Expectations Defied
Harry found himself restless and wanting to be anywhere but in the library, doing anything but more Arithmancy.
He stood and packed up his books and parchment. While he did that, he looked around, first with his eyes: almost empty library, nothing amiss except how empty it was, and then with his magic:
He could pick out the doors of Lion's-Keep and the door of House of Granger, He could pick out his thralls, not quite by their marks alone, but easily enough with the added context of their direction from here.
Parvati and Ginny's gold marks were similar, and both in Ravenclaw at the moment it seemed, Susan and Snape's wand holsters were mostly similar, and both underground at the moment, but were constructed from leather from different parts of different dragons. Padma's mark was bothering to exist in the real world right now. Which either meant she was hiding, but … probably meant she was horny. And … Oh, in bed with Ginny.
Interesting.
Whereas Parvati was one floor lower in the tower and sitting with Luna.
Luna was feeling relatively safe for being in Ravenclaw. Maybe Ginny and Parvati were collaborating on keeping her company when either of them wanted alone time with Padma. That was wise and considerate, he ought to compliment.
He checked the time.
He'd missed lunch, but only barely.
That's why he'd just gotten so much done since his last interruption, everyone else had gone to lunch and left him with space and quiet to think. In other words, it was a long time since the last interruption.
Possibly the rest of Lion's-Keep in Ravenclaw had also just taken advantage of the relative privacy of lunch hour. He frowned.
Perhaps he could offer his people a more substantial reward than a mere compliment.
He went to the kitchens and ordered a picnic basket for 'six'. (Parvati and Ginny had high metabolism)
.
He got to the door to Ravenclaw Tower and heard enough muffled talking just beyond to guess that he'd only barely missed the rush back from lunch.
If he hadn't stopped for the food, he might have managed to sneak in without having to face the door alone.
"I'm the part of a bird that's not in the sky," said the eagle, "I can swim in the ocean and still remain dry. What am I?"
"How should I know?" muttered Harry.
Damn, Harry, you're pathetic at riddles. You even know that one.
Thanks, Bella. But … no, I don't know that.
You didn't even try. Think it through, at least as hard as you try to think through one of those missing rune puzzles you're so good at. Or guess the missing ingredient potion games in the quibbler.
Humph.
The door repeated itself.
Is it supposed to do that?
Sometimes when you ask a question it seems to think you're asking for a hint, or when you talk quietly enough it assumes you're figuring in your head, not answering yet, and lets you keep trying, instead of locking you out until you go away or someone lets you in.
Really?
So I've heard.
Oh.
Do you know this one?
Yes, and so do you. Stop thinking like Hedwig, and think like a Seeker.
What?
There's an easier version of this riddle that doesn't talk about what part of the bird isn't in the sky, and instead talks about what part of it remains on the ground.
The part of the bird … or quidditch player most commonly seen left on the ground?
Exactly.
Oh, obviously.
There you go.
"A shadow," said Harry.
The door opened.
You're right, I should probably practice that sort of thinking.
"Yo, David!"
Harry looked up at some seventh-year girl he didn't know. A couple of others echoed the greeting with an absentminded perfunctoryness. Except most of them said, "Wotcher?" or "Wotcher, David."
She finished glancing him over, apparently in a triple take, "You're not David!" she said, "What are you doing here, Potter?"
"Came to check on Luna and my fiances."
"Fiances?" exclaimed a boy, "Your French is horrible."
Harry stared at him.
"Definitely related to David," leered a girl.
"Can you leave the stairway on the girl's side of the tower too?" "That's impossible!" "The way David can?" "That's not possible?" "I've seen David do it."
Harry let his eyes widen, "That remains to be seen."
But the eye flicks and head turns that had followed that question told him exactly where to look for the girls' stairs.
So he crossed the common room in that direction but was waylaid by a large boy with drooping eyebrows, and hair that appeared not to have been trimmed since at least Christmas. But then, about half of ravenclaw boys adopted that look without it meaning anything, it didn't look dirty, just long, and without the crisp lower edge that Harry liked, and magic let him pull off better than was actually natural. And Harry thought he could remember this boy's being short after Christmas. And now it looked like he had trimmed back his bangs with a potion knife to keep it out of his eyes, and that was about all.
"Still not speaking to me?"
Harry had seen the boy seated at the Ravenclaw table for years. He was always looking, always from a distance, always embarrassed to be caught looking. Probably a fan. Didn't join AHDT.
"Not intentionally," said Harry, "I have not the slightest idea who you are."
The boy swallowed, "Ben Windrow," said Ben Windrow.
A familiar name. But the context didn't seem to be Hogwarts, and Harry hadn't had a face to go with the name.
"Do your parents—?"
The boy nodded and widened his eyes expectantly.
"Drat I lost that too," said Harry, "I still have no idea who you are."
The boy, Ben, looked disappointed, even scared.
"Best subjects?" said Harry.
"Herbology, Potions, History," said Ben.
"Well, that explains why we haven't crossed paths much."
Ben shrugged and rolled his eyes.
Then he grabbed Harry and dragged him up the stairs.
.
Behind them they continued gossiping about him, whether it was his first time visiting the tower, whether he'd really brought food, (Yes, if the smell of his basket was any indication.) Etc.
Apparently right after the after-lunch rush wasn't a particularly discreet time to enter Ravenclaw.
"And the thing you didn't ask," said Ben as they climbed, "And outside of school, Herbology not potions is more in line with my out-of-school hobbies. Though they're kind of both involved."
"Ah," said Harry, "Which hobbies?"
"Fabric dying," he shrugged, "In school, I have to limit myself to sketching."
"Fabric dying?" said Harry, "and not fibre dying and then weaving?"
"Exactly," said Ben, "have you ever heard of wax-resist printing?"
"No?"
"Shibori?"
"No?"
"Basically … Think of tie dying, except instead of circles and rubber bands, you use sew pleats in where you want them, or in a different technique, sew a running stitch exactly where the lines in your design should go and pull the seam so tight that the dye cannot soak in there, and only fills up the rest of the fabric. The timing of the dipping-then-washing can be tediously precise, but you can get some neat patterns."
"Interesting. No, I've never heard of that before."
"But you have heard of tie-dying?"
"Everyone's seen that these days," said Harry, "though not everyone knows what's involved."
"So you are aware of the muggle world," said Ben.
"Very," said Harry, "you might have more success calculating my ethics on some topics by thinking of me as a muggle-born."
Ben froze and let go and turned back to stare at him.
"Do you have a problem with that?" growled Harry.
Ben shook his head, then grabbed Harry again, by the wrist this time. And growled back, "I'm not letting you go until I understand why you felt it necessary to say both of those last two things."
He had the wrist of Harry's wand arm, and neither of his wands was backward in their holsters.
Not an oversight I should have made. Harry could think of two different ways to bring his elbow around to point in the correct direction, and at least four different spells he could use at that point. One might destroy the fabric of his clothes and two … five might kill Ben depending on how he fell and…
"Which martial arts have you taken?" said Harry.
"None, why?"
"I'm just trying to gauge how far out of my way I need to go to keep you from breaking your neck when we wrestle on the stairs about you grabbing my wrist."
Ben tensed, then let go and pulled his hand back.
