Chapter Seven — Tiny Hidden Homes
Story Summary: Both of them still affected by the war, Harry and Luna decide to escape Wizarding Britain and to travel around the world for a year, in which they find out more about themselves and the world around them.
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Serpentine Advice: If you enjoy this story, please consider reading my main story, Serpentine Advice, which covers a Harry Potter discovering and learning from a portrait of Salazar Slytherin in the Chamber of Secrets.
"In Amsterdam, the water is the mistress and the land the vassal" ~ Félix Martí Ibáñez
Amsterdam's Centraal train station was not very eye-catching on the inside, at least not after a lengthy ride. But its exterior was designed with intricate, quaint little details that demanded attention. Harry and Luna wordlessly agreed to turn back before they even entered the city of Amsterdam proper to gaze at it for a few minutes, during which they absorbed the details in a silent, contemplative mood. There was a golden royal coat of arms straight up from the main entrance; its symbolism was made clear by an enormous crown glittering in the afternoon sun. Harry hadn't known that the Dutch had a monarchy, but he was glad to have figured it out so quickly.
"You have a thing for buildings, don't you, Harry?" Luna curiously asked while she gazed at the statues adorning the façade of the station. Harry quickly broke from his staring to glance at his friend before answering.
"I don't think I do, but it's developing," he conceded thoughtfully. "I don't understand them. I just think they're pretty."
"It's nice to see something different after being in Paris for so long," she responded, and he nodded understandingly. As beautiful as the city was, they had spent several weeks in just one place, mostly exploring the central neighborhoods around the Seine and occasionally popping to Montmartre. Just seeing a building this big without adhering to the architectural style of Paris was almost a novelty.
As they turned away finally, a few more buildings caught Harry's eye. First was a church to the left of the station, tall and narrow, almost as if an invisible hand had pinched the very edge of its dome and stretched it upwards. The buildings around the religious one took a second later to register, but Harry soon noticed just how narrow they were, almost comically so. There were also many windows in their front, making them seem a bit bigger than their actual size. Harry and Luna distractedly crossed a bridge over a canal, as he kept his eyes trained on the people surrounding them, and Luna stared at a building straight ahead that was, beyond doubt, inspired in the Parisian style.
"We don't speak Dutch," Harry spoke as though he had suddenly realized something gravely concerning, and his face made the appropriately horrified expression just a second later. But Luna was not preoccupied. Of course, knowing her, Harry knew that her calm was far from an adequate reason to not panic.
"The Dutch speak good English, and we can still both speak French. I don't think we'll have a problem with language," she explained, and he reluctantly nodded. It was still a bit unnerving being encircled by people speaking a language he couldn't even begin to comprehend, but he trusted her words.
"Have you been here before?" Harry asked after pondering how she could have known about the average Dutchman's linguistic skills.
"Not to Amsterdam," she said as she peeked over the small bridge separating the station from the city. Her face lit up, and she pointed at a few clusters of boats tied down to one side of the canal. "Oh, those are boathouses!"
"Not ferries?" He inquired in surprise.
"Well, some of them are," Luna granted with a bit of excited impatience. "But some of them aren't. Or at least I don't think they are," she said before looking at Harry over her shoulder. "Wouldn't you like to live on a boat?"
"I don't know if I would," Harry spoke with a furrowed brow as he considered the question. He looked over the people embarking the boats in the canal and tried to imagine himself living there. It felt unsafe, and his body rejected the notion vehemently.
"I guess you wouldn't like that much," Luna spoke softly with understanding eyes. Though she didn't say anything more, Harry guessed that she knew from where his reluctance came. Then her face morphed into something more excited in a fraction of a second, and she happily mused. "But the rocking motions would make sleeping so much more fun!"
"You think it would be fun?" Harry asked with a cocked eyebrow, and Luna looked at him with a slightly tilted head before peeling away from the edge of the bridge and walking forward once again.
"Of course it would. You would turn over in bed, and then the boat would move with you. It's like a giant hammock, and there's nothing bad about a hammock," Luna declared the last sentence with an undue amount of seriousness, as though it was a factual statement. Harry couldn't stop himself from grinning, and from how Luna beamed back at him, he figured his amusement was a least a part of the reason for her sudden imperiousness. "I'm glad that you agree on the greatness of hammocks. I was already pondering on where to find a place to sleep where we could tie a couple of them until you agreed with me."
