Chapter 21: Reacquainting With Luna and Her Secret/ Lightsaber, Magic and Blood

Star Wars + Harry Potter Crossover

Chapter 21: Reacquainting With Luna and Her Secret/ Lightsaber, Magic and Blood

18th June 2000

Today was the day, down to almost the very minute, that Harry Potter the fifteen year old would walk through the Veil of Death and become part of ancient history. That also meant that he, the future Harry, would begin the old Harry's life from where he had left off.

In all honesty Harry was quite worried about that as, apart from misgivings over the Weasley's as they were so close to Dumbledore and needing to talk to Neville about a few things, there was the decidedly complicated situation with Luna.

He had an idea about what could help them remain close but he was smart enough to realise that he couldn't force anything and that he really wasn't the kind to do that anyway especially after his early training in his Force powers.

If she didn't want him in her life after she had heard his entire story than that, to him, was simply fair enough.

It wasn't like he was a monk in the time that he had been away after all. He had tried many times to have relationships with other women but, aside from having to lie about who he was and his past, he had never found anyone that he could share his quiet moments and peaceful thoughts with in the same way that he had with Luna. In the end he had realised that these women were constantly competing with a memory and, worse than that, with a ghost that had the tantalizing promise of not actually being dead.

When he had come to this realisation (and to his shame it was after a few relationships and far too late in his opinion) he realised it was not right for either of them and stopped trying to have relationships until he was able to, in one way or another, put that segment of his past behind him as he realised it would not have been fair on women to keep going as they got more invested than he could.

When one laughed at something that he hated he would think of the quiet discussions that he and Luna had shared. When another pointed out a beautiful evening he found himself remembering the almost literal hundreds of evenings that he had spent with Luna watching the sunset over the beautiful Scottish countryside. He knew that it was not rational and not fair but it was how he felt.

He was aware that he had built up a somewhat unrealistic image of Luna in his head after all this time (he was not completely stupid after all) but he had needed the drive that the image had given him to get home. While he might have been able to use memories of his other friends in place of what Luna may have thought or felt there was one key difference between them and her.

Given how much they had shared with each other where his friends represented his present she, to him, represented the idea of being able to move forward free of interference or demands on his time. She became a symbol to him of a possible future without the threats of the Wizarding World where he may be happy.

If Luna as a person did not want that with him then it was very sad but he would thank her as (knowingly or not) she had given him hope when his days had seemed their darkest.

Harry was back in what he liked to call his 'Jedi Battle Dress' with his curicass of N.A.S. and his lightsabers hanging from his belt. His ring was, as always, on his finger with his original wand (he had after all retrieved it earlier that day) paired with his emerald green saber on his off side and his new ebony wand and sapphire blade within his main hands reach. The wands themselves were on his wrists in holsters and just behind his green Lightsaber was his Sorosub Security S-5 Blaster.

He had disillusioned himself outside of the main door of the Death Room in the Department of Mysteries and, when his younger self had opened the door, he had slipped inside and waited until he saw himself go through the Veil.

Both Luna and Neville were obviously shocked when Harry appeared, dressed very strangely to them, almost right next to them and before they could say a word he smiled at them and spoke first.

"Luna. Neville. How have you been?" Harry said quickly "I have missed you both so very much".

"Harry? Didn't you just….?" Neville began.

"Time travel" Harry shrugged "it's a bitch. A word of advice stay away from that thing"

"Why Harry?" Neville joked "Are you afraid that someone else will time travel?"

"No" Harry said firmly "it's just that I turned the gate off at the other end. I just have no clue what will happen to you…. I do have to say however that you're taking me travelling through time rather well".

"You are Harry Potter and we are in the Department of Mysteries so I think that I have used up all my disbelief for the next week…. or the next century" was Neville's dry response.

"You are Harry" agreed Luna in her soft peaceful voice " though you are very different".

As Harry turned and looked at her he couldn't help but grin a small and heartfelt smile that was hesitatingly returned by her. Then he focused his attention on Neville and he saw his friend grin as well clearly simply glad that Harry was back from wherever he had been.

Just as clearly he had questions and those very questions were bursting from his eyes but, Harry knew, they would have to wait at least a few days.

"You want me to go with you" Luna said and in her typical fashion it was not a question but rather a simple and blunt statement of fact. Harry puzzled over that for a second until his eyes widened even as he brushed her with the lightest touches with his Force senses.

"I think that would be best yes" Harry said quietly with a new almost awed tone to his voice. He turned back to Neville and looked his friend up and down. "Do you trust me?".

Neville for his part simply snorted at that question. Regardless of the circumstances Neville had just followed Harry into battle and been led by him into what had currently been the most dangerous moments of his life and survived so, regardless of anything else, trust was not an issue between them.

"When has a Longbottom ever not trusted a Potter?" Was the boys simple reply and Harry couldn't help but silently agree that, that had been true for the longest time.

"Fair enough" Harry conceded out loud "just…. tell no one I was here and don't look at Snape or Dumbledore in the eye until I next see you. I hope it will be in a few days but it could be longer".

"Occlumens and passive Legilimency?" asked Neville shrewdly.

"You know the Mind Arts?" Asked Harry surprised.

"You don't?" Neville shook his head in shock "That's almost criminal for someone of your station. It does explain a few things however... or at least leads me to question a lot of things…". Neville paused and then continued "I know the basics and it's enough that I would be able to tell if someone was trying to enter my mind at the very least".

"I'm afraid your questions will still have to wait for now but it does make things easier that you already are aware of the Mind Arts". Harry responded casually and, to both Neville's and Luna's shock, he conjured a self-inking quill and parchment into his hands without a word or seemingly a single gesture from any magical foci. "Please write down your floo address and watch your DA coin for a date... I assume you're going home with your grandmother early after all of this excitement and now that the O.W.L's are done?" At his friends nod Harry passed him the writing implements and before long Harry swiftly got them back with Neville's address on them. "I will meet you there soon... within a couple of weeks. Prepare a large lunch Nev I have a lot to tell you and some questions to ask".

