[catania] screaming "fire" in a theater [dean]

march 2001

Keeping in touch with the people that actually wanted to keep in touch with her (that also weren't her father) was the only reason that Luna Lovegood owned an owl. Pluto, her small burrowing owl, had been quite busy the past few months, following Luna as she travelled through Sweden and back home again and delivering her letters. Most of the letters had been about how she was close to finding a crumple-horned snorkack, but they were also occasionally about how much she missed her friends.

One such friend was Dean Thomas. It had been a while since they had seen each other; Luna had wasted no time after leaving Hogwarts the previous June before she began traveling. She loved England as much as the next person, but traveling was how she was going to grow up, to make a name for herself, to prove what she needed to prove.

When she had found out that Dean was going to be in Italy, she immediately proposed the idea of meeting while she was in the country. Luna was, in fact, planning to travel through Italy, but the minor details of when exactly she was going had remained undecided until she received word from Dean. The expedition she was planning was going to be quite an exciting one: yet another solo expedition, but this time to search for heliopaths. And what better place to find a spirit of fire that burns everything in its path than an active volcano?

So she had suggested meeting in Catania, a large city nestled cosily at the base of Mount Etna. They were set to meet at u Liotru, a fountain in the city with a giant obelisk and an elephant that was hopefully hard to miss. And if the fountain wasn't obvious enough, Luna definitely was. She was dressed from head to toe in a hue that could only be described as burnt orange, and burnt was exactly what she was going for. She was hoping to blend in with the fire, once she found any. Her hat, shirt, pants, shoes, everything was the same hue and it clashed royally with her dirty blonde hair that was braided into a long plait. The only things in any other shade were her earrings, the usual dirigible plums that she was almost never without (because there was almost never a time to not worry about nargles).

She was sitting on the edge of the fountain next to her equally burnt orange backpack, her feet dangling merrily as she waited for her friend to appear. Her thoughts weren't focused on anything in particular, flitting form thought to thought: how it would be nice to have a second artist present to get a second opinion on the appearance of the heliopaths, how her reflection in the fountain was a constant reminder of how good an idea her camouflage was, what she would do with the heliopath once she found it. Keep it away from Cornelius Fudge, at least. He already had an army of them and he didn't need any more.

She figured she was early, but as Luna never really paid attention to the time of day anyway, she didn't mind waiting.

@Dean Thomas

Dean’s journey through Italy had not originally included Catania, because he hadn’t done any research and didn’t know it existed. He’d never expected Luna to have it together more, of the two of them. But of course he would run off without a clue. He’d done it before. He did stupid things that felt right, and Luna did smart things that seemed wrong.

He apparated into a discreet gap between two buildings. The fountain Luna wrote him about was nearby, he could see it through the throngs of people. He could see her too: everyone seemed to be giving her a bit of a berth, as they usually did with Luna. She was dressed like an orange beacon of some kind, and Dean figured that was probably the intention, to attract whatever she was looking for this time. He waved.

“Hi, Luna,” he said, greeting her with a smile and sitting on the edge of the fountain beside her. He was unsure if they were the sort of friends to hug or not so he forwent it just to be safe.

It had been a while since they’d seen each other. When she hadn’t been at school she’d been away on her travels. They’d grown so close in those months at Bill and Fleur’s, and then everything had kind of trailed off with distance. There were letters, but for Dean that was never enough. The thought struck him a little cold. Would this happen with everyone he knew if he went off to find himself, start a new life?

He wondered how she had summoned the resolve to leave behind everyone she loved. Whether it was something he could imitate, or, like the rest of her, uniquely Luna.

Luna was much too immersed in the little tune she was humming to herself to notice Dean until he was standing right in front of her, saying hello. "Oh, hello," she mused, looking up at him with a smile. She turned to look at him as he sat next to her; she immediately began studying his face, finding any differences that appeared there since the last time she had seen him. "You look puzzled," she stated, putting it out there, not asking for any details if he didn't want to offer any. It was hard for her to spend the time that she had with Dean and not remember what his expressions meant.

