Part 6

The Great Hall

2:28 AM

Hermione was using her wand to cast a controlled lumos spell while she knelt on the flying carpet up among the rafters. "I still have a hard time believing that you can understand these runes when I am a whole year ahead of you." She squinted as she examined one of the runes. "I've never seen some of these runes."

Luna was in the midst of tracing another rune when she answered. "I had Isabel translate how these runes worked during lunch. At dinner, I realized I knew how to make the changes. And since it regards one of the tasks Isabel assigned you, I figured it would be nice to do this right away. When I told Isabel that I could do this, she provided this flying carpet that had been buried in the Room of Requirement. It was probably stashed there when the Ministry banned magic carpets."

Hermione looked at a new glyph that sort of resembled an upside-down silhouette of R2-D2. Before she could ask Luna about it, she was instead startled by Luna initiating the first conversation since they had flown up here three hours ago.

"How do you feel about your amalgamations?"

The Fourth-Year witch paused in thought. "Well, I admit I was a bit hasty when I chose Starfire. I liked the fact that her mind has so much knowledge about an alien culture, even if I can't use any of that here. Plus, I liked that she was a fighter and would have better battle reflexes than I had. Mostly, I think I just wanted to feel beautiful."

"Trust me, I've heard several boys talking about you. They have noticed you becoming prettier over the years at Hogwarts even if you don't see it," Luna commented. "And I wish to complete that sentence by stating that most boys are pigs."

Hermione blushed; pretty sure she didn't want to hear what the boys had been saying about her.

"I do like the ability Starfire has of learning languages through a kiss."

Luna paused. "Really? I didn't know that."

Turning from her work, Luna leaned in a gave Hermione a kiss on her brow.

Hermione was startled and backed up almost off the carpet. "What… Why…?!"

"I want you to see if you are able to read the runes now?"

Hermione blinked uncomprehending for the moment before realizing what the blond girl had said. Then raising her wand, she cast another lumos to see the runes on the wall. She gasped as understanding began to fill her. "Oh, oh my! It's starting to make sense now!"

"Good." Luna turned back to her work. "I don't want Neville to confuse my intentions by randomly kissing other girls, even if it is just on their forehead. Boys have little common sense in areas like that. They are very quick to jump to stupid ideas."

"I thought the language could just be transferred by lip to lip. I wonder if any of Starfire's people were able to do it like this or if it has something to do with the amalgamation, or maybe one of their society norms?"

"Not enough information to form a credible hypothesis. We would need access to more of her people to test that. Currently, that is not something we can focus on. I'd rather use that energy to finding and studying the Crumple-Horned Snorkack."

Hermione had only a few encounters with Luna before her amalgamation. She felt a bit relieved to hear her sound like her normal self again, even if it was just for a moment.

"I want to try an experiment," she said to Luna. "Take a moment to look at the runes and think about what they mean."

The blond girl did as instructed. After a moment, Hermione leaned in and kissed her on the temple of her head.

After that she turned and studied the runes for herself. "Yes! Now it is even clearer! I see exactly what you are implementing!" Hermione was reexamining everything that was within eyesight. "This makes so much more sense! You must love how your amalgamation works for you!"

"Must I?"

Hermione turned to look at the Third-Year with concern. "Do you not like how your amalgamation went?"

Luna carefully blew out the dust from the new rune she had made. "Valeria Richards is beyond brilliant. She is even smarter than her father, Mr. Fantastic, who is said to be one of the most brilliant men on their Earth. She is a prodigy of prodigies. In some ways we are very alike in the way that our minds make us different from everyone else."

"I'm a bit jealous of you," Hermione admitted. "You have so much knowledge available to you. You just learned these runes and are already putting them to use in a manner that no one has ever considered before."

"And yet you can just kiss someone and download an entire language," Luna tossed back. "Even runes."

Hermione chuckled. "I think you and I are going to be good friends."

"That would be nice." She carefully removed a rune so that the surface would be flat for a new carving. "The only friend I ever had was Ginny Weasley, but she ended our friendship when my mother died."

