“Keep pushing!” said the Healer.
“I… I can’t!” screamed the woman on the bed.
“Come on, I can see a bit of its head. Just keep going, that’s it!” said the Healer.
“Keep going, honey,” said the man sitting beside the bed, who was holding the woman’s hand. The birth was taking place at St. Mungo’s, on the insistence of the man. The man did not believe that there was anything wrong with going to a Muggle hospital, nor was he uncomfortable with the idea of having his child delivered by a midwife in the comfort of his own home. However, according to the man, all midwives had a conspiracy to steal children, and all Muggle hospitals were actually run by bloodthirsty vampires. So, regrettably, the Healer had agreed to deliver the baby at St. Mungo’s, despite the fact that is was not a magically inflicted injury
“One more push should do it,” said the Healer. The woman gripped the man’s hand and squeezed it with all her might. All of a sudden, she felt very relieved, and there was crying, lots of crying. At first, the woman was worried that something might be wrong, but then she remembered that crying was a good thing. It meant that the baby was breathing. She flung her head back onto her pillow, and her husband caressed her cheek.
“Good job, honey,” said the man.
“Congratulations, you have one healthy girl!” said the Healer, coming over to the side of the bed and giving the woman the baby, who was all wrapped up in a pink blanket. The baby was beautiful. She had bright blue eyes and the beginning strands of dirty blond hair could be seen protruding from her nearly bare scalp. The man and the woman both looked at the baby for a long time. As they sat there, cuddling with their new child, the Healer thought to herself, That is going to be one loved child . “Have you thought of a name yet?” asked the Healer.
“Oh, yes,” said the man.
“We had decided that if the baby was going to be a girl, we would call her Luna.”
“That’s a wonderful name, Mrs. Lovegood. I am just going to go do some paper work. I’ll leave the two of you alone with Luna. If you have any problems, just call. The Healer in the next room will help you, she is very nice,” the Healer said. Then she turned and walked out of the room.
Mr. and Mrs. Lovegood sat with their new daughter for a while, doing all the tedious things that new parents tend to do. They counted Luna’s toes, felt her eyelashes, pinched her fingertips, and so on. Then, there was a faint buzzing noise and the intercom went on. “All Healers please report to the permanent care ward, on the spell damage floor. We have an escaped patient who has a wand and should be considered armed and dangerous. Patients and guests, please allow our Healers to deal with this patient, as she has a severe magical condition and much brain damage. Do not panic, but keep aware. Thank you…”and the buzzing died out. Mr. and Mrs. Lovegood looked at each other, smiled, and went back to their daughter. They were a few floors below the spell damage floor. The Healers would be able to handle the escaped patient, and everything would be all right very soon. There was no need to worry, so they went back to Luna.
Half an house passed by. Mr. Lovegood had climbed into the bed with his wife and daughter, and the three of them were lying there together. All of a sudden, the door opened and in came a witch. She had a rather insane look on her face and was wearing a nightdress. There were shouts coming from down the hall. The witch laughed, and a droplet of a drool dripped from her mouth. She shut the door and walked over to the Lovegoods. By that point, Mrs. Lovegood was cradling Luna in her arms, and Mr. Lovegood was standing at the foot of the bed, wand in hand. “Don’t take another step closer to me, my wife, or my daughter, or else I will hex you!” he said. The witch gave an insane smile and walked right up to the bed, pulling a wand out of her pocket. Mr. Lovegood pointed his wand at her and shouted, “Expelliarmus!” but the witch was faster. With a wicked laugh, she waved her wand in the air, sending the Disarming Spell back at Mr. Lovegood. He was magically shoved backwards.His head hit the ground, and he fell unconscious.
The woman moved towards Mrs. Lovegood.
