A Darker Form of Magic, book two: Parseltongue

Chapter six

When Harry woke the morning after the game, it was to the bright winter sunlight pouring in through the window and a soft melody that he did recognize being hummed at his side. When he turned to look, the beginnings of panic gripping at his heart, Harry immediately shook his head fondly at the sight of a girl with long blond hair with loose curls and an odd assortment of braids in it reading her father's paper upside down.

"Hello, Harry," Luna greeted, her voice just as airy as it had been that last time that they had met, but lacking the grief that she had held then. Or maybe Harry was just the one that was without it now, because the other's tone sounded slightly more despondent than he thought it ought to, than he ever wanted it to.

"Luna," the Slytherin greeted kindly, always softest where the young Ravenclaw was concerned, not because he thought that he had to be, but because he knew that he could be. Around Luna he could be a kinder version of himself, one that might have lived had he not grown up in the house that he did. He also knew that she wouldn't shy away from the darkness inside of him, not when there was a wildness within her.

Madam Pomfrey bustled into the room with a breakfast tray once seeing that Harry was awake, but stopped at the sight of the figure next to him.

"Miss Lovegood, what-" the witch started before seeing just how close the pair were sitting next to one another, the Ravenclaw half laying on the bed as she flipped through s strange newspaper as Mr. Potter pushed himself up next to her. It was a familiar sight from years long past, especially with how the boy had let his hair grow out a little over the summer holidays and had kept it at such length. "There is no point asking you to leave, is there Miss. Lovegood?" The witch asked at last.

Harry watched as Luna smiled so easily that it almost hurt to see as she shook her head. "No, ma'am," the Ravenclaw girl confirmed airily.

"Of course there isn't," the mediwitch said to herself, almost like some sort of curse, but both students could see a certain fondness in the older witch's eyes, something inexplicably mixed with grief as Madam Pomfrey summoned another breakfast tray with a tired sigh, placing both down before the pair with a soft flick of her wand. "You can leave once you have finished eating, dear."

The mediwitch had turned before seeing the look that the pair had shared, satisfaction at getting away with something that they knew that they shouldn't have. She knew that it was there still.

The pair ate quickly, the Ravenclaw laughing sweetly as the Slytherin boy struggled to eat with his left hand, the right still too tender to be of much use. The snake glared at her, but Luna wasn't someone that Harry could ever truly be angered with, not as she talked about creatures that he had no idea if they were real or not. He indulged her still.

They may not come from the same magic, but each of theirs was torn in a way that only the other could understand.

"Do you think your friends would mind if I took you for the day?" The first year asked. Her voice wasn't sweet, just as dreamy and airy as ever, but Harry felt inclined to believe that she knew exactly how his friends would react - no stone left unturned within the castle.

The magic whispered to her that his assumptions would come true, but it also told that this was a necessary action to take now. One that the Slytherins would thank her for if they were to know what change it would cause - they would, just not that she was the one behind it.

"I think that they could stand my absence for at least a few hours," the boy answered, neither here nor there in his response.

It was good enough.

Luna smiled and left him to get dressed in the clothes that one of his dorm mates - Zabini , they both knew though for much different reasons - had brought the night before for the snake to chant into: baggy muggle jeans from Thomas and a comfortable sweater that Harry had nicked from Alex after he had started wearing sleeves even in the summer.