Chapter 1: A Seer Helps

Harry makes a choice

It was a week since the school term had ended. Just over a week since Harry, together with five of his friends, had seen his godfather, Sirius Black, die at the hands of a Death Eater in the Ministry of Magic. Harry had thought he had been going to save Sirius; instead he now believed that he had led Sirius to his death.

And Sirius' death had occurred because of a prophecy. A prophecy that his headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, had told Harry claimed that Harry had to kill or be killed by the dark wizard Voldemort. A prophecy that a bitter and disillusioned Harry wished he'd never heard.

Kicking the wardrobe in front of him, Harry dropped down onto his bed. Right now he so very badly needed to talk to someone about what had happened, but he had no-one. It had been a week, and not one of his so-called friends had contacted him. To make matters even worse, there seemed to be a guard watching him. The one time his aunt had sent him out of the house to get some eggs, an invisible voice had complained that Harry should not have left the house. Being told it was get the eggs or get a beating had only shut the guard up for a block.

Harry was roused from his dark funk by a sound at the window. Getting up and quickly opening the window, Harry was surprised when not one but two owls flew into his room from the dark of the approaching night.

Hedwig had been left at Hogwarts since that arse of a headmaster had claimed it was too dangerous for Harry to keep Hedwig. Yet here she was, flying not to her perch, but rather to his shoulder, where the two of them spent several minutes enjoying the fact they were together again.

A quiet hoot brought Harry out of his reverie, and he focused his attention on the second owl. This owl was not one Harry recognized, although there were some characteristics that half-reminded Harry of one of his friends. The owl was paler than most, but 'she' was not a snowy owl like Hedwig.

Seeing that there was a small package tied to the owl, Harry retrieved the package, before making a quick trip to the loo for some water, and then filling the tray on the perch with some owl treats. Both owls seemed to hoot, or bark in Hedwig's case, a thank you and settled on the perch. That was unusual; Hedwig did not generally like to share her perch.

Turning to the package, Harry found a folded cloth bag and two letters. One was marked "Read Me First"; the other was labeled "Not this one". Confused, Harry opened the correct letter in the sequence to read it.

Dear Harry:

I know a way to help you. But to help you get out from under the old goat of a headmaster, I need you to trust me. No, I cannot tell you who I am until after you decide. Actually it will be several days before you will know who I am, but I will be with you in a very unusual manner. If you can take the leap of faith to trust me, there are several things you will need to do:

1) Take anything you value and put it into the bag, your wand included. The bag is charmed and will shrink and featherweight anything you try to put in to it. Please then tie it to Hedwig.

2) The second envelope has a letter for your family, which needs to be left on the kitchen table tonight while your relatives sleep.

3) Open the window so all the owls may exit.

4) Also, in the second envelope, is a wax medallion. Wear it tonight when the clock strikes midnight and you will see how we will be able to fly from this most unpleasant of locations.

5) I really recommend that you be wearing as little clothing as possible when the clock strikes twelve. The clothes won't be coming with you, and can be hard to get out of later.

If you are not wearing the medallion at midnight, I will know you are not the trusting sort. I will not be able to make this offer again. It is tonight, or not at all.

I am learning who you are; will you be willing to learn who I am?

PS. Why is it you always call You-Know-Who Tom?

There was no signature at the end of the strange letter. Harry sat down and gestured Hedwig to him as he thought about his options. Sometimes he thought out loud to his owl, but mostly he kept his thoughts to himself, as he did now. Looking down at the letter in his hand, Harry debated whether to take up the offer it had made. Harry hated living with his relatives, and this letter was a chance to escape that, even if it was a trap.

In the end, Harry decided to take that leap of faith, and the second letter was placed on the kitchen table. All of the things Harry didn't want to leave, like the album with the pictures of his parents and his father's cloak, were slipped with his wand into the bag that had arrived with the owls. Finally, at 11:55pm, Harry put on the strangely shaped medallion, wondering if it was a portkey of some kind. As his room's clock showed midnight, a strange feeling came over Harry, and as he lost consciousness, he wondered if he had handed himself over to his enemies.

What Happened to Harry?

The summer was usually a time when Albus Dumbledore could spend some downtime recharging from his often stressful job of balancing being the headmaster of a magical school and the leading of one Harry Potter to his pre-ordained fate. But this summer had not started well.

