The Mark of Death

The left side of Harry's face was very cold and he felt groggy; his scar felt as though it were on fire - he had been dreaming again, though he couldn't remember what it was he had dreamt. He knew he had seen Voldemort; who was beginning to worry about his plans not going through, and if a certain Death Eater didn't make contact with him soon he would be sending someone to check... it was just out of Harry's reach, and he couldn't remember.

Ron and Hermione weren't helping the situation; they were standing over Harry's bed shouting at him to wake up, shaking him.

"'-Geroff! Let me sleep!" He took a swipe at them and tried to roll over, the dull "thud" of his book falling from under him and hitting the hard floor. He wanted to know more, he wanted to hear the names spoken again.

"Harry! Get up! If anyone sees you were reading that you could get in a lot of trouble!" Harry realized he must have fallen asleep reading chapter thirteen, putting his hand on his cold cheek where he had been leaning on the open page he tried to rub away the numb feeling.

"What time is it?" he yawned, sliding off the bed to pick up his book and close it up, placing it in his trunk and fixing his glasses back on his nose; as they were crooked from him falling asleep with them on.

"It's quarter to ten," Ron mumbled, running his fingers through his hair absently; messing it up. "Cho kept 'dropping in' to see that we had enough to do, if we didn't look like we were working hard enough she would give us more duties."

"Come on, Ron, she's mad at you, you can't really blame her there." Hermione said quietly, wringing her hands nervously and looking intently at her feet.

"She's certainly moved on quick enough," Ron hissed at her, then gave a disgusted snort and looked over at Harry. "Guess who she asked out right in front of us?"

"Who?" Harry asked absently, still thinking of the dream that had left his scar burning so badly.

"Malfoy!" Ron burst out angrily. "He was there to see if he could talk to Snape - Pomfrey wouldn't let him though, no one was allowed near him."

"She's only trying to make you jealous Ron!" Hermione muttered. "Doesn't seem to be failing at it either."

"I am NOT jealous of that stupid git, Malfoy, I just find the irony of her asking him out and being mad at me when we know it was his fault in the first place..."

"Hey, can you two either stop squabbling or take it elsewhere?" Harry snapped, fed up with the both of them always on each other's case, rubbing his temples to try and soothe the pain.

"Wha's the matter Harry? Did you have another dream?" Hermione rushed over, looking urgently at him, "Because you're supposed to be trying to block it out."

"I had a dream, but I don't know what happened, I just know that Voldemort is mad and he's waiting to hear from someone, it's fuzzy though, I can't remember it, just bits."

"Harry! That's great! It means you are starting to master the Occlumency! You just need to keep trying, a few more sessions with Snape may be all you need!" Hermione squeaked excitedly, hugging him. Harry gasped, she smelled like cleaning fluids and medical potions from being at the Hospital Wing.

"I don't know if that's so great, I feel like I need to know who he was talking about," Harry mumbled, taking his glasses off to rub his eyes before replacing them again.

Ron looked awkwardly at him.

"No offence Harry, but you felt that way last year," he said delicately. "I would hate to see you get tricked again."

"I know, I'll get over it I suppose, it's just a part of me is telling me not to listen to Snape. Did you guys see him in the Hospital Wing?"

"No, Pomfrey had the curtains drawn around him and ordered us to stay away from there. All of the students had been let go though, they're all better. It's funny, the person hurt the most from a Potion was the one who teaches how to brew them," Ron grinned.

"Ron! It is NOT funny. It wasn't just a Potion, it was a poison - you know that! Did you see how guilty Draco looked when Pomfrey said he was still too ill to see anyone?" Hermione snapped. "No one is invincible from a poison, not even Snape."

"Yeah," Ron muttered, "I still would have liked to see him fall though. I pity you, Harry, having to take his NEWT class on top of the extra sessions."

Harry nodded, thinking about the other extra sessions he would soon be doing with Professor Malfoy and how much worse things would get for him soon.

"Oh, here's some good news though!" Ron exclaimed, looking delighted. "Malfoy told Cho he was ready to play Quidditch again - I think he's trying to impress her or something. We play Slytherin this Saturday; can you make practice on Thursday? I booked the Pitch with McGonnagal."

Harry felt his hopes rise and quickly fall again. Thursday was the day that he had to see Professor Malfoy.

