So it suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't made it expressly clear that the last chapter was the end of the story. Harry's dead; he's the title character so without him continuing is kinda pointless...Just kidding. I can only apologise for the ridiculously long wait between this chapter and the last. Please forgive me? Moving on...

Disclaimer: As much as I would like them to be, Harry Potter and Supernatural are not mine.

{Gabriel}

{Harry}

~Hayden~

"Parseltongue"

Princess Meria: Glad you're enjoying it. The spelling thing: bloody auto correct is all I have to say.

Paxloria: I always wondered how he didn't know. No comment on your question. And you'd think it would be the Ravens wouldn't you? But their banner is actually an eagle, not a raven and the other house's are named after their banners so...

Bianca Di Angelo 0: Read on, my friend...

Lord of Bones: He could. But it wasn't Lily asking, it was more Marlene, who Harry actually has some respect for.

CrazyJanaCat: Really? Huh. I always thought LV's 5th year was 45.

Sandipi: An excellent question...

Everyone else (because I'm lazy): Glad you're all enjoying it, your question about Harry will be answered shortly.

Warning: It's Gabriel...so expect anything you'd expect from him.

Another Boy's Face

Hayden was sitting next to Ron in Transfiguration when it happened. Professor McGonagall was lecturing on some new form of Transfiguration they'd be practicing in the second half of the lesson, though Hayden would admit he wasn't paying very close attention. The two boys were messing around quietly, trying not to draw attention to themselves, something he knew Hermione would skin him alive for. For all that he cared about that girl, he couldn't deny that she got on his nerves sometimes. He knew that her nagging and harassing him to put effort into his schoolwork was just her way of caring, but he'd already done this spell; he'd asked his parents if they could teach him over the summer, and his mum had been very thorough with the theory, despite Hayden's inclination towards the more practical aspect. The spell itself he'd performed on the second day after returning from the winter holidays. As for Ron...well, Hayden had to admit that Harry was right about the redhead's intrinsic laziness.

Then, all of a sudden, he shivered as he felt a cold chill run up his spine. The hairs on his arms and the back of his neck stood on end and a feeling of dread coiled in his stomach. That was all the warning he had before his head erupted with a blinding pain. A small cry of agony escaped his lips before he could stop it and his hands flew to his temples. Groaning through gritted teeth, Hayden blocked out the rest of the class that had turned to stare at the sound. Absently, he noticed he'd fallen out of his chair and was currently kneeling on the floor, the rough stone digging painfully into his knees. He could feel McGonagall's worried gaze, Hermione's concerned hand on his shoulder and Neville's panicked voice asking what they should do; whether his friend was looking to him for an answer or someone else, Hayden didn't know and nor did he really care at that moment, too focused on the agony erupting inside his head to think on it too much. Ron was shouting; which really, really didn't help; and Dri crouching in front of him quietly asking what was wrong. He blocked it all out and focused on the pain. His occlumency; which he'd taken to like a fish to water and, to his glee, succeeded at far faster than Harry had; allowed him to trace his pain to his bond with Harry, and what he discovered made him gasp; this time not in pain, but in fear.

It was like someone had reached into his mind and poured concrete over the bond that connected them. He couldn't feel his brother anymore, and that scared him as much as it pained him.

{MOTHER FUCKER!}

Still; at least the telepathy still worked.

{DAMMIT. GOD FUCKING DAMMIT, THAT SON OF A BITCH!}

{Language}

~Harry! What happened? Why can't I feel you anymore, what's going on?~

{THAT SENILE, GOAT FUCKING, MANIPULATIVE, OLD BASTARD SET ME UP!}

{He's coping}

~This is coping?~ Behind his and Gabriel's conversation, he could hear Harry cursing up a storm and coming up with some very creative and sadistic sounding punishments for, Hayden presumed, their esteemed Headmaster, Dumbledore.

