Be Careful
74: How You Stop Speech
By Anne B. Walsh
"So let me get this straight." Draco pointed at the leftmost column on the left-hand page of the large book lying open between him and Luna on the bed. "All this happens to him... and that makes today a good day?"
"Of course," Luna said matter-of-factly. "You have to think of things in their bigger sense, not just as what happened to one person who agreed that it could."
"I’ll let you handle that for me, thanks." Draco checked his watch. "Right now, we have a wireless program to listen to. A very important program."
Luna giggled. "Do you think anyone has guessed who Reflection is yet?" she asked as Draco pointed his wand at the wireless.
"Guessed from scratch, no. Mad-Eye," Draco added to the wireless, which spun its dials madly for a second before finding its proper setting. "It won’t have helped that Thomas thinks he knows what Reflection looks like, and it isn’t anyone he’s ever met."
"That was very quick thinking of you, to disguise yourself as Ray." Luna shut the book and set it carefully on Draco’s desk before taking a seat on the bed.
Draco shrugged. "I needed a face I knew and no one else would. He was the first person to mind."
"That doesn’t make it not quick thinking," Luna said in tones of mild reproof, scooting over to make room for Draco beside her. "But you said no one had guessed from scratch. Who did you tell, then? Besides the one I know about already?"
"Well, I didn’t tell him exactly, but he had plenty of hints..."
Neville Longbottom leaned back in his heavy armchair and listened with half an ear to the test noises Lee Jordan was making over the wireless. Most of his mind was taken up with wondering about the cryptic message he had received via Galleon the day before.
Listen to Potterwatch tell if we should worry F&G
F&G, obviously, were Fred and George, but what would the Weasley twins want to know if they should worry about? Ron and Ginny were both out with Harry, as was Hermione; Luna had been seen as recently as February alive and well; and the rest of the DA was muddling through as best they could.
With the ally I haven’t dared tell anyone about. Though I’m starting to be surprised no one else has guessed...
But people saw what they expected to see, Neville knew. He’d been as blind as anyone.
Until the day I couldn’t ignore it anymore.
The memory of that eventful Hogsmeade visit could make him smile, Neville had found, when very little else could.
Probably because that was the day I knew for sure we weren’t alone. We hadn’t been abandoned, no matter what it felt like.
Not to mention, we had friends we didn’t even know about yet...
In memory, he was running again after the fleeing Ginny, running as fast as he could but easily outdistanced by Harry, even under his Cloak, and Ron and Hermione in their Slytherin guises. Still, he had caught up soon enough to hear Alecto taunting Ginny, and Ginny’s clear rejoinder.
And I was in the perfect spot to see what no one else saw. To see the person who came pelting up, fired a Stunner around the corner into Madam Carrow’s back, and turned into a little gray furry thing before anyone could notice him.
Or so he thought.
Neville had spent the rest of that day looking back over the fall term in the light of his new knowledge. Everything fitted together so well that he was forced to conclude he hadn’t been seeing things in that alleyway after all.
So then I sent him a note—the same way he’d been sending them to us all this time, picked a fight in the hall and shoved it in his bag—asking him to meet me by the kitchens. He showed up, but he stayed in the shadows, never let me see his face. I asked him why, when I already knew who he was...
"Plausible deniability," the voice said briskly from the dark alcove in the kitchen hallway. "They already know who you are. They don’t know me, and I intend to keep it that way."
"Which ‘they’?" Neville inquired, a faint bell of recognition beginning to ring in the back of his mind. That Potterwatch broadcast the other night...
"Any ‘they.’ Pick your side." A pale-skinned hand waved negligently in the light for a moment before being withdrawn into the shadows again. "I’ve pissed both of them off pretty comprehensively, so the only thing left is for me to play one against the other."
"But you’ve picked one to be really loyal to," said Neville as the bell grew louder. "Otherwise we’d already have lost."
