The success of the Squib protest thawed some of the glumness and frostiness that had blanketed the Circle of Peloresow like snow since the day the lights went out. The women and girls rode the high for weeks, creating a small pocket of early spring in an otherwise endless winter. Cressida and Luna even returned to some semblance of normality. The closeness they had achieved in the immediate aftermath of Xeno's death was gone, perhaps never to return, but they at least recovered somewhat after the confrontation with Narcissa. The status quo in their relationship had always been shaky at best, but now it felt like a relief to return to it after weeks of careening from intense reconciliation to almost outright hostility.

One day Cressida, apparently intent on extending an olive branch, sought out her daughter in the laboratory. Luna was hard at work crafting a wand, this one made of temperamental spruce wood. She and Ginny were making several trial wands with woods which were said to be similar to elder. They were beginning to experiment with cores, but could not afford to waste any of their scarce supply of elder wood.

"How's it going, love?" Her mother rolled a few of the sample wands on the table to get a better look at them. The wands were chunky and roughly hewn, some of them more slabs of wood than fully-realized wands. They rattled and scraped against each other as Cressida jostled them, grating on Luna's nerves.

"I really think we need to think outside the box of the big three. Just because unicorn tail hair, dragon heartstring, and phoenix feather are the most common cores in Britain doesn't mean they're the best. Elder is a rare wood so we should be thinking about rare cores. Now I just need to convince Ginny."

"Ah, yes, of course," Cressida said absentmindedly, picking up an aspen and dragon heartstring wand to examine it and then putting it back down in the wrong place. Luna rescued it from its precarious perch on the edge of the workbench and returned it to its fellows. Cressida did not seem to notice. She continued walking around the laboratory, touching things here and there, flipping through books that were splayed across the benches. Many of them had come from the library at the Rook; Luna wondered if she recognized any of them. It hadn't occurred to her to ask her mother's permission to take the books, but perhaps she should have done.

"So did you, er, need anything?" Luna prompted after several moments of this.

"What, dear? Oh, no. I just wanted to see what you were up to."

"And now you know. So…"

"Well, actually, since you asked, there was something I was wondering about. I've been thinking about weaving something in honor of your father, something of a memorial tapestry, I suppose. I know you don't like weaving, but I was wondering if you'd want to help me. It could be good practice for the Cloak of Invisibility!"

"What, like a woven portrait? " Luna asked as she straightened the wands her mother had left in disarray, making a point of adjusting them so they all lined up perfectly.

"Not in a literal sense. More like a tribute, I suppose. I was wondering about the Hallows symbol. And we could try to infuse the weave with elements of each of the Deathly Hallows."

"Sounds...abstract." Cressida's face fell, and Luna realized how cruel she sounded, so she rushed to qualify, "I mean, abstract, but also really neat!"

"Yes, well, I suppose you're right. It will need to be more abstract, at least for the resurrection stone. We can't literally make a tapestry that resurrects the dead. Unless you've had one of your amazing breakthroughs without telling me?" Cressida reached across the pocked and blood-darkened surface of the work table to give her daughter a playful nudge.

Luna only smiled and shook her head. The resurrection stone was proving recalcitrant; she had sorted through nearly half of her father's notes and still felt no closer to even scratching the surface of the mysteries of the stone, much less having a breakthrough. Besides, if there were even a chance that she could bring her dad back...the entire Circle would have known by now.

"I've been thinking that the Elder Wand would be easy. It could emit some kind of magical effect when it was touched, light or a warming charm or something like that. And the invisibility is simple enough, at least in theory: some kind of invisibility charm that activates when it's touched or worn. You know I've been wanting to work on using blood and runes to infuse invisibility into my weaving. If I can get it working for this, that bodes well for the Cloak of Invisibility. Just like from the legends!"

"I think Dad would really like that," Luna said, and she meant it.

"Would you like it?"

