Word of the attack in the halls spread through the castle like wildfire.

Justine Finch-Fletchley, the girl that Harry 'attacked' with a snake in the dueling club had been petrified and the person found at the scene of the crime had been Harry Potter himself.

Now Harry noticed that no witch was willing to get within five feet of himself. Any excuse one could make, even those that would be impossible, were given to escape being alone with him.

He was now thankful for the holiday break, even if he rode in the compartment alone back to London. The prospect of seeing Nymphadora again did bring up his spirits because he knew she'd be able to help him.

Arriving onto the platform Harry was met with only Mrs. Tonks.

"Hello Harry," Andromeda greeted her daughter's warlock. She noticed his downtrodden expression though and knew something had upset him and she worried because her news was not likely to help the situation.

"She's not being given a leave from the program?" Harry said is dismay that Tonks was being sent up far into the north, to undergo extreme survival training. Instead of being allowed some time for the holidays to spend with her family.

Shaking her head, Andromeda confirmed that the letter she had gotten from her daughter stated that Mad-Eye was going to really push the final two trainees to their limits. "I'm really sorry that you won't see her until the summer," Andromeda said as Harry's shoulders sagged heavily before to her surprise he set a firm look on his face.

"It's fine, she's following her dream and I said I would support her one hundred percent, even if that means I have to be away from her longer than I expected," Harry said because he'd thought about his talk with the headmaster and he was sure that if he went to the ministry and talked to the aurors they would bring Tonks to him and she'd drop out of the program to stay with him. He knew that she'd do it just to make him happy but he also knew that she'd be miserable for quitting on her dream. And his happiness cannot be at the expense of hers. He could never accept that trade.

Andromeda wondered just what happened to Harry over the last couple of months to draw out such conviction in him, she had wholeheartedly expected that he'd react somewhat as any other child would when told they weren't getting what they wanted.

As the two exited out of the floo into the living room Harry went and put his belongings in the guest room as he had before he went to Hogwarts before coming back down to spend time with Mrs. Tonks until her husband came home from work.

"Mrs. Tonks?" Harry spoke up during the dinner with her and her husband. "What do you know of parselmouths?"

Andromeda set down her fork because that was an odd question to be asked, she didn't think that rare magical abilities were being taught about in the second year of the curriculum. "Some, why do you ask?"

Harry wrung his hands nervously. "Because I am one, I can talk to snakes."

That was certainly a revelation she hadn't expected, not that he did not possess a unique talent, but that it was that talent that he was capable of. "I can see why you might be curious, were your professors hesitant to tell you about the ability?"

"Sort of, I talked to a snake during the dueling club and the other witches in the castle have been… afraid of me since then." Harry neglected to tell her that it was also in part to the two witches and cat that had been attacked over the last couple of months. "I was hoping you would be able to help me find a way to show them that I am not, whatever it is they think I am."

"Well their reaction is not unexpected," Andromeda folded her hands in her lap. "You see, beyond Salazar Slytherin who was the first notable parselmouth on record, another very recent wizard had made a reputation for himself and he was very public about his connection to one of the original founders of Hogwarts, You-Know-Who."

Harry absorbed that information and it made sense to him now why the girls in the castle were acting the way that they did. "So they think I'm the heir," he muttered.

"They think you're the what?" Ted questioned because he was already out of his depth in regards to the magic being discussed.

"Nothing sir, just some rumors going around the school, someone's been playing mean pranks on the girls and it seems I've unintentionally framed myself for them," Harry said because he needed to learn more about You-Know-Who's time in Hogwarts, surely he attended the school during his youth and there might be clues as to who the new heir was. He really hoped it wasn't him though.

"I see, do be careful Harry, just because you are a wizard that does not make you immune to their reaction to fear," Andromeda warned because this would have been the opportune time to have her daughter in the castle with him. As she suspected that Mr. Potter was not being entirely forthcoming with everything going on.

In the days leading up to Christmas, Harry was trying to keep his mind off his problems, but when he spent much of his time with Tonks' parents it just made him wish that Tonks was there with him. Even after doing the shopping to get presents for the people he cared about, looking at the gifts that wouldn't be opened for months sent a pang of longing through his chest. The scarf he bought for Tonks wouldn't be worn until it was too hot to wear it, and he had spent so much time telling the shopkeeper everything he wanted it to do, so that it could change colors, patterns and sizes while also being self-heating.