The first day after the students had left, the Weasley matriarch had called in a panic. The Lovegood place had burned to the ground with several bodies inside. Albus had never really cared for the Lovegoods; they had always refused to follow his lead. But the young Miss Lovegood had started a friendship with Harry, and her death on top of Sirius' recent demise would upset Harry even more. Now Albus feared that it would likely be well into the next school year before Harry would start to follow the correct path, for The Greater Good, of course.

When he had first learned about the Lovegoods' deaths, Albus had thought that it had been a good thing that he had strongly suggested that none of Harry's friends write to him. It had meant that Harry would not find out about Miss Lovegood until he had recovered a little more from the death of Sirius. But then Harry himself had disappeared, along with his relatives, the Dursleys.

A letter had been found that had told the Dursleys that Harry was leaving and, that in order to keep themselves safe, it would be wise for them to run very far away. The letter had been printed with a press or using a muggle writertyper thing, so there was no way to compare the handwriting. And the way the words had been put together did not match the way Harry would have composed it, indicating that Harry had not been the one to write it. The letter had also been correct: two days after Harry, and then his relatives, had disappeared, the house at number 4 Privet Drive had been attacked and then burned to the ground by unknown assailants. Albus believed that the arsonists had been Death Eaters, but he could not explain why the dark mark had not been raised.

At the end of the school year, young Harry, in a fit of childish rage at his godfather's death (again, Sirius' death had been for The Greater Good), had destroyed the tracking devices Albus had created to keep track of young mister Potter. Albus had managed to get a couple of the instruments that followed Harry fixed, but they now showed no Harry. It was as if the instruments indicated that Harry did not exist, but they also did not show he was dead. It was quite a puzzle. What had happened to Harry?

Owl Flight

Harry was finally enjoying himself for the first time since Sirius' death. He was flying! He had no real responsibilities! And he had Hedwig at his side looking out for him. Of course, flying under his own power was very different from flying on a broom. The air beneath his wings and the wind against his face were very different sensations than the ones he had felt on a broomstick. He was an owl, not a snowy owl unfortunately, but still an owl.

After placing the medallion around his neck and passing out, it had been quite a surprise when Harry came to and discovered that the room was so much larger, or rather that he was so much smaller, and instead of wearing a robe, he was wearing feathers. In fact, he had had to fight free of the robe, and was glad he had taken the letter's advice about wearing a minimum of clothing. Even Dudley-sized clothing would be difficult to squirm free from if you combined trousers, trainers, and a shirt.

Hedwig had been quite surprised but had taken to the new Harry pretty quickly. The unfamiliar owl had shown no surprise at all, and after he and Hedwig had become acquainted as owls, she had put the rest of the great escape plan in motion. Harry quickly discovered that he not only looked like an owl, but he also seemed to have some of the instincts that went with his new body.

Before long, the three owls were flying out of the window of number four and flapping to the roof of number six. Then they flew across the street to the roof of number five. And so on and so forth, each flight a little longer until Harry started to feel comfortable with his feathers and talents.

They had flown maybe five to ten miles in a North-Easterly direction (as an owl flies) when they arrived at a large tree where the unfamiliar owl landed on a strange box. The box was just large enough for three owls, and it had water and Hedwig's favorite bacon. It also had a simple door that either the other owl or Harry could operate. Hedwig seemed willing to learn but did not get the hang of it before Harry fell asleep wondering if he would still be an owl when he awoke.

That first full night after his escape they broke their trip into three sections. At each 'rest stop' there would be one of the boxes that contained food and water, and offered shelter. The next night, Harry's arms/wings had been sore from the constant use flying required, and that night's flight had been broken with four rests. The night after that, they had stopped to rest three times again, and since then they had only stopped once per night. That had been several days ago, and Harry was still an owl.

Nice weather had followed them on their journey; they had not been delayed even once by rain. With each night they flew further, and it seemed they were flying faster now as well. But however far or fast they flew, there would always be one of those wonderful boxes where they could stop for the day.

This evening they had left from outside of a little place called Ulceby, and had crossed a large body of water, before skirting a large town and then hugging some hills for most of the night. They had then turned up a ravine, and were now currently flying towards a large tree again. However, the area around the tree seemed, well … different, almost as though it should not look as normal as it did. But there was a box, and while it was not dawn yet, Harry knew better than to argue with the owl that had led this escape and had navigated their little flock to this tree. Her beak was sharp and, while she did not often correct him, Harry did not go looking for corrections either.

