Nimblewrights
Hermione and Luna woke up a few hours later. Hermione took a few minutes to feed Crookshanks, then got herself ready.
By the time she'd finished, Luna and Tutela were waiting for them.
"You've got to move faster," Luna said. She wasn't judgmental like Rose would've been, but stated it as though it were a fact. "It's bad to stay in one place for too long."
"We only slept for two hours," Hermione said, climbing up off the ground. Her body was still sore. "And I can feel every second. Why do you sleep like this?"
"It's more comfortable than a bed," Luna replied.
Hermione rolled up her sleeping bag that had not helped her at all. She needed something softer to sleep on, but she was out of luck. She hadn't brought much in the way of money with her, as she didn't have much in the way of money.
"What are we going to do when we need to buy supplies?" Hermione asked.
Luna paused for a moment, evidently weighing her options.
"Like what?"
��What if we need to get across the ocean?" Hermione asked. "What if we need something we don't have?"
"We'll figure it out," Luna said. "We can always steal something."
Hermione and Crookshanks blinked at her.
"Thank you Crookshanks," Luna said. "I am weird."
Hermione looked at Crookshanks, then stood up.
"We'll figure it out I suppose," Hermione said. "Let's start walking."
She stood up and looked around.
"A map," she said. "That's what we need. A map."
Luna closed her eyes and sniffed the air. She turned around, sniffed the air, then turned in another direction.
While she did, Hermione looked around and realized that the pieces of Ana had disappeared. Her spirits sank to think that she was gone. Her mind drifted back to when Rose had first made Ana. Her bizarre fascination with duct tape.
Hermione shook off the feelings and returned to reality. By then Luna was waiting for her.
"I found the way we came from. We can follow the trail back to somewhere."
Hermione noted her choice of the word "somewhere" and not civilization, as she would've said. It hadn't sunk in how different she and Luna had been living their lives.
Hermione followed the other three members of her party, the ones with a good sense of smell. If one of them lost the scent, one of the others would pick it up. Hermione considered casting something on herself to give her a better sense of smell. She knew there was a spell for it.
There was also permanency, another in the long list of spells Rose had told her about. Hermione wondered why Rose didn't use it more often. There were dozens of spells with which it worked, why not use them? Hermione kept herself occupied pondering this.
They trekked through a forest, where Luna took the lead. Speak with anything worked better the more she had with which she could speak. They followed Luna, while Hermione switched her attention to running through what she could remember about their path in her head. She remembered the woods, and the road from which they'd entered it. The road had gone by a farm. That was civilization enough.
After an hour, they were still in the forest. The silence finally became unbearable, and Hermione spoke.
"It's a little funny," Hermione said. "We'd been talking about a holiday in France until we became responsible for Rose. I didn't think taking her out of the country would be a good idea."
"She could've teleported," Luna replied, turning abruptly. "She would've been fine."
"With no clear idea of where we were going, she'd have ended up somewhere completely different." Hermione shuddered at the thought. "I don't even want to think about what would've happened to her."
Despite this, her mind had already been filled with thoughts of what could've happened. Best case scenario was that Rose accidentally ended up at Hogwarts and decided to stay there instead. If she somehow ended up at the hotel… it probably wouldn't have gone well. Worst case scenario was that Rose ended up somewhere completely different and got herself into trouble.
Hermione was glad they hadn't gone too far out of the way.
After another half an hour, they reached the dirt road that ran by the farm. Hermione couldn't see the farm yet, but with the sun climbing through the sky, she was sure they'd hear it before they saw it.
Hermione turned down the road, remembering the way they'd gone the first time.
"This road has got to lead somewhere," she said. "With luck, it's a town. Failing that, there's a farm not far from us, so they might be able to tell us where to go."
"Can't we figure it out?" Luna asked.
"We are figuring it out," Hermione replied. "We're using the resources available to us."
"Isn't asking the NPCs cheating?"
"No, that's what they're there for, to point the PCs in the right direction when they get lost."
Or in our case, when they kill the person who knew where she was going.
Once again, Hermione's mind drifted back to another time, one when none of that made sense to her. Now it made perfect sense.
Given that Luna didn't argue after that, it seemed to make sense to her too.
They walked along the road, looking like an odd bunch. Two women, one of whom was covered in tattoos, a dog, and a cat. Hermione tried not to think about how odd they looked. The weirder they were the more attention they'd attract, and the more likely Slytherin would find them.
So far, so good. If we're lucky, it really has lost track of us.
