." There had been that moment in the Forest when Harry had thought Simon would run, but… "He took care of all of us. He killed Voldemort."
Ron shot him a look. "What? I thought you did? And single-handedly captured all the Death Eaters. That's what the Aurors who came to the school told us. Arch Comrade Militant Bulstrode said they were only acting sure of their facts to stop us asking inconvenient questions because they really knew bugger all."
"Tonks must have given them a brief report. I didn't give her more than the basics. I'm still not sure what happened myself."
"Oh. Well, they're still holding everyone in the Great Hall. They said you were at Hogsmeade, and not to expect you back for a few days because of some quarantine thing. I sneaked out to wait down here – Hermione was worried about you." Ron frowned. "Ah… are you saying we should be throwing a horse a victory parade?"
"Well, killed him in the most literally physical sense." Harry rubbed his eyes, which were grainy. "Sorry. Brain bad." He coughed to clear his throat. His voice was so husky he sounded like he'd been on a bottle of gin and two packs of cigarettes a day for the last twenty years. "It was like this: I threw the bottle, which shattered on him. The glass didn't penetrate, but hung around. Malfoy hit him with the second bottle. That didn't do much either. Simon bit him, which got the potion through his skin. I… I don't quite know what I did. Simon smashed him into the ground all right, and then it started getting crazy… and I said something… this word…" That bit was still hazy: there had been the knowledge without his brain getting in the way by thinking logical thought, and then he'd had to speak a word… something to do with unicorns and figs and the Forest… and there had been the fading scream of Voldemort echoing through his scar as the Dark Lord dwindled and faded into a small twinkle… "The end of the story is Voldemort's gone.
"Huh. Funny thing. I'd almost forgotten… there was a spell in Simon and when I pulled it and touched it to my scar, it, um, it unravelled and, sort of, er, gave me an opening into Voldemort's mind… you know, it was almost like it was a Dark M- Ouch!"
"Sorry." Luna had gripped his hand too tight. Her nails must have left marks. "I… I guess it's kind of scary thinking of you fighting Voldemort," she said.
Harry squeezed her hand gently in reply. "It worked out just fine," he told her. "It wasn't just me. You're joking about the victory parade, aren't you, Ron?"
"No."
Harry curled his lip at the thought. "Ugh. Do I have to be there?"
"Yes."
"I'll send Malfoy and Simon. No – just Malfoy. Once all the Death Eaters are caught and his parents aren't in danger from them I'll tell him to stop skulking around in the background – shouldn't be hard. He'd love the smirking, waving bit. People might ask questions about where Simon came from. Speaking of whom, you sure you wouldn't rather be up with Simon?" he asked Luna. And Malfoy?
"I wanted to see you come back," she said simply.
Ron had the grace to be interested in something over to the left. Harry stared away at the lake until he was sure the moisture in his eyes was only that of the drifting rain. "And I'm glad," he said at last.
"Gladness is the order of the day," Ron said. "Look."
The meeting must have ended (or the students had found out that someone had just arrived from Hogsmeade), because the doors of the castle opened in their ponderous way. The first of the students were trickling through. Harry wasn't close enough to see their faces but he could imagine the breaking wonder, the first stirrings of hope and the fear that hope would be false and despite what the Aurors had told them Voldemort and his Death Eaters would come marching into Hogwarts and announce the death of their loved ones, then the – yes, if he squinted he could see their faces – the joy of seeing the outside world and knowing it was safe at last.
Because Death Eaters never walked hand-in-hand. And it was Harry Potter walking back to them, not Voldemort.
There were no shouts. Only the growing sound of tens and then scores of pairs of shoes running down the road. Hogwarts robes billowed behind the running students and the badges were those of Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin, all students united in this moment of freedom.
Harry and Ron drew closer to Luna, expecting the students to flow around them in a torrent, ignoring any quarantine rules, running out the gates and down to Hogsmeade. But they didn't. They surrounded the trio, yes, and then there were shouts of congratulations and people were slapping Harry on the back. Trudi crashed into him and hugged him so hard she nearly knocked him off his feet before she was pulled away by Millicent… who gave Harry a quick, rib-cracking hug and a short glare that said We shall never mention this again. Then there were some Ravenclaw girls he didn't really know wanting to hug him (Luna frowned) and a Hufflepuff boy (Ron grinned) and then it was Hermione and Harry laughed from the sheer relief of seeing for himself that she was alive and well and picked her up and spun her around and dropped her, dizzy and laughing, in Ron's arms, as Dean and Seamus and Neville crowded around to slap his back and shoulders and shout (or smile shyly in Neville's case) congratulations and Ginny kissed him on his cheek and bounced off to hug Neville. And all the while they were calling back to other students still emerging from the castle, telling them that Harry Potter was alive; that Harry Potter had broken the Blockade; that Harry Potter had saved them.
