Andromache’s mistress appreciated the patience of the tawny owl, as with her practiced editor’s eye she reviewed the page in her hand. After the letter had passed her inspection, Luna Lovegood folded the page, inserted it in an envelope and pulled the wand from behind her left ear to magically seal the envelope. Luna dipped her quill into the ink and wrote on the envelope in her precise, yet always slanting handwriting, an address



Harry Potter

Godric’s Hollow



Luna carefully caressed the owl’s head as she spoke to her bird. “If he is not home when you arrive, you should wait only one hour. No one else gets this letter, understand?” Luna softly instructed. Once certain that the ink had dried, Luna attached the letter to the owl’s leg and released the bird out of her office window. Standing with her arms on the sill, Luna watched her messenger fly away into an overcast mid-morning London sky.



After the owl had vanished from sight, Luna turned around and looked at her office to ensure that it was presentable after her two-week stay. She waved her wand. The clothes that had been on the chair by her desk packed themselves into her luggage and the locks on the bags clicked shut. With another flick of her wand, a calendar with all of her appointments appeared in the center of the desk. She reviewed the day’s itinerary while taking off her radish earrings and placing them on the shelf behind her desk. Luna opened the closet door to check her image in the mirror and adjusted the cork necklace to disguise its presence in her robes. Luna’s daily transformation was complete. Finally, Luna took a deep breath before she waved her wand and calmly spoke, ‘Alohomora’. The door to the world was opened.



The world reentered the office in the form of Millicent, who was already talking as she walked in the room. “I’ve got a list of the RSVPs for the ceremony, Miss Lovegood,” she said as she handed the scroll of parchment to her boss. Luna’s eyes went straight to the top of her list where all the important people had already replied. All of the important people had replied that is, except for one: Neville.



“We’ll give Mr. Longbottom until Tuesday, and if he hasn’t responded by then, let me know and I’ll contact him,” instructed Luna as she handed the list back to her assistant.



As the secretary left, a harried and stooped man entered. “Miss, the new office manager at W3 Limited has refused to pay the bill for the advertisements. He claims they are too good of a customer to pay full price,” spoke Cuthbert the billing clerk as he handed her the office manager’s letter. “To tell you the truth, Miss, the man is a bit of a git,” the older man added apologetically.



Luna thought for a moment and escorted Cuthbert through the office door into her waiting room. She handed the note back to her accountant and said, “Tell the office manager that W3 is not paying the full price. And the price they are paying was negotiated by the owners themselves. So he will pay the bill in full or,” Luna paused, considering her options. “I’ll send an owl to The Burrow with a note telling what Moaning Myrtle saw a certain Head Boy and Girl do in the Prefect’s bathroom. Also, add that we’ll expect the gold by Wednesday at the latest or the same letter will go to W3’s owners, and I bet his younger brothers will enjoy reading it,” she added with a smile.



As the clerk exited, Luna stayed with her arms folded just above her waist awaiting the attack. She was not disappointed. She felt two strong arms wrap around her waist and the accoster whispered in her ear, “Is that how you’ll be treating me after we’re married?”



“Well, there are three accepted ways to train a Crumple-Horned Snorkack: the radish, the stick, and Mimbulus mimbletonia. I haven’t decided which method to use on you yet,” Luna deadpanned as she leaned back into his welcoming arms. “A good trainer never lets the beast know what’s coming next,” she added oft-handedly.



A delicious moment of silence followed as both parties relished these all too few minutes together. He broke the silence, “So after two weeks of keeping me waiting, my little blonde boggart has decided to come out of her wardrobe. I was afraid you would just stay in there and miss the whole ceremony,” he admitted.



“Wait on me? I’m the one that had to wait two months for you to ask me out on a date,” Luna reminded him in mock anger.



“You know that doesn’t count; you were in a coma for half that time. And I visited you everyday even when I was on duty. Ask Neville or your father,” he answered defensibly.



A giggle escaped Luna’s lips, and from somewhere, a vision from her past bubbled to the surface: a young girl looking at her parents locked in an embrace. When her mom had died, Luna had buried all such memories because they brought only sad feelings that threatened to drown her. However, since Albi had come into her life, the memories of her mother now only brought back the feeling of her mother’s love. Luna was taking the change as a kind of posthumous approval of their coupling.



Albi looked through the door into her office at the six large and seventh even larger packages on the table wrapped for owl delivery. “Do you think it will matter? I mean do any real good?” he questioned.



“Truth and love always matter,” she firmly answered. “And I owe it to him and those who fell to tell the truth. I was there for most of it, you know. It’s just the timing. I thought we’d have until the fall.” Luna turned to face Albi, looking into the face that had only lied to her once and began to speak softly, “You know I have to publish before the Prophet does. And for a while, the Quibbler and I will be the target of some powerful people”. She swallowed as her throat became suddenly very tight and offered, “I’d understand if you want to postpone the wedding until it all blows over.” Luna looked at him and silently prayed.



“Postpone, never! Now if you want to move it up to this afternoon, I’d agree to that,” teased Albi. Luna’s prayer had been answered. She launched herself into his loving arms as moisture came to her eyes. The two of them stood there in her waiting room locked in the embrace.



Luna knew that soon there would be interlopers coming to her office door once word got out that the boss was available. It was now or never. “Doctor Pomfrey, you’ve got to start rounds in about an hour and I’ve got a newspaper to run. However if you come into my office I might have a small reward for all your patience,” Luna offered pulling out of his arms but holding firmly onto his right hand.



Eagerly allowing himself to be lead by his fiancée, Albus Dumbledore Pomfrey gave a big smile to Millicent and entered the editor in chief’s office of The Quibbler. The door was closed softly and the couple was safe from the world once more.

Heading back to her desk after the lunch meeting, Luna almost walked past the sleeping girl before she saw her. The child, probably named Suzanne, was a red haired girl around 6 years of age. The girl had fallen asleep in the soft cushioned guest chair in Luna’s office. Luna, who had been raised at the old Quibbler, always encouraged the presence of her employees’ children in the office. The presence of children in the office made the Quibbler a family not a job. So finding children, like this one, where they were not expected was not that rare.

Luna took the wand out from behind her left ear and conjured a pillow and comforter on the office couch. Luna tenderly picked the child up off the chair and placed her on the office couch trying not to awaken her. As Suzanne’s head touched the couch’s pillow, her hand opened and two gobstones fell onto the floor. After Luna had tucked the girl in, she reached down and picked up the pair of marbles. I remember the first time I touched a gobstone, my first year at Hogwarts. The day I first met Dumbledore, thought Luna.

---

* * * * *

---

Professor Flitwick waived Luna off the spiral staircase and knocked on the large wooden door. An expansive voice answered from the other side, “Come in.” Flitwick motioned to Luna that she should walk through the doorway. After Luna crossed the threshold, the door closed behind her leaving Flitwick outside of the office.

The room Luna entered into was the most fascinating place she had ever been. As Dumbledore tried to start a conversation with her, Luna turned her head from side to side taking in the room and all of its amazing occupants.

“As I said Miss Lovegood, you are here to discuss why you stuck your wand into Mr. Goyle’s eye,” repeated Dumbledore distractedly. “And to establish the time you will have to spend in detention. Do you have any questions?” added Dumbledore.

“Yes, what type of bird is that? It looks really sick. The Sorting Hat told me I was too smart to believe what I know; what did it mean?” she asked in a sing-song monotone. Luna having answered Dumbledore’s question about questions, quietly waited for his answers while lazily scanning the office as if she was getting ready to add more questions to her list.

Dumbledore paused and looked down at her with a look somewhere between amusement and amazement. “The bird is Fawkes, a Phoenix; he is not sick. He is just losing his feathers because soon he will reach his burning time. A Phoenix is a very rare creature,” Dumbledore explained in his most patient teacher’s voice.

“No, they’re not. My father told me there’s a whole city full of them in America,” Luna asserted absent-mindedly. Dumbledore seemed befuddled by the child’s response to his simple statement. He decided to bend down to get a good look at this strange girl in his office. Dumbledore’s movement caught Luna by surprise. She quickly looked into old man’s confused eyes. The two sets of eyes locked onto each other. Luna saw Dumbledore blink his eyes and almost immediately blink again. “The Wrackspurt got you,” Luna slowly stated wide eyed.

“The what?” sputtered Dumbledore.

“A Wrackspurt, they’re an invisible bird that flies into your ear and makes your mind forget. And sometimes they whisper to you what the other person was thinking,” she calmly confided to the old man.

“Oh!” exclaimed Dumbledore, just beginning to understand what had just occurred. “Well here at Hogwarts, we have another name for your Wrackspurt. We would call it a form of Legilimency ”, Dumbledore explained gently.

“Formolegilimency, now that’s a really silly name for a bird,” she answered with a laugh.

As Dumbledore stayed at Luna’s eye level, Luna noticed over his shoulder a really big sword was hanging on the office wall. Luna was trying to make out the lettering on the sword when she heard a creaking noise to her right. The sound caused her to turn her head and to find its source. The source was Dumbledore. He was standing by a spindly looking cherry wood table opening the table’s drawer. Luna watched Dumbledore pull a small very cracked leather pouch from inside of the table. The old man’s fingers worked hard to open the small golden clasp which held the red velvet cord that closed the sack. After his fingers were successful, Dumbledore removed two bright green orbs from the pouch. “Do you know what these objects are, Luna?” he asked holding the circlets out.

“No,” answered Luna as she moved over to the old man to get a good view. She couldn’t help but to reached out her left forefinger and touch them. The surface was smooth and cool to the touch.

“These are gobstones. My brother and I each received a bag of them one Christmas,” Dumbledore explained. ‘And unfortunately for me, Aberforth was a natural with them and he defeated me every time we played. Yet I wasn’t satisfied with losing. I practiced hour after hour and eventually I became so good that my brother soon refused to play me,” reminisced the old man. “Do you see what I am trying to say with my story?” prompted Dumbledore.

“Yes, if you practice at something you’ll get better at it. And also your brother was really lazy and a bad sport,” responded Luna in an airy tone.

Dumbledore start to speak and paused. “Did I really? Indeed! Well you seem to have a natural ability to communicate with the Wrackspurt just like my brother did with the gobstones. If you let me help you learn how to better train your ability with the Wrackspurt, it could become more useful to you. Would you like that, Luna?” asked the head master.

Luna thought about it and nodded her head for yes.

“However Miss Lovegood, we still must address the issue of why you stabbed Mr. Goyle,” said Dumbledore. “According to all the witnesses, Mr. Goyle asked for your book bag and you gave it to him. After he had gone through it without anyone saying anything, you struck Mr. Goyle. Why did you do it?” he added

The Wrackspurt told me he was going to take my mother’s-” Luna started saying as her right hand subconsciously touched the butterbeer cork necklace around her neck and tears filled her eyes. Luna was bombarded with unwanted images. She saw her mother giving her the necklace, saying it would magically protect her. She saw her mother screaming on the floor. Luna trying to take the necklace off so she could give it back to her and her mother stopping her. Luna was hearing her mother’s last words, and seeing her draw her last breaths. What happened to her was my fault! If my mother had not given me the necklace, she’d be alive today! I killed my mommy! shrieked a voice in Luna’s head. Suddenly, Luna blinked and then blinked again.

“Oh my, it does seem that the Wrackspurt has gotten you this time,” spoke a gentle voice from behind its crooked nose. “Luna, it was not your fault that your mother died. It was the spell that killed her,” Dumbledore assured as he brushed the tears from the side of her cheeks. “I understand now. I will speak to Professors Snape and Flitwick,” added Dumbledore. “You must understand something, Luna. You can’t act upon what the Wrackspurt says,” spoke the older man.

“Wrackspurts don’t lie, do they?” half-sobbed the still shaken Luna.

“Not lie, but just because we think something doesn’t mean we will do it. I once was part of a trial where some bad people had hurt the mother and father of a young boy,” stated Dumbledore. “If a Wrackspurt had visited me while I listened to the testimony, it would have told you that I was going to do the same thing to them,” added Dumbledore. “It is our actions not our thoughts that we must be judged by; do you understand?” Dumbledore explained.

“I think so,” said Luna in a very soft voice.

“So, I will take five points away from Ravenclaw and give you two hours of detention in this office with me on the next two Friday evenings at half past six. You will spend the time learning about training your Wrackspurt. And if anytime remains, I might even teach you how to shoot gobstones,” proclaimed Dumbledore with a smile.

Andromache trilled from her perch in the corner of the office in a second attempt to get her mistress’ attention. Luna sighed as she finished looking over the copy of her father’s article about a conspiracy to place Gringotts under the Ministry’s control. She corrected the punctuation on his last sentence and tapped the scroll with her wand. Suddenly all of her numerous corrections disappeared, and the corrected scroll looked like it had been written in her father’s own handwriting. Luna sent the corrected copy flying out of her office back to her father’s desk, so he would not know that his boss had corrected his ‘always perfect’ copy. She walked over to her owl and removed the envelope from the bird’s leg.

The owl’s trip had been her second fruitless journey to Neville’s house. After the first try, Luna had sent out an office owl with an inquiry to Neville’s grandmother. The returned note said that she had not heard from Neville since he’d gotten back from France and chaperoning the Hogwarts students at recent Tri-Wizard Tournament. Neville’s Gran requested a return owl be sent to her, assuming Luna heard from him before she did. The fact that Neville’s formidable old Gran was worried about his whereabouts only deepened Luna’s own concern.

On Saturday, Luna hoped that maybe Neville had just lost track of time while studying some new plant, so she made a trip to Hogsmeade to check out his little cottage. She had found that no one was at home. However, what she had found most ominous was the state of the house plants visible through the window. They were parched. Neville might forget to write his friends, but he would never forget to water his plants.

Luna gave her beloved owl a treat and wondered what she should do next. She could not ever imagine getting married with Neville being there. Luna could imagine getting married without her Father easier than without Ginny or Neville.

---

* * * * *

---

As they left the Hog’s Head, Ginny left Michael Corner’s side so she could talk to a round-faced boy. Luna had waited outside just like Ginny had asked. Ginny had called her to the side of the courtyard to talk just before they left Hogwarts. “After the meeting please don’t leave me alone with Michael. When we’re alone lately, it seems like he has four hands”, Ginny requested.

Luna felt intrigued. She had seen Michael a dozen times and she had only noticed two.

Ginny must have guessed what she was thinking. “It’s only an expression Luna; he only has two hands,” she explained with a growing grin. “Besides, I’ll need to talk to someone after the meeting,” Ginny whispered.

Luna looked at Neville. She knew he had taken Ginny to the Yule Ball last year. At the dance, he had let Michael Corner cut in for a slow dance with Ginny, and the two had danced almost the all of the remaining dances together. All except the last dance, the last dance she had saved for Neville. She had told Luna how guilty she felt about what she’d done to Neville. What made Ginny feel even worse was the way Neville seemed honored to have his date, who had ignored him for almost an hour, come back to him for the last dance.

Ginny had introduced Neville and Luna on the Hogwart’s Express. Luna’s trip with Ginny, Harry Potter, Neville, Hermione Granger, and Ginny’s brother Ron had been very interesting. On that one trip, Luna had laughed more than she had in the previous three years combined. At times, the trip had been almost like having fun. Luna saw Ginny tilt her head to the side toward where Luna was standing and Neville looked over from his conversation with Ginny. He looked somewhere between embarrassed and excited. Luna fought the silly urge to look around; it was obvious that they were talking about her.

After the conversation with Ginny, Neville slowly slouched his way over to where Luna was standing. “You probably don’t remember, but we met on the train and we-,” stammered Neville.

“Of course, I remember you, Neville,” assured Luna, not certain why he felt the need to re-introduce himself. “Do you still have that Mimbletonia plant? It was quite fascinating,” she asked.

Neville’s face quickly reddened. He had forgotten all about the stink sap explosion that had doused himself, Harry, Ginny and Luna. “Oh, I’m really sorry about that, really sorry-” apologized Neville, whose explanation had simultaneously had gone softer in volume and higher in pitch.

“Oh, I thought it all was the most fun I’ve had since I came to Hogwarts,” Luna stated truthfully.

Neville looked back at Luna with an expression that showed he could not see, how being splattered with stink sap could have been fun? Neville gave her a little half a smile in gratitude that she was not holding his stupidity with the plant against him. After the introduction, however it was quite obvious that Neville was at a loss for what to do next.

Ginny rescued the floundering Neville by inviting the two of them to go shopping in Hogsmeade with her and Michael. Michael and Ginny were going to Honeydukes, so Neville and Luna went to Honeydukes. As Luna looked at mounds of candies and sweets, she noticed Neville watching what Michael was doing with Ginny. After Neville saw Michael tickle Ginny with a sugar quill, she saw Neville look at the quill and at her like he was trying to get the courage to do the same. When Michael tried to steal a kiss in front of the cockroach clusters, suddenly Neville was in her way wherever she stepped. Luna might have felt annoyed, if she hadn’t felt so sorry for Neville.

The foursome left Honeydukes and from the way they were walking it was obvious that Madame Puddifoot’s was their next stop. She caught Neville watching Michael slip Ginny’s hand into his. Luna knew if this was to stop, it had to be done before they reached the tea shop. As the fingers of Neville’s right hand reached for hers, Luna grabbed his hand and stopped in the middle of the High Street sidewalk..

Neville had a panicked look in his eyes, like he was a small animal cornered by a hungry beast or Professor Snape. “Don’t do this, Neville,” Luna pleaded, trying her best not to sound mad..

“You don’t like me. But I thought,” Neville spoke as his voice trailed away to nothing.

Ginny and Michael, lost in their own little world, failed to notice that the other couple had stopped until they reached the tea shop’s door. Still holding hands, they quickly doubled back to check on the other couple.

“It’s not about me liking you Neville. You shouldn’t be doing this, at least not with me, and not now,” explained Luna.

“Luna, what are you doing?” asked Ginny, worried that her attempted set up would hurt two people she really cared about

“Neville is a like an Aquavirius maggot. If you are patient with Aquavirius maggots and let them mature on their own, they grow up to be Aquavirius Fireflies, which are the most beautiful insects in the world. However, if you attempt to stimulate them before they are truly mature, they just grow up to become gnats. If Neville had a girlfriend now, he’d spend so much time trying to be what she wanted him to be not what he could be. So he’d just end up becoming another gnat. Please wait until you are ready, Neville. The world has too many men that are gnats; it needs more men that are fireflies,” Luna advised as she stared into Neville eyes.

Michael Corner’s laugh was cut off by both Ginny’s sharp look and even sharper elbow to his ribs. Neville stood there completely frozen, not knowing if Luna had just insulted or complimented him. Somehow, he felt that much of what Luna had just said was the truth and any hurt feelings faded. Neville looked up and gave Luna his half a smile and a little shrug.

Luna held onto Neville’s hand and continued looking into his eyes trying to see if he had any hurt feelings and said, “Neville, I really would like to be your friend. And as a friend, I’d like it if you would walk me back to Hogwarts. If you’d like to,” she added. Neville still looking somewhat lost shrugged a second time and Luna gently let go of his hand.

Ginny knew that Neville’s little shrug meant that it was working out, just not the way she’d hoped for. She gave Michael’s hand a light squeeze and the couple walked into Madame Puddifoot’s Tea Shoppe, leaving Neville agreeing to walk Luna back to the school.

