You're My Destiny↣ Harmione

Chapter Twenty-Six

Hermione wasn't for mentioning their friend's father seemed far more interested in the Hallows than Luna. Xeno wore his Hallows medallion to the funeral, claiming that Albus was a lifelong quester - and enquiring if the headmaster had left any information on his searches with his apprentices. Harry mentioning that these Hallows sounded like nothing more than stories for children had Xeno leaving in a huff, and left the rest of them biting their cheeks to stop laughing. With only her father's influence in her life, it was now easier for Hermione to see how the original Luna could have arrive at Hogwarts and be considered strange. If admiring Hermione Granger helped their friend become a more rounded person, it merely reinforced their opinion that yesterday's decision was the right one to make.

By the time the first bell sounded, most of their friends had moved onto a different subject than this morning's paper. Their first potions class with Sirius helped a good few more along the same track.

At the end of his class, again they delayed. This time however it was to speak with Sirius, rather than avoid anyone.

"That was quite the speech you two pulled off yesterday. Would you like to tell me why you shifted your position so radically?"

"We'll tell you and Amelia everything, just not here. What we wanted to talk to you about was defence training. I can teach Harry the spells, and neither of us are lacking magical power. What we are lacking is experience in magical fighting. We have our defence self study today and were hoping you could help us with that?"

"Of course I will. Remus is a defence specialist though…"

"…who couldn't fail to notice something wasn't right the instant we started casting." After cutting Sirius off, Harry further explained his reasoning. "I also need to start practicing with the wand Dumbledore gave me, not something we want known. I'm sorry Sirius, but neither of us are comfortable bringing anyone else into our group at the moment."

"Harry, Hermione must have told you that Remus can be trusted…"

"Actually Sirius, I agree with Harry. I thought I knew you, then you go and pull this wedding on us. We're very happy for you, and both of us really like Amelia, but it kinda proves our point. Things are so different this time around, my knowledge from before is becoming more and more useless. Let's give it some time for all of us to get to know this Remus again, then we can look at where we go from here. We like Remus but this is just too big to blurt out right after just meeting him again. After all, it took us months to tell you our secret."

A sighing Sirius consented. "Okay, I'm looking forward to teaching you two but not happy about hiding this from Remus. What am I supposed to say if he finds out?"

"What we need is somewhere we can't be found…"

With a light pop, Dobby appeared beside them with an answer to Harry's question. "Dobby has heard of a room that you can use, and not be found. The castle elves call it the come and go room…"

-oOoOo-

While all the students of a shocked Slytherin house had quietly read the news that morning, one had his gaze glued to the entrance doors instead. After having a long talk with his mother yesterday, Draco had expected today's Prophet to be full of Potter and his pet mudblood. What he didn't expect was the Gryffindor couple coming down late to breakfast and looking almost embarrassed at all the furore the Prophet had stirred up. There was no grand entrance, no basking in the notoriety of again being front page news. While his mother had gone to great lengths to explain that things were changing, and that they would have to at least appear to be changing as well, Potter's behaviour puzzled Draco.

Looking over toward the Gryffindor table, Draco's eyes were drawn to the closer Hufflepuff one. Sitting there was a perfect example of how much things had changed. The Weasley / Potter duo had been incredibly easy to rile, only luck had saved them being caught by Filtch in the excellent trap he'd set with that midnight duel ploy.