Chapter 8

~* 11 AM on Saturday *~

Three Broomsticks, Hogsmeade

"I will make this quick," Harry said to the others at the table. "I know you have plans today, and what I am about to tell you will distract you from enjoying it completely, but I figured that the sooner you knew, the more prepared you will be."

"Vat is it?" asked Krum.

Next to him sat Cedric Diggery, and after him was Fleur Delacour. He had spotted them all and had chosen to use the opportunity to tell them what he had recently discovered. "The first task. It's dragons. There is one for each of us. Each one is a different species."

"How did you learn this?" Fleur asked, dubiously.

He gave an awkward grin. "I was exploring the Forbidden Forest. I heard the roars and spotted the flames."

"But the forest is forbidden, Harry," Cedric said with a look of surprise. "It's incredibly dangerous. It's said there are werewolves out there."

"It's not so bad if you know what to watch out for. As for werewolves, they are only a problem during a full moon. And I have only encountered one werewolf. There is at least one herd of Centaurs in there, but you would be fine as long as you don't provoke them. Unicorns, too, unless they moved to greener pastures. You'd do better to watch for Acromantulas though. There is a big colony of them just southwest of the castle, but I don't know how far they roam for hunting."

"You're joking right? Acromantulas? And now dragons?" Cedric's sat back lost for words.

"I do not think he jokes," said Krum.

"If you want, I could lead you to where I saw them," Harry offered, secretly hoping they would refuse.

"When would that be?" asked Fleur.

"Tonight. After dark."

"You go into the Forbidden Forest at night?" asked an incredulous Cedric. "How long have you been doing that?"

Harry shrugged. "The first time was in my First Year."

"Merlin! Harry, you must be crazy! I've heard some insane stories about the Forbidden Forest." Cedric paused. "Most of those stories were from the Weasley twins, so they could have been fabricated or exaggerated. But, some of those tales were from fellow Hufflepuffs, so I have to give them credence."

Harry rolled his eyes and decided against telling the whole story of his detention in his First Year. Few people would believe that.

"I do have a memory crystal of me examining the dragons if you would rather see with that, though I have to warn you that the senses of the crystal are extra sharp so everything would be louder and smellier. Also, I have heard that some people can fake or twist memory crystals, so you may just want to come with me to see the dragons for yourselves." He had had to warn them of the extra sharp senses since the memory came from him, and ever since his amalgamation with replicas of Wolverine and Spider-Man, his senses have been powerful, especially his sense of smell.

"Will you swear that the crystals are true and that you are not trying to trick us into being wrongly prepared for the First Task?"

Harry had to work at not scowling at Fleur for saying something like that. Hermione had warned him that Veela were always more suspicious of men. "I swear on my magic that the memory crystal is my memory and that no one has changed it, but as I said, you will find that my senses were intensified so you should have a much better understanding of just what we are to face."

Cedric nodded. "Hermione Granger."

"What?" asked a puzzled Harry, not sure why Cedric would bring up Hermione.

"She is scary brilliant. That would explain why the senses would be intensified in the memory. She did something to it."

Harry smirked. "I will neither confirm nor deny that statement."

The others looked amused.

"Why do you do this?" asked Krum.

"Simple. So that we will all have more time to focus correctly on the problem of the potentially lethal challenge and hopefully keep everyone alive and without serious injury."

In a little while Fleur returned to her waiting friends. Cedric was about to return to his friends when he spotted a dejected Cho Chang sitting by herself, and after a moment's hesitation, made his way over to her, much to everyone's surprise. Victor went over to his date with Penelope Clearwater, who was doing an internship at Hogwarts with the Charms professor, Filius Flitwick. Harry had been angry to learn that Percy Weasley, Penelope's previous boyfriend, had dumped her because he believed he would be unable to rise in the Ministry with a muggleborn girlfriend. Rumor had it that Victor had met Penelope in the library and had taken to spending more and more time with her.

Harry sat at the table as Hermione came over with a fresh bottle of butterbeer. "It went well," he said.

"Good," she said as she sat down with him. "From their reactions, it was obvious when you brought up the dragons. I'm glad you remembered to have one of the others do a privacy charm."

"The French version seems stronger than ours. There was this water beetle trying to get in but was being rebuffed away. It seemed very determined."

"A beetle?"

"An awfully big one with a strange pattern on its shell. It could be a magical variety that normally live in the Forbidden Forest."

