Ok, now that I'm on spring break, I'll have more time to update! SORRY FOR THE DELAY! I had a bad case of writer's block..and then last night….it just came to me….THAT'S IT! I'm making no more promises anymore…..I can't stand people yelling at me in their reviews……so I update when I update…..
THANKS TO:
AmandaT- although I don't really appreciate the fact you calling me mean…but thanks for reviewing!…I would tell you ahead of time…but my friend told me that setting up a chapter as only an author's note is against the rules or something…but thanks for reviewing..
Demon Dog: Yeah, ok I'll take your advice.
Hollyg20: THANKS
Bb: sorry if you don't like the idea….but hey! My imagination wanders sometimes….
oOKiwiOo- thanks! I'm kinda making up the plot as it comes to me!
Ickle-princess- Yeah it mentions that Luna died in the 2nd chapter!
Kairiyuna14- you'll see what happens!
Cryswes- sure but you help make it better!
FairyWings101- Your stories are great!
Oh yeah, remember in the last chapter, Dumbledore told them good morning? Now, pretend that never happened…pretend that he only said good night. Pretend that it was 9:00 p.m…..okay? You have to, or else this chapter won't make sense…
Disclaimer: I came up with the spell that I am about to mention, the one that will make Luna come back…..JK Rowling…did not come up with it….GOT IT? And I don't own any of the characters either…..just the plot.
CH. 12
Sir Nick paused for a second…and scratched his head. Harry and Hermione stared at him, waiting for him to continue.
"Uhh…hold on. My memory's getting kind of bad these days. I haven't told anyone about this for years. Yeah, all right, I got it. When I was my age, the age I look like right now… Well, when I was 40, the age that I was when I got killed, my friends and I went out to the Forbidden Forest for a little hunt. I got separated from them and that is when I noticed there was a tiny tunnel in front of me. It was in a tree, and so since I had nothing else to do, and didn't know what to do, I crawled inside. There, I found a clearing, surrounded by green trees, none higher than me. Smack dab in the middle of it, was a tree trunk. At that time, it was about midnight, and a full moon was shining above my head. I got up from the ground and walked to the tree trunk. As I watched, words started etching themselves into the trunk. I saw these words engraved there.
'At the stroke of midnight, look upon the only light. Say the name of which you want to revive. Turn and spin around three times. And that's it!'
At the bottom, it read 'This may take a few minutes to work.' Then I heard something behind me. I turned around, and the next thing I knew, someone has swung an axe at my neck, and I just….died." Sir Nick looked expectantly into Harry's eyes.
Harry looked dazedly at Luna, floating behind him. He was a little lost.
"Well, Luna, you willing to try it out?"
Luna gazed happily at Sir Nick. "Okay, if it means I can be with my Ron again."
Hermione thought for awhile. "Well, obviously, those words will only appear at midnight, so we're just going to have to wait. But…we don't know who killed you, and that person could still be there…."
Harry goggled at Hermione. "Hello? In case you haven't noticed that was like a thousand years ago!"
Sir Nick broke in. "Actually it was one thousand and thirty-four years to be exact."
"Really?" exclaimed Harry. "You're that old?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "We'll just wait then. Sir Nick, how about you and Luna come back at a little before midnight?"
Luna nodded happily, as did Sir Nicholas. Her eyes looked upon Harry, yet they weren't really seeing him. She was just kind of gazing through him in a dreamy way, but she addressed him. "Thank you so much Harry Potter. May fate be in your favor the rest of your life."
"Umm…okay," went Harry, a little shocked that Luna was capable of saying something so…mature and sensible. "Thanks, I guess…"
Sir Nicholas turned to the fire and was about to go through the wall, then, his head turned on his neck. "I'll be back. And if I were you, Harry, I would listen to Hermione, you never know if that person, or maybe another could still be there, protecting that spell." Then he floated through the fireplace, with Luna following him. She also turned and winked at them. "We'll leave you two lovebirds alone now."
