Chapter 8

Suggestions for a Chapter Name Welcome ;)

Trying to maintain numbness was difficult. Pretending you weren't an emotional wreck so that you could keep working without dealing with the things that were making you an emotional wreck was exhausting. She had to keep working. She had deadlines. She had responsibilities. Not working would only mean that she had to think about being lied . . . No! She wasn't going to think. She was going to work. She needed chapters. She needed to edit. She needed to find more subjects. She needed to figure out how in the world she was going to write about Luna's father without letting anyone (especially Constance) find out about the never published edition of the Quibbler.

Sadie shuffled through the stack of letters on her desk trying to find one that she could respond to without unsettling the fragile grasp she had on her emotions. Constance? No way. Natalie? Not yet. Her father? No freaking way. Drake? Too hard right now. She wasn't ready to swallow her pride yet. Adrienne? She could do something about Adrienne's last.

5 February 2038

Sadie,

Attached is a copy of the original members of the DA with their status and, where appropriate, current contact information. It took me a while, but I only came up with a dead end on one name. Dean Thomas is coming up a blank. I can't find him anywhere. Maybe you should ask Luna if she knows anything?

Adrienne

P.S. I know you don't want to hear it, but you should talk to your dad. At some point, you need to hear what he has to say. It might as well be sooner over later.

Sadie sighed. She didn't want to hear it – mostly because she knew that Adrienne knew what she was talking about. Who would know about being misled by your father more than Adrienne? She shrugged it off and knocked off a quick note to Luna. She didn't realize until she was sending off the owl that she had cast her charm on the parchment. It moust be habit. Oh well, it's not like it was going to hurt anything. She reached for another parchment Luna had returned and broke open the seal. She had to keep working.

You were taken from school to be used as leverage against your father and spent time in hiding during that year. Please, tell me about your experiences.

It was, of course, disconcerting to be taken from my classmates and separated from my father. It was, however, not unexpected. Subtle was not the order of the day, and those of us who had families who were active in their dissent knew that there would be repercussions. I was proud of what my father had been doing. I knew that it needed to continue.

You have odd thoughts sometimes when confronted with strange situations. I remember being saddened that my father would have to spend Christmas alone that year. I remember worrying that I was leaving my friends to pick up the slack from my disappearance. I remember wanting to tell them that it was not their fault that I was being taken. We all spent so much time thinking that we might be pushing each other too hard, and I wanted to be sure that they knew that that was not what had happened. I had chosen. My family had chosen. We all knew what we were doing. I wanted to remind them of that, but there wasn't enough time.

I was being forcibly detained, but that was mostly the extent of my time in custody. I had been taken because of someone else. Therefore, there was nothing that they wanted to know from me. I had lots of time on my hands. I was mildly frustrated that I was not still working with my friends, but that did not mean that I could not still work for them. It does not matter where you are. There is always something that you can do.

My time in hiding was in some ways similar to my time in confinement. I had lots of time, I could not leave, and I needed to find things to accomplish where I was. If nothing else, the whole situation provided ample opportunities for learning more about the people that shared the situation with you. The Weasley's extended family was very gracious, of course, so the being in hiding was naturally more comfortable.

She had just enough time to wonder whether or not Luna had intended that last comment to be humorous before the memories began to play.

Sadie barely spotted Ginny Weasley's tell tale hair disappearing through the train compartment doorway as the memory began to play. It was the school train. That much was obvious. There was snow visible outside the window, so she would guess that it must be Christmas break.

"What if . . ."

"She'll be fine."

"But . . ."

"If she needs us, we'll hear."

"I don't . . ."

"She can take care of herself. Don't smother her."

Sadie focused on the two teens who remained seated as Ginny left them. Neville looked as if he couldn't decide whether to stay worried about Ginny or to start laughing at the way Luna was replying to his sentences before he managed to speak them. He settled for leaning back into the seat and rubbing his forehead with one hand. He looked tired.

"I'm not trying to . . ."

"We know. She just wants a little time to herself before she . . ."