"I will be there as well Neville" Luna stated. Again it was not a question and Harry frowned at that before dragging his mind back to the most important issue of the moment.

"Luna do you trust me?" At her nod as well as her open and honest smile he continued "Good. We need to visit your father as he will need to withdraw you from Hogwarts for the summer early. We have a great deal to catch up on".

When she took his hand he swiftly apparated them to her father's house (the wards to room being down while the cleanup was ongoing) and, once that little detail was taken care of, they next went straight to Gringotts and from there took an international portkey to Bluestone.

"How did you know where I live well enough to take me there?" Luna asked clearly curious at his new found knowledge. Harry shouldn't have been surprised she was, after all, a Ravenclaw.

"It's a very long story but suffice it to say I was there a long long time ago" Harry responded slightly uncomfortable with the subject matter.

"How far back did you go?" She asked with all airiness lost from her voice as her natural thirst for knowledge asserted itself once again.

"You know I never really checked and it's difficult to tell what with the alterations to the calendar here and the differences in the time scale of one year between here and where I ended up. I was certainly gone for hundreds of years though…" his reluctant reply didn't seem to faze her.

"Tell me everything" she said eagerly.

"I don't think I can" he said even as it caused Luna's face to fall in the light of the late evening sun. That was until he took a breath and managed to continue "but I can show you what happened. Come into the house and I will show you everything but, I warn you, it is not all that pleasant".

They entered the house, untouched since Harry had last lived in it and sat in the spartan dining room. After first having removed the dust covers from both the chairs and the dining table it was now the only thing between the two people. To Luna it was simply a pretty and expensive table but, to Harry, it was a gulf that he wasn't sure that he could ever cross.

Luna assumed that she knew what Harry's frown earlier was about. He had guessed that she was a magical Seer and she had therefore began to prepare herself for the inevitable rejection that tended to come with people finding out that someone had the unique but very taxing gift.

Seers came in two types. The first was what Professor Trelawney was, a magical Oracle, quite common (at least relatively speaking among those with the gift) and they were bound by the nature of their gift to speak only in riddles and never remember what they said. This meant that for all intents and purposes, aside for a few moments of their lives, they were as normal as any witch or wizard could ever be.

The second type (and much more rare) was a True Magical Seer. These people rarely came into their gifts before their early twenties, never spoke in rhymes unless they wanted to and were forced to remember everything they had ever seen with their gift. It was almost like whatever they saw was etched on their brain with a rusty needle and no potion, no magical technique or painkiller could ever remove what they had experienced.

Thankfully they were able to forget other things that they had learned just not their visions. Luna was different from them in the fact that her visions were not consistent, though by rights they should have been, and the fact that far from getting it in her early twenties she received her first vision when her and her father were burying her mother.

Like most future Seers whose gift had matured early she was forced to grow up very quickly. After all how could anyone remain a child when they could conceivably view the future at any moment and remember all the fragments of it that they had received. They had no control over what they saw, nor could they necessarily put it into context, but the fact remained that they saw birth, death, pain, suffering, hope and joy and everything in between and they almost lived it as if it were their own life.

If your experiences truly were a mark of your age and maturity then Seers, once they came into their gifts, became ancient very quickly and it was yet another reason why magicals traditionally married early. This was in part to allow those with exotic magical gifts to bond with a partner before they came into play. It was a minor miracle then that Luna had adapted so well as historically child Seers tended to either go insane or commit suicide before they reached adulthood.

She also expected rejection because they often received it as who would want a friend or a lover that could inadvertently learn their future, their past, their deepest secret or even the day of their death.

She was wrong of course but it was what she believed and so when he didn't immediately say anything about it she wanted to smile but held herself back trying not to believe in the faint hope of acceptance as it would hurt too much when crushed. She almost did anyway until she saw his very serious face when he talked about showing her the path his life had taken.

"Show me" she said firmly. Whatever it was, she thought, she would face it head on as she had everything else. Then she couldn't help but internally chuckle as she realised that Harry's Gryffindor tendencies were rubbing off on her in the fact that she was so blunt about such a sensitive subject.

Who better to understand the weight of memory and the price of it, she thought, if not a magical Seer?

With a wave of his hand a small round droid came flying into Harry's palm.

"This" he began " is a recon droid. It is a very special one that I have only used once before and that was last night. One of its first and most basic features is to share memories. It can also copy them but, before you ask, it is too dangerous for this much information".

"So it's sort of like a pensive with a few extra features?" Asked Luna intrigued and leaning forward at the idea of such a device.

"Sort of. The most pertinent difference at the moment is that it not only shares information but the emotions behind the memories themselves. In that it is closer to a vision or legilimency than a pensive". Her next question served to remind Harry how smart she actually was.

"How quickly before the memories begin to degrade and the details become lost? Will the entire memory be lost?"

"For this much information? Most of it I suspect and a few days maybe less. It is your brain's natural defence against foreign memories and, without occlumency, if you actively try to keep it, it would be very bad for you. To stop that happening I added a safety feature since last night that will do it automatically if you try and resist the degradation. Incidentally, at your bodies biological age, it is a bad idea in general to try and do that…. a child's mind would have more room and adaptability but it seems, as in many things, I'm an exception to that rule". Harry smiled a humorless and bitter grin at that as he believed that the only reason he was that way was the length of time that he was forced to have a horcrux and the adaptations that his mind had gone under to keep itself sane. There was honestly no telling if Luna's mind was similar and it was a risk he was not willing to take.

"What are we waiting for?" Luna demanded " Turn the machine on".