She looked around but didn't see it anywhere. "Oh, well, I have bigger mysteries to work on."

"True, like what to get your boyfriend for Christmas."

"Prat," she said, throwing a napkin at him.

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Room of Requirement

"Well, this is it."

Xander Harris watched as the side of the crystal cage he'd been kept inside suddenly opened. Hesitantly, he exited.

"Huh. I still exist. The amalgamation seems to have worked." He stretched, glad to be out of the confinement of the crystal that he'd been confined to until now.

"As I told you it would," Luna said, as she studied the readings on her computer screen.

Xander paused. "Man, I have a lot of bizarre new memories to go with the bizarre ones I already have."

"That is to be expected," remarked the girl genius. She went to forage in her bag before pulling something out. "You are going to need this."

Xander looked at the long thin box she was holding out for him. "Is this what I think it is?" he asked in a hushed tone.

Luna smirked and took off the lid of the box revealing the wand inside. "Eleven inches, mahogany, with a griffin feather for the core."

"Where did you get this?" he asked in wonder as he took it out of the box, gasping as the wand and the magic inside him resonated causing a shower of sparks to fly out around the room.

"I made it."

"You… what?" Xander stared at her in shock. He knew that the upgrade Luna had taken in being amalgamated with a copy of Valeria Richards, the genius child of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, had increased her intelligence by a massive degree, but he didn't think that would make her able to craft wands as well. "How?" he managed to say.

She rolled her eyes. She had already anticipated his questions. "This is the Room of Requirement. I have access to more information here than anywhere else in the world. Wandcraft making is just some of that information. Dobby was more than able to get the supplies I needed. Dobby was actually quite glad to do it since it was also a boon for Harry as well."

Xander looked away. "Let's just hope Harry will see it that way."

"He will be furious for half an hour initially. Just less than twenty minutes if Hermione is there."

"Then we definitely want her there." Xander looked in the mirror at the changes that the amalgamation had made to him. "Well, at least I am still good looking. My hair is darked and wilder."

"We should test your abilities," Luna insisted.

"Right. Um, how about this?" Having said that, Xander suddenly transformed into a stag with large antlers.

Luna raised an eyebrow. "I hadn't realized that James Potter was an animagus." She pulled up James Potter's records on the computer that the Room of Requirement had made for her. "I see. Yes, he was definitely an animagus."

Xander changed back to his human form. "Yep. They did it so they could interact with Remus Lupin who was a werewolf as well as being a student at Hogwarts their same age and in Gryffindor. They found an old record of an animagus who had tried to escape a werewolf that had been chasing him. In his statement, Werner Rorke claimed to have changed into his animal form of an aardvark. He was amazed that the werewolf no longer had an interest of doing him bodily harm. Rorke decided to test it out the next time the moon was full. Then he tried it out with other werewolves. Only the werewolves of violent people were dangerous to an animagus. Luckily, he at least had taken precautions to protect himself if things went pear-shaped."

Luna nodded. "I will want to research that more. I also hope to have a werewolf cure soon. All this information will make a good article I hope to write for The Quibbler."

"Hopefully, it will help someone." He paused to consider. "At least it could help them if they are an animagus." He decided to not mention the credibility of The Quibbler as Luna still had a strong emotional tie to her father's paper regardless of some of its more questionable articles.

"What does Isabel say?" Luna asked.

Xander glanced around. "Um, I don't see her. Crap! Did myself come out of the chamber take away my ability to communicate with her?" He felt instant remorse. The Isabel he had gotten to know was rather sweet, and was more than a little lonely. He'd been more than willing to chat with her while he had been stuck in the crystal chamber that allowed him to exist at all in this reality. Luna had convinced Xander that letting himself be subjected to an amalgamation to someone of this universe would allow him to leave the crystal chamber. She had insisted on the choice of James Potter, and had beaten him down with the logic of that choice to where he finally agreed.

Luna held out a ruby visor to Xander. "Try these on and take a look around."

Xander took the visor hesitantly. "Ruby visor? Is it just me or does this look a lot like the visor worn by Cyclops of the X-Men? You aren't suggesting another amalgam already, are you?"

"I made it similar to his visor, but, no, I don't want you to blast optic-laser beams all over Hogwarts every time you bat your eyes."

Xander had already tried on the visor and was grinning when he saw the spirit of Hogwarts waving at him next to him. "Visor works. I see Isabel." He then frowned. "But I still can't hear her."

