Potter47
Part Two
Wrinkling Time
"Even after enormous upheavals and seemingly irrevocable changes,
the same pattern has always reasserted itself,
just as a gyroscope will always return to equilibrium,
however far it is pushed one way or the other."
Orwell
Chapter Nine
The Quest for King Ronald
Harry braced himself for a harsh landing on the other side of the veil, but instead of the stone dais, he landed upon tall, overgrown (and unexpectedly soft) grass. He blinked.
Standing above him, two other pairs of eyes blinked as well. One pair belonged to Queen Luna--the other to Bob.
"Well, this is peculiar," said Bob.
"How nice of you to drop in," said Queen Luna.
Harry looked up when he heard the voices.
"Luna?" he asked.
"That's Queen Luna, to you," cautioned Bob.
"Luna's fine," said Queen Luna, and she smiled and helped Harry to his feet. Harry was rather surprised to discover he was no longer bound--but then, he wasn't too surprised to be surprised, honestly.
"Where am I?" he asked, looking at the surroundings--they were in the middle of a great field that seemed to stretch on forever in just about all directions, they were beside a wide, brown, muddy-looking river, and there was a great beast behind Luna that made the word Snorkack jump to the forefront of his mind.
"You're in Logica-Land, of course," said Bob.
"Logica-Land?" echoed Harry. "Where the hell is Logica-Land?"
"Right here, silly," said Queen Luna. "Did you bump your head when you fell from the sky?"
"I didn't fall from the sky--" began Harry, but Luna continued on as though he hadn't spoken.
"This is such a pleasant surprise," she said. "And how odd, too... first I run into Ginny, and now you, Harry. This is a busy day for running into people I've never seen in Logica-Land before..."
"You saw Ginny?"
The Queen nodded. "Yes. I was chasing after for that darned wild goose, and--well, needless to say, I didn't catch up with him--and there she was, standing right in the middle of one of the corridors of the Castle."
"Castle?"
"Yes," said Luna. "The Castle by the Lake."
Then she leaned in close to Harry, so that Bob couldn't hear: "It looks just like Hogwarts," she whispered, "if Hogwarts was in Logica-Land. But Hogwarts isn't in Logica-Land, so it can't be Hogwarts, you see? Therefore, it's the Castle by the Lake."
"Where is this castle? I--I need to find Ginny--"
"Oh, we're long past there now," said Luna.
"Then let's go back--"
"We can't go back," said Luna. "You've got to go forward to go back. And besides, we've got to find King Ronald, now don't we?"
Harry blinked.
"King Ronald?"
"Yes," said Luna. "Are your ears all right?"
"Yeah," said Harry. "They're fine--"
"Then why do you keep asking me what I've just said...?"
"I--never mind," said Harry. "Who is this--King Ronald?"
Luna sighed. "He's my King, of course, my husband. He's been missing for ages, and we've simply got to find him before the Envelope arrives at our village and envelopes the whole thing..."
"Speaking of the Envelope," said Bob, rather hushed. "We'd best get moving, don't you think, my Queen?"
"Quite right, Bob," said Luna. "You're free to join us, Harry," she added.
Harry nodded--this was all very confusing (and for the strangest moment, he had the urge to use the word confuzzling) but he knew that he'd be much better off following Luna, crazy as she was, than attempting to go it alone in this strange place.
"Then let's go," said Luna. And she hopped up upon the Snorkack, motioning for Harry to ride behind her.
Bob hopped into her lap.
When they were all settled in, the Snorkack began to move, and it was the strangest sort of moving Harry had ever felt. It was not at all like riding a Thestral, he decided, nor like riding a Hippogriff. It felt rather like he was riding some sort of furry cow, although he hadn't the slightest idea why he thought that, as he'd never ridden a cow.
"Where exactly are we going?" he asked.
"We're following the Chocolate River," said Luna, tilting her head towards the wide river that Harry had presumed to be full of mud.
"That's chocolate?" asked Harry.
"Yes," said Bob. "That is, indeed, why it is called that."
"The finest chocolate in all of Logica-Land comes from this river," said Luna.
"The only chocolate in all of Logica-Land comes from this river, of course," corrected Bob. "Where else would chocolate come from?"
"Um... I thought it came from beans, right?" asked Harry.
"Pfft," said Bob. "The day chocolate comes out of a bean is the day the a letter comes out of the Envelope."
They rode in silence for a moment, and then:
"What is this Envelope?" asked Harry.
