Harry Potter and the Dawn of a New Age

Chapter Six: Hogsmeade

By fbline

The week leading up to Hogsmeade weekend seemed to pass even faster than those first few weeks of term. Harry decided that the cause of this was because he was still very nervous about what might happen, and every time he had wanted time to slow down in the past it never failed to speed up. It also didn't help that he had a virtual mountain of homework to do. Filch had assigned them all a two foot essay on the proper defensive spells needed when fighting underwater, a subject that Harry contented himself that he already knew something about, as well as making them all practice the Protego spell. Even though he was a lot more compassionate than he had been in years past, there was a certain amount of discontent on his part when he was forced to have Harry show the class how the spell was done, after he himself had made several failed attempts at casting the spell himself. Snape also loaded the students down with homework. He had assigned them all a three foot essays on the properties of Veritaserum, along with an explanation on why it was kept under such high levels of control by the Ministry. In class they were all working on the very complicated potion called Benzedrina. It was a brew that allowed the drinker to go without food, drink, or sleep for an extended period of time. The potion had been developed to aid Aurors during long siege battles, but was now mostly used by seventh year students to help them cram for N.E.W.T.'s. Transfiguration was also very time consuming. Harry had finished up his previous essay only to be forced to work on another, this one on the potential perils of human transfiguration. In class they were all assigned the task of changing cats into dogs. Hermione, to no one's surprise, was the first to accomplish this, and began to work on the next step of the process, the changing of the dog into a chimp. It was difficult enough to change an animal into another animal of similar genetic type, but to change one into a more advanced animal was even harder. By the end of the week, Harry and Ron had also changed their cats into dogs, as did Neville, although his still had whiskers and meowed. Herbology wasn't quite as bad for Harry and the others. Professor Sprout had assigned them all to successfully prune and maintain a burning bush, and all of them had succeeded in doing so with only Ron sustaining a minor burn to his feet when he accepted a bet from Dean that he couldn't jump his bush. Neville, on the other hand, not only got a perfect score on his, but also gained Gryffindor twenty house points for styling his bush into a flaming replica of Rodin's Thinker. Charms also had the group very busy. Flitwick had assigned them an essay on the proper uses of memory charms, and even had the class practice them. By the end of the week, Hermione was able to cause Ron to forget what he had for breakfast each morning, and had Harry convinced that his name was actually Noodles Mahoney.

Apart from his normal classes, Harry was also working on Occlumency and Auror training, both of which posed challenges for him. Try as he might, he was very hard pressed to clear his mind of all thought and emotion. He gained a lot of strength from his emotions, and there were many times that his wits had saved his life. It also didn't help that his emotions seemed especially keyed up at night, a time that he should be trying his hardest to protect himself from Voldemort's intrusion. When he wasn't trying to clear his mind, he was trying to sharpen it for his Auror training and he had taken McGonagall's advice and tried to take in his surroundings more. It seemed to be working, since he had been able to detect Seamus sneaking up behind him in an attempt to cast a severing charm on his belt, which caused the pants to fall down of whoever it was cast upon. Seamus preferred to use this on the ladies, but ever since Ginny had given him that knee to the groin, he had decided to stick to less violent people. So on Friday night as Harry lay down in bed to go to sleep; the thought finally occurred to him that he would be meeting with Luna at ten the next morning in the great hall for their first "official" date together. As he fell into an uneasy sleep, he couldn't help but wish that he could talk to Sirius about what he should do.

Saturday morning dawned bright and breezy upon Hogwarts. The trio all went down to breakfast together and about what all they were planning to look at once they got to Hogsmeade. Ron made Harry promise once more that he would meet up with him and Hermione at the Three Broomsticks that afternoon, causing Hermione to roll her eyes at him. Once done with breakfast, Ron and Hermione headed straight for the castle doors while Harry hung around in the hall looking for Luna. As the clock tower began to toll the hour of ten o'clock, Harry saw her coming towards him from the Ravenclaw table, a few feet ahead of the glowering duo of Cho and Marietta. Once she had gotten over to stand next to Harry she smiled and kissed him on the cheek, causing more looks and a few laughs from the people around them. Harry chose to ignore them, and Luna didn't seem to notice anything at all.

"Good morning, Harry. Are you ready to go?"

Harry smiled at her as he felt some of his previous anxiety diminish.

"Good morning, Luna. Yep, I'm ready. Let's go."

Harry and Luna made their way over to the doors through the crowd of others also leaving. On the way, they ran into Ginny and Neville. Ginny adopted her most devilish of grins when she saw them.