That along with the dozen other gifts he had picked out for her, ranging from some books on spells, to a new bomber jacket. He had gotten them all for her because he just hoped that buying things would help to fill the void by not being with her, to no avail.

Laying down to go to sleep on the eve of the holiday, Harry had come to a revelation. "I never thought that I'd feel this lonely even with people around me. Maybe that's another reason why wizards have covens. I just wish she knew that I was thinking about her right now."

That made him resolute in his decision to find at least one other witch this year and once he returned to Hogwarts he'd do what he could to salvage his reputation so that would be possible. However he didn't notice that one of the presents had gone missing from the pile, nor was his owl on her perch by the window.


Tonks was struggling. The biting Siberian cold was sapping any heat from her body, she was trudging through the snow to get to the next marker. "Julia!" she shouted over the howling winds, but in the flurry of white she couldn't see more than a foot in front of her. "Julia!"

But there was no reply, she'd been separated from her partner. "Point me, west," Tonks muttered to herself while her hands shook.

Warming charms were doing nothing to combat this severe cold, and she had to keep applying them sooner and sooner as they lasted for shorter intervals. "I can't do this," Tonks said to herself as she huddled behind a tree to keep the wind from hitting her directly. "I'm so cold and I want to go home."

"Point me, west," Tonks shivered and shook while looking at her wand to see it spin and reveal that she'd gotten turned around in this frozen wasteland. Her face started to hurt as the tears began to form in her eyes, they burned and stung and she just wanted to quit. "Mum was right, I'm not cut out for this."

She knew the spell to use, it would send sparks in the air and Mad-Eye would find her. She'd be throwing in the towel and that would be the end of the training program.

Trudging through the snow so she had a clear shot into the sky, she looked up and started to raise her wand when she noticed a speck, it stood out against the elements because even though it was white it was going in the opposite direction of all the snow. "What is that?" Tonks squinted to try and see it better before it sped up and raced towards her.

"Hedwig?" Tonks said in shock because once it was close enough she recognized the owl. Despite seeing dozens of snowy owls over this expedition, Harry's bird was distinct.

The bird landed lightly on the snow, completely unaffected by the subzero temperatures because its natural habitat was the arctic tundra, this was her element. "How did you-" she started to question as the bird hopped forward, something clutched tightly in her talons.

Leaning down to shield the bird in case Harry had written her a letter, which she really hoped he hadn't because she didn't know how she would face him if he was offering her more words of encouragement moments before she gave up. But it wasn't anything like that, instead it was fabric.

Reaching out to grasp it in her hands, Tonks almost let out a shout for the heat coming off it. But it was warm, so wonderfully warm that she immediately snatched it up and held it to her body. Wrapping the scarf around her neck she felt an immediate change in her temperature. It was as if all the love her warlock had for her was protecting her from this blizzard. Of course she knew it was the professionally applied heating charms woven into the very fabric itself, but something about how it came to her in her time of need. "He knew I needed help," Tonks said to herself as she watched Hedwig take off into the sky.

"He's always known when I struggled," a smile crossed her face as she looked to the direction she needed to go. "And is right there to pick me back up when I'm at my lowest. Because he loves me and supports me. And he knows I'm not a quitter."

Letting out a joyous laugh, Tonks marched forward with renewed vigor. "My warlock, my sweet, thoughtful, brilliant warlock believes in me. And I will not let him misplace that belief in some quitter. I will survive this challenge, I will be an auror and when I get back home I am going to pin him down and show him just how much I love him."

It was one mile and an hour later when Tonks saw it, the tent that Mad-Eye said he'd be waiting for them in. She held her head up high as she opened the flap and stepped inside, her arrival had the trainer looking at her in surprise.

Alastor had expected her to give up half an hour ago, the other witch sent up sparks five minutes after she got separated and lost her way, she was still recovering on the cot. Raising an eyebrow because he knew the trainee didn't have that scarf when they left, he'd carefully packed their supplies himself and they were allowed nothing more than that, but at some point she'd picked up a scarf. A clearly expensive one at that, what with the color changing and right now it was showing a multitude of pink hearts and golden lightning bolts. Somehow, someway she came into possession of it.

Grinning down at the surly man who had for the last four months made her life a living hell. "Is that the best you can do, sir?" Nymphadora huffed.