"I'm sure you've figured out why I wanted to meet you in Catania," she said matter-of-factly, adding a nod as she paused. "Heliopaths." She said this word much more quietly, not wanting to alarm any of the people around her. If they knew there were heliopaths close, there would be an absolute riot. Half of them would want one for themselves, and half would just panic. Complete chaos. Still, she wanted to find them. Needed to.

He wasn't dressed properly though. Had she forgotten to tell him the plan for camouflage in her last letter? It didn't matter anyway. She had planned for this contingency, in case he forgot or didn't have enough. "You'll need to change, you know," she said as she leaned down to rummage through her backpack. She had borrowed a few of her father's things, a matching outfit of Dean's very own. He would blend right in to the surroundings once they got to the volcano.

She found what she was looking for; she drew out a pair of flowy linen pants in the same bright shade of orange and a matching orange sweater. Yes, he was going to fit right in. Luna set them gingerly on his lap, not waiting for him to accept her offering. "Before we get there." She might have neglected to mention that they were going to be traipsing around the volcano's crater. Maybe on purpose.

“Do I?” he asked lamely. Luna always made him examine himself, try to see the things in him she always thought were so plain. He was puzzled, he figured. By Luna’s getup if nothing else.

She leaned in close and informed him why they were here. “Aah,” he said softly, nodding. He should have known. Luna didn’t really do things without reasons, no matter whether her reasons made sense to other people or not. Of course she wouldn’t have chosen this place at random. “Sorry, remind me,” he asked, “what exactly is a heliopath?” Hopefully Luna wouldn’t think him ignorant. Even when it didn’t make sense, he didn’t like her to think that.

But Luna was now informing him that he’d dressed the wrong way. “Oh,” he said, “are we actually—going out in the field?” He’d intended on a quiet catching-up, maybe over lunch, or coffee, or even wine. Again, he should’ve known. She produced more orange fabric and dropped it on his lap. “Oh…okay.” He remembered his manners. “Thank you.” Unfurling a pair of trousers and holding them up, Dean looked at them, unsure. They’d be rather too short. That probably didn’t matter.

“Where are we going?” he asked. This was all in Luna’s hands. He shouldn’t have expected anything less.

"They're fire spirits of course. They're basically like horses, but on fire. So they burn things. Very dangerous." She nodded, her voice still at a very low volume as to not alarm the muggles. She didn't mind that he didn't remember what they were. They had never been taught about these creatures at Hogwarts, but just because they had never been included in any lesson plan didn't mean they weren't out there. "I'm still not sure why Cornelius Fudge hasn't tried to wrestle his Minister position back yet. He definitely has enough of them to do it." She shrugged and shook her head quickly, her earrings dangling like ornaments on a tree. Then she nodded, as she knew she didn't need to explain this jump in thought to Dean.

Out in the field? Saying it that way made it sound so official. "Oh yes. It wouldn't be a good idea to bring them into town." And that was an understatement, considering they burn everything in their path and a lot of the things here were still quite wooden. "I was hoping you would be able to illustrate something once we've found them. We'll just have to keep the parchment away from them. The flammable thing." She would be illustrating something as well, but she was starting to realize that having a second eye was quite beneficial, especially with all of the skeptics out there.

"Over there," she pointed casually in the north-northwest direction, nonplussed that she was pointing to an active volcano. "I'm not sure of the precise location, but..." she trailed off, finishing the sentence in her head with I know they must be there somewhere. "We can apparate instead of hiking up." Another nod. She stood up, stretching as she did so, before leaning down to pick up her backpack. "I have snacks packed so unless you need to do anything else before hand..." She held her hand out to her friend, both an offer to help him up and a reminder that whatever was puzzling him, she would be someone to listen.

There would be a good place to apparate just on the other side of the square and it didn't take them too long to navigate through the people as it seemed that people stepped out of the way when they saw Luna walking towards them. "Just a minute," she said as they found a secluded spot. She dropped his hand and slid off her backpack to the ground in front of her. After another minute of rummaging through her things, she extracted two puffy coats with very warm looking hoods and sleeves. "You'll probably want this," she held out the larger of the two coats, again in the lovely shade of orange they were working in. "I'd go ahead and do everything now," she motioned to all the orange articles of clothing.