That angered Hermione. "Ginny and Ron are not our friends."

"Oh, I know. Xander Harris explained everything to me." She shook her head. "Ginny is going to be very angry once she realizes that she can't have Harry Potter."

"I already told her that," the brunette said with a frown.

The blond turned to regard her new friend. "That will make it seem as more of a challenge to Ginny. All Harry Potter is to her is a prize."

Green sparkled in Hermione's eyes, and her hands glowed with her starbolt energy. Luna chose to distract the brunette before she set the flying carpet on fire. "Tell me how your additional amalgamation went."

Hermione blinked as her energy levels subsided. "Oh, um, yes, due to Starfire being an impulsive choice, I thought I might need a second amalgamation for… control purposes. And… with someone I could relate to more."

"And do you?"

"Yes. Barbara Gordon, who was the superhero Batgirl, and later Oracle, fits in rather well. She is feisty, brave, a fighter, a computer whiz, a detective -but without any paperwork for such a field, and best of all she has also been a librarian!"

"Any problems?"

"Well, Starfire and Batgirl know of each other as they do come from the same universe, but they have had little interaction. That said, they do have one thing in common, and that is Dick Grayson, otherwise known as Robin, and later Nightwing."

"Do you mean they were both romantically involved with this Grayson?"

Hermione blushed. "Very much so."

"Was he cheating on… both or either of them?"

"No. Thank Merlin." Her face flushed redder.

"So they have similar taste in men."

Hermione thought about it. "I guess that is one way to consider it."

"Is this Grayson anything like Harry Potter?" Luna asked.

She considered that. "I guess so. But to be fair, I think I was interested in Harry before the amalgamations."

"I know that. Anyone with half a brain could tell that. That is why the headmaster had the two of you potioned."

"Yes, but that also brings up the question of why did the headmaster potion us. I know part of it was for control."

"For that answer we need more facts." She did a check over her work, then moved the flying carpet a few feet to examine the next section.

Hermione decided to use her Starfire ability to fly around and examine the other rune changes Luna had made. While flying still made her nervous, Hermione had been right in that adding Barbara Gordon would help her with her heights issues and hopefully her Tamaranean anger issues, too.

She paused in her flying as she rechecked over some of Luna's earlier changes. Then she laughed. Hermione hadn't known that Luna was going to add to what they had planned on, but know she knew that breakfast tomorrow was going to be much more interesting for some people.

~* The Next Morning *~

Daphne Greengrass gave the barest glint of a smile as she walked in the hall from the Slytherin dorms. Beside her was her closest friend Tracey Davis, who was giving her another strange look.

"There is something different about you this morning," the brunette commented.

"I had a great night's sleep last night," the platinum blond responded. "And by that, I mean I cast a silencing spell on you so I couldn't hear your snoring. It made a world of difference."

Tracey raised an eyebrow, but not bothered by the snoring comment. "But shouldn't you -and by you I mean you and me- be worried about the blond ferret. I told you word is out he's gone completely pissed about you. He's focused on you like he thinks you are Potter or something."

"Draco's a drama queen."

"Yeah, if it wasn't for his focus on you, I'd think he was batting for Potter."

Daphne shivered. "Tracey, please. Stop saying he's interested in me. We are about to eat, and I won't have you ruining my appetite just because you find it funny to tease me. In fact, don't bring up Malfoy at all."

Tracey stuck out her tongue and then grinned. "So what do you want to talk about? Did you like Millicent's new song in the shower? I think it was an old Muggle one."

"Milly has a beautiful voice. Wouldn't be at all surprised if we hear her all the time on the wireless after we finish Hogwarts." She paused to wave at a toddler in a painting who was sitting in the arms of his mother who was asleep.

"It's your hair! I've never seen you wear it like that. Is that a new hair spell in Witch Weekly?" Tracey had reached out to touch her friend's only to pull it back in surprise. "It's cold."

"New spell. A few oddities here and there."

"If you got that spell from Witch Weekly, you should complain. You never know what they might do to compensate you if you trouble was from a misprinted spell. I have an aunt on my mother's side who tried a misprinted beautification spell and ended up turned into a sow."

