Chapter 1
Running. She was… running? The tree branches whipped against her face as she ran through the… forest, swamp? Forest, she decided. As she ran through the forest in a frankly impractical gown, made of white fabric with gold embroidery depicting the sun and flowers and such. The forest was dark, indicating that it was sometime in the night, although she couldn’t tell what time because of the dense foliage blocking her view of the sky. She felt a sense of urgency, like she was running for a purpose. From something … no, towards something. She had no clue how she knew where she was running to, but her magic was tugging her towards a spot deeper into the woods with great urgency. She continued to run towards the spot, suddenly becoming aware as she traveled deeper into the dark wood that she didn’t have her wand. No matter, she thought as she conjured a ball of pure light in between her hands. Strange, she had a funny feeling she hadn’t been able to do that before. She was starting to feel the effects of what was effectively a wind sprint through the woods in a dress by the time she burst through the treeline into a circle ringed with towering, upright stones with multitudes of runes etched upon their faces.
“Luna.”
She looked around but no one seemed to be there, she approached the stones.
“Luna Lovegood!”
Again with a desperate whip of her head she tried to see who was shouting at her, but it was fruitless. She shook her head and prepared to place her hand on the strange stone closest to where she had come out of the woods.
“Luna Norabel Lovegood!”
Luna sat up in bed with a start, looking at the large curvy grandfather clock she had placed on the ceiling above her to tell the time. She had the strangest feeling she was forgetting something important.
“Luna, if I have to send Sheath up there I’m going to be very upset!” Her mother shouted from the kitchen.
Following that, Sheath, their family house elf popped into her room and waved at her with that vacant look he always had in his eyes to follow him. Sheath had never spoken a word in the eight years Luna had been alive, and she wasn’t so sure he even could. Luna could smell smoke wafting from the kitchen, and she smiled as she locked herself into the task that was surviving her eighth birthday.
She quickly brushed and braided her long golden hair and slid down the muggle fire-pole that had the sign “Kitchen” above it. She giggled as she felt gravity change multiple times until she was deposited on the kitchen counter with a thud. She looked up at her mother, who was glaring fondly at the now eight year old.
“You know you aren’t supposed to use the poles when I’m cooking.” She said, gesturing to the piles of burnt pancakes and bacon covering every surface around the kitchen.
“It’s alright mum, I think they might have been a bit overdone.” Luna giggled as she poked a pancake and it subsequently turned into a pile of ash.
“Huh,” her mother said eloquently. “Must’ve lost track of time, oh well then!”
“Mhm” Luna said, but in truth, she had been distracted by the way the sunlight was shining through the stained glass window and making her golden hair shine all sorts of colors she had never seen before.
As her mom cleared the plates and cleaned the kitchen with a swish of her wand, Luna rolled off the table and onto the plush purple rug that covered the floor of her usual rolling off spot. She scowled, she hated it when her parents planned successfully for her. It meant she’d become too predictable. She popped up and leaned against the counter as Pandora finished with the cleanup and strode towards where Luna was leaning.
“Well Poppy, what exciting new project shall we work on today?” Pandora asked, holding out her arms for Luna to jump into.
As Luna complied and was carried into her mother's workshop she sighed contentedly. She didn’t mind that they had ended up skipping birthday breakfast. She could just eat more cake later when her dad got home. Until then, Luna would continue to help her mother with her experiments as much as she could. Her father had told her that her job was to keep herself and her mother safe during the experiments, so she sprinted back to her room (using the stairs this time), and gathered all of the bracelets and necklaces she had made. She had made them out of everything from pearls to dandelions and tried to infuse a little bit of her magic into each one. She knew that her parents thought it was silly and wore them to humor her, but she felt strongly that they would protect them if ever an experiment went wrong. She hurried back down to her mother's experiment room after putting on the goggles and apron left in the kitchen for her. Her dragon hide gloves would be at her workstation where she had left them yesterday.
She entered the room to find her mother already staring concentratedly at a locket that a grumpy looking house elf had brought just a few days ago. When Luna asked, her mother said it was just an interesting puzzle from an old friend, but Luna could see the fear and worry etched onto her usually sunny face. Since they didn’t know what the locket could do yet, they were being very careful in only touching it with wands and gloves, no skin contact. Her mother said this was the best way to prevent anything nasty from directly affecting them and was one of the first things she had drilled into Luna’s head when she started working with her when she turned six.
