Chapter Two: The Road Not Taken
Monday, May 3rd 1999.
Hermione leaned back and shook her stiff wrist, which was cramping up after several long hours of writing. She smiled brightly as she noted Harry sitting opposite her, his own head down and hand writing furiously. She had finished her translation of the runic portion of their beautiful Rosetta scroll as she was now referring to it, but Harry had been insistent on translating the Latin.
Though Hermione could have done it in half the time, having been the one to teach Harry the language, neither Harry nor Luna had taken Ancient Runes at Hogwarts, so only she could translate the runic writing for them. She looked down at the translation before her and frowned slightly. She had initially thought it would share more in common with the stone found so long ago in the Nile Delta, but this was no decree to the masses.
Her understanding of the text concerned her. It both made sense and didn't at the same time. Hermione was sure she had correctly translated most of the text, but what was written seemed to be some form of nonsense.
"Done!" Harry nearly shouted, as he leant back and grinned at her. "Damn, you still beat me."
"Harry, I've been studying Ancient Runes for almost six years now. You've been learning Latin for less than one. That's incredible progress."
"Yeah, I guess. But still…"
"How about we compare notes on what we've translated?"
Harry handed over his work and Hermione compared the two. Both translations were nearly identical with only minor differences that were likely more down to the differing natures of Runic form, Latin and English as languages. While Latin and English at least shared an alphabet, they were very different in structure.
"I don't understand. I thought… something like this. Why would someone take the effort to write the same series of nonsense into five different languages?"
"Nonsense?" Luna asked as she appeared back in the tent, having been exploring the tunnels while her friends worked over the small scroll.
"It's just foolish idioms. But the care and detail of the work suggested something of far greater importance." Hermione groaned, upset at the lack of progress despite the successful translation.
Luna leant over the three copies on the desk and tilted her head as she looked at it from different angles. "You're sure this translation is correct?"
Hermione fixed her eyes on the blonde who did not flinch under her gaze in the slightest. "Harry translated the Latin, I did the runes. We both came out with the same series of gibberish."
"Be fair, it's not gibberish. They're a series of sayings. Though I didn't notice any pattern or cohesive meaning to them all. But…"
Harry was interrupted as Luna grabbed the scroll from the table and turned it upside down, then right-side up once more. "Hmmm, fascinating. Come!"
The tiny girl turned on her heel and left the tent at a brisk walk, leaving two very stunned friends still sitting at the table in surprise. Harry grabbed his translation of the text off the table as he rose and quickly followed Luna, spurring Hermione to action as well. The blonde led them quickly down the tunnel above the stairs and did not stop as she reached the room at the end, tucking inside and leaning over the top of the plinth, her face practically touching the surface of the stonework.
"Fascinating." She repeated as Harry and Hermione waited at the opening, not wanting to trigger the door trap again.
"What is?" Hermione questioned.
"What does this line mean?" Luna asked, holding the scroll up to the pair.
Harry glanced at Hermione before he stepped inside, looking at the scroll Luna was holding out to him from the other side of the plinth. "Um, let me see… it says: The universe is infinite. Why?"
"Because so does this." Luna indicated the writing in front of the golden pot on the right of the plinth.
Hermione's curiosity won out and she stepped inside, immediately triggering the door to seal, which drew the others' eyes to her, but she ignored the door as she checked Luna's statement. The writing did indeed match. "There is only one truth. The universe is infinite."
"But it doesn't say that. It only says the second half." Harry corrected, knowing she was recalling the full line from the text.
"I can see that. But if this says that, then what does the other side say?"
"I don't know. But as I was working, I noticed that this language seems to share a lot of similarities with the Latin portion. The word length and structure seem to match. I'm pretty sure this exact phrase isn't marked on here, but maybe we can assemble the words from the scroll as a whole." Harry suggested.
"Ok then. Start here. what is this word?" Luna indicated the beginning of the left-hand inscription.
"Well, that's easy, it's the same as this one." Hermione pointed to the beginning of the right-hand inscription. "The."
"Alright. Good. These are all shorter. So…" Harry began to look over his translation, comparing it to the scroll as Luna searched the blocky writing for any figures that matched what they saw before them. Soon they had identified three of the centre words. 'Is', 'in' and 'this'.
"Here, this one matches the last word." Hermione pointed to a phrase near the very bottom of the scroll, one of the phrases that had most confused her. 'The watched pot never boils'. Especially when contrasted with the following line of 'If you immediately know the candlelight is fire, then the meal was cooked a long time ago'.
