AN: I can't fix chapter 13 on my phone, it's a wreck and needs councilling and to be blown up by a keyboard. But Italy is still amazing, this is art historian's wet dream, and truly mean that as I walked ten miles yesterday in the rain. #worthit

P.S. The Milano Duomo is epic and the Milan Natural History Museum is seriously underrated, it was smaller than the one in London but I enjoyed it more.

KEYNote: There are very intelligent young people around the world of great maturity which regrettably, usually comes with a cost. That is true for both Luna and Harry. In this story, Harry is physically and mentally fifteen with extra memories much like a vision. The reason I scale him ahead is because he has Dumbledore level power he never leaned into and he has a new perspective. He is fifteen in this though.

Chapter 12 - The Forbidden Forest

Nargles.

Nargles are after my things. My shoes are gone. All my shoes are gone. And my purple ink with the orange feathered quill. I don't understand what I did to make them so mad.

3rd October 1995

L.L.

oOo

Harry was sitting with the twins at breakfast Saturday morning when he felt a light tap on his shoulder.

Turning, a smile bloomed on his face when he saw who it was, "Hi Luna."

She smiled hesitantly in return. "Hi Harry, I was wondering if you might want to spend time with me today."

"Sure," Harry agreed immediately, rising from his seat and ignoring the twins sniggering behind him.

"You should finish eating," she chided.

Harry stuffed the rest of his toast in his mouth and pocketed an apple. He gave her a thumbs up.

She grinned and snagging the cuff of his sleeve led him out of the great hall.

Once they were clear of the tables, however, Harry jerked to a stop.

"Luna, your shoes," Harry said, frowning at her bare toes on the cold stones.

"Nargles took them," she said tugging on his sleeve. "Come on, let's go."

Harry turned scanning the room for Flitwick. Harry had been reading this morning and hadn't gone down to breakfast early as he usually did.

"Flitwick must be in his office already. He grades in the mornings," Harry said, taking Luna's hand in turn and leading her towards the second floor.

He cast a warming charm on her feet which had her smiling again.

The moment they were out of sight of the great hall, Luna yanked her hand out of his, "Professor Flitwick will not be able to help against Nargles."

Harry spun to face her, angry, just not at her. "Luna it isn't Nargles-"

"You don't believe me," she said, face falling. She took a step back from him.

"Wait, Luna, just listen. I got bullied in school all the time before I came to Hogwarts, I got my cousins hand me downs. I was this tiny kid in clothes three to five times too big for me with shaggy hair and broken glasses. my cousin would beat up anyone who wanted to be nice to me. I know what it feels like to be the odd one out."

Luna raised her chin, "I know what they call me behind my back, Loony Lovegood. But it is Nargles stealing my shoes."

"And why would Nargles steal your shoes? You told me they live in mistletoe. Besides, don't you guard your things with corks?"

Luna blinked at him, "I never told you either of those things, though it is true."

Harry shook his head, "Luna, please believe me that this isn't Nargles stealing your stuff. Let's go tell Flitwick. He'll stop this."

She crossed her arms, glaring at him. "He can't stop the Nargles."

Harry huffed and began heading towards the next flight of stairs.

"Where are you going?" she asked, trailing behind.

"I am going to go get your shoes back. If you don't want to ask Flitwick for help then I will go get your things back myself."

"You don't know where my dorm is," she said, following him, her bare feet padding against the stone floors.

"Luna, the seasons are only going to get colder, this is a cruel prank," Harry said, not slowing down a bit. "So help the people who did this when I get a hold of them."

"You don't know the password."

"Neither do you because it changes every time," Harry shot back.

They reached Ravenclaw. Luna was unhappy. Either Harry was wrong and he should have trusted her or she was wrong and her housemates hated her enough to steal her things.

Harry waited for the knocker to ask its question as Luna watched him closely.

"Who are you?" The knocker asked.

Harry said the first thing that came to mind, "A soul who has existed tomorrow and exists today but is unlikely to exist forever."

The door swung open.

Luna's mouth popped open in a small 'O' of surprise.

Harry strode right into the Ravenclaw common room.

"Harry?" Cho asked.

"You don't belong here," Marietta protested.

Ginny's boyfriend, Michael Cornic sat up from the chair he had been resting on. "Potter? How did you get in here?"

"Loony Lovegood, must have let him get in," snarled a fourth year girl.

Harry whipped his wand out, and he snarled right back at her, "Don't you dare call her that!"

The pressure in the air around the room seemed to change.

"Harry," Luna said softly as she approached him from behind. "You really shouldn't be here."

"I don't care, nobody hurts my friends."

