Close To Truth

Harry appeared in the back room of Fred and George’s shop. It was deserted, and Harry felt like he should wait around until Pansy, Parvati and Lavender showed up. But for all he knew they could have beaten him there, so instead he grabbed some Floo powder, stepped into the fireplace and said “The House of Black!”

Harry skidded out of the fireplace and found he kitchen empty. But as he got to his feet he though he heard a faint sound, coming from the stairs to the basement. It almost sounded like… crying?

He walked closer as quietly as possible, drawing his wand just in case; it was definitely crying he heard, and after hesitating a moment longer he pulled the door open.

Luna was seated on the stairs about halfway down. She turned and looked when the light from the kitchen hit her, and squinted; her cheeks glittered with tears. “Hello?” she called. “Who’s that?”

“Uh…it’s Harry,” Harry replied, half-wishing he hadn’t stuck his nose in; on the other hand, he didn’t like the idea of Luna sitting in a dark stairwell all alone, crying.

“Oh, hello,” Luna said brightly, and her voice was steady and cheerful. Harry couldn’t tell if she was putting up a front or not. “How was Hogwarts? I didn’t know you’d gotten back.”

“I just did now,” Harry admitted, stowing his wand and walking down to meet Luna. “Are you… okay, Luna?” he asked, and then mentally kicked himself for asking such a stupid question.

“Of course I am,” Luna said, sounding surprised. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

Harry couldn’t keep from looking confused. His head was throbbing from prolonged exposure to the Horcrux in his pocket; the door to the kitchen squeaked, causing a stab of pain in his temple. “Er… you were crying…” he said tentatively.

“Oh,” Luna said, and touched the wetness on her cheek as if she’d already forgotten. “Yes, I was thinking about George, you know. I do miss him,” she explained.

Harry noticed that Luna’s lip wobbled a bit when she said George’s name. Definitely putting up a front, Harry decided, feeling worse than before about what they’d done. “Have you tried to talk to him again?” he asked.

“I did just now, but he wouldn’t open the door,” Luna said. “And then Lee came along and said some very mean things to me, which is why I was down here, to avoid him. I was worried he might have done some magic on my door again.”

“What—again?” Harry repeated angrily. “What did he do before?”

“Oh… nothing,” Luna declared, dropping her eyes.

For the first time Harry could ever remember since he’d met her, Luna looked…ashamed. Even scared. “Luna, tell me what he did!” he demanded.

“Well, a few hours ago when I went back to my room, I touched the doorknob and a hex came out of it,” Luna said hesitantly. “It—it did this,” she murmured, and held out her hand.

Harry took Luna’s hand gently and turned it into the light. There were words printed on her hand and arm in large, hard-to-miss block letters: they all said Slut, Whore or something similar. “You know this was definitely Lee?” Harry asked tightly, although he had to admit is sounded like Lee; prankish and borderline nasty were his style, although this went far beyond nasty.

“It’s all right, Harry, you don’t need to worry about this,” Luna said earnestly, trying to dismiss it. “I’ll just ask Hermione if she can figure out how to get rid of it.”

“It’s not all right!” Harry snapped. “Damnit Luna, someone practically branded you a—a slut! This is definitely not all right! Now do you know for a fact it was Lee or not?”

“I didn’t actually see him do it, but he was there when it happened and did seem to expect it,” Luna said quietly. Then her brow furrowed and she glanced past Harry up the stairs. “Did you hear something?” she asked.

Harry didn’t answer; he was so furious he was seeing red. Anger, even nasty comments he could ignore—to an extent—but this was beyond the pale. His head pounding from the Horcrux only made him more enraged. “Come on, Luna,” Harry said, taking her hand and leading her up the stairs.

“Where are we going?” Luna asked curiously.

“We’re going to force Lee to undo this, and apologize; at wand-point for preference,” Harry stated shortly.

“Oh, no!” Luna protested. “Lee was only being a good friend!”

“A good friend?” Harry exclaimed incredulously.

“Harry, please,” Luna pleaded; much of her airy behavior was gone. “I’d rather we ask Hermione if she can remove this instead.”

