p class="MsoNormal"Chapter 8: Revelations/p
p class="MsoNormal"Luna woke with the feeling of warmth on her cheek. She stretched and rubbed her eyes, blinking in the bright light./p
p class="MsoNormal"LIGHT! There was light!/p
p class="MsoNormal"Luna squinted trying to rush her eyes into adjusting. She couldn't believe it. There was light, warm light. How could the sun be in her cell? She turned her back to the light and tried to focus on the wall instead. Well the wall was horrible looking and looked like a castle dungeon, so she definitely was still locked up./p
p class="MsoNormal""Ah, you're awake!" Ollivander called out. "The window appeared at dawn. It seems someone wanted you to get a little fresh air." His voice was light, happy for once./p
p class="MsoNormal"Luna turned to face Ollivander, using her hand to block the light, and gasped. There were now bars separating the dungeon, really shrinking their space and keeping them apart. Her first thought was about how she was going to share her food with him now, the walkway that now ran between their cells was wide enough for two people. Then she noticed that the light wouldn't reach him. The sun and moon would light up only a part of her cell, never reaching his./p
p class="MsoNormal""No need to look so sad my dear." Ollivander smiled at her, "The fresh air and occasional breeze are a wonderful break from the darkness. That's enough for me."/p
div style="mso-element: para-border-div; border: none; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.5pt; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"
p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; padding: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"Luna stood and walked toward her bars. She smiled and took a deep breath, "We'll keep going. Things will get better. We have a window now, so that's something. em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"We/em have a window." Luna promised herself that she wouldn't let her spirit fail. Her friends will come for them and they would get out of this. Her friends are coming. In the meantime, they have a window./p
/div
p class="MsoNormal"Four days after the window appeared, Luna watched as it disappeared again. As the sun set, the wall closed around the bars until the darkness inside was complete again. At first, she didn't understand why, she ran to the wall and tried to use wandless magic to keep it open. The enchantments around the dungeon were too powerful and her magic was useless. She sat on the cold floor and watch the light disappear./p
p class="MsoNormal""Well, it was wonderful while it lasted." Ollivander sighed and sat down in the corner of his cell, far from the bars./p
p class="MsoNormal""I'm sure it'll come back. Why would they give us a window for so long only to take it away again?" Luna smiled as she walked toward the bars. It didn't matter that he couldn't see her, smiling helped her feel better. She held her hands in front of her and walked carefully, her eyes couldn't adjust fast enough but that wasn't going to stop her./p
p class="MsoNormal"Ollivander whispered, "To break us dear. Let us experience what we cannot have. I admire your optimism, it truly is the best part of being locked down here."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Luna found the bars and dropped to her knees. Tears running down her face. She was so thankful for the darkness to hide her. She took a deep breath and stood again. "They won't break us. You are strong, and you have made it this far. So have I. Harry, Hermione, and Ron will come for us. They will win and come for us. Window or not, we have hope and that's bright enough." Luna turned to walk around her cell, eyes finally adjusting to the dark./p
p class="MsoNormal""You are a wonder my dear. Good night." She heard Ollivander shuffle off to some other part of his cell./p
p class="MsoNormal"Luna put her hand out to the side and found the wall. She let her fingers glide over the rocks as she walked around her cell. The textured changed. If felt smooth, and decorated. There was a em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"pop/em off to her left and she jumped in surprise./p
p class="MsoNormal""The mistress sends her regards. You will not be allowed out tonight, but you can do your reading. The mistress has told Zill to bring the door to you. So Zill did." The house-elf was standing somewhere beside Luna, presumably bowed over. "Has the young Miss found the door?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Yes, thank you Zill." Luna felt around the door for the handle, but could find nothing. "How do I open the door? I can't seem to find the knob."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Zill help!" The elf snapped her fingers and a small orb of light appeared in her palm. She held her hand up to the door so that Luna could see. "Better for the young Miss?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Thank you very much, Zill." She grabbed the round knob in the middle of the door. "Zill… would you mind staying with me for a bit? I like to think out loud, it's nice to have someone else there when I talk. It helps me to feel less crazy."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Mistress said that Zill needs to help the young Miss until she returns. If staying helps the young Miss, Zill will stay."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Thank you." Luna opened the door and stepped in. Zill followed and closed the door behind them. She clapped her hands and the light went out, but the room was lit with a good lamp and a small window. There was no moonlight, but the sky was so clear Luna could see the stars./p
