Chapter 14

~ On the way to Dumbledore's office ~

"Why do you think that that isn't the real Mad-Eye Moody?" Luna asks the Queen while they are still moving.

"Well it might be the real one, but at the same time, it might not be. I would answer that question, but then I'd have to re-explain to Dumbledore about my thoughts, so you'll have to wait for a bit, we're close" The Queen answers not stopping, but slowing down.

"Okay" Lovegood answers, slightly out of breath, from the fast walking - almost running - that they were doing.

"Moon, you'll need to train up a little bit to build physical prowess" The Queen remarks changing the topic.

Luna only hums at that in agreement.

After a few minutes, they finally made it to their destination, and without waiting the Queen just goes in, no care for whoever might be there.

Fortunately for her, there was nobody inside, good, it's easier that way.

"ALBUS!" The Queen shouts loud enough for the name to reverberate around the place.

Both Lunas wait for a few seconds, finally seeing the old Professor walk down the stairs.

"Ah, Little Luna, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Dumbledore tries to start their usual banter, only for the attempt to be shut down by the Queen.

"Not the time, Albus, there's pressing matters that we need to attend, I hope you don't have anything important to do, and if you do? I don't care, cancel everything, this is definitely more important"

"Okay... Can we still at least have tea?"

The Queen clicks her tongue, but agrees, she'd like some tea herself after all.

"Yes, yes, tea's great, let us just sit, while you do your thing"

"Of course"

The Queen and Lovegood sit down, Luna feels a little bit out of place during this encounter, but at least she knows even more about the Queen... As she's talking to their headmaster as if she was some business partner, she knew that they were something close to friends since Dumbledore gave valuable information about students to her, but she guesses that the seriousness of the matter is why the Queen doesn't show any friendliness.

"Miss Lovegood, what kind of tea would you like?"

"It doesn't matter, thank you Professor" Luna answers, while thinking of why she isn't questioned on being here to listen to something important, but quickly realizing that Dumbledore most likely trusts the Queen way more than she first gave credit for.

And just like that three cups of tea appeared out of nowhere, this time Dumbledore didn't try to joke with the tea flavor 'mistake' and just gave the Queen her green tea.

"Now... What is it that's so important?" Albus asks the Queen settling his wise eyes on her.

"It's the DADA teacher"

Dumbledore blinks a few times "Is it the problem of him teaching unforgivable curses?"

The Queen shakes her head "No, you know me, I barely consider that a problem, in fact, I support it, people should be ready, so there's no way I'd complain about something like that"

"Indeed..." Dumbledore lets out with a frown.

"Boo-hoo, Albus, a young child before you talk about lives as if they were nothing... whatever, you can be sad about it later.

The headmaster only shakes his head while frowning a little bit more.

"Anyway, the reason I am here is that I have a belief of 99% chance that the one teaching DADA is not Mad-Eye Moody"

Dumbledore stops raising his teacup for a sip of tea mid-way upon hearing that, after that pause he continues, drinks a bit, and sets the cup down. Now all attention is on the Queen.

"Reasons?"

"Plenty," The Queen says with conviction.

"Mhm..." Albus lightly grabs his beard, twirling it in slow, thinking circles.

"Okay, this is definitely more interesting than I expected, so, tell me everything"

"Okay, well, once me and Luna here, made it to the classroom, I went straight to him to greet him. And you know that I call him Crazy-Eye instead of Mad-Eye like everybody else. So that's what I did, I started with that, but he acted as if he didn't know me and didn't register the nickname, even reprimanding me on that he's called Mad-Eye. But at that point, even if I did get slightly confused, I knew that the real Moody could perhaps be trying to secretly show that we don't know each other while we are at Hogwarts"

"That is something he'd try" Dumbledore muses lightly.

"Yes and then the main problem arose with my next question, but before that, I will explain what's going on to Luna here"

Dumbledore nods at that.

"Well, Moon, time to answer your question. In the Great Hall, when Hermione was reading my book, she mentioned at the end that the ministry people finally arrived when I got myself free, remember?"

Luna with full attention on the Queen, nods.