"I'm not hurt," she insisted.

Harry's eyes flicked to her blue ones, the pressure in the room lessening. His expression softened and Harry flicked his wand, non-verbally accio-ing Luna's shoes.

There was a rattling from both sides of the girls' and boys' dorm rooms. Five pairs of shoes lined themselves neatly at Luna's feet.

Luna looked like she might cry.

Softly Harry asked, "Are you missing anything else?"

Luna's jaw set. Steely resolve overcame her normally whimsical demeanour as she listed off, "One earring (with beetle wings), A pair of stripey socks, a school cloak, a red-black-white quill -woodpecker, with special markings, an orange quill, two bottles of sum-solving ink (Turquoise and purple), a copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, and my last potions essay."

Each item came to rest at the pile at her feet. The orange quill was pulled from Marietta's pocket, the bottles of sum-solving ink coming out of the fourth year's pocket, and the potion's essay unfolded itself from Michael's textbook that had been resting on the side table next to him.

oOo

Luna was so angry, so hurt she didn't know how to be.

Harry had been right.

"Well, obviously," Marietta sneered. "Potter planted those things so he could impress you. He's just pretending to be your friend so he ca-"

Luna's stunning spell hit the sixth year girl so fast and so unexpectedly that everyone, aside from Harry and Luna herself, jumped at the loud bang and the sound of Marietta dropping to the floor unable to catch herself.

Aside from the quills, Harry bent down and shrunk all of Luna's possessions. He carefully gathered her things, before handing them to her. "I'll wait here for you to put your stuff away. I don't think anyone is going to try to steal your things anymore." The words were kind but the look Harry gave the occupants of the room was anything but.

Nodding too rapidly, Luna took her things and sprinted up the stairs.

She held back her tears for later.

oOo

"Harry, I didn't have anything to do-" Cho started the moment Luna left.

"I don't want to hear it, Chang," Harry snapped.

She looked crestfallen. She knelt by Marietta, checking to see if she was alright.

"You're not going to tell Ginny, are you?" Michael asked him.

"It's Hogwarts, Michael, secrets always have a way of coming out."

Luna came back down the steps, wearing shoes.

She didn't wait for Harry as she stormed out of the common room.

It was Harry's turn to follow silently. Luna's pace was quick as she left the castle. Harry watched the wind play with her long curls. His pulse increased when he saw that they were headed for the Forbidden Forest. It became harder to breathe as they crossed into the line of dark tall trees. The last time he came here, he'd been walking to his death.

"Luna?" He winced at the tremor in his own voice.

Harry knew these woods almost as well as Hagrid, it wasn't the woods he feared, it was the memories.

But Luna didn't stop until they reached the herd of the Thestrals.

A foal pranced up to her and headbutted her hip.

Harry was relieved it wasn't the same clearing that he had died in but he wasn't exactly happy to be there.

Swallowing his emotions he asked, "Luna, Luna, come on, look at me, are you alright?"

"Why do they hate me?" she asked, she petted the black foal's head.

"They don't hate you," Harry consoled. "They don't know you well enough to hate you."

She whipped her head towards him, her pale blue eyes had darkened to a stormy blue-grey.

Harry had never seen her eyes look like that, angry or something more profound, something that contradicted how she understood herself.

"If they don't hate me then why do they call me names and steal my things?"

Harry stepped closer to her, "You have to know someone to hate them, or at least to hate you personally."

She stroked the foal's reptilian wing, "Then why?"

"Because they are small minded people who take comfort in the norms even if the norms are mean or stupid."

"Why?"

"Because it's easy, or at least easier than trying to understand someone not like them." Harry reached out to hold her hand, partially for her comfort and partly for his own. He never wanted to return here alone.

She frowned at him, "You don't like being here."

Harry shrugged, "Thestrals are cool."

"But you don't like being in the forest," she stated.

He shrugged again, "I wouldn't like to come here by myself." He squeezed her hand a little tighter. "Luna, I am sorry people are mean to you."

"They aren't always nice to you either. I don't like the Daily Prophet, they have no right to talk about students."

Harry gave her a half smile, "The magical world is the first place I was ever able to make friends."

"Hermione and Ron haven't been nice lately."

"It's not their fault. I changed a lot over the summer. Anyway, it gave me the chance to get to know new people."

"I am not new, you know me. You knew me before the summer."

Harry gave her a sceptical look, unsure of how much she really knew. He wanted to ask, he wouldn't even mind telling her the whole story, but not right now, not in this place. "Hedwig was my first friend."

"You're mine," she said, smiling at him.

He smiled back.