"No… I guess it's not," Alastor admitted because this lesson was supposed to weed them all out, it was his last year as an auror before he retired and he didn't want to see some new punks get hired that barely knew their wands from their assholes. He was tired of the witches in the ranks who fell back on their laurels after so many years of peace, he just wanted to be done with it all and retire to wait out his days. But this damn girl, she didn't give up.

It was starting to impress him.

"Then let's get to it," Nymphadora said as she went over and poured herself a cocoa from the thermos.


The train ride back to the castle was again in solitude but this time Harry sat there forming a plan in his mind.

Once back in the common room, Harry greeted all the witches with a smile. He had read Professor Lockhart's memoir, something he was sure only old people wrote but the man had a lot of advice on how he became so popular. Smile, a smile is your first weapon in disarming your opponent of their fears. If the girls were afraid of him, then he'd just have to show them that he was still the same boy they already knew.

"Hello Fay, Lavender, Corina," trying to speak to as many witches as he could. And he liked to think that it was working, they blushed and giggled. Something that previously had worried him but now was comforting. "Katie, did you have a good holiday break?"

"I did," the chaser nodded with a grin because she'd gotten a chance to spend more time with Oliver. Having a chance to cuddle up with him by the fireplace was magical, she was so glad to have made it onto the Quidditch team last year.

But all his working the crowd came to an end when he saw Hermione walk in. "Hey Hermione it's good to see-," Harry started to say before the brunette just shoved him to the side, sending him toppling over the armrest of a chair as she stormed up the stairs and a few seconds later the loud slamming of a door was heard coming from the girl's dorms.

That had put a damper on his spirits because it seemed like somehow he'd made things worse with the girl. The whole common room got really quiet after that awkward exchange and then moved up to the dorms, leaving Harry frustrated that hadn't panned out.

As Harry came out of his afternoon class, he noticed had some time before dinner to himself, so he was off to the library in search of information on You-Know-Who. If he was the last Heir of Slytherin then surely there was something in the school that had revealed that, and maybe if he could find it too, then he'd learn about what was attacking the witches in the castle.

He had gotten some books on curses that were nearer the back of the library but beyond some quite horrifying applications not a single one of them even hinted at the ability to turn someone to stone or even how you would kill a ghost.

Pinching his brow because he'd already stayed in the library past when Dinner was served, Harry let out a groan before a book slid up to him.

Looking across from him it was Luna Lovegood. "Hello Harry Potter," Luna said as he was flipping through a book on charms.

"Oh hey Luna," Harry smiled at the girl. "Is there something I can help you with?"

He knew that she was a first year student and might be having some problems with homework and at this point anything that could take his mind off of his hunt would be welcome.

"No, but there is something I can help you with," Luna said as she tapped the book she passed to him. "I don't think you are going to be looking for a hex or curse that does this."

"Why do you say that? And why do you think that's what I'm doing?" Harry said as he spun the book that was in front of him around to see it was a text on transfiguration.

"Because if it really was a curse, then the professors would have figured it out by now surely," Luna answered as she turned a page. "And that's why I don't think it's dark magic, everyone else is so focused on finding a counter curse that the solution might be right in front of them."

Taking a moment to think about the conclusion that Luna had gotten too, Harry nodded. "That makes sense, if you used a charm or transfiguration that might be easier and if you just made it look like the dark arts, then that's all they'd see."

With renewed vigor Harry took the book and started scanning through the pages, while Luna assisted at her own pace. But by the time curfew came around, Harry didn't think they were any closer to the solution, except for one detail. He figured that they had narrowed down the search just a little bit.

The next day Harry was in the library and he was going through some charms for dueling since many of them focused on disabling your opponent when a bag was set down. "You're back?" Harry questioned because he had thought Luna was just going to help him that one time.

"Do you want me to leave Harry Potter?" Luna blinked because she had hoped that Harry Potter would still like her help.

"No, please stay, there's thousands of books in here and only one of me, I'll need all the help I can get," Making sure to move his pile of books out of the way as Luna took a seat. Next to him this time instead of across.

Harry was going to ask about that but Luna pushed her book over to him and asked him to explain a word and that to him answered the question since even though he was only a second year it was still one more than Luna had herself.

