True Colors
Chapter 9: Guess Who
By Anne B. Walsh
Harry woke with a near-silent gasp. He lay on an old mattress on the floor of a stone-walled room, his mind spinning madly. Quirrell—the Stone—Ray—Portkey—
"If you wake up and you don’t know where you are or how you got there, calm yourself down, then think it through," Padfoot’s voice echoed in the back of his mind. "Go back over the last things you remember. It might give you a clue."
Harry focused on his breathing, on making it deep and even, and his thoughts settled with almost magical speed.
Last things I remember. We went after the Stone, because McGonagall wouldn’t believe that someone was after it, and the Floo was down so we couldn’t get a message out. Ray sang Fluffy to sleep, and Neville told us how to beat the Devil’s Snare, but not before it caught his leg all wrong and twisted his ankle, so he stayed in the key chamber while the rest of us went on. Ron played us through the chessboard but got taken, so we had to leave him there, and Ray and Zelda and I passed the troll and got into the room with all the little bottles...
"It’s a logic puzzle," Ray said in Harry’s memory, his face paler than usual in the strange light of the purple and black flames. "Are you any good at them?"
"No. You?"
"No—but I know who is." Ray set the scroll on the floor. "Go to it, Zel."
Yes, oh high and mighty master of the universe. Zelda leaned down to peruse the lines, and within a few minutes had the potions sorted out. This one on the end will get us back through the purple, she said, pointing it out with her nose. And this little one gets you onward, through the black. Who’s going where?
"I’m going on," Harry said in a firm tone. "There’s only enough for one in that thing, and if it’s Voldemort in there, I have to face him myself. You two go back. It looks like it can be shared."
"Yes, but it doesn’t have to." Ray approached the black flames. "Watch."
He stuck his hand into them. Harry sucked in a breath, but Ray’s skin remained porcelain-fair, and no sign of pain appeared on his face. "It was a gift," he said, pulling his hand out again. "Given to my dad, passed down to me. It’s why that explosion didn’t hurt me, the day Ron finally figured out Zel really could talk, and why I drink my tea so hot. I’ve never been burned in my life, and usual fire I can control, keep it from burning other people..."
"But this isn’t usual," Harry finished. "Is there any way I can convince you to go back instead?"
"Not if you’re going on, no."
You should have been a Hufflepuff, Zelda griped, coming to rub against her brother’s legs. Be careful, you two. Please. I don’t want to have to explain to Ron and Neville why I left you behind to die.
"You’re not leaving us behind to die." Harry knelt to hug Zelda. "You watch. Tomorrow morning, we’ll be laughing over how scared we were, and telling bad jokes on each other like always."
I hope so. Zelda rested her head on Harry’s shoulder and licked his ear once, then turned to Ray and reared up, placing her paws on his shoulders. They looked into each other’s eyes for a long moment before Ray gently kissed Zelda’s nose.
"I’ll see you afterwards," he said as she dropped down to all fours. "Old Auntie."
Zelda stuck out her tongue at him, which was more impressive on a wolf than on a human. Just pour the potion, you young whippersnapper.
The potion was duly poured into Ray’s cupped hands, and Zelda lapped it up and darted back through the purple flames, her muttered Coldcoldcoldcoldcold making both boys grin a bit. Then Harry picked up the smallest bottle and drained it (silently repeating what Zelda’d said), and Ray followed him through the black flames.
And Quirrell was there—Quirrell, how weird is that, we were all so sure it had to be Snape—and he pulled Ray aside and made me look in that magic mirror again, and the Stone dropped into my pocket, and I tried to hex him but he disarmed me and made my wand into a Portkey and summoned me over to him—
And now I’m here.
Wherever here is.
A questing hand found a lump still in his trousers pocket, but nothing in his robes. Philosopher’s Stone, but no wand. Brilliant.
He sighed aloud in frustration.
"Finally, he’s awake!" snapped an unfamiliar girl’s voice. "Hey, you! Want to come over here and give us a hand?"
