AN: So this chapter involves a lot of plot building. I hope that you enjoy it. I just finished chapter 8 and I am super happy with it. Reviews encourage my writing. I still don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter 5

After the exchange Harry and Hermione had just witnessed, they knew that speaking with Xenophilius Lovegood could potentially be very dangerous to them. However, Xenophilius knew about the symbol from the graveyard and was the only lead in Harry and Hermione's quest for information. Xenophilius, although mocked for being the eccentric publisher of the Quibbler, was unpredictable at the best of times and would be more so after the Death Eaters had kidnapped his daughter.

Harry and Hermione could not risk being captured; they needed to get into the Malfoy manor, but wouldn't be able to do that without risking their lives and all that they had worked so hard to achieve. The situation seemed very bleak, Harry was the one to first break the silence.

"We can't let them get away with this. Luna was at the ministry with us; there is no telling what they will do to her," Harry said while shuttering at the thought.

"We can't trust Mr. Lovegood right now. Did you see the look in his eyes when Lucius told him that Luna would be freed if he was able to turn us in," Hermione asked as she brushed her hair back and gazed upon the Lovegood residence. "He wouldn't think twice about turning us over if it could result in Luna being returned to him."

"I know that we don't have the best track record when it comes to them, but I have a plan," Harry declared to an apprehensive looking Hermione. "If we go in now, he will still be too overcome by the Death Eaters taking Luna to have had time to think about ways to capture us. We go in and tell him that we saw the Death Eaters taking Luna and that we heard how Lucius promised to free her in exchange for us. Hopefully we can win him over to our side so that he will be willing to help us figure out the meaning of the sign."

Hermione sighed before replying, "Harry, I want to believe in Mr. Lovegood too. I just can't stop thinking about the look that crossed his face when Malfoy promised Luna's freedom. That was a look of a man that would do anything, a type of man that would kill in cold blood if it allowed him to get what he wanted."

"That's exactly why this could work. When we show up, Mr. Lovegood will be stunned. In his current condition, it is entirely possible that he may not even have his wand. Either way, when he opens the door we'll use Expelliarmus spell to take his wand from him, so that we can be sure that he won't be able to use magic against us. You know as well as I do that a pure-blooded wizard without his wand would never think to attack another wizard who has a wand. I'm sure that he will be anxious to cooperate when he hears that he will be able to present us to the Death Eaters at the end of the conversation."

"Harry James Potter! Are you out of your bloody mind?" Hermione admonished in a hushed tone. "After all that we have gone through you want to give up now? I thought Ron's betrayal was bad, how could you?"

"Calm down Hermione, there is more to the plan. I could never just roll over for them like that," Harry responded. "If, after talking to him, we feel that we can trust Mr. Lovegood then we will give him back his wand and let him call the Death Eaters. Hopefully they remember the sight of Mr. Lovegood when his spirit was crushed and he was wailing in despair so they won't expect that by responding they will actually be walking into a trap."

Hermione was still bristling, "Harry, this plan of yours relies on a lot of hoping. What if Mr. Lovegood won't cooperate with us? I don't have and Veritaserum in my bag. What do you expect us to do? Put Mr. Lovegood under the Imperius curse?"

Harry appeared to ponder for a second before replying, "I hadn't thought about it actually, I was hoping that he would be willing to cooperate with us if we managed to get his wand and promised to let him turn us over. Thinking about it, putting him under the Imperius curse may be the best way to make sure that everything goes according to plan. At least, if he is under the Imperius curse, we would know that he wasn't going to stab us in the back."

Hermione looked at Harry as if he just told her that the world was flat. "Harry, using any of the unforgivable curses could get us thrown in Azkaban!"

