Chapter 12
First Friends and Date with Gabrielle
A few months earlier...
Luna was currently stressing or as she preferred to call it, being wrackspurt nagged.
Being stressed was something that she rather avoided as she was much more of a go with the flow girl, always try to be happy girl. It was something she had learned from being able to see the future all the time. Worrying about what awful things were going to happen simply wouldn't do her any good. It was far better to simply be able to enjoy the present, no matter how bad things might be.
She liked to have fun and while some people might look at her funny for her acting out her idea of fun, she wasn't about to let anyone spoil it for her.
Yet the problem was after investing so much time working on her machine to help her with her plan she was still having little success and she needed a few more things for it to work. Things that would be difficult to obtain.
However she could already feel the timeline about to take on its regular course if she didn't change it. She had perhaps a month and a half left before it would be out of her control.
That meant no Harry, no sexy time, no other girls to be friends with, nothing. It would be about as fun as having wrackspurts constantly in your ears or having to eat nothing but brussel sprouts everyday.
As she was thinking this however as she walked down a hallway, she heard someone call her name, or rather her nickname.
"Why if it isn't Loony?" A girl's voice taunted
Luna looked up to find it was Stacey, or as she preferred to secretly call her Stinkyhead, as she always wore a very unpleasant perfume that she seemed to think smelled nice.
It smelled like doggy doo-doo to her.
As for herself however she always used a spell to smell like yellow roses and if Stinkyhead was a bit nicer to her she might have been willing to share her nice smelling spell with her.
Yet that would be highly unlikely as Stinkyhead was one of the worst bullies that she encountered in school.
As she looked around she noted that Stinkyhead was not alone as usual, with her two friends Judice and Justine, who she had nicknamed Bumpkin and Pumpkin and while their nicknames were somewhat mean, they were admittedly well deserved.
However she couldn't particularly be sorry for them either because they were also constantly bullying her, relying upon Stinkyhead as their leader.
"Girls you might want to stay away from her, her crazy might be contagious," Stinkyhead recommended to her friends.
Both girls laughed as if they hadn't already heard this joke two dozen times before.
Stacey could really use some new material.
Luna tried to ignore her and simply walk past, but all 3 girls stepped in front of her.
"Where do you think you're going Loony? I'm trying to talk to you, you stupid girl," Stinkyhead yelled in her ear.
Luna sighed and said, "Must we always do this? Couldn't we just shake things up and have a tea party or something?"
"Tea party? With you?" Stinkyhead laughed, followed by her two followers, "nobody would ever want to have a tea party with you, much less be your friend. Do you even know what a friend is? You don't because you're just a weird, crazy girl who nobody will ever like."
Both Bumpkin and Pumpkin again laughed at that, although she was sure they would have laughed at whatever Stacey might have said.
Stinkyhead Stacey made a grab for her butterbeer cork necklace but she managed to pull back before she could.
"I'm only trying to help you Loony," Stinkyhead insisted with a false nice voice, "maybe if you weren't always wearing trash you'd seem less weird."
Stinkyhead tried to make a few more grabs but when that failed her two friends sprung into action as they grabbed her from either side.
"LEAVE HER ALONE!" A voice yelled.
Luna turned to spot a very small girl currently standing down the hallway, wand drawn as she came forward.
Stinkyhead tried to laugh it off, and asked, "Don't you know who this is?"
"I don't care who it is, all I can see is that you're bullying her and I absolutely hate bullies," the unknown girl argued.
"What are you going to do about it pipsqueak?" Stinkyhead asked.
"This," The girl said as a spell erupted from her wand.
Stinkyhead got hit but nothing appeared to happen.
That is until she opened her mouth. Instead of hearing her speak, she let out a great deal of barking like a dog would make.
She clapped her hands over her mouth in shock.
The still unknown girl then hit her two friends with the same spell before they could react.
"There, not much difference from what I hear, all I hear out of your mouth is about as useless to me as that barking. Don't worry, it'll wear off...in a couple of days," The girl told them all.
Stinkyhead raised her wand and tried to cast a spell but only a loud bark came out of her mouth.
"What dog got your tongue?" the girl joked.
Not to be stopped, Stinkyhead tried to physically attack the girl, but she got her with her wand before then, causing her to trip and fall.
"You're only making things worse for yourself," the girl told her, "if you'd like a rematch I'd be happy to take all 3 of you on at the same time in a formal duel, yet if you try to bully this girl again or anyone else again I'll do a whole lot worse to you than cause you to start barking.