"Sure," Luna shrugged, "Any progress towards the Hallows is good progress."

"Ah," Cressida bit her lip but then smiled so quickly that Luna thought she had imagined it, "So I take it you'd want something more conventional as a birthday present, then?"

"What? You don't have to get me anything. Besides, you wouldn't be able to finish an entire magical tapestry in less than a month!"

"You're turning 14, of course I'm going to get you something! What would you like?"

"Nothing, really. I guess a nice dinner. Maybe a day trip to Bryn Gwyn to see the stone circle there. Daddy always wanted to go, remember?"

"Yes, you're right! He always said there might be a hidden complex of buildings just like at the Circle. The Muggles can only see two of the stones, you know. Goddess knows why. Maybe he was right, after all."

They sat in silence for several moments thinking about Xenophilius, Luna fiddling with the wands again and Cressida pretending to fuss with the books.

"You know, when I was a girl, every year for our birthdays my sisters and I were given gifts based on how good we had been that year. Or rather, how good our parents thought we had been." Cressida mused. Her tone was light and conversational, almost nostalgic. Luna forced herself to remain bent low over the wands, suppressing the urge to accost her mother with questions. She had never heard her mother talk about her childhood so willingly before.

"That's awful!"

"It was, but I didn't realize that at first. When I was very young, I used to get these absolutely lovely things, just gorgeous. Silver candlesticks, silk ball gowns, the finest lace. Then Narcissa replaced me as the favored daughter and I started getting dinky things, pewter instead of silver, glass instead of crystal. Just like Andie and Bella had been getting all along, all those years. It was only then that I saw how unfair it was. I was a hypocrite."

"You didn't know any better. And those sound like terrible gifts for kids, anyway."

"Well, they were for our bridal trousseaus of course, so we would have nice things when we grew up and got married."

"That's even worse!" Luna's eyes widened and she gasped audibly in horror. This seemed to snap Cressida back to reality. She looked at Luna in a daze, as if she had just remembered where she was.

"Anyway, it was horrid, but our birthdays were at least made a fuss of. I want you to have fun."

"Yeah, but your family was rich, and we're not. I know money for food has been tighter ever since Joanie and the others arrived, and really high quality yarn like for dad's tapestry is expensive…"

"Let me worry about food and yarn. And I don't have to be rich to make sure my daughter has a nice birthday. Especially this year."

Luna shrugged. She truly could not think of a single thing she wanted. Not anything that wouldn't require a resurrection stone, anyway.

"You're not going to see her, are you? Is she getting you a birthday gift?"

It took a moment and a pointed look from her mother for Luna to realize that she meant Narcissa.

"What? No, of course not. Look, it's not even like that..." she trailed off. Luna did not know how to describe how she felt about Narcissa. There was resentment and revulsion, but also respect and even envy. From the sisters' confrontation, she guessed that Cressida's feelings were even more complex. It seemed safer to say nothing.

"Does she ever talk about me?"

"Not really. She talks about Bellatrix sometimes."

"She would, I suppose."

"And recently she mentioned a cousin named Reginald or something," Luna feigned disinterest but she watched her mother closely through her lashes.

"Regulus?"

"Yes, I think that was it."

"You'd want to talk to your Aunt Andie about that," Cressida said, turning away and gazing intently at a book, but Luna could see that it was turned upside down. Luna suddenly felt an aching pang of affection for her mother, whose childhood had prepared her for nothing but marriage, who had been given the choice between silver and pewter when she deserved so much more, who for better or worse had raised Luna to believe in her own power.

"Actually, I think I'd quite like that nice edition of Alfonso X's lapidary for my birthday. Thanks, Mum." Luna dipped her chin to hide her smile as she reached down to kiss her mother on the top of the head on her way to the door.

"Now there's a wonderful idea! Oh, where are you going? Shall I come with you?" Cressida made to stand and follow her daughter, but Luna waved her away.

