Chapter 41: The Golden Trio Rolls an Investigation Check
A/N: [It is Wenesday, ma dudes!]
Hogwarts was a wonderful place, full of magic and magical events. The old castle walls stretched for hundreds of meters on each floor. No matter what anyone said, it was a problem.
In such a huge place, it was almost impossible to find someone.
Harry, Ron and Hermione couldn't find a moment to talk to Luna alone for a long time. The fact that their schedules differed from each other did not help them. The fact that she was a year younger than they were and went to a different House made it even harder to find her.
Sitting in the Main Hall at breakfast, Hermione noticed that today Padma and Parvati were eating at the same table, the Ravenclaw girl came to visit her sister and exchange some gossip.
Until now, it had been strange for her to see the twins in different houses, because the other pairs of twins stayed together when she looked at the Weasleys and Carrow.
"Hi Padma, have you seen Luna anywhere? We haven't seen her in a while."
Padma exchanged glances with Parvati, shrugging her shoulders. "I have no idea. After what happened to the second years, Luna has become much less likely to appear in the tower. I don't even know if she stays there to sleep anymore."
By the time she finished speaking, Ron and Harry had noticed their interaction.
"What do you mean, she doesn't sleep in the tower? It's her House, where else can she sleep?"
"I don't know, somewhere else." She shrugged again. "Even so, I don't envy her. Didn't you hear that a few weeks ago a bunch of students ended up with monthly detentions? It was Flitwick who found out that the girl was being bullied." Padma trembled, hugging her shoulders. "Never seen him so angry before…"
Hermione, though surprised, decided to keep asking the Ravenclaws about Luna. Unfortunately, all her inquiries went nowhere.
None of her Housemates had any idea what she was doing in her spare time – as it turns out, she actually didn't sleep in the Ravenclaw Tower anymore! The Prefects just shrugged their shoulders and said that the Professors said not to worry about Lovegood. Not even Ginny knew Luna was, when Ron offered to ask her.
They quickly realized that if Luna Lovegood doesn't want to be found, then you won't find her.
So when they miraculously saw her on the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest after class with Hagrid a week after, the Golden Trio jumped on the chance to talk to the girl.
"Luna, hello!" Harry exclaimed when he saw that she was alone.
The girl turned around, looking at them with wide, pale eyes. A young Bowtruckle was sitting on her shoulder, holding onto the fabric of her robe. There was a strange gelatin cube in her hands, Harry could have sworn that it had eyes.
"Hello, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley," she waved back at them.
As Harry got closer, he saw that the cube had eyes and was even blinking. What kind of creature it was, he had no idea, and to be honest, he was even a little afraid to find out.
"We haven't seen you since Halloween, how are you doing?" Hermione asked, fiddling nervously with her hands.
Luna just looked at them, tilting her head in confusion. Her eyes slid over their figures, freezing with each of their miniature movements. She was like a lynx that was studying the behavior of its prey.
All three of them twitched uncomfortably under her bottomless gaze. Maybe someone didn't know, but as the daughter of a reporter, Luna has been trained to notice the smallest details since childhood. For her, the reason for the Golden Trio's visit was as clear as day.
"You came to me for a reason. Why are you here? Do you have a question, maybe?" Luna eventually asked, petting the cube on its head.
The three friends were so dumbfounded that they didn't know how to respond. Ironically, Ron was the first to come to his senses.
"Erm… you see, we wanted to ask you about the Umbragum Slash-kilter-"
Luna puffed up her cheeks, frowning even more. It was clear that the girl was no longer happy with their presence here.
"It's Umgubular Slashkilter. And I know you didn't believe he existed before; I saw it in your eyes. So why do you believe now?"
Ron glanced at Hermione without thinking, but quickly turned his eyes back. Unfortunately, he failed to hide this movement from Luna.
"I just wanted to find out what kind of creature it is." Hermione muttered. "You were talking about him recently and I saw something that I believe fits the description. There was nothing in the library, so…"
Luna could have believed that explanation, after all, Hermione didn't believe a word she said about magical creatures. If she had seen something inexplicable, then first the curly-haired girl would have combed the entire library, asked the professors and only then came to her. Her story checked out.
But her words were still reeking of a lie.
"I see…" She frowned, turning her attention to the curly-haired girl. "Your jumps have become more controlled, but you have begun to use them for your own purposes."
Hermione's jaw dropped in shock; she didn't even know what to say. How could Luna know about-
"Did someone from the Ministry send you? Does Fudge want to take his fighter back?" Luna wasn't frowning anymore, she just looked disappointed.
