Chapter Seven: A little bird told me…
Harry was sitting on the top of the staircase that let straight down to the hallway, so he had a good view over everybody's comings and goings.
In his lap lay an open book about curses with one half being covered by a piece of parchment with his notes on this particular chapter.
Hermione and Ron where sitting on the stairs as well, though Hermione was just casually reading and Ron was drafting his charms essay.
With a sigh, Hermione suddenly closed her book sharply, causing both boys to look up from their tasks.
"Okay, I'll bite" Hermione huffed "Why are we sitting here of all places when we could have gone to the library?" she asked.
Harry closed his book as well.
"It's because they're having another meeting tonight. All the other nights Mrs. Weasley kept us occupied long enough for them to start without us noticing. But not tonight. Tonight, I will be here when everybody arrives and I will be in that room."
"How do you know they have a meeting tonight? They are scheduled at random…" Ron asked.
Harry grinned. "Because your mom came home today with twice the amount of food than usual. Which means she's preparing to cook for a lot of people tonight. That can only mean one thing. Order meeting."
Ron looked almost impressed but Hermione frowned.
"Maybe she just stocked up the pantry…" she suggested.
"She only bought perishables. Not pantry-material."
Hermione suddenly grinned. "Daphne is rubbing off on you, you know that?" she pointed out.
"It's just common sense. You know, the thing so many people lack nowadays?"
"How is Daphne anyway?" Ron asked.
Harry smiled. Six months ago, Ron asking about Daphne's wellbeing would have been a thing of impossibility.
But things had changed a lot recently.
"She's fine. We spent yesterday exploring her family's mansion and then had lunch with her brothers. She then left for the academy and I had a private lesson with Argentum. So, all in all a good day…" he recounted.
Before anyone could say anything else, downstairs the front door opened and with a gust of cold air, several people stepped inside.
They made straight for the stairs leading down to the kitchen and Harry only knew them by sight but they all were order members.
He shot Hermione a triumphant grin but she just rolled her eyes.
"Don't get too excited, you still have to get inside." She pointed out in a low whisper as once more the door opened.
This time it was Kingsley and Moody that came inside.
Moody of course noticed them on their perch high up the stairs.
"Potter, Granger, Weasley." He growled in greeting before shoving past Mr. Weasley, who had stepped out of the living room.
"Nice work in court Harry." Kingsley called out before walking downstairs as well.
Mr. Weasley looked up, saw then and asked: "What are you kids doing there?"
Harry was ready to answer but Hermione was quicker.
In her best innocent voice, she said: "Just some homework…the library was so stuffy, so we came out here." while holding up her book.
"Ah…alright them…Well, you can have the living room while we're downstairs, if you want…" Ron's father offered them.
"That would be great, thanks Mr. Weasley." Hermione said with a radiant smile.
The head of the Weasley family nodded and hurried downstairs.
Ron turned to Hermione.
"You are possibly evil." He announced but his eyes were bright with amusement.
"Daphne might have rubbed off on me but I think spending so much time around the twins has rubbed off on Hermione." Harry noted amused.
Hermione shrugged. "What can I say, I might no approve of their methods, but they work."
Behind them footsteps approached.
Sirius and Remus appeared form around the corner but stopped when they saw the three of them.
"What are you doing?" Sirius asked clearly bewildered.
Harry rose to his feet.
"Waiting for the meeting to start of course." He said casually.
Both men were quiet for a moment.
"Okay…" Sirius said slowly, clearly uncertain what else he should do about it.
Harry beamed.
"I want to come as well." Ron said, jumping to his feet as well.
"Me too." Hermione announced.
"If I wanted to get killed by your mother, I'd let you, but this is not my decision to make." Sirius told Ron, before turning to Hermione. "And you…"
"I have my parents' approval." She said challengingly.
"Can you prove it?" Remus asked with raised eyebrows.
"Can you prove I don't?"
Sirius barked out a laugh, not unlike a dog and shook his head.
"Hermione, I admire your smarts and wit. But I don't think we can let you come anymore than we can let Ron come."
"Don't worry, I'll tell you everything." Harry promised.
Sirius laughed once more while Remus sighed.
With Sirius's arm around his shoulder, Harry walked down the stairs to the kitchen, suddenly slightly nervous.
When they stepped into the room, Harry noticed that already a lot more people had gathered, maybe thirty or so.
Most of them he'd never seen before but there were familiar faces. And he was glad to see them all.
"What is he doing?" here?" sneered someone behind them.
Ah, yes, almost all.
"Good evening Severus." Remus said politely, turning to the potion's professor.
Snape's cold black eyes remained on Harry, seizing him up. He had wondered how long he could avoid the potions master. Obviously not very long.
"Since when have these meetings become a day-care?" he sneered condescendingly.
"Harry has a right to be in on what we do at these meetings, the steps we're taking to take down Voldemort." Sirius growled, his grip on Harrys shoulder becoming tighter.