Now coming closer, the girl addressed Luna directly and asked, "Are you okay?"
For the first time, she was close enough for her to realize that the girl was in fact a veela.
"Yes, thank you," Luna answered gratefully.
"I'm Gabrielle," the girl greeted her as she stuck out her hand to shake.
"I'm Luna," Luna replied as she shook it.
While they spoke, she noted that Stinkyhead, Bumpkin, and Pumpkin had made a hasty retreat.
"Why were they bullying you?" Gabrielle asked.
"Since I'm weird and crazy," Luna told her.
"That's a terrible reason to bully someone, I actually happen to like weird and crazy people," Gabrielle pointed out.
"I'm weird and crazy!" Luna pointed out excitedly.
Gabrielle laughed and said, "yeah, I know, you just told me."
"Oh right," Luna said, laughing as well, "I've just never heard anyone say that before."
"Being ordinary and doing whatever everyone else does is rather boring, it's just not any fun," Gabrielle pointed out.
"I so totally agree," Luna answered, liking the girl even more, "by the way I like what you did to those girls."
"Thanks," Gabrielle answered, "I actually did it because..."
"A veela is hot and dogs are not," Luna finished for her.
Gabrielle laughed at that.
"Do you actually have that saying here? I kind of like it, but no, it's because I was actually considering just going with meowing like a cat, but I figured a dog's bark would be more annoying."
Luna then asked, "so why did you stick up for me? I've never seen that happen before."
In truth there was a lot to that. Many things that happened in her life, she had already "seen" before they actually happened, but had little control over. She was hoping to change that to some extent with the device she was making, but in this case she couldn't recall ever seeing the girl or this moment before.
Gabrielle however took that differently and said, "Well then I suppose people at Hogwarts are too cowardly to stand up to bullies. At Beauxbatons, we would have never stood for this."
"Beauxbatons is a funny name," Luna claimed.
"So is Hogwarts," Gabrielle pointed out, "anyway, I came here for the tournament."
"Do you know Fleur?" Luna asked.
Gabrielle raised an eyebrow, "How do you know my sister?"
Oopsy, daisy. She wasn't supposed to know about her yet.
Sometimes keeping track of the present and the future could be so hard.
"She's going to be a Triwizard Champion," Luna blurted out.
Oopsy, daisy again. She blurted out the future.
Fortunately however Gabrielle didn't seem too perturbed by that.
"Yeah, she is!" Gabrielle answered excitedly, "my sister is the best, she might even win this whole tournament!"
"No she won't, Harry Potter will," Luna answered.
She really needed to get a better grasp on what she told people.
"I'm pretty sure Harry Potter is too young to enter the tournament," Gabrielle informed her.
"You're right, that would be crazy if he won, but keep in mind Harry is a hero sandwich and they always somehow win competitions they don't even enter," Luna claimed.
"Is that right? So I'm guessing you've got a crush on him?" Gabrielle queried.
"Yep, he's a stud muffin and he's going to be my husband," Luna said.
Instead of denouncing such a claim, Gabrielle merely said, "That's cool, I don't even know who I'm going to marry, so congratulations on already figuring that out."
"I don't know who you're going to marry either," Luna admitted.
"Well if you do, if you could please let me know that would be great," Gabrielle said.
"I will," Luna promised, taking it very seriously.
She tried to think for a moment and then had a great idea.
"You can marry Harry too if you'd like," Luna invited.
"Well I have seen pictures of Harry Potter and he is admittedly very attractive," Gabrielle confessed.
"Yep, he's gorgeous," Luna agreed.
"I suppose, based on looks right now alone, I wouldn't mind marrying him, but I still don't know enough about him to really draw any conclusions," Gabrielle stated.
"Oh, you'll love him," Luna said, "he's really funny, smart, brave, and has a pet owl and some pet unicorns."
Okay, that last part was in the future, but it was simply too cool not to bring up.
"That's so cool, I wish I had a pet unicorn," Gabrielle said wistfully.
"Maybe you could ride them on a date with him," Luna suggested.
"That would be a lot of fun," Gabrielle agreed, "the problem is realistically, it's kind of unlikely. I've never even been on a date before."
"I'll help you get a date with him," Luna promised.
"Well if you can manage to do that, I'll be your best friend forever," Gabrielle told her.
This put Luna in a quandary. Daphne was supposed to be her best friend, not Gabrielle, but she really, really liked Gabrielle, she didn't want to leave her out, and she wanted to be her best friend.