They spent the rest of the day in the forest with the Thestrals. Luna introduced Harry to each one, telling him their names and some of their traits. Like Sando, who was one of the largest male Thestrals -the females being naturally bigger. Sando liked to fly up to one of the higher branches and hold onto a branch with his muzzle and let his weight drag the tree down before releasing it like a catapult. The sound was immense and flocks of birds would sore up into the air, followed by the young Thestrals who would soar up to go after the songbirds.

The longer Harry spent here the more at ease he became in the forest. By the time the light was growing dim, Harry had completely forgotten that he was in the Forbidden Forest. A part of this was because he was laughing too hard watching Luna play tag with skeletal horses and listening to her splendidly over-the-top laughter.

When they got back to the great hall for dinner, Luna sat at the Gryffindor table between Harry and Angelina. Her own table wouldn't look at them.

Lee Jordan leaned over to tell Harry, "Flitwick gave every student in his house detention who knew about Luna's stolen items. Nobody fessed up so he gave detention to every student in the fourth, fifth, and sixth years. They will be spending the rest of the weekend cleaning his classroom, Sprout's, McGonagall's, and Snape's classrooms."

"Good," Harry said shortly.

"I always wondered what Flitwick's detentions would be like," Fred mused.

"I am so glad we didn't have to find out first-hand. Snape is awful but cleaning Sprout's classroom, as in every greenhouse, would be the worst," George said.

"Hey, we've never gotten a detention from Sprout either!" Fred said jubilantly.

"There's still time," Susan said from behind them.

"Hey little Bones," George greeted.

"How are you?" Fred asked, putting his chin in his hands, elbows on the table.

"Fine. Can I sit here tonight?" she asked.

Angelina moved down a seat and Susan sat beside Luna, "How are you?"

"I'm good," Luna said honestly.

Susan's expression was hard, "Let me know if there is anyone you want me to hex. Never mess with a Hufflepuff's friend."

Luna stared at the darker haired girl, "You're my friend?"

"Course," she answered. "I wouldn't be angry if we weren't."

Luna's smile could have outshone the sun.

oOo

The trees stretched towards the pale sky like the silhouettes of hundreds of cloaked people with their fingers desperately seeking the light.

As if in despair those shadows folded downwards, incapable of even hoping for the rays of the sun, leaving Harry in the dimness of the forest like he had been that night he had gone searching for unicorns.

A silver light eliminated the space around him. Harry spun on his heels trying to make sense of where he was and the shadowed shapes darting between the trees.

"Dad!" he called, seeing the outline of a rack of antlers.

Harry began running, his feet bare against the cool ground, he was assaulted by the sensation of damp moss between his toes and the sharp pain of roots and fallen sticks cutting into his skin.

"Dad!" Harry called again.

The stag didn't slow but Harry was gaining on the buck's white tail.

A doe cut in front of him and Harry tripped, falling over a downed log. His hand sank through a rotten trunk.

"Wait!" Harry yelled, yanking his arm out of the dead tree. "Wait! Dad! Snape! Wait, don't leave me here!" He got up. Ignoring the pain, he ran blindly through the foliage, his cheeks scraping against branches he could not see until they were too close to avoid. He kept running and running until he heard a laugh.

Harry jerked to a stop, trying to hold his breath, barely able to hear over his own gasping and his racing pulse.

The laugh came again, followed by a happy bark.

"Sirius!" Harry called, desperate. "Sirius, I'm here!"

"But you're not with us."

Slowly, Harry turned to the voice, to the person he knew would be standing behind him.

She stood tall, a mere yard away from him. She was solid, real. Her hair colour was lit by the light of the rising moon, setting it to glimmer like some exotic orange jewel. His mother smiled at him, her face full of love and acceptance.

"Come, my son," Lily offered, her pale hand held out to him. In three simple words, she offered him the promise of respite, of forgiveness, of peace, and of belonging.

He took a step towards her, reaching out his own hand to hers. But that one step shifted the world around him.

The Stag and the Doe who had been circling them in Harry's peripheral vision disappeared, the absence of their silver spheres of light making Harry realise for the first time that they had been patronuses not animagi like he had originally assumed.

The woman standing before him changed as well, her emerald eyes flashing a demonic red, her smile growing cold and dangerous.

"Bow to Death, Harry." It was his mother's voice but not her words. Her proffered hand was no longer empty, the Resurrection Stone sat inertly in her palm.

The trees around them blackened, morphed and the icy chill that filled the air alerted Harry to what was about to happen. Dementors, hundreds, thousands of Dementors emerged from the void around them.

