Moonchild
Chapter 9
Seleneo
The Astronomy lesson went very well, Seleneo thought. Professor Sinistra had assigned them a star chart on which they were to label all the major stars in each constellation along the ecliptic plane, and the rest of the month they were to track Jupiter's progress along the ecliptic. Finally she dismissed class, and the students began descending the tower. Professor Sinistra strode over to Seleneo before heading out herself.
"Here you go, Mr. Moonchild," she said, handing him a set of great silver keys on a brass ring. "Lock up when you're finished."
"Thanks, Professor," he said, and he took the keys from her. Then he turned to Luna. "Listen, I've got a lot of work to catch on up here, so I probably won't be back to the tower for a while. Don't bother waiting up."
"Are you sure?" she asked. "I don't mind."
"No, it's fine," he said. "No sense in you losing out on sleep because of me."
"Alright, well if you're sure…" she let her voice trail off. Then without another word, she turned and descended the Astronomy tower.
"Alright," Seleneo said to himself. "How will I do this?" He paced around the observation deck, moving from telescope to telescope. After a while of this, it finally dawned on him.
"Eureka!" Seleneo cried. "I've got it! But I'll need help…If this is to work, I'll need these," he tapped the keys to the tower with his wand and they duplicated, "and I'll need the Golden Trio."
"You wanted to see us?" said Harry to the inside of the boathouse.
"I see you received my owl," replied Seleneo. "I expected you would. Sorry it was such a roundabout way of requesting your presence, but you'll understand why it had to be that way."
"We'll understand if you ever decide to explain," Ron said scathingly.
"Well," Seleneo said, "I have a plan, you see, and it requires a combination of extraordinary magic and a bit of skullduggery, and I could think of no one better to help me with those than you three."
"Yes, you said as much in your note," said Harry. "Personally, I'm all for it. Just tell us what you need and I'm in, at least."
"What's this about, Harry?" Hermione asked. Harry showed her and Ron the note that Seleneo had sent, and they agreed that they were in on the plan.
"Right," said Seleneo. "Well, there will be plenty of time to explain the whole plan. Expect more owls from me. In the meantime, the first bit I'd like to take care of as soon as possible, which is why I need a way to sneak into Hogsmeade."
"Why Hogsmeade?" asked Ron. "You won't find what you're looking for there. There aren't any stores in the village that would carry one."
"Right," said Seleneo, "but I need to get there so that I can apparate to London. I'd do it from here except you can't apparate inside the Hogwarts grounds. Haven't any of you read Hogwarts: A History?"
"I have!" Hermione piped up, obviously delighted to have found someone other than herself who had read the book.
"That makes sense," said Harry. "Well, I'm not sure how many secret passages out have been blocked off, but there is still one I know of in the Room of Requirement. I'm not sure if the whole room was destroyed during the battle or just the Room of Hidden Things, so if that doesn't work, there's a foolproof passage beneath the Whomping Willow. You'll need to prod the knot on its trunk, and then you can take the tunnel at the base. It leads to the inside of the Shrieking Shack, but that should be fine for what you're using it for."
"Thank you," said Seleneo. "Now before this goes any further, can I count on you three to see it through to the end?"
"Yes," they all three said in unison.
"Good," Seleneo said. "I'll be sending more instructions sometime around Halloween. I intend to execute my plan right around halfway through November, so there's still plenty of time."
"What if the plan backfires?" asked Hermione. "I mean, it is quite a risk."
"I know that," said Seleneo. "Don't think I haven't considered it. To be honest, part of me expects it to fail regardless of how hard we try."
"I don't think it will fail," said Harry. "In fact, I know it won't."
"How can you be sure?" Seleneo asked.
"Professor Slughorn likes me," he said, "and I'm pretty sure I can get his friend Felix to help you out."