"We?" Snape asked. "If I recall correctly, the only thing you have done so far is…Hm…I seem to have forgotten…What have you contributed so far, Black?"
Harry could feel Sirius tens up besides him.
It was a soar subject for him after all. Dumbledore hardly ever gave him assignments and Sirius spent most of his days simply attending ministry meetings and keeping a low profile. Harry knew he felt useless.
It was a low blow form Snape's' side.
"Let's not revert to the behaviour of school-days past." said someone behind them.
Ah, speak of the devil…
Dumbledore had appeared.
"But I am afraid that tonight is not a good night for young Harry to join us." He then added.
"Why?" Harry asked.
"While you have made it very clear why you should be allowed to join and have made a good case with convincing arguments, I simply do not see it happening just yet." Dumbledore said placably.
"Meaning?"
"You've had quite an eventful week Harry, I just don't think you need anymore piled up on your plate than necessary." Dumbledore said, obviously evading the real reason.
Harry got ready to argue his case once more, repeating those same arguments but he was interrupted by a harassed looking Xenophilius Lovegood, who stormed into the kitchen.
Harry was surprised to see the man. He had never seen him at Order Meetings before.
He looked around wildly as if searching for something.
"Xeno, my good friend, what brings you here?" Dumbledore asked, though obviously just as surprised to see the man as Harry.
Mr. Lovegood turned to Dumbledore in a swirl of lilac robes, his white hair flying through the air.
"Is she here?" he all but shouted. "My Luna, is she here? She said she was going to meet up with her friends. But she hasn't come back and its late and she's been gone for hours!"
Alarmed Harry perked up. Luna was missing?
But he and her father seemed to be the only people really concerned.
Snape rolled his eyes and Dumbledore had that benevolent smile on his face, as if he was talking to a slow dumb child.
"I'm sure there is nothing to worry about, Ms. Lovegood has many friends, maybe she went to see some of them." He suggested.
Mr. Lovegood shook his head. "No, she has no other human friends than the children in this house."
Snape folded his arms demonstratively and sneered: "Ms. Lovegood has probably just wandered off and forgotten herself in her own mind, like she does during my lessons. She probably just got lost in the woods again. Try looking for her there."
Harry would have loved nothing more than to set his robes on fire. With all that grease covering the man it would probably burn quite brightly.
But he bit his tongue, looking around the room to see what the others would say.
To his dismay most ignored the distressed father and nobody really seemed to care.
The decision was made in a second.
No matter how badly he wanted to be in on the action, his friends would always come first.
"I'll help you look for her." He offered.
That got a reaction.
"Absolutely not. I will not have you wandering around in the dark on your own." Dumbledore said firmly.
"Listen to your headmaster boy." Snape jeered.
Harry ignored his teacher and faced Sirius.
Maybe it was because Snape was there, maybe because Sirius genuinely wanted to help him help Mr. Lovegood. Or maybe Sirius was having a good day.
At any rate he nodded. "Go help Xeno. Just…don't go alone. If the meeting doesn't take too long, I will come and join you."
"I won't be alone. Ron and Hermione will come too and I can call Daphne. Maybe Thomas can come as well or one of her brothers and Mr. Lovegood will be there. We'll be fine. She's my friend and if she's missing, I will help find her. Even if she just got lost in the woods."
"Alright, off you go. But be careful. And no matter what, I want you back by nine the latest! Stay save."
.
Ron and Hermione were in the living room with the twins and Ginny.
They looked surprised to see him.
"Change of plans. Luna is missing, we're going to look for her." Harry said simply, waking over to the fireplace.
"What do you mean missing?" Ron asked.
"What do you mean we?" Fred asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Her father just appeared here, out of his mind with worry. Apparently, she left to see some friends and hasn't been back in hours. And since she's not here either, we're all gonna look for her."
"Maybe she's with other friends?" Fred suggested.
"No offence to Luna, but the people who are her friends, at least the human ones, are in this room right now…except maybe for Daphne. But I'm going to call her now to cross that off the list and enlist her and her uncle and maybe her brothers to help us look for her."
He threw a handful of floo-powder in the fire and called out for the Greengrass Manor.
While he waited the others gathered around him.
"It's Luna, maybe she got distracted by a pretty flower." Ron suggested.
"That is not like her." Harry said, shaking his head.
"We'll find her then, don't worry." Hermione promised, placing one hand on his shoulder comfortingly.
"I'm in too!" Ginny added.
"Me three." Fred nodded.
"And me four." George agreed.
"Awesome." Harry muttered.
Before him the flames roared brightly green and then Daphne's face appeared in the fire.
"Harry? What…oh, hey guys." She said, when she noticed the others. "What's going on?"
"Daphne, is Luna with you? Or do you know where she might be?" Harry asked her urgently.
