He tossed a quick muffling charm around himself just to be safe. "My name is Har-urk," he whispered out loud. "Fine, I still can't introduce myself by my name. That means that the Fidelius is still working," he realised, with an enormous sense of relief before dispelling the charm.
He walked out the door of the testing centre and looked around for that blonde girl who had so startled him. She was making her way down the street, her long blonde hair floating in the breeze.
"Okay," he thought. "If the Fidelius is still active then there's no way she could know who I am. That whole Jim – James things must just be a coincidence. If she's not a Death Eater and my Fidelius charm is still active then...then...then a ridiculously cute blonde girl just came up and talked to me."
He stared off into space for a moment, thinking furiously.
"A gorgeous blonde just came up to you to talk. She's obviously interested in you. What are you going to do about it? Are you going to let your paranoia stop you from living your life? No, hell no," he told himself.
He raced after the blonde and came to a stop next to where she was standing on the street.
"Hey," he blurted out, giving her a bit of a start. "You never did tell me what your name was."
She turned to him and gave him an appraising look. "Luna," she said. "My name is Luna Lovegood."
"Well, Luna, how about we go and grab a cup of coffee. I know I could use one after that exam."
She didn't say anything for a long moment and Harry was steeling himself for disappointment and rejection when she said - "I think I'd prefer a Gillywater, actually. There's a place not too far from here on Michigan Avenue that makes a rather nice one."
"Oh, great - I don't think I've ever had a Gillywater," said Harry.
An hour later, Harry was entranced. Luna was a little strange at times but she was also smart and clever, incredibly insightful and ridiculously witty. She was a year younger than he was and was still taking the same exams as him, which just illustrated exactly how brilliant she was. She was also planning to attend an American University and wanted to either become a journalist like her father or a crypto zoologist. She had yet to decide. She hoped that she might be able to do both.
There had been an awkward moment when she brought up the fact that she used to attend Hogwarts. That had almost been enough to send Harry running out the door but luckily he had managed to restrain himself. He wondered how on earth it was possible that he had never noticed her at Hogwarts. After all, they must have been at the same school for three years. Of course, he had always kept mostly to himself and at Hogwarts for whatever reason students never interacted much with the students in other Houses outside of class. Even within Gryffindor, apart from the boys in his dorm, Hermione, the Weasleys and the Quidditch team, he barely knew anybody, so perhaps that was it. Still, it was quite surprising that he had never noticed her before. She was a rather unique girl after all.
He didn't say any of that of course. Jim Dobbins had been born and brought up in America and had never so much as set foot in England. That was his current story and faint traces of an English accent or not he was going to stick to it.
He shook his head and forced his attention back on the conversation with Luna. He had a job to do. He had to get her to agree to go on a proper date with him after all.
Patrick Anderson had missed his early morning run that day. He hated to skip his daily run but he had no choice as he had to catch an early morning flight for a business meeting in Chicago. However, just because he couldn't run in the morning didn't mean that he couldn't make it up in the night, which was why he was even now pounding the streets around his hotel in Chicago.
Unfortunately, he was quite tired and his reflexes were not as sharp as they would usually be. The street wasn't very well lit either, one of the street lamps had gone out and unluckily for Patrick someone had dropped a can right under it. He never saw the can until his foot landed right on it. The can slid out from under his foot causing it to twist oddly and he could not stop himself from stumbling sideways and tripping on the curb, which sent him careening wildly. Right into the street.
He never even saw the car that killed him.
...
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