"If the three objects, or Hallows, are unified, well, the possessor would be the master of Death," Lovegood explained.
Silence fell in the room. I glanced around the room to look for a clock, but instead settled on using the twilit sky as an indicator it was getting later.
"Do you mean... that you believe... these objects- these Hallows- actually exist?" Hermione asked.
"Of course!" Xenophilius Lovegood said. "Luna has told me about you. You are, not unintelligent, but very limited and close minded."
"So where do you think they are now?"
"Alas, who knows?" said Xenophilius, looking out the window. "There is a bloody trail of the Elder Wand splashed throughout the pages of Wizarding history, but it goes cold with Arcus and Livius. Who can say who took the wand? And who may have defeated them after? History does not tell us."
"Does the Peverell family have anything to do with the Deathly Hallows?"
"You have deceived me!" Xenophilius said, though I couldn't discern exactly what his tone was. I was beginning to feel uneasy here. "I thought you were new to the Hallows Quest. We believe that the Peverells have everything- everything! To do with the Hallows."
"Who...?"
"It was the name on a grave with the mark on it in Godric's Hollow," Hermione said. "Ignotus Peverell."
"Exactly!" Xenophilius said. He stood up and began to look a bit manic. "The sign of the Deathly Hallows on Ignotus' grave is conclusive proof that the three brothers in the story were actually the three Peverell brothers. Antioch, Cadmus, and Ignotus. They were the original owners of the Hallows!"
We were all quiet for a moment.
"Stay for dinner," Lovegood said. "I insist. Everyone always asks for our Freshwater Plimpy soup recipe."
He disappeared down the stairs. I looked to Harry and leaned in to whisper to him. "I have a funny feeling about this..."
He nodded.
"Harry," Hermione said, wearily "this is all a pile of utter rubbish. It can't be what the sign means. This was such a waste of time."
"This is the man who brought us Crumple Horned Snorkacks," Ron pointed out.
"You don't believe it either?" Harry asked. I hoped maybe he would make the decision to get us out of here.
"Nah. It's just a story you tell kids to teach them lessons. One of those superstitions, like 'May born witches will marry Muggles'" Ron said. "Mum's got tons of them."
From downstairs, a terrible and acrid scent wafted up. I nearly gagged. I really just wanted to get out of here. Harry stood up, and I did too. My uneasiness would only increase if he was out of my sight. He walked over to the stair case and looked up. His face looked back down at us.
"Is that a mirror?" I asked, a little confused.
He didn't say anything but I followed him upstairs. Ron and Hermione would be fine without us for a second. They were arguing about something anyways...
It was not a mirror, but a portrait. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Neville Longbottom's. We were standing in the middle of Luna's bedroom. As I looked at the portraits above us, it almost seemed like they were moving. They didn't have the same quality of life that the portraits at Hogwarts did, but they almost appeared to be breathing.
"Wow," Harry said. "Friends..."
I looked around the room, trying to see if it was as odd as the rest of the house. Next to the bed was a picture of Luna as a little girl with her mum. It was really a beautiful picture. We had that in common, Luna and me. We had both lost our Mums. I walked over to the picture to find that there was a thick coating of dust on the frame. That seemed rather... odd.
"Harry..." I said.
"Kat?"
"Shouldn't Luna have been home a few weeks ago for Christmas?" I asked.
"Yes..." he said.
"So why's her room so dusty?" I asked. "No one's been in here for months."
He looked around. There were no clothes in the wardrobe. Her pillow was dusty. This was a room that had been empty for a long time.
He grabbed my wrist to keep me close to him and we went downstairs. "Mr. Lovegood, where's Luna been?"
"Why at school... of course..." he said.
"Then why's her room look like no one's been in it for a year?" Harry asked."Where is she? And why do you keep looking out the window?"
"I..." Lovegood froze, dropping the plates on the tray he'd been carrying. I jumped as they all smashed to the floor, but Harry, Ron and Hermione all pulled their wands on him. I reached for mine, but my response time was just not as good as theirs'. Harry pushed me behind him.
