Luna Lovegood's Arc

Chapter 3 of 19

Luna reached the deep forest spot from her father's notes by midafternoon. The trees grew close here. Thorns and vines choked the ground. She knelt with the net and the sugared bait, then stopped. There was no clear patch of dirt anywhere. A Snorkack needed open ground to step onto the trap. The tangle left nowhere to set it. Hermione arrived a moment later, breathing hard, a satchel of books over one shoulder. She had helped Luna rebuild the trap once already, turning a cruel design into a gentle one. She looked at the snarled undergrowth and frowned. "You can't set a net on top of brambles," she said. "It won't spring. And nothing will walk through this." "I know," Luna said. "But the prints are here. My father marked this exact place." Harry pushed through the vines behind them, sleeves torn, wand already out. Luna had asked him along for the hard part. He looked at the mess and grinned. "Then we make a path," he said. He didn't wait for a plan. He started clearing. Hermione stopped him. "Not with fire. Not with force. If you scorch it, the creature won't come near." She opened a book across her knees and read fast. "We cut it gently. Small charms. We shape one clear lane through the thorns and leave a bare patch at the end." They worked for two hours. Harry sliced vines low and dragged them aside. Hermione lifted bramble roots with careful flicks of her wand. Luna smoothed the freed soil with her hands until one clean stretch of ground opened through the tangle. It looked like a game trail now. A path an animal might trust. Luna set the net across the bare patch. She laid the cushioning charm beneath it, the way Hermione had taught her. Then she placed the sugared gurdyroot at the far end, where the cleared lane met the wall of trees. The sweet crust caught the last light. "That's a real trap," Hermione said quietly. "Set right, for once." Before they left, Luna raised her wand over the fresh dirt. The tip glowed pale blue. She had used it to read old prints before. Now it showed her something new. Faint marks lay along the very lane they had cut. Warm ones. Recent. Harry leaned close. "Are those—" "Fresh," Luna whispered. "Made today. While we were clearing." Her heart pounded. Something had been here. Something had watched them work and moved off into the dark trees just beyond the bait. The trap was ready. The creature was close. But it had already learned their scent and their sound. Now Luna had to catch a thing that knew she was hunting it.