Trigger Warning. The end of this chapter deals with sensitive topics, if you are averse to this, skip the second linebreak.

CHAPTER 5

"What are you doing?"

Ivy looked up from her notebook, to see her girlfriend looking at her with a curious, and still somewhat worried look on her face.

It had been a few days since Dumbledore had informed Ivy of Sirius' death, and of the prophecy concerning herself and Voldemort. And the students would in fact be leaving Hogwarts the next morning to return home for the summer.

Since then, not only had The Prophet done an almost complete 180 in terms of Voldemort not being alive (though they did still question Ivy herself due to her sexuality), but she had shared exactly what Dumbledore had told her in his office to Luna.

Both girls had been packing their trunks, Ivy had finished first, and had sat don to work out some of her problems.

Ivy looked back at her notebook, continuing to jot down notes as she answered the blonde. "Dumbledore claims that love is 'the power the Dark Lord knows not,' that the prophecy claims. He also claims that it was my mothers love that protected me from Voldemort when he first attacked me. You and I both know that it was demonic magic that protected me...so I have doubts that love is the power mentioned in the prophecy. So I'm brainstorming ideas on how to kill the bastard."

"So you're going to fight him...to accept the prophecy?" Luna said sadly.

The raven haired witched paused in her note taking. "I don't believe in prophecy...But Voldemort does," she said softly. "He knows the first part, and whether he accepts it or not, he won't take the risk that I could defeat him. Even if I ran, he would hunt me. He won't stop, if I've learned anything about him, I know that. Even if I wasn't predicted to kill him, I'm a symbol of his failure, his weakness. Until he's gone for good, Voldemort will never stop hunting me...or those I care for," she added, looking up at Luna.

Luna smiled, but there was a trace of sadness to her face. "Your right...but that doesn't mean I like it."

Ivy smiled back, and set her notebook to the side. "Come here."

When Luna walked over to her, Ivy set the smaller girl on her lap, pulling her into a hug. "I love you Luna. I don't like this either, and if it were just me, I think I'd run and say to Hell with magical Britain. But I can't run with you, your father would be at risk, and that's not a life I could be proud to live with you."

"As long as you win," Luna told her. Leaning back, her blue eyes met Ivy's green. "And when you win...we'll find someplace we can live in peace, and live as each others wives. I'm sure that between the two of us, we can come up with a way to have children together."

Ivy's smile widened, and became more cheerful. "That sounds wonderful Luna. But you do realize what you just did don't you?"

Luna chuckled. "Of course I do silly...and I can't think of a better person to spend my life with. In fact," Luna reached into her pocket and pulled out a small box.

"Luna...is that..."

The blonde opened the box. Inside was a beautiful silver ring, set with one sapphire, and one emerald. "I asked Daddy to get it for me. Though first I had to send him a picture of you so he could get the right shade of green in the emerald. I know we can't legally marry, but I hope that one day we can."

Ivy felt tears of happiness fall down her cheeks. "It's a promise," Ivy assured her lover.

Luna pulled the ring from the box and slipped it on Ivy's finger, as soon as it was in place, Ivy pulled the blonde into a searing kiss.

Soon their clothes began to disappear, and Ivy's notebook was forgotten as the two young witches showed each other their love.

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Luckily, Ivy didn't have to stay at the Dursley's long.

A few days after her return to Privet Drive, Sirius will was read. In short, aside from a few minor bequeaths, he left everything he should have inherited, had he not been wrongfully incarcerated in Azkaban, to Ivy.

This of course, allowed her to move into Grimmauld Place, despite Dumbledore's objections. Especially after she kicked out the Order.

As she researched, Dobby and Ivy cleaned up and repaired the old house, and dealt with Sirius' old house elf Kreacher in their own way.

She was just happy they'd managed to get rid of the portrait of Sirius mother, although she had also had all other magical portraits removed. She didn't want to take any risk that she could be spied on through them.

