zaph (zaph) wrote in axial_tilt, @ 2008-03-15 13:34:00 |
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Entry tags: | fandom:harry potter |
Crisis of Faith - Harry Potter - Luna
Title: Crisis of Faith
Author: zaph
Recipient: voleuse
Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters: Luna Lovegood
Disclaimer: Harry Potter was completely J. K. Rowling's idea and creation, and she and WB own the copyright to that, but I wrote this.
Rating: PG
Summary: Luna tries to comfort herself with thoughts of her favourite magical creatures while she's held captive.
Luna called out for Mr Ollivander, but was sure he wouldn't answer. He almost never said anything any more, despite her best efforts to cheer him up.
Not that either of them had a lot to be cheery about. They were locked together in a dark cellar somewhere, fed two daily meals of stale bread if they were lucky, and occasionally tortured, mostly on the days Bellatrix Lestrange was there. She happened to be at this particular moment, though thankfully gone from the cellar, having stormed back up the stairs screaming about blood traitors.
Luna tried very hard to ignore the pain caused by the Cruciatus Curse, but found that her usual method of suppressing pain by thinking of other things didn't seem to have much effect. When it was over, she reminded herself that at least she was alive, and that it could be worse. There could be Dementors.
She shuddered at the thought. With a wand, that wouldn't be a concern, thanks to Harry Potter. After all, she had been one of the first to conjure a Patronus in his lessons during her fourth year. But as her wand had been taken from her (stolen from her, she corrected herself) she knew she would have had to endure a continuous loop of her mother's death if there were Dementors there.
She closed her eyes and tried to think about happier things than Dementors and her mother dying. But she also had her father to worry about. She worried what the Death Eaters might be doing to him. She also worried what they might be doing to Harry and his friends, though she contented herself to know that her father must not have turned against them, since she'd surely have heard if he had been captured.
No, that's not happier, she thought. It wasn't much, but she finally cast her thoughts to the hope that she would soon be rescued. Or even just released, though she thought that was much less likely. Either way, she knew (or at least tried to convince herself) she would be reunited with her father, and they would be better for the experience in the end.
It was the most important thing her father had taught her: Stand by your beliefs and never give up hope. Well, that, and Crumple-Horned Snorkacks were real. That was important, too.
Her mother first told them about Snorkacks when Luna was five, but when she and her father insisted they take an expedition to look for them (their native home was said to be Sweden), her mother just laughed. It was true, when Luna went to Sweden with her father when she was fifteen, they didn't actually see any Snorkacks, though she was convinced she saw a horn poke out from behind a bush one time.
Luna smiled as she remembered that mother never really seemed to believe a lot of her father's theories, even the ones she introduced him to. That had always surprised her, considering how much experimental magic her mother attempted.
Luna shook her head, as if trying to pre-emptively expel negative thoughts. Putting her mind onto her mother's experiments would only make her relive the one that went horribly wrong again. She looked out in the direction of Mr Ollivander, or at least where she thought he would be, considering it was almost completely dark.
She didn't call out again, though. He had been there for so long he never stood up any more, and barely spoke, except to cry out in pain whenever Bellatrix tortured him. She considered trying to talk to him about her most recent thoughts (not the Dementors, of course, those would only be depressing) to take his mind off things. Though he had already heard the Snorkack story at least three times, and didn't believe her, either.
But to Luna, the Snorkack had become a symbol of hope. If she could believe that they really existed, despite the doubts of everyone she mentioned them to, and that she would, one day, see a real one and not just a picture her father had drawn of one, she could believe she would be rescued from the cellar.
But maybe she couldn't. Maybe she really was in a dark cellar that no one but the Death Eaters could find. And maybe Crumple-Horned Snorkacks didn't actually exist. Maybe her mother and Ollivander and Hermione and Rita Skeeter were right when they said there was no such thing. She could never prove otherwise if she never got out of the cellar.
But she didn't need proof. Her father taught her that, too. The fact that it couldn't be disproved should be enough. And it usually was, especially when she was confronted with people who demanded proof.
They had to exist. Wrackspurts and Nargles, too. If they didn't, then maybe she didn't, and Luna definitely preferred existence to nonexistence, even if her existence was currently in a dark cellar from which she couldn't escape.
No. Could escape. Would escape. She would be rescued and all the magical creatures only she and her father believed in were real, and she would get out of there and finally prove everyone wrong.
***
She was jarred back to reality by the sound of the door upstairs opening and violent footsteps pounding their way into the cellar. The room became slightly lighter and she looked over to see that Ollivander was asleep.
There were more footsteps and the door slammed again before anyone else joined them and they were plunged into darkness. It was only when she heard Ron's voice screaming for Hermione that she knew who the new prisoners were. Harry had been captured, and she hoped it came about in some way other than her father rallying his readers against him.
But she didn't have much time to think about her father's involvement. She and Ollivander had become resigned to the fact that they couldn't escape, but Ron and Harry were new prisoners, and would probably try for a while before realising it wasn't possible.
But then everything seemed to happen in an instant. After lighting Ron's Deluminator and untying them, it was barely a second before Harry spoke and Dobby quickly appeared. Before she even had time to register her curiosity at the lights floating in mid-air, she found herself Disapparating with him and Dean Thomas and Mr Ollivander.
When her feet found solid ground again, she took in the salty scent of the sea air and saw Bill Weasley coming out of a small cottage. She looked around at Dean and Mr Ollivander (Dobby had already Disapparated again) and realised they were finally free. For the first time in months, Luna felt truly alive.
And she wondered how she ever could have thought for a moment that Crumple-Horned Snorkacks didn't exist.