The witch continued towards the bed. Mrs. Lovegood held Luna to her chest. “Help, please, someone, come help!” she screamed. There was no reply. All of a sudden, there was a thud at the door. The witch must have locked us in! thought Mrs. Lovegood. By then, the witch was right next to the two Lovegood females. Mrs. Lovegood could feel the witch’s warm breath on her face. Then, the witch held up her wand. Mrs. Lovegood tried to get up, but she was still weak from the delivery, and her wand was on the table on the other side of the room. Luna began to cry. Mrs. Lovegood screamed for help, but the banging on the door continued. However insane this witch was, she was good at magic. The witch pointed her wand at Luna. Mrs. Lovegood tried to move Luna out of the way, but it was too late. The witch cried, “Strangeio!” and jet of some sort of purple light hit baby Luna on the head just as the door was thrown open, and six Healers entered the room. Two of them jumped on the insane witch, one of them pulling her wand away, while the other one held her hands behind her back. The room was surprisingly silent aside from the Healers’ yells. Luna had gone quiet since the spell had hit her. At first, Mrs. Lovegood had feared that her daughter was dead, but she was blinking and breathing. On of the Healers had gone out the door, and one was treating Mr. Lovegood on the ground. The last on was standing beside her bed.
“Are you ok, Mrs. Lovegood?” asked the Healer.
“Yes, well, I am. But she,” here she gestured to the witch, now subdued on the ground, “hit Luna with some spell.”
“Give her here,” said the old Healer, extending her arms. At first, Mrs. Lovegood’s maternal instincts kicked in, and she was a bit hesitant, but then she gave the baby to the Healer. The Healer held her up above her head and passed her from side to side. “Looks a little dazed… probably just a little traumatized, but she should be ok. Here, look, your husband’s coming about. Let me go get the head Healer. We are deeply sorry for all this, but your daughter is ok, so no harm done, eh?” said the witch, putting the silent and dazed Luna back in her mother’s hands and scurrying off to find the head Healer.
Nobody was exactly sure of what the purple spell was, but one thing was certain. From that day on, whether it was an act of the spell or her natural personality, Luna Lovegood was like no other child.
*
The first five years of Luna’s life were uneventful, to say the least. Her dad spent a lot of time in his study, writing for his magazine, which was entitled The Quibbler. Her mother spent time in her own study, too, experimenting with spells and potions. Every so often, she would come out and take Luna into her study. Sometimes she would wave her wand over her daughter’s head; other times she would pour some potion down her throat/into her mouth, but none of it ever did anything. Eventually, Luna’s mother joined the Ministry of Magic.
Most of Luna’s time after that was spent exploring her house, which, although small, always seemed to hold new surprises… things that other people could not always see. One time, at the age of five, she had seen a large gnome, the size of a house elf, walking around the attic. She had called her mother, who was home from work, to come and see it. When her mother took a look and saw nothing, Luna started to cry. She had insisted that the gnome had been there. Her mother had gotten really worried, and as a result, she took the next month off work. That time was, once again, spent in the study, trying to find a cure for Luna’s hallucination.
“What were you doing in the attic anyway, dear?” Luna’s mother asked one day while Luna sat playing with some dolls in the corner of her office.
“I was looking…” said Luna in a dreamy voice, smashing two dolls together.
“That’s a funny thing to say, isn’t it?” asked her mother.
“Why is that, Mummy?” asked Luna.
“Well, what were you looking for?” Luna ignored her and pulled one of her dolls’ heads off. “Luna, what were you looking for?” her mother repeated.
Once again, Luna did not pay any attention to her mother. Mrs. Lovegood stood up from her desk and walked over to Luna. She put her hand on her daughter’s shoulder and said, “Luna, you have to tell me. What were you looking for?” A tear trickled out of Luna’s eye. She hugged her mother’s legs and sobbed, banging her head on her mother’s knee. Mrs. Lovegood crouched down and hugged her daughter. “Honey, it’s ok, it’s ok. I am not angry. I just want to know… what were you looking for?”
A dazed look A dazed look appeared in Luna’s eyes. “I was looking for him,” she whispered.