"Mercy, my lord," said Ben, "I meant enough rudeness to demand your attention, not … … not enough to be taught my place. I … I know my place."
"Doesn't seem like it," growled Harry. Then heard himself and snickered.
"What?"
"Something something muggle-born ethics," said Harry, "to state from my 'position' in the local culture, It does look mildly like you don't know your place, it also doesn't look to me like I have any responsibility to teach it to you."
"Yes, That is the entire problem," said Ben, "Can we please discuss it somewhere more private? (And preferably not fight at all.)"
"Depends on how much more private you want," said Harry, "But yes. Do you have a suggestion to make?"
Ben shivered, "two flights up, work room, hardly anyone uses it this time of day."
"Fine," said Harry.
.
Apparently, it wasn't 'the girls' stairs' it was just 'the stairs.' And each landing had three doorways: One on each side, lacking handles, and an open archway in the middle leading to another common room. Desks or shelves around the outside, and sitting areas, tables, or work benches in the middle.
The sitting area of the second floor up was notable in that it had beanbag chairs. It seemed to be full of first- and second-year students playing card games.
Right, people that studied year-round based only on their personality type, might not even notice exam season as a thing to worry about or prepare extra for… or not before the additional load of third-year electives, maybe not even until the hype that failing OWL tests might keep them out of the classes they enjoyed.
The third-floor room was empty of people, but full of workbenches and stasis fields. Right, communal potions lab. Ben led Harry to the left-hand corner farthest from the stairs.
When they reached the wall, he turned back to face the way they had come. Ben glared at someone who might or might not have hoped to eavesdrop. Harry helped. After an awkward moment that someone continued up the stairs without a word.
Ben took a deep fortifying breath, "I tried to speak to you about twenty times during your first year."
"And … I was too caught up in getting to classes on time and not lost that I didn't notice?"
"Yeah, and the Weasleys talk a lot louder than I do. And first-year students of every house are warned against older bullies in other houses, so you probably were primed to expect ill of me on that front as well."
"Plausible," said Harry, "And I suppose you'd given up by my second year."
"1992 was a weird year," said Ben, "and yeah, you've had way too much spotlight for me to dare get close ever since."
"That's fair," said Harry, "I'm not really a fan of the spotlight either, though … for a while the quidditch thing was a nice change, having a spotlight for what I did instead of what my parents did."
"Valid," said Ben, "that might be part of why … I wanted you to notice me for yourself, instead of for … my family name."
"Makes sense," said Harry.
"So do you forgive me?"
"For what?"
"For not … braving the spotlight enough to get your attention."
Harry sighed, "Probably. What the hell do you want my attention for, now that you have it?"
Ben flinched hard and stepped away, "If you really want me to get lost tell me, I won't speak to you again."
"I'm tempted to go along with that," said Harry, "But only because I have way too damn many fans trying to take up my time, and I only came here to deliver lunch to my wives, err fiances. But both of those things don't have anything to do with you. So try again to tell me why I should care so much that you exist, that you feel the need to apologise for not alerting me sooner."
"God you're dense," said Ben.
"I'm not a ravenclaw," said Harry, "I'm a 'hat stall' that was too impatient to ask since this is a school, how could I get the best results from being here? So I haven't had the benefit of the eagle door exercises every day either."
"I'm sorry," said Ben, "I get that you're impatient right now also, I just have no idea how to explain quickly, or how much you even need to know."
"Probably start at the beginning?" said Harry.
"No one has time for that," said Ben clutching his face, "Merlin, Now I wish I had kidnapped you that first year and had started at the beginning. Then things could have gone the way they should have."
"That sounds remarkably like something Draco said to me two and a quarter years ago."
Ben stood up straight and turned to stare at Harry. So much for watching out for eavesdroppers.
"Alright, binary search, for how much you know and how far ahead we can skip," Ben reached in his pocket and held out a square of black leather, do you know what this is?"
Harry took it and flipped it over.
A House of Potter belt crest.
"Of course I do," said Harry, "Why did you steal it from Luna?"
"Luna who?"
"Luna Lovegood,"
"No, I didn't. Why would she have one?"
The leather in Harry's hand was warm from being in Ben's pocket, a warmth that wasn't marred by dragon hide's illusion of coolness as it sucked magic from the nearest living thing. Also, this was showing signs of wear, maybe decades old, but most of it sitting in a drawer waiting for the next honour feud violent enough to require it. Both features added together meant: it wasn't dragon hide, it was cowhide dyed black. And it wasn't as well embroidered as what Harry had bought. Or maybe it was just very very old.
"Where did you get this?" said Harry.
"From my grandfather," said Ben.
"Oh," said Harry, "Oh, Merlin."
"He gave it to me last summer. As a reward for passing my defence OWL, even though I only managed an A, He said I was never to wear it until you said."
"Alright," said Harry, and handed it back, "Let's clear up some things, First, I only learned what these were in January, and bought one in early February. Second, as of last weekend, I've run out of enemies of high enough priority that they might require … hmm no that's not true, there's still the ambassador to Kazakhstan who might need dealing with. Hmm, well Lord Black thinks she's been dealt with, so I'll refrain from worrying about it for now."
"In January? Hell." said Ben, "What did happen last weekend?"
"It's in last Monday's quibbler, thanks to Luna."
"That does not fill me with confidence."
Harry shrugged, "summary: 80-some death eaters executed for trespassing in Potter Manor. Ernie McMillan is dead, he was killed while tending to a prisoner. Having temporarily run out of my allies and mercenaries to tend to first."
"Hell," said Ben.
"The half-blood bastard that styled himself Lord Voldemort was found dead after the ambush, apparently killed by Walden MacNair's axe, it is unclear whether Walden MacNair was wielding that axe at the time."
"Hell," said Ben.
"War is," Harry agreed, "So where does that leave us … Oh, yes, my third point, You'll never be able to make it up to me that you didn't kidnap me from Kings Cross Station on the way home from Hogwarts, June of 1992."
"Umm?" said Ben, "alright that's not a bit of timing I'd ever have guessed."
"If you'd managed to sneak through the protective screen of gryffindors to get to me earlier than that, I might have told you, or I might not. As I said, You'll never be able to make it up to me, so I might as well forgive you. And likewise … I'll never be able to make it up to you that I didn't invite you to AHDT, back in … late November, I did not mean to snub you, please forgive me. You're welcome to attend next year if you want."
"What is AHDT?"
"Associated Houses Defence Training, a section-28 organisation."
"A section-28 orga… Oh, hell yes," said Ben, "You're leading it?"
"I, Susan Bones, and Miss Carmichael," said Harry.
"Carmichael? Interesting."
"Though we should have deeper leadership reserves available next year."
"Of course," said Ben, "What else?"
"Are there any other members of House Potter attending Hogwarts right now that I don't know about?"
"Who do you know about?"
"You, me, Ginny Weasley, and Luna Lovegood. Ginny's brothers are allowed to hang around some, brother-in-law privileges."
"That figures," said Ben and frowned. Not anger or sadness, maybe just annoyance? Oh, that he'd just invited himself into a group only to learn that some of the most notorious pranksters were already present.
Harry looked at him expectantly.
