The HP universe and characters belong to JKR.

Chapter 5: In the Weasley's Garden

Two days later found Hermione and Harry seated at a table in the garden of the Burrow for his first introduction to Ancient Runes. They both had new notebooks that Bill had picked up for them on his way home from Gringotts, as the paper was much cheaper to work with than parchment. Hermione opened hers and drew what looked like a Y with the central line extended to match the length of the two diagonal lines.

"This is the first rune we learn at Hogwarts. It's called Algiz, and it represents protection. It's one of the strongest protective runes because it isn't ambiguous. If you see Algiz, you can be sure it's providing some kind of protection."

"Wait, so I understand it's useful to be able to read runes, because of all the old books and stuff, but what do you mean by protection? How can an ink rune provide the protection?"

"Oh, you're right, I should have started by explaining that. Hm. You know how runes can be used to enchant objects right?" Hermione asked him, waiting until Harry had nodded before continuing. "So for example, if I took a disc of gold, and inscribed it with Algiz, Isa and Eihwaz" she drew the first rune again, followed by a straight vertical line, then a straight line with a hook on the top and bottom. "I'd have created a very basic protection enchantment on the disc. All I'd need to do is charge it with magic using my wand, and it would block most minor jinxes."

"Really? That's awesome!" Harry exclaimed before a thought occurred to him. "Hang on. It's not as easy as that, is it? I mean if it was, everyone would be using them."

"I wouldn't exactly call getting a gold disc easy Harry, but you're right. An object like that, artefacts we call them, would probably be good for a single jinx, then burn out, without the appropriate supporting runes. Where enchantment and runes get interesting is experimenting to improve the efficacy of the systems you inscribe." Hermione's eyes shone with excitement at the idea. "So what I'm going to try to do is race you through what I did in my first year of runes, learning the alphabet and what each rune means."

"Sounds good." Harry agreed, "But will I get to do any of that enchanting stuff?" Hermione looked thoughtful.

"I suppose you can. I never tried at home because I'd trigger the trace, but now that you don't have it anymore, I don't see why you can't." Harry grinned, excited at the idea of practical use. Seeing his expression, Hermione hastily amended her reply. "But you need to have Bill or Mr Weasley supervising!"

"Fineeeeeeeeee." Harry moaned. "Killjoy." He laughed as he earnt himself a kick under the table, before beginning to copy the new runes Hermione was writing out. He was vaguely aware of Hermione also writing as he practised carefully reproducing the runes in neat rows into his book. After he finished the final line, Hermione looked over his work.

"These look good. Your Soliwo runes are a bit uneven, but apart from that…" She trailed off as she tore the page she had been writing on from her book. "I thought that we might do some practical demonstrations." Harry looked on, intrigued, as she carefully ripped the paper down the middle, each half-covered in neatly inked runes.

"What does it do?" He asked curiously, taking in the intricate patterns. The runes were arranged in complex geometric shapes, which Harry guessed had some significance other than looking rather mesmerising.

"This pattern of runes is a stave, more commonly known as a runic array." She handed one of the pieces of paper to Harry, before taking the other. "Before I show you how this stave works, you need to know that there are three categories of staves. The first category is 'Passive'. These are the kinds of staves you'd find engraved on an object to enchant it, and as the name suggests, their effect is always active. The second category is 'Reactive'. These staves don't activate their effect but instead react to magic. For example, an anti-apparition ward only activates if someone inside its ranges tries to disapparate. Making sense so far?"

"Yeah, it seems fairly straightforward." Harry nodded his understanding. "So what's the third kind?"

"Well, the third category of staves is 'Active' staves, which don't do anything unless they are manually activated. And that's what this is." Hermione placed her piece of paper on the table with the inked side facing up.

"You remember the cold fire charm I like to use? Incendio caeruleum." With a murmur and a flick of her wrist, a ball of the familiar bluebell flames coalesced at the tip of her wand. Hermione let the fireball linger for a moment, before dispelling the charm.

