A/N; Sadly, I'm not JK Rowling, but if I was, this is how Luna and Rolf's story would've gone.
The crumbling Scottish farm that Rolf Scamander called home might have been past its glory days, but in the bumbling nineteen-year-old's eyes it was the perfect place to live, complete with ponds teeming with microscopic life, forests full of the most exciting creatures, if you knew where to look, and sprawling open grounds that went on for miles, ideal for training his winged horses or flying a Hippogriff. Above all, it was a quiet, almost solitary place, and that suited Rolf and his only living family member down to the ground.
And in a bedroom at the top of the house, with drawings pasted all over the walls, the tall, gangly, spotty, blue-eyed young man was having an argument with his best friend in the world.
"Oh, come on Blinky." Rolf Scamander sighed. The green frog flailed desperately in his grip, straining with all its might to get away from the side pocket of the worn leather satchel it was being forced into.
"No, no, I know you don't like it, but you need to – OI!" he cried, as the frog squeezed out of his master's hands and leapt across the room with such huge force, especially for a tiny animal, that Rolf could've sworn he had been fired from a cannon ball. Blinky was now perched on top of Rolf's bookcase, sending small clouds of dust into the air, courtesy of his excited hops on Rolf's old books. He settled down on a particularly musty volume, on his face the closest expression to a smirk that a frog could ever have.
"Fine." Rolf muttered, turning away and filling his satchel with notebooks, some full and some empty, pens and quills, his toothbrush, a towel, a net, an old compass, a battered travelling kettle and a diary almost as worn as the satchel. He picked up his wallet and shook it, hearing a satisfying jingling sound, before shoving that in the bag as well. Last of all, he put his hand at the back of his desk draw, poking around a bit before coming across his most prized possesion, apart from the frog currently choking in the mass of dust behind him.
"Blinks, why don't you just get down?" Rolf sighed, retrieving his hand from the back of the drawer, stroking the cover of the object he was holding fondly.
In his hands, Rolf held the orignal copy of his grandfather's masterpiece. He traced the words on the cover gently; Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. Below them lay the name; Newt Scamander. Even though it had been ten years since Grandad Newt, as Rolf had called him, had died and bequeathed him the book, Rolf couldn't help feeling a rush of pride welling up in his chest every time he took the book out. He opened the book, and read the handwritten note on the inside cover that he had read a million times before.
To Rolf
I hope you enjoy reading this book as much as I enjoyed creating it.
Grandad Newt
P.S Never leave home without a kettle. Or your toothbrush.
Rolf grinned, and placed the book inside his satchel with his other things. He swung the bag over his shoulder and picked up his wand. He headed to the door, before looking behind him at the frog sitting pensively on the bookcase.
"Blinks, I'm going now. Are you going to sit there all weekend or stop being a prat and come with me?"
Blinky remained stubborn for almost a minute, whilst Rolf began to close the door. Just when there was only a crack remaing between the door and the frame, Blinky made two hops across the room at the speed of light, landing on Rolf's shoulder.
"I thought so." Rolf laughed, and they made their way downstairs together.
"Hey, Alfie." Rolf called, seeing his uncle with his feet up on the table, eating buttery toast and reading The Quibbler. "I thought you would've left by now. Don't want to keep Lovegood waiting, do you?"
His uncle looked up and smiled briefly, before returning to his magazine.
"It took a while to get the Hippogriffs out this morning. It's near foaling time for some of the girls." he explained.
"They'll be okay for the weekend though, won't they?" he asked.
"Sure, sure, don't worry about that for the moment." Alfie reassured him, "I'll be off in soon." he said, lifting his feet off the table, dropping his plate into the sink.
"Shouldn't you have left already? It takes six hours to fly from Scotland to England, and Ottery St Catchpole is right in the south. We're way up north, Crianlarich is the middle of nowhere."
"Lovegood won't mind. He was never one for keeping good time," Alfie laughed affectionately, his eyes taking on a misty look.
"You miss him, don't you?" Rolf smiled.
"He's a difficult person not to miss. We've kept in touch, but I think about those days." Alfie said reminiscently.
Rolf cast his eyes to the table, trying to remember the days at least eleven years ago, when at eight years old, he had sat on the Lovegood's kitchen floor listening to his father's, his uncle's and Xeno (or "Uncle", as Rolf had usually called him) Lovegood's stories about the time when they were young naturalists together, travelling Africa in search of new animals to document and study.
