A/N: Thanks so much for all your support and patience with me. Sorry for not replying to all your reviews; I really do appreciate them!! Needless to say, exams have been conquered for now, and I will be trying to update much much faster than what this took to get out. Though updates may still occasionally be 'few and far between' they will most definitely be worth the wait. You guys certainly deserve at least that much.
well, that's enough talking; just read :D
Chapter 23: The Wonders of Ottery St Catchpole
Despite the cold weather, Daja had thought winter at Hogwarts was fun, but staying with the Lovegoods made it seem even better. Every day of their holiday was filled with something different to do.
The entire first two days of their break were spent decorating. The appearance of everything inside and outside the house had to be suited to the holidays in one way or another. Since Xenophilius was often busy upstairs working on his newspaper, Luna led them in their decoration traditions.
For the first day, they focused entirely on the inside of the house. While Daja used small tacks to pin chains of shiny tinsel along the walls and ceilings, Tris sat at the kitchen with needles and thread, stringing red berries and pieces of popcorn together that she later tied along the doorframes. Luna seemed to be everywhere at once; hanging up more of the gold and silver balls around the house, wrapping strands of brightly-coloured lights around the winding staircase, and popping popcorn on the stove. They went through many packets of the crunchy snack, though admittedly most of it was eaten rather than used for decorations.
The day before, Luna had taken them outside to work on making the exterior of the house just as festive. They gathered long, flexible branches from several enchanted pine trees that grew nearby and carried them back to the house, winding them around wooden lattices that were built around the first floor. By the time they had wound the last branch on, the house looked as though it had thick pine bushes growing around its base.
Thinking about Briar, Daja had wondered aloud why they were wrapping branches around the house, since not being planted in the ground would mean that they would soon be dead. She knew Briar wouldn't exactly approve of plants being treated as non-living ornaments.
Luna merely laughed. "They are from magical pines," she pointed out, explaining that overnight the ends of the branches would find their way into the ground and form new roots. The new bushes would have a short life span, she added, but they would live for a couple months at least, and the pine scent would infuse the entire first floor of the house in the meantime.
The blonde girl managed to drag Xenophilius outside for what she called 'a quick break' to help them, but soon turned into a full afternoon. While the girls unfolded chains of huge, magically glowing golden stars, Xenophilius, as the only adult in the house, used several Temporary Sticking Charms to wrap the chains around the higher walls. Soon the entire top half house of the house appeared to be faintly glowing despite the afternoon sun.
Daja woke up early the next day, and after changing into her tunic and breeches she went out onto the roof with her staff. As the sun rose, she stretched and practised with her staff, swinging it around and behind her and lashing out at imaginary opponents. She hadn't had so much time to loosen up since before they had first arrived at Hogwarts; the teachers weren't exactly approving of fighting, even if it was just for practise. She had done a bit during their DA meetings, but getting time by herself out in the open air reminded her of the old days when she used to spar with Briar.
Tris joined her on the roof shortly after sunrise. "It's going to be a nice day today," she commented, looking out towards the sun. "A bit of wind, but it'll be a warm wind; there won't be any more snow for a few days at least."
"Well, you would know." Daja laid her staff on the ground and sat down next to her.
"We should meditate," Tris said, adjusting her skirt over her knees so that she could sit cross-legged.
Daja nodded and copied her position before remembering. "We have to make a protective circle."
"I've got it." Running her fingers through her hair, Tris pulled out a small handful of sparks. Turning to look over each shoulder in turn, she pointed around them and the sparks settled into the top of the roof in a rough circle. Pushing her hand upwards, she pushed up the lightning, spreading it around them until they were encased in a thin, flickering bubble.
Thanks, Daja said to her. She rested her hands on her knees and closed her eyes, finding it easy to slip into the breathing pattern. Slowly, she sunk into the core of her powers, pulling them closely around her. She could feel Tris beside her, a whirlwind of power that was slowly being forced into obeying its mistress.
She didn't notice time passing; here, inside her mind, time had no meaning. The two of them had such good concentration by now that an outsider would have seen no motion from either of them for the most part of an hour.
Finally, Daja opened her eyes. Rolling her shoulders to get the stiffness out of her neck, she looked around and saw Luna watching her from outside the circle, a tray of food in her hands.