"So it reads 'the something is in this pot'. But what does the final word mean?" Harry asked aloud.
"I don't think it matters. It's the wrong answer." Luna replied.
Harry and Hermione looked up at her confused. "What do you mean?" Hermione asked.
Luna pointed to the very top of the scroll, to the left portion of the line she had recognized. "There is only one truth." Her hand then shifted to the golden pot. "The universe is infinite. It's a test alright. Whatever the last word over there is, it's designed to tempt you, while the right-hand pot is the correct answer. Especially effective in a language that is laid out from left to right."
Before either could stop her, Luna had grabbed the lid of the pot and opened it, all three stood perfectly still for a moment, expecting something to happen after triggering whatever system ran this test, but nothing came. They all looked down in unison and Luna gave a happy trill as they saw there was a single golden coin in the golden pot.
"Treasure!" Harry yelled, startling them all. Luna made to cover the pot, but Harry was once more looking at his translation. "Here…" He paused as he searched the scroll still in Luna's outstretched hand. "Treasure. This word means treasure. The treasure is in this pot. Which as we can see now is a bald-faced lie. Good work, Luna."
The blonde beamed at them and Hermione reached out, taking the odd coin up. It felt unusually heavy for gold of its size but was incredibly detailed. On the reverse was a king atop a rampant horse, sword in hand. But the finery of the detail was beyond anything Hermione had ever seen. The individual hairs on the horse's coat were visible in the design. She turned it over to the obverse and noted the same king was now displayed far larger. He looked powerful, regal and kind all at once as he gazed out of the right side of the coin.
"Hermione…" Luna's voice broke her inspection and she looked up at the smaller girl. "We need to put it back."
"What?" She replied, confused.
"Truth of spirit. That's what Merlin said. These are tests, remember."
"Right," Hermione said, as she returned the incredible coin to its home in the small pot. "Do you think…?"
Her question was cut off as Luna did exactly as she was thinking and closed the pot once more and the great stone door opened behind them.
"One down. Should we try the other one now?" Harry asked the two girls who glanced at one another for a moment before nodding.
Harry smirked at them and without a word, disapparated. Hermione looked to Luna who smiled and followed suit, leaving her alone in the completed chamber. Hermione sighed and rolled her eyes at her friends' impatience and turned in place as well. The moment she appeared beside the other plinth, the trio turned and watched as the second large stone door sealed them inside.
"How does it know?" She asked aloud.
"How does any of this know? That's kind of what we're here to find out, Hermione." Luna replied.
The pair turned once more to see Harry already looking over the scroll and translation as he compared the words to the inscription once more. They walked up to either side and noted he already had several words noted down. 'On', 'the', 'path', and 'to'.
"These bigger words are harder to find." He explained as he searched through the scroll.
"Harry." Hermione touched his shoulder to draw his attention. "I think I know this one."
She guided the other two with her finger as she moved down the scroll, stopping about a third of the way from the bottom. The line she was indicating matched the inscription exactly, but this time, it was the whole line. A perfect match.
"How did you…?"
"It stood out when translating it. It's not a phrase like most of the others. It's a title. Reflect on the Eightfold Path to Enlightenment. What follows are the eight factors. Notice how they all start the same. Right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration, right view, and right resolve."
Harry looked at her with wonderment and Hermione blushed under his gaze. "Have I told you lately how much I adore your brain?"
Hermione smiled in return as she turned to look at the tiles. "Each one of these symbols must represent one of the factors. We just need to put them in the order they appear in the scroll.
She quickly unseated the tiles from their recesses and inspected them. The symbols were nothing like any of the writings on the scroll, nor any other form of symbol that she had seen before. Though each seemed to give her a feeling of an aspect of the path. She soon had them arrayed in the order listed and she smiled at the others in triumph.
That was immediately quashed as a loud click sounded through the room and the trio looked up to see the ceiling now rapidly descending towards them. "Shit!"
Harry quickly turned back to the plinth and pulled the tiles free but the ceiling did not stop, continuing its gradual yet inevitable path downwards. She had been wrong. And now it was going to get them all killed.
"Hermione." Luna shook her and she pulled out of her own fear. "Snap out of it."
"I'm good. We should go."
"No," Harry yelled over the grinding stone. "We have to solve the puzzle. We took it too literally. I've got this."
"Harry, it's not worth it. The door resets when we leave, maybe this will too."
