Luna Lovegood loved relaxing at the docks. The gentle motions of the lake were soothing, encouraging her to imagine the wonderful creatures that lay beneath the surface. Regrettably, here at the beginning of November, the water was far tooo cold to dip her feet in. No one else ever seemed to come to this area of the castle, however, which she didn't mind at all. Her prior two years had been filled with constant bullying, and this year was shaping to be no different.

"Are we in the right place?", she heard someone call out near the bottom of the steps that descended to the docks.

"Don't give away our position, idiot, do you want her to get away? And yes, the first year Hufflepuff said Loony was headed down to the docks, so this is the right place."

Luna backed into a storage area, trembling, with her wand ready, hoping she wouldn't be seen.

"Expelliarmus"

Her wand flew out of her hand, caught by Marietta Edgecomb.

Luna scrambled back into the corner of the storage shed, crying and shaking uncontrollably.

"Oh don't worry Loony, you'll get your wand back when we're done, won't she girls?"

The others looked at each other quizzically.

Marietta slapped a hand to her head. "Remind me again how you all got into Ravenclaw?… Nevermind…

Anyway, I was thinking we might leave the wand for her to pickup somewhere. Like maybe the forbidden forest."

Luna just whimpered in the corner.

Marietta sighed again. Showing the loser her place was getting less and less fun as time went on.

She shut the door of the storage area, and locked it with a colloportus, leaving Loony to cry alone.

Luna didn't know how long she'd been in the dark storage shed. It wasn't the first time those girls had locked her in a closet, but it had always been inside the castle, where someone would eventually come along and hear her crying and let her out. But people didn't come down to the docks. Once they walked up those steps to the castle first year, no one ever returned. It had made it a wonderful place for her to escape from people, but now it was terrifying.

She could see nargles floating around, and that scared her even more. She knew perfectly well that Nargles only lived near mistletoe, in weather much colder than this. They quite simply could not be here, but she could see them. Her crying redoubled. It was so dark she couldn't see anything, but she could see creatures that she knew weren't there.

There was only one explanation. Luna was going crazy in here, just like her father had gone crazy when her mother had died four years ago. They'd always called her Loony, and it hurt, but she'd known that they were wrong. But now they weren't wrong anymore, she really was Loony, and she couldn't do anything about it when she was locked up in here.

She let out a shriek of despair.

Harry was walking around the Docks, glad to have finally found escape from the glares that followed him everywhere in the school. Why couldn't people understand that he hadn't been the one to put his name in the Goblet? Surely they all knew how he hated his fame, so why on earth would they believe he was out seeking more?

As he ranted to himself, he thought he heard a sobbing from a closet. He shook his head. People didn't end up crying in closets he reminded himself. That was a punishment reserved for freaks like him. Yes, it was horrible. Yes, he still had nightmares about it. But that was no reason to start hallucinating and hearing voices, he'd seen how that turned out in his second year.

Maybe he should talk to Poppy about that, the next time he inevitabley found his way into the hospital wing.

Just then, a shriek erupted from the shed. It barely sounded human, so full of pain.

He rushed over to open the door, finding it locked. He tried an alohomora on it, but nothing happened. If Hermione had been there, she would have known how to unlock the thing, but Harry didn't have that knowledge. So he backed up, and rammed into the door. It didn't give, but he heard splintering from the ancient, weather-beaten wood.

He rammed again and again, hearing the sobs muffle.

On his fourth try, the door splintered from its hinges, opening the wrong way.

Inside, he found a small girl. Her eyes were dim and frightened. She whispered something he couldn't make out.

"What was that?"

She whispered again, a little louder, "Are you real?"

He looked at the poor girl, confused. "Yes, I'm real. I just opened the door, because I heard you scream."

She shook her head. "I mean…,"she began, "You're not just in my head, are you?"

He knelt down by her, and took her hand. He was really worried for the girl now. "No, I'm not just in your head. I'm here. You're not alone anymore. Let's get you taken up to Madame Pomfrey."

He tried to pull her to her feet, but she immediately collapsed back down, unconscious.

He then picked her up, one arm around her shoulders, the other under her knees, and carried her up the steps to the castle, and further, to the Hospital Wing.