"Hey Luna, hey Harry. You kids behave yourselves now. I'd hate to dock points from my own house for public snogging."

Harry's face went beet red while Luna merely giggled. Harry noticed that Neville looked as nervous as he had felt a few minutes ago. Taking Luna's hand he sped up their pace towards the front doors.

"Cute, Ginny, really cute. You should mind yourself. I don't think McGonagall would find it very amusing if she found out you and Neville were trying on anything else besides clothes today."

Harry grinned at the horror stricken look on Neville's face and the sarcastic laughter from Ginny. Luna continued to giggle sweetly as the two of them made their way outside into the grounds. Once they had walked a while and Luna had composed herself again, Harry turned to her and realized that they were still holding hands. Surprisingly, he found that he didn't mind it at all.

"So where do you want to go first, Luna?"

Luna had also realized that they were still holding hands and was glad that Harry hadn't let go.

"I don't care. Why don't we just walk around aimlessly for a while? I always find that there are times when the best plan to have is none at all."

Harry couldn't find an argument with her logic...if that's what you'd call it...and simply let himself be directed by whim. Everything was going along perfectly until they rounded the back of a building and ran directly into Malfoy and his pair of goons.

"Well, look who we have here boys, Potty and the loony. What's wrong Potter, those Gryffindor whores getting boring?"

Harry's face blasted red with anger as the laughter from Crabbe and Goyle filled the air. It was a second or two before he realized they weren't the only ones laughing.

"What are you laughing at, Loony?"

Luna continued to laugh while Crabbe and Goyle abruptly stopped. It seemed they didn't want to be caught doing something that Luna was.

"Gryf...Gryf...Gryffindor whores! That rhymes! I never knew you were a poet Draco."

Luna was still laughing as Malfoy's face pinked up slightly.

"I wasn't being poetic, you bi-polar cow."

This insult only made Luna laugh harder, causing Harry to settle down slightly. The thought that Luna could laugh it all off caused him to admire her strength of character.

"Bi...Bi...Bi-polar cow! Can you imagine a cow in St. Mungo's? Can you imagine what the other patients would think?"

Crabbe and Goyle were completely out of their element now. They were very adept at beating the stuffing out of the males that were brave enough to cheek Malfoy, but what Luna was doing was something they had no known way to defend. Draco, on other hand, was most capable of using his mouth.

"Shut your mouth, you stupid cu-"

Hexes flew in from nearly every direction. By the time the brilliant flashings of light subsided, the three Slytherins resembled something that a blast ended skrewt would have found disgusting. Spinning around to see where the hexes had come from, several members of the DA were coming towards them, their wands pointing right at the place where the blobs that were once Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle once stood. Harry felt a surge of pride at the sight of them all.

"Wow, thanks guys. You really saved us."

Seamus came over to look at the blobs and gave one of them a kick.

"We heard Luna laughing and Draco yelling and thought that was a bit of an odd combination. When we saw you all back here we knew something was up. Are you both ok?"

Harry looked at Luna who had adopted her usual dreamy look again.

"Yeah we're ok, thanks to you guys. Hey, I know that we don't have to be all secretive now that Umbridge is gone, but if you all want to continue getting together, we could still continue with the DA. What do you think?"

The group all nodded and smiled. Hermione promised that she and Harry would get in touch with them about possible times to get together soon, and then Harry thanked them all again and returned to the main path with Luna. The three blobs behind them were left to ooze until the hexes wore off. Luna squeezed Harry's hand gently and beamed up at him.

"See, what did I tell you? Wasn't that exciting? I wonder what Draco was going to call me?"

Harry had enough experience from hearing Dudley and his gang talk about all the girls that wouldn't go out with them to know exactly what Draco had meant to call her.

'Don't worry about it; he was just mad because you weren't afraid of him and his mouth. I really admired how you were able to handle him. My first instinct was to hex him into tomorrow, but you were able to get to him without resorting to that. I think that's really...cool."

Luna continued to smile at him.

"Violence doesn't solve anything, Harry. Violence only breeds more violence. Humankind has been blessed with the gift of reason; it's a shame when we fail to use it."

Harry was astounded by the simplistic brilliance of what Luna had just said. He hated it when he had to use force, and agreed that it often failed to truly solve anything. As he thought about this, he realized that his feet had led him to the Hog's Head. Before he could steer Luna away, a couple emerged that she appeared to know.

