AN: I may be getting degrees in the humanities, but I do love science, you might like me less so because of that ;)

"That's no reason for them to take your things," he said flatly. "D'you want help finding them?"

"Oh no," she said, smiling at him. "They'll come back, they always do in the end."

Chapter 4 - Delivery

"Make sure you don't put your finger in the foal's mouth, it'll take your finger right off," Hagrid coached, as ran a calming hand down the mama hippogryph currently trying to push out her young.

Harry, lucky, lucky, Harry, had smaller hands -he did get gloves, so he got to be the on to reach into mare's backside to help the feet, knees, and wings not get caught as it birthed into its new world.

So far, Harry couldn't see much, but he had reached in and felt the taloned feet. "Hagrid?" he asked worriedly.

"Head or feet?" Hagrid asked seriously, the time was ticking and this Hippogryph had been in labour for a long time with not so much as toe to prove it.

"Okay, Harry, listen to me closely, we need to get that baby out before it suffocates. I need you to get a hold of its feet and pull slowly. Once the head comes out you need to get the mucus off its beak. From there either it will breathe and it will come out on its own or you have to keep pulling."

Shoving aside his apprehension, Harry reached back into to the mama hippogryph and found the feet. He took it as a good sign that when he wrapped his hands around the taloned feet, the curled around his hands in turn. Harry began to pull, his arms straining even as he went slow, slow enough that the mare's attempts to push were helping.

Harry and the baby's hands emerged together, covered in blood and gunk, he didn't pause to be horrified as he continued, the mare let out a pained but somehow relieved screech. The next moment a beak emerged. He let go of the feet and began to free the beak of the mucus. The foal seemed to take a breath, and suddenly the baby and the mama were doing all the work.

"The wings, Harry," Hagrid said between praising the mare.

Harry reached above the foal, and as he or she emerged into the world, Harry's hands rounded over the bend of its wings so it slipped to the ground in a smooth, goopey heap..

"He's breathing," Hagrid said delightedly.

The mare turned -staggered, around to see her baby, she fell to her knees beside him or her, her sides heaving as she began to lick her foal clean. One of her chestnut speckled wings spread to shield her young.

The baby was a darker brown, almost black, and it's underside seemed to be creme coloured. But Harry wasn't exactly sure as it was still somewhat messy.

Hagrid's big hand patted him on the back, "Well done, Harry! Well done, indeed! You know, you're probably the first young wizard to do that in a century whose parents weren't Magizoologists or illegal breeders."

Harry watched the foal and its mother and felt… he didn't know how he felt, but it was big in his chest, like he had accomplished something that mattered.

"Come on, we will hose you down, drying spells are easier than cleaning spells for that much organic material. You should probably take a shower before you're next class too."

Harry looked down at his hands and arms, yeah, being housed down followed by a real shower sounded like a damn good idea.

"Mr. Potter," Snape sneered at him as he arrived in DADA ten minutes. "Late the first day of the new term, twenty points from Gryffindor."

Harry bowed to the snarky bastard before taking a place beside Hermione, who seemed to be exchanging spells with Neville and Ron. The members of the DA club grinned at the show of defiance, Snape ignored it and turned to ridicule a few of the Hufflepuffs.

"Where were you?" Hermione asked under her breath, "And why's your hair wet?"

"Magical Creatures," Harry said simply.

"I can't believe you took that class," Neville whispered, "You're the only one, right?"

"Yep, twice a week with Hagrid and things that may or may not want to bite my head off," Harry said cheerfully, with Snape teaching DADA it might very well become his favourite class.

Especially as Ron and Hermione began to bicker, and Hermione still seemed a bit prickly about his progress in potions.

"What are we doing?" Harry asked Neville as he watched the room whispering spells under their breath.

"We are practising non-verbal spells."

"Oh," Harry said, and taking another look around the room that was most assuredly not silent, he asked, "How do we do that?"

"Concentration and mind power," Hermione, doubtlessly, quoted to him.

"Right," Harry said a bit drily, that explanation told him nothing even as he watched Hermione zap Ron without uttering a syllable.

Turning back to Neville, Harry pointed his wand pictured Neville to be a dementor. Harry knew what using magic will power or 'mind power' was and he knew how to concentrate on a spell.

Harry thought Rictusempra as he waved his wand and willed the spell to hit Neville.

Surprisingly, it worked, and Neville broke out laughing as he chittered in the skin. Before Snape could yell at them, Harry cast Finite at his friend.

Snape did glare at them, and the rest of the class looked at them as if they were mad, no one but Slytherins laughed in Snape's class. But they moved on.

"How?" Neville asked.

Harry shrugged, "I think we've all cast spells wordlessly before, just think the word, make it loud in your head and believe it will work."

Neville who had become one of Harry's best students in the DA, trusted him, and the next thing Harry knew he was throwing up a shield charm to avoid getting stunned.

The Patils joined them halfway through the class, and then, well, people were switching partners with Harry and Neville, who ended up teaching half the class right under Snape's ugly nose.

So focused on trying to ensure the Slytherins did well, Snape didn't catch on to what the rest of the sixth years were up to something until the end of class, at which point they were saved by the bell.

Boot punched up at the air as they left, and whisper-yelled, "Long live Dumbledore's Army."

Some of the girls giggled, some of the boys chuckled under their breaths, and the Slytherins looked at them all like they were mad.

The moment Blaise realized that Potter, Harry Potter was doing a better job at teaching them than Professor Snape, he felt, well he felt slow for being on the losing side, again.