She turned around to give Dean some semblance of privacy in case that's what he wanted and busied herself with putting on her own coat and readjusted her pack into a comfortable spot on her back. Luna turned back after getting Dean's okay, held out her arm, and said, "Hold on," probably unnecessarily. She turned on her foot, thinking of a spot just south of the summit. It was snowing when they reappeared, but the coats had warming charms on them that extended past the confines of the fabric so Luna was quite comfortably warm and didn't even notice the wind.

"Which way do you want to look first?"

moved dean around to get the thread along, let me know if i should change it

He nodded politely. She had told him of a lot of things over the years, creature sightings and conspiracy theories and old wives’ tales that seemed perfectly and obviously grounded in truth to her. Dean thought that if such an animal existed then Hagrid would surely have managed to get his hands on one at some point, but he really had no reason to believe heliopaths were any less real than unicorns. To him, the magical world had never seemed to have boundaries.

Whether Cornelius Fudge happened to have any heliopaths, however, he doubted a little more, but chose not to contradict her.

“Alright then,” he said. Dean would have expected her to have wanted to do the field sketching herself, but perhaps she was just trying to make him feel useful. He wasn’t sure how much of an asset he would be on a beast-stalking trip. Probably more of a burden. But he took her hand anyway, gathering the orange clothing in his other arm, and let her lead him through the crowd toward a secluded area across the square.

She handed him a coat, then indicated that he ought to put on the clothes she’d given him. “Er, yeah. Right.” He wasn’t sure how he felt about getting undressed just behind a wall from a crowded tourist area. Luna politely turned her back, though, so he quickly set down his backpack and tugged his shirt over his head, replacing it with the orange top. The trousers, as he’d predicted, were inches too short, and he felt incredibly silly. But he knew Luna didn’t give a good goddamn what he looked like. Presumably they would be the only ones there where they were searching. Large magical creatures, even possibly imaginary ones, didn’t generally make it their business to live in populated areas.

“I’m finished,” he said as he reached for the jacket and pulled it on. It made him feel like they were on some proper expedition. He looked down at his puffy torso. “You sure came prepared.” He’d wished a little bit that she had told him what they’d be up to since it was clearly planned in advance, but it was too late now. At least this would be a good story to tell. Seamus in particular would probably get a kick out of it.

They appeared on the mountain in the snow, and Dean let go of Luna’s arm to put on his hood. “Er…” He wasn’t the beast expert here, he wasn’t sure why she was asking him. “Do you know if they would take shelter anywhere?” he asked. “I mean, do they have, like, homes?”

"Of course they have homes," Luna replied vaguely, looking to her left. “Home is less of a place and more of a feeling,” she added wistfully, this time looking to her right. “However, I’m not sure where they live, if it’s in the crater, or around it, or what." She pointed a finger in the direction she was looking, indicating towards the top of the mountain. Following her finger would lead to the crater of the volcano, though they were still at a relatively safe distance. Steam was escaping through vents in the ground, melting the snow around the openings.

She set off in the general direction she was pointing. “The snow is different in Sweden,” she noted, hearing the different crunch the Italian snow was making when compared to the snow she had dealt with in Scandinavia the month prior. The Swedish snow was a much more subdued crunch, and the air there was devoid of the low, earthly rumble and hiss that surrounding them now. “Do you know much about geography, Dean?” They were getting closer to the crater of a volcano, after all, and it would help if he knew at least not to step on the thermal features.

After a few more steps, the young woman stopped in her tracks and bent down, raking thing fingers through the fresh layer of powder. The tips of her fingers grazed over a rock, and after a few more passes over it she grasped it and straightened up, staring down at it as resumed walking. It was a shiny and smooth piece of obsidian, nothing special, but unique to volcanic regions and it would surely be appreciate by her father.

