𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐬 | l. lovegood

xl

𝐃𝐎𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐀'𝐒 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐎𝐍 𝐋𝐔𝐍𝐀'𝐒 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃𝐄𝐑 as they sat outside with Hermione. She shivered when the winter wind blew, and Luna pulled her closer.

It had to be December. January at the very latest. Besides having no idea what day it was or where they were, what Dorothea missed most about home were the homemade meals her mother would make. She missed laying in bed as her sister read to her. She missed cuddling with her pet pig and sneaking him bits of her food under the table at dinner time. She missed outings with her father to Muggle shops – something that she'd never be able to do again.

How were her mum and sister holding up? Were they worried that she had met the same fate as her dad? Was the Order out looking for her? And what about the Death Eaters? Surely by now they had to know she was double crossing them after Yaxley saw her at the Ministry. Would they track down and torture her family for information on where she was so that they could kill her?

"You're worrying again," Luna whispered. She kissed Dorothea's temple and took her hand, entwining their frozen fingers.

"I have a lot to worry about." Dorothea leaned further into her girlfriend's body, seaking the warmth radiating from it. "And you do, too. Your dad is probably as scared for you as my mum is for me."

"Yeah." Luna sighed softly. "But he'll be okay. He must know I'm safe since Potterwatch hasn't reported my death."

Would Potterwatch even know if they were dead? How were they getting the information on the missing witches and wizards, anyway?

"I just wish there was some way we could send messages home so they'd know we were alive," Dorothea whispered, shutting her eyes to hold back tears.

"I know, love." Luna wrapped her arms around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head. "We'll see them soon. I know we will."

"Hermione!" Harry rushed out from the tent and over to the three girls, a golden Quidditch Snitch in his hand. "You were right. Snitches have flesh memories, but I didn't catch the first Snitch with my hand. I almost swallowed it." He sat down across from Hermione and handed her the Snitch. She took it and examined the writing that had appeared.

"'I open at the close'," she read.

"Yeah. What do you think that means?"

"I don't know."

"What's the close?" Dorothea questioned.

"No idea," Harry replied.

"I found something as well." Hermione opened up to a page in the book she was reading. Luna and Dorothea moved closer to her so that they could see. "At first, I thought it was an eye, but now I don't think it is. It isn't a rune. And it isn't anywhere in Spellman's Syllabary. Someone inked it in." She pointed to a drawing of a triangle with a line and a circle inside of it. "It isn't part of the book. Somebody drew it."

"Luna, your dad was wearing that at Bill and Fleur's wedding," Harry recalled. "Do you have any idea what that might be?"

"It's the sign of the Deathly Hallows, of course," Luna replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the whole world.

Before she could go into further detail, Hermione asked, "Why would someone draw it in a children's book?"

"I've been thinking," Harry said as Luna was opening her mouth to explain about the Deathly Hallows. Her shoulders slumped, and a soft sigh left her lips. Dorothea gave her a small I-know-how-it-feels smile and squeezed her hand reassuringly. "I want to go to Godric's Hollow. It's where I was born, it's where my parents died..."

Hermione sighed. "That's exactly where he'll expect you to go, because it means something to you," she said as she stood up.

"But it means something to him, too, Hermione. You-Know-Who almost died there. I mean, isn't that exactly the type of place he'd be likely to hide a Horcrux?"

"Unless that Horcrux is somehow you, I don't think you'd find anything there," Dorothea said. "This trip sounds like a suicide mission."

"This whole hunt is a suicide mission," Hermione stated, sighing again. "But Thea's right, Harry. It's dangerous...But even I have to admit, recently I've been thinking we'll have to go there." They began to walk back to the tent. "I think it's possible something else is hidden there."

"What?" Harry questioned.

"The sword. If Dumbledore wanted you to find it but didn't want it falling into the Ministry's hands, where better to hide it than the birthplace of the founder of Gryffindor?"

Luna and Dorothea exchanged a look. They both had a bad feeling about going to Godric's Hollow, but who were they to argue against the older teens? They packed their things into Hermione and Dorothea's bags before Apparating away.

As they walked through the snow-covered street, Christmas music could be heard. Harry spotted a cemetery and asked Hermione if he thought his parents would be in there. She said that she thought they would be, so the four of them went in to investigate.

"I don't like cemeteries," Dorothea whispered, holding tightly to Luna's hand as they entered. Her older sister was a huge fan of horror movies, and she'd seen enough with creepy shit that took place in a cemetery to send fear coursing through her veins every time she was near one.

Hermione brushed snow off of one of the headstones, revealing an engraving of the Deathly Hallows symbol. She brushed off more of the snow to reveal a name. "Ignotus Peverell...Hey, Luna?" she called out to the blonde.

Luna glanced up from the animal tracks she was looking at. She skipped over to Hermione, her fingers still laced with Dorothea's. "Yeah?"

"Do you know if the Peverell family has anything to do with the Deathly Hallows?"

"Well, they did inspire the Tale of the Three Brothers and were believed to be the original owner of the Hallows," she told her.

Hermione hummed softly. She spotted Harry staring longingly at a gravestone, and they made their way over to him. Hermione took out her wand and waved it in a circular motion, a flower wreath appearing at the grave of Lily and James Potter.

The four stood in silence for a moment. Dorothea noticed someone watching them, and she alerted the two older teens. Harry said that he thought he knew who that was and followed her. Dorothea reached for Luna's hand, holding it tight as the strange woman led them down the street.

The woman – Bathilda Bagshot – led them into one of the houses. Harry helped her light a candle. He used the still lit flame to get a better glimpse at the photograph of a young man on the mantle. When he asked Bathilda who it was, she didn't reply.

"I have a really bad feeling about this," Dorothea whispered to Luna and Hermione.

"So do I," Hermione agreed, her voice quiet. She cast an uneasy glance towards Bathilda as she led Harry upstairs. "You two stick close to me, alright?" She muttered Lumos, and her wand tip lit up.

While they waited for Harry to return, they looked around downstairs. Hermione found a copy of the book that Rita Skeeter had written about Dumbledore, which she put into her bag to read later. Luna followed the sound of flies buzzing and pushed open a door, her eyes widening in terror at what she saw. Hermione lifted her wand light, illuminating the blood that stained the ceiling.

"Harry!" she cried out. She rushed upstairs, Dorothea and Luna following. They found Harry in a room, Voldemort's snake, Nagini, attempting to attack him. Hermione shot a spell at the snake, blasting it through the rotting floorboards.

"Is it...dead?" Dorothea asked, slowly creeping over to where it had fallen. She screamed when it launched back up and fell backwards onto the floor. She backpedaled, and she felt Luna's arms wrap around her, pulling her up.

"Confringo!" Hermione shouted, blasting Nagini out the window. She grabbed onto Harry and Luna's hands, Dorothea placing hers on top, and Apparated them away.