Harry walked into McGonagall's office, and just as his head of house had said, there were two aurors waiting. The first one was a very tall and physically fit black man, and the other a rather short and comparatively rotund white man. The first auror gave Harry a half smile, which Harry hesitantly returned. Well, one of his interrogators seemed at least somewhat friendly, which was nice… unless they were going for a good cop, bad cop routine. That thought immediately brought up memories of that cheesy cop show that Uncle Vernon used to watch, and Harry nearly snorted out loud at the thought of the shorter auror trying to flip over McGonagall's desk in order to scare him.

Harry was torn out of his musings by the second auror. "Mr. Potter, have a seat." The man gestured at the guest chair, "Do you have any idea as to why we're here?"

The dragon egg in his book bag suddenly felt like it weighed a hundred pounds, and McGonagall's secret warning rang through his head, "Er, no, not really, sir."

The first auror spoke for the first time, "I apologize for my partner's abruptness, Mr. Potter. He seems to have forgotten introductions," He pointedly glanced at the other man, who didn't so much as blink at the mild reprimand. "My name is Kingsley Shacklebolt, and that's John Dawlish. We're here because the auror office received an anonymous tip that you were in possession of some form of illegal egg. Because of this, we would like to conduct an informal questioning. As you are a minor, it is within your rights to have your legal guardian or head of house present for this meeting. You also have the right to legal representation, however, that would turn this meeting into an official inquiry and we would have to relocate to a ministry questioning facility in order to proceed. Do you understand these terms and your rights in this situation?"

Auror Shacklebolt had obviously rattled off variations of that line dozens of times, which was comforting. That implied that this was fairly standard. "Er, if you wouldn't mind, I would like Professor McGonagall to be here for this." Harry couldn't even imagine Petunia's reaction if he had requested her presence for a questioning by the wizard police, but he also wasn't foolish enough to turn down having someone in his corner for this meeting. Professor McGonagall may be strict, but she had been more helpful lately than most of the other adults in his life. Plus, she definitely knew way more about the legal system than he did.

Auror Shacklebolt nodded and crossed the room to open the door. Professor McGonagall was still standing outside, obviously having expected this, and she gave Harry a small approving smile as she entered the room.

Auror Dawlish cleared his throat, "Let's get this over with, then, shall we? Mr. Potter, are you currently or have you ever had a magical creature egg in your private possession? Anything school-related, of course, would not count."

Harry thought for a moment before answering, not certain how much information to volunteer. He decided to be minimal, just in case he might say something that could be misinterpreted and potentially used against him. "Yes."

All three adults in the room seemed surprised at his admission. Auror Dawlish waited for a moment, expecting Harry to continue and at least try to offer an explanation. When none was forthcoming, he continued. "Is the egg still in your possession? If so, what kind of egg is it?"

"Yes, and it's a Hungarian Horntail."

Dawlish's eyes widened slightly, "Mr. Potter, are you aware that dragons are considered class XXXX creatures?"

"Yes."

The man was obviously getting frustrated with Harry's bare-minimum responses. "It is illegal to attempt to hatch any kind of dragon egg in the British isles."

"I never said that I was attempting to hatch the egg." Thank Merlin for Hermione. If he had understood her correctly, they wouldn't be able to pin anything on him as long as he didn't admit to attempting to hatch the egg. He wasn't quite certain about whether possessing the paperwork to file for an exemption would be enough if he did admit it, because it had seemed extremely strange when Hermione had explained it, so he would stick with what he knew was safe for now.

"I- what?" Dawlish was not happy, "Then what are you doing with it?"

"Er, does it matter? Sir, from my understanding, it is only illegal to have a dragon egg if you have the intention to hatch it. At this moment in time, I don't have the intention to hatch it." This was sort of true. He didn't have any intention to hatch the egg, just to protect it and keep it healthy. Really, the egg would hatch on its own from there. Dawlish narrowed his eyes at him, and Harry knew he was in the clear.

"Technically, no, you do not have to answer that. It would make the rest of this interview go much faster, however."

Harry remained silent, and McGonagall gave him a small nod of approval. Dawlish practically growled.

An hour later, Harry was finally allowed to leave. Auror Dawlish had been the main interrogator the whole time, and the man had rephrased the same questions over and over again trying to get him to mess up. Eventually, Professor McGonagall and intervened, and basically said that if they weren't going to ask any new questions, they had no right to detain Harry any longer. After that, he had been released. Harry didn't know what he had done to make the auror have such a vendetta against him, but he was glad that Shacklebolt and Professor McGonagall had been there to keep the man in line.

He made his way to the Gryffindor common room, and wasn't even remotely surprised to find Luna and Hermione sitting in a couple armchairs by the fire. He beelined toward them, pausing briefly to say hi to Neville. The other Gryffindor seemed to be in much higher spirits than he'd been after class, and Harry realized why when he saw the butterbeer cork necklace around his throat. Luna would never cease to amaze him. People thought she was oblivious, but in reality she was probably one of the most insightful people in Hogwarts.

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed in obvious relief, "Are you alright? Professor McGonagall almost never keeps students in meetings that long."

He smiled at his curly-haired friend, "Yeah, I'm fine. And it wasn't McGonagall that kept me. This isn't really a good place to discuss it, though." He said, looking around the room surreptitiously.

"There's a rather comfortable unused classroom on the fifth floor." Luna said, "I used to spend quite a bit of time there."

