Chapter Three: Sparks
They walked back to the Flower Cottage several hours later after several hours of mostly silent fishing, Harry carrying the bucket of Plimpies. He'd liked the silence, liked being able to sit there comfortably and know he wouldn't have to say anything to keep Luna happy. He looked up at the sky, realizing wasn't quite sure how much later it was, but the sun had moved drastically and it looked like it was getting close to time for them to cook the Plimpies for dinner, something he was wondering how they were going to do since they didn't have a stove of any kind. The only kitchen appliance he'd seen in Luna's home was a refrigerator that he wasn't sure how it'd gotten there. Had she summoned it? Or had she pulled it from nothing like she'd done with the bucket?
"You can put the Plimpies in the refrigerator, Harry," Luna said, breaking him out of his thoughts as they walked through a last bit of shrubbery and came upon, again, the cottage.
It was a lot prettier in the daylight. He hadn't gotten a chance to really look at it before they left, but now he could see the roof was covered in flowers of every kind he could think of, magical and non-magical flowers alike, combined into one beautiful display. The windows were also ringed in flowers and the front door that was always open was made of the same vines that the rest of the cottage was made of. There was an overhang in front of the door and a bench that sat underneath one of the windows that was made of the same vines as the cottage, but the back of it and the arms were covered in flowers. On the other side of the small deck sat a swing, designed to seat two people. There were chains of vines connecting it to the overhang with flowers spaced at intervals along them. Like the bench, the swing's back and arms were covered in flowers as well.
Flower Cottage was an appropriate name for the place.
Harry entered the cottage and opened the refrigerator. It was mostly empty. There were eggs in the door and a drawer full of vegetables and fruits that he didn't recognize. He wondered if they came from magical trees or the village nearby. There was nothing else inside, so he set the bucket of Plimpies on the bottom shelf, closed the refrigerator, and went back outside to see where Luna had gone.
She was now standing in the center of the front yard of the cottage, throwing armfuls of fallen branches and twigs onto what looked like a circle of ash. It took him only a moment to recognize it as a fire pit and he almost wanted to roll his eyes at himself as he realized they didn't need a stove to cook the Plimpies. They could just roast them over a fire.
Luna kept running back and forth from a place in the trees that Harry couldn't see and returning with her arms full of more firewood. He followed her and saw that she had stacked a bunch of it vertically against a particularly large tree trunk only a few paces into the large shrubs surrounding the clearing. There was so much firewood there that he wondered, again, how long she'd been here. And why. Trying not to think about it, he gathered an armful of firewood of his own and returned to the fire pit, throwing it on top of the pile already there.
Once they had a sizeable pile, Luna stood at the edge of the ash ring and closed her eyes. Trying not to make it too obvious he was watching her, Harry returned to the cottage and looked out the window in the dining area. As he watched, Luna raised her hands and all of the sticks of wood moved so they were pointing directly upwards. She made a triangle, putting only the tips of her fingers together. The wood stacked itself into a teepee. She smiled as she observed her work. Then she moved her hands out of the triangle position and closed her eyes again. She bent down and then stood again, looking as though she were pushing something up from the ground as she did so, but when she reached her full height, flames had erupted in the wood. She smiled again and walked out of sight. When she returned, she was carrying three long sticks of wood and there was a large black cauldron floating along behind her. She set up the sticks so the cauldron could hang from them. Once she was done, she stood back and observed her work again, smiling and headed back into the cottage.
Harry turned quickly away from the window, not wanting her to know he'd been staring, but not before he saw that the fire did not burn the sticks she'd set up to hold the cauldron. She must've made them fireproof. Though he'd turned away from the window, he didn't move very far from it. He leaned against the wall and stared at his feet – which he only just now realized were bare like Luna's – his eyes widened. How could she do this level of magic? It was like nothing he'd ever seen. He'd always believed he was only mediocre when it came to magic, but he knew enough about it to know that, though Hermione was the most talented witch Harry knew, Luna was on another level entirely.
What happened to her? He wondered again. A part of him wanted to ask her, but that question seemed loaded and rather personal. It also sounded somewhat accusatory, as though he didn't care for who she was now and preferred who she'd been. None of these things were what he meant, but he didn't know how to phrase the question to show her that.
Swallowing hard, he looked up and saw she was in the kitchen now, pulling the bucket of Plimpies out of the refrigerator with some difficulty. The bucket was much heavier than she was strong. She had to bend halfway over backwards to be able to lift it. Without thinking about it, Harry moved forwards and took it from her. "I can take this," he said. "Why don't you get plates?"
