Cross rode the train back to Hogwarts with Luna as they sat in an empty train cart. Cross spread out his hands and 10 different colored strings came out, Blue, Red, Yellow, Grey, White, Green, Purple, Dark Grey, Transparent, and finally Pitch Black. Luna looked at the strings and said "Black? You got Death?!"
Cross smiled and said "Buckbeak." Luna pointed her slender fingers and two of her fingers lit up, one was black and the other was pure white. Luna said "En. My Life element is white, the other is Death."
Cross dispelled the strings and grabbed Luna's hand before wrapping his green life element around hers, shockingly his string was 'devoured' by the light and disappeared.
Cross said happily "Look at that, my baby is stronger than me!" Luna rolled her eyes and interlocked her fingers with his as she said "Right." Cross smiled and kissed her softly as he said "You learned them both when you changed?" Luna nodded with a smile.
Cross hugged her and said excitedly "Great! You know, it's really hard to get even one element!" Luna giggled and said "Coming from the freak that has 12?" Cross smiled cheekily and said "5 of those are from bonding.." Luna said "And the other 7?"
Cross coughed and replied "Well, I'm just lucky. You got them on your own! Much better than me! My Luna is the best~" as he hugged her and swung her from side to side, Luna giggled happily and let him do whatever.
A while later
Luna said "My dad got a letter." Cross nodded and said "I sent it." Luna asked "What was it?" Cross smiled and said "Well there was two things, one was that I heard Dumbledore left the castle for the holidays on a 'trip' so I warned my parents and your dad to stay safe incase anything happened."
Luna was waiting for the next thing, but Cross stopped speaking, as if he was finished. She said "And the second?" Cross smiled mysteriously "It's a secret." Luna pouted and said "Please?" Cross looked at her puppy dog expression and struggled internally before tearing his eyes away and saying "Secret."
Luna clicked her tongue and grumbled, turning her head away, as if to say 'Now I'm ignoring you.' Cross smiled softly and hugged her as the train sped towards Hogwarts. There was something else he did over the break that he didn't tell her.
Cross had gone to the Ministry in preparation for later plans. He just so happened to pop in on an attack by the Death Eaters. He covered his face and stopped them, forcing them to retreat.
It wasn't too hard as they recognized him from the last time he stopped the fighting and saved Sirius Black.
Cross had saved an Auror he was familiar with. Which was a massive stroke of good luck. He wasn't trying to be an asshole, but had it been someone else he wasn't going to interfere. But the person was Amelia Bones, the woman he spoke with at the hearing last year.
Cross revealed himself to Amelia with a smile, Amelia was so shocked and Cross explained that he was actually here to see her, which surprised her again. Cross explained that he just wanted to chat, Amelia agreed and they both knew that she owed him a favor for her life.
Cross sat Amelia down in her office and said with a smile "First of all, I will not give you outrageous requests for your favor if you're worried." Amelia smiled and said "As long as it require Ministry betrayal, then I will agree."
Cross smiled and shook his head saying "That's not it, it may even help the Ministry..." Amelia raised a brow and Cross changed the topic as he said "Anyway, what I was wondering is if the Ministry had any Arch-Mage spell books?" Amelia nodded and said "They are usually for Aurors, but we do."
Cross nodded and said "That's all.. If a few go missing every once in a while, nobody will notice right?" Amelia laughed and shook her head, this boy just told her directly he was going to steal books from the Ministry.
Cross smiled lightly and said "I need you to take a vow of silence regarding you seeing my at all today. I can't have everybody finding out how strong I am." Amelia agreed and took the vow, flashing a Lumos at the end.
Cross smiled and said "That's all for now, Ms. Bones. May I have your Owl so I can contact you later?" Amelia gave him her owl and asked "If I may, what is it that you want to do?" Cross smiled mysteriously and replied "You will find out in time, Ms. Bones. I hope at that time you will not deny my request. Farewell.. Oh and Susan is doing very well if you wanted to know."
Before disappearing completely, leaving Amelia shocked before smiling wryly thinking their poor books are in danger.
Back to the present
Cross was walking in the halls the day after getting back to Hogwarts. He went to class as usual and decided to go see Slughorn about something.
A while later
Cross knocked on Slughorn's door and a little square opened up as Slughorn said "Cross? I thought it was Potter! Come in! Come in!" The door opened and Cross walked in, sitting on the couch.
Slughorn said "What pleasure do I have to have you visiting so late, Cross?" Cross said "Well Professor I wanted to ask, can Veritas Serum kill a man?" Slughorn thought about it and replied "I suppose if one were to have around a bucket's worth... Why do you ask?"
Cross smiled and said "My clothes seem to have gone missing, I don't want to be sent to Azkaban by accident." as he chuckled, Slughorn laughed and answered "Yes, well, that would be a shame. Aha."
Cross asked again "Also Professor, are students allowed to brew Felix Felicis? Because I know that some potions are unable to be brewed by students." Slughorn shook his head and answered "It isn't banned, but do be careful if you were to brew it yourself, it is quite tricky and can be dangerous if failed."