Daphne just rolled her eyes and shook her head, letting her friend know she wasn't interested in going after the magazine editors.

"Hey, you never told me why you were hanging out with Longbottom yesterday," Tracey asked. "Are you going sweet on him?"

Daphne chuckled. "He's already been claimed by a blond. I'll let you figure out who by yourself."

"Are you serious? You discovered some gossip like that before I could?" Tracey gave a look of fake incredulousness.

"Longbottom has a girlfriend?" voiced a familiar mocking tone. "To what family do I send my condolences to?"

As usual, Draco was not alone. Most weak bullies liked to rove in packs for a greater intimidation factor. Draco was no exception. Vincent Crabbe was there, though one was holding over his chest tenderly due to laughing so hard when he'd been exposed to the leaves of the Hyena Tree yesterday. Madam Pomphrey had said it not necessary to treat and that the minor inconvenience of healing on his own would remind him to be more careful next time. Gregory Goyle still showed bruises from his encounter with the large raging Bouncing Bulb though Madam Pomphrey had provided him with some minor bruise creams and deep tissue pain relievers. Theodore Nott was there looking particularly ornery after being shown to be a coward the previous day. Behind them, looking particularly annoyed at being drawn into this was Blaise Zabini.

"So," continued Draco "Is it a mudblood? I can't imagine anyone else in this castle that would be willing to lower themselves to going out with Longbottom. Not even a half-blood like Davis."

"Hey! Longbottom is a decent guy!" snapped Tracey. "He's far better than the majority of blokes in Slytherin!"

Daphne let out an annoyed sigh. Tracey never had been good at keeping her cool. She had a history of a quick temper. If Daphne had had a chance to warn her what Draco was about to try, then Tracey could handle it better. But when caught off guard, she was very apt to just snap back at him. Fortunately, she had said 'majority', which Daphne could spin in the dorm so that most of the males would think Tracey thought they were among the ones that were best among the Slytherins.

Draco turned to Daphne. "You need to teach your pet to mind her manners around her betters."

Daphne allowed herself an air of boredom. "Draco, as always, you live up to your pathetic reputation. Now go and find some harmless bowtruckle to pick on so you can try and imagine yourself as superior to something again."

Tracey and Crabbe both gaped in surprise at the harsh rebuttal. Blaise let out a startled laugh while Theodore backed up in alarm because he knew things were going to escalate. Goyle hadn't been paying attention because he was in pain and wanted to get up to the medical wing for a potion.

Draco's teeth ground together in anger. "That's it, Greengrass. I am not standing for your mouthy attitude anymore. It's time you learned your place."

Daphne had glanced around. She hadn't wanted to show her new abilities so soon, but by the time she noticed Draco and his hooligans, she had also noticed that all the portraits in this hallway were asleep, most likely due to the boys finding a spell to stun the portraits so they couldn't witness what they had planned.

Draco pulled his wand from his pocket, but Daphne merely waved her hand at him, causing his hand and wand to be encased in a block of ice.

The ice block encasing his hand and wand overbalanced him due to the sudden weight increase and smacked down hard on the stone floor.

"Gah!" was all Draco could say at the moment.

"Morgana!" Tracey's head kept turning from Daphne to Draco's hand and back again.

Daphne gave the other boys a cool look. "You boys should run along now. I want a word with Malfoy."

Draco muttered several curses as he tried to lift up his iced over hand. "Somebody get this off me!"

Theodore rushed over to a nearby broom closet and dove in, stopping only to fire a spell.

Daphne made a short wall which blocked the spell, but sent shards of ice flying around. Daphne was able to protect herself, however, Tracey had not been as fortunate. The Davis girl had raised a palm up to protect her face, but now she had a thin shard of ice impaled in her hand.

Furiously, Daphne buried Goyle in an instant snowbank. Crabbe found himself facing a snow monster which chased him down the hall. Finally, the broom closet that Nott had gone to hide in was covered in a foot of ice.

Daphne moved to face Blaise only to stop when she saw he had his hands in the air and was still laughing.

