Luna Lovegood had not had a normal upbringing, even compared to other witches. Her father had often been called Britain's most eccentric wizard. Xenophilous Lovegood had always laughed this away.
"Shauwn Ficklestem is far more eccentric than me," he used to say when he was confronted. "He collects Muggle bottle caps, you know."
Her mother's name was Venus, and was just as beautiful as the name predicted. She loved to dress in robes with big flowers. Venus's parents had been a pair of eloped half-siblings who shared the same father. She was a very talented witch, but also very a scatterbrained witch. She could see and hear many things that no one else could. Wizards often called her a 'Troubled and Divined soul'. Muggleborn medi-wizards called it a light schizophrenia caused by the close relation of her parents.
One of Luna's favourite games as a child was crawling around on the ground with her mother looking for pixies, fairies and krackerwobbs. She learned to see things that other people did not seem to see. She was taught by her mother to notice details that others overlooked.
Her father, made aware his daughter's intelligence early, let her help with the publication of his monthly publication "The Quibbler", a magazine just as eccentric as himself.
Venus had died when Luna was eleven, just before the first term at Hogwarts. No one ever really knew what happened. The Aurors deemed it to be a werewolf attack, judging from the injuries of the dead body. Luna had been a witness to the death, but the chock had brought her into memory loss. Her father thought it best not to unlock the memory since he wanted her to be happy.
Luna had followed the two battered Aurors going to the Shrieking Shack. The battle of Hogwarts was over, Voldemort was dead, and she was tired. She still wanted to help though, and help collect the body of professor Snape was the least she could do.
She had always liked the professor, even if he was harsh and sometimes even borderline evil. He had always been nice to her, but that probably was because she had good grades and that he didn't have any special aggravations against Ravenclaws.
In the shack the Aurors paused as they took in the bloody scene. Luna walked around the room looking at the dusty walls, saying hello to the spiders and the bugs. She didn't really want to look at the professor. Hermione had told her what had happened.
One of the Aurors levitated Snape of the floor, the other one did a quick cleaning spell and then helped his colleague to guide the floating corpse out of the door. Luna watched the professor's head fall back on the loose neck. The long hair was hanging in stripes, the pale face was bloody and the empty black eyes blinked at her.
She took a sudden breath.
"You all right, love?" asked one of the Aurors.
"Yes," whispered Luna. "Can I...?"
She stepped forward, placed her hands on Snape's eyelids and closed them. On a sudden impulse she stroked his cheek. The skin was cold, she got some dried blood on her fingers. Luna gave a nod. The Aurors nodded quietly back, probably feeling the delicacy of the moment.
As they left the shack, Luna looked back and saw a dark figure standing in the corner. It's glinting eyes was fixed on her.
Even though it was only the end of May, Luna had already signed up to attend the so called "eighth year" at Hogwarts. She had also signed up as one of the volunteers to help with the reconstruction of Hogwarts during the summer. Her father had been sentenced to three months in Azkaban for aiding the Death Eaters, so there wasn't much to go home to.
She met up with Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Neville by the gates of Hogwarts. They were told by headmistress McGonagall into working pairs for safety. Harry choose Luna immediately by grabbing hold of her arm. Luna knew this was because he was avoiding Ginny, but she didn't mind. They were assigned to the lower parts of the castle.
They worked meticulously, mending stones, wards and other supports. From time to time they were visited by teachers and building experts that checked and corrected their work, but mostly they were alone.
Not that Luna minded working down there, but somehow she never felt that she and Harry really were alone. She tried to ask Harry a couple of times if he noticed anything, but he only smiled at her like he used to do when she talked about wrackspurts.
Luna saved a family of rats that was nesting in one of the cracks. Harry mostly talked about the trials that had and was still taking place at the Ministry of Magic, he was called away to London every third day or so to give statements. On these days Luna usually worked in the gardens, since only pairs were allowed inside the castle. But not even there, in the warm summer sun, could she shake the feeling of being watched from the shadows.
In the beginning of July Harry left for London to attend the Malfoy trials. He was not expected to return for at least a week. Hermione and Ron said that Harry had an unhealthy interest in the Malfoys, especially Draco. Luna had already noticed this several years ago and wasn't caught up in their conversation.