{Trust me, this is nothing compared to how he was after Dracula tricked, trapped, beat and left him impaled on a spike for a week and a half. He seethed for months after that, and though he denies it I still catch him throwing knives at a picture of the old bastard}

Hayden wasn't really surprised, though a burning hot rage coursed through his body at the though of someone impaling his brother's small body on a spike and then just leaving it, without even the dignity of a burial. Obviously, Harry hadn't died, so on some level Hayden was glad he hadn't been buried; 'not that a grave would stop him' he thought with some amusement; but it was the principal of the matter. The blood-sucking bastard hadn't known that and had decided to just leave the supposed body out to rot. When Hayden got a hold of him he'd...probably do nothing because if Harry couldn't beat him, then Hayden stood no chance. Still, the image of him pummeling the oldest vampire to ever live into the dust was rather appealing, and somewhat comforting. He should be more worried about that than he was, really.

~Where are you?~

{Girl's bathroom, near the Great Hall}

~...~

{We weren't spying! Well...okay we were but not on girls...this time. White Beard asked us to meet him here but he was a no show. Next thing I know we're looking right into the eyes of a bloody big snake!}

Hayden pondered that as he withdrew from the conversation (less a conversation than Harry swearing and all but throwing a tantrum while Gabriel helpfully supplied new words and torture methods whenever Harry ran out, or saying something to get the raven haired twelve year old ranting again when he started to run out of steam). A snake was the monster? But Hayden and Hermione had looked up all sorts of magical creature's and couldn't find anything that could petrify, much less a snake. He tried to ignore the remaining pain as it began to fade into a dull ache at the back of his skull and behind his eyes so he could turn to his pale and almost frightened looking teacher.

"Professor...Harry...the heir got him, near Moaning Myrtle's bathroom,"

McGonagall sucked in a sharp breath. Hayden knew she wasn't all that fond of his twin, but she was also fiercely protective of all students, regardless of house; though admittedly more so for the Lions than any other. She wouldn't ignore this.

"Mr Potter please make your way to the Hospital Wing. Mr Black help him stand and walk. We will be discussing how you knew about this, Mr Potter, be assured," she warned him, before addressing the rest of the class "Class dismissed!"

Hayden almost refused, about to demand he accompany the old Scot to retrieve his brother. However when he attempted to stand, his vision blurred and he swayed dangerously before almost falling right back to the ground. Only Dri's arms stopped him. Before Hayden even knew what was happening, he had one arm slung around Dri's shoulder and was being half carried to the realm of madam Pomfrey.

"Is he okay?" Dri asked. For once the arrogant prankster persona was gone and the dark haired Black heir simply looked like a slightly scared twelve year old.

"Petrified, from what I can tell," Hayden winced as his own voice sent a stabbing pain through his head "And pissed off, too,"

"You can hear him?" Dri sounded amazed and almost dropped his slightly smaller companion. Hayden glared at that half an inch that separated him from being taller than Dri.

~You haven't told him?~

{Not yet}

~Then what do I say?~

{Lie. He wouldn't believe you, so just say it's your twin bond}

"It's...we have a bond. A mental link, because we're twins," Hayden said honestly. He wasn't lying after all. Just twisting the truth a little.

"Really? Twin bonds? Those are real?" Dri sounded like he didn't actually believe it. Hayden opened his mouth to speak but Dri just smirked at him and chirped "It's fine. Everyone's got their secret's. Like the one me and Harry are keeping from you!"

It took Hayden a moment to register what his pseudo-brother had said. And when he did, he instantly turned his full attention onto the deviously smirking Marauder "What secret? Tell me?"

{Yeah, you probably don't want to know}

{Like, you really, really don't}

"Well if I told you," Dri taunted "It wouldn't be a secret anymore!" With that he dumped Hayden onto the first hospital bed they came to.

Hayden sputtered in outrage and slight confusion. He hadn't even noticed them arriving at the hospital wing.

"Driiiiiii!" Hayden whined "I'm injured. You have to be gentle," He gave the older boy his best set of puppy dog eyes, ones that usually worked on even Harry.

Dri just laughed "Mate I remember when we were nine and you convinced me to do the whole 'be gentle around injured Hayden' thing after you fell out of that tree at Neville's. But when Dad and uncle James turned up, you had no problem racing around on a broom all day,"

Hayden smiled as he recalled that day.

His smile faded when the staff carried his brother in.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

The petrified people were being kept in a separate, closed off area of the hospital wing. After being examined by the Wicked Witch of the Infirmary, the stern matron had permitted Hayden to visit his brother. Followed in by Dri and Terry; who'd raced down after the pair of taller boys; they were met with the sight of Professor Dumbledore standing with their Charms teacher, Transfiguration teacher, Hayden's mother and the creepy Professor Crowley standing around a metal framed hospital bed that contained the unmoving form of Hayden's twin. In his petrified state, his hair and eyes had reverted back to their default: slightly long, messy dark hair that seemed to defy gravity and bright emerald coloured eyes that he'd gotten from their mother.

