After all the teenagers returned from the Quidditch game, everyone began to mingle in the Delacour's courtyard. Sirius saw Narcissa awkwardly sitting by herself on the rim of the courtyard's fountain, clearly left out of the party and decided to take a leaf from his godson's book. Harry could even forgive Wormtail, who wasn't related to him at all. Sirius knew he could give his cousin a chance.

She eyed him warily as he approached and plopped himself beside her without asking permission. The two cousins were not looking at each other, sitting more like strangers on a bus bench, when Sirius finally broke the silence.

"Not even a year ago, I was a pariah too." Sirius said simply.

Narcissa's eyes flickered. "Well, not all of us are friends with the ministry's golden boy."

"Neither was I once. The first time I met Harry Potter, I was the escaped convict who murdered his parents and attacked his best friend. That kid will overlook anything." Sirius said.

Narcissa sniffed. "You entered his good graces because you weren't what they thought you were. I cannot say the same."

"And what is it you are, cousin?" Sirius asked incisively.

The answer that came to mind stung her heart and her pride finally broke. A mother with no son and a wife with no husband is what she was. She wasn't anything. She was nothing. She was sobbing almost immediately. Sirius embraced her as she collapsed into his arms weeping. She was startled when a second set of arms wrapped around her from behind, but she realized quickly from the weakened grasp, it must be Andromeda's daughter.

"I just want my son back." Narcissa wept.

Fleur Delacour saw the scene unfolding before her eyes, and sent a quick message to Hermione and Gabrielle to make sure they kept Harry from seeing this. Then she stalked up to Narcissa, Sirius and Tonks. The sobbing Malfoy matriarch looked up at Fleur looming over her.

"Happy now? Your sister never has to worry about another Malfoy attack. Our family is finished." Narcissa choked out.

"Non." Fleur said, shaking her head. "We both know your son has joined Voldemort. You know he blames 'Arry for his father's death. 'Arry doesn't want to hurt Draco, but he will." Narcissa was about to interrupt but Fleur didn't stop.

"If you want your son back, you have to help 'Arry save him. If you know your son, you should be able to think of something that we can do to help him. If not…" Fleur shrugged.

"He won't listen to me!" Narcissa wailed. "The only one he obeys now is the Dark Lord."

"Zen...your hopes rest on 'Arry vanquishing Voldemort before anything happens to Draco. I hope you'll do everything in your power to help make sure zat happens." Fleur stated with finality.

Distracting Harry while Fleur spoke to Narcissa turned out to be an easy endeavor(Gabrielle thought that they'd have to sneak off for kisses to occupy Harry's mind). It was at approximately that moment Fred and George Weasley appeared at the gates of Maison Delacour. It seems they couldn't resist a little fib in order to give Harry a birthday surprise and showed up for his birthday after all.

After briefly mingling with the rest of the guests, they invited Hermione, Gabrielle, Harry, Luna, Neville, Ginny, Ron, Krum and Cedric to watch a muggle magic show they'd put together for the occasion, courtesy of the book Hermione had given them for their own birthday. Gabrielle suggested the ornate dining room would be a good space for the show, and lingering in the hall for a few minutes at Fred and George's request so they could set up, they all entered and sat down in the arranged chairs.

"Now, we were a bit skeptical that anyone would find us funny if we weren't doing actual magic-" Fred started.

"But then we realized, Ron's hardly ever done actual magic and people have been laughing at him for years." George finished. Ron's ears turned a bit red at the jab. Fred and George eyed him and added:

"Don't worry Ron, we set a one-ron-joke limit, you're just too easy of a target. Now, will Miss Hermione, our resident skeptic, please cast expelliarmus on us and hold onto our wands for the duration of the show to prove to the audience everything is genuinely-

-assuredly,

-definitely,

-100 percent-ally,

-positively

not magical.

Hermione drew her wand and did as she was asked, but instead of wands flying out the twins coat pockets like she expected, pies hidden nearby zoomed towards her and creamed her before she could dodge. Ron laughed the loudest.

"Oh Hermione, you're going to have to be on better guard than that if you're going to be our Prefect." George chided. "I'll let you know how that one was done as a freebie for playing along, Hermione. Our wands were taped to the back of the pie plates."

"She's truly the most talented witch of our age, that's why we needed her as a volunteer-" Fred began.

"-Most witches or wizards aren't practiced enough at disarming to actually draw their opponent's wands towards them." George finished.

