Chapter 20
DISCLAIMER - None of these delightful characters are mine, all belong to JK Rowling.
And so, here we are, the penultimate chapter!
Morning light streaming through her bedroom window, clear and thin did little to make the events of the previous night seem any less bizarre and distasteful to Luna. She sat up in her bed and at her feet, Galahad purred and regarded her with his amber eyes. Severus did not usually permit her to have the cat in her bedroom but had made an exception last night.
Her guardian was at his customary place at the table when she went for breakfast. He was solicitous and kind but seemed sort of restrained, coiled. He did not succeed in hiding from her the fury that blazed behind the guarded expression he wore.
He informed her that the Headmaster would be visiting and sure enough, barely had they finished the meal than Dumbledore flooed into the livingroom. He stepped out from hearth, clad in robes of garnet and indigo. He adjusted his silver spectacles on his crooked nose and smiled benevolently at his Master of Potions and Luna.
"Good morning Luna, Severus. I trust I have not disturbed your meal," he said graciously.
Snape rose to his feet, shook his head once.
"Headmaster. Word of Crouch?"
The clipped tone was further proof to Luna's ears that the Professor was holding back a scalding flare of anger, caged behind short temper and intense focus.
"Alas, no. Searches of the school have revealed no trace. I have informed the Azkaban guards but as far as they are concerned, the balance has not shifted. One was sentenced. The sentence was completed. One wretched soul is much the same to them as another," Dumbledore wrinkled face looked as grim as Luna had ever seen it.
"Luna, you were very brave last evening. It takes quite some fortitude to maintain calm in the face of such uncertainty," his eyes sparkled warmly at his young student.
Luna gave him an answering smile but her eyes flickered to her guardian, standing stiffly and looking far from appeased.
"However, there is some news. The real Sybil Trelawney returns to the school this afternoon. The dear woman is safe and well. She was most distressed that her owl outlining the plans for her trip and absence at the start of term never reached me. She has been quite in the dark about the rather sinister turn of events here," the older wizard supplied.
"How admirable this latest proof of that far reaching sight!" Snape's undertone brought the sharp blue eyes to him.
Dumbledore said nothing and the Potions Master did not push further but he had made his point.
"Luna, though I regret intruding, I must ask for your account of last night's events," the Headmaster said.
So, she recounted once more the encounter with the Sybil imposter, lifting her face to bestow a look of the deepest gratitude on Snape as she spoke of his arrival.
Snowy eyebrows came together and Dumbledore looked at her keenly.
"Young Mr. Crouch asked you about Harry's cloak and a wand, Luna?" he asked.
Luna caught the way the Headmaster's eyes lifted to her guardian's over her head as she nodded and repeated Crouch's frenzied ramble. This was a significant detail then, but neither man offered any explanation. Instead Severus lowered his cloaked eyes to hers.
"At least we have solved the mystery of how that elf was getting in to the castle. Crouch was her way in. She was supposed to be watching over him and he needed to keep her from his father or else Crouch Senior would know his whereabouts," he said.
"Poor Winky," Luna imagined the little creature's fear and desperation and it made her heart feel heavy.
Predictably, Severus' lip curled and his face was empty of an answering sympathy.
"When Professor Trelawney returns I would like to be informed. I think we could use a little chat," he said and Dumbledore dipped his head.
"Of course, Severus."
He stepped back to the hearth.
"I will let you know immediately."
Bright colours mingled, a noise like dry autumn breezes chasing leaves and he was gone.
In the lingering silence, Severus looked down at the blonde head of his young charge. So much for one so tiny to absorb, he thought, tumult upon tumult. She was unsure of herself now, sensing his own sour mood. The weight of guilt at what had been visited upon her, how ineffective he had been at preventing it pressed heavily on him. It stirred impulses that were almost second nature to him, fierce and bloodthirsty.
She perceived it and that made him feel bad too. So he deliberately brought a lighter expression to his face.
"I think some time with your friends is well deserved, young lady. I am sure Mr. Longbottom would like evidence of his own eyes to reassure him I haven't stunned you and stowed you in my dungeons!"
"And speaking of friends, I think that the coast is clear now and it is safe for you to return to the Ravenclaw dorm whenever you are ready," he added.
She looked cheered and her smile was bright this time.
"We can still have supper in the week?"
He nodded.
"I'm not evicting you like a bad tenant, silly child! Come and go as you please," his own smile had genuine amusement this time.
Though Luna's mind still felt clouded with too many thoughts, she was reassured to see Severus smile at her. So he wasn't entertaining thoughts of wringing her neck or hexing her into the middle of next week. She decided to find Neville as he suggested and Gertrude would be delighted that she was moving back to Ravenclaw.
