THC

House: Hufflepuff

Class: Transfiguration

Category: Standard

Prompt: [Weather] Rainy [Word] Bookshop

Word Count: 1372

Harry cursed to himself as he saw the clouds darken. "The weather report said it was supposed to be sunny twenty one celsius." Before he could grumble his displeasure even more, the rumble of thunder boomed in the distance. As the first drops of uncomfortably hot water fell on his head, he looked around, trying to find the first covered spot to seek shelter.

His eyes landed on the slightly faded sign of a bookshop.

Another rumble of thunder made Harry quickly duck under the businesses awning just before the sky opened up and began to pour sheets of rain. "Of course the world would decide to mock my mood," he groused. Emerald eyes shot down to look at the pale circle on his left ring finger. He had finalized his divorce from Ginny after some unsavory things she did while on the road with the Holyhead Harpies were exposed by the press.

"Welcome to Lovegood…. Oh, is that you Harry Potter?" a voice asked from the sales counter.

Harry turned his head, hearing a familiar voice he hadn't heard since the night of the Second Battle of Hogwarts. His sour disposition from a moment ago disappeared slightly as his eyes fell on the form of a pregnant Luna Lovegood smiling at him from behind the sales counter. "Luna? Luna Lovegood? Is that you?" he asked as a smile quirked the edges of his lips. Although they hadn't been proper friends in the strongest sense of the words, he thought of her fondly as someone he could count on ever since they raided the Ministry together back in Fifth Year.

"I would hope so, but one can never be too sure. You see, the Fair Folk- that is, the fairies of old- had this nasty little habit of kidnapping children at birth and replacing them with their own children. It's why the legends of Changelings have always cast doubt on people whom you run into after extended periods of time. They seem different than you remember to be at your last interaction," Luna said, her blonde hair shifting in the faux breeze created by the ceiling fan.

Harry couldn't help the slight chuckle that escaped him. "Perhaps so, but after that I'm certain it's you. Last time I saw you, you and Rolf were gallivanting off to study under Newt Scamander for your Magizoology studies," he said, going further into the shop.

Outside the shop, lightning flashed, and people ran by the store as they tried to find shelter. No one else seemed to notice the shop or its two inhabitants.

"Oh, Rolf is out in Nigeria with his uncle to track down some new magical spider. Newt said it was called a Turboise, I believe. My French is not as good as my Arabic,'' Luna said, a hand waving in a way as though she was dismissing the thought. "Or was it Hindi… No matter, it is one of those two languages."

Harry barely heard the rain worsen as he moved over to the desk and followed a motion of Luna's hand to take a seat near her. "So what exactly is a Turboise, and can I get one to terrorize my ex-wife?" he asked.

"I don't think that you would want to have one of them let loose in her home. The Turboise are, according to the texts Rolf and I deciphered before he departed for the trip with his uncle, most carnivorous when agitated. I can fetch the papers if you would like. One person's account detailed a rather bloody scene about three Turboise's the size of a fully grown horse attacking a village and leaving nothing but human bones in their wake." Luna tapped her chin while screwing her face up in thought. "There are also accounts of them being rather helpful to impoverished villages by protecting the area if there were sacrifices of animal flesh left to feed them. I can't speak to the authenticity of the accounts because they were written in what looked like human blood, making me highly suspicious. The ending was almost indecipherable too. It spoke of a cosmic horror with a face composed solely of ears and killer claws that could create canyons in the earth with a single slice that seemed to scare the Turboise into submission."

Harry leaned back in his chair with a look of intrigue. "What exactly does a Turboise look like? They have to be pretty fierce to have such a reputation, even if it is just by written record," he said, his knee aching from the cold. His time at Hogwarts as a Seeker and the injuries he received as an Auror had made his joints achy when cold weather came in. His muggle doctor friend liked to say Harry was experiencing the early signs of Arthritis. Harry knew better and didn't rebuke the kind man since that would require him to break the Statute of Secrecy.

"Well, if you want to believe the account that spoke of the cosmic horror, they look like giant fuzzy box turtles with soulless red eyes and skeleton-like armor," Luna said with a factual tone. She got up and waddled into the back for a moment, the sound of books being thrown around ringing through the air, before reappearing with a rolled up papyrus scroll. She smoothed it out on the sales counter and tapped her wand over the text, translating the words to english.

".. and the armor! It was as if our weapons did not affect the beast! Eyes of the devil glared out at us from the darkness of its shell before long, gangly limbs exploded out from the skeletal armor! Our only saving grace was the Hearing One, he who hears all! He heard our cries for help and tore the monster asunder, limb by limb! Blood like black water rotted the land where it landed, but soon the beast was still!

The Hearing One spoke no words, His existence transcends us. We understand, though. So does the beast. The Hearing One will protect us, His new acolytes. The Hearing one will show the beast what a mistake it is to interfere with Divine Authority! All hail The Hearing One!"

Harry had to read the section several times before slowly rolling it up. "Sometimes I don't want to venture outside this country," he said with a shake of his head. "Monster magical spiders like box turtles, some kind of creature with ears for a face… Next thing I know, you're going to be telling me that Umbridge had a secret child with Fudge before she disappeared and now that child is working at the Ministry, scheming to become the Minister of Magic to pick up where their father left off."

Luna was suspiciously silent.

"Luna, tell me that Umbridge and Fudge didn't have a secret child before she disappeared that is currently a Ministry employee trying to get the Minister seat to pick up where Fudge left off," Harry said, leaning forward now. "Pretty please."

"I wish I could, Harry Potter." Luna looked serious as she took the scroll back.

Harry went several shades of white. "I need to get out of…."

Luna's serious expression broke as she let out peals of airy giggles. "I'm sorry, Harry Potter," she said behind a hand covering her mouth. "They never had a child that anyone knows about, and the Ministry has that policy about having records of a person's magical trace on file. If they did and the person applied to work at the Ministry, red flags would have been raised and the building would have gone into lockdown instantly. After everything Fudge and Umbridge did, their child would have a better chance of being magically bound and Obliviated before being dumped in a muggle town."

Harry tried to look mad but the laughter escaping Luna's lips was infectious.

Outside the bookshop, the rain began to thin and lighten as the old friends caught up. The more the emerald-eyed man inside seemed to relax, the lesser the rain became, until it petered out completely as the two stood an hour later and embraced with the promise of a lunch date for the following week to catch up even more.