"Ahm…no. Have you tried her home? Or her father?" Daphne replied slowly.
"He's here. Apparently, she's been missing for a couple of hours now. We're going out to look for her. Are you in? Can one of your brothers come as well? Maybe Thomas too?"
"Missing? How?"
"Does it matter? We need to find her. Mr. Lovegood was really upset. And nobody else is taking this seriously but you know Luna. She wouldn't just disappear like that for hours."
Daphne nodded.
"Yeah, you're right. I'll go see who I can mobilize on my end. Where should I meet you?"
"At the Lovegoods home in Ottery St. Catchpole. Do you know how to get there?" Ginny suggested.
Daphne nodded. "Yeah, alright, I'll meet you there."
With that her head disappeared from the flames and the fire returned to its normal colour.
.
Hurriedly they got dressed and gathered a few supplies that might turn out handy before flooing with Mr. Lovegood to his home.
Their house was exactly as Harry had pictured it, chaotic, colourful and filled with all kinds of strange memorabilia.
"Alright, Mr. Lovegood, when and where did you see Luna last?" Hermione asked, as the others got the lanterns ready.
"This morning. I saw her heading towards the woods from the window in my study. I didn't think much of it, she always does that." Mr. Lovegood moaned.
"Then that should be our first place to search for her." George determined, handing out one lantern to each.
From the chimney a bell-like ringing noise interrupted him.
"That must be Daphne." Harry muttered as Mr. Lovegood opened the floo-connection.
Indeed, Daphne was the first to graciously hop out of the flames, shortly followed by her older brother Alan and her uncle Thomas right behind him.
All three Greengrasses were dressed in dark weather-proof coats and had brought their own lanterns.
Daphne greeted him with a tight hug.
"Any news?" she asked.
"No." he muttered.
"We'll find her Xeno, don't you worry." Thomas assured the other man.
"Thank you for believing me. And helping." The eccentric wizard replied quietly.
"Let's go." Alan said firmly.
.
The woods surrounding Ottery St. Catchpole were thick and wild, not unlike the forbidden forest.
Harry trudged through knee-high heather, the light of his lantern guiding him through the treacherous underground.
To his left and to his right, evenly spaced he could see the light of his friends' lanterns move parallel to him as they searched. They were close enough for Harry to see their lights but not to talk.
Every now and then they would call out for Luna.
Mr. Lovegood had showed them to Lunas favourite places in the woods but she was nowhere to be found.
Now they combed through it methodically.
But the later and the darker it got, the less they could see.
Harry was pulled from his thoughts when his foot slipped and he stumbled into a small bog, about knee high, hidden in the heather.
"God-damn it." He muttered, stepping back and shaking the muddy water from his legs.
His shoes were soaked and the mud squished between his toes.
"Great, just great."
Stepping around the small bog he continued, noticing that he had fallen slightly behind the others.
He set to catch up with them but out of nowhere something small and round collided heavily with his chest, knocking him to the ground with an 'Uff'.
The something chirped loudly, dancing on his chest frantically beating its tiny wings.
"Pumpkin?" he groaned, recognizing Lunas little friend.
The golden Snidget chirped some more, grabbing the front of his shirt with his tiny feet, pulling at it as if he wanted to pull Harry back to his feet.
Harry stood up but Pumpkin didn't stop but instead started pulling Harry back the way they'd come.
"Do you know where Luna is?" he asked the bird.
In reply the animal started whistling.
"Where is she? Is she alright?" he asked, unconsciously following the tiny bird.
Pumpkin spun in tight circles though Harry couldn't say if that was a yes or a no or just a thing he did.
So instead he kept following the bird, hoping he would lead him to his missing friend.
.
Pumpkin let him towards a small clearing where he stopped, chirping at the top of his voice.
But Luna was nowhere to be found.
"Great, that's what you get following a bird Harry." He told himself.
He was about to turn around and leave, when something in the bushed rustled.
He stopped, only now realizing that he was alone.
"I should have told someone." He groaned, turning towards the rustling.
Whatever if was, judging by the noise it was making it was bigger than Luna.
Wondering what creatures were indigenous to England, magical or not, Harry pulled out his wand.
"Here's to the next offence. Wonder if I can claim self-defence again…" he muttered.
The rustling got louder and then, straight across the clearing , something moved in the shadows.
Pumpkin, who was so excited by now that he was glowing brightly, whizzed towards it.
The closer he got, the more Harry could see.
He just so suppressed a horrified gasp when the thing stepped into the light of Pumpkins glowing plumage.
There stood a creature Harry had never seen before.
It looked like skeletal horses with reptilian features and huge bat wings. Its pupil-less eyes where white and staring right into the depth of Harry soul.
Slowly it walked towards him.
Harry instinctively took a step back.
The only reason he was not running for the hills right now were one: the thing was probably faster than him and second: Pumpkin had settled down on its head, riding on it towards him.