"Don’t be rude," said another girl’s voice, but this one Harry knew. "He’s a friend of mine."
"Luna?" Harry rolled over quickly to see, by the glow of a candle stub on the makeshift brick-and-board bookcase at the end of the room, that Luna Lovegood was indeed sitting in a rickety chair at the other end of his double mattress, her ankles roped to its legs and her wrists behind her back, probably tied there. Beside her in the second of the room’s three chairs sat another girl, similarly restrained, whose furious expression and bright red hair gave him a clue to her identity.
"You’re Ron’s sister, aren’t you?" he asked her, standing up and hurrying to their sides as quickly as he could with his legs still tingling from lack of use. "Ginny?"
"That’s my name, and who might you be?" Ginny eyed him suspiciously as he went to one knee in front of Luna. "You’re no Malfoy, that’s for sure..."
"This is Harry Potter, Ginny," said Luna. "Harry, this is Ginny Weasley, but I think you knew that already."
"Yeah." Harry started untying Luna’s ankles. "I’d say nice to meet you, but I don’t think any of us want to be here. Where are we? Other than a grotty cellar somewhere?"
"Malfoy Manor, I think," said Luna, as Ginny was now blushing hard and looking determinedly away from Harry. "At least, the man who took us certainly looks like you described Ray in your letters, Harry. What animal does he control with his bracelet?"
"I don’t know, but I’d bet it’s some kind of wolf, and it’ll probably be..." Harry stopped, remembering what Ray had told him about telling other people Zelda was human. "Smart," he finished. "Smart enough to think through puzzles, and maybe even take orders, or decide not to. Which is what the collar’s for." Luna’s ankles came free, and he ducked under the dented card table beside her to work on her wrists. "But what would Ray’s dad want with you?"
"He said something about reclaiming the lost generation," Luna said, looking puzzled. "I don’t know quite what he means. We weren’t lost—we were in Ginny’s back garden, watching the gnomes, I was showing her what Dad got me for my birthday..."
"He means our parents have ‘betrayed’ us by raising us to believe Muggles are human," Ginny said, her tone low and breathy. "And he’s going to ‘fix’ us." The sneer quotes were audible. "One of us, at least. Whichever one his precious son decides he’d like to marry when he’s of age. And the other one is going to be some kind of sacrifice."
"Over my dead body," said Harry through his teeth, taking the last loop of rope off Luna’s wrists. She got up without having to be told and started walking around, flexing her fingers and rolling her shoulders. Harry scooted over to start on Ginny.
"Yes, well, I think that’s the idea." Ginny turned a little more away from Harry, though maybe that was just to present him with a better angle at her wrists. "You are The Boy Who Lived, after all. He seems to think killing you, along with whichever of us his dear Draco doesn’t want, will bring his Dark Lord back from whatever hell he’s gone off to."
"The sad part is, he might be right." Harry hissed under his breath as a fingernail snagged on a bit of rope. "Padfoot says Dumbledore doesn’t think Voldemort’s really dead—" Ginny jumped and half-turned to stare at him, and he sighed. "How am I supposed to fight him if I’m scared of his name? It’s just a bunch of letters, and it doesn’t mean anything. Not the way most names do. Like mine means ‘leader of armies.’" He snorted, unlooping the last bit of rope from Ginny’s wrist. "You two want to be an army?"
"I’d be in an army you led," said Luna, coming to sit down in her chair again. "My name means ‘moon,’ but I think you probably knew that. My mum named me, because she said the night I was conceived, the moon was full and round and so big she felt she could reach up and touch it. What about you, Ginny?"
"My full name is Ginevra," Ginny said, massaging her wrists as Harry came around to her front to work on her ankles. "Mum says it’s another form of Guinevere, like Arthur’s queen." She smiled a bit. "Dad likes to call me his little princess. But it means ‘fair one,’ and I do burn awfully in the summertime if I don’t use Mum’s sunblocking potion every day. So I guess it fits."
