Is there a trace
Inside her face
Of a lonely
miracle
And so you wait
And lie awake
For a lonely miracle
Luna could not sleep the night before they were scheduled to leave. It was nearly a month since Luna, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Neville had decided to go looking for Harry. So much had happened, so much planning and double-checking and basically fooling everyone they came across.
Ron and Hermione had easy ways to disappear, as Hermione was a teacher at Hogwarts and therefore had the summer off and Ron, as the assistant coach of Pemmington Platypuses quidditch team, could escape for a month without really being missed. They told everyone they were going on vacation together to pick a place in Romania for a wedding. This also involved telling everyone that they were engaged. "Fat chance," muttered Ron, when they decided that would be their cover story, but without his usual emphatic denial. Luna also had an easy time of vanishing; she simply told her boss in the Experimental Charms Department that she had found some specimens she would like to use in Romania and surrounding countries, but that it would take awhile to retrieve them.
For Neville, an auror-in-training, and Ginny, medi-witch for the quidditch leagues, they had to do a little maneuvering. They hacked into the magical lists of assignments and reassigned themselves to the town where they others would be.
The plan was to meet at the Гостиница Белого огня. It was the closest inn to the place Harry was last seen. Acting as though they were surprised to see it each other, they would make a big show of a reunion. Then they would stay there for a bit and pretend to move on, only to mysteriously drift into the mountains and not have anyone think of them until they returned. With Harry.
Luna was a bit anxious. She fingered the blue cloth of her sheets and glanced out window. She could only hope that Harry was still alive to see the night sky as well. They were all worried that they were setting themselves up to just have their hearts stomped on but they could not pass up this chance. Sighing, Luna rolled over and looked at the picture on her bedside table. Harry waved at her and she could tell he was saying "Hi!"
"Hi, Harry," she whispered. Luna brushed at her eyes, feeling wet tears brimming over. So while crying silently, Luna spent her last night at home before she went to find Harry.
It's taken much too long
To get it right
Would it be so
wrong
To maybe find someone
A miracle
"Ropes?"
"Check."
"Food Rations?"
"Check."
Ginny and Ron continued pouring over the lists in the corner of Hermione's small living room. Luna and Hermione were once again checking to make sure everyone had no idea where they were really going. Neville was reading the maps they had procured of Romania and the area they would be hiking through. As he looked at the magically projected 3D form of the mountains he sighed. Even if they could find the place where Harry had killed Voldemort it would be dangerous and who could tell if there would be a trail to follow from there? It had, after all been, two years. And with the anti-apparation spells on the mountains to discourage people from going to see the place of Voldemort's demise, searching would be slow going and dangerous.
"Are we ready?" Hermione asked an hour later. They all nodded. "Alright, we'll meet in the dining room of the Гостиница Белого огня at six this evening. Everybody know the plan?" Again everyone nodded.
"Coming, dear?" Ron said sarcastically, as he grabbed his and Hermione's bags. They were dressed the part of the tourist in classy clothes and sunglasses. She waved to everyone as she and Ron disapparated with a double-pop.
"I'll see you guys soon," said Ginny, pulling a cloak over her red medi-witch uniform. Holding tight to the top handle of her rucksack she too left. Once she checked in to the quidditch headquarters where she had reassigned herself she would tell the people there that she had to return home for an emergency. Then she would retire to the hotel to meet her friends.
Clapping Luna on the shoulder, Neville took out his Ministry-issued auror portkey, which looked much like a hand-towel. He and his hiking-pack were whisked away. Luna looked around the quiet apartment, knowing that it would be empty for at least another month. Sighing with a small prayer that everything would turn out well she strapped on her luggage and disapparated to the edge of the town where they would be meeting. If she was going to be playing the part of a traveling researcher she would have to make it look real. She could just see the buildings as she arrived in the chilly Romanian town and started her hike down.
You never really know
What it is
Not until it goes
And
if it comes again
It's a miracle
"Neville, old chap! Is that you? What in all o' Camelot are you doing here?" a very convincing drunk, though very sober, Ron swayed a little. Hermione pretended to support him as they walked towards Neville.
"Ron! Hermione! How are you?" Neville said setting down the tome he had been trying to occupy himself with before their little reunion.
"We're good, we're good…Getting married you know," boomed Ron, keeping up the drunk tourist act. Several feet away from them a pretty red-haired girl in tight robes rapped on the bar.