"I'm already going to have a best friend though," Luna admitted, not wanting the girl to feel bad.
"Well let me let you in on a secret," Gabrielle said as she leaned in conspiratorially.
Luna leaned in as well, eager to hear the secret. She loved secrets.
"You can have more than one best friend you know," Gabrielle answered.
"Really! You mean I can have two best friends?" Luna asked excitedly.
This was big and exciting news for her. After never having had a friend at all ever, to have two best friends sounded like one of the best things in the world, even better than catching 10 crumple-horned snorkacks.
"Sure," Gabrielle replied easily.
Yet it sounded too good to be true and her daddy always told her if it sounded too good to be true...then it probably was true.
She had to check to make sure however.
"Are you trying to make fun of me because I don't have any friends?" Luna asked somewhat worriedly.
"I'd never make fun of someone like that, especially if it might hurt them," Gabrielle answered before amending herself, "well unless they were a bully and deserved it, however the thing is I don't really have any friends either unless you count my sister."
"Why not though? You're so cute and fun and smart and stuff," Luna asked, absolutely stunned, Gabrielle was awesome and she couldn't believe she didn't have any friends.
"Yeah, I know," Gabrielle answered, "I'm a veela so girls usually tend to get jealous of me, but I tend to have kind of different interests from them, and with the boys they usually can't even talk to me and when they do, they think I am just a weak little girl, making them feel like a pedophile for liking me or that I am helpless. When I prove them wrong and beat them in a duel, they don't want to talk to me again because I embarrass them. My sister says I just come on too strong."
"You can beat me in a duel anytime you want, even turn me into an animal if you'd like," Luna invited, "maybe a dinosaur, or a lobster, or a lizard. Those are fun, cute animals."
"I know right, wouldn't that be fun?" Gabrielle quickly agreed as she smiled, "you know I think you're actually kind of cool Luna."
Luna swelled with pride. Nobody had ever called her cool before.
"I think you're cool too," Luna responded easily, "can we be friends?"
This was a huge deal to her. She had actually asked this question when she was a little girl, but after being rebuffed several times had never asked again.
"I'd love to be friends with you Luna," Gabrielle answered very happily.
"Really!" Luna said excitedly, "does this mean we get to do all those fun things that friends do?"
"I kind of have a different idea of fun," Gabrielle admitted, sounding somewhat nervous, "other than dueling I like scary monsters and..."
"I know where some scary monsters are!" Luna said happily.
"What kinds?" Gabrielle asked, now interested.
"A giant three headed dog, some blast ended skrewts, loads of giant spiders, there was a basilisk but it's dead, although we will be getting some dragons," Luna claimed.
Gabrielle sounded impressed.
"My school would never have allowed us to have any of those at our school," Gabrielle admitted, somewhat sadly.
"Well we've got Hagrid," Luna said as this really explained most of those creatures being there, "you want to go see some monsters with me?"
"I'd love to," Gabrielle answered honestly.
Pleased to finally have a friend, and also one that she could show stuff too, guided her over to Hagrid's hut.
Along the way, she explained about the animals she personally liked, such as wrackspurts and crumple-horned snorkacks.
Gabrielle had never heard of these animals and was actually interested in learning about them, something that made her quite happy, finally able to have someone she could really talk to about them other than her father.
"The only problem is most people don't seem to think they exist and it's kind of hard to prove it to them," Luna admitted.
"I believe they exist if you say they do since I have no reason not to," Gabrielle answered, "no one can really prove they don't exist either so I can't say you're incorrect, but I will be very happy for you when you prove everyone else wrong."
Luna did something she had actually never done before and went and hugged her, overjoyed at having found someone as amazing as Gabrielle for a friend.
Gabrielle looked surprised but returned the hug nonetheless.
"Um, you're welcome?" She queried.
"I'm just glad to have you as a friend," Luna admitted.
"Thanks, I am too," Gabrielle agreed, now smiling.
When they got to Hagrid's hut, she stared up at the tall structure in wonder.
Personally she thought Hagrid was super lucky, having his own hut. It was like a great big dollhouse for big people and Hagrid was certainly big.
She knocked on the door and waited until Hagrid opened it.
Gabrielle seemed surprised by his large size as he stared down at them, but not nearly as much as she might have as her own headmistress was quite huge as well.