The three of them, Ginny and Neville were walking back from visiting Hagrid. The sun had begun to set but it was still warm. She watched the pretty colours of the sky reflect in the lake. As they passed the greenhouses there was a sudden chill running over her back. She stopped and looked around.
"Something wrong?" asked Hermione turning around to look back at her.
"No," Luna watched the shadows surrounding them.
"Let's go," said Ron taking Hermione's hand. "It's getting dark. Come on Luna."
"Luna?" asked Neville.
Luna didn't move. She was watching a tall dark figure in the shadows of the greenhouse. Who- or whatever it was, was looking at her, like starring into her soul. Before she knew it everything turned dark and there was some one screaming her name.
When she woke up it was dark. She could feel the familiar hardness of the beds of the hospital wing. It smelled like the hospital wing as well. There was a movement beside her and she froze.
"There, there child," whispered a soft low voice that was oddly familiar. A calming hand stroked her over the forehead. "Nothing to be scared of."
"Madame?" Luna asked. "What happened?"
"You had a nasty fall, didn't you?" The hand stroked her hair, twirling the locks between the fingers. "Pretty girl..."
Luna felt a icy feeling move through her spine. There was another hand moving down over her cheek, her neck, her shoulder, her arm, her hip... She gasped in fright.
"Please..." she whispered.
"Pretty..." something like a long wet tongue licked over her face.
She screamed and the strange creature was suddenly forcefully pulled away from her.
"Begone!"
Everything exploded in light. She was sitting upright on a bed in the hospital wing. She was covered in sweat. The light from the window told her that it was still a few hours to noon. She had on a blue striped hospital shirt. And she was still screaming.
"Luna! Luna!" hands were shaking her, but this time they felt more friendly.
"Hermione?" she gasped for air.
"What happened?" asked Hermione, her eyes big and scared. "You have been sleeping for hours. We tried to wake you. Did you have a bad dream?"
"Was it you?" Luna griping hold of Hermione's hands. "Was it you that scared it away?"
"What?" the girl blinked. "I've been just sitting here, reading, for the last three hours. You just woke up. It was a dream."
"No..." Luna breathed, shaking her head. "It came back for me, but someone chased it away..."
"What?" Hermione sounded doubting but honestly worried.
"That what killed my mother..." Luna fell back to the bed, her hand still clutched in Hermione's.
It had been two days and neither the dream nor the visions of shadow-creatures had returned. Hermione had almost convinced Luna that it only had been a nightmare. They had, even so, written a letter to Harry in London, since he was some what of an expert on being possessed by dreams. He had written them back, telling them to be careful and that he would be back in a few days.
"Are you sure you going to be all right?" asked Ginny, holding Luna's hand.
They were standing in the Entrance hall. Ginny and Ron was leaving for Hogsmeade where the rest of the Weasleys were waiting for them. It was the twins' birthday, they were going to visit Fred's grave and then spend some days at the Burrow.
"Oh, perfectly,"
"You know you can write to me," Ginny hugged her, and looked over at her brother that was kissing Hermione farewell. "Oi! Suckface!"
"Shuddup!" Ron growled, untangling himself form a blushing Hermione.
Luna and Hermione waived goodbye before going to the Great Hall for lunch. It was quite lonely now. Neville had left the day before, accompanying Professor Sprout and some other students to a magical nursery in Cornwall. He had also hugged Luna and told her comforting words.
She ate quietly, listening half heartedly to Hermione and Michael Corner discussing a magical theorem he had found in an old book. Luna thought back on her dream and on what had made her so sure that it was the same that had killed her mother.
She had no real memory of the event. Just blood and tears and fangs and claws. There was a possibility that it had been as the Aurors suspected; a werewolf or even a starving vampire. She knew there had been suspicions that her mother had dabbled in the Dark Arts and Voodoo, but her father had always denied it. Venus had been a serious researcher and would never do anything dangerous.
But, then again thought Luna, if it was a werewolf or a vampire, why had they spared her? A eleven year old girl would be far more tastier then a woman in her thirties, at least as sweet dessert. She had often pondered these questions before. Now that she had encountered the being in her dream, some things started to come to the surface.
And then there had been that voice... The voice that had called 'begone' and saved her from the dream monster. It seemed so familiar to her, like she had heard it countless of times before, but impossible to place.