"I might, I'll have to see," Harry mumbled. He wasn't allowed to tell them what was going on, so he had to bide his time and think of a good excuse to miss the practice.

*

The next few days Harry made a few more attempts to talk to Luna, and every time she gave him the cold shoulder or telling him she was too busy to talk to him. He was starting to believe that the only reason she had kissed him was because of the Caritaserum, and he figured he might as well just forget about her. It wasn't easy when all the Slytherins were yelling things down the halls, like, "Pathetic Potter can't even get a nutter like Luna without help from a potion!"

By Thursday it had gotten worse; Harry had left his last class of the day still not knowing what to tell Ron what he was doing instead of practicing Quidditch with the rest of the team and pondering a few different excuses as he went down the stairs of the Charms corridor to head to the Great Hall for dinner. He had somehow lost his footing and fell down the last five stairs spilling his books out of his bag. He scrambled to his feet when he noticed Draco standing over him, holding his wand steadily at Harry's face and sneering at him.

"Still can't figure out that tripping jinx, can you Potter?" Draco taunted, deliberately blocking Harry's path. Harry closed his hand over his own wand in his pocket, glaring at Malfoy. They were alone, and Harry had a feeling that Draco had been waiting for him.

"What do you want, Malfoy?"

"Just revenge," he said, smiling and tossing his hair back. "My father would still be alive had you not landed him in prison in the first place."

"Right, I framed him and had him put there, he didn't deserve it at all, did he?" Harry snapped sarcastically, suddenly ready to take out all of his anger on Draco if an opportunity presented itself.

"My father did not deserve to die!" Draco hollered, and students began to mill around to see who was yelling. No one else was daring to say a word.

"NEITHER DID SIRIUS!" Harry shouted back in his face, his wand now out and pointing at Draco; sparks shooting out as he yelled.

"Oh, but my father didn't kill him, did he?" Draco whispered. "No, it was my Aunt Bellatrix, and she enjoyed it so much."

Harry wasn't exactly sure what happened next - but Draco was suddenly floating upside-down with his robes flopping over his face; exposing his bare legs and black underwear, exactly as Harry had seen his own father doing to Professor Snape in the Pensieve. Many people were laughing as Draco tried kicking around trying to right himself, yelling every known profanity and more. Harry could see at least half a dozen students that were pointing their wands at Draco; including Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny and Luna. He mildly wondered who had done it as he pointed his wand up to Draco in an attempt to bring him down, not wanting things to get worse.

"Finite Incantum!" A voice hissed from behind Harry, whose insides suddenly chilled over as Draco crumbled to the floor in a tangled mess of robes. Things had definitely gotten worse. He recognized the cold voice to be Snape's; who must have just gotten out of the Hospital wing. Snape strode quickly over to Draco and pulled him to his feet before turning to face Harry with a rage like Harry had never seen before, looking from Harry's face to his wand, which was still stupidly pointing up at the spot where Draco had been levitating.

"My... office... NOW!" He barely choked out as he stood ominously over Harry, his cruel black eyes boring menacingly into his.

"Yes sir," Harry muttered, dropping down to pick up the books he had dropped when Draco had tripped him. The hallway was very quiet now; most of the students had fled the moment Snape had appeared, the only ones who remained were Neville, Ron, Ginny, Hermione and Luna.

"I SAID NOW!" Snape yelled, grabbing Harry by the back of the neck and yanking him to his feet, his cold, long fingers almost felt as though they were cutting into his flesh. Harry didn't so much as glance at his friends or at Draco as he hurried out of the stairs and towards the dungeons and into Snape's office.

"Sit!" Snape spat angrily as he took a seat at his own desk across from Harry as he sat in the chair, feeling a horrible sense of dread. Harry knew exactly how it looked to Snape, that he had gotten the idea from Snape's memories; but he hadn't even done it!

"I- I didn't do it," he muttered feebly, knowing that Snape wouldn't believe him but feeling as though he should try and explain it somehow.

"Don't give me that nonsense Potter!" Snape replied venomously. "Even if you had not been the one to do it surely the idea had come from you, perhaps you had told your little friends..."

"I didn't though!"

""Do not interrupt me!" Snape blazed, glaring coldly across the desk at him, leaning forward. "This is something points and detentions will not cover, I personally am going to do whatever it takes to keep you out of Quidditch for the year, in fact..."