"What about your other friends, Harry?" Luna asked. "The ones you’ve written me about? Ron, and Ray, and Neville? Meghan I know, it means ‘pearl,’ and you call her that sometimes as a nickname, but what about the boys?"
"Neville... I’m not sure." Harry pulled the rope free from Ginny’s ankles and tossed it aside. "Ditto for Ron..."
"‘Advisor to rulers,’" Ginny said promptly. "Fred and George tease him about it all the time since he made friends with you."
Harry looked up at her in surprise. "I didn’t know that."
"He doesn’t tell you everything." Ginny’s cheeks darkened again, but she didn’t turn away this time. "And Ray—I assume that’s Draco?"
Harry nodded. "And that means ‘dragon,’ obviously, like Hogwarts’ motto. His wolf, Zelda, I think he said once it was Griselda for long, but I don’t know what that means."
"‘Patient gray one,’" said Luna. "Mum used to tell me a story about a queen with that name, who had a lot of bad things happen to her, but she was patient through it all and finally she got what she really deserved."
"Well, Zelda’s gray, all right. Patient... not so much." Harry laughed. "She can be a bit of a nag when you’re not doing what she wants."
"How can a wolf nag?" Ginny asked, frowning.
"Wait until you meet her. You’ll see." Harry looked around the room. "How did we get to talking about names? Shouldn’t we be looking for a way out of here?"
"I don’t know if there is one," said Luna. "When Mr. Malfoy put us in here, he said this room had held people for longer than either of us had been alive, and they had never escaped." She peered around curiously. "I suppose you could live in here. It does have a toilet. And I need one. Pardon me."
"You could live in here, but I don’t know who’d want to," Ginny said as Luna shut the door of the tiny cubicle, which also held a shower and sink, behind herself. "Though I suppose ‘they never escaped’ means they didn’t have much of a choice. Whoever they were."
Are, corrected a woman’s voice.
"Who said that?" Harry looked around for the speaker.
I’m outside the door, Harry, and yes, I know who you are. You too, Ginny. Please don’t shout, voices carry very well around here.
Harry ran to the door and knelt down beside it, Ginny a few steps behind him. "Who are you?" he said in a low tone. "Can you help us?"
You can call me Calpurnia, for the time being. And yes, I can help you. It’s what I’ve come for. The woman chuckled slightly. Ah, irony, how I love you. You’re in my bedroom, you two—or is it three?
"It will be in a moment," said Harry as the toilet flushed. "Are you one of the people Malfoy said had never escaped from here?"
Yes, but we’re hoping to change that tonight. With your help, Harry, and yours, Ginny, and Luna too. And several other people, but you three are important just now. Harry, I take it you don’t have your wand any longer?
"No, Quirrell took it." Harry frowned—something about this situation felt familiar, but he couldn’t place it. "I do have the Philosopher’s Stone, though. Why didn’t he take that? Or Malfoy?"
Overconfidence. It’s their greatest weakness. They have you, you have the Stone, they don’t feel a need to claim it from you just yet. Also, they’re not certain that there isn’t a spell on the Stone itself. But I am. And there isn’t.
"Which means any time they want it, they can have it," said Ginny as Luna came to join them. "Unless Harry can stop them somehow."
Precisely. Hello, Luna—
Harry blinked. Luna still had her head cocked in a listening attitude, but Calpurnia’s voice had cut off for him, and by her startled expression, for Ginny as well. "It’s not your ears," he said softly, leaning towards the red-haired girl. "She’s talking in your mind, and she can pick who she wants to hear her. It must be something only Luna needs to know."
"In my mind? How—" Ginny shook her head. "No, don’t tell me. There’s too much weird stuff going on here anyway. Is Ron all right? He has to’ve been with you, he wouldn’t have let you do whatever you did alone. Weasleys are like that."
"He should be fine, he just got hit on the head. It was a giant chess set," Harry added hastily as Ginny looked likely to laugh. "He had to let himself get taken so we could win the game and keep going, and he did."
That’s not just a Weasley trait, Calpurnia said. Prewetts do it too. Which means Ron gets it from both sides of the family.