"This stave replicates the same charm when activated." Pointing her wand at the stave, Hermione spoke the incantation "Exsolutus", and with a flash, an orb of blue fire, identical to the last, appeared above the stave. Harry watched as it glowed, casting an azure tint across the table before it suddenly disappeared, the paper below blackened and smoking.

"What happened?" he asked, blowing on the paper to extinguish the glowing edges of the charred ring in its centre. "Your cold fire is, y'know, not hot?" Hermione nodded, vanishing the burnt stave.

"That's right. But different materials have different conductivity for magic, like how non-magical people use rubber to insulate electricity."

"So paper can't handle magic well?"

"Terribly. Generally, you'll only ever get a single activation out of staves drawn on paper. Wood and stone are the most commonly used mediums, mainly because they're used for buildings, so many techniques for engraving them have been developed over time. Obsidian and Glass are both excellent, but hard to work with. Gold, I've already mentioned, and other precious metals are really good, but generally too expensive to be practical." Harry pointed at the rune stave Hermione had given him.

"Does this make cold fire as well?" He asked, "And why don't we just use wood then? There's plenty just lying around here."

"We don't use wood because you're just getting started, and likely to make mistakes. We can erase ink easily but fixing any incorrect runes that you've gouged into wood is a lot harder." Harry felt his face redden slightly as Hermione giggled as she replied. "And yes. This stave will do the same as one I just activated. One of the best things about active staves is that you don't need to know how to use the magic that they replicate. You just need to activate the runic array. And it shouldn't be affected by your magical disequilibrium. Did you hear the incantation I used?"

"Exsoltus"? Harry attempted and Hermione shook her head.

"Close, but it's 'Exsolutus'. There's an extra 'oo' sound in there."

"Exsolutus," he repeated. Seeing Hermione's look of approval, he pointed his wand at the paper and made the same jabbing motion Hermione had performed earlier. Speaking the incantation, Harry felt a grin break across his face as their surroundings lit up with the cold fire charm's now-familiar cerulean glow.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-AEVS:TSF-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Enraptured by the potential of runes, the lessons continued, and two weeks later when Harry's birthday arrived, he had filled his notebook with a wide range of diagrams and drawings. He now had the basic alphabet memorised as well as the effects of inverting runes, and today was the day Hermione and Bill had finally deemed him ready to recreate one of the trickier reactive stave designs.

"That's great Harry! You're really doing well at this." Hermione encouraged for perhaps the 20th time as he drew the protective ward designed to stop minor jinxes onto a piece of parchment, using a new self-filling calligraphy quill he'd received from her as a birthday gift. Wards were the name given to staves designed to protect, and the parchment was slightly better than paper at conducting magic so they'd opted to use it for the more intricate array. They were currently at the garden table once again, and Harry was finishing copying the design from The Enchanter's Reference. Bill and Hermione were carefully supervising him, and Ron and Ginny were both practising the summoning and banishing charms by taking turns sending a beat-up fanged frisbee flying around the backyard.

Groups of runes were called sigils, and the sigils were in turn joined by lines to form the stave. The particular protective stave he was drawing was much more sophisticated than the three runes and the cold fire stave that Hermione had shown him at the start of his tuition, with sections of the design dedicated to charging the ward, regions defining who the ward would protect, and counterjinx sigils dotted across the page.

"Only because I had such a great teacher. So it's all thanks to you, Hermione." He spoke quietly as he finished the design with a sigil consisting of a small grouping of glyphs that would deliver a small zap to the person who triggered the ward, before pressing his wand to the Sowilo rune on the parchment and murmuring "Galdrastafos". The incantation Galdrastafos was used to charge runic staves, and this was done by pushing magic into the Sowilo rune, which represented the sun, energy, and life force. Harry had to be careful too, as the parchment could only contain a limited amount of magic, and he'd already burnt out two attempts during the charging process.

