Final Year, Chapter 9 – The Deathly Hallows, Lovegood Style

From the Journal of Hermione Granger – August 16

Today is the day we’ve arranged to visit the Lovegoods. Ron seems rather more eager than one would expect. Harry and I have managed to restrain ourselves from teasing him about wanting to see Luna. It would most likely result in him getting stubborn and denying that he has any feelings for her, and he might even be able to convince himself. We’ll see what happens while we’re there.

I expect it to be quite an unusual experience, given what we know about the family.

They had apparated to a location near the Burrow that Harry and Hermione were familiar with, then Ron pointed out a hill nearby. A few seconds later they reappeared atop it, looking down in one direction at the crooked little house that Ron had grown up in, and then in the other direction at a much stranger looking one. It appeared to be a great black cylinder rising vertically into the sky.

“That’s the place,” Ron announced. “I’ve never been inside but Ginny used to go there to play with Luna when she was little. Looks like a giant rook, don’t you think?”

Hermione frowned, thinking that the house looked nothing like a bird, rather more like a castle, then realized that of course Ron was comparing it to a chess piece. She looked up to see Harry grinning at her, undoubtedly aware of the sequence of thoughts she had just gone through, and shot him a dirty look. He grinned again and took her hand, following along after Ron as they picked their way down the hill. Ten minutes later they were at the entrance, where a hand-painted sign proclaimed this to be the home office of The Quibbler, edited by X. Lovegood. A second offered mistletoe for sale, hand grown by L. Lovegood.

As they pushed open the gate and stepped on the zigzagging path to the front door (of course, they couldn’t possibly have a straight, normal entranceway like anyone else , Hermione thought to herself with a smile) Luna burst through it and skipped out to meet them. She was as excited as they’d ever seen her, and yet she moved back and forth along the winding path in what seemed to be a well-practiced dance.

“Hi Harry, hi Hermione!” she greeted them eagerly, before drawing herself up and taking a breath. “Hello Ronald,” she smiled shyly. “I’m glad you could come.” Ron was unable to answer for a moment, as he gathered his own composure and looked her up and down, startled at her appearance. She was wearing a bright blue sundress with a fitted bodice and waist and a flared skirt, which ended just above her knees, revealing that Luna possessed a long, slender figure with very nice looking legs. With her long blonde hair and blue-grey eyes, the dress looked fabulous on her.

“Hi Luna, we’re happy to be here,” Harry responded, covering for his best mate. “This looks like a very interesting place.”

“Thank you, would you like to have a look around?” she offered, smiling at Harry and Hermione before shooting an anxious glance at Ron.

“We’d love to,” Hermione answered brightly, moving forward while Harry gave Ron a nudge behind her back.

“Erm, yeah, we would,” the redhead finally managed. “You, uh, sell mistletoe then?” he added, motioning to the sign.

Luna beamed at him. “Yes, would you like to buy some? It’s guaranteed to be nargle free.” Ron reacted predictably and turned bright red as he considered the normal use to which mistletoe was put.

This time Hermione bailed him out. “Perhaps at Christmastime,” she allowed. “Is this where you grow it?” On either side of the path as they moved closer to the house were two trees that sprouted several bushy growths of the parasitic plant.

“Yes, I’ve experimented with several different kinds of trees and shrubs,” Luna responded brightly. It grows best in fruit trees, like crabapples and pears, but it tends to get infestations more often then. I think the nargles are attracted to the sweet juices of the fruit. So I tried other kinds. I’ve had the best luck with silver birches. They have the prettiest leaves as well.”

The trio stood and admired her efforts, as well as the other unusual shrubs in the yard, for a few minutes before they entered the house itself. The floor plan was focused around a spiral staircase in the center of the structure. On this level were two semicircular rooms, a kitchen and a dining/living room. It was the strangest kitchen any of the three had ever seen, as the stove, sink, cold box, and all the cupboards were curved to fit against the walls of the round structure. They were also painted in bright colors – red for the stove, blue for the cold box, green for the sink, and yellow for the cupboards – and covered with flowers, birds, and butterflies. The decorations had a decidedly childish style, and the three suspected they were Luna’s additions to the decoration scheme over the years.

