Harry yawned as he headed to the Gryffindor Tower after having afternoon tea with Hagrid. He had worried a bit that Hagrid might have befriended a new first year in Harry’s place, but it was clear that the giant was as devoted to Harry as ever, and his delight when the second year had arrived to visit had been palpable enough to reassure even Harry.

He’d managed to slip his rock cakes to Fang when the giant wasn’t looking, but three cups of heavily sugared tea were enough to make him sleepy. And if his da found out, he’d be banned from all pudding for at least two days. Still, it was always relaxing to spend time with Hagrid, and Harry felt that his flute playing was coming along quite nicely, though his da and godfathers still tended to cringe when he offered to play something for them.

Hagrid was thrilled that his little gift had sustained Harry’s interest for so long, and he was even more pleased to be asked to provide instruction on something. Hagrid might not be bright, but he was smart enough to know that most of the school – students and faculty alike – considered him something of a dolt, so it was both novel and flattering when Harry had asked him for flute lessons. Being told that the whole thing had been Severus Snape’s idea had only increased Hagrid’s pleasure – imagine! Sev’rus thought he’d make a good teacher! Hagrid’s oversized heart quickly established a spot for Snape right next to Dumbledore’s pedestal.

From Harry’s standpoint, it was nice to spend time with someone who didn’t seem half-convinced that his da was a vampire, a tyrant, or likely to use him for hexing target practice. Sometimes the dark imaginings of the other students (or even some professors!) could get a bit tiresome.

Harry turned down one of the castle corridors, heading for the Gryffindor Tower. He had a little time before dinner, and he hadn’t even started his Charms homework.

“Harry, there you are!”

He automatically readied his wand at the voice behind him – those dueling lessons were having an effect – but then relaxed as he realized who it was.

“Hi, Luna,” he said, greeting the first year pleasantly. Then he blinked. “Erm – do you know you have radishes hanging from your ears?”

“Oh, thank you!” she smiled as if he had just given her a lavish compliment. “They are quite original, aren’t they?”

“Uh, yes,” he agreed, glad to be able to be honest. “So, erm, how are you enjoying Ravenclaw?”

Luna waved a hand airily. “Oh, it’s quite nice, except for all the Nargles, you know.” At Harry’s blank expression, she peered at him more closely, then said in tones of dawning comprehension, “Oh. I see – they rather avoid you, don’t they?”

“Errrrrr, yeah,” Harry agreed cautiously, wondering if Draco hadn’t had the right idea. “Well, I should really be running along…”

“Oh, not yet, Harry. You need to help us.”

Harry looked around the otherwise empty hall. “Us?” he inquired uncertainly.

She nodded emphatically. “Yes. We really need to do this. You know, I never would have chosen Ravenclaw if I’d realized they had all the sad ghosts,” she said confidingly, leaning close to Harry’s ear. “I mean, Myrtle is quite the moaner, but from what the older girls say there’s not much hope of helping her, and so I think it’s all the more important to help the Gray Lady, don’t you?”

Harry bit his lip and wondered if Luna was supposed to be on some special potions. “I – erm – I guess so…” he agreed, figuring that humoring the little witch was the best strategy.

She rewarded him with a dazzling smile. “I knew you’d help!” she exclaimed happily. “After all, this is all for your benefit in the end, isn’t it?”

“Is it?” Harry echoed blankly.

“Well, I suppose you’re right,” Luna agreed, as if Harry had argued with her. “It’s really good for all of us, but it helps you more directly, don’t you see?”

“Okay,” Harry gave up and just followed Luna. He figured if she started to do something obviously dangerous, he could always Stun her.

“She said it was this way,” Luna explained, leading Harry through the castle. “And that you would be able to help me recognize it.”

“Uh, what?” Harry asked.

“I do feel sorry for her, don’t you?” Luna continued, as if Harry hadn’t spoken. “I mean, to have all that guilt for so long and then to go ahead and trust just exactly the wrong person? Well, no wonder she’s so unhappy. And the poor Baron,” she sighed. “I think that wizards are often a bit obsessive, don’t you? I mean, ‘Romeo and Juliet’ might be great literature, but that sort of thing is excessive in real life.”

