Disclaimer: I'm too young to be Rowling so there is sadly no way Harry Potter is mine…
Placing:29years after the war.
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sSsSsSsSs
GREEN ROOM
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"How about I show you the greenhouses?" Neville asked his guest smiling.
His grandmother frowned at him for a second, but when the girl he had been talking to started to smile, his grandmother's frown vanished.
"Sure," Luna said with bright eyes. "Let's see if we find some Crumpled-Horned Snorkacks?"
At that, confusion showed on Neville's grandmother's face, but before she could ask about the magical creatures Luna had been talking about, Neville grabbed the younger girl and pulled her out of the house.
"Let's go and see about those," Neville said smiling.
Luna's eyes sparked at that and she followed Neville out of the house, a skip in her step.
"So," Neville said slowly the moment they entered one of the greenhouses. "What do we do?"
Luna smiled at him and twirled.
"Did you contact Draco Malfoy already?" She asked him interestedly with her dreamy voice.
Neville blinked.
"Why do you want to –?"
"I may have found some nargles," Luna explained, and yet didn't explain at all, with an absent smile. "Will you help me to sort them out?"
Neville frowned.
"Nargles?" He repeated confused. "What do you mean with 'nargles'?"
Luna blinked, her dreamy eyes nearly focusing for a second and crooked her head.
"Nargles," she said slowly. "What else?"
Neville's eyebrows narrowed while he thought that statement over. Oddly enough, after all his time working with Luna in his seventh year, he could nearly grasp her logic.
Nargles.
It somehow sounded… sane… to him.
Still…
"Why nargles?" He asked.
Luna smiled dreamily.
"Nargles will steal our future away," she said softly and patiently, treating him as if he should know that. "Of course we're all searching for nargles."
Neville rubbed his nose, thinking.
"Alright," he said finally, deciding to play along – which was sometimes the saner idea when it came to Luna. "Nargles."
Then he hesitated and thought it over some more.
There was, after all, always a reason why Luna insisted on something – even if Neville didn't always grasp that reason until later in their conversations.
Maybe, it wasn't the nargles that were the actually important thing to ask about, Neville mused. Maybe it was the search itself that he should start to understand at first…
"What exactly did you find?" He asked interestedly, deciding to add to his current level of knowledge through another approach of Luna's quirks.
Luna smiled at him, her eyes unfocused and looking at a point far beyond him and the glass-walls of his greenhouse.
"Some very interesting things," she said. "I might have to contact Harry Potter earlier that I expected if you agree with my find…"
Neville frowned, but nodded as if understanding her particular brand of thinking.
"Anything you need to talk about?" He asked her, fully aware that Luna would always share with him what she deemed important for him to know.
Luna crooked her head again, clearly thinking it over with interest in her eyes.
"There might be some I'm not too sure about," she said slowly. "But then, I have to start anew again in this time. There are some possible nargles alive that were long since dead in our time, you know?"
Neville nodded slowly.
Nargles.
Of course.
Suddenly, as if a switch had been turned in his head, Neville finally truly understood what Luna was talking about.
What an intelligent girl.
Neville never understood why other had any trouble understanding her at all. She was always quite clear when it came to her explanations, after all…
"The seniors, isn't it?" He said amused.
"Exactly," Luna said airily. "And some of them aren't at all that imprisoned in Azkaban as they made us believe."
"Escape or cover-up?" Neville instantly wanted to know.
Luna shrugged.
"A bit of both, maybe," she said. "Maybe a wrackspurt infestation as well. I haven't been able to check on that, yet. An overview of potential nargles seemed to be more important for now."
Neville nodded thoughtfully.
"It definitely has its benefits," he said.
"It does," Luna said airily. "And some of the potential nargles are ripe for reaping already. I'm sure that Harry will be pleased the moment I tell him."
Oddly enough, Neville mused, that sentence was making perfect sense to him.
Seemed as if he had have too much exposure to Harry and Luna within the past few weeks...
Neville shrugged it off to concentrate on more important things.
"Ah!" Neville said nodding slowly. "What nargles?"
"Mulciber," Luna said with a smile. "Maybe Rosier as well."
The last one wasn't a name Neville had been expecting to hear at all.
He blinked surprised.
"Rosier," he repeated curiously. "I thought that possible nargle was dead."
