Chapter 21
The wedding of Sirius Black and Amelia Bones was quite the event. What with Amelia's position in the Wizengamot and Sirius' reputation of being a bit of a bad boy - it got a ton of attention from the press. There were loads of incredibly sappy articles written about how the power of love had finally tamed the infamous Sirius Black. Reams of parchment were devoted to endless descriptions of the bride's dress, the wedding preparations, the decor, what shoes the wedding party were going to wear, the food to be served, flower arrangements and every other little detail that no man would ever notice. Even the baker became famous when his wedding cake was described down to the last bit of icing and he subsequently found himself in high demand for every single event that a cake could be served at. And all that was before Harry's part in the wedding became public. Once the press found out that the Boy-Who-Lived was going to be the best man the amount of attention the wedding started getting was insane. Harry and Sirius didn't really pay any attention to the press or give any interviews which only spurred the reporters to greater heights of speculation. Thankfully due to their new acquisition of controlling interest in the Prophet, people like Rita Skeeter were unable to write the kind of articles they specialised in and other publications like Witch Weekly were much happier printing in depth analyses of their clothes, rather than trying to tear down their reputations. Rita was actually being kept quite busy, as Sirius through his controlling interest of the Prophet had already commissioned her to write a book about Dumbledore. Harry was quite looking forward to the publication of the book designed to shred Dumbledore's already tattered reputation even further. He wondered if perhaps he was being a bit petty, but he really didn't want Dumbledore being turned into some sort of Martyr and if tarnishing his reputation even further prevented that, then so be it.
Harry invited Hermione and Neville as his guests to the wedding. He also took full advantage of the opportunity to get to know Susan Bones better and by the time the wedding was over was able to call both her and Hannah Abbot good friends.
Before Sirius left on his Honeymoon, he did gave Harry a gift. A certain wand he had managed to sneak out of the DMLE's evidence room. He had replaced it with a copy that would fool anyone on first sight. He didn't know why Harry had wanted it and he didn't really care. Harry on his part thanked Sirius profusely, then went and placed the wand carefully in the deepest corner of his vault. It seemed to work very well for him, but he felt it was better to continue to use his old holly and phoenix feather wand. The other wand could be kept for emergencies. Hopefully he would never ever need it.
oo00oo
It was the end of the school year and for a change Ravenclaw had won the House Cup. Quirrell had just finished awarding the cup to a pleased Flitwick and he was now calling for the students to quieten down.
"Settle down everyone, I have a few more announcements to get through" said Quirrell in his usual calm manner.
"Yes, thank you. Now as you all know, we have seen some changes in the last year, most noticeably in Potions and History of Magic. I'd like to announce that the Governors have given their approval for making Professors Hawkins and Curie permanent members of the Hogwarts' Staff. Incidentally the preliminary reports from the examiners of the OWL's and NEWT's show that there has been a remarkable increase in the numbers of Outstanding grades for both History and Potions this year so please give a round of applause for Professor Hawkins and Professor Curie" said Quirrell. There was an enthusiastic round of applause. The new professors were both incredibly popular with the students which was hardly surprising considering that they were replacements for Binns and Snape.
"I'd also like for you to give another round of applause for Professor Binns. Ever since he took over detentions we have seen a remarkable decrease in student misbehaviour and assigned detentions." The applause this time was quite muted and was mostly led by the professors. The new disciplinary rules had Binns overseeing all the detentions which consisted of a two hour lecture on a random goblin rebellion followed by a written test on the contents of that lecture. Unless the student managed to get an 'A' or better on the test they would have to repeat the detention. The Weasley twins had given up on pranking after their first detention with Binns. Quite understandable, considering that it took them ten detentions and many many Pepper Up potions before they managed to pass the test. They hadn't minded scrubbing toilets for Filch but they drew the line at Binns, there was no way they would risk getting another detention after that. The professors loved the arrangement however as none of them (except perhaps for people like Snape and Filch who probably took perverse pleasure in punishing children) had particularly liked giving up their free time to oversee detentions.
"Yes, well settle down everyone. I do have quite a few more announcements to get through. Like I said we have already seen some changes, however there are some major changes that will be going into effect from next year. Details of these will be sent to your parents shortly, some of them may not be too happy with the changes but both the Ministry and the Board of Governors firmly believe that these changes are very necessary and long overdue." Most of the students started looking a little worried at Quirrell's announcement. Harry on the other hand was absolutely relaxed, after all he was the instigator behind most of the changes. Now the only thing left was to see how the students reacted.
"Firstly and most importantly, this is the last year that a House Cup will be awarded here at Hogwarts" said Quirrell causing a susurrus to break out at once. Most of the students were too stunned to react which kept the noise levels down. No House Cup? But then what about House points?
"This is due to the fact that from next year, the students will no longer be sorted by House. Your dormitories will be assigned by year, and instead of a Head of House, the various professors will be assigned as advisors and counsellors to the different years. Professor Sprout will be handling years 1 and 2, Professor Flitwick will be handling 3 and 4, Professor McGonagall will be handling years 5 and 6 and year 7 will be handled by Professor Vector." This time the uproar was immediate and much louder. No more houses, but that was unthinkable. Wasn't it? Ron didn't know what to think, if there were no more Slytherins - How would he know who was evil? This was monumentally unfair.
"I'm sure most of you are quite surprised by this development being that it goes against thousands of years of tradition" said Quirrell. "The undeniable fact is that the house system no longer works. Most of the discipline problems we see here at Hogwarts can be traced back to inter house rivalry. If you have the time and inclination I suggest looking up the Robbers Cave Experiment to see a very good example of why dividing students up into separate groups can be a very bad idea. How many of you students have friends in other houses? Far too few. Why do you let this artificial grouping stop you from making friends or even acquaintances in the other houses? Anyway, to cut a long story short, henceforth here at Hogwarts we will no longer have houses. All students will be assigned dormitories by year, classes will be grouped at random or by grades and the points system will also be reworked. Well, to tell you the truth we still have not decided what to do about the point system. There was some talk about keeping it in place but tracking the points by students instead of by house. That way we could award a prize to the student in each year who has won the most points. However I am not yet convinced that this would be a good idea."
By now the students were totally in shock, but still one of them called out - "But what about Quidditch?"
Quidditch unfortunately had taken a severe drop in popularity that year. The first Quidditch match after the Professors had taken their oath had been interrupted by all the professors running out onto the field and blasting the bludgers to shreds moments after the game had started. An unexpected effect of their oath to keep the students safe had been that all Quidditch matches had to be cancelled while the professors worked out how to make it safer. They had started with the bludgers of course. Iron balls whizzing around trying to knock players of their brooms would never be safe. These had been replaced by marshmallow soft rubber balls that would not even leave a bruise. This meant that the players could mostly ignore the bludgers totally. Next the professors had turned their attention to the rest of the game. Anti-collision charms and speed limiters had been placed on all the brooms, their robes had been modified with cushioning and levitation charms so that even if a student fell off a broom a hundred feet in the air they would get hurt less than if they had tripped while walking down a corridor. Needless to say the games popularity had taken a steep nosedive. The one most frustrated by all of this was Harry, especially as he had been the one who had thought of the oaths. Quidditch had been an unforeseen casualty of his changes. While he had not wanted to play again in his first year, he had still fully intended to try out in his second or maybe third year. Now though the game had all the excitement of watching two snails race. Sure one of them would eventually win but it sure as hell wasn't anything that anyone would ever want to watch. He and Sirius had been brainstorming ideas on how to make Quidditch exciting all year.
