Ginny's hair always looked so alive in the fresh air, flaming with the light of the sun and rippling with the power of the wind. Luna had always envied it. They were in their favorite tree, an ancient and spindly rowan not far from either the Burrow or the Rook, where the Lovegoods lived. Ginny was climbing to a higher branch to look at a bird's nest when she yelped and turned to see Luna gripping a strand of her ginger hair.

"Oi! What'd you do that for?" she demanded, her face flushing to match her hair. Luna smiled fondly at her, but did not answer.

"Go on and get me an egg from that bird's nest, the prettiest one. I want to try something." She held the lock of hair up to the light, admiring it before tucking it safely into her mokeskin bag, where she had already stored several other ingredients for her newest idea. When she looked up from the pouch, Ginny hadn't moved except to fold her arms across her chest.

"Don't think you can just boss me around like you do to everyone else, Luna Lovegood. You can either tell me what's going on or you can get your own egg." The two locked eyes for a moment before Luna looked away, towards home.

"I'm sorry, Gin. Really, I am. I want to try making this thing…like an amulet, I suppose. For protection. But I'm not sure if it's going to work, and I didn't want to go to all this trouble, or for my mum to find out, if it's just going to turn out to be a dud."

"Well what makes you think I'd tell your mum, dummy? And why do you need a robin's egg and my hair for protection, anyway?

"I was going to blow the egg out of the shell and use it to encase the charm, then only put tiny stuff in through the pinhole. And then it could be like a necklace to wear on a chain, see? The hair is small enough to fit in the egg and I think it needs to be sealed with strong feelings, pain so the amulet will protect from pain, and… something else, something positive, to balance the pain," Luna's fingers began tracing the edge of the mokeskin pouch. She hadn't quite worked out how to seal the charm with positive feelings yet, but she suspected a strand of Ginny's hair might help her summon some.

"Well, alright then," and within a moment, Ginny was back with a perfectly oval, pale blue egg speckled with turquoise.

The two girls nestled shoulder to shoulder in the crook of the rowan tree as Luna took a needle from her pouch, carefully made a small hole in the eggshell, and blew the egg out of its shell. It fell to the ground below with a wet splat that startled both of them.

"So what else goes in?" asked Ginny, cradling the enchanting fragility of the eggshell with unusual gentleness. Luna retrieved the ingredients from her bag and slowly, carefully slipped each one through the minuscule hole at the bottom of the eggshell: caraway seeds, shavings of cinnamon, and a few drops of juniper oil she had pressed herself. When she reached into the bag for the strand of Ginny's hair, Ginny put a hand over hers.

"I have a better idea for how to seal the magic. Strong feelings, you said?" And Ginny leaned over and kissed her. Their lips touched with a dizzying clarity and for a moment Luna forgot all about the prophecy and the circle, even that they were only kissing in the first place to seal the amulet. It was just her and Ginny, kissing exactly as she always imagined it would be, vibrant and flaming as Ginny's hair, which was still tangled around Luna's fingers.

It was over in a moment, and they pulled apart shyly.

"Morgana, that was a lot of intense emotion," Luna murmured before inching to the edge of their branch and handing a small glass bottle to Ginny, "Make sure you scrape up some of the dirt right beneath where I fall, and any of my blood if I start bleeding, okay?" Then she jumped out of the tree without another word.

"Wait, what?" Ginny took the bottle automatically and peered at it, only to glance up and find Luna gone.

"Luna!" she shrieked, clambering down the tree and rushing to her friend's crumpled body, "What in Merlin's name did you do that for?"

"Pain…to seal the amulet…you kissed me so I needed a lot of pain…make sure you get the dirt and blood," Luna wheezed, the air having been knocked out of her.

"You bloody idiot! I'm going to get help," Ginny sprinted towards the Rook, and Luna took a moment to admire the coltish way she ran before allowing the waves of black lapping at the edges of her vision to overtake her.


When she came to, the edges of Luna's vision were fuzzy, and a sharp pain radiated from her left arm and reverberated through the rest of her body, where it tempered into a dull ache. A flash of red by her side made her turn. It hurt to move, and she winced as Ginny's worried face slowly came into focus.

"Luna! Luna, are you okay? Please, Mr. Lovegood, be gentle," Ginny's voice sounded high and worried, like Caroline's, but also sounded distant and garbled, like Luna was submerged underwater.

"I'm being as gentle as I can, child," she heard her father speak, also sounding more tense than usual as he said an unfamiliar incantation.

Then she was floating and it felt wonderful, like the dreams about flying she used to have as a small child. The weightless sensation alleviated some of the pain in her arm, and she became fully conscious as the three of them sped towards the Lovegood house, Xenophilius levitating Luna and Ginny trotting along beside them.

