( The Next Morning )
Seeing his normal place at the Ravenclaw table open and waiting for him, he took it. "Good morning," he said in greeting to his friends, his bow and quiver of arrows over his shoulder attracting some strange looks from the student body who weren't aware of his training.
"What's with the bow and arrows, you're not secretly Robin Hood, are you?" a third-year Ravenclaw by the name of Phillip asked good-naturedly.
"No, I train in the mornings. Most of the time I'm up at 6 a.m., go for a run around the grounds, and then hit the range," he offered in explanation, snagging up some boiled eggs while he did so. It never ceased to amaze him that a witch went out of her way to create a spell to stop boiled eggs from going hard while waiting to be eaten. He hit the top of the egg with his knife.
"Most of the time, I head back up to the dorms, shower, change, and store my equipment, but today I did another half an hour. I haven't got double Potions anymore, so why rush?" he shrugged as he dug into his boiled egg.
"Yeah, you're a lucky bastard, you know that?" Phillip grumbled with no real heat as several other Ravenclaws murmured in agreement.
"If you say so," he replied, not really caring that they disliked the fact that he had gotten out of the hated Potions class.
He felt a slight weight slide in next to him and turned, expecting to see Padma, only to be surprised as he saw tired silver eyes looking back at him. He could safely assume she was tired from the magical exercises he'd told her to do. It was nice to see that she was doing as he told her and wasn't going to be difficult about it like some first-years were. "Good morning, Luna. Sleep well?"
"The dreamwhisperers were most welcome guests. They took me away on their wings. I wasn't sure if they were going to let me return," she answered, throwing him for a loop with the random comment as she picked out some cereal.
Recovering quickly, as several of their housemates gave her strange looks, he asked, "I take it that's a good thing?" Deciding he would have to decode her odd phrases sooner or later, while creating a section in his codex to store the translations.
"Yes, their wings carried me to the clouds of hopes and fantasies."
"Good, good." He catalogued that as either a flying dream or simply a good dream in general. He might be cynical, but it could also mean she suffered some kind of tragedy in her past and her dreams of hopes and fantasies were something related to that.
"Good morning, Harry. Good morning, Luna," Padma greeted warmly, setting herself down next to him, casting her eyes over Luna, who was looking off into the distance, before looking back at him with an amused expression.
Harry shrugged, not really minding the fact that Luna was there. Frankly, he preferred her over some of their more talkative housemates who seemed to continuously gossip about the most pointless of things.
"Are you going to Duelling Club?" Padma inquired.
"I might, just to scout it out," he answered unenthusiastically before taking a sip of his orange juice. The only reason he saw to go was to see other students' abilities and try to judge where they ranked. This was a double-edged sword as he would likely need to participate as well, giving away his own abilities, which he wanted to keep hidden as long as he could, even if the staff knew a fair bit of his training already.
---
( A Couple Days Later )
He entered his Potions lab with Penny beside him since they were both brewing their own mixtures today. "So how is everything going with Luna?" she asked as she set up her own brewing equipment, clearly interested in the unusual girl who often joined him, Penny, and Padma in the evenings to study.
He paused for a moment to word his response in a way that did the strange girl justice. "She's rather unique, but beneath that dreamy persona she has a very sharp, quick mind," and was proving well worth his efforts, he admitted silently.
"But at times I get the impression that her dreamy persona is a defence against the world," he admitted, making sure his cauldron was properly cleaned to prevent the next potion from being tainted by the previous one, another of the potion brewing fundamentals that Snape had conveniently forgotten to mention. "From what I know, her mother died when she was young, an event Luna witnessed." He was already planning to ask Rita to find out the details of Luna's home life.
"That's horrible," Penny gasped.
"Yes, I can guess it might have rattled her," he said sympathetically, feeling a level of empathy and kinship towards the first-year. "However, her mother's death sent her father round the bend. He's been unstable ever since from what I've pieced together," he painted the picture further for the girl as he laid out the rest of his equipment, heading over to one of the ingredient cabinets rather than storing all his supplies in his trunk.
Penny grabbed her own supplies and began laying them out. "Do you think Luna may be involved in the opening of the Chamber of Secrets?"
His reply was without hesitation. "No, I'm sure she's innocent."
He unlocked the ingredients cabinet only to find several of his ingredients missing, including some of the rare ones. "She was with me that whole afternoon and evening," he excused, remembering hearing the news the following morning of a first-year by the name of Colin Creevey being found petrified in the corridor just like Mad-Eye.