As they started the long wind-swept walk up from Hogsmeade toward the school, Neville stole a couple of sheepish looks at Luna. Finally, he worked up the nerve and found the words to express what was on his mind, “You’re the first person I’ve ever met that people think is odder than me.”

Luna felt herself blush. She looked at Neville, and as she brushed the wind blown blonde hair from her mouth, she responded to his comment, “Thank you. That’s the nicest thing a boy has ever said to me.”

A small red head appeared above the back of Luna’s office chair as she precariously balanced herself while was groping blindly up toward the shelf behind the desk.

“Ahem, Ahem,” sounded Luna as she cleared her throat just like a certain former Hogwarts Headmistress had done. Suzanne looked back over her shoulder to find the sound; her quick movement caused the balancing act to fail. Luna, who had already removed her wand from behind her left ear, flicked it and silently cast Arresto Momentum. The falling six year old floated safely to the office floor.

Luna walked behind the desk and looked on the shelf. She noted the four small mementos on it and turned to face the small child. “Was it the Snorkack horn, the radish earrings, the round pouch or the thin pouch you were interested in?” she interrogated in a fairly good imitation of an authoritarian tone.

“Joshua said that you fought You-Know-Who and you have his wand in that thin leather thingy. Did you really fight him? Is it that his wand?” Suzanne asked breathlessly as she sat up cross-legged on the office floor.

Luna pondered what to do. She had entered her office so she could do some research on locating Neville. However, she remembered Dumbledore patiently answering her foolish childhood questions and spoke, “I was at the final battle and I did fire some hexes at him. I wasn’t trying to defeat him, but buying time to allow me to do something more important. As for this,” Luna said as she reached to the shelf and pulled down a thin leather bag, “there is a wand in here, but it is not his wand. The wand that is in here is the broken wand of another very silly girl who used it to attack me,” she said.

Suzanne was sitting on the floor with her eyes and mouth open. The expectant look on her young face made it was obvious that she was not going to leave until she was told the whole story. Luna conjured two water glasses and filled them with water. She next pulled out her large bottom desk drawer and lifted out a small dish of Honeyduke’s best candy. She took the refreshments and sat down on the floor in front of the little girl. As the little girl greedily unwrapped a chocolate wand, Luna began to tell the story.

---

* * * * *

---

Luna watched Harry, Hermione, and Professor Umbridge leave the office together. Hermione had tricked Umbridge into leaving her minions alone with their seemingly helpless captives. She had no idea what Hermione had planned for Umbridge, but she knew that once the adult was out of the office it would all happen very quickly. She kept watching out of Umbridge’s office window until she saw the trio enter the Forbidden Forest. As she marked the spot near Hagrid’s thatched roof cottage, she began to spring the trap.

Luna closed her eyes and pictured the room in her mind. Draco Malfoy was sitting on Umbridge’s desk twirling his wand and making vague threats against the Weasleys. Ron Weasley was near the door being held by Warrington, and next to him Daphne Greengrass, the largest Slytherin girl Luna had ever seen, was struggling to control Ginny Weasley. Crabbe was once again choking Neville Longbottom and standing next to Luna was Millicent Bulstrode who was looking dreamily at Crabbe. No one on the Inquisitorial Squad was bothering to watch her; none of them thought she was any kind of a threat. They hadn’t even bothered to remove her wand from behind her ear. Luna opened her eyes and turned her face toward the wall. The time for action was now.

Luna carefully rolled her tongue into a u-shape and extended it through her lips. She began making motions with her mouth that made her look like a fish trying to breathe out of water. She slowly turned to face the middle of the crowded office, adding a little sideways swimming motion with her hands at her side. Malfoy was first to see her and through a sneering laugh drawled, “Will you look at Lovegood? Gawd, she’s even loonier than they say.”

Luna kept making her absurd face and finally turned toward Greengrass who was holding onto Ginny in a vise-like clamp. Look at me, come on, look at me, thought Luna. Finally, the large girl started to join her friends in the mocking Luna when their eyes met. Luna summoned the Wrackspurt and the big girl’s eyes blinked. And as she blinked, she involuntarily relaxed her grip on Ginny.

As soon as Ginny felt her captor’s grip relax, she sprang into action. She thrust her left elbow straight into the larger girl’s midsection, and with her right foot she struck Warrington’s leg just below the knee. Suddenly off balance, the two stricken members of the Inquisitorial Squad fell to the floor, releasing their captives.

Ron spun around, pulling his wand out of his robe just as Warrington was bringing his own wand up to face him. Ron shouted something that was lost in the commotion, and Luna saw Warrington fly backwards into the doorframe and collapse onto the floor.

Crabbe, seeing the escape attempt start, tried to move Neville in between himself and the Weasleys so he could use Longbottom as a shield. The moment Crabbe shifted him; Neville took a chance to stomp on the top of Crabbe’s ankle. As Crabbe lifted his injured leg off the floor, Ron turned toward him and yelled, “Stupefy!” Crabbe tumbled to the floor, and his arm pulled Neville down with him.

Bulstrode was aiming her wand at Ginny, when she felt something poke her under the right ear. Luna had stuck her wand there and whispered to Bulstrode, “Let’s pretend that I just did Expelliarmus on you and you drop your wand.” A small clattering sound was heard at their feet. “I could, Stupefy you, but I haven’t learned to control my attacking spells very well yet. But don’t worry no one has had to be in the Hospital Wing longer than overnight so far. Perhaps, if you pretend I Stupefied you and you go sit in the corner, we can call it even. Okay?” offered Luna. Luna saw Bulstrode’s thick neck swallow and the large girl with the wand still against her neck sat down facing the corner.

Ginny rushed at Malfoy, who had been been guffawing at Luna, to exact her revenge on him. As Malfoy brought his wand to bear at her, Ginny punched Draco solidly on the jaw. Draco and his wand fell in separate directions both landing with a thud.

“Why is that I never get to hit Malfoy!” said an exasperated Ron.

Suddenly, the girl that Luna had sent the Wrackspurt after came off the floor and charged straight at Luna with her wand in her hand. Greengrass was holding her wand like it was a dagger. Neville, who had escaped Crabbe’s grasp, quickly aimed and shouted “Impedimenta,” from the floor. The spell hit the charging girl in the back. The girl took another step toward Luna, and fell, smashing both her wand and nose into the stone wall of Umbridge’s office. She ended up falling into the corner and on to Bulstrode.

As Ginny and Ron cast the Incarcerous spell on the whole squad, Luna walked around and carefully picked up every wand off the floor, including the broken one, and placed them into her purse. Ron looked at her carefully, obviously questioning what she was doing.

“Remember, what Professor Moody said last year? What do you call a wizard who leaves an unconscious enemy behind with a wand? A dead wizard,” Luna growled, doing a decent impression of the old auror

He wasn’t Moody. He was a bloody Death Eater,” Ron reminded Luna.

“Wisdom is wisdom, no matter its source,” asserted Luna as she walked out the door followed closely by Neville. Ginny, accompanied by Ron, was the last to leave Umbridge’s office. She stopped at the door and cast the Bat-Boggy Hex over the whole Inquisitorial Squad. Ron, upon hearing Ginny’s hex, stepped back through the office door and saw the still unconscious and now hexed Malfoy. He broke into a fit of hysterical laughter.

Luna lead the quartet to the exact spot in the forest where she had seen, Harry, Hermione, and Umbridge disappear. As soon as they entered the woods, the noise of a battle with some sort of gigantic creature or creatures echoed through the forest. The foursome broke into a run with their wands out and headed toward the sound. In a clearing full of recently shattered trees, they found Harry and Hermione. Luna pulled Harry’s and Hermione’s wands out of her purse and handed them to Ron. As he returned the wands to their owners, Harry told them of Umbridge’s fate. Luna smiled as she was once again awed by the great irony that is life. As the other five members of the group discussed the need to get to London immediately, she noticed a slight movement near a shrub to her side. She saw two Thestrals tentatively step into the forest clearing to their left. The creatures seemed to be sniffing the air. Suddenly, a solution to all of their problems occurred to her.

Luna read the note that Hedwig had just delivered to her office.

Dear Luna

---

I’ve just finished reading the first 2 packages. I think they are brilliant. They are easily closer to the truth than anything that the Ministry or the Prophet has printed. The only suggestions that I have are that you are not giving enough of the credit to Ron or Hermione and I’d prefer that my name not be the only one in the titles. However, you know best how to run a newspaper, so I will accept your judgment. Please consider this letter as approval for you to follow through with the plans you wrote me about.

---

Your friend, Harry Potter

---

P.S. �“ Don’t let Ginny know, I’ll tell her after your wedding.

Luna smiled. Your friend Harry Potter, so many wizards would give all the galleons in Gringotts to have Harry call them a friend. Yet on one bright sad afternoon, she had been willing to throw their friendship away, in order to save it.

---

* * * * *

---

Luna was watching Neville as they slowly walked back across the lush green lawn by the lake toward the castle. Neville was moving very slowly, but more steadily than he had been before Dumbledore’s funeral. While Neville had been released from the Hospital Wing earlier in the week, today was the first day that he had to physically exert himself. So Luna was walking with him to make sure that he wouldn’t overtax himself. If her constant hovering was bothering Neville, he was keeping a stiff upper lip about it. With all that had happened recently, everyone was seemingly a little more tolerant of the actions of their friends and family.

Just as they were passing by a large hedge, Neville came to an abrupt stop turning his head toward the shrub. Thinking he was in need of a break, Luna was heading over to help him, when she also heard what caused him to stop. On the other side of the large hedge, they heard the unmistakable sound of someone who was sobbing. The duo were stepping around the shrubbery when they saw Ginny Weasley, still in her dress robes, sitting on a stone garden bench with tears flowing down her freckled cheeks.

Sensing their presence, Ginny looked up to see her two friends looking down at her. She quickly, almost instinctively, moved to a space in between Luna and Neville. Their enclosing arms captured Ginny, offering their silent support for their obviously stricken friend. As Luna patted Ginny on the back, she saw that Neville was offering his handkerchief to her. Ginny took the small cloth and was brushing aside her tears as Neville asked, “What’s the matter? Was it the funeral? Why isn’t Harry or Ron with you?”

Ginny, hearing Harry’s name, nearly swooned. Neville, who was still a bit unsteady himself, pulled Ginny into a tight embrace. Luna watched as Neville stiffened his posture like he’d just taken a strengthening potion. Neville held onto Ginny, letting her feel him being strong so she wouldn’t feel that she had to be. Luna felt such pride at this previously unseen side of her good friend.

“Harry says we can’t go on together. He said it will be too dangerous for us to be seen together,” cried a sobbing Ginny.

Luna reached down and took Ginny’s trembling hand into her own. Life could be so cruel; Ginny, who for years had dreamed of just getting Harry to notice her, had finally won his heart. She had just begun to dare to dream new dreams about a future life filled with love and Harry. Today, he was dashing all of her hopes. All Luna and Neville could do for her at this moment was to listen to her sobs and give reassurances that Harry would eventually come around.

Ginny wasn’t so sure. “What if a Death Eater gets him? How could I live without him now?” asked Ginny.

As Ginny started to settle down, the soft summer breeze brought a distant train whistle to them. The whistle was a reminder that there was only a half of an hour for them to get to the Hogsmeade station and get on board of the train to go back home.

Upon reaching the station, Luna went out on the platform to see if Harry was waiting there. She caught a glimpse of Harry, Ron, and Hermione entering the first passenger car of the Hogwarts Express. After the Trio boarded the train, Luna waved for Ginny and Neville to walk out onto the station’s platform.

Neville and Ginny were going to the back of the train to find the first available compartment. Luna marched to the front of the train to find out where the Trio was seated. She was pushing her way through the melancholy crowd of returning students, when she located The Trio in the middle section of the first car. With any luck, Ginny and Harry’s paths would not be crossing on the trip. Luna walked toward the back of the train and checked every compartment until she found the seats that Ginny and Neville had secured. They were seated in the front cubicle in the last car. The trip to King’s Cross Station was a very subdued one. Ginny repeatedly tried to regain her composure. Neville and Luna spent the time quietly planning out what to do when the train arrived in London.

They decided that Neville should stay in the compartment with Ginny when the train arrived at King’s Cross. Luna would exit the train and go through the barrier to scout out the situation. If the Trio was not with the Weasleys, Luna would use her wand and the Protean Charm she had learned from Professor Flitwick to scribe the side of the D.A. Galleon the letters ‘OK’. If they got the all clear from the coin, Ginny and Neville would step through on their own. If any of the Trio was waiting on the platform, she would have to try and get Mrs. Weasley on her own, explain the situation to her, and bring her to Ginny

The first thing, Luna saw after walking through the gateway back into the Muggle world and was Mrs. Weasley standing alone on the platform. After hearing her explanation, Mrs. Weasley told her that Ron and Hermione had already left to go with Harry back to the Dursley’s house. Luna pulled out her wand and uttered the charm marked the message on the large gold coin. After sending her message, she quickly walked over to the side of the platform where her father was standing stood. As Luna finished the explanation of their plans to her father, Neville, Ginny, and their entire luggage was emerged from the pillar.

While Luna would be staying with Ginny back at The Burrow, Neville was going to commute back and forth from his Gran’s house via the Floo Network. The two of them were determine to be there to help Ginny no matter how long it took

Just after breakfast of the second day, Neville and Luna lingered behind in the kitchen to offer to help Mrs. Weasley with the clearing up. They really just wanted a few minutes to talk about Ginny’s situation and try to figure out what they should do to help her. Neville just could not understand how anyone could hurt someone who loved this way. He’d thought he knew Harry. Luna was able to see the reason for Harry’s emotional reaction, but she also was able to see the obvious flaw in his logic that made all of this pain unnecessary. They decided to keep the conversation away from Harry and let Ginny find her way.

The intervening days were taken up with the unbearable preening of Fleur and the equally unbearable sad look in Ginny’s eyes. Luna talked about Crumple-horned Snorkack and Blibbering Humdingers, but Ginny’s mood did not brighten up. The only times that they could get Ginny out of her room were to eat or to have Fleur fuss over the bridesmaid’s dresses that had been made for Ginny and Fleur’s younger sister Gabrielle. Gabrielle, who was even more an outsider in The Burrow than Luna, lingered around Luna and Neville, trying to raise poor Ginny’s spirit.

After breakfast on the day prior to the wedding, Mrs. Weasley motioned for Luna and Neville to remain in the kitchen. “I’d like to thank the two of you for helping Ginny get through this,” whispered the concerned mother as she was watched Ginny slowly walk up the stairs toward her room.

“We’d do anything for Ginny. She’s always been there for us. Right, Luna?” proclaimed Neville.

Luna just smiled. Neville had told the truth about their friendship, but what had made Luna smile was Neville. The Neville she’d met all of those years ago would have neither had the courage nor the words to express such feelings. Neville was truly becoming that firefly.

Molly was smiling back at the pair when she asked, “I think some good old fashioned manual labor might help get Ginny out of the sullens. Normally, I’d have Ron and the twins de-gnome the garden, but they’re not here. So, could you do me a favor and take Ginny and maybe Gabrielle and de-gnome it this morning?”

An hour later under an overcast early morning sky, Neville was instructing Luna and Gabrielle on the best methods to de-gnome a garden. Neville had become quite an expert on the subject, because he had volunteered to help Professor Spout de-gnome the gardens at Hogwarts each of the last two years. Neville’s lesson was so informative and so patiently taught, that even Ginny, an experienced hand at the task, had learned a new trick or two.

Demonstrating a favorite technique, Neville reached down into a hole and, with his right hand, pulled up a gnome. He was showing the best way to hold a gnome so the small beast would not injure you, when Luna saw something familiar in the creature’s face.

“Neville, watch out! You’ve found the secret hiding place of Professor Umbridge,” Luna said pointing to the gnome he was clutching.

Ginny burst out laughing in agreement. Neville, not able to see what was so funny, lifted the small creature up to eye level to get a good look at it when the gnome let out a little cough that even got Neville laughing.

Gabrielle looked at the trio of laughing teenagers, wondering what the joke was. Neville was starting to explain to Gabrielle the reason for the laughter when Luna interrupted him.

“And I just found Malfoy and Crabbe,” laughed Luna. She saw three heads turning toward her as she held onto a squirming gnome in each of her hands.”

“Those gnomes are too intelligent looking to be Crabbe,” giggled Ginny

Neville saw a fourth gnome raise its head above ground and grabbed it with his left hand. He held it up in the air like a prize.

“Vhat is su funny?” asked Gabrielle looking from laughing face to face.

Luna grinned and with great drama in her voice proclaimed, “Ladies, let me tell you the story of the final defeat of the Hogwarts Inquisitorial Squad. Once upon a time there was an evil woman named Dolores Umbridge who got control of the greatest school in all of Britain: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.”

Neville took Luna’s lead and made the gnome in his right hand move back and forth like it was doing a little dance in the air. As Neville was finished she added, “And the evil woman recruited students who thought like see did.” And with that, Luna turned her two gnomes toward to Neville’s gnome and made them bow to the Umbridge gnome.

“But a group of friends, including the brave Ginny of the Bat-Bogey Hex, refused to submit to their evil rule. Alas, the evil Inquisitorial Squad captured the friends and took them to her office,” advised Luna. “However, the clever Hermione of Granger tricked the evil woman and she was taken away by a herd of Centaurs,” announced Luna.

Neville heard Luna’s remark and flung the Umbridge gnome far into the neighboring field. Gabrielle and Ginny cheered as they watched the gnome disappear from sight.

“However, the rest of the friends were still trapped by the squad. What would happen to Luna the Loony, Ron the Jester, Neville the Nice, and Ginny of the Bat-Bogey Hex?” questioned Luna as she turned her back to the other two girls. With her back turned, Luna proclaimed, “Luna the Loony had a plan.” She made the comment as she was turning around making the same face she had made in Umbridge’s office.

Gabrielle began laughing so uncontrollably at the sight of Luna’s face that she lost her balance and fell seated to the ground. Ginny, who knew what to expect, was doubling over with the laughter too.

“While the evil squad laughed at Luna the Loony, Ginny attacked. Ron the Jester helped Neville the Nice defeat Crabbe,” announced Luna as she spun and ejected the Crabbe gnome over the hedge. “And Neville the Nice defeated the ugly troll girl who was attacking Luna the Loony,” she added.

“Hooray for Neville the Nice!” a cheering Gabrielle said in her French accented English.

“But the battle was not over! The leader of evil squad, Malfoy the Mommysboy, squared off against our brave Ginny,” said Luna. Luna and Neville moved the remaining two gnomes around in a circle like they were Muggle boxers. “Ginny struck Malfoy and he went flying,” she said as she spun the Malfoy gnome and launched him into the field.

Hooray for Ginny!” cheered Gabrielle through her laughter.

“Ginny looked down at the foes she had just conquered and gave them her mark. She marked each of them with a Bat-Bogey Hex, which improved their looks immensely. And Ginny and her friends gracefully mounted their Thestrals and flew to London. The End,” Luna finished with a dramatic flourish. At the mention of Thestrals, Neville began to swing the fourth Gnome in a circle and launched it far over the fence.

