Disclaimer: They can take our lives, but they can never take…JK Rowling!

Chapter 2

POTTER: HE'S BACK! HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED RETURNS! DUMBLEDORE, GRAYSON CONFIRM!—The Daily Prophet

SHOCK CLAIM: BRITISH DARK LORD VOLDEMORT BACK FROM THE DEAD!—The New York Ghost

HARRY POTTER CLAIMS YOU-KNOW-WHO RETURNS!—Le Monde Magique, World Edition

IGOR KARKAROFF MISSING, DURMSTRANG DEPUTY HEAD CLAIMS ON THE RUN—Nordiska Nyheter (Translated)

THE DEAD RETURN? ABORIGINAL ELDERS SAY POSSIBLE—Corona Australis

LA PANTERA SIGHTED IN ENGLAND—El Universo (Translated)

NARGLES INVADE BRITAIN! DON'T LET THEM STEAL YOUR CHILDREN!—The Quibbler

"Dad, it's Death Eaters, not nargles."

After some back and forth, the Grangers managed to schedule a group date with Paul and Tiffany towards the end of July. It was a more melancholy time than they'd hoped. With the impending war looming over them, it was hard just to be teenagers anymore, and despite trying harder than in previous years, they knew they would probably see even less of their muggle friends from now on.

Dan and Emma were also sceptical of the date since the film was Braveheart, and they had enough war to deal with already, but it was supposed to be really good, and Harry was interested in it after learning about the magical side of that war in History of Magic, and they agreed that the children were mature enough for it, so they relented.

Neville and Luna arrived on the Knight Bus, escorted by Dora. She had rounded the two of them up rather than them trying to get to the Granger's house on their own, or even with their guardians. It was safer and easier this way, and the Grangers didn't want too many people knowing where they lived, anyway.

All three of them stuck out in the muggle world. Despite Harry and Hermione telling them to dress casual, Neville was wearing something that his grandmother probably thought was casual when she was his age, but in the muggle world made him look, honestly, like a dork: an oxford shirt and pinstripe trousers that came up past his navel—plus a travelling cloak for wizard flair. And Luna, while her clothes were basically muggle, looked more like a hippie. With radish earrings. Dora was no help, either. She kept her hair pink and dressed like a punk rocker.

Hermione sighed when she saw the three of them, and Harry said, "Well, it's not like Paul and Tiffany think we're normal, anyway."

Hermione walked up to Neville and kissed him lightly. "It's good to see you two," she said. "But for the record, when we say 'casual', we mean something closer to what we wear on the weekends."

"That's what I told Gran, but she insisted on this," Neville said.

Luna looked down at her psychedelic outfit. "Aren't these casual muggle clothes?" she asked.

"Not in this decade, Luna," Harry said, then he kissed her, too. "But we'll make do."

"Don't I get a kiss, Harry?" Dora asked with a grin.

"You have no excuse," Harry said. "Your dad's a muggle-born. Also, the Weird Sisters are not muggle friendly." He shivered a little when he said the name for a completely unrelated reason.

Dora looked down at her t-shirt and grinned. "No one's gonna notice," she said. "Plenty of muggle bands have weirder names."

"Just go with it, Harry. We need to go soon," Hermione muttered.

"I think I'll leave the cloak, if you don't mind," Neville said. He took his travelling cloak off and handed it to Emma, then after looking Harry up and down, he tried to nudge his trousers down without being too conspicuous about it. It helped a little.

"So your friends are meeting us at the theatre?" Luna asked.

"Yes," Harry said. "Paul's a year ahead of us, so he can drive already."

"Er…Dora?" Hermione said nervously. "You do know how to drive, right?"

"Course I do. Didn't even have to Confund the examiner," she said.

That didn't instill any of the Grangers with confidence. Still, Dan and Emma let Dora borrow their car to drive the kids to the theatre. "Have fun out there," Emma said. "Behave yourselves. And keep an eye out for trouble."

"Don't worry, Mrs. G. I know all about constant vigilance!" Dora said.

"Okay you are gonna really weird them out if you do that," Harry told her.

Despite their reservations, Dora actually was a good driver, and she got the four of them to the theatre in good time. With their wands tucked up their sleeves, all five of them, they got out in the car park and scanned around for Paul and Tiffany. Harry's keen eyes spotted them at once, and he waved to them.

Harry's and Hermione's oldest friends walked over to them looking a bit wary. They hadn't met Dora before, and they weren't expecting a fifth wheel with the group. Hermione also noticed at once that Paul and Tiffany weren't holding hands or even standing close together. Had their relationship gone south in the past year? The pair smiled, but it looked a little forced as the two muggles looked over their friends' companions.