Rather than entering the box, Hedwig intercepted Harry and continued the hunting lessons they had started that third night. Teaching Harry how to hunt as an owl was a slow and painful process. Painful, since Harry had to do things like dive towards his prey, and on more than one attempt he had managed crash into the ground well short of the mouse, and slow because Harry had never needed to coordinate so many different parts at same time.

Finding prey was not too hard between the night vision and great hearing Harry now had. The takeoff needed to be silent, and Harry no longer found that too difficult. However, the diving at prey feet first was very hard to master. But even with using wing corrections, which were necessary due to wind or movement of the prey, and with night vision, Harry was still zeroing in mostly based on sound; which was a strange feeling for a generally sight-dependant human named Harry Potter. Still, since they had stopped traveling a bit earlier than usual, Hedwig was planning to get some more hunting practice in before dawn.

It was just after dawn when the great, or at least successful, hunter, Harry Owl, landed just outside the shelter box. This box, unlike the others, seemed to be mounted directly into the trunk, so Harry waited just a bit to see what their leading owl would do. That owl surprised Harry by gently landing next to him and butting heads with him in what Harry hoped was congratulations on his first successful hunt. Then the owl hooted to Hedwig, and led the way into the box, and in a very surprise move, out the other side.

It had to be some kind of protective magic, it had to be. When Harry followed the leader out the other side, he found himself perched in a different type of tree altogether. Instead of a thicket of trees growing on a hill, Harry found himself facing a small field although there was still a hill.

The three owls flew in the brightening dawn towards another large tree, still on the edge of this newly found field. Again, this tree had one of the owl sized shelter boxes, and again it was mounted into the tree. But at least when they exited out of this box, they appeared to be in the same tree they had started out in. The leading owl then flew down and landed on a large flat rock, before turning and hooting at Harry to follow. They did not speak owl, but over the last several days of flying together some simple signals had been established. And the firm hoot was certainly the call for Harry by himself. With a quick flap of his wings and then a slow glide, Harry joined…What?

As Harry landed, the owl began to stretch and change, changing into a, or rather changing into someone. As Harry watched, the owl that had helped him escape turned in Luna Lovegood; a very naked Luna Lovegood. Before he could do more than just comprehend that Luna was without a stitch of clothing, Harry felt a strange pulling and stretching of his own body. A few uncomfortable moments later, Harry found himself a human again, and just as naked as his unusual friend. And he had the beginning of a very normal teenaged boy's reaction to the sight of an unclothed female of the species.

The Lovegood Reserve

As Luna reflected on their current position, Luna decided she was very pleased with Harry. He had taken the leap of faith as she had hoped he would, and they had now started down the correct path. Luna decided that Harry had made a very pleasant kind of owl, and he had not complained at the long flights she and Hedwig had pressed on him. Now here he was outside her family's reserve, standing tall as a human again, albeit naked and looking somewhat embarrassed.

Luna herself was not body shy. She and her dad, and, when she had been alive, her mom, had spent quite a bit of time in various stages of undress since some of the rituals they had performed as a family had required a lack of clothing. But this was the first time a young man had seen her thusly, and despite his discomfort, this young man seemed to be enjoying what he was seeing. At least Luna hoped that that was what the rather obvious changes to Harry's body meant. She knew she was not developing large breasts, and was happy about that after listening to some of the older female Ravenclaws' complaints about the lack of comfortable support. But listening to the male Ravenclaws had seemed to indicate that they really liked to observe larger chests, not smaller ones like her own.

"Hello, Harry Potter." Luna broke the silence between them and managed to get Harry to glance up to her eyes. "Can you please tell me why you always seem to call You-Know-Who Tom?

Harry shook his head. Luna hoped it was to clear it of any wrackspurts, as, in a very hesitant voice, Harry tried to answer her question. "Before, before he was known as Voldemort, he was named Tom Riddle." Harry was looking quite cute as he blushed, and looked for something to cover himself up with.

Luna tried to make him a little more at ease. "You don't need to worry, Harry Potter. I'm not angry with you for looking at me, especially since most boys wouldn't consider me worth looking at."

"Then they're wrong. I, um, think that you are really quite pretty," Harry gallantly replied while still trying to hide his body's reaction.

Luna just had to giggle a bit at Harry's attempt at flattery; she particularly appreciated that he had called her pretty. The giggles proved to be a mistake as Harry's focus returned to her body, and that was followed by a vacant stare.

