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Title: The Things That Are Luca

Contributors: hermiegrange, lucamoonstone, just_h_a_r_r_y, greeneyesseeker,

Posted: 2006-02-03 to 03-05

Edited by: Carla Lute

Game Date: September 13th

Disclaimer: No one at Levicorpus owns Harry Potter, the world or its characters. We just like to play in J.K. Rowling’s world.

* * * * * * *

After Hermione rushed Harry and Ron to get dressed, she left to get breakfast from the kitchen and went down by the lake all by herself with breakfast for three, waiting for Ron and Harry to meet her there like she had asked.

Luca was by the lake as well, having brought out a large blanket to lie on, and a selection of food his family had sent him, not to mention leftovers he has grabbed from the Great Hall a bit before, not minding if he glutted himself once in a while.

Sweat beaded on his brow as he had several books opened around him, muttering in Romanian several facts taken from each, his writing quill blazing on his parchment, upon hearing he looked over his shoulder and saw Hermione, he quickly closed his books, tucking the parchment away.

"Ms. Granger, may I offer you food and drink, perhaps ve sit and talk about my unfortunate actions of days past. I wish to make amends with you. I upset you in greatly way, no. Please, it is custom of my people to be generous to women, and show them hospitality at all cost, to insult a lady is of grave importance, problem to rectify."

Luca smiled warmly and pulled out a goblet from his pack, offering juice from a thermos.

"Good morning, Luca..." Hermione said not bothering to look him in the face "Thanks for the offer...but I already have food right here. I’m waiting for Harry and Ron to arrive. We have plans for the day"

Luca nodded and scooted anyways. He opened up a textbook and began to read it, smiling up at Hermione.

"If you would like a place to sit down until they arrive, no need to get stains on your garments, no? Rest legs here. Time passes with company and conversation, no?" He turned back to his book, eyes narrowing a bit. He blushed and looked at Granger once more. "Actually, I wonder if maybe you can help with words in thees book also, no?"

Hermione sat down on the grass. She put the hairs that were falling into her face behind her ear, hesitated and then said "Sure, what words do you need help with?"

Luca scooted a bit closer and studied the book more, waving her over.

"I am studying ahead for OWLs and NEWTs you see, must stay busy, this ees spells and potions a bit more advanced than current level, but I vill be practicing over summer, and on weekends vhen family is in Hogsmeade."

Luca pointed to a few larger words within a potion's list of ingredients. Felix Felicitis.

He also pointed to several other words here and there, smiling a bit.

Hermione looked at the words in the book, told Luca what they were.

"Do you know what a Felix Felicitis is, Luca?" she asked him

Luca nodded, smiling a bit. He sat back and stretched out. "Of course, it promoted good luck, no? Mother and father made us drink some on nights denoting a need for excellent performance. Such as a new stunt performed for special clients. To have a perfect performance when one is needed."

Luca looked at Hermione a bit askance. "Why is there something about a Felix Felicius I should know?"

"Yeah…good luck," Hermione said, her eyes drifting off towards the lake. "No, not really. I just wanted to make sure you knew what it was. Slughorn taught us about it last year."

Hermione brushed off the bug that was climbing off her pant leg. "Need help with anything else?" she asked him

Luca nodded, dropping the smile a bit, looking around and seeing that they had a bit of privacy. “I know you are not fond of me. Hermi.. Her..Ms. Granger, after what I had done, I don't expect you. I'm just worried about a few things, private thing. Do not know who to talk to. You ever feel trapped, utterly trapped, and only way out is by as fox in trap, gnawing off your own leg?"

Luca shrugged a bit, he was talking to much. "Bah, do not worry yourself with my stupid problems. Just know that although you do not like me, I know this. I hold a deep respect for you. If you need anything, I will do what I can. Your kindness puts me in your debt."

Luca rubbed his eye, holding back a tear from something that was bothering him, staring over the lake.

"Hermione" she corrected him "But if Ms.Granger is easier, you can just call me that."

