Here's my sixth entry for the Comp! :)

House: Gryffindor

Character: Luna Lovegood

House of Character: Ravenclaw

Missing Moment: A combination of the time she spent locked up with Olivander and the day her mother died.

Enjoy!

Keeping Darkness at Bay

I was sitting in the suffocating darkness humming to myself in the hope of keeping the nargles at bay. Mr. Olivander was sitting silently in his corner for as far as I could tell. He never seemed to leave that corner. I didn't know how long I had been there. The darkness had sucked up the meaning off time and thrown it back out in a string of endless night. I was proud to say that I had been doing very nicely. I had been keeping the nargles at bay and the wrackspurts still stayed clear of my head and I had managed to keep my sanity.

I wasn't so sure if that was true for poor Mr. Olivander though. He had been in here a lot longer than I had but he never said enough for me to tell if he was just naturally silent or if he was going mad. I decided that it was time to start a conversation.

"Mr. Olivander, are they keeping you here to make someone obey them too?" I asked. It was the kind of question I was always told was too forward but I didn't care. Mr. Olivander didn't seem to mind either.

"Yes, My dear."

"Who?"

"Unfortunately, that would be me." Poor man, no wonder he was so silent. That must have been why they took him out of the cell every so often and he always came back limp and shaking.

"You must be very valuable for them to keep you near all the time."

"Yes, again, unfortunate. Luck does not seem to be my friend." There was silence for a minute as we both contemplated our luck, which didn't seem to be very good at the moment. Then Mr. Olivander said;

"And you, my dear, why are they keeping you here?"

"My father is the editor of the quibbler and they didn't like what he was printing about Harry." I said, a little sad for my father. I wondered how he was coping all by himself.

"And your mother? She must be worried."

"I don't know. She passed away a long time ago." I said soberly. There was another pause.

"May I be so forward as to ask what happened?" He said politely, pity lining his words.

"It was a long time ago. I was nine when it happened. I remember that I was out by the stream that runs by our house when I heard a loud explosion. I was scared and ran into the house where my mother was. It didn't take long for me to realize that the explosion had happened inside the house.

"Everything was a mess. Tables had fallen over. Papers were scattered on the ground. My mother's study was the worst. There was a big hole in the wall and debris covered everything but I didn't see my mother.

"I tried calling out for her but she didn't answer. I started wading through the mess; scared that she might have gotten buried.

After an hour or so I found her under a table. I remember her eyes staring at me. They were empty, emotionless. I sat there and cried until my dad got home. He then sat down and cried with me." I fell silent; the story was done. I could tell him about witches from Said Mungoes and ministry officials had come and how they had told us one of her experiments had exploded but why would he want to hear that part?

"I'm so sorry, my dear."

"It's okay, I don't mind. It was a long time ago." There was another silence. This one lasted longer than the previous one. It seemed that Mr. Olivander had used up all his energy in our short conversation. I stared ahead of me in the dark, wondering if I would be able to see the wall if I tried hard enough.

My concentration was soon broken by loud noises in the corridor just outside. Someone was screaming for Hermione. The door was opened and I was blinded by the bright light. I heard four people being shoved into the room and then the light was gone again. I knew by the voices that it was Harry and Ronald.

My friends.

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