'It seems this has all been a huge shock to your father.'

'I think he was stunned by you saying you were a follower of Sevedy Mickette.'

Rahal gave a silent gasp. 'Obviously I'm not anymore! If I were, I'd have wasted you and your father and prolly the whole damn school. Malfiore doesn't breed anything resembling tolerance. No, she took elven supremacy and brought it as far as you can take anything. She'd have Moldybutt by his withered bollocks for daring to suggest he and his power-mad droogies were anything more than apes.'

Luna brushed her hair to the side and returned to her painting.

'As long as you dropped those nasty ideas.'

Rahal's chuckles burst into a laugh. 'I dropped those 'nasty ideas' years ago.'

'But aren't you fourteen?'

'Well. I coulda sworn you could see through all my lies. Truth be told, I might as well be fourteen, but I've about thirty years behind me.'

'Thirty!'

'Now before you get your red knickers in a knot, lemme add that these are Navian and elven years. Hence why I say I might as well be fourteen.'

'But you're still thirty.'

'In Earth years. And in Menfolk's years, yes. But by that metric, I should've been a Seventh Year when I was a dauphine myself— high elves don't age like Men, and we're all that much more superior to you.'

'I thought you said you dropped those ideals.'

'It's basic fact, mate. I can't change reality to suit your Menfolk-oriented egalitarianism. You want to know why I'm a Ravenclaw and not a Slytherin? Well to be honest, I'm not sure myself. I was sure that I'd be a natural Slytherin, but that damned hat felt otherwise.'

Luna shuffled herself to turn around and said matter-of-factly, 'You're nothing like the Slytherins.'

Rahal felt a fair blush rush across her cheeks. After a stunned moment of silence, she said, 'W-well, maybe not now. But that's what I was saying, innit? That I used to be a right villicent skinn'ead, all clad in villicent regalia and playing the role of nivvny mollishow. Always tossard with Vayeci and Poxhart.'

Rahal stopped herself when she noticed Luna had paused.

'Gesundheit?'

'That's all HOSS speak, it makes sense you wouldn't get it. I'm trying to defrag my brains from that lifestyle.'

Luna began painting again. 'That's very good.'

'Er, well, you want I should, um...' This hadn't happened to her in years, and her mouth was evidence of it. Everything she said fell over the next word, and she stumbled about trying to make her point. At last, she calmed herself and exhaled. 'I've never had anyone tell me I'm not a Slytherin.'

'But haven't you only recently learned what Slytherin are, if you hail from another world?'

'Well, no. You-you see, your world also exists in Seventh Earth.' Rahal noticed Luna's brow drooped and the blondeball seemed to malfunction as she turned to her.

'But...'

'Yes, well, ah... This is going to sound mental, but your world is considered fiction on Seventh Earth. They already know how this whole Voldemort debacle will end up, hence why I'm not too concerned about your little group. Just don't tell anyone I said such a thing.'

'That sounds so wrong, though. Am I—'

'We should drop the subject. Dimension hopping is BS. Surely you wish to know more about Sevedy Mickette, right?'

'I'm actually more interested in this Seventh Earth now. It sounds like the most fascinating place of them all.'

'Oh it is! It's glorious. Like I said, if you get past that close-minded ideal that electricity is not magic, then you'll realize how amazing that world really is. It was Seventh Earth that proved to me more than anything just how wrong— wrong and terribly wrong— my old childish prejudices against Menfolk were.'

'I need to be certain— you said that all humans are Menfolk, correct?'

'Yes. To the Navian elven elite, there's no difference between wizards and Muggles. And yet it's always the Menfolk, innit?'

'What do you mean?'

'It's the Menfolk who mastered their world. Whether that's natural talent or their simple profanity, I don't know. That's the biggest difference between the likes of you and I, O' my dear Luna— I'm a freak because I seek chaos, whereas chaos is the natural order for Menfolk, for humans, such as yourself. You can see it in your pitiful house elves— they dare not disrespect their masters, and they forever see themselves as inferior for the most baseless of reasons. Menfolk would never tolerate such an existence for long.

