Chapter 7: Moonlit Conspiracies (Leap Day Special)

The echo of his footsteps carried forth to announce his presence to the snoring portraits that lined the hallway leading to the headmaster's office. Usually he would wear his invisibility cloak when sneaking around the castle after curfew to avoid detection but today had proven itself to be anything but ordinary. Unknown attackers, suspected to be Death Eaters, had tried to ambush the Hogwarts students only to change their plans once they realized that their target had disappeared from the Hogwarts Express. The Order, aided by Ministry Aurors, had targeted the attackers down the length of the tracks while the students calmly got to the safety of the castle as if it was another ordinary school year. He hadn't even known that there had been a battle, all that he had wanted was to get inside the warm confines of the castle after coming to terms that he could not reverse the past. Only Luna had known of his whereabouts. Luna…

He shook his head as he side-stepped a suit of armour a mere moment before he would have crashed into the figure, awakening every portrait in the hallway to flights of fury. Ron and Hermione had given him a piece of their mind for scaring them out of their minds while the twins looked on confused as to why they weren't addressing the Snorkack in the room. Although judging by Ron's balled fists and Hermione's drawn eyes to Luna's timid smile, he was guessing that he would be chewed out about his actions in private. He shivered, the action having nothing to do with the chill blowing in from the stairways.

It'd been preferable to have been yelled at on the astronomy tower, at least then he wouldn't have felt guilty for Luna reaching over to gently nibble on his ear that sent Hermione's face swelling in anger mid-rant until he thought that she was going to explode like a card from exploding snap. They had told him to find Dumbledore before leaving, dragging along Luna to stop distracting him while the latter dug her teeth into her bottom lip. Luna…

He found himself lying sprawled on the floor, muttering curses at the gargoyle that had taken to standing in the middle of the corridor without a care for those too mentally occupied to see its folded wings in the dimmed shadows of the fifth-floor corridor. "I need to see Professor Dumbledore."

The stupid piece of stone responsible for his mild headache leaned its head inquisitively to the side before moving aside, revealing the rising staircase to Dumbledore's office. He knocked three times after ascending to the door, hearing a timid 'Come in!' on his fourth attempt. The wooden door swung open to reveal the headmaster's office, desk filled in odd bits of baubles and trinkets that gave the office its mystical outlook, framed as it was by the many bookshelves that lined the walls seeming to dwarf whoever wished to visit the illustrious room.

It was the aged headmaster however that took the mystical aspect of the room to a whole other level with his eyes glinting like stars from behind his rimmed half-moon spectacles so similar to Harry's own glasses, hiding his blackened arm on his lap as a smile graced his face at his presence, Fawkes's happy trills playing along to the headmasters response, "Harry! I must say that I am relieved to see you doing fine and well! Lemon drop?"

"Umm no headmaster. Ron said that I should visit you as soon as possible."

"Ahh yes, Harry my boy I understand that you've had a most interesting night and your penchant for disappearing has left us, that is those that are consumed for your well-being such as the Weasleys and myself, quite affected with your disappearance. Tell me Harry, where had you disappeared too that we couldn't find you? Did you by any chance apparate into Hogsmeade or did you use an invisibility charm from the restricted section that evades detection?"

"I was just relaxing on top of the train sir."

Dumbledore's twinkle stopped, his glasses climbing so low that they almost fell from the bridge of his crooked nose, "The top of the train? Are you sure my boy?"

"Yes sir, it was packed with snow and it made for an excellent bed."

"Oh so you weren't in any trouble. Good news indeed!" Dumbledore gloated, seeming not to care what he had been doing on top of the train in the first place, "You must understand that we were extremely worried about you young Harry. First the disappearance on your last day before winter break and now disappearing from the Hogwarts Express! We had surly thought that the wards had been compromised and when news of pursuing Death Eaters appearing on the tracks reached my ears we feared the worst but no matter. The Death Eaters have been repelled, the wards have been strengthened all over Hogwarts and Hogsmeade and you are safe.

"You and our fellow students must forgive me Harry but due to today's events the start of the term feast has been cancelled with a short dinner course having already been served upon the student's arrival. If however you are to find yourself famished tonight then you are bound to find out that all common rooms shall be equipped with meals just for this evening to make sure that no one goes to bed hungry. Now that the essentials have been sorted out, I have another thing to discuss with you before I let you go to rest for the night after your adventurous day, although perhaps it is better if I were simply to show you."

