Disclaimer: Do I really have to do this for every chapter? *le sigh* I. Don't. Own. Harry. Potter.
"This is not right," Lily said, pacing back in forth in front of the fireplace. It was a day after the trio had gone to visit Daisy and found the message, 'Beware,' on her bed sheet. "I mean, who could have done such a thing? Madam Bones sees whoever comes in."
"She sleeps at some point during the night," Scorpius replied. "Whoever it was probably sneaked in."
"The message was found by us in the afternoon, genius. Somebody would have seen Daisy before then. How could somebody get into the infirmary and do that, without being seen? The only way is a Cloak, but I know we have the only one in school."
"Listen," Scorpius said. "We can find this person. We just need a different perspective on things."
"You really are a genius!" Lily exclaimed. Scorpius looked baffled. "A different perspective! Who's more different than Luna Scamander? Let's go down there right now. We'll talk to her. Maybe she knows something about all this- she's a teacher, after all, and she's brilliant, but not a typical adult."
"What about the 'let's keep this quiet' mentality that we have?"
"Like Aunt Luna's going to tell anyone. She had her fair share of adventure during her school years, too. Plus, she likes me. She came over to visit us all the time. Come on, let's go."
"Do I have to? I've never even met her."
"You would have, if you actually came over to our house once in a while."
"I don't want James to know where I sleep." Scorpius made a face. "He'd hex me, and I don't fancy waking up with boils, or pink hair, or whatever he finds amusing that day."
Lily sighed. "We're discussing this later. You really should come home for Christmas break, but for now, we're going down to Aunt Luna's cottage. Sans Rose, I don't know where she is and I don't feel like scouring the castle looking for her. The fact that she's in Ravenclaw can be really annoying sometimes, you know that?"
"Yes," Scorpius said. "I'm stuck with you all the time- ow!" he shouted, rubbing his arm where Lily had jabbed him with her wand. "Fine, let's go. Before you hurt me further, you little-"
Before he could get the rest of his words out, Lily had begun heading out. He rushed to catch up with her, not wanting either of them to be wandering around alone. Nobody knew who the attempted killer's next target would be, or how that person would be harmed. Nobody wanted to be by themselves, not even the seventh-years. The message of 'Beware,' had been spread around, mainly to warn people that this was real, but perhaps, for some, it had been made a little too real, a little too scary.
They hurried down to Luna's cottage, occasionally checking the Marauder's Map to ensure that nobody was following them or nearby at all, as it wouldn't be good to be caught on the grounds as only two people. They reached the cottage with no difficulties, to their shared relief, and Lily knocked on the door. "It's me, Lily Luna," she said loudly, as she could hear somebody bustling around inside.
The door opened, and Luna Scamander looked out at them. Her soft blonde hair fell almost to her elbows in straggly waves, and her protuberant silver eyes looked mildly surprised upon the pair. "Hello, Lily. You're Scorpius Malfoy," she said to Scorpius, who was standing behind Lily in a rather awkward fashion. "I've heard a lot about you from all the Weasley children. Lily and Rose like your friendship, but James doesn't like any Slytherins. Or that's what he told me."
They sat down on rickety chairs as Luna made some tea. The cottage was bigger than Rubeus Hagrid's hut had been, and differently furnished, although this was in part because Luna's idea of decoration was rather different. She had painted it herself, it seemed, and it was full of odd designs and swirls that, in any other location, would have seemed odd and out of place. Lily looked over at Luna. "Do you know anything about what's going on?"
"I believe everyone does," Luna said, "although I suppose you are asking whether I know anything that other people do not. Are you trying to figure out who did this?"
Scorpius squirmed. "Sort of."
"I wonder how 'sort of'figuring out who did this' works," Luna said, looking as though she wanted to ponder on this for a while. "Or I suppose that you do not want to tell me, because you are afraid I might turn you in or tell you to stop it. It is rather dangerous, but I think having a person who wants to murder others on the loose is even more dangerous."
