Chapter 6

DISCLAIMER - None of these delightful characters are mine, all belong to JK Rowling.

Spinner's End was nothing like Ottery St. Catchpole, Luna soon discovered. She had grown up in the drowsy little village with its thatched cottages and leaning chimneys that puffed blue smoke bejewelled with occasional sparks from the fires that burned in the hearths below. Spinner's End was a lively town that sat at the end of a hill, at the top of which nestled the row of houses where the Professor lived.

Luna liked to stroll around the streets, feeling completely anonymous among the mid day shoppers or the muggles hurrying home from their work in the early evening.

The Professor forbade her to wear her googlehoffs outside of the house, he said that the magical community must not call attention to themselves by dressing differently to their muggle counterparts.

For all of that, Luna easily recognised other witches and wizards when she encountered them out and about in the town. There was a man who wore a purple suit and whose bowler hat spun impatiently when it rained.

And one of Snape's neighbours, a woman who lived just a few doors down had curlers in her hair that made mewling sounds like contented kittens.

Severus said that this was Mrs. Honeyflower and she was bats and paid her no further mind. In the days since they arrived at Spinner's End, he had maintained as solitary an existence as he had at the school.

There were no visits from friends, no-one dropped in for a chat or to borrow a cup of sugar and he never entertained.

This reminded Luna very much of the way she and her father had lived, it had been just the two of them too and she had liked it very well.

When they first arrived, Severus had pointed at some shelves in a parlour room he used as a library.

"You may put your books there. If you need more space, let me know," he had said.

This had made Luna feel more welcome than if he had rolled out a red carpet. Content that the silver coin was clearly making good progress with the shuttlers, Luna had lovingly encased her books in the appointed space and in the evenings, if she felt like reading, which she mostly did, she joined the silent Professor in the library, where he was usually to be found, nose buried in a tome of his own.

Luna came to love those evenings in his library. Outside, the long summer day would be drawing to a pink close, the opalescent night sky twinkling with far away stars. Within, the room glowed with the soft gold light from the old fashioned lantern that hung from the ceiling. Severus kept jugs of butterbeer for her in the pantry and she could fill herself a mug of the foaming, amber drink to sip from as she read.

The only shadow that hung over the contented days in Spinner's End was the lack of good news, or indeed any news concerning her father. Several days in the week, Severus was away from the house for long hours. He told her little in detail of his activities but he did say that he was doing all that he could to glean information on Xenophilius' whereabouts.

Those evenings, he often returned late but Luna waited for him. He would find her, sitting in the living room, curled into the window seat or kneeling by the hearth, and the hopeful look that he saw when she lifted her face to him always made his heart ache a little.

He had begun to share her belief that something sinister had befallen her absent parent, for he had simply vanished without a trace.

Such disappearances were once a common, though dread occurrence but there had been none since the demise of the Dark Lord. The similarities between this one and those of twelve years ago were hard to ignore. Though Severus was sickened at the ominous indication, he could not ignore what they might mean.

He was not a stupid man and he had long and bitter experience of a world he'd as soon forget. And so, he began to approach the investigation into the missing man's whereabouts with a growing belief that he was stepping once more over a threshold beyond which lurked a darkness that could never know light.

What to tell the child, though? He had resolved not to lie to her but yet, he did not wish to crush the fragile hope that she was striving to keep alive.

So, one evening as he returned, she stepped out into the hall, just as he was taking off his cloak.

"You're back. Did you find out anything?" she asked, standing framed in the doorway of the living room.

"Let me catch my breath, child," he sighed.

"Oh, of course. Maybe you'd like something to eat?" she was already moving towards the kitchen.

"No, no. Luna, I am fine. Come. We will talk, though I have little enough to tell you. I am sorry."

He looked down into her clear, green eyes, his brow furrowing.

He indicated that they should go into the room she had just vacated and she settled beside him on the couch as he lowered his frame tiredly onto it.

"Did you find anything new at all, Severus?" she asked, not able to disguise the disappointment in her voice.

"No. None of the acquaintances known to your father can tell me anything," he admitted. Seeing her crestfallen expression he titled his head.

"Which is not to say that he won't contact someone. I am not giving up, Luna," he said gently.

"And if he doesn't contact his friends, old contacts from The Quibbler?" her troubled gaze did not waver.

Snape knew what she was asking. He held her eyes to his and thought how to answer.

"Luna, if he uses his wand, casts even the smallest spell, I can track it. Someone knows something and I will not stop until I find them," he said quietly but firmly.