"Just a second." He replied, covering the side of one of the tiles before slamming it into place.
"HARRY! I will drag you out if I have to. We need to go!" Hermione stormed over to where he was hunched over the plinth, the large stone ceiling only a foot above his form as it lowered ever onward.
"HARRY!" Luna called, stepping to his right and wrapping an arm around him, clearly intending on following through with Hermione's threat.
"WAIT! Two more. Seven and three. There!"
He placed the final tile in the third recess and the roof immediately froze in place. The three were huddled together beside the small stone plinth that had begun to sink into the floor to avoid the crushing surface and without any preamble, the roof started shifting upwards once more and the doorway opened.
Hermione let out a loud sigh of relief before she slapped Harry on the back of the head. "Next time we just leave. Nothing like this is worth dying for, Harry. We've lost enough."
"Sorry, I was ready to go, but it suddenly became clear. When I pulled the tiles free after your attempt, one of them covered the others and the solution was obvious."
"What solution?" Luna questioned, still tucked tightly to Harry's side.
"Take a look. Cover the left side of each symbol."
Hermione stepped forward and used her translation to cover the left side of the first tile. When she repeated the task on the second and third she could not prevent the wild blush that coated her face. "Reflected numbers? So simple."
She felt two pairs of arms wrap around her waist and noted that both Harry and Luna were holding her tightly. "None of us are perfect Hermione. That's why we're here together." Harry gently pressed his lips to her forehead and she felt the tension of the last test wash away.
A soft gasp came from somewhere around her chest and without warning the smaller pair of arms let go and the two remaining friends turned to see Luna rushing back down the corridor. "Where is she off to in such a hurry?" Harry queried as he too pulled back.
"We should find out." Hermione rolled her eyes and briskly walked after the occasionally strange girl she called friend.
The two arrived back in the main chamber to find Luna kneeling on top of the plinth, both hands on the handle of the sword as she gave a hefty pull. As Hermione went to remind her what happened last time, all three gave simultaneous gasps of surprise as she fell backwards off the plinth, the sword still clutched in her hands.
"YES!" Luna called, jumping to her feet and holding the sword aloft, the roof so low that it scraped against the stone as Luna hopped about in triumph.
Hermione was speechless as she watched the comical sight of tiny Luna Lovegood swinging about a large sword like it was nothing. The Ravenclaw soon stopped and fixed her eyes on the pair staring at her with disbelief. She lowered the sword until it pointed at them both.
"Kneel, subjects, before your new Queen!" Luna instructed, a broad smile on her face. "And I may make you the first knights of my realm."
Harry began to laugh out loud and dropped to his knee beside Hermione as Luna lightly hopped down from the platform, still looking so out of place carrying the enormous sword. Hermione rolled her eyes again and moved to join Harry on her knee when she noticed the air behind Luna shimmer and change. What had previously been empty air now seemed to be filled by a medieval knight in full armour, only this one did not continue to shimmer as Merlin had.
"Luna, look out!"
The tiny blonde spun on her heel and limboed under the first horizontal swipe of the knight's sword, only just making it below the blade. The girl lost her footing in the move and only Harry and Hermione catching her kept her from landing back first on the uneven floor.
"Where the hell did that come from?" Harry growled, tucking his arms under Luna's armpits and dragging her back away from the advancing silver knight.
"It just appeared out of thin air, like Merlin."
"You can let me go now, Harry. I'll be alright." Luna smiled up at him as she shifted her feet to rise back to a standing position, this time with the sword clutched in her right hand.
"Are you crazy? I'm not leaving you alone to face that thing. We don't even know what it is."
Hermione stepped to the side and drew her wand, her mind considering the possible spell options she could utilize against someone in possibly reflective armour. "Let's see how he likes this. Incendius."
The big brother spell of the standard ignition charm shot forth as a cone of flames from her wand tip, heating the cool cavern and sending intense light in all directions. The flames washed over the knight and they lost sight of him for a moment until Hermione released the spell. When her eyes readjusted to the dull light of the space, she was stunned to see the knight still standing in place, not a scratch on him, and no sign of fatigue from the heat or pressure of the spell.
"Harry, help!"
He drew his own wand and with a quick snap, he tossed a spell Hermione didn't know at the knight and both watched as it sailed straight through the image and hit the wall behind. "What? It's not really there."