The male of the pair was rather tall, with wild blonde hair and dark green eyes. On his feet he wore odd purple and yellow trainers and in his free hand was a cd entitled "The Beekeeper." The female of the pair was also rather unusual looking. Harry guessed her to be Hispanic, owing to her tanned complexion and attractive hazel eyes. The thing that made her stand out was her purple hair and slightly manic glint in her eyes. When the male of the group had spotted Luna a smile crossed his face just as a withering look appeared on the females.

"Hey, Luna. I didn't see you at work much over the summer. I missed you."

Luna smiled at him, although it didn't appear to Harry to be as bright as her usual one.

"Daddy and I spent a lot of the summer abroad. Well, I won't keep you. It was nice seeing you again."

Luna then flashed the pair a peace sign and pulled Harry along with her into the Hog's Head. As Harry looked back out the door at them, he could hear the female say, "what is it with you and fifteen year old girls?" once the door had shut behind them, Harry turned to look at Luna for some kind of explanation.

"Luna, who were those people?"

Luna directed Harry over to the very table they had sat in the year before to establish the DA. A similar crowd sat around the place now, and the bar keep looked no friendlier now as then. Once they had set down she turned to Harry with the same dreamy smile on her face she had worn then.

"He works for daddy at The Quibbler. He works in the archive department. He's been there almost as long as I've been alive. I'm afraid he's rather taken with me I think. The girl that was with him is an artist and plays lead guitar in a house band here at the Hog's Head. They both live in the magical commune outside town. Between you and me, I think they're a bit...odd."

Harry couldn't help but smile at the idea of Luna thinking someone else was odd. He wondered if that meant that they were perfectly normal. After the initial humor of the thought wore off, the fact that he was in the rather frightening and very unhygienic bar struck him again.

"Luna, why did you want to come in here?"

"Because, we don't have a 'place' yet."

Harry looked at her questioningly.

"A 'place'?"

"Yes, a 'place'. You know the sort of thing, somewhere that we can relive past happy memories. I know that you much prefer the Three Broomsticks, but we don't have any history there, at least not yet. I just wanted to come here first. Oh, and I wanted to ask you something."

Harry felt his palms start to sweat and his heart rate speed up. Was this it? Was she going to ask him to be her boyfriend? Would she want to kiss him? What did he have for breakfast? How long did the taste of kippers remain in the mouth? Wait, that wouldn't matter, they'd just be kissing on the lips, right? OH MY GOD, what if they didn't just kiss on the lips? Where should he keep his hands? Where would she keep hers? As a trickle of sweat dripped down his nose, he managed to mumble a response.

"Wha...what's that, Luna?"

"Do you have a knut for the jukebox?"

The runaway train that was Harry's emotions suddenly came to a screeching halt.

"A...what?"

"A knut for the jukebox. I have one in each of my shoes of course, but those are for the ferryman. So, do you have one?"

Harry was still suffering the effects of his overactive imagination but was still able to fish a knut out of his pocket.

"Here you go. Wait, who's the ferryman?"

"You know, the ferryman at the River Styx. If you don't pay him you'll be stuck in limbo forever. Ooh, Harry, you're wearing the bracelet I made you!"

"What, oh, yeah, I haven't taken it off since you gave it to me. You were right about it being strong, it's held up really well."

"I told you it would. I'm glad you like it, Harry. I'll be right back. I know just the song I want to play."

Harry watched her as she walked over to the jukebox that appeared not to have been played since the dark ages. After putting in the knut from Harry, Luna pressed a button and walked back over to their table. When she had sat back down, Harry noticed with astonishment that for the first time he could recall, she was blushing.

Mary lights the candles while the customer reads

All the headlines that are screaming from the paper

And the most that could matter is the last thing that she needs

Her knight in tattered armor is here to save her

And it's her first time

Of being alone with you

And it's the first time

You called her on the phone

I hear that change jingling in your pocket

And it's strange, isn't it?

We can go home and lock it away

Save it for a rainy day

I hope it rains

I hope it pours

Lord, I hope it rains

Someone has to question where the fascination went

How you twisted and resisted the temptation

But business has been busy and you're battered and bent

And you're longing for a second invitation

And it's my first time

Of being alone with you

And it's my first time

I'm trying to get through

Every little motion seems to need a little push

As you justify the reasons why you're sure

But you're not one for romance or beating around the bush

Though I might think twice about this if you were

And it's the first time

Of being alone with you

And it's the first time

I'm calling on the phone

I hope it rains

I hope it pours

Lord, I hope it rains

As the song ended, Harry found himself blushing as well. He didn't even try to fool himself into thinking that Luna playing that song was coincidental. A few seconds later, he was assured that it wasn't.