Mr Lovegood's wife had also been there as well, he remembered. And they had had a daughter, six-years-old, what had her name been? Laura? He recalled her being adventurous and excited, dragging him all around the house, showing him every nook and cranny of her home.
He had last been there when he was eight, nearly nine. The Laura girl had been almost seven when he last saw her. He wondered how she had changed. He wondered whether she still sat by the pond every night, catching tadpoles and watching them grow into frogs. He knew he still did.
And now, over a decade later he was going back again. The Quibbler was holding a convention on endangered and exotic animals, including Xenophilius's personal favorite project, the study of the Crumple-Horned-Snorkack. And as the country's leading breeders of Hippogriffs and Winged Horses, including Thestrals, Alfie and Rolf had been invited as guest experts.
"See you this evening, kid." Alfie said cheerfully, snapping Rolf out of his childhood memories. He clapped his nephew on the shoulder.
"I'm not a kid, Alf. I'm nineteen." Rolf retorted.
"Trust me, Rolf, you're still a kid." Alfie called behind his shoulder, swinging the door shut after him.
Rolf scowled at the man's retreating back, and helped himself to a large plate of scrambled eggs.
"Okay, Blinks, now, in the bag." Rolf said firmly.
The frog gave him a look reminiscent of a martyr being led to sacrifice, and reluctantly hopped in the bag's side pocket. Rolf smiled triumphantly and untied the grey Granian horse he had brought in from the field. He hung his bag back on his shoulder and vaulted over the winged horse's back.
"C'mon, Lazylegs, girl." Rolf yelled, booting the mare in her sides. She gave a sudden, shocked neigh, kicked up her back legs and soared into the sky, her wings slapping against Rolf's legs.
Rolf leaned forward on her neck, urging the girl on. He felt something small land on his shoulder, and realised Blinky had escaped from the bag. He chortled, and listened to the frog's terrified noises as he found out that a wind current was indeed extremely strong. A minute later, the frog had dived to safety into Rolf's pocket.
Lazylegs began to pick up a more even speed, and Rolf, when he was satisfied that it was safe to let go, spread his arms out, locked his hands behind his head and let his mind wander. What would it be like, meeting the Lovegood family again after eleven years? Well, most of the Lovegood family, he had found out about the mother's fatal accident after coming into the kitchen at midnight to find his uncle slumped over the table, a letter in one hand and a half-empty bottle of whisky in the other. He felt sorry for the girl, but still envied her for having at least had nine years with a mother.
But what would meeting old friends be like? He hadn't seen the Lovegood's in the decade since his father had died, would that be hanging between them? He had always had difficulty around people, naturally shy by nature, and educated on his home farm by his uncle, where he had learned less History of Magic and more about the possible existence of the Blibbering Humdinger, and now knew everything the Scamander family had ever written about animals, both discovered and undiscovered. Very useful to Rolf. But the one thing he had never been able to understand a thing about was social interactions. People were far harder to understand than animals, as he had discovered in his nineteen years. And for this reason, a small part of Rolf was absolutely terrified of meeting the Lovegoods again.
Luna Lovegood leaned out of the window, staring into the distance as if she were hoping Hogwarts would suddenly come back into view, despite the fact they had been on the train for over three hours.
"Hasn't this been a beautiful year?" she said dreamily. Her closest friend smiled, and came to the window to lean out beside her, her long red hair rippling in the wind.
"Not quite...beautiful..." Ginny Weasley began, "Voldemort's been gone for a year now, and the world's still a mess. We had students coming in throughout the whole year and all the teachers had to double up for one another and that sort..." she trailed off, before collecting herself and starting again. "And everyone...it's still in everyone's minds. Everyone has demons to recover from."
Luna turned to her friend, her eyes taking on that same wide, earnest gleam that they always had when she was attempting to explain something that seemed perfectly natural to her.
"But that's what I mean," she enthused, "Everyone still has to recover from something and everyone's lost someone and they all came to do it together. Everyone came to Hogwarts to be with their friends. Everyone still cares about knowledge and learning." Luna said excitedly, "When you think about that, this year has been rather beautiful, hasn't it?"
Hearing Luna's speech had suddenly filled Ginny's heart more than anything had in the past few months. A wide smile spread out on her face. As usual her best friend's eccentric observations had far more logic and wisdom in them than she would ever expect. And she was absolutely right. It was strange how the most terrible event she had ever lived through had been the cause of the most beautiful thing in her life.