"What? No, Luna, you got it all wrong." Harry quickly shook his head. "We just wanted to know more about the-"
"I know how people like you think." She interrupted his words. "You found something new and unknown and got scared. And again, you began to prowl where your presence was not required."
Slime Cube let out a strange cat-like purr from her hands, enjoying his little massage.
"And when you reached a dead end, you decided to come to me. You say: "Luna, we want to know about Umgubular Slashkilter." But you ask without respect. It never occurred to you to call me a friend. No, you come and take away my precious free time, which I will never get back. So no, I won't tell you about the Umgubular Slashkilter."
Without saying anything else, Luna turned on the spot and took a step towards the castle, but stopped for a moment. "Have a nice day, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley."
When Luna went deep into the forest, the girl let out a high squeak and started jumping on the spot in happiness.
She was finally able to make a Godfather reference! Danil will be so proud!
-=-=-=-=-=-
The trio sat in a secluded corner of the library, flipping through the books looking for answers. Each had a sheet of parchment with a sketch of a monster on it, which was their research goal.
Surrounding the drawing were the words wandless magic, teleportation trough wards, purple sparks, and a few other facts that Hermione could remember from her brief observation of the monster. There were not so many creatures in the world with great strength, speed and magic ability.
Harry could see that Hermione already looked much better than before. Parvati and Lavender, who lived with her in the same room, made sure that the girl got enough sleep at night. Sometimes they found her sleeping during the day when she was supposed to be in class. How she could sleep and attend classes at the same time, no one knew, but everyone was afraid to ask.
"Nothing here either." Ron muttered as he set the next volume aside. "You know, Hermione, if even Charlie didn't know what kind of creature you saw that day, I doubt we'll find it in the books."
Even when they began their search, Ron wrote a letter to his brothers – Bill and Charlie – asking if they knew about the creature that Hermione saw. As it turned out, no. Only Bill said that the description somehow reminded him of the wall paintings that his team found in one of the Egyptian tombs.
"You already said that." Hermione threw back. "We should still try! We have no other choice."
And while it may seem so, they had a choice. Harry still didn't tell Bella anything, believing he could handle it on his own this time. That he can prove that he is no longer a child who needs to be led to every decision by the hand.
"We can ask Luna again. Or talk to Hagrid." Harry offered diplomatically.
Ron and Hermione looked at him doubtfully. Their last meeting with Luna made them think: do they deserve to be called her friends at all?
Trying not to think about it, Ron shook his head. "Talking to Hagrid sounds like a good idea. Anything to get out of the library." He muttered.
Hermione nodded, waving her wand and muttering Tempus. The spell lit up over her wand, showing the time. "Curfew will be in an hour."
"Why didn't we think to talk to him earlier?" Harry complained while putting the books together.
"Dunno, I'm not the idea guy, that's more up your alley." Ron said.
The three of them gathered books and left the library, hoping that at least their giant friend knew something about the monster.
Unfortunately for Dan, Hagrid never quite learned to keep his mouth shut.
As they made their way down to the professor's hut, the Gryffindors shivered in the cold wind outside. Winter has already sunk its claws into Scottish soil, making people shiver and seek warmth in their homes.
Harry was the one who knocked on the door. The heavy tree barely moved from his blows, rattling all over the area. Hagrid's faithful dog, Fang, began to bark from inside the house, causing the giant to get up faster.
"Down! Down, boy!" Hagrid screamed.
The door opened and the giant looked at the three students in surprise. Hagrid let the three of them inside so they wouldn't shiver in the cold.
"What are you three doing here? This is not the time to be roaming the streets."
Hermione took a sheet of parchment from her bag and began to unfold it. "We wanted to ask if you know anything about the creature I found in the book. I only saw one mention and can't find anything else." She tore. Lately, lying to her friends had become easier and easier for her. She didn't like it.
"Let me take a look." Hagrid took the parchment and looked at it for only a second before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. It was obvious that he knew something. "No, you certainly don't need to know 'bout that. If no one has already told you, then neither should I."
"But-!" Hermione exclaimed.
"No." Hagrid replied sternly. "Hermione, I know you're one smart gall who's always looking for knowledge, but trust me, you don't need to know 'bout him."
As a result, their investigation did not lead to anything and stopped. With no new clues to use, Harry and Ron quickly lost interest, only helping Hermione on her search in the library.
None of them expected that the week before Christmas they would get another peep into a new mystery.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Simple_Russian_Boi
Simple_Russian_Boi Strange, I couldn't write a comedy chapter. I was hoping my desire to write something funny would express itself with a bunch of jokes, but apparently not. Well, I'll be content with Luna Carleone.
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