Luna's year

Once they had reached the familiar sight of Hagrid's hut they saw a small figure sitting on the steps. As they were approaching, the figure stood up; once they got within the glow of the hut Ron could see it was Harry.

"Ron!" he said, running forward to meet them. "You found her! Are you ok, Luna?"

"Oh yes, quite well," she said dreamily. "I was just out catching up on some reading, it really is a nice night for it, you know."

"Well, yeah I guess it is," Harry said, "not raining or anything - hey Ron, why didn't you use your flare?"

"Oh, that stupid thing!" Ron said, seemingly all flustered. "Bloody thing almost took my head off...I used it, all right, I just ended up shooting it at a rock."

"You're supposed to shoot them up into the sky," Harry said, a frown on his face. He noticed Luna half turn from him; in the cabin's light he couldn't be sure, but it looked like she was smiling to herself for some reason.

"Yeah, I know that!" Ron said. "Hey - we can use yours to signal Hagrid, can't we?"

"Yeah, sure," Harry said, looking at his flare with an uncertain expression. "Well, if they tend to blow up, why don't we see first if he's nearby?"

Ron was all for that, so they ran to the edge of the forest and began calling out.

"Hagrid!"

"Haaagrid!!"

"Mister Rubeus Hagrid!"

Harry turned to Luna, "I don't think you have to be so formal," he said, grinning.

After a minute or so of calling out, it became obvious Hagrid was out of earshot. "Well," Harry said, taking the flare in one hand, "looks like we've got no choice." He prepared to remove the ring at the base.

"Whoah, wait!" Ron said. "Harry, when you pull that ring, it's probably going to take like 20 seconds or so before going off, so whatever you do, keep pointing it up!"

"Yeah, all right," Harry said, putting his finger in the ring.

Harry pulled the ring. Nothing happened. Ron hurriedly backed off until he was about a good thirty feet from Harry.

Luna turned to him, pointing up. "Tree." she said simply.

"What?" Harry asked, not understanding.

"Look," she said, pointing up higher. Following her finger, Harry realized at once what she meant. They had moved so close to the forest that the canopy was above them, he could barely make out stars through the branches.

"No!" Harry said, as he took off at a sprint to where Ron was standing. If it went off in here -

Bang!!! The firecracker shot out of his hand with a roar and exploded among the branches above, causing a great many of them to come falling back to the ground. Harry kept running and managed to avoid the worst of it.

"Oh that's great," Ron said, his arms flailing. "How are we gonna signal Hagrid now?"

Harry felt sheepish. "Well, we already tried yelling," he said.

"Let's go find him," Luna said serenely, as she walked over to them.

"Go in there?" Ron said, pointing at the woods. "Are you - "

"Crazy?" Luna asked, staring at Ron, who immediately regretted his words. Why am I blurting out all this stuff without thinking, he thought furiously. "Most seem to think so," she said, casually, staring at him. Ron caught the meaning, making him feel even worse.

"Look," Harry said, "We can't just sit here and wait, I know Hagrid, he's going to keep looking until he sees one of those flares go up. We've got to go get him."

"Yeah, okay," Ron said, looking ill, not having many fond memories of his excursions into the woods.

"Lumos," Luna said, illuminating her wand. The others followed suit. She smiled at them, turned around and proceeded to march straight into the forest.

"Er," Harry said, catching up to her, "aren't we going a bit fast? This seems kind of reckless..."

She looked at him as she continued walking. "Well, we'll see Hagrid easily enough, won't we? He's in here looking for me, after all."

"I didn't mean about finding Hagrid," Harry said, "but there are all sorts of things in these woods, not many of them are friendly."

"Oh, come on," Luna said, "I've been in here countless times, I've always come out all right."

"What?" Harry said disbelievingly. "You mean you've been in here before last night?"

Luna turned to him with a surprised smile. "Well, of course," she said, making his question sound ridiculous. "I've been taking walks here since first year. It's such a pretty forest," she said, waving her hand at the trees around them.

"Good Lord, Luna," Harry said, looking at her worryingly. "You're so lucky you didn't run into the centaurs, or worse - "

"Oh, you mean Ronan and the others?" Luna asked vaguely.

Harry stopped, Ron almost bumping into him from behind. Luna continued for a few steps before realizing she was walking alone. "What's wrong?" she asked, walking back to them.

"You've seen them??" Harry asked, gaping at her.

"Well, yes," Luna replied, as if he was the one who was off his rocker. "They have really interesting ways of looking at things, you know."

"You've...talked to them??" Harry asked.

"Yes," Luna said simply, "It would be rude to ignore them, wouldn't it? Anyway, we'd best keep moving," she said, indicating the trail ahead of them.

"Right," Harry said, remembering why they were here in the first place. He moved up to walk alongside her again. "They didn't...seem a bit upset that you were in the forest?" he asked.

