Luna Lovegood and the Sorcerer's Stone
Author's Note: I'm going to be going back and forth on copying almost directly some of the lines and scenarios from the book for a little while. My reasoning is this...there are some things that, in the very beginning, aren't going to change just because the chosen one does. There are aspects that you'll notice I've snuck in to show some little differences..and big ones. Watch out for the line about the Prime Minister, and get ready for a Hagrid who's become something of a teetotaler ;)
Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter series, any of the characters, or anything like that. If I did I would be very rich and probably would have better things to do with my time than write fanfiction :)!
Chapter Four: The Giant, the Guardian and the Squib
"Luna? Luna!" A figure came running into the barn and launched itself at her, squeezing her until she thought she might lose feeling. The large man had turned around and was busying himself with latching the doors, closing them off from the wind outside.
Turning her attention back to the woman, she saw her aunt's face come into view. She looked ecstatically pleased, more so than Luna thought she'd ever seen her. Uncle Henry was standing still in the same place, looking from Aunt Beatrice to the giant to Luna, and back again.
The man strode over to where the three of them stood, looking down at Luna with a grin that somehow transformed his features until he looked almost friendly.
"Nice to meetcher…er, Horace it is?"
"Henry. Henry Fry." Luna's uncle cleared his throat, as if it had taken some effort for him to remember how to speak.
But he was no longer paying attention to him. "Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," said the giant. "Yeh have the look of your mother…yeh sure do. Eyes are all her too."
Aunt Beatrice sniffed then, making them all turn to look at her.
"It…it's nice to hear from somebody who knew my sister," said Aunt Beatrice. "She was…lovely…wasn't she?"
"Never heard you say much o' that afore yeh left," said the giant with a snort. Turning bright red, she began to stammer but the man dismissed her with a wave.
"Anyway—no matter." He turned from the both of them, facing Luna. "A very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here—I mighta sat on it at some point but it'll taste all right."
He reached into an inside pocket of the massive black overcoat he wore, pulling out a crumpled box. Luna opened it with a degree of uncertainty. Inside was a large, sticky white cake with Happy Birthday Luna written on it in bright blue icing.
Luna looked up at the giant. Her manners stuck in her throat, and though she meant to say 'thank you' the words somehow changed on the way out and she said, instead, "What are you?"
The giant chuckled.
"True, I haven't introduced meself. Known your Aunt here for about as long as she's been alive but I s'pose she's never said anything about me. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."
He held out an enormous hand and shook Luna's entire arm.
"Would you like to go someplace a bit more…civilized?" said Aunt Beatrice then, glancing distastefully at the ramshackle barn. "We could discuss all of this over a bit of tea."
"Migh' as well get it all out here and over 'n done with," said Hagrid, "though I wouldn't say no ter that tea, if you'll give me a bit to get it started."
He looked around the entire barn until he spotted a clear spot against the wall. Brushing away stray bits of hay he began pulling things from his massive pockets. He bent over the spot so that they couldn't see what he was doing, but when he drew back a small, crackling fire illuminated that corner of the barn. The heat that washed over her was far from uncomfortable—in fact, it did very little to add to the heat coming from outside, and was altogether pleasant.
The giant knelt down on the ground, causing the barn to creak ominously. He began pulling more things from the pockets of his overcoat; a copper kettle, a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs, and a bottle of some dark honey-colored liquid he downed in one gulp before starting to make tea. Soon the entire barn was filled with the sound and smell of sizzling sausage.
While he was working Aunt Beatrice tried to make small talk, but the giant only grunted to her in reply. Uncle Henry seemed frozen in place, unable to speak or move even when his wife nudged him over to take a seat on a large pile of hay. It was when the giant moved over and slid several fat, juicy, perfect sausages from the poker that they heard movement from outside. Everybody turned to see Kevin's face framed between the two doors.
