Luna came and sat with Harry the next day, Sunday, under what she called his tree by the lake. It had now been a week since Hermione had recovered from her petrification and she was “just finishing up” her end of year revising. They had already figured out when and where they would get together about the strange letter Luna had hidden away somewhere. It would be a week from tomorrow, which was the first Monday of the Summer Holiday and also the day before Harry’s Cousin Dudley’s birthday. Dudley was also away at a boarding school called Smeltings and it was not scheduled to end its session until a week after Hogwarts so Dudley would still be at school on his birthday and, much to Harry’s private amusement, still taking exams in all probability. Despite this, however, his Aunt and Uncle were probably going there to be with him and would leave Harry at their home just as they had the year before. As long as he stayed out of their “good” food and stayed out of sight, they didn’t care what he did so it would be a good time for him to see Luna, although he did not tell her that.
They talked about their time at Hogwarts mostly. Harry told her about his “adventures” over the past two years and she listened, her only comments being whether what really happened and what was rumoured to have happened were different. To a large extent it was although Luna did clarify that what she heard about his First Year had already been exaggerated to a large extent by the time she started Hogwarts. It seemed most of the events were part of the common lore of the school even though at the time they happened only Harry and one or two others knew what had happened. Harry knew he never told anyone about some of the events such as his first encounter with the Cerberus, Hermione setting Snape on fire, Norbert the Dragon or their adventure through the traps guarding the Philosopher’s Stone his First Year or the Polyjuice mishap that left Hermione in the Hospital Wing for a month a few months before, but apparently versions of those stories circulated around the school. He was also pretty sure that Hermione was tight lipped about those events, at least the ones she was a part of. That left one source for those stories and, considering Luna was genuinely surprised that a certain Ron Weasley had not done some of the things people thought he had done, the source for those stories seemed rather obvious.
“Why would Ron say such things?” Harry asked.
“I haven’t spoken to Ronald,” Luna said, “not since I was very, very young and he wasn’t very nice back then at least not to me or his sister. Maybe that’s just him being a young boy. What I heard was what somebody heard from somebody who heard it from someone else and eventually from someone who claims to have heard it from Ronald. Things get twisted around through so many telling that it’s hard to tell what’s the real story and what changes have been made in the telling. But even assuming what I heard was pretty much what Ronald says, you have to understand that what happens in truth and what a person says about it later can be different.
“There are people who naturally tend to understate what they’ve done and what’s happened to them so that what they say about something is probably far less than what really happened. I get the feeling you’re one of those. Then there are people who tend to overstate what has happened and what they’ve done and Ronald strikes me as that type. It’s not really lying - unless it didn’t happen at all - and it might not even be deliberate. You and I could see the same thing happen and go through the same thing and yet were we to tell someone else - without the other around - there could well be two very different stories mostly accurate in the basic facts but very different in the teller’s perspective and interpretation of those facts. It’s annoying, but it is also very common, very normal.”
“But why would Ron…”
“Ronald is not Harry Potter. The real Harry Potter stands out for reasons he does not like and would prefer not to stand out at all. Because of things he had no control over, he could do nothing and still stand out. Perhaps this is why you don’t talk about what you have done. It is also why you seem to understate what you have done. Ronald has five older brothers all of whom are stand outs in their own way and he seems to be struggling to stand out as they do. That may be why he is prone to speak out when perhaps he should not and overstate what he did or saw. It doesn’t mean he’s a bad person or anything bad at all. Everyone is different. It would be very boring otherwise, don’t you think?”
“I never thought of that. How did you…?”
“In a way I am a bit like you, Harry Potter. Not the person who seems to take danger and adversity in stride, but the one who would prefer not to stand out. In my case in many ways I don’t. People tend not to notice me unless I want them to for some reason and because of that I can watch them. Most people behave differently when they think they’re being watched than when they don’t think that’s the case. I usually can watch people without them thinking they’re being watched so they tend to act as themselves and not as they wish others to see them - or not see them. It’s very educational.”