The knight stepped towards them once more and came down with an overhead strike. Harry stood firm, clearly assuming that the knight was just an illusion, right until a metallic clang rang through the space as Luna caught the swing with a parry of her own. The two swords met violently and she pushed the knight's blade away, taking a step closer to it as she spun on her left leg and delivered a firm kick to its midsection.
Unlike Harry's spell, the kick connected heavily and the knight shuffled backwards, trying to maintain its balance. Luna, however, did not give it the time to do so. Before Hermione could even think of another spell to aid the girl, she was all over the knight, raining blows that varied between slicing straight through and leaving oily rainbow coloured slashes that quickly dissipated, or clanging off the armour and falling aside.
With a poise and fervour that neither had seen from the little Lovegood before, Luna kept the knight on the backfoot as she rained hit after hit after punch after kick. Both Gryffindors stood mouth agape as their young friend systematically took the knight to pieces before with a final jumping lunge, she buried the sword in its chest and took a step back as it fell to its knees, dropping its own sword in surrender.
Luna stood over it panting slightly from the exertion of her incredible display as the knight collapsed and with another shimmer, vanished from sight entirely. She turned and smiled at them both. "A true queen does not need her knights to protect her."
The blonde waggled her eyebrows at them and Harry charged over and wrapped her in a mighty hug, lifting the girl and sword up into the air and twirling her around with a laugh. "You are amazing, Luna. Life is never dull when you are around."
Hermione approached cautiously as the large sword swung outward from the spiralling movements of her friends but as Harry returned Luna to the ground, she quickly moved in and wrapped the girl in her arms as well.
"You certainly are full of surprises. Where on earth did you learn how to do that?"
"Learn? Nowhere. I just did what felt right, the same thing I do when I dance in the forest. The world around you will guide you if you let it, Hermione."
"Ok, so… what now. I'm kind of hoping that is the final test."
"I'm not sure. Maybe we should go into the tent and read through the scroll again. It's had a few clues so far, maybe the answer is in there." Hermione offered.
Harry joined her as she pulled away from the group hug and headed for the opening in the tent, but both paused when they realized that Luna was not following them. She turned and noted the blonde was standing in place staring at the sword in her hand with a look of stubbornness on her wee face.
"I don't want to. I'm the queen. It's the rules."
"Luna?" Harry asked, stepping back towards her again.
A pair of wide blue eyes fixed on him and Hermione noticed Luna looked very disappointed. "What's wrong?"
"I feel that I have to put it back. But if I do, I won't be the queen anymore."
"Says who? I don't recall keeping the sword to have been a requirement. Only pulling it from the stone." Harry offered, holding out a hand towards Luna as he knelt before her again.
Hermione smiled at the display. Harry always seemed to know how to talk to Luna. While the two girls had grown closer as they bonded over their shared experiences at Malfoy Manor, Harry still had a bond with the girl Hermione was unsure she would ever understand.
"You mean it?" Luna asked softly.
"You're my queen until you choose to abdicate your throne. And even then you'll still be my very good friend."
Luna smiled broadly and twirled about, within seconds making it back to the plinth and leaping up. She carefully inserted the sword back into the stone top and turned back to look at her friends, sitting on the edge of the stone. "Now what?" She asked as she kicked her legs back and forth.
"I don't know. Maybe dinner? It's been a stressful day." Hermione offered, stepping inside the tent with Harry following closely behind. As soon as Harry stepped fully within the enlarged space, there was a bright gold flash from outside.
"Wow. That is so cool." Luna yelled. "Come outside, quick!"
The two turned about and rushed back outside to find almost every free space in the large cavern now covered in shining golden trinkets and coins. The dull light that had filled the space earlier was now replaced by bright sconces along the wall that illuminated the area even better than the small lamps that had lit the test chambers.
"Aren't you glad I put the tent in the ring now? Would have made a mess of it otherwise when all this fell on top of it." Luna beamed from her place, still perched on the plinth.
"You are truly wise, our queen. I'll never doubt you again." Harry smiled.
ϟ
Friday, May 7th 1999.
Harry glanced up from the couch in the tent and smiled as he noted Hermione was still perched at the dinner table, the scroll to her left and an enormous tome she had found the day before on the right. They had spent the past several days sorting the enormous horde of goods into piles to identify what they had, but Hermione's eyes had lit up the most when she found several books in the collection.
So far she was only a few pages into the massive work, but her fingers continued to move over the two documents as she worked to painstakingly translate it out one word at a time.