"I DIDN'T DO IT!" Harry was now getting very angry, Snape had always been unfair to him, but this was ridiculous. "You know I didn't do it, I thought you could tell when someone was lying to you? Besides, McGonnagal would be the one to decide that, not you!"

As soon as the words left Harry's mouth he knew somehow it had been a very bad mistake. Snape's eyes narrowed into dangerous little black slits, and he was balling his hands into fists and crackling his knuckles angrily.

"We'll see," he whispered as he stared intently at Harry, "we'll see..."

A knock on the door made Harry almost jump out of his skin, and Snape got up and ripped the door open. "What is it?!"

"Harry craned his neck to see who it was, wanting any excuse to get out of there.

"Miss Granger told me that Potter was in here," Professor Malfoy pushed past him and walked in, glancing down at Harry. "Are you ready Harry? I'll have one of the House Elves bring some sandwiches to you there if you would like, come on."

"Potter isn't going anywhere Malfoy," Snape said incredulously, looking incensed at her for just walking in. "I'm about to give him detention."

Malfoy, on the other hand, looked as though she really could not care less. "Potter is coming with me to do a bit of extra credit work, but if you really want to make an issue of this Severus, be my guest. We could go to McGonnagal now, if you would like?" She smiled, Harry could definitely hear a threatening tone in her voice, and was very surprised to see Snape pale.

"Get out Potter," Snape muttered, to Harry's astonishment. "I will be taking twenty points."

Harry walked in silence with Professor Malfoy, wondering what exactly did she have on Snape to make him bend so easily. Could she have found out that he was a spy for Dumbledore and be threatening to tell the Death Eaters or Voldemort? Why does Dumbledore suddenly trust this woman who was so obviously evil?

"Take a seat, Harry. I realize you're going to miss dinner but it's probably better that way," she said quietly, closing the door of the classroom behind them and locking the door, pointing her wand at the knob and quietly muttering an incantation before facing him again. "Performing these curses is sometimes more difficult on a person than having them done to them. If you are hungry after I'll get you those sandwiches."

Harry nodded numbly as he sat down, noticing all the windows were covered with very heavy curtains and light was pouring out of many extra lamps she must have brought in to make up for it.

"Who taught you this?" Harry asked rudely, as she went behind her desk and pulled a large metal cage out from behind it and placed it heavily on her desk. Harry noticed several large grey rats running around and fighting in there.

"You don't grow up in my family without learning every curse imaginable," she smirked, looking at Harry challengingly. "Have you ever attempted an Unforgivable?"

"Yes," Harry said defiantly, glaring at her, hoping for a reaction. "I tried to use the Cruciatus on Bellatrix Lestrange but I guess I'm just not evil enough to work it right."

"Hmm, really?" Malfoy smirked again, straightening up and looking Harry in the eyes with amusement. "You need to learn to focus your anger better and direct it properly, start off small with the Imperious curse as it is the most simple of the three."

She reached into the cage and grabbed a rat, placing it on the desk in front of Harry then pulling up a chair to sit across from him.

"Imperio!" She said quietly, pointing her wand at the rat. He suddenly leaped to his feet and stepped pigeon-toed across the desk, marching to the very edge and turning around to march back; where he then sat and faced her obediently.

"Your turn, Harry. Try and make him do something simple, like roll over."

Harry spent the next two hours trying the incantation several times - the rat didn't do anything but sit there, and at one point it sat down and began to scratch itself.

"I don't get it, what am I supposed to do? Command it out loud?" Harry snapped, glaring at her then at the rat.

"No," she replied patiently, an air of amusement in her voice. "Open your mind to the rat, try to project your thoughts into his. Speak to it in through your mind and will it to move, just open your mind to it."

Harry could have sworn she was implying something else but he couldn't be too sure and began to concentrate hard on the rat, focusing in on it's beady black eyes and wanting it to roll over just so that he could get out of there.

"Imperio," Harry muttered, and the rat squealed as if hurt and rapidly rolled over several times until it fell off the side of the desk with a thud.

"A bit of overkill," Malfoy said, smirking as she picked the rat up off the floor and replaced it on the desk. "But at least you did it, you are very quick to learn."

Harry just glared at her, hating the fact that she was trying to make any small talk throughout this lesson, wishing he could just curse her to jump out the window.

"Really concentrate, Harry. Open your mind to the rodent's thoughts, try and think for him. Try and make him stand and dance."