"I thought of that, too." She held out two ear attachments that resembled turnips. "This should let you hear her. I am going to make more for Harry, Hermione and myself later."

Xander grinned, though he didn't know what to make of the turnip earpiece. "She's very glad of that. It's been nearly a millennium since she has been able to interact with others."

"Good. Then I recommend that she take you for a walk to and tell you some of the history of the place. Just remember that no one is supposed to know about you yet."

Xander nodded. "Right, we don't want Dumbledore or anyone else to know we know what is going on and have made plans ourselves." He paused. "Do you want to come with us?"

Luna shook her head. "I have several other projects I am working on. Plus, a few other things to check on. Also, spying on the headmaster." She pointed to a screen of Dumbledore in his office with his head in the fireplace as he made a flue call.

Xander and the invisible Isabel soon left, and Luna began trying ways to magically listen to Dumbledore's flue call. So far, nothing she tried would work. There was a component that she was missing that would let her hear the call. Probably a privacy protection ward that was unfamiliar to her. Regardless, she should have it solved by tomorrow.

Stretching, she pulled up a picture and stats of the secondary amalgam she was considering for herself. "I just don't know…"

A few minutes later she cleared the screen, determined to sleep on the matter.

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Astoria Greengrass looked down the hall nervously. "Are you sure we should do this?"

Her fellow Slytherin, Tracey Davis, nodded with determined resolution. "We have to, Story. Draco and his goons know that Daphne is with Zabini, supposably to test her new 'elemental' abilities." She paused in thought. "Do you think Daphne likes Zabini? He was awfully quick to agree to go with her."

Astoria smirked. "That is not who she likes. Besides, the Zabini family are all about accumulating riches and power. Usually, referring to power means political power. But with Daphne supposedly a budding elemental, Blaise's mother probably insisted that her start a relationship with her, or at least become a good friend."

That made Tracey more than a little perturbed. "She won't like those kinds of games. Daphne is very particular about who she lets into her small circle of friends. She won't like attempts to manipulate her by Blaise's mother."

Astoria had a look of consideration. "You're trying to distract me from my anxieties about what we are about to do."

Tracey gave the younger Greengrass girl a nod and grin. "You're catching on." Tracey was glad that Astoria had chosen to be in Slytherin instead of Ravenclaw when the Sorting Hat had presented her with the choice when she first arrived at the castle.

A grim look crossed Astoria's face. "Let's just get this over with, okay?"

They walked down the corridor, Tracey starting up a talk about one of the older Slytherin girls who may have started dating a Ravenclaw prefect. She was gossiping quite convincingly that the Slytherin boys who sprung their trap had no idea that their trap could backfire on them.

Draco had decided to up the numbers of his group after the last two times he had tried to trap the older Greengrass sister. Stepping out from the doors both in front and behind Tracey and Astoria also included Crabb, Goyle, Nott, three Third-Year Slytherin boys and one Fifth-Year boy who everyone always thought was especially creepy due to his leering and looks toward the younger females.

"Ha! Now I will have some payback!" Draco declared, while trying for a menacing look.

Tracey rolled her eyes. "Malfoy, you know that attacking us is just going to make you look bad, right?"

"You will fear me!" snarled Draco. "Then I can get back the respect of our House!"

Tracey grinned as she twirled the metal object in her hand. "Or I can just take it away forever by beating the snot out of you and your eight stooges all by myself."

Draco was about to laugh at this ridiculous statement, but reconsidered when he didn't see any fear in her eyes. Davis was Daphne Greengrass' main friend in Slytherin, and Astoria was Daphne's sister. By hurting these two, he would hurt the so-called ice queen of Slytherin who had ridiculed him earlier in the week. Draco's father had told him that if Daphne could not be married to Draco, then perhaps the sister could. Astoria may have the same ice-elemental abilities dormant in her that her sister displayed. But for now, Draco needed to hurt Daphne even if that meant hurting Astoria to do so. He could always get a love potion to win her over for marriage-breeding stock necessities in a couple of years.

"Get them!" Draco commanded.

Crabbe and Goyle lumbered forward as did the Third-Year boys. Martin Pennark, the Fifth-Year Slytherin, shot forward with a manic deviance on his face. Pennark was the first to reach the two girls. As he was about to lay hands on Tracey, she suddenly jumped up and twisted so that her foot whipped around and struck Pennark to the side of the head, causing him to fly face first into the castle wall. He collapsed on the hard stone floor and then turned to look at Tracey in disbelief even as he spat out several broken teeth.