The animal stopped right in front of him, huffing out warm breaths of air through its nostrils.
Not taking his eyes off it and its beak-like mouth, Harry whispered: "Pumpkin…where is Luna?"
As if in answer, Pumpkin flew from the head of the animal to its back and settled down on it.
Harry instinctively knew what he wanted.
"Oh hell no!" he protested. "I am not getting on the back of some creature I don't know because a bird told me to."
In response Pumpkin started jumping up and down on the creatures back, chirping loudly once more.
"God-damn-it." Harry muttered, slowly walking towards the creature's side.
"I must be out of my mind to go through with this."
Then again, Luna had a fable for strange creatures. And Pumpkin seemed to know where she was.
Wishing he had taken the time to alert one of his friends, Harry carefully put one hand onto the skeletal back.
The thing was surprisingly warm and Harry could feel its hide rising and falling with each breath.
Grapping on tighter he clambered up its back with some difficulty until his legs rested before its wings. Pumpkin fluttered before him, chirping more happily.
"Okay so what n…."
Without warning the creature fell into a gallop, beating its bat-wings, propelling them up and away and this time harry did not manage to supress the terrified yelp that escaped his throat.
Higher and higher they rose until the ground was long forgotten beneath them.
.
.
Riding this dead horse was nothing like riding a broom.
Or like riding Buckbeak.
This was way worse.
Harry held on for dear life as they soared through the clouds, out of sight of the muggles or pretty much any living thing.
Pumpkin was flying ahead of him, leading the way. How he knew where to go, Harry had no idea but his steed followed the golden ball of feathers.
They were both soaking wet and freezing and Harrys hands were hurting from holding on so tightly.
Whatever his dead-horse was, it was fast!
They tore through the sky, the ground below them flew by and within minutes London was just a dark speck in the distance.
Regretting and hoping to make it out of this alive, Harry just tugged his head in and hoped they'd land soon.
.
He startled when his Thestral suddenly dropped several feet, passing through a bank of clouds.
His stomach tingled unpleasantly and his hands clawed into the creatures' neck.
Ahead of him he could see Pumpkin, nosediving towards the ground.
The wind whipped the rain right into his eyes and Harry tried to see where they were headed.
He mostly saw a lot of green and a few fields. And ahead the bell-tower of a church.
They dropped like stones through the early evening sky and Harry closed his eyes when he saw the tops of the trees rushing up towards him.
The landing was surprisingly soft.
The dead-horse touched down and galloped a few meters on before gradually slowing down.
When he opened his eyes, Pumpkin dancing before his nose.
Slowly Harry slid off the Thestrals back but the second his feet touched the ground his knees buckled and he only just so managed to stay upright.
"Well…that was different…" he managed to say through chattering teeth.
The dead-horse-creature shook it head and started to wander off.
"Hey, where are you going? How will I get back?" Harry shouted indignantly, taking a few wabbly steps after it.
But Pumpkin had other idea, clutching a strange of his hair and pulling him towards the edge of the forest where he could make out rows of houses.
"Is this where she is?" Harry asked, untangling the bird from his hair.
Pumpkin did a small summersault in the air.
"I will interpret that as a yes." Harry sighed. "Right, lead the was on then."
.
Wherever this was where Pumpkin had let him, it was a tiny village, centred around a church with a graveyard adjuring it.
When he emerged from the edge of the woods, he immediately came onto a small road that let onto the main road.
He walked past a bakery and a butcher's shop before they reached a small plaza.
In the middle stood a statue on a pedestal. It was a man in armour holding a sword high in the air while a lion lay at his feet.
"I know that statue. A similar one stand on the second floor at Hogwarts." Harry whispered, not quite sure who to.
Stepping closer he tried to read the inscription on the stone but centuries of weather and wind had gnawed on it so much it was hard to discern anything.
Giving in to Pumpkins shrill chirping he abandoned the statue and followed the bird.
He new they had arrived when the Snidget let him around a corner and he came onto a long street that at the end of it let back into the woods.
A cold wind rushed through the rows of houses towards them and almost knocked them over.
Somehow this street seemed different.
Darker, as if tainted…
Slowly he walked down the sidewalk, keeping an eye out for any muggles. Or worse.
Pumpkin let him to the last house on the left side.
Harrys breath froze in his lungs.
He had seen pictures of this house before.
One with his parents standing in front of it, his mother holding his baby self and another of James and Sirius when they were his age, chilling on the stairs before the house.
"Godrics Hollow…" he muttered "I'm….I'm in Godrics Hollow."
But the house in front of him was not that same house.
This house was dark and the garden was wild.
The stairs leading up to the front door were cracked and most of the shutters on the windows were broken and only hanging on by one hinge.
Windows were broken and the front door wasn't properly closed.
But most devastating was the gaping hole in the roof and side of the house.
