A Friday evening found the Snapes all enjoying a quiet evening in their sitting room down in the dungeons of Hogwarts. Harry lay in front of the fireplace, his brow beetled over his Charms essay. Every few minutes he'd look up, stare at the flames, and then write a few more sentences. Near the enchanted window that looked out over the eerily glittering spires of the Mer City under the lake sat Lyrica and Severus playing King's Table. It was an ancient game of strategy played by Lyrica's mother's family and she was teaching it to her husband.

Draco was stretched out on the sofa with a tall, fat book upon his lap titled, Secrets Hidden Away by Silas Spinner. The book was hollow inside and held all of Elydree's letters that she had addressed to her older brother since Snape had spirited her away from Lucius Malfoy's murderous intentions almost five years ago. Elydree's first letter to him was written near the end of November in 1990- the one Snape had given him for Christmas. The letter was written a few days after Snape had nursed the little girl back to health after she had made herself sick. Draco's heart clenched tightly as he read it.

Dearest Dragon,

I wish you were here. Uncle Severus is leaving after I write this letter to you. I know that you won't read it for several years. Uncle Severus spent time explaining to me the danger you and I are both in. He had promised to do his best to keep you safe so that someday we may see each other again. I promise to think of you everyday, Dragon. I hope you stay as close to Uncle Severus as you can. Please do not become like father. I should die if you do.

I will write to you more about my new foster family. They are good and kind and I shall be a good and kind girl to them.

All my love forever,
Elydree

Through his little sister's letters, Draco learned that she had been placed with a Muggle husband and wife who had lost a son the year previously to a Muggle disease called Leukemia. The husband, Marcus, sold cars and he seemed as passionate about cars as wizards tended to be about their brooms. Draco knew a little about cars and only knew that the fast moving vehicles composed of tons of metal were frightening. He preferred the wizarding forms of travel much more. It appeared that Elydree didn't care too much for cars, either.

...automobiles move too fast and I have to close my eyes tightly when we're in Uncle Marcus's auto. He keeps telling me not to worry, but I would much rather fly on a broom with you. It's awful...

The wife, Angie owned a bakery and through Elydree's descriptions it sounded to Draco as though the woman were the Muggle equivalent of Molly Weasley. Through Angie, Elydree found a love for baking and cooking and the two had quickly grown close. His sister, although she had permission to call Angie and Marcus mother and father, she chose not to. Elydree did not care to think about her real father, and could not call another woman 'mother' while Narcissa still lived. It was at that point in reading the letters that Draco glanced up, somewhat guiltily, at the woman he had taken to calling 'mum' so easily. Lyrica felt his gaze and as she turned her green eyes upon him he saw the love for him in her eyes.

Narcissa had always been 'mother' from the time he could speak. Draco knew Narcissa cared about him, but if she still loved him, he couldn't be for certain. It was possible that any love his mother once had for him was beaten out of her by Lucius. The smile he returned to Lyrica openly expressed the love he held in his heart for her. She was mum, and he was glad of it.

Draco returned his attention to the rest of the 1990 letters. Elydree went on to describe meeting the neighborhood kids and learning to 'fudge explanations' for bouts of her wild magic. They didn't happen too often, but when they did, Elydree did her best to appear just as mystified as her friends were when the magic happened.

Christmas in 1990 was a sad affair for little Elydree who missed her big brother terribly. Tears upon that particular letter tore at Draco's heart and he had to stop reading for a bit.

"Dad?" asked Draco.

Snape looked up from the game of King's Table and replied, "Yes, Draco?"

"How did you come to know Angie and Marcus?" Curious and looking for a break from his essay, Harry put down his quill and listened to Snape's reply.

"Not longer after I became a spy for Dumbledore, I was sent on a mission to discover how far the Dark Lord's influence was spreading amongst other wizarding communities around the world. I made a serious mistake that almost caused me to be found out for the spy I was. I was seriously injured and lost consciousness near a Muggle road. When I woke, I found myself in an automobile on my way to a hospital. As you know, Muggle medicine can sometimes make things worse for a wizard, so I convinced her to take me to her home."

"Were you cursed?" asked Harry.

