Disclaimer (1): I am not JKR, nor her publishers, and so the appropriate copyright laws do apply. Full retention remains. I did not write this story for fame or fortune…
Disclaimer (2): …But I did write this for the Houses Competition being hosted by Moonlight Forgotten. All appropriate details can be found in the Author's Note at the end of the story.
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The hour was very late as Luna Lovegood started to gather her dishes to make tea and biscuits. In spite of it still being summer, it was late summer, which made the night a bit cooler than usual. To stay warm enough while she worked through the night, she wore a shimmering gold nightgown and black moccasins from her last trip to Africa. Recently she'd been there to study a preserve of Fwoopers. The species had been evolving to the point that the Silencing Charm was no longer an effective defense to their songs that bred insanity. Luna was preparing a proposal to submit to the Ministry to start a more thorough investigation in permanently resolving the matter of the Fwooper's song. She would need their funding. She wanted to prevent the otherwise innocent bird from being reclassified as a XXXX by the Ministry of Magic.
When one of her pictures began calling her name, at the order of Hermione Granger, requesting that Luna immediately go to Rwanda to check on another Magizoologist working there, she had thought it was rather strange. In matters of urgency and safety, Aurors would generally be the most appropriate professionals to send out on most any issue. However, it seemed this person was investigating a shanty on the edge of Butare, where there had been an alarmingly large disappearance of people. A few local wizards overheard a couple of eyewitness accounts that caused them to reach out to the Ministry of Magic specifically to investigate the matter. Luna had been surprised that Hermione hadn't just apparated if she was already awake in the middle of the night, but she also supposed the ambitious young woman was probably preoccupied with her own work.
Upon her arrival in Butare she had to make her way to the edge of town, looking for the abandoned strip of haphazardly built homes. Though they barely qualified as homes, being made from essentially trash and rotted wood, Luna found it endearing in a sad way. Though the homes were poorly made, the run down ones exposed that some of those who'd been living there had nice furniture. There was one in particular the stood out at the furthest end. It was in pretty decent shape and had nearly all of its four walls. She chose to go into this one first, since the Magizoologist would be visible in the other shanties.
Once inside the building, there was coolness that was familiar to Luna. Immediately she determined the creature she was likely to deal with was a Lethifold. Many equated the Lethifold to a Dementor, though it was far more horrifying than the cloaked creature once known for guarding the Azkaban prison. Dementors feed on the sadness of humans, sucking all of the happy memories from the victim. The Lethifold, while sharing in the same dark cloaked appearance, is fundamentally different. What made the Lethifold so terrifying was that it could come and go without ever being detected, without ever being seen, and disappear, all before anyone ever knew it was there in the first place.
This creature is only a slim cloak that floats along the surfaces of the world, rising up when they are ready to engulf the victim and completely consume their physical being. While a Dementor leaves an empty shell, a Lethifold will actually ingest the entire body of their victim leaving nothing behind at all. Every account of that Luna had read pertaining to Lethifold was devastating in the aftermath, as many of the victim's loved ones never get an explanation for the victim's disappearance. At least, not satisfying answers anyway, since Lethifold disappearances are merely a guess.
Luna wandered around until she was able to find the Magizoologist, stalking the Lethifold from atop a dresser. Since she needed a moment to assess the situation in its entirety, she stood back and watched the awkwardly dressed man really do nothing of significance. He watched the Lethifold and she watched him. While she waited, she thought about how she hadn't wanted to be directly on the floor either, because of the danger it posed. Unfortunately, taking action at that point would have been an even bigger risk than actually stay on the ground because there was another person that would be at risk if she made a mistake. So Luna remained on the ground, thinking about the best way to handle the XXXXX classified creature, and knowing it was easily one of the most dangerous creatures in the world.
Her mind and hands naturally shifted towards her fail-safe, hidden away in a pouch hanging from a tight belt around her waist on her left side. She wanted to be prepared in case events to a turn for the worst. Even in her sleep, it was strapped tight against her torso where she could reach it at all times. Being a Magizoologist always posed a threat to one's life, unexpectedly so at times, and so Luna ensured that she always had an escape plan if she were to find herself in any such situation.
Inside the pouch was an ordinary hairbrush.
And that ordinary hairbrush was a portkey.
Luna had never needed to use it, but she did not let herself think for a moment that she would never need it. Magical creatures are unpredictable, regardless of their classification, which meant she would always require an escape plan. Something in her gut had told her that she would be happy to have that safety net before she ever arrived at the shanty.
As she waited for the man to make a move, she considered what she knew about Lethifolds. There was no way to actually kill them as far as anyone could figure, but there had to be a consideration that nearly everyone who encountered a Lethifold died. The only known way to protect against them was with the Patronus Charm, which really meant there was no need for this man to even be following the Lethifold into his 'natural habitat' whatsoever. As soon as he spotted the Lethifold he should have cast the spell to be rid of it – except that this man was a Magizoologist, not an Auror.
