In witch Muggles and Magic go very well together
Business wasn't quite flourishing in Luna's shop a few weeks later but old customers came back for more and new ones occasionally tagged along with them or ambled in to have a look themselves. Luna was talking intensely to such a customer when she noticed her shop door slid open and close again as the man examined the Healing Crystals Amulets. It wasn't until he had bought a Quartz ring and she had ushered him out of the door (which she then promptly locked) that she reacted at all to the invisible presence.
'Windardium Leviosa' she called, whipping her wand out of its usual place as a hair tie. Luna's Demiguise-pelt lined cloak rose up several feet into the air revealing Colin Creevey looking very taken aback in the middle of her shop. He had obviously not expected to be caught in the act. 'Accio' she called, her wand still levelled at his face. The invisibility cloak flew over to her and she stuffed it behind her onto a shelf. Colin took one look at the murderous look on Luna's usually friendly face and decided it was time to speak.
'Err… Miss Lovegood, I was just about to-'
Luna interrupted 'You were just about to leave my shop and you have five seconds to do so. Five.'
Colin was now looking very worriedly at the wood tip between his eyebrows
'Luna please! This is Colin, you know (Four) from Hogwarts! Moving pictures in first (Three) year, Potter badges in third year (Two) DA-MEETINGS-IN-FOURTH-YEAR-I'M COLIN CREEEVEY!'
'Oh' said Luna, mildly this time 'that Colin'. But the wand still did not budge.
Colin wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead as Luna squinted at him from behind her vibrantly coloured contacts.
'Small boy,' she remarked eventually 'attached to his camera by permanent sticking charm and wasn't as loathsome as most in the year, tried to steal my Gryfindor hat once' She smiled at the memory and her wand lowered slowly to waist height, although neither her arm nor eye relaxed.
'What do you want Colin?'
Colin decide to try a little reporter trick he had observed at the Quibbler's offices. A reporter would pretend to be interested in a product with the 'view to buying something' while recording the conversation for later use in a 'factual' article.
'What do you have?' he replied smoothly 'It's my mother's birthday in a few days and I thought I might pick up a present for her here, seeing as she's a Muggle and all that.'
He paused to see how Luna was swallowing this and gave a sigh of relief when she moved behind her counter and cautiously dropped her wand into a side pocket of her floaty gypsy skirt.
'What were you thinking of getting her?' she asked. Businesslike once more.
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Luna had started her business as an illegal stall owner in the local market. The magical items she originally sold were pendants or other sorts of jewellery of her own design. These were snapped up speedily by the local teenage girls in a sort of trend; cheaper than buying in a jewellers, more artistic than the local chemist's supply and as they actually did what she said they did they became very popular. She had Mood-stones which actually showed what mood you were in, 'happy earrings' for when you needed a smile and copper bracelets which promised to keep ill health at bay.
Not that her first customers really believed it all but eventually they came around to the idea that these trinkets were out of the ordinary and told their friends about 'Luna's Lifestones' and where to find her. She had made enough money to rent her premises on Darwin Street and had recently moved into selling more exotically enchanted items…
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'You can't sell potions to Muggles' said Colin, aghast. So far they had looked at key rings that don't get lost, enhancing eye contacts and pet rocks but at this Luna's face hardened slightly around the brow area.
'I don't' she stated simply.
Colin started to stutter in indignation;
'But you do! Look!' He picked up a tiny round-bottomed flask containing a yellowy liquid 'Luck1' he said incredulously and picked up some others. 'Joy! Peace of mind! and Love! You're telling me that these are not potions?'
Luna's patience was wearing thin. Her pale face seemed sharper than it did in the days Colin knew her and her eyes had lost the day-dream that had always possessed them. She'd grown old Colin realised and then glanced away when she caught him staring at her.
'They're not potions, they're incenses' Luna explained, as though to a child. 'Muggles won't drink them as wizards do but burn them instead. It doesn't work so well as consuming them would but the potion has a slight effect on the person's life for a few hours and then it wears off.'
'And anyway' she added more irritably 'I don't sell them to any old Muggle; that's a hidden cabinet you're looking at.'
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When Colin reviewed the day later he found he was slightly in awe of Luna. This woman had pushed through legislation to allow her, and only her, express permission to sell lightly enchanted items to Muggles without ever setting foot in the Wizarding High Council. She had set up business on her own with no real financial background to speak of and had even got away with selling stuff she really shouldn't have because she knew who to talk to. Gone was the Luna who wore radishes in her earlobes and corks around her neck. Gone also it would seem was the distressed girl he had met barely a month ago. A newer model had arrived, hardened by loss and toughened by sheer necessity.
In fact he had been so amazed by this new Luna's plausible explanations and justifications of her actions that he had coughed up thirty-five Muggle pounds for a square box set of four potions/incenses and three more for a burner. As an after thought he had also bought a silver happy earring for himself in a manly dragon design after Luna discovered and wiped clean the Muggle tape recorder he had carried in his pocket. He figured he needed the earring; he would have had one hell of a story and salary boost if she hadn't been so good a scourging charms.
Grimacing slightly at the pain in the hand that he had been stupid enough to try stop her burning the recorder with he suddenly grinned. To hell with it, he thought, evidence or no-evidence this kind of story was publishable anyway. Pulling out a fresh sheet of parchment he sat at his desk and began to write. 'Luna's Lifestones' would soon be sorry that she messed with Colin Creevey's goolies…
END Part two.
Coming in Chapter three: Anger, Revelation and Full-blown Conspiracy Theories.
After Colin publishes an article in the Quibbler about her shop Luna is not too pleased with him. She is even less so when he arrives at her flat near midnight to ask her the truth about something she doesn't want to accept.
AN: Okay, I know I promised some action in this chapter but as it's only a short one (please don't hex me) and really only a half of the chapter I just wrote I'd appreciate if you'll just bear with me for a few days more till I get my act together and figure out an up-dating system that suits everyone here at home. I'd better go now before my parents get back- shit they're here. Bye and thank you all my reviewers, your reviews have been returned as a mark of my gratitude!