Harry Potter blushed.
ooOOoo
A flurry of Aurors broke up the group. "There's a quarantine on," a tall, rawboned witch chided. She waved her wand and the gates shut with a clang, just in case any students were thinking of haring off Hogsmeade way.
By the sea of sullen faces suddenly surrounding her, that had been uppermost on their minds.
A younger Auror went to lock the gates – a good thing, Harry realised with a small jolt, because there were Death Eater traps set into the road. He hadn't thought to warn anyone of that – Ron, who'd been ready to march down the road in search of Harry, might have stood on one. Harry shivered
"I wanted to check the mail," someone muttered.
"We'll have the mail sent up directly," the witch assured them. "But what with the strange magics which have been in force, we need to be sure that no aftershocks or transmissible tweaks in fields will be carried out. It's for everybody's safety. There are pockets of the barrier still in effect. And, of course, there are curses set around Hogwarts' boundaries."
"Yes," Harry said, and the students seemed more ready to trust the Auror. "There are Infernii curses on the road –"
"Like zombies?" a nervous first year asked.
"No, not Inferi – Infernii curses. Hellpits. And some sort of binding spells. Don't know what else. But don't try walking down the road just yet." Draco had already known about them – shouldn't he have warned everyone?
"Don't you remember Malfoy going on about how his life was in danger from an almost infinite number of sources when he took the mail out last month?" Ron said.
"Oh, that's right," several people said, looking at Harry with renewed hero worship for having passed these perils. "They suck your brains out." "If you stand on one of them you get Portkeyed to hell." "Did you have your eyeballs boiled, Harry?"
"Er, no. My eyes are fine." Draco must have embellished the dangers. Or the Hogwarts Rumour Mill was manufacturing product at capacity.
"But won't you be going in and out?" Trudi asked the Auror.
The Auror didn't tell her off for speaking out of turn – Harry was surprised by Trudi's forwardness as much as by the Auror's forbearance. "Yes, but it will be minimised. And I'm an Auror – it's my job to put my life on the line."
They didn't argue with that – the crimson scar tracing a jagged path from hairline down cheek to jaw could have been from a kitchen spell gone awry, but the students all seemed to accept it as a silent advertisement of the fact that this Auror had been putting her life on the line quite recently.
She turned to Harry.
"Mr Potter, glad to see you made it back to Hogwarts. Is that Tonks' Cleansweep sticking out of the bushes?"
"Er, I was going to wait at Hogwarts…"
"I'm sure you simply misunderstood. Hogsmeade and Hogwarts sound very similar, and Auror Moody said you were somewhat tired after defeating Voldemort. Nice trampling, by the way."
"Er… Backlash of magic through my scar… Dark magic I didn't quite understand…"
"I'm sure it will be explained in time. No rush – you look like you were dug up and reanimated by a Haitian witch. Some warm soup – that's the ticket after a hard day fighting Dark wizards."
She didn't pat him on the head, which he appreciated. Rather than stick around under her far-too knowing gaze, he nodded and said, "Er, right. I'm starving, come to mention it."
"Get the man some food," Bulstrode ordered some first years. "Go on – back to the castle with you."
Harry didn't really want to go to the castle just yet. His eyes weren't quite able to stay open. But his stomach growled.
"Was that yours or mine?" asked Ron.
"Mine."
Ron gave him a quick, analytical stare, and shook his head. "Give him some space," Ron said to those crowding around. "Come on, everyone – breakfast has been extended."
There were cheers, and a small bubble formed around Harry and Luna, chattering students cocooning them and giving them unexpected privacy.
"How did you know about the unicorns?" he asked Luna in the lull, threading her arm through his as they set off up the road.
"I didn't. But I expected that if the spirit of Hufflepuff was involved then they'd be sent along soon enough."
