Chapter 53 - Stumble Then Rise On Some Awkward Morning

In a small room, lit by light penetrating the rocks sat an old man. Defeated by many things in life, yet still conscious, still awake, and still fighting. He looked down to his legs and saw just how withered they had become. He remembered vaguely a time when he was young and agile. He thought back to his childhood memories with his siblings. Life was simpler in the old days he thought. There was so little to do comparatively, much of the modern youth would be bored. How wrong they would be though. Now there seemed to be nothing but struggle. Instead of moment by moment living, we had evolved as a species to one which lived a lifetime every moment. We lived our pasts and futures equally, weighing up the best path to take from the experiences of the former and the potentials of the approaching latter. There is so much more to do, yes, but, there is so much more needing done. The old man would have chuckled at this had he not fallen into the modern world. The stress of which was proving to be too much for him as he leaned back in his chair and fell off to sleep. In his dreams he could be so much less than he was in his current life. He could be a simple chaffinch that sat upon a hedge. To many he would be the same chaffinch as every other one nearby, but to him he would be different, in a way better. This sense of superiority came from a sense of appreciation. He felt that somehow the other birds never could appreciate just how lucky they had it that this was all they had. He felt that due to this, the air tasted sweeter, felt more refreshing through his feathers, and seemed to favour what he wanted. He knew though that the wind wasn't sentient and couldn't act on his wishes, but instead his wishes were for this very moment, with no subplot, introspection, worry, scheming, or desire. Just a chaffinch on a bush.

As Dumbledoor kept himself hidden away from the others, word started to get out and about about what had come about. Luna couldn't believe that the course of justice was being perverted by some actual perversions. She paced back and forth, even reaching fifth some times when her rage built up like Lego Bricks forming a never ending tower. Her pacing started to make the rest of the gang feel a bit queasy. It was like being seasick but not quite. They didn't dare say anything though, as they had started to suspect that they had a spy on the inside. How else would Snape and the slimy buggers have known about all of the intimate details about the things that happened when the Gryfindoors were all alone together. They knew that Percy was someone who was working against them but they had guessed that he wasn't trustworthy due to his bourgeoisie resemblances and his general cuntishness. So due to this, they hadn't done anything in front of him at all. As far as he had seen during his time with them, they were just twiddling thumbs, whistling, and playing dull and unrevolutionary games such as connect four. Due to this suspicion they all gave each other the silent treatment, pretending that they didn't exist without getting too existential about the whole thing and instead just being petty, and went about their own business. After all they had been through, something still wasn't quite right, someone had been leaking like a shit sink. Everyone headed to bend, to just sleep things off before they were resolved the following day once the court resumed. Rincewind fell asleep reasonably easy, insomnia wasn't rearing it's big ugly head of perpetual awakening for him tonight. Neville wanted to stay awake, deeply desiring to rack his brains over the situation and figure out who the backstabber was, but he was a bit narcoleptic under pressure and just conked out at the desk in his room, spilling ink on his shirt like a clumsy but sleepy bunny. Luna was ready to sleep, had just got herself into her pryjamas when she heard a ratata at the window. She opened the curtains and revealed to her amazement...blinds! Behind the blinds was an owl, looking in at her but not in a creepy way. She opened the window which seemed like quite a security issue for a prison and the owl didn't fly in, but instead dropped off a letter for her.

Luna opened the letter and stared amazingly at the words. "THE DAY HAS COME FOR THE BETRAYER TO REAR HER UGLY HEAD. YOU HAVE BEEN INFILTRATED BY A SLIPPERY SNEK AND IF YOU ARE TO ALL SURVIVE AND FOR JUSTICE TO BE FULFILLED YOU MUST OUST HER IN FRONT OF EVERYONE. THE IMPOSTOR IS….

….

GINNY!

KIND REGARDS,

DEATH"

The letters then immediately melted off the page and into a small puddle by the window. Luna was shocked and awed at what she had read. Ginny had been a secret spy for how long? She supposed that it didn't really matter how long it had been going on for, but it had to stop, like when you have a bad case of leaky bum all morning but need to go to school. But who could she tell and how? The paper was now as blank as the face of someone who had just stopped their bum leaking. Luna knew one person who she could trust with this information who would also believe it wholeheartedly, but how could she get in touch. She knew she could do it through dream, but that requirted physical contact and tropical fruit juice, she had often wondered if she could do it dry but had never accomplished this. She closed her eyes and clenched up every orifice on her face, trying too hard to get to sleep to realistically have any chance of getting to sleep but POOF she then was asleep. The dreamstate she emerged into was one of fleeting lucidity. She was fighting her own natural dreaminess. The seas were opened up in front of her for thousands of miles. Freshly caught trout were being het up for dinner. Thoughts of the gods filled her mind as she hoped for safe passage to Crandor. No, this wasn't right. This wasn't what she meant for the dream to become. She wanted the dream to be...anywhere but here. She was in the forest, torchlight tickling her feet. He was after her, but she could not see him. Her presence was noticeable and she became more aware of him as she ran through the oats. Luna, you have to focus. The thought intruded and broke her immersion, the oats slipped away into the ground. Luna walked onwards into the void, voidening darkly along as she went. Sliplets of light from enticing or terrifying dreams flashed before her but she closed her inner eye and continued to walk blind. After an indefinite period of time she opened her inner eye once more and found herself at a door. The door was open and within it was a room. Luna walked from the void into the room and looked around. It was a very plain room with off-white colouring all round and a very slight blue tint on a feature wall. The clothes in the cupboard were plain and dull, apart from some Hawiian shirts. She looked around and saw that the tv was playing a game, in fact someone was playing the game on the tv. She saw him on the bed. A slight ginger boy with long unkempt hair and long face. "Hey" he said, "what are you doing here?" he asked. Luna was startled that he could see her. "Oh me!" she exclaimed "I'm just here making sure… all of the pictures are aligned properly." and she started to go around and look at the pictures of rocks and shores to make sure they were level with the wall. "Why wouldn't they be?" asked the boy, not believing what he was being told. "Some people are freaks and do not hang their art properly" she replied with a look of authority. "Oh ok" said the boy as he returned to his game. "Who are you?" asked Luna. "Me? I'm just Rincewind" said the boy, "you are Luna.". Luna was taken aback. "This is a dream I have, I dream of simpler times." he continued and the tv was turned off. "Rincewind, is this actually you?" she said, wondering how this could be happening. "Sadly yes" he replied, "what are you doing here?". "I need to tell you something" Luna replied, "I know who the traitor is. It's Ginny! And she's been infiltrating our every move for a while now! We must find a way to use this to our advantage, but we don't have much time and we cannot communicate normally or they will know about this. And we cannot just dingy her completely or they will be suspicious and our cover will be blown. What do you think we should-" said Luna before being interrupted by yet another voice. "Rincewind" said the voice from behind the boy, "who are you talking to sweety? Why don't you come back to bed?". Luna and Rincewind looked shockedly over to the bed and saw the oily smooth cadaver-like body of the naker fropressor Sanpe! The dream then abruptly ended.

Luna was awoken and confused further. If that had really been Snape in Rincy's dream then he had either penetrated Rincewind's dreams also, or Rincewind was himself a spy. If it was just a dream of Rincewind's then Luna was questioning his sexuality, knowing the potential dangers for him being in the court of both man and god and testifying in a faggotry case as a closet faglord himself. The next morning was to be interesting as they all had just a meagre few hours before the trial was set to continue and their fates would hang in the balance, and in her extreme state of perplexitment, Luna simply went to a normal sleep and dreamt of boats and dragons and all of her usual sleepy stories.