Dumbledore's wand brought forth the pensive from its hiding spot, the tip of the wand being used to retrieve a memory strand from a phial before placing it into the pensives silvery depths. They both submerged after an 'After you Harry' to recall a memory concerning one Tom Marvolo Riddle in his childhood quest to stopper death and achieve immortality. He raised his head from the silvery substance in panic to come face to face with an inquisitive Dumbledore.

"Horcruxes?" he whispered hoarsely, remembering the blackened monstrosity that had hid underneath his bench at Kings Cross Station, "He made Horcruxes?"

"It appears so, although we do not know how many he has made. Tom has always had a flare for the dramatic, choosing only the magically strong numbers for his experiments. I would venture to suggest that the number should be one, three or seven and since you have already destroyed the diary young Harry and I the stone, I am tempted to believe that there is only one more horcrux left."

Harry shook his head in disbelief, the pieces of the puzzle coming together in his head, "You're wrong."

Dumbledore half-mooned spectacles barely sat on their perch, "And why do you think so?"

"Because," he started, "We destroyed three: the book, the ring and the third one inside of me."

Dumbledore's glasses clattered to the floor in surprise. No sooner than he had lost his composure had the great Albus Dumbledore swished his wand for the offending piece of glass to fly back into his hands, cleaning them with a silent Episkey before donning them once more, "I am afraid that I do not follow you young Harry."

"I was the third Horcrux headmaster. Sirius said so when I… died."

Dumbledore rubbed his forehead, looking as if he did not want to deal with the revelations that such truths brought in the middle of the night, "That is good news although the fact that you died has me worried far more greatly than you will ever know. I doubt that you will be able to survive another death so do try to be careful Harry before you've at least finished your education, lest you end up hunting nundu in Africa or robbing underwater banks in Sweden or whatever it is that you youngsters do for fun these days. Before we move on, is there anything else that I should be aware of from your previous trip?"

He remembered Fleur with a gulp, "No… uh, sir."

The headmasters eyes twinkled, "No I shouldn't know or no you won't tell me?"

"Both sir."

"Very well." Dumbledore leaned back into his impressive seat, seeming to contemplate his next words before he spoke them, "Then you will be delighted to know that an old friend of yours that is nominally a part of the order has requested to teach you French given the interest that the French Ministry of Magic is displaying toward you. You wouldn't mind attending the extra classes say, once a week? I know that you would rather use it to chat up the lovely Ms. Granger but it is for your own benefit Harry my boy."

His heart thundered in his chest, the words escaping his lips on automatic, "I would be glad to… sir."

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled madly, "Something that I should know?"

He regained his senses, sure that his face was burning a bright red, "No."

"Good, then let us hope it stays that way considering how insistent the young Delacour was in teaching you. Nearly burned my beard off too, I hope that you will be able to reign her in from attempting such foolishness again," Dumbledore sent him a meaningful look that seemed to speak of further understanding than he had let on so far leaving him mortified in his seat as he was left to wonder what else the aging headmaster knew about his female friendships, "Moving on then, I have a task for you that must be completed before we are to meet again. As you have already no doubt deduced, the memory that your potions professor provided is indeed a fake. We need to retrieve the real memory to make sure of the exact number of Horcruxes that we are dealing with here."

He broke out of his stupor. "But how am I to do that when even you couldn't get out his memory!"

A smile flitted past Dumbledore's once again glinting eyes, "Horace so does love collecting prizes. Me he is wary of but you… you young Harry are in the perfect position to retrieve the memory. I leave the methods up to you although do try to keep things above the board; afterall, I would rather not have to answer to the board of governors how a sixteen year old student managed to drug the potions professor with veritaserum at my school. Now you must excuse me for the day has left my old bones creaky and in need of some desperate rest. Till we next meet mister Potter."

He left the headmaster's office, head abuzz as he strode towards the Gryffindor common room in the dead of night, his mind buzzing at Dumbledore's unmanageable expectations on retrieving the memory from Horace Slughorn, the French lessons that would bring Fleur back into his life once more and… Luna…

The portrait opened upon receiving the password, allowing him in only for his feet to betray him by stopping once he saw who else occupied the common room. Hermione and Ron were sitting on the couch, their eyes glued to his as he rubbed his collar. Something told him that he wasn't going to like what was going to happen next. He tried to sidestep them to get up the stairs when Ron's firm hand on his shoulder had him looking at the frown marring the face of his best mate. Oh yeah… he was definitely screwed.

