Harry Potter One Shots

In the Cellar

All rights belong to the author, Lulawiththesnakes

It was hard to sleep at first. It was dark, and it was cold. Around her, there wasn't any source of comfort, and although she wasn't, she really hoped she wasn't, she felt alone. She stared blankly at the man beside her. It was her second week there, and though it was Christmas, he hadn't talked, at all. Luna thought he was being rude, but maybe he wasn't. It was hard thinking about Christmas, being in this place. She wasn't even sure what was that place.

In Hogwarts, there were now lots of signs of Christmas. Nargle-infested mistletoe and armours that song Christmas carols and Christmas trees and snow. Here... there was nothing. Just darkness. And the cold light that came from somewhere, but she wasn't sure where. It wasn't light, not for Luna. It didn't help to see, it was just there. Dark light. She wasn't sure if it was actually Christmas either. It could be night, evening or morning. The dark light didn't helped at all. He didn't know what day it was, no for certain. She didn't know what time it was. She knew nothing.

Time wasn't so important here, she realized. But she had never thought a lot about time. Time was important at Hogwarts, because if she was late for classes she could get detention. It didn't matter, not much, before, but since the Carrows, it was important. Detention was normally nothing to bad, cleaning something, or doing a core. She actually enjoyed detention, she was sure Mr. Filch could use the help. But after them, detention was not something she liked to be in. But it happened, sometimes.

The first time in detention she was surprised finding that Terry Boot, a guy older than her from his house, had helped her get out early. Terry used to tease her all the time, and he called her Looney, and he hid her shoes. But not this year. He had helped her, and he had got in detention too. She was grateful, so, since then, she started carrying a watch with her, so she was never late to her classes anymore. She realized than all the students were nicer this year than ever, and she thought that war had good parts, like bringing all them together. Though she would gladly have them being mean at her again, if that could bring peace back.

It was a strange thing, watching Ravenclaws, and Hufflepuffs, and Gryffindors and even Slytherin work together. Of course, Slytherin didn't join the DA, nor they did anything obvious. As a matter of a fact, Slytherin did tons of bad things in front of the Carrows, but in their backs, most of them tried to help in any sly, cunning way they could. She was grateful, so she always took great care with time. She would always be early in class, and hand her homework early. Time in Hogwarts was important. Next class, next lunch, next weekend, next holiday.

But here... time didn't matter. There weren't detentions. But they were punishes. It was worst, because she didn't actually have to do anything to be punished. For her, he pretty much was dragged out as entertainment randomly. It was wrong, it was bad. But it could be worst. Instead of just Bellatrix, who abstained of killing her, it could be Greyback, the werewolf. Or Dolohov, who, Luna knew, had a Lolita complex. Bellatrix played a bit, but didn't killed her. She was horrible, though.

And despite everything, Luna tried not to think about it. It was hard, because, she was alone. If she wasn't... she sighed, and for the first time in two weeks, she worked the courage to approach the figure resting next to her. It must have been human, he looked human, but he didn't act human. He used to just lie there, and when a rat-like man brought food, he never ate.

She didn't understand. The lack of will to live the man had, she could not understand. He looked old, but his dad was old too, and he liked living. So, she wanted to know what this was. Surely human, but why wasn't he acting human?

"Hi, my name is Luna Lovegood".

Silence.

"Hi, sir, I'm Luna Lovegood and I studied at Hogwarts".

Silence, again.

"Sir? Do you have a name? Mine is Luna Lovegood".

New silence. Luna enjoyed silence, but suddenly, she realized she didn't like being ignored.

"Hi, sir, I'm Luna Lovegood, is there any way of getting out of here?"

She had never thought in getting out, actually. She didn't know why she was in, but going out didn't look that bad now that she thought about it. Daddy had actual proof of the existence of the Crumple-Horned Snorkacks, and she wanted so much to see it. She hadn't thought about it before.

"No, Luna Lovegood, there's no way out of here" the man said.

Luna noticed that his voice was hoarse, like he hadn't talked in several weeks. He didn't eat, so she thought he was hungry. It was terrible, what could self-pity do to a man. Self-pity, darkness and silence.

"That's too bad; this isn't a great place to be at all, is it?"

The man shook his head weakly. Luna took that as the old man agreeing with her. She was glad. Her voice was hoarse too, but that was because she had hurt it before, screaming after a particularly well done Cruciatus curse. It was torture, it was. Luna really didn't want to thought about it, but the pain under her skin seemed to be there even after the curse being removed. She wanted to be distracted, not to think about it at all.

"Oh... you know, you didn't tell me your name before. I'm afraid I do not know you" she said, casually.

"But I know you Luna Lovegood. Yew, 11", Phoenix feather. Excellent for transfiguration" he answered, pleasantly, and his voice wasn't as hoarse as it had been.

"Yes... they took it, my wand. They had no right to do so" she said, angry and not dreamy at all " Mr Ollivander... I should have thought about it..."she continued "Dad said that You-know-who had a fixation with wands, after you were captured. I take it they're using this place as head-quarters then?"

Ollivander nodded but said nothing, and Luna didn't talked either. It was interesting; knowing that they hadn't took her to Azkaban, but to the headquarters. That meant she wasn't there for nothing. Surely her dad had something to do with that; after all, she knew he wouldn't be able to keep on forever with the way he was carrying the Quibbler. Maybe the fact that she had been friends with Harry helped too.

And she was here with Ollivander. Maybe Mr Florean Fortescue was there too. She started reminiscing when she was young, and eleven, and exited of being able to acquire a wand. Dad thought that she should use moms, but she refused. Mom always talked about the special connection between a witch/wizard and his/her wand, and she wasn't sure if her mom's wand would work as prettily with her as it had with her mom. They went to Diagon alley, to found everything she needed for Hogwarts, and then ther bought some ice cream, and finally, she acquired her beloved wand.

"I was not sure about yew... you know? Umgubular Slashkilters like eating yew. And Dad was close with Fudge, who owned one, so I didn't want my wand eaten. I was lucky though, because Fudge doesn't like to bring his pets out of his house... no, he doesn't. You should know, that he was even training a whole army of heliopaths, wanted to bring Dumbledore down, you know? And then Daddy said that...".

Luna continued to talk and Ollivander to listen. Then Ollivander asked her about the Umgubular Slashkilters, and she explained him all about them, while feeling particularly joyful of having someone to talk to. She talked about Crumple-Horned Snorkacks, and Wrackspurts, and all kind of things, because too much silence couldn't be good. It looked as if silence took away the will to live from the people, and she didn't want that. She liked living very much, even if living wasn't as much of a pleasure there. She wanted to live so she talked, and talked.

When she was taken away for torture, and her voice was hoarse, Ollivander seemed to know that she didn't like silence, so he started talking too. He told her tons of thing, she told him other things, and since then, she was able to sleep, because, she found out, the floor wasn't comfortable at all, but sleeping with another human being even in the floor, was comfortable enough.

War was a bad thing, but Luna thought it wasn't so bad at all. War killed people, but brought other people together. War make people untruthful, but truth was way more valuable. War ripped families apart, but it created new families too.