A/N: Written for the Hogwarts Online Challenge of the Month. This story was part of the "Beginning of Love" collaboration by Hogwarts Online (it's the name of the "author" and the forum). Go read the other stories; they're amazing!

Disclaimer: Anything you recognize isn't mine.

Star-Crossed Naturalists

"Oh, no," Ed Johnson groaned. "Not her! "

"Who?" Rolf asked. He'd been working at the preserve for nearly eight years, but he didn't recognize the blonde woman striding towards them.

"She's new," Ed muttered. "Just started. Absolutely crazy."

Rolf frowned, "Is she wearing - "

"Radish earrings?" Trish Dare finished. "Yep. You've probably heard of - Oh, hi, Luna."

"Hi," the woman smiled brightly, although there was a rather knowing look in her eyes that made Rolf wonder if she knew what they'd been saying. "John told me I'm working with you three today?"

"That's right," Ed sighed, looking as though he wished it wasn't. "Luna, I think you've met Trish, and this here is Rolf."

"Hello," he said, shaking her hand. She nodded at him.

"Alright," Trish said, "What are we doing today, Ed?"

"Checking on the unicorn population," he answered, "It's been kinda low these past couple years, and we're going to have to keep a closer eye on it from now on. We might have to relocate a couple of the graphorns if things don't improve."

"It's foal season, though," Rolf pointed out. "Shouldn't it be a group of all woman checking on them?"

"Oh, Merlin!" Ed exclaimed sarcastically. "Rolf, you're right! I don't know what we idiots would do without your famous expertise."

"Leave him alone, Ed," Trish grinned as Rolf blushed. Ed was always poking fun at him because, despite the fact that he was a Scamander, arguably the most well-known name in Magizoology, he really wasn't all that skilled of a naturalist. He could recite Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by heart, but his spell-casting was mediocre at best.

"Lissa and Mark went up to Mark's mum's house for his cousin's wedding, and Anna's sick," Trish explained. "It's actually good we have Luna now, because otherwise John would've had to send Frank, and he scares the living daylights out of the foals."

"I do reckon we should split up though," Ed said, "Four people's a lot to check on unicorns anyway, especially when there's foals. It's too big of a job for only two people, though."

Rolf inwardly rolled his eyes, wondering why Ed couldn't have just said so in response to his earlier comment.

"Alright," Trish agreed. "So I'll go with you, Ed, and Rolf can go with Luna?"

"Sounds good," Ed nodded, "Have fun, Dream Team!"

"Bye," Rolf said as they separated, trying not to look peeved. He glanced over at Luna. She was probably in her late twenties, the same as he was, but somehow he felt as if he'd been left in charge of someone much younger. Perhaps it was the radish earrings, the butterbeer cap necklace he had only just noticed, or the way she was humming softly under her breath.

"He doesn't like me, does he?" Luna remarked casually when the others were out of sight.

"Er - "

"It's okay," Luna said with a smile that almost looked sad. "I'm used to it."

She didn't look too upset, but suddenly, he felt rather bad for her. They walked in silence for a few minutes, until he asked her, "Where did you go to school?"

"Hogwarts," she replied. "You?"

"I didn't," he answered, "My grandad taught me at home." Which was probably why he was rubbish at magic, Rolf thought bitterly. Newt Scamander was an excellent Magizoologist, but he wasn't the best teacher, much more prone to giving long-winded lectures about his old glory days than actually teaching spells."Hogwarts, though. Did you know Harry Potter? "

"Yeah," she answered."He's actually a friend of mine. One of the only ones I had at school..."

"Wow," he responded, although privately he wondered if she was lying about them being friends. Perhaps, though, she'd just believed that they were - she must have gone to school with him, afterall. They must be about the same age.

"He could be a bit of a whiner," she went on. "But he's quite nice. Ooh, look," she lowered her voice to a whisper. "There's a unicorn."

"Where?" he asked.

"Over there, by that tree with the broken branch. See it?"

"Yep," he said quietly, "I just have to mark it."

He sent a spell at it, but the jet of light flew just over its back. The unicorn leaped away, but not before Luna had sent another spell at it. It hit the unicorn directly on its back, but instead of leaving a red X that would fade after a few hours, as Rolf's would have, a garland of flowers appeared around its neck.

The unicorn and its new necklace disappeared into the trees. Rolf turned to Luna, at a loss for what to say. "Uh... we're just supposed to mark them with a red X. So we don't count the same unicorn twice."

"I know," she said dreamily. "But I always worry that it hurts them, and my way works too, right?"

"Right..." he said slowly, wondering what Ed and Trish would think when they saw a parade of unicorns wearing necklaces.

