Chapter Thirty Seven
The first of January 1998 was clear, bright and cold. It was a pleasant cold, though, one that was crisp and spoke of promise.
Harry, Draco and Hermione, their resolves hardened from seeing people at the solstice, walked up the very, very steep hill to where they hoped Luna's house was.
Harry remembered being told once that you could see it from the Burrow, so the three of them had spent a good three hours walking up and down all the hills that were in view from the Burrow.
They had long given up talking, focusing all their energy on putting one foot in front of the other and not letting their lungs explode from lack of oxygen as their muscles screamed.
All three of them breathed a sigh of relief once they knew they had finally found the correct house; it had to be. No one else's house could possibly look so strange. It was huge, and jet black while being completely round in shape.
"It looks like a chess rook." Harry said, breathing heavily.
They all flopped down onto the ground now that they knew they'd found the place so they could catch their breath. Hermione passed around a bottle of water. They made sure they looked neat enough in the 'Daphne' mirror before walking quickly towards the strange house.
Outside they could see a surprisingly neat garden on the other side of a broken, wooden gate. Two signs hung flimsily from the gate, one saying that the editor of the Quibbler lived here, the other saying you could pick your own mistletoe.
The garden smelt lovely and fresh, even though it was mostly filled with bare bushes and trees given the time of year. It was, however, clear that once spring and summer came along the garden would be bursting with life.
The three of them walked up to the large, black door that looked rather terrifying as it was studded with nails, making it look like it had come from the tower of London a few hundred years ago. It had a large metal door knocker shaped like an eagle that looked even older than the door, but was polished to a brilliant shine so was clearly well loved and cared for.
"Luna is a Ravenclaw." Draco said, pointing to the knocker, procrastinating, "She told me once that all her family had been Ravenclaws, going back centuries."
"What time is it?" Harry asked. He didn't want to be arriving too early and they'd set off as soon as it was light.
"A little after half ten." Hermione said, trying to smooth down her bushy hair.
Harry closed his eyes and took a deep breath before stepping forward and using the eagle knocker to knock loudly on the door three times.
They could hear movement inside, and faint singing. They took a step back from the door as they heard footsteps coming towards them from inside and the door flew open.
"So sorry!" Xenophilius Lovegood said, brushing his candy floss like hair with one hand and trying to eat cereal with the other, meaning he had to ignore the spoon and just slurp the cereal from the old china bowl, "Late night last night, working on the… bless my soul…"
The only half empty cereal bowl and hairbrush clattered loudly to the ground.
"Hello Mr Lovegood." Harry said, as strongly as he could, "We have met, but I looked like someone else… did Luna…"
Xenophilius seemed to wake up a little a nodded, "Yes, yes my boy; Luna told me it was you at that lovely wedding, well, lovely until it wasn't. Come in, come in quickly!"
He hurried them all into the lovely, warm house and stuck an old kettle on an even older gas hob. The large round house was just as strange looking on the inside. Piles of books and strange items were piled up everywhere. Several large cushions dotted around next to the most well worn books.
"Luna bought it for me." Xenophilius explained, blowing out the match, "Never used it much as I tend not to drink hot drinks in the morning and by then the AGA is up to temperature and it seems to taste so much nicer coming from an old, coal stove. Tea? Or even better, I have some hot chocolate in here somewhere…"
Xenophilius dug through some of the very full cupboards before pulling out some very expensive looking hot chocolate. The sort that Lily would only bring out at Christmas and Narcissa would have out everyday. Xenophilius flicked his wand at the kettle, effortlessly turning the water to milk.
"Mr Lovegood-" Harry began.
"Xenophilius." he corrected, "I told you that you could call me that at the wedding."
"Xenophilius, I know things have been very confusing and worrying…" Harry said, unsure how much Xenophilius knew about what was going on at school, "but we wanted you to know that Luna is safe."
"Oh… I know." Xenophilius said blankly, "I got a letter from her, just after your friends managed to get her out of the school. She explained that she was staying somewhere with no magic, but she was with friends and she was safe. That I wasn't to worry, even though she knew that I would anyway and that I was to keep publishing support for you, even though it nearly got her into trouble. I get the odd update, she smuggles me information about the school and what she'd been up to, but I don't know where she is so I can't send anything back. They always come like this as well, with muggle stamps on."
Xenophilius showed Harry one of the letters before tucking it back safely in his robe pocket.
"I'm really glad she was able to get word to you." Harry said, breathing a sigh of relief.
Xenophilius brought them over four mix-matched mugs of thick, rich hot chocolate and settled himself on the chair across from them.
"This is lovely." Draco smiled, "Thank you."
"You are very welcome." Xenophilius smiled, "Anything I can do to help, and it is a very cold morning out there. You must have been walking a while, your cheeks are all red."
"Speaking of help…" Harry said, before Hermione cut him off.
"What's that necklace?" she said quickly.
"This one?" Xenophilius asked, with slight confusion, holding up the one he was wearing.
Hermione nodded, digging around in her bag.
"It's the symbol of the Deathly Hallows." Xenophilius explained, "It comes from the tale of 'The Three Peverell Brothers' -you know it of course."
Harry, Hermione and Draco all nodded. It was an old wizarding fairy story. Draco and Harry had studied them in lessons with Mrs Ijewsky, as well as the Brothers Grimm stories, and as a result knew them by heart.
"I've never seen that symbol though." Draco frowned, "Or heard them called the Deathly Hallows, although it's a pretty good name for them." Draco was the proud owner of one of the first editions of the book, published in 1472 and passed down through his family ever since.
"It's in mine." Hermione said, finally pulling out the correct book, "But it's not… look, someone inked it in."
"That is very interesting." Xenophilius said, leaning forward, "Who gave you the book?"