“And what about friends? Would you watch people if you had friends?”
Luna gave Harry a brief, sad look then smiled. “Of course, just not as much I suppose. But, my definition of ‘friend’ is not simply someone who’s nice to me and hangs out with me. There’s plenty of that going around and it seems too superficial in a way as those friends tend to back away when things aren’t as nice. I’d rather have one friend, one true friend, whose friendship was unconditional and unqualified and who would accept my friendship on the same terms than scores of ‘friends’ who are just fun to hang out with but will not be there if it’s inconvenient for them. I’d rather have meaningful conversations - such as this one - than talk about boys bums, make-up tips and the articles in Teen Witch Weekly or homework all the time. I want a friend who’ll be there for me when times are bad and who wants me to be there for them rather than the ones who’ll forget you if knowing you becomes difficult for them. Maybe that’s just me. Then again, not having a friend it’s possible that I’ve idealized the concept too much.”
“Or,” Harry offered, “perhaps everyone else takes it too much for granted.” Harry, for one, was learning to like hearing Luna’s thoughts on things just as he had learned to like hearing Hermione’s thoughts on things. They were very different. He doubted Hermione’s thoughts would be as… well as spontaneous. She tended to look to books whereas Luna seemed more to look around and try and figure it out for herself. But Hermione did have… well, she had something very like Luna even if they seemed to look at the world very differently. Harry wondered what it would be like to really be Luna’s friend.
But the conversation then changed topics as conversation tend to do. Luna told him that she had heard from her father that morning. Her father had returned from wherever he had been and she could floo home tomorrow. She seemed a little torn about whether she should leave, or stay another five days and take the Hogwarts Express home as she told Harry she was hoping that he might one day be her friend. Harry had to remind her that they already agreed that he would come and visit her the Monday after he left school for the summer, which was only a week after tomorrow and that he’d be willing to visit her after that as well. He had told her that he was not about to ask her to visit him since doing so meant she would be exposed to his relatives. About the only person he knew who deserved that might be Malfoy. He would include Professor Snape on that list were it not for the fact that the Potions Professor would be allowed to hex them.
Since Harry would be using Dobby to get there and since Luna knew a fair bit about what elves could do, she told him to come to her bedroom at ten in the morning on that day if he could and to send her a note if he could not. Aside from one thing, that sounded fine to Harry and he kept that one thing to himself, although Luna probably noticed he was blushing furiously about meeting her in her bedroom and had been nice enough not to say anything. True, Harry was not yet thirteen and while he had thoughts about what might go on between a boy and a girl, alone, in a bedroom, if they really liked each other a lot, if no one was likely to come in; they were abstract at best and not concrete and certainly not something he was likely to do yet even if the opportunity seemed to be there. The truth was he knew little about that sort of thing. He had seen older students snogging and had heard that even more goes on if they sneak off to a broom closet, but aside from that it was words without context. Older couples were often snogging in the Common Room, at least until people started to loudly tell them to get a room, whatever that meant. The thoughts about what might happen were a little embarrassing to Harry and here it was a pretty girl asked him to visit her in her bedroom. Harry didn’t know what to make of it.
Then there was also the thought that visiting another girl in her bedroom, any other girl really, was somehow betraying Hermione and he really didn’t want to think about that.
Luna left the next morning just after breakfast. She made it a point to say goodbye to Harry even though he’d see her again in a week. Harry was surprised that he was a little sad to see her go. He really didn’t know what to make of that at all.
The afternoon found him seated again beneath the tree by the lake with the still unopened Potions book beside him. Even without Luna and the conversations he had with her, it was still a nice place to get away from the rest of the school and he still felt like being here was a new experience. He sat there for a while trying to think of something to think about so that he could once again avoid opening that Potions book when he heard soft footsteps approaching him.