Rolf wasn't exactly sure what to think of this woman, but she was starting to seriously annoy him.

A few hours later, Rolf began to have a change of heart. Not that he was being particularly accepting with this new opinion - Luna had, after all, just saved his life. He stared incredulously down at the two graphorns, fierce horned beasts that had permanently scarred trolls, that Luna had effectively stunned just before they killed them both, while Rolf had only thrown his hands in front of his face.

It took his five minutes to stop shaking and collect himself enough to say more than a few muttered curses. "Sweet Merlin!" he finally managed. "You just saved my life! Thank you."

Those last few words sounded completely empty, but, really, it was an impossible situation. How did a wimpy naturalist from a famous family thank an eccentric witch who saved him from two graphorns? Rolf was almost certain that Dumbledore himself wouldn't have had an answer for that.

She smiled at him, but didn't say anything. Still slightly surprised just to be alive, he babbled on, "I mean, I don't even know you! I met you two bloody hours ago! And you just saved my bloody life!"

"It was just a couple of Stunning Spells," she said bemusedly. "No big deal."

"Yeah," he laughed, "That's what my grandad would say. He'd be so ashamed if he knew you had to save me."

"Was your grandad a naturalist too?"

He stopped in his tracks. This was new to him - someone that didn't know who his family was.

"What?" he said. "Oh. Yeah, he is."

"I'm sure he wouldn't be ashamed of you," Luna said, "Graphorns are rather intimidating."

Rolf laughed bittely. His grandad, and even his parents, for that matter, would have a coronary if they knew he couldn't even deal with graphorns...

"Rolf?"

"My family have been naturalists for generations," he admitted darkly, "I like being a Magizoologist and all, but I'm nowhere near as good as my grandad was..."

"That's just your opinion," she pointed out. "It's not necesarily true."

He shook his head. "No, it's definitely true. I'm a bit of a disappointment to everyone. That's why Ed was teasing me before."

"Well, Iwon't make fun of you. I know what that's like," she said seriously, "And if it helps, my name has never exactly been an asset for me, seeing what field I chose. I love Daddy, but some of his work in the field of Magizoology has made it harder for me. It's own of the worst jobs I could have, considering my name," she stopped and thought about that for a moment, "Being a journalist would have been hard too."

"My mum and grandad would have forced me to a naturalist whether I wanted to or not," he said sourly, "I'm just lucky it was the former."

"This is stupid," Luna said, "We should just tell each other our surnames instead of all these cryptic comments. Although you might run screaming when you hear mine, especially if you're family's big in Magizoology."

"How bad can it be?" he said nervously, "I mean, your name isn't Luna You-Know-Who, is it?"

She laughed, and he found that he was liked the sound of it."In the naturalist world? Worse."

He didn't have anything to say to that, so after a moment she asked, "On the count of three, then?"

"Er, yeah, I suppose," he grimaced. He really didn't want to tell her, even she was rather eccentric. She already knew what an inept naturalist he was. She just didn't know he was like that despite Newt Scamander's training. (Which was assumed by most people to have been excellent. It wasn't as though he could contradict them.)

"One, two, three," she counted.

"Lovegood."

"Scamander."

"Oh, horn of a Snorkack!" Luna chortled.

Rolf laughed too. Then he stopped. "Wait, you don't actually believe in them, do you?"

"Not anymore," she said, her face growing suddenly sad. "Sometimes, though, I wish I still did."

Luna Lovegood was rather eccentric, the kind of person who danced to her own beat. Rolf Scamander was a bit of a wimp, the worst naturalist in the family, and an excellent worrier. There were five hundred reasons why it never should have happened, but perhaps that was exactly why it did.

Four years later, they were walking along the beach of the preserve where they first met. It was beautiful night - the perfect night to propose, but Rolf just couldn't do it. They'd been dating nearly three and a half years and he loved her so much - he loved her laugh, how she was always dead honest without being mean - even her eccentricity had endeared her to him. It was nice, sometimes, to do things differently, he had realised. Rolf and Luna always marked the unicorns with garlands now, much to the annoyance of all the others working on the preserve. She'd also helped him a lot with Magizoology - they'd even discovered a new species together a year ago.

"Luna?" he asked for about the tenth time that night. "Will you - " He stopped. Again. Why couldn't he get the bloody words out? He had the ring. Why could he just ask?

"Yes, Rolf?" she prompted after a minute.

"Will you - walk with me a bit further."

"Of course," she said, looking amused. He didn't know how she put up with him.

"Luna?" he said a few minutes later, trying to steel himself. This time, he would do it.

"Yeah?"

He started to kneel and then straightened up. "Moon's beautiful tonight," he remarked determinedly, as though he'd been planning to say so all along.

