CHAPTER SIX. Ways And Means.
The next day Ron was again at home, doing some more work on the shop's website which had developed a couple of 'bugs', whilst Hermione was away in London working at the Ministry. He bashed away at the computer until lunchtime and then thought, smiling to himself, "It's time to put part one of my dastardly plan into operation, now I've worked out the ways and means."
Ron got up from his desk, walked out into the garden, turned on the spot and apparated. Upon emerging from the familiar, but always unpleasant, compressing blackness he was pleased to see his navigation had been spot on and he'd had arrived at the rebuilt Lovegood House. The severe damage the exploding Erumpent horn had caused had now been completely repaired. He walked up to the door of the eccentric round tower like building and could hear from inside the sound of the old fashioned printing press running off the latest edition of The Quibbler. Luna's father who was named Xenophilius had long since been forgiven for his attempted betrayal of Harry to the Death Eaters, as it was obvious that at the time he had been acting under extreme coercion, there having been vile death threats made by Voldermort's supporters against his kidnapped daughter which put him in an impossible position.
However, after the Death Eaters had been foiled in their capture attempt at the house Xenophilius had been falsely held in Azkaban prison. Whilst being held there he unfortunately had suffered a stroke from which he had never fully recovered. Luckily he lived through it but now tired easily, so his daughter Luna had assumed more responsibility for the magazine. Under her co-editorship it was flourishing and whilst it still could not be called exactly a 'mainstream' magical publication it's readership had expanded quite a bit. Nowadays alongside it's original offbeat articles regarding Crumple Horned Snorkacks, Nargles etc. it also had stories of wider appeal and even a wizarding society gossip column. Luna had shown quite a flare for publishing and The Quibbler was flourishing.
Ron walked up to the door of the house and knocked loudly, so as to be heard over the sound of the press. Luna shortly opened the door looking as wistfully beautiful as ever. She said, "Hello Ronald, it's lovely to see you, this is unexpected, come in and have some gurdyroot tea, Daddy and I have just put a brew on." Whilst wincing inside at the very thought of the foul tasting stuff Ron smiled and entered the house saying, "No I won't thanks all the same Luna, I just had some tea and some lunch before I left home, I've been working there today. I only popped over to see you and ask if you had a spare broom I could borrow for a couple of weeks, I'm trying to encourage Hermione to get back into flying one and it's not worth buying a new one for her if she decides she still doesn't like it."
Just then Xenophilius Lovegood came into the kitchen saying, "How's the tea coming along Luna dear? I'm parched." Upon noticing Ron's presence he said, "Hello Ronald, it's great to see you my boy, how's that lovely wife of yours? We haven't seen you both here for a while, you must come over to dinner one evening."
Desperate not to have to do so, since neither Xeno nor Luna had any culinary abilities whatsoever and thinking fast Ron replied, "It's nice to see you as well sir, I was just saying to Hermione the other day that we should put together a dinner party at our place in a few weeks, and invite yourself and Luna, as well as my Mum and Dad. Plus Ginny and Harry if they can all come. How does that sound?"
Xenophilus replied, "That would be splendid Ronald. Luna and I don't get out so much as we used to nowadays and if we don't watch out we'll both end up going barmy stuck here with just our own company. Also it'll be nice for Luna to mix with some people her own age, instead of being stuck here with her old father, slaving away over a hot press all the time."
Ron suppressed a laugh at what old Xeno had just said, knowing that most wizards who knew the Lovegoods thought they were pretty 'barmy' anyway. However, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Harry had all befriended Luna at school and knew that in fact, whilst she held to many of her father's 'unusual' ideas, she was a very bright person, a phenomenal witch and a fierce friend to have backing you up in a tight corner.
"That's great then," said Ron. "I'll talk with Hermione, set a date for the party and we'll send you an invite by owl to let you know when." (There being no new fangled muggle technology in the Lovegood house). "Meanwhile Luna," Ron said, "How's about that broom, have you got a spare old one I can borrow for a while?"
"You need a broom do you dear boy?" Xenophilius said. "Why not use mine for a while? I haven't flown in years, the poor old eyesight isn't what it was due to the strain of all the proof reading and I'm afraid of hitting power lines and treetops if I do fly. I prefer to apparate side-along with Luna when I travel these days."
"That would be wonderful sir, thank you very much." Ron replied. "I'll bring it back to you in a few weeks." Xenophilius answered saying, "No hurry Ronald, no hurry, at all, as and when it suits you dear boy, I've no real use for it anymore."
Luna brought Ron her father's broom, a nice tidy looking example of an old Cleansweep. Ron gave them both his thanks, he shook Xenophilius's hand and kissed Luna goodbye as she let him out of their house. But she called him back just as he was leaving saying, "Hold on, please Ronald. I've been promising Hermione some cuttings of our dirigible plums, so please take her these." She handed him a basket with some small pots containing plants in them. Ron hung the basket from the broomhandle and flew the broom the mile or so cross country back to his own cottage. The vintage broomstick performed perfectly admirably on the way back home, it was stable and easily controllable, if not exactly fast. Ideal for a learner in fact, Ron thought, smiling. "I''ll hide it behind the workbench in the shed so's Hermione doesn't spot it before the weekend."
