Unofficial Portkey Archive

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Just borrowing.

Hello everyone! I'm BACK!

First things first: I want to apologize for my extended absence. I won't bore or depress you with the details, but let me just say, Real Life has been something of a bitch since about November. For those of you following Their Way, let me assure you the story is NOT dead. I hope to have new chapters in time for my birthday in June.

In the meantime, as sort of an exercise to help get the ink flowing (or at least, fingers typing), I am posting this short little story, which is completely unrelated to Their Way. This was inspired by a completely random discussion on one of the numerous Harry Potter Yahoo groups. A while back, some people were jokingly discussing the special abilities of a certain "magical creature." And then I thought of Luna's fondness for magical creatures.

In many of the R or NC-17 stories I've read, Luna is often portrayed as an uninhibited, kinky wild-child. While I can believe that, I can also envision her as a pure innocent, almost to the point of being naïve. With that in mind, I give you this.

For anyone over here on Portkey who already read this on Caer Azkaban, I just wanted to say that this version is different than the one I originally posted over there. This version has a different ending to ensure there are no questions about Portkey-compliance. Many of the "upgrades" that went into this Portkey version will be added to the Azkaban version shortly, so enjoy this now, and a new and improved Caer Azkaban version is coming shortly.

I hope you enjoy this. This is my first publishing foray into the "adult" HP world.

Special thanks to my beta, MapleMountain.

---

Luna Lovegood sat on a quiet shoreline on the edge of the lake near Hogwarts. She came out here sometimes when she wanted to escape all of the noise and activity of the castle... when she wanted to draw.

Recently, she'd discovered she had the ability to "see" things remotely. She wasn't sure exactly when this ability developed, but if she had asked Madame Pomfrey, the school nurse would have suggested it was triggered by her having recently completed puberty: she was now sexually mature... and fully fertile.

But Luna hadn't asked, so all she did know was that it might have been related to the fact her maternal grandmother was a Seer. At first that worried her, because although her mother was not a Seer, she did on occasion have visions. And it was one of those visions that gave her mother the inspiration for that last fateful experiment.

But Luna soon realized that it might not be such a bad thing because her interests lay in a different direction than her mother's. There were so many wonderful creatures that she knew existed... despite what books (and certain people) said... but she had never seen them. This might prove to be the answer to everything.

Luna didn't care what people thought or said about her, but she did want to prove that these animals were real. It wasn't about proving other people wrong, but rather to simply be able add to the sum of the knowledge of the world.

But she quickly ran into a problem. Her visions were so weak, so limited that once they ended she could no longer recall what the object of her vision looked like. Her Ravenclaw cleverness was able to discern a pattern and craft a theory: she could remember active details (how something moved or acted, things that could be described by verbs and adverbs), but she could not remember passive details (color, shape, location... nouns and adjectives).

What was the point of seeing a Nargle if she couldn't remember what it looked like? Of course, knowing that it floated-not flew-was significant, she supposed.

And then one day after much trial and error, quite by accident she discovered that if while still in the vision she tried to draw what she saw, the end result was nearly photographic in quality.

This surprised her more than anyone else, as the last time she drew for fun, it took ten minutes to convince her ever-believing father that, yes, that WAS a tree.

As it turned out, the only limiting factors in the quality of her drawings were the amount of time she spent inside the vision, and the drawing materials themselves. Drawing paper and art pencils worked so much better than standard quills and parchment.

No matter how long she spent inside the vision, she could still not recall what her subject looked like. But now, with a good graphite pencil and a half hour of solitude or more, she could at least depart the vision with what was tantamount to a black and white photograph. (She of course saw in color, but color drawings always ended up really weird.)

And so it was that today found Luna Lovegood sitting on the shore of the lake, leaning back against a tree, hoping to get for the first time proof that Crumple-Horned Snorkacks were real. So far, most of her drawings had been limited to known objects to verify that her ability was working.

