When Death Comes Knocking
Only the phoenix arises and does not descend. And everything changes. And nothing is truly lost.
Neil Gaiman – The Sandman: The Wake
Shortly after the funeral, Harry slipped away from Ron and Hermione. When they had left the ceremony, having decided what they had to do, he had explained to them about his decision to break up with Ginny. Ron had promptly gone off to talk to his sister, and Hermione had rushed up to her dorm, saying that there was something she needed to do and refusing to elaborate, a pattern of behaviour that Harry had become used to over the years. He was grateful for his friends' support, but he felt he needed some time to himself to think about things, so he slipped off, back out into the grounds. Scrimgeour had tried to corner him again, but Neville, Ernie, Dean and the twins had appeared out of nowhere, Ernie mock-pompously introducing the quintet as "representatives of Dumbledore's Army" and asking the Minister for an official statement on the Headmaster's death, giving Harry the opportunity to leg it in the opposite direction. Dean had winked and given him a thumbs-up in response to his look of gratitude.
He ended up sitting by the lake, under the same tree where Snape had called Lily a Mudblood all those years ago, thinking. He knew he had a long, dark road ahead of him, that once he left Hogwarts everything was going to be different. He was afraid, and mostly he was afraid because he was dragging Ron and Hermione into danger. He knew they wanted to come, and they wouldn't let him go off alone, but still… they had no idea of the danger they faced. They thought they did, but they had never actually encountered Voldemort. They could not understand the sheer destructive power of his hate and madness and talent, even though he had tried to explain it to them. In fact, he mused, stung by the irony of it all, the only one of his friends to have ever confronted Voldemort was Ginny, and he had pushed her away. He had to push her away, she would have been in too much danger otherwise, and he knew that Ron understood that, that her parents and other brothers would understand when they heard, that hopefully she would understand and forgive him…
He didn't know how long he sat there, thinking about the future and mourning Dumbledore, and when he thought about it later he was unsure when the idea formed in his head that he should just sneak off before Ron and Hermione found him and go it alone. He was sitting there, his eyes closed, contemplating his choices, when somebody sat down beside him. A hand grasped his.
"I spoke to Ginny," said a sing-song voice. Luna.
He grunted.
"I… I think I understand. You're not coming back next year, are you?"
His eyes snapped open.
"No," he said slowly, "I'm not."
"And Ronald and Hermione are going with you, wherever you're going, I assume?"
"They – they want to," he replied.
Her round silvery eyes widened.
"But you're thinking of leaving without them."
He nodded.
"You know, Harry," she began, squeezing his hand, "you don't have to fight He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named," she paused, frowned slightly, and then resumed, "I mean, you don't have to fight Voldemort on your own."
Harry felt his jaw dropping slightly.
"You said his name," he said weakly.
"Yes, well, you see, I know that you do, and Hermione does, and I thought it was rather brave of you to do it because of the threat he poses to you," she replied matter-of-factly, "but then I realised that if we do things like refusing to say his name, we make him seem even more frightening than he is, and we build up this fear of him in our heads and teach our children that he is the most frightening thing imaginable. And that's foolish, really. There are scarier things out there. Dementors, for example."
Disarmed by this oddly logical form of courage, Harry answered with the first thing that came into his head.
"When I get too near a Dementor, I can hear my parents being killed."
Luna's grip on his hand tightened.
"I see my Mum dying," she said softly.
He squeezed back, and they sat for a few minutes in companionable silence. Then Harry spoke abruptly.
"Luna, I want you know something. Lord Voldemort was born Tom Marvolo Riddle. His mother, Merope Gaunt, was a pure-blood descendant of Slytherin who ran away from home with a Muggle called Tom Riddle who she had ensnared using a Love Potion. She stopped using the potion, he left her when she was pregnant, she died shortly after she gave birth, and her son was brought up in a Muggle orphanage. In his teens, he formed a gang of followers in school, invented the name Lord Voldemort, took up the cause of blood purity, discovered he was Slytherin's heir and opened the Chamber of Secrets." Her eyes widened again. "He killed Moaning Myrtle. But all he is, the champion of the old pure-blood families, is an impoverished half-blood bully with a taste for violence. Always remember that. He's no more a lord than I am."
"I don't know, Harry," said Luna seriously, "you are very noble."
He chuckled and she smiled happily at him.
"I know you can beat him, Harry. We all do. We believe in you. I want you to remember that. Do you promise you will?"
"I promise."
"Good," she said, seemingly satisfied that she had accomplished something important to her.
A few minutes later, Ron and Hermione found them. They must have made an odd sight given the events of the day; Luna sitting cross-legged on the grass, still holding Harry's hand, and explaining how to detect the presence of Nargles.
"What were you doing, disappearing like that?" demanded Hermione. "We thought you'd gone off without us!"
Harry swallowed, waiting for Luna's tendency towards unexpected bluntness to kick in and reveal that he had been planning just that, but Luna just winked at him and turned to Hermione.
"Oh, no," she said serenely, "he just needed some time to think. He can be quite sensible sometimes, you know."
"Told you," said Ron, smirking at the brunette, "c'mon, you two, they're serving a big dinner for the guests, might as well go grab some food."
"I'm not really hungry," replied Harry.
"Oh, come on, Harry," said Luna, standing up and pulling at his hand, "I know it has been rather difficult for you lately, but you need to get your strength up before you go off doing whatever it is you're doing. I think I could manage a little pudding… Don't worry," she added, seeing the shocked looks on Ron and Hermione's faces, "I don't know what it is. He hasn't told me, so I'm sure it must be a secret," she hugged Hermione quickly and shook Ron's hand, "but I wish you the best of luck with your mission."
To Harry's surprise, Ron gave her a brief hug.
"Thanks for looking after this prat," he muttered.
"Oh, that's alright," she said vaguely, "I rather enjoyed it, actually."
And with that, the four of them walked back up to the school, knowing that despite all the changes that lay ahead of them, they still had their friends to rely on.
A/N: This was written for two challenges, Ami L. Mendal's Title Challenge (my title was 'When Death Comes Knocking') and Rae's Lightning Fast competition, which gave me a time limit of three days from the 27th to the 29th of June. And yeah, for once Luna didn't say something enigmatic while disappearing through a door at the end! :P