"Lucky me." Hermione muttered, as she wiped the pie from her face. The trick, she had to admit, was a good one, even if it was at her expense. As it went on, she noticed the twins seemed to be avoiding making Harry the butt of a joke, probably because he was the birthday boy. Hermione noticed Harry's face had a look of intense concentration on it as he watched the show. She knew he had been raised by muggles just like she was and the rabbit out of a hat trick shouldn't be a mystery to him like it would be to wizards. Sadness panged in her as she realized it was very possible his sheltered upbringing meant he never saw a magic show in the muggle world.

She couldn't help but take a peek at his thoughts at that moment and gasped at what she saw, coincidentally at the same moment George was finishing his trick with a flourish. Fred immediately pointed her out and exclaimed:

"I think that's the best compliment we've ever gotten from Miss Granger." He said, his usual facetious tones holding a note of genuine surprise. Hermione distractedly shook her head and said: "What? No-It's a false bottom, Harry and I have to go." Harry still was lost in his thoughts when Hermione grabbed his shoulder and dragged him into the hallway outside the dining room.

She couldn't contain herself from bursting the second they were on the other side of the door and threw him against the wall exclaiming his name: "HARRY JAMES POTTER!" She wanted to kiss him but words were also bursting to be free from her lips. She realized that her bond meant she could, in fact, speak to Harry while at the same time kissing him and she did just that.

The flash of concern Hermione was angry with him came over the bond, but it quickly turned to confusion as she entwined her lips with his.

"You're the smartest wizard I've ever met." Hermione said over the connection. She then saved him the trouble of asking for clarification.

"I saw your thoughts during the magic show, Harry. I saw you wondering if it was possible that a true Hufflepuff could pull the cup from the sorting hat like you'd done with the sword when George was doing the rabbit trick."

"Uh, wasn't Fred the one holding the rabbit?" Harry thought. Unfiltered conversation meant that his responses over the bond could be a little denser than regular speech.

"Who cares? You've solved it, Harry!" Hermione said, as she finally tore her lips from his.

"Well I haven't done anything really, I don't even know if it'll work or what it even means to be a true Hufflepuff." Harry stammered, switching back to normal speech.

"A true Hufflepuff checks on his friends when he sees angry witches drag them away." A voice said from beside them. In her peripheral vision, Hermione saw Cedric grinning in the doorway. Fred and George were close behind, along with the rest of the magic show audience. Hermione blushed as she realized she hadn't exactly departed with subtlety.

"We also thought you were angry with Harry, but now we're not so sure." Fred said, speaking for the twins.

"Sorry for interrupting your show" Hermione said to the twins, "but uh, Cedric, Luna, would you mind coming with us, we need to talk about something."

Fleur had finished her conversation with Narcissa by then, and met Cedric, Luna, and her bondmates in Harry's sparse bedroom for the discussion of the possibility of getting horcruxes out of the sorting hat. There was little doubt in anyone's mind that Cedric and Luna were the best candidates for students who embodied the respective traits of their houses.

The problem was, getting the hat itself. Harry had suggested simply asking Dumbledore to let them have it, but was roundly rebuffed by his bondmates.

"Dumbledore isn't stupid, Harry. That hat and that sword sat right next to each other in his office for years. He must have known getting the other Founder's Artifacts out of the hat was a very likely possibility, but ignored it so he wouldn't have to reveal secrets to two students. More if he guessed wrong about who the true Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw was." Hermione said.

"He snatched that journal out of Hermione's hand immediately." Fleur recalled.

"He snatched the locket out of MY HAND the second he saw it." Gabrielle said with lingering contempt.

"He barely trusts you with the secret of defeating Voldemort, and you're literally prophesied to do it, do you think anyone else has a chance?" Hermione asked pointedly.

"So how do we get the sorting hat out of his office?" Harry retorted.

"Well, it only leaves the office once a year, maybe if we had a first year help us during the sorting-"

Hermione began but she could see that Harry was slowly tuning her out and that look of concentration appeared again. Tonight Harry had been acting like he'd taken a wit sharpening potion. She watched as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the envelope that held the Phoenix feather Dumbledore had given to him earlier.

He took the feather from the envelope and held it in his hand, looking at it for a moment before he decided on what he should say.

"I need the sorting hat." Harry said simply.

In a flash of flame, the sorting hat materialized on Harry's bed, which caused Luna to exclaim in wonder about the size of the bed, as though the hat materializing out of fire was of no interest to her. Cedric's eyes also widened, but he had been pretty measured overall throughout the revelations he'd received from Harry and his bondmates.