As Luna turned to look at Ginny again, she noticed that one of the bones in her left arm was protruding at a peculiar angle.

"Curious," she said, poking it gingerly and then wincing in pain.

"Don't prod at it, you numpty!" Ginny swatted her hand away and held onto it, gripping it tightly.

A few members of the circle were still in the sitting room when the trio barged through the door and raced Luna to the kitchen, setting her down on the large wooden counter.

"What's happened?" Cressida bustled into the kitchen in a cacophony of jangling jewelery.

"Mrs. Lovegood, we were…we were just playing like usual, but Luna fell out of the tree - ow, Mum, it's true, I swear!" Ginny began explaining breathlessly, but Mrs. Weasley had gripped her hard by the arm by way of demanding an explanation. Before allowing herself to be shoved out of the room with a promise (or perhaps a threat) that they would discuss this at the Burrow, Ginny flashed Luna a smile, patted her pocket, and mouthed the words "Got it."

"Oh, it's not so bad, poppet. Just a broken bone, I'm sure it looks nastier than it is," Cressida said, smoothing her daughter's hair out of her face and peering at the broken arm.

"Xeno, fetch me some willow bark from the chest, would you?" When her husband promptly retrieved the bark, she broke off a piece and gave it to Luna before dismissing him. Healing was women's work, and there were secrets that had to be kept, old secrets newly discovered.

"Pop this in your mouth while I make up an ointment and decide what to do about that arm of yours, love." Luna obeyed and soon felt the pain fading, or at least dulling, as she sucked on the bark, which scratched her tongue with its roughness. She allowed herself to drift in and out of consciousness, thinking of the small glass bottle in Ginny's pocket and hoping Mrs. Weasley wouldn't discover it during her interrogation. She was largely oblivious to the disagreement swirling above her.

The other women had gathered in the kitchen: Isolde, Radha, and Eudora. Neither Professor McGonnagall nor Madam Bones had stayed for one last cup of tea after the meeting. If they had been here, they surely would not have held with any of this. The others glanced at one other in dismay, wondering if someone should say something and if so, who would be the first to speak up. Finally, Mrs. Fawcett did.

"Are you sure you feel comfortable treating a broken arm, Cressida? Sniffles and scrapes are one thing, but maybe she should go to St. Mungo's, see a proper healer?"

"Oh, don't fret so, Isolde. This is the perfect opportunity to test the work I've been doing lately, harvesting my ingredients not just in sync with the lunar cycle but with my own womanly cycle. Yes, yes, I think some of the arrowroot I collected last week will do very nicely. In fact, when I was digging it up, I did have a vision about Luna stealing all of it for some experiment she was doing. Perhaps I was forseeing this very event, and my own successful experiment to heal Luna!"

Cressida maintained this stream of continuous chatter as she gathered a mortar and pestle and began pulverizing her ingredients into a fine paste. Willow bark, eye of newt, arrowroot. Finally, she opened a small pouch and withdrew a blackened pellet, smaller than a knut. When she ground the final ingredient into the mixture, the ointment turned a brilliant shade of purple and began smoking.

"O motherly spirits, heal my daughter Luna's broken arm. Fortify her and grant her a speedy and painless recovery, sealed with the blood of the body who birthed her," Cressida breathed into the fumes. When they had absorbed her intention, the mixture slowly stopped smoking. She smeared the ointment onto Luna's left arm. It flashed purple and steamed for a moment before disappearing completely, as if her skin had absorbed it.

Nothing happened, and the other women began shifting uncomfortably. But then the bone slowly began migrating back to its correct position, apparently of its own accord. Within a minute, the arm looked utterly normal, without a trace of bruising. The ointment had even healed the scrape on Luna's elbow from the fall.

"Remarkable!" Radha said, bending to examine the arm herself, "How do you feel, child?"

But Luna was asleep, apparently unaware of her mother's miraculous treatment.

"It didn't seem to hurt her at all! And you couldn't even hear the bones cracking like they do when a Healer puts them back in place," Eudora Brown marveled.

"And do you still think that we women can't be proper healers, just because we haven't learned the harmful, unnatural methods the Ministry approves of? Women have been doing this for longer than the Ministry has existed, and you don't see us making a profit off of the licensing exams," Cressida said. Mrs. Fawcett looked down, abashed.

"But what was that you put in, Cressida? The last thing, right at the end?" asked Eudora, peering at Luna's arm, wiping a dab of ointment onto her finger, and sniffing it.

"I haven't told the circle yet, as I am still very early in my testing. But in addition to harvesting my ingredients in accordance with my lunar cycle, I have also begun collecting my lunar blood and studying its properties. It is incredibly potent, especially when combined with plants also imbued with my maternal energies."