"Has to face her parents and put on a show so that they don't worry?"

Neville smiled as he turned the tables on the stream of thought interruptions. Despite the background of tension, the look in his eyes was almost mischievous – almost as if they were saying "see, I know what you're thinking as well."

Luna didn't seem to mind. She just smiled back and nodded. The two sat quietly for a few moments. If it hadn't been for the unnatural level of quiet in the background of the train, it might have been a normal school ride just like the ones Sadie had experienced with her friends. That feeling of normalcy was fleeting, and it ended with Neville's next words.

"Do you think it's working?"

His head was down as if he were afraid to see what expressions might cross Luna's face in response to his query. His voice was soft, but it didn't sound unsure so much as it sounded like someone who knew the answer to the question but was desperate for someone else to tell him that he wasn't fooling himself. Luna turned to face him, drawing her knees up onto the seat and leaning her head against her hand while a pensive, faraway (even for Luna) glaze covered her eyes.

"Have you ever been to the beach, Neville?"

The boy's head shot up, and he appeared to be startled. Her eyes remained focused on something beyond Sadie's ability to see.

"My mother and I spent a day playing in the sand once. Sand is strange. You can hold it in your hand, but you can't hold it too tightly. It recognizes that you are trying to force it into a shape that isn't its own, and it escapes from you. You can add water to it to make it cooperate. Then, it will hold whatever shape that you want it to hold. For a time. It doesn't last. The water dries out and the buildings crumble, or the waves wash in and push the sand flat. It goes back to the way it is supposed to be. It might be while you watch. It might be after you leave, but the sand always goes back. It always goes back to the way it should be."

Luna stopped but retained her distant expression. Sadie expected Neville to look confused after listening to Luna's apparent rambling. He didn't look confused. He looked hopeful. He looked as if Luna had answered his question with complete clarity. Which, Sadie realized, she had in her own thoughtful, deep Luna way. A brief shadow flickered across the back of Neville's eyes.

"What if we aren't fixing the beach for ourselves, Luna? What if we are only fixing it for someone who comes later?"

"We do the best we can for them."

Luna's eyes lost their far off quality, and she and Neville stared at each other with an odd mixture of understanding and acceptance. Sadie, once again, felt the uncomfortable twinge of being an intruder flit across the back of her mind.

The moment was destroyed as the train suddenly ground to a halt. Sadie felt a wave of uneasiness. The Hogwart's Express never made unexpected stops. She should have known that something was coming. She knew what question she was watching Luna answer. She had gotten caught up in the exchange between Neville and Luna and gotten lulled by the little cocoon of calm that had been enveloping the two. She felt the gnawing of nervousness in her stomach as the two teens in front of her exchanged a concerned glance. How had they taken Luna? Had they hurt her? Had they hurt Neville? Had Ginny come charging back in at the last moment?

Something about the scene unfolding in front of her felt as if it were vastly important, but she couldn't figure out why. There was nothing violent about the scene as it unraveled in front of her. It was all calm on the surface. The goons who entered even maintained a premise of civility. Quietly asking (in a tone that could not be construed as anything other than an order) for Luna to join them.

There was one tense moment as Neville started to raise the wand that had slipped into his hand automatically at the first sign of something being wrong. It was Luna who stopped him. She said nothing. She merely looked at him with pleading eyes and shook her head ever so slightly. He lowered his arm and nodded in return – giving way to her wishes with a pained look.

The last thing visible from Luna's view as the goons turned and followed her from the compartment (she would walk on her own, thank you very much) was the slumping of Neville's shoulders and the something that shattered behind his eyes as his chin sank into his chest.

Sadie spent a few moment trying to figure out what had gone wrong with the visual on the next memory until she realized that the reason she couldn't see anything was because Luna was in a completely darkened room. There was nothing for her to see except black.

"You are young, dear, and I admire your persistence." The voice was male and older and sounded dreadfully weak. Sadie didn't need to see to know that the man's face would have been blank and empty. His voice conveyed the fact that whatever it was that was going on in this place, he had already given up fighting it.