Again, Luna noted that he had not promised her father was alright, that he would be found safely. Though they were words she longed to hear, Luna respected the honesty he was showing her.

"Thank you for not fobbing me off with what you think I want to hear," she said earnestly.

"I won't make a promise I cannot keep. But I give you my word that I will not stop looking until I find out where your father is and what has happened to him," Severus was equally earnest and his eyes stayed trained unblinkingly on her own.

"I don't feel like reading tonight. I think I will just go to bed," she said and he nodded wordlessly.

She lay on her bed, then got up and sat at her dressing table, brushing her hair out. Then, she knelt on her bed and gazed down at the street below her window. The moon was bright, the sky clear. A cat prowled along the top of the next door neighbour's wall. She watched its elegant progress and then it disappeared behind a leafy bush at the side of the houses. The rest of the street was empty, perfectly still.

Luna watched the still scene for endless moments, one drifting into the next, nothing changing. In fact, she quite forgot time altogether until at some point, there was the clanging sound of something metallic falling over. This was followed by a loud yowl from the cat and a few seconds later, it hared away in the opposite direction from whatever had toppled over to startle it.

The little disruption had jolted Luna out of her reverie. She came back to herself and realised that she had been sitting there feeling quite sorry for herself, hoping to evaporate like summer mist.

Here she was in a nice room, in a nice house and she had a friend who was trying very hard to make things right for her. The Professor was downstairs, having spent a long day pursuing leads to find her Dad. He was supposed to be on holidays, he was a busy man in his own right. Feeling guilty for the ingratitude she was showing, Luna got to her feet once again and made her way back to the living room.

Snape was still seated on the couch where she had left him and as Luna drew closer, she realised he had fallen asleep. His legs were stretched out before him, ankles crossed, arms folded over his chest. She turned, not wanting to disturb him.

"Luna."

She stopped, surprised that he had heard her afterall.

"I am sorry if I woke you."

"You didn't. Whatever it is, spit it out," he said, still stretched languorously on the couch.

"I just wanted to say thank you. For everything you are doing to help me," Luna nodded and turned away again.

"It's nothing, You are welcome."

"And I do appreciate that you haven't tried to sugar coat things. Adults do that all the time but it doesn't ever help, really," Luna came back to the doorway.

"Very well."

She took three steps toward the stairway and turned once more.

"Severus?"

"If you are about to thank me again, for anything, stop right there or I will put you in a body bind and leave you in your room until you begin to show better sense!" he grumbled at her.

"I was going to say you won't sleep very well on the couch. Cushions are a favourite haunt of yezzirs. Their sting is supposed to be quite unforgettable," she supplied.

"It's the yezzirs likely to keep me awake is it?" he opened one eye and gave her a glare from beneath his brow.

"They must haunt more than the cushions on my couch. You aren't looking so drowsy yourself," he drawled.

Then he lifted an arm to her.

"Come here."

The invitation had her scurrying to him without a second's hesitation. She hopped onto the couch and cuddled against him, enormously comforted by the feel of his arm around her.

"Severus?"

"Yes, love?"

"I would be alone if it wasn't for you. That would be really frightening, I think. I am glad you are here."

He said nothing more but Dumbledore's observation flitted across his mind. We are seldom alone by choice, or words to that effect.

He looked down at the child snuggling against his shoulder and remembered again his own foreboding that this one was going to give him some trouble.

"Is that a tennis racket with feathers hanging over the front door?" he asked.

"It's called a failt. It guides people safely home if they have to go away. I thought it would help you today," she replied, her voice slightly muffled against his shirt.

He had started to suspect the true purpose of her strange, handcrafted charms, which always seemed to turn up in unexpected places, no matter how many times he told her to put them away.

They were her shields when the world threw things at her that scared her or she couldn't explain. And in this, he was surprised to find something of himself. If anyone believed in the value of emotional armour, it was him, in fact he had just about forgotten how to live without it.

"And the saucepan lid balancing on a brick at the front door?"

"Oh that's all I could find to feed a stray cat that keeps coming around. He likes his milk from it," she supplied, perfectly matter of fact.

A surprised chuckle escaped him.

"Miss Lovegood, you will make an old man of me," he said but she didn't reply.

He glanced down to see that she had fallen into a deep sleep.

The following morning, Luna woke in her bed and realised that the Professor must have carried her to her room the night before. The last thing she could remember was feeling marvellously comforted and safe as he cuddled her.