Once satisfied the stave was charged, he turned and faced Bill. Ron and Ginny had stopped their practice, and both were now sitting a safe distance away, watching curiously. The first few attempts at testing this particular stave had been disastrous, resulting in the stave either burning out or misfiring, launching Harry across the garden, much to everyone's amusement. Apparently, the same thing had happened to a certain Gryffindor with a proclivity for explosions in their first Ancient Runes class on enchantment. Why anyone had thought it a good idea to let Seamus Finnegan near anything that could detonate was beyond Harry's understanding. The last attempt at the protective sigils had failed to activate at all, leaving Harry with a welt on his arm from the jinx Bill had used to test the stave. Walking a safe distance away from Hermione, he held the stave at arm's length.

"Attempt number 8. You guys are really enjoying this way too much."

"Guilty" grinned Hermione. Harry shook his head in defeat.

"I'm ready when you are Bill." The younger Weasleys and Hermione cast shield charms, smirking at Harry's eye roll.

"It looks really good. All of the glyphs are in the right place, and your reactivity sigils aren't crooked like last time. Here goes!" The eldest Weasley sent a silent stinging jinx towards Harry, the jet of pale blue light shooting towards him. Once it drew closer to him, the spell suddenly changed course, striking the parchment instead, and a spark of electricity shot out of the parchment towards Bill, eliciting a yelp from the man as he was shocked. Hermione and the two younger Weasleys cheered as Harry looked at the stave he'd drawn. As expected, it was now blackened and charred, but he'd done it! Harry couldn't help the proud of his achievement, despite the many attempts it had taken.

"You did it!" Hermione exclaimed, beaming at him. Harry felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Ron looking excited.

"Mate, you need to make me one of those so I can go bait Malfoy." Harry chuckled at his friend.

"I would, but I doubt Hermione would approve of such a use for the wonderful art form that is Runes." He replied with a mock loftiness as his female friend glared daggers at Ron.

"Ronald Weasley. You are not going to go seeking out fights with Malfoy this year" scolded Hermione.

"Oh come on," Ron complained as Bill caught Harry and Ginny's eyes and made a whipping noise and motion, causing both of them to laugh.

"Like you aren't." Ginny retorted, mimicking one of Fleur's hair flicks, and Bill stuck his tongue out in reply.

"Good job though Harry, The static jinx was a nice touch."

"Had to get you back for those stingers, didn't I?" He replied, causing them all to laugh.

"You definitely don't have to worry about being put in the Third Year class now, right Hermione?" Ron asked, and Hermione agreed happily.

"You might end up with the 5th years like me" added Ginny with a wink as Mrs Weasley called them inside to get ready for the evening's festivities.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-AEVS:TSF-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Harry had invited Luna and Neville over for the celebrations, the latter of whom was also celebrating his birthday. This had led to the idea of a shared birthday party, and the inclusion of Hannah Abbott, whose love of Herbology had led to a close friendship forming between with Neville, and well as Susan Bones, Hannah's best friend. Both girls had been part of Dumbledore's Army the previous year and had easily joined into the conversations, sharing in the excitement of DA becoming an official club, although Susan's enthusiasm seemed a little hollow. The three of them had arrived with Augusta Longbottom, Neville's grandmother. Seeing Harry, Ron and Neville were all present, they'd opted to invite Seamus and Dean as well, who had arrived by Floo from Seamus' place in Ireland. To everyone's surprise, Ginny had almost thrown herself at Dean when he'd arrived, and Neville and Harry had needed to drag Ron away before he could meddle in his sister's love life. Fred and George had arrived soon afterwards carrying a large box, winking at Mrs Weasley when she began interrogating the pair about its contents. Both twins had then been set upon by a frantic Hermione, who was waving the silver telescope around. Despite two weeks passing, the bruise on her eye was just as vivid as the day she'd received it, and she'd been forced to hide it with a liberal amount of makeup each day since. Fred had handed her a familiar-looking tube of paste which had removed the bruise instantly. Harry felt a sudden pang of guilt as he realised the crate the twins had given him contained a similar tube, before being distracted by the arrival of Hagrid, who managed to get stuck in the gate.