"I'd been hit with a rapid fire cutting curse. I was bleeding from wounds that wouldn't close. At least, they wouldn't close magically. Angie, who had trained as a nurse in the military sewed my wounds closed. She was working on the last wound when Marcus arrived home with their son, Steven."

"Sewing? With a needle and thread?" Draco looked decidedly paler than usual and Snape chuckled at the boy's discomfort.

"It is as uncomfortable as it sounds, although, I did have a pain relieving potion on me that helped." Snape grimaced wickedly and a dark glimmer flashed in one eye. "However, seeing someone stick a sewing needle through one's own flesh..."

"Severus!" admonished Lyrica who was looking a bit green around the edges. "That sort of detail isn't necessary to the story."

Harry laughed. He'd been sewn up, once, and it wasn't that bad of a procedure. "So they kept you safe until you were well?"

"Marcus, quite frankly, wanted to call the police. Muggle Aurors," he explained as Lyrica sent him a questioning glance. "Angie had spent almost five hours sewing me up and listening to my story so she wasn't about to let her husband call in any authorities. Their arguing was about to send me on my way, when their son made the decision that I was to stay."

"Steven. Elydree says in her letters that he died," commented Draco. "How old was he?"

"When I met him, Steven was eleven years old. He didn't look sick, but he'd already been diagnosed with the Leukemia," said Snape.

"So how did a little boy change his father's mind?" asked Lyrica.

"It was something he said. It was, 'you gotta take care of him, mom and dad, he needs someone else to trust.' At the time, I thought nothing of it, but later I learned that Angie and Marcus believed Steven to be prescient. Personally, I think Steven was a very insightful child, but he was quite right. I did need someone else to trust. I needed two people I trusted to take care of Elydree."

Draco flashed his father a grin of thanks and then turned back to the letters. He was soon reading about 1991 and school. The little girl was going to a Muggle school where she took classes in English Grammar, Math, Science, History, and Physical Education.

...Physical Education is just a fancy name for playing. The only dumb thing about Physical Education is that we have to wear these horrible uniforms that make everyone look stupid. They also try to make you take a shower after the class. I refuse to share a shower. It's gross and, well, gross. The teacher kept deducting points from me for not taking a shower until Angie went to school and yelled at the principal. When Angie gets on her high horse, as she calls it, she can yell anyone into doing what she wants. So, I don't have to take a shower at school anymore...

Elydree was also taking music and art classes at school. She liked the singing but thought she didn't sing very well. Art was her favorite of all subjects. Draco recalled that his little sister had adored drawing and it was an activity that often kept the child quiet and out of hearing of her volatile father. An extra page of the letter had a drawing that Elydree had done of Draco flying on a broom playing Quidditch.

Towards the end of 1991, Marcus became sick. Most of Elydree's letters were about her worry for her uncle who had a heart condition that was getting worse. It meant that finances were getting tight even though there was income coming in from the bakery.

The year 1992 brought the death of Marcus from a massive heart attack suffered at work. Elydree was grief stricken and wasn't consoled even with the visit of Snape. She was pleased to see the Potions Master, but Elydree had pleaded with him to bring her brother. A later letter apologised for the earlier grief and Elydree mentioned that she'd written a long letter to Uncle Severus apologising to him for her immature behavior. Severus had replied to her apology with the gift of a silver locket that had a Muggle photograph of Draco waiting to board the Hogwarts Express. At the end of the letter, Elydree had drawn a picture of the locket, and then a picture of the photo of Draco.

"She's a very good artist," commented Harry who had gone out to the kitchen for a snack and on his way back to his homework, he'd glanced over Draco's shoulder at the letters.

"Elydree always liked to draw. Dad, did my sister ever draw on your letters?" inquired Draco.

Snape glanced up from the book he was reading. He and Lyrica had ended their game of King's Table a little while ago. "There's a drawing with every letter. No doubt yours are like that as well?"

Draco nodded, stood up and walked over to his father. He showed Snape the drawing of the locket and of himself. "I know that locket. Mother told me she'd lost it. How did you get it?"