"We can't have that," he chuckled as they crossed the street. So far, they were surrounded by a mass of people coming in and out of the train station, but up ahead, Harry could already see a hallmark of Amsterdam, one of the few things about the city that he knew, courtesy of Hermione. A steady stream of cyclists calmly made their way across the street, faithfully sticking to a lane of painted red pavement. "By the way, I need to find a place where I can send the letters I wrote on the train," he pointed out before being struck by a wave of sadness. Luna frowned confusedly at his sudden sorrow, and Harry hesitatingly and faultily breathed out. "I don't... You know. Hedwig."
Luna's eyes widened for a second before she too seemed greatly saddened. "I'm sorry, Harry," she softly uttered as she hugged his arm for a bit of support. He nodded absently as conscious thought left his brain, with its only focus being on avoiding the mass of obstacles coming from all directions. He didn't think of the snowy owl that had been his closest companion for years consciously, but she was still there on the back of his mind, large amber eyes looking at him with a mixture of eternal fondness and light contempt. Another pair of wide eyes, this time silver-grey and greatly concerned, looked at him instead, though he was too distracted to notice.
He planned on just moving forward, in line with the mass of people and the tramlines which cut straight through the main avenue. It was certainly a pretty enough stretch of the city, even if he wasn't paying attention to anything. But his plans for a solemn sulk with a nice background were derailed by Luna, who tugged on his arm and pushed him towards a right turn. Someone offered them a pamphlet of a canal tour that Luna declined with a polite smile before Harry could even get his bearings straight.
"I'm taking you to a place with magical owls," she revealed to him after he sent a questioning look her way.
"So, like the Dutch Ministry of Magic?" He asked in a low tone. The people around them didn't hear or care. It might have sounded like a nightclub, for al they knew.
"They're not in Amsterdam; they're in The Hague," Luna slowly blinked as she spoke, and he frowned.
"Wait, isn't Amsterdam the capital?" Harry asked confusedly.
"Yes, but some government buildings are in The Hague, so the Ministry went there too," she explained, and he grumbled something about not getting it. "I don't understand it either, but I think it's funny."
"How so?" He questioned.
"Well, can you imagine someone very important from a foreign country showing up in Amsterdam, trying to find someone else who is very important in the Dutch government, and then finding out they're in another city?" Luna giggled a bit, greatly amusing herself as she visualized the confusion in the foreigner's face. "I have a new idea for my upcoming kingdom."
"Are you going to be a monarch, now?" Harry asked with a sideways crooked smile which she returned with an innocent grin.
"I do issue lunar laws. I was always a monarch," Luna declared jokingly before her eyes glazed a bit in thought. "If the kingdom is mine, would that make it a queendom?"
"Well, Britain is a kingdom, but we have a Queen," Harry reasoned, but Luna seemed unsatisfied.
"But it's normally a king, not a queen," she argued back. "My queendom will only ever have me as Queen. And United Queendom sounds like a much more fun place to live than the United Kingdom, don't you think?" Luna smiled at him, and he snorted lightly in amusement.
"What else can you tell me about the United Queendom, then?" He asked with an indulgent smile, and her eyes shined with joy.
"It's a beautiful country," she declared with distant eyes, the same she had whenever she was deep into visualizing something. "It's not very large, but it has lakes and forests, mountains, and little clearing in the woods where you can sit down and eat pudding while looking at a small stream. There are plenty of tall trees to tie hammocks to, and at night, you can read books under the light of pixies drifting from place to place, forming great streams of magical lights in the sky. Then a phoenix's thrill wakes you up early in the morning."
"That sounds beautiful, Luna," Harry spoke quietly, looking over at her as she smiled brightly in agreement.
"It is, isn't it?" He noted that she spoke of the place as though it really existed, but didn't argue the point.
They walked a bit more in silence, taking in their surroundings. It was clear that Amsterdam didn't have a mandated look, as central Paris did after the Haussmann reforms. Unlike the French capital, the Dutch one had modern buildings springing about from time to time, and the colors contrasted with one another. Still, it had a distinct identity, at least in the streets surrounding the train station. Many buildings were narrow, with four of five stories and large, tall windows. They were mostly dark red, almost brown, and the occasional house built with lighter red brick was also decorated with white stripes crossing its length. Some had a roof in which the middle part was taller than the surrounding sides, making a round inverted archway often detailed in off-white.