"Aah yes, Quidditch. As I'm sure you're aware we have been having some problems with the sport here at Hogwarts. Our changes to make the game safer for our students have I admit, not been very popular. We will be making some changes to the game that I hope will see it return to its former popularity. To begin with, the problem with the bludgers is that going back to the iron balls is obviously impossible, due to their highly dangerous nature, and the new balls can be effectively ignored by all the players making the beaters redundant. To fix this the bludgers will have a new function in the game. When a bludger hits a player, the player's broom will immediately drop its speed by 5 percent for 5 minutes. This means that the bludger can no longer be ignored and will still be a factor in the games. Next, I know the speed limiters on the broom have been highly unpopular. These will be removed for every player that can demonstrate that they can pilot a broom at its top speed. We will also be getting new brooms for all players. We have been in touch with the Nimbus Corporation, which will be providing Hogwarts with a completely new set of brooms. Players will no longer be allowed to play on their own brooms. This should equalise the game so that it will no longer be the players who can afford the best broom who will win. I am also hiring two new coaches who will be joining Madam Hooch to ensure that everyone is well trained. Previously your Quidditch training was left up to your team captains. This is no longer acceptable. Having untrained flyers playing is a risk that will no longer be tolerated. Obviously we will no longer have House teams, which as far as I am concerned, is a good thing. Each of our houses have hundreds of students but only seven students per house get a chance to play. Giving only seven students per house the opportunity to play competitive Quidditch is a travesty that is no doubt responsible for the dismal performance of our National teams in each World Cup. I hope to see more students playing Quidditch and so from now on - any seven students can form a team and you can have as many teams as you can form. Each team will have scheduled practises with our coaches who will help them reach their full potential. I hope to see many more students playing next year" finished Quirrell to thunderous applause. The students loved the sound of new brooms for everyone and the idea that more of them would get to play was immediately wildly popular.
Quirrell paused for a bit. He knew that he had already shocked the students with his changes. Unfortunately for them he was not done yet.
"As I look around, I am saddened by the sight of some of our graduating pureblood students. The sad fact is that most of them will spend the rest of their lives skulking within our little wizarding enclaves. Most of them know so little about the non magical world that they would not even be able to get a job flipping burgers. I'm sure that most of them don't even know what I mean by the term 'flipping burgers'. There are those who did not mind you being kept ignorant of the world around you. I'm sure it made certain peoples jobs easier if you did not ever venture out into the non magical world. I am not one of those people. We are wizards and witches. We should be able to go anywhere and do anything that we want to do. So.." Quirrell paused and looked around at the students. "From next year every single student who does not have at least one non magical parent is required to take a new subject - that is...the 'Culture and Customs of Non Magical People'. Our previous so called 'Muggle' studies classes were found to be totally inadequate and have been scrapped. In addition all students without at least one magical parent are required to attend our classes on the 'Culture and Customs of Magical People'. Do not worry about being bored, as part of both these courses we will be arranging for several field trips throughout the year that will be so much fun that we will be making them open to all students. We have already planned trips to places such as Cinemas, Museums, Dragon Reserves, Amusement Parks and the Wizengamot. In addition to this, changes have been made to our third year electives. Divination will still be offered but will no longer count towards your requirement of taking two electives. Students will be required to take any two of either Ancient Runes, Arithmancy or Care of Magical Creature. These changes of course will not be enforced on students who have already taken their OWL's as it is probably too late for them to pick up the new subjects." Trelawney looked deeply unhappy about this but knew that there would always be some students who would be fascinated at the thought of predicting the future.
"Also to supplement their knowledge of the non magical world we are introducing several non magical subjects such as Geography, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Literature and Mathematics. Our History course is being modified to include the History of both the Magical World as well as the Non Magical World. While I strongly urge all of you to take this opportunity and pick up as many non magical subjects as you can, I am also making it mandatory for our current first year students. In order to graduate from Hogwarts you will be required to pass at least one O level subject* and one A level subject along with your OWL's and NEWT's. Information on all of these is being included with the packages that will be distributed at the end of our feast."
"Finally I come to my last announcement. I know, I know, I'm sure most of you are wondering, after all that, there's more? Yes, Yes there is. I hope all of you enjoy your trip home on the Hogwarts Express... as it is the last time the train shall be running. With the near instantaneous methods of travel available to us such as the floo and portkeys, the Hogwarts express is an anachronism that we should have gotten rid of long ago. The only thing stopping us, is that previously we would have had to arrange for portkeys for all our students and that was an expense that the Ministry and the Board of Governors were not willing to bear. I am most pleased to announce that thanks to a donation from the Flowers Foundation we will now be able to arrange for portkeys for all our students. People will be visiting you during the summer to fix the end points of your portkeys. There will be a form in your packets that you will need to fill in with a convenient time for your appointment. You will need to provide a private space within your homes where no one will be able to observe your comings and goings. These portkeys will be created to be reusable and will allow you to instantly travel between your homes and Hogwarts. This means that you will be allowed to go home at the end of every school day if you wish. Your dorms will still be available to those of you who prefer to stay here. You may wish to stay here at Hogwarts, popping home for the occasional dinner or weekend with your parents or you may stay at home and only come to Hogwarts for your classes if you prefer. However I will say, that for those of you who plan to stay at home - if you start coming late to classes then your portkey privileges might be revoked, so I urge you to come to class well in time. In addition to allowing you to travel to Hogwarts we are also adding a safety feature to the portkeys that will allow you to go to the St. Mungos emergency ward in case of any accident or misfortune. For security reasons when coming to Hogwarts only the student keyed to the portkey will be allowed, but in cases of emergency - anyone touching the portkey will be taken to St. Mungos."
Quirrell smirked at the students. He knew the last one was going to blow the minds of all the muggle borns at least. "Did I say that was going to be my last announcement? I do have just one last thing. When the person comes to setup the end point of your portkey they will also help you designate an area within your house. You will need to provide an area in which you have absolute privacy. A bedroom would probably be ideal. Within this area ... you will be allowed to ... practise magic." Now this caused the loudest uproar of all. To be able to use magic over the summer. That was incredible.
"Please look at the information packets very carefully for information regarding how to practise magic safely. The Ministry will find out if there are any breaches of the Statute of Secrecy. Your right to use magic over the summer will be revoked in case of any breach. I also insist that any magic you do perform be restricted to spells that you have covered in class. Learning new spells unsupervised can be dangerous and I do not want to hear of any student ending up in St. Mungos." Quirrell finished to the sound of thunderous applause. The final announcement had won over all the students, except for a few of the purebloods who were disgruntled, but then these days who cared about what people like that thought.
oo00oo
On his way out the hall Quirrell stopped by Harry. "Mr. Potter, I've set up that meeting you wanted, so could you come by my office early tomorrow morning They'll be flooing in at 8:30 AM. We should be finished well in time for you to catch the Express."
"That's great Headmaster, I'll see you then" answered Harry.
oo00oo
The next morning Harry made his way to the Headmaster's office past the gargoyle that had standing orders to let him by whenever he wanted. It wasn't such a big deal as Quirrell had given the Gargoyle orders to let any student in, as long as he was there in the office and not in a meeting. According to him there was no point in being Headmaster if the students couldn't come see you.
"Ahh Harry I'm glad you came by early I wanted to ask you how you knew that the girl would test as highly as she did?" asked Quirrell.