"Oh, at first, I suppose so," Luna said vaguely, "that Bane fellow really didn't want me here at all, but I think he's mellowed over the years...besides, I think he likes it when you ask him about the constellations and their meanings; I know them by heart now," she said, jumping over a large gnarled vine that was growing across the path. Harry nearly tripped over it as he had been looking at her and not paying much attention to where he was walking. Ron, walking behind them, was forewarned and had no trouble.

They continued walking in silence for several minutes, Harry wondering at what Luna had said. The encounters he had had with the centaurs, aside from Firenze, had not exactly gone well. They seemed to have a disdain of humans, and he was frankly amazed that they seemed to tolerate Luna's presence.

Well, he thought, maybe she believes in some of what they say. They do seem to place a lot of value in their beliefs...

"Harry!" Ron said in a strangely squeaky voice from behind them. He and Luna both stopped and turned around, seeing Ron with a terrified look on his face, pointing back along the path they had just walked along.

Harry saw it. A huge, gray hairy spider was on the path, facing them. It was about the size of a dog, its' multiple solid black eyes looking at them. Harry raised his wand.

Luna pushed his arm back down. She was looking at him strangely, "What are you doing?" she asked curiously.

"That's one of Aragog's children," Harry replied. "Ron and I had a run-in with them before,"

"Who's Aragog?" Luna asked conversationally.

"You don't want to know," Harry said, looking around nervously...was his mind playing tricks on him, or was he picking up the sounds of rustling in the forest all around them?

"Sure I do," Luna said, smiling at him expectantly with her large silver eyes.

He wasn't imagining it. Harry could sense movement all around them. "This really isn't a good time," he said quickly. Ron looked on the verge of panic. They had to get out of here, now. He raised his wand and pointed it at the spider blocking the trail behind them.

Luna pushed his arm down again. "What are you doing that for?" she asked, a frown on her face, "they won't bother us, you know."

"Don't be so sure!" Harry said, as he watched seemingly hundreds of giant spiders emerging into the wand light around them. They were everywhere; he couldn't see any route of escape. He looked at Ron, who was hurriedly mounting his broomstick.

Great idea! Harry thought, as he mounted his Firebolt. Luna looked at them curiously. "Where are you going?" she asked casually.

Harry looked back at her in shock. He just realized she didn't have a broom. "Ron!" Harry said, turning back to him, "We can't leave Luna here!"

"Why would you want to leave me here?" Luna asked, seemingly oblivious to the situation around them.

"Look!" Harry said, gesturing all around them.

Luna gazed around dreamily, seeing the spiders slowly edging closer and closer to them. "That's strange," she said, with the closest thing to a concerned look Harry had ever seen her display. "They've never behaved like this before."

Harry waved his wand all around him, pointing it at the encroaching spiders. "Stay back!" he shouted. He wasn't sure if they could understand him or not, but as he knew Aragog could, it seemed a fair bet. But in any case his warnings didn't seem to deter them. They were still inching closer. The nearest ones were just a few feet from them now.

Harry thought furiously. He couldn't think of a spell that could take care of all these spiders; the last time they were in this situation Mr. Weasley's Ford Anglia had saved them. But now...

"Aarggh!" Harry whipped around, Ron had a huge spider on his back, its legs wrapped around him; he was trying desperately to fend off its large fangs from biting into him with the shaft of his broom.

"STOP IT!!!" Luna screamed, her wand pointing directly at the spider's eyes, it's tip only inches from Ron's head. The spider seemed to recoil slightly, and Ron looked doubly petrified by both the spider and her wand so close to his head. "GET OFF HIM!!" she yelled again, her wand shaking, a furious look in her silvery eyes that Harry had never seen before.

"Expelliarmus!" Luna shouted. A flash of intense golden light shot from her wand and struck the spider squarely between its many eyes. It was hurled off Ron and sent spinning through the air, landing in the midst of its siblings in the darkness beyond.

"Oh! God!" Ron said, shaking himself like a wet dog. Harry pointed his own wand at the host of spiders encroaching on them. Expelliarmus was good for a single spider, but how could they deal with all of these, there had to be hundreds of them!

The spiders were almost on top of them now. Suddenly Harry sensed something around them, almost like the air was crackling with energy; he felt his hair standing on end, as if he had run a balloon quickly back and forth through it. He turned and saw Luna pointing her wand in the direction of the spiders blocking the trail behind them.

"Electronumus!!" she yelled, and for a few moments Harry thought the spell had failed. But then he became aware of a growing rumbling around them, becoming ominously louder until it exploded in a deafening crack! Blinding white tendrils of light that shot out from above, striking the path behind them with a roaring blast, the air searing with heat. Branches were falling everywhere. The ground shuddered so much that he nearly fell over. The very air around them seemed to radiate with energy.

It took several moments for his senses to return; his ears were ringing loudly. When he could finally see again a few moments later, he saw a large area of blackened soil in a foot-deep depression in the earth behind them where the spell had hit. Dozens of spiders were on their backs, smoke rising from their burnt carcasses. Tiny blazing embers were still falling all around them from the charred branches above. Harry spun around, wand at the ready, but saw the rest of the spiders quickly scampering away back into the darkness.