"But you… you told it what to do! Not with an incantation, just telling it exactly what you wanted to do, like customizing it!" Radha continued.

"And why shouldn't I? The magic is of my body, and I can use my body's power how I choose. My friends, this is the beginning of a new age," Cressida smiled beatifically at them. Radha, Eudora, and Isolde shared a doubtful glance, but then looked down at Luna's healed arm, which was still glowing faintly purple.


Luna was allowed to play outside mere minutes after having her recently broken arm inspected by her parents. She knew Ginny was unlikely to be released within the hour, and possibly not even for the rest of the day, and she wished to all the goddesses that Ginny had given her the bottle of dirt and blood before running to fetch her father. She could only wait beneath their rowan tree and try not to think too much about their kiss, or what she had overheard about Ginny.

Regardless of what her mother had Seen, she was shocked that the Weasleys were still sending their children to Hogwarts after He Who Must Not Be Named had infiltrated the school only this year. Luna had always hated being a few months younger than Ginny, but the sting was especially keen as of late. If Ginny had only been born in September instead of August, they'd still have an entire year to spend together before going to Hogwarts, if they ended up going at all.

But even her mother's vision, about Ginny being in danger at Hogwarts, apparently couldn't convince Mr. and Mrs. Weasley to make Ginny stay home. Luna wasn't supposed to overhear the conversation between the parents, and Arthur and Molly expressly forbade the Lovegoods from mentioning the prophecy to Luna and Ginny. They didn't want their daughter to be even more frightened to begin her time at Hogwarts. But Luna had been listening at the door, and she overheard everything: her mother warning the Weasleys about her vision, Arthur and Molly being at first worried and then dismissive. Everyone was probably in a little danger at Hogwarts, given what had happened last year. It wasn't anything to do with Ginny, they reasoned, and they trusted Dumbledore. Luna could hear in her parents' voices that they thought Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were making a grave mistake.

She knew she mustn't tell Ginny, as she wasn't even supposed to know herself. But she couldn't face the thought of Ginny in danger, Ginny alone and unsafe at Hogwarts without her. Luna was used to getting her way, of being in control. The only thing she could control now was the amulet. But Ginny couldn't know about the amulet's true purpose just yet.

Finally Ginny arrived, looking only mildly chastened after what had no doubt been a stern scolding.

"Oh, good, you're not grounded," Luna said, not quite meeting her friend's brown eyes. Were they supposed to talk about the kiss, or act like it hadn't happened?

"Nah," Ginny said breezily, climbing even higher in the tree, as if daring Luna to jump again. She pulled out the little bottle, mercifully intact, and gave it to Luna.

"Oh, thanks. I'm not quite sure how to work that part of the charm yet, so I'll hold onto it for later," Luna said, tucking the bottle in her mokeskin pouch.

"Mum threatened to ground me, but Dad said it's my last summer at home before going to Hogwarts and they don't want to spoil it for me," Ginny smirked.

"What, are you never going to come home again once you go to Hogwarts?" asked Luna sardonically, but she felt something hot and unpleasant rising in her throat.

"Heh, I'm not going to complain when Dad goes easy on me. But hey, you know I'll come back, and I'll write you loads of letters."

"Yeah, yeah."

"I will, promise. Anyway, they're taking me to Diagon Alley to get my books and wand and stuff, and I guess they didn't want me to be grounded or grumpy during it. Hey, you should come along!"

"Oh, no, I don't want to…well, you know, intrude."

"Intrude? On a classic Weasley family shopping trip where we pretend we're not going to just buy all the cheapest stuff at the secondhand shops? Come on, I want you to come." Luna didn't particularly want to go and be reminded of all she would be missing out on, but she also didn't want to hurt Ginny. And she couldn't help wondering whether she'd be able to covertly convince Ginny or Mrs. Weasley of the dangers of Hogwarts.

"Oh, alright," she finally said.

"Plus, I hear Ron's celebrity friend Harry Potter is supposed to be there. He won't shut up about it."


Later that night, Luna sneaked into the garden after dark with the partially-finished amulet and the jar of dirt and blood representing her pain, the pain from which she wanted to protect Ginny. She gave the bottle a good shake before slipping a fingertip's worth through the hole in the eggshell.

"Protect Ginny, please. Protect her at Hogwarts, and make sure nothing bad happens to her. And make sure she doesn't forget me. But mostly, please just keep her safe." The amulet emitted a purple light for a moment, which glowed strangely through the speckled blue shell of the hollow egg. Luna slipped the amulet into her bag and buried the bottle with the rest of the blood-mixed earth in the garden, under the bush of dirigible plums.