"Don't come in here, Kevin!" said Uncle Henry sharply, in a tone of voice that seemed to surprise everyone, including Henry himself.
"Don't matter none if he come in here or not, looks ter me like yer boy could use a little fresh air."
He passed the sausages to Luna. Even though she hadn't eaten her curiosity kept her from being really hungry—though to be polite she ate two (which she had to admit tasted wonderful) and nibbled at another, all the while watching the giant's every move. After a little while, when she was fairly certain that nobody was going to explain anything that was going on, she said, "I don't mean to be rude, Mister Hagrid, but I really don't know who you are."
The giant gulped down an entire glass of tea and wiped his mouth with the corner of his coat.
"It's jus' Hagrid. Everyone calls me that. An like I told yeh, I'm keeper of the Keys at Hogwarts."
At this Aunt Beatrice coughed and both Hagrid and Luna turned to her. "I didn't really tell you…but, well you see…Luna's never really heard of Hogwarts before."
"Not heard of Hogwarts?" Hagrid blinked, as if the idea that anybody didn't know about it was astonishing to him. He rounded on the Frys. "So you mean ter tell me yeh've had Luna under your roof all these years and yeh've never told her a thing about it? And where did yeh tell her yeh learn it all?"
"All what?" said Luna from behind him. Her heart was pounding in her chest. Everything she had suspected for so long seemed so close to coming to light—she felt the world around her shifting, clicking into place. "Do you…do you mean magic?"
"Yes," said Hagrid and Aunt Beatrice together.
"NO!" cried out Uncle Henry, rushing forward suddenly. He knelt down beside Luna, gripping her shoulders with his hands.
"Henry! Do NOT make this difficult!" said Aunt Beatrice, standing with her fists on her hips. "You see? I wanted to tell her years ago, but THIS is why I couldn't…"
"You mean…she don't know anything?" said Hagrid. He looked as if he were getting confused.
"Not a thing!" said Aunt Beatrice, "and all because my fool of a husband had some crazy idea about protecting her!"
"But yeh must of told her about her mother," he said. "I mean, she's famous. You're famous," he said pointedly to Luna.
"What? My mum…she wasn't famous, was she?"
"Yeh don' know….yeh don' know…" Hagrid ran his fingers through her hair. "Yeh don' know what yeh are?"
Luna felt Uncle Henry dig his fingers into her shoulder. "And she won't! I…I forbid you to tell her anything."
Hagrid looked as if he wanted to be angry. In fact, for a moment Luna thought that she could see anger flashing in his on beetle-black eye. But when he spoke again his voice was friendly, though perhaps tinged with a bit of annoyance.
"So yeh never told her? Never told her what was in the letter Dumbledore left for her? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Fry! An' you've kept it from her all these years?"
"What exactly?" said Luna. "About magic, or what?"
"STOP! PLEASE…please…don't tell her," he said weakly.
Aunt Beatrice started to speak but then seemed to think better of it.
"There ain't no use tryin' to hide it, Fry, but I don' know that you're thinking of what's best for the girl any more than she is, Beatrice," said Hagrid. "Luna.—yer a witch."
There was silence inside the hut. Even outside it was completely silent.
"A witch," Luna repeated, as if trying to absorb the information.
Hagrid nodded. "An a thumpin' good un, I'd say, once yeh've gotten a bit of schoolin'. With a mum like yours, don' see how you could be anythin' else. An here's yer letter…I reckon its time you read it."
Luna withdrew herself from her Uncle's grasp and reached out to take the envelope, addressed in scarlet to Miss L. Lovegood, The Floor, Barn in a Meadow, Middle of Nowhere. She pulled out the letter and read.
HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
HEADMASTER: Albus Dumbledore…
Reading the letter only brought up a hundred more questions that Luna felt she needed answers. But before she could ask any of them Uncle Henry had found his voice again.
"She's not going," he said.
Hagrid grunted.
"Henry…" Aunt Beatrice stammered.