Forty-five minutes into her planned hour-long vision, Luna found herself being torn out by the sounds of approaching voices. While in her trance-like state, her other senses became heightened to compensate for being so distracted.

"Hey! There's someone over there on the other side of the lake! Up against the tree."

"Let's go see who it is and bug them."

Luna opened her eyes and the voices faded away into the distance as her hearing returned to normal. She looked down at the drawing in her lap. She never remembered the details, so she was often surprised by what she drew. But this time she was doubly so. This was nothing like what she expected.

For some reason, she'd expected that the Snorkack was a cat-sized, pig-like creature with horns that curled around like a ram's. But what she drew, although obviously incomplete, was much smaller... more kitten-sized than cat.

As it turned out, that was good because if it had been cat-sized, it wouldn't have fit onto her imported, A4-sized Muggle drawing paper. Because they were drawn whilst in her visions, Luna's drawings were always life-size.

Looking closely at the kitten-like creature, she noticed that instead of fur, it had fine feathers, even all the way down to the bottom of its four legs. Most noticeably, large prominent feathers, not unlike that of a Great Horned Owl, lined the ears. That they flattened out to the sides gave them the appearance of being, well, crumpled.

The owners of the earlier voices were now crashing through the forest undergrowth to intrude upon Luna's solitude; she shook her head to clear the last remaining wisps of mental fog created by her visions. She took one last look at her proof that the Snorkack was real.

Luna was very happy.

But not for very long.

"Well, well, well. Look at who we have here. Loony Lovegood!" Draco Malfoy drawled in a voice that dripped with undeserved self-confidence. His ever-present gaggle of goons guffawed giddily.

Knowing it was best to simply ignore the Slytherin, Luna moved to put away her sketchbook. But unfortunately she was not fast enough, as Malfoy had torn it out of her hands with a quick Summoning charm.

"What do we have here?" he cooed happily. "Widdle Woony's been dwawing!" he mocked.

His voice wasn't so amused after a moment of silence.

"What the hell is this?" he asked in irritated confusion. It was hard to ridicule her if he didn't know what he was looking at.

"It's a Crumple-Horned Snorkack," Luna said, finally speaking. "Even you should be able to recognize that."

Any retort Malfoy might've had for what he thought was sarcasm was instantly drowned by laughter when he realized she was serious.

"Oh, for the love of Merlin, you're serious!" Malfoy choked out as he struggled to regain his breath. "She- she's serious!" he repeated to Crabbe and Goyle, which set those two laughing again.

"Oh, oh, wait, oh wait!" he told them, trying to catch his breath and quiet the other two. "I know. I know." He started laughing again. "I'll give you something to draw. You've been hanging around Scarhead and his Mudblood lately, right? You want something imaginary to draw, why don't you draw Potter's Trouser Snake?"

Crabbe and Goyle burst out laughing.

"If you're going to draw things that don't exist, start with that!"

As Malfoy succumbed to his laughter again, he threw Luna's sketchbook into the lake as far as he could. (It didn't go very far.) The three Slytherins then starting walking back towards the castle, laughing so hard they began wheezing.

Once they were gone, Luna summoned her sketchbook back to her. A couple of quick spells and it was dry and as good as new. Looking at her Snorkack drawing again, she let out a tiny sigh of disappointment. She would have start over; she couldn't resume drawing in the middle of a vision.

Luna flipped to the next blank page and stared blankly at the drawing paper's finely textured surface.

"That's a brilliant idea!" she suddenly exclaimed aloud. Why didn't I think of it sooner?

She'd never seen Harry's Trouser Snake before. Of course, she'd never seen any Trouser Snake before, neither in person nor in any of the books in her house.

With a happy smile, Luna got herself comfortable again and leaned up against the tree. Pencil in hand, she allowed her mind to go blank and closed her eyes. As was habit by now, her grip tightened slightly as the whirlwind of images slowly began to clear and focus into one.

* * * One Week Later * * *

"Hello, Hermione," Luna greeted. The brunette witch jumped in her seat as her quill went flying, ink splattering over her parchment. The studious Gryffindor was a bit unnerved at how the Ravenclaw could always do that.