"Harry, how do you see me?"

Harry's palms were now nothing compared to the amount of sweat pouring from the rest of his body. He felt as if he had chugged an entire keg of pepper-up potion.

"Uh, well, I...you're...what do you mean, exactly?"

"I'm asking you what you think of me, Harry."

"Well, you know, I think you're...well...I'm...I'm very fond of you, Luna."

Luna's face was impossible to read as she looked deeply into Harry's eyes. This always disturbed him slightly, as it always seemed that she was delving directly into his very soul when she did it. After what to Harry seemed like an eternity, the dreamy smile reappeared and she got up from her chair.

"Ok, Harry. I'll settle for that...for now. I know you aren't used to these kinds of emotions. I just wanted to know if I was fighting a losing battle, and now I know I'm not. We'll get back to this another time, but right now we'd better head over to meet up with Ron and Hermione. I'd hate for them to think I was off seducing you somewhere. I have my reputation to think of you know."

Harry nearly tripped at Luna's statement as he missed a step while leaving the Hog's Head. This elicited another burst of giggles from her, and caused Harry to blush yet again. Once they arrived at the Three Broomsticks, they were immediately waved over by Ron who was sitting at a table towards the back with Hermione. Once Harry and Luna were seated, Ron held up four fingers to Madam Rosemerta to indicate he wanted a round of butterbeers.

"About time you two showed up. Where have you...PHEW! You both smell like stale beer and smoke, what the bloody hell have you been into?"

Now that they were out of the Hog's Head, Harry realized that he did indeed reek to high heaven.

"Sorry about that. Luna and I swung by the Hog's Head before we came here."

Ron nearly spit out his butterbeer.

"What the bloody hell were you doing in the Hog's Head? You know what kind of people are in there, you could have been attacked! What were you thinking about taking him in there, Luna?"

Hermione gave Ron a jab in the ribs and took out her wand.

"Ron, you may not know this, but Dumbledore's brother is the barkeep there. Do you really think he'd let something happen to Harry? I know he's rather...eccentric, but he's still Dumbledore's brother. Now there's something I've got to do. I'm sorry about this, but cigarette smoke makes me ill. Deodiferous!"

A rush of wind came from Hermione's wand and a black haze rose off of Harry and Luna and disappeared into the air. Harry brought up his sleeve to his nose and gave it a sniff.

"Wow, thanks, Hermione. Uh, how long will I smell like vanilla?"

"Not too long. I figured it was better than new car smell. There are a few other scents, but I didn't want the two of you smelling like hookers."

Luna giggled again and covered her mouth with her hand.

"I don't think I'd make a very good hooker, although, if people already have a bad opinion of me it might not be such a bad idea after all. What do you think, Harry? I could stand on the corner in front of the Hog's Head and sing, "Hey big spender..."

Luna then dissolved into another fit of giggles while Harry blushed, Ron looked disgusted, and Hermione thought she might like the next round to be something stronger. In an effort to get the subject away from Luna participating in the world's oldest profession, Harry cleared his throat and tried to regain his composure.

"So, Ron, Hermione, what have the two of you been up to?"

Ron gave one more disapproving look at Luna and took at drink of butterbeer.

"Well, we went by Honeyduke's and checked them out. I think I cleared them out of chocolate frogs and nougat newts. Of course, Hermione here nagged me the whole time about all the sugar in everything. She actually bought a pack of carob cherubs. I think I'd rather eat a cockroach cluster."

Hermione gave Ron a very stern look that caused him to look down at his butterbeer. Hermione had never been big on candy, and had often tried to get Ron to curb his addiction to them. It wasn't working.

"Ron, if you don't go slow on the sweets you'll end up with diabetes one day. And don't come crying to me if all your teeth fall out. Anyway, after I finally managed to drag Ron out of Honeyduke's we came here. The other members of the DA stopped by and we all had a laugh over what all we did to Malfoy and his stooges, and then the two of you showed up. I'm glad you did, it's getting close to dinner time and I've got a couple more feet I want to do for Snape's essay. What do you say we head back?"

The other three agreed and they set off back to the castle. Walking by the place that Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle had been they saw that there was no sign of them, so they must have reverted back to their usual forms and went back to the castle. Harry wondered to himself how many points Snape would deduct from Gryffindor when Malfoy told him what had happened. Still, it had been well worth it. Once they had arrived back at the castle, Ron turned to Harry and showed him the numerous bags of Honeyduke's sweets he had acquired.

