Welcome, Muggles! To chapter FOUR! *props if you got the LOTR allusion…but you probably didn't unless you're a die hard fan… like me.* I also love HARRY POTTER! Go figure…

Well, I'm sorry, I had planned to update a whole week sooner. But, as it so often happens, life got in the way…

Some notes about this chapter:

-If you don't know who Peeves is (AKA if you have not read the books. [because no sane person forgets Peeves!]) Google him! He's the coolest Poltergeist you'll ever meet! Er, read about…

-I'm going on the assumption that you can take things out of the Room of Requirement. Having said that, please let me know if you know if that's possible... or not possible.

Also, thank you to my editors, YourPrincess and HermioneGrangerisME.

THANK YOU REVIEWERS! I really appreciate it!

Happy Reading!

Chapter 4

Auras

Neville awoke the next morning to light shining through the window in the Gryffindor Tower. He lay in his four-poster bed for a few minutes, savouring the silence of the morning. Dust motes drifted in shafts of sunlight hitting his blanket. Today was Sunday, the day after the Hogsmeade trip. He had no real plans for the day, except to finish homework for Monday's classes.

He really hated Mondays. Defense Against the Dark Arts was his first class… with Snape. Then he remembered he had something to look forward to on Monday. Luna said she needed his help. With what, he had no idea. Maybe she needed help with Herbology homework. He had talked her ear off about the subject yesterday. Perhaps he shouldn't have talked so much about Herbology. Though, she had brought up the subject by mentioning Fanged Geraniums…

Neville stopped himself before he began to analyze their entire time at Hogsmeade. He'd had fun, and he wanted to leave it at that. Besides, what did it matter? Obviously Luna didn't mind that he was a bit of a nerd. After all, she was… strange. Wait. Stop. He couldn't very well call her strange without acknowledging that he was as well. They were in the same boat after all. Both were ostracized for their interests.

Neville internally kicked himself. He was thinking too much about his relationship with Luna lately. It seemed that whenever his mind strayed, a certain Ravenclaw drifted into his head. Well he had no time to mull over her today. He hadn't even started his homework for Transfiguration.

Luna walked the silent corridors of Hogwarts after dinner that night. She had a bit of a problem. She had told Neville she needed his help with something. Something. She wished she knew what that something was. Thinking back to the day before, blurting out the first thing that came to her mind had probably been a bad idea. She had no idea what she would tell Neville. This was quite an awkward position she was in.

Was that a Nargle she spotted? Stopping in her tracks, she stood very still and squinted her eyes. Bullocks! How she wished she had her spectrespecs!

"Bloody hell," Neville cursed under his breath as he left Defense Against the Dark Arts. Having fallen asleep again in Snape's class, he had won himself detention with his least favourite professor. Scheduled for tonight. Brilliant, he thought sarcastically. The night he was supposed to meet Luna. Instead he'd probably be knee deep in whatever concoction Slughorn needed cleaned from the cauldrons in the Potions classroom. That was if Snape held to his word. Neville had a feeling he would. He trudged through the corridors to his next class. Not even Herbology with Sprout could lift his foul mood.

He hoped he might be able to find Luna so he could let her know he wouldn't be able to help her with… whatever she needed help with. Neville sighed heavily. He really wished he had just gone to bed early like he had planned. Then he wouldn't be in this mess. Instead he had stayed up into the late hours of the night reading. In fact, he had been reading a book Luna had recommended. Come to think of it, Neville was pretty sure he had picked it off of the "Books You Must Read No Matter What" pile. He'd just have to make it up to Luna some other time.

The day passed much too quickly for Neville. He was dreading his detention that evening. To top off his bad luck, he hadn't even glimpsed Luna all day. He had expected to see her at lunch and had looked for her at the Ravenclaw table. She hadn't been there. An idea came to him in his last class of the day. He'd get a message to Luna. Hopefully she wouldn't think he was avoiding her.

Luna was frantically scanning the spines of books inside the library. She had been searching for a particular text. Trelawney had said some rubbish to her today. She had said that Luna's aura "looked particularly lavender." Lavender? What was that supposed to mean? Luna had to find out. She would have asked the former Divination professor but she had flitted away so fast and Luna had already been late for her next class. Firenze now taught Divination at Hogwarts. Luna found the centaur to be mesmerizing. He was a very wise man. Er, centaur. But sometimes Luna missed Trelawney's tea leaves and dream analysis.

Still, she found Trelawney's statement jarring. And so she had spent her lunch period in the library and now continued her search after her classes were over. It was frustrating how little the school library carried about auras. Honestly, how was Luna ever going to discover what the colour lavender meant in accordance to auras? She let out a huff of exasperation.

"Luna?" someone called her name from the end of the book shelf. Luna looked up to see Harry standing there.

"Oh, hello Harry," she said lightly. She went back to scanning titles.

"Neville asked me to tell you that he won't be able to get together tonight. He's got detention with Snape." Luna's head snapped up at the mention of Neville. She had completely forgotten that she was supposed to meet him tonight. Between Nargles and auras, her mind had been so distracted.

"Oh. Thanks for telling me Harry," she said and smiled at him.

"Were you searching for something in particular?" Harry asked, nodding towards the bookshelf.

"Yes, actually," Luna looked up at Harry again. "Have you any idea what it means to have a lavender aura?"

"Uh…no. Sorry, Luna."

"That's alright. I suppose I'll keep looking," she said and sighed. Disappointment. That was definitely what she was feeling at the moment. And not because she couldn't find a single book on auras.