"Hey, guys, long time no see," Harry said.

"Hey, Harry. Hey, Hermione," Paul said. "I see you finally landed some dates." Harry noticed he was staring at Luna.

"Yes, this is my girlfriend, Luna Lovegood," Harry said. "Luna, these are our friends, Paul and Tiffany."

Paul coughed in what might have been a snigger when he heard Luna's last name. Harry suddenly realised it was a little too on-the-nose with her current 60s outfit, but the two of them shook her hand cordially.

"And this is my boyfriend, Neville Longbottom," Hermione introduced. "Oh, and this is Harry's Cousin Dora. Mum and Dad wanted her to chaperon."

As she'd expected, Paul and Tiffany didn't seem too impressed with the new additions to the group. Tiffany just looked Neville up and down and raised a sceptical eyebrow at her. That really wasn't fair, she thought. Neville was developing a pretty nice body, in her opinion. It was just that the clothes his Gran had picked for him didn't do him justice. Paul was busy staring at Luna—for her strangeness, Hermione was sure, rather than her figure. It was hard not to stare at Luna, honestly, especially when you first met her, but that didn't assuage Harry much. At least Dora seemed to pass muster to be "cool" enough for them.

"Who are the Weird Sisters?" Paul asked when he saw her shirt.

"Oh, they're this obscure heavy metal band who do fantasy-themed songs," she said without missing a beat.

Harry flinched again. He didn't think he'd ever think of that band the same way again after what he'd hear at Hogwarts.

"Cool," Paul replied. "So, how was your school year?"

All four Hogwarts students looked at each other uncomfortably. "Er…" Hermione started.

"We, uh…" Harry tried, but he couldn't seem to make anything coherent come on.

Both of their friends frowned. "Dude, what's wrong?" Paul said. "No jokes about magic and monsters? Nothing?"

Neville, Luna, and Dora all stared at Harry in surprise.

"Did something happen?" Tiffany said. "You didn't flunk did you?"

Harry and Hermione stared at each other and agreed with a look. "Maybe you should sit down," she said.

Paul and Tiffany awkwardly sat on the hood of the car. "That bad?" Tiffany said. "What is it?"

"It…it didn't go so well at school this year…" she said softly. "One of our friends was murdered."

They gasped loudly. When he collected himself, Paul said, "You're not kidding, are you?"

Harry shook his head sadly as Luna squeezed his hand for support. "I was there," he said. "It was the last day of term. We were having this athletics competition, and I was in the final round. But there was this psycho woman—er…a fugitive from another…county, she was. And she…"

Hermione took it up: "It was just when they finished. Harry and Cedric had just tied for first, but then, this woman got into their room somehow and stabbed Cedric with a knife right on the spot."

"She was fast," Harry said. "I've never seen anyone move that fast. She tried to stab me, too. I barely got away. We called the police, but they couldn't find her. They think she fled town, and she's hiding out somewhere."

"Oh my God," Tiffany said. "That's like a movie or something. That kind of stuff's not supposed to happen in the real world, you know?"

"Believe me, I know," Harry said. "Cedric was a good guy. He'd just got over this nasty illness to win, and he'd started up doing charity work with my godfather, and…" He paused for a moment. "And…you might think it sounds silly, but…Our old cat died right after we got back, too."

"It's not silly…" Tiffany said reflexively, but without any real conviction.

"You know how much Harry loves cats," Hermione reminded them, "and Rowena…I think we told you, she belonged to his birth parents."

"Did she? I think I'd forgotten," Tiffany said. "I mean, she must have been Harry's age or so.

"They were the same age," Harry said softly.

"What?"

"Cedric and Rowena. They were both seventeen."

"Oh…"

"And now, everyone's saying Rowena lived a good, long life, but Cedric was cut down in his prime," he said absently. "Something just…doesn't seem right about that…"

Luna looked up at him and sighed: "Oh dear. The aquavirius maggots are getting to you again, Harry. They're making you excessively melancholy."

Everyone stared at Luna at that.

"Aquavirius maggots?" Paul said.

"They latch onto you with tentacles of thought and try to strangle your mind. They're very nasty. Thoughts can leave the deepest scars of all, you know." She took Harry's hands and stood on her toes to whisper in his ear, "And it can't be dementors, or we'd all feel it," which led Harry, not for the first time, to question how much of her own stories Luna actually believed.

"I…I'm pretty sure that…that doesn't make any sense at all," Paul said.

"Of course it does—" Luna started, but Hermione cut her off.

"Don't question her, Paul. You'll only walk away confused."

