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When the Room seems to shake, only Luna is there. Neville has yet another detention and Ginny is on a supply run which shouldn’t be just as dangerous but it because if she’s caught, she’ll get detention too and they won’t have enough food.
It’s policy that one of them must be in the room at all times, at least between them but they think it does a good job of reassuring the rest of the students. (They are and they are right to be if the following events are of any indication.)
“Code Red!”, Luna barks out without a second thought, “Perks, cover me.”. Sal Perks inclines his head once before Disillusioning himself. The younger years have been through enough drills not to panic - actually they do, they just manage to make it to safety.
Luna catches Parvati Patil’s attention.
”Watch the door.”, she orders and Parvati nods firmly, waiting for all the others to pass and then closing the door with a small, “General.”.
Luna smiles grimly. None of them should be in this situation, have to live with a regime that is going try to kills them but is torturing them first. They don’t know when the Carrows will finally snap and attack them with the intent to kill, don’t know when they’ll have to start evading death.
All they know is that they have to be careful. (Not that it stops Neville.)
So they’ve tried their absolute best to minimise the risks, to protect everybody, to drill into them the ways to defend themselves so they can do it even on the verge of sleep.
It’s a good thing that they’ve made sure to teach them the counter spells too because otherwise it could pose an even greater danger, even when there’s no threat.
Stupefys are the most common because they are easy to reverse and good for those who cannot bring themselves to be too violent. Incarcerous is next and Luna has a spell chain involving both with a few extra... treats.
A portrait appears on the wall.
Luna exhales, wand at the ready. If it’s Neville and Ginny or anyone coming to join them they’ll forgive her. If it’s the Carrows or Death Eaters or anyone on their side, Sal is there to serve as her secret weapon and Luna’s become far too familiar with Obliviate recently to mess it up.
The minute she sees a person, she fires, accuracy refined by a lot of time shooting at a target practice - like those of Muggle archery. Luna wishes, not for the first time, that she could acquire some guns or other sorts of Muggle weapons but alas it isn’t an option right now.
”Incarnerous, Expelliarmus, Stupefy.”.
It isn’t her longest spell chain by any account but that is precisely why she is using it - if the intruder uses their wand to evade the first spell, they will not be able to avoid the second and if they move out of the way and there is more than one intruder, at least she should be able to take down one.
”Petrificus Totalus.”, she adds for good measure and then levitates her captive over to the chair the Room so helpfully provided. They haven’t got any Veritaserum and Luna doesn’t like using Legimency so she’ll try the easy way first. That being said, should the intruder prove to be uncooperative, her inhibitions may be loosened by the thought of any terrified First years.
”Muffliato.”, she casts thoughtfully at the man - who bears a striking resemblance to Dumbledore now that she’s looking at him. Luna is planning on reassuring the others and she’d rather he didn’t hear the conversation but then she thinks better of it.
Her limbs shift back into visible as she removes her Disillusionment charm, cast just after Parvati called her that all too accurate moniker. At first it was for the younger ones, a way to make it seem a little more fun than it was, their secret army.
It feels true nowadays.
Luna is sixteen, though she feels ten at times and sixty at others, and she is teaching eleven year olds how to fights. Luna is sixteen and she’s learnt how to Stun first at ask questions later, how Crucio feels when she’s in the hands of an experienced torturer and how much more it hurts when it isn’t being cast on her. Luna is sixteen and she is General Lovegood and only one of those can take precedence.
The answer is in the experienced way she casts Ennervate, in the hard look on her face as she stares down her captive, in the way her wand does not leave her hand. He seems to realise that, gruffly admitting his sympathies lay with them and seemingly appreciative of the way she does not take his words at face value.
It’s a common childhood fantasy to be part of a group that always has your back, who you trust with your life. But those fantasies never account for the traumatic experiences that lead there and Luna is glad that it is just a fantasy for so many.
”How can I trust you?”, she asks Aberforth Dumbledore - unsure whether she wants an answer or not. He does not treat the question as rhetorical instead responding that she cannot. It frustrates her though she knows it to be the truth and yet again Luna feels lost. What is she to do?
The frustration is taking over now and several sparks fly out of her wand- that gives her an idea. Smoothly, she paces around Aberforth shooting a quick Compulsion spell as she passes behind him. The Muffliato should still be in effect.
”I could help...”, he ventures and her head physically snaps as she looks at him, “The passage leads to my inn - we could sneak a few people out that way. Maybe the little ones-“.
Luna presses her wand into his throat and bores her eyes into his.
“I’m sixteen.”, she growls, trying to cover up her mistake. Does he know about the younger years? It’s better that he thinks her offended than that to be the case. She has to protect them.
”I won’t tell anyone,”, he insists, “but I’m not an idiot. There would have been nowhere else to go. Just because Albus was a genius...”.
He rambles on, giving Luna the time to think and think she does.
”An Unbreakable Vow,”, she states, “that you will do your best to protect them.”. It will give him a lot of leeway and she will have to release and rearm him for it to work but Aberforth agrees.
Sal reveals himself and Luna cannot read him as he witnesses the Oath but he smiles at her ever so slightly so Luna thinks she’s doing the right thing.
Only time will tell if General Lovegood made the right decision but Luna thinks it might just turn out okay. She lets Aberforth go with a parting story though, sweet and straightforward.
There once was a wix who learned how to turn people inside out with a single rune.
She smiles at him, all teeth and returns to the children, anxious and waiting. There her smile loses its sharpness, no match for the relieved hugs of the ‘little ones’.
She feels like Luna again.