*
The therapist’s office was cold and dry. Luna sat in the corner of the waiting room with her mother, who was working on something for work. Luna, who was now just six years old, was sitting on her lap. She had just started to learn the ABC’s and tried to read the title of her mother’s article, L.O.V.E. Luna tried to sound it out. “Loove, Lowve, Love!” she said to herself. She pointed to herself. “Luna Lovegood!” she said.
“Very good, honey. You are Luna Lovegood. But that’s not the kind of love this is about. This is the love that a person, or people, will feel for each other. For example, I love you!”
“And I love you, too, Mummy!” said Luna.
“I am happy to hear that, dear. Love is a powerful tool. You may not understand that now, but one day you will. I hope that one day, I can use love to make you better, so that you don’t see scary things any more. That’s why I go to work at the Department of Mysteries. Hopefully, Dr. Applebee can help you feel better in the meantime.”
“Mummy, I know you don’t like it, but I don’t think that there is anything wrong with me, is there?”
“No, dearest, nothing is wrong with you. You just… see things… that other people don’t see. Remember last month, when you said you were looking for a boy?”
“Yes.”
“And do you remember that you said you were not sure who he was?”
“Yes.”
“Well, we are going to figure out a little more about that. Don’t worry. Dr. Applebee is a nice man, and he wants to help you.”
“Mummy, I don’t need help. It’s the boy that needs help. That’s why I was going to look for him.”
“But you don’t know who he is, or where he is, do you?”
“No.”
Mrs. Lovegood opened her mouth to say something, but the secretary popped out of the door leading to the next room and said, “Luna Lovegood, Dr. Applebee will see you now.” Luna and Mrs. Lovegood got up to go to the door. However, the secretary stuck out her hand. “I am sorry, but first the doctor would like to speak to Luna alone .” Luna looked at her mother, and Mrs. Lovegood looked down at Luna.
“It is all right, dear. Don’t worry. Dr. Applebee is my friend. He worked at the Ministry with me. Tell the truth, and Mummy will come in to be with you in a little bit.”
“Ok,” said Luna, and she hugged her mom and went in. The next room was very modern looking. There was a rotating ceiling fan. A wizard in periwinkle robes sat in a huge armchair … it was Dr. Applebee. “Hello, Luna. Would you like to have a seat?” He gestured towards a chair. Luna climbed into it. “So, now, your mother tells me that you have been seeing things. What kind of things are you seeing?”
“I told my Mummy already, it was really there!” said Luna, not understanding why people did not believe her.
“I never said that it was not there. I was just asking what you saw.”
“Ok. In that case, I have seen lots of things. In my attic, I saw a giant gnome. In my toilet, I saw a small mermaid. In my cold cellar, there was a vampire…”
“Luna, in the first place, do you know why you were in your attic, or your cold cellar, or your toilet?. Why do you go into these places? It seems to me like you are LOOKING for these things.”
“I am not looking for these things… just… looking…”
“Looking for what?”
“A boy.”
“Do you know who he is?”
“No, I just know that he is a boy.”
“Where is he from?”
“I don’t know. I told you, all I know is that he is a boy.”
“What is his name?”
Luna was getting mad. “I told you! I don’t know!” she said, in a misty yet clearly angry voice. She stood up, and so did the doctor. He tried to grab her shoulder, but she hit his hand in self defense.
“Don’t hit me,” he said gently. “Luna, please sit down. I want to ask you some more questions.”
“No more questions,” said Luna
“Just a few more.”
“I said no more questions!” Luna’s voice was angry now. She tilted her head ever so slightly and the chair that the doctor was sitting on turned over, and he fell off. Had she done that? Luna burst into tears and ran out of the room, into her mother’s arms, crying. “Take me home, Mummy, take me home.”
*
And so, Luna’s life went on. The therapist had done more bad then good. After her return, Luna became even more detached from her family. She would turn up in the strangest places, like under the house or on the roof, and have no idea why or how. The only thing she knew was that she was looking. As a result of this, her father tried to become closer with his daughter. He would often go looking with her. This not only pleased Luna, but it also inspired her to look harder.