"Yes, it is," she laughed, "And Rolf?"

"Yeah, Luna?"

"You can stop worrying. Of course I'll marry you."

"How did - how'd you - "

"You were pretty obvious," she smiled, "Sorry if I stole your thunder, but I really couldn't take it anymore."

He kissed her.

"Luna, this is a really bad idea."

"We're engaged, Rolf. Our families will have to meet each other at some point. Do you really want it to be at the wedding?"

He blanched. "No, but I still think that inviting them all to dinner in the same house, where they will meet for the first time, and then tell them that we're getting married in three months is a little crazy."

"It's just my dad, and your parents and grandad. How bad could it be?"

"How bad could it be?" Rolf repeated incredulously. "Luna, do you remember how long it took for my family to admit that we'd actually discovered the a new creature, the Ruber Ferox, and it wasn't just an imaginary creature that you'd hoodwinked me into believing in?"

She shrugged. "A lot of people have trouble believing the things I believe."

"And the first few times you came to our place for dinner, Grandad asked you five million questions about what magical beasts you believe in!"

Luna started to say something, but Rolf kept going, "And no offense or anything, but you're dad is always blaming me for "converting you" or asking why my grandad never answered his letters - "

"It's not his fault," she said sadly, "Life hasn't been easy for him, having to raise me on his own, losing Mum... But I gave up believing in Snorkacks and things long before I met you."

"I know," he said, although privately he thought that Xeno's problems had more to do with some missing screws in his head than with a missing wife. "But don't you see this why this isn't a smart move? At least we could make it a slower adjustment. Maybe just have dinner together today, and announce the wedding some other time..."

"Rolf," Luna looked straight at him, "It's an argument over which animals exist."

There was a knock on the door.

"Oh, sweet Merlin," Rolf moaned.

Luna looked pained, but not, he realised, for the same reasons that Rolf did, "If you're ashamed of me, then we shouldn't be getting married."

"I'm not ashamed of you!" he exclaimed, although he knew that it was true, to some extent.

"Tell your family that, then," she said, "Or at least tell me that you are ashamed. I love you, and all, but you can be such a coward!"

"Luna - "

She had already left the room, which was just as well. How could you argue with someone who was so right?

Rolf found the answer later that night. It didn't really solve his problems, but it did make him marvel slightly at how well Luna's father argued in the face of all logic. Perhaps he was never going to convince anyone else, but Rolf could see that he truly believed everything he was saying, which was more than Rolf could manage.

"Newt, I explained all this in my letters, and if you'd answered them - "

"Or even read them," Rolf muttered to Luna, who ignored him.

"Then you'd see what I'm talking about!" Xeno continued, oblivious. "The Crumpled-Horned Snorkack - "

"Doesn't exist, " Rolf's dad cut in. "Xeno where's the evidence?"

"Where's the evidence?" Xeno roared. "Where's the evidence to the contrary is what I want to know!"

"But that's totally illogical," Rolf's grandfather pointed out.

"He's right up to a point," Luna said, "I mean, anything could exist, couldn't it? None of us believed in the Ferox until Rolf and I discovered it."

"I suppose that's true," Newt admitted, though he was looking a little distastefully at both of the Lovegoods.

"I believed in it," Xeno said determinedly.

"You never mentioned a Ferox in the Quibbler," Rolf's mum said sharply.

"I would've believed in it, though," Xeno said, "Even without proof. If someone described a creature like that, I'd have believed in it."

"I'm sure you would have," Luna said, smiling slightly.

"Is everyone ready for dinner, then?" asked Rolf, all too ready to end this little scene.

"Did you make this, Luna?" Rolf's mum asked, after they'd all sat down and started on their stew.

"Oh, no," she replied, "I'm much to experimental as a cook to make meals for guests. Or at least that's what Rolf says. He's the one that made dinner."

"Oh," Mrs. Scamander. Rolf noticed she dug into her food more eagerly than before.

"You should've made dinner, Luna," Xeno said, looking a little disappointed with the meal, as if it wasn't interesting enough for him, "Luna and I have a lovely recipe for Freshwater Plimpy soup. "

"You eat those thing?" Rolf's grandad looked alarmed, "Are you people crazy?" He looked a little sheepish, and laughed uneasily, as if trying to pass it off as a joke.

"Some people think so," Luna said cheerily.

Rolf took a moment to reflect on how much he loved his fiancee.

After dinner, they go back to the sitting room. Luna kept looking over at Rolf, her eyes clearly asking, "Can we tell them now?"

He shook his head vehemently every time. He was scared of how his family would react.