Luna seemed surprised by his offer to help her and looked at him as wide-eyed as he'd been looking at his feet only moments earlier. Still, she nodded her thanks and turned to the vined cupboards to pull out the plates hidden within while he turned and headed out towards the raging bonfire outside.
Setting the bucket of Plimpies down on the ground next to the fire, he noticed that there were no stones around it to keep it from spreading, but he figured it staying in one place was accomplished through Luna's magic. He shook his head and stared into the flames, watching sparks fly off the tops of them and into the sky. The sun was still up, but it was starting to make its descent. It was no longer visible in the sky from his vantage point. It was rather early, he'd thought at first, to be making the Plimpies, but seeing the sky now, he realized just how close to evening it was. They were right on time.
Hardly making a sound, Luna came up behind him and set the plates down on the ground along with what looked like a picnic blanket. He opened his mouth to ask what it was for, but she answered before he even had a chance to ask his question.
"I thought it might be nice to eat outside today," she said without looking at him, though still smiling. "It's finally getting warm enough to eat outside during the evening."
Harry didn't reply, but watched as she moved to the large cauldron and, standing just outside of the edge of the flames, began dropping the now frozen Plimpies into the cauldron one by one. He heard them sizzle as they entered the water in the pot and he realized he'd never had freshwater Plimpies in a stew. He'd been promised them once when he'd gone to visit Luna's father for help finding the last Horcruxes, but he'd never actually head it.
Once she'd dropped half the Plimpies into the cauldron, she took the considerably lighter bucket back into the cottage and when she returned she was holding what looked like an overlarge soup spoon. As she began stirring, he found himself smiling and fighting back laughter for the first time in what felt like years. Luna looked so much like a stereotypical witch, stirring the pot that he couldn't help himself. Worried she might not see it that way, however, he turned away.
Trees ringed the clearing the cottage was in. Trees of every kind. A few were obviously magical and he wondered how they'd survived so long in this forest that he knew (because of Hermione) that Muggles camped in? Surely, they'd see the leaves of the trees that shimmered iridescent like opals on the tree with black bark? Or the bushes that had what looked like small floating orange peaches (he knew these were dirigible plums from his visit to Luna's father as well)? Or what about the patches of grass that looked like they'd been cut from jade? The entire forest sparkled like it was full of precious jewels and no one else seemed to notice.
Then it occurred to him that Muggles might not be able to see them. And really it was the only explanation that made sense for why there were still so many magical plants around.
The sky darkened and Harry spread out the picnic blanket to sit on, while he watched Luna continuing to stir the contents of the cauldron out of the corner of his eye. However, he mostly stared into the fire and thought: about Luna and her magical powers that were like nothing he'd ever seen before, about Ginny and the last things they'd said to one another, and about Ron and Hermione, who had no idea where he'd gone and were probably worried about him. A part of him felt guilty for making them worry and another part of him felt like they could deal with it. He'd earned a vacation away from everything. They could handle his absence for a while. Plus, they couldn't worry too much. He'd told Ginny he was getting away. She could relay that information to them if they asked.
"Stew's ready!" Luna announced, pulling Harry out of his thoughts again.
He blinked and looked up. She was holding a couple of bowls and ladling soup into them. He wasn't sure when she'd left to get a ladle and he also wasn't sure when it'd become dark out. Then Luna was walking over to him and sitting down next to him on the blanket and handing him a wooden bowl full of soup with a wooden spoon sitting in the soup already. These looked more well put together than the table inside or the bucket. And he wondered if she'd made these or taken them from someplace in the village.
"It's really good," Luna said, assuming his silence was related to the food. "I know not many people make soup out of Plimpies, but this is my favorite stew. I like the Plimpies back at home better, but – "
She stopped abruptly and froze, her eyes wide as she stared into the fire. She sat perfectly still, her hands clutching the bowl in her hands until her knuckles turned white. For several moments, she didn't even blink, then she did and looked down at the soup in her hands. She balanced it on her knee and began eating, acting as though she'd never said anything at all.
For a moment, Harry looked at her, thinking about asking her about what had just happened, but she seemed to be deliberately avoiding his gaze, seeming to be half praying that he wouldn't ask the question he wanted to.
So he didn't.
He turned away from her and back to his soup, staring at the contents for a few moments, thinking before finally dipping his spoon into it and eating. The soup was a lot better than he'd thought it was going to be and had more ingredients than he'd seen Luna put in the soup. He figured she must've put them in while he was staring into the flames.