The other boys all froze. They had never seen anything like what Tracey had just done, and that made them wary. They didn't want this to turn out like it had when Draco led some of them against Daphne.

Draco had been as flummoxed as the other boys, but he did not want to give up. "Use your wands if you are afraid!"

The boys, while not about to admit they were afraid in any way, all began to bring out their wands.

Grinning, Tracey gave a shrill battle-cry as she leapt high into the air and threw the razor-sharp disc down the hall where it bounced off walls, the ceiling, and the floor. Crabbe and two of the Third-Years looked down at the wands in their hands only to discover they were holding stubs of the formally-magical tool.

Theodore Nott could see the tide had turned against them so he bolted down the hallway for relative safety. His cowardness would soon be told throughout the castle.

Draco had been stunned at seeing this strange metal weapon cripple his forces even as the chakram somehow ricocheted back into Tracey's hand. Seeing red, Draco sent a cutting curse at the girl only for her to use the metal disc to bat his spell back at him. Draco ducked low to avoid the spell and was considering firing off one of the darker curses his father had been teaching him that summer. But then something caught his eye just beyond Tracey and he broke out in a grin.

Tracey glanced behind her and tutted in annoyance. Pennark had not only managed to get to his feet, but he had also grabbed a tight hold of Astoria in his arms.

"Really, 'Story?" Tracey asked.

"I was watching you," Astoria said as her excuse.

"Toss down the metal disc!" demanded Draco. Mentally, he was already planning to master the magical disc and surprise his father at how well he could fight with it. He had never heard of a weapon like that, and he figured most other people would not have, too.

Tracey snorted at the idea. "Not going to happen."

"Then she will pay the price and you will be blamed," snickered Draco.

Tracey shook her head at the blond's stupidity. "Story, we need to get up to dinner. Let's not dawdle."

"She's not gong anywhere!" bellowed Pennark. "Af-er what you did to my mouff, you two are gong to pay!"

Although Draco would not admit it, a look of concern came to his eye at hearing Pennark. The fool could take things too far and then there really would be hell to pay. His father said there was always a fine line to walk when it came to how far you were willing to commit yourself in revenge.

Tracey just started to walk down the hall away from Astoria. "Let's go already."

Several of the boys looked at her in confusion. Was Davis just going to abandon the younger Greengrass girl?

"Okay," responded Astoria. Then she stepped forward, passing through Pennark's arms like a phantom. Pennark couldn't believe what had just happened and even tried reaching out to try and snatch her back to no avail as it was as unattainable as grabbing a hold of mist or a ghost.

Astoria did turn around and looked Pennark in the eyes, then kicked him as hard as she could between the legs with her steel-toe shoes causing the Fifth-Year boy's eyes to cross even as he let out an eerie pained groan and collapsed to his knees. The other boys in the hall all put a protective hand over their groin, flinching in sympathy. The younger Greengrass then did another kick to his face. "And that is for groping me, you sick turd-faced sicko!"

"Story, don't knock him out. He won't get to enjoy the pain he is in as much if you knock out his lights."

"Huh? 'Knock out his lights'?" Astoria looked at Tracey in confusion. The half-blood always seems to come up with the strangest muggle sayings. She turned and used her wand on Pennark. "Enervate." Pennark let out a weak groan of pain as consciousness returned to him, his eyes crossing again.

Goyle was about to grab Tracey, but she glared him down. Goyle decided that he would rather stand over by the wall and let the surprisingly dangerous young girl go and do whatever she wanted.

"I'm going to be giving you some muggle literature to read. They have some interesting colloquialisms. It could raise your grade in Muggle Studies."

Astoria let her shoulders droop. "I already know more about muggles than our Muggle Studies professor."

"Then think like Kitty Pryde."

Astoria froze a moment, staring at Tracey in surprise that she would mention the name of the avatar she had amalgamated with in front of the Slytherin boys.

Tracey was balancing the chakram on her finger. She was hoping Draco would try something else, but he just let her by though his face was fuming.

Astoria followed just a few yards behind. Draco did reach out to touch her only for his fingers to pass though air. She was very disappointed since just last year she had a crush on Draco. She was glad that her parents had not heeded her asking them to see about a marriage contract between her and Draco. The more she saw of him now, the more disgusted she became.