"Narcissa did lose it, Draco. Lucius took the locket and gave it to one of his... lady friends in Knockturn Alley." Snape felt a glare warming the back of his neck and he turned, slightly, to face Lyrica. There was a warning in her gaze that told him to tread lightly. He smiled. "I can assure you, my dear, that my association with such women tended to be as distant as possible. With the exception of the woman in possession of that locket. A simple spell of confusion allowed me to divest the woman in question of the locket. As it would only bring Narcissa more trouble from Lucius, I chose to send it to Elydree. I simply replaced the smug image of Lucius with a Muggle photograph of Draco I had one of the Hogwarts elves take for me."

Draco smiled. "Thanks for doing that, Dad." Lyrica silently handed her son a biscuit and he walked back to the sofa and began reading more of his sister's letters as he munched on the biscuit.

The beginning of 1993 was more about school, friends, baking, and generally coping without the presence of Marcus. Big news came after Elydree's eleventh birthday. Uncle Severus had hired a tutor to instruct the child in the use of magic. One letter was all about her new wand and a visit to a magical community.

Dear Dragon,

I never knew there was a wizarding community hidden right next to the town I live in! I wish I could tell you the name, but it's a lot like Diagon Alley and its wonderful! My tutor Eamon Brisingamen took Angie and I. You should have seen her face! Gobsmacked! I think I looked just as silly.

Our first stop was the wand shop. Dragon, you wouldn't believe this, but the shop was Ollivander's Wands! How can Ollivander be here and there at once? Strange. Anyway, it wasn't very busy, so I didn't have to wait very long. I tried seven wands before my wand chose me. My wand is ebony inlaid with rowan. It is twelve inches and has a core of dragon scale. It's so very beautiful. When I held it, purple sparks spilled forth from the tip. Ollivander said he's never seen purple sparks before. My tutor has assigned me my first essay - to discuss the aspects of my wand and what they mean. I'll send you a copy when I've finished it.

After we bought my wand, I got my first Potions kit. Angie had all kinds of questions about Potions and I think the apothecary got a bit annoyed with her when she said Potions sounded like baking. Uncle Severus sent me a book on Potions which, now that I've had a chance to look at it, I realise it's your first year textbook! I spent the rest of the afternoon reading all of your notations and I love your silly cartoon drawings of that funny Harry Potter. My favorite one is where he's flying into the formula for Pepper Up Potion and slides down the letters.

"Ah hah!" Draco snorted as he stopped reading the long letter.

"Ah hah, what?" asked Harry. He'd finished his essay and was learning how to play King's Table while Snape read over the essay.

"I thought I'd lost my first years Potions textbook. Dad sent it to Elydree!"

Snape didn't look up from Harry's essay that he was looking over. "That I did. By the way, I hope you've stopped with the drawings in your textbooks. That one was a mess."

"What sort of drawings did he do, Dad?" asked Harry with a trouble-making grin on his face.

"None of your business," sneered Draco.

Snape finally lifted his head and the corners of his mouth lifted mischievously, "It seems that his favorite subject was the obnoxious Boy-Who-Lived."

"I'm not obnoxious!" snapped Harry.

"Scarhead was not my favorite subject!" Draco snapped at the same time.

The two brothers glared at each other and Snape laughed. A rare sound that, even if at their expense, was something they liked to hear. They both smiled.

Harry suddenly glanced down at his watch. "Draco, it's nine o'clock!"

Draco quickly scooped up his letters, organising them so that he could finish the rest later. He closed the hollow book and used the spell to seal it shut that Snape had taught him. "Go get the tools, Harry."

Harry left the game board and ran into the passage that led to the private lab. "Harry! Where do you think you're going?" shouted Snape.

"It's all right, Dad," explained Draco as he slid the book of letters onto one of the bookshelves in the sitting room. "Harry's gone to get the dissecting tools you stored in the lab."

"Ah. So you two are finally going to reveal what they're all about?" he asked as he settled back down in his chair. Draco merely smiled, mysteriously, in reply.

"Got 'em!" Harry returned, a little breathlessly, holding the three leather pouches that each held a set of silver dissecting tools. Harry handed one to his father and one to his brother. "Oh... you know... we might need our cloaks. It's kind of cold down there."

"And our dragon-hide gloves and boots," agreed Draco. He turned to his father. "You, too, Dad. We'll be back in a second." The two boys disappeared into their bedrooms before Snape could ask what was going on.