And overall had the elements chewed on this house for the past fourteen years.
It was a ruin.
Harry wanted to turn around on the spot and leave but Pumpkin flew straight towards the hole in the roof and disappeared inside.
Cursing his own foolishness, Harry slowly stepped closer towards the garden-gate.
He stopped when he noticed a strange shimmer in the air that seemed to stretch like a dome all around and over the house.
"What is that?" he wondered quietly.
He concentrated, forcing his magic down so that his eyes might be deceived by the magical charm.
The dreary broken house disappeared and, in its stead, stood a charming little cottage with a straw roof and bright red bricks. Flowers bloomed on the lawn in front of it and even though the shutters were closed it looked inviting.
For a brief second Harrys mind wandered off to a different time and place. A place, where his parents hadn't died and he had grown up here.
How different would his life have been?
He cut his own musings short.
It does not do well to dwell on what might have been. That was hat Dumbledore had said to him after the Mirror of Erised.
He let his magic go again and the illusion washed away, revealing reality once more to him.
He really didn't want to go inside.
But he knew he had to.
.
The garden gate opened with a long whining 'creak'.
The grass had grown over the small stone path that led to the door and brushed against his knees.
He reached the door and gently pushed against it.
To his horror it toppled to the ground with a loud crash and a cloud of dust rose from the ground inside.
He cringed at the loud noise and looked around but the houses on the street remained dark and undisturbed.
Turning back to the house and peeking into the darkness beyond, Harry gave himself one last chance to turn around.
He didn't.
.
The inside of the house was just as run down and broken as the outside.
Once his eyes adjusted to the gloom, the dreariness of the place sunk in more deeply.
The wallpaper peeled off the walls, everything was wet and the smell of mould and mildew hung thick in the air.
The floor creaked, was riddled with holes and the wind blew cold through the broken windows.
But aside from that the house looked like it hadn't been touched since the day his parents had died.
The kitchen table was laid, ready for dinner. On the stove stood a pot with the dried and moulded remains of food in it.
The herb-garden on the windowsill was dried up and dead and the branches of a bush outside had broken through the window, sprouting into the kitchen.
A half rotten blanket lay forgotten on the half-rotten sofa in the living room and an empty cup of tea stood on the coffee table next to a folded pair of glasses.
There was a piano in the back with music papers still resting on top of it.
And then there were the pictures.
Along the walls hung dozens of them, all framed up.
Most of them had rotten as well or had turned yellow and none of them moved anymore.
But they were real people, real people who had been friends of his parents.
His parents, who had really lived here.
For the first time Harry felt like his parents had actually been real.
This…this was their house, this was their stuff!
They weren't these far away people he knew off, suddenly they were his parents.
Suddenly they were real, for the first time in fourteen years!
As he stepped towards a wall to look at some of the pictures more closely, his foot brushed against something and a soft tingling noise disrupted the silence.
He looked down.
In the dirt and grime on the floor lay a small round toy.
It was a kind of plushie-snitch, ten times the size of a real snitch. The golden colour was long gone and its once soft wings were crusted with all kinds of dirt.
But when he picked it up, something, probably a bell, inside of it, shimmied once more.
He gently shook it once more and again the sound broke the silence.
And somehow this little thing broke something within him.
To the rest of the world, his parents were heroes, taken before their time and Harry was just another orphan of a war.
But nobody really ever understood that they had been his parents first and foremost.
The pain, so old and a constant companion since he was old enough to understand what having dead parents meant, hit Harry so hard, it took his breath away.
The snitch fell to the ground.
"Where are you Luna? Why have you let me here?" he wondered aloud.
As if replying, Pumpkin appeared, a ball of golden light and chirped at him.
Then he turned and flew towards the back of the house.
The glow of his feathers travelled down the hallway and long shadows followed in his wake.
Not very thrilled about going on, Harry followed, reluctantly.
.
The Snidget let him to the stairs and flew upwards, hoovering at the top stair.
Harry eyed the staircase critically. It was had fallen in disrepair, just like the rest of the house and he wasn't sure they'd hold his weight.
Nevertheless he climbed them up, one step at a time.
When he reached the upper floor, he found himself at the beginning of a long hallway from which to both sides' doors let to different rooms.
At the end of the hallway lay a lot of debris and parts of the roof.
That was where on the outside the hole must have been.
And Pumpkin was heading straight towards it.
.
Harry knew which room this was before he even stepped through the doorway or at least what was left of it.
This was his nursery.
This was where it had happened.
This was where Voldemort had confronted his mother and she had stepped between him and Harry, taking the killing curse head on.
And then Voldemort had turned to him, not knowing that by sacrificing herself, Lily Potter have given her son the most effective and ancient protection of all.
And he had been torn to pieces while Harry got away with a scar on his forehead and a story that would change his life forever.