"Let's leave," she told Tracey. "There is nothing here for us."

Crabbe and one of the third-year boys went to help Pennark. Another of the third-year boys went over to collect Pennark's broken teeth on the stone floor.

Several yards away, Harry and Hermione watched from under his invisibility cloak.

"That should make Draco and his goons back off the Greengrass sisters and Davis for a while," Hermione commented. "What do you think?"

Harry had been ready to run out and lend aid at any moment, but things had not been as bad as he thought. "Tracey is really embracing her inner Xena. Astoria, however, needs to work on her Shadowcat persona. Kitty Pryde would not have been taken like Pennark had done to her. Everything needs to become second nature for her if she is to remain safe."

Hermione bit her lip as a thought came to her. "We also should test to see if any spells can harm her while she is phasing."

Harry winced. "I can't believe neither of us had thought of that until now. This could have turned out much worse that it had."

Hermione nodded. "We'll have to talk with Xander about it. He can come up with some ways to test her."

"He's got a wicked brilliant mind when it comes up with creating tests for us." Harry shook his head. "Having the Room of Requirement make mock battles for us with mutant ninja turtles and vehicles that turn into fighting robots is kind of brilliant, yet scary awesome."

Hermione shuttered, and reflexively leaned into Harry. "That robot Xander called a Terminator was terrifying. I thought it was going to actually kill me."

"It's supposed to seem that way," He put his arms around her in what he hoped was a comforting way.

"There is 'knowing' that and then there is 'accepting' that," she explained. "I think it is the same problem like I had in accepting Starfire's natural instincts in flying and fighting."

They watched in silence as the Slytherin boys decided to help their wounded get to their feet. One of the Third-Years was telling the others a usable cover story for when they got to the Infirmary.

Hermione sucked in air as a thought came to her. "Harry, I just had an idea!"

"Uh oh. I know that look."

She didn't respond to her teasing. "What if we could get Sirius Black and Professor Lupin into the Room of Requirements to have avatars added to them?"

This time Harry sucked in air through his teeth. "That… is something to consider. We should definitely discuss it with the others."

"And Fred and George?"

"Yeah, I want them to join in the fun. Plus, we need more allies. That would mean they would be potentially taking a stand against their family."

She gave him a hesitant, somber look. "They will have to take an oath. They can't be loyal to Dumbledore or their family."

He nodded. It had hurt both of them when they learned that Ron and Ginny were working against them as pawns of Dumbledore. He didn't believe the Weasley twins could also be turncoats against them, but he agreed that they would have to be sure. And that meant magical oaths. "Agreed. Now let's get out of here before Snape pops up and blames everything on me."

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"Luna!"

Luna Lovegood turned to see two redheads coming down the hall towards her. If it had been Fred and George, she would have been happy for the interruption on her way to the library. Instead of the twins, however, the two hurrying over to see her were Ron and Ginny.

She kept her face unexpressive so as they would not see the annoyance she was experiencing at their arrival.

"Have you heard?" began Ginny. "Malfoy and several of his peons attacked two Slytherin girls and got trounced!"

"I would have paid galleons to see that," remarked Ron, his eyes glazed as he tried picturing the fight.

"Hello, Ginny. Ronald." Luna regarded the two siblings as she tried to determine what new way they were trying to weasel back into Harry's good graces yet again.

"How have you been doing?" asked Ginny, with a forced grin.

"I have been doing nice. I even have friends now."

Ginny's grin faltered just a bit. Despite the two of them being childhood friends, Ginny had ditched Luna as soon as she got to Hogwarts. She still wasn't sure how much of that she could blame on that damn cursed diary. "Um yeah. Well, we were wondering. What's been going on with Harry. He seems different lately."

Luna let her eyes pretend to slowly follow something invisible overhead. "Harry Potter is a Tri-Wizard contestant. I am sure he is trying to focus on surviving the contest."

Ron snorted. "Yeah, but he's being a real git, too. Ever since he chea- Ow! Why the bloody hell did you pinch me, Ginny?"

Ginny wanted to hit her brother. They were supposed to get Luna on their side. Insulting Harry would not be conductive to bringing that about. "The, uh, plander-pusts were affecting you. They like to sneak down someone's neck and causes them to be… antagonistic. Pinching a person unexpectedly will startle them away."

"Interesting," remarked Luna. "I've never heard of plander-pusts before. Where did you come upon them?"