"They threatened me to come with them," he said. "I was most annoyed by it, too. Thought I'd turn the tables on them when they faced off with you. Not that you needed any help, ice queen."

"Zabini!" Draco roared, turning to face the boy who had been planning to betray him.

Blaise gave a crooked smile, then reached out and pushed Draco's iced over hand hard to one side. The off-balanced boy twisted as the weight of the ice went down to the floor again. Half the ice shattered. The shattered half revealed part of a broken wand.

"My wand!"

"Some of us are capable of wandless magic, Malfoy," she said with superiority. It was one of Xander's ideas to give the cover story that she could do a type of wandless magic. He had been right that she would have to reveal her new abilities soon. She had just hoped that she would have been able to do more training with these new powers before using them in public.

She glanced over guiltily over at Tracey staring at her hand again in shock. Daphne was sure if she had had more experience, then Tracey would not have been hurt.

She knew enough about injuries to know not to pull the ice shard out of Tracey's hand. "Let's go see Madam Pomfrey, Trace. She should be able to fix this, and maybe still let us get to the Great Hall for breakfast."

"Daph? When and how…?"

"Not now, Trace."

Daphne gave Blaise an eye. The Italian boy was too amused for her to believe he would turn on her now. "Watch Malfoy while I get Tracey out of here."

Blaise considered. "Not the best company right now, but as you have asked so nicely, as you wish."

As Daphne and Tracey were walking away, Draco went for another parting shot. "If I can't get at you, there is always your sister!"

Daphne froze. Taking a deep breath, she told Tracey to wait there for a minute. Then she walked back over to Draco.

Blaise could be heard muttered to Draco that he was being a bigger fool than Crabbe or Goyle ever were, but Daphne didn't care.

"Draco, I may not be ready to kill someone yet, though you are tempting me." She let her cold blue eyes meet his. "Still, I find the need to give you a much clearer hint as to what I will do to you if you ever threat my sister again."

She pointed a finger at his groin. Draco let out a cry of shock and pain as his manly parts were cruelly encapsulated in a large mass of ice that equaled the mass ice covering his hand. Once again Draco fell to the floor by the weight of ice, only this time he could only cross his eyes and make strange mewling noises. He wasn't getting up.

"Let him be for fifteen minutes or more," she told Blaise. "I'd like Pomfrey to be able to finish treating Tracey before having The Bat swoop in and insist that she treat Draco and company first, as they are perishable pure-bloods."

Zabini nodded. "What do you want me to tell everybody?"

She snorted. "The truth, of course. Just as it happened."

He considered that. "That's just crazy enough to work."

As she was turning for the hospital wing, three older girls were just getting there and asking Zabini what had happened. Despite Tracey's injured hand, Daphne had not thought the confrontation would turn out so well.

She had been nicknamed the 'Ice Queen of Slytherin' for years. Now, thanks to an amalgamation with a Disney princess named Elsa, Daphne truly was an Ice Queen.

~* The Great Hall that morning *~

"Does this have to do with your project with Luna last night?"

"Hush, and I said no guessing, Harry," chided Hermione.

The new power couple walked arm-in-arm down the corridor to the Great Hall. Just behind them walked Luna and Neville hand-in-hand.

Because they had not arrived early, the entrance to the Great Hall was bottlenecked with those in the forefront staring up at the ceiling with a few pointing up to those with them.

When it was their turn to enter, Harry was able to see that the ceiling was showing the night sky with the stars magnified as if with a telescope.

Everyone startled when the whole skyscape moved to focus on the planet Jupiter. There was a collective gasp from the majority of the room when the image zoomed closer to the gas giant planet.

Hermione bumped Harry's shoulder before pointing to the far end of the room where the Head Table was. A stone pedestal was fixed to the floor and was surrounded by Professors Sinistra, Babbling and Flitwick, who were all acting as if they were little kids opening presents on Christmas. A little way farther, a sour-faced Dumbledore was being scolded by McGonagall.

"This is pretty incredible," Harry remarked as the screen filled with one of Jupiter's moons.

