The Tale of the Three Brothers

After a few weeks, Hermione announced, "I think we should see Mr. Lovegood."

"Luna's dad, why?" asked Ron.

"He might have some of the answers we need," she said.

"And it could be like Godric's Hollow all over again," said Cedric.

"We don't know that," I said. "Besides, we did agree it was worth looking into. We'll go, but we'll be on our guard this time. Better safe than sorry."

We traveled down to Luna's house which was quite strange, but I hadn't expected anything less from her. The Burrow was in the distance and Ron looked at it wistfully. "It's strange, being so close and not going to see them."

"You were down there for Christmas, weren't you?" asked Cedric.

"No, I wasn't," he said, shaking his head. "No, I went down to Bill's place, Shell Cottage. He and Fleur were alone because it was their first Christmas. He wasn't pleased with what I'd done, but he helped me get back on my feet and come back." He looked at the Deluminator. "Suppose that's why I got this. He must've known I'd leave."

"No, he must've known you'd come back," said Hermione, making him smile.

We knocked on the door of the house and were met by Mr. Lovegood who looked both shocked and pleased to see us.

"Mr. Lovegood, sorry to call on you so late, but could we come in?" asked Cedric. "We were wondering if we could talk to you."

"Yes, yes, please, come in." He led us inside and to the living room where a fire was going in the fireplace. "I know you all are, Luna's shown me photographs and rarely stops talking about you. You're Hermione, Ron, Cedric and I've met you, Helena."

"Yes, it's good to see you again," I said. "Where's Luna?"

"She's down at the lake fishing. She'll be here soon. What can I do for you?" he asked.

"We were hoping you could explain some things," said Hermione. "Viktor Krum said you were wearing Grindelwald's mark at Bill and Fleur's wedding and I've seen the same mark in my book and we wanted—"

"You're referring to the mark of the Deathly Hallows?" he interrupted.

I stared. "The what?" I said. "Viktor said that was Grindelwald's mark."

"He is both right and wrong. All can be explained in Beedle the Bard's story of the Three Brothers," said Mr. Lovegood. "I have a copy with me."

"No, I'll read mine," said Hermione.

"Good gracious, the original?" said Mr. Lovegood. "Oh, ignore me. Please read, Miss Granger."

"'There were once three brothers who were traveling along a lonely road at twilight. In time, the brothers reached a river too deep to wade through and too dangerous to swim across. However, these brothers were learned in the magical arts and so they simply waved their wands and a bridge appeared across the treacherous water. They were halfway across it when they found their path blocked by a hooded figure. And Death spoke to them.

"'He was angry that he had been cheated out of three new victims, for travelers usually drowned in the river. But Death was cunning. He pretended to congratulate the three brothers upon their magic and said that each had earned a prize for having been clever enough to evade him. So the oldest brother, who was a combative man, asked for a wand more powerful than any in existence: a wand that must always win for its owner, a wand of a wizard who'd conquered Death.

"So, Death crossed to an elder tree on the banks of the river, fashioned a wand from a branch that hung there and gave it to the oldest brother. Then the second brother, who was an arrogant man decided that he wanted to humiliate Death further and asked for the power to recall others from Death. So Death picked up a stone from the riverbank and gave it to the second brother, and told him the stone would have the power to bring back the dead.

"Idiots," I muttered. "The first two brothers, I mean. They might as well have sold their souls, for heaven's sake!"

"Can I continue?" said Hermione, stiffly. She turned back to her book. "'And then Death asked the third and youngest brother what he would like. The youngest brother was the humblest and also the wisest of the brothers, and he did not trust Death. So, he asked for something that would enable him to go forth from that place without being followed by Death. And Death most unwillingly handed over his own Cloak of Invisibility.

"'Then Death stood aside and allowed the three brothers to continue on their way, and so they did, talking with wonder of their adventure they'd had and admiring Death's gifts. In due course, the brothers separated, each for his own destination. The first brother traveled on for a week or more and reaching a distant village, sought out a fellow wizard with whom he had often had a quarrel and challenged him to a duel. Naturally, with the Elder wand, he did succeed.