Harry and Luna continued to create more details for Luna's United Queendom as they slowly coursed through Amsterdam. They would stop whenever they passed by a bridge overlooking a canal and look at the serene waters below and the great open lanes around it. Trees blocked their sight of some buildings in the distance, but they made the environment more pleasant on their right. Harry would lean over the railing, and Luna would lean into him, and they began quiet worldbuilding conferences. Some people would look at them fondly as they sat down underneath canopies and outside tents, drinking coffee and eating some snacks, but neither of them noticed it.
"What's the flag of the queendom?" Harry asked with a whisper.
"A moon," Luna said matter-of-factly. She mulled over a bit before adding. "With a crown."
"A crown on the flag?" Harry inquired, and she nodded.
"How will people know it's a queendom otherwise?" She argued. Harry looked down at her as she rested her head on his arm.
"It has queendom on the name," he pointed out.
"But they need to know it's a queendom from a distance too," she spoke calmly. "If I can't have a red windmill, can the flag have a red crown?"
"It's your country," he smirked a bit at her, and she looked up at him curiously.
"Well, yes, but you're the prime minister," she spoke casually, and he blinked a bit in surprise.
"I thought I couldn't turn into a politician?" Harry asked with a fleeting grin, though he felt a bit bashful about his incoming leadership post.
"The prime minister of the United Queendom is not a political post," Luna declared sagely. "Your job is different."
"What do I do, then?" He questioned, and she looked at him again. She looked thoughtfully at him for a lengthy amount of time, and her voice was small but also filled with certainty when she next spoke.
"You spend time with me." This time, Harry felt more than a bit embarrassed, and he could feel his heart speeding up minutely. An odd tension dawned between them, and Luna seemed to be able to sense it too. She turned her head towards him, still resting it on his arm, took a deep breath, and then raised it to face him. She then pronounced with utter seriousness. "And, of course, you are in charge of the Pudding Acquisition Office."
Harry immediately cracked up, and the strange tension that had formed between them was dispelled in an instant. Luna seemed pleased with herself with that comment and had an oddly smug little grin etched on her face when Harry recovered from his laughing fit.
"It's an important job," he said between breathless chuckling. "I'm honored, Your Majesty."
"Oh, please don't call me that," Luna immediately complained, with horrified wide eyes.
Sensing an opportunity, Harry smirked teasingly. "I need to call you by your title, Your Majesty."
"Continue doing that, and you'll be stripped of your pudding duties," Luna warned him with a wagging finger. She seemed to be struggling against a grin of her own, her cheeks twitching and eyes shining as she tried her best to maintain a severe expression.
"Nothing but that!" Harry clutched his heart dramatically. He then peered at her and asked sincerely. "Do I still get to spend time with you?"
"Of course you do," Luna smiled a bit shyly. Despite it not being her widest or shiniest one, as she had a talent for beaming with an intensity that almost classified her as a portable light source, Harry decided it was the smile that he most liked seeing on her face. "I'm afraid it's not negotiable."
"I'm okay with my new job, then," Harry spoke tenderly, and she smiled a bit more openly. They began walking ahead again, with Luna hugging Harry's arm with her own. "I'm still going to call you Your Majesty sometimes when we're alone."
"There are better nicknames," Luna claimed with a bit of apprehension. Harry could tell it was not honest discomfort, or he would have stopped, but he was having far too much fun looking at her fidget ever so slightly in embarrassment.
"There are, but I'm not intelligent enough to think about them," he talked. Luna frowned in protest, but he spoke before she could. "And you're way too clever to tease most of the time. I'm not going to let this chance slip."
"You're much more intelligent than you think, Harry Potter," Luna stated wisely, looking at him with seriousness. "And I think you'll come up with better nicknames than that."
"I wouldn't be so sure of that, Your Majesty," he grinned slightly as she rolled her eyes—Luna Lovegood rolling her eyes, Harry thought giddily. It was something straight out of a dream. What was far more real was her fighting against a grin and failing. That had happened more and more as they traveled and as circumstances arose in which she chose to hide her happiness to play with him for a bit. But she always failed. Luna was too expressive to fake her emotions, and she desired happiness with friends most of all in the world.
"Is it too late to start a republic, instead?" She mused jokingly, and Harry laughed shortly.
"Yup!"
"Oh, well," Luna sighed in fake despair. "Such are the burdens of the crown."
"I'm sure you'll deal with them well," Harry spoke diplomatically.
