Chapter Text
Chapter One
It was finally over. Lord Voldemort was dead. But the cost was too high, Nalila thought as she stood over his broken looking body. She closed her emerald eyes as her waist length, crimson coloured hair swayed gently in the breeze.
Almost everyone she loved was gone. Her parents, Cedric, Sirius, Remus, Hermione, the Weasley's... she shook her head to clear it before opening her eyes and turning away from the body at her feet. Neville and Luna stood there with small smiles of relief that she was alive on their faces.
Lila moved toward them, collapsing in Neville's arms as tears started flowing down her cheeks.
"Everything will be alright Lila," Luna whispered, as she hugged the shorter girl from behind, a knowing look in her eyes which were focused for once.
The-Girl-Who-Lived just cried into Neville's shoulder until she passed out from the stress and exhaustion.
The boy shared a look with Luna before picking up the other girl bridal style and carrying her to the headmaster's office.
When they got there, Luna noticed that there was a portrait of Professor Snape on the wall with all the past Headmasters, she nodded in approval.
"Good evening Professor." the only female that was awake directed at Snape.
"Miss Lovegood. How is miss Potter?" he asked quietly, a glint in his eyes that spoke of pride in Lily's daughter.
Luna shot a fond look toward her friend before turning back to the man. "Everything will be fine in time sir."
He nodded, staying silent for a moment. "When she is able, there is a letter from her mother on the desk. I had an elf retrieve it from my vault. Lily asked me to give it to her when everything was over and she herself could not tell her daughter the truth."
"Severus, I don't think that is at all appropriate right now." the portrait of Albus Dumbledore protested.
Both Luna and Neville's eyes snapped up to look at him.
"Professor Dumbledore." the girl greeted frostily. "This is the most appropriate time. Things beyond all of our control are happening to start to bring balance once more."
The old man looked a little shaken at her words, knowing that his former student was more of a Seer than Trelawney.
"What?" Neville sounded confused.
She smiles a little mysteriously as she went to him. "She'll be going home soon."
Recognition lit his brown orbs, "You mean she's..."
"Yes."
"I really must protest." But no one was listening to the old professor anymore.
They both looked down when their friend let out a low whimper of distress. The blonde girl softly spoke in a language her companion didn't recognize, but knew it was Nalila's native tongue. The girl on the couch seemed to relax at Luna's words, then emerald began to peek out from behind slowly opening eyelids.
"Luna, Neville, what?"
Neville knelt on the floor in front of her, taking her smaller hand in his. Luna picked up the letter that Snape told them about, going to kneel beside him.
"Professor Snape I think would like a chance to speak with you before you read a letter he had been holding on to for you, from your mother." Luna explained as she handed the aged envelope over the confused red haired girl.
Lila traced her fingertips over the delicate looking letters on the envelope that made up her name. Luna motioned to Neville to leave, silently casting a silencing charm at Dumbledore's Portrait so that Lila and Professor Snape could talk without interruptions.
"I went to visit your mother just after your parents had gone into hiding." Snape stated after a few moments of silence.
Nalila's gaze wandered up to look at her once hated professor. She was very confused about what was going on, and slightly amused when she noticed the old goat trying and failing to speak.
"I'm guessing you at least have a vague idea of what this is." she stated holding up the letter.
The dark man nodded solemnly. "Read it first, all of it, then we shall talk."
It was Lila's turn to nod as she slipped a slim finger under the wax seal on the envelope.
'My dearest Nalila,
If you're reading this letter then James and I didn't survive the war, and Severus found a way to get this to you. I am so very sorry for that my darling baby girl.
There are things that happened when you were a baby that you need to know, but first know that James and I loved you with everything that we were, and never feel guilty for our deaths. We would have done everything and anything to make sure that you lived.
The first thing that you should know is that James and I aren't your biological parents. We never found out who they were, and even though you weren't ours by blood, we still thought of you as our precious baby girl.
The second thing I must tell you is that through Severus' diligence in his spying we found out that you are not originally from this world. I know it will be a bit unbelievable, but if you are able to, talk with Severus. It was Severus whom discovered that it was Dumbledore who brought you from your home through some sort of ritual.
I was horrified that he would do something so awful to someone's family.
Severus tried to help us find a way to send you home, to send you back to where you belonged, since it was quite obvious, even as a baby, that you were not like other babies.
Severus discreetly and subtly questioned the old man to see if he knew how to send you back. The stupid old goat never bothered to research a way to send you home after he wanted you here for was done. So we decided we'd look ourselves, not telling anyone, but Severus what we were doing, not even our closest friends Sirius and Remus.
I had been working in the Department of Mysteries before we went into hiding, and discovered the runes around the Archway, or the Veil of Death as the Ministry likes to call it. From what I could manage to translate, the runes tell that going through the Archway does not automatically lead to death, there is a sort of Judgement first.
Severus had urged us to take you through it, and James and I agreed with him. We were going to take you through it, hoping it would at least take you where you belonged, even if it had killed us. Unfortunately we had to go into hiding before that happened, and since you're reading this we, nor Sev ever got the chance to try.