Xenophilius called out from the living room to greet them, but before they could sit down to talk Luna pulled them all up the stairs to see her room. The second level evidently contained her father’s bedroom and office, while her bedroom occupied the third floor. It was a completely circular room, and again her furniture fitted into the curve of the walls, including her bed, which was shaped like a crescent moon. But it was what was on the walls that caught their attention.

“What do you think?” Luna gestured and then stood there as her hands clasped together nervously. It was obviously her proudest creation. Painted on the wall, encircling the room, were six faces – Harry, Hermione, Ron, Susan, Neville, and Ginny. The one of Ginny was older, having been there first, while the other five had evidently been added the previous summer. Linking all the paintings, weaving itself around and through the pictures, was a golden chain. Upon closer inspection, the links of the chain were letters, a single word repeated over and over in golden ink: friends

Hermione was the first to react, running over and hugging the younger girl. “Oh Luna, it’s wonderful!”

Harry joined them seconds later, wrapping an arm across the blonde girl’s shoulders and giving a squeeze. “She’s right. It looks great. And I know what you mean about how important friends are.”

Luna’s eyes began to tear up and she smiled at Harry as Ron arrived. Just as he attempted to join in the group hug, she broke away from Hermione and turned to him. His arms ended up wrapped awkwardly around her back while she threw hers around his neck. Harry and Hermione stepped back and smiled at each other as their hands joined automatically.

When the group of friends finally returned downstairs Xenophilius invited them to make themselves comfortable in the living room. In his normal workclothes their host appeared to be even more eccentric than he had at the wedding. He had long, white hair, which had been worn loose at the wedding but today was tied back in a ponytail. He also had a slightly fanatical look about him that Hermione decided to call the ‘mad scientist look’. All he needed was a white labcoat and safety goggles to complete the picture. He reminded her of the scientist in the movie Back To The Future from about ten years previously.

Once they reminded him that they’d come to hear the story behind the circle in a triangle symbol he wore on a chain around his neck, his demeanor changed. He cast a furtive glance around the room and pulled out his wand to cast some privacy spells before sitting down and staring off into space, evidently trying to decide the best way to proceed.

“The sauna!” he declared as he jumped back up to his feet. “That’s the proper place for it.” He paced over to the window and peeked out, then returned, muttering to himself before noticing his guests’ look of bewilderment.

“The sauna is a traditional expression of hospitality in the country of my ancestors,” he explained absently. “It is a way to express trust in your companions, display openness, and show you have nothing to hide.”

“Daddy, are you certain?” Luna queried with a wide-eyed expression that seemed a bit different from those that she normally exhibited.

“Yes … yes, that will do nicely. The true believers are a close-knit group as you know, my dear, and that would be an appropriate setting.” He glanced around once more, as if expecting someone to pop up from behind the sofa. “And it will afford us the necessary privacy as well.”

The trio shared uneasy looks. “Erm, Mr. Lovegood, I don’t know if …” Harry began in protest.

The older man stopped and examined him critically. “You are asking me to share information that is held only by a trusted few, Mr. Potter. If you are not willing to demonstrate a similar level of trust …”

“Oh no, that’s not it at all, Mr. Lovegood,” Hermione broke in. “It’s … it’s more a matter of us not being prepared, or … properly attired …”

Their host relaxed and waved off her concerns. “Not a problem, my dear. We have everything you’ll need.”

He then pulled out his wand again and tapped an empty section of floor near the entrance to the room from the kitchen, and a continuation of the circular stairway appeared, descending to a lower level. When they reached the bottom, they were in a vestibule of sorts with four doorways, not unlike a miniature version of the circular room in the Department of Mysteries. The floor, ceiling, walls, and doors were all made of wood, redwood Hermione guessed, recalling what she’d read about saunas.