"'Leaving his enemy dead upon the floor, the oldest brother proceeded to an inn where he boasted loudly of the powerful wand he had snatched from Death himself, and of how it made him invincible. That very night, another wizard crept upon the oldest brother who lay wine-sodden upon his bed. The thief took the Elder Wand and for good measure, slit the oldest brother's throat, and thus Death took the first brother for his own.

"'Meanwhile, the second brother journeyed to his own home, where he lived alone. Here he took out the stone that had the power to recall the dead and turned it thrice in his hand. To his amazement and great joy, the figure of a girl he'd once hoped to marry, before her untimely death, had appeared to him once more. Yet, she was sad and cold, separated from him by a veil, though she had returned to the mortal world, she did not truly belong there and suffered.

"'Finally, the second brother, driven mad with hopeless longing, ended his own life so that he might truly join her. And thus Death took the third brother as his own. But though Death searched for the third brother for many years, he was never able to find him. Only when he had reached a great age did the third brother take off the Cloak and gave it to his son and greeted Death like an old friend. And went with him gladly, and equals, they departed this life."

"Well, there, you see?" said Mr. Lovegood. He picked up a sheet of paper and drew as he spoke. "The Elder Wand." He drew a straight line. "The Resurrection Stone." He drew a circle. "And the Cloak of Invisibility." He drew a triangle that connected them all. "Together, they are the Deathly Hallows."

"And this is all true?" said Ron.

"But it can't be," said Hermione. "There's no proof."

"Can you prove it is not true?" asked Mr. Lovegood. "Can you prove that the Hallows do not exist?"

Hermione turned red with fury, but I quickly cut her off before she could speak, "Mr. Lovegood, let's say hypothetically, this is true. Who're the three brothers?"

"Why, the Peverell brothers, Antioch, Cadmus, and Ignotus!" said Mr. Lovegood. "They were the original owners of the Hallows. They were legends in their day. But no one can say for sure who is their descendant as their surname died out in the male line."

"Figures," said Cedric.

"What about Grindelwald?" I asked.

"He was one of the searcher of the Hallows, and so they say was Professor Dumbledore, but alas, it is said they failed. Grindelwald had his own ideas of how the world should be run, as did Professor Dumbledore before their duel that settled the matter. I'm going to make some soup and see if Luna's headed back. You will stay for dinner, of course? Excuse me," said Mr. Lovegood.

He left us alone and we started talking.

"I always did like that story. Say it was true, what would you choose?" asked Ron.

Cedric and Hermione said, "The Cloak," and Ron said, "The Wand," and I said, "The Stone."

"We've already got an Invisibility Cloak," said Ron. "What would you want that Stone for? I'd go for the Wand."

"According to the story, it didn't do the second brother any good, taking his lover back from her peaceful state, but if it wasn't like that, I could see my parents or something," I admitted. "But who cares about the Wand?"

"I do!" said Ron. "An unbeatable wand, that would be fantastic!"

"Unless you were killed like the first brother or Disarmed and then the Wand would go to someone else, so it's hardly unbeatable, is it?" said Hermione. "Besides, this is all just nonsense. There have been legends for years, but no real proof!"

"Hermione, what if it is true?" said Cedric. "Think about it. Helena's Cloak belonged to her father, so it's not new, but it's still in perfect condition. What if she's a descendant of the third brother, Ignotus Pervell?"

"We don't know that," said Hermione.

"And we don't not know that," I countered. "It's like Mr. Lovegood said, we can't prove that this isn't real."

"Even if it is real, and I'm not saying it is, what good does it do us? There's no telling where the Stone might be and it's far from useful, the Elder Wand would only work in your favor if you were its true master, and while the Cloak's highly useful it's hardly curse-proof," said Hermione.

"I give up," said Ron, throwing his hands up. "You're so—Helena, where're you going?"

