Chapter Thirty One
Daphne held tightly to Luna as she held her arms high in the air, leaning over the edge of the Thestral's wings. She was completely unafraid of falling, Daphne feeling the fear for her.
They landed on the other side of the forest, as the trees began to thin out, thankfully in one piece.
"So where are we going?" Luna asked, "Is this it? Because I was thinking, if I go home, that will just put Daddy in danger surely? Or more danger rather."
Daphne hopped down from the Thestral's back and held her hand up for Luna, "We're not taking you home; we did think about it, but it's the first place they'd look. And you're quite right that it would only place your father in more danger."
"So where are we going?" Luna asked, looking remarkably calmly at Daphne with her big, silvery eyes.
"Pansy, William and Cho have been camping on this side of the forest, close to Hogwarts so they can help but far enough away that they will be safe. Only major downside is that there's no magic, even the bag you've got all of your belongings in will have to be hidden away from the camp."
"Well I did always like camping." Luna said, managing to smile. Daphne was impressed with how well she was dealing with being smuggled from her bed in the middle of the night, she was sure she would be in fits of tears had the situation been reversed.
Daphne smiled back and led Luna through the trees to where the camp stood. She was shocked to see that the few tents they had been living in were now surrounding a large, wooden hut. It's roof slopped downwards nearly to the floor and was covered in thick heather.
"This is new." Daphne grinned.
Pansy jumped up from her chair by the fire and rushed over to Daphne, giving her a giant hug, "It's good to see you again. And yes, do you like it?"
Daphne nodded, "Oh yes. Not the best of circumstances but we take what we can get. I'm glad you felt the anklet start up."
"I did." Pansy said, "William suggested you'd be coming tomorrow when it got to midnight but I couldn't sleep until I saw you."
"I'm sorry to cause you a late night." Daphne sighed, "We thought it was best to bring your newest camp mate in deadest of night."
"I completely agree. Hello Luna." Pansy smiled, "Would you like some tea?"
"Yes please." Luna said, smiling back, "Umm… Was there always a house here?"
Daphne wrapped her arm around Pansy's shoulders as they all walked towards the fire. Pansy poured them all some berry tea, Titania's recipe.
"You like the house then?" Pansy beamed.
"Yes." Daphne nodded, "And this is lovely. What happened?"
Pansy filled them all in about getting caught by the centaurs and then somehow, they still weren't sure exactly how, they managed to get the centaurs to actually help them.
"Well that was a bit of luck." Luna smiled, "I don't know much about the centaurs, they tend to stay away from the Thestrals."
"I don't think anyone really knows much about the centaurs, I've learned more in the last few days than I have in any books." Pansy shrugged.
"It's very nice here." Luna said with a yawn, "I think mummy would have really liked it."
Daphne and Pansy gave each other an awkward look, unsure of what to say.
"I better be getting back." Daphne sighed, "Oh… just so you know, they've started starving kids so we might have to come for some food at times."
"Not a worry." Pansy laughed, "Sorry, it just sounds really surreal hearing you say that."
"Everything about this year is surreal." Daphne smirked, "Name one thing that is normal?"
"Me and William are together." Pansy grinned, unable to keep herself from blushing.
"And on that soppy note, I am leaving." Daphne said, pulling her tongue at Pansy, "Take care of yourself Luna, I'm sorry about all this."
Luna gave her a big hug, "Don't worry yourself over it. I'm looking forward to being away from school for a bit."
Luna smushed her toes against the rough ground, watching as Daphne vanished back into the forest, "You came straight here then? From the train?"
Pansy blinked, "Umm… yeah. We'd made a plan during the summer as we knew that this year was going to go tits-up, so to speak. We didn't have the house though, that's new. In fact we only finished the roof yesterday, we didn't even have these tents in the beginning but that didn't last long, it was awful! There are going to be two more going up over the next week or so, the outsides don't take long. The inside still has a lot of work to do though."
"I like painting." Luna smiled.