Knowing he wouldn't get very good company from her at the moment, he stood and quietly left the tent, allowing her to work in peace. Even conversation with Luna was not currently an option, as the girl had stayed up far later than normal the night before counting the pile of golden coins now tucked on the landing above the stairs. A pile that rivalled that of his own in the vault at Gringotts.
Harry cast his eyes slowly over the much neater space. There was pottery of varying kinds arrayed beside the tunnel to the Reflect Test, some small and vase-like while others stood taller and wider than the friends that had arranged them. One whole corner of the space was filled with the many chests made of materials ranging from wood and iron to leather and even stone, also ranging in size from wee jewellery boxes to massive trunks bigger than anything sold for Hogwarts.
Jewellery of almost every form had been gathered and placed in the right back corner of the platform, light glimmering off silver tiaras, golden crowns, and pearl necklaces. While in the other corner of the platform the enormous golden head of a cow stood staring out over the space past the smaller human busts and statues.
The stronger golden light that filled the cavern now caught and refracted off the multitude of precious and semi-precious stones separated out into colour by Luna just beside the ring that held their tent, a process that had taken almost a whole day as the wee girl searched through chest after chest and she'd still barely scratched the surface. There were even full sets of fine cutlery, crockery and even furniture piled together made of materials Harry couldn't even identify. It was slightly overwhelming.
Harry had done several small digs, looking for items and artifacts they'd learned of in the Black library back home. But this was by far the most significant find he'd ever made. The fact that what little of the items they could readily identify appeared to come from vastly different cultures around the world, some that not even the much more recent British Empire had ever discovered, was even more confusing. And they were far from finished sorting everything out.
He sighed and made his way up into the tunnel to the Truth Test, noting that Luna had even used some of the tunnel space to arrange some of the items. Though it did not extend more than a few metres into the now far darker passageway. He ran his fingers softly over the rough stone, allowing his mind to drift from their find to their friends back home and off to the far-flung reaches of his imagination.
But his meandering was broken by his fingers falling loose and finding empty air. He looked up and noted the wall was made of the same odd rough-hewn rock as the rest of the cavern, but where his hand should have been there was only his wrist going into the rocky surface as though it were not even there.
Harry pulled his arm back and his fingers came into view, yet when he stretched out once more, they vanished into the rock, like pushing your hand through water. He stepped closer to the wall and continued to stretch his hand beyond the illusion until it found purchase once more. Behind the illusion, there was a flat surface, and Harry ran his fingers down and up the smooth face of whatever was behind the fake wall.
His fingers caught something on the upward stroke and with a shimmer he was becoming all too familiar with, the illusion disappeared, replaced now by a solid flat wall recessed into the corner of the tunnel. At face height, there was an item fixed to the wall that almost filled the width of the cleft.
It jutted out gradually from the wall, tapering outward with several stepped circular ridges spaced evenly with eight straight arms that led from the wall to a small circular opening with a black concave surface that seemed to both be a thick tar-like substance and yet see-through and filled with several twinkling lights inside of it. His fingers brushed over the surface and it felt like it was made of metal but it had an almost organic appearance. It looked almost like an ornate mirror mounted in the carapace of a large symmetrical insect, but it did not reflect an image. Beneath it at elbow height were a pair of domelike points of the same material poking out of the stone.
Harry leant forward and gazed into the darkness, the lights growing in intensity as his eyes drifted over them and with a slight whirring sound, his mind filled with information. More and more kept coming, over and over, filling him up with knowledge he couldn't fathom, but he couldn't move away from the sight before him either.
Finally, after he knew not how long, the lights dimmed once more and Harry took one step back before his body collapsed out from beneath him and he fell to the floor of the tunnel, his mind glazing over and darkness taking him.
ϟ
Hermione was becoming concerned as Luna danced through the kitchen preparing dinner for them all. She had not seen Harry in several hours, though her attention had been diverted heavily before Luna had risen and engaged her in conversation regarding the little she had managed to translate so far.
He had not responded to their calls for him to come back and now she was worried he had left the cavern without telling them. "Luna, I'm going to check the test chambers. Maybe he went wandering in there again."
"Ok, but don't be long. Dinner is almost ready."
Hermione smiled at her friend as she exited the tent. The piles of treasure were exactly as they had been the day before, so Harry had not been going through those. She wondered what was distracting him as she checked the Reflect test chamber. But there was nothing out of place within. Only the plinth with its damned number puzzle. She quickly backtracked and headed towards the second test but as she approached the twist in the tunnel, she spotted something dark on the floor of the pathway.
