Disclaimer: I'm too young to be Rowling so there is sadly no way Harry Potter is mine…
Placing:?years after the first war.
Challenge: 'Prompt of the day'. Prompt: (word) pretend. 1451 words. Gryffindor, Hogwarts.
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sSsSsSsSs
CROWDED ROOM
sSs
The first thing Luna did when she woke up in the past, was looking out of the window. She didn't look out of the window because she wanted to know what was happening outside or something like that – no, she looked out of the window because that was what she had been doing before her future memories had changed her understanding of the world.
Luna blinked and watched the yellow grass in front of the Rookery, her home, bowing to the wind.
It was a very nice, surprisingly warm, late autumn's day.
For a moment, Luna marvelled about the oddly peaceful scenery outside of her window – then she turned her thoughts to a more pressing matter.
"Seems like Malfoy mixed up Ehwaz and Eihwaz when he rewrote the runes on the time-turner," she thought pensively. Then she shrugged.
"Doesn't matter," she decided. "Three weeks before Mummy's death or three years – not that important."
With that thought, she left her room in search of her mother.
She found her in her workroom.
"Mummy," she said, looking at her mother with innocent eyes. "May I go out and look for nargles?"
Her mother frowned at her.
"Aren't you a bit young to go and look for nargles?" Her mother asked concerned.
Luna thought about it.
Maybe, she decided, her mother might be right when it came to that. Luna was, after all, only six currently…
"I guess I might be a little bit young in body to look for nargles all on my own," she conceded. "But I promise you, Mummy, I'm old enough in soul to do so."
Her mother raised an eyebrow at that.
"And how did you accomplish that feat?" She asked her daughter surprised.
"By sending my memories back in time, Mummy, what else?" Luna answered sincerely.
Her mother thought that over.
"A valuable argument," she agreed finally.
"So I'm allowed to go and look for nargles?" Luna asked her mother interestedly.
Her mother smiled at her.
"As long as you don't leave through the gates of our property," she told her daughter smiling.
Luna thought that over.
In the end, she guessed that she could do as her mother wished her to do.
"Alright, Mummy," she said.
Her mother just smiled, so Luna stepped forward and hugged her.
"I missed you, Mummy," she said.
Her mother laughed and kissed her head.
"Go and play pretend," she told her daughter. "Just be in for supper in three hours, will you?"
Luna nodded earnestly.
"Of course, Mummy," she said and with that walked out of the house.
Her mother shook her head in amusement. Sometimes, Luna was way too much like her father!
"Memories from the future," the mother thought amused while shaking her head. "That child truly has a vivid imagination!"
With that thought, she went back to work. It wasn't as if it was dangerous for her six-year-old daughter to play in the garden. There was nothing that could hurt the child, so as long as the mother knew where the child was, she wasn't above leaving her daughter alone to play…
Meanwhile, Luna stopped in front of the gates to their property.
She looked back at the house, then she shrugged.
"It's Mummy's wish," she remembered herself. "Even if it's an odd request…"
She looked at the gate and tried to figure out if there was something special about it, that her mother didn't want Luna to leave through it. Luna found nothing.
She frowned.
"Maybe Mummy just doesn't like it to be opened," she thought, a little bit confused. It wasn't as if she truly remembered that much of her mother, after all. For all she knew, her mother had hidden something at the hinges of the gate that would fall out if they were opened…
"Oh, well," Luna thought. "Doesn't matter."
If her mother didn't want her to leave the premises through the gate, then Luna wouldn't. She was a good child, after all.
"Time to go and look for some nargles," Luna thought to herself.
And with that she positioned herself exactly in front of the gate, just to turn on the spot and apparate away.
She appeared again in one of the more shady corners of Knockturn Alley.
For a moment, she looked up and down the streets, then she ambled away, deeper into the alley.
