Feel my Fangs
Chapter Twelve – The Not-So New World
Harry pushed open the door to the controller's room. The woman flying the plane ignored his entrance. She did not, however, ignore her partner's scream of surprise and then of pain when Harry sucked him dry. She turned her head to Harry and seized him up, her hands still busy with the plane's controls.
"You look rotten, Harry," she said, whipping her blond hair back. "I've stocked up on blood in the back of the plane so you really didn't have to kill Moe. I assumed you disposed of poor Jamie too. May they rest in peace. They were good grave robbers."
Harry stared at the blond woman, still trying to process what she was saying. The fresh blood had regenerated most of his brain but he'd been rotting away for the last ten years so processing information still took some time—especially the surprising stuff like the woman flying the plane.
"Luna?" Harry said. "You're the mastermind behind this 'escape' of mine? Why?"
"Oh, for several reasons," she said. "The ministry's been killing off crumple-horned snorkacks and wouldn't listen to my pleas that they weren't dangerous. So I thought I'd bring you back from the dead and they would have a worthier foe to fight and leave the snorkacks alone."
"But it's good to see you Harry, I would have come earlier but I didn't know where they were keeping you," Luna rambled on. "I searched for a couple of years before I realized they had shipped you to America. Imagine that."
"Wait, I need to hear more about this," he said. "Where did you say you put those blood packs? I've been starving for something like fifty years now?"
"It's only been ten years, Harry, and you've been decomposing for just as long. I'm surprised there's anything left of you but you've always been surprisingly resilient," Luna said, wrinkling her nose at him. "Ummph, the smell you emanate isn't exactly pleasing. The blood packs are in the back of the plane in a small white cooler. Please hurry and regenerate yourself. I don't think my nose can take much more of this."
"Sorry," Harry said shortly as he stepped out of the control room. "You try living in a coffin for ten years. I must have counted sheep up to six billion-something before I fell into my comatose state."
Luna chuckled and sent the plane veering into a cloud.
"Drink in haste because we've got to apparate out of here," she said to Harry as he went out the control room.
"Why? Isn't this a safe place to talk?" Harry said as he opened the cooler and rummaged through various snacks and drinks looking for the pouches containing the conserved blood.
"My flying prowess isn't exactly up to date," Luna said.
"When was the last time you flew an airplane?" Harry asked. He finally found a blood pack and ripped the corner off with his teeth.
As he was bringing the pouch to his lips, Luna answered him. "This is my first time flying."
Had Harry had anything in his mouth, he would have spat it out. As he had yet begun to drink the blood, Harry gagged on air.
"I rather like flying," Luna continued, as she pressed various buttons around her. "But I think that every minute we spend more in the air increases the chances that we're going to crash and plunge into the infinite abyss of the ocean."
"I understand," Harry gulped nervously. "I'll drink up fast."
"I'll make sure that the airplane is heading down after we leave the aircraft," Luna said. "It'll cover our tracts and the fish can dispose of Moe and Jamie's bodies for us."
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Harry and Luna, both covered in dark and heavy cloaks, apparated in an area where Luna supposedly lived.
"Why are you living in this…swamp?" Harry asked carefully, not wanting to offend his rescuer.
"You've missed a lot since you've been buried," Luna said, as she walked around a murky pond surrounded by shrubs, weeds and oddly shaped trees. "I'll fill you in once we get to my place."
Luna stopped in front of a large tree whose trunk was hidden by thorny bushes. She pushed the thorns aside, earning her a couple of scratches. The trunk was brown with a tree's aged texture—nothing out of normal. Stretching her arm, Luna knocked on the trunk in a distinct pattern.
"Why didn't you use the fidelius?" Harry asked, quickly understanding what she was doing.
"Too complicated," Luna said succinctly as she resumed pounding in a different set of patterns. "Not many can cast it."
Harry wondered what could have Luna on edge, she who, he remembered, could face dozen of Death Eaters and still smile serenely in her odd detached way. Harry startled when a piece of wood from the trunk swung open.
"Welcome back, miss Luna," a voice said, coming from below. Looking down, Harry saw a small girl of about four holding the trapdoor open and waiting for them to climb in.
"Her daughter? Or a really young servant?" Harry thought as he climbed into the tree behind Luna. The inside of the tree revealed itself to be large set of rooms.
"The wonder of magic will never cease," Harry thought, not even trying to figure out how so many rooms could fit inside a tree. He gave his cloak to the girl as Luna had just done. "Luna, who is the little girl?"
"A product of my experiments," Luna said shortly as she marched into a room filled with tubes, pots and glass containers holding various things unknown to Harry.
"You created her?" Harry said, skeptically. "Is she your daughter?"
"In a way," Luna said while fixing one the tubes in her long assortment of potion experiments. "Animation spells are a branch of magic I've been working on ever since I was exiled."
"She's not real?" Harry asked, incredulous. "When were you exiled?"
"So many questions, so little time," Luna smiled, her face distorted behind several layers of glass. "She's made out of wood but I animated her. I got the idea from this story Daddy used to read to me, Pinocchio. Do you know it?"