She used to have a fantasy about growing up to be a giant like Hagrid. Nobody wanted to mess with a giant and whenever she walked the ground would shake and when she talked, everyone for miles around would hear. She could even put the star on top of the Christmas tree without a ladder.
Some people she supposed were just destined to be big and others were destined to be small like her and Gabrielle, not that she minded. She was big enough in the right places for sexy time and that was enough for her.
"Hello Professor Hagrid," Luna said calmly, "we want to see some monsters."
Hagrid looked suddenly rather nervous.
"Monsters? I don't have any monsters here," Hagrid tried to deny.
"Yes, you do," Luna answered, "you've got a three-headed dog, and an acromantula, and you used to have a dragon, and..."
"Who told you I had all those?" Hagrid demanded.
"Harry," Luna said.
This was actually true. She had never actually talked to Harry, but her visions were absolutely full of him and his adventures, even ones before he had even come to Hogwarts.
While Harry had never told anyone, she knew that he had been just like her: a small child who was bullied and had no friends yet desperately wanted them and to be loved.
She had thought her life wasn't that great until she had seen Harry's. At least she still had a daddy when he didn't.
After being bombarded so much with such visions she felt like she really understood him, perhaps better than anyone else. He deserved to be happy and to have lots of friends too. If he didn't, she would never have decided to work so hard to make sure he got a harem.
It took some convincing, but Hagrid finally decided to allow them to at least see the blast ended skrewts, which Gabrielle was interested in after hearing what they were.
To a normal person, meeting a blast ended skrewt probably wasn't an enjoyable experience but Gabrielle seemed to love it, totally getting a kick out of watching their end blow off.
She thought they were actually funny looking herself.
So began the start of her friendship with Gabrielle, her first real friend.
Gabrielle was great and never seemed to be freaked out by anything she said. They had plenty of adventures and Gabrielle had even managed to get her class schedule so that it matched hers so they could have all of their classes together.
Yet one thing worried her.
The visions she had had of the far distant future in Harry's harem did not include Gabrielle. Her visions weren't exactly always reliable anyway, but she still wasn't pleased Gabrielle wasn't in it, and she had no idea how to get her and Harry together.
This worried her. She loved Gabrielle so much and she wanted to be her friend forever. If she married Harry too, then they would never have to be apart and Gabrielle might not not have to go back to France. They would even be practically sisters.
She kept her plan hidden from Gabrielle, continuing to work in secret even though she was practically dying to tell her. Admittedly her knowing could potentially ruin everything in her delicate plans. Her device seemed only capable of being only a step ahead and anything extra she wanted to know would only cause it to break down.
However she had at least told her everything else, including things she had never shared with anyone, including the loss of her mother and being psychic.
Gabrielle took it pretty well actually and thought it was really cool that she was psychic, although she was grateful that she never pressed her to use her abilities.
One thing she has been forced to do however is make sure that she never met Fleur. While Gabrielle's future was currently unknown, Fleur was a different story. Fleur at least she knew quite a bit about and would be a vital part of the plan and she couldn't risk messing that up.
When she finally got the timeline made only a few days before her deadline, however, she had hoped that the device might know something about Gabrielle and how to make her a part of the harem, but even that had not worked.
Kicking the device out of frustration only gave her a stubbed toe and she rather liked her cute little toe not big and red.
As she and Gabrielle were outside feeding the thestrals for Hagrid however Gabrielle said, "Luna, I was wondering if maybe you'd like to go a party I'm having in about a week and a half."
"Ooh, that sounds like fun," Luna answered excitedly, "will there be pin the tail on the donkey, and a bounce house?"
She started jumping up and down, causing her boobies to bounce the way she liked them to. Sarah and Jessica needed some exercise.
Imagine what kind of exercise they would get with some exercise in a real life bounce house.
"It's not that kind of party," Gabrielle informed her, "it's actually my sister's party and she wanted it to be more grown up or something but we'll still have cake and dancing."
Luna looked at her sadly and said, "I can't go then."
"How come you don't want to meet my sister though?" Gabrielle pouted.
"I told you, I'm not supposed to meet her yet," Luna claimed.
"That's a ridiculous reason though," Gabrielle pointed out.
She couldn't give the real reason. A million things could go wrong and she still had no idea what the repercussions could be since she could not see Gabby's future.
By some cruel twist of fate, the one person's future she couldn't see was her best friend and the person she wanted most to be in the harem with her.