"Hey, Harry, why don't we head up to the common room and see what new cards I got. Oliver Wood is supposed to have a card now that he's starting for Puddlemere United. And then..."

Hermione interrupted Ron by grabbing him by the arm and pulling him towards the grand staircase.

"Ron, why don't you go with me and help me find my Potion notes?"

Ron looked at Hermione in utter confusion.

"What? Why? Hermione, you've got your notes all filed and cross referenced. What do you need me for?"

Hermione continued to tug Ron up the stairs and away from Harry and Luna.

"Come on, Ron. I'll let you copy my notes for the quiz next week."

Harry watched on amused as Ron was forcibly tugged up the grand staircase. It was the feel of Luna's hand slipping into his that caused him to turn his attention back to her.

"Thank you for a lovely day, Harry. I had fun."

Harry tensed up slightly at the thought of what generally happened at the end of a date, but the soothing power that Luna had over him seemed to take the edge off.

"Yeah, me too. Maybe we could...you know...do something again sometime."

Luna beamed up at him.

"I'd like that, Harry. I guess I'll see you at dinner. Thanks again for a lovely date."

Harry smiled at her and couldn't help feeling a little sad that he was now being separated from her.

"Yeah, I'll see you at dinner. Luna, I'm glad you agreed to go out on a date with me today. I had a really great time."

Luna continued to smile at Harry as she leaned forward onto her toes and kissed him on the cheek. After one last squeeze of his hand, she turned around and made her way up to Ravenclaw tower. Harry watched her until she was out of sight and then made his own way to Gryffindor tower. On the way, Luna's questions from before ran through his mind. How did he see her? What did she mean to him? Once again he wished for someone he could talk to about it all, but yet again he realized that there was no one or at least no one still alive.

Sunday morning dawned slightly overcast with the threat of an afternoon shower. Harry woke up feeling well rested and happy. After his initial anxiety over what Luna meant to him, he decided to focus on the positives. He had been able to spend time with her, the date had gone fairly well, and Malfoy had spent some time as a giant slug. All in all, not a bad day. After having a shower and getting dressed, he went down the steps to join his friends in the common room. Once again, he found Ron, Hermione, Neville, and Ginny sitting around their usual table studying. He was then reminded of what McGonagall had told him and let his eyes take in as much of the room as possible. In one corner over by the windows, he could see a group of first years gathered around a newspaper and talking in whispers to one another. On the other corner by the stairs to the girl's dorms, Lavender and Parvarti were also deep in a conversation and stealing glances over to Ron and the others at the table. In the other corner by the portrait hole, various year students were talking animatedly to one another, many of them carrying their own newspapers. After Harry had established that there didn't seem to be any immediate threat to his well being he joined his friends and put his own book bag on the table.

"Good morning, all. Is it me, or are people acting a bit strange?"

Ginny looked up from her Charms essay and nodded.

"We've all noticed it. Nobody seems to want to say anything to us about it, though. I don't know for sure, but it may have something to do with what happened to Colin and Dennis."

Harry had been about to unroll his Potion's essay when he gave a start at what Ginny had said and let the parchment roll back into a coil.

"What happened to Colin and Dennis?"

"After we all split up after dealing with Malfoy, Dennis and Colin decided to get some candy for Elizabeth. Well, when they came up the little alley between it and the Three Broomsticks, they ran into Malfoy and his cronies again. Being out numbered, they didn't stand a chance. Dennis ended up getting his nose broken, and Colin has quite the shiner. Oh, and they stole his camera. They informed McGonagall about it and they got the camera back later. She also took fifty points from each of them. That bastard Malfoy actually said it was worth it. He really is a horse's arse."

Harry's mouth hung open. He hadn't thought of Malfoy sticking around once he returned to his normal form.

"Are they ok?"

"Yeah, they're both fine. Madam Pomfrey reset the broken nose, and she put some kind of salve on Colin's eye that had some dragon's blood in it to reduce the swelling.

Ron gave a derisive snort.

"That's typical Malfoy. Three against two. Next time we run into him we ought to try using a permanent sticking charm on his face and a toilet."

Hermione gave an exasperated sigh.

"Ron, if you keep fighting violence with violence, where will it all end?"

Ron rounded on her while his face reddened.

"I'll tell you when it ends, when Malfoy stops acting like a git. Do you think I'm just going to sit there if he tries something? No way. If he wants a fight, I'm ready for him. Any time, any place."

Hermione closed her Arithmancy book with a snap and jumped up out of her chair, glaring at Ron the entire time.

