Pre-Hogwarts, contains OotP spoilers. We need more Luna fics, so I wrote one. Read at your own risk.
Chapter 1
Shadows and Unicorns
Luna would never forget the unicorn.
It had first appeared early one spring morning, shortly before Midsummer's Eve of her fifth year on earth. Her mother gently shook her awake, and Luna, with the eagerness so unique to young children, had instantly sprung out of bed.
"Come on," her mother said. "I'd like to show you something. Be quick, they may not stay long."
Her mother hastily helped Luna throw some clothes on, neglecting shoes and socks. Luna had yet to master the art of tying her shoelaces, and mother refused to help her with magic. It didn't matter today. "Just go barefoot," her mother said.
They hurried out the front door, running down the winding streets of Ottery St. Catchpole. The sun hung low in the sky to their left, ducking behind houses as they walked. Their shadows extended into the distance, reaching off into forever.
"Where do shadows go when they disappear, mommy?" she asked as they walked.
"They never really disappear," her mother replied. "They just fade out. But if you know where to look, you can find them again. Look," she pointed off into the distance, where the twisted image of a chimney stretched out across the grass. "It looks like it goes on forever. But if you follow it far enough," she said, guiding Luna's hand to trace the path of the shadow, "it all comes back together on some distant object."
Sure enough, the shadow had ended up on the side of barn, way off in the field. There it made a perfect image of the original chimney, twisted spout and all. Luna laughed with delight. "Can we see my shadow too?" she asked.
"Of course we can," her mother replied. "We just have to move a little farther down the road, so we're not covered up by the chimney."
Luna was already skipping along. She felt the warm sunlight on her back, and looked across the field. There, off in the distance, a girl-sized reflection stood imprinted on the barn. She waved. The image waved back at her.
"See?" her mother said. "If you don't see something the first time, just move a bit. Sometimes a new perspective is all you need. Now let's hurry up and move along. There's much more to see."
They scurried past the bridge over the River Otter, stopping only briefly to gaze at the clear, sun-glazed water. Then they walked onwards through the rolling meadows that separated the village from the Weasley Burrow. "This is the way to Ginny's house," Luna couldn't help commenting. "We play over in that field. Sometimes her brothers come out and practice Quidditch. Ginny's going to steal one of their broomsticks as soon as she's tall enough to get in the broom shed."
"She is, is she?" Luna's mother looked thoughtful. "Well, don't expect to get one yourself. I don't trust those things. Never could manage them right myself."
Slightly disappointed (though she was already plotting ways to get Ginny to steal one for her), Luna decided it was best not to argue. They were cutting across the field now, and Luna felt the wet grass cushioning her footfalls. She wanted to run ahead, run across the field and into the forest, but her mother held her back. "Careful," she said, "you don't want to scare it off."
Scare what off? Luna didn't see anything. But she held back, just in case.
They were halfway across the field now, coming up on the dense forest that marked the boundaries of the Otter Meadows. The forest loomed ahead, trees illuminated by the sunshine streaming across the fields. Still, many secrets were hidden in the dark shadows of the underbrush.
"You see it now?" her mother asked. "There." She pointed to a gap in the trees, a small clearing where the undergrowth thinned and the sunshine could penetrate a few yards into it.
Luna strained her eyes, looking carefully as they moved ever closer. Something horse-shaped was standing below a gnarled old oak, just barely visible in the morning sun. Its silvery-white coat seemed to sparkle, catching the light in odd ways.
They moved closer, a hundred yards, fifty. And then Luna saw the single horn atop its head. She drew in her breath.
"A unicorn! It's a unicorn!" she gasped, delighted. She wanted to run forwards and touch it, to see that magnificent horn up close. But, remembering her mother's warning, she restrained her impulses.
"Don't go any closer," her mother told her. "We don't want to scare it off." They stopped about twenty feet away, just watching.
The unicorn had noticed their presence by now, and was studying them intently with its two silvery eyes. Luna stood absolutely still, afraid to breathe. It felt strange to have an animal gaze at her so intensely, but oddly gratifying. She stared back, watching.