“We’re probably close,” she said, lowering her voice so as not to startle any heliopaths in the vicinity. There was a thud somewhere to the east, hopefully rocks shifting after being disturbed by the unseen creatures. “Would you sketch the area?” She asked, coming to another stop, holding her arm out to stop Dean, too. “I can look around for tracks or other signs.” She wasn’t hoping to keep Dean from looking around with her, but too much excitement too quickly might have startled him. This was his first expedition, after all.

She answered his question in a vague, philosophical way which made him wish he hadn’t phrased it the way he did. But she did follow it up with something useful. “We’re going all the way in?” he asked, surprise and trepidation perhaps too apparent in his voice. Trekking into the craters of volcanoes was not how he had expected to spend his day.

“I don’t know a goddamn thing about geography,” said Dean. It hadn’t figured into the studying he’d done after school, the basic mathematics and biology and occasional classic novels. It had seemed like something he could interact with the muggle world without. He had not intended on any nature expeditions. “I mean… I don’t think you’re supposed to go into a volcano, though,” he said. The thought crossed his mind that there probably were some sort of protective charms that could be used, maybe some way to wade in lava, even. But he definitely didn’t know them if there were.

Dean realized that the way he was picturing this volcano didn’t seem to be exactly what he was looking at. He’d never seen an image of one without copious flowing lava and explosions, though he probably should have known they weren’t like that all the time. The hill didn’t seem completely benign, however. Steam was escaping from small fissures, there was an ominous rumbling if he listened hard enough. It was making him quite nervous. If anything happened there would be enough time to just apparate away, probably, but despite the knowledge he was still on edge.

Luna, on the other hand, seemed serene as ever. She stopped to pick up a rock like they were walking on the beach, looking at it in her hand for a moment before tucking it in her pocket.

He wanted to ask her about her life, quite suddenly. Not her work, but her relationships with others, how she was getting on. But he supposed this wasn’t the place. Her steps and her voice were getting quieter now; this was where things were getting serious. “Yeah, for sure,” he whispered, taking off his backpack and fishing out his notebook and ink pen. He cast a quick charm to warm up his chilly hands and cleared the snow off the nearest rock to sit on.

Before putting pen to paper he hesitated, watching Luna wander off to look for evidence of heliopath activity. Hanging around with her was never boring. Well—sometimes boring, but certainly never in the way you expected.

"Oh, I've been experimenting with heat protection," she said offhandedly, not adding the tidbit that she had yet to experiment with anything quite as hot as the environment she could be interacting with in the very near future. "Mind the thermal features," she added, considering his non-existent knowledge of geography. "The steam," she clarified, "Where it's venting." She pointed out one such example a few feet to their right. She didn't think she needed to explain exactly why he should avoid them.

Luna nodded as Dean agreed to start sketching. Even if they weren't successful in finding any heliopaths, she was going to write up a series of articles for The Quibbler about her search for them. Having sketches to go along with the her words would be nothing if not helpful. And having sketches instead of photographs only added to the mysterious quality that heliopaths exuded. Plus, if they did find the heliopaths, she didn't want to alert anyone who didn't need to know to their whereabouts, which a photograph would certainly do.

She shrugged off her backpack and left it with her friend before wandering away, but not too far that she lost sight of him. Every few minutes she would kneel down, either scooping some snow up with her palms or getting her face so close to the ground that her nose was nearly brushing against the snow. She crept around the steam vents, a fleeting hope in the back of her mind that the melted snow around them was caused by anything other than steam, only to be disappointed when she was proved wrong.

Straightening up, Luna looked around, her gaze jumping from one thing to the other. There were no signs of anything overtly heliopath in origin. No recently charred branches, no obvious tracks,  nothing that would suggest that heliopaths lived here. She looked back for a brief second to offer Dean a shrug before setting off again, this time moving closer to the crater. That was really the only option left in her search, she concluded, holding her wand tighter as she approached.