The evidence of what a tremendous amount of magic had been unleashed here was all around them.
The roof and most of the outside wall as well as the walls inside had been blown apart, debris littering their surroundings.
The walls were scorched as if they had been burned.
Most of the furniture had been turned to rubble.
Only one piece was still almost completely intact.
The crib.
And right in front of that crib, that seemed to have been spared by magic and elements alike, knelt none other than Luna Lovegood.
For a second Harry forgot where they were and with a sigh a relief he hurried towards her.
"Luna, oh thank Merlin I found you." He sighed, falling to his knees next to her.
"Hello Harry. You finally made it. I wasn't sure you'd find me." She said evenly.
But something was off about her.
He was used to her being…well…dreamy and not-always-quite-there-with-her-thoughts.
But this was different. She seemed to be in trance.
Her eyes seemed clouded and not focused.
"You mean you sent Pumpkin and that dead-horse-thingy for me? Luna, your father is worried, we all are. We thought something might have happened to you." He protested.
"I'm fine." She muttered, still not looking at him.
Defeated, Harry dropped his head.
"Luna…what are we doing here?" he whispered now slightly desperate.
"I…don't know." She admitted. "There's something here. Something you needed to see. To know… Go on, you can feel it."
Her strange mood and behaviour seemed to upset Pumpkin as well because the light of his feathers died down.
The shadows grew longer by the second and Harry closed his eyes, not wanting to see more.
Instead he sent out a tendril of his magic, searching for the magic Luna was feeling.
She was right.
He could feel it.
Two sets of magic, as different as day and night, were roaming around the room, like trapped ghosts.
They struck blows against each other, recoiling back, only to strike again.
They were everywhere but the white, pure and light magic centred around the crib.
"The crib…" Luna mumbled.
"I see it." Harry confirmed.
Luna reached towards the wood and her hand closed around one of the bars.
Almost immediately she went rigid and her head craned backwards, her eyes wide open, her mouth, twisted as if in pain.
Instinctively, Harry reached out, calling her name.
His hand touched hers and his vision blacked out.
.
Suddenly he wasn't in the destroyed nursery anymore, he was in Hogwarts, in the headmaster's office.
But everything was slightly unfocused and nothing really seemed solid. Neither did the people in the room. It was like visiting a memory.
Dumbledore, looking slightly younger but very tired stood before his desk. Across from him stood James and Lily.
Harry stared at them.
They too looked tired. James was holding a bundle of blankets that Harry recognised as his baby-self.
"Are you sure it's us Albus?" Lily asked but her voice was strangely distorted.
"No. But you are the most likely. But I put the Longbottom's into hiding just in case."
Lily looked broken.
"No, not our Harry." She whispered.
James adjusted his grip on baby-Harry so that he could put a comforting hand around his wife's shoulders.
Lily leaned into the touch, her gaze fixed on her baby.
Around Harry the world dissolved and he found himself back in the nursery but this time it wasn't destroyed.
Lily was kneeling before the crib in which Harry saw himself.
Lily was crying.
"Harry, you are loved. Do you hear me. You are so loved. Harry daddy loves you. And momma loves you so much. Harry be strong. You have to be strong."
Behind her the door flew of its hinges.
Harry swirled around just like Lily. She was holding her wand but her hand was shaking.
A hooded figure stepped into the room.
It stopped and pale hands rose to lift the hood.
Harry knew this was Voldemort.
But it was Voldemort before his soul was torn from his body, before he had to flee to Albania, before he latched onto Quirrell and fed of unicorns.
This was Voldemort when he had been human.
And somehow, he was more terrifying like this.
He was handsome with his aristocratic features and jet-black hair.
His cold calculating eyes fell from Lily onto the crib behind her and his lips curled upwards into a horrible smile.
"Step aside."
His voice…it was sharp and clear. Cold and demanding.
Lily fired a spell at him but it bounced off an invisible shield.
Voldemort narrowed his eyes and with a flick of his own hand Lily's wand flew from her hand.
"You foolish girl. Step aside. Lord Voldemort is feeling gracious tonight. Step aside and you will walk away from here."
"Where…where is James?"
But she must have known the answer already.
"In my new world I might let you remarry another pureblood. You are gifted after all. Your children will make fine Deatheaters one day. But only if you step aside."
Lily shook her head.
"Never." She swore.
Harry knew she had been brave. But this…this was a whole new kind of bravery.
Voldemort sneered.
"This is your final chance. Step aside."
Defiantly Lily Potter stood her ground.
"You want my son? Over my dead body." She whispered.
"As you wish. Avada Kedavra!"
Harry couldn't help it. He screamed as the bolt of green light hit his mother in the chest and she toppled to the ground. But no sound left his throat.
Horrified he watched as Voldemort turned to the baby in the crib.
"You will not vanquish me. I will reign forever." Voldemort whispered.
Slowly he raised his wand.