Hermione noticed the sadness in Luca`s voice. "It’s not that I don’t like you…it’s that you have caused trouble to some of the people I know and …that I know. I am not blaming you. I’m just going with the truth that I know." She paused and thought for a second. "I have felt like you do right now Luca. My whole life I have felt like that at some point. What’s bothering you Luca? I’m here for you."

Luca shrugged. He wasn’t sure if he felt comfortable sharing, but still, he needed to get this off his chest.

"Eet is my family. I am just worried about them, and my place with them. I just see how other students, how their families are, and I begin to have questions. All my life since I was a little one, I have been training. Training to be acrobat, training in potions and magic, training in stage. Always traveling, never knowing anyone but family. Large family, across many clans, but still, it is just Romani I know. Now there is stillness, much stillness over four years, I am not adjusting well. I am learning that…well we are very different in how we do things. I cause trouble when I try to fix trouble."

Luca looked at the multitude of books beside him shaking his head.

"Now my family is coming to be performing in the Hogsmeade sometime, and I am, how you say. Well happy and sad. I vant to see family, I love to perform. But those were MY days to myself. Now I vill be working and earning family money during MY time. "

"So you feel selfish for wanting time to yourself?" she asked him. "Don’t ever feel that way. You love your family, but you would like some time to yourself and you don’t want them to intrude?" Hermione was surprised at how much her and Luca had in common. "I’m having to deal with a similar situation…but let me tell you this, its completely normal. You are not betraying you family, nor disrespecting them."

“In my culture, wanting to separate from family is considers a great taboo. You must understand. How I put this... Ronald Weasley is quidditch player, good friend, he is struggling dancer, and shoulder for support, no? I mean I know how close you and he are. School sees things. Luca Moonstone is, part of Moonstone Midnight Carnival. He is 2nd broom in finale. He is Buzuq in backstage music section. He is assistant to potion mixers, you understand? I am not good at translating what I mean..."

"I kind of understand," she said thinking more deeply into it and feeling bad that she couldn’t understand completely. "I don’t think that I am right on what you mean though...what does Ron have to do with this?"

Luca shrugged, looking up at Hermione.

"I was speaking in comparison; there are things to Ron that are known for being Ron. For me it is what I contribute to family. There is not things to Luca that are Luca. Only things to Luca that bring diversity to family, to stage, to show."

Luca leaned back staring up at the clouds, feeling the gentle winds, inhaling deeply.

"There are things to Luca that are Luca." Hermione fiddled with the grass. "Maybe you just haven’t found them yet. I mean; it makes sense. I know you for Luca. Not for what you bring to your family. I know you are hardworking, determined. You are -or were- a journalist. Maybe you should try out for something, be in a club. Would that make you feel better?"

He grinned a bit, enjoying hearing that.

"Vell, I have not met the same Luca, you know then, maybe one day I vill. I work hard because family demands I give it my all. I do not know anything but training and studying. I vanted to spread truth in these times. But in my culture when you are found in crime you are brought before all, I did not realize this was not the same here. I mean you have courts which are kind of like this."

The suggestion of a club perked his interest.

"Perhaps, but I vant to write for paper still, but Headmistress says no. If Professor Chang is now involved I feel she will never have me write. I so want to make amends with her."

He sat up and offered her some food once again.

"You should sit where you will not get grass stains. Come enjoy food and drink."

"Cho is a very stubborn person. In 5th year, her and Harry had a fling. But she got upset because she thought that Harry liked me more than he did her. I don’t think she’s forgiven me much." Hermione let out a soft laugh. "I cannot leave. I must meet Harry and Ron here. We need to catch up with things that we have been missing out on with each other. I’m sorry...I’d go if I wasn’t waiting for them." She looked at the food that she had brought which was now probably cold.

Luca laughed and nodded. He sat up and put his books away into a satchel. "Well, I must be going. I am glad we had this talk. I am hoping we are now friends, it would make me most glad. Vell I will be on my way now, then." Luca bowed and went back to his dorm, leaving Hermione by the lake.

