Chapter 9

What Rodney had not been expecting was being left in the care of John's rather eccentric friend while John went to the Ministry. With a cup of radish tea in hand he sat on a large purple-leathered wing-backed chair while he watched Luna gently sit down on the bright orange couch that was sitting across from his own chair.

Sipping lightly on the tea he was slowly growing accustom to, he watched as the woman moved a stray strand of glossy blond hair behind her ear. "I must say that I was surprised to see Harry yesterday while I was shopping for an item for my research," she said as she set her teacup down on the table in front of them.

"Yes, well, I am sure he was not expecting to see you either," Rodney replied, not really quite sure how to make small talk with a witch he had only meet yesterday.

"No, I imagine not," the woman continued on, "Although, I think it was magnificent luck. I had only just finished visiting George before I ran into him." She paused a gentle smile gracing her face, "He did seem a mite bit mad though."

Rodney looked at the woman uncomfortably. "Hmm. Yes. He did give John a rather good punch yesterday."

That just made the woman laugh. "George can be a little brash sometimes, but it is nothing to be worried about." She paused again. It made Rodney a bit uncomfortably as she looked at him with her wide blue eyes, as if they were searching for something. "Tell me about yourself."

"Well," Rodney said, not sure where to start or what to say, "I am a physicist." He stopped and looked at her. Maybe she would know what he was.

"And what do you do?" she asked, not asking what a physicist was. It was then that Rodney felt as though the air in the room lightened. At least she knew what his job description entitled to some degree. It was more then he had in common with anyone else he had met so far.

"Most of what I do is confidential, but the basics of it is that I head up a science team for an international program dealing with Astrophysics and advanced technologies. All very important things, I assure you." All of this was said a little more brightly and hopefully than anything else he had thus far said to the woman. And there he saw it, recognition in her eyes as to what he was saying.

"I myself do not have much background in physics, but in our world Astrology is a studied field and my work with the Iregore has given me a more in-depth understanding of the subject than most," She paused to sip her tea, her thin nimble hands picking up her teacup from where she had left it. "Maybe because you are an astrophysicist you would like to take a look at the information I have on that star I was telling you about yesterday. You said that you had also noticed it, yes?"

"Well, yes…" Rodney said, suddenly becoming uncomfortable again as he watched the woman get up, her pale yellow dress falling around her knobley knees.

Luna smiled as she took the few steps to his chair and took the teacup from his hands. "Come along," she said as she led the way across the strange circular room that made up the woman's living room. Rodney slowly stood up and reluctantly followed after her as she exited through a small maroon door.

What struck Rodney first about the new room that they were in was the lack of light. Immediately after he had entered the blasted woman had shut the door behind them. But then slowly, his eyes accustomed and he was able to see that there was light. Twinkling stars floated above his head and he was able to make out the constellations as they slowly drifted across the domed ceiling. Slowly his eyes searched out for the blond haired woman and he saw that she had crossed to the center of the sparsely light room. The hair softly draped over her shoulders as she bent down to pick up a small box.

"This is my observatory." She said quietly, as though the darkness did not permit her to speak any louder. "I charmed it myself to be akin to ceiling in the great hall at Hogwarts."

"Hogwarts?" Rodney asked, finding himself speaking in a whisper to match her own.

"Where me and Harry, your John, went to school." She replied her face turning up from her box to look at him. "The ceiling shows the sky as it is outside. However, my ceiling records the night sky, but leaves out the weather of courses. No use recording the sky if all I can see are rainclouds," she explained, a soft amusement lacing her voice. Through the darkness Rodney could make out her soft smile and the gentle glean of her teeth, her eyes sparkling slightly.

"So you can look at the sky at any evening?" Rodney asked curiously as he craned his neck up to look at the stars.

"Yes. Here let me get you something to sit on." She said quickly. A short slender piece of wood was pulled out from her dress pocket and Rodney saw a soft orange glow before he could discern a chair having formed out of no where.

"Did you just make that out of nothing?" He asked as he ran his hand over the back of the chair.

"Yes. Conjured it up just for you," the woman replied smartly as she stepped behind it and motioned for him to sit in it.

Sitting down, Rodney was better able to see the portion of the sky that she was directing her hands toward. "Now," she said as her wand cast a soft purple light at an area of the sky, "this is a showing of the sky six days ago. Notice this empty patch here."

