Prompts: Rolf/Luna (pairing), addicted (word), mist (word), brush (word)
Chocolate Frog Card: (Gold) Demiguise: Challenge: Write about invisibility without the use of an invisibility cloak.
"Incredible," a voice breathed, alerting Luna that she wasn't alone. She didn't startle or reach for her wand, just carried on petting the thestral. "I can tell that you're touching something, but I can't see what it is."
"I thought you'd seen a thestral before," Luna replied, smiling as the thestral huffed at her. "You've implied that you've seen one."
"I've only seen where they are, like this," Rolf Scamander told her. "I've never witnessed death to see them in their true form. I wish I could see their beauty."
"They are a sight to behold," she agreed. "But seeing them comes at a price." She turned to look at her boyfriend, smiling at the slight pout on his face. "Come," she said, "you can brush my hair."
He reached for her hand and linked their fingers, glancing back over his shoulders to the empty clearing, hopeful for a glance, even though he knew he wouldn't catch one. They were just as invisible as they had been the last hundred or so times he'd looked.
"How do you get your hair so messy?" he asked, bringing himself back to the conversation. "You've only been petting the thestrals."
"I think the nargles don't appreciate my sudden neglection," she confessed. "I've been so worried about the pregnant thestral, I fear that they are punishing me by ruining my hair."
"So I'm all packed for the trip to Mexico," Luna commented as she breezed into the room. "Daddy is happy to look after all of our shoes so that they don't get hung up on the ceiling."
"Luna, that never happened to me," he replied, distracted by the letter in his hands. "That only ever happened to you."
"All the more reason to make sure your shoes are looked after," she said. "If it happened to me, it could happen to you since you're close to me." Rolf didn't reply and Luna turned to look at him, an inquisitive look on her face. At his furrowed brow, she placed a pair of glasses over her eyes—the same ones she used at Hogwarts to find Harry on the Hogwart's Express—and noticed his head full of wrackspurts. "What's wrong?"
"It's my dad," Rolf said with a troubled sigh. "He's not very well."
"And St Mungo's can't help?"
"They've done all they can, apparently." He pinched the bridge of his nose and exhaled loudly. "They can only make him comfortable."
They were both silent for a moment before Luna moved to sit next to him and rubbed a hand down his back.
"I'll unpack our bags and send an owl to daddy."
"What? No, Luna, you can't do that!"
"Rolf, you need to be here for your dad. Mexico can wait. This is important."
"We've been planning this trip for months! I want to go with you."
"But you also want to be here for him. I'm not mad, Rolf," she reassured, reaching for his hand. "Stay here and be with your dad for as much as you can. I'll contact the necessary people and we'll postpone our trip. You'll regret not going to see him if he passes through the Veil before our return. You know it, and I know it."
"I'm sorry," he mumbled. "I know how much you were looking forward to this."
"Don't apologise."
Rolf hated St Mungo's, despite how much nicer it had become in the years since his first visit. Going to St Mungo's meant that something was wrong, something that couldn't be dealt with at home. Something bad.
His Nan had passed away in St Mungo's when he was a little boy, and both of his parents had had short stays over the years. He'd even been a patient for a short while when he came down with Dragon Pox; he was lucky to have survived that.
Now he was here to see his dying dad.
"Rolf," his Mum greeted when she noticed her standing in the doorway. "I didn't think you'd be able to come."
"He's dying, Mum. I wasn't going to spend his last moments in a Mexican forest."
"I know how much that trip meant to you."
"Dad means a lot more."
"Glad to hear it, son," a voice croaked, adding to the conversation. "I didn't think I ranked up that high with magical creatures."
"Dad!" he scolded, moving to his bedside. "You're on top of it all."
"You're only saying that," he chuckled. "I rated lower than Hippogriff manure when you were seven."
"I'm not seven anymore, Dad."
"No," his father smiled, looking at his grown-up son. "No you're not. I'm proud of you. I don't think I ever said that enough times, but I am."
Rolf spent the next few days in the hospital, sometimes with Luna, but most of the time was without. Rolf wanted to spend as much time with his dad as he could, before he finally passed away.
Even if that meant being present when he left this world.
"Is the mist due to the actual weather or is it just a special effect that comes with the creatures?" Rolf asked without looking away from the thestrals.
"The actual weather, Rolf," Luna answered, "but you knew that. The wrackspurts must be having an affect on your brain again."
The two lapsed into silence as they watched the herd interact, and the new mothers care for their new foals.
"I was addicted with the idea of seeing them," Rolf murmured after a moment. "I wanted to see them so bad. They were unknown, something I hadn't experienced and something I wanted to. But now? Now I miss the innocence I had before."
Luna's hand reached for his and he accepted it.
"Everything comes at a price."
"And now I have an eternal reminder of witnessing my father's passing." He chuckled mirthlessly. "A reminder I wish I could forget."
WC: 977