Six years passed and much remained the same in Godric's Hollow. Harry was trained daily in the arts of chivalry, horse riding, and Latin. With each passing day the boy grew in mind and body. He was not yet a man; the sun had set on his eleventh year only three months before. Since then, his training had intensified.

On the seventh day of each week, Harry was free to spend his hours as he pleased. Prior to his sixth birthday, he usually found someone in the castle out play with. For the last six years, every Sunday was spent out of the castle. The only person he truly had to sneak past was the greasy-haired Professor Snape, yet Harry always felt like a spy attempting to escape without a trace. Only once had he been caught.

He would meet Luna in a clearing in the woods to the Northwest of the castle, right next to the river. Sometimes they would climb trees. Sometimes they would swim. Frequently Harry would save the damsel from a hideous monster (usually a large thistle bush).

"Luna?" Harry pushed aside a branch laden with small needles and stepped into the meeting spot. For this particular day, they had agreed to each bring something for lunch. He dropped his cloth-wrapped food on the ground and searched the area. There were no discarded clothes on the ground to suggest she was in the water. By the time Harry came to the conclusion that she was running late, there was a rustling in the trees above. He looked up and saw her face haloed by her golden hair, her body laid out on a long, sturdy branch. "Always with your feet off the ground and your head in the clouds."

Luna dropped a brown sack from her perch and Harry caught it with great dexterity.

"It is a wonder that you are able to hunt as well as you say when you neglect half of the world," she said, nimbly climbing down the branches. Her bare feet hit the ground without a sound. The two shared a laugh and made their way to where Harry had dropped his food.

"It is a lovely day for so late in the year," Luna said as she splayed her skirts out and sat on the grass. Her hand found the stem of a purple wildflower and gently plucked it. "It's rare for the flowers to stay so long."

"You speak as though they have a choice," Harry noted, taking a seat in front of her. "Are they any more than plants that bloom with the promise of spring and wilt with the harshness of winter?"

Luna fingered the edges of the petals. "They have as much a choice to live through every day of their time or to wither up within themselves as you or I. Oft I have seen a bud shriveled in early summer and a man, old beyond his years, hopeless and thinking himself alone despite companions, wasted away too soon, before his next spring."

They were both silent a moment, the babble of the river mingled with their thoughts. "You are quite a remarkable girl, Luna," Harry finally said as he reached for his parcel and untied the corners. "You have a keen perception and speak in poetry." Luna blushed and tucked the flower behind her left ear. They both busied themselves with their lunches.

Harry had chosen to bring with him things that he didn't think Luna would eat often. He asked Milly the day before to assist him. She had prepared a loaf of bread, and when he split it open, he saw a dark swirl of cinnamon inside. There was also a large piece of cooked game bird that was still slightly warm.

When handed her a share of the bread, Luna put it to her nose. "How odd, to put seasonings in bread. Cinnamon is good for headaches, did you know?" Harry shook his head; he had never heard such a thing.

"It's best if you leave it on your tongue. If you swallow it, it travels further away from the pain and is less effective." She seemed very sure of herself, which made Harry chew his first bite very slowly, keeping it near the top of his body as long as possible even though there was no pain there.

Before Luna were two potatoes and what appeared to be sprigs and roots. "What are those?" Harry asked, nodding at the greens. The table in the castle was always covered by meats and many of the crops that were harvested in the fields. He couldn't recall a time when small leaves were anything more than flavour or decoration. Still, he would try them.

Luna deposited half of the greens into Harry's hand. He followed her movements as she picked through hers, looking for some characteristic he didn't know, and placed one in her mouth. They both chewed, Luna staring thoughtfully at Harry and he tried not to let her know that he found the leaf very bitter.

"What was that?" Harry asked, his voice slightly betraying his desire to sound interested rather than appalled. He quickly took a bit of the sweet bread in the hopes that the taste would slide down to his stomach with it.

The dreamy looking girl before him simply shrugged. "I'm not sure exactly. I didn't have much to bring with me and I found them on my way here. It was a bit of an experiment, you see." Harry's eyes quickly examined the shapes of the leaves he had remaining in his hand. They didn't look like anything that had been pointed out as poisonous, but that didn't mean they weren't. Only skilled doctors and woodsmen could be certain. Despite the obvious danger, Luna's smile inexplicably made him feel relaxed, though he did put the rest of the plant away from his food.

"I am to be a knight," Harry suddenly remembered. The news had come very early in the week, and he had forgotten that Luna didn't know; at least, he hadn't told her yet. "I will get my own horse and fight for our lands." Luna still smiled, though her eyes cast a weary glance down. "What is wrong?" Harry asked.

"You speak as though I wasn't aware," Luna answered.

Harry's brow furrowed. "The news came to me on Tuesday, how could you already know?"

Luna's laughter rose up through the trees, but it was hollow. "Harry Potter, son of James Potter, you were destined to be a knight from birth, and that is only the beginning." He was silent, knowing that she always had more to say. "You will go and fulfill your destiny, and do your family and those loyal to you proud." Though she spoke nearly the same words as Harry's father, there was a hint of detachment in them. Finally, she looked up from the grass, to his shining green eyes. "I am very happy for you," she told him sincerely.

Though there seemed to be so much more on her mind, Luna fell silent. Harry didn't want to talk about it anymore and turned the conversation to more casual aspects of their week apart. He spoke of his studies and Luna of her work. He had been introduced to a new gamed called chess, which was much more of a practice of strategy than a game. He described the shapes of the pieces and what each one did. "The purpose," he concluded, "is to take the opponent's king."