Luna collapsed to the ground beside him, her face inexpressive, her eyes staring off into the woods.

Harry fell to his knees beside her. Ron looked around them in all directions, his wand at the ready, a look of confusion on his face. "What was that?" he asked.

"Luna, are you okay?" Harry said, worried at her apparent state. She showed no sign of seeing him, still staring off at nothing. Harry gently put his hand on her shoulder and shook her slightly to see if she had been stupefied somehow.

She eyes refocused at last, as she turned slowly to look at him. "I wasn't supposed to do that," she said softly.

"What was that?" Harry asked, unable to suppress a look of awe on his face, given what he had just witnesses. "Did you use that back at the Ministry?" It would certainly explain how she managed to get Ginny and Ron out from the Department of Mysteries, he thought.

She stared at him for a few moments before seeming to realize his question. "No," she said in little more than a whisper. "It doesn't work indoors. I wasn't supposed to use it at all really," she said, her expression distant.

"Why?" Harry said. "That was incredible, I don't remember ever hearing about that spell before."

Luna looked back up at him. Her silver eyes were watery. "It...it doesn't really..." she took a deep breath and seemed to refocus herself. "It was one of the spells my Mum experimented with," she said, her voice a little stronger. "She made me promise once never to use them, she said they were quite risky and they hadn't been approved by the Ministry."

Harry's heart sank. No wonder Luna seemed so drained. Was that the spell that...? "Luna," he began softly, "Was it...what that the..."

They heard a distant crashing sound through the brush. Luna slowly got back up to her feet, Harry following suit. She didn't seem at all well. "Did you hear that?" Ron asked.

Luna and Harry both nodded. "It's still far," Luna said, tilting her head slightly to one side and listening intently. "Well," she said, turning to Harry and Ron, "We'd best move on if we're going to find Hagrid."

Ron was looking at her in shock. Even Harry looked surprised, considering what had just happened. "Look, Luna," he said, holding out his Firebolt in front of him, "use my broom, go back to the castle, you'd better go see Madame Pomfrey in the hospital wing, just to be sure."

"No, I'm fine," Luna said, though she seemed rather pale to Harry. She made to continue along the path again, Ron and Harry looking at each other, not quite knowing what to make of all that had just happened.

Luna took only a few steps then stopped again. "What is it?" Harry asked as he moved next to her.

"Listen," she whispered, pointing to darkness ahead of them.

Harry strained to listen, becoming aware of that same distant crashing noise as though something was charging full speed through the forest. As is got closer Ron could hear it too, as he moved to the other side of Luna. "Blimey," he said softly, "whatever that is, it sounds big!"

He and Harry both raised their wands as the sounds grew closer, until finally they could see something moving in the darkness ahead, something quite large -

"Harry?"

Harry heard the familiar voice with great relief. "Hagrid!" he said, running forward to meet the huge gamekeeper. He had emerged from the forest onto the path, Fang right behind, apparently somewhat winded from his long run.

"What in blazes was that noise?" he asked, then looking at Luna and Ron. "Oy, ye found 'er, did ye?"

"You mean like a big explosion a couple of minutes ago?" Harry asked, a sense of security returning to him now that Hagrid was with them.

"Aye, didn't ye hear it?" Hagrid asked.

"Oh yeah," Harry said, "it was...er - " he turned back and looked at Luna, who still didn't look very well. She didn't give any sign to Harry, so he turned back to Hagrid, "Luna cast some sort of lightning spell I'd never heard of before."

Hagrid looked at him in confusion and was scratching the back of his head. "But why, though?" he asked. "Were ye tryin' to signal me in 'ere?"

Harry turned around and pointed to the trail behind them. "Because of those," he said.

Hagrid moved forward until he caught sight of the still smoking ground, looking in shock at the dead spiders all around.

"Great gallopin' - " Hagrid said. He turned around to look at the three of them. "What 'appened 'ere?"

"They were horrible, Hagrid," Ron said, "they had us surrounded, one nearly bit my head off!"

"That's strange," Hagrid said, looking back at the dead spiders. "They've never bothered me before."

"That's what I said too," Luna chimed in.

Hagrid looked at her. "I'll 'ave to talk to Aragog 'bout this. Well, yer safe, that's what counts. Well what say we head back to me cabin and I'll make ye all a good cup o' tea?"

Harry looked at Ron, who still seemed rather the worse for wear after confronting his greatest phobia, and Luna, she just didn't look right. "Thanks, Hagrid," Harry said, "But maybe I should take Luna to see Madam Pomfrey, I think that spell - "

"I'm fine!" Luna protested.

"Well anyway," Hagrid said, pointing to the trail, "We shouldn't stick around 'ere for no reason, let's head back, shall we?"

With that, he led the way back out of the forest, with three very tired students following closely behind.