"Let them be mysterious, Severus," smiled Lyrica. "I'll get your cloak and gloves." She rose from the game table and went into their bedroom while Snape stared at the pouch of tools. He knew his sons had to dip into their Gringott's accounts to afford these tools; something he had asked them both not to do. With their accounts alone each boy was wealthy by wizarding standards, neither account was going to last with the spending habits the two had. Draco wasted too much money on expensive clothing, a habit Snape had immediately put a halt to. On the other hand, Harry rarely spent money on himself, but was constantly spending money on his friends. Not something Snape could truly disapprove of, but such expenditures tended towards food purchases, mostly sweets, and jokes. That was another habit Snape put his foot down on. As far as he was concerned, with a Headmaster addicted to sweets, there was entirely too much sugar circulating Hogwarts without Harry adding to the surplus.

Both Lyrica and Snape, as legal guardians of the boys, had been able to put some limits on the withdrawals made by the boys from their accounts. Anything over 100 galleons required a signature from a parent to authorise. In addition the Snapes were teaching their sons the art of managing their finances. Harry took to the lessons naturally, but Draco had balked until he'd understood that the galleons in his account weren't going to last forever and that it might be the only money he'd ever see from the vast Malfoy estate. It was more than likely that the estate and all the Malfoy holdings would get seized by the Ministry if it were ever conclusively proven that Lucius Malfoy was a Death Eater.

The boys emerged from their bedrooms just as Lyrica exited with Snape's long, black outer robe, and his faintly iridescent, dark green, dragon-hide gloves.

"Ready, Dad?" asked Draco.

"Am I allowed to ask where we're traipsing off to after curfew with dissecting tools and dragon-hide gloves?" he inquired archly as he slung his robe over his shoulders.

"Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom," supplied Harry as he stepped out through the hidden door.

"A bathroom?" sneered Snape.

"Yes. And, be nice to Myrtle, Dad. She's kind of twitchy and we don't need her to start moaning all over the castle," admonished Harry.

Wondering just what his sons could be up to, Snape followed along behind them until they reached the second floor girl's bathroom that had long ago been abandoned to its solitary ghost, Moaning Myrtle. At the arrival of guests, Myrtle rose up from the U-Bend she was currently occupying and swooped down towards Harry with a look of total adoration upon her bespectacled face.

"Hullo, Harry," she cooed as she swept around him. "You haven't visited me in a long time."

"I'm sorry for that, Myrtle. I've been working hard all year and it's been a strange one," apologised Harry.

"I've heard," she swept closer to Harry and he felt the uncomfortable chill of the girl's ghostly, plasmic, body assault him. Myrtle was eyeing Snape and Draco suspiciously. "I've heard that they're your family now. Slytherins, Harry?"

He smiled. "Yep. Draco's my brother and Professor Snape's my Dad."

Myrtle suddenly swooped angrily around Snape's head. Snape just barely managed to keep himself from swiping at the irritable ghost. "You'd better be nice to Harry, you long nosed, greasy git, or I'll tell the Baron!"

Draco tried to stifle a laugh and Snape glared darkly at the boy. "You can rest assured, Myrtle, that I shall treat my son with the utmost respect."

Myrtle tittered and then flew off. "Byeeeeee, Harry!"

"Insufferable chit," Snape muttered under his breath. He was beginning to lose patience with this outing and was about to chastise Harry and Draco when he heard the unmistakable hiss of Parseltongue. Harry's sibilant words were aimed towards the large, circular sink, and as he spoke at a snake-shaped tap, the sink groaned heavily and then moved until it sank downwards finally revealing a large, dark tunnel.

"The Chamber of Secrets?" Snape looked down into the dark, his mouth in an 'o' of wonder. He then glanced worriedly at his son. "The monster. Isn't it still down there?"

Harry grinned. "It is, but I killed it. With Fawkes' help, though. Did you know it was a basilisk, Professor?" Without realising it, he had reverted to his father's title. He was certain Dumbledore would have told all the staff about the basilisk. From the puzzled look on the Potions Master's face, the Headmaster had obviously kept the information to himself. "Huh. I thought Dumbledore told everyone."

"The Headmaster told the staff that you killed a large snake and rescued Ginny Weasley. He never mentioned that it was a basilisk." Snape's expression was one of disgust for having learned of another one of Dumbledore's mis-truths.