"Oh," said Ben, "No, there are no other members of House Potter attending here right now. I'm the youngest in my family and Dad was the youngest in his. Your father was born way out of rhythm with the rest of the house."
"Certainly," said Harry. That answered whether the House of Potter had once followed the tradition of synchronising house births. Or was that house marriages? It was a fraught topic, that Harry hoped he never had to dictate to anyone about.
"I suppose that's why he had you so early?"
"Perhaps," said Harry.
"Hmm, well anyway, I've got an older brother, and of course, the Wendells are still around, but they're all older and most of them transferred to House of Ogden in the eighties."
Harry blinked, "While I was being kept incognito in the muggle world."
Ben nodded.
"Alright, house history question," said Harry, "are we allies, friendly rivals, or enemies of the House of Ogden?"
"Politically: allies. Economically: friendly rivals," said Ben.
"As it should be," said Harry, "Perfect."
"Or that's the vibe I get, I haven't made a thorough study of that, among many other things. The other thing I gather is that without strong figureheads, and other things, we've been mostly selling to the muggles at commodity prices, rather than being able to market to the wizarding world."
"Got it," said Harry, "so … what exactly do your parents do?"
"Dad's CFO of one of your wineries, Mum's pretty high up in research, and tillage. Same winery."
"And you take after your Mum?"
"Definitely," said Ben.
"How about your brother?"
"In uni, he takes after Dad."
"Good," said Harry, "and you said you have a grandfather still around?"
"Yes, but … he's not all there sometimes, and rarely leaves his house."
Harry shrugged, "that's fine. Is that all?"
Ben shrugged.
"Alright," said Harry, "Now I return the favour: Heir Bones and Heir Longbottom are my personal friends, and we're playing at being ally houses, though I'm not sure how official or permanent we can make that before they officially take up responsibilities."
"Sure."
"The House of Granger is mostly an allied house at this point, not that we have anything in writing yet."
"How does Granger have a house?"
"The normal way," said Harry, "She filed letters of patent with the house registry office."
Ben glared at him.
"What?"
"You just happened to know that?" said Ben, "and you never bothered to check said registry office for what our House Charter looks like or how many members we have registered."
"Damn," said Harry, "No, I never thought to,—
Nim, why didn't we check before?
I did, they were farmers and money counters, you need to be a lord. They couldn't teach you that, I could.
Ugh, but you could have told me they were here for me to take care of, even if you didn't let them take care of me.
I'd rather have waited about halfway through the summer. But I think this will still be fine.
Nim, Sometimes you're too slytherin, and not slytherin enough at the same time.
You've got to see what I'm doing to be able to learn from it.
Humph, fine, whatever. Where was I?
— I thought I was alone, and the goblins and the ministry were just waiting for me to die so they could reallocate my wealth according to whatever law applies when a house runs out of members."
Ben shook his head, "No, by definition, a house must have at least two families, and a family must have at least two members. If you have less … well it's not like your family or house will have its assets seized before you die and your will is completed, if you neglected to give it all away first. So even if you had been as alone as you thought, you'd be able to reform your house and family by inducting enough people. But until you did that, you wouldn't have had the power to do anything else."
"Like what?"
"Join the Wizengamot, or hear pleas."
"Oh," said Harry, "damn."
"How are you so powerful anyway, if you thought you were alone?"
Harry shrugged, "No one told me what I should be, except the Boy-who-lived, so I didn't worry about it much. A few people told me about my parents."
Ben rolled his eyes, "alright whatever. You were telling me about house alliances."
"Right," said Harry, "That was the main ones, I think most of my other friends who were house heirs have all folded their houses into the House of Granger."
"Who all is that?"
"Malfoy, Nott, Greengrass, and Gamp."
"Bloody Hell," said Ben, "That's a monster of a house."
Harry shrugged, "Next, house members: Ginny Weasley is betrothed to me as Lord Potter, and is to be Lady Potter. Her friend Luna Lovegood is under the protection of the House of Potter."
"Alright," said Ben, "So you really did give her a belt crest."
"And a shoulder crest," said Harry.
"Somehow I didn't notice it," said Ben.
"Humph," said Harry, "This doesn't directly affect your duties but you should know: As the heir of Black, I'm also betrothed to Parvati Patil, and her sister Padma has been offered the right to start and rule a Family of Patil inside the House of Black."
"On the one hand, good choices," said Ben, "On the other … you know that sort of thing ends horribly in the operas."
"There are ways around most of the pitfalls," said Harry, "and we're trying to use all that apply."
"Better you than me," said Ben and rolled his eyes.
"Thanks," said Harry.
.
"Anyway," said Harry, "I still have lunch to deliver to my wives and sweethearts."
Ben gave him a disturbed look, "I take it that they've already met?"
"Were already each other's friends and allies before they decided to request bigger concessions than just sex tutoring."
"Oh," said Ben, "Where are you meeting them?"
"About two floors up from here I think," Harry pointed.
"That's … in the girls' side of the dorms?"
"Probably."
"Do you want help picking out someone reliable to carry a message to them?"
"Ah," said Harry, "I might, I'm not sure yet, do you know concrete details or even reliable statistics about how to get past the 'girls only' wards, in Ravenclaw tower? Or does Ravenclaw even bother with such things?"
"No? And yes, it definitely does," said Ben, "I was under the impression it was impossible until the rumours started about this 'David' person having a way to get past them. The common theory is that only registered male students are blocked and David whoever he is, isn't enrolled and can get away with shit."
"That follows … to some extent," said Harry, "how about, are the wards surface area or volume?"
"What does that even mean?"
"It's a basic detail about ward arithmancy," said Harry, "imagine I told you not to let anyone through a door, vs. telling you to call for help and try to evict them if anyone got into the room behind that same door."
"Practically that might amount to the same thing."
"Depending entirely on whether the room also had another door or window."
Ben blinked, "you think anyone could just fly up on a broom?"
"Who knows?" said Harry, "Some gryffindors assume learning things 'the hard way,' is the only way to learn things for real."
"Are you one of them?" said Ben with some trepidation.
"I'm not," said Harry, "But I do think there's often a good reason to find an eyewitness to someone learning something the hard way, rather than assuming that 'common knowledge,' is actually factual."
"That's what reading the actual scientific paper is for?"
"Ben Windrow," said Harry, "I think we are going to get along just fine."
Ben smiled. This time for real.
They shook hands. And Harry bowed, (Lord to client heir), which was more than nominally appropriate, but given he'd just done the needful as an agent of his entire Family, it seemed best.
"But if you'll excuse me," said Harry, "I need to go figure out how to be anyone other than 'Harry Potter, Enrolled Hogwarts Student,' so that I can deliver food."
"How are you going to do that?"
"I don't know yet," said Harry, "Maybe I'll try to be David instead, or a house elf."
"How? What the Hell?"
Harry shrugged and continued up the stairs.
Ben followed him, demanding explanations.
When Harry felt Luna and Parvati on the same level as the landing where he stood, also a heaped mass of many articles that Luna had marked for invisibility, he stopped climbing and leaned against the door that should lead to the girls' side of the dorm.
No alarm. No give. Also: no handle. Intended to be pushed, but only if the wards permitted.
"I'll see you later Ben," said Harry.
"I'm not going anywhere," said Ben.
