Three Hallows, Two Weasleys and One Broken Girl

Chapter 36: Design and Deceit

The illustrations are back! (As ever, check out my art account on Instagram if you like my work!)
Sorry about the late publish, I had an idea that turned one chapter into three so everything needed a great deal of reworking.
Also, I'm sorry. To those of you who read Emerald Prince, beware the deja vu, it's coming in crutch.

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Luna Lovegood knew she was strange.
But those that mattered loved her anyway.
And in return, she'd do anything to protect them.
She and Delphi were alike in that regard.
They shared many similarities.

They didn't share gifts however. How could they, when Delphi was a chosen of Fate, and she of Destiny?
Luna could see trees, whilst Delphi was granted a view of the forests. She did not envy her sister her burden, and delighted well enough in her own which was purely that of guide to Harry Potter, helping his growth to fit his future part of the canopy her sister knew so well.
Delphi had helped in the guiding and Dumbledore hindered it considerably but despite interference Luna knew she had done a good job so far. Of course, her job only really picked up once the child soldier ended the war Dumbledore had melded him to fight, and was left staggering with no clear enemy in sight. That was when it became her duty and Ginny's to pick up the pieces.
Hogwarts had had quite enough dysfunctional defence teachers, and Magical Britain enough unstable Ministers for Magic.

She was originally intended to guide Neville, but then Destiny considered him better fitted to her than the prophecy, and well, Luna couldn't say she minded.

However for the moment, Harry was beyond her reach, and trapped in a school of Death Eaters, with too many defenceless children, she dearly wished she could see what her sister did.
The light on the horizon was so very far away.
As was the sister she missed, even if her instinct knew it was not Delphi's time yet.

So it was not as Destiny's avatar that she was needed. But as herself.
She played the downtrodden child whose sister was at Voldemort's limited mercy whilst the resistance built in the Room of Requirement.
She was not Slytherin so no one expected cunning, she was not Gryffindor so no one expected bravery, and she was not Hufflepuff so not one expected loyalty beyond sense and safety. Because in that regard Voldemort and Dumbledore were one and the same. Always seeing the world in four colours instead of fifteen.

So she buried her face in books and listened keenly, noting patrol routes, conflicts and connivances both within and without the school. The best time for supply raids and rescues, valuable information for the order and clouds of doowadeps worth feeding.
And no one minded the little Ravenclaw oddball. Not for a second.
Just a little whimsy, an off key hum and a silly dance and she was dismissed without even a hex. Just like Delphi taught her.

Today though, things had gone wrong.
Amycus Carrow had not been in his sister's office torturing Colin Creevy, but had gone to the kitchen for a snack. And there he'd almost caught her, Neville, Dean, Justin and Terry on a supply run. She'd managed to get them all out of sight, and the house elves would never give them up, but if they were to sneak back out the tunnel without them or the tunnel being noticed, a distraction was needed, and it had to be her.

Not least because today held far more in it than a mere kitchen raid, even if Luna did not know what. And she would not have the boys caught up in it. She would not have Neville caught up in it.

Neville looked furious about the situation which made her chest warm, but since the others were known 'revolutionaries', they'd be in far more danger caught than she would.
As such, she crawled as far from them as she could get without Aymcus spying her, mustered her courage and stood straight, grabbing a colander and putting it on her head.
"Hello Professor." She half sang.
"Shitting Salazar!" Swore Amycus, half choking on the muffin he'd been eating. "You creepy little bint, the deuce are you playing at!!!?"
He flushed with rage and embarrassment as the four boys slipped safely back into the tunnel behind him with mixed thankful and worried glances back.