The voice, heard again after a few moments without it, snapped into place in Harry’s mind, and he knew why the situation seemed familiar. He’d heard Calpurnia speak before, and often.
I just never knew she was real before.
What about you, Ginny? continued Harry’s dream mum from the other side of the door. What have you learned from your brothers?
"Plenty," Ginny said hotly. "Why?"
Because there’s no magic on this door. The nature of the ones who spend their time in here means that it has to be locked, and unlocked, with a physical key. Lucius Malfoy carries that key on his person at all times, and I’m magically forbidden—as is my husband, who’s closest to Malfoy most of the time—to try to steal it. But keys aren’t the only way to open locks.
She has a husband. Harry’s mind hummed, accepting the information. That must mean my dream dad is true too. But what about their kids? A brother and sister, both about my age...
"I’ll need something to work with," Ginny said, looking around the room. "Luna, do you still have that pin you were showing me?"
"I think so." Luna reached into a pocket of her robes. "Yes, here it is. Harry, you won’t have seen it, Daddy bought it for me at a junk shop in Hogsmeade, isn’t it pretty? He thinks it might have belonged to Rowena Ravenclaw herself, it’s in a style that was done when she was alive..."
Harry stared at the bronze brooch in the shape of an eagle, enameled in blue, which seemed to have been half-melted, then restored to approximately its original shape. "I don’t know about Ravenclaw," he said, "but this belongs to Letha. Or it should."
"Oh, does it? I didn’t know." Luna sighed. "I suppose I should give it back, then."
"Give it here to start with," Ginny said, holding out her hand. "I need it."
Luna glanced at Harry, who nodded. Undoing the clasp on the back of the brooch, she passed it to Ginny, who took it firmly by the main body and inserted the pin into the keyhole on the door.
"How do you know it belongs to your unfairy ungodmother?" Luna asked Harry quietly.
I beg your pardon? Calpurnia said.
"That’s just a stupid thing I call her sometimes," said Harry, trying to ignore the burning sensation in his ears. "Because Muggles call all magical things ‘fairy,’ but Letha’s definitely not a fairy. And she wasn’t there when I was born, so she couldn’t be godmother. And I thought you knew all that," he added towards the door, crossing his fingers behind his back—a strange woman living in the Malfoys’ house wouldn’t have any reason to know those things about his family, but his dream mum seemed to know all about them...
I did, but I hadn’t heard it put together in quite that way before. And I have to admit, I’m curious as to how you know it’s Letha’s brooch myself.
"Her mum’s wearing it, or one a lot like it, in some old pictures. And Letha said it went missing after her mum died and her dad took off. Actually, she said a lot of things went missing, but this is the only one I’ve heard about that’s ever turned up..."
A loud click made him jump. "And it may just have saved our lives," said Ginny, grinning. "I’ve got the door unlocked. Calpurnia, can you help us get out of here?"
You girls, yes, but Harry has to stay. The woman’s tone was flat and definite. Tonight is his best chance.
"Best chance of what?" Harry asked, accepting the brooch from Ginny and sliding it into the pocket opposite the Philosopher’s Stone.
Of doing what you’ve always known you had to do, Calpurnia said. Voldemort is here, Harry. Here, and for the first time in a very long while, he’s vulnerable. Or he will be, after one more thing is done to weaken him. Unfortunately, that ‘one more thing’ also involves you. Therefore you must be here.
Harry nodded and swallowed as silently as he could manage.
But you two, Ginny, Luna, you should go home right away, Calpurnia went on. I can get you as far as the Floo, you’re both old enough to use it alone—
"You want me to—to run away and leave him here?" Ginny bared her teeth at the door. "Weasleys don’t leave their friends behind!"