They spent hours in the experiment room, Luna observing and fetching things her mother needed, reminding her to eat, and forgetting all about her birthday. Watching her mother work always felt important and intense, like she was watching an auror unlock a trapped ward. During her work, Pandora was precise and quick, not a single movement wasted. This was contrasted by her daily demeanor, which was about as floaty and excitable as you can get.
They took a break at midday to go sacrifice the rabbit they had captured together for the summer solstice (Luna remembered because she liked that it was on the same day as her birthday), and they both sighed as they felt the sun's energy flood their bodies as the rabbit's lifeblood soaked into the fertile soil. Luna had always enjoyed this solstice more than the rest because of the way it made her glow. She physically shown with an inner light and always had more energy after and during the summer solstice. In contrast, she really did get very grumpy during the winter months, even though the cold sun shining through the clouds did have a certain beauty to it, nothing could compare to the blazing summer sun to her.
From outside the house Luna could see her home, Palais d'été. The home itself looked like a gigantic wooden cabin made up of logs and big glass windows. The cabin had hand carved runes on the logs making up the outside of the house, protecting it from everything from wild animals to fiendfyre. It was located in a valley hidden from muggles with magic, surrounded by mountains with snow capping the peaks even at the height of summer. In the summer, including her birthday, the cabin is surrounded by wildflowers and dense wooded areas. In the winter, the family would sometimes find their entire home surrounded by snow, covering the flowers and dusting the trees. This wasn’t a problem for the wizards of course, but they sometimes left it because Luna liked the way the sun shined off the snow.
After making their sacrifice and saying their prayers for good luck and prosperity they headed back inside and worked for a few more hours on the locket Pandora had locked away in her workshop. Suddenly, as if from a thousand miles away, she heard the fire grate slam shut, and she knew that her father was home. She rushed out of the workshop, leaving her mom to deal with the cleanup as she ran towards the living room and caught sight of her beloved father.
“Daddy!” she screamed, rushing towards Xenophilius with a cheshire like grin and legs poised to jump.
“Sunspot!” he screamed back, dropping his bags and spinning her around in circles when she jumped into his arms.
This was their daily routine whenever Xenophilius got back from his job as editor in chief of the Quibbler, they had greeted each other like this for as long as Luna could remember.
“I can’t believe how big you’ve grown!” Xeno exclaimed, like he hadn’t seen her just yesterday.
“What are you talking about?” Pandora asked as she finished putting away her and Luna’s experimenting gear and emerged from the workshop.
“Why our beautiful seven and four quarters year old girl!” He said, gazing fondly at Luna.
Pandora squinted like she was doing the math in her head.
“But that would make her an entire eight years old!” She exclaimed. “No way that could have happened already!”
“Yes it’s true, she’s finally old enough to be sold off to work for the goblins down at Gringotts!” Xeno said with a smile and a knowing glance at his wife.
“But I don’t want to be sold yet!” Luna cried, “I haven’t packed any of my things and…”
“Oh hush silly sunflower, we aren’t selling you.” Pandora laughed, “We love you far too much.”
“That’s right.” Xenophilius said. “There is also no way us two would be able to eat this whole cake by ourselves.”
He waved his wand and a huge chocolate ice cream cake with words congratulating Luna on her birthday rose from one of the bags he had dropped. After Luna was done screaming in delight they all sat down at the table and Pandora and Xeno talked about their boring adult lives while Luna focused on inhaling as much cake as possible for her tiny frame. As the sun set, her parents took away the cake (which she protested), and gave her their gift.
“You always make jewelry for us.” Pandora said.
“So we thought we might try our hand at making something for you!” Xeno cheered, clearly excited for Luna to open the present.
Luna gasped as she unwrapped the sunshine yellow wrapping paper to find a necklace which had butterbeer corks hanging off it interspersed with clear beads and pearls. On closer inspection, the corks were all from different places, and some were even in different languages! Needless to say, Luna loved the gift and vowed at that very second never to take it off. Soon after that her parents made Sheath deliver her to her room to go to sleep, and before she fell into a nice, deep slumber, she had one thought.
“I wish it could stay like this forever.”