A/N - I can't believe I messed up the chapters when up-loading. Duh! I'm not even sure if anyone is following this story but if so, apologies!

Chapter Nineteen "into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil." Matthew 4:1

It was a subdued group of wizards that apparated to the tracking point in the Malfoy woodlands a month later. A full cycle of the moon had been needed for preparation of the witches and wizards who were to participate. Luna had a strong feeling that the malicious entity in the Southern forests knew what was coming. She could feel a heaviness brewing in the Dark Forest like a brool over the sea before a storm. The air seemed to grow thicker with tension each night but Luna noted with interest that the demon's weapon of choice seemed to be free-floating fear; very effective unless you were onto it and didn't let it dictate your actions.

Luna faithfully followed Archimedes' instructions and made sure Draco did too as he was to be present. The rest of the group consisted of the Hogwarts teachers including Snape; Hermione, Harry, Ron and all the Weasleys including Ginny and his parents, Dumbledore, Remus, Lupin, and a few choice Senior Aurors.

Thick storm clouds were hanging heavily over the Dark Forest that day of a nasty green grey colour. Impenetrable mist filled in the gaps between the ancient, twisted tree trunks casting uncertain shadows and making it hard to know where to put your feet or how to avoid obstacles. The tree branches seemed to reach out and clutch at their robes and the tree roots rise up out of the damp, black soil to trip them. Luna knew perfectly well that the demon was deliberately trying to encourage fear in the group by any means possible.

As soon as they reached the outskirts of the glade, Harry's green eyes narrowed and he pressed his fingers to his scar. Dumbledore and Archimedes looked at him sharply. Harry's scar had faded a great deal since Voldemort's defeat on the North York Moors not so long ago but now the boy felt a definite tingling there.

Harry looked around him carefully. The glade had wisps of mist floating across the ground and over the stream but the waterfall confirmed it to him. "This is where Voldemort brought Ron," Harry said quietly but without doubt.

Ron stared around the glade, his freckles standing out on his suddenly colourless skin. "Is this it?" he breathed. He had been unconscious at the time and until after Harry and Hermione had actually rescued him. That had been at the end of 6th year.

Harry merely nodded. Archimedes thought for a minute and then nodded slowly. "That explains the vengeance that both Luna and myself picked up here then," he said flatly. "Trust Voldemort to choose the place of grounding for a major demon to enact his vengeance on Harry," he added, his lips compressed.

"At the same time, he would have been able to appease and please the demon with a human sacrifice," one of the other Senior Aurors said. "It would have given him an enormous injection of power."

Hermione and Ginny gasped and stood closer to Ron who was looking very sick.

"Yes, he would have been able to make a request of the demon then," Archimedes confirmed with a nod. "Thank goodness Harry and Hermione arrived in time."

"I'm surprised the demon didn't make an appearance to help Voldemort," Ron said faintly.

"He needs blood to have enough power to appear or act," Archimedes explained simply. "Harry and Hermione got here before Voldemort could shed any."

The three friends gravitated towards each other and took each others' hands almost unconsciously.

"We'd best begin," Archimedes said abruptly, looking up at the darkening sky. The others positioned themselves on both sides of the stream and Archimedes waded into the centre of the shallow water with his back to the waterfall.

Suddenly a strong gust of wind blew down from the top of the rocky cliff with a terrifying noise almost like a scream. Archimedes lost his footing on the muddy, mossy rocks and fell. Ginny screamed and Luna waded straight in. Archimedes had hit his head on large stone and was unconscious, blood dripping from a deep cut on his forehead.

"Blood!" Luna cried to the others, as she pulled Archimedes' face clear of the shallow water. Instinctively she knew they were all now in much greater danger. "Stay where you are and focus!" she commanded urgently but with an authority that seemed to flow from deep within her. The others responded to it immediately and did as she bid. For a split second she looked behind her at the waterfall and ever afterwards was sure she saw the outlines of a hideous face as high as the waterfall was deep staring out at her.

Luna lifted her head with the certainty of a priestess and began to intone the Invocation of Power.