Hermione pushed the thought down and moved back to wondering why Rose didn't use permanency more. Perhaps it simply bored her. She'd mention that it used XP, but so did Serendipity. Was she trying to conserve it?
"Moon, do you know why Rose didn't use permanency more?"
Luna stopped sniffing the air for a moment.
"Her uncle tried to teach her not to overdo it. Otherwise, you forget all the things you can do, and one of them might be used against you. At least that's how I remember it."
Hermione shrugged as they walked down the road. She supposed that made sense.
They walked for the better part of the day. They lost track of where they wanted to go at least five times. Hermione would insist that they'd gone a different way, Luna would listen to her, they'd break from the road, get lost, turn back, and keep following the road.
"I'm sure of it this time!" Hermione said the sixth time.
"Too bad," Luna said, sounding far too much like Rose for Hermione's taste. "We're following the human path to a human colony."
Hermione rolled her eyes. She couldn't tell if Luna was joking, or if she'd gotten rid of her old memories while she'd been in the forest, but she decided it wasn't worth worrying about.
"Fine."
It was dark again before they arrived at a small town. Fortunately, it was a town, and they had a map of the area within Hermione's budget.
"Is there anything you need?" Hermione asked.
"A patch of trees under which to sleep," Luna replied.
"Of course."
Hermione looked around. Outside of the town, there was only farmland and suburbs. They were far from any woodlands.
"Do you know if there are any magical towns nearby?" Hermione asked.
"I'm not sure where we are," Luna said.
Hermione checked her new map.
"We're in—"
"Never heard of it."
Hermione stood with her mouth open for a second, then sighed.
"Alright, then—"
"Silaria isn't far from here," Luna said. "Probably another few hours of walking."
Hermione checked her map.
"I can't see that on here. Any idea which direction that is?"
Luna paused for a moment, then pointed.
"That way."
"Right," Hermione said, accepting that Luna was still better with directions than she was. "Better start walking."
As they started off again, Hermione glanced at Luna. She hadn't a clue, then suddenly knew where to go. Her abilities didn't extend miles away, not out here. Hermione chewed on it for an hour before speaking up.
"How'd you know where to go?" Hermione asked.
"The ground told me."
"No, it didn't. I know how speak with anything works, and it doesn't go that far. Perhaps when you're in the Forbidden Forest you can talk to the entire forest, but you can't do that out here."
"Erm…"
Hermione stopped walking.
"It's alright, Moon. Whatever it is, you can trust me. We're in this together."
Luna froze. She stammered trying to find something to say. She looked more like a frightened animal than Hermione had seen her.
Tutela sat down beside Luna and stared up at her.
Luna took a few deep breaths and calmed herself down.
"I'll tell you after we've set up camp for the night," Luna said. "I promise."
They walked for a few hours in silence. Hermione wanted to know more, but she waited for Luna to tell her. There was no point in pushing her too hard.
After the sun had gone down, they stopped for the night. Hermione couldn't see a town in the distance, so she figured it was farther than advertised. Luna sat down across form Hermione, who was trying to find the least rocky spot to sleep, while wishing she had a tent.
She scrounged around her pack for her money. She didn't have much on her, but it'd be enough for something.
Tutela trotted over to her and dropped a pile of sticks next to her. A few minutes later, Hermione had a fire going. While the heat wasn't necessary — they both had endure elements to keep them comfortable through the night — the light was helpful. Besides, she had a sense that Luna's story was long, and a campfire seemed appropriate.
"I've got dreams," Luna said. "Dreams of other Lunas. Dreams where I'm them, living their lives."
Hermione listened intently, intrigued by Luna's ability. A few times she tried working out how it must work, but she gave up to keep listening.
"So another one of them knew where to find Silaria," Hermione said, "and how to fight Lestrange."
Luna nodded.
"The collection of all of them in me, we call Losha. Even though I'm Moon, Mars, Neptune, Jupiter, Mercury, Pluto, Venus, Uranus, Saturn, they all live in me."
"Which one's the fighter?"
"Mars. She rules Knockturn Alley."
"Sure. Why not?"
"She… she's the one who can kill people, not me."
"Thank you for telling me," Hermione said. "Really, Moon, thank you."
They walked to Silaria, which ended up taking most of the day. Hermione was happy that it turned out to exist at all when they reached it. Hermione chose not to bother Luna with any questions about her gift. She had plenty of them, but they could wait.
She also wondered how much of Rose's memories Luna still had. Did she know what was at the end of their adventure? How much had Slytherin ripped out before she'd run away?