"The service is horrible here!" Ginny screeched at the bartender. "I ordered a double bitter-berry whiskey forty minutes ago! Omigod! Big brother is that you? And Hermione? AND NEVILLE? Holy Hippogriffs it is. What are you doing here?"
"Wedding plans," Hermione said, blushing convincingly.
Neville cleared his throat, yet winked at his friends, "Business. Come on, Ginny, come sit with us."
Chatting loudly, as to put on a show for others around them, the four carried on for several minutes. Just as they were all cackling loudly another young woman approached them, her hair full of twigs and her face dirty.
"Luna?" Ginny said loudly and rushing to embrace her. While hugging her she whispered, "Where have you been, and what on earth happened to you?"
"I sat down to enjoy nature for a few minutes and it decided to enjoy me in the form of several crups chasing me into the forest," Luna whispered back, causing both girls to giggle. Again, in loud voices, they invited the final member of their group. The people around them had been moving away from the obnoxious group slowly during the past few hours and now the dining room was nearly empty. They leaned in towards each other.
"I think we should head up to bed. Tomorrow morning we'll run for it," Hermione said. Staggering their exits, they left for their rooms, only to be there for one night.
All you wanted was a (miracle)
All
you needed was a miracle
A miracle
And all you wanted was a
(miracle)
All you needed was a miracle
A miracle
Ron pretended to stumble up to his and Hermione's room with her gripping his arm the whole way. When they finally closed the door of the white and mint green room with the sweeping window at the left side, they began laughing hysterically.
"Ah," Ron said and continued hoarsely, "If I had to keep yelling like that any longer I would have lost my voice completely."
"Yes, and I think I would have lost my hearing," Hermione muttered, grinning broadly, pulling drawstring plaid pants and a white tank top out of her backpack. She glanced at Ron who was being quite oblivious and reading over another map. She cleared her throat, "Do you think you could, um, leave for a moment, so that I could, ah, change?"
Ron looked up from the map, smirking, though obviously annoyed. "Do you, ah, think you could leave for a moment so I could double check this route in peace? Honestly the bathroom is a meter down the hall, just go get dressed there," Ron returned to the map with out even looking back at Hermione who huffed and left to get changed.
It's taken much too long
To get it right
Would it be so
wrong
To maybe find someone
A miracle
For the second night in a row Luna was up late again. Only this time it was because she, Ginny, and Neville were in her dark green hotel room, looking for Harry. Or not Harry, per say, but for life forms in the mountains. Neville had brought out the floating three-dimensional map again. They had cast a spell on it to show all animal life by small red lights in the animal's current position. The only problem was that it picked up on deer and rabbits and the like. They did find one place where the density of animal life was less. Figuring that it could be possible the animals avoided this area because of human life they peered closely at the area on the map. Sure enough, there was a marker that glowed just a bit brighter than the rest.
"Could that mean a person?" Ginny asked leaning back from the map.
"It could. Or could just be a particularly larger animal, such as bear, which would explain why there are fewer animals surrounding that area," said Neville.
Luna rocked on her knees as she gripped the edge of the bed to keep from falling off, "It's the closest thing to a lead that we have. We have to take it."
"Well, I suppose we'll start heading that way then. Better get to bed, long day ahead of us," Neville said, swishing his wand so that map disappeared. He and Ginny left with good nights, and Luna readied for bed, with a warmth in her stomach that had not been there in many years. Like Neville had said, the bright dot could have been a large animal, but it also could have been a person…
When Hermione returned to the room she and Ron were sharing she was surprised to find him sprawled across the bed, dead asleep. His right leg was hanging off the right side of the bed, the upper half covered by the duvet. The sheets were firmly pulled up to his neck and the right side of his face was buried in one of the pillows.
"Ron," she hissed, going to him and shaking his shoulder. She just could not sleep in the same bed with him. People might have been fooled into thinking they were together, but she and he both knew it was not true. After a few more shakes she realized that redhead in the maroon polka-dot pajamas in front of her was not going to wake. She softly walked around the side and hesitated before pulling the covers back and sliding in. She lay stiffly at first; nearly falling off her side of the bed but after a bit turned on her back and folded her hands across her stomach. Listening to Ron breathing gently she fell asleep, wishing that she could hear that every night.
And so you wait
And lie awake
For a lonely
miracle