Even when deeply immersed in her reading or studying, Hermione Granger was always ultra-sensitive to even the slightest of distractions; anyone who interrupted her peace was at risk of imminent harm, depending on who or why. Contrary to what some would suspect, it was impossible to sneak up on her while she was "in the zone."

Nearly impossible.

Somehow, Luna always managed to do it. If Hermione didn't know any better, she might have suspected the blonde of silently Apparating.

"Hello, Luna," she replied in a friendly tone after regaining her composure. "How are you today?" she asked out of habit.

"Oh, fine. Just finishing up my menstrual cycle today," Luna replied unimportantly. "Nothing special. And you?"

Hermione blinked a moment. No matter how well she'd gotten to know the Ravenclaw over the last couple of years, she never got used to her literal answers to figurative questions. And in all honesty, she never wanted to. That was part of what made Luna, Luna.

Hermione also knew that Luna's "And you?" was not figurative either. And she knew Luna would not accept any answer that was not to the question she asked.

"Not for another two weeks," she replied after first making sure there was no one else around to hear her answer. Luna nodded in acknowledgement. She then just stood there, staring at the spilled inkblots.

Sensing that Luna was done talking for the moment, Hermione drew her wand and quickly cleaned up the spilled ink. Just as she was about to pick up her quill again, Luna sat down in the seat next to her.

"Where's Harry?"

"In the Prefect's Bath," Hermione replied. "He was completely soaked and covered in mud after today's Quidditch practice. He said that after a quick shower in the changing rooms, he would head up for a hot soak to help relive some tension."

"I'm sure he will," Luna replied airily. Hermione looked up. Anyone else, any other tone of voice, and that statement would have been sarcastic, or suggestive. But this was Luna; Hermione smiled.

"Yep," she confirmed, returning to her notes.

"Do you have a moment?" the blonde witch asked.

"For you, always," Hermione replied as she set down her quill. Ever since that fateful night in the Department of Mysteries, the legendary Terrific Trio of Harry, Hermione, and Ron was fast becoming the Super Sextet, also including Luna, Neville, and Ginny.

Despite whatever fundamental differences there might have been between how she and Luna viewed the world, Hermione could not deny that the blonde witch was becoming a good friend.

And, Hermione had to admit, it didn't hurt that she knew Luna fancied Ron. It had taken one very frank discussion (some might call it an intervention), but Hermione had finally convinced her red-headed male friend that he really didn't fancy her the way he thought he did.

He fancied the idea of fancying her, she patiently explained. But once it came down to the nitty-gritty details of actually spending time together, finding activities they could both enjoy doing together, Ron quickly realized Hermione wasn't the kind of person he was looking for.

That said, she knew that she was Ron's first crush; she was always on the lookout for someone new to come along and catch his eye. She just wanted to be absolutely sure he had moved on.

And Luna was exactly the person Hermione was looking for. The hard part was to get Ron to notice her as anything other than Loony Lovegood.

"I made some new drawings this past week, and I wanted to get your opinion on them," Luna explained.

Hermione resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Her feelings for the quirky blonde may have warmed considerably in the past two years, so much so it even surprised her sometimes. But she was still Luna.

Ever since she discovered her supposed gift, Luna always brought her drawings to Hermione as proof that the unique things the unique witch claimed actually existed. Predictably, Hermione was still unconvinced. Luna's drawings of her imaginary creatures were either completely unprovable, or were of everyday, ordinary items... things she could have simply just looked at and drawn.

They were amazingly detailed and quite lifelike though, Hermione had to admit.

Luna pulled her drawing book out of her bag and set it in front of Hermione. She opened to her most recent set of drawings.

Nearly done with her homework anyway, Hermione put away her books and took the sketchbook, looking at the first picture. Luna began to narrate.

"This is another Nargle. I'm sorry for the lack of detail. That's all I could see of it this time. They're not very active. They seem to just lie around for most of the year, except around Christmas."