And then the unicorn neighed softly and lazily brushed the ground in front of it with a golden hoof. "Go on," her mother told her. "It's letting you come closer. Just don't make any sudden moves."
She walked over to the unicorn, feeling the bare ground underneath her toes. It continued watching her, a kind of bemused interest in its eyes. Luna was afraid that it would turn around and bolt off into the forest, never to be seen again. But it just waited patiently.
She reached out and ran her hands over the pure white coat. It felt softer than velvet, softer than anything Luna had ever touched. The unicorn moved closer to her and nuzzled her affectionately. After a moment, she drew back and ran her hand down its forehead, from the horn down to the eyes. It nibbled a little at her hand as she withdrew it.
Luna giggled. "I thought it would be bigger," she said, turning to her mother, who now stood a few feet away. "It's not much taller than I am."
"This one's not fully grown yet, probably about your age. The adults are big enough for us to ride on, though its rare that any unicorn would let itself be ridden by a human."
"Shouldn't it be with its mother, then?" Luna asked innocently.
"It'll find its mother soon enough. She can't be far off. Parents never stray far from their children, even when it seems like they're gone forever."
"I hope so," Luna said. "I'd hate to be lost and alone without my parents. It must be scared to death." She ran her hand down the animal's neck, stroking its back.
But the animal seemed to be getting bored. It didn't draw away or attack her or anything, but it wasn't nuzzling back like it had been before. "I think it's time for us to go," Luna's mother said. "Let this unicorn find its way back to its mother."
"Will we see it again?" Luna asked.
"I think so," her mother replied. "They almost never move far when they have a nursing foal. It'll probably be here, somewhere in the forest, for at least the rest of the summer."
Worries assuaged, Luna reluctantly left the side of the unicorn. She gave it one last glance over her shoulder. It bowed its head to her, and gave a slight wave of the horn. A smile spread across Luna's face. She practically skipped after her mother as they walked back through the field.
On the road back, she asked a question that had been on her mind since she first saw the unicorn. "Are there other creatures like the unicorn out there? Ones that I'll see sometime, I mean."
"Of course. There're centaurs and hippogriffs and phoenixes and diricawls. Not to mention nifflers, kneazles, doxies and pixies, snidgets. Oh, and the Weasleys have a bit of a garden gnome problem, if you ever want to help them out."
Luna sighed. "Not like that! I mean special animals, not ordinary ones."
Her mother knelt down, took Luna's hand in hers, and very carefully looked her in the eye. She spoke deliberately - not slowly, but not rushed either. "The special animals are the ones that nobody has ever seen. They don't see them because they aren't looking. Remember the shadows. If you stand in a different place, suddenly all these new things become visible."
Luna nodded, taking everything in. "But what animals? I want to hear about them!"
"Oh, there're heliopaths - those're great big horses of flame. And Sogpas, the mysterious Indian monkeys. Bunyips - you don't want to get near one of those, they scream their heads off. But the most elusive creature of all -" she leaned in close to Luna and whispered in her ear - "is the Crumple-Horned Snorkack. It's a little like a unicorn, but lower to the ground, so it stays hidden by vegetation. And its horn isn't straight like the unicorn, but twisted, like that chimney over there."
She pointed over to the twisted chimney that marked their entrance into the village of Ottery St. Catchpole, the one that had first cast its shadow this morning. Its shadow was much shorter now, casting a distorted image onto the dirt road they walked upon. Luna looked at it, moved onwards, and looked at it again. It changed.
But she knew, as she thought back to the unicorn's pure whiteness, that regardless of perspective, some things would never change.
~~~~
Author's note: It may feel finished, but I've decided to stretch this out into a chaptered fic. Too many plot bunnies not to. ;) I'm going to structure it as a series of more-or-less independent vignettes that together form some semblance of a storyline. You could theoretically read them out of order (or one-at-a-time), but naturally they're better as a complete story.
Already have ideas for the next 4 or so chapters, and some vague plans farther down the line. I'll try to keep updating fairly frequently.