"Good to know." Pansy said, frowning a little, "I think for now we should try and get some sleep. The centaurs are always up at dawn which is hard enough when I've had a full nights sleep. I am not a morning person." she laughed, "Although I think I'll leave a note for William saying to let us sleep in until at least eight."
"I don't mind getting up early." Luna shrugged, "But I think I'd rather have a lie in tomorrow, it's been a busy night."
Pansy gave a gentle laugh, "Well lets get you tucked in."
Pansy led the yawning Luna into the hut. The adrenaline was wearing off and tiredness was seeping in, the reality of what had happened beginning to hit her like a ton of bricks.
Inside the hut was almost bare, lit by a hanging lamp which cast the whole hut in a dim orange glow. Half of the floor had been compacted into something resembling a neat dirt floor, the other half was still rough and covered in twigs from the forest. William and Cho were fast asleep in their respective camp beds under a mountain of blankets on the compacted side of the floor.
Pansy quickly set up a bed for Luna and showed her where the toilet tent was, they could do a more in-depth tour in the morning.
Pansy snuggled into William's back, her mind going over and over what had happened. Luna didn't seem to be breaking down yet but surely it was only a matter of time. Now she had time to think for a moment, it seemed like she should get up with William and Cho and explain why they had another member of their little band.
Would there be more people coming to stay with them over the months? Or years?
It was likely. From the sound of things it was only getting worse at school. Even with the help from the centaurs they weren't going to be able to support loads of students, and there was likely to be many that didn't want to give up their magic and they couldn't risk getting caught.
Pansy managed to fall asleep after an hour or so of worrying and woke sure she was going to need a nap that day.
Cho looked at Luna who was still sleeping peacefully, "Umm… what happened?"
"Daphne turned up at about half two." Pansy yawned, shaking William awake, "Luna was in danger at the school. They think she was going to be kidnapped."
"Well that all sounds very dramatic." Cho gasped.
"They couldn't take the risk." Pansy shrugged, "And I guess Luna might come in useful, she is very outdoorsy. She gets on really well with the Thestrals and she's always interesting company."
"What's Luna doing here?" William yawned, giving Pansy a hug.
Pansy patted him gently on the side of the face, "Cho will tell you, I'm going back to sleep."
Daphne awoke after nowhere near enough sleep, hoping that no one would get into trouble for Luna's sudden disappearance. There had at least been no alarms in the middle of the night.
She dressed and slapped some extra concealer on the dark circles under her eyes, no one would have been able to guess she'd been up in the middle of the night from looking at her.
She made it to the Great Hall and had filled up her plate with waffles and maple syrup before hearing the first whisper that Luna was missing.
Daphne and Neville managed not to react as Umbridge's eyes narrowed towards the name 'Luna' ringing across the hall.
She stood up and straightened her pale, baby pink robes and click-clacked across the teachers platform and down the Ravenclaw table.
Daphne adjusted her book slightly so she could see where the girls who had been talking about Luna sat, looking very worried that they had been overheard.
"Hem hem." Umbridge said clearly.
"Can we help you Professor?" one of the girls said, with wide eyes, the colour draining from her face.
"Where is Miss Lovegood?" Umbridge asked tightly, "She's normally one of the first down to breakfast, I do hope she's not ill."
"Umm… Luna…"
"Speak up, Feverfew!" Umbridge snapped, "It is not lady like to mumble."
The girl gave a nervous cough, "Sorry, Professor."
"That's better." Umbridge said gentle, giving her shoulder a supportive squeeze, "Now be a very good girl and tell me what were you saying about Miss Lovegood?"
"Just that her bed was empty this morning Professor." Feverfew said, "Her wand and all of her things are missing, but her luggage was still around her bed."
"And not one of you saw her this morning?" Umbridge asked, her voice pitch rising with every word.
"No." Feverfew said, "But it's not the first time she's been up before the rest of us… all though she doesn't normally take everything with her-"
"Well did you see her last night?" Umbridge snapped.
