Chapter 45 - A Strange Blonde

***** Double Bonus Chapter ***** A/N: As promised! Also….. I've been replanning a lot of things, so might have to delete my stockpile.... not like I had much with how busy I've been at work, but its like 5 chapters probably I'm gonna have to re-write.... just to change a few things up so everything fits nicer. More work, but it'll be worth it! You guys will see what I mean. Anyways.... Hope you all Enjoy! *****

"Harry?" Khan called out confused.

Disillusionment didn't really work on Khan, with his ancient magic vision. People would still appear invisible of course, but Khan was able to see a type of haze around them, even from a distance.

To say nothing about up close, where even normal combatants were able to sense you disillusioned, let alone Khan with his combat senses.

But thinking back on today, a lot of Hermione's odd actions were beginning to make sense.

She wasn't talking to herself, she was talking to an Invisible Harry.

She didn't drink twice as many Butterbeers as him; the 3rd drink was for Harry.

The awkward glances to the side of her… it all made sense now!

But how was that possible? Even his ancient magic improved invisibility potion that made it even harder for enemies to sense him, was not that good. And Khan had not noticed a single thing from Harry, with him being around all day…

Not to mention, Khan was quite capable at clothing enchantments, using his Loom in his RoR to great expertise, and even he was not capable of enchantments such as that….

"YOU DIDNT CATCH ITTTT!" Fastidio complained, stamping his feet in the air like a child.

"Sorry Fastidio, but he's actually not a playmate for you…. Just a friend of mine visiting my shop." Khan apologized attempting to placate the poltergeist. Last time he had gotten upset, Fastidio had sent a furniture golem after him.

"But I do have a good friend for you to meet later…" Khan followed up in a low voice conspiratorially as Hermione was helping Harry to his feet.

Fastidio seemed to pick up on Khan's meaning, and nodded back sinisterly.

"Sir Fastidio! The agreement was for the 14th and 28th of every month!" Lenny squeaked at The poltergeist, unhappy that he was creating a mess. "Go to your chest! Lenny will play with youz later!"

Khan stared at Lenny, eyes wide in surprise at his forcefulness. Even he was careful with Fastidio…

"FINNNNEEEE" Fastidio agreed. Although He had fun playing with the crazy elf, he didn't want to get on his bad side.

Lenny could do some crazy things with his elf magic, especially if he was angry, Fastidio had learned over the years.

"BYEEEE JOOOORDAAAAAN!" He called as he zoomed away to back room in farewell.

Everyone stared at the back room in shock (except for Lenny).

Khan may have an agreement with Fastidio, but he was always weary of him, knowing all too well the poltergeists' destructive power.

This was the first time he had ever seen anyone, let alone a house-elf, command a poltergeist, and them just listen.

Harry was just shocked that he was suddenly attacked by a barrel. It didn't so much hurt, as he was more surprised at the barrel attack.

Truth be told, It reminded him of Donkey Kong Country, a video game he had viewed Dudley playing previously that had just released that summer (released 1994).

Hermione meanwhile was shocked that Khan's shop had a poltergeist. What kinda shop had a poltergeist!?!

Lenny himself was just smiling once again, happy that Fastidio had left and stopped messing up the shop.

"Soooooo Harry….." Khan turned towards his younger friend. "Care to tell me why you had to follow us in an invisibility cloak even in here?"

"I can understand the walk to Hogsmeade, shopping in Honeydukes, and even hanging out in the 3 Broomsticks, but there's no crowds here…." Khan reasoned, truly curious why Harry had continued to hide.

"I…. Felt awkward I guess." Harry answered sheepishly. He didn't actually have an answer for Khan…. He was just so used to being in his cloak hidden all day, he didn't even think to take it off when the coast was clear.

Not to mention he was thinking about his previous conversation with Moody at the 3 broomsticks…

"Well…. no matter." Khan waved him off smirking, indicating he was only teasing. "I'm more interested in how you enchanted your cloak anyways! I had no idea you were beside us the entire time! You must be a genius at enchantments!"

Khan praised Harry, assuming him to be the one to enchant his cloak, similar to how he himself enchanted his own clothing.

Looking over Harry however, it appeared he now actually looked awkward, similar to how he had just described he felt.

"I- um….. I got it from my father… family heirloom of sorts." Harry replied disjointedly.

"A family heirloom?"

Harry nodded in response.

Khan meanwhile was quite surprised with that revelation. Harry's father had passed away 13 years ago, and enchantments didn't typically last longer than 5 years on average.

Even Khan's personal enchantments on his 'Merlin's cloak' and his other clothing items had faded away during his coma.