"You want the chance to point and laugh at your Head of House making a fool of himself?" said Harry.
Ben smiled a little, but shook his head, "Maybe it's my duty to science to stand witness when a gryffindor volunteers to try to learn the hard way how impossible something is."
Harry grinned, "Well said. Shall we up the stakes from anecdote to single-blind trial with N=1?"
Ben stared at him, "I already said I wouldn't turn my back."
"No," Harry agreed, "and I wasn't going to invite you to be N=2 either. Or not until we'd gathered at least one interesting data point."
"That's fair," said Ben.
Harry stepped forward and backed up against the door an additional time, "we both agree that we have one uninteresting data point already?"
"Sure," said Ben.
"So who should I be?"
"What?"
"Hypothesis 1 says, the door precisely sorts girls from boys, Hypothesis 2 says it blocks mages registered as male students, Hypothesis 3, (already rumoured disproved) says: it only lets in registered female students."
"Fair enough," said Ben.
"So, pick a girl for me to be, or pick a boy who isn't a Hogwarts student, or just to be safe, but prove half as much, pick a girl that isn't a Hogwarts student."
"Oh," said Ben, "Toby Pratt, Cho Chang, uhh, s- Professor Sprout?"
"Don't know him, Good taste, and … yeah, she might be safest to ask forgiveness from after," said Harry and closed his eyes.
When he had 'Cho Chang' as well formed in his imagination as he could muster, he tried to cast that direct. But couldn't get the spell to balance or crystallise.
He tried again as a wand tap spell and got far enough that he saw where it would go wrong if he didn't back up all the way to the original wand cast arithmancy.
He opened his eyes, "how about someone more my size?"
"Well that cuts out Professor Sprout," said Ben, "and the rest of the professors."
"Right," said Harry, "Alright, how about I just make someone up."
"Like what?"
"You said Cho Chang, so how about … Cho Chang's little sister or cousin who we'll say is going to Beauxbaton for some unfathomable reason."
"Sure," said Ben sarcastically, "Or if that's too easy, how about blond? Can you be Luna Lovegood's older sister?"
Harry smiled, "sure, that sounds even easier to achieve retroactive permission for."
He closed his eyes again. Be Leona with completely blond hair, and heather in my braid and plumb earrings.
The spell fit together except for the foreign plants, they would require a donation of plant material from his clothes, and he didn't want to risk concentrating on any of that while he also held a novel form in mind. So he let that part go. The spell took. The door swung away behind her.
She opened her eyes.
Ben was staring at her with his mouth open and trembling, "Polyjuice?"
Leona smiled, "Nope, but a smart thing to keep in mind."
"How?"
Leona smiled, "That is a secret you haven't yet earned."
His eyes went wide in a happy expression that Harry had only ever seen on Padma while reading arithmancy puzzlers from an old almanac.
"Metamorphmagus?" said Ben.
"Shhh?" said Leona.
"Yes?"
"No," said Leona, "But strategically similar enough I'd rather you didn't mention that idea to anyone."
"Uh ah ah," said Ben waving a finger, "scientific method ends with 'publish your results.' "
"Ah," said Leona, "Sometimes, But it also sometimes ends with 'I'm sorry the rules of my government or corporate research grant precludes me from sharing some pertinent details."
Ben narrowed his eyes, and raised a finger again, "alright, while I can agree about you as a government analogue, I haven't seen any grant payments yet."
"Fair," sighed Leona, "What do you want?"
Ben's eyebrows flickered, "A kiss?"
Finite incantatem.
"What?" said Harry.
"Damn," said Ben, "Fine, How about a sandwich?"
Harry gave him a narrowed-eyed glare.
You hardly know me, you shouldn't be volunteering to eat out of my hand.
Except he's been stalking me for five years. It's only I who doesn't know him.
"Uh, oh," said Ben, looking at him quizzically, "you're allowed to just say 'no'?"
"Not that," said Harry, "I … grew up starved, I don't want to ever tell anyone 'no' when they ask for food, especially not a house member."
Ben's eyes went wide, "But you don't have enough to share right now?"
"Not that either," said Harry, "Sure you can have my sandwich, that would be fine, the problem is … and I'm not saying I don't trust the kitchen elves, but … I'd rather the first time I give any particular person food, that it be food I cooked myself."
Ben flinched and stared for several seconds, "You'd actually rather give me the kiss?"
Harry shrugged, "Or a hug at least, I almost hugged you before when I finally understood about the belt crest. But … I managed to restrain myself by remembering that you're not Hermione Granger and might not expect hugs for that emotion."
Ben shrugged, "We can be hugging friends, Harry, that's fine."
Harry stepped toward him, only to smash to a stop at the invisible ward line that blocked the door frame.
Drat.
So … he had dropped the basket when he'd bloodied his dignity along with his nose.
"Damn, Harry, are you alright?"
"Yeah," said Harry, Be Leona.
She stepped back through the door and hugged Ben.
After a few seconds, Ben returned the embrace very tentatively. After a few more seconds, he hugged tighter, significantly tighter.
"You hug like Mum's side of the family," said Ben.
"What does that mean?" said Leona.
"Tight like you mean it," said Ben.
"Oh," said Leona, "Yeah, definitely."
"I always wanted a sister or two," said Ben, "It kind of seems like I just got a sister and another brother."
Without letting go, Leona straightened and looked him in the eye, "Yeah, maybe that could work out."
"Also," said Ben, "being a year younger than I, you can be my younger brother when you need it. And as my Head of House, you can be my older brother when you need it."
"Or when you need it," said Leona.
"Good point," said Ben, and relaxed a bit more, everything except his arms.
Leona smiled, "alright Ben, that was sweet enough you deserve a kiss."
Ben tensed again.
Leona gave him a peck on the cheek. Despite that he'd shaved almost long enough ago that it wasn't spiky.
He relaxed.
"I meant a sister kiss, Ben," said Leona, "not the other kind."
"That makes sense," said Ben, "I'm glad we have an understanding."
"Me too," said Leona.
He bent down and kissed her cheek, straightened to look and make sure she was fine with that, and then let go.
"Go eat," he said, "I'm going to also."
Leona nodded and backed away, then remembered just in time not to step on her basket.
.
She gathered her basket and let the door close, and turned around to find herself in a hallway with three doors on one side and two on the other. And a window at each end.
Through the closest window, she could see the astronomy tower, so the window at the other end would be the one that looked diagonal toward gryffindor tower.
She turned that direction, and made her way past the door on her right which … might lead to a different dorm room than the one she wanted, past the door on her left out to the common room on this level, and finally to the second door on her right, she placed her hand on it but it didn't open.
"I'm trying to visit Luna Lovegood," she said, it didn't open, but Luna moved.
Leona knocked. And pushed an extra bit of magic to Luna's mark.
"I guess that's Ginny," said Luna, footsteps approached the door, and it opened.
Luna looked, flinched, and went so limp she staggered back a step, drawing her wand, but fumblingly.
"Who is it?" said Parvati.
"My fetch-life," said Luna, "Ugh, as if I could remember unusual incantations at a time like this. Go away." she brandished her wand more aggressively, but with less control, "I don't have time to negotiate, but I can make you sorry you came."
