The last couple of chapters have contained a few more typos than I'm typically comfortable with. I can only say that I've been focused less on proofreading lately because I haven't felt such a fervent desire to write as I do now for nearly a decade. I'm trying to just go as fast as I can and fan the flames to the point where they become permanently sustainable, and I'm afraid that if I let myself get bogged down before I'm really into a steady groove, they'll go out again. Please bear with me.

Oh, and I forgot to mention: surpassed 100,000 words last chapter! Only the second time I've ever done that. Go me!

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

'We…we have old eyes?' Harry stammered. He'd nearly seized up at Luna's pronouncement, but fortunately had managed to control himself. That would have been very conspicuous indeed. And even as he scrambled for a response, he realized she'd said they looked older 'than you really are', which meant she still believed them to actually be eleven and twelve years old. Of course she doesn't know the truth, he thought, forcing himself to relax. Not even Luna was that intuitively perceptive.

'No, I don't mean that,' Luna said. She frowned, and Harry recognized her expression as the one she wore when trying to put her thoughts into words others would understand. 'It's...it's how you use your eyes. The way you look at things and the way you focus on them. It makes you both seem older, somehow. And I waited until we were alone to bring it up, because my mother always told me that there are some things people aren't comfortable talking about, even if I'm curious, and I thought this might be one of those things. I suppose I was wondering what happened to you that made you feel like you had to grow up so fast. It can't have been–' she started to say, then looked Harry in the eye and struggled, before getting out, 'You were just a baby. You don't remember that, do you? I'm so sorry if you do; it must be awful.'

Harry felt another rush of affection for Luna. And he was interested to see that Pandora Lovegood's influence on her daughter was at this point still much stronger than on the older person Harry had known who always spoke whatever was on her mind, and could often end up being uncomfortably blunt without even meaning to.

'No, I don't remember,' he said calmly. 'Sometimes I wish I could; just to remember their voices and their faces, but it's probably for the best that I don't.' Besides, I have better memories of them now.

'We…both have nightmares,' Ginny broke in. 'Bad ones. We sort of bonded over that during Easter hols and over the summer.'

'Oh, I see,' said Luna. 'I'm sorry to hear that. Have you tried humming before you go to sleep?'

Harry smiled, and out of the corner of his eye he could see that Ginny did, too. Adult Luna always suggested the same thing for dealing with nightmares; she claimed it put joy in your heart that bad dreams couldn't penetrate. She swore by it, but the few times Harry had tried it, it hadn't really worked and he mostly just felt silly.

'Does that work?' Ginny asked, humoring her.

'Oh, yes,' Luna said emphatically. 'My mother taught me. Humming makes your heart lighter, you see, and your worries start to float away. And when your heart is light and happy, nightmares can't get in.'

'I'll have to try it,' said Ginny, right as Hermione reentered the compartment.

'We're nearly there,' she said. 'Do you suppose I should wake Ron up?'

'Probably,' said Harry. 'If we wait until we're stopped, it'll be another five or ten minutes waiting for him to get moving.'

Hermione gently nudged Ron's leg. He started, jerking his head around for a moment before he remembered where he was.

'Almost there, then?' he asked.

'Very nearly,' said Hermione.

'Brilliant,' said Ron. 'That feast can't come soon enough.'

When the train came to a stop, Harry pulled down Ginny and Luna's trunks for them, and Ron, not to be outdone apparently, retrieved Hermione's. She appeared rather surprised but pleased. The five of them exited the train together, but Hagrid's cries of 'Firs' years! Firs' years over here!' pulled Ginny and Luna away from them. Ron, Harry, and Hermione followed the throng of older students over to where the fleet of stagecoaches were waiting for them.

'Wait, no boats?' Ron asked, looking around, confused.

'That's only for the first years, I think,' said Hermione. 'It doesn't say anything about it in Hogwarts, A History, but I didn't notice any older students crossing the lake with us last year, did you?'

Ron shook his head. 'I guess not. Hadn't really thought about it, to be honest.'

Harry, who alone among them had any idea where he was going, pointed ahead. 'I think we're supposed to ride those,' he said. A seemingly endless row of coaches was lined up on the muddy track beyond the train platform. Harry was not particularly surprised to learn that he could see the thestrals pulling them. After all, it wouldn't make much sense for his physical age to have had any effect on whether or not he had seen death. He was fully aware, however, that he was currently in the extreme minority. The year after the final battle, nearly every student at Hogwarts had been able to see them. He and Ginny aimed to change that.

