17. Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff

"Welcome back to another year at Hogwarts. Literally, that is, not another school year, although it does sometimes feel like time flies that quickly. Alas, there are six more months of class work in your future before you complete your academic year." There were a chorus of groans to accompany that and Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as he looked down at the student body from his seat at the head table. "Now, while I don't wish to delay this delicious meal for too terribly long, there is one very important announcement I feel I should share with you."

While the student body by and large continued to chatter, knowing at least the prefects would catch the message and relay it on if it was something that was actually of import to them, Harry waved his hand to shush his friends as he gave his full attention to Dumbledore. After all, this was another deviation in the timeline from his perspective. Nothing interesting had happened between his Christmas visits to the mirror and… wait. Was this where they would find out Snape was replacing Hooch for the February quidditch match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff? Oh, that was no big deal then.

"…the upcoming Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff match will be postponed." Wait, what? That grabbed everyone's attention, not just Harry's, and the volume in the Great Hall quickly dropped to nothing. "Instead, the Hufflepuffs and the Slytherins will play on February 22nd, while the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs instead play on May 2nd. The reason for the delay…"

Here, Dumbledore paused for a moment, twinkling eyes wandering over the crowd before landing on Harry and Hermione. "…is that the Department of Magical Games and Sports heard about the most unorthodox gear and tactics used by our very own Gryffindors during their last game and is most eager to see both in action. Alas, several of the department's biggest names will be out of the country in February, so they have agreed instead to descend upon us in May. I hope you will all make them feel welcome. But now, Hogwarts, with an open heart and an empty stomach, I say unto you in the words of my friend Takeshi Kaga… allez manger!"

With a flourish of Dumbledore's hand, food appeared on the four long house tables and the volume immediately jumped to near deafening levels as the students dug in, eagerly discussing the news. Harry's fellow first years scattered up the table as the other six members of the quidditch team descended on their end, more than a little excited by the news. "Bloody hell, Harry, do you know what this means?" Wood rubbed his hands together eagerly, too agitated to bother with the food on the table. "If they're sending the senior members of the DMGS… two or three of them are pro team owners. It'd be like being scouted. It'd be better than being scouted!"

Harry couldn't resist the urge to have a bit of fun at his captain's expense, knowing that playing keeper professionally was the boy's greatest ambition. "Actually, to be fair, Wood? They're coming to scout Hermione and me. You're just sort of… there. They might even order you grounded for the match so they can see Hermione play keeper."

Blood draining from his face, Wood's jaw dropped. "Bloody hell. You're right." Frantically looking around the table, his eyes jumped from one member of the team to the next. "You two work better together so I couldn't just… wait… wait… Alicia! You trained with Charlie last year while you were just a reserve, right? So… you could replace Potter as seeker, and I could put a Weasley at chaser, and the wonder twins could be our beaters!" The Weasley twins shot Wood a glare that threatened horribly embarrassing retribution for such an act and he gulped before turning to the trio of chasers. "Or Alicia could take seeker, Angelina or Katie could sit, and they could be chasers?"

"That's not really fair to the others, though." Hermione wilted under the look Wood bestowed upon her before steeling herself and glaring. "What? It's not! It's your fault you got knocked out last game and I played so well they want to see me. Why should the rest of the team get punished and shuffled because of you? No, I'm playing keeper or nothing. And if you don't want to lead from the bench for one game, you can explain to our visitors why they came all the way out here for nothing." Huffing, she turned away from Wood and began to pile food on her plate.

Harry could see the struggle playing out in Wood's mind… did he do what was best for himself by ensuring he was in the game as the keeper so he could be seen by these important men? Or did he do what was best for the team and house by riding the bench, since that was the only way for Hermione to start without shuffling most of the others? Harry decided to help his captain out a bit with the decision. "You're not going to change her mind."

Glancing back and forth between Hermione and Harry a few times, Wood slumped. "No?"

"She's stubborn. And she's right. It's not really fair. Plus Hermione and I are too small to be beaters, and I don't think I have the arm to be a chaser." Wood sighed in defeat and nodded, and Harry perked up as he went into his bag and pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill. "Now, since Hermione is going to be out on the pitch instead of you and will be calling plays for the chasers… I have a few ideas for you to look at."

Wood arched a brow as Harry sketched out a rough ellipse on the paper, adding a trio of Xs to denote the players before putting them into motion using his wand. "I thought you weren't a chaser, Potter."