Luna's voice, in contrast, sounded normal when she spoke. Sadie would have expected at least a hint of fear. It was, after all, creepy to be stuck in utter darkness. Had it been like this the whole time? Sadie felt a shiver run down her spine at the thought of an extended time trapped in a place where you couldn't see. Who knew how long Luna had been here before this memory had occurred?

"However . . ." Luna prompted. Her voice sounded normal but slightly pleased Sadie decided. The man to whom she was speaking wouldn't recognize that trace, but it was there. Sadie wondered how long the teenager had been trying to get the man to talk to her.

"It seems a waste of energy to keep working, to continue enduring in the hopes of something that in all likelihood will not happen."

"Do you have something else on which to spend your time?" Luna asked sounding genuinely curious.

The pause was long, but Luna was patient and didn't try to prompt a further response. When the voice did reply, Sadie wished that his face had been visible. It would have been nice, she thought, to see the expectation, the hope, the life creep back across the man's face. It was clear that that was what was happening, and Sadie found herself shaking her head in wonder at what a dose of Luna could do under the proper circumstances. The accompanying cough still conveyed the man's physical weakness, but the tone was stronger. It was even, amused, and contained a hint of wonder.

"You are correct," he told her. "I don't."

The sunlight diffused through the new scene made Sadie blink her eyes in response. It was difficult to adjust from the pitch blackness of before. It must have been awful on Luna's eyes when she first got out.

Luna was sitting in a room with a sloping roof that made Sadie feel almost certain that it was contained in an attic. The various storage containers and miscellaneous oddments scattered around her leant their assurance of the accuracy of her assessment.

Luna didn't seem to be doing anything in particular. If Sadie had to guess from her posture and expression, she would say that the girl seemed to have slipped off by herself for a few alone moments. Alone time didn't seem as though it was meant to be on this occasion. The door to the room flew open and two voices that sounded awfully similar to each other began to echo off the walls despite the fact that they were making a show of speaking in dramatic, mock whispers.

"Alas, my twin, it seems that our secret haven has been discovered." The first one stated when they spotted Luna.

"And invaded, don't forget invaded." The other piped up.

"Doesn't invaded imply some sort of aggressive action?" One of the red heads (Weasely twins, Sadie processed mentally) shrugged.

"It sounded appropriate." Luna had turned but wasn't saying anything to the two. She merely watched with one of her semi detached, waiting expressions.

"Where are we going to go to escape now?" The twins looked thoughtfully at each other and then at Luna.

"We could share." One of them suggested.

"Share?" The other rolled the word off of his tongue as if it left an odd taste inside his mouth.

"Do you want to be exiled back to Auntie Muriel's company?" Both young men twitched at the sound of the name. One of them began to make pained, moaning noises and held up his hands in a defensive gesture.

"No, please no." He groaned. "Don't make me, Forge. The torture must come to an end."

"We could ask her to leave, Gred." The other suggested.

"Can't do it."

"Why?"

"She would have to go be trapped with Auntie Muriel." Both of them twitched again.

"Too true. And Mum did teach us that we shouldn't be cruel to girls."

"Right enough. Besides, Auntie Muriel isn't all."

"There's Mum's fretting."

"Sweet, but draining."

"There's Ginny and Ginny's ex."

"Awkward."

"Especially since Ginny is wandering around ready to hex things over another ex that shouldn't be an ex and only is an ex because he is being a noble prat?" The one missing an ear asked.

"Double awkward." The other agreed

"I don't think we can in good conscience consign a poor innocent to such a fate."

"After all, we were born into this madness. She's just exposed due to circumstances beyond her control."

"We're agreed then. No sacrificing of innocents for our own comfort?"

"Agreed."

"I'm feeling quite pleased with myself – very noble and chivalrous. Mum would be proud."

"'Course we can't tell her that. We would have to explain why."

"Wouldn't want to open that potential for yelling."

"There's just one problem."

"We don't want to go and deal with them either?"

