HARRY POTTER DOESN'T BELONG TO ME

34: darkness arises

Almost as though she had her face pushed as close to steaming hot bath water before she was dunked under the surface Luna waited with unhealthy breathing and patience. She hoped that her cousin had been wrong, that her uncle and the others were cowards and that they wouldn't attack the Quidditch World Cup.

Her daddy wasn't any better either; he almost seemed to hate the fact that he had to stay at the house with Luna instead of hanging out with Mr. Waterborne. It made Luna feel frustrated to say the least, she knew that Mr. Waterborne was a nice guy but he was a bad influence sometimes.

She knew that the better of a relationship she had with the Golden Trio the more that Mr. Waterborne would try to strengthen his friendship with her daddy so that he could find a way to be with them and accidentally run into them—claiming that he had been leaving.

Today was the day before Harry and the others would be leaving for the cup, and she nervously let her fingers intertwine together before she realized that she was pacing back and forth on the ground floor of the house. She hit the side of the table without paying attention and groaned in irritation at the fact that she had just spilled her cup of Gurdyroot tea from her tea cup.

Heading over to the kitchen counters, Luna grabbed some paper towels and headed over to the kitchen table—not paying attention either to the front door opening or footsteps heading through said front door. She only looked up when she heard her name and saw that Ginny and Harry were standing in the doorway—Hermione and Ron weren't there though so she found that it was weird that they weren't there.

"Oh, Luna," Ginny tsked at her friend, not in a mocking manner, and headed forward so that she could bend down and take the sopping wet paper towels from her and headed over to the trashcan so that she could throw them in. "Go sit down at the couch, I'll clean this up. You have no idea how much I've had to clean up after Mum."

Luna knew that it wouldn't be worth it if she told Ginny that she could do it because it was her mess, she knew that the girl was stubborn and so she headed over to the couch and sat down. Harry was looking around him—marveled at the sight of all the bright colors that seemed to vibrate in their own way.

"Wow, you weren't kidding. I've never seen these many colors. I kind of like it, it suits you," Harry commented as he sat down next to her and found that she was looking away for a moment—still wondering why Harry was here. It wasn't that she wouldn't be happy that he was here but now that he was here and she knew that he would be heading to the Quidditch World Cup she almost wished that she could show him the letter that her cousin had sent her and tell him to not go.

"Luna? Are you okay?" Harry probed to her but all that Luna could do was stand up from her spot on the couch and head over to where the staircase was. She paused and took a deep breath before she spoke, "I want to know why you are here, Harry. I wasn't expecting you."

Luna flinched at how harsh she sounded but she knew that it was for the best, she didn't want to have him any closer to her because she didn't want to look at him and see those green eyes and know that he could possibly be killed at the cup.

"Luna, is everything all right? Did you get in an argument with your dad? I thought that you had a good relationship with him."

Ginny was quiet in the background, she knew that if things got too heated or awkward that she needed to step in. She slowly made her way towards the tree stump coffee table and sat down, her eyes flickering from Harry and to Luna's figure that was facing away from her.

"I—everything is okay with my daddy, I just…" Luna bit her lip and wondered what she possibly could tell him. What could she say, where was that Ravenclaw wit that she had been born with? Behind her she could hear the sound of Harry walking towards her again and she took another deep breath before she spun on her heels and stalked towards him.

Ginny straightened up immediately, she was ready to get in between them and ask Luna what the bloody hell was her problem if she struck him the face. She didn't expect though for Luna to throw her arms around Harry and place her head against his chest. She sniffled some, knowing that she shouldn't cry.

"Luna? Luna! Tell me what's wrong." Harry brought his hand up and began to run his fingers through her hair without thinking—he never dealt with this before and he didn't know how he felt about it either. No fourteen year old boy wanted a girl to be crying on him with no reason whatsoever.

"I dreamt that you died and that…" Luna drifted off, knowing that she couldn't tell him about what had happened. She promised her cousin that she would not tell anyone about this. Besides she'd be brought in for questioning due to the fact that she would know about an attack before it even happened.

Harry stiffened even more and slowly brought her over to the couch before he sat down and pulled her gently away. Luna felt tears begin to rise in her tear ducts and she closed her eyes—taking deep breaths as she tried to control herself again. She couldn't look him in the face, not yet.

"There are few people that I care about very much, Harry. My daddy, my mum, along with Ginny, they were the first few—naturally. Then I met you and Hermione and Ron and Mandy and I just can't imagine losing you too. You mean the world to me, Harry. I can't—I don't know what I'd do." Luna felt someone sit on the other side and wrap their arms around her, shushing her and Luna could tell that it was Ginny that was trying to comfort her.

"Harry is not going to leave you, isn't that right?" Ginny gave Harry a pointed look, her deep brown eyes making him anxious due to the fact that she gave him a 'Molly Weasley' trademark glare. It was apparent that being around her mum all the time meant that she would have her mum's famous glare down pat.

"Yes, I'm not going to leave you, Luna. You mean a lot to me too. I don't think I've had a friend walk into my life the way you did. You are so creative and smart and you stand up for what you believe in but also respect that others don't agree with you. You're very sweet too, though sometimes you can be blunt—"

Ginny reached forward and punched Harry on the shoulder, glaring at him as though to tell him to apologize for saying that.

"Don't punch him, Ginny. I know that I am blunt sometimes when it is not needed. I cannot have you promise me that you will not leave, Harry. People say that they won't leave others and they try not to but death can always take them. I want you to promise me that you will at least be safe." Luna pulled away from Ginny and looked straight at Harry, her pretty eyes sad now but patient—as though to let him know that she would wait to see what his answer was and that she would respect his decision no matter what, at least she was there for him.