Harry then shrugged. "Well, that was pretty easy."

"So what do I do?" Cedric asked Hermione.

"Well, try asking the hat for the cup?" Hermione suggested.

Cedric turned to hat and said: "Can I have Hufflepuff's cup?"

"Why do you want it?" asked the hat.

"My friends asked me to get it for them."

"Why do they want it?"

"I don't know, they just said it was important to defeat You-Know-Who."

"Do you trust your friends?"

"Yes."

"Then, if you are speaking truthfully, the cup will be on this bed when you lift me up, however, if you are attempting to deceive the spirit of Hufflepuff and seek the cup for personal gain, it would be unwise to lay a hand on me." Spoke the hat with finality.

Cedric did not hesitate to walk over and lift up the hat. Anticlimactically, the cup they sought was sitting right there.

"Uh, well that was easy." Cedric shrugged in near perfect mimicry of Harry's statement from moments ago. The hat then spoke once more:

"The tasks are designed to be easy for those who the cup is meant to appear for, but nearly impossible if you are not worthy." Then Luna stepped forward.

"Mr. Hat, I'd like the diadem of Ravenclaw please." She asked.

They expected a riddle, but the hat replied rather simply.

"Prove you're a real Ravenclaw."

Luna didn't answer, but skipped over to the hat and put it on her head, and sat down on Harry's bed.

Why did you put me on, Miss Lovegood? asked the hat.

I didn't think you'd be able to tell if I was a true Ravenclaw from the outside, so I thought I'd let you look inside.

That's an elegant solution Miss Lovegood, made all the more impressive by solving it with no hesitation, but I regret to inform you it's not the only riddle you must solve. The diadem dons itself upon the head of true Ravenclaws, but it has been cursed since the days of the founders and if it is on your head when you take me off, it will cost you dearly.

The sorting hat felt intrigue in the mind of Luna Lovegood.

Oooh, that is a fun riddle, I hope you don't consider me rude for thinking the first one was far too easy. So, I presume even if I get this one wrong, my friends can still get the diadem from my corpse, right?

That should be the case. The sorting hat assured Luna.

Oh what a relief, I was worried about letting my friends down, they're very nice people it would be a shame if I made them wait until another true Ravenclaw met them.

May I also add, the first riddle was easy for you because you had several hints from Harry Potter. How long would it have taken you to find the diadem if you had no idea where to start looking? The sorting hat asked.

If not for Harry Potter, I'd have to reason to start looking, so I daresay it would have taken me forever. Luna responded before beginning her line of questioning.

So the diadem will be on my head when I take you off, and if the diadem is on my head when I remove you, I will be gravely hurt?

Correct.

Mr. Hat, can you repair yourself if damaged?

No.

Well, could I repair you if you were damaged?

A rip or a tear you can repair, but I hope you aren't considering some sort of dark spell, Miss Lovegood.

I thought perhaps I could cut a hole in you and remove the diadem that way without removing you from my head.

I am the source of your protection from the curse of the diadem at the moment, and whether you break our seal by taking me off or by breaching my integrity, the result for you is the same.

Luna's face then screwed up with concentration as she let possibilities run through her mind, but discounted them each in turn as she identified weaknesses in her solutions. She thought jumping in the nearby ocean might work, perhaps filling the hat with water would enable her to slip the diadem off, or maybe she could have the diadem only touch her hair and hope a quick baldness spell would save her from the curse? What about a handstand? If Fred and George held her upside down by the ankles, maybe they could shake the diadem down into the hat itself? Or perhaps she could just remove it and try her luck at returning from death like Harry Potter kept doing? Maybe someone here was good at archery and could shoot the diadem off the top of her head like an apple? Could she use her wand as a simple stick and just nudge the diadem from her head? Nothing coming to mind had the feeling of elegance that accompanied correct solutions.

Her friends looked concerned as they watched Luna just sit there and concentrate for some time. Eventually, Hermione spoke up. "Uh Luna, do you need help?"

"Oh no, I've already gotten the diadem, all I'm working on is how to take this hat off without letting it kill me." She said in a tone that did not match the severity of the situation. "A cup of tea would be nice though, I may be stuck on this riddle for quite a while." Then something occurred to Luna.

Mr. Hat, do the artifacts have any special properties that may help my circumstances?

