Disclaimer: I do not own the original canon nor am I making any profit from writing this piece. All works are accredited to their original authors, performers, and producers while this piece is mine. No copyright infringement is intended. I acknowledge that all views and opinions expressed herein are merely my interpretations of the characters and situations found within the original canon and may not reflect the views and opinions of the original author(s), producer(s), and/or other people.

Warnings: This story may contain material that is not suitable for all audiences and may offend some readers. Please exercise understanding of personal boundaries before and during reading.

Author's Note (Generic Note for the Houses Competition): All my works should be considered to be Not Epilogue Compliant and I treat everything that is not the HP books and the Hogwarts Library Collection as apocrypha (supplementary to canon but still outside of it) and treat it as such. I also make a policy of not ignoring abusive and distasteful actions/decisions of characters and not handwaving the effects of trauma experienced by characters. If you feel that a character isn't acting like their "canon self" chances are good that it's because of one of these two things and they are merely displaying a more realistic response than they did in canon.

Author's Notes: Kythira is a small island off between Crete and Greece. It is my personal headcanon that Luna's mother was born there and only moved to Britain once she married Xenophilius. Also present in this fic is a headcanon that Xenophilius is closely related to the Malfoys, but for whatever reason was disowned.

Challenge/Competition Block:
House: Hufflepuff
Year: 6th
Category: Additional (1000-2500 words)
Prompt: Ruins of an old castle
Intrahouse Challenge: Cousin Throckmorton
Representation: Castle Adventure; Lovegoods & Malfoys; Dione Lovegood
Bonus Challenge(s): Second Verse (Not a Lamp); Second Verse (Tomorrow's Shade); Second Verse (Some Beach)
Word Count: 1290

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Ruins
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Dione instinctively tightened her grip on her daughter as their Portkey activated. The hook was there and gone in a matter of moments, leaving the Lovegood family standing on the lawn of Nunnery Castle. The ruins were simple and largely intact. A deep moat shimmered around the pale stonework. It was stunningly beautiful, even in its simplicity. To magical eyes with the ability, the wards were a shimmering haze. It was amazing how intact they were after so long without an inhabitant to upkeep them.

Immediately, Luna wiggled out of Dione's arms. Having planned this trip very carefully, so as to avoid as many Muggles as possible, Dione was comfortable enough to let the four-year-old run ahead of them. Despite being ruins, the stonework was secure enough that they should be able to explore a bit before eating the picnic lunch they had packed. Weather permitting, they may even do a bit of swimming in the moat before they headed home.

They had been exploring the castle for less than a quarter of an hour when they heard the distinctive sound of Apparation. Another small family had arrived on the site. Dione didn't recognize any of them, though she did recognize that their robes were much fancier than any of the other magicals that Xenophilius had introduced to her in the five years since she moved to England to be with him. (The British insistence upon still wearing different versions of robes instead of adopting a more modern fashion was something that had confused her when she first arrived from Kythira, and honestly, Dione wasn't certain that it would ever make sense.) From the picnic basket one of the three adults were carrying, the new group had much the same plans that Dione and Xenophilius had made.

Xenophilius stiffened in recognition a moment before Dione spotted Luna running towards the other group. Both of them ran to catch up with their daughter. They were still several meters away when Luna tackled the single child of the group. The two children went down to the ground, shocking his adults into stillness. It clearly wasn't a violent attack. Instead, Luna was merely hugging the boy while he tried to squirm away. Two of them looked on with undisguised horror while the third one appeared to be struggling to hold back laughter. Dione didn't hesitate when she arrived, however. With an expertise born of experience, she marched right in and separated the two children like they were kittens.

"Mama," Luna whined, "I wanna play."

"I apologize for my daughter," Dione told the group, ignoring Luna's complaint. "She is unaccustomed to seeing other children and prone to overexcitement. She meant no harm."