"No, no. You should stay and get started on those experiments for the cloak. We can start planning Dad's tapestry tomorrow."

"If you say so, dear."

Andromeda and Luna's walks in the garden had become something of a routine, one of the rare constants in Luna's life. The crocuses and snowdrops were just beginning to make themselves known, peeking out from the pockets of frost-crusted soil that had been their graves just a few short months ago.

"So, how are you doing? Hanging in there?" From the way her aunt's voice dropped, becoming almost husky with sympathy, Luna knew that what Andromeda was really asking was a different, more loaded question. How's your grieving going?

Luna waved the question away. She didn't want to talk about her father today, not when the prospect of finding another horcrux was so tantalizingly close. If she didn't seize it now, she feared it would dissolve like a mirage. Cressida had been easily fooled with a flimsy subterfuge, but Luna knew there was no natural way to bring this up during a conversation with Auntie Andie. She was simply going to have to ask outright.

"What ever happened to your cousin Regulus?" she finally said.

"Who told you about Regulus? Surely not Cress?"

"No," Luna hedged. Andromeda still did not know about her involvement with Narcissa, Draco, and the horcruxes, "Why? Was he in the bad part of the family? You know, the Death Eater contingent?" She veered off the path to stroke the strange blood-red leaves of the vine that had sprouted under the dirigible plums, in the exact same spot where she had buried the jar of her blood after her kiss with Ginny.

"He was...confused. He had a hard life. His parents were horrible to him, really awful. Worse than our parents, if you can believe it."

"Dunno if I can," Luna muttered, thinking of what her mother had told her about her childhood. She was twisting the leaves of the strange plant until they nearly tore, and forced herself to pull away and return to the path.

"Reg, he didn't know what to do. His parents told him he was a failure who'd never make anything of himself. He started hanging around with a bad crowd. At first they were just your typical hooligans, snotty little blood purists, you know the type. But then when the war started they all became Death Eaters, and Regulus went along with them. He never listened to me, of course, and by the time he realized he'd made a mistake it was far too late."

"You...you were still friends with him, even after he became a Death Eater?" The memory of the black, skull-shaped stain on the pale skin of Draco's arm rose unbidden in Luna's mind.

"In a sense, yes. It wasn't that simple. I thought maybe if I was there for him, maybe I could make him see that none of those people really cared about him, the Dark Lord least of all. Regulus was one of his favorites, but not out of any real sense of affection. I think he sensed the weakness in Reg, how desperate he was to please. Reg just wanted to be accepted."

"So trying to be his friend didn't work," Luna said, a statement rather than a question. This must be the long-ago betrayal that Cressida would never let her sister forget. Luna could not imagine being friends with Draco; usually she could barely stand the thought of their tenuous alliance.

"Well, it did, sort of. In those final months he turned more and more against the Dark Lord. But in the end I think I just ended up putting him in more danger. He was weeks away from deserting and going into hiding; Ted and I were helping him make plans. One day he turned up and asked us to hold onto something for him. We never saw him after that. The Dark Lord must have found out what he was planning and killed him. We'll never know for sure, I suppose."

Aunt Andie's face was pinched with regret. Luna longed to ask about whatever it was Regulus had asked her and Uncle Ted to hide, but knew it would be rude to ask right away. She reached out to pat her aunt's shoulder.

"I'm sure he was glad you helped him."

"I just wonder if he might still be alive today if I hadn't interfered," Andromeda sighed and crushed the corpse of a summer larkspur beneath her boot, its once-vibrant azure petals shriveled and paled to a sickly gray. Luna only pursed her lips and tried to nod sympathetically, waiting.

"Well, it's neither here nor there!" Andromeda said with the forced cheeriness endemic in mothers and aunties who want to change the subject, "Why did you ask about Reg anyway?"

"What was it, the thing he wanted you to keep for him? Did he give it to you?"