"I didn't. Not for certain anyway. Let's just say I had my suspicions" said Harry.
"Keeping things close to the chest as always, can't say I disagree with that, anyway take a seat. They should be here any minute."
Just then the fire turned green and an eccentrically dressed man stepped out of the fire accompanied by a beautiful woman and a little blond girl with a dreamy expression upon her face.
"Mr. and Mrs. Lovegood, Welcome. I'm so glad you could make it in today, and this must be Luna, How are you my dear?"
"I'm quite well Headmaster, thank you for asking" answered Luna.
"Well, Mr. and Mrs. Lovegood, please take a seat, I'm sure you're wondering why I asked you'll to come in, but first meet Harry Potter, I've asked him to sit in on this meeting, I'll explain why in just a few minutes."
"Pleased to meet you Mr. Potter" said a surprised Xenophilius Lovegood. He wondered whether he take the opportunity and ask Harry for an interview. Then he reconsidered - that would be much too prosaic for his readers. They were much happier reading about the Ministries secret army of Heliopaths. Come to think of it - it was high time he did another piece on them, that and the relationship between garden gnomes and the health of ones rutabagas.
"Thank you sir, pleasures all mine I'm sure and please call me Harry" said Harry.
"Well, well, how about a cup of tea then we can get to the reason I've asked you'll all here today" said Quirrell.
"Tea would be lovely" said Mrs. Lovegood.
"Excellent, Tippy could you get tea for everyone" called out Professor Quirrel to one of Hogwarts many elves who in the blink of an eye had served everyone tea.
"Now then, as you may or may not know since I took over from Professor Dumbledore, I've been busy working on ways to upgrade the standard of education here at Hogwarts. One of the many initiatives we've taken is to have every incoming student take an IQ and magical aptitude test. These were sent out earlier this month to all students who are expected to enroll next year. As I'm sure you're aware, Miss Lovegood took one as well. Would you be interested to know, how she did?" said Quirrell.
"I'm sure she did very well, our little Luna has always been very bright" said Mrs. Lovegood.
"'Very Well' would be quite the understatement Mr. Lovegood; your daughter obtained a score that was vastly higher than any other incoming student. In fact - she did so much better than all her peers that I think it would be a criminal waste of her time for her to have to suffer through first year with all the rest" said Quirrell, ignoring the fact that the girl he had just declared a genius of some sort was currently wandering around his office chatting with the various portraits.
"She did that well?" asked Mr. Lovegood. He wasn't really surprised. This was his Luna the man was talking about after all, but he knew that sometimes it was better to seem a little humble. In the past other parents had not reacted very well when he patiently explained to them all the reasons why his Luna was so obviously superior to their children. He was surprised at how affable the Headmaster was being, someone with so dark an aura would usually not be so nice. Just went to show really, you could never take anything for granted.
"Yes, she did. You should be very proud of her. Unfortunately one of the drawbacks of any school is that we are forced to teach at a pace that the average student can learn at. This means that bright children like Luna are often quite bored at school, which in my experience translates into them not performing to their full potential. Previously we dealt with this by using the sorting hat which simply sorted those children into Ravenclaw house where their educational requirements would hopefully be better taken care off. However from next year we will no longer have separate houses so we needed to come up with some system to better cater to our more intelligent students. Hence the IQ tests. Students who have proven to be better than average may be provided with accelerated or advanced instruction. You might call it unfair to the students left out, but if they work hard any of them could also join the advanced classes. However Luna is like we said in a league all of her own, so with your permission I'd like to carry out a little experiment" said Quirrell.
"What kind of experiment?" asked Luna's Mother looking a little worried. She did not like hearing the word experiment. Her family had not been having too much success with experiments lately. Not after the last time her husband had suggested a series of experiments - on hot days the house still smelled of aardvark and kangaroo. Then there had been the inexplicable feeling of dread the last time she was about to start working on her own spell crafting experiments. It had made it impossible for her to do her work that day. It reminded her of some dreams she had had, a long long time ago. Dreams that still gave her the chills. No, experimentwas not a word she currently wanted to hear.
"Mr. Potter here is our top student this year and he has graciously agreed to tutor Miss Lovegood over the summer holidays. I'd have asked some of the teachers but unfortunately I don't have the budget to cover their expenses just for one student but I will also be coming by on occasion to supervise and hopefully go over the Defence curriculum. What I'd like to do is set up some exams before the beginning of next years classes. These will be the standard ones normally given to students at the end of the first year. If Luna does well enough in these, we can go ahead and enroll her right into second year. How does that sound?" said Quirrell.
"You want the Boy-Who-Lived to tutor Luna?" said Mrs. Lovegood in a slight state of shock. "How can we say no to that? But - but - I'm still a bit worried - won't she be at a disadvantage, being a year behind the other students."
"Not at all Mrs. Lovegood, I wouldn't suggest it if I didn't think she could handle it, and besides, the worst case scenario here is that she doesn't manage to pass the exams, in which case we'll just have her join the first year as usual. I really don't see that happening though" said Quirrell.
"When you put it that way I don't see how we can possibly say no to a generous offer like that" answered Mrs. Lovegood. Mr. Lovegood was currently contemplating the feng shui of the room and thinking of the best way to improve it - perhaps a few nifflers or butterbeer corks strategically placed.
"Excellent, excellent, now I've arranged things with the Ministry, here is Miss Lovegood's exemption from the Restriction on Underage Sorcery law. This allows her to practice magic this summer as long as it's done in private without violating any of the secrecy laws" said Quirrell.
"Where would these classes be held" asked Mrs. Lovegood?
"She can come over to my godfather's house every day, or I could come over to your house if it's on the floo" said Harry.
"Yes, it is, the floo address is 'The Rookery'."
"I'm sure you'll will be able to work out those details among yourselves" said Professor Quirrel beaming brightly at all the people present in the room.
"All right then, so I can floo by your house this Monday for Luna's first lesson, if that's okay with you?" said Harry.
"That should be fine, and thank you so much for agreeing to do this" said Mrs Lovegood.
"My pleasure Mrs. Lovegood. Okay then, Luna here's my set of textbooks from last year. Do you think you can read the first chapter of each by Monday?" said Harry as he dumped a large pile of books into Luna's arms.
"Not a problem, as long as the nargles stay away" beamed Luna.
"Come on Luna, even I know that nargles are supposed to be nocturnal. So I'll expect you to have the first chapters read by then? Great, and if you can get a wand by then, that would be great" said Harry.
"We can go straight to Ollivander's after this" said Mrs. Lovegood. Mr. Lovegood wondered why Luna needed another wand, after all she had been perfectly happy using his grandmother's wand all these years. Oh well, her mother knew best after all. Best to just go with the flow.
"Great then I'll see you bright and early Monday morning" said Harry.
"See you then Harry" said an excited Luna.
"See you Luna" said Harry grinning madly at Luna as the family flooed out of the headmaster's office.
oo00oo
Note : In case anyones wondering how Luna's Mother is alive, please go back and read the first few chapters.
* I'm not sure whether it's the O level or the GCSE at this point in time, but it doesn't really make that much difference.
Chapter 22.
Summer before second year.
Harry, Sirius and Dudley stormed into #4 Privet drive giggling madly. They flopped down upon the couch before breaking out into gales of laughter which brought Petunia rushing into the room.
"What have you lot been up to now?" she asked in an exasperated tone. In her experience anytime the three of them laughed so much they had been up to a whole lot of trouble.
"Nothing much Mum, just breaking the hearts of a few hundred women" said Harry.