He shrugged of the hold, climbing two stairs at a time, charming the door shut behind him before he silently swore when Hermione began to undo his charms. Why were girls allowed in the boys dormitories again? He looked around at the sleeping forms of Seamus and Dean, Neville's groggy expression open-mouthed when the boy processed that a murderous Harry was standing above him, unfortunately aware that Neville was clutching his wand underneath his covers.

Cursing at his misfortune and deciding to wipe away all thoughts of Neville from existence, he eyed up his Fireball that sat next to his opened trunk from where the others had gotten his map making nowhere in the castle safe from their ire. Oh what the hell! He wasn't even mad that they went through his stuff given that they were worried over him but this time he needed some time for himself. Grabbing his broom and opening the window for the gusts of wind to shiver everyone inside to death, he threw a lopsided salute in Neville's direction, "Don't tell them where I went and I won't tell them about your sodomy!" before jumping out of the Gryffindor tower, shouting in exhilaration as he finally felt freedom, Neville's heartfelt cry of "I killed Harry Potter!" ringing loud and clear as the door to the sixth year Gryffindor dormitory was finally pried open.

He lazily did a few rounds around Hogwarts castle, staying clear of McGonagall's office that had its lights on even at this late hour before the chill in the air and the snow underfoot reminded him of a person that refused to leave his mind despite not existing in it since after they had went to Slughorn's Christmas party together. He had afterall invited her for a reason. He found himself unable to get rid of her bubbly eyes and ever-present smile from his mind. Luna…

He angled the Firebolt towards Ravenclaw's tower, zooming around as he flitted by the many windows until he recognized Luna's silvery locks shining from where she slept. Opening the window hatch with a quietly intoned Alohomora instead of rapping the glass which could have woken the other girls inside, he sent a brief warming charm to heat up Luna's body before her eyelids crawled open, her silver eyes landing on his figure. "Harry? What are you… doing 'ere –"

He brought his finger up to his lips to shush her before gesturing to the broom, "Want a ride?"

Luna shifted in her bed, unwilling to leave its confines, "But its cold out there."

"Well you know the warming charm better than me so you better get up here or I'll join you down there."

"Oh fine," Luna teetered, shivering in the face of the cool winds entering the window despite the warming charms as he averted his gaze to allow her to get dressed before letting them wonder as she climbed out of the window onto his broom, "Couldn't sleep?"

"Kept thinking about you," he muttered, kicking away from the window with his good foot as they flowed into the winds.

"Aww that is so sweet. C'mon though, tell me the real reason you have to prance around in the middle of the night suffocating your expensive piece of wood half-way to death. Please don't tell me that you are still blaming yourself over Tonks?"

His eyes darkened as he firmly kept his attention on the tip of his broom, "If only I had warned her as I'd made out to do instead of getting distracted by Scrimgeour…"

"Oh Harry," Luna leaned her head on his shoulder causing his heart to double in its attempt to leap out of his chest, "You shouldn't blame yourself for things that you have no control over. Its not good for you, you know?"

"Hermione says the same thing," he laughed, angling them to go around the keeper's hoops where the stands protected them from the worst of the wind.

"Well then maybe she is right," Luna stated against the backdrop of the wind.

"Thanks Luna. You're the best," he whispered back in the dark, meaning every word.

"Be careful there mister Potter. Other girls would think that you're falling for me," Luna giggled into his ear, making him suddenly aware of just how close they were sitting on his broom with no one there to see them.

"Would it truly be so bad?" he asked hopefully, afraid to turn his head.

Luna's sigh practically ripped open his heart, "No, but we both know that it wouldn't be right. You're just confused now that's all. I'm not surprised with all of the stuff that's been happening around you recently not to mention the nargle nest that's settled in your head. I've helped you unleash Ginny's green monster so that she can finally realise her true feelings for you so I think that we're even for that heating charm from the forbidden forest."

He shook his head in amazement, picking up speed as he raced higher as if seeking the snitch. "Luna you are the best friend that a guy could ask for!"

Luna's voice turned timid, fragile as she leant in closer to his waist, "Do you really mean that?"

"Yes!" he yelled as he pulled out a Wronskei feint that saw them drop the length of the Quidditch pitch in a intestine-shifting freefall.

"Harry!" she squealed, holding onto him tighter to not fall at his cries of exhilaration.