I had slipped away upstairs to Luna's room, feeling that something wasn't right. I opened the door and saw several things. Photographs of all of us together at D.A. and the Yule Ball, articles from the Daily Prophet concerning our fight at the Ministry two years ago, pictures of Slughorn's Christmas party, and on the frames in golden ink written countless times over was, friends…friends…friends…

I felt a wave of affection for Luna and then I frowned. There was dust everywhere, on all of her knickknacks and on the carpet. The bed didn't look slept in and her wardrobe was completely empty. Something was wrong.

"I don't like this," said Hermione, as she gazed at the room. "If Luna's here, why's there dust and things missing?"

Mr. Lovegood then came up with a tray containing five bowls of hot soup. "Hungry, anyone?" he asked.

"Mr. Lovegood, why've you only laid out the tray for five?" asked Cedric.

He looked startled and after a moment's pause, said, "She-she's had a large meal a few hours ago. She's not hungry."

"Really?" said Ron. "She's too full to not eat her favorite flavor of soup when she can't get enough of it? She told me this last year."

"Mr. Lovegood, come clean, where's Luna?" I asked. "And don't say she's out fishing. She's not, is she? Her clothes are gone, her bed hasn't been slept in and there are thick amounts of dust everywhere. Where is she?"

"Uh, Helena, I think you'd better look at this," said Ron. He held up an issue of The Quibbler with my photograph and Undesirable Number One printed on it. "Going for a new angle, then?"

"They-they took my Luna," he stammered. "They took her because of what I've been writing. But they might give her back if I—"

"Hand over Helena?" said Cedric, coldly. "So, you were sending an owl to the Ministry, betraying us?"

"I have no choice. I need my Luna. You mustn't leave, you must stay here. I need my Luna. Please, I must—"

"No deal," said Ron, flatly. "Get out of our way or we'll hurt you."

"No!" he ran through the door and locked it.

"I'm going to kill him!" I growled. "Can we Apparate?"

"Already tried, there's some kind of enchantment blocking us," said Cedric. He looked out the window. "Oh, no."

Brooms were flying pass the window and then there was loud crash from downstairs and the sound of shouting and pleading voices.

"Where's Potter, Lovegood? You said she was here!" shouted Yaxley.

"She's upstairs, I promise you!"

"She'd better be or you'll never see your precious Luna again! Or better yet, we'll just hand her over bit by bit so you can have something to bury!

"No—no, I promise you! I swear, Potter's upstairs!"

"Someone's definitely up there, there's signs!" shouted another Death Eater.

"We've got to get out of here!" I hissed.

"I've got an idea!" said Cedric. He raised his wand at the wall. "Flipendo!" A hole was blasted into the wall just as the Death Eaters and Mr. Lovegood showed up. "Oblivate! Memora Replaca!"

There was a flash of light as we disappeared out the hole in the wall and then Apparated away from the grounds and back to our tent.

"That traitorous git!" said Ron. "If I never see him again, it'll be too soon! I hope he has a splitting migraine for all he's done!"

"I'd feel sorry for him if he hadn't turned us in," said Cedric.

"Do think Luna's alright?" Hermione asked.
"If I know Luna, she'll be fine," said Ron.

"Ron's right," said Cedric. "If we do find her, we'll get her home. But until then, we can't go into a state of panic. We need to keep going."

Hermione nodded and then looked upset. "Helena, I'm so sorry! We never should've gone there! It was like Godric's Hollow again, I'm sorry!"

"You didn't know we couldn't trust the creep," I said. "Don't worry about it. Let's just get out of here before we run into anymore trouble."

We went on traveling until it grew too dark to see and camped for the night. When morning came, we listened to a secret radio station called, Potterwatch, and got the new update on the world. We could hear our friends talking using codenames, including Fred and George, Sirius, and Lupin. Sirius and Lupin said they knew we were safe and would end this war and our judgment was always right, making me feel touched.

"They're okay," said Cedric, relieved.

"Let's hope they stay that way," said Hermione.