"Yes, well at first they thought that it was the remaining death eaters causing problems by attacking the Crimson family, they were wrong, but they still thought it, so they sent as many Aurors as they could. And obviously, that's where I met Alastor, he was there as one of the few group leaders, unlike everybody else that was stunned and speechless at my appearance and words, he wasn't, he understood what happened immediately, when I was turned in for questioning, he was there, of course, I didn't say anything, none of them deserved to know what went happened. And then he was tasked to coax the information out of me, but he refused it, he did however talk with me instead of trying to question me. The process doesn't matter, but the basic result was that we become... Colleagues at best, we don't like each other, but we respect one another immensely. And after one certain and small incident, I suggested to him that I and him should use a secret code to know if we are speaking to the real one" The Queen pauses to let Luna take it all in.

Luna blinks, thinks for a bit... "Was it the 'How are your children doing?'"

"Indeed it was, it's seamless, isn't it? The one that's the DADA teacher now, answered as a normal person would, that he doesn't have any, but of course I know that, so it was the wrong answer. That's when I started to assume that something wasn't right. And my mind started to come up with different scenarios, in total I have 4 different situations that can be happening. 2 of those I am sure, are wrong, one of them is a possibility and the last one is what I think is happening"

The Queen turns back to look at Dumbledore as she continues, not before refreshing herself with the tea.

"One of those? I thought he might under somebody's Imperius curse, but that's very unlikely since he's one of the best Aurors ever. Then I thought that maybe, for whatever reason he might be time-turning... That's the least likely story. The one that I at first thought might've been correct is that he might be oblivated, therefore note remembering me, but that idea eventually started to die out, the longer the class went on"

"How so? Is it because of the 4th idea?" Luna asks interested in the topic.

"Indeed it is, Moon. That idea is that he's a fake one entirely, that he isn't Crazy-Eye and my speculation on that is simple... This Moody is so much weaker than the one I know... Even if you oblivate me from his mind, there's no plausible explanation on why he'd be so weak"

"Only you could say something like that... A teacher being weak" Dumbledore says amused despite the seriousness of the matter.

"Yes, well, it's not my fault that whoever he is... Chose to be somebody that's way stronger than him. Like seriously, as I watched the class go on, his Imperius curses were laughable, at the first few I thought it might be because they were 3rd years and he was being lenient... But real Alastor wouldn't be like that, he does have the whole 'Constant Vigilant' thing going on, so there's no way he'd teach students differently, then as it went along, my idea was cemented even further because of how easily he was tricked by me into a deal, for some reason he was overconfident, he wanted to pay back for me calling him ugly. And so I played him... not once, but twice, first by letting Luna here, to irritate him by resisting his Imperius curse for at least 20 seconds and of course just as I thought, he didn't realize that I cheated by casting 'Soulier' on my SoulRapier that's around Luna's neck"

The Queen pauses, turns to face Luna who's drinking her own tea slowly.

"That spell is used for the 'carrier' of the blade. Be it in hand, in necklace form, or a pocket when it's small. Basically, you have to have it on you. And it increases the person's will, forcing it to be higher than it could be so that the person wouldn't crumble in difficult situations and would prevail. So it was a boost of sorts, it added to your already existing power of will, doubling, maybe even tripling it, I don't know. It's different for every person. But it helps more the stronger the opposition is. That's why you didn't have complete control while under his Imperius curse... Because it was too weak for the boost to really matter, but it did work and you resisted it slightly. But then after two failures to order you, the 'fake' teacher got irritated and upped the strength of the spell, effectively dooming himself because the boost of my spell increased, therefore overpowering his spell and you being able to break from his control completely"

"So that's what it does... The motivational words were more 'motivational' than I thought since it was what technically happened" Lovegood remarks, impressed by it all.

"It did work as a distraction and this sealed the deal for me, from then I knew that he wasn't the real Alastor, for he didn't catch on with what happened. And so I just made a joke out of him later with my part, the fact that he subconsciously felt threatened by your existence to even suggest not being able to pick you was hilarious though, real Alastor would just take everything head-on"

The Queen finishes her tea, turns to look at the thinking Dumbledore.

