Now She Could Be Sleeping
Luna sat on her bed, Indian-style, surrounded by blue fluffy blankets and clothed in a cozy nightgown. She held her father's latest version of The Quibbler in her hands, eyes widening as she read about how a magical creature called Old Smokey used to terrorize Muggles by appearing to them as black smoke or in the form of the deceased. Her father had promised her a magnificent gift for tomorrow, her tenth birthday, and he'd told her that there was a clue for her hidden somewhere in this issue. She adored her father's magazine, so reading it would be well worth her time even if she didn't come across the hint. But she wasn't about to give up yet; her father would be arriving home from a trip in about ten hours and she wanted to be ready for him with a guess—a correct guess.
Her tongue poked out between her two pink little lips as she turned the magazine sideways to try to solve a puzzle. There was a line of blanks at the bottom of the page for the letters that she now was almost certain would spell out her clue. Her eyes lit up with a twinkle as she discovered the first letter: H.
BOOM! Luna flinched in surprise at the ear-splitting rumble that must surely be another one of her mother's experiments exploding. "Oh!" she cried as her pen tumbled to the floor, displaced by her jump of surprise. The lights flickered for a moment. Her candelabrum was swinging precariously back and forth overhead. "Mum?" she called out. "Is everything alright down there?" Her voice was a touch higher than normal—which was already rather high—and its customary serenity was spoiled by a slight quiver. Usually the accidents weren't this bad, and usually her mum would readily announce "I'm okay! Everything's perfectly peachy down here!" and get back to work.
"Mum!" she called out again, swinging her legs over the side of the bed and letting The Quibbler fall to the ground. She slipped her feet into two white, fuzzy unicorn slippers, each with a horn sticking up out of the front. She trotted down the stairs with a light pitter-patter from her unicorn-encased feet, and peered down the next flight of stairs into the basement.
The top few steps were all that was visible; the rest dropped off into a cavernous pitch-black darkness. Luna tentatively set a foot down on the first step, trembling. If only there were light! If only she could see what was down there! Bang! An aftershock from the explosion caused Luna to flinch and almost lose her balance. It sounded like something metallic was rolling around down there. "Mum?" she tried one last time, heart pounding. Something did not feel right. Oh, if only she had a wand—she certainly knew the spell—or perhaps one of those Muggle "flashlights." She knew her mother needed her help, but she couldn't bring herself to enter the darkness.
Suddenly a warm glow of light surged through the basement, crawling right up to the tips of her slippers. Luna knew she had caused it…magic without a wand. She ran down the stairs immediately, needing no further cue. Her legs were a bit wobbly from being so anxious, and she found she needed to grasp the railing for support. As she swung around the corner of the staircase, her heart caught in her throat. A horrible weight hollowed out her insides and dragged her down to the floor. She had never felt anything like it, not in any of the past ten years of her life.
There was a single sight that could cause so much misery for poor little Luna, and it was laid out in front of her at this moment. It was her mum. Lying on the floor. Arm outstretched toward her daughter, head lying pale and still just beyond it. A bit of soot covered her mother's cheek; Luna tried to gently rub it off. A trickle of blood started to pool behind her mother's head; a single tear rolled off Luna's cheek and joined it.
Her once-vibrant green eyes stared dully up at the ceiling. She wasn't breathing. Her heart wasn't beating. She was gone.
Burying her head against her mum's shoulder, their golden wavy hair tangling together, Luna was reminded of their nightly bedtime ritual: "Night, night." "Sleep tight." "Don't let the wrackspurts bite." She wasn't even sure if wrackspurts did bite, but it was still fun to say.
Then she thought about how her mother would always peek into her room at night to watch her sleep. She'd remark that Luna was always such an innocent, adorable little creature when she was sleeping. And then the amendment: "Well, not that you aren't when you're awake!" Shortly after Luna first discovered this, she started going into her mother's room at night, to see how she looked when she was sleeping. But her mother was a very light sleeper—and a very good sneaker—and so she'd slip out of bed and jump in front of her daughter at the door, whispering, "Gotcha!" She'd chase her out into the hallway and gather her up in her arms, and together they'd twirl around and around. Luna would lay her head on her mother's shoulder, like she was doing now, and her mother would murmur "My Lovely Luna" in her ear. To which her daughter would affectionately respond, "My Magnificent Mum."
Luna gently brushed her hand down over her mother's eyes. Now she could be sleeping, Luna thought. Except she was never going to wake up again, never going to sneak up on her and whisper "Gotcha!" in the middle of the night, or murmur "My Lovely Luna" to her little curly-headed daughter.
"Sweet dreams," Luna whispered into her mother's ear.
Sorry about the Lost reference - I just couldn't resist! (But I didn't think it was enough to justify categorizing it as a crossover.) I know that the Luna in OotP find comfort in the fact that she'll see her mother again in the afterlife, and in my story I didn't really portray that - but she was six years younger here, and I view it as the sort of thing that would come to her gradually as she reflects back on her mother's death. And for any nitpickers out there, I know that her hair is supposed to be dirty blond, not golden, and not exactly curly, but...well, hair can change. :)