Oddly enough, nobody even looked at the little, blond girl with the dreamy eyes. It was as if she was invisible for even the shadiest of Knockturn Alley's crowd. Hags, vampires, werewolves, dark wizards and witches they all crossed by the little girl, never even looking at her.
Even when the little girl bummed into some of them, they just growled and moved on as if Luna wasn't truly there – never noticing the odd things in the little girl's hands the moment after she had stumbled into them.
"People are always the same down here," Luna thought to herself while, after her last stumble, fastening the third leather purse to her belt. "Never paying attention."
With that she walked on, ignoring the fight that broke out when a thief behind her somewhere tried to steal the wallet from one of the other passers-by. People were quite careful with their money in this alley, after all…
"Absolutely never paying attention," she just thought and went on, even deeper into the alley.
In the end, Luna stopped at one of the inns deep down in the Alley.
She opened the door and peeked in.
The crowd in there was rough looking and consisted of the scum of the wizarding world.
Luna entered.
She circumnavigated the other guests until she found a dark corner and stopped at the bar stool standing there. She hoped on it and pulled out a galleon from one of her new purses.
Without saying anything she put it on the counter and a second later the barkeeper exchanged the money for some fire whiskey, not even asking if she was even old enough to drink.
Luna took the glass and seemingly sipped on her drink while staring dreamily into nothingness.
The people around her ignored her as if she wasn't there.
When a young man about three times Luna's age entered, he was accosted by the crowd. It seemed that his less dirty and ragged appearance had gained the people's attention.
Luna watched, unbothered by any of them, in her bright yellow summer dress with flowers on it, her big and dreamy blue-grey eyes and her very light blond hair. She looked like a little, adorable doll.
At the end of the three hours, she stood up from her place at the bar, sat down her empty glass and left.
Not even half an hour later she was back home just in time for supper.
"Well, Luna," her mother said smiling while filling her daughter's plate. "Did you find some nargles?"
Luna thought about it.
"I might," she said. "But I have to speak to Neville and the rest first. They'll have to tell me if I found some or not."
Her mother blinked surprised.
"Neville?" She asked confused.
Luna nodded.
"Neville Longbottom," she said. "He's my age and lives with his gran. We're friends, Mummy, you know?"
Her mother scratched her head.
"No, Luna," she said. "I didn't know that."
Luna blinked at her mother dreamily.
"Oh," she said. "Well, now you know."
Her mother nodded slowly, guessing that it couldn't harm her daughter if she had some interactions with the Longbottom family. The family was a well-known and good family, after all.
Still, for a moment Luna's mother wondered when Luna had met the Scion of House Longbottom, but then she shelved that thought. Her husband Xenophilius had forgotten her daughter often enough in Diagon Alley for the two children to meet on accident. Knowing Xeno, Luna's father hadn't even noticed that Luna had made a new friend while she had been alone in the alley…
"So you want to meet Neville and talk to him about the nargles you found?" the mother asked.
"I don't know yet if they are nargles, Mummy," Luna pointed out.
"Maybe-nargles, then," her mother corrected.
Luna thought about it.
"That would be helpful," she finally said thoughtfully.
Her mother nodded, smiled and resolved herself to write a letter to the Dowager Longbottom, asking her if Neville and Luna could meet again.
"This will be a hell of explaining to do," she thought dejectedly. "Sometimes I truly wish that Xeno wouldn't always be so scatter-brained when it comes to our daughter…"
Well, it wasn't the first odd situation Luna's mother had been in and she doubted it would be the last.
She had married a Lovegood, after all…
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Er... yes, the way back for those four didn't go fully as planned... xDD
Anyway, Luna's PoV. I hope you like her - and maybe you already have an idea what her role will be in this new try to change the world... xD
I hope you liked it
Ebenbild
P.S.: Comodo50 actually had quite a funny idea, but I fear that sticking them into random characters might sound funny - but didn't fit at all with my plot... so sorry, as funny as I thought it, there was no way to follow it through for this story.