p class="MsoNormal"There was a table under the window, the lamp rested on the corner closest to the bookshelf. Luna grabbed the lamp and held it up to the bookshelf to read the titles. Most of the spines had nothing written on them, some were photo albums, and some shelves were full of scrolls. Luna turned to Zill, who was standing in the corner by the door./p
p class="MsoNormal""Zill, could you please bring in another chair? There's only one at the table." Luna held the lamp up higher so the light would reach the elf./p
p class="MsoNormal""Yes, young Miss." Zill apparated away and returned with another wooden chair to match the one at the table./p
p class="MsoNormal"Luna placed the lamp down and pushed both chairs in at opposite ends of the table. "Please have a seat Zill." The elf looked surprised and terrified. em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanOh right, house elves aren't allowed comfort. Well, she was ordered to help me…/em "You are making me nervous by standing there. It's not very helpful. You are supposed to help me right? Please sit, that would help me feel better." Luna smiled at the elf to try to make the situation lighter, but Zill didn't look any better./p
p class="MsoNormal""Yes, young Miss." Zill shuffled over to one chair and climbed into it. Head down and hands in her lap./p
p class="MsoNormal""Now, where should I start? Did Bellatrix want me to start somewhere? Did she leave any instructions for me?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""No, young Miss. The Mistress only said that Zill is to make the room and door for the young Miss, and help when told to. Zill cannot read, or write. Zill does not understand how Zill could help, but has learned not to wonder about the Mistress and her plans. Zill never understands the Mistress. It is not Zill's business."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Luna sighed. She felt so bad for the elf, but grateful for the company. Hopefully Hermione would continue to fight for the rights of house elves and something could be done about this after the war. She held the lamp up to the shelves again and picked one of the albums at random and returned to the table./p
p class="MsoNormal"Opening the album to the first page, there was a photo of a baby. No caption, just a happy baby on a blanket. She flipped through the pages and none of them had captions, just photos of the same baby. Sometimes the baby is playing, sometimes sleeping. Sometimes laughing or crying, and Luna was grateful that the photos only moved. She was not ready to hear a baby cry./p
p class="MsoNormal""I wonder if who this is. It looks like Bellatrix, but she said she had an older sister who looks like her… what was her name again?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Andromeda, young Miss." Zill spoke up. "The younger sister is Narcissa, married to the Malfoy family, Miss."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Ah, that's right. Thank you, Zill."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Luna moved the album off to the side and grabbed a different one. This album had toddler photos, of the same child she guessed. None of the photos had an adult in them, so it was hard to tell who the toddler was, or who the parents were. These could be Bellatrix or they could be Andromeda. The child had black hair so that eliminated Narcissa./p
p class="MsoNormal""Zill? How long have you served the Black family? Do you know what Bellatrix looked like as a child?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Zill was taken, young Miss. The Mistress took Zill from her first family after she left Azkaban. Zill's first family said that they supported the Dark Lord, but they did not. They only pretended. Zill was not happy there. Big family, big house, only Zill. The Mistress came and punished the family for the lies. The Mistress took Zill as part of their punishment, but Zill is grateful. The Mistress is easier to serve, and the young Miss is nice. Zill is better here."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Luna smiled and decided not to say anything else. She wasn't sure what would upset the elf and she didn't want to make her sad, or accidently make her injure herself. She found a picture of the toddler smiling straight at the camera and held it up for Zill to see in the light./p
p class="MsoNormal""You have seen Bellatrix more than I have. Do you think that this baby could be her? Does it look like her?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Zill looked at the photo and considered it. "No, young Miss. The Mistress has darker eyes and no dipples."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Luna turned the book back and looked closer. "Thank you Zill. Let's see if we can find a baby photo of your Mistress. Just to be sure that this baby is Andromeda." Luna stood and grabbed another photo album. She and Zill spent the next hour looking through the photos of Andromeda, trying to find Bellatrix./p