“May I join you, Harry?” a voice asked. He immediately recognized it as Hermione’s. Harry nodded in reply and he both heard and seemed to feel her sit next to him, much closer than Luna had the last two afternoons. “This is a nice place,” she said. “Oh! You brought your Potions book.”
“Only just in case,” Harry said.
“In case of what?”
“Um, I get a sudden urge to make a Potion?” Harry offered looking at his friend and finding her deep, brown eyes looking back with a bemused expression.
Hermione gave a slight snort. “Well, I guess that’s better than a sudden urge to chuck it in the lake.”
Harry laughed. “Oddly, I hadn’t thought of that. Wouldn’t be a bad idea, though. Then again, I can’t drop Potions, can I?”
“No. You can’t. Not until you’ve sat for your O.W.L.s as you know. Potions is so important. It’s a pity Professor Snape is so… so… well, he’s not very good, is he? Then again, compared to Lockhart he’s totally brilliant.”
“Hermione Granger? Is that really you? You never think badly of our Professors!”
“Reading minds, are we Harry?” she replied with a smile. “I’ve read it can be done. But if you could read my mind, you’d know I’ve always loathed him and Lockhart. I just don’t say anything about it.”
“Lockhart? Really? You mean the little hearts you drew on your schedule were because he was a total fraud?”
Hermione blushed. “I only did that the first week, Harry. You must admit he was good looking. Then again, you’re a bloke so maybe you don’t have to admit that. But once I really began reading his so called books, they just didn’t make much sense at all. If he was to be believed, he was in more than two places at once and that was among the least obvious of his inconsistencies and errors. I looked up some other respected works on the subject and… Well, his techniques were totally wrong and were you to try them you’d probably be dead.”
“I have no intention of needing to try them,” Harry protested.
“I was speaking hypothetically,” Hermione replied primly.
Harry chuckled. “I just wish I had a chance to take his start of year quiz again…”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. Tried to guess the correct answer that time. What is Gilderoy Lockhart’s favorite color? Can’t remember what I wrote but now I’d say puke green ‘cause his mere presence in a room causes involuntary regurgitation.”
Hermione chuckled. “What is his goal in life?” she asked.
“Hmmm. Tough question. I guess it’s a toss up between to have a signed autograph in every dictionary beside the definitions of the words ‘fraud’ and ‘incompetent,’ to setting the indisputable world’s record for inability to correctly do a spell or to go to his grave never having answered a single question correctly.”
“Good answers. But what about we combine the two? His goal in life is to come up with a color that doesn’t clash with his hair yet causes others to involuntarily regurgitate on sight. Had he achieved that, he might have been able to defeat goodness knows what by causing that.”
“Why should we give him any chance of success?”
“Don’t know. So, how are your essays coming?”
“How are yours?”
“I only just started this morning. And yes, I’m taking a break ‘cause… well, 'cause… anyway, you’re changing the topic.”
“You can look over my Charms and Transfiguration if you want,” Harry replied with a sigh. “I’ve been doing some on the History one but haven’t started Potions yet. I guess I’m having a Potions Block. But I’ll get to it, I promise.”
“I know,” Hermione said. “Um, Harry?”
Harry looked at Hermione and noticed a slight blush forming on her cheeks.
“Um,” she continued, “I’ve been working up the courage to… to…”
The slight blush was not so slight any more and then she did it. She leaned in close and kissed Harry on the cheek. It was quick, but to Harry it seemed like it lingered on indefinitely. It seemed like ages before he could speak and the only reason he did was because Hermione’s expression seemed to be getting more and more fretful with each passing moment.
“Um… Wow? What was that?”
She gave him a smile. “Thank you, Harry.”
“Um… you’re welcome, I guess. For what?”
“Madam Pomfrey told me.”
“Told you what?”
“That you were there every day with me when I was petrified. I always had fresh flowers and you were there practically all the time you could be even though you didn’t have to be. I mean after all I was petrified. Wasn’t much company, was I?” she added a little sadly.