Is it breakfast yet? Tris asked, her eyes still closed.
I think Luna's brought some food up for us.
The redhead opened her eyes immediately. Reaching out to touch the lightning wall, she pulled the sparks back into her hands, from which they crawled up her arms and sunk into her hair. Luna came and sat down beside them as Tris retied one of her braids.
"Good morning," she greeted them, placing the tray in the centre. "I hope I didn't disturb you."
"Don't worry about it; I think we were finishing up anyways," Daja replied. "Thanks for bringing up some food."
"I decided to come eat up here, and I assumed you would already be here, since you weren't downstairs." She took off the lid of the tray, revealing several plates of toast and fruit as well as a pitcher of juice.
Daja poured herself a glass of juice and looked out across the sky. There were no clouds; just blue sky and warm sunlight.
"Looks like you were right about the weather, Tris," she said to her sister with a grin.
"Of course I was right," Tris replied, taking a bite of toast.
"You know," Luna said thoughtfully, "today is the nicest day we've had in a long time. It'd be a good day to take you down to the Muggle town. We could do some Christmas shopping." She sipped her juice and continued. "My dad and I don't do a huge gift exchange like some people, but we do like to get each other something."
"Maybe we could buy something for Briar and Sandry," Daja said to Tris. "Do you have any money?"
She wiped off her fingers, greasy from the buttered toast. "I've got almost all of mine left over from the beginning of the year. I do need to buy a new quill and some more ink though. Oh, and a few more flasks for Potions. I keep forgetting."
"Between you and me, we should have enough to get each of them something," Daja reassured her. "I've only spent a bit from when we were in Hogsmeade."
"Well then, it's settled," Luna said cheerfully, biting into an orange Dirigible Plum. "We'll walk down to Ottery St Catchpole after breakfast."
They ate fairly quickly and were getting ready to leave when Xenophilius called down the stairs to them, "Luna, don't forget the grocery list! We need more bread and flour and, er, milk, and..."
"It's all right, Dad, I've got it," she called back, and with that they left the house.
Scarves waving out behind them in the gentle wind that had picked up, the three girls walked down the snow-coated path. It wasn't a long walk, but not exactly a short one either, and only after passing over the large hill that hid the Lovegood's eccentric house from sight as well as several smaller ones were they able to see the town ahead of them. They walked through a group of trees scattered across the path and carefully stepped across a slippery wooden bridge before finally entering into the group of small buildings that made up the town of Ottery St Catchpole.
The town was rather small, about the size of Hogsmeade. As they walked down the main street, Luna pointed out the various shops and buildings lining both sides.
"Over there is a post office… and see next to it, that's a paper shop; they sell all kinds of notebooks and writing tools there." Glancing around, Luna lowered her voice and continued on. "This is a Muggle town, but lots of wizarding families have settled here. The Fawcetts, the Diggorys, even the Weasleys live here, their house is out on the edge of the town."
"They're able to live right alongside the Muggles without them figuring anything out?" Daja asked her.
"Yes, though it's quite a bit harder to hide in such a small town, and so there are a few Muggles who know about us. Any single wizards or witches that come here often end up marrying into Muggle families. Like the Facios; they run the pharmacy," Luna commented, gesturing towards a small, square building with a flat roof. A sign in the window advertised a two-for-one sale on cough medicine; below it, several small piles of boxes and jars were stacked. "Mrs Facio is a witch, and when she got married, they decided to open up an apothecary for both magical and non-magical folk. They sell potion ingredients, magical remedies, things like that. The Ministry lets them keep running the shop as long as all their wizarding supplies are stored in a room that's locked with magic to prevent any Muggles from accidentally buying lacewing flies or Acromantula venom. An accident like that could become quite a catastrophe."
"I wonder if they sell flasks there," Tris said thoughtfully.
"We can go in and look around," Luna said, leading them across the street to the shop. "It's a rather interesting store."
A small tinkling of bells rang out as they opened the door. The room was smaller than it appeared to be from the outside. Directly opposite the door was a long counter, behind which sat a middle-aged man wearing a loose white coat who was typing on a Muggle computer. Glancing up as they entered, he nodded to Luna, pushing his thick glasses farther up on his nose from where they had slid down.
"Hello, Miss Lovegood," he greeted her.