Hayden observed the other victim's. All of them, including Mrs Norris, looked terrified, their expressions showing varying levels of shock and horror. Filch's cat's hair was stood on end, her mouth open in a viscous snarl and she appeared to have reared for an attack when the monster got her. The Hufflepuff boys eyes were wide and the innocent blue orbs showed complete and utter terror, while Justin's face had scrunched up in fear before being frozen like that. Harry was different. The younger boy had his blade held in one hand, his wand in the other and both posed to attack, his body in a battle ready stance; knee's bent and feet apart for balance and his body turned sideways to make him a smaller target for any attack. His eyes were narrowed into slit's and an expression of determination sat upon his face.

The others had all left at some point, with Terry and Dri being the last to go only a few minutes earlier. Hayden refused to move; he sat in the rather uncomfortable seat to the left of Harry's bed. Harry's weapons and been removed from his body and placed in a locked drawer in the cabinet across the room and Hayden has used their absence to thread his fingers into his twins palm in what would have been a gesture of comfort had Harry been able to feel it.

{My eyes didn't even have time to widen when I saw it. I was frozen within milliseconds. Still wasn't scared, mind you...}

{You screamed}

{It was a war cry!}

{You screamed like a five year old girl}

{Five year old girls are scary}

{To you maybe. Still terrified of Hannah Bartlett?}

{No...}

~Who's Hannah Bartlett?~

{A girl in Surrey. Beat the crap outta Harry once}

{I was five too! And she had friends with her; eight of them! Including our late cousin!}

{You had me!}

~You lost a fight to a five year old girl...~ Hayden was struggling to restrain himself.

{Laugh it up, Hayden. I only lost because I still believed in fair play back then, so I didn't use Gabe}

Hayden paused and processed that. It was hard to imagine, really, a version of Harry that didn't use the angelic powers he had access to whenever the need struck him. Hayden paused and frowned. 'Imagine' was the wrong word. It implied that the image conjured existed solely in his mind and had never been a reality previously. He didn't struggle to imagine that version of Harry, because he wasn't imagining at all. He was struggling to remember such a Harry. Though he always professed differently, Hayden remembered very little of the time when he and Harry had lived in the same house. Before Hogwarts, he could barely remember what Harry looked like. He knew who Harry was, of course, and that he was incredibly important to Hayden and that he missed him. But the memory of his looks, his voice, his like and dislikes had faded with time. All he'd known was that he'd been small, with dark messy hair and their mother's bright green eyes. Dri had been the same, remembering precious little about him other than the fact that he'd existed.

But after meeting him some of those early memories began to resurface. Not all of them of course, just brief flashes of a smile or a laugh or the three of them playing together. Never before though had Hayden seriously thought about his brother's personality. Being around Harry all the time; with his sarcastic wit and clever retorts, his seemingly natural charm and arrogance, his casual and almost lazy use of grace to do whatever it was he wanted; had left Hayden with the impression that Harry had simply always been that way. But thinking about it now; really thinking about it; Hayden knew that wasn't the case. Harry's easy disregard for morals and concepts such as right and wrong, Hayden discovered as he dredged up old memories that he'd long since though lost, was new. Harry's smiles back then had been innocent and full of kindness and warmth and Hayden had loved being graced with one, going out of his way to do so. Now, Harry's smiles were either mischievous grins, fake innocent smiles that he presented to the teachers after a prank or the chilling, sinister smirk the shorter boy had unconsciously worn when he'd read the article on Vernon Dursley's death. And, Hayden realized upon pulling those memories from the farthest reaches of his mind, he could remember a Harry that hadn't thrown his powers around with a casualness that resembled Malfoy's attitude with money.

There was silence between the three of them for a moment while Hayden worked through the freshly recollected memories and the depressing feeling they brought with them and Gabriel and Harry 'muttered' between each other about something or other. The silence was broken by Hayden, who shoved his reminiscing aside when he recalled what Dri had said earlier.

