The Carrows' Calling
Disclaimer: None of this belongs to me, I am not J.K. Rowling.
Chapter Sixteen
The snow fluttered down, soft and gentle, landing all over her clothes, a new coat of white. Ginny could see the sparkling specks of shimmering snow landing on her shoulder, and in the hair of the people around her. They were all wrapped in large, warm coats, trying to keep out of the freezing cold. She didn't bring her Pygmy Puff, Arnold, this time; Ginny felt that he would be better off at home.
Behind her, was her mother, standing with a bag clutched in her gloved hand and her wand grasped tightly in the other. Ginny walked in front of her mother, through the gently falling snow and past the rush of people on the platform, trying her best to avoid both.
Neville and Luna had agreed to meet her at the engine of the train, the very front. Ginny quickened her pace, wanting to see her friends again. Her mother followed her, her wand still out, but not pointed at anybody.
When the fog began to thin and as she approached the engine, she caught sight of two very distinct figures. A boy and a girl standing side by side, seeming to be in a deep conversation. The boy was in a familiar knitted jumper, and had snow-speckled blonde hair and brown eyes. The girl beside him had dirty-blonde hair with bright blue eyes, and there seemed to be radishes dangling from her ears. She held a copy of what Ginny assumed to be The Quibbler.
Luna waved, spotting her, and Ginny walked briskly to her friends, her mother right behind her, sticking close to her like glue.
"Hello Luna, Neville," her mother greeted even before Ginny could, once they got to the pair.
"Nice to see you again, Mrs. Weasley," Neville greeted politely.
"Hello Mrs. Weasley, the Babliming Wrackspurt said that I would see you again," Luna chirped in a slightly disorientated voice. Ginny's mother had a confused expression on her face, but, for her part, didn't say anything about it.
DING! DING! The train's bell suddenly rang in their ears, making them all jump.
"I guess we have to go now, Mum," Ginny said sadly. Her mother pulled her in for a tight hug.
"I will see you again, my little girl. Write to me, OK?" her mother whispered into her ear. Ginny nodded, tears also starting to sparkle in her eyes.
"OK. I promise!"
Ginny began to place her things into the train, seeing as Neville and Luna were doing so. She jumped in right when the train had begun to move. "Bye Mum!" She shouted out a train window.
"Bye, Ginny dear!" Her mother had raised a handkerchief to her face and Ginny could see tears coming from honey brown eyes that she had inherited. Her left hand was upraised in a wave goodbye. Ginny slightly leaned out of the door, and waved a last farewell to her mother.
"Bye Mum! I'll miss you!" But her mother didn't seem to have heard, for her back was turned and she had began to leave. Ginny stepped back into the train car and faced Luna and Neville.
"Hi Luna, Neville!" She had barely any time to speak, for they had engulfed her in a bone-crushing hug.
"God, Ginny, we've missed you!" They both cried out.
"Me too. Me too," Ginny replied in the same tone, hugging them back. After another moment, Ginny slowly pulled back. "Let's get this stuff into the department," she said, referring to the snow covered luggage.
Ginny, with a quick swipe of her gloved hand, swept the thin layer of sparkling snow off of the large, brown strapped trunk, and from her friends' luggage, too. Neville and Luna both nodded and helped Ginny drag their trunks into the car, and place them above and below their seats.
Once they finished, Neville dusted his hands off and placed them on his hips, satisfied.
"There. Done."
Ginny beamed as she admired their work. The trunks and baggages were neatly arranged and it fit perfectly into the compartment, with no space left over. Ginny wasn't really much of a neat freak, but she felt like she was ready for a new year.
Neville sat down on the seat across from her, and Luna joined him. Ginny felt the movement of the train, the smooth sliding wheels run across the train tracks, creating a slight jolt, but nothing much.
She stared out the large, rectangular window, taking a second to admire the decorative designs dancing around it before looking outside.
Large, snow covered fields zoomed before her eyes, the snow draped trees reminding her of the ones in her own backyard. The world was covered in a white blanket of snow, making it seem innocent and clean, free of disease, free of war, free of heartache, free of death. If only that's how things really were.
Luna's airy voice brought her out of her thoughts, her head turning away from the snow covered world to the real one, the one where people were killed out of pure spite, the one where family turned on family, and friend on friend.
"Ginny? What's your opinion?" Ginny's head snapped to the voice. She opened her mouth, blank-minded. Ginny had no idea whatsoever about what they were talking about.
"What?" She mumbled, slightly embarrassed. Luna then elbowed Neville.