"How do you figure?" In skepticism, the voice regained a bit of the drawl with which Neville had heard it through six and a half years of schooling, but still retained the crisp mannerisms with which it had been disguising itself. "I’m not that important—"
"You know where Harry is," Neville interrupted. "Or where he was. If you’re not lying, and I don’t think you are."
A long moment of silence. "Well, shite," said Reflection ruefully at last. "And here I thought I’d fooled everybody."
Neville shrugged. "It was just luck, really. Hearing Potterwatch, and then hearing you, and knowing you were on our side now."
"Correction." A finger wagged at him. "I’m on my own side. Allied with you, yes, but not ‘on your side.’"
"Does it make a difference?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"It’s a Slytherin thing. You wouldn’t understand."
"Fine. But here’s a Gryffindor thing you’d better understand." Neville tightened his fists, thinking of Ginny’s tired despair, of the bruises and cuts and broken fingers and sprained ankles of the other DA members, of the fear and bewilderment of the younger students who couldn’t understand why their school had turned into a nightmare. "You seem like a friend. We need a friend. So I’m going to trust you. But if you ever give us away, if you ever decide you’d do better allied with your old side again, I will kill you. Personally. Got that?"
A long, low whistle sounded. "What happened to that forgetful little kid with the toad I used to shoot Leg-Lockers at?"
"He grew up," Neville said flatly. "Do you understand me?"
"Perfectly." Reflection stepped forward into the fringe of the light, just enough for Neville to make out the features of his face. "Shake on it?"
Neville nodded. On a whim, he spit in his palm before holding it out. The other did the same without hesitation, and their hands met, sealing the bargain.
And he’s lived up to it. He even warned us when some of the Slytherins started to get wind of Hagrid’s "Support Harry Potter" party, and suggested that he should be the one to make the official report and lead the gang out to catch us, so he could get the credit for it but be able to warn us in time to get away...
"Gooooood evening, Harry Potter fans! My name is River, and I’ll be your host this evening, because this! Is! Potterwatch!"
Neville jerked out of his memories as Lee’s voice boomed from the wireless. Hastily, he turned the volume down. Gran’d never give me away, but the less she knows the better for everyone. Besides, it’s nearly midnight...
"Tonight, we have a most interesting tidbit from two of our most frequent contributors. Before I let them go to it, I want to remind everyone that unlike most of those whose voices you hear over our broadcast, these two do not personally come to our studio to be here with us. Instead, we receive Audio Recording Spells via owl. We have spoken with one person who got to meet them, but he could only name the one most of you can probably guess for yourselves. So it’s no good asking us who they are—your guess is as good as ours!" Lee chuckled. "With that settled, I give you the lovely Radiance and Reflection the Potter Spotter!"
The coupling of the names brought Neville upright in his chair. This must be what the twins wanted to know if they should worry about...
"Good evening, Potterwatch listeners," said Reflection’s voice, more cheerful than was usual even for him. "Those of you who’ve been listening for a while have probably noticed that the lovely Radiance and I always seem to appear here on Potterwatch in conjunction."
"As much as anyone can appear on a wireless broadcast, of course," added Luna.
"Of course." Reflection laughed. "I’m sure a few of you have been wondering about the reasoning behind it, and I’m delighted to finally be able to give you an answer."
"Which is also an announcement which I hope will make everyone who knows me happy." The tone of Luna’s voice conjured her face up for Neville, smiling brightly in one of her rare moments of total focus. "It isn’t final yet, because we haven’t talked to my father—Daddy, if you’re listening, we’ll be along as soon as we can."
"But contingent on his approval," Reflection took back over, "and on circumstances of time and place coming together properly... the lovely Radiance and I are engaged to be married!"
"What?" Neville blurted, staring at the wireless. Yes, I think we might need to worry about this one.
"Luna," he said over the sounds of celebration coming from the speaker, "have you gone insane?"
What do you mean, gone? he could have sworn he heard her whisper. Besides, you trust him with your life, and the lives of the rest of the DA. Why not mine?