Gabrielle and Ginny were cheered by the story and praised the performances. Luna noticed that for some reason Neville seemed really embarrassed that Ginny and Gabrielle were complimenting him. The little play was worth any amount of embarrassment though. Ginny seemed to be her old self. It may have been almost a week late, but Ginny Weasley was back from Hogwarts.

---

On the day of the Bill and Fleur’s wedding, Harry, Ron, and Hermione arrived together. Harry stayed away from not only the Ginny, Neville and Luna; he kept his distance from Mr. and Mrs. Weasley too. The Trio now sat together at a table whispering between themselves.

Luna watched Ginny desperately watch Harry, who was looking everywhere except at Ginny. Ginny who had arranged for Luna and Neville to be invited to the wedding sat with them along with Gabrielle Delacour at a table across the dance floor from Harry. Neville was angry. How could Harry treat Ginny like this? When he had first seen Harry before the wedding, he had to be physically restrained by Luna and Gabrielle to stop him from causing a scene. Luna was still worried that Neville might go off again.

Luna looked at Ginny’s sad expression and realized she could not take it anymore. Today was easily the second saddest day in her young life. She had not been able to do anything about the day her mother had died, but she could still try today. Taking a deep breath, Luna stood up from the table and walked across the dance floor, brushing her way past the dancers in a straight line toward Harry.

Hermione was the first to notice Luna’s approach. “Ron, I’d really like to dance now please,” Hermione spoke with her emphasis on the word now.

“You know I don’t dance,” started Ron before he noticed Luna. “Oh, right! I was just about to ask you anyway,” he added before taking Hermione’s hand.

Harry turned and seemed surprised to find Luna looking down at him. She immediately launched into her practiced speech. “I’ve got one hundred and seventy-seven words to tell you and they may be the last words you may ever hear from me, so listen carefully. I am ashamed of you, Harry Potter. I thought you were a man, but you are really a Blibbering Humdinger. Humdingers sing sweet love songs to entice their prey into the open, and when the song is done they rip the poor creature’s heart out. That’s what you did to Ginny. You say you’re protecting Ginny. How? Did Malfoy ever see you with Ginny? Did Crabbe or Goyle or Parkinson see you two together? Don’t you think Professor Snape heard about your little romance? If they did, he’ll know all about the two of you. I saw you walk into Dumbledore’s funeral holding hands with Ginny and so did Rita Skeeter. Do you think she’ll keep quiet?” queried an angry Luna. She took a second deep breath to try to calm down before continuing. Luna added, “Dumbledore talked about love being our advantage over evil, Harry. You cannot honour his life and continue to hurt her. So unless you change the way you’re acting, we can no longer friends. Goodbye.” She turned on her heels and walked back across the dance floor, bumping into the spinning partners once again and wishing her words might have been more convincing.

Ginny looked panic-stricken at Luna. “What have you done, Luna?” she spoke in an anguished voice.

Luna looked back at Ginny. She wanted to say it was the only chance to salvage anything. She wanted to say it would be all right, but it would all depend on Harry. If Harry were truly the man he should be, it would be all right. Luna could only hope.

“Ginny, would you like to dance with me,” sputtered Harry Potter in a scratchy voice as he appeared behind Ginny. “I’d understand, if you said no,” he added.

Ginny silently nodded and the two of them began to dance. Slowly, Harry pulled Ginny closer until they almost seemed as if they were one person. Even when the music stopped and the other couples started leaving the dance floor, Harry and Ginny kept on dancing. Ginny’s peaceful face was soon visible lying upon Harry’s chest. Luna watched as Hermione led Ron back to the dance floor and joined in the silent lover’s waltz. Arthur Weasley reached over and took Molly’s hand, and they became the third couple joined on the dance floor.

When the music started again, Neville asked Luna if she’d like to dance, but she answered no. He asked Gabrielle who immediately replied yes. Luna watched only Harry dancing with Ginny. On the floor, Harry whispered something to Ginny. She saw a look of contentment blossom on Ginny’s face and all seened to be right with the world. Luna knew that somewhere beyond the veil, Albus Dumbledore was now smiling.

Madame Pomfrey was reading over the changes to the standard ceremony that Luna had requested. The school nurse was trying to hide her worries about the girl that had won her precious son’s heart. After all, Luna had still been a student at Hogwarts when Albus had her told about meeting a most beguiling girl named Luna Lovegood. Loony Lovegood would have been the last girl she’d ever thought her level headed, hard working son to have fallen for.

“I found the final lines to be quite touching dear,” divulged Luna’s future mother-in-law. “I’ve not heard them used in any wedding that I’ve ever attended. Where did you get them from?” she asked.

“Oh, I’ve used them in all of my weddings,” smiled Luna.

---

* * * * *

---

Moody looked down at the map that lay on the wooden dining room table; hunger filled his true eye while the magical eye one spun around the room. “If the spy’s information is right, your plan might just work. As long as we are all of one purpose and ever vigilant to the probability that this could be a trap,” Moody exclaimed.

Luna, who was looking between Neville and Ginny down at the upside down map, saw Harry smile next to Moody. Harry took a deep breath and looked quickly at her end of the table. Luna knew what was coming, and she readied herself for the coming explosion.

“Good work you three, with this information we can truly bring this to an end for good,” proclaimed Harry.

At the ‘for good’ of Harry’s statement, Luna saw Ron and Hermione whose hands were lightly touching on the table top both smile. The smiles made it obvious that they knew something about You-Know-Who that Luna did not.

The Trio had been gone so many months. The months that the they had disappeared on their mysterious quest had been some of the hardest in Ginny’s life. They were also hard months for her two best friends who had seen her through the moments of doubt and fear.

“So Neville, when are the three of you going back to Hogwarts?” rushed Harry trying to get the words out before the eruption. He barely made it.

“What do you mean, back to Hogwarts? We’re not going anywhere!” shouted Ginny across the table.

“Yes, you are!” answered Harry.

“You’re not my boss, nor my father, so you’ve no right to tell me anything,” Ginny fired back.

Luna noticed Arthur Weasley striking what he must have thought to be a very paternal pose before saying, “Well Ginny, I am you father and I agree with Harry.” Ginny turned her head to her father, and Luna saw all of the red-headed men in the room take a step back. Ginny was giving them her best angry Molly look.

“You’re not staying, you’re going back to school where it’s safe,” reiterated an impassive Harry

Luna sighed. She pulled the wand from behind her left ear and used it to tap Neville on the shoulder. Neville turned around, somewhat annoyed to have someone interrupt what promised to be the fight of the century. She motioned him to follow her out the kitchen door.

As the door closed behind them she explained, “That will go on for hours, until they either start cursing each other or kissing each other. And I don’t think I have the stomach to watch them do either.”

Neville smiled that half-a-smile he uses when he had yet to catch up to what was happening in the world. He began to slowly climb the stairs up to the bedrooms. Neville didn’t even notice Luna’s absence until he’d reached the landing and she’d reached the portrait of Mrs. Black. Luna, as was her practice, pulled back the curtain and asked Mrs. Black for permission to leave her beautiful home. Mrs. Black thanked Luna for being a pureblood child with pureblood manners and gave Luna permission to go. Luna looked up to the stairs, dropped the curtain, and waggled her fingers at Neville as she left the headquarters into London’s evening twilight.

---

* * * * *

---

As Luna’s fingers absorbed the aura of the room and residual traces of healing magic, she slowly turned with her eyes closed in concentration. She was almost finished with her task when the young man in his early twenties she had noticed earlier finally spoke to her from the back of the room.

“May we help you?” inquired the young man. “Do you need medical assistance?” he added.

“Are you the only Healer who uses this emergency room?” inquired Luna.

“I have been for the last two weeks. I’m being trained this month in emergency medical wizardry. Why?” he answered the strange young woman who was still slowing spinning in his emergency room.

“A lot of healing has been done here lately. Very good magic,” Luna related as she finishing her orbits and opened her eyes. She was looking at a handsome young man and an older woman standing to his right. They were both staring at her. “Are you here every day?” she asked.

“I’m here two days and then off for one day. I’m off tomorrow.” he answered, intrigued in spite of himself. “Why?” he again added.

“Well, one should know where one’s going before they need to go there don’t you think?” she answered, moving some blond hair out of her eyes to get a good look at who was speaking to her. “I hope to never see you again,” Luna added, waggling her fingers in a wave as she walked out of the room.

As the door was closing, Luna heard the older woman speak, “Albi, was she wearing radishes?”

---

Luna lay in her bed trying to get to sleep. Moaning Myrtle had delivered the final message from the spy around noon. Lord Voldemort and the Death Eaters would step in their trap tomorrow. Members of the Order had spent the whole afternoon trying not to think about what might happen and avoiding Harry and Ginny’s running battle about who was going and who was staying. Luna was alone in the bedroom with neither Hermione nor Ginny present. Yet, she could not go to sleep; she kept running over what her part would be. She had seen a small role in the plan that no one was filling. So no matter what Ginny decided; Luna would be there tomorrow to fill it.

The roar of the argument came up the stairs and down the hallway toward the bedroom, and it brought her back to the present. The night before Ginny had ended the fight by simply slamming the heavy oak bedroom door in Harry’s face. Tonight, Ginny tried the same tactic. Tonight, Harry would not let a mere door stop him. Harry opened the door and the argument continued on without missing a beat.

Luna watched their faces and couldn’t understand how two people could say so much so loudly at such a close distance and not hear each other.

What Harry meant but was not saying was, “Ginny, I love you. Please, you must go back to Hogwarts. If you are here, I will worry, I will try and protect you. What if I saw you get hurt? I’m not certain I could take it. Ginny, please go back to Hogwarts.”

What Ginny meant but was not saying was, “Harry, I love you. Don’t you know if you fail, nowhere is safe. Don’t you know if we win but you are hurt or killed I will spend the rest of my life blaming myself? You need every wand by your side. Harry, I would rather die with you than live without you.”

“ Luna watched, feeling helpless. She wished they had another day, like Bill and Fleur had. If only Harry and Ginny could have some time together, a time full of love-and-hope and not of fear-and-dread. Suddenly, she shot straight up in bed. Was it really that simple? She reached over, took her wand off the nightstand and spoke the memory charm that her mother had created to help the staff of The Quibbler. She would start about five minutes early to give them time to realize what she was doing. Luna began speaking softly at first, but growing louder with each sentence.

When Harry and Ginny first realized they were not alone in the room they stopped the argument. The two of them turned toward Luna probably getting ready to apologize to her or to ask her to leave, but they suddenly realized that she was not speaking in random Luna-isms. She kept on speaking in a deliberate and steady cadence up to the moment that Bill had first spoken. Luna was mentally crossing her fingers.

Harry started speaking on cue. His words were different than Bill’s, but they were no less a declaration of love. As Harry looked in Ginny’s eyes, he poured out his heart to her. Luna slipped her pillow and comforter off the bed and headed for the door. On cue again, Ginny began speaking her own declaration of love to Harry. As Luna moved around the room she saw that a single tear slipped down Ginny’s cheek and somewhere along the way the two of them had clasped hands. When Ginny finished, both she and Harry turned to where Luna had been when she’d started talking. Luna, who had already walked past them, cleared her throat.

Harry and Ginny turned hand-in-hand to face Luna. She added her own benediction, “Harry and Ginny, you have spoken the depth of your love to those present living, and to those not-present living and to all that ever were and to all that will ever be. I ask you to accept the declaration of love from the other by kissing the lips that spoke them.”

As Harry and Ginny kissed, she slipped out of the door. She decided to go up into the belfry where Neville was keeping watch and sleep up there. About half way down the hall, Hermione stepped out of the bathroom dressed in her nightclothes. Luna panicked; Hermione could not interrupt Harry and Ginny. Luna nearly shouted, “You can’t go in there!”

Hermione flushed and lashed back, “Why?”

Luna explained what had just happened in their bedroom. Hermione’s expression went from anger to a smirk. “It’s not legally binding you know,” she asserted, in her famous know-it-all voice.

“Perhaps,” answered Luna in her best flat monotone. “But there are thousands of couples with paperwork moldering in the Ministry of Magic that are less married than those two are,” Luna pronounced as if the point was moot. As she finished the statement, she noticed from the angle of Hermione’s body that Hermione had not been heading for the girl’s bedroom after all, but toward Neville, Harry and Ron’s room. Luna, in spite of herself, let a smile escape.

Hermione blushed as she realized Luna had guessed her true destination.

“Maybe we could try the same thing with Ron,” added Luna, “even though it’s not legally binding.”

“No, I don’t think Ron’s ready for that yet,” spoke Hermione very softly.

“Oh, you and Harry are always speaking for Ron. Let him say what he’s ready for,” pressed Luna.

“No! Actually, it’s more me than Ronald that’s not ready yet,” admitted Hermione as her face turned red from the touch of embarrassment. After the confession both young women stood in the hall waiting for the other to speak. The seconds grew to a long minute.

“I’m going up to the belfry so I can keep Neville company. I’m sure you’ll find someplace to pass the night,” Luna finally said, relieving Hermione of any more embarrassment. Hermione impulsively hugged Luna and quietly slipped into Ron’s room.

Every Wednesday, Luna would take the floo network to St. Mungo’s and met Albus for lunch at a small café where Neville had once taken her. She would always arrive a half-hour before for their date, go up to the long-term care ward, and visit the Longbottoms. During her regular visits, she would talk to the couple about the man their son had become and make comments about the little mementos that Neville had left behind for them.

On the wooden nightstand by Alice Longbottom’s bed, Luna noticed a small blue ceramic vase holding a single flower with a prominent red blossom. The flower was called Alice’s Trueheart, which was a red heart-shaped flower that Neville had developed as his N.E.W.T. project. He had named and dedicated the flower in honour of his mother. Neville had a precious few of the plant and so he guarded each of them jealously. He had not even trusted Luna or Ginny with a cutting or a sprout yet. Holding back her hair, Luna leaned forth and caught the crimson blossom’s soft sweet bouquet. She looked down at the plant and smiled. The flower in the vase was fresh. The flower meant that Neville was all right and probably in Britain somewhere.

Luna left an engraved wedding invitation for both Frank and Alice. They could not come, but how could she not invite the parents of one of the two men who had saved her life. Especially since, Luna was marrying the other man.

---

* * * * *

---

Luna had noticed the cloakroom on the map. She went inside to ensure the room would meet her needs. The room was large enough and centrally located, which made it perfect. As she came out of the room, Moody was staring at straight at her with a look of contempt on his scarred face. Obviously, he thought she was seeking a place to hide once the battle began. Luna looked the old man square in the face and stated, “One should know where one’s going before they need to go there, don’t you think?” And with that, she walked away from the confused Auror.

When the battle began, Luna held back and watched as it unfolded. A triumphant yell erupted from Luna’s left; one of the Death Eaters had kept Moody pinned down while a second one Apparated to Moody’s side. Luna saw the second Death Eater send a spell at Moody that caused him to collapse onto the floor. She rushed from her place of concealment, holding her wand in one hand and in the other some soft, bright green pellets that resembled muggle kitty litter. Luna threw her ‘kitty litter’ into the air over the heads of the Death Eaters and cried, “Incendio!”

The ignited ‘litter’ exploded, and the two Death Eaters crashed unconscious onto the floor. She saw the loose wands of the opponents on the floor, picked them up and shoved them into her robe’s pocket. She quickly performed Mobilicorpus to get the big man off of the floor and up into her arms. Holding onto the rigid and wheezing Moody, Luna determinedly thought about St. Mungo’s Emergency Room number three and Apparated with a loud crack.

Luna arrived in the room trying to regain her balance and keep Moody upright. At the sound, a young doctor looked up and saw her struggling with the much larger man. The doctor used his wand to move the injured man out of Luna’s grasp and onto the examination table. The healer’s wand moved in a blur over Moody’s stiff form. “Some physical trauma from the blow, and traces of spell or spells unknown,” said the medi-wizard to the nurse. “Did you hear the name of spell that was cast?” asked the healer without looking up at Luna.

“No, it was either silently cast or I was too far away to hear,” she answered. “However, I did see the spell hit him,” she added.

The assisting nurse gave Luna’s comment a dismissive little noise in the back of her throat.

“Yes, I saw the spell. It was a violet shade with these little yellow lightning bolts in it,” asserted Luna to the nurse.

The nurse turned toward the healer as if she was going to make a comment, but before she could, she was cut off by his question, “What shade of yellow was it: golden or plain yellow? Did the lightning bolts travel parallel or perpendicular to the spell’s flow?”

Luna closed her eyes to replay the attack in her mind and answered, “Plain yellow and parallel.”

The doctor smiled and moved his wand over the patient with two quick motions. “You’re right,” he said, letting a touch of relief be reflected in his voice.

The young man walked to the small fire in the fireplace, tossed in some Floo powder and said something Luna didn’t understand. Within seconds, an old wizard Apperated into the back of the Emergency room carrying a crystal carafe filled with a green liquid. The doctor poured the liquid into a pewter goblet he had summoned. The doctor spoke an incantation above the goblet, in a language Luna did not understand, raised Moody’s head with his free hand and poured the contents down his patient’s throat. In a matter of seconds Moody’s body relaxed, and he began to breathe normally

Luna emptied her pockets of the Death Eater’s wands by dropping them into the rubbish bin that stood against the wall by the examination table and stepped into the middle of the emergency room. She heard the doctor start to thank her as she vanished.

Luna reappeared back in her cloakroom, ready to join the battle again. She paused at the closed door and listened for sounds of a fight on the other side. Hearing no voices or loud noises, she opened the door. She heard to the right of the cloakroom the unmistakable sound of battle. Luna began to walk as quietly as possible down the right side rag-stone floored hall when she heard sounds that almost froze the blood in her veins. A high-pitched laugh and a shouted word “Crucio” came from the room down the hallway to her right. What followed the unforgivable utterance was the high-pitched screaming of a female voice that sounded very much like Ginny

Luna peaked through an open door into a large room. She saw Ginny standing on tiptoes with her back unnaturally arched, screaming in agony. In the middle of the room, she saw Harry Potter pinned to the floor under a suit of armor and a beam from the ceiling. He was trapped, forced to watch Ginny’s agony.

“Should I bring her body over and put it in front of you so she can die like your worthless Mudblood mother?” mocked Voldemort.

Luna saw Harry desperately reach for his wand that was just inches out of his reach. She quietly made a swish and flick motion with her wand at the wreckage and thought, “Wingardium Leviosa.” The weight that pinned Harry to the floor was lifted. He rolled over to his wand, picked it up and fired a spell at Voldemort. The spell caused a bloody gash to suddenly appear on Voldemort’s wand arm. As Voldemort screamed in anger and pain, Ginny fell forward onto the floor.

After seeing Ginny fall, Harry seemed to have momentarily forgotten where he was and even made a halting step toward her before realizing his mistake. Voldemort saw his opening and began to cast a spell. At the last moment, Harry turned to try to parry the spell. Out of Voldemort’s mouth came the last words many a wizard had ever heard, “Avada Kedavra.”

Just as the green light burst forth from Voldermort’s wand, a shield flew from the side of a suit of armor by the wall and blocked the killing curse from hitting Harry. The green light clanged as it struck the shield, bounced off, and lightly fell upon Ginny’s face. Ginny instantly dropped the wand, which she had just used to save her beloved, and began convulsing.

Luna screamed, “No!” and started running toward Ginny while she fired spell after spell at the hooded demon.

