Harry smiled as he changed into his pajamas. The party had been classic Gryffindor- loud, abrasive, and ridiculously fun. Fred, George, and Lee Jordan managed to sneak in some firewhiskey for the upper years, and the ensuing chaos would likely be passed down as legend to future Gryffindors for years to come.

The only damper on the festive mood had been near the beginning, when Harry opened the golden egg for them all to see. It had sounded like a cat singing 'Ave Maria' while simultaneously being on fire and giving birth, and he had immediately snapped it closed again. The room was silent for a moment, but then one of the twins said, "Harry, that sounded like one of Mum's howlers." And just like that, the party resumed. It went strong until around 2:30 am, when Professor McGonagall knocked on the portrait and ordered the remaining few partiers to bed. Fred and George would later swear that after everyone else went upstairs, they had drunkenly challenged her to a drinking contest, which she had then won, but not even the first years were gullible enough to believe that story.

A soft shifting sound from one of the other beds caught Harry's attention. It was Ron's. The curtains were closed, just as they always were, and he sighed. Ron had been one of the only people not in attendance at the party, and he just couldn't figure out his problem. Whatever—if Ron was just going to keep ignoring him, then he wasn't going to lose sleep over trying to figure him out. He climbed into bed and shut his eyes, and was asleep in minutes.

Harry was frustrated. He had learned his lesson on procrastinating after the First Task, and had set about figuring out the egg's clue immediately. But, no matter what he did, the egg just screeched at him. In the two days that had passed since he first opened the egg, he had opened it at different times of the day, hit it, tapped it with different sequences, used Finite Incantatem on it, and filled it with various potion ingredients. He had even used Hermione's suggestion and put it in the fire to see if it would 'hatch', or in this case, do something other than destroy his eardrums. The only thing that came of that was quite a bit of swearing and a trip to the hospital wing for burnt fingers.

Okay, he just needed to calm down and think about it rationally. Bagman had said that they needed to figure out the clue. That implied that the screeching was in some sort of code, or, if it wasn't, then it was a distraction from the real clue, which would be on the outside or inside of the egg. He didn't see any symbols decorating the outside of the egg, or when he opened it, so unless the symbols were hidden in some other way, it was probably the first option. Either way, though, he would likely need some sort of spell to break the code. That meant it was time for the library.

He stopped by the common room to see if Hermione wanted to go with him, but saw that she was tutoring Neville on the summoning charm. He would have liked her company, but he liked not being concussed by flying furniture even more, so he left them to it and hurried to the library. He stopped short though when he saw the notice on the door. It was only about 2:40 pm, and on a Sunday too, but Madam Pince had closed the library because two 'squabbling ruffians who didn't respect her books' had decided that it was a great place for a fight and now some rather extensive damages apparently had to be repaired. Brilliant, just brilliant. Well, if the universe was conspiring against him, then he may as well listen. He decided to go for a walk outside- the weather was rapidly changing from fall to winter, and maybe catching some fresh air before it was too cold to really enjoy it would help him to think.

After circling the lake once, Harry felt significantly calmer. As he turned to walk along the edge of the Forbidden Forest, he started musing on the events of the last couple days. If he really thought about it, the situation wasn't actually that bad— he had already tested several theories, and even failure was progress. Plus, he had at least a general idea as to what to research, so that was good.

There was a faint rustling sound coming from the trees to his left, and he recognized the path to the clearing that Hagrid used so often for demonstrations in Care of Magical Creatures. It wasn't a route that he had ever taken for a casual walk, but he was familiar enough with the area to know that that sound didn't normally occur. The rustling continued, and Harry decided to investigate. He knew that clearing pretty well, and if there was something dangerous, then he was within sprinting distance of Hagrid's hut and could easily send up red sparks as well.

He walked for a few minutes down the trail. Once he had entered the clearing, he saw something moving in the corner of his eye. He turned toward it, but couldn't quite make out what it was; one moment, there was something black and white, then the next moment nothing at all. Whoever or whatever was there seemed to be flashing in and out of his vision.

"Hello." A strangely lilting voice said from behind him.