The three of them climbed into the first coach they came to and were eventually joined by Stephen and Natalie.

'This is nice,' Natalie said, admiring the softly cushioned seats. 'A bit musty, though,' she added, giving a sniff. 'Still, we'll get to ride to school in style.'

'I bet it's a lot faster than the boats,' said Stephen.

'It would have to be,' Hermione pointed out. 'How else would we all be there waiting for the Sorting?'

'Makes sense,' said Stephen, nodding. There was a tiny jerk and the coach began moving toward the castle. 'That's probably why they have the first years go separately in the first place.'

'Well that, and the spectacle,' said Natalie. 'Tell me you wouldn't rather have your first view of Hogwarts be from the lake rather than through one of these windows.' She stuck her hand out one of the coach's small windows for emphasis.

'I can't argue with that,' said Stephen.

'Which house do you think is going to get the most students this year?' Ron asked, changing the subject. 'Our year is mostly even, but Fred and George said that's unusual.'

'Is it?' Stephen asked. 'Interesting.'

'It's probably going to be another small year like ours regardless,' Natalie said.

'Oh?' Hermione asked. 'What makes you say that?'

'Well, any kids starting their first year now would have been born during the last year of the war against You-Know-Who,' Natalie said. 'My mum says that not a lot of people were having children around that time, and it got especially bad in the last few years.'

'That does make sense,' said Hermione, 'but what about Muggle-borns? Surely their parents wouldn't have been affected?'

'Well no, there'll probably be about the same number of Muggle-borns as always,' said Natalie. 'I'm not sure what the average is, but counting you I know of only four in our year. It can't be much more than that.'

'I hadn't realized we were so rare,' Hermione said.

'Not rare, really,' said Ron. 'I mean, there's only forty students in our year total. Blimey, that is small. But that's still one in ten, right?'

'Probably not many more pure-bloods than that, either,' said Stephen.

'"Pure-bloods"?' asked Hermione. Harry was shocked to discover she was not yet aware of this. He did recall Ron having to explain to them what a "mudblood" was when Malfoy had first called her one in their second year, but to not know of the prejudice at all after a full year was very un-Hermione like.

'What the old wizarding families call themselves,' Ron explained. 'Think it makes them special or something that they don't have any Muggle ancestors at all. I'm technically supposed to be one myself, but it doesn't make any difference. It's only wankers like Malfoy who think it does.'

'True enough,' said Stephen, nodding and chuckling. 'Nat's one too, actually,' he said, jerking his head in his friend's direction, 'but I don't hold it against her.' She stuck her tongue out at him. 'Me, I'm half-blood. 'Spect most people are these days.'

'Whether they admit it or not,' Ron agreed. 'And good thing, too. If we hadn't married Muggles, we'd have died out.'

'I never knew about any of this!' Hermione said, shocked. More at her own ignorance than the existence of the bigotry itself, Harry was sure.

'That's good,' said Natalie. 'If no one's brought it up to you, maybe it's a sign that stupid old prejudice is finally dying out.'

If only, Harry thought.

There was something of a traffic jam at the front doors of the castle as everybody tried to get in at once. It took Percy and a few of the other prefects several minutes to sort it out. At last, they were able to enter and take their seats in the Great Hall. Harry was looking forward to watching Ginny's sorting. He'd missed it the first time.

'Bet you a galleon that Luna girl ends up in Hufflepuff,' Ron said. 'She didn't seem all there.'

'Ron!' Hermione squawked.

'I'll take that bet,' Harry said, grinning evilly. 'I say she's a Ravenclaw.'

'You're on,' said Ron, laughing. 'Easiest galleon I'll ever make.'

Hermione, however, was looking at Harry shrewdly.

It was at that very moment that the doors to the antechamber swung open and Professor McGonagall strode in leading a line of first year students. Ginny's red hair was easy to spot among them, and Luna was right next to her. A bit further down the line he saw Colin Creevey, and his throat caught for half a second. Another innocent victim of the war whom he'd thought he'd never see again. No matter how many times he encountered people who'd died, he didn't think he was ever going to get used to it. Seeing Lupin and Sirius again was going to be especially hard.

'Armstrong, Buford!' McGonagall called out, and the sorting began.

It seemed to go by faster than Harry remembered, but then he thought of the discussion from the coach, and how Ginny's class had been smaller than any other he'd ever seen sorted.