Harry couldn't help it as he chuckled at her demanding tone. Then, before he could second-guess himself, he turned it on and decided to hold nothing back as the twin beams connected the two lost souls.

He showed everything, from his earliest memory to approaching her and Neville a few hours ago (after the time travel), and as was its nature the technology also imparted every feeling that went along with it.

Luna saw and felt all of his joys and sorrows, all of his victories and defeats and she could feel his need to return to this time, to his friends and to her.

It was not a possessive or demanding thing, she thought, he did not want to own her or control her. Instead, she realised, it was more a sort of talisman, a bulwark against the horrors of a very long life and a way of keeping a very small amount of hope alive. Hope of seeing her and his friends had become a central fact of his existence because, in a universe that was never fair and in which he knew nothing at the start, it was almost literally the only thing that he had to hold onto.

Unbeknownst to her, throughout the experience, tears were slowly running down her face until she couldn't cry anymore. The emotions of it were overwhelming after all as there was so much sadness in his life, even discounting the Dursleys, so much sorrow and so much pain. She felt what he felt during this as if it were her sorrow and her pain and the depth of it she simply could not comprehend though she tried.

There was good deal of joy too of course and happiness (even forms of love) but these were few and far between and Harry had kept those moments held tight in his mind, much like a squirrel does when gathering nuts for the winter, and hoarded them against the dark times that he had faced. The most important thing to her that she learned however was that, no matter what form of relationship they ended up having, unless she told him to go away he would never abandon her and that she cherished above all.

It was almost like there was three people in his mind. There was the Harry that she remembered from their time together who was shy, sweet and almost overwhelmed by life. There was the Harry that the Jedi and the Galaxy had formed with pressure and time who was quiet, introspective and almost cold. Then there was the Harry that reared himself in battle, decisive, vicious, strong-willed and when he could be... merciful... possibly even kind.

She knew enough to realise that the three Harry's were not separate people that as he had, over his long life, reconciled each aspect of his personality into a cohesive and fully integrated whole.

More wondrous than that, more than anything that he had seen or done (to her at least), was what Harry wanted with her. He had many hopes of course, half fanciful ideas and dreams, but at his core all he wanted for her was to be happy.

She did not yet know if she would be able to reconcile the Harry that she had known with the Harry that was now with her but, she understood that it really didn't matter to Harry one way or the other. If she told him to have nothing to do with her, to leave, she would hurt him and do so badly but it would be accepted and somewhere deep down just as she expected rejection so too did he.

She opened her eyes to her much complaining body and the dawn's rays began to first touch her face. She was very confused right now, after all it was a lot to take in and she was still trying to get it sorted in her own mind, but one thing that was crystal clear to her suddenly took precedence.

"You tried to save my mother?" She asked, even as she left her chair on unsteady legs and approached his, ignoring Harry's guarded and sorrowful expression. His surprise was palatable as she engulfed him in a hug and, after a moment, he privately revelled in holding her softly in his arms. "Thank you for trying".

"You are welcome" Harry said sincerely. He looked into her silvery blue eyes and was about to continue until he got another surprise from her.

She slapped him. Hard.

"That was incredibly stupid! You risked everything...everything". She then softly caressed his cheek for a moment. "Still it was very sweet". Harry didn't know how to react to her change in mood and so, hesitating only slightly, he continued.

"I did hold one thing back however... as I did not know how to broach the subject…"

"Oh?" She said while gracefully withdrawing from the hug.

"I think you have the Force" Harry began but, unlike Luna, he did not grin at that "but I think it's damaged or suppressed".

"How sure are you?" She asked worriedly.

"The longer that I am with you? I grow more and more certain with every second".

"Can you fix it?" She asked worriedly.

"I can try" Harry began in a soft voice "but how about some food first?".

A Potter House Elf appeared and gave them food without speaking (though he did bow) and then disappeared leaving the pair to their own thoughts. They ate in silence as Harry was trying to come to terms with the fact that he actually managed to make it this far and Luna was busy trying to digest everything that she had seen before the details faded from her mind.

Still even in this tense silence they both enjoyed each other's company and took comfort from the simple fact of sharing a meal with one another.

"How old are you now?" Asked Luna abruptly breaking the silence between them.

"About ninety I think. It is quite difficult to keep track although I am biologically fifteen and that does make a difference".

"How so?"

"Hormones. Don't underestimate the difference that they can make to your life" he said ruefully knowing that with the amount of the little bastards currently swimming around his system his judgement was... slightly... impaired.

"So you're what? Half your age?" She joked and he laughed happily at the silly question. In truth bodies were very much like a well worn jacket to him in that they were both his and yet not quite him.

"And you?" He asked joking in return " How old are you?".

"Whatever do you mean?" she responded impishly.

"I may never have met a Seer only Trelawney who, if she is not a fake, is an Oracle but that doesn't mean I don't recognise the signs. I have read about them and, from what I know, they see pieces of the past, present and future. I have to assume that a level of maturity comes hand in hand with that".

"The simple answer is that I'm fourteen but not fourteen just as you are fifteen but not fifteen. The complex answer is... well complex as I just don't know". She smiled softly at him and, looking down at their empty plates, Harry realised that they had dithered long enough on other things.

"Are you sure that you want me to try and fix this? It's a very personal thing... going into someone's mind and going that deep I'm bound to see some things that you would rather I didn't".

Luna looked concerned, Harry realised, and in all honesty she should be as every time he entered his own core it was as easy as breathing to him and almost instantaneous. However from everything that he had ever read he knew that even with permission he would have to sink through any natural barriers and would likely see a fair few memories on the way. The odd nature of the human mind would mean that any memory that she naturally tried to hide, if not done successfully, would be pushed to the forefront of her natural barriers and he would have to see it whether he wanted to or not.

After a long moment she smiled and then looked at him frankly.

"You are warning me? You just showed me your entire life and you're worried about seeing something from me?" She asked incredulously.

