Work Text:
Welcome to The Luna Zone
Narrator:
Twilight is gently settling over the ancient towers of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The last light of the setting sun is staining the sky a deep shade of purple while long shadows quietly stretch across the courtyard. On a lonely stone bench sits a young man—witness Harry Potter, age twenty-one. A veteran of battles most grown wizards would rather forget, and the survivor of a war that nearly consumed the entire Magical World. Tonight he seeks nothing more dangerous than a moment of peace… and perhaps a few happy memories of years gone by.
But peace and happiness are fragile things in a universe where mysteries still lurk in the corners of time, and where even the quietest evening can conceal something extraordinary. For tonight, Harry Potter is about to encounter a question far stranger than any dark spell he has ever faced. A question not of magic… but of reality itself. A question that waits just beyond the next turn of the page.
In a moment, Harry Potter will discover that he may not simply be living his life… He may be living inside a story. A story that begins—right here—inside The Luna Zone.
_________
As Harry sat quietly, Luna Lovegood, a friend and fellow member of Dumbledore’s Army, was walking toward him with her light, almost floating footsteps. Her ethereal nature exuded a sense of otherworldly calm. He never flinched as she sat down beside him, her presence both comforting and unsettling at the same time.
A moment passed as he felt the unease of being stuck between speaking and waiting for Luna to say something. Finally, much to his relief, Luna spoke up.
“Harry,” she started in her calm manner that often preceded a question or remark of great profundity and wonderment. “Do you ever get the feeling that someone or something beyond our vision and reach is watching or studying us?”
Harry found it impossible to hide the inklings of a smirk as he paused to consider the concerning possibilities laced within her question. Then, he mused, “With everything we have been through during our years at the school, I suppose I should be surprised to find out that someone isn’t.”
Luna leaned back, tilted her head, and smiled in that special way of hers that always made you feel like she knew something no one else knew, or was seeing things invisible to you. Finally, she said, “You’re right, of course. However, this is more than just a typical feeling. It’s like we are part of something—something bigger. It is almost like we are characters in a storybook, and someone is out there, reading the words, looking at the pictures, and turning the pages, following our lives.”
Harry laughed, but it was an uneasy laugh. “Blimey, Luna. You always have the most amazing, most vivid imagination.”
Luna smiled, but her big, silvery-blue eyes retained their seriousness. “What if it is more than just imagination? What if there is more to the stories we tell ourselves?”
“What do you mean more?” asked Harry, his voice filled with an uneasy curiosity.
“Think about the things we see in our imagination. Are they really just imagination?” she asked. “What if they are something more? What if the stories we tell ourselves are more than just fantasies?”
“Wha—what are you suggesting?” Harry asked. “It sounds like you're saying that we could be part of someone else’s imagination?”
“I’m not sure,” Luna replied. “I think that it’s something like that.”
“How is that possible?” said Harry as he stood up.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “I just have this unshakable feeling that we are part of something bigger than we realize or can understand.”
“What should we do about it?” asked Harry. “Should we talk to someone…maybe Professor McGonagall?”
“No. I don’t think it is wise to bother the headmistress because I have a strange feeling. She’s a very busy person," said Luna, trying to be rational. “Maybe we can find something in the library.”
“That’s funny,” chuckled Harry, breaking the tension. “In the old days, I would say something to Hermione. Then she would go to the library. I never thought you would act like her.”
“Yes. That would be a very Hermione thing to do,” agreed Luna, returning his laugh with a giggle.
“And later,” continued Harry. “Probably while Ron and I were eating or playing Wizard’s Chess, she would appear and thump down a book in front of us with the answer, or at least some information.”
With that notion in their minds, they got up and walked into the castle. Just as they made it to the library, Madam Pince was hanging up the CLOSED sign. “Sorry, Potter and Miss Lovegood,” she said. “It is 8:00 pm. If you are looking for something, you will have to come back tomorrow. It is best that you head off to your dorms.”
_________
Shortly after breakfast the next morning, as most of the people at the school were heading off to watch Quidditch practice for the upcoming tournament, Harry and Luna were poking around the dimly lit aisles of the library, trying to find something, anything relevant to their question. The air was thick with their annoyance, the kind that comes from sensing something is not quite right, but not being able to place it. After considerable time of walking the rows of books, pulling one after another out, and scanning them before returning them to the shelf, they found themselves in the lower-level Restricted Section. Harry, more so than Luna, felt frustrated.
“What are we even looking for, Luna?” Harry finally snapped as he slammed closed the cover of a dusty, curious volume of forgotten lore, causing a cloud to rise into his nostrils and evoke a sneeze.
“Gesundheit,” said Luna as she placed an unusually large volume back on a shelf. “I am experiencing the same frustration.”
Just then, Luna read the large, blocky letters on the spine of an adjacent book. The title was The Big Book of Us. “That’s a curious name for a book,” she thought. When she reached up to get it, it seemed to retreat deeper on the shelf until it could go no further.