"I promise that I'll be safe, Luna. Just know that what happened in your dream won't happen, it was just a dream. I'm here, and I'm going to come back and I'm not leaving you. I'll be safe."

Luna could only nod her head before she showed him around the house—the ground floor and then the first floor, where a full sized bed sat in the corner for anyone who wanted to come and spend the night. There was also the printing press off to the other side and some other knickknacks that were there to help decorate the room. A couple chairs were around the middle of the room, just so that people could sit and converse with each other.

The second floor of the house happened to have her daddy's room along with his bathroom. It was closed off—it wasn't open like Luna's room was. A shower curtain rod ran along the right side of the room and around—with psychedelic patterned curtains attached to the rod.

"That is where my daddy sleeps. We both have bathrooms, but we also have an outdoor bathroom not that far away. If it is cold we allow guests to use one of our bathrooms, but if it is warm outside they can go to the outdoor bathroom. There is a claw foot bathtub, toilet and sink in there. My mum loved nature, and she often hiked a lot and eventually had someone in contracting come and built the building," Luna informed them when she turned—seeing that Ginny smiled at the mention of Mrs. Lovegood and her famous outdoor bathroom while Harry had a look of rapt attention.

She showed them her bedroom last—where she was still in the middle of working on the mural. Ginny furled her eyebrows, her eyes scanning the scene before her and then she looked at Luna, "um…this is different than you normally paint. What was the inspiration?"

Harry was quiet but she knew that he was listening to what Ginny had said—he was moving forward though and he touched the wall, thankfully it was dry at the moment. She had gotten to the beginning of the manor—she wasn't as close to making the boy and girl and for that she was thankful.

"I had a dream the other night. It was a sad one, but no one died in it. Two children lived in this manor and the girl's side of the manor was bright and lively and wonderful while the boy's side of the manor was dark and dreary and troublesome. They could not speak to each other directly so they would meet at the tree that split the manor into two and spoke while leaning against the side of the tree that they lived on."

Luna knew that the manor was not going to look anything like her cousin's manor. She knew that they would connect the dots if they saw his manor and they would ask her why she was painting his manor. Instead she had gotten to where she had thought of a beautiful French eighteenth century manor.

"Did anything happen after that? Or did they never get to see each other directly?" Harry asked this to Luna as he turned his head to her, making Luna turn her attention away from her thoughts and to him directly.

"I do not know. I woke up," Luna supplied before she headed over to where the staircase was. She motioned for them to follow and after both teenagers glanced over their shoulders at the strange mural that their friend had been painting, they followed her wordlessly.

They didn't stay long and if things were different Luna would have been wondering if she had done something wrong when it came to not really talking to them. Ginny was going along with her brothers but Luna knew in her heart that Ginny would be pushed towards the Port Keys and that she would have no absolute chance of staying behind—especially since Hermione would be there too.

So all that Luna could do was wait and hope that her cousin was wrong, and that he was just being paranoid and that living in the kind of environment he lived in made him feel as though he would hear things that weren't really there or he would hear things and think that they meant a different thing all entirely.

It wouldn't be until Luna woke in the middle of the night, lunging forward in her bed—cold sweat dripping down her face and fear gripping her that she knew that something had happened, that whatever her cousin was talking about had really happened and she would find out if Harry survived.

Her daddy was asleep and so she grabbed a blanket to cover her unmatched pajama set and rushed down the stairs—not stopping to tell her daddy that she was going to The Burrow or that she was too impatient to run there. She had a fireplace; she could easily use the Floo Network and appear through the fireplace.

Once on the ground floor, Luna rushed over to the fireplace and picked up some green dust that was in a pretty flower painted bowl and threw it into the fire—saying clear and loudly, "The Burrow!" before she stepped in once the flames turned green.

In seconds she stumbled out and fell into someone's arms. It wasn't until she had looked up that she noticed that Molly Weasley was holding her and that she had a look of surprise on her face.

"Where is he? Is he alive?" Luna probed to her, making Molly quietly nod her head before she helped her upright and moved them so that she could see that Harry was standing in the living room and that he had a look that let her know that he didn't know if he should sleep at the moment since there was still adrenaline that was running through his system.

Running forward Luna threw her arms around him, and held him tight as the blanket fell back and hit the carpeted floor. She didn't think this time when she felt hot tears fall down her face. She didn't care if she cried because these were tears of relief; the boy that she cared about was alive.

"I—I was so scared, I woke up feeling weird and I thought you had died." Luna sniffled as she felt Harry rub her back as though to let her know that she should just cry it out and not worry about messing up his shirt even more than it already was.

"I promised you that I'd come back, Lune. I'm not going to be leaving anytime soon; I can also promise you that." Harry quietly brought his hand up and ran his fingers through her tangled hair—he faintly remembered his mum doing that when he was a baby boy to his dad when he was stressed.

"I-I'm sorry," Luna finally managed to say after another minute of crying, and began to pull away from him before she grabbed her blanket and wrapped it around her like a shawl again.

"I—I need to go back home. I had decided to Floo here without a second thought and I don't want my daddy to wake up and think that I'm missing." Luna turned around and began to walk over to where the fireplace was.

As she went through she didn't know that darkness had already rose from a wand and into the sky—revealing that the Death Eaters were very much alive and that they very much were still out there and hadn't been all captured and sent to Azkaban. If she had known she wouldn't know what to do.