"Yeah, so…" Tiffany said uneasily. "We're sorry; we had no idea any of that was happening…And you still wanted to come out on a group date with us?"

"Well, sure, we never get the chance to see you," Harry said. "Let's go."

They all started off towards the cinema door, but Luna spoke up again: "You don't mind joining us, do you?"

"Of course not," Tiffany said. "Why wouldn't we?"

"I know this was meant to be a more romantic outing, but if you're more comfortable, you could sit with Dora—EEP!" Luna squeaked as Hermione elbowed her in the side hard.

And there come the uncomfortable truths, Harry thought.

Paul and Tiffany stared at her awkwardly. "We, er…" Tiffany started.

"It's not like that, it's just…" Paul said haltingly.

"It's complicated," they said together, then glanced at each other.

There was a lengthy silence. Finally, Dora said, "Let's just get to the film."

In retrospect, watching Braveheart was probably a bad idea. To start with, Harry and Luna weren't technically old enough to watch it (although they both had permission from their parents), but the woman at the box office didn't check their IDs, so Dora didn't have to Confund her. But the rating was well earned, more so than they expected, with the graphic depictions of rape, murder, and people stabbing each other in the face.

Tiffany took it the hardest. She was no pushover, but she wasn't used to war movies, and couldn't take the sight of that much blood. She and Paul had sat on opposite sides from Dora, but she actually switched seats when the battle started so she could hide her face in his chest. Harry and Hermione had a feeling things were about to get even more "complicated" for them after this.

Harry thought he would be mostly okay watching the film, but he was wrong. He'd seen battle, bloodshed, and death, sure, but he was unprepared to see the soldiers trying to rape William Wallace's wife. He felt sick at the sheer disgustingness of the scene, and he couldn't help but think of Luna when he saw it, which only made it worse. (He thought of Hermione a little, but Hermione would've literally left the soldiers in pieces if she had to, and she wouldn't need a wand to do it.)

Fortunately, Luna seemed to handle it well. She clutched his arm tightly, but she held steady and seemed to be comforting him as much as she was herself. "It's okay, Harry," she whispered in his ear. "We know who wins in the end." He thought that was a difficult way to see something so brutal, but that was Luna. Both she and Neville had seen Harry and the other champions in mortal peril in the Tournament with no small amount of blood, so he was less worried about that, but he was surprised she could be anywhere close to calm witnessing this. Neville wasn't. He practically yelled, "Holy crap!" at the sight. He admitted afterwards he considered walking out of the theatre.

When Harry glanced at Dora, he saw a look of disgust on her face, too, but she was an Auror, so she'd seen worse. He was pretty sure he saw her mouth, "You go, girl!" when Wallace's wife bit the soldier's face. Hermione, however, was in tears. Harry could guess as the film went on that they were both thinking of the war to come and wondering how much of the like of that staged violence they would see for real.

Neville repeated his exclamation when the Scots exposed themselves to the English army. Hermione could understand that (though she later thought it was ironic that he got confused when the Prince Edward's cousin called the prince a sodomite). Neville's Gran might have a stroke if she saw it. Sir Robin Greengrass had certainly never mentioned anything like that, and Luna whispered to Harry, "I'm surprised they let them show that. The Diagonal Theatre would be overrun by an angry mob if they tried it."

"That's why muggle films have ratings," he whispered back. "So they can tell what ages they're appropriate for."

"Hm, that's a good idea."

Alas, the story could not end as well as that battle. The betrayal was awful when it came, even knowing what would happen: Robert the Bruce's betrayal of Wallace, Robert's father's betrayal of both of them. Harry could feel it. This must have been how his parents had felt when they realised Pettigrew had betrayed them. He finally cracked when Wallace told Hamish how he'd prayed for a home and a family, but it was worth nothing without his freedom. He cried, knowing what would happen to the man. He cried, thinking of his own death sentence that he had narrowly escaped a month ago without even knowing it, when the horcrux was exorcised from his skull. He cried, thinking of the war that was coming.

Luna held onto him, wrapping a slim arm around his shoulders. "It'll be okay, Harry," she whispered to him. "You'll have those things. We'll be ready this time."

"I'm not ready, Luna," he whispered back. "I'm fourteen, and I've nearly died five times already. I'm…I'm scared—"

"We're all scared, Harry, but you've fought him and lived. You defied him to his face. You're stronger than all of us. You can make it."

"Th-thank you," he said, steadying himself. He thanked Merlin again that she was there for him like this.

The film finally ended with Wallace's execution. They hadn't anticipated the movie running three hours, either, which only made it all the more draining. Harry shivered. Seeing the crowd jeering Wallace on the scaffold reminded him far too much of the Death Eaters laughing while Voldemort Crucioed him. When they finally got out of the theatre, all of the group looked a little shell-shocked, Harry most of all.