Every few feet she pointed her wand at the ground, reinforcing it before stepping over it. She had done a fair amount of research into volcanos and their environs, and knew enough to know that people didn't usually trek this close to craters for some very specific reasons. The snow was thinner the closer she got to the edge, but the steam was obscuring the view down into the volcano. What a perfect place for the heliopaths to live and hide, away from those who couldn't fully appreciate them.

Still, it was a rather beautiful thing to look at, the swirls of steam curling about artistically, a contrasting shade of gray against the snowy background. She turned around slowly, cupping her mouth with her hands as she yelled for Dean. "Come take a look!" She paused for a second before adding, "Just make sure to follow my footsteps!" The charms she had used to reinforce the ground would still be in effect. He just really needed to see this. And maybe join her on the next part of the expedition.

“Oh, er…” Dean looked warily at the nearest jet of steam, not entirely convinced. There wasn’t much of a reason for him to doubt she knew what she was talking about; he still used oven mitts, after all, rather than learning protective spells, but something about Luna’s nature made it difficult to trust her entirely. “Is it the jackets? Do I need to do a charm, or something?” Hopefully she would be content to leave him here to sketch, but if not, he’d like to go in prepared. He was particularly concerned about his thin, rubber-soled shoes, worn in anticipation of a more urban adventure, and the few inches of ankle exposed between them and Luna’s orange pants.

Luna wandered about, closely investigating the ground as she made her way further toward the top of the volcano. Dean shifted around so he was looking upward to the summit and cautiously drew a line to shape the foreground. The lip of the crater was ragged, and the mountain sloped down softly from either side. He sketched in the snow, with thin lines to indicate the larger banks and light hatching closer to the top where the gray rock of the mountain showed through. Looking up again, Dean began to add curved clouds of steam from the crater and the fissures in the stone. He stared down at the beginnings of his sketch, then back up to where Luna’s orange figure was. It was beautiful up here, wildly open, but sort of difficult to draw in its barrenness.

He jumped when she asked him to join her. “…Alright,” he called back after a moment of hesitation, tucking away his drawing for now. He could add more detail later from memory, probably. Slinging Luna’s backpack over one shoulder, he carefully followed the path of footprints she’d left in the snow. His feet were somewhat bigger than hers were, and he was a good deal heavier, which he hoped wouldn’t cause any trouble.

She was standing near the edge, watching the steam drift lazily up into the mountain air. Dean joined her, and they stood there together for a moment. “How do we look?” he asked eventually. “Do you think something’s in there?”

Luna shifted her wait from her heels to her toes, getting more excited by the moment as she waited for Dean to join her up by the crater. She crouched down after a minute, wrapping an arm around her knees to steady herself. She could hear a faint rumbling, which she could only assume was coming from the volcano. A bead of sweat dripped down her temple and she wiped it away with her free hand. It was probably time for that heat protection.

Straightening up, Luna pointed her wand at her shoes and said a few words, moving her wand up her body and repeating the words a few more times. It was an almost instant relief, like there was a cool breeze whooshing past her. As she finished, she pointed her wand again, this time at the ground between her and the crater. She reinforced it with another spell before taking a tentative step forward, testing the ground with her weight and feeling rather satisfied by her spell work.

“Well, I suppose we just.. look.” Luna nodded before dropping her voice. “Heliopaths, probably.” She repeated the spells for Dean, working her way from his head to his feet with her wand, not saying another thing before taking a few more steps forward to get her to the very edge of the crater. She crouched down, holding that position before flattening herself out to a prone position, stretching out her hands to grasp onto the ledge. She pulled herself forward by her hands, just enough so that she could peer over the ledge.

She could tell that the steam hitting her face was warm, but it was much cooler on her skin than it would have been without her spells. The reddish-orange lava (or was it still considered magma at this point?) was a good five hundred feet down, though the gentle movements on its surface were obvious even from her vantage point.

“Revelio,” she said, her wand pointed securely into the crater, her grip on her wand just a bit tighter than it usually was. If there were any heliopaths, the spell would have revealed something. But nothing was happening. “Hmm,” she said, mostly to herself, before trying the spell again only for the same outcome. “That’s strange.”