Chapter 18
DISCLAIMER - None of these delightful characters are mine, all belong to JK Rowling.
The next day was Saturday, it was Halloween and the feast was on everyone's lips. Talk of steaming bowls of thick squash soup, creamy pumpkin pies, hot apple cider, chocolate cherries and lots more had students in an upbeat mood, impatient for evening to fall.
Luna went and watched the Ravenclaw team at Quiddich practice that morning, sitting happily in the chill of a new day starting. Her breath fogged before her eyes, her toes felt numb as she sat in the stands and she kept her hands clamped under her arms for warmth as her friends soared and dipped in the pale blue far above.
The team was in buoyant mood when training finished, landing with happy whoops and Luna and the few others who had gone to lend moral support joined them on the pitch, high-fiving Morwenna Wimple, the keeper on a particularly fine save towards the end of the session.
"If you play like that next Saturday, Hufflepuff don't stand a chance!" Gertrude asserted cheerfully.
"It poses a completely different challenge to your opponent when you play a tactical game!" Morwenna grinned.
"I can smell victory in the air and roast marsmallows for dessert this evening!" Ravenclaw's Seeker, a boy called Robin Drinkwater chuckled.
The team went to change and Gertrude was off to the owlery to send a message home. Luna thought it might be a good time to visit Hagrid. So, she took her leave of her friends and went across the lawn, stepping crisply on grass dusted by the fragile frost of an early winter morning.
She found the gamekeeper in an uncharacteristically glum frame of mind.
"Hullo there, Luna!" he greeted her, his huge bulk filling the opening of the door as he pulled it wide.
Though the words were welcoming and he beckoned her in, his eyes were not twinkling with their usual cheer and his shoulders were hunched.
"Is something wrong?" Luna asked at once.
"Oh Groundskeeper problems!" he puffed, filling the kettle and settling it on top of the already hot stove.
"There's something in the forest. Somethin' that don't belong," Hagrid went on.
"I don' understand it. Never seen nuthin' like it before," he continued.
"What is it?" Luna asked, concerned to see Hagrid's deep worry.
"That's just it, I don' know. But something is off. Somethin is movin' in the forest, at night. A hateful thing, that's all I know. It's been after the unicorns…"
Luna's eyes widened, shock and distaste stirring,
"The unicorns? That's awful. To harm a unicorn is just about the worst thing you could do. Who would be so downright ugly?"
"Harming a unicorn, well it's evil, Luna," Hagrid agreed, no closer to seeing cause of his trouble.
"My dad said that unicorn magic is older than Merlin. That is was the first herd in Britain who gave him his powers. They named Camelot after the finest stallion in that first herd," Luna said.
"Well. Your dad is right about their magic being old. Powerful too. I just gotta up my vigil of the forest," Hagrid poured a steaming mug of tea for Luna and one for himself.
She sensed that the unicorn attacks, unsettling as such a wickedness surely was, was not the only thing bothering her friend but she did not probe further. Instead, Luna accepted the tea and the rather hardened scone Hagrid proffered and the conversation turned to the feast and the pumpkins Hagrid was still to deliver to the Great Hall for decoration.
By the time she took her leave, the large man was in a somewhat better mood. Luna made her way back to Snape's quarters, thinking to surprise her guardian with a light lunch. He usually immersed himself in restocking his potion stores on Saturday afternoons and Luna thought he might like to have a nice, tasty meal ready for him before setting to the regular task. Also, having something to do would help pass the time quicker, the feast was starting to feel a long way away!
She was just finishing setting the table when the door opened and Snape swept into his room with a customary flurry of his robes. Right enough, he looked fairly taken aback at seeing his table delicately dressed in a lace tablecloth and decorated with a pumpkin lantern flickering on the centre.
"What's all this?" he looked quizzically at her.
"We aren't having company, are we?" he tried not to sound forbidding but the very idea made him want to retreat to his office.
"Oh, no. Just us. I thought seeing as it's Halloween, it might be nice to make an effort at lunch," Luna replied, marshalling the cutlery into order.
Curiously, he picked up a straggly bouquet of laurel leaves and scarlet rosehips. It was tied with a velvet ribbon, just as red as the berries.
"That's a berry bouquet, great for keeping vampire moths away," Luna explained and he replaced the arrangement, giving her a bemused look.
"Well, sit down then!" she chivvied him and strangely, the tall and dour Potions Master found himself complying meekly.
She served them fluffy baked potatoes and lashings of butter and for a while, they ate in a companionable silence.
"I went to see Hagrid earlier," she supplied at last.
"He's a bit upset. Something is after the unicorns. Isn't that just the worst thing you've ever heard?" Luna said at last.
Snape's expression was guarded, thoughtful.
"You knew this already," Luna's observation was correct and he did not need to confirm it for her.