"Maybe Braveheart wasn't such a good idea," Paul said. Tiffany looked shaken, but she was standing on her own. Neville was scowling, though, and gripping Hermione's hand tightly, while Luna was subtly supporting Harry.

"Next time, we're going to see Pocahontas," Hermione said firmly.

"Better than this one, I hope?" Neville asked, to which she nodded vigorously.

Harry said nothing.

"Harry, mate, you okay?" Paul asked. "You look kinda…shook up. Too much that…? Sorry, that probably wasn't the best movie for all of you right now…"

Harry met his eyes and managed to force a smile. "Would you believe me if I said we met a ghost who fought in the service of Edward Longshanks?" he asked.

"Harry!" Dora yelped in horror.

But Paul smiled back weakly: "Hey, there's the Harry we know."

Hermione quickly whispered to Dora about how Harry would make a joke of his "adventures", and she relaxed and joined in a bit. "Oh, right. Picked the wrong side, though," she growled. "That Longshanks was awful. 'We have reserves?' Bloody hell, even You-Know-Who wouldn't do that."

"You-Who-Know?" Tiffany said.

Dora squeaked at making the same slip she'd just admonished Harry for.

"Er, the villain in a play we saw," Hermione saved her. "Long story."

"I do enjoy historical plays," Luna quickly changed the subject, "even when they change a few things. This was a bit much, but it was interesting to see the history reenacted…The face paint was a good idea. It would keep the nargles away. Do you think the original Wallace did that?"

Everyone stared at her. "Um…nargles?" Paul said.

"Oh, yes. They usually only steal your socks from the wash, but they can be very dangerous in battle. It helps to disguise your face to hide from them."

Paul gave them all a look that said Is she for real? But he held his tongue for the moment, and they wandered back to the cars. It was dark, and all of the magicals were wary, but their two muggle friends didn't seem to notice them scanning the car park for trouble. They still weren't holding hands, but walked on either side of Dora. And as for Dora, Harry and Hermione could tell she had been watching the entrances to the theatre the whole time despite enjoying the movie, her wand at the ready in her quick-draw holster. She wouldn't fully relax until they were all home.

They didn't plan to go anywhere else afterwards. They were even more worried about security this late at night. They were probably being paranoid; they were in a muggle community, and almost no one knew where they were, but as Moody would say, constant vigilance! They parted quickly, but before they did, Paul called Harry aside for a private chat.

"So, your girlfriend, Hermione's boyfriend?" he said. "They both go to your school?"

"Yeah. They're both pretty cool," Harry said. "Neville's my roommate, and Luna's my other roommate's neighbour at home, so we already knew them well."

"Huh." Paul looked over at Neville and Hermione. "Neville seems like a good bloke. They seem a lot alike."

"Hmm, yeah, in some ways," Harry agreed. "His parents were actually friends with mine."

"That's cool." He then looked over at Luna, who was wandering aimlessly around the car park and humming to herself. "And Luna? Where'd you find that one?"

Harry didn't particularly like his tone, but he answered, "I found the older kids picking on her when she was a first year. I told them to knock it off. We've been friends ever since. I asked her to the Yu—er, Christmas dance last year because she gets me better than most of the girls in school."

"You're kidding!"

"No, I'm not."

Paul sighed and looked at Luna again. "Harry, mate, let me give you some advice as someone with a little more experience. You need to steer clear of that one."

"What?" Harry said harshly, glaring back at him.

"Hear me out, mate. She has crazy eyes."

That stopped Harry short. "Huh?" he said.

"Crazy eyes!"

"What are crazy eyes?"

"When you look at her eyes, you can see white all the around the irises."

Well, that was true. She always had that wide-eyed look about her, but he'd never paid much attention. "So?"

"So that's a danger sign that she's crazy!"

Harry hissed automatically. "What do you mean, crazy?"

"You know, like she'll go psycho on you one day and attack you."

"What?" Harry repeated. Luna had been called Loony for a lot of different reasons, but no one had ever called her dangerous. They usually underestimated her, to be honest. "I don't know what you're smoking, Paul, but Luna doesn't have a malicious bone in her body."

Paul shook his head. "No, that's what's so dangerous. It's always the quiet ones. Look, Harry, I know you've been having a rough time, and I can tell you like her a lot, but you need to hear this. She's got the crazy eyes, and you see how she dresses—"

"She's eccentric—"

"And all that weird stuff she talks about?"

"It's not her fault her dad's a tabloid writer?"

