Disclaimer - I own nothing you recognise.
Written for Hogwarts, Assignment 5 - Defence Against the Dark Arts, Task 3: Write an Immortality!AU.
Word Count - 2,173
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Olivia glared at the door like it had meant to hurt her when it slammed into her face. She was running late and in a rush to meet Luna in the library. The Hufflepuff common room seemed to be on the other side of the planet when she was running late. She enjoyed spending time with her niece. It had been a long time since she had a genuine human connection that wasn't entirely based on a lie. The door had sent her small form hard into the hallway across and she slammed into it. It stung for a moment but the pain passed quickly.
She heard a painting laugh and she blushed in embarrassment and a bit in anger. She was… honestly she didn't know how old she was in human years. This was the eleventh time she went to Hogwarts and it still jarred her how every single time it changed on her. Classes, the classrooms, professor offices, and secret passages changed themselves over the years. There were very few things that she was glad that had changed.
"Where are you headed to?" a male teenager asked her as she turned towards the other student.
There were times that she had to catch herself in referring to them as children. Even her so-called parents were younger and vastly inexperienced in life in some ways. She'd travelled the world, probably had more sexual experiences that she would admit in polite company, and made more mistakes than any human currently alive, and lived to tell the tale. Yet being barren and unwilling to outlive her children, she never adopted again even if she had a solid false identity after her first adopted child. He had children and they were probably still around but she lost track of them over a hundred years ago.
She often wondered, these days, what happened to her old professors. One of the things she was grateful for was that corporal punishment and beatings were no longer acceptable or the norm. At least three teachers despised her in the last ten times and took pleasure in beating her. It hurt for weeks and you could really only expect help if something was infected or broken. Anything less and you were seen as weak for getting help.
"I was exploring for a bit before heading to the library. I had heard there were secret passages and thought I would look around here," Olivia lied as there actually was a passage there that she was told about but it was yet another thing that changed.
Olivia was actually lost since the stairs she was taking were known to change places occasionally and it had been in a different spot yesterday than today. She could, if she had time, find it but that would just add more time and she actively avoided using the main stairs when possible. It was jarring enough, being around so many humans in close quarters nearly all day, that she needed time alone. Jellyfish weren't nearly as social, complex, or emotional.
"You should have just used the stairs," the boy pointed out.
"I thought that I'd be able to find my way back," Olivia said frowning.
Olivia stared at the teenager. She knew his name- it was something like kelpie or kelpic but like a tree. He had been introduced as a go to person when she was introduced enmass to the house in first year. He seemed like a nice boy and the other first year girls were prone to whisper and blush around him. She could see the appeal but he seemed to be the kind that would grow up rigid and not nearly as adventurous as she liked her bed mates.
"I'm Cedric Diggory. You're Olivia, right? How are you liking Hogwarts so far?" he asked, smiling.
"I'm constantly getting lost, the food here is too rich and is upsetting my stomach but I'm actually having a great time. I even made a friend here," Olivia was surprised that she actually was having a good time.
"Let me show you the way then. What are your parents like?" Cedric asked as he led her to the library.
They were good people, loving parents, and genuine people that deserved better than her she wanted to say but instead she said, "Amazing honestly. I'm a foster kid, adopted last year. My parents abandoned me."
Everything she said was true enough. Her original parents—about three hundred years ago—essentially did when it was revealed she was unable to have children. Only her brother didn't abandon her when that happened. She had, through the nature of her animagus form, learned to become a gifted liar and actor that she often surprised herself when she was honest. Yet there were days she hated being Olivia Bloom and longed for the ocean or going back in time.
"I'm sorry to hear that. Hey, we're at the library now. Do you want me to pick you up before curfew?" Cedric asked.
The other first years would probably kill her but she agreed. She didn't want to be alone today. Her thoughts were dark and heavy these days and she couldn't shake it off. War was coming and it never changed. Whether muggle or magical, civil or international it was an insatiable monster, and it could never be slayed. It was like an ouroboros that ate societies young and those that it didn't consume were left damaged.
Opening the door she entered and found Luna at a table near the window. She settled down on a seat across from her. She took out some of her 'unfinished' homework. She hadn't finished it, but first year homework didn't really change much since it was the absolute basics. She just had to research a little and she could easily get an outstanding. Most of them were about halfway or a third done and she finished them quickly before putting her quill down to take a break.
Olivia stared out into the vast abyss outside the window. It wasn't much of a view in the last dying rays of sunlight. Still, she could feel them out there. As glad as she was that they weren't allowed any closer, she still really hated dementor. It was unnatural that they were in a pack or murder or whatever the term was, if there was any, for a group of dementors. Luna sat across from her, working on her transfiguration homework.