He didn't really have much of an opinion of the first-year, having only met the young lion once before when he'd tried to snap a nice picture of the Ravenclaw team for his yearbook. "Nice kid, but annoying as hell. I wouldn't mind if he asked about taking a picture first, but he just appears out of nowhere and sticks his camera in your face... very annoying." Okay, so maybe he did have a bit of an opinion after all.
"He did the same to me," she nodded her head. "That's good, but we still haven't gotten anywhere," she said, clearly relieved that Luna wasn't involved but getting impatient at the lack of answers.
"Patience, my dear. We're making progress. We know more than we did a month ago," he said sagely. "If it was easy, the Headmaster would have already solved it, and we have far fewer resources than he does, and he was even here the last time it was opened..." He knew his friend's shorter temper was primed by the lack of any real tangible progress. "Penny, did you use any of my ingredients?" he asked, not minding if she had used them, as he finished checking another cupboard to find more of his potion stocks were missing.
"No, why?" she asked, moving over to examine what he was looking at. "What's missing?"
"Powdered Bicorn Horn and Shredded Boomslang Skin," he answered, wondering why it was taken.
"Professor Snape's own stores were broken into earlier this week, I heard. Maybe it's the same person?" his friend suggested.
He wasn't really worried about the cost of the ingredients; it was the principle of the matter. "Perhaps, but Professor Snape would have all the ingredients I would have, so why mine? And how did they get the password?" He was more concerned with how they got into the lab, since he didn't think anyone would get the password by chance. His mind started coming up with different theories and explanations.
"Maybe hidden under a Disillusionment Charm?" his friend suggested. "Or an invisibility cloak like yours? If they have that, then they could have just waited outside the door to hear it either from you or me, or they followed us in and waited until we left before raiding your stores," she listed several ways one could enter. "Maybe they brewed something wrong and needed to replace their supplies, and you were an easier target than Snape?" she guessed, offering a possible motive.
"Could be," he admitted, grabbing the ingredients he needed for his current potion. "I'll tell the staff later."
"When are you going to talk to Hagrid? I know Daphne and Tracy are trying to befriend Myrtle," she asked.
He turned his thoughts away from the stolen supplies for now and answered her. "This weekend, and I plan on taking Luna with me. She has a passion for unusual creatures; I'm sure she can help disarm Hagrid and distract him while I'm questioning him." He already planned out how he was going to approach the subject discreetly. After all, it wouldn't do to attract any unwanted attention to himself with people questioning his interest in the Chamber.
"Oh," was the only thing Penny said, caught off guard by his answer. "That's very devious of you."
"I know," he replied, internally smiling at his plan. "It will also give me a chance to get closer to Luna, as well as Hagrid. I heard whispers he'll be teaching Care next year. It's a shame you're not taking the class."
She shook her head, her blonde ponytail dancing from side to side. "Why you aren't a Slytherin, I'll never know."
He responded automatically with, "You'd have to ask the Hat," whilst remembering the Hat's words from his first year.
...
( Later that Evening )
Knocking on the Deputy Headmistress's office door, he waited for an answer before entering and taking the offered seat. The Gryffindor Head of House was grading papers, and funnily enough, it looked like it was his own class's work. "Mr. Potter, what can I do for you?" the stern woman asked, setting down her quill and giving him her full attention.
"I just wanted to report a theft. Several ingredients were taken from my private stores in the lab I've been using to study Potions."
"What was taken?" the woman asked.
"Bicorn Horn and Shredded Boomslang Skin," he replied.
"Interesting," she commented, clearly thinking of something. "I'll see about having some replacement ingredients sent to you. How much was taken?" the Deputy Headmistress asked.
"Maybe around 2 kilograms of each? It's hard to tell since I've been using it recently for my own potion work, and Miss Clearwater borrows some from time to time."
"Understandable." She nodded her head, accepting the explanation. "How is Professor Slughorn? I haven't spoken to him in several years."
"Enjoying his retirement from what I've heard," he said, actually enjoying his correspondence with the former Potions Professor. "He knows his stuff and is very passionate about his craft. In his letters, he often gives little tips and tricks that aren't written in the textbooks. Potion Masters' little secrets of the trade, as it were. He said I'm as talented as my mother was, back when he was teaching her." He smiled fondly at the praise.
The Deputy Headmistress cracked a rare smile. "She was one of his favourites, and it's good to know you're doing well."
"Thank you."
"Well then, Mr. Potter, I need to get on with my marking. I'll bring this development to the staff's attention, but with the Chamber of Secrets on everyone's mind, I don't think much will get done," she admitted.
"I understand; I can replace the ingredients easily enough. It's just the annoyance of it," he admitted before taking his leave.
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