Harry jumped and turned around. Thankfully, the voice belonged to another student. Her robes identified her as a Ravenclaw, but he didn't recognize her beyond that. If he had to guess, he'd say she was in the year below him, because while she could have been a fifth year, she was a bit on the short side and he had never seen her hanging around with Cho Chang's group- her white blonde hair was rather distinctive, so he liked to think that he would have noticed her. Then he realized that he had never actually responded to her greeting, but she didn't really seem to mind (or even notice) his staring. Her eyes were fixed on a location just over his left shoulder. "Hello." He waited a moment before realizing that she was content to let the conversation end there, and so he turned to see what she was staring at.

There were three more flashes of movement in quick succession, and this time Harry managed to see a distinctly horse-shaped body, and a pair of leathery wings. He rubbed at his eyes before looking again, but he could no longer see anything. He turned back to the Ravenclaw. "Erm… I don't mean to be rude, but do you see something moving over there?"

She tilted her head, but didn't move her eyes away from the creatures to look at him. "The thestrals. Don't worry, they won't harm you. You're alive, so you're not much concern to them… Well, unless you have food."

"Thestrals?"

"Yes. They're very rare- we're really rather lucky to have a herd this size at Hogwarts."

"A herd?" Harry could barely catch glimpses, but this girl was seeing a whole herd?

She finally turned to look at him, her silvery blue eyes seeming ever-so-slightly out of focus. "Can you see them?"

Harry paused. "Sort of, I guess. I keep catching movement on the edge of my vision, and I thought I saw something that looked like a horse, but it's only in flashes and then they keep disappearing."

She hummed slightly and went back to looking at the creatures. After a moment, she started speaking softly. "You are very lucky, Harry Potter. Thestrals are heavily associated with death. To see them, you have to have both seen death and accepted it."

Harry could only think of one time that he had seen death, and he had been a toddler. "So I never accepted death?"

"I don't think so, or at least, not exactly. It's more like death didn't accept you. It didn't leave its mark."

Harry shivered. Something about that sentence felt foreboding, but it also rang true. He shook it off and was about to ask more before he realized two things. One, this girl must have seen someone die, which was extremely personal and probably painful. And two, he still didn't know her name. He waited another moment before speaking again. "I'm sorry, but I don't seem to recall your name…"

"That's quite all right, Harry Potter; you've never spoken to me before. I'm Luna Lovegood. Most people call me Loony though."

"Oh- erm, do you prefer that?" Harry was confused, but he had a feeling that that would be a common theme in this conversation.

"Oh no."

"Right- er, I'll call you Luna then?"

"That would be lovely, thank you." It was at that moment that Harry noticed Luna's footwear, or lack thereof.

"Um… Not to press or anything, but where are your shoes?"

She smiled lightly. "The nargles took them."

"Nargles?"

"Oh yes. Hogwarts has a nasty infestation. Particularly in the Ravenclaw girls dorms." She said in that same lilting voice, and something in the air changed. It felt much less serious all of a sudden, and Harry grinned.

"Tell me about them?"

Her eyes shifted toward him briefly, but they still weren't completely focused. "Would you like me to?"

Harry grinned at her. "Well, if I didn't then I don't reckon I'd have asked."

Her eyes were no longer aimed toward him, but to Harry they seemed to be just a little bit brighter than before. "Alright." And with that, Luna began explaining her theories about nargles and wrackspurts and all sorts of things that Harry had never heard of before. He settled against a tree trunk a few feet to the left of her, content to just listen and ask the occasional question.

"Okay, but what about the house elves?" Harry laughed as he walked next to Luna. Time had passed rather quickly as they spoke in the woods, and he was walking her back to her tower so she would have time to find some shoes before dinner. Harry thoroughly enjoyed hearing about Luna's creatures, and he believed her (mostly) compelling evidence. But, he also had a niggling suspicion that it wasn't just nargles taking her things. She seemed too nonplussed about 'losing' something as essential as shoes, and the thestrals were entirely too comfortable around her, which implied that she spent a good amount of time with them. Due to his days in primary school, Harry was intimately familiar with how students treated anyone different, and Luna… well, she was definitely different.

"That's what makes them so brilliant! You need butterbeer caps to keep the nargles away, because they're invisible you see, but house elves have such a low tolerance that they can't drink enough butterbeer to gather the caps."

"Could they just take some caps from student parties?"

"They could, but would they?"