"AHA," Luna squealed as she finally found the book she was looking for. The text had been pushed under the bookshelf. Luna found it when, in frustrated exhaustion, she had flopped on the floor, ready to give up. She ran her hand over the dusty cover to get a better look at the title. Identifying Auras. This looked promising. Since it was the first book she had come across having anything to do with auras, she hoped it had what she needed. She opened the tattered pages to the table of contents. Tucking her hair behind her ear, she flipped though the brittle pages. The musty smell of the book invaded her nose. "Lavender…Lavender…" she spoke aloud as her hand traced the words.

A Witch or Wizard with a Lavender aura may be considered to be imaginative and intuitive. Lavender auras often mean the person may possess the following qualities: prone to visionary thoughts, daydreams and sensitive in personality.

Luna thought about this for a while. Yes, she supposed this was a correct analysis of her personality. It felt strange to read it in a book. To know that things such as temperaments and moods could be calculated and recorded, analyzed. Still lost in thought, Luna closed the book softly and slipped it into her satchel. It wasn't as if anyone else would be searching for it anytime soon. She wanted to read more, learn more.

Luna pulled out Identifying Aura's as she strolled through the deserted corridors. It was late, almost time for her to be back in Ravenclaw tower. She opened the old book and read as she walked. She failed to notice exactly which corridor in which she was walking until she heard something. It was quiet, but it made Luna stop as the sound of stone creaking reached her ears. Then movement, out of the corner of her eye. Luna shuffled forward, in awe. She hadn't been back to this very corridor since the disbanding of the DA by Dolores Umbridge. And though the Room of Requirement was forever broken, still it appeared when she passed. Perhaps it recognized her mind. She hadn't been looking for it exactly. Though she had longed to see the practice room the DA had used last year, a place where she had made some of her first friends. There was sadness for Luna when she thought of how that place was destroyed. What would the Room of Requirement look like now that it's enchantments were gone?

Luna stepped forward, curious, and the doors opened for her. Déjà vu. It was like she was returning to the family she had found with the DA. She stepped through the doors and they closed behind her, grating across the stone floor. The room she entered was not at all the way she remembered it. Though, she hadn't expected it to be recognizable.

A treasure trove. That was the first thought that came to her mind. Piles, heaps of objects towered and teetered from above. She began to walk through the disorganization. Really, it was a wonderful sight. So many things. All in one space. It was overwhelming and exciting at the same time. The very room must contain any object anyone had ever needed from the Room of Requirement, Luna realized. If she looked hard enough, she might be able to find things that had been in the room when the DA used it. Like the pillows they sat on, or the message board they used.

How many secrets rested here? How many mysteries were lost in the Room of Requirement? How many of these objects had never left this amazing room? She bet a large number of them hadn't. Luna was captivated. The room had lost its ability to become what she needed, but here she had what thousands of witches and wizards had, at one time, needed. She spotted a pair of spectacles. Picking them up, she looked through their dusty lenses. Who had needed these, she wondered. How she wished they were spectrepecs instead of regular spectacles…

Setting the lenses down, she continued to peruse the piles. There was an odd number of chairs. And certainly too many brooms. She wondered if the Room recycled objects or simply conjured a new one every time that particular object was needed. If that was the case, the Room of Requirement was a bit of a hoarder. Not that that hadn't been obvious the moment she entered the room…

Luna was stricken. She couldn't decide if she liked the Room better this way or before it had been broken. It was certainly interesting to ponder why someone would need rusty daggers or a glass eye. Other strange objects she found were: one lonely mirror (which Luna speculated might be from a set of two-way mirrors), Skele-grow, Floo powder, a kettle, Omnioculars, and a copy of The Monster Book of Monsters.

She hadn't even explored the entire room. She couldn't see an end to it and had yet to encounter a wall. Perhaps it was endless? Luna marveled at the possibilities. The time was getting late, however, and it was most assuredly past curfew.

Silently and expertly, Luna navigated the corridors on the way back to Ravenclaw tower, successfully avoiding Filch and his cat. Unfortunately, she couldn't escape Peeves the Poltergeist. "HO HO! What have we got here? A student out of bed! Filchy Filch and his wretched cat would like this!" he called out so loudly that he startled Luna. She jumped and looked across at him floating just out of reach from the staircase she was climbing. "That's the second I've seen tonight, it is!"

"The second?" Luna asked curiously. She wasn't afraid of Peeves. He was a trouble maker, and could easily rat her out to Filch, but Luna thought quickly on her feet, humouring the Poltergeist. "Who was the first?"

"That Long Button kid. The one with the funny look on his face," he swooped closer to Luna, inspecting her as he spoke. Luna hoped no one else would hear him and come looking. "Looked down right DOWN IN THE DUMPS!" Luna cringed as he yelled the last part.

"Where did you see him last?" Luna asked politely, praying he would cooperate.

"WHY? What do you care about LONG FACE LONGBUM?" He became more ridiculous and floated past Luna, to the other side of the staircase, swooping and diving.

"You know," said Luna, "I think he's friends with Harry Potter. You know him don't you?"

"HARRY POTTY? Course I know him. Funny Bloke with a funny name!"

"Yes, well, I was out of bed thinking up a prank for Harry Potty, and I need to tell Longbottom, er Button. Could you tell me where he is?" Luna tried, her fingers crossed. She really wanted to see Neville tonight.

"A PRANK, huh? A righteous cause! Longbutton was in the west corridor on the third floor last time I saw him," Peeves's hollered as he drifted farther and farther from Luna, no doubt off to bother someone else.

"Thank you!" Luna called, leaning over the side of the railing. She sprinted up the rest of the stairs, hoping to catch Neville before he got to Gryffindor tower.

How did you like it? You know, I went into this chapter thinking "What the h*ll am I going to write?" And then the ideas just started flowing. It's all very spontaneous for me. Of course I edit, though. What kind of a writer do you think I am? ;) Let me know what you think, Review!