"Good morning, Mr Facio," she replied cheerfully. "How are you doing?"
"Good, good, business is doing well," he responded just as the phone rang. "Excuse me, I should answer this," he said quickly, grabbing the phone up. "Ottery Pharmacy, how can I help you?"
Tris had wandered off to the other side of the store and was looking through the shelves. Look at all these medicines, she commented to Daja. Things for coughs, colds, headache, allergies… even without magic, Muggles certainly have their own way of healing people.
"Luna, dear!" A short woman came around one of the shelves and smiled at Luna. "It's good to see you again. How are you? And your father, how is he doing?"
"We're good, thank you," Luna smiled back.
"That's good." She straightened her apron and turned to face Daja. "And who are these?"
"These are two of my friends from school," Luna told her. "Daja and Tris. They're here on an exchange program, so I thought I'd show them around town."
"That's nice of you. It's certainly nice to see some young people in here; most of them still prefer to go down to Diagon. Do you need anything from the back?"
Luna glanced briefly around the room. "I think Tris needed some more flasks, if you have any."
"Yes, of course. Come with me." She led them around the counter to a small door tucked behind a wide closet and almost completely hidden from sight from the front of the room. Pulling out a slender golden wand, she flicked it towards the door and whispered "Alohomora."
"There you go, dear," she said, tucking the wand back in the wide pocket of her apron. "Let me know once you've finished up so I can lock the door again."
The three girls squeezed through the narrow doorway. The room inside was surprisingly larger than Daja had expected. Past the door, each of the three walls were lined with long shelves stacked with all sorts of supplies.
Tris almost immediately located a box of flasks and picked out three of different sizes. They quickly left the room, Luna taking a roll of Spellotape before closing the door behind them.
"You're all done?" Mr Facio asked them, setting the phone back on its base. At their nods, he said, "I'll just ring you up then." He took their items and counted out the prices. "That'll be seventeen Sickles and thirteen Knuts, or, hm, I think it's about seven pounds..." He frowned, looking pained. "Even after over twenty years, I'll never be able to get the conversion right."
"We'll just pay with wizard money," Tris said, glancing over her shoulder to make sure there were no Muggles in hearing distance. "It's not like I have any pounds in the first place." She took a small from her coat pocket and pulled out a handful of Sickles out of it.
"No, wait, just use this," Daja suddenly remembered, reaching into the bag and taking out a Galleon. "Seventeen Sickles to the Galleon, right?"
"I'll pay for it," Luna told them, handing the money over to Mr Facio.
"No, I'll pay for mine-"
"You can pay me back later if you want to. Really, it's all right though. You don't have a lot of money to spend; you should save it."
Grudgingly Tris put her money away and took her bag from Mr Facio. "Thanks, Luna," she said once they were out of the store.
"It's no big deal," Luna replied cheerfully. "Ooh, look, there's the bookstore. And next to it, the sewing store..."
"Sewing store?" Daja said thoughtfully. "Maybe we can find something for Sandry there."
"Maybe..." Tris said distractedly, looking longingly towards the book displays. "I'm just going to look inside here for a minute. You can go on without me. " She practically ran back to the bookstore.
"Well, we won't be seeing her for a while," Daja grinned. Same old Tris, she thought.
"Are you going to go look for something for Sandry?" Luna asked her.
"Yes; I think I'll try the sewing store."
"All right. I'm going to go to the corner store to pick up the groceries; I'll meet you back somewhere around here when I'm done." She walked off down the street.
"See you," Daja called after her before turning to go inside the sewing store.
It was a welcoming store, with walls painted in soft colours and huge baskets of bright yarn piled along the window-ledge. Sheets of different kinds of fabric hung from the walls and were folded along tables. Small shelves containing instruction packets, needles and every kind of sewing supply imaginable were positioned next to a counter where a tall, grey-haired woman cut a length of striped fabric for a young girl and her mother.
Daja wandered around the store. Nothing really caught her eye, until she came to a case of books in one corner.
Many of the titles were standard for a store like this; Needlework for Beginners, Patching the Perfect Quilt, How to Repair Your Sewing Machine. One book in particular caught her eye. At first, she didn't even think it was a book, but a section of the wooden case. The longer Daja looked at it, the more it stood out to her, until it no longer resembled a bookend but a book itself. She couldn't quite see the title from the angle it stood at, but it looked interesting, and the fact that it had originally been camouflaged against the wooden case made her wonder if perhaps there was more to this book.