Mr. Lovegood turned to Luna and motioned to one of the doors, and she guided Hermione toward it while he beckoned Harry and Ron to follow him through one adjacent to it. The two boys stared at each other in stunned silence as he explained to them the ritual procedure that should be followed for the proper sauna experience – first a shower to ensure that the skin is clean, then the sauna itself where the high temperatures stimulate large quantities of perspiration to open the pores and cleanse the body, finishing up with the plunge pool to cool back down to normal temperature.

Each of them was shown a shelf where they could store their clothing, and directed to a stack of blue and bronze colored towels – Ravenclaw colors, Harry decided. The boys deliberately avoided looking at certain body parts as they showered, then quickly dried and each wrapped a clean towel around their waists – Harry and Ron chose blue and Xenophilius a bronze one. When he decided the two of them were ready, their host led them back out into the vestibule and through another door, into the sauna itself.

Meanwhile, Hermione couldn’t wait to get her blonde friend alone to clarify an important detail of the sauna experience. “Luna, what exactly do we wear in the sauna itself?” she blurted out as they removed their clothing in the other changing room.

“Oh, just a towel,” Luna replied calmly as Hermione heaved a sigh of relief. As she allowed the cool water of the shower to rinse her off, Hermione noted the now fully revealed form of the younger girl. She was tall, slender, and definitely a natural blonde. She had long legs, a slim waist, and slightly smaller breasts than her own, but which were sized nicely for her more slender frame. Hermione couldn’t decide if she could be best characterized as a less curvy version of Fleur or a taller version of Ginny, then determined that her blonde hair tipped the analogy in favor of the newlywed French witch. Unlike Fleur’s silvery blonde hair, Luna’s was more of a light yellow or straw color, characteristic, along with her blue eyes, of people of Scandinavian descent. All in all, Hermione concluded, the unusual girl could be described as having the body of a fashion model. For example, right now she could easily picture her friend in one of those topless, mixed gender Abercrombie & Fitch adverts that had the Americans in such an uproar.

As the two girls chatted during their showers, Luna confirmed Hermione’s guess about her family’s background, stating that she was a mixture of Swedish and Finnish. She and her father had developed their taste for the sauna from their travels to the two countries in their searches for the Crumbled Horn Snorkack. She laughed that although it was generally accepted that the sauna was a Finnish invention, the Swedes claimed their own version called a bastu. But as far as she was concerned, it didn’t matter since she counted equal heritage with both nationalities. For her part the blonde Ravenclaw was fascinated by Hermione’s tan lines, having a uniformly pale complexion herself.

“By the way,” Luna added as the two girls wrapped themselves in towels, blue for her and bronze for her guest, which Hermione noted uncomfortably were not as wide as she thought necessary to cover both her top and bottom sufficiently. Once she sat down it would be difficult to avoid exposing herself, even more so for her taller companion. “You wear the towel into the sauna. You take it off as soon as you sit down on the bench.”

“What!” Hermione nearly shrieked. “Luna, I can’t go naked in there!”

“Why not?” Luna asked with a smile that Hermione didn’t think was entirely innocent. “Harry’s seen you nude, hasn’t he?”

“Well … well, yes,” Hermione sputtered. “But Ron hasn’t! And I didn’t really intend for him to ever get the opportunity either!” She decided that there was no point in saying anything about Luna’s father, for whom being nude in the presence of women was evidently not uncommon.

“Oh, I see,” the blonde girl replied with a frown, before her face cleared again to regain her normal look of pleasant unconcern. “I think I can help you out with that.”

While Luna explained her plan, the two boys were just then getting the unwelcome news about the dress code in the super-heated room. Unfortunately, by then it was too late to politely back out, and a certain part of them recognized that there was some advantage mixed in with the embarrassment, if the two girls also followed the custom.

They listened in mortification while Mr. Lovegood demonstrated how they sat down on the bench and opened their towel and laid the ends on either side of them, then explained that if a certain part of them responded too vigorously to the experience, it was considered proper etiquette to cover it with the end of the towel until it subsided.

When he finished, the pair summoned up their Gryffindor bravery, swallowed hard, and complied, still making sure not to let their eyes linger on either of the other male midsections.

