We Open at the Close (Drarry)

Vengeance is Mine

He made to close the door but an invisible force ripped the door from its hinges and tossed it high into the air. The door crashed into the pumpkin patch with a resounding crash as pieces of pulverised pumpkin exploded all over the garden. Mr Lovegood gasped and took a step back, his pale eyes wide with fear.

"Actually, I came here to speak to you," said Harry, stepping into the house.

Mr Lovegood staggered backwards, then after a few moments, he seemed to regain his composure again. He glared at Harry and snarled, "I've got nothing to say to you. Get out of my house or I'll call the Aurors."

"You won't be doing that," said Harry quietly. "Because if you do that, the Aurors will know what you did."

The colour drained from Mr Lovegood's pale face and he took another step back. Harry took another step closer. His expression was eerily calm, but his magic thrummed and pulsed all around him like a storm cloud.

"I just want to ask you a few questions," Harry explained. "And I expect you to answer them honestly. Please, take a seat."

A wooden chair scraped forward and caught the back of Mr Lovegood's legs. He yelped as the chair pushed him off his feet and into an awkward sitting position. Harry remained standing and stooped over him.

"I always thought you were an eccentric man, but never unkind. I know you love Luna very much, that you'd do anything to protect her, including hand me and my friends over to Voldemort if the opportunity arose," said Harry. Xenophilius sneered at him but said nothing. "I understood why you did it— most people probably would have done the same thing if they were in your position. But I never thought that you would have deliberately set out to hurt anyone on purpose. I realise now that was naive of me."

"Luna is more forgiving than I am," said Mr Lovegood darkly.

"I can see that," Harry agreed. "Those pictures in The Prophet. You took them, didn't you?"

There was a long pause before he finally answered. "Yes, I did." Harry felt his stomach twist and the floor shook a little. Mr Lovegood eyed the room curiously before letting his gaze fall back on Harry, "What gave me away?"

"A Latin anagram," Harry answered, pulling the magazine out of his cloak. "It's the typical sort of puzzles and nonsense found between the pages of the Quibbler. And your pseudonym also happens to be the answer to one of the puzzles. Not a smart move on your part."

Harry tossed the magazine at Mr Lovegood. It hit him hard across the chest and slid to the floor.

"Vengeance will be mine," said Harry. "Vengeance against the Malfoy's for kidnapping Luna. And against me for being in a relationship with the man who, in your mind, is responsible for the imprisonment of your daughter."

"You betrayed us!" hissed Mr Lovegood, his face contorted in fury. "After everything that they did, after everything that happened, you took up with that bastard like nothing had happened. Fraternising with Death Eaters is bad enough, but the very one who had my daughter locked up and tortured...and then he had the gall to speak to her at the party like they were friends! It was intolerable. And to hear everyone fawning over the two of you like it's all perfectly normal. It makes me sick."

"The war's over," Harry reminded him. "Draco Malfoy was released without charge—"

"THE WAR MIGHT BE OVER FOR YOU, BUT NOT FOR EVERYONE ELSE," yelled Mr Lovegood, losing all composure. "The war still goes on for most of us, as fresh in their minds as the bodies we laid in the aftermath of the final battle. We see the mistakes of the past repeated, even though we did everything we could to stop it. Death Eaters set free without recompense, tortures and killings and disappearances gone unpunished— where is the justice in that? For some of us, the war never ends. My daughter was tortured and imprisoned by that boy and his family. She still wakes up screaming every night thinking she's back in those cells, and there's nothing I can do to stop it. Well, not nothing."