There’s a difference between courage and foolhardiness, Ginevra Molly Weasley, and I’d hope you’re old enough to see it! Calpurnia snapped back. You’re ten years old, you know next to nothing about magic, you don’t even have a wand yet—
"But we have to stay," said Luna, her voice soft but oddly penetrating as her right hand went to her left arm, rubbing at the scars her mother’s scrying bowl had left behind. "Harry will need us. The way he needed Neville, and Ron, and Zelda, to get this far. The way he still needs Ray, and Meghan when it’s over. We’re his strength, not his weakness. Or maybe we’re both. It gets tangled up."
I hadn’t thought of that. Calpurnia’s voice was musing. The power he knows not... you do know that much of it, I trust, Harry?
"Yeah." Harry was grateful he was on his knees, as no one could see how much they were shaking. "Padfoot’s told me. As the seventh month dies, to those who have thrice defied him, mark him as an equal, the whole bit."
"What whole bit?" Ginny asked.
"It was a prophecy," said Luna before Harry could answer. "Very strange, but that’s how prophecies are. It’s why Voldemort attacked Harry, because he thought Harry was the only one who could beat him. And by attacking Harry, he made it true." Her eyes searched Harry up and down, finally resting on his scar. "I think I see," she said. "I think I understand. It’s going to hurt a lot, Harry, but then it will be all over and you can be free."
"Luna," Ginny said, "you’re making even less sense than usual—and why are we still sitting in here?" she demanded suddenly, looking around. "I got this door unlocked five minutes ago, why haven’t we left yet?"
"Wait—" Harry got his hand onto the doorknob before Ginny could turn it. "There’s something about Calpurnia I think you should know. She may not look the way you’re expecting. Just don’t say anything about it, not out loud, you could set off a curse she’s under and then she’d die, and I think a couple other people too..."
Smart boy, Harry, Calpurnia said, and the soft sound of footsteps came from the hallway outside. He’s quite right, girls. Think whatever you like about me, but don’t speak it aloud. Not yet. Her mental tone had a definite feeling of long-restrained savagery to it. Not until this is all over.
"I don’t understand," Ginny began.
"You will," said Luna, standing up. "But you’re right about one thing. We should go. It’s almost time."
Harry pulled himself to his feet by the doorknob, forcing back his shivers for the sake of the girls. They were both younger than he was, less experienced with magic. He had to protect them, to keep them safe.
But I don’t have to do it alone. Calpurnia—my dream mum—she can help me, and my dream dad too, and Ray is around here somewhere, he’ll be on my side—
The knowledge steadied him, just as the presence of his friends had done through the labyrinth beneath the school to get to the Philosopher’s Stone. He turned the doorknob, pulled the door open, and stepped out into the hall.
The full-grown grey wolf bowed to him, sliding her front paws forward and lowering her head and collared neck to the floor before standing back up. It’s good to finally see you in the flesh, Harry, she said, nuzzling at his hand. Automatically, Harry rubbed behind her ears as he did for Zelda. I’m sure you hear this all the time, but you really do look just like James...
"Except the eyes," Harry finished. "I’ve got Mum’s eyes."
So you do.
"How do you know that?" Ginny asked, following Luna into the hall. "Did you know her—" The girl’s voice broke off in a gasp.
Yes, I did, Calpurnia answered anyway. But this is getting into dangerous territory. She snorted a brief laugh for no reason Harry could fathom. I understand that you’re curious—I certainly would be in your place—but please, don’t ask anything else about me, not until everything is over.
"And then we won’t need to ask," said Luna. "Because we’ll already understand."
Something like that. Luna... Calpurnia slipped between Harry and Ginny, who was still staring wide-eyed, to face the blonde girl square on. You’re positive that you and Ginny have to be here? It’s not just wishful thinking?
"Ask Harry," Luna said, looking up at him. "Would he have got to the Stone without the others?"
"I wouldn’t have," Harry supplied before he could be asked. "I don’t know enough. I can’t do enough. Not on my own. Not now, maybe not ever."
"And you’re going to have to push me into the Floo if you want me to go," said Ginny, planting her hands on her hips. Her shock at meeting a talking wolf seemed to have been overridden by her reflexive defiance of any adult who tried to treat her like a baby. "Nobody kidnaps me and gets away with it."