"I don't know if it is the worst thing but certainly it is among the most distasteful things I have heard. And Hagrid is right to be worried," the Professor said.
"You have your suspicions about it. Can you tell me?"
"I have nothing more than a certain doubt, a niggle," he admitted.
"Professor Quirrell, do you think he's mixed up in it?" she asked, catching him by surprise with the accuracy of her question.
"I do wonder, yes. There are things happening at the school that are out of the ordinary and then some. Your elf friend, the unicorns, things not easily explained. They began with his arrival here. Hard not to dismiss that," Severus gave her the truth in answer.
Despite her little nods to beliefs that were unorthodox, the girl had a depth of understanding that commanded his respect.
"He does rather act like there is something he does not want you to know," Luna agreed.
"Me?" he frowned.
"He's always kind of jittery, poor Quirrell. But when you are nearby, his eyes are steady and they follow you, even though he acts more nervous than ever."
She was surprised to see his lips lift with a ghost of a smile.
"You have a gift for observation. Proving yourself quite the Ravenclaw, little Miss Lovegood. I think Slytherin might have missed out with you," he nodded at her.
They finished their meal, Snape banishing the magically cleaned dishes with a flick of his wand.
"I will see you at the feast tonight. Lunch was very enjoyable, Luna."
With her guardian busy in his office and soon to be immersed in potion stocks in his dungeon storeroom, Luna tucked herself into her favourite spot on the couch in his library, chose a title from the books be had bought her and the afternoon drifted away in contented simplicity. Vague fears for lost unicorns and the mystery of the Dark Arts Professor faded as Luna's imagination took her away to gilded castles, where secret princesses waited to be discovered and handsome knights won their hearts.
She was surprised that when she lifted her eyes from her book, it was dark out, hours had passed and the eagerly awaited feast was suddenly not so far off at all. With feet light as feathers, Luna went to run a comb through her hair and put her robes on, as students were expected to wear for the celebration. This was her first Halloween at Hogwarts and she was determined to enjoy it, to push all her troubles aside. This should be an evening to remember, one that she would look back on for the best of reasons.
Ten minutes later, Luna was one of a milling throng of happy students filing into the Great Hall. Charmed bats fluttered across the enchanted ceiling above, which was tonight spell bound to reflect a starry sky of midnight blue, rent with thin, pale clouds. Garlands of autumn coloured foliage were draped between the candle sconces along the wall and set in decorative rings on each of the four house tables. It looked beautiful, shades of russet, amber and scarlet everywhere.
Luna took her place at the Ravenclaw table and let the upbeat chat and laughter of her housemates float around her like the magical bats for several moments. She glanced at the top table and her guardian was there, looking solemn and slightly bored.
Then, as the last of the students took their seats, the Headmaster rose to his feet and a hush fell as he began his address.
"It's All Hallows Eve, a most revered time in the wizarding world. All the more reason not to hold up our celebration of it with long words. So a few short ones. Enjoy the food!" Dumbledore's azure eyes sparkled gaily behind his half moon spectacles and he brought his hands together once in a quck clap and suddenly, golden dishes appeared on each of the tables, laden with food.
"This is even better than I thought it would be!" Gertrude said appreciatively, eyeing the ribs in barbecue sauce, platters of corn on the cob dripping in golden melted butter, tureens of steaming soup.
However, they had barely cleared the first course when the double doors at the back of the hall opened with a bone rattling clatter. All eyes followed the noise, the conversations at every table petered out at the unexpected disturbance. Making this dramatic entrance was none other than Professor Quirrell, turban in place but askew and an expression of abject terror on his pointy face.
It looked to Luna as though his knees had turned to jelly and were no longer to be trusted in supporting him. He took several unsteady, wobbling steps into the hall and teetering, began to gesture with an outstretched arm. Puzzled, Dumbledore rose to his feet, concern bringing his white eyebrows together.
"Tr..T.. t .Tr. Troll," Quirrell's squeek was lost at first, emerging frail and tinny.
Seeing very little reaction to his announcement, apart from confusion, his throat worked to free his words.
""T..Troll. In the castle!" he sputtered, this time unmistakeably.
As chaos erupted in a swell of noise and scraping stools at his announcement, Quirrell's trembling legs gave way and he collapsed onto the stone flag floor in a heap.
By contrast, Dumbledore responded decisively, calmly but assertively. Again, he clapped, the sound somehow rising above the clamour in the hall as students got to their feet and tried to push their way to the exit.
"Stop!" he called and the movement slowed.
Students turned to look at the teachers' table, attention caught by the note of authority in that one word.
"Students will return to their dorms. Prefects, please guide your houses from the hall in an orderly fashion but do not delay," the Headmaster instructed.
The badge wearing prefects began to take charge, with Heads of Houses overseeing the exodus.
