Chapter 9 The Twins, and Luna's idea

A shadow fell over the table causing the trio to look up. "See, Fred, my lad, I told you I smelled mischief in the kitchens," said a redheaded boy as he sat at the table across from Harry.

"That you did, George, ole boy, I never shoulda doubted you," said the boy's double as he took the seat next to 'George'.

They both reached out and served themselves up some chocolate cake. It was like watching synchronized dancing as they both moved at the same time, and did the same thing. Harry just thanked God that they stopped when 'George' used his left hand to eat, and 'Fred' used his right.

"Hello, hello, hello, who are you then?" our hero asked, liking these two immediately. There was an air of mischief around them that said they didn't conform to the rules. They could probably help him in what he needed to get done. That and, they seemed to know him, and a different point-of-view would be very welcome. The girls were nice, but it was all from a female perspective. He needed a man's point-of-view.

"Harry, these are the Weasley twins, Fred and George," Luna said, pointing to the correct twin when she called their names. It was actually quite easy to tell them apart, Fred had a rather large freckle under his right eyes and was left-handed, while George had one under his left and used his right hand. She loved to throw off their playfulness by calling the correct one when she introduced them.

"I hate that Little Luna can tell us apart," Fred said as he looked at his brother, who simply nodded in agreement as he ate his cake. "Right, enough of that, we overheard that there was a plan to escape. Now we're always up to causing chaos for the staff, but why do you feel the need to run?" he asked the dark-haired Gryffindor. He was glad Harry was back they had been worried when he was gone. After many years of hearing their brother boost about the 'adventures' they had been on, how could they not be concerned. While Harry usually came out okay, this time he was alone. It was with great relief that they heard the rumor that the dark-haired boy was back.

George looked at the boy and noted the air of confidence that had never been there before. Yeah, Harry had done amazing things in the past, but it was only when there was danger that the boy was self-assured. Now it seemed to ooze off of him. He nudged his brother and they held a private conversation with facial expressions. They both looked at Harry critically and came to the conclusion that something was different. The rumor was that he had lost his mind and was unstable, but they thought it was something less volatile.

"Harry has amnesia," explained Hermione, confirming their thoughts, and then she told them what little they knew about how he had lost his memories.

"So Poppy says you didn't get it from a blow to the head," George said, tapping his finger in his chin.

"And you only remember waking up on the streets," Fred stated, tapping his finger on the table.

"A mystery," they said together with a huge grin on their face.

"Well, I do remember the taste of dirty socks, but that's it," the messy-haired boy confessed, as he mind raked over what little he could recall. It still made him wonder how he know what dirty socks tasted like.

"You didn't tell me that," Hermione said, with a slight accusation in her tone.

"I'd forgotten until now," he offered with a shrug.

"Don't worry, Harrykins," Fred said, picking up his fork. He wasn't concerned; he and George were great sleuths.

"We'll suss this out," George finished, putting his flatware to the table, having finish his sweet. He, like his brother, loved mysteries, and they could find clues where no one thought to look. They knew what was hidden in the castle their third year. And what was in the pipes their forth. They Black was in the castle and on the grounds their fifth year. They had tried to tell the professors, but it was brushed off as them playing one of their pranks. After the basilisk they stopped trying. It never dawned on them to tell Harry and his friends, they were young kids, who never should have been caught up in all that to begin with. It was, however, one of the main reasons they have the dark-haired boy the map. They had hoped he saw what they did. They never figured out who that Pettigrew bloke was though. By the time they got close the guy was gone.

"But for now," Fred said.

"tell us about your escape plans," his brother continued.

"so we can help," they stated as one.

"Right, please don't do that. My brain is muddled enough," Harry begged, and then smiled. "Luna tells me that I have an Invisibility Cloak, which I'm going to take does what it's named, and that I can sneak to a place called Hogsmeade, and from there I can catch the Knight Bus to some place called Gringotts, which I am told is where my money is. So far that's all I have," he said in a conspiring whisper as he leaned over the table as if sharing a great secret.

"Right well, that's a start," Fred stated, thinking that they were going to have to teach young Harrykins all the tools of the trade… again. "Let's finish our afters, and then we'll go back to the dorms. Sorry, Little Luna, but you can't come with," he said with playful remorse.

"Oh, that's alright. I have homework to finish anyway. But before you make plans, we should find an empty classroom and teach Harry how to use his tricorder," she said dreamily with a wave of her hand, making Harry bounce with excitement.

"Wand," Hermione said at their blank looks. "Harry is having a hard time believing in magic. He thinks all of this is one great experiment with technology," she huffed, a bit put out that Luna was playing along with that idea. How was she supposed to teach Harry magic if the other girl was feeding his delusion?