“Uh huh.” Harry smiled and nodded, frantically wishing someone else would come along.

“After all, life does go on, doesn’t it? Assuming you’re not the dead one, I mean,” she clarified with a giggle. “Isn’t that how you think of it?”

Harry didn’t even bother trying to figure her statements out anymore. He just smiled and nodded again.

“That’s the way I had to think of it too, after my mother died,” Luna agreed, and Harry’s attention focused sharply.

“Your mother’s dead? I – I mean, I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

Luna just nodded and kept walking, though her smile didn’t falter. “Oh, it wasn’t nearly as famous a death as your parents’, Harry. I wouldn’t have expected you to know about it. It was still very sad, though.”

“Erm, I’m sure it was,” Harry said awkwardly. “Was it a long time ago?”

“Sometimes it feels like it was, and other times it feels like it was just yesterday. I know I’ll see her again someday, but I do often wish I could talk to her. My father’s a bit focused on his newspaper, you see.” She gave a little sigh. “I’m not nearly as interesting as tracking down a snorkack.”

“I think you’re very interesting,” Harry said stoutly, and with complete sincerity. Insane, yes, but definitely interesting.

She beamed at him. “How sweet of you to say that!"

Harry smiled back.

“Ah, here we are!” But Luna immediately contradicted herself by turning and marching down the same hallway by which they had just come.

Harry stood still, watching her, but when she merely continued to walk up and down, he finally offered, “Ummmm, Luna? Are we lost?”

She blinked at him. “Oh, no, Harry. We’re not lost. We’re the finders.” And she calmly walked through a door that hadn’t been there a moment ago.

Harry’s jaw dropped, then he bolted after her. “Luna, wait! It might be dangerous!” he called, thinking of how the door to the Chamber had magically appeared and what the Headmaster and Hagrid had discovered within it.

He caught up to her in a large room, filled with all manner of weird items. “Well?” she looked at him expectantly. “Where is it?”

“What?” he demanded blankly, staring around him. “What do you mean? You’re the one who brought me.”

“Yes,” she said patiently, “but you’re the one who’s the key. She said that – oh! The Nargles!”

Harry jumped and looked around, but the Nargles remained as invisible as ever.

Luna darted forward and, pushing aside several items, held up an old diadem. “Here it is! See how the Nargles are avoiding it?” She held it out to him. “I’m right, aren’t I?”

Harry took the crown from her, marveling as he did so at its beauty and odd warmth. He blinked, suddenly feeling a bit dizzy, but then the feeling passed and he felt abruptly wise and powerful. “Of course this is it,” he laughed, wondering why he had ever been confused. Confidently, he dropped the diadem on his head, and he immediately felt even more certain of himself.

A feeling of complete assurance swept over him, and he looked condescendingly at the blonde witch by his side. “You won’t be needed any longer,” he told her. “I’ll take care of things from here.”

Luna frowned. “I’m not sure that’s a very good idea, Harry,” she said slowly.

He turned away from her, scanning the other items in the room. There was a good chance that there would be other useful things here, and no one would ever know he had taken them…

“Harry!” An insistent tugging on his sleeve annoyed him. “I think it might be best if you took that off and let me hold it.”

He shrugged off the irritating girl. “Let you hold it? Why would I do that?” he scoffed. The little fool imagined that he would give up his crown? Not likely!

“We need to take it to Professor Snape,” she said firmly. “And I would like to keep it in the meantime, please.”

“Run along, girl,” he snapped dismissively. “This is no longer any of your business.” He turned back to the pile of things. Taking control of the castle would be easy, if he could only find…

“Harry!” She grabbed his arm again, and his temper snapped. He swung at her, intending to daze her just long enough to draw his wand and Obliviate the pest.

To his astonishment, his fist passed harmlessly through thin air as Luna ducked, then she rose with a surprisingly powerful uppercut to his solar plexus.

All of a sudden, Harry’s plans to conquer the castle were replaced by an urgent need to breathe. He sat down very hard, clutching his midriff and wheezing for air. The diadem, dislodged by the force of his landing, toppled off his head.

