( Ravenclaw Common Room )
Penny looked up from her homework to see her young charge looking off into the distance, seemingly at some unknown object only she could see. "Luna? Is everything all right? Do you need help with your homework?" she asked, the strange first year suddenly looking at her.
"Oh, fine, just wondering when Harry will be back to school," Luna replied airily, as Penny stiffened.
Trying to play it cool, she quickly looked around the common room for anyone listening in on their discussion, spotting no one. "Why do you say that?" she asked evenly.
"Because he's not dead," Luna replied in the same dreamy tone she always used.
"Why do you believe that?" Penny enquired in mock confusion, trying to play dumb.
Luna gave her another look, an adorable look actually that said 'you're being stupid, but I forgive you' all at the same time. "First, he gave me extra homework to do, like he knew he would be gone for a while. Second, you are suddenly keeping an eye on me, like someone asked you to knowing Harry would be gone. Third, you weren't really upset that your close friend was murdered. You seem far too calm. Fourth, when I answered your earlier question, you panicked. Finally, Professor Snape is not who he says he is, he being far too nice and reasonable." Penny's head began to spin at the odd girl's reasoning.
"Err...you can't tell anyone," Penny replied quickly and immediately cringed, realizing that she had just confirmed the first year's assumption. Luna simply gave her another look which clearly said that she was questioning her intelligence. She felt rather disappointed with herself for failing to keep Harry's secret for not even a week. Her gut began churning slightly uncomfortably at the failure.
However, her annoyance at her failure was interrupted as Luna spoke up again. "Have you and Harry made up yet? He was rather upset that you weren't talking to him." She suddenly felt very guilty.
"I don't know," she answered back quietly.
"I think you should just forgive and forget," Luna offered seriously and rather uncharacteristically for the girl. "How would you be feeling right now if Harry had died for real, giving you no chance to work things out? I think you would be feeling pretty bad and rather regretful."
"Perhaps," she reluctantly agreed, before looking at Luna curiously. "You do know that Harry is extremely manipulative, don't you?"
"And? Just because he's wearing blue and bronze instead of green and silver that's a bad thing?" Luna asked, clearly not caring about the trait, making Penny start to feel rather silly with herself.
"He manipulates his friends," Penny argued, expressing her deepest concern, as her gut started to revolt.
Luna's eyes met her own with a startling intensity. "But he also cares for his friends. He befriended me when no one else did; even my oldest friend from childhood ignored me in favour of her new friends when we arrived here. He helps me with my homework and answers all of my questions to the best of his ability, gives up his limited free time to teach me new spells, and he even stopped people from picking on me so much," Luna expressed in a sad tone. "When he knew he couldn't be there for me he even asked you to keep an eye on me, to take care of me when he couldn't, so is he really a bad person? You know he's manipulative, and so do I, but I don't care, he's still my friend."
Realizing that she was losing this particular battle, she decided to keep her peace on the subject and focus back on her homework.
...
( Number 12 )
Harry lazily waved his wand over his bedroom door, quietly locking the door behind him, quickly followed by a strong silencing charm, both to keep out the noise from his godfather's childish antics and to prevent his godfather from hearing his upcoming conversation with his agent.
Making himself comfortable on his bed, he quickly checked the spy mirrors he had successfully placed around Hogwarts, finding nothing special, just students doing homework, whilst the teachers he had under surveillance were busy marking the latest assignments.
He did pause for a minute to watch Luna and Penny study side-by-side in the Ravenclaw common room, which made him rather proud of himself for getting the pair together, even if it had required him playing on Penny's protective nature. He then switched to another spy glass, then another, and another in sequence. He found nothing else of note, before deciding that it was time to talk to his agent, and get an accurate report on the day's events rather than wait for tomorrow morning's paper.
The sad truth of the matter was that he had outgrown Penny as a mentor in the last couple of months, as he had become more and more self-reliant. Now that he thought more about it, ever since he had first discovered that he was a tiger animagus, he had been growing more independent, more bold and calculating. His perception of the world had also shifted, with him thinking of other individuals more as challengers, competitors, and rivals. He would have to ask Sirius sometime tomorrow if he had experienced something similar.
Even as he patiently waited for Rita to answer his summons, he mentally noted the limitations of the network of magical spy mirrors he had placed around the school. There were so many gaps and holes and missing key areas which needed to be filled, but he still had many years left to develop and refine his spy net. That was the purpose of deploying them at Hogwarts after all, not for the intelligence value, but rather to identify and fix the many bugs left to work out as well as to learn how to best utilize the system in the wider world.
The minutes slowly ticked by, his prodigious patience beginning to wear thin as he waited for his agent to respond. The mirror finally changed to a different view, almost a full quarter of an hour after he had made the call.
"My Lord," Rita greeted, as he forced a neutral expression onto his face.
He took note of Rita's ruffled hair, her uneven glasses, as well as her rather skimpy dressing gown that looked like it had been hastily thrown on, before he spoke. "What took you so long to answer? You're normally rather prompt responding to my summons," he asked, forgoing his usual pleasant greetings whilst wondering if it had been a mistake to relax some of the rules he had placed upon his agent.
Rita seemed to sense his annoyance, despite his neutral tone. "I had a friend around this evening," she answered vaguely, but quickly, as he nodded, expecting that answer as she attempted to nonchalantly straighten her glasses. After all, the strict orders he had given her prevented her from allowing anyone else to become aware of the mirror's communication function or his identity, but also required her to answer as quickly as possible while still preserving the secret.
"A close friend?" he probed, wanting to know more about this person he suspected he'd heard about twice now.
"Yes, my Lord," she replied vaguely.
Something clicked in his mind at her answer; he pulled up the mental file he kept on Rita within his codex. "Is this the same person you mentioned at Christmas? Malcolm, if I recall? I suppose he is the reason why you wanted your evenings free," he guessed.
"Yes, my Lord," she confirmed with a sharp nod.
For a second he considered ordering Rita to end the relationship, but eventually dismissed the idea; there was little to be gained by it other than resentment that could lead to rebellion and her work had yet to be affected by the relationship.
If her work suffered, he could always change his mind later on. However, that didn't mean he shouldn't know more about the man and the relationship taking up his agent's time, an unknown character who could possibly learn about him and their arrangement whether she wanted him to or not.
"Prepare a full biographical file on your friend 'Malcolm' for my review, including the usual portion on exploitable secrets, weaknesses, blackmail material, and the nature of your relationship with him and all relevant details about it.
If he's going to be spending time with you then I need to know everything about him. After all, we can't have him distracting you now can we? And Rita, if I find you've left anything out or didn't give this your full effort, there will be consequences, do you understand?" This last portion was spoken with deadly seriousness.
Rita's look went from angry and rebellious to defeated within the span of a few seconds, before she responded. "I'll have that for you in a week's time, my lord."
He decided to abandon this issue for now and move onto less contentious topics. "What happened today?" he asked, eager for news of his foe's capture and imprisonment.
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A/N : if we get 400 power stones by the end of the week, I will release an extra chapter ;)
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