"Your what?" said Parvati approaching rapidly.
"Hold on, now," said Leona, stepping through the door and raising her hands and the food basket, "Finite incantatem."
"Oh," said Luna, "It's you."
"It's me," said Harry, "what's a fetch-life?"
"Muggles call them doppelgangers now," said Parvati.
"Oh," said Harry, "yeah, sorry. Didn't mean to scare anyone. I just wanted to bring you all food."
"That's …"
"That's a completely different kind of life fetching," said Luna, "you're allowed to fetch me food whenever you want."
"Good," said Harry.
"What did you bring?" said Parvati.
"Boiled egg sandwiches and Greek salad," said Harry, "it was the only thing the elves wanted to give me six servings of."
"Six?" said Parvati.
"One for each of us, and another for you and Ginny to split," said Harry.
Parvati looked quizzically at him.
"You and she have more muscle mass than the rest, I presume it takes more calories to support, but I haven't watched long enough to guess how much more."
"Probably," said Parvati, "but I never bothered to wonder that before either."
"Would you two stop making eyes at each other and give me my lunch?" said Luna.
Parvati huffed and rolled her eyes.
Harry passed the basket over.
Luna promptly wandered away. Harry looked around.
There were four beds: Three repetitions of the same pattern, bed, trunk, and wardrobe. The wardrobes were the same and had a ravenclaw crest on one door and a half-length mirror on the other. Most of the bed curtains were half closed. Though they only seemed to go opaque when closed all the way. Or maybe opacity to sound and opacity to light were separate adjustments and everyone chose what they wanted.
The first trunk had a cushion on top, and a conjured desk in front of it, the second trunk was up on a stand so the top was at a convenient work table height. The third actually opened on the front instead of the top, to make a chest of drawers. That one was covered in books, parchments, and quills.
After that wardrobe, there was a huge empty space where the fourth bed should have been, but instead, it had been shoved over until there was barely room for a trunk against the wall. Had that happened while Luna had moved out of Ravenclaw? or before? or after? And had they managed that while the bed had a Sher-mark on it?
Luna hadn't moved it back or had given up on moving it back, just expanded the space beyond until there was room for a conjured table and armchairs. And she left her trunk at the opening of the space as a huge tripping hazard to anyone who couldn't see through Harry's rune.
Just as Harry passed around the corner of Luna's bed, he felt rather than saw movement in the corner of his eye, there was someone inside at least one of those curtains.
"Hush?" said someone, "Some of us go to lunch on time and expect to nap after."
"Oh, close your curtain," said Luna, "it's what the rest of us do."
"She's right," said someone else.
"Don't mind her, she's just jealous Luna's caught a boy who is already house-trained."
"Boys aren't allowed in here."
"I wouldn't worry about it:" said someone else, "given that it's house-trained, we know it's not really a boy."
"Next you're going to say, anyone Luna claims to have found is as imaginary as everything else she claims."
"I've never said any such thing, that's your line. My argument is and remains that idea of a house-trained boy is wishful thinking."
"And that exact sort of misandry," whispered Parvati, "is why I resisted the idea that there might be lesbians in Lion's-Keep."
"None of us is lesbians," Harry whispered back, "we're all pan-sexual."
Parvati gave him a dirty look.
"And by that, I don't mean I'm looking for a man to round out my collection," Harry whispered, "I mean I love who I love and don't mind that some of them are different, or change into monkeys or horses."
Parvati shook her head, "that's not what pan-sexual means, pan-sexual is what Hermione and Pansy claim to be. What you just described is demi-sexual."
"Which means what?"
"Not sexually attracted to anyone, except people you already love?"
"Alright, maybe," said Harry, "but combine love with respect, because I'm also Leona and Richard."
"Right," said Parvati "I knew that, also it fits not noticing veela."
"Oh," said Harry, "fine, whatever."
"Oh!" exclaimed someone from the other side of Luna's bed, "I get it."
"Get what?" shouted someone else, "and keep your voice down?"
"Luna's mythical boy, that can get through the wards is Harry Potter, the bloody Boy-who- the rules don't bloody apply to."
Luna grabbed his hand, "Don't Harry," she whispered, "they're not worth it."
"I guess I shouldn't be jealous then? I suppose I am happy she managed to find someone of her own species?"
"Obviously they're not," whispered Harry, "Are they always like this?"
Luna nodded.
"Merlin," muttered Harry and looked around.
The most obvious thing available was the wards on the bed curtain, which Luna had extended with his rune also.
He frowned in concentration and pulled that field all the way to the wall, then added a silencing palling across the gap not just from the bed to the wall, but from the bed to the ceiling as well.
That left them in utter silence except for their own breathing.
"Better," said Luna, "thank you. I forgot your rune could do that, despite it being the first thing I saw Hermione do with it."
Harry shrugged and took an unused seat, "Correct me if I'm wrong," said Harry, "Most bullies get bored and stop if you don't react?"
Luna nodded, "They stopped bullying me a long time ago, To them 'Luna Lovegood' only barely exists enough that they can show off their whit without targeting each other. It's just posturing and comparing how many times out of ten they can hit their test dummy."
She really seemed fine with it.
Maybe she could be, if their opinion really meant so little to her, or if she could really believe that the barbs weren't aimed at her, but as meaningless threat display, that they really were aiming at each other.
Harry turned to Parvati, "are girls' dorms just like this?"
Parvati shrugged, "Gryffindor got like this for three weeks until we all figured out that Lavender was on top, and Fey could only maintain her place as second if Lavender let her. Somewhere in there, I figured out I could maintain my status a lot easier by keeping my mouth shut and offering forgiving smiles than by finding weak points and attacking back. Hermione … wasn't playing the same game and was loosing badly. Parvati shrugged, "Then you and Ron caught her attention, and we figured out that she was playing a different game, and was way ahead of the rest of us at it."
"Ah," said Harry.
Parvati shrugged again, "After the pecking order was set in stone, we could put our barbs away and get on with our lives. Other year groups took more or less time to settle down. I heard that fifth-year slytherin girls were still at it, (or at least some of them were), until Hermione inducted over half of them into the House of Granger and told them it wasn't acceptable behaviour. (and/or captured the top spot of the hierarchy so thoroughly as to negate any further need for competition)."
"Merlin," said Harry, reached for the basket, then remembered.
"What's the Sher-mark code for: 'food' is 'here,' 'come and get it?' "
"We don't have a code for 'food'," said Parvati, "but we should. 'Meeting(non-emergency), here, now.' Goes like:" she pinged Harry's magic through her mark several times.
"You don't have to be so loud," said Luna, "They're just upstairs."
Parvati shrugged, "Sorry, it rings louder when he's sitting closer."
"Oh," said Luna.
.
About a minute later Ginny and Padma entered.
As Padma stepped over the trunk, her eyes went wide. "nice ward work." She turned to help Ginny, but Ginny didn't bother trying to step over, she just stepped on the trunk and back down on the other side.
"Food!" said Ginny, "Make me a chair, Harry; or scooch so I can share yours."
Padma gave a long-suffering sigh, "Harry, I tried to wear her out, but I seem to have failed if she's coming on to you like that."
Ginny rolled her eyes.
