Chapter 1: Inter spem et metum
"Luna..."
"Honestly daddy, you don't have to worry," a young woman with long, dirty blonde hair assured as she walked across the room with several shirts draped over her arms. "It's not like I haven't flooed out of the country before."
Edmund Lovegood crossed his arms and watched his daughter calmly fold her shirts before packing them into her trunk. He could not resist smiling at her when she paused for a moment to adjust the wand tucked behind her ear and then bent down to pick up a frog shaped alarm clock that she had set on the floor earlier. But it did not take long for his smile to fade away. All it took for that to happen was for him to think of the reason why Luna was packing.
"It's not that I'm worried about," Edmund said. "It's just not a good time to go back to England... you'll be in danger and..."
"I'll be writing for the Daily Prophet... writing in the mystical affairs and sightings department," Luna interrupted softly, a twinkle in her eyes revealing how much she was looking forward to it. "I'll just be reporting all the sightings and reports. I won't be in any danger at all."
Edmund crossed his arms and looked at Luna gravely.
"That's not what I meant. No wizard is safe in England anymore... why can't you just stay here? I could get you an internship at Vanaheim Kuriren if you want to."
"No," Luna answered and spoke as gravely as her father did. "I don't want that."
When Luna Lovegood had made up her mind about something, there was no one who could persuade her to change her mind. Edmund thought that sadly it included him but comforted himself upon the fact that he was fortunate to have raised Luna to what she had become. She was stubborn but in no way could he doubt the greatness of her mind and hear.
That, Edward thought solemnly and placed his hands in his pockets. I simply have to trust.
The Floo station was as crowded and full of people as Luna remembered it. In that aspect it had not changed at all. A mother was gathering up her children, a stressed wizard ran past a small child so quickly that she almost spun as he zoomed by. There was a constant buzzing all the time from all the words that were said by countless people Luna would never remember the face of. But one thing had changed during the seven years Luna had been gone.
Almost everyone at the station was there to get out of the country.
Luna was standing in one of the more empty parts of the station, the arrivals. She had just stepped out of the fireplace connected to the Floo station she had left from. To her great surprise, only another person had stepped out of the fireplaces the past twenty minutes, excluding her. In the departure section of the station, it seemed quite different. Luna did not have quite as good look of it as she wanted, but what she convinced her that she was one of very few who tried to enter the country.
It's just like daddy guessed it would be.
She looked down at the old passport in her hand, remembering that the last time she had held it was when she had been on her way out. Suddenly it felt strange to be back in England after all those years in Sweden. When she had left with her father she had only been ten. Now she was seventeen, grown up in the eyes of the world.
Clutching the passport tightly in her hand, Luna picked up her bag that she had set down on the floor earlier. It was heavy, containing a spare change of clothes and a few of her most treasured possessions that she had not dared to send to England before her arrival along with her other belongings. She practically dragged the bag as she walked all the way to the gate, the only way out of the arrivals. Between the gate and her there were a series of small booths. She remembered clearly that these were where the controllers sat, the ones who checked passports. As she approached the booths, she saw that almost everyone was empty except for one, where an old and half asleep wizard sat and. Luna walked over to the booth and knocked lightly on the glass to gain the controller's attention. He jumped upon hearing the knock, but quickly calmed down although he looked surprised to actually see someone standing there.
"Passport please," the controller said in a sleepy tone.
Luna slowly slid her passport through the opening in the booth. The controller took a long look at it and occasionally glanced up to take long looks at her face. After a while he picked up what looked like a perfectly normal glass jar. On a closer look, Luna saw that the jar contained some sort of white sand. The controller took a pinch of the sand and sprinkled it over the passport. The sand seemed to melt into it and the word "Valid" appeared on it with a faint glow. It blinked a couple of times before fading away without leaving a single trace. After that, the controller handed the passport back to Luna.
"May I see your family certificate, please?"
Another thing that had changed since she had left. Luna dug into her pocket and pulled out a folded document. She quickly unfolded it and gave it to the controller, who looked at it just as closely as he had looked at the passport. Then he repeated the process by sprinkling over the sand and once again "Valid" appeared on the parchment. Her blood was pure enough, therefore her ancestry was acceptable.
"Welcome to London, miss Lovegood," the controller said as he returned the certificate to her. "Thank you," Luna murmured as she walked through the gate.
As she walked out of the arrivals, she turned her head the right and looked right at the departures. There were queues everywhere in there and everyone looked so anxious to leave. A man was speaking angrily to a group of controllers about how he had been waiting for an hour for a vacant fireplace. A little boy stood in the middle of the large crowd, holding his mother's hand and almost hiding behind her legs out of shyness. Luna wondered if his family certificates would be valid if his family ever tried to return to England.
The pocket watch gave a loud "Click" as Harry opened it and looked at its hands. Two o'clock in the afternoon. Two o'clock exactly.
