Maeve was in Freds grasp, as Ron and George let go. Harry stood and watched, it was painful to watch her deal with the horcrux, it was painful to hear her fears. That she compared herself to him, and how she feared Sirius would chose him over her. He walked over to the girl, taking her from Fred and engulfing her in a hug. She let out a sob in his chest, which felt like knives digging into him. He looked up and saw Fred crying. For the first time since Harry had known him, Fred seemed to be lost for words.
"And now," said Harry as they broke apart, "all we've got to do is find that tent again."
But it was not difficult. With Fred not letting go of Maeve's hand and George as close as he could be to her, the journey back seemed to take a surprisingly short time. Harry could not wait to wake Hermione, and it was with quickening excitement that he entered the tent.It was gloriously warm after the pool and the forest, the only illumination the bluebell flames still shimmering in a bowl on the floor. Hermione was fast asleep, curled up under her blankets, and did not move until Harry had said her name several times.
"Hermione!"
She stirred, then sat up quickly, pushing her hair out of her face.
"What's wrong? Harry? Are you all right?"
"It's okay, everything's fine. More than fine, I'm great. Look who's here."
"What do you mean? Who—?"
As if, the twins and Maeve weren't there, she saw Ron, who stood there holding the sword and dripping onto the carpet. Hermione slid out of her bunk and moved like a sleepwalker toward Ron, her eyes upon his pale face. She stopped right in front of him, her lips slightly parted, her eyes wide. Ron gave a weak hopeful smile and half raised his arms. Hermione launched herself forward and started punching every inch of him that she could reach.
"Ouch...ow... gerroff! What the? Hermione! OW!"
"You...complete...arse...Ronald...Weasley!"
Maeve looked up at the twins with an amused smile.
She punctuated every word with a blow, Ron backed away, shielding his head as Hermione advanced.
"You-- crawl-- back-- here-- after-- weeks-- and-- weeks-- oh, where's my wand?"
She looked as though ready to wrestle it out of Harry's hands and he reacted instinctively.
"Protego!"
The invisible shield erupted between Ron and Hermione. The force of it knocked her backward onto the floor. Spitting hair out of her mouth, she leapt up again.
"Hermione!" said Harry. "Calm--"
"I will not calm down!" she screamed. Never before had he seen her lose control like this; she looked quite demented. "Give me back my wand! Give it back to me!"
"Hermione, will you please—"
"Don't you tell me what do, Harry Potter!" she screeched. "Don't you dare! Give it back now! And YOU!"
"I came running after you! I called you! I begged you to come back"
"I know," Ron said, "Hermione, I'm sorry, I'm really--"
"Oh, you're sorry!"
"Hermione.." Maeve pleaded, Hermione finally noticed who was in the tent.
"Maeve." She sounded like she was about to cry. "What, what are you doing here." She ran and hugged her and the twins.
"Came to save your asses." George chuckled. "Harry looked like he needed our help." He winked at the raven haired boy.
After the group calmed down and Ron told Hermione and Harry how we found them using the Deluminator, they finally fell asleep. No one expected Hermione's anger to abate over night and was therefore not surprised that she communicated mainly by dirty looks and pointed silences the next morning. Ron responded by maintaining an unnaturally somber demeanor in her presence as an outward sign of continuing remorse.
"... and how did you find out about the Taboo?" he asked Harry after explaining the many desperate attempts of Muggle-borns to evade the Ministry.
"The what?"
"You and Hermione have stopped saying You-Know-Who's name!"
"Oh, yeah, Well, it's just a bad habit we've slipped into," said Harry. "But I haven't got a problem calling him V--"
"NO!" Maeve yelled, causing Harry to jump back and Hermione to gasp. "Sorry, but the name's been jinxed, Harry, that's how they track people! Using his name breaks protective enchantments, it causes some kind of magical disturbance."
"It's how they found us in Tottenham Court Road!" Ron told them.
"Because we used his name?" Harry asked, using his fingers as quotations when he said name
"Exactly! You've got to give them credit, it makes sense. It was only people who were serious about standing up to him, like Dumbledore, who even dared use it. Now they've put a Taboo on it, anyone who says it is trackable ---quick-and-easy way to find Order members! They nearly got Kingsley—"
"We just have to be careful." George said.
Later on as night reached, the group sat in the tent talking about what has been happening, when Ron finally brought it up.