As much as she wanted to rescue her mother from Mephisto, that project was currently on the back-burner. Before she could focus on rescuing her mother, or building a life with Luna, she had to deal with Voldemort.

The young witch had brainstormed several idea to give her an edge in fighting the man. He had sixty plus years of experience after all. The most promising idea she had so far was to construct armor she could wear while facing him. If she did it right, the armor could potentially protect her from even the killing curse. It wasn't a perfect idea however.

Building the armor would take time...plus it would be expensive. The materials she'd need weren't easy to come by, and cost a fair amount. True, she now had access to the Black family fortune, but even that wasn't infinite.

She hadn't just been focused on ways to kill Voldemort.

Ivy had also poured over the numerous law books kept by the Black family. Apparently, exploiting the numerous loopholes in those laws was one reason the Blacks were able to be so blatantly dark without trouble from the Ministry...at least before the majority of the family sided with Voldemort.

She hoped to exploit those same loopholes. Not only to help her defeat the snake-faced bastard, but to get at his Deatheaters.

It would be hard enough facing Voldemort. When his Deatheaters were added into the picture, things became a whole lot harder. For that reason, Ivy knew she had to whittle down their numbers.

That's not to say all the raven haired witch did was study and plan. Ivy took time to make sure she visited Luna, and was pleasantly surprised that her father Xenophilius Lovegood, didn't really care about their relationship beyond the fact Luna was happy.

Of course, the Quibbler editor was rather odd himself.

Life wasn't perfect, but it was a lot better then it had been. And for that, Ivy was happy.

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Then it all came crashing down.

It was her birthday and, waking up, Ivy was looking forward to visiting the Rookery, the Lovegood's house, later and spending time with Luna. Putting on her house-robe, Ivy decided that after breakfast, she'd take a nice relaxing bath, and that she would refrain from any and all research today.

But when she reached the kitchen, rather than breakfast...to somber house elves were waiting for her.

"Dobby...Winky...Whats Wrong?"

The two elves looked at each other before Dobby stepped forward. "Dobby is sorry Mistress Ivy," he said sadly, before handing Ivy the paper.

The headline caused Ivy to drop. Luckily the elves must have anticipated this, as they moved a chair for her to fall into to.

Not that she noticed.

As she read the article, tears fell down her face.

"No...," she said softly, shaking her head. "No..."

QUIBBLER EDITOR AND DAUGHTER MURDERED

Sometime last night, it is suspected that Deatheaters attacked the home of Xenophilius Lovegood, owner and editor of the magazine The Quibbler. Mr. Lovegood shared the home with his daughter Luna, who had just finished her fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Following an anonymous tip, aurors responded to the scene early this morning.

They found the Lovegood home partially burnt, and a body, alter identified as Mr. Lovegood, burnt inside the home. The Dark Mark was seen floating over the property

A far more gruesome fate awaited young Ms. Lovegood.

The young witch was found outside the ruins of the Lovegood home, stung up in a tree. The words 'Happy Birthday' were carved into her stomach. Aurors later confirmed that the young witch had been brutally raped by multiple assailants before her death. The only consolation being that she was likely dead before being hanged from a nearby tree.

This attack on two purebloods is the first major attack since He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was revealed to have returned earlier this year.

Minister Fudge, who is expected to face a vote of no confidence at the next Wizengamot section, and Amelia Bones, Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, were both unavailable to comment.

We can only hope that the Ministry of Magic takes swift action to protect others.

The scream of rage and grief that erupted from Ivy's lips as she finished the article, and dropped the paper to floor, would haunt Dobby and Winky for many years to come.

Over the next few days, the two elves did their best to put their broken mistress back together.

But something in Ivy changed that day. And no matter what the two elves did, the young witch would never be the same.

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PLEASE DON'T HATE ME!

I'm sorry to say, this was my plan from the get go, and why Luna was never going on the poll to be paired with Doom.

And for those of you wondering how Voldemort knew to target Luna, let's just say that, despite how cowardly and inept he may be, Draco Malfoy has proven in Cannon to be observant.

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