"Mm-hmm," Hermione confirmed, her enthusiasm fading quickly. A sleeping Nargle wasn't all that interesting to watch.

They're not even real! she had to remind herself. One side effect of seeing Luna's pictures again and again was that Hermione was beginning to recognize the creatures. Every drawing was completely different, exactly as if Luna had been observing different specimens of the same animal.

And yet for all the differences, the drawings themselves were consistent, as if she was looking at the same species. It was almost as if Luna actually was observing these animals... that were completely imaginary and didn't actually exist.

But regardless of that, the one thing that Hermione could not, and would not, refute was that the drawings were amazing. The detail, the clarity... it really was just short of a black and white photograph. Luna always claimed that she was a horrible artist, but Hermione knew that was simply a case of modesty... something that she and Harry could relate to fully.

If only she used her powers for good... Hermione thought to herself jokingly, in regards to Luna's insistence upon drawing imaginary creatures.

"And this," Luna proclaimed dramatically, "is my first drawing of one of two new subjects. Do you recognize it?" she asked excitedly. She was about five seconds away from bouncing in her seat.

Hermione looked and stared dumbly at the drawing. A feathered hamster? was the witty comeback that she knew better than to say. Oh, she wasn't worried about Luna being offended. Rather, she was worried about fueling her imagination.

The prominent tufts of feathers where the ears should be on the not-a-gerbil quickly drew the Gryffindor's attention. Well familiar with the numerous breeds of school owls, the first thing to pop into Hermione's mind was a Great Horned Owl. After another second or two of inspection, she realized the tufts were pointing out sideways, as if flattened.

It isn't? Hermione asked herself. She didn't....

"A Crumple-Horned Snorkack?" Hermione asked dryly. Luna's face lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Oh, I'm so happy you recognized it," she said, bouncing in her seat. "I was ever so worried that you wouldn't. I must confess that even I was surprised at what it actually looks like. I had something else entirely in mind. As you can see, it's obviously unfinished, but you get the general idea. Draco Malfoy interrupted me while I was drawing, so I wasn't able to finish it," she said all in one breath.

"Erm," Hermione said less-than-eloquently, a bit taken aback by the exuberant response. "Any- any problems with Malfoy?" she stuttered.

"Oh, Draco was just his normal self," Luna said dismissively, as if it were trivial. "He got bored after a while and wandered off with his friends." She turned her attention back to her drawing.

"So what do you think?" Luna asked excitedly.

"Um, well..." Hermione hesitated, trying to be diplomatic. "It's hard to say anything for sure... I mean, with only one drawing... and one that's incomplete I might add. Per- perhaps with a few more drawings... you know, for comparison purposes, I could provide a better opinion."

Luna thought about this for a moment.

"Oh, you're absolutely right, I agree. Like I said, this was simply the first one. I had planned to draw more, but Draco interrupted me.

"Speaking of which, this next set of drawings I think you'll find extremely interesting. Believe it or not, it was actually Draco's idea. I'll have to remember to thank him sometime for suggesting it. I spent all week working on these. I have four different drawings, so you'll see quite a wide range with these."

Luna picked up her sketchbook again and gave one last longing gaze at the Snorkack. She then flipped the page and set it down on the table in front of Hermione. With her usual skeptical face, the Gryffindor witch looked down.

Luna Lovegood watched with fascination as Hermione looked at the drawing. There was a brief moment of incomprehension, then a slow blink as though she couldn't believe her eyes. Luna smiled. She felt that way too when she first saw it.

Hermione's eyes then widened and her jaw dropped opened in stunned shock. To Luna's surprise, Hermione's hand suddenly slammed down upon the drawing, covering it up as her face began to turn red.

"Luna Lovegood! What in the hell are you playing at?!" Hermione whispered as she looked around franticly to see if her slam had drawn Madam Pince's attention. Deciding she was safe, she grabbed hold of the sketchbook and quickly flipped it over.