Harry shook his head in disbelief and spoke in a low voice, not caring that it must carry as far as Ron. So long as it didn't carry farther was all he cared about right now. His mind was humming with fragments of things he'd seen and done, but he didn't want to start a new set of rumours – he'd never be that stupid. "I'm dead sure the Forest was involved somehow, but it's not conscious. Do you think she gave it some sort of consciousness? Willpower? I met a centaur who suggested it was her. I still don't really believe it." He kicked at a loose stone. "I mean, she died a thousand years ago, so who knows what she got up to. She could have been breeding, oh, I don't know… sentient apple trees. Sentient fig trees – now that I'd believe! But how did you know that it could be Hufflepuff who's been behind the scenes?" He still didn't know how Helga had organised this if this was true. As theories went, that one went beyond mind-boggling and set up house in scepticism.
"Well, given Stephanie's involvement, the Golden Sickle and the fig just 'falling' into your pocket, I thought there must be something along those lines. The unicorns were kind of an underlining of the evidence, if you like. I was expecting them if it was Hufflepuff – she was the one who brought them to the Forest, did you know?"
"That was something the centaur said, too." Harry tightened his arm around Luna's. She gave him a soft smile as he continued, "I guess centaurs have a lot of lore we don't. But it amazes me that you knew."
"Why? All the clues were there. It was either the spirit of Helga Hufflepuff infusing the Forest, or the Gila Lizard Brigade. And they've been inactive since the Space Bunnies lost their colony in the Nevada Desert. Must have been an amazing battle… just think of all those Gila ninjas fighting Space Bunnies… cold steel and lethal kicks versus lasers…"
"Really." Harry knew when to let things lie.
Luna gave his arm a happy squeeze. "Oh, the things we can do…"
Harry was much buoyed by this idea. Things in the future. "Yes! Loads! You want to take Simon to a horse show, don't you?" His smile faltered when Luna's expression gave a brief flicker of sorrow.
"Burghley."
"Burly what? Burly big horses? Like those ones that pull carts and… and carry knights and stuff?" Watching jousting could be fun. Especially if people fell off a lot.
Luna spelt it out for him. "It's a horse show. Held in September. The dressage is awesome."
Harry wasn't particularly interested in dressage unless it was him on Simon – or Luna in her tight riding trousers on Simon. Watching other people on horses that weren't Simon would be colossally boring. "Any jousting?"
"Er… maybe?"
"So can you take Simon to Burghley?"
Luna shook her head. A platinum strand of hair fell over her face. Harry tucked it back behind her ear. "No," she said. "Taking Simon would be too difficult and it might make people ask questions about where I got the horse – you can't imagine Draco letting Simon out in public when there's a chance someone might try to claim him – or possibly assassinate him when his part in killing Voldemort is more widely known, which it will be. No. I could go by myself, but, well, do you have any idea how insane horsy people can get? Plus they're Muggle horsy people. That makes them… doubly strange."
"Draco's probably counted as a horsy person by now, so yes, I've got a fair idea. And Muggles aren't always that bad." They were nearly at the castle now. Harry slowed down, wanting this walk to last as long as possible. Luna leaned into him and Harry felt his heart expand in his chest at this simple contact. They were walking so slowly now that if they went any slower they'd be going backwards.
"School would be on. I can't go there by myself – and I'd rather go with someone. Daddy is a bit frightened of horses, and having him around horses and Muggles all at the same time would be too much. I was hoping my uncle would take me to it this year," she said softly. The faint hint of diffidence in her voice was clear as a bell to Harry: she'd been wanting to spend time with her uncle. So why shouldn't she? "Although it's right at the beginning of the school year, I thought we could Apparate there over the weekend," she continued. "He always needs to be coaxed around to something like that, but it's not that hard if you bargain him down."
"So bargain him down. It's been ages since you've seen him – I'm sure he'll be ready to take you anywhere you want to go – to the moon and back if he's a wizard."
Luna's mouth moved in something that wasn't really a smile. "He's a bit tied up at the moment, I expect."
Huh. Stupid uncle for making Luna sad. "I'll take you. I'm famous. Let's turn it into something useful for a change," Harry told her. It wouldn't be boring if Luna was there to explain everything to him. Or distract him by wearing those white riding pants. Maybe they could disguise Simon as… as a dog or a Shetland pony or something small and portable… and take him along for the ride (so to speak). "Can't imagine Rita Skeeter being there, can you?"
