Disclaimer: Not mine.

Innocence and Roses

Innocence Undone

Hermione couldn't find anything on the Seven Sister roses. She checked all the herbology books that she knew had references to roses, finding only health elixirs or personal hygiene lotions and scents. Ronald suggested that she ask Luna, then felt foolish for the suggestion.

"Maybe Harry will have better luck," he said meekly.

"Right." Hermione pushed the book back onto the dusty shelf harder than she should of, knocking over the next three in the row. "Now look what you made me do."

"Me?"

"Just pick them up," she frowned and righted the one she had read. "I can't believe I wasted the entire morning looking up something Loony is doing."

Ronald grinned as he slid the books back on the shelf. "Bet me and Harry are right. Bet she's growing food or better yet jewellery."

Hermione grinned. "Right and she'll wear rose earrings to the Halloween Gala."

"We can find her by following the dead petals."

"Come on Ronald, I'll let you beat me in a game of chess." She linked her arm around Ronald's and started to pull him along.

"Deal!"

Harry felt foolish after talking to Luna. It was obvious that she had no idea what was going on. He only hoped that if Snape questioned her she would give him the same story, denying any knowledge of seeing him.

It was later that month that Harry again saw the small strike of a match and the short burst of flame from his window. He extinguished his reading light and leaned toward the glass, resting his forehead against it and trying to determine what he was watching.

"Ronald," he whispered. "Get over here."

"Huh?"

"I think… yeah look, it's her again. She just used a match to light the candle."

"Why?"

"Bet she's planting another one of those bushes. She said they don't like magic."

Ronald yawned and joined Harry at the window where he shrugged and scratched his belly. "Cor Harry, give it up will ya? I'm off to bed."

"Bed?" Harry looked at him in disbelief. "She shouldn't be out there. I told you how Snape reacted."

"Yeah, a month ago. Nothing's happened." Ronald climbed in his bed and rolled over. "You get caught and it will be detention with Filch you know."

Harry bit the inside of his cheek and went to his trunk, opened it and grabbed his invisibility cloak. Waiting until he was well down the hallway before throwing it over his head, he slowed down to quieten his footsteps. The tricky part would be opening the doors. If someone other than Luna was outside, someone who should not be there, this would be the place he could be caught.

Breathing a sigh of relief, that no-one had seen the door open by itself, he padded down the steps and hurried down the walkway until he came to the path that would take him toward the Forbidden Forest. Wishing that Luna had chosen anyplace else on the grounds to plant her bushes but there, he hurried to the edge of the forest and then crouched down to make sure his trainers did not show under the hem of the cloak.

He watched as Luna tossed down the shovel and walked over to the rose bush only to pass it by. She continued on, until she was standing on the edge of the forest under the first tree of the perimeter. Furtively glancing around, she pulled her wand and began to levitate a large item. Harry strained to see what it could be through the darkness, moving closer to the planting site.

The object hovered over the hole then was lowered into it until it finally disappeared from sight. Harry frowned at the size of the hole he saw and then stumbled back, almost falling when he saw an arm hanging over the rim of what was now obviously a shallow grave.

"Sorry," Luna apologized and bent down, lifted the arm gently and placed it in the grave on top of the corpse's chest. "There, now you look more comfortable."

Taking a square flannel from her pocket, she leaned down and tucked it around the face, adjusted the robes, and then leaned back to make sure everything was in order. She stood and began to shovel dirt back into the grave, humming and occasionally chuckling.

Harry fell back to sit heavily on the hard ground, unable to take his eyes off the gruesome scene in front of him as he pulled the cape ever tighter. He was stunned, unable to think, unable to put what he was seeing into any sort of logical context. He sat watching the pale, blonde, slip of a girl as she buried what he knew was a full-grown man. He continued to sit until she had patted the soil firm, leaving only a much smaller circle in the middle and had planted the rose bush. Harry forced his eyes to the other bushes as the realization of what she was doing finally made its way to his brain.

Holy Crap, he thought as he now counted five Seven Sister roses, already planted.

He sat long after she had left not sure he could even gain control of his feet. He lost all track of time as he sat looking at the newest rose bush that sat atop the new grave like a grim beacon. 'It's a good thing to be made useful,' he heard her voice again in his head. Bloody hell.

He crawled backwards toward the path, keeping his eyes on the swaying bush as the first raindrops hit his cloak and the wind turned into a cold gust. She could see the Thestrals he remembered with a snigger. Of course she could, and it wasn't because of her mother. Goosebumps ran down his back and the cold sick feeling that sat in his stomach grew worse. Now what?

He crawled closer to the path before standing and taking a few steps backwards, still unable to tear his eyes away from what was near the forest. All at once his mind kicked into gear as he thought of what he should do. Professor Snape had asked if he had seen someone outside the castle. He frowned and considered Snape for just a minute. Regardless of what Luna had done, or was still doing, he would not turn her over to Snape.

Snape, he focused on the name as memories of the past years flew through his mind. Shite, he realized that the Professor could have been concerned about Luna and not asking if he had seen someone who was dangerous. He grew colder, Luna was the dangerous one. He felt nervous laughter threaten to spill out.

If she were working for…no, he dismissed the thought. It was impossible that Luna was following the Death Eaters. He laughed out loud and shook his head in disbelief thinking that yesterday he would have been equally convinced that she would never be found using buried bodies for fertilizer. He could not have seen what he had. Maybe she was in league with Death Eaters and Snape. Right, he thought, and Dobby is a giant.

Gulping down his fear he turned his back on the roses and started toward the castle still thinking furiously about what he should do. He hesitated at the bottom of the movable staircase, wanting to rush into the Headmaster's office and scream out what he had just seen when he saw the glimmer of movement from farther down the hallway.

Cautiously hugging the wall, despite wearing the invisibility cloak, he edged his way toward the figures that appeared to be deep in conversation in the Transfiguration Classroom doorway. His eyes grew large as Professor McGonagall's voice reached him.

"Severus I don't care what you say. None of my students have been out. I would know if they were."

"Then perhaps you can suggest who followed me again. I mean to get to the bottom of this."

"You will have to be more careful," she hissed. "Now get down to Poppy and have her look at that before you drip more blood on the floor."

"I mean it. If one of yours gets in my way and puts us in jeopardy I will have no choice but to let the Dark Lord take him if he is seen. Is that what you want?"

"Of course not, but how can you be so sure it is a student of my house?"

"Gryffindor? I wonder why?" his sneer of contempt being easily heard in his words. "Keep an eye on Potter. This is something he would do and Albus is determined that he will be at the final battle."

"Potter? If anyone knows to be careful it would be Potter."

"I thought he learned his lesson when he chased off to the Ministry. However, I may have over-estimated his limited intelligence. Just make sure he is watched. Do you understand?"

Severus turned on his heel and strode to the end of the hall and up the stairs toward the infirmary.

Harry flattened his back against the wall seeing Professor McGonagall stop and slowly peer along the hall way. He felt exposed, as if he were standing in plain sight. Waiting until she'd warded the door and left for her private chambers he again started to make his way back to the moveable staircase.

He had to make it to the Headmaster, no longer feeling confident in his Head of House. She seemed too comfortable with Snape, too familiar with what he was doing. Harry froze. If he could no longer trust Professor McGonagall who could he trust?

He bit his lip and decided to wake Hermione as the urgent need to share what he had seen, and the overwhelming inability to trust anyone hit him hard.