A/N: This was written for the Quidditch Little League Competition, Round 6.
Team: Hufflepuff
Position: Chaser 3
Main Prompt: Write something in the genre of "Mystery" - I took a different "twist" on this, but hopefully it's alright! :) - Other Prompts: (word): fantastical, (word): history, (opening sentence): "Time was running out"
Beta: EvilDime - as always, thank you very much! :)
Word Count: 1477
Time was running out.
Luna knew this, and yet it seemed somehow an odd idea to her. After all, how could time truly run out? It would simply keep running and running, no matter how slow one was or how fast one tried to chase it. Time was simply time. That was simply that.
But time was running out, and this meant that something had to be done.
Plucking off an early blossom from the Dirigible Plum plant she held, Luna studied it closely, noticing once again how the plant was so perfectly formed in order to open in time and produce a perfect plum. How this happened had always been a mystery to her, as were most things in her life.
People often thought of Luna as being entirely fantastical, but this wasn't really the case. Luna was a mystery because everything was entirely mysterious to her. It had always been this way, and up until now she had always been alright with that. But now, when the end of her life was so close that she could almost touch it, she realized that this was one mystery that she didn't know how to face.
Death.
The mystery to end all mysteries.
When Luna thought of death, she thought of that veil, or curtain, or whatever it had been in the Department of Mysteries that night. The one that seemed both so far away and yet so near to her that it may as well have happened yesterday.
She had never forgotten the voices that she had heard that night.
And now, she thought, I am going to join them.
She supposed this was the truth. And as much as she had always loved a good mystery during her life, she didn't like this one. Luna wanted to be sure of what would happen when she passed from this world.
Pushing her almost-white hair behind her ears, Luna studied the archway in front of her. She supposed it was more of a veil than a curtain, if she needed to define it. But she was quite certain that it was a passage. From this life to the next, whatever that meant.
She could hear the voices again. They were like a piece of history that just kept repeating themselves over and over again, and this frightened her. Repetition, monotony. Luna liked new things, fresh things. Excitement.
So why isn't this exciting?
Luna's husband had passed on, died, left, fallen asleep – whatever you wanted to call it – two years, three hundred and sixty-four days, twenty-three hours, forty-five minutes, and thirty-two seconds ago.
Meaning that Luna had fourteen minutes and twenty-eight seconds before she stepped through, hopefully to join him. And not only him; there would also be Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Neville, and all the others who had gone on before her.
Three years. It was the number of years that Luna had spent at Hogwarts, taking over Herbology from Neville and missing the company of her oldest friends. The number of years that she had chosen to give herself extra on this earth. And now, when the time was up, she too would pass from this world.
Into the mystery of mysteries.
Which is why Luna was here, in the Department of Mysteries. The place where her fascination with death had first begun. The place she had always felt a strange pull towards.
A pull to know what was behind the curtain.
A pull to know what awaited one after death.
It occurred to Luna that perhaps she would never know. After all, if there was nothing after death then she would not be conscious to know so. Perhaps the voices behind the veil were just illusions that existed solely to trick people like her.
But if there was nothing after death, then didn't that mean that this, that everything that she had ever done, been, or lived for was meaningless? Because Luna could not accept that.
Reaching into the folds of the light pink sweater that she wore underneath her wizarding robes, Luna pulled out a magazine. The final copy of The Quibbler. When her father had died, Luna had kept it up. She found that she enjoyed it, even though she now realized that some of the magical beasts that her father had talked about probably didn't exist.
The front cover of this final edition was simply black, with The Quibbler printed in magically enhanced bright-white ink. Luna found it fitting, because she had always been against the idea of everything being either black or white, but now she wasn't certain what she thought anymore. The glittering ink pierced the silent darkness of the room, brightening Luna's spirits, if only slightly. As different as this edition looked, The Quibbler was familiar. It made her feel comfortable, as though having it with her would make the next life, if there was such a thing, better somehow.
Checking the time, Luna saw that she had about five more minutes. Five more minutes of so-called certainty. Five more minutes of knowing. Five more minutes before the world as she knew it, and perhaps the ability to know, passed from her.
Five more minutes before she, perhaps, solved the mystery.
It was this thought that brought a small smile to Luna's lips, and she tilted her head at the odd angle that was so typical of her, studying the archway. The archway that was everything that she had ever loved wrapped up in a not-so-small package.
Adventure.
Excitement.
Novelty.
Mystery.
Perhaps it wouldn't be such a terrible thing after all. Perhaps, rather than this being the end to Luna's life it was the purpose. Maybe whatever was behind that veil was where Luna was supposed to be. Or perhaps there was even more to come.
Four minutes.
Closing her eyes, Luna recalled the last time that she had been here. Not the deaths that occurred or the horrors that she had seen. But that one moment when she had rallied with her friends – the first time that she had felt that she belonged anywhere. And she realized that the archway represented even more.
Friendship.
Belonging.
Love.
And when Luna put all of these smaller meanings together, they became unified. It occurred to Luna that perhaps she had been wrong. Perhaps this archway didn't represent death. Maybe it was something else.
Life.
Which only widened the gentle smile that had settled on Luna's soft face. For surely no one else would understand this thought, but it now made perfect sense to her. She was unraveling the mystery bit by bit, and it was becoming slowly less frightening.
Three minutes.
Luna bent over and gently placed the copy of the Quibbler on the ground. She plucked her robes from around her shoulders and laid them to rest next to the magazine. Fingering the potted plant that she held, Luna laid it next to these other items. Then, taking a deep breath, she drew out her wand.
Two minutes.
Would she need this piece of magical wood beyond the veil? Somehow, Luna hoped not. For as much as her wand had been used for good, it had also been used in battle. And Luna never wanted to be involved in another fight again.
But, of course, she didn't know. Tilting her head upwards slightly, Luna considered. Then, letting out a small breath, she carefully placed her wand next to the other pieces of her life. The ones that she had planned to take with her.
Now she knew, though. They represented who she had been. And Luna didn't know who she would be, once she was through the veil. Perhaps it was best to allow for a fresh start.
Assuming such a thing existed in whatever was coming next.
One minute.
Closing her eyes, Luna stepped forward, until her fingers felt the coolness that she knew to be the veil. She had expected to be afraid, but she wasn't. In fact, she was ready. Waiting with anticipation.
She counted down the ticks of the wristwatch she still wore. It was the one thing she owned that she needed. Luna wanted to go through at the right time, because for some reason it meant everything to her.
Thirty seconds.
Luna took another step forward, feeling the cold wash over her. She was close. Another step and she would be pulled into the veil, like Sirius had been. But, standing here, she was certain that she could make out the voices of people she knew, however warped they seemed.
I'm coming, she thought with a gentle sincerity, I'll join you soon.
She had become certain of it.
Ten Seconds.
Five Seconds.
One Second.
Luna took a deep breath, and stepped forward with a smile on her face. The veil took her and carried her on to the many mysteries that awaited beyond the present world.