Hermione Down Under

Chapter 13 In Lunar Orbit

As they helped each other off the pavement, Hermione felt vast relief. Luna was an odd girl, but she was unswervingly loyal to the few people who treated her with respect. She had risked her life to save Sirius Black, a man whom she had never met, simply because she knew he was dear to Harry. Certainly she wouldn't try to seduce Ron.

Thinking back on it, Hermione realized that there was nothing sexual about the scenes she had witnessed. Ron and Luna had had dinner and he poured out his frustrations to her – there was nothing suspicious in that. They were friends, so it was natural that they would talk. Ron had visited Luna's room – Hermione had been on far closer terms with him before. Where had the sexual jealousy come from? Mrs. Arwen had obviously wanted to stir up trouble between Hermione and her friends, but it was Hermione's fault if she fell for it.

"Luna," she said, "I'd love to chat, but we've got problems. I just got away from a kidnapping, and the kidnapper knows some things about you and Ron. I think the three of us need a new hiding place."

The pair rushed to the lobby's ladies' loo – some of the guests seemed to find that funny – and Apparated up to Luna's room.

"Yikes!" said Ron, jumping out of a chair. "Couldn't you have knocked?"

Hermione summarized her abduction as well as she could. "Somebody helped me get away, but I don't know who they were, or how to get in touch with them, so basically the three of us are on our own. You were about to say something, Ron?"

"Ulp, no."

"She's going to look for me again, and she'll guess that I would try to get in touch with you lot. How can you outsmart somebody who can predict your every move?"

"Do something unpredictable," Luna said promptly. It was a very Luna-like answer, and the right one.

"What do you suggest?"

There was a few seconds silence.

"I heard them say there were lots of vacancies in the hotel, because it's off season," mused Ron. We can pick a set of rooms at random, and move into the first empty one we find. The e- Mrs. Arwen will have to search the entire building to find us."

The first room was occupied, but Hermione was able to do a Hominem Revelio spell and avoid charging in on an embarrassing situation. The next two were empty of humans and Hermione was able to get in with Alohamora, only to find people's personal effects lying around. Obviously the renters were out temporarily but would be coming back. Fourth try was the charm, so to speak; the trio went in and locked the door behind them. They moved a piece of furniture in front of the door so that, even if Mrs. Arwen did use Alohamora herself, she would find an unexpected physical barrier, giving them a few extra seconds to escape. And Hermione had a final inspiration. "Luna, will you keep my handbag?"

"Certainly, Hermione. Why?"

"In case Mrs. Arwen seizes me again, at least my possessions will be safe with you." Also, Ron could no longer accuse her of hogging the handbag. "Now that we've bought some time, could you explain how you got here?"

"Kingsley told us that you two were having trouble with local police, and this Mrs. Arwen lady. We wanted to come help, but Harry and Ginny remembered that you wanted to be alone, and didn't want to come unless you called for help. Neville and his grandmother were trying a new spell to cure his parents. That left me."

Right. Luna thought in terms of an inner circle of friends against the rest of the world; the six people who had tried to rescue Sirius: Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, and herself. Nearly everybody else tended to treat her as rather crackers. Although Hermione had to admit, as much as she liked Luna, that she could be a little bonkers sometimes.

"I redid my hair so nobody would recognize me-"

"You did that very well." Did Luna realize that Hermione had mistaken her for a slut? Change the subject, fast.

"How did you transport yourself?" she asked. Hermione could not imagine Luna tangling with a modern aeroport, at least not without attracting a lot of attention.

"Magic carpet."

"What?"

"A nice jinn-tleman from Arabia gave one to Daddy, after he printed an article about his people in the Middle East. It would give us one free journey."

"You rode a carpet for twelve thousand miles?"

"Oh yes. It's much easier than riding a broomstick. You don't have to balance your bum on a little stick of wood. (Hermione saw Ron look a little embarrassed at that intimate detail). I actually lay down and slept for part of the journey. There was a safety spell to keep me from falling off."

Hermione tried to visualize a carpet flying over Europe, Near East, and Asia with a girl sleeping on it, maybe clad in her purple shorts and tie-dyed yellow T-shirt, like some Muggle girl on a towel at a beach.. Luna was definitely weird.

"And your Daddy let you take it halfway around the world?"

Luna went red. "I, um, didn't ask him."

"Yeah, there's a lot of that going around," muttered Ron.

"It was very loyal of you to go to that trouble for us," Hermione said, suppressing her misgivings. "Tell me, do you anything about this Mrs. Arwen lady?"

"No. But I haven't actually seen the lady you're talking about. If I did I might recognize her under another name."

"It IS an assumed name," said Ron. "She's an e- e-e-e eckkkkkkkk-" suddenly he fell down choking.

"Ron!" During the long period hiding below the radar, Hermione had realized the need to be familiar with some emergency medical spells, and had persuaded Mrs. Pomfrey to teach her some after the liberation of Hogwarts. She managed to get him breathing steadily, but he was still passed out. "What happened?"

"I think I've heard of something like this," said Luna. "A gag spell."

"Gag meaning choking, or gag meaning to prevent somebody from talking?"

"Both, I think. But I learnt the counterspell at the time." Before Hermione could stop her, Luna pointed her wand at Ron. "Aga!"

A shocked Hermione held her breath. For every genuine and helpful bit of knowledge Luna had, such as controlling thestrals, there was a crazy one, like her notion that the Minister Scrimgeour was a vampire and his enemies were trying to give him tooth decay in his supposed fangs. Even more scarily, she remembered that Luna's mother had accidently killed herself with a backfiring spell.

But to her vast relief, this was one of the good spells. Ron opened his eyes. "Did I faint again? Seems to happen to me a lot-"

"Do you know what caused it?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, I got cursed by an elf. Hey! Elf, elf, elf, I can say it now!"

"I know people who would deserve getting cursed by elves, but you certainly aren't one of them. What happened?"

Ron told the girls about his conversation with the Elf in the fields. It got complicated because Luna wasn't familiar with LORD OF THE RINGS, but she grasped the essential point. "If this Elf wants people to think friendly thoughts about her, she's certainly not going about it properly."

"I suppose she's outlived all her friends – several generations of friends – and sees no point in making new ones," speculated Hermione somberly.

"I think making friends would be worth it," insisted Luna.

KNOCKNOCKNOCK. "Housekeeping!" came a voice with an Australian accent.

"We gotta get out," said Ron. "Don't want a trespassing charge on top of everything else."

"Just a minute." Hermione levitated away the furniture blocking the door. "All right, let's Apparate."

The trio materialized in the car park several floors down. It was dark, smelling of petrol and something worse. Hermione automatically started feeling less sanguine than she had in the nice hotel room. "Look, Luna, do you still have the magic carpet? Will it make a return journey to England?"

"It's in the handbag, and yes."

"OK. I want you and Ron to hop on it and go home. I can't leave Australia until I've settled things with my parents. This is my problem, and I should have handled it from the beginning."

Ron shook his head. "Where the elf is involved, you're as innocent as the rest of us. I'm not leaving you to battle her alone."

"I remember how Ron and Harry refused to leave the Malfoy's dungeon until everybody else was free, including me," said Luna. "I'm staying this time."

"All right," replied Hermione, trying not to cry with happiness. "Let's find another place to hide, and plan."

TO BE CONTINUED.