Chapter XIV: Loneliness
...
Luna Lovegood gently dabbed Harry's wound with a clean table napkin and was thankful that it was just a scratch. Figuratively speaking of course.
The wound was primarily powder burn from the nozzle blast though the bullet nipped his skin even a little bit. Even with her little knowledge of handguns, Luna knew that if the blast were a little closer to his head, Harry would have been blind.
And for the moment, he was temporarily deaf in one ear.
Harry was quiet. He still shook in the knowledge that he almost killed his friend. He didn't realize that Hermione would throw herself in front of him to stop his attack. And what did Jäger do to merit such sacrifice from his friend? In the past years, the Hunter was cold and calculating and even heartless. But he tried to help Harry overcome his pain and suffering. He had come to accept the Hunter's ways and somehow earned Harry's respect.
He saw how the Hunter worked. Brutal and intimidating would be understatements when he fights for when one shows emotion it would be easy to read his next move.
But Jäger had shown no emotion that could be used against him.
But when Harry saw his eyes as he stopped his blade from killing Hermione, his soul trembled.
His eyes had become voids that could suck the soul out of a man. Courage would flee and integrity will be shattered. And life would be meaningless.
For a moment, Harry froze. Not even Dementors could generate such fear as Jäger did. No, what he saw in his eyes was worse. Endless darkness that could quash the fires of Damnation in an instant.
He would be lost if Harry did not wake from his trance. And the sound of thunder brought him out of it. Only when did thunder hurt so much? And when his mind cleared, only then did he realize that he was shot at.
His train of thought, however, was derailed when he felt a rough, wet but pleasant caress over his wound. Immediately, he turned to his only companion in wide-eyed wonder.
Luna had a dreamy look as if she did nothing wrong. That's what he liked about her. She made it seem that everything had a solution. Though at the moment, he failed to see what she could manage by doing what she did.
"You didn't just lick my wound, did you?" he asked in an astonished voice.
"You are lucky," Luna said in a dreamy tone as she gazed at his troubled face. "It is only a flesh wound." She poured water on the napkin and cleaned the surface surrounding the wound.
Harry Potter never realized that Luna's touch would send sweet tingles in his spine or that his heart sped as she licked him. And still he did not know why she had done so.
Before he could inquire, he felt an austere presence that made him cringe as if he was a child caught with some misdeed.
And slowly he turned to face an expression of reprimand of one of his old flames, Cho Chang.
"I see you are being taken care off," she said as she crossed her arms. "Hi Luna. Nice to see you again." Luna smiled back and looked at Harry shyly.
To Harry, she was worse than Madame Pomfrey in bedside manners. Although, in a few occasions that he saw her with Jäger, she was full of life.
The man could make a harpy into an angel.
"At least her bedside manners are better than yours," Harry said defiantly but his head ached making his grimace.
"What happened?" she asked as she took out a salve from her medicine bag. With a smile to Luna, she began to put liberal amounts of the healing salve on the wound. "Li was vague."
"Meaning he didn't say anything," Harry sighed as the cool salve relaxed him.
"How did you get this wound?" Cho asked.
"Jäger shot him," Luna said and in surprise, Cho pressed on the wound.
"Ouch! Bugger! Be careful!" he said as he flinched away. But Cho whacked him on the back of his neck.
"Language," she said in a cold tone. Then on a lighter tone, she looked at Luna. "Jäger goaded him?"
"Yes," she said with a small frown. Cho began reapplying the salve on Harry's wound. "Does he always do that?"
"Not really," Cho smirked. "He could really be a pain sometimes. But I think he irritated him in some way."
"Enough to shoot Harry?" Luna asked making Cho frown in thought.
"Just be thankful that you have a thick skull, Harry," she said. "Otherwise we would not be having this conversation. Come to think of it, I never saw Li use his gun."
"You mean he always had it with him?" he asked incredulously. "I never noticed it."
"You weren't supposed to," Cho sighed. "If he fired, you must have done something to provoke such an act. He never even drew that gun at his enemies. He somehow forgot himself. What made him do it?"
"Hermione," Luna said making Cho press hard on Harry's wound making him shout in pain.
"Ouch Woman! Do you relish in my pain?" he asked as he began to stand. But Cho grabbed him by the ear and sat him down.
"YOU CAUSED HERMIONE'S WOUND?" she shouted in his ear. "SHE ALMOST DIED!"
Instantly, Harry was humbled. He knew what he almost did and it didn't ease his soul to be reminded of it.
"How is Hermione?" Luna asked trying to divert her old senior's rage. And she quite succeeded.
"She's fine," Cho said with a glare to Harry. "In fact, it almost never happened."
"Thank God," Harry said with a sigh of relief. He would not forgive himself if anything had happened to Hermione. She was one of the few friends he had left.
"And you need His help," Cho said as she sat beside Luna. "You should never cross Li, Harry. How many times have I told you that? He is not a man to be trifled with. And you never saw him angry."
"And you have?" Luna asked in expectation. She really wanted to know more about the Hunter but what she really wanted to do was to be alone with Harry. But that could wait.
Cho suddenly looked sullen as she looked at the floor. It must have been a painful memory for her to be quiet all of a sudden.
A memory not worth reliving.
"Let's just say the prospect of eternal suffering in hell would be paradise in comparison of the fate in store for you when Li gets angry," with Cho's words, Luna cringed.
"Vindictive," she whispered in awe.
"Not quite," Cho said in a strained voice.
"Not quite?" Harry asked in surprise. "Cho, what would you call it?"
"Li was being merciful that day," she said with a sigh. "If not he would continue his torment for centuries."
"I think that would be a little excessive," Luna said as she shuddered. "He must be someone's worst nightmare."
"To the extremes," Cho agreed. "Alarmingly, he was always patient with you, Harry. To that point I could never understand."
"How could you know so much about him?" Luna asked curiously. To that question Cho did not answer. But Harry had a different direction of thought.
How could he miss something like that? Was the Hunter being lenient with him? He never saw the Hunter get angry with him but that morning, his eyes... No. He must not think about his eyes. It brought nightmares he wished to vanish.
"For the first time in my life, I stared fear in the eye and lived," Harry said with a sigh.
"Fear, death, pain, suffering... Do you know why Li could inflict everything in a person?" Cho asked. But Harry had no answer.
However, Luna did.
"He lived them all," she said as she looked at the table, staring at an object that baffled her. "To know is to experience and to experience is to venture. He had lost something in the past but conquered it with determination."
"He did not conquer it but he lived by it," Harry said as he smiled sadly. "That was what he was teaching me all these times. To live by the pain of my heart. But I would not listen. I kept Ginny where I should let go."
"You should never let go, Harry," Luna said as she took his hand. "She should always live in our hearts." Harry looked at Luna who was still looking at the wooden table. He never realized that Luna could be so pretty if she wanted to or not. She could just stand there staring at space and be herself. And that made Harry smile.
"Since you had learned your lesson, I won't berate you this time," Cho said as she closed her Medkit. "But know one thing. Li would do everything to protect Hermione."
"He held her as if she was a rare treasure," Luna said as she continued to stare at an object on the table.
"He gave her his vow," Cho said with a smile. "He told me once that he only gives his vow to someone he holds dear."
"How could he hold her dear when he just met her?" Harry asked as he looked at her. But Cho gave him a knowing smile and a shrugged.
"There is magic in such union," Luna said cryptically and when Harry and Cho turned to look at where she was staring.
On the table where the fallen blood of Jäger and Hermione mingled was a rose with intermingling petals of red and black.