"She's goin' and yeh better get over it," said Hagrid. "A muggle like you could never stop her…"
"A muggle?"
"Non-magic folk," responded Aunt Beatrice, as Hagrid was still staring down her uncle.
"We've raised this girl for ten years now because her mother was killed doing…doing whatever it is you people do! She got mixed up in some sort of funny business because of it and I don't want to see that happen to Luna!" said Uncle Henry.
"I keep telling you, it's not like that!" said her aunt.
"You both knew?" said Luna in astonishment, as if the idea of either her aunt or uncle knowing something fantastic or amazing was beyond her grasp.
"Knew? How couldn't I, my mother and father being a witch and a wizard themselves?" said Aunt Beatrice. From his spot at the door, Kevin gasped.
"You're a…a witch?" said Luna in shock.
"Of course not! Do you think I'd be working ten hours a day in a muggle café if I had any other choice? Here I was with the beautiful, the smart, the talented older sister, and come the age of eleven a summer passed and the term started without my letter ever showing up. A regular squib, I was! My parents were so ashamed, but having dear sweet Aurelia for a daughter made up for…for…for my deficiencies," she sniffed.
She stopped for a moment, looking almost as if she were going to cry. "Then she met that Xenophilius creature, and had you, and then he disappeared and your mother got blown up and you landed on my doorstep! And from that moment I knew I had a chance to prove it to my world…to all those people who thought I was nothing…because I was the on who raised YOU!"
Luna didn't know what to say. "Blown up? You said…you said my mother died in a laboratory accident."
"Laboratory, eh? Not so far off the mark with that," said Hagrid, though he was red in the face. Luna suspected he was angrier than he was letting on. "But nevertheless, she has a right to know her own story, when every kid in our world knows her name."
"Why?" said Luna then. "Why would anybody know my name?"
Hagrid shook his head worriedly. "I didn' know…when Dumbledore said there might be trouble gettin' hold of you, I thought yeh'd know a bit more…thought having somebody who grew up in magic yeh'd have some idea."
"Can't blame yeh, mind," said Hagrid, throwing a glance at Uncle Henry. "I can see yeh jus' think yeh're doin' what you think it righ', though it's more dangerous if the magic goes untrained…"
He shook his head. "I can't say I'm the righ' person to tell yeh, Luna, but someone's gotta—yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'. So I'll tell yer as much as I can tell yeh—mind, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great mys'try, parts of it…"
He sat down right on the ground, stared at the fire for a moment, and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with—with a person called—"
"A wizard called Voldemort," Aunt Beatrice intervened. Hagrid visibly shuddered.
"Yeah, that's it, and if yeh don't mind I'd ask yeh not to say that name again. People in our world jus' don't say it."
"Why not?" asked Luna. "What's wrong with his name?"
"Well, because people are still scared. He was a bad wizard, went abou' as bad as any could go. About twenty years ago now he set out lookin' fer followers. Got em too—one's what were afraid, others wantin' a bit of his power for their own, 'cause he was getting' himself power all right. Dark days, Luna, people didn't know who to trust. Just a few safe places, Hogwarts bein' one of them…reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of.
"Now, yer mum was one o' those we weren't sure if we could trust. Don' get me wrong, she was amazing…talented an' all that…but she were always alone, and when she married Xenophilius Lovegood she went off and spent half her time who-knew-where. Thing is, we didn't hear much from her until she shows up a year or so after things get really bad sayin' she wants to help out. Xenophilius nowhere to be seen. A lot of us wouldn' have let her help but Dumbledore takes her in righ' away. Rumor is that You-Know-Who wanted her for himself…and yeh ain' gonna like this, but it looks like he got yer father even if he didn't get yer mum."
"Wait…you mean my father was one of his followers?" said Luna.