Cross nodded with a smile and said "Thank you, Professor. I will leave you for the night." Slughorn got up and said "Ah let me send you off! Also if you are capable of brewing some Felix Felicis, could I have a few vials? Good to have a few on hand, you know."
Cross smiled and said "Not an issue, Professor. I'll send you an entire cauldron! Hahahah" Slughorn smiled and opened the door to see Harry and Ron.
Cross tilted his head and said "A love potion?" Harry nodded and said "A bad one. Professor, I wouldn't bother you but this is urgent." Slughorn looked at Ron before sighing "Very well, come in." Harry brought Ron inside and Cross followed along saying "I hope you don't mind if I stay, Professor. I would like to see Weasley's face when he realizes."
Slughorn waved, not minding at all, as he started brewing a potion. Harry started talking to Slughorn as Cross sat Ron on the couch with an amused smile. He did hear Harry said "Sorry for asking you about Voldemort." Slughorn shouted "Do not use that name!"
Cross looked over and said "Tom Riddle? Professor, you were his teacher?!" Slughorn sighed as he made the potion and said "Tom was just like any of you back then.."
Cross shook his head and continued "Professor, I'm truly sorry. Tom Riddle is perhaps the most idiotic person I have ever met." he even chuckled a bit as he spoke. Harry said "Idiotic?"
Cross said "If not? He wants to kill all the muggles. How much more stupid can you be? As I've said before, the muggles may not lose even if the entire Wizard world goes to war, not to mention a single man. Also to make a Hor-" Slughorn coughed and said "Potion's ready."
Slughorn gave Cross a look and Cross stopped talking with a smile. Slughorn nodded and gave Ron the potion saying "For the nerves." Ron smiled goofily and drank some as his smile slowly started to turn into a frown as he said "What happened to me?"
Cross chuckled and said "How does it feel to be hit by a love potion?" Ron said "I was hit by a love potion?" Harry chuckled and said "Ramilda Vane, thanks for testing my food, mate." Ron was stunned before coughing and saying "Of course! Gotta make sure my friend isn't getting poisoned you know."
Cross shook his head and sighed as he said "Some people freak out and faint after coming back from a love potion but I guess you never saw the girl so it wasn't that bad... What a pity." Ron said "Oi... A pity? You know Lavender will kill me if she saw me with another girl. I can't even look at Hermione too closely."
Slughorn shook his head, while Harry and Cross looked at each other before bursting into laughter.
Slughorn got 4 cups and opened a bottle of champagne as he said "Let's celebrate!" he handed out the cups and said "To life!" Cross raised his glass and drank as he heard a thud. He turned and saw Ron fell to the ground and was foaming at the mouth.
Cross spit out the champagne and trembled, he slapped Harry's shoulder and struggled as he said "Bezoar... quickly..." before slumping and dropping his glass as he held onto the couch. Slughorn was stunned and Cross slapped the cup out of his hands as he struggled to say "Professor... don't drink that..."
Harry stuffed Bezoar in Cross and Ron's mouths, Cross threw his head back and swallowed the Bezoar down. He stood still for a moment before grabbing a trash bin and throwing up black bile, Slughorn slapped his back and another mouthful of black stuff came out.
Cross put the bin down and wiped his lips as he said "Someone was trying to kill you, I reckon." Slughorn said "It was a gift for someone else actually." Cross frowned and asked "Where did you get that, Professor?" Slughorn said "I bought it at a shop, it was fine before... I don't understand what happened."
Cross let out a breath and blinked his eyes, trying to focus as he said "That's good." before sitting on the couch and fainting. It wasn't that Cross wasn't immune to poisons, it was because the poison was extremely strong. His poison element absorbed the poison and processed it slowly.
By the time Cross woke up, he was in a hospital bed. Luna was sitting next to him in a chair with puffy red eyes as she slept. Cross sat up and pointed, the purple string had become even darker than before.
Cross was pleasantly surprised and Luna woke up, hearing a sound. She opened her eyes and saw Cross looking at her with a smile, she lunged at him and tackled him to the bed, hugging him tightly as she cried.
Cross smiled softly and stroked her back, Luna pulled back and slapped him before hugging him again. Cross was stunned, what was wrong with this woman? Luna said "Thank god you're okay!" as she sat back in the chair.
Cross rubbed his cheek and Luna said "What you deserve for making me worry!" Cross smiled slightly and Luna got angry as she said "I will kill whoever did this to you! Accident or not!" Cross smiled softly and said "Calm down, Loony. I'm fine, plus it was a good thing. I only fainted because my poison was getting stronger."
Luna threw her hands up in the air and said "Are you going to go around drinking poison on purpose now?! I will kill you myself if the poison doesn't!" Cross choked, when did he say that?! Luna snorted and said "I will! Don't think I won't!" but there was a thick love in her eyes, obviously she was glad he was alive and not plotting his demise.
Cross smiled happily and said childishly "Hmph! I don't believe it!" crossing his arms and snorting, Luna laughed and jumped on him, kissing his face all over before sealing his lips with hers as she straddled him.