"Yes, and now Astronomy can be conducted down here where it is warm and dry. And you see the notes you are making as well as not having to worry that they will blow away," commented Luna who had stepped next to them.

"I wonder if they will still make us buy our own telescopes?" Neville added.

"Probably, for practical application since everywhere else you live, you will have to manually go out and look for yourself since no one else has a ceiling like the Great Hall of Hogwarts," Hermione said.

"Actually," Luna spoke up. "The Heavenly Spheres Institute in Hong Kong and The Dome in Australia both have similar ceilings to Hogwarts, but Hogwarts was first. It's rumored that the Goblins in New York have a two-way mirror ceiling that is sometimes used to broadcast the night sky, or other scenes such as curse breaking, kraken hunting or exploring the crevasses of Antarctica for forgotten colonies."

Harry glanced over to Dumbledore again. "Think the old goat will let the ceiling by used for Astronomy?"

A few students heard this and began spreading the possibilities of use of the newfound aspects of the ceiling for the late-night class.

Luna did a subtle movement with her wand to keep them from being heard by anyone else. "The best thing is that Prof. Sinistra will not have to wait until after dark to teach her class. The modular controls can move so that we can view the night sky even during the day. We can also see the summer stars in the winter."

The view of the ceiling shifted again. This time it was closing on the Crab Nebula, and Flitwick hooted in joy and nearly fell down off the chair he was standing on.

"So you did this?" Harry asked.

"Luna did. Last night," stated Hermione. "I just kept guard."

He liked that his girlfriend was able to hang out with Luna. Isabel had told them of Luna's lack of friendship at Hogwarts. He knew both girls could use more friends. He probably could, too, not that he felt motivated toward that endeavor. He figured his self-isolationism was probably a holdover from his time with the Dursleys. Still, he thought that he was slowly opening up to others. But thanks to Dumbledore's manipulations, Harry was going to have to test everyone before accepting them.

Overhead the skyline in the ceiling changed again, this time settling on a variety of spaceships flying as a convoy or caravan to another star system. Behind the flock of ships can three other vessels that looked resembled large pyramids.

"I see that they found the icon for closest intelligent life," Luna said just a bit smugly.

"This is real?" Neville asked for conformation.

"Very real. And happening right at this moment," stated the blond.

"Alien life," Hermione said with marvel in her voice. "I know I am amalgamed with a Tamaranean, and thereby know a lot of alien species from Starfire's memories, but that is in a totally different universe. This is my universe, and according to what we are watching there really are aliens living in it!"

Luna nodded. "Too bad this had to be done anonymously; I could have been awarded massive amount of house points for this; that is if I cared for house points."

Hermione bit her lip for a moment. "You could always write a research paper on it and submit it under a pseudonym."

The little blond considered it for a moment. "I'll think on it. Though I may just write it, and have you read over it to make sure I made it so that someone that is muggle or wizard could understand it. Cultural and social niceties are not something I have the best time navigating. I would normally blame the nargles, but it isn't always them."

Hermione gave the Ravenclaw table a cold look. While several of Luna's housemates had apologized for allowing the pranks and abuse to go on, a majority of the Ravenclaws were shunning her, as it were her fault that their Head of House had been allowing such actions as he was of the view that a pecking order helped people to climb to the top; a distinction he picked up from his Goblin heritage.

Hermione also spotted Cho Chang, who had been one of the first in the Great Hall this morning and was thus able to be close enough to the control pedestal for her to get a good glimpse of the icons and runes, along with the embedded globe that could be spun to show different areas among the stars. Cho was also on the outs with the majority of her housemates because she had turned against Edgecombe and the others. Hermione also noticed Cedric Diggory casting unsure glances over towards the teenage Chinese girl.

A sudden scream came from the entrance of the Great Hall, and the once slow group of incoming students started to push their way inside with great fear.

Harry and the others tried pushing their way to the door, but couldn't due to the rush against the number of people jamming together. Harry was about to jump onto the walls and run to the entrance thanks to his amalgaming with Spider-Man, but before he could a suit of armor came marching in as if to attack.

