Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges and Assignments): Assignment 9
Archaeology: What A Find!
Task 7: Caveman!AU - Alt: Write about someone interacting with an animal
Beta: ProudFangirl23
Understanding Death
Luna could see the great winged horses that pulled the carriages, even if no one else could.
She knew what they were.
Thestrals.
She also knew why she could see them.
She'd seen death.
And she knew what death was.
Luna crept into the Forbidden Forest, her bare feet leaving only small imprints on the ground. It was dark, with only the moon and the stars as sources of light, but Luna wasn't afraid of the dark.
She was here for one reason, and one only: she wanted to see the Thestrals again.
It was crazy. People said Thestrals represented death. Luna hated thinking about the death of her mother. But still, she wanted to see them again, for reasons that she couldn't explain.
Finally, she reached a clearing, where two Thestrals from Hogwarts' herd stood. They were skeletal, their bones showing through clearly. Their eyes were white, like they were blind. They had black wings, fanning out on either side of them.
Luna walked forwards without hesitation. She placed her hand softly on the first Threstral's head.
"Hello," she said.
The Thestral stared at her with its blank eyes, then buried its face into her hand.
"Yes," she said. "I know."
Luna knew why she could see them.
She'd seen death.
She'd seen her mother's demise. Pandora Lovegood had died because of a backfiring experiment. Little Luna had barely escaped the exploding room.
When Luna closed her eyes, she could see the scene very clearly: a glowing white ball exploding, making the room go up in flames as Pandora Lovegood disappeared. Luna herself screaming, running out of the room and out of the house as fast as possible.
She hated that scene.
But Luna also knew what death was.
Death was something inevitable. It would always happen, no matter how much anyone tried to prevent it. As long as life existed, death would too. It was a never-ending cycle.
Luna knew that someday, she would die too.
She understood that.
And she accepted it with open arms.
She knew that eventually, her time would come.
But she would try to be happy, as long as she lived.
After all, you could either go to death a happy person, or an unhappy one.