"Told you she wasn't listening," she said with a sly smirk on her face. Neville rolled his eyes.
"Well, we were talking about how far D.A. would've gone if we hadn't ended it," Neville explained. Ginny nodded absentmindedly; her heart wasn't into it. She didn't really want to talk about D.A. right now. At the moment, she just wanted to be back at home with her family.
BOOM. A large sound from behind them caused all three people to jerk their heads back. The three then looked at each other, wide-eyed and startled. It happened again.
Then, the train suddenly stopped, the trio lurching forwards in their seats, Neville and Ginny's heads almost colliding. She felt the tickle of his hair on her forehead, a split second before it was gone, all of them sitting back into their seats.
Ginny looked out of her window, but the scene was still as innocent as can be, and there was no disturbance in the world covered in a snow blanket of white.
Then the screaming started. It was ringing strong and loud in her ears. She felt like they were going to burst and her hands reached up to cover them, to smother the pealing shriek. She bent over, as if that could make the tortuous high-pitched sound stop.
Ginny knew that Neville and Luna had heard it too, for they had, too, clasped their hands over their ears. The piercing shriek continued, until suddenly, the loud, high-pitched noise stopped, as quickly as it came.
Ginny slowly uncurled from her kneeling position, and seeing that the coast was clear, sat back up. Neville and Luna did the same, following Ginny's actions.
"What was that?" Ginny whispered, as if she spoke any louder the screaming would come back. Neville shook his head, as confused as Ginny.
"I'm not sure," Neville replied in the same tone. Luna shrugged, mystified.
A long moment of silence. It was one of those times where no one knew what to do; everyone was waiting for something to happen. And strangely, almost always, it did.
Just as Ginny was about to dismiss the enigma and began to settle down, the door of their compartment burst open, revealing two men dressed in long, black robes with deathly-white masks.
Death Eaters. One grasped a wand tight in his hand (or at least Ginny assumed the Death Eater was male because of his broad and muscular build).
The Death Eater spoke.
"Where is Luna Lovegood?" the man asked roughly, in a raspy, deep voice. Ginny stared at him as she frantically tried to think of a plan. Ginny looked up at the Death Eater, feigning innocence.
"Luna's not here, sir, I think you have the wrong compartment," she said, trying her best to sound honest, drawing herself taller in her seat. She gazed up at the man, stare unwavering, seemingly guiltless.
The Death Eater hesitated, as Ginny relaxed, but then the man behind him told him something.
"She should be here, the girl with red hair is her friend and so is the Longbottom boy," the second Death Eater said in a deep whisper, though Ginny still caught the words. She looked at the man in the back, and froze.
It was the same Death Eater. The one that almost took Mum. Even though the two men were dressed exactly the same, Ginny knew that it was the same person.
She stole a glance at Luna, who had tensed up considerably too, her hand was lingering at the place where her wand was held.
"Sirs, I think you really do have the wrong compartment, I saw Luna in the compartment to the left, just a minute ago," Ginny said politely, once again trying to get rid of the Death Eaters, especially now that she recognised one of them. She shook inwardly, praying that would be enough for them to leave.
But just when Ginny had relaxed, thinking she had done it, the second Death Eater pulled out his wand, and pointed it at Luna.
"That's her, grab her and let's go!"
Chaos burst out. Ginny could feel herself instinctively pull out her wand and shot a spell at the first Death Eater, only to miss. To her left, Neville's wand was out too and he was rapidly shooting curses at the second Death Eater, who was trying to grab Luna's arm. Luna herself had her wand pulled out and she was standing up in the small compartment, firing curses left and right.
Then, a flash of bright green light blinded Ginny, and she fell to the ground, her hands scraping the hard floor.
She felt herself slowly open her eyes. The compartment was empty of Death Eaters. Neville sat to the right of her. Ginny's eyes scanned frantically around the small room.
"Where's Luna?" she whispered, still in shock. Neville's eyes widened.
"They took her," he said in a small voice, and then louder, "THEY TOOK HER!" Neville got up in rage and brandished his wand belligerently.
Ginny quickly stood up too and placed a pacifying hand on Neville's arm.
"We'll get her back," she said, looking into Neville's warm brown eyes. He stared back at her, questioning her wordlessly, as if she was lying.
She wasn't, not anymore.
"I promise." Neville nodded, not taking his eyes of Ginny, and once again sat back down on the seat across from her, still a bit reluctantly.
The train had seemed to have started moving again, the innocent world outside of them once again becoming a blur. The rest of the train ride was sat in silence, the pair lost in their thoughts, thinking about how they could've saved their friend.