Calpurnia sighed. If I survive this night, your parents are going to kill me in the morning. All right. Follow me, you three. And for heaven’s sake stay quiet.
Sitting on a bed in the hospital wing at Hogwarts, Ron hugged a shivering Zelda, unsure if he was comforting her or the other way around.
I was ready for me to get hurt. Or Harry or Ray, or Neville or Zel. But not this. Not Ginny. That’s not fair. She’s just a baby—Luna too—they don’t know anything about anything, they shouldn’t have got caught up in this—
Across the room, his mum was crying, his dad holding her the same way Ron was holding Zelda...
Well, not quite. Mum hasn’t got her nose under Dad’s arm.
He looked down at Zelda. "That can’t smell very good," he said. "Are you sure you want to stay like this?"
It smells like you, Ron. That’s good enough for me. Zelda’s tail thumped twice against the bed, then stilled. I can’t hear Ray. It’s too far from here to wherever he is, and we’re not closely enough linked. I’m not used to not being able to hear him, and it’s scaring me. All the more because neither of us thought, neither of us realized... She looked up at him, her brown eyes miserable. It’s my collar, Ron, it’s still on me, still active, and that means if something goes wrong tonight and Ray dies, so do I.
"No!" Ron shouted. He was half-aware that he’d just drawn the attention of everyone else in the room—his own parents, Luna’s father, Harry’s godfather and his wife, Meghan and Neville, and Neville’s parents—but he didn’t care. "Zelda, no, you can’t!"
There might not be any way to stop it. Zelda shut her eyes, pressing her head into his side. I just wanted to say thank you for being my friend. In case I don’t get another chance.
"Don’t talk like that!" Ron shook her, then thumped his open hand against her back. "You’re not going to die! I won’t let you!"
"Ron," said his dad’s voice.
Ron looked up. The other people in the room had formed a ring around him and Zelda. They were all watching him with concern, except Neville, who looked flat-out scared. Meghan was pressed against his side, staring at Zelda with wide gray eyes.
"Ron, why are you talking to Draco Malfoy’s pet wolf?" Dad went on, in the tone he used when he’d caught the twins in the middle of one of their madder experiments. "And sounding as though you expect her to answer?"
"And why would you think she might die?" Mum cut in. "She seems perfectly all right, though I’ll admit I’m no expert, but she hasn’t shown any signs of being hurt since we got here, and that was hours ago."
"She’s linked to Ray," Neville said, everyone’s eyes swiveling to him as he spoke. "Through the collar she wears. She’s supposed to protect him, so if he gets hurt, so will she. And if he dies..."
"But she isn’t with him!" Mum protested. "She can’t possibly protect him from here!"
"With that sort of enchantment, it won’t make a difference," said Mr. Longbottom grimly. "She isn’t meant to leave his side—I’m rather surprised she can, as a matter of fact. He must have ordered her to go."
"And that makes even less sense than her being able to," said Mr. Padfoot, shaking his head. "Why wouldn’t he want her to come along and protect him from whatever he and Harry were going to face?"
"She couldn’t," Ron said. "I thought we told you. In that potion room, there was only enough potion for one person to go on through the black fire, and Ray doesn’t get burned himself but it wasn’t normal fire so he couldn’t keep it off either of them, and Harry had to go on, so he drank that potion and Zelda drank the one that would get her back..."
He trailed off, seeing the sick worry in Neville’s eyes, the wondering astonishment in Meghan’s, the hooded disbelief in the adults’, and realized with a sinking feeling that he’d said too much.
Like I always do.
"And how do you know that?" asked Mrs. Letha, her arms crossed. "Since, by your own account, you weren’t there?"
The moment of silence stretched, became endless, pressed down on everyone, until...
I told him.