The two young women gazed out of the window in silence for a few minutes, before Luna broke the silence again.
"Are you and Harry back together for good now?" she asked abruptly. Ginny was taken aback, most people rarely asked so bluntly about her relationship with the current hero of the wizarding world. But Luna Lovegood was certainly not most people.
"I think so," she said hesitantly.
"Have you told each other that you love one another?" Luna asked again, just as abruptly.
"Ye-es, but Harry, well he's a guy, and like most guys, every signal goes right over his head. He's completely oblivious to something unless it's tattooed on his arm and shoved in his face." she finished, slightly irritably.
Luna nodded wisely, as though tattooing instructions on guy's bodies was a daily routine, although for the life of her, Ginny could not remember Luna ever having anything beyond a purely platonic relationship with any of the men in her life. She had sometimes thought that there might be something between her and Neville, or perhaps with Dean Thomas, but Luna had only ever thought of them as close friends.
Ginny was about to ask Luna about her relationships, when the quiet atmosphere was interrupted by the door being flung open and a short witch with cropped purple hair and exhibiting so much energy that Ginny thought she might bounce right through the roof of the train came clattering in; another of Ginny and Luna's friends, Demelza Robins.
"Hi guys! How're you feeling? Isn't it exciting, leaving school? But it's terrifying too, isn't it?" Demelza prattled on, not looking the least bit terrified. "We'll all see each other again, won't we? We can write to each other and meet up in Hogsmeade, can't we?" Demelza looked at them expectantly, and Ginny began to suspect that Demelza had gotten hold of some of the suspicous smelling potions at last night's graduation party.
Luna said, in such a sincere and pleasant voice that it wouldn't have sounded out of place in a formal tea party, "Of course we can, Demelza. Would you like to come Nargle catching with me sometime? It's easy if you know what to do, and it happens to be excellent exercise."
Whatever was in those potions must have been a ridiculously powerful substance, Ginny thought, as Demelza flung her arms around Luna, whilst Luna patted Demelza awkwardly on the back. She liked Demelza a lot for her cheerful attitude and skills on the Quidditch pitch, but her dormmate could be annoyingly conventional. It would have had to be have been an influential drug coupled with a large amount of alcohol to give Demelza Robins the impulse to suddenly dye her hair purple that very night, and then happily accept an offer of Nargle hunting from Luna Lovegood.
The train's sudden honking of its horn distracted Ginny from her thoughts, as she realised that the Hogwarts Express had arrived at the station. Demelza gave an excited whoop, then hugged Ginny and Luna before disappearing, quick as a flash, out the door and racing down the corridors.
"I do like Demelza's new hair." Luna remarked absentmindedly, "And it's lovely to see that she's getting interested in unusual creatures. Perhaps I should try and find out what was in those potions yesterday. It would be a nice free gift to go on the cover of the next Quibbler issue." she mused.
Ginny couldn't help laughing.
"Some people would definitely like it, Luna. But it probably wasn't quite, well, legal." she coughed. Luna appeared not to have registered what she had said, and began to pull their bags down from the rack.
"Did you say something?" Luna inquired politely, and Ginny shook her head and smiled.
"Never mind." The two of them began to walk down the fast emptying corridor, and Ginny remembered what she had been planning to ask her earlier.
"Are you sure you don't want to come over to the Burrow? Harry and Hermione'll be there too, and everyone would love to see you again. Charlie's dying to have another conversation about your theories of the evolution of dragons."
"No, I can't," Luna said seriously, "The Quibbler's holding a convention at home. It's about rare and endangered species, and some of the world's top experts on the Crumple-Horned-Snorkack will be there. So you see it's a very important date, and I couldn't miss it for anything."
Ginny grinned again as they walked down the steps of the Hogwarts Express for the last time. They had barely reached the ground when a tangle of red hair appeared out of nowhere and jumped on top of them, tackling them both to the ground.
"Oi! Ronald Weasley, geroff of me!" Ginny yelled, managing to pull her wand out of her pocket and brandish it in her favorite brother's face. Ron got up, his expression one of a hangdog puppy, and stuck two large hands out to help them up.
"I was just enthusiastic." Ron said sheepishly, "Hey, Luna, how you doing?"