He watched her skip out of his door and she looked like a very small girl going into a very big world. Snape shook his head as though trying to physically evacuate whimsical ideas. It may well be no thanks to him but Crouch was long gone and Luna was safe. Time for her to be a student enjoying school and for him to be a Professor again.
He would talk with Trelawney, find out what, if anything she knew about the Crouch family secrets and then he would have to find a way to put his own wretched sense of his shortcomings to one side. The child deserved a guardian who could allow her a childhood. It was the very least she was owed.
By early afternoon he was once again in the claustrophobic cloister of the Divination tower. Surrounded by the muted light of the shaded lamps, the clutter of the soft cushions, the Head of Slytherin cut a commanding figure, looking almost solid in his robes of deepest black. Sybil Trelawney fluttered about the room, unused to company in her solitary domain and uncomfortable at the waves of tension that flowed from her guest.
"Severus, it has come as a great shock," she shook her head, beads strewn around her neck making a dull rattle.
"Mrs Crouch was one of my most loyal clients. Very respectful of the whims of Fate. My word was her guide. I have never been so confused," she confessed.
It was a measure of Snape's control that he managed to stop himself rolling his eyes.
"The inner eye sees far and much but the deceit of a confidante, clouds upon the very sensitive orb. Such treachery skewed even the Sight," her wispy, sing song lilt went on and on.
"So you noticed no difference in Mrs. Crouch?" he interrupted her warbling tale.
"None," she admitted.
"So we cannot be sure of how long Crouch Junior was existing out of Azkaban. He let people like you see him in the guise of his mother, thanks to the polygenic, just enough to ensure no-one suspected a thing," Snape surmised.
"I truly believed Mrs. Crouch gave me that ticket as a show of her friendship and gratitude. Oh if I had paid more attention to the ides, I may have found out!" Sybil wrang her bony hands, looked skywards as though looking for the faulty omen bearer.
"It was Bartemius. A convenient way of getting you out of the way and securing a foolproof ticket to this school," Severus ground out.
He was sorely tempted to point out that it was not the ides she should have been paying heed to but he held the sharp words in check. Instead, he issued a curt thanks to his scarf clad colleague an turned to take his leave.
"I knew poor dear Xenophillus had a heavy heart. Little did I know the sinister forces that besieged him!"
The whispery lament stilled Snape's retreating steps. He looked back, brows drawn together, his attention fully alert.
"Lovegood? You have seen him?"
Caught by the urgency in his tone, Sybil pushed her rounded glasses higher on her nose and dipped her head in a nod.
Feeling his fingers curl from the force of his desire to grab the woman and shake the answers he wanted out of her, Severus bore down on her, a torrent of impatient exigency.
"He is alive?"
"Of course, Severus."
"Might you be interested in telling me where he is?" Snape's jaw clenched.
"He was driven from his home, forced to protect dear Luna from an enemy seeking a secret he knew he had to safeguard. He port keyed to me while I was on my little sabbatical. A hurried and rather frantic visit. He gave me this to pass to Luna and swore me to absolute secrecy about seeing him," Sybil said, extending a hand that trembled quite a bit, clutching a small scrolled parchment is her fingers.
Snape took it, holding the small scroll in his fingers. Then, he pocketed it and without a word, turned and swept from the tower.
Luna was sitting on the edge of a fountain in the courtyard, her Ravenclaw friend beside her, both giggling as they transfigured little bits of coloured parchment into little flying birds. The Gormley girl's smile dimmed as she caught sight of swiftly moving form of the Head of Slytherin approaching.
Luna looked up and gave him an inquisitive look.
"Professor Snape. Sir, is something wrong?"
She caught the expression on his face and concern clouded the viridian eyes.
"No. But I would like to talk with you. If you would excuse Miss Lovegood?" he turned to address Gertrude, polite words little disguising that she really did not have a choice.
But Gertrude was already on her feet, stuffing the little parchment pieces into her pocket.
"Yes, Sir. Uh catch you later, Luna."
Gone as though her feet couldn't carry her fast enough, Gertrude's retreat had Luna looking into his face, waiting though she knew that something serious had happened. He had not yet spoken a word, something told her the world was already shifting
"Come, child, I have something you need to see," he led her to his quarters, not speaking further.
Luna' heartbeat kicked up several notches. In her experience, when adults struggled at saying what was on their minds, nothing good came of it.
He held his hand out to her, a roll of sealed parchment sitting on his palm.
"It is from your father," he said but Luna had already recognised the writing. The quickening of her heartbeat suddenly threatened to turn to actual pain.
She stared, making no move to take it from him.
"You found him," the words didn't sound like her own. The voice didn't sound like her own.
"Not exactly. Sybil Trelawney was given this note to pass to you. She told me your father spoke with her in India."
Snape watched her staring at the note as though waiting for it to ignite in his hand. He saw the warring emotions play on her face, the desire to see what it contained, fear that it was not what she wanted it to be.