*"Powers of the Kingdom be beneath my left foot and within my right hand. Glory and Eternity touch my shoulders and guide me in the paths of victory. Mercy and Judgment be ye the equilibrium and splendor of my life. Binahel, be thou my love. Be thou which thou art and that which thou willest to be, O Ketheriel. Cherubim, be my strength in the name of Adonai. Elohim, fight for me in the name of Tetragrammation. Malachim, protect me in the name of Yod He Van He. Aralim, act ye. Auphanim, revolve and shine. Chaioth Haquadosh cry aloud, speak, roar and groan. Quadosch Qualosch Quadosch Shaddai Adonai Yod. Chava h e he ieh. Asher e he ieh. Hallelu Yah."

The wind had started howling to an unbearable pitch while Luna recited the invocation with her back to the demon. The ancient words were obviously all too understandable to the ancient evil and it stayed in its lair unable to harm them.

By some instinct that Luna could never later explain, she then went on to the spell for diminishing a demon. She knew the demon's name as Archimedes had given it to all of them as part of their preparation. Any witch or wizard knew that knowing something's real name gave you enormous power over it. Likewise, to diminish the being's power you simply diminished their name syllable by syllable.

Once Luna began, the other's joined in adding their magical strength to the spell.

**"Avaunt! Hence, begone! Melusine Demogorgona Phospher Ba'al! Vaunt! Hence, begone! Melusine Demogorgona Phospher Ba'al! Hence, begone! Melusine Demogorgona Phospher Ba'a1! Begone! Melusine Demogorgona Phospher Ba'al! Gone! Melusine Demogorgona Phospher Ba'al! MELUSINE DEMOGORGONA PHOSPHER BA'AL! You seen Demogorgona Phospher Ba'al? Seen Demogorgona Phospher Ba'al. DEMOGORGONA PHOSPHER BA'AL. Oh! Gorgona Phospher Ba'al! Gorgona Phospher Ba'al. Gone Ah Phospher Ba'al. Ah Phospher Ba'al! PHOSPHER BA'AL! Fer Ba'al! Ba'al! Al!

The wind whipped Luna's dark hair around her face but her voice rang out clear and true without falter. As she pronounced the last 'al', the wind dropped to a whisper and the woods became very still. The mist gradually dissipated from the forest floor and the clouds that had hung so low over the Southern forest lifted suddenly and allowed sunlight to dissolve through the canopy overhead.

Luna relaxed and felt rather as though she had just stepped out of an unpleasant dream or trance. She looked behind her at the waterfall and to her amazement, a brilliant rainbow was shining in the spray. There had not been enough sunlight in the place before to allow the phenomenon. There was certainly not even the vaguest sign of a monstrous face. Luna started when she heard a bird call and she realized that in all her previous visits, he had never heard the faintest whisper of the sound of animal life in the place. She took a deep breath and looked around at the white faces of the other witches and wizards lining the stream. Then she looked down at Archimedes and as she did so, his eyelids flickered and he came round.

* * *

Once Archimedes had his cut seen to by MacGonagall, he took the group behind the waterfall into the cave. It looked completely benign now with sunlight filtering through the water to illuminate the cave with dancing silvery light. Even the heavy stone table that had obviously been carved out of the cave floor millennia ago with ancient runes engraved into it as deep as a spear is long didn't look frightening although none of them had any doubt that it was the sacrificial altar.

Harry and Hermione remembered but didn't say that this table was where they had found Ron unconscious and tied up the night they had rescued him from Voldemort. Dumbledore's obviously suspected that was the case and a quick glance of his blue eyes over Harry and Hermione's faces when they saw the table confirmed his thoughts.

"Had you seen this Archimedes?" Luna asked the wizard curiously.

"Yes, this is where I got the demon's name for the diminishing spell. I think I paid for it today. I shouldn't have come here alone to gather the information. The demon stole some of my power that day," he remarked quietly.

"Well, today wouldn't have been successful if you hadn't," Luna said practically.

"No. It's a good thing another sensitive with strong natural talent and authority was there today however," he added tiredly, his face drawn. Luna just smiled slightly.