"Beautifully." Luna beamed.
"Ron Weasley, what was that for?" Molly Weasley hurried towards them, hugging Ginny and kissing Luna on the cheek, before saying, "It's lovely to see you again, dear. I don't suppose Ginny told you we'd love to have you for dinner this evening."
"Oh, she did." Luna said brightly, "I'd love to come to your house, but I have a special party to set up with Daddy."
"It's a Quibbler-Crumple-Horned-Snorkack convention." Ginny interjected quickly. Luna did not hear this, as she noticed the unmistakeable candyfloss hair of her father sticking out from the crowd, making his way towards her. She grabbed her bags and turned to the Weasleys.
"See you soon, Ginny." she said, hugging her friend, "And you Ron. Perhaps we could meet up and all go Nargle hunting together?"
"Nargle hunting?" Ron's face went blank.
"Apparently it's excellent exercise." Ginny explained, after Luna had dived into the crowd and began to weave her way to her father.
"Exercise?" Ron looked mortified, "Forget it then."
"No, Daddy, we should serve the Gurdyroot juice as the guest arrive. It would get everyone more in the mood." Luna said matter-of-factly, taking the tray from her father.
"And the food?" Xenophilius enquired, currently levitating on a battered table above the garden.
"Let's serve it in the garden. Some people will be very nervous and Plimply pie is wonderful for the stomach." Luna decided.
"Too true, too true." Xenophilius murmured wisely.
The father and daughter worked steadily for the next few hours, Luna chattering about her school year, and the surprising amount of people who now wanted to be friends with her.
Finally, when Luna had stuck up a sign saying;
You're welcome here as long as you don't steal the Dirigible Plums. Apart from that, have a good time.
Their work was done, and a few minutes later, assortments of witches and wizards began to appear in their street, filing in through the narrow gate, several tripping over the Dirigible Plum bushes and causing them to burst. They sent dark purple splashes flying over their guests heads, and for some reason turned bright green as they came into contact with people's clothes. Luna frowned. That meant that they were at their ripest and perfect for eating. Beside her, Xenophilius sighed and fluttered his arms.
It was a diverse collection of people that were now congregating in the garden. A group of five wizards were swigging Gurdyroot juice, their multicoloured robes flapping around their feet. Two witches with snakes draped round their shoulders chatted happily with a wizard whose hair was coiled over his head, a purple toad balanced on top. Xenophilius was at the centre of attention, surrounded by women dressed in bright purple robes and orange sandals. Luna stood in animated conversation and serving Plimply pie to a short, plump man with a hat that squawked like a parrot everytime he finished speaking.
"I like your hat." she told him, "I had one just like it, except it had a lion that roared whenever my friend's Quidditch team scored a goal." Luna explained.
Alfred Scamander tethered his Hippogriff to a post outside the familiar rook-shaped house, a wave of nostalgia rushing over him. He smiled at the sign ahead of him.
"Xeno!" he called, striding into the crowd, spotting his old friend.
Xenophilius started at the familiar voice, before catching sight of the broad, bearded Scotsman and flung his arms up in the air, elbowing several confused witches in the face.
Alfie marched up to Xenophilius. The two men stared at each other for a brief second. Alfie clapped a hand on Xenophilius's shoulder. Then, a moment later, Xenophilius had pulled Alfie into a mighty bear hug, the two of them howling with laughter and whooping like young men. The party guests stared at them in mild bemusement, but then all of them were used to puzzling experiences in their everyday lives, and they soon got back to chattering about Hinky Punks and Horklumps.
"Alfie, Alfie, Alfie." Xenophilius said heartily, "Come and meet Luna. Well, meet her again, she never forgets a face."
Luna, that had been the name! Alfie realised. That had been driving him and Rolf mad over the past few weeks. Xenophilius carried on talking.
"Just got home from Hogwarts today, fought in the war last year, I couldn't be prouder of her." Xenophilius beamed, as he led Alfie to a girl chatting to a man wearing a hat with a parrot squawking happily.
"Woohoo!" Rolf yelled, as Lazylegs soared across the sky, looping upside down and in and out of the clouds. He pulled her into a dive, faster, faster, faster, and then...
Yes! A second, just a second before they were set to hit the ground, he pulled the girl sharply upwards - she must be as confused as hell, he thought - the two of them spiraling back into the sky. He laughed, and found her couldn't stop - now this was living, really living - the mare seemed to think so too, she was shaking her head back and whinnying loudly. He buried his face in her mane, patting her neck vigorously.