Lupin had been the next to arrive, embracing Harry, and asking him quietly how he was going. He'd thought about his reply for a moment, before telling the werewolf that he'd decided to keep living his life the best he could to make Sirius proud. Lupin had been taken aback for a moment, before clapping Harry on the back and telling him that his godfather would indeed be proud of the man he was becoming. Finally, after 7 o'clock, Mr Weasley along with Tonks, Kingsley and Mad-Eye Moody had all walked in through the garden gate, having apparated from the Ministry. The three Aurors had requested to act as the "security" for the party. But, Harry noted happily, the dark shadow that had fallen over magical Britain was forgotten as the partygoers enjoyed each other's company. Take that Voldemort. It brought him a sense of satisfaction to know that despite everything going on, people could still find a reason to celebrate.

At one stage of the night, Ginny had nudged Harry before nodding towards the edge of the garden. Neville and Hannah were sitting rather close together, and Hannah was leaning against the Gryffindor boy, who looked completely terrified. Harry and Ginny had shared a laugh, until his eyes had fallen on Susan, sitting on the other side of the garden by herself and looking quite forlorn. Remembering what he'd read in the Daily Prophet and the conversation at the Ministry about Madam Bones, he grabbed a butterbeer, then walked over and sat next to her.

"Here", he passed her the drink. "So, not really in the partying mood?" She raised an eyebrow. "Ok yeah, that one was lame." He admitted, blushing, although he noted the corners of the redhead's lips twitched upwards.

"Sorry for being so miserable Harry," Susan said softly. "I'm just a little worn out at the moment." She stared down at her feet.

"I'm sorry about your aunt. She helped me when I was on trial about that Patronus." Harry watched as Susan turned to look at him, and he was startled by the grief clear in her bloodshot eyes. Without really thinking, he reached over and wrapped an arm around the girl, pulling her into a somewhat awkward side hug. Was that what I looked like after Siri- He was startled out of his thoughts when Susan suddenly buried her face in his shoulder and started sobbing. Crap. What did I do? What do I do? Panicking, he looked around quickly. He saw Hermione looking at them, slightly concerned, and he had a feeling Moody's magical eye was focused on him. Not really knowing what to do, he gently rubbed the crying girl's back until she settled, although she still gave the occasional sniffle. Figuring he had to act, he forced himself to start talking.

"I know how you feel and how much you're hurting right now." Harry murmured softly, still moving his hand in circles across her back. "My Godfather died at the end of June, trying to protect me." He felt her stiffen.

"Sirius Black?" Susan croaked, surprising him.

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"A-aunt Amy was th- the head of the DMLE. S-she told me what happened at the Mini- nistry,' she hiccupped and Harry saw the warning signs of a fresh wave of tears as she spoke.

"Yeah, so trust me, I know how it feels. I was just like you are now. Still am, although I'm getting there." And it was true. Harry knew he was in no way past grieving for Sirius, but he had made progress.

"How are you do- doing so well though? You seem like you're holding out much better than I am." He sighed, almost expecting the question.

"To be honest, I wasn't really. When Sirius first died, I tried to follow him through the veil." He heard Susan suck in a breath. "Then I went for revenge. I even cast the Cruciatus curse on Bellatrix Lestrange." He glanced at Susan, feeling a little sick at what he'd done and waiting for the look of horror, but to his surprise, her eyes showed understanding.

"You wanted her to hurt. To pay for what she'd done, right?" The intensity was startling, and Harry knew the thought of revenge had definitely crossed the redhead's mind.

"Yeah exactly. Even once I got back to Hogwarts, I literally trashed Dumbledore's office. I definitely wasn't coping. But then a few weeks ago, I saw Dumbledore again and he said something that really got me thinking; it struck a chord. He asked me to think about how the people we've lost would want us to live our lives. Living as a depressed shadow of ourselves is just letting the other side win and going against what your aunt and Sirius stood for. Sirius also kind of left me a note saying he hated the idea of me like that, lost in grief and shutting myself off from everyone, instead of making the most of every moment like he wanted to."