This continued on for days and days, only stopping for the next Quidditch match, of Ravenclaw vs Gryffindor.


Sitting up on his broom Harry was a little worried if that demented house elf was going to try and send another bludger after him, but that quickly went away as no bludgers came near him at all. Unlike the previous matches he played in, none of the Ravenclaw beaters were hitting the bludgers at him at all, which meant that he didn't have all that much to do until he saw the snitch and went after it. The Ravenclaw seeker just wasn't fast enough to catch up to him and the match ended quickly.

Harry had hoped that would be the turning point for things in the castle to finally be returning to normal but instead there was another student found petrified.

"Oh no," Harry said to himself as the student body was told who it was. A Ravenclaw prefect, Penelope Clearwater. The same prefect that had come across him when he found Justine and Nick. If that wasn't common knowledge then, it was now as everyone saw this as a retaliation for him getting a detention.

Whatever good will he might have started to get back was quickly erased and Harry found that everyone in the castle was afraid of him, even the professors seemed a bit more wary now. Well, everyone except for Luna. The little girl still showed up in the library to help him as if nothing had changed. And he was so grateful to know that at least one single person in the castle wasn't absolutely terrified of him.

And the days turned into weeks and still no answer. But waking up on February Fourteenth was certainly an important day. He'd remembered to do some extra shopping before the holiday break had ended and it did require going into muggle London since Diagon wasn't expected to have Valentine's presents this early, but he'd found a gift that he thought Tonks would, he just hoped that Hedwig would get it to her early enough in the day.

He really hoped that she liked the belt with expanded pouches for all her things since he noticed that during their time over the summer she didn't carry around a purse and just kept it all in her pockets and while he hadn't had a chance to ask an auror about all their gear. He thought she'd be able to put it to use since it was kind of a pain to get things out of robes.

He hadn't expected to get anything in return though, sitting on his bed Harry opened the letter and started to read.

"I'm so sorry that I couldn't go out and buy you something special. You deserve such an amazing gift after what you sent me that I just felt so awful because this crazy coot, who is also probably reading my letter before it gets sent off, wouldn't let me do much but I promise you, when I see you and I've passed this training. I will make it the most memorable night of your life."

"I wonder what that means?" Harry questioned because he didn't think he'd be able to forget any gift Tonks got him, but he carried the letter with him because it helped him to know that at least outside the castle there was still someone who didn't think he was a monster.

"What what means Harry Potter?" Luna asked as she had gotten to the library before him.

"Just a letter from Tonks is all," Harry wistfully smiled as he really needed that today because he was severely missing Tonks.

"I'm sorry, I don't know anyone named Tonks?" Luna hummed because she didn't know everyone in the castle but she liked to think that she at least knew who Harry Potter spent time with.

"Oh right, sorry Luna," Harry realized that they had never met before. "Tonks is the head witch of my coven, and she graduated last year."

He muttered under his breath that she was the only witch in his cover though before exhaling and looking at the books.

"You have a coven?" Luna said in amazement as she knew older wizards had them, but she didn't know that they started making them so soon. Before she realized how what she said might have come across and she blushed furiously. "I mean, not that you can't have a coven whenever you wanted, I didn't mean to imply that I disapproved, I was just surprised and I'm sorry."

Harry could see how upset the girl was over believing she had done something wrong that he had to act quickly to let her know she was perfectly fine, he'd been surprised about his coven too. And he thought that if he knew then what he knew now then maybe… well no, nothing would have changed he still would have pursued Tonks just because of how amazing he knew she was. But he did suspect that it was out of the ordinary for him to start one so soon.

"It's alright Luna, you didn't offend me or anything like that. I know it can be quite surprising to hear. I'm guessing that you grew up with magical parents?" Harry inquired because despite spending the better part of two months together he really knew very little about the girl beyond that she was very helpful and smart because she was able to go beyond the first and second year texts and both of them were now working on the third year books together.

Luna nodded her head then shook it. "I… I had my mommies and daddy and then…"

That trailing off told a lot. She looked far away and seemed to be struggling with something. Reaching over to touch her hands, Harry spoke in a low, calm voice. "Luna, it's okay if you don't want to say anything, you don't have to if it's something you are struggling with."

"No," Luna gulped down because Harry Potter had been so very nice to her these last few months, and she preferred to spend her time with him because once word got around before the winter break that she'd been seen talking to Harry the other witches in Ravenclaw didn't like that. "I-I want to talk about it, I've never talked about it before."