"WHAT! What have you done now?" yelled Petunia, already dreading to hear the answer.
"Shut up Harry. You're making it sound a lot worse than what it was. Let me explain before you give your Mum a heart attack" said Sirius.
"Please do" muttered Petunia.
"Okay, so there's this author called Lockheart. He's written a bunch of books which have him defeating a whole bunch of dark creatures. Bit of a ponce, but he's got all the witches swooning over him. Witch Weekly even gave him an award for most charming smile if you can believe that. Anyway, our boy here was convinced that he's a fraud and he decided that we needed to do something about it."
"And? What did you decide to do about it?"
"Nothing too drastic Mum. He had a signing today at Diagon Alley. All we did was slip a little veritaserum into his drink" said Harry.
"What exactly is veritaserum?" asked Petunia.
"It's a perfectly harmless truth serum Mum, all it does is make the person tell the truth. Nothing else" said Harry.
"I see. I take it that your plan worked?" asked Petunia.
"Yep, perfectly. The very first question someone asked him - I think it was a question about how he defeated some werewolf, had him telling the real story, all about how he wasn't the one who had defeated the werewolf. He simply interviewed the man who had and then obliviated him. You should have seen it Mum, one minute there were all these women literally drooling over him, and the next he was running from a mob of angry women who were flinging hexes at him."
"It was absolutely hysterical" giggled Sirius. "I bet he'll be arrested soon."
"So, to sum up, you decided to drug a celebrity author with a mind altering substance, and then you let him get attacked by an angry mob?" asked Petunia.
"Uh... Yes, but you're making it sound like I did something wrong" whimpered Harry, suddenly realising that he might actually be in trouble. "He was stealing peoples accomplishments Mum, and then wiping their memories."
"If you suspected that, you should have reported it to the Aurors. After all it's not like your Aunt Amelia is the head of the DMLE, now is it?" snapped Petunia.
"Uhhh..." mumbled Harry.
"And you -" said Petunia, whirling on Sirius. "I thought marriage would have given you some sense of responsibility. Just wait until I tell Amelia what you've been up to."
Sirius paled rather rapidly, he loved Amelia to bits, he really did, but his wife tended to disapprove rather strongly about pranks like this and he really, really didn't want to have to spend the night sleeping on a couch. "Petunia, um, come on, it was just a little prank. There was no harm done. Lockheart's fine. Well, until the aurors get a hold of him anyway. There really, really is no need to drag Amelia into this. Please..."
"Fine..." humphed Petunia. "However Harry and Dudley are getting grounded for a week. Is that understood Harry?"
"Yes, Mum" whimpered Harry, trying valiantly to look all innocent and pathetic. "Uhh, it's just that... I have to tutor Luna. You wouldn't make her fall behind in her studies just because I...uh..."
"Did something incredibly foolish? No, I guess not. We'll just have to have Sirius fetch her here every day. I'm sure he won't mind. Would you mind? Sirius?"
"No, No of course not. Just send her an owl with the change in plans will you Harry. Tell her I'll pick her up at 9 in the morning and apparate her here" said Sirius. He smirked to himself. Hah, he was getting off almost scot-free after all. That old Black charm was still there.
Petunia was smiling to herself as well. She thought that it had worked out rather nicely, she'd been meaning to invite Luna over for quite some time. It was high time she got to know the girl her son had been meeting every day this summer. Hmm, she really should go shopping and pick up some snacks for her. Perhaps she should bake a cake. Or a pie. It would be so lovely to have more girls around for a change. She would insist that Harry invite that Hermione girl he spoke of so often as well. That reminded her - she had to find out when Hermione would be back from her summer vacation. Hopefully she would be back in time for Harry's Birthday party. Plus she really should talk to some other parents about forming a PTA for Hogwarts. The Grangers would be a good place to start.
oo00oo
A few weeks later Harry was busy prepping for his next class with Luna when Petunia called him. He went down to find his mother happily chatting with Hermione on the phone. He quickly grabbed the phone from her before she could embarrass him.
"Hey Hermione, when did you get back? Had a good trip"
"Just got back this morning Harry and I had a great trip. How have you been?"
"Great. So you busy tomorrow?"
"No. Why?"
"How would you like to go flying?"
"Flying?"
"Yeah, you know the tutoring I was going to be doing this summer. Well, I also taught Luna how to fly and we usually spend at least an hour on our brooms everyday. There's plenty of room around her house to fly and I've managed to get a hold off a bunch of brooms. So what do you say?"
"Luna's the girl you were supposed to tutor this summer right? How's that going?"
"Pretty good. So about the flying? You'll come?" asked Harry.
"Sure, sounds like fun."
"Great, I'll come by on the Knight Bus and pick you up then. Say around four. That okay?"
"Yes."
"And while we're at it. How are you at tossing a ball?"
"A ball? Okay I guess."
"Excellent."
"Why?" asked Hermione in a slightly suspicious tone.
"Oh no reason. Just thought we should see if you could make a decent chaser."
"Harry, don't tell me you're planning on forming a Quidditch team?"
"Forming? Maybe, Maybe not. Don't have enough people yet. Joining one on the other hand should be..."
"I thought you hated Quidditch. You refused to try out last year."
"Yes, but now they've changed the bludgers so there's no risk of breaking bones. Anyway, I wanted to play as a chaser and Luna looks like she'd be great as a seeker so if we can train you up to be another chaser then we're halfway to a team right there."
"Uhh, I'm not sure Harry, I've never been very athletic..."
"Oh come on, you're twelve. Just because you've never done sports before is no reason not to give it a shot and I promise that practices won't take you away from your books for too long. Also I think that we really should give Quidditch a try or we'll be short changing ourselves out of the full Hogwarts experience."
"Okay I guess I could give it a try. But I reserve the right to drop out if it interferes with my studies."
"I promise you that it won't but you have to promise me that you'll give it your best shot."
"Okay Harry."
"Bwahhhahahha, my plan is coming together."
"Prat."
Harry hung up the phone and wondered, not for the first time, how he was going to manage the meeting of two such polar opposites as Luna and Hermione. He really wanted them to get along but he knew that left to their own devices they would inevitably rub each other the wrong way. He hoped that giving them both the common goal of learning Quidditch would be enough but most probably he would have his work cut out for him with those two. Perhaps he should start talking about all the famous eccentric geniuses with Hermione. Would that make her more tolerant of Luna's idiosyncrasies? Perhaps he should rope Hermione into Luna's tutoring sessions as well. Or would that be better left till later? Decisions, decisions. He rushed upstairs to send Hedwig to Luna with a message letting her know to expect another person tomorrow.
oo00oo
Harry was dozing on his bed when he heard a tapping sound. He opened his eyes. Moonlight was shining through the window. And someone was goggling at him: a freckle-faced, red-haired, long-nosed someone.
Ron Weasley was outside Harry's window.
"Ron!" breathed Harry, going to the window and pushing it up so they could talk. "Ron, how did you - What the - ?"
Harry's mouth fell open as the full impact of what he was seeing hit him. Ron was leaning out of the back window of an old turquoise car, which was parked in midair. Grinning at Harry from the front seats were Fred and George, Ron's elder twin brothers.
"All right, Harry?" asked George.
"What's been going on?" said Ron. "Why haven't you been answering my letters? I've asked you to stay about twelve times."
"Uhh, Ron have you any idea how much mail I get? I've had to borrow a house elf from my godfather just to deal with it. He probably just hasn't gotten around to your letters yet"
Ron's mouth fell open "B-But you never got that much mail while we were at school."