Harry pulled Hermione close to him. "Can you believe it? Ron and Luna will live happily together!"
Hermione leaned in closer to Harry. "Yup, I knew it all along!"
Harry kissed her briefly. "Liar," he teased, laughing. "You thought that Ron was going to be hostile toward you all the time didn't you?"
Hermione giggled, a happy sound. She kissed him back, a little longer than Harry's had been. "No…I knew that some how, and some way, Ron would be happy in the end."
"Whatever, Ms. Granger." Harry sat down on a couch, and pulled Hermione down next to him. "I know you're lying."
Harry closed his eyes and leaned back. Hermione also leaned back into him. She was reminded of the time they had spent together that night. How Harry had held her in the same way he was holding her now. It was in a soft, loving, comforting way, yet protective at the same time. It made her feel safe that nothing was going to be able to get her while Harry was around. And Hermione was sure that Harry would not let anything hurt her. 'How surprised I would've been if I knew that night that soon Harry and I would be together, and that Ron would be happy soon as well.' This thought floated around her head until she finally fell asleep, dreaming of a date in the future, when she and Harry got married, and Ron and Luna were getting married at the same time, thus a double wedding… She faintly remembered wishing that this would happen some day.
Harry was unable to sleep. He opened his eyes to find Hermione sleeping peacefully. He didn't want to get up, as he might wake her up, so he just buried his face into her hair, breathing in deeply, taking in the sweet scent of her, despite the fact that she wore no perfume. He finally fell asleep, still breathing in her scent, and dreaming of nothing except Hermione, Hermione, and…Hermione.
A few hours later, half hour before midnight, in other words, 11:30 p.m…
"Harry?"
Harry opened his eyes to find Hermione's dark brown eyes staring at him. He looked past her to see Sir Nicholas and Luna floating next to each other in front of the fireplace. He stretched out his arms and yawned loudly, blinking owlishly for a few times.
"What?"
"It's 11:30," Hermione leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. "Time to go. Keep your fingers crossed and hope this works."
Harry got up slowly from the couch and followed Hermione, who was following Luna, who was following Sir Nick, as he floated through the portrait door. He came to a stop outside the Head Boy/Head Girl dorm.
"Now, I've already told Loony-Luna, I mean Luna…ahem…where the clearing is. She will lead you there." With that said, Sir Nick turned abruptly and floated through one of Hogwart's many paintings.
Hermione seemed a little hesitant to follow Luna as they went down staircases to the front doors. "Luna, are you…sure you know where you're going?"
"Of course! Sir Nicholas was kind enough to repeat his instructions enough for me to catch on."
Harry couldn't help but ask, "How many times did he have to tell you before you finally remembered?"
Luna smiled serenely. "Twelve times."
Harry stopped dead in his tracks. He tugged on Hermione's robes. "Are you sure she'll lead us the right way?"
"No," she whispered back. "But she probably will, because she loves Ron so much that she will be willing to do anything." Hermione kept on following Luna. Harry didn't move, he still wasn't sure. 'Oh well.' He shrugged and continued walking. After all, Luna would be the one who suffered if she couldn't remember where it was. They reached the front doors.
This time, Hermione stopped dead in her tracks. "Hey, Harry how about we try apparating there?"
"But Hermione, we don't even know where it is!" Harry protested.
"Yeah, but you know what we've got to do when we Disapparte to a certain place! All we have to do is know where the general location is and the directions and then we'll be there. So we know this clearing is in the Forbidden Forest and all Luna has to do is tell us how to get there!"
"True," Luna agreed. Harry jumped. He hadn't even noticed that Luna had come to float behind him.
Hermione started to get excited. "Yeah, all we have to do is, get there, read the words, do what it says, and Apparate back before anything can happen!"
"Ok, I guess that could work," Harry agreed.