"Yes; she was in bed by ten, as normal." Feverfew shrugged.
Umbridge clutched at her hands, "Very well. Although I am very disappointed with all of you."
She left the scared and confused Ravenclaws to their breakfast and pounced on Snape the second he entered the Hall.
"Luna Lovegood is missing!" Umbridge squeaked.
"What on earth are you talking about?" Snape asked sharply, looking around at the students that had started to stare at them.
"She's not here." Umbridge snapped back, "And I heard the girls talking, saying she wasn't there when they woke up."
Snape rolled his eyes, "I doubt that means she's missing in Miss Lovegood's case. She often wonders around the grounds in her own little world."
"But she took her things with her! What if she heard about the plan?" Umbridge said, her voice back to squeaking.
Snape glared at her, "A little louder Dolores, I don't think that everyone in the hall heard you."
Umbridge grabbed his arm to lead him from the room but he shrugged her off, looking outraged she'd dared to touch him.
"He will be furious if she is gone." Umbridge said, panic filling every word.
"Leave it with me. Let's find out if she actually is missing before we start to panic, shall we?" Snape suggested, striding up to the teachers' table, leaving Umbridge standing awkwardly in the middle of the doorway.
"Filius, I know she is known for having her head in the clouds, but Miss Lovegood is missing." Snape drawled, filling his plate as though nothing was off, "I would hate to have anything of happened to her."
The small wizard sniffed down his nose at Snape, "I will of course keep my eyes open. I take very good care of my students don't you know."
Snape rolled his eyes and gave a sharp nod, stabbing a grilled tomato with his fork.
He wasn't used to having the teachers openly despising him and it had effected him more than he'd thought it would. The heads of house had always had a friendly-ish competition going on, and not so friendly between him and Professor McGonagall, but there was never such open hostility.
It was so bad he rarely even went into the staff room any more. When he walked passed them, or entered a room the conversation stopped, frosty looks were given. Then on top of that he had to deal with the Carrows and Umbridge being only too happy to talk to him. They revelled in being apart from the other teachers, as they said, repeatedly, most of the teachers would be gone by next year, and the rest replaced the year after that.
It would end though, everything would end. Either things would be back to 'normal' or he'd be dead.
Gemini narrowed her eyes at Umbridge's outburst, and stirred her coffee slowly.
"So Loony Lovegood has gone missing." Rodolphus smirked, "Surprise surprise."
"Go." Gemini ordered at her followers.
"But I've not finished." Millicent huffed.
"Go and eat at the other end of the table then!" Gemini hissed, glaring at Millicent until she grabbed her plate and quickly left them, "Not you, you idiot!" Gemini snapped, as Rodolphus tried to follow Millicent.
"What could be so important?" Rodolphus moaned, "It's first thing in the morning."
"Did you tell anyone about the letter from Mater?" Gemini asked.
"What letter?" Rodolphus shrugged, angrily stabbing a mushroom.
"The letter about the latest meeting!" Gemini growled, trying to control her ever bubbling temper.
"No." Rodolphus hissed back, "I never would. I don't even know exactly what it said!"
Corvus chewed his toast more slowly, neither of them had mentioned the letter to him which didn't surprise him one bit and was something he was very grateful for at that moment.
"You did burn it right?" Rodolphus spat back at Gemini, "Maybe it's your fault for a change."
"Of course I did!" Gemini shrieked, "Do not try and blame this on me!"
"Look we have no proof that anyone knew about the letter." Rodolphus said, surprised his sister has shrieked so loudly in public, even he was realising she seemed to be loosing control.
"Right, yes of course." Gemini said, forcing a smile.
"Loony Lovegood is called Loony for a very good reason. The girl probably just wondered off following a fairy or something." Rodolphus sniffed, "Now can I please go and sit with my girlfriend again?"
Corvus allowed himself a sneaky smile, they had no idea that he'd seen the letter, let alone told Thomas; and they never would.