“I… ,” Harry began. “You were just petrified, Hermione. I didn’t think it was right to leave you alone just ‘cause you couldn’t move or talk or anything. You’re my friend.”
Hermione smiled at him in a way he could not say he had seen before. “And you are my friend. It was really, really sweet you’re coming to see me like that and all.”
Now Harry was blushing.
“And I seemed to know you were there. I know I hoped you were.”
“But,” Harry began, “but Madam Pomfrey said you’d have no memory of it at all. To you one second you were petrified and the next you’d be waking up in that bed even if it was months later!”
“I can’t say what really happened. She did tell me that too when I said I sensed not being alone and all. She said I should have had no notion of anything. But I did, Harry. I couldn’t see or hear or feel or move and I was pretty sure I wasn’t breathing but I knew I wasn’t dead and I knew I wasn’t alone. I knew someone was there with me so it wasn’t so bad really. She said I was imagining things, but I don’t think so. I can’t say I knew how much time passed or if any time passed at all. I just felt like I was not alone and that made it… nice… given the circumstances. I knew I have a true friend. Thank you.” With that, she kissed his other cheek.
“Um… well… er…” Harry stuttered. Before he could begin to speak coherently, Hermione slid up very close so that they were touching. She placed an arm around him and then leaned her head against his shoulder. Harry froze at first, but that only lasted a second or two, perhaps not even long enough for Hermione to really notice anything other than what she might think was surprise. He quickly relaxed and, after a long moment, his own arm wrapped around her shoulders.
“Why,” he began.
“Why did I kiss you?” she replied softly.
Harry could only nod.
“To thank you,” she said. “I… well… I never, ever really had a friend before. I wanted a friend but… Well, I have read that Muggle Borns like me have trouble making friends in the world we’re brought up in. Unless we move around, of course.”
“Move around?”
Hermione nodded. “If we stay in the same place with the same children and stuff… Well apparently young Muggle children can kind of sense magic in a way. They don’t know what it is so they, well they don’t react well to it. They don’t like it and they tend not to like the person they sense it from. This sense fades so that by the time they are around eight or so they can’t feel it, but they remember it and who caused it so… I lived in the same town most of my life before Hogwarts and certainly when I went to Primary School. None of the kids liked me at all when I started and I didn’t know why. I didn’t think there was anything really wrong or different about me, but there was and I just didn’t know it then. The others stayed away from me when we were little and that never changed as we got older. Perhaps if my parents moved when I was older… but they didn’t.
“So when Professor McGonagall came to tell us that I was actually a young witch who could do real magic and that there was a school for children like me, well it explained a lot of things and she also explained that it is unsurprising if a young witch like me had trouble making friends. Naturally, the thought of there being a whole world of knowledge out there that I would not otherwise be able to find out about was exciting. I was into books and learning, you know. I was smart, but it was also a way to help me cope with not having any friends. So I was really excited about Hogwarts and even more so when I realized that there would be a lot of children here just like me. I was so certain I would finally have a real friend.
“But at first it didn’t seem to work out that way,” she finished with a near whimper.
“I wanted to be your friend,” Harry said after a pause, “I just didn’t know how.”
“You’ve been my friend since the Troll and I’d say you do know how, Harry. You always have.”
“No. Not really when you consider that I kind of wanted to be your friend from the moment we first met on the Hogwarts Express.”
Hermione gasped. “Then why…?”
“‘Cause eleven year old boys just don’t become friends with a girl they’ve never known before. It’s kind of an unwritten rule. Girls are mental according to Ron and they’re only good for looking at and snogging - when they’re older - according to Dean and Seamus. I didn’t mind your being on about homework or even the rules, but the others did and…” Harry shrugged. “But that was the reason I came looking for you that night. I wanted you to be my friend but just didn’t know how to do it and then there was a troll loose in the Castle and you couldn’t have known about it so I went looking for you. I’m not sure who else I would have done that for…” His voice cut off when he felt her lips against his cheek again.
