Welcome Home!
Ginny had finished the plans on the bridal shower and was decorating the barn, but Hermione was excited for another reason, today was the day that Luna was coming home, Hermione had decided to turn it into and bridal shower slash welcome home party. Hermione and Luna had been writing to each other regularly, Hermione had given Luna her address as Luna had never seen the house before and she was scheduled to arrive in the barn in the evening.
"Looking good." Hermione said to Ginny upon entering the barn, the vehicles had been moved out of the way, waiters had been hired to serve drinks and nibbles, tables were set up, lanterns were put around to light the place up and Ginny had hired some entertainment who were setting themselves up,
"I know." said Ginny,
"I'm really excited." Hermione told her,
"Me too." said Ginny, "I'm hanging these two banners." Ginny showed Hermione two, well decorated, banners, one said: Welcome Home Luna and the other said: Happy Wedding Hermione,
"Thanks." said Hermione,
"I can't wait to hear about Luna's travels." said Ginny,
"Me neither." said Hermione.
The door to the barn opened and Demelza entered,
"Hey everyone." she said,
"Hey Dem, I wasn't expecting you this early," said Ginny,
"I know but I had no more lectures today so I thought I'd come down." she said,
"I'm glad you did.' said Hermione, she hugged Demelza as did Ginny,
"So is Luna coming back tonight?" asked Demelza,
"Yeah," said Ginny,
"Great." said Demelza,
"And she'll be staying until the wedding." said Hermione,
"Oh, so she'll be here for the hen do?" said Demelza,
"Yep." said Ginny happily,
"And we're not going to any strip clubs." Hermione told Ginny,
"No, I read the list of things not to include, that was on there." Ginny said sadly,
"So what are we doing?" asked Demelza,
"I can't say that yet." said Ginny,
"So, how've you been?" asked Demelza,
"Oh, did I tell you that I caught Katrina?" Hermione told her,
"No, that's great, wait, you caught her, as in you yourself?" asked Demelza,
"Well, me Harry and Ron, I was made a temporary auror." said Hermione,
"Good for you." said Demelza, "And you Ginny?" she asked,
"The leagues going really well, we've won as long as we beat the Falmouth Falcons." said Ginny, "They crushed Puddlemere United." said Ginny,
"I know I heard about that." said Demelza, "Well, I think you'll win." she quickly knocked on the wooden wall of the barn to make sure not to jinx it.
A few hours later the bridal shower had started, Hermione was socializing with the guests, the guest list was entirely female, it included people such as Hermione's mother, Mrs. Weasley, Hermione's female cousins, Hermione's grandmother, Ginny, Demelza and a couple of school friends.
"Well, I think its going well so far." said Ginny who sipped a glass of mead,
"So do I." Hermione agreed, clinking her glass with Ginny's, the banners had been put up and the barn looked better than before, Ginny had blown up some balloons and put up some hangings.
"Do you know when Luna's getting here?" asked Ginny,
"No, we haven't specified the time, we only agreed upon the evening." Hermione told her.
"So she should be here soon then?" asked Ginny,
"I suppose so." said Hermione,
"Do you want to open your presents?" asked Ginny, pointing to a table full of presents,
"No, not yet, not until Luna gets here." said Hermione,
"Fair enough." said Ginny.
Hermione started to dance with Ginny and Demelza when the band started going and they were having a really good time of it all. Hermione grabbed a piece of shrimp from a waiter and continued.
Soon enough, the large wooden door of the barn creaked open, everyone stopped and stared at it, it was soon open fully and Luna stood there, looking like she had wondered in accidentally, she was wheeling along a pink bicycle with a white basket on the front and plastic daisies on it and she had Newt the border collie on a lead next to her, everyone cheered, Hermione walked up to her,
"Welcome home." she said,
"Hello." said Luna in her dreamy voice, Hermione hugged her, as did Ginny and Demelza, "I've missed you all so much." she said,
"We've missed you too." said Hermione, the four of them went to sit down at a table together.
"So," said Ginny, "Tell us about your trip, what was it like?"
"Oh, it was amazing, one of the best experiences of my life." said Luna,
"How did you get around?" asked Hermione,
"Well, you see my bicycle," she started, "I charmed it so that it would fly, that way I could just pilot it over the ocean, I would put Newt in my bag which has an undetectable extension charm upon it, thanks to Hermione, I would put that in my basket and he would poke his head out during journeys." she said.
