Obligatory Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any character, story element or plot item originally published in the Harry Potter books or movies that I may refer to in this story. I'm merely playing in the sandbox.

Chapter 9

After dinner that night, Harry waited near the corridor where the entrance to the Ravenclaw tower was. Training was skipped as Moony and Sirius both insisted that he resolve this. "No point in cursing you when you're too distracted to learn anything from it." Harry had responded by transfiguring Moony's hair into snakes and ordering them to hiss at him constantly but not bite.

"Looking for someone?"

Luna's airy voice came from behind him, and he jumped. He'd missed her mark on the map showing up behind him. He'd been too focused on locating her near the Great Hall. "Yeah, can we find somewhere to talk?"

She walked away, leaving him to follow her as she led the way to a quiet alcove. She cast a few privacy charms and looked at him. "You can take your cloak down if you want. I'd like to see your face while we talk this time, please."

Harry glanced around for a moment, then slipped his hood back, revealing his face. "That's better. Why were you looking for me?"

"I wanted to apologize. You said that about going to the Yule Ball and I was just shocked. I didn't expect you to say that, then leave."

"I know." She smiled. "I never thought I could surprise you. Then I did…so I gave you time to think."

Harry grinned. "You did and I appreciate that. My tutors made sure I knew what a fool I was."

"Okay." She looked away for a moment. "So, will you take me to the Ball?"

"I was going to…"

"Yes."

He laughed. "I'll never win with you, will I?"

"I guess that depends on your definition of winning." She shrugged. "Anything is possible, I suppose. We live in a world where magic exists."

He shook his head. "I want to ask, though. Will you attend the Ball with me as a friend? I'd like to get to know you better now that I know you could be that friend to me."

She just smiled. "My gown will be silver." As she walked off, she turned and smiled that strange calm smile again. "Ask your tutors."

"Okay."

"Meet me here tomorrow after breakfast and we can talk about dance lessons. Maybe you can introduce me to your tutors?" There was a moment and she frowned. "Why are you afraid?"

"One of my tutors was banned from the school due to his condition. Also, we're meeting in a hidden place. It's not trust, I just don't know how to handle that meeting."

"You're not telling me everything, but you don't think you can." She made a face as she considered it, the expression unreadable to Harry. "Ask them. Let them make the decision."

Harry began describing a different meeting to Sirius and Moony than he had expected. Their response was unexpected as well. "If she doesn't know where she is, she's fine, Harry. You never described the Chamber so only you and Ginny know."

"What about Sirius?"

Sirius shook his head. "This fooled the dementors, it will fool her." He turned into a dog. "Dementors are empathic, too. That's part of the reason most empaths don't share."

Harry made a face at the overly simplistic plan but decided to push forward with his other question. "Luna did with Delacour and she's a stranger."

"You said she guessed. Veela would sense it."

"Fair."

So, the next morning, when he met her, he asked her to close her eyes and he took her hand, snapping his fingers in his other hand. Winky took the signal and popped them both down to the Chamber. Luna opened her eyes and looked around "The Chamber of Secrets?"

"I…."

"Ginny is my friend. She told me some of this."

"Oh."

"I'll keep this secret. Just like I have about your cloak and that spell keeping you hidden."

"Right. I didn't think about that." He gestured to Moony as he approached, the dog at his heels.

"Professor Lupin, I thought it might be you. Harry said you had been banned from the castle." She paused and looked at them both. "What's wrong with the dog?"

"Nothing. He's Moony's."

Luna looked at him. "I value honesty. You both are nervous, and the second tutor doesn't appear to be here."

Harry mentally stared at the black ball he'd shoved his memories into, focusing on that instead of his earlier fears. Luna glanced at him, and her frown deepened. Moony seemed to catch this and spoke.

"Ravenclaws. I had a friend like that when I was here." Moony looked at Luna. "Ms. Lovegood, some things may need to remain secret. I promise that you are perfectly safe here, unless you come while Harry is training. Some of the spell fire can get a little wild during shielding practice." He gestured to the tents. "We had to patch those a few times before finding a set of ward stones to set dueling wards around them."

Luna looked at him for a long moment, then nodded slowly. "Okay." She looked at Harry. "Please don't lie to me. Just tell me you can't explain."

"I'll try to do better."

She smiled at that, then gestured to Moony. "I have a couple questions. Harry and I are going to open the dance, but I don't know how. Daddy never taught me."

Moony blinked. "Not what I was expecting. I think we can arrange something. I'll have to coach you verbally. Anything else would be improper, but Harry will be…" Moony looked at Harry. "Do you know how to dance?"

"I…never thought I'd need to." He shrugged. "Never really thought about it, honestly."

Luna put one arm through Harry's, hugging it for a brief moment. "He has so little self-confidence…hard to think this is the same guy who stared down the biggest dragon I've ever seen."

Moony laughed slightly, looking at Harry. Padfoot's tail wagged at the comment and Luna's gaze turned back to the dog for a moment, then back to Moony. Harry noted the head movement, then glared at the dog.