"Avada Kedavra."
The curse flew towards baby-Harry but the moment it connected an explosion ripped through the room, pushing the dark curse away from baby-Harry and into Voldemort.
A wave of pure white protective light swept through the room and burned through the dark Lord's body.
He screamed and a cloud of black smoke detached itself from his burning form. It swirled through the room, knocking into things, tearing down walls, before heading towards baby-Harry.
It rushed towards him, trying to engulf him but the white magic fought it off, chasing it around the room once more.
In fascinated horror Harry watched as they clashed, over and over, the white magic trying so hard to protect the crib, wrapping itself around his baby self.
Another otherworldly scream shook the foundations of the house. The cloud of darkness rose and fled through the hole in the roof.
And then the world dissolved once more.
He was back in Dumbledore's office and the man in question stood almost exactly where he had stood when he had talked to Lily and James.
But this time he was facing a dark corner in the back of the room.
"We have to make sure he is ready. We have to protect him, do you hear me? Harry is our only chance."
Who was he talking to?
Nothing in the shadows moved or talked but Dumbledore's shoulders sagged with relief.
"She'd be proud of you. I know it."
A rustle of robes came from the dark corner.
"We'll talk more later." Dumbledore announced, walking towards the door of his office.
"For now…let's go and celebrate with our students."
And again the word faded around him.
Harry found himself standing in total darkness.
That was, until ahead of him a small light flickered into existence.
It grew from a tiny speck into a small orb, about the size of his fist.
It hoovered there.
"That was in my dreams."
He jumped.
"Luna?" he asked.
Somehow, she had appeared right next to him.
She pointed at the orb.
"Can you hear that?" she asked.
Harry frowned, stepping closer towards the light.
She was right.
There was a voice coming from the light.
"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have powers the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..."
It kept on repeating itself, its voice growing louder until it all but roared, echoing through the dark space around us so loud that Harry and Luna had to cover their ears.
Harry reached out for Luna, feeling her presence more than seeing her, he clasped his hand around her upper arm and the sensation of falling overcame him.
A second later his back hit hard wooden floors, driving the air out of his lungs, his grip on Luna's bicep loosening und there was nothing but silence around them, except for their harsh breaths.
They were back in the nursery.
It was dark all around them.
It had started to rain.
.
Harry got to his feet, Luna just a second behind him.
"What…was that?" he asked.
She looked at him with huge eyes, the cloudiness he had noticed earlier, gone.
She looked around confused.
"Harry? Where are we?" she whispered, stepping closer to him, seeking comfort at his side.
His shoulder sagged.
"We're…we're in Godrics Hollow Luna. Don't you remember? You let me here?"
She looked very confused and scared.
"The last I remember was visiting the Thestrals. A herd of them live close to our house. And then…the vision…"
"These Thestrals…they don't happen to be huge skeletal-like horses with wings?"
"Yes?"
Harry sighed. "I'll fill you in later. We should go."
She nodded. "Yeah. This place…it is dark." She whispered.
.
They all but fled from the house and Harry didn't dare to look back.
His head had started pounding the second they had returned from that…vision or whatever it was.
Bolts of electricity shot through his brain and the pressure behind his eyes was almost unbearable. But he kept running.
They stormed through the open gate, up the street, around the corner and only stopped running when they reached the church.
They collapsed on the stairs leading up to the front portal.
For minutes they just sat there, taking deep breaths, trying to understand what had happened.
Then Harry filled her in on everything hat had happened in the time she had blacked out.
He finished with telling her how he'd found her in the nursery.
"Well…and you remember what happened then, right?"
She nodded.
"That…I can't believe it. That was a real prophecy! And it was for you!" Luna then whispered, staring at him in disbelief.
"What?" Harry asked, crunching his eyebrows in confusion.
"A prophecy Harry. This…this is huge!" Luna whispered.
"But I thought prophecies weren't real."
"They are and they are not that rare actually. But finding the one about you, that is rare! Most people aren't even aware they have a destiny."
Harry groaned, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes.
"How all of that happen anyway?" he asked. "What did we actually see there?"
Luna bit her lip. "Sometimes" she began "when there's a lot of residual magic, you can tap into it. You magic, it's like your fingerprint. It's one of a kind and every time you do magic, a little bit stays behind, like a scent. And if you tap into it you can identify who it belonged to. It gives you insight into the person. Not much, usually just a face or a voice or a short memory of what the spell was used for. But in cases like this, where there is a lot of magic still lingering, it can give you more."
"Do you think others who have been here have seen it?" Harry asked, shivering slightly at the thought.
Luna shook her head.
"No. Only Seers and sometimes Sensitives can tap into residues well enough to extract information from it."
"Like you?" Harry asked.
She nodded. "I…I have a strong feeling for magical hotspots. And I think that's why I've come here. It must have been calling out for me. That place was…I don't know…brimming with magic. I'm surprised people never inspected it more closely."
