HP X LOTM : Please Call Me Mr. Error.

The Tarot Club ended soon after with Loki sending everyone away with a wave of his hand.

Loki himself left the Sefirah Castle after making up his mind about what he was about to do next. Once outside, he pulled out the Marauder's map and searched for a fancy name he hoped to spot.

'There you are…'

'What're you doing at the Black Lake so late in the night?'

'Are the merpeople awake?'

Loki didn't delay his task any further and quickly left in search of his target, and to his luck she hadn't moved a single step away from her position on the map since Loki had last seen her.

"Luna~!" Loki called out as he walked up behind the girl who was dipping her feet in ice-cold autumn waters.

Luna turned around, enabling Loki to see her perpetually surprised expression as she gazed at him with her moony eyes.

"Loki~!" Luna said, standing up quickly as she walked up to him with a slight skip in her step.

Loki smiled when he saw her like that, especially when he spotted her holding shoes that looked exactly like the ones he'd transfigured for her two years ago.

They were completely dry.

"What are you thinking about? Here at the edge of the black lake? So deep into the night?"

Luna looked at the lake with a mysterious smile before turning around to look at Loki in silence.

"Fine~! Fine~! I get it. Keep your secrets! I need your help." Loki said with raised hands accepting defeat.

Luna stayed silent but a strange glimmer shone in her eyes as Loki said that. It might not have been clear to anyone else, but Loki, who had worked with or rather around Luna's eccentricities, knew that she was interested.

And so he didn't waste any more time as he started explaining his problem.

"I'm currently in the process of giving a very weak soul a new body. I need it for a ritual. Something to do with the Abyss so I can't tell you very much about it. I want you to stitch the bod-"

"Where is it?" Luna asked, interrupting Loki, which caused him to smile since he liked Luna keeping it short and to the point.

Loki waved his hand and tried to conjure a fog wall to try and isolate them, the grey fog around him thinned out as it spread into the air, covering both Luna and Loki, to stop anyone from divining anything about it all before he spoke lightly-

"Follow me. I can't show it to you here since other people might be listening."

Luna noticed the air turning foggy, but since she wasn't able to figure much out about it, she simply nodded after attributing it to a strange anti-divination spell and started to follow Loki back up the castle where he guided her to the Room of Requirements.

Luna was bemused when the wall turned into an ornate door with several detailed figurines carved onto it and began to examine them closely, but she had to stop when Loki pulled her into the Room of Requirements.

Loki hadn't brought her to the room with all the founders in it, he'd brought her to a room that looked similar instead, since he was comfortable with the room's layout and needed a room that could shield outside interferences.

Loki quickly flicked his wand and caused a large gunny sack to appear out of thin air. Loki had just used his wand as a cover for bringing the body out of the Sefirah Castle.

He then dragged the large gunny bag in which his own body was floating around while tossing another ring towards Luna which contained the weakly joined shattered soul of one Tom Marvolo Riddle.

Loki pulled his body out of the gunny bag.

It had Tom's face on it and Loki did it to tell Luna-

"That's the body, that's exactly what he should look like."

Luna stayed silent as she examined the body first. Noting that it was kept in its best condition and didn't seem dead in any way.

"Do you think it is possible?" Loki asked with a little hope since he was prepared for an outright rejection on the matter.

Luna didn't respond. Instead, she calmly began to examine the soul inside the ring, she spared not a single glance more for Tom's body even though it looked young and fresh, as if someone had only recently acquired it.

She didn't even question if Loki was involved in shady matters or if he was the reason the person in front of them had died, she skipped them all and carefully examined the soul.

What Loki didn't know was that almost as soon as Luna saw the mess, her eyes never paused on the damage done to the soul, they widened slightly because of how it was tinged with darkness and madness.

To her it felt like the Abyss itself had touched it and it made her believe that Loki was telling her the truth that he couldn't reveal more about the matter without keeping her safe and sound.

