Oof, writing this chapter really got away from me but it's finally done.

"That day began with Eda showing me how to play Hexes Hold'em," said Luz. "Well, more accurately Eda used teaching me the game as an excuse to show off."

"She showed off while playing against you?" asked Peony. "That's not fair."

"Oh no, she played against Owlbert," Luz clarified. "Which, now that I think about it, doesn't seem that fair either."

"Oh, definitely!" said Gus. "As if someone could actually lose a game of wits against a Palisman. No one can beat their adorable charms." He affectionately rubbed Emmiline's chin.

"What Gus means to say is that years ago he and Hunter teamed up against Emmiline and Waffles at Mario Party and lost so badly they never got over it," said Willow, causing the kids to giggle.

Gus' face shifted to a smirk. "True, but at least I didn't have a mental breakdown when I found out fake plants exist."

Willow simply glared at Gus. "They are an affront to nature and you know it!"

The kids stopped laughing now that it looked like a fight might break out… and were shocked when the two adults began guffawing.

"I'll never understand grownups," muttered Dratina.

"It's like they speak another language," said Luna.

"Sorry Luz," said Gus, finishing laughing. "That was just an inside joke."

"I don't mind," Luz replied. "Someone else going on a long tangent is a good change. Anyway, Eda got so excited about winning that her curse flared up, and she was all out of elixir. We had to go to Morton's to get more, but Eda still wanted to play one more game first. I just gave the cards to Owlbert and told him to fly to the market ahead of us."

"So Granny Eda had to go to the elixir stand to get her cards back!" exclaimed Azura.

Luz nodded. "Exactly!"

"Add that to the list!" shouted Syl.

"I'm way ahead of ya!" said Julie, frantically adding another item to the Eda list.

"What exactly is this list?" asked Amity, curiosity piqued.

"You'll see, Auntie." was Julie's cryptic reply.

"Our kids are up to something," Amity whispered to the other adults.

"They take after us so well," Gus whispered back.

"So," Luz continued, "while we were waiting for Morton, a gang of bounty hunters rolled by. The lead guy had sharp teeth and an eyepatch, and he definitely noticed me staring. Guess that's another reason why he chased us down later."

"Other than what?" asked Dratina, confused.

Luz just smiled. "You'll see…"

"Are you talking about the guy who hosted the Bonesborough Brawl?" Amity asked her wife.

Luz thought for a moment. "Oh yeeeeeaaaaah, that was the same guy. Huh. Anyway, the bounty hunters walked past, and when I noticed you two." She pointed to Gus and Willow.

"Boscha was harassing us about how we weren't invited to the Moonlight Conjuring at Amity's house," said Willow.

Gus nodded. "Yeah, and that was before self-esteem was invented so we were pretty bummed,"

"Dad, what even…?" said Hal.

"He's just joking," said Amity. "But also not really. None of us had any self-esteem back then." There was an awkward pause. "Uh… I was also there with Boscha. I was pretending to care but not that much honestly."

"I don't blame you," said Luz. "So Willow and Gus explained what a Moonlight Conjuring is and I was totally hyped. I'd never been to a slumber party before and this was an enhanced version."

"Luz figured that since it takes at least three people to do a conjuring, we could just have our own at the Owl House," said Willow. "She just had to ask Eda for permission…"

"I'm guessing she said no," said Luna.

Luz nodded. "Exactly, sobrina. It turns out Morton was low on ingredients, so Eda was gonna have to get some from this little pig jerk Tibbles at the night market."

"Pop says Tibbles is actually a decent guy if you get to know him," Hal protested.

"That's his loss," said Amity. "But I guess I do have to thank Tibbles for something important… that I will not specify because I'm avoiding spoilers!"

"Right," said Luz. "Well, Eda needed me to watch the house while she was gone and that meant no magic for babies— her words, not mine. But I wasn't gonna let not having permission stop me."

"I feel like I should be surprised, but I'm not," said Azura.

"Yeah! Rebelling against authority!" exclaimed Syl. "If Luz does it, then it's okay!"

"Please don't copy everything I've ever done," said Luz. "Seriously, don't."

"I'll keep him in check, Mami," said Azura confidently.

"Good girl," said Amity with an approving nod.

"So I figured that as long as we didn't make a mess or mention it ever again, having the conjuring should've been fine!" Luz paused for a few seconds. "I don't think you need us to tell you things didn't go fine. Well, first Eda was all like 'mess up this house and I'll never trust you again' so I was feeling the pressure."

"We went inside the Owl House for the first time," said Gus, "and naturally I gravitated toward Eda's horde of cool Human Realm treasures. I got a bucket!"