Ginny bit her tongue. She should have known better than to try make up her own imaginary creatures. "I… I know them from the Weasley grimoire."

"I'd love to see them. Where are they?" Luna glanced around, somewhat amused to have Ginny try and explain invisible creatures for a change, and why she had stopped her brother from spouting more vitriol.

"You can't." Ginny's cheeks pinked as she thought rapidly. "For some reason only Weasley females can see them. That's why I had to look them up in the family grimoire." She managed a weak smile. "And since their hasn't been a Weasley daughter in over fifty years, their hasn't been any older Weasley-born daughters to teach me about them."

Luna tilted her head to the side. "Fascinating. Perhaps you could write a report on it for The Quibbler. Maybe even making a drawing off it and when you first saw one."

Ginny gapped for a moment. "I-I'll think on it. But for now, can you tell us about Harry? We are worried about him." She shot a look at Ron warning him to keep his mouth shut.

Luna nodded. "Yes, I think they are concerned about the love potions. There has been talk of hiring some bounty hunters to go after the perpetrators."

"What?" exploded Ron. "Love potions aren't illegal!"

"Love potions in our area are a slippery slope in our society," admitted Luna. "The Wizengamot have made several poor ruling as to who can be given love potions and who cannot. Basically, if you give the love potion to someone of lower status then you, then you cannot be prosecuted."

Ron grinned at this news, feeling reassured.

"However," Luna continued. "A person on the wrong side of a love potion have other ways to retaliate."

"What do you mean?" Ginny asked, somehow knowing she wasn't going to like hearing the answer,

"The best way to have a contract with Gringotts to eliminate any party that tried to potion their client. They also have contracts to check their clients for love potions or the imperious curse before they can be married."

Ginny decided to let Dumbledore work over that problem. His political connections should be able to remove any such contracts on Harry or Hermione. Ginny decided to quickly bring the discussion back to where she wanted it before her brother exploded. "Can you tell us about the weird stuff going on with Harry?"

" 'Weird stuff'? That is such a subjective term when applied to Harry. Could you be more specific? I am under the impression that weird is more or less normal for him," Luna commented.

"Well, Dean says he saw a knife of some kind came out of Harry's hand and slashed one of the Blast-Ended Skrewts that was about to get him. Now all those beasts stay away from Harry. And Collin Creevey swears he saw Harry walking up the side of the castle."

"This is interesting," agreed Luna. "Harry is most likely practicing some obscure magics to get through the Twi-Wizarding Tournament." That was an excuse Xander had said to give when anyone asked. Hermione wasn't sure about it at first; it seemed like they would be giving too much away. But later agreed as people in the castle were going to notice their new abilities after a while and they would have to tell them something.

Seeing that Ron was about to snarl out something, Ginny quickly added, "Do you have any idea where Harry might be finding this strange new magic?"

Luna tilted her head to the side. "The library is the most likely spot. But maybe, like you, he has been looking in his family grimoire. Then again, I have seen him spending some time conversing with the champions of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. They may be trading spells with each other."

"Why the bloody hell would they do that?" demanded Ron.

Luna gave him a curious look. "The tournament is supposed to promote international goodwill towards each other. Sharing would be a large part of that. Do you not understand how that works, Ronald?" Her eyes turned to Ginny. "Ron has several dozen wrackspurts attempting to get into his ears. It is affecting him badly. The wrackspurts might be using the inside of his head for their mating rituals. Madam Pomfrey might have something to deal with that. I could send an owl to father to see if he knows what to recommend."

Even as Ginny snorted in amusement, Ron snapped.

He roared and lashed out with his fist. Luna, knowing what he would do, cried out in alarm and ducked away from him. Even so, he managed to clip her cheekbone, but fortunately Ron was not very muscular. Ron wasn't able to get another swing as his twin brothers, who Luna had spotted approaching them earlier, each grabbed ahold of their brother and slammed him into a wall.

Ginny was as surprised by Ron's sudden attack as well as the arrival of the twins.

"This is a new low even for you, Ron!" Fred said as he twisted Ron's arm behind his back.

"What the bloody hell is wrong with you?" demanded George. "You don't go around socking girls like that! Ever! Especially not those younger than you! And definitely not Luna!"