"No. Sounds divine. Let's run away together and see beautiful horses dance." Luna smiled up at him, her silvery eyes clear as the full moon on a cloudless night, so clear he could see the shadows and know that they were eclipsed by the light Luna took from all around her and added to the internal eternal mystery of her soul to turn it into her own unique magic.
When he got his breath back, Harry realised he was thinking of the future. The shock of it made him grip Luna's hand. Then it hit him – he was thinking of the future as he walked through the front doors of Hogwarts with Luna's hand in his.
The future looked pretty good. Maybe it wouldn't be so scary after all.
Bobbing in the current of students and shepherded by Aurors, he allowed himself to be guided inside, up stairs, into the Hall and into a thunderous storm of applause.
He looked around and blinked in bemusement. How strange. Everyone was standing up and clapping. For him. That was nice. He looked up to the front of the Hall and saw Dumbledore looking tired and – unusually for him – fondly exasperated. Dumbledore gave him a nod. Next to McGonagall (trying but failing badly to pretend she was most annoyed at him going off and endangering his life) was Hagrid, tears streaming down his face into his beard, massive hands clapping so loudly they could be heard above everyone else's. Flitwick was standing on his chair next to him, clapping as enthusiastically as any first year.
And there was Remus. He looked just as tired as Harry felt, but he managed a smile and when he caught Harry's eye, his lips formed the words Well done, Harry.
Just beyond him, in the shadow at the end of the table, still as a canine statue, sat Padfoot.
That was a conversation Harry didn't want to have any time soon.
"Where's Malfoy?" he asked Hermione.
She shrugged.
"He's still up at the paddock," Luna informed him. "I gave them sandwiches and carrots. Draco likes strawberry jam and cheese sandwiches, did you know? And people call me strange…"
Harry shuddered and almost lost his formidable appetite at the thought of strawberry jam and cheese sandwiches. "I'll go up and check on Simon later."
"Food first," said Ron, dropping his hands on Harry's shoulders and manhandling him into a seat. "Eat."
Best advice Harry had had all day.
ooOOoo
Padfoot was watching him as he ate. Everybody wanted to talk to him.
There wasn't anyone Harry wanted to talk to – not immediately. He needed to get his head and his story straight first.
Ron, Neville and Hermione, loudly talking about getting something from Gryffindor Tower, covered for Harry and Luna as they slipped outside into a clinging, misty rain.
One or two Aurors noted their passing, but didn't stop them.
Harry smiled at Luna. "Let's see how Draco got on."
From one pocket she pulled out a napkin-wrapped bundle. "I thought that was where we would go this morning. Jam and cheese sandwiches."
Harry groaned. "I forgot to get the peppermints!"
From another pocket she pulled out an apple. "Will this do?"
ooOOoo
Despite the poor visibility, it was easy enough to find Draco. He was lying down hidden by some scrubby heather, true, but the tall black stallion standing nearby was a significant hint. Simon, so shiny he must have recently been washed (it hadn't been raining hard enough to give him a gloss), turned his head to survey Harry and Luna as they clambered up the steeper section of the hillside. The horse didn't whinny, but Harry fancied he saw some form of relief in the dark eyes, which fixed on Harry easily as analytically as Ron's had earlier, checking he was unharmed, and the head did nod up and down fractionally. Harry was home and Simon's work was finally done.
"It's okay, I'm not here to make you do any more work. Here." He offered the apple, section by section. "Payment." Simon ate the apple with sullen approval. Harry wasn't quite off the hook, it would seem, but as apologies went, an apple was a good start.
"Did you get my Chocolate Frogs?" came a voice from the depths of the heather.
Draco had flattened a patch to make a rough bed, then wrapped his cloak around himself to leave only his face open to the sky. He was lying with his eyes closed. There were tired shadows around them and his hair was a mess and his face was still dirty. Despite that and the absence of a smile, he looked happy, and his lips had lost the bluish tint left behind by Bellatrix's Cruciatus. His eyes opened and he stared up at Harry. "Well?"
"All seems to be well."
"Ah." Draco yawned. "I see you've shaken off your fan club."
Harry's eye twitched. "Hmm. Do you think all the terrible pain he got from biting Voldemort cured Simon of biting everyone else?"
"Probably not. Didn't the pain only hit in when he trampled him? Why?"