They ate in silence. The only sound the clunk their spoons made against the bottom of their bowls until they finished and set the bowls aside. Harry turned his gaze to the tips of the flames again. Now the sparks were flying up into a brilliantly dark sky, speckled with an impressive assortment of stars. He'd never seen this many before. There weren't as many as there had been the night before when Luna had come upon him, but there were enough that it was noticeably more than he ever saw in the city.
"They're beautiful, aren't they?"
Harry nearly jumped when she spoke and turned to look at her.
Luna was staring up and the deep midnight sky, her head tilted to one side, the flower crown he'd seen her in this morning, back on her head. She had her legs bent and had wrapped her arms loosely around them. There was the most relaxed smile he'd seen yet on her face. The darkness was hardly noticeable now. Only when the flames flickered just right could he see how gaunt and worn she appeared. She did a good job of hiding it when she didn't want him to see.
Turning his gaze back up to the stars, he replied, "Yeah, they are." He was silent for a few moments before he added, "Ginny didn't ever find them as impressive as I did. But…she grew up out in the middle of nowhere. She probably got to see them all the time."
"I think the stars are beautiful always," Luna replied, her gaze not wavering from the sky. "I don't think I could ever get tired of looking at them."
The words made that something he'd felt this morning with her at the stream swelled in him again and he looked at her again. Her hair blew gently in the wind and she turned to look at him, the smile that was on her face lingering. Then she blinked, seeming to come back to herself and it vanished. She looked away from him quickly, seemingly embarrassed and glanced towards the cottage, but didn't make to move away from him.
Harry continued to stare at her through all of this and then, without meaning to and before he could stop himself, he asked, "Luna, why are you here?"
The silence that followed the question was so absolute he felt immediately horrible for asking it. He opened his mouth to take it back, but he could not bring himself to. He really wanted to know the answer to this question and he'd been going to ask it sooner or later. So why not sooner? He might as well get it over with.
Luna had frozen in place again, just as she had when she'd almost revealed the reason for coming here and again Harry felt bad. He'd reminded her of something she wanted to forget. Which made him wonder if the reason she'd come had something to do with her family. As far as he knew, she'd gone back to live with her father after the war. He hadn't heard from Ginny what had happened after that and he'd had a hard time staying in touch with anyone he didn't see all the time. Now he wished he had. Maybe if he had, he would know why she was here now.
As he'd thought, Luna didn't answer him. She just grabbed her bowl off the ground as well as his and returned to the cottage, her mouth pressed into a thin line, her eyes wide and frightened. Harry felt worse than ever for asking the question.
When she wants to tell you, what happened she will, a voice whispered in his mind and he knew it was right. She would tell him when she wanted to, if she wanted to. And if she never did that was her choice and he shouldn't be trying to force information from her that she wasn't outright willing to give.
Harry didn't immediately go back into the cottage. He stayed outside, lying back on the black, his hands under his head as he stared up at the star speckled sky. The bonfire burned lower and lower the longer he stayed out there until it was merely embers and he could see the stars better than ever.
Despite not having gotten very far in Muggle school, Harry knew all the constellations he could see above him. Astronomy was a required subject at Hogwarts. He stared into the heavens and pointed out the constellations to himself. There was Castor, Pollux, Cassiopeia, Orion, Andromeda, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Sirius.
He swallowed hard. Just thinking his godfather's name was still hard. It'd been years since his death and it still destroyed him, thinking about everything they could've had together. He'd known him for two years before he was taken from him. And it'd been his fault too. If he'd just listened to Hermione or Snape or Dumbledore and learned Occlumency or realized that Voldemort was trying to manipulate his thoughts and memories, none of what had happened afterwards would have happened at all.
A part of him thought that maybe it was a good thing everything had happened the way it did, but a larger stronger part of him wished it had never happened at all. Maybe if Sirius had lived, things would be different. Maybe he never would've gotten with Ginny to begin with and been able to avoid all of this heartache. Or maybe he and Ginny could've been better for each other, more compatible. Either way, he would never know, the past was over and done with aand he couldn't change it no matter how much he wanted to. And, not for the first time, as he got ready for bed that night, long after she'd gone to sleep, he wondered if Luna was having a similar battle.
NOTE: WOW this one has three long chapters and i'm actually working on a fourth! awesome! anyway, i've decided to update every 10k words or so, so the next time this will be updated will be when i've reached about 20k words. enjoy what's here for now! and as always pls read and review!