"Well, after seeing that bloody ghost, glasses that came from nowhere, and the woman who turns into a cat, I might be swayed into believing in magic," Harry confessed as he ate his last bite of dessert.

"Oh phooey," Luna said, folding her arms and pouting. "I had an explanation that could teach you in minutes." She had wonderful ideas about how to make her new friend all-powerful. If she could do it before Hermione got ahold of him. If there was one thing that Hermione shared with her fellow Ravenclaws it was book learning. If it wasn't written down it wasn't correct. She was hoping to get to Harry before all the rules were put into his head.

"We can still try that, Lovely Luna," Harry said with a beaming smile. He loved how she thought his ideas weren't bullshit. She was turning out to be a good person to have around.

"I believe I am going to go and… do my homework," Hermione stated, not wanting to see what wacky thing Luna came up with. That and she wanted to reevaluate her relationship with this new Harry. With his new personality, she wasn't sure if they would stay the tight friends they were before. Before he would listen to her, but now…

"We want to come," intoned the twins with grins splitting their faces. They were always up to whatever Luna came up with.

People seemed to forget the little blonde was sorted into Ravenclaw for a reason, and while they weren't friends with her, per se, they were very good neighbors. They would sneak over and watch her when she hunted for things in the field behind her house, sometimes they even joined. They had witnesses amazing things, but she was a bit standoffish when it came to them, like she was unsure of their intentions. They, being the cheerful boys they were, just took it in stride and kept watching and hunting.

"Great, let's go," the little blonde said as she stood, grabbed Harry's hand, and pulled him out of the kitchen. The others followed. Hermione left and the twins smirked, knowing the resident know-it-all was going to miss something wicked. Luna took them to a nearby classroom and closed the door after they all entered. She waved the boys to sit and tugged Harry to the front of the room. She then took on a teacher's voice and said, "Take out your tricorder."

"Okay," our hero said slowly and pulled out his wand.

"Now, from what you've said you've done over the last week, you have been doing wandless magic," she stated as she paced in front of him. "I want you to take your tricorder, point it at that book and with a flick, like pushing a button, think 'lift', all the while seeing in your mind's eye the book lifting off the table," she instructed as she indicated what book and how high she wanted it in the air. She was almost giddy with excitement. If this worked then there might be a whole new way to teach magic.

Harry shrugged, that was simple enough. He did as told and the book flew off the table about six feet in the air. The twins gasped and started whispering excitedly. Harry flicked his tricorder again and the book lowered back onto the table.

"Very good, now put your wand away, and do the same thing with your finger," came the next order.

The dark-haired amnesiac did as bid and the book lifted three feet this time.

"Wonderful," Luna exclaimed, bouncing up and down, making Harry very glad she left her robes in the kitchen. "Now look at the book and imagine it turning into a… cat," she decided.

"Why?" Harry asked.

"Transfigurations can be very important in a fight. The things you turn something into are not real, however they move and act like the real thing. Say you are in the middle of battle and there is a spell coming towards you that you are unprepared for. If you think of the ground, or rock, in front of you as a wall, or a bear, or really anything, it will spring up and take the spell. It is still a rock and will explode like a rock, but you are unhurt," she lectured, pacing back and forth in front of him. His eyes followed her, paying very close attention to every word she said. "Now the same can't be said for turning a bird into cat. It is still a living bird, but it acts like a cat. If you transform a rat into cup, it is still rat. Destroy the cup and you kill the rat. I don't like living transfiguration," she exclaimed with a huff.

Harry nodded his agreement and promised himself that he would not do that unless it was very important, though for the life of him he couldn't think of any scenario which he would need to. "Right, okay… I can do that," he said as he shook his head to clear his thoughts, and glared at the book. It took a minute, but slowly a cat emerged from the paper. It stretched and laid down to nap, just like a real cat. Then he thought it back into to a book.

"I believe you are going to need to practice that one, but very well done indeed," she praised, clapping her hands and then sobering. "Now this is important, you are the only person in this whole castle, possible the entire wizarding world, that can do these things. That is because you are not hindered by the rules that were drilled into our heads for the minute we learned about magic. For us it was the moment we were born. For you, however, because of your amnesia, you're not held up by limits," Luna stated, once again pacing. "This has to stay between just us four, no one can know until you are more proficient," she said, twirling towards the twins, who quickly nodded in agreement.

"Are you saying that I am more powerful than the old man?" Harry asked amazed at the things he just did.

"While I would not use the word powerful, I would say you are more unrestricted," she said thoughtfully. With the animosity Harry had towards the Headmaster, she didn't want him to go head-to-head with the older man. If he hurt Dumbledore, he might regret it if he got his memories back. From what little she knew of the Boy-Who-Lived, he was a kindhearted soul who loved the old man. No, she would not point him in that direction.

