WRITTEN FOR QLFC SEASON 9, ROUND 9
TEAM: Holyhead Harpies, Chaser 2
PROMPT: Oh, That's Such Bad Luck: The number 9
1. [word] Initiative
10. [dialogue] "Can you honestly tell me this is what you wanted?"
11. [character] Luna Lovegood
WORD COUNT: 2448
Title source: Believer by Imagine Dragons
AN: This one's a bit of an abstract brain twister, especially toward the end. Even I couldn't make much sense of it, so if you understand what I was trying to convey, you're smarter than I am. Also, the story is a weirdly good fit, if a tad bastardized, for the last verse of Believer.
CW: Gory character death
You're the Face of the Future
Early in the morning of September 1st, 1990, Luna Lovegood shot up in bed, panting hard and caked in sweat. She had never been so terrified in her nine years of life, and she knew that she wouldn't be falling back to sleep that night, even if the little hand on the little silver clock by her bedside still pointed toward the number three.
She shivered involuntarily as she thought back to her nightmare. It wasn't as if she'd never before dreamt of a time that was not her own. In fact, it was quite a regular thing for Luna to catch glimpses of the past that came before her and the future that had yet to pass. It was the reason that Ginny didn't like playing games with her anymore. It frustrated Luna that she could never communicate to others the knowledge that she shouldn't have, which was the reason Ginny believed that Luna was just too lucky and that the only reason she ever won was because Luna lost on purpose – only the latter of which was true. Ginny apparently disliked winning that way even more than she did losing.
It made Luna sad; it wasn't like she could help already knowing what Ginny's hand was, nor could she erase the knowledge in her mind that told her exactly to play in order to win every time.
But this dream was different. It wasn't a mere hand of Exploding Snap nor a game of Hide and Seek. There was so much fire, so much darkness. She could barely parse through the swarm of violent emotions that flooded the scene like a poisonous mixture of lava and nothingness. She could only watch helplessly as her whole awareness erupted in a fiery explosion and the terrifying, cloaked figure on the pale horse pulled her mother out from the epicenter and away into the void.
Luna knew that this was a future that she could not allow to come to pass. It was her job to act, because she was the only one who could.
Nine days. That's how long she had. She didn't know how she knew, but she could feel the truth of it in her bones. Nine days to prevent her mother's death. It was not enough time, and she had no idea where to start.
Luna spent the first and second days holed up in her room, sitting cross-legged on her bed. She kept her eyes squeezed shut, desperately trying to See, to get more details about what would happen or to get some clue about what to do. Unfortunately, her efforts were futile. No matter how hard she tried, the Voices and Colors were all quiet, and the Sight remained dark.
Perhaps the Greater Powers did not wish to help, or perhaps they wanted Luna to figure it out on her own. Maybe she was just too distracted to commune with them, because replaying over and over in her mind was the memory of the devastation wrought by the inferno that consumed her mother's laboratory and the dark, looming figure that pulled her mother's spirit away from her body.
Either way, she knew she could not afford to spend more time pursuing this avenue of action. Her nine days were already quickly passing.
On the third day, Luna fire-called Ginny through the Floo, asking her if she could go over to the Burrow in six days. Ginny was confused and somewhat reluctant, but she eventually agreed after Luna assured her that they wouldn't play any games that Ginny was doomed to lose. Of course, Luna's promise to help Ginny steal her brothers' brooms and go flying with her probably helped sway her as well. Luna wasn't a huge fan of flying, but it was a small sacrifice to make if it meant getting her mother out of danger.
Later that evening at dinner, Luna brought up her visit to Ginny's to her parents.
"Mummy, Daddy, I'm going to Ginny's house next Sunday. Could you take me please?"
The question was directed more towards her mother. She was good friends with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley – the Weasleys found her father to be a little too strange for their tastes – which was why, most times, her mother stayed at the Burrow with Luna when she went over so she could spend time with Ginny's mum. And, if her mother was with her at the Burrow, then she wouldn't be at home to hurt herself in her lab. It was the perfect solution, and Luna was mightily pleased with herself.