Shrugging, Harry added the opposing team's chasers and animated them as well before looking up. "I'm not. Doesn't mean I can't know a few things. You remember who my dad is, right? James Potter, star chaser of Gryffindor? Almost went pro?" Wood nodded and Harry sighed in relief at the acceptance of his flimsy story. Ginny was the one who'd actually created these plays, not his father, and Harry wasn't sure exactly how he'd react to seeing other girls playing out the moves formerly only used by his beloved and her hand-picked wingmen. Oh well. He'd cross that bridge when he came to it. "Now, this is something they came up with to keep from blatching when the other team tries the Hawkshead Attacking Formation. It's called Catch, and…"

Days passed, then weeks, then months. Winter bled into spring and the snow that suffocated the Hogwarts grounds melted away to refill the lake, the water being soaked up by plants as the song of the green echoed across the land. Classes proceeded exactly as Harry remembered them, the only real difference in his life being that his quidditch practices focused on drilling new chaser tactics into Hermione and the Flying Foxes, as he'd jokingly started calling them, rather than practicing moves for his own position.

A quill scratched faintly against parchment, forming familiar runes under his supervision, and Harry amended that. There were two real differences between his past life and this one: quidditch practice and the fact that he now held tutoring sessions.

Harry sighed as he watched further elder futhark runes emerge from Cordelia's quill. The dream Kate had mentioned an ancient runes group, implying that Cordelia had started it, and so he hadn't exactly been surprised when she'd shown up clutching a copy of his _Quibbler_ interview and begged for tutoring. Other students had filtered in after, working themselves into the spots that Cordelia hadn't already claimed for herself. Already he was planning to transition from one-on-one tutoring to group work next year, if for no other reason than to free up some of his own time.

Then again, unless he was really crafty, moving away from one-on-one time would have one disadvantage. Harry leaned a bit further to his left, ostensibly to check the answer Cordelia was scrawling on the worksheet assigned by Professor Babbling. In reality, he simply enjoyed the view afforded him by the fact that Cordelia often doffed her house tie and vest as soon as class ended for the day, releasing the top two or three buttons of her blouse as well as she let her metaphorical - and sometimes literal - hair down. Since he was only eleven as far as she knew and 'too young' for that sort of thing, it probably never even dawned on her how much he would be enjoying the view she provided him.

At least in Cordelia's presence, he could admire a girl and not feel guilty about it, and so Harry took advantage of it as often as possible. Fifteen to his mental seventeen was on the lower end of the acceptable range as far as he was concerned, but it was a very welcome change from the ten and eleven-year olds who were currently expressing their interest in him in one way or another. Eyes raking eagerly over the pale flesh of her breasts, Harry paused and contemplated a series of dark freckles on the upper slope of her left breast before tilting his head a hair to the right. From this angle, it almost looked like Odin's Wain…

Suddenly, the doors swung open with a bang and the volume in the Great Hall jumped from whispers of studying group to a louder rumble of outright conversation. With great effort, Harry managed to pull his attention away from Cordelia's cleavage and looked up to find a girl in a Hufflepuff uniform stomping through the hall, muttering under her breath. It took Harry a moment to properly recognize her without the mop of red hair she'd had when they first met, now sheered down to a short fuzz covered her head. "Candace?"

Harry rose from the bench in a daze, waving off Cordelia's protests as he crossed the hall. What the hell had happened to the poor girl? That wasn't the haircut of a girl in the mood to try something new, that was… that was the hairstyle of someone dyed her hair in her sleep and she had to cut it to get the blue out. Or someone with spell damage. Or maybe something had removed a bunch of her hair for her and so the rest had to go too. Harry thought back to that day's date in his first year in his home universe, and then it clicked. Norbert. The Norwegian Ridgeback had taken out a chunk of Hagrid's beard with a small burp of flame in his original universe. Had Candace fallen victim to Hagrid's newest pet as well?

Waiting until she threw herself down in a seat, Harry sidled up behind her and leaned in so his lips were near her ear. She stiffened at his presence before relaxing and pulling books out of her bag, intent on ignoring him just like all the others staring at her at the moment. Harry wasn't going to let her, though. "Interesting new look, Wiedmaier."

"Thank you. I like it." Candace pulled out a pot of ink and a quill, unrolling some parchment and cracking open one of her books. "Now, is there anything else or will you leave me alone now?"