Rodney nodded as she flicked the twig-like wand and the image moved quickly to the next day. "Now there is a faint gleaning of something there. You see it."

"The new star that your, um, dragons are…," he paused there uncomfortably. Dragons?

"Yes, they are singing to this new star." The woman said as if it were the most common thing in the world.

"Alright. So you think it is not a star." Rodney replied disregarding the dragons.

"At first I was not sure. I thought maybe it was debris, it was moving along at first slowly." She said as she flicked her wand and the stars began their path across the sky. "But then it eventually stops." The stars quicken and then slow again. This time the light that Rodney knew to be Atlantis did not move at all, and certainly not along with the stars.

"So what do you think it is?" Rodney asked, feigning any knowledge of what it actually was.

"That is the strange part. See. Let me fast forward this to last evening,"

"I don't see anything different." Rodney began, but she cut him off.

"Wait for it," she said softly. "There!" She leaned over the back of the chair as she pointed to where the 'star' had been. "It's gone. Just disappeared."

"Hmm. That is strange." Rodney replied as he shifted in his seat. Atlantis must have gotten the cloaking device operational again. In his brief mussing she had placed the small box she had retrieved on his lap.

"Open it up and take out the red cube," She instructed as she moved around the chair.

"What do you want me to do with it?" Rodney asked, as he examined the crystalline cube, no bigger than an inch on each side.

"Throw it at the wall," Luna said plainly.

"What?" Rodney asked in confusion.

"It won't break. You'll see."

"Alright," Rodney replied as he looked skeptically at the cube. With an uncommitted toss the cube went sailing through the air until it hit the wall with what Rodney recognized as the sound of a crystal cracking. But rather than slipping to the floor with a satisfying thump the crystal began to illuminate itself and liquefy until it took on the appearance of a loopy handwriting, scrolling across the concave ceiling. There was a circle around where the star had now reappeared with little numbers and short calculations next to it.

"Originally I was too caught up with the Iregore to give the star that much attention." Luna said as she paced along the outer rim of the wall, taking a moment to glance back up at the ceiling. "But then I had you and Harry to tea yesterday and you both knew about it, so I thought I would give it a bit more attention."

Rodney's stomach did an odd little flop as he watched as the curious woman in front of him stared at him, her eyes focused on his own. "Did you find anything interesting," Rodney asked, his voice slightly cracking against his will.

"Of course," the woman said softly a knowing glint in her eyes as she watched Rodney squirm in his chair. He did not know why she had to stand while he sat there. Nor did not know how the genial tea that they had been having before had turned into what was almost an interrogation. Although her words and manners were soft, Rodney could not help but feel slightly intimidated by idea that she knew something she was not suppose to.

"Throw the blue one now." And Rodney did so. Immediately the wall showed a clear image of Atlantis hovering in the skies of the Milky Way galaxy.

Rodney looked at the woman standing before him, while she looked back at him. "That's interesting." Rodney managed to squeak out as he snuck another quick look at Atlantis.

"That's what I thought too," the woman said as she looked up at it. "Come back out into the sitting room. I want to discuss this with you, rather than interrogate you about it in here." Rodney watched as the woman slowly taped her wand to the wall and the two crystals fell back out onto her outstretched palm.

"Come along," she said as she pocketed the crystals and opened the door. Out in the sitting room again, Rodney's eyes slowly readjusted to the light and he followed the woman back to the couch and chairs. It was only now, that he began to take notice of how the cheerful woman that had walked into the room seemed to be drained now. The slightly cheerful stepping woman that had offered him radish tea was replaced with a tired woman who had a stick of wood stuck behind her ear, while her yellow dress was looking slightly disheveled as she dropped herself down onto the couch.

Rodney sat back down in the chair across from the couch and observed as the woman busied herself while pouring another cup of tea. She looked up at him inquiringly. No he shook his head; he did not want another cup. Rodney watched as her pale hands brought the china cup to her lips, and she closed her eyes as she took a sip. "I stayed up all night looking at that picture." Rodney just sat there quietly. "It makes sense now, why none of us could every find Harry. He just wasn't here was he?"

"It's classified," Rodney said uncomfortably, trying to look anywhere but at this exhausted woman.

