Chapter 1: Lu
For perhaps the first time in a long time, Luna felt happy. There was something comforting in a friend's genuine query and gesture to help gather her things, the ones which her housemates had decided to scatter throughout the castle.
(It was after all the main part of the game they had all called Losing Luna, where the winner would be determined based on the one who could lose most possessions of Luna's. In the end though, in their minds at least everyone was a winner. With the sole exception of the person at the receiving end, Luna Lovegood)
She sighed. Now was not the time to think such thoughts. No, some good had indeed come out of it and she was determined to hang on to it.
Her train ride back had been an interesting learning experience for her. It allowed her to see past the surface of each person much better this time round. The trip to Hogwarts had been an interesting one as well, but at that point she hadn't spoken to any of the others with the exception of the two youngest Weasleys. The return leg though, she knew each of them personally, and as is wont to happen after an adrenaline filled trip, there was a camadarie between them, each of them having learnt some rather painful lessons.
And that shared experience had allowed her to unmask the golden trio (as everyone but they themselves called them) as well as Neville Longbottom and Ginny Weasley.
A smile graced her lips, as her eyes continued to stare unseeing out of the window in her room at the Rookery. There was something she had sensed, between varied parties in the compartment and it would be interesting to see how it all played out.
Her father had forgotten to pick her up from the station again. Actually that wasn't quite true. Her father didn't realize even that it was the end of term time and that she would be back. But that didn't bother Luna too much. She had been used to doing this travel by herself from her Christmas trip during her first year.
From the Slippery Six (as she was sure The Daily Prophet was going to call them) her thoughts came to dwell on her father.
She was sure that the impression that more than half the magical world had of him as a nutter was ill-founded. His ideas were strange, yes, but that did not necessarily mean his screws were a little off, did it? No, in Luna's book her dad was as close to normal as could be. One needed to spend time with him to find out his true nature. Someday the magical world would realize that too.
Her thoughts then shifted to her other parent, the one who had departed from her life at a young age. An accident, they told her. And plain bad luck, they told her. Her mom, who always ensured that she took the highest of precautions before conducting her, at times, highly volatile studies, had, for reasons best known to her, underestimated the potency of the potion that she was working on.
Luna could remember that night very well. It had been a glorious day, with the sun out in full glory, ensuring that every living being that depended at some level on it got enough of its attention. She had sat by the stream that ran behind the Rookery and gazed at the sparkling water till the time the temptation to jump into the stream overwhelmed her.
She wasn't a gifted swimmer any means, and so she had stayed quite close to the shore making sure that she had enough of a support to hold onto so that she wasn't swept by the current of the stream.
The whole experience had been exhilarating to her and once she was out of the pool, she debated with herself whether or not to tell her parents. Just as she had made up her mind to confess, she was thrown off her feet into the nearest tree. Dazed, she got up to see that her mom's lab was on fire.
Panic set in. She was terrified for her mother. "Please let her be OK, please let her be OK!", over and over she prayed to all the deities she knew. "I swear I will not do something that mom and dad told me not to do. Please, please let her be OK"
Luna ran. She ran like she had never run before, an effort that along with the blow she had just received, was quite substantial for a girl of her age.
She got there just as her dad apparated to the same spot. Ward stones tied to the welfare of the house had obviously indicated to him that something had gone terribly wrong and he had arrived as soon as he could.
Father and daughter looked at one another, expressions of fear etched clearly for the other to see. Xeno would have liked to have had more adults with him, but at the moment that was probably not going to happen. The Patronus charm, he could have used, but he was sure that he would not be able to conjure up a happy enough memory at this point, with the scene in front of him.
Xeno tried to put out the fire with the water spell, Aguamenti, but it proved to be useless. He kept increasing the power behind the spell in a desperate attempt to get something to work. But nothing worked.
Finally, abandoning all other options, Xeno had turned to Luna, and given her a look that Luna would continue to remember for the rest of her life, before he ran into the lab. He did not stop at any point and simply rammed through the still bolted door inside.
For Luna, the wait was excruciating and it was another thing that she would never forget. She waited anxiously, her fears growing with every passing minute. She briefly thought of contacting the Weasleys or the Diggorys but she wasn't sure how she would be able to. And she wanted to make sure that her parents were safe.
Finally after what seemed like eternity to Luna, her dad emerged. For one heart-stopping she thought she saw only him coming out. But the next instant she realized that Xeno was carrying Celeste in his arms, bridal style.
She watched as they approached, and as they reached closer she realized that her mother's chest was still.
Panic, far surpassing the one on her run, took control of her. She looked for reassurance from her father, but he seemed to be staring morosely at the ground where he had laid Celeste down. When he finally looked at her, she involuntarily took a step back.
The eyes looking at her were devoid of any and all emotion. There was not a spark of life in them.
And for Luna, who had always noticed that her father's eyes were always twinkling with merriment or had an intensity that very few could ever hope to match, she knew what that meant.
Her mother was dead.
The last thing she remembered before blackness claimed her and as she saw her father concentrate his magic on to one of the wardstones nearby (no doubt to call someone for help this time), was wondering who it was that had let out a scream of pure grief and one conveying immense loss and realizing it was herself, moments before she knew no more.
When she came back to, she was told it was an accident. That now was the time she would have to be strong. That their doors were always open to her if she needed any help.
Luna remembered not being aware of any of those conversations, just that they happened as the voices in her ear kept changing from time to time, and from what her dad told her later. She just sat at the same location, staring off into nothingness, not really comprehending much about what had happened, but just knowing that she would never see her mum awake again.
That she would never get to hear her sing her a lullaby again.
That she would never be able to hold interesting conversations with her again.
A sudden idea popped into the mind of the nine year old girl, and she stood up abruptly. The change in position was met with very vocal protests by her body and she very nearly fell down in the process. Only her dad supporting her at the nick of time allowed her to remain upright.
She turned towards her dad, who was looking at her with utmost concern, worried for her. She asked him in a tone that demanded an answer and yet managed to sound both confident and vulnerable at the same time, as only a child can.
"Daddy! Did you try kissing Mum? They say it is magic and it always works in those fairy tales!"
She remembered her dad's response. Or rather the lack of it. His mouth kept opening and closing multiple times like a fish trying to breathe on land, with no sound coming out, while tears began to track their way down his cheeks.
The words spoken, in a moment of unbearable grief, would remain Luna's motto for years to come
"There are no such things as fairy tales in real life, sweetie"
She sighed and turned back into her room, with the gesture returning back to the present. Now was not the time to be dwelling on this. And speaking of time, she cast the Tempus charm to find out exactly what the hour was.
It was well past sunset now, and the sky too had changed its colours from blue to blushing pink to dark blue approaching black. It was time to get things ready for dinner and surprise her father as well. Hopefully her father had kept something at home. She really didn't fancy walking out into the adjoining forest for some berries and further on for some fish or to hike to the nearest town to get her supplies.
Keeping her fingers crossed, she began her trek to the kitchen, all the while thinking and hoping that her new friends would write to her.
She had just made new ones, and she desperately wanted their friendships to last.
Oh how it would last