Again she focused her thoughts on the monster. She starred down on her plate of half eaten potatoes and tried to concentrate on the memories. Luna closed her eyes slowly.
"Sweetness..." slurped someone close to her back, she froze. "Such pretty sweetness..."
Something slithered over her skin, like a chill. There was a sneaking touch on her back moving forward to her side, her stomach, the underside of her breasts. She breathed hard. There were claws scraping her skin.
"I love your heartbeats," drooled the voice. "They are so fast."
"Let her go!"
Luna tried to move at he sound of the second voice, her protector, but was frozen in place.
"She is mine!" hissed the creature, sliding it's sharp claws over Luna's breasts, making her gasp. "I have waited..."
"Then you have waited in vane, demon!"
There was a hissing scream and suddenly she was free. Someone was shaking her. She was lying on the floor of the Great Hall, staring up at the bright summer day replicated on the ceiling. She could feel that her head was supported by a soft thigh.
"Luna?" Hermione sounded as hassled as the speed of the Nargles flying franticly around her head. "Are you all right? Don't move. Michael has gone to get Madame Pomfrey."
"Demon," breathed Luna, looking at the girl's worried face. "It's a demon."
Hermione hugged her.
"Are you sure?"
Luna and Hermione were sitting in the library, it was one of the rooms that had been fortunately spared in the battle. Madame Pomfrey had let her go with some calming words and a Pepper up potion. It had been established that she fainted out of exhaustion, and was therefore forbidden to do any hard work before Harry came back to support her.
"Five days from now," Luna worried her hands, feeling more lucid than she had done for years. "It will be exactly seven years since my mother died."
"Well..." Hermione looked like she wanted to believe but just wasn't convinced. "Seven is a powerful number... And there are things that move in the cycles of seven..." She sighed. "And I have learned the hard way that not all dreams are imaginary."
"I just can't really remember what it was," Luna now bit the knuckle of her right thumb. "And it's not the wrackspurts or the mind-mites that made me forget. But that voice said 'demon', and it sounded so right..."
"You did see it happen, then?" Hermione looked doubting again. "You did see your mother's death. Didn't you? Maybe it was the shock, and you were still a child."
Luna nodded, but she was still thinking of the voice that had scared away the thing. It had seemed oddly familiar but she couldn't place it. She had told Hermione all about the dreams.
"Shall we look at some books?" Hermione suddenly looked excited.
Luna rose from her bed at the eight year girl's dormitory. She cast a tempus spell, the blue light told her that it was just an half an hour to midnight. She had been awaken by a dream, but the images were one gone. What ever it had been, it had not been something pleasant. Luna shivered even though the summer night was warm.
There was a noise coming from outside the room, something scraping and sighing. Luna looked over at the other girls in the room. Hermione was closest. Their book search had not come to any conclusions. Hermione had ventured a guess that it could be a spirit of some kind, but she wasn't sure. Hermione was still doubtful of the demon theory. Luna reached out and lightly touched Hermione's shoulder.
The girl blinked awake, her sleepy eyes trying to focus in the dark. She seemed used to being awakened like this since she didn't even seem surprised. Luna put a up a finger over her lips and then pointed to the door. Hermione looked scared but nodded.
Luna got out of her bed and wordlessly summoned her orange dressing gown. She pulled the garment over her shoulders, covering her purple short frilly night dress. Before she continued out the door she put her feet into her fluffy bunny slippers. Hermione had a simple red bathrobe and sheepskin slippers. With a last look back at the other sleeping girls they sneaked out of the room.
The sound was coming from further down the corridor. Hermione shook her head and pointed to her ears, she couldn't hear anything. She still gave a nod though when Luna pointed down the corridor. The portrait of an old witch, that guarded the entrance they just had come out of, snored loudly. Luna took Hermione's hand and began to run to catch up to what ever it was moving ahead of them.
They stopped at the bottom of the stairs in the Entrance hall. It was dark and both lit their wands to a soft white light. Luna wasn't scared, which surprised her a little. She suspected that it had to do with that she had a real friend beside her. Hermione's hand was warm and calming in hers.
The grounds could be seen through the windows, the sky was clear, the moon was half. She could still her the movements in front of her. They seemed to lead her down towards the dungeons. She led Hermione that way.