At this point Luna walked in, followed reluctantly by Hermione, who quickly took in the scene. The sauna was of the ‘dry heat’ variety rather than a steam room, which dashed her last hopes that a foggy mist might provide a modest amount of cover. The room was roughly two meters square, constructed completely of wood, with two benches along opposite walls. Mr. Lovegood was sitting on one bench, while Harry and Ron sat across from him, Harry closest to the door. Both boys stiffened uncomfortably as the girls entered, fighting the urge to cover themselves.

Luna made no effort to disguise her inspection of the attributes of the pair of Gryffindors, and Hermione couldn’t resist a glance to make her own comparison. She noted that neither of them had a significant size advantage, at least not in their currently softened state. While the older girl hesitated in the doorway, the blonde Ravenclaw crossed calmly in front of everyone and took a seat next to her father, opposite Ron. Then she leaned back and opened her towel and let it drop to the bench.

As expected, this captured the full attention of both boys, and Hermione took the opportunity to slip in and settle closely up against Harry, determined to use his body to shield her from Ron’s view as much as possible. Then she hesitantly unwrapped her towel.

Feeling Hermione’s bare leg press against his own, Harry tore his gaze away from Luna and gave her a small, apologetic shrug, to which she managed to return a slight smile, as he turned his attention to her. Despite her nervousness bordering on terror, Hermione’s smile broadened at seeing his appreciative inspection of her body.

Looking past him, she noticed that Luna had allowed her legs to fall apart to a comfortable amount of separation, exposing herself to the rapt attention of the red-haired boy across from her. This prompted Hermione to consider her own legs, which she now realized had been tightly squeezed together, almost painfully so. There wasn’t really much danger of Ron seeing anything down there, especially at this angle, so she managed to relax a little and parted them slightly to reveal a small, neatly trimmed triangle of tight curls. Sensing the struggle she was going through, Harry dropped his hand to her thigh and gave a small squeeze of comfort. Hermione smiled again and increased her resolve to calm herself and focus on the information they had come to obtain.

Their host, however, appeared to be in no hurry to get started; his head was resting against the wall and his eyes were closed, seemingly in meditation. It was possible, Hermione decided, that he was allowing his guests an opportunity to accustom themselves to the awkward situation, which she appreciated if it were indeed the case. As she looked around again, finally able to focus on something other than her own nudity, she observed that Luna’s plan to keep Ron’s attention on herself, and therefore away from Hermione, was working quite well.

Whenever Ron thought to glance over in Hermione’s direction to check her out, Luna shifted her own position, letting her legs fall further apart, leaning forward or leaning back and folding her arms under her breasts, or stretching; crossing and uncrossing her legs, sometimes bending her knee and raising her leg up to rest her foot on the bench, and once even turning sideways and lying lengthwise along the bench. Each time it drew Ron’s eyes back to her, and amazingly she managed to keep this up for the entire time they sat in the sauna. Harry quickly caught on to the scheme, and also helped by leaning forward to block Ron’s view whenever he turned toward Hermione.

From her own observations, Hermione had just concluded that she had a strong preference for black vs. red pubic hair when the inevitable reaction occurred in the bodies of the two boys she was comparing, and their respective bits began to swell and rise from their resting places. In an almost choreographed response, both boys quickly grabbed the ends of their towels and flipped them into place to cover the display. This, however, caused small tents to emerge in their laps, which gradually grew to greater proportions.

Hermione blushed and managed to stifle a laugh as she caught herself rooting for Harry to win this seeming competition, even as he was so desperately striving for the opposite effect. A quick look at the faces of her two friends revealed that they both had their eyes tightly shut and were mouthing a few words over and over, clearly in an effort to distract their thoughts. (Harry later told her that his mantra had been ‘Uncle Vernon in a speedo, Aunt Petunia in a bikini’, which she agreed should have been revolting enough to banish any possible erotic notions.) Then she shared a glance with Luna, who grinned back at her, and both girls rolled their eyes and waited patiently for their male companions to regain control.