“Thank you, Harry,” she said.
“You gonna kiss me every time you thank me?”
“Maybe,” she said slowly.
“People will talk,” he suggested.
“Honestly! They talk already!”
“They do?”
Hermione nodded. “I get it all the time from Parvati and Lavender. They’re convinced we’re secretly boyfriend and girlfriend and so they’re always asking if you’re a good kisser.”
“You’re kidding!”
“Nope. That and I know the twins have a betting pool on when we’ll be openly that way. Of course, neither you or I are allowed to bet.”
“How do you know about that?”
“You know about it?”
Harry nodded. “Seamus and Dean’ve been bugging me about it ‘cause they want the inside track. 'Course that stopped once you were petrified.”
“I found out from Lavender and Parvati,” Hermione said, “same way. It’s really annoying. I tell them that were really just good friends, but they don’t believe me especially when I try and say I’m really good friends with Ron. They wonder how I can even say that considering that he and I seem to argue all the time, especially if you aren’t around to stop it.”
“I like Ron…” Harry began.
“I know, Harry. He’s your Best Mate, whatever that is. He can be funny but he can also be infuriating. It’s like if I don’t like what he likes, think the way he thinks or want to do what he wants to do - which is usually mess around and avoid studying - then it seems as if he thinks something is wrong with me for not being the way he thinks I should be. I don’t like that about him. I get the impression that just because he was there and got lucky and knocked out that troll, I should be whatever he wants me to be. Deep down, for some reason, I know it was you who came to find me and it was really you who saved me that day. He just came along for some reason and… I think he would’ve scampered given half a reason. You’re my best friend, Harry. Ron’s your friend and I guess a friend of a friend can be a friend, but there are times I really, really don’t like him.”
Harry nodded. “I know I guess. I think he tolerates you but only because I want you as my friend.”
“And I help him with his homework.”
“You help me,” Harry began.
“Because I want to, Harry. You may not believe this but you are very smart when you try to be. I can have a meaningful conversation with you. I help Ron only because it would cause problems if I didn’t. He just doesn’t seem to get it yet that school is important and not just a place to talk about quidditch and find people who he hasn’t beaten at chess yet. I just don’t understand why he thinks I should be someone I’m not and why he gets all upset when I am who I am. You don’t act that way, not really anyway. You only seem to get upset with me when your mind is set about something and I try too hard to change it.”
“That’s not that often.”
“No. It’s not. And it’s usually…”
“When Ron’s upset because he thinks I should do it.”
“Yeah.”
“Weird. Then again, you’re usually right in the end.”
She kissed him again. “Not always.”
“What? No Thank You?” Harry chuckled.
“That was a Thank You.”
“Oh. You know, if you keep thanking me like that people will think you’re my girlfriend.”
“Why?” Hermione asked. “I thank my Daddy that way and no one thinks he’s my boyfriend.”
“That’s ‘cause he’s your Dad, I guess. I think it’s different with us.”
“Maybe with you boys, but not with us girls according to my room-mates,” Hermione said. “While a kiss on the cheek shows… um… affection, it does not mean I’m your girlfriend in that sense, just that I’m a girl who is your really good friend. For a kiss to mean I am your girlfriend and you are my boyfriend in that way, it has to be different.”
Before Harry could reply, Hermione shifted in a way so she was facing him. She leaned in, smiled for just a moment, and kissed him on the lips. It was probably intended as a demonstration and most likely was meant to be no more than a quick peck, but that was not how it turned out. It did not stop. He kissed her back, as she had secretly hoped, but it did not end. They kept at it for a long while, each lost in what was happening and unaware of anything around them except each other. It seemed beyond wonderful for both of them and neither wanted the feeling to end. Then something else happened. Images began flashing through their minds. They were almost like memories, except they both knew that many of the images had never happened. It was like their lives playing out before them well into a distant future and as wonderful as their kiss was, the images were not so wonderful at all. There were pleasant images, but it seemed that most were images of suffering, heartache and death. None of it made any sense to them and what was even odder was that as soon as the image passed, they could not remember it at all. They just were left with the knowledge that it had happened.
