Harry snuck into the Great Hall and slid into the seat next to Hermione just as Dumbledore was finishing his announcements. "...And, I am pleased to inform you that the library has been repaired and will be reopened after dinner." He finished with a flourish. "Now that that is all taken care of, tuck in!"

"Harry?"

Harry mentally did his happy dance while crunching on a French roll.

"Harry?"

Finally! Now he could find the book he needed on languages and codes!

"HARRY!" Harry turned to see Hermione looking at him with an amused expression. "You seem a bit distracted."

He smiled wryly. "What gave it away, the accidentally ignoring you or the walking in late?"

"Actually, it was the absurd dancing in your seat. I normally only see that after quidditch games."

Whoops. Guess it wasn't as mental as Harry thought it had been. He mock scowled at her. "I'll have you know, it is most definitely not absurd."

"Oh?"

"Yes, it's dignified and manly."

"Yes, those are exactly the words I would use to describe you."

"Oi! That hurts, 'Mione, that hurts right here." He pointed at his chest.

"You'll live."

"Maybe."

She grinned at him good-naturedly. "So if you weren't in the library, where did you end up this afternoon? I know you weren't in the common room."

"No, I rather value keeping myself intact."

"It wasn't that bad! I'll have you know that Neville mastered the charm an hour ago. That's about the same amount of time it took for you to get it."

"You see, 'Mione, you say that, but I can see the remainder of the bruise salve on your forehead."

She slapped her hand to her head quickly with a look of mortification. Pus yellow was not a good look on anyone. "Oh, I thought I got it all off!"

He laughed. "You did; I was just guessing. But what was that you said about it not being bad?"

"Hush."

"Yes mum."

"Honestly Harry." She huffed. "But really, where were you?"

"Well, after I found out that the library was closed, I went on a walk around the grounds. I figured it might help me think, and I was thinking about swinging 'round Hagrid's for a bit. But then I heard something strange in the forest, around where we meet for class, so I-"

"Harry, I swear if the next words out of your mouth are 'I went to investigate' I am going to hit you."

"Fine, then I won't say it. I don't need to be savagely beaten today." Hermione opened her mouth but Harry hastily cut her off. "Anyway, I went in that general direction to do something which could definitely not be classified as investigation, and I met a girl from Ravenclaw named Luna and saw some thestrals."

"Thestrals? What are those?"

Harry snickered. Typical Hermione. "Thestrals are magical creatures that you can only see if you've seen someone die. They looked a bit like skeleton horses with giant bat wings. They kept flickering in and out of my sight, but I guess that's because I was so young when I saw death. Luna reckons that it didn't fully leave a mark on me, or something like that."

"Is Luna in our year? I don't remember seeing her in any classes."

"No, she's a year below us. And I don't think she's particularly popular in Ravenclaw, either."

"Oh?"

"Well, there were a couple things that tipped me off. The thestrals were skittish around me, because they had never seen me before; you know how that is, right? Well, the thestrals weren't like that with Luna. At all. It was almost like she was part of their pack. And she also mentioned that most people call her Loony Lovegood instead of Luna, and she wasn't wearing shoes."

Hermione blinked. "She wasn't wearing… shoes? In November?"

"My thoughts exactly. She claimed that some nargles stole them, but I figure it was some other Ravenclaws. I wasn't exactly happy to tell people that Dudley was messing with me, either."

Hermione frowned. "That's awful, that they would take her stuff like that. I'm surprised they haven't gotten in trouble with the professors yet. And what on earth is a nargle?"

"It's a tiny mischievous creature. They live in mistletoe and are invisible."

"They what? That's ridiculous!"

He stared at her. "Hermione, we go to school for magic in a castle where I literally just pet invisible death horses and then talked to a dragon in the same day, and you refuse to believe in mistletoe fairies?"

"Fair point." Then her eyes widened as she processed the first part of his statement. "What do you mean, you spoke to the dragon!" She hissed in his ear.

"Oh, did I not mention that?"

Hermione's left eye twitched once, then again. "You may have forgotten that little tidbit, yes."

After dinner, Harry and Hermione set their course for the library.

"So I think that it's some sort of magical language or code. I mean, it would make sense." Harry finished.

"Harry, that's brilliant!"

"Why are you so surprised?" Hermione looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "I'll have you know I have plenty of brilliant ideas." She just kept her eyebrow up and continued looking at him. "Sometimes." He amended.

As they turned the corner, Harry caught a flash of white blonde hair disappear at the other end of the long corridor and smiled. "Oh, this is perfect! Luna, wait up!" He called and picked up his pace going forward. Hermione quickened her pace to match his.

By the time they turned the corner and caught sight of Luna again, she was leaning against a wall and staring at the ceiling while three Ravenclaws that he vaguely recognized from class stood in front of her.

"You know, it's considered polite to make eye contact when someone is speaking to you, Loony." The one farthest to the left jeered in an ugly tone.

"Oh, Mandy, but she's not wearing her glasses." The girl in the middle laughed while twirling a very odd pair of multicolored glasses.

Technically, they hadn't done anything yet, but Harry and Hermione had seen enough. "Hey! What do you think you're doing?"

"Oh, hello Harry Potter." Luna said while still staring straight up at the ceiling. Harry tried to inconspicuously glance up but couldn't see whatever it was she was looking at

The Ravenclaw bullies looked at him like he was insane. "That's none of your business, Potter." The one that had been identified as Mandy said. "Why do you care?"

Hermione stepped in. "Well, Brocklehurst." Right, that was her name. "I dunno if you've heard, but three against one isn't exactly fair odds."

"We weren't even doing anything. Just having a nice chat with Loony."

"Her name is Luna!" Harry said angrily. "And I don't see why any of you need to 'chat' with her."

"Unless you were planning on returning her glasses?" Hermione added, crossing her arms. "After all, you just said they were hers, so I'm assuming that you were just trying to return them. Because otherwise that could be so easily misinterpreted as stealing another student's property, and the school conduct code requires an immediate one-week suspension for that, and repeat offenders are expelled on the third offense." She paused for a moment for effect before smiling angelically. "But, of course, there's no need to get any professors involved."

"Whatever, Granger. We didn't even do anything." The girl in the middle huffed before shoving the glasses at Luna. "Let's just go."

"That's what I thought." Hermione smiled sweetly, and Harry had an idea.

"Hey Hermione." He said loudly while the girls were still in earshot. "If someone is accused of stealing, can the professors check their things?"

Hermione caught on immediately. "Why, yes Harry, if there's a witness to the theft, that's considered enough evidence for a search. And each stolen item counts as a separate offense."

The three Ravenclaws stiffened slightly but didn't say or do anything else. Harry waited until they were out of sight before grinning. "That was brilliant 'Mione- making that up on the spot like that?"

"Oh, I wasn't making that up. The conduct code is really very strict on stealing."

"You read the conduct code?"

"Have you met me?"

"It's really quite an interesting read." Luna's light voice interjected. "Especially the hidden section."

Hermione blinked, baffled. "The what?"

Harry looked back and forth between his friends for a moment before grinning. He wondered if the house elves would give him popcorn.

A/N: This one is a little shorter, so I'll post the next chapter on Friday to make up for it a little. Also, after Thanksgiving I think I'm going to settle into a weekly updating schedule, so do you guys have a preferred day of the week for updates? If you do, let me know so I can take it into account :) Thanks for reading, and see you later! -PW