They hesitated on the top of the stairs that would bring them underground. Hermione looked at her and shrugged, she looked both scared and curious. Then Luna saw a movement in the darkness further down. It almost looked like someone was beckoning her. Again she hesitated and looked around. They were alone. She lifted her wand and continued down the stairs, Hermione following.
They had not expected to end up in front of Snape's old office. They knew that no one had been in there since the professor's death, except for Slughorn and McGonagall who both had, after they removed the most valuable and dangerous potions, agreed to leave it be for now.
"Shall we really?" whispered Hermione. "It feels like breaking in to a tomb."
Luna looked at the dark wooden door. There were Nargles buzzing around it. She was sure of what ever they were following was inside. The only thing she wasn't sure of was if it was good or bad.
"I have to know," she whispered back.
Hermione nodded and pointed to the lock wordlessly with her wand. It clicked open. The office was dark and cold. The girls held their wands higher over their heads.
The light shone over the empty desk and the half-emptied shelves. Hermione walked over to one of the shelves and read the labels of some of the phials.
"Most of these are expired," she said. "This herbal balm might still be good though..."
"I feel safe here," Luna looked around the office.
She had been in there a couple of times before, mostly to explain elements of her potion essays that made professor Snape growl and shake his head. She had enjoyed those meetings. She had liked Snape who had seemed lonely and misunderstood, much like herself. Again she remembered his dead face that had blinked at her in the Shrieking shack.
"Why are we here?" asked Hermione coming over to her. "Do you still hear something?"
"No..." Luna shook her head and yawned. "I think I want to go back to bed."
"Merlin," Hermione rolled her eyes and palmed her face. "Well it's passed midnight now. Filch is making his round, he doesn't care if the school is open or not."
"We'll just have to sleep here then," shrugged Luna and pointed to a cot near the fireplace.
"Maybe we should try to get back..."
She was interrupted by a noise from the hallway outside. It sounded like heavy cloth dragging over stone, sharp talons tapping, heavy breaths, something dripping. Hermione froze, wide-eyed and stared at the door. She could hear it too. Luna hurried to her and took her hand.
"Sweet love..." there was a knock sounding like scratching. "Why are you hiding?" it drooled. "Why you locking me out?"
The door shimmered and the thing appeared to pull back with a angry hiss. The girls sweaty palms clamped tighter together.
"On the other side..." swallowed Hermione backing away from the door with her wand held aloft. "The cot seems very nice."
They didn't sleep much that night. Hermione was too rattled that she actually had heard something, and Luna felt that every time she closed her eyes the thing out side got closer somehow. When the morning light finally creped in through the high dungeon windows both were huddled together on Snape's old cot.
"That wasn't a spirit," said Hermione for the twelfth time.
"Demon," nodded Luna, biting her lip.
She had become more and more sure of it during the watchful night. Her closed off memory had been given her blinking flashbacks from seven years prior. Mostly they were of blood and screams.
"Why couldn't it come through the door?" Again, this was something Hermione had repeated several times before. "And was was that shimmering?"
The door suddenly opened with a bang and both of them screamed in fright.
"Here they are!" called a familiar voice.
"Mal-foy?" Hermione hiccuped.
"Hermione! Luna!" Harry hurried passed Malfoy into the room and hugged them. "We saw you on the Marauders map. The other girls said that your bedsheets were ripped to pieces."
"If it is a demon you need to do a exorcism," said Draco Malfoy a-matter-of-factly.
They were sitting in the Great Hall eating breakfast. Luna and Hermione had been checked over by Madame Pomfrey that found no faults with them. McGonagall had not doubted the demon-theory, but had just cast a spirit protection charm over them for the time being. She thought that they might have disturbed something causing bad dreams in the castle during renovation. There were several people having nightmares through the castle, including herself, she said.
"I could do it..." continued Draco in an airy tone, looking over his nails. "But that would be in violation to my parole."
"But I'm your supervisor," interrupted Harry. "If I tell you to..."
"Potter," Draco sneered, but with a humorous glint in his eye. "This is serious dark magic. Your job is to make sure I don't do stuff like this. You don't want to get us both in trouble?"
"Well..." Harry looked torn.
"Why don't Draco teach us how to do it?" asked Luna. "You only break your parole if you perform the exorcism yourself, right?"