The kiss finally broke and the two of them looked at each other in confusion.
“Wh-what just happened?” Harry asked.
“I… I kissed you and you kissed me back,” Hermione replied.
“No. Not that…”
“It was wonderful… at first.”
“Yes it was but then… it was… I don’t know what happened. It’s like…”
“I saw my life except it’s not my life… not yet.”
“Yeah.”
“You saw it too?” Hermione asked.
“A life. A lifetime. My lifetime and I didn’t like it so much. Do you think it means we’re not supposed to be together like this?”
“That’s just it Harry,” Hermione said. “I can’t remember anything in particular, but what I sense of that life thing was that in it we were not together for some reason.”
Harry nodded. “We were just friends.”
Hermione nodded. “It was about the only pleasant thing there was.”
“Maybe it means we are supposed to be together,” Harry offered.
“As more than just friends,” Hermione concluded. “I think… I can’t believe I’m saying this… but I think it’s a sign of some sort. Magic can be very different after all and… and I think it’s like the other thing.”
“What other thing?” Harry asked.
Hermione gave him a nervous look and then, before she answered she kissed him again. This time there were no images. It just felt wonderful and again they had no idea how long they kissed.
“Wow!” they both said when the kiss finally broke.
“That was much better,” Hermione said softly, placing her head on Harry’s shoulder.
“Much. No images. Not like before. Why’d you…?”
“The first time?”
He nodded.
“I wanted to let you know what kind of kiss would tell people that we’re boyfriend and girlfriend. I suppose I just could’ve told you but… Something told me to kiss you properly so I did. The second time was… well to find out. We didn’t see it again so maybe…”
“We’re supposed to be together?”
Hermione nodded. “I think so. I… I wouldn’t mind at all, really.”
“Neither would I. So are you my girlfriend now?”
“No.”
“But…”
“You’re supposed to ask and I’m supposed to think about it.”
“They’re rules?”
“Of course.”
“Do you want to be my… um… girlfriend?”
“That’s not the question, Harry.”
“It’s not?”
“You’re asking my opinion, not for my decision.”
“More rules?”
“Mm-hmmm,” she nodded.
“You’re not making this easy.”
“It’s not supposed to be,” Hermione giggled.
“Is that another rule?”
“It might be.”
“Will you be my girlfriend?”
“That’s better,” Hermione replied. “Yes.”
“So how long until you decide?” Harry asked.
“I’ve already decided, Harry.”
“Oh. So I guess we’re just friends then.”
“I didn’t say that, did I?”
“I asked you differently and you said that’s better.”
“And then I answered the question.”
“You did? I thought you had to think about it?”
“No. I said you ask and then I decide. I said nothing about how long it would take and if you remember, I did say yes to you.”
“You’re teasing me,” Harry complained.
“Just a little,” Hermione giggled. “But honestly, Harry. After that kiss, what possible answer did you expect? Of course I will be your girlfriend if you’re serious about it. Now, if you’re just teasing me…”
“I’m not.”
“Good.”
“So, you’re my girlfriend now. Um… What do I do next? There’s probably some rule or something.”
She then turned to him and kissed him again.
When the kiss finally broke, she looked at him. “There’s only one problem that I can see,” she said.
“Oh?”
“Well, there’s this whole summer and… and we won’t be able to see each other.”
“Don’t be so sure,” Harry replied.
“Harry!” Hermione growled. “What have you done? How can you see me? We don’t live anywhere near each other!”
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” Harry said.
“You’ve done something and you’re not going to tell me, are you?”