"A bucket is cool treasure?" asked Dratina skeptically.

Gus simply smiled. "Owning a bucket at a Moonlight Conjuring was crossing two things off my bucket list at once, so yeah."

"Meanwhile I was just fascinated by Hooty breathing through the walls," said Willow. "Which in hindsight is one of the less weird things about him."

Luz suddenly had a flashback to the first time she witnessed a Hooty disconnecting from the house. '¡Mierda! I'll have to think about this again when we get to that story!' she thought.

Everyone looked at her with concern.

"Aunt Luz, are you okay?" asked Lobo.

"Pretty much, yeah," said Luz. "I'm just remembering something… unpleasant. Uhhhh… Willow, can you take over for a bit?"

"Sure thing," said Willow. "I wanted to animate some pretty flowers but Gus popped right up with this random action figure he found."

"Beefy Bob was a good choice and I stand by it," said Gus firmly. "Plus she couldn't say no to my adorable sad eyes."

Willow chuckled. "No, I couldn't. So we put Beefy Bob on the floor under the moonlight, held hands, and said the incantation. Well, me and Gus said the incantation. We got so caught up in excitement that we neglected to tell Luz what to say…"

"Mom!" shouted Peony in frustration.

Willow shrugged. "Yeah, but oh the upside things became more interesting. Because we didn't animate Beefy Bob."

"You didn't believe in him enough!" shouted Melody.

"It was a true shame." Gus hung his head down.

"Anyway," said Willow, "we didn't animate Beefy Bob because we accidentally animated the entire house."

"AKA we messed up Hooty and somehow came out of it alive," Luz chimed in. "Like, the whole house rumbled like crazy and rose from its foundations on giant bird legs."

Needless to say, the kids were amazed.

"Wow!" exclaimed Luna.

"Fascinating!" said Julie.

"So cool!" shouted Hal.

"Let's do it again this year!" said Syl.

"Yeah!" Mel yelled in agreement.

"Kids, animating a house is definitely one of the things we did that you shouldn't," said Luz in a firm tone. "Especially animating a house with a house demon."

"But they could have historical value in the future!" Julie protested.

Luz furrowed her brows. "I'm not sure how to respond to that…"

"Well at least you three accomplished something back then," said Amity in an attempt to change the subject. "We tried to animate some toy at my conjuring and failed miserably. Though again, I didn't care that much about the whole thing anyway."

"So anyway, the three of us had some scary moments with the house walking on its own and I nearly fell off," said Gus, "but eventually we realized if we held hands again we could control Hooty. And naturally, we did what any unsupervised children with a walking house would do."

"A joyride!" shouted Lobo.

Willow sighed at her son's excitement. "Yes. We walked the house through the forest and came across Boscha heading to Amity's conjuring."

"We totally pranked her good," said Luz. "As soon as a walking house started threatening her, she ran off screaming."

Everyone in the room laughed at that. Truly schadenfreude is felt by all ages.

"Alright, we're gonna be learning the Thorn Vault maneuver today. It's not an easy one, so pay atten—"

Suddenly Boscha froze, filled with an overwhelming sense of embarrassment. Where was this coming from!?

"Coach Boscha, what happened?" asked one of the grudgby players. "You kinda just stopped…"

"I don't know, but I have a sneaking suspicion…" Boscha replied.

"That explains why she was so ruffled when she finally made it," said Amity.

"That's probably why yours didn't work, Mom," said Azura. "She was too embarrassed to focus."

Amity hummed in agreement. "You may be right, sweetie." She turned toward her wife and friends. "So what happened next?"

"I suggested we follow Boscha to your house and show off," said Willow, "but Luz wanted to head back."

"Until you updated Penstagram, that is," said Luz. "You hashtagged 'humans can bite it.' Wouldn't be the last time you said that, hermosa." She looked at her wife flirtatiously.

Amity went full tomato again. "Luz! Don't say stuff like that in front of the kids!"

Luz, Willow, and Gus all stifled their laughter while the kids just glanced at each other confused.

"What's she talking about?" Hal whispered to the others.

"I don't know," Azura whispered back. "Probably one of their weird romance things."

"Anyway," said Luz, still chuckling a little, "we ventured toward Blight Manor and almost made it there until those bounty hunters showed up. They tied up the house with some giant ropes and dragged it to the edge of a cliff."

"They also tied us up too," said Gus. "So we couldn't hold hands to get the house walking again."

"I got really upset since we got caught while following my idea," said Willow.

"No! Don't be sad!" Syl yelled.

"Yeah, it's those guys' fault, not yours," said Dratina.

