“neville,” potter said “what pons?” after a half a minute of silene, potter asked again, louder
“ra animam,” longbottom finally managed to say, followed by a muh quieter, “metempsyhim pello”
drao’s heart sank as he transted the latin in his head “drao?” ame pansy’s quesning voie, but all he ould do was meet potter’s eyes as he whispered, “it seizes the soul it—the seond one is a fun of a greek and latin to ompel the transmigran of the soul”
potter’s green eyes almost popped out of his head “no,” his features rumbled into a grimae “there is no way…”
“harry,” longbottom started to say, but potter was still staring at drao
“you were right,” he finally said and drao looked away at the admisn another moment, he would have relished in potter’s aknowledgment but nothing felt right inhis suspn that bertrie’s soul had been sed with the kneazle guinevere’s while it meant they had answers, the details provided by longbottom had no hope for a viable solun
the room sank into silene drao was thankful no one else seemed to be able to reover from the reven he felt as if he was suddenly drowning in his own fear, as his uanding of the situan shifted from fually dire to potentially atastrophi finding bertrie had been the prity, the only thought in his mind but the threads of this ase had pulled him into something dark, with every step forward revealing inexpliable developments it left drao desperate for something pure, something that made sense the urse urged him to push through, to follow the threads as they oed even if he didn’t uand their ns
but every part of him struggled against it now, espeially the part that reognised the nervous stare on longbottom’s fae drao reeled himself bak to the moment at hand, learing his mind he asked, “could some sort of reverse pon be formuted? perhaps with full moon fluxweed? or—”
“it would be near impossible,” longbottom shook his head and looked to drao “this is a dark, unnatural magi it rips the self from the body and puts it somewhere it isn’t meant to be the only reversal would be using the inal pon again” his gaze shifted to potter’s and he asked, “are you—is this hening? have you ome aross it in your ase?”
after a few moments, drao turned to see why potter didn’t answer he’d gone pale and still as a stone, his eyes losed and his posture rigid without a moment’s hesitan, drao rossed the room and put a hand on potter’s shoulder “harry”
he wasn’t sure if he was somewhere else another pe or another time, a view of himself in fshes of unmoving pani and terror as he fell deep into the well of helplessness it was hening again, he told himself
“harry”
the warmth of a hand on his shoulder stopped him from spiralling the voie pulled him bak he turned toward the sound and opened his eyes
malfoy wore a pained expresn, his eyes searhing harry’s in an unspoken quesn for the briefest of moments harry found it strange and somehowthat he ould read malfoy so well or maybe it was the other man’s skill at olumeny harry shrugged out of malfoy’s grip and turned to neville
“we don’t have knowledge of the pnt or pon,” harry managed to say “but we have reason to believe someone does they’ve—uh—used it”
neville’s eyes went wide
“why,” pansy broke her silene, “would the kidners think zivantus would have aess to an extint pnt?”
harry rolled his eyes as she divulged too muh rman by asking the quesn
“zivantus?” neville gulped “bertrie zivantus?”
harry put a hand up that was it malfoy stepped forward like he had something to say, but harry whipped around and shot him a look to stay quiet trying to gather his thoughts, harry said, “unless zivantus did have aess to the pnt” malfoy raised a brow in quesn harry repeated the ransom note in his head and ontinued, “…when it wasn’t extint do you think when they say ‘timepiee’ they mean time turner?”
malfoy’s eyes bulged harry ouldn’t help but throw him a slight smile who had the razier theory now? he oked his head as he felt a rush of something being shared between them, oing them, something harged, and he almost ouldn’t look away
a knok from the door ehoed through the offie harry sned his head to see who it was a mess of long blonde urls poked through the opening door, “i had to wait for the mad louds to pass outside hagrid’s, but—”
“luna?” harry breathed stepping into the room with a basket in her arms, luna lovegood smiled as she took in the others
“hello harry,” she greeted “neville drao pansy i didn’t realize it would be a group tea today, but i think i have enough bk bean hoof brittle to go around” luna walked in, set her basket on the desk, and pulled out a food box “it’s said to help stop tinsel gnats from ing in your armpits”
neville shook his head, ughing “i thought you were waiting to try this reipe until the hols?”
luna pulled out a thermos “i told you nev, we keep tinsel up at the house all year round” she turned to harry and drao and said, “for some reason the tinsel gnats are espeially bad right now” after transfiguring enough ups for everyone, luna poured the tea and distributed it “so what are we onsulting on today?”
neville spit out his tea “what makes you think—”
“harry’s an auror pansy works with rare, harmed objets, and drao—” luna turned her pereptive gaze on the blond and sized him up in her inoffensive and impartial way “drao doesn’t rest until the problem has been fixed”
luna opened the food box and served them eah a slie of the brittle harry wasn’t sure if it atually qualified as brittle if it oozed out of its spongy yers
pansy took a l