If she told anyone else about trying to create a harem...probably not a big deal since they would never believe her. Telling Gabby though, the one person who would actually believe her...not so good. She wanted to tell her, it was hurting her not to tell her, but she was at least smart enough to know most people didn't want to be in a harem, and she still as yet hadn't been able to figure out how to get Gabrielle in it.
"Unless you can give me a good reason, you should come, I really, really want you to come to the party," Gabrielle begged.
Luna simply couldn't say no to Gabrielle, not with that adorably cute face and the fact that no one had ever invited her to a party before.
"Okay, I'll come," Luna agreed.
"Yay!" Gabrielle said as she gave her a big hug, "it's going to be so much fun."
Luna was excited too, but also a bit scared.
TOOMANYTOOMANY
When the party got closer and closer, Luna grew more excited and yet more nervous. The plan was going quite well and she was afraid to ruin everything just so that she could go to a party.
What she really wanted was for Harry and Gabrielle to go on a date when they met, but she wasn't entirely certain just how to do that.
Even when the party began she had no idea...
Yet when she saw Harry and Gabby together sitting there...
She just snapped. She wanted Gabby to be happy so bad and she just knew that if she just got a date with Harry that he would fall for her and she would fall for him and they could all be happy.
With no idea exactly what to do she did what Gabby would do: be bold.
She approached them both and suggested that Harry go on a date with her.
To her pleasant surprise, Gabrielle found her and delivered to her the good news.
TOOMANYTOOMANY
Preparing for a date was something Harry didn't think he could ever not feel nervous doing.
It was scary wondering if you looked nice, if your breath wasn't too bad, if his hair was...well less messy than normal.
All of those factors played a role in making sure he looked presentable and didn't look like a clown or a homeless person.
He tried to tell himself with just another date...he'd been on plenty of those before. He'd even been on a date with a very beautiful veela before, but since Gabrielle was Fleur's sister, it presented another concern for him. He wanted Gabrielle to have just as good of a date with him as her sister had had, but not so incredibly awesome that it totally blew Fleur's date out of the water.
The first wouldn't be too hard since he had spent a good portion of his date with Fleur discussing other girls, but that wasn't something he wanted or needed to repeat.
He had created a list of safe conversations after his previous dates and hoped that it would help.
As he stepped out into the Gryffindor common room however he was accosted by Fred and George.
"Do my eyes deceive me George?" Fred asked, "is young Harrikins going out on yet another date?"
"Hasn't he already gone out with every available girl in the entire school by now?" George teased.
"Yep," Harry agreed, "that's why I've decided to start dating all the girls at other schools too. My date is actually from Beauxbatons."
"Who knew young Harrikins could be such a Casanova?" Fred asked as she shook his head in false amazement, "only a week ago, Harry couldn't manage to find himself a date and we had to help him get one. Now it turns out he's better at getting them than both of us combined."
"Next thing you know he'll go stealing our dates," George agreed.
"You have to be stopped Harry, for the good of all males," Fred joked as he pointed a finger at him.
He blushed a bit at that. It was certainly not his intention to make things more difficult for other guys...even if he knew Fred and George were only teasing.
"I'd be happy to help you guys out and give you some advice if you'd like," He offered.
Evidently it was the wrong thing to say however.
"Oh ho ho," George said, "so I see how it is. The apprentice thinks he's become better than the masters."
"You know I think I still have that bighead potter badge," Fred commented.
"Very funny guys," Harry told them, "trust me I really don't think I'm better than anyone else, if anything actually worse. Just you watch, I'll do yet another incredibly stupid thing on this date."
"Well for one thing your fly is open," George said.
He immediately looked down to find that it was indeed open.
After zipping it up, he was grateful that he had at least managed to avoid that problem.
"Like I said," He told them, "I don't even know how I manage to get all these dates, they just somehow come to me."
"So all you have to do is just sit there and wait for girls to come to you?" Fred questioned, "George we should try that. We can just sit here on those couches and see if it works."
"We might be waiting a long time," George said.
"Or we could get Harry to get us dates?" Fred pointed out.
"That desperate huh?" Harry asked, mildly teasing them.
"So says the boy who actually was that desperate only a week ago," George reminded him.
"Oh yeah," Harry was forced to admit.
"I don't know George," Fred commented, "the way Harry is moving, I'll bet he could get a better date for you than you ever could for him."
"Are you challenging me dear brother?" George asked with a glint in his eyes.
"I don't need any challenges," Harry insisted.
"I'll bet you a galleon Harry finds a better date for you than you do for him," Fred claimed.
