Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns the Harry Potter series.

A/N: Thanks to frustratedstudent for the beta test

Legends:

"Words" – speech

"Words" – thought speech

'Words' - thoughts

Chapter 3: The Fledgling's Lament

From the last chapter:

Luna merely watched a brief tinge of legilimens and a different kind of magic similar to occulumens between headmaster and student. She cleared her throat, her eyes dull and without a hint of malice she said "Harry, as the Headmaster confirmed when I arrived here, I'm a vampire."

As those very words spewed out of Luna's lips, Charlus shouted "Calm down!" as Harry's eyes fixated on Luna with his broadsword half drawn. His emerald eyes shone brighter with raw magic swirling around, hell bent on destroying his very own lieutenant, the same Luna Lovegood he lamented and began to like. Luna on the other hand had her teeth bared, the glamour spell failing and now showing her fangs. Her eyes changed from blue to red and her hand was on her rapier as well.

"Enough, both of you!" Albus commanded his terrifying aura appearing from under the desk and behind his chair, scaring both students to submission.

"Listen to Albus, Harry! You can't handle the strength of a vampire yet!" Charlus argued and eventually both students sheath their swords.

"Luna, kindly continue." Albus said, retracting his show of power. 'These two are very important now in the war to Voldemort, the child of the prophecy and an unknown quantity that Tom should never have the chance to ally with.'

Luna took a deep breath and calmed herself, remembering how she wanted to wrap her arms around him just before that incident, to tell him how she wanted his company with the threstrals before. And she placed a hand in her pocket, a picture in her fingertips. 'My intended' She thought as she told her story.

"You see, it started like any other night at the rook, strong storm that overtook our place that night…"

*Flashback*

The dirigible plums outside the rook were steadily getting cut loose due to the strong winds while the rain pounded their house violently. Xenophilius Lovegood went out of his house to secure those plants and perhaps salvage what was left. Unbeknownst to him, another figure was waiting for him. A white blur and it was over before it even began. As the older Lovegood's hand went to his wand, his life was snuffed out of him. The pale creature went inside the house, fangs laced with the blood of his victim. And another one looked to be in his grasp. 'There's a young lady here, as fresh as a freshly opened rosebud. What good luck such storms are. And that soft voice, ah, such as feast upon me.' The vampire thought, as he soundlessly made his way up to a half-opened door.

A neatly finished painting for her friends, as well as a chain of gold letters of their names, was on the wall. She, the dirty blond girl was humming softly to herself, looking intently at the one picture she liked to keep on her work table beside her mother and father. She was actually writing a small poem for him, her radish earrings and bottle cap necklace were on top of the desk. Her school trunk was still unpacked.

Just as the pale creature stepped inside, a relentless barrage of spells shot out from Luna Lovegood, her façade just as focused as from her time in the Department of Mysteries. She displayed sheer determination and faster wandwork, as she shouted "Inflamare Maximus! Lumos Solare! Incendio! Incendio! Incendio!"

She upped the ante by kicking up a chair to distract the vampire while she moved around the room. Those seconds felt like an eternity. 'How do I defeat him when he moves faster than my wandwork?'

An idea sprouted up and she stopped casting for a moment, before shouting "Lacero Inflamare!" and a blue firewhip emerged from her wand. The vampire looked in awe at his pray, able to cast a strong firewhip at such a young age. 'She's worth having as my companion, I shall take her!' The vampire told himself, nimbly dodging the precision attacks of the ravenclaw. Seeing her bed, the vampire threw it towards Luna. Luna leaped sidewards, dodging it expertly. But she could only brink when the vampire appeared behind her, sinking his fangs into her throat, his grip on her wand arm made her wand drop to the ground. Memories of her life flashed back in reverse and to her surprise, she remembered her Mother's sacrifice.

*End of Flashback*

"And from that moment, everything was clear. Even my vision was back. You know what I mean, right headmaster?" Luna said, taking a pause as the Headmaster nodded at her question. Smiling sadly, he said "Yes, I remember your mother's mage sight. It's a unique but obscure gift ever since someone created the spell to imitate that gift."

"There was of course another even more powerful gift than mage sight. It's called spell weaving, the ability to wield the ambivalent magics around the weaver."

An air of silence enveloped the three before Luna broke it, saying "May I continue? Everyone had asked me what happened and frankly I couldn't remember until that moment. I only remember seeing brilliant colors when I was younger, maybe a hint or two when I was studying here, mistaking them for something else. Now, I can see all of them, especially wonderful here in this very room, but I'm going to close it off for now so I can concentrate on my tale again. Everyone had wondered how, but now I'm only going to tell both of you."

*flashback*

"Moonflower, stand back please. Mommy is working on this spell right now, so please stay back a bit." A woman of the same blond hair and softer feminine features said to her younger counterpart. 'A perfect copy of me, save her father's beautiful eyes.'

