Things got kind of awkward with Ron back—while I personally liked he was back and that all six of us were back together—because Hermione communicated with him through only dirty looks.
And Gennie rarely talked to him out of loyalty to Hermione, and as a result Cole kept his joy at being with his best friend to a minimum because he didn't want to cause trouble.
Though when I was collecting water with Ron, it was clear to see he was just as relieved to not have been kicked out of the tent. "We've got one horcrux down, Rory, it's a start! And somebody sent that patronus to us—we've got help from the outside!"
I had to agree with him. We had the sword now, so we could destroy anything we found—we just needed a breakthrough that was all. If I kept pessimistic, then my depressing thoughts about Hollie and Draco would consume me and that was one thing I didn't want.
One evening, the tent was very quiet. Hermione was reading her book in her bunk, while Gennie and Cole tried to make alcohol with one recipe Cole claimed was a shoe-in for mind-numbingly brilliant home-made drink. I was reading over old letters and Harry was on watch in the hood of the tent.
"There's this programme," Ron announced to the tent, pulling out his radio and trying to tune it "that tells the news like it really is. You need a password to get in though—"
"Yeah, Potterwatch!" Cole shouted excitedly, almost spilling tomato juice down himself. "Arthur helps run it—I think his code name is Eevee, like that super cute pokemon fox?"
"Yeah, that's his favourite," I said quietly, a chord struck at my heart, wanting to know if Arthur was okay. "So what, there's like a whole network?"
Cole nodded excitedly. "Fred and George and some other Order people started it. Like Ron said though, they change the password every show."
"Help me try and figure it out?" Ron said hopefully, and Cole nodded happily, leaving Gennie to try and make the weird concoction on her own. The two of them began muttering weird words at the radio for ten minutes until Hermione spoke up.
"We need to talk," she announced. "I want to go and see Xenophilius Lovegood."
"You mean Luna's father?" Gennie frowned. "Why?"
"It's that mark, the mark in Beedle the Bard. Look at this!"
She thrust Rita Skeeter's book forward, and there was a photo of a letter Dumbledore had written to Grindelwald. And the signature---the small triangle was in place of an A.
"That's on a grave in Godric's Hollow," Gennie announced, looking at the sign intently. "I always thought it was cool when I visited the graveyard growing up."
"It keeps cropping up," Hermione said firmly. "And he has to know what the symbol means! It's important!"
"What if this is a trap all over again?" Harry demanded. "Nothing good came out of the visit to Godric's Hollow—"
"Watch it mate, you got us three back." Cole said defensively.
"But it keeps appearing, Harry! Dumbledore left me The Tales of Beedle the Bard, how do you know we're not supposed to find out about the sign?" Hermione said, ignoring Cole.
"Here we go again!" Harry felt slightly exasperated. "We keep trying to convince ourselves Dumbledore left us secret signs and clues –"
"The Deluminator turned out to be pretty useful," piped up Ron. "I think Hermione's right, I think we ought to go and see Lovegood." He turned to everyone. "I think we should all vote. Those in favour—"
He stuck his hand up in the air before the rest of us—excluding Harry and oddly, Gennie---raised our hands.
"Outvoted, Harry, sorry," said Ron, clapping him on the back.
"That's democracy for you," Gennie said with a wry smile. "But democracy doesn't always mean good."
****
The next morning we all apparated to a hill not too far from the Lovegood house. From where we were, the Burrow was clearly visible, a little pinprick in the distance. Looking at it made me feel slightly homesick
"It's weird, being this near, but not going to visit," said Ron.
"Well, it's not like you haven't just seen them. You were there for Christmas," said Hermione coldly.
"I wasn't at the Burrow!" said Ron with an incredulous laugh. "Do you think I'd let Fred, George and Lacey know I walked out? And Ginny, yeah she would have really understood."
"Bill and Fleur's new place, down by the ocean. They weren't impressed, but Hollie was nice enough about it—"
"Wait, Hollie was staying at Bill and Fleur's?" I felt as if I'd been slapped. I had at least expected her to go home to Lacey. "Why?"