Harry screamed Ginny’s name and then turned the fear of losing the love of his life into rage as he began an almost blind attack. He threw curse after curse toward the dark wizard. Bruises and gashes opened up on the Dark Lord from Harry’s silent spells, and Voldemort Disapperated shrieking in pain.

Luna was the first to reach Ginny. She was still breathing, but her whole body seemed to vibrate as if it was trying to shake apart. Luna looked up at Harry.

“She’ll be all right, I promise,” assured Luna because it just had to be true. Luna took off the butterbeer cork necklace from around her neck and placed it around her friend’s neck. Next, she placed her wand behind her ear, lifted Ginny’s twitching form, and disappeared with a crack.

When Luna arrived back in Emergency room three, Moody was gone. However, two older gentlemen had joined the young healer and his nurse. Luna carried Ginny over and placed her quickly onto the examining table.

“She was struck by a deflected Avada Kedavra curse from Voldemort. You must do something!” she cried in a voice that was full of anguish.

No one in the room moved to help them. The older men just recoiled from Ginny’s gyrating form with looks of horror on their faces. Luna pulled her wand out of her hair and pointed it in turn at all of the onlookers. The wand made them focus on her and when they did, she locked onto each of them and summoned forth a Wrackspurt. The Wrackspurt showed that the older two men’s thoughts were full of other people they had seen die slow and painful deaths from similar occurrences. The nurse was just beginning to panic at having a strange girl point a wand in her face. The Wrackspurt on the youngest healer revealed the face of a talking Albus Dumbledore. Luna noted the young healer’s furrowed brow and his darting brown eyes.

“What did Professor Dumbledore tell you?” she demanded.

“How did you know I was thinking about him?” spoke the startled physician”.

“No time for that, what did he tell you?” urged Luna.

“When I decided to try and become a healer at St. Mungo’s, Professor Dumbledore talked with me about all of his medical experiments with dragon’s blood. He had a last experiment that he never got ministry approval to use. It was his thirteenth and he thought most important use for dragon’s blood. It’s just that I can’t remember all the details,” protested the frustrated healer.

“Since you can remember when and where the conversation occurred, I can help. I must warn you that I’ve never done this charm on another person though. Are you willing to try to help save her?” asked Luna. She reached out and touched Ginny’s hand, “She’s my best friend and her name is Ginny Weasley Potter. She and Harry were married last night. I promised him she’d be all right,” announced Luna in a soft sad tone.

The mentioning of Harry Potter and Luna’s awful sadness seemed to bring a determined look into the young man’s eyes and he whispered to her, “Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it.”

“First take my hand. Now I won’t know when you have everything you’ll need, so when you’re done just squeeze my hand once hard followed by two quick squeezes. When I get that signal, I’ll stop the spell,” she instructed as she heard the sound of Ginny retching onto the floor.

Luna took the young doctor’s hand into hers and began the incantation for her mother’s memory charm. Suddenly the hospital melted away, and Luna found herself at Hogwarts in Madame Pomfrey’s office. Dumbledore was speaking to the young man who was wearing Ravenclaw robes and a prefect’s badge. Dumbledore was calling the young man Albi and as he spoke to the boy, the school nurse was lovingly smoothing out the wrinkles from the shoulders of his robes. Luna felt a sharp pain erupt behind her eyes. As long as she tried to eavesdrop on his memory the pain persisted. She closed her eyes experimentally and found that if she ignored the memories, the pain eased.

The minutes seemed crawl by so slowly, and Ginny was dying as they were reliving the young man’s memories. After about ten long minutes, Luna felt a hard squeeze followed by two quick ones. She broke the spell, took two off balanced steps and fell back against the Emergency Room wall with the inside of her temples on fire and her ears full of ringing.

Albi was all action. He seemed to have been invigorated by the challenge. The young doctor threw Floo powder on the fire and yelled, “Medical Supplies, I need one half flagon of Hungarian Horntail blood and a quarter flagon of Norwegian Ridgeback blood.”.

While waiting for the supplies, the young doctor used his wand to summon a small black bag from a cabinet. As he opened up the bag, he asked the other healers if either one of them had ever used a Muggle syringe. The older men looked at Albi like he had insulted them by suggesting that they might have used such a primitive device. The nurse, in spite of their reactions, admitted that she had been trained in many Muggle medical practices and knew how to use one.

Luna saw the young doctor look up at her as she leaned against the wall for support and opened her mouth trying to clear the ringing from her ears. He pointed at her and said, “Well if you can’t help me, could you at least see to the other girl.”

The older of the two doctors came over and began looking into her eyes, but Luna pushed him away. She only wanted to see Ginny get better; her small pains could wait. The nurse began to prepare her patient for the procedures by starting to lift her necklace from around Ginny’s neck.

“No! That stays on her until she’s out of danger,” she yelled, pointing her finger at the nurse. “Only she can remove it, understand,” Luna added. The nurse pulled her hands back and looked at the young doctor for instructions. “The necklace is charmed,” Luna spoke to no one in particular.

The young doctor signaled the nurse to let the necklace be for the moment and from a bin he took a Gerdie Root and with a silver knife cut off a razor thin slice of the root. He took the dragon blood from the doctor who had delivered it and sat the two containers on the counter top. The young healer placed the slice of the root into a small silver cup and poured, as Dumbledore had once instructed, the blood in turns into the cup. After each round of adding the blood, Albi picked up his wand and made three separate, silent gestures over the cup. Finally, he took two of the Muggle syringes and filled them with the mixture that he had just created. Albi gave instructions to the nurse that Luna could not decipher through the ringing in her ears. The nurse pointed her wand at Ginny and the sleeves of Ginny’s robes and jumper disappeared. The young doctor next moved his wand over her arms and all of the veins became visible through her skin. The doctor pointed out a spot on Ginny’s right arm to the nurse. He walked over to her left arm and began counting. At three, the two of them pushed on the top of the little plastic devices, and Dumbledore’s legacy was sent flowing into Ginny’s body.

After a couple of excruciatingly tense minutes, Ginny’s body stopped its convulsions. “You saved her!” said a grateful Luna.

“No, I just bought her time. If Dumbledore’s theory is correct, she will need to continue to take additional injections of this mixture. Eventually, she will probably need fewer and smaller injections. And maybe in months or years, she will be truly out of danger,” explained the young doctor to both of his astonished colleagues and to Luna.

As Luna started to get up and get back to Harry with her good news, the young doctor stopped her. He looked in her eyes as he gently turned her head from side to side with his strong hands. After the examination, he waved his wand above her head and the throbbing behind her eyes and the ringing in her ears disappeared.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” he asked. Luna nodded her head in the affirmative. “By the way, could I have your name and address? It’s for the hospital’s records,” he added with a slight smile.

Luna returned his smile and remarked, “We’ve done so much good here together, and the first thing you say to me on your own is a lie.”

The young doctor’s smile seemed to shrink at her comment. She was suddenly worried. Luna had meant her comment to sound witty and clever, but she had obviously failed.

Starting again, she just answered the doctor’s original question, “My name is Luna Lovegood. I’m a seventh year Ravenclaw at Hogwarts.” She smiled hoping her response would help to ease his look of hurt. “I’ve got to tell Harry about what you’ve done for Ginny. He was fighting against Voldemort when I last saw him,” Luna uttered, taking a deep breath. And without thinking, she reached up with her left hand to touch his face and lightly kissed the young medi-wizard’s cheek twice. “That’s for Ginny and this is for me,” she whispered.

Luna was shocked at her own boldness and she felt the temperature in the room rise by several degrees. She took two quick steps back from the startled young healer, waggled her fingers at him, thought of the little cloakroom and nothing happened. She closed her eyes and cleared all thoughts of what had just happened out of her mind and tried again. This time she disappeared with a familiar crack

Albus Dumbledore Pomfrey stood there for a second touching the spot on his cheek where Luna Lovegood had kissed him. He wondered what his mother would say if her son, the intern healer, asked a seventh-year out on a date.

Luna put the newly arrived document into the Harry Potter file. Harry’s final approval joined the preliminary approval letter at the top of the file. The letters would not be published with her stories. If the letters were published with the stories, the stories would be considered Harry Potter’s version of events and the Ministry, the Daily Prophet and Rita Skeeter would make veiled remarks about his true motives in their attempts at trying to discredit the stories. Luna would keep his letters private. So the critics would spend their time and energy attacking her and her newspaper for getting the facts wrong or taking poetic license with the truth. When the critic’s attacks began to gain momentum; she would publish Harry’s letters and cut the critic’s legs out from under them. The letters would expose to the magical world the unholy alliance that existed between the Ministry and the Daily Prophet.

Since the stories had to be kept secret until they were published, Luna had to do all of the editing, composing, and blocking of the stories herself. She looked at the two pictures she had chosen to accompany the story about Dumbledore’s founding of the second Order of the Phoenix. One picture would be placed under the banner headline on page one and the other photo would be used in the middle of page three. She carefully considered the order; the wrong photo in the wrong place would change the focus of her reader’s eye and impact the power of the story. Luna finally decided to use the picture of the original Order that featured Dumbledore, the Longbottoms and the Potters for the front page. On the third page she would place the photo of the new Order, the one that included Harry Potter. By placing the older picture on the front page, she reminded everyone of the true cost of the war against Voldemort. Harry had not been the only one who’d fought against Voldemort, the best and bravest of two whole generations of witches and wizards had fought and died to protect the wizarding world from that monster. The story had to be a reminder to the readers of all of those who had sacrificed their lives trying to defeat Voldemort.

Luna looked at the second photo; reliving the moments leading up to the when the picture was taken. It had been shot at the Order’s headquarters after supper on the night before the final battle. Harry had not wanted to be in it. Only after a quiet talk with Professor Lupin, had he agreed to participate. On the left, Lupin and Tonks were smiling and holding hands; she would soon die refusing to leave his side after he had fallen. In the photo, Hagrid was eagerly waving his beefy hand at the readers; he died saving Hermione from the monster Greyback. The Weasley family was all grouped together. They had taken such a terrible toll: Arthur and Charlie were dead, Fred’s right arm was now blackened and shriveled, Bill, George, Ron all bore battle scars on their bodies and Ginny still needed to take annual draughts of Dumbledore’s dragon blood mixture to survive. Luna also noted the other two who would fall in the great battle: the fidgeting, rumpled lump of Mundungis Fletcher and the solemn, yet dapper form of Kingsley Shacklebolt.

In the far right corner of the photograph, she saw herself standing next to Neville with a nervous smile on her face. They had just made their pact before the photo was taken. When the battle seemed to be going the Order’s way, they would hunt down Bellatrix Lestrange and defeat her. Luna had been the architect of the only plan that would give them a chance at conquering Lestrange. The battle plan had been a simple, yet elegant plan that came very close to adding Luna’s name to the roll of the heroic dead.

---

* * * * *

---

Luna arrived in her little cloakroom. She strode out of the door on a mission to find Harry and give him the good news that Ginny was not dead. Luna was planning to only give him the good news; the full details could wait until after the battle was won. She was returning up the passageway to her right where she had last seen Harry, when she saw Fred and George Weasley enter the hall from an antechamber, both bleeding and limping. Fred looked bad; his right arm seemed to be dying in front of her very eyes. Luna told Fred to Apparate to St. Mungo’s.

Fred’s voice was chocked with undisguised venom as he spat, “Not while I’ve got a breathe in me. Not after that,” Fred looked up the hallway, as his voice seemed to disappear.

Luna turned to George, who seemed to be in more control of himself than his twin and he explained, “That Lestrange bloke got Dad and Dolohov got Charlie, but we got both of them. They’ll be no Azkaban for those two. No, they’ll be no Azkaban for them.”

She looked at George with a sense of horror. George’s eyes, normally filled with mischievous twinkles that matched his brother, burned with hatred and blood lust.

Luna asked if they knew where Harry was. They only knew that he wasn’t up the hallway. She told the twins about Ginny’s injury and how she was still alive. Fred reached out with his remaining good arm, embraced Luna, and thanked her. She again suggested St. Mungo’s, but Fred just shook his head. She suggested that they go to the ministry and bring the Aurors here.

George just answered, “Too many witnesses love, they’d just keep us from doing the job that must be done.”

As Fred and George limped away on the hunt for more Death Eaters, Luna felt shaken by her conversation with them. She tried to clear her mind as she walked up the stone hallway to her left. After making several turns, Luna stopped when she heard a soft sound from around the corner. She peeked around the corner and saw Draco Malfoy sitting on the floor next to the bodies of his father and Professor Snape. The blonde boy was crying. At hearing her footsteps, he looked up at her, his eyes swam full of tears. He held in each hand a piece of a broken wand.

Draco, without any prompting from Luna, just started rambling about what happened in a voice full of lose and hurt. “My Father found out it was me who was the Order’s spy. He was going to kill me! But, Professor Snape had promised my mother to protect me, no matter what. And look what happened,” he said, pointing at the corpses. “It’s all my fault, all my fault,” he added as if confessing a crime to her.

Luna asked if he’d seen Harry, but Draco did not seem to hear her question. He just sat on the floor rocking to and fro with his head buried between his knees.”

“I know where Harry is,” quavered a sad female voice.

Luna looked to the right and found a barely visible Moaning Myrtle hovering above Draco.

“Harry’s in there,” the ghost offered while pointing through a wall to Luna’s left. As Luna started to walk down the hallway toward the door, Myrtle settled next to the stricken boy and she tried to comfort him.

Luna listened at the closed door of the room Myrtle had identified, but she could hear nothing. She opened the door a crack and saw found Harry staring down at a huge tangle of bodies. About halfway into the room, Luna recognized what the tangled mass was. The giant, bloody corpse of Hagrid grasped mangled form of Fenrir Greyback in his massive arms. Luna looked down; it appeared to her that Hagrid had snapped the werewolf’s neck as he had died. Hermione, who bore scratches on her arm and slashes on her clothing, stood at Hagrid’s feet and sobbing into the consoling arms of Ronald Weasley.

The Trio turned to face Luna. When she saw Harry’s tear stained face, she could not withhold her good news any longer.

“Harry, Ginny’s alive at St. Mungo’s,” blurted out Luna.

Harry looked over at her in disbelief. “The Avada Kedavra. How?” Harry asked, afraid to believe what he had just heard.

It seems that you and Ginny are a perfect match after all. You’ve both survived Voldemort’s killing curse,” exclaimed Luna.

“Impossible!” hissed a high pitch voice from the form in the back of room.

“Not for Albus Dumbledore. He saved Ginny,” Luna proclaimed as she took two steps toward the hooded figure.

Voldemort’s red snake-like eyes bored into Luna. “Albus Dumbledore is dead,” proclaimed the Dark Lord, “Snape killed him.”

Luna felt the dark wizard’s mind touch her own and she willingly let him see all of the images of Dumbledore she had witnessed in Pomfrey’s memory. Voldemort’s seemed to be confused by what he saw. How could there be a fresh memory of this girl in the same room with a living Albus Dumbledore. Dumbledore has been dead for over a year?.

“Albus Dumbledore will never truly be dead as long as his students follow his teachings,” spoke Harry, taking advantage of the doubt appearing in his opponent’s face..

Harry waved his wand arm in a sweeping motion. Suddenly Luna, Ron and Hermione were swept out of the room with a great rush of wind, and the door to the room locked. The walls and floors shook. Light as bright as lightning flashed through the keyhole and from under the door. The power of the spells being cast in the sealed room caused the hair to stand up on the back of Luna’s neck. It was happening now, just on the other side of that door. The fate of the whole world was being decided in that room.

Ron left Hermione’s side and tried to open the door, but it was locked. Ron tried to Apparate into the room, but something blocked him. Hermione walked over to Ron, whispered something in his ear, and softly kissed his lips. She stoically took her place at Ron’s side three paces from the locked door. They were ready to help Harry, if they could. They were ready to congratulate him, if he had succeeded. They were ready to try and take down Voldemort, if he had failed.

The floor rocked again. Flashes of light and sounds roared out of the closed room. Suddenly, there was a deep, dark silence. Ron tried the handle, but the room was still locked. Hermione tried Alohomora, to no avail.

Neville arrived, a moment later, breathless from a run down the corridor. “They’re in there, aren’t they?” he asked Luna.

She nodded affirmatively. Luna and Neville stood two steps behind Ron and Hermione with their wands at the ready, ready to share in whatever had been Harry’s fate.

In the silence of the flagstone floored hallway, the sound of the door latch moving was akin to rolling thunder. Everyone in the hallway took a deep, and maybe final, breathe waiting for something to happen. The door slowly swung open and Harry bleeding from the eyes, ears and nose stumbled forward into the hallway and collapsed into Hermione’s arms. Ron ran into the room, and from inside they heard a cheer. Voldemort lay on the floor, his body scorched black. The remnants of two exploded wands lay at his feet. Tom Marvolo Riddle was dead and this time there were no horcruxes to save him. Dead was dead this time.

Luna looked at Hermione and ordered her, “St. Mungo’s Emergency Room three, ask for Dr. Pomfrey. He and Dumbledore saved Ginny. He’ll fix Harry up.” Hermione, Harry and Ron disappeared leaving Neville and Luna standing alone in the hallway.

Neville looked at Luna. “Ready to go hunting?” he asked

All Luna could do was nod and pray that the plan would work. Luna Apparated back to the cloakroom and picked up the backpack she had left there for Neville. She removed her radish earrings from her ears and dropped them on the floor to her right.

“Agneta,” spoke Luna as she tapped her right leg with her hand. She marched out of the cloakroom up the hallway past the abandoned corpses of Lucius Malfoy and Professor Snape. Luna kept on walking until she found Neville alone at the door of the death chamber.

“Ready?” she asked Neville as she handed him the pack.

“Yes,” he replied flatly.

Finding Bellatrix did not turn out to be very hard; they simply followed the trail of bodies. The first body they found was Mundungus. The old man had obviously been tortured, torture was her calling card. A harsh female voice could be heard echoing in the distance. After taking a couple of wrong turns, her cackling laugh drew them to the room better than a Marauder’s Map would have done.

Bellatrix was standing over the body of Kingsley Shacklebolt. She was mocking the corpse. “Come back from the ashes little phoenix. Come back so I can kill you again!” yelled Bellatrix.

“He’s dead. He’s as dead as your beloved Voldemort. Surrender quietly or face the consequences,” taunted Neville in a rock hard voice.

Bellatrix turned around and saw the two new intruders. “The Dark Lord can not die! He has conquered death, you fools,” shouted Bellatrix in a voice that was full of pride in her master.

“You’re wrong. Dumbledore found out about all of Tom Riddle’s little secrets. Harry Potter killed them and then killed you master,” divulged Luna.

“Lies!” screeched Lestrange.

“He’s in the middle room with all the armor, go see for your self,” replied Neville.

“No,” cried Bellatrix as she took a talisman from her neck and touched it with her wand. She vanished. Neville looked at Luna and the two of them Apparated to the scene of the battle, finding the bodies of Greyback, Hagrid, Riddle, and a sobbing Bellatrix Lestrange. As Luna kept guard, Neville opened up the backpack and removed a giant bulbous plant.

“Master, I’m waiting. Please come back to your most loyal servant,” she cried.

“Surrender now or face the consequences,” repeated Neville.