Luna finally got hold of it and pulled it out. She turned it sideways to look at the front cover. As she watched, a gold script wrote itself below the title. When it stopped, it said:
The Big Book of Us
The Luna and Harry Edition
“Oh my,” gasped Luna loud enough to cause Harry to pause and turn in her direction.
“What’s the matter?” he asked. “What did you find?”
“Come look at this book,” she replied. “It’s very curious. I think it is about us.”
Harry hurried over, his eyes widened as he read the cover. “What is this? I don’t understand. How could there be a book about us?”
Luna started to open it, but it resisted her efforts. She readjusted her grip and pulled harder. Once it was opened, the dimly lit aisles in the restricted section of the library made it nearly impossible to read.
“Let’s take it outside,” she said. “We can look at it in the courtyard.”
“It’s a restricted book, Luna. We’ll have to get permission to take it out of the library.”
“It will be okay,” she replied. “Most Ravenclaws have blanket permission to take out restricted books. I am sure mine is still valid.”
A few minutes later, they found themselves entering the courtyard. Harry was carrying the ponderous tome.
“Blimey, this thing weighs a ton,” he complained. “I should be levitating it.”
They sat down on a bench in a well-lit part of the courtyard, not far from the fountain. A cat and a few birds were their only company. With the book between them, Luna went to open it. Once again, it resisted her effort. Then, once she finally succeeded, the book came to life. All on their own, the pages of the book started turning until they stopped on a page with a large, moving picture on it.
They let out a collective gasp. The picture was of them. They were sitting on the same bench, wearing the same clothes, looking just as they were. Even the clouds in the sky were identical to the ones in the picture. As they looked around, the birds on the ground and the ones in the picture flew away.
“Look at it,” said Harry, the shock of what he was seeing filling his voice. “Look at it. It’s us. It’s us right now on this bench.”
“Yessss. I know. It is indeed unsettling,” answered Luna, her innate ability to sound calm masking the discomfort starting to well up inside her.
After a moment of letting the initial shock wear off and gathering themselves, they started exploring the pages. The first page started with Harry, Ginny Weasley, and Neville Longbottom entering a compartment containing Luna on the Hogwarts Express on the way to the beginning of her fourth year, and Harry’s fifth. From there, it read almost like a joint diary of their lives right up to the page with the picture. All of the pages beyond it were blank.
“How is this possible?” breathed Harry as he looked at Luna. Her normally calm demeanor seemed startled.
“Much of this is private,” she said, almost sounding embarrassed by the revelations. “I never even wrote some of it in my own diary.”
“I could say the same. So, who could know all of this? Who could have written it all down? There’s no author’s name on it. This is—is really—disturbing. I mean…what if we really are just characters in a story that someone keeps writing and rewriting?
That is a fascinating idea. It could explain those moments when you feel like you’ve seen something or done something before. It could be why we have little brain glitches, forget things, lose track of our thoughts…”
“But who are the writers?” Harry cut back in.
“What if…we are the writers?” posed Luna, her Ravenclaw mind cutting through everything to the core possibility. “What if we are authors…the ones writing the words the reader is reading? The ones we are living on these pages. What if we are writing our own lives?”
“I don’t know…” said Harry as he closed the book with an anxious slam. “All I can say is that that idea is rather frightening,” “I am not certain I am happy we found it.”
“I wonder what Professor Trelawney would think about this?” queried Luna. “This seems to be something related to her field.”
“Well, Hermione would scoff at the notion. But I don’t know. She’s not here. If you think it would be useful, I am willing to give it a go.”
They got up and returned to the castle. Harry heeded his previous notion and floated the book in front of them as they made their way up the seemingly endless spiral of stairs leading to the Divination classroom atop the North Tower. They were relieved to discover the professor sitting at a table with her crystal ball, a cup of tea, or perhaps sherry, and some scones.
“Oh. Uh. Hello,” sputtered the professor as she looked up to see Harry and Luna through her thick glasses. “Welcome. My morning tea leaves predicted that I would have company today. It is so nice to see a pair of my former students.”
Thank you, professor,” replied Luna. “It is nice to see you, too.”
“I sense that you are seeking something,” she said. “What is it that brings you here?”
“This book,” said Harry as he directed her attention to the giant volume floating in front of him. We have some questions.”
“Yes. Of course. Let’s have a look at it,” said the professor as Harry moved it to her table and set it down. “I detect that it is full of curious magic.”
“Open it,” said Harry. “You will see why we brought it to you.”
Oddly, the book did not resist as Professor Trelawney opened the cover. The pages started flipping faster than it was possible to observe any of the contents. When it stopped on a page with a moving picture, Harry and Luna gasped. Instead of the picture of them sitting on the bench in the courtyard, the picture was of them and the professor looking at it on the table.
“Where did you come by this book?” asked the professor as she stood up and backed away from it.
“I found it in the Restricted Section of the Library,” answered Luna.
