Chapter 16

As Harry got onto the Hogwarts express he had the feeling that everything was much different than he remembered. Perhaps it was because he had gotten three good Bertie Bott's flavors in a row, perhaps it was because of Ron and Hermione being the Gryffindor prefects. He grinned as Hedwig swooped down and landed on his arm. "Hey girl, made it back from the Weasley's?" she hooted her assent. "Do you want to ride on the train, or fly along to Hogwarts?"

The feathered creature took off from his arm but stayed near him. Harry nodded. "Alright, Hedwig. I'll see you later then. Here, I think it's mouse flavored." He handed her a Bertie Botts bean, and she took it with an affectionate nip. The return of his beloved pet brought him back to his thoughts.

What was wrong with him? He loved Hogwarts, it was his home. It had been his home since he was eleven. But somehow, the drafty halls of Camelot castle, filled with bustling servants, anti-magic kings and his friends, Merlin, Morgana... it seemed like home too. And he had messed things up too much to go back.

"Hello, I'm Harry. Mind if I sit here?" Harry stuck his head in a compartment, and the blond inhabitant peered back at him, looking up from a newspaper.

"Hello Harry Potter. My name is Luna. No." The strange girl said.

"No, you don't want me here, or no you don't mind?" Harry said with a hesitant grin.

"No I don't mind." She smiled absently.

Harry grinned wider and motioned his trunk up to the rack. "Brilliant. Thanks, Luna."

Luna nodded, "Harry?"

"Yeah?"

She motioned to his hands. "You forgot a wand. And words."

Harry cursed. "I forgot my wand! It's still at Sirius's." He cursed again. "Er..."

"It's alright. I already know."

Harry's head whipped around to look at Luna closely. His heart beat quickly, and he spoke in a croak, "Know what?"

"That Sirius Black is actually innocent, because his real name is Stubby Boardman." Luna said absently. "Lovely singer. You're lucky you were able to spend so much time with him."

Harry gaped. He looked at Luna carefully, and noticed her eye twitch ever so slightly. Was she joking, or hiding the truth behind this Boardman buisness? He decided there was only one way to find out. "How did you know?" He gasped.

Luna softly smiled. "I think we will be very good friends, Harry Potter." She handed him a small twig, and went back to reading.

Harry looked at the twig. Why would she give him this? What purpose did it serve? Hang on - the wood was holly. A stick of holly wood! Harry conjured more wood around it, until it looked passibly like his old wand. "Luna, I think you may be right."

Harry spent the rest of the train ride comfortably chatting with Basiligar. Luna was talking to what seemed to be thin air. Eventually, Harry had to ask her why, and she responded simply. "Nargles."

Harry nodded. "Alright."

"I could do the same thing for your drawf dragon, if you like." She said, holding her hand out as if to catch something.

Harry tilted his head. "What did you do to them?" The way she held her hand made it seem like she was carrying a nargle, but Harry wasn't sure. Was this some
wizarding world thing he had never heard of?

Luna smiled brilliantly. "It was Daddy, who did it. But he taught me - Cornelius's Fudgery is infested with Heliopaths - and it would make it much simpler."

Harry blinked rapidly, as several small... blobs appeared in the compartment. "Nargles, I presume?" Even in the wizarding world, Harry had seen nothing like them.

"They don't seem to like you very much." Luna frowned. "But they tell me it's because you speak to Killagarah, and he stopped talking to them."

Harry jerked backwards as one little blob - Nargle - came towards Basiligar, and Harry snatched the little dragon back protectively.

From the other seat came light laughter. "Its alright. And the Nargles only agreed to let me show them to you because you are a speaker. They're fickle creatures, but you impressed them with Dragonspeak and Parsletongue."

Harry squeezed his eyes shut, and opened them again. The Nargles were still floating around, and Basiligar chased one playfully down Harry's leg. "So the whole Fudge's Heliopaths thing, that was a password or something?"

"Or something. You want me to cast the spell on your dwarf dragon?" Luna asked, pulling out her wand.