Once the excitement had subsided, Xenophilius, almost as if on cue, opened his eyes and inquired, “So, are you now prepared to learn about the Deathly Hallows?”

The teens managed to put aside (well, mostly) thoughts of naked bits and nodded eagerly. Over the next ten minutes the white-haired man informed them that the symbol he wore was a sign that identified himself to other true believers, all of whom were determined to unearth the truth about the mysterious Deathly Hallows, and locate the legendary objects, which as the trio had suspected were the same three items given by Death in the Tale of the Three Brothers. He explained that the symbol was actually composed of three parts, the triangle representing the Cloak of Invisibility, the circle representing the Resurrection Stone, and the vertical line that bisected both of them representing the unbeatable wand, variously referred to as the Elder Wand, the Deathstick, or the Wand of Destiny.

As Hermione grew more accustomed to the fact that she was talking face to face with a naked man while also naked herself, she fell into her typical investigative behavior, asking questions, seeking clarifications, digging for details, and essentially assuming control of the interrogation.

The devout believer asserted that his group held that whoever could unite the Deathly Hallows would be the Master of Death. It wasn’t quite clear exactly what that meant – if this person would be immortal, or able to make life or death decisions for whomever he wished, or some other relationship with death. There seemed to be differences of opinion among the Questers on that point.

He did inform them that it was universally accepted that the Cloak of Invisibility was a true invisibility cloak, rather than an ordinary cloak with a disillusionment charm (similar to the Weasley twins’ Headless Hats) that would eventually wear off. Harry and Ron exchanged raised eyebrows at that statement. Harry’s cloak was every bit as effective now as it was in his father’s time, and they hadn’t realized how unusual that fact was before hearing this information.

Mr. Lovegood also confirmed that it was believed that the Resurrection Stone really could bring people back from the dead, although in what form he didn’t know, and that the Elder Wand did indeed pass from wizard to wizard as each recipient defeated the previous owner. (Which seemed odd, now that they thought more about it, since it was supposedly an unbeatable wand.) Mr. Lovegood explained that incongruity by revealing that the succession more often involved treachery than a direct duel.

At one point Harry’s attention had begun to wander a bit as Hermione and Xenophilius recounted the known history of the Wand of Destiny, which she had indeed read about. He and Ron had each experienced a few more moments where they’d needed to cover themselves briefly, Ron more so than him, due to the way Luna was teasing him. Harry was certain that she was doing it on purpose, although the expression on her face, a calm serene look that seemed to indicate that nothing about this situation was at all out of the ordinary, gave nothing away.

Right now Harry’s interest was focused on Hermione, specifically on the beads of sweat that were forming on her upper chest, trickling leisurely down her breast following the curves he so enjoyed, to ultimately drip from the tip of her nipple onto her thigh as she leaned forward slightly to nail down a detail. This delightful scrutiny was suddenly interrupted as she straightened up and gasped, “Peverell!”, then leaned back against the wall to process this newly discovered connection. This motion inadvertently contributed to her ongoing effort to protect her modesty, as it put her out of Ron’s field of vision just as her exclamation caused him to turn his attention away from Luna and towards her.

“Yes,” the elder Lovegood clarified. “The three brothers of the tale were Antioch, Cadmus, and Ignotus Peverell. They were the original owners of the Hallows – Antioch of the Elder Wand, Cadmus of the Resurrection Stone, and Ignotus of the Cloak of Invisibility.”

As Harry and Hermione shared a look of understanding about the Gaunt (now Peverell) ring, their host suddenly announced, “I think that about covers it, and we’ve reached our time limit in the sauna. Now on to the pool for a cool-down.”

The three Gryffindors wasted no time wrapping their towels back around themselves, while the two Lovegoods moved at a more leisurely pace. The five of them exited through the door opposite to the one they’d entered through, and found themselves in a much larger room with a shower and an oval shaped pool of still, cool water, slightly longer than the sauna had been. Within the pool, around its perimeter, was a ledge below the surface for sitting on, which would bring the water level to the tops of the user’s shoulders.