“I have only heard of this type of Divinational Magic,” she said, clearly unnerved by what she was seeing. It appears to be a type of dark magic—very dark magic.”
“What kind of magic is it?” asked Luna.
“I have heard it called Layered Reality. Most divinationists do not believe in it. I don’t think I did. That is, until now.”
“How does it work?” asked Luna.
“From my understanding of theories, it is claimed that another version of us exists on a higher plane of reality. They are writing the reality that we live in. Another pair of Harry and Lunas are writing your lives, your futures, and you are living them here.
“Then we are just actors performing their play. Is that what you are saying, Professor?” asked Harry, almost dreading the answer.
“Yes. That is correct,” said the professor as she took her seat. “But I am unaware of any proof to support the theory.”
“Is there anything we can do about it? Can we control it, or free ourselves from it?” asked Harry as he fidgeted anxiously.
“I don’t know. I don’t know if anyone knows the answer to those questions.”
“What about other people, like Ron, Hermione, the rest of the people at Hogwarts, people we do not even know? Is there a book about them?” asked Luna with a curious, but serious expression.
“Again, I do not know the answer,” said the professor as she refilled her glass and took a large sip. “Divinationists who study this have theories and disagreements. Many of them believe that every person, group of people, such as the two of you, or masses of people, such as everyone at Hogwarts, the whole Magical World, or the whole World, has a book like this. They believe they are woven together to create the ultimate reality.”
“Where are all of these books?” asked Harry. “There must be a massive library somewhere.”
“Divinationists believe they are like prophecies. They can only be found or viewed by the person or people about whom they are written.”
“But you just looked at ours,” said Harry.
“Yes. Because you invited me to do so. You made me part of your story, at least for a while.”
“This is all most troubling,” said Luna, looking very uncomfortable. “What should we do with it?”
“That is a very good question. I am not certain that I know the answer,” she replied as she took another sip from her drink. “I must point out that it does not show you the future. It only shows you the past and present. My feeling is that it would be best to return it to the place where you found it and to leave it there. Then, you can just go about your lives.”
Harry and Luna looked at each other. Their decision about how to proceed was written on the other’s face. A short time later, they had returned the book to the shelf and were exiting the library.
“What do we do now?” asked Harry as they headed into the dining hall to eat.
“I think we have to do the only thing we can,” said Luna. “We live our lives.”
_________
The invisible bond they created that day led them forward. Their friendship grew stronger. Eventually, it turned into love. And from that love, it turned into a marriage, and then a family. Years passed unmarked until one day, years later, they found themselves back at Hogwarts for a gathering of those who had fought in and survived the Battle of Hogwarts.
“It seems like just yesterday that we were students walking through these halls, but it was so long ago,” mused Harry as he held Luna’s hand while they strolled quietly, soaking in the memories.
“The years have been good to us as they rolled quietly by. Do you ever think about that book?” asked Luna.’
“Book?” said Harry, momentarily confused. “Oh, oh, oh, that book. No. Not in a long time.”
“Neither have I,” said Luna. “But coming here this weekend has reminded me of it. I think the writers did a good job. We have had a wonderful life.”
“Yes. A very good life,” agreed Harry as he pulled Luna close.
After some shared glances filled with unspoken things, they found themselves making their way into the library and the Restricted Section. With nervous hands, they pulled out the book and headed out to the courtyard.
They sat down on the same bench where they had first opened the book all of those years ago. Luna was, whether it was a coincidence or destiny, wearing the same dress. Harry was wearing a similar shirt and trousers. With a pair of deep breaths, they opened the book, and the pages flashed by, finally stopping with them sitting on the bench looking at it. Only this time, they looked older. The years had really passed.
After a moment, they started leafing back through the pages. They saw picture after picture. Some of them were solid. Others seemed to contain glitches and flaws. They saw:
- Themselves walking through the Forbidden Forest and along the lake, the path changing under their feet as if the forest itself were alive.
- Their wedding, the scene replaying with slight differences each time, as if they were caught in an imperfect loop.
- The births of their children, the moments repeating, each time with a subtle shift, different emotions playing on their faces.
- The two of them are sitting by the lake again, the moon reflecting each time differently.
- The children, one, two, three of them, leaving for Hogwarts, then graduating.
- And so on until they arrived back at this moment.
Finally, they closed the book and returned it to the library. As they were walking away, Harry said, “There is just one thing that used to bother me about the whole idea of another set of us having written our life story.”
“What’s that, dear?”
“Why did they write the bad things? Why did they kill people we loved and cause all of the pain that happened over time? I can’t imagine us doing those things. Couldn't we have suggested that they quit writing bad things into our lives?”
“I thought about that a lot in the past. My only conclusion is that they must have editors.”
Narrator:
Harry Potter and Luna Lovegood discovered something curious in the quiet courtyard of Hogwarts—a book that held their past, their present, and perhaps something more mysterious still. A reminder that life may be written in ways we cannot see… by authors we may never meet… in a place just beyond imagination.
A place known as… The Luna Zone.
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