"It's all about choice. I've had someone in my mind looking at everything they wanted with no permission from me. I could choose what to show you where as you won't be able to stop me seeing things that you might rather I not see".

"If there is something wrong" Luna said while looking directly into his eyes "then I want it fixed. Do it".

Without another word Harry dove into her mind.

Harry was surprised to find that her mind wasn't a complete and utter mess. From the strange, almost repressed, feeling he had got from his senses he had half expected utter devastation to greet his mental eyes. He had also expected to see some of the creatures (or at least mental representations of them) that she often spoke about but, aside from the occasional phantom and translucent image on the way down, her mind appeared to be very ordinary.

Though he had tried not to Harry was also aware that he had seen some very personal memories of hers. It wasn't like he could turn his non existent back so, instead, he had quickly buried what he had found in his own subconscious. That helped to an extent but he was aware that, somewhere deep down at least, he would know of them.

When he felt himself 'land' in the center of Luna's mental depths he, with barely a thought, created a mental representation of himself and looked around for something similar to the tree that was in his own mind.

There was no tree. Instead he saw a snarling tiger seemingly frozen both in time and mid leap. The reason it did not move was that it was wrapped in thin golden chains that covered everything over and over in an almost ceaseless pattern from muzzle to tail. The chains themselves were not only gold but seemed to ripple and beat with both power and light.

I shouldn't be surprised, Harry thought, that her magic would take the form of an animal given that she talks about strange and wondrous creatures all of the time. I'm more surprised that the animal is so normal looking rather than one of the others that she talks about so often. Had Dumbledore or Snape affected her magic as well?

Then Harry would have slapped himself if he were able to as he realised that he had made a simple but understandable error. Not only were the chains around the tiger completely natural (unlike the inhibitors that were on his own magic) but the tiger wasn't actually a representation of her own magic. As he looked closer at the tiger he saw, beneath the fur, sparkling motes that led him to conclude that it wasn't just a representation of something in Luna's mind but was actually the congealed or suppressed manifestation of her connection to the Force.

That meant, logically, that the chains could only be one thing. Luna's magic was wrapped tightly around her Force connection greatly inhibiting both.

At first he was confused as to why her magic was reacting so badly to her Force Sensitivity. As he had no idea what could have caused this he moved to study the chains themselves closer and when he was mere millimeters from it he noticed something.

At first he was stumped as aside from the different colour to his own (each person's magic had a different hue leading to a different magical signature when combined with a specific focus after all) but after a moment he found that the magic was deeper… somehow more three dimensional than his. He began to slowly study it even more and hoped that something, some piece of the puzzle, would come to him even as an unrealised idea niggled at the back of his mind.

He did not know how long it took until inspiration struck him, time like everything else was fluid here, but he knew that he had been looking at the chains slowly and carefully for quite some time before his brain released its half forgotten knowledge. Harry may have an excellent memory that had been further supplemented by occlumency but the human mind did have its limits and he did have a much longer life than was intended for even the eldest practitioners of the Mind Arts. Some things were bound to be only half remembered despite his techniques.

He had already realised that Luna was, at the very least, some form of Oracle and much more likely than that was a True Seer. That was, to him, the most likely explanation and he then quickly escaped her mind and opened his eyes and found himself staring into her wide open and beautiful eyes.

"What did you find?" She asked and then added hopefully "Can you fix it?".

"It's not quite that simple I am afraid" Harry began "It appears that your magic and your ability with the Force are fighting each other".

Thankfully, if only for the moment at least, with Harry's past experiences still fresh in her mind (though they were already just starting to fade and dull in her mind) she had a fair idea of what that meant. The Jedi, and the Sith, had dealt with the Force for untold centuries and Harry's first desire as a Jedi so long ago was to learn as much as he could through the Council of Knowledge.

"What are my options?" Luna asked bluntly.

"As I see it you have four options. The first is that I do nothing and you're essentially cut off from ever being able to reliably access the Force".

"What exactly is that doing to my magic?" She asked interrupting him.

"I honestly have no idea. Though the Jedi have studied the Force for a very long while magic, as we understand it, is unknown to them and therefore there are no studies on how they could interact with each other. The only real frame of reference that I can use is my own bindings but that presents its own problems. For a start they were placed by external sources and were not naturally part of me and they also seemed specifically designed to block my own magic". His reply was slow and measured as he did not want to misrepresent anything that he was telling her even by accident.

"Go on" she gently coaxed after realising that he was giving her the time to absorb what he was saying.

"The second option is that, through a Jedi based technique, I block your connection to the Force. Think of it like I go and gather that part of yourself and then push it to one side. After I had done that I would build a wall around it that you could never break. This should free up your magic with the distinct possibility of improving your casting and core as well as enabling you to fully realise your gift as a Seer. It would mean that you would never be able to touch the Force in the same way that a Jedi does or that I do ever again".

Harry's voice was soft trying to give her all the information he could but without colouring it with what he may want her to do. This was after all her decision and not his as he had no right to decide what she wanted to do with her own mind and gifts. "It will be very painful though and there is a very strong likelihood that, if you change your mind, I will not be able to undo it as I have never tried to undo it before".

"The third?" She prodded.

"Similar to the second method. This option however causes almost no pain in you as you can be sedated for it although this option would take a few days to set up as it requires a ritual that has been willfully lost over time. In essence instead of affecting your abilities with the Force in would strip you of your magic instead".

"I have known and accepted magic as part of my life. I cannot give it up" her tone was resolute and unyielding.

"I understand. The fourth is a little more complicated and I would have to check my library but I believe I could slowly, over the course of a few weeks, first separate the Seer gift from the rest of your magic and then slowly as well as gently bleed it from your system". He finished his explanation in the same flat but gentle tone that he had used throughout his explanation of her options.

"Jedi can see the future can't they?" She asked after a very long pause considering what she would do.

