Kohelet

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905

That which hath been is that which shall be, and that which hath been done is that which shall be done; and there is nothing new under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 1:9, JPS translation

Luna sat in a secluded alcove of the library lost in a book. She liked it there because she could be alone without the jeers of her classmates while she pored over her extracurricular studies. Archaic Linguistics was her current passion, and spells that had come and gone with the passing of language. She tried to share her finds, but as usual, no one believed her when she would excitedly chatter about the esoteric facts she loved so much. And, little to her surprise, no one believed her now when she said that there had once been a spell for curing vampirism. She couldn't prove it, of course, because it was a mix of archaic Romanian and some language that even the book could not identify. Also, as far as she could tell, in order to cast it, one had to be a pure blood member of the line of the House of Viorel. She giggled aloud when she discovered that Viorel meant "bluebell" in Romanian.

"Find something amusing?" Luna's head snapped up, sharply hitting the table under which she was curled.

"Sna... er... Professor Snape. Hello. I didn't know you came over here." She rubbed her head where it had cracked against the thick wood. Crawling out from under the table, she dragged her book in tow.

"I can't say I'm sure what you're doing here, either, Miss Lovegood." Professor Snape stood tall and imposing as ever while Luna settled into a chair and spread open her book on the table. She quickly flipped back to the proper page and picked up where she'd left off.

"Reading. What else does one do in a library?" Her voice held little patience.

"Lovegood, you'll have to do better than that. Your book is upside-down." His voice also held little patience, but a hint of triumph. She sighed.

"Here." She shoved the book at him, and began to recite as she did so. He quickly found her place, his eyes widening in surprise as he did so. She went on for two pages.

"...Viorel himself was said to be a wizard in the third century, hundreds of years before the Founders were born to England. His mother possessed a great fondness for bluebells during her pregnancy, and it was this which landed him with the flowery name that his house would bear for the next sixteen hundred years all the way to the present day.

"It's not a very up to date book, see. That's why it says only sixteen hundred years. It's also why the languages are mixed for the spell. Romanian wasn't even budding as a language until somewhere around the second century. It comes from Latin, mostly, so it works well for spells... but Viorel lived in the third century when the language was still new to the general world, let alone the Wizarding world. He knew the old languages worked well for spells, too."

"You paraphrased the second page." But she noticed that the sneer started to slide from his face.

"I know. It's an art, not a science. How are you supposed to absorb the material if all you see are the words instead of the ideas?" She took the book back, deliberately keeping it upside-down. "If you're satisfied that I'm actually reading, may I go back to my book now, Professor?"

Snape snapped back to attention. "That is not why I am here." He shifted, looked from the table to Luna and back again. Finally seeming to make a decision, he sat down, much to Luna's great surprise. "I came, ironically enough, because I am concerned with some things I have recently read."

If Luna thought she'd been surprised to see the most imposing professor she had sit down at a table across from her, she was even more surprised to see him subtly conjure an illusion to cover the alcove and cast a silencing charm around them. She'd had no idea he could do such complex wand magic. "We'll not be disturbed until we are finished here."

She frowned at the spell. Wasn't that... "Professor... that was the Dark Ar..." She was silenced by his stare.

Her biggest surprise yet caused her eyes to go as wide as galleons. Snape slid a hand into the folds of his robes, drawing out a copy of The Quibbler. The front headline was one she'd read a hundred times over already and had committed to memory.

Death Eaters Exposed! Histories Revealed!

The article went on to detail the goings on of the first war, and the parts that varying Death Eaters had played, particularly the ten that had escaped Azkaban. It also made some outlandish claims about Peter Pettigrew's being alive and a Death Eater, as well as some claims that Pettigrew had gone and married Lucius Malfoy in order to please his Dark Lord.

"You may see the problem." Snape spread the paper out on the table so that she could see it.

"The problem? I don't see a problem. People need to know the truth, you know." She looked over the paper again. Rodolphus Lestrange was grinning evilly at her from the front page.

"The problem is, only about three-quarters of the information in here is actual truth, and I don't want to hear any differently from you, or you will lose every point Ravenclaw House has the instant you say a word to the contrary." Luna bit her lip.

"Lovegood, you probably know things about my past that no one, let alone you, should know. If you don't already know them, I applaud Potter for keeping it to himself, but I'm about to tell you anyway, so the point is moot." She stared at him. He was fidgeting. Professor Severus Snape, the greatest terror of the students of Hogwarts was actually fidgeting. And stalling.

"Yes?" She pulled her book closer to her and wrapped her arms around it, forming a cradle for her chin. "I'm listening." She looked him straight in the eye for what she thought might possibly be the first time in her life.

"In my youth, I did things that I am not proud of. Things for which I am still, to this day, making amends. Do you know what I'm talking about?" Luna contemplated making him spell it out for her, delighting in how uncomfortable he was, but her curious side won over.