"Yeah, turned out that someone" - Dumbledore of course, "had set up a mail ward on me, only people whose owls were keyed into the ward were allowed to send me mail. I had the ward removed earlier this summer and I was drowning in letters until I had a mail redirect set up and got Dobby to deal with them. Sorry I didn't get your mail but I guess Dobby thought that it was just another fan letter so-"
"Stop gibbering," said Ron. "We've come to take you home with us."
"Guys, while I would love to visit, I've got a hopelessly busy schedule this summer, I'm tutoring someone and I'm supposed to head into London with my Mum for some shopping and - Sorry, but there's no way I can come to your home."
"Eh, that's okay Harry," said George, "at least we got to try the car out."
"Speaking of which-" Harry knew this was a bad, bad idea but somehow he just couldn't resist,"Do you suppose I could take her for a quick spin? Just around the neighbourhood."
"Why not?" said Fred, "Come on Harry, lets see how you can handle her."
Harry giggled madly as he climbed out of the window and into the driving seat of the flying car. While he had been avoiding Ron so far, a flying car, now that was seriously cool. Perhaps getting to know Ron Weasley wasn't such a bad idea after all. He turned the wheel, pointed the car at the sky and floored the accelerator.
oo00oo
Second Year.
Harry's second year at Hogwarts had gotten off to a great start. The portkey to the school was so much more convenient than spending all day in an archaic train. Plus once they had gotten to school they hadn't had to wait through a long boring ceremony while the first years got sorted. Luna had also managed to ace all her entrance tests and she had been placed in the same classes as Harry. Harry was feeling incredibly happy and not a little bit smug about that. This time around he would make sure that Luna had the Hogwarts experience she deserved. No one would dare to steal her possessions this time.
The new non magical classes were hard at first as he had gotten a little out of touch with the subjects but he soon caught up. Being able to head home whenever he wanted also helped a lot. There were still times when all the attention he tended to get at Hogwarts got a bit too much for him and being able to go home for a relaxing dinner with his parents was a lovely change. Petunia welcomed the change as well and was already getting Sirius to look into whether a similar arrangement could be made for Dudley. For now though the Sirius taxi service, as Sirius jokingly called it, was happy to occasionally pick up Dudley from Smeltings and apparate him home for dinner. Smeltings had been informed that Sirius was Dudley's Godfather who lived near the school and Dudley had been given permission to leave the school for the occasional dinner. With Harry being able to pop home at any time though Petunia had been worried that Dudley was being left out and was already contemplating moving him to a day school near the house. They had not made a decision yet and were waiting to see if more frequent visits could be arranged for Dudley.
He had also been lucky when it came to Quidditch. He had assumed that Wood would simply re-form the former Gryffindor team but the girls on the team had decided to form an all girl team. They were calling themselves the 'Hogwarts Harpies' and in the first match of the year had steamrolled right over Marcus Flint's team called 'The Snakes', beating them by 200 points. Since Wood had been left with just himself and the Weasley twins, Harry had managed to get not only himself but also Hermione and Neville on the team as chasers. Luna had a great tryout as well and was now the team seeker. The only thing left was the name - 'The Flying Lions', 'Wood's Warriors', 'The Red Terrors' and 'The Snorkacks' had all been rejected by the team. They were soon going to have their first game against Roger Davies team and Harry was really looking forward to it. He just hoped that someone would come up with a name they all agreed on before then.
There was still something that he felt he was forgetting though. What was it? He smacked himself in the head as he remembered and the next minute he was heading to the Headmaster's Office. Just as he was about to ask the gargoyle to let him in the door opened and Quirrell stepped out. Harry was surprised to see that he was carrying Fawkes on his arm.
"Hello Professor Quirrell. I was just coming to see you. What's Fawkes doing here?"
"I have absolutely no idea. The damn bird keeps flaming into my office and singing at me. I keep moving him to the Owlery but he keeps coming back. Do you have any idea how hard it is to concentrate on paperwork while a phoenix is singing?" said Quirrell in an exceptionally irritated tone.
"But, why is he here? Wasn't he Dumbledore's familiar? You'd think he'd be trying to get into Azkaban or something."
"They warded Azkaban against phoenix travel so he wouldn't be able to get to Dumbledore anyway. Why he keeps coming back to my office is something only he can answer and unless you know someone who can speak bird..."
Harry looked at Fawkes, the bird seemed to be amused about something.
"You don't suppose he's spying for Dumbledore, do you?" asked Harry
Fawkes managed to look quite insulted at the thought of him being a spy. He seemed to be glaring at Harry.
"I doubt that. Dumbledore would have had to come up with a telepathic means of communication with a Phoenix for that to be possible. I've already checked him for scrying or eavesdropping charms and as far as I can tell he's quite clean of any enchantments. Perhaps he's simply coming back to a place that is familiar to him."
"You could always ward your office against him" suggested Harry.
"I felt that would be needlessly cruel. No, sooner or later Fawkes will learn to get used to the Owlery."
"I wonder... Have you considered that he was never Dumbledore's familiar. Perhaps he's simply likes living at the school."
"Conjecture of that sort is quite useless. As I said before we have no real way of knowing his motives." By now they had reached the Owlery and Quirrell deposited Fawkes on one of the many perches. "Please stay here this time Fawkes. I'll have the elves get you some really delicious treats if you behave. You'd like some nice crispy bacon wouldn't you?" said Quirrell to the bird. Fawkes managed to look quite indignant, as if he was insulted at being treated like a common owl.
"Now Harry" said Quirrell as they made their way back into the castle. "What was it you wanted to talk to me about?"
"I just remembered the basilisk and I was wondering whether we needed to do something about it?"
"Bessy? She's fine, I checked up on her over the summer. Got a dozen sheep for her to feed on. She's safely back in hibernation now."
"Wait, hold on just a sec. You named her BESSY? A giant snake that can kill you by just looking at you, and you called it Bessy?"
"Well, she seemed to like it" said Quirrell in a defensive tone.
"Bessy..." muttered Harry. "Bessy... He calls it Bessy...like it's a bloody cow...Bessy the bloody basilisk. Unbelievable." Getting himself back on track, Harry asked "Well, what I actually wanted to ask you was - Do you think it's safe to have something like that in school."
"Of course Potter, don't forget that she's been in the chamber for hundreds of years. Salazar meant her to be a final defensive measure for the school. She's perfectly safe as long as she's in hibernation. I certainly am not going to wake her up while there are any children in the castle and since the only other person who could possibly get into the chamber is you... Well, I'm sure you are not stupid enough to go into the chamber."
"Still, remember Myrtle. Can we be certain that it's safe?"
"I think of Myrtle every single day Potter, however we are talking about a magnificent creature that has been in the school since it was founded. What would you have me do? Kill it? Set it free in the Forbidden Forest? I will most certainly not do anything like that. Don't forget I am under a vow not to put any child in danger. Do you think I would be able to stand here if there was truly any danger?"
"I guess not. Well, if you think it's safe - that's good enough for me. I'll bid you goodnight then."
"Goodnight Harry."
Harry hurried off back to his dorm room where he still preferred to spend some nights of the week, mainly because it was a lot easier to get your homework done when there were others doing it right besides you. If anyone had been close enough to him they would have have heard the occasional mumbled "Bessy...He named it Bessy..."
oo00oo
Hermione turned around as she saw a flash of red out of the corner of her eye. She thought she heard a squeak before the sound of running footsteps was heard.