"So do you know anything that others don't?" Lily asked, before the woman could continue for a longer amount of time without giving any helpful information. "And are you going to let us keep solving this?"
"I am not going to tell the Headmistress on you," Luna said serenely, "I understand that sometimes students do things that the teachers should really not know about. I don't have any extra information for you, though." She collected their teacups and set them aside. "It's rather odd, though, how both students had family who were at Hogwarts during my time and the time of Harry Potter. Sara Creevey's father and Daisy Zabini's parents. That may have something to do with it. Perhaps this person did not like those people, and is getting revenge by trying to kill their children."
"She makes a good point," Scorpius said in a low voice after they had left. "This could be something about revenge. It's obviously not blood-status, since neither of them was Muggle-born. There's not a whole lot of motives to kill two students, when you think about it."
"That's true," Lily agreed. "It would make sense. Let's see. I know that Daisy's parents are Pansy and Blaise Zabini, who were Slytherins during their time. I don't know about Sara, though. Rose was going to ask her about that, when we considered blood-status as being one of the similarities. I believe she's half-blood."
"Maybe that's what Rose is doing," Scorpius said.
"I wish," Lily replied. "Look, there she is now- and she's alone. That's surprising, although she was probably looking for-"
"I was looking all over for you two!" Rose panted, dashing the last couple feet to Lily and Scorpius. "Sara's doing great, she's getting out of the hospital wing tonight. She's half-blood. She talked a little about her parents, but I figured that didn't really matter-"
"It does," Lily said. "We just went to see Aunt Luna, and she guessed that whoever it was, that person was getting revenge on the students' parents. Or, going along that idea myself, the students themselves, but the parents idea makes a tad more sense. What did she say about her parents?"
"Her mother is Aunt Fleur's younger sister, Gabrielle. Her father's a Muggle-born who was a couple of years younger than our parents, Dennis Creevey. Apparently we didn't really know about them because they usually see Dennis Creevey's family on special days, and they're all Muggles, of course."
"Hmm," Scorpius mulled that over. "I suppose that somebody could be mad at these people, but why? If we could figure out why this person disliked Sara's and Daisy's parents, then we would be able to narrow down who the culprit is. Motive is extremely important."
"You sound like somebody out of these trashy Muggle novels my mother reads," Lily grumbled, "no matter how true it is. We should find out any similarities between these four parents, especially Mr. and Mrs. Zabini and Dennis Creevey. Gabrielle didn't go here, so it's highly unlikely that she's going to be part of this."
"How are we going to find out these similarities?" Scorpius asked. "It's not the sort of thing that would be in the library, and it's not like we can ask our parents."
"Yes we can," Rose countered. "I'll write my mother and tell her that we're studying the Second Wizarding War in History of Magic. We're due to start it right after Christmas break anyway, so she shouldn't be too suspicious. I'll tell her that I'm doing extra credit and that I want to look up specific people, and I'll name those three and ask for more information. And speaking of extra credit, Lily, did you ever talk to Professor Goldstein like you were supposed to the other day?"
"No, he ushered us out of class really fast. I promise I'll ask tomorrow, okay? I'll find some excuse to stay back. Or maybe I'll just get detention, it's last class of the day anyway and his detentions are always right after classes finish."
Rose rolled her eyes. "You keep track of what time detentions from specific professors are?"
"I don't keep track of it, I have it all memorized," Lily retorted. "Anyway, here's the plan. Rose, write Aunt Hermione tomorrow. I'll get detention, giving me an excuse to talk to Professor Goldstein. Scorpius…you're on Marauder's Map duty. Check it for anything odd."
"Why do I always get the boring assignments?" Scorpius grumbled.
A/N: Hope I got Luna somewhat correct. She's not an easy character to write for. Anyway, the next chapter should be a bit more interesting. Enjoy reading, fanfictioners!