Smirking at how Hermione could always be counted upon to want to follow the rules, Harry said, "Hermione, we have bigger issues at the moment. We can deal with the consequences later, but we will have to live in order to do that. If somehow Mr. Lovegood manages to trick us and we are actually turned over to the Death Eaters then they will definitely not hesitate to use the unforgivable on us. I'm not suggesting that we start using Avada Kadavra but, right now, our best shot is using the Imperius curse."

Hermione stared at Harry for a few seconds before once again turning her gaze toward the Lovegood house. "Well, as many issues as I have with your plan it is the best that we have right now. It may be the Gryffindor part of me but I'm willing to give it a try. I trust you Harry, I hope that we can pull this off."

As soon as she had finished speaking, Hermione felt Harry grab her hand. The two quickly made their way to the front door of the house. After sparring a second to share a look with Hermione, Harry raised his fist and knocked on the door.

"Who's there?" Xenophilius Lovegood frantically asked when he failed to see anyone after opening the door. The next second, he felt his wand being pulled from his grasp as he was pushed back into his house. The door closed as if it had a mind of its own before two teenagers suddenly appeared. Xenophilius couldn't believe his luck; when Lucius had offered him the opportunity to free his daughter, in exchange for Harry Potter, Xenophilius had felt hopeless. This despair disappeared when Xenophilius realized that Harry Potter had miraculously appeared at his house. These thoughts prevented Xenophilius from seeing Hermione raise her wand to cast the Imperius curse on him.

"I'm sorry Mr. Lovegood, but we saw the Death Eaters take Luna. We intend to help you get her back but, because she means so much to you, we can't trust you not to attempt to trick us," Harry explained. "When we finish our conversation, Hermione will have you call Lucius and tell him that you have caught us. When they Death Eaters get here, the three of us will surprise them and take them down. Until then, will you take us somewhere a little bit more comfortable to have a little chat?"

Hermione saw light return to Xenophilius' cold eyes at the mention of rescuing his daughter. She had to concentrate in order to prevent him from breaking out of her Imperius-induced control. Once she was sure that she had control, she nodded to Xenophilius to prompt him to oblige Harry's request.

Xenophilius led the two Gryffindors through his foyer and into the living room before sitting on a large arm-chair. Hermione sat on the large couch that faced the Lovegood fireplace. There she pulled The Tales of Beedle the Bard from her bag before asking, "Mr. Lovegood, I saw you wearing this symbol at Bill and Fleur Weasley's wedding. What does it mean?"

Xenophilius took a second to look over the symbol before he replied, "That is the symbol of the deathly hallows. If you turn to of the Tale the Three Brothers you should be able to find the answer that you seek. Many disbelieve the tale but, judging by that cloak of yours, Mr. Potter, I would say that they are quite misinformed."

"I got this cloak as a gift from my father. What does it have to do with anything," Harry asked as he looked back and forth between Xenophilius and Hermione in a perplexed manner.

"Mr. Potter, the fact that you inherited the cloak just further shows that your cloak is the cloak of legends. Even the most finely manufactured invisibility cloaks will eventually deteriorate to the point that they no longer render the wearer invisible. With some of the cheaper cloaks this can happen in as little as six months; I personally have never heard of any invisibility cloak, outside the sacred hallow, that has lasted for longer than ten years."

Although Hermione had been listening to Xenophilius' response, she had taken it upon herself to open The Tales of Beedle the Bard to the chapter he had specified in order to learn more about the hallows. She had just finished reading by the time Xenophilius was concluding his speech and proceeded to tell Harry, "If that is true then there are two more hallows; a wand made out of elder and a stone that allegedly can bring back the dead. If one can obtain all three then, it is believed, that person will be able to conquer death, just as the three brothers did in the tale. Although, it is a bit of a stretch to say that they conquered death because in the end even the youngest brother, who managed to evade death the longest, dies. The brother with the cloak had the happiest fate of the three; the oldest brother, who was the master of the Elder wand, was murdered and the second brother committed suicide."