"Who's that little red headed girl that keeps following us around Harry?"
"No bloody clue, probably just another fan girl. Maybe one of the Weasleys judging by the hair colour" said Harry.
"Fan girl? Really?"
"Well, it's either that, or she's got a major crush on you Hermione"
"Prat" said Hermione as she smacked him lightly on the arm.
"Ouch! Careful there, I need my arm to be in good shape for Quidditch."
"Speaking of Quidditch, let's go get Luna and Neville and hit the pitch. I really need to work on my passing with you" said Hermione.
Harry grinned as he followed Hermione. Once he had gotten Hermione interested in Quidditch it hadn't taken long for the girls competitive nature to take over. She was now hell bent on scoring more goals than him in every single match and at the rate she was improving she would soon get her wish.
Chapter 23
Third Year
She pulled out of her dive, her hand in the air, and the stadium exploded. Luna soared above the crowd, the tiny golden ball was held tight in her fist, beating its wings hopelessly against her fingers.
Then Wood was speeding toward her, half-blinded by tears; he seized Luna around the neck and sobbed unrestrainedly into her shoulder. Luna felt two large thumps as Harry and Hermione hit them; then Fred's, George's, and Neville's voices, "We've won the Cup! We've won the Cup!"
Tangled together in a many-armed hug, the team sank, yelling hoarsely, back to earth.
~oo00oo~
Summer before Fourth Year
Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports and former Beater for the Winbourne Wasps, flooed into the Headmaster's Office to find Sirius Black and Quirinus Quirrell waiting for him. Ludo was extremely busy these days due to the upcoming World Cup but he was not one to focus on only his current task. No, Ludo was ambitious and he wanted a spectacular follow up to the World Cup. Something that would keep the galleons rolling in. With that in mind he had submitted a proposal to the Ministry that the Triwizard Tournament be resurrected this year. Organising another international event would certainly add a feather to his cap, and hopefully several thousand galleons to his pockets with the bets he planned on placing. Now he found himself coming to Hogwarts to discuss the tournament with the Headmaster and Black who was representing the Governors.
"Ahh Mr. Bagman, do make yourself comfortable. It was so good of you to come in. I know you must be very busy with the upcoming tournament" said Quirrell.
"Thank you for having me Professor, and please call me Ludo. Did you have a chance to go over my proposal?"
"Of course Ludo, but first - would you like some tea?" asked Quirrell.
"Yes, thank you. Tea would be lovely."
A short time later once everyone had the prerequisite cup of tea in their hands Sirius started off the discussion.
"Ludo, let me just start off by saying that I think a tournament is an excellent idea. It would certainly help in international relationships and would also give our students the invaluable opportunity to meet and learn from students from the other schools."
"Excellent" said a beaming Bagman.
"However, we are not too happy with the format of the tournament and we would like to see some minor changes" said Quirrell.
"Really? Like what?" asked a surprised Bagman.
"The current tasks, especially the first one, are far too dangerous. I mean, Dragons. What were you thinking Ludo? Dragons? Really?" said Sirius.
"Traditionally the first task has always involved some sort of dangerous creature" answered Bagman.
"Yes, and there is a reason why the Triwizard Tournament was discontinued Ludo. I don't suppose you remember what that is? Do you?" asked Quirrell.
"Yes, b-but I've outlined steps to make it safer. We will only be allowing of age students to compete which means that they should be able to handle all the tasks" said Bagman.
"Unfortunately that's not the only problem we have with the tasks. The second task for example is simple enough. A first year could probably handle it if they used Gillyweed. The problem is - have you thought about the audience at all? You would have them staring at a lake for an hour. Not much excitement or interest in that, is there? Then you would have them staring at some hedges for the final task, totally unable to see the champions compete" said Sirius.
"Uhhh" said Bagman, his mind a total blank. He had not thought about these points at all.
"Finally why do we need the Goblet of Fire at all. If the teachers at our school cannot choose the most qualified from among our students then we would have to be quite incompetent. Why do we need a magical artefact to select a champion? Especially one that imposes a dangerous contract upon the champions? What if one of the champions has an accident while training and is unable to compete? Your goblet would have him or her paying a penalty for breaking the contract. No, I see no reason for the goblet at all" said Quirrell.
"Yes, I quite see your point" said a defeated Bagman. "So how do you think the tournament should be structured?"
"To start with, let us do away with the Goblet, also instead of simply selecting one champion from each school - I would like to have teams participating. We should also base the events around our school curriculum. For example we could have a Potions challenge where teams from each school will be provided with a blended poison. The team that comes up with the antidote first wins. Of course we will have to set some rules - we wouldn't want a student to win by simply slapping down a bezoar after all" said Quirrell.
"Yes, that does sound like an interesting challenge, not much excitement for the audience though" said Bagman.
"Oh, I'm sure we can balance that out in the other events. We could have a Transfiguration competition where points will be based on the intricacy, difficulty level and sheer showmanship of the transfiguration performed" said Quirrell.
"We absolutely must have a Quidditch event as well" said Sirius.
"Are you sure that is wise?" asked Bagman. "Victor Krum attends Durmstrang and he's a World Cup player. The best seeker in the world. Any team that Hogwarts could put up would be slaughtered."
"Viktor Krum is precisely the reason we must have Quidditch matches. Think back to when you were in school Ludo. What would you have given for a chance to play against a World Cup class player? It's a tremendous learning opportunity for all of our Quidditch players" said Sirius.
"I also think we should have an event that focuses purely on our theory subjects as well. Something that covers History, Arithmancy, Runes etcetera" said Quirrell.
"But ... what kind of event could possibly cover all those subjects?" asked a bewildered Bagman.
"Have you ever seen one of those quiz shows?" said Quirrel.
"Q-Quiz Shows?" said Bagman
"Yes, I must say ever since Sirius here introduced me to Television I have gotten quite addicted to Quiz Shows. I find them absolutely fascinating" answered Quirrell.
"Tally Vision?" asked Bagman.
"Yes, it's quite simple really. We will have one team from each school. A presenter will ask a question and whichever team answers correctly will get a point" said Quirrell. "What do you think Sirius, should we have buzzers or just have them take turns answering questions?" said Quirrell.
"I've always liked the buzzers. Adds a bit of excitement. Oh ... and can we have a rapid fire round?" said Sirius.
"Buzzers? Rapid Fire? W-What..." asked a totally confused Bagman.
"You can leave that to me Ludo, I'll write up a format for the Quiz event" said Sirius.
"That would certainly be helpful. Do you suppose we could have a duelling tournament as well?" said Bagman.
"No, No, out of the question. That would be far too dangerous" answered Quirrell.
"One last thing - I'm not too happy with your list of proposed judges. I sincerely doubt that the Heads of each school can truly be unbiased when it comes too a competition of this nature. I think we should get in more judges from outside. Perhaps some delegates from the ICW?" said Sirius.
"The Flamels owe me a favour for saving their stone. I should be able to persuade them to act as two of the Judges" said Quirrell.
"That would be an excellent idea" said Sirius.
"Well, I think that covers nearly everything. Don't you agree Ludo?" asked Quirrell.
"Yes, Yes... Quite. I shall rework the proposal for the tournament immediately" answered Bagman before bidding them goodbye and making a hasty exit through the fireplace.
"Well, that went all right. Don't you think?" asked Quirrell.