Zelda raised her head and looked around the circle. Please, no one say anything just yet, she added, a bit unnecessarily in Ron’s opinion, as none of the adults had yet got around to closing their mouths enough to speak. Yes, I can talk, but I can’t tell you why, nor can anyone else. Not while I’m wearing this thing around my neck. A growl of frustration, and she shook her head hard. But I can talk in riddles, sort of. And you can say things that are from the past. You just can’t say that they’re still going on. Her eyes fixed on the Blacks. Do you understand?
"No, but that’s normal," said Mr. Padfoot. "Go on—Zelda, was it?"
Yes, that’s what I’m called.
"And what is it short for?" asked Mrs. Letha, the soft intensity in her voice bringing everyone’s eyes to her. "Not—Griselda, by chance?"
Yes. Yes, it is. Zelda’s breath was coming in short pants, and her claws had begun to slide in and out of their sheaths. Ron winced and eased her paws a little further forward so she didn’t lacerate his leg.
Meghan gasped suddenly, and pulled on Neville’s arm. He leaned down to listen to what she whispered, frowned, then nodded.
"Zelda," the little girl said, looking intently at the wolf. "Do I have your old bedroom?"
Slowly, Zelda nodded.
"Oh my heavens," said Mrs. Longbottom, her eyes widening. "She can’t be—"
"I haven’t the faintest idea what’s going on here," said Mr. Lovegood. "Does anyone else?"
"I’m beginning to," said Mr. Padfoot, still watching Zelda. "I think I’m beginning to."
"It’s to do with how we got our house, Sirius and I," said Mrs. Letha. "We inherited it from the parents of a dear friend of mine. Her name—nickname, really—was Danger. Real name of Gertrude, Gertrude Granger, so you can see why she might go by the other. She was married to one of Sirius’ best friends, Remus Lupin. They both vanished during the war with Voldemort. Kidnapped by Death Eaters and never seen again. Shortly thereafter, Danger’s mother found out she was pregnant again, and she had a little girl about two months after Harry was born. They named her... I can say the name?" she asked Zelda.
As long as it’s only telling stories about the past, you can say it. Zelda lowered her head, and Ron thought he and Neville were probably the only ones who could hear the fervent I hope I hope I hope...
"They named her Hermione," Mrs. Letha said. "We used to call her Neenie. A beautiful little girl—and a month before her first birthday, her parents were killed, and she vanished. No one ever knew what had happened to her."
"Do you mean—" Mum began, staring at Zelda. "Are you trying to tell me—"
"Mum, don’t!" Ron half-shouted. "Don’t say it!"
"I won’t, I wouldn’t—but Merlin’s silken robes, how awful—and all this time—"
I’ve been all right, Zelda said softly. Really, I have. Maybe not as good as I could have been, but Ray watches after me, and I watch after him, and we get along.
"And Malfoy has an adult pair who look a lot like you," said Mr. Longbottom, his voice hard. "Would I be wrong if I made a guess about them right now?"
No, sir. Zelda dropped her jaw in a wolf-grin. They’re always happy to see you. They say you’re one of the only really good things that’s come out of what happened to them.
"Me?" Mr. Longbottom frowned. "I’m afraid I don’t see how—"
"I do," said Mrs. Longbottom, sitting down on the bed behind her abruptly, as though her knees could no longer hold her. "The tip, Frank, the anonymous tip—we’d have been asleep otherwise, helpless, we might not even have had time to hide Neville—"
"Great Merlin." Mr. Longbottom closed his eyes. "We owe them our lives."
"As do we," said Mrs. Letha, taking Mr. Padfoot’s hand. "Or at least any semblance of them worth living."
So you see, Luna’s in good hands, sir. Zelda looked up at Mr. Lovegood. Or paws, if you like that better. Ginny too, she added to Mum and Dad, and to Ron himself. And Harry—I don’t think I even have to say it. They love him like they love me, or... well, like they love me, she ended. They always have.
"Somehow I thought they might," said Mr. Padfoot. "So. Now, we wait."
"Yeah," Ron said, tightening his hold on Zelda. "Now we wait."
Author Notes:
So you see, nothing's ever really abandoned with me. Here's hoping I can get this one done sometime soon.