It was usually cloudy that day. The clouds were full and dark grey, threatening to pour rain over the Hogwarts grounds any moment. But for what it was worth the temperature was moderately warm and Harry valued it more than the average person. Perhaps it was all the years spent at Durmstrang that had made him appreciate any climate that was warmer. That was why he was on a walk in an attempt to familiarize himself with his new estate.
Harry sat down on the grass, overlooking the lake. He had seen the Quidditch pitch just a few minutes earlier and was already planning on inviting a few of his old classmates and other friends for a game. That was, when the grass had been trimmed. Right now it looked like a jungle, the way it grew as if it was a wild meadow.
"So it's true then... Harry Potter has come to Hogwarts."
It was a voice both familiar and, in a way, dear to him. Harry got up on his feet and turned around. Standing before him was a tall and blonde young man, equal in age to Harry and almost in build. His smirk widened and not even Harry could resist showing what looked like a smile.
"Malfoy!" Harry said, shocked and happy. He gave Draco a light pat on the back when he approached him. "What are you doing here?"
"I heard that you were back," Draco answered, half smiling as well. "So I thought I'd come here and see for myself. Finally tired of frostland?"
"I was working," Harry defended himself, although he knew that there was no need to defend himself in front of Draco. "Lord Voldemort needed someone he could trust to watch over those who may or may not be our allies. But he requested my return a few weeks ago... so here I am."
Both of them sat down on the grass, something they usually did when there was not a broom in sight. The words grass and broom made Quidditch come to Harry's mind and he reminded himself to ask Draco to bring his broom next time. As good friends as they were, Quidditch and flying was the one thing they were bitter rivals in. Harry had been a natural when it came to flying but as much as he hated to admit it Draco had improved a lot over the years. Their friendship had been tested two summers ago, during the most bitter and brutal flying contest. Since then they had learned to let the best man win, but none of them had any intention of letting that title go.
But when they were not competing and when there was not a broom around, it seemed most natural for them to sit peacefully side by side. Like best friends or brothers. None of them would admit it but it was soothing and comforting for both of them.
"Working for your father now, aren't you?" Harry asked and Draco nodded.
"I handle father's estates and properties," Draco clarified. "Boring, but someone has to do it. Father hasn't that much time for it... now that he's the head of the ministry, more or less."
Years ago that position had been the highest position that a wizard could ever reach. It belonged to Lucius Malfoy now but it was commonly known that Lucius was acting on behalf of Voldemort. Harry thought it very convenient for his lord that way, ruling without having to deal with the tangled web of laws and regulations that was the ministry. The thought of Voldemort brought up a memory of a past conversation and Harry found himself taking a look at Draco's arm.
"Do you have it yet?" he asked curiously. "The mark?"
Draco shook his head.
"No... father thinks I have a long way to go before I should receive it," he answered. "But he says that it will happen sometime next year. What about you?"
"Not yet," Harry murmured.
He offered Draco no reason for it because to be honest he had no idea at all. In all the letters that had been sent back and forth between him and Voldemort the initiation had never been mentioned. Harry figured that it would come as soon as he was of age but a year had passed since and it had not even been talked about. Upon hearing Draco speak of his upcoming initiation he felt slightly jealous but did his best to hide it.
"It's been a while since we went flying," Draco suddenly said. "Mind if I bring my broom along some day?"
Harry nodded and told himself to start training the moment Draco left the castle.
A flying memo came flying and Luna ducked just in time to avoid it. When she stood up straight again, she looked up to see that it was only one of dozens of memos flying all around the office of the Daily Prophet. The memos were of different colours and speed and Luna did not really mind spending a few minutes to look at them. The blue ones, she noticed, were the slowest while the red ones just zoomed by so fast that she saw nothing but a red blur. She felt a little tempted to paste together a blue and a red memo just to see how fast it would go then.
"Excuse me, are you looking for someone?"
Luna looked to her left to see a witch with curly, strawberry blonde hair stand there. She was an intern or assistant, something Luna could tell by the fact that she carriage a tray full of coffee cups. The nametag pinned to her robe read "Marietta Edgecombe". Although the question directed to Luna had been friendly, the look on Marietta's face was not. It was clearly one of irritation.
"I'm looking for Mrs Fanny Carter, she works in mysterious affairs and sightings," Luna answered calmly.
The witch rolled her eyes and pointed towards a hectic corner of the office before walking off to deliver the coffee. Luna set off towards that corner although she was unsure of where she was actually heading. Every desk she walked past was messy, filled with notes and drafts. Some of the reporters sat quietly and wrote on their articles, while others always walked back and forth between their own and other desks to ask or confirm things. Luna ducked a series of red memos and looked up to see a small, half closed door. A small sign saying "Mysterious affairs and sightings" hung loosely on the door. Feeling happy with herself, she opened the door and entered.
To her surprise, the room she entered was a rather small office that was almost smaller than Luna's old bedroom in her father's house in Sweden. But despite that it was small, she quite liked it. There were different pictures on the wall, one of them was one of a wizard pointing towards the sky and trying to convince a crowd of that he had just seen. There was another that she liked, one that pictured a group of people dancing at what seemed like a ball. Luna pondered briefly on what kind of mysterious creature had been spotted at that ball and then turned to look at the rest of the room.
