March 1990
"I shouldn't have…I shouldn't have…"
Pandora Lovegood wandered down Diagon Alley, head bobbing side to side, muttering to herself. Her nine year old daughter, Luna, followed closely behind, still shaking off the after-effects of the side-along.
"Mum…"
"We need to find Mr Mulpepper's right away, sweetheart," she said, glancing nervously up the street. Sweat ran down her face.
"There," Luna said, pointing to a tiny shop with dusty windows next to Slug and Jiggers. She took her mother's hand—which had begun to tremble—and led her across the cobblestones and into the shop.
"May I help you?" said a skinny man from behind the counter.
"Do you have any Deadlyius?"
The shopkeeper eyed her up and down. "What would you be using it for?"
"I was trying to combine Wiggenweld with Emerald Potion," Pandora said, as if this explained her request.
He narrowed his eyes. "And why would you do that?"
Pandora sighed. "The moondew drops and lionfish spine both contain—"
"Yes, yes," he said, cutting across her, bored.
A spasm shook her body. When it was over, she closed her eyes momentarily and swallowed. "But I didn't take into account the compounding effects of the syrup of Hellebore…"
The shopkeeper pursed his lips.
"I've taken Mandrake root as a counter agent, but I've taken too much and now—"
"I don't have any Deadlyius."
"You don't have any?"
"Like I said, miss, we don't have any." He surveyed Luna's mother with distain. "You need to go to our Knockturn Alley location. We don't carry that kind of ingredient here," the shopkeeper added stiffly.
Her mum gripped the edge of the counter until her fingers were white, and began to sway.
"Mum, let's go. They don't have it."
"Thank you," Pandora said, and stumbled toward the door. Luna sidled up next to her mother, allowing the taller witch to put her arm around her shoulders for support.
"This way," Luna said, steering her mother to the right.
During their brief time in the shop, the sun had passed behind a line of dark clouds, so the sidewalk was now completely bathed in shadow. Luna noticed that the tips of her mother's fingers had turned a sickly shade of brown.
"Should we go to St Mungo's, mum?"
"No, dear one. I know just what I need."
"Maybe I should run ahead and get it for you."
"I'm afraid they won't sell it to you, little one." She paused for a moment to lean against a brick wall. "Besides, it's not far." She pushed herself away from the building, only to falter a moment later.
"Almost there," Luna said, smiling up at her mum reassuringly as they passed into Knockturn Alley. Pandora met her eye, a slow, small smile on her lips.
Catching herself on one of the uneven cobbles, Pandora, collapsed, pulling Luna down with her.
From across the alley, four men and a boy tumbled out of The White Wyvern, a billow of smoke, alcohol, light, and noise cascading out the door behind them and into the unusually warm night. They stumbled onto the street, the odor clinging to them and obscuring the scent of her mother's perfume. The door to the pub slammed shut behind them, cloaking the alley in darkness and silence once again.
Luna rose to her feet. She tried unsuccessfully to pull her mother upright, as Pandora drifted in and out of consciousness.
"Excuse me, sirs, could you help me lift my mum?" Luna struggled to keep her voice steady and light in spite of her escalating fear.
They approached, taking their time, lining up shoulder-to-shoulder in order to block the alleyway; a wizard in a dirty brown cloak took a swig from a Firewhisky bottle and thrust it at the man next to him.
"We're trying to get to Mr Mulpepper's. She's not feeling well."
Luna stole a glance at the boy. He was roughly her own age, and tall, thin, and sour looking. He smirked under her inspection.
"Mulciber, it's the weirdo that married Lovegood."
"Like follows like," answered a man in a grey robe.
They laughed.
"Please," Luna said, trying to speak loudly enough for them to hear, "we're on our way to Mr Mulpepper's," she repeated. "She's sick and needs an ingredient for an antidote."
"St Mungo's too good for you, blood traitor?"
"Playin' with things you shouldn't, eh?"
Several of the men chuckled.
"We have to get there right away. I'm sure—"
"You're sure of what, exactly, girl?" asked the man in the dirty robe rather sharply.
"I—"
"The only thing that you can be sure of is that if you're a blood traitor, we aren't going to help you."
Luna felt the rain begin and the dark grip her.
A tall, thin man with silver hair said, "So, what do you think we ought to do here, Theo?" He had a nose the same shape as the boy's, on a long, lean face.
The boy didn't respond.
"Come now, Theo. What do you think?" The man in the grey robe spoke, his lips curled in a smirk as he sized Luna's mother up and down. "We could have ourselves a fine time with these two. There's even one your size."
The boy met Luna's eyes and sneered. "I want nothing to do with blood traitors."
The older man cocked an eyebrow and stared at the boy. A moment later he barked a laugh. "Good choice, son."
"Merlin, they stink. I can smell the bitch's perfume. It's turning my stomach," said the wizard named Mulciber.
He turned and spat on the sidewalk, missing Luna's mum by a few scant inches.
"Please," Luna begged, "she'll die if you leave us here."
Pandora chose that moment to gain consciousness; Luna dragged her part way up to standing. She was nearly upright when her head bobbed, and she slumped down to the street again.