One day, at the age of nine, Luna was digging outside her house when she heard some crying coming from the direction of the window. She was now quite tall, so she standed on her tiptoes and looked inside. Her mother sat next to a cauldron, weeping. “What is it, Mummy?” asked Luna.
“What…oh, nothing, darling. Go back to playing,” said Mrs. Lovegood.
“Mummy, I am not a baby. I know something is wrong.” Luna’s mother remained silent. Luna moved away from the window, ran around her house, into the front door, and bolted into her mother’s study. There, she sat down on the chair next to her mother and said, “Please, Mummy tell me…why are you crying?”
“I have a story to tell you,” said Luna’s mother. Luna looked up at her mother, and her mother began the story. “Once upon a time, there was a man and a woman who loved each other very much. Eventually, they got married and decided they wanted to have a baby. When they were in the hospital having the baby, something terrible happened. A witch who had some… problems… escaped from the care of the Healers. The witch went to the man and the woman’s room. The man tried to protect his family, but the witch got around him, and she ended up casting a spell on the baby. To this day, the man and woman do not know what kind of spell that was, nor do they know what the spell was supposed to do. They do know, however, that because of it, their daughter spends all her time exploring, looking for things that aren’t there, she gets disappointed when she realizes she can’t find what she’s looking for. That hurts the woman very much, and ever since she saw how her daughter was affected by the spell, she has been trying to figure out what it was, and how to get her daughter back to normal. But today, that woman realized that she does not know what to do, for love does not seem to work, even though the woman has loved her daughter beyond belief. Alas, the spell still remains. Should the woman look for another power to use? Time, space, death? Today, the woman realized that she has reached a dead end. She realizes that she can’t save her daughter…” Mrs. Lovegood began to cry even more.
“Mummy,” asked Luna, “am I the baby in that story?”
“…Yes, dear, you are.”
“But Mummy, I don’t need you to save me. Don’t you see? I need to save him!”
Mrs. Lovegood moaned. “There is no him! Don’t you understand? It was the spell that spell that the witch put on you... that purple flash of light. It has made you believe that you need to seek this… this boy! I just want you to be alright. I want what any mother craves. I want you to be happy again. I want to see you smile. I want you to go outside and play with the other children… not stay inside and look in the attic. I just want you to be normal.”
“The only difference between the normal and the abnormal, my dear, is the lack of others who will do what the select few with the aptitude and faith to back up their actions do. Who says who have to do what the crowd says? Let her be herself. Let her be free,” said a voice at the door. Both Luna and her mother turned to see her dad standing there. “People have called my magazine abnormal for a long time… do I complain? No. Do I quit? No. Do I stop writing? No. That’s because I believe in my magazine, and I don’t care what anyone else says! She believes in this boy… let her be.”
“This is not about your magazine, this is about our daughter! Don’t turn this into something about you! Don’t you understand? I have to do this for Luna, I have to prove that I can be a good mother because, because… it is all my fault! You tried to save us, but I couldn’t even stand up and get my wand. I was weak. I don’t want to be weak. I want to be a good mother! I have to make this work! I have to fix her.”
“But I’m not broken…” It was the first time that Luna had spoken since her mother had told her the story. She might have been small, but she understood every last bit of what her parents were saying. “Mummy, I don’t need you to fix me. You just think that you need to fix me. I am sorry, but I don’t need to be fixed. What happened? I am not sure why I need to find this boy, but I do. Please, just let me be…”
“Luna, I understand that. But I have one more thing to try. It is my last hope. Can you please let me test it? It does not deal only with love, like all the other things I have tried… it deals with many powers. Please, can I test it out?” Luna looked into her mother’s eyes. “If it does not work, I will leave you the way you are,” finished her mother.
“One more try,” said Luna.