She climbed from the bed, padded across the rug and reached into her bag. She lifted out her hidden Quibbler and removed the secret page from it. She folded it and slipped it into the pocket of her jeans, resolving to show it to Severus at breakfast. He was doing so much to help find her dad, this could well give him the vital clue.

However, when Luna went downstairs, it was to find a small parchment note on the table, addressed to her in his neat and precise hand.

"Luna. I will be away for a number of hours. I have some Hogwarts business to attend to and made an early start. I do not expect to be late. Severus."

Then; "PS - The duck eggs in the fridge are for you. Help yourself as I do not care for them."

Luna smiled at the solicitousness of leaving a note and was already contemplating the various breakfast options presented by the stock of duck eggs.

Before she had cracked the first one, she became aware of a faint sense of unease but she could not identify its source. Had she forgotten something? She considered but that did not seem to be it.

Then, a glance at the kitchen window had her gasping as the little black cat she had befriended hopped suddenly and silently onto the windowsill. Strangely, the cat did not perch in front of the glass with his usual casual confidence. Instead, he pawed impatiently at the pane, mewling incessantly although Luna could not hear the sound with the window closed.

It was as if she had transmitted her apprehension to him, though that could not be true. She could not even explain it to herself.

She could not deny that it was deepening in intensity and Luna no longer felt like breakfast. She really wanted to be outside and she found her self pulling on a jacket and opening the door before her mind truly caught up with the decision.

The little cat seemed to approve of the impetuous choice and trotted jauntily along behind her as she set off down the hill. Luna didn't know where she was going or why but she was glad to be out of the house, glad to feel the weight of the restlessness recede as she moved further towards the town.

Before she had gone more than a few metres, the sky above seemed to fill with clouds, black, storm filled, they looked as though they were blown in on the breath of the world's anger.

They moved with an unnatural speed and more strangely still, they appeared to be localised over the Professor's house, instead of gathering over the town.

"Come in, come in, quickly, girl!"

Luna looked around to see Mrs. Honeyflower beckoning urgently to her from her doorway. Glancing back at the strange, hostile cloud formation seething over the tiles of Snape's roof, she obeyed without another thought.

"What's happening?" she gasped as the old woman closed the door behind her.

"I don't know, girl. Professor Snape, where is he?" Mrs Honeyflower was peeping at the street from behind her curtain, taking care to stay hidden.

"On Hogwarts business. He said he wouldn't be late," Luna replied.

"Best get a message through," Mrs. Honeyflower hastened to the fireplace and knelt before the flames that flickered in the hearth. Luna waited while she fire called the school and had a conversation with someone Luna could neither see nor hear which lasted only minutes.

"He's on his way back. You wait with me, dear," the witch said, rising to her feet and returning to her vigil by the window.

When a dark flurry of soot erupted from the fireplace, Luna started but realised as the black tendrils took shape that her guardian had returned.

Snape stepped from the hearth, looking as furious as the swarming storm clouds had.

His eyes found Luna at once and he was moving across the floor towards her, feet hardly touching the ground as Mrs. Honeyflower turned from the window.

"Are you alright?" his eyes were feverish, his face pale.

Luna nodded up at him.

"Yes. What's going on, Severus?"

He gripped her shoulders and bent down so his eyes were levels with hers, his brows drawn together in a fierce scowl.

"They didn't hurt you?"

The tension in him frightened her and she shook her head, words freezing in her throat at the flare in his eyes. He looked haunted, tortured.

"She was here, Professor. She was with me. I saw her outside just before they struck," Mrs Honeyflower was explaining but Snape never lifted his eyes off Luna.

He looked her over as though trying to believe she was real. He drew in one deep breath, followed by another and then he pulled her against him, holding her in a hug so tight, it almost hurt.

"Luna. You are safe. You are safe now."

She had never heard him sound like this before, his voice was hoarse and shaking slightly. She was not sure if his words were to reassure her or if he was trying to persuade himself but Luna leaned into his embrace, glad that he was here. Whatever danger had circled, it could not touch her now.

At last, he held her away from him, his eyes still fixed on her as though afraid to look away in case she disappeared.

"Did you see who?" his question was not directed at Luna, though he did not look away.

"No. Gone seconds before you got there, though," Mrs. Honeyflower replied.

He dropped his head and took yet more deep breaths, clearly trying to steady himself. It was one of the very few times that his poise had ever slipped in the presence of another.