"Sometimes. The future is hard to see and it's not like we can actually control it. Then again, from everything that I have read, Seers cannot do that with any consistency either" Harry reflected.

"Will my creatures disappear as well?" She asked in an unusually small voice. From all of the conversations that they had with each other in the past Harry knew that, aside from the few years that she had been friends with Ginny, these were her only friends since her mother had died and Ginny herself had abandoned her when her mother pushed for it because thought Luna too odd.

Though her absent-mindedness could be due to her gifts her fathers was due to grief instead and it showed in how she was brought up. This made the creatures all the more special to her as she was not only the only person that could see them but they had been there for her when no one else was.

"We are in uncharted territory here and, as you're the only person that can see them, I have no idea how to answer that except to say that it is a possibility and you would have to tell me after all is said and done. Like the second option however I don't think I would ever be able to undo it either way".

Luna thought long and hard about her decision. It was a risk to her to possibly lose her oldest friends and that thought was more than a little frightening to her. Still she knew and felt that war was in Harry's past and future as she could almost see the echoes of battle floating around him. She also cared for him a great deal and, although she wasn't sure how far that feeling went, he had been her true friend when no one else had managed to be more than simply polite to her at best or actively bullying her at the worst.

"I'll take the last option" she decided having come to the conclusion that if Harry was going to end up in a war or even wars then she would face those times with her first real friend even if it could put her life and creatures at risk.

"Thankfully the first part of this is very simple as I'm only trying to separate the two for now. Once you get comfortable we can start" Harry responded gratefully already thinking about how to thin her magic (for lack of a better term) by using his own as a guide.

Luna smiled at him and he quickly returned it as they both began by closing their eyes beginning the long and delicate process of preparing her mind for the treatment and the long learning curve that was to come.

The hospital ward was quiet with the peaceful nature of it only mildly interrupted by the movement of solemn faced mediwitches and wizards. It was here, in a supposedly high security ward, that Harry's injured friends (bar of course Neville and Luna) were being treated for the injuries that they had sustained during their battle at the Department of Mysteries.

Harry was very grateful that one of the first things that Dobby had done for him was to retrieve his personal effects from Hogwarts as he both didn't have to get them himself and he now had his father's cloak. He had no idea why but, in part thanks to the history told him by the Nation, he knew that it had not only lasted a lot longer than the average cloak of it's kind but was also much more effective.

He was informed that more information about the cloak was available in his family's archives and it was on his list of things to do, but according to the law set down by various treaties, he would need to access them inside his Family Vault as that was where they had to be stored for safekeeping. The earliest that he could have accessed it (and the written histories that it contained) was today.

According to Potter family by laws he had to have passed his N.E.W.T's and be either twenty one as well as the recognised head of the family or, in the alternative, be the recognised Head of another family. Thankfully, in the strictest interpretation of the rules, absorbing the House of Vauquelin with him as its head counted although there was a legal fiction in that he was going to be (when the plan was explained to him) the 'heir' and then Head for a grand total of around three minutes until it was fully absorbed into House Potter holdings.

Still that was not why he was here. He came to check on his friends and his invisibility cloak helped with that as he was sure people were still searching for him. When he had first received the cloak he wasn't surprised to find several tracking charms on it. From the far too intimate knowledge that he had gained from feeling the magic in his mind he was aware that Dumbledore had once again meddled with anything and everything to do with Harry Potter.

Still that, all combined with his in now increased knowledge of magic and stealth, had enabled him to sneak into the ward to check on his friends with relative ease. He was going to pull the cloak off in a bit and reveal himself to his friends but, within a few moments, he concluded that this was a very bad idea and more worthy of the brash Gryffindor that he once was rather than the fully educated man that he had become.

Not only would Dumbledore been looking everywhere for him but, in all fairness, he hadn't seen them in a very long time and although Hermione was sleeping both Ron and Ginny were deep in conversation with each other.

Despite himself he drew closer to the two and studying their charts top sheet, he was pleased to see, thanks to the wonders of magical medicine they both appeared to be healthy and, aside from some scarring in Ron's case, they simply seemed to be there for observation.

Hermione was a whole different kettle of fish. She was still unconscious due to the dark magic that had infused the curse that wounded her so badly and would be there for at least another week before she even woke up.

"Well that all went to shit didn't it?" Said Ron with clear venom in his voice. "Potter almost got me killed again".

"Relax Ron everything is going to plan" Ginny answered dismissively even as Harry was intrigued by the idea of a plan for him. "Soon I'll be married to Harry and all the money you have been paid will be more than worth it".

"It better be double what I've been paid when you got your hooks into him" spat Ron "no it better be double that again or better yet triple".

"I'm sure" she replied in a self-satisfied tone of voice "that your dear friend and brother-in-law would be more than happy to help you out especially after I've spoken to him". Ron grunted clearly unhappy with the response but with a noticeable gleam of greed in his eyes.

Harry wanted to jump out and confront them especially when Ron merely turned over as if to sleep signalling the end of their conversation. He resisted the impulse however as not only would that give away everything that he had heard and the fact that he was here but it would most likely bring Dumbledore running as soon as one of them could scream. Instead he decided to cast a sleeping spell on the pair (one that was much more commonly used on particularly fussy newborns) and waited for it to take effect.

When he was sure that had taken effect he moved as close to Ron's bed as he dared to and, leaning over, he gently opened the redheads eyes and with barely a whispered spell he entered the boys mind.

Legilimency was normally a difficult process because people naturally resisted the intrusion into their mind as, like all the Mind Arts, it was just not the way a mind was supposed to work. In some ways occlumency was considered easier due to the fact that it was simply trying to enhance the minds natural defences and memory recall whereas legilimency was, no matter how skillfully done, and unnatural intrusion upon the mind of its victim.