"Well, well. Looks like you lot might be able to get up on your own. We can't have blood traitors wandering around Knockturn Alley, now can we?" remarked the man in the dirty brown cloak, as he withdrew his wand from the sleeve of his robes. "How about we keep them from doing just that?" He pointed his wand at Luna and her mother. "Petrificus Totalus."
Luna felt the tendrils of the spell tighten around her; her arms slammed to her sides and her legs seized together. For a length of a breath, she teetered, then met the uneven cobblestones with a wet smack. She landed a foot away from her mother, whose eyes were wide with fear.
The four men laughed.
The shortest man clapped the spell-caster hard in the shoulder, and offered him an open bottle of Firewhisky. "Good one, Dolohov."
The men turned to walk down the street, laughing as they stepped over Luna and her mother, leaving the boy alone there, staring at them.
Luna's jaw was bound by the spell; she turned her eyes to the boy—Theo, she remembered—and pleaded as best she could silently. …help us…please...
He looked down his nose and smirked at her, then squatted down until he was only inches from Luna's face.
Pandora shuddered under the full body bind. Luna broke eye contact with Theo only to see her mother's eyes roll upward.
He swiveled to look at her mother, and Luna and Theo both watched, transfixed, as blood dripped out her mother's nose and she moved no more.
"Maybe next time she'll go to St Mungo's instead of littering Knockturn Alley." Theo said snidely, and rose to follow the men, the echo of his footsteps fading into the night.
Unable to make a sound, Luna screamed as loud as her soul would allow.
o0o0o0o
June 1992
Theo opened his eyes to the moonlight streaming through the silk curtains in his bedroom, his heart galloping in his chest and his face sodden. Wiping the sweat from his eyes, he sat up on the side of his bed and desperately tried to quell his shaking.
Inevitably, the nightmares would become worse whenever he was home from Hogwarts. It seemed that whomever appeared in his dreams somehow knew he was here.
He glanced across his room at the picture window that had been left ajar. It opened up to the back of the Manor property, filled with gardenias. Theo didn't know why Dalby never closed it: even on rainy nights like this one, the house elf refused to lock the window.
The rain tickled the glass, rivulets danced down the panes as if they fancied themselves to be miniature rivers.
Rising from the bed, Theo rummaged in the dark for his denims and cloak; he found his wand and padded into the hall and out the back door onto the lawn.
It was time to take refuge in the woods. He didn't know why, but somehow the vision of her silent cries never reached him there.
o0o0o0o
"Master Nott, is something amiss?"
Dalby stood in front of the chair where Theo had collapsed when he had returned from the wood, its bulbous eyes wide with concern. "Master Nott is soaking wet. Master Nott has barely slept in his bed."
He dragged his hands down his face. "I'm…I…"
Dalby's ears drooped.
"The screams stop when I'm in the woods. When I'm…here, in summer and it's raining…" Theo ran his hand through his damp hair. "She's screaming but I can't hear her…"
"Dalby can fix it. Dalby can make Master Nott forget."
"You can Obliviate me?"
"Dalby fixes Master Nott with forget charms. Dalby is the best elf with forget charms. Dalby will even make you forget you asked for a forget charm."
o0o0o0o
September 1992
The first years swayed and fidgeted nervously as McGonagall called out their names one by one and the Sorting Hat bellowed out house after house. About midway through the list, a petite blonde settled onto the stool, looking around the Great Hall with wide, grey eyes.
Who is she? I've seen her somewhere.
Theo cocked his head to the side and tried to ignore the din at the Slytherin table. He'd been talking to Draco when McGonagall had read the girl's name, so he hadn't heard it.
"I didn't see you on the train," Draco continued, distracting Theo momentarily from the blonde first year waiting on the pronouncement from the hat.
"Ravenclaw!" the hat roared, and the girl bounded toward her housemates, amidst the applause of those already seated and under the scrutiny of the other tables.
"My father was traveling to Bulgaria and had to drop me off come early. I've spent the last few days with Snape and McGonagall. It was hell."
…a woman laying on cobblestone in the rain…
He shook off the memory of his recurring nightmare. Certainly, the only reason the dream surfaced now was because the girl shared the same hair as the woman in his dream. Right?
o0o0o0o
Two Weeks Later
Luna rarely slept.
As a rule, Luna rested for an hour or two, then settled in the window seat of Ravenclaw tower to read by wandlight or to enjoy the view of the grounds in the semi-dark; she stayed until she felt tired enough to go to bed. On rare nights, when she was simply too antsy to sit, she ventured to the Forbidden Forest to visit her friends.
Looking out, she noticed the tall Slytherin boy cross the moonlight strewn lawn, as he so often did on nights when it rained. He always entered the forest at the same spot, stayed for a few hours, and returned to the castle before the sun rose.
She knew him, of course.
Tonight, for some reason Luna couldn't have explained, she decided to follow him. Luna found her cloak and crept out of the tower and down the long hall to exit the door he had used.
Where would someone like that go? And why?