"Ah, admiring our book collection, are you?" The woman from behind the counter came up beside Daja. "Anything catching your eye?"
"Yes, actually," Daja said, her eyes still on the magic book as though it would vanish from sight again. She pointed at it. "That one."
"... really? That one?" The woman seemed surprised that she had noticed it.
"Yes. Can I buy it?"
The woman hesitated. "I'm sorry, but that's a very special book... erm, it belonged to my grandfather, it's just there for display..."
Daja frowned slightly, disappointed by hearing this. Tearing her eyes away from the book, she glanced up at the woman, noticing for the first time how nervous she seemed to be, fidgeting and twisting the cloth in her hands back and forth.
"...it's a family heirloom... doesn't really relate to sewing, but my grandkids are always over and I'm scared they'll start playing with it..."
Reaching into her pocket, Daja pulled out a Sickle and held it up for the woman to see. She stopped talking immediately and took the coin, inspecting it closely as a small smile crept across her face. Finally meeting Daja's eyes, she winked at her.
"Well, in that case, I suppose you can have it," she whispered conspiratorially. "Just don't tell anyone that I let you buy this."
"How much?" Daja asked her quietly.
"One Galleon, fourteen Sickles."
She counted out the money silently and handed it over to the woman, who pocketed it with another wink. "The book's yours." As Daja gently lifted the book off the shelf, she added, "Don't get many of your sort coming in here, that's for certain."
"There aren't many of my sort around in the first place," Daja replied, causing the older woman to chuckle. She'll never know just how I mean that, she thought to herself. Me and my siblings, we're one of a kind... well, four of a kind.
She looked down at the now fully visible book in her hands. A History of the Invisibility Cloak. It sounded like something Sandry would like; fashion, magic and history combined. She flinched as the book began fading from sight once more. Within seconds, her hands appeared to be completely empty; if it wasn't for the slight weight of the book between them, she might have thought they were.
"Don't worry," the woman murmured to her as the door to the shop opened. "It's just a spell. It'll turn invisible whenever Muggles come nearby." She turned away and went back over to her counter.
Daja left the store quickly, cradling the book in one arm and turning sideways to hide it from the Muggle customers who would surely find it strange to see a girl holding empty air in one hand. Going outside, she saw Tris and Luna immediately, sitting on the sidewalk across the road. Tris turned and, noticing her standing there, the two girls got to their feet and came towards her.
"Were you able to find something?" Tris asked.
"Yes, look at this." Daja held the now-visible book out to them so they could read the title.
"Looks interesting," Luna commented.
"Did you know that the sewing woman is a witch?" Daja asked her.
"No." Seeing her face, she added, "I mean, she's not a witch."
"Then how could she have this book?"
"She's a Squib; a person without magic, born to a wizarding family. She prefers to live as a Muggle because of it."
Daja whistled softly. "That must have been hard for her," she said.
"It probably was. She doesn't talk much about it, though." Luna glanced up towards the sky. "It's about noon. We should be heading home."
They left the town, walking back over the bridge. As they passed above the river, Daja turned the book over and read the back aloud.
The Complete History of the Invisibility Cloak
This limited edition includes information on replicate cloaks, methods for creating invisible objects (including spells of varying levels and how to weave Demiguise hair), and the Legend of the True Invisibility Cloak, initially recorded by Beedle the Bard and now translated from the original runes into modern English for your convenience.
"The legend of the true invisibility cloak..." she repeated. Turning around to face Luna, she asked her, "Do you know what that is?"
"Oh, they must mean the tale of the three brothers," Luna said thoughtfully. "There are quite a few possible different names for that story. The story of the invincible wand; the resurrection of the river stone; and now, the legend of the true invisibility cloak."
Daja glanced down at the book again. A symbol had been hand-drawn below the synopsis; a triangle with a circle nested inside it, a straight line dividing the shapes equally in half.
"Can you tell us it?" she asked Luna hopefully.
"Of course I can." The blonde girl settled her grocery bag higher on her shoulder, and as they passed beneath the shadow of a large pine tree, she began telling them the story.