Harry glanced at her to see if she was kidding, but she wasn't. Her expression was cold, watching with attention. Harry rolled his eyes and pointed the wand at the rat again.

"Imperio!" The rat stood up on his hindquarters, but only to sniff the air around it; it's whiskers twitching rapidly. Harry couldn't tell if he had done it or it the rat had gotten up on it's own, but it got back down on all fours just as quickly. Harry felt silly trying to get the animal to dance.

"Potter... you're not putting in much of an effort here, are you? You have to really mean it when you use an Unforgivable Harry!"

Harry was startled at how much she had sounded like her sister Bellatrix, taunting him after he had attempted to use the Cruciatus on her.

"Imperio!" Harry said angrily, narrowing his eyes and focusing hard as the rat leapt to his feet and took a couple of very obvious dance steps before sinking down on the desk again.

"See?" Malfoy said softly, a faint smirk on her face. "Try a few more times, you're doing very well, certainly better than most. How are you feeling?"

Harry scowled at her, but then realized he really wasn't feeling well. He felt worn out and sick, but he had been concentrating too hard on working the curse on the rodent to have noticed. Malfoy reached into her desk and put a small vial of liquid in front of him.

"Drink it, it's just a replenishing solution, it should help."

Harry looked from the vial back to her and shook his head, pushing it back across the desk.

"Merlin's sake, Potter, it's not poison, this happens to many people when they learn the Unforgivables. It makes them physically ill to be forcing someone to do things against their will, the potion will help you."

"No really, I'm fine," Harry mumbled, pushing his chair back and standing up on very wobbly knees. The room seemed off balance somehow, he knew she was right, he didn't feel good about what he was learning, but he was not going to consume anything that woman offered.

"Have it your way Potter," she smirked, shrugging and looking at him amused. "You'll be a lot worse for the wear next week, you're going to have to try it on a human."

"Who? It's illegal!" Harry stammered, gripping the sides of his desk for support.

"Don't worry Potter, no one is going to know about this but you, me, and Dumbledore, so you will be performing the curse on me. It's more difficult to make a person do things than a rat. This way I'll be able to tell if you are doing it right. I should be able to hear your voice inside my head."

Harry left her classroom and went straight to his dorm. He wasn't hungry, she had been right about that, in fact, he nearly had to fight with Ron from getting Pomfrey after Harry had gotten sick all over his duvet as Ron and Ginny filled him in on how the practice had gone, and Harry was thankful for the fact that Ron was too wrapped up in Quidditch to wonder where Harry had been all that time, and why he had missed practice.

*

Saturday morning Harry was up earlier than he had been in ages. He was so excited to be playing Quidditch again that he practically had to sit on his hands to keep from checking on his Firebolt every ten minutes. He had been so disappointed to miss the practice that Ron had held, especially hearing that their two Beaters; Kirke and Sloper were hitting almost as well as Fred and George had; though Harry knew it would never quite be the same, the twins were more than just good Beaters - they gave the team a lot of incentive with their leadership qualities.

After breakfast Harry and Ron raced out of the Great Hall to get into their team robes and to grab their broomsticks, eager to meet with the team in the changing rooms with the rest of the team a couple minutes before the game so that Ron could give them all a little pep talk. Harry had suffered through several of these with Oliver Wood; who's eagerness to win sometimes made him a little unbearable - but Harry knew that Ron would be more nervous than anyone, seeing as this was his first game as captain.

Just as they approached the corridor that lead to the changing room Ron stopped dead in his tracks; Cho Chang was standing in front of the huge double doors wearing silver and green robes to show she was obviously cheering for Slytherin, and glaring defiantly at Ron and Harry.

"Break a leg guys - preferable your own!" Cho seethed angrily at them as they brushed past her and into the changing room, pretending not to hear her. Harry could see it had really unnerved Ron though, as he was gearing up slowly - tucking his wand into one of his pockets and then checking for it again in another.

"Don't let Cho get to you Ron!" Ginny said, walking up to them in her red and gold Quidditch robes. "I saw her out there on my way in, she must have been waiting for the two of you. Did you get to see Luna, Harry?"

"No! Why?" Harry stopped lacing his boots to look up at Ginny, startled. Did Luna want to talk to him now?

"She wanted to wish you luck before the game, I suppose Cho frightened her away, she's been giving Luna an extremely hard time, I'll tell you later, we need to hurry. Ron? Any plan of action?"