"I like the way your mind works, Lovegood," Draco smiled.
Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville, Harry and Draco all stood in a circle around Luna. They were standing in the Slytherin common room, since that was were they would get most privacy, and it had not been damaged in the battle.
Ron, Ginny and Neville had been very upset over Draco's return but had agreed to help with the exorcism. Luna was grateful to all of them. She had been haunted by terrible nightmares for the last two nights and was very tired. Last night she had woken up with painful red scratch marks over her breast.
"Remember," said Draco to Hermione who was to lead the ritual. "To keep your focus. Draw your strength primarily from Harry when you lose yours."
"And why is it me again?" asked Harry who had just finished drawing a six point star on the floor with his wand.
"Because, dear," huffed Draco under Ron's glare. "You are the strongest."
"Oh," Harry blushed.
Luna laid down on the floor in the middle of the star, each of the other six positioned themselves to the points with Hermione over Luna's head and Harry opposite at the feet. She relaxed, as instructed, and concentrated on her memories. Hermione began to chant.
"Fools" a voice whispered near her ear. "Foolish brats all of them."
She blinked and looked up at the ghostly silver smoke figure of Severus Snape standing over her. He turned his gaze down at her and their eyes met.
"Your friends are fools," he repeated lowering himself to his knees. "But I shall do what I can to help them succeed."
"It was you," Luna retched out for the contours of the foggy ghost. "You saved me."
"Luna, do you see something?" it was Harry's voice. "Who are you talking to?"
Snape didn't seem to notice any of the others, just as they didn't seem to notice him. Luna kept looking at his face, it seemed more relaxed than in life.
"You captured my soul, miss Lovegood," he said. "I was just waiting for my body to be found, and then I was going to leave. You made me stay behind in this earthly realm because I saw the shadow that was following you."
Luna thought he didn't sound as bitter about this as he should have done. Suddenly there was a cold shiver running through her body. She gasped for air and her back buckled. Hermione's chants became more forceful.
"He's coming," Snape looked up, his expression was fierce. "I have only been able to push him away so far, but maybe with this ritual he can be gone."
"Pretty sweet..." hissed the demon. "Trying to get rid of me are you? Trying to take from me what's mine? Pretty sweet blood..."
"Stand back!" Snape stood up holding out a hand to the beast.
"There!" screamed Ginny's voice. "There it is!"
A net of blue light was cast from somewhere. It caught Snape. He screamed of pain and anger. The demon laughed. Luna felt herself beginning to shake, convulse.
"Hold it!" yelled someone. "Don't let it escape!"
Luna felt sharp talons pressing against her flesh. A deep and angry kiss was on her mouth, sharp teeth against her lips, trapping her scream. She tried to focus all her magic in pushing it away. For a moment it seemed to work, but it was too draining. She felt the talons pierce her skin just over her right hip.
"She's bleeding!" Ginny cried.
"Can't be! We have it!" Ron struggled with the light coming out his wand.
"Look! It's Snape!" gasped Neville.
"Fuck! Let him go!" Draco's voice was near panic. "Let him go now! Unbind him!"
"I don't know how!"
"Fuck! Give it here!"
Luna could feel the demon biting down on her neck, drinking her blood, in some strange mockery of a lover's kiss. The talons sank deeper in her hip. Something long and hard pressed it's way between her legs, pushing them apart and thrusting violently against her thighs and pressing inside. She screamed again, gathering her last magic defences and failing.
The demon roared with a horrible laughter and she was painfully penetrated. Luna's scream caught in her throat. She convulsed as in pain and darkness as the rhythmic motion shook her body. Her heart throbbed in her ears. Blood was in her mouth.
Then the pressure was gone. It was pulled away so suddenly that she felt she lost a part of herself with it.
"Now! Harry!"
Another roar, but this one on absolute rage and anger. The whole room shook. Luna got her wind back but it hurt so much to breathe. It hurt everywhere, especially between her legs. She could feel sticky warm blood everywhere.
"Luna?" she was pulled into a lap, it felt like Neville's. "Can you here me? Do something!"
"The potions kit!" Hermione was kneeling beside her. "Draco! How's Harry?"
"He fainted from the power drain, but he's fine."