But Seeing Luna's face morph into a frown after a few minutes of continuous examination, Loki assumed the worst.

And-

"This is not possible…" Luna said as she looked Loki dead in the eyes.

"But?" Loki asked since Luna's brows were still furrowed, showing that she was feeling discomfort about something regarding the situation.

Once she saw Loki paying attention to her, Luna continued to explain, "It is not impossible because of the amount of damage. But because the soul itself has given up. It doesn't want to live anymore."

-Loki's intuition was right. Things were much more complicated than they seemed on the surface.

Loki frowned at the information and tried thinking of a solution immediately.

"Will it be possible if you advance to a higher sequence?" Loki asked since if it was possible he would try and help Luna grow stronger so that she could force Tom to live, for however short an interval he would be alive before he was sacrificed again.

Luna kept frowning as she studied the fragmented soul for longer before she turned to Loki and spoke in a solemn tone.

"I do not think a soul that has given up on itself can be brought back." Luna said shaking her head.

"Is there anything you can do?" Loki asked with a last bit of hope.

But when Luna remained silent he finally *sighed* with acceptance and nodded before-

"As long as you get closer to the soul within...As long as you bring it hope, hope to live, you can make it want to return. I can form a connection in between this thing and you for you." Luna said holding the ring open on her palm.

Loki frowned since this meant a whole lot of things that didn't particularly feel good.

'A connection on the soul level?'

'I'm not too worried that it'd do something to me since I'm much stronger than him when compared to this soul…'

'But it's still risky.'

'Especially since I don't really have much to protect my soul with and because forming a connection would involve not only exposing my soul to a weak Tom but also Luna…'

Loki frowned as he concluded this point and he carefully examined Luna with a sharp gaze.

Loki hadn't revealed all of what he had revealed on a whim.

Loki had done it because he knew well that if things took a turn for the worse, he could at the very least suppress Luna for long enough that he could steal her memories of the incident.

He also trusted Luna to a certain extent because of her nature and affinity to eccentricity, but his own strength was what gave him the confidence and divinations.

And yet while he knew that she wouldn't do something wrong to him, he did feel a little worried about accepting, since exposing one's soul wasn't to be taken lightly.

'I should be able to come up with a way to defend my soul on the surface level by making an item or asking Walburga for an item that can do the same…but with Luna here I doubt I there is a way to directly give her access to my soul and protect it from her at the same time…'

'*sigh* I guess I have no other option for now…'

So, Loki nodded.

"Alright. But you'll have to-"

Before Loki could finish his words, Luna was already at it.

With a simple *snap* of her fingers, Luna caused Loki to feel a sharp pin prick on his chest, right where a fluffy ball of white sat and reigned supreme in the surrounding grey.

Loki almost instinctively retaliated but held himself back at the last second.

'Damn Luna! Crazy much!?' Loki shouted in his mind, as he started containing the shock of what had happened.

'It is not good to curse at other people inside your mind.' Loki heard a stray voice speak to him inside his head, causing him to feel a little surprised.

'Lu- Luna!' Loki tried joking around but it didn't land, on anyone.

Luna didn't speak anymore and instead focused her full attention on the ring in her hand.

Loki saw her drag a random ethereal thread out of his own soul and pass it through the ring like she was threading a needle.

And the effect was almost instantaneous.

Loki first felt a small pain that he expected to pass over like the needle pin prick from earlier, but instead of reducing, Loki suddenly felt like his world had ended.

All around, no matter how he moved, breathed, or even looked.

All Loki felt was pain.

Loki was sure he was screaming on the floor, rolling around and trying to maintain his sanity while convulsing-

But he could feel none of it.

All he felt was a fall of pain that erupted from every corner of his body.

It was as if he was simultaneously being exploded from everywhere.

'LUNAA-!!!!!!!'

Loki's line of thoughts cut off and all that remained was pain.

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