Harry was just staring at her in utter confusion. Ron was whispering to Neville about "Loony." Hermione took another two minutes to finally comprehend what Luna might have been talking about. She probably could have figured it out faster if Luna wasn't staring at her the whole time, in an eerily serene manner. She pulled Harry close, and said, "I think she might know something about the time travel."
"How's that possible? Nobody knows about it except us..."
"Maybe it's got something to do with those blabbing hummers or..."
"Blibbering Humdingers," interrupted Luna, who apparently had overheard their whispers. "Oh, do be careful." She grabbed Ron's arm and pulled him, just as they noticed a streak of red light fly from what seemed to be an empty part of the grass in front of the forest. Ron fell in front of Luna and got hit by the spell, instantly falling unconscious on the ground. Harry, Hermione, and Neville quickly had their wands pointing at a now-visible shimmer from the field.
"Did you forget you were supposed to be meeting me?" asked Moody, who suddenly appeared as he cancelled the disillusionment spell . "One little girl is all it takes for you to let your guard down, eh? Thought I taught you all better than that." Turning to Luna, he said, "Can't say the same about you, although I wouldn't recommend using your own friends as shields."
"I wouldn't either," replied Luna simply.
Professor Moody only hesitated slightly at her response before reviving Ron. "Well, Mr. Potter, Miss Granger, I do recall saying that I would give you two lessons in magical combat, but I not these other three. I suppose you're all interested?"
Ron and Neville nodded, while Luna asked, "Magical combat? That sounds interesting. Could I join in too?"
Ron protested, "What? But she's not our friend. She's not even a Gryffindor! What's she doing here anyways?"
Hermione felt an overwhelming need to protect Luna, and stepped in between them. "For your information, Ronald, we're perfectly fine with making new friends, even if you aren't." Turning to Luna, she said, "You're welcome to join us, Luna, if Professor Moody is willing to teach us."
"That I am, but don't expect me to slow down for your sakes. I'm jumping right into the advanced material, which I'm pretty sure you and Mr. Potter can handle, given what I've seen of your talents. The rest of you will have to catch up on your own time if you can't handle it."
When they all agreed, Moody began the first lesson. "I have to say I'm impressed with your skill in the mental arts, lad. I may have been under will-weakening potion at the time, but for any fourteen-year-old to know legilimency can be quite an advantage in battle. I take it this means you have occlumency shields as well?"
Harry, Hermione, and Neville nodded, while Ron frowned. Luna just continued her serene gaze at the old professor. "Right, I'm going to check every one of you for your occlumency first. Weasley, you're first."
After a few seconds of staring, Ron asked, "Err... what's happening?"
Moody snorted in disapproval. "You haven't got any shields at all, do you, boy? You couldn't even tell that I was in your mind. I even found the memory where your friends here tried to teach you occlumency, so why haven't you practiced?"
"I... er... it didn't seem like much use...?" stammered Ron, clearly fearing his Defense professor.
"Well, now you know, don't you? Get practicing!" barked Moody, as he moved on to Luna. "You didn't say you practiced occlumency either, did you?" He entered her mind, expecting something similar to Ron's. What he found was, instead, memories mashed together, and he couldn't figure out whether they were real, fake, or what was one or another. He tried to concentrate on a simple memory like her first class with him, but instead received an image of a half-giant, Lockhart-faced werewolf teaching potions with a hippogriff, outside of Hogwarts with the sun shining in the middle of the night. Even though he knew exactly what the memory should have been, every time he stripped away inconsistencies the memory mutated. He then tried to tap into her memory of breakfast that morning, but received an image of her cooking bacon in a cauldron in front of a greasy bat, while a flaming horse lay underneath providing the heat. The bacon smelled like chocolate, and the heat from the flames felt like being prickled by a cactus. He pulled out in utter confusion. "Well, although I have to say you don't have any shields... you might not need them," he grunted to Luna. Harry, Hermione, and Neville looked at Luna, wondering what Moody meant.
"You're next," he said, walking in front of Neville. Upon entering his mind, Moody found himself standing outside of a glass dome, with many plants inside, obviously representing various memories. Neville had yet to pack all his memories inside the dome, although the several trivial memories were sprouting on the ground around him. Moody inspected them, ensuring there was nothing important outside the defences. He found random things like how Neville always put on his right shoe first each morning, as well as a few assorted memories from the last day that Neville had yet to sort. He hammered at the dome until it was about to crack, and saw the strain on Neville's face at keeping his mind intact. He pulled back before he broke through completely. "Not too shabby, lad. It'll hold off just about everyone who's skimming for memories, and you can probably hold off a serious attacker for a minute. Keep working on it."
He checked Harry next. "What in hell's flaming nursery is that thing?" he exclaimed. Moody was rarely ever surprised, but finding himself inside Harry's mind, faced with an interstellar battleship, certainly took him for a loop. It was huge, it was mean, and when every turret pointed in his direction, Moody knew it was a threat, even if he didn't understand exactly what they were.
"It's a Seige Perilous class destroyer. I read about it when I was on vacation with Hermione," answered Harry with a smile. He knew that if he could catch Moody off guard, he'd be able to throw off nearly any wizard. "Pew Pew!" he added.
Moody suddenly pulled out of Harry's mind as the spaceship fired its lasers. "Well, I have to say your mind is pretty well defended, lad." Harry smirked, knowing that Moody wasn't aware that the spaceship was only defending trivial memories, and his important ones were tucked away even deeper.
"Alright, Miss Granger. Let's see if yours is as good as Harry's." Entering her mind, he found himself in complete darkness. Moving around felt difficult and disorienting. He only had a few seconds to attempt to search for any memories before he was wrapped up in scaly, spiky tentacles, pulling him towards a gigantic, razor-toothed jaw. He struggled to get out of the mindscape just in time. "I have a feeling you let me go, Miss Granger. I dare say you're even more aggressive than Mr. Potter here. What was that creature?"
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