Written for the Houses Competition
House: Gryffindor
Class: Astronomy
Category: Drabble
Prompt: [Location] Department of Mysteries
Word Count: 975 (G-docs)
Notes: Jack uses xe/xem, this is set far in the future.
The ruined and crumbled halls were eerie no matter what time of day it was outside of them. The halls echoed the smallest of sounds and whispered of days long past. Even in the heights of summer there was a distinct chill locked in the old stone, as though ghosts trapped inside were trying to ward off the trespassers that traipsed through every day.
Jack sat on a dusty dais in a large room—designated Courtroom 2 on the dig site's map—and couldn't decide if xe preferred the echoes of xyr fellow researchers or the whispers of empty halls. Both were haunting in their own ways; echoes bouncing off and around corridors until they came from all directions (or maybe just an impossible one), versus whispers from nowhere, barely intelligible if you listened closely enough. Even as xe sat with xyr back resting on a crumbled archway, the tatters of fabric still clinging to stone seemed to ripple in an unseen wind and tell tales of people and events long gone.
A…king dethroned…discarded...
With…wings…butterfly could…no more…
…black dog barked…last in…world…
Soulless…take regardless…
The sentence…banishment…
Guardian.
The whispers Jack had been idly listening to cut off abruptly with that last hiss. Xe sat up, alarmed at the sudden silence befalling a place that had never been silent before. The silence was more disconcerting than both the echoes and whispers combined. Someone was sitting calmly on the lowest row of tiered benches surrounding the dais and its arch. They looked to be a man (though Jack knew better than most that looks could be deceiving) and Jack instantly knew they were not part of the research team—the guardian?
"Ah," the newcomer said with a slow blink. "That would explain it. The living have always been the Veil's greatest temptation."
"Sorry?" Jack asked hesitantly.
They nodded at the destitute arch Jack had been reclining against. "The Veil of Death it was called," they explained, causing Jack to scoot away from the arch a little. "It's grown enough sentience over the years to yearn for more to pass through it, sends whispers of things people have said to entice an unsuspecting victim close enough to grasp."
Jack stared at the pile of broken stones that only barely passed as an arch, never mind a veil. "How do you know that?" xe asked.
The stranger smiled in pained amusement. "It took my godfather. It also now belongs in my domain. It's been very agitated recently so I thought I'd come take a look." They peered around the room, noting the slightly organised rubble and various tool kits left laying around. "Doing a bit of archaeology, are we? Yes, I suppose it would be about due, wouldn't it…"
Jack waited to see if they would say anything else, but they had trailed off and started to wander the room, picking up random bits of rubble and placing them down again. "Sorry," xe repeated, "who are you?"
The stranger whirled around, causing their cloak—and who wore cloaks nowadays?—to billow out around them. "Did I not introduce myself?" they asked, continuing before Jack could respond. "Harry Potter, at your service. And who is it that has riled up my Veil so much, hmm?"
"J-Jack Lovegood," Jack stammered out after a beat. Harry Potter? Hadn't that been the name of Great-Great-Great-Grandpa Lysander's favourite uncle? The stranger—Harry Potter, apparently—seemed to be reacting in much the same way to Jack's name, staring in wonder at Jack as Jack stared at him.
"Lovegood?" he asked. "Any relation to Luna Lovegood?"
Jack's mouth fell open at the name. Luna—Lysander's mother and the woman all members of the Lovegood family strived to live up to. Jack had never met her, hell xe'd never met Lysander, despite the fact it felt like xe had through reading all of his journals. Both of them had died far before Jack had been born.
"She's my ancestor," xe said.
Harry nodded, green eyes shimmering with emotion as they stared at Jack. "I see her in you. She was a wonderful person; I miss her every day."
"You were her friend then?" Jack asked, unable to help xemself. "You're Lysander's uncle? You're that Harry Potter?"
Harry laughed, bright and loud, the stone echoing it around dutifully. "It's been some time since someone recognised my name," he said, still chuckling a little. "I've become more of a title through the years—Man-Who-Conquered, Boy-Who-Lived, Master of Death. 'Sander never cared about those. He and Lorcan kept me going after everyone had left, you know."
Jack nodded, xe'd read about it in Lysander's journals. Lysander and his brother had worked hard to keep a smile on their uncle's face until the day he'd disappeared. Jack had always assumed he'd died, but now Harry Potter was standing in front of xem, alive and well.
Footsteps started to echo around them, signifying lunch had finished and everyone was returning to work. Xe went to speak again, but Harry held up a finger in front of his mouth and winked.
"I'm not an artefact quite yet," he said. "Do keep away from the Veil, young Jack. I don't want it getting any ideas and stealing another loved one from me."
Jack blinked at being called a loved one and in that moment, Harry vanished. Xe leapt up and looked frantically around the circular room but there was nobody—at least, nobody except for Adaine who had just stepped into the ancient room and was picking up her tools.
"You alright there, Jack?" she asked lightly. "You look like you've seen a ghost. I always say you shouldn't spend your breaks down here, who knows what secrets the old ministry kept this far down."
Jack gave an awkward laugh, scratching the back of xyr neck and giving what xe now knew to be the Veil of Death a sidelong glance. "Yeah, who knows."