That Saturday morning Ron decided to 'strike while the iron was hot' and put the next part of his fiendish plan into operation. Hermione came out to watch as he attached a small cage, with two compartments just big enough for two of the ducks onto the underside of his broomhandle with a temporary sticking charm. He then placed two of the female birds into the cage and gently took to the air with his 'cargo'. Initially they panicked a little, flapping around a bit in the confined space of the cage and quacking loudly, but soon settled down and seemed quite happy to watch the scenery passing below them.
He flew them around the roof of the cottage and the garden for a while to let them get used to the idea then landed back down again. Meanwhile Hermione had been able to catch the remaining male and female mallards and they were swapped for the first two and the process repeated, with similar results. The ducks it appeared had suffered no trauma from this novel experience and so Ron and Hermione decided to move on to the next phase of their 'flight training', immediately after lunch.
Whilst sat outside in the garden having lunch Ron said to Hermione, "You know Hermione, this will go much quicker if you could give me a hand in taking them up for their first few flights. We could train em all at the same time then. There'd be nothing for you to worry about though, as we'd only be dropping 'em off from about six feet to ten feet or so up to start with and even you could manage that much. Go on, I dare you!" Ron was sneakily relying on Hermione's strong competitive streak to goad her into agreeing.
"Ronald," Hermione countered, "You know there's no way I could help, even if I wanted to, we haven't got another broom, I told you, I haven't owned one for years."
"Funny you should say that Hermione," said Ron. "As I told you, Luna flew over here the other day whilst you were at work to drop you off those plant cuttings, I heard her arrive since the window was open and she was talking to Crookshanks and the ducks. You know how Luna is with animals. Anyway, we had a chat and then she apparated back home. I forgot to mention to you that she left her broom behind, I only found it leant aganst a tree once she'd gone. She probably even forgot she'd come here on it. I put it in the shed and was going to give it back to her this weekend, but I'm sure she wouldn't mind you using it for a bit. These days she mostly flies on Nightwings, that thestral Hagrid gave her, in any case. I'm sure she'll come back and pick the broom up if she needs it urgently."
Hermione looked at Ron suspiciously, but couldn't quite put her finger on anything specific in his story, since Luna absent-mindedly leaving her broom behind was not unlike her, she was still a bit unworldly and easily preoccupied. Indeed whilst at Hogwarts Luna was forever losing her property, although she tended to blame this on Nargles. Hermione also knew that since getting Nightwings, her female thestral, that she had become Luna's generally preferred mode of aerial transport.
Hermione thought this over for a while then, apparently still a bit reluctant, said, "Well, as long as I only have to go straight up and down for a few feet I don't mind so much, if it'll help speed up the training, but I'm really out of practice and don't want to do much more than that. I swore I wouldn't do it again, but I do want to get those ducks flying."
"Your a diamond my love,"' said Ron. "It'll halve the time the training takes if two of us do the first few drops, thank you my gorgeous wife." He leant across the garden table and kissed her, whilst smirking internally to himself. Things were going to plan!
"By the way Hermione," Ron went on, "Whilst here Luna suggested we come over to their place to dinner, she'd really love to see you. For obvious reasons I didn't think you'd want to go though, but I had a bit of a brainwave. I suggested that we would like to have her over here for dinner to see Harry and Ginny as well."
"Trouble is she was a bit reluctant to leave her Dad by himself, since he sometimes has 'funny turns' since he had the stroke. So I said they could both come over and that we could make it a bit of a social event, since Harry and Ginny are coming down from London to stay for the weekend in three weeks anyway. We could invite my Mum and Dad over as well, to give Xeno someone to talk to about the old days with and make it a bit of a party."
"Sounds great to me Ron," Hermione replied. "It's better than going over to the Lovegood's for dinner anyway." She smiled, but then shuddered at the very thought of eating their 'food'. "But one thing though"' Hermione said, "You'll be helping me with the cooking. I must get it all ready before your Mum and Dad arrive, or else Molly will insist on 'helping out', that is to say taking over, you know your Mum. I want her to relax whilst she's here, I won't have my guests slaving away over a hot oven!"
"That's fine by me too Hermione, I know what Mum's like, talk about 'always find her in the kitchen at parties' she's a cookaholic," Ron laughed. Then he said. "OK, now then, having finished lunch let's see if you can remember how to get a broomstick off the ground these days. Follow me Mrs Weasley, chocks away!"
Hermione nervously and somewhat reluctantly trudged behind him towards the broom in the garden shed, obviously not looking forward to what she was about to do very much and still with a nagging feeling in the back of her mind that somehow she might have been conned.