With tears in her eyes, Bellatrix Lestrange turned toward the duo. “I’m awaiting my master’s return. You look familiar. Of course, you’re the Longbottom boy. Oh look, you even brought your little girl friend along with you. How sweet! Maybe they can get the two of you adjoining beds to your parents at St. Mungo’s after I make you pay,” screeched Bellatrix as she fired a spell at Neville.

Protego,” shouted Neville parrying the blast.

After deflecting the spell, Neville took the potted plant in his hands and launched it straight at the Death Eater’s face. The bulbous cactus struck her on the forehead and splattered Bellatrix with the familiar stink sap of the Mimbulus Mimbletonia. The goop flowed down her face, neck and onto her torso. Bellatrix’s anger at being splattered by the sap quickly turned into maniacal laughter.

“Is this how you would conquer me boy? I’ve just killed the so-called best the Auror Department had to offer? I can not be defeated by some smelly plant sap. You’re a fool, boy,” Bellatrix said, elongating the pronunciation of fool to emphasize her contempt.

“Surrender now or face the consequences. This is your final warning,” restated a now nervous Neville.

“I was just going to kill you at first. Now after this, I’m going to take my sweet time with you. I won’t let you die until my master comes back, and then I’ll let him kill you because you mocked him, boy. But until he does returns, I’ll pass the time with the ugly blonde girl. Longbottom, you can watch her suffer and beg for death just like your worthless father did with that hag he married,” boasted Bellatrix.

“Steady,” Luna whispered, looking to her right. “You are in grave danger Bellatrix. Surrender and you might live,” she added, looking into the other woman’s hate filled eyes.

Bellatrix made an unbelievably quick motion with her wand that Luna did not see until it was too late.

Luna shouted, “Prot...”. As she lost consciousness, Luna heard an unearthly roar to her right and a high pitched scream from straight ahead.

---

“Daughter, I’m so very proud of you,” assured a soft feminine voice from a shape that seemed to be drowning in light.

“Mommy, I’ve missed you so much. Just wait till father sees you! He’ll be so happy,” cried Luna.

“Your father can’t see me, Luna. Not yet anyway, not until it’s his time,” the voice offered. “He’s calling to you. Feel the love in his voice Luna; go to him. I’ll be here waiting until it is time, my daughter. I love you, Luna,” she heard the wavering voice say as it faded away.

“Luna. Luna darling,” a tired and familiar masculine voice beseeched through the darkness.

Luna opened her eyes to see her father’s face just inches above her own. Her father burst into tears and looked to the right side of her bed. She followed his gaze to the right and looked around the dimly lit area. She saw three figures to her right: Neville, Ginny and the young doctor from the emergency room were all smiling down at her. Luna tried to smile back, but it was so hard. As she reached out her hand to make sure that the vision of Ginny was real, the effort proved to be too much and her hand fell on her chest. Her fingers landed on the butterbeer cork necklace. Luna took hold of the necklace in her right hand and gave in to the downward pull of sleep.

Later, Luna woke up and looked around. She thought that it must be night, judging by the lack of light coming through the ward windows. Luna’s father was asleep in a chair to her left, a pile of paperwork was scattered on the floor and another stack sat on a chair next to him. Luna slowly turned to her right and found Neville seated in a chair reading a book called Medicinal Herbs of the American Desert.

“Neville, what are you doing here?” she asked in a voice barely above a whisper.

“It’s my turn. We all take turns sitting with your father here and in Ginny’s room with Harry,” responded Neville.

Take turns? The thought that she might have been out for more than a few hours slowly rose through the fog that filled her brain.

“Neville, how long?” she asked.

“Twenty-nine days,” answered Neville.

A month, I’ve almost lost a whole month. Luna looked at her father. The light grey from his temples seemed to have spread across his whole visage. Even asleep her father looked very tired.

Luna blinked. What was happening when she last remembered? Slowly, scattered images came into focus inside of her mind. Luna tried to speak, but her mouth was a desert. Neville came over and gave her a small sip of water through a straw. The drink eased the dryness in her throat.

“Bellatrix, where is she? What happened to Agneta?” asked Luna rising up off the pillow. The attempt to sit up had been a mistake, and Luna’s spinning head crashed back on the pillow.

“The moment Bellatrix fired her spell at you; Agneta sprang at her, becoming visible to both of us. She jumped on Bellatrix and began biting and clawing wherever the stink sap was,” started Neville. “I went over to see if you were all right. The spell she hit you with was like the spell Hermione got hit with at the Ministry, only much more powerful,” explained Neville.

“By the time I realized you were safe, I heard Bellatrix screaming for help,” added Neville. “I stood there watching as Agneta’s fangs and claws cut into her. I almost just took you to St. Mungo’s and let Agneta have her, but I couldn’t.” Neville looked to the floor as uncertainty filled his face. He shook his head and seemed to return to the present and continued speaking. “If I had done that I wouldn’t have been any better than them, would I? Only I’d have used a Crumple-horned Snorkack to torture someone instead of an Unforgivable Curse. So I called Agneta off and told her to follow Bellatrix to keep her company.” Neville looked down at the floor with a sheepish smile.

“That was the bravest thing you’ve ever done, Neville,” whispered Luna impressed.

“I Apparated with you, Bellatrix, and Agneta here to St. Mungo’s for treatment. I let that doctor you had mentioned to Hermione work on you, while some ancient looking healer worked on Bellatrix. While he was working on her, Agneta just sat there licking the sap off her fingers,” proclaimed Neville with a satisfied smile. Neville paused.

Luna looked at Neville and said, “And.” He couldn’t let the story end there!

“Bellatrix kept telling the doctor that there was a beast standing by the bed and the doctor thought she was mad. So she is locked up in the spell damaged ward just down the hall from my parents,” he announced.

“Snorkacks are only visible to those who see them pounce on a prey. That’s how father and I caught Agneta in Sweden,” explained Luna, “She’s not still with Bellatrix is she?”

“No, she’s back in her kennel at Stoatshead,” assured Neville. “When I told Ron and Hermione about what happened with Bellatrix, Hermione just shook her head and made a face at me.”

“Some people just can’t see what is right in front of them,” sighed Luna, “If it’s not in a book, Hermione just won’t believe in it. That’s too bad, because Agneta reminds me a lot of Crookshanks. They could be friends.”

Neville gave her a second small sip of water through the straw and returned to his chair. Luna gratefully swallowed the small sip, wondering how or if she should say what was on her mind.

“Neville, just before I woke up the first time I had a dream. My mother came to me and told me how proud she was of me. The dream seemed so real,” she whispered knowing Neville would accept her statement without judgment.

Neville sat up quickly, looking interested at her news. “The day you first woke up, that was also the first day Ginny had been allowed out of bed since she’d gotten hurt. She insisted Harry and Healer Pomfrey bring her down to see you. While Harry waited outside the ward, Ginny took off that necklace of yours and put it back around your neck with your father’s help. A few minutes later, your eyes opened up and you were smiling at all of us,” Neville said in what seemed to be one long breath. “And now you say your mother talked to you?” he stopped speaking trying to comprehend what he had just heard.

Luna’s eyes filled with tears as she touched the necklace and joined Neville in silently pondering all that had happened to her.

Four days before her wedding, Luna did not need another problem. She still had not finalized the instructions for running The Daily Quibbler while she would be off on her ten day honeymoon. However instead of doing real work, she was in her office arguing with a caterer. The whole thing had begun so innocently when an owl, from Fleur Weasley, delivering a last minute request that Luna invite Fleur’s sister Gabrielle to the wedding. Luna was fine with having the young woman at the wedding, but now she found the caterer making noises about additional costs and violation of agreed upon terms. She looked into the woman’s eyes, hoping to find common ground for a compromise. What could she give the woman other than more galleons? And then a solution came to her: publicity. Luna promised that a story in The Daily Quibbler would mention the caterer by name and give her business address if she’d just go away and leave her alone.

As the satisfied caterer left the office, a folder with the name Neville Longbottom on it flew from the archives and landed upon Luna’s desk. She opened the folder and tapped one of the runes inscribed on the folder with her wand. Suddenly, all of the papers rearranged themselves into the desired order, with the most recent stories on the top of the pile.

Luna reached down and looked at a sports story detailing how the Durmstrang champion had won the Tri-Wizard Tournament this spring. The story included a photograph, which showed from left to right: Viktor Krum and his champion, Madame Maxime and her champion Gabrielle Delacour, and Neville with the Hogwarts champion. Luna smiled at picture of Neville. He wore on his dress robes the little Aquavirius Firefly pin she had given him as a graduation present. The article, while very well written, still gave her no clues as to Neville’s current whereabouts.

Luna turned over the page and looked at the previous story in the file. The story was a Daily Prophet society page article about the Yule Ball held at the Beauxbatons Academy. She saw that a picture also accompanied the article. The photo was nearly the same as the Quibbler’s Tri-Wizard Tournament picture. In the second photo was Krum, the Durmstrang champion and his Beauxbatons date, Madame Maxime standing next to Gabrielle, Neville standing next to the Hogwarts champion and her date a Beauxbatons boy. She started to flip to the next previous article when something odd about the photograph clicked in her mind. She looked again at the Yule Ball photograph and smiled. In the picture something very obvious was missing, and something almost as obvious was present. That combination made it all finally make sense to her. Neville would be at her wedding.

Luna felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She had not realized how much having him at the wedding truly meant to her. She called in her secretary, Millicent, and told her to cancel all of her appointments for the afternoon. She would make a surprise trip to Hogsmeade to see Neville. She wondered if he might just try to surprise her in return.

---

* * * * *

---

After her Monday morning Charms class, Luna stood patiently in the queue behind the more pushy seventh-years that were looking for guidance from Professor Flitwick for their upcoming Charms N.E.W.T. exam. She had passed the time in line by marveling at how the morning sunlight was illuminating a spider’s web in the corner of the Charms class room when she heard someone clear their throat. Luna turned to her right and saw Neville dressed in the dusty coveralls he wore as a groundskeeper at Hogwarts. He was wearing a grim face and obviously struggling to find the right words to say something difficult.

She beat him to the punch. “Is it Ginny?” she asked.

“No. Luna, your father collapsed at The Quibbler and he has been taken to St. Mungo’s,” sputtered Neville, trying his best to sound reassuring.

“Is he alive?” Luna heard herself say.

“Yes,” answered Neville, “The headmistress has arranged for a Portkey to take you straight to St. Mungo’s. I can go along with you, if you want. “

Luna didn’t answer. She had already lost her mother. Ginny was alive, but just hanging on thanks to the dragon’s blood elixir. Now, her father was in the hospital. “Do I curse everyone I care about?” she thought to herself.

Luna didn’t recall much until she arrived in the entrance lobby of the hospital with Neville. He led her to an office where a silver haired healer in a green smock greeted her.

“You can tell me the truth. He’s going to die isn’t he?” said Luna.

“No, the poor man’s heart just had an attack caused by stress and fatigue,” said the reassuring voice of the attending Healer. “From what I was told, he lived in your hospital room for over a month while trying to run his business,” explained the doctor. “I’ve given him a potion and sleeping draught. He’ll be awake in the late morning at the earliest. You’ll need to tell him slow down for a while.”

Luna looked into the healer’s eyes looking for deception. She saw none. She thought about the healer’s words. Telling her father to slow down was one thing, but getting him to do it would be another.

In the hallway just outside her father’s ward, Luna met Millicent, her father’s grey-haired secretary. Millicent had found him on the floor near his desk and, along with Cuthbert had gotten him to St. Mungo’s. Luna hugged the older woman. As they separated from the hug, the Millicent reached out and took Luna by the hand.

“He’s been pushing himself too hard! After you went back to school, he practically lived in his office. I told him: Linus Lovegood, now that your daughter is back at school, go take a holiday and not work so hard. You know how he gets when he’s been told not to do something,” Millicent said, nodding her head at Luna to emphasize her opinion.

“I’d just been in there not twenty minutes earlier to give him a special owl post. Then I heard a crashing sound,” the older woman said catching her breath. “I wouldn’t know what we’d do without him. Without him there would be no Quibbler,” Millicent added as she absent-mindedly patted Luna’s hand.

Luna excused herself and slipped quietly into the ward where her father was. She stepped around the wall of off-white linen partitions and found him fast asleep. Luna crept over to the bed, kissed him on the forehead and sat down on the visitor’s chair. He seemed so small and strangely frail lying in the bed. She suddenly realized that she could not see him breathing! In a small panic, Luna dug through her purse and pulled out an old pair of Quibbler spectrespecs. She slipped them on over her ears and through the glasses, she saw the ripples of energy caused by his shallow breathing pass through his multi-colored aura. She watched the ripples from each of her father’s breaths echo around the room, touching everyone in the ward. The universe always seemed so much more alive and the life in it so much more interconnected when she wore her glasses. Luna felt the slight trickle of a tear on her left cheek, but she did not have the energy to remove the glasses to wipe it away. As she sat, she slowly pulled her feet up off the floor, folded her legs and nimbly tucked them under her hips. As she watched, she began unconsciously to make little rocking motions with her body. She kept watch with an unblinking stare, feeling somehow safe and hidden behind the gaudy spectacles.

Luna didn’t even realize that she was no longer alone at the bedside until Neville waved his hand in front of her eyes. He started to talk, but she did not dare to turn her gaze away from her father. A small part of her was afraid to take her eyes off of him; she feared that if she did he’d somehow disappear.

Neville started talking even without any acknowledgement of his presence, “Luna, I know this place just up the street. The food is okay. You need to eat or else you’ll be in a ward up the hall. I can’t have all my friends in the hospital, now can I?” When Luna did not move, he took a deep breath and spoke again.

“Please at least come and watch me eat. It’s so boring eating at the staff table at school and it would be nice to have some real company for once,” Neville added, searching for any argument that would revive Luna and get her off her chair.

---

The little café near St. Mungo’s was filled with hospital visitors and staff members. Luna picked over a vegetable dish that Neville had recommended. He tried repeatedly to get her to talk about school or how she was feeling. She could not answer; it was like her brain was numb. She no longer wanted to do anything. She just wanted to go back to the ward, sit in her chair, and watch the world pass them by through her spectrespecs.

The duo finally left the restaurant and returned to the hospital. Neville helped guide Luna into the lift. When the doors opened, they stepped out. It took about three steps down the hall before Luna realized that they had somehow gotten out on the wrong floor. She started to turn back when Neville took her by the arm.

“I thought we ought to stop by and see Ginny. After all, neither of us can help our parents right now, so maybe we can help her,” he suggested.

As the two of them walked up the hall toward Ginny’s private room, they saw Fred Weasley leaning against the white tiled walls outside a closed door.

“Well, if it isn’t Loony and the Professor,” Fred said. “How are you doing Luna? Feeling all right?” he asked with a wary tone in his voice.

Luna didn’t answer, so Fred looked to Neville for an explanation.

“Luna’s father was admitted this morning, and I thought we’d check up on Ginny. How’s she doing?” Neville said.

Fred shrugged and asked Luna about her dad. Again, she couldn’t find the willpower to respond. Neville gave Fred a short version of Mr. Lovegood’s prognosis.

While Neville talked, Fred scratched a finger nail into the white tile and said to no one in particular, “I hate this place. I’ve spent too many hours walking these damn halls. Do you think we’ll ever be normal again?”

Luna’s all-too-loud laugh caught the two men off guard. “Since when have the three of us ever been considered normal?” spoke Luna, struggling to hold onto her regular voice.

“I’ve always been normal! It’s George that’s the nutter,” replied Fred, acting for once like the old Fred. Neville laughed, and Luna let a small smile escape.

Fred teased Neville about his groundskeeper position at Hogwarts and brought up a rumor he had recently heard, “Is it true that old McGonagall asked Hermione if she’d like to eventually come back to Hogwarts and teach Transfiguration? I wonder what Ron will do if she says yes?”

Neville’s only response was a half a smile.

“Maybe, Ron should put her on the spot by asking Hermione a question first,” Luna spoke blandly. “Hermione has always liked answering questions.”

Neville’s chortle was interrupted, as Ginny’s hospital room door opened and Healer Albus Pomfrey stepped into the hall. He started by telling Fred that Ginny had been given her dragon blood draught and she would be asleep for an hour or so. It was only after he finished his update that he seemed to notice Fred’s companions.

“Hello, Luna. You look,” he paused, “tired.” It was obvious he had been ready to say something about her looks but the strain of the day must have been obvious on her face.

“Father was admitted this morning. The healer says stress got to his heart,” described Luna.

“I’ll drop by later and check in on Linus, unofficially, if you don’t mind. Your father, Neville, and I became acquainted while we waited on you to come out of your coma,” said Albus. As Luna and Albus talked, a nurse approached the doctor with a question about a potion.

Luna couldn’t help but watch him talk to the other woman. Albus was not only easy on the eye, but the sight of him seemed to truly awaken her for the first time since she had received the news about her father. Luna wondered if all women felt this way about their doctors or was it something about him that affected her so?

As Luna watched the nurse and Albus walk down the hall, she heard Fred say, “Nice bloke, Pomfrey. He really takes a personal interest in his patients doesn’t he?”

Luna felt her face warm as she turned back to faced him. “Well, he is a rather talented healer,” asserted Luna. She saw Fred and Neville smirk at each other.

Fred, having gotten the update on his sister, slapped Neville on the shoulder and departed. Luna told Neville not to wait for her and that she’d be back later to see Ginny. She felt much more awake as she took the lift to her dad’s floor and noticed Millicent and Cuthbert were seated in the waiting room. Luna went over to them, hugged the older man, and thanked him for helping Millicent get her father here.

“Anything to help, Miss,” stated the ever-formal accountant. “However, there is a bit of a problem, Miss. You see, I’ve got some papers that need to be signed today. Now I checked with the barrister, and he said you could sign them for your father with a witness,” Cuthbert added.

Luna felt a wave of annoyance at such cheek. “Can’t they wait?” she asked, not caring how she sounded.

“I’m afraid not, Miss. The papers are for Gingotts, and you know how the Goblins are about their deadlines,” said Cuthbert very apologetically. “If we don’t get the paperwork to the bank, they’ll repossess the magazine. Luckily, you just came of age and are listed as an officer in the family business. You can sign for him, Miss,” he explained.

Luna knew her father trusted the man. He would have signed any amount of paperwork that that Cuthbert recommended without even pausing to reading it. However, if she was going to sign something she wanted to have at least a minimal knowledge of what she was signing.

“Do we have time for you to explain what I’m signing?” she asked, bowing to the inevitable.

The Quibbler, which had always run on a shoestring, was in deep financial trouble. Ever since the Harry Potter interview, many of the Quibbler’s larger advertisers had stopped or cut back their dealings with the magazine. Only Fred and George’s W3 Ltd. had recently increased their advertising. In spite of record circulation, advertisement receipts were down. The facts didn’t make sense to Luna. The paperwork that needed signing was an attempt by Luna’s father to mortgage their house to keep the business going. She read it and with some misgivings signed where the barrister had indicated on the document. Cuthbert quickly added his name as a witness to the signing and used an ink drying spell on the signatures.

“Sorry about the rush, Miss. It’s this strange downturn in revenue; your father says it’s not natural, but you know your father, Miss. It was all going get better with the next issue,” he instructed. “Oh, and here are the other papers he had on his desk. I figured he’d want them even if the doctor forbade it,” said Cuthbert, shaking his head.