Harry felt a small pang of regret at the remind of his friend's less-than-ideal first couple years at Hogwarts, but tried to brush it off. He couldn't undo the past, no matter how much he might want to. "That sounds perfect. Lead the way Luna."

In a matter of minutes, they were in Luna's classroom. It was fairly typical, dusty and unused, except in the far corner where there was a blanket and some cushions spread on the floor. The three friends settled on those cushions and Harry explained what had happened.

Hermione's eyes widened, "You're absolutely certain that you didn't admit to wanting to hatch the egg?"

"Yes, that was the only thing that I knew I would be alright saying, so I just kept denying and misleading."

"Good. It really is backwards, how it works with the paperwork and filing. There's not even a grace period between requesting it and declaring your intent."

"So basically, even if they knew I had it and was preparing to bring it in, I'd still be in trouble?"

"Yes."

"Bloody stupid."

"Harry!"

"Well, it is!"

"Hello, Maria." Luna was staring at a section of the wall about five feet to the left of the door.

Harry and Hermione turned to look at her. She didn't turn away from her section of wall, or really acknowledge them in any way. Harry cleared his throat, "Luna, who's Maria?"

"She's the Unspeakable watching us from under a disillusionment charm."

"I- what?" Harry had no clue what she was talking about. From Hermione's sharp intake of breath at the word unspeakable, though, he had a feeling she did.

"There's an Unspeakable here at Hogwarts?"

"Yes, and she's currently rubbing her head and mouthing something about bloody ducks."

Harry had a feeling that 'bloody duck' was not the phrase that whoever it was had been muttering. He drew his wand, "Listen, I dunno who you are or where you're from, but I'm pretty sure that sneaking into a school and spying on the students is frowned upon in most circles."

He suddenly felt a tingling sensation on his skin as the air around the area that Luna was staring at suddenly rippled, and then there was a figure standing there. The person was wearing a black cloak, and seemed to be of very average height for a man or a woman. It was odd, but something about the figure made it hard to pick up any details.

"You know you could take down the obscuring field, I already know it's you."

"One day, Lovegood, I'll figure out exactly how you do that." The woman(?) chuckled, "But taking down my gear is against protocol."

"I imagine having a chat with us might break protocol as well." The blonde smiled.

"Ahh I knew there was a reason I liked you, Lovegood."

"But it's not me you're here for, is it?"

"No, no, of course not, it's Harry!" Hermione exclaimed. "Why didn't I- and with the paperwork, of course they would monitor- oh!"

"So… I hate to interrupt, but uh, what exactly is an Unspeakable and why is one here?" Harry interrupted. Honestly, the rate at which Luna and Hermione were able to understand and then build on each other's obscure knowledge could be maddening at times. First with the dragon, now with this… Harry had a feeling that this was going to be a regular occurrence in his life.

"They came because of the request for the paperwork!" Hermione said triumphantly.

The Unspeakable, Maria if Luna were to be believed, chuckled and nodded. "Yes. While the ministry feels that their laws are sufficient, our department recognizes that there are certain areas where the ministry is… less than satisfactory."

"So what, you were monitoring our mail?" Harry demanded.

"No, not your mail specifically. We screen incoming requests, and if they set off an alarm, send someone to investigate." Maria explained. "Most of the time, we don't end up needing to take further action. Some cases become more complicated than others, however."

"And how do you and Luna know each other?" He asked warily.

"Well, technically speaking, Miss Lovegood there isn't supposed to actually know me. Kid's got an uncanny knack for seeing things that she shouldn't, just like her old man."

Luna smiled angelically, and Harry suddenly had the feeling that this conversation had happened a more than a few times in the past. Hermione chose that moment to chime in, "You said that some cases are more complicated. Is this one of them?"

Maria shrugged. "That remains to be seen. Most of the time, we don't see cases with real, true bonds, which makes this a case of interest. But, so long as it stays fairly low profile and non-life threatening to anyone involved, I doubt you'll hear much more from us. Well, at least not while you're in school."

"Why are you telling us this?" Harry asked, "And why the secrecy?"

Maria shrugged again. "I can only tell you so much, but I'm sure you'll figure it out." She pulled out a small piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to the wary wizard. "If you're ever in a bad situation with that egg, touch this and say 'chicks dig scars'."

Harry felt his eye twitch as Luna giggled. "What?"

Maria laughed. "Well, it had to be something that you wouldn't normally say, and it seemed fitting. You'll get the reference in a few years." And suddenly that tingly feeling was back again, and Maria was nowhere to be seen.

Harry blinked. "What the hell?"

A/N: Hey guys! I hope you all had a very merry Christmas, or Hanukah, or whatever you personally choose to celebrate! It's hard to believe that it's a new year, but hopefully it will be a much better one than 2020.

I wasn't super happy with this chapter last week, so I decided not to post it and to spend time with family instead. I revamped it, and while it's still not great, it's definitely better than it was. And now I'm debating whether or not Harry should get recruited by the Unspeakables, or if they should just be a little helpful. Oh well.

Also, I came to a decision about the Yule Ball, and I'm very VERY excited to write that. It should be coming very soon, and I plan on speeding up the story and getting started on the romance now that I finally have all the foundations laid down. Whew. That was a lot. Okay, please leave a review and tell me what you think, and I'll see you next week!