She didn't wait for an answer from Harry and continued talking. "Anyhow, the implication of my exile is a subject I wanted to discuss with you."
Harry was bursting with questions but signaled Luna to proceed with her explanation. Luna, who had begun to stir a purple mixture in a pot, looked up at Harry.
"When you were captured, the ministry clapped down on the rest of us a hand more firm and cruel than ever before. Any opposition was torn apart by both the aurors and the prophet. Many were charged of treason and propaganda. People turned against each other, denouncing neighbors, friends and even sometimes family," Luna shifted her gaze onto a family portrait. "I didn't mean to betray Daddy, but I let my mouth get away from me. The Quibbler was seized and Daddy was taken away. He was executed two weeks later."
"And you?"
"I was underage at the time and was put under surveillance. I quickly escaped and, well, here I am now," Luna said.
"I'm sorry, Luna," Harry said. He felt partly responsible for her loss. He was the one who had caused the uprising and upheavals of the magical world after all.
"What for?" Luna said. "You weren't the one who gave him away accidentally, or the one who tortured him, or the dementor who sucked his soul away. But enough said already. I have to talk to you about the crumple-horned snorkacks and the other endangered magical creatures Daddy and I were protecting."
"You mean they exist?" Harry said, not really believing her. He took a cup of tea that was offered to him by the mechanical little girl.
"Of course they do," Luna said matter-of-factly, waving away the little girl she had created. "Why else would the ministry be hunting them down? Harry, the ministry has been sitting on its bum for the last five years or so. They are bored and are taking it out on the magical creatures, killing them into extinction."
"You mean, the ministry is doing this out of entertainment," Harry spat out, his tea wavering dangerously in his hand. "They managed to be rid of all external threats? How could that be? Have they become competent in the years I wasn't around?"
"Maybe not competent, but they were thorough with their search to destroy any thread of resistance. Now everyone's too scared to do anything!" Luna said, her eyes dark. "Which is why I've been hiding here for the last six years or so. It certainly made it difficult for me to acquire information on where the ministry and Dumbledore had hidden your body. In fact, until a year ago, I wasn't sure if you were even alive."
"I still wonder why they didn't kill me when they had the opportunity," Harry said, eyebrows knit. "Except for me defeating Voldemort and all…Nevertheless, I proved to be a bigger threat than Voldemort after all, so they locked me up. Why didn't the ministry kill me after I outlived my usefulness? And what of Voldemort by the way?"
"The answer to you first question lies within the two who made the decision at the time. The first is Scrimgeour, who was appointed Minister of Magic after you killed Fudge. The second is Dumbledore," Luna said. "Unfortunately, both are deceased. Scrimgeour died of incurable heart troubles and Dumbledore fell to treachery."
Harry's face fell. He had just lost two sources of answers. He also didn't think the old bugger would have given up so soon. Despite the late animosity between Dumbledore and Harry, the old coot had given him a modicum of guidance when he was younger. Harry didn't mourn the lost of the man, but of all the information held in Dumbledore's head.
"As for your second question, that's another mystery for you to solve," Luna said, her face turned towards a potion that was boiling green steam. She added some herbs into it, turning the mixture a sky blue.
"What happened to Voldemort?" Harry pressed, his cold tea long forgotten.
Luna blew on the potion and lessened the fire before turning back to Harry. She crossed her legs and leaned forward. "Five years after your capture, Voldemort and several of his minions disappeared completely. As of yet, we are unsure whether the Dark Lord is dead at the hands of his companions or if they're all staying low, biding their time before launching a new attack on the wizarding world and the Ministry."
Harry was silent. The mechanical girl, as Harry had begun to call her, walked into the room jerkily, and tended to some of the plants Luna kept in the lighted section of her laboratory. Luna looked at her fondly before resuming her story on Voldemort.
"His sudden disappearance was quite strange and raised many questions," Luna said while pointing to a watering can for the mechanical girl to use. "And like you said, it was also one of the reason you were left buried in your coffin. They didn't need you as a 'savior' anymore."
Harry pondered on the thoughts that hammered the inside of his head. "This is all very confusing," he finally said. "Everything's changed and yet nothing has changed. What of the vampire clans, Luna?"
At this, Luna's face became shaded. "You must understand, Harry, the ministry was very unhappy with the vampires after what conspired on that fateful day. Your storming of the ministry with dark creatures didn't exactly endear the vampires to the ministry or the general population."
Harry waited for more, yet at the same time, he dreaded to hear the fate of the vampire clans.
"They were exterminated, Harry, to the very last clan. I told you the ministry was thorough," Luna said with a tone of finality. She got up and went to help the mechanical girl who was having difficulty reaching the plants and herbs on a higher shelf.
"That's impossible," Harry said, breaking the silence. He twisted his hands on his shirt. "The ministry didn't have the auror forces or the vampire hunters to back them up for such an expedition."