As her father’s employees rushed off to Gringotts, Luna glanced at the papers. They included a rough draft on an article with about the Ministry using Thestrals to locate and kill the remaining giants; an envelope addressed to Fred and George Weasley; and a scroll with a broken seal from the Ministry of Magic. Luna looked at the scroll. She remembered that her father had received a special owl post prior to his attack. Was this document that triggered her father’s attack? Luna did a spell to detect any magic, but found that the scroll to be neither cursed nor blessed.

Luna sat at the side of her father’s bed. She looked at him several times trying to gather enough courage to read the document. Finally, she unrolled the parchment and began to read it. As Luna read the scroll, she became angry. The more she read, the angrier she got.

What surprised her most was the signature. After reading the signature, Luna read the scroll a second time looking for signs of hidden agendas or traps. She found none. Luna had to tell someone, but whom? To give her self time to think, she pulled her wand from behind her left ear and unsealed the envelope her father had prepared for posting. The letter to the Weasleys was not a thank you letter or an invoice; it was an invitation to a council of war. Luna gathered the papers, kissed her father on the forehead and headed for Diagon Alley.

Luna went to the address on her father’s envelope. At the address was a simple unadorned oak door next to a golden nameplate that had been embedded in the brick: W3 Limited. Across the street stood Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, which had spread out of their original street front space to become the largest and busiest business in Diagon Alley. The stores included the original joke shop, a clothing store, and a small Quidditch supply shop. Luna was impressed. Fred and George had built a budding business empire and found the time to fight Voldemort on the side.

She took a deep breath, turned the knob and entered into the building.

“May, I help you?” asked a blonde young woman who was clearly the receptionist.

“I need to speak to Fred or George about urgent personal business,” asserted Luna.

“Sorry, their calendars are all full for the rest of the day. I can fit you in with Mr. George Weasley on Wednesday at two,” said the woman after checking the brothers’ calendars.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you,” lied Luna, feigning deafness.

The receptionist looked up into her eyes and Luna summoned the Wrackspurt. “I’m sorry I can’t remember what I was doing,” the confused young woman said.

“You were about to announce to your employers that Luna Lovegood was here to see them,” instructed Luna, feeling a bit uneasy because she had never used the Wrackspurt this way.

The receptionist raised a wand to her throat and announced Luna just like she’d been told.

Fred came out of an office into the reception area. “Verity, we told you no interruptions,” said the exasperated man. Spotting Luna, Fred asked, “Is it something to do with Ginny?”

“No. It’s about Percy and the ministry. All I need is a half hour; I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t urgent,” begged Luna.

Fred looked at Luna and smiled. He took her by his good arm and escorted her back to the office he’d just left. The glass in the office door bore the names Fred and George Weasley on it.

“We’ve got company,” announced Fred

“Luna, good to see you,” George said looking over what seemed to be a small flying broom. “It’s not about Ginny is it?” He asked.

“It’s our prodigal brother, she said,” piped Fred.

“My father received a special post owl from the ministry. Inside was a letter from your brother. The letter was about discussions between Scrimgeour and the Daily Prophet. The scroll claims that Scrimgeour is worried about Harry’s popularity and what might happen if one of the trio were to decide to enter into politics,” stated Luna.

“Harry enters politics! No way! We can’t even get him to publicly fly one of our new racing brooms. All Harry wants is a quiet peaceful life..,” started George.

“And Ginny by his side,” finished Fred.

“You can’t blame him. He’s been under the old microscope since he was a tot. Now Hermione, she might try it just to push through that S.P.E.W. rubbish,” suggested George.

“Can you imagine our little Ronnie drinking tea and eating cucumber sandwiches with all the other first ladies?” snorted Fred.

“Stop it you two! This is serious! Scrimgeour and the Prophet are going to use the paper to rewrite history and they’re going to use Rita Skeeter to do it. In return, the ministry is going to put pressure on businesses to only advertise in the Prophet. Their circulation has fallen since the smear campaign against Dumbledore and Harry. And they are threatening to name ministry names unless Scrimgeour helps them,” spoke Luna.

“And Percy sent a warning to your father?” pondered George. “If he has anything to do with it, it’s got to be a ministry plot. Percy is out for Percy and no one else,” he added.

Luna took a deep breath; there was no time for secrets. “The Quibbler is failing. Our circulation is up, yet advertisers are canceling out right and left. I talked to a couple of our oldest advertisers, and they seemed very unwilling to say why they switched from us to the Prophet. It all fits with Percy’s letter,” explained Luna.

Fred and George started speaking to each other in what almost seemed a code to Luna. One would start a thought and the other would finish it.

Finally, George spoke to Luna, “You arrange a meeting with our beloved older brother. Do it through our new sister-in-law, Penelope. That should draw less attention. If he seems to be on the up-and-up, come back and we might have something to talk to you about.”

---

Luna pondered George’s comment on her way back to the hospital. As she came back into her father’s ward, Luna saw Albus Pomfrey waving his wand over the sleeping man.

“I thought it was an unofficial visit,” prompted Luna, holding in a surge of excitement.

“It is. I was just waiting and thought I’d check on his progress. No charge,” replied the doctor.

“You were waiting?” wondered Luna. She smiled. Was he waiting here to see her?.

“Father won’t be awake until tomorrow,” stated Luna, adjusting the hair around her wand. “So you’ll have to settle for me as company,” she added.

“Well, I’m off my rounds and I’ve got these two tickets to a Muggle play tonight in the West End. The play is about a boy and some horses. I thought it would be good for my patient to get some fresh air and take her mind off of things,” the young healer announced in a bad attempt at being nonchalant.

“I’d be glad to go, but first I have to run back to Hogwarts and tell Professor Flitwick that I’ll be staying in London for a while,” Luna replied.

Pomfrey seemed to smile at Luna’s mention of staying for a while. Luna borrowed Albus’ hospital owl and sent a note to Flitwick. She used the Floo network to get back to Hogwarts. After arriving at Hogwarts, she had to interrupt Professor Flitwick’s first-year Charm’s class to update her head of house. She rushed to the Ravenclaw dorms and back to the Professor’s office with her trunk and Andromache’s cage. Suddenly, Luna stopped and looked around at the room. A sense of finality swept over her, and she wondered where it had come from. Luna thanked Professor Flitwick, who had arrived after his class was over, for all he’d done for her and stepped into the green fire.

On Tuesday afternoon her father woke up. Luna hid the fact that she knew everything about the financial trouble the family business was in. She mentioned in passing that Cuthbert had her sign something, but she claimed that she hadn’t even read the documents before signing them because Cuthbert had said that it was just ordinary some paperwork. Linus Lovegood’s face seemed to relax because his ‘little girl’ was ignorant of all of his problems. If it would help her father heal and get out of the hospital, she was willing to let him believe anything.

Luna did have one uncomfortable moment that afternoon, when Albus asked her out on another date in front of her father. He suggested meeting for a Friday night supper, but Luna declined. She had never had an evening like the previous night’s date. She had never been so alive as she had been while being with Albus. However, she had already set up the meeting with Percy Weasley for Friday evening. Luna begged off telling him she’d already promised Ginny to go to The Burrow to visit with Molly since she was living alone now. The statement was true, except for the lie at the heart of it. Luna would be at the Burrow with Molly but so would Percy and Penelope.

As a slight look of disappointment crossed Albus’ face, Luna was filled with the fear that he might miss interpret her declining his offer as disinterest in him. He’s leaving! Do something! Say something! She swallowed her insecurity and did the unthinkable.

“Albi, there’s this little café near here that Neville took me to. I was wondering. If you’re not too busy one day this week, could we meet for lunch?” As soon as she finished the sentence, Luna wished she could use a time turner to take back her impetuous remark. What were you thinking?

He stared at her for what seemed like an eternity before a smile started growing on his face. “I’ve got no plans for lunch Wednesday. Can I pick you up here?” Albus asked. Luna nodded her head in total disbelief at what just happened, and the smiling doctor left the ward.

When Luna turned toward her father, she saw a new twinkle in his eyes. In the past, Luna would have died from embarrassment to have her father see her act so brazen. Loony Luna Lovegood had asked a boy, no a man, out on a date and he said yes! She couldn’t wait to go upstairs and tell Ginny what had happened.

---

* * * * *

---

“I’d like to thank you for letting us meet here,” said Luna to Molly Weasley.

“You’re welcome, dear. I mean after what you did for Ginny and the Order it’s the very least I can do. Besides, the old place is just so empty these days without Arthur,” Molly broke into tears. Luna, who had never been good with dealing with emotions, watched helplessly as the older woman tried to pull herself together. “Besides, it will be good to see Percy, even if he doesn’t want to see me,” sobbed Molly.

Molly’s sobs were interrupted by a light-rapping on The Burrow’s wooden back door. Molly jumped, blew her nose, and tried to hide the fact she had been crying before she answered the door. As the door swung open, Percy Weasley stepped cautiously into the kitchen. He looked more nervous and thinner than the pompous head boy Luna remembered. Following her husband into the house was a very pregnant Penelope Clearwater Weasley.

Molly shrieked, “Oh Perce, why didn’t you tell me?” as she summoned her own cushioned wooden kitchen chair for her daughter-in-law. “You’re what five, maybe six months along?” quizzed Molly, using her experienced eye on the bulge.

“Four and half actually, I’m just big because…it’s twins,” blurted out the young mother-to-be.

Molly’s smile threatened to leap off her face as she took Penelope in her arms.

“Twins! Oh, they’re a handful. Now you make sure Percy helps out. Arthur tried, but he was all,” Molly started as her face fell from ecstasy into sorrow with the reminder of the grandchildren her husband would never know. Penelope hugged Molly as tight as she could without her stomach getting in the way. Molly, now composed, stepped back, looked into the younger woman’s eyes and took Penelope’s hand into hers.

Penelope spoke first, “Percy and Luna have some business they need to discuss. Why don’t we go into the other room? You can tell all about raising twins and about Arthur. I never did get to meet him.” As she got up out of the chair, Penelope placed Molly’s hand on her belly where she’d just felt a slight movement. Molly’s wide smile blossomed again. As the two women left the kitchen, Molly started telling Penelope a story about the night Percy was born and how a nervous Arthur had stepped out the wrong grate on their way to the hospital.

“Thanks for suggesting that I bring Penny along. I don’t know how my homecoming would have been without her,” said Percy, watching the two women leave the kitchen.

“Penelope was a good Prefect. She kept some Slytherin girls from flushing my head in Moaning Myrtle’s toilet during my first year. She helped me through a lot that year,” reflected Luna. “Besides, they have a lot in common now. They are both mothers of Weasley children and they both really do love you,” she added, looking into Percy’s eyes.

Percy just swallowed and averted his eyes from Luna. “I know Ginny trusts you, but can I? If this gets out, I’ll lose my job. I just couldn’t stay quiet. Couldn’t have faced Penelope and the babies if I didn’t try and do something,” he said as he paused to remove and inspect his spectacles. “Skeeter and the Prophet came to Scrimgeour with an article saying Umbridge, Fudge, and Scrimgeour had bullied the paper into going after Dumbledore and Harry. It’s rubbish. They did it for circulation and because they could,” Percy spat, with a touch of his old judgmental tone in his voice.

Luna looked at Percy. She picked up the mug of cocoa that Molly had made for her and drank carefully, watching his face. She was desperately fighting the urge to summon a Wrackspurt to find out if he was lying. If he wasn’t lying, the use of the Wrackspurt could break any trust between them and the story would disappear.

“You mentioned talk about a series of upcoming stories,” prodded Luna.

“Yes. Cuffe, the editor, pitched an idea to Scrimgeour to have the Daily Prophet publish the ‘official’ history of Harry Potter and the final battle. I was only there for a little while, but they’re writing Dumbledore and Harry right out of everything,” continued Percy.

He stood up and walked a lap around the cluttered kitchen, nervously summoning a drinking glass and using his wand to fill it with water. With water glass in hand, he continued his pacing of the kitchen.

“They suggested having Scrimgeour and Lockhart discover the Chamber of Secrets and make it seem that Harry’s meddling that caused the Heir of Slytherin to erase Lockhart’s memory. Scrimgeour slays the Basilisk, rescues Harry and an unnamed girl. Ginny, Ron and Dumbledore aren’t even mentioned,” reported Percy.

Percy finished another lap of the room and sat down, looking Luna squarely in the face.

“I won’t be surprised if don’t they have ministry Aurors defeating the Death Eaters and not the Order. Dad and Charlie’s sacrifice could be erased, forgotten like they didn’t exist. How could I stay quiet about that?” explained Percy.

Luna believed him and his story made her worried. “Did they have an idea about when the stories would come out?” she asked.

“Cuffe wanted things to cool down. They want Ginny to be out of the hospital for a while. Later, the Daily Prophet would make a show out of demanding the true story to be told. The ministry would open up the ‘sealed reports’ and Skeeter would do ‘in depth research’,” proclaimed Percy.

Luna smiled at the idea of Rita Skeeter doing research. “A couple of years, maybe?” asked Luna.

“Scrimgeour suggested they start demanding the true story around the fifth anniversary of Dumbledore’s death. That way they can start erasing him from public memory,” advised Percy looking shamefaced. “And to think, I am one of them,” he said looking down at his hands.

“Would you be willing tell Fred and George this?” Luna asked.

Percy looked up at her with an expression like he had just been sentenced to a Dementor’s Kiss. Silently, he nodded and exhaled.

“Now, you go in that room and kiss your Mother. She needs the support of all of her children. And maybe somewhere in the stories about grandbabies and your father, the healing will start,” instructed Luna.

As Percy left the table and walked into the living room, Luna stood up and marched out of the kitchen door. She had to see Fred and or George tonight.

---

The twins had insisted on an out of the way meeting place, so Luna had opened up the family house just outside of the Ottery St. Catchpole. The house was rarely used, because Luna’s mother had died there in the solarium. After her death, Luna’s father had the house shuttered and moved himself and Luna into a flat above the Quibbler. The house was only opened for holidays and the very rare vacations from the magazine.

Fred and George sat together across the dining room table from their brother Percy, Luna and her father, Linus.

George spoke first, “We’ve all heard Percy’s story.” He looked at this older brother who squirmed very uncomfortably. “We only see two ways to react to it,” added George.

“Option number one, we denounce them now,” explained Fred.

“However, they’ll just deny everything,” said George.

“Percy will have to go public with his story,” said Fred.

“But it would look like we were after the Ministry for our own gain,” noted George.

”And Percy would lose his job with our nephews or nieces on the way,” added Fred.

“And Scrimgeour would wait and then go ahead and do what he wants anyway,” exclaimed George.

“While the ministry makes life difficult for W3 Limited,” sighed Fred.

“And they’d do it,” agreed Percy.

“Bloody politicians,” Linus grunted.

“So, we can’t openly denounce them now,” explained George.

Luna felt confused. She thought she had been invited to the meeting so she could make sure her father didn’t overexert himself. Now the Weasley twins said they should not denounce the conspirators? If they weren’t going to do anything, why were they whispering to each other and stealing peaks at her?

“You mean we are just going to let them win? We can’t let them win!” announced Luna.

“We didn’t say that! What we propose is option number two, which may be the harder option,” stated Fred, eying the two Lovegoods.

“Option two, we secretly buy the Quibbler,” started George.

“And turn it into a newspaper to rival the Prophet. There are enough former Daily Prophet employees that are mad enough at Cuffe to start up a decent paper,” said Fred.

Luna’s father stood up with his hands raised in the air and his face enraptured. “The Quibbler takes on the Daily Prophet! That has always been my dream, and I know just what the first investigative series should be,” he announced.

Luna looked at her father. He had been told to slow down and take it easy for his health. He couldn’t start up a newspaper. The work load might kill him.

“Ah, there’s the rub,” Fred sighed, looking to George.

“The what?” said Linus.

“We would need the new Quibbler to be different from the old magazine. The paper will need fewer oddball conspiracies and more hard news,” added George.

“And a new editor-in-chief,” prompted Fred, looking straight at Luna.

“You’re going to take my magazine away and let a stranger run it? No, I’ll expose Scrimgeour in the very next issue of the Quibbler,” Linus roared, boiling with indignation.

“If you do that, Scrimgeour will just tell the public to look at the source and laugh it off,” quipped George.

“That worked mostly with Harry’s interview. Enough people don’t trust the Quibbler for real news. Sorry,” apologized Fred.

Luna looked at the twins. “You want me to run it don’t you,” she stated flatly.

“Yes, with guidance from your father and some of the Prophet refugees. Luna, you are a member of Harry’s inner circle. When it comes time to tell the real story, people will put more trust in someone like that,” started George.

“Someone who was really there and saw what really happened,” finished Fred.

“That’s our offer. W3 buys a controlling interest in the Quibbler on the sly,” offered George.

“The magazine closes for a short time because of Linus’ health,” added Fred.

“Luna reopens the Quibbler as a newspaper,” said George.

“And Percy stays at the ministry gathering intelligence for us,” noted Fred.

“All the while the new Quibbler starts to build a reputation as newspaper you can trust for real news,” said George.

“Just before they are ready, Percy quits his job and takes a middle management job with W3,” proposed Fred.

“That means working for us, Perce,” a smiling George teased.

“When they are ready to trash Harry, Dumbledore and the Order, the new Quibbler denounces them and prints the true story about Harry and the war against You-Know-Who,” Fred finished triumphantly.

Luna took a look at the men on both sides of her and saw their apprehension. “If I’m the new editor, Father will have a column where he can write whatever he wants,” she announced.

“The Ancient Quibbler,” proclaimed a grinning George.

“That’s what George and I’ve been calling it, but the actual name would be up to you, madam editor,” smiled Fred.

Luna looked at her father. He seemed to have recovered from the shock; he was looking back and forth between the twins and his daughter. The Quibbler was more than his magazine; it was his life. So Luna waited. Whatever he decided they should do, she would follow. George seemed to read Luna’s mind.

“If you don’t accept, Linus, the Goblins will take your magazine and this fine house soon enough. It would be really sad for us to have fought and won the war against You-Know-Who, and then lose the peace to a bunch of gits,” George noted, using the insight and negotiation skills that had probably closed many a deal for W3 Limited.

Linus Lovegood just nodded his head to the inevitable. Luna felt a little ashamed at her excitement at the possibilities of the offer. As she smiled, she was struck a flash of inspiration.

“We’ll call it The Daily Quibbler. Eventually to be published on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays,” announced Luna.

“It’s called The Daily Quibbler and it won’t be daily,” said a confused Percy Weasley.

“If it was published daily then The Daily Quibbler wouldn’t truly be the Quibbler now would it?” she said with a smile.

“Here, here!” spoke Linus Lovegood with his eyes full of pride at his daughter’s grasp of the obvious.

Albus was late to the café for their weekly Wednesday luncheon date, so Luna sat alone at the little table in corner looking down at her engagement ring. The next four months before the wedding promised to be the most hectic in her life. Yesterday, she had interviewed Headmistress McGonagall about the future of Hogwarts in the new millennium. While Luna would eventually publish a story on that subject, she really was there to have the Headmistress fill in some gaps about what had occurred behind the scenes with the staff during the Tri-Wizard Tournament all those years ago. Luna had taken all afternoon to get McGonagall to the subject and gather the information she needed. She now realized that she had not asked the Headmistress about her role in the second Order. However, she couldn’t send an owl with the question now. How could she ask the question without letting McGonagall become aware of her true reason for the interview?