~What are you and Dri doing?~

{Er, like I said earlier you don't really want to know. Even if you did I wouldn't tell you}

~Why not?~

{Because I don't like the thought of you eviscerating him over it}

~It's that bad? What are you doing, killing people?~

{Oh, in your opinion it'd be far worse than that. By contrast I think it's fine and both of them certainly agree}

{Moving on from that remarkably uncomfortable topic, I'm going to try and look on the brightside of all of this}

~There's a brightside?~

{We know what the monster is. Did you have to stop me teasing him so soon?}

{Hard not to when we got attacked by the fucking thing. And yes Gabe I did. I really don't want to run the risk of you dropping some hint and giving it away. Stop doing the puppy eyes, you aren't allowed to tell}

~Because that wasn't confusing at all. On the topic of the monster though: that's great! What is it?~

{It's a basilisk}

~...I suddenly feel as though it isn't that great. A basilisk? Really?~

{Yup}

{We wouldn't kid you on this}

{We figure the reason no one's died is that everyone only saw it's eyes through a reflection}

~Except for us; we survived a direct look because we're pure awesome~

{Justin saw it through Nick; who couldn't die again; while Cadwallader saw it in the armour and Mrs Norris in the water from Myrtle's bathroom...}

{Which is where the Chamber is, by the way}

~How'd you know that?~

{Is there another reason for a giant snake to be in the second floor girl's bathroom?}

~Maybe it's a pervert like the two of you~

{And it likes spying on the ghost of a thirteen year old girl? Even I'm not that bad. Besides, the Prefect's bathroom get's you a much better show}

~...~

{Not that I'd know}

{Well done, genius. Anyway Hayden, don't worry about the snake. Harry and I have a plan to deal with it}

{That bloody reptile is going to regret screwing with us}

~What plan? If you hadn't noticed, you can't exactly move~

{See that's the thing...}

{You're really not going to like this Hayden; almost as much as you'd hate what Harry and Dri have been doing. Just, take comfort in knowing that emotionally this hurts us as much as it does you}

~What are you talking about~

{We can't move. But you can. As can my mind, my consciousness}

It took a moment for Hayden to realise what his brother was saying and when he did his mind failed to work for him, and all he managed to say was ~Wait...~ before his head once more exploded with pain, many times worse than earlier that day. It felt as though something was forcing it's way into his skull, breaking down some internal barrier. Hayden screamed, and then redoubled his efforts when he felt the barrier snap and he felt another presence appear in his mind next to him. While the feel of the other presence was familiar and comforting, it was a foreign presence that made Hayden feel as though his head was about to explode. Hayden resisted, using everything he knew about occlumency to try and contain it or force it out, to very little success. Instead, the sensation of being pushed to the ground reverberated through his head and there was a pressure upon his mind preventing it from snapping back to it's rightful place.

After a few moments, the pain subsided but Hayden found himself not controlling his body at all. He was looking out of his eyes but when the hand moved in front of his face and turned, as though being examined, it was most definitely not Hayden controlling the movement.

{Well, I'm glad that worked. There was every chance it wouldn't really}

~What? What did you do?~

{I forced my entire consciousness across our bond into your head and battered your mind into submission so I could have control}

A beat passed.

~WHAT?~

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Harry examined his petrified body through Hayden's eyes, wincing at the sight of how small he was. It was something he should really have though about when he forced his way into Hayden's head. The height difference between the two bodies was quite ridiculous. Harry was one of the shortest in the school and Hayden among the tallest in his year. The result was that moving around was much more difficult than it should be; Harry was used to a smaller body that took smaller strides and as such he found himself awkwardly taking steps that were far too small for Hayden's longer legs. His balance was off, his brothers body wasn't in as good condition as his and none of the muscle memory he'd spent years honing was present. Harry shivered at the though of living in this body for any extended period of time.

{Your body is disgusting. I need to push you harder in training, get rid of this fat}

In truth, the word 'disgusting' was a gross exaggeration. For his age, Hayden was in extremely good shape and was both broad and tall for a twelve year old boy. The fat Harry was referring to was a little bit of skin around his stomach that wasn't showing off tones muscle yet and wasn't really an issue at all. The only problems Harry had with the body was a lack of familiarity. But he was hoping that a bit of goading would draw Hayden out of the silence the older boy had retreated into after the few minutes of ranting and raving he'd done following Harry's explanation. Unfortunately, Hayden was clearly more pissed than Harry thought; and, in Harry's opinion, more pissed than he had any right to be; and didn't respond.

