Title: Of Willowwhacks and Midgelbeelidgels
Author: fairytalemanipulator
Summary: "If you're really quiet, Harry, you can hear the willowwhacks." Just a cute little oneshot Harry/Luna friendship that I felt was long overdue.
A/N: Instead of studying for an exam I have in three days, I felt sudden inspiration due to my excitement over the newest installment of the HP movie coming out in theaters on…yes, the day of my exam. Please review, I'm trying to work my way back into the writing mood and your reviews will do me wonders. Cheers!
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"If you're really quiet, Harry, you can hear the willowwhacks,"
Harry started at the sudden break of silence, looking over to his bright-eyed companion on the balcony. "What's a willowwhack?"
"Soon enough," Luna murmured nonsensically, widening her eyes instead of squinting them to see into the trees below them.
Harry shook his head, more than used to his odd friend by now. If anything her strange personality endeared her more to him and his friends; by the end of the war, Luna had become one of them.
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Years after their time at Hogwarts had ended, the school friends remained in contact. After Harry and Ginny's wedding, they had purchased a flat at the boundary of Diagon Alley between the Muggle and Wizarding worlds. It was now a common weekend gathering place for Hermione, Ron, Luna, and on occasion Neville and the other Weasleys. This particular weekend was no exception, as the occasion being celebrated was Ginny's news of the baby on the way. The first child to be born in their little group of friends was indeed a festive night. The entire gang had gathered with raucous celebration, and the neighbors had even been invited so they couldn't complain about the noise; the inside of their modest home was covered with party hats, littered with napkins, and completely and ceaselessly booming with conversation.
Harry had spotted Luna drifting aimlessly on the edges of the crowds, smiling at nothing in particular and playing with her radish earrings. She had brought a present, a "short-haired intermediate simplesnigget, the baby will love it!", and Ginny had given Luna a giant hug, already beaming with the glow of new-motherhood, although she gingerly placed the slightly shaking box next to the window and told Harry they would open it after the party.
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Harry had been forced into celebratory shots of Firewhiskey, and as a result of the throat-burning had taken refuge on the little balcony that gave them a glorious view of nature. On the other side of the bustling Muggle and Wizarding streets, one would never know that civilization inhabited the area if it was not for Ron's booming laugh as Hermione attempted to take away his third glass of rum and the shrieking noises of Lavender and Parvati as they cooed over the baby name book Ginny had recently acquired from her mother.
He was surprised when he stepped out to the gentle breeze to clear his head that Luna was seated on the floor, cross legged, peering bemusedly up at him.
Harry settled alongside her in companionable silence; the two of them were good friends, and Ginny was one of Luna's favorite people.
That did not mean, however, he always knew what she was talking about.
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"Luna," He broke her concentration on the forest below them, and she fixed her unblinking gaze upon his face. "Do you reckon you'll ever have kids?"
"Why yes!" Luna's face lit up at the prospect, and she tilted her head to one side, her earrings swinging crazily. "I've even picked out the names…well, I know I want them to start with "L", it's a Lovegood tradition that my mother started."
Harry laughed. "You aren't scared?"
"Of what?" Luna's brow furrowed. "Of childbirth? Oh I'm sure it will be terribly painful, but as long as I have a magical delivery I'm sure my vagina—"
"Err well, that's not quite what I meant," Harry coughed, his cheeks pinking slightly. "About being a mother, and taking care of someone who depends on you entirely for survival,"
"It's natural though, isn't it? It's what we're meant to do. Don't be afraid Harry, you'll be an amazing father."
"How do you know that though? What if the kid hates me or something?"
"Oh, Harry," Now it was Luna's turn to laugh, and laugh she did, bending over until her face was red and she started coughing, leading to Harry thumping her on the back in confusion. "You gave me a good chuckle there, you being a bad father? That's about as impossible to imagine as something unimaginable."
Harry's lips quirked up at her phrase. "I suppose it's silly, I just don't have any experience with this."
"You'll learn it, however. Daddy always said that until you're given a chance to prove yourself you'll never know how much you can do. Then again, he was talking about wrestling the wrackspurts when they came to attack…"
They fell into contemplative silence once more, the vibrations from conversation within the party echoing on the balcony.
"Harry, you don't have to worry. I know I'm a terribly strange person and I don't always say the polite things but sometimes I just know things." Harry couldn't help smiling as he looked into Luna's convincingly bright blue orbs, shining with trust in his abilities.
"I appreciate it, Luna…erm, just curious, what's a wrackspurt? I feel I've asked you this before…"
"Oh that's quite all right. They're what make your brain go fuzzy, I feel they were often present in Professor Binns' classes. Quite conniving little creatures, really, Daddy found a couple hiding out in his study once and Merlin, was he livid,"
"Luna, sometimes…" Harry hesitated, the Firewhisky imitating what he believed a wrackspurt would do to him. "Sometimes, do you think it's time to stop believing in those things? I mean, maybe some of them do exist, but there's no proof or anything and I hate to see you wasting your time when you could be working at Hogwarts or with the Ministry putting your…charms…to use."
Luna blinked owlishly at him. "Just because there isn't proof doesn't mean they don't exist."
Harry sputtered. "Well…yes, but—"
"You can't always see things, Harry. Even with your glasses, things on your peripheral vision that aren't covered by the lenses are fuzzy, correct? Yes, I thought so. And what about love? You can't see that, but it's there too. Just like truth, you can't always see the truth, but you know what it's supposed to be and what it is not. So who's to say that a wrackspurt or willowwhack or spittlegibibbet doesn't exist? It's all about the faith, Harry,"
Harry stared back at Luna. "How can you have so much faith in something?"
"It's just the way that we all had faith in you to defeat You-Know-Who," Luna replied simply, looking up at the stars twinkling happily at them and smiling back. "It's not very hard, actually. If you believe in something, it works. People at school always said I would have no friends because I was too different, but here I am with my best friends in the universe. Draco Malfoy used to say particularly mean things to me about ending up alone and miserable with only my imaginary creatures as comfort—but I have faith that I'll find someone just as odd as I am, and he will understand my oddness to the oddest degree."
Try as he may, Harry couldn't bring his liquor-soaked brain to find fault in her statements. In a very Luna-like way, she was correct. So he settled back against the glass doorway separating him and Luna from everyone else, and watched the stars with one of the unusual friends he had ever made.
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Harry would be forced to eat his doubting words a few years later, when on a return hunting trip from Mongolia, Luna produced to the Ministry of Magic, with intense glee, the fossil of a deceased splitterbittle. It was indeed a new species of animal the Ministry had never seen before, and Luna was immediately granted full access to the Ministry records of unusual animal sightings and became the first officially Ministry employed magizoologist. It was also in Mongolia on her expedition that she met a fellow wizarding naturalist, by the name of Rolf. It was no surprise when they wedded a year later—naturally, under the stars with a burning potato off to the side in order to "ward off the buttergums".
After that, whenever Harry expressed doubts about the existence of a particular creature Luna was hunting at the time, Luna had a snappy comeback.
"But Luna, really? A midgelbeelidgel? What? How can it change your blood to purple? How is that possible?"
"You turned out to be an excellent father, Harry Potter. And I had two children and both of their names start with "L". I daresay my predictions come true with time."
And, strangely enough, she was right.
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The end. Please review! xoxo