Ron and Neville found them both sitting on the common room couch, flipping through their newly acquired book. Harry and Hermione both had the feeling they'd read it before, as everything seemed more like a review than new information. There was a lot of mostly-useless information, like proper uniform for formal events, the different salutes, or correct methods of filing a report. There were several chapters of that before they got to the heart of the matter- squad tactics, paired combat, solo combat, and tactics for many common violent "incidents." There was also an entire reconnaissance section, which dealt with privacy charms, eavesdropping charms, disillusionment and silencing charms, as well as psychological tricks. They were wary about whether or not they should learn and practice the "muggle management" section, but Hermione suggested, in her wisdom, it was better to know them and not use them than the other way around. Before they were even halfway through reading the book, Harry and Hermione agreed- being an Auror was hard work. No wonder the training program was three years long, with almost half of the applicants dropping out before finishing.
"Hey you two. You two have taken to sharing a book now? Why don't you use that book you got for Hermione's birthday?" asked Neville.
They turned to each other for a second with blank looks. Hermione ran upstairs to grab her Library Tome. While she was upstairs, Harry answered Neville. "Err, we were kind of excited about this one. We both just wanted to read it right away."
"What's so exciting about it? It looks like it's falling apart," said Ron. It was true, as many of the pages were tattered and the bindings were loose. At least there weren't any pages missing.
"It's an old version of the Auror's handbook. Moody prefers it to the modern version, actually," Harry answered. "It's got lots of useful information in it."
Just then, Hermione came back downstairs with her special tome, and they immediately copied the book. Hermione immediately began reading the handbook on the much nicer tome. Harry held out the old, tattered version and offered to Neville and Ron, "You guys want to take a look?"
"I'd love to!" Neville exclaimed, taking the handbook from Harry and sitting on a seat next to them. "My... my parents were aurors... I'd like to know a bit more about them..." He suddenly went quiet as he stared at the book in his hands.
"Maybe you could ask Moody about them? I'm sure they fought together in the last war..." Harry suggested. "He's also offered to train us in magical combat on Saturday mornings."
"Whoa! Moody's going to train you guys personally?" Ron had nothing but astonishment in his face. "Can I come too? What time in the morning?"
Neville was a bit hesitant, but upon seeing Ron's enthusiasm, followed his lead. "I'd like to try, too..." he said half-heartedly.
"What time did he say, exactly?" Harry asked Hermione.
Recalling the conversation, she answered, "He just said 'after breakfast.'"
"Oh, good," said Ron. "Breakfast on Saturdays goes until eleven. That's perfect!"
Harry frowned. "I get the feeling he meant after his breakfast, Ron."
Hermione got the same idea. "And I don't think Moody is the type to sleep in. Breakfast is served as early as seven on weekends..."
Ron's face fell. He was completely conflicted between the idea of waking up earlier on a weekend and getting training to be a magical combatant, one of the few things that none of his brothers had mastered. Bill was excellent with runes and wards, Charlie was fantastic at both Quidditch and beast-handling, Percy was a suck-up who managed paperwork well, the twins were excellent at potions and transfiguration... Ron had yet to find his own specialty. Other than chess, of course. He resolved to get up early on Saturday to see if Moody would train him as well.
The weekend took far too long to arrive, and when the first ray of light shone through the windows of the boys' dorm, Harry and Neville bounded out of bed. Ron was still fast asleep. Neville said, "I'll get him up, Harry."
Harry nodded, moving to the bathroom for a quick shower. Once he was clean and changed, he strode out the door, noticing that Neville had, somehow, managed to get Ron to flip around his bed with his feet at his pillows, but without managing to wake him up. "Aguamenti helps a lot, Neville," he advised his roommate as he left.
Harry and Hermione made their way down to the Great Hall, glad to see that Moody was still eating when they arrived. They nodded to him as they sat down and began their own breakfast. No more than five minutes later, Moody had finished and was walking out the doors, giving them only a quick glance before he did. Harry quickly gulped down some pumpkin juice and wrapped some sausage in napkins, while Hermione grabbed a few slices of toast. As they had hoped, they ran into Neville, who was dragging Ron, as they left the Great Hall.
"Here, guys. We got you a spot of breakfast," Harry said, handing Neville the sausage.
"What? I get up at this ungodly hour and you don't even let me eat a pr...oommwph," cried Ron, before Hermione shoved the toast she was holding in his mouth.
"Be quiet, Ronald. You didn't get up at all, from what I heard. Neville did all the work," she scolded. "Just be glad we saved you some breakfast at all."
Professor Moody could move very quickly, despite his peg leg. Harry and Hermione were only a few second behind him in leaving the Great Hall, but the short meeting with Neville and Ron nearly made them lose sight of the old auror. Running past Hagrid's hut, Hermione stopped all of them. "I think we should have our wands ready."
Everyone suddenly tensed up. That was certainly Moody's style. They took out their wands and continued moving towards the edge of the forest, slowly. Suddenly seeing some movement from the forest, they turned to face what they expected to be Moody, but it turned out to be a small, blonde girl who wasn't paying much attention to them. They approached her carefully, and Neville was the first to recognize who she was. "That's Luna Lovegood. She's a Ravenclaw... I've seen her talking to the plants in the greenhouses when I work there."
Both Harry and Hermione were once again struck by unclear images when they heard Luna's name. She was practicing spellwork with them. She was fighting a battle in an unfamiliar place... they were back to back, defending each other. She was trustworthy, and they had to make sure she was their friend. Harry quickly walked up to her and extended his hand. "I'm Harry Potter. You're Luna Lovegood, right?"
Luna turned to look at Harry, and then appeared to inspect the air around him before replying, "Yes, you're a very interesting one." She took his hand, turning it back and forth like she was looking for something on his palm, and smiled. She then just stared at Harry, which unnerved him. He was expecting weird from her, but the problem with expecting weird is that your own mind has to be weird enough to anticipate all the possibilities.
Hermione greeted her to break the tension, asking, "What brings you out to the forest so early in the morning, Luna?"
Luna inspected her the same way, except she grabbed Hermione's hand and held it towards the sun, watching the rays slip past her fingers. "Yes," she said, "You did."
"Excuse me?" Hermione was confused by the girl's actions, and then thrown completely off by her words.
"The blibbering humdingers were saying you two kept things very interesting for them. They never know what to expect now that you're now instead of then, but don't worry, they like it when things are interesting. They told me it might be fun to meet you here today," answered Luna. She then smiled at Hermione, as if expecting her to ask another question. It took Hermione a minute to recover.
"Wait, what do you mean? What are blibbering humdingers? They talk to you?" Hermione had trouble figuring out what to ask first.
"Of course! They like to hang around you two especially, because things are never the same twice, but you two aren't even the same once. They like to blabber a lot, so that's why they're called blibbering humdingers. They're much better to talk to than the blubbering ones," answered Luna, matter-of-factly.
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