He made sure to pay attention when 'Cross, Sharon!' and 'Hendrickson, Rikissa!' were called, just to make sure he knew who they were. They did look vaguely familiar.

'Lane, Eunice,' was sent to Hufflepuff, and then Luna was called.

Luna flounced forward, looking as if she hadn't a care in the world. She gracefully sat on the stool and waited for Professor McGonagall to place the hat onto her head. It had barely touched her hair when it shouted, 'RAVENCLAW!'

She smiled serenely and skipped off to join the Ravenclaw table. Ron's jaw had dropped the moment the hat had spoken.

'No way!' he said.

'Looks like you owe me a galleon,' Harry said, though he had no intention of collecting. 'What say you have to load my trunk for me next time we ride the train and we'll call it even?'

'Fine,' said Ron, sighing glumly. Harry knew he was only agreeing because he didn't actually have a galleon.

'How did you know she'd be a Ravenclaw, Harry?' Hermione asked.

'Oh, just a feeling.'

'It was more than a feeling; you seemed awfully certain.'

'Didn't she seem like a Ravenclaw to you?' Harry asked.

'I'm not entirely sure what a Ravenclaw is meant to be like,' she answered.

'Brainy and swotty,' said Ron.

Hermione scoffed. 'So Stephen and Natalie are brainy and swotty, are they?' she asked.

Ron frowned. 'No. Well, I suppose they are a little bit brainy, but - '

'And I seem to recall you describing me as "brainy and swotty" on a number of occasions,' she went on. 'Why am I not in Ravenclaw, then?'

'Well, that is...' Ron stammered, helplessly. He looked to Harry for rescue, but Harry was having too much fun watching him squirm.

'Just because people are intelligent doesn't mean that's their only defining characteristic,' Hermione continued forcefully. 'And there are many different ways a person can be clever, too, you know. You're to quick to resort to stereotypes, Ron.'

'I don't even know what that is!' Ron protested. 'Look, I'm sorry, okay? Why is this such a big deal; you're not even in Ravenclaw!'

'But I could have been,' Hermione said. 'The hat seriously considered placing me there, you know, and anyway that's beside the point. You shouldn't group people together and judge them all on one or two aspects of their personality, Ron. It's just not right.'

'All right,' Ron conceded, 'all right. I'm sorry. Can we watch the rest of the sorting now?'

There wasn't much left, however. 'Warner, Gavin,' was sent to Hufflepuff, and then there were only two people remaining.

'Weasley, Ginevra!'

Harry bit back a snort. She hated being referred to by that name.

'We almost missed her!' Hermione gasped, shifting her full attention to the front of the hall, where Ginny was striding confidently toward the stool.

'Blimey, she looks a lot less nervous than I felt,' said Ron.

McGonagall placed the hat on Ginny's head and they waited. And waited. Whispers broke through the silence, which turned to mutters, which turned to full volume conversations once again. Still Ginny sat there. Harry had a good idea what she and the hat were talking about.

'How long is this going to take?' Ron complained. 'This is just like you last year,' he said to Harry. 'You don't reckon she's going to be a hatstall too?'

'It would be the first time such a thing has happened in at least five hundred and thirty years,' said Nearly Headless Nick, who'd glided up alongside them without them noticing. 'There have not been two hatstalls in as many years since I myself first came to Hogwarts. Perhaps never at all.'

'What do you think it's deciding between?' Ron asked. 'Surely Gryffindor and something. What was it for you, Harry?'

'Sorry, Ron,' he said. 'I'm taking that with me to my grave.'

'It can't be much longer,' Hermione said. 'I was sure she'd be a shoo-in for Gryffindor, though perhaps that's me judging by just one or two characteristics.'

Ron looked askance at her, but said nothing.

'I just feel bad for that other poor bloke waiting up there all by himself,' Harry said. The only person left after Ginny was a short, dark-haired boy was was fidgeting something awful, though thankfully very few people were likely to be paying any attention to him.

'GRYFFINDOR!' the hat suddenly shouted. Several people jumped, and there was a brief moment of shocked silence before the Gryffindor table erupted into cheers. There were more than a few yells from the other tables too, celebrating that the hat had finally made up its mind. 'Yang, David,' was called at last while Ginny made her way over to them and sat down on the bench next to Harry.

'You took almost as long as Harry did!' Ron said. 'What the bloody hell was it saying to you?'