p class="MsoNormal"Luna woke with the feeling of warmth on her cheek. She stretched and rubbed her eyes, blinking in the bright light./p
p class="MsoNormal"LIGHT! There was light!/p
p class="MsoNormal"Luna squinted trying to rush her eyes into adjusting. She couldn't believe it. There was light, warm light. How could the sun be in her cell? She turned her back to the light and tried to focus on the wall instead. Well the wall was horrible looking and looked like a castle dungeon, so she definitely was still locked up./p
p class="MsoNormal""Ah, you're awake!" Ollivander called out. "The window appeared at dawn. It seems someone wanted you to get a little fresh air." His voice was light, happy for once./p
p class="MsoNormal"Luna turned to face Ollivander, using her hand to block the light, and gasped. There were now bars separating the dungeon, really shrinking their space and keeping them apart. Her first thought was about how she was going to share her food with him now, the walkway that now ran between their cells was wide enough for two people. Then she noticed that the light wouldn't reach him. The sun and moon would light up only a part of her cell, never reaching his./p
p class="MsoNormal""No need to look so sad my dear." Ollivander smiled at her, "The fresh air and occasional breeze are a wonderful break from the darkness. That's enough for me."/p
div style="mso-element: para-border-div; border: none; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.5pt; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"
p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; padding: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"Luna stood and walked toward her bars. She smiled and took a deep breath, "We'll keep going. Things will get better. We have a window now, so that's something. em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"We/em have a window." Luna promised herself that she wouldn't let her spirit fail. Her friends will come for them and they would get out of this. Her friends are coming. In the meantime, they have a window./p
/div
p class="MsoNormal"Four days after the window appeared, Luna watched as it disappeared again. As the sun set, the wall closed around the bars until the darkness inside was complete again. At first, she didn't understand why, she ran to the wall and tried to use wandless magic to keep it open. The enchantments around the dungeon were too powerful and her magic was useless. She sat on the cold floor and watch the light disappear./p
p class="MsoNormal""Well, it was wonderful while it lasted." Ollivander sighed and sat down in the corner of his cell, far from the bars./p
p class="MsoNormal""I'm sure it'll come back. Why would they give us a window for so long only to take it away again?" Luna smiled as she walked toward the bars. It didn't matter that he couldn't see her, smiling helped her feel better. She held her hands in front of her and walked carefully, her eyes couldn't adjust fast enough but that wasn't going to stop her./p
p class="MsoNormal"Ollivander whispered, "To break us dear. Let us experience what we cannot have. I admire your optimism, it truly is the best part of being locked down here."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Luna found the bars and dropped to her knees. Tears running down her face. She was so thankful for the darkness to hide her. She took a deep breath and stood again. "They won't break us. You are strong, and you have made it this far. So have I. Harry, Hermione, and Ron will come for us. They will win and come for us. Window or not, we have hope and that's bright enough." Luna turned to walk around her cell, eyes finally adjusting to the dark./p
p class="MsoNormal""You are a wonder my dear. Good night." She heard Ollivander shuffle off to some other part of his cell./p
p class="MsoNormal"Luna put her hand out to the side and found the wall. She let her fingers glide over the rocks as she walked around her cell. The textured changed. If felt smooth, and decorated. There was a em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"pop/em off to her left and she jumped in surprise./p
p class="MsoNormal""The mistress sends her regards. You will not be allowed out tonight, but you can do your reading. The mistress has told Zill to bring the door to you. So Zill did." The house-elf was standing somewhere beside Luna, presumably bowed over. "Has the young Miss found the door?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Yes, thank you Zill." Luna felt around the door for the handle, but could find nothing. "How do I open the door? I can't seem to find the knob."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Zill help!" The elf snapped her fingers and a small orb of light appeared in her palm. She held her hand up to the door so that Luna could see. "Better for the young Miss?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Thank you very much, Zill." She grabbed the round knob in the middle of the door. "Zill… would you mind staying with me for a bit? I like to think out loud, it's nice to have someone else there when I talk. It helps me to feel less crazy."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Mistress said that Zill needs to help the young Miss until she returns. If staying helps the young Miss, Zill will stay."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Thank you." Luna opened the door and stepped in. Zill followed and closed the door behind them. She clapped her hands and the light went out, but the room was lit with a good lamp and a small window. There was no moonlight, but the sky was so clear Luna could see the stars./p