Luna hummed noncommittally.
"He is," she said amused. "Later on. But right now, he's still a nasty little nargle."
Neville laughed at that amused.
"You want to ensure that he's finding his end faster this time around?" He asked interestedly.
Luna just smiled dreamily.
"Harry Potter has something against people that kill children," she said softly smiling. "He will insist that we turn him into a nargle as soon as possible."
"Anyone else?" Neville asked amused.
Luna inclined her head.
"Several," she said. "Some of them we might have to take a closer look at before deciding if they're a nargle or not. I planned to send the list to Harry Potter. He should have no trouble to tell me if we turn them into nargles or if we won't."
Neville frowned.
"If they stood out to you, Luna then –"
"Then they're either Harry Potter's nargles or Draco Malfoy's wrackspurs," she said smiling. "I don't usually decide which one they are. Harry Potter is the one who does."
Neville raised an eyebrow at that.
That sounded oddly like a conspiracy.
He wasn't quite sure if he liked the thought of Malfoy and Harry having worked together in the future before…
Actually, no.
Neville was absolutely sure that if they had done so, the world had long since burned.
"I'm quite sure that neither Harry nor Draco worked in any way together until now," he pointed out to his friend.
Luna just smiled at him.
"Of course not," she said as if it should all be a well-known fact to Neville. "Harry never considered to give the wrackspurts to someone else until now. Don't worry. It will be a lot more effective with both of them working together this time around."
That was one way to put it…
Neville snorted.
"I'm not actually that worried about teamwork," he said slowly.
Well, he was, but not in the way that Luna implied.
Neville actually was concerned by the idea of Malfoy and Harry working together on anything…
Luna nodded.
"Of course not," she said nodding earnestly. "This time you're even able to direct them and help to coordinate their work. It should ease our work further and ensure that we will change the things we plan to change."
That didn't sound better at all…
Also…
Neville frowned.
"I'm a herbology teacher," he pointed out slowly. "I'm not qualified to –"
"And I'm a magizoologist," Luna said dreamily. "That doesn't change the fact that I'm ultimately better in finding out facts than Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy."
Neville wasn't quite sure if he could object her in that, considering that Harry had obviously deferred to her when –
That though stopped him in his tracks and his eyes widened.
"Wait! You ensured that Harry had his intelligence when he went after those people in the future?!" he cried surprised.
Luna just crooked her head dreamily.
"Of course, Neville Longbottom," she said as if he should have known this. "He doesn't have enough intelligence otherwise to find his nargles. He's my friend, so of course I help him when he asks."
Neville gawked at her, then he snorted.
"And there I was thinking how hard it would be to ensure that we can change anything without any knowledge of the differences," he said amused about himself.
Luna just blinked at him with dreamy eyes.
"I'm not sure why you worried," she said confused. "I was the one to give you the most information about the Carrows in our seventh year as well."
Neville couldn't object that.
"I wonder what happened to those two," he mused instead.
Luna just shrugged.
"They turned into nargles about three years ago when they fled Azkaban without anyone noticing," she replied dreamily. "I've not found them yet in this time, but I'm sure they will be turned into nargles the moment I find them. Harry will ensure that."
Nargles.
Targets.
Harry's targets.
Neville remembered the red room and the body as a lamp.
He tried to imagine the Carrows in its place.
It painted a surprising peaceful picture…
Yep, Neville guessed that it was a reasonable approach when it came to those monsters and nodded contently.
"Alright," he said. "Anything else I need to know?"
Luna thought that over.
"We need a plan of action, soon," she said slowly, her dreamy eyes looking anywhere but him. "Maybe a staged plan to ensure that nobody will question the changes until it's actually too late to change anything?"
Neville imagined the chaos that would ensure if they gave Harry and Draco a list of targets to take down.
He was reasonable sure that both would be done with the whole list within a week.
Not a good idea if you wanted to keep a stable government…
Neville guessed that Luna's idea definitely sounded reasonable if you considered the alternative.
It was when Luna continued to stare at the plants behind him that he understood what she wanted him to do.
"Wait!" He said slowly. "You want me to compose that plan?"
"Of course," Luna said smiling. "You're our strategist. Your plans have always succeeded."
"Just because I was lucky in the past –"
Luna glared at him mildly.