"Oh, I know that," Willow reassured them. "But at the time not so much. Anyway, once we got to the cliff they dragged us out of the house and said they would chop Hooty up to sell as exotic meat."

Peony shuddered. "What would even happen to someone who ate a piece of Hooty?"

"Let's hope we never find out," said Julie.

"Well, I told them not to do it, 'cause Hooty would taste terrible," said Luz. "It didn't convince them but it was worth a try."

"And I tried to convince them not to toss us off the cliff," said Gus. "I was all like 'Is tossing kids off cliffs really what you wanna do in life?' and he said 'Yes, it was my childhood dream, I was a strange child.' And then he just dropped us!"

"What a meanie!" exclaimed Mel.

"My anger rises yet again!" Syl yelled. "Why

"Belos encouraged the Boiling Isles to be cruel because it reinforced what he thought of its citizens," said Luz in a somber tone. "That's the best answer I can give you."

All the kids' anger dissipated and was replaced by sadness and pity.

"Oh…" Syl mumbled.

Peony leaned over to give the cat demon a little hug. "It's okay," she said.

Syl sniffled. "Thanks."

"Luckily we managed to land on some small tree, but not dying didn't stop me from blaming myself," said Willow. "I still thought Amity stopped being my friend because I was too weak, so I really wanted to show off our walking house. And scare Boscha again, that too."

"Would've made the night more interesting," said Amity. "And I don't blame you for wanting to brag. I would've done the same in your situation."

"Yeah, and I just needed some encouragement from Luz."

"The power of friendship!" Luna yelled.

"Friendship and plants, that is," said Willow. "I grew that tiny branch so large it took out all the bounty hunters with its vines."

"Hooray!" shouted Azura.

"Go Mom!" exclaimed Lobo.

"We got back to the house, held hands, and walked it back to where we started," said Luz. "We went pretty fast but I just wanted to get back there before Eda and King. And we did because they were stuck in a bind of their own."

"Yeah, apparently Tibbles tricked Eda into playing a rigged Hexes Hold'em game and held them hostage afterward," said Gus.

"I should be surprised, but I'm really not," said Dratina.

"Same here," Peony agreed.

"But luckily in our blind rush to get back, we crushed Tibbles' stand and they used the distraction to escape," said Luz. "Sometimes dumb luck is all you need!"

"So, we can vandalize things with the hope that it benefits someone else?" asked Julie. "Cool."

"No, that's not what I— stop saying stuff like that!"

Julie nodded, knowing full well she wouldn't stop.

"We got back, set the house down, un-possessed Hooty, and we had barely any time to fix the mess before Eda came busting in," said Willow. "Gus and I were willing to take the fall for Luz. She wouldn't have held the conjuring if we weren't so desperate to finally go to one."

"Luckily," said Gus, "all she did was make us clean up the enormous mess and she promised to join us for the next conjuring. Which she did! Alongside like a dozen other people. It was fun."

Luz finished the story off. "We all learned our lesson and never did anything irresponsible again… is what I'd say in an ideal world. But we all know real life is more complicated than that." Suddenly her phone pinged. "Oh hold on, let me see who texted me."

BossBoscha: Were you shit talking me today?

GoodWitchLuz: Lol sorta

BossBoscha: The fuck's that supposed to mean?

GoodWitchLuz: I'm just sharing past adventures

GoodWitchLuz: You will be summoned soon

GoodWitchLuz: OooOoOoOoooOo spookyﾠ

BossBoscha: Okay I guess

"Okay, we're good," said Luz.

"Who was it?" asked Amity.

"Just Boscha. She sensed the embarrassment from where she is. Anyway, next up is the transition from enemies to friends in our enemies to friends to lovers arc."

"Did you have to say it like that, Mami?" Azura complained.

"Shush, she's speaking the language of fanfiction," said Syl.

"Unfortunately we'll have to continue tomorrow since it'll be about when I met my pranksters-in-law, and I don't wanna tell it without them."

"Yeah, let's let them cringe at past behavior instead of me," said Amity with glee.

WitchChick128: Come over tomorrow. Embarrass yourselves w/ the story of the day you two met Luz

em_ira: OK, it's prolly better if Julie hears it from me than you

WitchChick128: What's the matter, scared I'll embellish details?

em_ira: U would

WitchChick128: yeah I would

Eddddd: Wha talking about

em_ira: Luz is telling the kids about her adventures I told you this

Eddddd: if it was on friday I was barely awake, definitely didn't hear you

WitchChick128: Just be here

Eddddd: Got it

Not sure when this'll be updated next but hopefully I can get the next chapter out by the end of the year.