"Nice one, Lazy," he murmured, lifting himself off her neck and scanning the small village below. They had been flying several hours now and Rolf was pretty sure that they were now above the town of Ottery St Catchpole. He slowed his horse down.
"The house's shaped like a rook." he said, partly to himself, partly to Lazylegs and partly to Blinky, who had crawled out of his pocket and had his eyes bulging halfway out of their sockets.
Rolf let Lazylegs swoop along the sky, occasionally swerving to avoid flocks of birds, when he saw it.
A towering, black building, shaped like a chess-piece spiraled upwards in the near distance.
A lump began to rise in Rolf's throat. A tingling feeling spread out in his mouth. A single thought raced through his mind; I can't do this, I can't do this, Ican'tdothis, Ican'tdothis.
He shook his head and attempted to clear his head. What was the worst that could happen? Why would there be any reason for the Lovegood's, or any of their guests, to reject him? To kick him out? Would he stick out, would they think he was different?
His breath was coming, faster and faster, far faster than when he had been trying a Wronski Feint on horseback. He willed himself to calm down, and began to think; Breathe, breathe. Relax. Relax. Nothing will happen.
He filled his lungs one last time, one long intake of cool, calm air. He kicked his horse on. One almighty kick.
Lazylegs bolted across the sky, and as experienced a rider as Rolf was, he still lost his balance and was forced to yank hold of her mane to stop him from falling. She carried on racing, speeding toward the tower - Oh, God, no - she was closer, closer, closer -
CRASH! The mare went head first into a window and let out a terrified whinny. Glass rained all around him - Lazylegs flapped her wings uselessly, spinning on the spot - if she didn't regain control they would probably plummet to the ground.
"C'mon, Lazy." Rolf urged hopelessly, "I know you can do this."
The horse was petrified, she was neighing loudly at the now gathering crowd below them.
"Lazy." Rolf said hoarsely, as he tried to push her into a dive, just get her on the ground, he thought.
Lazylegs shrieked again at the movement - with a sinking heart, Rolf realised that his fight was lost - and she began to hurtle to the ground.
"Lazy, Lazy, Lazy." Rolf managed to whisper in her ear, in as soothing tone as he could muster, in the few seconds before they hit the ground.
Lights were dancing in his eyes, but he could just about make out someone leaning over him. He blinked furiously, trying to focus his sight.
"Aww" he gurgled, "Wuzzgoinon?"
"Son? Son?" Alfie's familiar voice was the first thing he heard, as his uncle's face came into view, "Can you hear me?"
"Yeah." he groaned, attempting to lift his head up, before letting out a small moan of pain, "My head..." he whimpered.
"Does he need a Healer?" an anxious voice came, followed by several loud squawks. Rolf screwed up his eyes. What had just happened? he thought, as another voice joined them.
"He'll be fine."
The voice was quiet and dreamy, but cool and confident, and for some reason, Rolf felt strangely relaxed after he had heard it. Besides, it was certainly the best news he'd had all day.
"Lazylegs..." he croaked.
"Is that your horse's name?" the voice asked again, "It's very original. But she'll be fine too, I've just fed her some Plimply pie to calm her down. And don't worry about the window, I've been wanting to get rid of that for ages. I prefer it when wind rushes into your room at night, it's much nicer, don't you think?"
"Errr..." Rolf stuttered. What window?
"Have you forgotten everything that happened?" the voice asked, "I'm not surprised, you fell right on your head. Would you like to come with me? I can clean all that blood off you, and perhaps you could do with some Plimply pie as well."
"Errr..." Rolf stuttered again, but he had now regained enough consciousness to mentally scold himself Nice one, Scamander, they're going to think your a right tongue tied idiot now.
But he had no more time for such reprimands as a slim white hand came into view, and with surprising strength, pulled him to his feet.
He blinked again, and his sight focussed on a young woman standing in front of him, holding his hand.
Holding his hand.
She had long, almost waist-length, dirty blonde hair, wide blue eyes, a rather odd necklace, and was smiling one of the most dazzling smiles Rolf had ever seen.
"Hello," she said, "I'm Luna Lovegood."
A/N; Sooo, whad'ya think so far? Good? Great? Terrible? Please leave reviews so I can get better!