There were many hands over her body, a smell of dittany in the air. A glass was pressed against Luna's lips. It tasted like rotten pumpkins, she swallowed.
Then she felt it. The stirring of life inside her. The feeling of evil clawing it's way out. She screamed, pushing the glass away. She could feel the others holding her down.
"What's wrong with her?" sobbed Ginny.
From the corner of her eye she saw the see-through figure of Snape. He looked strained. There was burned marks over his ectoplasmic form from the wrongful exorcism. Luna coughed, feeling blood again in her mouth. The life inside her was tarring at her womb
"Help..." she gasped.
The ghost of Snape moved closer, tilting his head.
"Oh, that is bad," Draco was beside her moving his wand over her. "She has a demon inside of her, and it wants out."
"But we vanished it!" screamed Ron.
"She was impregnated," gasped Hermione. "That must have been what happened to her mother. The demon has to re-new itself every seventh year!"
"Help..." Luna whispered once again, her eyes never leaving Snape's.
"What are we going to do?" asked Neville, his voice high in panic.
"We interrupted it," Draco was still moving his wand over her. "But it's quickly gaining strength."
Luna cried and Snape nodded solemnly as a ghost going to his second death. He bent down beside her. Her friends gasped as the ghost began to dissolve like mist. Luna could feel Snape melt into her, sliding down and inside her body. There was a shutter of magic. And then...
She began to shake. Claws tarring her from inside. Pure pain burned through her body.
"Everybody grab hands!" screamed Draco, pulling a half-conscious Harry with him. "Form a circle around her! Granger! The chant!"
"What's going on?" Neville took hold of Ron's right hand and Draco's left.
"Snape is replacing his soul with the demon's," Draco looked terrified. "But he needs help."
Hermione began to chant, her voice was interrupted by sobs but she soon found a rhythm.
"Harry can't take any more," cried Ginny.
"Granger! Pull power from the circle!"
Hermione's eyes rolled back in her head as she fell deeply into the chant. Harry took a breath and managed to straighten as he no longer was the centre of power. Luna screamed and vomited up a dark goo of ashes and slime. She slumped to her side and everything turned black.
When she awoke she was in the infirmary. Her whole body ached and her mouth tasted of sulphur. Her stomach was also much rounder than she remembered.
"Luna!" Hermione grabbed hold of her hand. "You are awake! Don't try to talk, your throat is burned."
She nodded, she didn't want to speak even if she could. Luna touched the round belly trough the covers. It felt hard. She looked around the room for comfort and explanations. Harry was sitting on the bed next to hers. He looked pale and tired, but otherwise well. Draco was sitting on the other side of him. Both smiled at her.
"Don't worry," Hermione was still holding on to her. "The demon is dead."
"You are stuck with the baby though," said Draco. "And with Snape's soul inside him."
"Foolish children," Madame Pomfrey came up to their beds with McGonagall, Ron, Ginny and Neville following. "You could all be dead!"
She poured several cups of strengthening potion, distributed them and helped Luna drink hers. It felt soothing to her scorched throat.
"You are all very lucky, Miss Lovegood." nodded McGonagall. "If it wasn't for Mr. Malfoy's knowledge and Mr. Potter's strength you'd might not be here."
"And in seven years it would had come after me or Ginny," said Hermione and shuddered.
Luna was still caressing her stomach, it felt just like a natural part of her. What ever was inside of her was neither evil nor wrong.
McGonagall smiled at her.
"The ritual pushed the demon out of your body and replaced it with Professor Snape's soul, which his ghost had bound to you."
She paused and looked down at the curveation under Luna's hands.
"Oh, Severus," she sighed and wiped away a tear from the corner of her eye. "You poor, brave, silly boy."
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
It was early September. Luna sat with her small son by the lake. She was pointing out different flowers, clouds and insects to the child that, even though his infancy, looked grumpy, though interested.
"Luna!" Draco sat down beside her. "How's little Sev today?"
"Oh just fine," she smiled. "The Nargles just love him."
Harry came down to them, carrying both his, Luna's and Draco's bags and schoolbooks, and also an extra bag for the baby.
"Why is it always me?" he huffed as he sat down.
"Because you are the strongest, love," teased Draco. "It's a gift and a curse."
Luna hugged baby Sev to her chest.
"I'm going to give you a good life this time around," she promised.
The End