"You're on!" George answered, "we'll both have 48 hours to get each other a date and then go on a double date together."
"Who will be the judge? Lee?" Fred asked.
"No, only one person would be capable enough to be able to judge adequately and fairly, Professor McGonagall," George answered.
"How on earth are you going to get Professor McGonagall to judge?" Fred questioned.
"Do you doubt me brother?" George asked with a grin on his face.
"I'll bet you another galleon for that," Fred said.
"On again, you're going to go bankrupt," George told him.
"Yeah, because I'm not going to try," Harry claimed.
Privately he thought that judging one girl over another was a bit stupid because it was a matter of opinion. While he might feel he got along well and found one girl more attractive than another, it might be the exact opposite for someone else.
"Don't worry, I know you won't let me down Harry," Fred answered, putting his faith in him.
Shaking his head, he decided to just leave for his date and headed out.
As he approached the entry hall of the school where he had agreed to meet Gabrielle, he was unexpectedly hailed by the last "person" he wanted to encounter right then.
"Potty!" Peeves the Poltergeist yelled with obvious glee.
"I don't have the time right now Peeves," Harry declared, rather annoyed.
"Potty is dressed up rather nice," Peeves observed before letting out a huge grin, "does Potty have a date? Does someone luuurrrve Potty?"
Harry put on his best Malfoy impersonation.
"What these old rags? They aren't fit to pick up dung with," Harry claimed.
He was hopeful that Peeves would not catch on and try to "help" him with his date as he could see him doing.
"Potty has a date with dung?" Peeves asked, laughing at the irony.
Okay, yeah that admittedly was kind of funny.
"Alright, so I have a date," Harry admitted, "which I also need to get to, so if you'd let me pass."
"Let me help you get ready then," Peeves offered.
He supposed it was too much to ask of Peeves not to cause chaos.
Peeves grabbed his coat and ripped the sleeve off.
"Stop Peeves," He insisted as he tried to survey the damage.
"Just one more thing, you need Peevesies super special cologne," Peeves argued.
His "special cologne" happened to be a stinkbomb.
While he managed to dodge the first one he threw, Peeves went invisible as he then was forced to try and find him.
Before he could, however, he felt something hit his head and heard a splat.
Immediately the foul gross smell that he recognized as a stinkbomb pervaded his nostrils.
Peeves had evidently managed to drop it on his head.
Now quite angry at the poltergeist, he looked around to try and catch him.
Peeves however obliged him by appearing in front of him, laughing with glee.
Before he or Peeves could do anything however, the poltergeist seemed to change before his very eyes instead of being a very ugly creature with a too large nose and eyes and wearing pin striped clothes, he turned into a very handsome figure, with blonde hair that was the same color as Malfoy's, blue eyes, and his proportions were now proportional. Even his suit was a very snazzy solid black one.
"What did you do?" He demanded.
Since he hadn't done anything he was momentarily confused until the actual person who had done it revealed themselves.
"There, I think you look much better now poltergeist," Gabrielle said with a grin on her face.
Peeves went to go look in the entryway mirror.
"What the? I'm hideous! Cute wavy locks, taught round buttocks? This is totally awful!" Peeves wailed at his appearance, even as he grasped his rear end.
"I don't like bullies and you only got what you deserved," Gabrielle declared.
Peeves tried scrunching up his face as if hoping that would change him back but it failed to work.
"Turn me back right now!" Peeves insisted.
"No," Gabrielle countered, "this is your punishment for trying to mess with my date. I'll change you back...if you can manage to behave yourself for a week, which I highly doubt you'll ever be able to do."
"I'll get you back for this!" Peeves replied angrily.
"Good, I look forward to it," Gabrielle answered.
Peeves, now trying to mess himself up as much as he could, floated away in anger.
"How did you manage you do that?" He asked her, "permanent body modification spells are supposed to be really hard to do."
While they were incredibly difficult, it hadn't stopped many a student from attempting them.
Poor Priscilla Everett only last month had tried to make her butt bigger... only it hadn't worked.
Instead she had managed to somehow get a pair of teeth attached to it, which quite literally was biting her in the butt.
That was actually one of the more tame examples of bad things happening to students who attempted such spells.
A girl last year had tried to fix her nose...only for it to instead grow to be several times it's normal size and earn her the nickname pinocchio.
In such cases it also took awhile for them to be fixed.
Hermione, when her teeth had kept growing had been lucky that Madame Pomfrey had been skilled enough to fix them.