Luna clutched her teddy bear and stepped back, watching her mom reverse engineer the African lightning spell she learned in their journey to Africa. Selene Lovegood nee Selwyn had a goal, and that was to make muggle electricity available to wizards without the need for creating bulky contraptions to generate it or to negate magical feedback. 'Arthur would of course go nuts over this one and we can live to the standards of the Normals today.' Selene told herself as she fired up the spell.

The new spell worked on the toaster she bought the other day, starting it up. But just as the toaster was starting to warm up the two slices of bread she placed, a tendril of pure electricity landed on her index finger and the surge knocked her to the ground, making her shake violently, feeling every volt of electricity threatening to burn her heart and brain out. At that very moment, Luna ran to her mother, teddy bear tossed to the side, all the brilliant light emitted by the magical lightning visible from her mother's body.

Moments away from her death, Selene suddenly felt the easing of all pain. Her own daughter was a spell weaver, who was currently touching the strings of magic to shape it into anything she wished or used the string to power up a spell. 'Just like my grandmother during the Grindelwald war.' Selene proudly told herself, not distracting Luna from shaping the lightning into a harmless ball and tossing it away.

But fate had other plans because the very moment when Luna was about to toss the lighting ball away, Xenophilius barged into the room and startled Luna. The ball of pure energy was starting to become unstable and Selene knew what she had to do. She activated all her failsafe wards and wrapped her arms around the lighting ball. Xenophilius knew then and there that he had lost his wife and she mouthed the words 'I love you' at her husband before the shockwave killed her and the wards did their best to absorb all the unstable power unleashed, but it was too much.

When the wards collapsed, a shockwave knocked Luna and Xenophilius to the wall and that changed their lives forever. Luna lost her mage sight to spell weave and her father slowly lost his mind from the shock, the brain trauma and that one lingering guilt that had he arrived a minute later, Selene would still be with him, wrapping their arms around Luna, proud of her for saving her mother's life.

*end of flashback*

"And…" for the first time in her life, Luna found herself truly at a loss. The emotions of finally remembering how her mother really died because she failed, her father's slow collapse to insanity and losing that very memory, was her breaking point. Blood tears flowed freely from her eyes, her wails of agony and anguish reverberating from the Headmaster's office. All her strength failed her and she fell on the floor, shivering and weeping, slamming her fist on the ground and wailing. Just when she felt that there could be no comfort in her eternity, a gentle but aged hand held her shoulder. Albus himself understood that pain all too well, from his well-meaning father Percival, his loving mother Kendra, his forever traumatized sister Ariana and his aloof and resentful brother Aberforth. "Luna..." He whispered, as Luna forgot all protocol and wrapped her arms around the Headmaster, like a grandchild seeking comfort from her grandfather.

Harry instinctively closed his link for Charlus after asking permission to do so and slowly went to Luna. Albus let go of Luna and watched as her blood red eyes turned to her normal blue and wrapped her arms around Harry's neck and continued to weep. Harry placed his hands on her waist and whispered "Luna, I'm sorry… I'm here. We're all here." All the anger in the two students' hearts melted for that moment and both remembered the other for who the other had been before the start of the year. To Harry, she was the most loyal friend, a brilliant lady, the wildcard lieutenant and perhaps the only one who perfectly understood him for who he was.

As the tears stopped, Luna regretfully removed herself from Harry's arms and whispered "Scourgify." The blood from his, hers and the headmaster's robes disappeared, leaving the robes as good as new. Luna moved her chair nearer and Harry followed suit, a show of solidarity in giving her the strength to tell the last part of her story. "Thank you very much. Now, I need to continue, we shouldn't be sidetracked for too long." She said, receiving a nod from the headmaster. "As my memories came back, I focused on the image of my core slowly shrinking and forced myself to pull them back in, like a series of ropes that I can use to tug it back. I focused my hardest and fought back. This is what happened…"

*flashback*

As the last beats of her heart came, the vampire cut his wrist and urged Luna to feed. She complied, her head delirious with the loss of blood. "Drink, sweet and beautiful Luna. Oh how I weep for you, for your sorrows and your triumphs in the wretched mortal coil. I shall save you from the grasp of death and we shall be together for all eternity." The vampire whispered to her ear, urging her to drink more.

The sensation Luna felt was like a pepper up potion only much more potent, like her entire being was being changed to be faster, stronger, better. With the transformation nearly complete, she took off her clothes from the filth her body released in the process and went to a nearby cabinet, pulling out her mother's white lace dress. The vampire took time waiting for Luna to finish her bath and smiled as she came out a goddess. She finally got back to her bearings and went to her maker, whispering "Sanguini."