"Figures," Harry, himself, was beginning to tire of the Headmaster's stinginess with information. He shrugged. He didn't want thoughts about the Headmaster to ruin this time with his father and brother. "Anyway, I went back down to the Chamber of Secrets a few days later with the Headmaster and he put a preserving spell on the dead basilisk. See, I remembered that lecture in first year about rare potions ingredients and you mentioned basilisks and how rare they were. It kind of made me feel bad I had to kill this one after I realised I could have probably talked to it."

Snape pulled out his pouch of dissecting tools. "How did you know that a basilisk can only be dissected using silver tools?"

Harry smiled. "From Draco. He was asking about the Chamber of Secrets and I told him about it. He told me about the silver tools."

"We wanted to go dissect it ourselves, but I found a book at Grimmauld Place that mentioned how a Potions Apprentice messed up his master's basilik lung because he didn't know what he was doing. That was almost 10,000 galleons worth of damage. So I suggested to Harry the tools for your Christmas gift." Draco smiled happily.

Snape was very proud of his two sons for having the wisdom to wait for his participation. "It's good to see that you both realise what a unique opportunity this is. The last basilisk that was dissected was by Hieronymous Bellows in 1922. The basilisk took him a year and seven months to dissect as it was ten feet in length."

Harry suddenly snorted. "Wait until you see this one, Dad." He stood on the lip of the tunnel and then jumped. After sixty seconds, Draco closed his eyes and jumped as well.

"There has to be an easier way," muttered Snape and he jumped, too.

Harry had the foresight to cast a Cushioning Charm and so his touchdown at the end wasn't as jarring as it had been the time he, Gilderoy Lockhart, and Ron had entered the Chamber. As soon as he landed, he scrambled across the litter of small bones to make way for Draco. When Draco landed, Harry helped to pull him out of the way. Snape was right behind them and he landed, rather ungracefully, nearly falling forward on his face. If it weren't for the Cushioning Charm and his sons catching him, he would have broken his nose once more.

"That was an amazing ride, Hair!" grinned Draco.

Snape scoffed, "If you knew what the slime coating the pipes was, I don't think you'd say that." He cast a cleaning spell, and then a disinfecting spell upon himself.

Draco's grin faded as he looked down at the smudges and stains on his robes. "That's just... ugh. You didn't have to mention that, Dad." Snape smirked and cast the same spells on his sons.

"C'mon," Harry waved to them as he broke away from them and made his way through the tunnel. He disappeared from sight rather quickly. "There's a cave-in up here, but there's space to crawl through," his voice shouted back.

They each cast Lumos, lighting the tips of their wands. Right before the cave-in was the first of many impressive sights: the shed skin of the basilisk. "Wait, Harry." Harry already knew that Snape was going to want to examine the skin and he smiled as he watched the older wizard walk around the skin studying it. At one point he knelt down by the skin, took out his dissecting tools, selected a short bladed knife, and cut a thin swath of the skin. He then ran the strip through his fingers. "Harry, just this discarded skin alone will make you very wealthy."

"How often do basilisks shed their skin?" asked Draco as he knelt beside Snape and touched the dry, yet still supple, slightly pearlescent skin.

"Twice during babyhood, and then once every ten years when they reach adulthood."

Harry coughed. "They shed every ten years? Dumbledore told me the basilisk was probably in here over 2,000 years!"

Snape rose to his feet. "Well, you're not going to find all the shed skin. If the basilisk was hungry, and judging by its feeding area it only had castle rodents to feed on, it would have eaten its own shed skin."

"Dad," said Draco studying the length of the skin, "this is longer than the one you were telling us that Bellows guy worked on. There's at least fifteen feet of shed skin." Draco's eyes glittered greedily, "I want to see it, Harry."

"This way, then." Harry scrambled through a jagged hole near the ceiling of the cavern. He was quickly followed by Draco. Snape brought up the rear. Harry then led the way through the twisted earth until they reached a large, round door. He spoke in Parseltongue again which unlocked the door. It swung open onto the vast Chamber of Secrets itself. As soon as Snape stepped through he waved his hand to light the large torches that lined the hall.

