Celestial Guardian
Luna Lovegood was sitting cross-legged on her bed making a small doll out of rough, burlap cloth. Adding the hair of Peony Pennypepper to its insides, she carefully and fondly stitched it shut.
"There," she smiled with droopy eyes, "it's finished. Now Peony will stop lighting my text books on fire and inappropriately propositioning me."
Then, with the tender love of friendship, she started to stab it violently with pins.
"Ah, using the friendship dolls I see! It's an ancient practice from Antarctica that causes the person to realize how wonderful you are by activating the friendship nerves, which are located throughout the body." Xenophilius, a nosy father, randomly poked his head into her room.
"Father, you've already explained this to me several times." Luna smiled. "I think I'll enjoy getting to know Peony better. She has an interesting aura."
Peony, also on holiday, was sitting at the large oak dining table with her family. About to bite delicately into some foie gras stuffed with caviar, she suddenly stiffened and sat upright straight as a board.
"What's wrong, Peony? Did you chip a tooth on your diamond cutlery?" Her mother, plump and refined, looked over at her child in half-interest.
Peony opened her mouth to speak, but instead of words, blood trickled out. With a vague gurgle, she fell face-first into her expensive meal. Then blood geysered out from invisible holes about her body.
"Oh my GOD!"
Mother, father, and servants all rushed to her side, but it was already too late. She had expired.
Even years later they were never able to account for Peony's sudden and violent demise. Nor the string of similar deaths that plagued Great Britain that summer.
Luna, smiling hopefully, put the doll next to several others on a shelf. Thanks to the magic of the dolls she anticipated having many new friends once she returned to Hogwarts.
"I have received a new shipment of mysterious artifacts from my suppliers. Would you like to help me catalogue them and discover their functions?" Luna's father asked with a smile.
His suppliers were nonexistent. He dug through the trash to find trinkets. Luna would unwittingly clean them and he would sell them for a hefty markup to foreigners.
"Sure, Father!" She smiled, loving every precious moment she could spend with her only family.
"Excellent!" He took out a grungy sack and dumped the junk all over her bed. "You sort through this, and I'll sit in the study watching por- reading."
"What are these for?" Luna pointed to a banana peel, dead rat, and collection of eggshell fragments.
"Don't be fooled by their appearance. There are mysterious powers in these items." He then left.
Luna sifted through the pile, looking at the various trinkets and at objects that, to anyone else, would clearly look like rubbish.
"How fascinating. They found some rare pieces indeed!" She murmured.
Finally, something shiny and golden caught her eye. It had clearly been long neglected. The small, golden hourglass was cracked had a long chain.
"Based on its aura, I'd say that this is a powerful, very old artifact. It must have been used to repel evil spirits." She then turned it over. The name 'Hermione' was written on the bottom. "Good gracious! King HEEMEENEE! He was the tyrant butcher king of the former Magical Ottoman Empire. This must indeed be a ritualistic piece. I am so very fortunate to be holding it. I wonder how it works?"
She looped the chain around her neck and turned the hourglass over...
"Now I'm protected from all forms of evil!" She smiled.
Suddenly, she felt a strong, sudden pressure on her chest. The wind was knocked out of her and, as she gasped for breath, she felt herself being pulled while simultaneously spinning.
"My word." She gasped as she fought to get her breath back. "My bedroom was rife with evil spirits. What fortuitous timing that I have just put this on."
Struggling, she turned the hourglass the way it had been before and everything suddenly stopped. As she was now suspended several feet above the ground, she fell painfully on her bottom. Standing up, she saw to her surprise that she was now in an empty field. The sky was grey and a cold wind blew through the grass.
"Oh my!" She recognized the field. "This is where my house should be. My father was certainly correct that there were house-stealing ogres in the area. I'll have to report this incident to the Ministry right away!"
She walked from the field to the main path into town. As she passed alleys and streets, she was surprised to note that even more buildings were missing.
"This is serious! It's an epidemic." She looked wide-eyed around her.
"Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Mysterious vanishing!" A small newspaper boy was shouting.
"I'll take one, please!" Luna rushed up, eager to discover what was being done about the house-snatching problems.
She flipped open the newspaper and looked at the headline. Her eyebrows creased on confusion.
"What? Children are disappearing at Hogwarts? But it's summer!" She looked up at the date. "This can't be! It says that I'm about 150 years in the past." She paused to think. "So the buildings haven't disappeared. They just haven't been built yet. I see. This wasn't King HEEMEENEE's anti-spirit ward, it was Duke HARMEEMOI's fantasticle time traveling wheeze." She tried to turn it the other way in order to reach her own time, but nothing happened. "Ah, the unreliability of antiquities." She sighed. "I supposed I shall have to see about this trouble at Hogwarts. Perhaps someone there can fix this device."
She slipped it underneath her shirt. She continued on to Hogwarts, knowing that the current headmaster had a fondness for antiquities, and thus would be able to help her get back to her present.
"It can't be helped." She raised her arms and disapparated.
She re-appeared in Hogsmeade, which was as close as anyone could get to Hogwarts. Heading towards the school, she barely heard someone cry,
"Look out!" in way of warning before a running person collided with her.
Falling over in a tangled heap, she felt the hourglass press painfully into her ribs. It shattered and disappeared, returning to its own time. Stunned and crestfallen, she was crushed by the weight of her sudden realization that she had no way of returning to her own time alive. She would never be able to see her friends and family again, and would be trapped for the rest of her life.
-Oh well. No sense crying over spilt milk.- She thought.
"Are you alright?" the boy who had crashed into her asked.
She was helped to her feet by the tall, lanky youth. She looked at him in confusion, having a strange sense of deja vu.
"You aura is very silver." She gave her introduction.
"I'm so very sorry." He looked truly apologetic. "I was late for class and wasn't watching where I was going. Anyway, I'll make it up to you! Meet me back here after school and I'll treat you to some butterbeer." He started to jog away.
"What is your name?" She called out after him.
His response left her feeling like she had been hit by a charging hippogriff.
"Albus! Albus Dumbledore. See you later!"
And he was gone.