"There's no way of knowin' now. But all anyone knows about what happened after is this…yer mum had just had yeh. And on Halloween ten years ago he turned up out by your father's house, where your mother had gone into hiding. He came to yer house an'—"
He paused a second. The Frys were listening intently, and even Kevin seemed to have been absorbed into the story.
Hagrid blew his nose loudly, and continued. "You-Know-Who killed her. An then…an this is the mys'try—he tried to kill you, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I s'pose, or maybe he was just killin' everything in reach of his wand by then. But he couldn' do it. Never wondered how you got that mark on your forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a powerful, evil curse touches yeh—took care of yer mum an' yer dad an' yer house, even—but it didn't work on you, an' that's why yer famous, Luna. No one ever lived after he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some o' the best witches and wizards of the age—the McKinnons, the Bones, the Prewetts—an' you was only a baby, an' you lived."
Luna felt something going on in the back of her mind, something that wasn't entirely comfortable. As Hagrid's story came to close she saw in her mind a blinding flash of green light—something she remembered for the first time though she was certain she had seen in many times before. And something else was in there; a high, cold, cruel laugh.
Hagrid was watching her sadly.
"Took yeh from the ruined tower myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh to yer family…"
"And you expect me to let her go after that story?" said Uncle Henry coldly. "Evil wizards…attempted murder? And I'm supposed to just let her go right on into it? I might as well paint a target on her asking to be killed!"
"She'll be fine. This Volde—You-Know-Who disappeared a long time ago. It's kind of like an old story…and you don't understand, she'll be famous! And…" Aunt Beatrice started talking quickly, stopping when she saw that everybody was staring at her.
"And you'll get right back in with them, won't you?" said Uncle Henry. "Been wanting that for years, ever since you had to go and get an ordinary job. Found out you didn't like the moggle, or mogle…or whatever you call this world, after all! So now you want to put our niece in danger just so you can get chummy with them."
"Yeh two stop yer bickering!" said Hagrid in irritation.
Luna was a bit astonished, but had picked up one thing from their exchange. "So wait…what does it mean, that You-Know-Who disappeared?"
"Jus' that. Same night he tried to kill you. That's the biggest mys'try of them all. Some say he died…rubbish in my opinion, dunno if he had enough human left in him to die. Some say he's still out there, bidin' his time, like, but I don' believe it. There was those that was on his side that came back, as if outta trances…reckon they couldn' do it if he were comin' back.
"Most of us reckon he's out there but he's lost his powers. Too weak to carry on. 'Cause something about you finished him, Luna. There was somethin' goin' on that niht he hadn't counted on—I dunno what it was, no one does—but somethin' about you stumped him, all right.
Hagrid looked at Luna with such a feeling of warmth she should have felt pleased, or proud, but all she could feel was that somehow somebody had made a horrible mistake. Not that she was a witch—it was something she had known, and in some way expected, for quite a while, but the idea that somewhere out there was important to so many people didn't make any sense.
She had never had many friends in school…never been the first picked for any team…in fact, had never really been important to anybody except perhaps for her Uncle Henry, who she knew to be as big a 'muggle' as they come.
"I…this all feels very strange," she said, biting her lip. "Uncle Henry?"
He started at being addressed by Luna so suddenly. She turned to him, putting her arms suddenly around his waist and squeezing tightly. "I'm sorry, but I have to go," she said. "I promise that I won't go and get myself killed," she said.
Uncle Henry sniffed, turning to look at Hagrid. "Is it true?" he said after a moment.
"What, Fry?"
"Is it more dangerous if she doesn't learn?"
Hagrid nodded. "She's got ter control it. Some bad accidents can happen to young people who don't get trained up."
Uncle Henry sighed then. "Well." He coughed. "Well then. I suppose there isn't much I can do about it." Aunt Beatrice clapped her hands.
"I'm takin' the girl to Diagon Alley in the mornin' so we best get some shut eye. And don' give me that look, Beatrice Malfoy…er, sorry, Fry…I'm takin' her without you."