"Wow." said Demelza,
"What did you find?" asked Ginny,
"Well, I've found nearly every creature in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, I still have a few to discover, and I've found some creatures of my own, I would take a picture of everything I found and write down about my experiences, I planning to make them into a book." said Luna,
"Really, that's great." said Hermione,
"Do you have any of these pictures with you?" asked Demelza,
"I do." said Luna, she went over to grab her bag from her basket on her pink bike and brought it back to them, she pulled out a massive stack of pictures, bound together by two pieces of string and gave them to Demelza who showed them to everyone,
"So what new creatures have you discovered, did you find a crumple horned snorkack?" asked Hermione,
"Sadly no," said Luna, "But I did find many other things, I discovered the nargles, I have a picture of them somewhere," Luna took the stack of pictures and flicked through them, she pulled one out and handed it to Hermione, the picture contained a piece of mistletoe and a small, beautiful, insect like thing flying out of it, you could make out it's hands, it had opposable thumbs, it had flittering wings and a glowing body,
"This is a nargle?" asked Hermione,
"Yes," said Luna happily, "It was very hard to take that photograph too; I had to make sure that my necklace was close." Luna tapped her necklace of butterbeer corks,
"What else did you find?" asked Hermione,
"I found a moon frog, I think; I took this photograph through an extremely powerful telescope." Luna handed Hermione the photo and Hermione looked at it, it showed part of the surface of the moon and showed something in the distance hopping, Hermione could not tell what it was, it could have been a rock but Hermione thought she saw some legs,
"Good, what else?" asked Ginny,
"I took this picture through a pair of my best spectrespecs." said Luna, she handed Hermione another photo, it was of a persons head and you could see many dots flying around their ear,
"And they are…?" asked Demelza,
"Wrackspurts, they crawl inside your ears and make your brain go fuzzy." said Luna, "I obviously warned the man and retreated the area quickly as a precaution,
"Keep going, what else?" asked Demelza, Luna flitted through her photographs,
"Ah, I took this whilst in Uganda." said Luna, showing them a photo of what looked like an elongated brain, crawling along the floor, "I believe it to be an aquavirius maggot." said Luna,
"Cool." said Ginny, Luna continued to scan an pulled out another one that she handed to Hermione, it was a picture of a large bonfire and it looked like a horse like creature was running through it though it was hard to tell whether it was just a trick of the flames,
"What's that?" asked Ginny,
"I think it's a heliopath." said Luna, "It's a fire demon that burns anything in its path." she took the photo back and pulled out another one, it was of a plimpy, but not a regular one, it had huge, air-filled cheeks and bigger lips,
"Where did you find that?" asked Hermione,
"It's a gulping plimpy," said Luna, "I found it when scuba diving in Italy." said Luna,
"Very impressive." said Ginny,
"That's all of the new creatures that I've discovered so far, I hope to find some more, the rest are pictures of well known creatures." she handed them to Hermione who looked through them and the notes that Luna had gotten out which were quite fascinating.
Hermione next opened her presents; she received the regular type of thing, clothes, jewellery, appliances and more.
"Oh, I almost forgot." said Luna, "I got you this." she pulled what looked like wind chimes, it had multiple parts of wood, metal, shells and other materials, it looked beautiful and the noise it made was amazing and dreamy, "it's said to bring good luck when hung in the garden and the owner is truly in love, I thought it was appropriate for the occasion." she said,
"Thank you." said Hermione, taking the chimes from her, "I'll go and hang these now." Hermione vacated the barn and went into her house, through the back door, over the back garden porch and hung the chimes on a cherry tree, they looked good and Hermione almost lost herself in them when a gust of wind came by and they made a noise.
Hermione walked out of her front door and looked at the full moon, she thought she saw Luna walking by the other side of the house so she followed her, she was lying down, hiding behind some grass with a pair of binoculars and a camera next to her,
"What are you doing?" asked Hermione,
"Shhh." said Luna in a whisper,
"Sorry," Hermione whispered, "What are you doing?" she repeated,
"Get down." Luna's whisper demanded, Hermione lay next to Luna, on their stomachs with their heads up looking at the field, "It's a full moon tonight." whispered Luna,
"And…?" asked Hermione,
"You have a field and it's perfect conditions for a mooncalf." said Luna,
"Oh." said Hermione; she knew what a mooncalf was as it was in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,
"Keep quiet; if it knows we're here then it'll retreat, it does a most beautiful dance." Luna whispered.
Hermione saw a rustle in a separate area of the field, the moon hit the centre of the field perfectly, she saw something rise from the ground. It was a strange looking creature that stepped lightly on its enormous flat feet, it went into the moonlight and Luna and Hermione swapped the binoculars to watch. It did a very complicated yet beautiful dance, it left patterns in the tall grass. Hermione was amazed to witness this, Luna was very happy. It finally finished its dance and then left a small pile of silvery dung, Luna took a picture and the mooncalf ran back into its burrow.
Hermione and Luna walked onto the field and saw the large, geometric pattern in the grass; this is what muggles called crop circles. Luna took pictures of it with her camera and pulled out a plastic bag to pick up the silvery dung,
"That's disgusting." said Hermione,
"It's a great fertilizer when used before dawn, I'll bring some home for daddy, by the way, I read the Quibbler and I heard about your law, I'm really pleased." said Luna,
"Thanks." said Hermione,
"There you are," said Ginny who walked up to them, "Everyone's asking where the two guests of honour are."
"Sorry, I'll come back now." said Hermione, "Coming Luna?"
"In a second, I'll deliver this to Daddy first." Hermione returned to her shower and Luna dissapparated, she soon returned (minus the dung), she jotted down some notes about what she'd seen and they all had a great time, Hermione was just pleased to have her friend back.