You are already receiving the enhanced reasoning and insight bestowed by the Diadem of Ravenclaw, though a girl of your calibre hardly needs it. The Hufflepuff cup has powerful healing properties, but to receive them, the cup must be filled with tears of your closest friends. The Sword of Gryffindor can destroy the curse and the evil inside the diadem, but given the power of the curse the cup would only buy you a few seconds at most. Even if a true Gryffindor is in this very room, it may not be possible to summon the sword and swing it fast enough to save you before the tear elixir's protections fade.

I suppose it is lucky that Cedric obtained the cup first, otherwise I may have been doomed. Luna mused.

I wouldn't call this evening's circumstances luck, Miss Lovegood. The events of the evening have the fingertips of fate all over them. You may still be doomed, that is not for me to say.

Well, if this is fate, that does make things simple.

Luna rose. She also opened her eyes, having not realized they had shut sometime during her reverie.

"Cedric, may I have the cup?" Luna asked politely. When it was in her grasp, she exhaled a heavenly sigh and tapped the rim of the goblet with her wand before making her announcement.

"I'm about to die. I'd like to say farewell to all my friends since I am blessed with the opportunity to wish all of you well. Cedric, would you be so kind as to go find Ginny & Neville?" Cedric hesitated, but the gaze from Luna's mystical eyes seemed to stop any sentences in their tracks, and he turned to go do as she requested.

Luna then cast her gaze on Hermione Granger. "I know you are thinking furiously in an effort to save me, but there's no other way. I would prefer that you take this time to recall our friendship."

With those words, a memory of Luna peering into a broom closet came to the forefront of her mind and tears immediately burst from Hermione. Luna came forward and hugged her with no hurry to break their embrace. After a short time, Hermione regained some composure and released her.

Luna turned to Harry, standing close by the side of his bondmate Hermione. Her words to him would be much simpler.

"Harry, I'm your friend, you don't need to fight it. I know you feel our connection." It felt like Legilimency the way she was drawing out buried truth and he felt his eyes water. She leaned forward and favoured him with a gentle kiss on the lips.

Next in line was Fleur, who flanked Harry on his other side. Luna stopped and gazed at her with a slight tilt of her head. "You're just like Harry, you bury your feelings. You have all the fire inside, but you've shrouded yourself in ice."

Luna reached out and entwined Fleur's hand with her own, and Fleur felt as though her allure had started to radiate inward "Your greatest moment was when all your walls fell down and you let your love pour out on those docks. Don't hold back." With that, the normally stoic Fleur let a single tear escape from her eye.

Luna then turned to Gabrielle, now in the company of Neville and Ginny, who had entered while she spoke to Fleur. They had not heard the pronouncement from Luna about her impending demise, but they seemed to understand implicitly. The very air seemed to hold a magical aura that radiated loss. For Gabrielle, there were no words, a hug was all it took to release the dam behind her eyes. Ginny joined in, and Luna whispered to her that she was a wonderful friend to release Ginny's waterworks.

Finally, she approached Neville. "I know I've let you down, Neville, and I'm sorry that you might be left alone again." Neville started blubbering almost immediately, and she gave him a sustained kiss of sorrow.

Luna broke away and looked down at the goblet that she had enchanted to magically gather the tears she had wrought in her friends. The cup was already full to the brim, for the tears had grown in size to match the sorrow they contained. She considered drinking it, but then decided tears belonged on the face.

She looked up one more time to address her friends. "I hate to be the girl who cried wolf, but there's a chance I will survive. I told you I was going to die because I needed your tears. They can protect me from the curse for a few seconds. A True Gryffindor needs to strike down the diadem with the sword after I remove the hat. In case I don't make it, tell my daddy that I love him."

With that, Luna doused her face with the goblet's tears and flung the sorting hat from her head and it spun in the air like a disc. Neville and Harry raced forward and it felt like they had become two parts of the same being. Harry seized the hat from mid-air and Neville was already ahead of him, his gaze focused entirely on Luna's collapsing form, but his arm was reaching backwards and Harry maneuvered the hat in the path of Neville's grasp of faith and witnessed Neville draw the silver and ruby blade from the depths of the hat, and in one swift, fluid motion, strike the diadem resting on the forehead the falling form of Luna Lovegood.

Unbeknownst to either Harry or Neville, a third Gryffindor had sprung into action and cast a momentum arresting spell to keep Luna from falling too fast, ensuring the sword slash struck true. The diadem shattered in two pieces and spun in the air with a wrenching scream, while Luna finally came to a rest on the floor. Her eyes were closed.