When you entered a sleeping mind however (at least one without occlumency training that would keep the barriers up without conscious thought) the problems that you faced were much different from the normal ones that you might expect to encounter.

There were no defences per say and if done carefully your target would not even know that you had been inside their mind. The downside however was that, instead of dealing with the waking mind, you dealt with a mind that resided somewhere between the conscious and the subconscious.

This meant that Harry couldn't simply direct Ron to the information that he wanted in the same way that he could have done if he was awake. Instead of reaching in demanding information and tearing it out Harry instead would have to coax information out of Ron by gently leading him there all without waking his target.

He started by projecting an image of himself and, instead of the information he wanted, he got several memories of their adventures together. What surprised Harry the most about these instances was the lens they were coloured by… Ron himself. They showed Harry to be weak and ineffectual and Ron to be the true leader of the Trio. If Harry had harboured any doubts about how self-absorbed the ginger boy actually was then these memories, that were so far from the reality of the situation that the sky might as well be green in them, cured him of them as did the ech of clear disgust and greed that Ron felt towards Harry during these moments.

Then Harry retasked himself and tried the image of Ron surrounded by almost a mountain of gold and that was when his reading of Weasley's mind paid off. A veritable torrent of memories assaulted Harry's former view of Ron.

He saw Dumbledore agree to pay Ron to befriend Harry and from those same memories he understood that a large part of Ron's 'job' was to keep Harry on the path that Dumbledore had laid out for him. This included (but was not limited to) keeping Harry unaware of his heritage, away from disruptive influences like the Longbottoms and helping him relax rather than learn too much by studying.

Pulling out of his former friends head all he felt was a deep and overwhelming disgust for the self absorbed and self serving Ron Weasley. The emotions that Harry felt coming from Ron's recollections ran so contrary to Harry's natural character that he felt more than a little ill after feeling them even if only from a memory impression.

It appeared that Ron couldn't even conceive of the idea that usually one had to work hard to get what they truly wanted. Instead, Harry gathered from the feelings attached to the memories that he saw, Ron had the steadfast belief that he should and would receive anything that he wanted as he was Ron Weasley and everything he wanted was therefore owed to him.

It was soul crushing to Harry that not only did his first friend not care about him at all beyond how he could use him but he also was viewed as an idiot and was therefore a completely disposable bag of hot air and flesh to Ron. To Weasleys mindset all he was ever worth was the contents of his Vault and, regardless of the fact that he only had such a thing at the cost of his parents, it should and did all belong to Ron and that Harry simply did not know it yet.

After silently collecting himself he moved slowly over to Ginny hoping for better but now expecting the worst after the jarring nature of her brothers mind (self-centered cesspit that it was).

Her mind could not have been more different than her brothers at the start as when he began to project images of wealth into her mind he got no response at all. He began to hope, despite himself, that she was an unwilling or otherwise coerced accomplice of both Dumbledore and her brother.

Sadly for Harry's hopes it was not to be as when he put forth images of himself he received a response that killed that fledgling hope stone dead as he found that she was a willing even eager participant in their manipulations of him.

To her the Boy-Who-Lived was more than a myth. He was everything to her and she would do anything to have him as her own. The strongest image associated with him was her future wedding day, in fact it was so strong that to her it was even clearer than her actual memories, she had even planned her future nuptials down to the smallest detail. She had even decided what dress she was going to wear, the amount of children they would have and even their future children's names.

The major problem with that, aside from the disturbing nature of her mind, was that she wished to marry the Boy-Who-Lived and Harry was not and never had been that person. She had no interest in any images of their possible married life or how they would get to that point. She was equally unresponsive to any image of them arguing as,in her fantasy, that simply wasn't possible. They had a storybook romance in her mind and, as all good storybooks do, the ending could only be happily ever after.

As far as she was concerned he would spend his time heroically saving the day every single day and then go home to her as that was what the Boy-Who-Lived was supposed to do. She would even earnestly cry and tell him how proud of him she was. She truly had no conception of any other role as the only Mrs Potter that she wanted to be was the one that was constantly on the front of the Daily Prophet and despite his hatred of his fame she intended to outright revel in it.

The only thing that she kept from Dumbledore and her brother was the fact that she intended to keep him alive past fighting Voldemort. Alive and hers at any rate and that existence, though blissful to her, scared Harry more than having his soul sucked out by Dementors at that moment.

Worse his thoughts and opinions were never even considered. In his previous relationships, doomed though they may have been, Harry had always tried to put his partners needs first and it was rather the fact that he could never be completely honest with them plus the fact that (if he was being totally honest with himself) the idea of what he and Luna might be that sunk those relationships.

The core motivation of their attractions was what seperated Harry and Ginny and their paths had only diverged further from that foundation. Ginny believed that Harry needed her and that he was hers to do with as she pleased, whether he knew it or not, as she knew better than him. She wished to have him because he was her property and the Boy-Who-Lived her hero. To her that was all that mattered.

To Harry on the other hand as someone who had every stage of his life dictated to him that kind of possessiveness, that kind of control, was exactly what he did not want. He valued free will and choice above everything else in a relationship. To him any relationship that did not have that at its core was no real relationship at all and he would not, could not, become like Ginny.

That was one of the many reasons why he had refrained from interacting with Luna from the moment that she was born. If she was raised to believe that she and Harry were destined to start a relationship rather than choosing it herself (or not as the case may be) then their lives together would have been unequal and built on an obligation that she had to fulfill rather than the true partnership that he desired. To Harry they not only had to love one another as true partners but she also had to choose him freely and fairly or not at all.

Ginny had no such compulsion to allow Harry the freedom of choice. To her it was a foregone conclusion that he loved her and that they would marry and she would go to any lengths to make things happen as she wished. In her own way she was as selfish and self-centered as her brother and, when he prodded her mind with the idea of them not marrying, he caught the true scope and depth of her infatuation.