Lily began screaming. The scream that she had done at the end, right before-

"NO!" Harry screamed, louder than he had ever said anything.

White.

The black was replaced with misty white.

Harry fell to his knees.

Voldemort's laughter echoed in his mind.

"Bow to Death."

Harry stood to his feet again with a roar, and observed himself yelling, "I'VE HAD ENOUGH, I'VE SEEN ENOUGH, I WANT OUT, I WANT IT TO END, I DON'T CARE ANYMORE!"

Dumbledore was standing before him, wearing a serene, condescending smile. His eyes twinkled as if he knew the secrets of the universe. "You do care. You care so much you feel as though you will bleed to death with the pain of it."

Harry screamed at the old man, wordless and rage filled. He didn't know what he was holding in his hand but it was smooth, and cold, and hard. Harry pitched the orb, the Prophecy, at the old man's head. It shattered against his chest.

Dumbledore's breath went out of him in a soft exhalation, his sparkling blue eyes dimming, till no light shone from them at all. He fell backwards, and between one heartbeat and the next it wasn't Albus Dumbledore, it was Sirius falling backwards into the veil, a laugh caught on his smiling lips.

oOo

Harry came to screaming. His nightmare had been so vivid, so achingly real, he couldn't forget, would never forget the images replaying in his mind.

Ron, Dean, Seamus, and Neville were awake and out of bed as they watched in stunned silence as Harry fought with his comforter to get out of bed.

"Harry?" Neville questioned cautiously.

Harry didn't respond to Neville as he finally got himself untangled. He stood in the centre of the room panting and sweating.

"Did you have another vision?" Ron asked.

Harry's body began to shake uncontrollably.

"I'll go get help," Dean offered.

Help, Harry thought numbly as his body started going into shock. It was a familiar sensation, an almost pleasant feeling as his body just gave up trying to make sense of it all.

Yeah, help might be a good idea.

Dean ran for the door when Harry continued to say nothing.

Harry's legs felt wobbly but he refused to let himself fall to the ground.

Help, Harry thought, Help, please, please help, I don't want to die. He still felt trapped in his nightmare.

He needed to get out of this castle. He needed to get as far away from the Forbidden Forest as was physically possible, he- he needed to see Sirius. He needed to see the man alive and breathing so he didn't have to keep reliving the image of his godfather falling into the veil, to a realm forever out of reach.

But Sirius isn't dead, Harry told himself, trying to get a hold of himself and his breathing. He isn't dead. I haven't failed this time. I will not fail this time.

The mirror. The broken, stupid shard of mirror that Harry had forgotten about the first time in his trunk, the one Aberforth had heard the plea for help through once. Only this time around Harry had never received the mirror shard from Sirius.

There had to be something, some way to get to Grimmauld Place. If he went to the forest he could get a ride from one of the Thestrals or even a Hippogryph. Harry was sure he could befriend one of them who wasn't Buckbeak. Bowing to large mythical horse/bird creatures was not something Harry had any issues with.

But that would require going back to the Forbidden Forest and Harry shuddered at the thought, nearly falling over with the violence of the movement.

Then he realised he wouldn't have to go that far. If he got off the Hogwarts grounds he could apparate himself to London. He might be fifteen in this body, but so far Harry hadn't forgotten or lost any of his magical skills as an eighteen-year-old spirit. Sure, it was illegal, but when had that ever stopped him before? The trace wouldn't be a problem as long as he didn't directly apparate to Grimmauld Place. Harry wouldn't mind sprinting a few blocks.

"Harry!" Ron yelled.

And this time Harry did fall over, his body still weak with tremors.

"Sorry," he muttered, "But you didn't hear us talking to you."

He bent over Harry and offered him a hand up to stand.

"No," Harry said, as evenly as he could, getting to his feet on his own.

I need to get out of here.

Inspiration struck like a bolt of lightning, as the door to their room opened.

"Kreacher," Harry whispered aloud.

Pop.

"Master calls for Kreacher," the little elf greeted.

"Harry-" McGonagall warned as she stepped into the room.

"Take me to Sirius," Harry ordered.

"Harry wait-" she warned, eyes wide, but she was too late.

"Yes, Master Potter," Kreacher said.

Pop.

oOo

Harry landed on Sirius, who had been asleep in bed.

The older wizard woke with an exclamation and began a long -rather creative, litany of swearing until he realised who had been dropped on him.

"Harry?" he asked, confused.

"Hi, Padfoot. I'd have called first but you don't have a phone," Harry babbled.

Sirius hugged him and Harry clung to his godfather in return.

oOo

AN: Thoughts, reactions, or leatherback sea turtles? Please?