"I never said they were hunted down individually," Luna said as she poured water over a particularly vivid black flower with a red stem. "The method was slow, nasty and treacherous—poison."
"The blood potion," Harry gasped as his eyes widened in remembrance. "Snape must have perfected it and the ministry somehow got ahold of it and administered it to the general population."
Luna nodded. "It was put into the water system. A simple and effective method of making sure everyone got it. Even the animals that drank from the rivers had remnants of potion in their blood. Every vampire who drank from a being that had been exposed to the potion was infected. They died after days or weeks of pain, depending on how strong they were. The others began to fear drinking blood, for who knew who was infected. The ministry managed to cut off the vampires from their main supply of food as well as their secondary one."
"Unable to drink wizard, muggle or even animal blood," Harry murmured in horror. Something occurred to Harry and he marched up to Luna. "I drank the blood of those muggles when I was awaken. Am I infected with their blood now?"
"Nope, like I said, you were imprisoned in America and the thieves I recruited were clean," Luna said as she motioned to the mechanical girl to prepare dinner. "The potion cannot dilute across the entire ocean. And only our ministry is crazy enough to try to exterminate the vampires."
"So I'm not the last of my kind," Harry sighed, both in sorrow and in relief.
"You are the first of your kind, actually," Luna said as she wiped her hands on a towel. "If the rumor I heard about you retaining your wizard powers is true."
Harry almost smiled. "Do you know of any vampire survivors?" he finally asked.
"Only those who left Europe or fled far enough to places where the water was free of the potion," Luna waved her hand to the door. "It'll do you no good to dawdle on things that have already occurred. Come to the kitchen, dinner will be ready soon."
"You mechanical girl can cook too?" Harry said, impressed. "She is pretty amazing."
"Of course she's amazing," Luna smiled. "I modeled her after me."
Harry followed Luna to the kitchen, leaving thoughts of ministries, vampire clans and deadly potions for later.
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"You're taking this all rather well," Luna noted to Harry as they sipped on coffee in her living room.
"Well, once you resign yourself to living the rest of your eternal life in a coffin, you'll take things as calmly as me. I had nothing to do but think for the first five years or so," Harry said. "But don't think I'm not angry, I've just decided to channel my anger into productiveness. I'll get my revenge, don't be mistaken about that."
"And once again, the boy with the lightning scar will lead the wizarding world into turmoil and danger," Luna said, eerily. "I need you to do something for me, Harry."
"Nothing is free in this world," Harry said. "You must have needed my help badly for you to seek my burial site all the way to America."
He nodded for her to proceed with her request.
"I need you to stir trouble at the ministry," Luna said simply.
"I was going to do that anyway," Harry smiled, bringing his steaming warm coffee to his lips. "But I believe your intention is that my appearance will distract the ministry from their current extermination of you protégés—the magical creatures that include your precious crumple-horned snorkacks."
"It is not the only reason I looked for you but it is one of them," Luna acquiesced. "Are you angry I want to use your feared face and your infamous name?"
Harry was silent for a while but his answer was not hostile. "No, I am not angry. Had it not been for you, I would still be rotting away in that cursed coffin.
"I'll show my face at the ministry and cause a little ruckus," Harry added. "But I will leave after that, for I have to track down some acquaintances. Will a ministry in uproar be enough for you?"
"For now," Luna smiled, standing up and putting hers and Harry's empty coffee cups on a tray. She handed the tray to the mechanical girl who walked jerkily towards the kitchen holding the tray at a funny angle.
They followed the mechanical girl into the kitchen and Luna handed Harry several pouches of conserved blood.
"Where do you get this blood by the way?" Harry asked her. "I thought everything was infected."
"This is artificially made blood," Luna said, smiling. "It is my greatest creation yet, after my little girl."
"How do you get all the nutrients in there?"
"This is neither the time nor the place to explain the complicated process that results in the blood," Luna said. "But drink it in peace, as it is free of disease, infection and potions."
Harry thanked Luna.
"I harbored several vampires as they were dying," Luna explained, a touch of sadness in her voice.
Soon enough, Harry had a pack of necessary things as well as several pouches of artificial blood. Luna accompanied him to the clearing where they had appeared earlier during the day.
"I'll contact you via my patronus," Luna said as Harry prepared to apparate.
"Will do," Harry said shortly. He then paused and asked her: "What do you do, Luna, with your free time?"
"I run the Quibbler Underground," Luna smiled teethily. "It is the legacy of my father and the means by which I can fight back the despots that are slowly killing the magical world."
Harry returned her smile albeit a less enthusiastic one and bade his goodbyes before disapparating.
Luna looked at the spot Harry had just left, a sad expression slowly spreading on her face.
"May you be prepared to face the newly revealed wolves of this current world, Harry Potter, for they are cunning and sly," Luna blessed Harry silently.
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Author's Note: I don't know if it was too cliché to have Luna save Harry but I like her. In addition, Hermione's sort of dead and Ginny has always been sort of useless, so Luna got the job. Also I'm not sure if Harry should have been angrier about his imprisonment. Opinions are welcome, by the way.