'Menfolk value the profane over all. Once they enchant something, you immediately imagine profanities against it! Nothing is sacred to humans— and that's precisely why your kind is so masterful.'

'What are you getting at with this?'

'Seventh Earth, O' my dear Luna, is a world far beyond your own. Surely you keep up with the doings of Muggles, no?'

'A little, yes. Primarily their music.'

'As you've mentioned, yes. The Pixies and whatnot. But I suppose you— nor anyone at Hogwarts— care for Muggle science? It is their modern method of profanity against the sacred. It's a damn shame the elves rule in Navia, because everything sacred deserves to be desecrated. Whatever doesn't work shouldn't be perpetuated.'

Luna stopped painting. 'That last line sounded a bit bad.'

'Which one? Whatever doesn't— oh, right. Yes, don't take that out of context.'

Rahal giggled. 'I guess there's some aspects that are still lingering within me.'

She sat back and sighed. 'Where does your father work?'

Luna jolted in her seat and turned to Rahal. 'He works here! At our house.'

'Ah yes! How do I keep forgetting these things...' From her coat, Rahal pulled a folded copy of The Quibbler. 'I suppose I'm too used to the ways of Lord Amon. He's the head of an alt-magazine himself, but he's a wealthy chap and has his own printing press.'

Luna spoke up again, saying, 'To continue what you were saying, I don't follow the going-ons of Muggles extensively, but I'm always interested in their culture. You sound knowledgeable enough.'

'Please flatter me some more.'

Luna cast her a sideways glance and asked, 'What do you mean by that?'

This brought a half-surprised expression to Rahal's face. 'It is what it sounded like— I've never been commended for knowledge in Muggle culture, so... I mean, I'm rather surprised that you know so little about Muggles considering you live side-by-side. Karath'kar tafflons and Sidliaum menfolk know quite a bit about each other, and they're separated by a sea and have vastly different cultures and languages. Wizards and Muggles, you're all menfolk regardless of your magical abilities, and yet it's like you hail from different planets.'

Luna considered this and replied with, 'This may be because of what you mentioned before, that this is a different world than the one you're used to. I bet that, in a magical world like Navia, everyone expects the same thing from each other even if you're all so different. But here, Muggles can't be trusted to know of the Wizarding world.'

Rahal nodded. 'That, I can understand.'

'So we had to hide ourselves away for so long that we eventually just… you know, became different.'

'Yeah, that makes sense. But what doesn't make sense is how conservative the Wizarding world remains despite seeing what Muggles are capable of. Surely you know that Muggles have wired this planet to blow.'

'Yes, we know.'

'And surely you know that Moldybutt isn't unique to the Wizarding world. It must be right hell to be forced to keep your existence a secret like this. How did it even come to this?'

'I don't know the specifics, but there was this thing—'

'Don't tell me, lemme guess. It was an inquisition, wasn't it? To root out magic.'

'Exactly. That and the Wizarding world's intolerance of Muggles before then hasn't led to the best of relations.' Luna coughed. 'And I bet that sounds hilarious to you because it's all 'menfolk' acting superior to each other.'

Rahal noogied Luna and laughed. 'I won't lie! It really is hilarious. But who am I to judge? I never said this was unique to menfolk. Moldybutt should visit Navia to pick up a few pointers, but besides that, he's nothing special. His hatred of Muggles is tribalism at best.'

'You were saying something about Muggle science, though?'

'All science is supposed to be is explanation of magic. All technology is supposed to be is application of magic for those incapable of directing it themselves.' Rahal gripped Luna's wand, leaning in close to her. 'See this? By Muggle definitions, this is a piece of technology. But menfolk, you lot don't tend to stop with something this primitive. The traditions of wandmaking were once arcane, but now they've become sacred. This only means that, one day, there will be menfolk obsessed with profanity who will come along and—'

Rahal squeezed Luna's cheeks and kissed her. Her tongue went in deep.