Luna caught sight of him just inside the edge of the forest, stationed on the ground in a small clearing, his face angled toward the night sky. The rain fell unfettered on his face; his eyes were shuttered against the darkness surrounding him.
Luna slid away before he could open his eyes.
o0o0o0o
"Ginny," Luna asked as she sat on her four-poster, brushing her hair, "who is the Slytherin boy that usually sits across from Draco Malfoy at dinner? He's tall and thin, with brown hair."
The red-head looked up from rifling through her steamer trunk. "Theo Nott. Why?"
"No particular reason," Luna said, crossing the room to open the top drawer of her dressing-table.
"What's that? It's pretty. Smells like gardenias."
"Oh, this is the perfume my mother wore. Smelling it makes me feel like she might have just given me a hug."
"You must miss her."
"Yes. She died when I was nine."
"Merlin, Luna, I didn't know. I'm sorry."
"Say, maybe you're putting it on for Theo Nott, too?"
"In a way," Luna answered, and left it at that.
o0o0o0o
October 1992
Theo awoke with a start. No matter that he was in the fucking basement, somehow his brain still knew it was raining and served up his usual nightmare of cobblestones and silent screams.
Of course I would have to go to a school where it rains all the fucking time.
Aggravated, he yanked his cloak on and stomped out of the dungeon and up the stairs, not caring a whit how much noise he was making. Filch can kiss my arse.
Tromping through the wet grass, Theo finally reached the edge of the forest, welcoming the relief the wood brought. He sighed and waded deeper inside until he found his usual spot.
Someone was already there: the blonde from Ravenclaw was standing in his tiny clearing with a rucksack on her shoulder and a misty smile on her face.
The rain stopped.
The witch turned to him slowly and cocked her head to the side.
"Theo Nott," she asked in her sing-song voice, "do you like to walk in the woods?"
He smirked. "Yeah, I just love it here," he said. "I'd much rather be here, cold and wet and talking with you, than asleep in my warm, comfortable bed."
"Then why are you here?"
"Why are you here?"
"I'm visiting friends."
"Yeah," he said, looking around dramatically, "I can see that." He gestured to the dark surrounding them. "Lots of friends here."
She allowed her rucksack to fall off her shoulder; it met the mud at her feet with a THWACK.
"Look, I know who you are," Theo said.
"You do?" she asked, lifting an eyebrow.
"You're Loony Lovegood," he scoffed, "which explains why you're here hanging out with imaginary friends in the Forbidden Forest at night."
"You think you know who I am, Theo Nott, but you don't."
Lovegood opened her rucksack and bent to rummage through it.
"There's a woman who appears in my dreams, and she reminds me of you," he remarked suddenly. He didn't know what made him say that aloud, but suddenly he was terrified that he'd admitted it.
"Really?" she asked, her attention still on the contents of her bag.
"Same hair. Same voice." He moved toward her. As he got closer, he smelled something that reminded him of…gardenias.
She glanced up and met his eye. "Is that all you remember?"
He just managed to glimpse that she had taken a large piece of uncooked red meat, dripping with blood, from her rucksack, when he heard a twig snap behind him. Suddenly, the witch looked beyond his right shoulder, and began to smile.
"Oh, hello," she said.
He swiveled around to see a horse-like creature with featherless wings, its body devoid of any muscle whatsoever; it seemed to be made of black skin stretched across bone and sinew. It regarded him with glossy, white eyes.
Luna offered the lump of flesh the creature, and it approached them as a horse would, its nostrils flaring as it tested the air. It opened its mouth, revealing two-inch fangs.
Theo shuddered and backed away.
"He's nothing to be afraid of," she said, feeding the creature another slice of shiny, wet flesh. Blood dripped off it like rain, splattering onto the ground at her feet. "Amazing creatures, don't you think?" she mused.
The creature nuzzled her hand.
"What…what is…" he managed.
Several more emerged from the dark surrounding them. Luna began to remove more meat from her rucksack, feeding each in turn. As Theo tried to back further away, he tripped on an exposed root, sending him careening into the trunk of a pine. His hands ripped open on the bark.
"They're Thestrals. They can only been seen by those that have witnessed someone die."
More crowded the clearing. Their sunken coats shimmered, strangely reminding him of a snake. One ruffled its wings.
Theo swallowed, finding his throat dry. "But—"
"You see, sometimes dreams keep you from forgetting. They help you remember…your mom, say." She stroked the neck of one of the Thestrals, smiling up at it. "Other times, dreams are trying to tell you something. Maybe something you've overlooked. Maybe something you've forgotten."
As much as Theo wanted to run, his feet remained rooted on the spot.
"Which one is it for you, Theo?"
It began to rain again.
…a woman on the cobblestones…a girl with matching hair and grey eyes pleading for help…the laughter of his father, Mulciber, Rosier, and Dolohov…the witch shuddering and breathing her last, blood dripping out her nose and her…daughter screaming mutely next to her…
Theo slid down to the damp earth and began to weep.
"I see that you remember her now," Luna said softly. "I never forgot her. I didn't want you to, either."
One of the creatures sniffed the air and turned its white eyes on Theo.
Theo looked down at his bleeding hands and began to scream.