"Yes, I'm very gracious, diplomatic, and uncontroversial," Luna deadpanned, and Harry laughed again.
"That's what makes you such a good leader for the Queendom," he proclaimed, and Luna tilted her head in thought, halting their walk midway through the street.
"I think it's the hammocks," she proclaimed as she regained her step. They walked for a few more streets in silence. Predictably, instead of following the car path that stuck to the Danube lane, Luna guided them towards the narrow brick path, and the buildings shifted evermore in the direction of being older and in that distinctive Amsterdam style Harry had noted before. The Dutch like exposed brick, he noticed, but it was all done in a very orderly manner.
They walked until they found a narrow side street, and they both looked into it from the corner.
"This is just as narrow as Paris," Harry said with some lingering surprise as he watched a car struggle to fit into the pavement, despite being quite small itself. "We are having more narrow street fun, right?"
"Of course. Narrow street fun is a lunar law," she declared with twinkling yes. "But we do need to send your letters first, so we'll go there before we explore for a bit."
Harry hummed, and they walked for a few more houses in silence until they reached yet another alley. "I get the impression that this city has even more narrow streets than Paris," he commented idly.
"Amsterdam has narrow canals too!" Luna gushed happily, and he grinned fondly.
"I wonder if there's fish there," Harry spoke imaginatively.
"I don't think there is, but it would be fun to see them swim," Luna said with a serene smile, her eyes distantly picturing the sight.
"We can go to the countryside and go to a place with fish in it," he suggested, and she nodded excitedly, her hair bobbing up and down in the motion.
They kept walking until they reached a building that caught Harry's eye. He halted their progress, and Luna looked at him curiously and then at it as she noticed him staring. He had seen it on the horizon when they were on the train arriving at the station, but it was fleeting. It looked like a church when you looked up, with the tall, slender spires, the steep layered roofs, and the long windows. But if you looked down, it began to take the shape of another building, though very beautifully decorated on its merits. There was a cylindrical tower sustained by a pillar whose spiraling narrow windows reminded him of drawings of medieval castles. Though he suspected it wasn't the main door, there were several discreet entrances painted vivid red, but otherwise unassuming and even humble. It felt so odd that such a tall, majestic-looking building had such a mundane and accommodating entrance to it, but it was enchanting him. Luna would later discover the place was called Posthoornkerk, in her haste to ensure that all things that Harry liked were named and labeled appropriately for posterity and research.
"I used to think that Hogwarts was the most beautiful place in the world," Harry spoke quietly, leaning his body against a tree and looking at the spiraling top of the building, craning his neck to see it peek just above the construction line above him. "Now, every time that I think about it, I feel my blood running cold, and I can't stop thinking about the destruction. There was so much rubble, and stone, and noise."
Luna stayed quiet, just stepping closer to Harry and hugging him sideways, pinning him between her and the tree. He spoke next in the same tone, though his demeanor turned more and more empty with every word.
"I'm not sure why, but every time I think of the battle, I remember Lavender. She's one of the clearest things to me, which is so weird. I barely talked to her. People much closer to me died, but it's Lavender that really gets me. I don't understand it, but I think of the mess in the courtyard and Lavender's eyes losing focus is what comes to mind the clearest." The dispassionate way in which he spoke alarmed Luna, who was patiently listening to the words, unblinkingly looking at her distraught companion. "I don't think of Hogwarts as beautiful anymore. I can't. It's not even the destruction that made it not be as beautiful to me. Ruins can be charming too, and I'm sure they reconstructed the place well. It's just," he interrupted himself briefly with a deep breath. "It's hard to explain, and I'm not the best at articulating."
"I can wait," Luna said kindly. "Take your time."
Harry did, spending several more moments staring at the tall building before speaking in an even tone. He felt heavy as he spoke and his mind was muddled and confused, but it was as clear a picture of the war that he had in months without feeling overwhelmed.
"The first time I saw Hogwarts, it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. And as I grew up, it never lost its mystique, even if I grew more used to it. Every arrival day, the castle took my breath away as much as the previous. But the battle changed things for me," he looked down at his feet. "I think it's still a grand and great place, but grand and great things can be deadly, chaotic, and destructive, but they can't be beautiful. And I think of the battle whenever I think of Hogwarts now. So, it's not beautiful anymore."
"Why did you think about it now?" Luna inquired gently, tightening her hold on Harry a bit.