Seeing the blank look, and feeling a bit empowered by her ability to empty his mind, Luna picked up her wand from where she had left it beside the Finite Incantatem stone she had set up. A quick FiniteIncantatem of her own and the disillusionment charm she had cast was dispelled, leaving a weatherproofed package, including two bath robes.

After opening the package, and slipping on the smaller of the robes, Luna picked up the larger of the robes and helped Harry to put it on. It took a couple of moments, but it appeared that intelligence was beginning to seep back into Harry's face, so Luna called Hedwig to retrieve Harry's wand from the snowy owl. Luna also made sure to praise Hedwig on her ability to teach Harry how to deal with his time as an owl.

This praise for Hedwig stopped quite suddenly when Luna was picked up from behind and spun around to face a very animated Harry Potter, causing Hedwig to awkwardly take flight. "Luna! You are simply amazing! You got me out of that place, and I have had the best week in like forever! Thank you!" Harry gushed at her. Then he surprised her again by wrapping her in a very tight hug.

When Harry released her and stepped away, it appeared that he feared she would dislike that he had taken such liberties with her as he began to apologize. "Luna, I am sorry. I didn't mean to assault you like that. It's just that it suddenly struck me that you had gotten me away from that place."

Far from disapproving, Luna was pretty sure she was going to see if she could get Harry Potter to do a bit more 'assaulting' as he called it. But that could come later; they were still outside and the good weather that had followed them from Number 4 was threatening to break into a rain shower. "Harry Potter, did you enjoy hugging me?" she asked.

"Um, yes I did," Harry responded, still with a worried look on his face.

"Good, while I did not expect it, I find I liked it quite well," Luna responded. "I am not mad at you. We do need to get under shelter, however, and we need to get those traces you're carrying removed, so we can keep you from going back."

"Traces? Dumbledore put some magical traces on me?" Harry started towards anger, then paused, and looked around with a worried or scared expression on his face. "How long until he finds me here?"

Not a good look on the young man, Luna decided. She much rather liked the gushing happy Harry instead, or the stupefied Harry that liked her unremarkable body. Darn, she would need to see about checking herself for some of those wrackspurts, they really were making her mind wander places she had not intended it to go.

Luna took a step towards Harry, gave him his wand, and then grabbing his hand, she whistled to Hedwig, and began walking across the field to the hillside. "You have at least five traces on you, Harry, although only one of them appears to be actually active. But you don't need to worry about our senile headmaster. He could not trace Harry the owl, because the traces were on Harry the person. We are currently under two levels of powerful wards. We need to remove the traces so you will be able to leave this place and not be found, and not because we can expect unpleasant visitors here if we don't remove them."

Luna continued towards her destination while Harry seemed to absorb the information she had just given him.

"Two layers of wards?" Harry ventured. "We went through two different tree trunks. Is there a connection there?"

"Very good, Harry Potter," Luna said approvingly. "The Lovegood family put up the wards anchored by that first tree in the late sixteenth century. The wards anchored by the second tree have been in place for a much, much longer time. The second wards were not human made, which makes finding them that much harder."

"Um, not human, Luna?"

"Harry, you are about to be the first non-Lovegood human by either marriage or birth to enter the Lovegood Reserve. Before my ancestors received this place as a gift, it was a place sometimes called a fairy mound. The first wards were put up by the original owners of this place, the Sidhe. After one of my honored ancestors saved some of the Sidhe from a death of cold iron, the Lovegoods received the secrets of this mound, as the Sidhe that lived here were going to move on toward Ireland. As the land became more populated, a Lovegood witch and her powerful wizard husband put up the second layer of wards to further protect our treasured hiding place."

Her companion had stopped paying attention to where they were walking with her last comment and seemed to be thinking very hard. Luna did not mind at all since Harry had not pulled away, or denied it was impossible. Even though Harry was seemingly unaware of his surroundings, Luna was. The field they were crossing was not overly large, and Luna had crossed this span many times and was therefore able to guide Harry. Due to his inattention, she had been able to slip her arm around his waist, something Luna rather liked.

This need of physical contact from her friend was new though, and she would need to think about it later.