"I'm telling you, Harry. A girl like that, maybe she'll be fine, but maybe she'll stab you in the back, or you'll wind up with a stalker."

"STOP IT!" Harry yelled. Everyone in the car park jumped and stared at him. "Just shut up right now, or I'll c—" He caught himself. His fingers were crackling with magic, but he couldn't call Paul out for a duel. He was a muggle! Merlin, it had finally happened, he thought. He was more a part of the wizard culture than the muggle one. "Yes, Luna's weird," he said. "Hell, you know how those other kids picked on her? They started calling her Loony Lovegood within a month of starting school, and I had to be the one to tell them off. But being weird doesn't mean she's crazy. She's just as sane as I am. She just refuses to let what people think of her get to her—but I can tell it does, so back off.

"Oh, and she's not dangerous. When the older kids were stealing her stuff, she wouldn't even go to a teacher until I did for her. And she's not a stalker, either. In fact, I asked her to the ball because she's the one girl I know who acts the least like a stalker. And besides, I've already got a stalker at school, and it's not Luna. Luna's always been really nice and respectful to me, even when…" But he couldn't tell Paul all about the things he'd gone through at school. Wow, this was hard.

Paul must have interpreted his silence as being about Cedric because he backed down at once: "Whoa, whoa, I'm sorry. I didn't know. I can tell you like each other a lot, it's just—"

"Don't go assuming things you don't know, Paul," Harry cut him off. "That's how Luna's trouble started in the first place…and a lot of mine, come to think of it." He turned and walked away without another word, leaving a friendship very strained behind him.

They made it home without incident, but Harry especially wasn't keen to face his parents after all that, though he couldn't get out of it.

"So, how did it go?" Dan asked.

He shook his head. "Bad idea."

"Uh-oh. What's happened?"

"The movie was worse than we expected," Hermione said. "I mean, not bad. It was well-done. But violent—it hit too many nerves."

Emma sighed: "I told you it would be too much for them, Dan."

"We wanted to go, Mum," Hermione defended her father. "It was our mistake. We just didn't know what to expect."

"You still should have known better," Emma said.

"Maybe, but—"

"But their old enough to make their own decisions, Emma," Dan said. "Harry's practically fifteen, and Hermione will be sixteen soon. As much as we don't want to admit it, both of our children are mature enough to decide about seeing a film for themselves."

Emma sighed heavily, but she couldn't really argue with that. However, she turned to Luna and said, "Are you okay, Luna? You're the youngest."

"I'll be alright, Mrs. Granger," she said calmly. "Harry just needed some extra support."

"Harry?" she said worriedly, raising an eyebrow at him.

"It was…hard to watch," he muttered. "And it wasn't just the movie. I…Paul and Tiffany aren't getting along, and I didn't get along with Paul, either."

"Oh…That's too bad."

"Yeah…Good night, Luna. You and Neville should really get home." He kissed his girlfriend—very chastely, since his parents were watching. It wasn't until she was safely away with Neville and Dora that he asked the question that was eating at him. "Mum, Luna's not crazy, is she?"

"What?" his mum said in surprise. "Why would you think that, Harry?"

"Paul said it. He said I shouldn't be dating her because she's crazy. I got really mad at him…I nearly challenged him to a duel before I caught myself. And half her classmates at school think she's crazy, too. But she's not, is she? She's just…"

"Eccentric?" Emma said. "Look, Harry, we'd be lying if we said we hadn't thought Luna might need counselling of some sort. We all know she's…different…And, frankly, she might have some kind of condition that she needs help with, but that doesn't make her 'crazy', and it doesn't mean you shouldn't be dating her. We'd have to be blind not to see that you're good for each other—and that's not easy for us to say because you're so young."

Harry's face fell: "So you do think she needs help."

She shook her head: "We can't say that for sure. She would need a professional diagnosis. But I do think it might help her."

"Harry, if it really worries you a lot, we ought to have a DSM lying around somewhere," Dan spoke up. "But I'd urge you to be very careful with it and consult us before you try to decide anything. Unprofessional diagnosis isn't good for anyone."

Though he took his father's warning to heart, Harry read through their old DSM-III-R the next day, looking for anything that fit Luna's particular brand of quirkiness. He found one: schizotypal personality disorder. It was apparently a low-level form of schizophrenia characterised by inappropriate emotional reactions, eccentric behaviour, bizarre beliefs, and unconventional thought processes. It almost fit. Except…another characteristic symptom was antisocial behaviour, and Luna was very well-adjusted around people who actually respected her and kept an open mind about what she said.

No, he insisted to himself. She wasn't crazy. She was just delightfully odd, and he wouldn't have her any other way.