A/N: Here's Chapter 46. Sorry it took so long to update; I needed to get a few plot bunnies out of the way first. I hope you like it.
Disclaimer: As always, I do not own Harry Potter.
"Daddy," said Luna one afternoon in late July, "will you teach me to fish for Freshwater Plimpies?"
Xenophilius was looking over an article that Scotty Underhill had sent him regarding the theory that both the Beaters for the Holyhead Harpies were part troll; it took him a moment to realize his daughter had asked a question.
"What did you say, Luna?"
"Will you teach me to fish for Freshwater Plimpies?"
"Of course I will, moonbeam. But not today; this edition of The Quibbler is due tomorrow morning and I still have to decide which articles are best to use. But I shall teach you tomorrow."
"Thank you, Daddy!" said Luna happily, giving her father a hug before heading out to the garden to help her mother tend to the Dirigible Plums.
Luna happily sang to herself as she and Xenophilius headed to the stream near the Rook, both of them carrying fishing poles.
"Right," said Xeno as they stood near Bottom Bridge. He opened a tackle box and gestured toward the worms inside. "These night crawlers are a Freshwater Plimpy's favorite food in addition to water snails." He then proceeded to show Luna how to hook one onto the line and lower it into the water. "Now we wait."
About four minutes went by before Xeno felt a tug at his line; he pulled and pulled until out came a squirming Plimpy, which he put into a bag. "Now you try, moonbeam." The seven-year-old obediently hooked a worm onto her line and let it fall into the stream. After about a minute she pulled it up to find another Plimpy clinging to the fishhook. "I did it, Daddy!" she said happily.
"Very good," her father told her. A thoughtful expression formed on Luna's face after they'd caught three more Plimpies.
"Daddy, wouldn't it be faster if we used a net instead?"
"It would, yes," Xeno answered, nodding. "Unfortunately, nets only scare Freshwater Plimpies away. They are a rather timid bunch, unlike Gulping Plimpies."
It wasn't long before they'd caught enough Plimpies to make a casserole for supper that evening.
"I do feel sorry for the poor things," Luna said softly as she looked inside the bag full of Plimpies. Ever since Pandora had given her the classic Muggle book Charlotte's Web for her seventh birthday, Luna had felt extremely uncomfortable eating anything with a face. The only reason she had not stopped eating Plimpies was because her father had explained that they were brain food; they gave the eater a huge boost in imagination and creativity.
Later, as the Lovegoods were eating their Freshwater Plimpy casserole, Luna suddenly said wistfully, "I wish Newt were still here. He always loved the taste of Plimpies."
Pandora smiled. "Me too. He certainly made our home life interesting."
"Indeed," agreed Xeno. They ate in silence for several minutes before Pandora took her husband and daughter outside to demonstrate a spell to make the crabapple trees dance and hum.