"But it's so hard." The words were barely a whisper. Harry sighed and squeezed Susan's shoulder.

"I know. I know. Like I said, it still hurts when I think about him, but then I channel that pain you know? I remind myself that even though it's okay to be sad, I don't want anyone else to feel that way, so I have to do everything I can to protect the people I care about. And that way, I'll be living my life in a way that would make Sirius proud. I think that whatever you do, as long as you give it your all and remember her, your aunt would be proud too." Susan was looking at him, her eyes shining with unshed tears and her mouth half-open in an expression Harry couldn't quite name. Then suddenly she leaned closer and gently wrapped her arms around his torso. Harry's brain stopped working for a moment after that. He hadn't really had much to do with Susan outside of classes and DA, nor with hugs outside of Mrs Weasley and Hermione, so the contact wasn't really something he'd been expecting. He was vaguely aware that she was crying again, so he gently held her until her tears had ceased once more. He fought back the urge to sneeze as her red hair tickled his nose.

"Thanks, Harry. I needed that." Her words reminded Harry strongly of how he had thanked Luna for her advice earlier in the holidays. Breaking the hug and wiping her eyes, she offered him a shaky smile. "I can see why so many people are putting their hopes in you. You're really something special, you know?" Harry gave a nervous laugh.

"Nah, I'm just me. Honestly, I've had enough attention for a lifetime in the past month alone." They both stood.

"I think you need to give yourself more credit." Susan smiled gently at him, before giving him a final hug, then dashing away inside, Hermione following her. Harry shook his head, internally wondering how he'd ended up giving advice when in his own opinion, he was pretty screwed up inside.

"Good job Potter." Harry jumped into the air at the gruff voice, whipping out his wand and looking around wildly, before relaxing with a sigh. Moody was standing less than 3 metres from him, with a surprisingly gentle smile. "She's been taking it pretty damn hard." The grizzled Auror continued. "Amelia was a close friend of mine, so I've been keeping an eye on Susan and her parents since she was killed."

"I just told her what other people had said to me." Harry tried to downplay his involvement. People seemed intent on giving him more credit than he deserved.

"No. I overheard most of that chat – forgive me for eavesdropping by the way. You opened yourself up to the lass, shared your own personal experiences. That's what helped her." The Auror's luminous blue eye stared at him intently, before swivelling to look towards The Burrow. "She's coming out again. Fixed her makeup. I'm going to check on her." Sure enough, Susan and Hermione emerged from the Burrow, and Moody began to limp away, surprisingly silent considering his wooden leg, when he suddenly stopped. "Dumbledore told me about your bag and all the shit you've got packed in it. Good work." He grinned at Harry, his scarred features making it quite the terrifying sight. "Glad to know my imposter at least taught you something. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" He suddenly roared, causing most people at the party to jump, before they broke into laughter at Moody's antics. With that parting remark and a wink from his good eye, he shuffled away towards Susan.

After Harry rejoined the rest of the party, it was time to sing Happy Birthday. The cake was in the shape of a massive Gryffindor lion, baked by Ron and Mrs Weasley, much to the visitors' surprise. After everyone had eaten their fill, the contents of the Weasley Twins' box had been revealed in a stunning fireworks display, culminating in the words 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRY AND NEVILLE' written across the air in fiery letters. The party had oohed and ahhed as the rockets had whizzed around the Burrow's garden, and even Mrs Weasley's held a look of wonder as she watched her sons' creations. Eventually, the party had concluded as the last sparklers burnt out, and the guests slowly began to depart. Hagrid and Lupin had been the first to leave, and Harry wondered for a Susan had given him another tight hug on the way out, raising a few eyebrows. Harry also guessed she had told Hannah, judging from the fact she'd given him a warm smile and a quick embrace as well. Although that was quickly forgotten when the second Hufflepuff had stood on tiptoe and kissed Neville on lightly on the cheek, before winking at the stunned boy and walking down the garden path, followed by a giggling Susan and Moody, who was apparating both girls home.