*
The room was dark. Her mother had been sitting at the table doing last minute calculations and spells for the past three hours. Luna sat quietly by the fire, reading a book on magical theory.
“It’s ready,” said her mother, standing up from her desk. Luna walked over to her mother and sat down on the chair in front of her. “Darling, I love you. If this works, I will be very happy. If it does not work, it does not mean anything. You will always be my little girl.”
Luna smiled and said, “I’m not that little. I’m almost ready for Hogwarts.”
“I know. I wanted to find a way to reverse the spell before your schooling begins. I hope I do. Are you ready, dear?”
“Yes, Mummy ummy. I am ready.”
Mrs. Lovegood picked up a bottle of some red liquid and uncorked it, and then splashed it on Luna. The liquid was coldand ran down Luna’s neck. “What is that stuff?” asked Luna.
“Wine. Now shhhh. I need you to be quiet for this part,” said Luna’s mother, raising her wand over Luna’s head. “Gabara, normadio, parlaxsis!” All of a sudden, a burst of force blasted forth from the wand. Luna shot forward, fell off the chair, and tumbled onto the floor. She felt the room rumble, and the floor was shaking. She kept her head down as Dust and debris flew all around her.
“Mummy… what happened? Did it work? Was that supposed to happen? Mummy?” Luna lifted her head. Her mother was not answering. She began to make her way through the debris, until she got to her mother’s desk. It was upturnedand broken. She could hear someone coughing underneath it. A hand and part of an arm was protruding from under it. “Mummy, is that you?”
The reply was faint, but not unnoticeable. Still, it was an unclear reply. She tried to lift the desk, but she was too small. She began to cry because she was frustrated; it would not move. All of a sudden, she felt empowered. She looked at the ground and realized that she was stepping on her mother’s wand. She picked it up and put it in her mother’s hand. “Mummy, if you can hear me, I put your wand in your hand, so if you can do it, lift the desk.”
Her mother’s hand twitched, and the wand rolled out of her hand. Then, it stopped moving altogether. Luna began to silently weep. She bent down and kissed the limp hand, but there was nothing she could do. Her mother was gone… and it was her fault.
*
For the next five years, she tried her best to stop looking. Sometimes, she still randomly found herself in places that she had never intended to visit. But she still believed in her father’s crackpot articles. That was Luna stuff. That was stuff that was… a part of her. However, from the time of her mother’s death to the time of her fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, she stopped looking for the boy. She figured he would find her someday.
Her first three years at school were nothing special. Like her mother, she was sorted into Ravenclaw. She made few friends, but that did not bother her much. She stayed out of trouble, did her schoolwork, and led a relatively normal life. Then, at the start of her fourth year, something happened.
“Good bye, Daddy!” said a 14-year-old Luna, kissing her dad on the cheek.
“Have a good term,” said her dad, bending down and hugging her. “By the way, take a look at this issue of The Quibbler. Tell me if you recognize any of these photos. And if you fine the time, check out the runes! I am going to go to the front of the station, so I can wave goodbye to you as you leave.”
“Thanks, Dad. This will lighten up my trip. Well, I’ve got to go. I will see you at Christmas, and I’ll write to you soon!” She reached up and gave her dad one more kiss before heading onto the train, trunk in tow.
Before she got onto the train, someone grabbed her shoulder. She turned around to see a witch with an insane smile on her face. “One step of your journey comes to an end. But the mission I sent you on is not yet complete. Find the boy, help him, and show him good faith, for if his faith dies, so will the rest of the wizarding world…” Then the woman disappeared into the crowd. And people think I’m weird! thought Luna.
Once she had boarded the train, she found a nice compartment that she could have all to herself. There, she sat and pulled out the copy of The Quibbler that her dad had given her. She turned it upside down and began to examine the runes. Apparently, they would show her a spell to turn her enemies’ ears into kumquats. She thought of a few mean housemates she wouldn’t mind doing that to.
