Valentina never prepared herself for so much loss in one lifetime.
Let alone in a lifetime she has barely grown old in.
But with loss comes love.
Now the question is: how far will that love go?
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•┈••✦ ❤ ✦••┈•
"Keep off the dirigible plums," I read the sign next to the door as the four of us stand outside Luna Lovegood's house. "Can you eat them?"
The door opens before anyone can answer me and Luna's father looks at us confused. "What is it? Who are you? What do you want?"
"Let's just skip the hello's then," I mutter, and Harry pinches my arm.
"Hello, Mr. Lovegood," Harry announces himself from behind me and I move out of the way as he climbs up the steps. "I'm Harry Potter. We met a few months ago. Could we come in?"
Xenophilius silently opens the door and walks away as we step inside and follow him into the living room. He points to the seats and then walks away, and I sit down next to Monie.
"For some reason, I was expecting the house to have more...color," I whisper to Monie as I look around the room.
Xenophilius walks back into the room with tea and sits down on the seat near Harry, staring down at his hands as Monie hands me tea after serving herself.
"Where is Luna?" Monie asks as I take a sip of the mint tea.
"Luna?" Xenophilius questions. "She'll be along. How can I help you, Mr. Potter?"
"Well, actually," Harry stammers. "It was something you were wearing 'round your neck at the wedding. It was a symbol."
"You mean this?" He holds up his necklace with the mark hanging off it.
"Yes. That exactly," Harry answers him as I feel relief rush through my body. "What we've wondered is...What is it?"
"Well, it's the sign of the Deathly Hallows, of course."
"The what?" I ask with Monie.
"The Deathly Hallows," he repeats like we are supposed to know. "I assume you're all familiar with The Tale of the Three Brothers."
"Yes," Ron and Monie answer while Harry and I answer, "No."
"I have it in here," Monie tells us and opens her bag, pulling out the book Dumbledore gave her.
She flips to a page, and I lean back in my seat as she starts reading. "There was once three brothers who were traveling along a lonely, winding road at twilight. In time, the brothers reached a river too treacherous to pass. But, being learned in the magical arts, the three brothers simply waved their wands and made a bridge. Before they could cross, however, they found their path blocked by a hooded figure. It was Death. And he felt cheated—cheated because travelers would normally drown in the river. But Death was cunning. He pretended to congratulate the three brothers on their magic and said that each had earned a prize for having been clever enough to evade him.
"The oldest asked for a wand more powerful than any in existence, so he was given a wand made of oak. The second brother decided he wanted to humiliate Death even further and asked for the power to recall loved ones from the grave and Death gave him a stone. Finally, Death turned to the third brother. A humble man, he asked for something that would allow him to go forth from that place without being followed by Death and he was given the cloak of invisibility. The first brother traveled to a distant village where, with the elder wand in hand, he killed a wizard with whom he had once quarreled. But that night, another wizard stole the wand and slit the brother's throat for good measure. And so, Death took the first brother for his own.
