MTLNOVEL Chapter 181: Luna
The days drifted on, crisp and golden, the trees around Hogwarts turning to fire and rust. Laughter lingered longer in the corridors, and even classes seemed lighter after the prank on Malfoy. But Cael Vale's mind remained far from the fleeting joys of pumpkin pastries and classroom chatter.
Every night, under the cloak of his disillusionment charm—or his sleeker Animagus form—he slipped past the Fat Lady, navigated the torchlit halls, and made his silent way to the Ravenclaw Tower. Sometimes he answered the bronze eagle knocker's riddles himself. Other nights, he'd follow a prefect, a fifth-year, or a girl who couldn't resist petting the elegant black cat with piercing blue eyes.
That was how he'd earned a quiet ally in Penelope Clearwater, who now always left the common room door open a fraction, murmuring softly, "There you are again, my mysterious little prince," before slipping him a treat from her robe pocket.
But tonight, the library on the second floor of the Ravenclaw tower was quieter than ever. Cael sat hunched over a worn desk, candlelight flickering against the spines of a hundred ancient tomes. He flipped another page in Runes of the Pre-Draconic Era, his eyes scanning symbols that had taken weeks to decipher.
And then—his eyes froze.
There it was.
His heart skipped. Then thundered.
He brought the Door Key's parchment to the candlelight, aligning the etched rune with the one in the book. Identical—no. Not quite. But similar. Strikingly so. The shape, the curvature, the stroke order. A variant.
He snatched another book—Comparative Rune Lore, Vol. II—and then a third—Glyphs of the Forgotten North. All bore similar traces. Slight evolutions of the same rune family.
"I've got it," he whispered breathlessly, trembling with the realization. He clamped a hand over his mouth, nearly laughing with joy.
That made twenty-five.
Twenty-five out of one hundred and fifty-three.
It was a small fraction. But it was more progress than his mother's entire Unspeakable team had managed in a decade. He nearly cried.
He gathered the books and hurried toward the exit, careful to keep silent, but as he reached the threshold of the library—
fwwpt!
The books flew from his arms and zipped back to their shelves as if tethered by invisible threads. One even smacked him on the shoulder.
Cael groaned, rubbing the spot. "Really again ? Of course. Enchanted to stay within Ravenclaw walls."
He slumped into a chair, sighed, and stared at the shelves.
"Guess I'm not leaving anytime soon again ."
⸻
That same week, he had an unexpected visitor.
He was bent over his notes when a voice, soft and dreamy, broke the silence behind him.
"I've seen you a few times now, you know. How do you get in without the door noticing?"
Cael spun, heart leaping. For a second, he thought a prefect had caught him. But it wasn't a prefect.
It was Luna Lovegood.
She stood in her nightdress, her long pale hair tumbling over her shoulders, eyes wide and serene. She looked more like a ghost than a girl.
"Luna," he breathed, blinking. "You—you startled me."
She pressed a finger gently to her lips. "Shhh. You'll wake the prefect. I think he's asleep in that armchair over there."
Cael blinked and peered across the room. Sure enough, a snoring sixth-year was slumped in the corner.
Luna tiptoed forward and sat beside him.
"I was wondering who the black cat was. Very pretty. A bit vain, but still."
Cael sighed, giving up the pretense. "You've caught me."
"I won't tell," she said matter-of-factly. "Unless you're a Nargle in disguise."
"I'm not," he said with a tired smile. "I'm Cael Vale. From Gryffindor. I've been… researching."
Her gaze flicked to the pages filled with inked runes. "Is that your homework?"
"Not quite," he said. "There's something—an object, a relic—I'm trying to understand. The runes on it aren't found in the Hogwarts library. But here… some of them are close. Close enough to mean something."
Luna nodded. "That makes sense. Ravenclaws do hoard knowledge. My mother always said the Tower library has secrets that the rest of Hogwarts pretends don't exist."
"I tried asking Professor Babbling," Cael said quietly. "But even she didn't recognize some of them."
"Why not just ask Professor Flitwick to let you in?" Luna tilted her head.
He hesitated. "Even if he did, the students would complain. They think the books here are for Ravenclaws only. Something about… tradition."
"Oh yes," Luna said lightly. "It's terribly silly. My father wrote about it in The Quibbler. Called it a 'hoarding habit of intellectual arrogance.' The Ministry wasn't pleased."
Cael chuckled. "I believe it."
She leaned over to peer at one of the books. "Why do you care so much about these runes?"
There was a beat of silence. Cael's smile faded. He tapped the edge of the Door Key's parchment.
"It belonged to my mother. She was an Unspeakable. She died protecting it. I think it's… important. I think it might be one of the keys to something very old. Maybe something so I can know more about her ."
Luna didn't flinch. "Then you must find all the runes."
He met her eyes.
"Well I am trying ."
They sat in silence for a while, until Luna yawned and blinked at the flickering candlelight.
"I should be sleeping," she murmured. "But my roommates wanted my bed. They said they needed the 'extra space' for a dream-catching charm."
Cael frowned. "That's ridiculous. They can't just kick you out of your bed."
She waved it off. "Oh, they're good girls. Just a bit confused. I don't mind sleeping on the couch. It's cozy."
Cael bit back his anger. Ravenclaws claimed to be clever and wise , but this Arrogance got to their heads .
"Well," Luna said, smiling at him. "If you're going to sneak in every night, I suppose I'll keep you company sometimes. I like reading too. And you're very quiet. Like a Niffler in the library."
Cael laughed. "That's the strangest compliment I've ever received."
"It was meant with affection," she said, already curling up on the nearby rug, using a book as a pillow.
⸻
And so the weeks passed. As the leaves turned brown and brittle, Cael's visits became routine. Every night, he'd slip into the Tower. Some nights Luna would be there, rambling about Blibbering Humdingers or asking him about his favorite sandwiches. Other nights, she'd simply fall asleep while he scribbled more runes into his notebook.
By mid-October, he had matched twenty-five runes. Twenty-five.
He wanted to shout in joy—but each time he nearly did, he bit his tongue.
He was close to figuring it out all by himself without some grand team with vast amounts of resources of minister's .
⸻
And then came Halloween.
Cael woke to the scent of roasted pumpkin, sweet apples, and buttered squash drifting through the air. Hogwarts was buzzing. Floating pumpkins decorated the Great Hall, candles hovered above enchanted cauldrons, and every common room was filled with boxes of treats.
But Cael sat quietly at the Gryffindor table, toying with his porridge, his thoughts elsewhere.
Tonight.
If the legend of the Chamber was true… tonight was the night.
He glanced around the Hall.
No sign of anything unusual.
No howling. No petrified animals. No whispers of Parseltongue.
And—most notably—no trace of a mysterious diary.
"I haven't found anything yet," he murmured to himself.