"Bloody hell," Neville muttered, his hand pressed to his cheek. The friends had burst into laughter at his shock before his amused grandmother had declared it time to leave. Next, Mrs Finnegan arrived to take her son and Dean home and wandered over to where Harry was sitting with Luna on a log in the garden.

"I thought I'd come over and say Happy Birthday in person." The sandy-haired witch smiled, before continuing. "We only met briefly at the world cup, but Seamus has mentioned you a lot."

"Uh, thanks." Harry laughed awkwardly, especially as he remembered how last year she'd had apparently gotten onboard the ministry's persecution campaign against both him and Dumbledore. He noticed that Mrs Finnegan's smile seemed rather forced but he attempted to continue the conversation. "Has it been a good holiday?"

"Oh yes. It's been so wonderful, especially now that I've met you." Slightly unnerved out by the woman's words, Harry frown deepened as Mrs Finnegan gave a twitch. A loud yawn from Luna interrupted his thoughts as the younger witch brazenly leaned over and buried her head in the crook of his neck, giving Harry a faceful of hair.

"Her eyes." So quiet that he almost missed it, Luna gave no outward signs that she'd said anything. Harry's gaze instinctively shifted up to meet with Mrs' Finnegan's own glazed eyes- OH SHIT!

He barely had a chance to notice that the Irish witch had drawn her wand from somewhere before Luna's full weight suddenly slammed against him, sending them both tumbling from the log, as a pink jet of light soared through the air where his head had been a moment before. Casting a shield charm as he fell, Harry pushed Luna behind him just as a blaze of red lit up the garden, but their assailant was already lying on the ground, with the wand of almost every adult in the garden trained on her unmoving body. Looking around, he breathed a sigh of relief as everyone seemed unharmed. There was a moment of shocked silence, as people tried to process what had just happened, before:

"MAM!" Seamus ran forward, wand drawn, only to be roughly seized by the Weasley twins, who were closest to him. The Gryffindor boy turned red as he looked at the wand pressed into his chest. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" He screamed at the pair as many of the adults' wands shifted to point at him and his best friend.

"We've got to make sure you're not going to try to kill anyone as well," Fred said as he held his wand steady.

"LET ME G-!" The Irish boy roared angrily.

"Seamus please calm down." Mr Weasley held up his hands, trying to calm him down.

"SHUT UP and listen to us so we can get this over with." George cut over Seamus's angry yells. "Ginny get away from him." George's wand was pointed at Dean. Ginny hastily stepped away from her boyfriend, realising, like everyone else present, just how uncharacteristically serious the twins were. Harry was briefly of Mr Weasley conjuring ropes around Mrs Finnegan, a large Patronus soaring from Tonks' wand into the night, and Kingsley shepherding the agitated trio of Ron, Hermione and Ginny inside the Burrow. "Harry, Luna. You both okay?" Mr Weasley called across the garden. Harry looked at Luna for confirmation, and seeing her smile and nod, he replied.

"Yeah, we're both fine." He gratefully helped Luna to her feet as the twins continued to verify Seamus and Dean's identities.

"In your first year at Hogwarts, you were experimenting with magic in the great hall when it blew up in your face. What were you trying to do?" The struggling boy finally paused at Fred's question and Harry thought back as he remembered the event in question. To his immense relief, after a moment of confusion, Seamus replied correctly.

"I was trying to turn water into rum." Fred nodded, lowering his wand, and the boy bolted to his unconscious mother's side.

"Okay, Dean, what skiving snackboxes did you purchase from us before we left Hogwarts last year?" George asked the other Gryffindor.

"Uh, Fainting Fancies and Nosebleed Nougat, right?" Dean sounded shaken, but he seemed understandably calmer than Seamus. George relaxed and lowered his wand.