'Ron!' Hermione cried.

'Another hatstall!' Nearly Headless Nick cheered, clapping a translucent hand on Ginny's shoulder and passing right through it. Ginny shuddered. 'History made right before our eyes! Welcome to Gryffindor, young Miss Weasley! I'm sure we can expect great things from you!' He drifted off down the table to speak with some of the older students.

'HUFFLEPUFF!' the hat shouted, and the ceremony was finally finished. David Yang ran to join his housemates, and McGonagall removed the hat and stool from the hall. Dumbledore stood.

'Welcome, one and all!' he said, spreading his arms wide. 'I had a rather lengthy speech prepared, but after that, I imagine you all must be ravenous with hunger. Tuck in, then!' He sat back down, and the feast appeared. Harry could hear the amazed gasps of various first years.

'I love Hogwarts feasts,' Ron said, loading up his plate. 'Everything you could ever possibly want to eat and then some.'

Conversation was sparse throughout dinner, but once the puddings had vanished, Dumbledore stood to make his announcements. He introduced a beaming Gilderoy Lockhart who was wearing bright, aquamarine robes (a number of girls along the table sighed or had somewhat soppish looks on their faces, at which Harry couldn't help but roll his eyes). And then, to Harry's surprise, he announced that they would be singing the school song.

Groans echoed all throughout the hall, but the students and teachers dutifully stood up.

'Everyone pick your favorite tune, and off we go!' He flicked his wand, and as had happened the year before, the words to the school song snaked out, long and gold, across the Great Hall so everybody could read them.

Harry realized too late that he'd chosen the tune of a song that did not yet exist. Last year, he'd sung to the tune of This is the Night, a Weird Sisters song that had been popular since the late 80s. This time, however, without thinking he'd chosen Over There by The Flying Colours, a band which would not even form until after the war ended. It was a song they'd performed at the first concert he and Ginny had attended together – indeed, the first concert Harry had ever attended in his life.

Ginny looked over at him, obviously having noticed what he'd done (she herself had chosen another Weird Sisters song, Blue Sparks). He shrugged, and simply powered through. It wasn't like anyone else would notice anything off, and it was too late to change course now.

The Weasley Twins were once again the last to finish; this year they'd chosen La Marseillaise for whatever reason, but were singing it very slowly, with a sort of grandiose pomposity. Dumbledore smiled widely as he conducted their last few notes, and they even got a smattering of applause for their performance.

'Truly wondrous, music,' Dumbledore said. 'Now then, I do believe it's time for bed! Run along, now!'

Percy came over to collect Ginny, so that he could guide her and the other first years up to the Fat Lady's portrait.

'What's the password, Percy?' Ron asked.

'Wattlebird,' Percy answered. 'Come on then, Ginny.'

'See you lot upstairs,' she said. Her eyes widened in panic at the slip – she shouldn't know where the common room was located – but no one else seemed to have noticed. And anyway, they were on the ground floor. "Upstairs" seemed a reasonable assumption. Harry hoped she wouldn't be fretting about it the rest of the night. She allowed herself to be led away by Percy.

'Let's get a move on,' Ron said. 'I've got a bed calling my name.'

'You slept on the train!' Hermione said, exasperated.

'Only a short nap,' Ron countered. 'And anyway, I ate so much it's a miracle I'm still awake now.'

Hermione shook her head and Harry laughed, and the three of them traipsed out of the Great Hall and up the marble staircase.

They arrived in the common room well before the first years. Ron had once confided in him that the prefects tended to take the new students to the tower via the longest route possible, ostensibly to give them something of a tour of the castle, but Ron said it was mostly just for a laugh. Harry was surprised that someone as straight-laced as Percy would be party to such a thing, but then he wasn't the only Gryffindor prefect, after all.

He remembered his own frustration from the year before, and knew that Ginny was likely to feel the same. Hopefully she was using the time to talk to her new dorm mates. She'd wanted to get started on that right away; it even meant that their nightly mirror chats would have to take a hiatus for the first few weeks at least. After the first night, of course, when there would be a lot to discuss.

It would be strange. He'd stayed up late talking with Ginny nearly every night for the past year, be it through the fire, the mirrors, or in person. He wasn't sure how long it would take him to adjust to not doing so. And they still needed to figure out when they could meet in the Room of Requirement to work on their diagnostics. The thing about having a detailed plan was that the start of the school year brought with it a very sharp jump from nothing really to do to a dozen things to do, and not enough time to do them all. What he wouldn't give for a Time Turner. Of course, he reasoned, that could very well end up making their problem worse.