"I'm not sure if I'm happy that we were able to figure out the meaning behind the message Dumbledore left us or if I am frustrated that we have another quest to go on," Harry replied in a gruff manner. "These must be important; otherwise Dumbledore wouldn't have left us this trail of crumbs for us to follow."

"I agree," Hermione responded as she began to pace around the Lovegood sitting room. "I just hope that this isn't a repeat of the first year; when Dumbledore hid the sorcerer's stone so that only one who wanted to get the stone, but not use it would be able to find it. He could have left the clues either as a message telling us not to search for the deathly hallows or as a message letting us know that the deathly hallows represented our best chance. I think we need to decide whether or not to search for the hallows, here and now."

Harry sighed and appeared to be looking for defensible spots in the room before he answered, "I don't think that Dumbledore wanted us to try and find the hallows. After all, the only brother who lived was the one with the cloak. I don't know if it's a repeat of the situation with the sorcerer's stone, or not, but I know that, in all my meetings with Dumbledore, he never mentioned them. If they were that important then I'm sure that we would not have had to come here to find out about them."

Hermione nodded to show Harry that she accepted his decision before she changed the subject by saying, "Now that we have that settled we have to get Luna back. Harry, I can't believe that I am agreeing to this plan again. They will probably assume that Xenophilius is calling them to beg, so let's hope that only two or three of them will show up. Let me wear your invisibility cloak so that, hopefully, I'll be able to catch one or two of them unaware while Mr. Lovegood presents you to them."

"Mr. Lovegood, do you have any rope," Harry interrupted. "We need it to look authentic, if you wrap the rope around my hands I should be able to hold in a way that will allow me to quickly free myself by the time that spells start flying."

"That won't be necessary Harry," Hermione responded before Xenophilius had a chance to answer. "Mr. Lovegood and the Death Eaters are wizards; to them, it would not look strange to see him holding you hostage at wand point. This way you would be able to have your hands free and Mr. Lovegood would already have his wand in his hand. So, if everything goes as planned, Mr. Lovegood and I should each be able to take out a Death Eater before they even realize what is happening."

"Hermione, you are completely brilliant. I almost feel bad for the Death Eaters who are about to walk into our trap," Harry said with a grin plastered on his face. "With the element of surprise, I am confident that we can pull this off. No matter what, they can't be allowed to call for reinforcements. The moment one of the Death Eaters try to touch their mark is when the spells need to start flying."

"Agreed; Mr. Lovegood, we are doing this to get your daughter back and we will need you to act as normal as possible to avoid our surprise being blown," Hermione added as she came to a halt in front of Xenophilius. "I am sorry that I had to put you under the Imperius curse but it was the only way that we could be sure that you wouldn't betray us because of your love for your daughter. When you see my first spell you need to start casting spells against the other Death Eaters"

Harry walked behind Hermione and gently turned her to him in order to give her his invisibility cloak. "I'm sure that once we rescue Luna all will be forgiven. Before that can happen, you're going to need this. It looks like the fireplace should be able to provide you with some physical cover while giving you a clear view of the area." Harry reached up and caressed her cheek before he added, "Be careful, I couldn't stand being the one responsible for you getting hurt."

Hermione nodded, appreciating the tenderness of Harry's words, before she came back to reality and told Xenophilius, "Like Harry said, I'm going to take cover behind the fireplace. Be sure that you situate yourself and Harry in a way that will leave the Death Eaters without any readily available cover. We want this to be quick; the longer that it takes, the more likely it is that one of them will be able to get a spell through our defenses."

Xenophilius nodded before he guided Harry to a location between the foyer and the kitchen that met Hermione's specifications. When he stopped moving Hermione saw Harry nod and gave Xenophilius the command to call the Death Eaters. To Harry and Hermione's surprise, Xenophilius chose to do this with a Patronus charm; what surprised the pair even further was that Xenophilius' Patronus took the form of what Harry and Hermione could only assume was a Crumple-Horned Snorkack.