All of the team had now gathered around Ron - Kirke and Sloper were gripping their bats tightly, looking intently at him for words of encouragement. Ron ran his hand through his hair nervously, tousling it about and glancing around at everyone bewildered.

"Er, um... yeah. We'll use the plays I showed you all on Thursday. Harry wasn't there, but he's always... er, he doesn't need to change anything, his system works for him. Hermione and Ginny - watch out for the Bludgers, Crabbe and Goyle will be trying to take you out of the game..."

Ron paused, looking confused at the giggles coming from Ginny and Katie, and Harry was having a very difficult time not sniggering himself.

"WHAT?!" Ron fumed, glaring at them angrily. "What is s funny?"

"You called Katie Hermione," Ginny smiled innocently.

"I did not!" Ron snapped, his ears going a bright shade of pink, "I said Katie and Ginny, watch out for the Bludgers! Same goes for you Harry, Slytherin always plays a very unfair game. Andrew... Jack, try and knock Malfoy off his broom if you can make it look like an accident, humiliate him in front of his mother."

Harry had a strong feeling that Ron wanted them to humiliate Draco in front of Cho, but he kept quiet. He knew Ron was very nervous having to play against Slytherin on his debut as captain, and Harry decided to try and capture the Snitch as quickly as possible for Ron's sake.

The moment they stepped out onto the gloomy pitch they could hear the loud cheers from the Gryffindor stands, and the boos coming from Slytherin trying to drown them out. Harry could see Cho was trying to lead a group of Ravenclaws into booing; and scanned their seats to see if he could see Luna; but he couldn't see her anywhere around there.

"Clean game, Malfoy!" Madam Hooch hollered over the wind as Ron and Draco seemed to be trying to break each other's fingers in a handshake. "One... two... three!"

Hooch blew the whistle and they all kicked off, Harry soared high above the team to watch for the Snitch, enjoying the feel of the cold, crisp wind biting through his skin as he scaled higher and higher. He realized that this was his first time back on his Firebolt since they had played Slytherin last year, and Malfoy had egged him onto a fight, getting him banned by Umbridge. Harry also noticed that no one was replacing Lee for commentator, and found himself a little relieved. Though he liked Lee, his comments were rather distracting at times, and would rather be able to give his full attention to the Snitch.

"Hey Potter!" Malfoy hollered from behind him, keeping pace with Harry above the teams. "Was your Looney Lover any good? I hear the Weasel and the Beaver got together, glad I didn't see that, one at a time is bad enough!"

"Funny how you weren't affected though, isn't it?" Harry retorted, but he kept his head lowered to watch the Slytherin Chaser Nott try and score on Ron; Harry was thrilled to see Ron block it brilliantly. "Strange how no one in Slytherin were, actually."

"We enjoy the finer things, Potter," Draco hissed, circling Harry quickly on his broom, making it difficult for Harry to focus on the game. The cheers below told him that someone had scored; he looked down and saw Kirke and Sloper patting Ginny enthusiastically on the back. "Punch isn't very appealing when you are used to the very best."

"Sure," Harry dropped down a couple of feet, wanting to put a bit of distance between himself and Malfoy in order to concentrate better, but Malfoy followed him, yelling things over the wind as Katie tossed the Quaffle through the shiny gold Slytherin hoops.

"See that Malfoy? We scored again, you know, kind of like Snape did... Oh, nice underwear, by the way, did Snape pick those out for you himself?"

Harry was laughing too hard to actually hear the profanities Draco shouted after him as he began to circle around again, looking for the Snitch. He could see that Crabbe and Goyle were trying to hit the Bludgers at the Gryffindor team members, just missing Ginny's head for a second time. Harry wanted to catch the Snitch quickly before someone got injured, he couldn't believe that Hooch hadn't called a foul yet.

Just then Harry saw the Snitch; glinting beautifully below right by the Slytherin hoops. He quickly looked to see where Malfoy was; he was a lot closer to it, but he was trying to push his lengthening hair out of his eyes while looking around. Harry quickly went into a dive, spiralling down towards the Snitch getting closer and closer... he reached out to close his hand over it...

"THWACK!"

There was a sudden pain in the side of Harry's head as he fell off his broom and fell to the ground, dimly aware of the screams and cheers around him. He tried to open his eyes, but found that his left eyelid felt too heavy and could only see through one blurred eye. He could only see a few distorted images; and vaguely heard voices over him and the shrill sound of a whistle before Harry blacked out.

