Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition Season 4: Round 4
Team: Kenmare Kestrels
Position: Beater 1
Prompt: What would life be like a week after Voldemort rises to power?
Optional Prompts:
5 (dialogue) "Who cares? We could be dead in a couple of hours."
12 (word) cruel
13 (object) Time Turner
Barely a week after the Final Battle for Hogwarts, Lord Voldemort took charge of Wizarding Britain. A few wizards and witches had made it out before Voldemort had closed the borders, but most of the Light Side had been decimated.
~LL~
Luna looked at the beaded bag thrust in her face. "What do I need that for?"
"Luna," Hermione panted, rubbing her face with her shoulder in an attempt to remove some of the sweat, "Just take the bag. You aren't on their radar right now."
"Yes, I am. Neville... He protected me and that put a target on my back, same as yours!" Luna argued.
"It doesn't matter anymore, Luna. Neville, Harry, R-Ron. They're all dead now. You can survive this, you just need to take my bag and run."
Luna took the bag and pulled the strap through her belt loops. She tied off the end to keep it from being left behind or falling loose. "I don't accept that this is the end, Hermione."
"It is. In less than a week, Vo-He killed nearly everyone who opposed Him. It's just us and only a handful of others that slipped through His grasp. He's getting stronger. Practically nothing can stop Him now- except what's in that bag. I'm sorry, Luna. I know it's cruel of me to ask, but I need you to end it for me. The curse that hit me during the fight yesterday is shutting my body down. Soon I'll suffocate, and the worst part is, I'll be aware of it the whole time. Please, Luna."
Luna looked on her friend in horror. "Hermione! I can't-"
"Who cares? We could be dead in a couple of hours. I know I will be. At the rate we're going, you'd be better off without me slowing you down! You don't even have to use Avada Kedavra. Just use Diffendo and cut off my head."
"Oh, Merlin. Hermione, no!"
"Do it, Luna! The bag will help you get out of here. A wand won't allow its master to kill themselves. You have to...please, Luna."
Luna lurched forward and wrapped her arms around Hermione. "I'm so sorry, Hermione. I will try my best to survive."
Hermione closed her eyes and Luna stepped back. "Diffendo."
Hermione's body and head hit the ground separately. Luna fell to her knees and curled her arms around her torso.
~LL~
Two days after Luna beheaded Hermione, and nine days after the fall of the Light Side, Luna finally found a cave and was able to throw enough wards and spells around to make it invisible to the Dark. Once she had slept for a few hours, she took the beaded bag and summoned everything out of it.
Three tall stacks of books settled to the left, a mixture of clothes piled to the right, and assorted knickknacks landed in the middle. Luna dismissed the books and clothes, vanishing them back into the bag. She again looped the beaded bag around her belt. She started to sort through the random mess that was left. "Broken. Garbage. Rubbish. Useful. Useful. Merlin!" Luna yelped when her fingers tangled in the golden chain of Hermione's Time Turner. She pulled it out of the pile and sat back on her heels as she examined it.
Luna absentmindedly slipped the chain over her head as she fiddled with the rings around the hourglass.
~LL~
Luna's head snapped up and her fingers fumbled with the Time Turner as she heard a voice yell out near her hiding place.
"I can sense magic here! There must be a Mudblood or Blood Traitor nearby! FIND THEM!"
Luna gasped as she felt herself get pulled. The world went dark, and Luna knew no more.
~LL~
Luna jolted awake and looked around frantically. "What happened to me..."
"Are you awake now, Miss?" a young voice asked, startling the already confused girl.
"Wha- How- Who are you?" Luna stammered as she flinched back from the speaker.
"Whoa! Easy, there. I'm not going to hurt you. You're like me. Special. Special people don't deserve to be hurt." The speaker stepped forward into the light and Luna saw her rescuer for the first time.
He was tall, with black hair and equally dark eyes, and didn't appear to be much older than Luna. His robes weren't custom, but they were tailored and well maintained. He held her wand in his right hand with the grip out so she could take it back. She could see his own wand tucked into his left sleeve.
"My w-wand." Luna reached forward and snatched the familiar aspen and unicorn hair wand from the stranger's hand.
The young man took a few steps back after relinquishing the wand and stood with his hands visible. "What's your name, Miss? Where did you come from?"
Luna shook her head. "I don't even know the date, where I am, or your name. Common courtesy dictates that you at least inform me of your name before asking mine."
"Ah," he bowed slightly, "Thomas. Thomas Riddle. Now may I have your name?"
Luna's eyes widened and she swallowed, "What day is it?"
"Sunday?"
"The date," Luna stated bluntly as she gawked at Thomas.
"May 9th, 1943."
Luna promptly fainted.
~TR~
"What in Merlin's name-" Thomas rushed forward and gathered the girl into his arms. "Hopefully Professor Slughorn will have kept my potions. She'll have need of them once she reawakens."
Thomas left the cave he had found the girl in and used the Portkey he'd made in Transfiguation for extra credit, to transport them to the gates of Hogwarts.
Thomas shifted the girl around to lay his hand on the gate and use his heritage of Salazar to open the gates without a Professor. He had found out just whom was in his bloodline earlier that year. He'd been horrified to learn that his mother had dosed his father to force him to love her. He had changed his name legally through the Ministry to his father's full first name, Thomas, but some of the Professors refused to acknowledge it.
Thomas looked at the girl's troubled face. "Why were you hidden in that cave, Dove?"
Thomas took a lesser-used route to get to the Potions Professor's Office, and managed to encounter not a single person or ghost. "Professor Slughorn?" Thomas called, kicking the door lightly so as not to jostle the girl.
He glanced down and studied the aristocratic features, most probably indicating her pureblood status, of the girl in his arms again. He quickly looked up when the door opened and Professor Dumbledore came out. Thomas swiftly stepped back to avoid being bumped into by the Transfiguration Professor.
"Tom, my boy," The Professor said jovially, casting a critical eye over him and his charge. "And whom might this be?"
Thomas turned to hide the girl's face from view. "Please don't call me that, Professor. She is no one of consequence. I was just bringing her to Professor Slughorn for a diagnostic spell and some potions."
Professor Dumbledore's eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to respond. He was cut off before he could say a word by Professor Slughorn walking out to see why his door was still open. "Ah, Mr. Riddle. Good day, Albus. I will see you at dinner." Professor Slughorn waved away Professor Dumbledore and showed Thomas into his office.
Thomas sat in the armchair in the corner, arranging the girl in his lap so she could be comfortable.
Professor Slughorn closed the door and returned to his desk. "Now then. Who is your friend there, Mr. Riddle? Is she alright?"
Thomas cradled the girl carefully and looked at his Head of House. "I honestly don't know. I was out looking for ingredients and found her. She was confused and scared. She didn't tell me her name before she fainted. I brought her here to see if you would run the diagnostic spells on her and see what potions would be best to return her to full health. She is in a frightful condition. I fear she may have been attacked by Muggles."
"Why didn't you take her up to the Infirmary?"
"And have Professor Dumbledore come up to tell her I'm an awful person and to stay away from me? The Matron is friends with him, and you know that is what would happen. I just-" Thomas took a breath and sighed softly, "I just want her to get better. I want to make sure nothing happens to her- nothing more, in any case."