The next morning the recovery of Luna Lovegood was completely overshadowed by the arrest of Professor Lockhart. The gossips were running wild as three more students had supposedly come forward with reports of similar 'dreams'. The gossips were taking note of who missed breakfast as other possible victims.
It was not until just before the students were to leave for their classes that Dumbledore stood up to speak.
"As you have no doubt heard, Professor Lockhart is no longer with us. Your Defence classes for now shall be taught by a rotation of professors based on their normal class schedules. While I have no doubt the Daily Prophet will carry full details of Professor Lockhart's difficulties, please allow the investigation to continue and refrain from asking your remaining professors about it."
This caused a significant amount of murmuring to occur amongst the students. In the lack of real information, the students would make up their own.
"Finally, I would like to acknowledge Mr Harry Potter with 50 points for Gryffindor for his recovery of Miss Lovegood. Mr Potter also identified the person responsible for the petrifications the school has seen recently. It seems a former student was attempting to destroy Hogwarts using the old legend of the Chamber of Secrets. The Department of Magical Law Enforcement is now hunting this individual. For those of you concerned with our petrified students, please relax as Madam Pomfrey and Professor Sprout assure me the required Mandrakes will be mature enough for harvesting in eight weeks so all of our students will be restored to us before final exams.
"Now, off to class with you."
Dumbledore's public announcement of Harry's role was met with mixed reactions. While a few members of the Boy-Who-Lived fan club cheered, most of the older students and all the Slytherins gave Harry looks that the mildest could be called distasteful and the worst outright hatred.
With long experience from Privet Drive, Harry ignored the looks in his direction as he joined Ron, Ernie and the other Gryffindor and Hufflepuff Second years making their way to Herbology.
"Well we better enjoy the next two months," Ron commented as they made their way outside.
The comment shocked Harry out of his thoughts. "How can you say that, Ron?" Harry demanded.
Ron looked at Harry with an incredulous look but his lips fought a slight grin. "Do you know what Hermione's going to be like when she wakes up with two months passed and exams just around the corner? She going to go spare! And Padma is going to be right there with her!"
Ernie snickered at the image. "Ron's right. It doesn't happen too often…"
"Oi!"
"… but he is. The girls are going to demand to see every note or assignment we do for the next two months. Then they are going to force us to revise with them every spare moment. And then they will still beat all of us in the exams," Ernie concluded.
"Exactly!" Ron said. "And still, oi!" Ron's protests got a laugh form Harry and Ernie.
The group of relieved students continued down to the greenhouses continuing to discuss the girls' reactions when they finally woke and to mock Ron.
....
5 June 1993
The students filled the Great Hall for one last breakfast before boarding the Hogwarts Express for the journey home.
All of the students that were petrified had been returned to normal. And exactly as predicted, Hermione and Padma were almost hysterical in their worry over making up the last two months of work and lost revision time. The girls were happy to receive Harry and Ernie's notes. Mostly Ernie's notes because half of Harry's and all of Ron's were illegible or incomplete. The girls were better off than some that would have to repeat the year as they had simply missed too much of the year to catch up in the little time they had remaining.
"Hello, Furry Potter."
Harry smiled and turned to face Luna. "Hi Luna. How are you today?"
"Better. All of my things came back much earlier than before the Winter Holidays," the grey-eyed blonde confided. "Some of the things that came back this morning stayed away the whole term! It is nice they wanted to come home for the summer."
Harry simply nodded as though he understood. "That is good."
They had managed to keep Luna's name out of the reports. So no one blamed her for the attacks in any way. Harry had told Dumbledore most of what happened in the Chamber of Secrets except for using his werewolf form and the similarity of the black ichor from the diary to what happened to his own scar.
Harry's reluctance to tell Dumbledore about his quasi-werewolf nature stemmed from Dumbledore's other positions. As Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, the powerful wizard oversaw the creation and judgement of laws in magical Britain- including the ones related to lycanthropes. Harry had no doubt the magical world would turn their backs on the Boy-Who-Lived in a moment to call him the Beast-That-Howled or some other stupid hyphenated title. Harry liked the old wizard but this was his life and he wasn't sure he could trust Dumbledore with it.
"Thank you for having your friends look out for me Furry Potter," Luna continued unaware of Harry's thoughts. "It has almost been like having friends of my own."
Harry opened his mouth to protest he was her friend but the spacey girl started skipping (literally skipping) down the aisle towards the main doors.
As she reached the doors, Luna called back, "Good luck with your adventures this summer, Furry! I'm sure you'll be fine!"
He could feel the Luna-ache coming on and wondered if Madam Pomfrey had any Pain Relief potions left. He loved the girl but all too often talking to Luna gave Harry a special kind of headache all her own.
"Harry!" Hermione called as she entered the Great Hall with Padma and Ron trailing in her wake. "Have you seen this?" she asked as she dropped a packet of papers onto the table.
Harry picked up the copy of the Daily Prophet Hermione had dropped. He read the headline placed in big bold letters across the top:
.....
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