"They're both okay," Fred announced, and there was a palpable decrease in tension from the assembled crowd. Seamus was with Tonks next to his mother, the Auror forcing a vial of a pale blue potion that Harry recognised as a calming draught into the boy's hand. Mrs Weasley and Fleur were crouched next to them, wands glowing over Mrs Finnegan's body in what he recognised as diagnostic charms Madam Pomfrey was fond of.

"Is anyone else injured?" Kingsley's commanding voice boomed over the multitude of voices that had all begun to speak. He waited a moment, before continuing. "Well done you two." He called over to the twins before shifting his attention to Harry and Luna. "Right you two. Tell me exactly what happened." Lupin also joined them.

"Mrs Finnegan just came over and wished me a happy birthday before she started acting really weird. Then Luna noticed her eyes- she was under the Imperius." Luna spoke up at that point.

"Daddy and I wrote an article about how to recognise the signs. She was trying to fight it, her body was twitching. So either she was very strong, or the person who cast the curse wasn't very good at it. Or maybe both." Harry glanced back behind where he'd been sitting, taking in the deep gouge that had been ripped into the side of Mr Weasley's shed. Realising how close he'd come to being decapitated sent shivers down his spine.

"And then what happened?" Kingsley prompted, as Tonks and Mr Weasley disapparated with Dean, Seamus and the comatose Mrs Finnegan.

"Well, Mrs Finnegan had drawn her wand, and she went to attack us, but Luna shoved us both off the log. The spell missed us and then someone must have stunned her."

"She was hit with stunners from Tonks, Bill, Fleur and myself. Tonks is taking her and the boys to St. Mungo's now. That's about all I need from you for a report. Did you have anything to add Miss Lovegood?" Seeing Luna shake her head, he nodded. "In that case, I'll go speak to Arthur before I leave for the ministry. You should both head inside and ask Molly for a calming draught." The tall Auror strode off towards the Weasley patriarch and Harry and Luna followed his advice, moving inside. As soon as they stepped through the door, they were mobbed by Ron, Hermione and Ginny.

"Are you okay?"

"What happened?"

"How come she attacked you?"

"Luna! Your hair!"

The three of them all started talking simultaneously and not really giving either Luna or himself a chance to reply as they made their way to the sitting room. The last exclamation, however, from Ginny, caused everyone to stop and stare at the petite blonde. A section of her long hair was missing, cut back to shoulder height. Luna started to speak, answering each person in turn.

"We are both fine, although Harry seems to have scraped his arm-" Glancing down, Harry was surprised to see that Luna was right; he hadn't even noticed. "-Mrs Finnegan tried to attack Harry, but we tumbled out of the way just in time, and she attacked him because she was under the Imperius curse. As for my hair…" Seeing the direction of their gazes, the girl in question reached to her left and grabbed her hair to examine it.

"Oh, the curse must have clipped it." She mused out loud, sounding rather interested. "It did a rather good job. It's a very neat cut." Their combined relief that no one was hurt and Luna's oh-so-typical carefree attitude somewhat lightened the mood.

"I'm sure Mrs Weasley can regrow it for you," Hermione said, although she sounded unsure. Luna shrugged her usual smile back on her face.

"I don't mind. It gives my hair character, don't you think? Although I suppose I was considering a trim."

"You saved my life, Luna. If you hadn't realised and pushed me out of the way-" Harry stopped, swallowing nervously. The petite blonde beamed at him.

"I prefer you alive and well thank you very much. You've finally gotten rid of most of your wrackspurts. It wouldn't do for you to go and lose your head." Her macabre pun sent the group made him chuckle as Mrs Weasley approached, levitating several potion bottles in front of her.

"Is everyone okay?" She flicked her wand, and a calming draught flew into each of their hands. Looking each of them over, she sighed in relief as they downed the potion. "I'm so glad. Fleur and I had to look over Nola; being hit with that many stunners could kill someone."

"Will she be okay?" Harry asked, concerned. It wasn't Mrs Finnegan's fault that she'd attacked them. It didn't make sense to be angry at her. Mrs Weasley nodded.