"What do you mean, 'what am I playing at?'" Luna asked in confusion. "I told you. I see things and then I draw them."

Hermione sputtered a little. "I didn't mean what you were doing," she hissed, "I meant what you were drawing. Specifically, this drawing!"

Luna was amazed at how loud a person could talk and yet still be whispering.

"What? I thought you knew what it was. You certainly looked like you recognized it."

Hermione's mouth opened and closed several times as though she was trying to speak.

"But if not, I apologize," Luna continued, sounding truly regretful. "It's a Trouser Snake!" she then proclaimed proudly.

"Tr- tr- trouser snake???" Hermione asked. The multiple question marks were perfectly audible.

"Yes, of course. A Trouser Snake. Harry's Trouser Snake. What did you think it was?" Luna asked.

Hermione's eyes widened in shock even further. Without even thinking, she quickly picked up the sketchbook to look at it again, as if to verify Luna's answer. After another few seconds of vacant stare, Hermione dropped it again, and again put her hand down to cover the drawing.

After a few moments of hyperventilating, Hermione finally regained her composure. Some of it, at least. After looking down at her hand and arm which were shielding the drawing, she slowly looked back up at Luna again.

"What... whe.. why did you draw this again?" the brunette asked weakly.

"I told you. I was sitting beside the lake last week, in the middle of drawing the Snorkack. Draco Malfoy and his friends came along and interrupted me. After seeing the drawing, he made fun of it, and then suggested that if I wanted to draw something imaginary, I should draw Harry's Trouser Snake," Luna explained simply, as if this sort of thing happened every day.

"Which is totally absurd," she said with a laugh. "As you can see, it's perfectly real."

"I'll say..." Hermione muttered absently as she lifted her hand away to look at the drawing again. Realizing what she'd just said, she looked extremely embarrassed and clamped that same hand over her mouth. She then looked even more surprised and pulled it away and looked at her hand as if she had touched something she shouldn't have.

Luna took the opportunity to pull the sketchbook away from Hermione. She flipped the page and started showing her the other drawings. All Hermione could do, in those brief instants when she could tear her eyes away from the drawings, was to look around to see if their little corner of the library was still undisturbed.

"I must confess, drawing Harry's Trouser Snake has been most fascinating. I've rarely seen such a wide variation in the appearance of a single animal. I mean, different Nargles look differently. But Harry's Trouser Snake seems to change shape and size so many times, it's quite amazing!" Luna explained excitedly.

"I'll say...."

Seeing that Hermione now appeared as interested as she was, Luna started showing off the rest of the drawings.

"This one here, this was the first one I drew," the blonde explained. "It seems to look rather ordinary. I didn't know where Harry or his snake were, or what they were doing at the time, so it's hard to describe it as anything other than ordinary, so I just consider it like a control sample."

Hermione nodded vacantly. She might have been a little transfixed by the drawing, but somewhere in her mind the idea of a control sample resonated.

"This one," Luna said, flipping the page again, "this one I drew last Friday during my free period. I think you have Charms during that time, right?" Hermione nodded meekly, eyes still fixated upon the drawing.

"It certainly seems a bit bigger in this drawing. Since he was in class then, I assume that maybe he let it out for a little air. Maybe released it in the dorm so it slither around while he was in class? I know how some people feel about snakes, so I can imagine his roommates wouldn't be too happy if he had his snake out while they were there."

Hermione suppressed a snort of laughter.

Last Friday Charms? she suddenly remembered. I spent half the class with my hand stuck to the back of Harry's hand thanks to RONALD not doing his Sticking Charm reading properly. The charm was itchy... my hand kept wriggling around trying to scratch. I joked to myself that it felt like I was stroking the top of his hand seductively...

Hermione's blush returned. Unfazed, Luna continued on with her show and tell, turning to the third drawing.

"This one I don't like very much. I don't think it's very good." Luna nodded in unspoken agreement when she saw the look of disappointment on Hermione's face. "It was just so small this time. It looks like it's all shriveled up and scrunched up in a hiding place somewhere.