"Just thinking…" On balance, best not to hex Draco, Harry decided magnanimously (or not when Simon was within moral outrage range).
Luna settled herself on a rock where she watched Simon. The horse flicked its ears at the scrutiny. Harry sat down beside the Slytherin. The heather was springy and surprisingly comfortable.
"Damn good shot with that bottle."
"Thanks." Draco tried to look modest and failed totally. He settled for a self-satisfied smirk.
"Really don't know why you're not a Chaser. You'd be good at that."
Draco looked even more pleased. "You think?"
Harry had a sudden image of Draco as a Chaser, throwing the Quaffle through ring after ring after ring… Gryffindor losing… Slytherin winning… "Er, well, if you ever get bored of being a Seeker, which to tell the truth is the best position to play." Especially for Harry. He could fly loops around Malfoy as a Seeker.
"Hm."
Oops. "So how about those elections?" Get a Malfoy into political office. Much safer. Couldn't be worse than Fudge.
"The election's been called. On account of rain, you think?" Draco smiled up at the sky. For once his expression was totally open and relaxed.
"Rain makes you hungry. Here you go, Draco."
Draco reached up for the sandwiches. "Not Stilton again, I hope."
"No. Feta."
"I'm not pregnant." But he sat up and took the sandwiches, tossing one to Simon. It was doubtful the horse was pregnant, either, but Simon seemed to like strawberry jam and feta cheese sandwiches, because after sniffing at the offering and then rolling it around in his mouth the horse peered over at Draco for more.
Draco shoved the rest of the sandwich in his mouth and threw Simon the crusts. Sighing, the horse accepted its lot.
"I'll go and find him another apple," Luna said, fiddling with an earring. "You two might as well stay here – I can bring you more sandwiches, too."
"The feta wasn't bad – bit musty, though. Was it goat?"
"I think it was dragon."
"Dragon's don't produce milk!"
"Some species vomit up a similar lactic substance for their young." Luna skipped away down the hill. "Bye, Simon." She started singing as she went.
"She's happy," remarked Harry. "You feeling okay?"
Draco was a bit green. "She was joking about the feta, wasn't she?"
"Simon ate it," Harry pointed out.
"Ugh. And I thought that blue Stilton was dodgy…"
Harry stretched out next to him, pulling up the hood of his cloak to act as a buffer between him and the wet. The heather was damp and would soak through the wool soon enough (especially as the waterproofing spells seemed to have been stripped from it by the barrier), but Harry wasn't complaining. He could almost fall asleep. Defeating evil had that effect on him. "Huh. Elections called on account of rain. Could very well be. Rain's terribly bad for getting voters to the polls."
"Nothing to do with us defeating the biggest baddest Dark Lord since Grindelwald?"
Harry sniffed. "Nah."
There were muffled thuds as the horse shifted closer.
"Hello, Simon."
The horse stretched down its head and nuzzled Harry's face. Harry had an excellent view up the flared nostrils. The whiskers tickled as Simon lipped at Harry's nose experimentally. It was decidedly odd.
"Mind the glasses there, mate." Harry patted the horse's muzzle. It was a bit tricky getting it right – his entire perspective was upside-down – but Simon didn't take offence, shifting his attention to Harry's hands instead, swiping off the salt with his tongue. "Hagrid said something about getting him a salt lick," Harry remembered.
"Pop down to Hogsmeade this afternoon." Draco's eyes gleamed. "How about that, eh? We can go down to the shops any time we like. A few Aurors in the way, but the barrier's down. The Blockade is ended. We can stock up on liquorice snaps. You can buy me those chocolate frogs you owe me."
"Puts it all in perspective, doesn't it? The death and destruction and hair-raising trips through time and weird barriers… and now if we feel like it, we can wander down the road to the pub."
"In – what? – a month? – we'll even be allowed to drink real actual alcohol in said pub."
"If we tell them we're the one's who offed Voldie they might make us an exception and we can get rotten drunk as underage wizards. If there's any justice in the world, people will shout us drinks until we puke. Hey – we could even take Simon… He was the one who pummelled You-know-who into Dark mince."
Draco smirked. "Luna'd be pleased if we took him into the Three Broomsticks, wouldn't you, Luna? Oh, right, she's gone. The ultimate punch-line to the horse going into a pub joke."
"Yeah. But be serious. They'd never let him into the Three Broomsticks."
