Chapter 3: Glasses
Disclaimer: the world of Harry Potter is the property of J.K. Rowling, not me.
Ottery St. Catchpole was quiet on Friday afternoon, at about 2 in the afternoon, it was a warm, sunny day and as the citizens of the small village were going about their business quietly, two people walked quietly down the street. One was a man, the other a young girl of about fourteen.
They were clearly related, both having dirty blonde hair, and a dreamy look on their faces.
The man was short, and stocky, he looked like the human version of a bulldog, and though he wore a careless expression on his face, his eyes were sharp and hard, the kind of eyes that could burn a hole through a stone wall if given enough time, though at first glance their soft brown color would have fooled a casual observer.
The girl had a body type the exact opposite of her companion, where as he was short and stocky, she was tall and thin, with large, dreamy eyes.
The two entered a small cottage near the edge of the village; it was surrounded by an old picket fence, which looked like each board had been painted white during a different year.
The yard was overgrown, and there were no less than five different kinds of grass in it, not to mention numerous weeds.
There was a slightly uneven stone walkway running from the steps leading down from the low porch to the gate at the front of the yard.
The cottage itself looked fairly rundown, but was, in fact, in excellent repair, except for the fact that very little effort was wasted on its appearance.
Well, it looked rundown on the outside anyway.
Inside what appeared to be a small 2 bedroom cottage was in fact a small complex that housed the printing presses for the wizarding world's most prominent tabloid, The Quibbler. It also housed the editor, Bruce Lovegood, and his daughter, Luna, as well as several other things that not many people knew about, and even fewer had access to.
The inside of the cottage was magically enlarged to hold several times its normal capacity.
The ground floor served as the offices for the quibbler, and upstairs were the rather spacious living quarters of the Lovegood family.
As far as most knew, that was all there was to the place, a few bedrooms, a small library, a kitchen, and a dining room, as well as the offices for the Quibbler.
What most did not know about, were the rooms below the ground floor.
The reason that no one knew about them is that they were unplottable, and were protected by wards more powerful than those that protected Gringotts, the largest and most secure wizarding bank in England.
Many people would have been shocked to find the massive complex, but then, anyone who would be surprised to find it would either be disposed of before they could feel surprise, or find themselves locked away in one of the cells in the dungeon just as quickly.
Bruce Lovegood was prepared to protect his complex ruthlessly, and with terrifying efficiency.
He was, after all, a retired unspeakable.
If anyone were to gain access to the department of mysteries employment records, they would be shocked to find the entire staff of The Quibbler were once high ranking unspeakables, in fact, they still were.
None of them were on active duty, but they all received a retainer from the department of mysteries, and they had all been assigned to the 'information center.'
Of course, you would not have found this in the Department of Mysteries that was housed inside the Ministry of Magic. Even though as far as the rest of the ministry knew, that was the Department of Mysteries only office.
Officially it was the only office; however everyone in the DOM knew it as the 'decoy office'.
Everyone knew not to leave anything important there, since in the words of Remus Lupin, the security there "blew worse than a drunk Irishmen playing the bagpipes."
Luna walked up to her room, opened the top drawer in her chest of drawers, and pulled out her second wand. This wand did not officially exist, and did not have the ministry mandated tracking charms, so she would not get in trouble for using magic away from school.
Truthfully, it was much more powerful than the wand she used at school, it was 10 inches long, made of ebony, and had a core of veela hair and ground unicorn horn, suspended in phoenix tears.
She casually flicked her wand, enlarging her trunk to the normal size, and started unpacking for the summer.
After she unpacked, Luna carefully removed the silver dagger she kept strapped to the inside of her thigh during the school year, the blade on it was about seven inches long, the handle was made of oak, and was hollow, inside was a magical core consisting of a phoenix feather and an acromantula fang suspended in basilisk blood, making the small weapon both dangerous in a physical fight, and devastating in a magical duel.
Many of Luna's classmates at Hogwarts thought her to be slightly insane, as well as magically weak and fairly stupid, the truth was, that none of these assumptions were true.
Luna simply did not take most of what went on at Hogwarts seriously. In her private studies with her father, she was already finishing the second year curriculum by the time she got her Hogwarts letter.
Many of Luna's classmates at Hogwarts thought her to be slightly insane, as well as magically weak and fairly stupid, the truth was, that none of these assumptions were true.
Luna simply did not take most of what went on at Hogwarts seriously. In her private studies with her father, she was already finishing the second year curriculum by the time she got her Hogwarts letter.
She was truthfully every bit as intelligent as Hermione Granger, and could nearly match Harry Potter for magical power; she was simply secure enough in that knowledge not to have to prove it to her classmates in meaningless competitions.
Luna changed out of her school clothes, she put on a comfortable cream colored shirt made of acromantula silk, and a pair of navy blue pants made from Egyptian cotton, she then pulled on a pair of grayish-purple boots made of grapehorn leather.
She strapped her dagger onto a holster in her left boot, and put her ebony wand in a holster that was charmed to stick wherever she placed it, and also had a hybrid Confundus Charm/Disillusionment Charmon it, so that no one who she did not want to know about it could sense it.
Luna walked out of her room and down the hall to the dining room, where she found her father talking with an old friend by the name of Arabella Figg.
Luna did not think this strange, as Figg had been a friend of her father for as long as Luna could remember.
Luna sat down and helped herself to a bowl of beef stew, letting her Father and Mrs. Figg talk without interrupting.
Luna silently let out a relieved sigh. Mrs. Figg had brought the stew.
Luna loved her father dearly, but he was not a very good cook, and Luna was only marginally better.
"Hello Luna" Mrs. Figg said with a warm smile.
"Hello Mrs. Figg, thanks for the stew, its good" Luna turned to her father
"So what kind of training do we have lined up this summer Daddy?"
Bruce smiled "Well, I've just arranged for Dory to teach you a few tricks, if it's allright, I think you should stay with her for a few weeks. I would have her stay here with us, but there are reasons why she can't leave her house for that long."
Luna smiled, she had always liked staying with Mrs. Figg, but she was confused.
"I thought I had finished my Muggle training."
Arabella Doreen Figg, or Dory to her close friends, smiled.
"I won't be teaching you how to blend in as a Muggle this time child." She said quietly
"This summer I shall teach you wandless magic."
Luna stared at her in shock "I- I thought you were a squib!" she exclaimed
Bruce smiled knowingly, as Mrs. Figg snorted. "I'm certainly not a squib!" she exclaimed, raising her hands.
A crystal goblet appeared in one of her hands, and a jug of pumpkin juice in the other, she poured some juice into the goblet and then let go of it.
The goblet hung in the air for a moment, before floating over the table and landing softly in front of Luna.
"The ministry of magic considers me a squib because my magical core is not capable of focusing through a wand." She explained "As you know, a wand functions as a magical lens that refocuses the user's magical power, and projects it into a spell." She continued, sounding a lot like Luna's transfiguration professor at Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall.
"There are some magical people who do not need wands, though many of can still use them. A few of us have magical cores that cannot focus power through a wand; they disrupt our power, and prevent our magic from working." She continued, a twinge of anger seeping into her voice "The Ministry of Magic considers anyone who cannot reliably use a wand to be a squib. That is about like saying that anyone who does not wear glasses is blind."
Bruce gently laid a hand on Mrs. Figg's shoulder. "You'll be learning from the best Luna. Dory could probably match Dumbledore for power, if not beat him." He stated proudly.
Luna nodded "allright" she said with a grin "When do we leave?"