Fate Set Right

Chapter 65

—————L—————

December 17, 1997

He watched from the window of Ravenclaw Tower as the majority of the students left for the holidays. Among them were his sort-of friends from Hufflepuff, and he worried if they would end up like Jane, never to be seen again.

Leo sighed, leaving the common room to head to the Room of Requirement. He didn't need to be there, he was the headmaster's son, and therefore would be expected at the castle, but he wanted to be. It was where the students who didn't have parents to go home to were heading instead of to the trains. It's where he wanted to be.

"Would you like company for the walk?" Luna said beside him, and while she did startle him, he didn't show it.

"Company would be nice," he agreed, and was somewhat taken aback when she looped her arm through his. "You didn't go home to your father?'

"No," she said. "I'm not supposed to go home yet. If I try now, it might cause a problem, you see."

"Okay," Leo said, though he had no idea why or how Luna thought that. "At least this break will let me catch up on making potions," he said in way of conversation.

"Yes, though I must admit, it's quite lovely that we're going from pain relief to sleeping and calming draughts."

"In what way?" Leo asked, looking at this strange girl beside him.

"Because easing the mind and the soul is better than needing to ease the physical. Feeling calm and well rested means less people being reckless. And more people paying attention, which lessens the anger of the ... stricter professors."

"I suppose," he relented as they made their way up.

Luna had a slight smile on her face, and the more Leo glanced at it, the more intrigued he became. He and his father, they always remained expressionless. Yet here was Luna, who had a nearly perpetual smile, and there was no way she could always be happy. Was she Occluding, but in a different way? Or was it sort of like his mother used to tell his sister and Luna had just smiled so much her face froze that way?

It would be rude to ask, so he decided not to.

"Do you miss Rory?" she asked as they were nearing the seventh-floor stairway.

"Yes," he said without hesitation. "But I also know she's out there doing what she can."

"She is. I'm fairly sure Ronald would have left by now if she hadn't gone with them. At least this way, they'll stay together."

"How do you know he hasn't?" Leo asked, arching a brow.

Luna's smile merely ticked up, becoming more knowing than dreamy. It made the hairs on Leo's arms and neck stand on end.

They entered the Room of Requirement and looked around at the starkness of the room. There were so many less beds, the room much smaller. The only large thing that remained was the tree, while the room adjusted to accommodate the smaller population that would be there over the hols.

Theo Nott had gone home, but Blaise and Daphne remained. They were talking to Ginevra and Longbottom.

"Oh, are you all discussing how we should resume teaching defense after the holidays?" Luna asked, letting go of Leo's arm and skipping over to them. "I don't think we can do as well as Harry did, but it's worth a shot, I think."

"Theo mentioned these classes to us," Blaise acknowledged. "And since Weasley here showed us a corporeal Patronus, I'm inclined to believe that maybe Potter is a decent teacher."