"I really really hate them," Olivia muttered.
"They are quite awful. They seem more like a menace than a safeguard," Luna answered.
"Yeah. Hey Luna, what's your father like?" Olivia asked, wondering about her far too many times nephew.
"Passionate. Genuine. Obsessive." Luna paused writing after trying to think of a way to describe him.
"He sounds like a good man." Olivia smiled before turning and glaring at the dementors for fouling up her time as a human after two decades in her animagus form.
"They really are quite foul to us Lovegoods, aren't they, Auntie?" Luna commented as she followed the gaze of her friend slash ancestor.
"Oh, I agree. You're just like my brother in that way, niece. He was quite sensitive too." Olivia froze as she realized what Luna called her and what she said.
She didn't know how Luna knew it was her. It had been a long time since she was claimed as a relative by another human. The last one hadn't been related to her, but it was after the great war and she was the one being claimed as the younger of the pair. Luna had called her an aunt and even her direct nieces and nephews never called her that. It was a different time then, though- they were gone by over two hundred years now, give or take a few decades- she often lost track of time, especially after changing into her animagus form.
"She of water and winds, a force of nature, and my dear sister," Luna quoted from an old and secret family story that she found in the diary of an old relative, "And the moment I met you I knew something was weird about you. Getting to know you made the feeling of water and winds all the clearer."
Human relationships confounded Olivia. It was much easier as a jellyfish. They just were, and it was amazing to join a swarm of her own kind and float in the ocean, forgetting about all her problems on land, and losing track of time in the deep blue. Even alone she had a wonderful time just floating in the ocean.
Still, the waters were dangerous, and even as an adult she could die if another type of jellyfish or predator decided it wanted a turritopsis nutricula as a snack. The most meaningful relationships tended to be with strangers as she traveled the globe, walking into their lives and out just as quickly, as soon as the vacation ended, like the relationship she had with the Bloom family. The relationship was always complex and odd with the people that adopted her. It always hurt her a little to lose them due to leaving or outliving them.
She was older and more experienced than many of them most of the time but still took on the role of a child since there were times she wanted to be free of being an adult human. She loved the Bloom family in her own way but they weren't really blood relatives and kin. Luna, she realized, was both- and she felt something stir in her that she hadn't experienced in a long time; since her brother passed away. It was mutual acceptance she realized.
His children wanted nothing to do with her and their parents and relatives shunned her since it was revealed she was barren in child bearing age. A woman was worthless unless she could give her husband children then. It was the reason why she ran away and how she was alone when those men found her.
"Well, you found me, Luna. Edward was an arrogant brat but he grew into a fine man. A proper gentleman. Well, he had all the flaws and vices of the men of the age, but that could be said of all people after enough time has passed," Olivia said.
"I can't imagine. I'm just surprised you managed to become a magical creature," Luna had stopped writing now and was fully focused on the conversation now.
"I'm not a magical creature. Jellyfish are muggle animals- I just happened to be one that had super powers." Olivia grinned and relaxed as she realized Luna wasn't going to tell anyone.
"You can do more than change your age at will?" Luna asked, astounded.
"It's not that simple, actually. I can deage to polyp from an adult jellyfish, but there's a cost. I either pay it by going through the different stages in the water until I'm 'old' enough as a jellyfish or simply risking dying as a human since I need to be at least sixteen until I can transform again," Olivia said.
"So you can die still?" Luna asked.
"Of course I can. Even in the water I could, if I was eaten or got a disease that hit me hard enough. I thought I was a normal person until I was attacked a few years after becoming an animagus. It was near an isolated lagoon and I was gravely injured. I hid my clothing and jumped in the water, changing. It was instinctual to become a polyp," Olivia said.
"That must have been both amazing and a shock. What happened to the people attacking you?" Luna asked.
"They must have gotten bored and wandered away. I stayed in the water for a couple of years because I lost myself to the transformation. I was already an adult jellyfish when I came to my senses. I transformed back, stole some clothing, and tried to find my brother. He was older than I expected and angry at me for leaving without a message to him. Everyone else was angry that I was still alive," Olivia said.
"That must have felt awful. Are you interested in meeting my father? I'm sure he'd love to meet you. You could come over during the summer for a bit," Luna asked, smiling.
"I'd love to."
Luna grinned and set aside her homework. She had a letter to write about inviting a certain first year to her home. Everyone in her family was told about the strange protector that, in times of crisis, aided the family.
It was all thought to be a myth since it didn't always happen, but Luna knew better. She had a phase where she buried herself into the family history and found some personal records. No one ever really wanted to see this mysterious protector that vanished as soon as she came but Circe Lovegood in the end was lonely and alone and needed her family as much as they needed her.