"It's the evilest, vilest, ilest, lest thing in all the world," said Bob. "We believe that it was the Envelope that captured the King, you see--"
"But how can an Envelope--"
"Oh dear, you are a strange one," said Bob. "I'm not even going to attempt to explain this..."
He faced sternly forward with his little arms folded, looking out on the horizon over the head of the Snorkack.
"Sorry," murmured Harry, unsure just what he was apologizing for.
"Something is coming towards us," said Bob, suddenly.
"Where?" asked Luna.
"Just ahead--there, down low in the grass."
Harry looked down in the grass ahead of them and saw it: something small, strange and white, slinking towards them through the blades.
"What is that?"
"I believe," said Luna, peering closer and slowing the Snorkack as they passed, "that it is a thumb."
Indeed it was. Long and pale, it was a lonesome thumb, somehow managing to walk along the grass all by itself.
"It must be hitchhiking," said Luna. She called down to it: "Do you need a hand--erm--do you need a lift?"
It did not respond, but merely continued its procession, slow and mournful.
"I wonder what that was about," said Bob.
Luna was silent for a moment, and then leaned back, and said quietly to Harry:
"If I didn't know better, I would have thought that thumb was rather familiar, wouldn't you?"
Harry wasn't sure what she meant, so he didn't respond.
"Perhaps it's a good sign," said Bob, "perhaps this means we're nearing some sort of... life."
"Perhaps," agreed Luna, but a minute later, that "perhaps" had become a distinct "most likely," as a strange sort of building came into view on the horizon.
"This is it," said Luna. "I can feel it. This is the Envelope's fortress."
Harry didn't think that was too unlikely: as they came closer, it became clear that the building was shaped like a giant post box: a tall, bright, bright red cylinder with a slot at the top that seemed to be the door.
"How on earth do we get up there?" asked Harry.
"We don't," said Bob. "That is the Envelope's personal entrance." They came now to the foot of the post box, and the Snorkack continued walking around towards the back.
Bob continued: "There's likely a door around here for his servants... ah, here it is."
And there it was. Luna hopped down, first, followed by Bob. Then Harry awkwardly ambled off of the Snorkack himself, and they all made their way towards the door.
"How do we get in?" asked Luna.
Harry automatically reached for his wand, before remembering he didn't have it--and, indeed, that Voldemort had snapped it in two at Malfoy Manor.
"That is a very good question," said Bob, rubbing his furry little chin with his furry little hand, but at that moment the question was answered for them, as the door swung open.
"Harry!" shouted the door-swing-opener, who happened to be Hermione.
Harry, Luna, and Bob were all very, very surprised to see her, but none more than Harry, for in another moment she had attacked him with the fury of several wild geese, hugging him around the neck.
"You're all right...!" Hermione said, not letting go.
"Erm... I was..." managed Harry, attempting to breathe.
"Oh," said Hermione, backing away.
"What are you doing here?" asked Queen Luna.
Hermione shrugged. "I have no idea. Me and Professor Snape just... popped here, ages ago, and we haven't popped back out again..."
"Snape?" asked Harry.
"Indeed," said a cool voice from inside the fortress. "Now, wouldn't it be wise for all of you to come inside before you catch your death?"
"It's not cold out," said Luna, as the three of them (and the Snorkack) followed Hermione inside to where Snape was standing.
Snape shook his head. "That's not exactly what I meant. The Envelope's guards are floating around out there--the Stamps. If one of them happens to stick to one of you... well, I don't believe you'll enjoy it very much."
"Oh," said Luna.
"This place is fascinating," said Hermione. "There are loads and loads of letters in here... it seems like whenever something gets lost in the mail, it ends up here. And..." she began, but she fell silent, looking towards Snape.
"Follow us," he said, and the two of them led the way up a spiral staircase that encircled the inside of the building--which seemed to be made up of one tall, main room, with other rooms branching out off of the staircase at each landing.
They walked and walked up the stairs, Harry, Luna, and Bob following close behind, for what felt like forever. At each landing, Harry peered through the doorless archways to see piles upon piles of letters, sorted by subject. Some were labeled "Snorkacks," some "Square Roots," and some "Wild Gooses." Then, finally, when they had reached a landing about half way up the very tall building, they stopped.
"In this room," began Snape, "is something most interesting indeed."
He led them inside, and in place of the usual mountain of letters, there was a single book, on a lone table in the center of the room.
it read, in shining letters, on the cover.
Luna went over to it, picked it up, and began to flip through.
"You'll never guess what this place is," said Hermione.
"All this time, we had assumed it was merely a strange, parallel world the Miss Lovegood had created in her mind," said Snape.
"But Luna didn't create this place at all. She just... stumbled upon it."