“Nope. Wouldn’t be much of a surprise if I did. Besides, I’m not sure it will work yet so no sense in saying I will see you until I know for sure, is there?”
“Just so you know,” Hermione said, “my parents are taking me to France for a month or so beginning a week after we get back from school. We’ll be gone until August 5th which should give you plenty of time to figure out this secret plan of yours. But I do want to see you this summer. Something tells me it’s important that I do and not just for a few hours here and there and not just because I’ve agreed to be your girlfriend. I don’t know why it’s important. I think those whatever they were I saw when we first really kissed are part of it but not all of it. There’s also…” Her voice faded and she paled a little.
“What is it, Hermione?” Harry asked with concern. “You can tell me.”
“Um… It’s silly really.”
“If you think it might be important, then it’s probably not silly.”
“But… Harry, you might think I’m crazy…”
“Why? I thought I was hearing voices, you remember and while you agreed that was not normal, you didn’t think I was crazy. You can tell me.”
“It's… well, it’s so weird. All of this. Today. Sitting here with you. What we’re talking about. The kissing. All of this. Harry, it’s never happened before.”
“Um… ,” Harry began. He wondered where this was leading. “Well, of course it hasn’t. I think I would remember if it had.”
“That’s kind of just it, Harry. For a long time to me it seemed that everything that happened had happened before. It was like…”
“Déjà vu?”
“Sort of. I mean, I’ve had that on occasion. But it was only for a second. It was like that but all the time. Everything was like it had happened and yet it was so infuriating because with all that was going on…” she paused.
“You still had no idea what was going to happen next,” Harry finished. “Could’ve been useful to know that, don’t you think?”
“H-how…?”
“I was going through the same thing until recently,” Harry said. “Really annoying.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Why didn’t you? As for me, it sounded mental. Add to it thinking I was hearing voices no one else could hear…”
“But you were!”
“But I didn’t know that. So how long? Was it since you were little or…?”
Hermione shook her head. “No. It started about a month before I first came here. It ended,” she paused. “Well, it mostly ended just after Hagrid got back from prison although I’ve had an occasional, and mercifully brief and unimportant flash of it a few times since.”
Harry nodded. “Mine started on my eleventh birthday, which was as you said about a month before we first came here. It ended, mostly like you said, not long after I left Dumbledore’s office after saving Ginny. You’ve been trying to do things different since it ended, right? You figure if you think of doing something to do something else so that it doesn’t start again, right?”
Hermione nodded. “What does this mean?”
Harry shrugged. “It’s odd. All three of us…”
“Three? What do you mean three? Was Ron having it too?”
“No. Not that I know of.”
“Ginny?”
“Haven’t seen her since they took her to the Hospital Wing. That was back when it all still seemed like it happened before and now she’s in St. Mungo’s, or at least she was last I heard.”
“Then who’s this third person who also had it happening to them.”
“Um… Her name is Luna Lovegood. She’s a First Year in Ravenclaw and she told me about this couple of days ago. She thinks it’s important somehow. She went home this morning.”
“Lovegood? I’m not sure I know her. How do you know her?”
“I didn’t. Not ‘til she sat down here with me a couple of days ago and introduced herself. I know she is a student here 'cause I remember seeing her before - and yes I mean a real memory - but I know I didn’t know her name and that we never spoke to each other. It was kind of weird. Okay, more than just kind of. I have no idea why that happened to her too and she has no idea why either. She has a theory of sorts.”
“Oh?”
“She thinks it was a message of some kind,” Harry said. “She has no other idea about what it could be but it kind of made more sense than what I was thinking.”
“Which was?”
“Well, if you consider she doesn’t believe The-Boy-Who-Lived really exists and all I’ve been through, I was thinking we were both mental.”
“Harry, I don’t think it works that way, being mental that is. One person having something like a delusion is mental. Three people having identical ones or nearly identical ones?”
“That started and ended right about the same time…”
“What do you mean, Harry?”
