Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.
Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. There is also a scene with violence & death as well as references to canon & canon-typical misbehavior which may be considered Not Friendly to certain fandom favs. Feel free to back out if need be.
Author's Note: Grab onto your seats, folks. We're going through heavy pine territory here.
Things to Know (Quick & Dirty): Luna uses xe/xyr pronouns. Sirius/Remus/Tonks all survived because I said so. Proper nouns are capitalized, even if the word also has a meaning as a common noun. Also, the syntax of other languages looks weird in English. Just saying. I'm just making up sappdragons and therefore have no clue if a variety of snapdragons already has that scientific name.
Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Quidditch League (S11); Hogwarts 2.0 (T02); RAVEN (2024); MC4A (Sp-Yr7)
Individual Challenges: Red Instead; Condiment Shelf; Willy Shook Here; Major; Polygon; Sap Bath; Royal; Ginger; Hogwarts MC [x3]; Magical MC [x4]; MoD It; Quest Item; Sandbox; Cinematic; Gamer; Reader; Small Fry; Dreamers [x3]; Tossed Chum; Ethnic & Present; Neurodivergent; Rian-Russo Inversion; Short Jog; Bucket Listing; Eating Cake (Y); Outer Limit; Two Cakes (Y); Salt Wrench; Booger Breath; Setting Sail; Ship Sails; 3rd Rule; Bi Bi Bi; Lovely Triangle; Growers; Bronze Era; Zed Era; Finders; Gender Bender; Hold the Mayo; Sliding Scale; Rainbow Connection;
Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw
Assignment: Post Term 02
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Gather [Bonus 8 (Fighter)](A Deathly Hallow); Case [Creature](Prompt/Prompt); Web (Harry/Neville/Luna)[Extra STR (Mutual Pining)]; Library [Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief](Going on a Quest)
QL Round: Season 11 - Round 05
QL Team (Position): Falcons (Chaser 2) CAT-1 RESERVE
QL Prompt(s): Hanging Gardens of Babylon (setting); Time Travel [plot point]; Leather Bag [item]; Cautious [trait]
RAVEN Challenges: A&B [27](Fighting); Traits [76](Regal); Colors [75](Rose); Items [67](Pastry); Settings [86](Sunny)
Other MC4A Challenges: Ship (Lunar Lions/Heroes)[3D (Mutual Pining)]; Chim [Onyx](Pumpkin; "Bonfire Hearts" - James Blunt; Race Bent; Protection; Turned Left Instead AU; Mother); Hunt [Sp WD (Deaf/HoH)]
Representation(s): Desi Harry Potter/Luna Lovegood; Pre-Triad with Neville Longbottom; Mutual Pining; Protective & Jealous Luna; Time Travel; Background Remus Lupin/Sirius Black/Nymphadora Tonks with Teddy Lupin; HoH Sirius
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Found Family; Nontraditional; Zucchini Bread; Machismo; Peddling Pots; Rediscovery; Second Verse (Bechdel Test; Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Persistence Still; White Dress); Chorus (Odd Feathers; Pocky Pockets; Wabi Sabi); Demo 1p (Bad Beans; Easy Zephyr; Over the Hills; Fruit Fly; Horrible Love; Sweetest Burn) [x6]; Demo 2p (Creature Feature; Wind Beneath; Messing with Morlocks; Land of Enchantment) [x4]
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: T3 (Terrarium); SN (Rail; Negate); Once (Santa Fe)
Space Address (Prompt): SpB [1C (Garden)]; TrB [5B (Time Travel)]
Word Count: 2999 words
(^^)
Hanging
(^^)
Neville hesitated at the garden gate. The arbor had been grown into the wide arch with interwoven branches. Honeysuckle and moonflower twisted together so thoroughly that it would have been impossible to separate the two from each other let alone from the rowan that was the arbor itself. He traced the tip of his index finger over the sleeping blossom of a moonflower as he contemplated if this was a metaphor of some kind.
If it was, there was no real way of telling who was making it or what it could mean.
The screech of a small child drew his attention back to the present instead running circles around his past regrets and potential futures. Regardless of his quiet pining, he had come to the Aerie for a reason. The reference he had found had been obscured by time and retellings of long lost accounts. People who specialized in that kind of knowledge were rare, especially in the British Isles. The Blood War had been far longer than most people realized, and many things had been Obscured during the decades. All of it had been justified by some nebulous need for an abstract Greater Good that no one alive seemed to be able to define.