"Exactly."

"That's us back to sharing then."

"Oi, you there." The hurried, tennis match of a conversation's pace was broken as both of them turned to look at Luna. She quirked an eyebrow in response.

"Do you share well?" Any response that Luna might have been inclined to make was cut off by the resumption of the twin's back and forth.

"Got on with Ginny for years, didn't she?"

"That's right. I'd forgotten about that little bundle of blond that used to trail around the house."

"Kept Gin busy, gave us more time to not get caught doing . . . things." The stage whispered voice was conspiratorial.

"We appreciated that, by the way," The one Sadie had identified as George directed at Luna.

"Wait, didn't we lock them upstairs with the ghoul once?" He turned to Luna. Sadie wondered why they kept directing questions at her that they obviously had no intention of pausing for breath long enough to let her answer. "Sorry about that. Do you hold a grudge?"

"I don't think they minded, Gred. Wasn't the poor ghoul traumatized by being decorated with paper daisy chains?"

"That's right. Never mind."

"Sharing might be fun."

"And profitable."

"How do you figure?"

"She's Ravenclaw, isn't she?"

"Ohh, brains." The response sounded vaguely zombieish.

Sadie cast a glance at Luna who was merely observing the young men in front of her as if they were something to be studied. She didn't seem to be that upset at having her solitude disrupted. Sadie couldn't decide whether the twins were entertaining or deranged. She wondered if they had always been like this, they were snapping under the strain of being in hiding, or they were putting on an intentional show for Luna's benefit. It was odd. She should be able to use the missing ear to identify which twin was which, but it wasn't nearly as obvious as it should have been. You got sucked in to their talking somehow and didn't really notice. She kept slipping up in her head and labeling them collectively as 'the twins.'

"She probably has ideas. Suggestions even. Maybe even appropriate meaningful compliments from someone who can appreciate our genius as sheer genius." The young man sounded hopeful.

"Like Hermione, only with less lecturing between the suggestions and compliments." They sighed in unison.

"I miss being pushed to greater heights of audacity." He pouted as the words were spoken before his twin slapped him on the back in one of those bizarre gestures that guys seemed to think were comforting.

"Well, we do what we can in the meantime."

"That's settled then. We shall share."

"Should we ask her?"

"She's does talk, doesn't she?"

"I'm sure she does. I remember she used to talk. We haven't given her much of a chance to talk."

"Conversation monopolizers. That's us today." He agreed before adding. "I don't think girls like that."

"You're brilliant!" The shout lost the stage whisper quality the rest of the conversation had been conducted in, and both boys began to speak in normal, everyday tones.

"I know." There was a pause. "In which particular way has my brilliance manifested itself this time?"

"She is a girl."

"Well spotted. Oh, I see. I think you are right."

"Unrelated."

"That is an important quality."

"We wouldn't want to lose our ability to be debonair through lack of practice. That would be wrong."

"That would be a horrid, shameful waste of talent."

"Wouldn't want that."

"You know how Mum feels about us wasting our talents."

"We'll do it then."

"For Mum."

"For Mum."

"Are we behaving strangely, Forge?"

"I don't know, Gred. Do people who are behaving strangely know that they are behaving strangely? Or does the mindset that induces strange behavior preclude the noticing of the aforementioned behaviors that are strange?"

"I don't know either."

"I just thought the cabin fever might be getting to us."

"She might be able to tell us."

"That's another advantage to sharing."

"She doesn't look afraid."

"Sometimes people laugh if one is acting strange."

"Does she laugh?"

"Everyone should."

"I don't think I've heard her laugh here."

"Let me think. No. There's been no laughing."

"A challenge?"

"I'm thinking so."

"I like challenges." The identical smiles that flitted across the boys' faces were a little disturbing, fundamentally good natured, but still a little disturbing. Sadie found herself feeling concerned for what the two were plotting and what effects it might have on Luna's mental health.

"Let the sharing begin."

Sadie found that only one thought was echoing through her brain as the memory came to an end. That was unexpected.