Luna gradually woke up, and found herself in a dark, cold room. As her eyes began to adjust, she realised that she was sitting on the floor, which was hard stone, and in some areas fuzzy moss, with a gooey, chilling, unidentifiable liquid coating the corners.
The room she was in had one small, depressing window up in the northwest corner. It was surrounded with thick iron bars. A pale ray of sunlight streamed weakly and meekly into the small, square room. Then, she was interrupted from her scrutinisation, as Luna heard a quiet whimper from in front of her.
Her eyes scanned the area of where it had came from. Bright blue eyes settled on a old, frail, slim man, lying on the floor of the room, just beside Luna. His white hair glinted in the weak light and his pale silver eyes were filled with fear. And as Luna further studied him, she thought she recognised him, perhaps in a less dire moment, when the man was not battered and terrified.
He was dressed in ripped and torn black-and-white robes, filthy with dust and dirt. The haggard man whimpered yet again.
"Are you OK, sir?" whispered Luna, concern laced into her voice. She slowly walked closer to the whimpering man, not wanting to scare him any further than he already was.
No response came from the frail, shivering person.
Luna tried again. "Sir, are you OK?" Still no response. Is this a test? Is the man supposed to do something? Or am I to do something?
Luna patted down her pocket quickly, checking for her wand. It was empty; she couldn't feel the familiar shape of the long, thin stick that was her defensive weapon. So instead, she tried again to help the man.
"Sir." She walked even closer to the man, in arms' reach. Up close, she could see that there were many cuts and bruises painted over his old, wrinkled skin. There was one on his exposed arm, a rather long gash, leading up the entire forearm.
His pale silver eyes gazed up at her in fear. He was scrunched into a corner, his legs up against his thin and bony body. Luna stretched her arm out to the man, but then hesitated, as she thought it out.
Maybe that wasn't the best idea. She could shock him, and Luna would have an even smaller chance of getting him to speak.
So she withdrew the hand, and opened her mouth instead. "Hello, sir. I'm Luna Lovegood, I'm from Hogwarts. I was sorted into Ravenclaw house," Luna said softly, trying not to startle him. She sat down on the floor, at eye level with the frail man. Luna felt a spark of hope, as his eyes seemed to have lit up at her name.
"Lovegood?" he asked, his voice coming out raspy and rough, as if he hadn't spoken in a long time. Luna nodded, relieved to have broken through.
"I remember your wand. Eleven inches, cedar, unicorn tail. Am I right?" he said, his eyes becoming brighter, the fear seeming to leave them as he continued to speak.
"Yes!" Luna was quite surprised. How does he know her wand?
The old man sat up, wincing, still leaning against the stone wall. And as if he had heard her thoughts,
"I am very sorry, dear, I haven't gotten the chance to introduce myself. I am Garrick Ollivander," he said, his voice becoming even stronger with each word.
Luna drew back, mildly surprised. She remembered Ollivander—the owner of the wand store.
She sized up the man in front of her skeptically. Her mind just couldn't see the connection between the wise and mysterious man of Ollivander's to this shivering, pale, frightened person.
"Pleasure to meet you again, Mr. Ollivander." Luna quickly said, realising she had zoned out.
"Please, just call me Ollivander," the old man replied, not seeming to have noticed Luna's pause. Luna nodded absentmindedly. She had a nagging question in the back of her mind, but wasn't exactly sure if she should voice it.
"Where are we?" she asked tentatively, partially not wanting to know. She fiddled with her fingers, looking down at her lap. Ollivander sighed.
"We are in Malfoy Manor. You-Know-Who brought me here, wanting to know about the cores of the relationship between his and Harry Potter's wands," the older man explained quietly.
"Oh." Luna had nothing else to say. The pair lapsed into silence, both man and girl lost in their own thoughts.
"Miss. Lovegood, may I ask, why are you here?" the old man suddenly asked her. She turned to face him.
"Please, call me Luna. I'm not sure why they took me here in the first place myself," she shrugged. "I was on the Hogwarts Express, and two Death Eaters came out of nowhere," she explained, easily recalling the moment. Ollivander nodded, seemingly deep in thought.
"Are your friends troublesome to the Death Eater professors there?" Ollivander asked. Luna's eyes widened.
"How do you know about the Carrows?"
The old man gave her a slight smile, his chapped lips quirking up. "I hear things," he said, his smile disappearing. "All different kinds of things, things about evil, betrayal, plans to kill," the older man broke off with a visible shudder, as if the mere thought of the conversations he had heard, scared him to no end. Luna was intrigued.