That night, he had to wait longer than normal for Ginny to call him. He'd expected this; she'd warned him that the girls in her dorm would likely want to stay up late chatting.

'How did it go?' he asked as soon as her face appeared.

'Fairly well,' she said. 'I can tell the two of them are already starting to rub each other the wrong way – both are used to being the center of attention, obviously – but I'm hoping I can smooth some of that away.'

'That's good. Keep me updated, and let me know if there's anything I can do to help, even though I doubt it.'

'I will,' she said. Then, positively beaming, she asked, 'How great was it to see Luna?'

'Really great,' he answered honestly. 'Though she scared the life out of me for a second there.'

'I could tell,' Ginny giggled. 'I'm surprised, actually. Me immediate thought was that she was somehow stuck here like us, but then I realized that she would have just said so if that were the case.'

'I hadn't even thought of that!' Harry exclaimed, smacking his forehead. 'Oh, how brilliant would that be, eh?'

'So brilliant,' Ginny agreed fervently. 'But even so, it feels so good to finally be able to see her again. I just want to hug her and hug her and never let go, but that would probably scare her off.'

'I don't know,' said Harry, chuckling at the mental image. 'Knowing Luna, she'd probably just take it in stride.'

'Maybe,' Ginny laughed along with him. 'Did you notice she seems a little more hesitant to speak? I didn't really know her that well until maybe third or fourth year so I don't remember, but I hadn't expected younger Luna to be so different.'

'I think it must be her mum's influence,' Harry said. 'Something she said...anyway, it's only been what, a year and a half since she died at this point? Probably still a rather fresh memory.'

'I suppose that makes sense.'

'Oh hey, changing the subject,' Harry said as a thought occurred to him, 'I wanted to ask you: did you sing the school song your first year?'

'No!' Ginny exclaimed. 'I was wondering about that! I didn't even know we had one!'

'We sang it my first year, but never again,' said Harry. 'Not that I know of, anyway. On top of missing the feast my second year, I was late in third and sixth.'

'How strange,' Ginny said. 'I wonder why he chose to sing it this year? Could it have been something we did?'

'It has to be, right? We're the only thing that's different between how things originally went and how they're going now. But the only thing that's really changed for Dumbledore is that Quirrell was exposed a lot earlier and he didn't have a bunch of first years running a deadly gauntlet he'd set up under the school.'

'That must be enough,' Ginny said. 'He did seem awfully happy about singing it.'

'Happy...' Harry said, thinking back. 'I do remember that he seemed really down and disappointed by Ron and I flying your dad's car across the country in full view of a bunch of Muggles and then crashing it into the Whomping Willow. Maybe that had him feeling down enough to not want to sing it.'

'So he only has us sing it when he's in a really good mood?' Ginny asked. She thought for a moment and then laughed. 'Yeah, that sounds like him.'

'That's a good way for us to gauge how we're doing, then,' said Harry brightly. 'Make sure we sing the school song every year.'

Ginny cheered happily at the idea, then sobered. 'I don't know if that's going to be possible. Not every year.'

Harry knew exactly what she was talking about, but didn't want to go into it at the moment. Nor, it appeared, did she.

'What made you sing a Flying Colours song?' she asked him. 'Not exactly the best way to lie low, is it?'

'I did it without thinking,' he admitted. 'And by the time I realized, it was too late to switch. Anyway, no one's likely to notice.'

'You're probably right; I just thought it was funny.'

'It sort of was,' he agreed.

'Is that everything we need to talk about?' she asked. 'Not that I'm in a hurry to leave you or anything, but the girls were talking about getting up extra early tomorrow morning and I should be there for that.'

'No, you're right, you should,' he said. 'Just one question that I probably already know the answer to: what were you and the Sorting Hat talking about?'

'Same thing you were,' she said. 'It knew right away that I'd already been sorted, of course, and then mentioned it had gone through this already with someone else. I told it I knew the person it was talking about, and it told me the various theories the two of you had discussed. I'm glad you never did tell me about those, by the way. I was right; they would have terrified me. Anyway, it asked how long I'd been here, and had I noticed anything odd or out of place, and we determined that if it were anything other than some form of time travel, it likely would have started unraveling or falling apart by now.'