* * *

Later that day Luna and Draco were sitting in Dumbledore's office with Archimedes. Luna still felt odd. She tried to pinpoint what the feeling was. In the end she came up with a metaphor. Like a copper pipe gets overheated if boiling hot water rushes through it, so Luna now felt affected by the elemental power that had rushed through her when she'd used such potent spells that day. Most of all, she felt exhausted. She would sleep well that night.

"Luna, you need training," Archimedes had said bluntly, his face still pale from the having been knocked unconscious. "You have extraordinary natural ability and I don't know where you learned such ancient and important spells for this kind of purpose but there are things I can teach you which would allow you to harness your natural gift."

Luna shrugged. "Okay," she agreed. What she had been through was frightening but she realized that the work was important and because she had proven ability, she was likely to gain satisfaction from it.

"It's dangerous," Draco said stiffly, his face tense with disapproval.

"Of course it is," Archimedes said with a frown. "It's very risky, that's why Luna is better off if she's trained properly. If she hadn't happened to know those spells today, we would probably not all be sitting here now."

"Why must she be put deliberately in the line of danger?" Draco asked tightly.

"Because she has an extraordinary and rare gift, and we need her," Dumbledore said gently. "In each generation we only get one sensitive with strong fighting ability. This time we have been lucky to have two within a few years of each other."

Draco's lips thinned but he didn't argue further.

* * *

That night Draco woke up suddenly in the early hours of the morning to find Luna's side of the bed empty. He squinted around the room lit dimly by moonlight and saw her in her nightgown, pacing in front of the window. It was a slow pace and not anxious but her slender arms were wrapped around herself and she seemed to be talking to herself. Draco listened carefully and realized the cadence of what she was saying sounded like a chant or a prayer or a spell. It was not English or French, in fact the language sounded ancient. He strained his ears but it did not sound like Latin or Greek either and he had taken both languages at Hogwarts so he would recognize it.

He listened a bit longer until he was sure he didn't know it. Certain words were repeated over and over again. In the end he called out to her, "Luna - what is it?"

She stopped muttering instantly and merely said lightly, "its alright, go back to bed."

"What language is that?" he asked, sitting up and swinging his legs out of the bed.

"I don't know. It changes all the time anyway," she said honestly.

"How can you not know what you're saying?" he asked confused, going over to her.

"I open my mouth and it comes out. Probably a bit like Harry's Parseltongue," Luna explained.

Draco's pale eyes shone strangely in the half-lit room and his moonlight pale hair gleamed. He stood frowning at her, trying to understand. "Why are you pacing and talking in a strange language?" he asked.

"I had a bad dream. I get them now and then, maybe one every 6 months or so. They are so vivid and so real that I usually can't sleep after them until I've gotten up and chanted in this odd language," she confessed. He still looked very puzzled. "They usually come true, Draco," she whispered tiredly seeing that he still didn't understand. "Sometimes they are about people who are already dead but mostly they are about things that are going to happen."

"What did you see?" he asked quietly.

"A terrible persecution in medeval times. It was near the Pyrenees. There was a small town of people who belonged to a Christian sect who were being persecuted by the Church. They were all tortured, many died. The woman in my dream was tortured and then set free. She escaped over the mountains into another country. The year 1305 was significant," Luna said, biting her lip as she tried to remember all the details. "This woman was a prostitute, I think," she muttered. Luna looked up at Draco suddenly. "But the blood! Oh my God, the blood! The streets were running with it, literally running with it." She covered her face with her hand and tears filled her eyes.

Draco stared at her in horror. What kind of nightmare was this? It did sound like a historical event but Draco did not know enough about Muggle history to pinpoint it. There was no doubt the dream was horribly vivid and detailed. Luna spoke as though she had been there. He put his arms around the small girl and led her back to the bed, grabbing a tissue for her from the nightstand. "We'll speak to someone in the Muggle Studies department at Hogsbridge tomorrow, okay? They'll know if the dream related to a real event," he said soothingly.

"I hope not," Luna said, having stopped crying before really starting. "I hope it was just a bad dream."

"I hope so too," he said softly, almost to himself and pulled her against him as they drifted off to sleep again.