One last thing my sweet girl, the old goat also revealed to Sev that you weren't a child of man. A first we didn't know what he meant since you looked human. As our research continued we found passages in extremely old and rare books that described things so similar to how you acted and reacted to the world around you that we finally realized what he was talking about. You my darling are part of the noble race of Dwarrows, otherwise known as a dwarf. James and I could not find any more information than that. I don't know if Sev did though, it has been quite a while since we last saw him.
We're not certain if your appearance will change if you were to ever make it back to your home, and we may never know what being in our world so long will do to you, like will you keep the magic that our world saw fit to bestow upon you.
I am so sorry for everything my darling, just remember that James and I love you with all our hearts. That will never change.
Your mother always,
Lily Potter'
Nalila was shocked by all the information in the letter from her mother, and no matter what that's what Lily Potter was, her mother. The fact that Professor Snape had tried to help in any way he could made her feel all the more grateful to him for everything he'd ever done to help her. She was also even more angry at the old man for what he'd put her through.
There was a light sound which made her look up. Severus was staring down at her with a fond expression. "Any questions?" he asked her.
"Only one. It's obvious that my mother would never lie to me about something like this." the red-head started. "Did you find any more information on Dwarrows or the Archway?"
The portrait of her professor and mentor sighed softly, "I looked everywhere I could think of. Even the library at Grimmauld. There was nothing, and I didn't know enough about the runes, or trust anyone else with your mother's notes on them."
"And so the last Piece has been put in place. And it's time for the lost Childe to return home." Luna stated.
"You knew?"
"I suspected, there was always something about you that just didn't seem right. Not in a bad way though." Luna told her with a lopsided smile.
The red-head nodded in acceptance, knowing that if Luna had know anything 100% that she would have said something. "Then you know what I must do now."
"Yes. Neville and I will help you. Everything in the wizarding world is chaos right now, the best time to take action don't you think?"
Lila's smile at her blonde friends words could have shamed the sun for how bright it was.
XXXXX
Three days later the three friends were silently making their way through the Ministry, avoiding as many people as possible along their way to the Department of Mysteries. They knew that if they were spotted someone would try to stop them. The closer they got the Veil the more alive Nalila seemed to become. It took fifteen minutes to find the right door to chamber with the archway. The red-headed girl was almost vibrating in place now. Both Luna and Neville were slightly amused by their friend's state, Luna more so since she knew that it was because Lila's soul was calling out to the Veil to take her home.
The red haired girl turned to her friends, taking one of their hands in each of hers. "Thank you for everything. Take care of each other, and make sure my letter gets to the goblins, okay?"
Luna nodded before both her and Neville hugged the shorter girl one last time. Nalila took a deep breath, turned toward the archway and walked through.
The blonde girl sighed, feeling a little relieved that things had gone so well. Turning to her companion she smiled. "Balance has been restored."
Neville glanced at her, taking her hand. "We should go before someone comes, take Lila's letter to the goblins."
"Yes, of course."
With that the two turned away and left the chamber.
XXXXX
Nalila woke with a gasp and knowledge that she hadn't had before. Names and faces of people from long ago spun in her scrambled mind as she laid there trying to catch her breath. Trying to sort out all the new information in her head. All the traditions and practices of her race making a dizzying path in her brain.
A while later, when the spinning stopped, the girl finally sat up, taking note of the fact that her clothes were different, more traditional Dwarrow materials and clothing, but everything else she could see seemed to be the same. Remembering some of the last lines in her mother's letter Lila decided to try conjuring a mirror to see if her face had changed at all.
Flicking her wand into her hand from the holster on her arm, she could feel the magic thrumming through her a lot easier than she ever had before. Since she didn't know a spell to conjure something she figured she just try imagining what she wanted. So with the image of a mirror firmly in the front of her mind the red head flicked her wand and was only a little surprised when what she had wanted appeared, hovering in front of her.
Carefully she put her wand away and grasped the glass in both of her small hands. Slowly she lifted the mirror higher to get a look at her face, almost crying in relief when she saw it hadn't really changed. Same bright emerald eyes, untameable, curly crimson coloured hair, the same high cheekbones, and petite, slender nose, and no sign of any facial hair. She was infinitely grateful for that.
Carefully putting the mirror away, Lila finally gazed at her surroundings. Mirkwood, something in her mind whispered to her. It was dark, and smelled of illness and death. There was something evil here and she didn't like it.
schreeech
Whipping her head around, the girl got to her knees, hand finding one of the daggers that she'd found in her family vault before the death of the dark lord. Slowly looking around as she got to her feet there was another ear splitting screech to her right, closer than the last one.
She was scared, what in the world could be making a noise like that? The girl didn't know, and she wasn't sure if she actually wanted to find out.
That's when she heard the whistling sound of something coming closer to her at great speed. She ducked and covered her head, eyes wide, upon realizing that it was an arrow. After it had passed her, she peeked in the direction it had gone, blinking rapidly in shock at the sight of a spider, the size of the ones she remembered from her second year at Hogwarts, laying dead a few feet away from her.
Now that she was actually paying attention, she could hear more of them, and more whistling from projectiles. Getting back up onto her feet she stumbled away in the opposite direction, readying her knife, hoping that whoever was engaging the spiders wouldn't come after her next.
It seemed to take hours before there was silence. Nalila couldn't be sure since the canopy of leaves from the trees blocked out the sun entirely. The red-head had to come to an abrupt stop as an arrow slammed into the tree she was just about to cross in front of.