"Touche."

"Three-shay."

"What?"

"Hmm."

Harry laughed again.

They made it to the grand staircase when Luna suddenly stopped and turned to look at him. "Did you know that they're planning on moving the dragons in a week?"

Harry started. "No, I didn't." He paused, "How did you?"

"I asked the keepers."

"Oh."

"I thought you might want to know. During the task, it looked like you and the dragon got along quite well."

"Yeah, that's actually really helpful, Luna. I made a promise, and it looks like I don't have very much time to keep it." He thought about it for a moment, then sighed. "Would you be alright walking the rest of the way on your own? I hate to scarper on you, but I don't know if I'd be able to get out to the dragon pens after dinner, and if I don't do it tonight I might not get another chance until next weekend, when they're scheduled to leave."

"I don't mind, Harry Potter. I'm rather used to being on my own."

"Well, don't be too used to it. I have a bit of a habit of spending time with my friends."

"Friends? Are we friends now?" Luna asked. She sounded rather surprised.

Harry decided to just go for it. "Well, I'd like to be, if that's all right with you."

She looked at him again, and for the first time all evening, her eyes were completely focused. She gave him a small smile. "It is, very much so."

Harry grinned right back at her and saluted as he turned to go back outside. And to think, all that happened because some idiots started a fight in the library.

Two days earlier, Gryffindor common room, 2:30 AM

"And that's why yer adopted." Fred slurred at George.

"Mate, if I'm adopted, then you're adopted, too." George slurred right back.

"Nooooope. I'm just so good lookin' that they put a glamor on you and said 'woooo, Freddie number twoo!"

Lee butted in, "We're all adopted. That's why we don't match."

Fred looked at him for a second, then grabbed Lee's hand and compared it with George's. "Oh my God. He's right. George, you're the wrong color."

"No, you."

"No, you!"

"No one's the wrong color!" Angelina protested. "We're a modge podge."

Katie snickered, "Your mom's a modge podge."

"Hey!"

"Hehe, that was easy."

"That's what your dad said when he met your mom!"

"Hey!"

"Ohhhhhhhh she got you!"

Suddenly there was a sharp knock at the portrait hole, which then opened to reveal Professor McGonagall in her night gown. She looked at them all disapprovingly. "I sincerely hope that none of you are in the state which I suspect you are in right now."

The remaining fifth, sixth, and seventh years looked at each other for a moment and then the majority of them mumbled things along the lines of "No ma'am." And "We were just heading to bed." Within moments, they had all vanished upstairs. Well, all except for Fred and George, who were attempting to vanish some bottles with varying degrees of success.

"Misters Weasley, I am willing to ignore this… slight infraction if you will stop endangering yourselves by attempting magic in your altered states."

"But Minniiiie." George whined. Professor McGonagall's eye twitched at the address.

"Haven't you ever had fun before?" Fred finished.

"Nah, look at her mate. She's too uptight- bet she's never had firewhiskey in her life."

McGonagall's eyes glinted and with a wave of her wand, the table was cleared except for three shot glasses. "Sit down boys. I believe that I've been challenged." The twins gaped at her and she grinned. "Unless you're too 'uptight'?"

Forty Minutes Later

Fred and George were… not well. Professor McGonagall, however, looked the same as ever, as though pounding eleven shots in less than an hour was nothing out of the usual.

From his spot under the table (and yes, she had quite literally drunk the two of them under the table) Fred groaned. "How?"

McGonagall smirked at them. "Practice, Weasley. This?" She gestured at the wreck of the common room around her "Is nothing compared to my day." She stood up. "Good night gentlemen." She walked back to the portrait hole before turning to look at them one last time.

"Oh, and feel free to tell the others, boys." She grinned. "No one will ever believe you."

As the portrait slammed shut, Fred looked at George with wide eyes. "I think I'm in love."

A/N: And that's chapter 2! I didn't think I'd post again this quickly, but I literally couldn't wait to post that Fred and George scene. I have been rereading it and grinning like a maniac for days now :) I think Chapter 3 will be up on Wednesday or Thursday, so I'll (figuratively) see you then! And please remember to Review or PM me with any thoughts, ideas, complaints, requests, threats, etc. I can't respond to all of them, but I do read them and take them all into consideration.