Xenophilius headed for the shower, removed his towel, and rinsed off before stepping into the pool. Luna followed him in the shower, then turned and smiled at Ron and held out her hand, offering to hold his towel for him. The youngest Weasley male, with his face as red as his hair, turned his back to her as he unwrapped his covering and quickly rinsed, before taking the towel back and holding it in front of himself. It didn’t prevent either of them from examining each other over the fabric barrier, and Luna shot him a wink as she turned away from him and stepped down into the plunge pool. Ron couldn’t hide his grin as he followed her, and sat down on the opposite side of the pool, assuming the same relative positions they had occupied in the sauna.

Harry gallantly held up a towel in front of Hermione as she rinsed, and continued to keep it in place as she lowered herself into the other end of the pool, then quickly rinsed himself and joined her, once more taking up his spot between his two friends.

With nothing more to ask about the Deathly Hallows (but with plenty of things to discuss among themselves after they returned to Grimmauld Place, in light of this information) Hermione cast about for another topic of conversation.

“So Luna,” she inquired, “what do you think about your chances to win Ravenclaw’s Quill this year?”

“The blonde girl tore her attention away from Ron, with whom she had been exchanging tentative smiles, and gave Hermione one of her slightly disconcerting wide-eyed stares. “How did you know about that?”

“Oh … well, I guess we were talking with Professor Flitwick about Ravenclaw artifacts,” Hermione hastened to explain, turning to Harry for support. He nodded to Luna in agreement.

“It was one of the things he mentioned, you know, like her diadem, her wand, those sorts of things,” he added.

Luna shrugged unconcernedly. “OK. I was just wondering. It’s one of those things we don’t often discuss outside of our House. I actually think I have a good chance. I’m the top of my year at DADA, of course, because of Harry, and I’m also the best at Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures. Potions has been much better since Professor Slughorn took over. Snape and I really didn’t see eye-to-eye.”

Ron burst out laughing at that quite believable revelation, and the other two chuckled as well, as they tried to visualize an interaction between the odd, unflappable Ravenclaw and the unpleasant, insulting potions master.

“Her wand and her diadem are the most well-known, of course,” Luna continued, seemingly oblivious to the mirth she had created, but given away by the twinkle in her wide blue eyes.

“Well, her wand is quite familiar because it was displayed in Olivanders, but what does anyone really know about her diadem?” Hermione countered. “No one’s heard anything about it for over a thousand years, right?”

“I have,” Luna answered off-handedly. “I even know where it is.”

Harry had begun massaging Hermione’s shoulders, causing her to close her eyes and slide down a bit into the cool water, but this revelation caused her to sit up straight and stare across the pool at the other girl in amazement. “What? How?” she sputtered.

“The Grey Lady told me,” came the response. “Didn’t you know that she’s the ghost of Helena Ravenclaw, Rowena Ravenclaw’s daughter?”

Hermione’s mouth opened and closed but no sound came out, so Harry broke in. “I didn’t think the Grey Lady ever talked to anyone,” he commented doubtfully.

“Oh, I talk to her all the time,” Luna shrugged. “It’s a very sad story, actually. She stole the diadem from her mother and ran away, but then her mother got very sick, and sent her fiancé to bring her back, only he really wasn’t her fiancé any more, well, he wanted to be but …”

“Luna!” Harry broke in again, as Hermione was still stunned into silence, perhaps because all of the ‘facts’ in her reference books were being systematically ripped to shreds. Luna paused in her dissertation and looked over to Harry, eliciting a smile. “Where is it?” he asked urgently.

“Oh, sorry. It’s in Albania.”

“Albania!” Hermione shrieked as she shot to her feet in the waist deep water. “Harry, that’s where …” She was unable to finish her observation about the obvious connection with Voldemort because Harry had reached up both hands, put them on her shoulders, and forcibly yanked her back down onto her seat. This action resulted in the creation of a large wave that quickly traveled to the opposite end of the pool where it caught Ron right in the face, as he was staring open-mouthed at the way Hermione had just exposed herself.