She would do anything to make that happen and no action was immoral in the pursuit of that, no action illegal, as to her it was merely fulfilling destiny and if her Harry ever found out about it he would thank her for moving things along as they should have been and down the proper path.

In her mind the wedding had already as good as happened as to her it was as true a fact as the idea that the sun would rise in the morning. What disturbed him more was that she had shared her plan to 'snag' Harry with her mother at a very young age and, far from discouraging her, Molly advised and intended to aid her plans as much as she could.

For only example of many when he viewed a memory of Ginny and her mother discussing him during what he assumed was his fourth year (they had begun by Ginny tearfully discussing his disastrous relationship with Cho after all) Molly had suggested using some very strong and mildly to heavily illegal potions to help Harry 'notice' her.

He may not have been the brightest person when it came to potions but he knew the ones that she had mentioned. These were not simple infatuation potions that a girl might use to steal a kiss from a shy boy but rather ones that were both powerful and deeply affected the subjects free will with the last one that she mentioned basically turning him into an infatuated zombie dependant on Ginny for every single action he might take.

The fact that Molly mentioned it as a last resort soothed him not at all and neither did her suggestion that Ginny try and show a little more skin and affection to Harry. When Ginny had raised a half hearted objection to that, she had been raised as a proper pureblood witch after all not some muggle harlot, Molly had easily convinced her to do so anyway. After all, to both of their minds, it would have been improper for Ginny to show that much skin to anyone except Harry.

After all it was one thing to be that forward with a boyfriend and it was quite another to be that forward with ones husband. That, it seemed, was what Harry was to the two women. He was Ginny's husband who simply didn't know it yet and if he had other plans then they were to be pushed aside as the world took its only acceptable course. Clearly though it had almost no impact as Harry hadn't noticed her different behaviour in the year since though, from her memories, he knew that she had tried.

Harry's foundation of trust in his friends (other than Neville and Luna) was pretty much destroyed at this point. He was now questioning every friend that he had ever made at Hogwarts. That was until he realised that, thanks to Dumbledore's and Ron's manipulations no doubt, he could count his friends on his hands with fingers to spare. With Luna being more and relatively inconsequential (at least to the conspirators until the Department of Mysteries) only Hermione's and Neville's friendship was in doubt as though the twins may or may not have had anything to do with the plot he decided then and there he would not force them to choose between him and their family.

Neville was vetted as far as Harry was concerned not only by his personal family history and the Potter-Longbottom Alliance but also by discreet inquiries by the Goblin Nation itself. As an ancient wizarding family most of their business interactions (which included more than a few personal ones as well) were handled by Gringotts and they were second to none at obtaining intimate details on their clients. Though they hadn't told him what they had found they had said that the Longbottom family was trustworthy and that this snooping they conducted was only to better serve as the families bankers….of course.

Looking back, with his knowledge of the Weasley's machinations, he could see how Ron had so easily insinuated himself between Harry and anyone else that may have wanted to be his friend. After all he had been primed in his upbringing to latch on to the first person who showed him friendship and even his quidditch team mates, who as far as he knew were all kind people, were merely acquaintances.

Though he wanted to trust Hermione he frankly couldn't afford the luxury given everything that he had learned from the other two. So, as soon as he thought that he had gathered everything relevant from Ginny, he left her mind and approached Hermione. With a whispered apology in case she really was his friend he entered her mind with the same quiet casting that he had entered the others.

He only spent a few moments in her mind trying very hard not to violate her privacy anymore than he absolutely needed to. He stayed only long enough to ascertain that she was oblivious to the plots of both the Weasley's and Dumbledore although he did find out that she trusted the old man implicity.

That fact alone meant that, as much as it pained him, he couldn't trust her at the moment no matter how much she liked him or was unaware of the plots as trusting her would mean trusting everyone that she in turn trusted just in case she was pressured, coercerced or tricked to share information that he would not want shared.

With that decided and promising himself that he would make it up to Hermione at a later date he left as quietly as he came and, within half an hour, was back at Bluestone passing Lunas room until he reached his own. He planned to remain there, aside from a small trip to Gringotts to formally take up his title as Lord Potter, until the early hours of the twenty fifth.

He was not going to be idle however as, over the next week, aside from practicing both his magic and his Lightsaber Forms, he would try and fast track Luna's treatment to allow her access to all of her abilities to a small amount of success.

He should have known that quietly entering his home and attempting to sleep would not have worked however as, within moments of sitting down, his mind was swamped with the reality of the many betrayals that he had uncovered. It was almost as if every single one added to the next in an unending wave and he felt tears begin to fall silently down his cheeks.

His door banged open with a loud thud and Luna flew in like some blonde avenging missile to scoop him up in a gentle embrace. Haltingly, and taking comfort from her presence, he told her everything that he had discovered leaving nothing out even as she made soothing noises and stroked his back comfortingly.

At length his tears finally stopped and he felt both empty and cleansed at the same time.

His last conscious memory of the night was of Luna in her pajamas (he had his boxers on) simply holding him and giving comfort to him throughout the long and lonely night. There was nothing else to it, no sweeping desire, no ravaging of her innocence, just one friend holding another as they came to terms with the unfairness of life and the duplicity of horrible people.

Dumbledore

At roughly the same time Dumbledore was incensed.

Harry Potter was missing. His weapon was loose in the world without supervision and he had sent the entire Order, including a grumbling Snape, to look for the errant child.

Worse where he would have once dipped into the Potter Vaults for a 'donation' to the right people in the Ministry to help organise a more comprehensive search he could no longer do so. Not that he would have told them what he was looking for of course, merely that he would have paid someone in the Ministry to turn their sensors to one of the many tracking charms that he had placed on Harry's person. A memory charm later and they would have thought he'd asked them for a simple administrative favour, to push a law through for example, and he would have had Harry back under his control.

