5 Chapter 5

"You two will complete each other." His mother had told him. To most, that would sound romantic. To Esper, it could only strike as ominous. It came from his mother's mouth, after all.

She had a way of twisting the brightest things in the world and making them ugly. Her love for him. Childish notions and dreams. His mother hated ignorance, and would never let him continue on in the light, where the shadows aren't as prevalent. Where you could choose to ignore the darkness of the world.

He only realized after her passing, that she was just resentful. In a way, showing him the darkness of the world was her way of showing her love. To never be tricked or cheated. To never be damaged and broken. To never become... like her.

It was after realizing that, that he took the step to find his 'destined' girl, fully knowing that there wouldn't only be happiness from it. He had a lot of questions himself about it, and that's why he was struggling so hard to answer the people that were in front of him.

****

"Can you not tell us why, Mr. Vallispear?" Headmaster Dumbledore asked, while taking a glance at Mr. Lovegood seated next to him. Esper kept his smile, but was stumped on how to answer. He had prepared for this moment. He had fabricated many stories to tell, but he was having a hard time remembering them. Luna grabbing his hand helped him calm a little.

"Headmaster... it was mostly on impulse... I saw a lonely girl and wanted to make her smile." He said calmly, not giving away anything. "She had been alone in that house for months." Mr. Lovegood gave no reaction to that very pointed statement. Esper didn't expect him to, given that the man didn't appear to be fully with them, just staring at Luna with no emotion. It was the reason Luna grabbed his hand in the first place.

"I can understand wanting to help some one in distress, Mr. Vallispear, but you had a lot of people worried for Ms. Lovegood's health and safety." The Headmaster took a deep breath, not knowing what to do about the situation. He wished Mr. Lovegood would do something, but the man had been unnaturally calm since his arrival. "Therefore, there has to be consequences for what you have done. You not only took someone from their family, but caused that same family severe distress. You-"

"Luna, were you happy?" Xenophillius Lovegood interrupted. There was a pause as the father and daughter pair stared at each other. Luna's face slowly morphed into a bright smile.

"Yes, daddy."

Mr. Lovegood nodded, then looked at Esper with his blank and pale eyes.

"You will take care of her?" Esper was slightly surprised. He would admit to imagining the man to be a monster for leaving his daughter alone for so long. He sees a truth now though... The man was just broken. Has most likely been for a long time.

"She will never want for anything."

Mr. Lovegood nodded, then rose.

"Luna, my daughter... I am sorry." He said, before walking to the floo in the Headmaster's office and promptly leaving.

"Wait, Mr. Lovegood!" The Headmaster yelled trying to stop him, before plopping back in his chair with a big sigh. "...that man..." He mumbled.

****

In the end, Esper came out relatively unscathed, for which he was thankful. Not all problems were solved, but mostly it seemed everyone was happy just to know Luna was alive and well.

Again, there was some problems still apparent. One being Mr. Lovegood decided to disappear into the void. When the Headmaster tried to get ahold of him, they found he had disconnected his floo, and locked down the wards. Everyone was fairly sure he wasn't home anyways, but it raised the question... Where the hell did he go?

They set the both of them up in a dorm room to wait out the start of the school year, and Esper didn't waste any time escaping into it. He knew what he had done would cause questions, but he expected the questions to stay on course. To be about the "kidnapping."

He didn't expect the Headmaster to know something about his family, and those were questions he couldn't afford to answer. He was thankful that the Headmaster seemed to be of the impression that his mother was still alive and had created some kind of ritual to continue that way. The truth was darker than was safe to share.