The Grove
The following day Camila and Luz came back to Diagon Alley with her things. They met with Willow and Gilbert in the Leaky Caldrun“I’ll leave her in your care mister Park, keep an eye on her, she ate puzzle pieces until she was 7” Camila said to Gilbert, who chuckled in response.
“Mamá!” Luz said, embarrassed. Camila hugged Luz, who hugged her back “Have a great school year cariño, remember what I told you, keep an eye open for trouble, and if there is some you stay away from it, okay?” Luz nodded “Te amo cariño, te extrañaré mucho” Camila kissed Luz’s forehead, shook Gilbert’s hand, and left the pub.
“So, how are we going to get to your home?” Luz asked as they walked across Diagon Alley “We are going to use the Floo Network” Willow explained “The… what now?” Luz asked confused, “You’ll see” Gilbert said. They crossed a few stores until they reached a small shop.
The shop was quite discreet; it blended in with the two shops on its side. With two stories high, walls made of old wood, and a green door with a strange mark on where should be the glazing “My dad and my grandpa work here, but he doesn’t like teenagers very much” Willow said.
The shop was called: Park’s Palismen and Planting. It was a single-room shop, with a large balcony where an old man read a copy of the Daily Prophet, behind him magical staffs were hanging in hooks like umbrellas “Appa, I’m back” Gilbert said and the old man looked up from the news.
Willow’s grandfather, whom Luz later discovered was called Gord Park, was an old man shorter than Luz, with short silk white hair and bright green eyes, somehow he looked as friendly as Lilith “Who she?” He asked with a rusty voice.
“Luz Noceda, a friend of Willow from Hogwarts, she’ll be staying over for the rest of the break, I’ll be taking her home, I’ll come back very soon” Gilbert guided them to a backroom with a large fireplace big enough to fit Luz’s trunk.
“So, this is Floo Powder” Gilbert showed Luz a jar with a glittering green powder “To use it, you simply throw a pinch of it in a fireplace, and then you state the desired destination. You must speak clearly, take care to get out at the right grate, keep your elbows tucked in, shut your eyes, don’t fidget, and don’t panic” Gilbert said. Luz nodded not very confident.
“Willow, show her how it’s done” The girl nodded and then took a pinch of glittering powder out of the jar, stepped up to the fire, and threw the powder into the flames. With a roar, the fire turned emerald green and rose higher than her, she stepped right into it, shouted, “The Grove!” and vanished.
Luz stood looking at the emerald fire slowly fade away for about a minute “See, is quite simple, you do next, don’t breath in after throwing the powder, you can inhale it and cause the process to not work properly” Luz took a deep breath and repeated the process Willow had just done.
It felt as though she was being sucked down a giant drain. She seemed to be spinning very fast — the roaring was deafening -- something hard knocked her elbow and she tucked it in tightly, still spinning and spinning — now it felt as though cold hands were slapping her face — squinting through her eyes she saw a blurred stream of fireplaces and snatched glimpses of the rooms beyond— she closed her eyes again wishing it would stop, and then.
She fell; face forward, onto warm wood. She moaned in pain if her breakfast had been something more voluptuous she’d have probably thrown up right then and there “It takes some time to grow accustomed to” Willow helped Luz get to her feet.
“Welcome to The Grove, it’s not much, but it is home” Willow said happily. Luz looked around, they were in a medium size living room, above the fireplace hanging a portrait of Willow, her dads, and Willow’s grandfather. A couple of armchairs and a three-person couch, all in emerald green colour, circled a tea table.
But what really caught Luz’s attention, was all the magical things happening; brooms sweeping the floor without on their own; books moving from one shelf to the other matching in a line “Usually we do the chores manually too, but since you’d be coming, we thought it would speed up the process” Willow explained “Brilliant!” She crossed the room in a hurry; she opened the window to the balcony only to see the sky.
“What? How?” When looked down it all made sense, Willow’s house, The Grove, wasn’t what it looked like, the entire house was built climbing an enormous tree “No way, it’s a giant tree house!?” Luz was, literally, jumping in excitement.
“Glad you like it. Willow, show Luz her room, it should be cleaned by now” Gilbert appeared out of nowhere with all Luz's stuff and King. He pointed with his finger to a door in the living room that opened on its own. The guest room was cozy, with a bed and a reading table, a few books were placed over it and the whole room smelled like jasmine, from the window on the opposite side e of the bed Luz could see the rest of the forest.
“Sorry if the room isn’t that big, we transformed the other guest room into a gym” Luz couldn’t believe her eyes and she had no words to describe how happy she was. Long had been since Luz had visited a friend’s house, mainly because the only real friend she had outside Hogwarts was the McGees, who lived in the US.
