Y Pumed. The Fifth.

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Harry sat at the window of the common room, scratching little pictures into the frost as he listened to Hermione. She was going over an idea she'd had for making tests for themselves, to check their progress with the language. He was actually quite pleased with how he had been doing with the language. To his surprise, he seemed to be at the same level as Hermione, and they managed small conversations in their practice, something they'd just finished with for the day.

"Do you want to go down to Hagrid's?" she asked, setting down her quill. Harry frowned as his breath fogged the glass.

"Mae'n rhy oer," he replied, his brain not really switching back from the Welsh. The witch laughed, rising.

"All right. I'm going to the library, then." Harry nodded, watching the snow fall outside.

He wanted to talk to someone. About Malfoy. Because that damn Slytherin wouldn't get out of his mind.

A part of him felt slightly guilty for not confiding in Hermione about it. They'd been friends for nearly six years now, after all. But it wasn't really something he wanted to talk to Hermione about. The idea of telling her about this seemed… weird, even if she'd probably know exactly what to say. It was like… suddenly going to McGonagall to talk about what happened with Sirius. Yes. About that weird.

"Dammit, Ron," he sighed in frustration. If the redhead weren't such a thick idiot, Harry could talk to him about it. But unless Ron had suddenly been replaced by some sort of doppelganger while at the Burrow, that option was out. Not to mention the fact that he needed to talk now, not after the break.

Then there was Luna…. To Harry's surprise, she seemed to be the best option. She already seemed completely accepting of the idea in general, though he doubted if anything would change if Malfoy were brought into it. Maybe it was just that itself that made him want to talk to her about it….

A figure suddenly came into view in the grounds outside. Luna was wading through the thigh-deep snow, the multi-coloured hat she wore trailing its long tip behind her. Harry felt a sudden urge to grab a cloak and mittens and go after her. It really was cold, though….

Not five minutes later, Harry found himself bundled into his winter things, melting a path through the snow as he tried to catch up to the eccentric witch ahead of him.

"Hey, Luna…" The witch turned to him, smiling.

"Good afternoon," she said happily.

Now that he was here, talking to her, Harry felt far less sure about it. It was Luna Lovegood. And, really, he hardly knew her…

"I…" he was really starting to regret this now. He began to formulate an excuse for coming out to see her.

"Have you spoken to him?" Well, that had rather made up his mind for him. Harry supposed he couldn't really expect anything different when it came to Luna, though.

"I – well, no. Not really," Harry admitted, giving in. "I can't."

"Hm…Maybe you should," Luna suggested, beginning to search through her bag. "Unless you think he would set a flock of Zipping Arkashes on you. But I don't think he has any. His father might, though. Daddy heard something about him obtaining them from the Ministry. The Minister's undersecretary is receiving shipments of them from Peru," she explained, pulling some sort of radish from her bag. "Dirigible Plum?"

"Er, no, thanks. Who's father?" Harry asked, going completely against his better judgement.

"Draco Malfoy's." Luna seemed to feel that this was the clearest thing in the world, and Harry felt his heart drop. If Luna knew, then…did Malfoy? Surely not, or the Slytherin would have jumped at the chance to use it against him. Though, it could have just been a lucky guess on Luna's part…

"How did you…?"

Luna smiled at him. "Well, you have been following him around quite a lot during the break. Or maybe he's following you…" she said, looking thoughtful. "Hm…either way, though, every time you two are talking, this starts to tingle." Luna raised her arm, pulling her sleeve back to reveal an oddly shaped stone set into a metal bracelet. "It's used to detect Amoravies. They're much like wrackspurts, except they only really appear around people who have romantic feelings for each other."

"Er…Right…" Harry mentally filed the name with the other peculiar creatures that tended to come up in conversations with Luna.

"It's getting rather cold. Would you mind terribly if I headed back to the castle?"

Harry stepped hurriedly to the side, using his wand to widen the path he'd melted. "No, 'course not. I'll head back in, too."

"So, do you think you'll talk to him?" Luna asked as they reached the castle. Harry shook his head.
"I can't. Mal – he hates me. He'd never let me live it down." Harry caught himself just in time; he could never tell when Malfoy would pop up when he was in the castle, and he certainly didn't want him figuring out this conversation.

"Oh, you never know. People can surprise you." Harry allowed himself a small smile. They certainly could. Luna was walking proof of that.

"Well, Harry, it was nice talking to you. Feel free to come and find me again, if you'd like." With a dreamy smile and a little wave, Luna turned off down a corridor, humming cheerily to herself as she walked.

With a soft laugh, Harry shook his head and continued back to the Gryffindor common room.

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Mae'n rhy oer. It's too cold.

OoO

-_- My plans for quick updates were shattered by the arrival of To See Magic's plot. My apologies. I'm trying to divide my time between the two. Ah well, it works. Light-hearted type story here, and a fairly grim one over there. Balance! (Well, not really, but still…XD)

Anyway, there's…. ah…. two, three chapters left after this? Something like that, I think. Just to let you know.

So, feel free to ask any questions you may have, or leave suggestions. ^.^

Yours 'till death,

Caelistis.