Right now, Luna had other things on her mind that involved Harry. Even though she was not exactly sure what was going to happen, Luna knew that sometime soon Harry would be slightly hurt in some manner. However, she was unable to 'see' anything directly involving herself. But Luna knew that Harry would be waking up alone in a couple of days with bandages around his head. She had seen it, and for some reason it was very important.

"Luna?" Harry ventured as they grew close to what she knew was the entrance. "I think I can see why you would keep such a thing secret, but why are you taking me there? Won't your dad be upset?"

"Daddy…" Luna's voice was not as steady as she would like. "Daddy was killed the day before we left Hogwarts. I am the last Lovegood, so if I want to use the family Reserve to hide us while we fight Daddy's killers…Well it is my decision."

They reached the hill as she said that, but before she could open the hill, Harry started and jerked, and before she could ask what was wrong, Luna again found herself in a tight hug. It was different, this hug, and she could almost feel her friend as he sorrowed for her. No, not for her, he was sorrowing with her. And it made a difference. The tears she had shed during those nights alone, while working to prepare, they had been needed. But the comfort of human touch was much more important. Luna surrendered herself to the joy of having a friend, and the comfort of a friend who could understand loss. Even Hedwig gave comforting sounds as she landed on Harry's shoulder.

How long they stayed like that Luna was not sure, but she regretfully broke their hug when the rumble of distant thunder could be heard.

"Harry, I…" She started, then shook her head and continued. "I needed that. Thank you."

"Actually, I think I needed it too," came the soft response. Luna looked up to find Harry Potter was not looking directly at her, but rather into the distance. "I am sorry about your dad, but as the hug went on, I found I was mourning Sirius as much as your loss."

Another rumble of thunder made Harry glance up towards the heavy rain-filled clouds, and he grimaced. "We really do need to get under shelter and soon."

"Actually, Harry, we are here," Luna announced as she put her hand right on the stone that was just about waist level. She then watched Harry to see his reaction. She had seen the ground fall away leaving a tunnel several times, and she never got tired of watching a magic to which she had no connection, but this time she was sharing it. Harry's reaction to it could change how they proceeded.

Harry's expression looked to be a cross between shell-shocked and amazed, and Luna was sure that if the first rain drops had not started falling, he would have liked to have seen it close and then open again. As another rumble of thunder rolled over them, much closer this time, Harry glanced at her and motioned her ahead.

"It is your place, Luna, you will need to lead," Harry said. The two of them walked quickly into the entrance with Hedwig still perched on Harry's shoulder. As the entrance closed behind them, they could hear the beating sound of a heavy rain starting.

Traces and Headaches

Light, Harry thought in amazement. Of all the things he had expected, to be able to see in this hole in the ground was not one of them, and yet he could see Luna quite easily. He could see no source for this light, it just existed. Harry was interrupted from his visual exploration of the cave when a soft hand slipped into his own hand. Turning, he found his unusual friend was watching him. "I'm sorry, Luna," he started. "I didn't mean to ignore you. This place though, it is very… well different is the only way I can describe it".

"You will have time to study it, Harry," Luna replied to his unvoiced question. "I expect we won't be leaving this place for a couple of weeks. You will need to heal, and we both will need to spend some time planning and training."

Heal? He felt fine, even wonderful. "What healing, Luna? I haven't felt this good in a long time." To his surprise and secret enjoyment, Luna shook her head sharply, causing her robe to open a bit, thus uncovering the secrets those darn Hogwarts robes kept hidden. Harry knew that Luna was never going to be described as top heavy, or even full busted, but Harry could not deny that she had, as far as he was concerned, perfect, if somewhat small, breasts. Harry was glad he was wearing the robe when those delightful mounds swayed from side to side in response to Luna's shaking of her head as if to clear it.

"I'm sorry, Harry," Luna said, as she absently re-arranged her robe, thus again hiding her delightful assets. "I'm still getting used to seeing, and sometimes I get my present and future tenses mixed up."

Harry was sure he had heard that correctly, but the words did not make sense. As his newly discovered favorite set of real breasts was covered again, he could not blame the lack of sense on his brain being stupefied. So he queried his friend on why she was talking nonsense. "Huh?"

Luna looked up and gave him a smile unlike any he had seen from his friend before. "I will explain, Harry. I promise, I will explain, but let's get those traces off you, and see about settling in."

Luna took his hand and led them down the tunnel taking the left branch whenever a choice appeared. After the sixth left hand turn in a row, Harry just had to comment on it. "Huh, Luna? I'm pretty sure you must know what you are doing, but aren't we going in circles, and not really going anywhere?"