-oooOOOooo-

Hermione put the notebook down and turned to scowl at Rose, who had been snickering and giggling on and off ever since the part where Hermione first panicked about the nudity, but was now laughing uproariously, holding her stomach and trying to catch her breath.

“It’s not that funny!” she protested.

“But Mum, that was hilarious,” Rose gasped. “After you’d spent all that time in the sauna working so hard to keep Ron from getting a good look at you, and then you jump up and flash your boobs right in his face.”

Hermione groaned. “It was so embarrassing.” A touch of pink tinted her cheeks at the memory, even twelve years later. Rose responded with another giggle.

Hermione huffed, but Rose saw her mouth twitch just a bit. “Look, do you want to hear the rest of it or not?” she demanded.

“Yes Mummy,” Rose said contritely as she sat back up and wiped the mirthful tears from her eyes.

“And …?”

“And I promise not to laugh at you … even when you do silly things.”

Hermione tried to glare at her daughter again, but the impish grin was just too much for her, and she found herself grinning back. “Well alright then, as long as we’re clear on that.”

-oooOOOooo-

Hermione had been unable to look Ron in the eye for the rest of their time at the Lovegoods, but by the time they had returned to Grimmauld place they had reached a silent understanding that neither would ever bring up the experience again. Ron had enough sense not to try to compliment her (‘Hermione, you have a really nice looking pair’ wouldn’t exactly be appreciated) and Hermione wasn’t about to offer any opinion whatsoever on his ‘equipment’ (it was much better if they both pretended that she hadn’t noticed anything).

With that issue more or less resolved, the trio settled themselves in the drawing room to discuss the critical information they’d received.

“What do you want to talk about first?” asked Harry.

“Let’s get the obvious out of the way,” suggested Hermione. “I think Albania has to be at the top of our list for the Horcrux search. If Luna knows the story, and where the diadem was hidden, then it’s certainly possible that Tom Riddle could have learned of it as well. And with all the time we know he spent in Albania …”

“I agree,” Harry stated with a look to Ron, who nodded. “As soon as we finish here with the locket.”

“Now, about the Deathly Hallows,” Hermione continued. “That symbol keeps popping up in too many places for it all to be a coincidence. And after we heard Marvolo Gaunt mention the Peverells, I checked and they were a well-known wizarding family. The name died out more than a hundred years ago, though.”

“I think that there could be a real basis for the story, even if parts of it were exaggerated,” Harry suggested. “For example, they might have been created by a powerful sorcerer or sorcerers, rather than Death itself.”

“Dunno about that,” Ron interjected. “Mum always said there was some truth in all those tales. And Death as a real character pops up a lot. Quite a few wizards believe in him. Who else would decide whether someone turns into a ghost or not?”

“Well, that part doesn’t really matter,” Hermione pointed out, not wanting to get into a theological discussion. “Dumbledore deliberately marked that story with that specific symbol. He must have known the symbol was part of the legend, or whatever you want to call it. And it’s the same symbol on the ring. The question is, which one of the Hallows was he trying to draw to our attention? Which is the most important one?”

“Well, I think that’s pretty obvious,” Ron answered. “It’s the Wand.” Harry looked at him oddly.

“I was going to say the Ring,” he informed them.

“Well, it’s three for three then, since I think the key to the story is the Cloak,” Hermione added. They all looked at each other for a moment, then grinned at their lack of conformity. People often forgot that the famed Gryffindor trio were all unique individuals with often widely divergent viewpoints, but the three of them were certainly aware of that fact.

“OK, I think Harry picked the ring because he has more reason than almost anyone to wish he could bring back people from the dead,” she suggested with a sympathetic glance at him. He nodded glumly, confirming her supposition. “And Ron, I think the power of an unbeatable wand really appeals to you, right?”

“Yeah, you wouldn’t need the other two if you had an unbeatable wand,” Ron confirmed. “No one could stop you from doing whatever you wanted.”