Rolling his eyes at the childishness of his brother, he focused on Gabriel {You alright in there, mate?}

{I'm fine. You know, I'd have thought there'd be more room in here now that you're gone but apparently you don't take up much space at all}

{Whatever. Go fuck yourself and then undo whatever that basilisk did to us}

~Undo it? I thought you couldn't undo it!~

{He speaks! Got over your sulk then?}

Harry's mind was suddenly flooded with waves of anger that he knew wasn't his own or Gabriel's, leaving Hayden as the only possible culprit. Just as quickly as the emotion had stormed into his mind, it had receded behind the barely stable occlumency shields Hayden had managed to keep up.

{Wow, those were some pretty strong feelings. Thank God for occlumency, right? Don't you think you're overreacting just a bit?}

~OVERREACTING? You think I'm overreacting? Yeah, sure, it's not like you did something cruel and inhumane and completely, morally wrong like STEALING MY GODDAMN BODY!~

{Calm down, moron. Thought you'd be happy about this}

~Why the hell would I be?~

{Well you are the one always going on about how we should be nicer}

~You call this nice?~

{Well, I mean, if you would prefer us to just let the basilisk roam the school and kill a bunch of students then I suppose I could always jump back into my own body and let it happen...}

~No...wait, what?~

{You think we were just doing this for the fun of it?}

{Think about it Hayden. Who has the better chance of stopping the basilisk, you or me?}

~...You~

{Can I do anything about it stuck in that petrified body?}

~*Sigh*No you can't~

{So are you really going to kick up a fuss about me using your body until mine is useable again when the alternative is more petrified or even dead students? Especially since you know I'm actually being genuine?}

~No, I'm not...~

{And to answer you're earlier question, no we couldn't break the petrification before}

{We were working on the assumption that some powerful spell was the cause, which confused us a bit since we couldn't find any way to reverse it}

{Now that we know it's a basilisk we can fix it. The fact that he's working from the inside helps as well. Any other complaints or questions, or can we get to stopping this?}

~Let's get this over with. The sooner it's done the sooner this is over and done with~

{Glad you're on board} With that, Harry dramatically spun on his heel and raised a foot as if to take a step and stride off, only to be confused when he found himself simply looking at the opposite side of the room than he'd been looking at before. He had meant to fly to the corridor outside the bathroom the basilisk had emerged from yet didn't seem to have moved. He frowned and tried again only to wind up looking at his petrified body (and he really needed to find a better term than 'petrified' since petrified gave the impression that he had been scared which he obviously totally never had been). It was as his face morphed into a displeased scowl that something occurred to him.

{Wings are on this body, dumbass}

{I knew that! I was just getting used to his legs}

~Smooth, bro~

Ignoring the two, Harry made his way out of the hospital wing with all due haste; stealthily avoiding the loitering Madam Pomphrey who had presumably been assigned to keep Hayden there until someone came to collect him; and setting the most direct path to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. The loss of his ability to fly from place to place as quickly as he could think was more annoying than he cared to mention and he was immensely grateful that he had put Hayden's body through the intense combat training he'd been doing since spring the previous year, nearly a full year ago by that point. It made running to the other side of the castle far easier. After years of being able to run miles without getting so much as a stitch; not that he did much running, due in part to the availability of much cooler and more efficient modes of transportation; it would be unbearably annoying to have jumped into Hayden and nearly died on a relatively short sprint. What did annoy him was the fact that while the students had been taken out of lesson and sent back to their common rooms; meaning he didn't have to deal with crowds of loud and annoying children; there were extremely vigilant teachers patrolling the area around the bathroom. Harry was sure the rest of the school was also being watched, but the ground floor girls bathroom was where the staff concentrated their efforts, owing to the fact that he had been attacked there.