"True. It'd have to be the Hog's Head."
"They serve anyone there. Okay, Simon. I think that's about all the salt my hands have to offer for the next few days." Harry shifted his hands to scratch under Simon's chin. "I guess I'll just have to pinch some from the kitchens. Don't know why I didn't think of that before, to be honest."
Draco laughed.
"What?"
"Pinch some salt. Pinch of salt. Oh, sorry. Thought you were making a pun."
"I wasn't. But it was kind of funny, yeah."
Draco tapped his fingers on his stomach. "Well, actually it wasn't. I was more laughing in a polite way."
"I'll let you know when my brain's reactivated enough to make proper laugh-worthy jokes. Right now I feel like I could sleep for a week."
Draco agreed with another yawn. Harry couldn't stop himself from following suit.
Simon yawned, too.
Some half-chewed grass and a bit of (dragon?) feta fell on Harry.
Harry pushed Simon's head away. "Right. Enough of that, thank you very much."
The horse sighed and lifted its head.
"You don't think he'll step on us?"
Harry considered this. "Hope not. I don't really feel capable of getting up just yet."
"Me neither. Had a bit of a snooze just earlier, not sure I've finished with it yet. Nice of him to stand upwind, don't you think? Kind of blocks out most of the rain."
"He's a very considerate horse."
Draco frowned. "That still doesn't make him a Hufflepuff." He looked up as Simon moved off. Then he sat up at the thud of the horse hitting the ground. Harry sat up, too.
It was nothing sinister – Simon simply wanted to roll out the itches.
"Hey," bleated Draco. He scrambled to his feet. "I just cleaned you."
Simon ignored him. He stretched out his neck and, with grunts of satisfaction, wriggled himself against the ground, tail flopping in lethargic bliss.
Harry grinned and rested his arms across his knees as he watched. The horse was so obviously enjoying this.
Draco was less amused. He folded his arms. "You had to pick the muddiest spot, didn't you?"
Simon wasn't interested in being scolded. With a stronger wriggle he was up and balanced – for a split second – on his bony spine, and then over onto his other side. The thump could be felt through the ground. More stretching and tail flicks and a big sigh of satisfaction, then Simon levered himself back onto his hooves. Once standing, he shook himself all over like a dog. Some of the mud fell off. Most stayed on. There was, or course, the brief, sharp snort that acted as a full stop to the exercise, and Simon wandered back towards Harry and Draco.
Draco sighed and sat back down. "Horses are related to pigs, aren't they?"
"More closely related to rhinos, according to Luna, but yeah. There's a 'have hooves, love mud' principle they share. Don't take it personally – it's natural for horses to roll in dirt. It helps keep their coats in good condition, and acts as insulation."
"Thank you for telling me what I already know, Doctor Potter. Did you know it's also natural for people to live in caves, eat lumps of burned meat, and club each other to death? And yet we live in houses, eat pâté de foie gras, and employ lawyers."
"I think Simon just made a cutting statement about your foie gras and lawyers," said Harry, who knew about foie gras because he'd had Hermione lecture him about cruelty to geese when she went vegetarian, and as for lawyers… Harry associated them with politicians and kangaroo-courts that threw him onto the scanty mercy of the Wizengamot without proper preparation and who changed the time without –
Draco looked worried. "He's still not a Gryffindor," he said quickly and with utmost sincerity.
Harry tried not to laugh but couldn't quite manage it.
ooOOoo
Luna came to fetch them half an hour later. She didn't seem to be in a rush, which meant anything from Nargles stealing someone's hairbrush to the castle burning down to a reminder that homework was due in two days. Harry peered over the curve of the hillside for a peep of the turrets just in case: no smoke. That was nice. He lay back again.
She sat down on a boulder close enough to Simon for her to pat the horse's neck. "I see you washed all the gore off Simon," she said approvingly to Draco.
Draco opened an eye. "Well, battle honours are all well and good, but those ones were going to get a bit whiffy."
"So Voldemort's head on a stick isn't good enough for you?" said Harry.
Draco opened both eyes and propped himself up on his elbows. "I think I peeled a bit of his ear off Simon's shoulder…"
Harry winced. "Nice."
"Yes. All that work I put in cleaning him up and I feel like it's not so much been washed away as scorned with mud. Bloody horse," he added fondly.