Despite all of that, Neville couldn't help but wonder if it was worth interrupting what was clearly family time. Maybe he should come back at a later time. Or maybe he should not bother them at all. Luna specialized in obscure and obscured knowledge, but there must be others out there, somewhere. Neville's gut told him that xe would hold the answer he needed, but that could just be xyr connection to Harry, who had always had an aura of impossibility to him.
Just as Neville was about to turn back to the apparation point, a small child came running around the corner of a hedge. Golden-green eyes widened as the toddler's teal hair flashed pumpkin orange in surprise before cycling to an equally bright violet. Teddy let out another shriek. Then he was charging towards Neville.
"Unca Neva!" screamed Teddy as Neville swung him up into his arms. Teddy threw his arms around Neville's neck and rubbed their cheeks together. "Harry and Luna says you here!"
"Did they now?" Neville asked, only mildly disappointed that his strategic retreat had been foiled. He hadn't thought about it before, but he would have passed through the wards already. Of course, Harry and Luna would have already known about his arrival.
"Uh-huh," Teddy agreed, nodding his head like a bobble-head. "Paddy and Papa says we gotta rescue Mama from works, so we can't stay for longs, but Harry said I could gets you, and I gots you, Unca Neva! I gots you!"
"Yeah, you do," Neville confirmed. He pressed a kiss to Teddy's forehead, taking just a moment to breathe deeply of the sweet smell of baby that still clung to the three-year-old.
Wixen children were rare enough that Teddy was the only one that Neville saw with any kind of regularity. He had heard that one of the Weasley children had had one born on the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts, but he had never met her. Neville hummed tunelessly as he carried Teddy farther into the garden in search of the other adults.
Watching Harry and Sirius interact was always entertaining. Neville's fluency in sign wasn't enough to keep up like Remus and Luna could, but he could get the gist as long as they stuck to British Sign. Unfortunately, the Blacks teaching their children multiple languages had carried over to sign, which had carried over to what Sirius had taught Harry over the years since he had escaped his unlawful imprisonment. Add in Teddy's contributions (because the toddler didn't seem to have any awareness that there were separate languages yet), and what was left was a very active and confusing production.
It still took less than fifteen minutes for Neville to find himself alone with Harry and Luna. Again, he hesitated over asking what he had come to do.
"You should just say it," Luna decreed as xe broke apart a blackberry tart to eat the berries with xyr fingers. Neville watched as xe licked the syrupy juice from xyr fingers until Harry made a discreet coughing noise into his cup of tea. Luna licked xyr lips, xyr heather-gray eyes flicking in Neville's direction briefly before xe continued. "Whatever it is that's got you twisted like a skein of yarn in a box of kittens?"
"I found something that will heal my parents," Neville blurted. He shook his head to clear the fuzziness from his thoughts. "I mean, the text suggested that it can, but it's an obscure reference."
"Obscure," Harry asked, voice quiet but his emerald eyes sharp, "or Obscured?"
"Possibly both," Neville admitted. He rubbed a hand over his face before dropping it to his lap in resignation. "There's a potion. Actually, it's just a decoction. The problem is that it's Antirrhinum sappho."
"Lu?" Harry asked. His eyes never left Neville's face.
"Sappdragons are considered extinct," xe explained. Xe sounded shocked, and Neville didn't blame xem. "The last known location of any specimens was the Hanging Gardens of Babylon."
"There really haven't been any spotted more recently?" Neville asked. He had known it was a long shot, but he was still crushed to lose the glimmer of hope. Luna shook xyr head even as xe met Harry's eyes. A moment later, Harry sat down his cup with a determined nod of his own.
"Well, then I guess we're visiting the Hanging Gardens," Harry announced, as if it was just that simple to go to a place that had been destroyed so long ago that all which remained was references to references.
(^^)
Neville should have remembered that Harry was the embodiment of impossibility. Luna and Harry spent more time arguing over proper attire for Ancient Babylon than it took to set up everything needed to go there. Most of the necessities turned out to be just Harry and a knobby wand made of elder that looked like it had been polished by hundreds of users. It had more than a few splotches that had a suspicious redness to them, as if stained with blood. Just looking at the wand made an icy chill trickle down Neville's spine.