It took nearly half an hour of waiting in perfect silence in a nearby alcove for Filch to leave and in that time Snape had made his way past four times with McGonagall and Flitwick passing by thrice each, those three being the most diligent in standing guard over this area. Ordinarily, Harry would have just knocked all of them out with his grace and dealt with the consequences later and not being able to use his powers made him feel exceptionally powerless. Even so, if it hadn't been for Hayden he might have tried to use his martial arts to take them down. Unfortunately, Hayden still retained some control over their shared body. Though it wasn't enough to take over, nor even to stop Harry from doing something, he was able to make their movements slow and sluggish, so even if Harry had tried to attack the teachers he'd never have won anyway. And while Hayden; who's blocks had long since been removed; was exceptionally powerful for his age and more knowledgeable of combat spells than his peers, they wouldn't stand a chance against any of those three, or indeed most of the other teachers.

Eventually though, Harry was able to make his way to the bathroom door. When he placed his hand on the handle, though, he hesitated. If the basilisk was in there, then it was over. There would be no Angelic protection for him this time and while Hayden might survive do to Harry's consciousness acting as a filter of sorts, Harry didn't really want to imagine what kind of damage it would cause if he were to die while in Hayden's head. So he stepped back and drew the angel blade from the pocket someone had stitched into the inside of Hayden's robe. Closing his eyes and clenching them shut, Harry flung open the door and, gripping the knife by the blade, threw it. The basilisk was at least forty feet long, five people abreast and two tall so if it was in there, the damned thing would find itself with an angelic blade stuck in it's side.

But there was no hiss of pain or any parseltongue screaming and all Harry heard was his blade clattering to the floor. Confident in his test, Harry opened his eyes and stepped into the remarkably clean bathroom and began his search, steadfastly ignoring the crying from the end of the stalls even though every feeling from Hayden was some prompt to go and investigate. After a few minutes, Harry found the mark he was looking for. Engraved into the taps of one of the sinks, Harry found the likeness of a snake and when nothing happened upon turning the tap on, Harry knew they'd done what the staff could not. They'd found the Chamber.

~So this is it?~

{Indeed. Let's see what we're dealing with shall we?}

"By the will of the Archangel Gabriel, the Messenger of God, and Loki the Trickster, I command you to open!"

With the final word of the command; said in Parseltongue on a hunch; there was the sound of grinding stone as the sink began to shift. It split into three, with one half folding back into the stone pillar above it and the other two opening outwards into the bathroom. Left in the center was a very wide, very dark gaping hole, heading downwards for a distance Harry couldn't tell.

~You know, I'm suddenly glad I'm not in control~

{Why's that?}

~Because I'm not sure I could make myself jump if I was~

{You're braver than you give yourself credit for. But we aren't jumping}

~We're not?~

{I'm cut off from my grace and however good we are, at magic or guns or knives, going down there now is tantamount to suicide}

~I thought you could stop it?~

{I can. Not by killing the basilisk though. Watch and learn, Hayden}

Recovering Hayden's blade, Harry knelt in front of each outward facing part of the opened sink in turn and began to scratch basic and not altogether well drawn runes and sigils onto the inside part. The runes weren't the greatest he could have drawn, but he was highly conscious of the fact that the path to the basilisk was wide open and also provided the basilisk a straight shot to him. Since a rematch wasn't exactly high on his 'to-do list' until his body was working again, Harry was forced to work faster than he would have liked. Once finished, Harry closed the entrance with a hissed command and then began adding more runes on the surroundings, be they floor, wall or adjacent sink. Together, the runes worked as a barrier to keep the basilisk contained; with them present the snake wouldn't be able to pass through the entrance of the chamber.

Instinct had Harry tracing the route back to Ravenclaw tower as opposed to the Gryffindor one he'd need to go to in order to keep up appearance's. Unfortunately, neither Hayden nor Harry noticed until they were a few corridor's and a flight of stairs away from 'The Roost' as Dri had taken to calling it, due to the fact that the entrance for both common rooms could be found on the seventh floor on opposite ends of the castle. Up to the sixth floor, the path to each house's accommodation were largely the same and it was only when he stepped of a set of stairs to the sixth floor on the wrong side of the building that Hayden noticed he'd gone the wrong way. Trying to turn around was useless as the staircase had already moved on and would take a while to move back.

