A/N: The song at the start of the chapter is "The Tale You Were In", sung by the band See-Saw, featured in the anime .Hack//Liminality Volume 3
Because we invite the peace and tranquility from afar,
It looks like we will have to travel a bit further
Only holding your hand, we cross the freezing night.
Somedays, Luna wondered why Dumbledore had placed Harry in her care, and on other days, she wondered if Dumbledore was somehow pointing her towards something greater than herself, a new possibility for her, a greater destiny than the one she was facing at this very moment. Was he pointing her towards a future with Harry, she wondered time and again.
It did not take her long to start teaching him all that he should know upon re-entering Hogwarts, and in fact the whole of the magical world. She had started with the basics. Like how some wizards and witches were bad, and wanted to harm him, but Luna said she would be there to help him. He had asked whom he was friends with, and it tore Luna apart to tell him that he did not have any friends, except her, and her father.
She did not wish to be manipulative about the Weasleys, nor Hermione Granger, however she felt that it was better if he healed some more, before she told him about all his friends, and his enemies.
"But, if I'm supposed to be so famous," he asked her one evening, "surely someone must be an enemy of mine. It just doesn't make any sense that no one would want to hurt me like what happened," he explained.
"The only ones I can think of," Luna replied, "are the Slytherin's. Especially one blonde haired boy named Draco Malfoy. He has hated you for a long time, and watch out for his father too.
"But, why?" was all that Harry asked.
"He's hated you ever since you started at Hogwarts. He asked you to join him, and his friends, but you said no. The story was out even before you left the train on your first trip to school.
"Does news always travel around that fast?
"At Hogwarts, yes," Luna replied, with a small smile playing on her lips. "It's a place where even if you want your information to be private, it will be around within an hour.
"So," Harry started, "what were we at school?
Luna's heart clenched at this. She did not know how to answer, even though she had expected it to be asked before long. She just was not ready to concede that they were friends, and nothing more. She still had her crush on Ron Weasley, but Harry had become so much dearer to her that she did not want to hurt him, or even mislead him in any way.
"We are friends, that's all," she replied, her heart breaking.
"I seem to remember we were something more than friends," Harry said slowly, "but that's all can I remember.
Luna's heart did a backflip. Did Harry have some feelings for her after all? That couldn't happen in Luna's world, she thought gravely, but it seemed like it might be possible.
"We have been friends, but I do have a crush on you," she replied.
"Then, maybe we can see about changing that crush into something else," Harry stammered, and kissed her lightly on the lips, and then passed out.
This definately was not the way that Luna had wanted things to go like, but like it or not, she was going to have to see this through.
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