"Yes, this year should be quite eventful. By the way what are you going to do about the Quidditch team. Harry's team won the last Quidditch cup last year and since Wood graduated the team has elected him as Captain for this year. Are you going to ask his team to play for Hogwarts?" asked Sirius.
"No, I think it would be better for the Quidditch coaches to have school wide tryouts for each position. We must field the best players in the school. I'm sure he should be able to get selected regardless. How is Harry anyway? I haven't heard from him much this summer" said Quirrell.
"Oh, the Grangers, Lovegoods and Dursleys are all on holiday together. Amelia and I were supposed to go as well but she got busy with some business over at the DMLE. Xeno's dragged them all off on a camping trip. Something about looking for Crumpled Torn Snot Rags... Snorkels? Something like that anyway" said Sirius. "Speaking of Harry, I've been thinking he really needs to expand his horizons a bit. Perhaps when the students from the other schools arrive you could assign a student liaison. Someone to show them around Hogwarts, act as a native guide so to speak. I think Harry would make a very good liaison for the Beauxbatons students."
"Does this have anything to do with the rumours that there are Veela students attending Beauxbatons?" asked Quirrell. By now he knew Sirius very well and knew exactly how the man's mind worked.
"Of course it does. Harry needs to work on his flirting skills desperately. This will be an excellent chance for that" answered Sirius.
Quirrell chuckled. "Of course Sirius, at worst it should be terribly amusing to watch and I'm sure that the Beauxbatons students will be pleased at having him as a liaison. The boy is still very famous after all."
"Glad you agree, and one last thing before I go - We're all planning to attend the World Cup together. I've reserved a box. I hope you'll be able to make it as well" asked Sirius.
"I would love to come. Thank you for inviting me" answered Quirrell.
"Great, see you there then. Well then, I'm heading to Gringotts. Harry's convinced me that the Irish are going to win with Krum catching the Snitch and I'm off to lay a large bet with the goblins. Want me to place one for you as well?" asked Sirius.
"Hmmm, the Irish to win even though Bulgaria gets the snitch, the odds on that should be nice and high. Put me down for a hundred" answered Quirrell.
Sirius left through the floo and Quirrell sighed - a headmaster's job was never done. He now had to go and check on Hagrid. The man was simply incapable of acting rationally when it came to animals. He was currently breeding some experimental animals from manticores and fire crabs, something called a blast-ended skrewt, and Quirrell had to go and put a stop to it. Why, oh why did he have to be saddled with a half giant with all the temperament and sense of a five year old? Thank god he had managed to hire Grubbly-Plank full time after Kettleburn retired. Without her to watch over Hagrid, he shuddered to think what the man would get up to.
Just then Fawkes flamed into the office, perched himself on Quirrell's shoulder and started preening Quirrell's hair whilst singing. Quirrell sighed again, some days he just couldn't catch a break.
~oo00oo~
Fourth Year
It had been a great year so far for Harry. Students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang were visiting Hogwarts for the tournament and he had become friendly with several of the Beauxbatons students, not the least of which was the beautiful Fleur Delacour. He had also gotten selected for the Hogwarts Quidditch team as a chaser. He had contemplated trying out for the seeker position, just so that he would get a chance to fly against Victor Krum but had then decided that he had a lot more fun playing as a chaser. It certainly beat flying around looking for a tiny golden mosquito for the entire game and with a bit of luck they might be able to recreate the Irish victory by racking up the score before Victor caught the snitch.
Now though, he had something vastly more important on his mind. Quirrell had informed him that the Yule Ball was to be announced soon and he had to nail down his date for the ball. With that in mind he ran straight to the library where he knew he would be most likely to find the girls he wanted to speak to. He paused at the entrance to gather his thoughts. He found that he was incredibly nervous. Damn his other self, why couldn't the idiot have spent some more time asking girls out. No, he had to have memories of a guy who was bloody clueless when it came to women. And no, Ginny didn't count. Getting a girl who's had a crush on you for years to date you is not a great achievement. Utterly disastrous dates with Parvati and Cho. Never even thinking of asking Hermione out. Ignoring Luna at Slughorn's party and following Malfoy around instead and ... and ... worst of all - jumping out from under the mistletoe after Luna pointed it out. Argghhhh, how could anybody be so dumb? Well, he would do better this time... Once he calmed down and his heart stopped hammering. He was having a bloody heart attack, yes that was it, maybe he should go visit Madam Pomfrey. A week or two in the Hospital Wing would be a nice break.
"Calm yourself. Deep breaths, that's the ticket" he thought. "Just remember what Sirius and Dad taught you and you'll be fine. Now what was the most important bit. Oh yeah, be cocky and funny and fake it till you make it. I am calm and confident and irresistible to women. Calm, confident and irresistible, just keep telling yourself that. Okay then, time to put up or shut up, lets go do this." He caught a sight of his reflection in the highly polished wood of the door - "Damn, I really wish I could get that hair to settle down." He tried to pat it down to make it look neater but gave it up as hopeless. "Enough procrastinating, time to roll the dice" he thought as he entered the library.
Harry plonked himself down in front of Hermione and Luna who were studying together in the library.
"How are my two favourite witches doing today?" he asked, keeping his voice low so that Madam Pince would not get annoyed.
"We're fine Harry, what's got you looking so excited?" said Luna, "Infestation of wrackspurts?"
"Well, I just had it confirmed that we're going to have a Yule Ball this year" answered Harry, his voice cracking slightly before he got it under control.
"Really, where did you hear that?" asked Hermione.
"From the Headmaster, he's going to be announcing it tomorrow morning, I'd asked him to give me a heads up, as a favour, before he announced it to the whole school so that I would have the chance to get a date" said Harry.
"Now why did you need to do that?" asked Hermione.
"Well, the girls I have my eye on are so jaw-droppingly beautiful that as soon as the ball is announced there's going to be a line of guys waiting to ask them out. This way I beat the rush and get a jump on the competition" explained Harry.
"Harry, you know that any girl in the school would be more than happy to go out with you" said Hermione deciding to be supportive of her best friend. He probably just needed some advice on how to ask a girl out. The bloody git. He probably wanted to ask that stuck up French girl to the ball. The idiot... No, she would be supportive, yes she would, she was a nice person, not a shred of jealousy in her, no not at all.
"So that's a yes then? What about you Luna?" asked Harry
"Wait, What? Did you just ask me out?" said a flabbergasted Hermione.
"Yes, I'd be incredibly honoured if you and Luna would agree to be my dates to the ball?" said Harry.
"Both of us? Harry you're supposed to go with one girl, not two" said Hermione.
"Where does it say that Hermione? Come on, ever since Luna joined in second year the three of us have always done everything together. So please, please, pretty please say you'll come to the ball with me" said Harry.
"Uhh, what about that Beauxbatons girl you've been spending so much time with? The one that's had all the boys drooling after her. I thought you'd be jumping to ask her out" snapped Hermione. She had been more than a little jealous of all the time Harry had been spending with the girl in question.
"Fleur? She's just a friend Hermione, you know that. Anyway, she was just being kind enough to help me out with some lessons I needed to make sure you'll have a good time at the ball" said Harry.
"Lessons? What kind of lessons?" said Hermione.
"Oh you know, dancing and ...ahem... other stuff" said Harry nervously.
"Other stuff? Hmm, in that case - I'm definitely in" said Luna in a dreamy tone.
"What? Why?" said Hermione in a suspicious tone.