"Dumbledore left it to me." Hermione said, seeing the disapproving look from Xenophilius, "I'd never gotten to read them before, being raised as a muggle."
"I wouldn't have thought of Dumbledore as someone who would have believed or hunted for the Hallows… but then you shouldn't judge." Xenophilius said seriously, nodding to himself, "I have spent many, many years learning about the Hallows, the Elder wand is the easiest to track, of course, but even that has been missing for many years now."
"What would you do with them?" Draco asked softly, "If you could find the Hallows?"
Xenophilius gave them a sad smile, "I'd use them to see my Pandora again, to let Luna talk to her mother, if only for a little while." he lay his hands in his head for a moment, tears splashing down onto the paperwork that littered the coffee table, "I wanted to say thank you again, a true and deep thank you. I don't know what I would of done to keep my Luna safe, so thank you and your friends for not making me have to find out."
"You would of tried to protect her, of course." Harry said, unsure of how best to comfort him.
"I would die for Luna, every parent would for their child…" Xenophilius shrugged, wiping away his tears, "It's what else I would have done that worries me."
"Dying wouldn't have been enough?" Hermione asked, giving him a nervous laugh.
Xenophilius gave her a kind smile, "Don't fear dying to protect someone you love, the brave will always live forever, fear hurting people along the way."
Harry let the weight of his words sink in for a moment.
Xenophilius smiled and clapped his hands together, "Anyway, enough of me crying and making a show of myself."
"We don't mind." Draco assured him.
Xenophilius's smile grew, creating crinkles in the corner of his eyes, "That is very kind. Is there anything I can do to help you? Post letters to home maybe? I have a wonderfully reliable owl, will take the eyes out of anyone who tries to stop her. Just let me know, it really is the least I could do."
"Actually…" Harry said forward and cleared his throat, "There is something we needed to ask of you, but it's a little more risky than just posting some letters."
"Although I do have several to send to Viktor, if you're up for that as well." Hermione put in.
"What is it?" Xenophilius asked, "As long as my Luna is safe I don't care."
"We need you to write a false, well a sort of false, story in the Quibbler, and put in one of these pictures." Draco said.
He dug around in Harry's bag and pulled out a small envelope of muggle photos taken on a polaroid camera they had stolen from a shop in Whitby, leaving some money on the counter. Then Hermione had taken several pictures of Harry and Draco, with the scram sax showing clearly.
"I don't like to write untrue stories." Xenophilius scowled, "It rather goes against what the Quibbler stands for."
"We know, but it's only a little but untrue, more an exaggeration really." Hermione explained.
Xenophilius nodded, "Of course… well I wouldn't normally but this does seem very important to you. Now what do I have to write to go with these pictures?"
"That clearly either Harry or myself are the true heir of Slytherin because we have the scram sax." Draco said.
Xenophilius rubbed his slightly stubbled chin, "No, I'm sorry I just don't buy it. Neither of you two look like you could be the heir of Slytherin."
"Excuse me?" Draco snapped, pride in his pure-blood breeding bubbling to the surface.
"She could pull it off though." Xenophilius said pointing to Hermione and ignoring Draco.
"Me?" Hermione laughed, "I don't think so. I'm a muggle born apart from anything else."
"That could be good though." Harry pointed out, "It would make the Death Eaters even more angry."
"Why wouldn't you believe it of Harry or I?" Draco asked, still feeling rather insulted.
Xenophilius shrugged and stood up, walking over to one of the many bookshelves and pulling out a large, leather bound book.
"These are pictures of the known descendants of the founders, as well as a few other important historical figures but we don't need to worry about them just now." Xenophilius said, "Now, there has never been a known blond Slytherin, which rules you out and if you look at these pictures… Hermione is far closer than Harry."
Draco looked over the pictures and nodded, "Fine… But Harry looks just like a young You-know-who."
Harry shrugged, "That comes from Tom Riddle though, not Merope Gaunt."
"We don't have any pictures of me though." Hermione pointed out.
"I can take some." Xenophilius shrugged, "Pop up to Luna's room and have a rest while I write out a rough version of the article. I'm sure she wouldn't mind you wearing some of her good robes, we'll get you all dressed up and I'll take some pictures of the three of you. It'll have more impact with all three of you in them anyway."
Harry, Hermione and Draco nodded. They finished their hot chocolates while Xenophilius was typing away on an old fashioned typewriter, clearly off in his own little world as he mumbled odd sentence fragments to himself.
Luna's room was up a long twisting staircase and then a ladder to the very top of the house.
"Wow." Draco said, looking around at the mass of paintings on the walls.
They didn't move like magical pictures did but they were magical in their own right. Harry, Hermione, Draco, Pansy, Daphne, Neville, William and Cho beamed down at the three of them, all linked with golden chains made up of the word 'friend' painted hundreds, if not thousands, of times in Luna's perfect handwriting.
"I really miss her." Draco said, smoothing his fingers over his painted face, "I'm glad she's safe but I miss her."
"Do you think we're safe?" Hermione asked, looking around, "It all seems like he's being a little too helpful."
Harry thought back to the many times his family had fought for him, his mother refusing to stand aside as she was nearly killed by Voldemort, them all coming to his rescue at the Battle of the Ministry in fifth year, "No. He just really loves Luna. We should get some sleep. I honestly think we're completely safe here but we can take it in turns if you'd like."
It was still early in the day but their early start and the miles they had walked that morning had left them all in need of a good nap.
Hermione yawned and shook her head, "It's fine. We'll stick some of these cans on the trap door, that way if anyone come in it'll wake us."
Harry and Draco nodded their agreement. The three of them curled up on Luna's very squishy and comfortable bed and fell quickly asleep.