She kept herself entertained with thoughts of what Rose had left for them. How was she going to relay so much information to them? Was it a recollection of everything that had happened? Some illusory tour through time? That sound like Rose's way of doing things.
When they reached Silaria, Hermione realized immediately that it was a town like Hogsmeade. People walked all over in robes or cloaks. Magic was performed in the streets without concern for any onlookers. No one seemed terribly worried about anything.
"Would you mind coming with me?" Hermione asked. "I'd rather know where I'm going."
Luna stared for a moment, then nodded.
Not for the first time in the past 24 hours, Hermione wondered if Luna stayed in constant communication with her other selves.
They walked into town, looking around at the lights coming to life in the streets. People bustled about, not paying them much mind. She spotted a copy of the Daily Prophet in a shop window, reminding her that she wasn't outside of the Ministry's gaze.
It probably doesn't have control here.
"Is there an inn somewhere?" Hermione asked Luna after they'd walked for a few minutes.
Luna paused, then started walking. She easily pushed her way through people, looking like she could see just fine.
Hermione pushed through people, but the wave thinned out before long.
"They must be going somewhere," Hermione said when she caught up to Luna.
"Here's the inn," Luna said, looking at the building in front of them.
Hermione looked the building up and down. It had seen better days. It looked a little bigger than the Hog's Head, but apart from that, it wasn't that different than it had looked before the house-elves had gone at it during the earthquake.
On the one hand, it would be nice to sleep in a proper bed. One the other, she wasn't sure it was worth it.
Hermione looked at Luna. Her smile had faltered a little. She stared off into the distance, keeping her face pointed away from Hermione.
"Perhaps we can sleep outside together," Hermione said. "I think I���d rather spend the night with you anyway."
Luna lit up and threw her arms around Hermione. Hermione herself was decidedly less enthusiastic, but she tried her best.
"We'll sleep outside town, then stock up on supplies in the morning," Hermione said. "We've got a ways to go still."
She looked out and saw people gathering in the fields near the town.
"What's going on today?" Hermione asked.
Luna paused, tilting her head back and forth. With her usual amount of warning (none) she grabbed Hermione's hand and ran towards the crowd. Crookshanks and Tutela ran with them to keep up.
"It must be exciting," Hermione said, although she wasn't sure to whom she was talking. Luna certainly wasn't listening.
"Get ready," Luna said.
"I'm sure I'll work out for what I'm preparing on my own."
Hermione followed Luna to the crowd of people, where they stopped so Luna could smell the air. Hermione didn't see what everyone was doing, apart from drawing their wands.
She caught the name of a spell from someone talking to their kids, and realized what they were doing.
"Everyone's about to send up sparks, aren't they?"
If that was the case, why was Luna so excited? Even as she nodded, her excitement never faded.
The lights in town flickered, and everyone readied their wands. Hermione readied her hands. She didn't know why they were doing it, but it couldn't have been abnormal for anyone to join.
The lights in town flickered again, and she heard hushed whispers of "not yet".
She knew it was time when the lights flickered again, but not because they went out. The lights in town shot towards the sky. At the same time, everyone there aimed their wands up and fired.
Hundreds of spark spells lit up the sky. Hermione and Luna added their own to the mix. For a moment, it looked like there were millions of stars there. The sparks hung in the air, longer than they should have, before finally flickering out.
It might have been the most beautiful thing Hermione had ever seen.
Everyone applauded as the lights in the sky went out, and the lights in the village went back on.
"There are two places around here where time suspends for a moment," Luna told her. "Silaria holds the Star Casting every year when it happens here. Ana brought us to the other one. Rose must have known that and used it to give us the clue."
Everyone chatted on their way back to the town. Hermione and Luna stayed behind, drifting away from the town.
"You couldn't see it," Hermione said. "I'm sorry. It was beautiful."
Despite that, Luna didn't stop smiling.
"Saturn saw it when she was a little girl. She comes back every year to remind herself how wonderful the world is. I've seen it through her eyes." Her grin broadened. "Besides, I could smell it."
"Smell it?" Hermione asked, thinking it couldn't be that interesting to smell it.
"Happiness. Pure happiness."
They started out after they'd slept a few hours. It probably helped that they hadn't slept in the inn; it'd be difficult to explain why she hadn't slept more than a few hours.
"I've got a couple questions," Hermione said as they started off. "A bunch of them, actually. Are you okay talking about it?"
"About what?"
"Your dreams."
Luna faltered for a moment, but nodded in spite of this.
"Do you talk to the others?"