"She should make a full recovery, although it will take a while, and she'll need to speak to the Auror office. Tonks sent a Patronus to the Aurors before she left for the hospital, so I expect there'll be an entire squad here soon." She gave a disapprovingly frown as she continued.

"I expect it will be even longer before you lot will finally get to sleep. They'll want to talk to everyone present." Almost on cue, there were a series of pops from the garden, and they all rushed to the door with wands drawn, only to relax upon seeing a small group of Aurors talking with Kingsley and Mr Weasley.

"Come back to the sitting room and I'll make everyone a cup of tea." Mrs Weasley herded them back inside. "They can come and get you when they want to interview you." She stepped back into the kitchen.

"I can't believe that something like this could actually happen," Hermione said quietly once Mrs Weasley had left. "You read about it in the paper, but..."

"Yeah, poor Seamus. Having your own mum try to kill one of your mates. You'd feel bad not noticing that anything was wrong either," Ron commented, looking quite unnerved.

"We don't know when she was placed under the Imperius though." Harry pointed out. "It could have been while Seamus and Dean were here. They wouldn't have known then. I reckon that Seamus or his dad would have spotted the curse pretty quickly if Luna was able to notice it as fast as she did. Thank God for that article that you and your dad wrote."

"Oh, that reminds me." Mrs Weasley returned holding a tray with six mugs on it. "Luna dear, I know you were going to stay the night, but I tried to Floo your father to let him know, but he didn't answer." She added, turning to the girl.

"Oh, he's in Munich for the next three weeks searching for German Linataurs."

"What are German Lina- Wait, are you staying at the Rookery on your own?" Mrs Weasley's eyes widened at this revelation, and Harry felt his eyebrows rise. He had known that the Lovegoods were eccentric, but to leave your fifteen-year-old daughter home alone for three weeks was a bit of a stretch.

"Yes, but it's quite alright. He did want me to come along, but I've never had friends before last year, and I didn't want to miss Harry and Neville's birthday party." There was silence, only broken by the Ravenclaw girl yawning, as once again Luna's knack for speaking uncomfortable truths shone through. After a moment, Harry reached over and pulled the younger girl into a tight hug. She stiffened in surprise, then he felt her relax.

"Luna, you're the best friend anyone could wish for." He quietly spoke into the blonde's ear, before releasing her from the hug a moment later.

"Thank you Harry." She smiled serenely at him, and for a moment, Harry thought that her eyes seemed to shine even more than normal, before his attention was pulled away by a knock on the door.

"Can we talk to Mr Potter please?" Fighting off a yawn of his own, Harry mentally prepared himself for the long night ahead.

A/N:

So this is my most extensively rewritten chapter to date, as anyone who remembers the original will realise.

Here we see Harry start to dive into runes, and a few of the applications of the topic. We also have Harry and Neville's bday party, and a wake up call to everyone that Voldemort is no longer a threat from the shadows.

One of the recurring feedback topics I had in the original version of TSF was that it was hard to remember some of the rune system that I introduced, so I thought I'd provide a TL;DR style summary of the system thus far.

Rune Lesson 1:

For easy reference - in my version of the HP Universe:

Rune - Individual character

Sigil - Group of runes that perform a function, such as charging the design, or detecting spells.

Stave (Runic Array) - An array of sigils, joined by lines to link the individual functions together.

By imbuing the designs with magic, the runes can then shape that magic to produce an effect.

These arrays require a power source, and are usually charged by a witch or wizard by using the spell Galdrastafos. Alternatively they can be powered from a power source, such as power stored in a precious gem.

Active staves produce a magical effect when manually activated. Passive staves are always exhibiting their magical effect, and Reactive staves display their effects in response to some condition, for example, a jinx in close proximity. One could argue that Reactive staves are then a combination of Passive staves (seeing as they're always awaiting the trigger condition, which would expend some of the stored magic), and Active Staves (as they then perform some effect after being activated by the trigger condition).

This A/N is dragging on now, so I'll leave it there, but thank you for reading, and please leave any feedback if you have time.

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