They pulled to a stop near the bottom of the pitch, his laughing filling the stadium while her hands furiously cuffed him for being so stupid. His eyes on full-on Dumbledore twinkle mode, he turned around to look at Luna directly for the first time since they had left Ravenclaw's tower. Her breath hitched as his face drew closer but he bypassed her lips in favour of her ear, enjoying the fun that they were having too much to blunder it all in the heat of the moment.

"If you're so sure that it is Ginny that I want then how would you like to help me really get Ginny jealous?"

"Why do you want to go further?" Luna's eyes lost their dreamy quality, arching her eyebrow in the most serious Luna expression that he had ever seen that made him thankful that he was wearing airy robes.

He continued breathlessly whispering into her ear in the middle of the night where only crickets could be heard amid the soft motions of the Firebolt, "It's not so much for me as it is for you. All of those classmates of yours that stole from you will be jealous beyond belief come morning I swear to you that. It'll kill two birds with one stone."

Luna's breath hitched, her eyes staring into his own, "Whatever your plan is, it's bound to be wrong."

He did not let up his impassioned stare, "It would only be human."

Luna closed her eyes, sighing in apparent defeat at him having used her own rhetoric, "What did you have in mind?"

The morning rays of sunlight penetrated the windows quartered glass to pierce the room in wakeful silence. His eyebrows hitched open to the wafting smell of perfume when all that his body needed was fuel for his growing needs. He shifted, suddenly aware of the small body spooned around his naked torso, his mind unwilling to divulge the secrets of last night. Thankfully the drawn sheets of the four-poster bed were enough to keep the actual rays from torturing his eyes so he decided to bask in the pseudo-darkness until his luck ran out. He watched in horror as the posters shifted as a feminine hand reached out to pull the curtains open.

"Wake up Luna or you're going to miss the first day of… oh…" Nanette Desford's face shifted to be as pink as the rising sun before her emotions caught up to her as she squealed, throwing the curtains shut as quickly as she could.

"C'mon I'm not that bad!" he groaned, holding up his hand to face the sudden onslaught of the light.

"Boy – in Luna's bed – Harry Potter – Eek!" Nanette hyperventilated outside to what seemed to be like a full audience.

He unfolded his hands, stretching as he pulled back the curtains to just where he could face the three other girls in pyjamas, "Hush you. You're going to wake up Luna."

All that did was send the fifth-year girls squealing as they sought cover behind their own curtains as he huffed in irritation. Suddenly a stupendously brave Nanette appeared in his face causing him to glare at the bringer of the light. She kept sprouting nonsense that rolled off her tongue faster than he could understand it before Luna rolled over, her eyes serious even as his gaze fixed on the puppy dog faces with stuck out tongues covering her protruding nipples, "Desford just shut up."

"You've got to teach me that trick," he complained as Nanette's jaw slackened when he began dressing up in his clothes that were strewn across the bottom of the bed.

"Stay. You're warm," Luna brought him back, snuggling against his bare chest as Nanette seemed to suffer a stroke.

"I… I need to… need to," Nanette repeated in a daze as she left the room dressed in only her pyjamas.

Luna's icy eye cracked open, "If that is Nanette's reaction every time this happens then I think that we'll need to do this more frequently Harry."

He smirked, "Get dressed or we're going to miss breakfast!"

"I don't think that we're going to get enough breakfast however fast we get ready today," Luna uncharacteristically grumbled as she was forced out of bed, stretching her arms into the air with a yawn that invariably made him infinitely appreciative of the wizarding choice of fashion, not that it helped him any considering her innocent question, "Want me to help you with that?"

"Luna we just passed out for Merlin's sake! At least that's what I remember, no idea what you did to me in the middle of the night," he mouthed so that the others wouldn't hear them.

"Oh I did enough," Luna teased him, changing her shirt with her back turned to him leaving his breath hitching as he got an eyeful of her bare back and couldn't help himself in imagining what lay on the other side, "Relax, I was just joking. You really need to write daddy about your nargle affliction, I think its starting to affect your good humour. So how do you want to do this?"

"Do what?" he asked, mind still caught up in his imagination.

"You know? Your exit strategy? The walk of shame," the hint of Luna's smile had him reconsidering his affections for the girl while she brushed her hair.

"There is no shame in sleeping with you," he scoffed, noticing that the edge of Luna's smile had transformed into something more genuine. "As to my exit strategy, well there's no point in going down the stairs considering that they'll turn into a slide and I will be trapped in the common room for the ass biting of a lifetime. Guess I'll just have to brave the drop then."