'That's what I've been thinking,' Harry said. 'In a way it's sort of comforting to be reasonably sure about what we're dealing with. We can spend less time on wondering what happened and spend more time on how it happened, and how to reverse it.'

'True,' Ginny said. 'We've been more or less operating on the assumption that it's time travel for months now anyway, haven't we? It's just nice to have an outside opinion who agrees with us.'

'When did you want to start working in the Room of Requirement?' Harry asked her.

'We shouldn't put it off for too long,' she said. 'Give me two weeks to build a solid rapport with the girls and we can take it from there. And try to stay out of trouble.'

'Nothing happened to me this year,' he said. 'Unless you count Lockhart acting like we were best pals.'

'What about Dobby?' she asked.

'He didn't try anything until the first Quidditch match, remember?'

'Don't go getting cocky,' she scolded. 'Remember how easily you circumvented Quirrell's murder attempt in the match last year and he ended up poisoning you? And this year you got through to Platform 9 ¾ with no problem, so who's to say Dobby won't try something else we're not expecting?'

'All right, all right, you've made your point,' Harry conceded. 'I'll be careful. You should go to sleep if you're getting up early. Love you.'

'Love you,' she said, rolling her eyes and vanishing. She'd obviously seen right through his attempt to divert her, but let him do it anyway. That was why he loved her.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

The first day of lessons started off slowly, but made up for it in the afternoon. They started with Herbology and Transfiguration, the latter of which consisted of Hermione determined to turn more beetles into buttons than Harry. She managed it due to Harry not particularly caring. Ron was having difficulty, but he did manage at least one button by the end of the lesson.

After lunch was when things started to spiral out of control. The three of them were sitting outside when Colin Creevey approached with his camera. Harry remembered exactly what was going to happen just before it did, and tried his absolute best to avoid it.

When Colin asked if he could have a signed photograph of the two of them together, he opened his mouth to tell Colin that he was nobody special, that he would happily take a photo with him but wouldn't be signing it, and that Colin should just treat him the same as anybody else.

Before he could, of course, Malfoy, who always seemed to be around precisely when his presence would be least welcome, butted in and started shouting that Harry was giving out signed photos. It was all Harry could do to keep from dropping his forehead into his palm.

'Very funny, Malfoy,' he said. 'Though I have to say, it's an odd strategy to make fun of someone for being more well-liked than you. Why not have a go at me for how much better I am at Quidditch while you're at it?' He knew, deep down, that he shouldn't indulge in such juvenile impulses to tear Malfoy down, but he found that he simply couldn't help himself. There were so many things he wished he'd said when he was younger, or thought of later when it was too late. He couldn't do the same to Snape – not yet, at least – but he could bring Malfoy down a peg or two.

Ron snorted. Malfoy eyes flashed in rage and his nostrils flared.

'Hermione's here, too,' Harry didn't let up. 'You could talk about how much smarter she is than you. And I think all four of us are better-looking.' He made sure to include Colin. 'Maybe try something with that?'

Ron couldn't hold it in anymore and burst out laughing. Malfoy's lip curled so much he was practically baring his teeth. Crabbe and Goyle looked shell-shocked, completely at a loss as to what they were supposed to do.

'You watch yourself, Potter,' Malfoy snarled. 'Someday soon I'm going to wipe that smug look off your stupid, scarred face.' He spun around and stormed off, his two cronies hurrying to catch up with him.

'I'm shaking in my boots,' Harry called after him. Ron was still working through the last of his laughter. Hermione, however, looked very disapproving.

'That wasn't very nice, Harry,' she admonished sternly.

'No, it wasn't,' Harry admitted. 'But if it gets him to lay off, it'll have been worth it.'

'Well all the same, I wish you wouldn't bring me into it,' she said.

'Sorry about that,' he replied, genuinely contrite. 'I shouldn't have; I know. It wasn't fair to you. I suppose I didn't want it to seem like I was trying to set myself up or something.'

'Well, I'm glad you were conscious of that, at least,' she said. 'And I will admit, it did sort of feel good to hear you tell him I'm smarter than he is.' The corner of her mouth twitched upward.

'You are,' Harry said simply.

'The look...on his face!' gasped Ron, still trying to catch his breath and positively dripping with mirth. 'That was the greatest thing that's happened since we came to Hogwarts,' he declared. 'I'm including winning the Quidditch Cup last year.'

Hermione just shook her head, but did not refute him.

