Harry was moping. It had been a fairly common sight in the days since they had returned to Hogwarts, but that didn't make it any less worrisome to his friends.

The youngest champion was still attending classes. He was still eating in the Great Hall three times a day, still getting out of bed in the morning… but the previously lively debates the trio had had prior to the break now only had two voices. Harry had taken to spending more time on his own, and even when he was physically present with his friends, he had set up a sort of distance between himself and the rest of the world.

Even Hedwig and Monty were being held at arm's length. The only being that seemed to be able to get through Harry's guilt-induced isolation was the dragon egg.

Harry spent long hours tracing the patterns on the egg's shell, murmuring stories and idle thoughts to it in a low tone. He walked the halls and wandered the grounds, cradling the unhatched dragonette in his book bag, showing her the world that was waiting for her arrival.

Hermione's first instinct was to confront Harry and tell him to snap out of it, but a small voice in the back of her head prevented her from taking action.

He needs space.

He needs time and quiet.

That's just how he processes.

While Hermione didn't want to admit it, Luna was right.

Harry was withdrawn and quiet and absent for a full week. Hermione had wanted to pull her hair out.

And then he started smiling.

Not often, and not for long, but he was smiling. Soon, he began to contribute to their conversations again. Slowly, but surely, the weight of guilt began to lift from his shoulders, and Harry rejoined the little world the three of them had built.

Hermione nearly cried with joy when Harry poked fun at her in the library. Even though only a couple weeks had passed since the start of term, it had felt like an eternity to the young witch.

Even after Harry began to return to his usual self, however, he continued his walks with the egg. It was peaceful, and the young wizard had come to rely on that peace.

It was only natural, then, that that peace would soon be interrupted.

Harry was at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. It was bitterly cold (it was mid-January in Scotland after all), and he had stopped in order to cast a quick warming charm on himself and the egg.

He was startled by the sound of something crunching the snow behind him. It sounded similar to the thestrals, but a bit heavier, more purposeful. Harry turned and was confronted with the sight of three centaurs watching him from the tree-line. There were two males and one female, all of whom were dressed in traditional woven and leather earth-toned centaurian garb.

"Harry Potter." The one closest to him, a tan male with curly black hair said. Well, it sounded more like an accusation.

Harry squared his shoulders, "Yes?"

The centaur studied him. The other male, who had fair skin and hair reminiscent of Lord Malfoy, stamped and tossed his head back in the air. "This is the human?" He snorted, "I am not impressed."

Hmm. Apparently his hair wasn't the only thing reminiscent of Malfoy. His personality was shit, too.

The other centaur, a chestnut female with warm brown eyes, tilted her head with a smile. "Yes Wlanc, to the untrained eye, an opal is merely a rock."

The pale centaur (Wlanc, Harry's brain helpfully supplied) flushed horribly and opened his mouth to respond, but the other male halted him with a hand on his shoulder. The female laughed as Wlanc glowered.

Harry decided he had had enough of… whatever this was.

"May I help you?" He asked warily, "I don't suppose you're popping into the castle for a cup of tea and a social visit?"

The dark-haired male snorted angrily, "No. We are here to talk with you, wizard." He threw a folded packet of papers at the young human, "This is the reason for our visit."

Harry picked up the folded papers. "Is this… a newspaper? From Bulgaria?"

It took approximately an hour to convince the group of centaurs that no, Harry was not creating a harem, and even if he were, he would not be targeting the centaurs for the next members. Not that he had anything against centaurs, of course! No, it was the principle of the matter, that was all. Yes, he understood that centaurs were magnificent and he would be lucky to be chosen by such dignified beings.

Guirec, the wary dark-haired male, had been the hardest to convince. It hadn't helped that Alafia (the female) had spent the conversation continuously offering to join the harem anyway. This caused further outrage from Wlanc, which delighted the mischievous young woman(?). Alafia seemed to delight in having fun at everyone else's expense, and Harry was relieved when she finally gave in and stopped offering to 'teach him how to be a real cowboy.'

Harry thought that that would be the end of it, but it was merely the beginning. Apparently, many magical creatures were privy to international wizarding news, and they had concerns.

The letter from the goblins had been strange. The one from the Bulgarian Veela enclave had been flattering, actually. The house elves had been downright disturbing, especially since Dobby had been hell-bent on interviewing every single elf in order to find the one most worthy of his Harry Potter Sir.

Hermione and Luna had started receiving missives as well, from 'prospective members' seeking advice.

So, in a nutshell, it was a mess.

Harry was going to kill Fred and George Weasley.

There was one good thing that came out of the whole ordeal, however. A few weeks into term, Luna had a very productive conversation in the lake.

Yes, in the lake.

Luna would later remark on how silly she felt for not realizing what the language in the golden egg was sooner. In her defense, however, she had only ever spoken to merpeople underwater. She and her father were quite good friends with a lovely mercouple, actually, Ayaan and Syed, who had honeymooned in one of the Lovegoods' ponds when Luna was four. Xenophilius and Pandora had thought it a marvelous opportunity for the three of them to learn about another culture, and so the Lovegoods had gone swimming. This initial visit had resulted in a strong friendship and regular visits over the years.

