Chapter- 49 : Conflagration Part - 5

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"But why?" the brunette's nose wrinkled in puzzlement.

"Because naiads inhabit the lake." Luna supplied calmly. "Lovely human-sized relatives of the fairy they are beautiful, even friendly-seeming. Their lives are tied to the body of water they inhabit, and they cannot leave, but their powers are nearly supreme inside it. Within their pond they could overpower giants or drown merpeople. They would beckon you near the water in order to pull you under and drown you - and no magic could save your life."

"That's so cruel!" Hermione recoiled.

"Not from their perspective." Luna gave a slight shrug. "Naiads, also called water nymphs, are nearly immortal unless they leave their pond. To them your life is so ridiculously short that to kill you is seen as both absurd and funny; no more tragic than squashing a moth. Besides, they have a right to punish trespassers. The island at the center of their pond is a shrine to the Fairy Queen. No mortal is permitted to tred there. I know a story of a Hogwarts headmaster who broke that rule. Considered the most powerful wizard of his age, he was able to bypass the naiad guardians. But the moment his foot touched down on that magic soil, he transformed into a cloud of dandelion fluff, clothes and all. He scattered on the breeze and has never been seen again."

"Why would he go there?" the puzzled bookworm asked, watching cross eyed as a four inch bright green fairy loitered near her face. "If it's so dangerous, I mean."

Luna plucked a flower off the stone wall and regarded her fondly. "The Fairy Queen is widely considered the most powerful figure in all of fairydom. That headmaster of long ago felt he had a desperate need and went to plead for her assistance. Apparently she was not impressed."

"So the queen of the fairies lives on that little island?" Harry asked, as from the moment Luna'd opened her mouth she'd been saying things Voldemort did not know, and frankly Harry was eager to learn more even as he scanned the little cave they'd all somehow ended up in.

"No. It is merely a shrine to honor her," Luna supplied. "Similar shrines, with their own individual protections and guardians, abound inside this forest."

Hermione was still mentally chewing on earlier statements. "But if this long ago headmaster you spoke of was so powerful himself, why would he go to a fairy for help? Even if she was the most powerful of her kind?"

"The magic of fairies is different than that of humans. Even the weakest of all fairies still has her own magic - something that cannot be said of humans! And they routinely do that which is considered impossible by rules of magic as we know them. For example, pixies fly without wings, while even the most accomplished wizard needs a device to do the same. Roman wizards had a terrible time conquering the Celts, because Celtic ones knew enough fairy lore to be offering Rome continual surprises in their abilities." Luna smiled, trailing her fingers in the current of a tiny stream bubbling down the floor.

"So fairies aren't 'safe'?" Hermione could almost be pictured trying to take mental notes, as she couldn't be rooting around in a bookbag that wasn't there for parchment and quill she hadn't carried into the forest with her.

Luna looked up as several fairies settled onto her blonde hair. "They aren't out to harm anyone, and they are capable of good deeds. They just won't normally do them without their own reasons. Take brownies for instance. Brownies don't fix things to help people. They fix things because they enjoy fixing things."

At this Harry chimed in with a small tidbit he knew. "There has always been a muggleborn mania to see everything they meet as just another human that thinks and feels and acts just like we do, only it has a warty skin or four legs or whatever. They're not! Everything I've read tells me different species run by different rules, and different things are important to them. Cruelty is a nutrient for goblins, like protein is for us. They CAN'T LIVE without it! Nor do they want to!"

Knowing such things had been one of the secrets of Voldemort's success. He treated creatures, not like PEOPLE would want to be treated, but like THOSE CREATURES wanted to be treated. Often there was a substantial difference.

For instance Giants revered strength. So they wanted to be physically beaten to a pulp before they'd serve anyone. But then they'd do so willingly.

"And service is the same for house elves," Luna agreed. "To deprive them of the right or opportunity to cook or clean or follow orders would slowly but surely starve them to death no matter what they ate. All the magical races have their own rules like that. Creatures get classified as 'demons' when their driving purpose to exist boils down to merely causing destruction to others. Goblins only very narrowly escaped that clause, and many since have speculated they used bribery to do so."

She fixed the Granger girl with her calm gaze, saying, "Humans are a blend of all sorts of things. Most magical creatures, on the other hand, have a clearly dominant few. Fairies are remarkably conceited. Outside of a sanctuary like this one, they won't even let a nonmagical mortal glimpse them. Since they consider looking at themselves the ultimate delight, they deny that pleasure to others. Most of the nymphs have the same mentality."

Luna smiled more radiantly. "I have to laugh sometimes. Fairies pretend not to care what mortals think of them, but try giving one of them a compliment. She'll blush, and the others will crowd in for their turn. You'd think they'd be embarrassed."

Hermione blinked several times. "So... fairies talk?"

"Not much to humans," Luna allowed, permitting one to land on her palm to preen in its reflection on the side of her ring. "They have a language all their own, although they rarely speak to each other, except to trade insults. Most will never condescend to use human speech. They consider it beneath them. Fairies are vain, selfish creatures."

Harry smiled, nearly crossing his eyes to stare at a fairy perching on the end of his nose so she could stare in her reflection in his glasses. "I think they're pretty."

"They're gorgeous!" the Lovegood girl agreed. "And they can be useful. At home they handle most of our gardening. But safe? Not so much."

Harry goggled, then turned to face Luna, dumbfounded, noting that she now had a small cloud of fairies attending her. A handful were even carefully braiding the girl's hair. "Uh. Fairies garden?"

The blonde presently having her hair done shrugged, setting a small cloud of fairies to flight, before they settled down on her again. "Fairies do have their own magic, and can be remarkably flexible. They most often use it to freshen up wilting flowers or otherwise beautify the areas around them, considering a lovely environment the perfect frame to accentuate their own beauty. But they can transform creatures that displease them, or even hide their own nature and appearance. When they don't wish to be seen they most often disguise themselves as butterflies or hummingbirds, because even in disguise they can't bear to not be beautiful."

"All of this is very well and good," Hermione interjected. "But what I think we ought to be doing is trying to find out why they brought us here, and where 'here' is anyway."

Luna looked up at her calmly. "I believe we are in imminent peril to our lives," she stated in utmost seriousness. Then she gestured to the open mouth of their small cave, which had water up to its lip. "Because that is a naiad lake."

Outside, the sun shone down brightly on the glimmering, clear waters. Faces of beautiful women looked out at them from underneath the surface.

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