Harry ground his teeth, but couldn’t bring himself to demand that Luna do something that made her so uncomfortable… even if Lee did deserve a Freezing Charm up the arse. “Okay, fine,” he relented. “But if Hermione can’t figure it out we’re going straight to Lee to undo it!”

Luna didn’t protest again, so Harry led her up past the kitchen to the second floor of the house. As they walked down the hall the wall shimmered and revealed the door to the conference room. Ginny stuck her head out of it, looking relieved. “Where have you been?” she asked. “We saw Pansy go past a minute ago, but when you weren’t with her…”

“What? Oh,” Harry said; he’d gotten so worked up about Luna he’d forgotten the trip to Hogwarts! “Are Lavender and Parvati back?”

“Yeah, they’re in here,” Ginny said, stepping aside and waving him in. “Luna, you know most of this anyway so you can come too if you want—”

“She has to come, we have something else to deal with first,” Harry said, ushering Luna inside. As Ginny pulled the door closed behind them, Harry turned to her and pulled the Horcrux out of his pocket; “Take this and keep it safe, but don’t unwrap it,” he said to her quietly. “I’ll explain later.”

Ginny shrugged and pocketed the tiny wrapped object without pause; Harry sighed with relief as his head stopped throbbing. He looked around and saw that Hermione, Ron, Lavender and Parvati were all there as well, watching him curiously. “Hey,” he said, and glanced at Luna, who looked embarrassed; Harry thought Luna might be happier if the fewest people possible knew about what had happened. “Er…I was wondering if—”

Parvati took away that option; “Luna, what’s that?” she exclaimed, and grabbed Luna’s arm. “Oh Merlin!” she gasped when she saw what had been bespelled onto Luna’s hand.

“Bloody hell!” Ron growled angrily. Hermione was stunned; Ginny looked ready to kill someone.

“That’s horrible!” Lavender said, gaping. “Who did that to you, Luna?”

“It’s none of your business,” Harry said quickly. “No, don’t start badgering! If Luna doesn’t want to tell you she doesn’t have to! It’s personal, and bad enough as it is!”

Lavender and Parvati quickly backed down. “Yes, of course,” Parvati murmured. “I’m sorry, Luna.”

“That’s quite all right,” Luna said pleasantly. “Thank you for your concern.”

Harry quickly gave them a brief summary of finding Luna on the stairs, and Luna described when the hex had struck her. “I was hoping Hermione could figure out how to remove it,” she requested.

“Of course, Luna. Come here,” Hermione said instantly. She examined Luna’s hand carefully, muttering to herself, and after trying a few incantations made the words go away. “It was similar to the Curse I put on the original list of Dumbledore’s Army during fifth year,” she told them grimly. “It wasn’t designed to be easy to remove unless you knew something like it.”

Harry sighed. “That was just an unbelievably cruel thing to do to you, Luna. Are you certain you don’t want to—?”

“Yes, I’m certain,” Luna said, almost in a whisper. “Right now I’d just like to go and get some sleep.”

“Luna, we’ll go with you,” Lavender offered; she and Parvati seemed enormously indignant of Luna’s behalf, and had decided to be protective of her. “And we’ll help you check to make sure nothing else has been done to your door or your room.”

“All right,” Luna agreed, smiling. “Thank you.”

“Wait!” Harry said quickly to Lavender. “Did you give the, er…?”

“Yes, we’ve got it,” Hermione confirmed.

“Great. Thanks, Lavender,” Harry said earnestly. “Thanks, Parvati. You did brilliantly.”

“You’re welcome,” Lavender responded with a surprised smile. “I’m…I’m glad I could help.”

“Luna, if something like this happens again, tell us immediately, okay?” Ginny said, hugging the other girl. “And if you need help with anything you can come to us too.”

“Thank you,” Luna said again, and then followed Lavender and Parvati out the door. Harry shut it and watched them go, feeling even guiltier.

“Even if Luna doesn’t want to talk about this it’s important for us to know who did it, Harry!” Hermione said hotly. “Not even counting how cruel it is to Luna, it could cause serious problems in the Army—”

“It was Lee,” Harry interrupted bluntly, returning to the table and collapsing in his seat. “I made Luna tell me earlier. He was there when the hex hit her, and she said he acted like he’d expected it.”

