It was three in the morning, a time at which nearly anyone would normally be sleeping, and Luna was suddenly jolted vividly awa

It was three in the morning, a time at which nearly anyone would normally be sleeping, and Luna was suddenly jolted vividly awake. A chill of fear swept through her, and she knew exactly why she was now unable to sleep – SHE was nearby. Luna knew she couldn't help the situation on her own, so she decided to wake the others. Never a fan of traditional things, such as turning lights on brightly, she instead opted for setting off a large firework in the upstairs hallway.

Doors crashed open, and half-awake people slipped out of them. "What's going on?" asked Alicia, who was shockingly awake compared to the others.

"We have a lot of problems coming our way," Luna stammered, nearly speechless in shock. "She … she's coming here – I'd go on ten minutes from now, to be safe. As much as I hate to admit it, we're going to have to fight her."

"Great," George said a little too enthusiastically, "now we get to use the new Detonators. Don't look at me like that, Liss, I've tested them and they work amazingly well."

"Yeah, sure," Alicia muttered sarcastically under her breath. Though she had told George hundreds if not thousands of times that she HATED being called Liss, he never seemed to listen. He could be so dense sometimes!

"It's great that you have your little gizmos, but that won't stop her," Tonks said morosely, wondering how in the world she was related to that woman. "If we're going to try to take her down, we've got to have a solid plan, organized and all of that. Let's see – six of us that can fight, which means three lines of defense. Luna, Cho, you'll need to stay out of the way for a while, five minutes or so…"

"I'm not hiding," Cho said, cutting her off.

"Yes, you are," Cedric told her, placing a hand protectively on her shoulder.

"As I was saying… Alicia and Cedric will be the middle line, stationed in the front room downstairs. George and I will be outside, waiting, but we'll bring the fight in here if we can, at which point the middle line will join us and the back line – that means you, Luna – will start heading down. I haven't the least idea whether or not any of this will help, and it could very well get us all killed, but it's the best we've got right now. Any suggestions?"

"Cho and I can set off a few Detonators, send them down the stairs of something," Luna suggested. Unlike Cho, she was happy to have to stay away from the action as long as possible. "Okay, we have five minutes to prepare, then everyone needs to get in place."

--

Five minutes later, everyone was ready. Luna and Cho were in the bedroom at the top of the stairs; the door was held open a few inches so they could throw Detonators as needed. Though Luna was peaceful and calm, Cho was nearly hyperventilating. "Now I know how people felt during the war," she whispered sadly, clearly afraid.

"You'll never know," Luna whispered back, slightly sarcastic.

A loud noise signaled that everything was in full swing, and they crept out the door and down the stairs. Things weren't going as planned; flashes of light illuminated the nighttime sky outside. Cho ran out, with Luna following a few yards behind.

In what was later referred to as the cockiest act of his life, George was trying to take Bellatrix head-on, with disastrous results. On the bright side, in Luna's mind at least, he was at least able to run. No one could quite see what was going on, but the flashes of light gave at least a general indication of the circumstances.

"Take this," Alicia yelled, heading into the fray with a series of defensive spells. She was actually quite good, taking the focus off George and only getting a few cuts in the process.

"You will never defeat me!" Bellatrix screamed. At this point, right as Alicia began to gain the upper hand, several crucial things occurred. A bright light flashed, and she vanished while the light stunned everyone.

--

I opened my eyes and saw that she was missing. Cho, the girl I now lived for, had been taken while our eyes were turned. I'd have blamed myself if there had been anything I could have done, but I had been helpless, just like she had been.

In my mind, it was a tragedy, but most of the others did not treat it as such. They seemed to accept that there was nothing they could have done, and they didn't think we could do anything now. Oddly enough, the person who did understand was that peculiar girl, Luna; the one who it seemed was responsible for things.

"We've got to save her as soon as we can," she said three days after everything happened. "I know what THAT WOMAN is like, and if we don't do something now it'll be too late!"

As usual, I looked rather confused. "Luna was a hostage for two or three months during the war," George said, clarifying things. "If anyone would know what to do right now … I hate to say it, but she's the one."

"My question is, why Cho?" Alicia asked, seeming almost as perplexed as I was. "Her family's been around for about forever, and she barely knows anything about what we're up to. What's weird is this – I saw HER getting near me, about to do something, but at the last second she changed her mind."

"Alicia's right," Luna chirped. "This is all so, so odd, but since when have Dark people been predictable? The way I see it, people like that, especially HER, will do anything so long as it gets them what they want."

"Then the question is not, why her, but instead, what does SHE want?" Alicia clarified. "Don't go on this, but I'd say it's an attempt to get to one of us, probably Luna but I'm not sure."

--

While everyone else sorted things out, I was alone once more. I could hear them, of course; I heard all the explaining that had to be done for Cedric to understand what was going on, and the sudden brilliance Alicia showed. None of it made the least bit of sense, but life clearly wasn't meant to make sense. If it was … my mind drifted away into possibilities.

I wondered if anything was still right in the world, if good people still existed beyond the ones that had flowed through the house less than two weeks before. If such people were out there, and I sincerely hoped they were, I hoped that they would find us and help us. As much as I hated to admit it, we needed all the help that we could get.

--

A/N: 11 already – I'm almost surprised I've gotten this far.