Blaise Zabini had no doubts he was a Slytherin, but he hated being one, because the sole thing that defined most as Slytherin was his ambition. And as far as he could tell, Slytherins were all losers.

Old money rotting away with pompous flare and the joyless knowledge that being born to magic was the way the world was supposed to be.

It was a shaky base seeing as the smartest student in their class was Hermione Granger.

He hated her. He hated her and her boyfriend, Potter. Hated them because they challenged everything he knew, everything he was taught to believe.

"Potter thinks he so wonderful," Malfoy sneered, "Him and his Granger, but we know what true power is."

Blaise felt his left eyelid twitch. Hearing his thoughts repeated by Malfoy was a sobering experience. Perhaps he truly had picked the wrong side to stand on, perhaps his mother really was full of shite.

Potter, Professor Snape, Granger, and Malfoy, Merlin damn them all.

It wasn't a bad week, no perhaps, it was the best start of term yet. She had a new kitty, a familiar, she named the pretty kitty Dilly, short for Daffadowndilly. She had completely recovered from her spook in the newspaper. Hogwarts was not a bad place, she liked the magic here. And Harry was her friend now, the future looked so bright.

But then her shoes had gone missing again.

Colder days were coming and her toes already felt cold at the thought of stone beneath her feet.

She hugged Dilly to her chest, the cat purring like a small motor rested her furry chin on Luna's heart.

It was good not to be alone.

"So what exactly did Hagrid have you doing that you missed lunch?" Hermione asked.

Harry was about to tell them when Ron interrupted with a snort, "Was it some type of worm or was he trying blast-ended skrewts again."

"No," Harry said, "It was actually-" he cut himself off this time as he saw Luna enter the Hall.

Her feet were bare.

Again.

"Harry," Hermione asked worriedly, "Harry, your eyes are glowing."

Ginny put a hand on his as she sat down beside him for dinner, "Harry, are you-"

But Harry ignored them all, he could feel his anger boiling in his veins, felt a breeze form, and knew that if he interrogated Luna now he might freak her out.

Last year she hadn't accepted his help. This year he wouldn't give her the chance to refuse, and her tormenters would pay for it.

Harry strode out of the Great Hall, following his anger up, and up, and up to Ravenclaw Tower.

He wondered what would happen if he summoned the shoes to him through the dorm. For he knew this was the Ravenclaw dorm, he saw it often enough on the Mauarader's Map.

He jumped when the bronze knocker spoke, asking, "Why do the stars deserve names?"

Harry blinked at it, his anger receding. Figures, the way into the Ravenclaw dorm would be a mind puzzle.

"Er, they don't deserve- I mean, we don't name stars because the stars care about having names, we name stars so we know where we are, at least that's why we started naming them, us humans."

"Indeed," the knocker said, and the door to the dorm swung open.

Well, that was easy, Harry thought as he slipped his invisibility cloak over himself from his bag as he entered.

Rather than summoning the shoes to him, Harry used the Point Me spell.

The dorms were oddly split, that was to say, there was nothing stopping Harry from walking down the girls' corridor. The spell did not lead him to the fifth year dorm, but to the seventh year dorm. His heart sank, he didn't like Cho anymore, but he didn't like to think he could ever have had a crush on someone who would hurt Luna.

Harry was going to reach for the door, but common sense stopped him. He backed away from the door and looked at, there was no way there were no blocks to keep the boys out.

Just then the second to last door opened and Padma came out.

"Padma," Harry greeted and winced when she nearly jumped out of her skin.

She had her wand pointed at him as he slipped off his cloak, "Harry?"

"Hi, sorry about that, forgot you couldn't see me."

"What are you doing here?" she asked, lowering her wand.

"A favour for a friend. Um, out curiosity, what would have happened to me if I tried to open that door?"

"Oh," she said before smirking, "Well, if you tried to magic the door open you would have been blasted back and if you just tried the handle you would have grown a wolf's tail."

"That doesn't sound so bad."

"Only Flitwick, McGonagall, and Dumbledore can perform the countercurse."

Harry winced.

She smiled, "So, can I help you in your-?"

"Luna's shoes are missing."

Padma tilted her head, "Lovegood doesn't like wearing shoes."

"Did she tell you that?"

"Well, no but-"

"Someone stole her shoes last year and she thought it was some creature. I think it is her housemates being prats."

A determined look crossed Padma's face, "And your charm led you to the seventh year dorm, not her dorm a door before this one?"

Harry nodded.

She turned to the last door and threw it wide open. She used a charm to keep it that way so Harry could see into the room. Luckily for him, no one else was there.

"Accio Luna Lovegood's shoes," and the came flying out from under a bed, all three pairs plus a pair of dinosaur slippers that seemed to give little soundless roars.

"Marrietta," Padma said darkly.

Harry was seriously started to hate that girl.

Padma seemed to agree with him because she asked, "What should we do to her?"

Harry reached into his back and tossed Padma a small package.

"What are these?"

"I don't really know, the Weasley twins owled them to me."

Padma's smile was downright evil, "Never understatement twins."

That night after dinner, Luna found her shoes at the foot of her bed, Dilly curled up in one of her boots. She picked up the kitten and spun her.

"Oh, you're the best kitty-cat ever, Dilly!" She hugged the kitten who rubbed appreciatively under Luna's chin. "You found my shoes!"

Dilly meowed, as if to say, 'yes, indeed, I did find your feet smells, Human.'

AN: I had a good week, but my mind is kind of unfocused, so I went to Luna for some motivation and a smile. Comments, requests, remarks, kittens?