Real or Not Real {Harry Potter}

Fifty Five

-Fortnight-

-i love you, it's ruining my life-

-i touched you for only a fortnight-

Ron and Harry remained in the hospital for a few more days, before they were finally released. Hermione and Bria agreed to meet them outside of the wing, Hermione offering to give them a summary of the past few lessons they missed while Bria remained uncharacteristically quiet.

He would never call her talkative, she much preferred to sit back and observe, taking in everyone's reactions and thoughts. But she always made a point to prove to you she was listening; a small hmm or a nod of her head, looking back at Harry while he spoke or turning her head to get a better hearing on Ron and Hermione.

But this was something else entirely. She simply walked, with her head facing front and no cues whether she had heard anything they said at all.

Hermione insists on walking in between Ron and Harry to go over the points they missed in class, and she surely knows that Harry and Ron aren't listening to her.

Usually, this would bother Harry, as when she would go down these tangents it was difficult to get a word in and change the subject. But he let it go, mostly because he could tell that Hermione was nervous to be around Ron without him lying in a bed or unconscious to the world. Besides, he had bigger issues, like Bria and her stoic mood today.

His suspicions were only confirmed when he accidentally walked to close to her, his fingers only just grazing the back of her hand. She flinched away from him, as if she were burned and Harry did the damage. Perhaps he did, if he only knew what he did wrong.

Ron, of course, is starving and insists that they go to the Great Hall for breakfast while Hermione argues that he needs to review her notes before any eating can be done. But Ron wins, and they set off to the Great Hall, and turn the corner to come face to face with Luna. 

"Oh, hi Luna," Bria says pleasantly, as if she had not been in a foul mood the whole morning.

She turns to Bria, the signature dreamy-eyed look settling across her features. "Hello, Bria, I forgot, I've been meaning to tell you, I cleared the Ravenclaw Tower of all the Nargle infestations, so everyone should be safe now."

Bria, polite as always, says nothing of Luna's strange hobbies, and just smiles at her. "That's great to know," she tells Luna and Hermione snorts humorlessly.

Luna turns to Harry, unperturbed by Hermione's rude comments. "I went to the hospital wing to find you," she says, rummaging in her bag. "But they said you'd left. . . ."

She pulls out what appears to be a green onion, a large spotted toadstool, and a considerable amount of what looked like cat litter into Ron's hands, finally pulling out a rather grubby scroll of parchment that she hands to Harry.

". . . I've been told to give you this."

It was a small roll of parchment, which Harry recognizes at once as another invitation to a lesson with Dumbledore.

"Tonight," he tells them once he unrolls it.

"Nice commentary last match!" Ron says to Luna as she takes back the green onion, the toadstool, and the cat litter. Luna smiles vaguely.

"You're making fun of me, aren't you?" she says. "Everyone says I was dreadful."

"No, I'm serious!" Ron says earnestly. "I can't remember enjoying commentary more! What is this, by the way?" he adds, holding the onion-like object up to eye level.