* * *

"The Cathars," the Muggle Studies professor said immediately.

"Who?" Luna asked baffled.

"The Cathars. A Christian sect that was being stamped out in Europe around France and Spain. The Pyranees border both France and Spain, and the Cathars used secret trails over the dangerous mountain terrain to run messages between groups of Cathars and hide from the Catholic Church. Your date is spot on too. 1305 would have been just about the first year when the persecutions really began in earnest," he explained calmly.

Luna sat down very carefully on a nearby chair. Draco leaned against the mantel as he listened incredulously. "They were expecting them," Luna murmured.

"Of course they were. The Cathars had been hiding from the Catholic authorities for years," the professor said.

"She cursed herself for not having left before they got there. For stopping to gather her belongings first," Luna said faintly.

"You said this was a dream?" the professor said, frowning. Luna just nodded slowly. "Strangely accurate. Of course, it was the beginning of the 'burning times'. Later the Church would burn these 'heretics' but at that stage they didn't kill all of them, just raided their towns and tortured people for information," the professor continued.

"They cut them. They tied them up in the town centre with their hands above their heads and cut them open with knives. You should have seen the blood. It was everywhere. Sometimes they just cut them into pieces and then threw those pieces into the crowd. They laughed when they did that, thought it was funny. She got away though, they cut her up a bit but then they let her go. I suppose they figured a common prostitute wouldn't know much and wouldn't have any power in the Cathar community," Luna said quietly.

The professor stared at her. "It was the beginning of the Papal Inquisition which was a forerunner to the Spanish Inquisition," he confirmed. "Those methods were quite common."

"So my dream was true?" Luna asked softly.

"Well, you are certainly describing historical events that did happen. Whether the prostitute existed, we'll never know but all the details of your dream are completely accurate," he said with a shrug.

Luna nodded, "thank you" she whispered then got up suddenly and walked rapidly from his office. When Draco came outside, he saw her coming out of the Ladies toilets.

"Are you okay?" he asked seriously.

She nodded. She didn't tell him then but she had had to throw up. "Am I a freak?" she'd asked him seriously.

"No," he replied quietly. "Just very unfortunate in your particular gifts."

She nodded. "Sorry about the drama," she said, holding her shaking hands behind her so Draco could not see. In her own way, Luna was very much like Draco in that she didn't like to make emotional displays.

"No, I'm glad I found out this way," he said thoughtfully, taking her hand as they walked away from the Professor's office. "I've seen it myself which helps me understand it."

"I don't know what good it does, seeing these things and feeling these things. It doesn't seem to help anyone or accomplish anything. After all, that prostitute is dead; I can't help her," she shrugged.

"I think time will clarify all of that and I imagine Archimedes will help you enormously too," Draco said reassuringly.

"I don't want him to know about the dreams," she said quickly, darting a glance at Draco's sharp profile.

"Why not?" Draco asked curiously.

"It's bad enough having training as a 'sensitive'. If it was found out that I'm a kind of seer too, I'd have everyone on my case and I don't want that," she said frowning.

"Seer?" Draco asked, looking down at her.

"Yes. As in see-er. I 'see' things. Just because I see them doesn't mean I have to tell everyone about it. As I said, what good does it do anyone?" she asked with an odd undertone of bitterness.

"Yes and everyone would want a piece of you too, wanting you to see how their petty personal problems are going to work out and so on," he agreed realizing how sensible Luna was being. "On the other hand, if you have a dream about future events the information you pass on could really help someone like Dumbledore who would know how to use it," he added.

"Perhaps and perhaps not. I don't see everything and often what I do get, I misinterpret anyway. Apart from that, whatever I see can't be changed so what's the point?" she said with evident frustration.

"Well, let's not worry about it for now," he said comfortingly, gently squeezing the hand he was holding.

"Yes," Luna sighed. "Thank you," she added, smiling up at Draco. He smiled, and bent down quickly and brushed a kiss over her lips.

* Taken from its reproduction in 'An Enemy at Green Knowe' by Lucy Boston. ** Adapted and taken from source as above.