Ron shrugged. "I dunno, I think she fought with Lacey or something. She seemed a bit off. Well when I saw her—always out with friends."
Yeah her new friends, Cameron and Bellatrix I thought, feeling as if Hollie had killed me herself. Even though Hollie had changed beyond belief, I never thought she wouldn't go back to Lacey for Christmas....
"She once said she wouldn't ever spend a Christmas day without Lacey," I said softly. "How things change."
"Let's try up here," Ron said, giving me a sympathetic smile, and with Gennie winding her arm around mine we began trekking through the hills for the Lovegood house.
After a couple of hours of walking and a few blisters later we came across a strange looking house that looked like a giant chess castle.
"I have to admit, it's pretty tame for Luna, I was expecting a house in the shape of a nargle." I pondered as we approchaed the house.
"Well it's theirs," Ron said. "Look."
A hand-painted sign had been tacked to a broken-down gate.
THE QUIBBLER EDITOR, X. LOVEGOOD--KEEP OFF THE DIRIGIBLE PLUMS
Harry pushed the gate open and we followed him through the zig-zag path to the front door, coming across odd plants and shrubs along the way. I couldn't help smile when seeing a bush covered in the radishes Luna always seemed to wear as earrings.
Harry rapped three times on the thick black door and the door flung open, revealing the mad looking Xenophilius, his feet bare and wearing a nightgown.
"What? What is it? Who are you? What do you want?" he cried in a high pitched voice.
"Hello, Mr. Lovegood," said Harry, holding out his hand, "I'm Harry, Harry Potter."
Nudging forward next to my brother, I gave a little wave. "And I'm his sister, Aurora. You know, the overshadowed one."
The man didn't shake our hands, his eyes travelled to our scars and I felt quite self-conscious. "Look, we have something to ask you, can we please come in?" I asked.
"I . . . I'm not sure that's advisable," whispered Xenophilius, "Rather a shock ..."
"It won't take long" said Harry, looking disappointed.
"I --- oh, all right then. Come in, quickly, quickly!"
Cole had barely crossed over the threshold when Xenophilius slammed the door and Cole almost tripped head first into Hermione. Looking around, we were in the oddest kitchen I'd seen. Everything was curved and painted in bright colours like a playgroup classroom.
In the middle of the floor, a wrought-iron spiral staircase was hanging, leading upstairs. Banging came from upstairs, and I wondered what Luna was doing. Cole looked up with an odd look on his face.
"You'd better follow me." said Xenophilius, still looking extremely uncomfortable, and he led the way.
Upstairs the room was an odd mixture of an antique shop and a workshop. Piles and piles of papers and books were on every surface, models of creatures Luna always talked about were hanging from the ceiling, which was also painted.
Luna sadly wasn't here. The loud sound was coming from a press machine, printing off issues of the Quibbler. Craning my neck, I swore I saw Sam on the front cover. Before I could get up and seize a copy, Lovegood threw a drape over the machine, blocking view.
Hermione cried out suddenly, "What is that?"
A large spiral horn was mounted on the wall. Cole's narrowed his eyes, "Did you kill a unicorn?"
"It is the horn of a Crumple-Horned Snorkack," he replied.
"No it isn't!" said Hermione.
"Hermione...." Gennie hissed, elbowing her.
"It's an Erumpent horn! It's an extraordinary dangerous thing to have in a house!"
"How'd you know it's an Erumpent horn?" asked Ron, edging away from the horn as fast as he could.
"That's in Fantastic beasts and where to find them!" Cole said, looking pleased to know something. "That's my favourite book of all time—apart from the cat lady of course."
"The Crumple Horned Snorkack" said Xenophilius, ignoring Cole and Hermione "is a shy and highly magical creature, and its horn -"
While Hermione and Xenophilius argued about what sort of horn it was, I quickly got up and seized the cover from the press machine, curiosity eating me. Grabbing the one that caught my eye, I scanned the front.