Dimly, Harry noted Luna using a discarded sack to scoop up the tiara, then she was sitting next to him, patting his shoulder comfortingly as he gasped and choked.

“Poor Harry. Does it hurt very much?” she asked sympathetically. “Just try to relax. It will be better in a few moments.”

It had been a while since Dudley or Piers had managed to punch him like that, and it took Harry several minutes to feel himself again. Luna helped him stagger to his feet, where he groaned anew at the pain in his bum. That stone floor was hard!

Even as he winced, though, he knew he deserved it. What had he been thinking? Trying to punch a girl? And a younger girl at that! And he’d actually planned to Obliviate her! Harry couldn’t imagine what had come over him.

“Poor Harry,” Luna said again, concern in her eyes. “I should have realized what the Nargles were trying to tell me. I’m very sorry.”

Harry shook his head in disbelief. She was apologizing to him? “ ‘S okay,” he managed to wheeze. “My fault.”

“No, it really wasn’t, though I do think she might have been a little more explicit in her warning,” Luna clucked. She pulled his arm over her shoulder and, holding the sack with the diadem in her other hand, helped Harry out of the room.

By the time they reached the dungeons, Harry was able to totter along under his own power, though he was still rather sore. Professor Snape answered Luna’s knock and was taken aback to find the eccentric little Ravenclaw beaming up at him, while his ward wobbled, pale faced, at her side.

“Come in this minute,” he ordered, drawing them both into his living room. He peered sharply at Harry then did a quick diagnostic spell. “What on earth happened?” he demanded. “You have bruising on both your abdomen and your – “

“I know, I know!” Harry interrupted, red faced. He massaged his stomach with one hand, while the other gingerly rubbed his rear end. “May I please have a healing potion, Da?”

Snape scowled, but accio’d the potion and watched carefully as the boy downed it.

“Yuk!” Harry grimaced at the old sock taste, but then signed in relief as the pain vanished in a burst of pleasant warmth. “Thanks, Da.”

“I am awaiting an explanation, Mr Potter,” Snape said sternly, ignoring – for the moment – the smiling first year.

“Ah…” Harry abruptly realized that confessing that he’d been beaten up by Luna Lovegood was not only going to be humiliating, but once he revealed that she’d done it in self-defense, he wasn’t sure that his bum wouldn’t soon be sore again. Or even worse, he’d be banned from his upcoming Quidditch match.

“Yes?”

“I’m afraid I punched him,” Luna offered brightly.

Snape blinked, staring from Harry to Luna and back again. “I beg your pardon.”

“After I tried to punch her first,” Harry admitted.

“Harry James Potter!” Snape began furiously.

“Oh, it wasn’t really Harry, Professor,” Luna interrupted. “Well, not just Harry.”

If anything, Snape looked angrier. “And who else was there? Mr Weasley? Mr Malfoy? Since when is attacking a first year girl acceptable behavior, Mr Potter?”

“Oh, no, Professor. We were quite alone. Well, except for the Nargles, of course.”

As usual, Luna’s explanations didn’t really help. Snape looked at Harry who spread his hands helplessly. He didn’t understand what had happened either.

“Let me be clear,” Snape tried again. “You and Mr Potter were –“

“Yes, I think that would be best,” Luna agreed. “I don’t know why some people find this confusing, but it’s really rather simple. The Grey Lady told me where to find it, and she said Harry could help. I didn’t understand that she meant because of the Nargles, you see, so I handed it to Harry, not realizing that that was a very bad idea. Because he’s marked the same way, you see? So it was able to affect him much more strongly.”

Snape and Harry blinked at her. “Just what are we talking about, Miss Lovegood?” Snape managed to ask.

“This!” She held up the sack proudly, then looked sharply at Snape. “Oh. I see that the Nargles are avoiding you too.” She withdrew the sack. “Perhaps it would be best if I handed it to someone who isn’t marked.”

Snape managed not to rear back in shock, but it was a close thing. How had she known he was Marked? Yes, there were always rumors about his having been a Death Eater, and it rather suited his purposes for the little fiends to believe he was capable of torture and mayhem, but no one had ever come flat out and talked about his Mark with such aplomb, let alone to his face.