Two desks had been squeezed into the office and stood facing each other. One of the desks was empty and dusty, while the other seemed to drown underneath stacks of parchment and various bottles spread all around. Behind a stack of parchment sat an old lady, who was so short that Luna almost missed her. The old lady, wore knitted clothes and robes in bright colours, was currently drinking out of a green bottle and had not even noticed Luna walking in.
"Your kneazle is a little off," Luna suddenly said.
The old woman almost choked, startled by Luna's voice. She pulled the bottle away, coughed a few long seconds. Luna looked at her closely, then walked over to her and helped her set down the bottle on the table.
"Would you like me to punch your back?" Luna asked. "Some people I know say that it helps when you're..."
"No, thank you, dear," the old lady declined and managed to force a smile once her coughing decreased. "I'll be fine..." Another cough. "May I ask... what kneazle were you talking about?"
Luna silently pointed up and to another photograph hanging on the wall. This one was of a rather large kneazle and the photograph was tilting a little to the left. Luna reached up and easily fixed it. The old lady followed Luna with her eyes and smiled again.
"I've been meaning to fix it... but my back is giving me a lot of trouble," the old lady spoke, empathising 'lot'. "I'm Fanny Carter and you are..."
"Luna Lovegood."
"Oh, miss Lovegood!" Mrs Carter exclaimed joyfully. "I've been waiting for you all day! Please, sit down!"
Luna looked around and after a while found a stool that did not have anything stacked upon it. Mrs Carter did not seem to notice her difficulty in finding a seat but was constantly joyous of Luna's presence in the little office.
"I've had such problems going out to write articles lately," Mrs Carter told and adjusted herself in her large, cushioned chair. "My back, you see. But when you work in this section of the paper you just have to get out there. I didn't know for how long I could go on, I'm getting old and going to all those parties is just exhausting. Then your application arrived and I was just so thrilled..."
"Parties?" Luna suddenly interrupted and tried desperately to think of what mysterious species held parties. Some tribe of faeries, perhaps?
"Yes, parties. Most of the time it's balls and parties held by the richer families, there's usually one every fortnight or so... But you're young, I'm sure that you will have a wonderful time."
"Oh."
It occurred to Luna at that very moment that it was another thing that had changed while she was gone. Just thinking about it made her feel like sinking through the stool, dragged down by disappointment. The mysterious affairs and sightings pages of the Daily Prophet were no longer about new and fascinating creatures.
They had turned into the gossip and society pages.
The servants and the house elves had been working frantically the past two weeks. Apparently the old house elves must have left the castle along with the staff and the students. No one had bothered to look after it since then, something that the new servants and house elves of Hogwarts noted. They had spent the past two weeks cleaning and still more than half the castle was still covered in dust, dirt and cobwebs. Harry congratulated himself upon making the good decision to go to what used to be the dining hall of Hogwarts instead of walking around when so many people were occupied with cleaning. He sat down on his seat, looking over the splendour of the Great Hall. It was one of the few places in the castle that had been entirely cleaned and for that he was grateful.
As he sat there alone and quiet, he pondered on what it would have been like to be one of those students who used to come down to the Great Hall for breakfast every morning. The enchanted ceiling, a feeling of safety and security with the mighty Dumbledore at the staff's table. It must have been much warmer than it had been in Durmstrang, not only because of the temperature but because Hogwarts had a reputation of being softer than Durmstrang and allowing the students fireplaces. Perhaps Harry could ask Malfoy about it.
The thought had barely registered in his mind before he started to laugh at it. Where his sentimentality came from he did not know. After all, none of it mattered anymore. Dumbledore was dead, killed by the dark lord himself. At Hogwarts there was Harry, Voldemort's only heir, and sitting on the very seat that used to belong Dumbledore. Hogwarts was no longer a school, it was his now and his alone. He was free to do whatever he wanted it,
With that in mind, Harry pushed himself up on his feet and started to walk around the Great Hall. The first thing he had to do was to get rid of the old furniture in the Great Hall. It had not deteriorated over the years and was still in good condition, but it was for the better. Who knew how many mudbloods had sat on these chairs or eaten by the tables? Some of the decorations had to be taken down as well. As fascinating as the castle was on it's own, Harry did not desire it to look more like a school than an estate.
"Oh, there you are... They told me I would find you here."
Harry turned around and looked in the direction of where the voice came from. His eyes went to the entrance to the Great Hall and settled on none other than Bellatrix Lestrange. A broad grin formed on his lips upon seeing her.
"Hello mother."
Notes: I hope you liked this chapter... it's been a little confusing for me to write Luna. I originally planned on her being exactly as she is in the books but after a while I realized that this alternate reality has to had some effect one here. That's why she's not as quirky or dreamy in this story (not to mention a lot less entertaining to read about) but I hope you'll bear to read the future chapters anyway. Thank you for reading this one! :)
-Komillia