"I'm sure he appreciates it deep down," Luna said soothingly. "Hogwarts being what it is, one day Simon's going to turn around and say, 'Draco, I really appreciate the way you've been washing all the mud off me'."
"Scary day," said Draco. "What else would Simon say if he could speak to me?"
Harry laughed. "He'd say 'No carrots? A zillion points off Slytherin!!'"
"Rot. He'd know it was your fault and take the zillion points off Gryffindor."
"Speaking of taking points, how come no-one has been up to shout at me?" Harry asked. "Us, that should be – Draco's just as blameworthy as me, if not more so."
"Why more so?"
"You're a Slytherin," Harry explained patiently.
"Bite him, Simon. Defend the honour of our House."
"Ron told everyone you're having a nap, Harry," Luna said. "He didn't bother correcting their assumption you're in your bed."
"Nobody was asking about me?" Draco frowned.
"Millicent saw me heading up towards the paddock and suggested you might want this." She pulled a button out of her pocket, tapped it with her wand, and it ballooned into a decently-sized slice of cake. "She told anyone asking to leave you alone."
"Good old Milli'," said Draco in a muffled voice, already halfway through the cake before she finished the sentence. "Go away, Simon," he added when the horse got curious about the cake. "You wouldn't like it. It's not dragon feta."
Eventually the conversation came back to that last fight with Voldemort.
"But how did you do it? The Vivicus was broken, but he was sucking the life out of all his followers," Draco said.
"You sure?"
"Absolutely. I still had enough of the unicorn blood sight so that I could see it the magic going from the Dark Marks to him. It was like a blood-letting grand scale." Draco shivered. "Yet you stopped it. How?"
Harry still didn't have a good answer for this, but he knew it would be better to come up with the answer himself rather than have one imposed on him by Aurors. "What do you know about Soul Walls?" he asked Draco.
"Ummm… good to have if you're meddling with things man was not meant to meddle with. Why?"
"I don't think Voldemort had one. I think I managed to get to the level of his soul. It was… not nice."
"I can imagine." Draco flexed his fingers.
Harry shivered, remembering. But the memory itself was slippery – no hard fact or concrete vision he could put his mental finger on, only the fading feel of blinding emotion and the knowledge that was he was doing was correct. For a moment in time he had known where he was and what he was doing, and the purpose had been him. He felt lost without it.
Luna plopped down next to him and squeezed his hand. "Unicorns are strange things, aren't they."
Harry turned his head and stared at her. "Yes. I imagine Helga Hufflepuff knew what she was doing when she brought them here."
Luna smiled as if Harry had just done an even more amazing feat of magic than defeating Voldemort. "I've always thought they were a manifestation of the Forest's unconscious mind."
"Whatever that means," Draco yawned.
But Harry's brow had already creased. He was tired, yes, but something about it made sense. "You really think the Forest was helping us all along, don't you?"
"I don't doubt it," Luna said with a faint smile. "I can't see it liking the barrier ripping it in two, can you?"
Draco sat up and looped his arms around his knees. "I'm sorry, but I can't see a bunch of trees deciding how the battle between good and evil and me was to play out."
"I can," Harry argued. "All the pieces are there. The unicorns. The fig. Helga Hufflepuff – I'll see if I can find Stephanie later –"
"She won't confirm anything," Luna said. "Otherwise I'd be able to give you a definite answer. Don't you think I've already tried asking her about Hufflepuff's defence plans for Hogwarts?"
"Well, when you put it like that, I can see why she wouldn't tell you," Draco said. "Who in their right mind would gossip away all of the secrets keeping Hogwarts safe? So Hufflepuff set all this up."
But Harry wasn't convinced. "I still think it's more complicated than one witch, no matter how clever she was. The Forest has motives of its own. It – it was the unicorns Voldemort killed –"
"He only killed the one, didn't he?" Draco curled his lip unhappily. "I remember it… I swear to God I had nightmares for years about that dead unicorn having its blood drunk…"
Harry decided not to point out that Harry had been the one who'd stayed and been menaced by the killer of the unicorn. Draco would only counter with the argument that he'd gone running off for help from Hagrid, which, now Harry thought about it (however muzzily) was probably smarter than Harry's hanging around in a dark forest with the monster that had killed a unicorn. "I… got the impression there had been more over the years. There was revenge…" No, that wasn't the right word. "Recompense had to be made. A… a balance. Maybe when I've had a decent night's sleep I can explain it, but right now…"
Luna gave him a sympathetic look. "I believe it was the Forest. Look how it helped us…"
"Yeah, it attacked me with Acromantulas," Draco said with a gusty sigh. "That was ever so helpful, let me tell you."