When he straightened, it was back and he set his gaze on his neighbour, the frantic blaze was replaced by the hooded, reserve she was used to seeing on his face.

"Thank you, Honora. I am indebted to you," he said, polite and informal, his tone clipped.

She nodded her acknowledgement and he turned to look down into the confused eyes of his young ward.

"Come now. Come with me," he said, stepping towards the door.

Luna followed as he led the way back to his house and the sight that met her eyes made her catch her breath.

The front door was blasted as though struck by a rocket, so that only splinters of it hung from the twisted hinges.

Inside, the destruction continued, furniture was smashed, glass was shattered, shards like diamonds on the scarred floorboards and loose sheaves of paper floated on a draught she could not see, smoke drifting sourly from the blackened fireplace.

"Oh, Severus. Oh no!" she whispered, sadly.

"It look worse than it is, Luna. I performed a scanning spell and nothing is missing. No permanent harm done," he said.

However, he knew that it took dark magic to penetrate the wards surrounding his home, to wreak this kind of vicious damage.

"I know why they came, what they were looking for," she said softly.

He snapped around, his eyebrows rising. There was no doubt in his mind that this incident was connected with the disappearance of Lovegood, what he did not know was what had happened to draw attention to himself, to his home. And he wondered at the brazenness of targeting his house. It was a long time since his days as a Death Eater, just the same, a tiger is never tame, a cobra never forgiving.

Luna reached into her pocket, withdrew a folded piece of paper and held it out to him. Snape took it, unfolded it with his long fingers, a frown furrowing his brow as he read the print.

When he looked up again, there was a glint in his eye, the first smoulder of a conflagration of temper.

"Where did you get this?" his tone was deceptively quiet but Luna wasn't fooled. She could read his expressions well enough by now.

"I found it, the morning after Dad went away. He had hidden it in a Quibbler," Luna answered.

"You have had this from the start of this and said nothing?" an eyebrow curved sharply.

Luna nodded.

"I didn't know what to do. I was going to give it to you this morning," she said.

"You have had this in your keeping and you were in fact carrying it with you when our unwelcome guest paid a call?" Snape's eyes narrowed.

His mind flooded with a realisation of the danger that all but touched her. It had gotten so close and still he could not even guess at who was responsible. He swallowed and felt darts of pain at his temples.

When his eyes alighted on her, she looked lost and impossibly fragile in the mist of the chaos around her.

"Come here."

She obeyed, treading across a floor strewn with the remnants of his living room. When she reached him he opened his arms and drew her against him once more. He cradled the back of her head with one cupped hand, her cheek against the soft fabric of his waistcoat.

This time, his hug was tender and full of a genuine affection.

"Luna, even thinking about what might have happened to you is frightening the very life out of me," he whispered, his voice raw.

"You should not have kept this from me. I am trying to help you, can you not see that?"

Luna hugged his waist and felt a wretched guilt scald her very bones.

"I know, it Severus. I am sorry. I really didn't know what to do. I wasn't sure what the page was about or if it had anything to do with dad just vanishing like that. I only knew he didn't want anyone to see it and I couldn't bring myself to let him down."

Snape held her seconds longer, then, taking hold of her shoulders, he lifted her arm's length from him.

He bent his head so his coal black eyes, stern and serious were fixed on hers.

"The very first morning you came, I asked if there was anything further you knew about what your father was doing. Luna, if you lie to me again, you will be punished and you won't care for it," he said.

Luna looked into his eyes, the deep, unrelenting black and believed him.

"Any further deception and I will spank you. Do I make myself clear?"

She nodded but looked up into his face, apprehensive and remorseful.

"But not now?"

"Don't tempt me, child," he sighed.

Then he shook his head.

"But not now. I think we have both had enough to deal with today," he straightened, let her go and surveyed the wreckage in the room.

"This item your father was working on. Who else knows about it?" he asked.

"I don't know. I didn't think anyone did. I certainly didn't. And there was only me and him," she replied.

Snape had drawn his wand and had muttered an incantation. Already, things were righting themselves around them, the stuffing of armchairs flying back into upholstery, broken glass reforming into glistening panes.

"Oh and his friend visited sometimes," Luna added, almost an after thought.

Snape paused in the act of pointing his wand at the shreds of his front door.

He turned and she had his full attention now.

"Friend?"

"From Hogwarts too, as it happens, She came to our house once or twice. Sybil is her name. She's very nice. Do you know her?"