"Sort of. I can keep their memories in my head well enough to talk to them as though they were here."
It concerned Hermione a little that it sounded like Luna was hallucinating.
"How?"
"Unicorn blood," Luna replied. "Given willingly, it can create powerful runes. I used it to draw the tattoo on the back of my neck."
Hermione stopped walking as she realized what that would've meant.
"How?"
"With my hands."
"You couldn't see it. You'd… You would've been blind anyway."
"Oh. Tutela helped."
Hermione glanced down at their animal companions. Once again, Crookshanks was not thrilled with all the walking they were doing. He had hitched a ride on Tutela for the day, who didn't seem to mind the extra passenger.
"How many of them are there?"
"A bunch, but I only have enough memories of a few of them to keep them in my head."
Hermione looked at Luna, expecting her to be uncomfortable talking about it, but she didn't seem bothered.
"Which ones?"
"I'm Moon. There's Mercury, who always has an escape plan. Venus is… loving. Mars is—"
"Ninja Crime Lord Luna."
Luna giggled.
"Yes. Jupiter was adopted by a pureblood family, and Neptune became a pirate."
"Because of course one of the Lunas became a pirate."
"Pluto's always sad, and Uranus ran away. She spends most of her time as a hawk."
Hermione counted off each planet in the solar system.
"And Saturn?"
"Saturn's nice. She goes around with her dad doing good things."
"If you can tap into their memories like you did at Hogwarts, then—"
"No!"
Luna's sudden objection caught Hermione off guard. Had she said something wrong?
"Why not?"
She caught Tutela staring at her, then the homunculus shook her head.
"Never mind. I'm sure it's not necessary. You did fine against Ana."
Luna smiled, apparently happy to be off the subject. Hermione wondered why, but she didn't wonder for long; the answer was obvious. Luna, sweet, hopeful Luna, had torn someone's throat out with her bare teeth. It wasn't something Hermione would've wanted to remember, much less repeated.
It was dark when they reached the campsite. That didn't stop them; they got to work scouring the area for some hint as to what they were doing next.
She should've realized it when she said it that Rose would've made it that obvious.
Hermione ran to Luna's position, spotting what she'd found through the dark.
In all the times she'd been there, she had never noticed it. Maybe it'd always been there, but judging by the graffiti reading "Rose built this" in red letters (Hermione rolled her eyes), she figured it hadn't always been there.
"It" was the ruin of a cobblestone building. Vines had grown over it, but the building itself was sizable. It was nearly a perfect square, no ceiling. A gate hung off its hinges, exposing the inside to them. On either side of the gate stood a suit of armor.
Hermione knew it couldn't be that simple, but she tried the easy way first. Closing her eyes, she cast dimension door, targeting the middle of the ruins.
It surprised her a little to find that the area was under a dimension lock. Why had Rose planned for her to try that? Rose had given her the information she'd needed to learn the magic from Rose's world, which still confused Hermione, but how had she known Hermione would learn dimension door?
Crookshanks stayed on the wall as a lookout, while the rest of them walked inside.
The first obstacle to their success made itself known when they stepped inside. Hermione figured in hindsight that it was enchanted to detect her, as if the armor had come to life when anyone walked inside, that'd be a problem. It didn't come to life when Luna or Tutela walked in either. Only her.
A sword swung at them from around a corner. Luna saw it coming and ducked out of the way. The suit of armor attached to it ran at them.
Hermione flung it backwards, then Tutela jumped on it and closed her jaws over its head. The armor went limp, and their party moved quicker through the maze.
They rounded another corner and three more Nimblewrights came to life. The first one swung at Tutela, who dodged aside the blow. The next two went after Hermione, who conjured shields to defend herself.
Luna leapt at the one going after Tutela and tackled it to the ground. The Nimblewright recovered and swiped at Luna.
Meanwhile, Hermione transfigured spikes on her shields which wounded her Nimblewrights, but didn't stop them. She slammed down the shields as the Nimblewrights went for her legs.
As Tutela got out of the way, Luna breathed fire onto their Nimblewright. It froze in place, stopping its attack.
Hermione shot bursts of fire from her shields. One stopped. The other didn't.
The other Nimblewright knocked Hermione's feet out from under her. She landed hard on her arm, breaking her concentration on her shields. They vanished as the other Nimblewright unfroze.
Crab apples!
She rolled aside as one of them drove its swords into the ground.
Hermione thought through what Rose had told her about dealing with spell resistance. Not all spells could be stopped by it; only direct attacks, usually. Few conjuration spells were stopped by it.