Luna grinned at the man who clearly shared her interest in the creature. He could not see her amusement but she smiled just the same. With her blonde hair pulled loosely into a long braid down her back, she opened the pouch. Carefully, she levitated the hairbrush from inside and then spoke, "Can you apprehend it?"
"Who are you?" he hissed angrily, eyes never leaving the Lethifold rippling across the floor to the broken window opposite of Luna. As far as she could tell, it was not aware of their presence. It was curious to her, but she chose to use it to her advantage. She could briefly chat with this man, whom could technically her colleague, and see what he intended to do.
Luna replied with her focus split evenly between the hairbrush and the Lethifold. "Luna Lovegood, at your service. It seemed you were in a pinch." Sounding so delighted probably sent the wrong message but it was her nature. Her face was always surprised, and her voice was always cheery. It didn't help that she found the situation darkly fascinating. A Lethifold, after all, was quite rare to find. Tropical areas provide them with quite a bit of cover and made it difficult to find it, let alone identify one.
"Rolf Scamander," he replied cordially and coldly. Then he frowned and poked his wand toward the Lethifold that hovered over the windowsill. It neither advanced nor receded back into the shanty. "You can leave. I've got this under control."
Luna tilted her head, "So - you can apprehend it?"
Before Rolf could actually answer the question, the Lethifold shifted quickly and made a surge directly toward Luna. Panic was apparent in his face as he tried to decide which action to take – protect her or dispel the creature? There wouldn't be time to do both. Casting the spell could protect Luna, and she recognized this, but if the Lethifold acted unpredictably – then it could theoretically still attack her. His mouth started to open to dispel, probably an assumption that Luna could manage herself just fine, when she used her magic to fling the hairbrush into his chest. As soon as he touched it, the otherwise simple bronze brush glowed with a great intensity and sent Rolf Scamander to the assigned destination.
As for Luna, she apparated atop the dresser where Rolf Scamander had been standing moments prior, and cast her charm with an encompassing calm in her tone; "Expecto Patronum!" When the silver hare hopped from the top of her wand and began to circle the Lethifold, she felt confident that she was wise to send Scamander away. Panic does not bode well for dealing with magical creatures, after all, especially the most dangerous sorts.
With a giggle, Luna then apparated back to her home, where she found a disheveled Rolf Scamander sitting at her kitchen table with two cups of tea and a plate of biscuits. As they made eye contact, Rolf sneered at Luna for an absurd amount of time. Initially she met him with a smile, but the longer he kept his lip snarled, the more faint her expression became. Though she originally welcomed his judgmental gaze with kindness, she eventually let her expression turn slack. To fill the awkward silence, Luna started to sway in an odd sort of dance. She did it to pass time until he finally managed a bit of a laugh. "I thought this might be your home so I helped myself. You don't mind, I hope."
Luna waited to see if his breath was the end of his thought or a pause, even though she was pretty sure he had something else he wished to say. She could almost always see when others had more to say because even though their faces were expressionless, their eyes told a different story. Eyes were her favorite thing on people and animals alike. They told whole stories without the use of any spoken language, just feelings that could be shared between human and creature.
"You seemed quite comfortable helping yourself, after all. It seemed fair," he speaks with an airy arrogance, but the snicker that punctuates his thought with finality indicates he might have meant it as a joke. Either way, Luna took the statement for what the words meant out of context. It was fair, she decided, and moved away from the question. It served no further purpose for consideration.
At that moment she recalled his name. It wasn't that she hadn't recognized it immediately in the shanty, but that she could finally say something about it. Luna had needed to tend the Lethifold before she could properly inquire further about Rolf's family.
"You are a Magizoologist," Luna stated the obvious information for no reason in particular, really just to hear herself say it. She looked at Rolf and thought back to the pictures she'd seen of the most famous Magizoologist she'd studied – the author of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – Newt Scamander.
Rolf hung his head after having set his cup on the table, prepared for what she said next, "I suppose the career must run in the family?"
"And I suppose you know my grandfather. Everyone does."
Luna snickered, "Not personally, I'm afraid."
"He sent me, you know. Newt Scamander personally requested that I take care of the Lethifold. He'll want to meet you when I tell him what happened." Rolf's demeanor changed while he spoke, and his casual tone matched the wispy nature of Luna's own voice. His facial features had softened and also revealed a distant look in his eye, as if he were distracted by something happening far off that couldn't be seen by anyone but himself. And yet, Luna still felt as if he paid attention to nothing but their conversation. "Belby is the only person is confirmed to have survived a Lethifold attack. The only one!"
"You can keep the hairbrush," Luna replied airily with the intent to make a joke, "for dramatic effect when you tell him that you escaped too."
Author's Notes:
Ravenclaw, Themed (Hairbrush), 2,043 words