"I heard her name on the radio.. and then the horcrux said her name" He looked up at Maeve, "So it is true?"
"Yeah." She choked, Fred shot Ron a look.
"What? Whose name?" Hermione asked
"Julia was killed." She told her, "They're killing muggle borns and/or capturing them." She looked up at Hermione, who's lip started to quiver. As much as Maeve didn't want to talk about it, she wanted to let the only muggle born person in their group know what is happening out there. What's happening to people like her.
"Maeve.. I am so sorry."
"Thanks." She smiled painfully, she couldn't say it was okay, because it wasn't. Her best friend was murdered, merely based on the fact she wasn't a pureblood.
"I want to go and see Xenophilius Lovegood." Hermione stated.
Everyone just looked at her.
"What?"
"Xenophilius Lovegood, Luna's father. I want to go and talk to him!"
"Why?"
She took a deep breath, as though bracing herself, and said, "It's that mark, the mark in Beedle the Bard. Look at this!"
She thrust The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore under Harry's unwilling eyes and saw a photograph of the original letter that Dumbledore had written Grindelwald, with Dumbledore's familiar thin, slanting handwriting.
"The signature," said Hermione. "Look at the signature, Harry!"
"That's what Krum was telling us about at the wedding." Fred spoke, then he looked at Maeve who seemed uncomfortable with the topic.
"It could be a trap, like Godric's Hollow." Harry said
"It won't be like Godric's Hollow," Ron added, "Lovegood's on your side, Harry, The Quibbler's been for you all along, it keeps telling everyone they've got to help you!"
"I'm sure this is important!" said Hermione earnestly.
"I think we should vote on it," said Ron. "Those in favor of going to see Lovegood--"
His hand flew into the air before Hermione's, then hers, and then the twins. The only two hands left down were Harry's and Maeve's.
"Outvoted, Harry, sorry," said Ron, clapping him on the back. Fred grabbed Maeve's hand, and gave it a squeeze. "All's fair in love and war," said Ron brightly, "and this is a bit of both. Cheer up, it's the Christmas holidays, Luna'll be home!"
They had an excellent view of the village of Ottery St. Catchopole from the breezy hillside to which they Disapparated next morning.
"We're really close to home.." Maeve whispered to the twins. They looked down at her with sorrowful eyes. How they wish they could just go home, and see their families. They stood for a minute or two looking toward the Burrow, their hands shadowing their eyes, but all they could make out were the high hedges and trees of the orchard, which afforded the crooked little house protection from Muggle eyes.
"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 all there for Christmas," said Hermione coldly.
"None of us were.." Fred told them.
"What?" Harry asked
"But where have you been, then?" asked Hermione, surprised.
"Looking for you guys. Been all over at first." George told them, "until we found Ron, then we found you."
"Before I saw them, I was at Bill and Fleur's new place. Shell cottage." Ron added. They all turned back to the burrow. Then headed off.
"How do we know which house is there's?" Maeve asked
"Listen, I've got a feeling you'd be able to tell where the Lovegoods' live. Let's try the next lot of hills."
So they Disapparated a few miles farther north.
"Aha!" shouted Ron, as the wind whipped their hair and clothes. Ron was pointing upward, toward the top of the hill on which they had appeared, where a most strange-looking house rose vertically against the sky, a great black cylinder with a ghostly moon hanging behind it in the afternoon sky. "That's got to be Luna's house, who else would live in a place like that? It looks like a giant rook!"
"It's nothing like a bird," said Hermione, frowning at the tower.
"He was talking about a chess rook," said Maeve laughed, looking at Ron. "A castle to you."
"Forgot I was in the presence of the chess goddess." Ron smirked. "It's theirs, look."
Three hand-painted signs had been tacked to a broke-down gate. The first read,
THE QUIBBLER. EDITOR, X. LOVEGOOD
the second,
PICK YOUR OWN MISTLETOE
the third,
KEEP OFF THE DIRIGIBLE PLUMS
Barely ten seconds passed, then the door was flung open and there stood Xenophilius Lovegood, barefoot and wearing what appeared to be a stained nightshirt. His long white candyfloss hair was dirty and unkempt. Xenophilius had been positively dapper at Bill and Fleur's wedding by comparison.
"What? What is it? Who are you? What do you want?" he cried in a high-pitched, querulous voice, looking the group, upon which his mouth fell open in a perfect, comical O.