"You were a Death Eater. And no, Harry didn't tell me. I knew." Snape's eyes relaxed a bit, but nothing else did.

"These articles. This is not the first Death Eater article I've seen."

"No. They're very popular. People write in about them a lot. They want to know. Do you think the Ministry will tell them?"

"Of course the Ministry won't tell them. They have no right to know. The information itself is dangerous. But that is another issue. I have come to tell you that these articles have to stop for a different reason." Luna lifted her head.

"Oh? And what makes you think I can do that? I'm just a student at Hogwarts."

"A student at Hogwarts who has the audacity to talk back to her professor. Five points from Ravenclaw if you do it again. If you do not have these articles stopped, my safety and my life are in grave danger. Sooner or later, someone's going to remember the name of Severus Snape. And what will happen when the partial truth comes out? What will be added to spice it up to make it more interesting? To fill in the holes in the research?"

"There are no holes in my research."

"I find that hard to believe. If there were no holes in your research, you would have a far better grade in my class. However, let's assume for the moment that there are no holes in your research. Do you do the research for these articles?"

Luna fell silent. She had no retort.

"Do you seriously think my hands are clean? Do you have any idea how many I have killed? I'm not innocent, girl. Far from it. Very few will remember that I'm not that man anymore. Very few will remember that I live each day in a perilous balance to keep you all alive."

"So why tell me? Why not go to my father yourself? It's not like I run the paper." She picked up the copy of The Quibbler and pushed it aside in frustration.

"And if you did run the paper? What would you do if the potential subject of an upcoming article were to walk in the door demanding that his story remain unprinted? Especially if that article were to be part of an already successful series? You'd..."

"...make sure you were the next front page." Understanding crept in to her voice.

"Make sure I was the next front page. Exactly. As any self-respecting tabloid publisher should do. You, on the other hand, have been through enough first-hand experience to have a decent grasp of the actual situation. You, at least, realise that actual lives are on the line, I should hope."

"I remember," Luna whispered. She did remember. She only wished that she did not.

"Then you'll be so kind as to allow me to continue?" His entire being was dripping with his usual sarcasm. Luna merely nodded.

As Snape began to talk, Luna quietly pulled out a quill and parchment to take notes. She hadn't gotten a single letter on the page before it was snatched out of her hand. "Do you really think it wise to have a written record of this?"

"You want me to trust you. But you shroud us with Dark magic. You don't let me take notes. Make up your mind!"

"Do you think I could have concealed this alcove nearly as effectively with Light magic, given my propensities? Have you never wondered why you've never seen me with a wand? The only wand magic I can perform with any proficiency is Dark magic. That's why I stay with my potions as a general rule. If, by the way, you ever repeat that, it is your own life on the line, Lovegood." Luna just smirked.

"You were going to tell me something, right?"

--==[[<>]]==--

The pair talked until nightfall. The failing light through the windows cast long shadows across the library.

"You'd best be off to the Great Hall for dinner. It would not be good if you were missed."

"I won't be missed. I'm Loony Lovegood, didn't you know?" Something inside her seemed to falter and break, as if a catalyst had set off something that had been building up. A look of deep regret came over her face. Snape wasn't an expert in human emotions, but he thought he saw a tinge of shame mixed in. He suspected that she would not be making such a display had he not been opening up to her for the past couple of hours. That, however, had been a political necessity. The girl needed to understand why his story was off limits. This... this was raw emotion.

He had no idea how to handle it.

Every retort he had on the tip of his tongue ready to spill out suddenly seemed... cold... somehow. He bit them back.

"Nonetheless, you must be hungry. You are a growing girl." It was obviously the wrong thing to say. Luna's eyes glazed over a bit. She drew her knees into her chest.

"No..." she whispered. "I'm not hungry. You go. I'll stay here. I have... Viorel to research." She was looking straight through him. She began, ever so slightly, to rock.

Snape was startled. What had he done to the girl? Was this normal? He usually made it a point to avoid the students; how was he to know what currently constituted "normal"? Should he summon someone who better understood children? Was it the stories he'd told her? She'd known most of them already, even if not the gospel truth to them...

He tried a different angle. "Your peers will be there. Not that I'd say this is necessarily a personal incentive for myself to attend, but Potter and his pack will be there."

She blinked a few times, and finally seemed to fully concentrate, to fully focus her attention.

"Can I ask you something?" The look in her eye was one of desperation. He'd never seen anything like it, especially not directed at him.

No.

"Yes."

Damn.

"You said that you were forced to work with people you hated... people you'd gone to school with, that had made your life difficult." She paused, trying to find the words.

"I did."

"You weren't very popular, were you. I mean, that's why you went off to be a Death Eater in the first place, wasn't it." It wasn't a question.

