Somehow news about the barrier being closed leaked, for the front page of the Daily Prophet was devoted to an article about it the next day. Luckily, the theory that Dobby had been behind it to prevent Harry from getting to Hogwarts was still secret, but that was the only good news. As neither the headmaster or the Heads of house would have said anything to the newspaper, and Harry was sure that his godparents nor the parents of those of his friends that had been affected by the barrier not working wouldn't have either, the news must have leaked out some other way.

Finally Terry pointed out that the barrier blockage would have prevented some parents from leaving Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, at least until Harry and company had left for the Leaky Cauldron, and that some of them had to have said something. After all, a couple of them had been cited in the article, giving statements on what they had felt at the time.

"The important thing is that nobody, outside of us, Professor Dumbledore, and a few trusted adults, like Professor, I mean, Mr. Vicks, and your godparents have any idea as to why the barrier was closed, Harry," Daphne said firmly (after making sure that nobody else at the Ravenclaw table was paying attention to the AA). "We certainly don't want Dobby to get in trouble for warning us about potential evil plots happening at Hogwarts this year."

"I just wish we knew what the plot could be," Harry sighed. "If only-"

Slightly further down the table, a loud voice interrupted him. "Your father is the editor of The Quibbler? Well, that explains a few things. No wonder you're so - so - loony!"

"Hey, that's perfect!" another voice said, this one sounding male. "She's Loony Lovegood!"

"Don't call Luna that!" snapped a third voice, this one sounding like Liam's. "She's not loony!"

"Oh, are you Loony's boyfriend or something, Stanley?" asked the first person, a girl. "Is that why you're defending a weird girl like her? Or are you just as loony as she is?"

"We're standing up for Luna because she's our friend!" retorted Ginny. "So leave her alone!"

"Yeah, we like her and she's a great friend," Colin added. "So we'll defend her if anyone makes fun of her."

The boy snorted. "I don't see why you're friends with such a weird person unless you're just as weird as her. And why are you two even here at our table instead of over at the Gryffindor table with the rest of your house?"

"That's enough!" snapped Parvati, causing the two first-years that were making fun of Luna to swivel their heads in the direction of the AA. "Luna's a perfectly lovely person and ought not to be teased. And there's no school rule that says that we have to sit at our own house tables outside of the Welcoming and Leaving Feasts.""

Anthony (who was sitting next to Ginny and Liam), leaned over slightly. "The two of you ought to be ashamed of yourselves for making fun of others. You're Darren Twycross and Agatha Foster, correct? Didn't you pay any attention to the welcoming speech that the prefects gave the first-years?"

Padma chimed in, "I certainly remember the speech that Robert Hilliard gave us Ravenclaws last year. He specifically said that we value those that 'march to a different tune' and that the cool thing about Ravenclaw is that our people are the most original. Penelope Clearwater backed him up about all that."

"And, if I remember correctly, at the very end, Prefect Hilliard described Ravenclaw, in addition to being the cleverest house, as the quirkiest and most interesting," Hermione added. "Having unique individuals with different views like Luna here makes our house that way and keeps things refreshing and not old and boring."

"So I suggest that you keep your opinions of Luna to yourselves and at least try to accept her," Terry finished. "I don't want our prefects to be proven wrong about how they described Ravenclaw. That goes for everyone else. If we find anyone in Ravenclaw making fun of Luna Lovegood, or her friends Liam Stanley, Ginny Weasley, and Colin Creevy for defending her, we'll tell the prefects and Professor Flitwick. And the rest of the Amity Association will do the same. If you don't know who we are, ask the prefects."

Agatha and Darren glared at him, while a couple of their dormmates looked uncomfortable or somewhat ashamed and focused strictly on their plates of food. Prefect Penelope Clearwater, who had been close enough to overhear the entire incident, backed the Ravenclaw members of the AA up, and made it clear that anyone she caught making fun of Luna or her group of friends would be given a detention, and if it persisted, reported to Professor Flitwick. Agatha and Darren, looking rather sullen, said nothing more and turned their attention to their breakfasts.

The four first-years thanked Penelope and the AA for coming to their defense and after that, breakfast finished without any further incidents. The Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs in the AA had Herbology for their first class and they headed outside to Greenhouse Three, where the lesson was being held. The other half of the group had Transfiguration, where Professor McGonagall had them working on turning beetles into buttons.

Harry spent most of class feeling rather frustrated, as his spell refused to work and all he achieved was giving the beetle a great deal of exercise as it scuttled around his desk avoiding his wand. It wasn't until the very end of class that he managed to make some difference, turning the insect into what was essentially a beetle-shaped button, except without any holes for thread to go through like with a normal button.

At least he'd done better than Theo, who somehow produced a cloud of smoke by mistake and accidentally squashed his beetle while trying to disperse the smoke. Professor McGonagall hadn't looked pleased as she gave him a replacement beetle, which didn't change it during the rest of class. On the other hand, Hermione had done perfectly, turning her beetle into a button within the first couple of minutes and finishing class with a whole handful of lovely coat buttons, five of them even having a design of a flower etched in the center.

After that, the Slytherins and Ravenclaws had Herbology, which involved repotting Mandrakes. It was quite difficult, even though Professor Sprout had made it look easy, and Harry privately wondered how the second-year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs had managed the class. Well, Neville probably wouldn't have had too much difficulty, considering his skill with plants, and likely helped his partners a bit, but the rest of the class wouldn't have fared so well. Meanwhile, Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson were being their usual annoying selves and clearly didn't look happy about the assigned lesson.

When class ended, both Terry and Daphne snapped that they had been so fed up that they had been strongly tempted to knock off Draco's and Pansy's earmuffs so that the cry of the seedling Mandrakes would knock them out for a few hours.