He couldn't do that however as those irritating creatures, the Goblins, had informed him this morning that the Potter Accounts were frozen until the morning of the twenty sixth due to an audit that was somehow allowed under an ancient treaty and obscure law. Only Lord Potter, under that law, would be able to lift the audit before they were done and as he never wanted Harry to be aware of a Lord Potter let alone become it he was stuck until the time period had elapsed.

In the same vein, for the first time in almost fifteen years, he was forced to move back into the cramped quarters off of the Headmasters Office. In all fairness they weren't that cramped but, compared to the picturesque Potter Summer Retreat that just so happened to be located in a private warded beach in Nice on the French Riviera, it was little more than a box room.

Irregularities indeed, thought Albus dismissively, it's not like Harry would need either his money or his property after Voldemort died and I could put it to so many better uses. For the Greater Good of the Wizarding World of course.

It helped his case that, by tradition, if any orphans died while at Hogwarts it fell to the Headmaster to distribute their assets. The fact that no orphans had died in over a century was besides the point as was the fact that, by and large, all of the orphans had been muggleborn or from Lesser Houses. Not a single one had ever been numbered among the Ancient and Noble Houses as they tended to have guardians set up in case of such contingencies as Dumbledore was Harry's though illegally. There hadn't even been recognised Ancient and Noble Houses when the law was first introduced but that didn't change the legitimacy of the law and it give him a stronger case to do what he wanted.

The Wizengamot loved tradition after all.

The hypocrisy of him decrying the Goblin Nation using an obscure law against him while he did the same to Harry was completely lost on him. In his mind when he did it his actions were justified under the umbrella of the Greater Good and saving the Wizarding World while the Goblins were just being petty and vindictive.

What annoyed him the most, aside from having to pay Ron Weasley out of his own money and not to mention that the Order of the Phoenix was without its main money source, was that he couldn't access the majority of his personal items. They were now in properties that he couldn't get to and, he assumed wrongly, elves under the employ of the Goblins (or their agents) had closed or taken all property that was for the moment still Harry Potters.

In reality it was Dobby, ever eager to anticipate the needs of his hopefully future Master, who had either moved the items and closed the properties or asked other elves that he had met on his travels to do so.

All of this led Dumbledore to open a bottle of Firewhiskey and slowly sip it from a thick glass as he imagined how he would rectify his problems once he inevitably had Harry Potter back under his control. He was stuck until the twenty sixth and he planned to make the goblins pay for the indignity of the wait.

He didn't know it then but, by the time that day rolled around, it would be far too late.

Luna Lovegood

Luna was sitting in 'her' room in Bluestone in a quandary about the course her life was taking.

It had only been a few days here and yet she could already feel the difference in herself. Harry had been true to his word to help her and, after both searching his memories for Jedi techniques as well as consulting the finest theoretical Masters that Gringotts could put him in touch with, had begun her treatment with vigor.

Her mind already felt clear, her wits sharper, and it was almost as if she could hear a sound that wasn't actually there. A comforting and warm embrace that, when she confided her thoughts to Harry, was apparently the Force slowly entering her conscious mind after being denied for so very long.

Though she would never lose the memory of the visions that she had already experienced through her magic she was already sure that she would suffer no more from her magic. That didn't discount getting some from the Force although these she could hopefully forget if necessary.

It shocked her that not only were the Goblins bending over backwards to help Harry but, thanks to his impressive wealth, all of these people that he had been put in touch with were willing and even eager to help check his ideas for a solution to her problem though they weren't told all of the details for security reasons.

Her dilemma was not so much that but, rather, the thing she had privately feared was now a fact. She realised, even this early, that she was losing her ability to see the creatures that had been with her and had been a comfort to her for so long. As the treatment was still ongoing she could ask him to stop and, all agreed, she would slowly return to how she was before.

That idea presented a problem all of its own however and, as is normal in life, there were no easy answers to it.

She and Harry had spent a great deal of time together, both before and after he had gone through the Veil, and although she knew that he had changed a great deal she felt that at his core he was still the same kind hearted boy that went out of his way to help and befriend her.

How could she not love him for that act alone? She thought and admitted to herself then and there that she did. To deny it would be as futile as denying the tide that came in every single day.

She was unsure however, at that moment, whether that actually mattered though. She did not know if he would end up a very good friend or if they would turn out to be more than that as she was still trying to wrap her head around all the changes that Harry had gone through and her own changes didn't help make it that much clearer for her at the moment.

They hadn't spent the night in the same room again since that first time both understanding that with everything going on it wouldn't help matters so much as it would further muddy the waters between them. She did know that Harry would always be an important part of her life however and that feeling was more than magic, more than the Force, she knew it deep in her bones.

When she had admitted that to herself it did help make things clearer to her if only slightly and it felt like, with the conflict between magic and Force in her system slowly dissipating, some very large and free roaming cotton balls were being removed from her head for the first time and she could slowly begin to think with true clarity.

She knew that if she asked him to stop he would not judge her rather he would simply accept her choice as he always did and that was, paradoxically, the very reason that she couldn't ask him to stop.

She knew that a threat was coming, even to her nascent senses it was a shadow on the horizon of her life, and that Harry would be in the thick of it as he always was. She also knew that if she followed her friend without full access to her abilities she would either not be able to keep up with him or would be relegated to a supporting role. She could even end up as a hindrance to him rather than a help.

That would not do, she thought, I will not allow Harry to take such risks by himself not when I can help him and hopefully protect him.

Staring out of her window her face began to slowly set into a resolute expression. She would learn the Force from Harry and learn as much magic from as many sources as she was able to. Come hell or high water she decided that she would stand beside Harry, no matter what their relationship ended up being, as she would not allow herself to fail her friend.

Not now, she silently promised herself, not ever. I will never abandon Harry to face the dark alone.