Brave, Blonde, Time Traveler (Luna Lovegood and Sirius Black Fanfiction)

Chapter Seven- Stone Cold Reality

Luna fell hard on the stone cold floor. It only took a brief groan from Sirius for her to know that he'd fallen too.

She sat up and, to her dismay, whacked her head against the sharp wall behind her. She rubbed her head, in hope to ease the throbbing pain she was enduring. The harsh cold was immediately clear. The room's temperature was extremely lower than that of the dungeons at Hogwarts.

It was almost completely dark. Only a slither of light flowed through a slit in the wall; giving the room an eerie atmosphere.

She heard the deep groaning from the other side of the room again. Sirius called out for her. There was a hint of desperation in his tone.

She could hardly distinguish anything around her. It didn't help that her straggly hair covered most of her face.
All she knew was that she had to get to Sirius. So she started to crawl to where she thought his voice had come from. Her heart was thumping loudly like the sound of Centaurs , charging through the forbidden forest at an alarming speed. 'Sirius I'm here. Where are you?' Silence followed. All that could be heard was shuffling and the rumbling of thunder. It was like the menacing clouds were speaking to her in a strange, long-lost language. This made navigating the room an extremely hard task. Every few feet there was another obstacle to disorientate her.
Every now and then the slit of moonlight from outside would disappear. As if things were moving outside.
Her knees dragged across the sharp ground; the skin of them was beginning to peel from the friction. Luna had no idea where she was.

A new sound entered the girl's ears. Screams- shrill and piercing.

The icy temperature was starting to affect her body. Her movements slowed. She paused briefly. The girl tried to control her shaky breathing in vain.

She reached out her hands to search for a wall. As Luna latched onto one of the bricks to lift herself up, it came away in her hands. Luna fell back to the floor. A clap of thunder scared her into moving again. The pressure of her body on her palms bruised them and caused a dull aching. Suddenly a flash of lightning lit up the whole room. It was square in shape with nothing but a pile of rusted chains.

She could've sworn that out of the corner of her eye she saw a figure. Another flash revealed it was Sirius. She got up and ran towards him before darkness entered the room. Sirius had his eyes closed in a pained expression. She tried to shake him awake. 'Sirius? Wake up. What happened to you?' His eyelids snapped open and he looked around frantically. Upon seeing Luna his gaze softened. She noticed a large oozing gash above his left eyebrow.

'Where are we?' He asked, dreamily.

'I really don't know. How did you get hurt?'

'I think I collided with that wall over there. I'm sure I can fix it. It's not like I've failed before.' he said, pressing his wand to the wound but the pressure made blood trickle down the side of his face.

'No it's alright. I can do it.' He tried to push her wand away 'Trust me.' She cast a spell and the wound closed up, surprisingly, leaving a scab. 'That should stop the stinging.' She brushed his hair from his forehead and pressed her freezing hand on the wound. He didn't flinch. 'Better?'

'Argh. Much. Thank you.' he got up steadily and walked towards the slit of light. He looked through the slit in the crumbling wall and saw the stormy sea. 'I think I know where we are.' When the lightning returned she made her way over to him. She saw the sea too. 'We're in Azkaban'

'We're in trouble. The time-turner must be awfully broken.' Luna had heard about Azkaban from Harry. He had told her that his godfather, Sirius, was in the prison for a lot of his life and that his godfather had told him of how terrifying it was. At this moment in time she thought that 'terrifying' was a gross understatement.

'We need to get out of here. Now.' Sirius said. Luna's stomach churned when she went to grab the time turner and it wasn't there.

'It's alright I've got it' He held it up. Sirius felt a queer shiver travel down his spine suddenly. The wall where he had been leaning on began to freeze over. He had to pull himself from the wall as his clothes had briefly stuck to it. Even the air itself seemed to be freezing.

The door to the cell swung open. They both backed into the corner of the room in untainted shock at what they saw.

Two cloaked beings glided into the cell like death himself's servants. Time slowed as the creatures made their approach. Sirius took out his wand only to see that Luna had already armed herself. Though she wasn't firing any spells yet.'Luna you know these are,'

'Dementors yes.'

'Arn't you afraid?' he asked ,in an almost whisper, as the Dementors came ever closer.

'Of course I am but you should know that courage isn't the absence of fear, it's the ability to master it. You are a Gryffindor after all.'

'You know I think you're the bravest time traveller I've ever met.' Luna cast expecto patronum at the first Dementor to hold it off. Her patronus, the hare, held it's ground against the horrific creature. Sirius cast his patronus at the second one. The dementor pushed against Luna's patronus, driven on by it's lust for human happiness.

'It's been a pleasure knowing you Sirius.' Luna smiled.

'Oh you're not going anywhere yet. I won't let you.'

'I'm not but you are. You have the time-turner. You must go now. '

'I won't leave you.' he stated. He was infected with guilt as he knew very well that if he wanted to leave her he might as well do it now, while she was distracted. 'Besides, Luna will be able to fight these dementors herself. She's doing fine.' he told himself.

'You must go. You were going to leave anyway. Besides You need to be safe.' The way Luna was speaking to him was still kind and gentle, like she'd known all along, like she'd forgiven him the moment they set off on their journey. Sirius battled with his conscience.

'Luna I am so sorry.'

The last Luna saw was Sirius' retreating figure then a bright white light. The darkness was infecting her mind. Her soul was being dragged unwillingly from her body so she hit the floor with a crash. The foul creature loomed over her, feasting with pleasure. The thought that Sirius had escaped using the time turner provided her with a last shred of content before she was enveloped in a toxic, dark despair.

It was at that exact moment, when the light had faded from her eyes, that she realized something extremely important. Something that she should've known before...