"Of course, darling," Pandora Lovegood answered. "It'll be good to see Molly again. It's been too long since we've caught up, and it'll be nice to spend the day together without her whole horde of boys running around."
Luna cheered internally. She didn't even have to work to convince her mother to stay with her! For the first time in three days, Luna breathed a sigh of relief, feeling as if an enormous burden had been lifted off her shoulders.
For the next three days, Luna put her worries out of her mind. She was confident that the steps she had taken had averted the foretold disaster and that her mother would be safe. It was the next day, the seventh day since her dream, that everything began to fall apart.
"Great news!" Pandora exclaimed at breakfast on the morning of September 7th. "I've had a lucky break with my research."
Luna stared wide-eyed, thinking this 'lucky break' perhaps not as lucky as her mother made it out to be.
"That's fantastic, dear," Xenophilius said, smiling at his wife. "Will you be able to submit your proposal for this quarter's acceptance window?"
Pandora bit her lip. "I'm not sure. I hadn't planned on having anything tangible to present until next quarter, so I had until mid-December to work on it."
Luna, meanwhile, was watching her parents' back-and-forth with a growing pit of dread in her stomach. No, no, no! It was all going so well!
"Maybe you ought to take the extra time anyway, Mummy?" Luna piped up. "It'd be better to submit a more thorough report than a rushed one."
Pandora looked thoughtful, and Luna felt a spark of hope. Unfortunately, her father had to speak up and ruin everything. "Nonsense, Luna. Your mother is a brilliant woman, and she still has a week and a half to work. I am confident that she can put together the perfect presentation by then."
Pandora smiled faintly at the show of faith. "I guess I can, but only if I really cram. I suppose seeing Molly will have to wait a bit. Luna, you don't mind if Daddy takes you to Ginny's instead, do you?"
"No, Mummy," Luna ground out, trying not to let her frustration show on her face.
Xenophilius, misinterpreting her scowl, attempted to reassure her. "Don't worry, Pumpkin, I'm sure Molly and Arthur will warm up to me eventually, even if it takes a while. Not everyone can be as open-minded as we are, after all."
Luna nodded absently in acknowledgement. Her father's words meant little to her at the moment, especially since he wouldn't be taking her to Ginny's anyway. If her mother wasn't going, there was no point in her going either. She would have to feign illness or something.
Luna spent the eighth day in bed, partially so she could have some quiet time to herself to think, and partially because she needed to make it seem like she was sick. Even if she was up and about the next day – as she would need to be to save her mother – she could still plausibly claim that she felt too unwell to visit her friend.
Memories of the angry fire no longer plagued her thoughts. Instead, her mind was filled only with images of the dark, cloaked figure. Its presence, even only in Luna's recollection, was overwhelming. It was hungry and all-consuming, yet it didn't eat because it wanted to, but rather because it just did. There was no desire driving it; its existence was just the way of things. It was as confusing to Luna as it was terrifying.
The only interruptions to her day of introspection were the warm meals her mother brought her to eat in bed and her father stopping by to tell her that he fire-called the Burrow to inform Mrs. Weasley that Luna was feeling too sick to visit.
By the morning of the ninth day, September 9th, Luna still hadn't come up with a way to keep her mother away from her lab, the location of her fated demise, and she was beginning to get desperate.
The only thing that she could think of to do was to interrupt her mother before the accident could happen. If she wasn't working in the first place, then surely her work couldn't inadvertently kill her, right?
Luna stared at the door to her mother's laboratory. She knew never to enter when her mother was working, but she didn't feel she had any other choice. Her mother had started about half an hour ago, and the longer Luna dawdled, the higher the chance her mother's fate would come to pass, since she didn't actually know exactly what time the accident was supposed to happen.