"Uh, hang on a second." Harry asked Basiligar his opinion, and receiving a positive reply, (You mean I could go anywhere?) he relayed the message.

Luna nodded, squeezed her eyes shut in concentration and said, "Concelo ab Magicum," waving her wand in Basiligar's direction.

Harry looked down at the apparent dwarf dragon. There was nothing there. Harry looked down at the seat, feeling like he was wearing his invisibility cloak. He also had the incredible feeling of near-weightlessness. "Luna?" Harry said, slightly panicked.

"Oh. Oops." She said, blinking owlishly.

"Oops? Oops! I'm invisible! Do you know the counter-charm? Please tell me there's a counter-charm."

Luna looked at him sheepishly. "Why would I need a counter charm? The Nargles don't want it. But I can try... Cornelius's Fudgery is infested with Heliopaths?" She ended in a question.

"Did it work?" Harry asked, holding up a hand to answer his own question. "Yes! I can see myself." He noticed Basiligar on the seat, and grinned. "Brilliant. Thanks Luna."

Luna looked edgy. "Harry? I can't see you."

"Really? But Basil and I can see each other."

Luna frowned. "Sorry about that. I forgot, my Daddy said there was something else you had to say for the password to work. But I must've botched it, because everyone within two meters should be able to see you two."

"Right. Bas?" Harry asked. The little dragon chirped, and landed on his shoulder. "Good. I have to find Hermione, she's our best bet for knowing what to do."

Luna nodded. "I am truly sorry, Harry." She said sadly.

"I don't blame you, Luna. You were only trying to help. Er, can you open the door for me so it doesn't seem like its opening on its own?"

"Sure." Luna moved to the door and slid it open. "The Prefect's are up front, right?"

Harry shrugged, then realized his mistake. She couldn't see him. "I dunno. It's a good place to start looking though." He said aloud instead.

Harry walked carefully through the hallway, working his way to the front. He jumped as Lee Jordan stuck his head out from his compartment, and skidded to a halt, or tried to. The whole train shuddered, and Harry was thrown into the open door of Lee, Fred and George's compartment.

"What was that?" Fred said worriedly.

Lee shrugged, standing up and dusting off his robes, inadvertently walking through Harry to do it. Harry gasped, and the three looked around wildly, to find the source for a few moments. After a awkward moment of Harry, invisibly and weightlessly rising from the floor, lifting off into the air accidentally. In his head, he cursed the strange spell Luna put on him, and waited for gravity to slowly bring him down. No wonder the nargles liked the spell, though. this ability could be very fun (under the right circumstances. This, however, was not one of them.)

"Anyways, Lee." George said, finished investigating the noise. "What've you got on that plan to break the girls staircase ward?"

Harry covered his face with his hands. He didn't have a spell, he didn't have a plan, and he definitely didn't want them to know he was listening in on their planning. Harry sighed, leaning up against the side of the compartment- only to fall through, and hit the ground. He groaned in annoyance, and moved to stand. He really, really needed to become solid again.

Harry felt as if gravity crashed down on him. He much to the surprise of Fred looked at him with one eyebrow raised, while George said, "I suppose this is one of those times?"

Harry nodded, thankful for thinking to gain the twins . "Thanks, George, Fred. You too Lee. I have to go."

"Why didn't I try that before?" Harry muttered, walking over various semiconscious students to reach Luna's and his compartment.

"Hello Harry." Luna said. "I'm glad you're visible again. It's much easier to see you that way."

Harry sat down and nodded. "Yeah, I guess it would be."
The pair was silent, but not awkward. Luna seemed completely comfortable reading and editing some unknown papers, while Harry quietly chatted with Basiligar. By the time the train pulled into the station, they hadn't said a word about the actions in the aisle. Harry, feeling a tiny bit awkward at how little he knew of his compartment companion, asked, "Luna, what year are you in?"

"I'm in fourth this year. And you're in fifth. I hope Voldemort doesn't keep us from completing school. You should speak to Dumbledore about it."