Ron began bellowing all sorts of retribution. Ginny decided she had better be the good little sister and hit Ron with a silencing spell. She had never seen Ron lose his temper like that before. It actually scared her. The closest she had come to seeing any violence of that caliber was when Percy had discovered that one of the twins' experimental potions had leaked through the ceiling of his room and damaged several letters he had received from a girl he had been corresponding with. She had to admit that the Weasleys came by their temper honestly.

Luna, who had been knocked to the stone floor, held up a hand to her face. Even though she had allowed herself to be hit, it had hurt more than she had realized, and she had to blink back some tears. She had hoped that Ginny would help her to her feet, but the youngest Weasley was staring at Ron like he had been transfigured into a donkey.

She got to her feet with a slight groan.

The next two hours had seen the five of them first to Madam Pomfrey to get looked at. Luna only needed a mild bruise cream and Ron had to have several body parts returned to normal. She had not been able to restore Ron's hair color as it was now jet black and as greasy as Snape's. The twins both swore they hadn't caused it.

Professor McGonagall had been about to make Ron into an assistant to Filch for the next month, when Headmaster Dumbledore swooped in and announced Ron had already suffered enough with the twins' transfiguration punishment. Dumbledore had also tried to restore Ron's hair back the family ginger hair coloring, but was surprised that it didn't work. McGonagall, who had been upset at Dumbledore for overturning her ruling, was now amused to see the great wizard stumped by a minor thing.

Finally, Fred, George and Luna were released from Hogwarts hospital wing. Ginny had already scampered off, hoping to find Harry. Ron had to stay as Dumbledore was determined to solve this new problem that stymied him. McGonagall stayed to observe as well as for her own amusement. Madam Pomfrey had put a kettle on so that she and McGonagall could relax as they watched Dumbledore experimenting on Ron.

"Fred."

"Yes, brother mine?"

"Is it just me or do you think-"

"That Luna might have arranged matters to happen a certain way as well as charmed, or more like cursed, Ron's hair black?"

"Yes, that is about so. What do you make of it?" George eyed Luna who only seemed a bit dazed as she walked down the hall.

"Can't say. But I am impressed. We've never flummoxed the headmaster like that when he undid our work."

Luna gave them both a smile. "That is because the headmaster is a master legilimens."

The twins stared at her. "But that's illegal!" they both cried out.

Luna shrugged. "He and Snape do it all the time to the students and even some of the other teachers. Probably not the ghosts, though I wish I could make that an experiment. We could learn a lot from history if we could see it through the eyes of the ghosts who had actually lived back then."

George glanced at his brother. "I think we are missing a great deal here, don't you, Fred?"

"Indeed, George," said Fred.

"I suppose I could tell you," Luna countered. "But first I would need a magically oath not to reveal the secrets which are not entirely my own."

Fred and George grinned. "This is sounding more and more interesting," they said in unison.

"First, I should consult Harry, Hermione, and another friend of ours you have not met."

"How many people are involved in this?" one of the twins asked.

"Less than ten," Luna admitted. "Though Harry has mentioned considering getting his honorary uncles, Padfoot and Moony, involved."

The twins froze.

"We are in," George finally said.

"We are so going to be in this," Fred agreed.

"Marauders will unite!" they proclaimed together much to Luna's amusement.

Luna laughed. "Xander will like you," she said. "Though now he can also go by the title of Prongs, as well."

She didn't enlighten the twins any further as they climbed levels of the castle. She touched her face a few times where Ron had hit her. She hadn't liked that. It had made her feel weak, and she was determined to be strong. But, catching a glimpse of Fred and George coming near them, she determined it to be an excellent time to give the twins an idea of just how bad Ron was becoming. Even so, she was going to have to do something about leaving herself vulnerable to physical attacks. She would look at a few avatars before she determined which one to upgrade herself with. She was pretty sure who it would be, but she was determined to consider her options so as to make the best of it. She hoped Xander would be okay with it.

She sighed.

She was kidding herself. Xander was going to freak out.

AuThOr'S NoTeS: 10/23/2023

Ok, it has been almost 2 years since I updated this story. My apologies. I could give all sorts of excuses, and they would be valid ones, too. But it has still been almost 2 years. Again, sorry.

Amalgamations so far:

Harry Potter + Spider-Man + Wolverine

Hermione Granger + Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) + Starfire

Neville Longbottom + Chlorophyll Kid

Daphne Greengrass + Elsa (Frozen)

Luna Lovegood + Valeria Richards

Xander Harris + James Potter

Astoria Greengrass + Shadowcat

Tracey Davis + Xena