She'd thought long and hard about how to do this. If she simply barged in, her mother would just make her leave and immediately go back to work. She would need to give her a reason to stop for the day.
Luna knew that the only thing more important to her mother than her work was her family, so she knew the best way to get her to set aside her work was to injure herself badly enough to require her mother to tend to her. It would not be pretty, but it had to be done.
So, Luna took a deep breath and cracked the lab door open a hair, then spun on her heel and stalked down the hall.
Turning once more to face the laboratory, Luna closed her eyes and braced herself, before starting to jog. By the time she reached the door once more, she'd picked up a good amount of speed from her running start.
At the last moment, she turned slightly so her shoulder would take the brunt of the impact and smashed into the door, tumbling into the room. Luna heard a crack and felt a sharp pain in her shoulder as her collarbone broke, but more concerning was the cauldron that she had crashed into.
"Luna!" Pandora screamed, scrambling to cast protective spells to prevent her volatile experiment from harming her daughter.
As fast and practiced as she was, though, it wasn't enough. Luna had only recovered from her fall enough to sit up when she was hit by a hasty Banishing Spell that sent her skidding across the room and past the protective runes surrounding the work area.
Luna's body was immoblie from shock and pain, and all she could do was watch helplessly as the fire that haunted her dreams exploded out from the cauldron, its angry tongues licking at the walls and the ceiling within moments.
"MUMMY!" Luna wailed as a bright flash of white light hurled her mother's body into the air, hitting the ceiling and splattering the walls with blood, then falling back to the floor with a sickening thud. Luna barely managed to turn her head as the contents of her stomach emptied out onto the floor upon the realization that her mother's limp form was missing several body parts.
Coughing and spluttering with tears in her eyes, Luna, against her better judgement, turned back to where her mother once stood, and was greeted by the dark figure that had antagonized her for the past nine days.
The cloaked being stared at Luna's battered form slumped against the laboratory wall. Its empty gaze was horrible beyond description, but Luna felt no fear, for she knew it was not yet her time to be eaten. It did not speak, but Luna could hear its words as clear as day.
"Can you honestly tell me this is what you wanted?"
Luna's gaze fell to her bloodied hands and found some difficulty in discerning what blood was hers and what came from the scattered remains of her mother. Her eyes widened and her breath came in desperate gasps as the weight of what had just happened bore down on her.
There was blood on her hands. Her mother's blood. So much blood… And it was her fault…
She looked back up at the figure, tears starting to well in her eyes, and shook her head mutely.
It seemed to exhale a rattling breath, and faded away, taking the remnants of her mother's spirit with it. The Colors quietened, and the room had never felt more empty.
Luna always used to think of her ability to See as a gift, but now she wasn't so sure. Had Seeing her mother's death resulted in her making things worse, or had events unfolded the way they were always meant to? Perhaps the worst thing was that Luna couldn't answer confidently either way. All she knew was that it certainly hadn't made things better, otherwise her mother would still be alive and her blood wouldn't be on Luna's hands, both literally and figuratively.
Perhaps the best things were the un-Seen things – the things that Luna would never be able to say were certain. Because the things that she did See were certain, and whether they were good or bad, they always just were. Maybe those un-Seen things out there would turn out not to be good either, but no one, not even Luna herself, would be able to prove that they were bad until they concluded. And how could you prove something was concluded if you couldn't See the end? Could you say for certain that there wasn't more to the story in the future?
Every bad thing became something that was not good yet, and every dark time was a dark time for now, because while everything that had happened happened, there was so much that could happen or had not yet happened that could be good.
Sometimes good things happened and sometimes bad things happened, but things always happened, whether Luna wanted them to or not.
From her mother's death, Luna Lovegood learned three hard lessons that stuck with her for the rest of her life. The first: Fate is immutable. The second: Death is inevitable. The last: always, always avoid the number nine.
Beta: gingerdream
