The Lion and the Eagle {Huna}

Chapter 22

PREVIOUSLY 

I sincerely hope you find her Mr Potter, and I suggest you start either in that cave in Greece or in the national park. Because around three days after sending that last letter, she arrived in England for your Quidditch match and then was taken with no plausible reason provided.

Luna is missing, taken captive by an unknown assailant. Harry is attempting to find her and his talk to Newt Scamander revealed a few interesting pieces of information about Luna's time in Europe. Splitting from the group in Greece, Luna travelled north. Alone.

****

Harry touched the rough, wet stone and shivered. Memories of days long passed flitted into his vision before darting back to haunt his subconscious, memories of wet walls, a rock pool and bodies in water. 

Surprisingly, it hadn't taken Harry long to find the cave Luna had spent hours inside. Half of him was convinced that this was all a wild goose chase and that the cave had nothing to do with Luna's disappearance, but another part of his brain wasn't so sure. Luna wasn't the emotional type and Harry couldn't imagine her needing an hour to be alone just to contemplate her thoughts. So what had it been? A creature? Object? Rune? 

"So what exactly are we looking for?" Ron Weasley asked from the depths of the cave, his wand lit as he peered at the walls. 

"I'm not sure..." Harry admitted, "But I think it's important or significant in some way otherwise Luna would never have stayed interested for very long."

"Not sure I will either," muttered Ron, but continued searching deeper into the cave. 

Harry turned and scanned the cave. It was unremarkable at best. It was around two metres above the waves but was fairly sheltered by the rest of the cliff. The sandy and wet from the last high tide and covered with shells and seaweed. It was around the size of a small bedroom but tunnelled into the rock for some way. Harry, Ron and Hermione hadn't been searching for very long but most of the cave's surface had already been examined several times. 

"I can't see anything, Harry," Hermione admitted, looking disappointed. "And I've cast some spells and there are no charms anywhere in this place unless they're extremely well hidden."

"You can't see anything? You can't see anything..." Harry suddenly looked thoughtful, 

"Yes... I can't see anything."

"Neither mate," Ron said, joining the other two in the mouth of the cave. 

"Maybe that's our problem," said Harry, 

"That we can't see anything?" Hermione asked,

"Yes and no! We can't see anything because... because!"

"Because we're not like Luna..." Ron said, a look of comprehension dawning on his face. "So you're saying-"

"Yes!" Harry cut in, enthused that his bestfriend understood. "We have to look at the world how Luna would." All three fell silent, deep in thought. Finally, Harry broke the silence. "She was on a trip for magical creatures so what if... what if she thought there was one nearby or... or saw something!"

At that moment, Hermione let out a gasp. 

"What?!" Ron and Harry both exclaimed, 

"Nothing it's just... I felt a drip." Hermione said sheepishly, brushing her neck. All three seemed to have a similar idea. Simultaneously, their heads tilted as the stared up at the ceiling above them. A hole, perfect for a slender person to shimmy through, sat tantalizingly above their heads like a small animal burrow in the rock. The three heads tilted back down, all in agreement without a word being said. 

"Dibs not going first," said Ron. 

///

It took the three friends several attempts to all get through the hole but with a bit of luck and magic, Harry, Ron and Hermione all stood in a passageway unconnected to the world outside aside from the hole at their feet. Smooth rock walls travelled onwards into the darkness, not made by anything natural like wind and water. The three pulled out their wands, lit them, and began to walk into the dark. 

It only took the three around ten minutes to reach the end of the corridor. The smooth walls opened out quite suddenly onto a large, domed area lit by several shafts of light from other, much brighter caves. Despite the natural skylights, not much could be seen until Hermione whispered a word and a ball of light flew into the air, brightening the entire, massive space. 

An awed silence followed as the trio stared around at the walls. Every inch was covered in carvings, rune after rune spelling out impossible words and sentences. Hermione whispered part of one and Harry felt the words run through his body like ice, old magic meeting new. 

"It's incredible," Hermione whispered, her words still echoing gently around the cave. 

"It's bloody creepy, that's what it is," Ron grumbled, and Harry guessed he had also felt the words strange power when Hermione spoke him. "What do all the symbols mean?"

"I don't know them all," Hermione said, "But I think they telling a... a sort of story but made with spells rather than normal words. You can use runes for just writing but here... they're spells. If a practised linguist studied or recited this... Well, I guess we'd see the whole story."

"But why would that interest, Luna? I mean... they're markings on a wall in a big cave so what. Why stay here for so long?" 

Silence descended once again as all three considered Harry's words. 

"It mustn't've been about the runes," said Ron, eventually. "There's gotta be more in this room, I reckon."

"We'd better look for it then," Hermione said briskly, stepping away from the empty doorway they had unknowingly been huddling in. Harry and Ron followed Hermione, raising their wand light as they scoured the room. Hermione used spurts of air to clear dust from the walls to examine the runes closer, to see if they might hold a clue to why Luna had come to this place. Ron examined the floor for any footprints neither he, Harry or Hermione had made but found none in the fine layer of sand. Harry wandered off into a back corner, trying to think like Luna as he explored further from the entrance. 

At the very opposite side from the entrance, Harry looked around. Left, right, down and up. Slowly his eyes focused on a space above him, only a few feet above but hidden in the darkness. It wasn't very remarkable, there was simply a difference too it. As though someone had placed a piece of a jigsaw into a place that technically fit right but looked all wrong. Standing on tiptoe, Harry reached towards the gap and tapped the spot with his wand experimentally. It slid backwards, around thirty square centimetres of solid rock simply shrinking backwards. Behind it, sat a tarnished, ancient key and an even older, crumbling piece of parchment. 

"Guys... I think I've found something." Harry called across the room.