He knew his fairy tales enough to know what Harry was using to draw a gateway through time and space. By the look on Luna's face, xe knew what Harry was using, too. Neville didn't know if he was comforted by the fact that Harry was the current holder of the Elder Wand or unnerved by the sheer power that it meant his rather unassuming friend had.
Both was his distant thought as he tugged on the woven strap of the leather tool bag that Luna had thrust in his direction while they were changing outfits. Neville had already checked its contents, and it had everything he would need to not only harvest every part of several kinds of plants but also take full specimens. He wasn't quite certain what Luna did for a career, but xyr Sorting was definitely showing at the very least. Xe definitely had wit and wisdom in overflowing abundance.
The very air in the Gardens was different from Harry's garden. It was hotter and drier, as Neville would have expected it to be. It was also missing any trace of something that he had never thought about. The explosion of floral and herbal scents failed to cover up that mysterious lack even as it was comfortable in its familiarity. The greenhouses that he managed at home smelled much the same.
"No petrol," Harry muttered as he used the Elder Wand to draw a royal purple spiral on the stone wall near their portal. The main line was edged with cobalt and the thinnest edge of silver. Neville swallowed at the use of Black colors, still not willing to think about possible metaphors or implications, especially not with the weight of Luna's gaze added to the mix. Harry adjusted his glasses as he turned to address Neville directly. "It's not very strong at my cottage with the city so far away, but this far back in time? The traces aren't in the air yet."
"Have you done this before?" Neville asked. Harry and Luna gave him matching grins before they led the way down the stone pathway. Neville followed. The tool bag felt like an albatross, both blessing and curse.
The Gardens were every bit as beautiful as he had read. Each tier had its own theme. Sometimes it was a region of the world, only obvious to someone with the same knowledge of plants as Neville. Other tiers it was a scent or color or once, even an element. The fire theme tier was golden dragon statues mixed with bronze phoenixes amid flowers and foliage that were every single shade of red and orange imaginable.
That was when they heard the scream. None of them hesitated before running in the direction of it. Neville unconsciously shifted the leather bag so that it wouldn't bang against his hip. Harry had his holly wand in one hand and the Elder Wand in the other while Luna had a dagger that shone with its own silvery light, glow obvious even in the full light of day. The three of them spilled into an open space like a tidal wave.
A woman was fighting off a group of six men who wore simple leather armor. Each man was head and shoulders over the woman and twice as broad. They also had at least one scimitar sized to match them. Yet the woman, petite and delicate-looking, was holding them off with the magic flowing like ribbons from her fingertips. She moved with all the grace of a shadow passing before the moon and just as silent. She was definitely holding her own, but Harry and Luna joining the fray just as definitely changed the odds.
In a matter of moments, the battle was over. The warriors were either subdued or dying around them. The woman panted as she surveyed them with eyes as unnaturally green as the ones which Harry inherited from his mother. Neville nervously fidgeted with the strap of his leather bag as he did the same of the woman while Harry and Luna secured the survivors and gathered the dead. The woman was dressed in the same shalwar and kameez which Luna had chosen for the three of them, only hers were made of rose pink silk instead of undyed linen. Given the deep red of her hair, pink was certainly a choice, but it worked well against the light brown of her skin.
"Who are you?" she demanded with the air of someone accustomed to being obeyed without question. Harry slipped his wands out of sight as he turned to answer. The woman gasped as soon as their eyes met. Then she was closing the distance between them and throwing her arms around Harry's middle in the same level of enthusiasm that Teddy used. It was several moments before she pulled back far enough to cup Harry's face with her hands. "But how? I attended to your rites myself. You should be at rest, Brother."
Harry reached up and took her hands in his. With a gentleness that Neville had only ever seen him use with Luna, Harry pressed a kiss to the woman's knuckles. A warm wind swept through the area, carrying the scent of something salty and bitter like tears and floral like chrysanthemums. The sun caught the lens of his glasses at just the right angle to turn them reflective like a mirror. Her green eyes looked so wide in them.
"Dearest one," Harry said as solemn and hushed as a prayer, "your brother is at rest. I am not he."
"Then…?"
"We are visitors," Luna said, stepping up to Harry's side. As always, xe looked like the light to his shadow. Neville felt his heart sigh at how perfect they looked together. He wanted down to the core of himself.
"How does she know English?" Neville blurted out as he shoved away the name of just what he wanted so badly. Luna waved one of xyr hands to dismiss the problem. The grin xe aimed at Neville was just as sharp as xyr blades.
