Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
$Parseltongue$
Chapter 48
The second year ends
The rest of the year went without much issue.
The board of directors tried to get Dumbledore fired again, claiming that the dead Slytherin student and the librarian were his responsibility.
The DMLE launched an investigation but ended up finding no fault on the Headmaster's side.
So in the end Dumbledore got to keep his job and no one was punished. Death is considered a calculated risk when one attends a magical school.
—------------------------------------
It was two weeks before the end of the year.
Harry walked into the great hall and sat down to have dinner with a bitter expression.
Luna, who everyone was already used to seeing at the Hufflepuff table was the first one to notice.
"Harry, what's wrong?" She asked.
"Is that stupid Headmaster." He spat. "He insists that I cannot possibly live alone this summer since I am still a minor, so I need to stay with some wizard family, and the only available, according to Him, are the Wasleys…"
Susan raised her face from the food. "Yikes, I cannot imagine spending the summer with the Weasleys twins. They will probably use you to test their pranks."
Hannah looked at Harry. "Hey Harry, why don't you s-"
Luna, who was sitting next to Hannah put her hand over Hannahs's mouth.
"You can stay at my house." She quickly said.
Harry looked at her and raised one eyebrow. "Are you sure?. Don't you need to ask your father?."
"Nop, daddy will do what I tell him." She then gave Harry a thumbs up.
Hannah finally managed to get Luna's hand off her mouth.
"Ah…ah" She seems to breathe heavily. "Luna!, You didn't need to also cover my nose!"
Luna looked at her with an impassive expression.
"Better safe than sorry."
—------------------------------
Soon enough, it was again time for the end of the year feast.
Professor Lockhart was suspiciously missing from the feast, no one has seen him for the last few days and there were a lot of rumors.
According to the information that Susan managed to get from her aunt Amelia, Lockhart was being investigated for fraud, illegal obligations, and some other odd charges.
Even Hannah was not defending him anymore. After knowing the man for almost a year, no one was surprised when the Prophet arrived, informing him of his arrest.
Slytherin won the house cup, but it was little consolation to them when the entire school was hating on their house even more than usual.
Since Dumbledore didn't want to cause mass panic by revealing that the true culprit behind the basilisk attacks was Voldemort, everyone just blamed the entire Slytherin house and specially Nott, Crable, and Parkinson since they were Goyle's closest friends.
When the headmaster announced the winner of the house cup, there were screams of outrage and people yelling "cheaters!" at them. It got bad enough that Dumbledore and other teachers had to intervene and calm things down.
At least they didn't also win the Quidditch house cup or there may have been a huge fight. The winner this year was Hufflepuff, thanks to their star player, Cedric Diggory.
—---—----------------------------------------------------
The train arrived at Kings Cross Station at the appointed hour and students started to exit the train in a rush to go back home for the summer.
Susan spotted her aunt waiting for her, there was a man next to Amelia. Harry assumed it must be Hannah's father.
Hannah went running and hugged the man.
"Dad! I missed you so much." Hannah said happily.
"I missed you too dear."
Susan went to hug her aunt. She wasn't as enthusiastic as Hannah, but that was probably because they had seen each other during the year.
The two adults turned their gaze toward Luna and especially Harry.
They then approached and gave a quick introduction.
"I am Hulbert Abbot, father of Hannah. You two must be Luna and Harry. My daughter talks a lot about you."
After exchanging their greetings, Hulbert turned toward Harry with a grave expression.
"Mr. Potter, In the name of House Abbot, I acknowledge the fact that you saved my daughter's life. If there is anything that I or my house can do for you, please do not hesitate to ask."
Harry gave a soft nod. "I appreciate it, Lord Abbot. There is nothing at the moment that I can think of. But I will inform you if something comes up."
Hulbert gave Harry a nod and a smile.
Amelia then approached Harry and gave him the same offer. She had already thanked him before, but He knew enough about old magical laws to understand what they were doing now.
They were basically acknowledging the life debt between the house of Potter and their houses. Most likely with the purpose of a future alliance.
Luna suddenly gave a squeak of joy and started running towards someone.
The man that Luna was hugging was tall, with platinum blond long hair, and was wearing yellow pants and a worn-out brown jacket.
After the two were done with their greeting, they approached the rest of the group.
"Harry, this is my father. Xenophilius Lovegood." Luna said with a wide smile.
"Nice to meet you, Mister Lovegood," Harry said while shaking his hand.
"Yes, is nice to finally meet you, Mister Potter. I almost feel I already know you with all of the letters I receive from my daughter. Seriously...she mentions you a LOT." Xenos ignored Luna stepping on his toes and continued.
"I'm glad to have you this summer. Let me tell you…It was not easy to convince that Headmaster of yours, He really wanted you to be with the Weasleys."
"Yes…I know." Harry was getting upset just by being reminded of the old fool.
They all left after saying their goodbyes and promised to write.
"Hold on to my arm," Xenos said.
And with a small pop noise, they were gone from the station.