"Maybe you did wear her out," said Harry drawing his wand and conjuring another chair, also slightly expanding the one he was in, so Ginny could choose either option, "and that's why she's coming onto the food so strongly."
Ginny smirked, "could be both."
Harry decided not to point out the logical inconsistent.
.
They tucked in.
Ginny conjured them all glasses and water. Which turned out to be very helpful for eating boiled egg sandwiches.
.
"Harry?" said Luna, "When did you get your ears pierced."
Everyone stopped chewing and looked at him.
"About twenty minutes ago," said Harry, "My concentration was off while trying a modification to the Leona spell."
"Why were …"
"Is that how you got into this part of the dorm?" said Parvati.
"Pretty much," said Harry.
"How long have you been doing that?"
"This is the first time I've tried," said Harry, "Though I theorised that it might be possible … months and months ago. November maybe?"
"And you haven't visited me or Ginny?" said Parvati, "I'm vaguely hurt. I want to k—"
"In front of Hermione?" said Harry.
"I'm a prefect too," muttered Padma.
"But you know he's demi- and spoken for," said Parvati.
"I know no such thing."
"What's demi?" said Ginny.
"Demi-sexual," said Parvati, "What happens when you don't care what gender someone is, you just snog them if you like them, instead of the other way around."
"Only liking people if you'd snog them?" said Ginny, "Are there really people like … Oh… But none of us is like that, we're all this demi-sexual thing?"
Parvati frowned at her, "It's not about how you'd act or how you believe you should act, it's about how you desire to act if you didn't know better."
"What?" said Ginny.
"I like boys," said Parvati, "specifically I like good boys that are also healthy."
"I like powerful, intelligent boys, that are also trustworthy," said Padma.
Parvati nodded, "that doesn't mean I will snog them or even flirt, I've chosen the ethics I intend to live by for well-considered reasons, it is just a statement about what I like to see, What I'd be shopping for if I was still shopping."
"I like apes with kind eyes," said Luna.
"That," said Parvati, "is called pan-sexual."
"Quiet ones," said Luna, "That can still hear their own thoughts even when distracting words go wandering by."
"Thank you," said Harry, at about the same time as everyone else.
"Pan as in everything, Pan as in the god, or pan as in chimpanzee?" said Luna, "Because there are lots more apes than just chimpanzees."
"Um," said Parvati, "I'm not sure which one of those is why it means that."
"Alright," said Luna, "Harry, do you want to borrow earrings? Or do you want murtlap essence, to try to get them to heal before they're for sure permanent?"
Harry shrugged, "Do you have anything besides plumbs?"
"I also have bottle corks, and sea glass, … and coral." And she doesn't want to lend the coral.
"What colour sea glass?"
"Brown, green, or blue." She looked rather disappointed in him for choosing the mundane.
"If I said, one green and one blue, would that annoy you?"
"No, but …" said Luna, "The blue ones are much shorter than the others."
"Do the others match … in size?"
"Yes," said Luna.
"Alright then," said Harry, "One brown and one green."
Luna smiled and went to her wardrobe to start digging.
"What's he doing?" whispered Ginny.
"The same thing he was doing by visiting us here, the same thing we were doing before he came," said Padma, "He's demanding a small break from the deadening seriousness of constant revising."
"Oh," said Ginny, "Good choice."
"The fact that he's also choosing a method that advertises his relationship with, and therefore protection of, Luna…" said Parvati.
"He's just strategic like that," said Ginny and gave Harry a big smile.
Luna returned and held out four dangle earrings, in an uneven range of two to three inches long. Two assortments of greenish glass, two assortments of brownish glass. Those were smaller than Harry had anticipated, and yet seemingly an intimidating size to have hanging from his ears. He selected the shortest of each colour. And tried putting one in. While he struggled with his right ear. Parvati leaned over and connected the other to his left.
The feeling of that going in properly, gave him a bit more idea of what he should be aiming for and got the right side in and sat up.
"How do I look?"
"Bold," said Ginny.
"That's about what I was aiming for," said Harry, "But … how do I look?"
"Mirror," said Luna and hooked a thumb sideways at the wardrobe
"Ah," said Harry and got up to examine himself. Instead, he found himself examining the mirror. It was covered in a spray of red and blue specks, that spelt out 'Loony' and 'stupid' and 'annoying'.
He ran his finger across the surface, but it was unmarred. It didn't seem to be paint or fingernail polish. It was colour-change charms embedded in the glass.
He drew his holly wand, "Finite," he said. The spell stopped at the volume of the frame and did not touch the glass. The whole thing was protected by runes of permanency, perhaps the whole mirror was conjured to start with. Colour changes to a conjured item were permanent to the life of the conjuration. He could colour-change every single dot clear again, it seemed like Luna had already done some of that. But it would get tedious very quickly, not the least of which because the colour-change charm was tricky to use for making things transparent.
He put his wand away with a frown, he could un-conjure or untransfigure the whole mirror, if he could overcome the original caster … of course, he could do that. And then reconjure it in pristine condition, they'd just covered mirrors in transfiguration last month.
He drew his other wand, and memorised the shape of the mirror, "finite incantatem."
He memorised the peg the mirror should be hanging on and recreated a mirror of the correct shape and hanger location, "Genifex."
"That's better." He put his wand away and examined himself. Yeah, these dangle earrings worked. He nodded and shook his head, and watched and felt how they moved, "Yeah," he said, "These will do for now."
"How did you do that?" said Padma, "I tried that."
Harry glanced at Luna. She pursed her lips, not as an expression of her own emotion, but as an instruction for him to keep quiet. Fine. Harry shrugged as if he didn't really comprehend other people not being as powerful as he. Though he totally did understand and knew that the good wand, made an additional difference.
It seemed that Luna had traded her bottle corks for the other half of the sets that Harry was wearing. She'd put them in opposite sides, to make sure they matched each other's reflections, rather than matching each other when side by side. He smirked at them, "I like it," said Harry, "you have permission to buy me earrings."
"Do you want tasteful or bizarre?" said Parvati.
"Some of each," said Harry, "perhaps aim for the tastefully bizarre range? No plants though, please."
"He probably wants tasteful, most of the year," said Ginny, "just being a boy wearing earrings is more bizarre than some people can deal with. But he needs this sort of bizarre, for this time of year. And special occasions when he needs to confuse people."
Parvati grinned, "Or remind them that he's the boy-who- the rules don't bloody apply to?"
Harry repressed the urge to stick out his tongue, and grinned instead, "Basically," he said.
"I think I can work with that," said Padma, "and we can always just get you pairs of sets that don't quite match, and you can choose exactly how lopsided the mix needs to be to balance out the situation at hand."
"Plausible," said Harry and sat down to finish his salad.
.
"Do the riddles get easier as we get older?" said Harry.
"No!" said Padma, "They get harder, but … I think the door is rigged to give OWL students a break the last two months of the term."
"Ah," said Harry, "Well there goes all my confidence that getting in today meant something."
"It still means something," said Padma, "Just don't count on it being as easy next year."
"Fine," said Harry.
"What was your riddle?" said Ginny.
"What do I watch, when I'm watching for the snitch."
Ginny stared at him, "I didn't think it got that personalised."