Hermione focused on orb of fire. She flung out her hand as the orange ball formed on it. The orb shot at one of the Nimblewrights, who fell to pieces when the orb struck it.
The other one caught Hermione in the side with its sword. Hermione retaliated by firing another orb of fire at it. It didn't destroy it, but it stunned it, giving Hermione time to get back on her feet.
She started another orb of fire, but Tutela tore through the Nimblewright. Hermione glanced over and saw that the one Luna and Tutela had been dealing with was in ruins.
The four of them ran through the ruins. Crookshanks ran along the wall, looking out for any more statues. She informed Luna when she noticed something of interest.
They moved on, Crookshanks providing a look ahead. Tutela went first, then Luna and Hermione.
They emerged overlooking a chamber. Two worn out stairways led down to the dirt floor. At the center of the room stood a red flag. Unlike the rest of the ruins, there were no Nimblewrights anywhere to be found.
While Crookshanks stayed up above, the other three walked down the steps. When they reached the floor, a humming sound filled their ears. Ahead of Hermione. Luna froze.
Hermione glared at Luna.
Sparks lit up the night, and Hermione realized why she wouldn't like it.
From out of a tunnel behind them came a long, metal serpent. The sparks were electricity, crackling around its fangs.
It lashed out at Hermione, who hesitated. Luna threw up a stone barrier, stopping the serpent short.
Hermione and Luna split up, but the serpent kept the flag covered. They had no way around it, so Hermione realized she had to go through it.
She hurled another Orb of Fire at it. While it clearly damaged it, it didn't stun it like it had the Nimblewrights.
I suppose that would've been too easy.
With its tail around the flag, it reared up and struck at Hermione again.
Why do they always go after me?
Hermione jumped out of the way. She tried to tumble, but fell and landed on her back, knocking the wind out of her.
The serpent reared up again, but Tutela barreled into it, knocking it away from her.
Luna ripped chunks of stone from the walls and hurled them at the serpent.
The serpent dodged around them, taking a few hits, then turned its attention back to Hermione, who was climbing to her feet.
The serpent struck at her again. Hermione panicked and froze. She wasn't fast enough to dodge it like Luna was. Battered and bruised from the Nimblewrights, she was too tired to come up with anything.
Her mind came up with something on it own.
Hermione closed her eyes, but the serpent didn't hit her. She heard the crackling and humming of electricity, but it didn't hit her. When she opened her eyes, at first it looked like the serpent had stopped.
Then she saw the ooze.
Black ooze had erupted from around her, seeping into the serpent and holding it in place. As it did, the serpent hissed and sputtered, thrashing around in pain.
Hermione looked down at her feet, around which the ooze originated, then back at the serpent. She raised her hand, then spread her fingers.
Like it had with Ana, the ooze expanded, ripping through the serpent. Chunks of it were torn off, but it didn't fall.
Hermione stayed calm and focused on the ooze. It receded, returning to her. She focused on the serpent, willing the ooze to attack it again.
Memories of almost hurting Luna with the ooze flashed into her head, but she remained focused on the serpent. The ooze spread over the ground, making it glow bright green.
A spike of crystal erupted from the ooze, striking the serpent. Another struck it, then another.
Behind it, Luna ripped two large chunks out of the wall and slammed them into the serpent. The girls hit it again and again, until at last, it fell.
As the bronze serpent crumbled, Hermione stumbled over to the flag and pulled it out of the ground. It was still blank, an empty, red flag flapping in the breeze.
"Sure," she panted.
"Are you alright?" Luna asked.
Hermione looked down as the last of the ooze melted into the ground.
"I'm not sure." She looked up and smiled at her friend, not that she could see. "I'm sure I will be. Come on. Let's get out of here."
Their party walked out of the ruins. Any remaining statues had fallen apart, giving them no resistance on their way out. When they reached the exit, they all collapsed.
"Great," Hermione said. "Good work team."
She looked up at the flag and saw that it had changed. The blank flag now bore the image of the earth inside of a cup.
"The world inside of a cup," Hermione panted, knowing Luna couldn't see it. "What are the odds that's not the world cup?"
"It already passed this year," Luna said. "Do we have to wait?"
Hermione shook her head.
"No. It's not just the world cup. Ref, then Ana, now my family's campsite. The clues are for me, and I've only ever been to one world cup."
Flashes of people screaming entered her head, but she shook it off.
"We've got to get to Dartmoor," Hermione said, "to the site of the 1994 Quidditch World Cup."