"All right, Luna, tell us how to get there," commanded Hermione. Harry smiled to himself. Sometimes, Hermione could get so bossy, and he remembered his first day on the Hogwarts Express. A few minutes later, when Luna had finished giving Harry and Hermione the directions, Hermione looked determinedly at Harry. "Got that?"
Harry nodded.
"Ready?"
He nodded again.
"Okay, Luna, stay here, we'll be back in a tick." Hermione nodded to Harry. "Let's go." And both of them disappeared with a crack.
Harry soon found himself in a clearing, like the one Sir Nick had described to them.
Hermione appeared next to him in a split second.
"Look Harry! Over there!" Harry followed her pointing finger to find a tree trunk right in the middle of the clearing. She ran over there and gazed eagerly at the top of the trunk. She and Harry watched as the words started coming out. Harry looked above them.
"Lucky for us," he commented, "that tonight is a full moon."
"Okay, I'll do this Harry, just stand back." Hermione looked up at the bright, shining moon, and said, "Luna Lovegood," clearly and slowly. Then she spun around three times on the spot.
"Hurry, Harry, we've gotta Disapparate back to Hogwarts now!" Hermione tugged on Harry's arm, not that that was going to help him into disapparating back to Hogwarts quicker. To him, it seemed like nothing had happened. But according to the spell, it was going to take a few minutes to happen.
When they arrived at Hogwart's front doors, they saw Luna still waiting expectantly for them. She grinned happily at them.
"Hello, did it…" Suddenly, Luna collapsed to the floor, instead of falling through it, she landed on the ground, firmly, and making a loud thunk. Hermione knelt down beside her.
"Harry…look," she whispered. Harry saw Luna's face slowly turn to a healthy shade of peach. He watched in amazement as the rest of her body turn from a ghostly pale white, back to color. When she was back to normal, her eyes fluttered open and saw Hermione and Harry looking down at her.
"Did it work?" she whispered softly. Hermione stood up and reached out her hand. "Why don't you find out?" she asked, with her eyes tearing. Luna lifted her arm and grasped Hermione's hand firmly, and stood up on her feet. Harry hugged Hermione as they watched Luna pat herself, as though unbelieving it had actually worked.
"It worked!" she exclaimed happily. "It really worked!"
"Ms. Lovegood? Is that you?" came a disbelieving voice behind Harry and Hermione. Professor McGonagall was scurrying towards them, coming out from the shadows. Her face looked ghostly white.
"Is that really you Luna Lovegood?" She started crying softly and came to a stop a few feet in front of Harry and Hermione. "No, it can't be, Luna, was murdered by Voldemort."
Luna walked to Professor McGonagall. "It is me, Professor, I'm back." Luna patted her comfortingly on the shoulder.
"But…but how?" For once, Professor McGonagall, the strict Transfiguration teacher, and Head of Gryffindor was at a loss for words.
Hermione butted in. "We'll explain later Professor McGonagall. Right now, we have to go see Ron in St. Mungo's. Maybe if he sees Luna again, he'll get better."
McGonagall sniffed loudly, wiping her eyes with a tissue pulled from her robe pocket. "Of course, of course go on."
"But guys, I can't Disapparate," Luna reminded them.
"Oh yeah," muttered Hermione. "Wait, we'll just use a Portkey instead then!" Yeah okay. Um…here give me your….your…"
Harry dug into his pocket. "How about this tissue?" He offered her an unused tissue.
"Ech…okay, it'll have to do for the time being." Hermione took hold of the tissue, pulled her wand from her pocket, and pointed to it. "Portus," she muttered.
"Very good, Ms. Granger," McGonagall remarked.
Hermione blushed. "Anyway, okay, Harry, Luna, grab on and let's go." In three seconds, the trio disappeared.
sorry if the chapter isn't too good this time! the person who usually edits the chapters, otherwise known as the person "beta"-ing the chapter...is that a word?...ahem anyway...cryswes...is currently not...here...so yeah!