"Good question." Neville sat back down, wondering when he’d stood up. "But if he hurts you..."
He won’t. This answer was immediate. He never would. Not that I think Harry will believe that.
"No, he won’t, will he," Neville muttered. "And guess who probably gets to tell him..."
"Hermione?" said Harry, watching his friend’s white face. "Is there something you want to tell us?"
"Wh-what?" Hermione shook her head jerkily. "Oh. No. No, there’s nothing. I was just surprised. It’s wonderful to hear Luna’s getting married, isn’t it?"
"I’d feel better if I knew who this Reflection is," said Ron. "I don’t like the sound of him. How’s he know where we are all the time?"
"However he knows, if he was going to tell the Death Eaters where we are, don’t you think he’d have done it already?" Hermione shot back.
"Stop it!" snapped Ginny as Ron made to retort. "I want to hear what’s happening in the world, even if you don’t!"
And I want to know what it is you’re hiding, Hermione. Or maybe who. Harry kept his eyes on Hermione as Potterwatch continued, Lee listing off people who’d been killed or hurt by Death Eaters, telling stories of daring resistance and thrilling escapes. Do you know who Reflection is? Are you the one telling him where we are? I can’t believe you’d do that...
But then, I can’t see any other way he could know as well as he does.
Harry made up his mind. As soon as Potterwatch was over, he was going to ask Hermione point-blank, and keep on her until he got an answer. Ron would help, he was sure; they shared the feeling that Reflection might be dangerous, engaged to Luna or not.
Luna isn’t Dark, but she doesn’t exactly have a normal person’s view of... well, anything. And we know she was kidnapped by Death Eaters. I wouldn’t put it past her to have fallen in love with one of them.
But at the same time, she and her friend—who’s probably the same person as Reflection, though she didn’t call him that—were the ones who sent us that box. He glanced at the sword of Gryffindor, leaning against the bottom of his and Ron’s bunks as usual. And how they knew we’d be in Godric’s Hollow to get it...
Something jogged in his memory, and he reached behind him without looking. The smooth side of the white box met his fingers; he flipped back the lid and extracted Luna’s letter, bringing it around quietly so as not to disturb his friends, who were listening to Lupin talking about the current state of the Order and the DA.
Let me see... yes, here. Harry traced the words he’d thought he remembered on the parchment: Luna’s description of her unexpected friend. "The Death Eaters destroyed his family and ruined his life, so he hates them as much as we do." Voldemort kills his own followers if they fail at things, and he might not kill their family too, but they wouldn’t have an easy time of it. That’s got to be who Reflection is, someone who lost a dad or mum for an honest mistake.
Shoving away the feeling that he could go farther than that, could put a name and face to Luna’s mysterious fiancé—he could always do it later if it turned out to be important—Harry turned his attention back to Potterwatch, where one of the twins was detailing the current excursions of Voldemort to the Continent.
This is important. What’s he doing abroad? I’d have thought he’d want to make sure he had power solidified here—
Unless—
"I know what he’s doing overseas," he said suddenly as the answer flooded into his mind. "It’s the Elder Wand, he’s still looking for it, I know it—"
"What?" said Ron, looking up from the wireless.
"Oh, Harry, don’t—" began Hermione.
"You keep acting like it’s not, but I know that’s what he wants!" Harry was on his feet, pacing about the tent. "He thinks my wand’s dangerous, so he wants a more powerful one to fight me with! I’m sure of it! Vol—"
"No!" shouted Ginny, swinging her hand up in a throwing motion. Harry reeled back, feeling rather like an invisible Quaffle had just hit him in the face.
What was that?
"Ginny," said Hermione in a small voice, "did you just—"
"Oops," said Ginny, staring at her hands.
"You can do wandless?" Ron said in tones of jealousy. "I never knew—"
The Sneakoscope on the table lit up and began to spin.
Evil author is evil. Want more? Let me know soon and I might get another chapter out tomorrow!