~So do we stay here, wait and then backtrack or do we circle around, head down to the southern corridor on the fifth floor and then take those stairs right to the Fat Lady portrait?~

{Both would take about the same time but at least we're doing something if we do the latter. I say we do that}

It wasn't long before their journey was interupted though. It was as they rounded the corner at the top of a small set of stairs that would take them back to the fifth floor; despite the stairs not being nearly long enough for that to be possible, furthering Harry's theory that wizards and witches were just insane; when a small, platinum haired first year; that he initially tagged as a Malfoy relative; collided with their stomach, winding them and reminding Harry that the Angel protection was far more useful than he'd given it credit for. Normally, the girl would have simply bounced off him and he wouldn't have felt a thing.

"Well...how terribly rude," Harry murmured as he observed the first year girl stand back up without batting an eyelid at being knocked over.

She had, as previously observed, platinum blonde hair but while he'd assumed her to be related to the Malfoy's he soon corrected his assumption. No Malfoy would ever have hair as tangled as hers, her robes weren't the best and she had a dreamy, vacant expression on her face which, combined with her wide, bright blue eyes only served to make her seem more than a little...weird. The wand tucked behind her ear probably didn't help her image either nor the lack of shoes.

The girl stared back at him for a moment before tilting her head and observing him more closely. After a minute's uncomfortable scrutiny, the girl opened her mouth, but instead of an apology like he'd expected {Kids can be annoyingly polite when intimidated. I'd much prefer the company of some gutsy little brat that tells me to 'Piss Off' than some shy, mumbling and apologetic kid} or a comment on his appearance ~You are vain on an unparalleled level~ all he ended up with was confusion.

"Do you pretend to be other people often?" she asked innocently, which of course sent Harry scrambling to strengthen his mental shielding.

"Er, no," Harry's voice was slightly higher than usual as he tried to feign nonchalance. He was usually a much better liar and actor than this, and blamed his surprise for his inability to pull of a flawless 'innocent' act.

Strangely, the girl only smiled "Ah," she said knowingly "In that case, I suppose it's the Wrackspurts playing games again,"

"The Wrac...sorry the what doing what?"

"Wrackspurts," she told him "Small invisible creature's that float into a person's ears and mess with their brains,"

~Sounds like something you've got~

Harry mentally scowled at his laughing brother, but the girls next words brought them both up short.

She glanced at a spot over Harry's shoulders and focused on it "You shouldn't joke about Wrackspurt infections Hayden Potter. They're really quite serious,"

~How did...that's not...she can't have...~

{Well she'd weird}

"Well you're weird,"

~HARRY~

"Don't worry Harry Potter," she said, ignoring the way he bristled at the name "I'm just as sane as you are,"

{Damn. No I can't even question her sanity without questioning my own}

"What's your name, kid?"

"Luna Lovegood,"

"So tell me, Luna Lovegood, why you aren't back in Ravenclaw Tower like everyone else?"

"Everyone else is in Ravenclaw Tower? It must be rather crowded then,"

"Yes...wait, no...that's not what I...wait...was that a serious question or a joke?" Harry fumbled and ignored the sounds of his brother laughing his head off in the back of his mind "Actually, nevermind, just give me an answer,"

"I was looking for my shoes of course," she explained as if it was the most normal thing in the world

"Of course," Harry grumbled "What else could it be?"

"The Nargles took them, and I quite needed them you see," Luna said.

"Nargles, huh?" Harry asked and then knelt so that he could look her in the eye "Luna, do these Nargles look anything like a group of older Ravenclaw's?"

The way she tilted her head with her eyes narrowed and scrutinized him ever so slightly was all the answer he needed, and it made his blood boil.

"Accio Luna's shoes," he intoned, whipping out Hayden's wand and going through the appropriate wand movements. Moments later, a pair of black school shoes arrived with a whoosh, clattering to the ground beside them. While Luna excitedly darted over and pulled them on, Harry considered his options. He could storm into the Ravenclaw common room, beat the culprits to hell and back and make sure no one ever messed with the seemingly harmless little girl ever again. On the flip side, it wouldn't be long before someone realized he; or rather, Hayden was missing, and personally Harry would rather be in the Gryffindor common room by the time that happened.

{Harry}

~Nothing extreme. Try not to hurt them too bad~

Harry grinned. Decision made, he told Luna to follow him and lead the way to the Ravenclaw common room.

So I was going to show the confrontation with the Ravenclaw's, but as it's not all that essential to the plot, it'll be summed up in the beginning of the next chapter.