Luck of Nines

81

     "Hello, you've changed a lot; should I call you Harry now? I like to think that we were friends."

        Silence greeted the statement and Harry felt Theo tense instinctively even though he seemed more surprised than wary, "What are you talking about Luna? Is Harry Potter here?"  The questions came from the fourth person who he only vaguely recognized as familiar, their voice was not at all though; Granger.

"Oh, sure, you just can't see him right now." Luna responded dreamily. He hadn't known her name before.

"Is he... invisible?" Granger was shifting around, her annoyance at being in the dark obvious. "There's wards up for that."

"Very good ones at that." George put in, "but this is Theo Nott we're talking about, how'd you hide him?"

"No, it's Harry Potter." Luna replied, "and he's just very tiny."

Harry could just barely catch all three heads shifting to look at the ground, but figuring his position was known anyway, and Theo didn't seem horribly worried about it, he stuck his head out from the pocket to audible gasps.

       "It's been some time hasn't it?" Her hair was still long and pale, eyes still distant and lonely, but she no longer appeared quite so broken as before and a delighted smile was on her face  that he'd only seen glimpses of before. 

       "He's an animagus?" Granger asked excitedly, "He couldn't have become one in Azkaban, is that what he's been doing since the prison was destroyed? What about the dementor effects?"

       "He already was an animagus." Fred clarified, "I didn't know he had a snake form."

       "I suppose that's fitting for a Slytherin," George breathed. 

        Harry could feel all eyes on him and feeling five sets of eyes on him he decided now would probably be a good time to be able to speak to everybody, launching himself through the air and savoring the feeling of gliding smoothly through the air for a second before shifting, dropping to the ground and landing easily to his feet, "I haven't found any crumple horned snorlacks or Woldingers yet." He replied warmly and Luna's smile grew even wider, "but I've come across plenty of sluefluffs in my travels. Have you gotten to see the world yet?"

"I'm only just starting to," Luna answered, her voice remained serene, but the excitement about her travels were clear. We haven't seen any crumple horned snorlacks yet, but we have visited a number of wonderous forests, Daddy and I just got back from the Portumna today."

"The Portumna?" Harry asked, Luna took a seat on the edge of the couch closest to where Harry stood, leaning forward to continue talking and Harry plopped down to lounge on the floor, his head and arms resting on the couch beside her, his senses pricked to monitor Granger behind him but knowing both Theo and Luna had eyes on that side of the room and everyone there seemed to trust them.

     "Oh yes," Luna began, her hand gently patting his head and roughly his hair as she continued and Theo made a strangled noise, interrupting whatever George had been telling him about the twin's latest experiment, "It's very pretty, lots of muggles visit there, but there's also a magical wildlife sanctuary.  Daddy has been trying to get us reservations to go for ages since they only allow a limited number of visitors full access."  

      "Wait- How do you know Luna anyway?" Granger asked bewildered, "You had already gone to Azkaban, you wouldn't have met her at the ministry."

        "I already told you," Luna pouted, "I met a Leshy when I was younger, of course I didn't really know what he was then."