"Oh, that was the odd thing. He didn't have it with him. A few days later his house-elf dropped it off. Poor Kreacher. He wouldn't say where Reg was. I thought he must be angry with me, if he wouldn't bring it himself. Now I'm not so sure. Maybe he was already dead by then."

"But what was it?"

"Well, I suppose it can't hurt anyone now. It was an old locket. He didn't tell me what it was, just told me to keep it safe. And I have. To be honest, I've been tempted to throw it away over the years. It's a strange, ugly little thing. I don't like to hold it, or even to look at it. We keep it locked up in the safe."

Luna stopped in her tracks at the same moment that her breath caught in her throat and her heart skipped a beat.

"Everything alright?" Andromeda had already turned the corner, leaving her niece nearly hyperventilating in her wake. Luna rushed to join her aunt, taking one of her hands in both of her own. She suspected getting on her knees to beg would be a bit much.

"Auntie Andie, I can't tell you too much, but I know what that locket is. It's a kind of dark magic, and Regulus was very brave to steal it from the Dark Lord."

"Steal it? From the Dark Lord ?" Andromeda murmured.

"Yes, but listen. I know what to do with it. Please, please, please would you consider giving it to me? I promise it's what Regulus would have wanted."

It was as easy as that. By sundown, there were two horcruxes ensconced in Eva de Braos's tomb.

The next few months whirled by in a blur of Hallows and horcruxes. In February, Luna turned fourteen, her first birthday without her father. She got the trip to Bryn Gwyn and the lapidary she had asked for, along with countless hugs and pitying looks she had certainly not asked for. Perhaps out of pity, Ginny finally succumbed to Luna's needling and agreed to experiment with unconventional wand cores. They were going to start with the bones, scales, and hair of various rare creatures before venturing into the largely unexplored world of wand cores made out of magical plants and fungi.

In stolen moments away from the laboratory, she and Draco began planning the attack on Hogwarts in earnest over Valentine's Day weekend. She joked that he ought to be at Madam Puddifoot's with one of his countless admirers, but he only blushed and bent his head low over a map of Hogwarts Castle without attempting a withering retort. What was up with him ? Luna shrugged it off and tried her best to forget that if they were caught, they would both be given the Dementor's Kiss without a trial. Well, Draco's father could probably get him off, but she'd be doomed for sure.

March brought a shock of warm weather that felt like a false friend, a premature summer. Cressida began working on the tapestry for Xenophilius. Luna advanced sufficiently enough in Occlumency that Narcissa said she was ready to progress beyond simple shields and deflections and start sinking her teeth into suppressing and even changing portions of existing memories. To do this, she needed an arsenal of ready-made memories, neat packages of thoughts, feelings, and sensations ready to slot into her mind at a moment's notice. Luna spent most of her free time focusing on soaking up each moment like a sponge, trying to create small pockets of memory that she could repurpose later. A sunny day in a field, the sounds of Ginny hard at work on a wand prototype, even the way Narcissa's nails felt pressed into her chin. It felt odd, to cannibalize her own life in this way, but it could save her life one day. Luna wondered whether one day she could use elements of her own life as a weapon as well as a shield.

It was after one of their Occlumency sessions at the end of March when Draco gave her Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem. It was a worn and water-stained circlet which he took out of his bag and tossed to her like it was nothing. When Luna asked what it was, her cousin snorted at her. Then she peered at it closely and noticed the faint carving of an eagle underneath the centuries of rust. Draco refused to tell her where he had found it. It must not have been fiercely guarded or hard-won, and he handled it roughly, almost scornfully. He didn't even wrap it! Luna supposed Malfoy Manor must be stuffed to the gills with ancient and rare magical artifacts. She bundled it up in her coat and clutched it to her chest as she made her way home, shivering all the while.