"So, you mean we can't do that?" came the disappointed voices of the two redheads.

"Actually, if you can overcome a lifetime of teaching you can do anything you want," she said absentmindedly. The only thing holding her back from being unfettered was the death of her mother playing in her mind when she tried. How did she know that Harry wouldn't suffer the same? Well, her mother knew spells were dangerous, Harry doesn't. If what she was thinking was true, then it was all about mind over matter.

The twins started whispering again as Luna and Harry did a few more amazing things, until the boy believed he could do anything he wanted with his… wand, or even without it. He now firmly believed in magic, since there were no wires or controls on his tricorder, which is what he was going to still call it, if only to piss people off.

"Right, it's getting close to curfew, so we'd better take Harry back to the dorms," George said as he got up and started for the door. He and his brother gone over a few things they could do to become as free as Harry, short of wiping their memories of course. Having witnessed the messy-haired younger boy do things they had been told were impossible, well as the saying goes, 'seeing is believing'.

"Now student, remember don't let anyone tell you what you are doing is impossible. The only thing you cannot do is make food. That is a proven fact. If you try and you eat it, then you will not get the nutrients of real food," she lectured again. She didn't want to add a bar to his learning, but it was established that conjured food had no substance.

"Right, no food, but the sky is the limit," Harry said with a nod of his head. His mind was rapidly going over all the things he had seen on the telly and read in the books. There were thousands, millions, of things he could do. He could turn invisible and wouldn't need the Cloak. He could teleport and wouldn't need the Bus. Over and over his plans were improved.

"I can see that squirrel running 'round in circles in your mind, Harrykins. Come on and we'll suss it all out together," Fred said, taking our hero's arm and leading the dazed boy out of the classroom.

"Wait, Harry," Luna said and came to his side, she then stood on her toes and kissed his cheek. "Thank you. For making me feel special," she said with huge grin.

"You are very welcome, Lovely Luna," the messy-haired wizard stated as he tucked some of her hair behind her ear, leaned down and kissed her cheek, which caused the twins to snicker. "Shut it, you two," he said as he turned, though the grin on his face negated the harsh command.

"Silly boys," the blonde said as she skipped by Harry's side as they made their way down the hall. "Well, here is where I leave you. I hope you have a great adventure," she stated once more standing on her tiptoes and giving Harry a smooch on the cheek. She then turned and went to her dorms, with a spring in her steps.

"See ya, Luna," Harry called after her, and then turned to the chuckling knuckleheads and smirked. "Ah, what a wonderful end of the day," he said, and then waved his hand in a 'lead the way' manner. "So you are related to my supposed 'best mate'," he said questioningly.

"Yeah, ickle Ronniekins is our younger brother," Fred answered, with a disappointed look in his eyes.

"We have no idea why he thinks so badly of you right now, but you were best mates up until your name came out of the Goblet," George said, partially defending his younger brother, yet still upset that Ron turned his back on Harry.

"I don't know either, but I'll tell you what I told Hermione, I don't let negative people into my life," Harry stated firmly, with steel in his green eyes.

"I understand that," Fred said, slinging an arm over his shoulders. "Negative people just bring you down," he added with a nod to his brother.

"To right, brother o' mine," George stated as he too put his arm around Harry's shoulder.

"Get off, guys. It's not quite as fulfilling as have two lovely girls on my arms," Harry said, flinging their arms off good-naturedly, chuckling all the while.

"Right you are, Harrykins. Do tell how you accomplished such a feat?" George asked, not a bit put out by the younger teen's actions.

"Well, it all started on my first escape attempt, after that bastard mind-raped me," our hero growled, and then he recounted his first hour in the castle and how Luna came to be by his side.

"I always believed that Dumbledore thought himself important, but to hold you down and pillage your mind, that is something I would've never thought of him," Fred said with disgust in his voice.

"Yeah and according to the cat lady, he didn't do anything wrong. I'll let you in on a bit of a secret, Hermione feels the same, and that makes me not trust her completely," the dark-haired boy confessed. "I'm going to escape tonight and I want to see what she'll do," he added with a wink.

"We'll do what we can to help. With the tools you have at your disposal it should be easy," Fred said as they turned into the hall Gryffindor's tower was.

"Right, I was thinking about that," Harry said with a mischievous smirk. "I have a few ideas, but I want to see these 'tools' first."

They came to the portrait of the Fat Lady and George gave the password, 'balderdash', and they went into the common room. Harry looked over the red and gold decorated room and quirked an eyebrow at the overabundance of the two colors. He was just about to make a comment when a younger redhead boy came up to him and sneered, "Potter. Out giving autographs?"

'Well, this might be fun,' Harry thought and prepared for a confrontation.