"Well, you were out there looking for help." Luna said. She gave him a soft smile. Harry decided it was a friend-smile, and told himself not to be jealous. (Grr, part of him thought.)
"I was looking for Snape, not some sodding great spider."
"And the Forest gave you Simon –"
"Ah-ha! You admit it! He is my horse!"
"– Gave you Simon to help you. And Harry."
"Wait – I was given Potter and Simon?"
"Everybody was given each other. We were given what we were needed."
Draco rolled his eyes.
Harry pondered this. "So… when I went looking for the Founders and found Snape, are you saying that this was the Forest?"
"Did you make a trip to the heart of the Forest in search of the Golden Sickle?"
"No, I made a trip to Hufflepuff's Glasshou- oh. I did, didn't I?"
"Stephanie told me that much," Luna admitted. "The Glasshouse isn't central, no more than your heart is, but it's the nexus of the magical web radiating through the Forest. I wouldn't be surprised if it's part of Hufflepuff's set-up to sense potential threats to the Forest and Hogwarts and counter them."
"Are you seriously saying the Forest can see into the future? So… next time I go into the Forest I should ask its opinion on the stock market, and if it thinks the Academy of Magical Sciences is a good move for post-Hogwarts matriculation?" Draco sounded cross, as if the Forest being rational was a personal betrayal. "That's weirder than your Space Bunnies."
"I hardly think it would work like that. No," Harry said slowly, still trying to reach into that wonderful, terrible place he'd been shown. "It wasn't until I stopped trying to think in a rational sense that – that this power came through me. I wouldn't swear to it, but it felt like the Forest had sent its magic out through me. It doesn't use rational thought. I don't think it even thinks – not what we'd call thinking. Or," he amended, "what I'd call thinking on a better day, because my brain feels like it's been boiled and mashed like a potato."
"Lovely," said Draco. "But then isn't your brain like that on a normal day?"
Harry shrugged, not taking offence. "What's a normal day when you've not had Voldemort trying to kill you since you were a baby? Somebody tell me, please. I like the idea of an entire Forest being on my side. And don't try telling me your brain is at full speed, Malfoy, because you were complaining about how going through the barrier had made your head fuzzy."
"I think it was the Obliviate."
"It was the unicorn blood," Harry replied. "It allowed me to see the corrupted unicorn blood-magic Voldemort had in his body. Again, more evidence for the Forest as our mysterious benefactor."
"Mysterious benefactor with Acromantulas. Can you see the contradiction there? Huh. I'm too tired to argue whether a tree committee has been controlling my life," Draco complained. "Face it – we'll never get concrete answers. And I'm hungry. You two ready to come back to the castle?"
Harry stretched. "Yes." He didn't need concrete answers. In his heart (that bright space inside of his chest wrapped in glowing gold ribbons) he believed.
Whatever he had done today, it had been correct beyond the human sphere.
For the first time, Harry understood why Luna looked beyond the every day. There was so much more out there. So much for him to explore in his future.
But not now.
Now, he was tired and, despite the breakfast and scones, hungry. And he really, really wanted a hot bath. If there was any reward to being a hero, he'd have Luna in the bath with him, and lots of foamy bubbles to play with, but this was Hogwarts and while its classes were coeducational, its baths were not.
Shame, really, he thought, yawning.
ooOOoo
Simon followed them to the gate, his stride halting.
"Lame all round," Luna said sorrowfully. "Poor Simon. Lucky you patched up that hoof before leading him along the road." She pointed to where a ragged rim of what looked like builder's putty filled in the lost shoe and ripped away bits of hoof.
"Is he mad at us?" Draco asked, his head tilted as he eyed the horse which, despite the fact that it had graced them with its company, had more of a distance between it and them than Simon tended to keep now he was used to them.
"He's just sore and tired and grumpy. Let him get some sleep and he'll be in a friendlier mood. Right, Simon?"
Simon glared into the distance, which was particularly offensive to horses today.
"That was a 'yes'," Luna smiled. "Come on." She took Harry's hand. "Have a nice rest, Mister Grumpy-Hooves."
ooOOoo