All of a sudden, the compartment door opened and a girlwalked in with two boys. Luna thought that her name was Ginny Weasley, but she wasn’t certain. “Hi, Luna,” said Ginny. “Mind if we take these seats?”
Luna nodded without thinking. All she could do was stare at one of the boys. He had messy hair, he was tall and thin, and he had a scar on his forehead that was the shape of a lightning bolt. She recognized him as Harry Potter. She could not stop looking at him. She remembered her days long ago, when she had searched for someone in her attic. Was this the boy? Was Harry Potter the person she had spent the first nine years of her life looking for? She figured that if he was the one, she would probably know it.. At this moment, she felt as if one step of her journey was complete, but the entire thing was not yet over. Suddenly, she realized something. She would have needed to find the boy for a reason. Now that she had found the boy, she needed to help him. The voice of the witch echoed through her head. “Find the boy, help him, and show him good faith, for if his faith dies, so will the rest of the wizarding world…
*
The year dragged on, as all the previous years tended to. Luna attended lessons, did her homework, and stayed out of trouble the best she could. All the while, she kept an eye out for Harry Potter. When he started an illegal club, she joined. When his friend, Hermione Granger, asked Luna to set him up for an interview for The Quibbler , she did.
One step of your journey has come to an end.
When he asked her to help him distract Umbridge and her squad, she did. When, late one spring night, he went to the Department of Mysteries, she followed along.
But the mission I sent you on is not yet complete.
At the Department of Mysteries, she had one of the strangest experiences of her life. They had gotten to the department without much difficulty. They were in a stadium-of-sorts, and in the middle was a giant arch made of crumbling stone, with a veil hanging from it. When Luna turned around to leave, the veil spoke to her. “ I am sorry… ”
Luna turned. What?
“I did not need to fix you. I was the one that needed to be fixed… I am sorry.”
Mother?
”Yes, it’s me. ”
What are you doing here? You are dead!
I tampered with death. This is where all the Unspeakables end up. On the other side of the veil. This is where everyone goes when they die if they have someone to watch over, such as a childe. One day, I will see you again, too.
I always knew I would. I am sorry, by the way, for ever doubting you. I have to go help Harry now, but I want you to know that I love you. I will see you again one day.
“Good bye, my love.”
Good bye, Mother.
Luna turned around and continued to travel with her friends… were they her friends? Yes, they were. It felt good to say that she had friends.
Find the boy, help him, and show him good faith, for if his faith dies, so will the rest of the wizarding world…
*
The night at the Department of Mysteries had been scary. They had been chased by Death Eaters for a long time, but eventually the Order of the Phoenix had shown up and saved them from a near-death situation. After that, Luna had wanted to go back to the arch to visit her mother’s spirit, but it was late, and she did not have time. She knew she would be back one day. As it turned out, Sirius Black had been killed at the Department of Mysteries. He had apparently been Harry’s godfather. Luna wondered if he was now with her mother.
And so, there she was, a 14-year-old girl whose mind was racing like a 50-year-old’s. What was the point of her life? Who was that old woman she had seen almost a year ago on Platform 9 ¾? Why had her life crossed with Harry Potter’s? Was it a coincidence? Or was the spell that had been cast on her as a child responsible for it? The old woman, was she the caster, or was she merely a messenger? Luna did not know.
What Luna did know was that she had to get her stuff back before she left for home. The mean girls in her dormitory had stolen her extra pair of robes, her hat, and her quill, along with her set of wizard’s chess. She had made signs requesting it back, and was going all around the school posting them up. She was sticking one to the door of the Transfiguration classroom when the Grey Lady floated by. “Hello there, Luna. What are you up to?”
“Oh, some people took my stuff again. I am just putting signs up asking for it back…”
“That’s not nice. Us Ravenclaws, and by that, I mean us TRUE Ravenclaws, are always picked on. Do not fret. In the end, we always have more promising careers and better lives then those who have opposed us. But you look as if something else is on you mind. Do tell.”
“Alright…” Luna went on and, for some reason, told the Grey Lady her life story.