"I also want some help with school. I don't know how Harry's turning in his assignments, but I need the same help." Her calm smile faded, and she looked away. "My classmates don't like me. I lose my assignments more than I can turn them in."

Harry frowned. "If you give me your work and a copy of your schedule, I can arrange for it to be turned in the same way. Not Potions, mind, which would give it away that you are seeing me and lead to you getting questions asked, but the rest I can help with."

"Where are your Potions assignments going?"

"Both Snape and Dumbledore."

"That explains his change lately. He's taken almost no points from students in class for the last few months."

Moony nodded. "I never said anything to Harry since he basically sits under his cloak and reads in that class after copying the assigned potion down, but Dumbledore confronted Snape. Apparently, he silently observed several classes, hiding in a similar way to Harry."

Harry nodded, thinking of the day he was found at the Mirror of Erised. "He did tell me that a good wizard knows how to be invisible without a cloak."

"That he does. He showed me his stone one day. He may even know what you're doing and is simply not telling anyone. I think he likes pranks, too."

Luna shrugged. "I've never been close enough to him to know. He doesn't meet with most students."

Harry shook his head. "He has some interest in me for some reason."

Luna reached up and tapped his forehead. "Probably this."

Harry shrugged, finding her reference to his score the least he'd ever been bothered by it. "Who knows?"

Luna looked around the room again, answering absently. "Dumbledore, I would assume."

Harry started to defend himself when he realized that this was just her being honest, no teasing involved. He was even more confused. Again, Padfoot barked and wagged his tail. Luna looked back at the dog and narrowed her eyes.

Harry made a wave off sign behind her, and the dog just laid down, what Harry had recognized as his version of a pout. "So, who are you?"

Luna's question made Harry sigh. "Padfoot, you are terrible at this." The dog whined. "Luna, do you promise not to panic?"

"I don't really panic."

The three looked at each other, then at Padfoot. Moony spoke. "All right, Padfoot, you made your bed."

As the dog shifted back into a man, Sirius spoke. "I'm usually better at containing the dog's sense of humor than that."

"Aren't you the singer from…"

"No." Sirius said. "I did that joke one time and never lived it down." Moony slapped him on the shoulder and offered to elaborate, but Sirius growled at him.

Harry snorted. "Luna, meet my godfather Sirius. If he makes a joke about how serious he is, just stun him. Actually, any joke related to that word."

"Okay." She looked at him innocently and Harry smiled at the panic in Sirius's eyes. I think she's going to be a lot of fun to hang around. As he thought that, she looked over at him and smiled sweetly.

"Why don't we move over to Harry's tent and have a seat, discuss what's going on here."

Harry led the way, Luna at his side and he held the tent flap open for her. He sat on the couch, then paused as he took in the living room. There was furniture for three. "I'll get a chair from the kitchen."

"No need." Luna sat on his lap and waited for the two men to stop laughing and sit. Okay, maybe I'm going to be the butt of jokes, too. Luna looked over at him and smiled again, making Sirius fall out of his chair in laughter. Harry was now convinced she was joining in on the ribbing and sighed.

"Stand up both of you and I will enlarge the couch. We have room to do that." Moony had tried to add admonishment to his tone, but Harry had just made a rude gesture at him.

Luna hopped up and stepped aside as Harry rose, stepping away from the couch so Moony could enlarge it. He sat again and Luna sat as well, leaving just a small gap between him and her. "I don't want to make you uncomfortable."

Sirus chuckled, seeming to catch the look as Harry tried to burn him with his gaze. "I think someone keeping Harry in line is a good thing."

When Luna asked about the egg later, after some conversation about how Harry was training, how he was handling the coursework, Harry brought it out. "We know it's a language, but we're having trouble identifying it. A language or a code."

"It's not a code. It doesn't fit. It's repetitive, if you can stand to listen to it, but it's got to be a language. Wizarding cryptography doesn't work in an auditory manner." Moony had slipped into academic mode in his response and Harry rolled his eyes.

"Play it for me, I have been around a lot of magical creatures and beings."

Harry shrugged and opened it, Sirius and Moony covering their ears. Harry winced, not being able to cover his ears against the screeching sound as he was holding the noisy artifact. It played for a few seconds, then he closed the egg. "That's it. We don't know what it is."

"It's Mermish, if they breach the water and speak. Beneath the water, it sounds like your native tongue, as it's a magical language when in its native environment."

"it's…oh. That makes sense. There's a village at the bottom of the lake."

"Well, that's a thing. I can't swim."

"Let's go submerge the egg and hear it under the water in the pool at the end of the Chamber. "Well get the clue, then figure out what the task requires."

The clue baffled him. Everything he owned was down here with him. No one could get to it. "What could they take from me?" No one had an answer.

A/N: I cannot think of anything. Hope you enjoy! Have a great week and, barring fire or flood or alien invasion, I intend to have another chapter up next week.