"And that gives her the right to attack my son?" one of the two men of the group demanded. He seemed to puff himself up before Dione's eyes, as if confident in his position. It didn't make sense, but the words made the other man lose his battle against laughing. The man immediately turned on him. "Shut it, Throckmorton! You know I'm right!"

"You shut it, Lucius," Throckmorton replied between cackles. "Not all kids are as stuffy as your Draco."

"Being civilized is not the same as being stuffy," Lucius argued stiffly. He crossed his arms and glared at the laughing man who resembled him enough that he must have been a cousin. The little boy, who had scrabbled to his feet once Luna had been pulled off, mimicked the actions. Dione couldn't help but smile at the youngling.

"She got me dirty, Father," Draco complained. He was adorably stuffy about it. Then the stuffiness disappeared as he frantically wiped at his cheek. "And she licked me."

"I was being friendly," Luna said, as if it was a perfectly valid reason to lick someone. "Finley licks people all the time and Daddy said it was his way of making friends."

"Moonbeam," Xenophilius said gently. He pulled the four-year-old into his arms. "Finley is a dog. It's fine for dogs to make friends by licking them, but people have other ways."

"But licking is fun-er!"

"More fun," Dione corrected, "and is it really fun when the other person doesn't like it?"

"Oh," Luna said, tucking her face into Xenophilius' neck. Dione petted her hair.

"Yes," Dione agreed, "oh. So what do we say when we disrespect someone's boundaries like that?"

"I'm sorry," Luna said, wiggling around to face Draco. Then she spoke the words that they had been carefully trying to teach her. "I was wrong to do that. I shouldn't have done that. It was rude, and I will do better. Do you wanna play with me?"

"I suppose that will be acceptable," the boy answered, a hint of the stuffiness in his tone. He looked over at his parents before glancing at Throckmorton who was nodding eagerly. The boy looked back at Luna. "Can we play King of the Tower?"

"Sure! Race you to the tower!"

Just like that, the pair ran off, thundering across the bridge over the moat. The adults looked at each other before making the unanimous decision to follow the children, though at a much more sedate pace. The silence between them was strained with tension. Dione was not used to seeing her husband so tense, not even he had asked for permission to stay on Kythira and had been denied.

"So, are we going to pretend that we're all complete strangers," Throckmorton said, cutting through the tension, "or are we going to talk about things finally?"

"Some of us are strangers," Dione said.

Throckmorton turned to her with a roguish grin. His chin length hair was the same white-blond as both Lucius and Xenophilius. Now that she was looking, all three men also shared other features such as the pale slate-blue of their eyes and the sharp angles of their cheekbones. She had learned since moving here from the hidden Grecian isle of her birth that British magicals tended to marry their own cousins, which would lead to a community with many shared features, but this seemed to be more than happenstance to her.

"Nonsense, sweet Dione," Throckmorton countered with a wink. He took her hand in his and placed a chaste kiss to its back. "Family can never be strangers, even if they have never met. Meeting you now, I see that my brother's choice to accept a banishment was clearly the only logical course. To look upon your beauty is to look upon the face of love itself."

"Such pretty words," Dione replied, extracting her hand. "Tis a pity they are no more substantial than the breath used to speak them."

"I like her," Throckmorton told Xenophilius. "I like her even better knowing that Uncle Abraxas would have absolutely hated her."

"Would have?" Xenophilius asked. "Does that mean that the rumors are true?"

From within the ruins of the castle, the happy shrieks of Draco and Luna echoed. With each squeal of laughter, the shimmering of the wards shifted and grew stronger. Dione marveled at the craftsmanship of them again. It was hard to imagine that Britannia had magi knowledgeable enough to make wards that recharge on emotions. Knowing that she would have plenty of time to unravel the mystery of why her beloved had not shared that he had family beyond her and their daughter, Dione wandered away from the blonds who had started to discuss the patriarch of their family. Watching the children chasing each other in the open area of the ruins was better for her nerves than listening to talk about dragon pox.

Death was a constant shade upon the sunny meadow of life. It would not do to dwell upon it and fail to enough the sun while it lasted.

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The End
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