However, once the suit of armor stepped into the Great Hall, it lit up with sparks of electricity. A great cry came from inside the suit of armor just before a shaky Peeves floated out of the suit revealed to everyone. As he began to enter the Great Hall again, the pranking Peeves was once more lit up with sparks of energy. The hurting poltergeist quickly flew out of the Great Hall, and the teachers and students could hear his wails become farther and farther away.

"That will keep him from messy with my chocolate pudding," Luna quietly remarked so that only her friends could hear.

"Did Peeves get zapped because of one of the line of runes you placed last night?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, that is one of the tasks Isabel gave you in exchange for helping you with the amalgamations. She really doesn't like how Peeves has been allowed to terrorize the students. She believes that the students should be able to relax and eat in peace."

Hermione's eyes opened wide. "Luna, could we block Peeves from the library tonight?"

Harry and Neville shared a grin of amusement.

"It may depend…" Luna said speculatively. "After the big reveal this morning, Dumbledore may be watching for any other changes in Hogwarts."

Hermione frowned, but nodded in understanding. It was better for Dumbledore to not know they were the ones messing with 'his' castle.

They could feel someone moving inside their privacy field and turned only to see Ginny there. "Can you believe all this craziness?" she asked with a grin. "I don't think Fred and George have come close to causing this kind of disruption!"

"How do you know it isn't your brothers?" asked Neville, trying to push her onto a red herring.

"Oh, please," Ginny said with a dramatic rolling of her eyes. "That view of the stars is a helpful teaching aid. Name one thing they have put together that could be worthy of making the class better. Besides, they would never block Peeves when he's pranking people. Neither of those are my brothers' style. Speaking of brothers, where's Ron?"

"Still practicing his snoring last I saw," Neville answered.

Ginny raised an eyebrow. "Why didn't you get him up?"

It was quite evident she was trying to talk to Harry. However, Neville knew that neither Harry nor Hermione trusted themselves to talk with her, so he was willing to try be the buffer for now.

"If we woke him, he'd just complain that he was sleeping. So, we let him sleep."

"He'll miss breakfast. You know what a pain he is when he's hungry," Ron's sister pointed out.

"Well, then tomorrow he should be more willing to get up early. Consider it a life lesson." Neville grinned.

"Whatever. You lot are the ones that have to suffer through having class with him like that."

"Neville," remarked Luna, "you should see about getting some snacks from Gred and Forge so you have something to sooth Ron's appetite if he starts acting like a git."

Ginny's eyes went wide, then she broke out laughing. "That would be great. But instead of giving the 'snacks' to Ron, just have them at the top of your open bag, and then turn away. He is sure to steal some of them, and you couldn't be blamed for it."

Dumbledore used several thunderclaps to gain everyone's attention so that breakfast could be resumed, or more like begun because no one had eaten yet.

Meanwhile Professor Sinistra had changed the ceiling view to be underwater in what most believed to by the Mediterranean Sea.

Harry and Hermione sat on the end of one table with Neville and Luna across from them. Ginny sat on the other side of Harry and tried to be part of the group.

Once breakfast appeared on the tables, everyone began choosing what to eat. When Harry and Hermione had dished up their food and were about to partake, a shrill whistle sounded, and a holographic image appeared above each of their plates of food and cups.

The holograms were indicating a love potion, a few loyalty potions, and mild hatred or disinterested potion in both of their foods and drink. Harry also had a power dampening potion in his drink as well.

Harry and Hermione had been ready to fain surprise, but they didn't have to since there were also eight other students in the Great Hall that were also showing potion indicator holograms above their food, too. Seven were love potions, but the eighth was to a seventh year Hufflepuff girl and it revealed a skull & crossbones symbol that indicated poison.

Dumbledore sat in surprise at this revelation in a crowded room. True, he was responsible for the potions in Harry and Hermione's food and drink. He was also responsible for three of the love potions, which in his mind he felt validated since he was shoring together several family lines into voting blocks he was sure to profit from in the long game. The other four love potions had to have come from other enterprising individuals looking for sex from a particular love interest, or maybe in search of a particular spouse like Molly Prewett had back when she was a student.