"Merlin's teeth!" gasped Draco as he looked towards the end of the hall at the huge statue of Salazar Slytherin. The chamber was supported by tall pillars wrapped by huge snakes and the floor was partially flooded. In front of the statue was the long body of the basilisk. Even though it was quite dead, all three approached it carefully.

"What happened to its eyes?" asked Snape, his voice just slightly above a whisper as he knelt down to examine its head.

"Fawkes blinded it," replied Harry. He stared at the head and long snout of the creature, then at the mouth studded with long, dagger-like pearly teeth. In the firelight, its scales glowed with green and blue fire. He reverently placed his gloved hand gently upon the creature's wide head. "It's magnificent, isn't it?"

"Basilisks are grand beasts, Harry," murmured Snape. He laid a hand on his son's shoulder. "Although poisons of devastating effect can be brewed from many parts of the basilisk, there are many more beneficial potions that can be brewed." Harry smiled at that information.

"This is almost twenty-five feet long," whistled Draco. He'd been walking around the beast silently measuring it. "Has there ever been a basilisk this huge before, Dad?"

Snape shook his head. "None that I've ever heard of. Of course, you have to take into consideration that this creature was trapped down here for nearly 2,000 years. Average lifespan of a healthy basilisk tends to be only a few centuries."

"Dad! Harry! Come over here!" Draco was struggling with the tail end of the king of serpents. He had both arms wrapped around the tail and he was doing his best to lug it to the side. He would have levitated it, but they'd learned in Potions class that harvesting of magical ingredients should almost always be done without magic. Magic could lower the efficacy or destroy the ingredient. "Look!"

Hidden beneath the great tail of the basilisk was a broken, speckled egg. Lying amongst the opaline shards was a perfectly formed, yet unfortunately dead, infant basilisk. In the firelight, its scales reflected the fire. It would have been a silver basilisk. It was almost twenty inches in length. Snape dropped on both knees into the inch of flood water and picked up the dead, baby basilisk, put it carefully into his lap and ran his gloved fingers carefully down its body.

"A broken neck," murmured Snape. There was a touch of sadness to his voice.

"It was a mother," Harry whispered, now rather horrified at having been the one that killed the animal.

Draco, who had dropped the tail, was looking down at his father. "All basilisks are mothers, Harry." He dropped to one knee and gingerly laid his hand upon its head. "They lay their egg when dying. Sometimes, the baby doesn't survive its violent birth."

Harry stared guiltily down at the small basilisk that was a perfect replica of its mother. "Are you going to dissect the baby, Dad?"

"It would sell for a great deal, but I think it's more important to keep it intact and display it in my classroom. It's far too beautiful." He ruffled Harry's hair. "Don't you think so, son?"

Harry nodded and smiled sadly at the little creature. "Yeah. I like that idea better."

"Good. Now, I know you'd both like to get started, but we need much more than these dissecting tools to do this job correctly. Let's go back home, get a good night's sleep, and start early tomorrow morning." Handing the silver basilisk to Draco, Snape looked around the Chamber and then back the way they came. I hope there's an easier way to get out of here than the way we came in." Snape asked Harry.

"Yep. Follow me." Harry led his father and brother behind the statue and through an arched doorway that branched off in three directions. Harry turned to the left tunnel which slanted at a steady slope upward until they came to a simple, wooden door. A word of Parseltongue and it opened behind a statue of Pliny the Elder. The statue turned stiffly and scowled at them.

Snape carefully put the dead baby basilisk in his potions ingredients cabinet in his private lab within the confines of a preserving spell. He would manipulate it so its permanent pose would make it a true prize of his collection. He would order a special quartz crystal display case for it tomorrow.

"Poor little baby," the gentle voice of his wife spoke as she looked down at the lifeless basilisk. Lyrica's hand carefully brushed its nose.

"Careful, Lyrica," cautioned Snape as he stepped behind his wife and encircled her waist with one arm. "Although its teeth are quite small, they are still very deadly."

Lyrica leaned back against her husband's chest. "It's a pity it didn't live. Such a magnificent creature would have been perfect for Hogwarts."

Snape blinked. "I think you must be mad, my wife," he said evenly. "A basilisk would be a danger to all within the castle."