"Well I'm here to listen then," Harry offered a small reassuring smile.

"I grew up with my daddy and my two mummies," Luna stated. "I had Mama Pan and Mama Xeno and Papa Par. He was a muggle man but they were happy to live together my mamas were best friends in Hogwarts. They liked to study rare and obscure magics and animals and that's how they met daddy, he was a muggle crypto…zoo… ologist."

"They told me he was a muggle who studied magical animals, which I thought they weren't allowed to do but my daddy did it anyway, daddy was smart," Luna smiled because she loved hearing stories about all the time Papa and Mamas spent together studying magic. Mama Xeno seemed almost normal when she could talk about her partners.

"But…" Luna sniffled as she couldn't only dwell in the happy times of the past. "One day, Mama Pan's cauldron that she was brewing a potion, she said it was a test to reverse the effects of brain damage. It boiled over, too fast for the protections to stop it and everything was burning."

Harry could see that the little girl was harboring a lot of pain, he figured that this story didn't have a happy ending so he gently pulled Luna over to his chair to sit her in his lap so he could wrap his arms around her.

"Mama Pan started getting me out of the basement until a wooden beam fell on her," Luna's eyes were shimmering. "She got me to Papa Par but the doors were on fire and he couldn't get out so he went higher in the house."

"Mama Xeno was just coming back from the forest when she saw the fire, she ran over to where Papa was waving his arms out of the bathroom window to get her attention."

"Papa told me that I needed to be a brave girl because he and I were going to play a very special game of catch and I needed to pretend to be a ball for it to work," Luna's voice cracked as she remembered her papa picking her up. "Then I was falling until Mama Xeno caught me."

"Papa couldn't jump after because the window was too small and the house was already falling apart."

Luna was openly sobbing and Harry was doing his best to keep tears from forming in his own eyes. Luna's story was heart wrenching, but she needed someone to be strong as she told it. "We had to stay with the Weasleys for a few days until Mama Xeno could start to build us a new house."

"I don't think Mama Xeno got hurt in the fire, but she wasn't okay after it. And people stopped coming over to see us," Luna wiped her cheeks.

"They said Mama Pan was pregnant and I was going to have a little brother, but that Mama Xeno was a bad witch for not putting out the fire."

Harry gasped because what heartless monsters would tell a little girl who lost almost everything that the only person who remained in her life was a bad person for not preventing a disaster nobody could have predicted.

"I didn't have anyone to play with for the last two years because of that," Luna admitted that she'd been a lonely child since the fire. "I hoped that when I got to Hogwarts I could make some friends but everyone just said I was a curse."

Rubbing the girls back Harry closed his eyes because he didn't know how cruel all these witches could be and that being a wizard meant that a lot of this would probably never be directed at himself. "And then when they found out I was talking to you they got really mad at me."

"Why?" Harry wanted to know just why her spending time with him would make things worse.

"They said they didn't want any annoying competition now that the metamorphing um… I shouldn't swear, Mama Xeno said little girl's don't swear. But now that someone else was out of the castle they didn't have to deal with her to get to you."

"Oh," Harry said because he could tell just from the context that some witches in the castle had been biding their time until Tonks left. After all, if they weren't a seventh year themselves then they would still have time in Hogwarts to be around him without her possibly finding out.

"So I'm sorry Harry Potter but maybe they are right, you should find better witches than me. They'd probably help you more than I could," Luna sadly said as she started to pull away only to find Harry was keeping her in his lap.

"I don't want those other witches Luna, you have helped me so much this year," Harry told the little girl because honestly those other witches were only making it that much harder to consider even a single one should be in his coven if that was how they were going to act. He'd never want a bully in his coven. "At the very least, you are my friend and I will never abandon my friends."

Realizing that she had no way out of Harry's arms, Luna just nodded and sniffled because finally after all these years of loneliness someone finally said they wanted to be her friend.

"Thank you Harry Potter for this wonderful gift," Luna said as she hugged the wizard who was kind enough to listen to her.

"It's just Harry Luna, just call me Harry," stroking the blonde hair, Harry decided that they could skip a day or two of research because it wasn't going to do him any good to burn out trying to solve this mystery if it cost him an entire year where he could be meeting new people.