"I'm quite sure that staging that coup that not only imprisoned all those terrorists but also gave us quite a few new laws was anything but an accident," she told him her dreamy silver eyes narrowing at him. "Was it?"
Neville guessed that if he said 'yes' at that point, he would be subjected to a true Luna-glare – which was a frightening experience he definitely didn't want to repeat any time in his future.
"No," he sighed. "Of course the whole thing was planned. But it was quite simple –"
"Just do it again," Luna said amused. "It should be as easy as it has been before."
Neville blinked at those words.
He thought her statement over.
Nargles.
Wrackspurts.
Targets.
Harry.
Draco.
The red room…
In the end he nodded slowly.
"Hmm," he said while drawing out his words. "You might be right."
He stopped speaking and thought about it some more.
Harry's nargles.
Draco's wrackspurts.
Luna's creature hunt…
"Yes," he said finally. "You're right. It should be easy."
"Exactly," Luna said, sounding quite pleased with his answer.
Neville smiled at his friend before looking around his greenhouse.
It wasn't one of the largest ones on the premise, but it was one of the most beautiful ones. It inhabited flowers from all over the wizarding world and several were currently in full bloom – of course, several were deadly as hell as well.
"I send Malfoy some plants and some information," he finally said, seemingly changing the topic randomly. "If he's truly as good as he always tells everyone he is, we should have a chance of a political change at least a year or two before we even leave for Hogwarts."
Luna hummed noncommittally.
"I guess if I have enough information, I will be able to determine how to work towards that change without anybody truly understanding what's going on until it's too late," Neville continued.
Luna nodded and smiled airily.
"What about your grandmother?" She asked lightly.
Neville thought about that suggestion.
"No," he said slowly. "She's too well known and too set in her ways. She won't be able to change her ways enough that we can change everything we want to even on just a political level."
Luna hummed.
"Maybe I can convince Mummy," she suggested.
"Maybe," Neville said, then shrugged. "I will come back to you for that. Give me some time to work out our plan, then I will tell you what we will actually do."
Luna smiled at him.
"So we will contact the other two to set up a meeting?" She asked interestedly.
"Would be best," Neville agreed readily. "It wouldn't do to work out our full plan without those two present, after all."
Luna nodded with understanding in her dreamy eyes.
"You're right," she said. "It wouldn't do to work out a plan without those that will be the ones to ensure that it will succeed."
"Exactly," Neville said and Luna handed him a list.
He frowned and looked at the list.
"What?" he asked confused, but Luna just smiled.
"Potential nargles," she said. "I will send the list to Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter as well, but you as our strategist should be aware about it, too. Harry Potter will get us better information about them and Draco Malfoy might be able to determine which ones are the more important nargles for now. The moment you have this information, it should be easy to construct our plan of action."
Neville pursued the list in interest.
"That might take a while," he commented slowly.
Luna nodded.
"Of course," she said airily. "But I'm sure that when we're finally old enough to attend Hogwarts we might be far enough down that list that it will be child's play to end it within two to four years…"
Neville gawked at the fay like girl in front of him.
"Alright," he finally squeaked, slightly overwhelmed with the years of planning it would take for them to reach their goal of a changed future. "Alright. Seven years – we should be able to do that in that time."
"Of course we should," Luna said airily. "Seven is always a good number when it comes to bringing down a Dark Lord and his prejudiced following of pureblood fanatics."
Neville blinked again.
Then he nodded again slowly.
"I guess you're right," he said faintly. "It definitely should be enough time to bring them down."
Luna smiled at him sweetly.
"Very well," she said. "And now let's go searching for Crumpled-Horned Snorkacks. I'm tired of talking about unimportant things."
Neville nodded.
This time around he definitely had no trouble at all when it came to following her logic.
"A splendid idea," he said. "Let's do this."
So the rest of their afternoon together they spend hunting the grounds of Longbottom Manor for creatures they both knew were only found in South America.
But then, both Neville and Luna were quite convinced that even if there was no way of finding a Crumpled-Horned Snorkack, their search still wasn't in vain at all.
"After all," Luna reasoned. "Without looking, how can we be sure that there truly aren't any here?"
Oh, what a fun they had that afternoon!
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Luna and Neville met and talked about nargles… I hope you liked their first, tentative planning… xD
'Till next time
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