“Interesting,” said the Grey Lady. “I don’t think there is any way of knowing what that spell was. You say it was a purple flash. Purple is the color of energy transfer, and of change. Maybe the woman transferred some of her loneliness into you? Maybe she somehow knew that a boy out there was waiting to be helped… I will never know, and you neither will you. The one thing you have to do is decide whether you are going to let it change your life for the better, or the worse. Are you going to spend the rest of your life wondering about this spell? Or can you just sit and wait for the opportunity to help this boy, whom you suspect is Harry Potter? The choice is yours, but I have to go now. I liked talking to you, Luna Lovegood. You are my favorite Ravenclaw.”
“Thank you, Mrs. I will really take what you told me to heart.”
“I know you will, Luna. Good bye.” She began to drift away. “Oh, and by the way, I will keep an eye out for your stuff!”
Luna continued to walk through the hall when she came upon Harry Potter.
“Hello,” said Luna vaguely, feeling uncertain as to why he was not at the feast.
“How come you’re not at the feast?” he asked her. It was strange talking to him like this, especially because they were alone.
“Well, I’ve lost most of my possessions,” said Luna calmly, as if she was saying ‘nice day, isn’t it?’“ People take them and hide them, you know. But it’s the last night, and I really do need them back. I’ve been putting up signs.”
“How come people hide your stuff?” he asked her. She could tell he did not understand what it was like to be her. Give him faith
“Oh…well…” Luna shrugged. “I think they think I’m a bit odd, you know. Some people call me ‘Loony’ Lovegood, actually.”
“That’s no reason for them to take your stuff,” Harry said. “Do you want me to help you find them?”
“Oh, no,” she said, smiling at him. It was easy to smile at him, for some reason. “They’ll come back, they always do. It was just that I wanted to pack tonight. Anyway…why aren’t you at the feast?”
Harry shrugged. “Just didn’t feel like it.”
“No,” said Luna. “I don’t suppose you would. That man that the Death Eaters killed was your godfather, wasn’t he? Ginny told me.”
Luna could tell it was a sensitive topic, but even the sensitive topics needed to be talked about.
“Have you… I mean, who…has anyone you’ve known ever died?” asked Harry.
Luna frowned. For some reason, she did not mind telling him about her mother. “Yes, my mother. She was a quite extraordinary witch, you know, but she liked to experiment and one of her spells went rather badly wrong one day. I was only nine.”
“I’m sorry,” Harry said.
“Yes, it was rather horrible. I still feel sad about it once in a while.
But I’ve still got Dad. And anyway, it is not as though I’ll never see Mum again, right?”
“Er”isn’t it?” said Harry. He looked uncertain. Had he heard the voices, too? Yes, he must have, since he had lost both of his parents.
“Oh, come on. You heard the voices from behind the veil, didn’t you?”
“You mean…” stuttered Harry.
“Yes, they were in that room with the archway and the veil. They were just lurking out of sight, that’s all. You know you heard them.”
They looked at each other. Luna was smiling slightly. She could tell Harry was upset because of his loss. And yet, he seemed to be misguided, almost like a fish swimming downstream instead of upstream. She had to guide him in the right direction. She had to show him that it was alright to be afraid, and that he would not be letting his godfather down. She believed in so many extraordinary things…could she spread some of those beliefs to him?
“Are you sure you don’t want my help looking for your stuff?” he said.
“Oh, no,” said Luna. “No, I think I’ll just go down to the Great Hall and have some pudding and wait for it all to show up… it always does in the end… Well, have a nice holiday, Harry.”
“Yeah…yeah, you too,” he said. Luna could tell he was thinking about what she had said. Luna could tell he was beginning to believe again.
Find the boy, help him, and show him good faith, for if his faith dies, so will the rest of the wizarding world…
But I'm not Broken by Avenger_of_Dumbldore
Chapter Notes: A HUGE thanks to my amazing BETA: Little_kitty