Chuckling, Harry straightened up. "As you wish. Oh, and Candace?" The redhead froze, her quill halfway to the parchment, waiting for his words. "Give Hagrid and Norbert my regards, okay?"

Candace's jaw dropped as she turned to look back over her shoulder at him. "How..?"

"Gryffindor Tower has one heck of a view. And you need to learn not to wander the corridors cursing under your breath. The walls have ears around here. Some of them are right chatty, too. Oh, and two words you might find handy? _Aisig falt_. I wrote Mum and she got it from the MacFustys. Thought it'd be for Hagrid, but you probably would enjoy it too." Waggling his fingers at the stunned Hufflepuff, Harry made his way back over to Cordelia and reclaimed his seat. "Now, where were we?"

Fiddling with the straps on his shin guard, Harry frowned. While they were smaller and lighter than the monstrous ones Hermione wore when she played keeper, they still felt huge compared to the loaner set of thin brown dragonhide pads he'd used for the Gryffindor versus Slytherin match. But if they saved him from a broken leg, he couldn't really complain. His biceps and thighs felt distressingly bared compared to his shins and forearms, but that was life. His parents had run through a few variations but failed to come up with something that both had joints and was flexible enough to give a player a full range of mobility, and being able to survive bludger hits was useless if the seeker couldn't grab the snitch. Grabbing his helmet, twin to Hermione's, he slipped it on and looked up at his teammates. "Ready?"

Angelina nodded and laughed, flipping a crisp up into the air. Her dark hair swished gently as she ducked under it, letting it fall neatly into her mouth. After chewing and swallowing, the leader of the Flying Foxes smiled at Harry. "I am. With you and Hermione out there, the three of us barely have to do anything."

"Funny, Angelina." Harry stuck out his tongue; the three had relaxed and opened up a bit more to him over the past few months. The Weasley twins were still oddly distant to him, perhaps because they simply didn't care to lower themselves to hanging out with a first year? Harry couldn't really explain it, but decided not to let it bother him. He had plenty of other people who enjoyed his company. "Just remember, it's you three versus me. First to one-fifty wins. So unless you're that eager to get a Harry Makeover, I'd fly hard."

Stealing one last crisp from Angelina, Katie patted him on the back as she passed. "Please. We're so going to whoop you. By this time Monday, you're going to be begging for a boy's uniform back." Biting her crisp in half, she looked over at their new starting keeper. "You ready, Hermione? Last chance to change your mind and give Oliver his position back."

Hermione snorted, yanking on a helmet that matched Harry's in construction if not in design, hers bearing a roaring lioness while his was emblazoned with a griffin. "Gryffindors go forward, Katie. So let's get out there before Hooch decides we're taking too long and makes us forfeit the match. That'd be an embarrassing end to the DMGS's visit, huh?"

Suitably chastised, the girls handed their snacks over to the waiting Wood and grabbed their brooms as the Weasley twins each brought a broom up to rest on one shoulder and a beater's bat on the other. As they stepped out into the sunlight, Harry could hear Lee Jordan announcing them one by one. "…chasers Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson, and Alicia Spinnet. Playing beater are Fred and George Weasley… and don't ask me which is which, because even I don't know. At seeker is Hogwarts' own new wonder boy, Harry Potter. And starting at keeper and making the team captain himself ride the bench today… Hermione Granger!"

"You know, we really ought to look into getting some speakers set up here. Play some music to pump up the crowd." Hermione grinned over at Harry as they made their way out, following behind the Weasley twins as they approached the center of the pitch. "We will… we will… rock you!"

Harry laughed outright at the concept as his vivid imagination went to work, picturing an entire stand full of Gryffindors screaming along to Queen songs. "You know… it's not an entirely bad idea. We should talk to McGonagall and have her talk to the headmaster about it. Be a great way to mess with the Slytherins, which means she should like it."

"Professor McGonagall, Harry."

"Yes, Mother."

Hooch too proved herself to be a pureblood, failing to recognize Hermione's follow up gesture as something rude. There was the standard warning about a clean game as the six chasers formed up around the white-haired referee and then the whistle shrilled sharply as Hooch tossed the ball into the air. Angelina's fingertips brushed against the quaffle, sending it spiraling towards Katie.

The ball touched Katie's hand.