He had only recently enchanted his robes and outfits once more, again in preparation for the first task.

So how was it possible that this cloak held its enchantment for over 13 years at least? And if it's described as a Potter family Heirloom, hypothetically it has held its enchantment even longer since the Potters were quite the old magical family.

'I wonder…' Khan suspected there was something unique about Harry's cloak; that it wasn't just a simple invisibility enchanted cloak.

He wanted to look over the runic patterns and enchantments in curiosity, but Khan knew better than to ask details of another Noble's family heirloom.

Looking over at Harrys cloak once more, Khan sighed aloud at the missed opportunity, before starting with his personal business.

He began to dig out various items, potions, books, and spell crafts to hand over to Lenny for him to sell.

Khan had prepared numerous items for his shop, adding spellcrafts to his inventory, now that Tomes and Scrolls was no longer in business.

This was one of his first plans to grow his family business after all: reintroduce this current era to Spellcrafts.

*****

Time quickly passed as Khan and Lenny went over all the new items for inventory.

Khan of course also spent a bit more time learning the current economy and the various new prices on all the items.

Hermione and Harry had left to return to the castle earlier in the night, Harry mentioning he still had a few appointments to keep.

Khan was quite surprised truth be told, as night had already fallen, and it was late. Who could Harry be meeting so late at night?

Perhaps he had a secret girlfriend?

Finically finished with Lenny, Khan wished him well, before exiting his shop, beginning his long walk back to the castle.

The moon was bright outside, and Khan was the only person walking walking along the path from Hogsmeade to Hogwarts, the rest of the students, having long ago returned to the castle for supper.

He could've floo flamed back, but he had a task to do still.

As he walked, he collected all the various sign up sheets he had previously posted, as students would not be returning to Hogsmeade again before the sign up was over.

Looking over all the various names, he was quite happy with the turn out, counting over 9 full sign up sheets with 50 names a page, with a few others spattered throughout. By the time he was through.

'Almost 500 participants!' Khan thought excitedly to himself. 'And that's only the 1st day! I'll put up more posters around Hogwarts later!'

A few moments later, Khan had finally reached back to the floo flames on the wall, close to the entrance by the forbidden forest.

Looking over at the small bridge, Khan began to reminisce at an odd event, remembering the enchanted candles leading him to a scenic picnic area, where he found a scarf, draped over the chair, red and gold, showing off a rather large and fancy printed compass.

As he usually does, Khan formulated a story in his head, surrounding his discovery, taking inspiration from his made up story, to name his item.

Khan figured some old captain had taken a date out here for a romantic picnic, forgetting his scarf in the process, much to Khans luck.

As many magical ship captains were treasure seekers during his time, Khan had decided to name the scarf, 'Treasure-Seeker Scarf'.

He would in fact, go on to find a few more 'captain related items', also naming them 'treasure seeker' during his numerous adventures.

Khan would unfortunately later find out from a ghost no less, that it was him who left that scarf….. undeterred Khan stubbornly kept the name, believing Jackdaw the ghost, had simply stumbled upon the scarf, it originally belonging to a ship captain.

As Khan was staring at the bridge to the forbidden forest lost in his memories, he noticed in the distance, what looked to be a younger blonde girl, skipping along one of the Forbidden Forest paths.

'What the….' Khan shook his head, to make sure he wasn't seeing things. 'Was that a student?'

Putting away his sign-up sheets, and taking out his wand, Khan hurried into the Forbidden Forest and after the skipping girl far in the distance.

It was late, and the Forbidden Forest was quite dangerous, especially at night.

Try as he might however, Khan kept getting slowed down by various beasts, the blonde girl somehow avoiding encounters with all of them, as she kept her distance far in front of him, skipping along, in obliviousness.

"Accio! Incendio!" Khan called out, as he fought against the most recent large spiders who had stumbled across his path.

A few giant spiders lay diced up behind him, displaying his previous damage.

The remaining current spiders lit on fire, crumpling up into giant burnt spider balls, all of them dead on their backs, legs tucked in, appearing quite lifeless.

Khan after his most recent battle, took a deep breath in relief; he truly detested spiders. Gross nasty things…..

Looking around, it seemed he had lost sight of the strange blonde girl with the most recent battle.

'Was she just my imagination?' Khan wondered to himself. 'Could she have been a ghost? Maybe that's why all the beasts were avoiding h-'

"Oh hello!" A dreamy voice sounded out from right behind him.

Khan jumped in shock, nerves still on edge from his battle.

"Holy shit!"

"There are no wrackspurts around you!" The girl commented dreamily. "How odd….."