Luz hugged Willow tightly; she was never letting her go, not in a million years “Thank you” Said Luz “Anytime, friend”. After helping Luz organize her things, Luz took a shower to get all the ashes off her face and changed to clean clothes. Then Willow explained to Luz how her house was organized.
“My home has 5 floors, we’re on the third floor and here we have the living room, the balcony, and the guest room. Above us is the fourth floor, my room, and our gym is there. The last floor is my dad’s room and my grandfather’s” Luz looked up; the way to get to higher floors was stairs made of vines and roots, which magically formed when someone approached the edge of the floors.
“Beneath us is the second floor where the kitchen and the dining room are. And at the base, the first floor, is the garden, my dad’s shed and my grandfather's workshop” Willow finished serving tea to Luz “Wow, that was awesome! I can’t wait to see it all, can I see your room, please, please” Luz asked eager and Willow nodded.
Willow’s room was twice and maybe three times bigger than the guest room, the walls, the floor, and the ceiling were in pale shades of pink. Luz counted 4 different plants in her room, one that looked like a fern in a large pot near her bed, two small jars with rainbow color flowers, and the other with dark purple leaves in the window.
But near her bed was the largest, it extended all the way up to the ceiling of the room and even bend at the top. On the wall in front of Willow’s studying table was a large poster with 7 witches, all wearing dark green robes, flying their Palismen, and weaving energetically.
“Your Quidditch team?” Luz asked “The Holyhead Harpies, an all-witches team, being a fan ever since I was 5” Willow said with a smile and a thumbs up. That was the best couple of weeks of Luz's life, Willow’s house was something Luz could only ever dream of.
But, not all residents of Park’s house seemed to like Luz as much did Willow, Gilbert, and Harvey. Willow’s grandfather and their cat named Moggy didn’t seem to like her very much. Gord would completely ignore Luz anytime they were in the same place and refer to her as ‘that girl when speaking with his son or granddaughter.
“Why does he dislike me so much?” Luz asked once when she was helping Willow de-gnome the garden “He doesn’t like teenagers, dad told me once a young man broke into his shop and attacked him, nothing was stolen, but he’s been bitter ever since” Willow explained while she swings the gnomes around and threw them over the fences.
Moggy looked like a muggle British Shorthair, but his eyes were cornflower in color and the fur on the tip of his tail was tan, and he was missing part of his left ear. He seemed to fear Luz, whenever she entered a room he was in, he’d leave immediately “We don’t know why he’s like that, but when he appeared here, he was already messing part of his ear” Willow explained.
“Wow, yeah, probably some bad experience, how long has he’s being living here?” Luz asked over a friendly game of Quidditch using apples as balls “For 11 years, I’ve been trying to get my dads to let me take him to Hogwarts as my pet, but they say I’m not responsible enough” Willow easily defeated Luz in all the matches they played.
King also didn’t like Moggy and he’d stare at the cat constantly and cry angrily when Luz tried to approach Moggy “Oh, my baby’s jealous”. Though King was mostly harmless, once he tried to bite Moggy, which made Luz put King in his cage for a couple of days, she didn’t want her friend’s pet to get hurt because of King.
But one thing that Luz couldn’t help but notice was a set of empty portraits along the house, where a woman, with dark grey hair and dark blue eyes, would be constantly moving around and wave at them every morning and watch them eat. Different from the living portraits at Hogwarts, this one didn’t talk, so couldn’t ask who she was.
One morning, when her curiosity was reaching its maximum Luz asked during breakfast “Hum, who’s that woman?” She pointed at the portrait of the smiling woman “Oh, you noticed her, she’s my younger sister Gardenia” Gilbert said, with a sad tone “She died 12 years ago” The man said, the rest of the breakfast was made in silence.
After it, Luz watched as with a movement of his Palisman, Gilbert made the dishes clean themselves in the sink. Luz decided not to ask any further questions about the woman, but she found Willow sitting in the living room, looking at the portrait of the woman, who smiled and waved at her.
Luz set next to Willow “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked” The girl apologized “No need, I should have talked to you… It’s hard you see…” Willow took a long pause “She is my mother” Luz looked as Willow’s eyes became teary “When she died… They adopted me… Of course, I was too young to understand…” Willow started sobbing.
“Willow…” Luz could feel the pain behind her words “We didn’t want to hide from her the truth for long, so we told her when she completed 7” Gilbert and Harvey joined them after hearing the sobs. Willow jumped into their arms hugging her dads.
“I’m sorry for asking” Luz lowered her head “You don’t need to apologize, you did nothing wrong” Harvey said stroking his daughter’s hair “Even after we told her, she never called us uncles” Gilbert said softly.
Luz looked at the woman’s portrait, which smiled back at her, for a few moments more, the pain Luz felt when she understood she was never going to meet her father was something that Luz could share with Willow, and that made their friendship even stronger. That was indeed the best summer Luz had in years.