OPENING SCENE: a home interior. LUNA LOVEGOOD is seated on a chair to the right of a bed. The bed's occupant is off-screen, but throughout the scene Luna occasionally smiles fondly and reaches out with her right arm as if to pat the head of said occupant. Now she picks up a book and begins to read from it.

LUNA: "There were once three brothers, each one as powerful and dangerous as any wizard who lived before or since . One day they were traveling along a lonely, winding road at twilight when they came to a bridge, and they found their path blocked by a hooded figure. And Death spoke to them, congratulating them on the strength of their magic, and said that each had earned a prize."

Luna takes a drink of water and continues.

"So the oldest brother asked for a wand more powerful than any in existence: a wand that was worthy of the most powerful wizard who had ever lived. So Death summoned a branch from an elder tree on the banks of the river, fashioned a wand from the branch, and gave it to the eldest brother."

We begin to hear murmurs from a news broadcast, presumably from a radio in the next room. The sound is not clear enough for us to hear each word, but some come through: like "attacks" "still missing" "Dark Mark" "The Ministry assures us" and "You-Know-Who." Luna adjusts her seat and continues.

"Then the second brother asked for the power to recall others from Death and speak to them, so he might learn all the secrets of life and death. So Death summoned a stone from the riverbank and gave it to the second brother, telling him the stone would give him that power."

"And then Death asked the third and youngest brother what he would like-"

Luna puts the book down because the radio broadcast is now loud enough to interfere with her reading. We hear:

RADIO ANNOUNCER: The body of Charity Burbage, instructor of Muggle Studies at Hogwarts...

Luna grimaces and swallows.

LUNA: I think I'll go turn that off, shall I?

Luna gets up and walks off-screen. While she is gone, the broadcast continues:

RADIO ANNOUNCER: . . . a note saying "Professor Burbage taught the children of witches and wizards that they were no different from Muggles, spat upon the ideal of purity and sought to taint our very blood. We give no quarter to traitors, no mercy to seducers of the innocent." This is the first time a Hogwarts professor has ever been singled out for death because of -

The sound cuts off. A moment or two later Luna returns, seats herself and resumes her reading:

LUNA: "The youngest brother did not trust Death, so he asked for something that would enable him to go forth from that place without being followed by Death. And Death, most unwillingly, handed over -

A man's voice, coming from the bed off-screen, interrupts:

THE MAN: Did you say Death handed it over "most unwillingly"?

LUNA (checking her book): Yes, Daddy; that's what it says.

The camera reveals MR. LOVEGOOD lying on his back but scribbling notes on a tablet which hovers over his chest.

MR. LOVEGOOD: I don't think that phrase was there last time. Sometimes the book will change itself, you know; to make it more difficult to track it down. We have to be alert to that sort of thing.

LUNA: We have to expect obstacles when we're on a quest.

MR. LOVEGOOD: Exactly. Very good, my dear. Well, I think that's enough research for the day. Come, let's say goodnight to your mother.

Luna helps him up out of bed, and the two walk over to a little shrine within the room in which the central object is a large wizarding photograph bordered in black, showing a blonde woman of about thirty-five who now smiles and stretches out her arms as if to embrace her husband and daughter. Luna and her father each place one arm around the other's shoulder, and the free arm to touch one side of the photograph. Their fingers touch those of Luna's mother. Luna and Xeno bow their heads and say, together:

LUNA, MR. LOVEGOOD: "And the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."

Luna puts down her book on the shelf near the photograph, and Xeno puts down his tablet near it, paper side down. They leave the room and the camera focuses on the two items: the cover of Luna's book with its title,"The Tales of Beedle the Bard," and the leather backing of Xeno's tablet, on which is inscribed a triangle containing a circle bisected by a line. The theme music begins to play, and the title, "HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS" appears over the items.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I expect to add six more scenes. (As we know, seven is a magically powerful number.) Some of them are just additional angst or fluff ("schmaltz," as we like to say in Yiddish), like an added Harry-Ginny scene, but others are attempts to provide fixes for things which nagged me about DH, especially:

Dumbledore giving the trio the Hallows with one hand and taking them away with the other;

Ron as parseltongue savant;

Snape conveniently carrying pensieve fluid in his eyeballs, just in case, and (above all);

The disappointingly accidental manner in which Harry is able to defeat Voldemort.

(Any other suggestions for what the movie should change?)