Harry bit his lip and wondered if Luna was supposed to be on some special potions. "I тАУ erm тАУ I guess soтАж" 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 тАУ 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 тАУ 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 themтАж
"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 findтАж
"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.