'Who was that, Harry?' asked Colin, who had been watching the whole exchange with a sort of reverent awe that reminded Harry rather uncomfortably of a young Wormtail watching his father play with the snitch under a tree. He remembered also what had happened shortly afterward, and knew that he never wanted to take on that aspect of his father's personality – even if just for Malfoy.

'Just someone from our year who likes to cause trouble,' Harry said. 'Listen, Colin, I don't want to give the impression that I think I'm better than anyone or anything. That was all just to get Malfoy to shut up.'

'Okay,' said Colin enthusiastically, though Harry could tell it didn't matter to him one way or the other. 'Can we take a photo now, Harry?'

'Sure,' said Harry. 'But don't ask me to sign it. Whatever you might think; I'm not a celebrity and I don't want to act like one.'

'Okay,' said Colin again, his face falling a little, clearly disappointed. He was still sure to thank Harry profusely for the photo afterwards, though.

'That was nice of you,' Hermione said once Colin had left.

'I don't mind taking pictures with people,' Harry said, though this was only partly true. 'That book Hagrid gave me is full of photos of my parents with all sorts of different people. I've no idea who most of them are, but if someone hadn't taken them, I wouldn't have them.'

'In that case, I'd say it was awfully nice of me to take it for him, then,' joked Ron. 'If this is going to be a regular thing, maybe I should start charging a commission.'

'Oh right, that's what I need,' Harry remarked. 'Charging people to take pictures with me is exactly the way to get Malfoy and Lockhart off my case.'

'Lockhart?' Ron asked. 'What's he done?'

Harry cursed himself. He'd so far managed to avoid drawing Lockhart's attention outside of their initial encounter in the bookshop. He wasn't sure how; as he remembered, Lockhart had already started offering him "advice" before his first disastrous lesson, which they would be attending in the next five minutes.

'He seems to think I want to be famous like he is,' Harry bluffed. 'Thinks he can offer me "advice".'

'Well, if you were interested, I'm sure he'd be a good person to help you,' Hermione said diplomatically.

'Good thing I'm not,' said Harry, and he stood up and stretched. 'Come on, we'd better get going.'

They left for Lockhart's class, where Harry made to sit in the very back of the classroom. Hermione looked confused; it was clear she wanted to sit up front, but in the end she joined him and Ron at the back.

'Why are we in the back?' she asked.

'I'd rather avoid him as much as possible if I can,' Harry said. 'But you can sit up front if you want.'

'No, I'll stay with you two,' she said, still looking perplexed. 'But I'd have thought learning from someone as accomplished as Professor Lockhart would be exciting.'

'I'm sure it will be,' said Harry, knowing what was going to happen within the next hour.

Gilderoy Lockhart at that moment came striding into the room so buoyantly he might have had springs on his feet. In robes of brightest turquoise, he beamed at all of them so that they could all see his gleaming, pearly white teeth. Harry heard more than one sigh throughout the room.

He started the class just as Harry remembered, by giving out that absurd quiz about himself. Harry more than once caught himself gripping his quill too tight. Everything about this man annoyed him, from his insipid grin to his ridiculous boasts to his obsession with image and fame to his manipulatively false charm. Not to mention the whole bit about stealing credit from genuine heroes and erasing their memories. But he forced himself to choke down those negative thoughts; he didn't want to draw any attention to himself. If he could get through the whole year without having to deal with Lockhart any more than absolutely necessary, he would consider it a success. He wished he could just get rid of the cowardly fraud right that minute, but the plan dictated that he be patient. He really hated the plan sometimes, for all that he was half responsible for it.

Hermione received her ten points for full marks, and then it was time for the pixies. Of course, no one was impressed when Lockhart unveiled them, but when he set them loose, it was absolute chaos. Even worse than Harry remembered it, if that were possible.

Harry did his best to mitigate the damage, though he couldn't risk drawing too much attention to himself even if Lockhart hadn't been in the room. He settled on firing colored sparks at any pixie that was about to actually hurt anyone – such as the two that tried to hoist Neville into the air, or the one that was aiming to throw an ink bottle right at Lavender's head. Pixies were distracted by bright flashing lights, and as no second-year could possibly be expected to pull of a strobe-beacon charm, he had to improvise.

'Come on now, round them up, round them up, they're only pixies!' Lockhart cried. Then he rolled up his sleeves, brandished his wand, and said an incantation Harry had never heard of and was fairly certain was completely made-up, which of course did nothing. One of the pixies grabbed his wand and threw it out the window, after which he dove under his desk and hid there.