"I drew this last Monday evening, during Harry's Quidditch practice. That was the day I came up to your room to return your Runes book. I remember seeing him come into the Gryffindor common room just as I was leaving. Poor Harry. It was so cold and rainy that day. He was so wet and looked chilled to the bone."

Luna paused for a moment as Hermione coughed several times.

"But this one," Luna said importantly, getting ready to turn the page to the fourth drawing, "this one I think is my most favorite of them all." She turned the page.

Hermione's eyes widened so far, Luna was worried they might actually fall out of her head. The Gryffindor witch's mouth fell open quite slowly and her lower lip began to tremble.

"First of all, there's something about it that when I look at it, it just feels right, you know?" Hermione could not speak, but she did manage a weak nod.

"But more than that, what I like most is that it's the best of all the drawings. I was able to spend the most time on it and you can see the most detail here."

Hermione squeaked.

"I've seen lots of different kinds of snakes before, but none quite like this one. It's nice in this drawing that you can see more details because it's bigger the way it's stretched out. Of course, here you can clearly see the head. I wasn't sure what to call those two things. In the end, I decided to call them pods."

"Pods?" Hermione asked faintly. "Like... seeds? Or....... nuts?" she asked, almost afraid.

"Oh no, silly," Luna laughed. "Pods, like feet. After all, they're on the opposite side as the head.

"You know, I was wondering what it eats. Because it has such a small mouth for a snake. And it must be blind too, because I've never seen any eyes. But that's okay, because I know Harry takes very good care of his snake."

"Wha- What?" Hermione asked suddenly, snapping out of her trance. "H- how do you know that?"

"Oh, well, if you look carefully and try to imagine, do you see how the snake's mouth could be misinterpreted as an eye?" Again, all Hermione could do was nod. She appeared almost afraid to look at the drawing again.

"It's related to how I know it's his mouth and why I know Harry takes such good care of him. I drew this one two days ago after dinner.

"I went up in my room and got comfortable on my bed and tried to get ready to draw. When I first saw his snake, it didn't look very well... kinda shriveled and squished up like that other drawing.

"But then Harry started petting his snake. You are aware that you're biting your lip?" Luna suddenly asked.

"Huh? What? Oh, yeah. I was... it... yeah, I knew. Thanks for noticing," Hermione replied, the slightest tint of sarcasm discernable.

"You're welcome," Luna replied happily. Whether Luna understood the concept of sarcasm, Hermione still didn't know.

"As I was saying, Harry was being oh so considerate, petting his snake. And it must have been very unhappy before, all scrunched up like that. Because it quickly decided to stretch all the way out. It was just like how Crookshanks stretches out when you scratch his back."

Luna noticed that Hermione was now staring at the "stretched out" drawing again... staring very intently.

After a few moments, Hermione closed her eyes briefly and then looked back up at Luna. With what appeared to be a dry mouth, she spoke again.

"Uh... where was this?"

"Oh, well, mostly around the snake's head, but all along its body too," Luna explained. Hermione closed her eyes again and let out a groan; Luna was certain she didn't need that pointed out. However...

"But he was being very nice, and his other hand was petting around the pods too."

Hermione groaned again. "No, no," she corrected after a few difficult moments. "I meant, where was he when this was happening?"

"Oh, well, I can't say for certain," Luna replied. "I assume he was in the Prefect's Bath. It was Wednesday night, and he did say he was going to head up after dinner, didn't he? Snakes are cold-blooded, so I thought maybe it would enjoy hanging out in the heat while Harry bathed.

"As I told you before, when I 'see,' I can only see the object of my vision, and not its surroundings. The only reason I could see Harry's hands was because he was petting the Trouser Snake. His hands disappeared from my sight whenever he let go of it.

"Are you feeling well, Hermione?" Luna asked, concerned. "You seem to have forgotten in the past few minutes many of the things I've already told you about how my visions worked, like about not seeing the surroundings.