"I was trying to be cheerful when Harry was here, dropping you off and everything, but I just had to show you. Your reactions are enough. I know that was where he was." Rodney waited again as she quietly sipped her tea. "It just would have been an easier time on all of us if he would have just let us know where he was. Especially the Weasleys."

Rodney looked at the woman sitting across from him unsure of what to say, but thankfully he did not have to say anything, she continued on. "Did he ever mention any of us?"

"Only a few times. Whenever he did he always seemed rather bothered by it. We didn't really discuss home very much on Atlantis."

"Is that what it is called?"

Rodney nodded his head affirmative. There was no use in denying it. "Yes."

"What does John do?" Rodney could tell that the name was foreign to her lips.

"He is, well was, commanding officer of the military on the base until he got deported."

"That sounds like Harry, getting into trouble all the time." A small smile had found it's way back onto her face, and Rodney felt the mood lightened slightly.

Taking the opportunity Rodney did his best to continue on, "Yeah, that's our John. He has a habit of getting into trouble. You would not believe how many times we've had to haul his ass back out of trouble," Rodney said, his voice straining to be cheerful.

The woman, Luna, let out a small laugh and Rodney allowed himself to grin a little bit. "We did too. So many times," a wistful tone overtook the woman's voice as she looked over a Rodney.

"He must have an inborn talent," he quipped back as he began to relax again in his chair.

"Hermione and Ron always did say that he did," the woman replied, nodding her head in agreement.

"They were his friends in school also, right?"

"Yes, his best friends from when he started school. I only really got to know him towards the end of our schooling together. He helped me find my shoes once."

"Your shoes?" Rodney asked curiously, not being able to help himself as he glanced down and noticed that her slim feet were clad in soft yellow sandals, complementing her dress.

"I was not liked very much while I was in school," The woman explained, "Everyone called me 'Loony Lovegood.' They were never particularly nice to me, but I can understand as I look back at it now. I was a good deal quirkier then than I am now. I like that I have matured into a more unique person, rather than a crazy 'loony' one." She sat her tea down onto the table and stood up again. "Would you like to see some of the picture books I have of when we were all in school together?"

"Alright." Rodney replied.

"Here let me get it." She whipped her wand out from behind her ear. "Accio Albums." A small stack of books zoomed into the woman's outstretched arms, and Rodney watched as she tucked the stick back behind her ear.

"I am not sure I will ever get used to any of this," he said more to himself than to her, as she sat back down on the couch.

"And I am not sure I would ever get used to the muggle world, everything is from the eyes of the beholder is it not?" She patted the couch beside her. "Now come over here so you can get a better look."

Rodney did just that as she began to flip through the beginning pages of the albums. Inside were moving pictures of young adults, all dressed in dark black uniforms. He recognized John in a number of them. He was younger, scrawnier, and his eyes seemed to be more startling green then Rodney ever remembered them being. A number of the pictures of him had Ginny close at his side, and although she never touched him, the portrait-Ginny would often shoot smiling glances over at the oblivious John.

Rodney recognized the woman that was currently sitting next to him in a number of the pictures also. As she had mentioned, she was quirky. She had radish earrings and a stick behind her ear in almost every photo. An odd assortment of jewelry adorned her in each one, and Rodney could not help but compare this younger counterpart to the woman that was sitting next to him.

She was not as quirky as the counterpart in the pictures. Her eyes were still a brilliant shade of blue, but her hair seemed softer and more graceful to him, and while he could still see some of the quirkiness in the jewelry she wore (he took note of the glass beads hanging from her ears that had what looked like small insect wings in them) it was not as outlandish as what her youth sported. No the woman that sat beside him seemed much more refined, and dare Rodney admit it, much more charming.

A/N: a short update after an immense silence. Hope you all enjoy it. I will try and get a few more updates in over the next few weeks.

I have decided (as I decided over a year ago) that this was going to be a Rodney/Luna shipper. It will be slow going I think, so don't expect anything right away, but I wanted to write a full chapter of them to see how it would go. Let me know what you think of it and any suggestions you might have. I am afraid that I might have done Luna a little bit out of character, but she is older now, and I feel that maybe that should equate to her not being quite so quirky as when she was in school.

Thanks.

Pandor4