"I'm glad they didn't."
She took his hand.
"Hey, it's okay."
He took a deep breath.
"So…a prophecy. That's huge?"
"Immensely!" she agreed. "Harry, you have been told your destiny. This…this changes everything, this might give you an advantage over the Dark Lord!"
Harry jumped to his feet.
"Luna…I don't even understand half of what I just saw and heard!" he huffed, pacing up and down the length of step on which she sat.
His head was still hurting.
"Well…Let's go through it then. First line. 'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies.' You were born on July thirty-first, the last day of the seventh month. And your parents famously faced down the Dark Lord and his followers several times before you were born."
Harry didn't know much about that.
Sirius didn't like talking about the war for obvious reasons.
Harry knew his parents had defied Voldemort and his followers and they had fought side by side with many great wizards and witches to oppose him.
"Second line: 'and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal'. That must refer to the scar on your head. He marked you when he tried to kill you. You all but destroyed him, something many thought impossible. I guess that kind of makes you his equal…"
Harry snorted.
Voldemort had marked him in more ways than the lightning bolt scar on his forehead. There was the basilisk-bite or most recently the scar that ran along the length of his forearm from when Wormtail had drawn his blood for the resurrection ritual. Not to forget all the mental scars Voldemort had inflicted on him over the years.
"Third part: 'but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not' I'm not sure of that one. Maybe it's a hint as to what might be needed to defeat him. Some kind of power…Or maybe a weapon…" Luna mused on.
Or my mother's protection, Harry thought.
"And then that last part 'and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives'."
She stopped and looked at him.
She didn't have to tell him that that probably wasn't something good.
"One of us has to die ultimately." Harry said.
"It also means that you are the only one who can kill him." Luna added quietly.
Harry flopped back down on the step and buried his face in his hands.
"So this is literally, what I was born to do? To kill him?" He moaned. "I mean…I knew I was going to fight him eventually again. I accept that. I want that, I want to be a part in this war because…he needs to be stopped. But this…this is so much more. So much worse!"
He shook his head.
Luna edged closer to him.
"We can figure this out." She promised. "But…I don't think we should tell too many people of this…It's dangerous knowledge."
Harry nodded absentmindedly.
"I think we should get back by the way. Sirius will have my head for leaving the search party." he added.
Luna nodded, stood up, dusted of the bottom of her jeans and held out her hand to help him up.
They walked down steps of the church and past the cemetery towards the woods where had last seen the Thestral.
.
.
Luna didn't remember how she'd gotten to Godrics Hollow but it became clear when they stepped into the clearing and saw two Thestrals grazing side by side.
"At some point you have to tell me how you befriended these things well enough for one to offer me a ride to come and find you." Harry muttered as he clambered up the back of the animal.
The flight back to Ottery St. Catchpole was uneventful, though cold and wet.
They touched down on the foot of the hill on which Lunas home stood.
Inside the lights were burning and shadows moved behind the curtains.
"My dad will be pretty mad." Luna whispered.
"No, my father will be mad. Yours will be glad to see you alive and well." Harry corrected her.
She looked had him funnily.
"What?" he asked.
"You've been doing that a lot recently."
"Doing what?"
"Calling Sirius your father."
Harry blushed.
"I think it's great."
"Yeah, well…we'll see…" Harry muttered, not sure what to say.
They walked up to the front door and Harry knocked.
Almost a second later it was torn open by a ruffled, slightly unhinged looking Mr. Lovegood.
But upon seeing his daughter, the tension fell from his shoulders and he fell to his knees, pulling her into a tight embrace.
Behind him, Harrys friends appeared and their worried expressions faded when they saw him.
"Good timing mate, we were about to call Sirius to admit that we had lost you." Ron admitted.
"No need for drastic measures. Let's just agree to not tell him I was gone. I'm fine after all" and then with a side-glance at Luna he added: "We both are. "
"Yeah, but where were you?" Hermione asked.
"Tell you later. Let's just floo home. I need a hot shower and food. And I think so do you."
.
Returning to Grimmauld place after everything that had just happened and finding everything the way it was with the Order meeting still going on was…strange.
As if time had stopped.
Sirius must have been notified by their arrival because he stepped out quickly to see if they were okay.
Since they were all wet and muddy and miserable looking, Harry didn't fall out of line much.
"Is everything okay? Did you find her?" he asked.
Harry nodded.
"Yeah…she'd just gotten lost. She's fine." Ginny assured him.
"Okay…" Sirius said slowly, his gaze dragging over each their faces.
"We're just gonna go shower and put on dry clothes." Hermione added.
"Okay…" Sirius said again, his gaze coming to a stop on Harry.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, just…just a long night." He tried attempting to evade a real answer.
"Okay." With that Sirius walked back towards the kitchen and they were left alone.