"It sounds like an excellent representation of reality," Luna observed, already sounding more chipper than only a few minutes before. "There are small pawns that provide little resistance and are more of a nuisance to bother with destroying. There are various others, the bishops and rooks, which are mobile but are forced into a fixed course. The knights," she paused a moment to look at Harry and tilt her head, "can weave about the battlefield and are not easily cornered. And then the queen," she paused again. "The queen is, astutely, the most powerful and versatile, so it is such a crippling blow to lose one's queen. You would want to protect her above all others, save the king, who is at a loss without his lessers."

Harry sat dumbfounded. He had played the game a number of times already and had not yet made the obvious yet profound connections she had without even seeing the board. "I don't suspect the King would take kindly to such words."

"Would he not?" Luna asked. "Surely he is wise enough to know that without those to follow him he is but a man in a large home. There would be no one for him to rule over or protect. It would be very lonely."

Without warning, Luna stood and adjusted the skirts that were sticking to her legs. "I should be leaving," she said as she reached for her cloth sack.

"Why must you go so suddenly?" Harry asked, his eyes a mixture of curiosity and worry.

"I forgot that I was going to visit my mother today. It is quite a long walk and I would like to be home before the sun sinks low."

Harry stared, not understanding. Did she not see her mother every day? It occurred to him that her parents might be separated for some reason, though what such a reason could be was a mystery to him. "Might I go with you?" he asked. He had no intention of returning to the castle early lest he run into Professor Snape, who was not above giving him spur of the moment lectures, even on Sunday.

Luna pondered his request for only a moment before consenting. "Do you mind if we stop to collect flowers along the way? I am aware that I'm not supposed to pick them, but my mother has always enjoyed them and there are so few left."

"I can pick them for you," Harry offered, packing up his own items. "That way you cannot get in trouble if we are caught." That seemed to suit Luna well. Without another word, she took off walking, following the riverbank east. They emerged from the tree line and kept to the winding path worn in to the bank. Every few steps a violet or white flower could be found in the moist dirt. Harry bent over and quickly uprooted then before gently handing them to Luna.

"Harry," Luna said as Harry spotted another. "We should leave some in the ground." His eyebrows came together in confusion. "We have gathered more than enough, and others may want some too, at least to look at." They were only half way to the cluster of peasant houses and Luna had to use both hands to hold all of the flowers.

Harry hadn't thought of that. Looking back on their path, it seemed remarkably barren; he had picked every single stem they passed. "We will leave the rest then," Harry said, hoping it would please her. Luna smiled quickly and walked on. Past the fields, all nearly reaped. Past the houses, families returning home after a hard day's labour. On and on they walked, further east than Harry had ever been.

"I didn't know anyone lived so far away from the castle." Nervousness edged his voice. What if Luna's mother was dangerously ill and had been sent away?

"No one does."

Harry's concern didn't slow her progress, despite the sudden incline of a hill. Rather than ask, Harry tried to piece together what she could possibly mean. They reached the crest of the grassy knoll and his answer was spilled out before him. Dozens of wooden crosses stood in uneven rows marking the dead. Some were a little crooked from the years under the elements, but the impression stopped him in his tracks. Luna pressed on, and Harry nearly stumbled down the side of the mound to catch up to her.

This place felt cold and unfamiliar. The thick dirt of the burial ground stuck to his shoes and made each step heavy. There were names carved by unskilled hands on each piece of wood. Some seemed very new while others were too rotten to read. It took only a moment for Harry to realize why he felt so out of place. All of the members of his family were buried deep below the castle in carefully crafted stone coffins. They were all respected in life and so in death, not left to rot in a forgotten plot of land.

"Here she is." Luna stopped and Harry was quick enough to only press against her rather than knock her over. Her blue eyes, suddenly void of the brightness he was used to, looked down on a mostly flat space with a still upright marker at the top. There were many brown, dried flowers already there, a testament to how frequently Luna visited. She bent forward and spread the many blooms they had collected along the length of the grave.

It seemed rude to say anything to Luna about a woman he didn't know, a woman he hadn't even known was dead. How long? He remembered many occasions when Luna spoke fondly of her mother. Had she already passed away by then? He stood very still with his hands behind his back as he had done many years ago at the funeral of his grandfather.

"You were away," Luna said suddenly, bringing her face up to look at Harry. A shallow pool of tears filled her eyes. "Your family was traveling. There was talk of negotiations, introductions, political matters that a young girl cares nothing of." She was silent and still Harry had nothing to say. "I don't blame you, but you were gone so long and when you returned, you had so much to say of your travels. I couldn't bring myself to dampen your happy mood. It was infectious." She looked up at the clear sky, remembering. "It was easier to deal with when I was around you, almost as if, because you didn't know, it wasn't real."

The memories seemed to fade from her eyes and the soft smile fell. Luna looked once more at the grave and wiggled her toes in the dark dirt. Still no words came to Harry, but he reached out and took her hand. They stood for what may have been an hour or more, hands clasped and hanging low between their bodies.

A sudden, harsh breeze blew through the cemetery and caused Harry to look up. The sun was heading toward the horizon and would be gone within an hour. "We must go, Luna." No one would notice their absence as a pair, but each had people waiting on them at home. It was also dangerous to be out after dark, especially in a place that made him so uneasy.

Luna let out a heavy sigh, one that could only hint at the heaviness of her heart, and looked to Harry. "Even though you know now, it still feels better." She didn't say another word on their walk back to the farm lands.

She pulled her hand from his before they were close to the houses, even though most of the workers were already inside. Harry grabbed it again quickly and brought it to his lips.

"Until next time, my lady."

"I am no lady," she reminded him.

"And I am not yet a knight." He smiled and walked toward the castle gates.