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"Hey, Luna," Hermione said into the quiet of their workspace, "can you come here a moment, please?"
"Give me a little bit to finish this, and I will be over," Hermione's coworker replied.
Hermione nodded. "That's fine."
After a few moments, Luna set down her quill and walked over to Hermione's desk. "What is it?"
"Well, I think I've finally got the ratios right for our testing of the new Wolfsbane," the brunette witch explained. "Do you mind taking a look at my notes?"
"Of course not," Luna replied. She picked up the parchment with Hermione's detailed notes and equations, looking it over meticulously. Once she finished, she placed the parchment back down. "Everything looks right to me. I think tomorrow we can get started on it."
The next morning, found the two witches quietly working away as they both peeled, diced, chopped, shredded, and stirred their ingredients into the gently bubbling cauldron. They worked in tandem as they had ever since they were paired together in potions class during Hermione's eighth year and Luna's seventh over five years ago.
Once the potion reached the final stage, Luna doused the flame underneath the cauldron and grabbed the last ingredient needed. As she dropped the crushed Boomslang fangs into the cauldron, Hermione looked up from her notes, her eyes wide and called out, "Luna, no!"
By the time the blonde witch heard her partner, the last grain had fallen from the little bowl and into the cauldron. "What is it, Hermione?" Luna questioned as she looked up.
The softly bubbling liquid suddenly stilled.
Hermione reached for her. "Back up, back up, back up."
The two witches retreated across the room, and Hermione shouted, "Protego Maxima!" before the still liquid exploded from the cauldron to shoot towards the ceiling. Even with Hermione's Shield Spell, the two witches ducked down to avoid the flying pieces of the destroyed cauldron and the splintered wooden table that had sat underneath it.
Once their ears stopped ringing, Hermione and Luna slowly stood up to take in the state of their lab. What neither witch expected to see was two wizards standing where the wooden table had been just seconds ago.
The quartet stared at each other in silence for a few minutes before, Luna's voice filled the quiet of the room.
"Huh," she mused. "This would explain why their bodies were never found."
The wizard on the left pinned Luna with a piercing gaze. "What do you mean bodies?"
Hermione turned to her partner. "You know who they are?"
Luna smiled. "Of course, I do. I don't need Wrackspurts around to know that–"
"Pandora?"
She shook her head and looked at the wizard to the right. "My mother died fifteen years ago in a horrible spell accident, but that was many years after you both died. My name is Luna."
His eyes widened. "Fifteen years ago?!"
The first wizard grasped the other's hand. "How much time has lapsed in total?"
Luna pondered his question for a moment before saying, "Well, you both were supposedly killed the same year," she gestured to the witch standing next to her, "Hermione was born, so twenty-five years ago."
The colour drained from both wizard's faces.
Hermione quickly conjured chairs for them to sit in as their knees gave out.
"Twenty-five years?"
"Yes," Luna replied, "but we finally defeated Voldemort six years ago."
"Merlin, it still took all that time to be rid of the bastard?"
"Sort of, but that's a story for another day. I think your sister would love to see the two of you."
Hermione reminded the trio that she was still there. "Sister? Who is their sister? And I still don't know who these two wizards are that landed in our lab."
Luna turned to face her. "I'm so sorry, Hermione. Let me introduce you to Fabian and Gideon Prewett. Molly Weasley's brothers."
The brunette witch's eyes widened. "Oh my." She turned back to face her partner. "This was not what was supposed to happen."
"Yes," Luna laughed, "but we can try again on the potion later. For now, let's get these two wizards to St. Mungo's for evaluation and then to Mrs Weasley."