Hermione and Ron were stunned into silence; Ginny, however, jumped to her feet, shoving her chair back so hard that it fell over. Harry recognized the fury in her eyes, and grabbed her arm before she could reach the door. “Ginny, wait—”

“I will not let that bastard get away with this!” Ginny shouted, tugging against Harry’s grip.

“Neither will we, I swear!” Harry shot back. “But we have to decide what to do first!”

“I think a permanent Self-Punching Hex is appropriate!”

Harry paused. “Permanent? Is that possible?” he asked, curiosity taking over despite the situation.

“I figured it out yesterday,” Ginny said with grim satisfaction. “But I haven’t gotten the chance to try it on a person yet, and I just figured out who my test subject is going to be!”

Ron nodded in appreciation, but Hermione was quick to step in; “Ginny, an untried hex that’s intended to be permanent could have horrible effects—”

“That’s right,” Ginny agreed viciously.

“—and you have no idea how severe it might be!” Hermione finished. “You might end up killing Lee!”

Ginny looked like she wanted to say that suited her fine, but held her tongue. “Gin, Luna doesn’t want this getting out; she made that really clear to me,” Harry said quietly. “I think people might notice if we go around hexing people. Not to mention a lot of the D.A. have had their confidence shaken, and that really wouldn’t help matters.”

“Oh, but letting Luna get hexed really will,” Ginny growled sarcastically. But rather than still trying to leave the room, she returned to her seat and put her head in her hands on the table. “We were so stupid, Harry,” she muttered wretchedly. Harry didn’t answer, but he did bite his lip; he’d been thinking the same thing.

“I agree we should do something,” Hermione said darkly. “This definitely can’t be allowed to stand. I’m just not sure…”

“Merlin, now what?” Ron interrupted, staring out through the see-through window. Everyone turned to see Parvati hurrying back down the stairs.

Harry leapt up to open the door. “What is it?” he asked Parvati quickly. “Was there another hex—?”

“You could say that,” Parvati said wryly, looking more pleased than upset. “But not on Luna. I guess Pansy overheard you talking to Luna downstairs, and…well, she thought it would be a good idea to retaliate on Luna’s behalf.”

There was a pause while that sank in. Then Ron snickered. Ginny seemed happy as well, but Hermione looked nervous. “Erm…she didn’t do anything…permanent, did she?” Hermione asked.

“No, but there were a lot of hexes,” Parvati told them; now she seemed like she was trying not to laugh. “Luna, Lavender and I got up there and saw Lee’s door open; we only heard the last two or three, and then saw Pansy leaving and looking very satisfied. I could tell there were a lot of hexes because some of them… um, reacted with each other. I think that the Tongue-Lengthening Charm mixed with that hex that lifts a person up by their ankle, because Lee’s got a twelve-foot tongue that’s stuck to the ceiling.”

Ginny, Harry and Ron couldn’t help but laugh out loud, and even Hermione had to put her hand over her mouth to hide her giggles. “Uh, is there anything that might be dangerous to Lee?” Harry choked out.

“I don’t think so, no,” Parvati said. “I did counter a few that I recognized, but thought I’d better leave the rest to you. Lee was unconscious when I left, but didn’t seem to be in any danger. I think Pansy just wanted to teach him a lesson.”

“Sounds like she did a decent job of it,” Ginny said, still smirking.

“Thanks for telling us, Parvati,” Harry told her. “Will you just shut Lee’s door? We’ll deal with it when we get the chance.” He smiled at her shocked look. “We really do have more important things to deal with right now, remember?” he said. “Lee’s okay for now, so he’ll just have to wait.”

“Oh, I wasn’t going to complain,” Parvati insisted innocently.

“Oh, and Parvati…don’t mention any of this to anyone,” Harry said seriously. “For Luna’s sake; she really doesn’t want it getting around.”

“We won’t Harry, I promise,” Parvati agreed, and bade them all goodnight.

“Well, I think that solved itself rather decisively,” Hermione said with a mischievous smile.

“We’ll still have to talk to Lee,” Harry pointed out. “After we’ve unstuck and shrunk his tongue.”

So,” Ginny said to Harry once they’d all settled down again, “how did it go at Hogwarts?”