Hey everyone. Here is the first chapter of a fantasy story I'm writing. This story was brought to you by Hogwarts Eastern Winter Funfair's Polar Express, Hogwarts Southern Winter Funfair's Mistletoe Madness, and Hogwarts Northern Winter Funfair's Building a Snowman on Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. For Polar Express my prompt was to write in the genre of fantasy. For Mistletoe Madness my prompt was the pairing of Percy Weasley/Luna Lovegood. For Building a Snowman I wrote for the character prompt of a Weasley. I hope you all enjoy the first chapter of Love Eternal.
It had long been known that the elfin family of Lovegood had long been consider mortal enemies of the humans that lived near their realm. But what they don't know is that it hadn't always been like that. The Lovegoods used to have many family friends among the humans and one of their most favorite families had been the Weasley family of the Burrow over the hill. They used to spend most of their times at either Lovegood Hall or The Burrow. Talking and laughing and making merry. But that was not to last.
The peace between the families had been broken by the very simplest of things. A young girl's broken heart. The young girl in question was King Xenophilius's daughter. The lovely princess Luna. Luna was of an age where she looked to be about the same age as the youngest child of the Weasley family. Seventeen years old. While she had heard numerous things about her childhood friend's family she'd never met all her brothers.
"Mum," a voice came from the downstairs one day when Luna was visiting her friend Ginny, "are you here?"
"Mum went over to the next town," Ginny called down to her brother as the girls left Ginny's room. "Is something wrong, Percy?"
Luna watched the other girl's face grow dark with concern. She'd been told by her father King Xenophilius to be careful when she was out and about because dark things were moving around in the shadows. He didn't want to see any harm come to his only child. Ginny motioned for Luna to follow her down the steps.
"Nothing's wrong," Percy told his sister and Luna could tell that he was lying.
Wanting to put the Weasley boy in his place Luna turned to face him and felt herself stop in her tracks. No words escaped her mouth and she couldn't make herself form any either. Hearing the distant sound of Ginny chuckling about something broke Luna out of her trance. Looking over her shoulder at Ginny who was practically on the ground she turned back to the man. Percy. He had the typical Weasley look. With the red hair and hazel eyes.
"I'm Percy," he told her holding out his hand for Luna to shake it.
"I'm Luna," she replied shaking his hand. "But I suppose you already knew that. Our families have been friends for ever."
"My mother sent me to take you home, Luna. There has been an attack in the village and she doesn't think that it would be safe for you to travel by yourself."
"But Luna's just got here," Ginny complained.
"And Mum says she has to leave."
The interaction between the siblings seemed strange to Luna. She just chalked it up to not having any siblings of her own. Perhaps this was the way that all siblings interacted with each other. "Don't worry about Ginny," she told the other girl gathering her cloak and pack she'd brought with her. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"See you tomorrow."
Percy walked out of the house and a little way ahead of her. As though if he walked next to Luna he'd be in some sort of trouble. The silence though is what was scaring Luna the most. Silence could mean a lot of things in this world. But the most important thing was that you or someone you knew had done something wrong.
"You said there was an attack in the next village over?" she asked Percy trying to break the silence. Trying to get the older man to talk to her or at least look at her. "Do they know who perpetrated the attack?"
The slight nod of Percy's head was all the answer she got.
"Did your parents tell you why..."
"All they said was that it wouldn't be safe for you to stay at The Burrow," Percy told her.
A sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach and distant memory of one of her mother's brothers saying that the humans would pay for the queen's death made Luna's footsteps falter. "Was there a specific person who was targeted in this attack?" she asked. Hoping that the answer wasn't the heir of the Longbottom family. It had been rumored that a member of the Longbottom family was responsible for the queen's death. But Luna knew that couldn't be true. Her friend Neville was a Longbottom and he never once tried to hurt her.
"Lord Frank and Lady Alice Longbottom have been targeted by someone of..."
"Of elfin kind."
Percy nodded.
"I can promise you that we..."
"You can't promise that."
The sudden sharpness of the words coming from Percy struck Luna as wrong. She didn't want him to be angry at her. It wasn't like she'd attacked Lord and Lady Longbottom. She wasn't responsible at all.
"I'm sorry," Percy's voice spoke cutting through the silence. "My family and I wish to believe in the innocence of your family and your people, Luna. But it was clearly elfin magic that was used in the attack."
They lapsed into silence and Luna found herself in despair at the what she'd just heard. Her people were being blamed for a crime that they didn't even commit The injustice of it all almost made her want to cry. But she had to stay strong until she reached the safety of her room. Then she could break down and grieve for the things that had been done that day.
"This is as far as I can go," Percy told her turning to go.
"Thank you," Luna whispered not thinking he'd hear her or even answer her back.
"I didn't anything worth being thanked for."
Luna turned him around and with a blush tainting her cheeks she pressed her lips to Percy's. Before he could respond in any sort of way she raced away from him. If what she thought had just happened had happened she would no longer be able to visit the village. Or the Burrow for that matter. Her father wouldn't allow it.
I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter of Love Eternal. This is one of my first tries at writing a fantasy centered fic. I hope I did the subject matter justice.