p class="MsoNormal"There was a table under the window, the lamp rested on the corner closest to the bookshelf. Luna grabbed the lamp and held it up to the bookshelf to read the titles. Most of the spines had nothing written on them, some were photo albums, and some shelves were full of scrolls. Luna turned to Zill, who was standing in the corner by the door./p
p class="MsoNormal""Zill, could you please bring in another chair? There's only one at the table." Luna held the lamp up higher so the light would reach the elf./p
p class="MsoNormal""Yes, young Miss." Zill apparated away and returned with another wooden chair to match the one at the table./p
p class="MsoNormal"Luna placed the lamp down and pushed both chairs in at opposite ends of the table. "Please have a seat Zill." The elf looked surprised and terrified. em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanOh right, house elves aren't allowed comfort. Well, she was ordered to help me…/em "You are making me nervous by standing there. It's not very helpful. You are supposed to help me right? Please sit, that would help me feel better." Luna smiled at the elf to try to make the situation lighter, but Zill didn't look any better./p
p class="MsoNormal""Yes, young Miss." Zill shuffled over to one chair and climbed into it. Head down and hands in her lap./p
p class="MsoNormal""Now, where should I start? Did Bellatrix want me to start somewhere? Did she leave any instructions for me?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""No, young Miss. The Mistress only said that Zill is to make the room and door for the young Miss, and help when told to. Zill cannot read, or write. Zill does not understand how Zill could help, but has learned not to wonder about the Mistress and her plans. Zill never understands the Mistress. It is not Zill's business."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Luna sighed. She felt so bad for the elf, but grateful for the company. Hopefully Hermione would continue to fight for the rights of house elves and something could be done about this after the war. She held the lamp up to the shelves again and picked one of the albums at random and returned to the table./p
p class="MsoNormal"Opening the album to the first page, there was a photo of a baby. No caption, just a happy baby on a blanket. She flipped through the pages and none of them had captions, just photos of the same baby. Sometimes the baby is playing, sometimes sleeping. Sometimes laughing or crying, and Luna was grateful that the photos only moved. She was not ready to hear a baby cry./p
p class="MsoNormal""I wonder if who this is. It looks like Bellatrix, but she said she had an older sister who looks like her… what was her name again?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Andromeda, young Miss." Zill spoke up. "The younger sister is Narcissa, married to the Malfoy family, Miss."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Ah, that's right. Thank you, Zill."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Luna moved the album off to the side and grabbed a different one. This album had toddler photos, of the same child she guessed. None of the photos had an adult in them, so it was hard to tell who the toddler was, or who the parents were. These could be Bellatrix or they could be Andromeda. The child had black hair so that eliminated Narcissa./p
p class="MsoNormal""Zill? How long have you served the Black family? Do you know what Bellatrix looked like as a child?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Zill was taken, young Miss. The Mistress took Zill from her first family after she left Azkaban. Zill's first family said that they supported the Dark Lord, but they did not. They only pretended. Zill was not happy there. Big family, big house, only Zill. The Mistress came and punished the family for the lies. The Mistress took Zill as part of their punishment, but Zill is grateful. The Mistress is easier to serve, and the young Miss is nice. Zill is better here."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Luna smiled and decided not to say anything else. She wasn't sure what would upset the elf and she didn't want to make her sad, or accidently make her injure herself. She found a picture of the toddler smiling straight at the camera and held it up for Zill to see in the light./p
p class="MsoNormal""You have seen Bellatrix more than I have. Do you think that this baby could be her? Does it look like her?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Zill looked at the photo and considered it. "No, young Miss. The Mistress has darker eyes and no dipples."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Luna turned the book back and looked closer. "Thank you Zill. Let's see if we can find a baby photo of your Mistress. Just to be sure that this baby is Andromeda." Luna stood and grabbed another photo album. She and Zill spent the next hour looking through the photos of Andromeda, trying to find Bellatrix./p