"No," said Harry, "That's just how I solved it. It asked a similar thing about birds, but I don't watch birds. And anyway Hedwig flies at night regardless."
"I trail behind you like a gown, I'm the part of a bird that stays on the ground." said Padma, "I haven't gotten that one since my second year."
"Wow," said Harry, "same answer, different poem."
"Ah, a shadow," said Ginny, "alright … and in particular … the relative distance from each quidditch player to their shadow tells you how high they are compared to each other? Even when they're directly below you and far enough away that binocular vision doesn't help."
Harry nodded.
.
"Do we have anything special planned for non-test days?" said Padma, "I mean besides revising for the remaining tests?"
They all shook their heads. Then Ginny started to raise her hand just as Harry began to speak.
"Um," said Harry, "You go first."
"Katie Bell has been having nightmares since the battle," said Ginny, "I've been giving her hand massages, I asked Hermione, and she seemed to think it might be three months to a year before the numbness goes away." She wrinkled her nose, "and it's not just numbness, it sounds like (what did you call it?) phantom limb pain, except it isn't always pain, just…" she shrugged.
"Hmm," said Parvati, "you want me to research potions about that, has Pomfrey not been able to do anything?"
"I think …" Ginny sighed, "I don't know if she's gone back to Pomfrey yet. The point wasn't the injury, the point was … one night she fell asleep in the common room while I was holding her hand, and two nights later she didn't bother to go to the common room she came straight to my bed."
"Oh!" said everyone.
"Last night she asked if you were serious about me being who she should date first if she was going to date you and the rest of us. I said sort of 'yes.' She said, how many are there, and what kind of dates do I like. I said, 'I don't know. We do more study groups than dates,' etc. Which at the time I thought was the truth, but."
Ginny looked around, "But we eat together and sleep together about twice that often, and we talk about a lot more than just school work, so … I still don't know how to answer it." She shrugged, "Anyway, after that she started telling me about some of the favourite dates she'd been on, but … I think I fell asleep."
She shrugged again, "So anyway, do any of you like her enough to say 'yes' already, or hate her enough to say 'no' already or want to volunteer to ask her out next or anything?"
"I barely know her," said Padma, "therefore I suppose I should be on the to-date list. I'm guessing the same for Susan."
"She's got a very different idea about how subtle innuendo should be," said Harry, "But she's got a vaguely as dirty mouth as Susan used to."
"Sounds like I could take lessons," mused Luna.
"Only if you want to," said Harry.
"Exactly," said Luna.
"Humph," said Harry.
Parvati looked at him, "You want her in or out?"
Harry shrugged, "I like watching her cooperation dance with the other chasers, I think she could be an asset to any team, but that doesn't mean I have any idea whether she's a good fit for ours. Or that we share any mutually aligned goals beyond ending the war."
Parvati shrugged, "What do you mean by cooperation dance?"
"Tandem sewing, Trick riding," said Ginny, "the kinds of teamwork coordination that are all about mirroring each other right now, Not about making lists of tasks together and taking turns taking one off and completing it and coming back for another, and being pleasantly surprised how many others have done a different one while you were busy."
"It's a broad category around both teamwork and dancing and … sex?"
"Exactly," said Ginny.
"Harry and I ride his broom together," said Luna.
"Was that innuendo or not?" said Padma.
"No," said Luna, "I'm trying to say, Harry and Parvati dance with her in animagus form, Harry and I dance with both of us on his broom, slaloming between the bushes on the far side of the lake. It's hard work communicating and balancing that fast, but … umm … sex is much better afterwards. Because you're already body-language communicating super fast."
Parvati stretched her neck to turn and stare at Harry, "Interesting."
Harry smiled.
"We're not allowed in the forbidden forest, and Hogsmeade is only available on rare Saturdays."
Harry raised an eyebrow.
"But there are a lot of woods around the old cottage."
"There are!" agreed Harry.
Parvati did her sniff-eyes-flash thing that seemed to mean horse excitement instead of derision, then she relaxed, smiled, and went back to chasing the last few crumbs around her plate.
.
"What's next?" said Padma, "Harry, I think you were about to say something?"
"Hmm?"
"Before Ginny told us about Katie."
"Oh!" said Harry, "Along with the whole visit to the ministry to research which houses are eligible to be inducted into the Wizengamot, and which ones we'd like to nominate, I'm adding another research task in the same department: I want to look through the official records regarding the charters and membership lists of the Houses of Black and Potter, it could wait until summer, but if we're going to be there anyway, etc."
"That sounds like it could be an excellent little excursion for late Thursday before Investing Reform Committee," said Parvati, "Do we know how many seats will be empty?"
"I don't think anyone knows," said Harry, "I'm not even clear how long they have between being notified of the death and when they have to nominate a replacement."
"Which if it could be accomplished that fast, wouldn't necessarily need to wait for an empty day. Depending on how wrung out any particular test might make us?"
"True."
"Why did this come up?"
"Because a Ben Windrow, approached me on the way up and wondered why I hadn't acknowledged him yet."
"Who's he?"
"He says, a member of the House of Potter, his parents are upper and middle management in one of our wineries."
"Awkward," said Parvati.
"Very," said Harry, "I gave him retroactive permission to have spoken to me in my first year, not that that changes the past. And future permission to join AHDT. I figured maybe we'd invite his family over for lunch or dinner sometime over the summer." He looked at Ginny, "I sort of promised to be cooking or helping cook that day."
Ginny shrugged.
"He's quiet," said Padma, "I don't know much about him."
"Ravenclaws are," said Parvati.
Padma rolled her eyes, "then why were the silencing wards necessary?"
"§-Bile,-§" hissed Parvati.
Padma shrugged.
"Said he draws and dyes cloth for fun," said Harry, "I think he's a very visual person, might not do verbal as well, or not when stressed or something."
"He's old enough to be getting over that or finding workarounds and coping strategies," said Padma.
Ginny shook her head, "Yes, and no, there is finding coping strategies so that you can be productive. And there is who you are regardless of whatever coping strategies you manage to put into place in an environment that you control, or that your allies control and cooperate with your needs because they also benefit from keeping you productive."
Padma looked at her.
"Regardless," said Harry, "When we agreed that violence was off the table and that I'd be more annoyed by him neglecting to tell me important things rather than the reverse, he opened up a lot, even managed to reprimand me twice for sloppy thinking."
"Oh?"
"Hence the information-gathering trip to the ministry," said Harry.
"Valid," said Padma.
"Though he said there wasn't anyone else in House of Potter or Black here that he was aware of. I told him about each of us, and Professor Tonks, which house we are each in, and … our public statuses connected to that. And the current state of 'probably not binding but still perhaps indicative of future things' personal alliances between House heirs, that I am party to."
"Sure," said Parvati.
"He said the normal 'concerned but not judgemental' things that western culture demands about polygamy, but he kept it mostly polite and …" Harry shrugged, "he implied it was a vague statistical rule of thumb, not an unstoppable law of nature, nor anything that he had ethical problems with, nor any intention of dictating ethics to his Head of House. (Though where anyone gets ethics from other than dividing vague statistics by their own personal appetite for risk, I never figured out.)"
"To be fair," said Padma, "Not everyone has had the advantage of hanging out with Hermione long enough to get the gist of how she operates."