Having met her mer-friends at such a young age, and having only ever visited them underwater, it was not so strange that Luna had never considered that mermish might sound different on land. She had never bothered to research mermish in the library at Hogwarts, because why would she? She could understand Ayaan and Syed perfectly well (underwater), and her parents had taught her the sign language that many magical beings with hands used as a lingua franca, so it wasn't like she had ever needed to speak it. Plus, she could simply ask Ayaan, who was terribly clever, anything she wanted to know. Much better to cite a primary source, after all.

So when a set of yellow eyes appeared before Luna while she was weaving at the edge of the lake, she was startled to realize she couldn't understand a word of what was being said. That realization was immediately followed by two other realizations: one, that screeching sound was the exact same sound that Hary's golden egg had been making, and two, she was being dreadfully rude by remaining on land when this young merperson was making such an effort to communicate with her!

Luna could almost hear her mother's words. Magical creatures deserve your utmost respect, Moonpie. They live in a world where they don't typically get that respect. They always have to accommodate witches and wizards, so we should do our best to return the favor however we can.

Luna wasted no further time. She took off her shoes (she still secretly marveled at the fact that she once more had shoes to take off), cast a quick warming charm, and hopped into the lake.

"Hello," The melodic voice of the merwoman sounded, and Luna smiled. Upon closer inspection, the merwoman's eyes were more of a warm gold than a true yellow, which brought warmth into her greyish skin. Her hair was a dark purple and styled in thick dreadlocks with lovely bits of shell and mother of pearl woven in.

"Hello," Luna signed back cheerfully, humming as well for good measure. Technically, she didn't need to vocalize, but how often did one have an excuse to sing a conversation? Luna certainly wasn't going to pass up on such an opportunity.

"I am Elspeth. You are Luna? From the wizarding papers?"

"Yes, though I'm afraid they're a bit misleading." Luna signed, thankful for her ability to hold her breath. "You see, redheads really are harmless-"

Their chat was interrupted, however, by… Neville Longbottom, of all people.

You see, Neville had exited the castle just in time to catch Luna's submergence. Wait, her what? He did a double take, but there was no mistaking it. Luna was jumping into the Great Lake. In January. And… not resurfacing. She was not resurfacing!

"Luna!" The young man cried, dropping his books and racing toward the lake. It took him two minutes to cross the grounds, and, as Luna had still not emerged by the time he reached the water's edge, he was understandably panicked. So panicked, in fact, that he jumped straight into the murky waters (cloak, shoes, and all) and landed on top of the young merwoman Luna was conversing with.

It was this series of events that led to a soaking wet Luna and Neville entering the Gryffindor common room shortly thereafter. No one batted an eye at their odd appearance; Luna had become such a common sight there that she was practically a Gryffindor herself, and had shown up under much stranger circumstances in the past. Neville… well, Neville was prone to getting himself in awkward situations, so this really wasn't too out of the ordinary for him.

"Goodness, what happened to the both of you!" Hermione hurried over to them, with Harry following close behind. She quickly cast a warming charm on both of her friends, and Harry followed up with a drying charm.

Neville shot them a grateful smile before gesturing to the blonde witch next to him. "Luna fancied a swim, that's all. And, erm, I may have overreacted. Just—just a tad."

"Oh, it really was quite dashing." Luna smiled, "Neville rescued me, you see—"

"Accidentally assaulted a merwoman, more like it." Neville muttered.

"—And gained an admirer in the process, I think."

"What?" The young wizard blinked in confusion.

"Elspeth was rather taken with your show of bravery, Neville and—"

"I landed on top of her." Neville interrupted again, and Luna ignored it happily.

"—she thought it was very sweet of you to offer her your cloak, even though she is a merwoman and therefore very accustomed to the cold of the lake—"

"I panicked, okay? And she looked like she was freezing!"

"—so you might want to look up Selkie marriage customs, because I believe that's what this group of merpeople are technically classified as—"

"Huh?"

"—and we figured out the gold egg!"

Harry, who had been watching this one-sided verbal tennis match fairly passively up until this point, jolted to attention. "You did what?"

"Yes, it's mermish! I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner, but I've never heard it on land. It sounds completely different underwater, that's why I was in the lake, you see."

"Of course," Hermione said breathlessly, her eyes shining with excitement. "We were on the right track thinking it was a magical language or code!"

"So, we just pop the egg underwater? That's it?" Harry asked incredulously. He couldn't believe it. "I put it in the fireplace to see if it would hatch, but I actually just needed to put it in a bathtub?"

"Um, guys?" A tentative voice interrupted the trio. They turned their attention to Neville, who looked decidedly green, "Can we go back to the Selkie marriage thing?"

A/N: A bit shorter than usual, but this chapter was strangely difficult to write. I love turning the comedic bits into critical plot. points, though, and we're making progress! I'm so excited for the second task, and to bring back some of the elements and characters introduced earlier on in the story :)

Please let me know what you think, and see y'all next week!

Cheers,

PW