“Except that wand has changed hands lots of times over the centuries,” Hermione pointed out. “Perhaps not in straight-up duels, but the fact is that the owners of that wand, if all the stories really are about the same wand, often ended up dead.” Ron shuddered at that reasoning, but didn’t contest the point.

“Well, the Cloak is the ‘correct’ answer, the one your parents expect you to answer when they tell the story,” Ron pointed out. “It stands to reason that’s the one you’d pick. The brother who chose it is the one whose life turns out the best. It’s a morality tale.”

Hermione frowned at Ron and was about to snap off a comeback, but hesitated. Then she offered a half-hearted smile. “You’re right, that was my reasoning,” she admitted.

Ron was stunned into silence, and Harry’s head snapped back as he blinked in amazement . Had Hermione ever admitted that Ron was right in an argument? Hermione rolled her eyes at their reactions and shook her head with a sigh.

“Don’t let it go to your head,” she advised. “What I meant to say is that was my initial reasoning,” she continued. “But remember, if this is a hint from Dumbledore about how to defeat Voldemort, we have to look at it from that angle. Voldemort is extremely powerful, and has mastered death, in a sense, so one possibility is that it’s saying that we can’t overpower him, but need to use stealth, which the cloak represents. Which we’re pretty much already doing, so I can’t see that this is helping us much.”

“So you think it’s all symbolic, and that we’re not supposed to focus on the actual Hallows themselves, but what they represent?” Harry asked.

“Up until today I did, yes,” Hermione replied. “But now I’m not so sure.” She paused and drew a breath. “I think we already have one of the Deathly Hallows.”

“I do too,” Ron responded. The other two turned to look at him in surprise. “Harry’s invisibility cloak.”

“I don’t know, Ron, the odds of his cloak being the very same one in the story …” Hermione objected.

“If it’s not it’s just as good as the original,” Ron argued. “You heard what Mr. Lovegood said about it. That describes Harry’s cloak perfectly.”

“He’s right about that,” Harry noted.

“Well, perhaps,” Hermione acknowledged, “but it doesn’t matter. In either case we don’t need to go looking for that particular Hallow. Either we already have it or we don’t need it.” After a few seconds thought the two boys nodded their agreement at that line of reasoning.

“What I was going to say is that I think the ring is one of the Deathly Hallows,” she announced.

“The Resurrection Stone?” Harry asked. “Hermione nodded. “But we don’t have it any more,” he pointed out. “We don’t know what Dumbledore did with it.”

“I think it could be what he hid in the snitch he left to you,” Hermione suggested.

“But why? What am I supposed to do with it if it is?” Harry remarked irritably. “Why did he insist on playing these stupid games with us?”

“That’s the part I haven’t figured out yet,” Hermione admitted. “Either of those questions actually.”

Harry ran his hands through his hair in frustration, then sighed. After a minute he gathered himself and shook his head to clear it, then turned to the other two.

“I was thinking along different lines,” he revealed. “What’s the most important part of the story from Voldemort’s point of view?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “It’s the wand.”

“Why do you say that?” Ron asked. “With the way he’s so obsessed with not dying, I’d have thought it was the Resurrection Stone.”

“Right now what he’s obsessed with is how to beat me,” Harry insisted. “Specifically, how to get around the problem with our wands. He already tried with a different wand and it didn’t work for some reason. But if he heard that there was an unbeatable wand, he’d do anything to get it.” He looked at Hermione next to him and then at Ron across from him, both of whom wore expressions of consternation. “It may be that the most important thing we can do about the Deathly Hallows is figure out where the Elder Wand is and keep it away from him.”

“Do you really think so?” Hermione asked with some trepidation. The task they already faced was difficult enough, without adding to it something of this magnitude.

“I reckon I have a better feel for what he’s thinking than pretty much anyone alive,” Harry replied glumly, tapping the scar on his forehead.

“There’s one more possibility,” Ron said after they’d all contemplated Harry’s assertion in silence for a while. “What Mr. Lovegood said about the goal of the Questers.”

“You mean to unite the Hallows?” Hermione clarified. Ron nodded.

“Whoever has all three of them would be the Master of Death.”

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