*

"Harry?"

"You all right, Harry?"

Harry could hear the voices over him, and slowly opened his eyes to see Ron, Ginny, Hermione and Luna all hovering over him looking worried.

"What happened?" Harry said, slowly trying to sit up. "Where are my glasses?"

"Goyle. The minute you caught the Snitch he hit you with his Beater!" Hermione yelled, handing Harry his glasses angrily. "There was a major uproar, too! Teachers were fighting, Hagrid and McGonnagal were both saying he should be removed from the team, and Snape..."

Harry looked closely at Hermione' who was literally shaking with anger, even close to tears. She couldn't seem to get the words out, and Ginny put an arm over her shoulder.

"Snape said, it was an easy mistake - thinking your head was a Bludger." Ron said quietly, looking equally disgusted. "You should have seen old McGonnagal's face, I thought she was going to curse him on the spot herself!"

"Most of the Ravenclaws were mad," Luna said, looking wide-eyed around the room as if it was her first time being in there, and she had never seen such an interesting place. "Except Choline and Marietta, they were thrilled, they said it was too bad he didn't hit Ronald too."

Hermione glared at Luna. "Cho is a stupid cow, I can't see why so many boys like her, she has the personality of a flea."

"I beg to differ Hermione," Ron shrugged, and Hermione, Ginny and Luna all looked at him with shock and anger as Ron sat down smiling.

"WHAT?!"

"Well come on, a flea actually HAS a personality!" Ron grinned, winking and patting Harry on the shoulders. "Don't worry about them, McGonnagal is going to try and have Goyle taken off Quidditch, I'm sure - regardless of what Snape says, she has the higher authority, right? Madam Pomfrey had told us we could wait here for you to wake up, and that when you do you can go, as long as you aren't seeing double. There's more than likely a party waiting for us in the Common Room."

"What about Luna, though? Only Gryffindors are allowed in our Common Room!" Ginny said, looking at Ron and Hermione urgently. "Can we sneak her in?"

"No!" Luna exclaimed suddenly, looking uncomfortably at everyone. "No, I - I have some homework I should be doing, our OWLs are coming up and all, and I really should be going." Luna quickly stood up, stealing a very quick glance at Harry before breezing out of the Hospital wing, leaving them all looking after her; bewildered.

"God Harry!" Ginny suddenly said angrily at him, as Ron held his arm, steadying him as he climbed off the cot. "Couldn't you have said something to her?"

"What?!" Harry said, stumbling and nearly falling - surprised at Ginny's sudden change in tone. "Like what?"

"Oh! You guys can be so stupid sometimes!" Ginny fumed, storming out after Luna and leaving Harry to stand there completely thrown.

"What's her problem?" Harry mumbled, as Hermione grabbed Harry's broom and went ahead of them to get the door, as Harry was still a little wobbly on his feet, his balance likely thrown from the blow to the head.

"I don't know, remember some people really freak out with their OWLs, or it could be a girl thing, I don't know," Ron muttered quietly, probably not wanting Hermione to hear that comment. "Girls are weird."

Harry had to agree, girls were VERY weird. When they walked through the Fat Lady's Portrait everyone cheered, people came up to Harry to pat him on the back and congratulate him on capturing the Snitch so well, and Ron for his first win as a captain. Harry glanced around to see if he could find Ginny, hoping to ask her why she had been so mad at him - but she was nowhere to be seen. Dean had drawn a few brilliant pictures; of Goyle sitting on his broomstick with his finger up his nose, Draco wearing his shoulder-length hair in pink pig-tails, and a very realistic one of an angry Snape using a Nimbus 2001 to sweep up a mess of Butter Beer bottles and candy wrappers. Hermione must have been very angry, because she charmed this picture to move around like regular Wizard pictures, and enlarged it to a huge poster; which Kirke and Sloper were happy to hang up over the fireplace.

"I figured that's the only use Snape could get out of a broom," Dean grinned happily, as people laughed at the pictures. "I wonder if we should send him a copy?"

Harry grinned, but he was preoccupied with thoughts about Luna. Why was she avoiding him, yet she was there in the Hospital wing? Why was Ginny mad at him? Most of all, he wondered why girls can't just come out and say what their problems are instead of getting angry at him for not figuring it out himself?