"My Romeo," Luna giggled, finally putting on her robe and turning around to face him, her lips a shining orange that would have looked odd on any other girl but not on Luna.

She leaned in, leaving a wet kiss on his cheek and the bottom of his lip that turned his mind into a soggy mess resulting in the entire logical department going on strike for better protection from all of this haywire activity. He was suddenly aware of all of the nervous giggling happening outside the curtains but he just couldn't be bothered to care, not when Luna was so close to his touch.

He finally got around to working out how to ask an adequate question when Luna's giggles renewed in their intensity at his flabbergasted face, "You grow more mysterious by the minute."

Luna cocked her head, "We can't have you escape unscathed from here so that the others can dismiss this story outright. I was just giving them something to talk about."

"And here I was thinking that you simply liked me," he light-heartedly muttered as he got ready to make a dash for the window.

"Harry?" He turned around only to be assaulted by her supple lips landing on his own. They remained in place, fighting over dominance as Luna all but straddled him in the explosive fireworks show that was his mind. The curtains opened and swiftly closed with an 'eep!' but they ignored it in favour of each other. Finally they were forced to breathe, Luna's nose rested on his own as they stared into each other's eyes. "Convinced yet?"

"Bloody yes," he grinned, springing from the curtains like a robber from the bank into a veritable army of teenage girls to a chorus of 'eeps!' that turned into screams of horror as he leapt from the window of Hogwarts's tower in a freefall, loving the feel of the wind against his skin as he unshrunk the broom from his pocket and landed with his feet on the handle an inch from the green-donned grass as he hooted in victory, deciding to take several victory laps around the lake to commemorate this moment into his memory.

When he entered the entrance corridor from the outside where he greeted a jovial Hagrid also in on his way for some morning tea, he could already hear the rumour mill of Hogwarts hard at work at connecting the pieces of him being absent from the Gryffindor common room while simultaneously being found sharing a bed with one Luna Lovegood. Judging by the increasing amount of stares the closer that he got to the great hall, he thought it a redundant point that before breakfast all of Hogwarts would know of what had happened just last night and judging by the astronomy tower being juggled around with the other points, it seemed that someone (he was betting one of the twins) had let it slip that he and Luna had been caught at the astronomy tower just last night.

It was an understatement to say that the great hall fell silent when he entered. All eyes were on him and a cautious Hagrid who he labelled as the only reason why he hadn't been swarmed yet with questions. At the Gryffindor table, Hermione's and Ron's glares convinced him that if he valued the feeling of wind on his skin that he would be better off sitting somewhere else today. Just then he spotted the silvery locks that he had become intimately familiar with over the past day and he made a beeline for the spot that seemed to be reserved just for him by her side, feeling like every single person in the castle was tracking his movement at that exact moment.

He plopped down next to Luna who had sent him a quaint smile on seeing him approach, reaching out a hand to graze the back of her shoulder that she shivered into, the diluted orange marks on display for all to see. Ginny stood up and stormed out of the hall, her every step the explosion of a volcano and just like that the great hall sprung to life once more and he was flooded by a sea of blue. Now she knew how he felt at the Weasleys with the whole world crashing around his shoulders. He closed his eyes, disregarding all of the people around them, his left hand focusing on another's shoulder that he found much more appreciative of his time and the attention that he lavished her in. Perhaps… perhaps being with Luna was not so bad afterall?

Next Up: The Goodlove

(PROMO) AN 1: Recently I've helped edit the first two chapters of a new upcoming fanfic writer by the nick of shortiegirlie1016 by beta-ing her new fanfic, 'The Magic Circle: Year of the Seers.' I know it is not the best work under the sky nor is it original by any definition, but I would appreciate it if you could swing by the story to say a few kind words of motivation that are so important in shaping the future of a developing writer.

(UPDATES) AN 2: In regards to my update schedule, I will be frank with you: this is my suicidal prevention fic. Expect updates whenever I am suicidal. Depressing – yes. Good for the consumer – also yes :) So Enjoy.

(RANT) AN 3: I regularly update earlier Chapters for consistency issues so if something seems new then it is probably time to re-read a chapter or two for those sweet, sweet experience points. The RELATIONSHIP TAGS have been removed because while they are accurate in the long term, these relationships tend to develop organically so don't expect for the pairings to be handed to you on a silver platter. This is not a low-grade Level 3 Fanfic. This is Level 1. Here we tear apart reality by its seams and perform the unholy rites of canonification. R&R if you (don't) have a soul!