Luna saw her guardian snap out orders to the Slytherin prefects, his face set and hard, black eyes intent. Moving with haste, every step paced like a soldier in a military exercise, he swept up along side Luna.
"Go with the others to the Ravenclaw common room. Wait there and I will come get you later," his words were clipped.
Luna didn't think he had looked quite so worried since the break in at his Spinner's End home.
"Yes sir," she nodded quickly, not wanting to cause him any further concern.
But he was already gone, robes whipping in his wake.
The Ravenclaws left the Great Hall with students from the other houses, streaming into the entrance hall in an orderly exodus as each House filed towards their common rooms. Luna was walking quickly along beside Gertrude when she felt a tap on her shoulder, a bird like contact that at first she wondered if she imagined. Just the same, she looked around and into the owl like gaze of Professor Trelawney.
The Divination teacher looked even more other worldly than ever. Her bushy hair floated from her face like curls of spider web, thin fingers wringing the edges of a tassled shawl draped around her shoulders. Her lips moved but no words were audible at first.
"Professor, are you alright?" Luna asked, as the others continued on to the safety of their rooms.
"Oh yes, dear child. Though death stalks these halls tonight," the prediction warbled from her mouth and Professor Trelawney looked at a spot in the far distance, seeing something visible only to herself or her inner eye.
"It's a troll, Professor Quirrell said," Luna supplied helpfully.
The woman did not appear to hear or else decided to pretend she hadn't. She patted Luna's hand in a distracted gesture as she looked about, eyes seeking rather anxiously as though she expected the Grim of her predictions to be standing right behind her.
Had Trelawney been at the feast? She did not usually join the other teachers for meals and Luna could not remember seeing her tonight but she must have been, hadn't she just left the Great Hall with everyone else?
"What a dark fortune to befall us but the stars cannot be denied. It is lucky I saw the warning of the invasion in my tea leaves tonight or else I would never have ventured out on such a night as this," Luna's unspoken question was answered as the mystic continued on.
"Oh how right I was that danger has drawn a dagger but with so many shadows it is impossible to see who will be the tragic victim," Trelawney's eyes bounced off the retreating heads of students, though evidently did not see imminent death approaching any of them.
A bony finger shunted her thick rimmed spectacles further up on her nose. The rounded eyes filled with tears.
"All so young! I cannot be consoled!" her fingers splayed over her heart.
"It's not your fault at all, Professor," Luna said.
"Professor Dumbledore and Professor Snape have gone to deal with the troll. I'm sure they will get rid of it safely," she draped a friendly arm around the trembling shoulders of the older woman.
Luna was not at all surprised to find that the roles between them had reversed a little and it was she reassuring the adult. She knew Sybil Trelawney quite well from her visits to Ottery St. Catchpole and taking charge was never her strong suit. As Luna remembered, once when her dad's broom fell in front of her, Sybil had full on hysterics, saying after much incoherent babble and fluttering that it was an omen of instantaneous death. It took ten minutes to make her calm down, only the realisation that several instants had passed and death had not yet come calling.
"Perhaps the threat diminishes if the broom is especially old," Trelawney had muttered afterwards.
Now she once again looked into Luna's face, encouraged by the hope she saw there.
"Yes, perhaps. I'm sure you are right. Yes," she nodded repeatedly.
"Umm, Professor Trelawney, I don't think we are supposed to be hanging around out in the open like this," Luna said, prompted by the quiet that was falling around them.
The last footsteps of the other students were already fading into the distance and Luna remembered that her guardian had been very clear that she was to go to her common room and stay with others.
"My dear, of course! You are right yet again. I should not be alone tonight. Not after all that I have seen. Looking into the dread depths of the inevitable does take it out of me!" Trelawney was suddenly energised and moving towards the stairs, her arm linking companionably though Luna's.
"You don't mind accompanying me? Oh I do appreciate it. You are a kind girl. And a startlingly clever one, no doubt you have your father's genes to thank for that," Trelawney waffled on as they climbed, heading in the direction of her tower quarters.
This was not what Luna had in mind at all and goodness only knew what Severus would say about it but then again, what harm could come to her as long as she was with a teacher?
"Is there any word of the dear man? You must miss him so," the owl eyes were resting on her again and Luna shook her head once sadly.
"Severus.. Professor Snape says he will not stop looking until he finds out something but it has been a long time. At least it feels like it has. I do miss him," Luna found it a relief to be able to talk about Xenophillius to someone else, someone who knew him.
And so, she reached a decision. She acquiesced and allowed herself to fall into step beside her teacher, accompanying her to her tower eyrie. She would ask Trelawney to take her back to the Ravenclaw dorm in a little bit so that Severus could pick her up there as agreed. Meanwhile, she could keep her company, it seemed to be having a calming effect on her already, having someone to talk to. Truthfully, it was nice feeling useful and being connected to something from her life before Hogwarts.