"What things?" she asked, her curiosity getting the better part of her. Ollivander shook his head angrily.
"Things you don't want to hear, my dear child. Things that would strip away the rare innocence that you have," the man said. As if it wasn't already gone.
They fell, once again, into silence, until Luna noticed that the man had flinched.
"Are you alright?" she asked, concerned again.
"I'm fine. Just the cell is damp and cold." Luna nodded, understanding what he was saying. The man shifted a bit in his position. He winced once more. Luna, her mind flashing back to the aftermaths of her friend being tortured by the Carrows, to the books she had studied after, knew what was wrong.
"Have you… been tortured?" asked Luna timidly. Ollivander's head shot up immediately.
"How did you know?" he asked in shock, very much like how Luna was a few moments ago.
"I have seen it," Luna said, her voice barely above a whisper.
The older man's eyes widened. "Simply seen it? Or experienced it?" Ollivander pressed. He seemed suddenly curious, eyes brighter than before.
A horrid thought shot through Luna's mind. She stood up as fast as she could.
"What are you doing?" Luna ignored the man, then backed away from him. How could've she been so stupid?
"What was my father's wand?" she asked sharply, knowing that the real Ollivander would know the answer to the question. The old man noticeably relaxed as he realised what Luna was doing.
"Thirteen inches, cherry, flimsy, and dragonheart string. Rather powerful wand," Ollivander said confidently. Luna sighed in relief.
"What was your mother's wand?" he questioned, staring Luna in the eye. She said the answer in the same tone as Ollivander's. They both relaxed.
"Sorry sir, but I had to check," she apologised. Ollivander waved it away.
"It's fine. I should've." Luna then voiced another question she had, feeling more confident now.
"Does anyone else know that you are here? Like, other than me and the Death Eaters," she clarified.
"I'm not sure," he said, shrugging his bony shoulders. "Do you have your wand?"
Luna was surprised at the rather blunt, and off-topic question. But before she could answer, the door of the cell opened, light suddenly streaming into the small, dark room. A grating, unrecognisable voice that sent shivers down Luna's back joined in on their conversation.
"No. But I do."
Ginny stared out of the window of the compartment, her mind compulsively replaying the past few minutes over and over again. She should've just stunned the Death Eater! She should've stunned him in a second, and they would've been done and Luna would still be with them, sitting right beside her.
The world, covered in the same innocent snow blanket, zoomed by her, everything a blur of white. How Ginny wished, that what the world seemed like from this speeding train, was how it really could be.
A world that was young and pure, where people were genuinely kind to each other, where people didn't fight out of envy and greed, where family wouldn't turn on family, where friend wouldn't turn on friend, where people didn't murder others for the sake of their greed. If only there was a world where everyone was legitimately happy, and everyone was fine with what they needed. Not what they wanted. Simply what they needed. If only people weren't greedy, if only people didn't hate, if only people didn't kill. The world would be much a better place. A place where Ginny didn't have to wait fruitlessly to hear news about her family, a place where Luna would still be in their compartment, chattering away, a place where she wouldn't have to live in constant fear. A place where she wouldn't have to worry about everyone close to her dying.
Ginny slumped on her chair, seemingly exhausted from her thinking. If only.
Neville's voice (thankfully) brought her out of her thoughts.
"It's not your fault, Ginny," he said softly. She looked at him.
"It is." Neville quickly shook his head.
"You know it isn't. Ginny, it isn't worth the time thinking about what could've happened. It's pointless. You can't travel back in time, you don't have a time turner. And even if you did, it wouldn't change anything," he reasoned, placing his hand on Ginny's leg. She shook her head.
"It was my fault," Ginny whispered, her hand reaching up to her mouth to cover it.
"It wasn't, Ginny. There was nothing you could've done. Luna will be fine. She can make it on her own. They won't kill her, they must've taken her for some kind of hostage," Neville said reassuringly. If they're not going to kill her, what else will they do?
But Ginny simply nodded and continued to stare out of the window, at the now snow-covered forest zooming by. Neville lifted his hand off of Ginny's knee, and stared the other way. The pair sat the rest of the way to Hogwarts in a deep, mourning silence.
Author's Note:
I had quite the time writing this, after getting through a horrible writer's block. I hope you have liked this chapter, there's more to come! About Luna's wand, it is NOT canon, I made it up myself. But if you do know anything about Luna's wand, feel free to PM me or review. On that note, please review, it would mean the world to me.
-Zigostia