Luna Lovegood's Arc

Chapter 15 of 19

The inspectors won the argument by losing it. They believed now. But belief bought Luna a new demand. The lead inspector stood on the castle steps and folded his arms. "A creature in the Great Hall," he said. "Caged, so any wizard can come and see. That is proof. Bring us one, or the file stays open." Luna felt the trap shut around her. She had spent the whole hunt keeping these animals free. Now they wanted her to lock one in a box. She looked at the plaster casts still laid out on the head table inside. Six sets of tracks. A whole family. She had made them free and left them free. She would not undo that for a leash. But she had no words yet to stop the inspectors. "Give me one hour," she said. "Then I will answer." She walked down toward her tent at the tree line. Her llama trotted out to meet her, ears bobbing, that silly cheerful face turned up at her. It bumped her shoulder and waited to be scratched. Luna had caught this animal by accident in her very first trap, long ago, when she was still learning to build one that would not hurt anything. She had kept it. Now she knelt beside it and thought. Her trap held the llama safely. Cushioning charm. Soft mesh. No injury. That was the answer, and it was also the problem. A cage could hold a Snorkack the same gentle way. She could catch one. She had the tools. That was never the true blocker. The blocker was that a caged Snorkack was not proof of a Snorkack. It was proof of a prisoner. Luna stood. She understood her argument at last. She walked back up to the steps. The inspectors waited. Dumbledore stood behind them, silent, watching her. "You want a creature caged so any wizard can visit it," Luna said. "But a caged animal proves nothing. Trained beasts sit in cages. You told me so yourselves. The whole field saw a wild Snorkack cross open ground and choose me. No rope. No command. That is the only proof that cannot be faked. A cage would erase it." The lead inspector opened his mouth. Luna went on. "Wizarding law forbids caging a beast that comes to a human freely and does no harm. You cannot demand I break your own rule to satisfy your record." He did not answer. He looked at Dumbledore. Dumbledore only nodded once. "She is correct," he said. "The statute is plain." The inspector's jaw worked. Then he lowered his arms. "The file records the herd as genuine," he said stiffly. "Uncaged." He turned and left with the others. Luna had won. The Snorkacks stayed free. But as the inspectors walked off, she heard one mutter that a record was not the same as the world seeing. The wizarding world still had not looked with its own eyes. That was the thing left to fix.