"Honestly!" Hermione exclaimed, looking scandalized. "Yes, they're annoying, but think of all the trouble you'd be in if you'd given in to temptation! Besides, Professor Sprout took off ten points from them for complaining."

"And that's ten points that I wish Slytherin hadn't lost," said Daphne. "All right, I admit that wanting to knock off their earmuffs was a bit much, but Malfoy and Parkinson are getting on my nerves. Especially Parkinson, since she pretty much parrots whatever Malfoy says and Tracey and I are stuck sharing a room with her. You should have heard the things she said to us last night. On second thought, you shouldn't. We tried to ignore her, but she still kept ranting until finally Millicent Bulstrode snapped at her to shut up because she couldn't sleep with all the noise."

"Malfoy did the same," Theo added. "He kept trying to find out why some of the AA wasn't on the train yesterday, and pestered me about being a blood traitor and even went so far as to say that I deserved what my ex-father had done to me, with Crabbe and Goyle backing him up. Harry would have attacked the three if I hadn't held him back and told him that they weren't worth it, and Zabini told Malfoy that nobody deserved to be abused and to shut up."

"You shouldn't have held me back," Harry grumbled. "The two of us could have taken them, and Zabini wasn't going to side with them. He might have even decided to help us."

"I didn't want you getting in trouble for fighting," Theo replied calmly. "Besides, you know when I went to speak to Gemma Farley and Flint before breakfast? I told them about Malfoy said last night and they promised to take care of it."

"Yes, but you still should have let me punch Malfoy, or hex him! I don't care how much trouble I'd be in, especially as his words obviously upset you so much that you had-" Harry broke off, realizing that he'd almost revealed that Theo had suffered from a nightmare during the night, something that the other boy had asked to be kept secret.

The four Ravenclaws and Daphne and Tracey exchanged looks, but didn't ask Harry to finish his sentence. He sent Theo an apologetic look, who gave him a reassuring nod back to show that all was forgiven, and the eight of them hurried back to the castle for a quick wash-up and lunch. The AA sat at the Hufflepuff table for the meal, where the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs were quickly told about how Malfoy and Pansy had been acting.

Ron glanced at Theo and asked in a quiet voice, "You've been having nightmares, haven't you? I would too if I'd gone through what you had, and I bet what Malfoy said last night would have upset you enough to give you one, Theo."

Theo blinked in surprise at Ron's perceptiveness, but admitted that it was the case. Harry leaned over and whispered, "Ron knows that I've had some nightmares about my relatives, so he'd figure the same could happen to you."

The rest of the AA looked very unhappy to hear this and none of them had much appetite after that, instead going out to the courtyard and spending the rest of the hour alternately trying to comfort Theo and plotting ways to get back at Malfoy. When the bell rang, signalling the start of afternoon classes, the Gryffindors hurried off to Defense, the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs to History of Magic, and the Ravenclaws to Charms.

When the AA met up for an early dinner, the Gryffindors reported that Defense class had been a joke. Professor Lockhart had started off the lesson by giving a quiz to supposedly 'check how well' they'd read his books, but was filled with questions that had more to do about himself than about Defense.

"The first question was 'What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color?'," Ron said in disgust. "The next one asked about his 'secret ambition' and there were ones about his ideal birthday gift and what we thought his greatest achievement was. All his questions were like that, and there were over fifty of them."

"I just put down joke answers for them," said Dean. "Like the one for greatest achievement, I put down 'Being able to walk and breathe at the same time', and I said his ideal birthday gift was to get a brain, like what the Scarecrow wanted in The Wizard of Oz."

As the entire AA had seen the movie during the visit to Justin, and some of them had also read his copy of the book, they all understood the reference and either snorted or chuckled at the statement. Parvati and Lavender then went on to explain that Lockhart had set loose an entire cageful of Cornish pixies for the lesson and describe the subsequent havoc the pixies had caused. Poor Seamus Finnigan had been lifted into the air by his ears and left hanging on the chandelier. Luckily Ron had the presence of mind to use the Levitation Charm to get Seamus back to the ground before he could fall off or the chandelier gave way.

Lockart tried to encourage the class to round up the pixies, but his spell (assuming it was a real one and not made up) had no effect and only resulted in one of the pixies seizing his wand and throwing it out the window. The entire class, including Lockhart, ended up sheltering underneath their desks until Lavender remembered that the AA had practiced the Freezing Charm on their own last year and so cast it on some of the pixies. That led to Parvati, Ron, and Dean joining her, and when the bell rang, the four of them had managed to immobilize all the pixies (except for the ones that had broken the window and flown out) and stuff them back into the cage. The only good thing to come out of it was Lockhart praising the four of their quick thinking and awarding them twenty-five points each for successfully dealing with the pixies.

"Winning your house a hundred points is always a good thing," said Susan brightly. "But if Lockhart couldn't deal with a bunch of pixies, then I seriously doubt if he even did all those amazing things he said he did in his books."

"Considering what Uncle Sirius and Remus told us about how Lockhart was back in school, I'd have to agree, Susan," said Harry. "I wouldn't put it past Lockhart to make up stuff about his supposed great deeds, or even take credit from other people, to further his desire to be famous."

"Well, now we know our classes with Lockhart are going to be a joke," Anthony grumbled. "I doubt he'll be stupid enough to let pixies loose again, or bring in any other creatures, when he clearly can't handle them, but he likely just go on about his books and himself."

"Well, we can always study Defense on our own," Hermione pointed out. "I'm sure the Room will provide us with some dummies that we can practice jinxes and hexes on."

The others agreed that it was a good idea and after dinner, they all headed for the the Room of Requirement.