“I – I beg your pardon?” he demanded, as menacingly as he could manage at the moment.

“Well, that’s what all three of you have in common,” Luna said, hefting the bag. “The Nargles. They avoid you and Harry in the same way that they avoid this. So all three of you share something in common, and that’s why it had more power over Harry than over me. Don’t you see, Professor? It’s really very simple,” she repeated, a bit chidingly.

Snape had no real understanding of what the child was babbling about, but it seemed that she was claiming to have something in the sack that responded to something about Harry and himself. He rubbed his left forearm unconsciously. It was undeniable that they two had the closest connections to the Dark Lord of anyone at Hogwarts… perhaps that’s what she was referring to? After all, it sounded as if the chit was suggesting that Harry’s uncharacteristic violent outburst was related to the object in the sack, and violence and Voldemort went hand in glove. Better not to take any chances.

“And to whom amongst the faculty would you feel comfortable giving your sack?” he inquired.

“Well,” Luna said consideringly, “I suppose it should be someone whom the Nargles really like. Doesn’t that make sense?”

Snape exchanged a glance with Harry.

“I just smile an’ nod,” Harry offered, sotto voce.

“That would seem… sensible,” Snape returned warily.

“Well, of course they really adore Professor Dumbledore, but –“

“Wait here.” Snape stepped over to his floo, and moments later, Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall stepped through.

“Well, hello, Miss Lovegood. What lovely earrings you have,” Professor Dumbledore twinkled at her.

“Why, thank you, Professor!” Luna said happily. “I didn’t know you were nearby.”

“We are just passing through,” McGonagall said quickly. “Professor Dumbledore needs his rest, you know.”

Luna smiled at them. “Oh, yes, but the Grey Lady said that if I gave this to you, then you and Professor Dumbledore wouldn’t have nearly so much work to do. So this will really help him get his rest, don’t you see?”

“And what exactly is that, dear?” Dumbledore asked gently, gesturing to the sack.

Luna promptly handed it over. “The Grey Lady said you’d know what to do with it.”

McGonagall and Snape gasped as Dumbledore carefully withdrew Rowena Ravenclaw’s diadem from the sack.

“Careful!” Dumbledore held up a commanding hand when the others would have reached for it. “This is more than it seems,” he told the other adults meaningfully, dropping it back into the sack.

Luna nodded. “The ghosts talk to me,” she explained simply. “All of them. And the Grey Lady was so sad when she found out what you were doing, because she said you were going to miss one. So she told me all about it, and how she had finally, after all those years, trusted someone with the diadem’s location, only to have him take it and use it for something terrible. She wanted me to make sure that you took care of it, before he came back and got it, like he plans.”

“Thank you, Miss Lovegood,” Dumbledore said kindly. “This is indeed very, very important. Will you give the Grey Lady my sincere thanks as well?” Luna nodded happily. “And I think 50 points to Ravenclaw is in order,” he twinkled. “And for Gryffindor –“

Harry shook his head quickly. “I didn’t really do anything, Professor. It was all Luna,” he explained. He wouldn’t have felt right, accepting a reward when he hadn’t known what was happening – and still didn’t understand, not really.

“You two should go wash up for dinner,” Snape ordered, anxious to forestall curious questions from Harry. By taking advantage of Harry’s Lovegood-induced state of confusion, he could entirely avoid having to explain. “And do not mention this to anyone …corporeal,” he ordered. “This is faculty business.”

“Yes, Professor!” Luna sang happily, and taking Harry by the arm, tugged him unresistingly out of the quarters.

Dumbledore exchanged glances with Snape and McGonagall. “We are fortunate indeed that the Hogwarts ghosts are assisting us,” he said somberly. “I would not have expected Tom to have located the Diadem.”

“Well, once we destroy this one, that will be three horcruxes down,” Minerva pointed out. “The Diary, the Ring, and the Diadem. And we have a lead on Slytherin’s locket. Surely he cannot have made that many more?”

“Let us hope not,” Dumbledore sighed. “Thank you, my boy. Minerva and I will go to dispose of this, then we shall continue our hunt.”

Snape nodded as the two left via the floo. Three horcruxes! No wonder the Dark Lord was insane.