Important: Written for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments);
House: Slytherin
Class: Geography- Fact or Fiction
Assignment: #1- Write about something forbidden
Genre: Angst
Word count: 606 (Excluding Author's Note, but including entire Entry and Title)
Warning: This is an AU (Alternate Universe).
Characters: Luna Lovegood
Peace of Mind
'Luna, my love, you musn't be sad. For I will be with you, always.'
In her hands was a simple letter. Nothing too abstract or significant other than the layer of thin dust it had collected over the years as it was shut away inside a box. Luna stared at it, and her heart swelled achingly inside of her chest. She held the letter to her breast and wept, unleashing years of emotion that she'd kept inside. It had been years since she'd visited her mother's lab, and apart of her wished she hadn't been so compelled to embark on an adventure there. Too many memories of the place spurred the unrequited anger she had towards death.
She'd been cleaning the windows when the morbid thought occurred to her.
If there was a way to bring her back, why hadn't she tried it?
Her home was always so lively, so energetic with wonder, enchantment, and awe, was reduced to gloom and amorous despair. Instead of the glittering windows, cauldrons filled with bubbling potions, animals that chased each other in a flurry of fur and feathers, and spell books that walked themselves were replaced with death. Luna was not taking any of it half-heartedly; in fact, she looked at all the clippings, the black and white posters, and photographs, the colorless walls and desolate surroundings not believing what she saw.
A horrible sensation shot up her spine, causing her to tense irrationally. Just as she predicted, she was moving toward a nervous breakdown. It felt like her soul was being taken from her. She felt drained, detached, and hurt. She had been right to think that this place was bad. It brought back too many horrible memories. One of which she wanted to get rid entirely. This subject was so forbidden t6hat it had her skin crawling and Luna had to shake her head to vanquish the temptation. This was the place where her mother died, where she lost her life in some crazy experiment. Her father hadn't been too thrilled about it, but if her mother could go against the laws of nature, why couldn't Luna? Luna couldn't say where the feeling came from, but this could very well be the place where something so profound could happen that would change her life forever.
All of it seemed wrong. The normally lively house was stripped of all things happy and cheerful. An unnatural gloominess had grown from the depths of the old, wooden floor, adapting naturally as if it belonged there. The old paintings adopted the same shaken appearances. What had they seen? What was causing them to be so unresponsive, so out of it that even Luna, their protector, couldn't get their attention? Luna felt it, and she was sure as hell the rest had felt it, too. Something passed through the room and took the life of those that dwelled there. Wherever they were, they were near.
In an instant, Luna stopped crying. She looked around the room, minding the unkempt manner in which it was left and found another obsession that she couldn't help to dabble in. Having seen so much in her short life, she'd never been so drawn to the object that lay atop her mother's old workspace.
Luna tore her eyes from the grim scene, reaching out and scraping the muck off the window where it had adhered to the glass panel. She tossed the idea out of her mind, letting it die as the memories evaporated before her. Her mother would've wanted peace, something anyone would've wanted. Although Luna was tempted, she couldn't do the unforgivable.