The weather was so nice that they could ride with the top down, and Lysander took in lungful after lungful of pure country air. The trees surrounding the old, gravel road were alive with brilliant shades of green. The birds who had chosen – quite wisely – to build their nest amongst the brilliant foliage could be heard chirping as the family of four drove by.
Next to him, his twin brother Lorcan groaned, curling up into an even tighter ball in his seat. Lorcan always got sick driving in cars, and the bumpy gravel road probably wasn't helping the situation.
"How much longer is this going to take?" the dark-haired boy grumbled.
"It won't be much longer, honey," their mother said. Her long, blond hair was fluttering wildly in the summer breeze. Her voice, as always, sounded as though she was in the middle of a dream.
Their father laughed, "Hand in there; it's just around this next curve."
"I suppose it doesn't matter anyway," Lorcan whispered, so that only Lysander could hear him. "This is going to be bloody boring…"
Sure enough, the house was just around the corner, and Lysander's eyes lit up with amazement as his father drove the car up to the front door. He had never seen a more beautiful house, though he though mansion or manor might be a better word to describe the magnificent structure. A large fountain stood out front, splashing beautiful clear water for a small family of ducks to play in. The house itself wasn't tall – from the outside it appeared to have only one story - but it was long; so long that Lysander had to turn his head as far as his neck would allow to see the other end of it. It appeared to be carved out of beautiful white stone, just as delicately as David was. Various species of vines were starting to grow up the walls, but somehow that made them look even more elegant.
"Do you like it?" his father asked as he shut off the car. For the sake of summer relaxation, Rolf Scamander had replaced his lab coat with a t-shirt, and his face was covered with dark stubble.
Lysander couldn't keep himself from grinning, "It's brilliant."
"I'm borrowing it from a friend," he explained. "She says that it's a very relaxing place to spend the season, but since she's spending her summer in China, she offered to let us use it."
"It's such a pretty home," Luna Scamander sighed, clutching her beloved potted rutabaga lovingly. "And I'm sure we'll be able to find all sorts of magical creatures out here."
"Of course, my love," Rolf said, leaning over to kiss his wife. The two rubbed their noses together affectionately once the smooch was over.
"I think I'm going to barf," Lorcan said.
"Oh, come dear," Luna said sweetly. "We aren't being that sappy."
"No, I think I really am going to-" Lorcan said, stopping suddenly to lean over the edge of the car. A nasty, powerful odor filled the air as he emptied the contents of his stomach onto the driveway.
"Oh wow," she said, looking quite amazed. "You weren't kidding after all!"
"Do you need any medicine?" Lysander asked, reaching over to rub his twin's back.
"No," Lorcan replied, gasping frantically for breath. "I'm fine."
"It was probably just the car ride," Rolf said as he exited the vehicle. He started to unstrap the luggage from the back of the car. Percival, the family owl, flapped his wings wildly, begging to be let out of his cage. "I'm sure you'll be feeling better in no time."
"I doubt it," Lorcan muttered.
Luna conjured a handkerchief, wiping her son's face clean, "What makes you say that?"
"You drug us out to the middle of nowhere, away from all of our friends," he said harshly.
"The Potters promised us that they'd come visit," Luna reminded him.
"Yippee," Lorcan said unenthusiastically, rolling his eyes. "And we won't be able to help Grandpa with The Quibbler while we're all the way out here…"
"I'm sure you can send him your reports boy owl," she recommended. "And Lysander brought his camera, so he'll still be able to take pictures to go with your stories."
"What stories?" Lorcan asked sarcastically. "This is the middle of nowhere, Mum."
"You're a creative boy, I'm sure you'll think of something," Rolf assured him, grinning at his family before he opened the trunk of the car. "Like… Finally having your own room, for example."
"Seriously?!" the twins said in unison, and all four blue eyes lit up like light bulbs. The boys had been sharing a room since they were born, and they were growing to resent it. Lorcan liked his privacy and Lysander hated the sound of his brother snoring.
Luna nodded, "There's so much room in this house; we can all have two rooms if we want."
"Why don't you two go inside and pick your rooms out?" Rolf suggested. "Mommy and I can finish unloading the car."
"Sweet," Lorcan said, his queasiness suddenly cured. He didn't even bother to open the car door, and simply leapt over the top edge of the car with newfound energy. "Come on, Lysander!"
"Coming!" Lysander said, making sure his camera was strapped firmly around his neck before he got out of the car. It was his most prized possession – a gift from his grandfather - and would be very expensive to replace if he accidentally dropped it. With that in mind, Lysander opened the opened the door and slid out of the car, watching his father dip his mother into a romantic kiss before he disappeared into the summer house.
The inside was almost as beautiful as the outside. The walls were covered with dark wood paneling from the floor to their middle, where a red paisley wallpaper – which was starting to peel in several places – took over. A large, silver eagle's head hung above the entryway, tarnished with time. Lysander smiled when he saw it; he had never been prouder to be a Ravenclaw. He popped the lens cap off of his camera and snapped a picture.
"Hey, you've got to check this out!" Lysander heard his brother hollered from down the hall. "This library is huge!"
"I'm coming!" Lysander called, following his brother's familiar voice down the hall until he found the room where it was coming from. The walls of the library were lined with bookshelves and mounted animal heads; everything from deer to wolves to tigers. Lorcan, who adored the written word more than anything, was examining the volumes inquisitively.
"Maybe this won't be so bad after all," Lorcan said, not noticing that Lysander had his camera out, and was taking picture after picture. Normally, Lorcan hated being photographed. "If I can't write, I can catch up on my reading. This house could do with a good dusting, though."
"Yeah," Lysander agreed, taking a picture of the footprints the boys had left. He lifted his camera up to photograph the giant tiger's head, but something stopped him. He lowered his camera, examining the tiger's head with his naked eyes. It wasn't just a spot on the lens; there really was a blue spot of fir on top of the animal's head.
"Hey, Lorcan, look at that," Lysander said, pointing. "Why do you suppose that tiger has a puff of blue fur on his head?"
"The people who own this house are friends with Mum and Dad," said Lorcan, not looking up from the bookshelf. "You can't expect them to have normal taste, can you?"
"I guess," Lysander shrugged as he stepped closer to the tiger, turning the flash on before he took the photograph.
Then, a peculiar thing happened. The little blue tuff of fur sprouted a pair of golden colored eyes, which opened slowly, as if they were waking up from a beautiful dream. Its expression quickly changed when it saw Lysander, who was watching the creature curiously over the edge of his camera. The tiny gold eyes doubled in size, making the blue ball look shocked as it opened its surprisingly wide mouth and let out a high, shrill scream.
It was an awful, ugly sound, and Lysander let go of his camera to protect his ears from the onslaught. Thanks to the neck strap, the object dangled from his neck while the creature kept screaming.
"Bloody hell!" Lorcan yelled at his brother. When Lysander turned around, he saw that Lorcan had his ears covered as well. "What did you do?!"
Before Lysander could respond, the creature jumped off of the tiger's head, bounding around the room at an unbelievable speed. The blue blur stirred up all kinds of dust before it left the twins coughing and hacking while it escaped.
"Did you see that?" Lysander asked, peeking out into the hallway. "I think it was a Nargle!"
"Nargle?" Lorcan said between coughs. "Come off it; Nargles don't exist. It must have been a lost Pygmy Puff or something."
Lysander shook his head, "I've never heard a Pygmy Puff scream like that…"
"Well, maybe we'll run into it again later," Lorcan shrugged, dusting himself off. "Come on, let's go pick out our rooms; then maybe we can talk Mum into making us some lunch."