Oh well, half a Nargle is better than none, she thought.

Lost in thought, Luna didn’t notice that Albus had arrived until just the instant before he kissed her on the check.

“Thinking about an old boyfriend?” he asked.

“No. I was reviewing my interview with McGonagall, questions I should have asked and that sort of thing,” she answered.

Luna looked into the face that had become as precious as her own life and saw worry. Albus was troubled.

“Galleon for your thoughts,” she offered, smiling to encourage his answer.

“I’m just concerned about a patient is all. I wish there was something we could do to avoid danger for her.“ Albus stopped short and avoided Luna’s eyes.

“Danger?” asked Luna.

In the three years she had dated Albus, he had only lied to her once. When he had spoken the lie, his ears had turned bright red. He was a bad liar, and the one thing Luna prized most in anyone was the truth. Albi’s inability to lie to her was actually one of his most attractive qualities. His only defense was to hide things from her. Luna began to tap her right index finger on the tablecloth.

Luckily for him, the waiter showed up and placed menus between the reporter and her prey. After Luna had ordered, he made a show of studying the menu at a place where he ordered the very same thing every week. Luna kept tapping her finger on the table and tried to catch his eyes.

“Stop that please,” he said, reaching to silence the finger by capturing the offending hand. “My mom does that and it drives me crazy.”

“I know it does,” she replied, smiling at him. Luna knew he would crack soon, and that all she had to do was remain silent.

Albus asked about the latest issue of the Quibbler, but Luna did not reply. He brought up the weather. She merely smiled. When their food arrived at the table, he realized he couldn’t eat his sandwich and hold onto her hand at the same time. As soon as he picked up his sandwich, the tapping restarted.

“I could leave, you know,” Albus said in a last ditch effort to escape disclosure.

“I know where you work. And I’m a reporter. I’ll know what ever it is within an hour’s time,” she said in between the rhythmic taps of her finger.

“Okay. Okay. Stop!” he relented, recapturing her hand.

Luna smiled. She wondered if the subtle torture of the man who loved her was an unspoken fringe benefit of being in love.

“Ginny Potter came in for a medical test,” he spoke in a whisper. “The tests confirmed she is pregnant,” he added in a somber voice.

“Isn’t that good news?” Luna prompted.

“Ginny was struck with the killing curse. She’s had dragon’s blood coursing through her veins for two and a half years. No one knows how that might affect her or the child. We can’t guarantee that either of them will survive,” he admitted.

“You told Ginny that?” Luna asked, her heart dropping like a stone into a deep well.

“Yes. She and Harry were in the office. He just took her in his arms-” Albus said, so moved by recalling the scene that he stopped talking. “I don’t know what is greater, their love or their courage,” he finally finished.

“They’ve had lots of practice at both,” she confided.

“What Ginny is most worried about is what this might do to Molly, so you can’t tell anyone! Promise,” he demanded. The usually easy going Albi stared at her with a look he usually reserved for his patients.

“Promise,” she replied, wondering if her dearest friend would ever escape the shadow of Riddle’s evil. Luna would keep Ginny’s secret; it was the least she could do.

Luna racked her brain. There must be some way I can help and yet not let Ginny know that I know. There must be.

---

* * * * *

---

Luna couldn’t tell if it had been her shocked reaction or the scanty garment itself that was the cause of the laughter in the room. Ginny couldn’t really imagine that I would ever really wear something like this, could she? She quickly folded the garment and placed it back in its box.

Luna looked at the familiar faces surrounding her, every one of which seemed to be enjoying her embarrassment. Maybe all this was some kind of right of passage or an initiation into a secret club: the secret society of married women. As she turned to look at the remaining gifts, Luna looked upon each of the remaining boxes as if they were filled with Blast-Ended Skrewts ready to scorch her.

“She quickly searched the labels on the unopened boxes until she found the gift from Penelope Weasley. Penny’s gift would probably be safe. She carefully undid the ribbons and opened the package to find a grey metal picture frame decorated with two intertwined Ravenclaw eagles. The photograph was an old Hogwarts house photo. Luna instinctively searched until she saw her twelve-year-old self with a wand tucked behind her spectrespecs, butterbeer cork necklace around her neck, and a pair of radish earrings dangling from her ears.

Luna smiled at Penelope and the two women simultaneously broke into song, “Wit beyond measure is man’s greatest treasure.* It’s thoughts not fights that are sources of right. Ideas and not schemes are the way to build dreams.”

Penelope and Luna grinned at each other knowing their house song had gone over the heads of all the non-Ravenclaws present, just as it always had.

“May I?” asked Penny as she took the frame out of Luna’s hands and showed off the photo to everybody. “Here’s Luna,” she said to a chorus of giggles. “And here I am and standing next to me is my fellow Ravenclaw Prefect.” The mention of the third person drew some appreciative oohs and aahs from the audience.

Luna took back the framed photograph; in the corner of the picture was the younger, but no less handsome, Albus D. Pomfrey. She had been in the same house as Albi for three years and had never once talked to him. Yet in three days, they would be husband and wife.

Luna smiled and hugged Penny saying, “Thank you.”

“ She took the frame and set it next to a double picture frame that her secretary Millicent had given her. The photo on the left side of Millicent’s frame showed Luna’s parents holding the very first edition of the old Quibbler. The picture on the right side was a photo that Millicent had secretly taken of Albi and Luna just outside of her office. Those three pictures captured Luna’s beginning, middle and future. She felt that any amount of teasing would have been worth it just to receive those gifts.

Molly Weasley had sent Ginny and Angelina with an armload of magical cooking, cleaning, and first-aid books. Ginny laughingly told Luna that she and Angelina had to talk Molly out of making her and Albus matching sweaters. At that comment almost the whole group laughed. Since Ginny, Angelina, Fleur, and Penelope were part of the Weasley brood by either birth or marriage, it was a safe bet that each of them had at least one of Molly’s famous sweaters in a drawer somewhere.

Angelina presented Luna with a W3 Fantasy Honeymoon Extravaganza package. The label read that each box was guaranteed for twenty-four hours to convert an average size bedroom into a room specially designed to help fulfill the customer’s romantic fantasies. The labels on the smaller boxes read: Arabian Nights, Tropical Beach getaway, Queen of the Nile Barge, Garden of Eden, and Pirate Captain’s treasure lair. Angelina told everyone that she had removed a box that had been crudely labeled Love among the Clouds, which, in reality, had been a version of the famous Weasley brother’s swamp. She smiled and told her approving audience that the floors of Fred and George’s offices were very mushy right now.

Hermione, who was showing everyone the engagement ring Ron had given her, had given Luna (not surprisingly) a book: Witches are from Venus; Wizards are from Neptune.” said the book had finally helped her understand that you can never truly understand men; you just tolerate them.

“Oh, that’s a great book. It helped me to train Fred,” Angelina said with a glint in her eye.

“How?” asked Hermione.

“A book trained Fred?” Ginny said, giving Angelina a look of disbelief.

“When you say train Fred, do you mean like a puppy?” Luna inquired.

“Oh, puppies are much harder to train,” replied Angelina. “When Fred is ignoring me for business or a Quidditch match, I just go over to the book shelf. I take it in hand and chuck it at him. The book is about the same size and weight as a Quaffle. I can hit Fred with that book from anywhere within our house,” she proudly answered.

Angelina’s confession drew a round of laughs as many of the women visualized the scene.

“How has that helped?” Luna asked, not seeing how that would train anybody.

““Well, all I have to do now is walk over the bookshelf and stick out my finger. Suddenly, the work is put away or the match is turned off. A great gift Hermione, I highly recommend it.”

“Books can be also useful to hide behind when you are getting some unwanted romantic attention, if you know what I mean. You can pretend to be too engrossed in reading to notice,” said Fleur. “Not that I’ve ever done that to Bill,” she added.

Fleur’s gift was some special makeup products that were made by Veelas. The make-up gave women a certain glow, which Luna could use to her best advantage in business, in pleasure, or both. Luna, who did not get the joke that got giggles from the other women, thanked Fleur anyway.

Gabrielle Delacour apologized for her lack of a present. She had just been invited that morning and she said she could not find or make anything worthwhile in such a short time. So she gave Luna an empty box full of hope, wishes, love, and friendship. Luna hugged the younger woman and thanked her.

Luna had saved Neville’s gift for last and undid the wrappings carefully. The box contained a small clear ball. Inside the ball was what appeared to be a blossom of his treasured Alice’s Trueheart. Neville had created a Rememball with a gift of love inside. She felt the moisture in her eyes as she looked over at the gift. She felt so unworthy of the thought, the time, and the love that each present signified.

Ginny waved her wand and silver goblets filled with pumpkin juice appeared next to each woman. She struggled to her feet and began a toast, “Luna, you are one of the bravest people I’ve ever met. You were never afraid to be yourself. You never hesitated to tell the truth even when no one wanted to hear it or to give help when no one had asked for it.”.

Ginny looked like she was tearing up. She reached down, picked up her napkin and dabbed her eyes. She took a deep breath and started again, “Luna without you there might not have been a Harry and me. After all it was you that first married the two of us. And what you did on the next day, we can never repay.”

“You being here is the only payment required,” answered Luna, feeling a bit embarrassed.

Ginny smiled at Luna but plowed on with her speech “Harry and I are at the beginning of our greatest adventure together. I would like to wish you and Albus all of the happiness and love that Harry and I have. So here’s to Luna and Albus, may they forever be as happy as they are now.”

Luna smiled even though her heart was breaking. Ginny, as always, was being so brave. She had kept her secret, not even telling Ginny she knew the truth. She had not told Ginny because she feared telling her that Albus had let her secret slip might make her hesitate in confiding in him how she was truly feeling. Luna knew that silence had been the only way she could help her friend until tonight.

She realized that everyone was looking at her for a response to Ginny’s toast, so she remained standing as the other women sat and sipped their drinks.

“I would like to thank all of you for everything,” said Luna as she looked into each pair of eyes. “When I arrived at Hogwarts, I was entering into a new scary world. I was raised at the Quibbler in a world of adults and never had friends my own age. I was probably pretty pathetic actually,” she added self-consciously.

“At first, I stayed to myself and only Penelope and the school portraits would talk to me. I know now that as Prefect, it was your job to help the Eaglets get settled in at school, but I heard you argue with Eddie Carmichael and some of the older students who wanted me shipped off to Hufflepuff. You stood up for me and said that I wasn’t stupid, just different. You quoted Rowena Ravenclaw saying, ‘Different isn’t wrong it is just different’. Thank you,” Luna said, saluting Penelope with her goblet.

“Penelope once told me, I must always be myself and that I would find friends who would appreciate my uniqueness. I like that word: uniqueness. She was right,” Luna said looking around at the women in the room.

“I once heard a Muggle say: friends are the family we get to choose. I am an only child; yet I do have a sister and a brother. My sister’s name is Ginny, and she’s been my confidant, my interpreter, my matchmaker, and always my dearest friend. She introduced me to Neville, my brother, who is a different soul that just needed the warmth of a true friend to blossom. I thank you for both of us, Ginny.”

As Luna finished, the women sighed and clapped as Ginny blushed.

Luna reached down and softly fingered the necklace around her neck. “When I agreed to let Ginny plan this little party; I thought I’d come up with a special gift for each of you. So I took my necklace to Hogwarts, to see if Professor Flitwick could charm other necklaces with the same magic. However, our dear professor could not find the presence of any charm on this necklace. Either the original charm had worn off or it never existed,” she said, looking at Ginny.

““What I choose to believe is that this necklace was charmed the same way that Harry Potter was charmed as an infant: by love,” declared Luna. “The necklace was charmed with the love of my mother, which I passed along to Ginny in her hour of need, and Ginny gave it back to me when I was in need. Today, I wish to pass it on again,” Luna declared.

Luna solemnly removed the necklace and placed it around Ginny’s neck once more “Ginny, this is for you and the baby.”

Ginny reached down and touched the necklace, “Thanks, Luna. The moment the baby and I are home from St. Mungo’s, I’ll return it.”

Luna looked at her best friend’s smiling face. She couldn’t do anything substantial for her friend, but she could give her hope. Even if it was just hope in the form of some old cork with a dubious charm. Luna realized everyone had stopped looking at Ginny and were looking at her. She smiled and continued, “I would like to use the necklace as a gift to be passed from one of us here to another in time of need. You don’t have to wear the necklace continually. Besides, it really does need radish earrings to bring out the color of the cork properly. The necklace is not a talisman, but a reminder that none of us can ever truly be alone because we are loved.”

Luna stepped away from Ginny and returned to her original place between Angelina and Gabrielle. She asked each of the others to stand in a circle.

Luna raised her glass to each and toasted, “So with this necklace, we can pass our love and hope from one to another; from Luna Lovegood, to Ginny Potter. And maybe later to be passed on to Angelina Weasley, or Penelope Weasley, or Fleur Weasley, or the future Hermione Weasley, and maybe even to Gabrielle Longbottom.”

Gabrielle sputtered almost shooting pumpkin juice over the rim of her cup. “Neville told you?” she asked, caught completely off-guard by Luna’s comment.

“He didn’t have to. I’d already guessed and when I saw the look on his face I didn’t have to ask,” she answered.

Luna smiled “I saw a picture from the Yule Ball and something just wasn’t right. I realized that the other two champions each had a date to the ball but Gabrielle didn’t. The only two explanations that I could think of were that she could not find a date to the Yule Ball, which was a highly unlikely possibility. Or that Neville standing next to her wasn’t in the picture only as the Hogwarts chaperone, but also as her date. I knew for certain when I saw the corsage included a heart shaped flower. Neville had only ever given that flower to his mother. For Neville to give you one of them told me all I needed to know except how and when. Quibbling minds want to know.”

“When is in two summers,” Gabrielle responded with her French accent thicker than normal. “Professor Sprout has announced that she is going to cut back on her teaching schedule, and they asked Neville to take over some of her classes. If he does well enough, the Headmistress says that the job is his. Only after he has a teaching job will Neville and I marry. You know how he is about things like that.”

“How is harder to explain,” Gabrielle continued. “I had a schoolgirl crush on Neville after we met at my sister’s wedding and for a while we were pen pals. When the Hogwarts delegation arrived for the Tri-Wizard tournament, I discovered that Neville was the chaperone. I escorted the visitors on a tour and found he was still the same Neville that I remembered. In the gardens, he looked into my eyes, smiled, and I was smitten again. When I first asked him to the Yule Ball, he refused and tried to convince me to choose someone else. I told him if he didn’t go with me I would not go at all. We had a rehearsal for the promenade two weeks before Christmas; Neville and I paraded around arm in arm. After the rehearsal, Neville reached over to kiss my check and somehow my lips got in zee way. Voila,” she said, slightly out of breath.

Gabrielle looked at her sister with a crooked little smile and added, “Please do not tell Mama! Neville and I are leaving after the wedding to make the ‘official’ announcement to them.”

Luna was the first to hug Gabrielle, but Fleur practically knocked Luna over to get to her little sister and began rapidly speaking to her in French. After Fleur, the other women took turns both congratulating and teasing Gabrielle.

---

Ever since she was nine years old, Luna had lived in a charmed circle made of common cork and metal. Today, she found herself in a larger charmed circle made of uncommon people and their uncommon love. She felt tears of joy roll down her cheeks and for the first time since her mother’s death, felt at ease with her emotions. Indeed, she had been initiated into a very special club.

As Luna planned her series of Harry Potter articles, she started looking for places where the Ministry or the Daily Prophet would attack. The opening stories about Harry’s first two years at Hogwarts were fairly widely known through both official and unofficial stories.

She thought the initial sniping would start with these stories, but the real test would be the story about Harry’s third year at school. Luna would be telling her readers that the villain Sirius Black was actually a tragic hero and the bumbling, heroic Peter Pettigrew was actually a Death Eater who betrayed James and Lily Potter. The biggest problem was that Sirius was dead and Pettigrew was missing. The last people that saw Pettigrew were Fred and George Weasley who spotted the rat Scabbers running along a baseboard during the final battle. The rat had disappeared around a corner just as the Death Eater Nott had shown up to fight his fatal battle against the grieving, vengeful twins.

As Luna worked on the article, she dreaded the backlash she knew would be coming. When she wrote about the attack that Pettigrew had faked to implicate Crookshanks and escape the dormitories, inspiration struck. She went to the W-3 offices and placed George under her mother’s memory enhancing charm. Unfortunately, George’s memory revealed nothing new to help her. She had no concrete proof to back up her story.

---

The day after the publishing of the third year story, the Daily Prophet attacked. On page one there was a picture of a sobbing Mrs. Pettigrew questioning why anyone would attack her heroic, long dead son.

The article under the fold sported a headline “Loony Lovegood’s Disturbed Past.” In the article, Special Administrative Assistant to the Under-Secretary of the Minister of Magic, Pansy Parkinson, was quoted as saying that everyone at Hogwarts knew Luna Lovegood was mentally ill. She told the reporter: “Lovegood spend more time talking to portraits than to her fellow students. Luna had viciously attacked a totally innocent fellow student, almost blinding him with her wand. And worst of all, Loony Lovegood had been brought to the Headmistress concerning an incident dealing with the release of Garroting Gas in a school hallway.”

Rita Skeeter wrote that Luna had been part of a plot that used blackmail to get her to write an article for that ‘rag of a magazine’ that she knew was absolute rubbish. A spokesman from the Minister reacted to the article by simply reading headlines from the old Quibbler and making jokes about the sanity of the entire Lovegood family.

Luna had expected such attacks from the paper and the Ministry. What hurt her most was the printing of an article speculating that her mother had died while trying to create a dark spell to help You-Know-Who return. Luna knew they were desperate, but she hadn’t realized how far they would go.

She had arranged a press conference for later that same day. In the crowd, she saw most of the Daily Prophet reporting staff, led by a woman in the front row who was sucking on an acid green quill. Mrs. Pettigrew and her daughter sat on Skeeter’s right, and a bearded wizard with shoulder length salt-and-pepper hair sat to Skeeter’s left. Luna also saw in her audience a number of reporters and publishers from other wizarding publications, and four other people who she didn’t recognize were standing in the back of the room.

“Ladies and gentleman, the understandable furor caused by my story about the incidents that occurred during Harry Potter’s third year at Hogwarts was not unforeseen. I apologize for any grief I may have caused, but the truth must be told,” Luna started, looking out into the sea of faces ready to pounce on any perceived misstep. “I stand by my stories. They are based upon numerous well documented interviews and exhaustive independent research.”

Luna looked out at the crowd and felt like she was covered in stink sap and surrounded by Snorkacks. She heard a noise to her right and saw her faithful secretary Millicent walking toward her. She motioned for Luna to step to the right of the podium. Luna leaned over to hear some message from Millicent. Instead she heard the rustle of cloth and exclamations of surprise from the audience. She turned to see a bespectacled man with untidy black hair standing at the podium.