Katie pulled the ball in, tucking it against her body as she took off. Cutting off Angelina with a move so close that the dark-skinned girl nearly got a face full of bristles, Katie rolled and rocketed between two Hufflepuff chasers as she gained altitude, heading down the pitch at top speed. "…and the Gryffindors are off to a good start, showing it's not just Potter and Granger that help them win games. Bell slips between Macavoy and Applebee, making a beeline for Fleet and the Hufflepuff rings." Harry grinned as he watched Katie close in on the poor petrified Hufflepuff keeper, weaving back and forth as she closed in on her target. "She jukes left… right… left… she throws… score!"

Chuckling as he watched the Hufflepuffs try to collect their dignity and the quaffle, Harry floated lazily past one of the Gryffindor stands and high fived Katie as she passed. Looking down at his peers, an inane thought popped into Harry's mind: they needed a mascot. If the Irish National Team could have leprechauns and the Bulgarians could have Veela, why couldn't Gryffindor have something to inspire the crowd? A griffin… would probably end up mauling Malfoy and being put down by McNair in short order. Same with a lion. Hmm. Harry eyed a clump of older girls with red and gold paint splashed on their faces, cheering and waving red and gold pom-poms. Well, they weren't quite Veela…

A figure in yellow and black rocketed past, her blonde hair slapping noisily against the side of Harry's helmet, and he wheeled around to watch her go. While they couldn't cast any spells during the game, there was nothing that prohibited them from charming their helmets ahead of time so they could communicate easily during the game. "Hey Hermione… Pop Goes the Weasel?"

Hermione nodded as she began to drift forward, voice sounding clearly in his ears as the charms on his helmet made it sound like they were sitting together in the common room study instead of halfway across the pitch from each other. "Dibs on the punching. You know I've got the better right jab." That she did, Harry had to admit. He'd felt it enough times, after all.

Leaning forward, Harry took off in pursuit of Applebee as Hermione began to pick up speed, racing head-on at the Hufflepuff chaser. The blonde waggled to the left and then the right, trying to shake Hermione's kamikaze run, but each time the Gryffindor keeper corrected her own course. "I don't know what Granger and Potter are up to but if they fail, the rings are completely unprotected and it's an easy ten points for… oh!" At the last second, Hermione shot past Applebee on the Hufflepuff's right, just as Harry made the same pass to the left. Her arm shot out, punching the ball out of the chaser's possession and sending it right into Harry's waiting hands. "Holy hell, I've seen the chasers do something like that, but never the keeper and the seeker! What in the world will that pair come up with next?"

There was a whistle as the Hufflepuffs descended on Madame Hooch, protesting the move, but since Hermione hadn't actually hit Applebee and it was hard to prove intent, there was no blatching call and the game quickly resumed. Hermione whipped the ball up the pitch to Alicia, who waited for the other two chasers to form up before starting her own run on the goals.

After her little show, the Hufflepuffs evidently thought Hermione was a greater threat than Wood and she quickly found both bludgers batted her way in rapid succession. One bounced off her left shin as she rolled her broom to bring the fat pad into position, the other deflected as she batted it away with her right blocker. Both beaters received obscene gestures and Harry was momentarily worried Hermione would abandon the scoring area to chase them down and deliver payback, but she kept her head in the game and settled for glaring at them from her perch in front of the rings.

Leaving the other players to their own devices for a bit, Harry pulled his attention away from the battle over the quaffle and made slow circuits of the pitch as he looked for the snitch. On his fourth time past the professors' box, he finally took the time to look down into it. His family was there, all four decked out in red and gold, as were Sirius, Amy, and Cassie. Then he noticed a very unexpected someone, pulling up on the handle of his broom and coming to an abrupt stop. "Luna?"

"Hullo, Harry Potter." Wide silver eyes stared up at him from underneath a very familiar lion hat as Luna grinned and waved. "Lovely weather for a game, isn't it? Pity the Hufflepuffs seem to be suffering from Loser's Lurgy today. It would be more interesting if they could actually put up a fight."

Professor Sprout puffed up in indignation even as a few others snickered, but was cut off as she tried to respond by the mouth on Luna's lion hat opening and releasing a very realistic roar. Action on the pitch actually came to a halt as the sound rolled across the pitch and everyone turned to stare at a beaming Luna. Harry just shook his head; some things never changed. Giving her a wave, he turned and dove away, returning to the hunt for the snitch.

After a second, the others followed his lead and commentary resumed as well. "With the way the Gryffindors are starting to pull away, I have to agree. Heh. Loser's Lurgy. You're a funny girl. Can't wait to see you at Hogwarts next year."

