May 2, 1998

  Cold, thick fog banks drifted over the ground. The cool light of the moon shone bright and clear in the sky. It was long past midnight, but hours would still pass before the first rays of sunlight would break through the darkness.

  Her long blonde hair hung wet and limp in her face. Dirty and matted with blood, Luna crouched on the floor of the Forbidden Forest. But instead of crying or being angry, she simply felt an infinite emptiness inside her. Her father was dead, Lavender torn apart by a werewolf, so many people she knew were gone now.

  Only she and a few others had managed to escape that hell. Her world had just gone out, extinguished and destroyed for all eternity. Just moments ago, Harry had fallen, and with him the st person who could have defeated Voldemort. Now only a handful remained, including her. It had been horrifying when Voldemort's Killing Curse hit Harry and he slumped to the ground lifeless with a fixed stare. She still had Hermione's terrible screams in her ears. But just one wave of Voldemort's hand was enough, and Hermione's body was torn into a thousand pieces. And from that point on, it was over.

  In wild panic, those who were left ran for their lives. Many tried to Apparate, but without success, because an Anti-Apparition Jinx still existed over Hogwarts. And her? She ran, ran until she couldn't breathe anymore and colpsed on the floor of the Forbidden Forest.

  It took a while before she could breathe properly again. It was deathly still around her. With her eyes closed, she y on the ground, greedily sucking in the cool night air. Slowly, she tried to get up again, but had to pause for a moment because everything in her head began to spin. After a few long, deep breaths, however, the dizziness had disappeared again. Now she sat in the soft moss, her eyes closed. She was tired, so infinitely tired, but it wasn't physical fatigue; it was her soul that simply couldn't take any more. Where in the world was she supposed to go now? Where could she hide?

  Slowly, she opened her eyes again. Around her were the still-bare trees of the Forbidden Forest. A few beams of moonlight illuminated the ground in front of her. Then she suddenly noticed something golden glowing among the bdes of grass. Carefully, she reached her hand out to look at it, but when she saw what it was, the breath caught in her chest. The thoughts in her head began to race.

  "Hermione's Time-Turner," she whispered softly to herself.

  She could no longer form a clear thought. In that moment, she wanted only one thing. AWAY, far, far AWAY. No matter how, no matter where, just AWAY from here! Without thinking much about the consequences, Luna slipped the chain with the Time-Turner over her head. Then, as if in a trance, she began to turn and turn the Time-Turner. She didn't stop at all until it suddenly became hot and she let go of it with a jerk. Suddenly, she felt as if she had fallen into a vortex. Long-past moments raced past her. She saw herself hugging her father, saw herself on her very first day at Hogwarts, saw herself as a little girl ughing in her mother's arms. She let herself fall, further and further back in time, until everything around her became dark.