Parvati stuck out her tongue.
Harry shrugged.
.
"Alright, so what's next?"
"Some of us need to get to Defence," said Luna, "In about an hour."
"Technically some of us ought to be in Defence already," yawned Ginny, "but Professor Tonks has never minded me showing up with the Ravenclaws or the reverse."
"Interesting," said Harry.
"You know what else is interesting?" said Ginny and leaned over to whisper, "Padma has a mantis mark on her hip, and I haven't told her yet."
Harry turned far enough away that his lips weren't in Padma's line of sight, and whispered, "you think she doesn't know?"
Ginny shrugged, and stopped whispering to say, "did you promise to wear me out next, or was that wishful thinking on my part?"
"I think I did not promise that," said Harry, "Though I don't have any er scheduling conflicts with attempting that. Just … I should get back to revising eventually."
"Good?" she whispered, "Here and now? Or my bed, or Lion's-Keep?"
"It's been too long since the raid for me to plead insanity, and too close before OWLs for me to risk detentions," said Harry, "I'd rather be able to truthfully say the only thing I did up here was check on Luna. For a few more days at least."
Ginny stared into his eyes. Aloud she said, "That sounds like a date then? You want to visit each of us, in our own beds, between the end of tests and the train ride?"
I was trying to share some strategic limits on my behaviour, not encourage you to search out optimal ways to violate boundaries but … Even Padma seems down with that, "Sure," said Harry, "That could work. Why not?"
After they spend a little more time synchronising schedules they went out.
Harry turned into 'Blond Leona' for the step through the wards, then realised that by following the others, she'd ended up in the 4th year's common room, not the stairs. And worse she had sandwiched herself between Issac Gamp's prefect badge before, and Padma's behind. It might stir up less drama if she quietly made her way downstairs before rubbing anyone's face in why questions might need to be asked.
Issac's suspicious glances implied he knew from the company she was keeping which clique he ought to remember her from, and didn't, but he didn't seem in a hurry to ask.
And then Ben stepped into the midst of them, pulled up Leona's chin, and gave the earrings a critical narrow-eyed stare, then across at Luna. Then back.
Padma hissed something angry about touching without asking.
Ben didn't seem to notice, and after several more seconds, he gave a very serious nod.
She's right, You really need to get out of the habit of manhandling girls that could toss you across the room without trying, thought Harry, which extends to not touching anyone without permission, regardless of whether they can kick your arse, or have brothers or boyfriends who'd do it for them.
"I like the look," said Ben, then bit his lip and turned away with a sigh. That wasn't still a desire to kiss, it was something else. Some other kind of envy?
Leona opened her mouth, then remembered the audience. "Ma sœur a d'autres couleurs, vous pouvez mendier pour emprunter. Oui?" she enthused.
He flinched and turned back. Confusion, he mouthed his way through what she just said. And raised an eyebrow and repeated it to himself another time. Understanding, and perhaps hope.
He turned to Luna. Then yanked his focus back to Leona, "you … don't mind?" he said.
"Non?" said Leona.
He scratched his temple, and muttered, "Just how many little sisters did I just adopt?"
"Cinq," said Leona, "Five."
He looked them over, all of them this time, he turned to Luna, swallowed, and said, "Um, may I borrow, um…"
Luna stared at him expectantly.
When Leona got bored with his lack of forward movement in the language department she said, "Il y a des bouchons de vin ou du verre bleu. Peut-être qu'ils iraient bien avec votre cravate."
That shook him loose, "May I borrow your blue earrings? Please."
Luna put down the empty food basket and stepped toward him.
"So not impressed," hissed Padma almost inaudibly.
Wait, was that Parseltongue?
Luna crossed her arms and tilted her head to the side, "How old are you?"
"Sixteen," he said, "Why?"
"You're the second ravenclaw student to ever ask my permission about borrowing anything," said Luna a bit too loud, "I've been wondering when that sort of maturity starts catching on."
Ben went white, and Issac went red. Not solid embarrassed red, blotchy angry red, he turned to Padma. They seemed to share a quick conversation without words.
"Oh," said Ben, "No idea really."
Luna shrugged, then stepped forward and kissed him on the cheek, "Yes, you may borrow them. Do you currently intend to return them when you're done?"
"Yes?" said Ben, "Do you … are you asking for a promise?"
"I know where you live," she said, "and I suspect you're no better equipped than average to keep such a promise. So no, I'm not asking for a promise. But please do return them if circumstances allow that."
Ben nodded.
"Do you want help piercing your ears also?"
He glanced at Leona again, as if for permission.
Leona offered an encouraging smile.
"Yes," he said, "Yes, I'd like that if you don't mind."
"I don't mind," said Luna, "as long as no one is making you do this?"
"No," said Ben, "No one is."
"Are you sure you wouldn't rather Madam Pomfrey …?" said a bystander.
"Madam Pomfrey isn't allowed without parental consent," said Ben, "until next year when I'm seventeen."
"Don't worry," said Luna, "It's not that hard, the two most important things to worry about are keeping it clean and uninfected, and catching all your blood so you can burn it after, so no fay creatures get hold of it. I'll be right back," Luna disappeared in the direction of her room.
"Luna's the most fay creature in the tower," muttered someone. But Leona didn't get a good enough look to see who.
Padma turned to Leona, "Are you staying for this?"
Leona shrugged, "I can."
"I have a tutoring appointment in the library," she said, "I'll see you later."
"I'll stay," said Issac, "Go."
.
The earrings Luna returned with were not dangles, but studs: each with finger-width pieces of sapphire blue sea glass and a smaller piece of less translucent turquoise sea glass, resembling six pointed daylilies.
Much more classy (but also a bit more effeminate) than what Harry was borrowing, not that mage estimation of that matched muggle estimation, and definitely too ravenclaw for Harry to pull off without raising the wrong kind of comments. 'Attention-seeking Harry being bizarre again,' he could deal with. 'Harry why are you very obviously in rival house colours?' He'd rather do without.
After draping a scrap of parchment over each shoulder and treating each ear lobe and each earring with some tincture of murtlap, Luna forced them through. Ben set his jaw and managed not to flinch very much. Once he admitted that neither the pins nor the tincture of murtlap stung any more, Luna added some essence of murtlap on top. And rubbed it in.
He winced some at first, then almost as suddenly relaxed.
"Is it done?" said Luna.
"No, but it's getting close," he said.
She added another dab and told him to keep wiggling it while she switched to the other ear.
He obeyed.
It didn't take much longer. She told him to put murtlap essence on them and wiggle them once a day for a week. And that would be as permanent as they could be without using curses or restricted medical charms.
He thanked her.
She took the parchments off his shoulders and handed them to him, and told him to burn them.
He went away.
Luna returned her potions to her room, and they went downstairs.
.
...-...
{End Chapter 37}
I just learned this week that the bisexual community has historically considered the bisexual label to include asexuality because two things equal to zero are also equal to each other. Having zero attraction to either gender is a way to be equally attracted to each gender.
The purple in most of the queer flags symbolises community.
.
I've also recently learned some things about the origin of the term/concept 'bystander effect' and I am not amused. So a) I was wrong about some things, I'm sorry. And b) I might insert someone teaching someone about that if I find an appropriate spot.