"So in conclusion? The DADA teacher is not Crazy-Eye, he could've used a few different methods, so there's that to figure out"

And with that there's a decently long silence, the only sounds are the cups rising, tea drinking and them being put down again, while the Queen was looking straight at Albus who was thinking of a plan of sorts.

And finally, the silence is broken by the headmaster.

"Okay, for now, let's not put attention on ourselves and wait to see what he does and I will start contacting some people to see if they can find the real Alastor"

The Queen blinks and annoyed starts speaking.

"Seriously? Again? A plan for the long term? Instead of just dealing with it now? Come on just send me, I will deal with the imposter tonight"

Dumbledore shakes his head.

"No, Luna, we need to know what he has planned, not only that if something happens to him and we can't find Alastor, who will teach DADA?"

"That doesn't matter, DADA can be taught by anybody for a few classes... Even by you if it comes to that. But I don't want to take any chances, even if the person behind Moody's mask is weaker than him and less calculating, he still isn't stupid, for he taken up his identity, most probably also kidnapping the real Moody, so the faster we deal with him, the better it is"

"No, we will wait, this isn't an easy situation as you make it out to be, not everything can be fixed with bloodshed, we need answers and preparation, and to be cautious, what if something goes wrong with what you want to do?"

"You... Old... Senile... Haaah" The Queen sighs out exasperated "Fine, fine... But if it comes back to bite in your ass, don't blame me"

"Of course..." The professor says.

"But this is still better to be done faster rather than take a long time, this is the wrong decision" The Queen continues berating the headmaster.

"Yes well it's my decision, this is still my school, even if I allow you a lot of freedom, like changing your clothes, making deals with teachers for points and everything else. The final decision is still mine"

The Queen clicks her tongue, stands up, and calls out to her moon.

"Luna, we are leaving, let's go"

Lovegood stands up, bows to the headmaster, and starts walking to the Queen, so they could leave.

But before they leave the office, the Queen calls out to Albus with one final sentence.

"You want to deal with it on your own? So be it, I don't think it's that hard of a problem anyways, but if something were to happen to any of my selected people because of this person, I am not going to be stopped by you in dealing with him by myself any longer than needed"

And just like that the two Lunas leave the headmaster's room and leave Dumbledore to finish his tea alone, again, but this time thinking about multiple different things.

The Queen is walking through the corridors slowly, but annoyed.

"Lun"

Her Moon calling her made her stop, turning around to look at Luna.

"Yes?"

"I trust Dumbledore, he will be able to deal with this, so don't be mad at him"

The Queen sighs out tired.

"I trust him and I am not mad at him... Only at his... cautious mind, taking things slow and over-planning everything. Sometimes dealing with problems doesn't have to be convoluted or slow... And this time? I think that's what is needed. A fast approach instead of what he has in store... But I know, I know, he will be able to do it, he isn't a feared wizard for anything"

Luna smiles at the Queen's obvious respect for Dumbledore... Even if it is slightly negative at times.

So they resume their walking through the corridors in a calming silence.

"I have one question" Luna inquires curiously. breaking the serene silence.

"Mhm?" The Queen only lets out a sound to show that she's listening.

"When I was under the Imperius curse, I heard your voice, it was slightly different, but it was definitely yours, telling me to resist when I was ordered to do something by the fake teacher, what was that?"

This question suddenly makes the Queen stop in place, because she was in front, Luna didn't see her shocked and wide-eyed expression that was there only for a few seconds.

The Queen turns around, smiling, completely forgetting that she was previously annoyed because of Dumbledore.

"Hmm... I don't know, maybe it was something important... maybe it wasn't"

The Queen states playfully.

"You aren't going to tell me, are you?" Luna says, more of a statement than a serious question.

"Indeed, I won't, you'd be right"

"Any reason for not telling?"

"Hmm... Let's just say that it's petty revenge for not telling me how you know my other 'future' wife candidates" The Queen remarks and continues walking, still smiling mysteriously and slowly musing inside her mind on how much of an interesting revelation she just heard was.

Luna blinks dreamily, shakes her head lightly, and just follows the Queen who can be so childish at times.

~ End of Chapter 14 ~