She drew her wand and lit it, allowing it to light her view and gasped as she recognized the form on the floor before her.
"Harry!" She yelled as she dashed forward, but her friend remained motionless. His eyes were open, staring blankly up at the ceiling of the tunnel, and though they contracted when the light shone on them, they did not move at all as she waved her hand in front of his face.
"Oh, Harry… what did you do?" She asked the air as she hefted the boy into her arms and carried him quickly back out of the tunnel and into their tent. "Luna, help."
She hefted Harry's form inside the canvas opening and moved over to the soft couch Harry spent most of his spare time occupying, though in a far different state to the one he was in now. She laid him gently on its surface and Luna knelt beside her, looking at their insensate friend.
"What happened?" The blonde asked.
"I don't know. I found him like this in the tunnel to the Truth test. But there was nothing around him to indicate what happened. He was just lying on the floor, not moving."
Luna pulled her own wand and cast several spells over Harry's still form, none of them reviving or waking him.
"He's not sleeping, or stunned. And his body is too flexible to be petrified."
"I'm not sure how much we should move him. You stay here with him. I'll go and see if Madame Pomfrey is willing to make a house call." Hermione instructed.
"Alright. I guess this means dinner will be late today." Luna replied.
Hermione squeezed her shoulder and gave her a soft but mostly forced smile. "Yes. Let's just hope he hasn't gone and done something really stupid." Without leaving the tent, Hermione turned in place, apparating away, hoping that whatever Harry had done could be undone.
ϟ
Poppy finished casting several more diagnostic spells over the still form. Results she was well accustomed to returned to her mind and she considered the boy before her closely. Many times had Harry Potter found himself under her wand, to the point where she had his standard vital responses near memorized. So when that was the result she received, despite the stillness of the figure before her, she was curious as to the cause.
"You've no idea what triggered this?" She questioned the two figures behind her.
"No. I just found him like that a few minutes ago. But…" Hermione paused and Poppy turned to look at the girl.
"He might have been attacked," Luna added.
"Attacked? By whom?"
"You don't think… we passed all the tests. Or none of that would have appeared." Hermione stated firmly.
"The knight is the only danger we've faced in the main cavern. Maybe he accidentally triggered it again."
"What knight?" Poppy questioned, startling the pair who seemed to have gotten lost in their own musings.
"Ah, it was… hard to explain. An illusion?"
"You believe it harmed him?"
"Well, why else would he be totally unresponsive?"
"He's not completely unresponsive. His eyes contract when exposed to light and his other normal reflex reactions are there. The diagnostics show normal results for nearly every test I can run. He isn't stunned, nor is he sleeping. But his mind is… I suppose the most accurate term would be busy."
"Busy?" Luna queried.
"Yes, Miss Lovegood. His body is fine. There is no sign of pain or injury. But the brain controls the body. And whatever happened to Mister Potter has his brain so occupied that it can't control anything beyond the vital operations."
"Can we stop it? What if we stunned him?"
"It's possible that might help. Or it might permanently stop the process, leaving him like this for good. I don't have enough information to make a clear assessment. All I feel comfortable doing is this."
She pulled a small vial from her magically padded potions pocket and unstoppered it. The dull grey liquid sloshed slightly as she pressed it to Harry's lip and poured the contents into his mouth, using her wand to massage his throat and encourage his body to swallow. As she stepped back Harry's body remained completely still before a spurt of steam emanated from both ears. But Harry did not react any further than that.
Poppy sighed heavily. "Didn't think so."
"A pepper-up potion?" Hermione questioned.
"Yes. It works by giving the body additional energy to combat whatever the ailment affecting it is. I thought it possible that it might allow his mind to complete its task and take control once more."
Poppy felt the small badge on her chest heat up slightly and sighed again.
"So you're saying there is nothing to do but wait and hope?" Hermione asked.
"I'm afraid so, Miss Granger. And I am also afraid that I must return to the school. My assistance is required there."
"Thank you, Madame Pomfrey. We'll take good care of him." Luna said as she knelt beside the couch.
"If he does not wake in a day, come get me again. We'll need to find a way to ensure nourishment is maintained if he cannot do so himself. Best of luck girls."
She quickly gathered her few things and activated her portkey back to the entrance gate of the ancient school. Poppy was left wondering how it was that Potter always managed to find a way to get into mischief, no matter his location.