* * * * * * *

Harry ran down to the lake. "Sorry I'm late!" he gasped to Hermione. He saw Luca walking away. "What were you talking to Luca about?" he asked suspiciously.

"I was just talking to him about his life…he’s upset" she replied, extremely glad that Harry showed up. "Sit down," she said as she patted the ground next to her.

"That's a shame," Harry said as he sat. He looked at her expectantly and asked, "Should we wait for Ron, or should we start talking now?"

"No!" Hermione said impatiently. "We can always tell Ron what we have talked about, but we need to get this done fast. Neville’s getting impatient." Hermione rolled her eyes and looked out onto the lake.

"Harry…we can’t do this alone. The whole horcux thing," she said quietly.

Harry looked out at the lake, spacing out for a moment. He replied in a distant voice, "I know."

He turned to her.

"There are things that we need to let Neville know as well. You remember the prophecy. He knows some, but I think he needs to know everything. I think he will have a large part in all of this.”

"I don't want to wait much longer, we'll have to talk with Professor McGonagall and set a date to leave and continue our search."

"He knows already," Hermione sighed. "He invited Ron and I to talk one night, and he asked us what we knew about the prophecy. I told him as much as you told me. He was apparently having bad dreams about Voldemort and wanted to talk to McGonagall about them. He wanted to know more about the prophecy before he talked to her. Not sure if he has talked to her or not though..." Hermione rested her head on her knees "Contact the order too. They will want to know."

"I'll send an owl to the Order. I'd like to leave Hogwarts by the end of the month. The first place I want to check, and maybe we should check there before the end of the month, is Grimmauld place. The locket."

"Yes, of course. The locket," Hermione said with an anxious tone to her voice. Then she remembered what she had forgotten to tell anyone. "I got a letter from our mysterious B again. It was awhile back, actually. I just didn’t tell anyone because so much was going on. It said that 'Grimmauld Place is safe for the moment'. I haven’t gotten anything else though."

"For the moment..." Harry repeated, his voice trailing off. "Then we should definitely check there, and very soon. Somehow I think that 'for the moment' won't continue for much longer."

He looked around, squinting his eyes as he looked back toward the castle. "Where is Ron? He should've been here by now."

"I wouldn’t be surprised if he went back to bed!" she laughed

Harry chuckled and leaned back, resting on his elbows. "I wouldn't be the least bit surprised," He said. "Well, how about we see if Professor McGonagall is busy. Maybe we can talk to her? We can arrange when to leave with her, and when Ron wakes up or when we find him, we can discuss it with him. I have a feeling that despite what we're leaving for, he won't be against leaving school."

"Yeah, that’s alright," Hermione said as she stood up. "One more thing before we go. I think that we should start up the DA again, so when we are gone, they can give us reports on what’s happening at Hogwarts. Seamus mentioned it to me, and at first I was kind of against it, but now that I’ve had more time to think about it, I think its a good idea"

"Oh, definitely," Harry said. "The DA helped a lot of people out, it'd be great to start it up again. I'd like to be out of Hogwarts by the end of the month, maybe a week from Monday?" He thought for a moment. "That's the twenty second, I think. If we could set up a DA meeting for Saturday or Sunday night, that could work."

"I’ll get an owl out to the DA members," Hermione said as she made a mental note to herself. "Twenty second...sounds great Harry." She smiled

"I'm not sure owls would be best though," He said. “Do you still have your coin from last year? Maybe the charm hasn't worn off yet."

"It’s in my trunk somewhere. The charm shouldn’t have worn off. It’s worth a try, so I’ll use that.."

"Sounds great to me," Harry said. He stood and stretched. "Alright, I'm going to head back to the castle. Five knuts says Ron is still asleep when I get back to the dorm? I might head over to the quidditch pitch later, we'll see. I'm glad we got all of this squared away though. Find me later, and we'll talk to Professor McGonagall about leaving."

Harry picked up his bag, and they walked back up from the lake, laughing and enjoying the warm late-summer weekend.

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