"Hello, Mr. Lovegood," said Harry, holding out his hand, "I'm Harry, Harry Potter."
Xenophilius did not take Harry's hand, although the eye that was not pointing inward at his nose slid straight to the scar on Harry's forehead.
"Would it be okay if we came in?" asked Harry. "There's something we'd like to ask you."
"I'm going to stay out here." Maeve told the twins, they nodded and stayed with her outside.
They were sitting in the Lovegoods garden, "They're going to ask about the deathly hallows."
"How do you know?" George asked
"I know the symbol very well." She looked at him, "Dumbledore was very close to my grandfather. He used to tell me the story and he told me a lot about Dumbledore, that's why i trusted him so much. I never thought it was real, but I think it is.." she looked at the two.
"What is it?" Fred asked
"The Tale of the Three Brothers.." She started
"That's just a child's story though, isn't it? Mum read it to us." George told her, she began to repeat the story from memory.
"'There were once three brothers who were traveling along a lonely, winding road at twilight—'"
"Midnight, our mum always told us," said Fred, who took a seat on the grass in front of her, she looked up at him and giggled.
"Yeah sure." She smiled
"Sorry, I just think it's a bit spookier if it's midnight!" said Fred.
"Yeah, because we really need a bit more fear in our lives," said George. The three looked at each other and lost it. They were just laughing hard.
"Anyways.. In time, the brothers reached a river too deep to wade through and too dangerous to swim across. However, these brothers were learned in the magical arts, and so they simply waved their wands and made a bridge appear across the treacherous water. They were halfway across it when they found their path blocked by a hooded figure."
"I wonder what Death looks like." George asked, Maeve just shot him a look, "Sorry, just curious." Him and Fred laughed.
"'And Death spoke to them. He was angry that he had been cheated out of the three new victims, for travelers usually drowned in the river. But Death was cunning. He pretended to congratulate the three brothers upon their magic, and said that each had earned a prize for having been clever enough to evade him."
"So the oldest brother asked for power, so Death gave him the elder wand. Which is the wand Dumbledore has... Had." she cringed, "The second oldest brother wanted a way to speak to the dead. He lost the love of his life, and he wanted her back. So Death gave him the resurrection stone. Which I don't know where that comes in, I don't believe that's real." she scratched to top of her head, "But a man did tie his soul to bunch a old crap, so he could live forever. So I'm not sure what is real anymore."
"I'd sell my life to Death. If you died and I could have a chance to see you again. I'd do it." Fred admitted
"Well, I'm not dying so you don't have to worry about that. But thank you." she smiled, he laughed
"And the the third brother..."
"The invisibility cloak." George remembered.
"Right!" She said
"Harry has the invisibility cloak." Fred said
"So maybe the story is real. But those are the deathly hallows."
"Didn't they all die in the end though?"
"Yeah, I mean you can never escape death. It just doesn't happen. Sure they had all this power, but sometimes power can't save you, in the end." She got off the bench and went to a patch of dirt, where she drew the symbol.
"The Elder Wand," she said, and drew a straight vertical line upon the dirt. "The Resurrection Stone," she said, and added a circle on top of the line. "The Cloak of Invisibility," she finished, enclosing both line and circle in a triangle, "that's why the symbol intrigued Hermione so much. Together, they make the Deathly Hallows." She looked up at them.
"You know the story very well, but it seems like you hate it."
"I don't hate it, it's just.." She paused, "there are so many dark wizards out there, who want them all. If they are real, they start wars. They kill people." She kicked the dirt away, so the symbol would be gone. "Grindelwald tried, to get all three. He stole the wand... Leta Lestrange, a woman my grandfather and his brother loved very much gave up her life to stop him. He took a lot from my family, I just really don't like the story and the history behind it. I don't know why, there are wizards who want to destroy everything."
"That makes sense."
"Which one would you pick?" George asked
"What do you mean?"
"What deathly hallows would you pick?"
"Maybe the stone." She shrugged, the twins looked at each other, of course she would pick the stone, that was a stupid question.
"I would pick the cloak." Fred and George said at the same time.
"Well I'm glad, none of us are power hungry." She laughed, "Maybe we should go check on them."
The three walked up the stairs and found the trio and Xenophilius drinking tea, but they could tell by the trios face, something was wrong.
"They took my Luna,"