Harry frowned. "How, why-"

Luna rolled her eyes, swiping her brilliant blond-white hair aside to reveal the radish earrings she wore. "The smallest action can change everything so easily, Harry. Don't forget that."

Harry spent the rest of the night contemplating the words of his new friend. It was freaky how much she knew. Was she a seer or something? He contemplated the thought. The two 'seers' he knew - Morgana and Trelawney - were completely different. Morgana's powers frequently manifested themselves and the visions she saw always came true. But Trelawney, she had only made one or two truly correct prophecies in her lifetime. With the addition of Luna in this, it was becoming more likely that Trelawney was a fraud. Why did he ever listen to that prophecy in the first time? Because Dumbledore told it to him, that's why.

These thoughts lingered with him well into the first week of classes, popping up at the most inconvenient times. Luna found out about it, of course, and couldn't say either way on the matter. He wasn't paying attention to Ron in Divination, which was apparently a mistake, because he went to work with Seamus and Dean instead. He had gotten over it by the time they were headed to Defense Against the Dark Arts, and was happily complaining about the homework load until Hermione met up with them. Harry hadn't realized how much he had missed his friends until everything went back to normal, and it seemed like he never left. Or, at least, that they forgot.
Professor Umbridge's class was so far unknown, only the second years had taken the class so far, so no one knew what to expect. Harry, for one, realized quite quickly that her teaching style was mostly composed of not teaching at all, and groaned at the thought of yet another bad professor.

It was worse than that, though. It wasn't that they weren't performing spells (frankly, that suited Harry quite nicely, because he couldn't remember the wand movements to spells he could cast normally in his sleep.) it was the attitude that bothered him. She abused her power more than Cenred ever did! She didn't even want to be teaching, she was just a spy, a ministry spy. In Camelot, spies were killed from the get-go, and how he wished that he could do just that. Alas, he couldn't. His restraint didn't help him escaping a detention, however. It seems starting the argument that led to the whole class practically rioting isn't appreciated by the teacher.

Harry had kept his cool after his miniature outburst, all the way up to his detention. When he learned he would be writing lines, he snorted. When he realized that the quill used his own blood as ink, he almost lost it again.

Instead, keeping his head down, his eyes turned gold, and as he was writing he conjured red ink to supply the quill.

I must not tell lies. I mustn't tell no lie. I must not tell any line. I must not tell lies. Harry wrote, bored out of his mind only twenty minutes into the detention.

"Hurts, doesn't it?" Umbridge asked.

Harry frowned in concentration. He knew if he stopped, just for a moment, he would burst into laughter. Even now, a week later when she had seen fit to give him another detention, he sat down and wrote a lovely poem about Morgana, wincing every once in a while at how he was definitely not a poet, and trying not to laugh at Umbridge's smug toad like face.

Besides the joke that was Defense, Harry was enjoying the majority of his classes. He still had trouble transfiguring things, but he got around that by banishing whatever object they were trying to transfigure and conjuring it instead, in the space of about two seconds. He was a bit worried about having to do that for every single transfiguration (Professor McGonagall was bound to find out at some point) so when she asked him to stay after class, Harry was quite worried.

"You wanted to see me, Professor?" Harry asked nervously.

"Oh yes, Potter, Have a biscuit." She waved at a tin.

"Sorry?"

"Have a biscuit, Potter." McGonagall said more forcefully. Harry took a biscuit. Was this the McGonagall version of Dumbledore's lemon drops? If so, it was creepy. "Now, the headmaster has sent you a letter, and I have it here." She lifted a paper off her desk. Harry reached for it, but McGonagall snapped it back. "First, you must know that he doesn't want you to share this with anyone, Potter. Not even Ron and Hermione. I don't know what is in it, nor do I want to. Do you promise to read it, remember it and burn it afterwords?"

Harry nodded. "Sure, Professor."

"Good." McGonagall's lips twitched in what was definitely not a smile. "Then get yourself to lunch." She handed him the letter.