"There isn't anything wrong with defending yourself, but if you start something with him, you're no better than he is. Is that what you want?"

Ron opened his mouth to say something else but stopped himself. Instead, he rolled up his Potions essay and stuffed it into his bag.

"I'm going down to breakfast. Anybody else ready to go?"

Ginny put her Charms essay away and stood, immediately followed by Neville.

"Yeah, let's head down. Maybe someone down there can tell us what's going on. Harry, Hermione, are you ready?"

Harry had just gotten one paragraph completed on his essay and noticed that Hermione would need some time to roll up her own stuff as well.

"You guys go ahead. Hermione and I will be down in a minute."

Ginny nodded.

"Ok, then. Don't take too long, the DA meeting is set up for this afternoon you know."

Harry nodded while the three of them walked out of the portrait hole. Once they had left, Harry finished up with his current thought and stowed the essay away in his bag. Wanting to finish what he had started on it wasn't entirely the reason he had stayed behind with Hermione, though. He hadn't had a chance to talk to Hermione in private lately and he had missed it.

"Hermione, are you busy?"

Hermione looked up from making a multitude of notes in her study planner and smiled.

"Have we met? I'm always busy, Harry."

Harry couldn't help but chuckle.

"Ok, let me rephrase that. Can I talk to you?"

"Of course you can, Harry. You know that you can always talk to me. You do still have the mirror I have you, don't you?"

"Yes, I keep it with me all the time. I almost used it yesterday when Luna took me into the Hog's Head."

Hermione laughed.

"I don't blame you. What ever possessed her to take you in there?"

Harry sighed.

"She said something about wanting to go somewhere that could be 'our place'. It wasn't too bad, really. She did say something that kind of threw me, though."

"What's that?"

"She asked me how I felt about her."

Hermione grinned.

"I'll give Luna one thing, she's direct. I admire that about her. I wish I had her confidence sometimes. So, what did you say to her?"

Harry's face reddened slightly in embarrassment.

"I, um, told her that I was fond of her."

Hermione laughed.

"You actually said you were 'fond' of her? Oh Harry, you're as bad as Ron."

Harry leapt at the opportunity to turn the tables on her.

"Speaking of Ron, you never really said much about what the two of you got up to yesterday."

It was now Hermione's turn to blush.

"We, uh, you know, just hung out. After taking care of Malfoy we went over to Honeyduke's. You know Ron; he had to look at everything in the place. I finally had to drag him out by the arm and take him over the Three Broomsticks. I think Ron might have wanted to talk about relationships as well, but Ginny and Neville showed up and distracted him. After they left, it wasn't long until you and Luna came in, so he never got the chance."

Harry smiled.

"What is it with the two of us? Normal people out age would love to have someone so intent on wanting to have a relationship with them. I know my reasons, but what about you? Why not give Ron a chance? He's a smart guy...in his own way. And you know he really does care about you."

Hermione looked very uncomfortable for a moment before she exhaled deeply and rubbed her temples with her hands.

"I know he's a great guy, and I know he really does care about me, but I just don't want a serious relationship right now. Anyway, we'd better get down to breakfast before it turns into lunch."

Harry nodded and they walked down the stairs to the great hall. Before they could enter, Ron, Ginny, and Neville met them at the door and herded them backwards towards the steps. Harry looked at them in surprise.

"What's going on? What's wrong?"

Ron gave out a very nervous laugh.

"No more food. Sorry, but you should have been here earlier. How about a game of exploding snap back in the common room?"

Hermione was also confused and didn't much like being pushed around.

"What do you mean there's no more food? The food is produced by elven magic, it can't run out."

Ginny continued to move Hermione backwards.

"Uh, yes, well, there's something wrong with it. It's all going in the bin. Lucky old bin I say. Come on Hermione, you can show me the correct motion for a cheering charm."

But before Harry and Hermione could be removed from the scene, Malfoy and his goons came out of the hall with malicious looking smiles on their faces and newspapers in their hands.

"Hey, Potter, have you seen today's Daily Prophet? Do you have a quill with you? You'll probably be asked to do autographs."

The appearance of Malfoy caused the group to be distracted, allowing Harry and Hermione a chance to move around them and confront Draco. Harry stood toe to toe with him and glared.

"What are you talking about, Malfoy?"

Draco and his lackeys laughed at him and stuffed a copy of the paper in his hand.