"Perhaps, but we don't know enough about the King of Serpents and maybe Salazar Slytherin had a way to tame the one that lived in the chamber."

Snape turned Lyrica away from the potions cabinet, closed the door, and reset the wards. "Unless there is a journal down there written by Salazar himself, I doubt we'll ever know whether that beast was simply trapped, or tamed."

Monday afternoon Harry was late for his Charms class but only by a few minutes and even though Professor Flitwick tended to be a little more lenient with his students than the other professors did, Harry was still running down the corridor with his heavy bookbag slapping against his back. He turned a corner abruptly and was startled when he found himself suddenly tangled in a net that had fallen over his head.

Tripping, he fell to the corridor floor and heard a laugh that wiped the scathing remark he had on the tip of his tongue far away. "Luna!"

Wearing a pair of rose-coloured glasses, the flighty girl crouched down and smiled. "Harry! You're not the Cornish Pixie I was after." She began to untangle him from the large butterfly net.

"Why were you chasing a Cornish Pixie, Luna?" Harry asked as he tried to straighten his hair.

"We were learning about them in Defense Against the Dark Arts today and I thought they were looking rather sad in the cage Professor Moody had them in, so I let them out. One of them got out of the classroom, so he sent me after it." She helped Harry to his feet. "I am glad that I caught you, though. You need to come with me to the library."

"I can't, Luna. I'm really late for Charms. Flitwick might not give me a detention, but I know I'm going to lose some points, which means Dad will give me detention."

Luna smiled beatifically. "This is worth detention, and points." Taking his hand, Luna led him away from the direction of his Charms class to the library.

In a few minutes they were in the library and Luna let go of Harry's hand as she rushed up a narrow, spiral staircase to a second floor balcony of books. She went to a shelf and began wrestling with a book on a lower shelf that looked to be as tall as she was. Harry reached the floor and levitated the book out and onto a table. Luna smiled thankfully at him.

"I always forget to use that spell." She flipped the large tome open until she came to a heavily illuminated page written in very ornate Latin.

"I'm not that good with Latin, Luna. Do you know what this says?" asked Harry as he traced his finger over the stylised serpent that wound its way around the margins of the pages.

"It's about Nagas. I've been terribly fascinated by Kalima ever since you introduced her to me and this is one of the books I came across in my research. It's all about magical creatures, but this chapter is about Nagas. It's fascinating, but what I thought would interest you would be this particular section." The way Luna's eyes fluttered so prettily in her excitement completely distracted Harry and he leaned over and kissed her. Twin blooms of rose touched her cheeks and Luna silvery grey eyes rested contentedly upon Harry. "You have such a nice mouth, Harry," she said softly as another blush flooded her cheeks.

Voldemort could blow up the school and everyone in it and Harry would go out with a smile on his lips and his heart. A disapproving 'harrumph' from Madame Pince, who stood across from them, was enough to break the spell. The heat of embarrassment made Harry cough and he looked down at the book. "Uhm, what is it about this you thought I'd find interesting, Luna?"

"Kalima can protect your mind from You-Know-Who. When a Naga chooses a master or mistress, they can bind their mind to the one they've chosen. Nagas also are natural Occlumens. If Kalima bound her mind to yours, she could protect your thoughts and emotions."

Harry sat down in front of the artistic pages, now desperate for a translating spell so he could read the text. He didn't know such a spell, though, so he settled for pulling Luna into his lap and kissing her soundly.

"That's enough of that!" snapped Madame Pince's harsh voice. "You're both supposed to be in class! Now go!"

The book in front of Harry slammed shut like a thunder clap and flew back to its place on the shelf. Taking Luna by the hand, Harry ran with her past the formidable librarian, down the spiral staircase, and out into the corridor. Once out of the library, Harry took Luna into his arms and swung her around once and then set her down.

"I have to go and find Dad, Luna. I'll probably have detention for missing Charms, but that's all right. This was worth it. I'll see you at dinner."

Luna smiled brightly as Harry turned abruptly and headed for the dungeons. She was just about to head towards her last class of the day when Harry skidded to a stop, turned back and shouted, "I love you, Luna Lovegood!" He then disappeared around the corner. Luna was completely unaware that as she walked to class she was floating a few inches off the floor.