"Actually I just changed him back to his original form," Gabrielle admitted.
"You mean that's what Peeves really looks like?" He asked in amazement.
"Hard to believe, but apparently so, it's just over time he managed to change it into what he used to look like until I changed him back, I doubt he even remembers what his original form was," Gabrielle observed.
"That was super awesome, but I think Peeves is going to have it out for you from now on," Harry pointed out.
"I welcome the challenge, I've dealt with plenty of bullies before and he'll just be the biggest one," Gabrielle told him.
As he looked himself over, he then said, "I'm sorry he had to ruin our date though."
"Why has he ruined it?" She asked.
"I'm afraid I'm not really looking my best...or smelling my best," He confessed, "it'll likely take me ages to get the smell stink bomb out of my hair and clothes."
"It's a good thing I have the perfect solution to stink bomb then," She answered.
"What is it?" He asked.
"Follow me," She told him.
He followed her outside.
It had snowed recently, but by now it had mostly melted, making the school grounds very muddy.
She pointed to a great big mud puddle.
"Yes, that is a big mud puddle, but I don't see how that helps my problem," He pointed out.
"Go jump in it," She said.
"So the way to get myself clean is to get more dirty?" He questioned.
"It does seem rather counter-intuitive, but yes, mud is actually a lot easier to get out with magic," She admitted, "I can clean you up and you can clean me up afterwards."
"Why do you need to get into the mud?" He asked.
She grinned and said, "you don't really think I was going to let you have all the fun now did you?"
Playing in the mud was kind of weird, but then again she was friends with Luna.
He still approached the mud puddle with caution as he stared at it.
Actually jumping into a mud puddle on purpose seemed kind of silly still.
Yet more he could have much longer to really think about it, he was shoved from behind as he went flying into it.
When he regained his composure, his front was now covered in mud.
He wiped away what was on his face and looked over at Gabrielle, who had a huge smile on her face as she looked him over.
Oh, she was going to get it.
He picked up some mud and put into his hand.
"You trying to give me a present Harry?" She asked.
"Yep, some guys give their dates flowers or chocolates, I give them mud," He answered.
"Works for me," She said.
He flung it at her but she dodged it.
"My grandmother throws as good as you," She told him.
"Are you insulting my throwing?" He asked teasingly.
"If you'd seen my grandmother throw, you would consider it a compliment," She replied.
He leaped towards her and grabbed her arm, pulling her in while she pretended to protest.
"Please no Harry, I'll get all dirty," She said as he continued to pull her in, although not very hard so as not to accidentally hurt her.
"I fight dirty," He claimed.
She finally succumbed and he pulled her right into the middle of the mud puddle with him, causing a great big splash.
Before long they were both covered in mud as they tried to cover each other with the wet dirt.
He looked over at the small girl, now totally unrecognizable now that she was covered in mud, the only parts visible being her mouth and eyes.
She looked back at him and declared, "You know, you still look good covered in mud."
"Well my aunt would always wear mud on her face so she could look better," He observed.
"Veela don't need to worry about getting better skin," She claimed, "we always look beautiful no matter what."
"I don't know about that," He said as he looked her muddy body up and down.
"Are you calling me ugly?" She asked him.
He tried to come up with a good answer. Calling girls ugly usually meant the guy would be getting a slap on his face.
"Not covered in mud you look out of my league, this way makes it easier on me," He responded.
"I would have said the same thing about you," She told him.
She leaned forward and kissed him.
To which he only broke it and started spitting mud.
"I'm so sorry," She said, now sounding quite bad, "was it a bad kiss? My first kiss and you absolutely hate it."
"It's fine," He said, "I just wasn't ready for it and I got mud in my mouth."
"Luna said you wanted me to kiss you," She confessed, now looking down at the ground.
He immediately felt guilty.
"It's not that I don't want to kiss you," He admitted, "it's just I'm not exactly clean enough."
"I like you dirty," Gabrielle said.
"I could totally make a dirty joke here," Harry answered.
Instead he flung some more mud at her, which she enthusiastically returned.
Before long however, he caught her shivering.
While it was a very warm day for December, it was still cold.
"Are you cold?" He asked her.
"I'll be all right," She insisted.
"You don't have to be tough...if you don't want to," Harry informed her.
"We might have to huddle together in order to keep warm," Gabrielle said.
He had been about to cast warming charms on both of them, but he admittedly rather liked this idea better.