The paper was from just before Christmas, but it still shocked me. In the centre was a large blown up picture of Sam with a triumphant smirk on her face—I remembered this picture. Cole had taken it when she got her perfect exam results (all O's). And the headline—
COULD SAMANTHA LOCKWOOD BE ALIVE? CONSPIRACY THEORY THAT HOLDS A LOT OF TRUTH
My heart stopped. How could Sam being alive be possible?
"Why exactly have you come here, Miss Potter?" Xenophilius spoke up, and I jumped.
"I was just looking..." I blushed, embarrassed tucking the paper into my pocket. "Um well, we need help."
"Help, Hmm."
"Yes. The thing is ... helping Harry Potter ... rather dangerous..."
"Aren't you the one who keeps telling everyone it's their first duty to help Harry?" said Ron. "You know, in that magazine of yours?"
Xenophilius glanced behind him at the concealed printing press, "Erm, well, however..."
"That's for everyone else to do, not you personally?" said Ron.
"Where's Luna?" asked Hermione. "Let's see what she thinks."
Cole looked almost sad, and went to open his mouth when Xenophilius said: "Luna is down at the stream, fishing for Freshwater Plimpies. You, boy, you could help her."
Cole blinked a few times and got up even though Gennie gave him a worried look. "Well, uh I guess I could."
The two of them disappeared through the staircase. Opening the paper, I started to read the article about Sam.
Samantha Lockwood, child death eat+er turned best friend to Aurora Potter. But she was murdered by Cameron Wilde last summer—or was she? Since then, many people, from her older brother to her childhood friend, Cole Wilde have expressed opinions that she might still be alive.
Firstly, how would a girl trained by death eaters allow herself to be killed so easily? Why would You-Know-Who himself allow one of his greatest assets to be taken?
And why would You-Know-Who lock up Nathan Lockwood without the intention of getting his greatest servant back—but on his side?
"I'm going to see Cole and Luna," Gennie announced and got to her feet.
"Gen, he'll be fine, he's with Luna." Ron said, continuing up discussion with Hermione about the horn.
"Well we shouldn't separate anymore." Gennie huffed and headed off down the stairs before I could tell her to be careful.
Turning back to the article, I read on.
Nathan Lockwood was taken only three weeks ago, and from an insider who claims to be active double agent says it was for purpose.
"There's something the death eaters want that could totally destroy them—and it belonged to Sam." The source says. "And they think that Nathan is the key to finding it."
A crash came from downstairs, and we all jumped up, grabbing our wands. But then Xenophilius appeared, wearing wellies and clutching a tray of teacups and a tea pot.
"What was that noise?" I asked.
Xenophilius looked startled. "I dropped a couple of tea cups; your friend is picking up the mess." He shoved the tray into Hermione's arms, walking over to Harry.
He was admiring an odd looking statue of a woman with a crown on. "Ah, you have spotted my pet invention," he said. "It is modelled, upon the head of the beautiful Rowena Ravenclaw."
Xenophilius strode back to the tea tray, which Hermione and I had managed to balance precariously on one of the cluttered side tables.
"May I offer you all an infusion of Gurdyroots?" said Xenophilius. "We make it ourselves." As he started to pour out the drink, which was bright purple, he added, "Luna is down beyond Bottom Bridge with your friends—she's most excited you're all here. She won't be too long."
Taking a sip of the drink, I almost gagged. "Now," he removed a tottering pile of papers from an armchair and sat down, his Wellingtoned legs crossed, "how may I help you, Mr. and Miss Potter?"
"Well, it's about that symbol you were wearing around your neck at Bill and Fleur's wedding."
"You know, the little triangle thing that looks like the Illuminati symbol, but really isn't." I added.
Xenophilius raised his eyebrows. "Are you referring to the sign of the Deathly Hallows?"
--------------------------------
A/N Sorry this hasn't been updated in a week, I've been busy with my friends and buying concert tickets (Little Mix) and in a writing funk which really sucks.
But I'm back and have two things to announce:
1. There will be no updates August 8th-17th. My cousin is over and I'm going to London with her and stuff
2. I'm planning something incredible for the ending of the book which came to me in the shower. And it's something that hopefully will take you all by surprise (in a good way).
I'll update soon :--)
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