"You remember me from Hogwarts?" Sanguini asked, pleased that his prey and now fledging remembered who he was, the same student who was with Harry Potter. Luna smiled in acknowledgement while concocting a plan. 'I have no intent to stay with Sanguini, since I have to be with my intended.' Luna felt her magical core still intact and she could feel the strings of magic around her, just like she did before her mom's death.

A softer and innocent yet seductive smile was on her lips, distracting Sanguini while she walked towards him. A quick glance at Harry's picture on her study table steeled her resolve and she whispered, "Round two." The magic she utilized was within her fingertips, raw materials for the most destructive of magics. She let her hands flow, almost instantaneously creating a large oak shield while running for her wand. The shield gave her enough time to get her wand back as the silver rapier hacked away at the oak shield like a hot knife through butter. She managed to get her wand back only to see her oak shield shatter from Sanguini's punch. The shrapnel dug around Luna's arms and waist but only fueled the desire to defeat her creator. With a grace and speed she would never have accomplished even with magic, she found an opening and slammed her foot on Sanguini's chest, using it as a springboard to give distance.

"I will never be your intended! I already have one!" She proclaimed, nonverbally powering up a firewhip from her wand. This time, it had a pure white flame and never touching the floor. With her most venomous look, she lashed at him using the firewhip, the one attack her enemy aimed to block with his silver rapier. It was decided even before the strike was landed. Sanguini turned to the finest dust and the silver rapier shockingly unscathed. Luna's power left her and the firewhip disappeared, leaving her struggling for support.

Almost dragging herself to do so, she took her assigned portkey, her trunk and her books, her mother's onyx necklace, and Harry's picture. Luna also placed the sword on her trunk before managing to get out of the house. Taking most of the tendrils of magic at her home, she created an intense magical fire, deciding that she should start anew, just as her father said, like the Phoenix what rose up from the ashes of the past. Taking out the portkey, she could only feel a tug and found herself at Hogwarts.

*end of flashback*

Luna omitted any mention of Harry's picture, the same picture she was still holding in her pocket. "If the fledgling kills its creator, then they are free game for the vampire nation, so I went here to the Headmaster." Luna said, finally finishing her story. Silence met the three for a minute or so, trying to process what lengths this scenario could be used for the war. "And I suppose you should know that I'm a Vampire Slayer Luna." Harry said, breaking the silence. "That was very obvious, Potter." Luna responded, showing the silver rapier to Dumbledore.

Charlus opened the link once more and said "That sword is the Nox Eterna. Only vampire royalty can hold it. During my time, it had already been stolen and the Vampire Nation has exhausted all efforts to look for it. It is Excelsior's rival, be wary of it." Dumbledore looked at Harry for a moment, trying to gauge if the young hunter would attack, but he found his fears to be unfounded. 'Dark silver with a glamour making it look like ordinary silver. I'm holding the Nox Eterna.' Albus thought, the elder wand shaking in his robe to warn him against trying to take it from Luna.

"For this year, I only have one request in these dark times against Tom Riddle." Dumbledore opened, clearing his throat while returning Luna's sword. "Mr. Potter, try to give Ms. Lovegood a normal year... We are going to need all the help we can get in this war and a spell weaver has turned the tide of wizarding battles. During these times of great distress and disaster, we need all our friends if we want to make our world a better place compared to a world ruled by Tom. Let Ms. Lovegood tell Ms. Granger and Mr. Weasley if she feels they are to be trusted with her secret. " The Headmaster said, motioning for Luna to take her leave. As Luna went for the door, she took one last look at Harry and their eyes met. The same strong willed emerald eyes that she grew fond of met her blue eyes and she looked away, hoping to herself that it could be a better year.

"Headmaster… We still have something to discuss?" Harry inquired, seeing the Headmaster finally leaving his desk and standing up to walk around his office. "I place an undue burden on you once more Harry. And for this, I sincerely apologize to you and to my good friend Charlus. Had I any more choices on the matter, I would take the mantle myself so that one more innocent soul does not thread the horrors I've faced with Gellert Grindelwald. But alas, it is not to be. I ask of you one more burden, to guard the students the moment Ms. Lovegood succumbs to the bloodlust, though of course, tell no one else who you did not tell that you are a hunter. The Inquisition with Hunters at their side has killed wizards and witches as well, and only after the defeat of Dark Lord Antonius have Hunters been accepted into our world completely."

"Let us go, I think Albus has said enough." Charlus said as Harry asked to be excused. Albus nodded and said "I will take a greater part of your education now, Harry. I hope it will be enough." Harry nodded and went out of the headmaster's office, stoic but determined to bring the extra task from Dumbledore.

"I guess, it's time to gather them all and set things in motion." Albus whispered, as the night ended with owls flying out of the Headmaster's office.