A/N: Wow, I'm sorry it's been so long since I've updated! Midterms happened, as well as holidays with family. This chapter was also a pain to write. Another update will come soon, then there might be another short hiatus as I'm taking a trip to San Francisco and then will be returning to finals in December. Thank you all for continuing to read, and especially those who have reviewed! Those reviews fuel me, really they do.
- Tinn
Chapter Three: Paradoflukes
Winter, 2003
Luna straightened up as she finished sprinkling the thick circle of salt that would surround them during the ritual, creating a depression in the snow.
Hermione laid out the things she'd brought from her pack – white candles, bundles of herbs, a man's button up shirt, her pewter cauldron. Luna added a small and deadly-looking silver knife. The handle was ivory or bone – Hermione didn't want to know, and the sight made her shudder internally. She hated pain.
"I've sharpened it this morning," Luna informed her as she observed Hermione's gaze. It was not comforting.
When the girls had begun hatching this scheme, it had almost seemed unreal that they'd actually be here, three months later. Hermione never expected she'd be working, even friends, with LunaLovegoodof all people! Not after all that happened. Yet here she was, standing with the one person willing – actually confident in this insane plan.
They'd finally taken down their hoods so they could see task at hand, in spite of the light snow that had once more begun to fall. Flakes dusted their lashes and melted against their lips. Hermione charmed their instruments from the dampness, but Luna had forbidden her from performing any magic to their own persons outside of the ritual before them, and the cold bit into her skin without her usual weather protections.
Summer, 2003
She was obligated to attend the party the Ministry had thrown; some fund-raising event, raising money for research into cures for disfiguring potion effects, something of the sort. Hermione did not want to be there. She made small talk with coworkers, people from departments she didn't see often, not really paying attention, answering vaguely if anyone tried to ask how her current cases were going.
Her mind was still on research, trying to form theories. She'd hardly gotten anywhere. There was very little written about the Veil, she'd already exhausted the vast Ministry library. She'd read far too many books on Death itself, everything from religious texts to medical reports on the breakdown and decay of body systems. Her thoughts, as a result, had been entirely too morbid lately.
She kept having the unsettling idea of just stepping through the Veil herself. It wouldn't really be giving up, would it? Letting go, maybe, of this unrewarding job, these cases and cases of missing persons that were over before she'd begun them; at the bottoms of lakes, in shallow graves in public parks, rotting in basements.
She took a sip of her wine and tried to banish the thoughts which had become more and more frequent as of late.
"Are you trying to drown a paradofluke in your eye?"
Hermione stiffened at the soft, musical voice behind her shoulder. She turned, and frowned at the smaller witch standing there, "Um, hello Luna."
"They can take over your brain, you know. Sour your thoughts. They can be very dangerous. Red Wine does help, well done," Luna's smile was twisted in a wry expression Hermione wasn't used to seeing.
"Well, I don't think I have one, and I'm certainly not trying to self-medicate," she answered tersely.
It was hard for Hermione to speak to her with the same friendliness she once had, with Luna her classmate, Luna who had fought beside her. Now, she struggled to see past Luna who had slept with her then-fiance, Luna who had ended her and Ron's engagement. It didn't help much that she knew Luna had been hurt by him too. "What are you doing here, Luna?"
In all the research she'd done and libraries she'd visited, she'd avoided the Hogwarts Restricted Section as of yet; even knowing there was bound to be a mention of the Veil there. She simply couldn't face Luna Lovegood, Assistant Librarian. It was cowardly, especially by Gryffindor standards.
The blonde witch was now staring at her intently. Hermione didn't regret her avoidance of the Hogwarts Library; this was uncomfortable.
"You don't have a paradofluke, do you?"
"No, Luna, I don't."
The younger witch studied her, making Hermione shift and sip her wine, before asking,"There's a piece missing, isn't there?"
Hermione coughed against her wine. That was too close to the mark. Wasn't that how she'd felt, since she began this mad task? "Yes, I suppose there is, in a fashion."
"That can be remedied," Luna remarked, her voice was near a whisper. "Anything missing can be found, no matter where it is. Even things that have slipped into places they don't belong. Especially then."
Hermione felt hot. Luna's wide eyes on her were unflinching. If she weren't trained so well against Occulumency, she might think... but no. There was no way Luna could know.
"Come to the library sometime, Hermione. You know if you need help finding something, you can always trust a librarian."
Hermione wasn't sure how to respond, but she didn't have to. Luna had moved on to talk with a wizard from one of the lower departments, leaving her to sip her wine and puzzle over an ally she wasn't sure she had. And was shocked to realize she wanted.
When she showed up at the Hogwarts Library three days later, she wasn't even surprised to find a stack of books on finding spells, archaic magic, magical theory, and a slim, handwritten volume on the Veil waiting for her at the reference desk.
Luna let her into her tiny office, and they begun.