"Magic." Then Luna turned her attention back towards the woman who was starting to recover from the shock of seeing someone who looked so much like a dead relative. "We are looking for a plant that is said to grow in this garden. Bright purple blossoms that grow on a bush?"
"Dragon's Love," the woman answered after giving herself a small shake. Harry released her hands. "My wife arranged for some to be brought from my homeland."
"Your, your, your wife?" Neville stuttered. He felt like he might faint. He had survived the entirety of the Blood War, and years of hopelessly pining after his best friends, but this was how he would die. He couldn't breathe. "Oh, gods above and below, you're Queen Amytis."
"Most people would not have made that conclusion," Amytis said. The smile she wore reminded Neville of the one that Harry wore when he was particularly pleased by something. "Far too many take me for Nebuchadnezzar instead."
"Assumptions are rather presumptuous," Luna agreed. There was no mistaking the predatory glint to the smile xe aimed at Amytis, a wolf ready to defend xyr territory against any challenge. Amytis seemed amused by it rather than threatened. Harry set a hand on the back of Luna's neck. The blonde calmed under its slight weight.
"Might we be allowed to harvest some of the Dragon's Love?" Harry had the same calm intensity he had used while teaching the DA back in school. Neville wasn't surprised to see Amytis, royalty and leader in her own right, respond to it just the same they all had. Her spine straightened as she stood as tall as she could, which was still shorter than both Harry and Luna.
"Why do you need some of mine?" Amytis asked with the same gentleness Harry had used with her. "It grows wild in the mountains of Media. Surely, it would be easier to harvest it there rather than break in here, no matter how thankful I am for your timely arrival."
"We are visitors," Luna repeated. Xyr eyes glinted in the sun. Amytis shifted her gaze over all of them, lingering on Harry's face. Then she gave a sharp nod as if coming to some conclusion which she wasn't going to voice.
"The Dragon's Love is in the heart," Amytis said as she moved her brown fingers in a way that had them spouting ribbons again. This time the ribbons were the same soft rose pink as her clothing. They twisted and knotted upon themselves until they had shaped themselves into a tiny phoenix that hovered in the air like a hummingbird. "Tell Neb that I am safe but there is a mess to attend to here while I attend to some Honored Visitors."
The tiny bird chirped once before darting off towards the lower tiers. Amytis gave a sweep gesture to the stone path leading in the opposite direction. Harry nodded and led the way. Luna kept xyr body in between Amytis and Neville, continuing the strange behavior that Neville wasn't going to think about any more than he thought about honeysuckle and moonflower wrapped around rowan.
The path led up an incline that opened to a terrace paved with dark gray slate. In the center was a jagged monolith of sandstone mixed with limestone. The pale mixture of stone was barely visible under the sheer multitude of bushes clinging to its surface. The dark green leaves of each bush was also almost hidden beneath all of the crimson blossoms. Each blossom was shaped like a dragon's head with its maw gaping open as if it was going to swallow something whole. Some of the centers were a pale pink speckled with white and orange. Others were a dark pink only a few shades off the crimson of the blossoms.
It wasn't until a center uncurled itself and stretched its wings out in preparation for flight that Neville realized that the dark pink centers were all dragons the size of bumblebees. He approached the monolith with the same degree of caution he used for dangerous plants or ones covered in aggressive pollinators. The pale centers were clusters of what looked distinctly like dragon eggs.
His breath caught in his throat. This complicated things even as it explained others.
"How dependent on the dragons is the plant?" Neville asked as he started checking the contents of his leather bag. He glanced over at Amytis as the silence spun out. She had a knowing look on her face.
"Dragon's Love will not bud without the dragons nearby," she answered. She held up a hand for one of the dragons to land on. "The dragons will not lay their eggs anywhere other than the blooms."
"Can we take multiple plants along with a selection of dragons?" Neville asked "I will need both male and female of both species."
"Assumptions," Amytis chided gently. "There are no males to be had."
Suddenly, the names of the plant made so much sense. It also explained why it was included in a garden built as a love letter.
"They must really care for you," Amytis said after they had gathered three of the bushes and their dragons into Neville's leather bag and were walking back towards the tier where they had met the queen. "I would imagine there is little they would not do for you."
"They're good friends," Neville answered honestly. Amytis patted his arm. Her smile was just like Harry's when he had a secret.
"Assumptions," she chided before turning her back so they could leave without being watched.