"Jordan!"

"What? It is. And it's seventy to thirty… err, make that eighty to thirty as Johnson puts another one through the rings. I hear the chasers and Harry Potter have a bet going… whoever scores more points before the end of the game wins. Harry, might want to find that snitch soon. I hear there's a girls' uniform in your future if they win and trust me, you don't have the legs for it."

Harry snorted; he'd be a bit worried if he did have the legs to pull the look off, honestly. But Jordan did have a good point and so he sped up his laps around the pitch, eyes flicking back and forth quickly as he sought any glimpse of gold that could prove to be the snitch. Then… there!

Leaning down, Harry took off like a shot in pursuit of the snitch. Almost as if it knew it had been spotted, it made a few uncertain moves before taking off straight up into the air. Tracking it, Harry waited until he was almost directly beneath it before yanking his broom handle up and shooting skyward in pursuit. Down below, he could see Diggory climbing in vain, hoping to catch up on an inferior broom but slowly falling back as Harry closed in on the snitch.

The distance closed slowly and Harry stretched out his arm, fingers extended to the max as he sought to curl them around his quarry. Almost… almost… metal brushed against his fingertips and Harry pushed against the broom, launching himself upward as he wrapped his fingers around the snitch. Got it!

Except he didn't have his broom anymore. Harry's eyes widened as his Nimbus fell away beneath him, watching the brown wood tumble earthward for a moment before gravity grabbed him as well and he followed suit. "Bollocks."

"Oh no! Potter is off his broom at Merlin only knows what height. I think he got the snitch before dropping but we won't know that until he comes down… after we pry it out of his fingers." Harry glared over at Jordan; oh ye of little fail. Reaching into his robes, Harry drew his wand with a flourish. Hopefully this wouldn't draw him a foul but considering the game ended with the catching of the snitch, it technically wasn't illegal. Something for the DMGS to argue about when he touched down, maybe.

Shifting Rensaren from a wand to an axe cost him precious seconds but he wasn't sure if all of its properties applied in both forms and he wasn't willing to experiment now. Harry spread his arms wide and willed himself to slow, feeling it take effect as his robes began to flap less frantically. Would he be able to do enough before he hit the ground? Merlin he hoped so…

Harry growled as the earth continued to rush up at him. He really needed to practice flying with the axe more, starting as soon as humanly possible, because he absolutely sucked at it. Fine. If his choices were reveal another ability in front of a crowd or splatter his brains across the pitch… thrusting his axe skyward, Harry willed himself into energy and disappeared in a burst of bright lightning that rocketed up into the clouds. A return bolt came a moment later, striking the center ring behind Hermione and skittering down the gold pole before slamming into the sand at the base of the rings. It left behind Harry, standing on a sheet of glass and breathing hard but otherwise alright.

There was a moment of stunned silence, then Jordan's voice returned. "My God…"

"Actually, I'm not sure where things between Harry and Daphne are standing, but if she hasn't already claimed him, I have dibs. So really, her god. Or mine. If he's mine, I might be convinced to loan him out if you ask nicely, though." Dropping to his knees as Hooch rushed over to him, Harry threw back his head and laughed at Luna's commentary. Leaning on Rensaren, Harry held out the snitch for Hooch's inspection, who nodded decisively before taking it and blowing sharply on her whistle. "Oh look, Harry won. Go Harry!"

Raising his other hand, Harry waved to the cheering crowd as he pushed himself to his feet. Idly, he wondered what the score was. The girls had racked up ninety points when last he checked in… surely they hadn't scored seven goals during his pursuit of the snitch, right? He couldn't have lost their bet. "And the final score is two hundred and forty to thirty as Potter nabs the snitch for a hundred and fifty points and victory over the Gryffindor chasers in their side bet. Hopefully Harry's nicer to you than you would have been to him, ladies. And that's all for today. I'm Lee Jordan and I'll see you all back here on June 6th for Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw."

"Harry, m'boy! Impressive game." Ludo Bagman shook Harry's hand enthusiastically before turning to Hermione and doing the same. "Not quite the level of viciousness we heard about from the two of you tactics-wise, but it was still interesting to see that fascinating equipment of yours. Muggle sports gear, is it?"