Now that she had more horcruxes, Luna was able to confirm her hypothesis. The diadem and locket felt heavier and more sinister than the diary, which had been tamed by the tomb for three years. She knew Eva's bones must somehow be emitting some of the magic that had infused her body in life, like Boudicea's grave protecting platforms 9 and 10 at King's Cross Station and the relics of Saint Hildegard producing miracles long after her death. When she stood in the velvety darkness of the crypt and held the diary in her hands, Luna felt a sliver of hope that the evil of the horcruxes could be transformed, even healed. Sometimes it seemed to her that the horcruxes wanted to be destroyed, if they could not be reunited with the Dark Lord. They were born of violence and thrived on destruction, and they knew their master would scorch the earth to avenge them. This magic that Eva was working was different, slow and gentle but no less powerful, like water reshaping stone over millennia.

In April, Professor McGonagall fell out irreparably with Dolores Umbridge over the sacking of the Divination teacher, and in the aftermath, she brought Professor Trelwaney to the Circle of Peloresow. They all waited with bated breath for the inevitable clash with Cressida, but surprisingly the arrival of a third Seer at the Circle seemed to have a negligible impact on the web of tension and feuds that was the bedrock of every community. Sybil Trelawney was still deflated by her dismissal from Hogwarts and mostly kept to herself, while Cressida was inclined to act charitably to a scorned fellow Seer. Now Luna's mother spent most of her free time working on her magical tapestry, anyway. April also brought her first breakthrough, when she managed to make a small scrap of fabric invisible for more than a few seconds at a time.

Meanwhile, Luna hit a wall with the resurrection stone. After working through all of her father's notes and research files about gemology and magical jewelry, she still felt no closer to achieving anything. In theory it was simple enough; the real problem was sourcing stones. Magical gems were expensive under the best of circumstances, but even if she could have tracked down a stone that was both affordable and genuine, it would have been a waste to risk destroying it by experimenting with it. It was an awful, paradoxical bind that Luna couldn't see her way around. She was starting to think her father's dream of crafting all three Deathly Hallows would always remain a dream.

In May the air was scented with lilacs and asters, and still they had only three horcruxes. Luna and Draco were counting on having all the horcruxes by the end of term feast at the end of June, but at this rate the Dark Lord would be expecting a Hogwarts coup and Dumbledore's assassination before they found even one more.

Narcissa claimed to be making progress on a fourth horcrux, the one that had apparently been entrusted to Bellatrix Lestrange. But from what Luna had heard of her other aunt, she was an ideologue, a true believer in the Dark Lord's cause. Even a gifted schemer like Narcissa could not turn such a person to the light, much less convince her to willingly give up an important object the Dark Lord had entrusted to her care. So were they going to steal it? Narcissa always grew tense and refused to answer Luna's questions about it, her mouth hardening into a straight line. Sometimes Luna couldn't help thinking about Bellatrix and Andromeda, the least favored daughters, receiving rubbish on their birthdays while Cressida and Narcissa were showered in jewels. It could hardly foster sisterly affection or, indeed, in Bellatrix's case, mental stability.

Draco didn't dare discuss it under his mother's watchful glare, but proved more willing to talk when he and Luna were alone. He kept assuring her that they were on the verge of a breakthrough, even as the end of the Hogwarts term inched ever closer.

"We don't have much time, Draco," Luna said in a rushed whisper. They still spoke in loaded silences and euphemistic code words even when utterly alone and cushioned by dozens of protective and anti-eavesdropping charms.

"We're close, I swear. It's a delicate thing," Draco muttered, mimicking his mother's words as always.

"Yeah, you keep saying that. But how do you expect me to figure out how to take... him down when we don't even have all of... them yet? At this rate we're going to have to actually let them into the castle!"

"Soon. Trust me." There was a glint of confidence and something like fear in her cousin's eyes.

"On your own head be it," Luna said with a shrug. It was just a figure of speech, but they both knew that in a very real sense, it was true.

Draco and Narcissa appeared at the Rook the next day. Bellatrix stood behind them, clutching her swollen belly.