"Widdershins, Harry. You must remember this, when entering or leaving the Reserve, always go widdershins." Luna smiled up at him while she said this, and Harry made the discovery that as good looking as Luna was unclothed, when she really smiled, she looked even better.

But what she had said didn't quite make sense again, so he just had to verify what he was hearing. "Ok, widdershins or left, to enter, but shouldn't that mean that you should turn to the right to exit?"

The two of them came to a fork in the path with three branches. This time Luna took the one that led them straight on as she answered. "No, always turn widdershins. Before you mention it, I went straight this time because this dead end path is where we are going to remove those traces."

True to her words, the tunnel opened up into a large room. The middle of the room contained a couple of mattresses lying on either side of an oddly glowing, freestanding archway that appeared to be covered with runes. Luna led him to that archway, and turned not to Harry but rather to Hedwig who had been perched on Harry's shoulder ever since they had entered that tunnel entrance.

"Hedwig, I think you have a trace or two also," Luna said to the snowy owl. "I want to take you through the cleansing arch as well. Would you mind terribly if I carried you through? We know Harry has some traces, and I don't want to overextend the arch if I can help it."

Harry thought that he knew his owl pretty well, but his jaw went slack with shock when Hedwig gave a gentle bark and with a flap of her wings transferred to Luna's shoulder from his.

Luna smiled up at the owl, and said, "Thank you." Then, crossing to the closest mattress, she cautiously walked onto it and then through the archway. Once Luna and Hedwig had crossed through, Harry's jaw fell open again as, suspended in the archway where Hedwig had passed through, there were now two colored balls of light: an attractive light blue ball the size of a golf ball where Hedwig's head had passed through, and a pale pink ball that was much smaller below the larger ball.

"Hmm," Luna said as she and Hedwig turned and stared at the charms. "A tracking charm, yes, but also a fairly major charm that looks like it will re-direct Hedwig… Harry, if no-one has been answering your letters, it might not be their fault. Hedwig may have been charmed to deliver your notes somewhere else."

Luna turned her head to look at the owl still on her shoulder. "That didn't hurt you any, Hedwig, did it?" At the owl's quiet bark, Luna said, "Good, I am glad. I didn't know you had two charms and that re-direction charm is a pretty big charm to be removed from an owl your size." Luna carefully stepped off the mattress, and returned to where Harry was standing. Then pulling out her wand she cast a FiniteIncantatemon each of the spells that were stuck in the archway causing them to shrink and then disappear.

"Your turn, Harry. Just step through the archway, and any foreign magic should be left behind. It works best if you cross through the center, and before you go, I will need that robe," Luna said to Harry while putting her wand back in its usual place.

"What? Why? You didn't take your robe off!" Harry exclaimed, any leftover reaction to Luna's unintentional baring of her breasts quickly shriveling in fear.

"I was not the one with the foreign magic to be cleansed, Harry," Luna replied quietly. "There is no need to be so shy, Harry, I have seen you once already today."

"But Luna! I…I…I'm not used to being seen naked. I…I…" Harry's stuttering came to a halt as Luna crossed over to where he was standing, and slipped one of her hands into his.

"It's okay, Harry Potter. You have nothing to fear, or to be ashamed of. Your being unclothed is not something to worry about, and we really do need to get those traces out of you. The robe you are wearing would be torn and shredded by the magic as it leaves your body leaving you with even less to cover yourself than what you have now," Luna calmly explained.

Harry was sure he was blushing a red that would have put Ron to shame, but this friend, the one friend that had gotten him way from the headmaster needed him to do this. Swallowing hard and gathering his courage, Harry took off his robe and handed it Luna.

When she made no comment, but only took the robe and smiled up at him, Harry turned away from Luna and repeated the same movements she had just performed. Taking one more deep breath, he stepped through the archway.

"OOOOOOWWWWWW!" Harry screamed as his head and his scar exploded in pain. The back of his head was prevented from crossing through the arch, and Harry was sure it was because someone was trying to punch their way out of his head through the back of his skull.

"HARRY! TURN AROUND!" screamed Luna, and as Harry turned his head the pain followed the direction of his turn, until it was centered over his scar. With a plopping sound, Harry's scar opened up allowing the pain to exit his head. Harry's last sight was of a black ugly mass streaming from his forehead as he fell down against the mattress.