"See for yourself, Potty. You and that freak show of a girlfriend of yours will get yours now, not to mention the weasel and the mudblood. You all thought you were so clever ganging up on us, well, congratulations. Next time fight your own battles, Potter. And believe me, there will be a next time."

Malfoy then walked off, leaving Harry glaring after him with the newspaper gripped tightly in his hand. Curious as to what had caused all the disruption, Hermione took it out of his hands and looked at the front page. Giving a small gasp, she shook it in front of Harry to bring him out of his angry trance.

"Oh my god, look at this! This is why Draco took Colin's camera from him! I can't believe it, not again!"

Harry grabbed hold of the paper and his eyes widened as he read the headline and saw the pictures.

PARADISE LOST

The wizarding world's power couple splits.

Story by Bozo Snapcase

Hogsmeade- It appears that the "Boy who lived" and his on-again-off-again Muggleborn girlfriend are off again. The Daily Prophet can exclusively report that the couple that was once the best known in the whole of England has been sighted getting cozy with other people.

Draco Malfoy, a fellow student at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, caught the former lovers on separate dates at two different pubs on the same day.

"I don't know if either of them knows what the other is doing. It's really sad to see their beautiful relationship end this way."

Mr. Malfoy also told us that the girl Mr. Potter is involved with now, a Miss Luna Lovegood, is well known at the school as being mentally unsound.

"The poor girl isn't in her right mind. She has an obsession with Potter. I think that might be why he and Granger broke up."

As for Miss Granger, she is now reportedly involved with the third member of the "Golden Trio" that has been attributed with the exposure of the return of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

"Weasley has always resented Harry for being the one in the spotlight, always getting the attention. I would imagine that going out with Granger would make himself feel like he had bested Potter at something. She's been with several men, so it's no surprise that she's made her way to Weasley."

Readers will remember that Miss Granger was originally linked to Mr. Potter two years ago during the TriWizard tournament. It was then reported that she had jilted him for Viktor Krum, the Durmstrang champion and first round draft pick of the Waterford Wailers in this years Pro-Quidditch draft. Mr. Potter and Miss Granger denied these rumors, but nothing was ever definitively proven one way or the other and the reporter covering the story mysteriously left her job suddenly. The wizarding world can only hope that the obvious rift that has developed between the "Golden Trio" will not allow He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named the opportunity to triumph.

"I can't believe it. I thought that the Prophet had gotten past this. Who is this Bozo person anyway?" Hermione asked.

Harry thought back and suddenly remembered a time when he had been under his invisibility cloak and Rita and her photographer walked by. He remembered thinking at the time that the photographer had an odd name.

"It's her old Photographer! I remember her calling him Bozo once. He must have taken over for her. Draco must have taken the pictures and owled them to him. He would know that the Prophet would love another story about me to sell more papers. I can stand them going after me, but this is personal now. I won't let them drag you into this again, Hermione. Oh my god, what about Luna? She's going to be so embarrassed. Look at these pictures!"

The pictures were large and, as with all wizarding photographs, moving. One of them was of Harry and Luna at the Hog's Head and appeared to have been taken from outside a window. He and Luna were seated at a table with her looking intently at him. He knew that it must have been when she had asked him what he thought of her. He hadn't realized how close they were to one another at the time and had to admit to himself that, to the casual observer, it could look as if they were about to kiss. The picture of Ron and Hermione was a little less intimate, but still could be taken several ways. Hermione had a hold on Ron's arm and they were making their way into the Three Broomsticks. Hermione looked at the picture and growled.

"That was when I had to drag Ron away from Honeyduke's. Malfoy is going to pay for this one. If I get one letter containing acidic pus, he's going to be wearing his ass for a hat."

"I don't think that's physically possible, although it would be quite a fashion statement."

The dreamy voice of Luna carried over to them and Harry quickly tried to hide the newspaper behind his back. Luna merely giggled at him.

"What's wrong, Harry? I thought Draco took a very nice picture of us. I was thinking of asking him if he would make me a copy."

Harry stared at her in disbelief.

"Luna, aren't you...embarrassed?"

Luna's dreamy smiled faded as she looked suddenly quite serious.

"No, I'm not. The article itself may have not been very factual, but I didn't see anything to be ashamed of. Does the idea of people seeing you with me embarrass you, Harry?"

Harry knew that he had hurt her feelings, even though it was not his intention.

"No, of course not. It's just that, well, you remember how things were two years ago. They made Hermione out to be a tramp and she got hate mail for months. Even Ron's mum thought she had led me on and dumped me. Now they're making you out to be some kind of a nutter that's obsessed with me. Doesn't it make you angry?"