"I was wondering when I'll see something that will take my breath away, the same way that Hogwarts did," Harry explained, looking at the building again. "Places like this catch my eye, but not my soul. Paris had a few that really resonated with me, but not to the same level."
"Maybe it was all the magical limestone," Luna suggested with a weak grin that he returned in a wobbly, fragile way. Harry knew that Luna was very worried about him and tried to put on a brave face and clap away the sudden heavy climate, but Luna stopped him from doing that, burrowing herself into him when he opened his arms to clap. "Don't," she spoke quietly, hugging him calmly but warmly.
"Don't what?" Harry asked quietly.
"Don't dismiss it like it's nothing," She explained, and Harry's eyes dropped a bit in shame and sadness at having his attempt to lighten the mood read so easily. Then again, it was Luna. She was good at these things. "Harry?" She called out for him after they spent a couple of minutes in silence.
"Yes?"
"I promise you that I'll find something more breathtaking than Hogwarts and that I won't let it ever not be beautiful." She declared seriously. Though she was still wedged in the hug, Harry could envision the fierce determination in her silver eyes, the focus that only she could have at times, one which was different from everyone else's.
"That's a bold claim," he said neutrally, and this time she peeled away from the hug enough to look at him with grave sentiment and the same determination he had imagined.
"It's not a claim; it's a promise," she corrected him. "And if I don't find a place, I'll make it."
"I trust you," he spoke softly, touched by her words.
"Thank you," she smiled calmly and then stepped back from the hug after giving him a last squeeze.
"I'm sorry, Luna," Harry apologized, looking away from her earnest, expectant face. She furrowed her brows in confusion.
"Whatever for?"
"For ruining the mood," he explained awkwardly, rubbing his neck.
Luna took a step forward, and he was expecting another hug. Instead, she tip-toed and then flicked his nose rapidly.
"Ouch!" He complained, rubbing the place where she hit him.
"Oh, it does work," she spoke idly before looking at him with more focus. "Do I need to flick your nose again?"
"But I did ruin the mood," Harry grumbled. Instead of being flicked once more, as he had anticipated, Luna's face softened, and she smiled kindly, though her expression felt a bit sad.
"Harry, this is a healing trip, remember?" She asked him. "You should never apologize to me whenever you're healing."
"I feel like I've been inconveniencing you," he admitted, and she tilted her head to the side to look at him more closely before she spoke slowly.
"Was I a bother to you in the catacombs?" She inquired evenly, and his guard immediately raised.
"Of course not!" Harry protested the very notion rushedly.
"Then, why would you be bothering me?" Luna asked with a curious expression. "That would be very hypocritical, don't you think?"
"Well, a bit, but..." He trailed off impotently.
"Harry, you're my friend," she spoke in her firm, self-assured voice, the same she used whenever she was spousing her most deeply held beliefs. "You will never be a bother if you're being honest with me. I feel happy that you're speaking to me about these things."
"You do?" He asked, surprised.
"Of course," she exclaimed immediately. "It shows that you trust me with yourself. I know you trusted me with your life during the war, but you never trusted anyone, not even Ron and Hermione, with yourself. There's a difference, you see. When you trust someone with your life, you're really trusting them with your death. But trusting someone with yourself means trusting them with your livelihood and wellbeing, and I find that far more powerful," Luna finished strongly and sagely, with that voice she used whenever she spoke her wisdom.
"Do you trust me with it?" Harry asked after a while. He felt timid asking it but had a feeling it was an important question. Luna stared at him directly in the eye for a full minute, during which he increasingly felt he had intruded on some privacy he shouldn't have peered into until she again stepped into a flick of his nose. "What did you do that for?"
"I've decided that I'm going to flick your nose every time you ask me a stupid question," she declared with a neutral voice.
"That wasn't a stupid question!" Harry disagreed, feeling a bit offended.
"Yes, it was," Luna said, turning away and resuming her walk. She almost whispered the next words, and Harry strained his ears to hear it. "You're the only person I trust with it."
Harry gaped at her for a few seconds before he snapped out of it and jogged to match her step. Luna didn't acknowledge him when he arrived by her side, but she looked a bit embarrassed and ever so slightly pink in the cheeks. He extended her arm to her, and she slowly took it, another shy smile adorning her face. They stayed like that, immersed with themselves, as she looked to the ground for a while, before they caught sight of a canal.