"Heresy!" shouted Bob, but they ignored him.
"Well, where did it come from, then?" asked Luna.
Hermione hesitated. Snape didn't.
"Voldemort," he said.
"Voldemort?" said Harry.
"There you go again," said Luna.
"Yes, Voldemort," said Snape.
"Apparently," said Hermione, "Voldemort... did something."
"Oh, really?" said Harry.
"Yeah," said Hermione, too excited for the sarcasm, "he... he meddled with time, somehow. He messed something up--and by doing so, he tore the world in two. He created this place, and now this place exists as a sort of balance, to fix what he's messed up, through his meddling."
"What do you mean?" said Harry.
"Everything that Voldemort has interfered with, as a result of his meddling with time," said Snape, "is given a second chance, through this place."
Harry blinked. "Oh," he said. "I suppose that makes a bit of sense. So that's why I'm here?"
"Why? What did he--"
"He shoved me through the veil in the Department of Mysteries," said Harry.
Snape nodded. "I suppose so, then, Potter." He smirked. "Something about you just refuses to die, doesn't it?"
"I guess so," said Harry.
"But what does all this mean?" asked Luna.
"It means," said Hermione, "that Logica-Land was initially created to bring things back to an equilibrium, to fix what Voldemort messed up. That's why this place is so strange, I think, because it's trying so desperately to make sense of things. Logical-Land, you know...? And," and here she took the book back from Luna and flipped through to find something. She found what she was looking for, and pointed:
There was a picture of a very familiar blonde witch, holding an envelope in her hands.
"Mum..." murmured Luna very, very quietly.
Hermione nodded. "Your mum was experimenting with time and space, apparently," she said, "and she... broke into this place, at some point. That's what brought you into this whole mess."
Luna swallowed. "Oh," she said.
"Yeah," said Hermione. "Weird, isn't it?"
Luna's gaze did not waver from the picture in the book for a long time--and then, suddenly, she looked up.
"But where is King Ronald?"
Hermione blinked. "King Ronald?"
"My husband...? Whom we've been searching for all this time?"
"Oh! Oh..." said Hermione. "I remember now... well, we haven't seen him..."
"He's here," said Luna.
"Erm, OK," said Hermione. "If you say so."
And suddenly, Luna burst from the room and began to run, run, run up the stairs. She could feel him, now, she could practically smell him...
She ran and ran and ran and then, finally, she reached the very top of the fortress, the Envelope's personal quarters. She threw the door open, not even thinking that it might be locked.
"KING RONALD!"
King Ronald looked up at the sound, eyes wide. He had been in the middle of a chess game with a rather put-out-looking Stamp.
Luna practically pounced on him from where she was standing, clear across the room. She hugged him and kissed him and hugged him and squeezed him and he did all that back to her, slightly awkwardly.
"Where have you been?" asked Luna.
"Here," said King Ronald. "The Envelope kidnapped me... but it's all right now."
He gestured towards the dilapidated-looking Stamp. "This guy came back and let me know..."
"Let you know what?"
King Ronald grinned. "Well, you know, the Envelope was headed towards our village... apparently, he got lost in the mail."
Luna smiled. "How anticlimactic!" she said, and they lived happily ever after, until a clatter of pops sounded and Luna, Snape, and Hermione all vanished into thin air.
––
However, that clatter of pops left Harry Potter standing rather confuzzled. He walked to the doorway to the stairs, wondering where on earth the others had gone. Unsure of what else to do, he began to climb, climb, climb, up and up and up the stairs until finally he stood in the doorway at the very top. Inside that room--and what was this room, the Envelope's personal quarters?--there was a large stamp that sat by a chessboard looking quite as confuzzled as Harry felt.
"Do you know where everybody went?" asked Harry.
The stamp shook its... upper half, not looking at Harry.
"Well... I need to get back," said Harry.
But suddenly Harry had this strange idea that he knew how he must get back--this strange idea occurred to him when he looked at the large letter-slot in the opposite wall, which they had seen from the outside of the postbox. This window--or door, for the envelope, he imagined--was curtained with a most familiar black, tattered fabric.
Harry walked closer--he could hear noises from the other side--clashes and bangs and shouts and Harry walked closer still.
Then, not thinking for a moment that this letter slot very well might lead to a very high plummet, Harry climbed up, and felt himself falling, falling, falling through the veil, once again.
Lost in the Mail
"Is all our Life, then but a dream
Seen faintly in the goldern gleam
Athwart Time's dark resistless stream?."
Lewis Carroll
Coming Soon
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.
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