"Come on Hermione, he's gotten lessons from a French part Veela. Aren't you curious to find out just what he's learned. Especially as..." and here Luna broke off to whisper in Hermione's ear.
"WHAT? You really think he's been getting lessons in ki..." asked Hermione.
"Yep. Have you ever known Harry not to be totally prepared for any situation?" said Luna.
"Uhhh, I guess in that case I'm in as well. Although I'm not sure I'm happy about your so called 'lessons'. I still think you should be going with just one girl. That's the way it's supposed to be done" said Hermione
"Come on Hermione, when do we ever do what's supposed to be done? That's just so boring, to always do what's expected. I mean you could go out with someone else, I know tons of boys will be trying to get you to go with them, but then you have no guarantee that you'll have a good time. And why would you inflict the company of some other boy on yourself or Luna? What if they turn out to be horrendous bores? This way at least you know it's going to be a fun night. I guarantee it" said Harry as confidently as he could. "Calm and Confident" he repeated to himself.
"Fine, Fine, I'll go with you" humphed Hermione.
"Excellent" said Harry, grinning away. He was exceptionally pleased and quite a bit surprised that they both had agreed. He hadn't wanted to choose between them and he didn't want to ask anyone else out either. He had really been expecting only one of them to agree and part of him had been convinced that they would both refuse. For both of them to agree was ... was ... nerve-racking ... wonderful ... exciting ... terrifying ... fantastic? He couldn't really decide but was currently leaning towards terrifying.
"Didn't you mention jaw-droppingly beautiful a while back? I think if we're going to be going to the ball with you then both Hermione and I deserve to hear some more along those lines" said Luna giving Harry a bit of a start. He had not really been expecting that. He needed to come up with more compliments? Oh dear. What had Sirius suggested? Poetry, right ... lets give that a shot.
"All righty then, where should I start? Shall I compare thee to a summers day?" asked Harry.
"A bit clichéd, but I think that's a good start, go on" said Hermione blushing an appealing pink.
"I'm not sure comparing me to a summers day is entirely appropriate, after all my name is Luna" announced Luna, deciding that she wasn't going to make this that easy for him. "So what if he was her best friend and really the only one she would want to go to the ball with...and handsome ... with lovely lovely green eyes and those... Hmmm... Yummy... What had she been thinking about again? Something about making him have to work hard for ... oh but he did have really lovely eyes" she mused.
"Good point, so I'd take it that something moon related would work better for you? Unfortunately, uhh... nothing really comes to mind right now" said Harry.
"I don't mind, I can wait for you to come up with something" said Luna. Maybe she would get him to write a poem about nargles. Hmm, that was a thought. It would be hysterical to see what he came up with.
"Looks like I have my work cut out for me then" said Harry.
"Still want to ask both of us to the ball then?" said Hermione, smiling as she caught on to what Luna was up to.
"Of course. Anything good is worth working for after all" said Harry. "Wait, I think I have one- She walks in beauty, like the night, Of cloudless climes and starry skies."
"Nah, you need to keep looking, the girl in that poem is supposed to have raven hair which doesn't describe either Luna or me" said Hermione.
"Curses, foiled again" said Harry, "But you know, something just occurred to me, If I can't compare you to a summers day because your first name is Luna and you said you'd like something associated with your name correct."
"Yes," said Luna.
"Oh Oh" thought Hermione.
"And ... your last name is Lovegood. Doesn't that just open up a vast array of possibilities?" said Harry with a broad grin.
"Why yes, yes it does" said Luna brightly.
"Oh look, Madam Pince is glaring at us, we'll have to continue this some other time" said Hermione desperately hoping to stave off the hurricane of incredibly corny Love Good puns that she was sure Harry was about to unleash.
~oo00oo~
After Luna and Hermione got back to the fourth year dorms, Luna dragged Hermione up to their room, pulled her to sit cross legged on her bed, shut the curtains and cast a few privacy and silencing charms so that they couldn't be overheard.
"Luna... What..." said Hermione.
"We've got to discuss the Harry situation Hermione" said Luna.
"What's to discuss? Like he said - we've been doing everything together since second year. This is just more of the same" said Hermione.
"No, Hermione this is totally different" said Luna. "This is a date Hermione, and if we're both going to Harry's girlfriends at the same time, then we should discuss it. Don't you agree?"
"Hold on" said Hermione, blushing away. "Who said anything about girlfriends? We're just going to the ball together as friends. Right?"
"Wrong. You don't start quoting poetry and showering compliments on someone who you're 'just friends' with. I thought you would have known that" said Luna.
"Still, its still just one ball, that doesn't mean we're both going to be dating him and being his girlfriends" said Hermione.
"Yes, I know he wasn't really expecting both of us to agree to go with him, that was rather obvious but still..."
"Wait just a tic. What do you mean he wasn't expecting us to agree? Why did he ask us then?" said Hermione.
"Hermione, please. Didn't you see his face when we both said yes. I was tempted to toss my quill at him to see if it would knock him over" said Luna.
"But ... then, why did he ask both of us?" asked Hermione.
"Hermione, clearly Harry is suffering from a severe infestation of wrackspurts. For some reason he either won't or can't choose between us so he tried to make us do the choosing for him. I mean really, do you really think Harry is the type of boy who tries for a ménage à trois?" said Luna.
This time Hermione's blush could have lit up the room. Where did Luna get these ideas from? Honestly. A ména... She couldn't even think of the phrase without suffering from an acute case of embarrassment.
"So he asked both of us to the ball, but expects us to decide amongst ourselves who actually gets to go?" asked Hermione.
"Probably, but I don't think we should do that" said Luna.
"Uhh, why not?" asked Hermione. This conversation was so far out of her comfort zone that it wasn't funny.
"I know we both want to date him and I don't see why we should strain our friendship. After all if only one of us gets to go out with him then the other is bound to resent it. So obviously we're going to have to share him" explained Luna far too reasonably for Hermione's taste. Shouldn't the other girl have been a little outraged at the concept?
"I never said I want to date him" protested Hermione.
"Oh come on. It's obvious you do. There's no point in denying it" said Luna.
"Okay, maybe I do. Still even if we both go ... we would still end up resenting each other. Maybe not now but eventually" said Hermione.
"Maybe, but if we're careful that doesn't have to happen for quite some years. Maybe not ever, if we do it right. You're my best friend, apart from Harry, after all" said Luna. "We just need a scrupulously fair way to decide things. A way to decide things like ... like who gets the first kiss" said Luna.
"K-kissing, b-but..." stammered Hermione.
"Hermione, It's the Yule Ball, if things go well, our first dates should end with a kiss. Don't you agree? So who gets to go first. I know, lets do Rock-Parchment-Wand to decide. Agreed... Good, so on three. One, two, three..." Luna stuck out a fist and Hermione stuck out a finger.
"Yay, rock breaks wand so I get the first kiss. Just to be fair though, since I get the first kiss you can have the first dance. Is that fair?" said Luna.
"Uhh... I guess so" said Hermione.
"Just one last thing though, I don't think we should let Harry know about our little agreement. Either he'll freak out or he'll get way too smug. So - no telling" said Luna.
"Okay" said Hermione, only too happy to agree to the last point. There was no way she would ever discuss any of this with anyone else. She suddenly had a truly horrific thought. How would she tell her parents about this? - "Dear Mum, My friends have gone insane and I find myself actually buying into their insanity. Please help. Love Hermione"
"Yay. Now, I thought we should get him to write us some original poetry and carry our books for us everyday. What do you think we should get him to do?" asked Luna.