"You're putting many very complex issues into a very small nutshell, Lovegood."

"But is it a nutshell that fits?"

"What are you driving at?"

"I don't want that to happen to me." Ah. The pieces clicked into place. "I don't want all those stories you told... I don't want to be in them. Just because I have nowhere else to go."

Snape shifted uncomfortably in his chair. The heavy oak table seemed too big and too small at the same time. He willed it away, as his hands tightened around its edges for security. Who was he to tell a fifteen-year-old girl what her future would or would not be? Especially in this world where no one was certain that anyone even had one?

The silence stretched on. Luna withdrew into it, becoming fascinated with the way her robes draped over her knees, picking at a piece of thread. Snape became more and more uncomfortable.

"You have Potter." The words rang into the silence. Had he actually said that? Had he actually said that having Potter for a friend was a good thing? It was finally the right thing to say, though. Luna looked up.

"And the Weasley girl," he continued. "I don't know who else you have. I do not make it my business to follow the personal relationships of the students. But if it is clear to me that you have friends, why is it not clear to you?"

"You mentioned school friends, too, though. What were their names? Rosier? Wilkes? Oh... I know why I've heard of them, actually. I'll owl my father and tell him to drop the article about them. He'll do it. I'll explain why to him later. He trusts me. But it's not like we're so different, you and I."

"I don't know whether to be relieved that you've understood me enough to know how dangerous what The Quibbler is doing or to be angry with you for daring to compare Potter to Rosier. Rosier was a good man. He didn't know what he had gotten himself into. By the time it became apparent what the Dark Lord was up to, we were all in too deep." His voice was cold and bitter, with a slight trace of resentment.

"Do you know how Viorel died?" Luna picked up the heavy book and slammed it shut. "Do you know?" Snape blinked at the non-sequitur, but recovered quickly.

"No. But I'm sure you'll tell me."

"He didn't." She held the book as if it were a lifeline, clutching it to her chest. "He never died at all. He was the greatest vampire hunter of his day. His youngest son was a sleepwalker, though. Walked right up to the front door one night. Vampire was there. Being asleep, the kid didn't know what he was doing. Opened the door, and, still in his sleep, said, 'Come in...?'

"He actually invited the vampire in while he was sleeping. But it was enough to be considered an invitation, and allow the vampire access to the house. The vampire did come in. Killed the boy straight off. Viorel was still asleep in his bed. The vampire watched him sleep for a while, and finally decided that he wasn't to be killed. Ever. So she turned him instead. From what the histories can tell, Viorel still survives today. He slowly killed off his line over the ages, as they were the ones that could cast the spell he'd invented to cure vampirism. He didn't want to be cured. He'd found a new family."

She stopped talking. She bit her lip and considered whether or not to go on. Snape sat silently. He had, after all, begun this whole mess.

Taking in a deep breath, and squeezing the book in her arms, she finally spoke again. "He was kind of like You-Know-Who, if you think about it."

Letting go of the book, she let it drop to the floor. The loud impact reverberated through them both. The jolt seemed to give her strength. She had steel in her eyes as she stood up and was around the table in a flash.

"Is it true? Is it there?" Her hand clamped down on Snape's left forearm. His instincts kicked into gear even as fear flooded him, as it always did when anyone touched that arm.

"Ten points from Ravenclaw for daring to lay a hand on me!" He seized her hand and tore it from his arm.

"I'll lose all the points, I don't care! I have to know! Is it there?"

"You don't get everything you want. We are done here. I have already remained far longer than intended. I trust that you understand what I came to tell you, yes?"

Luna's eyes were crazed, but she calmed herself down enough to manage a small nod.

"Lovegood, someday, your thirst for knowledge is going to get you killed. I'm telling you that right now. Be more careful in the future. A great deal more careful."

Another nod. She picked up her bag and waited for Snape to release the illusion that was containing the alcove. As soon as it was gone, she left quietly, determined to find out someday, find out somehow, what she wanted to know. She was angry that she had blown her chance, but her head was spinning with everything that she had learned.

Snape looked at the floor. An old leather-bound book lay where it had fallen. He sighed in exasperation.

"Lovegood, do please remember your things..." But she was just out of earshot. He picked up the book, turning it over in his hands. The title had faded from the cover. He opened it to a random page.

The irony of the situation was difficult to comprehend when the death toll was so high. Viorel took vengeance on all those who had ever done him wrong in his life as a human. With the hunter gone, and a more vicious monster than had ever been known in his place, the wizards of Romania lived in fear that their house would be the next house to have the trademark bouquet of bluebells left by the door.

Snape closed the book. Like the Dark Lord indeed. The girl was right to be afraid. She knew what was coming. She had not forgotten history. He tucked the volume under his arm as he strode out of the library. He had some reading to do.