“Good afternoon, my name is Harry Potter,” he said, pausing to allow the cameras across the room to belch purple smoke into the air. “I am here to bear witness to the truth of the stories written by my friend, Luna Lovegood Pomfrey and published in the Daily Quibbler. In fact, she submitted the stories for my approval and comment, which I gave. So if anyone has an issue with Luna’s article, they also have an issue with me. Are there any questions?”

A woman standing in the back was first to raise her hand. Luna stared across the room; she did not recognize the brunette who asked, “Mr. Potter, is it true that you are married to the most exquisitely beautiful and most powerful witch in all of Britain?”

Luna recognized the voice and exploded into a fit of uncontrollable horse-like laughter. She hugged Millicent in relief; Harry’s questioner was Ginny in disguise.

“Yes and she’s also extremely modest,” Harry replied. “Ladies and Gentlemen, I am not here alone to vouch for the article’s accuracy. I would like to introduce these supporting witnesses: my wife Ginny, Ronald Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Neville Longbottom.”

Slowly, the strangers walked forward, and as they stepped onto the little raised carpeted platform, they removed the spells which had concealed their identities. Luna looked as each of her friends took a place at the side of the podium.

“You didn’t think we’d desert you? I mean compared to Death Eaters, what is this lot anyway,” Neville whispered.

As she walked back to the podium, Luna saw Hermione give Rita Skeeter a warning stare.

“Well, are there any questions about this article you wish answered?” she asked, still somewhat dazed by the unsolicited support of her friends and the silence of the audience.

Finally, the bearded man with salt-and-pepper hair stood up. He put his wand to his throat and said, “My name is Stubby Boardman and I demand that you print a retraction in your paper telling everyone that I am not and never have been Sirius Black.”

Luna smiled and said loudly enough for all present to hear, “Of course, the Daily Quibbler is always ready, and willing to rectify all of its mistakes.”

---

* * * * *

---

“Before we begin, Angelina ordered me to ask you a somewhat personal question,” said Fred, smirking at his brother. “She wanted to know if you happened to use any of the shower gifts on your honeymoon.”

Luna paused before answering. If she had used a gift or not was really none of his business, but when dealing Fred and George business was usually preceded by a joke or two. She decided it would be best to play along.

“Yes, I did use Ginny’s present in the Garden of Eden room,” she admitted, feeling surprisingly embarrassed by the admission.

“Lucky bloke, that Pomfrey,” Fred answered, while sniggering to George.

“How did you know? What did she tell you?” Luna asked.

“Nothing!” Fred said, throwing up his good hand in mock defense. “It’s just if the present came from Ginny, it had to be, well,” Fred said, pausing to search for the proper adjective.

“Saucy,” suggested George, “invisible maybe.”

Luna let her expression be her only answer.

“Saucy and invisible, lucky bloke indeed,” teased Fred..

“And what did Angelina wear on your honeymoon?” she prompted.

“Something Ginny had gotten her, that’s why I know that Pomfrey was a lucky bloke,” he said as all three laughed.

Luna looked at the grinning twins who were seated on the couch in her office. She knew all of the joking was a way to mask the underlying tension. The last her articles had been published in the preceding week, and the Minister had fired Umbridge after the fifth story was printed, and a change at the top of the Ministry was inevitable. Yet, today was the true judgment day.

A knock on her office door woke Luna from her thoughts. “Come in, Cuthbert,” she said toward the closed door.

The stooped accountant and the straight-backed Percy Weasley came into the office with papers and ledger books floating behind them. Cuthbert’s face was wary. Percy’s face, as always, was slightly superior with a touch of I-told-you-so added in for good measure.

“Well, I think the facts speak for themselves and leave us only one course of action,” said Percy, remained standing by the office door.

Cuthbert looked annoyed at the younger man’s lack of manners and countered, “I don’t know. The Daily Quibbler’s return on investment is higher than the old magazine’s ever was. I’d say we’re near the Prophet’s income in fact, sirs and ma’am.” Cuthbert gave a little bow to his employer.

“Cuthbert, please call me Luna. If you start calling me ma’am, I’ll start calling you Mr. Ashforth,” she lectured.

“Yes of course, Mrs. Pomfrey,” answered the ever-formal man. Luna just sighed at his response.

Fred and George had used the time to skim the numbers. The numbers that all three of them had known even before the final tally was made. The Daily Quibbler was making a steady, small profit. However, Fred and George could have made more money from their investment in the paper by putting the cash into an account at Gringotts. And with Fred and George’s flair for business, who knew how much they could have made by investing in some other business.

“Like I said before I was interrupted, our course of action is quite simple. We will have to close the Daily Quibbler and sell off the inventory and equipment to recoup our investment,” Percy pontificated while pointing toward the ledger books with his index fingers extended.

“Hold on! We’re W3, not you,” Fred answered, pointing back toward Percy. She knew that what really annoyed Fred was that Percy was right. From a purely business point of view, W3 was wasting time and resources on her newspaper. Yet, Luna knew that she and the Weasley twins shared bonds that went beyond Percy’s ledger books. She was counting on that this afternoon.

“Yeah, Penny called. She said AC and DC need their nappies changed and it’s your turn,” George said as he also fired back at his older brother.

“First of all the boys are no longer in diapers and I wish you’d quit calling them that. You know perfectly well that the boy’s names are Arthur Charles and Drayton Creedence,” Percy spat.

“Drayton Creedence?” asked Luna.

“Drayton is Penelope’s father. And her uncle, Creedence Clearwater was an Unspeakable who was killed by the Death Eaters,” informed Percy.

“What ever you say, Weatherby,” Fred said, grinning at Percy.

Luna had heard the twins call Percy by the name Weatherby in a previous meeting when they thought he’d overstepped his bounds. She was curious about the story behind the slight. Whatever it was, the name both infuriated and silenced him.

Luna smiled. She could use Percy’s haughty behavior to bait her trap. If he was not here or had been silent, she wasn’t sure she would succeed. With him here, his brothers would be more willing to compromise in her favor to distinguish them from him.

“I have a counteroffer,” Luna said as she stared at Percy.

Fred and George both sat up, eager to listen. They looked at her hopefully seeking a positive outcome for the meeting.

“My offer is that the Daily Quibbler operates for the next six months without any more infusion of cash. I will also work without pay for the same time period as a show of good faith. After six months, I will begin to make monthly payments of eight thousand Galleons for a time period of one year. At the end of that time, I will be the majority operating partner of the Daily Quibbler with fifty-one percent ownership, forty percent ownership for W3 Ltd., eight percent for the current staff of the paper, and one percent for Harry and Ginny Potter.”

“Luna!” said a shocked Cuthbert, hearing the offer for the first time.

Percy chortled. “Neither you, your father, nor your healer husband has that kind of gold. Besides, the paper is worth four times that much. She’s bluffing,” he added as he turned toward his brothers.

“Go ahead, shut me down. In a year, I will have a new paper up and running,” she said, baiting the trap.

She saw George look at Fred and whisper, “Harry and Ginny?”

Fred shrugged, but Luna’s comments seemed to have sucked the air out of the room. Fred and George knew her well enough to know she would only say what she believed to be true. Luna looked at their faces. She didn’t need a Wrackspurt to read their thoughts. What did Luna know that they didn’t? What angle had they missed? And how did Harry and Ginny fit in her plan?

Suddenly, George started looking around at the stacks of paper searching for something. “Accio contract,” he said after he had pulled his wand out of his vest pocket.

As The document leapt from the middle of a stack of papers and flew into George’s hand.

Luna faced Percy. “Bluffing can only work if one side thinks the other is a fool or one side knows more than the other. You and Cuthbert just went over all of figures so our knowledge is equal. So if I am bluffing then I am or I think your brothers are fools. And I know Fred and George are not fools,” she spoke slowly in order to give George time to read.

Luna kept her eyes on Percy and waited for George to reach the final paragraph on the fourth page. His wide eyes appeared briefly over the top of contract. Silently, he passed the paperwork over to Fred with his finger pointing at the paragraph that Luna had so innocently inserted into the contract before it was signed. Fred read the paragraph that George had pointed out to him. After he was finished, he looked at Luna not with an angry or hurt face, but with a look of appreciation.

“Well played, love! George, we may have the wrong office manager working for us,” Fred said.

Percy looked confused and walked over to Fred, who pointed out the codicil. “I don’t get it,” admitted Percy as he returned the document to his boss.

“Luna, will you please explain your plan to our brother. We don’t know the details, but it’s bloody well done,” George said, eyeing Luna with a look of something resembling envy.”

“Are you going to close the paper or not? Because I’m not saying anything until you either shut us down or we have an oral contract agreeing to keep the paper open,” she answered, trying to keep any tone of victory out of her voice. She was so close to getting out of this meeting with what she wanted most.

Fred and George put their heads together. Percy bounced from one side of the conversation to the other as he tried to eavesdrop. The brothers whispered for almost five minutes before they turned their heads toward her.

“Sorry Luna, we’re not that impressed yet,” George replied. “However, we are willing to agree to your counter offer with the payments subject to negotiation of, say, plus-or-minus-fifty-percent of your original offer,” he said as he looked to Fred.

Fred nodded in agreement.

“That’s still too low of an amount,” Percy argued, looking from one twin to the other as he searched for a glimmer of common sense.

“Would you mind if I get two witnesses on that?” she asked.

George shrugged and Fred answered, “You just happen to have witnesses available, do you?”

She nodded pulled her wand from behind her left ear and touched it to her throat, silently mouthing a few words. The office door opened and a man in his mid-thirties stepped inside holding the hand of a small redheaded girl. At first, the little girl attempted to hide behind the man until she saw Luna. Suzanne eagerly waved to Luna who gently waggled her fingers back.

“She’s a child. She can’t be a witness! No court will accept her as a witness,” argued Percy.

“We don’t need courts, Percy. I trust your brothers with my life and the lives of all those who are precious to me. I’d rather have your brothers’ word than other people’s signatures.”

By now, Suzanne had slipped from behind her father until she stood in front of him. She smiled her best smile and waved at the older men on the couch. They smiled and waved back. She smiled at Percy, who just rolled his eyes and sniffed in response.

“You’re playing dirty pool now,” George said. He looked to Fred who shook his head in agreement.

“Oh well, W3 Limited has accepted a counteroffer from Mrs. Pomfrey. In six months, she will begin to pay us twelve monthly payments of an amount to be determined. The amount of the payments will be between four thousand Galleons and twelve thousand galleons or some mutually agreed upon equivalent sum for sixty percent of W3 Ltd’s stake in the Daily Quibbler,” said George, looking at the pair in front of him. “Do you concur with my remarks, madam editor?”

“Yes, that is the offer,” she answered.

“Wow!” said Suzanne’s father, walking over to George and shaking his hand. “Thanks. We’ve all been worried the last few weeks about our future. We were afraid that in the backlash the paper might have to fold. With you as minority owners, we can all sleep well,” he added.

Suzanne pulled on her father’s jumper. “Are we done?” she quietly asked. He nodded.

Without asking permission, Suzanne skipped over to Luna’s desk, her peach lace dress making a swishing sound with every skip. She opened the largest desk drawer and pulled out a Honeydukes chocolate wand. The child paused, reached back into the drawer and pulled out three more of the snacks. On her way out the door, she handed Fred and George Weasley each a wand. As she started out the door, she extended the candy toward Percy, but when his hand reached to take it she pulled the treat back and skipped out the door leaving her father to silently mouth an apology.

Fred and George howled with laughter at the startled looks on both the little girl’s father and Percy’s face. Percy looked hurt at the obvious insult. The pained look on his face almost made Luna feel sorry for him. However, his next comment dampened any such empathy.

“Our barristers can get us out of that. It was coercion. It was,” Percy said, his voice getting louder with each passing sentence.

“It was very funny and very effective,” said George.

“Tell me Luna, was it Thistlethorne or Worple?” asked Fred.

Luna smiled. Gerald Thistlethorne was famous in the magical publishing world for being Gilderoy Lockhart’s editor and ghostwriter. Eldred Worple, who Luna had met at Slughorn’s party years ago, published many quickly written lurid books that teenage witches seemed to eat up. The two were among the heaviest hitters in the wizard book universe.

“Both of them contacted me, and I said no. Thistlethorne promised me an advance large enough to buy you out, but money was not the issue,” she answered.

“Money not the issue?” Percy said in a tone of disbelief.

“Luna wouldn’t sell out Harry and Ginny to save her life. She’s already proven that,” George noted.

“I went to Lockhart’s publisher. I told her I would take two-thirds of the normal rate per book in exchange for complete editorial control. In our archives, I have a letter from Harry giving me rights to publish his story as long as he and I are in total control of the content. Harry will get one quarter of the proceeds and the rest will go owner of the Quibbler stories,” she said, staring at the Percy.

Percy’s eyes got as big as saucers. “In case of the dissolution of the partnership, all rights to the published materials will revert to the author designated in the byline and the original Quibbler magazine,” he quoted the codicil. “If we’d shut you down, you and your father would own Harry’s life story,” he said, now understanding his brothers’ admiration.

“Now, about the final buyout,” she said, attempting to keep the Weasleys off balance. “You didn’t play Quidditch, did you Percy? Your brothers and Ginny did, but you didn’t,” Luna started.

“And neither did you as I recall,” Percy snapped back. The subject was obviously a sore one with him.

“Oh, I don’t like riding broomsticks. I use to like it when Ravenclaw or Ginny were playing, but the games take so long. I’d rather walk in the forest any day,” she said. Luna stopped and realized her train of thought had derailed.

“You did play gobstones for the Gryffindor team. In fact, you won three out of the last four school tournaments you played in. I know. I saw you lose that one finals match,” she added.

“I was distracted. I had an off day,” he responded.

“No, you lost because Penelope Clearwater had just come over to you, wished you good luck, and kissed you,” she finished. Fred and George laughed at Luna’s assertion.

“How do you know that?” he responded.

“During my first year, I was sort of Penelope’s shadow. I would follow her around without her knowing it. She wasn’t sure if you really liked her or not. So she kissed you, hoping you’d keep hanging around and hoping she’d kiss you again. She told a friend it would give her time to figure out if she really did like you or not,” Luna finished.

“You’re making this up,” Percy shouted.

“I don’t know why you’re complaining, it worked out didn’t it?” she said.

Luna continued, “I propose a one-on-one gobstone tournament. If you win, I will pay the upper range of the counteroffer out of the book revenue and W3 will get three fourths of the book proceeds that exceed the payoff. If I win, I will pay the lower end of the counteroffer and W3 will get one quarter of any proceeds that exceed the payoff.” Luna looked at the four astounded men facing her, feeling very calm and serene.

Fred and George called Percy over to a huddle. The twins, who had been repeatedly wrong footed ever since they entered the office, smelled a trap. But Percy was extremely confident in victory. After all, Luna had never once entered the school tourneys. He would win and that would be that.

Fred and George stepped away from their brother and whispered. Luna knew that the twins had been in quiet negotiations with Comet Broomworks to buy a small percentage of the firm in exchange for the rights to their new racing broom. The windfall from Harry’s books could make them full partners or better with Comet. Luna waited, fairly confident of their decision.

“Percy, we leave this decision up to you,” Fred added.

“Deal,” Percy said, extending his hand to Luna. “We will meet tomorrow at eleven in the park off of Diagon Alley. There’s a gobstone arena there,” he added, victory already in his voice.

“Agreed. Gentlemen, a toast,” Luna said, waving her wand as five goblets, along with a bottle of oak-matured mead appeared on her desk and poured itself into the goblets. “May we always cherish our greatest treasures: family and friends,” she offered, touching her goblet to each of the others in the office in turn.

---

As the little clock on the wall chimed half past ten, Luna finished the sixth letter on her desk. She waved her wand and each individual letter flew into the designated envelope. She walked over to the cupboard and placed the pinstriped cloak Fred and George had presented to her on her first day as editor onto its hanger. She magically sealed the door and slipped into her ‘Luna’ clothes, feeling the familiar transformation. She walked behind her desk to the shelf and picked up her radish earrings and the round leather pouch. With the pouch in her purse and her earrings dangling, she magically opened the door and left the room with the envelopes in hand.

She was surprised to find the secretary’s chair empty. Millicent seemed at times to be rooted to the desk, so her absence was quite unusual. Luna deposited the letters onto the middle of Millicent’s desk and headed out the door.

She wound her way up the crowded alley, dodging the busy shoppers. She was surprised to see such a crowd in the park; Luna had expected to find only Percy and the twins present. However, she discovered that in addition to the expected three: Albi, her father, Penelope Weasley and her two little boys, Ginny, Cuthbert, and Millicent were awaiting her arrival.

Percy stood at the gobstone circle, holding a white silken pouch in his hands. He opened the pouch with his wand, and removed the normal four gobstones for the opening Gaipar.

Luna reached into her purse, pulled out an ancient cracked leather pouch, and with some difficulty undid the gold clasp that held the red velvet cord cinching the bag. She poured four green marbles and a single red one into her hand and walked over to the circle. As she started to re-cinch the bag a small golden Phoenix feather popped to the top of the pouch before the cord trapped it inside. Luna couldn’t resist touching the green marbles with her index finger just like she had so many years ago in Dumbledore’s office.

She placed her green gobstones in the designated places for the Gaipar and began to study the charmed circle. Percy, as the challenged, would get the first turn. As Luna smiled at Percy, she thought it all be over in about a half an hour. Maybe an hour, if he was in practice.

Luna turned her back to the circle and began to walk. She saw what might have been a tiny Umgubular Slashkilter on the sill of a store window. The Slashkilter always brought good fortune to those who saw it. The small creature hopped from the window onto the street and disappeared.

As she awaited her turn, she watched the clouds go by and saw one that bore a strong resemblance to the Sorting Hat. Her attention shifted as she heard a fit of uncontrolled giggling and saw Albi rolling a small red Quaffle on the ground toward Percy’s sons who chased and finally fell over each other in their attempt to capture it. Ginny and Penelope were seated, talking on the park’s lone bench. Ginny absent-mindedly twirled the butterbeer cork necklace with her index finger. Penelope, who had sat at the precise angle needed to keep her children within her sight at all times, laughed at something Ginny had said without ever taking her eyes off the boys. Luna heard Cuthbert attempting to bet George Weasley how long the match would last before Mrs. Pomfrey defeated Mr. Percy. George refused to take the bet.

Luna finished her circle. She felt so free. The letters she had dropped on Millicent’s desk invited her father, her top four editors and the Weasley twins to a morning meeting in which she was going to resign as the editor-in-chief.

She would retain the post of publisher which meant she would be free of the every day running of the paper. The editors were more than capable. After all, they had been advising her from the beginning. She would come in on Tuesdays to check on the things a publisher needs to handle and for story hour. Every Tuesday she held a little tea party for the children of the Quibbler. After the snacks, she would tell the children, and a few lingering adults, stories about Neville the Nargle, Ginny the Gerbil, Harry the Hamster, Albus the Owl, and the lonely little blonde girl lucky enough to be their friend. Someday, she thought that she might even write the stories down. The eager, happy faces of the children were the reason why she had done all this work to secure the paper’s future. She had been the mother eagle protecting her eaglets.

Percy moaned; he had missed his fourth shot. Luna walked a loop around the circle focusing on all of the angles while rolling a bright red gobstone between the thumb and index finger of her shooting hand. She slipped out of her shoes and handed them to Albi. She gave a consoling smile to Percy and knew he would not get a chance at a fifth shot.

The beginning…