The Truth And The Madness

By: apollogy778

I do not own any of the mentioned characters, though the story is original and written by me

Xenophilius looked at his daughter. She was so pale, and though she wasn't as painfully thin as she used to be, he could still hardly believe she was already of age.

"Luna darling, there is something I need to tell you," her father started hesitantly.

"What is it father? Another Nargle infestation?" was her seemingly innocent reply. The war had changed the girl, and she no longer believed in everything her father had said. Luna had begun to realize that maybe her father wasn't as sane as she had once thought.

The Quibbler Editor paused, still unsure if he really wanted to tell his daughter this information, after all it was his biggest secret.

You've kept it from her long enough, he reprimanded himself.

"Luna, you should know, your mother, she…well she wasn't…you aren't really…" Xenophilius stumbled on the truth, trying to find the best way to soften the truth for his daughter.

Just tell her, she's waiting for you to say something!

"Your mother isn't who you think she was," Luna's father finally blurted.

"What do you mean?" Luna asked slowly, her normally high pitched voice dropping slightly in surprise. Her father rarely spoke of Mrs. Lovegood anymore.

Xenophilius took a deep breath, and started from the beginning.

"You see, when I was a younger man, I was foolish and thought I could master all types of magic."

He paused to look his 17 year old daughter in the eyes solemnly.

"Luna, some magic should never be attempted," he said, waiting for her to nod her agreement.

Though confused, Luna gestured to him to continue.

"I was immersed in some dark, dangerous magic that took all types of tolls upon not only me, but those around me. It was about three months into my conquest that I met her. She was tall, darkly beautiful, and very strange. She warned me to abort my course, lest I wish to suffer a terrible fate. Hecate was so fascinating to me, how wonderful and powerful she was," Mr. Lovegood said almost dreamily.

"Hecate?" Luna asked in disbelief, though she waited for her father to continue before extensively questioning him.

"I had no idea what she was when I first fell for her; all I knew was that I had fallen in love with a women I didn't know," Xenophilius told his daughter dreamily.

"I foolishly continued on this path, desperately trying to attract her attention once more by throwing my safety to the wind and doing all sorts of despicable sorcery." He shuddered at the memory, and turned to Luna.

"I won't go into details, for your sake as well as mine, but it was enough to bring Hecate to me again. The second time I saw her, it was at midnight and she was standing in my bedroom. After questioning me as to why I would take such stupid risks, I confessed my love for her. That was when she told me what she was."

Luna, who at this point was extremely worried for her father's sanity, asked "And what was she father?"

Mr. Lovegood turned and stared at her with large, haunted eyes. In a scratchy whisper, he proclaimed "She was a goddess. I was drunk on her dark beauty, and then in an instant she was gone, vanished without a trace."

Xenophilius was now slowly rocking back and forth, while his daughter watched on with fear, though she couldn't help but be caught up in his words.

"That was the last time I saw her," Luna's father said. "I howled with despair, thinking I had done something wrong, that she hated me for being so mortal. That is, until you arrived at my doorstep the next morning," he murmured while turning to admire his daughter.

"You look a little like her in your face, though you seem to have received my light coloring," Xenophilius stated after moment of pause.

"Are you feeling okay father?" Luna asked worriedly. She loved her father dearly, but he just hadn't been the same since The Second Wizarding War.

Or maybe it's me who has changed, the girl thought. It's true that maturity and common sense had taken hold of Luna, though she had never thought that her father was ever crazy.

"Dad," she said suddenly, a thought coming to her mind, "You say Hecate was my mother, but then who was the woman that raised me? Who was the woman that I saw die when I was only nine?"

Luna thought that maybe if she disproved her father with logic, he would stop acting so strange.

"Only a nanny," Xe

Xenophilius said with complete conviction. "She always took care of you, mothered you even, while I tried to communicate with Hecate again."

Luna watched her father for a while, taking in his shabby, unwashed clothes, and his overgrown, stubbly face.

He is getting old, she thought guiltily. The girl had moved out of her father's place shortly after her 17th birthday, wanting freedom to meet new people and get a head start on her new career as a Wizarding Naturalist.

Luna came to a decision.

"Okay father, let's get you to St. Mungo's," she told him while taking out her wand.

Poor Xenophilius looked very tired, though he did what his daughter told him to and Side-Along Apparated with her to the hospital.

Three months after enrolling her father in St. Mungo's Janus Thickey Ward, Luna stopped by for her weekly visit.

"Hello father, how are you today?" Her voice was filled with a mix of fragile care and relief that her father was starting to look more like his old self.

"Oh I'm fine dear, in fact, I'm great," he said with a big grin. "Hecate visited me again last night."

"That's wonderful father," his daughter said, stretching her face into a tentative smile.

Maybe one day he will get better, she thought with an inwardly sigh.

Because Xenophilius, her own father, meeting a Greek Goddess is crazy. Right?

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

This is pretty much a one-shot, but let me know if you think I should continue it. I think maybe I could make it so Luna meets some of the PJO characters in later chapters. Please leave reviews and tell me how I could improve, as this is my first fan fic. Thanks :)