"Maybe you should go see Madam Pomfrey," she encouraged. "You might have an inner ear infection. I wasn't sure if you noticed, but for the last minute, you've been rocking back and forth slowly in your seat."

Hermione's attention seemed to refocus a little, but it was accompanied by another blush.

"No, I'm fine. It's nothing she can help me with." Hermione's eyes were quickly drawn back to the drawing.

Luna forged ahead. "Now, at first I thought maybe it was his eye... the snake's. Because when Harry started petting him, the snake started crying. I could see a few tears. If the snake was unhappy when it was all squished up, then I assume they were tears of joy... because Harry would never do anything mean."

"Erm, I do have a question," Hermione interrupted, turning a darker shade of red. "The, um, the drawing... it's, er, very nice and... detailed. But is it... I mean... is the drawing... does it... is it...?" Hermione seemed lost for words so she simply held her hands up, just short of eight inches apart.

"Is it drawn to scale?" Luna offered. "Oh yes, of course it is. All of my drawings are life size. I can't draw them any other way."

"Oh, Merlin," Hermione whimpered as rested her head in one of her hands. After a few moments, she sat up and grabbed the top of her shirt, fanning herself as if she was getting warm. Luna was about to ask again, but Hermione beat her to it.

"Yes, I promise you I'm all right. I know you told me about how you draw. I've just been a little distracted by the drawings."

"That's good to know. I'd hate it if you got sick. Which reminds me, we need to keep an eye on Harry and make sure he doesn't get sick either. Remember how I said his snake didn't look very good before he started petting it?

"Well, his snake must be sick. And this is how I know it wasn't his eye, because after about ten minutes, his snake started vomiting all over the place. The poor thing, it must have vomited eight or nine times in just ten or fifteen seconds.

"But Harry was so sweet and kind, like he always is. He just kept petting it and petting it the entire time, trying to make it feel better."

Luna noticed that by now, Hermione's eyes were so dilated they were almost black. She was breathing heavily and her earlier dry mouth must have returned because she was now licking her lips.

"You know... now that I think about it, I don't think he was in the bath. While Harry held his snake as it left big splashes of sick all over his hand, I could hear him calling your name over and over again. Maybe he was in the common room and calling for you to help him?"

Hermione's attention suddenly became as focused as a laser.

"Harry... he- he was calling out MY name?"

"Yes," Luna replied, appearing a little confused by Hermione's surprise.

"He was calling out my name?" Hermione asked again, a large smile beginning to grow on her face.

"Yes," the blonde confirmed. "As I said, his snake was sick and he was probably calling for you to help him with it. That, or he named his snake after you, but that would be awkward, don't you think?" Luna asked, crinkling her nose to reflect that.

Hermione looked at the drawing one last time, now with renewed enthusiasm. She turned back to Luna, smiling guardedly.

"Luna, could you do me a favor, please?"

"Well, that depends on what it is," the Ravenclaw replied cautiously but friendly. She wasn't going to get tricked into that again.

"Until I can talk to Harry and then get back to you, could you please not tell anyone about show those drawings to anyone else?"

"Oh, of course," Luna agreed, closing her drawing book. Hermione looked at her watch. It was Friday, just after six o'clock.

"Quidditch practice just ended," she said, mostly to herself.

"It's been cold and rainy all day. He'll probably go for another hot bath tonight," Luna confirmed Hermione's line of reasoning. "You should probably hurry. If you don't get there in time, he'll probably already be in the bath."

Hermione smiled an evil grin, something Luna didn't see all that often. "My thoughts exactly." She packed up her books and then started stand up.

"See you later, Hermione," Luna said. "Let me know what happens."

Hermione chuckled, but did not reply. "Good night, Luna." She then started to head for the library door, walking very slowly.

Once Hermione had left the library, Luna smiled and let out a satisfied sigh.

"Considering it was Hermione Granger, that was way too easy," she whispered to herself.

. . . to be continued . . .