"Would you like some privacy, Luna?"
She looked into his eyes.
"No. It's just so unexpected."
At last, she lifted the scroll, turned it over, reverentially broke the seal.
He turned and walked to the mantle, giving her a little space as she unrolled it, letting her eyes scan down the writing.
He looked into the empty grate of the fireplace, wondered why the man had sent this scant communication through another party, after waiting for so long. Was it so easy for him to forget that he had an eleven years old daughter? That she might need more from him to help her face the world than a few lines in a hastily scribbled note?
Several moments' of silence and he could bear it no longer, he turned to see her face, hoping for clues to her reaction there. Predictably, Luna's expression was unperturbed. She let her eyes rest on the words before her a few beats longer and then she extended it to him.
Snape read it, his eyes scanning the content in a second, his mind taking a little longer to process what it meant.
"Being in hiding is better than being dead," Luna said.
He heard the disappointment she was disguising with bracing words. Lovegood was not returning, at least not while Bartemius Crouch remained at large. Of the second part of the letter, neither made reference.
Snape wanted to speak words of comfort, words that would soothe the feelings he knew she was valiantly making light of but he had no gift for solace.
Instead he placed a hand on her shoulder, resting it there briefly as he returned the parchment. Then, he returned to stand stiffly before the hearth, retreating in his mind also to search for the right thing to say.
"Aunt Lorenza is not really my aunt. She was married to my great uncle but he died," Luna said into his silence.
To Luna, even the name sounded old and forgotten and somewhat dusty, like old clothes stored in the attic. She had not thought of Aunt Lorenza in many years, the memory of her faint and dim and devoid of warmth. Luna barely remembered Lorenza, as she could recall, there was a family gathering, a rare event in the disjointed Lovegood clan. Luna had been very young but the fierce old woman in a long black dress stayed at the edge of the memory. A harsh laugh, a long, gnarled stick of shiny ebony, hurtful words.
"Take those daft looking things off your head, girl! You look like a crazed duck!"
Luna remembered her saying that, had never forgotten the pang of humiliation that she had felt upon hearing them although she had not known why. She had been wearing the coronet of dove feathers that had belonged to her mother. Luna had loved that garland, the feathers were the purest white and so soft and interwoven with pearls of the palest shade of pink. Wearing it had made Luna feel very grown up and elegant until her aunt had spoken and laughed that ugly laugh.
"She makes no objection to you moving in with her, though. Your father states he had spoken with her and he seems certain that the arrangement is safe and to his satisfaction," her guardian's summary was accurate and betrayed nothing of his thoughts.
The letter had stirred a curious mixture of feelings in Luna. There was relief that her dad was alive but disappointment that he was not coming back. For months now, Luna had longed for word of him, any scrap of information would have driven back the fear and doubt and worry. Yet now, there was this letter and instead of delivering the expected peace of mind, it seemed to heighten her loneliness.
And then there was Aunt Lorenza. Her father wanted her to go to live with that sour and unrelenting old woman! How could that be? Severus was the best friend she had ever made, he had given her a second home, for home it was to Luna now and she was supposed to leave? She let the parchment fall to the table, did not look at it again after it had slipped from her fingers.
"She lives in Brighton but I have never been to her house," Luna said.
"I am sorry, Luna."
She nodded and turned away. She went to her room, closing the door quietly behind her and lowered herself onto her bed. She no longer wished to return to her friends. She really wanted to be alone. Severus had not said she could stay here. Somehow she thought he would dismiss the suggestion that she would be bundled off to Brighton but he was completely accepting of the .
new arrangement. Nor had he asked what she thought of it.
A small voice inside her head mocked her for being so babyish. Why should he ask what she thought? It did not matter, not to Severus, not to her father, not to anyone. A decision had been made and that was that. No doubt the Professor would be relieved to have a responsibility he had never sought lifted from him. Of course he would be. He had gone far above the call of duty for her and now, he could go back to his life with a clear conscience.
Come Christmas, she would be on her way to Brighton and in the meantime, she would go back to the Ravenclaw dorm. He wasn't throwing her out, just as he had said. He did not have to afterall.
Luna lay down, rolled on her side, studied the wall by her bed. When a quick tap sounded at her door, she stayed quiet and when she heard it open, she still did not turn around. When the Professor called out softly, she pretended she was sleeping. He waited and then she heard the door close with a soft thunk,
Severus paced back up the hallway, a scowl on his face. He knew he had handled that poorly, Luna had reeled before his eyes as though from a body blow. He should have been prepared with some reassurance for her. The truth was, he felt he had been dealt a blow himself.
One thing was for sure, there were no circumstances under which he would allow the child to leave his care without knowing more about the person to whom she was entrusted. He exited his quarters, bound for the Headmaster's office, resolved to informing him of the development and of his intent to portkey to Brighton first thing the following morning.