Harry nodded, passing his helmet to Bagman for inspection. "Yes, sir. Hermione brought it with her from a game called field hockey that she played before Hogwarts. And it's hard to play like that against the Hufflepuffs or Ravenclaws. They play too fair. With the Slytherins, though… well, even after the game ended, they tried to put Hermione in the hospital wing just to prove a point. We don't really feel bad about knocking them around. If you want, though, we could put our memories in a pensieve for you and the others to watch?"

After exchanging looks with the half-dozen men he'd come to Hogwarts with and receiving nods all around, Bagman nodded at Harry and passed the red and gold helmet back, the Gryffindor stuffing it back into his duffle bag. "Very good. Well, I remember how we liked to party after games back when I played for the Wasps. I'll leave you kids to it."

"Awful nice of him, considering the others ditched us half an hour ago to head up to the tower and start celebrating." Hermione glared at Bagman's retreating back as she swung her bulging bag of gear up over one shoulder. "C'mon. I'm so hungry I could eat a hippogriff."

"Think the hippogriff would have a problem with that idea." Harry dodged Hermione's fist as they exited the changing room, surprised to find the pitch almost totally abandoned. He'd spoken with his parents, sisters, and Sirius and his family right after the game, so Harry hadn't expected them to stick around while he showered, changed, and dealt with the DMGS delegation. Still, it was a bit surprising that Daphne and Su hadn't stuck around to wait for him and Hermione. Oh well.

Crossing the grounds, Harry and Hermione made their way back into the school and slowly ascended the seven flights of stairs up to Gryffindor Tower. The Fat Lady, already half-drunk from her celebration with Violet and a number of other women from nearby pictures, hiccupped and swung open at the sight of them. Beyond, Harry could hear a party in full swing and he steeled himself as he bent down and passed through the portrait hole.

Harry's eyes took a moment to adjust to the light of the common room. The room's windows were small and recessed, not providing sufficient light for the room even on the brightest of days and the students had neglected to light all the candles and torches for the afternoon, leaving the room steeped in shadows for their celebration. Not that he was going to say anything about it; he and Ginny had taken advantage of shadowy corners more than once after a particularly good game.

Trying to get his focus off of his ex-fiancé before he wandered too far down a road he didn't wish to travel, Harry looked around the room until his eyes landed on a head of pale blonde hair and his brow furrowed. Was that… "Luna?"

"Hullo, Harry. I like your common room, although I'm surprised Daphne hasn't tried to redecorate it yet. Isn't this a bit too much of one color for her?" Harry blinked; was that a joke or was Luna Lovegood of all people being catty? Daphne seemed to think it was the latter, glaring at the younger girl from across the couch. Luna ignored it, patting a spot on the couch between herself and Daphne. "Come. Sit, sit. That was a marvelously exciting game today."

Harry cautiously took a seat between Daphne and Luna. It was for the greater good, he reckoned: at least with him as a buffer zone, there was a lesser chance of the two of them fighting. Su was perched on the arm of a nearby chair, leaving the seat itself for Hermione. Looking over at Luna, he realized she was wearing something utterly familiar and yet… not. "Luna? Where did you get your hands on a Hogwarts uniform?"

Giggling, Luna reached down and tugged on the bottom of her black vest. "Same place as everyone else, Harry. Madam Malkin's." The others had a laugh at his expense as Harry rolled his eyes and leaned back. Yeah, he'd walked into that one pretty well. Given she was a pureblood and practically guaranteed to be coming to Hogwarts in the fall, he supposed it made sense for her to have shopped already. After all, certain stores that depended on student traffic to drive their sales would be desperate for business and she probably would have found some excellent sales.

The uniform wasn't quite right, though, much like anything else Luna wore. The crisp white short-sleeved blouse, black vest with the Hogwarts crest - which would be replaced by a house patch after sorting - and knee-length black skirt were all perfectly normal, but instead of either the black tie of an unsorted student or a house color tie, hers was rainbow striped. It matched the rainbow striped knee-high toe socks she was wearing, adding a splash of color to the otherwise drab black and white uniform. Her butterbeer cork necklace rested against her collarbone atop the vest and Harry realized with a flash of guilt that he hadn't worn his since returning from Daphne's house. "So, what do you think of my outfit, Harry? Next year is going to be ever so fun…"

This fell into the same category as 'does this outfit make me look fat', Harry knew, and he was loathe to stick his foot in his mouth. After struggling for a moment to come up with an appropriate answer, he settled upon something that he thought she'd accept. "It's… unique."

That summed up Luna herself pretty well too, come to think of it