The poison was not really a poison in his mind, regardless of the fact that it was to kill the small baby inside Illyssa Tippit, a muggle-born witch who had the audacity to become pregnant by her classmate, Jeremy Longshanks, who was from a nearly ancient family and the next in line to take over as the next Lord Longshanks. Dumbledore was a firm believer that the pure-blood families needed to remain pure and not mix their family lines with those of lesser blood. A few lines, such as the Potters, would have a muggle-born or half-blood marry into the family every century or so, which is why he stopped trying to have James Potter marry to another pure-blood family when he showed persistent dedication to his pursuit of Lily Evans. Dumbledore had made an exception in planning to bring the Potter and Weasley lines together since there were already so many Weasleys it wouldn't matter much if one of their line married a half-blood. He was planning to be able to drain quite a bit of money from the Potter vaults thanks to a deal with Molly Weasley, plus get the return of the Potter invisibility cloak which he had originally had to swear to return to the Potter family when he had first borrowed it.

The murmurings in the hall were getting louder and louder all while Dumbledore sat trying to determine how this had happened.

Professor Pomona Sprout had already rushed down to the Hufflepuff table and was checking Illyssa Tippit as well as her food and drink. Her eyes widened in alarm at the readings, and was soon shuffling Ms. Tippit and her younger sister to the Infirmary where Madam Pomfrey was. A house-elf was assigned to bring her tainted food to be examined by Pomfrey.

Dumbledore was disturbed from his many thoughts by Olympe Maxime leaning down to ask him if this sort of thing happened often at Hogwarts.

"No! It does not!"

The headmistress of Beauxbatons Academy of Magic flinched in surprise at his reaction for which Dumbledore quickly made apologize.

Before he could say anything to calm the students, he noted that Professors Sinistra, Babbling, Flitwick, Burbage, Moody and Vector were out among the students, checking the images of light over the food and checking whether or not the student in front of the plate of food had been affected at all by any type of potion. Six were soon determined to have previously been exposed to love potions, and were evidently being re-dosed by someone, so those students were led away to the Medical Wing to partage of the power of the purging potion. Off to one side, a smug Igor Karkaroff was chuckling to himself as he watched all the antics.

Dumbledore rose with anger, then as he moved to the speaking podium, he remembered to apply his occlumency skills to uses to calm himself and organize his thoughts.

"Students, we seem to have had several pranks played today. There is-"

"Pranks!" shouted one of the Seventh Year Hufflepuff girls. "That holo-symbol thing showed that Illyssa was about to be poisoned! Prof. Sprout confirmed it before taking her to see Madam Pomfrey! How is that a prank?!"

He had to crank down on his occlumency so that he was able to use a guileless smile that exuded caring and a bit of hurt. "Yes, well, I was referring to the love potions that were indicated. Of course, we will be looking into-"

"Love potions are rape in a bottle!" called out the familiar voice of Hermione Granger. A growing murmur of agreement resounded among the students and at least two ghosts that were there as well.

Dumbledore winced at the bold declaration. He'd heard that type of argument from muggle-borns before and it never ended well until an obliviation of the subject was placed on them. "Trust me when I say that the professors and I will be looking into it."

Hermione defiantly remained standing. "And when will the students be told of the arrest of those that would do such a thing to their fellow students?"

The murmuring grew louder, and a few students began looking around uneasily.

"No one gets arrested for love potions, Granger!" a haughty Pansy Parkinson shouted. "At least not pure-bloods."

"So, if you gave Draco Malfoy a love potion, no one would care?"

Pansy gaped for a moment before retorting. "I-I wouldn't need to give Draco a love potion. But a know-it-all like you would definitely have to use a love potion to get someone to go after you!"

Hermione just pointed to the floating holographic icons floating over her food and drink. "Evidently someone is determined to get me to love them. Someone who is clearly not capable or worthy of wooing me on their own. Someone with less moral principles than a flobberworm."