Luna regained her dreamy smile, which made Harry relax slightly. He hated the thought of hurting her.

"Why would it make me angry? If I cared what people thought of me I wouldn't have made it this far in life. So what if more people think I'm crazy? It's nice to be insane, no one asks you to explain. Ooh, that rhymed! I'll have to write that down under the one Malfoy said yesterday. Besides, I thought it was a good picture of us and of Ronald and Hermione for that matter. Maybe Draco should go into photography. And the article didn't expose any top secret information, right? It's not like they revealed to the world that you have an enormous penis."

The other five people stood with their jaws near the floor. Harry went as red as fire and Ron nearly swallowed his tongue.

"How the bloody hell did you know that?" Ron asked deeply scandalized.

Luna giggled.

"I didn't until now. Well, I should go. I need to write daddy and make sure he save me a copy of the Prophet. I'll see you later, Harry."

Luna then gave Harry a kiss on the cheek before giggling a little more at the deep red color that was still there. She then gave the rest of the group a little wave and headed off towards Ravenclaw tower. Ron shook his head.

"Well, I'm glad she doesn't mind, but I do. They made me out to be some kind of traitor. They made it seem like I sold Harry out. I just feel so...violated."

"Ha, you wish little brother."

The group then turned around to see a wizard with the patented Weasley grin on his face. Ginny rushed forward and threw her arms around him.

"Percy! What are you doing here?"

Percy returned his sister's hug and nodded to the rest of them.

"I was just here to discuss some Order business with Dumbledore. I also need to speak with you, Harry. Could I have a word with you...alone?"

Harry started to move forward when Ron and Hermione both grabbed him by the arms.

"Anything that affects Harry affects all of us, Percy. Whatever is going on, we're in it with him," Hermione said.

Ginny and Neville also stepped forward and stared at Percy as well. Harry felt a surge of gratitude run through him as he realized that he really wasn't alone in the fight. Percy looked apprehensive for a moment before he let out a resigned sigh and nodded.

"Fine, you all can stay, but let's get out of the middle of the great hall. Follow me."

The five of them then all followed Percy as he rounded a few corners and ushered them into a small room containing a long table but no chairs. When they had all entered into the room Ginny started to giggle. Percy looked at her and frowned.

"What's so funny, Ginny?"

"This is where I caught you and Penny making out back in my first year."

The rest of the group all laughed while Percy's face flushed slightly.

"Yes, well, thank you for bringing that up, Ginny. Now, if I could bring us back to the very serious reason that has brought me here. Harry, the Ministry has every Auror at its disposal looking for any signs of Vol...well, you know who I mean, and the Order is also doing everything it can to find something. The fact of the matter is he, Bellatrix, and Peter all seem to have vanished. There are rumors, of course. We've had unconfirmed reports that he may have gone back to Albania, or that they've gone to the former Lestrange Manor in Normandy. Fleur and a few other French Ministry agents have searched all over, but there's no trace of them. I know that no news is generally considered good news, but when you're dealing with...well, you know, it's not much of a comfort. Dumbledore feels that you're safe enough here at Hogwarts, but that you should still be very careful. Dad and I suggested to him that you come to the Burrow after term ends, but for some reason he still insists on you returning back to Privet Drive first, at least for a few weeks. He also stressed that you have to allow others to help you. You can't go through this alone, Harry."

Ron shook his head and clapped Harry on the back. He then put his hand straight out with his palm side down.

"He won't be going through it alone. The Weasley family has never run from a fight, and we aren't about to start now. Especially when it's one of our own."

"Damn straight," Ginny said as she placed her hand on top of Ron's.

Neville stepped forward to place his hand atop Ginny's.

"Voldemort has taken my parents from me as well. I firmly believe that Harry is the only way to rid the world of him, once and for all. I will do everything in my power to help stop him."

Hermione stepped forward and placed her hand over Neville's.

"A family is only as strong as they are united. I promise to do whatever is needed to help Harry send Voldemort to hell where he belongs."

Harry felt a lump form in his throat as his closest friends pledged their allegiances to him. Placing his own hand atop the pile, he took a steadying breath and smiled at them all as a stray tear fell down his cheek.

"My whole life I've wanted nothing more than a family of my own. I can't tell you all how much I appreciate this. I love all of you. I can't promise that everything will turn out ok, but I can promise you that I'll do everything I can to defeat Voldemort for good. Now, let's do this like we do before a big game. On three, let's yell family. Ready? One...Two...Three..."

"FAMILY!"