Xenophilius reached to his pocket, but at the same time, the printing press made a loud BANG! and a copy of the paper flew out and hit Harry in the back. I picked it up and handed it to him.
"The Quibbler is going for a new angle, is it?" he asked. The magazine had a picture of his face on the front with the words "UNDESIRABLE NUMBER ONE" underneath. "Is that what you were doing earlier then, Mr. Lovegood? Sending an owl to the Ministry?"
"They took my Luna!" he whispered. "Because of what I've been writing! They took my Luna and I don't know where she is, or what they've done to her. But they might give her back to me if I- if I-"
"Hand over Harry?" I asked. As Mr. Lovegood had started to talk, I became really nervous. The Ministry was on their way. Xenophilius backed over to the staircase, blocking our exit. We had no way out.
"Get out of the way, we're leaving," Ron said, towering over the short man.
"They will be here at any moment. I must save Luna. I cannot lose her. You must not leave."
"Don't make us hurt you," Harry said. "Get out of the way!"
"HARRY!" Hermione screamed, as three cloaked figures flew by on broomsticks. As we all looked at them, Lovegood grabbed his wand and sent a Stunning Spell towards us. Harry knocked me out of the way and there was a huge explosion.
I felt like I was getting crushed by something but realized it was just Harry. The Erumpent Horn had exploded with the Stunning Spell. I couldn't breathe because of the dust in the air. There were so many loud noises- the sound of Hermione and Ron screaming, the crash of the printing press falling over, yet still somehow managing to make thuds as it spit out copies, and the sound of Xenophilius thudding down the stairs. I almost felt bad, but the old man kind of deserved it right now.
Harry got up and then stretched out a hand to help me up. I noticed that Hermione was up to, her finger pressed to her lip to silence us.
"Didn't I tell you there was no need to hurry? The nutter was just raving as usual!"
We all heard a loud thud and Xenophilius' scream. The hair on the back of my neck stood up and I clung to Harry.
"No... No! Upstairs... Potter!"
"I told you last week, Lovegood, we're not coming back for anything less than solid information!"
"No- No- I beg you! It really is Potter! Really!" Lovegood was sobbing.
"Homenum revelio," a voice said from the bottom of the stairs.
Hermione gasped next to me and I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach. "There's someone up there all right, Selwyn,"
"It's Potter... I tell you it's Potter! Please... please give me Luna; just let me have my Luna!"
"You can have your little girl, Lovegood, if you go up those stairs and bring me down Harry Potter. But if this is some trick... we'll see if we can spare a bit of your daughter to bury."
"Come on, Harry," I said, as I could hear Lovegood coming up the stairs. I was afraid that this was it. We had spent all these months out here starving and cold and now we were going to get captured and killed. "We have to leave."
"All right," he said.
"Do you trust me?" Hermione asked us, quietly.
We all nodded, not wanting to make any more noise than necessary. She pulled Harry's cloak of Invisibility out of her bag and handed it to Ron. "Ron, you and Kat get under it."
"Us?" I asked. "Harry's the one we have to protect."
"Listen to her," Harry said to me. I bit my lip and did as I was told.
"Kat, you hold on to Ron. Ron you hold on to my shoulder. Harry, take my hand."
I wrapped my arm around Ron's waist, and he put the cloak over us. There was a rumbling, and it was the printing press vibrating. Lovegood was trying to use a Hover Charm on it to get it out of the way. Hermione paused for a second.
"Any second..." she said softly. "Any second..."
Lovegood's face appeared from the other side of the printing press.
"Obliviate!" she screamed, pointing her wand in his face. Then she pointed her want at the floor under us. "Deprimo!"
All I knew was that one second there was a floor under my feet, then the next second there wasn't and we were falling towards the floor. There was rubble everywhere and I couldn't help but scream. Just before we hit the floor, we twisted in midair and entered the darkness.
I thudded to the ground on the other side of the Disapparation. Harry was on one side of me and got up straight away, but I couldn't bring myself to it. The relief of having escaped was fantastic and exhausting at the same time.