It was then that Ron Weasley ran into the Great Hall, his hair in disarray from not showering, and his robe on inside out. Seeing Harry and Hermione, the redhead hurried over and proceeded to sit down while reaching for food on the table and shoving it in his mouth, not noticing anything. "Whmmm dimuh yomph waum fm mumm?"

Raising her wand, Hermione vanished the food from his mouth with a spell used to clear someone airways from choking.

"Why'd you do that for?" he demanded, angry about the missing food he'd been about to swallow.

"Because you are an embarrassment, and no one could understand you."

"You're not my mother!" he snarled back at her.

"Thank Merlin for that. Though I would discipline you more if I were your mother. Perhaps put you on a diet as well. I would definitely attempt to teach you some manners."

Ron was about to yell at her when Dumbledore let out a thunderclap.

"Students! Enough! An investigation will be held. That is all you need to know for now. Eat your food and prepare yourselves for class. My apologies to Durmstrang and Beauxbatons for the unusual circumstances this morning."

As he went back around to sit again, Dumbledore quietly offered his apologies again. Karkaroff could only chortle at Dumbledore's embarrassment, while Maxime managed to give some unwanted platitudes about the difficulties in running a magical school for children.

Just when he thought things were about to calm down, Argus Filch runs into the Great Hall, and continues running and huffing down the long row of tables all the way to the Head Table.

Albus couldn't help wondering why the man didn't just use a house-elf to send a message instead of just running out of breath like a muggle. If he was trying to prove he was indispensable, Filch was going about it all the wrong way.

As it was the old squib nearly collapsed in front of him and couldn't speak until Albus had a house-elf bring a pepper-up potion for the caretaker. Only then was Filch able to blurt out that Draco Malfoy and several Slytherins had nearly been murdered and that Professor Snape was bringing them to the Infirmary.

Ron cheered.

AuThOr'S NoTeS: 7/17/2021

Sorry for the long delay. While I have been busy at times, most of my time seems to be taken up by reading. Last year alone I read 254 books, and that is not counting graphic novels and fanfiction stories.

I still plug away on writing when I can. I am also trying to write a book of my own which I keep going back and rewriting. I should move on to what you do want to hear.

A few more characters are going to be amalgamized. Some are rather unexpected.

So here are the current amalgamations -

Harry Potter + Spider-Man (Marvel Comics) + Wolverine (Marvel Comics)

Hermione Granger + Starfire (DC Comics) + Batgirl (DC Comics)

Luna Lovegood + Valeria Richards (Marvel Comics)

Daphne Greengrass + Elsa (Disney)

Neville Longbottom + Chlorophyll Kid (DC Comics)

Yes, I amalgamed Neville with Chlorophyll Kid. He is a DC hero from the 30th century who tried out for, but never made it in, the Legion of Super-Heroes. Instead, he was a founding member of the Legion of Substitute-Heroes. At first the Substitute-Heroes were considered more of a joke. But they had heart. Then in the early 90's, when the Dominion had been secretly taking over the Earth and the Legion of Super-Heroes had been disbanded, the Chlorophyll Kid had joined the resistance and retrained to use his powers in ways he had never considered before, which was really helpful because the Dominion mainly used an unusual plant-based technology for everything. I was going to wait a few more chapters to revel who he was going to be connected with, but I was the one who took so long to write this.

Yes, I made Daphne Greengrass into a literal ice queen. She had been nicknamed the 'Slytherin Ice Queen' in fanfiction all the time. I just thought to make it more real. I had once thought of writing another crossover fanfiction story for my daughters that was between Harry Potter and Frozen. Basically, as Elsa came into her powers, she accidently froze herself and everyone else in Arendale. They are unfrozen in the 1990s thanks to Luna Lovegood and her father while on a Crumple-horned Snorkack hunt. Elsa is taken to Dumbledore at Hogwarts to be trained to use her powers. There she is adopted by some old relative - the Greengrass family, and she is even given the name Daphne to hide her identity. I may have even planned for some romance between Elsa and Harry, but I don't remember. It's just nice to use the Character.

Also, Xander will get more use in this story. Sorry he didn't make it in this chapter.