"Oooh, boat plants!" She explained happily, more or less dragging Harry to look at a boat filled with plants on the deck. It was very clearly someone's home, and the potted plants were a strange way of making a garden. She leaned over to look at them more carefully, and someone's face peeked over an open window from inside the boat. Harry was already thinking of an apology, but Luna just smiled her brightest smile at the person before waving excitedly and speaking in French. "You have very nice plants!"
The person inside laughed and waved back before disappearing inside the boat.
"How did you know they were French?" Harry asked with a frown. Luna silently pointed to a French flag on the back of the boat he hadn't seen, and he silently conceded with a wordless noise while she blinked owlishly at him.
They continued their walk, this time parallel to the canal. Bits of urban art appeared both on the boats and the buildings, but it was all very clean and sober. People held animated conversations while sitting on the benches or the decks of the houseboats, drinking beer or coffee. Old couples sat side by side reading different portions of the newspaper and overlooking the calm waters of the canal. Cyclists passed by in a rush to go home or to the market, and others leisurely made their way, stopping to appreciate the view before setting off again. It felt very dynamic, even as they were overlooked by the homes that likely stood centuries. They crossed a small arched bridge into the other side of the canal and walked parallel to it.
"Is it just me, or are the buildings getting narrower?" He asked as he looked up to see a series of several homes whose width was barely more than a couple of doors. Some wider places—mostly businesses, cafés, and bars—were still around, but more and more of the landscape was dominated by that specific style of the narrow building he had first seen back near the station. He imagined that they were wandering into a more picturesque part of a town that had been nothing but incredibly charming so far. Luna smiled a bit at the question, but then suddenly turned serious.
"Well, I don't think it's possible for buildings to only get narrower for only one person," she justified, either missing his point or more likely deliberately messing with him. Then she blinked in quick succession a few times, and he could almost see the cogs working furiously behind her eyes for a few seconds. "Actually, I do think it's possible. So the answer is maybe."
"Are the homes getting narrower for you?" He asked with a raised eyebrow, and she looked at him curiously for a second before facing a building and staring at him very intensely.
"They appear to be mostly still," she declared with a mischievous smile, and it was his time to roll his eyes as she filled the air with delighted, breathless laughter.
He shook his head and continued following her. As they made a turn into a rather large street with many people traveling by, bike racks on both sides, and a great deal of business, he looked at her curiously. "I just realized something. You've never been here before, so how do you know a place that has magical owls?"
Luna smiled at him as if she were proud he had finally noticed. "Well, you just said that you thought the houses were getting narrower, didn't you?"
Harry frowned, confused as to why she was changing the subject so drastically. "Yes," he spoke slowly.
"Well, you're about to see some very narrow homes right about now," she claimed knowingly with a bit of humor in her voice. Harry looked around the street, feeling perplexed. Many homes were quite spacious and wouldn't look out of place in any other city other than their Amsterdam-specific architectural style. "This street was a very famous market in the past. Actually, I know about this Muggle neighborhood because it's famous for having a lot of art galleries, and I've always wanted to come here."
"Is that how you know it, then?" He asked curiously.
"Nope," she declared with a triumphant smile, clearly taking a lot of joy in seeing Harry's bewildered expressions. "Because this was a market, and still is for some days according to what I've read, it has some of the largest properties around. People noticed exactly what you did—the buildings got narrower and narrower, and then they suddenly turned back into quite large ones again. Some wizards of the past had an excellent sense of humor about it," Luna said with a preemptive giggle. She stopped in between two houses and pointed at one of them. "What's the number there?"
"70," Harry said, reading the plaque.
"And there?" She asked, pointing at the building next door.
"54?" He more asked than declared, confusedly wondering why there had been such a strange leap. Luna took one step sideways and revealed seven tiny row houses stacked atop one another in a narrow gap between both buildings. She then took her wand in a smooth motion, and before he could question what she was doing, she delicately placed it on the roof of the topmost building and pushed some magic into it. The buildings marked as 54 and 70 separated further and further until all seven buildings that had been stacked on top of one another were side-to-side and enlarged to real scale. Their doors opened simultaneously to reveal a large circular square with a large fountain in the middle, and what was undoubtedly a magical community was revealed, unbeknownst to the Muggles that walked in front of it, in full view of the chaos of witches, wizards, and creatures within.
"It's supposedly the most powerful Muggle Notice-Me-Not charm in the world, and all for the sake of a joke," Luna spoke with a grin that quickly turned into wild laughter. "I love this place already."