Khan quickly turned around, after jumping in fright.

He spotted the odd blonde girl he was previously chasing, staring at him, eyes wide. Possessing long straggly, dirty blonde hair, going down to her waist, she had piercing silvery eyes, and faint blonde eyebrows.

She had stuck her wand behind her left ear, and was wearing a Dirigible plum earrings and a necklace made out of what appeared to be butterbeer caps?

Clad in Ravenclaw robes, she somehow gave off an aura of distinct dottiness and airheaded-ness, contrary to many other Ravenclaw's demeanor.

He didn't quite recognize her from class either; Khan supposed that perhaps she never volunteered to answer a question, possibly being a quiet and shy girl.

Looking down, she appeared to be missing shoes, skipping around in her bare feet.

'What a strange girl...' Khan thought to himself, finally able to take a good look at the girl he had been pursuing through the Forbidden Forest the past few minutes. 'And what the hell are Wrackspurts?'

Khan did not recognize that term.

"I saw you kill a few spiders and beasts.... are you an auror?" She inquired. "I sure do hope not, since they are all part of the Rotfang Conspiracy after all."

"I'm sorry... the what?"

"The Rotfang Conspiracy.... I thought everyone knew that!" She replied as if it were a matter of fact. "They're working from within to bring down the Ministry of Magic using a combination of dark magic."

"Wait.... you said combination. Combination of dark magic and what?" Khan followed up intrigued. This girl knew things he had never heard of!

"Dark magic..." She answered dreamily. "And Gum disease!"

"Gum disease?" Khan was dumbfounded. What was this girl talking about?

"Oh yes... nasty bit of magic. Causes all sorts of cavities and worst of all.... Gingivitis!"

"...." Khan was speechless. What were all these strange words she was speaking.

"Speaking of Gingivitis.... do you like my earrings?" She continued on, unfazed. "They're supposed to help attract Blibbering Humdingers, but I haven't been able to find any all night!"

From context..... gum disease was related to Gingivitis..... which was related to her plum earrings.... which was related to Something Blibbering?

Khan's head was beginning to hurt at trying to understand the younger girl.

"Yes.... um.... they're very nice!" Khan complimented her earrings, before attempting to take back a bit of control of the conversation. "Please allow me to introduce myself.... I am Jo-"

"Yes... you're Lord Jordan Khan." She interrupted him, still in her own world, leaning back and forth on the balls of her feet, seemingly unable to keep still. "And I am Luna Lovegood! Would you like to help me? I am looking for Blibbering Humdingers!"

"Nice to meet you Luna..... It's pretty late already.... how about we head back to the castle?" Khan suggested as he conjured shoes for her to wear. "We can look for Hungingers or whatever tomorrow."

"Oh thank yo-" The newly identified Luna cut herself off, as she finally stilled her body.

"Luna?" Khan asked out, as she had ceased any movement, body still, eyes unfocused and unblinking.

After a few moments Luna eventually responded, but it wasn't the dreamy airy voice that he had been previously talking to.

This voice was measured and monotone, as if Luna was in a trance.

Then, As though she was Looking through him, and not at him, Luna spoke out:

"In the days yet to unfold, a prophecy I weave,

Of battles fierce and bold, where destinies shall cleave.

From distant times they'll gather, warriors stout and true,

A tapestry of valor, painted in crimson hue."

"An alliance born in whispers, among the realms diverse,

Shall unite against the darkness, with hope as their inverse.

For in unity lies strength, as hearts beat as one,

They'll march against the tempest, till victory is won."

"Yet shadows cast their tendrils, from realms beyond our sight,

An ancient evil awakening, fueled by eternal night.

A dark lord shall reemerge, with malice in his soul,

To plunge the world into chaos, his sinister purpose whole."

"But amidst the impending storm, a chosen hero strides,

With valor forged through trials, and wisdom by their side.

Armed with an ancient artifact, and imbued with ancient might,

They'll face the dark lord's fury, in a clash of dark and light."

"So heed the prophecy's whispers, let wisdom be your guide,

And recognize the sins, in which our souls reside.

For in the depths of conscience, redemption's path is found,

Where battles waged within, can shape the battleground."

"This prophecy foretells of sacrifice, of battles long hard-fought,

Where hope will face despair, and redemption will be sought.

The outcome yet uncertain, as destiny unveils its hand,

But in the hearts of warriors, the strength to make a stand."

"So brace yourself, dear mortal, for the battles yet to come,

Embrace your inner courage, let bravery be your drum.

For in the tapestry of fate, we all play a vital role,

As battles shape our future, and forge our very souls."