"Are you okay?" Harry asked, reaching down to help me up. I help him tight when he pulled me up, even if we were both covered in dust and smelled like that gross tea. "I know. It was scary but it's okay."
I nodded. I hated looking like the weak link here- but I was. It sucked to be new to this idea of such complete danger.
Ron and Hermione were setting up the tent so Harry helped them. As soon as we got inside, I went and made tea and decided it was okay to bring out a package of the digestive cookies I had stolen from Dad. We ate and drank hungrily, trying to forget about what had just happened. (lol, think you meant deliscious.)
After I had set my cup down on the coffee table between us all, I rested my head on Harry's shoulder. My eyes were heavy and I wasn't really paying attention to what they were talking about. They wanted to hash out the details of the Deathly Hallows but I didn't know all the information so it was kind of useless anyways. I fell asleep on Harry, sleeping peacefully for a few hours.
When I woke up it was just the two of us out on the couch. He had been doing his watch and was letting me sleep on him.
"Hey, sleepy," he said, running his hand through my hair.
"Hi," I said. "I'm sorry I fell asleep."
"You didn't miss much," he told me. "They don't believe me, but I have two of the Deathly Hallows with me right now."
"What?" I asked, confused. I had just woken up and this did not make a lot of sense. Maybe I was still asleep.
"I have my dad's Invisibility Cloak, which is really Peverell's. And Dumbledore left me the Resurrection Stone in the Snitch he willed to me."
"Dumbledore had the Resurrection Stone?" I asked.
"Yeah. Well, it used to be a Horcrux so he got it when he destroyed it, but that doesn't matter. I have two of them."
I took a minute to rub sleep from my eyes before responding. "Wow," I said. "So where is the third one so you can go get it and win this whole shebang?"
"I'm not sure," he admitted. "But You Know Who is looking for it too. Of course he doesn't know exactly where or what it is, but he is looking for the most powerful wand in the whole world."
I nodded. "Okay," I said.
"You believe me?" he asked.
"Of course I do," I said. "You wouldn't lie to me."
"I knew I brought you for a reason," he said, smiling.
~.~
Some time passed. I still had occasional bad dreams about our close call at Lovegood's house, but never anything too bad. Nothing a cup of tea and a talk with Harry couldn't ameliorate.
Spring was coming. A few early flowers pushed their way up out of the cold, hard ground and looked beautiful among the forest. We made little progress by way of the Horcrux hunt, but we were in a good place with each other.
"Need help with the dishes?" Harry asked, one almost warm early spring evening.
"Sure," I said, moving over so he could help me dry them. Ron was in the living room playing with his radio, like always. I looked at him from the side and smiled. "You know, for Undesirable Number One, you're pretty desirable to me."
He looked up at me and grinned and my stomach might have flipped a little. I leaned in and kissed him and he pulled me very close.
"Oy! You two, quit snogging and come out here!" Ron said.
I blushed and Harry chuckled. "What if we don't want to?" Harry asked.
"Potterwatch is on!"
"All right, all right," Harry said. "C'mon."
We sat down around the radio and listened. He sat in one of the comfy armchairs, and I sat at his feet while his hands were on my shoulders. They seemed to really enjoy the radio show. It didn't mean quite as much to me, but I didn't care. It was nice to hear that there were other people out there suffering like us. I did not feel so alone.
"And now we would like to observe a moment of silence for those who have died. Today we are remembering especially Ted Tonks and Dirk Cresswell and Gornuk the Goblin."
They all looked very solemn for the moment. The only sound was the crackling of the radio.
"Well that concludes another edition of Potterwatch. The password next time will be Mad Eye. In the mean time... Keep each other safe: Keep faith. Good night."
"Damn Volde-"
I turned around to clamp my hand over Harry's mouth but it was too late. "...mort."
"Come out of there with your hands up! We know you're in there! You've got half a dozen wands pointing at you and we don't care who we curse!"
Author's Note: HERE IS A CHAPTER. Thank you, potter-reading-coastie for betaing.