“She started experiencing the ‘French Word’ thing…”
“French Word thing?”
“It’s what she calls ‘déjà vu.’ Anyway, she started experiencing it about a month before her eleventh birthday, which is in the beginning of September and about a month after my eleventh birthday. I’m guessing it started for all three of us on my eleventh birthday and only began to change a week ago Saturday when I had an interesting conversation with a House Elf which I knew I never had before and she got a strange letter that didn’t say much from someone she was sure she didn’t know, which also had not happened before and…”
“I was still petrified then,” Hermione said. “For me, it was after Hagrid came back and you told me what happened regarding the Chamber of Secrets. I have a feeling you probably did or would have, but it was not at that time. It would have been later, I think. I’ve been searching the Library ever since to see if I could find out what had happened to me. I mean there was the bit of being aware and not feeling alone when I was petrified when I shouldn’t have been aware of anything and this déjà vu thing. But so far, I haven’t found anything. Not even anything remotely similar. It’s gotta be magic of some kind, but there seems to be no reference to it. I’ve even used Lockhart’s pass to the Restricted Section.”
“Hold on, I thought you were trying to catch up.”
“Please!” Hermione replied indignantly. “Honestly Harry, you know I’ve always been a few weeks ahead in my course work. Yes, I did a little revising just to remind myself and I looked over your notes to see if there was anything I hadn’t gone over, but that didn’t take a week or more. Besides, even if I was this was more important. I can do that at home over the summer but this is the only chance before next fall to use the Library.”
“Did you get any sense of that thing while using the Library?”
“I think I would have if I was working on my Summer Essays,” she admitted. “I guess that’s why I haven’t.”
“It’s why I have,” Harry chuckled. “I’m pretty sure if I didn’t, if I goofed off, that thing would be back. It’s also why I’ve been sitting here when I wasn’t working on those essays. I have no memory of this tree at all so this seems to be a good place to be to avoid that sense, if you know what I mean.”
Hermione nodded and sat in silence for a time. “So this - what’s her name?”
“Luna,” Harry replied.
“She thinks what happened to us was a message?”
“Or something similar. She thinks it was meant to get us thinking in a way so that when it stopped we’d pay attention. Don’t ask why or for what for I don’t know and neither does she. But she thinks that letter she got might be important.”
“I guess that kind of makes sense,” Hermione said. “I mean the message thing. Actually, no it does not. Then again, there’s a lot about magic and stuff that doesn’t make sense if you ask me so why should this be any different? Did you see this letter? What did it say?”
“No. She didn’t show it to me. There was no point right now.”
“No point? What do you mean, no point?”
“Because what the letter said was it would not reveal anything until after we left Hogwarts for the summer and then only if the two of us were there together to read it I guess.”
“But not me?”
“She didn’t say so. She also didn’t say that you couldn’t be there. I mean, what happened to you happened to Luna and to me so there must be a connection. Maybe whoever wrote that letter only knows about me and Luna.”
“I suppose. Still, it would seem that letter is the only clue we have to any of this, don’t you think? I can’t see the harm of my being involved. Did you discuss when you were going to try and read it?”
Harry nodded. “Next Monday at her place, and no I don’t know where that is and the reason it’s not at where I live is ‘cause even though I only just met her I have no intention of exposing her - or you for that matter - to that place or the people who live there.” He left out that the Dursley’s probably would not be at home.
“But if you don’t know where she lives, how will you go there?”
“How does a post owl find where it’s going? You know you don’t have to really address the envelopes.”
“Harry! You’re not going to address a letter to her and send it off with Hedwig and follow on your broom!”
“I wasn’t even thinking of that! My point was there’s kinds of magic that can do that…”
“But you’re not allowed to do magic outside if Hogwarts; not until you’re seventeen!”
“I know. But that rule doesn’t apply to House Elves.”
“What are you on about, Harry? What’s a House Elf?”