'Harry, I think your sparks are confusing them!' Hermione shouted. 'Maybe we can corral them back into the cage!'

Most of the rest of the class had taken cover like Lockhart at that point, but he, Ron, and Hermione began herding the pixies toward the front of the classroom. It certainly wasn't the most efficient method of dealing with them, but it did appear to be working.

Lavender poked her head out from her hiding place, and upon realizing what they were doing, emerged to join them. Parvati and Seamus soon followed, and then Neville and Dean.

'It's working!' Hermione yelled happily as they pushed forward. She then yelped in surprise and cast a freezing charm on one that came to close to her face. 'We can freeze them, too!'

'Maybe you can!' Seamus yelled back, his wand waving to and fro, sparks of all colors flying about the room. It looked like someone had set off fireworks. 'None of the rest of us know how to do that!'

'It's Immobulus!' Harry yelled over the din. 'Stabbing wand motion, quarter left twist!' He cast it on a pixie that was flying by and it froze in midair.

'How d'you know that?' Ron yelled from his right. He tried it unsuccessfully.

'I don't have much to do in summer other than read my textbooks,' he said, freezing another one. Things were beginning to calm down now, and though the bell had rung, through some unspoken agreement everyone stayed until the pixies were all back in the cage. Both Seamus and Parvati had even managed to cast a freezing charm by the time they were done.

'I thought your relatives locked all your books up in a cupboard,' said Ron, throwing the last frozen pixie into its cage. Lockhart had buggered off at some point during all the commotion and they didn't know where he was. Probably outside looking for his wand.

'Please,' said Harry. 'Breaking into that cupboard is easy. As long as the Dursleys are out of the house or asleep, and I make sure to put everything back, they never know the difference.' Harry and Ginny had prepared this explanation in advance in case Harry ever found himself in a situation where he had to perform a spell he shouldn't necessarily know yet. He hadn't expected to test it so soon, but it was just as well, he reasoned. Setting a precedent in case anything crazier came up later.

'Lucky you thought of that, Hermione,' Dean said. 'And lucky Harry knew how to do it, too. I think we might've been in there all day otherwise.'

The others agreed that Hermione and Harry had indeed been brilliant, then everyone said their goodbyes and headed off.

'Can you believe that Lockhart berk, though?' Ron asked as they were heading back down the corridor.

'He was just trying to give us some hands-on experience!' Hermione said.

'Hermione, he didn't have a clue what he was doing,' Ron argued.

'Rubbish,' Hermione said. 'You've read his books – look at all those amazing things he's done...'

'He says he's done,' Ron muttered.

Right in one, Ron, thought Harry. He chuckled to himself at the thought that Ron had hit the nail on the head right off the bat, then wondered if he had last time, too. Probably. Ron did have an uncanny tendency to arrive at the right answer completely by accident. It had come in handy more than once during Auror investigations.

'Hands-on experience or no, Hermione, he probably should have told us what to do first at the very least, don't you think?' Harry asked.

'He wanted us to think on our feet!' she insisted. 'It's just like Professor Overdeck last year, don't you see?'

'Well, if he did, it was a rubbish idea. We don't cover freezing charms until after Christmas according to Flitwick's syllabus, so there was no way he could've expected us to try that. And I seriously doubt shooting sparks all over the place could have been what he had in mind, either.'

Truth be told, Harry to this day still had no idea what exactly Lockhart had expected to happen in that lesson. The best solution was exactly what they had ended up using – the freezing charm – but as he said, they shouldn't be expected to know how yet. The next best thing would have been color-changing strobe-beacons, but those were even farther off than freezing charms.

No, the only possible explanation Harry could come up with was that somehow, Lockhart bought his own hype and truly, honestly believed he knew what he was doing.

Now that was a frighteningly disturbing thought.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

No big Wham Line to go out on this time. I hope it didn't seem like the scene with Luna was a fake-out. I did want a little suspense obviously, but it was never my intention to make her see right through them. Even for Luna, leaping to the conclusion that two people she's just met must be adults from the future trapped in their young bodies would be more than a bit of a stretch. At the same time, I find it equally implausible that she wouldn't notice something, and come to an at least partially correct conclusion. Hope I managed to pull that off.

Please leave a review if you've the time! I mean, if you find yourself sitting around indoors with nothing to do or something.