"Let's clean off all of this mud first," He suggested.
Pointing his wand at her he began cleaning the mud off of her, while she did the same to him.
When he had finished with her face, he said, "There's Gabrielle!"
"Did you miss me?" She asked.
Once both of them were cleaned off, he offered her what was left of his coat after Peeves had ripped the sleeve off.
"I'm sorry about your coat," She said as she pulled the coat on.
It looked huge on her, but she seemed rather pleased at getting his coat even if it was missing a sleeve.
"I'll just have to get Hermione to fix it," He said, not particularly concerned about it.
He put an arm around her as they started walking not towards the castle, but towards Hagrid's hut.
"Are we going to Hagrid's?" She asked.
"Yes," He admitted, "I figured I'd go with somewhere a little change of pace and have dinner there."
"Is Hagrid cooking?" She asked, sounding rightfully a bit worried.
Evidently she already knew about Hagrid's cooking.
"No, I wouldn't subject you to that unless you had much stronger teeth," He said.
"My bite is worse than my bark," She argued.
"I don't doubt it, but I'd rather not test it," He wisely answered, "no Hagrid let me have his cabin for the evening. He was also going to get us some unicorns like you asked for, but it looks like we may not have time to do that now."
"That's okay," Gabrielle countered, "we can ride them on our next date."
He looked at her funny and said, "Did anyone ever tell you how bold you are?"
She merely shrugged and said, "you can't blame a girl for trying."
When they got inside, he found a huge turkey dinner all laid out for him with warming charms on it to keep from getting cold, no doubt the efforts of Dobby.
"Wow!" Gabrielle said when she saw it.
After getting two plates of food, both of them got under a huge Hagrid sized blanket.
For such a small girl, Gabrielle sure could eat, he observed.
As they ate, he asked, "So how do you know Luna?"
She explained briefly about how they had met.
To find out that Luna was bullied unfortunately did not surprise him. He could definitely see students treating her that way even if it wasn't right.
"Luna's my best friend," She said, "we do everything together and I think it's perfect for both of us. She never is bothered by anything I do, and she never gets bothered by anything I do. I also keep the bullies away from her and we both really needed the companionship."
"I'm glad," He answered, "I really do like Luna, but she can be...kind of odd."
"Agreed, but that's what I love about her," Gabrielle said, "I can't really blame her for turning out a little crazy."
"Why?" He asked.
She studied him a bit and then said, "since you seem to be so important to her and I'm hopeful that you'll be able to become at least friends, I think you ought to understand where she's coming from. Just please don't tell her I told you. Luna didn't have an easy childhood and never had any friends growing up. She lost her mother when she was very young. It even happened right in front of her. Her father sort of went mad after the loss of his wife and Luna has had to practically raise herself and take care of him."
He felt suddenly super guilty for ever thinking badly about Luna.
What Gabrielle had just said about her sounded so much like his own childhood it was uncanny. The only difference was both of his parents were dead.
He had had to take care of himself at a young age too as well as the Dursleys, who were simply so lazy they had to get a little kid to work as their slave for them.
He made a mental promise to try and be nicer to her.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know," He apologized.
"It's okay, she isn't bitter about it, she just does what she can, no matter how weird it might seem to, to be happy and I have a lot of respect for her for doing that," Gabrielle replied, "she also likes you an awful lot."
"I noticed," He said.
"She even tells me about wanting to marry you," She said.
"Doesn't every girl?" He joked.
"I happen to know of a few girls who actually still hate you, but that's beside the point," Gabrielle said, "when it comes to Luna, I swear she honestly believes that she is going to marry you."
"I think it's more than that," He answered, "what with her thinking I'm going to have a harem and all."
Gabrielle caught her breath, and asked, "What?"
"You mean she hasn't told you?" Harry asked.
"Told me what?" Gabrielle asked.
TOOMANYTOOMANY
Meanwhile Luna was currently working on her device. At long last she had finally managed to get some serious progress on Gabrielle and her future.
The device made a farting sound and out popped a thin strip of paper
She had got the device to put everything in fortune cookie paper form, partly for convenience and partly because she considered them to be more fun that way...even though she was still working on including a cookie.
However she was very disappointed to find what it said was so short.
It read simply: Gabrielle just found out about you trying to create a harem. Hope you have fun since you didn't give me enough to know anything else.
Your lucky numbers are: 4 8 15 16 23 42
"Snorkack tongue," Luna muttered as she kicked the device out of anger.