Luna looked at him, and he heard an echo in his head of what she'd said earlier, "You can be such a coward..."

He looked at Luna, and then looked at his family, who were in the midst of arguing with Xeno about the existence of Wrackspurts. Why they couldn't just let it go was a mystery to Rolf. What did it matter really what Xeno published in his magazine? It wasn't as if anyone took it seriously.

No sooner had the thought crossed his mind when he realised who he needed in his life more.

"Mum, Dad, Grandad, Mr. Lovegood?" he said, reaching for Luna's hand. "Luna and I have something to tell you..."

"Yes, son?" Mr. Scamander asked, taking off his glasses and polishing them, which he always did when he was nervous.

He looked over at Luna, who grinned at him and nodded for him to go on.

"... We're getting married."

The reaction was exactly what Rolf had expected, which, ironically, was exactly the opposite of what most families would do when a wedding was announced.

"No!" Xeno gasped. "Luna, what are you thinking?"

"Rolf?" His grandad asked. "Is this some kind of joke?"

His parents didn't say anything, but they look deeply stricken, as if he had just announced that he was a murderer.

Actually, Rolf mused, they would probably prefer that. The whole thing suddenly seemed hilarious. He really didn't care what they thought of his marriage. It wasn't as though they weren't going to disown him over this. Probably.

The only thing he cared about at the moment was Luna, who squeezed his hand and grinned broadly.

"Luna," Xeno said, staring at his daughter with tears in his eyes. "You are making a grave mistake! Are you being possessed by Wrackspurts?"

"Oh not again with the bloody Wrackspurts!" Newt groaned. "The only good thing about this wedding announcement was that you stopped talking about them!"

"Daddy, I love Rolf - "

"But he's a Scamander!" Mr. Lovegood cried. "Do you really want to be associated with the people who wrote Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them?"

"Why wouldn't she?" Rolf's grandad cut in, looking highly affronted. "It's better than being associated with the Quibbler!"

"I never thought this would happen," Rolf's mother said.

"We've been dating for four years!" Rolf pointed out.

"Maybe we were just hoping it wouldn't," Rolf's father sighed.

"But Luna!" Xeno said, his voice rising hysterically, "Your name will be Luna Scamander!" He paused for a second, then added hopefully, "Unless Rolf takes the name Lovegood!"

"Absolutely not," Newt thundered. "Rolf Lovegood indeed... I will not have my grandson disgraced in such a manner!"

"Well, it's really not your chioce, is it?" Rolf pointed out.

His grandad gasped. "Surely - "

"We hadn't really discussed it yet, to be honest," Luna said, "I don't mind being a Scamander, but we could sort of compromise - "

"And be what?" Rolf's mum asked. "The Scamgoods? The Lovemanders?"

Rolf and Luna laughed, but no one else even cracked a smile.

"This is the end," Xeno cried, sounding close to tears.

"No, it's not, Daddy," Luna soothed, hugging him. "It's a beginning."

"The beginning of the end, then," Xeno moaned.

"No," Luna rolled her eyes, "It's the beginnig of, well, love, I suppose."

And a whole lot of crazy, Rolf thought.

"You don't believe in the creatures anymore," he gulped, sounding more like a five-year-old than an old man, "And now you're marrying one of them!"

Rolf wondered whether the them applied only to the Scamanders, or anyone who didn't believe Crumple-Horned Snorkacks. He reckoned it was probably the latter, although how in the name of Merlin Xeno had thought that his daughter would find anyone to marry under those conditions was beyond him.

"Rolf," his dad hissed at him while Luna comforted her father some more, "What are you thinking?"

Rolf looked over at Luna for a moment, at her raddish earrings and necklace that was made of acorns, and then turned back to his father and said in a loud voice, "I'm thinking I love Luna."

Unsurprisingly, this statement only fed the fire. Rolf no longer cared.

"It really is the beginning of love," Luna remarked later that night in Rolf's kitchen, where they'd retired after their families had left.

"Between us, yeah," he agreed, "But as for the rest of it - "

"It's a beginning, too," she cut him off, leaning her head on his shoulder, her messy blonde hair falling across his chest, "The start of a new family."

"Are you serious? The start of a new family?" he snorted. "I'm actually going to have to agree with you dad for what I hope, no offense, is the first and last time in my life. That dinner looked more like the end of the world than the beginning of love and a new family."

"Is there a difference?" she asked, smiling slightly. "It could be both, couldn't it? For every end, there's a beginning."

"Yeah, well," he muttered, "I reckon that people with regular familes can announce their engagement without so much hassle. And I'm not even talking about your dad - my family is positively abnormal."

"Get it out of you head, Rolf," she smiled. "There's no such thing as normal."